I wasn't going to post further on this stream, but then I came across this gem in the Vineyard of the Saker blog. Since it seems to nicely sum up so much of the strident nonsense that we hear coming from the Robber Barons and their attendant scoundrels, and echoed in some of the ill-advised posts above, that I thought I would share it with you.
Apparently when desperate, lawyers sometimes employ the "last resort rule". It goes like this: “If you have the law, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table”.
I am especially reminded of VP Biden's quite hilarious and astonishingly hypocritical castigation of Russia's threat to cut off Ukraine's gas supply unless it pulled its head in as taking unfair economic advantage. And this from that Queen of Unfair Economic Advantage, the US, with its default to sanctions whenever things don't go their way.
I do wonder if this Ukraine imbroglio will result in China and Russia signing an energy pact in yuan and roubles, thereby undercutting the US dollar as the only international currency. What then for all those sanctions?
No wonder the west, and the US in particular, is packing it.

‘morning John,

The problem you have when you blame the USA for everything is that you end up “hoodwinking” yourself.

It is possible that the USA is partly to blame but for different reasons. The Obama administration is weak, incompetent, verbose and indecisive. This in part, has given Putin the rationale to respond to what Putin sees as the real threats.

These are threats to the hard earned Russian dominance in energy security over the EU, the threats from a meddling and posturing EU in trying to recruit the Ukraine, the threat of a NATO alliance with the Ukraine blocking access to one of Russia’s biggest military bases and their only all year round Navy base.

Putin will be eternally grateful to the renewable energy program in Europe for dismantling their energy security and for making the EU one of his biggest Gas customers.

This leverage will be lost in the next ten years as the EU fills the short term energy needs from surplus US fossil fuels and the EU’s switch back to fossil fuels and Fracking like mad for the medium term.

The USA has increased fossil fuel stockpiles to the highest since the Great Depression and crude production is the highest in 26 years.

The US is having it’s cake and eating it. They help out their “friends” in the EU with their little “de-carbonization” energy problem, make a heap of dosh in doing so and, as a little bonus, they get to choke off one of Russia’s best little earners.

So there you go John, if you had not been so self absorbed with your anti-US crusade, you might have spotted the real game in the changing geo-politics. You might have also missed the Russian joint energy ventures with Turkey and Israel, and that 26% of all global fossil fuel venture acquisitions in 2013 were by the Chinese.

We all have our little passions but when you get as obsessive as you do, it changes the game to “Garbage in and Garbage out”.

Hal,

To continue:

Would it be legitimate for Ukraine to send planes to intrude into Russian air-space ? No, of course not.

Would it be legitimate for Ukraine to seize a party of observers from the EU ? No, of course not.

Any thoughts ? Do you still want to roll over on your belly for Putin ?

Hi Foxy,

So, which country after Ukraine ? Are there any in the region of eastern Europe with enclaves of Russians in or nearby ? Moldova of course, and Lithuania with the Kaliningrad enclave on its south-west. How long before we hear from Hal of peace-loving Russians being harassed by Lithuanian fascists, or some such excuse for invasion ?

I really do weep for any genuine Left.

Joe

Joe, what the world needs at this point in time is not weeping Lefties or duplicitous words of wisdom from Oily Oligarchs and Capitalist Robber Barons.

No, Joe, what we need is to hear the voices of the billions of proles who have had enough of the manipulation and tricks of the consciousless wealthy and are ready to consign them to the furnaces.

What we need, Joe, is a world that operates for the benefit of normal people rather than for the benefit of crooks and crims and clerics, for those for whom billions of dollars is never enough, for those who seek to emulate the fiction of their Gods.

Those who worship money and power are sick, Joe. They are the types who will use nukes if it advances their selfish agenda, who will wipe out whole races of people without a moment's hesitation, who will live in bunkers for centuries if that is the price they have to pay to achieve ultimate power.

Yes, Joe, humans are the curse of this world. Many humans are madmen, people like Obama, Blair, Howard, Netanyahu, Cheney, Kerry, etc, like crap they float to the surface and despoil whatever they touch.

Our world needs to be purged of them, remove them from their places of power and influence, cleanse the world, make a fresh start and strictly limit the amount of power any one human can have!

We must worship new icons, not the selfish turds who endlessly visit war and greed upon our suffering world.

If the Crimea didn't have significant oil and gas reserves, would Putin been interested in the plight of its Russian speakers?
Had the Ukraine had not recently discovered large oil and gas bearing shale deposits in the east, would Putin be bothered about the rights of Russian speakers?
I mean, just look at his history, and the way he quite blatantly tramples all over the rights of some Russian speakers in Russia? Or investigative Journalists!? I mean, just what is the life expectancy, for a Russian investigative Journalist in Russia!?
I think we in the west could make billions, if we were in the male bovine manure/organic compost business, and just followed Putin with a shovel, and here I mean the kind you might find, in an open cut coal mine!
Rhrosty.

Congratulations to Rrrrhosty, one of the resident 'Pour Petrol On The War Fire' simpletons.

He, like others, can't help himself. He sees the world in black and white as dumb-asses across the world tend to do.

So few people can handle subtleties. They'd kill an ant with a front-end loader given half a chance!

Where are the men of vision, of intelligence, of wisdom that are needed to rescue our Earth from the Predators?

We need them desperately