Ex-US Navy officer who spied for Soviets dies in prison
John Walker Jr. finally keels over. The man did a *lot* of damage; he basically made US Navy communications transparent to the Soviets in the 70’s and early 80’s.
Aug 302014
Jul 302014
Where David Duchovny (an American of Ukrainian, Polish and Scottish extraction) fantasizes about how things might’ve been different if he was Russian. Well, things keep going the way they are, the Ukrainian and Polish parts of his ancestry just might wind up being Russian…
[youtube _6XI8i_69xA]
Jul 232014
Every city has its problems. Every travel guide worth a damn should tell you about not only the general sort of problems a city might have (“avoid XYZ area after dark, due to muggers”) and more specific ones (“avoid ZYX area at all times, due to radioactive hippies”). So it’s not surprising that this online guidebook to Moscow, Russia, has some warnings about people to avoid. The weird thing? Who some of those people are:
Moscow Russia Insider’s Guide: Nazi Skinheads
Russian Nazis. Let that sink in.
(O_°)
Jul 182014
Juuuuust a bit of a different tone.
Yesterday:
[youtube Z7d3zg_LZNo]
Back in the day:
[youtube 9VA4W1wDMAk]
Thirty years ago, it was a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity” that “must never be forgotten,” “violating every concept of human rights.” Yesterday, “it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy.” And then he proceeds to blow off allies (“our first priority” was to “determine if there were American citizens on board”), tell jokes and fundraise.
Jul 172014
By a Russian “Buk” missile, reportedly. Fingers being pointed at the pro-Russian separatists. Plane had 295 souls on board, all dead now.
BBC: Ukraine airliner ‘crash’ updates
CNN: Report: Malaysia Airlines flight crashes in Ukraine
The “Buk” missile is a substantial weapon, launched from an armored vehicle. Somewhat akin to the Patriot missile the Buk is capable of reaching aircraft at an altitude of 25 km… well above the 33,000 foot cruising altitude of the jetliner.
UPDATE: Below is a twitter feed showing a number of photos of wreckage on the ground. Be warned, though… some of the wreckage used to be alive. The fall from 33,000 feet, and especially that sudden stop at the end, does the human body no favors. So if Ogrish and Rotten were your websites of choice back in the day, here ya go (not directly linking because, well, if ya want it, what, are your fingers broke?)
https://twitter.com/MatevzNovak
This one might prove to be a bit heartbreaking for a few hundred families:
UPDATED update: Another interesting Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/StateOfUkraine
UPDATED UPDATED update:
Oh, it’s on now:
May 132014
People have heard me bitch about major international space programs for years. I much prefer *national* space programs, or programs among a small group of allies. Here’s a good reason why:
Russia to ban US from using Space Station over Ukraine sanctions
The article says that Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wants to ban the US from the ISS after 2020. In my view… why wait? The US would be best served by simply bailing on the program *now.* Take the money we’re blowing on ISS and use it to instead build a series of *American* space stations. Preferably, stations that do more than just go round and round, but stations that host paying customers, stations that serve as construction shacks, stations that prepare us for deep space flight. You know… *real* space stations. With large internal volumes. And permanent staff large enough to do more than just maintenance. And artificial gravity. And blackjack. And hookers.
May 102014
May 052014
Putin’s Human Rights Council Accidentally Posts Real Crimean Election Results; Only 15% Voted For Annexation
The website of the “President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights” posted a blog that was quickly taken down as if it were toxic radioactive waste. According to the Council’s report about the March referendum to annex Crimea, the turnout was a maximum 30%. And of these, only half voted for annexation – meaning only 15 percent of Crimean citizens voted for annexation.
Alert as Radioactive Material Seized Entering into Ukraine, Possible Dirty Bomb Material
the country’s intelligence service intercepted people attempting to bring in 3 pounds of radioactive material into the country from a breakaway region of Moldova under the control of pro-Russia forces
Huh.
May 052014
Now that Putin is doing his best to restart the Cold War, all things ’80’s might start getting cool again (it of course helps that the “80’s Generation,” mine, in other words, is now the primary adult demographic). To that end, may I present a TV commercial for Wendy’s, dated 1985:
[youtube RaGvDtLbql4]
I haven’t seen – or even thought about – this commercial in nearly three decades. Yet I laughed my butt off when I saw it again. Yes, kids, back in the day we actually made fun of our enemies: had them as the bad guys in movies and TV shows, laughed at them in commercials, etc., without a bunch of fricken’ whiners getting all snippy. Ah, the days before PC…
And there was this one, which I don’t remember so well:
[youtube 3MwB5PZciVA]
May 032014
A few recent posts prompted pro-Stalin Putin comments from a number of commenters who have never commented here before. I’m assuming that they are just busily trolling the web, searching for mentions of Russia in order to swoop in and white knight poor, put-upon Vladimir. Meh, whatever.
One notion that was raised that the US should support – or at least not oppose – Putin gobbling up his neighbors because, hey, he’s fighting Islamists, and Islamists are our enemy. And… we should support Putins expansionist aims because there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and Nazis are bad, m’kay?
This all smacks of the old bit of wisdom “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
But there’s a problem. The enemy of my enemy? All that can be honestly said is that the enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy. Maybe friend. Maybe another enemy.
The enemy of Hitler was Stalin. Did that make Stalin our friend? No, it did not. Yes, we provided aid to Stalin, but that was because those at the top incorrectly perceived Hitler to be a worse threat to us than Stalin was. From a post-war geopolitical standpoint, a better approach would have been to provide *less* support to Stalin; this would have lessened the Soviet military machines effectiveness, and thus when the Nazis were finally defeated, the East/West dividing line would have been much further east. Imagine if, instead of West Germany and East Germany, it had been West Poland and East Poland. Or, better still, West Russia and East Russia. With no divided Koreas and Viet Nams, and China as a Republic.
Today, our enemy is Islamism. The enemies of Islamism include Putin and China. Does this make them our friend? No it does not. The fact that China is an enemy of Muslim fanatics does not mean we should stand by and do and say nothing if they try to gobble up the Philippines.