Posted on 09/27/2014 8:21:12 PM PDT by Olog-hai
People in the Baltic states cannot feel secure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a plan he has been working on for over a decade. So says former adviser to President Putin, Andrey Illarionov.
Giving a presentation at a conference in Palanga, Lithuania, Illarionov, who advised Putin on economic policy in 2000-2005, referred to a question that was raised in the recent Riga Conference 2014: Can people in Riga sleep peacefully at night?
The same question could be raised in Tallinn, Vilnius, Palanga, Bucharest and other cities. No one in Riga could reply to it in the positive, Illarionov said. From my side, though, the question should be rephrased, especially after Barack Obama visited Estonia and said that NATO was prepared to defend Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The situation seems safer after the statement, but we must look at military readiness, military equipment at hand, not words. From the point of view of military readiness, NATO forces in the Baltics are insufficient.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.delfi.lt ...
No one has invaded Russia, you Russian tool.
I don't mean to mischaracterize what you think, so let's try this.
I think Putin certainly wants to fill the power vacuum left by the West.
However I don't think Putin could ever fill the liberty vacuum left by the West.
Do you agree?
LOL.
Well we have insurmountable debts, and the west is largely dying BECAUSE WE MAKE EVERYTHING IN CHINA.
Duh.
The question is....
Starting global war or finishing global war????
What question?
What were you trying to say?
The West is in big trouble...at least Putin is trying to advance Russia, not cute it “down to size” the way our POTUS has been doing. Not that I agree with him particularly...
He may very well fill a vacuum - who is going to stop him?
I don’t believe I ever inferred that Putin would be as beneficial to the world as we’ve been.
[ What question?
What were you trying to say? ]
If the russians have been preparing for a Global way since 2003, are they preparing to START a global war or to FINISH a global war?
[ No one has invaded Russia, you Russian tool.
Certain Slimy NGO (non governmental “Social” Organizations have indeed invaded Russia, along with our own country...
Not that I am making excuses for rasPutin because i am not.
How could they start a global war?
If they force NATO to defend itself, then they get defeated.
The ONLY way Solar power can EVER be reliable...
Not sure if it would ever be feasible in the next 50 years...
[ During Jeffersons presidency, we fought the Barbary (Muslim) pirates to re-establish freedom of the seas. Jefferson was no isolationist. ]
AND we didn’t try to bring democracy to those savages in north Africa either, we went in, broke crap, removed their capacity for piracy and LEFT.
Russkie communists also know how to manipulate western conservatives. Moscow still supports international communism and terrorism across the world and is our mortal enemy. Conservative and liberal dupes will be liquidated in the same way, if Moscow has its way.
As has been noted here before: Russia is a poorly run gas company trying to be a country.
Note a few things weapons and expansion-wise. Their heavy bombers still have propellers. Their heaviest land transport is middle weight eighteen wheelers. ( remember the convoys they ran into Uke with-—those were not long-haul trucks). They have very little sea transport which means they ain’t going far for long. And the aircraft carriers they started to build now belong to China and India.
Finally note that they spent all their extra cash on the olympic village, now all but abandoned. Pootin’s wish list is a lot longer than his capability.
So what do people think are the answers? I am struggling with this. I am strongly on the side of market-driven free economies, with minimal government intervention. However, I don't think this works at the international level when you have multiple nations playing under different rules. This is especially true when some of those nations have as a long-term goal supplanting you as a world power, or contributing to your eventual death as a nation.
The Chinese government can decide that they're going after industry x, and they then funnel government money into that industry to buy whatever talent and resources they need. For the ‘average’ workers they set wages by edict at a level that makes the Chinese company ultra-competitive internationally. They look for stealth ways to levy tariffs on imports that compete with industry x, and throw money around Washington to buy silence on unfair trade practices. This is just a small summary of what they can do.
We, on the other hand, have the left on one side - pushing for more and more taxes and regulations on industry x, and from some on the right we have almost suicidal commitment to the ‘concept’ of free trade, even in those instances in which we are being taken advantage of as a nation.
Balance is the operative term, and the West's approach is anything but balanced at this point.
With much study and attention to safety instructions in advance, it’s easy to build one’s own PV solar electric system. Without some of the more expensive appliances (electric range, electric clothes dryer, forced air furnace, etc.), a small, efficient house can be fully powered for about $60-70 per month (mostly battery replacements, costs averaged over about 25 years in a relatively sunny area and only with a self-install). And that way, your money won’t be going to the local, government-employed or connected crooks with their fingers in local energy companies.
I think it is long past time to bring manufacturing back to America.
I don’t seem to be in a majority view of that, but I strongly believe a selfish minority has captured and sold-off American industry, to the overall harm of America.
America in general seems to at the moment, be sold on the cheap prices, but we really need to look at our nation’s own manufacturing capability.
We need to bring it back, and bring it back now.
That is my view.
A minority view again it seems, at the moment.
But there it is.
The problem of course is Obama himself, sense he took office with a policy agenda the very opposite of Regions he has begun to reverse every gain made in the last 30 years. Our enemies in the middle east are now far stronger, and even our old enemies in the 2nd world are rebuilding.
Maybe if we had an honest press core someone might point out that doing the opposite as Reagan is having a very much opposite effect as Reagan.. Who would have thunk it...
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