russian-bomber-patrols

[paperburn1]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/rus ... ar-AA7KUmb

Obama and puten have a talk, the Russian president explains how American intervention in Crimea is overstepping our bounds. The president responds and now Russia is ramping up patrols along the American coast in the Gulf of Mexico
http://rt.com/news/204991-russia-aviation-gulf-mexico/
VTSIOM agency in late September showed that the overwhelming majority of Russians considered the United States to be the main enemy of their country. This negative share grew from 25 percent in 2008 to 73 percent currently. Other countries Russians perceive as hostile are Germany and the European Union in general at 10 percent, Great Britain at 9 percent, Poland 6 percent, Canada 3 percent, and France 3 percent.

[mvanwink5]

Obama is in meltdown mode. Amnesty by unilateral executive action is going to happen and against what the voters wanted. I wonder what Obama's end game is as he seems to be continually overplaying his hand. None of it makes sense to me, but what else is new.

[choff]

What's sad about it is that the new cold war is completely unnecessary, unless your job depends on the military industrial complex or the banking establishment, set back relations with Russia 20 years at least.

[mvanwink5]

Obama is the perfect president to give Americans a view into the soul of a true Progressive and what happens when a group of Progressives act with full faith and hubris in Progressive beliefs, the full expression of Progressive religion. Like looking at a giant Venezuelan socialist government warehouse full of rotting vegetables, with pride, vegetables that never made it to the bare shelves of the 'Peoples' Grocers.'

The Chinese must look with amazement at Obama and what is happening to America.

[Betruger]

Frankly, if it weren't this collection of Obamaisms it'd have been another collection of blunders, had we gotten another CiC out of the candidates, or nominees at least.

As bad as Obama is, how bad is the illness he's a symptom of? How bad is the electorate? Wildfires are bad; how bad is widespread public neglect of fire safety? At what point is it arson? When is it less the politicians' fault and more that of a public that enables corruption?

[mvanwink5]

Media propaganda combined with the selective media blind eye for their pet utopian favorite, unreported bullying, vilification and dirt digging along with government supplied union education for the walking bored, what could go wrong? However, I don't blame the nature of people on the failure of the WoD, no, the Utopian theory is plain wrong headed and the internet will hasten that realization (my own fantasy, try not to disturb my waking dream ).

My own deluded theory is that the population has become enslaved by the human Microbiome, and like ants forced to climb a grass stalk to an optimum infectious vantage point, whereupon the fungus spores explode out of the ant's head to infect more ants, we instead over palliate with immune suppressing feel good drugs that destroy motivation, cause weight gain, and destroy reasoning. That is my SF theory.

[JoeP]

As bad as Obama is, how bad is the illness he's a symptom of? How bad is the electorate? Wildfires are bad; how bad is widespread public neglect of fire safety? At what point is it arson? When is it less the politicians' fault and more that of a public that enables corruption?

This is a good point. Yes, President Ebola..err...I mean President Obama can in many ways be viewed just a manifestation of the will of the electorate. Look at his upbringing. It is almost as if the system grew him, physically, psychologically, and symbolically to be what he is today and he is serving exactly as he should be.

[Tom Ligon]

The applicable depressing quote is that people get about the government they deserve.

Which includes the Russians, who elected a KGB agent as President.

Historically, the Backfires flying along our coasts, their propellers spinning lazily in front of their fancifully swept wings, were always a source of great amusement and plenty of flying time for our pilots, and never dropped any nukes. But they did tend to up our game regarding readiness. Won't be any doves elected two years from now.

[Tom Ligon]

Every now and then I am inspired to peruse famous quotes.

Here's one from Thomas Paine that you may find appropriate:

"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher."

[Tom Ligon]

Quotes will sometimes make you chuckle, when you read this 1817 quote from the fellow who scrambled to borrow cash to buy some land from Napoleon in 1803. Because some deals are just so good you have to sell your principles.

"Our tenet ever was…that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated, and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money." T. Jefferson

[Diogenes]

Frankly, if it weren't this collection of Obamaisms it'd have been another collection of blunders, had we gotten another CiC out of the candidates, or nominees at least.

As bad as Obama is, how bad is the illness he's a symptom of? How bad is the electorate? Wildfires are bad; how bad is widespread public neglect of fire safety? At what point is it arson? When is it less the politicians' fault and more that of a public that enables corruption?

And this is the salient point. As George Will noted, it is not that the country has a fool for a President, it's that we have an electorate that would elect such a fool.


Government ran schools and Leftest dominated news and entertainment services have combined in an evil synergy to produce such a stupid and misinformed electorate. They can't get the information they need to make better decisions.

[GIThruster]

The astonishing thing to me is that Putin obviously believes pushing on OBama by flying into the Caribbean is likely to get the US to back off the Crimea issue. The fact that Putin believes such a thing speaks very, Very, VERY poorly of how OBama is perceived overseas.

[JoeP]

It is fun to contrast Putin & Obama.

One thing I think about sometimes is that Putin, whatever his many faults, at least actively wants Russia, and the people of Russia, to increase power, wealth, and prestige, even at the expense of other nations. He understands that many basic reasons for bothering with group behavior, even to a national scale, is to work together to gain advantage in many respects and prosper, relative to other groups.

Obama's objective is completely different. He wants to level playing fields, "spread the wealth," and smooth over perceived inequalities and injustices, such as he sees them through his lens. So in leading the USA, he is looking to do this internally and externally, but the intensity of his aggression is pointed mostly inward as there he has the most power. He also believes this is completely in line with the ideals of the founders and founding documents, and his actions are the right cause. This is misreading or willfully misinterpreting a few things, not to mention childish and naive, but it serves his purpose as cementing his unshakable belief that he is right and everyone that disagrees with what he believes is wrong.

[Tom Ligon]

Getting back to the original topic, picture this:

Backfire cruises across the Atlantic. Without warning, a couple of F-35's and a B-2 pull up along side of it, just to make a point.

You might think spooking Russian servicemen by showing them how out of date their fighting equipment is would be inconsequential, but if you think that, look back to the cause of the original Russian revolution.

Anyway, the stealth fleet needs the practice.

[GIThruster]

The Tu-22 Backfire was replaced by the Tu-160 Blackjack almost 30 years ago. Neither the B-1 nor the B-2 are fast enough to catch it. The T-160 most closely resembles the XB-70 Valkyrie that we never built (because its mission was given to ICBM's) and is nothing to sneeze at. It's a fabulous machine that dwarfs the Lancer in everything but service ceiling. For instance, it has fully twice the range of the Lancer. I would not mock a plane like that. It's most impressive.