Washington has “suspended” bilateral contacts with Moscow over the Syrian crisis, the US State Department said. Russian Foreign Ministry said it was "disappointed" by the decision and accused the US of seeking to shift blame for its own failure in Syria.
US officials had threatened for a week to withdraw from the Syrian peace process, after the latest ceasefire negotiated by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry collapsed amid bloody fighting.
While contacts between US and Russian military to “deconflict” encounters between their aircraft in Syrian skies will continue, the US is withdrawing personnel that was dispatched for the purpose of setting up the Joint Implementation Center (JIC) for the ceasefire, agencies reported citing the State Department.
There is "nothing more for the US and Russia to talk about" in Syria, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday.
Russia has made efforts to preserve the September 9 ceasefire agreement, while repeatedly urging Washington to live up to its obligations, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Monday.
“It turns out that Washington has failed to fulfill the key condition of the agreement to ease humanitarian situation for the residents of Aleppo” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “And now, apparently, having failed to honor these agreements that they themselves worked out, [the US] is trying to shift the blame.” (RT.com)
*************************************
On top of this, Gospodin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the program for disposing of plutonium from excess nuclear weapons.
Well, if there’s nothing left to talk about, what’s next? I can hear the voice of my old friend, Master Sergeant Albert H. Rivers, “The shit’s on, good buddy.”
TTG
I guess we will soon find out if affirmative action was responsible for creating the worst or the last president of the US. Let’s pray that Obama doesn’t end the republic or life on earth as we need know it in the short time that he has left.
@LemonDrop – I have believed from almost the beginning of his pres. that Barack Obama would end his term as the most hated man in American life (just a feeling… that grifter vibe I guess). Still wondering if he is going to pull that off.
@Turcopolier or anyone else… How was the plutonium in question being “disposed of” anyway? This is extremely valuable material. Dangerous as hell, but pound for pound probably the most valuable metal on the face of the earth. Just the way that got dropped into the mix from left field makes me curious. BTW, blog is great lately. I appreciate the amount of work which must go into it, and I am sure it must be frustrating at times. Just want you to know it is one of my most highly regarded – Thank You.
Obama is not in charge of jack diddly. Never was, even less so now.
Col. In my opinion the attack on Syrian troops was the end of it. The Borg got the message when Vlad smoked that spooky little hidey hole. My guess it was of a higher order more important tactically(if not strategically) than the Attack In Force we flew air cover for. As the young-uns would say “shit just got real”.
They were supposed to burn it up in a nuclear reactor. Actually reactor #3 at Fukushima was chock full of plutonium from scrapped warheads. Probably ex-Russian as they were the only ones fulfilling their obligations. We, as usual did not.
The plutonium in reactor #3 made it 100s of times more dangerous in any catastrophe. Which of course happened and has been ongoing for 5 years now. Pound for pound the most deadly substance on earth. And burning it in a reactor doesn’t end it. It just changes form so to be as unusable as weapons material.
Keep reinforcing failure. See https://twitter.com/ToulaVlahou/status/783014447946338305
Yes, they are going to try “sanctions” next?
Not completely on topic, but funny as hell
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20161002/1045919157/iraqis-compensation-911-iraq-invasion.html
Maybe Syria and Russia have lawyers too
The treaty/agreement was to make the Plutonium useless for weapons by making it radioactive.
The Russians fulfilled their part.
The U.S. skipped out, without agreement, by deciding to just mix the Plutonium with dirt and put it underground (recoverable).
U.S. experts support the Russian view on this
http://thebulletin.org/can-us-russia-plutonium-disposition-agreement-be-saved9389
The move is fully justified but has a much larger context as Lavrov explained: pic.twitter.com/YfD6hDEtM0
This latest development is nothing to laugh about but sometimes a bit of relevant humor helps keep things in perspective. Your observations, Former 11B, regarding the toxicity of plutonium reminded me of a comment about that issue that I heard many years ago. In 1980 I attended an engineering conference pertaining to the electric utilites, and the keynote speaker was a woman who was some sort of poobah in the nuclear power industry, which was busily still trying to buff the turd they’d dumped the year before at Three Mile Island generating station in Pennsylvania. After the introductory pleasantries the woman continued, “They say that an ounce of plutonium can start a cancer in over 100 million people. That’s probably true. It’s probably also true that a single ejaculation from one healthy young man contains enough live sperm to impregnate every woman in the country of child-bearing age. In both cases, however, the challenge is one of distribution.”
This is exactly what Obama was afraid would happen when he vetoed the bill.
Or perhaps compel the Russians to enforce a no-fly zone, on themselves..
Russia wants the US to remove its troops and weapons from the Balkans and the Baltics. Plus, here is a very recent video from Romania: https://www.facebook.com/Romaniaro1/videos/1672308909751225/?pnref=story. Yep, lots of Abramses and Bradleys on that train…
Peter L: Our policy seems to be, “Russia accept failure. Otherwise, we will get really mad.”
Being cynic about human nature, I think the Russians’ Syria policy is going from Assad “Primus Inter Pares” to “In It to Win It.” A Russia retreat is not an option.
A Russian retreat in Syria will embolden The Blob to demand that Russia de-annex Crimea, institute more economic “reforms” (i.e., give the country to Western banks), and surrender effective control of its energy industry to the EU through an Energy Charter.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/defense/298597-could-saudi-override-lead-to-vietnam-vets-being-sued
>>Many of us old veterans are going to spend our dying days defending lawsuits unless members of Congress reverse their actions. And the only legal way of doing that would be to introduce a new bill in both houses and pass it by voice vote — so no one has to face the apathetic public with what looks like a vote for Saudi Arabia — and have the president sign it. A voice vote in both houses could be engineered at this stage with very strong public pressure from the veterans groups.<<
Our ever-dauntless PolySci grads are certain–absolutely certain–that we just need to fire off a few missiles and the Old Bolshies will come to heel. See https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/782999208567726082
The clip is not filmed in Romania. The first few clip comments are saying that much.
To celebrate… how about some Putin vs Obama cartoons (mostly)
“The way we were” http://bit.ly/2cO0TuK
A classic http://bit.ly/2dnPnpa
Ha, love the waiter! http://bit.ly/2dW2jDA
I agree 🙂 http://bit.ly/2dFkA51
There goes that $18 bn Deutsche Bank fine. With Angela Merkel in such a vulnerable position politically I can’t see her agreeing to more sanctions while that fine is so large.
This seems to be the most innocuous way that the Kremlin could signal just how seriously they view matters. Make the connection to the nuclear domain but in manner that has no practical military meaning.
As I recall, the original strategy for dealing with the plutonium that is naturally produced by any light water reactor is to embed it in mixed oxide fuel (MOX) in a form that indeed can be used as fuel in those civilian reactors. That’s what they call reprocessing of nuclear waste and the recycling of plutonium. That became problematic in 1974 when the Indians demonstrated that reprocessing, which strips out Plutonium 239, is a far easier and cheaper way to get fissile material than the enrichment processes that produce HEU – as we, the Soviets, the British, the French and the Chinese did.
The alternative is to leave the the Plutonium of all isotopes (238, 239, 240) mixed with other radioactive ingredients of nuclear waste and then to vitrify it and then bury the stuff. That is very secure and environmentally sound since the glass-like material will not degrade for a few thousand years. Seize it? If you have that super sophisticated technology, and vast amounts of money, and ability to occupy the United States or Soviet Union – there are a lot easier ways to acquire fissile material.
I don’t know where the notion that the MOX (mixed oxide Pu and U), which is how weapons grade Pu is turned into more marginally useful weapons material, is somehow super dangerous in a reactor meltdown came about. It is not. The dangerous stuff in a meltdown/reactor breech is from the escaping fission products. These have high levels of radioactivity due to their short half life and composition which includes lots of gamma emitters. Pu is radioactive, sure, but not nearly as much as, say, Po210. Po210 is, “pound for pound” nearly 100,000 times more dangerous. For many years back when I was shooting 35mm film, I used an anti-static brush who’s active element was Po210. I purchased them every few years from a department store that had some photo supplies. Used to cost about $20.
Most of the radiation from the Japan reactor meltdowns were from Cs, I, and other lighter elements produced from fission when the reactor was operational. Pu and U components ceased fission once the reactor failed and represent negligible hazards in comparison to the radioactive fission products.
Firing off a few missiles isn’t an American Monopoly anymore
This Houthi attack might well be a big game changer.
https://youtu.be/YFEt_KWWJcw
All of this stuff is tied together.
The woman in the video ain’t speaking English, as far as I can tell. OTOH, we do know that the US is in fact setting up logistics and operations centers in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and the Baltics. We also know that it has moved troops and armor there as well. It is stupid and dangerous, whether that video was filmed in Romania, or Estonia (for example).
That woman does not speak Romanian either. Not moving troops and armor might be taken as an invitation to create a low cost ‘fait accompli’ in a semi defenseless East Europe
I guess the Borgist collective is simply assuming the coronation of Clinton, and broad continuation of the current policy of destabilization and de-industrialization of Syria, with such an escalation coming at the conclusion of a 2-term presidency…
And they might get it if Trump does squat diddly to prepare and rehearse after his embarrassing performance last time.
And what, pray tell, would Russia gain from taking over a bunch of economic and demographic disaster areas? What Americans don’t seem to understand is that, when it comes to Eastern Europe, the Eastern European tail has been wagging the American dog for some time now. Paleo-russophobic idiocy is in charge, and that’s both stupid and dangerous.
what is our positive reinforcement cycle?
the cop on the street now knows that video cameras are everywhere and that errors in judgement will be publicized to the point of riots.
Troops in the field receive endless instruction and orders not to cause collateral damage.
And then we have Samantha Powers. What exactly is going to be her punishment for making totally crap decisions that may destroy half the planet?
The higher up the food chain the greater the hubris is with none of the penalties?
Establish a NFZ in Syria and the Russians will back down. And who suffers if that judgement is wrong? Is Kerry going slice his guts open in contrition?
Yes, Eastern Europe came with its own baggage. It was not a forced entry in NATO. How would you kick them out? At least after they are kicked out we will find out what Russia thinks about taking EE over.
Look, I will speak slow like you are a five year old. It is about removing US troops and equipment from Eastern Europe, not about removing Eastern Europe from NATO. Are you really that slow on the uptake, or do you simply pretend to be? As an Eastern European myself, I don’t want US troops and equipment stationed there on two counts: first, it is stupid to antagonize Russia by pretending that this is anything other an offensive move by the US, and it is extremely dangerous to boot; and second, it only proves that Eastern Europe gained not freedom but a new colonial master.
Finally, if there is so little faith in Article 5, then NATO might as well cease to exist. Not that it amounts to much anyway, NATO is the US by any other name, and without an enemy it has no raison d’etre. Hence the mad rush to manufacture an enemy. There is too much money on the table, don’t you know…
The Russians have shipped in new air defence weapons, more attack air craft have arrived with more possibly on the way. The Russian carrier is on it’s way and should be arriving soonish.
Yup, it’s on.
It looks like further developments in Syria and elsewhere might depend on circumstances of which we, simple mortals, can have only a very limited knowledge of.
For example, who is at the Borg’s core and can these people be linked to all the nusty things that have been done in the past 20 years or so? (This includes financial fraud leading to the crisis of 2008.)
Imagine that in not so distant future we might be remembering John McCain not as a crazed warmonger but rather as a silly old man who trusted his “handlers” too much.
I believe that predictability is largely lost not just for us, mortals, but also for the top borgists too. This is why we see all these “reckless” statements from some politicians, law makers and military commanders – no one wants to be thrown under the proverbal bus at the time when the proverbal something “hits the fan” – imagine members of some congressional commmittee charged with high treason for the report they have issued some 15 years ago.
What is clear, though, is that some “imperial” retreat is in order. Under Trump, given the circumstances, this can be quite modest – the US may preserve most of it’s influence and international standing. Under Clinton retrenchment canbe absolute as the US morphs further into very much isolated police state – so much for the “globalist’s” agenda.
Looks more and more like a game of chicken.
Some remarks from a French understanding on the NATO kabuki theatre and hopefully some ligth on the Russian perspective.
A preliminary remak: the ex-Eastern Europe countries now more or less integrated in NATO is composed of ex-allies and participants on the invasion of URSS: Bulgaria, Rumania, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Baltics states, Finland, (plus traditional arch-hostile Poland).
With the Ukraine loss of its last buffer zone, Russia has defined a new military strategy including the use of tactical nuclear, in case of a succesful invasion of its territory.
Second ramark: Nato has no capacity for a conventional war aagainst Russia and what’s more IMO neither France, Germany, Italy, Holland or any Scandnavian state would go to war Nato’s article 5 or not. Note that article 5 is compeling to align with and support agressed country but doesnot define what kind of support. If one remember the ‘drole de guerre’ supposed to protect Poland, one can figure out a super media war of words and no meaningful action.
Considering any Western Europe states trying to draft millenials to form a new Grande Armée is just ridiculous. Even more when all nationalist party in Europe are songly for soveriegn decisions and against Bruxelles rules.
Europe will either grow a spin or desintegrate.
So, in conclusion any military agression against Russia Has to be ballistic, and obviously to avoid confusion and unintended consequences: nuclear.
The choice is not to Russia to make but to USA and thus the Ploutocrats and Borgists. Ploutocrats IMHO will prevail, too much assets destruction and potential revolt of The Deplorables could just simply impose at last sanity.
But that’s is betting on reasonable choice, so it’s a risky optimistic forecast.
Is this a civil defense drill or a demonstration of the seriousness of the situation the “Exceptional People” in Washington D.C. have created? Will the shining city on a hill turn out to be a glowing hole in the ground?
From the Fort Russ web site:
On October 2nd, Oleg Manuilo, the spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry for Emergencies (MCHS) announced that a large scale “civil defense” drill will take part in the next few days.
Over 40 million personnel from Russia’s regional and municipal authorities, as well as emergency and evacuation services will be involved.
Suspension of the agreement is also said to “harm US economic interests”.
http://tass.com/politics/903896?_ga=1.35597537.1126956767.1456094578
Can someone here spell out the link between suspension of the agreement and US economic interests?
As an Eastern European I can tell you that the entry to NATO was part of the required security guarantees by us, in exchange to opening our markets (selling land for glass beads like other natives).
But this is not a one way street.
And hell it was not a polish tail waggin’. It was some crazy lunatic PolSci and Borg members who found faithful followers in russophiles in EE by it imagined or real.
Like I said many times we hungarians fought the russians/soviets five times in the last 150 years, so I have no love towards them, and I definitely do NOT want to jump on the human rights and social justice warrior bandwagon, but do you know that some 2-3 million russians live in Baltic states deprived of almost ALL of their basic rights? (citizenship etc.)
On the other hand you may find yourselves kicking something harder than your foot figuratively speaking.
It seems that the fateful decisions will be made by influential Israel-firsters and will depend on sensitivity of precious Israelis towards a major (nuclear?) conflict with Russian Federation. Mind that the conflict would not be far from Israel’ borders. For now, let them eat the same cake they had served Russians with the coup d’etat in Kiev. – A dangerous uncertainty.
You imply that Russian Federation wants to invade Eastern Europe. Could you give a rationale for this Russian “fait accompli?”
There are countries that do need either land or land & natural resources. You may want to check the geography of Russian Federation to learn that this country needs neither.
There is also a perpetual itch for having more military conflicts in order to get more contracts for weapon manufacturing and security services. But this itch has been characteristic for a different country than Russian Federation. Again, you may want to check wikipedia by using the keywords “regime changes” and “armed conflicts after WWII” to learn about various “fait accompli” (including the recent coup d’etat in one of the states in Eastern Europe) accomplished by ziocons.
Let’s see if the avalanche of lawsuits re war crimes could cure the itch.
“…or example, who is at the Borg’s core and can these people be linked to all the nusty things that have been done in the past 20 years or so?..”
What if the important military decisions by the Borg, for the past 20 years, have been made by people that cared a lot for a different country than the US? As for the financial sector and mega-corporations, their personhood does not factor in patriotism for the US.
The Russians want to drive home the fact that they view US actions as an existential threat, and that they are prepared to use all means at their disposal in order to defend themselves. It retains to be seen whether the nekulturny barbarians in DC will take this not so subtle hint and ratchet down the rhetoric.
I agree with most of what you say, yes it was mostly the borg responsible for the Ukraine nonsense. And the borg should be responsible for the unintended consequenses. If the Borg wants to do something about them they can wash there hands of EE or try to show some intention of defending EE or skip this going directly to their nuclear shenanigans or etc, etc. – as usual – trying all alternatives to create more chaos.
The troops and armor moved around do not qualify as a decent deterrent, let alone having some “offensive” capability. They may at best serve notice that hitting US troops in EE frees the hands of the Borg to do whatever it chooses.
There are many more factors to consider besides the land & natural resources. Just one fact: after WW2 a quarter of what is now Moldovan Republic was sent to Siberia. Nice and inexpensive slave labor.
BNW,
But do we know where the Russian SSBN’s are? Probably not.
‘Just one fact: after WW2 a quarter of what is now Moldovan Republic was sent to Siberia. Nice and inexpensive slave labor.’
Are you suggesting that Putin may launch invasions into Eastern Europe to secure ‘nice and inexpensive slave labor’?
If you are not, precisely what are you suggesting?
Seems quite unhinged, doesn’t it. Besides, Western Europe beat Putin to the EE labor jackpot 🙂 Russia has large enough and very willing cheap labor pool from the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. But why let facts get in the way of a good Russophobia-driven rant.
All:
In regards to Borism, Borgistas, etc.; you might enjoy the satirical book on USA
“hoax” – by Nicholas von Hoffman – in which the author conceptualizes Americans as living under their own astrodome, in isolation from reality…
gnv377,
So history in Moldova only started in 1945?
“JASTA Opens Many Doors,” by PHILIP GIRALDI: http://www.unz.com/article/jasta-opens-many-doors/
It does.
And it puzzles me.
My wife and I have lived all our lives with refugees to Britain from the disasters of continental European history and their children and grandchildren.
An odd thing is that many of those who one might have thought had best reason to feel ‘traumatised’ were not so at all.
The scars left by their experiences were obvious. But it would never have occurred to me to think that their capacity to judge events was somehow infringed.
An old friend in my wife’s family, from whom I learned an enormous amount about Eastern Europe over the years, was a Pole, from near Lviv. His father, who was a policeman, was murdered – probably by a Ukrainian nationalist.
When the Soviets moved in after the Hitler-Stalin Pact, he was deported to Kazahstan.
He got out with General Anders’ army, and fought from Normandy to Berlin.
His account of how he got out from Kazakhstan was hilarious, in a grim kind of way.
At the time, he was very seriously ill – unsurprisingly. And only the fit were let out. The unfit were, quite patently, liable to die.
But one of his fellows, who were trying to drag him through, had presence of mind.
When the Russian sentry stopped them, his comrade said: ‘pissed out of his mind’, or words to that effect.
And the sentry gave a look of blissful understanding, and waved them through.
Completely absent in our old Polish friend was that self-indulgent luxuriating in trauma, which now seems endemic.
OIFVet: Unlikely. This is the current tone our “thinkers.” See http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-officials-thousands-ground-troops-massing-around-aleppo-n657686
Magnier reports that Damascus was told by the Russians that they will send a brigade of Special Forces.
Tartus has new S-300VM which are especially good against cruise missiles. That’s against the “no-fly zone” nonsense and bombing Syrian airports. I am sure other goodies are available.
If Washington wants to play hardball it will lose.
David Habakkuk,
You are absolutely right. At some point we must realize that history is just that… history. I grew up hating the Soviet Union for personal family reasons. Lithuania lost close to 40% of its population due to deaths and deportation at the hands of Stalin’s NKVD divisions. My family faired worse due to their active participation in the resistance. Yet today I hold no animosity towards the Russians or their government. Nor do I hold the Germans responsible for the predations of the Nazis, or for that matter, the Teutonic Knights. My father and grandfather took part in brawls with Poles in Waterbury, Connecticut still angry over Pilsudski’s invasion of the newly independent Lithuania. I like the Poles.
I understand lingering hard feelings over these old animosities, but at some point we have to face reality and practicality. The current hysteria in Eastern and Central Europe over the the new Russian bogeyman is self defeating. Lithuania withstood Stalin’s violent efforts to eradicate a culture. Surely she can stand up to the current brand of Russian nationalism, even among those ethnic Russians living in Lithuania. The US imposed sanctions regime is killing the Lithuanian economy which wasn’t all that robust to begin with. I’m sure the Borg are largely responsible for feeding this old infection into the current outbreak of hatred and disease. A pox on them. They’re no better than Stalin and his NKVD divisions.
I am not puzzled at all. A lot of NGO and western governments grants are given to Eastern European “right-thinking” people to maintain a victim narrative that hangs all blame on Russia. Otherwise people might start asking questions. Like why, 27 years later, their lives are still crappy, and it won’t do to have them conclude that they have been had, would it? Keep the populations victimized and assign a scapegoat, that’s how one can maintain the compliance of the population. Not saying that communism didn’t leave scars, it did. But it is queer that it is the old nomenclatura and its children that became the new capitalists and democrats overnight, who became rich and retained political power while the common people were starved and driven West to pick strawberries in the UK. It is also these nomenclatura princelings who are well-compensated with plump grants from Soros and NED to tell their populations that it is still Russia’s fault, and not the native elites who simply replaced their old master and ideology with a new master and his ideology. To me, it is to the West’s discredit and everlasting shame that it contented itself to simply buy the loyalty of the old authoritarian elites and keep them in power to administer the new territories. Cheaper than a new Marshall Plan that way, and besides there was no longer communism to threaten Western Europe with. Great power calculations are ruthless that way.
The No-Fly Zone is proposed by Hillary. With Obama as a lame duck, will he put things on hold for two months and let her deal with it, or will the neo-cons start the ball rolling sooner? The latter has a more deliberate feel to it; the former requires an immediate panic. Implications?
Exactly. The Borg spends a goodly sum on local elites and “free” media to drive the anti-Russia hysteria. The America For Bulgaria Foundation, for example, spent $4 million to prop up a failing media conglomerate called Economedia. That’s a lot of money in Bulgaria. Unsurprisingly, Economedia outlets are the most reliably hard-core anti-Russia hate mongers. It has gotten so silly that the “president” thanked Finland for freeing Bulgaria from 500 years of Ottoman rule, but said not a word about Russia and the Russian dead in that campaign. And that at a mountaintop monument erected to remember 7,000 Bulgarian volunteers and Russian infantry who held Shipka Pass against 40,000 Ottomans for nearly a week before reinforcements arrived. It’s nuts, these “fine” folks think that history is not enough to their liking and have to rewrite it. In the end, I fear that this it will blow in all our faces.
TGG: There is also good old-fashioned statecraft. No country wants to have a powerful neighbor or a Army from another continent patrolling its borders. Yes, I know. Deep insight.
The DC Noise Machine seems to require that we identify the Russian Bear as a totally different breed than all others. Did the entire Russian character change once the oafish Yeltsin shuffled off his moral coil?
And let’s never underestimate paranoia. It’s not like Russia has ever been invaded by a Western army before….
Most of what is now the Moldovan Republic – almost half of the historic Moldova established as a principality in the 13th century – was taken by Russia in 1812. Russia wanted all of Moldova and Wallachia but Napoleon started his invasion and Russia rushed to sign a peace treaty with the Ottomans. So what part of the history of Moldova are you interested in?
Putin is not stupid, he is not going to start an invasion in EE. He will wait for the Borg to do something stupid and take advantage of it, something like getting Crimea for next to nothing – nice fait accompli. Estonia with its large Russian minority comes to mind. It is debatable to what extent sanctions and ignoring some international understandings matter a lot for Russia. The comment about slave labor is meant to point to a clear weakness, recognized as such during the Soviet Union era when its population was roughly twice of today Russia. It is also meant to point to the “vae victis” russian tradition. I have a hard time remembering when Russia was last generous with defeated adversaries. Any help here?
“…was taken by Russia in 1812…”
There are some differences between the imperial Russian state of the beginning of the 19th century, the Soviet state founded by Bolsheviks (mostly Jewish), and the Russian Federation.
Could you also tell us a fact or two about the geography of Ukraine? And who had owned the territory of today’s Estonia in the 13th century? In the 16th century?
“The Russian era from the 1720s to the First World War was the golden age of the German elites” on the territory of modern Estonia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Estonia And then the newly proclaimed Estonia (1917) suffered from the bolshevism the same way that other territories/people of the former Russian empire did.
Overall, your posts remind of the MSM hysterics about Russia’s “aggressive” presence on the NATO borders: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-14/nato-begins-encirclement-russia
TTG & Others:
You might enjoy reading the science fiction novel “Lagrange Five” (1979, Bantam) by Mack Reynolds.
Gulfie Arab Oil interest, I hasten to add, are the major villains; with the US Mob being their partners.
Ty Drago’s “Phobos” (2003, Tor) might also be of interest to you guys in the light of your interest and enthusiasm for space colonization.
Neither author understands biology, however.
“With Angela Merkel in such a vulnerable position politically I can’t see her agreeing to more sanctions while that fine is so large.”
1) Supporting the Deutsche Bank would be politically damaging for Merkel, much more than doing nothing or, as done, even announcing that there will not be federal support. The German public and many other banks do not think that DB is essential and deserves support.
2) The DB is small and only 50% of the 20 billion EUR worth of stock are in Germany. This aspect is non-issue in Germany.
3) If DB goes under the damage due to their in is as I understood not the highest in Europe. Therefore, the poker strategy in respect to the US side can obviously be doing nothing – as long as major DB customers leave their money with the DB.
4) Merkel would be stupid to connect the US fine with sanctions against Russia. This would give the US government a tool to influence German politics in future. Wehret den Anfängen!
Michael, are we talking about weaponized material or nuclear waste more generally. I am a complete nitwit.
Over here people that live close to those “burial grounds” are hesitant about the security. Just as around some nuclear reactors. Increased cancer in children seemed to be occasionally an issue. The protests accompanying bringing in the latest material were, I guess still may be, always highly expensive needing massive police forces.
But then, we may not be up to date concerning the best places for storing nuclear waste. Would a pressurized heavy-water reactor be more secure waste-wise? Slightly ironic. Recently saw a feature about that.
Thanks for your feedback. 😉
All –
What can we (DC) be thinking???
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/10/04/obama-administration-considering-strikes-on-assad-again/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
The key bits… which sound pretty lame.
——-
The options under consideration, which remain classified, include bombing Syrian air force runways using cruise missiles and other long-range weapons fired from coalition planes and ships, an administration official who is part of the discussions told me. One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment, the official said.
The CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, represented in the Deputies Committee meeting by Vice Chairman Gen. Paul Selva, expressed support for such “kinetic” options, the official said. That marked an increase of support for striking Assad compared with the last time such options were considered.
“There’s an increased mood in support of kinetic actions against the regime,” one senior administration official said. “The CIA and the Joint Staff have said that the fall of Aleppo would undermine America’s counterterrorism goals in Syria.”
There’s still great skepticism, however, that the White House will approve military action. Other administration officials told The Post this week that Obama is no more willing to commit U.S. military force inside Syria than he was previously and that each of the military options being discussed have negative risks or consequences.
———
“One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment”
Do they think no one will be watching or recording these actions? That no one will “tell” on them if they misbehave and they’ll be able to “get away with it.” This is a strategy?
“(selling land for glass beads like other natives)” – that is how it looked to me too from afar. Thank you for confirming it.
Perhaps they don’t care if anyone is “watching or recording these actions”. Or, tells on them.
The Borg believes it can get away with anything, because ‘the peasants’ don’t matter. And, yes, they think this is “strategy”.
Unfortunately, we , the ‘peasants’ of the world, pay the price. As we have been doing.
Fascinating article Washington Post article Joe …
1. So our top military staff casually refers to war crimes in Aleppo without any investigation whatsoever; that’s unprofessional. A war crime requires both a proven incident and intent, or at least a high probability of both to discuss it so casually, not just hearsay.
2. Both the CIA and Joint Chiefs say that the fall of Aleppo jeopardizes America’s counter-terrorism goals. This is FUBAR. So our counter-terrorism goals require the preservation of Al Qaeda militants and their allies?
3. “[proposal] bombing Syrian air force runways using cruise missiles and other long-range weapons fired from coalition planes and ships,… carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment”
So there will be no escalation ladder with the Russians. We will plunge directly into war. Perhaps they mean that they will fire all weapons outside of Syrian airspace to avoid creating the uncomfortable situation where the Russians have to choose whether or not to target piloted, U.S. aircraft, or am I giving them too much credit?
Joe100, Valissa, F.B. Ali,
Having spent a good deal of time looking at comments on MSM articles in the UK, I was interested to see what the readers’ response to this extraordinary report was.
It puzzles me that, with 774 comments, currently, the ‘Most Liked’ comment only had 12 ‘likes’.
However, for what it is worth, it reads:
‘One Syria was a decent secular country where Christians could worship without having their heads removed, women could wear bikinis on the beach, they had decent education and healthcare.
‘Then Qatar and Saudi wanted to build a pipeline through it and Assad said no’
What I think one can say is that the general tone of the ‘Most Liked’ comments does not indicate a great deal of enthusiasm for the proposals being canvassed.
gnv377,
None of it. See all the other responses to your rant above.
Some good responses, some ad hominem responses too. Good to figure out whom to bother answering in the future 🙂
More and more people in the V4 countries realize this very simple fact.
Even though there are still idealists, and mostly Soros paid agents who claim we should be grateful for this “”””altruistic””” and “””selfless””” act. We pay more to the EU (or better said to international companies under their dsiguise) than we paid to the soviets. In money, in liberty, in EVERYTHING.
And we should be grateful???
Today when words slowly lose their meaning hysteria is willingly mixed with anxiety or carefulness.
Today we Eastern Europeans face a tough choice, between a bear and vampire. The bear may it you alive, but also may let you go after some bites, if you fake that you are dead (ie harmless). The vampire on the other hand will suck your blood out completely for sure. Some joy will definitely accompany this process, but sooner or later (most likely sooner) you will be a lifeless corpse, and you will be lucky if you were not turned into a zombie, or other soulless servant.
Pick your choice.
Ah there is a third option. We put aside our centuries long grudges against each other, unite our forces (literally and figuratively) and to something against it. In my opinion the V4 picked the third option, but we will see.
the Soviet state founded by Bolsheviks (mostly Jewish), and the Russian Federation.
http://tinyurl.com/The-Jewish-Bolshevik-Peril?
Lots of Jews seem to have been Menshevik not Bolsheviks. The latter won.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensheviks
Or Bundists for that matter. The Bundists strongly opposed Zionism, they too lost:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Jewish_Labour_Bund_in_Lithuania,_Poland_and_Russia#Political_outlook
I think V4 has good potential to rectify a lot of what is wrong in EU. I believe EE is now the most dynamic part of EU and is well vaccinated against the PC propaganda. As you say we shall see.