GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

CRIMEA IS RUSSIA, DEAL WITH IT.


What is done is done and all the tough talks notwithstanding, Moscow has bagged Crimea. The people of Crimea have spoken and they loudly declared for a Russian membership. Icheoku says in the battle for Crimea, Moscow has again outfoxed Washington. It happened before in the threat of punitive sanctions against Iran and again in the "red-line" ultimatum Washington gave to Damascus. In both cases, Moscow's Putin won Obama's Washington decidedly. Now in the latest stare-down over Ukraine breakaway region of Crimea, it would seem the ex KGB boss is at the top of his game as he had surreptitiously used the Crimean people to push Washington and Europe as well as Kiev off the cliff in that standoff. What a deft calculating chess player this Vladimir Putin is that used Washington's game to outplay it - democracy is afterall all about the voice of the people and the people of Crimea have spoken thunderously that they want to move back to their old country, Russia. 

Vladimir Putin waited patiently for the Sochi Winter Olympics to come to an end while plotting his move following the revolution in Kiev that pushed out his crony president. Soon thereafter, he moved his defence forces near the eastern borders of Ukraine in the guise of a military exercise. Before the world could wake up to what was going on within the Ukrainian eastern borders, Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukrainian Crimea and the rest they say is now history. Icheoku says despite mountain of International pressure to dissuade Putin, an effort led by Washington, to scare off the Russian strongman, a plebiscite was engineered whereby instead of using his amassed army to conquer and subjugate Ukraine, the people were instead used to achieve the same result - ownership of Crimea. Icheoku says it is important to remember that when the history of the Ukrainian conflict is written, it will be recorded as the first ever conquering of a territory without firing of even a single shot. 

Icheoku had always maintained that Kiev and its Western advisers made a huge mistake in not resisting the Russian army when they first ventured into their territory. The primary responsibility and reason for the existence of the military of any sovereign country is to serve as a buffer and deterrent of any foreign aggressor(s) and invader(s). So when the Ukrainian military remained docile and cowered in fear while the Russian red army marched in, in violation of their territorial integrity, Icheoku knew it was a fait accompli for what the world is witnessing today. Although the Ukrainian army were no match to the all powerful Russian military, but so was Georgia in 2006, when the same Putin invaded the country but not without a fight; admitted that war ended with Russia taking two of Georgia's territories. The world watched and did nothing then because they could not do anything and in the same vein, the same world is now also watching in askance as Russia gobbles down Ukrainian Crimea and nothing will be done about it. It is deja vu Georgia scenario in Ukrainian Crimea as a stupefied world watch while Putin claims yet another prize in Crimea. Like those lions of Serengeti with their captured prey, Vladimir Putin is not and will not yield Crimea, not to Kiev, not to Washington and not to Brussels. If these people want a different outcome or want Crimea, they better come and get it reads the demeanor of Putin. 

Icheoku says it would seem that the only possible way this can be accomplished is in the all out war the West is coy about fighting with Russia. If not now, when? As with every bully, one unchallenged act always leads to another. So with Crimea now effectively gone or rather bagged, who knows which territory Putin's cross-hair is aimed next if his latest act of aggression is left unchallenged or unresponded to? All talks that can be talked has been talked and so are all threats of sanctions been made that can be made; yet all  have been ignored by the deaf man in Moscow. The world led by the West is now left with only one meaningful option - engage Putin in the same manner as they did against Hitler and now is the time to do it. All appeals have failed and so were all diplomatic niceties but like King Herod of Egypt, the Tsar of Russia will not hearken and the world has to muscle him to reason. 

The result of the Crimea referendum has again put the Obama's foreign policy team on the spot; forcing Icheoku to gravitate to the opinion expressed by former Defense Secretary Gates that it is not in the proper hands. While foreign policy Team Obama held the bag, Putin and company snarled the pricey Crimea and as far as the Russians are concerned, Washington can go on hollering, but Crimea is theirs for keeps and no one can do anything about it. Despite the threatened sanctions and unquantifiable price to be paid should the Crimea referendum proceed, Putin's Russia ignored it and went ahead and have now captured Crimea by proxy of Crimeans. What happened in Crimea will be difficult if not impossible to undo or will the West now force an unwilling people of Crimea, who have expressed their preference for Russia to now go back and remain in a forced unholy matrimony with a Kiev they despise with passion? 

Icheoku says this scenario is not likely going to happen as it will be tantamount to forcing a people against their will and democracy does not support this. At best, Russia will in the end keep Crimea but asked to go no further with capturing more of Ukrainian territories. Crimea will be the opportunity cost of greater Ukrainian territories or the pawn of the chess face-off. Moreover, Crimea was Russia and used to be Russia until Krushev in a drunken magnanimity in 1954, in the same manner Obasanjo gave away Bakassi to Cameroon, gave Crimea away to Ukraine.  So what is wrong in a people returning back to the land from which they were literally thrown away from and without their say or support for the action? icheoku says with the development in Crimea, hopefully Bakassi people of Nigeria will someday in the future return back to their Nigerian roots while giving Cameroon and the international gang up their middle finger. Like the people of Israel who left slavery in Egypt and returned to their land, the Russian people of Crimea have peradventure returned back to their mother Russia, case closed. 

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