Here's To The Ukraine In All of Us

Leveraging nations is a big affair and, of course, why so many Ukrainians filled Independence Square protesting probable closer economic ties with Russia than to Europe. There's no solution other than preferring Ukraine ALREADY HAD DEALS with Russia and Europe as part of healthy economic circulation. A real shift from the actual conundrum this international situation highlights? That territorial competition is exactly why wars and skirmishes were always fought and however costumed we're on the same path centuries of experience explain is just a Dead End. But nothing a good suit can't camouflage? Because past the veneer Stalin was a dapper dresser for his era too.

Sadly the political sin of violently curbing peaceful protest occurred in Kiev, Ukraine. A bad reflex for rulers possibly lamenting their power isn't outright authoritarian fear. Because as thoroughly mixed-up as he was on a personal level, authoritarianism was very good for Joseph Dzhugashvili, uniformed left above. Yesteryear reality? When today's politics aren't competition, just raw wielded Power. It's a bitch, huh?

A breakdown in civility happened in Kiev, November 30th according to Ukraine Leader Calls for Talks With Protesters by David Herzenhorn in The New York Times. Then contradicting the notion of Peace Officer, violence again in December 11th's Ukraine Forces Retreat, Ceding Square to Protest (NYT) by D. H. and Andrew E. Kramer. Co-packaged, first-page with In Ukraine's East, a Message for Protestors: Stop (NYT) by Andrew Roth from Donetsk, Ukraine. Explaining people with work are content and the belief politics is futile is still around. Dissatisfaction and contentment everywhere so no need for violence. No? Friday, December 13, Ukranian President Yanukovich Meets With Opposition Leaders and gives his word, "no more violence." The New York Times

So? This is business. If you don't use power you lose it. So Europe had a deal with Ukraine that left President Putin's Russia out of the equation? It's asking for interference while trying to steamroll through. On its' face, as I'm not privy, it seems a strategic ignoring of an important detail when spheres of influence are no joke. 

What I don't understand is why citizens have to be accosted over what, in the end, bottom line, are business decisions? Can't get past the extent of corruption? We're living with now. Our entire ways of life are constructed around how the law is bent and power used ruthlessly. Period. Or am I missing something? Ukrainian Political Opposition arrested? Arrested? What has that to do with anything? Unless politicians flap their gums nothing's going on. People need to be a little more cool. Everyone? President Putin's Attitude For Everybody!

Because Independence Square should mean money for everyone.

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All Obituary Is Lament

February 2, 1946 – December 12, 2013

Jang Song-taek, pictured far left, a leading figure in the government of North Korea was executed yesterday. A month-and-a-half before his sixty-eighth birthday. Officially labelled a drug-user, the great scapegoat crutch of the elite behind alcohol. But what sticks in my craw is I was a bandwagon-jumper writing laudatory appraisals on the bright side of Kim Jong-un's rule. 

Soapbox View was wrong? No this execution demonstrates real power is public appearances and basically no one interferes with authoritarian auto-pilot. 

Funny what I'd expected to satirize, The New York Times headlined Execution Raises Doubts About Kim’s Grip on North Korea by Choe Sang-Hun. In American slang, a real soap opera.

When even revenge against officials responsible for North Korea's prisonish existence shouldn't be executed. Hello?

So. What the political purging ahead means is a busy elite translates as self-serving and lazy. Lazy because in most countries fired Party faithful receive severance pay. A Command Economy is an illusion. Communism doesn't exist without capitalism and anything less is pretend. I just don't believe Jang Song-taek's plan was to tarnish the family legacy further with a coup. Well one witness down and ruthlessness continues as a rule? ...
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Plus for good measure, Paranoia anyone? Or The New York Times, Russia vs. Europe by Bill Keller, December 15th.

• 102 Common English Idioms – Meaning and Examples (Audio)

Is That Fast So Necessary?

The New York Times developed a news story, under the headline, Victims’ Sons in Tough Fight for Redress After China Rail Crash delineating Modern China’s difficulty completely commercializing their society as everywhere else in the world has their own problems too.

The Times describes the sad tale of an American family who lost their parents in China’s first high-speed train “accident.” Described as, “We were flying like rag dolls,” Henry Cao said.

The crash killed 40 passengers, injured 191 and shook the nation’s confidence in its ambitious high-speed rail system, according to The Times. The parents, naturalized American citizens taking Henry on a triumphant tour of their native land, were killed.

The Ministry of Railways, an unbending government behemoth unaccustomed to dealing with determined foreign citizens, “knows how to wear you down,” Leo Cao, 30, said. “First they let you scream and yell, then they stall you, and finally they tell you vague and empty words. Now they say, ‘You’re lucky you’re getting anything.’”

The Times points out The Ministry of Railways rivals the Chinese military in size and influence, and that the experience has been disorienting for the Cao brothers, who left China as adolescents two decades ago. “This place is not how I remember it,” said Henry Cao, speaking faintly as his eyes flickered and lost focus. “Everyone is rushing around to make money. Life here is cheap.”

Everywhere is cheap when the most efficient way for the world to travel is presumed to have to rely on at least 180 miles per hour without room for error. Who’s kidding whom that the world’s safety is being watched out for? As the Chinese and every government should remember this American political proverb – You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time.

The ministry, which runs its own court system, largely impervious to oversight, has long been dogged by accusations of corruption. – Just a little capitalism among friends who might find it difficult to share with all their comrades, no doubt?

A former rails minister, Liu Zhijun, fired five months before the accident, is expected to go on trial next month for charges of taking millions of dollars in bribes and other unnamed “disciplinary violations.” What? It’ a million-to-one The Scapegoat did a tenth of what he’s covering for?

Zhang Kai, a lawyer who represented a passenger sentenced to three years in prison for slapping a train conductor, described the ministry as a “monster left over from the planned economy era” that resists reform or challenges to its authority. “It is common knowledge that the ministry is responsible for generating maximum profits while supervising itself,” Mr. Zhang said.

Isn’t planned economy oxymoronic, no matter which economic system claims to be in play? As described, in this instance, where bureaucrats hover over victims as if foils is as bureaucratically nonsensical the world over. No matter how nobly and tirelessly some try to work out the flaws.

The Times prints – In a report released in December, government investigators placed the blame for the Wenzhou accident on flaws in signaling equipment. Investigators say the ministry bypassed safety regulations in its haste to create the world’s largest high-speed railroad network. – And one wonders if the original investigators of the original work would admit their haste caused the mistake too?

The Times continues – In the parlance of Communist Party euphemisms, July 23 has become a “sensitive anniversary” and day for newspaper editors and columnists to ignore. After a blizzard of coverage in the days after the crash, including reports of a botched rescue and efforts to bury one of the train carriages, censors blocked discussions of the topic on microblog services. Last month, victims’ families were warned against holding public memorials.

But the Cao brothers, ignoring admonitions, have become thorns in the side of the government as they seek financial assistance.

In a series of meetings, ministry officials have offered them $280,000 for the death of their parents and $85,000 for Henry Cao’s injuries, the brothers said. The Caos have requested a total of $5 million, based on what they say the three would have earned over 20 years of working in the United States. Their lawyers say the ministry is ignoring a national law that bases compensation on accident victims’ earning power in the area where they lived. The ministry is citing its own regulations that rely on prevailing wages in the province where the crash occurred.

A lawyer for the brothers, Tian Jie, said, “The representatives tell us there is no room for negotiation. Even they admit they don’t know who makes the decisions.” So many backs to scratch, how could there be one to rely on? How? Well, to begin with, the solution to corrupt selfish territorialism is a human face on the government. Not just a public relations campaign covering things up.

According to The Times – Officials did not respond to a faxed request for comment, and repeated telephone calls to the ministry’s office of public information last week were not answered. Uh huh.

Leo Cao said his “brother looks somewhat normal, but he’s half the man he used to be.”

The ministry’s minders stay in the same hotel as the brothers, while paying for their accommodations and carrying their luggage. But they frequently call to know where the brothers are and negotiators have warned of “troubles” that might result from talking to journalists. This month Leo Cao said, “If they lose track of us they get scolded,” with weary resignation, while ministry employees huddled awkwardly, as the brothers wept over their parents’ coffins at a funeral home in Wenzhou.

The Times cites – In the hours after the accident, ministry negotiators descended on morgues and hospitals even before the surgeons had finished stitching up the injured. Working in teams of four or five, they separated victims’ families into different hotels and relentlessly hammered out deals that in the end were nearly the same: about $140,000 for each fatality. And follows the Cao brothers myriadic maze to last Wednesday when they finally arranged for the bodies to be shipped to New York. The funeral, scheduled for Saturday in Queens, is expected to draw hundreds of Fujianese immigrants.

As the talks dragged on, Henry Cao became increasingly withdrawn, saying he was no longer interested in the money and wanted only to return home. He spent most of his last days in China in his hotel room, reading biblical stories that touch on suffering and redemption. “I want to move on,” he said, staring at the floor.

But for now, his brother Leo Cao is determined to keep fighting and says he is prepared to file a lawsuit in Chinese court, even though several lawyers have advised him it would be futile. He says, “It’s not only about money. I want justice.”

Among the hundreds of photographs recovered from their father’s iPhone from his first and final vacation in China, one image stands out: a shaky snapshot of the LED monitor that graced the carriage of their train boasting that it was moving at 303 kilometers an hour, or 188 m.p.h.

“My father was so proud of China’s progress,” Leo Cao said. “Unfortunately it was China’s progress that killed my parents.”

Or it was this ridiculous preponderance toward the unnecessary need to go So Damn Fast and reduce the most efficient system of travel we have to just another flawed human nightmare. I think not. Right?

Light rail or light rail transit (LRT)

Too-Big-To-Fail KREMLIN Intolerantly Turns Up Heat On Eve Of PEACEFUL PROTEST

  With the new law, in place since Friday, increasing fines for unauthorized protest, Reuters and The New York Times report investigators stormed the homes (apartments), and confiscated possessions of at least ten prominent protestors including Aleksey Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov, Ilya Yashin and Kseniya Sobchak.

  Dissuading the public from attending Tuesday’s government reform protest seems to be the reason behind the intimidating searches, while requiring the searched to report for further questioning will keep them from personally attending Tuesday’s rally as well. It’s assumed though that the government’s escalating intolerance might have the presumably unintended effect of prompting even more citizens to attend the rally than expected. But also possible that violence associated with recent protests could be more easily blamed on a less organized crowd, though so far the repressive police seem at least as responsible for their own aggressive tactics that have fallen far short of responsibly acting as society’s referees.

  However holding President Putin completely responsible for a division of government performing strongly on his behalf will hardly change attitudes. Even in the world’s most tolerant societies complete acceptance of anti-establishment sentiment does not exist. But a return to the previous lip-service tolerance of protest would be a step forward that the president does owe the country for the confidence shown in him by his winning the recent election. A job that would seem to require encouraging the country to try to be polite with each other rather than focus on their differences coming between the people.

6/11/2012

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Too-Big-To-Fail Kremlin Intolerantly Turns Up Heat On Eve Of PEACEFUL PROTEST

6/11/2012 concluded: However holding President Putin completely responsible for a division of government performing strongly on his behalf will hardly change attitudes. Even in the world’s most tolerant societies complete acceptance of anti-establishment sentiment does not exist. But a return to the previous lip-service tolerance of protest would be a step forward that the president does owe the country for the confidence shown in him by his winning the recent election. A job that would seem to require encouraging the country to try to be polite with each other rather than focus on their differences coming between the people.

June 27 - July 18, 2016

Escalatingly Rhetorical

  "Polite with each other rather than focus on their differences coming between the people." Vague and corny. If only the politics of fomenting discord were just vague and corny. Civilians might be as cozily copacetic as we're sold to be? 
  Politics.  

  Police are supposed to be referees. Acting on behalf of an objective aspiring court. The fact the art of Public Relations has made defiant forms of expression the enemy of happily going along with entrenched statehood in our own obsessively patriotic ways means money talks. Don't walk.

  So here we are, where the way in's the way out. 

American Penal Reform Is The Only Way To Get The Rest of the World To Give A Rat's A__.

  The fact is all over the world power defends itself against whomever and whatever conflicts with power's enjoyment. An independent judiciary is, hopefully, no threat to independence. But the list of people leveraged from influencing public debate by questionable authority is very, very long. And while it, of course, may appear I'm way off the soapbox's mark by not directing this essay towards Russia's stifling publicity speech. Still, the world over Public Relations influenced Public Opinion is practically copied from formats used authoritarian-ly in good-ole, tried-and-true, American resistance to being trued.

SADLY

  Once again, sadly, we are experiencing more worst days in American History. Because people are shot every day. Of course hearing both sides, the militarization of the American Police is a miconstrued reality the police aren't responsible for. Though the motives that cause undue force all seem to revolve around defending morality immorally, when the very people trusted with access to the best defenses available regard resorting to lethal offense as a warranted defense. I have to read about how officers never expected of such atrocities, defend them because it's really team politics in this us vs. them creation, the Criminal Enterprise System. Right, people shouldn't be irresponsible. As bad as Hitler if, in honoring Anslinger's memory, the whole country's doomed. 

  Of late I've become addicted to watching the television Police Drama Blue Bloods, as opposed to my previously avoiding supporting the show's star Tom Selleck whose propped up status with Conservatives was accomplished by claiming to stand against Hollywood liberalism when actual people all feel this contrived dog-and-pony show is nonsense. Team Spirit people've fallen in behind, where now a presidential candidate announces that Newt Gingrich* will be a part of the future government as a standard of credibility. The grin so we bear it political hard-edgedness, basically, descends from history's evolution as organized leech. The Criminal Enterprise System is, like inflation, never beaten so they must be solved.

Best bet yet. 

  Opportunistically lining up at thoroughly stocked, Lake Opportunity? The New York Times published this linked conservative broadside, implying the country's not academically centrist enough because leftists dominate New England's universities. Imagine John Lennon singing The New York Times sees becoming The Wall Street Journal Lite as their economic salvation? Redundantly representing Americanism's same old narrowed possibilities. Rhyming with history. Great. Our minds are owned or don't exist forever more. Amen. Fabulous. 

  The dog and pony political show has led to half the country, still, carrying the siren-called tune, by, among others, scruple-less Roy Cohn. Mr. Cohn, who when it came to bringing down innocent people is an historical fact no matter what your slant. 

  Pedestals have been, pretty much, raised to successful reiterations of authoritarian Stalinism. Where shaded truth's really lying, and acceptable. Because power's all that matters, though what's right isn't wrong. And slapping the Constitution to the chest so the document's intent to change humanity's militarization isn't even read? The police shouldn't be victims. They're supposed to be referees. Where's the intent to End the Criminal Enterprise System? 

  So Blue Bloods timely(?) celebrates alcohol's responsible use as if it were the superior instinctual cultural tradition. A civilized ritual. But without facing society's stimulant ills nearly enough. The drug war was begun by opportunists on many levels of governments' ruling apparatuses. Hasn't this grudge-filled world's militarized enforcement done enough? Shared responsibility for corrupting enough souls? Babies aren't born to be criminals. The temptations themselves are of our devising and government should really do something about mellowing all this nonsense down. From the violent confusion to entrenched rhetoric. Until warped reasonings have grown to understand, one thing's for sure, no matter how polished the power point display. Humans created a monster. God/Allah is not responsible for our mistakes. Worship is appreciating the opportunity. And look how much humanity got pretending to be supreme?  

  So Blue Bloods is just television. Not a Barney Miller and especially no Mayberry, of course. But the show's in the lineage of expressing what police go through. Congress, you should look into that? Rather than becoming forced to see whether an idea can afford your expensive point-of-view. 

  So Blue Bloods is tuned into New York City Police Commissioner Bratton's doubting that the glorification of Harry Anslinger's legacy, extending the Criminal Enterprise System, was an, unnecessarily destructive, undermining of America's core. No. Morality's heads shake. Governors Scapegoat of New York and New Jersey maintain the stage where the world's capital's comically under siege to the immorality of morality's brutality born of a façade. Their three shaken heads blaming a drug culture that, with all its' faults, ethically grew from understanding the criminalization of America really is elicit exploitation. And power accomplishes what it can. Drink to that, Mr. Selleck? 

  Sorry. Condolences can't begin to express my regret bad things happen. 

  So. Blue Bloods is finely produced. But where are ideas for stimulating the laying down of the world's militarized societies? Right. It's not the guns. It's all the people. Where's ideas restructuring the public's badly misconstrued publicity face? Instead of answering the confusion, a form of authoritarianism has us skewered by the Criminal Enterprise System. Idiots excusing revenge. Wonder how many presidential candidates would at least understand both of those concepts?

  Dallas. ... . That the modern era's violence and revenge is an answer is on George W. Bush's shoulders and not just the delusional erratics people've even been preached into believing. Mr. Bush made a public statement about his and Laura's sympathies for the shooting victims in Dallas, when only the utterly fooled would perpetuate infinite martyrdom. A smirk, grin and straight tie, plus platitudes, are impersonations of shame? A lot more needs renovation than the Military Industrial Complexes. Who'll afford the logarithm? Because our world's beyond compromise compromising us? Settled in ruled so completely, obedience is reverent awe? 

  From Dallas, tragedy's visibly seeded into martyrdom's fabric. Now. Which religion teaches against that? Or have all been so distorted, and disgraced, that it's no wonder God/Allah's above us all. I'm not particularly fond of the contrived violence here either. 

The Fantasy of American Violence

------------- LITERARY ENDORSEMENT -------------

Dick Gregory

  His life is depicted in the play, Turn Me Loose Starring Joe Morton at the Westside Theater through July 17 Theater Talk The New York Times Review by Charles Isherwood, The Root Joe Morton and Dick Gregory talk. Reviews, EBONY, TODAY SHOW, The State of the Black Union 2008, Dick Gregory Breaks Entertainment Color Barrier, Dick Gregory Live @ The Village Gate 1970 "That really frightens me as much time as I spend in jail?" The Light Side The Dark Side, Dick Gregory's last show, James Baldwin and Dick Gregory, Dick Gregory Speaks Out, Too Few Know "sanctioned by the people in control" & how Honky came to be is explained. WISDOM - "Killing is wrong by the state." 

  February 1980 I shook Dick Gregory's hand thanks to Reverend Ralph Abernathy's shaking mine the year before after Reverend Abernathy spoke @ the University of Central Florida's Black History Month. After my former PE instructor, and 7th grade basketball Coach Oscar Willis, who was then Vice-Principal of Orlando's Jones High School, must have made some remark to Reverend Abernathy after his speech because I'd overheard their talking, when Reverend Abernathy arrived, and that they'd worked together in St. Augustine back in the day. 
  Leaving Reverend Abernathy walked into my aisle to address overly shy me. If only all the world's contests were decided by who's the nicer person? 

  So. There I was, year later, in the Engineering Building's large auditorium. Where I sat in the middle that must often feel like the podium's aimed right at you. Because I can't recall ever situating myself in that particular type of seat again. Anyway. I remember wondering why Mr. Gregory's speech wasn't funnier. Or maybe it's just the seriousness overwhelms memory? 
  Anyway. Mr. Gregory indicts the next generation for amusing themselves with drugs and not putting their shoulders to the grindstone to fulfill humanity's better destiny. While above-the-sinner self-righteousness is still a problem too. But Mr. Gregory does never lose focus on humanity's need to grow up. Not his fault good pot couldn't circulate in the ghetto. Spawning the more disastrous chemical results of the drug culture. 
  So. Shyer than even now. I'd made the commitment to shaking the writer of those books' hand. The hall's clearing and I'm just more nervous. Standing at my seat, watching Mr. Gregory sitting on a chair arm facing the young black man facing him. Finally I walked to the end of my aisle, shaking inside. Then over behind where he sat. And after my standing there, up to a good 30 seconds, he gave that sideways glance that meant: what the heck do you want. The next beat I grabbed his hand, he didn't offer, and shook it and at no time have I ever shook a hand as limp and said, "thank you very much" and left. One supposes with Mr. Gregory's thinking I didn't show much capability to do anything. (Took some time.) Some people have sacrificed so much for the world, that the people, left here now, have no business thinking they'll ever sacrifice as much. As Mr. Gregory might say, we're still just an across-the-board spoiled generation. 

Joe Morton as Dick Gregory

The Long Grudge
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson

  Tougher solves the terrorist crisis when its' exacerbation was the cause? The innocent dying is on everyone's shoulders. Moral enforcement is not a plan. From Charlie Rose's coverage of militaristic progress to the delusional giddiness of moral superiority that's just rationalization for Allah/God's gift of independence squandered on human greed. While a burnt Bush sleeps undisturbed. Shame. There's so much that should have to be faced.

Historians, Get To The Bottom Of It or

Languish Sycophantically Tenured To The Team?

Historians on Donald Trump - The New York Times Counters

  Politicians. 

  Well. Yes. I know. Academics call on the nation to see the underpinnings of power all the time. But still the result of a framework of alliances where this side is this and that is that and everything's overlooked to patriotically hang behind bs art. ... .

Sarcastically Acceptable = Car (mobile throne) Apologists

World Could Sure Use Being Corny Again

Who'd Want Greatest To Be God/Allah's Only Fantasy For Us?

* Two decades ago, on television I sat through the entire Newt Gingrich American History course, just to know, and felt as lectured at as having given Sean Hannity 3 hours a day, five days a week, for a year, five years later. And in case anyone's miraculously wondering, yes, I've been criticized for not writing liberal enough. Because unless jargon's recited, you're no team player, and hence can't fulfill the real purposes of a team. Hence², soapbox. I could deride President Obama's legacy for having "saved the automotive industry" and remaining as indecisive about a transportation system as his excuse spewing, White House, laurel-sitting, forebears. Or, if you'd prefer I could spew about how Bill Clinton sycophantically coat-tailed the criminalization of more of America for contrived political purposes. Proving Jesus' hopeful quotation, for us, from the cross. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." 

NOTICE HOW TOO-BIG-TO-FAIL APPLIES TO THE REASON WE'RE RULED INDEPENDENT

Time To End Criminalized America

The Fantasy of American Violence