Hu Jintao is seeking Chinese participation in the Cuban offshore oil discoveries.

Empire building? Lazy one size fits all answer.

An interesting side note on the Left and education…

I met my wife in college. I was hot for her then, but not so much the other direction. What will be will be, I guess. Anyway, I married another woman and stayed married for about a decade, then divorced her and married my current wife, who had discovered that maybe I wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

Anyway, my point: my current wife is a devout Christian. To the point where I feel it my obligation to try to talk her down off the creationism ledge from time to time. I’m a devout Christian too, for that matter, but I take a more realistic/metaphorical view of certain parts of the Bible, you know?

And also she’s a dyed-in-the-wool social worker. That’s what she was studying while we were in college, and she’s used it in her career ever since. She was surrounded by this Leftist, abortions-are-to-be-encouraged, moral relativistic crap for over a decade, and through it all she has kept her moral compass. I can’t tell you how proud I am of her for that.

We run a foster home (2 kids with us tonight, who knows how many tomorrow or a week from now) and we’re SURROUNDED by social workers, and most of them strike me as much more typical of the Left.

But my wife gives me hope that even the educational system can’t stamp out ALL the good things in people. She cares for these kids like her own, we both try to sneak in at least a LITTLE exposure to Christianity (without actual proselytizing, which is damned near punishable by death) and she’s of course the best mom EVER to our newly adopted infant…and talks of perhaps homeschooling her when the time comes.

As the son of two K-12 teachers, I got a fairly liberal upbringing, but it was small-L liberal, in mostly a good way (though Mom still thinks Carter was the Best President Ever because he’s a Good Man). But liberalism has drifted far from its roots.

Sorry. Done rambling now. It’s late and I plead colicky infant crying all night.

Fortunately the only positive side-effect of the financial meltdown is that oil is falling faster than my 401k, this cuts the legs out from under most of their schemes. Sadly it also makes them that much more dangerous as they will soon be in desperate straits due to collapsing economies. The time-honored way for a dictator to distract his people is to start trouble overseas, to pick a fight with the “other”.

Putin thinks he can make ground in the Old Empire because the rest of Europe is weak, both in will and might. Spain may outproduce Russia but barely has the will to defend itself at home, and has no defense industry worth the name. That goes for just about all of the rest of the EU.

The Russia-Venezula-Cuba Axis is like a matador’s cape, a distraction while Putin grabs at things much nearer and dearer to his dreams (Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the ‘Stans etc). Putin cares little if Chavez succeeds or ends up like Mussolini, he is a currently useful ploy and will be used as such.

The Russians may lack many things but will has never been one of them.

Andre Glucksman has an article on Russia that is open now at City Journal.

I really don’t understand Russia’s game here. What’s the point of all this? Is there any advantage to them at all to piss off the USA and the West generally? I mean, in the long run, what does Cuba and Venezuela offer them that a genuine relationship with the USA and EU doesn’t offer them ten-fold?
……………
Now run that question in reverse and instead insert Georgia or the Ukraine or the baltic states, or any of the Stans

Arrogance, as defined by assumptions of invulnerability in: military, finances (hah), global commons, information. Arrogance also defined as a culture doing anything desired with no regard to consequences.

Let me see if there may be cracks appearing in that exo-skeleten of strength:

1) A massively over hypothicated debit based monetary system which is now adding say $2 Trillon more debt to attempt refloat.

2) Much production needed for it’s own security manufactured by _friends_ overseas.

3) Primary provider (foreign) of most manufactured goods and debt soothing investments, which has a capital reserves of over $1 QUADRILLION (just read this), makes plans for war against us.

4) Free access for enemy agents via largely open borders, especially to the south. Plenty of these agents assumed to be already in place in key locations.

5) War machine resting upon high cost, complexity combined with very long replacement time items. All completely or essentially dependent on _oil_ or and electrical grid to operate. Any honest apprasial would understand the possibility of losing assets like aircraft carriers and planes quickly in a surprise attack. Then a drawn out strategic exchange would drain the reserve equipment and oil out.

6) A populace that is losing the will to defend itself or even the understanding of why it should. Duh, there are no predators in the world today, just bogey men and shadows… Our numerous buddies around the world will be eager and able to come to our rescue!

7) Whole economy dependent upon oil which bleeds national treasure/control to those seeking to subjegate us.

Most political leadership with very limited leadership, courage or insight.

9) Intelligence agencies are assumed to know all things dangerous already.

All the above may be used at once against US too.

Personally, I’m not going to waste an ounce of sympathy for the man (or his angry black wife) because I think he’s not only a snake oil salesman, but the snake itself, but if overseas savages start taking potshots at America through him and he allows it, that will be a very bad (and enraging) thing which I *sincerely* hope will not happen.

I agree that Putin is dangerous, but increasingly he’s floundering in the shifting quicksands of the world’s economy and Russia’s inability to cope with ANYthing. I sort of think he’s going to have a mysterious heart attack real soon now, when the oligarchs get tired of him losing their money while they’re frolicking in the West and not paying attention.