[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'W')e Limeys still love you Yanks !!!!!!!!!!!

[Sixstrings]

Good overall article:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ritish Leader Diverges From U.S. on China Policy and Military Spending
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/british-leader-diverges-from-us-on-china-policy-and-military-spending.html?_r=0

[radon1]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', '
')
Anyway, where is Putin ?
Gas

[AgentR11]

Well... if he's building a new Dynastic rule; that kinda goes with the job. I'm a little disturbed by your assertion that "nobody else cares"; if true that could be *really* bad in the event of an unplanned succession; and 60 yr old males have a habit of occasionally just falling over dead for no particular reason what so ever.

[radon1]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'W')ell... if he's building a new Dynastic rule; that kinda goes with the job. I'm a little disturbed by your assertion that "nobody else cares"; if true that could be *really* bad in the event of an unplanned succession; and 60 yr old males have a habit of occasionally just falling over dead for no particular reason what so ever.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'T')he main thing to remember, Six, when you (and others) refer to WHAT "the" Brits (or Ukraneians, Russians, Germans you name 'ems) think / do / propose etc, it's NOT the majority of the said people who think / do / propose etc, just those in Government / power who no doubt have their respective strings pulled by banks / big business etc.

[Sixstrings]

Just to be fair an objective -- like if I were a Brit --

Then yes, if the old Western order is breaking down -- which was led by the USA in partnership with Brits and Europe and then the US allies around the world -- then as American Empire recedes, it makes sense for the UK to latch onto China now and be positioned heading into a "Chinese Century."

It just is what it is.

But having said that, we shouldn't lift a finger to help the UK with anything. They're not acting like an ally at this point. This is like how France turns on us sometimes, we're used to it with the French, we are not used to it from the Brits.

But anyhow we can't force the world to keep the old order. All we can do is adapt to new realities, and it looks like America doing less is the way forward. Because notice something -- if we just stay home, they all just fight each other anyway! In the middle east, in Europe. Maybe the Pacific next. So whatever.

The sticking point is if a war gets too big, then we are dragged in massively, when if only our teammates had stayed on our side from the beginning then we could have prevented it all. Such is the history world wars I, and II.

If the world eschews our leadership, to make a quick buck with our long term adversaries, then honestly for goodness sake -- let's ignore that next world war this time. If our allies do not help us to prevent world wars, then we should not have to bleed on their beaches -- in the future -- due to their folly. Just my opinion about it.

This China bank could be a canary in the coalmine, and undo the whole alliance. Gas mentioned that air bases in UK have strategic value, but if we are not on the same page with the Brits, then there is no strategy to have value over. We actually do not need the UK to defend America. So if UK ever does things that help to endanger us in the Pacific, then what is that about, how is that an ally.

The China Bank is a NEW WORLD BANK. The OLD world bank isn't just about developing places and loaning money out, it's a form of CONTROL. So the old World Bank is run by the USA and Europeans and Brits. This NEW China World Bank seeks to supplant that, with CHINA at the head of it. Do you guys see that point? It's a way for China to extend a hegemony and it's in direct opposition to the old world order and American interests, and Cameron just signed the UK up as a founding partner.

If we've lost the Brits, then the old alliance is just gone, with the Brits will go the Commonwealth and now they'll all join the China World Bank. And then how do we have a nato or any reason to be in Europe, if the rest of the anglo world has signed up with China in the Pacific. It potentially undoes the entire old world order and supplants it with Chinese leadership.

But who knows, maybe that's for the best. There's nothing we can do about it. If Europe and Britain have accepted dictatorships leading in the world, then what can we do. The old world order is just gone. All we can do is go isolationist, and let the rest of the world fight amongst themselves -- and then for our own security, look to our near abroad most of all and keep any trouble out of there.

[Plantagenet]

Rumors are spreading in Moscow that Putin is dead----killed during a violent sexual assault by a porpoise.


Get off me Flipper---oh....that tickles....OW! that HURTS! FLIPPER NO NO NO NYET NYET AAAASHHSHSHSSGHGHGGHGHGH!

----------------------------------
The word on the street is that Putin's last request was to be buried bare-chested in his coffin.

[Sixstrings]

@plant
Normally I'd chuckle, but "coup" and instability in Russia constitute the #1 risk to all of us. It's those darn nukes. Where is their president. What if Norway fires off a science research missile like it did in the 90s, and because of disorganization in Russia the message doesn't get passed and then some general turns all the full launch keys on. If their president is missing, gone away somehow for some reason, then who gets that football at 3am?

Putin Watch, Day 9.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hy has Putin gone missing?

The fast-moving iceberg of speculation may melt as fast as it emerged. The Kremlin has now started pushing harder against the rumors, trying to prove that Russia's foremost -- nay, only -- major political leader, is alive and well.

...

Whatever Putin is doing at this exact moment -- whether he is hunting tigers, visiting with friends, or convalescing from an illness -- and no matter what he does in the days ahead, the Internet tempest of the past few days is a reminder that the man who embodies today's Russian state, who dismantled the country's once-fledgling democracy, won't be around forever. Which raises the question, what then?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/opinions/ghitis-putin-where-is-he/

[AgentR11]

cnn: "and no matter what he does in the days ahead, the Internet tempest of the past few days is a reminder that the man who embodies today's Russian state, who dismantled the country's once-fledgling democracy, won't be around forever."

I think they mean to say, dismantled their once-fledgling loot-ocracy. lol. A "democracy" where most are in dire poverty while wealth is pumped into the West along with their resources, is no democracy at all.

But I'm glad you're starting to get it. Putin is the only lynchpin in the nuclear chain that *doesn't* want to launch the nukes. If he changes his mind, or somehow loses operational control; we're toast.

[Cid_Yama]

Putin has the flu says CIA
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')ussian President Vladimir Putin is sick with the flu, according to a Gawker report citing a CIA official who was not identified. The report Saturday came after almost a week of rumors speculating that Putin had died because he has not been seen in public since March 5.

No other details were included in the Gawker report, which contradicts unsubstantiated theories about Putin’s demise that began to swirl after the Russian president canceled a visit to Kazakhstan this week. Reuters later quoted a Kazakh government source who said, “It looks like [Putin] has fallen ill.” This statement was given extra credence when Putin subsequently rescheduled a meeting with officials in South Ossetia.

Russian officials have consistently denied reports of Putin’s death. Friday, the Kremlin-controlled television channel NTV broadcast footage appearing to show the president meeting with Vyacheslav Lebedev, chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia, although the time and date of the meeting wasn’t immediately clear.

[dissident]

This thread is a Six$ circle jerk. Fantasy projection like pretty much the rest of western attention aimed at Russia.

[Cog]

The Putin knob slobberers must be in deep mourning that they can't currently see their hero riding a bear.

Russia is a third world country in rapid decline. Hardly something worthwhile to even talk about.

[Withnail]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'T')he Putin knob slobberers must be in deep mourning that they can't currently see their hero riding a bear.

Russia is a third world country in rapid decline. Hardly something worthwhile to even talk about.

[radon1]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '
')Russia is a third world country in rapid decline. Hardly something worthwhile to even talk about.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'B')ut I'm glad you're starting to get it. Putin is the only lynchpin in the nuclear chain that *doesn't* want to launch the nukes. If he changes his mind, or somehow loses operational control; we're toast.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'T')his appears to be the most likely case since, if he were dead, there would be visible movements and actions being taken by both Russia and other governments around the world. Trust me, the US intelligence community would know in such an event.

[AgentR11]

A hardliner coup... lets start with the Kharkov and Kiev; critical infrastructure destroyed within minutes, and sacked within a day or two. There wouldn't be warning at all; we'd just click drudge, and pictures showing Kiev irrecoverably broken will just appear out of nowhere. Lyvy would be left untouched as a magnet to draw Western preferring UA citizens West, away from the front. With critical industries wrecked, which are all East of Kiev; UA's warfighting capability ceases to exist without billions of dollars of flat out military gifts from NATO. But the real game pushes along the Azov coast and creates the landbridge. While the landbridge is more expensive than the Kerch bridge; the Kerch bridge looks like a woosy/pansy surrender; and the hardliners will want something more akin to glory than to economic rationality. Land bridge comes into existence, and Russian troops abandon Kiev to fall back to the Dneiper; and they will kill like its WWII. Hundreds of thousands will die.

I'd also expect the *RUSSIAN SIDE* of the UA gas pipelines to be destroyed by Russia, and they'll blame UA terrorists while rolling their eyes and giggling.

This would of course be bad for Russia, but the hardliners that would gain control aren't looking for mansions in London. They are looking for glory's past days. The Russian people will largely accept this; especially if the hardliners arrange something that looks like a Western assassination of Putin.

There is also one other problem. Right now, people do not believe, in the West, that Russia will use its nukes. The hardliners *need* to nuke a city, in order for Europe to take them seriously.

That city is Lyvy after its drawn refugees from Kiev.

That is what a hardliner coup will look like.

That said. Putin is either just taking a vacation, or has/had the flu. Its the rational explanation. He's probably trolling twitter via a proxy account or watching TV. Nothing interesting, other than our own desperate fear that Putin might actually be gone.