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Calling it an invasion seems off, as their forces were already there. The Guardian has live updates at this page.
Are any Soylentils in or from the region? Do you have any insights to share?
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Breaking News: Russia Seizes Power in Crimea
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:43PM
He's getting flamed out because he is badly confusing the PR campaign of the moment with the geopolitical realities and long term shifts.
The relevant problem is the Russians lost their empire about a generation ago and are a little butthurt about the whole topic. Meanwhile, for reasons bordering on insanity, as per some Snowden info the USA is getting WAY too involved in the deep internal politics of a border state to the point of near outright intervention. Needless to say the Russians are pissed and rightly so. It would be like the US response if the Russians more or less took over and started attempting to actively control a Canadian political party. The whole foreign policy goal is insane, and we have no input on it or control over it.
So we get a comment all about the leaves of the trees instead of looking at the forest. The PR campaign is currently oriented around appealing to old people and those of a certain religious affiliation by Nazi comparisons. Which looks comical to folks outside those groups, talk about a desperate over-reaching. For comparison, our own neo-con lunatics are further right than the people we're talking about. If anything this situation is "what would happen if moderate neo-cons took over". Admittedly would not be a good situation, but only a lunatic would start making ridiculous claims... worst case scenario is it would look like Utah or something.
The most recent Dan Carlin podcast more or less predicted this outcome. There is also a meta-issue where "the public" is getting tired of the GWOT lies after about a decade, now its time for some new lies, a new PR campaign. A second cold war would be nearly ideal. The Dan Carlin prediction is the next step will be thawing relations between Russia and China, and chilling relations between China and the USA. This will not be entirely discouraged by the USA... so we've sold China lots of our debt, now just stiffing an ally would not be cool, but once they're the axis of evil, sure, default on their worthless bonds. Meanwhile a lot of mfgr jobs come back to a USA deep in the 2nd great depression, AND the military industrial complex gets new orders for un-needed jet airplanes and tanks and stuff. The Chinese don't much care because they already know our debt is worthless but need to save face and having their "enemy" default saves face for them pretty well. The Russians are happy because the Chinese would love to trade raw resources (oil, all of freaking siberia, etc) for some mfgr'd goods and the like. I'm not sure who, if anyone, doesn't want this scenario?
As Carlin said, something along the lines of "only Nixon could go to China" is playing out in the mid 2010s as "only Putin could go to China". So enjoy cheap Chinese garbage at walmart while you can, its going away very soon.