PUTIN USING HITLER'S PLAYBOOK

Does no one else see the eerie parallels between the actions of President Putin and Chancellor Hitler?

Win a rigged election?
Improve national standing by hosting the Olympics?
Weeks later, annex a country based on the presence of your countrymen living within it's borders?
Take advantage of a weak opponent?

In 1938, the answers would be Hitler, Nazi Germany, Austria, and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Today they are Putin, Russia, Ukraine, and President Obama.

Add in world-wide financial turmoil, tensions between Japan and China, and the scary resemblances between that time and this continue to mount.  I wonder which 'military bases' will be nuked in order to end the next world war, and by who?

HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF

The saying goes that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.  Russian President Putin is mimicking the actions of another mono-maniacal leader.  Here is a news story from 75 years ago, nearly to the day!

"On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich.  In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country's independence but was instead bullied into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. On March 9, Schuschnigg called a national vote to resolve the question of Anschluss, or "annexation," once and for all. Before the plebiscite could take place, however, Schuschnigg gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11. In his resignation address, under coercion from the Nazis, he pleaded with Austrian forces not to resist a German "advance" into the country.  The next day, March 12, Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where enthusiastic crowds met them. Hitler appointed a new Nazi government, and on March 13 the Anschluss was proclaimed. Austria existed as a federal state of Germany until the end of World War II, when the Allied powers declared the Anschluss void and reestablished an independent Austria." 

Other parallels are also striking: both Hitler and Putin were 'elected' by rigged systems, and both took action just after having hosted the Olympics.

President Obama has a choice.  He can attempt to appease like Prime Minister Chamberlain, dither like President Roosevelt while Europe descends once again into war, or take decisive action.  Especially he must not make the mistake of relying on the 'United' Nations.  The UN has no teeth as long as the obstructionist structure of the Security Counsel is in place, and no power at all without the US military behind it.

President Obama must act, decisively and swiftly!

AN EXCELLENT PRESCRIPTION FOR RELIGION

While it's true that I find all of mankind's religions preposterous, here is one I could at least listen to.  In his Philosophical Dictionary, published in 1764, Voltaire defined his ideal religion:

"Would it not be that which taught much morality and very little dogma? that which tended to make men just without making them absurd? that which did not order one to believe in things that are impossible, contradictory, injurious to divinity, and pernicious to mankind, and which dare not menace with eternal punishment anyone possessing common sense?  Would it not be that which did not uphold its belief with executioners, and did not inundate the earth with blood on account of unintelligible sophism? . . . which taught only the worship of . . . god, justice, tolerance and humanity?"