Ukraine

[Jagger69]

We don't get any oil from Ukraine so anything Obama or anyone representing the USA does to protest this is simple political posturing and has little true significance. We're not going to do shit other than raise hell about it. Personally, I am proud of the Ukrainian peasantry for rising up against oppression but....it's really none of our business and definitely not our problem to police. Putin is a Stalin wannabe without the moustache, uniform and 5-year plans. I hope the Russian citizenry takes Ukraine's lead and overthrows the motherfucker. I can't wait for all old-school cold-warriors like him to just fade away.

 

[zeeblofowl_1969]

The United States as a nation and as a people are a fucking joke. Stupidity reigns.

As the rich and greedy give our industrial might to the rest of the world for nothing more



than the perverse need for more.....

 

[spacearrow99]

Andriy Parubiy, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Dmytro Yarosh are in new Ukrainian government and they're no better then Putin. The U. S. cable networks haven't said anything about these people. I guess Putin wished he would've waited until the underlings of the men a mentioned caused problems in Crimea.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

Andriy Parubiy, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Dmytro Yarosh are in new Ukrainian government and they're no better then Putin. The U. S. cable networks haven't said anything about these people. I guess Putin wished he would've waited until the underlings of the men a mentioned caused problems in Crimea.

Right. No mention of Svoboda or Right Sector on Cable News at all.

 

[Red XXX]

I can't wait for all old-school cold-warriors like him to just fade away.

Trouble is, they keep having children!

 

[Mayhem]

Breaking News Update: My all-time favorite camgirl is from the Ukraine and she's alright. She told me not to worry for her but I will anyway. Anyway....thought I'd share that with you. While the thought of the rest of you getting Mongolian Army ass-raped in some Crimean shithole gives me a warm glowing, warming glow; I'd send a carrier group for this one girl alone. Carry on.

 

[spacearrow99]

Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits

 

[mikexmoran]

I have no issues with the way the US is handling this. There isn't much we're going to do. There isn't any real interest - I have no desire to see anyone I know go to war in the Ukraine.

I'm not sure if I agree with all of the economic assessments I'm seeing here. If we want to play the worry game with Russia, we may want to reverse our course on military spending (I'm not a big fan of this), Drill baby Drilly, put the pipeline in place, continue with all of the international moves against Russia, and basically relax and not get so upset about them. They are not that big of a deal from our (The U.S.) perspective. I've been there, I'm not impressed. Impressed with the people, not impressed with the governments there they run the place into the ground.

Looking in the Mirror. What if there was a bit of a revolution in Canada or Mexico that created unrest on our borders. What would we do?

For Canada, if they were in that mess (which they aren't and I don't see them ever being there), we may very well do something. Ethnically we're fairly aligned. If the US can't love Canada, we're incapable of loving. We love them so much we failed invading them twice. However, if there was a mess up there, I think we would stick our noses in it one way or the other. Either as a brother looking to help or a greedy bastard.

For Mexico, call me prejudice, but I don't think we would respond the same way. I think we would be less interested either in benevolence or in greed. We'd probably just put up more of a wall and do whatever we could to keep the violence away from us.

I don't think Russia is playing fair. They are occupying the region and there are votes being taken if they want to join Russia. Doesn't seem quite kosher to me. However, they are ethnically and culturally aligned. I was in the Eastern Asia part of Russia (closer to Anchorage than Moscow), which is a continent away from the Ukraine and conversationally more than a few people told me about their family in the Ukraine. So, I think there is more to it than what CNN, Fox, and MSNBC reports.

 

[Philbert]

I have no issues with the way the US is handling this. There isn't much we're going to do. There isn't any real interest - I have no desire to see anyone I know go to war in the Ukraine.

I'm not sure if I agree with all of the economic assessments I'm seeing here. If we want to play the worry game with Russia, we may want to reverse our course on military spending (I'm not a big fan of this), Drill baby Drilly, put the pipeline in place, continue with all of the international moves against Russia, and basically relax and not get so upset about them. They are not that big of a deal from our (The U.S.) perspective. I've been there, I'm not impressed. Impressed with the people, not impressed with the governments there they run the place into the ground.

Looking in the Mirror. What if there was a bit of a revolution in Canada or Mexico that created unrest on our borders. What would we do?

For Canada, if they were in that mess (which they aren't and I don't see them ever being there), we may very well do something. Ethnically we're fairly aligned. If the US can't love Canada, we're incapable of loving. We love them so much we failed invading them twice. However, if there was a mess up there, I think we would stick our noses in it one way or the other. Either as a brother looking to help or a greedy bastard.

For Mexico, call me prejudice, but I don't think we would respond the same way. I think we would be less interested either in benevolence or in greed. We'd probably just put up more of a wall and do whatever we could to keep the violence away from us.

I don't think Russia is playing fair. They are occupying the region and there are votes being taken if they want to join Russia. Doesn't seem quite kosher to me. However, they are ethnically and culturally aligned. I was in the Eastern Asia part of Russia (closer to Anchorage than Moscow), which is a continent away from the Ukraine and conversationally more than a few people told me about their family in the Ukraine. So, I think there is more to it than what CNN, Fox, and MSNBC reports.

Of course there is ...just like several posters reflect the act of looking at their fingers and toes, counting carefully, and declaring the whole world is made up of a binary system based on 20.

As complex as the world economy is, and as spiderwebbed as the connections between countries and players is, the assessment of CNN and others is very white-bread and 2 dimensional.

Putin has a lotta marbles to play with, and as there are "gangs" in Ukraine who are working at all levels to get Putin what he wants, there are those working for their own agenda and others working to stalemate the power push of proPutin adherents and Western ones ...much like the Life of Brian.
Truly we should just look on the bright side of life...it ain't happening here.
In the end, what is more important to the Ukraine people...not getting shot, or flatscreen TVs and 4g Smartphones?

I vote for flatscreens being the deciding factor.

 

[spacearrow99]

I have no issues with the way the US is handling this. There isn't much we're going to do. There isn't any real interest - I have no desire to see anyone I know go to war in the Ukraine.

I'm not sure if I agree with all of the economic assessments I'm seeing here. If we want to play the worry game with Russia, we may want to reverse our course on military spending (I'm not a big fan of this), Drill baby Drilly, put the pipeline in place, continue with all of the international moves against Russia, and basically relax and not get so upset about them. They are not that big of a deal from our (The U.S.) perspective. I've been there, I'm not impressed. Impressed with the people, not impressed with the governments there they run the place into the ground.

Looking in the Mirror. What if there was a bit of a revolution in Canada or Mexico that created unrest on our borders. What would we do?

For Canada, if they were in that mess (which they aren't and I don't see them ever being there), we may very well do something. Ethnically we're fairly aligned. If the US can't love Canada, we're incapable of loving. We love them so much we failed invading them twice. However, if there was a mess up there, I think we would stick our noses in it one way or the other. Either as a brother looking to help or a greedy bastard.

For Mexico, call me prejudice, but I don't think we would respond the same way. I think we would be less interested either in benevolence or in greed. We'd probably just put up more of a wall and do whatever we could to keep the violence away from us.

I don't think Russia is playing fair. They are occupying the region and there are votes being taken if they want to join Russia. Doesn't seem quite kosher to me. However, they are ethnically and culturally aligned. I was in the Eastern Asia part of Russia (closer to Anchorage than Moscow), which is a continent away from the Ukraine and conversationally more than a few people told me about their family in the Ukraine. So, I think there is more to it than what CNN, Fox, and MSNBC reports.

The West didn't follow the Ukrainian Constitution when we brokered the deal with Viktor Yanukovych to resign as President of Ukraine. We really cannot criticize the Crimean referendum as been illegitimate. The Russians don't care about our trade sanctions; we are minor trading partners with Russia. It takes time to build up infrastructure in the petroleum industry. Europe is hooked on Russia oil for foreseeable future. We don't need to increase military spending.

 

[cronus100]

Of course if the European Union starts applying sanctions on Moscow, the Russians will start upping the taxes on EU goods entering their market. Then you have a situation where the TransSiberian Pipelines are bringing millions of cubic litres of natural gas to Central and Western Europe so the Russians could start turning the switch for the valves on the pipelines on and off. Then I heard something about Middlle Eastern Gas been actually cheaper than Russian gas so it is possible Western Europe could in time turn in that direction instead of to Moscow.
No good getting a resolution at the UN Security Council condeming Russia over the presence of Russian militia and troops on the ground in Crimea and parts of Ukraine because Russia is one of the Permanent Five on the Council who have power of Veto.
So it looks like the solution is not going to come from the UN

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

 

[Philbert]

A little Dr. Pepper dribbled outa mine...when I coughed out the pipeful I was inhaling at the time.

You are a sick muthafucka.... I say that out of respect for a master.:bowdown:

 

[cronus100]

Then , there is the Budapest Treaty where the World Powers I think it was back in 1995 pledged to respect Ukraine's sovernity and international borders in return for the destruction of the Soviet Union Nuclear Arsenal which was on Ukrainian soil at the time.
The World Powers been the United States Britain France and Russia.
Crimea has always been a bone of contension because it was actually Russian terrority which was tranferred to Ukraine by Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushcev in 1954. The Russians inherited the huge naval base there. Crimea was given self government and its own parliament but it was tranferred under the sovernity of Ukraine. Sovernign power would be with Kiev.
But what makes the current Crimea situation dodgy for Russia is even when it seems it is in defacto control, it is still actually Ukrainian soil.
If Crimea has the power to secede under a clause in Ukraine's Constitution, then they will vote themselves back to Russia
But what happens if Crimea only has self government powers and not the power to leave Ukraine without Kiev saying yes, that is another story.
The crisis will get even deeper.

 

[sean miguel]

lmao.

I remember hearing all about that "reset button" with Russia when Obama was elected. I didn't know that Hillary actually produced a reset button prop that her and her russian counterpart pushed in front of cameras. How corny is that? And that's worked out wonderfully.

In this new reset with Russia, Obama has caved on virtually every one of Putin's demands (missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic for one) and has gotten nothing in return. Putin is clearly the alpha male in this relationship while Obama is making pleading phone calls to him.

A Washington Post (hardly a right-leaning rag) editorial states: FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...854436-a238-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

 

[mikexmoran]

Of course there is ...just like several posters reflect the act of looking at their fingers and toes, counting carefully, and declaring the whole world is made up of a binary system based on 20.

Just for the record, two digits is binary. (0 and 1) That is the Base 2 counting system. If you're going to use all of your fingers and toes, that would be the Vigesimal or Base 20 counting system.

LOL!!

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

Ah-Ha-Ha-Ha!!! Thanks Ace. Dunking Barry's head in the toilet is a good way to start a weekend.

 

[Jagger69]

LOL....Sad but true.

Does the name "Neville Chamberlain" ring a bell?? Lavrov sure makes a good von Ribbentrop!

On the flip side, I wonder what Russia would do if we invaded Mexico???

 

[D-rock]

I wonder what Russia would do if we invaded Mexico???

That's actually a good point that people seem to forget when all the talk about Obama or the US was outmaneuvered here. In reality we were not so much as outmaneuvered as it's a situation where we never had any hope or real option of stopping something that in the first place. It's half a world away and if for some reason Russia was willing and adamant about going to lengths to militarily invade someplace there just isn't much anybody could do about it, assuming we both are not willing to go to actual war about it in these matters. It's about the equivalent of a hypothetical scenario where somebody tries to claim that Russia got "outmaneuvered" because for some strange reason we decided to trump up some ridiculous reason and use our military might and invade Cuba when in reality there would be nothing they would do about it either. Large gigantic nations with powerful armies can pretty much do what they want to a smaller weaker nation. It's not that hard to figure out.

About the only thing that maybe could be done if nobody is actually willing to go through a major war is to try and get enough nations to get together to give Russia the economic death penalty, but that's probably not going to happen.

 

[MustBeGood]

Officially we receive 5% of our oil from Russia.

So cutting them off won't make a difference except a 25 cent increase per gallon as the oil companies here will use that as the reason for the price increase.