Heads they win, tails we lose

Have you heard the story of the family who "won" tickets to a super-popular concert, only to come home afterwards to find that thieves had backed up a truck to their house and hauled off everything they owned?  They'd been "played", big time!

That's what is happening right now to America.  Prez Trump has taken us all on a world-class election experience, but now we're back home looking around and finding that we've been picked clean by Russian strongman Vladimir "Pootie Poo" Putin.  He's playing us.

"The Donald" Trump has had his feet propped up on the Oval Office desk for less than a month now, but has spent all his time so far, except to tweet something about a North Korean missile launch, dealing with his Executive Order boo boo, his ongoing fight with the courts, his obsession with 3 million (invisible) illegal voters, trying to get some of his dud cabinet choices....think Sec Ed DeVos and that burger flipping (Hardee's CEO) Puzder guy....past the Senate, and now dealing with the Mess Formerly Known As General Mike Flynn.  LOOK....OVER THERE!   

Meanwhile Pootie Poo is running amok, doing pretty much whatever he wants around the world.

Read my finger!

Russia today has no intention of vacating Crimea, and is in fact ramping up their efforts to destabilize Ukraine further.  Russia has successfully propped up its Syrian puppet Assad, while leaving the fight to defeat ISIS essentially to the rest of us.  He has strengthened his ties with Iran, even setting them up with a state-of-the-art air defense system.  

Meanwhile the Iranians are harassing the US and others in the Persian Gulf, funding the Houthi rebels in Yemen to the detriment of our ally (?) Saudi Arabia, yada yada, all while receiving a wink and a nod from Putin.  The Russians have also installed nuclear-capable cruise missiles in Kaliningrad (Russian property sandwiched between Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) in violation of our nuclear arms treaty dating back to the 1980's.  In response, I'm not even sure Trump withheld his Valentine card to his good buddy Putin.

Buoyed by their successful tampering with our recent elections, the Russians are now actively attempting the same in the upcoming elections in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe.  And Putin's response:  "Nope, wasn't me.  I've been busy scraping my mother's bunions."   

And we just say, "Well, OK then.  Sorry to bother you.  Yuck, yuck."

The European Union is trying to NOT become the next Humpty Dumpty, and NATO is wondering if the US has their back (and their front, too).  Advantage Pootie Poo.  The Russians even have an intelligence gathering ship parked off our East Coast (which probably happens more often than is reported).

Can you name for me one place in the world where Russia is not working overtime trying to put the screws to us?  We have become backbone-less.  

All the while, President Trump is furious that his man Flynn was caught telling the Rooskies to not worry about the sanctions we have in place against them, but not by the fact that he did it!  He seems to love leaks when they help him, but blows a fuse when they go against him.  Hello, goose / gander?

Republicans are no more going to go after Flynn than the Democrats went after Hillary over Benghazi or her emails.  The American people's interest, and perhaps even their security, seems to matter less to our politicians than preserving their own power and privilege.  *sigh*
  
S


 

Did you hear the one about the Rabbi and the Saudi King....

As a student of geopolitics....I know, I know...*yawn*....I'm always intrigued by what's happening in that hellhole formerly known as the Mideast.  It seems those people just aren't happy unless they're fighting someone, and right now they must be feeling absolutely blissful.

Now Iranian Ayatollah What'shisname has announced that if economic sanctions against his country aren't lifted completely and immediately as soon as the recent nuclear arms treaty is implemented in June, the deal is off.  Big surprise, huh?  It's just one big stall after another.  Always has been their MO, and probably always will be.

Oh dear, what shall we do?

My advice: nothing.

The Saudi Arabians have long been among the most vociferous critics of Israel.  They have gone out of their way to support those front line countries who have vowed to wipe Israel off the map, and they have sent vast sums of $$$ to terrorist groups who are trying to do just that.

The Saudis are also bitter enemies with Iran.  Iran is Shia, while Saudi Arabia is Sunni.  (FYI, Islam is 80% Sunni, 20% Shia.)  Right now Saudi Arabia is scared shitless of Iran's growing power and their overt moves to expand their sphere of influence throughout the Mideast.

Meanwhile, in the Israeli mind, the Holocaust was just yesterday.  They are (legitimately IMO) obsessed with seeing to it that any external threat to them be stopped in its tracks, proactively if need be.  They have often been criticized for being a little heavy handed (true), but still, their paranoia is not without cause.

Now imagine this:  Saudi Arabia is heavily involved in the Yemeni civil war to their south.  Israel sees any softening of resolve to keep Iran nuclear weapon-less as something they cannot accept.  They will settle for nothing less than Iran's nuclear ambitions being gutted.

It wouldn't be be a stretch to imagine a temporary unholy alliance between Saudi Arabia and Israel to kick Iran in the 'nads.  It wouldn't be too difficult for a massive Israeli strike package to slip through Jordanian airspace (perhaps even with their unofficial support), then use Saudi airspace to refuel and penetrate deep into Iran to do the deed.

With Saudi Arabia embroiled in Yemen far to the south, they would have a perfect excuse for claiming they were caught totally unaware.  "Plausible deniability" they call it.  *wink, wink*

Israel could aerial-refuel their strike aircraft en route as they ingressed and egressed Iran, essential as an unrefueled flight to Iran and back directly from Israel is beyond their capability.  And if anyone knows where the Iranians have dispersed their essential research sites, it's the Israelis.

Israel could cripple or destroy Iran's nuclear program, and Saudi Arabia could set back their old foe for years, maybe decades, just by "looking the other way".  Win/win.

Of course, Israel would have to watch for a Saudi double cross as they were returning from their strike and desperately needing to refuel over northern Saudi airspace, but it's a chance they just might take.

The West of course would stomp and holler (very insincerely) in condemnation of Israel, as would the Muslim world (except 80% would be secretly chuckling), but nothing would come of it except a few resolutions from the UN, which Israel would immediately drop straight into their overflowing File 13.

So I say let's just sit back and let the Mideast take care of the Mideast.  This geopolitical junkie will be watching intently.

S

I'm beginning to see a pattern here...with EDIT

I've said for a long time, particularly after watching news clips showing rioting mobs in Muslim countries, "Those people just don't think right." A like comment yesterday on my blog from PT Dilloway, referring to the violence in Libya, said, "In what freaking universe does that make any freaking sense?"

This brought to mind an article I once read that pointed out that in the Muslim world marriage between cousins (known as "consanguinity"), and even brothers and sisters, is common.  A little online research found many credible sources confirming this and offering these statistics:  

Thirty-three percent of all marriages in Egypt are consanguine, as are 48 percent in Libya, 60 percent in Iraq, 70 percent in Pakistan, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 40 percent in Syria, 34 percent in Algeria, 63 percent in Sudan, 46 percent in Bahrain, 64 percent in Jordan, 42 percent in Lebanon, 54 percent in Qatar, 45 percent in Yemen, and 54 percent in the UAE.

This has been going on for 1,400 years in the Mideast, and is done in order to keep wealth (?) and power "within the family".   This is why it's so hard for sovereign countries to command the loyalty of their citizens.  People's loyalty goes to their "clan", not their arbitrarily cobbled together "country".

Not surprisingly, research has shown that children of consanguineous marriages have 10-16% lower IQ's.  Can you imagine the consequences of this generation after generation after generation?  Well, they might be able to keep all the camels in the family, but they also have a mighty polluted gene pool!

We (the West) keep trying to lead the Mideast towards our version of how things should be....democratic, governed by rule of law, peaceful, respectful to all, including women, etc.  I'm wondering if their average citizen can even comprehend those concepts?  

Thousands of years of tradition and ignorance and inbreeding are hard to overcome.  IMO we're beating our heads against a brick (or in their case mud) wall.  

S

EDIT:  Oh, the insanity....now they're burning the KFC in Cairo!  Is nothing sacred?

Team America...World Police

If you watch the news at all you know there's a civil war raging in Syria right now.  The question that's constantly being asked is, "What should we do?"  Do we just watch?...Supply arms to the rebels?...Provide some sort of direct military support? 


I wonder if we as a nation suffer from some sort of guilt trip dating back to World War II?  Do we somehow feel responsible for not doing more in the 1930's to stop Hitler before he initiated the Holocaust?  Is that why we feel this urge to save all the oppressed of the world?  Speaking for myself as a Christian I would say, no, I don't want to turn a blind eye to the hungry or sick, but how much can we be expected to do, especially when so many right here at home are needing help, too?  


I don't see many other advanced western nations (Australia, Sweden, Canada..?)  chomping at the bit wanting to get involved there and we don't seem to be too critical of them.  Why is it all on us?  Would we be terrible people if we just said, "Sorry, but this is your fight."  


Be honest....do you really care what happens in Egypt, or Syria, or Yemen, etc?  As long as they don't export terrorists to come here and do us harm, I really don't.  And if they do, don't we have ways (clandestine) to deal with that short of the way we've handled things in Afghanistan?  I just think we need to get our own house in order before we start telling others how to run theirs. 


S