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Ukraine: Follow The Energy
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Scrape away the media sensationalism and geopolitical posturing and it boils down to a simple dynamic: follow the energy.
Though many seem to believe that internal politics and geopolitical posturing in Ukraine are definitive dynamics, I tend to think the one that really counts is energy: not only who has it and who needs it, but where the consumers can get it from.
Let's cut to the chase and declare a partition along long-standing linguistic and loyalty lines a done deal. Let's also dispense with any notions that either side can impose a military solution in the other's territory.
Media reports on the weakness of Ukrainian military forces abound (for example, Ukraine Finds Its Forces Are Ill Equipped to Take Crimea Back From Russia), but Russia's ability to project power and hold territory isn't so hot, either.
A knowledgeable correspondent submitted these observations:
RE: Russian Army. Effective draft evasion is running 80%. Morale is low, training is very poor and poorly funded. The Russian army has also gone through 22 years of near continuous contraction.
And this standing army has heavy commitments in the Caucasus and Far East Siberia. Moreover, at least half of these Russian ground troops are short term 12 month conscripts. I don't think these kids will produce many usable and motivated troops. The low morale recently seen in the Ukrainian Berkut and other police will be multiplied by at least 10x.
Russian speaking Ukrainian bands are rumored to already be crossing the borders into Russia territory. They're to be ready to sabotage bridges and infrastructure and generally retaliate. Fluent Russian speakers with many years experience of living in Russia. Who can say for sure if this has already happened or is just being threatened? We can say this is a very real danger. These people look just like "Russians."
And we can also say this threat will seriously complicate Russian rear area security and logistics. And speaking of logistics, the distances in south Ossetia and Abkhazia were very short and the populations were entirely friendly. Neither condition prevails in the Ukraine outside the Crimea.
Supplying moving armored units over hundreds of miles of occupied country is very difficult logistically. The logistics for air assault helicopter units are just as bad. These helo units look mobile but they're a lot like a yoyo being twirled around your head on the string. They only go fast within a fixed radius anchored by logistics that are about as heavy to move as an armored division's supply columns. That is years in the 101st Airborne Division talking. The fuel consumption rates are immense. Stuff starts breaking down fast.
Conclusion: a de facto partition is already baked in because neither side can force a re-unification. Various jockeying and posturing will undoubtedly continue for some time, but the basic end-game is already visible: de facto partition.
Let's move on to correspondent A.C.'s observations about energy.
This map rounds out the European energy Rosetta Stone. When they hear that Italian fighter jets are over Tripoli, or that the French Foreign Legion has returned to the deep Sahara Desert, they can can better understand the reasons and real objectives of such operations.
Many have noted that the Russia economy is critically dependent on oil and gas exports to the EU. It should be noted that the converse is less true every day about EU dependence on Russian oil and gas. The Wall Street Journal even had a line about an EU proposal to push natural gas EAST to the Ukraine. It's hard to understand that passage or where the natural gas could come from unless one understands the North Africa to southern Europe gas pipelines.
The factors bringing the conflict in Ukraine to a head are:
1. The natural gas discoveries in eastern Poland and western Ukraine played the largest role.
2. The reduced importance of the gas pipeline running through the Ukraine to Europe as compared to 2009. Since that time the Nordstream lines have been finished and Gazprom acquired commercial control of the Belarus pipeline. The South Stream lines are well along in development.
3. Fast developing liquid natural gas (LNG) seaport terminal infrastructure.
Events in Libya, Mali and Algeria are not hermetically isolated from this. They are part of a comprehensive energy policy problem being dealt with by the same leaderships. It increasingly looks like a series of peripheral Energy Wars that are being fought out for control of Europe.
LNG exports are going to become a weapon in the struggle for geopolitical influence and control.
This highlights another problem for Russia/Gazprom. Its present natural gas advantage in Europe now rests mainly on its pipeline infrastructure. This advantage is fading due to the current and proposed pipeline projects running through Turkey to Europe, plus LPG terminal & ship developments, plus the five trans-Mediterranean pipelines from Libya, Algeria and Morocco to southern Europe, plus local shale gas plays...
The Ukraine is not the only country becoming less systemically important to Europe for natural gas supply. So is Russia. Current events will only accelerate everyone's efforts to diversify away from such an unstable and apparently dangerous supplier.
I think the long-term fallout from the Ukrainian Crisis will be similar to China's attempt to exploit its temporary low price monopoly position in rare earth metals a few years ago. The result is rare earth metals are becoming less rare by the day as alternate mines outside China are opened and reopened.
Thank you, A.C. Scrape away the media sensationalism and geopolitical posturing and it boils down to a simple dynamic: follow the energy.
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If you ain't in the oil business, you ain't in business.
Tyler, talking about business, is there anything wrong with Zero Hedge site?
Zero Hedge at Mozilla is crashing. Tried at Explorer and it's very slow. The others sites are fine at Mozilla.
chrome is working fine
I posted - repeatedly - there isn't going to be a hot war. MAD is still around, and doing its job.
Frankly, I wondered why anyone would oppose anyone else having the bomb. After all, it's highly effective at stopping war.
Then it dawned on me: The reason is because then the US, China, Russia, et. al couldn't go in and drone countries, or loot counties, or finance a coup in countries that have the bomb. They’d have to actually use win-win scenarios to advance their agendas.
Can't have that, can we? How can you rape the world if everyone is carrying a gun to kill the attacker?
The more I read ZHer posts - well, some excluded of course but most posts - the more I realize how long I bought the Big Lie of the oligarchs and their wage slaves carrying out their policies.
George Wallace once said of the Dems and Reps, "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum."
How true.
And how true of all the Controllers no matter where you are in the world.
So I say, "People of Ukraine, you have thrown off the chains of one group of oligarchs to have them replaced with the chains of another group of oligarchs. Either way, you are nothing but slaves."
And to think of all the innocent lives the oligarchs are guilty of murdering for wealth.
The French Revolutionaries only killed half the guilty parties - and replaced them with the other blood-thirsty half that survived.
In the Big Scheme of things, nothing changed.
And nothing ever does.
Or to put this in the form of a Robert Crumb cartoon:
Average Joe is climbing the mountain to seek the wisdom of Mr. Natural.
He reaches the top, and exhausted, he asks, "Mr. Natural! Mr. Natural!! What's it all mean??"
Mr. Natural, in his finest guru attire looks down at him and says, "Don't mean shit."
-30-
Russia at minimum needs Crimea and Odessa to control Kiev because these are the only two ports, otherwise everything has to come overland through other countries and makes things more expensive. Odessa also links up to Transniester the breakaway part of Moldova which is made up of mostly Russians and has been isolated all this time. Odessa in Russian hands gives Transniester umbilical cord to the sea and to Mother Russia. I think the referendums will have Odessa go to independence from Kiev and join up with Russia. We will see the same in the industrial East referendums. Then Kiev can do nothing as Russian troops come in to regions that are ethnically Russian and want to be part of Russia. Putin has made it clear that he will not allow Ukraine troops to fire on Russian citizens which is what will happen if Ukraine sends troops into the areas that want to break away.
I think you will find that a lot of russian speaking ukrainians do not want anything to do with Putin,
this is all a Russian exercise in propaganda which it holds in spades. I also believe that some idiot from either side
will pull the trigger and cause a serious problem, I hope I am wrong.
Russian Natural Gas exports to Europe....$35bn per year
Russian Crude Oil exports to Europe.....$240bn per year
Gas is cheap. Oil is not.
Is that Russian Oil exported mainly by pipeline or ship?
Either method could be blocked by war.
I think you will find that a lot of russian speaking ukrainians do not want anything to do with Putin
Very true ! However, these Russians tend to live mostly in North America, and definitely not in Eastern Ukraine...
.
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=4182
they'll need at least a 250,000 man Army to take and hold Odessa.
Turkey will not stand idly by while 300,000 tartars are subjugated either.
Again..."these are ghosts best left undisturbed."
Putin and all his "pom-pommers" should GO BACK NOW.
"Turkey will not stand idly by while 300,000 tartars are subjugated either."
Good, Russians also want Constantinople back. Unfinished business from 1852....
Byzantine Catholics would like their Basilica in Constantinople back too - held it for almost a 1000 years until being slaughtered by the Jannisaries in 1453 - how far back do you want to take this line of reasoning?
Indeed, Ecclesia!
I say, let's go to the time when Alexander the Great died.
Well seeing how there are 1.6 million ethnic Russians in Crimea I would say they have more than enough boots on the ground to hold on to Crimea, as for Odessa its a port city and the Russians rule the Black Sea, not to mention the Region is Pro Russian and dont forget Transniester is already heavily militarized and weaponized by Russian speaking population. If the Ukraine military, which is practically nonexistand, all this media talk of Ukraine military and I see nobody, while I see tons of Russian equipment and troops, so if Ukraine military moves on Odessa they will be flanked fromt he west and North by Transniester, basically they would be walking into a pincer formation. Look at the map.
Well Mars, I wish you were correct... And I am more than willing to be wrong about this, but I strongly suspect I am not.
No one builds a military and then doesn't use it. Nations throughout the world are rearming... With the exception of US... one could speculate a number of reasons for that...
There has been no weapon designed by man that has not eventually been used. Near the end of WW II US built three nuclear bombs... they tested one and dropped the other two.
Currency war being fought world wide... will end in agreement or war... My money is on the latter.
US empire is crumbling... this is another prelude to war... ie WW II British empire was following apart. In fact, Hitler use to offer countries a portion of the British empire to come into the war (Stalin use to write to Hitler asking what part of the British empire he was going to get... Hitler answered him in June of '41)
I could go on... world is facing perfect storm... suspect it is going to get very wet...
CHROME is google, never use anything from google, and especially YOUTUBE.
He has a lot of BS going on with Flash video players on Mozilla/Firefox. Explorer is hopeless. Opera is free and ZH work better for me using Opera.
Ad Block (bitchez)
Thanks Big Corked. Downloaded Adblock and Mozilla is rocking!!!
EI
Much obliged for the intel on this problem. You're right perfect fix.
Thx
My pleasure! Now let's focus on Flakmeister... He/she is on a row
Ad-Block Edge (not Plus) is better in Firefox. Make sure you add the subscriptions to filter out malware and social networking sites - it makes things a LOT better. Ghostery is a decent add on as well for filtering out more crap, but it reports your browsing habits for "marketing research", so it's got a bad side.
Man up and quit looking at porn
As an alternative, try Ghostery. That'll slow down or block the (4-12) marketing probes etc that tag along on every ZH page.
Aside from the hyper-texted ZH links, most of the Flash-players slave-ads vanish. Damn Flash player and crap!
I had the same problems with explorer, and it was only with the hedge that I experienced it. Other sites were fine. Not saying who or why but I got it cleared up by running anti spyware software. I got that Super spyware free down load and all is better.
Try Adblock plus, there are certain ads that will freeze/crash your browser. Adblock should take care of that.
You have to use a whole bunch of shit,
Just use mozzilla and use adblock+, and then get all the addon's that say 'google block', you will end up using about 5 tools, but you need to have them all installed, and make sure you always have shockwave turned off its the worst NSA trojan horse.
Note that to view Banzai's pictures they'll no longer be visible, because he's not showing JPG's, which can be done by a dumb browser, but he's using a google tool that requires all the dumb ad stuff be on, so its clear that banzai's photos are all a honey pot to get people to enable ad's,
The problem is if you enable ad's then you have 1,000's of dumb clients spying on your computer.
turn it all off, and you'll be fine, and if Banzai wants people to see his work, then he can post JPG's like normal non-nazi human beings
That faggot Banzai's pictures are stupid anyway. After you've seen the first 2, the high school shit gets old.
boy, talk about competitive marketing. it's getting rough out there.
Hey wait a minute, I am to understand that is is not about the safety of ethinic Russians in Ukraine that is important, that it is money?
Oh for shame Mr Putin a good communist would be ashamed.
First one to say Putin is not a communist gets a bright red star.
orkneylad, by chance did you pen ths bon mot:
If you ain't a Harley Rider, you ain't shit
It's a good thing all the big billionaire money is being pumped into Europe. /s
The EU is trying to wean itself of Russian supplies... They can't, but that won't stop them from trying...
The "discoveries" in Poland and the Western Ukraine are shale plays that have yet to be demonstrated. Exxon walked away from Poland in 2012 but this may be have been related to presssure over Sakhalin...
Oil does indeed trump gas....
The silver lining to all these dark clouds is now often presented as "energy independence, it's just around the corner!"
I don't buy it.
So Europe is counting on a reliable long term supply of natural gas/oil from a stable Libya and Nigeria?
Do these guys even have brains...
Libya was a reliable exporter of oil to the West for many years...
Oxy Petroleum has been a major player there from the get go along with ENI....
So, why did the screw it up?
I have my answer, but curious about your Eurocentric opinion.
I don't know exactly what happened in Libya but clearly some people felt Muammar had to go...
And if you think he was replaced by some Western stooge, I defy you to name him...
----
Edit: It should be very clear that the West was "content" with Khadafi in that the oil flowed and western oil cos. were welcome and that extraction terms were reasonable...
When it became clear that Muammar was not able to deal with the uprising he got thrown under the bus...
That is what is called RealPolitik...
To be more precise, the Americans pushed him under the bus.
Like they did with Mubarak, Assad... and (surprize !) Yanukovych .
They tried the same shit with the Iranians and Putin. Didn't work !
If you are the world leader of a country and you have a picture of yourself shaking the hand of a smiling western politician know that you are somewhere on the list of people to be thrown under the bus and that was your handshake of death
The moment Mubarak showed he could not keep things under control, he was dropped. Morsi showed he could not run the country. In fact no one can. Egypt is being propped up by Gulf money....
=======
Is that not what anyone reasonable wants? Let the guys who have to rely on violence to fail?
It is simple, the guys that can't keep the peace don't last. And it is all about keeping the peace now, there are tremendous forces driving things, rising food prices, stagnant growth, lack of oppurtunity....
And there is no fix in the offing, it is about managing the overshoot...
------
Assad is a very different story. Perhaps later...
Yanukovych is another failed player, it all it takes is $5 billion over 23 years to topple the Crown Jewel of the FSU then someone is not doing their job... Very simple....
Iran is a failure whose roots lie 60 years ago....
BS !
Mubarak has been always a very loyal American ally. They had ZERO reasons to throw him under the bus, other than Obama's idiocy.
When you treat one of your best allies like that, the others take notice.
Nobody trusts America anymore. It started after Vietnam, it became a foregone conclusion with the Egypt episode.
America SUCKS as an ally.
He proved that he could no longer control the country...
Were you not watching?
Would you rather the US clearly prop him up in full view of the world?
Now that would be very stupid...
What happened in Libya was a Total and BP production agreement expiration, and Gadaffi said he was going to replace them with Petrochina and PetroBras.
Total and BP pushed their governments into the old human rights rage (with nothing having changed there) amid the initial Tunisia upheaval.
Then the UN was persuaded to provide a resolution that authorized "protecting civilians", and both China and Russia agreed to it. After several months of $120 Brent, the sortie total flying from Italy started to eat into the fuel supply budget of NATO and suddenly "protecting civilians" transmuted into "bombing purely defensive Gadaffi force positions". Russia and China were angered and essentially said they would never again cooperate with any UN resolution.
I was quite taken by the actually excellent press conference transcript from Putin today in that he used the phrase "protecting civilians" several times, and noted pointedly how activity in Libya had been so very corrupted.
Forget the bullshit rhetoric for public consumption, the posturing, the games of the UN and what not...
Look at what actually happens and why...
The lesson is that Russia and China cannot project power and they counted on Muammur without realizing that he could not hold the country...
Do you think that at any time more than 1500 rebels were involved in securing the export facilities?
----------
It is the game that has been played for long long time... Everybody plays it...
It would be wonderful if the game didn't exist, but that is not going to change anytime soon, especially when the stakes are on the rise...
I don't know what that meant. No number of rebels would have overthrown the Gaddafi government if it had not been bombed in a manner not authorized by the UN resolution.
And Khadafi could not push them out either... This is RealPolitik, if you cannot back your claim, you have no claim...
Incidentally, Russia and China got fooled at the UN? Is that what you are telling me? You know, the Chess Player and the Dragon?
===
Edit: BTW, thanks for the lead, I looked up the Chinese and Russian involvement, I had forgotten about that... They would have gotten some western built infrastructure pretty cheaply if Khadafi had been able to keep his word... Everyone tries to play the game....
Khadafi was pushing for gold for oil.The uprising was staged.
You are misinformed.
If it makes you feel better, then by all means cling to your childish narrative...
I don't think Flakemeister is misinformed. He just has a different perspective that I can't quite figure out.
My opinion is that the gold dinar was a major reason. What force is more powerful than the worlwide central banking cartel?
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/4630-gadhafi-s-gold-m...
Do you mean Liberated Libya? There are no tribes in Libya. That Libya?
I wish the people in Ukraine more fortune than the other liberated countries.
I was once sent to Lagos, Nigeria, to install computers at their then brand-new airport. They wanted the CRT's to be painted black - their idea of black-power. I had three disasterous hotel stays in 9 days. The last one was their airport hotel. The drunk prostitutes would come and bang on your door at night asking to be let in. If you let them in, there is a good chance they would steal all your belongings. I mean, how can you stop numerous strong young women from doing what they want with your room?
I somehow doubt that things have changed much for the better in the 30 years since those wild days. They hardly ever write about the place in the newspapers. They are still flaring enormous amounts of gas offshore. Bunch of cretins.
Free Corzine!
[That's The Honorable Corzine I'm referring to]
hang by the neck until dead
Nothing in government happens by accident.
Good analysis. Thanks.
Propaganda. The sequence of generated coup driven instability.
The overall policy of TBTF is a failure.
Exactly! With all the "Climate Change" there will be no need for heating fuel!
And, APPLE does NOT want to sell anything to you if you disagree!
Fuck Apple. They died with Jobs.
Would be a shame if anything were to happen to those pipelines.
Good thing we got global warming, er, climate change going on or else those Europeans would really freeze their asses off if Putin turns down the gas pipelines.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/03/end-nearer-think-paul-craig-r...
The end could be nearer than you think — Paul Craig Roberts
March 3, 2014 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: | Print This Article Print This Article
March 3, 2014
The end could be nearer than you think
Readers:
We are having trouble today with the website. I do not know ...." p.c.r
.
so we have one of those universal agreement news days around the ukraine
situation in the msm, it is fascinating and telling.
.
democracy now ...
Yemen: At Least 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Strike
.
A U.S. drone strike has reportedly killed at least three people in Yemen’s Marib province near the town of Shebwan. Tribal sources said a drone hit the vehicle of a suspected al-Qaeda fighter, killing him and two other occupants. Two civilians tending sheep nearby were reportedly wounded. Reuters reported there was a second drone strike in Yemen, saying at least four people had been killed in the two strikes. Last week, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn the drone strikes, passing a resolution that calls for member states to ban extrajudicial killings. The vote was 534 to 49.
...."Last week, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn the drone strikes, passing a resolution that calls for member states to ban extrajudicial killings. The vote was 534 to 49."
Seems like I recently heard a high-ranking State Dept official say someting to the effect of "Fuck the EU"
I have a hard time believing that Russia will have a supply lines problem operating in Ukraine, calling it "projecting power" is a real stretch given that they aren't projecting very far. If the US could manage supply lines into Afghanistan for 12 years and counting, I am skeptical that Russia couldn't manage supply lines that are mostly within its own territory.
Same as Russian supply line to Afghanistan?
If you look at a map and are aware of the distribution of population in Russia, it is self-evident that Afghanistan is far away from Russian supply sources, while Ukraine is literally right next to them. Also Ukraine isn't heavily mountainous terrain filled with highly experienced guerilla fighters who believe they have a divine mandate to repel the invading infidel.
follow the traveling, destabilization, bouncing ball
across africa, asia, north africa to syria and now ukraine.
perfect timing correlation and coincidence do not imply causation,
much.
ATYOU, BLINDMAN----DO YOU SEE?
I get bogged down on this site
maybe cause I came here to fight
All the words are OK
Though I don't know what they say
When they come together so all mixed-up
Like a yipping and yapping year-old pup
Wish I could write like that blindman writes
But I can't tell the difference 'tween the blacks and the whites
Thanks, for your post---as you see---it inspired me
sometimes i think the one thing i am good at is
inspiring people to try or think just a little
harder. here, you have encouraged my self flattery,
if you were the buddha i would have to kill you.
go forth and initiate an important and disturbing
interchange and debate; one day, the promise
holds, you will know the truth! as frightening
as that may be it is the final prize, the truth
and you will be armed well with it!
Not bad, though a lot of exclamation marks
hope you're not saying
The truth will set us free
No one killed that buddha
Died a natural death
after living a natural life
lots of shade under that tree
and not much strife
Sorry, blindman---this is too easy---except for the caps
i think we're getting too old for this type of
you finish it---i'm off to bed----the lack of humor here tonight is
devastating to a light mind
if it's cold where you are---burn that buddha
the truth will set you free because
the truth is you have always been and always
will remain free.
the thing is we do not know what is
"freedom".
here a joke for the heavy mind.
.
a giraffe walks into a bar and says
to the bartender ....
"the high balls are on me."
Thanks, Blindman,
The 'highballs are on me' made my day
Freedom only if you believe in slavery
I don't----it has never been any part of my experience
But for the last 20 years I have lived outside of the US
And the difference feels like what I might call freedom
Had I anything to compare it with
Oh my---I'm so lucky, some will say
But not really---I live in a dream
Thanks again for the lightness!
heavy to light to rock.
what of first good, nature?
.
EDDIE & THE HOT RODS ON SKYDOG TV / 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcwr6rIfKkE
..scraps ...unknown origin?
even the MSM had it tonight, Obama has offered 1B to Ukraine, that's about half a day of QE, and the desk guys says, who does Ukraine owe this money too? answer, Vlad Putin of course.
get out of denver baby .......go
hear this all /// ...
Eddie And The Hot Rods - Life On The Line ( Full Album )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSryvR0sdcI
.
Eddie and the Hot Rods "Teenage Depression" Full Album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzhX0bKwZ_I
.
particularly this huh....
.
Eddie & The Hot Rods - Teenage Depression
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrtwmyVMfOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJfeLkw7-ck
George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWTFlg2Er0
George Harrison - The Last Performance (John Fugelsang)
blindman,
you're the best
thanks
Remember when Russia went on its little Afghanistan adventure? It was perceived at the time as a victory for Russia and a disaster for the west. Nothing is over till its over.
PS If only the US had learned from Russia's mistake. Oh well.
I think the lesson was actually learned and applied. The lesson is that this is one way to bring empires down.
Good post.
ummm....we didn't go into Afghanistan because we needed a warm water port you moron. Ironically...by creating a huge Afghan Army, paying for it...supplying it...we are in fact ENHANCING Russian security.
I think "KGB Colonel Putin" is a nut.
After Afghanistan and Olympics we get "Chicken Kiev"?
CRAZY.
He and his "men" are kicking over the gravestones of millions of dead.
Again...these things are best left undisturbed.
You must have misunderstood me. I was only trying to suggest that maybe the decision to start a land war in central Asia was influenced by people who wanted to accelerate the demise of the American empire... which is a laudable goal, but done with horrible methods.
NWO
Cannot live with America,
Cannot live without America.
A dilemma for them.
"Permit me to issue and control the pipelines of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws."
Slovakia recently made a deal with Ukraine to provide Gas using pipelines the other way.
I am sure that was just a coincidence with all this other Ukraine trouble..... lol
Vlad rallied markets for the Oligarchs with his nonsensical attempt at propaganda insane the membrane rant, love the, 'we come in peace' , 'human rights' blah blah then sets off a missile hahah.
Follow the energy? Sure. Impaler will pull a Stalin, instead of staving out the Ukrainians ala 1930s, he is going to try and shutdown their power http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/uk-ukraine-crisis-iaea-idUKBREA...
EU gotta make a move, whatever it is...
"mission accomplished."
I do agree a lot has changed since the end of the cold war.
I'm just not an expert "post 1993" other than to think of the world as a far more dynamic place than policy folks look at things.
I do think "militarily speaking" things don't change all that much.
"For every move Russia makes there is an equal move the Americans will make."
I "feels" like chess...and this is probably exactly how President Putin looks at things...but there is a lot of emotion "post Soviet Union collapse"...something the USA (and in many ways me personally) have been confronting for the past 12 years...especially the last two.
Whatever happens to "Ukraine" it represents to me a very powerful symbol of a "peoples" or "State" to determine their own destiny (not just a right to "self-determination"....whatever that means.)
Russia "seizing" Crimea seems quaintly out of place in the 21st Century. What did the "Crimean peoples" do to be in need of "seizing"?
And perhaps the USA and Europe really wanting to do anything about it...let alone caring...is also a quaint fixture of the 20th century as well.
"just another corner of the world where not much of importance is going on."
Perfect time to "go for broke" if your Putin I guess.
I guess it all comes down to "will the US President do anything here?"
He really has spent the last six years doing nothing but talking actually.
As far as "acting" it doesn't get any bigger of a "stage" than the entirety of "the East." Rumors are we've already move out military into Ukraine as well.
"Once the shooting starts this is no longer chess."
I do think "militarily speaking" things don't change all that much.
"For every move Russia makes there is an equal move the Americans will make."
Exactly. Putin takes over Crimea and Obozo wrings his hands.
"European Governments collapse...Bill Gross and other sovereign debt holders make a fortune."
What's your point again?
It's chess and Putin's opponent is terrible, so it makes Vlad look good. Putin has the west by the balls, shouldn't be like that, but it is. Uk/Germany are balless, that could been seen by the ECB and IMF dictating policy over the PIIGS shambles, so...with a Cold War warrior emerging, that being our boy Vlad. Who is going take the play against him? He isn't that tactful, blunt Soviet style all the way. He will try and squeeze Ukraine into submission.
Until someone fires the first shot...
it's easy to think "i have to think two moves ahead" here...but VERY hard to think "that guy has to think two moves ahead too."
When you think about...it's amazing we do anything at all actually.
Anderson Cooper?
Russia has no territorial ambitions for the whole Ukraine. Crimea, and part of East Ukraine is what Putin is after.
East Ukraine - apart from being majority Russian and pro-Moscow, is worth something. West Ukraine is an economic basket case.
Suits Putin - take the bit that likes you and leave US/EU having to pour infinite billions into the rest of it in order to save face and honour their word.
I recall it seems a lot of Russian and prior USSR industry in in the east/south; some of it may be defense industry. Another reason for Russia to hold on to the east besides the ethnic factor.
The most damaging event of all is the 5 Billion Dollars the criminal USG spent of OUR money to overthrow the elected government. During the Cold War, what was our line? "The Soviets are overthrowing elected governments! We must stop Kommunism!"
This crap is 110% out of control! The USG has only 1 goal: secure Financial Monopoly for the Big Fish; the Number 1 enemy of the USG are the Citizens of the United States!! If this corrupt and evil government rolls any tanks, it won't be against Ivan, it will be MRAPS rolling against Ma and Pa and the kids. They have stocked more ammo to use Against US than both the Russkie and ChiCom armies!
GRRRRRR! Rescue The Republic, ZHers!!
Americans Unite!!
Evict the Bath House Queen and his evil Flying Monkeys!
+1
For... an accurate rant and...
The most damaging event of all is the 5 Billion Dollars the criminal USG spent of OUR money to overthrow the elected government. -- lakecity55
Evidence of inflation. During the Cold War the company could overthrow an elected government for only 5 or 10 million dollars... best case, of course.
Putin did not want this; US and (some) Eurocrats did. Timing the coup during the games and Nuland's indiscretion prove the point.
All Putin needs do is hold Crimea, and wait. If he does not advance westward, his forces cannot be accused of atrocities. If the extremists attack eastward, their purpose becomes apparent and Putin is justified.
The neo-cons believe this a small victory, insofar as it introduces conflict on Russian borders and in strategic regions. O need not respond with military force (other than covert weapons and intel), but must provide political cover for "freedom fighters' and "democracy advocates", esp. the notorious ones McCain and Kerry photo op with...
Domestically, the terrorist threat thread is worn out and needs a new villain. The old manichean devil is officially dead -- a new one is necessary to breath life into TPTB fear-based narrative -- the ultimate conflict of good and evil.
We good. Putin, apparently, not so much.
"The neo-cons believe this a small victory.." Under GWB they were neo-cons, under Obama they are neo-Bolsheviks.
+1 for ... Domestically, the terrorist threat thread is worn out and needs a new villain. The old manichean devil is officially dead -- a new one is necessary to breath life into TPTB fear-based narrative -- the ultimate conflict of good and evil.
if there is a silver lining in this Grand Farcical Tragedy (a/k/a The Great Game), it's that the half-life of these real-life fairy-tale storylines is decreasing exponentially with each iteration.
what if there was a World War and no one watched?
Fusion technology, if it's even technically viable would make the resource wars obsolete and give power back to the people.
Seems like it's always 20 years away, sometimes I wonder if it's by design or if it's the unobtainable holy grail
troll alert.
Fusion makes fission seem like childs play....
And energy is still extracted by thermalization of neutrons and at orders of magnitude higher fluxes...
I have a funny feeling that even if fusion is solved it would only ever be used as some kind of propulsion system in space...
And that is being as optimistic as I can be....
That is not the only possible way to capture energy from a fusion reactor. See direct conversion with aneutronic fusion. See research about dense plasma focus (DPF). These things will be pursued.
Yes and look at the relative difficulty vis a vis D-T, it is basically a no go for any forseeable future...
Flak - still deficient in his education on these matters ...
M-Nanor technology (see Dr Mitchell Swartz) is already yielding 20x to 80x over input excitation, using multiple 'controls' and calorimeter validations ... not that Flak would understand any of that terminology, having only a 6th grade education and all ... and this is all happening at the 1 to 5 Watt level vs milliwatts as in years past ...
Poor Flak, he is to be 'left out' on this one too.
Argle Bargle Morgle Whorsh??
Fusion is abundantly viable and already gives power back to people smart enough to use it. Plant some fruit and nut trees in your yard. Build a couple hydroponic ponds for fast growing vegetable plants. Put up a clothes line and decommission your dryer. Put some solar hot water and photovoltaic panels on your roof. Do everything you can to make use of the giant fusion reactor in the sky that's been powering this planet from the beginning of time. Fuck the HOA, fuck city code ordinances, and fuck all the oil company shills that claim it doesn't work. This shit is real.
\hattip
Amen.
In hymns to Amen we often read that he is "hidden to his children," and "hidden to gods and men," and it has been stated that these expressions only refer to the "hiding," i.e., "setting" of the Sun each evening, and that they are only to be understood in a physical sense, and to mean nothing more than the 'disappearance of the god Amen for the sight of men' at the close of day.
No. Follow the money. Power, political or otherwise, is to be exercised. It's no use having power unless you get the goodies. Yanukovitch was a thief - as are all politicians (they produce nothing so they can only steal). Putin is a bigger thief looking out for his crony. It's a kind of mafia. All the talk about politics, nationalism, oil, gas etc are just the symptoms of crooks everywhere trying to steal from all of us.
That too. When you do you find out that many (most?) Ukrainians are actually doing it to themselves. They hold UAH, USD, EUR, RUB, which are indirect mechanisms to fund the governments and corporations that cause all their troubles and misery. While they're at it they also cause suffering in their respective countries. America, being "privileged" to have the world reserve currency is actually the largest net recipient of suffering and market distortions facilitated by the foreign holders of the currency. It is pretty much everyone screwing up everyone and themselves.
"Let's also dispense with any notions that either side can impose a military solution in the other's territory."
Yeah, 'cause, like... it's not as if Russia could invade, say, Crimea without losing thousands of soldiers in the bloodbath THAT would entail.
The people in charge of America were handed orders to begin World War 3 - that is all.
It is much easier to bring it fom Qatar and Saudi Arabia through Syria to Turkey. If only Assad could be removed....
That Nigeria to Algeria pipeline project is being promoted by a lot of far seeing oligarchs; including the lead Oligarch of Nigeria : Aliko Dangote.
France is already positioning itself to help this trans saharan energy thread. It fits in with its 19th century project of linking Dakar to Djibouti in a trans saharan green belt project that promotes the ecological resurgence of Sahel and Lake Chad.
Dreams of yester year and Oligarchy plays of tomorrow.
When American and European corporate giants reshape the nation state boundaries their countries haphazardly traced in the sand in the race to rape colonial Africa during the late 1880s onwards. Fashoda here we come!
I'll see your Fashoda and raise you one Khartoum...
Pipeline... Northern Nigeria... Energy Security... That's Funny. Where do these people get these crazy ideas?
Name one decent length pipeline in Nigeria that continually operates at capacity and that isn't subject to regular siphoning or sabotage.
http://joannenova.com.au/2014/03/warren-buffett-says-climate-change-made...
A CNBC show interviewed Warren Buffett — and in the context of talking about insurance shares — the billionaire (and Bershire Hathaway shareholders) are smiling all the way to the bank. Climate scientists may be predicting disasters, but as far as insurance goes, nothing much had changed.
Interviewer: How has the latest rise of extreme weather events changed the calculus on Ajit Jain in reinsurance?
Warren Buffett: “The public has the impression, because there has been so much talk about climate, that the events of the last ten years have been unusual. …They haven’t. We’ve been remarkably free of hurricanes in the last five years. If you’ve been writing hurricane insurance it’s been all profit.”
Warren Buffett: “So far the effects of climate change, if any, have not affected… the insurance market.
It has made no difference. I calculate the probabilities in terms of catastrophes no differently than a few years ago… that may change in ten years.”
Warren Buffett: “I love apocalyptic predictions, because … they probably do affect rates…”
Warren Buffett: “Writing US hurricane insurance has been very profitable in the last five or six years… now the rates have come down and we’re not writing much, if anything, on Hurricanes in the US at all. The biggest cat risk right now.. I think is earthquakes in New Zealand.”
So as Obama shills for climate change, Warren pockets the profits. Whodathunkit...
Also known as talking your book...
And since when has quoting WB been a good thing at ZH????
=====
Anyway here is MunichRe on the issue
http://www.munichre.com/en/group/focus/climate-change/index.html
=====
And I will close with this nugget from today:
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/03/04/energy-ceo-climate-change-is-real-and...
Ooops....
Bullshit Flak. 17 yrs and counting - NO WARMING.
Give it up, boy.
So you are clearly admitting that it was warming before you say it stopped.
Why was it warming before?
So when exactly did it stop?
And what changed to make it stop?
----
Finally, could you explain the following fitted trends GISTEMP
1970 to 1997: 0.146 +/- 0.067 C/decade
1970 to 2014: 0.163 +/- 0.031 C/decade
If the warming "stopped" why has the rate of warming increased if I add the last 17 years in?
It is mathematically impossible for what you say to be true...
I'm sorry, but No: "The natural gas discoveries in eastern Poland and western Ukraine played the largest role. "
There is more gas coming out of Poles' rear ends than there is out of the ground. A small number of wells have found some commercial gas. Not nearly enough to meet needs.
"long-term fallout from the Ukrainian Crisis will be similar to China's attempt to exploit its temporary low price monopoly position in rare earth metals a few years ago. The result is rare earth metals are becoming less rare by the day as alternate mines outside China are opened and reopened."
Anyone care to comment on this tid bit....
Not before taking my red pills.
It’s not about resources, per se. Ultimately it’s about a pervasive and absolute tyranny imposed by an elite aristocracy that intends to own and control the movement of all the world’s resources, including all human “resources.”
Wars brought on by economic conflict, the oligarchs believe, greatly accelerates their push for a one-world, socialist, Utopian dictatorship – warfare institutes control over sovereign economies, over deficit spending, government planning, devaluation of past purchasing power, redistribution of the wealth… and imposes the power of a police State.
The world oligarchs are forcing these conflicts of cultures and nations to divide the people so they can more easily be controlled. Culture from the dawn of man has been the method for civilization to develop. Kinship, brotherhood, friends and family, tradition and belief have strengthened man’s confidence in himself and his hope for the future.
Family and culture do not fit with Marxism, with Bolshevism. State control to exist must not have the interference of culture and its values. Since WWII the conflict of culture against culture has intensified as a world kleptocracy enabled by the Fed imposes its will upon nations, most notably in Europe and now, with class vs. class, color vs. color clashes being instituted by a banker-operated Congress and White House, in the United States.
Today, of course, it’s the Ukraine.
Master Blaster runs Bartertown.
Russia won't have any problems in Eastern and Southern Ukraine because they'll have the support of the people!
Your correspondent sounds like a god damn Fascist chicken-hawk cock sucking fucking faggot!
CHS is a zio- apologist just like KUNSTLER, anybody that doesn't know this isn't using his critical reading skills.
ZIO- fodder for the blogger fodder on ZH and nothing more. To maximize clicks for google nickels.
Just like Faber, or Ron Paul.
Or Bitcoin ...
Peak Easy to Steal Oil is hard on everyone!!
It's been years since conflict somewhere in the world has not involved the United States, whether publicly or with its many clandestine agencies. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the former Soviet satellites where the American Empire, working with its European bankers, attempts to set up puppet regimes that serve the bankers and short change the people.
And, now, Ukraine.
Says Columnist Philip Giraldi: “The neocons’ modus operandi is fomenting hatred, both within the United States and around the globe.” Giraldi, of Antiwar.com, is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Already having seized a major portion of the wealth of America’s middle and upper-middle classes through financial control and manipulation, the neocons’ objective is universal control. Under the guise of central planning, this international cabal -- based for 100 years in America -- is instituting Orwellian “1984” Bolshevism not only over the United States but throughout the European Union as well.
The Question: Will the international bankers be able to produce a Third World tsunami that engulfs the entire globe?
The answer rests within the American people.
For as Raging Debate, Zero Hedge blogger, wrote in September of 2010, the forces once active in Russia and now in the Ukraine are the same as those active in the U.S.:
“What the United States is going through is exactly what the Russians went through in the mid-nineties. Same group of economic U.S. ‘advisors’ helped the oligarchs liberate the remaining wealth from the Russian citizens…. I know all about it, I have lived that life too.”
And, now, rather than let the Ukrainian people decide their own fate, the Fed neocons once again are breathing WWIII fire that, if successful, will guarantee the final destruction of Western civilization and freedom – all in the corrupted interests of the IMF and the bankers. Here’s the way it happens (from 2003):
Who controls the Ukraine?: Ukraine’s billionaire media moguls Gregory Surkis, Victor Medvedchuk, Vadim Rabinovich and Victor Pinchuk. | Radio Islam
Ukraine, which parted from Russia in 1991, has never achieved a true independent state. Just like in Russia, or even 80 years earlier in the Weimar Republic, a tribe of economic vultures descended upon the body of the nation.
In the early 1990s, backed by the financial power of international Jewish bankers, they bought for pennies, and plainly seized, all major enterprises previously owned by the state, including the biggest factories and entire sectors of the newly "privatized" national economy.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, there are 103,000 Jews in Ukraine, which is 0.2% of the total population… However… the Jewish "oligarchs" were the ones who happened to seize all positions in mass media.
Professor Vasyl Yaremenko, director of the Institute of Culturological and Ethnopolitical research at Kiev State University, released an article in 2003 entitled, "Jews in Ukraine today: reality without myths." In it he says the following:
"Ukrainians need to know that the mass media is completely in the hands of Jews, and everything that we watch or read is the product of Jewish ideology…"
He then reviews the situation in regards to Ukrainian network television and cable broadcasters:
• "First National Television Channel UT-1" is owned by the president of the Social Democratic Party, led and dominated by chief of staff Viktor Medvedchuk.
• "Inter TV" and "Studio 1+1 TV" have been Ukrainian national broadcasters since 1996, they are available in English, Ukrainian and Russian languages. They are owned by Viktor Medvedchuk and Gregory Surkis.
• "Alternativa TV", "TET Broadcasting Company", and "UNIAN (Ukrainian Independent Information & News Agency)" are also owned by Viktor Medvedchuk and Gregory Surkis.
• "STB TV" and "ICTV" are owned by the Viktor Pinchuk, the wealthiest man in Ukraine, with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.
• "Novyi Kanal (New Channel) TV" is owned by Viktor Pinchuk with a group of Jewish oligarchs from Russia called "Alpha Group."
Zionists control all of Ukrainian television media!
According to Professor Yaremenko, all major newspapers are also owned by Jews:
• The publishing house of Rabinovich-Katsman owns the newspapers Stolychka, Stolichnye Novosti, Jewish Review (in Russian), Jewish Reviewer, Vek, Mig, and Zerkalo .
• Jed Sandes, an American citizen and a Jew, publishes Korrespondent and Kiev-Post.
• Gregory Surkis publishes Kievskie Vedomosti and the weekly 2000.
• Jew Dmitro Gordon publishes Bulvar.
• Viktor Pinchuk publishes Facts and Commentaries.
• The Donetsk Group (Jewish-Russian oligarchs) publishes Segondnya.
Who are these "Ukrainian" oligarchs?
Victor Pinchuk is the son-of-law of Jewish Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma [Kuchma was placed into office by Jew George Soros]. He is the owner of several oil, gas and energy import/export companies. He also owns the nation's largest steel mill and a chain of banks. His group has very strong ties with other Jewish organizations in Ukraine, as well as in the U.S. and Israel. He is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, an adviser to the president, and one of the leaders of the Labor Ukrainian Party.
Vadim Rabinovich is a citizen of Israel. In 1980 he was charged with stealing state property and spent 9 months in a jail. In 1984 he was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison for his black market activities. He was released in 1990. In 1993 he became a representative of the Austrian company "Nordex" in Ukraine. The company received exclusive rights to sell Russian oil from president Kuchma. In 1997 Rabinovich became president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, and in 1999 he was elected head of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine. Also in 1999, Rabinovich created the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. That same year the Associated Press estimated his wealth as $1 billion. Rabinovich owns Central Europe Media Enterprises, which controls television stations in seven East European countries.
Victor Medvedchuk is Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's Chief of Staff. The Medvedchuk-Surkis cabal controls Ukraine's energy sector (8 regional energy companies), oil and gas market, alcohol and sugar production, shipbuilding, and athletic organizations. He is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, and a leader in the Social Democratic party of Ukraine (SDPU).
Gregory Surkis is second in command of the SDPU. He owns a soccer team, Dynamo-Kiev, and is a president of the Professional Soccer League. He is CEO of Slavutich, a company that controls several regional energy companies (KirovogradEnergo, PoltavEnergo, etc). He too is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament.
Professor Yaremenko points out that out of the 400+ members of the Ukrainian Parliament, 136 (possibly 158) are Jews. That is more than in the Israeli Knesset. Who voted for them, asks professor Yaremenko. Who paid for costly election campaigns? — 90% of Ukrainian banks are owned by Jews.
Ukraine is the perfect example of so-called Democracy - "democracy" where the rule of a tiny, ethnic minority is disguised under the cloak of the will and rule of the majority. By controlling mass media and skillfully manipulating the opinions of the Ukrainian electorat, these "fat cats" as they're called in Ukraine are the real masters in this beautiful country…
"Jews in Ukraine: Reality Without Myth" was published on Sept. 30, 2003, and was the article that prompted the Ukrainian Jewish Congress to file a lawsuit asking the court to shut down the newspaper Sel'skie Vesti, which published it. Sel'skie Vesti had a circulation of over 500,000 and was the largest in Ukraine.
On Jan. 28, a court in Kiev, Ukraine, ordered the closure of the daily newspaper on the grounds that it was publishing "hate literature," a crime in Jewish-owned Ukraine. The newspaper was found guilty of publishing "anti-Semitic" materials, and promoting ethnic and religious hostility…
Prior to being shut down, the newspaper published the following letters from readers, which were reprinted by Jewish organizations and used as "proof" of "anti-Semtism."
...Today the Jewish community in Ukraine is not experiencing the rebirth of a national minority but is in the process of legalizing its dealings as an apolitical and economic structure, which is well planned, organized and financed. This so-called minority exhibits extreme aggression. It poses an elevated threat to the national security of Ukraine. As a foreign political body that practically oversees international trade, national finances, mass media and publishing, it must be placed under strict government and sate control, and must be regimented and regulated.
...90% of Ukrainian banks are run by Jewish "specialists." In other words, Ukrainian finances are in Jewish hands. As a Ukrainian citizen and an ethnic Ukrainian, my origin forces me speak up and ask: "Is this normal?" …
http://www.radioislam.org/islam/english/jewishp/ukraine/ukraine_jew_control.htm
By helping seal Ukrainians’ fate, Americans will unknowningly be sealing their own.
So its a big Jewish conspiracy behind all the trouble?
What do you think should be done?
End the Fed.
As Economist Michael Hudson said: “In today’s world, the easiest way to obtain wealth by old-fashioned “primitive accumulation” is by financial manipulation.” He calls it “a lapse back into neofeudal debt peonage.”
When Americans end the Fed, they will end this dictatorship of capital that reigns and enables the bankers to own the earth by creating bank deposits with a simple flick on a keyboard. No more saving the bankers and their friends from losing on their toxic mortgages and debts, no more using the IMF as enforcer, no more using the Fed and IMF to bail themselves out. And it’s not just a financial war: it’s a social war that guarantees that the standard of living of the Greeks, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the Italians, the Irish, the Americans…and eventually all sovereigns…will be crushed in the interests of the bankers.
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/100023
Guns and Butter
"Behind the Smoke Curtain: What Happened at the Pentagon on 9/11, What Didn't, and Why It Matters" with Barbara Honegger. KPFA Winter Fundraiser
.
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/100445
Guns and Butter
"Dress Rehearsal for Government Privatization" with Michel Chossudovsky. Privatization of government operating through the process of fiscal collapse; black budgets; war and Wall Street; the Federal Reserve Bank; shock and awe economics; IMF structural adjustment; the Washington consensus; extreme austerity measures; the proxy state; speculative onslaught, regulatory capture; financial warfare against the American public. (Encore from10/23/13)
Gosh, and I thought Kerry had no dog in this fight.
Brilliant!! Kayman.
It's the Joooosss..... lol....
+1000 Teach, bro.
Ye seriozna problema, banki i vzhe uriad ye zhidivski, pravy sektor movchit ? JR we have as
usual serious problems in Ukraine which again I fear will never be solved.
OMG! They are infested with the Locust People!
The answer rests within the American people.
*
If this be true then we the American people are truly fucked.
Maybe along with Monica's soiled dress, we can auction Obama's shit stained shorts from the Cass Sunstein Chicago bath-house and at least have a good bye party for all, before the lights get turned off.
The AMERICAN-PEOPLE allowed themselves to be taken over by a "FORIEGN LOBBY" some 100 years ago, and now the FROG is boiled dead.
Sure good ahead and bitch and moan on ZH, but the frog is dead, and if your still living in the USA, then your a dead man looking for a resting place.
It's not over 'til the fat lady sings. Tens of millions of Americans with rifles still get a vote.
+1. After what seems like a lengthy absence, welcome back JR. Your posts are almost always informative and educational.
I commend the Jews for aspiring to the top of the Food-chain and sticking together, which Christians do not. The Jewish God (Elohim) is a Warrior God who demands that his people "shape up and take over". It is also noteworthy that the ancient Hebrews used to worship a number of gods, but that Elohim won out in the end: Winner takes all! Jesus seems more of a "1960s Hippie God", riding his Dad's sweat-equity and success. "Blessed" are the poor, the abused, enslaved... Don't get even, Forgive & Forget, Love all*..." talk about instilling NO self-esteem or sense of competition in his followers. What a slacker and a poser -- happy to benefit from "cheap, easy energy" (leveraging Dad's powers), rather than "by the sweat of your brow" stuff. I can see how the Sanhedrin was disappointed, after the big buildup if his Powers.
* "Love all"? Really? Interesting that more people were killed under the 'Christian' banner/culture than all others combined: Christians killing Christians. If a Jew even rips off other Jews, he goes to jail (Madoff). Christians betray and turn on each other -- like low-grade peasants - Jews do not.
If the Jews are now in such dominant position, the Christians have only themselves to blame: They handed over the reigns. Time to fire the "Hippie God" and time for a new "Warrior God". Maybe that's why the Nazis fired Jesus and re-hired the Nordic gods of strength and victory (and in the process killed more Christians than Jews). You need Zeus, not Aphrodite. Shape up and take over, or get milked, raped, sheared and fleeced. -Kirk out.
+1 for choosing to correctly define the word chosen as noting the switch from polytheism to monotheism.
-1 for choosing to respond within the limited boundaries of the same zero-sum game. how very Klingon of Kirk.
shocked...absolutely SHOCKED that there is no source for this map.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gas_pipelines_across_Mediterranee_and_Sahara_map-en.svg?uselang=fr
When you want to find the source of an image...
1) Right Click the Image.
2) Click Copy
3) Open Google.com
4) Paste into Search Window and hit enter.
5) Google will have a query line at the top, before the listings that asks, "Search for Image"? Click on that.
You can find your avatar on this page...
http://www.cracked.com/funny-2023-gunslinger/
Scroll down.
Dayum
Interesting - but limited. Russia is not going to allow a pro-Western government to control Sevastopol, and they are certainly not going to allow an Ultra-nationalist party to outlaw the Russian language in Crimea. Ukranian ultra-nationalists fought with the Nazi's against Russia. There are still Ukranians dressing-up as Nazis and recreating battle scenes fighting the Soviet Union - see this. It's historically untenable, and unlike Americans, the Russians remember.
The Russians installed a puppet and economically black-mailed Ukraine. The Americans funded demonstrators and sought a pro-Western government to pull Ukraine into the EU. Both lost. The puppet flew home; the pro-Westerners aren't up to facing down the neo-nazis.
As you suggest, a partition - which is only a formality on top of the effective status quo - is the only reasonable answer. There won't be a war over the territorial integrity of the Ukraine - no one in the EU will fight for it and America is not going to do that alone.
The outlook in "lesser" Ukraine is not pretty, the neo-nazis are ready to kill and will come out on top. As is so often the case, Ukraine would have been better off if the "Super" powers had stayed home.
In 1942, The Ukrainians in the west had a choice when the weirmacht turned up, join the force to fight against
the communists or go to work in Germany. It meant that some went to Germany to work like my father and some to
join the weirmacht and fight the Russians. This meant eventually that Ukrainians were killing eachother.
This is not the first time Ukraianians have shot themselves in the foot, they seem to have this propensity
in spades. Saying this there are no neo nazis in Ukraine (ok a few), mainly just people who want a normal life
There are NEO-NAZI's tribes in all of Europe. Every European country has Nazi-Wannabe's even Germany.
SKIN-HEADS call them what you wish, but they all worship HITLER.
The CIA hired the NEO-NAZI's of Ukraine to create CHAOS, at the price of $5 billion USD via Lurch/Hillary.
Loss of Sevastopol would result in Putin losing face, and the West knows not to do that...
Sevastopol could easily become the 21st century version of Gitmo...
the pro-Westerners aren't up to facing down the neo-nazis.
*
The Pro-Westerners are the NEO-ZIO-NAZI's, and the $5 Billion from HILLARY/LURCH funded the most hard-core NAZI's in the UKRAINE to bring chaos to the streets.
Never forget who the real NAZI's are in this game, and its goes back to BUSH, FORD, HARRIMAN, and Hearst, and Rockefeller in 1910.
In his book, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power," Daniel Yergin repeatedly makes the point that the control of, and access to, energy sources has largely dominated the thinking, strategy, motivations, and other considerations of all of the major wars fought for the last 150 years or longer -- certainly since the advent of mechanized warfare.
He even points out that, although Hitler was frequently criticized for attempting to fight WWII with both western and eastern fronts simulataneously (thus splitting his fources), Hitler really had no choice. Germany would have run out of oil and other energy sources before being able to win WWII no matter what. Attacking both fronts, acording to Yergin, was an attempt by Hitler to hedge his bets so that he would either be able to capture the Allied fuel depots in western Europe or the Baku oilfields in the east. As it turned out, the nazis just missed capturing both -- due to mistaken navigating in the case of Europe and due to Hitler deciding to attempt to capture Stalingrad instead of focusing on the Baku oilfields once he was tempted by how close to Stalingrad his forces had come (if I remember correctly) -- and the war's outcome was more or less prededermined at that point, according to Yergin. I have no idea if this is actually true, but Yergin makes a compelling argument.
I strongly recomend this book to anyone who is interested in history -- specifically, the history of energy.
Follow the money and the energy!