The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
- H. L. Mencken
Disrupting the Borg is expensive and time consuming!
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Mencken was light years ahead of his time. So many great quotes by him and his ‘hobgoblins’ one is the best of the lot, because it’s bang-on accurate.
Meanwhile…Harry Teasley’s rules of bureaucracy are ALL applied by the Green Blob as a matter of routine. Tony, there could be a superb post in the making if you can match up each of these ‘rules’ with an actual example. I’ll start the ball rolling with the obvious one! #1 – man made global warming, on-going for 30 years despite next to no evidence to support CO2 *driving* temperatures!
Rule #1: Maintain the problem at all costs! The problem is the basis of power, perks, privileges, and security.
Rule #2: Use crisis and perceived crisis to increase your power and control.
Rule 2a. Force 11th-hour decisions, threaten the loss of options and opportunities, and limit the opposition’s opportunity to review and critique.
Rule #3: If there are not enough crises, manufacture them, even from nature, where none exist.
Rule #4: Control the flow and release of information while feigning openness.
Rule 4a: Deny, delay, obfuscate, spin, and lie.
Rule #5: Maximize public-relations exposure by creating a cover story that appeals to the universal need to help people.
Rule #6: Create vested support groups by distributing concentrated benefits and/or entitlements to these special interests, while distributing the costs broadly to one’s political opponents.
Rule #7: Demonize the truth tellers who have the temerity to say, “The emperor has no clothes.”
Rule 7a: Accuse the truth teller of one’s own defects, deficiencies, crimes, and misdemeanours.
Russia is a threat. It has mad little president who has crushed his opposition and has sovereign power over the press, duma, and the court system.
He’s got a large conventional army, international presence and nuclear weapons. He’s got a people which is patriotic and ignorant.
He’s simply fucking dangerous for the next 15 years.
And his closest neighbor is the EU, which is a ridiculous, unarmed, left winged puppie. What could possibly go wrong.
Russians say the exact same thing about Americans.
The Russian military machine is highly over rated. Don’t get me wrong. The soldiers aren’t bad. In fact in many ways they’re very good. But they’re ground forces are still equipped with a lot of cold war era equipment. They are further behind the US in sub technology than they were during the cold war. They STILL have nothing to compare to a super carrier. And in fact not a single class of their warships can compare to the USN. Some of their fighters are pretty darn good, as are their choppers, and they have some very good transport, but when it comes to bombers, they’re not even in the same ball park. Their missile technology is very good generally.
And the bottom line is that Russia’s economy is not that great and with no client states to steal from Putin doesn’t have the funds to ramp up improvements to match what the US has been doing over the decades since the wall came down.
wert,
Go to Russia. Have a look. Talk to the people. See how the standards have improved in the last 10 years. See how their economy is faring now they are the world’s largest oil producer.
See why they study climate without focusing on alarmist global warming – as we do.
You will then realise why a very large majority of the population love Putin and disrespect those who oppose Putin.
It’s not a matter of support for Putin. It is a matter of economic reality. Russia is not the Soviet Union. Russia relies upon oil and natural gas for a good bit of it’s disposable income. Putin’s gradual reimplementation of the police state has curtailed the potential of foreign investment and new domestic industry that once was so bright. And in the end all of this shows up in the income they have to spend on their military. This is why, despite the constant threat from the ever strengthening PRC over disputed lands, the Russians keep selling them technology and weapons.
I read stuff about the worlds militaries and weapons development all the time. Have done so most of my life. Nothing has warranted the fear I have heard about Putin and a “new” cold war expressed time and again in the press and echoed by those that believe it. It’s hype!
Uh oh. The deep state plot thickens. Gizmodo thinks he has tracked down FBI director James Comey’s secret twitter account:
http://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-1793843641
And here’s the real kicker. That account follows David Ignatius, which is the reporter that started all this Russian leaks investigation stuff.
And the crap for the deep state gets even deeper now.
“Firm Hired By DNC & Relied On By FBI To Prove Russia Hacking Forced To Withdraw Anti-Russian Report”
http://lidblog.com/crowdstrike-hired-by-dnc-to-prove-russians-hacked-election/
And seeing how the DNC refused the FBI access to their server(s) to perform a forensic analysis, this entire meme about the Russians having hacked the emails completely derived from Crowdstrike’s claims which they have now renounced.
We shouldn’t hold our breath though for the media to catch up with this news.
After reading the story which was linked to, it is important to understand that no direct evidence regarding the DNC servers claim by Crowdstrike was actually walked-back. The story implies that because Crowdstrike’s claims about Ukraine were discredited, that we are to also assume their claims about the DNC servers are as well. We need to be careful when we make assertions that aren’t actually what they are stated to be.
After all this time and hype with no hard evidence produced and the credibility of their primary source being damaged, combined with Farkas with her deer in the headlight looks, trying desperately to walk back her clear statements, the whole house of cards is noticeably shaking.
Indeed, and as stated above…” the DNC refused the FBI access to their server(s) to perform a forensic analysis, “
What is amazing me is the press trying to reconstitute Hillary’s reputation. Total press effort failed to give her the presidency and yet they persist. What difference does it make at this point? Meanwhile over at the incompetent DNC we see down right nasty and hateful language aimed at their opponents. Didn’t they learn a thing about painting wide swaths of the US electorate with the “deplorable” brush?
Don’t they learn?
Nope, Identity politics, marginalizing all who disagree, hate and blame as an institutionalized product, it’s what they are, it’s how their brains are programmed.
Russia aren’t the West’s biggest problem. Step away from contrived hysteria and we see ordinary Russians usually want the same as most Westerners; a healthy, peaceful and prosperous life. Nor are they tied to worshipping a sky-God or brutal dictator, either.
It’s the middle east that offers the gravest threat to mankind.