They will never learn

 

They are beating the drums for war just like they always do.

The New York Post is full of editorials demanding that we stop Russia and what they are doing in the Ukraine. They wail and cry that this is just the first step in Russia taking back the rest of Eastern Europe and somehow it is our problem, so we have to send troops or impose sanctions or some other shit.

As Tucker Carlson has so ably pointed out we should be worried about our border not Ukraine's as it is really not any of our business. The Ukraine has long been a part of Russia and we really should not dip our beak into that mess. Most of the inhabitants of the two disputed provinces are ethnic Russians and would welcome the control by Moscow. So let them take back their country and lets not be the policeman of the world.

We have enough problems with our own policeman who are enforcing illegal and immoral mask mandates and arresting people who protest. We need to clean up our own house.

America first. Let the European weenies worry about their problems. We aren't responsible for them anymore. They hate us and only want to take our money and let us expend our blood and treasure defending them. It's time to come home. 

America first. 

WKRLEM TV It's not the freaking history channel

For the last few nights we have been enjoying a stupid little show on HULU called "The Great."

It is a comedic retelling of the story of Catherine the Great. It is pretty amusing and a perfect trifle for these quarantine times.

One warning though. Being super woke they have black actors interspersed into the show as if they were not black. You just have to pretend that there would be brothers in Russia in 1762. It does get really jarring when they have a big black buck playing the Ambassador of Sweden. I mean they had lot of black guys back then.

Still and all it is stupid and silly and amusing.

Recommended.

Russia’s UN ambassador: Tensions with US are probably worst since 1973

By the Associated Press in the New York Post October 15, 2016

UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s U.N. ambassador said that tensions with the United States are probably the worst since the 1973 Mideast war.

But Vitaly Churkin said Friday that Cold War relations between the Soviet Union and Russia more than 40 years ago were different than U.S.-Russia relations today.

“The general situation I think is pretty bad at this point, probably the worst … since 1973,” he said.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

Churkin said that “even though we have serious frictions, differences like Syria, we continue to work on other issues … and sometimes quite well.”

That wasn’t the case generally during the Cold War.

When Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar in 1973, the Mideast was thrown into turmoil. And according to historians, the threat of war between the Soviet Union, which backed the Arabs, and the United States, Israel’s closest ally, was the highest since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Churkin said there are “a string of things” that have brought U.S.-Russian relations to their current low point.

“It’s kind of a fundamental lack of respect and lack of in-depth discussions” on political issues, he said.

"US nukes at Turkey base at risk of seizure: report"

Yahoo news:  The issue took on fresh urgency last month following the attempted coup in Turkey, in which the base's Turkish commander was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the plot.

"Whether the US could have maintained control of the weapons in the event of a protracted civil conflict in Turkey is an unanswerable question," said Monday's report from the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank working to promote peace.

Incirlik is a vital base for the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, with the strategically located facility affording drones and warplanes fast access to IS targets.

But the Pentagon in March ordered families of US troops and civilian personnel stationed in southern Turkey to quit the region due to security fears.

"From a security point of view, it's a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America's nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey," report co-author Laicie Heeley said.

"There are significant safeguards in place. ... But safeguards are just that, they don't eliminate risk. In the event of a coup, we can't say for certain that we would have been able to maintain control," she told AFP.

- 'Avoided disaster so far' -

Elsewhere, Russia Building New Underground Nuclear Command Posts | U.S. intelligence detects dozens of hardened bunkers for leaders

ISIS hackers release hit list of 3,600

"Police have been making attempts to contact the individuals to inform them of the threat by Caliphate Cyber Army, which includes names, home and email addresses."

The list reportedly targets government employees within the state department and security, but the details of regular people have also been leaked.

Intelligence experts believe the 3,600 names may have been chosen at random because they are several years old, according to ABC7 News.

Elsewhere, the Russians continue to harass our military planes... "Defense official: Russians buzzed a U.S. plane in Baltic Sea"

The aircraft flew along the U.S. aircraft and then did a 'barrel roll' over the top of the aircraft, closing within 100 feet of the RC-135 plane, the official said, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the incident.

The United States has expressed concerns of these dangerous maneuvers because they can lead to mishaps or lead to heightened escalations between the two forces.

Did World War 3 just start?

Turkey 'downs Russian warplane on Syria border'

Russia's defence ministry said an Su-24 had crashed on Syrian territory after being hit by fire from the ground, and that its pilots had managed to eject.

But Turkish military officials said Turkish F-16s had shot down the plane after repeatedly warning its pilots they were violating Turkish airspace.

"Efforts are being made to ascertain what happened to the pilots. According to preliminary reports, the pilots have managed to self-eject," the [Russian] ministry was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Turkish news website translation... "Reduced airborne images of the Russian pilots were released"

Turkey is a member of NATO.  

Tweet from someone claiming to be an adviser to the Turkey Prime minister...

I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque

While cruise missiles are traditionally used at the beginning of bombing campaigns to hit multiple high-value targets simultaneously while avoiding radar detection and maintaining the element of surprise, Russia’s strikes did none of those things. Instead, [IHS Jane's analyst Jeremy] Binnie believes, everything that was targeted by the Russian cruise missiles could have easily been hit by other Russian assets within Syria (more than 50 aircraft) or possibly by Russian ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

“I think if you look at what cruise missiles are traditionally used for . . . this isn’t one of those scenarios,” Binnie said. “Russia has been striking the [Islamic State] for more than a week, and the U.S. has been for more than a year.”

Binnie went on to say that the cruise missile strikes were probably a show of Russian military force and technology, noting that the ships that fired the missiles — mostly small missile corvettes — were intended to demonstrate that even the small ships in the Russian navy are stronger than they look.

http://missilethreat.com/these-are-the-cruise-missiles-russia-just-sent-into-syria/

Reddit: Video of Russian Naval and Helicopter Attacks on Syria

It suddenly occurs to me how approximately close the Russians are to Syria... compared to the USA.

Link to video

Link to video

Via Reddit

"US nuclear missile commander says Vladimir Putin's actions echo those of Nazi Germany in the 1930s"

Russia 'aggression'

Lieutenant General Stephen Wilson, commander of US Global Air Strike Command, said: “I don’t think we’ve ever seen so much power put in one person in Russia, and some of the things happening there are troubling and concerning for everybody.”...

“Some of the actions by Russia recently we haven’t seen since the 1930s, when whole countries were annexed and borders were changed by decree.”...

Lt Gen Wilson, also used the briefing to accuse Russia of risking lives when its military jets fly unannounced close to Western countries’ airspace, or near to corridors used by international commercial airliners.

“When we fly, we fly to a flight plan – we announce it, we ‘squawk’, our transponders are on, we are talking to air traffic control, we are following all international laws,” he said of USAF and other Nato missions. “That isn’t happening with Russia. You’ve got contested airspace with people flying all the time, you’re unannounced, you’re not on a flight plan, you’re not squawking. We would not do that. It puts people at risk.”

Obama G-7 Germany

"States should never have taken up healthcare law" appears to be the big takeaway from the speech delivered in Germany.

I heard portions of this speech. It ran on several channels at once, an important speech too covering several important issues and delivered without teleprompter. Perhaps you should watch it in full listen carefully and be fully informed then come back and tell me your opinions of what he said and in that manner I can become informed too without listening.

That bit up there came at the end during q&a. In my opinion that was not the most significant part of his answer to that question, even though his answer came to me in pieces. Struggling with my own resistance to imperious stretched/clipped speech pattern I clicked off at "the proof that Obamacare is working is the absence of all those terrible catastrophes that were supposed to happen." While all I've read about is insurance companies projecting significant and stultifying rate increases discouraging healthy signups further. Young healthy people uninvolved in politics would rather pay penalty. (But then I only bother with conservative political sites, the others are insane) And who will healthy people blame for being made to pay penalty for not buying insurance that Obama and party required? I'm only guessing, and my guess is based on knowing they're not as stupid as commonly described. Not recognizing that his home state Hawaii cannot afford its own service and wasted half a billion in federal taxpayer's money trying seemed to me more significant than him saying perhaps the Supreme Court should reject the challenge to his healthcare law, and the japes on Twitter that follow in torrent.

More significant than him stating flatly that he does not have a plan for defeating ISIS. The body language speaks to me louder and much more clearly than his singsong stretched/clipped pattern. That awkward moment of Obama stuck sitting on a bench next to Iraqi Prime Minister says everything. He couldn't boyishly twist his entire body toward and around the female Europeron and away from the Prime Minister who came up to sit right there next to him any more than he does. Then standing up makes sure to complete a closed circle turning from and shutting out the little person dressed in brown. Imagine yourself doing that. And why.

The quarter-turn. It is a technique that was actually taught to me and with derisive mocking laughter and a bit high on cocktails about how to cut off conversation in a crowd by simply turning away from it distracted by more interesting conversation and smiling while you do it. And the guy's left, "I think I'll just get another drink" But he can't because he's Muslim.

Obama Court Should Not Have Accepted the Obamacare Challenge Huffington Post.
Europe Will Continue Sanctions Against Russia CNN.
Obama, Reviewing Strategies for Training Iraqi Troops WSJ.
Obama, No Complete Strategy yet on Training Iraqi Troops, CNN

"Polish border guards refuse entry for 10 Russian bikers"

"These people will not cross into Poland. Each of them will individually receive a decision denying them entry into Poland's territory," Sienicki [border guard spokesman] said.

"This is not a normal bike club. They are tools in the hand of Vladimir Putin to make propaganda," said Tomasz Czuwara, spokesman for the Open Dialog Foundation, a Polish group that supports Ukraine.

Not all Poles are against them, however. The head of a Polish bikers' group, Wiktor Wegrzyn, called the Polish opposition to the bikers "anti-Russia hysteria." He and dozens of other Polish bikers gathered on the Polish side of the border Monday to greet and escort the Night Wolves in case they should make it through.

"How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House"

"Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penetrate sensitive parts of the White House computer system, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation."

To get to the White House, the hackers first broke into the State Department, investigators believe.

The State Department computer system has been bedeviled by signs that despite efforts to lock them out, the Russian hackers have been able to reenter the system. One official says the Russian hackers have "owned" the State Department system for months and it is not clear the hackers have been fully eradicated from the system.

As in many hacks, investigators believe the White House intrusion began with a phishing email that was launched using a State Department email account that the hackers had taken over, according to the U.S. officials.

I wander. Is this story an attempt to rescue Hillary from her e-mail troubles?

Geopolitics

I came across this video, via twitter, and was very impressed by what this guy had to say. Please, let us know what you think.

Link in case video display goes awry

Non-linear war

“The bear is loose!” President Obama has been saying, whenever he leaves the White House to visit Starbucks, or sandwich shops, or burger joints, or BBQ shacks, or neighborhood diners, in his increasingly rote and pathetic attempts to “connect” with “real people.” Obama, we have been told, is frustrated, “restless,” bored with the responsibilities and chores of office. He thinks of himself as the bear—intimidating, wild, untamed, roving—escaping his den. But he is flattering himself. 

Obama is not the bear. He is the cub: aimless, naïve, self-interested, self-indulgent, irresponsible, irresolute. The bear is in Moscow.

...I feel as though [the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton] are lost in the postmodern funhouse of the Kremlin’s “non-linear war,” as though they, too, are casualties of Russian Maskirovka, of deception, concealment, propaganda, and disinformation.

“Non-linear war is the means through which a geopolitical raider can leverage his relative weakness,” writes Peter Pomerantsev. “And this vision appeals to a very broad constituency across the world, to those full of resentment for the West and infused by the sense that the ‘global village’ model is a priori rigged.” Russian manipulation of narrative and image, of 
wishful thinking and gullibility, has been such a success that the Obama administration actually believes it has accomplished something. It hasn’t. On the contrary: President Obama has relinquished American standing, neglected America’s responsibilities as the guarantor of international security.

...Well, there is no getting around it now. “Obama contends with arc of instability unseen since ’70s,” says the Wall Street Journal. Militias and rogue generals in Libya, Hamas versus Israel, Hezbollah and Assad and Iran against Sunni rebels and the Caliphate, the prospect of an Iranian bomb, war in Ukraine, withdrawal from Afghanistan, China bullying its neighbors—such is the extent of global disorder today."

"Satellites Show Russian Forces Poised Near Ukraine"

"NATO released satellite photographs on Thursday showing Russian military equipment, including fighter jets and tanks, that it described as part of a deployment of as many as 40,000 troops near the border with Ukraine. The release came the same day that President Vladimir V. Putin reiterated a threat to curtail gas sales to Ukraine."

"The photographs, taken by a commercial satellite imaging company called DigitalGlobe, offered some of the first documentary evidence of a military buildup that the West says Russia could use to invade Ukraine at any moment. They were released at a news conference in Belgium by Brig. Gary Deakin, the director of NATO’s Comprehensive Crisis and Operations Management Center." (read more)

NYT

The Diplomat: "Interpreting Putin's Decision"

"So why has Putin risked Russia’s economic welfare and political space to swallow Crimea, push Ukraine out, and alienate the entire Western world? Is Putin “in another world” as German Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed he is? In my opinion, there are at least two considerations behind Putin’s decision."

The first is the realist, geo-political consideration. In Putin’s world, since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Russia has lost nearly one fourth of its geography, one half of its population, and more than half of its GDP. Among the “lost” territories are those that are strategically important or militarily advanced, such as Ukraine and the Baltic states. With the eastward expansion of NATO, and the integration of former Soviet satellite states and republics in Eastern Europe and the Baltics into Europe, the traditional buffer zone between Russia and the West is increasingly squeezed and Russia’s space for strategic maneuvering becomes smaller with each year... (read more)

The second consideration is more psychological in nature. Following the end of Cold War, embracing the West was the first priority of Russian foreign policy. But to Moscow’s dismay, it found that the West still harbored strong reservations and considerable distrust. Years spent courting and wooing provided little of what Russia craved most: equal membership in the West and economic prosperity. Though Russia became part of the exclusive G8, it never enjoyed the full status and say of the other seven members, always remaining an “other.” Economically, the shock remedy proposed by the West and faithfully implemented by Boris Yeltsin didn’t bring the expected economic benefit. Instead, it took Russia’s economy into freefall, leaving the average Russian worse off than before.

It was Putin who saved Russia from its miserable condition. He readjusted both Russia’s domestic and foreign policies, and distanced the country from the West, instead seeking opportunities to resurrect past Soviet glories. As the Russian economy improved, the West found that its time was passing. The 2008 economic crisis hit the U.S. and Europe hard and they found themselves more reliant on the emerging powers, Russia included. It is Britain, France, and even Germany who are now busy appealing to Russian oil bacons to buy more and invest more. The balance of power between Russia and the West has shifted... (read more)

Russians, and especially Putin learned a hard lesson from the post-Cold War romance with the West: For all the talk of democracy and freedom, the fact remains that the strong dictate to the weak.

With Europe rotten and United States weakened, a resurgent and confident Russia will definitely not let a geo-strategically important former Soviet republic fall entirely into the West’s camp. By annexing Crimea, Putin not only secured Russia’s naval base and its strategic gateway to the Black Sea, he also sent a powerful message to Ukraine and the West: Ignore Russia’s legitimate strategic concerns at your own peril.

The Diplomat via ZeroHedge

"Merkel Declares G-8 Defunct Given Crisis in Ukraine"

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the Group of Eight leading nations defunct given the current crisis in Ukraine, in a clear message to Russia that the world's seven other major industrialized countries consider its actions in Ukraine unacceptable."

"As long as there is no political environment for such an important political format as the G-8, the G-8 doesn't exist anymore, not the summit nor the format," said Ms. Merkel, in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.

"Russia is widely isolated in all international organizations," the chancellor said. read more

 Wall Street Journal

Russia left behind

NYT doing what it does best, a journalistic survey of the 12 hour drive between St. Petersburg to Moscow. Very nice web design. Great use of Java. And very good reporting and photojournalism too. We see deterioration, a modern train, a rotting city. Video of a 14 year old getting married. Seventy mile traffic jam, a beautiful church surrounded by poverty and very nice vacation home for Putin.

Does that look Soviet or what? 

AP: "Russian Embassy in Libya evacuated after attack"

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Thursday evacuated all of its diplomats and their families from Libya, the day after a mob attack on the Russian Embassy, and issued a warning to its citizens against visiting the country.

An armed mob broke into the embassy compound in the Libyan capital Tripoli, climbing over walls, breaking down a metal gate and shooting in the air. One of the attackers was killed by the gunfire, and four more were wounded, Libyan officials said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in Thursday's statement that Moscow decided to evacuate the embassy after Libya's Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz visited its grounds and told the Russian ambassador that Libya was unable to protect the personnel.

AP

"The U.S. Has More Guns, But Russia Has More Murders"

"According to Gunpolicy.org, Russians have far fewer guns than Americans — and far more homicides."

There are fewer than 13 million firearms in circulation in Russia, compared with an estimated 300 million in the United States. That works out to about 9 guns per 100 people in Russia and closed to 100 guns per 100 people in America."

The most recent homicide statistics for Russia show that there were 21,603 killings in 2009
According to the FBI, the United States had 13,636 homicides in 2009 with a population that is more than twice as large. More than 80 percent of those killings were gun-related."

It's difficult to make a direct comparison of gun homicides in the two countries because Russia doesn't break down its murder statistics."

The Right to Bear Arms, a Moscow-based organization that has more than 5,000 members, is trying to make guns more easily available in Russia."

"Our citizens are deprived of normal tools of self-defense, and that plays an important role in public safety," Maria Butina, the group's 24-year-old founder, told The Moscow News."

But she has a long way to go in convincing the public. A poll by the Levada Center in 2011 showed that 80 percent of Russians are opposed to easing existing gun laws."

Via Instapundit, NPR