Walking around central Moscow, the thing you notice is the Russians—I mean, the near-total absence of non-Russians.
There is, of course, a tourist element. Appearance is not much to go by here, but I can recognize—not necessarily understand, but recognize—most of the world’s major languages by ear, and Chinese seems to predominate. The Chinese travel in groups of half a dozen or so, middle-class academic or professional types mostly, exchanging scandalized comments in Mandarin about the price of everything. (Moscow is a very expensive city.)
That small tourist element aside, well-nigh everyone here is ethnically Russian. The cab drivers are Russian. The waiters and waitresses are Russian. The staff in barbershops and nail salons are Russian. The maintenance men in the subway and the ladies issuing subway tickets are Russian. The beggars are Russian. The guy selling fags and candy from a sidewalk kiosk labeled PRODUKTY (“stuff”) is Russian. The girl serving me in the pharmacy is Russian. The models shown in ads for escort agencies and “Private Club and Restaurant” are Russian (just as they are in New York, come to think of it).
Even—good grief!—the lady who cleans our hotel room is Russian. She spoke fluent Russian, anyway, though her features had a slight Mongolian. To make sure, I asked her. Yes, Russian—from Yugra, up in the north Urals somewhere, and so presumably with some Siberian-aboriginal blood contributing to the physiognomy. Where in the Anglosphere nowadays would you have your hotel room cleaned by a native of that country?
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Down, But Still Russian
Worthwhile to keep our ears perked
I have my ear to the ground and wanted to relay to you that:
National Guard troops in Southern Indiana were given a poll about bringing armed force against US Citizens if called to do so. A Spc laid his weapon on the deck and said he could not. The rest of the enlisted men followed suit. The Spc is now being held in the brig for his actions.
This is current out of the OathKeepers and in the process of being duly verified. Either way I wanted to shoot it your way as I know you like to relay that stuff far and wide. I'll try and give you better 5w's and H when and if it's verified.
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I grabbed this from a gentleman of our Facebook page.
Paul Lowe
OUTSTANDING!! I just left my neighbors house. Devon is with the National Guard for this area. He just got home from a EDRE (emergency deployment readiness exercise) at the armory. He said that during the exercise 3 companies of infantry were polled by questionare about the drill and it's purpose. One of the questions was, will you as a member of the Nat. Guard use lethal force against the American public if ordered to do so? One of the men stepped forward and refused to take the poll and explained that it was a moral judgement on his part and that he could not do so. He then placed his weapon on the ground and fell in behind the formation. Devon said it was like a waterfall, Every member layed their weapons on the deck and fell in beside the one lone specialist. This included ALL NCO's, STAFF NCO's and SENIOR NCO's. The only people left in front of the original formation was 3 Capt's. 2 Lt's and the BN Commander who was so upset he started having chest pains from yelling and screaming about court martials and disbandment of the unit into other units. Devon is a Mstr.Sgt and he went with his troops and told them that he could not be prouder of any of them. He was floating while he was telling me this. Maybe we have more than just hope on our side. SEMPER FI. my thanks for the honor of being here Robert.
=========That first post was followed by a bunch of yeas from everyone happy to hear the good news. Next pertinent post:I just heard from Devon. He was TX'd by his Plt LDR and advised that the Specialist Who first layed down his weapon is being held in county jail by the Bn CMDR, awaiting a hearing under the UCMJ. Devon couldn't get any more info than that. I don't want to post the mans name until we have more information. I am so upset by this that I am having chest pains. How can they do this to one soldier and not them all. I will let you know how things go. Think I might go lay down for a bit. SEMPER FI.
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Nothing really pertinent other than those two posts and that the Oathkeepers Board of Directors are aware of the story in current form and efforts are now being taken to verify it. All the info right now is being gathered from a Facebook contact from someone on there. If I hear anything else I will surely let you know. If confirmed, a poll like this in conjunction with the NDAA bullshit that just passed makes it abundantly clear that offensive tyranny is coming down the pipe. Divide and conquer, division then desolation...looks like we are in for an interesting 2012.
Chuck
Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence that we have “unalienable rights from our Creator...
...Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Obviously President Barack Hussein Obama believes in a “guarantee of happiness” and that he, along with his liberal disciples, are the arbiters of fairness. America is about equal opportunity, not the liberal progressive mantra of equal achievement. Nice try Mr. President but teleprompters and poll tested messages do not equal visionary leadership. Sorry… I know, that ain’t fair!
Allen West
Update: NC Principal forced to retire amid 9-year-old boy's suspension
A Gastonia principal who accused a 9-year-old of sexual harassment retired abruptly Tuesday night.Principal Jerry Bostic told Eyewitness News he retired as of 5 p.m.He told the Gaston Gazette the Gaston County School District gave him one hour to decide whether to quit or be fired."One mistake in 44 years, and I'm not given the benefit of the doubt. I really don't believe I was treated fairly," Bostic told Eyewitness News.
Senator Grassley : “They were giving themselves a license to legally lie”
The synonyms thesaurus.com gives for “whistleblower” are even less charitable than the word’s definition: canary, nark, rat, snake, snitch, squealer, stoolie, tattletale, weasel…. But none of these labels seem harsh enough to federal bureaucrats. They’ve left whistleblowers in legal limbo; they’ve barred whistleblowers from offices and forced others to transfer to backwater districts; they’ve mined records to publically disparage at least one recently (more on him in a moment); they’ve deemed a few to be “traitors” and had them shunned by colleagues … and this is just the beginning of what they’ve been doing to the few courageous squealers who exposed Operation Fast and Furious, the once-secret operation that, by design mind you, let thousands of guns “walk” from U.S. gun stores to the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels.
To find what is being done to protect these and other government whistleblowers, I sat down with Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA). He’s the Obama administration’s gadfly on this topic. Grassley was one of the original authors of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. Thanks to this legislation, if authorities in a federal agency take (or threaten to take) retaliatory action against a whistleblower, then they’ve broken the law. Nevertheless, the bureaucrats who often make life difficult for whistleblowers have had little to fear from this law.
The quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates government whistleblower complaints (called the Merit Systems Protection Board) uses appointed judges to hear whistleblower cases. These judges have more often than not sided with the government; in fact, since 2000, this board has ruled in favor of whistleblowers only about 5 percent of the time (just three times in 56 cases) according to a Government Accountability Project study.
Senator Grassley has criticized this board for allowing the federal bureaucracy to have its revenge on those who uncover corruption. More recently, he’s been working to update the Whistleblower Protection Act and he’s written multiple letters to Attorney General Eric Holder telling him not to punish whistleblowers.
As Senator Grassley is clearly passionate about this topic, I said, “Just speak your mind Senator Grassley. Don’t let me stop you.”
He smiled warmly and leaned over his Capitol Hill desk as he said,
Madison Rising Patriots Denied Permit to Play in Zuccotti Park
A patriotic rock bank describing themselves as pro-Capitalism and anti-Occupy say they were denied permission to perform this week at Zuccotti Park, the site where the anti-Wall Street protesters are holed up.
“We wanted to get a legally properly permitted concert together to say thank you to the hard working men and women on Wall Street and also to say thank for all that the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York had to put up with for the last couple months with these Occupy guys” said Dave Bray, the lead singer of the band, Madison Rising.
“We want to say thank you but we can’t even do it legally with the proper permit. But anybody who wants to bash America, it seems like they can stop on down to Zucotti and poop all over cop cars,” said Bray, speaking yesterday in a radio interview.
Jennifer Cohen, the Madison Rising’s director of marketing, told KleinOnline the owners of Zucotti Park refused to let the band go through with plans for the concert they had hoped to perform today.
“We started at the NYPD 1st Precinct, where we were sent to the Mayor’s office,” she said. “After an hour meeting at the Mayor’s office on Thursday, we were told we needed to contact the owner’s of Zuccotti Park.”
Cohen forwarded to KleinOnline an e-mail to Debra Simon of Brookfield Properties, the owners of the park, asking for an application and requirements to procure a permit for a
live performance.Cohen said Simon caller her this past Friday to deny the band permission to play. Cohen said Simon refused to put the denial in writing.
Matthew Cherry, director of Bloomfield’s public relations, confirmed the company denied a permit to the band.
“Brookfield respectfully declined the request for a permit and is currently not permitting any staged concerts in the park,” he told KleinOnline.
That same day alternative rock band Third Eye Blind visited the park where they reportedly belted out songs in support of Occupy Wall Street.
The Robert E. Lee, the USS Stonewall Jackson & the USS Dixie
George Washington Class Ballistic Missile Submarine: Laid down, 25 August 1958, at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, VA.; Launched, 18 December 1959; Commissioned, USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601), 16 September 1960; Decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Register, 30 November 1983; Final Disposition, disposed of through NPSSRP (Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 30 September 1991.
The 17th LAFAYETTE - class nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine. Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on February 9, 1995, the STONEWALL JACKSON subsequently entered the Navy’s Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Bremerton, Washington. Recycling was finished on October 13, 1995.
The design above is the ship's insignia.White lettering and stars on a blue and red background are intended to suggest the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy -- the cause Stonewall Jackson served so well. The words "Strength -- Mobility" emblazoned on the banner are taken from letters written by General Jackson, and apply to the Polaris submarine as well as to the tactics he used so successfully. The American Bald Eagle suggests the strength inherent in the Polaris system, while the arm clothed in Confederate sleeve, thrusting a Polaris missile out of the depths of the Pacific Ocean, suggests the power and concealment of the FBM submarine along with the strength of our heritage from General Jackson.
Dixie Class Destroyer Tender: Laid down as the lead ship of the Dixie Class Destroyer Tenders, 17 March 1938, at New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ Launched, 27 May 1939 Commissioned USS Dixie (AD-14), 25 April 1940
UBS' Advice On What To Buy In Case Of Eurozone Breakup: "Precious Metals, Tinned Goods And Small Calibre Weapons"
What if Napoleon had a B-52 at Waterloo?
Three months ago, Zero Hedge presented the first of many narratives that started the thread of explaining the "unmitigated disaster" that would ensue should the Euro break up, which in the words of authors Stephane Deo and Larry Hatheway, would leads to such mutually assured destruction outcomes as complete bank failure and/or civil war or far worse. Because if there is one thing the banks have learned in the aftermath of Hank Paulson, is that scaremongering when bonuses are at stake is the only to get taxpayer money to fund exorbitant lifestyles. Unfortunately since the first UBS report, despite the best intentions of the status quo, the Eurozone's plight has only gotten far, far worse, reaching a Lehman-like crescendo when the house of cards threatened to collapse if not for a last minute Fed rescue. However, as Deutsche Bank and every other bank knows well, that measure was merely a short-term fix.
Today, Larry Hataway has released yet another sequel to the original piece, focusing on this so very critical week for Europe, which as Olli Rehn said, must find a solution by Friday or see the EU "disintegrate", in which the vivid imagery, loud warnings and level of destruction are even greater than before. In other words, Europe has 4 more days, something which S&P tried it best to remind Europe of, as the alternative is "or else." And here comes UBS to remind everyone that anything but a "fix" to a system that was broken from the very beginning, would be a catastrophe, captured probably the best in Hatheway's recommendations of assets to be bought as a hedge to a Euro collapse: "I suppose there might be some assets worthy of consideration—precious metals, for example. But other metals would make wise investments, too. Among them tinned goods and small calibre weapons." But even that is nothing compared to the kicker: "Break-up runs the risk of becoming one wretched scenario. Sadly, however, it can’t be ruled out, just as it would have been improper to rule out the horrors of the first half of the 20th century before they happened." And there you have it: a reversion by Europe to the perfectly stable system from a decade ago, is now somehow supposed to result in World War. And with that the global banking cartel has official jumped the shark, just like the FT's latest rumor earlier today did the same by indicating that the well of European "bailout" ideas has officially run dry.
Here is how Hatheway frames the end of the world: