Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right:

First let me apologize for being distracted last week.  Sometimes life gets in the way, and last week was no exception.  Now then, to today’s ranting post.  Every now and then, I hate it when I’m right.  Back on March 31, 2014, I did a posting about “How to take over a neighboring country without a shot.”  Sadly, this is precisely the way it is unfolding, and with the April 17th Agreement reached among the parties in Geneva, the deal was struck.  So, what is this deal?  Right now it appears that Crimea is “under the bus,” and it may well be that the eastern part of Ukraine will be there very soon.  As details leak out, the last few days have been interesting.  For example, Ukraine is pulling ships, aircraft, and equipment out of Crimea.  This means that Russia had to clear the shipping channels and give permission for the extraction of these things through both ground and air corridors.  It was also announced by the Ukrainian Government in Kiev that there is now an October deadline to study the idea of holding a referendum to “decentralize” the government process to empower the individual “Regions.”  Now you can’t fool me, this is a move towards meeting the Russian demand for federalization of various regions to facilitate the weakening of the Nation of Ukraine, and to strengthen the idea that these “regions” can then declare that they are independent.  Once that happens, then like Crimea, they can ask to join the Russian Federation.  I hate it when I’m right, since back on March 31, 2014, I predicted that this would be the model of things to come.  History is a great teacher, and while Secretary Kerry didn’t declare “Peace in our time,” we still have an Agreement that offers no relief to those it impacts. ~ Michael S. Pauley