March 03, 2014 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized
Y’all, am I so cynical and jaded that I have deep suspicions about the minute that we start talking about major cuts to the defense budget, another Cold War breaks out?
Is this just coincidence? Or do we live in a world where war is always damn breaking out?
I dunno. It’s probably just me.
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My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
There’s always some place that’s flared up. I can’t recall a time in my life when there’s not a war somewhere, or at least prolonged skirmishes. Whether or not we’re directly involved, it’s always going on somewhere.
The Ukraine crisis has been building for years. Even Tom Clancy’s last book (or collaboration) was about troubles in the Ukraine. Putin’s been building up to this for years, and the recent revolt has now given him the excuse to do what he’s been wanting to (and planning for) for years, sort of like 9/11 was for Bush.
1Nope its not just you.
2Putin hangs out with too many American billionaires. When he isn’t stealing Superbowl rings from them and comparing the money he stole from the Russian people to the money they got from no bid contracts through Halliburton, I’m sure
it gets crazy world domination aggressive in the room.
It’s a coincidence. No conspiracy here. I’m with Teh Gerg on this. The worst enemy of the former USSR republics that became independent states is the present Russian Federation that borders them. They’re always worried that the Russian bear in their bed may suddenly decide to roll over on them.
Strategically, seizing Crimea is a strategic goal for Russia. It secures control over the Russian Navy’s access to the Black Sea, its only warm water port and its southern flank. Its alleged justification is that Crimea was part of Russia more than two centuries ago and its population is aligned with Russia by ancestry, language and tradition. The historical Russian mentality is one of distrust, which drives confrontational and thuggish behavior. Democracy? Throughout history, authoritarianism always trumped democracy, whether the power center was the Tsar, Communism or what passes for today’s government.
Ukraine is a country, including Crimea, but it has been historically difficult to regard it as a nation. As my favorite world geography professor taught, a nation is a body of people that thinks of itself as a nation. The former Czechoslovakia was a country, but with two distinct peoples. The present Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are two distinct areas that are both countries and nations. In other words, a nation is a geographical area whose people think of themselves as a nation. Though it seems circular definition, it is true, and it is a major element of Ukraine’s present dilemma.
3Oh, calm down. The last time we got a Peace Dividend, when the USSR closed shop, we used it for all kinds of good things, like militarizing county sheriff departments and … um. Oh.
Never mind.
4I do notice that there seems to be a very wide and deep belligerent strain in the human species. There. I said it. And I’m done.
5The Crimea was gifted to Ukraine in 1954 by Kruschev. Reasons are many. Russia wants it back as a warmwater port.
6Putin never got over the demise of the U.S.S.R. He may have thought that while the U.S. was cutting its military industrial complex, he might throw his weight around.
7Tsar Vladimir just doesn’t want one of his satrapies easing away from him. I’m surprised he hasn’t explicitly told them yet that he’s shutting off the natural gas pipelines.
8My grandparents came to this country from Austria and Belarus (Ukraine’s next door neighbor). They were never really regarded as Belarussian or Austrian because they were (gasp!) Jews. When my mother was born, she lived two blocks from my current home (although I was born in Brooklyn).
Putin has emotional problems. Too bad he has to use them as an excuse to embroil people in conflict.
9I wasn’t sure I’d live long enough to see a time when the American public is repelled by the idea of another war.
That said, why on earth aren’t the Dems proclaiming loudly and often that cutting the defense budget would reduce deficit spending a lot, which is what the Repubs claim they want.
The Dems are just awful at messaging.
10Thank you, Umpty Dump, for putting all that stuff in easy to understand language so I can send it to my friend who just called and said “Do you understand what’s going on in the Ukraine? and I said no. There, I am being truthful. NOW I get it. I betcha some oil or lots of broccoli are involved in it too. Tell me what they want to be able to ship through the warm water port. It’s so nice to have one safe place to say “Uh, I don’t know….”
11And if any of y’all want to paint one of your cars up saying SAVE MONEY; PREVENT WAR. Or something like that, I will too.
I can tell you how they will cut the defense budget. The first cut will be pay and benefits for the people (presently serving and veterans). They are increasing the copay for Tricare (insurance). I have no complaint about this for myself, I get it as a former spouse of a retiree. But for those who served and need it more, it is wrong. And the backlog at the VA is terribly wrong as well. (I’m not sure that counts as defense since it’s a separate agency, I believe.) I think they have already cut some benefits, but not sure about this.
Probably our wonderful(?) Congress will make the last cuts – if any at all – in the big corporation contractors who give them money. The same ones that got rich over Iraq.
12President Putin may be thinking he needs that seaport, once the US leaves Afghanistan, to ship his poppy crops.
*face palm* The French at Dien Bien Phu, tally-ho the US dives into the quagmire.
Russia in Afghanistan, along comes Dubya to repeat the mistakes. Your turn again, President Putin.
Einstein wrote his Theory of Insanity for politicians. “Intervention, the Success Story,” let’s do that again. *face palm*
13Holy Gohmerts! While that post was being typed, Phony Knee Not News trots out none other than John Bolton, Mr Insanity himself. Who better than Mr I can alienate anyone to throw some gohmerts and gas onto the pile. Dear goddess, no. Just no. Pravda, Prada, Palin.
Apologies to Albert Einstein. These fools just can’t help themselves.
14There’s an advantage to living outside the U.S. in that I have to read the foreign media. Forget the Ukrainian fascists threatening the Russian and Jewish (and Tatar) minorities in their Ukrainian majority regions… there’s the little matter of the Crimea having been an “autonomous region” of Russian speaking (and Russian Orthodox) people who’ve never really considered themselves Ukrainians.
15PKM: I too had an extreme allergic reaction which causes me to scream, rant, throw things, lunge for the remote to turn off the teevee, and can only be redeemed with good chocolate. The cause? John Bolton. He is a mustachioed gohmert of the first order. I think Faux keeps him in a shoebox high on a dusty shelf and brings him out on special occasions.
16Jeanne, when the gohmerts come out with their crazy, be it Bolton, Senior Senile AZ, or the looney lite goofball Graham, we can only hope reason prevails.
Meanwhile, while we wait, I chill with the good folks here at the gohmert kicking Brilliant Beauty Salon!
Wendy, Leticia, and Maxey, go kick some Neanderthal thug gohmerts.
17It’s a very good thing that our President doesn’t have to worry about another election. Which means that he can work with Europe’s leaders to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve military action.
Unfortunately, anything that is done by the EU needs all 28 members to unanimously approve of whatever action is taken. However, there is also something called NATO which can act on its own membership.:)
I expect to see visas being denied, and, most importantly, bank accounts being frozen. Workarounds with natural gas might also be in play. (As much as I hate “Fracking,” it still has made the US an exporter of natural gas. Heh-heh.
I believe Mr. Putin has no idea what he has unleashed. I could be wrong, but apparently even Angela Merkel thinks he’s batcrap craaazzzzyyyy.
This could all turn out to be quite satisfying with minimal loss of Ukrainian life.
Stay tuned.
18All Czar Vladimir has to do is to tighten his grip on the natural gas pipeline to Europe and the UK and those guys will get co-operative very quickly. I sure feel sorry for the poor folks in the middle of this mess.
19Is Putin putting on the mean face a conspiracy? No. But the Republican reaction, calling the President a weakie, definitely is. They always want a war, so they can focus public attention on outside enemies and take it away from their own misdeeds.
McCain was shown on national TV this morning, claiming that Putin is invading because Obama is weak. No, Putin is invading because he knows who has what assets and where they are, and figures he can get away with it (that gas pipeline is part of the assets he counts on)–not because Obama is weak, but because the Ukraine is, and the Black Sea fleet is there in place and we can’t get a carrier in there.
McCain and the GOP who want to threaten and then use force should be told “Then YOU pay for it. YOU raise the money from your billionaire friends. YOU send your own sons and daughters.” The best comment I saw on Twitter last night was that it’s too bad the US doesn’t have a small force–say 600–to send to the Crimea.
I suggest 600 loudmouth Republicans: the Senators and all other ranking Republicans–the House, the Tea Party, whoever’s being the most vocal. Supply them with their own guns, buy their supplies & transport with their own money, and tell them “Let’s see who’s weak–it’s YOUR butts and YOUR money on the line this time.”
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