1. Joe Scarborough and his MJ crew are on a hyper-nationalist journey in which the Cold War image of the USSR continues to dominate their collective Borgasm.
2. They fret and fret over a variety of issues such as the supposed Russian intention to invade Ukraine. What proof there is for that escapes me but, no matter... Why do they bother to ponder this possibility? If it is going to happen, that will become manifest. If it does not happen, well, it did not happen. The only reason one would be interested in forecasting something like this would be if one contemplated a forestalling effort and I do not think that is a real option for the US and its Borgistic pals. Mutual nuclear annihilation lurks in the background and the JCS knows that well.
3. Donald (the Closer) Trump and his minions are the object of intensive Borgist media efforts to portray them as agents of Vladimir the Hood (LeCarre reference). It is now discovered that Berlusconi (the Letch) was also a servant of The Evil One brooding in his Kremlinesque castle (Lord of the Rings reference). I actually think the Letch was interestingly human and nothing like a Borgista. Can anyone doubt that this latest smear campaign is directed by the Obamanite information operations center in the White House?
3. The Turks. Ah yes, the Turks. On the one hand they are going to attend cooperation meetings in Teheran with Russia and the Shia mullahcracy. On a second hand they are talking about improving relations with the Syrian government. With yet a third hand they have in the last couple of days let 1,000 jihadi reinforcements pass through the Turkish Hatay Province border crossings for the evident purpose of reinforcing the jihadis at Aleppo where these creatures have lost a lot of men. It would seem to me that the Russians and Iranians know about this since I do. I think the Sublime Porte did things more skillfully than this but, what do I know?
4. Then there is the Aleppo battle itself. This thing has become such a meat grinder for the jihadis that the R+6 must think it worth continuing for a while. As someone on SST mentioned there has emerged a pattern in which Syrian forces advance into a rebel held area of the city and then withdraw to allow the jihadis to re-occupy it. This is a great convenience since the area you withdrew from is "target rich" after the jihadis advance int it. And then there are the hunting trips across Idlib Province being conducted by Russian and Syrian air. This must be a real meat market.
Hilly is going to have a lot to deal with in her role as mother of us all.
pl
https://southfront.org/turkey-permits-1000-terrorists-to-cross-border-and-enter-in-syrias-idlib/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-russia-iran-idUKKCN10S0V9
Couldn't agree more. Same applies to Syria, Iran, and China. It drives our elites crazy when the ordinary people reject our horrid post modern liberal democracies. They used to console themselves with the fantasy an effective economy was impossible sans our extant socio-political system. Now that has been debunked with a resurgent Iran, Russia, and China; they're becoming unhinged as you say.
Posted by: Lemur | 18 August 2016 at 05:41 PM
"…their collective Borgasm"
priceless.
Posted by: paulj | 18 August 2016 at 05:47 PM
As per #s 1,2 and 3, the Morning Joe crew trotted out the oily Walter Isaacson yesterday morning to warn of Russia's manipulating our electoral process to elect a pro-Putin and subservient Donald Trump and, then, this morning gave Richard Haas the pulpit to beat the drum for intervention in Syria with Mourning Joe Scarborogh, contemporaneously, calling the rolls of the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have been allegedly murdered by the Assad government. There seems to no inclination at all to concede that the Americans, Saudis, Qataris, Brits, and French, et al., bear a substantial responsibility, also, for the continued internecine strife in Syria.
Posted by: Alexandria | 18 August 2016 at 06:10 PM
Dreams for the masses = imagining as in John Lennon's song "Imagine". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOgFZfRVaww
That's what the masses want and think they're getting. They seek utopia.
As for what the elites, who promise the utopia, are dreaming, we can connect the data points and extrapolate a global financial crop to be selfishly and lawlessly harvested. I suggest enhanced interrogation of George Soros for greater detail.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | 18 August 2016 at 06:10 PM
PL,
Forgive my impertinence for suggesting the following picture to accompany your next post re Ukraine. The western msm has been focusing on Syria but I feel this really brings home the ferocity of the exchanges going on in eastern Ukraine.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Legioner_sniper/status/765760413996818432/photo/1
(Hope the link works)
I wonder if Kagan and their fellow travelers would be so bellicose under such a bombardment.
@smoothiex12
I've noticed the cultural animus has extended to the sporting arena esp the Olympics. The extent of the demonization of the other by both sides is eerily reminiscent of the mass hysteria of Cold War days of yore. I saw a sketch on Twitter that surmised US-Russian relations in the Olympic context as being "Russia doped (and was expelled); US lied (and ran away, re Ryan Lochte).
It comes across much better than I've put it, I swear :)
Posted by: Tunde | 18 August 2016 at 06:57 PM
It is Nationalism of the Western world so technical it is Nationalism
Posted by: charly | 18 August 2016 at 07:08 PM
Colonel,
One of these days, I will try to stop repeating myself. This is all interrelated. The Democratic Party has thrown the Millennials, the White Working Class and Progressives under the bus in order to rake in the loot. Hillary Clinton personally took in 21 million dollars in corporate "pay to play" speaking fees after she resigned as Secretary of State and before she announced her run for President which made it illegal.
What the Globalists did to the Russians after the fall of the Soviet Union is what they are doing to the citizens of the peripheral EU States and the American Heartland. If the Russians resist, there is hope for the rest of the world; that is if the crazies don’t blow us up first.
Posted by: VietnamVet | 18 August 2016 at 07:41 PM
Turkey wants to participate in the R&D not just purchase weapons
Russia will make itself brain-dead before that happens. Military tech sharing? Name one Turkish military achievement that equals the Russian S-400 anti-missile system. In Debka’s dreams.
Posted by: MRW | 18 August 2016 at 07:59 PM
IMO, Turkey, or as used to be called in old days Anatoly/ Anatolia like her nighbour to east Iran and south Syria, because of thier important geographic bridge like location between east and west, and thier ethnic and religious diversity were never easy to be governed, managed, or be secured.That is historic fact, IMO this will not change, as matter of fact the people burned and living whithin this geographic locations know this deep in thier DNA.
Posted by: Kooshy | 18 August 2016 at 08:00 PM
WSJ
"U.S. Held Cash Until Iran Freed Prisoners"
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-held-cash-until-iran-freed-prisoners-1471469256
"
LA Times
"U.S. now says $400 million to Iran was contingent on release of prisoners"
Foreign policy/relations learned from this transaction, as per now USG' admittance: if you want to get your assets/ belongings back form USG , you will need to keep/ hold some of their assets of any kind including talking ones. A great way to manage the international affairs.
Posted by: Kooshy | 18 August 2016 at 08:26 PM
President Khatami a Yazdi was extremely naive, I have heard some of his suportes advisers are now since the JCPOA are privetly admiting thier mustakes/ naïveté / or as they now say misconception of thier procedure. A fancy way of saying we made an error.
Posted by: Kooshy | 18 August 2016 at 08:47 PM
All
I have been also wondering about the possible Erdogan pivot in recent days toward making up with the neighbors Syria , Iran & Russia . Could it be that Erdogan has figured that the Liver Eaters will be defeated in Syria after all . Furthermore Erdogan figures he might not ever get to join the EU - why not do a complete pivot make nice with Putin - and ask to to join the Shanghai Cooperative Council instead of the EU -- this might explain why now Erdogan Supreme leader for life sent the 1,000 Liver Eaters into the cauldron that the R + have created around Aleppo .
Posted by: alba etie | 18 August 2016 at 09:32 PM
tunde
"US lied (and ran away, re Ryan Lochte" What are you talking about? I am not interested in sports. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 18 August 2016 at 09:42 PM
Wow, that article is an impressive example of foreign policy newspeak (/snark) hmmm http://static.flickr.com/116/308101421_ff87120cb0_o.jpg
Angela's credentials, in addition to the one's listed in the article
Angela Stent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Stent
She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has served in the Office of Policy Planning in the U.S. State Department and as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia.
Posted by: Valissa | 18 August 2016 at 11:29 PM
This is not a direct reply to your comment about "pissing standing up", but still.
I don't know where you live or who you know, but I know a couple of guys, (one a South African white and one a Nigerian black) who from what I surmise piss sitting down. I seem to have read somewhere that men peeing sitting is more common in the Middle East and maybe in Africa because of the robes that some men have to deal with.
In any case, I probably feel the same way you do about the transgender question. However, I very much doubt that transgender problems plague either of the individuals that I know who attest to peeing sitting down.
In my case, I simply cannot pee sitting down, but others of my age claim that is the only way they can pee.
Regards,
David
PS: I recommended the Alexiad because it gives you a fantastic view of the machinations that Alexius had to go through to maintain independence from the West as the Crusaders made through way through the surviving areas of the Eastern Empire.
PPS: Maybe you are not old enough to have experienced prostate problems yet? If so, you have much to look forward to.
Posted by: David | 18 August 2016 at 11:54 PM
Smuggler
Watch him when he opens
his bulging words -- justice,
fraternity, freedom, internationalism, peace,
peace, peace. Make it your custom
to pay no heed
to his frank look, his visas, his stamps
and signatures. Make it
your duty to spread out their contents
in a clear light.
Nobody with such luggage
has nothing to declare.
Norman MacCaig, in Ewen McCaig, The Poems of Norman MacCaig (Polygon 2009).
Posted by: walrus | 19 August 2016 at 12:24 AM
Yeah. A dark crusade. Sometimes i feel like in warhammer 40 000 dci fi universe. If you like dark military sci fi check fall of the eldar or the Horus Heresy. A spine shivering experience.
Posted by: Balint Somkuti | 19 August 2016 at 02:43 AM
CNN endlessly cycling the video of that poor 5 year old boy who was allegedly bomb injured in Aleppo. We never saw any 5 year old boys bombed in Iraq or Yemen. They are really ramping the propaganda up.
Posted by: Green Zone Café | 19 August 2016 at 02:59 AM
Borgasm has captured me.
Not much makes me smile, jaded soul that I am. This made me laugh.
If you discover that I have borrowed elsewhere without attribution, tough titties. Too good to pass up.
Posted by: MRW | 19 August 2016 at 03:03 AM
Erdogan is feeling very weak at the moment and is trying to develop as many options as he can for himself, even at the cost of eating crow from time to time. Russia, Israel, Egypt, Silk Road Project, Iranians, even Assad regime itself. Yes, true, he has been talking with Assad's people through intermediaries.
He is weak visa vie West, pissed off too many people. EU and NATO are showing teeth, he sees it. He is weak domestically as well, putting up a charade of cooperating with the opposition, fighting the common enemy, Gulen organization. PKK has also upped its game, knowing his weakness.
Few examples, he is trying to finess out of his promise of bringing the death penalty, no more talk of all powerful presidency, and has even backtracked his efforts to completely subjugate the Armed forces to himself, etc.
Posted by: Kunuri | 19 August 2016 at 05:40 AM
PL,
Apologies for the rather OT reference. RT has been riffing about how Russia has been vilified by the accusation of state sponsored doping during recently held sporting events held in Russia ; namely the Sochi winter Olympics and the IAAF championships held in Moscow.
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2016-07/wada-statement-independent-investigation-confirms-russian-state-manipulation-of
RT has been examining, gleefully it might be said, the brouhaha caused by US swimmer Ryan Lochte's indiscretions in Rio and his subsequent embellishments to the detriment of the organisers and host nation.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/usoc-apologizes-to-brazil-for-swimmers-actions-025658482.html
Hence, the questioning on RT of the moral high horse the US mounts when it criticizes other countries.
Just wanted to clarify.....
Posted by: Tunde | 19 August 2016 at 05:59 AM
Tyler, IMO, It goes deeper than mere virtue signaling. There are millions of people living in modern Western society that never break a sweat, never get their hands dirty, never have to train (and thus ever think about the possibility)to apply deadly force to another human being - or even to an animal (i.e. for food). These people have college educations and work in comfortable climate controlled environments. They make good money. Their entire lives are spent in pampered protective bubbles. Traditional male attributes are not only not needed in the bubble, but are actually represent a disturbance in the aura of the thing. Thus maleness is demonized and derogated. All of their friends and associates live in this bubble and it's so nice that they believe that is how live should be - could be - for everyone. Why wouldn't everyone want that? That their are people living outside the bubble just means that there are still frontier areas populated by savages living in darkness that need to be pacified. One method of pacification involves exposing the savages to the good life. Surely they will see the beauty of it and assimilate. It MUST be that way. This is true belief and its power should not be underestimated.
Human perception is rarely purely rational. The subconscious plays a huge role. These millions of relatively affluent people know that their way of life - their very survival - depends on the existence and furtherance of the bubble they inhabit. That's powerful stuff. Perpetuating the bubble becomes a neurotic obsession.
These people are dedicated to leaders like Big Grandma who, essentially, is one of them. She promises promotion of the bubble - complete with all the social and human re-engineering of the savages ideology. So the inhabitants of the bubble overlook the thinly veiled psychopathic twist that causes her (and her ilk) to want more for themselves and to ruthlessly pursue the role of queens and kings. IMO, the psychopathy does not totally render the re-engineering shallow hypocrisy. Both are real and, again, not to be underestimated.
The would be kings and queens must make deals with devils (e.g. Soros) and are able to justify doing so when the devils seek something that ideologically overlaps with the prevailing ideology (e.g. globalism).
I presume that Putin and China are not down with the globalist vision - or have their own version competing version. Therefore they are enemies. Again, there is not much rational about this. It is ideology about how we will live in a modern era where technology has - to many people's minds - eliminated the qualities and values that were once held in high esteem by society. The old archetypes are being discarded as irrelevant. Leaders are engineering new ones. Powerful stuff. Dangerous times.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | 19 August 2016 at 06:09 AM
David, muslim men religiously are required to pee sitting down, men in LA "still " are using the urinals, as long as it's not pissing off anyone.
Posted by: kooshy | 19 August 2016 at 06:17 AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Lochte#Gas_station_incident
I am not suggesting that adding gold medalist Lochte in that context makes sense, by the way.
But Tunde's twitter image from the Ukraine is a good photo.
http://i.imgur.com/Cch5XDR.jpg
http://www.businessinsider.de/front-lines-ukraine-2016-8?r=US&IR=T
Posted by: LeaNder | 19 August 2016 at 07:08 AM
Forgot to add, photo by:
Viktor Kovalenko
@MrKovalenko
#Ukraine analyst & journalist. Military veteran. Online #marketing & #socialmedia strategist.
Posted by: LeaNder | 19 August 2016 at 07:11 AM