What makes an useful idiot?

Taken from this Reddit post:  https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1jenwbp/governor_jb_pritzker_to_trump_what_does_putin/

These are just the tip of the iceberg.

1. Several members on Trump's team during his first term had close ties to russian oligarchs. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/connections-trump-putin-russia-ties-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868/

2. FBI probed Trump’s Russia connections and found decades-old relationship with Russian and former Soviet investors and financiers. https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/30/enduring-mystery-trump-relationship-russia/

3. Putin dangled a Moscow building deal in front of the Trump Organization worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 2017, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/

4. Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit.
   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812

5. Trump has defended Russia’s seizure of Crimea https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertonardelli/trump-russia-crimea#.efb6wz0z1

6. How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business
   https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/

7. There are very few examples over the years of Trump criticizing Putin. One was after reports of a russian chemical attack in Syria in 2018. More often than not, Trump has spoken very positive about Putin and praised him. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-uncharacteristically-criticizes-putin-after-reports-attack-syria-n863716
   https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelenskyy-united-states-russia-policy/

    And following:

   1.The KGB saw Trump as an easy mark because he’s stupid & narcissistic. Putin has leverage over Trump. Trump will badmouth anyone (including Republicans, his own VP Pence, & US veterans), but never badmouths Putin. In Jan 2021 ex-KGB spy Yuri Shvets said Russia cultivated Trump as an asset for 40 years (asset is not the same as agent). In 1977 Trump married a Soviet woman & her father was under surveillance by the Soviets in Czechoslovakia so her phones were also wiretapped, as a Soviet living abroad.

   In 1980 Trump became indebted to Russian mobsters after borrowing hundreds of TV’s on credit to furnish The Commodore, from Joy Lud on 5th Avenue, run by Tamir Sapir & Sam Kislin who was an associate of Russian Mafia boss & vory v zakone member Vyacheslav Ivankov who came to the US in 1992 on a film visa & lived in Trump Tower in the 90s & laundered dirty Russian mob money at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.

   Trump has laundered dirty money for the Russian Mafia ever since 1984 when Russian mobster David Bogatin bought 5 condos for $6M in Trump Tower. Bogatin made the money in a gas tax scam (since at least 1980), involving Russian mob boss Marat Balagula, Michael Markowitz, Lev Persits, Colombo underboss Sonny Franzese, his son Colombo capo Michael Franzese, mobster Lawrence Iorizzo (linked to 300 gas stations around Long Island & NJ), where they would collect federal gas taxes on the sale of gasoline but skim it for themselves & use shell companies in Panama to hide their tracks, making $100M a month, & it later spread to PA, GA, FL, OH, TX, & CA. Balagula had taken control of 14 gas stations & 2 fuel dealerships by 1978 & bought gasoline from the Nayfeld brothers & had an office in the El Caribe club in Brooklyn owned by Michael Cohen's Uncle Morty, & Michael Cohen knew Marat's daughter Malavena & visited Balagula's house in Hewlett Harbor. After the Long Island faction of the Colombo family tried to shake down Balagula, he requested a meeting at the 19th Hole club with the Lucchese family's consigliere "Christie Tick" Furnari & Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, where they agreed to provide protection, & the Five Families (except the Bonanno family) put a 2-cents-per-gallon "family tax" on the scam, worth $100M per year.

   In Mar 1986 Natalia Dubinina & her father Yuri Dubinin met Trump inside Trump Tower. Ex-KGB spy Yuri Shvets said Dubinina worked in the UN Library as her cover, but she was secretly working in the KGB’s First Directorate.

   In fall 1986 at a luncheon hosted by heir Leonard Lauder, Trump again met Yuri Dubinin (Soviet ambassador to the US 1986-1990), who later wrote Trump letters in Jan 1987 inviting Trump to the USSR, & Vitaly Churkin (friend of Jeffrey Epstein & Peter Thiel) also helped organize the trip.

   After Intourist (aka Goskomtourist, a Soviet/Russian tour operator based in Moscow) invited Trump to the USSR in 1987 (which he mentions in The Art of the Deal, ghostwritten by Tony Schwarz), Trump went to the USSR in July 1987 with Ivana & Lisa Calandra & Norma Foerderer & Trump visited St. Petersburg & Moscow, but Trump didn’t know that Intourist was a front for the KGB (according to former GRU military spy Viktor Suvorov), & that the Hotel National was a KGB honeypot bugged for surveillance, designed to capture compromising material on visiting foreign businessmen using prostitutes (maybe even child prostitutes). Putin was in the KGB from 1975 to 1991, when the KGB recorded the kompromat in the first place. The Russian Mafia reportedly possess multiple tapes of a sexual nature of Trump, in St. Petersburg (Trump was there in 1987), & Moscow (Trump was there in 1987, 1995, 2013). That’s why in Helsinki (where Trump sided with Putin over US intelligence agencies), Putin was smiling, & Trump looked like someone had eaten his lunch. 

   And more: 

    2. In 1994 Trump sold Apt 63A-B in Trump Tower to Russian oligarch Oleg Boyko. Trump was in Russia in Moscow in 1995 for a deal on an underground mall at Okhotny Ryad under Manezhnaya Square, & 1992-2010 Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Trump “planned to take part in the mall’s construction”, & video of the meeting aired on Russian state TV. Trump reportedly rigged the 2002 Miss Universe Pageant to help Oxana Fedorova win, who was reportedly a mistress of Putin & her “public” boyfriend was organized crime figure Vladimir Golubev. Shortly after, Bayrock took up residence in Trump Tower, run by Felix Sater (a childhood friend of Michael Cohen), who worked with Trump on the Dominick & who is the son of Russian Mafia underboss Mikhail Sheferovsky under Russia Mafia boss Semion Mogilevich. In 2004 Trump paid $41M at a bankruptcy auction for a mansion in Palm Beach, then sold it for $95M in 2008 to Russian oligarch Dmitry Ryboblev or his daughter’s trust, but Ryboblev never lived there & he demolished it in 2016 — which is how to bribe someone without it looking like a bribe.

   In 2008 Don Jr. said "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets...We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

   In January 2017, Trump lied & said “I have nothing to do with Russia.” The pee tape would be circa November 2013, around the Miss Universe Pageant on Moscow. In his book Disloyal, Michael Cohen wrote he watched a “golden showers” show with Trump at a Vegas club, months before the alleged pee tape in Moscow. The 2013 tape in Moscow was on a night when Trump’s bodyguard left his post at his room, a night where there was a fight in the hotel lobby because women didn’t want to sign in & that was witnessed by a Trump Org employee, after the bodyguard had been told of a offer to send women to Trump’s room, not long after Trump met with oligarchs, including Russian billionaire Artem Klyushin, who is close friends with Konstantin Rykov who runs Dosug, Moscow’s largest brothel. Trump had seen golden showers months before.

   In 2014 Eric Trump told James Dodson in Charlotte, NC "we don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

   In 2015 Trump hoped to build a Trump Tower Moscow & give Putin a $50M penthouse in it.

   Former Trump campaign manager & convicted felon Paul Manafort gave internal polling data to Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnick on August 2, 2016 inside the Grand Havana Room (where Rudy Giuliani is on the board) inside 666 5th Avenue which was owned by Jared Kushner (who got $2 billion from the Saudis) who wanted a secret back channel to Russia. Manafort asked Kilimnik to pass on the information to Ukrainians Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, & to Oleg Deripaska who is close to Putin. Afterwards, Gates, Manafort, & Kilimnik each left separately out different exits. In 2006 while working for the Party of Regions, Manafort paid $3.6M for an apartment on the 43rd floor of Trump Tower, through an LLC called "John Hannah, LLC”, but the money allegedly came from the richest man in Ukraine, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov for helping Yanukovych win in March 2006. Akhmetov is the one who introduced Manafort to Yanukovych, & also to Konstantin Kilimnik in 2005 who worked for the GRU. The GRU could then use that polling data to promote Jill Stein or Pizzagate (a product of the hacking & leak of John Podesta’s emails after Trump said “Russia, if you’re listening…” in Doral on July 27, 2016) in the Rust Belt states of MI, WI, & PA in 2016.

   Trump fired Comey (by tweet) to stop the Russia investigation — after Comey didn’t pledge loyalty to Trump — which Trump bragged to Lavrov & Kislyak in the Oval Office the next day where no media was present but TASS of Russia, where Trump revealed classified intel to the Russians. In August 2020, it was reported that former Deputy AG Rosenstein told Mueller not to investigate counterintelligence matters involving Trump & Russia, & prevented a complete investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia (including the Russian Mafia). 

   And more:
   

   3. Reuters, 2-6-25: Trump administration disbands task force targeting Russian oligarchs

   The task force indicted aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, & seized yachts of oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

   In term 1, Trump tried to extort the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Zelensky, who ran on anti-corruption & replaced Putin Puppet Yanukovych (whose campaign chairman was Paul Manafort, who owed $10M to Russian oligarch Deripaska, before he became Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman). Before Trump won in 2016, the RNC changed their platform on Ukraine.

   Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg & his US cousin Andrew Intrater met Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen at Trump Tower in January 2017, Intrater is the CEO of Columbus Nova (the only US subsidiary of Renova Group) which was under US sanctions & owned by his cousin Vekselberg -- who went to Trump's inauguration. Columbus Nova paid $500K+ to Essential Consultants LLC, a shell company created by Michael Cohen, which he used to pay $130K in hushmoney to pornstar Stormy Daniels. Vekselberg profited when Mnuchin lowered sanctions on Russian aluminum companies. Mnuchin ignored a congressional subpoena in May 2019 to provide Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways & Means Cmte.

   Read:

   Red Mafiya (2000) by Robert Friedman

   Gaspipe (2008) by Philip Carlo

   Collusion (2017) by Luke Harding

   House of Trump, House of Putin (2018) & American Kompromat (2021) by Craig Unger

   Proof of Collusion (2018) & Proof of Conspiracy (2019) by Seth Abramson

   Disloyal (2020) by Michael Cohen

   all credit goes to masterwad.

    

Predictions on Putin

 

Taken from here.

Russia--going backwards towards the 19th century. Or maybe the 18th century?

 

No One Has Addressed WHY Russia Invaded Ukraine (So I’ll Do It)

There are bigger reasons at play than an insane madman flexing power

Hopefully not for long...

Answer: Very easily.

Mindless Minions

Everything we know so far...

Interactive timeline on Trump and Russia

Because Trump knows nothing about Russia

Because strong men get all the attention

Sunday funnies

A young Dutch man may be the one to clean up our oceans.

Neoliberalism is at the root of our problems today:

After Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took power, the rest of the package soon followed: massive tax cuts for the rich, the crushing of trade unions, deregulation, privatisation, outsourcing and competition in public services. Through the IMF, the World Bank, the Maastricht treaty and the World Trade Organisation, neoliberal policies were imposed – often without democratic consent – on much of the world. Most remarkable was its adoption among parties that once belonged to the left: Labour and the Democrats, for example. As Stedman Jones notes, “it is hard to think of another utopia to have been as fully realised.”

To the old men’s fusty opinions about uteri:  shut up.

Twelve months of Donald Trump by Tom Tomorrow.

Tom Brokaw's take down of Donald Trump is making the rounds again.

Letter from a very tired Christian.

Decide to save humanity.

Mischievous writer takes on rumpus at a motel.

Russian mother, baby, officers, and bears.

Friday Follies

Russian has actually had two nuclear disasters.

Love no matter what.

Apparently we need to start recording everything we do.

Republicans hate government so much that they are startled to learn they might want to show voters they can govern.

Paul Krugman takes apart libertarian economics and Ayn Rand fantasies.

The over-militarization of our police. Steve Bates discusses. Officer Friendly.

Singing opera may save your life.

Why funny people kill themselves.

Jeffrey Smith Challenge to Neil deGrasse Tyson on GMO food.

Climate change to WWII and O'Reilly in between!

Climate change?  What climate change?  What climate change might unleash.

Whale graveyard in Chile.  Counting whales from space.

Poor Bill O'Reilly... scared of tough wimmen.  Maybe he feels like this?

Therapy dogs.

Plastic in our food... is good for us.  Right?  How about raw fish?

Harry Potter and the aftermath.

President Obama hanging out with scientists.

Fukushima radiation affected the USS Reagan and its crew.

Finding the forgotten Russian soldiers from WWII.

Short and sweet

Or bitter, depending...

Iowa Anti-Choicers Admit They Want to Imprison Women for Abortion

James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change and Bernie Sanders comes over the hill with the cavalry.... or maybe just a cattle prod to try and activate Congress.

Drano plastic bottle bombs.

Russian dashboard cams.  I don't think I'll ever want to drive in Russia....

Teachers.

Our daily bread may be killing us.  Obviously all we can eat now is dirt mixed with a few leaves...

Wal Mart is distressed that the poor are not buying enough of their stuff.  Nice that they had time to climb down from that pile of money they're sitting on.

ARRRrrrrrrrrrr....

Talk like a pirate day... or maybe not.



Damned females getting all the jobs!  Or something.

Dogs.

Roman tile floor found in Turkey.

Russia has a huge site of diamonds... enough to flood the world with sparklies.  And drop the bottom out of the diamond business....

Put a burka on it!

Soon, EVERYONE will have a giant marble to run their electronics, their house, their car.....



The Bible is more violent than the Koran.

Update:  Found over via Bryan of Why Now?'s place:


Top Ten Pickup lines for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day

(We came up with these in an effort to interest The Other Dave (Letterman) in TLAPD. His staff liked 'em, but alas, his show was"dark" the week of Sept. 19.)

10 . Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?

9. Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?

8. Come on up and see me urchins.

7. Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.

6. I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.

5. Pardon me, but would ya mind if I fired me cannon through your porthole?

4. How'd you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?

3. Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free.

2. Well blow me down?

And the number one pickup line for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day is …

1. Prepare to be boarded.

Bonus pickup lines (when the ones above don't work, as they often won't)

They don’t call me Long John because my head is so big.

You’re drinking a Salty Dog? How’d you like to try the real thing?

Wanna shiver me timbers?

I’ve sailed the seven seas, and you’re the sleekest schooner I’ve ever sighted.

Brwaack! Polly want a cracker? … Oh, wait. That’s for Talk Like a PARROT Day.

That’s the finest pirate booty I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Let's get together and haul some keel.

That’s some treasure chest you’ve got there.

Top Ten Pickup Lines for the Lady Pirates

By popular demand ...

10. What are YOU doing here?

9. Is that a belayin' pin in yer britches, or are ye ... (this one is never completed)

8. Come show me how ye bury yer treasure, lad!

7. So, tell me, why do they call ye, "Cap'n Feathersword?"

6. That's quite a cutlass ye got thar, what ye need is a good scabbard!

5. Aye, I guarantee ye, I've had a twenty percent decrease in me "lice ratio!"

4. I've crushed seventeen men's skulls between me thighs!

3. C'mon, lad, shiver me timbers!

2. RAMMING SPEED!

...and the number one Female Pirate Pick-up Line:

1. You. Pants Off. Now!

Have a very merry ... minuet.

There are days in my life when everything is dreary

I grow pessimistic, sad and world weary.

But when I'm tearful and fearfully upset

I always sing this merry little minuet:

They're rioting in Africa

They're starving in Spain

There's hurricanes in Florida

And Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering

With unhappy souls

The French hate the Germans,

The Germans hate the Poles

Italians hate Yugoslavs

South Africans hate the Dutch

And I don't like anybody very much

But we can be grateful

And thankful and proud

That man's been endowed

With a mushroom shaped cloud

And we know for certain

That some happy day

Someone will set the spark off

And we will all be blown away

They're rioting in Africa

There's strife in Iran

What nature doesn't do to us

Will be done by our fellow man.

Or Tom Lehrer might do:

When you attend a funeral

It is sad to think that sooner 'r l-

ater those you love will do the same for you.

And you may have thought it tragic,

Not to mention other adjec-

Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do - but don't you worry -

No more ashes, no more sackcloth,

And an armband made of black cloth

Will someday never more adorn a sleeve.

For if the bomb that drops on you

Gets your friends and neighbours too,

There'll be nobody left behind to grieve......

And who is going up in smoke?

The US housing market.

Italy.

And Britain.

And Russia.

Cold enuff fer ya? Hyuk hyuk.....

Rapid thaw of permafrost concerns climate experts

Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane - a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide - at a perilous rate.

Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere.

"Here, total carbon storage is like all the rain forests of our planet put together," says the scientist, Sergey Zimov - "here" being the endless sweep of snow and ice stretching toward Siberia's gray horizon, as seen from Zimov's research facility nearly 350 kilometers (220 miles) above the Arctic Circle.

We'll not know what we had until it's gone.....

Same ol', same ol'

Blackwater/ Xe:

CBS News has learned in an exclusive report that the State Department has awarded a part of what was formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide a contract worth more than $120 million for providing security services in Afghanistan. Private security firm U.S. Training Center, a business unit of the Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday night.

Under the contract, U.S. Training Center will provide "protective security services" at the new U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, the spokeswoman said. The firm can begin work "immediately" and has to start within two months. The contract lasts a year but can be extended twice for three months at a time to last a maximum of 18 months.

Iraq, the nation we 'liberated', suffers more bombings:

(Reuters) - Two suicide bombers detonated cars laden with explosives outside the Trade Bank of Iraq on Sunday, killing 26 people in the latest attack to raise concerns about the nation's stability after an inconclusive election.

Social Security:

A video of retired Sen. Alan Simpson's foulmouthed rant toward activist Alex Lawson is making the Internet rounds, as well it should: The sheer audacity and rudeness of the guy makes this clip "must-see TV." It's a political bloopers reel (it can be seen at the bottom of this post).

But, while Simpson's outrageousness makes the video entertaining, here's what makes it important: Alan Simpson is one of two chairs of a bipartisan commission created by President Obama to study the Federal deficit. His comments reveal a number of very important things about his biases, his tendency to distort and mislead, and his ideological extremism. These traits are likely to taint the Commission's work - work which has great implications for the future.

Your future.

Transcript here.

And Russian pogroms:

Otunbayeva conceded that the death toll from almost a week of savage violence, in what was once central Asia's most democratically inclined country, was at least 2,000. Previously, her administration put the figure at 191, in an apparent attempt to deflect international condemnation and accusations of state involvement in ethnic cleansing.

In the past week, survivors have given the same account – that armoured personnel carriers and Kyrgyz men in military uniforms led the pogroms on Uzbek districts. It is hard to conceive how these attacks could have been carried out without the connivance of the Kyrgyz military, the police and local administration. The government, however, is turning its ire on the western media, which it accuses of one-sided reporting.

[snip]

Kyrgyzstan is home to numerous nationalities – Kyrgyz and Uzbeks make up 15% of the 5.6 million population, but there are also Tajiks, Chechens, Turks, Tatars and even Volga Germans. But in its latest incarnation as a post-Soviet independent state, it has failed to build a multi-ethnic society. The army, police and government apparatus remain exclusively Kyrgyz – a source of resentment among potentially separatist-minded Uzbeks.

As well as local and historical animosities, Kyrgyzstan's unstable politics appears to have played a role. The government took over in April after street protests in the capital, Bishkek, ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The country's new leadership blames Bakiyev and his son Maxim – who was arrested in Britain last week – for financing the ethnic slaughter. He may indeed be behind it, but it could also be the work of shadowy nationalist forces determined to crush increasing demands for autonomy from the Uzbek minority.

Haven't we been here before?

This above all other things will save millions of innocent lives

Obama Announces New U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Makes you laugh, makes you cry...

Georgie Bush's fear of them common folk makes him wipe his hand on Clinton's shirt after shaking hands with Haitians. Really high class there, George.

Why Republicans hate Obama so much.

More unhinged unleashed ugliness and hate.

While India and Bangladesh were arguing about ownership, the island left. See? Global warming is actually good for something!

Why high fructose corn syrup is actually really really bad for you:

That high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) causes weight gain is not surprising; that it leads to a significantly higher weight gain than regular table sugar, even when overall caloric intake is the same? Surprising. Regardless of how innocent the sensitive souls from the Corn Refiners Association may purport HFCS to be, a Princeton University research team begs to differ with new research demonstrating that all sweeteners are not created equal in terms of weight gain.

In addition to causing considerable weight gain in lab tests, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

Russia and the US close to treaty:

WASHINGTON – All but the final details have been cleared away for a historic nuclear arms reduction pact between the U.S. and Russia, officials said Wednesday, with the former Cold War rivals reaching agreement on necessary documents for a new treaty that both countries consider an important measure of trust and cooperation.

Ripples from the Iraq war:

Why the U.S. Won't Leave Iraq... Hmmm let me guess... could it be? Oil? REALLY?

Oh NO!! They are letting a terrorist loose! OMG!

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Pentagon to release a long-held Mauritanian captive held at Guantanamo Bay who was once considered such a high-value detainee that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld designated him for "special interrogation techniques."

U.S. District Judge James Robertson's ruling was classified, so there was no immediate explanation for why he granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamedou Slahi, 39. A notation in court files said an unclassified version of the ruling would be made available, but didn't say when.

Slahi is the 34th Guantanamo detainee ordered freed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees could challenge their incarceration in federal court, but his name was already well known because of investigations into detainee abuse.

Those probes found that Slahi had been subjected to sleep deprivation, exposed to extremes of heat and cold, moved around the base blindfolded, and at one point taken into the bay on a boat and threatened with death. Investigators also found that interrogators had told him they'd his mother and have her jailed as the only female detainee at Guantanamo if he did not cooperate.

The interrogations were so abusive that a highly regarded Pentagon lawyer, Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch , quit the case five years ago rather than prosecute him at the Bush administration's first effort to stage military commissions.

Real life Tetris is terrifying!

Cat health insurance company.

That was close....

Too close.

A President McCain, following obediently in Bush's footsteps and standing by the country of Georgia would have put us straight into yet another war...

Book: Cheney pushed for military conflict with Russia.

A new book suggests Vice President Dick Cheney pushed for the US to engage militarily with Russia when Russia invaded the US-allied Georgian republic in 2008. A Little War that Shook the World, published last month, says that in August 2008, as the South Ossetia War between Russia and Georgia was raging, the White House looked at the possibility of taking military action to prevent Georgian forces from being routed by Russian troops.

Georgia's leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, was seen as an ally of Washington and had pushed for NATO membership for his country. "The sheer scale of the Russian attack did lead several senior White House staffers to push for at least some consideration of limited military options to stem the Russian advance," Asmus wrote. "The menu of options under discussion foresaw the possibility of bombardment and sealing of the Roki Tunnel as well as other surgical strikes to reduce Russian military pressure on the Georgian government."

Is total war all these guys understand? They are still talking about attacking Iran fer gawd's sake!