Obama’s legacy has sailed…
A week ago Rick Moran wrote a piece here at American Thinker pointing out that the Obama administration was preparing to “send a message” to Russia and its geo-poker playing leader, Vladimir Putin. Following the Democrat party’s and Clinton campaign’s talking points that the WikiLeaks releases of embarrassing emails were the work of Russian intelligence, Obama was damn well going to show those sneaky Russians that they couldn’t get away with such blatant interference in an American presidential election. According to CIA officials, they were tasked by the White House to deliver the commander in chief a range of options. According to NBC News, what he quite publicly has selected to do is to conduct a “secret” retaliatory cyberwarfare attack on the Russians.
Never mind that Obama and Hillary were quite critical of Russia’s Duma (Congressional) elections back in 2011, our sovereign leader simply cannot tolerate this pushy Putin prying into our presidential politics. This royal outrage has resulted in our grandly-announced “secret” cyber-attack on these nefarious Russians, an announcement that immediately got Putin’s attention and gave that Bolshevik bully pause for thought. Yep, he thought about it all right, just long enough to assemble a naval task force in the Baltic and sail it with all flags flying right down through the English Channel, blowing black bolshie smoke throughout the entire “in-your-face Obama” transit.
I’d love to be the fly on the wall to catch the expression on Obama’s face when he reviews the intelligence videos of this Russian carrier sailing merrily through waters long-considered off limits to Russian naval vessels. That is one huge Slavic middle finger and it clearly demonstrates to the world that American voters just might learn something from their Russian counterparts when it comes to electing a national leader with some steel in his spine and some weight between his legs. I know it sounds counterintuitive, folks, but seriously, don’t you think our great leader pales just a bit compared to Bad Vlad in this geo-political jousting? Ask the president of the Philippines for starters. He’s likely at the top of a growing and very long list. I think it is becoming clearly evident to the entire world that there is a markedly meaningful difference between the makings of a Russian KGB colonel and that of a Chicago community organizer.
Obama’s legacy has sailed and future scholars may require SCUBA gear…
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Politics
I’m not a Navy guy, but that ship doesn’t look terribly healthy. I’m not sure how “intimidating” you can be when you’re belching smoke like a 19th century tramp steamer and have to be escorted everywhere by an ocean-going tug in case you break down again.
Instead of sending a destroyer to escort the flotilla, the Brits should have trolled the Russians by sending some fireboats and SAR aircraft. “We saw the smoke and thought you might be in some distress…”
There’s a pool going as to whether she actually makes it to Syria.
In years past, The Soviets had a great relationship with Syria and the Assad family, even having a naval base, or at least access to facilities their.
Yep. The Russian navy has a facility in the port of Tartus, Syria that will help sustain that deployment.
So is the black smoke real, or just for show?
If it isn’t burning some really, really bad, low-grade diesel, what is it using for fuel? Russian borscht?
I hate to say this, but I think that as obnoxious as Clinton is, she could stand up to Vlad and tell him where to stick it. I know I would.
Why is it that the eroding outgoing clowndog admin is so consistently and so incompetently W-R-O-N-G about everydammedthing? That’s both a rhetorical and philosophical question. Think before you conjure up an answer.
It’s not that they’re wrong. It’s that they are rooting for the other side so they are taking the positions that damage the US the most.
Regarding the smoke: someone at Ace’s place suggested that the Russian carrier is fueled by old tractor tires and whale blubber.
Russian ingenuity!
Inebriation makes everything possible…
It,s probable burning Bunker Oil.
Hold up , maybe Obama knows something we don’t like The Russian Navy has Put Dan Bernath in charge of refueling.
When you elect an AA prettyboy with no experience, on the basis of some DEEPLY felt idiotic guilt or altruism, and then stuff goes wrong, hardly surprising. Just call me Sgt. Obvious.
Gotta love that hopey and changy.
‘When you elect an AA prettyboy with no experience, on the basis of some DEEPLY felt idiotic guilt or altruism….’
No, Bernie, if you had really paid attention in 2008, it had nothing to do with guilt or altruism. It had everything to do with these things:
– someone who knew how to work a crowd like a charismatic televangelist begging for whatever
– a bunch of horny women practically creaming their jeans over someone who looked good in a suit
– a large population of people who got suckered into believing the crap thrown at them
If you had watched the 2009 inauguration, when the TV cameras panned on the crowds at that event, it was mostly women, acting like a bunch of teeny boppers at a rock concert, just waiting to throw their undies onto the stage.
It had EVERYTHING to do with sex and nothing to to do guilt or altruism or any other social agenda.
Not enough oxygen making it into that boiler. MPA should be ashamed and the CO should be kicking CHENG’s ass. Poor engineering to be sure. Also their stuff is still junk.
Shitty fuel or bad air feed to the Combustion Chamber? If it was an industrial boiler I’d suspect a faulty ID or FD fan for starters.
My guess is that for UNREP (Underway Replenishment) instead of refueling with an Oiler, a Collier is used instead.
They’re burning collies? The ASPCA is gonna shit a brick!
It sort of speaks to Poe’s analogy though. That hulk is Putin playing a poor card as well as he can (maybe I should say as boldly as he can). Obama holds a lot of better cards, but doesn’t seem to be playing them very well (or as boldly).
I once heard about an off-camera remark by Putin about 0bama. He compared negotiating with B-HO to playing Chess with a pigeon and was rumored to have said “The pigeon knocks all the pieces over, defecates on the board and then struts around like it won the game.”.
IMHO that’s a very good analogy of B. Hussein 0bama.
Running smoothly or not, she and her escorts are still projecting power in a stretch of water that hasn’t seen Russian iron since 1904 or so. This is Ivan telling western Europe and us “because I CAN!” while our pussy-in-chief can’t do a thing about it.
Thanks, Whitey, for reminding readers of the main point of the piece. They seem to have gotten hung up on the smoke. Decrepit or not, that flotilla is still a big middle finger to Obama.
I get the point of this post but at this stage of this administration do we really expect anything else? I just don’t know what to say anymore.
I disagree on two points.
1. No, Russia really can’t. They can only pretend. I seriously doubt Russia could put a full battalion of troops outside its own borders and keep them fed.
2. This isn’t Obama screwing up. This is Obama purposely doing all the damage he can get away with.
Obama and all who support him are, and always have been, domestic enemy.
You’re right to question the capabilities of the Bear (who, it is said, is never as strong-or as weak-as he appears). But I think you slightly underestimate the Russians here. I would say definitely not a Division and probably not a Brigade, but a Battalion?
Seems like you could keep so small a force supplied with a weekly flight from a single (C-130ish) cargo plane, depending upon what you wanted that force to do and what you could get on the local economy.
First off, they’ve done it before- earlier this year, in 2015, and in 2014 with this carrier. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10816463/Russian-aircraft-carrier-sails-into-English-Channel.html)
Second, the Russian carrier is and always has been (in the words of the US Navy) a Navy Cross waiting to happen- that is if it doesn’t simply catch fire from poor maintenance before we can sink it.
It is a widely known fact that the Admiral Kuznetsov poses more of a threat to its’ own crew than it does to a potential enemy. The allied Naval task force bombing Syria was more concerned with the sheer magnitude of a potential rescue effort for the Russian carrier than they were with the air defense threat in the strike zones.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/21/russian-carrier-plagued-by-technical-problems/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3861166/It-s-Putin-s-Russian-rustbucket-30-year-old-ageing-aircraft-carrier-sailed-menacingly-close-Britain-poor-condition-frequently-plagued-breakdowns.html
So, sure, Putin is ‘flexing his muscle’, but he is also showing off what a joke the Russian navy has become, and with it Russia’s limited ability to project power where they don’t have established bases.
‘…but he is also showing off what a joke the Russian navy has become…’
Granted, but you forget one thing: bodaprez doesn’t have a clue about armaments, ships, or personnel, or anything related to the military, at all. If Vlad Putin wants to thumb his nose at that moron this way, why not?
Putin’s not thumbing his nose at anyone. The Russians are allowed to transit the English Channel, and have done so several times in the past.
It’s just that no one has paid attention to it
The Royal Navy is tailing them, just as they always do. If anything it’s a challenge to British and French sovereignty. Trump supporters should be happy because a NATO partner is providing for their own defense.
What do you propose we do?
Their carrier is an obsolete joke, and this is more of a statement to the RussiN people than anything else.
From the Telegraph article:
“Nato officials have said the Russian deployment is the largest of its kind since the Cold War and designed to demonstrate Moscow’s military might as well as blitz the only large rebel-held city in Syria.”
Based on that size factor, I think my premise holds, Red; it’s still a big middle finger to our candy-ass CinC. Putin’s not in an active and ongoing dick-measuring contest with the leaders of Britain and France like he is with that putz in the White House.
The world is pointing and laughing, then, and he will suddenly get fewer dates. Navies all over the world will ‘swipe right’ at the Russian Navy’s profile.
War is Boring thinks this is an expensive marketing ploy: ” But as it turns out, the Indian Navy also possesses an ex-Soviet carrier, the Vikramaditya, and operates MiG-29Ks from the flattop. So Admiral Kuznetsov’s mission could be an attempt to promote the fighters’ combat abilities — like a military form of embedded marketing — in the hope New Delhi buys more.”
‘Swipe left’. I don’t really use Tindr- although something tells me Putin spends a lot of time on Grindr
The Royal Navy were there to help out if they broke down. It’s not cool to have a heap of scrap bobbing around in the busiest shipping lane in the world getting in everyones way.
True- the greatest threat was to navigation, followed closely by the environ,metal impact. Aside from the smoke and oil leaks, the toilets don’t work and I have a felling they just drain to the open ocean…
As a former Navy man that has stood smoke watch, SOMEBODY is not doing their job! Unless of course the Russians and their stolen technology blew a head gasket lol
It’s sailed alright, in the same manner that Teddy Kennedy tried to sail the Chappaquiddick.
It’s gonna take a generation or more to repair all the damage that president mom jeans and his clown car posse administration has caused to our nation, and especially to our foreign relations.
Add another two generations if the wicked witch gets elected as well.
Gee, I actually did think that new aircraft carrier of Vlad’s was a nuke, not a smoker.
But after I got done laughing, my answer to this is more laughing, and you know who I’m laughing at.
New? This ship was launched 2 years before I enlisted and I have now been retired for 8 years.
Well, sailing in open water is new for the carrier.
Good point.
The obama administration violently overthrew the lawfully elected government of Ukraine and installed and illegitimate pro west government.
This, in turn, sparked a civil war in the country that has killed thousands.
Obama should be thankful that is all Putin does…
Uh, what? I know that Alex Jones and Russian Times have both pushed this theory, but do you seriously believe it? What other Russian propaganda do you believe?
I really find it disturbing that so many Trump supporters and Trump himself are also pro-Russian and pro Putin.
Disturbing? That Americans admire a leader who stands up for his people and doesn’t go groveling around the world on his knees kissing the ring of every half-assed Muslim potentate?
You find that disturbing?
I guess I just haven’t bought into the propaganda…
I don’t find anything admirable in Putin.
I don’t see him standing up for his people as much as invading his neighbors on flimsy excuses
He’s kissing Assads’ ass right now and will be kissing Irans ass a bit more in the near future as he tries to keep flying from Iranian bases… otherwise he’ll have to bomb civilians using his crappy 30 year old carrier…
It’s nice to see the Russkies maintaining that old technology…I’ve got a friend who builds custom amplifiers and fuzz pedals. He loves that he can still get East German and Russian capacitors and vacuum tubes because no two of them are exactly alike in spite of what the labeling states. As a consequence when he builds the amp/fuzz circuit each build is like a custom sound based on the inconsistencies of the technology. To see them embrace decades old technology and run an old diesel carrier brings back memories of a great uncle who served on carriers during WW2… Obama’s a weak kneed fool at international diplomacy, there’s no doubt about that. But Russian tech still sucks at a lot of levels. I’m hoping that any retaliatory cyber strike makes it clear exactly how much it sucks…. One thing though that I would point out, no matter what you think about Clinton she’s not Obama. She’s definitely far more capable of being a really tough individual when she feels threatened. Unlike Obama who seems to take nothing personally and lets everything just roll off him. Clinton has a trail of bodies behind her that may or may not be of coincidental connection, but it’s clear she doesn’t fuck around with folks who get in her way or threaten her self image. The progressives sucking her ass right now will be greatly disappointed once she’s elected. She’s as much of a corporatist as Trump is, the difference between them is she’s more beholden to those corporations than Trump. She is doing and saying what she needs to in order to win. There’s nothing in her background or experience to indicate she’s a progressive. I still would like to see Trump win, but he’s such a fucking egotistical idiot he can’t avoid taking the bait and responding like a fucking rich, whiny, dickhead to every personal attack. That shit doesn’t play well among the masses and makes him look like a weak and whiny bitch. I think that along with the Bush bus tape can have a seriously negative impact on his… Read more »
You spoke my mind exactly, VOV. See my comment above.
I would add that no matter who wins, they’ll both have to butt heads with Congress, and their only real interest is in feeding their ridiculously inflated egos.
That low-tech ‘sucking’ sometimes allows a huge amount of bang for the buck. For every F35 we put in the air, they could probably put up several squadrons of Mig-25s (still one of the fastest things ever made.) And AKs cost little – anyone want to claim they are ineffective? History would suggest otherwise.
Me, I figure the smoke is like the diesel truck boys “rolling coal”… Vlad’s figuring to make all the greenies supporting zillion dollar jet or ship “green” fuel stroke out at the sight of all that nasty smoke.
Yeah, the Rooshians are nasty…exposing that the DNC is shamelessly trying to rig the election. If I roll over a rock and expose a rattler waiting to strike, I don’t blame the rock.
“…they couldn’t get away with such blatant interference in an (American presidential) election.”
Brackets are intentional. So, what about O’Bozo’s “blatant interference” in Israel’s Prime Minister elections? Which has been proved, unlike the WikiLeaks, where the Russkies are merely suspect. I personally think the WikiLeaks emails are the result of stoopidity and/or carelessness on the DildoCrats.
The ship in that photo is the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov (talk about a mouthful!). Her propulsion is a combination of steam boilers and diesel generators. The vessel is currently coming up on it’s 31st birthday.
It just hit me that, as usual, Dear Leader is being a hypocrite about Russia’s supposed interference in our elections.
Didn’t Obama stick his nose in Israel’s elections? He even went to the point of sending people over there to work against Netanyahu.
I’m shocked at his hypocrisy.
It seems to me this is a manufactured crisis to provide a distraction to what the e-mails actually say, and the extent to which Hillary and her minions went to in order to hide such things as her pay-for-play policy as Secretary of State. An interesting sidebar is that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has had his internet access cut off at his Ecuadoran Embassy refuge in London. Funny how Assange had all the access he wanted when Wikileaks’ revelations involved the Bush administration, but now that it involves Hillary, it’s a no go.
Personally, I’ve been having a hard time understanding the level of antagonism directed toward Putin by Hillary and the White House. It’s almost as though it’s a personal thing. The Russians have certain strategic needs including not being bottled up in the Black Sea; good diplomatic policy should involve being willing to recognize that and try to accomodate it. The last thing anybody should want is a return to the Cold War with two sides ready to pounce on a big red launch button.
Trump seems to understand this in a way Hillary does not. Sometimes there’s a difference between being a fierce competitor, and being an outright enemy. There’s also the idea that Putin being likely to do what is best for the Russians doesn’t automatically make that bad for Americans. It’s not a zero-sum game.
In the words of Lyndon Johnson, sometimes it’s better to have your opponent inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.
The misdirection of laying all of the “troubles” at the feet of the Russians is only to take people’s eyes off of what has been revealed.
Governor McAwful in Virginia gave roughly $400K to an FBI apparatchik’s wife, in her run for a State Senate seat. Shortly after the “donation”, the Feeb’s employment status changed and, it’s alleged, he was promoted to Assistant Director and he was put in charge of the investigation into Hillzy’s email server and all of the associated troubles.
Now, the news is out that the DNC, besides screwing Bern-Out Sanders, has been engaged in starting riots at Trump rallies, and other illegal activities.
That doesn’t even approach the pay-to-play schemes that you pointed out, Perry.
“I’d love to be the fly on the wall to catch the expression on Obama’s face when he reviews the intelligence videos”
don’t you mean when he sees it on the news with the rest of us common folk? from what I have read it doesn’t seem like he pays attention to those important briefings.
And just for giggles, the novel “Alas, Babylon” opens with the US Navy accidentally causing an explosion among Russian munitions in a Syrian port.
wow, that’s an oldie – been over 50 years since I read that!
Biden was really stupid for threatening cyber attacks. Now that leaves the USA open to blame for any cyber attacks that happen against Russia. Russians consider that threat an act of war.
America needs to get out of Syria. Assad has invited Putin in as an ally. Assad can handle his own country now.
Putin has threatened to blow up American air craft in Syria if they are caught bombing Syrian and Russian troops. It’s not worth it to me to start a war with Russia over Syria. Russia does have a lot of nukes and I don’t want to see a nuclear confrontation over Syria.
We don’t need a cyber war with Russia either. No one wants to wake up and find out they can’t use their debit or credit card for a week, their internet is down and they can’t pay bills and that their favorite web pages don’t work. Imagine if TAH wouldn’t work for a month because a DYN was attacked? What would we do?
I don’t know what the attitude of the Average American Citizen really is, but I know this:
Most folks of my acquaintance have tuned out of the rhetoric of this election cycle – but will show up to vote. They don’t answer polls from anyone, have taken a hiatus from social media, and focused on enjoying their families again.
The general attitude about the current administration is disgust on the level of finding where the cat has vomited on your table, while the toddler has had a spell of diaper-overwhelming explosive diarrhea across the white carpet, just as the dog comes through the pet door after having rolled in an “interesting” smell of something that died in the summer sun.
Copious quantities of Lysol, a painter’s facemask, and full hazmat suit are the order of the day. Only they feel that until those are applied, they’ll just take a trip to the lake, and show up at the polls.
Just had lunch with a very pro-2A guy who is voting for Hillary because he feels like “he has his guns already” and that Congress will stop the worst of what she does. He really can’t stomach Trump. THAT is a really scary stance…
It seems this year I am finally in the majority of voters… not because I want to vote for either Cankles or Trump, but because I am holding my nose and asking “seriously, these are the two best either party could come up with?”
David, if it’s been fifty years since you read Alas Babylon then you’re old enough to know better than to waste time having lunch with totally self-centered morons. He’s not very pro 2A, he’s purely pro-self, the perfect, brain-dead, Clinton voter.
What a flaming asshole!
Bingo, Poe.
Excellent job identifying the enemy.
David. Your friend/acquaintance is full of shit or dumb as a rock. Benghazi.
Speaking as a Cold Warrior, it goes totally against all of my instincts, and threatens to cause my tongue to snap off, but I am actually more impressed with our former enemy’s leader than I am with our own.
I know it will taste like a shit sandwich to some; but Putin is more like Reagan than anything else.
God!! I can’t believe I said that.
Russia is preparing for war over Syria, threats of cyber attacks and more. We need to back off this thing. It’s getting to dangerous. This level of saber rattling is dangerous.
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-preparing-war-moscow-conducts-emergency-nuclear-drills-2436307
That’s not true. My cousin over there says Putin has not said a thing about war with the west.