As Senator John McCain, goes further and further down his rabbit hole, he looks more and more hypocritical with every step he takes.
Here is a case in point: McCain proposed Putin a Greater Threat than ISIS.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is the biggest threat to global security, even greater than Isis, John McCain has declared on his tour of Australia.
In an interview on ABC’s 7:30 on Monday the Republican senator said President Donald Trump made him “nervous” and expressed concern at reports that White House adviser Jared Kushner allegedly discussed creating a secret communication channel with Russia.
Asked to evaluate the threat to global security posed by Putin, McCain said: “I think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than Isis.”
McCain said that while Isis “can do terrible things and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith … but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election”.
McCain said that he’d “seen no evidence [the Russians] succeeded but they tried and they are still trying to change elections”.
He cited an attempt to influence the French election and said Russia had “dismembered Ukraine, a sovereign nation” as reasons for viewing Putin as the greatest threat.
Who is the Greater Threat
McCain’s Hypocrisy Has No Bounds
How many rulers has the US overthrown, how many elections has the US meddled in, and how many wars has the US started? At what cost? For what benefit?
What about Russia?
US meddling and McCain’s thinking is a bigger threat to the world than Putin or ISIS. After all, ISIS is essentially a US creation. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that. It’s time for the US to fess up as well.
For discussion, please see Tony Blair’s Disingenuous, Self-Serving Analysis of Iraq.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
McCain is an old fart in the wind.
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mccain/cia own isis
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Easy question! Trump.
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Even easier. Obummer.
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Yeah Joe, okay. Sure thing, Trump. Gotcha.
First, it was all about submitting his tax return. Next came the furor over his 90 day travel ban. Now, it’s the evil Russians.
Taxes paid were in 25% range, more than most of Congress pays. prompting their immediate silence. Then the travel ban allowed him to receive the highest honor awarded to civilians by the Saudi government. Now it’s all about Russia and their meddling in the US election.
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Diogenes — Agree
Hillary’s silly “resistance” movement thinks they can fix the US government by undermining the US government’s legitimacy. Let’s just say these people don’t exactly think things through
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I really feel sorry for you Joe, just like anyone else completely divorced from reality.
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Washington, DC
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McCain ought to know
He created ISIS
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1Trump, 2 Putin, 3 ISIS, 4 Mccain.
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0. Obummer.
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Trump – rest does not count. There are too weak or ready to leave for a better world.
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Trump is insignificant. I don’t believe he has ill intent, he’s just an ego maniac chancer that struck lucky up against an awful Democrat candidate.
Discuss.
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HT, you exhibit the problem the EU has with Trump. You think of him as some sort of evil genius. He isnt, he just doesnt want to pay towards an EU that should be standing on its own two feet.
I’m pretty sure if roles were reversed the EU wouldn’t put money and machines into defending the US or UK.
Get over it.
Putin is a massively larger threat to the EU than Trump.
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Putin isn’t going to do anything to Europe. Europe is Putin’s cash cow now, everything Europe does involves Russian energy sources and paying tribute to Moscow
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Thank you Medex for the reality shot. Of course the deplorable delusionals will ignore it.
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Putin is just a boogy man that WaPo uses to sell propaganda — Putin is all too obviously focused on expanding into Asia.
ISIS was created by Obama and Hillary. If the CIA stops funding and training ISIS, it will go away.
McCain is a warmonger, but it seems more and more Americans recognize him as such. McCain will continue screaming until Arizona finally puts him to pasture, but already no one is listening.
Trump is the first President in decades to put taxpayers ahead of Washington DC criminals — when Mish asks “who is a greater threat?” Mish neglected to specify “threat to whom”. Trump is a threat to the criminal culture that is Washington DC (including the media parasites), but he is a big help to the other 99% of America.
The biggest threat to the American way of life are the extremist socialists (college employees, media pundits, etc) who are teaching gender studies and political correctness while neglecting reading and math. The socialsts (as they have done in other failed countries all over the world) are teaching welfare over actually doing anything.
Socialism (including the “mild” version that Obama tried) causes economic suffering everywhere it is tried. The US is not immune from the socialism disease
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The greatest threat to most Americans is the Affordable Care Act. It threatens both their ongoing health and financial livelihood.
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All forms of socialism — Obamacare is just one horrid example — are a threat to American’s way of life.
The poor are told they can get health insurance just like rich folk — but neither can afford to get health CARE. Like everything socialist, Obamacare is fraud
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I cannot do a “like” on this dumb site, so thumbs up Medex.
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Tune into Macron’s meeting with Putin in Versailles. Makes McCain look like a dinosaur.
And whatever the mud thrown at Trump, he probably understands Putin far better than a lot of those in the swamp.
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Macron is just a place holder, the EU was terrified Le Pen would tear Brussels apart and would have appointed an actual monkey as the President of France if it would delay Brussels day of reckoning.
Europe needs Russian natgas, or Europe needs to continue building nuclear power plants (without energy of some form, Europe’s economy won’t be able to keep the lights on — literally).
The problem will be that Russia wants to be paid, and not in worthless Draghi bucks. And when Putin demands real technology or real products, Europe is in no position to question.
Putin knows this. Trump knows this. Xi knows this. Europe no longer matters
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I would disagree. I’m no fan of the EU but do think they can sort out core problems, grow in influence and some time displace the USA with a larger market and more trade in their currency.
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Don’t you live in the EU fish? You are talking your book?
Europe doesn’t matter anymore. A decade ago maybe they could muddle along, but after Draghi and Merkel and Hollande and Juncker… Europe is not relevant and won’t be relevant for at least a generation (if not longer).
A decade ago, we might debate Europe’s economy and trade size rivaling the US — that is just a pipe dream now.
Europe will struggle to even pay its bills — actually it already struggles to pay its bills, its not a future tense problem.
In 8000 years of recorded human history, major debtors have never been global powers. It just doesn’t happen.
The only way Europe will be bigger than the USA is if morons like Obama wrack up US debt faster than Juncker wracks up European debt … maybe the US could collapse faster under socialism than Europe could. Other than that, people alive today will not see Europe in anything other than decline
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I live in the UK and travel in the EU.
I’m no fan of the EU but do my best to detach myself from prejudice and see there is a chance the EU project is coming out of the woods.
Post German election there will be a rush to integration – probably multi-layer.
Core fiscal, 2nd layer political collboration and 3rd market participants. Countries can move up and down layers but once in core remain there.
By about 2025 all in the Euro with a market 1.5x that of US approx.
Italy likely to push to move to German proportional representation and election early to sync with Germany. Why? Big rush in 2018 onwards to create an “entity”.
There will be some debt relief involved.
Italian elections should be 2018 but pulled forward by looks of it.
The electorate will be given little say, railroaded like it or not.
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Your attempts at marketing default as “debt relief” is only fooling yourself.
Europe can’t pay its own bills. Not “they don’t want to”, they CAN NOT. They probably don’t have the will, but they definitely don’t have the means.
Your idea that Germany (which thanks to Merkel has its own problems) is somehow going to sign a treaty of Versailles and pay for all of Europe is crazy. We already played that game post WW1, and it ends in blood shed.
It you learned nothing from WW1 and the Versailles Treaty, then you are doomed to repeat the mistake. But if you bother to read history, then you know Germany will not be paying for the rest of Europe.
And the rest of Europe is not able to pay.
You can tell yourself that is prejudiced and argue about your political correctness nonsense — it might help if you have a few of whatever brandy Juncker consumes.
But if you look at the math, Europe’s accounts simply don’t work. Period. Amen. End of discussion. Draghi isn’t going to pull value out of thin air, no matter what moronic promises he makes.
Europe has been in decline for 200 years because of socialism, and the EU just makes the underlying socialist drag worse.
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Republicans point to Hillary’s nomination as proof the Dems are hopeless, even though they nominated a hack for the military industrial complex. McCain crashed his plane into his aircraft carier while being a hot dog, killing many. He was a song bird for Tokyo Rose. While McCain has to pay back for his general daddy getting him off, the rest of the nation shouldn’t have to suffer. Arizona voters are just as pathetic as the ones that voted for Pelosi, Feinstein, Shummer, Graham, and the rest of the establishment hacks.
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If you understood the structure of the euro, you would have zero confidence in their ability to survive the coming soveriegn debt crisis. The euro is toast, as is the EU in its current state.
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The EU will reform. The ECB can print.
I’m not saying the EU/Euro is a paragon just that it’s demise is too easily predicted and might not happen given the 400M+ people in there and the political capital invested.
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Fish — Draghi can print like he is in Zimbabwe, but that won’t make Europe relevant much less solvent
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Europe has had 50+ years to sort out it’s problems… and they couldn’t get it done. The EU is defenseless. The EU is leaderless. The EU lacks sufficient natural/energy resources. The list goes on & on…
The EU most resembles Japan – utterly dependent.
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Oh, that’s an easy one.
Had McStain been elected in 2008 I’m afraid the planet would look like a smoldering ball of charcoal.
So instead we got Obama who drove us deep into debt and started piecemeal wars all over the globe that benefited the terrorists and the banksters.
I’m almost ashamed to say this…..but Obama was the lesser evil of the two. But I never voted for him. Had I, I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror each morning.
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Oh, that’s an easy one.
Had McCain been elected in 2008 I’m afraid all we’d have left is a smoldering ball of charcoal floating within the universe. All of us would be after thoughts of the cockroaches that survived.
I never thought I’d publicly say this – but Obama was the lesser of the two evils. There, I did it.
What shameful thing to say.
Not to claim that I voted for Obama who drove us $10 trillion deeper in debt and started piecemeal wars throughout the globe that benefited only the banksters and the terrorists. I can’t remember who I voted for in 2008. Might have been Pat Paulson who was dead at the time.
Of the 4 choices:
1. McCain
2. ISIS
3. Trump
4. Putin
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Mish asked who is the greater threat — but he didn’t specify “to whom”…
McCain is a warmonger, and if he had been elected over the socialist in 2008 — we might very well be a smoldering pile of radioactive rubble by now.
Socialism is destroying the country also, it just has a longer fuse.
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I think you suffer from dementia.
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Mental illness is rife in politics. You’d have to be mad to run for office.
In my very humble opinion the most dangerous man in the past 20 years was Tony Blair, especially post 9/11.
One dangerous man on a solo messianic mission and leaving death, destruction and mayhem in his wake.
Al Qaeda may have been CIA supported in the early days but post 9/11 Tony Blair had outsized influence. Dodgy dossier etc and somewhere he would have had a handle on ISIS and Libya.
All the others on the list pale in significance compared to TB.
His attitude to European migration also resulted in Brexit. He had options to limit migration and he didn’t act on it. Other countries did.
McCann is an amateur in comparison to that mentalist.
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Agree — but have to point out that Tony Blair was an un-apologized pro-EU weenie who put socialist Brussels above England. He put all unelected bureaucracy above England. He was unaccountable giant government, or bust.
Thank God Tony Blair went bust. Thank God Obama/Hilary went bust too. Germany and France don’t look like they will be as fortunate
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Blair isn’t gone.
He’s looking to help reverse Brexit and if Labour take a hammering at the election there will be an attempt at a new breakaway party and I expect he will be pulling levers. He’s said as much.
He’s like a recurrent disease.
I even believe the Conservatives don’t want to decimate Labour at the election for that reason. A totally failed Labour party would be bad for Brexit, good for Blair.
With all his faults I don’t believe for one minute that Trump is as malevolent as Blair. Be grateful. Make the best of it.
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And despite your analysis of Tony Blair (the EU in drag) — you still hold out hope the EU can regain relevance?
Who cares if the EU’s GDP (by your calcuations anyway) is 1.5x that of the US? Quality matters as much as quantity, and too much of the EU’s GDP is welfare. Yes, Obama tried to f@ck up the US economy — but so far the Tony Blair’s, Francois Hollade’s and Angela Merkel’s (with assist from Juncker and Draghi) have managed to turn most of Europe’s economy into state socialism.
Seeing a photo of Macron giving Putin a Monica Lewinski does not make me think Europe is relevant. I see a Russian guy who drove a wedge between Europe and Turkey, retained control of eastern Ukraine / Sevastpool naval base and the Black sea — essentially cutting off any possibility of Europe getting natgas from another supplier. I see a Russian guy who built the North pipeline between Russia and Germany/Netherlands — meaning eastern Ukraine can no longer threaten Gazprom.
Putin decides whether German and French industry can prop up the EU… the EU does not. From now on, when Putin wants diplomatic influence to expand into Asian markets, France and Germany will do it for him. And they will thank him for the privilege of serving him. The energy that keeps the German economy (and thus the EU) muddling along comes at Putin’s discretion. That is just a fact, and the EU/UN can’t do anything about it.
Putin isn’t a threat to Europe anymore — he is their defacto leader, even if the EU is too stupid to recognize it.
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It’s not hope, it’s an observation.
No good dismissing various possible outcomes.
Outcomes have probabilities. Probabilities that can vary with events and time.
The probability the EU can survive and prosper has increased from my point of view and in so doing, in time, surpass the US.
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Today — The EU cannot turn the lights on at their own headquarters without paying tribute to Gazprom.
Going forward — even your hope and prayer plan for the EU revolves around German industry footing the bills for the rest of Europe… which means German industry using Russian natgas and paying tribute to Moscow.
Lots of French and British citizenry thought the Versailles Treaty was economically viable — but the Wiemar republic could not cover all of Europe’s spending, and Angela Merkel can’t either.
Hope is not a plan, never mind a probability scenario. Europe is too deep in debt, has a choking welfare system, is dependent on Putin for energy, and its leadership is usually too drunk to know which end is up.
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You do know that France gets most of its energy from Nuclear, and that even in Natural Gas Russia is a minor supplier? Norway supplies almost 4x as much natgas to France as Russia – and Russian purchases have been decreasing over the last few years.
http://www.gasinfocus.com/en/indicator/sources-of-natural-gas-consumed-in-france/
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You do know that both France and Germany are shutting down their nuclear plants? Shifting toward more natgas plants?
Oh wait, the media outlets told you not to think about that and you obeyed like a good little socialist
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Wow you can’t do basic research! Here are the power numbers for France – not a lot of shutdown going on here.
You conflate with Germany to make your point as they did decide to cut nuclear after Fukushima.
Your premise that Putin has a knife to the throat of France is simply nonsense.
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“Today — The EU cannot turn the lights on at their own headquarters without paying tribute to Gazprom.” – Medex Man
“You do know that France gets most of its energy from Nuclear” – themonosynaptic
@themonosynaptic
EU headquarters are not in France.
So if the EU grid has some power generated by Gazprom natgas a tribute is being paid and it doesn’t even matter if France is 100% nuke electricity
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Out of the list, I would vote for McCann.
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McCain… by a country mile.
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How many people 80 years old do you want deciding if we go to war. McCain. Maxine waters, Nancy Pellosi to name a few. All over 80 or close to it. Retire already and make the world a safer place.
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I’m defining “Global Threat” as the ability to kill most people in the World. If Mish means anything different he should clarify.
McCain is just an old politician who should have hung up his boots long ago. He used to have some integrity, but when the right wing nut jobs took over Arizona he went with crazy over country to keep his Senate seat. He is basically powerless from a “kill people” perspective, so count him out.
ISIS, short of getting hold of a nuke, or creating some biological hazard are a tactical threat with the ability to kill hundreds, maybe thousands, but fewer people than we lose to car accidents on an annual basis. I want them gone, but they are not an existential threat.
Both Putin and Trump can metaphorically push a button and kill us all. Trump is probably borderline insane enough to, but really he just wants to be America’s Greatest Ever President Everybody Says So, so he might throw some military might about here or there, but unless he provokes a response from North Korea he is impotent.
Putin could devise a plan to regain influence over “greater Russia” if he thinks Trump is dumb enough to let him, and so far Trump has shown an outstanding ability to be stupid. His little incursions could result in more planes being shot down like we saw over Ukraine in July 2014, plus lots of civilian collateral deaths.
Trump could also let Saudi Arabia completely off the leash in Yemen resulting in 10,000’s of deaths.
Putin could escalate in Syria, again resulting in 10,000’s of deaths.
So I’d go for:
1. Putin and accumulation of minor conflicts, including Syria
2. Trump stupidity in Korean peninsula and anywhere else he has to make a decision
3. ISIS who will almost certainly kill 1,000’s more before they are snuffed out
I put McCain in the same bucket as the idiots who post “Obummer” – too stupid to really bother consideration.
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Putin defeated Obama in numerous contests — Putin now controls western Europe, who must pay tribute to Moscow just to turn the lights on.
Syria has a Russian military base already, and it prevents a pipeline of middle eastern gas into Europe. Obama and Merkel alienated Turkey, so no pipelines through there except as permitted by Gazprom / Putin. Putin also controls Crimea (no pipelines from Azerbajan to Europe). In short, Putin outflanked Obama at every turn.
Western Europe is now just a Gazprom annuity.
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Putin did indeed out flank Obama at every turn.
Obama appeared confused in his priorities, Putin was Russia first and foremost.
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This sounds more like “I still hate Obama and want to blame him for everything and make him look bad” than a description of any reality I’m aware of, but whatever rings your bell.
So did Putin arrange to have sanctions imposed on him, and prompt an increase in LNG trade between the U.S. and Poland and Southern Europe?
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What sanctions? The ones that France ignored from the start? Or the ones Germany ignored from the start? Or the ones that the US ignored from the start?
No matter what stupid media outlets told you to think (you obviously don’t think for yourself) — the CEO of France’s Total oil company was killed in a plane crash in Russia negotiating for new energy deals. BP has tens of billions invested in Russia, and added after the meaningless sanctions. Germany’s dependence on Russian natgas increased even before Merkel’s bone-headed decision to shut nuclear plants (which might be hit by a tsunami???).
All the US LNG exports have in fact gone to Asian markets. Every single drop. You obviously don’t know what you are talking about.
Trump has only been President for maybe five months — so yes, Obama is to blame for a lot of the crap still operating under his stupid policies. And yes, Obama was the ass-hat that doubled US debt while forcing a disasterous health insurance ponzi scheme on voters. And yes, Obama is the ass-hat that got out maneuvered by Putin at every single turn — failures that will reverberate for decades even if Hillary had rigged the election. And yes, Obama’s debt binge will make your life (and mine) difficult for decades to come, and that would be true no matter who is president now.
Obama was a disaster as president, and no one cares that you wanted the clinton crime syndicate to succeed him.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-asia-lng-idUSL1N1FE4BG
http://www.reuters.com/article/poland-gas-lng-idUSL8N1HZ1UV
Fish. Barrel. Shoot.
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You cited a media organization that pushed for Obama and Hilary? Why not cite Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter? If you are going to play partisan, you will be ignored.
US natgas was supposed to go to Europe under Obama’s moronic plan, but they didn’t get any buyers. LNG is not cost competitive with gas piped across the Polish border, especially if you have an elementary school child’s math understanding (which is why socialist Obama couldn’t get it).
US gas floated off south america for awhile (no takers) and eventually went to Asia. That is the difference between morons that rely on media headlines and people who actually read the entire story (not to mention people who actually work in the field).
Obama is a con man and a socialist, and the US will suffer for decades because of Obama’s failed regime
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These are press releases for Pete’s sake. You do know what Reuters is, right? There was an Economist article about this as well, in case you might remember it. LNG into Europe is a big opportunity for the U.S. – a receptive market for an over abundant product – a match made in heaven – why do you think Putin is panicking. His attempts to shore up the oil market with Saudi Arabia is being undercut by our financial engineering and now we are about to decimate his rich natural gas market.
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Yep — Reuters is one of the media outlets that voted for Hilary and claimed she was guaranteed to win. They are not a neutral party, much less journalists.
Whatever these media outlets USED to be (past tense), they have shown themselves to be unprofessional, heavily biased, and not trustworthy.
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The confusion I have is trying to understand why Trump or the US would be dumb to keep out of Eastern Europe? It’s a European problem.
Junker/Merkel should sort that out. It’s in their back garden, offers them cheap labour and a captive market. Let them defend it. All the US would get is more debt, death and destruction.
The EU doesn’t like Trump because he wants to prioritise the US when they want him to prioritise the EU like the IMF prioritises the Euro. It’s their responsibility. Let them pick up the tab.
“Putin could devise a plan to regain influence over “greater Russia” if he thinks Trump is dumb enough to let him,”
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I doubt Juncker could lead the rest of Europe to the liquor cabinet. Merkel (growing up in east Germany) spent most of her life in subjugation to Moscow. She still is.
Europe cannot afford to put 2% into “defense” as they promised (that was after they defaulted on their promise to spend 3%). Europe can barely afford to keep welfare and interest payments going, and with an aging population even that is doubtful going forward.
I don’t know if Trump thinks he can get Europe to meet their (revised) NATO commitment, or if it just Trump’s backhanded way of reducing the US commitment to Europe — but the numbers don’t lie: Europe can not (is not able to) meet the 2% defense spending threshold that they promised. Europe will struggle to avoid defaulting on lots of other promises.
Europe is now a Gazprom annuity, and if they want to keep the lights on (or their industry/tax base going), Europe will pay Moscow or Europe will freeze to death in the dark. Everything else in the EU budget is up for grabs, no matter what empty promises the politicians make.
Trump needs to protect the US economy (aka Washington DC’s tax base / source of power). He can’t afford to waste time on a lost cause like Europe.
The youngest populations in the world right now (aka places where the US might export more goods / services) are in southeast Asia, the middle east, and Africa … and maybe parts of South America that haven’t been ruined by socialism.
Western media will try their damnedest to continue to distract Trump from real priorities, but hopefully Trump will continue playing them for the fools that they are.
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If only we had a trade deal that set the terms in S.E. Asia and created a counterbalance to the local economic impact of China that would protect U.S. interests in the region. We could call it something like a pan pacific trade agreement – or even better the “Trans Pacific Partnership”. Surely Trump wouldn’t be stupid enough to cancel something like that?
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Surely only a socialist would equate a “free trade” arrangement and an arrangement designed by government bureaucrats.
Trump was able to derail TPP because no one outside the US government liked it — not businesses, not labor unions, not independent US workers, not mom-and-pop stores… no one liked it.
That is why Obama is such an unmitigated failure — he ruled like the kleptocrat socialist that he is, without a care for what the US voters want.
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the TPP? you must be joking… TPP = global Wal-Mart. only a true corporatist shill would pretend the TPP was good/smart for anyone but the globalist/corporatist elites.
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Well I bloody loved TPP – great deal for the U.S. business community – forced our rules and in particular our IP laws into Asia. We will rue the day an orange idiot blew it,
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@Fish — By the way, focusing on the domestic economy while expanding trade to new markets is the same “advice” I gave for Theresa May that I am giving for Trump.
Continental Europe doesn’t matter — its just a Gazprom annuity now.
Younger markets (demographically speaking) matter — southeast Asia, middle east, parts of africa, the parts of latin america that haven’t been ruined by socialism.
And while I hope he fails for selfish / patriotic reasons, those are the same markets Putin must win going forward. He knows it. China’s Xi knows it. And for all the bullsh!t criticism that western media fabricates out of their rear ends — Trump knows it too.
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Those nations you quote have NOT been ruined by socialism. They have been ruined by the US gov hand in hand with the World Bank to asset strip their natural capital. For example when cheap food, US gov subsidised, is sold or given to the Third World, the local farm economy is destroyed. Even peasant labour cannot price compete. The World Bank lends them the money to buy this food, since they can’t then do it, and enforces the export and extraction of their natural resources, making them spend such a proportion of the total the population at home is stripped of welfare and other benefits, impoverishing them.
This was and is a deliberate criminal policy. In 1974 the US exported 60 million tons of grain. Only 3.3 million tons were for aid. 84% of US agricultural exports to Latin America were given to local governments to sell to the people. This undersold local producers, destroyed their markets and reduced their production.
Reference; Smith, J.W. [1994] “the World’s Wasted Wealth II.” Institute for Economic Democracy”
Know that your loose remarks on Socialism are completely wilful, straight out lies. In the US socialism is all for the rich – privatise profits, socialise losses.
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Tell us about how wonderful you think it is to live in Venezuela
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MM, I wouldn’t know. You’re closer, you tell us. It’s a good example of what undercutting local industry and agriculture can do. Mexico has suffered as well;
http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/09/news/economy/nafta-farming-mexico-us-corn-jobs/index.html
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Venezuela is one of many latin american countries ruined by socialism. They can’t even afford toilet paper after Hugo Chavez’s socialist disaster
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“The confusion I have is trying to understand why Trump or the US would be dumb to keep out of Eastern Europe? It’s a European problem.”
Sure – let’s let Putin invade Poland, annex the Sudentenland and blitzkrieg the Baltic states – when has anything like that ever gone wrong in the past?
It seems from your earlier posts that you live in the U.K. – are you channeling Chamberlain by any chance?
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“The confusion I have is trying to understand why Trump or the US would be dumb to keep out of Eastern Europe? It’s a European problem.”
Sure – let’s let Putin invade Poland, annex the Sudentenland and run over the Baltic states – when has anything like that ever gone wrong in the past?
It seems from your earlier posts that you live in the U.K. – are you channeling Chamberlain by any chance?
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Russia is threatening Poland & the Baltics? Really?
Prey tell, what would Putin stand to gain by invading Poland and/or the Baltics?
Where are you reading/hearing the nonsense that you regurgitate here?
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Read the thread
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So Germany was Hitler? Your arguments are petty and misguided, determined by the face that takes responsibility but does not hold it. It does not matter who you like or blame.When destruction comes, all it allows is for you to cling to the version that offers greatest consolation, the reward or loss of doing so being completely independent of your own intent and wishes.
When destruction comes there is no person that is above or below it, only those that avoid it. To do so you must cede all claims and possession, as only then will you understand its nature and be able to combat it for what it is. Now go and confuse yourself by trying to apply this view to historical accounts to attempt to glean an edge which does not exist.
In the meantime I feel that destruction is establishing itself to act.
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That was @ synaptic.
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Read the thread. The point I was responding to was Putin attempting to re-establish power over the old Soviet empire.
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McCain by a mile.
As an Australian, watching our politicians grovel at McCains feet is an embarrassment.
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Bankers printing is the #1 global threat to ordinary people. The rest is just a distraction so that sheep don’t realize they are being fleeced by bankers.
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Like those who invested so heavily and depended so fully on the Maginot Line, I fear Mr. McCain remains focused on the last war. That one is over, we won.
Russia is and will remain pesky but they are at least a rational actor and play by the “normal” rules in such things as statecraft and warfare. (Of course, Mr. McCain and others do not like it when the Russians meddle in US affairs but seem OK when we do so in the affairs of others.)
As to ISIS, they do not play by the “normal” rules and are unlikely to be constrained by them in the future. At present they lack the ability to inflict serious harm….but give them time and they will develop it and I fear use any tools available be they chemical, biological, nuclear or what have you.
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We will always have competitors, but that is NOT the same as wanting us dead. Ideological extremism is always a greater threat, which defines both McCain and radical Islam. McCain sees himself as some grand master chess player who has constantly bet on the wrong side thinking it some brilliant strategy, when all it is is simple stupidity allowing deeply held beliefs blind him.
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Not just hypocritical.
All the war operations engaged in by the US without a casus belli are war crimes. The worst war crime is “aggression” since it is the root of all other war crimes.
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Mc Cain is afflicted with a severe case of defformation proffessionnelle.
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Billary Clinton
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“…but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election”.
Zero Hedge: “Sperry: How Team Obama Tried To Hack The Election”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-29/sperry-how-team-obama-tried-hack-election
“When Brennan rants about the dangers of strongman Vladimir Putin targeting our elections and subverting our democratic process, does he not catch at least a glimpse of his own reflection?
What he and the rest of the Obama gang did has inflicted more damage on the integrity of our electoral process than anything the Russians have done.”
McCain does not care about efforts to change the outcome of an American election, considering that the MSM, DNC and Hillary campaign tried to change the outcome of an American election, through their collusion.
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McCain said that he’d “seen no evidence [the Russians] succeeded but they tried and they are still trying to change elections”.
Mirror time for McCain. He is trying to change elections.
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I’m no fan of McCain, but he’s no threat to anyone. He talks, and blows a lot of hot air, but nothing he wants is ever done, so, so what? Trump, much like McCain, hasn’t shown that he can accomplish much, so similarly, he’s not really a threat to anyone. Both make a lot of noise, but threaten no one. Therefore, these two are clearly #3 and #4, but in which order is irrelevant.
Putin, by contrast, doesn’t say much, but accomplishes a lot, so to the extent he’s a threat, he’s a significant one. ISIS has also shown some ability to do things, and in as much as they are one virulent form of radical Islam, which seeks nothing less that world conquest, and the extermination of all other alternative religious views. These are two very different dangers, and it’s difficult to assess which is greater, but they are clearly #1 and #2.
As for who created ISIS, the answer is that ISIS and Al Queda were the creation of petro dollars. The US for many years had an energy policy to keep gas prices low, which encouraged dependence on oil, and in turn enriched the rulers of the Middle East. They used some of that wealth to create modern schools of radical Islam in poor countries, such as Malaysia, and that, in turn, resulted in the dramatic growth of Islam as a world religion, and set the stage for the rebirth of radical Islam.
Trying to blame the resurgence of radical Islam on a single event, such as the destruction of Iraq, shows an ignorance or world history that I find alarming. Because secular schools consciously omitted the teaching of the time period from 600-1000ad so that they could portray the Crusades as an example of Christian military aggression against peaceful Islamic culture, most people today are unaware that Islam was founded as a religion of war, built around the central tenant of world conquest, and the murder of non-believers who refuse to convert. Most people today don’t know anything about this period in history, and believe that all religions are more or less the same, and that all are peaceful. so they aren’t very well prepared to understand the events of today.
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HELLO MISH: There is NO freaking way I am going to sign up for Twatter just so I can vote in your polls. You seriously need to get another serious way for us to vote.
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McCain should follow the example of the great Zbigniew Brzezinski for the sake of the world.
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I usually like repubs more than dems, but if the repub party would ever get it’s act together they would give McPain a big boot in the butt. What an embarrassment.
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“Global threats” don’t exist. Individual people can be threatened. The globe does perfectly fine without any of us.
Actual, realistic, local threats to individuals, depend primarily on closeness. Hence, to people in the US, Trump and Rino McCant are the biggest threats. To Syrians, ISIS. And to Russians, Putin.
If people only weren’t so easily suckered, they would realize that the threats they need to focus on removing, are the idiots claiming to be their leaders. Instead of running around like dumb stooges, cheering for the exact ones they ought to be deposing, because the latter say on TV that there exists hobgoblins on the opposite side of the world somewhere.
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McCain is an ass and the sooner he dies the better the people of Arizona and the US will be served. The most dangerous he can be is as an obstructionist. Beyond that McCain is pretty worthless. As for Putin and Trump, both are very smart men whose focus differs from each other but neither is pushing empire building. That belongs to the Clintons and the neocons. Trump is a businessman, not a politician in the true sense of the word. Putin is an intellectual man by training. Yes, he has good political skills but he is not a politician in the usual sense. He is more focused on military matters than economics. Neither men are more than average when it comes to understanding economics and their respective economies.
So that leaves ISIS, which I do not believe is that much of a world threat for it does not have the disciplined cadre in place and never will. It is a fair statement that we, meaning our dumb-ass intelligence agencies along with the help of a couple of other countries who should have known better but are being run by progressives into the ground, but we do not “own” them anymore than Iran. Iran and the CIA fund them and supply them and ISIS will do proper lip service to the Shia leaders, but they run their own show within those limits. as such, ISIS will never take over the world, they will only influence the world through the religion of Islam. It is the religion of Islam that is to be feared. It is that religion that preaches the destruction of the unbelievers such as you and I and about three and a half billion people in this world.
As for the radical Islamic groups, they are more concerned with the overthrow and political domination of governments they consider non Islamic. After the political or even violent transition of power comes the cleansing of the world of unbelievers. Becoming a convert gets you nothing but suspicion. The empty words of Katy Perry bring no hope for the future. Getting along with the Islamists only works as long as you have high fences and armed security guards protecting you. I only have a regular fence and a 9mm to protect me.
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Who is the Greater Global Threat:
The answer is of course none of the above.
It is the criminal supremacist cult pulling the strings, effectively running US foreign policy in the M.E. and elsewhere, directing much of what the US congress delivers in support of their abomination and multi-generational expansion plan.
The US/CIA began their regional destabilisation and destruction program with a fledgling democratic Iran in the 50’s, it then created a belligerent Iraq, later fomented a devastating war between the two and more recently proceeded to economically strangle the life out of the former and militarily destroy the latter.
Cui Bono ?
The US/CIA created ISIS as it did the Taliban, when CIA funded Islamic schools were created in Pakistan and an entire generation of jihadist nut jobs were unleashed, intended to expel the Russians from Afghanistan. As is the US way, no thought was ever given to what long term consequences might result or would happen when they’d done that.
Prior to and subsequent to that, the unswerving US protection, vast welfare, military hardware handouts and tacit approval for the criminal supremacist cult and their ceaseless wars of aggression, expansion and acquisition onto others land and resources has gathered pace, alongside the brutal military occupation and theft of Palestine, which ensures global terrorism emanating from the M.E. thrives.
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Putin wants to sell oil and gas to Europe and China without having to use the US dollar. That alone makes him public enemy #1 in McCain’s eye because doing so will destroy the US government’s ability to export inflation through T-bill sales. Without that ability, the federal gravy train ends and he’s out of a job and loses his shirt in the defense sector.
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at this time there is only one country in the world that can destroy us militarily so yes Russia is potentially a greater threat.
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Mc cain is just trying to be relevant with that botoxed face.
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