Tuesday’s arson attack on the Kyiv region home of the former head of the central bank is prompting a strong backlash from Westernizers worried that the Zelenskiy administration will fail to fulfill promises to provide impartial justice. In the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, a man wearing a balaclava threw flammable materials then a flare into the suburban home of Valeria Gontareva, who lives in London. The empty house was gutted. The attack followed one month of setbacks for Gontareva: a car ran over her foot in London, her family car was destroyed in an arson attack in Kyiv, masked raiders claiming to be police raided her Kyiv apartment.
. . . .
“This is no longer a series of incidents, it is TERROR,” the National Bank of Ukraine posted in a statement. “Its purpose is to intimidate reformers, past and present, to paralyse our activities, to make us silent. We will not be silent.” Gontareva became central bank governor in June 2014, at the start of the nation’s banking crisis. By the time she stepped down three years later, she had declared 87 Ukrainian banks insolvent, about half the total.
Author Archives: RomanInUkraine
Kyiv Mayor and Boxing Champion Klitschko likely to be chased out by Zelenski
Kiev mayor ex-boxer Klitschko accuses Zelensky of move to curb powers
Former boxing champion and mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kiev, Vitali Klitschko on Wednesday lashed out at President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing his government of an illegal attempt to curb his powers.
***
Friend’s analysis:
Klitshko wasn’t successful mayor and he controls real estate and development market in Kyiv. President’s team wants to get control on Kyiv. And they will succeed
***
Ukraine Business New Roundup
If you want to keep up with daily news in Ukraine, check out https://www.ubn.news/. It’s the best source I’ve found.
Here are some of the most interesting headlines from the past week of news clips.
The Trump administration released on Thursday $250 million in military aid to Ukraine that had been held up. Democratic critics say the aid suspension was an attempt to pressure President Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden for alleged conflict of interest in his Ukraine dealings as Vice President. The aid suspension became known two weeks ago when then-National Security Advisor John Bolton visited Ukraine. During his visit, he campaigned against Ukraine’s planned sale of Motor Sich aviation motor factory to China. On Tuesday, Trump fired Bolton over a wide range of policy differences.
Ukraine has stripped U.S.-based Trident Acquisitions of the right to explore and develop oil and gas in the Black Sea, prompting Trident to say Ukraine has lost out on $1 billion in new investment. In July, Trident beat two other companies in a tender to develop the Dolphin Block, in the northwest Black Sea. Critics say the two-month tender preparation period was too short and major multinationals were not sufficiently encouraged to participate. However, in July, reports circulated in Bucharest that ExxonMobil plans to pull out of its Romanian offshore project, near the Dolphin Block. In 2014-15, Shell and ExxonMobil pulled out of Ukraine.
From the Editor: Once again Ukrainian oil and gas development has been kicked down the road –because the ‘wrong’ group won the tender. The shoddy treatment of US-based Trident flies in the face of the new government’s promise to open up opportunities to foreign investors. Similarly, Shell’s former oil and gas concession in the East has been frozen for three years – once again because the ‘wrong’ group won the permit. To keep the ‘wrong’ people from producing gas, Ukraine’s leaders opt to import gas. Reality check: in the 1970s, the Ukrainian SSR was the largest gas-producing republic of the USSR. In the intervening half-century, Ukraine’s underground geology has not changed – just the people and policies above ground. Best regards, Jim Brooke`
From London, Valeria Hontareva, the former central bank chief who nationalized PrivatBank, says she is the target of a vendetta by Kolomoisky and may ask for political asylum in Britain. On Aug. 26, a hit and run driver ran over her foot in London, breaking bones. On Aug 27, a Kyiv court granted authorities permission to “forcibly” bring her to Kyiv for questioning. On Sept. 5, arsonists burned up a car belonging to her daughter-in-law, also named Valeria Hontareva. Speaking to Ukraine’s Liga news site on Monday, Hontareva, a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “If our country is going to treat its own reformer like dirt, to politically and physically persecute, then I’ll have no choice to but to ask for political asylum.”
As China’s imports more and more food from Ukraine, China is on track to displace Russia next year as Ukraine’s largest single nation trading partner. During the first half of this year, China displaced Russia to become the largest source of imports for Ukraine, accounting for 13.9%. During the half-year, China ranked a close third as a destination for Ukraine’s exports. The ranking was: Poland – 6.9%; Russia — 6.5%; and China – 6.4%.
Since the July 1 start of the grain marketing year, Ukraine has exported 10 million tons of grain – 47% more than in the same period last year. Ukraine has exported 6.1 million tons of wheat, 2.2 million tons of barley, and 1.7 million tons of corn, according to the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. In addition, 1.8 million tons of oilseeds have been exported – 50% more than this time last year. After good weather in June and July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its forecast for Ukraine’s grain exports to 54 million tons – 8% more than last year.
Global Military Spending By Country 1914 to 2018
Look at “Russia” (Soviet Union) after the communist revolution:
http://romaninukraine.com/Graphics/Military-Spending-1914-to-2018.mp4
Я не можу з тим Романом спрветися.
We returned to my in-laws from a half day trip. I was entering the house with my arms full, when my son told me he wanted to jump. “So jump,” I said, not understanding. He kept going on about how he wants to jump, and I eventually realized he wanted to jump from the side of the stoop, and needed me to move the car. I told him to jump somewhere else, and continued in the house.
Later, as I was setting down my things, Danylo told his mother: “Я не можу з тим Романом спрветися.”
It’s a hilarious construction for a three and a half year old. It translates “”I couldn’t come to terms with that guy, Roman.”
Later, he explained to his grandmother how it’s supposed to work: “Roman gets in the car, and then it moves, like this.”
Faced with his continued interested in the procedure, I moved the car. He jumped from the stoop once, and then went around the house to the backyard garden.
Bolshevik’s Poster: “Citizens, Hand Over Your Guns!”
Another poster here.
Hungarian Government Will Give $33,000 Bonus to Married Couples Who Have Three Children
The Hungarian government has announced measures to offer up to 10 million forints (€30,590 or £27,000) to married couples who have three children under its new pro-family budget.
The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will offer the $33,000 payment in the form of a loan to the eligible couples upon their marriage which would have to be repaid until the couple has three children and then the debt would be forgiven, Le Figaro reports.
Around 2,400 families have already signed up and applied for the loan this month which is paid back in small payments each month. Should the couple have a child within a five-year period, the interest on the loan is suspended along with repayments suspended for three years.
The eligibility for the programme has several criteria including that the marriage must be the first for at least one of those involved, the woman must be 18 to 40 years old, and one of the couples must have paid 180 days’ worth of tax contributions to the state.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/08/01/hungary-offer-30k-euros-married-couples-three-children/
Vasiliy Lomachenko outpoints Luke Campbell to add WBC lightweight title
As expected, Vasyl Lomachenko captured his third of the four most recognizable alphabelts at lightweight on Saturday, now holding the diadem of the WBC to go with the WBA and WBO straps already on his mantle. The Ukrainian phenom also made his third defense of Ring Magazine’s belt. It was a good, solid twelve round fight. As was the case in his first title attempt against Jorge Linares, Luke Campbell gave his all and had some moments. He was simply in with a better man.
more: https://www.boxingscene.com/lomachenko-vs-campbell-afterthoughts–142209
It is boxing’s oldest adage that a good big man always beats a good little one. But tell that to Vasiliy Lomachenko. The brilliant Ukrainian defied a large height and reach disadvantage to add the WBC world lightweight title to his WBA and WBO belts with a gaping points victory over Luke Campbell. Most boxing experts rate Lomachenko as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter. Watching the master at work it was again hard to argue.
But on a night of jangled nerves and jumbled memories Campbell did himself proud with a brilliant and courageous performance. Two judges made it 119-108, with another giving it 118-109, which seemed a touch harsh on the 31-year-old from Hull. Certainly the crowd thought so. As the fighters embraced at the end 20,000 people at the 02 Arena stood up and chanted: “There’s only one Luke Campbell.”
They knew the mountain Campbell had to climb could not have been much steeper. In Lomachenko he was facing a man who had ended his amateur career with two Olympic gold medals and a 396-1 record – and then claimed three world titles at different weights in a record time as a professional.
“He’s a special fighter,” Campbell said. “I’m disappointed. “Tonight was Lomachenko’s night but my time will come.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/31/vasiliy-lomachenko-luke-campbell-wbc-lightweight-title
Відкрите звернення до Президента України Володимира Зеленського щодо Другої Петиції власників зброї
Шановний пане Президенте!
Друга Петиція власників зброї набрала необхідну кількість голосів, і ми чекаємо на Вашу відповідь.
Жодна людина в світі не може досконало знатися на всіх питаннях. А правове регулювання обігу зброї ― сфера відносин, що потребує спеціальних знань.
Ми хочемо, щоб Ви прочитали це звернення до того, як Вам почнуть щось радити всім добре відомі ‟хлопці в погонах‟. Саме вони роками гальмували питання правового врегулювання обігу цивільної зброї і практичного втілення українцями природного права захищати своє життя і здоров’я, життя і здоров’я інших людей від протиправних посягань. Ці ‟радники‟ роками розповсюджували безпідставні міфи та культивували в суспільстві фобії щодо цивільної зброї.
Марно очікувати добрих ‟порад‟ від тих, хто по вуха загруз в оборудках з нагородною зброєю та поставив на потік продаж дозволів; від тих, хто побудував монополію на ринку охоронних послуг; від тих, чиї комерційні структури зрослися з правоохоронним відомством та отримують надприбутки зі схем продажу зброї.
Саме тому, маємо повідомити Вам наступне:
1. Українське суспільство більше не сприйме відповідей на кшталт: „не на часі‟, „всі один одного перестріляємо‟ або „суспільство не готове, бо не той менталітет‟. Будь-що з цього буде однозначно сприйнято, як неповага до свого народу, який п’ятий рік поспіль проливає свою кров зі зброєю в руках за свою країну!
2. Проєкт закону «Про зброю», створений фахівцями галузі і представниками академічної спільноти, вже готовий! Вперше в історії незалежної України його розроблено громадянами — для громадян, а не “міліцейськими” чиновниками для обслуговування своїх власних потреб.Проєкт готувався відповідно до конституційних і міжнародних норм та досвіду, з урахуванням рекомендацій Європейського союзу та зауважень Головного науково-експертного управління Апарату Верховної Ради України. Неприпустимо, щоб при розгляді цього питання багаторічний власний та міжнародний досвід було проігноровано!
Пане Президенте!
Повторна підтримка Петиції власників зброї на тлі, вочевидь, тотальної зневіри до самого інституту звернень до Президента, без перебільшення — величезний кредит довіри Вам особисто.
Сьогодні цілковито у Ваших силах не дати знову поховати вирішення цього надважливого для країни питання на роки, як це сталося за час роботи Ваших попередників.
Для цього Ви маєте все:
програмну підтримку цього питання Вашою партією — найбільшою фракцією нової ВРУ;
однозначний запит суспільства на ці зміни;
готовий законопроєкт.Закликаємо Вас скористатися історичним моментом і дати Україні шанс стати справжньою Республікою, де люди шанують закон і самі стануть гарантами безпеки і спокою у власній країні.
Громадянам необхідне Право, а державі — Закон!
Lt. Colonel Tracy’s review of Ukrainian soldiers may have been another Russian hoax
My original post: http://romaninukraine.com/u-s-lt-colonels-dismal-impression-of-ukrainian-soldiers/
From https://zloy-odessit.livejournal.com/2860938.html:
Yesterday, in the late hours of Tuesday, August 27, Strana published an article titled “Drunk, greedy and lazy. An American colonel called the Ukrainian military the main issue at the Yavoriv Training Center,” which allegedly referred to the blog of U.S. Army Colonel Robert Tracy, chief of the Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine (JMTG-U), revealing terrible and unpleasant details about the Ukrainian military.
Of course, shock was the initial reaction to the report on intoxication issues in the ranks of the Armed Forces, laziness and terrifying corruption. But this report is aimed at unprepared, average readers, often too lazy to double-check the data absorbed, but if should just dig a little deeper…
Firstly, the blog by “Lieutenant Colonel Casey” is overloaded with clear narratives that Russian propaganda has been channeling since 2014 through both its internal and external informational platforms, affiliated with Moscow. At the same time, the text published in the blog is full of phrases typical for the Russian language, literally translated into English… Who knows, maybe this is just a consequence of Casey’s prolonged stay among the Slavs? But the real reason is as follows
According to information available about the “lieutenant colonel’s” blog, it was created in August 2019, and before a yesterday’s repost by Strana.UA, it had only a couple of visitors.
That is, it turns out that a blog recently created on a platform, which is now widespread in Ukraine, suddenly attracts attention of Strana’s “journalists” (perhaps they were those very few visitors who checked out the blog). Without any verification of the blog’s authenticity and its affiliation with an actual person, Strana moves to repost the piece. Seriously!?
Anyway, here’s what we call a classic information operation, aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military. . . . .
Still, it’d be great if the Lieutenant Colonel commented on this publicly and put the matter to rest.
President Zelenski’s New Cabinet
Sign up for the UBN newsletter at https://www.ubn.news/
A New Generation Takes Over…PM Honcharuk Vows to Double GDP Growth to 5-7%…Low-Interest Rates Will Create ‘East European Tiger’ in the 2020s…US Grads To Run Finance, Economy, Ag… New Infrastructure Minister Promises Private Freight Trains, Toll Highways, Concessions for Ports/Airports and, Maybe, Chinese Investment in Post Office
By James Brooke
🔵In a generational turn of the wheel, the youngest parliament in the history of Ukraine history elected the youngest prime minister in the history of Ukraine — Oleksiy Honcharuk, a 35-year-old free-market reformer. The Rada, with an average age of 41, approved a pro-business cabinet of almost all new faces. Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst with Kyiv’s Penta think tank, told Reuter the new government is “the most liberal … in the history of Ukraine.”
🔵Setting an example for small government, the new Cabinet has 17 ministers – one third fewer than the 25 ministers of the outgoing Cabinet. Several ministries were merged. Near midnight, the new Rada voted to lift parliamentary immunity. A second, final vote is to be Tuesday.
Highlights of the day:
🔵With this new parliament, President Zelenskiy said: “Now the country will finally be able to switch to fifth gear.” In a call for action, he demanded: “The liberalization of the economy, the creation of a powerful investment magnet to attract foreign investment. Building a digital state in a smartphone, where queues at state institutions and hellish bureaucracy remain in the past. Elimination of raiding, monopolies, and smuggling. Gaining real energy independence, energy efficiency and solving tariff problems.”
🔵“A new generation has come to power,” Prime Minister Honcharuk told the Rada and the nation. Since 2015, Honcharuk, a lawyer by training, served as an advisor to Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister and was the director of the Better Regulation Delivery Office, an EU-funded consultancy dedicated to cutting red tape. Honcharuk was elected by 69% of parliamentarians present Thursday, 290 out of 418. In a recent interview with Novoe Vremya magazine, Honcharuk said he wants to make Ukraine “an Eastern European tiger.”
🔵Ukraine’s new Prime Minister called for doubling the economic growth rate. “This government faces the task of accelerating economic growth,” Honcharuk told lawmakers, noting that 10 million Ukrainians lived below the poverty line. “We need to grow, but not to grow by 2-3%, but, at a minimum, by 5-7%.” Honcharuk said talks will start in September with the IMF to “negotiate a new 3-4-year cooperation program.”
🔵Lower interest rates are key to economic growth in the 2020s, Honcharuk said. “Cheap lending is one of the tactical goals that we will set for ourselves in the near future,” he said. Today, Ukraine’s prime interest rate is 17%. Next year, Honcharuk says, he wants to see hryvnia home mortgage rates of 12-12%. “Interest rates on loans may fall this year,” he promised. “People will start doing business. It can start with construction and industry.”
Roger Scruton on the coming age of Cultural Darkness
A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
At the age of 26 he started to mix with poets and writers and share with them a role that was bestowed upon them at the time of faith in “evolution”; the role of teaching people. “This faith in the meaning of poetry and in the evolution of life was a religion and I was one of its priests…..for a considerable length of time I lived in this faith without doubting its validity.”
He began to doubt the sincerity of his circle when he noticed that each group term themselves as “the finest and most useful teachers” and “others teach falsely”. Something very deep in him was telling him that if ever someone was carrying such a great mission of “teaching people” he should not seek personal esteem as first priority. But still he shared with them their “genuine, sincere concern” of “how to gain as much money and fame as possible” by writing books and journals. When he remembers this stage in his life Tolstoy says,
At the time we were all convinced that we must talk and talk and write and publish as quickly as possible, and as much as possible, and that this was all necessary for the good of mankind. And thousands of us, contradicting and abusing one another, published and wrote with the aim of teaching others. Failing to notice that we knew nothing, that we did not know the answer to the most basic question of life — what is good and what is evil — we all spoke at the same time, never listening to one another. At times we indulged and praised each other in order to be indulged and praised in return, at other times we grew angry and shrieked at each other, just as if we were in a madhouse.
“Why don’t we murder more white people?”
It hurts to say this, but I feel freer in Ukraine, than in the U.S.
There seems to be a horrifying similarity between pre-revolution Russian and present day Ukraine.
Before the massacre that was the Communist revolution, they spent decades nurturing hatred against aristocrats, priests, entrepreneurs. Now it seems that the media in the US has created a religion of hatred against whites, men, heterosexuals, families.
Taxpayer $$$ in San Francisco Funds Screening of Movie “Why Don’t We Murder More White People?”
San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a large museum next to the Moscone Convention Center downtown. This non-profit is funded by the City of San Francisco, the National Endowment for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the James Irvine Foundation. From July 23 to August 25, YBCA screened Jonathan Garcia’s movie Why Don’t We Murder More White People? It was on an endless loop and each cycle lasted 11 minutes and 17 seconds, and is now on Youtube. Mr. Garcia produced this video as a year-long YBCA fellow, for which he got a stipend and an honorarium. YBCA identifies him as: “Community Engagement & Inclusion Associate, Chief-of-Staff of the SOCIAL CLUB, author.”
Most of the video is of non-whites complaining about whites. They say such things as:
“I’m angry at white people most of the time.”
“It’s like, just part of like whiteness to be abusive and violent.”
“Whiteness invades my life and my mind.”
“You could be violent, and through that perpetuate whiteness. You could not look at your whiteness and be perpetuating that violence, still. Like, you could do nothing and still be violent.”
“Одже”
I discovered this word when reading a Ukrainian translation of a Peppa Pig story book. It means almost nothing. It’s the equivalent of clearing your throat loudly. It means “pay attention to me, I’m going to speak now,” and maybe also “what I’m about to say is an extension of the moments which just transpired.”
The word is just obscure enough that I, as a foreigner in Ukraine, achieve some comedic value when I use it. In the story, the self-important Daddy Pig reads from a shopping list upon arrival in a grocery store, so when I say it in front of my son, he’ll immediately speak the next line from the story book: “five tomatoes.”
U.S. Lt Colonel’s dismal impression of Ukrainian soldiers
I think the author is Lt. Col Tracy: https://rktracy.blogspot.com/2019/08/multinational-conference-for-collective.html
(NOTE #1: It seems the blog was removed!)
(NOTE #2: I should have known! This was most likely a fake story by Russian propagandists. More: https://zloy-odessit.livejournal.com/2860938.html)
My soldiers’ efforts are focused on boosting Yavoriv Combat Training Center and training instructors to see the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian Ground Forces getting stronger each day. However from what I’ve seen here, I have to say, our training mission could be extended beyond 2020. It’s not about the training infrastructure and equipment. It’s mainly about Ukrainian soldiers.
Firstly, they don’t speak English. The truth is, they don’t truly care about actually learning it. Given the amount they seem to care about English, my instructors need an extra platoon of interpreters during training. But it doesn’t work in all cases. Thing is, they don’t have a complete understanding of each other! They are kind of a mishmash of different folks being trained here. Some of them speak only Ukrainian or only Russian, whereas others can only speak Romanian or Hungarian.
Secondly, Ukrainian soldiers are lazy slackers who are reluctant to work, they tend to intentionally sabotage any move of their U.S. instructors. Taking into account their greed for money, one has to be aware that Ukrainian military tend to steal and sell anything once they think they have found a good deal.
Thirdly, heavy consumption of alcohol is a common event. All Ukrainian soldiers at Yavoriv Combat Training Center drink dangerously high levels of alcohol. With that in mind every time we had to start training with a BAC test. But that was of little help. Drunk Ukrainian soldiers who even couldn’t stand up straight because of the booze were banned from training. Some of the training activities were either canceled or rescheduled. What struck me most is their commanders’ omission with regard to that improper behavior. Their unwillingness to tackle alcohol abuse suggests that they could be immersed in a culture of booze together with their subordinates.
Fourthly, most of Ukrainians are poorly educated and of low intellect. The easiest tasks seemed challenging for them. It’s no wonder taking into account that the majority of soldiers come from disadvantaged backgrounds whereas the best part of the population left the country for a better life abroad.
What really blew my mind, however, is not-so-casual corruption. Ukrainian soldiers have to pay bribes for any promotion – either to be promoted from private to corporal or from a lower to a higher position. Their superiors would definitely expect a bribe for that. There’s a certain pay rate depending on the rank and position.Ukrainian commanders take bribes without fear of disciplinary action being taken against them. And this is normal behavior throughout the Ukrainian army.
https://rktracy.blogspot.com/2019/08/ukrainian-soldiers-is-major-weak-spot.html
Ukraine Business News – Morning update
🔵A Dubai-originated fund, Marquis Holdings, is studying investing over $1 billion in Ukraine through the end of 2020, Amer Kharb, the fund’s Ukraine country representative, tells UBN. Kharb, who plans to open an office in Kyiv this fall, targets investments in infrastructure, construction, logistics, agriculture, defense and energy.
🔵U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton comes to Kyiv this week in a bid to torpedo China’s purchase of Ukraine’s Motor Sich, a leading manufacturer of helicopter and airplane engines, reports The Wall Street Journal. Bolton seeks to meet with Vyacheslav Boguslayev, the veteran CEO of the Zaporizhia-based company. After Motor Sich lost the Russian market, China started negotiating to buy the ailing company, once the highest valued the company on Ukraine’s stock exchange.
🔵“The acquisition of Motor Sich would boost China’s military buildup and civilian aviation capacity, which Washington has taken pains to retard in a near-total Western embargo on selling military goods to China,” writes the Journal of a deal now before Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Commission. A US company reportedly is in talks with the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to get financing and insurance for a joint venture.
🔵Even before President Trump’s trade war with China, Ukraine and the US had traded places as corn suppliers to China, reports Successful Farming, an Iowa-based news site. Six years after shipping its first load of corn to China, Ukraine now is the largest supplier. This year, Ukraine is to ship 4 million tons of corn to China, supplying 80% of its import needs.
🔵Once a niche producer, Ukraine is now the world’s sixth largest producer of soybeans.
this great newsletter by visiting https://www.ubn.news/
Talking to myself
The other evening, I took Danylo with me to run an errand. I needed to change some dollars for hryvnias, and buy groceries.
The vicissitudes of my business occupied my minds, and while re-imagining some uncomfortalbe work discussion, I spoke to myself. I know I spoke to myself, because Danylo, sitting on my shoulders, asked me what I was saying.
“Oh, nothing,” I initially replied, but he wasn’t satisfied and asked again.
“I was just speaking to myself,” I said. “Sometimes I do that.”
We continued on, and I thought nothing of it. We paused to watch a garbage truck, lifting and emptying bins with its robot-like crane, and putting them down again, one after another. I pointed out how hydrolic legs move down and bear the weight of the truck while it’s lifting, and them move back up, returning the truck’s weight to its wheels. Danylo waved goodbye when the truck drove on, and to our delight, the driver waved back.
Danylo asked many questions about where it was going, and later about what some sign says, and other questions of the sort that children ask.
After we’d walked on in silence for some time, he said something else which I didn’t quite hear.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I’m just speaking to myself,” He replied.
I almost laughed, but didn’t say anything.
And twice more before our return, he mumbled something, I asked him what he’d said, and he said he was just speaking to himself.
This is similar to when he learned what pockets were, and that you could put your hands in them. He spend two solid days barely removing his hands from his pockets.
2019 Independence Day Video
From what I saw, it seemed like a nice ceremony, with appropriate emphasis on veterans of the war. It included live streams from different Ukrainian cities.
A strange and, in my opinion, incongruous moment was this patriotic rap:
Duke professor compares ‘destructive’ Trump to ‘Hitler, Stalin and Mao’ during CNN interview (no pushback from interviewer)
Duke University psychiatry professor Allen Frances claimed President Trump may be responsible for millions of deaths and said he’s been more destructive than infamous dictators Adolf Hilter, Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin — a series of claims that sparked criticism over CNN’s lack of pushback.
Frances appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday, and almost immediately contradicted himself by comparing Trump to mass murderers, right before he discouraged personal attacks.
“Trump is as destructive a person in this century, as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were in the last century,” he said. “He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were. He needs to be contained, but he needs to be contained by attacking his policies, not his person.”