09 | June | 2012 | Robot Pirate Ninja

MOSCOW, June 9 (Xinhua) — Russia was completing its air defense contracts with Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday. The contracts were signed and paid for long ago, and the systems could be used “only if” Syria faced foreign attacks, Lavrov told reporters.

Russia would not ship anything to Syria outside of these contracts, the minister said, adding it was not providing the Syrian government with any weapons against “peaceful demonstrators.”

The minister slammed what he said were outside forces who were fueling the violence in Syria by “openly providing” support to the armed groups and the opposition in Syria. He warned the country was on the brink of a “full-scale civil war”. Russia had decided at the very beginning of the Syria turmoil not to provide it with arms that could be used to “suppress domestic unrest,” Lavrov said.

For those that haven’t been watching, it is Russia and China who are holding back the U.N. from greenlighting a mission much like the one in Libya. There is also a much greater chance of arming an opposition group that is far more hardline against U.S. interests and still fully aligned with Iran’s interests as well.

Hopefully the formal end of this contract will help push Russia to allow some intervention.

China is a tougher nut to crack, as they are cracking down on a Tibetan resurgence fueled by multiple self-immolations…I.e. how true warriors of peace fight). The recent incontrovertible evidence of Syrian atrocities is also slowly moving the world to action. Election season worldwide doesn’t help.

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Russia completes air defense contracts with Syria
Xinhua | English.news.cn http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/09/c_123259276.htm

Maybe the Private Sector IS Doing Fine
Atlantic Mobile http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/maybe-the-private-sector-is-doing-fine/258311/

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So we’ve seen a fairly strong private sector recovery after the recession. However, this has been coupled over the last two years with MASSIVE public layoffs that have led to a stubborn unemployment rate.

Unfortunately our media is far too lazy to put these graphs up and faaar to fawning to point it out when Politicos lie. So when gas prices go down (curiously absent from this week’s economic bashing) you’ll see increased demand, which leads to gas prices going up, which sucks up the available money and decreases demand. Right now our economy is lagging, as any increase in activity leads to energy speculation, which quickly eats up any spending availability. With gas eating up a larger percentage of a smaller pool, there is faaar less demand across the board for everything else.

Widespread demand is what builds sustainable growth. This is, as I’ve noted many times, largely a result of massive income disparity, as most folks barely are holding on, then gas spikes come along and wipe out months of entertainment and miscellaneous budgets. It’s going to be tough cycle to get out of, as demand for gas doesn’t slack as it would in a normal model, since we aren’t the only ones demanding it (Indians and Chinese outnumber us 8-1). Hence the sense of a “grinding” recession that can’t make much headway.

And I know there isn’t a single Republican who understands this…but cutting taxes further won’t stimulate demand, and cutting spending even more will do the opposite. Hence we are faced with media having to tell their audience something the audience doesn’t want to hear…which is not something successful media companies do. So we continue to dwindle, not having the political will to make blindingly obvious decisions.
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Maybe the Private Sector IS Doing Fine
Atlantic Mobile http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/maybe-the-private-sector-is-doing-fine/258311/