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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Thursday Morning Open Thread: So, So Sochi

Thursday Morning Open Thread: So, So Sochi

by Anne Laurie|  February 20, 20145:43 am| 104 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement

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Wolf in my hall?!? #SochiProblems #SochiFail http://t.co/ZMqZFC40jp

— Kate Hansen (@k8ertotz) February 20, 2014

Via NYMag: “You know it’s been a rough Olympics when an athlete shares footage of a wild animal roaming in her hall and you think, “come on, it’s just a Siberian Husky on the loose.” But, yeah, look at those paws: It’s just another ‘feral’ abandoned pet, no doubt hoping to meet Gus Kenworthy and get the canine equivalent of a green card.

Sally Jenkins, sports reporter for the Washington Post, is also disillusioned with the predators roaming around Sochi:

… Our friends and enablers at the International Olympic Committee agree: The Winter Games are no place for such politics. Therefore anyone who makes political statements will be detained and attacked politically on the grounds of politicization of the political. In order to educate viewers to this, Rossiya 1, the state channel and official Olympic broadcasters, interrupt Olympic coverage to bring you a documentary about the role of Westerners in fomenting treason. This is patriotism, as opposed to the traitor hooliganism of the punk band Pussy Riot, members of which were detained in Sochi on Tuesday and are promoting a new song, “Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Motherland.”

As for environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko, who has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for protesting the despoiled ecology around the Sochi Games, according to the IOC, this is a “non-Olympic case.”

Also, we have no evidence of violent protests in Kiev. If anyone has such information, give it to us, please…

The Sochi Games are also the consummate expression of the new united Russia’s prosperity, and progress. Pay no attention to the reports that say oligarch racketeers eat at the economy like worms in a garden. These are the subtle ruses of outside agitators, such as IOC member Gian Franco Kasper, who has claimed that one-third of the approximate $50 billion spent on the Sochi Olympics — more than the gross national product of many countries — was skimmed off. No one has offered proof of this, and no one can, because there is no official budget. As Putin has said: “If anyone has such information, give it to us, please. I repeat once again, we will be grateful.”

Discard also the clever lies of the outside agitators from the Human Trafficking Center and the Human Rights Watch, who claim that in order to build the Sochi Games tens of thousands of migrant workers were abused, their pay withheld, and travel documents seized while they were forced to work inhumane hours in unsafe conditions. This matter was cleared up by the IOC’s Jean-Claude Killy in an interview with that noxious organ the Wall Street Journal, in which he asserted that 100,000 workers had to work around the clock seven days a week to get Sochi ready for the Games.

All of this should demonstrate to you that there are no politics in Sochi, only pure sport…

***********
Apart from roving ferals and unhappy bloggers, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    burnspbesq

    February 20, 2014 at 6:04 am

    Counting the hours until 2100 EST, when the Duke – Carolina game that snowed out last week will be played. GTHC!

    Also starting the process of figuring out how to pay for an extra year of undergrad that we didn’t anticipate when we started saving 15 years ago. A two-year stock market boom would be most welcome right about now.

  2. 2.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 6:09 am

    Nicole is now explaining how weak Obama is in regard to Ukraine.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 6:10 am

    The Sochi Games are also the consummate expression of the new united Russia’s prosperity, and progress. Pay no attention to the reports that say oligarch racketeers eat at the economy like worms in a garden.

    If you replace “Sochi Games” with “Wall Street”, and “oligarch racketeers” with “hedge fund managers”, does anything else in that quote really change?

  4. 4.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 6:14 am

    Harold Ford is a whiny punk ass motherfucker.

  5. 5.

    Keith G

    February 20, 2014 at 6:14 am

    I try not to let the current run of success of Putin dishearten me. I know that in most cases justice does eventually get served, but right now, at least, the Russian caudillo seems to have set himself up rather effectively.

    He can make discussions with Iran easier or more difficult on a whim. He has considerable leverage over the Assad regime – Those two cases are about 70% of the active Obama efforts in foreign policy. So when he warns the West to back off on Kiev, consideration must be paid.

    He is easy to tease, but much harder to deal with.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 6:23 am

    @raven: Yes, because Bush would have troops on the Polish border prepared to prevent another smoking mushroom cloud gun or something or other, McCain would be declaring that we are all Ukrainians now, and Mitt would be trying to put together a leveraged buy out.

  7. 7.

    Cermet

    February 20, 2014 at 6:23 am

    Pay no attention to the reports that say oligarch racketeers eat at the economy like worms in a garden.

    Pay no attention to the fool behind the curtain because these Russian amateurs pale in comparison to the Amerikan 0.001% and their wall street crooks that are the intestinal worms feeding on the remains of the Amerikan middle class.

  8. 8.

    micheline

    February 20, 2014 at 6:24 am

    Do you mean Thursday?

  9. 9.

    mai naem

    February 20, 2014 at 6:29 am

    @raven: Actually, I think Ford’s been a lot better than he used to be. Now that Obama has won his second term, Harold Ford’s finally come to the conclusion that Harold Ford will not be the first African American President of the US.

    As soon as every Bushie GOPr suits up and enlists in the Army, I will be all in favor of sending them to whatever war Grandpa Walnuts and Cousin Lindsay want to send them to.

  10. 10.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 6:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: We are all THE Ukrainians!

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    February 20, 2014 at 6:30 am

    @micheline: Thanks (time for me to hit the sack, obvs).

  12. 12.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 6:30 am

    @mai naem: He may be better but he’s still a punk motherfucker.

  13. 13.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    February 20, 2014 at 6:30 am

    @raven: Yup, I’m ALMOST thankful he lost to Corker.

  14. 14.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 20, 2014 at 6:35 am

    Mitch McConnell has aroused some c0cks in Kentucky.

  15. 15.

    max

    February 20, 2014 at 6:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: If you replace “Sochi Games” with “Wall Street”, and “oligarch racketeers” with “hedge fund managers”, does anything else in that quote really change?

    Dude! The Russian oligarchical police state is *supposed* to be run by Wall Street, not by {shudder} Russians. They’re communists! They eat beet soup and drink gallons of vodka! They’re not the hard-working Galtians Siberia needs to exploit Siberia with real American economic efficiency!

    I mean, really – sending Cossacks out to whip hippies – you don’t do that. It looks terrible on TV. No, you send regular uniforms, cite them for being a public nuisance, and then do a frisk and discover drugs and send them to jail for that. Let the guards beat them in private. I mean, jeez. That Cossack thing just looks bad, when they could have made some perfectly good tabloid fodder out of them instead, so they can be tsk’ed-tsk’ed.

    Sooo gauche.

    Pay no attention to the reports that say oligarch racketeers eat at the economy like worms in a garden.

    Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia.

    max
    [‘Oceania has NEVER been at war with Eastasia.’]

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 6:51 am

    @max: Ahhhhh, your right, our oligarchs have much better PR.

  17. 17.

    R. Porrofatto

    February 20, 2014 at 6:53 am

    I can imagine the thoughts of our own Wall St. oligarchs upon reading this stuff:
    “Wow, you were able to skim a third of $50 billion? I get a woody just thinking about that. And you avoided paying tens of thousands of workers? And you didn’t even have to care about labor laws, or worker conditions or overtime or the environment or anything that takes money out of the pockets of job creators like us? Holy shit, that’s awesome! I wish we had a dictatorial central government working for us like that. Oh well, there’s always China. God I love commies!”

  18. 18.

    micheline

    February 20, 2014 at 6:56 am

    @Anne Laurie: no problem

  19. 19.

    kindness

    February 20, 2014 at 6:59 am

    Did the Russians learn from the bush43 administration?

  20. 20.

    Poopyman

    February 20, 2014 at 7:11 am

    @kindness: No, the other way around. The Russians have been doing this forever.

  21. 21.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 7:12 am

    Sally Jenkins, sports reporter for the Washington Post, is also disillusioned

    To be disillusioned, one must first have illusions. Each of her complaints, while justified, could have been written before these Olympic Games or, indeed, about many other Olympic Games. If folks had not wanted to be part of the corruption, there was a way.

  22. 22.

    karen

    February 20, 2014 at 7:13 am

    Sally is being sarcastic. Isn’t she? How much of a kickback is she getting?

  23. 23.

    gene108

    February 20, 2014 at 7:16 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If you replace “Sochi Games” with “Wall Street”, and “oligarch racketeers” with “hedge fund managers”, does anything else in that quote really change?

    Well…Earth worms in a garden provide a valuable service of improving soil quality…

    I don’t think the quote was referring to Earth worms though…

  24. 24.

    NorthLeft12

    February 20, 2014 at 7:16 am

    @mai naem: I could not let your comment pass without a small wingnut correction…..

    ” that Harold Ford will BE the first LEGITIMATE African American President of the US.”

  25. 25.

    JPL

    February 20, 2014 at 7:18 am

    That was a nice looking pup.
    Raven, I’m so pleased that you listen to morning joe, so I don’t have to. My dream would be for Mika to bring a doll and say to Joe, show me on the doll where Obama hurt your.

  26. 26.

    Suffern ACE

    February 20, 2014 at 7:18 am

    @raven: something bad is happening somewhere! Why don’t we get involved; make it stop?

    we might have more influence if we had given some foreign aid. I understand foreign aid is one of the most popular budget items. It often is #1 on the list of most popular programs.

  27. 27.

    Sherparick

    February 20, 2014 at 7:29 am

    Definitely husky (or mixed husky), not wolf. Definitely looking for the canine green card.
    I try not to get into a high moral dungeon about the Olympics. Frankly, after Avery Brundage and the 1936 Olympics, which he managed to top off with the 1972 disaster, I am always induced to an attack of nausea when anyone goes on about “Olympic” ideals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Brundage#Berlins. I do think pieces like Jenkins are useful for reminding us why all the administrators and poohbahs who run this thing are basically “dicks” who suck. (I wish Jean Claude Killy had always stayed 21 and the best skier ever that he was in 1968 when he won 3 gold medals (downhill, GS, and slalom, but alas he grew up and started competing to see how he could assemble large sums of money, a much more ignoble goal). However, I have never been much of a fan of boycotts which basically screws with young and relatively powerless athletes, especially in the sports no one hears about except during the Olympics and whose windows of opportunity close quickly as 20s change to 30s.

    Meanwhile, Nicole and the gang on Morning Joe should get a reminder that wars are filled with accidents, as this video from yesterday shows. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/building-anger.html

    This is also why the U.S. Infantry and Marines have such love (not) for their brothers and sisters in the Air Force’s rather relaxed attitude about “friendly” fire (whoops, mistakes were made!!).

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 7:30 am

    @gene108: Yes, earth worms certainly add more value than the current .1%. They’re harder working too.

  29. 29.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 7:33 am

    I am a huge Tom Clancy fan, and no spoliers, but in his most recent book Command Authority he kind of played out what is happening in Kiev. And heck the guy that was on 60 Minutes this week, where Russia literally just took his billion dollar company, well that happened in the darn book as well. It is just kind of strange to have read a book a few weeks ago, and then turn on the TV and see it play out in reality.

  30. 30.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 7:50 am

    @Suffern ACE: I am a huge supporter of foreign aid, but think in this situation it would make the situation worse, not better. As best as I can tell from news reports the citizens want to throw their lot in with the EU and the US. Russia, not so happy about that. Seems Putin still think they “own” the darn country.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    February 20, 2014 at 7:52 am

    @Tommy:

    That’s what the protestors want. I think Ukrainians are actually divided on the issue.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    February 20, 2014 at 7:53 am

    What might be your guess as to the percentage of foodstuffs sold at Walmart that would be verboten in the aisles at Whole Foods?

    Find out.

    Not attempting to play booster for Whole Foods (that chain certainly has its own baggage).

  33. 33.

    Kay

    February 20, 2014 at 7:55 am

    Clinton still beats everyone in Ohio:

    51 – 36 percent over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush;
    50 – 36 percent over U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida;
    51 – 38 percent over U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky;
    49 – 40 percent over U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin;
    51 – 34 percent over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas;
    51 – 39 percent over Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

    Ohio voters say 55 – 39 percent that Clinton would make a good president. No Republican listed gets a positive score on this question, as even Gov. Kasich gets a negative 34 – 47 percent. Christie gets a big negative 31 – 48 percent, compared to a positive 44 – 32 percent November 27.
    “The George Washington Bridge is not in Ohio, but voters there seem very aware of its traffic problems – and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s traffic problems,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “When Quinnipiac University asked Ohioans in November about Gov. Christie vs. Secretary Hillary Clinton in a 2016 White House race, the two were in a dead heat and voters thought he would make a good president. Today, she enjoys a comfortable double-digit lead and voters say Christie would not be a good president.”

    I don’t think anyone should be surprised by this. She’s always been very strong here, and it’s resilient.
    I bet Kasich expected to do better, though.

  34. 34.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 7:56 am

    @Baud: Maybe this is my hippie liberal POV but I don’t see why they can’t do both. Sure I’d want cheap natural gas from Russia, but I’d tell them maybe we will trade with Spain or Germany on this or that. And if we do we’ll grow our economy and buy more shit from you. Can’t you see this is a win/win? But alas Russia at this point doesn’t seem to be very logical.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    February 20, 2014 at 7:58 am

    @Kay:

    Wait till Ohioans learn the truth about BENGHAZI!

  36. 36.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:01 am

    @NotMax: When I lived in DC I had Eastern Market, a wonderful place to buy fresh food. And of course Whole Foods. Now where I live it is close to a 100 miles round trip to get to a Whole Foods. I am something of a foodie and my shopping choices are kind of limited. I admit I shop at Wal-mart, cause well it is “easy.” I’ve started using this app called MyFitnessPal, where I can scan in the bar codes of what I eat and see what is in the food. I have to admit I am stunned by all the shit in Wal-mart’s stuff. Food that should be healthy, isn’t in fact healthy.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    February 20, 2014 at 8:02 am

    @Tommy:

    I don’t know what the choice means in practical terms, or why they have to choose.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    February 20, 2014 at 8:03 am

    @Baud:

    Wait till Ohioans learn the truth about BENGHAZI!

    Like that will ever happen…the Hitlary still has not come clean about the murder of poor Vince Foster!

  39. 39.

    Baud

    February 20, 2014 at 8:03 am

    @Tommy:

    What info does the app provide that’s not on the label?

  40. 40.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:06 am

    @Baud: I don’t know why they have to make a choice either. But as best I can tell from reading about what is happening Russia doesn’t want them to trade with the EU. They are basically blackmailing them. You trade with the EU, set-up trade deals, then we won’t sell you this or that. Seems so short sighted to me. But then again what do I know.

  41. 41.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:08 am

    @Baud: Well nothing really. Just never really looked at the labels in that much detail to be honest. And in the app, well it is easier to figure out what is going on. Easier format to read.

  42. 42.

    RuhRow_Gyro

    February 20, 2014 at 8:10 am

    I feel bad for the stray pets.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    February 20, 2014 at 8:13 am

    @Baud:

    I think it’s a big loser. The absolute worst spin, the actual allegation is as follows; “she incorrectly characterized the attack in the immediate aftermath because of the Presidential election”. There’s just nothing to reveal past that allegation. They’re not even claiming there’s anything to reveal.

    I think they messed it up. Jake Tapper, specifically. He jumped the gun. They went right from the substance of “what is the crime?” to “the coverup is worse than the crime”. Okay, but you need the crime.

    For all I know, there was a crime. We’ll never know now, because they went chasing after the cover up.

    They have to stop putting things into narrative boxes. They can’t take “Watergate!” off the shelf every three weeks.

  44. 44.

    slippytoad

    February 20, 2014 at 8:15 am

    @Keith G:

    I try not to let the current run of success of Putin dishearten me. I know that in most cases justice does eventually get served, but right now, at least, the Russian caudillo seems to have set himself up rather effectively.

    Putin has just lost a huge amount of face, and being the kind of mob-boss leader he is that probably means a lot to him. Between the apparently dilapidated and obviously-poverty-stricken condition of his Olympic city and the revolt going on (which I’m sure was timed to cause him maximum embarrassment) I’m sure he’s dealing with a shifting power base right now. It may not be anything big we see at the moment, but this has been Fuck Putin Month all month long and I’ve been enjoying it.

  45. 45.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:17 am

    @RuhRow_Gyro: Same here. I have this client that sells health care and lifestyle benefit packages. Not insurance, but where you can get discounts on things like labs and imaging. All kinds of things. On the lifestyle side they offer packages that give discounts for health clubs, tax services. One of the lifestyle services is called Pet Care. Discounts on vet related things. My client never promotes this. Thinks it is a stupid offering.

    I noted to him he doesn’t have any pets and he might not understand how much folks like myself love our pets. That if my cat got sick I’d pay thousands of dollars to try and help her get better. And the fact his product, if I took my cat to the vet, I might save the entire monthly fee I’d pay him for all the services he offers is kind of an important selling proposition.

    He still doesn’t get it ….. there are many of us that LOVE pets.

  46. 46.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 8:18 am

    @Kay: Thanks, Kay.

    Is it time yet to spruce up those living-rooms in Chillicothe?

  47. 47.

    JPL

    February 20, 2014 at 8:19 am

    @NotMax: Thank you. Although the original owners are jerks, Whole Foods does provide good wages and benefits to their employees. I shop at whole foods and find their 356 brand to be reasonably priced. Their root beer is great, btw. It’s only whole pay check if you choose it to be.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 8:19 am

    Stuck in traffic? Follow the slime mold. Not kidding.

  49. 49.

    Applejinx

    February 20, 2014 at 8:22 am

    So, it takes Russia to show the true heart of capitalism?

  50. 50.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 8:26 am

    @karen:

    Sally is being sarcastic. Isn’t she? How much of a kickback is she getting?

    Of course, she’s being sarcastic — but it’s utterly pointless. These are not the first compromised Games. We’ve been here before. The athletes and their governments and their publics knew very well what they were getting into. Had they wanted to take a moral stand against anything, they could have done so. Being sarcastic now may help unthinking people feel morally superior but it achieves nothing — it’s merely part of the Game(s).

  51. 51.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 8:26 am

    @Tommy: We have health insurance on the Bohdi, Lil Bit is not insurable.

  52. 52.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Very interesting article. Very interesting. One of the main reasons I moved from DC to Southern IL was traffic. I spent like two hours plus a day in a car (44 mile roundtrip commute from Capital Hill to Tyson Corner) and I came to think that wasn’t “normal” (often much longer BTW). I mean there are others things I could do with that time.

    The local St. Louis news bitches about traffic all the time and I am like “dude you don’t know traffic. You are bitching about something that isn’t really a problem.” Oh and why don’t you use our Metro service. It is clean, fast, and cheap. The St. Louis metro area has a gem with our Metro service, but alas when I use it (and I use it all the time) I am like the only person on the darn thing.

    Makes me sad …..

  53. 53.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 20, 2014 at 8:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: You know who else had troops on the Polish border?

  54. 54.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2014 at 8:36 am

    You-Can’t-Make-This-Up Department:

    Jerry Boykin Says Manly Man’s Man Jesus Will Come Back Toting an AR-15

    And this guy was once in change of a whole bunch of people carrying guns in the name of the United States of America.

  55. 55.

    Cacti

    February 20, 2014 at 8:37 am

    @Bobby Thomson:

    You know who else had troops on the Polish border?

    You also know which country had a secret pact with them, setting up “spheres of influence” in eastern Europe?

  56. 56.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 8:40 am

    @Cermet:
    Oh, no. Sorry, no. It’s the other way around. Our .1% are poisonous leeches, absolutely, but they ain’t got shit on Russian oligarchs. Our guys have to be clever and game the system. The Russians go straight in and say ‘I’ll take 15 billion for my personal bank account.’ They’re getting 1000 times the reward our CEO parasites get, deliver even less quality, and all they have to do is call Putin and ask how much he thinks he can pad the Olympic budget. The Olympic fiasco is what a real corrupt state looks like. Not only does it bleed money in a waterfall, but it can’t get anything done except punish anyone who sticks their neck out.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 8:41 am

    @Tommy: WAY back in the ’70s, I commuted to work in downtown St. Louis via the bus. The trip took app 40 mins (from Kingshighway and Arsenal), during which I drank my morning coffee and read the paper, no traffic, no parking, NO HEADACHES, and a 5 min walk to the job. In the evenings the reverse. I loved it. Never understood why anyone would choose any other way of commuting.

    Alas, I became a carpenter and they tend to frown upon taking up seats with tools.

  58. 58.

    Suffern ACE

    February 20, 2014 at 8:42 am

    @RuhRow_Gyro: yeah. Bit I’m not sure I agree with the global pet rescue . Just picking up a fog in Russia and bringing it home seems like a bad idea.

  59. 59.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:42 am

    I am an atheist. But raised in a Methodist family. I am not an expert on the Methodist church, but at least the churches I went to (in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, and Illinois — military brat here) were pretty darn progressive. I was taught (and what I got from reading the Bible) Jesus was a peaceful person. To turn the other cheek. To offer the shirt off my back to a fellow human. Non-violence was always the best option. So I guess I am saying I don’t see Jesus coming back with an AR.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 8:44 am

    @Bobby Thomson: You caught that, eh? No escaping your Godwin detector!

  61. 61.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 8:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Alas, I became a carpenter and they tend to frown upon taking up seats with tools.

    Even if you pay twice (or some such multiple of) the fare?

  62. 62.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 8:46 am

    @Suffern ACE: And difficult, too.

  63. 63.

    raven

    February 20, 2014 at 8:47 am

    @Suffern ACE: Yea that imported fog is a beechhh!

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 8:47 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    ‘I’ll take 15 billion for my personal bank account.’

    As American as apple pie!

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    February 20, 2014 at 8:48 am

    @Tommy

    Shall take it a step further and admit that don’t see how carrying an AR-15 makes anyone “manly.”

  66. 66.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2014 at 8:48 am

    @Tommy:
    IANAC, but I used to play one on TV. Jesus spoke of swords in metaphors, but he certainly had ample opportunity to carry a real one if he’d meant to. The only time a real sword came into play was when Peter cut off the ear of a soldier who’d come to arrest Jesus and Jesus told Peter to put it away. The sword, not the ear. Jesus put the ear back on the soldier. You’d think that would have given the guy pause.

  67. 67.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:48 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: It is amazing. Two blocks from my house, and I live in a rural town, is a bus stop. Four miles from my house a Metro station. This will blow the mind of folks that live in large metro areas, parking at the Metro station is FREE. When first I moved back here I called Metro and asked, “hey I am flying to DC for a week. Can I just leave my car there?” They were like sure. Leave it there for as long as you want.

    That hurt my head. I was used to paying like $24/day to park.

    Nope it is free. I mean ponder that for a few. Oh and a Metro pass for an entire day is $7.

  68. 68.

    Ben Cisco

    February 20, 2014 at 8:50 am

    @burnspbesq: Right there with you (on the waiting bit, then SCREW DOOK).

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    February 20, 2014 at 8:52 am

    In case you missed Larry O’s show last night with Jordan Davis’ parents:

    Part 1:
    http://on.msnbc.com/1d2vk5k

    Part 2:

    Davis’ mother: ‘You took my future’

    http://on.msnbc.com/1eUCh8f

  70. 70.

    Cacti

    February 20, 2014 at 8:54 am

    @gnomedad:

    IANAC, but I used to play one on TV. Jesus spoke of swords in metaphors, but he certainly had ample opportunity to carry a real one if he’d meant to. The only time a real sword came into play was when Peter cut off the ear of a soldier who’d come to arrest Jesus and Jesus told Peter to put it away. The sword, not the ear. Jesus put the ear back on the soldier. You’d think that would have given the guy pause.

    Early Christian evangelists had this problem of promoting Jesus as the messiah or “Christ” prophesied in Hebrew scriptures, because he did not fulfill all of the messianic prophecies in his lifetime. What to do, what to do…aha! A second coming!

    But this time, no ignominious end for Jesus at the hands of Roman oppressors. He’ll be coming back to kick ass and give the non-believers what’s coming to them.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @Cervantes: Oh yeah… You know how long it takes to get all of my tools in my truck from scratch? 10-15 mins minimum and that’s if I have ’em laid out for ease of packing. ‘Course, it all depends on what I’m doing, back when I was hanging drywall a 5 gal bucket did the trick. Finish work tho requires every tool ever made it seems.

  72. 72.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @NotMax: If you have to carry a gun to feel “manly” then I don’t know what to say. I guess I feel sorry for you. I am a far left liberal and guns are not my cup of tea. I don’t like them. But almost everybody I know owns a lot of guns. For them they are tools. Things they use to kill a deer. Or quail. I’ve asked them to go hunting with them, and none of them will take me. They know I know nothing about guns. How they work. Safety. They would not put one in my hands. So when I see all these folks think giving somebody an AR I am confused. Nobody I know wants to own that gun. Again a tool, what do you use it for?

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    February 20, 2014 at 8:58 am

    @rikyrah

    Saw it, and it was a cringe-worthy interview, what with every other question asking “How does that make you feel” as opposed to “What do you think about that.”

  74. 74.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 8:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Naah, man. The Americans say ‘I’ll take 5 billion for my company, and get 5 million of that myself because I’m so awesome.’ They have to play that game a long time, and several others, to get into the billions. Some Russian transferred 15 billion of the Olympic budget straight into his bank account, and then he and Putin went and had a beer. Our guys can’t touch that. Hell, our guys would have trouble competing with the downstream action, where 35 billion dollars became the shoddiest Olympics ever.

    EDIT – And I offer Romney’s Olympics as proof of this. Corrupt plutocrat, corrupt process, way less money, way better results.

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 20, 2014 at 9:00 am

    @Kay: I wonder how the various Republicans would fair against the fabled generic Democrat.

  76. 76.

    Tommy

    February 20, 2014 at 9:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I am a coffee snob. Huge fan of this show Dangerous Grounds. He was trying to get some coffee out of Thailand. He bought a seat for each bag of coffee on a train. Found that to be pretty cool.

  77. 77.

    Cacti

    February 20, 2014 at 9:04 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Naah, man. The Americans say ‘I’ll take 5 billion for my company, and get 5 million of that myself because I’m so awesome.’ They have to play that game a long time, and several others, to get into the billions. Some Russian transferred 15 billion of the Olympic budget straight into his bank account, and then he and Putin went and had a beer. Our guys can’t touch that. Hell, our guys would have trouble competing with the downstream action, where 35 billion dollars became the shoddiest Olympics ever.

    Our historical parallel would be the late 19th/early 20th century. The progressive movement was formed in response to the worst of the kleptocratic practices prevalent at the time.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 20, 2014 at 9:07 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: “Fare, ” goddamn it. Fare not fair. Stupid pre-cofffee brain.

  79. 79.

    mai naem

    February 20, 2014 at 9:08 am

    @Kay: Not only that but Benghazi is in a country in an area of the world that most Americans don’t know much about. Add in the multiple Islamic fundy/warlords aspect of this, and you just get a general Islamic terrahrist attack. Give Americans a scandal they can understand and they might affect a pol’s numbers. Say, something like a massive traffic jam for political payback.

  80. 80.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 9:08 am

    @Cacti:
    And as bad as things are here and now, there’s a legal limit to how much rat poop can be served in your canned tuna and lead paint is hardly ever sold as milk.

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    February 20, 2014 at 9:11 am

    NJ WRESTLERS’ LYNCHING PHOTO DRAWS SCRUTINY
    Feb. 19, 2014 2:16 PM EST

    TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — School sports officials asked the state’s civil rights agency to look into a photo that shows members of a high school wrestling team apparently simulating a lynching.

    The photo, which surfaced online in recent days, shows seven white teens wearing Phillipsburg High School wrestling attire posed with a black tackling dummy in a Paulsboro High School wrestling shirt and hanging from a noose. Two of the boys have the hoods on their sweatshirts fixed into points. One of the boys is holding a paddle.

    Paulsboro and Phillipsburg are longtime wrestling powerhouses and rivals. Phillipsburg, in northwest New Jersey, is a community of 15,000 where about 85 percent of the population is white. Paulsboro, south of Philadelphia, has about 6,000 residents — more than one-third of them black.

    According to online photos, it appears all or nearly all Phillipsburg’s wrestlers are white, while some members of the Paulsboro team are black.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nj-wrestlers-lynching-photo-draws-scrutiny

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 9:12 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Well, as far as I can see, the only real difference between our oligarchs and their oligarchs is theirs are more open and honest. In Russia they say “I am taking your money because I can. Fwck Off.” In America they say “I am taking your money because I am so awesome so I deserve it and without me you wouldn’t even have a job so, wait a minute let me take some more, and I give to charity so you see I really am a good guy as I sit here in my country club with the private air strip where I park my plane….”

    Admittedly they’d all like to make the kind of money they do in Russia but they also realize that what Putin gives with one hand he can take away with the other and none of them want to end up like Khodorkovsky.

  83. 83.

    gnomedad

    February 20, 2014 at 9:14 am

    @Tommy:
    Also, as Captain Kirk might have asked, why does Jesus need an AR-15?

  84. 84.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 20, 2014 at 9:16 am

    Olympic Thread needs a lolympickittteh.

  85. 85.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 9:16 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Yeah, but what you’re saying is, the Russian system is rigged so they can be corrupt much more easily and directly and with better payoffs. That is exactly why they’re worse than our guys. Sure our guys would be as bad if they could, but that’s true universally. America has no monopoly on assholes. The thing is, their system is rigged way, WAY worse than ours, to the tune of ’15 dollars in your pocket instead of 5 million’ and ‘I took the most money ever to produce hotels that are already falling down’ instead of ‘I took half that money and produced a product no better than any other Olympics’. Plus, in Russia the corruption is on every level. The foreman is skimming, the guy in the inventory room is skimming, the local police are skimming with extortion – it’s a mess.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 9:18 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Oh definitely the US has it’s upsides, but it is still illegal for us to shoot our rich.

  87. 87.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 9:19 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    You get sent to a gulag there for talking bad about their rich. You get murdered if you actually succeed in embarrassing them. We’re no competition on that level, either.

  88. 88.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 9:22 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like a regular chore — but then I guess the problem was not that you were “taking up seats with tools.”

  89. 89.

    The Pale Scot

    February 20, 2014 at 9:22 am

    Hush everyone, the free market is speaking;

    Loan Program for Reactors Is Fizzling

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 9:22 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: There is an element of sarcasm in most everything I say. Except for when I talk about shooting the rich. That I am totally serious about.**

    ** (sarcasm)

  91. 91.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 20, 2014 at 9:25 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Ah, sorry. Missed the snark entirely. It’s just that some people don’t realize that as fucked up and in need of change as our system is, it can be catastrophically worse – and in very large sections of the world is.

  92. 92.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 20, 2014 at 9:41 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, we got a long way to go. Here we just send you to prison for being black. Oh, we SAY it is about selling dope on the street corners and what a dangerous and addictive drug it is unlike cigarettes. And don’t forget sentences for crack versus powdered cocaine… After they “fixed” the sentencing disparity between the two, you get only 7 times the sentence for crack as you do for powdered…

    Oh yeah, we are sooooo much better than the Russkies.

  93. 93.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 20, 2014 at 9:52 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: For contrast. Here is the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine in Kyiv (Kiev) this morning. Those are not stage props. https://twitter.com/jc_stubbs/status/436488152283242496/photo/1

  94. 94.

    The Pale Scot

    February 20, 2014 at 9:52 am

    The End is Nigh;

    National clown shortage may be approaching,

  95. 95.

    Suffern ACE

    February 20, 2014 at 10:00 am

    @The Pale Scot: I actually know a few clowns and they have assured me that there is no shortage of clowns, that clowning is as good as it ever was, and that they do not need a special H1c visa created during Immigration Reform to address any domestic clown shortage with foreign clowns.

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 20, 2014 at 10:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sure, both countries’ polities are sick. The difference is ours has the flu and theirs has a hemorrhagic fever.

  97. 97.

    Cervantes

    February 20, 2014 at 10:55 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thought you might enjoy this (“Myths and reality of Russian oligarchs,” Yuri Skidanov, Pravda, November 5, 2013):

    Based on this research, a generalized image of the Russian oligarch can be described as follows: half-Slav with a significant addition of Jewish, Tatar and Caucasus blood, slightly thievish, with past and present problems with the law, well-educated, with a preference of getting large and fast profits not in the sphere of material production, but reselling within the country or for export the fruit of the labor of others.

    The original is in Russian.

  98. 98.

    JustRuss

    February 20, 2014 at 11:33 am

    @Sherparick:

    I try not to get into a high moral dungeon

    The word is dudgeon….or perhaps not, in which case I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter, if it has pictures.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    February 20, 2014 at 11:51 am

    @raven: @Tommy:
    I have insurance on all my guys – one dog and two cats. After Quiver, I vowed I would never NOT have pet insurance again.

    My guys are all about 3 years old, give or take. One of my kitties has no problems (knock on wood) so I may be losing money there. But her brother Bear is one of those kitties with a chronic UTI condition.

    If he has to go on prescription food for this condition, my insurance will pay for it. Even without that, he takes something every day for inflammation, basically $25 a month. So I basically have to pay for his first 2 bottles every year, and after that EVERYTHING related to his UTI condition is 100% covered. The other 10 bottles, urine samples, prescriptions, everything.

    I love Pet Plan.

  100. 100.

    SectarianSofa

    February 20, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Well, that’s not at all fucked up. Sigh.

  101. 101.

    Another Holocene Human

    February 20, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    Fuck your Sochi problems. #Euromaidan 25+ protestors shot or otherwise killed by Berkut and plainclothes officers, 40-50 burned alive in the labor building that was the opposition’s hq in Kyiv? Shit’s super real in Ukraine right now. Russia is running full-on propaganda war about it as well, placing reports that the protestors are really fascist provocateur groups and other crapola. Much feeling they may be about to pull a Hungary ’56 as soon as the Games are over. IOC refused to allow Ukraine athletes to wear black armbands in memory of the dead. Women’s ski team boycotted the other day.

    I guess most Americans are being quiet because they were silent when CIA was pulling the same bullshit in Central and South America. Can’t have an empire without breaking a few pluralistic, democratic society eggs, right?

  102. 102.

    Comrade Mary

    February 20, 2014 at 2:46 pm

    So nobody else is watching hockey? What kind of monsters are you?

  103. 103.

    Comrade Mary

    February 20, 2014 at 2:46 pm

    @Comrade Mary: OK, context matters. Bad place for that comment.

  104. 104.

    brantl

    February 21, 2014 at 11:49 am

    This was a con, by either Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon.

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