Since I’m trying to wean myself away from making fun of Louis Proyect, and his adventures in moviegoing, weight loss, and anti-Stalinism, I have fallen back on the desperate expedient of reading The Nation. Probably by this time tomorrow I will have sunk to Skid Row, in the form of Melissa Alexandra Mediagenia Harris-Foggybottom. Facilis descensus Averno!
I was relatively fortunate today, however; I found a very earnest piece written by one Bob Dreyfuss, explaining just what the Ukraine needs and doesn’t need, and offering sage helpful advice to the incumbents of the Kremlin. Sample:
The Russian threats, bluster, troop mobilizations and pledges to throw their support to the ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine — who, delusional to the end, still asserts that he’s president despite a revolution in the streets that’s plain to see — are worrying, and ominous. Yanukovych, who has blood on his hands from the massacre of protesters in Kiev, will never, ever again have a role in Ukrainian politics.
Not just worrying, but ominous. Wow, that’s harsh.
Don’t you love it when people say something can ‘never’ — or rather, ‘never, ever’ — happen? Who would have thought that Nixon might be President after the famous press conference? For that matter, who would have thought that Yulia Tymoschenko, with her absurd hairdo, would ever again bestride the world stage?
Brother Dreyfuss is not entirely deaf to an indecent note of triumph in the loathesome Kerry’s various brayings on the matter, but seeks to reassure us:
…it’s also ominous that both Secretary of State John Kerry and NATO have talked about NATO’s role in Russia’s periphery yesterday. With exquisitely bad timing, while meeting the Georgia’s prime minister, Kerry said, “We stand by the Bucharest decision and all subsequent decisions that Georgia will become a member of NATO.” And NATO’s secretary-general, whose organization ought to have nothing whatsoever to say about Ukraine, said yesterday: “Ukraine is a close and long-standing partner to NATO. And NATO is a sincere friend of Ukraine. We stand ready to continue assisting Ukraine in its democratic reforms.” Needless to say, Ukraine doesn’t need NATO to help build a democracy.
But an important news analysis in The Los Angeles Times notes that Russia gave NATO advance notice of its military maneuvers…
Oh, well, that’s all right then. The Bear will roll over and go to sleep after all. Or so says the Los Angeles Times. Whew.
As one who once took a professional interest in the definite article, I find it fascinating to note that there seems to be a law of conservation for them: the Ukraine has lost its, but according to brother Dreyfuss, ‘the Georgia’ has picked one up.
Russian language, of course, as is well known, doesn’t have such pesky thing. Is much to be said for same.
You have intricate systems of syringeal musculature & innervation, at least one of which speaks more or less directly to me, and the others of which only make me wish I could speak Dinosaurian sitting from a perch, jammin’ on the flutes and tambor signatures.
The disparity between us is both ridiculous and divine, to me.
Awww! Thanks for the kind words.
I don’t mind a little sarcasm. My folks are Bostonians.
I don’ jus’ like the way you roll, I like your ability to roll. Now, you tell me how many bloggers write nearly as well you. Name three. I’ll accept Jacob Bacharach as your first listing. Name two more.
(I classify Chris Floyd & Arthur Silber differently).
I’m not being sarcastic, just bashful. I finally learned some years ago to accept any compliment that was going.
Blogging doesn’t conduce to fancy prose, generally; the point of it is to get stuff out there quickly, and don’t bother to apply the Rambler-essay varnish. Ole JB seems to be one of the exceptions.
I was wondering if you think it’s better to be vaporized in a nuclear blast or to linger on and succumb to radiation poisoning?
I doubt that the choice will be offered.
I sit every day in an office in midtown Manhattan. My fervent hope is I’ll never know what hit me.
Who the hell would follow that woman on Twitter? Melitta Harry Parry or whatever her name is.
But apparently people do; some 270,000 of them, if Twitter is to be believed. Really, I don’t know which puzzles me more: Teabaggers or Perryites.