COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Putin is stuck in a Cold War timewarp, deaf to the shifts in world power, obsessed with imaginary threats, turning manageable differences into needless conflict


Vladimir Putin's pointless conflict with Europe leaves it a vassal of China

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been obsessed with an imaginary threat from an ageing, pacifist Europe in slow decline, while throwing his country at the feet of a greater threat - China



8:34PM BST 06 Aug 2014


The world faces a moment of maximum danger in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has perhaps 72 hours to decide whether to launch a full invasion of the Donbass, or accept defeat and let the Ukrainian military crush his proxy forces.

Nato officials say Russia has massed 20,000 troops in battle-readiness near the border, backed by Spetsnaz commandos, tanks and aircraft. Vehicles have been marked with peace-keeper labels already. Nato sees every sign that the Kremlin intends to disguise an attack as a "humanitarian mission".
This is more serious than the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. That was a "colonial war". The Soviet Union was a careful, status quo power in its final decades. It held captive nations but did not overrun new borders in Europe. Mr Putin is expansionist, and far less predictable. He is, in any case, captive to the chauvinist fever that he has so successfully stoked.

He has been clear from the outset that he will deploy any means necessary to bring Ukraine back into Russia's orbit. Only war can now achieve this, since all else has failed, and since he has turned a friendly Ukraine into an enemy by his actions. The awful implications of this are at last starting to hit the markets.
"People thought that Russia was just playing a game of brinkmanship,and that pragmatism would prevail in the end. There is real fear now that this will spin out of control. Nothing cannot be excluded at this point, even a cut-off in oil and gas," said Chris Weafer, from Macro Advisory in Moscow.

Yields on 10-year rouble bonds have jumped to 9.7pc, up 130 basis points since June. The sanctioned bank VTB is up 180 points in a month. A liquidity crunch is rapidly taking hold across the financial system. "The market is shut. Not a single Russian entity has been able to borrow anything in dollars, euro or yen since early July, said Mr Weafer.

The Kremlin's gamble has gone horribly wrong. The eastern regions of Ukraine have failed to rise in mass support for Putin's front organisations, led by political operatives from Moscow, and patently run by the Russian security apparatus (FSB/GRU) as even Russian newspapers admit. The latest report by the United Nations accuses these units of  ggregious abuses", carrying out systematic intimidation through torture and execution.

Mr Putin has failed equally to drive a wedge between America and Europe, or to paralyse the EU by playing off one country against another. Germany has not cut a special deal, though its 6,000 companies in Russia are on the frontline. It has gone beyond the EU measures, blocking a €100m export of combat training kit by Rheinmetall.

Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria quietly towed the EU line on "Tier 3" sanctions. None dared to veto measures that shut Russias banks out of global finance, and that block technology needed to open up Russia's oil and gas fields in the Arctic or the shale reserves of the Bazhenov Basin.

President Barack Obama's slow, methodical escalation suits the complicated chemistry of Europe, the region that will pay the economic price. There would have been a trans-Atlantic crisis if the hotheads in Washington had prevailed.

Mr Putin now faces draconian sanctions from the US, EU, Japan, Canada and Australia together. He can strike back by asymmetric means - perhaps a cyberattack - but tit-for-tat retaliation can achieve nothing. There is no equivalence. Russia's economy is no bigger than California's. This is an economic showdown between a $40 trillion power structure, and a $2 trillion producer of raw materials that has hollowed out its industrial core.

The new arsenal of sanctions refined by a cell at the US Treasury - already used with crisp effect against nine countries - is nothing like the blunt toolkit of the 1980s or 1990s. Nor can Russia retreat into Soviet autarky. It is locked into global finance. The International Energy Agency says Russia needs to invest $100bn a year for two decades just to stop its oil and gas output declining.

Russian companies and state bodies owe $610bn in foreign currencies. They must repay $84bn by the end of the year, and $10bn a month thereafter. There is no immediate crisis. Russian companies have $130bn of cash holdings. The central bank has promised to deploy its $470bn of foreign reserves as second line of defence. Russia can muddle through for a while, depending on the pace of capital flight. At best it is slow suffocation.

European officials calculate that Mr Putin will not dare to cut off energy supplies, since to do so would bring the Russian state to its knees within months. But even if he tried - as a shock tactic - it would not achieve much. Oil can be obtained anywhere.

Europe's gas inventories have risen to 81pc of capacity, up from 46pc in March. Britain is at 94pc. There is a sudden glut of liquefied natural gas in Asia that has caused prices to fall from more than $20 per million BTU earlier this year to $10.50. The LNG is being diverted to Europe, landing in Britain at just $6.50.

Japan has just given the go-ahead for two nuclear reactors to restart in October, with seven likely by the end of the year. Koreans are also firing up closed nuclear reactors. All this frees up LNG.

Whether this is fruit of a co-ordinated strategy, the net effect is that inventories and spare LNG could cover a Russian cut-off for a long time, probably through the winter with rationing. Areas of eastern Europe have no pipeline supply from the West, but "regas" ships could plug some gaps in an emergency. The gas weapon is not what it seems.

The Kremlin is counting on acquiescence from the BRICS quintet as it confronts the West, and counting on capital from China to offset the loss of Western money. This is a pipedream. Chinas Xi Jinping drove a brutal bargain in May on a future Gazprom pipeline, securing a price near $350 per 1,000 cubic metres that is barely above Russia's production costs.

Pieties aside, the two countries are rivals in central Asia, where China is systematically building pipelines that break Russia's stranglehold. China has large territorial claims on Far Eastern Russia, land seized from the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century.

Even if Mr Putin's strategy of a Euro-Asia alliance with China succeeds, it will reduce Russia to a vassal state of China, a supplier of commodities with a development model that dooms it to backwardness. "It is a dangerous illusion. We are witnessing the funeral of Russia,” said Aleksandr Kokh, a former top Kremlin official.

Mr Putin is stuck in a Cold War timewarp, deaf to the shifts in world power. He has been obsessed with an imaginary threat from an ageing, pacifist Europe in slow decline, turning manageable differences into needless conflict.

Yet at the same time he is throwing his country at the feet of a rising power that poses a far greater threat in the end, and that will not hesitate to extract the maximum advantage from Russias self-inflicted weakness.


Mr Putin has misjudged everything. He has decisive force only on the east Europe's battlefield. Ukraine is not a member of Nato, and has no Article V protection. The West has already stated that it will not deploy forces if it is invaded. Novorossiya is his for the taking. It is his last lethal card.

70 comments:

  1. Another paranoid asshole getting people killed for nothing. The genius that can’t seem to read a map and see the real longterm threat to Russia.

    (China < Bob)

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the Russians had organized a coup in either Mexico or Canada, installing a Proxy Puppet" regime in either of those neighboring states, the US would not simply 'Roll Over' and acquiesce to the Russian expansionism.

    Draconian sanctions? That is an interesting adjective, which is misleading, to say the least.

    The threat posed to Russia, by an expansionist China?
    Come on, when compared to the pressure coming from the US, the Chinese are tomorrow's challenge, the US/NATO threat is there, today, in the Ukraine.

    If any modern state is in the position of becoming a vassal of Charlie Chi-com it is the US, the economic ties are more of an anchor. A giant job suck is what the US relationship with China has become.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "He has been obsessed with an imaginary threat from an ageing, pacifist Europe in slow decline"

    Non sense.

    Pooty realizes full well the EU and the US are no threat whatsoever.

    He may be underestimating the amount of trouble the Ukrainians can give him, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quart by the way is still in the Ukraine, organizing citizen militias for resistance, if it should come to that.

      The peasants are keeping him supplied with Vodka, and are rallying behind his leadership.

      They love Quart.

      They love his fiery fire watered speeches, his white hair blowing in the breeze, his steely eyes, his jaw locked with determination......though some have complained about how loudly he snores at night.

      Delete
    2. Robert Peterson is in denial.

      Delete
    3. Denies the reality of the US/EU financed coup in the Ukraine.

      Denies the reality of the Zionist NASI occupation of Palestine.

      Denies the reality of the Supply Side Nightmare.

      Delete
    4. Denies the reality that the Jews were behind 9/11 too.

      Don't forget that.

      Or that the Jews caused the events in Libya, Syria, Iraq.

      Don't forget that.

      Worst of all, he denies, unlike all the others here, that desert rat is crazy as hell.

      Don't forget that.

      Delete
  4. Yeah, every couple of hundred years someone will have the brilliant idea of invading Russia - always works out "great."

    Putin's a nutjob. All he has to do is relax, and, not so slowly, become the world richest man.

    Europe just wants to buy his natural gas, and oil.

    That Billion + people on his Southern flank, however, just might, at some point, decide to "take it" - especially, if he's weak, from feuding with his Western neighbors.

    da boy needs ta "chill."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course, We're as bad as he is. Picking a fight over the f'n Ukraine? Some people need to be fired.

      Delete
    2. Let's face it. We're as bad as Hamas, as ISIS, as Pooty.

      We should let Pooty have Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, eastern part of Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania.....

      Hell we stole it all from Pooty.

      It was all once part of the Russian 'Empire'.

      We're at fault here.

      Delete
    3. They went broke the last time because they couldn't afford the "baggage" of those money pits.

      Delete
    4. What US national interest is served subsidizing the military defense of those countries?
      Why do they not pony up to fund their own defense?

      Delete
  5. A hell of a jobless claims number, today.

    289,000

    4 wk. moving average 293,000 - best since 2006

    ReplyDelete
  6. NOW THIS IS FUNNY -

    UNDIPLOMATIC: Laser birthday message depicting Obama eating banana projected on U.S. embassy in Moscow......drudge


    If you don't find that funny you don't have a sense of humor.

    bwabwahahahardeharhar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would make a great Russian, asshole.

      They have a buffoon for a tyrant/president, and they're making ugly racist jokes about ours.

      And, you think it's funny.

      You're a sick-ass prick.

      Delete
    2. What's racist about that?

      They are mocking him as being a wimp, a chimp, a fool, a simpleton, an idiot, an easy mark.

      You see racism everywhere.

      It shows how irrelevant they think he is - yes, I think it's hilarious.

      And true.

      Delete
    3. You're a sick ass prick whose ancestors were born killers and slavers you dumb fucking drunken ass blow me moron.

      There, take that.

      Delete
  7. Why in the hell would I possibly give a damn if Russia, and Ukraine went to war?

    And, why in the hell would I care who "won?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You wouldn't.

      What's it to Clan Rufus?

      Which is, after all, the Center of the Universe.

      What would you care about ISIS killing everyone around?

      Or Hamas wanting to genocide all the Jews in the world?

      What's it to Clan Rufus, the Center of the Universe?

      Delete
  8. August 7, 2014
    Is there a difference between 'anti-Zionism' and 'anti-Semitism'?
    By Rick Moran

    An English professor of Arab descent has had a job offer to teach at the University of Illinois withdrawn because of, what many of his supporters claim, were "anti-Zionist" tweets.

    Were they?

    Many faculty job offers (which are well-vetted by college officials before they go out) contain language stating that the offer is pending approval by the institution's board of trustees. It's just a formality, since many college bylaws require such approval.

    Not so with a job offer made to Steven G. Salaita, who was to have joined the American Indian studies program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this month. The appointment was made public, and Salaita resigned from his position as associate professor of English at Virginia Tech. But he was recently informed by Chancellor Phyllis Wise that the appointment would not go to the university's board, and that he did not have a job to come to in Illinois, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

    The university declined to confirm the blocked appointment, but would not respond to questions about whether Salaita was going to be teaching there. (And as recently as two weeks ago, the university confirmed to reporters that he was coming.) The university also declined to answer questions about how rare it is for such appointments to fall through at this stage.

    The sources familiar with the university's decision say that concern grew over the tone of his comments on Twitter about Israel's policies in Gaza. While many academics at Illinois and elsewhere are deeply critical of Israel, Salaita's tweets have struck some as crossing a line into uncivil behavior.

    For instance, there is this tweet: "At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised? #Gaza." Or this one: "By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic s**t in response to Israeli terror." Or this one: "Zionists, take responsibility: if your dream of an ethnocratic Israel is worth the murder of children, just f***ing own it already."

    Too many people hide behind the excuse that they're not really anti-Semitic, they're actually, "anti-Zionist." To my mind, this is a distinction without a difference - especially since the virulence of their criticism is usually as rabid as any Jew-hater.

    This guy obviously has no business filling the heads of young people with his hate. Even if he could somehow prove his "anti-Zionist" ideology was not directed at Judaism, his hate should bar him from teaching. If he expressed such hatred of conservatives or liberals, he shouldn't be able to teach either.

    The professor's language was beyond the pale and the U of I administrators were acting properly by withdrawing their offer.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/08/is_there_a_difference_between_antizionism_and_antisemitism.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic s**t in response to Israeli terror." Or this one: "Zionists, take responsibility: if your dream of an ethnocratic Israel is worth the murder of children, just f***ing own it already."


      Exactly Right !

      Delete
    2. Jack HawkinsFri Jul 18, 12:36:00 AM EDT

      I mean, you are an Israeli, and there is nothing worse than that.

      In all the world, the Arabs of Israel are the scum.

      Now if you were a European, well thatd be different, but Israelis are all Arabs, Semites.
      Scum of the Earth

      ;-)

      Have a nightmare tonight and a shitty tomorrow,
      QuirkFri Jul 18, 01:13:00 AM EDT

      .

      And the voice of the rat is heard in the land.

      And the world once again cringes.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, the damned "hater" hates to see children slaughtered.

      The prick.

      Delete
    4. Yep, the Israeli are the scum of the earth.
      No doubt about that, right up there with the North Koreans and the folks that rule Zimbabwe.

      All three use state terrorism against minorities or those that are out of favor with the ruling elites.

      Israel - Founded by Terrorists and Sustain by Terrorism ... now allied with those that brought US 9-11-01

      In broad daylight, a Saudi-Israeli alliance


      Delete
    5. Gee, he wasn't PC, and Bob thinks he shouldn't be hired - figures!

      This right after Bob thought Obama eating a banana was a real knee slapped.

      That's Boobie!

      Delete
  9. The ones that own the country would love for us to spend the rest of eternity worrying about Hama, ISIS, Putin, et al, instead of thinking about why Real Median Income has fallen for 14 Years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert is proud that per capita income in Idaho is the lowest in the country.
      Lower than Mississippi.
      That their schools are not turning out educated folk.

      That his state's is most famous products are potatoes and neo-nazis.

      Delete
    2. You're a Neo - Nazi. We didn't create you. You were just born that way.

      Delete
    3. 47 Idaho $22,581 $47,015 1,595,590 577,648
      48 West Virginia $22,482 $40,400 1,856,680 742,674
      49 Arkansas $22,007 $40,531 2,949,828 1,128,797
      50 Mississippi $20,670 $38,882 2,986,450 1,087,791

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income#States_ranked_by_per_capita_income

      Farming is wonderful, but generally you don't get rich.

      Delete
    4. To The General Reader:

      rat pulls his facts out of his ass.

      He does this nearly everyday.

      Beware.

      Delete
    5. In medium house hold income we are #40.

      Median Household Income by State

      40 Idaho $43,341 $43,028 $43,508 $41,452 $40,827
      41 Oklahoma $43,225 $42,492 $43,733 $40,926 $37,943
      42 South Carolina $42,367 $42,442 $44,625 $43,329 $40,822
      43 New Mexico $41,963 $42,322 $43,654 $43,531 $38,629
      44 Louisiana $41,734 $41,725 $43,614 $42,367 $40,676
      45 Tennessee $41,693 $41,664 $42,822 $41,567 $40,001
      46 Alabama $41,415 $40,489 $42,666 $40,554 $38,473
      47 Kentucky $41,141 $40,072 $41,538 $40,267 $38,466
      48 Arkansas $38,758 $37,823 $38,815 $38,134 $37,420
      49 West Virginia $38,482 $37,435 $37,989 $37,060 $37,227
      50 Mississippi $36,919 $36,646 $37,790 $36,338 $35,261

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income#States_ranked_by_per_capita_income

      None of this means a thing to me. My niece for instance is basically broke and she has more brains than anyone here, speaks five languages, works at the Max Planck Institute of Brain Research and is coming back here for here PhD.

      There is a beautiful young woman with a life.

      Delete
    6. And there is a myth about Neo-Nazis and Idaho.

      The Aryan Nations was the creation of Richard Butler and he was from California.

      Most of the members were from some other state.

      It was the local jury in Kootenai County that finally ran them out of the state, by a 12-0 vote.

      Butler died broke, and nearly homeless, living with some friend, as he had no where else to go.

      Delete
    7. She doesn't have to be smarter than us - only smarter than the old moron that gives her money.

      Who knows, though? She might touch you in that little "private place," some day. Better hit the ol' Paypal, just in case.

      Delete
    8. Robert is using three year old data sets, to make a faulty point.

      Delete
    9. Rufus, you are the sick one.

      Disgusting.

      Delete
    10. rat, who was just proven a lying fool, gets his data points from his ass.

      Usually does.

      Delete
  10. By the way, rato, that grain you swore would 'rot in the field' has been harvested already.

    It's in the warehouse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Got a link to verify that, Robert Peterson?

      If it is harvested, where did it go?
      Who sold it, and who banked the money?

      Was it the farmers or was it ISIS?

      Delete
    2. Come on Robert, give us the skinny on that deal.

      Delete
    3. Now you're babbling again, desert rat, simply babbling.

      Delete
  11. The West’s Prostration to Islam »
    by Frontpagemag.com

    Shillman Fellow Raymond Ibrahim enlightens the Poles about Islam.
    ..................

    It tough, nearly impossible work, but someone has to try -


    <<<>>>10. Do you have any words of advice to countries like Poland where the influence of Islam is still relatively weak but increasing due to immigration and certain radicalization of indigenous Muslim groups (e.g. Polish Tatars stopped their traditional prayers for Poland which used to be their custom)?

    Raymond Ibrahim: My advice is to take heed of what I call “Islam’s Rule of Numbers,” which is basically the unwavering, statistical fact that, the more Muslims grow in numbers (and thus strength), the more aggressive they become. In the U.S., for example, where Muslims are less than 1% of the population, acts of Islamic intolerance are relatively uncommon. Islamic assertiveness is limited to political activism dedicated to portraying Islam as a “religion of peace,” the painting of any and all critics as “Islamophobes,” and sporadic, but clandestine, acts of terror.

    In some Western European nations, where Muslims make for much larger minorities—for example, the UK and France—open violence and religious intolerance is common. But because they are still a vulnerable minority, Islamic violence is always placed in the context of “grievances,” a word that, as we have seen, pacifies Westerners.

    Where Muslim numbers reach 35-50% of a population, the full-blown jihad is often declared, as in Nigeria, which although is half Christian half Muslim is also one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. In short, Islamic aggressiveness is very much a product of Islamic strength in numbers.<<<<>>>

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/the-wests-prostration-to-islam/

    ReplyDelete
  12. RUSSIA BOMBERS PENETRATE US AIRSPACE 16 TIMES IN 10 DAYS..................drudge

    They are out and out mocking Obama.

    And why not?

    He is a fool of the first order.

    And deserves to be mocked.

    ReplyDelete
  13. They're trying to draw the F-22's up, and attempting to track them.

    We do the same kind of shit to them all the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hick draft-dodgers should probably refrain from commenting on anything that has "wings, and guns."

      Delete
    2. Now now, Rufus, you know I'm not a draft dodger.

      You know I got a high lottery number.

      You also know they shouldn't be invading our air space.

      And I really doubt Obama's Air Force 'does the same shit all the time'.

      Delete
  14. Rufus, Patriarch of Clan Rufus, has said time and again he doesn't give a shit what happens elsewhere in the world as long as it does not affect Kingdom Rufus.

    Here is another opinion, by a much better sort -

    For whom the bell tolls a poem
    (No man is an island) by John Donne





    No man is an island,
    Entire of itself.
    Each is a piece of the continent,
    A part of the main.
    If a clod be washed away by the sea,
    Europe is the less.
    As well as if a promontory were.
    As well as if a manor of thine own
    Or of thine friend's were.
    Each man's death diminishes me,
    For I am involved in mankind.
    Therefore, send not to know
    For whom the bell tolls,
    It tolls for thee.

    These famous words by John Donne were not originally written as a poem - the passage is taken from the 1624 Meditation 17, from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and is prose. The words of the original passage are as follows:

    John Donne
    Meditation 17
    Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

    "No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...."

    O My God, written by a wafer muncher, too !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      So saith the man who offers B-52's and the A-Bomb as solutions to the world's problems.

      The irony is palpable.

      .

      Delete
    2. Moron, B-52's to stop the slaughter coming from ISIS, and ending the possibility of a suicide cult getting nuclear weapons......

      Yes, I would support that.

      It's now too late for Iran, however.

      Build yourself a bomb shelter is all I have left to recommend in that regard.

      By the way, Quirk, the slaughter in Syria is up around the 200,000 dead mark now.

      What Q Worry ?

      Delete
    3. If you can't see it any other way, think about all those clits, Quirk, think about all those coming clipped clits.

      Delete
    4. .

      200,000 dead in Syria.

      What would you do about it? Give weapons to the 'moderates'?

      Or,

      Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius -

      Kill them all, and let god pick out his own.

      If you are going to be talking about carpet bombing with B-52s don't be spouting off about Donne you flaming hypocrite.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      If you can't see it any other way, think about all those clits, Quirk, think about all those coming clipped clits.

      At times you are downright scary.

      You would rather blow them up than worry about them being mutilated.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Bob, just as yesterday you refused to answer the question as to why Israel is "our most reliable ally in the ME", today you come up with these off the wall 'solutions' without ever thinking them through and seeing the possible consequences.

      You still, on occasion, say we should have stayed in Iraq longer. There is an example of 100,000 women and girls that will never have to worry about being mutilated again because they are now ex-women and girls.

      In Syria, can we assume Assad is obviously better than the pricks on the other side (including the 'moderates') because he uses barrel bombs instead of mutilation?

      Face it, the people running the show there, every swinging dick heading the various factions, is a prick worthy of being taken out; but the question remains, why do we have to risk the lives of our troops doing the deed?

      On a scale of 0-10 over the last decade, our foreign policy successes in that part of the world amount to -2.

      .

      Delete
  15. Well, I'll guarantee you, if a "clod" of Europe is washed to the sea, this redneck will Not be affected.

    And, if the Ukrainians, and Russians start shooting each other, ditto.

    But, that won't keep the good folks at Grumman, and General Dynamics from trying to convince me that it will.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With a tremendous amount of help, of course, from the warmongers at Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, The New York Times, and the Washington Post.

      Delete
    2. Yup, just as I said, if it doesn't affect you......you don't really give a shit.

      You are the center of the world, Rufus, the very beating heart of a heartless universe.

      Delete
    3. At least, I'm not sitting around dreaming up reasons to send YOUR kids off to die. "clipped clits?" really?

      You and Dick Cheney. When it was "your time," you both had "other things to do;" but now that it's other peoples' kids time, you're raging chickenhawks.

      Delete
    4. B-52's.


      What if ISIS were at the gates of the Vatican, Quirk?

      What then?

      ;)

      Delete
    5. Rufus, give up the Vietnam stuff. You rolled off a bar stool into the Marine Recruiting Office and now say you had Zero business being over there. I stood for the draft and got a high number.

      Doing some bombing to stop ISIS is not putting boots on the ground.

      To me it seems a reasonable thing to do to stop a genocide that is truly developing there.

      All this is occurring because Obama took the troops out too soon. The argument is not over whether or not we should have been over there in the first place. Once there, we should have kept a minimum amount of firepower around to keep this very thing from occurring. We should have bombed them when they were first grouping up.

      One man's opinion.

      Why do you follow the news so closely, Rufus, if you don't a damn what happens anyway?

      Delete
    6. .

      I suspect the Swiss Guards could handle it or the Gendarmerie Corps. But of course they would have to get through the Italian Army first to get the the Vatican. That is if they could even find it. It is pretty small.

      .

      Delete
    7. Bob, it's moronic to argue something that you've never experienced, nor studied.

      Trying to have much effect with high-altitude bombing of a dispersed enemy in an area half the size of Texas is delusional.

      Delete
    8. To do any good you will have to have U.S. Observers in the front of Iraqi troops, calling in exact coordinates.

      That is risking video of ISIS Fighters sawing off the heads of U.S. troops, which is guaranteed to put us right back into a full-fledged mobilization/invasion.

      Our Vietnam fuck-up started with a handful of "advisers."

      Delete
    9. And, you said, yourself, that you enrolled at Washington State "to avoid the draft."

      Delete
    10. BobSun Jun 22, 01:42:00 PM EDT
      ...
      I have a college degree in English Lit. from U of Washington.

      To avoid being drafted in part. ...


      Yet he is more than willing to send other US citizens to their deaths, to spend their blood and US treasure, in pursuit of his sense of "righteousness and justice".

      Delete
    11. Robert Peterson, "Draft Dodger", considers himself an expert in all things military.

      Delete
  16. Robert Peterson would have us think that Wiki data sets from 2011 are more pertinent and accurate than what the state of Idaho published in 2013

    But 2013 per capita income of $35,382 still ranked 49th nationally

    http://lmi.idaho.gov/Default.aspx?TabID=766&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

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    1. In 2011, the US Census Bureau ranked Idaho in at 47th place with per capita income ...

      47 - Idaho - $22,581

      Now one can believe the Federal government, the state of Idaho, itself, or an anonymous poster to Wikipedia.
      Robert wants us to believe Wiki, I demur.

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    2. But by looking at both ACCURATE sets of data, it is easy to see that Idaho is not keeping up with the times.
      It is falling further and further behind states that are more progressive in their attitude, states like Arizona.

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    3. Arizona - $35,979

      Which is low, when compared to many of the other states in the country, but it blows Idaho right out of the water, being more than half again as much.

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  17. Some Say Potato, Most Say Aryan Nations

    Idaho spends millions each year promoting tourism, but does very little to polish its human rights image, tarnished by scores of racist acts over the past four decades. Instead, the loudest, most effective opponents of hate in Idaho—those best positioned to help improve its image problem—have been unpaid, grassroots human rights activists. Still, many Americans, influenced by a deluge of media reports over the years, continue to associate Idaho with neo-Nazis, the Aryan Nations and the latter’s founder, Richard Butler.

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    1. tarnished by scores of racist acts over the past four decades.

      Home of Robert Peterson, it just seems to be a natural fit, does it not.

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