RICH HOFFMAN in the house! Nice to finally "see" you Rich.

And how do you share beliefs? You LIE! It will end because Iron and Clay do not mix. This not a riddle it was foretold many years before you or I. This is not conspiracy. Truth is not conspiracy. Some will turn their backs and laugh, but some will not.

The darndest thing is, "How come we didn't know about this whole Ukraine thing in advance?" Our diplomats and embassy staffers are supposed to pay attention to local issues. So, how did the Russian desks at State and Commerce miss this?

Either staggering incompetence or pure genius on Putin's part.

Putin runs a foreign policy through action. Obama runs a foreign policy with words. The words are not backed up with sufficient action. The American voters have been over-kind to Obama, with the toady press falling all over themselves touting how wonderful his golden throated thoughts were. In Europe and the middle east they have no slobbering love affair with him. He has proven that his honey-coated rhetoric does not impress nor change the minds of anyone but those who became his acolytes based on the color of his skin and his ability to speak well. It didn't work in Syria, it doesn't work in the Ukraine. Wasn't it Einstein who said something to the effect that getting a wrong result yet repeating the same thing over and over in an attempt to get the right result is insanity? The words must be backed up with actions that will severely hurt Putin or why bother?

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand did not consider any foreign adversary to be a worthy adversary. This although every country in the world except the United States was the People's State of Whatever. The most detailed mention was by Ragnar Danneskjöld. Who said he had customers in those People's States who would occasionally raid the private treasuries of the self-righteous Servants of the People to get gold. With this they bought the goods Ragnar seized from the ships of the Bureau of Global Relief.

But in another context, Rand said explicitly: "Just as the United States had the right to invade Nazi Germany, so also the United States has the right to invade Soviet Russia, or any other slave pen." She gave four specific tests by which to judge a country worthy of invasion for liberation. They were:

1. Execution without trial.

2. Detention without formal charges.

3. Restrictions on ex-migration.

4. Censorship.

Any government doing all four, would be liable for invasion by any free country whose people decided the exercise might be worth doing.

Putin is a Communist. Obama is a Socialist. Not much difference there. Putin is a virtual dictator. Obama wants to be one. There is o difference in the way they see the world. Except one. Putin see Russia as the greatest Power. Obama doesn't want the US to be any form of Power and is making that happen. One Rises the other Falls. The world turns. and it is another new day with new World powers.