Monday, March 17, 2014

Now you see it....now you don't

 I love weather....nothing destructive of course, but just lots of lightning, thunder, and rain coming down in sheets.  Saturday evening I was like a kid on Christmas morning when a line of heavy thunderstorms rolled through.


In Texas, more often than not these storms come through in long, narrow north/south bands moving from west to east.  It will storm wildly for half an hour, then....it's over.  Just like that.

I was impressed by this "supersonic goose" flying in from the northwest.  It looks like it has its wings swept back like an F-14.

And then, pretty much as fast as it blew in....


....it was gone.
(Full disclosure: these beautiful photos were taken by K. :)  

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My Deep Thought for the week:

These are interesting times we live in.  I've always enjoyed studying international relations.  It's like a giant chess game:  The smart players plan many moves ahead instead of just reacting to the last move of their opponent.  

Oops!

Yesterday Vladimir Putin made another move towards "check".  The people of Crimea voted to join Russia, and of course Russia will immediately accept.  Then they will no longer be an "occupier"; Crimea will be an integral part of the Russian Federation.

Shortly the ethnic majority in eastern Ukraine, also Russian speaking, will start down that same road.  Those regions will sooner rather than later demand an election, the conclusion forgone, and Russian troops currently sitting just across their common border will move in to "protect" them.

The US, EU, and NATO will sit on their hands as usual while all this happens.  They have the ability to act, but lack the will to do anything.  Which is just as well since those regions mean more to Russia than they do to the West, and any efforts to intercede would be doomed from the get-go.

Fortunately for the West that will be as far as it goes.  Any attempt by Russia to take over the rest of Ukraine would be received much the same as the treatment the Rooskies and the US experienced in Afghanistan....there would be a guerrilla behind every rock, something they can't afford.

I'm sure Russia would like to regain control of their former Baltic republics, but they are now integrated as full members of NATO and the European Union, and the West probably would get physically involved there if push came to shove.

That's my prediction.  Let's see if I read it right or not.  And If it turns out I did read it right, that begs the question, if dumb s__t little me sitting here in Frisco, TX can figure it out, why can't those overpaid gubment weenies in Washington figure it out, too?  Why are they always caught flat footed?

S


8 comments:

  1. I think you are right, and I can't really think of any action we could do to change events and I don't really know how it would be in our interests to stop this if we could.

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  2. Life goes on. The press will flood the world with the next crisis or incident that happens. I used to like Wolf B at CNN, but can't stand listening to his crap anymore.

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  3. That "vote" was such a sham. Someone should have told Putin when you rig an election at least make it close! 97% is like "elections" in North Korea or Iraq in Saddam's day. Of course you get a lot of votes when your platform is "Vote for Me or I Kill You and Your Family." Next time Putin should ask Karl Rove for some advice; he did a good job of that for George W.

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  4. The US can bluster all it wants but Crimea is now part of Russia. This is a done deal, no matter how much we squawk about it.

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  5. I can't add much to the Ukrainian story...agree with you... but I love your (well, K's) weather pictures! Were these taken with your new camera?

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  6. Hey! I say "if they want to be Russians, LET them be Russians." They'll be sorry, eventually.

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  7. all those beautiful photos and all ya'll can talk about is the Russians...~sigh~ except for Pixel Peepers! my exact words to Mr. I'm Not Getting Outta of My Chair was "I think the sky is looking amazing you should go get that fancy camera"....well he wasn't moving fast enough and the sky was changing. I can't do anything about Russian but I can jump up and take some beautiful photos. Maybe we should all turn off the news and go outside and stare at the sky for a bit

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