Chippy Rivals Meet

The formerly USSR and the quasi-exceptionalist US of A-holes are holding a meeting of the minds over Syria, something they have long needed to get around to doing. In the beginning of the conflict Assad pounded his own cities into rubble thus propelling the advancement of precisely the one thing he needs above all else to remain in power: destabilising bogeymen.

And he has them now in spades. Some would say the Islamic State is in fact a US creation and of course it is, whether done because the US foreign policy establishment are far-reaching visionary Machiavellians operating at the highest magnitude of cunning or because US Foreign Policy is criminally employed the world over by a preening group of udderly clueless morons [projection alert]. 

But it makes all the difference to the blogging milieu.

Frankly, I see no end in sight to the phenomenon of young men the world over booking extended vacation flights to Turkey for the purpose of exploring little known sectors of the middle east. And I am not sure that anything will stem this tide of unfulfilled, youthful horn dogs into the promised land of free sex slaves and the detonation of ancient Western imperialism while at same time selling our oil out from under us.

That's three things religious extremists appear willing to die for:

God

pussy

financial security.

There may be much to gain or possibly even more to loose in a rapprochement between the two quasi-adversarial business partners. No matter what becomes of the War between the Stateless and the Clueless there will always be this matter of the relationship itself to chew on. 

And this is infotaining precisely because yet another in the endless series of sham US elections seems interrupted this time around (so far at least) by what the late, great Marisacat termed  'the inconvenient voice of the voter.'  And the people don't want no war. Many do, however, enjoy a measure of financial security working for a nameless, faceless defense industry contractor located in a low rise suburban office complex in a neighborhood near you. Close, like inside your fingertips as your read this mindless drivel .

One struggles mightily to perceive any of the current GOP presiditzial candidates whispering sweet nothings to Vladimir over cocktails as we see Obama doing in todaze WaPo, come as conservatives are thoroughly schooled in Cheney/Bush foreign policy techniques. 

The GOP prays every day to the image of Ronald Reagan but actually delivers Bush/Cheney, AKA the worst war-like blundering in the long history of US war-like blundering. And yes, one can easily picture Reagan trading jocular tall tales standing at the bar with Putin. 

Meanwhile, the Demotards follow their instincts for peace and love and more gold and more beer.

And chicks and stuff. 

Yes, we are talking the Clinton Doctrine here. The Clinton Doctrine replaced the Carter Doctrine. After Carter no Demotards admit to having a doctrine. Each time one of their own occupies the State Department they basically kowtow to the vastly under-brained Defense Department anyway. At least since Truman, whom one cannot even fathom would be a Demotard today if he were still walking the earth as a small-town auto insurance agent in Missouri.

This essential American non-doctrine doctrine began with Kennedy and sprang fully-fruited under the star-crossed LBJ. (FDR, like Reagan, had a doctrine, so we think--or led to believe)

Obama has now added his own pinch of passive/aggressiveness with the Hillary handprint and the hard-hitting economic sanctions. 

Whether these work or not is anyone's guess. People keep saying Putin is desperate and rattling his sabre over Syria to entice the US into engagement leading to Russia (once again) treated like any other charter member of the globalist imperialist club. And don't forget, the Ayatollah "crippling sanctions" delivered the deformed bacon. So maybe sanctions it is.

Besides, this ISIS thingie really could use even more outside/inside influence as a pretext to jostle among cynically competing imperialists.  Let's help propel this war into what most GOP voters secretly relish anyway: Armageddon. Perfect when you look at it in a certain light. Perfectly fucked up staring it in the face.

Make no mistake. The USSR and the US-A are solid bidness partners. They play the game on several levels to obscure this fact. The game becomes harder when the price of a gallon of gas is below $2.00 (in some states) but when it is double that suddenly you see these huge exploratory style of business deals between US and Russian oil companies popping up in Siberia and the Arctic. In fact, when the sanctions over Ukraine hit the oil deals were put on hold. For now.

But the American company has ambitious goals in Russia, particularly in the Arctic, where it hopes to produce meaningful amounts of oil and gas by 2025. Exxon had moved a rig there this summer, and the exploratory drilling efforts had just gotten underway.

The Eurasia Group, the New York-based political risk consultancy, recently issued a report predicting that the sanctions would force foreign oil and oil service companies “to scale back operations and reassess their commitments to the Russian market” and that “Russian companies increasingly will have to turn to domestic and Asian sources of financing and alternative technologies to keep up production.”

China, South Korea and Singapore have modern oil industries with various capabilities for drilling in shale and offshore, much of it gained from working with Western companies. Some of their companies will probably work with Russia. But energy experts say they do not have the full range of capabilities to replace companies like Exxon when it comes to the most challenging oil and gas fields.

The Russians announced a huge competing deal with the Chinese. Funny thing happened later that didn't make big news: the deal was quietly shelved.

But Reuters noted that one big-ticket project, the Altai gas pipeline to connect western Siberian gas fields to China, was hardly mentioned during the meetings, leaving its fate uncertain.

China’s reluctance comes even as Putin is courting all potential investors in Russia’s underdeveloped Far East region. Immediately upon his return to Russia, Putin attended the first-ever Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. In his speech at the forum, Putin spoke of the “great potential” in Russia’s Far East, and said that Russia “aimed at accelerated, fast-track development in this region.”

They refuse to acknowledge that both possess the same oligarchical self-interest at the end of the day and will play along with each other again at some point in their respective self-interest. These deals too will not gain major airplay but they will happen. Bet on it.

Obama and Putin recognise they need each other.

What will the GOP nominee think and more important, what will she do if the unthinkable happens and she ascends to the White Wash House?