Windows to Russia

Boza and I walk in the forest many times and as you see by the picture that many people walk in this forest. In fact in Moscow there is so many people that you virtually never can find a time or place that someone else is not there also. I do find that 3 am in the morning though comes pretty close to no one around… 🙂

When I come upon this spot in the woods, I allow Boza to pick the way to go. He follows his nose and we wander where his nose leads him. I suspect that he follows a trail of a cat or another dog, or even the trail of a squirrel at times. But what ever it is, he picks a different path almost every time we come here…

I think about this spot and realize that every path has something at the end of it. Every path is a means to get to a different place…

This is our lives and these paths are what we have to make a decision to follow. Sometimes we have the opportunity to make a random decision. Then we sometimes make a detailed decision. Then sometimes we are forced to make that decision and follow a path…

The picture above flows like this:

Path to the right is the hospital…

Path straight ahead is to the movie theater…

Path to the left is to our flat…

Then the path with the woman pushing her kid in a stroller is to a hole in the huge fence that surrounds these woods…

This is life in a nutshell and according to which way that you go and on which path you pick, life can be changed in an instant…

I call a place like this…

Multiple Futures!

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

What’s the point in Stars and Stripes flying full staff anymore? What joy or pride is there in looking up at the American Flag when it seems that each week it is lowered for this and that death, current or past? And knowing that over the last three decades or so, most of those deaths and sacrifices would turn out to be at the altar of dismal failure (except for those promoted or who profited in stock and US dollars).

One day the US flag is down by half in remembrance of September 11, 2001, another day it is downed for those murdered in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and yet another day for an ambassador killed in action in Libya, and yet another day for college students killed on a campus in Virginia. Inevitably it will be lowered for former presidents President George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and who knows who else.

Just as torture has lost meaning in America, so has the American flag (and what it represents) lost its inspiration. Even the Bald Eagle, America’s Number One bird, had to be saved from American hunters, DDT and other pollutants (thanks to the US government).

The US Flag should remain at half-mast every day for all those who have died and or were wounded in the largely senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for all those unknown American soldiers dead/wounded in Foreign Internal Defense or Kill-Capture operations on the African Continent, the Philippines, Mexico and a host of other countries where the US attempts to secure its economic interests.

The American Flag should be packed away for a time because there is no United States of America. There are States in a sort of ad hoc union in these rough and tumble times in which American political, economic, cultural and military leadership ignores critical domestic issues and is quite happy to play abroad in the sandboxes of Africa and the Middle East while the Homeland burns. It is a leadership that watches as domestic unemployment grows, infrastructure collapses and public education is assaulted. Just as the flag is up one day and down the next, America’s leadership is this way on an issue on Tuesday and then that way on Wednesday. Why not lower the American Flag for those who will never find another job to pay the rent, or those 25 million children living in poverty.

American leadership’s excuse at the moment is the US Presidential Election (and what an excuse it always is!). No matter who sits in the Oval Office while getting America’s war on, in this case Barak Obama, American life is sacrificed for the sake of a Donkey–the Democratic Party and its donors. And if Romney were the President, he would sacrifice Americans for an elephant, the Republican Party and its donors. The difference between them is trivial. The choice is a “with us or against” one. Vote Republican or Democrat, the grand brains say. Not voting, they say, means the degradation of American democracy will be the common folks fault.

At this moment, Americans are waiting on an election that they think will magically change the theme from uncertainty and hard times to President Ronald Reagan’s mythical “Morning in America.” Of course even that was all cartoonish. Reagan’s legacy was to teach politicians the world over how to act in front of the camera; stage the airport tarmac; market the message, not the person; and use slick propaganda techniques pushing form, not substance. This is what Reagan left behind for the politicians that followed him. His administration would begin the undercutting the infrastructure of America to include “government” which, to Reagan and followers, was evil (tell the Bald Eagle that).

The interests of America are represented through the narrow prisms of Republican and Democratic interests, not the needs of the United States of America. It is the interests of the Party that matters to Obama and his Democratic cronies. They will sprint whichever way the wind blows to get a second term in office. Romney and his Republican hustlers will do nearly anything (praying too) for a foreign or domestic disaster to bring Obama down.

The system of American government has nothing to do with protecting and defending the American people and their way of life (viewed by America’s leadership as “children” as Richard Nixon once eloquently said). Rather the goal is to protect and defend Party, power, cash and bragging rights. Moreover, it is to preserve the electoral theater that America’s elite so love to create and participate in.

The day will come when Americans are required to vote or face a fine and public censure. The rush to the national security/surveillance society guarantees it. And the day is not far off when Americans have to register to own a computer and “drive” through the Internet to the World Wide Web. Just take the US government’s Cyber Security strategy and tactics to their logical conclusion: Isn’t the Internet/WWW as dangerous as a gun or bomb? Witness the fallout from the Mystery Science Theater candidate “Innocence of Muslims.” Protests at US embassies around the globe continue apace.

American political, economic, cultural and military leadership spend their lives in the midst of sycophants who ache for a position “that matters.” American leadership spends its time living in television studios, briefing rooms, gated communities and secure facilities. Their thoughts are hardly their own. Debates are staged and negotiated.

American leadership is dangerously out of touch with the world as it is down in the dirt and in the unearthly confines of the Internet/World Wide Web. Much of America, and the world, can operate in both worlds. America’s leaders do not have that ability.

Voting or not, Americans should keep the US Flag and Bald Eagle in mind.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. Reach
him at cioran123@yahoo.com

The views of the above author are not strictly the views of Windows to Russia. They are an independent view from an outside source and country that brings a better light on the world in general and Windows to Russia is pleased to have John Stanton’s article on its pages today. It is hoped that we will have many more of his writings in the future…

Windows to Russia!

Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is ending its activity in Russia.

“The Foreign Ministry confirms the closure of USAID [in Russia]” a ministry source said, adding more information would be released “soon.”

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland announced the termination of USAID’s activity in Russia on Tuesday.

“The United States recently received the Russian Government’s decision to end USAID activities in the Russian Federation,” Nuland said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of what USAID has accomplished in Russia over the past two decades, and we will work with our partners and staff to responsibly end or transition USAID’s programs.”

USAID’s move comes in response to the Russian government’s decision to halt USAID’s programs in the country, the State Department said.

Nuff said and we all know why USAID has been removed. They are one of the American sponsored groups that got caught, “Handing Out Cookies to the Natives!”

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

US State Department as saying that there were a number of reciprocal measures that would demonstrate by example its attitude to such statements as displayed below by Gennady Zyuganov. They said that they were surprised by his statement as he is a very close person to the US Embassy and officials…

Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), said in his official Twitter feed that the US ambassador to Libya was: “Shot like a dog!”, and added that the diplomat had “Reaped what he had sown!”

“All this violence and barbarism causes regret. But we must remember that those who sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind. This is the essence of my statement.”  said Zyuganov.

He said that no normal person would feel happy over the fact that the violence spreads to civilians and even diplomatic offices, but immediately added that it was the US politics of interference that had turned against the United States itself.

“This same ambassador participated in the actual military campaign against the Libyan leadership, gave instructions and finances and NATO troops bombed them from the air, turning the country into ruins.”  Zyuganov said.

He added that the “Shot like a dog!” comment was about Muammar Gaddafi and was made a long time ago, but he had to bring it up again to show how neglecting the Muslim traditions turns against the US embassy and its representatives.

Hmm! Sometimes I really like this guy and I see why he is popular with the older Soviets…

Windows to Russia

Vyacheslav Nikonov, Deputy Head of Foreign Affairs Committee, tells RT that Russia should start looking eastward to fortify its foreign policy aims.

The Duma official said Russia should become a self-sufficient center of international strength.

“Russia cannot become anything else, there is no alternative” Nikonov told RT in a telephone interview. “We cannot be integrated into the European Union or NATO; we are too big and too Russian for that.”

Russia is doomed to be an independent, central power, he added.

Nikonov then provided some historical perspective to Russia’s timely turn to the East.

“In the first years of Perestroika, Russia was definitely Western-oriented; Gorbachev had been speaking about a ‘common European home,’ while Yeltsin actually applied for NATO and EU membership,” he noted.

The only result of these efforts was NATO’s eastward expansion, he added.

Nikonov then provided a solid case for Russia looking to the East for both security and economic advantages.

“Today, there is a move toward East Asia, which is quite logical. More than half of the global economy, and more than half of the global population lives in the Asia Pacific region. So for Russia it is very important to look eastward and to position itself not just as European or Eurasian power, but also as a Europe-Pacific power.”

Russia and China are sealing their relationship not just with words, but with concrete partnerships, including in the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In considering where America fits into these regional alliances, it is telling that US President Barack Obama took a pass on this year’s APEC meeting, held in the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

Obama’s excuse for missing the event was the upcoming presidential elections. However, it was not lost on some political analysts that Washington may have been uncomfortable with the idea of being in attendance at a summit where its superpower status would be partially eclipsed by other rising stars.

This underscores the advantages of Russia teaming up with China on the global stage.

Nikonov pointed to the Great Wall of China to support the claim that the Asian country has for millennia been concerned about protecting its northern territory from invasion. Today, that fear is greatly diminished and now China can focus attention on other problem spots.

“Beijing understands that maintaining healthy relations with Russia is very important, and today Russia-China relations are at their best ever,” Nikonov confirmed.

Asked about the future of Russia-US relations in light of the upcoming presidential elections in Washington, he believes “it doesn’t matter which administration is in power.”

“There are different Democrats and there are different Republicans,” he told RT. “Historically, however, it was easier for Russia and the Soviet Union to deal with the Republicans, which represent the more pragmatic party with less interest in a human rights agenda.”

Nikonov blamed the campaign season for the increase in rhetoric aimed against Russia, specifically from the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, who called Russia America’s “number one geopolitical foe.”

“The Obama administration is protecting his record and the reset in US-Russian relations has been one of his real achievements,” he said. “And of course the Republicans in this tough campaign will attack Obama on every foreign policy issue, including the reset.”

Nikonov then mentioned the Russia-US reset, suggesting that it may be time to reconsider that as well.

“We should probably think more strategically and not just reset the computer, but perhaps consider changing the hard disc,” he quipped.

Relations between Moscow and Washington remain strained over US plans to build a missile defense shield in former Warsaw Pact country – without Russia’s participation.

Despite Moscow’s warning that the system could trigger “another arms race,” US and NATO officials seem unfazed by such a grim prospect.

Nevertheless, Russia should not take America’s tough stance too personally. After all, it may be simply reacting to a challenging domestic situation.

“The domestic situation inside of the US is not really favorable for an improvement of relations with any country since America has become inward looking and very xenophobic,” Nikonov concluded.

Source:

Windows to Russia…

(Reuters) – The United States has set aside $25 million for aid to Syrian rebels, although the assistance remains limited to non-lethal supplies such as communications gear, the State Department said on Wednesday… (August 1st, 2012)

(HAARETZ) A commander with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) has offered a 25-million-dollar bounty for anyone who captures Syrian President Bashar Assad “alive or dead,” reported the Turkish news agency Anatolia on Tuesday… (September 18th, 2012)

I really just thought that you might want to know? You understand that the Syrian Rebels are very rich and they have lots of extra money laying around to use for bounties. I also would question that “non-lethal” part of the Reuters article…

You know, we are really desperate! America is really looking pathetic on the world stage…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I am glad I am in Russia! The worst they seem to be able to conjure up is a proclaimed millions man march and 5000 to 6000 show up! Like I also said before, “You can get 5000 people to stare at the sky with you in Moscow, if you stop and pretend to look at something in the air. With 15,000,000 people at any given second running around, it is not hard to draw a crowd…”

Now as I sit here and sip my wonderful morning cup of coffee, I am in the realization that our trip to Tunisia is going to be interesting and I am looking forward to it. If the blog goes dead and no one writes, then you know I did not come back in one piece… 🙂

The only thing going on in Russia that needs to be stopped is the desecration of churches all over Russia. I see that Ukraine is having issues with the same thing and Georgia now has beautiful old churches being desecrated…

My opinion is that no matter what the religion and what your beliefs are. Burning bibles, cutting down crosses, painting on church walls and what ever else anyone is doing, is just plain immoral and disgusting. Humans have got to be the worst of gods creations and we never learn from or past, we just repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat. Technology seems to be advancing, but morality, common sense and compassion goes in cycles and we are hitting a low cycle, as low as any that the world has been in in history…

So I sit and enjoy coffee and watch the world blame each other, point fingers and riot. The truth comes out in little pieces and it is up to the person to assemble those pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. A very hard puzzle…

I have a couple of things to say and then I am going to go think of something else…

I have a belief that we should all be free, but that freedom is sometimes something that we need to weigh and measure. If my declaration/proclamation of freedom hurts, imposes, desecrates, murders, maims, steps on and or inconveniences anyone in anyway! Then I have put myself and my freedoms above that person and I have removed their freedoms…

I also think that the smaller the freedom the more important that freedom is! Anything from salt restriction, drink restriction, helmet laws, seat belts and many many other tiny little freedom issues, these are the most important ones. These are the destruction of the freedoms that lead to the restrictions, on the big freedom items in the constitution…

So now I am having my freedoms restricted, because of people in this world that want to cause issues and they manifest a situation (movie) that has been blown out of proportions in the Middle East. It is not just this movie that is the issue, it is the fact that pent up anger at the way the Middle East people are treated and lied to that is the issue…

Now my freedoms are being stepped on by my government and people who use the freedoms of expression, that are used as tools of degradation against the masses! The masses all over the world…

You are not free if your freedoms hurt other peoples freedoms…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

It was Friday, Aug. 31 – 2012…

Now since the moon sure did not look blue to me, I decided to get a picture of it! 🙂

What is a Blue Moon? Glad you asked…

Web definition: A Blue Moon is a long time; “Something that happens once in blue moon almost never happens”. A blue moon is the appearance of the third full moon in a season that has four full moons, instead of the usual three. It is never visually blue. Because a blue moon occurs only every two or three years, the term blue moon is used colloquially to mean a rare event, as in the phrase “once in a blue moon”…

So in the photo above is a Blue Moon! I took it when we were in the village this last month and the beginning of this month. I told Sveta, “Hey that is not blue!”

Then Sveta looked at me and said, “It is not suppose to be blue!”

“Oh!” I said – 🙂

Sorry the cell phone did the best it could, when it took the picture and it is pretty grainy. This was about 11:00pm at night so it was rather dark…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The “back-to-Asia” policy of the United States could lead to an arms race in Asia, which Washington hopes to benefit from by selling weapons to conflicting parties. I think the US is making a big mistake by assuming that it can do to China what it did to the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The chances of the US, rather than China, becoming bankrupt because of an arms race are higher. China can double or triple its military spending and still it will be only 9 to 13 percent of the country’s savings. But any increase in the US’ military budget will add to the country’s already huge deficit.

Paul Wen, on the WTR website…