Geopolitical risk theater links: Russian Bomber Flights near US shores, NATO: Russian troops cross Ukraine Border, US $ Costs of ISIS war and more…

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An update on geopolitical developments:

1 Brinkmanship geopolitics continues as Russia plans long-range bomber flights near U.S. shores CNN.com November 13, 2014

Russia plans to send long-range bombers to patrol the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, the nation's defense minister said, amid escalating tensions with the West over Ukraine.

The patrols, which would also include the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, would bring the flights close to the United States' territorial waters.

The move is in response to a growing international resentment against Russia, defense minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

Just ONE mis-encounter is all it takes for an escalation...nuclear exchange?

2 As the US and China firmed up some deals, Chinese hack U.S. weather systems, satellite network November 12, 2014. Will the deal end the mutual hacking?

3 Putin’s mighty escorts: Russian Warships Head to Australia Ahead of G20 Summit Newsweek.com November 12, 2014

4 NATO itching for a fight? : Ukraine crisis: Russian troops crossed border, Nato says BBC.com November 12, 2014

5 More financial and economic burden for US taxpayers for a war that has little or nothing to do with US interests. Nonetheless US politicians, and bureaucracy military industrial complex cheers on more the prospects of monetary largesse, again charged to the taxpayers: $300,000 an Hour: The Cost of Fighting ISIS The Atlantic November 12, 2014

An excerpt

It's been 96 days since the United States launched its first airstrikes against ISIS militants in Iraq; 50 since it expanded that campaign into Syria. And on each one of those days, the U.S. government has spent an average of roughly $8 million, or more than $300,000 an hour, on the operation against the Sunni Muslim extremist group, according to Pentagon officials.

That's a trivial sum compared with the more than $200 million the U.S. pours each day into its 13-year war in Afghanistan (the National Priorities Project, which advocates for budget transparency, estimates that the U.S. has now spent more than $1.5 trillion on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and against ISIS, since 2001). But the bean-counting matters, because the place values and line items offer clues to understanding the military offensive President Obama has committed the country to—and now asked Congress to bless.

5 Can’t beat the foe? Use the ISIS as an excuse to topple Syria’s Assad: Obama now admits Assad MUST go before ISIS can be defeated: President plans to focus on Syria and ousting brutal dictator as he tries to beat back terror group November 13, 2014

6 Will people learn from the history of wars? :Graph of world wars by number of dead and duration of conflict shows how war is very much not behind us Independent.co.uk November 11, 2014

I don’t think so.

7 US has spent so much for warfare, yet a recent encounter with Russian aircraft may have exposed some of  their vulnerabilities: What frightened the USS Donald Cook so much in the Black Sea? Voltairenet.org November 8, 2014

The US destroyer is equipped with the most recent Aegis Combat System. It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network, so as to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

Meanwhile, the Russian Su-24 that buzzed the USS Donald Cook carried neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta , contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up - or about to be - with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.

The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft - unarmed - repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away

Hmmm