PBS Great Performances: Sting - the Last Ship (Full Concert)

Musicianship par excellence
Music • Views: 22,885

PBS

Sting, the 16-time Grammy Award-winning musician, performs songs from his new album, “The Last Ship,” and forthcoming play of the same name in an intimate evening of music and storytelling live at The Public Theater in New York City. Drawing upon his memories growing up in the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in the North East of England, Sting provides a glimpse into the shipbuilders’ lives.

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596 comments
1 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:21:31pm

This was such a great concert. I highly recommend setting the time aside to watch - you won’t be sorry.

2 The Dude Abides  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:26:10pm

Saw Sting at the Greek in 1985 on his first solo tour. Backing him up were Branford Marsalis, Omar Hakim, Kenny Kirkland, and a couple more whose names I’ve forgotten. I enjoyed that concert every bit as much as Floyd’s The Wall concert back in 1980.

3 darthstar  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:32:30pm

Wealth is relative.

4 Decatur Deb  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:33:47pm

re: #3 darthstar

Wealth is relative.

[Embedded content]

Powerlessness is poverty.

5 PhillyPretzel  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:34:15pm

PBS gets an upding in my book.

6 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:35:03pm

Check out this exchange with a Greenwald apologist who’s thoroughly confused about the meaning of a “wall between owner and journalists.” He thinks if you lower that wall, it means there’s LESS control by the owner.

This is me, shaking my head.

Tweets about “from:erik2690 OR from:green_footballs”

7 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:36:57pm

re: #6 Charles Johnson

Picturing the folks at First Look Media crawling around on the ceiling like geckos.

8 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:38:06pm
9 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:38:49pm

G-7 Leaders Statement

whitehouse.gov

Ta-ta, Russia.

“We note that Russia’s actions in Ukraine also contravene the principles and values on which the G-7 and the G-8 operate. As such, we have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G-8 Summit in Sochi in June, until the environment comes back where the G-8 is able to have meaningful discussion.

“We are united in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its right to choose its own future. We commit ourselves to support Ukraine in its efforts to restore unity, stability, and political and economic health to the country. To that end, we will support Ukraine’s work with the International Monetary Fund to negotiate a new program and to implement needed reforms. IMF support will be critical in unlocking additional assistance from the World Bank, other international financial institutions, the EU, and bilateral sources.”

10 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:39:17pm

re: #3 darthstar

Wealth is relative.

[Embedded content]

Rich person discovers richer person can screw him just as well as both of them screw teh poors.

Crimea River!*

* Geddit? Dooya? Dooya?

11 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:39:24pm
12 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:40:30pm

Why is everybody so mean to Liza Minneli?

13 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:40:34pm

re: #11 jaunte

[Embedded content]

I’m noticing whenever Ben Shapiro opens his pie-hole, shit falls out.

14 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:41:19pm

re: #12 prairiefire

Why is everybody so mean to Liza Minneli?

A question for the ages, and two-to-one it has something to do with her mom.

15 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:41:28pm

re: #13 chadu

Not sure where he gets socialism out of that huge capitalist enterprise in Hollywood.

16 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:42:22pm

Oh, unions maybe.

17 sagehen  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:43:44pm

I hate Anne Hathaway’s dress. Much too much sparkle.

18 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:44:44pm

re: #17 sagehen

I hate Anne Hathaway’s dress. Much too much sparkle.

A grad school classmate of mine called her dress Disco Boobs. Heh.

19 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:45:08pm

somebody pull Jared off the stage.

20 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:46:12pm

The wall between “Owner” and “Journalists” is like the wall between “Church” and “State” Geez.

21 lockjawcanbefun  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:46:24pm

#rifftraxoscars

You’re welcome.

22 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:46:30pm

Charlize Theron, stunning:

23 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:46:35pm

re: #15 jaunte

Not sure where he gets socialism out of that huge capitalist enterprise in Hollywood.

Argumentem ex culo is the bestest argumentem.

24 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:49:48pm
“Yo Oscars, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Harold Ramis had one of the best movies of all time…one of the best movies of all time!”

Gonna go watch Ghostbusters now and skip the Oscars whatever.

L8r, Lizardim.

25 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:52:30pm

re: #20 Pie-onist Overlord

The wall between “Owner” and “Journalists” is like the wall between “Church” and “State” Geez.

Maybe that’s why they think a lower wall is a good thing?

Heard in a nutjob context?

(Going now, for reals, as soon as I hit Threadsend.)

26 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:52:52pm
27 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:53:51pm

re: #14 chadu

A question for the ages, and two-to-one it has something to do with her mom.

No, probably has to do with Nip City. And obviously no bra.

28 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:54:22pm
29 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:54:23pm
30 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:56:19pm

re: #27 Justanotherhuman

No, probably has to do with Nip City. And obviously no bra.

[Embedded content]

Hon, a bra is so you don’t step on your tit.

31 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 5:58:47pm
32 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:00:23pm

Beauty. That sums up the job you hate but fear to lose. I could do better, but then again, I could do worse. It’s a kick in the balls when what you fear becomes your ticket only because you’re still there and there is worse. Your hands and your back and a skill is who you are and always have been, and now the rules change.

33 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:00:56pm

Wingnuts still lovin’ ‘em some Putin, what a manly man!

34 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:05:31pm

MOAR PUTIN WORSHIP

35 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:07:43pm

re: #34 Pie-onist Overlord

What’s that sound?

36 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:08:20pm

re: #33 Pie-onist Overlord

Do you hear it? I can.

37 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:09:15pm

It’s Barry Goldwater spinning like a Whirling Dervish in his grave.

38 bratwurst  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:10:00pm
39 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:12:32pm

OMG Kim Novak = disasta

High as a kite.

40 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:12:49pm
41 RealityBasedSteve  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:13:25pm

re: #30 Pie-onist Overlord

Hon, a bra is so you don’t step on your tit.

She looks like a 38 Long to me.

RBS

42 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:13:30pm

Ouch. Poor guy’s voice may be gone. Certainly not what it was 20-30 years ago. Though it’s still better than how badly Dylan’s deteriorated…

43 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:14:54pm

Is Gus still grouchy?

44 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:14:57pm

re: #34 Pie-onist Overlord

MOAR PUTIN WORSHIP

[Embedded content]

I guess they haven’t noticed you can get 36 rubles for a dollar today.

45 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:15:11pm

re: #27 Justanotherhuman

What does an older woman have between her breasts that a younger woman does not?

46 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:15:24pm

re: #39 Stanley Sea

OMG Kim Novak = disasta

High as a kite.

She’s 81—and drunk?

47 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:15:48pm

Yeah! Frozen won!

48 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:16:03pm

re: #14 chadu

A question for the ages, and two-to-one it has something to do with her mom.

Why would people still hate a woman who died 45 years ago? For that matter, why did they hate her then? I’ve never read of her supporting North Vietnam like Fonda or anything like that…

49 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:16:07pm

re: #46 Justanotherhuman

She’s 81—and drunk?

something.

50 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:16:10pm

re: #27 Justanotherhuman

Her belly button. Thank you and good night! Later Lizards.

51 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:16:18pm

re: #34 Pie-onist Overlord

MOAR PUTIN WORSHIP

[Embedded content]

The pen is mightier than the sword?

52 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:17:21pm

re: #45 nines09

What does an older woman have between her breasts that a younger woman does not?

I don’t know—I have the same ones now that I had then. : )

53 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:18:18pm

re: #45 nines09

What does an older woman have between her breasts that a younger woman does not?

Her pubes.

54 Eclectic Cyborg  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:18:45pm

I saw Sting back in 2004 when I was 22 and in college. Funnily enough, some of my professors were also at the show.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. He and his band managed to turn a 10 000+ Seat hockey arena into a very intimate setting.

55 nines09  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:19:10pm

re: #52 Justanotherhuman

My wife still has me. Right there. Yep. !

56 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:19:31pm
57 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:20:38pm

re: #56 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

Can’t wait! I have to watch it after the kids go to bed anyway.

58 GlutenFreeJesus  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:21:10pm

re: #16 jaunte

Oh, unions maybe.

That evil Film Actors Guild…

59 Justanotherhuman  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:21:49pm

I’m going to watch the British “House of Cards”. Great stuff.

60 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:24:20pm

re: #59 Justanotherhuman

I’m going to watch the British “House of Cards”. Great stuff.

I won’t tell you how it ends!

61 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:25:04pm

re: #39 Stanley Sea

OMG Kim Novak = disasta

High as a kite.

Not so sure. She’s 81 and mostly plastic.

62 Varek Raith  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:25:23pm

re: #60 prairiefire

I won’t tell you how it ends!

If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
-Zapp

63 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:26:22pm

re: #22 Justanotherhuman

Charlize Theron, stunning:

[Embedded content]

Charlize, Lupita and Sandra are to three most beautiful women in Hollywood.

64 makeitstop  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:27:40pm

‘Hannibal’ is by far the most disturbing show on network TV. We just watched the season premiere and now I’m all creeped out.

65 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:28:06pm

re: #61 b_sharp

Not so sure. She’s 81 and mostly plastic.

She looked like the joker with those 2 lines from her mouth.

The plastic surgeons are just practicing on these women.

I’m going down naturally.

66 darthstar  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:28:25pm
67 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:31:53pm

Nothing really new here but….Inside Obama’s Plans for Economic War on Russia

One administration source noted that even during the Bush administration’s response to the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, such an expansive list of punitive measures weren’t considered. “We’re considering going farther in Ukraine than we ever did in Georgia,” the administration source said.

Meh. I’m pretty sure the Russians have already taken these options into consideration and decided it’s still worth their effort. I think it’s very doubtful any of these measures will make Russia change its mind any time soon. I think this will all be forgotten by next year.

68 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:32:31pm
69 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:32:31pm

Is there a new Walking Dead on tonight?

70 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:32:50pm

re: #65 Stanley Sea

She looked like the joker with those 2 lines from her mouth.

The plastic surgeons are just practicing on these women.

I’m going down naturally.

Facial plastic surgery is like tanning. It’s almost always uneccessary, unnatural looking and rarely makes a person look better. I wish it would stop.

71 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:33:17pm

re: #65 Stanley Sea

She looked like the joker with those 2 lines from her mouth.

The plastic surgeons are just practicing on these women.

I’m going down naturally.

As am I.

I started to go bald, so I shaved my head. My dad thought I should have a comb-over like him. I laughed and told him it looks too phony.

I don’t even colour my beard.

72 Varek Raith  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:34:09pm

re: #71 b_sharp

As am I.

I started to go bald, so I shaved my head. My dad thought I should have a comb-over like him. I laughed and told him it looks too phony.

I don’t even colour my beard.

Aww, come on, you need a comb over so we can make fun of you.
:P

73 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:35:27pm

re: #72 Varek Raith

Aww, come on, you need a comb over so we can make fun of you.
:P

Comb overs are especially funny in heavy winds! :)

74 Archangelus  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:35:41pm

SO I log into the beta of The Elder Scrolls Online to escape the madness of the real world for a bit, and lo behold, what do I come across in the chats while aiding the various denizens of Tamriel?
First there was the RWNJ bashing Obama over Kiev in particular and everything in general; Then the Dudebro praising the usual bunch, I kid you not; lastly, the winner of the weekly derp award, the self-proclaimed ‘zealot’ insulting the atheists and nonbelievers that were there playing the fantasy game for not following the ‘true Lord Jesus’ (seems a friend invited him and he clearly had no idea what the game was about). This interaction proved additionally ironic from my POV as this was taking place while my character was on a mission to speak with representatives of The Tribunal - the region’s living gods..

I find some comfort in the fact that all three were the recipients of considerable verbal thrashing and ridicule from pretty much everyone else who read the chats.

The lesson of the day: when seeking cover against the madness of the real world, avoid ANYTHING online and get a great book or a great single-player game; your sanity (or, alternatively, the split personas roaming around your cranium) will appreciate.

75 Archangelus  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:36:12pm

re: #69 Killgore Trout

Is there a new Walking Dead on tonight?

Yep

76 b.d.  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:38:44pm

20’ from Stardom wins Best Doc. Feature.

Cue the DudeBro outrage.

77 Varek Raith  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:39:15pm

Sigh…

* ACCUMULATIONS… UP TO ONE TENTH INCH OF ICE… THEN 6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW.

78 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:39:51pm

re: #75 Archangelus

Yep

Nice! I will steal it a bit later tonight.

79 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:41:09pm

Cat shit on the floor and the Roomba got into it. I’ve lost my appetite for dinner.

80 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:42:07pm

re: #77 Varek Raith

Sigh…

1/4 inch of ice then 2 inches of rain tonight here. School already called and cancelled earlier.

81 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:43:14pm
82 makeitstop  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:43:25pm

re: #79 Killgore Trout

Cat shit on the floor and the Roomba got into it. I’ve lost my appetite for dinner.

That happened here a few weeks ago. That was not a happy day in this house.

83 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:43:27pm

re: #77 Varek Raith

Sigh…

up to 1/2” of sleet here and still falling.
I’m going to go take a nap…

84 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:45:29pm
85 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:46:01pm
86 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:46:20pm
87 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:47:21pm

This has been a wonderful winter.

Up here it’s the coldest winter in 35 years. Winnipeg just east of us has had it even worse.

Obviously, AGW/CC is a hoax.

88 b.d.  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:47:24pm

Earlier prediction by Nostradumbass:

89 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:48:08pm

re: #88 b.d.

20 MIles From Stardom.

90 Decatur Deb  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:48:30pm

re: #79 Killgore Trout

Cat shit on the floor and the Roomba got into it. I’ve lost my appetite for dinner.

Roomba forgot the 3rd Law of Robotics.

91 Varek Raith  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:49:03pm

re: #90 Decatur Deb

Roomba forgot the 3rd Law of Robotics.

Roomba rebelled.

92 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:49:30pm
93 RealityBasedSteve  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:49:50pm

re: #79 Killgore Trout

Cat shit on the floor and the Roomba got into it. I’ve lost my appetite for dinner.

OHHHHH….. That CAN NOT be a good thing.


RBS

94 Decatur Deb  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:50:14pm

re: #91 Varek Raith

Roomba rebelled.

I, Roomba.

95 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:52:32pm
96 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:54:03pm

Wow, Yahoo comments read like Russia Today:

Putin doesn’t want bloodshed he just wants to protect his naval and port interests in the Crimea where they have been stationed since before this uprise started. I hope to God other nations do not try to escalate things by bringing in their two cents or it WILL push Putin to prove something and then there will be lives lost. And dear Lord please put Obama out on the campaign trail or the golf course because he is the biggest posturer and loudmouth of them all

What the fuck does this mean

97 RealityBasedSteve  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:54:13pm

re: #79 Killgore Trout

Cat shit on the floor and the Roomba got into it. I’ve lost my appetite for dinner.

If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone with this problem

Roomba Shaming….

RBS

98 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:57:10pm

U2 amazing

99 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:57:22pm

re: #96 Aqua Obama

Wow, Yahoo comments read like Russia Today:

What the fuck does this mean

It means that the person who wrote it is so badly afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome that he favors a foreign dictator over the democratically elected president of the USA.

Put more simply:

100 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 6:59:49pm

re: #99 Dark_Falcon

It means that the person who wrote it is so badly afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome that he favors a foreign dictator over the democratically elected president of the USA.

Put more simply:

[Embedded image]

So like 85% of all registered Republicans? I really hope Poland doesn’t get us into WWIII because we’ll have more people trying to undermine the President in an actual time of war than we had in ‘05-06 when Bush’s involvments started going south…

101 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:01:00pm

re: #95 NJDhockeyfan

[Embedded content]

Yeah, I’m a bit conflicted but this guy has a point……
Putin’s War

Obama had no good options to stop the invasion. In fact, the only mistake the president made was ever suggesting there would be “consequences.”

I guess the show and ritual objections are necessary for domestic political purposes but I don’t think it’s going to add up to much.

102 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:03:44pm

re: #95 NJDhockeyfan

[Embedded content]

better question: So who’s going to be the self appointed global policeman trying to punish Putin Russia?

103 Killgore Trout  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:05:42pm

re: #95 NJDhockeyfan

[Embedded content]

Kerrry’s in a tough spot there but I had to turn it off when he’s talking about the protesters standing up to snipers. It would be very sad to see those sacrifices to go waste.

104 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:06:09pm

Oscars 2014: Jennifer Lawrence trips on the red carpet when exiting her limo

Not again!

105 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:06:15pm

re: #101 Killgore Trout

Yeah, I’m a bit conflicted but this guy has a point……
Putin’s War

I guess the show and ritual objections are necessary for domestic political purposes but I don’t think it’s going to add up to much.

I hope it does or you’ll see every country that could be threatened by Russia or China having to go nuclear. Ukraine’s in this mess because Russia abrogated the treaty that’s the only reason it didn’t have 2000 nukes sitting across its agricultural regions. And honestly, ‘tis a treaty that may compel us to defend West Ukraine.

106 Belafon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:07:20pm

re: #102 b_sharp

It depends on what you think punishment would be. We’re obviously not going to attack Russia right now, but what if Europe and the US stop having anything financially to do with Russia?

Most of the world punished South Africa (not us for a while) without invading it.

107 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:08:11pm

re: #104 Amory Blaine

Oscars 2014: Jennifer Lawrence trips on the red carpet when exiting her limo

Not again!

Anyone starting to wonder if she has one of the various neurological disorders that screw up some of your movement/balance? It could all be coincidence, but it could be something serious, too…

108 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:09:12pm

re: #105 Chrysicat

The message is “you’re screwed if you don’t have nukes”. If this stands, it’s going to be a setback to efforts in Iran and elsewhere.

Remember, Kerry actually made non-proliferation a core tenet of his foreign policy in his presidential run.

109 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:09:37pm

It could be the 6 inch heels.

110 makeitstop  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:09:44pm

re: #104 Amory Blaine

Oscars 2014: Jennifer Lawrence trips on the red carpet when exiting her limo

Not again!

Her pre-game ritual. Hey, it worked last year!

111 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:10:01pm

re: #106 Belafon

It depends on what you think punishment would be. We’re obviously not going to attack Russia right now, but what if Europe and the US stop having anything financially to do with Russia?

Most of the world punished South Africa (not us for a while) without invading it.

What the punishment should be was obviously in George Stephanopolous’s mind when he made that tweet.

112 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:10:13pm

re: #100 Chrysicat

So like 85% of all registered Republicans? I really hope Poland doesn’t get us into WWIII because we’ll have more people trying to undermine the President in an actual time of war than we had in ‘05-06 when Bush’s involvments started going south…

Far less than 85%, much less than 50% actually. Don’t put too much into what you see online, as most people don’t spend too much online time on politics. Especially don’t pay too much attention to Twitter as only 15% of the country actually uses it.

113 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:10:22pm

re: #102 b_sharp

better question: So who’s going to be the self appointed global policeman trying to punish Putin Russia?

Europe may scale back usage of Russian natural gas.

114 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:10:46pm

re: #109 Amory Blaine

It could be the 6 inch heels.

[Embedded content]

Who’s the guy using her boob as a handle?

115 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:11:37pm

re: #110 makeitstop

Her pre-game ritual. Hey, it worked last year!

As the Bud Lite commercials say: “It’s not weird if it works.”

116 sagehen  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:13:07pm
117 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:13:18pm

re: #114 b_sharp

Who’s the guy using her boob as a handle?

Nicholas Hoult, he’s her boyfriend.

118 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:13:50pm

...

119 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:15:46pm

120 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:17:24pm

re: #113 jaunte

Europe may scale back usage of Russian natural gas.

We can help with that, and we should. President Obama should authorize additional export of Liquified Natural Gas, and should open additional federal lands for natural gas exploration. California can do its part by authorizing exploration and production from the Monterrey Shale formation.

We can whittle Putin’s natural gas club down to a twig and create jobs and profits doing so!

121 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:17:31pm

Teh Derp has broken Teh Twitters.

122 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:20:48pm

re: #120 Dark_Falcon

[snip] California can do its part by authorizing exploration and production from the Monterrey Shale formation.[snip]

Ummmm…DF…doesn’t that take, like, water? In which case, with this winter being said to be a portent of winters to come (IOW, unless CA starts getting a summer rainy season, it’s gonna dry up and blow away), we can’t really do that until we have a few desalination plants up and running at the coast’s edge?

123 Pie-onist Overlord  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:22:34pm

Teh Twitters is broke.

Lupita Nyong’o is all Teh Wins.

124 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:22:52pm

re: #120 Dark_Falcon

Seems like a good time to invest in technologies that will make Russia’s fossil fuels irrelevant in the long run.

125 jaunte  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:23:53pm

re: #120 Dark_Falcon

I think the Ukraine crisis might shift European public opinion about increasing gas production in Europe.

126 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:24:19pm

My entire city is riddled with potholes and heaved pavement.

127 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:24:26pm

re: #123 Pie-onist Overlord

Teh Twitters is broke.

Lupita Nyong’o is all Teh Wins.

It hurts to look at her.

128 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:25:38pm

re: #127 moderatelyradicalliberal

It hurts to look at her.

Why?

129 dr. luba  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:27:15pm

re: #28 Lidane

[Embedded content]

Ukraine may not be watching live, but lots of Ukrainians are. A cheer went up in our house, and Jared Leto is now my 83 year old mom’s favorite actor. And tomorrow he will be well loved in the old country, too.

130 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:28:16pm

And in the nonsensical irony category we have this photo from the Crimea:

Image: article-2571309-1BF555BE00000578-638_634x417.jpg

A man holding a picture of Mary with Jesus as a boy while guarding a statue of the aggressively atheist Vladimir Lenin.

131 Belafon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:29:19pm

re: #130 Dark_Falcon

So, Ukraine has its Randians as well.

132 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:35:07pm

re: #131 Belafon

So, Ukraine has its Randians as well.

Well, Ayn Rand’s family did flee to the Crimea in 1919 when she was a small child, but they weren’t able to leave when the peninsula fell in 1920 and the Reds forced them to return to what was then Petrograd (now once again St, Petersburg). Little area tidbit I thought the group might find interesting.

133 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:35:26pm

re: #104 Amory Blaine

Oscars 2014: Jennifer Lawrence trips on the red carpet when exiting her limo

Not again!

I’m staring to think she has an inner ear problem.

134 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:42:24pm

re: #133 moderatelyradicalliberal

I’m staring to think she has an inner ear problem.

Maybe just not used to wearing high heels, or so nervous about tripping again that she tripped again.

I like her, so I don’t care if she’s a little klutzy.

135 Stanley Sea  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:44:52pm

re: #134 wheat-dogghazi

Maybe just not used to wearing high heels, or so nervous about tripping again that she tripped again.

I like her, so I don’t care if she’s a little klutzy.

She’s young and acting it. I love her.

edit: wondering if there’s knee stains on her dress. (red carpet wet)

136 klys  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:45:22pm

re: #134 wheat-dogghazi

Maybe just not used to wearing high heels, or so nervous about tripping again that she tripped again.

I like her, so I don’t care if she’s a little klutzy.

If I were wearing heels that high, getting 5 steps without tripping would be newsworthy.

137 b_sharp  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:45:36pm

re: #134 wheat-dogghazi

Maybe just not used to wearing high heels, or so nervous about tripping again that she tripped again.

I like her, so I don’t care if she’s a little klutzy.

Who hasn’t tripped while walking on the red carpet?

138 moderatelyradicalliberal  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:50:20pm

re: #128 b_sharp

Why?

The beauty is blinding. It’s like looking at the sun.

139 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 7:51:22pm

re: #135 Stanley Sea

She’s young and acting it. I love her.

She’s from Louisville, KY, where I lived for almost 30 years. So, I have a soft spot for Jennifer in my heart. She has a reputation there of being just a regular kid.

She makes for a nice-looking Mystique, too. Though, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was better, IMO.

140 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:03:02pm

Last one I swear ;)

141 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:06:57pm

re: #140 Amory Blaine

That’s so cute my blood is crystalzing.

142 chadu  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:07:46pm

Ghostbusters viewing complete!

Also, reminded of one of my favorite Egon/Ramis lines:

143 Amory Blaine  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:08:06pm

re: #141 Dark_Falcon

Like he’s saying “I’m new around here”.

144 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:12:31pm

Ellen DeGeneres takes the ultimate “Me with famous people” selfie:

Image: article-2571848-1BFB364300000578-696_634x345.jpg

145 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:18:35pm

Larry Kudlow gives the dudebros a going over with a Clue-by-Four regarding Bitcoins:

Bitcoin Is Not Real Money

ust before the bankruptcy of the Mt. Gox bitcoin digital-money (or virtual-currency) exchange, Japanese finance minister Taro Aso predicted the inevitable failure. “No one recognizes them as a real currency,” he told reporters. “I expected such a thing to collapse.”

I totally agree with Mr. Aso. For weeks and weeks I have been tweeting and broadcasting that bitcoin is not real money. It is not a reliable medium of exchange, nor is it a reliable store of value. It has no central-bank regulation, network operations, or even centralized issuance. And because of its wild price fluctuations, bitcoin can never be a reliable payment system.

The virtual currency originally offered a way to make transactions across borders without third parties like banks. But the collapse of Mt. Gox — with 850,000 bitcoins unaccounted for, summing to $425 million of losses, according to many reports — illustrates the grand failure of this digital experiment.

Venture capitalist Ezra Galston writes in the Wall Street Journal, “without a regulatory framework, credible payment processors — such as PayPal, Dwolla or Square — cannot service bitcoin exchanges. And because payment processors are vital for converting fiat currencies into virtual deposits, bitcoin operators will be forced to move downstream into the black market.” Mr. Galston concludes by asserting that “the bitcoin community must embrace external regulation to ensure that credible vendors may participate in payment processing.”

Hundreds of bitcoin supporters have tweeted attacks at me for arguing that bitcoin is not real money. But historically, money must be a reliable medium of exchange, and a reliable store of value. Bitcoin meets neither of these definitions.

This piece is a good thing to pull out when some knuckhead starts screaming about financial regulations. They really are necessary with reasonable bounds in order to ensure honesty and orderly commerce.

146 William Barnett-Lewis  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:21:17pm

re: #145 Dark_Falcon

Larry Kudlow gives the dudebros a going over with a Clue-by-Four regarding Bitcoins:

Bitcoin Is Not Real Money

This piece is a good thing to pull out when some knuckhead starts screaming about financial regulations. They really are necessary with reasonable bounds in order to ensure honesty and orderly commerce.

Heh. I look at bitcoin as a good “teachable moment” about real economics as opposed to the foolishness of libertarianism. Lesson one: ALL money is fiat money and is only worth what 2 or more people agree it’s worth … ;)

147 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:21:20pm

re: #145 Dark_Falcon

And if anyone knows the value of money, it’s a guy who had a $10,000 a month cocaine habit.

148 prairiefire  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:28:09pm

re: #138 moderatelyradicalliberal

The beauty is blinding. It’s like looking at the sun.

You are adorable!

149 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:28:57pm

re: #145 Dark_Falcon

A response to Kudlow, from a Forbes contributor. forbes.com

With them [venture capitalists], however, it starts to resemble a new kind of banking. One without a central authority, yes, but one with much lower overhead, too. Bitcoin isn’t designed to replace the dollar, the yen or the euro. That makes CNBC’s Larry Kudlow’s recent screed all the more mystifying: “[B]itcoin is not real money. It is not a reliable medium of exchange, nor is it a reliable store of value. It has no central bank regulation, network operations or even centralized issuance. And because of its wild price fluctuations, bitcoin can never be a reliable payment system.” But Larry, you can get Bitcoins for payments the instant you’re ready to purchase something, making you indifferent to the exchange rate. The merchant can turn those coins back into their currency just as quickly for a fee far lower than what they pay to take your credit card. Oh, and they get paid faster than a bank pays them too. Kudlow doesn’t have a Nobel Prize in Economics. But he’s every bit as off base as Shiller.

150 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:31:05pm

I would add that Kudlow is a supply-side economist, and we know how well that economic theory has panned out. So, I take anything he says with a bucket of salt.

151 Belafon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:32:07pm

re: #149 wheat-dogghazi

Here’s my bitcoin analogy I came up with for a friend of mine: Ever had a $20 bill and stood in front of a soda machine? It may say $20, but it isn’t worth anything if you can’t use it.

152 William Barnett-Lewis  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:35:59pm

re: #151 Belafon

Here’s my bitcoin analogy I came up with for a friend of mine: Ever had a $20 bill and stood in front of a soda machine? It may say $20, but it isn’t worth anything if you can’t use it.

Exactly. It’s like a gold bug showing up in front of me after TEOTWAWKI and wanting to buy food with gold. All he’s going to get from me is to be told to eat his gold.

153 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:36:22pm

re: #151 Belafon

Here’s my bitcoin analogy I came up with for a friend of mine: Ever had a $20 bill and stood in front of a soda machine? It may say $20, but it isn’t worth anything if you can’t use it.

There are increasing numbers of places that accept Bitcoin now, so the analogy is only going to be valid for a while. With the way everything is being hooked to the Internet now, you could probably buy your Coke by holding your phone next to a Near Field Receiver in the not-so-distant future.

154 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:38:51pm

re: #152 William Barnett-Lewis

Exactly. It’s like a gold bug showing up in front of me after TEOTWAWKI and wanting to buy food with gold. All he’s going to get from me is to be told to eat his gold.

Goldbugs and Bitcoin-bugs have this fantasy that somehow civilized and orderly commerce will survive the end of civilization. Canned goods and fresh drinking water will be the currency of the day, not gold or Bitcoins.

155 Belafon  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:46:01pm

re: #153 wheat-dogghazi

Most of the Coca Cola machines at my job allow you to swipe a credit card, which works great until:

1. It decides that it can’t connect to the mother ship.
2. Your credit card has been blocked because the bank believes it’s compromised.

156 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 8:46:53pm
157 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:00:19pm
158 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:05:33pm

re: #157 Lidane

When will this woman’s day in the media be over? I am so tired of hearing about Coulter’s latest bit of hate.

159 Chrysicat  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:06:02pm

re: #157 Lidane

She just can’t not be a bigot for even a second, can she?

160 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:09:16pm

re: #159 Chrysicat

She just can’t not be a bigot for even a second, can she?

Maybe she wants a special category for skinny white hateful women (SWHW).

161 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:20:34pm
162 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:36:44pm

The Russians must be planning something huge or else they wouldn’t be flying in supplies.

163 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:38:08pm

Huh…

nytimes.com

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany told Mr. Obama by telephone on Sunday that after speaking with Mr. Putin she was not sure he was in touch with reality, people briefed on the call said. “In another world,” she said.

164 TedStriker  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:38:40pm

re: #163 Aqua Obama

Huh…

nytimes.com

Putin suffering from delusions of grandeur?

165 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:41:56pm

re: #163 Aqua Obama

Huh…

nytimes.com

He’s more nuts than Lil Kim? That’s much more dangerous.

166 William Barnett-Lewis  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:43:25pm

re: #162 NJDhockeyfan

The Russians must be planning something huge or else they wouldn’t be flying in supplies.

[Embedded content]

“must be”? I do think there is a lot about to happen but normal modern logistical movements are not reasons to think so. Please be better than the GOP.

167 William Barnett-Lewis  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:44:40pm

re: #165 NJDhockeyfan

He’s more nuts than Lil Kim? That’s much more dangerous.

Your presumptions are getting pretty big.

Grow up.

168 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:46:34pm

re: #166 William Barnett-Lewis

“must be”? I do think there is a lot about to happen but normal modern logistical movements are not reasons to think so. Please be better than the GOP.

They have complete control of Crimea now. Why all the extra supplies? I don’t think they are just MREs and toilet paper.

169 William Barnett-Lewis  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:49:00pm

re: #168 NJDhockeyfan

They have complete control of Crimea now. Why all the extra supplies? I don’t think they are just MREs and toilet paper.

How many years did you serve in the US military?

Serious. You’re missing a boat load of real world stuff because you never had to deal with the reality of what it means to be a soldier in the bushes.

170 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:49:21pm

re: #164 TedStriker

Yeah, It’s sort of a peculiar thing to leave hanging in an otherwise normal NY Times article. The Germans have been trying to get a dialogue going.

BTW, Putin speaks English while pitching the Sochi Olympics back in 2007

“We are allocating about 12 Billion dollars for this”

Youtube Video

lol

171 wheat-dogghazi  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:51:41pm

re: #170 Aqua Obama

Yeah, It’s sort of a peculiar thing to leave hanging in an otherwise normal NY Times article. The Germans have been trying to get a dialogue going.

BTW, Putin speaks English while pitching the Sochi Olympics back in 2007

“We are allocating about 12 Billion dollars for this”

[Embedded content]


lol

He forgot to mention the $40B in kickbacks and bribes.

172 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:54:36pm

re: #171 wheat-dogghazi

He forgot to mention the $40B in kickbacks and bribes.

He was only talking about what’s on paper.

173 Kragar  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:54:56pm

re: #169 William Barnett-Lewis

How many years did you serve in the US military?

Serious. You’re missing a boat load of real world stuff because you never had to deal with the reality of what it means to be a soldier in the bushes.

Besides the day to day supplies, you’ve got comm equipment, medical supplies, spare parts, tents and literally tons of assorted bulk equipment for even the simplest of field operations

174 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 9:57:39pm

re: #171 wheat-dogghazi

He forgot to mention the $40B in kickbacks and bribes.

Hey, what a coincidence, that’s about the amount of money missing out of the Ukrainian treasury

175 Kragar  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:00:40pm

Basic military operation basically entail bringing in a huge amount of support supplies for any long term, open ended mission.

If the troops were seen getting small shipments, it would mean they were getting ready to move and didn’t want to have a supply train slowing them down.

176 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:09:19pm

derail—

According to Netflix on Roku, Pulp Fiction is a buddy comedy.

It reads like it was written by a person who has never seen the film. Either that, or it’s a translation from the back cover of the Chinese bootleg DVD.

—rerail

177 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:11:25pm

re: #146 William Barnett-Lewis

Heh. I look at bitcoin as a good “teachable moment” about real economics as opposed to the foolishness of libertarianism. Lesson one: ALL money is fiat money and is only worth what 2 or more people agree it’s worth … ;)

It’s also an object lesson for why we need a Federal Reserve and some sort of financial regulations. The dudebros will figure it out eventually. Maybe.

178 NJDhockeyfan  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:12:48pm

This is one way to help a few people loose some weight.

179 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:12:51pm

re: #176 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce

Image: 1779086_617073385014316_1519736318_n.png

180 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:14:54pm

re: #163 Aqua Obama

Putin isn’t that bright.

He has left 1200 Russian soldiers in Transnistria, between Ukraine and Moldova, both of whom are hostile.

I would go as far as to say that he may be the mental caliber of Bush.

181 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:15:59pm

Has anyone seen “Inequality For All”, the recent documentary with Robert Reich? Interested in thoughts & opinions.

The “message” portion of the film aside, I thought the brief segment that covered a bit of biography on Reich was very interesting.

182 Charles Johnson  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:18:18pm

Wow, Tom Nichols is in full-on Obama hate mode, all day. Tweet after tweet about the Obama administration’s failure to jump into war with Syria and Russia and apparently everybody else who looks at us cross-eyed. Disappointing.

183 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:19:06pm

re: #179 Aqua Obama

Image: 1779086_617073385014316_1519736318_n.png

That’s ironic considering “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” was a cartoon show about an anthropomorphic dog chasing after what always turned out to be weird guys dressed in costumes.

184 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:20:27pm

Russian stock markets just opened

bloomberg.com

185 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:22:18pm

re: #184 Aqua Obama

Loss of 6% in 70 minutes. Damn.

See, people will be less likely to invest in your nation if you are acting like Hitler.

186 teleskiguy  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:24:15pm
187 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:29:44pm

re: #182 Charles Johnson

I also found that very disappointing. Then I remembered that sooner or later everyone will let you down.

188 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:40:24pm
189 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:40:31pm

Putin’s little stunt has erased all gains in the Russian Stock Market in the last year.

190 teleskiguy  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:42:03pm

re: #182 Charles Johnson

I have a pretty healthy disdain right now for folks who are vociferously criticizing President Obama’s “soft power” foreign policy. I think it’s saving a lot of American lives and treasure. Look at Bush 43’s foreign policy. That was *in a Borat voice* Great Success! Right?

Wrong.

( my 2 ¢ )

191 Lidane  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:43:09pm

re: #190 teleskiguy

192 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:48:37pm

Now down 7%.

I know there is a trading halt thing for the NYSE if the market slides too heavily downwards too quickly. Does the Russian stock exchange not have this?

193 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:49:44pm

Image: 8541678_orig.gif

194 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:53:16pm

re: #192 The War TARDIS

Now past 8%.

195 Aqua Obama  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 10:57:29pm

re: #192 The War TARDIS

Now down 7%.

I know there is a trading halt thing for the NYSE if the market slides too heavily downwards too quickly. Does the Russian stock exchange not have this?

In Russia, dead cat bounce you

196 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 11:02:16pm

Russian Trading System Cash Index

Has now lost over 10%

The other one has just breached 9%

197 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 11:07:19pm

re: #189 The War TARDIS

Putin’s little stunt has erased all gains in the Russian Stock Market in the last year.

He still makes money selling gas and oil to the West…

198 The War TARDIS  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 11:10:31pm

re: #197 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

China isn’t a fan of what they did either:

On March 2, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang stated that China, having previously condemned the violence in the country, stuck to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, respecting Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. He urged all sides to respect international law and to find a solution through dialogue on the basis of international relations.

What is Chinese for “You fucked up?”

199 TedStriker  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 11:12:55pm

re: #198 The War TARDIS

China isn’t a fan of what they did either:

What is Chinese for “You fucked up?”

你搞砸了

/

200 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Sun, Mar 2, 2014 11:31:28pm

Putin has little to lose: Russian exports more than it imports, and nobody is going to boycott Russian gas an oil over a political crisis. In addition he has a lot to gain in terms of internal political prestige.

So don’t expect that this is going to be influenced by external pressure to any great extent.

201 Lidane  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 1:08:32am
202 urbanmeemaw  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 1:45:35am

re: #76 b.d.

That was a great movie. I’m glad it won.

203 urbanmeemaw  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 1:50:59am

re: #164 TedStriker

Snowden et al fit right in.

204 andres  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 2:41:12am

re: #112 Dark_Falcon

Far less than 85%, much less than 50% actually. Don’t put too much into what you see online, as most people don’t spend too much online time on politics. Especially don’t pay too much attention to Twitter as only 15% of the country actually uses it.

And if we go by what we see in the elected Republican leadership… I’d say Chrysicat is closer.

205 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 2:48:10am

re: #181 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce

Has anyone seen “Inequality For All”, the recent documentary with Robert Reich? Interested in thoughts & opinions.

The “message” portion of the film aside, I thought the brief segment that covered a bit of biography on Reich was very interesting.

Worth seeing for the discussion of the ‘suspension bridge’ charts. If I were picking POTUS/VP team it would be him and Warren.

206 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:02:21am

An interesting fact about Max I just found out this morning. And, BTW, did everyone go to bed early last night? : )

207 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:06:24am

I probably just did the dumbest thing in my life. I poked a guy I hadn’t talked to in over a decade, on Twitter, just to point out an ‘I told you so’ about things we talked about loitering in his or my car outside his house 16-18 years ago. Just because those things were the reformation of the USSR.

He would therefore know my RL name, and if he’s annoyed with my poking him, he could spread that to all reaches of the ‘net. Like doxing without the work.

And since I have plenty of embarrassing ‘things and pecadilloes’…yeah…:”>

208 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:08:22am
209 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:13:24am

Andrej (27) tells us: “I am Russian soldier We do not wear badges, because secret mission was!


Now Andrej has a problem!

210 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:17:57am

In Russia, secret mission carry out you…

211 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:22:14am

Her trial appears to be taking its toll. Every massive ego eventually has his or her shitty day because they just can’t help themselves. Are you listening, GG?

212 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:27:53am

I have heard no news from our about Byelarus, although I am sure that recent Russian activities in the Crima are allowing Lukaschenko to sleep a bit easier at night.

But I am sure that his security forcers are keeping a tight lid on anything that might threaten to spill over out on to the streets.

213 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:34:55am

re: #212 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

This might interest you concerning the “last dictatorship of Europe”.

17 Unbelievable Photos Of Special Forces Training In Belarus

sfgate.com

Just do it! You could wind up with enough potatoes to last through the winter…

214 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:36:42am

Russia has operational control of Crimea region, UK Foreign Secretary Hague says - @SkyNewsBreak
end of alert

215 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 3:52:26am

re: #213 Justanotherhuman

This might interest you concerning the “last dictatorship of Europe”.

17 Unbelievable Photos Of Special Forces Training In Belarus

sfgate.com

Just do it! You could wind up with enough potatoes to last through the winter…

He ain’t training these guys up just for show, he is making sure that any potential protestors know what they would have to face.

216 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:03:38am
217 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:11:53am

Why the above document is important—and discipline in the Ukrainian ranks, with the exception of the rear admiral relieved of his duty after capitulation, appears to be solid.

Ukraine crisis: ‘We won’t give up without a fight’
The Guardian reports from the Crimea, where Ukrainian troops are caught in a standoff with Russians demanding they disarm

theguardian.com

218 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:12:51am

re: #151 Belafon

Here’s my bitcoin analogy I came up with for a friend of mine: Ever had a $20 bill and stood in front of a soda machine? It may say $20, but it isn’t worth anything if you can’t use it.

A little story.

Years ago a friend and I were arguing about money having ‘real value’. He was convinced that money had ‘real value’, that is it could always be exchanged for something. Money was valuable by nature and not a tool created simply to facilitate exchanges of goods and services.

A couple of days later I went up to him and pulled a piece of paper currency from my wallet. “What’s this?” I asked him.

“It’s a 10,000 Deutschmark bill,” he replies.

“Right.” Then I pulled out my lighter and set fire to it. I wish smart phones had been available back then. His reaction deserved to be recorded.

I then pointed out that the bill had been printed by the Weimar Republic. It was worth nothing.

We had the argument again in the future though. Religious beliefs are really hard to change.

219 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:16:06am

re: #168 NJDhockeyfan

They have complete control of Crimea now. Why all the extra supplies? I don’t think they are just MREs and toilet paper.

But a dozen planes doesn’t really amount to much in a modern conflict.

If you hear of multiple freighters being offloaded in Sevastopol then we can worry.

220 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:22:38am

re: #120 Dark_Falcon

We can help with that, and we should. President Obama should authorize additional export of Liquified Natural Gas, and should open additional federal lands for natural gas exploration. California can do its part by authorizing exploration and production from the Monterrey Shale formation.

We can whittle Putin’s natural gas club down to a twig and create jobs and profits doing so!

Until I looked it up, I honestly didn’t know that it’s believed by folks who know such things that Poland may well be sitting on the biggest shale gas deposit in Europe.

France has a nice sized deposit as well; the French, however, put a five-year moratorium on fracking.

Interestingly, at the EU level, the EU decided that each country could set its own policies regarding fracking, despite intense lobbying to ban fracking throughout the European Union.

That intense lobbying was done by Gazprom. Heh.

221 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:25:27am

re: #218 Romantic Heretic

A little story.

Years ago a friend and I were arguing about money having ‘real value’. He was convinced that money had ‘real value’, that is it could always be exchanged for something. Money was valuable by nature and not a tool created simply to facilitate exchanges of goods and services.

Every currentcy is based on a mixture of faith, gullibility and outright deceit. Bitcoins simply contain a lot more of the latter two ingredients than most other national currencies.

222 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:27:02am

Still snowing here but, overall, the storm wasn’t too bad.
Totals: 1/2 inch rain in the morning, 1/2 inch sleet in the evening, 2-1/2 inches of snow.
Currently 15F with light flurries and some fog.

I think I’ll just stay in my jammies all day.

223 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:34:27am

re: #220 Dr Lizardo

Until I looked it up, I honestly didn’t know that it’s believed by folks who know such things that Poland may well be sitting on the biggest shale gas deposit in Europe.

France has a nice sized deposit as well; the French, however, put a five-year moratorium on fracking.

Interestingly, at the EU level, the EU decided that each country could set its own policies regarding fracking, despite intense lobbying to ban fracking throughout the European Union.

That intense lobbying was done by Gazprom. Heh.

I also think that if the US govt had put as much research and money (including subsidies that Big Oil has gotten) into alternative energies in the past 30 years as it has in carbon deposits, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

We ordinaries out here have very few lobbyists working exclusively in our interests solely. It’s why people are out there protesting Keystone, etc, of course, because even the alternative fuel industries aren’t in a position to afford the kind of intensive lobbying Big Oil and Gas do. And we all know too many politicians are more interested in fundraising to further their careers than not. This is why I haven’t minded “getting my hands dirty” in the street in the past. Of course, I’m a bit too long in the tooth for all that now, and getting young people interested is very difficult these days. They seem to have too many fantasy fish to fry.

224 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:34:28am

re: #154 wheat-dogghazi

Goldbugs and Bitcoin-bugs have this fantasy that somehow civilized and orderly commerce will survive the end of civilization. Canned goods and fresh drinking water will be the currency of the day, not gold or Bitcoins.

I will make a fortune from pie.

That’s assuming I have flour, shortening, sugar and fruit. And a working oven.

225 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:35:27am

re: #218 Romantic Heretic

A little story.

Years ago a friend and I were arguing about money having ‘real value’. He was convinced that money had ‘real value’, that is it could always be exchanged for something. Money was valuable by nature and not a tool created simply to facilitate exchanges of goods and services.

A couple of days later I went up to him and pulled a piece of paper currency from my wallet. “What’s this?” I asked him.

“It’s a 10,000 Deutschmark bill,” he replies.

“Right.” Then I pulled out my lighter and set fire to it. I wish smart phones had been available back then. His reaction deserved to be recorded.

I then pointed out that the bill had been printed by the Weimar Republic. It was worth nothing.

We had the argument again in the future though. Religious beliefs are really hard to change.

Ummm…are you sure that a 10K-Reichsmark bill didn’t have collector value? I mean, if Confederate currency does, why not something from only 60 years later? In which case, his shock was justifiable…

…or even a 10K-Papiermark bill for that matter…

226 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:40:48am

Because of the weather I am off from work today. I am going to be a lazy person today. PBS and internet are the activities for today. :)

227 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:47:33am

re: #225 Chrysicat

Ummm…are you sure that a 10K-Reichsmark bill didn’t have collector value? I mean, if Confederate currency does, why not something from only 60 years later? In which case, his shock was justifiable…

Not sure the Nazi Reich issued them that large. At least, I can’t find any.

Did find this 1923 10M reich mark on eBay for $10. 1923 is when you would have needed it for the hyper-inflated economy.

ebay.com

228 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:51:27am

re: #224 Pie-onist Overlord

I will make a fortune from pie.

That’s assuming I have flour, shortening, sugar and fruit. And a working oven.

And wage-earners who can afford pie.

229 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:53:56am

Should these soldiers be identifiable according to intl law? If they control Kerch, they can ferry in men and supplies easily.

230 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:54:01am

re: #225 Chrysicat

Ummm…are you sure that a 10K-Reichsmark bill didn’t have collector value? I mean, if Confederate currency does, why not something from only 60 years later? In which case, his shock was justifiable…

…or even a 10K-Papiermark bill for that matter…

Couple decades ago some Confederate money had great value, but there were bales of the stuff around that had none—wife’s family had used it for insulating a shack. The usual drivers like rarity and condition probably prevailed.

231 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:55:11am

re: #228 Decatur Deb

And wage-earners who can afford pie.

I don’t think there will be pie. Keep thinking back to “The Road”.

Yeccchhh.

232 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:58:55am

re: #231 Justanotherhuman

I don’t think there will be pie. Keep thinking back to “The Road”.

Yeccchhh.

Never read that, did not see the movie, have no intention of doing so.

I assume the only pies available in “The Road” are the kind that Sweeny Todd bakes?

233 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:59:54am

re: #231 Justanotherhuman

I don’t think there will be pie. Keep thinking back to “The Road”.

Yeccchhh.

Pie will survive western civilization. Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict collected hundreds of traditional blueberry pie recipes from NW coast tribes.

234 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:59:58am

Yanukovych and up to 19 former officials face asset freezes in three European countries

kyivpost.com

“At the request of Ukrainian authorities, on Feb. 28 Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and European Union-member Austria imposed financial sanctions on up to 20 members of Ukraine’s ousted government, including Yanukovych and his older son Oleksandr Yanukovych.

“Canada and the U.S. have already enacted visa-travel bans for individuals deemed responsible for the violence in Kyiv during which 95 people died as a result of clashes between protesters and police in the last three months. Due to privacy laws in the countries, the identities of those who face travel bans are unknown.

“The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network furthermore on Feb. 24 released an advisory to financial institutions reminding them “to take reasonable, risk-based steps regarding the potential suspicious movement of assets related to (former President) Viktor Yanukuvych departing Kyiv and abdicating his responsibilities…are required to apply enhanced scrutiny to private banking accounts held by or on behalf of senior foreign political figures and to monitor transactions that could potentially represent misappropriated or diverted state assets, the proceeds of bribery or other illegal payments, or other public corruption proceeds.”

235 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:00:00am

heh…make sure you read through ALL the comments on this tweet.

236 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:01:31am

Um, no Bryan, they are probably dogs.

237 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:04:14am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

Um, no Bryan, they are probably dogs.

[Embedded content]

What a kazoo. If 51% of Americans of all names aren’t Democrats now, they will be before we’re done.

238 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:05:32am

I hope this isn’t true. Total insanity if it is.

239 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:08:00am

A little OT, but maybe of interest. I’ve had this website open most of the day. fiatleak.com It tracks Bitcoin buys across the world into national currencies. Here’s the tallies for the top three after 6 hours.

China New Yuan: 27,538 Bitcoin
US dollar: 467 Bitcoin
Canadian dollar: 43.9 Bitcoin

Plus smaller amounts in several other currencies. Total purchased after 6 hours was 28,206.7 Bitcoin. By far most of that went to China. America is just now waking up, but I doubt it will catch up to Chinese purchases.

Make of that what you will.

240 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:08:25am

re: #238 NJDhockeyfan

I hope this isn’t true. Total insanity if it is.

[Embedded content]

I now take a lot of what Euromaidan tweets with a grain of salt when they have no solid evidence of what they’re tweeting. It has become rather hyper since the Russians invaded Crimea and they don’t always back up their tweets with anything substantial. So I depend on regular on the ground journalists instead.

241 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:10:10am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

How would he know that factoid, anyway? it’s not like the census bureau correlates baby names to political party membership.

242 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:10:53am

LOLZ!!

243 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:12:34am

re: #241 wheat-dogghazi

How would he know that factoid, anyway? it’s not like the census bureau correlates baby names to political party membership.

Wingnuts are very fond of correlating random stuff to political affiliation, without any evidence, or with bogus made-up evidence.

For example this meme which is very popular even though it’s totally bogus:

The “FBI gun stats” is actually the 2004 election results map. No such map exists on the FBI.gov site.

244 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:13:14am

re: #241 wheat-dogghazi

How would he know that factoid, anyway? it’s not like the census bureau correlates baby names to political party membership.

Because he pulled that factoid out of his ass, like he does with everything else.

245 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:13:27am
246 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:15:58am

re: #245 Chrysicat

[Embedded content]

IIRC, only if they are engaging a force that is signed onto the same convention. Otherwise, they’re tourists.

247 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:16:52am

re: #241 wheat-dogghazi

How would he know that factoid, anyway? it’s not like the census bureau correlates baby names to political party membership.

And the only one I’ve seen recently was that Nazi couple in where was it? NJ?

Fucking sperm donor the State appears to be keeping up. And it appears his disability payments probably bought the Nazi uniform, too. That could not have been cheap.

” The 40-year-old Campbell, who is the father of eight kids from four women, is vying to gain visitation rights to see his youngest child, Hons Heinrich.

“Campbell’s three other kids with his estranged third wife Deborah — Adolf Hitler Campbell, 7, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 6, and 5-year-old Honz­lynn Jeannie Campbell — were also taken away by the state after domestic abuse allegations surfaced.

“He also had a child with his first ex-wife and another with an ex-girlfriend. Details about them were unavailable.

Read more: nydailynews.com

248 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:18:10am

Now there is a new bogus map:

249 Inner Partisan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:18:57am

Ukraine!

If you give me the invitation
To hear the bells of freedom chime
To hell with your double standard
We comin’ rougher every time!

Link

250 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:20:54am

re: #244 Dr Lizardo

Because he pulled that factoid out of his ass, like he does with everything else.

We should send him a box of Preparation F, then.

251 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:22:14am

re: #240 Justanotherhuman

I now take a lot of what Euromaidan tweets with a grain of salt when they have no solid evidence of what they’re tweeting. It has become rather hyper since the Russians invaded Crimea and they don’t always back up their tweets with anything substantial. So I depend on regular on the ground journalists instead.

They posted a video of his interview. Is this where he made those claims about Putin?

252 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:23:09am

re: #247 Justanotherhuman

Is he trying to single-handedly father the master race? He doesn’t seem like much of an übermensch.

253 Bubblehead II  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:27:08am

Morning Lizards.

254 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:29:40am

Perhaps this is what Chancellor Merkel was referring to when she observed that Tsar Vladimir I wasn’t entirely “in touch with reality”.

This hasty decision by Putin is starting to have negative economic consequences for the Russian economy and the longer it goes on, the more it will continue to do so.

news.yahoo.com

Good.

255 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:35:19am

re: #145 Dark_Falcon

Larry Kudlow gives the dudebros a going over with a Clue-by-Four regarding Bitcoins:

Bitcoin Is Not Real Money

This piece is a good thing to pull out when some knuckhead starts screaming about financial regulations. They really are necessary with reasonable bounds in order to ensure honesty and orderly commerce.

Now Paged, because its a good enough piece for its own Page.

256 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:35:27am

re: #254 Dr Lizardo

Perhaps this is what Chancellor Merkel was referring to when she observed that Tsar Vladimir I wasn’t entirely “in touch with reality”.

This hasty decision by Putin is starting to have negative economic consequences for the Russian economy and the longer it goes on, the more it will continue to do so.

news.yahoo.com

Good.

Dear Lord, the comments at that site…they seem to be about 3-to-1 “anti-Obama, even if that means we have to support Putin’s invasion”.

257 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:46:30am

re: #256 Chrysicat

Dear Lord, the comments at that site…they seem to be about 3-to-1 “anti-Obama, even if that means we have to support Putin’s invasion”.

Lot of loonies there. Kind of like the Zerohedge site; wackadoodles and whatnot. But you can still find fairly decent information there. For instance, from Zerohedge, the following:

Following a 150bps rate hike by the central bank - the largest since the 1998 default -desperate to halt capital outflows and a collapsing currency, Russian stocks have crashed 11% led by some of the country’s largest banks. USDRUB rose to just shy of 37 - the weakest RUB rate on record - but rallied back a little on the rate hike but the MICEX stock index tumbled 11% to almost 2-year lows with Sberbank (Russia’s largest bank) down 17% and VTB (2nd largest bank) down 20%. Between the threat of economic sanctions from the West and simple risk-aversion-based capital flight, as one analyst noted, “uncertainty risks a further escalation in domestic capital outflow.”

It was the biggest increase in a Russian benchmark rate since June 1998, less than two months before Russia defaulted on domestic sovereign bonds and devalued the currency. The refinancing rate used to be the central bank’s main reference.

The Banks have been battered…

Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, drops 17%, loses most since 2008
VTB, Russia’s second-bigest lender, tumbles 20%
Bank St. Petersburg falls 16%
Bank Vozrozhdenie declines 10%
Nomos Bank slides 12%

European and U.S. leaders have threatened sanctions against Russia, creating risks that economic growth will stall, demand for the country’s assets will dry up and a selloff in the currency will deepen. “There is a risk of international backlash against Russia at a time when the economy faces an increasing need for foreign capital inflows… This uncertainty risks a further escalation in domestic capital outflow.”

Putin’s military adventurism poses serious risks to the Russian economy. One or two bank failures, or outright capital flight, will certainly alienate Putin’s billionaire buddies.

258 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:46:57am

re: #256 Chrysicat

Dear Lord, the comments at that site…they seem to be about 3-to-1 “anti-Obama, even if that means we have to support Putin’s invasion”.

Why else would they name it “Yahoo”?

259 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:49:50am

re: #258 Decatur Deb

Why else would they name it “Yahoo”?

You may have a point, but on the other hand, with MSN cutting off comments, aren’t they the most ‘mainstream’ webportal left that allows people to respond to the articles that go up?

This is what you call a BAD SIGN…

260 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:50:16am

re: #256 Chrysicat

Dear Lord, the comments at that site…they seem to be about 3-to-1 “anti-Obama, even if that means we have to support Putin’s invasion”.

Actually, the most recent see to be more generically anti-American, with the most recent being this anti-EU rant:

JEBR 2 minutes ago 0 0

Further proof that the EU controls everything. The Crimea crisis is because they didn’t take money from the EU and instead chose to accept from Russia. Who would want to accept a loan from the EU when after you accept their money they treat you like they own you and you must do EXACTLY as they say at all times. They will destroy anyone who stands against them. I say it’s time for someone to stand up against the EU and show the world exactly what they are. Extortionists.

261 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:53:31am

Uh, the Oscars are as powerful as Putin? Really?

262 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:54:30am

re: #261 NJDhockeyfan

Uh, the Oscars are as powerful as Putin? Really?

[Embedded content]

Oscar is also bare-chested, and holds a sword!

263 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:55:49am

re: #262 wheat-dogghazi

Oscar is also bare-chested, and holds a sword!

And is gold-plated, like proper Russian toilet.

264 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 5:59:52am

re: #261 NJDhockeyfan

Uh, the Oscars are as powerful as Putin? Really?

[Embedded content]

It’s clumsily stated, but yeah, our free press, our free art, is as powerful, more powerful, than Putin is. The victory the US won over the USSR was mostly on two fronts: Scientific, and cultural. Both of those fronts depend first and foremost on a Popperian open and free society.

Have you read Popper?

265 b.d.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:02:12am

re: #261 NJDhockeyfan

Uh, the Oscars are as powerful as Putin? Really?

[Embedded content]

I remember where I was when Slumdog Millionaire invaded Bangladesh.

266 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:05:31am

Putin will die and lie in a grave, but manuscripts don’t burn.


267 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:05:38am

re: #251 NJDhockeyfan

They posted a video of his interview. Is this where he made those claims about Putin?

[Embedded content]

Yes, evidently that’s the one, although I just watched it. I still have problems with quite a few of the tweets I find on Euromaidan, though, that appear to be rumors with no legit source.

268 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:10:53am

re: #267 Justanotherhuman

Yes, evidently that’s the one, although I just watched it. I still have problems with quite a few of the tweets I find on Euromaidan, though, that appear to be rumors with no legit source.

I agree about Euromaidan. I try to post tweets from them that not just rumors.

269 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:15:32am

re: #259 Chrysicat

You may have a point, but on the other hand, with MSN cutting off comments, aren’t they the most ‘mainstream’ webportal left that allows people to respond to the articles that go up?

This is what you call a BAD SIGN…

‘Web 2.0’ is the worst thing that ever happened to information distribution over the internet. There were already plenty of places for people to discuss news items without fouling the items themselves.

The comment section is but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a collection of posts
Made by idiots, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

270 palomino  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:16:22am

re: #256 Chrysicat

Dear Lord, the comments at that site…they seem to be about 3-to-1 “anti-Obama, even if that means we have to support Putin’s invasion”.

Yahoo goes back to the stone age of the interwebs, and skews somewhat old and right of center. It’s got a lot of far right commenters who simply hate Obama with such passion that they will support anyone who’s lined up against him. It’s the old “enemy of my enemy is my friend” adage.

Their desire for Obama to fail is so great that they’d rather see the authoritarian ruler of an enemy get the upper hand. Pretty screwed up for Americans to root for such a thing, but you have to remember that many of these folks don’t even consider Obama to be an American to begin with.

271 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:16:55am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

Um, no Bryan, they are probably dogs.

The majority of Americans named “Adolf” and “Fidel” are Democrats.

Adolf has fallen out of fashion in Germany, but is still not uncommon in German-speaking Switzerland.

272 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:17:55am

re: #264 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

It’s clumsily stated, but yeah, our free press, our free art, is as powerful, more powerful, than Putin is. The victory the US won over the USSR was mostly on two fronts: Scientific, and cultural. Both of those fronts depend first and foremost on a Popperian open and free society.

Have you read Popper?

Karl Popper? Of “critical rationalism” fame? He’s very associated with libertarian thought.

273 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:19:56am
274 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:21:07am

re: #264 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

It’s clumsily stated, but yeah, our free press, our free art, is as powerful, more powerful, than Putin is. The victory the US won over the USSR was mostly on two fronts: Scientific, and cultural. Both of those fronts depend first and foremost on a Popperian open and free society.

Have you read Popper?

I agree, more people are concerned aout the Oscars than they are about Vlad and his political/military machinations.

275 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:21:10am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

Um, no Bryan, they are probably dogs.

[Embedded content]

I don’t fucking even.

There are 1,559 registered voters named Adolf. There are something like 150 million registered voters. So in the first place we’re talking on the order of 0.001% (no, that’s not a place error) of registered voters. Of those, just slightly over 50% are ‘democrat’, whatever that means in this context.

Doesn’t the Bible have things to say about being a dishonest sack of shit, Bryan?

276 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:22:32am


Larger graph here: Image: BhzwymGCEAE3m4p.jpg:large

277 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:22:57am

re: #272 Justanotherhuman

Karl Popper? Of “critical rationalism” fame? He’s very associated with libertarian thought.

Yeah, he was a staunch anti-Marxist and in the end, even an anti-socialist, but his important works aren’t economic or really political, but cultural, mostly about the culture necessary for scientific inquiry to occur.

He also said:

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

Which is, or should be, anathema to libertarians.

So as is typical, Libertarians champion someone they don’t really understand.

278 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:24:05am
279 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:24:18am

re: #277 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

Yeah, he was a staunch anti-Marxist and in the end, even an anti-socialist, but his important works aren’t economic or really political, but cultural, mostly about the culture necessary for scientific inquiry to occur.

He also said:

Which is, or should be, anathema to libertarians.

So as is typical, Libertarians champion someone they don’t really understand.

Yeah, I suppose they just see “critical rationalism” and fall in love. : )

280 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:25:56am

re: #279 Justanotherhuman

Yeah, I suppose they just see “critical rationalism” and fall in love. : )

Well, he was very close friends with Hayek and with others, and he really did reject socialism and held ‘freedom’ as the highest thing that society should privilege. However, being a v. smart dude, he recognized that intolerance is an enemy of freedom, something which the garden variety modern libertarian or self-crowned ‘classical liberal’ has a lot of difficulty grasping.

281 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:26:59am

BBL

282 Eventual Carrion  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:27:21am

re: #197 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

He still makes money selling gas and oil to the West…

Until the pipelines start blowing up.

283 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:27:25am

re: #278 NJDhockeyfan

[Embedded content]

The longer this continues, the worse it’s going to get. Putin and his friends will soon discover the high price of ill-conceived military adventurism.

The West needs to start piling on sanctions, incrementally. Make it hurt.

284 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:29:39am
285 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:34:44am

re: #278 NJDhockeyfan

How Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has alre

BFD, he spent five times that much on the Olympics

286 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:36:59am

WTF I can’t even
There is a wingnut Twitter account that is Tweeting the entire U.S. Constitution in 140-char increments.

Don’t they realize how stupid that is?

287 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:37:59am

re: #280 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

Well, he was very close friends with Hayek and with others, and he really did reject socialism and held ‘freedom’ as the highest thing that society should privilege. However, being a v. smart dude, he recognized that intolerance is an enemy of freedom, something which the garden variety modern libertarian or self-crowned ‘classical liberal’ has a lot of difficulty grasping.

Well, I suppose that makes me at odds with Popper, then, because I’m rather intolerant of ignorance which stymies both freedom and progress.

Popper should have noticed this during the Nazi era. He did flee to NZ in 1937, so he could be pragmatic.

288 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:38:02am

Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. I’m rather glad that the snowstorm turned out to largely be a bust here in NYC proper, plus North and West. Central and Southern NJ? They’re getting hammered. Again. Oh well. I’ll take solace in not having to shovel another foot of snow (or even a dusting this go-around).

Meanwhile, I understand there was some kind of movie media event yesterday. Lots of television coverage devoted to it. Oscar? Upsets, or not. The favorites won, or not. Jennifer Lawrence was her usual effervescent self.

But from what little I watched (the Mrs watches for the attire, I will chime in with the snark), there was one bit that stuck out.

I’ve got a whole lot of respect for the Leto family. Momma Leto raised her son right. It was a fine speech, and it’s too bad that there are folks who still think that AIDS is a gay disease and that hatred and bigotry still surround the disease. And the shoutout to Ukrainians was nice, as was the desire for people around the world to chase their dreams.

289 Political Atheist  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:39:19am

Good morning from drying Los Angeles, we have a really feel good story. In Glendora there is this little neighborhood that had its hillsides burn and now got flooded with mud, particularly one house. The whole neighborhood turned out with two small skip loader tractors. They neighbors removes 200 tons of mud from that backyard and probably saved it from being pushed off its foundation and destroyed.

That’s one happy family.

290 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:39:49am

re: #286 Pie-onist Overlord

WTF I can’t even
There is a wingnut Twitter account that is Tweeting the entire U.S. Constitution in 140-char increments.

Don’t they realize how stupid that is?

Self-awareness is not the strong suit of RWNJs.

Could be accomplished with a single link pointing towards a full digital copy of the document, but no. Far-right idiots insist on being as inefficient and wasteful as possible while demonstrating their idiocy.

291 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:39:58am

re: #218 Romantic Heretic

A little story.

Years ago a friend and I were arguing about money having ‘real value’. He was convinced that money had ‘real value’, that is it could always be exchanged for something. Money was valuable by nature and not a tool created simply to facilitate exchanges of goods and services.

A couple of days later I went up to him and pulled a piece of paper currency from my wallet. “What’s this?” I asked him.

“It’s a 10,000 Deutschmark bill,” he replies.

“Right.” Then I pulled out my lighter and set fire to it. I wish smart phones had been available back then. His reaction deserved to be recorded.

I then pointed out that the bill had been printed by the Weimar Republic. It was worth nothing.

We had the argument again in the future though. Religious beliefs are really hard to change.

I love the concept of money. Many people don’t realize that grocery coupons are money. Yes, they are legal tender. The thing is that their use is limited —usually by where, when and how one may render them for payment.

Unlike the USD, which is virually limitless in it’s use.

292 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:43:19am

re: #287 Justanotherhuman

Well, I suppose that makes me at odds with Popper, then, because I’m rather intolerant of ignorance which stymies both freedom and progress.

Yeah, that’s not the kind of thing Popper was talking about. Have you read him?

293 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:43:24am

How is it today?

294 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:44:48am

re: #290 GunstarGreen

Self-awareness is not the strong suit of RWNJs.

Could be accomplished with a single link pointing towards a full digital copy of the document, but no. Far-right idiots insist on being as inefficient and wasteful as possible while demonstrating their idiocy.

And then there are the gun fuckers HURR HURR TEH 2ND AMENDMENT IS ALL TEH CONSTITION WE WILL EVER NEED!!!!1!!!

295 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:44:50am

re: #293 FemNaziBitch

How is it today?

Cold, icy, and snowing. U?

296 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:45:13am

One oblast after another…

297 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:45:16am

re: #291 FemNaziBitch

Currency only has ‘value’ insofar and as long as people are willing to accept it in trade for goods and services. The idea is, somebody is engaging in a trade with you, but they don’t have any good or offer any service that you want. Normally, this would stop the trade cold, but with currency, they can give you a generic placeholder that most people agree carries a certain weight, and you take that in trade instead. Then you can take this agreed-upon placeholder and trade it to someone else that has a good or service that you actually want, but to whom you can provide no desirable good or service.

Thus is economy.

After the zombie apocalypse happens, your money — whether that’s in bills or in gold — will be worthless. Because nobody will be willing to accept some paper or shiny metals in place of something they can actually use to survive then and there, like a good can of beans. Or maybe a roll of duct tape.

298 Ian G.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:46:02am

Good morning, Lizards. It appears that Marco Rubio has ruled out force by the US in Crimea, and he’s usually a bellwether for the (nominally) sane GOP, but how many tweets from Caribou Barbie and Donald Trump have there been clucking about how Putin is a real man and Obama is a pussy?

On another note, I headed down to Floyd Bennett Field on Saturday afternoon in a quest to see a snowy owl. Given the record irruption of the birds this winter (one was spotted as far south as Florida), I didn’t want to let this opportunity pass. Sure enough, on the edge of the old runway, one was relaxing. The fiancee and I walked to within about 100 yards of it when it started watching us, and then took off, gliding low over the grass, until it found another spot to chill, further away from us.

I had never actually seen an owl in the wild before. I’ve heard Great Horned, Barred, and Screech Owls before, but always at like 2 AM, usually deep in the woods, and good luck seeing one under those conditions.

299 freetoken  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:46:22am

re: #286 Pie-onist Overlord

WTF I can’t even
There is a wingnut Twitter account that is Tweeting the entire U.S. Constitution in 140-char increments.

Don’t they realize how stupid that is?

It’s glyph magick. These people believe there is magic in words, all the more so in written words. It’s one of the core beliefs of American fundamentalism, though the belief has been widely held throughout humanity.

300 b.d.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:48:38am

re: #286 Pie-onist Overlord

WTF I can’t even
There is a wingnut Twitter account that is Tweeting the entire U.S. Constitution in 140-char increments.

Don’t they realize how stupid that is?

There was this one RWNJ Einstein who got a bit of attention announcing the stunt of tweeting the entire ACA, he lasted about a day.

301 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:48:49am

re: #292 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

Yeah, that’s not the kind of thing Popper was talking about. Have you read him?

I tried reading him back in the ’80s, but found it difficult and myself without enough time to study it in depth, so abandoned that project.

302 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:49:12am

It always amuses me when RWNJs carp and bleat about the evils of the ‘living document’ way of viewing the constitution.

Given that, you know, the damned thing has an amendment process built right the hell into it.

303 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:49:37am
304 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:51:08am
305 darthstar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:52:38am

re: #114 b_sharp

Who’s the guy using her boob as a handle?

The winner.

306 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:52:44am

re: #296 Justanotherhuman

One oblast after another…

[Embedded content]

Putin is engineering this secessionist movement; that should be obvious to anyone. But what can anyone do about it? Sadly, very little, unless the Kyiv central government is willing to use force to put a stop to it, which would most likely trigger Russian military intervention.

Gotta keep up that economic warfare against the Russians. Make ‘em bleed red ink. What we’re seeing in Russian financial markets today is a very good start - keep that pressure up.

307 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:55:46am

Headline at BlackSeaNews (link): Russian Black Sea Fleet Court blocked exit from the bay / Photo
“As of 13 hours at the exit from the bay, right on the main fairway, are auxiliary vessel KIL-158, tugboat and a patrol boat of the Black Sea Fleet.”


(Woops!)

308 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:56:21am

re: #302 GunstarGreen

It always amuses me when RWNJs carp and bleat about the evils of the ‘living document’ way of viewing the constitution.

Given that, you know, the damned thing has an amendment process built right the hell into it.

Ahhh, but they say that’s the only way it ‘lives’. Aside from that, you have to know exactly what the words meant WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN and hold to that interpretation forever. So ‘freedom of religion’ means ‘freedom to worship ANY Christian branch—and MAYBE Judaism’, and ‘right to bear arms’ means ‘if they could afford it, any random citizen could have someone build them an aircraft carrier and full complement of aircraft’. I’m honestly surprised someone hasn’t at least tried to violate the National Firearms Act and get it overturned, what with the current hard-on for ‘shall not be infringed’ extending to SCOTUS…

309 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:58:18am

re: #308 Chrysicat

Ahhh, but they say that’s the only way it ‘lives’. Aside from that, you have to know exactly what the words meant WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN and hold to that interpretation forever. So ‘freedom of religion’ means ‘freedom to worship ANY Christian branch—and MAYBE Judaism’, and ‘right to bear arms’ means ‘if they could afford it, any random citizen could have someone build them an aircraft carrier and full complement of aircraft’. I’m honestly surprised someone hasn’t at least tried to violate the National Firearms Act and get it overturned, what with the current hard-on for ‘shall not be infringed’ extending to SCOTUS…

Actually the “when they were written” for religion includes Islam. (called Mohammedism). I find that hilarious.

310 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:00:19am

re: #298 Ian G.

I’ve also never seen owls in the wild before, and it must have been awesome to see the snowy owls.

I have been lucky to see bald eagles though, adults out in Yellowstone, and juveniles and adults in Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge near Syracuse in upstate NY.

If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, you’d never recognize the juveniles, which don’t have the plumage on their heads you associate with the bald eagles.

311 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:00:43am

re: #272 Justanotherhuman

Karl Popper? Of “critical rationalism” fame? He’s very associated with libertarian thought.

FWIW George Soros was a student of Popper’s and was heavily influenced by him. Soros’s “Open Society Foundations” is named after one of Popper’s books.

312 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:03:55am

re: #297 GunstarGreen

Currency only has ‘value’ insofar and as long as people are willing to accept it in trade for goods and services. The idea is, somebody is engaging in a trade with you, but they don’t have any good or offer any service that you want. Normally, this would stop the trade cold, but with currency, they can give you a generic placeholder that most people agree carries a certain weight, and you take that in trade instead. Then you can take this agreed-upon placeholder and trade it to someone else that has a good or service that you actually want, but to whom you can provide no desirable good or service.

Thus is economy.

After the zombie apocalypse happens, your money — whether that’s in bills or in gold — will be worthless. Because nobody will be willing to accept some paper or shiny metals in place of something they can actually use to survive then and there, like a good can of beans. Or maybe a roll of duct tape.

Actually, take currency one step further. Currency only has ‘value’ insofar and as long as people are willing to accept it in trade for goods and services and are unwilling to trust you will exchange in kind at a later time.

Currency is what you use to trade with strangers.

That means both parties must agree the placeholder has relative value.

Bitcoins could have been - and indeed could someday be - money. But it requires that any parties agreeing to use them as a placeholder trust and believe that their relative value will remain generally constant for the practical future (till they can be exchanged as a deferred trade).

313 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:07:12am

No surprises here. China is on board with Russia.

314 b.d.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:07:34am

If only people had invested in Bit Rubles!!!

315 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:09:42am

Tech/admin note mainly for Charles. Avast antivirus package includes an extension: “Browser Security and Web Reputation Plugin”.

In Google Chrome Version 33.0.1750.117 m on Windows 7 this makes the LGF reply and quote buttons quit working. Clicking the rating takes you back to the front page.

These problems do not happen in IE 11 on the same machine with the plugin active.

Not critical, just thought Charles should know in case there are other problems this might indicate AND so anyone else having the “no working quote” can see if it’s the same cause.

316 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:10:49am

re: #313 NJDhockeyfan

No surprises here. China is on board with Russia.

[Embedded content]

I think you just got RT’d, and I don’t mean retweeted. China’s also releasing official statements “calling for all parties to respect international law and come to a diplomatic solution”.

Wouldn’t be the first time that you can’t trust a Russian’s word on this whole mess.

317 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:11:02am

re: #311 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

FWIW George Soros was a student of Popper’s and was heavily influenced by him. Soros’s “Open Society Foundations” is named after one of Popper’s books.

It wouldn’t surprise me that a billionaire would hold those views. However, the basic economics of survival, not theory, has the most effect on the majority of people’s lives in the short run, at least. Theory influences our thinking, but is most of the time not the practical determinant of our lives, at least not a specific theory; we tend to draw from many schools, even while we don’t realize we’re doing so, and wouldn’t recognize a particular theory in a crowded room. And all of us have a rather short run of a life or at least, we feel we do since we won’t live forever.

318 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:11:16am

re: #313 NJDhockeyfan

Earlier, there were reports that China disapproved of Russia’s occupation of Crimea. They seemed to have changed their minds.

319 Ian G.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:11:49am

re: #310 lawhawk

Ah, Yellowstone. So many eagles I almost got bored of looking at them. The challenge was telling the immature balds apart from the goldens at a distance or in silhouette.

Closer to home, the upper Delaware River has a slew of bald eagles. I was rafting with some friends one summer and there were ducks near us. The ducks suddenly started making alarmed quacks. I looked up, and an adult bald went zooming maybe 15-20 feet over my head.

320 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:11:50am

re: #313 NJDhockeyfan

No surprises here. China is on board with Russia.

[Embedded content]

Why do you trust the Russian foreign minister?

321 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:12:33am

re: #318 wheat-dogghazi

Earlier, there were reports that China disapproved of Russia’s occupation of Crimea. They seemed to have changed their minds.

Presumably, because the Russians reminded them of China’s own situation regarding a particular piece of real estate in China’s immediate neighborhood.

322 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:14:07am
323 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:14:11am

Lol

324 Belafon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:15:10am

re: #286 Pie-onist Overlord

re: #290 GunstarGreen

At the end, someone should just “Shorter: “.

325 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:15:40am

re: #323 NJDhockeyfan

Um. Maybe I’m not up to date on my stupid internet lingo, but how can it be a ‘selfie’ if somebody else took it?

326 Flounder  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:15:57am

Damn Sting looks good, I hate him ;)
Good morning all!

327 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:16:08am

re: #321 Dr Lizardo

Presumably, because the Russians reminded them of China’s own situation regarding a particular piece of real estate in China’s immediate neighborhood.

Maybe so. I know that China has leased farmland in Ukraine, including Crimea. Maybe the Russkies suggested a favorable change in the lease agreement.

328 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:16:44am
329 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:18:49am

Crimea’s new tourist attraction: Russian invaders of the non-shooting (so far) war

kyivpost.com

You traitors are so outed…

330 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:19:50am
331 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:21:34am

re: #295 NJDhockeyfan

Cold, icy, and snowing. U?


bright and white

332 Flounder  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:21:58am

What investment does the 4th richest person in the world recommend to his wife? A very low-cost S&P 500 index fund, just a plain vanilla index fund (Buffett recommends the low-cost Vanguard funds).

nypost.com

333 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:22:15am

re: #297 GunstarGreen

Currency only has ‘value’ insofar and as long as people are willing to accept it in trade for goods and services. The idea is, somebody is engaging in a trade with you, but they don’t have any good or offer any service that you want. Normally, this would stop the trade cold, but with currency, they can give you a generic placeholder that most people agree carries a certain weight, and you take that in trade instead. Then you can take this agreed-upon placeholder and trade it to someone else that has a good or service that you actually want, but to whom you can provide no desirable good or service.

Thus is economy.

After the zombie apocalypse happens, your money — whether that’s in bills or in gold — will be worthless. Because nobody will be willing to accept some paper or shiny metals in place of something they can actually use to survive then and there, like a good can of beans. Or maybe a roll of duct tape.

ammo and water will be currency?

334 Varek Raith  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:22:42am

re: #333 FemNaziBitch

ammo and water will be currency?

Bottlecaps.

335 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:23:04am

re: #334 Varek Raith

Bottlecaps.

Pogs!!!

336 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:24:47am

re: #312 kirkspencer

I would actually argue that bitcoins are money, just extremely limited in it’s usefulness.

AS long as someone somewhere will trade for it … .and governments will tax on that trade … .

I assume money = legal tender

337 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:25:22am

re: #334 Varek Raith

Bottlecaps.

I’ve still got to play those after downloading them from GOG before they lost the license…

338 Mattand  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:25:58am

Stephen Colbert gives controversial security conference talk

Part of the controversy?

While the RSA got a pass, Colbert didn’t go as easy on the NSA or Edward Snowden, whom he referred to as “practically a war criminal” for taking top secret U.S. intelligence to China and then to Russia.

So, Colbert engages in this thing called “reality” when he’s not cracking wise. I can hear the steam coming out of Greenwald’s ears as I write this.

This should be fun.

339 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:26:20am

re: #334 Varek Raith

Bottlecaps.

vicodin … .

340 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:26:27am

re: #290 GunstarGreen

Far-right idiots insist on being as inefficient and wasteful as possible while demonstrating their idiocy.

Flawless summation.

341 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:26:46am

Five cases get a look-see by SC starting in Oct, including the right to wear a beard in AR prisons as religious expression.

Court grants five cases

scotusblog.com

342 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:27:12am

re: #333 FemNaziBitch

ammo and water will be currency?

Most likely.

Metro 2033 actually had a really nice take on this, both in novel and especially in video game form. In post-apocalyptic Russia where people live in the metro tunnels, ammo is currency. High-quality military-grade ammo (as opposed to dirty bulk rounds) is especially valuable currency, relating to its obvious benefits when used in weapons to stop the horrible mutants. Thus battles become very, very interesting in terms of personal calculus. Do I load up my high-grade ammo to have a much better chance of surviving this encounter? Or do I save those bullets to trade later?

343 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:27:28am

re: #336 FemNaziBitch

I would actually argue that bitcoins are money, just extremely limited in it’s usefulness.

AS long as someone somewhere will trade for it … .and governments will tax on that trade … .

I assume money = legal tender

Well, yeah, but AIUI, nobody was taxing Bitcoins…or even fractioning them for the privilege of being sent through their exchange…

344 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:28:48am

re: #309 kirkspencer

Actually the “when they were written” for religion includes Islam. (called Mohammedism). I find that hilarious.

See John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli.

345 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:30:10am

re: #343 Chrysicat

Well, yeah, but AIUI, nobody was taxing Bitcoins…or even fractioning them for the privilege of being sent through their exchange…

The IRS has advised Bitcoin traders to report capital gains or losses.

346 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:31:24am

re: #298 Ian G.

I had never actually seen an owl in the wild before. I’ve heard Great Horned, Barred, and Screech Owls before, but always at like 2 AM, usually deep in the woods, and good luck seeing one under those conditions.

Owls are awesome, and creepy as hell when you see them.

347 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:32:28am
348 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:33:06am

re: #346 chadu

Owls are awesome, and creepy as hell when you see them.

[Embedded image]

Particularly when they almost fly into your windshield! We were driving home from dinner at the beginning of October and had one drop down and come within 6 feet of the truck; I dunno if it was expecting a smaller car or what…

349 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:33:45am

The wingnuts are cheerleading Putin, just because they think he’s “owning” Obama.

Ironic Wonka: Tell me again what a tyranny-hating patriot you are.

350 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:34:13am

Fed offices closed in DC today.

351 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:35:07am

That thing which goeth before a fall, Ben can haz it.

352 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:37:09am

A good round up of today’s events I Ukraine
Russian military issues ultimatums to Ukraine: Surrender or face attack

March 3, 5:03 p.m. — Russian Black Sea Fleet Commander Aleksandr Vitko issued an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in Crimea on March 3. “If they do not give up by 5 a.m. tomorrow, there will be a real storm of subdivisions and units of Ukraine’s military forces all over Crimea,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

353 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:37:19am

re: #346 chadu

Owls are awesome, and creepy as hell when you see them.

[Embedded image]

How could you not love this face? : )

takeinsocialmedia.com

354 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:38:21am

re: #349 Pie-onist Overlord

The wingnuts are cheerleading Putin, just because they think he’s “owning” Obama.

Ironic Wonka: Tell me again what a tyranny-hating patriot you are.

Ironic indeed.

This adventurism is costing Russia; their stock markets are going down, and over the last 24 hours, the Russian Central Bank had to spend $10 billion to shore up the ruble and raised interest rates 150 basis points.

If that can be kept up, and even accelerated, it may not be much longer before the folks with the big bucks in Russia start screaming at Putin, “WTF are you doing?!”

A possible future headline that would drive that message home would be “Russian Central Bank Warns It May Need IMF Bailout”.

That would make Crimea some damned expensive real estate.

355 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:39:03am

re: #351 Pie-onist Overlord

That thing which goeth before a fall, Ban can haz it.

[Embedded content]

amazon.com
amazon.com

Barnum, Suckers, Minutes, etc.

356 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:43:07am

This is continuing to make the rounds
Germany’s Merkel: Vladimir Putin is living ‘in another world’

The world of modern diplomacy is premised on the belief that, saber-rattling and propaganda aside, world leaders are basically rational actors whose behaviors are subject to incentives and credible threats. A lot of what happens next in Ukraine may be riding on whether or not Merkel is correct. Or maybe some nuance was just lost in translation.

I don’t know what to make of this. I have been assuming Putin has reasonably calculated the “consequences” and is willing to accept them. if he’s gone nutty then this could get dangerous quickly but I somehow doubt this is the case.

357 b.d.  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:45:03am

re: #351 Pie-onist Overlord

That thing which goeth before a fall, Ben can haz it.

[Embedded content]

FREE DOWNLOAD!?!?!?!?!?!??! WHAT KIND OF COMMIE S*HIT IS THAT!?!?!?!

358 wheat-dogghazi  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:45:23am

re: #356 Killgore Trout

Maybe it’s one of those occasions when a leader has surrounded himself only with yes-men, who know the leader’s decision is wrong but are afraid to tell him so.

359 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:46:10am

re: #334 Varek Raith

Bottlecaps.

Seriously, in a post-apocalyptic economy, I can see bottlecaps used as placeholders for ammo, water, food, and duct-tape barter.

I know I wouldn’t necessarily bring all of my barter-ammo directly into a negotiation.

360 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:48:00am

re: #348 Chrysicat

Particularly when they almost fly into your windshield! We were driving home from dinner at the beginning of October and had one drop down and come within 6 feet of the truck; I dunno if it was expecting a smaller car or what…

Friend of mine was driving through Texas on the way to Cali, and an owl smashed out her front windshield. (She was driving a small truck!)

361 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:48:46am

re: #350 Justanotherhuman

Fed offices closed in DC today.

[Embedded content]

That’s a church. ;)

(Lived about 2 blocks from there, when I lived downtown.)

362 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:49:21am

re: #356 Killgore Trout

This is continuing to make the rounds
Germany’s Merkel: Vladimir Putin is living ‘in another world’

I don’t know what to make of this. I have been assuming Putin has reasonably calculated the “consequences” and is willing to accept them. if he’s gone nutty then this could get dangerous quickly but I somehow doubt this is the case.

Without hearing the original quote in German, it’s hard for me to decide as to what to make of it.

But it brings up a good point a former student of mine raised; we all assume that Vladimir Putin is a “rational actor”. But what if he’s not? What if the world is making the same mistake regarding Putin that Josef Stalin made regarding Adolf Hitler? Easily, one of Stalin’s biggest blunders was that he assumed Hitler was a rational actor; it’s easy for us to view it with the benefit of hindsight, but at that time, it was a judgement call on Stalin’s part. Of course, Stalin was badly mistaken, and a great cost to his country.

Chancellor Merkel strikes me as being a good observer of human nature. I wonder exactly what she meant in saying that Putin seems to be “…living in another world”? Is it her judgement call that Putin is not a rational actor?

If so, like you said, it could get dangerous very quickly.

363 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:50:23am

re: #360 chadu

Friend of mine was driving through Texas on the way to Cali, and an owl smashed out her front windshield. (She was driving a small truck!)

Maybe she should brighten her “mousy brown” hair.

364 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:50:47am

As usual, Paul Ryan doesn’t have a clue. To sum this piece of garbage up: How much do we want to trim federal budgets related to the safety net?

“The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later

Never mind that the ever-widening income gap and the hoarding of wealth by the top richest in the US who seek ever cheaper labor by outsourcing overseas or limiting of wages in the US, along with the destruction of unions, are the #1 determinant.

365 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:50:52am
366 Belafon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:52:45am

re: #356 Killgore Trout

Living in another world doesn’t necessarily imply crazy. It can just mean that your ideas don’t match reality. Similar to Karl Rove and Mitt Romney’s reactions to the 2012 election. I don’t consider either of them crazy, but they both had the fantasy that they were going to win even though every poll indicated otherwise.

Putin may be confusing all of the leaders calling him and telling him to stop with real power.

ETA: Crazy would be Putin claiming victory if his troops are forced out of Ukraine or economic sanctions collapse his economy.

367 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:55:04am

Teh Putie worship is strong in TCOT-land.

368 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:55:28am

re: #353 Justanotherhuman

How could you not love this face? : )

takeinsocialmedia.com

I do love barn owls!

369 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:56:22am

re: #363 Pie-onist Overlord

Maybe she should brighten her “mousy brown” hair.

(high-hat, rimshot)

370 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:57:36am
371 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:58:03am

re: #367 Pie-onist Overlord

In the motorcycling world, guys that ride without helmets or upper-body protection aren’t known as ‘badass’. They’re known as ‘statistics’.

372 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:58:09am

re: #366 Belafon

Living in another world doesn’t necessarily imply crazy. It can just mean that your ideas don’t match reality. Similar to Karl Rove and Mitt Romney’s reactions to the 2012 election. I don’t consider either of them crazy, but they both had the fantasy that they were going to win even though every poll indicated otherwise.

Putin may be confusing all of the leaders calling him and telling him to stop with real power.

While it’s true that it doesn’t mean that Putin is ready for a straitjacket, it does rather sound like Putin may be delusional, made worse if he’s surrounded by sycophants and toadies who are too afraid to point out otherwise.

373 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:59:05am

re: #371 GunstarGreen

In the motorcycling world, guys that ride without helmets or upper-body protection aren’t known as ‘badass’. They’re known as ‘statistics’.

We like to think of them as “organ donors”.

374 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:59:08am

re: #371 GunstarGreen

In the motorcycling world, guys that ride without helmets or upper-body protection aren’t known as ‘badass’. They’re known as ‘statistics’ Roadkill.

FTFY

375 Varek Raith  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 7:59:29am

Wingnuts sure like staring at a topless Putin.

376 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:00:39am

re: #358 wheat-dogghazi

Maybe it’s one of those occasions when a leader has surrounded himself only with yes-men, who know the leader’s decision is wrong but are afraid to tell him so.

That’s possible but it could also be shitty reporting, bad translation of a German euphemism or simply propaganda. I wouldn’t bet either way.

377 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:01:33am

re: #375 Varek Raith

Wingnuts sure like staring at a topless Putin.

Remember when the very-strictly-moral-much-more-moral-than-you Catholic church was found to be harboring and protecting a vast ring of kid-touchers?

Same thing with RWNJs and Teh Gayz.

378 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:02:31am

re: #361 chadu

That’s a church. ;)

(Lived about 2 blocks from there, when I lived downtown.)

No, really, Fed offices are closed. So is the Metro.

379 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:02:38am

This should be interesting.

380 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:02:49am
381 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:05:15am

re: #332 Flounder

Index funds are better than managed funds in most instances. Near equal rate of return to the benchmarks, with a much lower cost.

Between that and dollar cost averaging to buy on a regular basis, to ignore the inevitable selling into lows or buying into highs, and you’d get a smoother and less volatile investing strategy (because buying into lows means you get a lower cost basis and more shares so you get more bang for your buck).

382 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:05:27am
383 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:06:35am

Another video of Russian troop movements (take with the required grain of salt)
A column of Russian invasion forces filmed heading towards central Simferopol (March 3rd, ‘14)
Liveleak Video

That’s a decent sized column of troop carriers.

384 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:09:07am

re: #380 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Also, check out the photo and caption.

“March 3, 5:38 p.m. Russian military commanders have reportedly given the Ukrainian navy until 7 p.m. today to surrender and Ukrainian troops stationed on Crimea’s mainland until 5 a.m. tomorrow — or else they face attack. But the threats could be part of the war of nerves designed to rattle Ukraine. The nation’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said that Russia gave Ukraine a similar ultimatum two days earlier, with the deadline of 5 a.m. on March 2. “They didn’t start storming the bases on 5 a.m., but the situation is still tense there,” he said earlier. — “

kyivpost.com

385 Flounder  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:09:12am

re: #381 lawhawk

I switched all my deferred comp today to Vanguard.

387 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:18:35am
388 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:19:42am

re: #387 Kragar

OMG.

389 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:21:06am

re: #387 Kragar

To look at everything that the boy scouts do, everything that the boy scouts teach, everything that the boy scouts are… and to boil all of that down to ‘they let in teh gayz, boycott!!11!11’…

To do that requires an incredibly sick individual. The kind of sick that requires professional therapy.

390 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:25:47am

re: #388 PhillyPretzel

OMG.

OOPS.

391 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:27:29am

re: #387 Kragar

[Embedded content]

WTF?!

392 makeitstop  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:28:58am

re: #388 PhillyPretzel

OMG.

I guess they passed out the brown shirts after the pic was taken.

393 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:31:59am

Maybe Trail Life should have Derbyshire help them out.


“The future of the conservative movement is as a home for white ethnocentrism,” said Derbyshire, who now writes for the white nationalist site VDARE.

He said “conservatives are the only people in the U.S.A. trying to ‘transcend contentious racial issues,’” but agreed with his “friend” — white nationalist Jared Taylor - that white people should stop trying to get along with black people.

“Whites may as well start asserting themselves and join in fighting for the spoils,” Derbyshire said. “If that’s right, ‘colorblind conservatism’ is a dead end, and the future of the conservative movement is as a home for white ethnocentrism.”

He also suggested that Republicans should also give up on trying to appeal to women and become more bellicose.

394 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:32:20am

re: #392 makeitstop

I guess they passed out the brown shirts after the pic was taken.

Today San Jose, tomorrow San Fransico.

395 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:32:51am

Two L.A. gang members are apparently fighting for Syria’s Assad

“It’s Syria, homie, we’re in Syria, homie. … Frontline, homie, frontline, homie,” says Wino.

“In Middle East, homie, in Syria, still gangbanging,” says Creeper, in comments typical of the 2 1/2-minute video.

396 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:33:55am

re: #393 Kragar

Maybe Trail Life should have Derbyshire help them out.

[Embedded content]

And I guess GOProud is just SOL.

397 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:33:58am

re: #393 Kragar

He also suggested that Republicans should also give up on trying to appeal to women and become more bellicose.

Please proceed…

398 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:34:02am

re: #393 Kragar

Please proceed.

399 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:34:48am

re: #395 Killgore Trout

Two L.A. gang members are apparently fighting for Syria’s Assad

They’ll be missed.

400 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:36:10am

Who needs women, Blacks, Asians, gays, Latinos, or moderate white men when you can corner the market on angry racist women haters?

401 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:37:14am

re: #393 Kragar

Maybe Trail Life should have Derbyshire help them out.

[Embedded content]

Frederick Douglass Republicans can haz a sad.

402 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:37:16am

How many rubles can I get for a bitcoin?

403 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:37:17am

re: #399 Decatur Deb

They’ll be missed.

Hopefully, they’ll be missed permanently. I guess the real problem is if they come home. Not only do they have combat experience now but they’re still morons.

404 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:37:24am

re: #400 Kragar

Who needs women, Blacks, Asians, gays, Latinos, or moderate white men when you can corner the market on angry racist women haters?

Thing is, it worked once…ten years ago. It failed in 2004 and 2008 but they cannot be convinced taht is it sue to any weakess in their approach or ideology.

405 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:37:57am
406 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:39:10am

re: #367 Pie-onist Overlord

Teh Putie worship is strong in TCOT-land.

[Embedded content]

Why is that picture so popular with the wingnuts? On the left we have a youthful, vigorous, intelligent (he’s wearing a helmet) man and on the right there’s the old guy with his shirt off. He’s firmly controlling a horse with all the vigor and fight of your average trail-ride operation in some park. He could lay those reins down on the horse’s neck and snooze and get the same ride.

407 Belafon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:40:59am

re: #406 calochortus

I’ll give you a hint: Ads for races here in Texas openly include the phrase “Fighting Obama.”

408 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:42:02am

re: #406 calochortus

One is white, one is not.

Yes, it really is that simple.

409 Skip Intro  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:42:10am

re: #393 Kragar

Maybe Trail Life should have Derbyshire help them out.

[Embedded content]

So I guess the new plan is to “win” elections by using 2nd Amendment solutions.

410 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:42:49am

re: #404 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

Thing is, it worked once…ten years ago. It failed in 2004 and 2008 but they cannot be convinced taht is it sue to any weakess in their approach or ideology.

One of my favorite quotes from Barbara Tuchman about Spain’s Phillip II:
“No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.”

We might have a similar situation here.

411 Bubblehead II  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:43:10am

Their getting ready to start pulling Vettes out of the sink hole at the National Corvette Museum.

corvettemuseum.org

412 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:43:52am

re: #407 Belafon

re: #408 Eclectic Cyborg

It’s really too early to start banging my head on the desk.

413 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:46:30am
414 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:46:51am
415 Internet Tough Guy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:49:30am

re: #413 NJDhockeyfan

If Putin’s trying to bait Poland into firing, it could be the biggest strategic blunder in Russian history.

Yes, I am aware of the competition for that title.

416 blueraven  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:51:31am

Remember Vladimir Putin’s New York Times op-ed? Let’s revisit it

It all seems a little like ancient history now, but last year Vladimir Putin was at the center of a very different geopolitical tug-of-war. The Russian president was facing the possibility of American military action in Syria, and, to voice his opposition to it, he decided to write a New York Times op-ed.

“Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders,” Putin, or perhaps his ghostwriter, began. “It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.”

The Russian president went on to explain how “decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus,” and that an American-led strike against the Syrian regime “could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.”

“We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos,” Putin wrote. “The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not.”

417 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:51:55am

The Secret of Political Jiu-Jitsu

How to “make oppression backfire” by peacefully leveraging the brutality of the oppressors.

While oppression may appear to be a display of the government’s power, skilled activists know that it’s actually a sign of weakness. Indeed, when a regime resorts to violence, forcible arrests, or repressive legislation, it is, in fact, giving citizens an opportunity to make that oppression backfire. In this sense, making oppression backfire is a skill, a kind of political martial art. Gene Sharp, the leading theoretician of nonviolent resistance, refers to it as “political jiu-jitsu,” in which activists use a regime’s strengths against it.

There are many examples from around the world that attest to this. Take Ukraine. When Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests began last November, they were small and localized. It was only after Ukraine’s special police units, armed with stun grenades and tear gas, tried to quash the budding protests, that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets.

418 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:53:00am

re: #387 Kragar

[Embedded content]

I don’t think the Boys Scouts have much to worry about. These outraged and pouty ex-Eagle Scouts that formed this branded, commercialized enterprise describe it as “Christian” so that means they probably don’t welcome Jews, Muslims or any other faiths, either.

Definitely has a “christian identity” vibe to it, as well as being like a franchised boy group thing.

419 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:53:13am

So, Palin is actually taking a victory lap for “predicting” the Russian invasion because Senator Obama’s reaction to the Georgia invasion was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next……

I feel stupid for just reading that….

420 FemNaziBitch  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:54:30am

bbl and
Please don’t forget Marissa.

tweet, share, donate

421 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:54:49am

re: #404 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

Thing is, it worked once…ten years ago. It failed in 2004 and 2008 but they cannot be convinced taht is it sue to any weakess in their approach or ideology.

2004 was ten years ago…am I missing something here?

422 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:54:51am

Russia supports Venezuela’s attempts to avert further clashes in country - Russian FM

Russia supports the Venezuelan government’s attempts to avert the spread of the confrontations that have overflowed the country since February as people have been opposing the current government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said during the meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart. “We support the Venezuelan government’s attempts, aimed to avert the spread of conflrontations in the country,” Lavrov stated. Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elias Jaua thanked the Russian opposite number for “the support of peace in the country, considering the fact that there are those who deny the will of the majority of the Venezuelan people”.


Elias Jaua also added that Venezuela and Russia had a range of agreements, including the economical ones.

“We intend to improve our relations that began to develop under Chavez and continue to develop under Maduro,” Jaua said.

Before the meeting, Lavrov took part in the conference of the UN Human Rights Council that was held in Geneva.

423 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:55:32am

re: #419 Dr. Matt

So, Palin is actually taking a victory lap for “predicting” the Russia invasion because Senator Obama’s reaction to the Georgia invasion was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next……

I feel stupid for just reading that….

She didn’t have to predict it, she could see the preparations from her back door.

424 danarchy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 8:59:25am

re: #414 Chrysicat

[Embedded content]

I am pretty sure NATO only has a defense requirement. So if Poland was attacked we would be obligated to help defend them. NATO does not require all members to follow any other member to a foreign war.

425 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:01:50am

re: #422 Killgore Trout

Russia supports Venezuela’s attempts to avert further clashes in country - Russian FM

How exactly do you “avert further confrontations in Venezuela” when the police and the pro-government paramilitaries are the ones inciting the confrontations? Besides, worry about your backyard, Putin!

426 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:02:32am
427 Rev_Arthur_Belling  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:04:09am

re: #426 Pie-onist Overlord

all my heads/desks.

428 Belafon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:08:15am

re: #426 Pie-onist Overlord

There are times when my attempt at finding a nice way to disagree are useless:

429 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:09:26am

re: #425 Chrysicat

How exactly do you “avert further confrontations in Venezuela” when the police and the pro-government paramilitaries are the ones inciting the confrontations? Besides, worry about your backyard, Putin!

That’s why I think, especially in the case of Venezuela, a negotiated diplomatic solution is the wrong policy. The “best” outcome stops the violence by stopping the protests and does nothing to improve the political or economic problems. Venezuelan government is doomed, they’ve destroyed their economy. Extending Maduro’s rule is a mistake.

430 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:09:48am

re: #419 Dr. Matt

So, Palin is actually taking a victory lap for “predicting” the Russian invasion because Senator Obama’s reaction to the Georgia invasion was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next……

I feel stupid for just reading that….

Victory lap for indecision and moral equivalence that President Bush took for not responding to the South Ossetia invasion? Obama’s following the same kind of actions, which is to say, with the current range of options, pursuing the one that doesn’t put US lives in harm’s way or starting WWIII with nuclear powers lined up against each other.

Does Palin understand the need to avoid a war of that magnitude? Or does she really think that any president facing these circumstances can and should sabre rattle and threaten war as if the threat is credible and can be backed by actual use of force.

Just thinking about that, the US could go ahead and recognize the Japanese rights to at least some of the Kuril Islands, which might make Russia a bit uncomfortable in a place it’s not focusing on at the moment. Japan might not necessarily want that attention, but they’ve long claimed that some of the islands they claim aren’t part of the 1951 treaty that required giving them up (and in any event, Russia isn’t entitled to sovereignty over them under that same treaty).

431 gwangung  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:10:18am

re: #426 Pie-onist Overlord

[Embedded content]

If they had a president who WASNT a “spinless fool”, what, exactly, would he be doing differently?

432 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:10:44am

LOLWHUT (look at the hashtag)

433 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:11:35am

re: #431 gwangung

If they had a president who WASNT a “spinless fool”, what, exactly, would he be doing differently?

RONALD REAGAN SAID TEH BOMBING BEGINS IN FIVE MINUTES!!!11!!!

434 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:12:10am

re: #432 Pie-onist Overlord

Oy Vey. Not him again. ::: covers face with both hands :::

435 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:12:18am

re: #431 gwangung

If they had a president who WASNT a “spinless fool”, what, exactly, would he be doing differently?

Youtube Video

436 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:12:30am

re: #432 Pie-onist Overlord

LOLWHUT (look at the hashtag)

[Embedded content]

Sorry, I’m too busy looking at “a healthy dose of fear” to concentrate on the “Santorum 2016” part.

437 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:13:00am

re: #432 Pie-onist Overlord

Because when I think “Badass”, Rick Santorum is absolutely the first thing that jumps to mind.

438 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:13:35am

re: #431 gwangung

If they had a president who WASNT a “spinless fool”, what, exactly, would he be doing differently?

Resigning Abdicating and handing the government over to Ted Cruz.

439 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:14:04am

re: #430 lawhawk

Victory lap for indecision and moral equivalence that President Bush took for not responding to the South Ossetia invasion?

BINGO. The fact that she’s predicting/blaming a junior senator for future events is mind-numbing.

440 ericblair  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:17:11am

re: #424 danarchy

I am pretty sure NATO only has a defense requirement. So if Poland was attacked we would be obligated to help defend them. NATO does not require all members to follow any other member to a foreign war.

The Article 5 wording is “will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith. such action as it deems necessary”, which is a carefully crafted piece of vagueness that allows a lot of leeway while still invoking Article 51 of the UN Charter that allows for collective defense. So it’s not like we have to start tossing missiles at Moscow the minute the Lithuanian government flips out.

441 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:18:16am

re: #319 Ian G.

Another good place to view them in the NYC metro area is Duke Farms, which has a live cam on their nesting site. There’s supposedly nesting pairs in the Meadowlands and up the Hackensack River near Teaneck, but haven’t seen them in either area.

442 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:18:29am

This guy is with the Guardian…


Yet, the BBC is reporting it as true.

bbc.com

443 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:19:08am

BTW, Last night’s Walking dead was another sucky episode. The writers have some very obvious and silly crutches they keep returning to. The anti-alcohol thing is just dumb and they keep doing it. The female characters are another big problem but at least the blonde chick from last night is a good actor and her character is somewhat realistic. Darryl’s backstory was generic and he’s not a believable hardass toughguy.

444 brennant  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:19:38am

re: #437 Eclectic Cyborg

Because when I think “Badass”, “Frothy”, Rick Santorum is absolutely the first thing that jumps to mind.

FIFY.

445 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:20:56am

re: #442 Justanotherhuman

This guy is with the Guardian…

[Embedded content]


Yet, the BBC is reporting it as true.

bbc.com

446 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:21:51am

re: #442 Justanotherhuman

I wonder if there will be a day that some dumbass, unconfirmed tweet actually starts a major war?

447 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:22:18am

re: #442 Justanotherhuman

I just scanned the NYT and did not find anything in their latest updates.

448 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:22:36am

re: #446 Eclectic Cyborg

I wonder if there will be a day that some dumbass, unconfirmed tweet actually starts a major war?

Yeah, there’s a lot of shit floating around.

449 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:22:39am

In Putin’s Russia, Ultimatum confirms you!

450 brennant  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:23:07am

re: #443 Killgore Trout

BTW, Last night’s Walking dead was another sucky episode. The writers have some very obvious and silly crutches they keep returning to. The anti-alcohol thing is just dumb and they keep doing it. The female characters are another big problem but at least the blonde chick from last night is a good actor and her character is somewhat realistic. Darryl’s backstory was generic and he’s not a believable hardass toughguy.

The holes are beginning to show for WD. First clue coming back from their break: You would think the Rick would be freaking out and trying to find his daughter. Instead we get a whiny tween and his pudding.

451 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:25:00am

A Little War that Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West
by Ronald Asmus

The brief war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 seemed to many like an unexpected shot out of the blue that was gone as quickly as it came. Former Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Ronald Asmus contends that it was a conflict that was prepared and planned for some time by Moscow, part of a broader strategy to send a message to the United States: that Russia is going to flex its muscle in the twenty-first century. A Little War that Shook the World is a fascinating look at the breakdown of relations between Russia and the West, the decay and decline of the Western Alliance itself, and the fate of Eastern Europe…

Comment there.

This is a valuable overview of the politics and diplomacy around the 2008 Georgian-Russian war. Asmus argues that the war needs to be primarily understood not in terms of a local secessionist dispute, but rather in terms of the overall Russian-Western relationship, especially in the context of EU/NATO expansion and Kosovo’s independence.

By the early 2000s Russia observed that many of its traditional satellites were moving towards the EU and NATO. Asmus argues that in response, Russia was increasingly drawn back towards a 19th century model, where a leading Great Power, such as Russia, was entitled to have a sphere of influence within which it could control major foreign policy issues.

By 2008, Georgia and Ukraine were requesting a Membership Action Plan (“MAP”) to join NATO. Russia was strongly opposed to this. After much discussion, NATO declined to offer either country a MAP but instead stated that both countries would join NATO in the future. Asmus notes that this response clearly ignored Russia’s true concern, which was of course around NATO membership, not MAPs. Russia seems to have been particularly vexed by its intended client Georgia’s aggressively pro-Western stance and to have believed that there was now a limited time window in which it could act to prevent Georgian NATO membership.

Asmus also notes that Kosovo’s independence in early 2008 amounted to a unilateral restructuring of Russia’s client Serbia, without the consent of either Serbia or Russia. The West saw this as a reluctant necessity, in the face of ethnic cleansing and intransigence. But from Russia’s perspective, the West’s behavior around Kosovo was unilateral, bypassing the UN Security Council and breaking the established rules of the game. Asmus suggests that Russia thus felt both entitled and motivated to respond in kind.

Asmus then describes the growing tensions around Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the final descent into war. Asmus argues that Russia appears to have been intent on launching a full scale invasion and that this can be demonstrated by a major Russian military build-up ahead of the conflict. As events unfolded, Georgia’s President Saakashvili ordered Georgia’s troops to the attack, but Asmus portrays this as occurring within the context of a premeditated Russian invasion, which had the aim of de facto Russian annexation of Georgia’s secessionist regions and the overthrow of Saakashvili’s pro-Western government.

French President Sarkozy successfully negotiated a cease fire, which preserved Tbilisi from invasion and allowed Saakashvili’s government to survive, but which also allowed Russia to benefit from much of its gains. Asmus suggests that the US deliberately stood back from the negotiations to avoid having the situation escalate into a direct US-Russian confrontation and to force the EU to have a stake in resolving the situation. Asmus notes that Russia’s actions have weakened Georgia, but he urges the West to continue supporting Georgia’s democratization and European membership.

Overall this is an exceptionally thorough, well written, and nuanced analysis. (And of course I am only touching on that analysis in this short review.) Asmus had previously worked as a US diplomat on many of the underlying issues, such as NATO expansion. While there is some risk of bias, this gives him an exceptional background for analyzing the thorny context and for trying to explain how and why Russia, Georgia and the West behaved in the ways they did.

452 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:25:27am

I admit I read this solely because of Vampire Squid


Greenwald’s never understood that those managers and editors at The Guardian who wanted to stand in his way when he was pushing for the initial Edward Snowden documents to be published immediately were actually doing him a favor. They were protecting him — and the paper itself. In Greenwald’s mind, these kinds of hedgers and naysayers simply interfere with the relentless pursuit of the pure journalism he practices. The reality is anything but that. Taibbi’s a far better journalist than Greenwald could ever dream of being, but a journalist’s published or aired work is really only as good as those above them willing to put their methods and conclusions through the wringer and see if they come out okay on the other end. Sometimes journalists can become so focused in their beliefs and so unrelenting in their approach, convinced the trail they’re on is the right one, that they can lose focus. And that’s why there are people above them to correct their course. We’ve heard a lot about the high-powered frontline hires of First Look, but not as much about the people behind the scenes — other than executive editor Eric Bates, who’s already shown that he’s little more than a mouthpiece for Greenwald and the First Look entity itself, someone its tough to imagine presenting much of a challenge to Glenn the Great and Powerful. And that has the potential to be an issue, because the personalities at First Look — Taibbi included — aren’t the type to easily be corralled and subdued when necessary.

Personally, while it’s easy to understand why any journalist would make the jump to a place where he or she will be given an unprecedented amount of latitude to pursue the subjects they’re passionate about, I think Taibbi deserves a better platform than First Look Media. Certainly one with less of a tainted, self-marginalizing journalistic pedigree going in. It would be great to think that he’ll bring First Look Media up to his level and add credibility and prestige to their journalism, but I fear it’s more likely that First Look Media’s stridently niche journalism will bring Taibbi down to their level.

453 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:25:40am

Former Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Ronald Asmus contends that it was a conflict that was prepared and planned for some time by Moscow, part of a broader strategy to send a message to the United States: that Russia is going to flex its muscle in the twenty-first century.

454 ericblair  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:25:45am

re: #430 lawhawk

Does Palin understand the need to avoid a war of that magnitude? Or does she really think that any president facing these circumstances can and should sabre rattle and threaten war as if the threat is credible and can be backed by actual use of force.

She wasn’t “thinking” about anything. She managed to remember that one attack line some hapless aide spoon-fed her back when she was relevant has some sort of meaning now. So she announced this great victory with as much gravitas as an eighteen-month-old who managed to do a doody in the potty. The fact that this has life or death repercussions in the real world is irrelevant.

455 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:27:40am

Chris Miller of the Kyiv Post is sticking to this.

456 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:27:52am

Bush and Georgia
Updated Aug. 13, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

On June 13, 1948, the day after the Soviet Union took the first step in its blockade of Berlin, U.S. General Lucius Clay sent a cable to Washington making the case for standing up to the Soviets. “We are convinced that our remaining in Berlin is essential to our prestige in Germany and in Europe. Whether for good or bad, it has become a symbol of the American intent.” The Berlin Airlift began 13 days later.

Sixty years on, U.S. credibility is again on the line as the Bush Administration stumbles to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia. So far the Administration has been missing in action, to put it mildly. The strategic objective is twofold: to prevent Moscow from going further to topple Georgia’s democratic government in the coming days, and to deter future Russian aggression.

* * *

President Bush finally condemned Russia’s actions on Monday after a weekend of Olympics tourism in Beijing while Georgia burned. Meanwhile, the State Department dispatched a mid-level official to Tbilisi, and unnamed Administration officials carped to the press that Washington had warned Georgia not to provoke Moscow. That’s hardly a show of solidarity with a Eurasian democracy that has supported the U.S. in Iraq with 2,000 troops….

457 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:29:01am

re: #450 brennant

The holes are beginning to show for WD. First clue coming back from their break: You would think the Rick would be freaking out and trying to find his daughter. Instead we get a whiny tween and his pudding.

All shows jump the shark eventually, unless they close out before that happens; like with “WKRP in Cincinnati”, which owing to CBS’s ineptitude, wound up being cancelled at the end of its fourth season before it had time to jump the shark.

458 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:29:08am

Much as it respects and owes Georgia, the U.S. is not going to war with Russia over a non-NATO ally. But there are forceful diplomatic and economic responses at its disposal. Expelling Russia from the G-8 group of democracies, as John McCain has suggested, is one. Barring Russia’s long desired entry into the World Trade Organization is another. Russian leaders should also be told that their financial assets held abroad aren’t off limits to sanction. And Moscow should know that the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on the Black Sea are in jeopardy. A country that starts a war on the weekend the Beijing Olympics began doesn’t deserve such an honor.

459 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:29:55am

re: #454 ericblair

She wasn’t “thinking” about anything. She managed to remember that one attack line some hapless aide spoon-fed her back when she was relevant has some sort of meaning now. So she announced this great victory with as much gravitas as an eighteen-month-old who managed to do a doody in the potty. The fact that this has life or death repercussions in the real world is irrelevant.

Does anyone really pay attention to what Quitter says anymore?

I sure don’t. She’s totally irrelevant. Go flash a tit, sweetie; it’s how you make your money these days.

Hey, she set that up, I didn’t.

460 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:30:08am

Much as it respects and owes Georgia, the U.S. is not going to war with Russia over a non-NATO ally.

461 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:30:30am

Reshaping U.S. policy toward Russia will take longer than the months between now and January 20, when a new President takes office. But Mr. Bush can at least atone for his earlier misjudgments about Mr. Putin and steer policy in a new direction that his successor would have to deal with. If that successor is Barack Obama, this is an opportunity to shape a crucial foreign policy issue for a novice who could very well go in the wrong direction.

462 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:31:54am

re: #450 brennant

The holes are beginning to show for WD. First clue coming back from their break: You would think the Rick would be freaking out and trying to find his daughter. Instead we get a whiny tween and his pudding.

They keep showing hints of possibly doing something interesting with the younger characters but I don’t think the writers have to balls to follow through. Young unfeeling sociopaths would be interesting but it will probably be too dark so they’ll give us the “Aw, shucks. I just wanna be a kid!” stuff.

463 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:31:55am

re: #437 Eclectic Cyborg

Because when I think “Badass”, Rick Santorum is absolutely the first thing that jumps to mind.

Maybe if there’s a space between the ‘d’ and the second ‘a’… :-P

464 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:35:59am

Moscow, part of a broader strategy to send a message to the United States: that Russia is going to flex its muscle in the 21st century. (2008)

465 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:36:01am

re: #455 Justanotherhuman

That’s a frickin’ minesweeper. And it would appear that whoever sent that message, which is countermanded by higher ups in both the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries, seems to have gone all Al Haig.

466 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:39:49am

Rep. Darrell Issa disputes his Four-Pinocchio ratings

Issa’s new explanations do not pass scrutiny. It is especially strange that he would refer to a report he signed — and touted at the time as his own — as “someone else’s report.” We reaffirm our awarding of Four Pinocchios in both cases.

Heh

467 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:40:41am

re: #432 Pie-onist Overlord

We need a prez who commands respect from our allies & a healthy dose of fear from those who seek our downfall #RickSantorum2016 #TCOT #gop

It’s amazing to see that every RWNJ speaks on behalf of our allies and enemies.

468 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:41:36am

re: #446 Eclectic Cyborg

I wonder if there will be a day that some dumbass, unconfirmed tweet actually starts a major war?

From ADM Ivan Ripperski.

469 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:42:11am

re: #467 Dr. Matt

It’s amazing to see that every RWNJ speaks on behalf of our allies and enemies.

Blacktracking at its finest.

470 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:43:15am

re: #465 lawhawk

That’s a frickin’ minesweeper. And it would appear that whoever sent that message, which is countermanded by higher ups in both the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries, seems to have gone all Al Haig.

“Surrender or we’ll sweep your mines.”

471 NJDhockeyfan  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:43:50am
472 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:44:07am

re: #351 Pie-onist Overlord

That thing which goeth before a fall, Ben can haz it.

Ben Shapiro @benshapiro

“How to Debate Leftists — and Destroy Them”

Ben? It’s unseemly to bring firearms to a debate. /

473 RealityBasedSteve  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:44:20am

re: #470 Decatur Deb

“Surrender or we’ll sweep your mines.”

But only on the “easy” setting, the big one is too hard.

RBS

474 iossarian  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:44:25am

Those Russians are so bad and evil for acting exclusively according to their own self-interest in international affairs!

The US should totally act according to its own self-interest in international affairs because we’re the good guys!

475 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:44:37am

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

476 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:45:00am

What, only the more well-off are protesting now? This obviously bears no resemblance to Ukraine.

Jailed leader calls for more Venezuela protests

trust.org

“Opposition leaders called for another march on Monday after bringing thousands onto the streets on Sunday, despite the Carnival holiday that usually draws Venezuelans to the beach.

“By mid-day about 500 people had gathered in the well-heeled Las Mercedes district of Caracas, where they planned to march to the local office of the Organization of American States.

“Protesters in the wealthier east of the capital have clashed nearly every day with National Guard troops in confused melees that generally kick off in the early evening.

“The demonstrators set up improvised barricades of debris and burning trash that are usually cleared by the next day.”

477 CuriousLurker  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:46:04am

re: #437 Eclectic Cyborg

Because when I think “Badass”, Rick Santorum is absolutely the first thing that jumps to mind.

LOL, yeah, I’m sure those sweater vests he likes to wear would scare the crap out of Putin. No one in their right mind would dare screw around with a guy that dresses like Mr. Rogers. Besides, unlike the current Kenyan Muslim usurper, he has Jesus (a.s.) on his side, so he can’t lose any fight.*

* NO, he didn’t lose the 2012 election!!11! La-la-la-la-la I can’t hear youuu…

478 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:46:26am

re: #358 wheat-dogghazi

Maybe it’s one of those occasions when a leader has surrounded himself only with yes-men, who know the leader’s decision is wrong but are afraid to tell him so.

Incestuous amplification.

479 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:47:43am

re: #469 Eclectic Cyborg

Blacktracking at its finest.

The most amusing statement they keep using is that “our enemies don’t respect us”. 1) Is having the respect of your enemies important? 2) Since when do enemies really respect one another?

480 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:48:30am

Meh. Who else do they have? Gohmert!?

Boehner To Run For Speaker Again, In ‘Better Shape’ With Caucus

talkingpointsmemo.com

“House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) indicated he’s in great shape to run for speaker again.

“I think I’m in better shape with my own caucus than I have ever been in the last three years,” Boehner said in an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer posted on Monday. Boehner has already filed paperwork to run for speaker again.

“Boehner has had to shoot down some rumors that he might retire at the end of 2014.

“Some Republicans have also used association to Boehner as a line of attack on the campaign trail.”

481 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:48:34am

re: #474 iossarian

Those Russians are so bad and evil for acting exclusively according to their own self-interest in international affairs!

The US should totally act according to its own self-interest in international affairs because we’re the good guys!

Did…did someone just white-knight Putin on this board?!?

482 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:50:46am

re: #475 Gus

“Those who cannot remember ignore the past are condemned to repeat it.”

FTFY

483 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:51:12am

re: #475 Gus

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Even if we can remember the past, we’ll be condemned to repeat it this time. The question is, are we repeating 1914, 1938, or 2008? And for that matter, is there any difference between those last two?

And if we decide it’s 2008 all over again, what’s that tell China about Taiwan, let alone Iran about its own safety without a nuke?

484 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:51:57am

The report of the ultimatum seem credible. The confusion is probably created to give the Russians some sort of plausible deniability down the road. It also raises tensions, increasing the likelihood of someone to start shooting which gives the Russians what they need to finish the job here.

485 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:52:24am

re: #481 Chrysicat

Did…did someone just white-knight Putin on this board?!?

Let a hundred flowers bloom.

486 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:53:44am

re: #475 Gus

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Those who do remember history are allowed to make…. ten … ten completely new mistakes with do-overs. /

Those who misremember history can make 5 completely new mistakes with do-overs. Just hit the ignore button to reset the relationship. /

487 Decatur Deb  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:55:16am

re: #486 lawhawk

Those who do remember history are allowed to make…. ten … ten completely new mistakes with do-overs. /

Those who misremember history can make 5 completely new mistakes with do-overs. Just hit the ignore button to reset the relationship. /

Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat 8th grade.

488 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:57:17am

re: #477 CuriousLurker

LOL, yeah, I’m sure those sweater vests he likes to wear would scare the crap out of Putin. No one in their right mind would dare screw around with a guy that dresses like Mr. Rogers. Besides, unlike the current Kenyan Muslim usurper, he has Jesus (a.s.) on his side, so he can’t lose any fight.*

* NO, he didn’t lose the 2012 election!!11! La-la-la-la-la I can’t hear youuu…

You know that meme (from Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark) that those who carry the Ark into battle can never lose?

The Israelites carried it into battle, and lost.

People don’t even read the freakin’ Bible they claim to reverence so much.

489 Varek Raith  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 9:59:52am

Go away, snow.

490 iossarian  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:00:43am

re: #481 Chrysicat

Did…did someone just white-knight Putin on this board?!?

No, not at all.

I’m just pointing out that many of the people who condemn Russia for wanting to control states that it essentially still views as satellites are also staunch defenders of the US’s right to do whatever is in its own interest in terms of foreign policy.

491 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:01:53am

re: #475 Gus

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

A culture that ignores history has no past, and no future. - Heinlein

492 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:04:03am
493 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:06:06am

re: #492 Kragar

Christian lawmakers fall for ‘Ponzi schemer’ who said he’d found Noah’s Ark | The Raw Story t.co
— Kragar (@Kragar_LGF) March 3, 2014

My response: Good

494 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:06:39am

Booth is a foreign correspondent for the WAPO.

495 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:07:11am

re: #491 Romantic Heretic

A culture that ignores history has no past, and no future. - Heinlein

Would you like to know more? /

496 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:10:39am

Some fantastic photos of Carnival (a few may include breasts, so mild NSFW):
theatlantic.com

497 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:11:01am

re: #494 Justanotherhuman

Booth is a foreign correspondent for the WAPO.

[Embedded content]

Hmmm…not sure pillows and water hoses are going to help much.

498 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:11:17am

From Sun Tzu’s Art of War: In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace. The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life or death, a road to either safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.

499 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:11:53am
500 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:11:55am

re: #479 Dr. Matt

The most amusing statement they keep using is that “our enemies don’t respect us”. 1) Is having the respect of your enemies important? 2) Since when do enemies really respect one another?

They equate “respect” with “fear”.
So, “respect” doesn’t mean what they think it does.

501 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:13:00am

re: #496 lawhawk

Some fantastic photos of Carnival (a few may include breasts, so mild NSFW):
theatlantic.com

Behold the land of implants!

502 Teukka  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:13:14am

re: #497 Killgore Trout

Hmmm…not sure pillows and water hoses are going to help much.

Just thinking out loud here, but it could be as simple as cleaning day. Or it could be preparation for some sort of attack which will involve fire.

503 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:14:22am

Can’t verify this, though.

Euromaidan PR ‏@EuromaidanPR 4m

At the #UN Security Council session today #Russia may declare “illegitimacy” of the current #Ukrainian government - espreso.tv |PR News

Euromaidan PR ‏@EuromaidanPR 10m

The #Russian side initiated the #UN Security Council today. The meeting is scheduled for 22:30 (#Kyiv time) -espreso.tv |PR News #Ukraine
Expand

(That’s about 3:30 pm est, BTW)

So, yes, there’s a discussion at 3:30 at the UN:

03:30 pm

Launch of UNIDO’s Industrial Development Report 2013 entitled “Sustaining Employment Growth: The Role of Manufacturing and Structural Change”.

Security Council: The situation in Ukraine.

webtv.un.org

504 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:14:35am

re: #488 Pie-onist Overlord

You know that meme (from Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark) that those who carry the Ark into battle can never lose?

The Israelites carried it into battle, and lost.

People don’t even read the freakin’ Bible they claim to reverence so much.

Heresy! It’s impossible that Indiana Jones could be wrong. /

505 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:17:17am

re: #501 Killgore Trout

Behold the land of implants!

Silicon is probably made by Koch industries. //

506 Skip Intro  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:18:44am

re: #493 Dr. Matt

My response: Good

My response: Double plus good.

I hope these idiots got cleaned out.

507 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:19:17am

re: #499 Pie-onist Overlord

That horse that Putin is on looks worn out. Maybe Putin should get a bike like Obama.

508 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:19:53am

re: #501 Killgore Trout

Behold the land of implants!

Yeah, you can see this woman’s scars.

Image: s_c31_76260709.jpg

509 Killgore Trout  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:26:33am

re: #505 Gus

Silicon is probably made by Koch industries. //

Monsanto drones!

510 Eventual Carrion  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:27:09am

re: #351 Pie-onist Overlord

That thing which goeth before a fall, Ben can haz it.

[Embedded content]

Hell, I can put that book in a nutshell for all without signing up for anything:

1. Make something up
2. Keep repeating/tweeting it
3. Ignore facts to the contrary
4. goto 1

511 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:27:26am
512 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:28:16am

re: #509 Killgore Trout

Monsanto drones!

Fukushima silicon flown in by Lt. John McCain in his Skyhawk!

513 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:30:55am

My daughter just posted this as her Facebook status:
Moved yesterday from NYC.

514 RadicalModerate  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:31:18am

He’s baaaaack….

Louisiana Congressional Candidate Said Viagra Is Made From His Blood

For those unfamiliar with Louisiana politics, this is Edwin Edwards, the former four-time Governor of Louisiana, fresh off a stint at Club Fed for racketeering. He’s an old-school populist and very much left-of-center politician, who was extremely popular in Louisiana even in the face of far-right religious and racial conservatism that is a hallmark of the South.
His last stint as Governor had him winning over Republican David Duke (yes, THAT David Duke) in the 1990s.

He’s back. On Wednesday, less than three years after being released from federal prison, Louisiana Democrat Edwin Edwards told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt he intends to run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Bill Cassidy, who is running for Senate. That roar you heard was the sound of political reporters packing their suitcases for extended stays in Baton Rouge. Other than the corruption charges that put him in the slammer, Edwards’ four terms in the governor’s mansion were defined by dramatic populist politics and brash public statements that drew constant comparisons to former Louisiana governor and senator Huey Long.
[…]
If Edwards does run, voters may be faced with a choice between Edwards, the convicted felon with a long, proud history of womanizing, and Tony Perkins, president of the social-conservative Family Research Council. Edwards hasn’t formally filed paperwork yet, though. He told Bloomberg he wants to set up a super-PAC first.

Worth noting. Tony Perkins got his political start in the 1990s consulting for the campaign of… you guessed it… David Duke - he went as far as using Duke’s mailing list for subsequent campaigns, and later used it for recruiting into the Family Research Center, which he now leads.

515 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:31:20am

Germany
United Kingdom

516 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:33:40am

re: #466 Killgore Trout

Rep. Darrell Issa disputes his Four-Pinocchio ratings

Heh

At best it’s a blind hog finding an acorn.

The fact-checkers are so consistently bad that I’m not going to gloat at their success against someone I despise.

517 b_sharp  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:34:37am

re: #516 kirkspencer

At best it’s a blind hog finding an acorn.

The fact-checkers are so consistently bad that I’m not going to gloat at their success against someone I despise.

Ah, go for it.

Gloat.

518 Lidane  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:35:25am
519 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:35:38am

If true #511 is somewhat big news.

520 Chrysicat  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:36:35am

re: #511 Gus

[Embedded content]

How about a nice united front? US-only sanctions aren’t gonna do anything. And hadn’t Europe had enough of a warning 9 years ago that they could have safely sworn off Russian gas and oil this spring?

521 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:36:51am

Liberty must feel real safe in Ukraine, according to Ted.

522 Dr Lizardo  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:36:55am

re: #511 Gus

[Embedded content]

The spice international financial transactions must flow!

523 Internet Tough Guy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:37:02am

re: #518 Lidane

lol Fuck the EU

524 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:38:08am

re: #516 kirkspencer

At best it’s a blind hog finding an acorn.

The fact-checkers are so consistently bad that I’m not going to gloat at their success against someone I despise.

He and the rest of the RWNJs continue to claim that no help was sent if though the official intelligence report clearly states help WAS SENT. In unison, they are all moving the goal posts. It’s only a matter of time before they blame Jimmy Carter for not preventing the attack while he was President.

525 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:38:11am
526 Internet Tough Guy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:38:16am

re: #521 Pie-onist Overlord

That quote is not fascist, just popular with fascists.

527 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:38:20am
528 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:39:43am

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

529 Testy Toad T  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:39:43am

I sure hope Snowjob’s communications won’t be metadataed by the big evil US drones once he starts broadcasting from the libertyful bastion of Newly Russian Crimea.

530 Aqua Obama  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:39:55am

Foundations of Geopolitics

The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia is a geopolitical book by Alexander Dugin. The book has had a large influence within the Russian military, police, and statist foreign policy elites[1] and is used as a textbook in the General Staff Academy of Russian military.[1][1]

Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services.

Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements - extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics.”[1]

CoughRTCough

531 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:40:35am

re: #521 Pie-onist Overlord

“

Liberty is never safer than when GOP politicians are terrified of being primaried by a Tea party goombah who will then go on to lose the general election”

Ted Cruz in a nutshell

532 Kragar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:41:01am
533 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:41:10am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

[Embedded content]

Protip: When your response to a movie about difficult black history is “shut up with your blackness and just get your blackness out of my face already”, the thing you are not demonstrating is that you ‘get it’.

534 gwangung  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:42:02am

re: #533 GunstarGreen

Protip: When your response to a movie about difficult black history is “shut up with your blackness and just get your blackness out of my face already”, the thing you are >not demonstrating is that you ‘get it’.

Kinda shows they have a lot of guilt themselves….

535 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:43:12am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

[Embedded content]

May I suggest that if you are sick of some sort of movie or other that you not go see it?
I’m not sick of action/adventure movies because I don’t go to them. It’s cheaper and easier than outrage.

536 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:43:17am

re: #534 gwangung

Kinda shows they have a lot of guilt themselves….

Look, I’m just sayin’ that black people are fine and equal and everything now, so why do we have to keep seeing movies about black people?!

537 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:45:32am

HURR HURR!!!!!! TEH DEBT IS WORSER THEN TEH SLAVERYS!!!!!!

538 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:46:31am

I didn’t see any right-wingers complaining about Teh Slaverys when Bush put 2 wars and a tax cut for the 1% on the national credit card.

539 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:46:51am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

In other words, they are pretending to be the victim…as usual. I don’t feel “White-guilt” about what happened. I don’t even know what “White-guilt” is. I believe the stories of what happened to slaves, Jews, and any other group that was treated unmercifully should be told over and over and over. When I see these movies I certainly feel terrible and sickened for what happened, but it’s not because of “White-guilt”. I feel terrible for what happened because I’m human.

540 Internet Tough Guy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:47:16am

re: #538 Pie-onist Overlord

During the Bush administration, slavery was freedom.

541 jaunte  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:47:41am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

We get it, your ancestors got a raw deal. It’s time to get move on.

Just pretend we’re not still trying to take your vote away.

542 Lidane  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:48:25am

re: #537 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR!!!!!! TEH DEBT IS WORSER THEN TEH SLAVERYS!!!!!!

[Embedded content]

And here I thought that civil rights were slavery. That’s what Tammy Bruce says, anyhow.

543 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:48:32am

re: #539 Dr. Matt

In other words, they are pretending to be the victim…as usual. I don’t feel “White-guilt” about what happened. I don’t even know what “White-guilt” is. I believe the stories of what happened to slaves, Jews, and any other group that was treated unmercifully should be told over and over and over. When I see these movies I certainly feel terrible and sickened for what happened, but it’s not because of “White-guilt”. I feel terrible for what happened because I’m human.

You feel a general sense of terrible-ness because you’re human, and the sight of human suffering bothers you.

They feel ‘white guilt’ because they know that they’re a bunch of contemptible dirtbags that treat non-white people like shit.

544 darthstar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:50:03am

545 GunstarGreen  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:52:54am

re: #544 darthstar

I was thinking NBA Jam.

A strange game. The only winning move is JAM IT IN! BOOM SHAKALAKA! HE’S ON FIRE!

546 jonhendry  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:53:18am

re: #527 lawhawk

Back before the Olympics a lot of people argued against a boycott (over the anti-gay law) on the basis of “The athletes have been training their whole lives, this the big show, they don’t get other opportunities to compete, etc”.

While much of that isn’t quite true (some haven’t been training their whole lives, Lolo Jones only recently got involved in her event after the 2012 Summer olympics; many sports have national and world championships every year, which is how Olympic competitors are chosen, etc) to the extent that it’s a good argument for not boycotting the Olympics, it’s an even better argument for not boycotting the Paralympics.

Paralympics competitors get the short end of the stick overall, get poor media coverage despite being more impressive than able-bodied athletes, and don’t have remotely as much sponsorship money in the offing, or as many career opportunities.

547 darthstar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:53:26am

Of course…this isn’t exactly a game.

548 calochortus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:53:28am

re: #539 Dr. Matt

In other words, they are pretending to be the victim…as usual. I don’t feel “White-guilt” about what happened. I don’t even know what “White-guilt” is. I believe the stories of what happened to slaves, Jews, and any other group that was treated unmercifully should be told over and over and over. When I see these movies I certainly feel terrible and sickened for what happened, but it’s not because of “White-guilt”. I feel terrible for what happened because I’m human.

I don’t feel guilty when I see a movie about the Holocaust or slavery. Even though it is possible that a distant ancestor owned a slave or two, I never have. What it reminds me of is that slavery, and genocide are still out there today and that we should be doing what we can to eliminate these current evils. I’m probably not doing enough, and I can feel guilty about that.

549 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:54:47am

re: #547 darthstar

Of course…this isn’t exactly a game.

Actually I believe that to Putin it absolutely is.

550 RadicalModerate  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:54:56am

Guess what group is still planning on their world convention in Russia?


Will American Religious Right Groups Go Ahead With Their Kremlin Summit?

World Congress of Families Summit VIII to be held in Moscow, Russia September 10-12, 2014.

In September, social conservative leaders from around the globe, including representatives of several major American Religious Right groups are planning to hold the annual World Congress of Families gathering at the Kremlin. The gathering is supported by political leaders in Russian Orthodox Church and will include a joint session with the Russian parliament.
[…]
Issues such as gay rights, abortion rights, and population growth aren’t a side project for Putin - they’re closely entwined with his tightening grip on power and what Julia Ioffe calls his “appetite for expansion.” For instance, as Buzzfeed’s Lester Feder has reported extensively, Russia and its allies in Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe have riled up anti-gay sentiment as part of a larger agenda of fomenting distrust of the EU and the West. Putin’s anti-gay crackdown has also been useful in promoting nationalist sentiment within Russia and to provide a useful scapegoat as he tightens his grip on power.

When Larry Jacobs of the Rockford, Illinois-based World Congress of Families gushes that “the Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world” or when former Fox News producer Jack Hanick, who has been active in anti-gay causes in Russia, says that “God called on” Russia to “stand up for traditional values,” they are playing into Putin’s own narrative.

In October, leaders from major U.S. Religious Right groups including the National Organization for Marriage, Alliance Defending Freedom and Focus on the Family traveled to Moscow for a planning meeting for the upcoming conference, where they met with Yelena Mizulina, a member of parliament at the head of the Kremlin’s social conservative push and coauthor of the infamous “gay propaganda” bill. - See more at: rightwingwatch.org

551 Dr. Matt  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:55:56am

re: #544 darthstar

Can’t go wrong with Pong!

552 wrenchwench  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:56:55am
553 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:57:40am

re: #548 calochortus

What it reminds me of is that slavery, and genocide are still out there today and that we should be doing what we can to eliminate these current evils. I’m probably not doing enough, and I can feel guilty about that.

EXACTLY!

Human slavery is not just a “black people in the South 150 years ago” problem. There are millions of people still trapped in slavery today, many right in America and the modern slave owners are NOT what you’d expect.

We’re not talking underworld thugs with a long rap sheet, we’re talking teachers, lawyers, accountants, doctors and yes…even some law enforcement officials.

It’s a very real problem and one that commands a lot more attention than it’s given.

Kudos to Mr. Mcqueen for drawing attention to it in his acceptance speech last night,

554 darthstar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:58:00am

re: #548 calochortus

Son of God looks promising - dude apparently gets caught in the end and executed(again). Sure, sure, we can debate whether his violations of Roman law warranted such punishment, but if we’re keeping it “factual”…or at least based on the book…he’s gotta do the perp walk. Keep waiting for them to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in the role.

555 jaunte  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:58:55am

re: #550 RadicalModerate

Maybe they’ll like it enough to stay.

556 darthstar  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 10:59:30am

re: #549 Eclectic Cyborg

Actually I believe that to Putin it absolutely is.

It’d be interesting to see an immediate suspension of US business visas to Russia - or from Russia for that matter to see how Putin responded. I’d lose half my QA team if that happened though. That would suck.

557 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:00:12am

May is Jewish-American History Month

558 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:00:40am

re: #551 Dr. Matt

Can’t go wrong with Pong!
[Embedded image]

It’s all fun and games until someone’s eye gets taken out…

559 jaunte  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:01:11am
560 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:01:18am

I don’t know if that is an actual interview with Morgan Freeman.

561 lawhawk  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:02:36am

re: #551 Dr. Matt

Just don’t want it turning into this When the missiles start flying

Youtube Video

562 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:02:46am

re: #560 Pie-onist Overlord

I don’t know if that is an actual interview with Morgan Freeman.

Snopes says “true”.

snopes.com

563 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:02:54am

re: #560 Pie-onist Overlord

I don’t know if that is an actual interview with Morgan Freeman.

But its in the Twitternetz!

564 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:04:04am

re: #562 Backwoods_Sleuth

Snopes says “true”.

snopes.com

The full last part of the quote:

FREEMAN: Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I’m saying?

565 Internet Tough Guy  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:04:10am

re: #562 Backwoods_Sleuth

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Morgan Freeman did not mean what the rwnjs want that to mean.

566 Aqua Obama  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:04:30am

re: #561 lawhawk

Just don’t want it turning into this When the missiles start flying

[Embedded content]

Image: 1388170957106.gif

567 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:04:47am

Ha! “Oliver Stone Puts Manhattan Apartment on the Market”

568 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:05:04am

Snopes
o
r
o
s

//

569 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:06:07am
570 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:08:30am

re: #393 Kragar

Well, on the upside, this does show some form of self-awareness to what they’re really all about.

So they have that going for them.

571 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:08:32am

WTFITS
Yeah boatloads of patriotic Americans landed on the shores of England and randomly shot people. Then they marched to Buckingham Palace and shot the King. Except not.
Get a fucking grip wingnuts.

572 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:08:34am

Relevant to the thread in more ways than one:

Sting wrote an excellent song some years ago called “This War”. It was a condemnation of the U.S. invasion of Iraq but the song is an anti-warmonger song in general and I think is prescient given the situation in Russia. Here are some of the lyrics:


In the temple that was Mammon’s
You were ordained the parish priest
Yes you may win this coming battle
But could you tolerate the peace?

Invest in deadly weapons
And those little cotton flags
Invest in wooden caskets
In guns and body bags
You’re investing in oppression
Investing in corruption
Invest in every tyranny
And the whole world’s destruction

I imagine there’s a future
When all the earthly wars are over
You may find yourself just standing there
On the white cliffs of Dover

You may ask, what does it profit a man
To gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?
Is that your body you see on the rocks below
As the tide begins to roll?

And you invested in this prison
From which you never got released
And you may have won this war we’re fighting
But would you tolerate the peace?

573 Aqua Obama  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:09:26am

Image: hi9HbCr.gif

574 Testy Toad T  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:10:51am

re: #571 Pie-onist Overlord

When I think “impolite protest”, taking their tea and dumping it in the bay really strikes me as taking the violence to eleven.

575 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:11:51am

re: #574 Testy Toad T

When I think “impolite protest”, taking their tea and dumping it in the bay really strikes me as taking the violence to eleven.

And blaming the vandalism on Native Americans.

576 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:13:20am

re: #430 lawhawk

Does Palin understand the need to avoid a war of that magnitude?

No.

Or does she really think that any president facing these circumstances can and should sabre rattle and threaten war as if the threat is credible and can be backed by actual use of force.

Yes.

Any other questions?

577 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:13:43am

re: #575 Pie-onist Overlord

And blaming the vandalism on Native Americans.

Even the original Teabaggers were cowards.

578 Aqua Obama  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:14:00am

Drill baby drill bomb bomb woohoo!

579 Eclectic Cyborg  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:14:20am

War is one of the easiest ways to exert control over people.

580 Pie-onist Overlord  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:19:07am

FUCK THOSE POORS, THEY WERE MADE TO BE EXPLOITED!!!!!

581 Gus  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:19:22am
582 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:22:11am

re: #488 Pie-onist Overlord

People don’t even read the freakin’ Bible they claim to reverence so much.

583 b_sharp  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:22:20am

re: #571 Pie-onist Overlord

WTFITS
Yeah boatloads of patriotic Americans landed on the shores of England and randomly shot people. Then they marched to Buckingham Palace and shot the King. Except not.
Get a fucking grip wingnuts.

[Embedded content]

Wow, that’s a simplistic view of history isn’t it?

584 CuriousLurker  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:26:12am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

Danny Aiello ‏
@DannyAielloUCF

I’m sick of White-guilt movies. We get it, your ancestors got a raw deal. It’s time to get move on.

Sorry to go Godwin, but if it had been a movie about WWII & the Holocaust then he would’ve said the same thing to the Jews, Roma, etc.—“we get it….time to move on”—really?

Thought experiment: What if a Muslim said the following? “I’m sick of Muslim-guilt movies. We get it, those people who died on 9/11 got a raw deal. It’s time to move on.” I’m pretty sure his head would explode.

585 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:32:02am

re: #528 Pie-onist Overlord

Wingnuts butthurt over the Best Picture Oscar

[Embedded content]

Bets on whether or not Danny’s grandparents or great-grandparents got a raw deal?

586 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:33:36am

re: #538 Pie-onist Overlord

I didn’t see any right-wingers complaining about Teh Slaverys when Bush put 2 wars and a tax cut for the 1% on the national credit card.

That’s different because shut up.

587 Fairly Sure I'm Still Obdicut  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:36:03am

re: #581 Gus

[Embedded content]

Russia has said

What have the Chinese said, though?

China and Russia being in complete agreement would, in fact, be very, very, very surprising.

588 chadu  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:38:18am

re: #538 Pie-onist Overlord

I didn’t see any right-wingers complaining about Teh Slaverys when Bush put 2 wars and a tax cut for the 1% on the national credit card.

Had to do it, sick of typing it:

589 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:41:18am

re: #498 PhillyPretzel

From Sun Tzu’s Art of War: In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace. The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life or death, a road to either safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.

My favourite book on the subject of war. I have a copy at my bedside that I often read before sleeping.

590 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:43:02am

re: #589 Romantic Heretic

I have a paper back and a kindle version. Although it was written over 2,000 years ago it still applies.

591 RadicalModerate  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:46:05am

re: #571 Pie-onist Overlord

WTFITS
Yeah boatloads of patriotic Americans landed on the shores of England and randomly shot people. Then they marched to Buckingham Palace and shot the King. Except not.
Get a fucking grip wingnuts.

[Embedded content]


“Our forefathers did not politely protest the British”

False. The American Revolution ran a full twenty years before the actual Revolutionary War started. Multiple protests from the colonies’ governments, as well as at the individual level were on the whole peaceful.
The Declaration of Independence was not an endorsement for war. In fact, the only mention of warfare was in the closing statement that said the independent United States would have the power to declare war, along with all other rights afforded an independent sovereign nation.

“They did not vote them out of office, impeach the King, march on the capitol”
Half-True. This is correct only because the US colonies was not interested in overthrowing the British monarchy, only in their own independence.

“or ask permission for their rights”
False. Prior to the Intolerable Acts of 1774, the colonists were willing to stay under British rule, as long as the Bill of Rights (1689) were adhered to. It wasn’t until the protests of the colonists was met with force and a situation of increasingly-limiting freedoms that drove the colonies to break away from England.

“They f***ing shot them”
The British shot first.

592 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:47:08am

re: #496 lawhawk

Some fantastic photos of Carnival (a few may include breasts, so mild NSFW):
theatlantic.com

A few years ago A book I co-authored was set in Venice during Carnivale.

I mention this because I recognized the mask in the photo from Venice. Thanks to the research we had to do the style is unmistakeable.

593 jonhendry  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:52:29am

re: #585 chadu

I dunno, but the famous actor Danny Aiello got a bum deal in having the same name as that other jackass.

594 jonhendry  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 11:54:17am

re: #587 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

When it comes to anything resembling the squashing of an independence or separatist movement, I’m pretty sure you’ll find China and Russia in agreement.

595 Romantic Heretic  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 12:06:46pm

re: #590 PhillyPretzel

I have a paper back and a kindle version. Although it was written over 2,000 years ago it still applies.

I have two paper and one on kindle.

The kindle one kinda sucks. It’s a century old translation and most of the book is the translator showing off how much he knows about everything.

The most interesting one is a translation that was done as a PhD thesis by the man that commanded the Marine Raiders, among other units, at Guadalcanal.

It’s very interesting to see how different translators translate things. One uses State when speaking of the country, another uses nation. It makes me aware of how slippery words are.

596 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 12:51:02pm
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Morgan Freeman did not mean what the rwnjs want that to mean.

If it can be taken out of context to mean that they should ignore black history entirely, then it will be taken so,


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