How should Erdogan spend his $3.2 Billion EU windfall?

The European Union (EU) just gave Erdogan $3.2 Billion.

Officially, this money will be used to stop the flow of Syrian Refugees to the EU by sealing Turkey's border with Greece.

The same Syrian Refugee Flow which Putin appears to be trying to increase by prolonging the Syrian Civil War under the guise of running after Islamic State and Al Qaeda Terrorists.

The timing of the EU's $3.2 Billion act of philantrophy appears to be very perfect.

It comes in the heels of the punitive economic sanctions imposed by Putin on Erdogan for the downing of Moscow's SU-24 strike aircraft a few days ago.  Probably the same type of strike aircraft which attacked an early morning market in Syria today. At least 40 civilians (Turkmen?) died in this strike, and the death toll is still expected to rise.

Wanton airstrikes like this is the military version of beating the bush, to drive more refugees (and Terrorists?) in the general direction of the EU (and America).

To sweeten the deal (and further dampen the impact of Putin's economic sanctions on Erdogan?), the EU promised to reconsider Turkey's request for visa-less travel to the  EU, as well as her pending application for EU membership.

How should Erdogan spend his $3.2 Billion windfall?

Merely tightening Turkey's border with Greece will not fully solve the Syrian Refugee problem because it would just mean that most Syrian Refugees will end up living in Turkey. Right now, there are already 2 million Syrian Refugees in Turkey.

The best bet for Erdogan is to set up a Safe Zone in Northern Syria, where refugees can be temporarily protected from the collateral damage coming from the miltary operations of Assad, Putin, Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State.

The Safe Zone should ideally be run by the UN, but should be realisitically protected by NATO firepower.

Beyond the Safe Zone, the fight for the fate of Syria can continue...

#Syria #Turkey #Russia #Erdogan #Putin #Ukraine #LiberateCrimea #GeopoliticalGames #LooneyTerrWatch

Is Putin about to conduct full-scale Ground Operations in Syria?

It appears that another Iranian Revolutionary Guard General fell at Aleppo today. This would further increase pressure on the Iranians to scale down their involvement in Syria.

Early this month, it was reported that key members of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran are choosing retirement rather than accept a deployment to Syria.

Once the Iranians are gone, the Lebanese Hizbollah will not be far behind.

But there is no need for Bashir Assad to run for the nearest departure gate yet.

Uncle Putin has just arrived in the neighborhood!

His warships are in place. His warplanes are in place. He allegedly even brought a Typhoon Boomer just to further raise the level of excitement in the neighborhood.

Those pesky Turks tried to give him a dose of discouragement by downing one of his SU-24s.

But he quickly grabbed victory from the jaws of humiliation by installing his latest SAMs in the country. And of course, he has to bring in the Armor and Ground Troops to protect his SAMs too.

So Uncle Putin, what is only lacking now is full-scale Ground Operations.

To be or not to be?

That is the question.

But do not kill us with the anticipation.

We are very much excited to know whether you can do better than Brezhnev and Andropov.

When they invaded that place called... 

Afghanistan.

#Syria

#LiberateCrimea

#SU24Downing

#Ukraine

#GeopoliticalGames

#WorldWarIII

Is the Black Sea Region about to be engulfed by a major conflagration?

In early 2014, Putin forcibly annexed Crimea without encountering any significant Ukrainian resistance.

Bouyed by his Crimean success, Putin then moved against Eastern Ukraine. This time around, the Ukrainians decided to make a half-hearted stand. The Russian-led Ukrainian Separatist offensive eventually ran out of steam. But not after dismembering a significant chunk of Eastern Ukraine from Kiev. And not after Ukrainian Separatists accidentally shot down a Malaysian airliner with a Russian Buk Missile, killing everyone on board.

Today, both of the abovementioned areas have remained under Russian control.

But recent events indicate that, maybe, for not much longer:

Sunday, 11/22/15 - Ukrainian Nationalists blow up transmission towers that bring power to Crimea. The region has no electricity until now.

Tuesday, 11/24/15 - A Turkish F-16 shoots down a Russian SU-24 for violating her airspace near the Syrian border.

Wednesday, 11/25/15 - A Turkish aid convoy was bombed by Russian planes in Northern Syria (in apparent retaliation for the downing of the Russian SU-24).

Wednesday, 11/25/15 - Ukraine stops buying Russian natural gas and closes her airspace to all Russian aircraft.

Thursday, 11/26/15 - Germany announces that she will send Recon Tornadoes, refuelling planes, and a frigate, to "help protect" the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in its air campaign against ISIS in Syria (hhmmm... what can ISIS do against an aircraft carrier?)

Is there an emerging pattern in this series of events?

I would like to say, yes.

It appears that the Black Sea Region is about to be engulfed by a major conflagration.

Hopefully, this will result in the return to the Ukraine of all the territories she lost to Russia last year...

#LiberateCrimea

#SU24Downing

#Ukraine

#GeopoliticalGames

#WorldWarIII

Can Putin really Nuke the Turks?

Moscow talking heads have allegedly hinted at the possibility of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Syria in reaction to the downing of a Russian SU-24 by Turkey.

Is this a not-so-subtle threat by Putin that he will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Turkey if the latter further obstructs Moscow's designs on Syria?

In an all-out conventional war with Turkey in Syria, Moscow has very little chance of prevailing. The Turks are well-armed and knows a thing or two about war too. Moscow's only chance is to use nuclear weapons.

It appears that Moscow has come prepared for this eventuality. She has already stationed a Typhoon boomer with 200 ICBM nuclear warheads off the coast of Syria. And I will not be surprised at all if she has already secretly moved a considerable number of tactical nuclear weapons into the country too.

But while the Russian Bear has been noisily trashing the vegetation lately from Georgia, to Crimea, and now Syria, the American Eagle and the British Lion have been considerably more quiet.

Which is a bit unusual considering the overwhelming edge in nuclear firepower they have over Moscow.

And there's the French too. Who has her own stash of nuclear thunderbolts in her closet.

Finally, let us not overlook the Sunni Bomb in the hands of the Pakistanis. They are maybe primitive by Western standards, but they are still Nukes.

So seriously, can Putin really Nuke the Turks and not expect to get vaporized in a hail of retaliatory nuclear firestorms?

I highly doubt it...

#SU24Downing

#GeopoliticalGames

#NuclearArmaggedon

#Doomsday

The Turks finally had enough of Putin's bullying?

Ankara has long seethed at the various military (mis)adventures that Bloodymir Putin has launched along her borders.

First was Chechnya.

Next Georgia.

Then Crimea.

Now Syria.

But the straw that finally broke the Turkish Camel's back was probably the sight of Iranian F-14 Tomcats escorting Russian bombers over the skies of Syria.

Finally, the Turks have had enough. And the downing of Russia's SU-24 is Ankara's wake up call to Bloodymir.

And Bloodymir may have met his match.

Behind Ankara stand Uncle Sam and NATO.

And the entire Sunni World. All 800 million of them.

Bloodymir is about to face the biggest challenge to his bullying career.

Hopefully, he will not take down the whole world with him in the process...

#GeopoliticalGames

#SU24Downing

#NATO

#LiberateCrimea

#F14Tomcat

Iranian F-14 Tomcats are now escorting Russian bombers over the skies of Syria...

It has just been reported that Iranian F-14 Tomcats are now escorting Russian bombers over the skies of Syria.

This is a big coup for the Iranians.

Normally, Israel would not tolerate such close proximity to her borders of any Iranian warplane.

But times have changed.

The recent shenanigans of ISIS supporters in Paris have temporarily tied the hands of Israel in the court of World Opinion. And the Iranians are exploiting this situation to the max.

How long will this last?

#LooneyTerrWatch

#F14Tomcat

#GeopoliticalGames

B-17s, B-52s and Leper Colonies - Dr. Strangelove symbolisms and the Philippines...

What is wrong with this picture?

Well, it is the picture of a B-52 Strafortress in ground-skimming flight. But its trailing ground shadow, is that of a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress!

This picture was taken from Stanley Kubrick's dark Doomsday comedy, "Dr. Strangelove". It is a picture of "Leper Colony", the B-52 which triggered the end of the world in the movie.

When Dr. Strangelove was being made in the early 1960s, the B-52 was a top-of-the-line aircraft not available to civilian film-makers. So the Film's Arctic flight footage was taken using a B-17. And its shadow is the one visible on the ground. The Leper Colony was just a B-52 scale model composited into the B-17 flight footage. The footage was sped up to create a sense of jet speed.

This picture contains a lot of symbolisms vis-a-vis the Philippines.

During the opening days of WWII, the US used the B-17 Flying Fortress to defend the Philippines against a Japanese invasion. It was also used by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon to fly to Australia, to avoid Japanese capture.

Currently, the US is using the B-52 Stratofortress to challenge the creeping invasion of the South China Sea territories of the Philippines by the Chinese.

The Philippine territories currently being invaded by the Chinese are right next to the island of Culion, where the US Colonial Government of the Philippines once established and maintained the largest Leper Colony in the world.

Are these just uncanny coincidences?

#WestPhilippineSea

#NineDashLineFraud

#OccupyPanatagShoal

#ChinaGoHome

#Spratlys

#DrStrangelove

#LeperColony

I found a Discover Card on the streets of New Jersey...

I just found a Discover Card on the streets of New Jersey.  Almost right in front of a convenience store.

It looks like it was just recently dropped.  It has no sign of street damage at all.

The card owner is  a male with a Hispanic name.  Maybe, he is even Filipino.

So I reported it to Discover (which was easy because I have a Discover card too).  After taking down the card number, the helpdesk lady said I can go ahead and destroy it.

I guess the card owner was a bit lucky that I was the one who found it.

If the card has a significant amount of available credit and itchy hands found it, by the time the owner discovers and reports it as lost, he would have already owed a mountain of debt which he never actually borrowed.

It happened to me before...

#HoneyBadgerWay

Where were Ronda Rousey's leg kicks?

I was just watching a bunch of sports talking heads explain why Ronda Rousey lost to Holly Holm via KO.

Their explanations all sounded convincing  until they showed some video clips of the fight. And that's when I realized that they missed the essence of Ronda's loss big time.

In all of the video clips shown, I did not see Ronda throw even a single leg kick (Holly actually managed to sneak in a few). Yes, you heard that right. Not a single one.  And she is up against a boxer. Fighters who are not used to being struck below the belt. 

Instead, Ronda was her usual self, trying to swarm her opponent with a flurry of headhunting haymakers, or closing the distance to enable her to deploy her superior submission skills.

While this strategy has worked wonders for her in the past against non-boxer opponents, this time around, she was facing a full-pledged boxer. Yet, amazingly, her Coaching Team appears to have failed miserably to guide and train her to make the adjustment.

So poor Ronda ended up eating counterpunches from Holly all night.  While Holly deftly evaded with superior footwork all her desperate and sometimes clumsy attempts to land a haymaker or close the distance and grapple.

To add insult to injury, it was not even a punch which put an end to Ronda's unbeaten winning streak. It was a good old-fashioned roundhouse kick.

If the best female MMA fighter in the world gets knocked-out by a kick from a boxer, that speaks volumes about the strategic capabilities of her Coaching Team.

So Ronda. Next time you tangle with Holly Holm, make sure that you neutralize that superior footwork first. And the only way to do that is through leg kicks. Lots of them.  

Once those legs get numbed, that's the time you move in for the kill.

And please take a second look at your Coaching Team. If they missed a basic strategy like that in a crucial fight, this will not be the last time they will fail you.

As to your boxing skills, I'm sure you have heard of the boxing coach who calls himself... Freddie Roach...

#RondaRousey

#UFC

#MMA

#MuayThai

#MartialArts

#HoneyBadgerWay