Ukraine: the History, the Background, the Future

After the battles in Kiev this week let's have an indepth look at the historical and geopolitical background of Ukraine and its position in the world

Geopolitical background by Caspian Report for Meydan TV

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 a paradigm shift in the geopolitical situation took place. US Foreign Policy advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: "Without Ukraine Russia is just another Asian power. Should Russia regain control over the buffer state with its 52 million inhabitants, its natural resources and Black Sea ports, Russia will again become a regional superpower stretching from Europe to the Pacific.

Peanuts: "Pro Choice"

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward

The strip is the most popular and influential in the history of the comic strip, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being".

At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in almost every U.S. newspaper. (Source)

Awesome! Baby elephant pulled from sinkhole

Baby elephant pulled from sinkhole in Assam by train passengers http://t.co/WkJuC2CKJz pic.twitter.com/sBWUF7e1V6
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 18, 2014

While purist conservationists are killing healthy animals because of their unpure bloodlines, those who embrace basic morality risk their own life and limb to pull a baby elephant from a sink hole.

Meanwhile there's this conundrum. Winner gets a pilgrimage to Pomoland! Solution here tomorrow. 

Funny, Denmark slaughtered a giraffe and fed it to other animals in a zoo in front of kids. But banned slaughter without stunning.
— Barbarian Indian (@barbarindian) February 18, 2014

EU Doles Out First Punishment to Switzerland

The unelected chairman of the European Parliament has held the Swiss voters to account over their referendum over Sunday's immigration quota's. Others EU apparatchiks will follow his lead

#EU Parliament’s Schulz Warns Swiss on Anti-Immigration Vote.
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) February 9, 2014

UPDATE: The European Union said yesterday (16 February) it had postponed negotiations with Switzerland on its participation in multibillion-dollar research and educational schemes, after Berne said it could not sign in its present form an agreement to extend the free movement of people to Croatia, the newest EU member. (Source, includes video)

'12 Years a Slave' Wins British Top Awards

In the pre-Civil War US a free black man from upstate New York is abducted and sold into slavery. He struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. His chance meeting with a abolitionist forever alters his life

12 Years A Slave is based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. 

The force of "Gravity" was strong at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday — but it was unflinching drama "12 Years a Slave" that took the top prize. Steve McQueen's visceral, violent story of a free black man kidnapped into servitude in the 19th-century U.S. South was named best picture. Its star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, took the male acting trophy.

Day by Day Cartoon: Obama's State Dinner

Day By Day Cartoons by Chris Muir

(Updated) The Russians Are Getting the Enemy They Deserve

The Russians, although unhappy with the way the EU and the US behave, do seem to understand the postmodern mindset of current Western leaders very well

That's because they introduced the West to cultural Marxism in the first place in order to destroy the culture from within.

Postmodern thought was made possible by the reactionary Counter-Enlightenment philosophers Rousseau, Kant and Hegel. The current variety is using cultural Marxism as a weapon to bludgeon the West's cultural roots on a daily basis (text, video). Not much is left at this stage. 

Competitor Rips Wilders' Economic NExit Report

The average household could be better off by over £8,000 a year and national income will grow by over £1 trillion if the Netherlands leaves the euro and the EU, according to a new study

Geert Wilders' euroskeptic Freedom Party is expected win the May European Elections in a landslide. 

UPDATE: The Economist trashes the report by Capital Economics. It's all fear mongering! No further argument needed. It's too kind, says Capital's competitor economist Sony Kapoor:

The Economist is too kind to the crappy #CapitalEconomist report simply calling it "flawed" | Dutch angst http://t.co/VtpJcPqUee
— Sony Kapoor (@SonyKapoor) February 15, 2014

Movie Theater: The Shirley Temple Story (full movie)

Shirley Temple Black, child prodigee turned diplomat, who starred in a series of films that lifted the spirits of millions during the hard days of the Depression, has died this week at age 85

This is a movie biopic made about the most famous child star of all time, Shirley temple.

Wiki - IMDb - The Biography Channel 

Related

• Shirley Temple and Bill Bojangles Dancing the Stairs

Leaked EU document: 'savings to plug financial gap'

Last week "an EU executive" leaked a curious document to Reuters. The report that ensued was entitled, "EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap"

More people than just our editors appear to have had trouble placing this news in the scheme of things. 

The intrepid Tyler Durden at Zerohedge has the story.

Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution 

At first we thought Reuters had been punk'd in its article titled "EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap" which disclosed the latest leaked proposal by the European Commission, but after several hours without a retraction, we realized that the story is sadly true. Sadly, because everything that we warned about in "There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis" back in September of 2011, and everything that the depositors and citizens of Cyprus had to live through, seems on the verge of going continental.