This is in preparation for Hillary/Repubs, for Bush's global corporate coup she promoted and supports, and the greedy donors who would willingly destroy the world in taking it through the hostile billionaire/corporate takeover now in process, or thereafter, in 'cost-saving' profitable pollution, rapine and pillage.

If everyone votes against the corporate candidates in both the Dem and Repub Parties and votes Green, and ensures that watchful eyes, keyboards, cameras and lawsuits are everywhere to record, publicize and protest the massive electoral cheating to be expected, while continuing protest and lawsuits over the Dem Primary cheating,and refuses to accept electoral cheating as a 'done deal', this can be avoided.

Think outside the box they think they have you trapped in - vote against their candidates and vote Green! Pass it on! Last chance, as far as I can see...

I do not think that the intention is war. I doubt a single person in the Pentagon or in the White House believes that even if the entire population of China crossed into Siberia at once (like the Moroccans did with Western Sahara), they would be able to "capture" a country that big. Even if NATO reached Moscow, the Russian government along with the urban population of cities in Western Russia would regroup in the East in an impenetrable wilderness. The Russians burned Moscow once, no qualms about doing it again. Nuclear explosions over all major cities would be a bummer, but would in no way destroy the country. If you want the water and the oil, throwing nukes won't get it. You have to go in and occupy it, and the resistance will be way more than Americans could handle.

No way that country can be taken. US Joint Chiefs knows this already, I am sure.

Besides, I have my doubts as to whether NATO's missile defense system is effective or even intended to be effective. I think this is more of a confidence measure/economic opportunity for European states. Recall that the very purpose of NATO was being called into question not long ago. Yet NATO does serve a purpose: it makes capitalists money, keeps communities employed, and keeps career military preoccupied. So with this, mission accomplished.

I think the intention is to create permanent tension. The reason for this is that it gives the United States greater say in Europe and it keeps the MIC, a major sector of the US, European, and Russian economies, up-and-running. This is good for Russia in that sense, too.

By the way, though the threat to Russia is real, all of this posturing does nothing but cement the status-quo in Russia itself and among its allies.

The big problem is that Russia, if it so decides, can make it impossible for Europe to purchase natural gas. The United States cannot fill the supply. What the US fails to understand is this: sanctions will tick off Russians, but they are not interested as much in playing the West's economic game. They really do think differently, in general. The West does not understand this, in part because on the surface, Russians like the same things you do: Starbucks, social media, cars, vacations abroad, etc. (I am not interested in those things personally). But beneath the surface is a totally different mentality, different priorities. Hard to explain, but I know it is the case from experience.

The other big dimension to all of this is China. Russia and China have convergent interests in Asia. I do not think that Russia wants to be shot entirely of Europe, but when it comes to the big land war in Asia, Russia and China have a lot to gain through cooperation.

Bottom line: MIC and big players in finance benefit from a simmering, low-level conflict. That is what is going on here. The rhetoric for the press is to win elections.

Peace and love be with you, reader.

It was Putin's actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine that completely changed the calculation for those countries, as well as extremely aggressive action in the North Sea.

The neo-cons in DC fomented the violent overthrow of the Ukranian government and then cobbled together a new government composed of Galician oligarchs and assorted neo-Nazi groups who immediately began a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and intimidation against Russian speakers throughout the country.

Look up the Odessa massacre if you want to see a truly horrific display of US inspired dirty deeds.

Shortly thereafter, the ethnic Russian enclaves on the Russian border, fearing the same treatment, voted for separation. In response, the coup government invaded the region, used heavy artillery on civilian areas, overran cities and town with tanks, indiscriminately slaughtered thousands of its own people, and created a severe refugee crisis in Russia proper.

Oh, and by the way, Joe Biden's son was picked for the board of the gas company that stood to gain the most once the ethnic Russians were removed.

Putin's calculations changed only because of our horrific actions in the Ukraine, which remain the overriding cause of the current tensions there. And even now, the Ukrainian army continues to indiscriminately bomb civilian areas with cluster munitions and there are rumors of yet another government assault perhaps even in the next few weeks.

And I'm not even going to get into the missile defense buildup in Poland and Romania, the troop buildups in the Baltics, or the wholly counterproductive economic sanctions driven by our insane desire to restart the Cold War.

The US government and its aggressive, provacative policies are overwhelmingly responsible for the recent tensions in eastern Europe. Not the Russians, not the Europeans, not Putin.