Russia: Scary Bear or Barely Scary?

 

The U.S. needs to get its story straight.

We have been fed over the past few years entirely contradictory views of Russia.

Lately, of course, we've seen a preponderance of "scare bear" propaganda and commentary.

Could this have something to do with it being appropriations time, the annual fight over who gets what in next years federal budget?  Considering the U.S. can't pile up debt fast enough to suit its enlightened leaders, this also means lubricating the public mind for increasing the already humongous pile of money which goes into military spending, that being the major component of discretionary spending.

Of course, military spending, besides being intrinsically good regardless of how much it distorts our national values and bankrupts our economy, is about making American safe from the entire panoply of threats.  It seems everyone is at our throats, ready to chop off our benevolent heads.  Besides terrorists, rogue nations explicitly dedicated to destroying us like Venezuela and Cuba, and major nations like China -- which lent us over a trillion dollars to buy military hardware to prevent them from attacking us -- there is always the little discussed potential for an invasion from outer space.

Having said that, it's Russia that seems to get all the headlines.  We have former VP Joe Biden concurring with current FBI Director James Comey that, without a doubt, even without any corroborating evidence, Russia is out to get us!

Yet, it wasn't that long ago that Russia was being dismissed as a second-rate power.  Obama mockingly announced it's economy was in tatters.  Sure, it might have some leverage regionally but certainly wasn't a player on the big stage of world geopolitics.

So what is the truth?  Is Russia a wild and woolly beast?  Or an affable and tame dancing bear?

Maybe we need some veterinarian advice to sort all of this out.  Can bears get rabies?

Because while over the past several years Russia has consistently been getting folks from all across the globe to the peace tables, trying to resolve diplomatically the crises created by the West in Ukraine, Syria, the Middle East in general, we are now told that under the spell of their crazed leader Vladimir Putin, the country is foaming at the mouth, haunted and possessed with diabolical visions of world conquest.  Did Russia get bitten by a rabid ground squirrel?

To add to the confusion is this recently announcement, a highly thought-provoking one at that, which should -- but won't -- result in some serious soul-searching in the U.S.:  Russia has just recently announced it is dramatically cutting its defense budget for 2017!  As this excellent piece of analysis points out, you are very hard pressed to find mention of it any where in the Western media.

Try to make sense of it.

Russia is 24/7 vilified as a rogue nation, an out-of-control empire-hungry aggressor, with a madman at the helm who longs for the glory days of the Soviet Union's dominion over vast stretches of the Euro-Asian continent, but in fact only has 15 military bases in 9 foreign countries, AND is cutting its military budget by 25% next year.

The U.S. breathlessly peddles itself as the purveyor of peace, the spreader of democracy, the guardian of justice and a harmonious world, yet it has about 800 bases in at least 63 countries in the world -- depending on your definition of 'base', some put this figure at over 160 -- AND is increasing its military expenditures by almost 10% in 2018.

What are we to think?

Is Russia a scary bear . . . or barely scary?

And what about America?

Much of the world seems to think we're the truly frightening ones!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]




Russia: Scary Bear or Barely Scary?

America Is Losing The Base Race!

With Russia's new military bases in Manitoba, Ontario, and Bermuda, it is clear 
that the U.S. is losing the critical base race.

Compare the maps to see how vulnerable America has become to Russian
aggression. By my count, Russia has leaped ahead, and we can expect
nuclear missiles to rain down on us any day, or worse, our school
children being forced to drink vodka at lunch so their innocent minds
can be ravaged by Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy.




OMG!!!

Where is Pussy Riot when we need them?!!


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The Day That Changed The World

When I was a music producer and audio engineer in Los Angeles, I worked at a small studio in North Hollywood. The owner was an interesting man, into UFOs and other oddities. And he had a great sense of humor.

Those were the days when the walls of a studio were lined with racks of audio processing devices __ reverbs, delays, compressors, flangers, EQs __ and the inside of the control room looked like the Starship Enterprise.

One of our modules, however, was very unique. It consisted of a single multi-space panel, maybe 11" wide and 4" high. In the center of the gray panel was a single huge knob. Below it read one word . . . Quality. As a joke, when we were in the final stages of completing the mix of a song, one of us would go over to that knob and say, 'I think we need to up the quality here just a bit.' Then we'd make a big show of adding some "quality".

Of course, it was just a big laugh. There was nothing attached to the knob. Behind the panel was empty space. But our clients joined in the fun and got a kick out it.

That knob makes me think of this election.

Sure, we'll go in and pull our levers, push a button, hit enter on a computer-based voting machine, or in the really archaic voting districts, punch holes in a card.

Make no mistake about it. There's nothing attached to the lever. There's nothing behind the panel. 

We'll all join in the fun and get a big kick out of it, eh?

But nothing will change.

The wars will go on. The plundering of our national wealth will continue. The waste of our valuable talents and energies through unemployment and underemployment will march forward. Social Security and Medicare will be chipped away until sometime in the future they are hollowed out and meaningless. The rich will get richer and most of us will be grateful for the few scraps we get.

The media is full of dramatic proclamations and everyone is talking about what a historic election this will be, how we are at a fundamental crossroad.

But given the choice __ or more accurately the lack of it __ represented by the two major parties, beholden as they both are to the tiny few who own them and command the real reins of power in our sham democracy, there's nothing profound or historic about this coming election day. It will not be a day that changes anything!

It could be. It could be a day that changed the world. But this would have nothing to do with our voting for a Democrat or Republican.


The day that changes the world will be . . .

• The day we by the millions pull our money out of the big banks and put them in small community banks or credit unions, where the people who own the facility and work there live down the street, know your name, and care about you and the quality of life in your area of the town or city you live in.

• The day we cut up our credit cards and start living on cash __ which might be the day we tell the banks to go screw themselves because if nobody made their credit card payments, there is nothing the banks could do about it.
  

• The day we stop buying any products that are made in sweatshops or under any unsavory conditions for less than a fair wage __ which is also the day we commit ourselves to careful buying, putting quality above quantity in what we purchase.
  

• The day we stop shopping from multinational corporations and at major corporate outlets, who treat their workers poorly, who have no loyalty to America or to its people, who don't "pay back" __ that is, who don't pay a fair and reasonable portion of their earnings back into our communities, our country.

• The day we stop eating and giving our children food that poisons and fattens all of us, refusing to buy the unwholesome and unhealthy garbage being offered by big food conglomerates and fast food chains __ which is the day we start buying our food from local producers and stepping back into the kitchen and learning again how to cook. 

• The day __ April 15th seems like an obvious choice __ when en masse, instead of filing tax returns, we send a letter which in a nutshell says, "I am no longer paying taxes to fund wars I oppose, and for constructing unnecessary military bases across the planet which are only creating animosity and hatred of my country; I refuse to underwrite the intrusive spying on me and my neighbors by countless national security agencies, and no longer will function as an ATM machine for the fraudulent War on Terror."

• The day we turn off our televisions and say, "Enough of this garbage, I no longer am a dumping ground for this kind of insulting, mind-numbing crap."

• The day we go out and meet our neighbors, find out who they are, what they're interested in, maybe even suggest doing some things together, like cleaning up the neighborhood or helping that family down the street that's struggling.

• The day we go to our local schools, meet the teachers and administrators, talk to the board of education about what really can be done to improve how and what our children are learning, maybe volunteering to tutor or coach or just organize some interesting activities where the whole community participates.
  

• The day we just stop. Stop buying unnecessary junk, stop wasting precious time, stop living as we're told to live, valuing what we are told to value. Just stop and look around. Look at what's really important. Look at our kids, our loved ones, our friends, our parents, our neighbors. Stop and spend time with them. Look and see how much we have within easy reach that is so special, so beautiful, so amazing __ all the things we don't have to go to the mall to buy. Things that don't require a credit card and won't need replacing during the next round of frenetic holiday shopping.

That will be the day that changed the world.

You can't turn up the quality of life by turning a knob.

You can't change the country by voting in a rigged election.

You can't make a difference by choosing where there is no choice.

But the good news is . . .

YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


 

Maybe the Islamic protesters have a legitimate complaint.

Military bases the U.S. currently has in the Middle East

Military bases the Middle Eastern countries have in the U.S.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]