Overexposed

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Flo

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Updated Communist Manifesto

Vladimir Lenin

The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

Vladimir Putin

"The United States will sell us the uranium with which we will annihilate them."

(Thank you ... Bill and Hillary Clinton ... see: New York Times Story.)...

Ham Handed

This morning on TV's  “Morning Joe” someone (I think it was David Ignatius) labeled Vladimir Putin’s current tactics in the Ukraine as “ham-handed.” Clearly, if it is shown that it was a Russian-supplied missile that shot down Malaysian flight MH17 over the rebel-held area of the Ukraine, then Russia will find itself even more isolated from Europe and the benefits that Western financiers can offer it.

Also clearly Putin and Russia have been overplaying their hands recently with their annexation of the Crimea and their trying to parlay Russia’s large natural gas reserves into greater political and territorial leverage. I think Putin may have believed that he had more sway with the United States than has turned out to be the case. Perhaps if President Obama had not whispered to Russia’s then-President Medvedev back in 2012 that he should tell Putin that he would “have more flexability” with Russia once he got reelected? (See: The Blaze Story).

Now, two years later, one may associate the loss of 298 innocent lives on a Malaysian airliner with that then ham-handed Obama indiscretion.

Afterward: Cartoon from reddit:

The Russian Connection

This blog has considerable readership in Russia … which has always puzzled me since my politics are mostly antithetical to the brand currently being practiced there.  Perhaps the KGB (its secret police whose famous graduate, Vladimir Putin, is currently attempting to restore the Bear to a much larger den) believes that my opinions are somehow representative of America.  Shh, don’t tell them how askew my political thinking is.

Nevertheless, Russia is in the process of taking back the Crimean peninsula and the warm-water Black Sea port of Sevastopol, … which Nikita Khrushchev so thoughtlessly gave to the Ukraine way back in 1954. This might cost Russia more on the world stage than it expects. Even our fearless leader, Obama, might throw a snit on his 19^th hole. This aggression is occurring despite the fact that both the United States and Russia had guaranteed the integrity of the Ukrainian borders (including the Crimea) back in both 1994 and 2009.  Oops!

So far the United State’s response has been subdued and rather wandering. As a result, talking heads and Op-Ed pundits are climbing over each other offering our “leadership” much and varied advice. Here are a few ossified opinions on this whole brouhaha (not that my opinions aren’t.)

Henry Kissinger believes that the Ukraine is not worth any hostilities and must become a “bridge” between Russia and the West  (I think kind of like Switzerland’s status during WW II) … for his specific recommendations see: Washington Post Op Ed.

Zbigniew Brzezinski (President Carter’s chief appeaser … err, adviser) thinks Russia may be trying to duplicate Hitler’s seizure of the Sudetenland before WW II.  He, surprisingly suggests that the West should risk hostilities and bolster the Ukrainian military with armaments ... but also simultaneously seek rapprochement with Russia over the Ukraine's future … see his suggestions here: Another Washington Post Op Ed

But the opinions that I respect the most swirl around that Diplomad blogster, W. Lewis Amselem, and those that comment on his writings … see: The Diplomad Blog

A few comments in this link that I particularly like are:

Putin of course knows what realpolitik is and uses it to advantage, act first, allow limited diplomatic discussion after. He has also perceived that a country that will not secure its own borders is unlikely to assist others to secure theirs (think UK, Germany, USA, the entire EU) -- "Cascadian" commenter 

"Despite his upbringing as a Communist, he is now devoutly religious and wants to see religion restored to Russian life. As the jihadis have discovered, they have in Putin a rival as ruthless and religiously committed as they, and not bound by the conventions of political correctness." I believe you [the Diplomad] have put your finger on Putin's next international gambit once the dust from the Crimea mess has settled. I've been wondering lately who, if any, is going to stand up for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East and Africa. It certainly won't be the pro-Islam Obama or the post-Christian leaders of Europe. I believe it will be Vladimir Putin. He will speak out on behalf of the persecuted Copts and Nigerians. He may even begin sending them aid and weapons. And Christians around the world will flock to his banner, bringing the idea of Moscow as the "Third Rome" to fruition. -- “Anonymous” commenter

My own simple suggestion would be for the United States to immediately reverse itself and place its anti-ballistic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic ... to which we had previously committed (and Obama had reneged on).  This way Putin will quickly see a real cost to his colonial expansionism.

Fun in the Sun

President Obama is on top of things. Despite the Ukraine being squeezed to death by the Russian bear, serious delays in Syria destroying its chemical-weapon stockpiles, and 239 Malaysian airline passengers apparently being blown to smithereens by terrorists, he is deeply involved. He has called Vladimir Putin of Russia two times for long conversations. How do we know this? Because we see pictures of him on the telephone. And he is also talking to many world leaders about these many crises. How do we know this? His administration says so in a brief talking point … see: The Hill Story. 

Not to mention his plethora of serious domestic issues: the Obamacare sigh-up deadline rapidly approaching, the President’s budget proposal being dead-on-arrival in Congress, the administration’s gutting of our military, little or no White House attention to tax reform, our continued national economic lethargy, etc.  Is Obama concerned with all these domestic failings? It must be so … for there is no wringing of hands on the nightly news.

So all must be roses … for our President is hitting the links once again in Key Largo in sunny south Florida.  This time his playing partners are a former basketball great, Valerie Jarrett’s cousin, and a former football star. Why isn’t he in the White House Situation Room with his key advisers mapping out administration actions to all these issues?  Beats me. I guess fun in the sun trumps the serious business of governing … particularly after all that nasty cold weather in Washington.

Yes, President Obama is on vacation again … just two months after an extended three week stint in Hawaii.  In fact, he is on vacation so often that he hardly has time for all his many Democrat fund-raising trips. Do the U.S. ever-alert media make a point of highlighting these derelictions of duty (see: AWOL)? Do we ever hear a tsk-tsk from his many cable-news sycophants? Does Saturday Night Live run stinging parodies about his lack of focus on world and domestic events?  Does an arm-waving Jon Stewart on the Daily Show mock this inattention?  Get serious!  It’s a wonder that we even know he is playing golf in Florida.

And I do ponder what message this sends to Putin?

AWOL

President Obama skipped his National Security Meeting today which dealt with the current and critical emergency in the Crimea and the Ukraine ... caused by the movement of a large number of Russian troops into this region … see: Weekly Standard Item. Is Obama our Commander in Chief or not? I believe he is and, as such, I can't fathom any possible reason for such a clear dereliction of duty. 

Or perhaps Joe Biden was prophetic when he was overheard on an open mic early in 2012 … speaking to the then President of the Russian Federation, Demitry Medvedev, confiding that, once Obama was re-elected, he would have much more flexibility in dealing with Russia. Medvedev nodded and responded by saying he would pass the message on to Vladimir Putin, the next (and current) President of Russia.

President Obama could not be any more "flexible" or detached than the behavior he is currently exhibiting. (Perhaps he was doing his all-important March Madness brackets?) This shameful indifference in this time of international crisis (see: Washington Pos Story), were he an actual member of the armed services, would most likely cause a general court martial hearing to be convened.

But this won’t happen because, as we all know, we are now living in a Liberal vortex ...

D - Fence

Pictured above are the Defense Ministers of Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. Yes, I am a bit of a sexist, but then again that female British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, didn't back down in the early 1980's from Argentina's militancy.  Still, Russian President Vladimir Putin's macho foreign policy coupled with the fact that Russia is a lot bigger and a lot closer than Argentina does not give me a lot of solace as to how these ladies might respond to a similar belligerency ... particularly since the United States has its own equivocating wuss in the White House.

Witness: how much push-back has the West given Russia over what is currently happening in the Ukraine?