Deranged Rhino Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 NATO won't do crap. The Europeans are afraid Putin will shut off their gas, and Obama lacks the balls to actually confront Putin. I actually think the European members of NATO are the ones most willing to use force (not based on anything other than hearsay)-- but you're right that they won't without full US support which seems more unlikely each day.
3rdnlng Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 I actually think the European members of NATO are the ones most willing to use force (not based on anything other than hearsay)-- but you're right that they won't without full US support which seems more unlikely each day. Slice it any way you want, energy is our biggest carrot and stick. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/19/6251274/us-natural-gas-unlikely-to-go.html The crisis in Ukraine is deepening European alarm over reliance on Russian energy, a weapon that Russian President Vladimir Putinuses to wield economic and political power. Western nations have begun imposing minor sanctions on Russia but aren’t hitting Putin where it really hurts, the energy trade, because Europe relies on Russia for some 30 percent of its natural gas. Some congressional Republicans claim the key to countering Putin lies beneath Americans’ feet. The United States is in the midst of an oil and gas boom fueled by “fracking” – the mining process of hydraulic fracturing – and has overtaken Russia as the world’s top natural gas producer. But little of that American natural gas is sent abroad. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., is pushing a bill to accelerate federal approval of export terminals, saying it would unlock U.S. natural gas supplies “to help free Ukraine and other European nations from Russia’s influence.” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, argues that Putin is happily exploiting the lack of U.S. natural gas exports in order to finance his geopolitical ambitions. Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/19/6251274/us-natural-gas-unlikely-to-go.html#storylink=cpy
meazza Posted March 24, 2014 Author Posted March 24, 2014 I actually think the European members of NATO are the ones most willing to use force (not based on anything other than hearsay)-- but you're right that they won't without full US support which seems more unlikely each day. I for one welcome our new Russian overlords.
B-Man Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 LOL..........................Harry Reid Blames Stalled Ukraine Aid Bill On . . . Wait For It . . . The Koch Brothers!… It’s almost like the Majority Leader is obsessed with the Koch brothers. Via The Hill: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that a “few radical Republicans” blocked progress on a Ukraine aid package more than a week ago because they are trying to protect the Koch brothers. Reid tried to get an up-or-down vote on the Senate Ukraine bill more than a week ago, but some Republicans objected saying they wanted to add a delay to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations on tax-exempt groups if Democrats were allowed to include reforms to the IMF. “It’s almost unimaginable why they blocked it,” Reid said ahead of the vote. “A few radical Republicans delayed this aid package by 10 days in order to protect the Koch brothers and billionaires like them.” Gee its almost like he expects us to forget that he has a majority that could pass it anytime. .
DC Tom Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 I actually think the European members of NATO are the ones most willing to use force (not based on anything other than hearsay)-- but you're right that they won't without full US support which seems more unlikely each day. Because they can't. NATO doesn't have the logistical tail to sustain a force in the field, even if they wanted to. Witness Libya.
Deranged Rhino Posted March 24, 2014 Posted March 24, 2014 I for one welcome our new Russian overlords. :lol: One of my favorite lines ever...
IDBillzFan Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Gee its almost like he expects us to forget that he has a majority that could pass it anytime. Dude's gone full gatorman. And everyone knows...you never go full gatorman.
boyst Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Lets send $71mm to Russia and Putin! The U.S. will pay Russia $70.7 million for a single shuttle ride aboard the country’s Soyuz rocket Tuesday night, even as President Barack Obama fights for sanctions and penalties against Russia for its recent invasion of the Ukraine. With politicians wrangling over the most diplomatic way to respond to Russia’s aggression, NASA said the space pay-off to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) wouldn’t be affected by politics. Gotta love NASA. I wonder how much this will make noise in headlines.
Maury Ballstein Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Anyone heard from Yuli Mamchur ? http://www.ibtimes.com/where-yuli-mamchur-famous-ukrainian-air-force-colonel-abducted-russian-troops-1563354
DC Tom Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Lets send $71mm to Russia and Putin! Gotta love NASA. I wonder how much this will make noise in headlines. Or we can just kick Russia off the International Space Station. And point of note: the West hasn't imposed sanctions on Russia. We've imposed sanctions on specific Russian citizens. We particularly haven't placed sanctions on companies like Energia (the manufacturer of Soyuz) that are only minority owned by the Russian state. Good set of sanctions, those are.
Koko78 Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Or we can just kick Russia off the International Space Station. And point of note: the West hasn't imposed sanctions on Russia. We've imposed sanctions on specific Russian citizens. We particularly haven't placed sanctions on companies like Energia (the manufacturer of Soyuz) that are only minority owned by the Russian state. Good set of sanctions, those are. It's par for the course, though. Obama wants to make symbolic, useless and ineffective gestures as "punishment" for what he can sell as wrongdoing by other nations. That way he does not piss anyone off too much, and he can go on TV to crow to the idiots about how tough he has been against the big bad bullies.
keepthefaith Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 It's par for the course, though. Obama wants to make symbolic, useless and ineffective gestures as "punishment" for what he can sell as wrongdoing by other nations. That way he does not piss anyone off too much, and he can go on TV to crow to the idiots about how tough he has been against the big bad bullies. Seems about right. Russia's actions shall have no impact on the advancement of socialist policies in the U.S. Nothing trumps the Obama agenda.
Nanker Posted March 25, 2014 Posted March 25, 2014 Obama's interest in Russia ends with his desire to see the Csar's collection of Faberge eggs.
Nanker Posted March 29, 2014 Posted March 29, 2014 Russia sends troops, Be Zero's Administration sends... a selfie! That should show 'em.
B-Man Posted April 1, 2014 Posted April 1, 2014 Obama’s Enlightened Foolery:He views Putin, the 21st century, and himself as in a fun-house mirror. By Victor Davis Hanson President Obama talks about Vladimir Putin as if he were a Pennsylvania “clinger” who operates on outdated principles, who is driven by fear, and whom unfortunately the post-Enlightenment mind of even Barack Obama cannot always reach. Deconstruct a recent CBS News interview with President Obama, and the limitations of his now-routine psychoanalyses are all too clear. Consider the following presidential assertions: Obama said in the CBS interview that Vladimir Putin was “willing to show a deeply held grievance about what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union.” Is that any surprise? Why would Putin not “show a deeply held grievance” — given that Russians enjoyed far more pride and influence when they had far more territory and power than they do now? Just because elites in the West might consider Denmark and Luxembourg model societies, given their per capita incomes, ample social services, high-speed mass transit, and climate-change sensitivities, does not necessarily mean that the grandchildren of Stalingrad and Leningrad would agree. What exactly does Obama mean when he says, of Putin, “what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union”? “Considers”? Did we miss something here? Did not the Soviet Union disappear from the map? Did not it leave in its ruin a much smaller Russian Federation — one perhaps far less dangerous and with more potential to get along with the West, but with far less likelihood of regaining the glory and influence that many Russians had come to appreciate? Obama went on: “You would have thought that after a couple of decades that there’d be an awareness on the part of any Russian leader that the path forward is not to revert back to the kinds of practices that, you know, were so prevalent during the Cold War but, in fact, to move forward with further integration with the world economy and to be a responsible international citizen.” Who “would have thought” that? Only a naïf. {snip} Obama added: “What I have repeatedly said is that he may be entirely misreading the West. He’s certainly misreading American foreign policy. We have no interest in encircling Russia and we have no interest in Ukraine beyond letting the Ukrainian people make their own decisions about their own lives.” This appeal to enlightened reason is rather pathetic. I doubt very seriously that Putin believes that reset policies have led to an encirclement of Russia. I doubt also that he is “misreading” the West. Is not the very opposite true? More likely Putin is reading us all too well, and therefore believes that the West is so distracted, weak, or self-absorbed that it most surely has no interest in Ukraine at all. Obama misses the point that it is precisely because we have no demonstrable interest in Ukraine — even in the marginal sense of trying to help it retain its autonomy — and because Putin has read that attitude very well, that he has decided to carve it up. more at the link.
Deranged Rhino Posted April 6, 2014 Posted April 6, 2014 In other news, this is still very much a flashpoint: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/06/us-ukraine-crisis-storm-idUSBREA350B420140406
Azalin Posted April 7, 2014 Posted April 7, 2014 In other news, this is still very much a flashpoint: http://www.reuters.c...EA350B420140406 I realize it's not quite the same situation, but it reminds me of Germany after they had moved into Austria, and before they went into Poland, both in what Putin is doing, and in what the rest of the world isn't doing.
B-Man Posted April 10, 2014 Posted April 10, 2014 FINALLY !...........................a stronger response.
DC Tom Posted April 10, 2014 Posted April 10, 2014 FINALLY !...........................a stronger response. "Even the one on Delaware and Hertel!"
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