The Alliance Of Free Riders

Great news from a multi-national Pew survey:

WASHINGTON — As NATO faces a resurgent Russian military, a substantial number of Europeans do not believe that their own countries should rush to defend an ally against attack, according to a comprehensive survey to be made public on Wednesday.

NATO’s charter states that an attack against one member should be considered an attack against all, but the survey points to the challenges the alliance faces in trying to maintain its cohesion in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia.

“At least half of Germans, French and Italians say their country should not use military force to defend a NATO ally if attacked by Russia,” the Pew Research Center said it found in its survey, which is based on interviews in 10 nations.

The French army mutinied in 1917, rolled over in 1940, and has not really answered the bell since then. As to the Germans, there is a backstory:

Germany, a critical American ally in the effort to forge a Ukraine peace settlement, was at the other end of the spectrum. Only 38 percent of Germans said that Russia was a danger to neighboring countries aside from Ukraine, and only 29 percent blamed Russia for the violence in Ukraine.

Consequently, 58 percent of Germans do not believe that their country should use force to defend another NATO ally. Just 19 percent of Germans say NATO weapons should be sent to the Ukrainian government to help it better contend with Russian and separatist attacks.

Support for the NATO alliance in Germany was tallied at 55 percent, down from 73 percent in 2009. Those results are influenced by Germans in the eastern part of the country, who are more than twice as likely as western Germans to have confidence in President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

And NATO really only needs a few patsies:

In the United States, the study notes, support for NATO remains fairly strong. Americans and Canadians, it says, were the only nationalities surveyed in which more than half of those polled believed that their country should take military action if Russia attacked a NATO ally. 

Great Britain was at 49%.

Comments

[henry]

Europe, a land that is very good at being overrun by maniac hordes.

[Miss Marple]

Good morning, all!

I think Europe is a continent-sized example in natural selection.

The gene pool for warriors has been depleted by emigration, casualties from the last 2 World Wars, and intermarriage.

Hence the result of the survey.

[NKonChrome]

EuTopia-- a craven continent.

The Poles remain a strong an proud nation, only 34% are should 'not'. The lack of a strong majority 'should' is because of their complicated relations with the Ukaines, not because of any misconceptions about Putin's autocracy and his expansionism.

[GMax]

How embarrassing for Germany to lag even the craven cheese eating surrender monkeys...

[Rick Ballard]

A legitimate argument can be made that EuTopia's choice of slow demographic suicide precludes the acceleration of its demise through warfare. The EuTopian birth rate has been far below replacement rate for decades, raising the value of their special snowflakes to the point where enslavement has to be weighed against accelerated extinction.

It's just a corollary to acceptance of the idiotic Malthusian modeling which remains the basis for much of EuTopian policy.

[Extraneus]

Except for us, none of the countries on that list could hold their own in a military conflict.

[Neo]

Under the outstanding leadership of Franklin Raines Barack Obama ...

[Jack is Back!]

This is mostly a result of our over-sized commitment in terms of resources, command & control and leadership of NATO. Other participating countries have nowhere the same level of defense spending per GDP as a result. As my wife's family in Belgian like to say, "NATO is America, not Europe". Laizze-faire attitude to their own security. We'll take care of it.

[Neo]

bout three weeks before Freddie Gray was chased from a West Baltimore corner by three Baltimore police officers — the start of a fatal encounter — the office of prosecutor Marilyn Mosby asked police to target the intersection with "enhanced" drug enforcement efforts, court documents show.

"State's Attorney Mosby asked me to look into community concerns regarding drug dealing in the area of North Ave and Mount St," Joshua Rosenblatt, division chief of Mosby's Crime Strategies Unit, wrote in a March 17 email to a Western District police commander.

LUN

[jimmyk on iPad]

France seems to be the most opinionated country--no undecideds in that poll? Suspicious.

[Neo]

Authorities in Baltimore report that at least 27 pharmacies were looted of 175,000 doses of narcotics during the riots.

Expect Baltimore to be quiet as there are enough doses out there to keep everybody "high" for a year.

One the flip-side, expect some more gang violence as prices drop.

[Steve]

Video - This man's blood has saved the lives of two million babies

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/06/this-mans-blood-has-saved-lives-of-two.html

[NKonChrome]

Detroit bankruptcy, Illinois on the brink, Baltimore's circling the drain, is there any hope '16 voters will connect the dots and understand what it means to be trapped in a Blue Hell?

[henry]

NK, not a chance. The will be "hands up" about some suburb of Peoria by then.

[James D.]

No, NK. No chance at all.

The progs have done their work well. 50+ years of indoctrination, miseducation, erasure of history, undermining of values and destruction of the pillars of stability both of the family and of society at large, are bearing their fruit now.

[Extraneus]

Climate scientists criticize government paper that erases ‘pause’ in warming

Until last week, government data on climate change indicated that the Earth has warmed over the last century, but that the warming slowed dramatically and even stopped at points over the last 17 years.

But a paper released May 28 by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has readjusted the data in a way that makes the reduction in warming disappear, indicating a steady increase in temperature instead. But the study’s readjusted data conflict with many other climate measurements, including data taken by satellites, and some climate scientists aren’t buying the new claim.

“While I’m sure this latest analysis from NOAA will be regarded as politically useful for the Obama administration, I don’t regard it as a particularly useful contribution to our scientific understanding of what is going on,” Judith Curry, a climate science professor at Georgia Tech, wrote in a response to the study.

...

Some climate scientists applaud Karl’s adjustments and say they debunk the idea that the Earth has stopped warming.

“[This] points out just how small and fragile a notion that was,” Peter Frumhoff, director of science & policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told FoxNews.com

Asked about the contradiction with satellite data, he said he trusted the new paper.

“I trust the process of legitimate scientific peer review that this paper has undergone, as well as the care that its authors bring to their respected work,” he said, adding that, “the faux debate over a so-called ‘hiatus’ has been an unfortunate diversion from meaningful dialogue about how best to address the broadly recognized serious problem of climate change.”

[Captain Hate]

It would help to have an opposition party to make the point instead of counting on the product of public schools to connect the dots.

[James D.]

I hate polling so, so much.

It's all in how you ask the question. I wonder if the results would look at all different if people had been asked "If one of our NATO allies is attacked, should our country honor its treaty committments and aid them?"

Or even "If one of our NATO allies is attacked, should our contrty disregard its treaty committments and remain ininvolved in the conflict?"

[Ben]

The US’ support of militant historical revisionists in the Mideast and Ukraine is extremely significant in signaling a dangerous escalation of postmodern tactics and weaponry. The utilization of historical memory as a physical weapon in the battlefield for ‘hearts and minds’ exceeds what developed society has witnessed since the end of World War II. While such backwards tactics occasionally reared their ugly head from antiquity until 1945, it seemed like the world was finally on the verge of realizing how unnecessary and harmful they are to human civilization when ISIL and the Ukrainian Nazis began their anti-historical campaigns (with the former destroying things that hadn’t been targeted for thousands of years by a multitude of adversaries). The greatest shame is that the US’ acceptance and support of both groups might herald in a larger return to historic savagism, where no monuments or artifacts are considered ‘sacred’ to the historical memory of either the battleground state or civilization as a whole. Opening these floodgates would portend negatively for all that mankind has accomplished in the past 70 years, but bearing in mind that the US is crazily intent on creating chaos to maintain its grip on Eurasia, it should be expected that more ‘historical assassins’ will emerge in the coming years as the New Cold War intensifies.

http://thesaker.is/isil-kievs-nazis-and-the-rage-against-history/

How many Frankensteins can the West raise up?

[Beasts of England]

First we had 'Hide The Decline' and now it's 'Erase The Pause'. It's really not surprising that the hacks associated with the AGW scam would try such a maneuver. If they couldn't fudge the data, they'd have to admit what the rest of us already know: their hypothesis has been falsified.

[Neo]

Perhaps most intriguing in the recent email batch is a one-line note to Mrs. Clinton from a top advisor, Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan. The subject of the September 10, 2011 email is simply "Rogers." The note in its entirety reads: "Apparently wants to see you to talk Libya/weapons."

"Rogers" is then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican. The email was unearthed at the deep end of the document dump and first noted in a piece by Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne of Fox News.

Chairman Rogers and other GOP House committee chairman spent a good deal of time opposing the formation of the Benghazi Select Committee. As Eli Lake reported last year, Rogers "warned his colleagues" about the committee. Lake reported that "the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Armed Services, and Government Reform committees -- Reps. Rogers, Buck McKeon, and Darrell Issa, respectively -- all opposed the formation of a select committee on Benghazi."

Rogers abruptly resigned from the House in 2014 and embarked on a career as a radio and TV talking head. Around the same time, his wife, Kristi Rogers, quietly departed from a top position at the private defense contractor Aegis Defense Services, which had interests in Libya.

LUN

[Extraneus]

They trust the rigged process of legitimate peer review, Beasts.

[Extraneus]

Man dismissed from jury duty for wearing prisoner costume

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) -- A Vermont man has escaped jury duty - by getting dismissed for wearing a prisoner costume.

James Lowe of Barnet says he was released from jury duty on Tuesday when he showed up to court wearing a black-and-white-striped jumpsuit with a matching beanie.

[Ben]

POOOOOTIN:

"What does the actual potential show? US military spending is higher than that of all countries in the world taken together. The aggregate military spending of NATO countries is 10 times, note – 10 times higher than that of the Russian Federation. Russia has virtually no bases abroad. We have the remnants of our armed forces (since Soviet times) in Tajikistan, on the border with Afghanistan, which is an area where the terrorist threat is particularly high. The same role is played by our airbase in Kyrgyzstan; it is also aimed at addressing the terrorist threat and was set up at the request of the Kyrgyz authorities after a terrorist attack perpetrated by terrorists from Afghanistan on Kyrgyzstan.

We have kept since Soviet times a military unit at a base in Armenia. It plays a certain stabilising role in the region, but it is not targeted against anyone. We have dismantled our bases in various regions of the world, including Cuba, Vietnam, and so on. This means that our policy in this respect is not global, offensive or aggressive.

I invite you to publish the world map in your newspaper and to mark all the US military bases on it. You will see the difference.

Sometimes I am asked about our airplanes flying somewhere far, over the Atlantic Ocean. Patrolling by strategic airplanes in remote regions was carried out only by the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. In the early 1990s, we, the new, modern Russia, stopped these flights, but our American friends continued to fly along our borders. Why? Some years ago, we resumed these flights. And you want to say that we have been aggressive?

American submarines are on permanent alert off the Norwegian coast; they are equipped with missiles that can reach Moscow in 17 minutes. But we dismantled all of our bases in Cuba a long time ago, even the non-strategic ones. And you would call us aggressive?

You yourself have mentioned NATO’s expansion to the east. As for us, we are not expanding anywhere; it is NATO infrastructure, including military infrastructure, that is moving towards our borders. Is this a manifestation of our aggression?

Finally, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was to a large extent the cornerstone of the entire international security system. Anti-missile systems, bases and radars are located in the European territory or in the sea, e.g. in the Mediterranean Sea, and in Alaska. We have said many times that this undermines international security. Do you think this is a display of our aggression as well?"

[NKonChrome]

Judith Curry is an honest scientist. The rest of the NOAA/GISS clowns are craven rent seekers barking like circus seals for their next grant.This whole thing is a farce. That Frumhoff POS has the audacity to say that 'peer review' is more important than actual scientific measurements. Those Lower Trop Temp satellites are like Galileo's telescope. They reveal the evidence that invalidates the faith based system in place. In the case of Galileo's telescope it was the Aristotelian geocentric universe being invalidated, in the case of the satellite measurements, it is the faith based and fascistic power driven AGW theory. Like Galileo, Curry risks exile by the AGW Inquisition.

[Jane]

I just realized that my email is not working - so all the emails I sent yesterday to party goers are not getting to you guys - including my address. I've contacted the server guy - but I'm not ignoring you. If someone has my address send it to the group so everyone has it - thannks

When it rains it pours

[GMax]

Yes we know that satellites have a genetic propensity to lie don't we? After all they have a lot of grant money that would dry up if they told the truth, right? OH, sorry I confused the machines with these "scientists"

[Eric in Boise]

The US’ support of militant

It only took me these five words before I correctly initiated scroll-by mode. It usually takes me a sentence or two, so that's a nice personal best on a Wednesday morn.

[Ben]

"Advisors" heh. The strategy failed in VN. Let's keep banging our heads on that brick wall.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-prepares-plan-to-send-hundreds-more-troops-to-iraq-1433886530

[Miss Marple]

Eric,

My preferred method is to note a large block of type, scroll down to see who poster is, suspicions confirmed, and then move on.

[Beasts of England]

I prefer the term 'Pal Reviewed', Extraneus. :)

Christy and Spencer are also honest scientists, NK - and they gladly endure the barbs from the AGW shills.

[NKonChrome]

@9:22 is hysterical. It's permanently 1974 in Left World .... reprinting Russian propaganda. Hysterical.

[Ben]

Eric; Great scene from 'Idiocracy" ...

"Why you tryin' to read them words? You a fag?" :)

[NKonChrome]

BoE-- UAH's Spencer is indeed an honest scientist. He lays out in plain English all data adjustments to account for orbital changes. The satellite data, plus honest ground temp databases (even Hadley's/EAU) show both the decline and pause. That data has to be tortured to show anything else. One small comment in response to you; the satellite and raw ground Temp data do falsify IPCC I/II's 4C 'catastrophic' warming (that's why the fascistic Progs started calling it 'Climate Change') what is 'not disproven' is the Lindzen 1C temp increase resulting for doubling CO2 amounts. The feedback effect (either way) can't be measured yet, still too insignificant. But the 'Climate Change' propaganda is a political power grab scam, it is the opposite of science.

[Ben]

Propaganda is easily debunked so if you can't just say so NK.

[Cecil Turner]

I think it'd be interesting to plot the distance from the capitals of each of those countries to the border with Russia and factor it into the results.

But they also missed the real question, which is: should NATO be expanded to states which border Russia? And, if so, should you try to fight a regional war (with a twitchy nuclear power) you can't possibly win?

The recent experiences in Ukraine and Georgia suggest bumbling into conflict more than any reasoned diplomatic effort . . . and with the current crop of morons at the levers of power in the US . . . well, it hardly inspires confidence.

[Beasts of England]

Agree about I/II. Those were my primary interest, and once they were falsified, nothing much after that mattered to me - their credibility was forever lost. Lindzen may have a point, but it's impossible to distill out any meaningful granularity. In my not so humble opinion, of course. ;)

[Ben]

Rummy wasn't bashing Bush, heh.

"In a story titled "Bush was wrong on Iraq, says Rumsfeld," Rumsfeld told The Times that "the idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words ... I'm not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/politics/rumsfeld-no-democracy-in-iraq/

[Cecil Turner]

I'm not sure which is sillier: quoting Putin on what a peaceful guy he is, or trying to find daylight between the Bush/Rumsfeld models on Iraq.

As to what possible political purpose this navel-gazing serves for our fourth-estate-as-fifth-column and fellow travelers, well, you gotta get pretty deep in the crazy to figure that out.

[Appalled]

Ben:

Rummy's template for Iraq is what we did in Libya. It's not an improvement, but it is a little cheaper (both in money and simple morality.)

[henry]

Meanwhile, the ACA saves 1000 Milwaukeeans from the need to go to work.

[Ben]

There were facts in his diatribe Cecil. If you don't want to address facts let's do the POOOOTIN dance. He's eeeeeevil and former KGB.

'Nuff said.

[Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

-Rummy's template for Iraq is what we did in Libya.--

Rumsfeld's template was to drop a few bombs with no ground troops onto a country that had already begun behaving itself so that the fanatics could take over?

[Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

There are indeed facts. What is missing is truth.

[Ben]

'simple morality'

I see what you done, Appalled. :)

[Ben]

"What is Truth?" :)

[Cecil Turner]

"There were facts in his diatribe"? That's all you got? Read a news report or check out a map. Like this one f'rinstance:

[Cecil Turner]

Rummy's template for Iraq is what we did in Libya.

Remind me when we put 100+k troops into Libya . . . because I'm getting old and forgetful, apparently.

[henry]

The level of stupid takes a consortium of universities to achieve. Thanks to our friend in Chicago, we now know that energy use will be cut but 39% by 2050, the main obstacles are social & political. Everything will be electric -- no more combustion at icky things like coal power plants. Too many Dana Wards are still employed in these institutions.

[Ben]

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=NATO+deployment+map+Ukraine

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=NATO+deployment+map+Ukraine

Imagine Cecil's response if US were surrounded.

[Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

--"What is Truth?" :)--

It's easier to describe what it's not. This for instance;

Imagine Cecil's response if US were surrounded.

Poor Russia surrounded by enemies it created by centuries of repeated invasions and slaughtering the citizens of and then absorbing portions of.
A variation on the orphan throwing himself on the mercy of the court gag.

[Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

The only question I have is whether Ben's new found love and defense of all things Russian and Pootiny and his regurgitated Russian agitprop about the Ukraine being the Fourth Reich is his usual off the rails incoherent political pap or if he is now one of those paid Russkie trolls agiting and propping for rubles.

[Appalled]

Cecil:

My memory is a little old, too, but I think Rummy had us pulling out pretty quickly with some authoritarian pro-US politician in charge, and none of this nation-building nonsense. (Can't remember the politician's name.) Bush was more idealistic -- bought into Colin Powell's you break it, you own it metaphor.

[Ben]

Easier to say the inherent nationalism of Russians and fear of outsiders makes their tentative stability a danger to those poking it with a stick.

What is not true is that the Kyiv government is the persecuted orphan needing air for their own Krystallnacht.

[Ben]

It's the same ignorant assessment of Russia's culture that led to the rabid bull in Pottery Barn Iraq. Larn somethin' folks.

[Miss Marple]

Rummy was on Greta's show yesterday and said that the NYT got what he said completely wrong, but hey, why bother to check with the source? Let's just make carp out of whole cloth.

[Jane]

This: http://www.judicialwatch.org/bulletins/the-benghazi-bonanza-a-bi-partisan-scandal/

via Insty about Benghazi is fascinating.

[Ben]

Oh I just loves me some Putin, Ig. You taking lessons from Cecil on being thick?

[DebinNC]

Great story from Australia, Steve. Imagine donating your "rare" blood weekly for over 50 yrs. and saving millions of people.

Ex, lol at that juror's legal shenanigans.

[Miss Marple]

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/06/10/uncleared-secret-service-new-hires-working-at-white-house/

My only question is whether this is intentional or unintentional.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

[Ben]

If you don't get the subtleties between the Rummy and Bush Doctrines, you might want to resist a comment.

[Cecil Turner]

Bush was more idealistic -- bought into Colin Powell's you break it, you own it metaphor.

Hate to be a pedant (okay, not so much) but there's a lot less daylight between Bush: fully functioning democracy (even allowing that rather strained view of his goal); and Rumsfeld: "a government that would not have weapons of mass destruction, that would not invade its neighbors, and that would be reasonably respectful of diverse ethnic groups"---than there is between either of those and Libya: a predominantly outsourced air attack enabling local rebels.

[narciso]

Rumsfeld was more with the exiles point of view, he wasn't in favor of the bremer regency, that was Powell's doing, the latter is in favor of the legacy princelings like the Aliev's who were Sunnis over a Shia majority, Iran will eventually cultivate that sentiment, like they did with in Lebanon when Musa Sadr was out of play, thanks to Muammar,

Russia fought the turks, on at least two occasions, and they got much of the Ukraine out of the deal, and deported the Tatars, the original inhabitants for good measure, they suppressed the Hetman Cossack nationalism, and
the Bolsheviks played on that, then surprise surprise, hence Petlura and later Bandera,arose from that action,

[DebinNC]

12:30 pm || Lunch with Vice President Biden
4:00 pm || Meets with Secretary of Defense Carter

Very odd that a BOzo-Biden lunch appears on the WH schedule, as if it's a big deal. As wounded as HC is, why isn't Biden making noise or being promoted by others as an alternative?

[narciso]

well we bailed them out twice, three if you consider Indochina, so as they chose to sell Mistrals to Volodya, or Rogozin on any other siloviki consensus pick, let them solve their own problem,

[MarkO]

After the Atlantic was not longer a barrier, when did isolationism work?

It has brought us to TSA, shelter in place and "safe spaces" on campus. It seems cowardly to me.

[Cecil Turner]

let them solve their own problem,

The fly in that ointment is, if history is any guide, that it may well result in a global conflagration that'll kill millions.

[Miss Marple]

DebinNC,

I think they put that on the schedule just to say he's doing something.

And the reason he isn't being suggested as an alternative lies in one person: Valerie Jarrett, who is making noise on Twitter high-fiving Kerry and others just to let people know who's really running things.

I will bet they are maneuvering to get Michelle as a substitute candidate when Hillary crashes and burns. Yesterday Jarrett was promoting Michelle's latest commencement speech (another victimization talk) all over Twitter.

I am telling you guys Jarrett does NOT want to go back to Chicago.

[Belle]

Jane, Witch Hazel stops bruising. I took a swan dive off my stoop when I was leaving for the airport for a trip to England. I dampened a cloth with witch hazel and put in on my forehead and eyes twice a day for about 10 minutes each time. Worked wonders. I fully expected to have black eyes the whole trip. Good luck.

[Jane on Ipad]

Thanks Belle.

[James D.]

DebinNC, this may be giving Biden far too much credit, but I wonder if sitting there quietly isn't such a bad strategy if he really wants the Dem nomination.

Why not sit back and watch Hillary slowly and painfully implode? Watch as Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley burn through money pointlessly and embarrass themselves. Why not keep quiet, stay above it all and wait until January when Hillary;s negatives are at 80% and there's no other credible candidate - and then step in to "save the day."

[narciso]

the TSA is a symptom of this problem,

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/06/deep-secrets-of-racial-profiling-10.php

yes I understand that Cecil, but they have a attitude not unlike the Delian league had with Athens, not considering the reason why the league was put together,

[glasater]

Rumsfeld's memoir is very good.

He's a complex man with complex thinking and speaking which could easily be misinterpreted by stupid news types. And the wonderful thing about the man is he's completely comfortable in his own skin.

[Cecil Turner]

they have a attitude not unlike the Delian league had with Athens,

They also free-ride exactly as Tom's post suggests, avoiding all the big ticket items like strategic mobility (which, along with dramatically higher priced systems, explains much of the US's disproportionate spending . . . which the commies love to point at as evidence of aggression).

I wasn't suggesting disgust was the wrong attitude, simply that we can't leave them to their own devices without running unacceptable risks (and, ironically, that the current round of aggressive appeasement by foreign policy morons like Clinton, Kerry, and Obama embolden bad actors like Putin and engender the very crises they'd purported to be avoiding).

[Miss Marple]

http://www.smartgirlpolitics.com/queen-hillary-isnt-going-to-like-carly-fiorinas-new-website/

[Neo]

I fully expect to have the Obama Administration avoid breaking his promise not to have "boots on the ground" by either having all the troops wear running shoes, etc., anything other than boots, or by redefining the definition of "boots"

[narciso]

this is in fact the main problem, the stupid news types, get the story wrong first, and the narrative settles, take Howard Kurtz, please and stuff him in the overhead bin, as I've remarked on various occasions, he's a no talent hack, except in destroying people more accomplished than him, I cite Judith Miller and the Huntress, of course Rupert rewards him with a prime analyst slot,

[Cecil Turner]

Rumsfeld's memoir is very good.

I haven't read it yet, but on that recommendation, I'll pick it up. (I was disappointed with _Decision Points_, which wasn't particularly deep.)

[DebinNC]

I refuse to believe we've sunk so low that MOzo could win a national election, but MM is right about ValJar not wanting to leave OZ. JamesD, that's very astute re Biden's silence.

[Ben]

"embolden bad actors like Putin and engender the very crises they'd purported to be avoiding)."

That's what I'm saying. His biceps burn red-hot when confronted head-on. His macho has to remain bullet-proof to retain his popularity and to keep his enemies down low.

But let's whack that hornet's nest with a brick bat and see what happens.

[narciso]

the strategy hasn't changed, Petraeus's application of counterinsurgency, expanded from examples in Ramadi and Tell Afar, is time consuming, intricate,
but it's the only way, the Solon listening to the likes of Galbraith, said no way, lets try partition, the operation where the patient almost always dies,

[Miss Marple]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/244515-clinton-campaign-hires-olympic-figure-skater

I guess Ice Capades didn't pay as well.

[narciso]

of course, Volodya uses RT, as a dissemination system for Team Assuange, who gratefully doesn't bring zachistas, filtration points, the Budanov case, or any context to the criticsm of US foreign policy

[DrJ]

He's a complex man [Rumsfeld] with complex thinking and speaking

He was on the board of a company where a late friend worked. He said that Rumsfeld was the brightest guy he ever met.

[Eric in Boise]

I refuse to believe we've sunk so low that MOzo could win a national election

I'm actually of the mind that we've sunk so low that Lena Effing Dunham could win a national election, but I've been feeling especially cranky since the Hilligula freak show started.

Now get off my lawn.

[Ben]

The Telesur news outlet is currently featuring an interactive piece covering the life, murder, legacy, and now beatification of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero.
(Beatification: a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person’s entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name.)

“Why did they kill him? Salvadorans called Romero the “Voice of the Voiceless”. He spoke out against the El Salvador dictatorship’s human rights violations, he opened the doors of the church to victims fleeing repression, and he repeatedly criticized the help the United States was providing the Salvadoran dictatorship. As a result, president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) asked the Vatican to sanction Romero.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42092.htm

[Cecil Turner]

His biceps burn red-hot when confronted head-on.

You clipped the first part of the quote, which was "aggressive appeasement" not "confrontation" (hence you rather completely missed the point). And try to keep a lid on the bromance there, dude. You're gushing (again).

[Ben]

'bromance' In love with your own thickness I see.

"The IMF’s #2 official said the crisis lender can keep supporting Ukraine even if the country doesn’t pay its bondholders. IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton said Tuesday in Washington:

We have a policy of lending into arrears which allows us to continue lending to a member state when it has arrears with private creditors, providing it’s fulfilling all its other commitments that it’s made to us. This is a way we can go forward."

https://niqnaq.wordpress.com/

Desperate to prop up the right-sector regime to counter the 'COMMIES'... LOL.

[maryrose]

Narciso
Man bin was on Morning Joke taunting Bidens idea of partitioning
Watch Obama try to steal the idea
If troops are over there they are on the ground
Ova my isn't fooling anyone with this dumb play on words

[narciso]

recall, Dana didn't stint on inflicting this folderall on his students, the remedial course at PLU on dezinformatiya

[maryrose]

Should be Manchin and Obammy

[jimmyk]

this may be giving Biden far too much credit, but I wonder if sitting there quietly isn't such a bad strategy if he really wants the Dem nomination.

Biden as sly strategist? Can't quite get past that one. But I will give you that "sitting there quietly" is the right strategy, given what usually happens when he does otherwise.

[narciso]

between him and dr, evil, it's the brutus and cassius hour,

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2015/06/10/john-kasichs-squishy-new-conservative-bashing-advisor/

[maryrose]

Biden should challenge Hillary
I bet it would take two weeks tops to topple her

[DrJ]

In other news (WSJ):

No Evidence Amtrak Engineer Used Cellphone During Crash

Federal safety investigators said records indicate the engineer involved in last month’s fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia wasn’t using his cellphone while operating the train.

[narciso]

part of the problem with Libya, is that they should have never joined the East, Cyreniaca, with the rest of the country, you note how most of the problems seem to originate there,

[DebinNC]

I'll never forget Biden's shameful antics during his VP "debate" with Paul Ryan. That pundits claimed Biden "won" the outing showed how out of touch I (or they) are with reality.

[narciso]

that story made me go hmm, they checked the wifi but not the cell towers, we've seen this pattern too often,

[narciso]

yes you can take that to the bank, but don't deposit it:

The phone was used to make calls and send text messages the day of the accident, but inconsistencies in phone records presented difficulties, NTSB Chairman Chris Hart told Congress last week. The voice and text messages were recorded in different time zones and may not have been calibrated to the exact time as other equipment on the train, such as a camera focused on the tracks and a recorder that registers how fast the train was moving and actions by the engineer, he said.

[DrJ]

narc,

I not sure that's right. From the article,

The National Transportation Safety Board said an analysis of the records showed engineer Brandon Bostian didn’t make calls, text or use the train’s wi-fi system before the train sped into a sharp curve at more than double the speed limit and jumped the tracks.

(snip)

The NTSB said the cellphone analysis has been more complicated than anticipated because the phone carrier has multiple systems that log different types of phone activity, some of which are in different time zones. The agency said it had to validate time stamps in several sets of records to correlate them with the time zone where the accident occurred.

Investigators at the agency’s lab in Washington have been examining the phone’s operating system to determine if the phone was in “airplane mode” or turned off. The agency said it is obtaining a phone identical to Mr. Bostian’s to run tests as part of the probe.