The Swamp

brian wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:06 pm After the Chinese slaughter thousands of protestors, Trump will "joke" he wishes he could do that here. Book it.

howard wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:56 pm Best article I've seen on the background for these current events: Everything you know about Ukraine is wrong.

Either yesterday or today, Russian troops were confirmed to be onshore in Sevastopol, confirmed by press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry (and Google Translate for me.) Not many, and only in limited parts of Crimea, so far.

And a word of criticism of Mr. Obama's vapid, dangerous foreign policy. There is nothing Obama and West can do to stop Putin from seizing part or all of the Ukraine. Nothing. When you spout empty rhetoric about 'red lines', consequences and costs, you degrade the power of your rhetoric to deter bad action by foreign nations when you can, and will back it up.

For example, there is some point at which Chinese aggression against Japan, Taiwan or the Philipines will be opposed. When you warn the Chinese, 'you better not, or else', they are gonna remember, 'yeah, the USA talked all that mess wrt Syria and Crimea/Ukraine, and didn't mean it, so we'll go ahead'. Then your WW3 starts.

Threaten only when you can, and will, back it up. Bluffing not only fails, but leads to failure when you aren't bluffing.

Obama is not the first leader to fuck up like this. Only the latest.

Joe K wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 10:57 pm Sure looks like a Trump-administration assisted coup:

Morales’ regime did a lot to improve the welfare of poor and working class people in Bolivia, and had a lot of success reducing poverty. But he was also planning to nationalize the country’s lithium resources. We all know how the US tends to respond when Latin American countries take actions adverse to US corporate interests.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:46 am

Joe K wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 9:14 am

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:46 am

The right-wing Christian supremacists who seized power in Bolivia are now violently attacking journalists, farmers and indigenous people. (If you click on the Tweet below there’s a whole thread describing such incidents.) So I’d say things are right about on schedule.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:39 pm The Amoral Pit That Is Malta

Perhaps one of the most discouraging and despicable things about our world are tax havens.

The murder of the prime minister’s wife two days before his inauguration sent shockwaves through the kingdom of 2.2 million people.

Thabane’ current wife Maesaiah Thabane, 43, whom he married two months after Lipolelo’s death, is considered a co-conspirator and has already been charged.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:04 pm So this was not a good time for me to decide to focus my practice on oil and gas work?

mister d wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:07 pm GOOD KARMA'S HOUSE - SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE

MRS. KARMA
Honey, there's a large truck out front and they said you'd be expecting this delivery?

GOODKARMA
[looks directly into camera]
Uhhhhhhh-oh!

A_B wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:05 pm So much energy dominance. Sick of energy dominance. Such dominance. Wow.

rass wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:51 am Bad things appear to be happening in Beirut right now...

brian wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:58 am

rass wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:51 am Bad things appear to be happening in Beirut right now...

Good news it appears to have been a fireworks warehouse, not terrorism. Bad news is: