timing of the next GBD

Submitted by Mohammed Waza Khiddif id'Ullah (Australia), Mar 3, 2016 at 02:49

"..You thought the Russians would take care of Syria by April? I thought it was Christians like me who were supposed to be credulous!"

Russian military are physically capable of doing it and more equipped emotionally for payback as there have been more muslim terrorist attacks on Russian soil. Plus it's easier to get personnel and equipment on location - they're virtually next door. They've decimated Isis ranks and infrastructure. There is more to go - but obviously I was being a little too bullish.

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If you've ever read the story "Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby", let me just say that Brer Vladimir has stuck his right fis' into da Syrian tar baby, and it has gotten stuck. He will proceed, if he doesn't wise up, take his toys and run back to Russia, to put his left fis' into da tar baby; and before you know it, his two feet will be stuck in it as well.

I've never read it.

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"...I suppose he figured that because Russia isn't Israel or America, it can do whatever it pleases without consequences."
They are less constrained - but even an ex-KGB leader has to keep some semblance of playing by the rules. For now, anyway.

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" that stick to them like flies on an office worker's white shirt on a summer day in Sydney."
tell me about it. Hot and sticky summer just ended - though with hardly any flies. Still hot.

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"...Russia will be in Syria for quite some time. They've been there for some six months already, and they've hardly done anything so far to fight Da'esh."

I think they've done quite a lot - especially with infrastructure destruction. And the neutralisation of several thousand combatants.
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"....Besides that, they've made enemies not only of Turkey and Saudi Arabia now, but also of Al Nusra and Al Qaeda affiliates all over the world; "
Good.
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"... - all of which might get Russians more concerned about how corrupt Putin is instead of the heroic savior of Mother Russia that he appears when he goes overseas with cruise missiles blazing..."

It's a cultural thing - they need their little dictators - they'd be lost without them.

"1. The fourth seal, and hence the fourth horseman -- who will have power "to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

That doesn't sound like "Peace in our times", as Neville Chamberlain would like to have thought. "

People seeking that elusive global peace unicorn foolishly fail to understand that peace is an internal thing for each individual to discover. If you have peace of mind - you automatically live in a peaceful world

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Also,

2. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle."...In other words, Messiah is at the gates, ready to avenge those who have died because of their testimony of God. "

I'm not sure about 'at the gates' - but things in the future are going to get more confused, more deadly. Being sweeter than Jesus won't cut it.

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3. "the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise." I don't know what that will be. "

Sounds like an exhortation to get your emergency Led lighting/Tesla PowerWall system in order

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4. "the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire."
[9] And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."Global warming? A spate of record-breaking heat? Could it be? Men blaspheming God? could it be? "

underlining the need for good A/C and underground bunkers?

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"... And the coming course is not filets mignon. It will be grinding war, devastation, famine and plagues, along with persecution of the church; with a garnish of false prophets everywhere and hearts cooked to stone hardness..."
Persecution of enlightened and semi-enlightened people.

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"...As for our being "far from the action", I can't say. What are the betting odds for a war with China? "

Hard to say. This Soth China Sea really has underlined China's two-faced dealing with the world - and particularly its SE-Asian neighbours. One of its reclaimed islands is a full 1000 km away from Chinese territory - and very close to the Phillipines. It is showing it's arrogance - but realised now its policy of concealment is not going to continue to work. It has outright lied over the non-militarisation of these artificial islands. But the Chinese still don't really have a very big pot to pee in when it comes to military power especially vis a vis the US. Virtually all of the ASEAN countries are against its moves - as are Australia, New Zealand ('I'm not sure about India - they have a big navy so must have some concerns.). S.Korea, Taiwan and Japan are too - and all these nations acting in concert would be able to contain Chinese aggression.

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"Most of my family lives there. "
Unfortunate if war suddenly broke out.

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"....My daughter has just returned there from a vacation on Thailand's tsunami coast. A couple of months ago, she was in Borneo, and a couple of years before that in Bali (after the terrorist attack). "
Both those locations are popular holiday spots for Aussies - flights there are often cheaper than to Perth. Personally - I hate the tropics.

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"....My son had delayed a return flight to the US, when 9/11 happened; and my daughter was in Israel just a couple of months before the 2000 intifada. We were visiting Hong Kong, when the tidal wave took out the Fukushima reactor in nearby Japan. My niece had to go into quarantine upon returning from Guinea during the ebola crisis; our friend's daughter contracted malaria in Tanzania; another friend was supporting a South Sudanese refugee she had taught in Israel, who is now back in that war-torn country........................."
What a run of rotten luck!
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"... Oregon escaped with only a blimp attack during WWII, and NSW escaped the war altogether; .."

Not quite. There was an attack by 3 Jap midget subs on Sydney Harbour in the middle of WW2. The were aiming at a US warship - but struck a converted harbor ferry - killing numerous sleeping navy men.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour

Plus there was the Cowra Breakout - but it was the Jap POW's who ended up getting killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowra_breakout

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"but the Aussie government had contingency plans to surrender."
Again - not the full story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Line
It was not going to be a full surrender by any means. The plan was to surrender the driest, most inhospitable regions as a worst-case last resort. People of course were putting more faith in or US alliance - which we've continued to do ever since. Viva Pax Americana.

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" Nobody's clean escaped from what's happening in the world."

Mawson and Davis Base workers are doing OK.
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"..I don't think those office workers in the World Trade Center had any idea that they would be attacked. We get scanned and frisked, even on domestic flights. That's not normal for us; and my wife and I grew up with regular air raid drills and sonic booms from fighters and bombers practicing overhead. "

So 'duck and cover' becomes 'frisk and shudder'?
No - it's not 'normal' to be under suspicion. We like to think - 'I don't suspect myself - so why should anyone else.
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"Nobody is certain to miss the effects of climate change, nor of globalization...."
depends where you are - aforementioned Mawson and Davis Base workers won't notice too much.
We have the technology to be able to adapt. Our ancestors in Doggerland had to cope with severe effects - and somehow managed to pull through.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

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" People tend to be afraid of wars; but peace is just as devastating. It's because of peace, that most of what we own was made in slave-wage sweatshops across the glove instead of in Oregon. During the big wars, we had full employment."

Lack of internal peace still thrives in the absence of war.
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"...Yeah, we live far away from it all, wherever "it" is."
yet ironically remain the centre of all that we know and imagine.

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To sum up: Systems we depend on are overloaded and breaking down. Not just in the biosphere with CO2 & sea-level rises, radiation clouds from Fukushima affecting the marine food chain, near-zero fish stocks of many species, terrestrial species extinction, the honey bee colony collapse disorder, etc Hard-nosed decisions need to be made - eg. political European islamic economic migrant invasion and forced deportations. Non-political ones like going cold turkey on coal-fired power stations and heavily subsidising PV farms. And this is not even including the arab/Israeli thing, islamism, China's military spending increase, N.Korea etc etc. And to top it all off - the power play between the Trump and the Anti-Trump keeps makes tings that much more interesting.

The trouble with our societies is the rise of the bleating ego - and its associated paid-up lobby groups - all shouting out as loudly as they can for recognition, legitimisation and for us all to love them. The result is a split society , people saying one thing but thinking completely the opposite. Deception thrives in such an atmosphere.

We stumble along...... until that next man-made Great Big Disaster which will have a moslem signature on it. Like 9/11, people will be stunned, silent and shocked.

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