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Being Ignored Can Be a Blessing, by Robert Gore

Posted by straightlinelogic 7 years, 2 months ago to Government
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The war lobby ceaselessly conjures threats to US interests and conspiracies to dominate the world. All which must be met with US intervention—overt, covert, or both. How do you conjure a threat when a big part of the world decides to ignore you, who at best sees the US as irrelevant, at worst, a dangerous nuisance? One of life’s joys, all too rare, is telling self-important, pompous people that nobody cares what they do or say, or even if they live or die. It’s been a long time coming, but the rest of the world is starting to tell the US to keep its opinions and interventions to itself, and that’s a good thing for all concerned.

This is an excerpt. For the full article, please click the link above.
SOURCE URL: https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/01/22/being-ignored-can-be-a-blessing-by-robert-gore/


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    Posted by coaldigger 7 years, 2 months ago
    This is such clear and reasonable insight into current international affairs. Even on an individual basis we are better off when we are ignored. I appreciative of a government that protects me from people that want to take my stuff. I am less appreciative of a government that takes my stuff to protect me from the enemies that it created.
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 7 years, 2 months ago
    I really would like it if we could just concentrate on
    making ourselves strong, cutting the size of gov-
    ernment within our own country, and maybe making
    our military stronger without stretching it all over the
    world.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 2 months ago
    Up until now, me dino did not know "In a referendum, Crimean citizens voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia."
    Perhaps the past regime and its lock step media support hoped that quietly reported inconvenient fact would fly past unnoticed by most USA citizens.
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    • Posted by $ CBJ 7 years, 2 months ago
      That "referendum" was a total sham. It was held with Russian soldiers' boots on the ground. It showed a 97% vote in favor of secession - a result as likely as the 97% "climate change" consensus, and in line with the results of "democratic elections" in the former Soviet Union. Voters were given 10 days notice of the election choices, which did not include the status quo prior to the Russian military intervention. For details see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean...
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      • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
        You should read the entire article you cite. From the article:

        UNDP in Crimea conducted series of polls about possible referendum on joining Russia with a sample size of 1200:

        Quarter Yes No Undecided
        2009 Q3[36] 70% 14% 16%
        2009 Q4[36] 67% 15% 18%
        2010 Q1[37] 66% 14% 20%
        2010 Q2[37] 65% 12% 23%
        2010 Q3[37] 67% 11% 22%
        2010 Q4[37] 66% 9% 25%
        2011 Q4[38] 65.6% 14.2% 20.2%

        A post-referendum survey, commissioned by John O’Loughlin, College Professor of Distinction and Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Gerard Toal (Gearóid Ó Tuathail), Professor of Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region campus, was conducted during December 2014 by the Levada-Center, and published in Open Democracy on March 3, 2015.[40] The survey showed "widespread support for Crimea’s decision to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation one year ago."

        While the authors of that survey felt and opined that Crimea’s secession was “an illegal act under international law,” they also acknowledged “It is also an act that enjoys the widespread support of the peninsula’s inhabitants, with the important exception of its Crimean Tatar population.” Despite the survey's distinction of Crimean Tatar support for accession to Russia being lower than the support from the rest of Crimea's population, the survey still found that significantly more Crimean Tatars either felt that Crimea's secession from Ukraine and accession to Russia was either the "Absolutely right decision," or the "Generally right decision," than the number of Crimean Tatars who felt that the 2014 referendum outcome was the "Wrong decision." Overall, the survey found that 84% of Crimeans felt that the choice to secede fro Ukraine and accede to Russia was "Absolutely the right decision."
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        • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 2 months ago
          When I reached the "widespread support" part, I tossed up my hands and read on to cop the following attitude~
          Right, wrong, legal, illegal, supported, unsupported, to hell with this. This is not America's problem.
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          • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
            I couldn't agree with you more.
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            • Posted by $ CBJ 7 years, 2 months ago
              It's not America's problem, but it's certainly an event that America has to take into consideration in its future dealings with Russia.
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              • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
                Just as Russia has to consider the advance of NATO after the fall of the USSR despite assurances from the Bush administration that there would be no such advancement, in exchange for Russia's agreement not to protest the reunification of Germany. There are no angels in international politics.
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                • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                  Did the Russian Federation try to protest the re-unification of Germany? Never heard that. Do you have a link?
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                  • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
                    They didn't protest, based on assurances from the Bush administration that NATO would not expand eastward into the Baltic states and former Warsaw Pact nations. If you want more on that story, see the websites Club Orlov, The Saker, and Antiwar.com. For general background, here's a link to an LA Times story: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/...
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                    • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                      I'll look it up. I find it difficult to believe, as all former Republics and satellites were allowed, or if not allowed, did indeed choose referendums of one sort or another. What we've been seeing lately I have referred to as "buyer's remorse". What they thought they wanted they are finding out isn't what it was all cracked up to be.

                      Remember Putin or the RF-FM saying that Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent? That was certainly prescient.
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        • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
          Hmmm. Interesting that an American institution would propagate "real facts". It is true, the Crimean people wanted to be part of a "great" country---the Russian Federation---and not a rinky-dink little country like the Ukraine.
          But it wasn't illegal. The constitution of the Crimean region of the Ukraine--or oblast or krai or whatever they call it--was repealed in 2014, before the referendum on joining Russia ever took place.
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        • Posted by $ CBJ 7 years, 2 months ago
          Another poll cited in that same article showed only 23% support for Crimea joining Russia. Regardless, no poll showed anywhere near the 97% claimed by the victors in an "election" held under Russian military occupation. Your article stated, "In a referendum, Crimean citizens voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia." That was hardly the whole story.
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          • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
            You seem to be stuck on "The Crimean people would NEVER vote to join Russia!!" and then choose your "facts" accordingly.

            I assure you they did. Forget the "fake facts".
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            • Posted by $ CBJ 7 years, 2 months ago
              Please show me where I said "The Crimean people would NEVER vote to join Russia!!" Also please show me where Wikipedia's "facts" are wrong. What I said was that the 97% vote in favor of secession was bogus. And it was.
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      • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
        You are absolutely and flat out wrong. Either you have been fed "fake facts" or you want to believe that no peoples of the former Soviet Union would vote to join the Russian Federation. Or you are a Ukrainian. Or from there.

        Yanukovich was the only man who could have held the Ukraine together. And then there was the coup.

        You understand that Ovomit's hand was in this whole damn mess from the beginning; starting with the Maidan protests in the fall of 2013.

        Also understand that his reason for doing so was once since Vladimir Putin was in play, Ovomit's imposition of a world Communist government was coming under fire. So his solution: Get world opinion to go against Russia. Or worse.
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        • Posted by $ CBJ 7 years, 2 months ago
          My "facts" are from Wikipedia, and nothing in your statement above disputes any of them. My ethnicity and place of residence are irrelevant to what I posted. So are Obama's views and actions. If you have any facts that discredit what I said in the post you replied to, I would be interested in hearing them.
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 7 years, 2 months ago
    I agree with your essay. I made a similar comment about US/NATO Special Forces deployed to Poland's border with Russia. I can't believe that the government there hasn't learned their own history lesson. That also goes for many countries around the world who have been the at the mercy of outside invading military forces. When are they going to learn?
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 2 months ago
    I agree with all parts of this article that I'm knowledgeable about. I'm not up on Syria and Ukraine, but it all rings true.

    "Putting America’s own house in order, or even making a good start, would be a full-time, eight-year endeavor for the entire Trump team, and that’s if they never take vacations or sleep."

    Yes. We'll have to make graphs of gov't spending, budget deficit, military spending, and overall debt including indirect "debt" of entitlements. If eight years is the time-table, we should aim to reduce the deficit by around 60 billion a year while separately reforming entitlements. You call this an intractable problem, but just holding gov't constant, not growing it, would solve it eight years. Do you predict the deficit to decrease by around $60 billion in FY 2018?
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    • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 2 months ago
      I would be surprised if a single Democrat is willing to cut spending enough to lower the deficit that much.
      There will be some from the GOP who will vote for even more cuts than that, but I doubt if there will be more than a few. So I predict another round of congress pretending to fix the deficit in the next 4 years.
      The only thing that has any chance of fixing the deficit is closing down entire agencies of federal government and restoring free markets. At least 51% of the congress must change ethically and in guiding principles for that to happen.. Trump's recommendation of another Goldman Sachs denizen (with financial ties to George Soros) as Treasury Secretary does not bode well for ethics to win over banking cartel looting.
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      • Posted by preimert1 7 years, 2 months ago
        FFA, re:"The only thing that has any chance of fixing the deficit is closing down entire agencies of federal government..." I think that's exactly what Trump ha in mind by some of his cabinet heads he has chosen. He plans to have them reduce their respective organizations and eventually delete them from cabinet-level posts. After all most earlier presidents only had 5 or 6. It wasn't until FDR that it began to grow. Education, energy, transportation, etc. Who needs them? Time to fall back to the Tenth Amendment.
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        • Posted by LibertyBelle 7 years, 2 months ago
          I don't agree with trying to get rid of a department
          by appointing as its head someone supposedly
          hostile to it. It would be better to simply attempt to abolish it. (Not that Trump necessarily can; but he should try to get Congress to do it). Appointing a supposedly "hostile" head is like-
          ly simply to corrupt the "hostile" head of it, and
          just turn him into a statist bureaucrat.
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    • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
      At least. That number sounds low.
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      • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
        I just noticed I made a mistake here. I thought you said "the deficit to increase by around $60 billion in FY 2018," but you said "decrease." I do not think the deficit will decrease, and in fact believe that it will continue to increase the next few years. Sorry for the confusion.
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 2 months ago
          "[the federal budget deficit] will continue to increase the next few years."
          You have said current levels of debt plus new borrowing spell an inevitable fiscal and monetary crisis. So if we increase our rate of borrowing, we're moving away from putting our fiscal house in order. You say it would be an eight-year endeavor, but you see us moving in the wrong direction.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 7 years, 2 months ago
    posted to facebook...another excellent observation...late on this...been setting up workamper positions for the rest of 2017 and all of 2018 at the Quartzsite RV Big Tent Show talking to recruiters from all over the country....still on track to pass thru on way back here in April...
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  • Posted by chad 7 years, 2 months ago
    Being ignored is also a blessing for individuals, when the government ignores us and does not try to control us we are freer.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years, 2 months ago
    Not sure this is the way we should look at it, however, we do see some disturbing things:
    1) The military industrial complex making sure it stays in business.
    2) The military making sure it has something to do.
    3) The above and the CIA serving interest outside of our interests. Examples: New World Order, The Crown, The United Nations, The Central Banks, or Global Corporations..etc.
    4) We also can't forget some with a pure desire to protect innocent human life and a desire that all men be free. I would think these people would be a very small minority used by all of the above to advance their own agenda's.

    My point: I'm not all that sure that all of the Conscious world see's it the way you describe, but I'm convinced by your dissertation, that perhaps the Non-Conscious world probably does.
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    • Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 2 months ago
      I recently watched a documentary about JFK's presidency. I have always had some appreciation for JFK. Perhaps it's that my own vision of a world at peace matches his. Anyway - in that documentary you could obviously piece together the connection between his policies being a threat to the system and his premature death.
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