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World Politics

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Sep 25, 2009
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mikeNphilly said:
Any news what is happening in Moscow? Putin has been missing meetings the last few days. Tanks and APCs are milling about outside the Kremlin, and a convoy of semi trucks pulled up there last night. I can't find much info on msm, in US. Just getting info from another website I go to.
it is simple - he is scared to death and is loath to be publicly shown convulsively shaking with fear.

...scared of the newest threats of sanctions declared by america
...scared of his own people finally raising against the world's worst demon
...scared of ukrainian troops armed by the us weapons going for moscow
...scared of his own shadow

if none of the above, he retired to a secret room for a few days to to plan his new evil deeds against freedom and democracy.
 
Merckx index said:
Here's another long article discussing the question of whether ISIS is primarily motivated by Islam, and coming more or less to the opposite conclusion of Graeme Wood’s widely quoted Atlantic article (seems the new format doesn't allow the link to be inserted into text, so http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121286/how-islamic-islamic-state:

Like most apologists for islamic fundamentalism, that author seems totally ignorant of the fact that 99 percent of victims are Muslims. So what they blow up Shia mosques, hang gays, mutilate school girls to "identify with guys being killed by your enemies"? Not to mention they commit to a mundane unppleasant lifestyle and the near certainty of death- the exact opposite of what politics is supposed to achieve. And that alquaeda lost all its origimal gains in Iraq because all thr people that originally supported them turnef on them for being barbaric fundamentalist nutjobs.
 
But the Shia are not part of their community as they see it. Neither are many Sunnis, thanks to the wonderfully flexible ad hoc tool known as takfir. The "depuration" of the in-group by targeting elements of it is also common in strictly political conflicts - see the communist purges, for example.

You can disagree with the author all you want, but he does raise some good points and it's not cool to dismiss him as an "apologist for islamic fundamentalism".
 
It is very simple. And it has nothing to do with what anyone else thinks "they mean," for they have no doubts about what they mean.

The motives are clear, for which others who intend the same "meaning" to mean something else, now urgently need to gain the upper hand within the international discourse. We shall see.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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i just got an email with the english summary of the highly touted documentary about the crimea takeover. shown yesterday. some things that jumped at me:

-the opposition was planning to kill the deposed president of ukraine. upon departure from kiev his automobiles were shot at from the heavy machine guns, his plane was denied a lift off and the border crossing. he then called vlad with a plea to save him. vlad said he sent an elite helicopter commando unit to ukraine to fetch off the frightened chap. the mission almost failed...
- vlad took personal control of the 'crimea operation'. the commandos were reporting to him directly. confirmed 3,000 or so elite tropps were flown in BEFORE the referendum.
- vlad directly accused the us of sponsoring and accomplishing the putsch...said, the professional street fighters were trained in poland and the baltic states. 'they knew how to use fire bombs on the riot police', how to regroup etc.
- said he was ready for ANY escalation up to and including a nuclear stand off.
- said they introduced to crimea their most advance coastal defense missiles when an american missile ship entered the black sea. the missiles were stationed so, that thy were obvious for any space recon. vlad was ready to use them if the americans crossed the red line. denied the border-line aggressive behavior of russian pilots was on his orders.
-various speakers said, though the eventual takeover was bloodless, the confrontation with the ukrainian military was intense, risky and in one case with the use of fire arms. they credited the advanced intelligence, cutting and interception of the uki command and control, and the high rate of desertions.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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python said:
i just got an email with the english summary of the highly touted documentary about the crimea takeover shown yesterday. some things that jumped t me:

-the opposition was planning to kill the deposed president of ukraine. upon departure from kiev his automobiles were shot at from the heavy machine guns, his plane was denied a lift off and the border crossing. he then called vlad with a plea to save him. vlad said he sent an elite helicopter commando unit to ukraine to fetch off the frightened chap. the mission almost failed...
- vlad took personal control of the 'crimea operation'. the commandos were reporting to him directly. confirmed 3,000 or so elite tropps were flown in BEFORE the referendum.
- vlad directly accused the us of sponsoring and accomplishing the putsch...said, the professional street fighters were trained in poland and the baltic states. they knew how to use fire bombs on the riot police, how to regroup etc.
- said he was ready for ANY escalation up to and including a nuclear stand off.
- said they introduced to crimea their most advance coastal defense missiles when an american missile ship entered the black sea. the missiles were stationed so, that thy were obvious for any space recon. vlad was ready to use them if the americans crossed the red line. denied the border-line aggressive behavior of russian pilots was on his orders.
-various speakers said, though the eventual takeover was bloodless, the confrontation with the ukrainian military was intense, risky and in one case with the use of fire arms. they credited the advance intelligence, cutting and interception of the uki command and control, and the high rate of desertions.

Vlad also put on full alert the Northern Fleet, US went to DEFCON 3 for the first time since 2001, and the military radio chatter was berserk last night, and still quite busy today. There were "reports" of an air confrontation over the waters north of Alaska, but of course nothing can be confirmed. Interesting night, to say the least.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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mikeNphilly said:
Vlad also put on full alert the Northern Fleet, US went to DEFCON 3 for the first time since 2001, and the military radio chatter was berserk last night, and still quite busy today. There were "reports" of an air confrontation over the waters north of Alaska, but of course nothing can be confirmed. Interesting night, to say the least.
yep, the level and intensity of the military posturing on all sides seems unprecedented in the last decade and is worry-some :eek:

suddenly, all sorts of maneuvers are taking place from the baltics to black sea. by design or not, but it coincided with the practical collapse of the minsk accord. the rhetoric and the mutual accusations is supported by constant fighting with grenade launchers and mortars instead of cannons...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ve-on-maneuvers.html?comp=700001075741&rank=5

i hope cooler heads prevail. otherwise the whole of central europe is going to war
 
Re: Re:

python said:
mikeNphilly said:
Vlad also put on full alert the Northern Fleet, US went to DEFCON 3 for the first time since 2001, and the military radio chatter was berserk last night, and still quite busy today. There were "reports" of an air confrontation over the waters north of Alaska, but of course nothing can be confirmed. Interesting night, to say the least.
yep, the level and intensity of the military posturing on all sides seems unprecedented in the last decade and is worry-some :eek:

suddenly, all sorts of maneuvers are taking place from the baltics to black sea. by design or not, but it coincided with the practical collapse of the minsk accord. the rhetoric and the mutual accusations is supported by constant fighting with grenade launchers and mortars instead of cannons...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ve-on-maneuvers.html?comp=700001075741&rank=5

i hope cooler heads prevail. otherwise the whole of central europe is going to war

With whom? Russia? NATO force levels still put Russia's military to shame, in spite of recent news reports of Vlad putting his fleet on alert. Their Navy is yesterday's navy, just barely able to stay at sea for extended periods. Unless the conflict goes high order early on(read the Big Heat), Russia will be embarrassed.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Bustedknuckle said:
python said:
mikeNphilly said:
Vlad also put on full alert the Northern Fleet, US went to DEFCON 3 for the first time since 2001, and the military radio chatter was berserk last night, and still quite busy today. There were "reports" of an air confrontation over the waters north of Alaska, but of course nothing can be confirmed. Interesting night, to say the least.
yep, the level and intensity of the military posturing on all sides seems unprecedented in the last decade and is worry-some :eek:

suddenly, all sorts of maneuvers are taking place from the baltics to black sea. by design or not, but it coincided with the practical collapse of the minsk accord. the rhetoric and the mutual accusations is supported by constant fighting with grenade launchers and mortars instead of cannons...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ve-on-maneuvers.html?comp=700001075741&rank=5

i hope cooler heads prevail. otherwise the whole of central europe is going to war

With whom? Russia? NATO force levels still put Russia's military to shame, in spite of recent news reports of Vlad putting his fleet on alert. Their Navy is yesterday's navy, just barely able to stay at sea for extended periods. Unless the conflict goes high order early on(read the Big Heat), Russia will be embarrassed.
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
 
Sep 25, 2009
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Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
 
Dec 7, 2010
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python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
Those posts in the forum feedback area did not or were not directed at you, unlike the post there and here where you have lost the script. I was referring to knuckles post a while back regarding drunk russians. Somehow this has caused you to troll and Attack me. Why do you give a hoot about drunk russians?
 
Sep 25, 2009
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Glenn_Wilson said:
Those posts in the forum feedback area did not or were not directed at you, unlike the post there and here where you have lost the script. I was referring to knuckles post a while back regarding drunk russians. Somehow this has caused you to troll and Attack me. Why do you give a hoot about drunk russians?
where did you see an attack ? are you guilty ?
i am not a russian, don't give a crap about them being drunk, but i don't appreciate flaming a constructive conversation in the feedback, as if the the flamer was/is drunk. that's how your idiotic contribution there came across.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
Those posts in the forum feedback area did not or were not directed at you, unlike the post there and here where you have lost the script. I was referring to knuckles post a while back regarding drunk russians. Somehow this has caused you to troll and Attack me. Why do you give a hoot about drunk russians?
where did you see an attack ? are you
i am not a russian, don't give a crap about them being drunk, but i don't appreciate flaming a constructive conversation in the feedback, as if the the flamer was/is drunk. that's how your idiotic contribution there came across.[/quote]
Oh ok. Flamer hu?

I can totally understand how you can misinterpret that info in the feedback forum, I'm glad you are monitoring the forums for everyone.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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i am going to let others to interpret your flame in the feedback forum since you invited readers to this political 'sand box', i will quote you here...

a bunch of people were having a constructive conversation with developers about the new forum lacking features. every single poster was constructive. that is, until you invited (flamed) a poster to be enlightened in the politics thread.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/posting.php?mode=quote&f=11&p=1673478

Glenn_Wilson said:
Are you behind that sock puppet chewbakiedefense? You said you made a new account, I never figured you 5 troll,,,.hsha. king boonies just slammed yah. Invite him over to the sa. .nd box aka politics thread and we can enlightened him hsha........
not to stumble over this pile of crap was impossible...flame on glenn
 
For new posters (who may have come in with the awesome new forum) Glenn and python go way back. They can both kind of be douchebags from time to time but in general they both (no take that back) they each mean well, for the most part. They can just never have a civil discussion. Apparently Glenn did something to python on another forum and then python got Glenn back so then Glenn flamed python and then python.................. Is that about right guys?
 
Re: Re:

Glenn_Wilson said:
Bustedknuckle said:
python said:
mikeNphilly said:
Vlad also put on full alert the Northern Fleet, US went to DEFCON 3 for the first time since 2001, and the military radio chatter was berserk last night, and still quite busy today. There were "reports" of an air confrontation over the waters north of Alaska, but of course nothing can be confirmed. Interesting night, to say the least.
yep, the level and intensity of the military posturing on all sides seems unprecedented in the last decade and is worry-some :eek:

suddenly, all sorts of maneuvers are taking place from the baltics to black sea. by design or not, but it coincided with the practical collapse of the minsk accord. the rhetoric and the mutual accusations is supported by constant fighting with grenade launchers and mortars instead of cannons...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...ve-on-maneuvers.html?comp=700001075741&rank=5

i hope cooler heads prevail. otherwise the whole of central europe is going to war

With whom? Russia? NATO force levels still put Russia's military to shame, in spite of recent news reports of Vlad putting his fleet on alert. Their Navy is yesterday's navy, just barely able to stay at sea for extended periods. Unless the conflict goes high order early on(read the Big Heat), Russia will be embarrassed.
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?

Vladd flexing his little muscles but after the fall of the Soviet Union, they need more than paint and a few Bears or Typhoons getting photo ops. Russia's real OOB is pretty sparse these days.
 
Re: Re:

python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
When Russia does it it is an evil threat, when America does it we are making the World safe for democracy.
 
Mar 17, 2009
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Hugh Januss said:
python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
When Russia does it it is an evil threat, when America does it we are making the World safe for democracy.
some one has to do it :D
 
Re: Re:

Hugh Januss said:
python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
When Russia does it it is an evil threat, when America does it we are making the World safe for democracy.

And your point is???

Who else? Germany? China? ISIL?
 
Re: Re:

Hugh Januss said:
python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
When Russia does it it is an evil threat, when America does it we are making the World safe for democracy.

By the same token you are being hypocritical for only ever criticising America or Americans, for being arrogant when everyone does it.

Who says America makes the World safe for Democracy? The Americans?

How evil of them. No other country on the planet ever claims to be good. Always those evil Americans doing the bad things no one else does. Booooooo.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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del1962 said:
Getting back to Vlad, his real problem isn't the Ukraine or US but the price of oil, he has an economy that is based on oil and with the drop Russia is in an economic crisis
vlad has to deal with great many problems concurrently...oil is but one.

depending on a source, i saw such numbers as btwn 30 to 50% of his state budget income is natural gas and oil based. the oil price dropping by about one half means tens of billions of the us dollars have to be either:
- borrowed,
-cut out of the budget expenditures
-injected from the sovereign reserves of currency and gold, or
some mix of the above

due to the west's sanctions and the ruble meltdown, their borrowing on the world financial markets is almost non-existent (with the small exception of china). the internal borrowing via issuing domestic bonds is also highly limited b/c their inflation has jumped from 7 to 15% and is heading higher. thus in the practical sense, vlad oly has the last 2 options - cutting expenditures and going for his reserves.

cutting expenditures is highly risky in terms of vlad's grip on power. their economy's is still largely based on the state-subsidized almost everything - from medicine, to bread, to education....to be factual, they do have some real market economy and the raising enterprising middle class. but due to high corruption and the weak banking system, it is the state corporation like gazprom that everyone wants to join rather than risk and dare..so, vlad cut the budget just a little.

this leaves the reserves as the only practical fallback option. and in this regard, they are so huge (the estimates vary from 500 billion us $$ to over a trillion) that vlad can maneuver in the low oil price environment for several years. this CRITICAL aspect is either grossly misunderstood or deliberately misreported. in fact, vlad is so sure that while cutting his own budget, he had slated tens of billions on such political-economic initiatives as the BRICKS bank (an alternative to imf), loans to his allies (belarus, armenia etc) AND even trying to woo Greece (their pm plans 3 visits to moscow btwn now and april).

as usual, the picture peddled by the western msm is to demonise a political enemy as opposed to trying to break the problem down for the inquisitive readers.

but one thing we can be sure of - while russia had showed itself quite capable of learning in the military an scientific fields - it performed atrociously (almost always) in the economic learning (and practical) field. thus, if vlad does not force out the bad habit, he will going down together with his nation.
 
I read somewhere that Putin is counting on on the oil price to bounce back. The funny thing is that it did bounce a few weeks ago and then plummeted again. The Russian cash reserves are getting desperately low. They were buying up a lot of gold and foreign currency a few years ago but other countries like Brazil, Venezuela and Australia are having similar problems where one industry props up the economy to a large extent then prices plummet. Iron Ore prices and other minerals are hurting the Australian economy and a recession was imminent according to many economists a few months ago but now they are not so sure. Some economists are saying that if Russia continues as is for another 12 months there could be serious problems and Mr 90% approval rating may not be so popular.
 
Re: Re:

The Hitch said:
Hugh Januss said:
python said:
Glenn_Wilson said:
I guess those drunk Russians just want to stir up Europe. Embarrassed drunk russians?
i guess some drunk former marines have been trying to stir crap in the feedback forum and got their arses kicked ? embarrassed drunks posting idiotic content ?
When Russia does it it is an evil threat, when America does it we are making the World safe for democracy.

By the same token you are being hypocritical for only ever criticising America or Americans, for being arrogant when everyone does it.

Who says America makes the World safe for Democracy? The Americans?

How evil of them. No other country on the planet ever claims to be good. Always those evil Americans doing the bad things no one else does. Booooooo.

Well there was that whole campaign to "bring democracy" to the Middle East, when it was really driven by corporate interests.

In the immortal words of Pogo.

Pogo.jpg
 
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