U.S. threatens Russia with a naval blockade

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 3:13pm

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says the U.S. Navy can blockade Russia if needed to keep it from controlling energy supplies in the Middle East as it does in Europe.
"The United States has that ability, with our Navy, to make sure the sea lanes are open, and, if necessary, to blockade ... to make sure that their energy does not go to market," Zinke said on Friday at an industry event in Pittsburgh hosted by the Consumer Energy Alliance.

This would also be called "an act of war".
Hopefully, Zinke is just talking out of his ass.

"Russia is a one trick pony," Zinke said, explaining that its economy hinges on its ability to sell energy. "I believe the reason they are in the Middle East is they want to broker energy just like they do in eastern Europe, the southern belly of Europe."

The U.S. is a one trick pony too - military force.

More disturbing is that this news coincides with this.

Britain’s defense secretary says the U.K. plans to boost its military presence in the Arctic next year amid concerns about increasing Russian aggression.
Gavin Williamson told The Sunday Telegraph that the government is preparing a “defense Arctic strategy” that would deploy 800 army and marine commandos to Norway in 2019 and establish a new military base there.

The newspaper says Britain’s actions are prompted partly by anticipation that Russia will keep expanding its presence in the Arctic and of a rush for the region’s oil as polar ice melts due to climate change.

What "increasing Russian aggression"?
They are using words without meanings.

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Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 3:35pm

Interior Secretary?

Commenting on the military's capability to project power overseas?

He was there to explain why hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the shale energy boom has given the U.S. an edge over its rivals Russia and Iran, by making the U.S. less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

Somebody want to tell Zinke that starting WWIII is not part of his portfolio?

Besides, there's a very good chance he's mistaken about those capabilities.

THE PENTAGON – Aircraft carriers – the most visible tools of U.S. military power – are spending more time in maintenance and at home even as the Pentagon has declared it’s entered a new era of competition with China and Russia.

According to a USNI News analysis of more than 50 years of carrier air wing deployments over the last 15 months, the Navy has seen the lowest number of carrier strike groups underway since 1992, the year following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The Navy has deployed about 22 to 25 percent of its carriers since 2013. That total — which excludes training missions and exercises — is down from a 28-percent average for the rest of the era of the global war on terror. In 2018, to date, that number has been down to an average of about 15 percent of the Navy’s carriers committed to operational deployments.

Tough to maintain a credible blockade when 85% of your carriers are in dry dock.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by dervish on Mon, 10/01/2018 - 6:07am

Carriers would be effectively useless

@Not Henry Kissinger in a war with Russia anyhow. Things would likely go south pretty quickly.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Centaurea on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 6:50pm

The end of the American empire

.... draws ever closer.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by Bob In Portland on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 8:44pm

What should be reported?

The only place on the American internet sites where I saw Zinke's comments was the the Washington Examiner, which is right-wing and not particularly visible. But everyone on the other side of Cold War 2.0 saw it and understood that this was yet another US threat of nuclear war.

Go check American media. Turn on your TVs and radios. Check your Sunday paper. It's missing.

That's how good our government's censorship is.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 9:23pm

The sad thing about this is the number of people who will

believe this.

"Russia is a one trick pony," Zinke said, explaining that its economy hinges on its ability to sell energy. "I believe the reason they are in the Middle East is they want to broker energy just like they do in eastern Europe, the southern belly of Europe."

Too many people believe that Russia is helping Assad gas his people and of course that Trump is Putin's puppet and that Russia also hacked the GOP's computers too and that people like Graham are being blackmailed by Russia and that's why they are protecting Trump.

I've been thinking about the book and movie On the Beach lately. The ending is the nuclear winds have finally made their way to Australia and people are deciding whether to take their pill and die peacefully or suffer from the effects of radiation. I doubt that New Zealand will be safe from nuclear winter, etc. Dumb fucks playing games with Russia and nuclear weapons. Trillions to make mini nukes that we can survive. Sure. If we lob a few of them at Russia they won't hit us back with their bigger ones.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by dervish on Mon, 10/01/2018 - 6:16am

The loser in any nuclear exchange will likely detonate

@snoopydawg cobalt bombs, or their equivalent, as a last act of defiance.

There will be no winners.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 9:37pm

Oh good. Target practice.

China just tested a new hypersonic weapon – and observers think it's a clear warning to the US

With Washington and Beijing locked in a trade war, and tensions rising over Taiwan and the South China Sea, the announcement might well have been intended as a rallying call, according to an academic who specialises in security issues.

"The Chinese probably need a boost of morale and increase of strategic confidence as the relationship with the US is hitting a wall," said Zhao Tong, a fellow with the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing.

"Russia also has been publicising their hypersonic missiles," he said.

China's defence ministry has been testing hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs), capable of flying at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) since 2014, but has never provided any details.

According to the US Department of Defence, the vehicles, which it refers to as WU-14, could be used to deliver missiles, both nuclear and non-nuclear, past any anti-missile defence system currently available.

https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-hypersonic-weapons-test-likely-a-...

China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons — and the US can't defend against them

Speed is the new stealth and earlier this week America's top nuclear commander described a grim scenario for U.S. forces facing off against hypersonic weapons.

"We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us," Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

"Both Russia and China are aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities," Hyten added. "We've watched them test those capabilities."

Researchers and engineers at Rand explain what a hypersonic weapon is, which countries are developing them and how the U.S. could look to defend against them.

Read on:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/hypersonic-weapons-what-they-are-and-why...

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 10/01/2018 - 12:46am

Imagine if China flew their bombers in the Atlantic

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber and two Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-15 fighters execute a routine bilateral training mission over the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, Sept. 26, 2018. Pacific Air Forces

It's our arrogance that disgusts me.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by jorogo on Mon, 10/01/2018 - 8:17am

Zinke is just talking out of his ass

to make sure the sea lanes are open....... to blockade

Ass or mouth, they seem to be spewing forth cognitive dissonance.

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"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh