"My strategy for Ukraine, and a little Calgon." Today has been a nice day for reacting to technically surprising confessions--not because of the content of the confessions, but because of the fact that they were made with such openness and honesty. First we had former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan honking in his usual dry rattle about the fact that, well--you know--just because the stock market is smoking doesn't mean that the larger economic picture is good by any stretch of the imagination. Of course most folks down at ground level, staggering through barest subsistence wages and seeing laterally across the playing field what the situation is knew this quite well. What was surprising was how far Greenspan went, suggesting that the fiscal snapshot the nation currently presents to the observer is one that mirrors rather well the scenario of the Late Depression in the United States in the pre-WW2 years. Later on today, we learned via Xinghua press that the Chinese ambassador to Belgium yesterday evening formally and officially announced "who's side" his nation was on in the US versus Russia proxy war churning away in Ukraine. The answer is--grab hold of wall, chair or neighbor--big news here-- Russia. Big surprise there, correct? I mean, this was essentially a no brainer anyhow. Difference in economic health aside, the Russians and the Chinese have a heck of a lot more in common than does the United States and China. Both have deep roots in the Communist Glory Days of Yore, and shared many a cigar and peace pipe behind the iron curtain of the 20th Century. Both have a chafing rash for the prospect of US hegemony, and feel certain that a neutering of US military expansion across the eastern bounds of Europe and further east is a dish that tastes sweet. Specifically the ambassador urged the US to contemplate the strategic situation from Russia's side, and nudged, "The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration," Qu didn't stop there. He went on to point out that Ukraine is becoming a distraction for US and its foreign policy program, and then unloaded this left hook (quoting the Reuters article linked above): "The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs, " Qu was quoted as saying. Well, yeah. Who wants to see their presence anywhere under any circumstances weakened, unless than weakening is an intelligence program designed to draw in an opponent like Muhammad Ali's rope a dope? Many nations around have the exact same problem, and when it comes to Ukraine, Mr. Qu could just as well have been talking to Vladimir Putin using the precise same words while changing the United States to Russia. Nobody likes to see their presence weakened--but nobody likes to see sovereign nations being invaded because of a revolutionary turnover in government that runs counter to one's taste or program for the future plan for the nuisance and threat its borders exert in pounds of political pressure. Sure, this revolutionary turnover might have been engineered by this or that wealthy superpower on the other side of the world using paramilitary, covert assets cultivating a transformation of a far off nation into a more friendly asset, but--as someone once said--"Ya just can't go killin' people!" The US has little to worry about I am certain from these statements--this is boilerplate rhetoric to buck up an ally that could never win a long term test of wills with the US--so they're (China are) giving Obama a little talk for the entertainment of gloomy Putin. Preston Clive 2/27/2015***