Putin on the table--life confirmed! (IMAGE: copyright 1931 Universal Pictures) Well, Vladimir Putin--or his 3D hologram (or hand carved Geminoid robot of him)--reappeared to put my winking black ops/Bay Of Pigs Castro/Patrice-Lumumba-in-the-Congo theory out like a pinched candle this weekend (as I naturally figured it would be). But the man came back with a bang and a whomp and a superatomic bonk over the head of the west: he activated more than 40,000 troops, ships and jets in military exercises around the northern part of Russia to display, ahem, "readiness" on a dime. He then very deliberately, and not very subtly slipped into an interview for a documentary to be aired on the national television station, the statement that--during the takeover of the Crimea, and during the takeover of the new unfriendly regime in Ukraine--he was on full nuclear readiness and seriously prepared to turn the key of an apocalypse. In other words--"I'm clinically nuts, so don't screw with me, and this goes for both NATO as well as you, Mister Itchy Trigger Finger Obama!" Of course, anybody with even a passing knowledge of the type of propaganda meant to give caution to enemies during a tense showdown, knows that this is what we are witnessing drip from the sharpened teeth of Vlad The Impaler (31 year old girlfriend? you little devil you!)--he is trying to put the fear of A Nuclear Wildman into the hearts of his opponents. This because there is no way that a post-Soviet, deteriorated Russian military infrastructure could possibly outfight the overwhelming stealth and technical superiority of the United States in a straight ground and air war--this whether blended with NATO or not. Thus, Mr. Putin must give the impression of being willing to light the nuke fuse even for some regional scrap over a localized, hugely poor, virtually indefensible nation state like Crimea-Ukraine. All of these moves--the exercises for military readiness, the nuclear ready-and-willingness . . . heck, even the pregnant girlfriend--are designed to play into the myth of the indomitable, no nonsense fountain of atomic testosterone. As for the military exercises, Bloomberg reports: “New challenges and threats to military security demand a further increase in the military capabilities of the armed forces,” (Defense Minister Sergei) Shoigu said, the Interfax news service reported. Russia is “deeply concerned about the increase in exercises of NATO countries close to our borders,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov said on Monday, according to Tass news service. It’s “particularly surprising that this takes place in the northeastern region of Europe, which is the most stable in security terms, not only on our continent but possibly in the world,” he said. Once again, the old Russian bogeyman of NATO rears its head in the national mythology--but this "readiness" versus new secutiry "threats" is purely a display of male plumage, an attempt to scare any comers away from tinkering with the landgrabbing going on in the region. What else is new? What's old is new, yadda yadda yadda. Preston Clive 3/16/2015***