Putin now world's most powerful leader...


moralist

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William mentioned that Putin will "regret" this move because his economy is tanking, etc.

 

 Is that a quoat?  

 

However, team O'bama consistently attempts to make the world react to his delusional script.

 

You will not read me defending the warp and weave of Obama's Syria policy since 2011.  The smartest thing his administration did was to construct the anti-ISIS coalition currently at war in Syria's east. The dumbest thing the administration did was to overrule Clinton's proposal for a no-fly zone. If you can believe her statements this week, a Clinton presidency would tilt the war machine to more or less follow the three-point Rice/Gates proposal in the WaPo editorial  that you cited. 

 

 

. . .Every single OLer who voted in the last two US executive elections disdains and abhors Obama (except Michael Marotta). This group is repulsed by Obama. This is all great stuff, true to form, sincerely held and felt.. . .

 Well, not exactly. 2008, likewise voted Democratic, against the Republican ticket in 2012. Recently On Putin in Syria, I expect annihilation of opposition to the local prince. The West is not willing to play the game of chicken with nuclear war over it. Fortunately, a few million Syrians have left. Russia and cooperation with it in the region may hasten the destruction of ISIS. William is right about all the failures of the prince of Russia, however. America will be better off getting its national debt under control, rather than setting out on new foreign wars (however good-hearted).

 

 Thanks for the correction, Stephen.  I understand your point of view on Syria.  I am deeply pessimistic/cynical about any entity getting what they want out of the conflict. 

 

 

Back to Putin. He is in charge of failure on all fronts. His economy is fucked by sanctions and its own actions. The Russian currency is fucked. The Russian foreign policy is based on 'getting back' what it has lost in terms of influence, power and glory. Will Russia get back its power over the Baltics and Eastern Europe? Will its pitiful 'Eurasian Union' every achieve a tenth of the power and influence of the European Union?

  We, are being encircled.

 

 By the Russians? 

 

Step back and take a look at the global map and it's trade routes.  Suez - circle tightening;Panama - sealed;Mediterranean routes marginal;Indian Ocean routes adequate at this time;South China Sea - marginal;Black Sea - a Russian Lake; andPacific - secure. A...just the tip of the point in the spear.

 Suez. Who is doing the Suez encircling?  What form does it take? From my vantage the Suez canal is an international seaway, as designed.  Egypt, as you likely know, deepened and extended the canal to handle more and larger traffic. 

Panama, sealed. Sealed by whom? It too is an open international seaway. 

Mediterranean routes marginal. I don't understand what you mean. What routes for whom?

   

There are plenty on the loony left (from Anti-Imperialist U) who snuggle with Putin and the notion of Resistance to the West.  They get hard when Russia acts tough. [...]  I foresee grave danger ahead for Russia. What moral standing does Russia have in the Objectivist scheme of things?

  I try to answer your direct questions, Adam. Perhaps you will give me the same courtesy, with the aim of greater understanding. 

 

 

I am not impressed with bellicosity traduced with fear, nor am I anything but amused that Putin thinks he will bring Russia to its former might and respect in the world. Look at his allies and closest friends. They do not impress the world as America or the West writ large impresses. The Russia of today is no model for anyone but Belarus, and even Belarus isn't having any. No one seeks to emigrate to Russia. No refugees clamour for its protection. Its social indicators continue downward ... health, life expectancy, fertility, infrastructure. The big lie is fed to Russians that they are rich and mighty. They were mighty. They were world-striding. They are no more.  There is no growth in anything but propaganda and internal PR.

 So you are arguing that Putin seems hell bent on destroying himself with this action?

 

  Well, no.  My argument is not that hard to follow.  

I'll bet he is not worried about collateral damage, or, the world press.

  Heh.  The Russian propaganda machine is furiously trying to counter painstaking analysis of its claims and its PR.  Notably, the RT channel has made a target on Eliot Higgins, the open-source investigator of Bellingcat. Russia would like the 'world press' to repeat the canards of its "fight against ISIS."  That is not happening -- except in the loony left anti-Imperialist media.  The ferocity of the anti-Bellingcat media ops is hilarious.  Here is a sample or intro:  

 

 Higgins and the Bellingcat community are the folks who carefully documented the Syria use of Sarin.  They also are the gang who used open-source techniques to put the lie to the various Russian bullshit about the downing of MH17. 

 

Do you just eliminate raw physical conquest as option?

I can answer that question -- I want to answer that question -- but I don't understand it. Whose option is this? Raw physical conquest by whom? Straighten that out and I will give you an honest, considered response.

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No William, I do not have the time to do these lengthy expositions.

The Russians are still the global foe, along with China. They operate in a symbiotic dance as they stake out their spheres of influence and control.

A...

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I try to answer your direct questions, Adam. Perhaps you will give me the same courtesy, with the aim of greater understanding.

No William, I do not have the time to do these lengthy expositions.

Okay. But let me get this straight. You seek clarifications, ask me questions, and I answer them honestly and forthrightly (or ask you to be more clear and coherent). Then I ask you clarifying questions, and you assert you have no time.

That strikes me as a kind of bad faith approach to discussion. Why should I answer your clarifying queries, when you will not answer mine?

Edited by william.scherk
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I try to answer your direct questions, Adam. Perhaps you will give me the same courtesy, with the aim of greater understanding.

No William, I do not have the time to do these lengthy expositions.

Okay. But let me get this straight. You seek clarifications, ask me questions, and I answer them honestly and forthrightly (or ask you to be more clear and coherent). Then I ask you clarifying questions, and you assert you have no time.

That strikes me as a kind of bad faith approach to discussion. Why should I answer your clarifying queries, when you will not answer mine?

Don't then, no biggie.

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"When small men cast long shadows, sundown is near." -- Nathaniel Lee (1649-1692)

"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me"

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"Le chasseur sachant chasser sait chasser sans son chien."

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Brant writes:

What else is new?

It is a relatively new phenomenon, and didn't used to be this way. The passing of the Greatest Generation marks the rise of the moral degeneration of unproductive parasitism.

The increasing unconstitutionality of government directly tracks with the increasing numbers of people who inhabit America without living by American values.

Greg

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Nice. Great alliteration. Try saying that 3 times quickly.

The hunter who knows how to hunt knows how to hunt without his dog. Is that about right?

Pretty much exactly. It's a fine French equivalent to the she sells sea shells tongue-twister. This was a hurdle for me learning la belle langue. I also thought it dryly apropos to my standoff with busy Adam.

-- meanwhile, in Bizarro Syria, the prime minister declares that the opposition is targeting infrastructure, so the economy suffers and prices rise, so the state will be raising Army wages to prevent 'economic emigration' of draft evaders ...

That dog don't hunt.

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It would have to be his wife because his wife wouldn't tolerate a third party pulling his chain.

--Brant

OR

Hillary--by that I mean she ran the State Department locking in foreign policies which are continuing via State Department dominance and sheer inertia

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