Provocative, or what!

[Valjean]

How's the US going to maintain it's massive military-industrial complex without markets? How can the industry sustain itself without promoting distrust, conflict and war?
America's ruling class seems to depend on perpetual war and keeping the public in the dark -- afraid, infantilized and compliant. It not only controls the arms industry but owns the media that molds public opinion.

 

[Togo]

How's the US going to maintain it's massive military-industrial complex without markets? How can the industry sustain itself without promoting distrust, conflict and war?
America's ruling class seems to depend on perpetual war and keeping the public in the dark -- afraid, infantilized and compliant. It not only controls the arms industry but owns the media that molds public opinion.

Sorry, are you talking about the US or Russia?

 

[Cerberus]

I suspect you've missed my point - which is that the US does have an $18tr national debt???

I suspect you missed my point as well - which is that Russia is a pale shadow of her former self, and attempting to distract from that fact by pointing out the level of US national debt is, much like Russia, sad and pathetic.


Just a little over two decades ago (when the US had an also allegedly unsustainable 4 trillion dollar debt) Russia - or as we used to call it The Soviet Union - stood toe to toe with the US. Moscow was the seat of a superpower.

Now while the US doesn't really struggle all that much with having a larger debt, Russia has to hide the fact that it is supporting separatists in Ukraine. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once upon a time, the Russkies could simply roll tanks into a troublesome republic, and there was fuck-all "the West" could do about it. Now Putin has to send in soldiers and pretend they just happened to wind up in Ukraine on "vacation."


That's gotta sting. To go from being the second best superpower on the planet to barely being able to invade a former republic sitting right there on your border. Putin's ego is taking a worse beating than Rocky delivered to Ivan Drago.

I don't know what Russia's national debt is - or even if it has one. All I do know is that if it's the former, it certainly isn't the equivalent of $18tr - which essentially means Russia is in a better fiscal position than the US. I'd rather be a poor man than a bankrupt.

 

[Will Wiley]

How's the US going to maintain it's massive military-industrial complex without markets? How can the industry sustain itself without promoting distrust, conflict and war?
America's ruling class seems to depend on perpetual war and keeping the public in the dark -- afraid, infantilized and compliant. It not only controls the arms industry but owns the media that molds public opinion.

Sorry, are you talking about the US or Russia?

Which of the points did you disagree with? Or did you just want an excuse to mention your hobby horse of attacking Russia?

 

[Togo]

Sorry, are you talking about the US or Russia?

Which of the points did you disagree with? Or did you just want an excuse to mention your hobby horse of attacking Russia?

The thread was about the US (military exercises) provoking Russia. Citing points that are true of both countries doesn't really contribute to that, unless the thread is just an excuse to attack whichever country you like least?

 

[Will Wiley]

I suspect you've missed my point - which is that the US does have an $18tr national debt???

I suspect you missed my point as well - which is that Russia is a pale shadow of her former self, and attempting to distract from that fact by pointing out the level of US national debt is, much like Russia, sad and pathetic.


Just a little over two decades ago (when the US had an also allegedly unsustainable 4 trillion dollar debt) Russia - or as we used to call it The Soviet Union - stood toe to toe with the US. Moscow was the seat of a superpower.

Now while the US doesn't really struggle all that much with having a larger debt, Russia has to hide the fact that it is supporting separatists in Ukraine. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once upon a time, the Russkies could simply roll tanks into a troublesome republic, and there was fuck-all "the West" could do about it. Now Putin has to send in soldiers and pretend they just happened to wind up in Ukraine on "vacation."


That's gotta sting. To go from being the second best superpower on the planet to barely being able to invade a former republic sitting right there on your border. Putin's ego is taking a worse beating than Rocky delivered to Ivan Drago.

Americans just have no idea what is actually going on in the world. I think most Americans would agree with that. Like rich kids whoi inherited a fortune they are blissfully unaware and stand to lose it all.
And so ignorantly they reminisce about Rocky movies.
The Eurasian Big Bang
How China and Russia Are Running Rings Around Washington
By Pepe Escobar

Tehran, Beijing, Moscow, Islamabad, and New Delhi have been actively establishing interlocking security guarantees. They have been simultaneously calling the Atlanticist bluff when it comes to the endless drumbeat of attention given to the flimsy meme of Iran’s “nuclear weapons program.” And a few days before the Vienna nuclear negotiations finally culminated in an agreement, all of this came together at a twin BRICS/SCO summit in Ufa, Russia — a place you’ve undoubtedly never heard of and a meeting that got next to no attention in the U.S. And yet sooner or later, these developments will ensure that the War Party in Washington and assorted neocons (as well as neoliberalcons) already breathing hard over the Iran deal will sweat bullets as their narratives about how the world works crumble.