for more than twenty years russia has been warning the empire about its eastward expansion of nato, and ukraine was the last straw but now the empire feigns surprise and shows us all who they really are; 

NATO leaders have known since 2001 that Russia would “take appropriate steps” against further expansion of the alliance, according to documents recently declassified by the UK and reported by The Times.

A year into Putin’s presidency, then-Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev told his NATO counterparts that the alliance’s continued expansion into the territory of the former Warsaw Pact would be a major political error, the newspaper stated on Friday. Sergeyev warned that Moscow would “take appropriate steps” to respond to this enlargement, the article continued.

The largest expansion of the alliance to date would take place three years later, with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joining the US-led military bloc.

In his speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, Putin described this expansion as “a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust,” although the leaders of NATO insisted that their alliance was defensive in nature. After Ukraine refused to abandon its aspirations of joining – which Moscow viewed as an unacceptable security threat – and NATO insisted that Kiev would one day become a member, Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

NATO leaders have known since 2001 that Russia would “take appropriate steps” against further expansion of the alliance, according to documents recently declassified by the UK and reported by The Times.

A year into Putin’s presidency, then-Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev told his NATO counterparts that the alliance’s continued expansion into the territory of the former Warsaw Pact would be a major political error, the newspaper stated on Friday. Sergeyev warned that Moscow would “take appropriate steps” to respond to this enlargement, the article continued.

The largest expansion of the alliance to date would take place three years later, with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joining the US-led military bloc.

In his speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, Putin described this expansion as “a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust,” although the leaders of NATO insisted that their alliance was defensive in nature. After Ukraine refused to abandon its aspirations of joining – which Moscow viewed as an unacceptable security threat – and NATO insisted that Kiev would one day become a member, Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.......https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=263038

 here be an essay on what we've become and why we won't solve it;

January 29, 2005 ~ The reports are seemingly endless, a long laundry list of defects in our obese government structure of subversives, panderers, crooks, delusional leaders and biased media cohorts, inadequate training in the military and incomprehensible lack of coordination and supply for a war that should never have been, and stupid trips by even more stupid elected officials to places they should not be allowed, all at taxpayer expense.

And to think the American Revolution was ignited over a tea tax!

Of course, Boston Harbor couldn’t hold the carcasses of the huge number of lunatic elected and appointed officials in American government, they outnumber the tea by about 2,000 official persons to 1 case of tea. (Don’t hold me to an exact figure, we haven’t had an official investigation at this point.) But it’s obvious that America has a bad case of Rottenhead Infestation, and RI seems to grow every time the government reorganizes anything or holds a new election. This government has pandered to its enemies and kicked its allies, bought its lovers and given its defense information to those who have every intention of using it against the American people for a long, long time. 

Too long is too long to keep quiet about it, and the people who whine are silenced by being single voices in the midst of a burgeoning and noisy, media-controlling MIC that never gives any response for the cries to get the US out of stupid wars or out of the United Nations simply because the government officials have something to gain or something to lose if they suddenly turn honest. In the meantime, the people are so weak they keep voting “the lesser of two evils” which is voting for evil, rather than uniting in a strong protest that would bring about a general housecleaning of the structure we now have in America.

The world might not like us more but it would have reason to respect and fear a nation that would take its own government by the horns and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine! Any nation that would do that with the liberty they still have would be a people with guts and grit, a force to be reckoned with............more........

 Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey.  Candidates of ideas need not apply, as both parties seek out the hollow men, the malleable men, willing to read from teleprompters speeches scripted by consultants and pollsters for whom the latest print-out from the focus group is sacred text. We choose not to play our assigned role in their sham election.” - Patrick Buchannan