For those of you too young to remember the first Cold War

[MarcSpaz]

What did I miss? Is there a Star-Trek transporter in the Ukraine that's hooked up straight to Fort Knox or something? Why is it suddenly more likely the USA will be invaded?

I don't know if you missed it, but Russia is arguing with the US and European forces over a Russian invasion underway in the nation of Ukraine. After Obama warned Putin that military action would not be tolerated, Russia and Iran have dispatched several Navy ships to the Atlantic and Caribbean within a couple hundred miles of the US.

Been to any Navy ports in the last two days? Notice anything missing? Like almost all of our Navy ships? That's not because there all out on a training exercise.

[dorminWS]

I didn't miss any of that, but I guess I don't see how one Russian boat in Cuba and an Iranian rustbucket off our coast increase the likelihood that we'll be attacked. I agree that the danger of some sort of confrontation or sabotage/terrorism may be heightened, but I don't understand why there are any grounds to fear imminent invasion. The Russians don't HAVE to invade us; they're taking what they want in eastern Europe and they know damn well we have few resources or options to do anything about it and even less will in the current administration. Why would they come over here and start a fight where they might take an ass-kicking? So as far as any likelihood of a major conflict, I'd suggest it is less rather than more likely just because the Obamunists will run from it and give their communist colleagues whatever they want in Europe.

[MarcSpaz]

Oh, I don't disagree. Nothing is imminent and this administration doesn't do anything but posture when it comes to its foreign policy.

Listen... I can't tell you everything I know. I'm just saying, sort through the BS and conspiracy theory crap and look at other real potential reasons for action on behalf of our government. Not everything they do is to get over on us. Most of it... but not all of it. LOL

For what it's worth... Russian Troops and Russian Navy are in Cuba on the regular basis and there is typically some fanfare in Cuba about it. What strikes me as odd is this time, the Cubans an Russians are trying to keep it quite. They even said the ship left port to try to distract when in fact its still in Cuban waters.

[kelu]

Russia just test launched a ICBM. Just to show some muscles.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/04 ... port-says/

[dorminWS]

Russia warns could 'reduce to zero' economic dependency on US; "An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system," says Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-warns-coul ... .html?vp=1

[mamabearCali]

So we have president stompy pants staring down a panther growling for our throat. Great.....we're screwed.

Kiss your kids tonight. We will be lucky to survive this financially or possibly even literally.

[Kreutz]

So we have president stompy pants staring down a panther growling for our throat. Great.....we're screwed.

Kiss your kids tonight. We will be lucky to survive this financially or possibly even literally.

They're certainly made of tougher stuff it seems, this has floated around the Interwebz a bit, so no source.

A day in the life of a Russian Teenage Girl

In the winter, a typical Russian girl may wear a heavy fur coat weighing up to 10 pounds in order to protect her from the elements. This is usually in conjunction with knee length winter boots with at least a 3 inch heel because looking her best in public is never optional for her.

(If she doesn’t have a fur coat then a heavy ankle length felt coat or nylon winter jacket with goose down and fur lining works equally well.)

Now try to imagine this young lady waiting up to two hours after work at an unsheltered bus stop in minus 30C weather with dozens more cold and unhappy people as another sub-zero Siberian night quickly rolls in. If there’s any wind this minus 30C will instantly feel like minus 40C on any exposed part of her body. N

ow even though her coat has a gorgeous protective fur hood around her head, her face is still exposed and is especially sensitive to the pounding icy winds as her cheeks flush bright red due to the frozen and tiny broken blood vessels just beneath the surface of her skin.
Her mini-bus (or mashrutka) finally rolls up with 16 people already crammed inside like sardines. It’s standing room only for the lucky four strangers who managed to fight their way in with her. They may say “standing room” but it’s not really the case because the low roof of the mini-bus forces her and the other passengers on their feet to hunch over and grab a support grip and often the person next to them for support while the momentum of the van throws everybody from side to side. She probably won’t be stuck in this position for the entire 45 minute trip home because somebody sitting next to her will inevitably get off at an earlier stop and then she’ll be relieved to take their seat and finally sit down.

The air inside is equally frozen and the smoky white puffs of exhaled breath from the passengers has created a frozen glaze on the windows which prevents anyone from seeing their location let alone knowing where the next bus stop is. The heavily tattooed driver is smoking Marlboro Reds (and by default so is everyone else thanks to his second hand smoke) while blasting an obnoxious mix of electronic polka prison music called “chanson” that is literally composed and sung by incarcerated criminals.
“… I’m sorry i’m such a bad boy… Please forgive me mama… I was drunk when I killed her…”

If the driver is feeling generous he will call out the bus stops as he approaches them but often no-one will hear him above the crowded clamor of the van. In spite of this, somehow our Russian lady manages to get enough visual cues to her location through the smeared and melted hand prints on the frozen windows and calls out to the driver to stop.

“Nosto-novke Pazhaluda!”

The driver comes to a sliding stop on the ice. He only saw two other crashes on the slick roads this evening so traffic really wasn’t that bad today. He’s more worried about the traffic cops stopping him and shaking him down for the usual bribe that he can’t afford to pay.

Our young lady now has to squeeze through the compacted bodies in her way in order to reach the handle to open the van’s sliding door. She’s not worried about any cad coping a feel of her ass right now because she’s protected by a few inches of fur and clothes, but in the summer when she’s only wearing a loose top and mini-skirt it can be a different story.

She survived the commute to her local bus stop or “ostonovka” but now it’s time to walk through the uneven mounds of glazed ice on the sidewalk to the corner market so she can get groceries on her way home.

The market itself looks like a scene out of a horror movie. The foundations are uneven as one side slowly sinks into the mud below. The exterior walls are made from brick and old cracked wooden panels. The roof is dangerously ringed with large hanging icicles that could easily impale somebody when they eventually fall. The two windows on either side of the entrance are protected from intruders by a twisted pattern of rusted iron re-bar made to look like a spiders web.

None of this is given the slightest thought as she approaches the heavy black metal door to the market. The door itself looks no different than those you’d find in the solitary confinement section of a prison. There is a locked waist-high sliding panel that would be perfect for handing a prisoner his meal but in this case it’s used to sell late night bottles of beer and vodka to the neighborhood alcoholics who need their fix no matter what time it is.

She uses both hands and most of her body weight to open the door and enters a room no bigger then the living room of a small apartment. A series of ledges ring the room displaying different Russian food products. They usually display only one or two different brands for items like pasta, rice, porridge, and canned goods but there is always an entire ledge or wall displaying about thirty different brands of vodkas and about twenty various grades of beer. The vodkas range from the small 250 ml “one hit wonders” that cost about 50 cents to the expensive, elaborate and artistically designed bottles that are made to look like fine female sculptures or even a Kalishnikov automatic rifle.

The wooden floor is smeared with melted mud that’s been tracked in by other customers and it hardly seems like a sanitary place to buy food but the older babushkas behind the refrigerated display counter don’t really pay attention because they’re too busy trying to find change (that they never seem to have) for the 500 ruble note (about 15 dollars) that she hands them for the groceries. Cash only in a place like this… no credit or debit cards here.

Two plastic bags hold a few dried sausages, canned food, bottled water, vegetables, imported fruit and a hard loaf of uncut black bread. She now turns with a bag in each hand and uses her shoulder to shove the door outward for her quick escape before it forcefully springs shut with a loud metallic clang against its heavy frame.

It’s not the weekend so the used cigarette butts, empty bottles, and shards of broken glass around the surrounding area are still relatively sparse. The rotating metal trash cans welded next to the fractured park benches are not yet overflowing with garbage. But even in this freezing cold, the distinct smell of rotting beer and urine still lingers near the garbage dumpster she passes just outside the market.

Through the icy roads she goes, past the neighborhood bust of Lenin so prominently displayed in the local park, and weaving through the monolithic blocks of Soviet era housing compounds which are standard homes for most Russian people.

The bags swing heavily from her sides but their weight gives her added leverage by holding her down to the ice as she shifts her feet in quick short slides that move her forward like a girl learning how to roller skate for the first time. It would be interesting to note that she’s mastered this fine art of walking in high heel boots by the time she was just a school girl.

Walking in winter is actually not so bad compared to the spring when the snow melts and the black water combines with mud and leaking motor oil that openly sloshes in huge pools on the streets because Soviet-era central planning never had the wisdom to build water runoff drains or storm sewers to handle the rain and snow melt. In the spring there is so much mud and black slush that people throw lay broken bricks and planks of wood to create makeshift stepping stone bridges over the grime. Even with these improvised measures there’s simply no avoiding the mud and daily effort must go into cleaning their boots every time they reach home.

After nearly the hours she’s finally reached her building. Taking a taxi could really have helped her and by western standards 8 to 10 dollars for a ride home may not seem like much but when the average monthly salary is only 150 to 300 dollars, taking a taxi is simply not an option when 10 rubles (30 cents) is all it usually takes to ride the “mashrutka”. The bus is even cheaper but it would have easily added another hour to her trip thanks to its lumberingly slow speed and even more crowded conditions.

Her colorless and gray twelve-story housing complex is nearly identical in every way to the ten other complexes in her block. She’s lived here for all the 24 years of her life but she still feels lucky because she knows that the taller buildings like hers are more “modern” then the standard four or five story buildings with no elevators that almost everyone from the older generation live in. The old folks can still make it up and down the four-story stairwell but they would never make it up to the ninth floor where she lives when the elevator inevitably fails or is shut down after 9pm.
Today is not her day it seems.

The elevator is out of order yet again and no attempts have been made to repair it yet. She knows this from the crude “Nyet Rabotet” sign taped on its door. Without breaking her stride she heads for the dimly lit and heavily graffitied stairwell. She knows that the faster she climbs these stairs without stopping, the easier it will be to push through and quickly reach her floor.

She’s normally very happy to live on the ninth floor because of the better view of the city it gives her. Sometimes she’s even happy to take this (often mandatory) exercise on and climb the nine flights because it keeps her attractively slim body in shape. But today after such a long and cold wait at the bus stop she really could have used a quick elevator ride to her door.
2nd floor…
Past the rows of small blue mail boxes… junk mail and payment notices are scattered on the dirty bare concrete floor.
3rd floor…
There’s an old man with a cane slowly walking down stairs. His breath reeks with alcohol as his hand trembles on the raw iron railing he uses to guide himself down.
5th floor…
Complete blackness and she reaches into her coat pocket with great difficulty to pull out her mobile phone for illumination as the grocery bags are cutting the circulation to her hands. It seems that nobody on this floor cares to put their own bulb into the hallway light socket.
6th floor…
Three teenage boys about 16 years of age are hanging out on the stairwell and sharing a large five-litter bottle of strong Siberian beer, smoking cigarettes and trying to talk like gangsters. One of them already has a bruised and black eye. She completely ignore the hooligans-in-training and squeezes up the stairs between them.
7th floor…
She’s breathing really hard and her legs are starting to cramp. She really dislikes this floor because she’s seen an occasional syringe on the floor during the past year.
9th floor…
Home at last… and with her last bit of strength she presses the door bell. Mama’s been waiting and quickly opens the door for her. The smile they share is real and heartfelt even as she’s still catching her breath. Mama quickly grabs the bags from her and heads to the kitchen.

Being the only daughter is always a big responsibility and tonight is no different as she quickly sheds her fur coat, hangs it on the hook in the hallway, and unzips her long winter boots before heading to the bathroom to freshen up a little.
After washing up she instinctively heads to the tiny 35 square foot kitchen to help her mother with the cooking. Her mama can tell that her daughter has had a long commute home so she tells her to feed the cat and relax in their small living room. She obliges but not until she gets a chance to embrace her large fluffy cat and and carry her to the small sofa next to the TV.

In fifteen minutes a few modest pieces of pan fried chicken, borscht soup, sour cream, and sliced black bread are waiting for her on the tiny kitchen table that only the two of them can dine on. She pours the hot tea for mama, chit-chats about her day, and they start to eat.

There is genuine love and warmth in this home. The simple mercury thermometer attached to the outside kitchen window pane dips to -35C but you would never feel its chill because the radiator beneath the table keeps their legs toasty. Mama’s had her usual long day at work too but the pride she feels in her beautiful daughter is more then enough to compensate for her hardships.

She only hopes that someday her daughter will be blessed with a good husband who can bless her with beautiful grandchildren.

Mama reverently looks towards the small pictures of Orthodox Christian icons adorning her kitchen wall and wonders.

[MarcSpaz]

Don't fall for that crap. The US economy is not dependent on Russia buying goods or services from us. The US imports near 50% of Russia's exports at about $27 billion a year. They only purchase $11 billion a year of US exports, which is a pretty small chunk of our $17.1 trillion annual GDP. What is that? 0.65%?

Trade embargoes will have a much greater impact on Russia that the US.

[wpoppert]

I'm more concerned about the price and availability of Russian ammo. I quit my old range because they banned Russian ammo there, but perhaps soon (or whenever I use up my stockpile) that won't matter to me anymore.

[dorminWS]

Don't fall for that crap. The US economy is not dependent on Russia buying goods or services from us. The US imports near 50% of Russia's exports at about $27 billion a year. They only purchase $11 billion a year of US exports, which is a pretty small chunk of our $17.1 trillion annual GDP. What is that? 0.65%?

Trade embargoes will have a much greater impact on Russia that the US.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, I thought what was revealing about that statement by the Russians was that they didn't mention any form of retaliation except economic. Now, if I were trying to think like a Russian, I might figure that threatening to renege on US-to-Russian loans and organize a movement away from the dollar as the currency of international exchange would worry capitalism cronies of the Obamunists on Wall Street and in the banking community, who would then lean on their democrat-party campaign contribution bundlers to get Obama and Kerry to STFU. That might even make some sense even to a non-Russian.

[mamabearCali]

Russia is very dangerous....mostly because they don't like us and now they no longer fear us. Now let Russia and China hold hands against us and we could be in trouble.

In a historical sense it is not so terrible. That part of the world has been traded about. Ukraine is a stitched together nation from several older empires. As long as Putin does not starve the people I imagine it will turn out alright for them. They might even get a more consistent and less vengeful form of corruption.

What is bad for us is that we have lost all ability to influence the region at all. What is bad for us is that Russia and China are now colluding against us.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[kelu]

I don't think you will see this in MSM http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/
Somehow it will be Bush fault.

[Taggure]

Russia is very dangerous....mostly because they don't like us and now they no longer fear us. Now let Russia and China hold hands against us and we could be in trouble.

In a historical sense it is not so terrible. That part of the world has been traded about. Ukraine is a stitched together nation from several older empires. As long as Putin does not starve the people I imagine it will turn out alright for them. They might even get a more consistent and less vengeful form of corruption.

What is bad for us is that we have lost all ability to influence the region at all. What is bad for us is that Russia and China are now colluding against us.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Yeap they are already talking about it


China Joins Forces With Russia Against U.S.

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/china- ... DA43rTT.99

[SHMIV]

If I were conspiring to take down the US from the inside, I would (amongst other things) spread the military very thin. I would place them anywhere but within US borders. Those that left the military and came home to their families, I would have diagnosed with PTSD, and declare them mentally unfit to keep and bear arms.

I would cut military funding, causing the spread of military to become thinner. This would also weaken the military by making their supplies inadequate.

I would pull strings to have a buffoon placed in the Oval Office. He would make bold and pointless threats, and not back them up. He would irritate the leaders of other nations.

I would push legislation through Congress, and failing that, make "executive decisions" that would be financially crippling to the nation.
*****************

As I ponder these things, it occurs to me...

We've been worried that our government is conspiring to take total control of it's citizens.

But, it almost appears that we're being set up to be handed over to another nation.

If somebody wanted to crush the US, it would be more crushing to have us handed over to an enemy nation on a gold platter.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Kreutz]

If somebody wanted to crush the US, it would be more crushing to have us handed over to an enemy nation on a gold platter.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I assume you mean a "fiat currency platter".

Russia and China will never hold hands for long; the knives they have pointed at each other get in the way. They've had border problems for decades that show no signs of abating and bad blood going back to Brezhnev and Mao.

[kelu]

This video looks interesting http://illuminatireview.com/first-video ... ng-people/
Any tactical analysis to debunk the conclusions?

[dmharvey]

What did I miss? Is there a Star-Trek transporter in the Ukraine that's hooked up straight to Fort Knox or something? Why is it suddenly more likely the USA will be invaded?

Because this has the potential to cause a lot of problems for us down the road, and our reaction to this situation makes us look weak. This could encourage other countries to take similar actions without any fear of international push-back. Gotta think about the long-term impacts, not just the events unfolding at the moment.

[dorminWS]

What did I miss? Is there a Star-Trek transporter in the Ukraine that's hooked up straight to Fort Knox or something? Why is it suddenly more likely the USA will be invaded?

Because this has the potential to cause a lot of problems for us down the road, and our reaction to this situation makes us look weak. This could encourage other countries to take similar actions without any fear of international push-back. Gotta think about the long-term impacts, not just the events unfolding at the moment.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Agreed, but there are still no grounds for concern about invasion of the US. "Red Dawn" nightmares are not indicated - not for a good long while.

[dorminWS]

http://conservativecontacts.com/article ... ke-it-this