Trigger-Happy Russians Down Passenger Airliner, Killing All Aboard

Granted, it's not entirely impossible that the Ukrainians might have done it. But given that Putin's mercenaries and fifth-columnists have been destroying Ukrainian planes on a semi-regular basis, the preponderance of evidence points to Russian responsibility.

More sanctions. Now.

We Will Never Be Brothers

A poem by a young Ukrainian woman about the "fraternity" of Ukraine & Russia.

This is the best of the two translations I've seen:

We will never be brothers
Neither countrymen, nor blood brothers.
You don’t have the freedom breath –
We can’t be even stepbrothers.
You have called yourselves “elder brothers” –
We would like to be younger brothers, but not yours.
There’re so many of you, but you all are faceless.
You are huge, but we are great.
You press… you trudge,
You will choke on your envy.
You don’t know what freedom means,
You all are encased in chains from childhood up.
Silence is golden in your home,
And we burn Molotov cocktails,
Yes, there’s warm blood in our hearts,
What sort of blind “relatives” are you for us?
We all have fearless eyes,
We are dangerous without any weapons.
We grew up and became courageous
We all are at the shooters’ gunpoint.
We were forced to our knees by the hangmen –
But we revolted and corrected everything.
The rats are hiding and praying for nothing –
They will wash themselves with their blood.
You have new instructions –
And there’re revolt lights here.
You have your Tsar, but we have Democracy.
We will never be brothers.

"What is this doing on a blog mostly about Taiwan?" you might ask…

Iowahawk on the Ukraine

And replacing them with golden toilets:

Lenin statue in Ukraine replaced by golden toilet on top of his pedestal.

Image from Boston.com


UPDATE: A similar monument to foreign domination was toppled in Taiwan just the other day…

Toppled Sun Yat-sen statue in Tainan, Taiwan.

Taipei Times: Toppled Sun Yat-sen statue in Tainan park.


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On Dnieper Banks, Did Yanukovych, A Stately Pleasure Dome Decree

The palace constructed by Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Dude's salary up till 2009 was $24,000 a year. Helps to know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy…

Oh, how interesting is this?

Another peculiarity of the president is his fear of being poisoned. Because of this, he has had greenhouses built in his compound, designed to mimic twenty climatic zones. The idea is that anything Yanukovych wants to eat can be brought to his table directly from his own farm.

Guilty conscience, perhaps? 


UPDATE: Pictures of the mansion Yanukovych built with his looted millions. More here. And here.

More great ones here.

After former dictator Viktor Yanukovych fled the country, Ukrainians politely stay on the sidewalk as they inspect his looted mansion.

Hooligans, the Russians call them, hooligans! As the Ukrainians, err, keep on the pathway and avoid walking on the grass…


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