Russian Nuke Lighthouses

H/T to MilitaryPhotos.net for this coverage of defunct and decaying (literally) nuclear powered lighthouses. 

Like (almost) all Russian engineering, something to be observed from afar.  

Sneaky Red Russia Spending Money on Weapons

Cold war?  What cold war?  We don't need to spend $700 billion on new tech and weapons systems.  No no, our friends (enemies) will do it for us! 

Or, at least that's what the Russians are doing. 

When SHTF, Reliability > Accuracy, FTW!

When SHTF, and acceptable combat accuracy is a necessity rather than a luxury, fire for effect means that every trigger pull equals BANG!

Guess there is a good reason Russian weapons are designed by vodka drinkers, for vodka drinkers.  When your drinking team has an infantry problem, best to go with loose tolerances and (as SayUncle says) minutes of asshole. 

H/T AK Fan

WikiLeaks: Liberty vs Tyranny in Real Life

Where does one start in this saga?  It is quite hard to grasp all the facts, simply because there are so many facts, and so many talking heads debating the facts.  With the twenty-four hour news cycle, it is easy to react and debate the rumors, only to have to recant and face the truths, or rather half truths. 

Obviously, over the past few weeks, we've seen calls for Assange to be tried for espionage, or even treason.  The calls for the whistle blowing website to be shut down, permanently, have resonated from a multitude of Washington officials.  We have even seen the CEO of WikiLeaks defended for his actions by people we wouldn't ordinarily consider as his supporters, including those whom often kill their political enemies with rare radioactive isotopes (speculative that is).  

So, how is it that one of the most noted libertarians in the US as well as one of the most noted totalitarians in Russia can be in agreement on the same subject?  Also, how is that foreign countries who were or are less free than the United States have leaders that sound more open towards freedom than our leaders?  These are the questions that should be asked and answered, not the "how do we charge this guy" questions that are being asked.

Consider this; a brand new law made to be able to prosecute Assange for his dissemination of the cables, despite the legal precedent and tradition of the freedom of expression offered in the USA.  Not to mention the fact that Assange is not a resident of the US nor has he stepped foot inside the country to commit any of his alleged crimes, there should be no over reach of sovereignty in this instance.  Even if the man behind the leaks had been a state sponsored conspirator, countries don't simply hand over their spies in an effort to save the spied upon country's face.  Not to mention that passing the SHIELD (Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination) Act and using it to charge Assange would be completely unconstitutional.

Not to worry, as it seems that law and justice are not something the US government bureaucrats are interested in any more.  Have we gone the way of the Romans?  An empire in such decline that we are witnessing the last gasp efforts to retain knowledge (which is power) in any and all efforts?

According to this guest post on Zero Hedge, that seems to be the way things are going.  If you read no other link from this post, or this blog period, you should read the one by Charles Hugh Smith.  His depth and brevity of the situation, and why there has been so much feigned outrage by the ruling elites, is 
spot on in my opinion (emphasis added).

Cold War Sojourns On

Seems that the Cold War never ended and that there is now a modern day Red Rabbit for the NATO intelligence agencies to brain pick.

No doubt though that Russia has operatives inside the USA (along with China and Muhammad), looking for informants and information in anyway they can get it.  It just so happens that this one is real, and known to the American public.

I wonder if this Rabbit flipped for money, ideology, or morality?  My guess is the former rather than either of the latters, because really, what's the main difference between the USA and Russia these days?  The Rubble (sarcasm)? 

Russia, USA, Iran: 3 Countries with Nukes & the Power Struggle of Persia

Readers of this blog know that I like to get outside the realm of US politics and occasionally focus on geo-politics.  I will say that by no stretch of the means am I more than an arm chair QB on matters of foreign affairs, but it is safe to say that the middle east is remaining a brew-ha-ha of disturbing tensions.

While Yahoo news service only picks up on the Iranian threats against Israeli nuclear assets, what is being unreported in the USA media is the escalation of the proxy war via the Syrian and Lebanese backed Hizballah.  As the DEBKAfile report details, Hizballah and the 13 various orders of Hamas are all bring joint operations to increase terror efforts against Israel.  Additionally, these groups are seeking to sink and destroy Israeli ships in the Mediterranean Sea.  Of course, all of this comes on the heals of strategic Russian, American diplomacy trade offs that probably will not stop Iran from creating a nuclear device and will leave us to make a tough decision on whether or not we should be engaging in yet another foreign conflict.  

I know that there is a lot of material to cover inside those links, and some of it is is a few weeks old.  However, the hindsight here is pretty self explanatory.  Obama has created himself a fine pickle of problems to deal with internationally for the remainder of this term as president.  Iran isn't going away, especially not with the back room blessing from the UN security council's too major players (Russia and US).  If the current administration had wanted to honestly prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities, it would have green lit an Israeli strike on the facility before it happened.  Of course, that means the USA would have been drug into another war for regime change, undoubtedly, but there is still that potential anyways.  

Reagan proved that peace through superior firepower (Russian doctrine) is precisely the way to go.  People fear cowboys because well, cowboys are unpredictable.  Cowboys are certifiably insane, psychopaths that can actually control their fits of rage and know how to use them for personal (or general public) benefit.  Teddy Roosevelt Theory still works to this day, and always will.  If you have a big enough stick, they will always leave you alone and in the Persian region, Israel is the one with the biggest stick.  Iran and it's surrogates only want the same big stick, but, are the consequences to the moral people of Israel worth it?  What about our new found Iraqi republic and the potential disaster that could ensue?  

I guess we will continue to the follow the story as it unfolds.