With the danger that the pro-Russian revolt in Ukraine could spread to the important port city of Odessa, isn't it about time for the President to fire some of the people who helped get him into this mess? I can't imagine that high on Obama's list of second term priorities was Getting Humiliated in Eastern Europe. Firing officials to encourage the others is a good way to lessen how often your Administration gets hijacked by special interests and adventurers. Presidents don't know from Donetsk, but they need to establish examples for underlings that screwing up the foreign policy of the United States can screw up your career.
April 16, 2014
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You don't fire the boss's favorite nephews and nieces. Obama is a hired hand. He better be very careful about the kind of people he fires.
I'm guessing that before Yanukovich was overthrown, i.e. before February of this year, Obama either didn't know who Nuland was or didn't know what she was doing. He must have figured out what she and those like her were doing in his and the American people's name in the days after the coup in Kiev. He's done nothing about it. Ms. Nuland has since been seen in Moldova, pledging more US taxpayer money to the government there and urging that government to blockade Transnistria. In other words, she's continued to be active on the ground. Putin has had telephone conversations with Obama during this crisis. I'll bet he uttered the word "neocons" during those. No effect. At this point it can't be ignorance. Obama seems aware of and OK with the neocons' activity in that region.
You don't understand, Steve. What the Obamas and other "professional" blacks realize is that they've achieved liberatation from the concept of performance standards, so there's no way for him to be 'humiliated' by anything, least of all by events thousands of miles away. Whoopi Goldberg will think well of him regardless.
OT, Michael Bloomberg says he has a direct path to heaven
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/us/bloomberg-plans-a-50-million-challenge-to-the-nra.html?_r=0
"But if he senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a Judgment Day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”"
Quite narcissistic and even more so admitting this publicly. Usually rich people and torah reading jews keep this kind of stuff to themselves, on the down low.
I wonder what the reaction would be if a gentile billionaire or non-liberal made this type of public statement?
This is the type of mentality we on the alt-right are up against. Take no prisoners, no humility, no real retrospection, just pure religiosity and dominating other people.
Steve, if he fires some neocons, the American media will spin THAT as "Getting Humiliated in Eastern Europe". They're already saying that Obama and America are being Humiliated in Eastern Europe because Obama isn't doing enough bear-baiting. If he's ever going to fire them, it would have to be for other reasons - fear of WWIII, fear of economic collapse in Western Europe in the absence of Russian gas, his personal dislike for the neocons. The media decides what's a humiliation and what isn't. It's already decided that the less supportive he is of neoconnery, the more he humiliates the country.
OT, for anyone who is interested. Radoslaw Sikorski the Polish foreign minister came out yesterday and declared that Ukraine's government must use force to maintain order and keep Ukraine in one piece.
A few weeks ago he was counseling Yanukovich that he must never use force in Ukraine and ,ust play the role of a sitting duck.
Has anyone or any media source picked this timeline of events up?
"Michael Bloomberg says he has a direct path to heaven"
Jews don't believe in heaven. Besides, aint he in heaven already with billions?
Obama's handling of the Ukraine situation may be incompetent but it is meritable. Imagine if McCain had been in charge, we very well could have been on the path to a shooting war with Russia. Obama's tentativeness and incompetency is one of his stronger hands.
Perhaps this is why Yanukovich didn't crack down on the maidan--he knew that the security services were a joke.
He doesn't need to fire them. They'll quit. Obummer has the highest attrition rate of any cabinet
It's funny to see incompetence at high places. The US government has confirmed that CIA Director Brenner traveled to Kiev this past weekend. The Kiev junta's attempts to put down Russian Spring in the east picked up the next day.
Why did they have to admit that he went there? When I first heard about his visit, I thought it might have been Russian propaganda. If the US government didn't confirm it, I would have been doubting it to this day.
Same thing with that tapped phone conversation where Nuland said "Yats" should lead the next Ukranian government. Carney told the world that it was bad for Russia to have listened in on it. How stupid was that? He essentially admitted that the conversation happened, that it wasn't faked by the FSB. And why? Just to accuse Russia of phone tapping? By this point in time phone tapping might as well be called NSAing. He admitted a massively inconvenient for the US fact just to accuse Putin of NSAing the US government.
"Imagine if McCain had been in charge, we very well could have been on the path to a shooting war with Russia."
Americans ARE being shot at in the Ukraine. They're just working for Greystone, not the Pentagon. I've seen a rumor today about 10 Greystone guys having been taken prisoners by the rebels. Don't know yet if it's true. Could be fog of war.
I've never claimed to be that smart, but even I could have seen this coming. How the hell did Nuland and her ilk take over America's foreign relations?
I'm sick of this cartel being referred to as an elite. I went to one of the world's top ten universities and, believe me, a diploma does not indicate wisdom.
Here in lovely Korea, study is a national obsession. They slave away in the belief that going to a SKY university will solve their problems. If they calmed down, they might win the odd Fields Medal. As it is, they study so much, they have no time left to think or to pursue hobbies or private pastimes.
Maybe if Nuland had a wider circle of acquaintances including the odd small farmer or shopkeeper, she might not be so stupid.
On projection:
When the neocons attack other countries, they usually say that those countries' leaders are dictators who are [change of voice] "killing their own people". Well, the current government in Kiev wasn't elected. And it's certainly trying to kill a portion of its own people.
I've also heard suggestions that Russian Spring is all astro-turf, that it's being stage managed and paid for by the Kremlin. Are they really trying to accuse Putin of behaving like Soros? Mindblowing.
If you look at the videos, you'll see that most of the guys chasing tanks, asking soldiers to give up their weapons and storming police headquarters are unarmed. Some of them are grey-haired. The scenes are chaotic to the extreme. The insurgents are often loudly arguing on camera about what to do next. There are probably some "polite ones" in the Ukraine right now, but the bulk of the participants seem to be normal, local guys.
They're already saying that Obama and America are being Humiliated in Eastern Europe because Obama isn't doing enough bear-baiting.
So what exactly are conservatives advocating the US/NATO do? Based on the half dozen or so conservative sites I've looked at this past week it is all "O'bummer is weak", "he sold out our friends" nonsense. They sound as if they want US military action yet even on blogs they don't have the guts to come out and say so.
It couldn't have been two weeks ago that he west was hailing the coup in Kiev as the will of the people and now it's all all astroturf in eastern Ukraine.
Media coverage has become much much better since they actually sent reporters to the not very hot zone.
Except the big lie in the room is that America directly fomented the unrest in the Ukraine, and that their clear "intervention" in the matter led to undesirable consequences beyond their control. This situation was brewing LONG before the neo-cons were peacocking.
The current options are to isolate Moscow with diplomacy and sanctions OR to "talk tough" and send in troops.
Either way, your peeps here will find a way to blame the administration regardless of his decisions.
What part of "cannot be criticized" isn't being understood here? I'm torn, because I don't like my country to be guided by incompetent buffoons. On the other hand, competent buffoons might have us in a shooting war with the Russians by now.
One thing I know for sure: the quality of our foreign affairs gurus sure has taken a tumble. This kind of thing? It wouldn't have flown on Jimmy "the Fix" Baker's watch.
And, gee, ain't it funny how the narrative is spun? This all started when Putin decided one fine day to seize Crimea. That's like Day One in all the reporting. Before that? Oh, there might have been some minor reshuffling of the government in Kiev, but PUTIN SEIZED CRIMEA!
When I went to bed last night, the Kiev junta had announced the commencement of "antiterrorist operations" and I had horrible visions of oceans of blood waiting for me. (I mean, you don't negotiate with terrorists, right? And there had to have been a reason it wasn't the usual 'restore constitutional order' phrasing that the former Soviet Union is so fond of.)
Waking up this morning and seeing videos of ordinary people talking the soldiers down off and out of their tanks, that was some powerful stuff.
Does anyone in the ruling class get fired anymore? It seems like decades since anyone of consequence faced any real consequences. I think they put one Enron guy in the can, but that was so long ago I no longer recall.
Regardless, if the reporting is true, Obama is only vaguely aware Ukraine exists. He's not exactly a hands-on manager.
Steve, Obama was made by the Chicago jewish elite after the Bush neocons debacle.
I've never gotten the sense that Obama was all that anti-neocon.
"I've never gotten the sense that Obama was all that anti-neocon."
He's nominated Chuck Hagel and has not attacked Iran. Many neocon outlets say he's viciously anti-neocon. I think he's slightly less pro-neocon than any of his immediate predecessors and likely successors.
Saw a YouTube video of Obama appointed CIA director John Brennan titled "Obama Advisor John Brennan Speaks About the Beauty of Islam". He rhapsodizes about Islam, the "goodness and beauty" of Islam, it's "tremendous warmth" and so on. He shows off his Arab language skills. It's stunning to see the head of the CIA go on like this. Some have rumored he's a convert, which most people would just dismiss, until one sees his great enthusiasm for Islam with their own eyes. How did this person slip through?
Obama has a terrible track record of appointing blacks and hacks to high positions. Blacks for DOJ, Homeland Security, NASA (mission to Islam), the alarming Brennan to CIA, the cretinous Clinton to Secretary of State, hunchbacks to the Supreme Court, and so on. It's not just that they're inept, they're downright harmful, almost as if it were intended that way.
Idle Spectator said: Either way, your peeps here will find a way to blame the administration regardless of his decisions.
Hunsdon asked: The administration, or the POTUS? I'll blame the administration, while thanking God that Obama is actually POTUS. A Romney administration would have most of the same key players, except swapping out Samantha Power for, say, John Bolton (as if anyone could tell the difference).
I rarely thank God that Obama is president, but when I do, it's because he's not down with some sort of neocon douchebaggery.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/obamas-circle-of-bad-advice/
Obama should sack the entire bunch of them.
The neocons are going to call Obama weak regardless of what he does. If he would simply attack them over their incompetence in the Iraq war, he would both be correct and it might get some political traction.
Ukraine is a sure loser, and the less we do, the better.
I would start by firing anyone that uses the terms 'Munich or Appeasment'.
He also needs to have someone tell the truth about Russia's ability fight any ground war anywhere outside its borders. The only ground troops that are competent are their so called elite units, which cannot total more than 100,000 ground forces, if that. Plus, they need to keep some of them around to suppress ethnic uprisings. Having one of his lackeys hammer on this on Sunday morning TV would at least challenge the neocon bloviating neocons who are dying for Cold War 2.
In Crimea, they didn't have to storm the beaches -- they just walked out of their bases. In Eastern Ukraine, they may use some covert forces, but both won't and don't need to actually fight to carve off a couple of chunks of territory. Which would be another approach to keeping Ukraine out of NATO.
No one on earth is willing to fight over the territorial integrity of Eastern Ukraine. And that includes the remainder of Ukraine as well as Russia.
The West also has no viable non military levers either. If pushed, Russia could throw Europe into another recession by cutting off gas for a few months. Plus, Ukraine has a past due energy bill from Russia and the paltry IMF bailout won't last long if they have to pay Russia's price for gas.
Just like Syria, this is a sure loser, and the quicker his administration shuts the fu*k up about it, the better.
Maybe they can engineer another airline disappearance and get CNN back to 'wall to wall' coverage on that. Or a school massacre.
... Blacks for DOJ, Homeland Security, NASA (mission to Islam), the alarming Brennan to CIA, the cretinous Clinton to Secretary of State, hunchbacks to the Supreme Court, and so on. It's not just that they're inept, they're downright harmful, almost as if it were intended that way.
>B. Hussein O. does intend it that way.
Some people, with names like Nudelman, Kagan and Nuland, can't be fired. Others can be fired, forced out and even blacklisted all too easily.
Not that I'm envious! I love Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League with all my heart.
"It's already decided that the less supportive he is of neoconnery, the more he humiliates the country."
Fuck 'em both, they deserve each other. Yeah, we'll be screwed, but I could use a laugh.
Re: Jews don't believe in heaven.
Really? What do they believe in?
Theologically speaking....
Idle Spectator said...
Except the big lie in the room is that America directly fomented the unrest in the Ukraine, and that their clear "intervention" in the matter led to undesirable consequences beyond their control. This situation was brewing LONG before the neo-cons were peacocking.
The current options are to isolate Moscow with diplomacy and sanctions OR to "talk tough" and send in troops.
Either way, your peeps here will find a way to blame the administration regardless of his decisions.
Yes.. how funny it is for a different country on the other side of the world to have its own history and drama.
The options are to 1] do nothing and 2] do nothing. Ukraine's affairs are an internal matter
Imagine if McCain had been in charge, we very well could have been on the path to a shooting war with Russia.
We are on the path to a shooting war with Russia.
Obama didn't even want to leave Iraq. Panetta practically demanded that Baghdad ask them to stay on, but the refusal to grant immunity was a hurdle they couldn't overcome.
If Obama was going to clear house he would have done it after earlier, like after Libya. Obama is really a continuation of Bush II anyway, so the same people were doing the same things for a decade before Obama showed up.
At this point the branches of the US government are Neo Cons and the military. The military vetoed further action in Syria and Ukraine.
Equally interesting is Obama's failure in the Bunkerville NV against the Bundy insurrection. Superficially tiny the point is that it occurred in the Homeland.
Americans and Europeans should begin now to rethink the funding and the governance of our international broadcasters in order to counter the new war of words. We should also begin now to reinforce the local police forces of the states that border the new Russian empire: NATO’s F-16s cannot fight thugs who are storming the town hall. This isn’t just about spending money: We need more special operations forces, more “human” intelligence, not just more ships and planes. Above all we need to be prepared, in advance, for what may come. It’s a new world we are now entering, and we need new tools to cope with it.
--Anne Applbaum
Sounds creepy.
It's at least a cheaper way of being humiliated than invading Iraq or Afghanistan.
"This is the type of mentality we on the alt-right are up against. Take no prisoners, no humility, no real retrospection, just pure religiosity and dominating other people."
Religiosity when the guy himself in his own quote says he's not sure there's a heaven?
As for Bloomberg...I'm against him on the guns (and am not surprised he's pissing people off and doesn't get where the rest of the country is coming from), but with him on the Big Gulps, actually. People in this country are disgustingly obese, to the point where it's a national embarrassment and dangerous to the national bottom line (ha!) when the bill comes due.
As for the neocons: Obama doesn't have the support for another war, and he knows it, as with Syria. He's going to make some noises and be embarrassed and we will not go to war with Russia.
Judaism and heaven: it's deemphasized and there's quite a range on the subject. Your problem isn't really self-righteousness as much as self-delusion on the part of Nuland and her clique. Most of them don't believe in God or barely do, and their actions are guided by a mix of liberal ideology and the same self-interest that marks elites since the dawn of time.
BTW, I'm not that impressed with Christians on this issue either. If any country's sane right now, it's China, though that's obviously not good for us...
Obama appoints frumpy, menopausal women to vital national security and judicial posts. He fancies himself this great thinker but has ZERO intellectual curiosity after falling upwards into the most fascinating job on earth.
Like a lot of high profile people in this enstupefied society, he's just mimid intelligence. If he weren't President right now, he'd be struggling for market share with Montel Williams.
No they don't, as any honest jew would admit, not heard an answer to what they do believ. Marxist heaven on earth, power and wealth in this world for their tribe are my guesses...
All of you are assuming that Ukraine is the objective here. What if the objective was maneuvering Russia into take some action - any action - that would justify our sanctioning it? Read AEP in the Telegraph today. The economic strangulation of Russia is the objective, not the consequence, of the Ukraine fiasco.
"It's at least a cheaper way of being humiliated than invading Iraq or Afghanistan." - if only the savings would get passed down.
Who cares about foreign policy if this does not involve homo marriage?
Psst. Secret. They don't "believe" in anything. They have a good (very good) sense of adaptation and survival of the group that is so deeply ingrained they don't need to "think" or "believe in" or discuss. They do, and that's enough.
They have a genuine kin bond with each other based on relatedness and their true secret, which is "kindness."
Theology is alien to them. Ideology is alien to them. They don't like it and probably don't really understand it. It seems "unreal" and "impractical" to them. The truth is, they don't need artificial structures to cooperate - they do it by innate reflex.
They don't understand why the nations need "religions" to simply cooperate and be nice. They help shape those religions as needed. They get pegged as "related" to religion but it's a strange historical dance that "just keeps happening" more than their creation.
You could say they are super-Darwinian or hyper-adaptive. The sociological "formlessness" they are criticized for is their greatest asset. Adaptation and openness to change is their greatest hidden asset in environment in a hostile world of (from their point of view) "mean and primitive and crazy" nations.
You could say the "god" of evolution protects them. But that would be just more superstition,
Speaking of foreign adventures, Samantha Power and Kerry have been pushing for military intervention in Syria, but it's been blocked by Gen. Dempsey.
"Americans and Europeans should begin now to rethink the funding and the governance of our international broadcasters in order to counter the new war of words. We should also begin now to reinforce the local police forces of the states that border the new Russian empire: NATO’s F-16s cannot fight thugs who are storming the town hall. This isn’t just about spending money: We need more special operations forces, more “human” intelligence, not just more ships and planes. Above all we need to be prepared, in advance, for what may come. It’s a new world we are now entering, and we need new tools to cope with it.
--Anne Applbaum"
The coming big conflict in Europe is when nationalists start to have political breakthroughs in France, the Netherlands, Austria and other countries. We'll see to what lengths the Applebaums of the world go to stop this. I think that when things reach that point, there won't be be much support for the Applebaums anywhere. Certainly not in the US military and not in Israel either.
European nationalists of all stripes have been moving towards Russia. Expect Russia to do more to support nationalists in the West.
The coming alliance is Russia, China, India, Western nationalists, Latin America and non-Sunni Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East. On the other side is the corrupt establishment in the US and EU, Sunni fundamentalists and some countries that have disputes with members of the first alliance. Those countries will be unenthusiastic participants who seek to take from the alliance and not giving anything for it. It's a no brainer which side will collapse first.
Israel is an interesting case as the younger generation of right wing politicians is very different from Netanyahu, closer ideologically to European nationalists and less invested in neoliberalism. Iran's regime is an obstacle to this alliance, with their hardcore fundamentalism(Hezbollah, surprisingly, are relatively moderate for Muslims) repelling potential allies. When Iran has a more loveable regime, many countries will want to be their friends who are going along with the anti-Iran campaign now. Expect a revival of secular nationalist political ideology in the Arab world.
I don't see any comeback for neocons in the cards. It is already being widely discussed by informed Americans of all political stripes that neocons are still infesting parts of the federal government and subverting US interests. Lot's of people, especially younger people, have been following the neocon machinations against Ukraine and Russia have drawn the obvious conclusions. Expect to see discussion of purging neocons from the government and "NGOs" in mainstream media soon. Liberals, libertarians, socialists and younger conservatives can all agree on that. Lots of younger people are disgusted with the neocon domination the WP, NYT and WSJ. WP has now take steps to include non-neocon voices in the discussion. Pressure will come on the NYT next.
The question is who the hardcore holdouts in favor of the NWO will be. Anglo-Canada looks likely.
"Like a lot of high profile people in this enstupefied society, he's just mimid intelligence. If he weren't President right now, he'd be struggling for market share with Montel Williams."
Either way, your peeps here will find a way to blame the administration regardless of his decisions.
I rest my case.
"Idle Spectator said...
Either way, your peeps here will find a way to blame the administration regardless of his decisions.
I rest my case."
His own fault for being lazy and ineffectual and an enabler for all sorts of crazies.
Though thankfully not so much for the warmongering kind. We can blame him for not going to war - and thank God.
"The question is who the hardcore holdouts in favor of the NWO will be. Anglo-Canada looks likely."
No. Harper is a true believer, but most Canadians are indifferent to foreign policy, reasonably enough, considering our unimportant we are.
Why are we to think that Obama's advisers that Sailer thinks Obama should fire are acting against Obama's wishes?
Throw a dart against a wall, then paint the dartboard around it.
Think it through...
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