And not to be overlooked is the fact that Putin is operating from the moral high ground by complying with the standards of international law by fighting in Syria at the invitation of the legitimate government of Syria against the terrorists who are seeking to overthrow the legitimate government of Syria. That posture stands in stark contrast to that of the U.S. of A. It also helps that Russia is waging war against two extremist Muslim organizations, Al Qaeda and ISIS, which I thought were enemies of the U.S. of A. And Russia has clearly demonstrated that the phony war Obama has ostensibly waged against ISIS for the past year is a complete sham.

Replies: @annamaria, @Capn Mike

Replies: @Shaq, @Capn Mike

When you talk to a strategy guy about cleaning up Afghanistan, it isn’t long before he shakes his head and says, “So long as we can’t go after Pakistan, we really can’t do much. Pakistan’s the real source of the problems up there.
 

Replies: @Vendetta, @Capn Mike, @Quartermaster, @Rurik, @jack ryan

Most Russian economists agree that the real reason for the current economic crisis in Russia is not the falling price of oil or, even less so, the western sanctions, but the misguided decisions of the Russian Central Bank (such as floating the Ruble or keeping the interest rates high) and the lack of governmental action to support a real reform and development of the Russian economy. What is especially interesting is that vocal opponents of the current 5th column now get plenty of air time in the Russian media, including state owned VGTRK. Leading opponents of the current economic policies, such as Sergei Glazev, Mikhail Deliagin or Mikhail Khazin are now interviewed at length and given all the time needed to absolutely blast the economic policies of the Medvedev government.
 

What is certain is that so far Putin has failed to deal with the 5th column near and inside the Kremlin and that the situation is rapidly worsening. The recent move by Kudrin to try to get back into the government was a rather transparent use of the pro-5th column media in Russia (and abroad) and it predictably failed.
 

Replies: @Capn Mike, @Andrei Martyanov, @Seraphim, @Anonymous

Who cares about Mexican workers? If the government wanted them out of the country they would be out. FWIW, people on both sides of the border screwed the braceros when ever they could.

Replies: @Capn Mike

Replies: @Reactionary Utopian, @Olorin, @Capn Mike

Oh my god, marwan! That video is HILARIOUS!

It reminded me of some Bizzaro World James Brown being taken off the stage after collapsing from exhaustion. I kept waiting for the guy in your video to shake off the people taking him off and running back on stage lol Thanx for the laugh! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n62J9-WP1A

Replies: @Capn Mike

Replies: @Capn Mike, @neutral, @NOTA

The 'rounding up - mass deportations' of illegals is misinformation, a canard.

They can easily be shipped backed one by one as they are noticed. Upon arrest, upon legitimate questioning, traffic stops, you name it.
There is no need to 'round them up'. If they know they will be sent packing when stopped they will be inhibited from coming in the first place.

That is what the Mexican government does with their illegals.

It's not that complicated.

Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Capn Mike, @NoseytheDuke, @Boris

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Replies: @Capn Mike

"But it really doesn’t explain the recent rapid escalation to an almost irrational hostility in Washington. Why escalate now? What has changed?"

I am glad you are persistent in asking these questions and being satisfied by answers being offered. I do not have answer either. But I may ask more questions.

What was the true objective of 2009 Reset? Was it trap? Who really sabotaged it?

Perhaps we must go back to 2009 and the Reset that Hillary and Obama started with Russia. In Sept. 2009 Obama cancelled the defensive shield in Poland and Czech Republic and then in April 2010 they signed START treaty in Prague. What Obama wanted to get from Russia in return? What else Russia wanted? Or was it trap? But the relations remained good even after Polish president and all Polish NATO generals got killed in Smolensk in April 2010 three days after signing the START treaty.

There are various theories about the crash in Smolensk. One of them is that it was a false flag intending to implicate Russia and destroy the Reset and possibly it was a part of a coup against Putin.

Who was behind it? The hawks and neocons (in cooperation with Russia's GRU elements) wanted to proceed with the operation against Iran while Obama and Putin were against it? After Smolensk the de facto no-fly zone was imposed over the whole Europe (Eyjafjallajökull volcano) when perhaps the fate of relationship with Russia and perhaps the fate of the world was being decided. Did Putin find out who was really behind the Smolensk crash? Anyway the Reset was then preserved. Who had to bend over backwards more: Obama or Putin? In later part of 2010 a major shake up in GRU took place and several generals ended up having accidents and some units of GRU were reassigned to FSB.

Things started going sour in 2012 when the operation in Libya started. Medvedev who was then a president must have been asleep at the switch and did not veto it in UN. Putin watched the video of Qaddafi being murdered several times and allegedly vowed to never let anything like this happen again. He also became president that year, The US was meddling in the election process against him. In parallel with Libya the operation in Syria started. Fighters and weapons were moved between the two countries. It was happening as if against the will of Obama. In Sept. 2013 Putin kind of saved Obama's ass who clearly did not want to go ahead with bombing of Syria by having Assad giving up his chemical weapons. Neocons were furious.

One reason I am very interested in this is because I am looking for reasons to like Obama. And Syria in 2013 might be one of these reasons. But after that not much has changed. Money and support for rebels was flowing from the US and other countries. This tells you that the colossus like America has its momentum and policies that will not easily change regardless of will and beliefs of some people in power. Hersh wrote article on how gen. Dempsey and DIA was sabotaging CIA in Syria by sending defective weapon supplies to rebels supposedly to gain credibility in the eyes of Assad to keep the communication channels open with Damascus via Berlin, Tel Aviv and Moscow.

Then in 2014 the anti-Russian coup was engineered in Ukraine (some thing it was neocon's revenge for Putin's meddling in their meddling in Syria) that forced Russia to annex Crimea. He had no choice. And this is how Putin became a new Stalin and Hitler. The war against Putin and Putin's Russia was in the open.

In winter 2014/2015 a brand new project called IS/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh was unveiled with saturated media campaign of their self-advertised atrocities. I think that many videos of executions were staged. And what was their purpose? It allowed the US to create a coalition to start bombing the ISIS also in Syria. Lots of countries joined it: Denmark, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and later Australia in 2015 and France. But their bombings were anemic at least as ISIS in Syria was concerned. Did they bomb Syrian forces? The coalition did not have a mandate for the no-fly zone as they had in Libya that if they had it, it would finish Assad off.

I like to think that the next stage in attempt to escalate crisis in Syria was the refugee crisis in 2015. Somebody organized it. Somebody cut off UN funding to refugee camps in Turkey. Somebody took care of logistics. Lots of money. Maps to Germany in Arabic. It was not Germany doing it, was it? Was it to get the public opinion of Europe behind the final solution of Syrian crisis by destroying Assad? Would the escalation in Syria where Iranian troops were fighting destroy the deal Obama was working with Iran? Was Merkel's decision to embrace the invaders a way to diffuse the crisis and avert calls for no-fly zone? Did her decision give Putin extra few weeks to prepare Russia's engagement in Syria?

Did Trump in June 2015 know about the impeding refugee crisis in Europe. His speech about illegals, border and wall preceded pictures of marching columns of young men approaching Hungarian and then Slovenian (Melania's home country) borders by about six weeks. Who was Trump's source? Our military or Netanyahu? Those who engineered that crisis?

In all this it beats me what was Netanyahu's role. Surely he wanted to attack Iran. Surely he wanted to have Syria destroyed and destabilized. So why he was so nice to Putin? What took place between him and Putin in Moscow in summer 2015? Then he went there two more times. A bromance? Why Israel was so obliging to Russia engagement in Syria in which Russia used small and inferior force? Just four dozens of planes with one dozen of fighter planes while Israel itself has over 400 F-15 and F-16 and Turkey over 200?

Why are they so afraid of Putin? What kind of goods Putin has on them? Certainly it is not because of Russia's military strength.

Replies: @Mao Cheng Ji, @Randal, @Bill, @RudyM, @Capn Mike

"...dozens of juveniles terrorized riders Saturday night when they invaded the Coliseum Station and commandeered at least one train car, forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two with head injuries...

...40 to 60 juveniles flooded the station, jumped the fare gates and rushed to the second-story train platform. Some of the robbers apparently held open the doors... while others streamed inside, confronting and robbing and in some cases beating riders...

...The attack was so quick, police reported, that the teenagers were able to retreat from the station and vanish into the surrounding East Oakland neighborhood before BART officers could respond...

...the robberies took place in just seconds. ...

...“We’re looking at it very closely to see how we can respond to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”..."

 

Replies: @Anonymous, @Anonymous Nephew, @Yak-15, @ganderson, @Capn Mike

A new political division of the current USA after some type of civil war is easier to imagine if one does three things: (1) looks at a county level map of results in the past presidential election; (2) remembers that sprawling nation-states are not the only plausible political entities; (3) considers the possibility of semi-independent city-states like the multitude that existed within the Holy Roman Empire and even early modern nation-states like France and the UK. In fact, many of the United States' current problems could be solved if a new constitution were written recognizing that each of the urban agglomerations -- comprising about 200+ counties in all -- that went Democrat in the last election are distinct political entities and doing the same for the agglomerations of counties -- about 3000 in all -- that went Republican. All these agglomerations could be given new levels of internal and external autonomy and a new system of relating politically to all other such agglomerations. The deal wold be difficult but not impossible and far fairer and less restrictive than the federal system we have today. BTW, please note that I am not suggesting the Democrat cities should have the status accorded states in our current system.

Replies: @Diversity Heretic, @Capn Mike, @Corvinus

I apologize for my lack of clarity. With a few exceptions, red counties could be aggregated back into the fifty states they once were minus the blue bits. This would be a first approximation if such a thing were to occur. I expect that there would then be a lot of fine tuning.

Replies: @Capn Mike

"No one in Washington seemed to know that China and the Soviet Union had split and become bitter enemies. As ever, our foreign human intelligence was lousy."
 

Replies: @Capn Mike

That is interesting to me. As is the Margolis artictle, never knew he had been a USA soldier, very interesting article. Thought he was a Canada person.

I have a question for you, Capn Mike.

If the PRC had allowed the USA free rein in Gulf of Tonkin, where were the supply lines to the Nth. Viet military and Viet Cong?

Must it not still have been overland from PRC at that time you say (1969)?

Replies: @Capn Mike

The other one’s Christine McVie, for the benefit of any other Millennials ITT.

Replies: @Achmed E. Newman, @Anonymous, @Capn Mike

Replies: @Capn Mike, @jacques sheete, @MEexpert, @Wizard of Oz

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Replies: @Capn Mike, @Bombercommand, @Alden

Her mind is fine. Listen to what she is saying - she is perfectly coherent. She has perfect recall of the circumstances of her confirmation and is able to contrast it with the present situation. Regardless of whether you agree with her politics, in her prime Ruth Ginsburg was a formidable intellect (1st in her class at Columbia Law School) so even if she has lost a little bit of her edge, she still has more left than the average person ever will. It is clear that her body is old and worn out but unless she has some fatal disease she could live in this physically worn out condition for many years, being wheeled from place to place.

That being said, the stuff about her workout prowess is nonsense - for some reason (the lack of a real God to worship, I suppose), leftists always want to make their leaders into superhuman heroes, not just political leaders but champion athletes, scientists, etc. who are marvelous at whatever they put their hand to.

Now in any sane society, someone with this much mileage on the clock would be comfortably retired to live out her final years in peace instead of having one of the most important jobs in the land, but our system is such that the decision is completely in her hands.

Replies: @Alec Leamas (hard at work), @AnotherDad, @Capn Mike

Replies: @Giuseppe, @Wally, @Capn Mike

JFYI, whenever someone’s talent is limited to cutting and pasting other people’s words, they tend to be ignored completely, and subsequent posts are never read.

Replies: @onebornfree, @Capn Mike

Replies: @Realist, @follyofwar, @Heywood Jablomi, @Capn Mike, @Otherwise

He has director credits
 

Replies: @The Alarmist, @Jeff Stryker, @obwandiyag, @Capn Mike

'Also everybody’s got repeating rifles. In 1858. Yah sure'

They (and other faster shooting designs) were common then. They were not adopted by the civil war armies because of logistical and standardisation issues.

Replies: @Capn Mike

Laughing.

As one treasures one's plow. Save one fixes one's beloved plow. In the case of slaves, they whipped as lazy, shackled or similarly treated as repair for any number ailments in need of repair.

Sure some slaves manged to build some manner of relationship and no doubt even were raised to a level of human commonality ----

However, anyone who buys into the benign southern nostalgia regarding slavery is embracing a mythos that simply did not nor could ever exist. Upwards of some 4 million human beings by the end, of varying ethinicities/cultures, languages, under control by force (several hundred murders may have been against those blacks (over slavery's history - but then one cannot murder property). I suspect that real life among that environment makes Mr. Lynch and Mr Tarantino look like amatuers as purveyors of human violence.

What I appreciated about Mr Tarantino is not the violence (over the top as it can be) is the story telling. Django Unchained is not about slavery or revenge in my view. It's a love story. And the stage of that love story is best set by the story of Drsilla(?) told by Christopher Waltz about the princess in need of rescue. The protagonists are not the lone rangers setting about John Brown's quest for black freedom. Their goal is very specific and it is driven by the story of rescuing the trapped princess. It just happens to take place in the very bizarre world of the slave environment.

But slaves cherished --- slavery was not a benevolent enterprise for most slaves.

Replies: @Jeff Stryker, @Liza, @Capn Mike

The complex, chaotic, and unpredictable forces which drive climate remain a great--perhaps unfathomable--mystery.

Indeed, we are presently in basking in an unusually mild epoch (by recent geological standards) and are probably headed towards far colder weather. Fortunately, it may be another thousand years or more before we return to the 'normal' semi-frigid conditions normally seen on earth over the past one million years.

After all, the last glacial period ended only some 13,000 years ago. Before then, the Great Lakes region for instance was buried under a mile or more of ice. Then it got warmer. And then colder--(for about 1200 years.) The sudden, inexplicable, millennium-long cold snap is known as the 'Younger Dryas' event. A massive extinction of megafauna (Wooly Mammoth, Saber Tooth tiger, Giant sloth, etc) occurred around this time.

It's worth noting that humankind began to flourish with the rise of warm ('interglacial') weather. Even today, far more people worldwide are killed by cold-related weather conditions than heat-related ones. Warmth is good for humankind.

In any event, the hospitable 'interglacial period' we are now enjoying typically lasts only around 15,000 years (give or take a few centuries). The longer glacial periods however traditionally last some 80,000 to 110,000 years. So by recent standards (the last million years) we humans are enjoying a lovely, warm but brief 'interglacial' beach vacation.

Why the earth has dramatically cooled and then warmed up some ten times over the past one million years remains a mystery. But CO2 levels are definitely not the direct and sole cause, as often claimed.

Other factors driving climate include: variations in the solar wind (energy from the sun), changes in earth's tilt and variations in it orbit (see: Milankovich cycles), major volcanic events and earth's periodic collisions with large asteroids, jet stream variations, El Nino, La Nina, additional variations in oceanic currents, and fluctuations in levels of atmospheric water vapor as well as other fluctuating greenhouse gasses. The factors are numerous and they also interact with one another in unexpected ways.

It's also worth remembering that 'global cooling' was a big news story back in the seventies. Yet its been forgotten entirely, even though global average temperatures dropped steadily between 1945 and 1975 (while CO2 levels were rising.)

Curious, no?

Climate science still has a long way to go. We must resist its politicization.

Replies: @Tom Welsh, @David Bauer, @Mike P, @Capn Mike, @sally_at_the_place, @Kermit

Replies: @Anonymous, @Capn Mike, @Vinteuil

In the future where Littering American are here in mass numbers, 5’11” will be tall.

BTW, The 10”+ hand size of Wilson and Brees is what it’s all about.

Replies: @Capn Mike

Well, you're Canadian. Presumably things are not quite as bad there as Michigan or Phoenix.

Some people say that there's a woman to blame...But I know, I just wanted to GTF away from the she boons, whiggers, redneck tweakers, black thugs, Mexican cholos...

Find myself? I found out that I was better off overseas than some people I knew in Michigan who are stuck there to this day at the mercy of the ravages of society.

I managed to miss the grim 9-11 years of Bush the moron, the Great Recession, Black Lives Matter, culture wars...

Tell me, what would have gained back in the US? Okay, I could live in the sticks like the vampire village in Salem's Lot and maybe hold some lousy job and at least be safe from these things.

But who wants to do that when Asian cities have a buzz?

Replies: @LoutishAngloQuebecker, @Capn Mike

What an ignorant comment! We do not want to migrate to China, nor does the Chinese government want migrants en masse anyhow.
We sympathise with China because they succeeded in two things most other third world countries (or even many first world nations) have failed. These are, first, to establish an export-oriented industry based on cheap labour that in the long-run has actually benefited them to create a diverse industrial base and numerous jobs for the urban proletariat and the rural migrants so that hundreds of millions of them have alleviated themselves from misery and poverty with their own sweat and discipline (instead of waiting for their welfare check, of which, of course, there is none and never was in Chinese history). Second, China has managed to stay firmly in control of their finances, their media, and their national power structure all the while they opened up themselves to the rest of the world for the exchange of goods, investments, and ideas. In other words, by and large, alien elements cannot put their hands into Chinese pockets, cannot whisper into their ears what to believe and what to fancy, and finally, cannot command or compromise key decision makers into compliance. By comparison, in these three key aspects, the USA, unfortunately, appears to be a full-fledged colony of an alien power.
A significant number of low-to-medium or even high level rulers in China might be criminals, but that is, and has been, the case in most other polities throughout history. The power to rule is a strong aphrodisiac which attracts the wicked and the restless more than the sane and the content. Honest and honourable men like Jimmy Carter are rather the exception while pussy grabbers like Joe Biden are the rule.
What matters, however, is that most Chinese people have no illusion on the nature of government, hence, they rely on themselves, their families, their kin, their friends, colleagues and partners. Government, by its very nature, is criminal and extractive, but in exchange it provides protection from street thugs (what is meant by law and order) and repels foreign intruders (what is covered by defence and intelligence). In these two aspects, the Chinese government has been quite successful, while many Western European governments have not been. The CCP might or might not be comprised of criminals, what matters, however, is that it is their own government which is not a slave to a foreign entity. The appetite of local criminals will have its limits, that of the foreign entity will not.
Returning to the position of the non-Chinese, the rest of us: We do sympathise with China because they do not try to force their language, their way of life, their movies, their ideas, their preferences down our throats as the best and only valid way. This does not necessarily mean that we like the Chinese way of business and government or that we approve the CCP, or that we want to migrate to China or that we want China to invade us. We do not! But most of us are truly fed up with the unilateral actions of the indispensable nation, and the indispensable tribe who are puppeteering them. Hence, we are happy when China consolidates their economic and political power so that some balance can be achieved for the benefit of those nations who want to get rid of the shackles of the indispensable lunatics. Not that we wish their misery and destruction, may they live happily ever after in their own indispensability, their flamboyant exceptionality, and their grandiose extraordinarity, Amen!

Replies: @Capn Mike, @Roger Ansen, @Munga Bulga, @orionyx, @Chinaman, @FvS, @showmethereal

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