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Let’s You and Him Fight | KUNSTLER
Let’s You and Him Fight | KUNSTLER.
So, now we are threatening to start World War Three because Russia is trying to control the chaos in a failed state on its border — a state that our own government spooks provoked into failure? The last time I checked, there was a list of countries that the USA had sent troops, armed ships, and aircraft into recently, and for reasons similar to Russia’s in Crimea: the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, none of them even anywhere close to American soil. I don’t remember Russia threatening confrontations with the USA over these adventures.
The phones at the White House and the congressional offices ought to be ringing off the hook with angry US citizens objecting to the posturing of our elected officials. There ought to be crowds with bobbing placards in Farragut Square reminding the occupant of 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue how ridiculous this makes us look.
The saber-rattlers at The New York Times were sounding like the promoters of a World Wrestling Federation stunt Monday morning when they said in a Page One story:
“The Russian occupation of Crimea has challenged Mr. Obama as has no other international crisis, and at its heart, the advice seemed to pose the same question: Is Mr. Obama tough enough to take on the former K.G.B. colonel in the Kremlin?”
Are they out of their chicken-hawk minds over there? It sounds like a ploy out of the old Eric Berne playbook: Let’s You and Him Fight. What the USA and its European factotums ought to do is mind their own business and stop issuing idle threats. They set the scene for the Ukrainian melt-down by trying to tilt the government their way, financing a pro-Euroland revolt, only to see their sponsored proxy dissidents give way to a claque of armed neo-Nazis, whose first official act was to outlaw the use of the Russian language in a country with millions of long-established Russian-speakers. This is apart, of course, from the fact Ukraine had been until very recently a province of Russia’s former Soviet empire.
Secretary of State John Kerry — a haircut in search of a brain — is winging to Kiev tomorrow to pretend that the USA has a direct interest in what happens there. Since US behavior is so patently hypocritical, it raises the pretty basic question: what are our motives? I don’t think they amount to anything more than international grandstanding — based on the delusion that we have the power and the right to control everything on the planet, which is based, in turn, on our current mood of extreme insecurity as our own ongoing spate of bad choices sets the table for a banquet of consequences.
America can’t even manage its own affairs. We ignore our own gathering energy crisis, telling ourselves the fairy tale that shale oil will allow us to keep driving to WalMart forever. We paper over all of our financial degeneracy and wink at financial criminals. Our infrastructure is falling apart. We’re constructing an edifice of surveillance and social control that would make the late Dr. Joseph Goebbels turn green in his grave with envy while we squander our dwindling political capital on stupid gender confusion battles.
The Russians, on the other hand, have every right to protect their interests along their own border, to protect the persons and property of Russian-speaking Ukrainians who, not long ago, were citizens of a greater Russia, to discourage neo-Nazi activity in their back-yard, and most of all to try to stabilize a region that has little history and experience with independence. They also have to contend with the bankruptcy of Ukraine, which may be the principal cause of its current crack-up. Ukraine is deep in hock to Russia, but also to a network of Western banks, and it remains to be seen whether the failure of these linked obligations will lead to contagion throughout the global financial system. It only takes one additional falling snowflake to push a snow-field into criticality.
Welcome to the era of failed states. We’ve already seen plenty of action around the world and we’re going to see more as resource and capital scarcities drive down standards of living and lower the trust horizon. The world is not going in the direction that Tom Friedman and the globalists thought. Anything organized at the giant scale is now in trouble, nation-states in particular. The USA is not immune to this trend, whatever we imagine about ourselves for now.
Let’s You and Him Fight | KUNSTLER
Let’s You and Him Fight | KUNSTLER.
So, now we are threatening to start World War Three because Russia is trying to control the chaos in a failed state on its border — a state that our own government spooks provoked into failure? The last time I checked, there was a list of countries that the USA had sent troops, armed ships, and aircraft into recently, and for reasons similar to Russia’s in Crimea: the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, none of them even anywhere close to American soil. I don’t remember Russia threatening confrontations with the USA over these adventures.
The phones at the White House and the congressional offices ought to be ringing off the hook with angry US citizens objecting to the posturing of our elected officials. There ought to be crowds with bobbing placards in Farragut Square reminding the occupant of 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue how ridiculous this makes us look.
The saber-rattlers at The New York Times were sounding like the promoters of a World Wrestling Federation stunt Monday morning when they said in a Page One story:
“The Russian occupation of Crimea has challenged Mr. Obama as has no other international crisis, and at its heart, the advice seemed to pose the same question: Is Mr. Obama tough enough to take on the former K.G.B. colonel in the Kremlin?”
Are they out of their chicken-hawk minds over there? It sounds like a ploy out of the old Eric Berne playbook: Let’s You and Him Fight. What the USA and its European factotums ought to do is mind their own business and stop issuing idle threats. They set the scene for the Ukrainian melt-down by trying to tilt the government their way, financing a pro-Euroland revolt, only to see their sponsored proxy dissidents give way to a claque of armed neo-Nazis, whose first official act was to outlaw the use of the Russian language in a country with millions of long-established Russian-speakers. This is apart, of course, from the fact Ukraine had been until very recently a province of Russia’s former Soviet empire.
Secretary of State John Kerry — a haircut in search of a brain — is winging to Kiev tomorrow to pretend that the USA has a direct interest in what happens there. Since US behavior is so patently hypocritical, it raises the pretty basic question: what are our motives? I don’t think they amount to anything more than international grandstanding — based on the delusion that we have the power and the right to control everything on the planet, which is based, in turn, on our current mood of extreme insecurity as our own ongoing spate of bad choices sets the table for a banquet of consequences.
America can’t even manage its own affairs. We ignore our own gathering energy crisis, telling ourselves the fairy tale that shale oil will allow us to keep driving to WalMart forever. We paper over all of our financial degeneracy and wink at financial criminals. Our infrastructure is falling apart. We’re constructing an edifice of surveillance and social control that would make the late Dr. Joseph Goebbels turn green in his grave with envy while we squander our dwindling political capital on stupid gender confusion battles.
The Russians, on the other hand, have every right to protect their interests along their own border, to protect the persons and property of Russian-speaking Ukrainians who, not long ago, were citizens of a greater Russia, to discourage neo-Nazi activity in their back-yard, and most of all to try to stabilize a region that has little history and experience with independence. They also have to contend with the bankruptcy of Ukraine, which may be the principal cause of its current crack-up. Ukraine is deep in hock to Russia, but also to a network of Western banks, and it remains to be seen whether the failure of these linked obligations will lead to contagion throughout the global financial system. It only takes one additional falling snowflake to push a snow-field into criticality.
Welcome to the era of failed states. We’ve already seen plenty of action around the world and we’re going to see more as resource and capital scarcities drive down standards of living and lower the trust horizon. The world is not going in the direction that Tom Friedman and the globalists thought. Anything organized at the giant scale is now in trouble, nation-states in particular. The USA is not immune to this trend, whatever we imagine about ourselves for now.
Libya wants answers over raid by US commandos – Africa – Al Jazeera English
Libya wants answers over raid by US commandos – Africa – Al Jazeera English. (FULL ARTICLE)
Libya has called for an explanation after the US snatched a man it alleges is an al-Qaeda leader during a raid in Tripoli.
Ali Zeidan, Libya’s prime minister, suggested on Sunday that his government was not informed of the plan before US commandos seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Liby, in the Libyan capital on Saturday.
“The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by US authorities,” Zeidan said in a statement. “The Libyan government has contacted to US authorities to ask them to provide an explanation.”
Liby is wanted by the US for his alleged role in the East Africa embassy bombings that killed 224 people in 1998. The US had offered $5m for information leading to his capture.
‘Libyan special forces’
Mohammed El-Hadi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tripoli, quoted Liby’s wife as saying that he was seized as he headed to morning prayer by eight to 10 masked men….
Related articles
- Libya calls for US raid explanation (bbc.co.uk)
- Tripoli protests US ‘kidnap’ of Libyan in Qaeda raid (dailystar.com.lb)
- Libya’s PM demands explanation for U.S. raid in Tripoli (worldbulletin.net)
Kenya government faces questions over siege – Africa – Al Jazeera English
Kenya government faces questions over siege – Africa – Al Jazeera English.
Kenya’s government is facing questions over whether it ignored warnings about last week’s siege on a shopping centre.
A leaked intelligence report obtained by Al Jazeera says security agencies were alerted about a possible attack on Westgate mall about a year ago.
According to the report, officers were warned that al-Shabab was planning suicide attacks on the Westgate shopping centre and the Holy Family Basilica, a church in Nairobi, in September last year.
In January this year, the report looked at the possibility of attackers storming a building and holding hostages, much like the siege last week.
Earlier this month, the Israeli embassy in Nairobi raised concerns about a possible attack on Israeli citizens during the Jewish Holiday period in September, and also revealed that a number of Somalia-based al-Shabab fighters were apparently given refugee cards to enter Kenya.
Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Nairobi, said the end of the report is also quite damaging to the Kenyan government as it lists recipients of the intelligence document, which includes top cabinet officials.
Related articles
- Kenya FM says al-Qaeda behind mall attack (aljazeera.com)
- Kenya Westgate missing drops to 39 (bbc.co.uk)
- Al-Shabab: Kenya Mall Attack is Just ‘Act 1’ (newsy.com)
- New Arrest in Kenya Mall Siege (voanews.com)
Testosterone Pit – Home – Mostly Cloudy With Occasional Drones In The Afternoon
Testosterone Pit – Home – Mostly Cloudy With Occasional Drones In The Afternoon.
Related articles
- Another drone strike in South Waziristan, 7 killed (thehindu.com)
- Investigation to record victims of US drone attacks in Pakistan (thistleanddrone.wordpress.com)
- Drone studies mushrooming in the US (dronefocus.com)
BP sues US government over contract ban – Americas – Al Jazeera English
BP sues US government over contract ban – Americas – Al Jazeera English.
Related articles
- BP sues US environment agency over government contracts ban (independent.ie)
- BP sues US over ban on new contracts (bbc.co.uk)
- BP sues U.S. alleging abuse of power after 2010 Gulf spill (rawstory.com)
- BP sues US over Deepwater Horizon contracts ban (standard.co.uk)
Dozens killed in battle for Somali port city – Africa – Al Jazeera English
Dozens killed in battle for Somali port city – Africa – Al Jazeera English.
Related articles
- Over 70 killed in warlords’ battle for Somali port: U.N. (dailystar.com.lb)
- Over 70 Killed in Battle for Somali Port (freedomportal.net)
- Bickering Continues Over Who Controls Somali Port City (voanews.com)
Deadly explosion strikes Somali capital – Africa – Al Jazeera English
Deadly explosion strikes Somali capital – Africa – Al Jazeera English.
Related articles
- UN says Somalia famine killed nearly 260,000 – Africa – Al Jazeera English (ramyabdeljabbar.wordpress.com)
- African leaders call for more effort to stabilise Somalia (capitalfm.co.ke)
- Somalia’s famine death toll worse than thought (abc.net.au)
- Somali famine killed 258,000, half of them children (capitalfm.co.ke)
- Dozens dead in Somali courthouse attack – CNN (edition.cnn.com)