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Tuesday, December 9. 2014

On Pearl Harbor Day, Boston Globe (Said) US Should ‘Hero-Worship’ Community Organizers, Not GIs

21 Photos of Pearl Harbor and a Day That Will Live in Infamy

You can’t detox your body. It’s a myth.

Song “White Christmas” Denounced as Racist

DOJ Banning Smoking in Federal Prisons - Only exemptions for ‘religious reasons’ and staff

Feeling Better at the Pump? Since 2008, America’s Oil Supply Has Grown by 50%

Columbia Law School Lets Students Postpone Exams Due to Grand Jury Decisions

Good grief

Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber: Abortion of 'Marginal Children' a 'Social Good'

Is it a moral good?

Congressional Republicans to grill Obamacare consultant at hearing

Can technology pick the perfect health plan for you?

Chicago continues assault on business with steep hike in minimum wage

The Minimum Wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of Effects on the Employment and Income Trajectories of Low-Skilled Workers

Democrats still confused as to why the South has given up on them.

Landrieu's scare tactics for LA blacks

How 19 Years Ago Today Al Sharpton Got Blood On His Hands

Atkisson: Reflections on Rolling Stone’s Messy, Mossy UVA Rape Story

Lena Dunham Walks Back Fabricated Rape Claim

Rolling Stone and the Cult of Credulity - The mantra "I believe" pathologizes skepticism and doesn't help victim

Jewish Group Accuses New York Times of “Crossing Red Line” By Publishing American Anti-Semite Max Blumenthal

It’s Not Just Ukraine - The real problem is that Putin has the whole region cornered. And no one seems to notice.

AMERICA'S MILITARY: A force adrift

Taiwan Voters Reject China-Centric Policies

Who Will Save the People of the Donbas?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:09 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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Re: Ukraine.

The underlying problem is the aggressive expansion of NATO into what used to be the Russian heartland. Gorbachev claims Reagan promised not to do this, and whether or not there is a treaty or memo of understanding, the claim passes the smell test.

Regardless of what the US/EU/NATO or the Mittle Europeans think or want, Russia regards this as an existential threat. The many references to Russia's nuclear arsenal by very senior Russian officials, including Putin, Lavrov and the Minister of Defense, the highly provocative bomber patrols along US/EU/NATO borders, the support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine, and especially Putin's recent state of Russia speech to parliament are all war threats.

Japan once and Germany twice went to war because they thought the trends in relative power were running against them: fight now and maybe win, fight later and definitely lose.

Many people, like al fin's blog, are chortling that Russia is in demographic, public health, economic and political free wall. That is a very bad omen. Poroschenko wants Ukraine in NATO. That is an appalling omen. Ukraine's entry into NATO would precipitate nuclear war in Europe and North America. Xi laughs.

A compounding problem is the utter arrogance of the US/EU/NATO leaders. They believe their economic and military powers are so transcendently overwhelming that Russia must crawl and beg and submit to their dictats.

We are closer to nuclear war today than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. Then a confident, rising USSR could negotiate with the feckless Kennedys and get Jupiter missiles out of Turkey and security for Cuba in return for removing its missiles from Cuba. US/EU/NATO will not allow Russia to negotiate this time, and that destabilizes the world.

#1 bob sykes on 2014-12-09 08:30 (Reply)

The real problem is that Russians consider it a threat when their neighbors aren't under their boot.

The good news is that the Russian army is surprisingly small (look it up on Wikipedia) and really bad. I think Putin will continue to push and bully as long as Obama's President. But he knows he would lose a shooting war with NATO very badly.

The next President needs to quickly restart the missile defense work Obama shut down for Russian cooperation (not a joke).

#1.1 NJSoldier on 2014-12-09 10:33 (Reply)

While Putin might view Ukraine's desire to be part of NATO as antagonistic, it seems to me in a sane world, if a country no longer wants to be associated with the thugocracy that is Putin's Russia, that should be their choice. They are a sovereign nation, right? And with Ukraine's past history with Russia, who could blame them. But we don't live in a sane world.

That being said, I don't know why there is still a NATO - or rather, I don't know why NATO didn't disband after the Warsaw Pact dissolved. In any event, it seems to be a pretty toothless tiger (except when NATO = US and with Obummer, we seem to be more like feckless NATO than NATO becoming principled US.

I think (and fear) that you could be right about much of what you say. I consider the real catalyst for this is Obummer's foreign and military policy of weakening the US (along with the weakness of NATO).

#1.2 mudbug on 2014-12-09 10:49 (Reply)

Still a NATO because there is still a Russia. We didn't go through the Cold War just to see Eastern Europe re-absorbed by a fascist Russia rather than a communist one.

NATO is far weaker than it was 25 years ago when I was a cold-warrior. But, Russia is even weaker still. And the Russian economy is bad enough that they can't really engage in an arms race.

#1.2.1 NJSoldier on 2014-12-09 10:59 (Reply)

When the Soviet Union dissolved and when it seemed that the trajectory of Russia would be more a friend than an antagonist, it sure seemed to me that NATO was not only a relic of the Cold War, but also distrustful of then 'new' Russia. Of course, trajectory changed so there could be a reason for NATO's existence after all. However, as you state, it is a shadow of their former self and in my opinion isn't much more than the US in Europe. If that is true, then what is NATO for again?

#1.2.1.1 mudbug on 2014-12-09 13:27 (Reply)

1. Russia is stronger than any other single European nation.

2. Without a defense agreement, the Europeans do a really bad job of helping each other when Putin comes calling (Georgia / Ukraine). He obviously wants to pull the same tricks in the Baltic States. He may try it with Finland and Sweden instead. Simo Häyhä still around?

3. Together, the member of NATO are far stronger than Russia. Putin can huff and puff, but an open war with NATO would end very badly for Russia.

4. I like the Poles. Lithuanians, and Czechs and really don't want to see them back under the Russian heel.

#1.2.1.1.1 NJSoldier on 2014-12-09 16:15 (Reply)

I agree with all you said, Soldier, but I do question the resolve to use the superior power of NATO. So far, the only thing that has even slowed Putin down is the price of oil.

I'll paint a darker picture of the next two years for Europe:

NATO = US = Obummer

#1.2.1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-12-09 16:35 (Reply)

The Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Estonians, Latvians and other Eastern Europeans HATE the Russians. They are appalled at what Putin is getting away with and will fight rather than become his next victim. Hopefully the Germans, Italians, Turks, and French (and us) will back them up if necessary.

#1.2.1.1.1.1.1 NJSoldier on 2014-12-09 16:42 (Reply)

'Hopefully' is the operative word.

#1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-12-09 22:22 (Reply)

Re: Landrieu's and White Christmas racists

These sorts of things signal desperation but it doesn't mean they are in danger of loosing - not even losing the argument. They have been desperate for decades. In the 2002, Dick Gephardt claimed that if Republicans were elected, black churches would burn.

While desperation is the cause for this sort of lunacy, it will likely just make those who make those claims more dangerous.

#2 mudbug on 2014-12-09 11:11 (Reply)

Snow is racist. There was a time in American cities where the snow falling wasn't white, especially in minority neighborhoods.

But then rose the hue and cry that this could not stand. That snow must be white, at least until drive over on the way to Whole Foods. And thus, millions of dollars were spent and politicians across the nation acted to rid the country of brown and especially black snow.

#3 JKB on 2014-12-09 12:31 (Reply)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas is clearly racist. Can you imagine what he would have done if it was an African American man he found coming down his chimney rather than Jolly Old St. Nick??? A clear example of White Privilege, I am surprised it has not been banned yet.

#4 Jim on 2014-12-09 13:31 (Reply)

re Feeling Better at the Pump? Since 2008, America’s Oil Supply Has Grown by 50%

I thought fracking was all good but then I saw this the other day, I do not agree with it all but it is something to think about:

"We are now far advanced into the third central bank generated bubble of the last two decades, but our monetary politburo has taken no notice whatsoever of its self-evident leading wave. Namely, the massive malinvestments and debt mania in the shale patch. In short, as the oil market price takes its next leg down into the $50s/bbl. bracket, much of the fracking patch will become a losing proposition. Moreover, given the faltering state of the global economy and the huge overhang of excess supply, it is likely that the current crude oil crash will be more like 1986, which was long-lasting, than 2008-09, which was artificially resuscitated by the raging money printers at the world’s central banks.

So why is there a shale patch depression in store? Because there is literally a no more toxic combination than the high fixed costs of fracked oil wells, which produce 90% of their lifetime output in less than two years, and the massive range of short-run uncertainty that applies to the selling price of the world’s most important commodity."

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/this-time-its-the-same-like-the-housing-mania-the-subprime-shale-bubble-is-in-plain-sight/

#5 feeblemind on 2014-12-09 15:00 (Reply)

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Tuesday, December 9. 2014

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