Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the incredible entertainment value of gotcha journalism. Thus was the result of Nancy Grace having rapper 2 Chainz on her show to talk about marijuana. Per usual, Nancy Grace was ridiculous, often referring to the rapper by his former moniker “Titty Boy,” while the rapper was actually very calm and reasonable. Pulitzer prize-winning stuff, guys.
Team Blackness also discussed the positive effects of Don Lemon’s idiocy, glittering bombing your enemies, and why you should never call out Jesus while being beaten by police.
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kc
2Chainz: “Marijuana should be legal.”
Nancy Grace: “You said ‘bitch!'”
kindness
Nancy keeps thinking she can get this guy to say using cannabis is bad. Obviously this guy doesn’t think using it is bad. WTF is wrong with Nancy?
Gordon Schumway
@kindness:
We don’t have enough time or space to begin to address that.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
When I read Elon’s post, I remembered that old saying about lawyers.
When you don’t have the law on your side, pound on the facts; when you don’t have the facts on your side, pound on the law; and when you don’t have either, pound on the table.
Nancy “Guilty Guilty!” Grace does a lot of pounding on the table. It is pretty much sickening that she was a prosecutor for years.
Bob In Portland
I apologize in advance for going off-topic here, but Russia, according to the Daily Mail, has cut off Gazprom’s lines through Ukraine because Ukraine still has not paid its bill and is once again stealing gas from the pipelines. I haven’t seen a mention in the Western press. Maybe it’s just not very important to the US or it doesn’t know how to dress up the story.
In any case, I suspect that this won’t help the worldwide economy.
But don’t worry. The pipeline through Turkey to Greece will be fully functioning in a few years.
japa21
@Bob In Portland: Well, it’s our propaganda monger again, reporting an article that doesn’t truly say what he says it says.
He says Ukraine is stealing gas from the pipeline; the article says Russia accuses Ukraine of doing such things. Not really the same thing. He says Ukraine has not paid its bills; the article says there is a dispute about this, which happens every year.
BTW, since Russia is doing its damndest to steal Ukraine’s land, what is the big deal about stealing a little gas, if they are even doing so.
Also note what the article says that BiP doesn’t say. Russia has made a promise to Europe not to reduce gas supplies and has broken that promise.
The real villain in this little tale is Russia, not Ukraine.
Bob In Portland
@japa21: Whatever. Yes, Russia says that Ukraine is stealing gas. If you see the world in black and white, and Russia’s always wrong, then Russia is cutting off major sources of revenue for spite.
It’s always Russia’s fault.
I suspect that Russia determined, after the psyops of “I am Charlie” and the bus attack in Ukraine-controlled Donbas that the poodles can fuck themselves. This would mean that shortly Russia will call on Ukraine to pay back its three billion dollar loan. Which would mean that the EU would have to pay for Ukraine’s gas and Ukraine’s debt, to Russia, in order for Central Europe to get gas. Or watch the EU tumble into depression, which would pull the rest of us into depression.
On the bright side, as we speak the cost of natural gas is skyrocketing, so maybe we will see those LNG terminals along the Atlantic Coast perking up.
Bob In Portland
What a strange development. The US coup in Ukraine to back those guys wearing swastikas (their PM recently rewrote history to say that Russia invaded Germany to start WWII) is going to throw the world into depression. But, please, blame it on the Russians because it’s better to blame them than to take responsibility for your own gullibility for US propaganda. Enjoy, BJers. You’ve done your little part here by remaining ignorant to the world around you.
jl
Lordy.
Grace: Look at those people, they let their infant smoke dope! You want to legalize dope which means you want infants to smoke dope. Why do you want to do that?
2 Chainz: Legalizing dope doesn’t mean you want kids to smoke it. Just like legal alcohol or caffeine doesn’t mean you want to kids to drink that
Grace: Look at those people, they let their infant smoke dope! You want to legalize dope which means you want infants to smoke dope. Why do you want to do that?
2 Chainz: Legalizing dope doesn’t mean you want kids to smoke it. Just like legal alcohol or caffeine doesn’t mean you want to kids to drink that
Etc.
Hilarious and sad. Who watches this nonsense? Why did 2 Chainz bother with it? I guess he has compassion for all the people who watch Grace, thought he should give it a try. He even tried the government waste fraud and abuse angle. No luck.
John M. Burt
You know, I hate it when someone comments on a drug debate with “What’s s/he smoking?” as a way of dismissing them.
But seriously, folks, which of these two do you think felt the need of some fortification before going on the air?
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: and the Russian-backed bus attack in Ukraine-controlled Donbas.
You missed a part. The bus was hit by artillery fired by the separatists. It’s tragic that the Grad control systems aren’t very good.
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: Except that reports from the scene show that the victims were killed by gunfire. Nice try, though. Enjoy your next Great Depression. You own it. Depressions are good for rightward drifts.
JMV Pyro
I’ve noticed a pattern with our friend
Nerull
Of all the people you could crawl in bed with, Vladmir fucking Putin?
Putin is a open fascist and proud of it. What do you gain?
Bob In Portland
@Nerull: I guess this would be directed to me. I am not in bed with Putin. I can understand his actions. You can’t. You probably don’t understand the pipelineistan wars, you certainly won’t if you just read the western media.
Actually, I’ve never seen much connection between our energy companies getting cheap petroleum from other people’s lands as benefiting the US economy generally, certainly not for the bottom 99%.
Villago Delenda Est
@japa21: If pure as the driven snow Russia says that the disrespectful and thieving Ukraine is stealing gas, then by gosh, they are stealing gas.
BiP is just more pissed than ever that his paychecks are in rubles, not in a reliable hard currency.
Bob In Portland
@Villago Delenda Est: What I find curious is that aside from the Daily Mail and other smaller sources, the story is not being printed in the west.
So either it didn’t happen or the west is in a news blackout about this. We’ll see. Remember, within hours we got the faux You Tube video of the Novorussians downing MH17 and now nothing. Hmmm.
Anyone remember “We fight on that lie”? Not unlike WMDs, which many Republicans still believe, or the Gulf of Tonkin or many other lies. Enjoy. Maybe you’ll get the news by tomorrow.
me
I’m not. The Daily Mail is trash and it shows the level of your credibility that it (and a shitty blog) is your source.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bob In Portland: Because most media outlets in the west are not in the habit of repeating Kremlin propaganda verbatim, unlike some questionably useful idiot commenter here on BJ.
Another Holocene Human
@kindness: These infotainment anchors always book rappers thinking they’re as stupid and venal as they are.
The pwnings are hilarious.
me
Here’s a more credible source, AFP. It’s a threat that if the EU doesn’t build the South Stream pipeline they’ll shut off supplies, not that they’ve already done so.
Another Holocene Human
@Nerull: Maybe HODOR! is sublimating homosexual impulses and Putin is just the manly-man gay-baiter gay-hater to lead him to the promised land.
karen marie
If the fact that irresponsible people get their kids stoned is reason to continue to outlaw pot, then the fact that irresponsible people shoot their kids/other people, or their kids shoot themselves/other people should be reason to significantly restrict gun ownership.
And by Grace’s reasoning, alcohol should be banned.
Want to live by simple rules? Don’t complain when they restrict your freedumbs.
Bob In Portland
@Villago Delenda Est: The source of the information was the Daily Mail. Some people think that the gas wasn’t cut off and this was an old article from one of the other times that gas was cut because Ukraine was siphoning off gas.
I’m starting to believe that’s the case, although you wonder why the Daily Mail (part of the Kremlin’s mighty propaganda machine) would run a picture from yesterday of Putin and the head of Gazprom.
So maybe the only story is that Russia intends to cut off Ukraine after the pipeline is built to Turkey, and that if Europe wants its gas it can build a pipeline there.
I’m still waiting for confirmation of this DAILY MAIL story, but the fact that no one western or Russian, is repeating this story, I’m guessing that I got hosed by the DAILY MAIL and ZeroHedge.
Carry on, citizens.
Bob In Portland
@Another Holocene Human: Whatever. But slinging around homophobic commentary is homophobic. So you’re a homophobe human. You define yourself.
Bob In Portland
ZeroHedge has taken down the article. Carry on, citizens.
Villago Delenda Est
@karen marie: The phrase “Grace’s reasoning” really rubs me the wrong way.
The woman is vile, and it amazes me that she was every hired as a prosecutor anywhere, even Georgia.
Les Nessman
@Bob In Portland: I just googled “russia gas pipeline”, and the “Zero Hedge” link was like third, and the article was right there…..
Les Nessman
You gotta remember the three most important things @ balloonjuice- pets, pork and kraut, and yelling “troll”.
mclaren
Is that woman even alive? She looks like a robot from a grade Z sci fi film. Seriously, there’s bad makeup, but then there’s looks-like-an-alien-from-outer-space. That woman crossed over into `Galaxina’ android territory a looooong time ago…
Bob In Portland
@Les Nessman: Well, I don’t see it now over there, but there were two stories being circulated yesterday about Russia/Ukraine/natgas. There was the accurate story about Russian not only abandoning the South Stream but indicating that the pipelines across Ukraine would be used only to supply Ukraine, and that if Europe wanted Russian gas formerly transited across Ukraine it would be available at the eventual terminus in Turkey. This would prevent Ukraine from using the Russian pipelines across it as a means to blackmail Russia.
The second story was a reprint of an old story in the Daily Mail, undated but probably from 2009, about Russia shutting down its gaslines across Ukraine because the Ukrainians were stealing from the pipelines. This old story was recirculated along with the current story and repeated in several websites. ZeroHedge was one. The two stories combined made it look as if Russia was being aggressive in shutting off gas to Central Europe now.
I don’t know if recirculating the old story was intentional or accidental, in some places it was accompanied by a picture of Putin and his energy chief Miller, who were subjects of the real story, which further scrambled the two stories. Whether intentional or accidental, it served the purpose of blunting the actual story.
Since the terminus of the new pipeline will end at the Greek border, this would presumably give Greece an economic boost, and should give them better treatment from the EU, whether they are in or out of it in a few years. It also punishes a number of eastern European countries, like Bulgaria, who caved to the EU in fighting the South Stream.
So in the end it only gave several BJers the opportunity to spout homophobic remarks at me because “Putin.” The topic is important because all of our foreign policy in the region is based on gaining control of energy resources. The coup in Ukraine was at least in part to make Russia’s gas transiting Ukraine an unreliable source. First South Stream, and now Russia’s latest plan to use Turkey, would eliminate Ukraine as an economic threat and allow them to stew in their own fascist juices.
Despite news stories in the energy press about new developments in the proposed TAPI pipeline (which I’ve known about for 20 years), there is still a question about how feasible it is considering the territory it covers, and whether Turkmenistan is still interested as opposed to going east, like Russia, to supply China’s energy needs.
If you look at the US strategy in the region, it has been to block competitors’ energy sales while expanding its own resources and markets. That’s why the US had Georgia invade North Ossetia in 2008 and why the CIA was financing the Chechen rebellion in the 90s. Interestingly, during Russia’s counterattack against Georgia in defense of Ossetia Russia ran bombing raids where they dropped bombs on either side of, but not on, the western pipelines that run across Georgia. It was a non-verbal way for Russia to tell the West, “We know your game, and there will consequences for you too.”
Iran has had two pipeline plans which are in competition with the US and its allies. One would run across Pakistan to India, in direct competition with TAPI. The other one would run from Iran, across Iraq and Syria, to the Mediterranean, where it would be supplying Southern Europe with gas. It would be in competition with a proposed line from Qatar to the Mediterranean. Assad blocked that plan, which might explain Qatar’s support of ISIS. Religious strife between Shia and Sunni nations seem to follow energy competition. Iran’s non-military nuclear program is the excuse. The real threat is Iran’s energy being directed to India and Europe.
A few decades ago Iraq and Iran were major suppliers of energy to the world. France was siphoning much of its energy needs from Libya. All three of those countries’ energy sales have been disrupted through war, boycotts and assisted revolutions. Imagine how far the price of oil would tumble if they all were back online and if they had their proposed pipelines working.