'Dangerous' half-naked flying Putto,
with sword

Russian Jet
NOT
violating U.S. airspace

OH NOOOOOOOOH!

It's a bird! It's a PLANE! It's a Russian JET......

It's a 'putti'?

Putti, plural of Putto (from wikipedia):

A putto (plural putti, /ˈpʊti/ or POO-tee, puttoes)[1] is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually nude and sometimes winged. Putti are commonly confused with, yet are completely unrelated to, cherubim. Putti are secular and represent a non-religious passion.


Here, I am using the term Putti as a nom de guerre for Puti(n) of Russia, in the larger context of fly-bys from Russian jets.


Russian Jet NOT violating U.S. airspace.

I love to poke holes in the paranoia of the radical right, as their propaganda machines grossly misrepresent current events so as to rile up the ignorant unwashed conservatives into hysteria with emotional-appealing lies, rather than providing factual information.


One of the latest is misrepresenting claimed invasions of U.S. air space by Russian Jets.


Here is the reality, from the Alaska Dispatch News:

Much has been made of reports that Russian military aircraft have penetrated U.S. airspace 16 times over the last 10 days. But the so-called incursions aren't actually a violation of any treaty, national border or military agreement, according to federal defense officials.

Russian military aircraft training in the Northwest Pacific Ocean near Alaska have caused North American Air Defense officials to scramble fighter jets to check them out recently. But the aircraft have not penetrated U.S. airspace, according to John Cornelio, NORAD's deputy director of public affairs.

According to NORAD, the Russian aircraft were operating over international waters but inside the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, an area usually extending about 200 miles from the Alaska coastline. (The zone is much smaller in areas like the Bering Strait where another nation's border is less than 200 miles away.) All aircraft entering the zone are required to submit flight plans to local air traffic control towers. Any plane spotted in the area that does not identify itself, does not have a working transponder or has not filed a flight plan is visually identified by U.S. and Canadian military aircraft.

"Over the past week, NORAD has visually identified Russian aircraft operating in and around the U.S. air defense identification zones," said Maj. Jennifer Lovett, director of public affairs for the Alaskan Command.

"While there has been a spike in activity, we assess that these flights are in keeping with the mission of routine training and exercises, and it's important to note that these Russian aircraft remained in international air space at all times," Lovett said.

Lovett would not go into detail about the numbers or types of Russian aircraft contacted inside the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, or how close they got to U.S. airspace, defined as an area 12 nautical miles from the coastline. Lovett would also not comment on what happens when a NORAD military aircraft scrambles to identify an unknown plane inside the identification zone.

But NORAD was firm in its statement that the Russians have not violated American airspace.

"There have been absolutely no incursions into U.S. airspace. Zero. No violations of U.S. sovereign airspace," Cornelio said.

Let me repeat that:

"There have been absolutely no incursions into U.S. airspace. Zero. No violations of U.S. sovereign airspace," Cornelio said."


While on the right wing nuttery echo chamber, it's nothing but "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!" interspersed with how Putti, er, Putin, is the new bogeyman that terrifies them (and whom they secretly admire for doing so).


From the Washington Times:
Russian bombers penetrated U.S. airspace at least 16 times in past 10 days

By Bill Gertz - Washington Free Beacon - - Thursday, August 7, 2014

Russian strategic nuclear bombers conducted at least 16 incursions into northwestern U.S. air defense identification zones over the past 10 days, an unusually sharp increase in aerial penetrations, according to U.S. defense officials.

The numerous flight encounters by Tu-95 Russian Bear H bombers prompted the scrambling of U.S. jet fighters on several occasions, and come amid heightened U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine. Also, during one bomber incursion near Alaska, a Russian intelligence-gathering jet was detected along with the bombers.

Now while this was REPRINTED in the Washington Times, a right wing rag, it ORIGINATED in an even MORE extremist right wing more raggedy rag, the Washington Free Beacon.


You get more of the same hysterical headlines and factually incorrect B.S. from News Max, and from Hot Air:

Sleep tight: Russian nuclear bombers penetrated U.S. airspace 16 times in last 10 days
posted at 2:41 pm on August 8, 2014 by Noah Rothman

At a July 29 press conference, President Barack Obama assured reporters that the new conflict between the U.S. and Russia, one characterized by economic and military proxy conflict on a variety of fronts, is “not a new Cold War.” He’s right; at no point during the Cold War would the Soviets have felt comfortable engaging in the systematic testing of American defense parameters with nuclear bombers. The current leadership in the Kremlin, however, has no such qualms about employing that kind of instigation.

According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz, U.S. defense officials are warning that Russian strategic nuclear bombers have conducted no less than 16 incursions into American airspace in just a 10-day period. Gertz characterizes this uptick in the number of times American airspace has been penetrated by Russian air assets as an “unusually sharp increase.”

Let me repeat what NORAD has to say:

"There have been absolutely no incursions into U.S. airspace. Zero. No violations of U.S. sovereign airspace," Cornelio said.

It is fair to say, conservatives are once again running around with their hair on fire. I can only imagine a 'putto' with his shirt off, and the face of Vladimir Putin, hovering around in the air above them, flapping his wings, and grinning from ear to ear at their propaganda manipulation.


We have about as much to worry about from Putin and these NON-airspace-violations as we have from a flying Putto. One more time, Conservatives believe things which are factually false, then get ginned up emotionally, run around in full-blown paranoia with their hair on fire -- over NOTHING.


(And my parents used to worry that art history classes would be useless - Hah!)