There have been reports that Bashir Assad is planning to use chemical weapons against the Syrian Islamist rebels. It will not be a one sided affair. The Islamists now claim they have WMD as well. If true this will be the first time an Al-Qaeda affiliate had access to WMDs. To prove they have weapons the Syrian rebels put out a video showing them gassing bunnies in a warning to Alawites.
The video is too revolting and I will only link to it.
The West’s nightmare has come to pass. Al-Qaeda now has WMD. This turn of events are our own doing. The Obama Regime, with the support of the Republican Establishment, has given support to these rebels. Their success is due to the support Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia is giving them with our encouragement. The US is once again enabling the Caliphate.
One of the biggest allies of the emerging Caliphate is NJ. Governor Chris Christie. He has appointed Muslim Brotherhood connected judges and is a supporter of the Islamist agenda. The corpulent wannabe Guido is also a political snake who betrayed Mitt Romney. He is up for re-election next year and there is only one NJ politician who can give him a run for his money. NJ Mayor Cory Booker is contemplating running for NJ Governor in 2013.
Mayor Cory Booker is an honorable man unlike the loud mouth phoney Guido. Many Conservatives and Libertarians will send him money to help him defeat Christie.
Tags: Bashar Assad, Chris Chritie, Cory Booker, NJ, Syrian War
the problem is that the chem weapons are out of storage and perhaps out of the secure sites they were held in. these will fall into the hands of the islamists and WILL be used against israel and other targets like the US.
this is a very dangerous situation. perhaps the most dangerous in the past 10 years.
@ coldwarrior:
The cat is out the bag as the video shows. This is what we wanted by backing these Islamists.
If true, this will be the first time an al-Qaeda affiliate has access to WMDs.
hold on a sec. In the near days after 9/11 I remember videos of AQ gassing dogs.
@ eaglesoars:
So they already had access to this stuff.
So Islamists have WMD’s… What could go wrong with that? ////
I would remind everyone that Barack Obama has changed America’s defense posture on WMD. Prior to Obama, a chemical was a germ was a nuke, meaning that we’d respond in kind, with the real in kind being nuclear weapons. Now Obama has taken nuclear weapons off the table in response to a chemical or biological attack. That surely has our enemies cowering…
A video that starts playing every time the page is refreshed really sucks!!
Rodan wrote:
Oh yeah. I don’t recall hearing what it was but they had something.
@ eaglesoars:
Now they have more powerful stuff. Syria has had a serious 40 year Chemical warfare program.
Rodan wrote:
I dunno. I’m not sure I believe the video. But I sure don’t want to find out the hard way.
Gassing a couple of rabbits is something that could be accomplished by any one of us with household chemicals. Mix bleach with any reasonably strong acid, like foaming toilet bowl cleanser, and you will get a cloud of chlorine gas, which can kill you. Chlorine was used as a war gas in WWI.
So the rebels’ demonstration proves nothing. The question is: do they have the capability to deploy the stuff in quantity, and in a militarily useful fashion?
Maybe there is a bright side to this. If the Syrian government and the rebels launch tit-for-tat gas attacks, maybe they will depopulate as large swath of country, and Israel can then say to the paleostinians, “there’s your homeland, assholes, grab it now, cause you’re never getting Israel.”
@ eaglesoars:
Just having the gas isn’t enough. They have to have the weapons systems to properly disperse the gas. That is a little more involved that the AK-47/Semtex technological level that the Jihadis are typically at. They’d need dome real engineers to figure that part of the operation out. Not saying that they couldn’t do it, but it is a little more involved than just saying “Hey, we have chemical weapons now!” That is why such things have always required a State to do them. Only states have the requsite infrastructure to produce and use chemical munitions. I’d say the Jihadis are more likely to kill themselves with these weapons than they are to inflict mass casualties on their enemies.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
yeah…lemme go in and fix that.
@ Iron Fist:
There have been defectors from the Syrian Regime. It’s possible the rebels have the know how.
while sarin breaks down pretty rapidly, VX does not and is highly persistent in the environment.
it is easily spread and used.
@ Rodan:
That is possible depending on who exactly the defectors are. BUt then they also have to have captured the delivery systems. All of this is possible, but I don’t think we are in any particular danger from it, or even Israel is. If they get chemical weapons they will eithert use them against Assad’s forces themselves, or they will stage an attack on themselves, blame Assad, and see if they can lure Obama into fighting for them with that. Either of those scenarios is pretty grim for the Syrian people, but to a large degree they sheltered this snake. They shouldn’t be surprised when they get bitten.
@ Iron Fist:
Agreed but they could just take the stuff to downtown NYC in Times Square and let it go. Don’t need much military training for that. Transporting it could be a problem as well as delivering in a militarily useful way. But just dumping it in a city…
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
Iron Fist wrote:
Very true. Hubby had a good friend -- a farmer -- who made that mistake and gassed himself. Took him MONTHS to die.
MikeA wrote:
if you can aeresolize motor oil you can spray VX.
it doesnt break down in water either, like sarin does. sarin is a pain to work with because it is so unstable (weeks to break down). vx is the opposite (months and months), and so is mustard gas.
@ coldwarrior:
Thanks.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
yep.
Iron Fist wrote:
i had forgotten all about THAT brilliant move.
As far as our own national security is concerned, I’m much more concerned about something like this
European renewable power grid rocked by cyber-attack
eaglesoars wrote:
i know a couple people who are head hunters for companies who run the electrical grid. they horror stories they tell about how fragile our grid is and how vulnerable it is to attack are truly terrifying. they now the business and the problems very well.
@ coldwarrior:
Yeah, so if Iran wanted to get involved giving the Jihadis some how-to pointers, we have officially stated that we
re tough. We can just take it. The only thing that may soave us from that is the intramurla pissing contests between the Jihadis. Iran is backing Syria in this, right? The y might not help the Syrian Jihadis, but it is no triumph of US foreign policy that is preventing it. I don’t think Obama could have fucked up the Middle East more if he were trying. Of course, that’s partly because I believe that he is trying…
@ coldwarrior:
One of the issues we were involved with while I worked for the NM legislatures was preparations for the Y2K thing. I remember when we had an executive from the main power company that supplies the state in front of a committee talking about those issues. At one point, he said that one guy with a hunting rifle could black out 2/3 of the state with one shot.
Fortunately, he didn’t say what the shot needed to hit.
@ Iron Fist:
CHANGE!!
hey, at least 0 is honest. i dont think he has lied about what he plans on doing yet.
Rodan wrote:
It takes more than knowledge. It also takes the industrial capability to manufacture both the agents in large quantities and the equipment to disperse them efficiently.
It’s a lot like the problems in building nukes. You can find the plans to build one on the internet, but that doesn’t mean you can make one in your garage. Any chemistry student can make Sarin or VX in a lab, if you want enough to kill some test animals. Making enough to do anything significant with is a different story.
@ lobo91:
all those billions spent into thin air…could have rebuilt the entire grid and most of the bridges as well.
coldwarrior wrote:
It wasn’t entirely wasted, though. A lot of it went into finding and fixing vulnerabilities in critical systems, which was useful.
Of course, when it comes to things like the national power grid, we haven’t actually fixed those problems.
@ lobo91:
i’m guessing that much the stuff syria has was old iraqi chemicals, by now it’s probably be pretty weak unless it was stored properly. its been almost 10 years since the iraq war…
i’d rather not be there to find out tho.
coldwarrior wrote:
Actually, Syria has had its own stockpiles of chemical weapons for quite awhile. They’ve had a manufacturing program going back to the ’70s.
gotta go -- later
coldwarrior wrote:
One way to control VX is, during muslim prayers, if they cover the chemical flasks tightly with their foreheads the stuff keeps for 6 months.
/I shouldn’t be putting this out on the internet helping them
From the standpoint of a terrorist attack, the most effective way to use chemical weapons would be against an indoor target, such as a sporting event. You could kill a lot of people at an NBA game or a concert (or a convention/trade show).
Open air use of chemical weapons is extremely inefficient. You literally need tons of agent in order to effectively attack a target, because most of it ends up dispersing in the air.
@ waldensianspirit:
well…a lesson learned perhaps…
@ coldwarrior:
It’s sad when our president is to the left of a European socialist…
@ coldwarrior:
Obama has more ideological stamina; he’ll best Hollande
@ lobo91:
And welcomes a walking turd who sings about “killing the Yankees” to the White House and shakes his hand. Ronald Reagan would have denied this cretin a visitor’s visa.
eaglesoars wrote:
That was the premise of the New Red Dawn.
coldwarrior wrote:
Syria has had a program since the 70′s. It was done to counter Israel’s nukes.
Carolina Girl wrote:
That’s because Obama agrees with him.
@ lobo91:
It’s the deliverer system and infrastructure that is important.
@ Iron Fist:
Yes Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah are fighting al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria.
From yesterday:
Hours after NATO agreed on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey because of the crisis in Syria, Russia delivered its first shipment of Iskander missiles to Syria.
The superior Iskander can travel at hypersonic speed of over 1.3 miles per second (Mach 6-7) and has a range of over 280 miles with pinpoint accuracy of destroying targets with its 1,500-pound warhead, a nightmare for any missile defense system.
According to Mashregh, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard media outlet, Russia had warned Turkey not to escalate the situation, but with Turkey’s request for Patriot missiles, it delivered its first shipment of Iskanders to Syria.
Reporting today, Mashregh said the handover occurred when Russian naval logistic vessels docked at Tartus in Syria.
The Iskandar is a surface-to-surface missile that no missile defense system can trace or destroy, Mashregh said. Russia had earlier threatened that should America put its missile defense system in Poland, it would retaliate by placing its Iskander missiles at Kaliningrad, its Baltic Sea port.
Russia’s delivery of Iskanders to Bashar Assad’s embattled regime clearly shows that the security and stability of Syria remains Russia’s red line, Mashregh said. It is unknown how many of these missiles have been delivered but the numbers given are sufficient to destroy any Patriot missiles in Turkey, it said.
@ yenta-fada:
I’m getting pretty tired of the fucking Russians and their Hollywood Putin asshole big shot….he needs to have an accident…defending yourself is escalation…defensive arms are threatening…fuck him, but he’s got his dick straight up BO’s ass…what a couple of punks
From the questionable, but sometimes accurate ‘Asia Times’
The government’s failure to recapture Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and a northern commercial hub, alongside other indicators such as ever-increasing reliance on air power, underscores its shortage of manpower. Much of the army is made up of Sunni Muslim conscripts whose loyalty is uncertain and who could defect if sent against members of their sect, a majority of the Syrian population, and reportedly the government can draw only a limited pool of soldiers for most operations.
“Ali, a 28-year-old Alawite living in Lattakia, the regional capital, said Alawite villages he recently visited had been nearly emptied of men after the regime enforced conscription for any member of the Alawite sect aged between 18 and 50,” the Global Post reported. [2]
Though Assad may fight for a while longer, he clearly appears to be losing the war. This is true even in the capital Damascus, where the rebels have also advanced in the past few days. They are fighting pitched battles with government forces in the city’s outskirts and have caused a shutdown of international air traffic and other disruptions.
The fact that Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt urged Syria’s Druze to join the rebellion carries considerable symbolic significance. Jumblatt, whom Foreign Policy Magazine recently called “the weathervane”, is known for aligning himself with the powerful of the day, and claims to look out always for his sect. [3]
Internationally, Assad’s isolation is growing as well. “A senior Turkish official said that Russia had agreed on Monday to a new diplomatic approach that would seek ways to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power,” the New York Times reported.
According to The Atlantic, Israel twice recently sought Jordan’s “permission” to bomb the Syrian chemical weapons, but was turned down. [4] On Syria’s northern border, meanwhile, a novel idea of a no-fly zone “lite” may be in the making. While traditional interpretations of a no-fly zone include establishing complete air superiority and taking out anti-aircraft defenses, the Patriot missiles due to arrive in southern Turkey could effectively drive off Syrian military aircraft within 100 or so kilometers from the border. By negating the Syrian regime’s crucial air advantage in these areas, this step could contribute to the establishing of a rival rebel regime and the eventual defeat of Assad.
The Syrian leader appears to have his back against a wall. Whether he chooses to step down or to fight on could be literally a matter of life or death for him -- and for thousands of Syrians of all sects and stripes. As the death toll in the nearly two-year uprising tops 40,000 people and the United Nations is scaling down aid operations in fear for its staff, a sense of desperate urgency hangs over the country.
yenta-fada wrote:
And that is the scary thing about all the nuts who want America to take al Qaeda in Syria’s side on this. Obama can’t win a hot war with Russia. He doesn’t have the backbone for it. But he might could get one started if he put American planes enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria. Suppose the Russians counter by flying their own combat missions for Assad against the so-called “Rebels”. Wouldn’t that be a fine mess Obama has gotten us into. It’s a lose-lose for America if that happens no matter what we do. Obama is probably counting on it.
@ heysoos:
Putin is the only world leaders standing up to the Muslim Brotherhood. I give him that!
Rodan wrote:
yes he does, bad news for our choom chump president
@ Iron Fist:
Obama will go to war for the Muslim Brotherhood. He said he will stand with Muslims.
al-qeda flies airplanes into our buildings and murders 3000plus of our citizens.
putin gives arms to syria so the syrians can kill al-qeda…
we arm al-qeda and help them expand the caliphate
something is very very wrong in this scenario. in simple math it looks like putin is more ‘patriotic’ than the ameicans who run our foreign policy. at least putin and his mob actually kill terrorists.
Putin is thinking geopolitically, flexing muscle where he can benefit…BO campaigns in support of his legacy and plays golf….he toys with our neophyte, celebrity president
@ Iron Fist:
The even scarier thing is that most people don’t have a clue that this is going on. Syria has become an important flash point and the newspapers have absolutely no analysis for people to read. They are just allegedly worried about the ‘poor Syrians’ fighting the evil Assad regime.
@ coldwarrior:
And all those years (years ago) I’d sit on a church bench and hear how the big bad Soviets would come down against Israel…
@ coldwarrior:
Putin is the most successful Rightwing leader of a major power since Reagan and Thatcher. Yet the many on the American Right view Putin as boogeyman. I’m of the opinion, the American Right should reach out to him and study what he’s done right.
But I am just one voice in the wind.
heysoos wrote:
yep, and i would expect nothing less from any world leader at this point. i certainly would take great advantage of a weakened US.
yenta-fada wrote:
i’m gonna bet that israel would rather have assad in syria than the alternative.
Rodan wrote:
Everything Putin does is for Russia’s future role as a world power. He is acutely aware of America’s weakness under President Poofy.
waldensianspirit wrote:
Let me guess, the Gog and Magog thing? Well its America who is now Pro-Islamic and Marxist. Russia is Orthodox Christian Capitalist. Whose gog and magog?
Something to think about.
@ yenta-fada:
If true, this would be a real good way to start WWIII.
They didn’t just “deliver shipments” of those missiles to Syria. Those are Russian missile batteries manned by Russian crews.
Similarly, the Patriots being deployed to Turkey are manned by US and other NATO crews.
coldwarrior wrote:
No question. Just as Mubarak was vastly superior to Morsi vis a vis safety and stability. All this chaos is devastating for Israel. It is vulnerable on all sides. Jordan is hardly capable of defending itself as a buffer.
waldensianspirit wrote:
there is a huge amount of russian jews living in israel. russia and israel aren’t enemies.
the foreign minister is very pro-russian. the more we mess up vis a vis israel the closer israel and russia will get.
Rodan wrote:
not sure you’re a voice in the wind, but the weakness we express in the ME is an easy target for Russian influence…if the Turks want defensive missile capabilities, then they can have it…Putin is a tough guy who will not bargain for nothing, and he sees the US as soft, pliable and willing to be manipulated…the entire gig is out of whack and I think BO is just flying by the seat of his pants, ignorant to historical fact and living a fiction that allows exploitation….in the end Russia will own the ME
@ lobo91:
The world is in peril from Islam, but shhhhh. It’s a secret. /
You are probably correct about supplying missiles with crew who know how to use them. I know nothing about the military. I’m just not blind and stupid.
Colonial Syrian Vodka….
nearly as refined as that from the Motherland
lobo91 wrote:
it might be good thing to have everyone in close proximity, it tends to focus the mind on the situation at hand.
yenta-fada wrote:
I imagine they’ll train Syrians to operate those systems, but it takes time (months). These things aren’t toys.
@ coldwarrior:
Russian Jews have been and are the equivalent of dhimmis afaik. The country has always been Anti-Semitic. The Pale of Settlement in Czarist times were ghettos. The pogroms were constant. This strain runs deeply and resonates with a lot of Russians. In the seventies, the Jews were not allowed to leave Russia. Any relationship between Russian and Israel has to be one of convenience.
@ coldwarrior:
If I had any faith in our leaders, I’d agree.
Remember, we’re talking about people who think Wesley Clark is a brilliant military strategist (and they’re probably getting advice from him).
@ lobo91:
And Roger Ailes wanted to back Petraeus for President.
Rodan wrote:
Yep. Though even then I had an eery suspicion about the USA when I’d read for myself. Don’t think of the ‘Soviets’ as angels either
yenta-fada wrote:
i think the threat of islam on the rise can wash away these historical issues on both sides.
the world is a very different place than it was 40 years ago in the 70′s. russia is no longer communist, the only violence is against the muzz who were getting out of hand in moscow and were shown what a pissed off crowd is willing to do. israel and russia will be more or less forced to be friends as their foreign policies are in tune with one anther. more in tune than ameica and israel are.
we are losing our friend in the ME because we are the enemy this time.
lobo91 wrote:
oddly, wesley ‘ww3′ clark doesnt show up at military functions very much.
@ coldwarrior:
Neither does John Kerry, but he’s likely to be the next SecDef.
@ coldwarrior:
From the virtual Jewish Library:
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities supports Orthodox institutions and religious life. The Progressive (Reform) movement and Masorti (Conservative) movements are also making significant inroads. Because the high intermarriage rate during Soviet rule led to many Russians being of Jewish descent but not halakhically Jewish (Jewish according to Jewish law), the Progressive Movement is able to gain among these people, as the Progressives recognition of patrilineal decent welcomes many who are not halakhically Jewish into the Jewish community. Many Russian cities print their own Jewish newspaper and other cultural, social, and religious institutions are expanding. Moscow has five synagogues, six day schools, yeshivas, and a kosher restaurant.
The growth of Jewish religious institutions in Russia also provides targets for anti-Semitism. Signs with anti-Semitic slogans have been posted on roadways. In 2002 and 2003, synagogues and cemeteries have also been desecrated. Some of these signs even include real and fake bombs. In Moscow, a 28-year-old student tried to remove one of these anti-Semitic signs and, as a result, an explosion went off and she sustained serious injuries.
Despite the growing presence of religious institutions in Russia, however, after years of assimilation most Russian Jews are not observant and see Jewry solely in terms of ethno-cultural behavior. After massive waves of immigration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, there are approximately 400,000-700,000 Jews in Russia, making up approximately 0.27-0.48 percent of the Russian population
lobo91 wrote:
Definitely an intentional poke in the eye
yenta-fada wrote:
If you have the time look up the Russian Mennonites experiences. Many moved to Canada and some to northern USA
@ yenta-fada:
the average russian doesnt give a much of a thought thought to jews and israel, not a real importatnt topic in moscow. it isnt something terribly important to them.
they do give much thought to islam and creative ways of making islamists ‘disappear’ in the Caucuses…if there is one thing russians really hate its islam.
waldensianspirit wrote:
sure is. this is a slap in the face.
@ lobo91:
I seem to recall, a grumpy rat-bastard career military guy suggesting the storm clouds have been forming. They still are. While the Russians have continued to fight in Chechnya against their muslim brotherhood supported jihadists drawing the ire of the main sunni groups, they instead support Iran and Syria. It would seem that the US and the Russians have chosen the death transmittal to be rodent-borne, only we chose rabies and the Russians chose the bubonic plague. Not a good place to be.
@ coldwarrior:
Kerry walked back a lot of this. It was seared into his brain until it wasn’t.
coldwarrior wrote:
All that I’m pointing out is that the Jews in Russia have no power.
@ lobo91:
Even with sarcasm tags, I could not put that name and that distinction together. Weasely Clark???? Supreme Allied Commander to NATO!!! (Said with echo effects for added drama)
waldensianspirit wrote:
Also part of the plan. In this case they will be furthering one of modern liberalisms greatest wishes. This will aid them in the destruction of the military. Most of the remaining Viet Nam vets will take retirement, and many that voted against Kerry will leave. The remaining ones will have to deal with reduced morale. This combined with numerous “police actions” around the world, will pretty much have the US military at its lowest point in history. Both in morale and manpower.
Also add in Kerry’s gross incompetence and that’s pretty much it. He will focus on stupid politically correct training and uniforms and crap like that. This will also erode away at morale.
Lived through something similar under Clinton, though not to the degree I’m expecting here.
@ RIX:
But he still has the magic hat.
The Islamists have plenty of Western Educated engineers. We all probably went to college with some of them. They have plenty of battle hardened fanatics. Most likely they will ignore any safety concerns about WMD gas and create a low tech delivery system for it. There won’t be any concern about civilian causalities as long a muslim pulls the trigger.
waldensianspirit wrote:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/09/russia-s-anti-mormon-campaign.html
Happening now.
@ 84 yenta-fada: The Obama admin is going to mint just 2 platinum coins and have the treasury set a Trillion dollar value on each one. Then treat them like gold. At least that is the coin solution rumor.
MEMRI, which tracks foreign language news, summarizes Jihad for the previous week in various countries.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6860.htm
@ darkwords: Myself I’d take two goose eggs and out a 10 trillion dollar value on each one and send Michelle to Paris on a fancy jet to celebrate.
lobo91 wrote:
62 eyewitness Swifties were not wrong about Kerry.
Major fraud
darkwords wrote:
That’s a joke, right?
http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2012/12/10/the-coolest-mayor-in-the-world/
Here’s what happens when politics becomes the cult of celebrity. And lo-info rules the day. No where in this article are any real accomplishments of this mayor. I applaud him for overcoming his childhood disabilities, but running around being a celebrity clown is not being mayor.
@ waldensianspirit:
Something funny happened. Soviet Russia ceased to be Soviet. Must have been while we weren’t looking. Of course, they haven’t totally stopped being expansionist meddlers. But they are rational actors, and we could learn to work with them for our mutual benefit.
@ 62 lobo91: If Syria attacks Turkey and Russia assists I would hope we just return the helpful favor the Turks gave us in Iraq. We could make a defensive flyover zone over Turkey but just drop leaflets telling them to surrender.
@ Mars:
Anti-Mormon insanity has to be another tool to distract people from economic hardship.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
Meantime, don’t ignore China in this whole equation.
@ lobo91:
Yeah, did you see where the NYT turned on Susan Rice? They had some article yesterday that pointed out that she liked to cozy up to some of the worst dictators in Africa. It wasn’t a big surprise except for its source. I mean, the NYT has given the Three Monkeys a fourth member when it comes to not seeing anything wrong in Benghazi. Maybe they are afraid of what Rice will testify to if she winds up in confirmation hearings. I dunno the why of it, but it sure was interesting.
@ yenta-fada:
Some economists like it. But think politics might get in their way.
Iron Fist wrote:
Right now African dictators are verboten. Many think that will be the wons next big mess (under UN direction of course).
Mars wrote:
so a junior mp doesnt like mormons (or the other evangelicals for that matter)? guess what, most russians dont trust these americans invading and preaching a foreign religion with foreign ideas. orthodoxy runs deep in russia and is pretty much the only game in town. its been there for 1400 years and is ingrained in all facets of life.
preaching a protestantism in russia is a fools errand and a waste of time.
Mars wrote:
What IS interesting about Iceland, is that they have come back from their economic brink. THEY HAVE JAILED CRIMINAL BANKERS. They placed the blame on the people who caused the banking crisis, and are working their way back to solvency. No other Western nation has jailed financial criminals except for the odd Madoff and the like.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
cant fault any country for taking advantage of our weakness, i would do exactly the same things because it aint often you get to push the US around like this.
@ coldwarrior:
I don’t recall seeing a lot of Mormons in Italy, either.
darkwords wrote:
It’s a sideshow, imo.
@ yenta-fada:
Probably because they’re so entwined with the political class here.
coldwarrior wrote:
I agree. Nations, like people, act in their self-interest.
lobo91 wrote:
yeah…not so much
or poland.
lobo91 wrote:
Go forth and write that headline for the NYT times eleventy! Same goes for Europe.
@ lobo91:
Scary stuff if true.
@ lobo91:
You nailed it!
@ darkwords:
Riiiight. I have a couple of these -- I must be insanely rich:
http://www.coin-rare.com/12-oz-silver-bars.aspx
“It’s 1 Trillion dollars because I say so!”
God, this government sucks.
lobo91 wrote:
jeeze…no kidding!
it is criminal what has occurred here.
@ darkwords:
Well, that is no more than the fiat money that already exists. You can’t make a one-ounce platinum coin and arbitrarily assign it a trillion dollar value, when the metal contained is worth only a couple of thousand bucks. The whole point of having a gold standard, or a silver standard, or a platinum standard is that the metal held as reserves bears some relationship to the market value. When the government held vast quantities of gold, they could set the value, as they held the largest concentration of it. But if you, or I, or Hussein Obama hold only two ounces of platinum, the value of our holdings is determined by the market, and nothing else. And it wouldn’t much matter if those two coins were 10 ounces, or 100, or 1000 each.
@ coldwarrior:
Blatantly criminal.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
NONESNSE!!!!
PURGE THE UNBELIEVER!!!!
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865560142/LDS-Church-granted-official-status-in-Italy.html?pg=all
Partner of the State status.
Poland not so much.
But, no demands even from “low level” MP’s to drive them out.
Russian has a long history of religious intolerance. It was made to sound like their anti-semitism was a communist thing, it was not. Czarist russia was well known for its anti jewish history and violence.
Well I suppose it depends on the size of the coins. If they were a couple miles across I guess I could see it.
@ Mars:
The Jews who survived Czarist anti-semitism and didn’t emigrate were slaughtered by the Nazis. Personal history.
Mars wrote:
damn straight. its an orthodox country for 1400 years. they dont like foreign religions. especially protestants. sorry that is how it is.
doesnt bother me in the least.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
Exactly -- if they assigned 1 oz Pt as $1^12 (for instance), then our current $16^12 debt would automatically inflate to $16^22, or something.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Daffy Duck wrote:
You clearly don’t work for our government…
//
@ coldwarrior:
we go in and eff around in russia, the outcome is obvious.
what if a country did that stuff here?
yenta-fada wrote:
I’d swap the entire congress for Mafia captains anyday…and make Meyer Lansky president…we’d be making money in no time, our enemies vanquished and capitalism would finally find it’s zenith
coldwarrior wrote:
I don’t know why everybody jumps from the individual to the general in a nanosecond. I’m Jewish. Has no more to do with Israel’s actions than it does Canada’s actions. It is mankind’s tragedy that it hasn’t evolved beyond the first grade psychologically.
heysoos wrote:
i love it!
we can have frank sinatra as ambassador of booze.
lobo91 wrote:
Actually, it seems like I DO work for the government. Wage-slave serfdom. Getting mighty sick of it.
Wonder what would happen if we all sat at home, and applied for free stuff?
Work to do. later…
coldwarrior wrote:
you’re getting it…Sammy will handle all the multi culti stuff
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
An alternative currency gaining some traction; Bitcoin.
Bitcoins, and the global network of computers that supports them, first appeared in 2009 and since then it has become a very widely used alternative payments system. Many people “mine” the coins by participating in that network and a growing number of web stores and online firms accept bitcoins as payment. One bitcoin is currently worth about L8 ($13).
Under European laws, the deal means Bitcoin-Central becomes a Payment Services Provider (PSP) that has an international bank identification number. This puts it on an equal footing with other payment networks such as PayPal and WorldPay. As a PSP it will be able to issue debit cards, carry out real-time transfers to other banks, and accept transfers into its own coffers.
The deal was a “significant” step towardslegitimacy for Bitcoin, said Vitalik Buterin, technical editor of Bitcoin magazine.
Before now, he told the BBC, it had been hard for novices to get started with bitcoins. The links that Bitcoin-Central, and other exchanges that have also applied to be PSPs will have to the global banking system will make that much easier as it will become possible to transact with a bitcoin account just like any other bank account.
It also means, he said, that deposits held at Bitcoin-Central would be backed by the same compensation laws and schemes that apply to cash held in other bank accounts. However, he said, this protection applied only to balances held in euros rather than bitcoins.
The move could convince many organisations and businesses to start accepting bitcoins as payment, he said.
“The more we see governments and banks being willing to deal with Bitcoin, the more comfortable a lot of organisations are going to be making the step forward themselves,” he said.
heysoos wrote:
dean-o can be secretary of good times
yenta-fada wrote:
some places are protestant, some catholic, some orthodox, some hindi…it is what it is.
the faster we can learn to respect each others civilized traditions, the better. those mormos going into moscow had to know they were headed for some trouble, if they didnt, they are truly fools.
coldwarrior wrote:
dude…we’ve discovered Nirvana
heysoos wrote:
i am eyeballing a martini and a thin tie as we speak.
new thread…
about canada…
now that i think some more on this, why bother trying to sell mormonism im russia? the book teaches that jesus came to america after he was crucified.
why would an orthodox russian go for that?
seems like a really really tough sell, does it not?
coldwarrior wrote:
*sigh*
Some Mormons tried to convert me. Some of the nicest people I have ever met and I even attended a service (if someone invites me to one of their religious services/traditions, I feel honored and will attend if I possibly can). And because some of my ancestors were Shawnee -- hoooo boy
I have known Mormons thru the years. On balance, I really like them as people. I don’t care about the ‘magic underwear’ crap. At least it doesn’t hide IEDS.