No surprises here in today’s CNN poll on the impending DHS shutdown.
Republicans in Congress would shoulder the blame for a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security if they are unable to enact a new spending bill to keep the agency running, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The survey finds 53% of Americans would blame the Republicans in Congress if the department must shut down, while 30% would blame President Barack Obama. Another 13% say both deserve the blame.
So that’s 66% assigning at least some of the blame and a majority assigning all of the blame should the Republicans shut down the DHS.
Good job, Republican strategists.
Open thread.
Amir Khalid
In before Spinwheel!
catclub
But when you know that over 80% ‘when polled’ support stricter gun control, but it does not happen,
how much is that majority opinion worth?
Pogonip
I can finally sort of get around, crabwalking sideways. There is definitely physical therapy in my future.
While sitting around icing and stretching, I got to wondering what a Skippy’s List for blogs would look like.
1). Pogonip is not allowed to bring up the topic of dog poop.
2). Even if someone is interested.
3). Which nobody is.
Poo. So to speak.
Zam
Unfortunately they can do that kind of thing this early in the game. There will be hundreds of other stories between now and election day. Even if they hold some longer term ill will from the country gerrymandering will prevent any sort of take over by the dems barring a huge landslide.
Gene108
Firing up the base is NEVER a bad strategy for Republicans. I think only 35% of eligible voters votes in 2015. It does not matter what most Americans think. announced. You only need to appeal to 18% of the eligible voters to win off year elections.
Even in Presidential election years GOOD turnout is 60%, so need to appeal to 31% of the populace or for conservatives your core 27% support + 3% and 1 vote.
Buddy H
Do the repub strategists pay attention to CNN polls? Or do they distrust them, preferring Roger Ailes version of reality?
Iowa Old Lady
@Amir Khalid: There is such as thing as a filter. Saves my time and blood pressure.
Bob
100 – 66 = 34% That’s getting close to the hardcore 27 per-centers.
Zam
@catclub:
It only matters if the objects that cause these numbers (mass shooting in an elementary school) occur right around election day. Voters forget or lose their interest in the topic.
kc
Shut down DHS? Aww. I weep for George W. Bush and Joe Lieberman.
Buddy H
@Pogonip: May I mention how odd it is that there are cat toys called “solo play” but the package fine print states “do not let cat play unattended” ??
Half the cat toys I see for sale I’d be afraid to leave my cat alone with. Little pieces, rattlers and bells she’s bite off and swallow.
My wife sewed some little cloth mice with crackly innards. When kitty tires of them, she turns to her old favorite, a crumpled ball of paper.
Bob
@Gene108: Hey, sorry. I did not see you beat me to that magic number.
Spinwheel
@Amir Khalid:
How precious.
Point still stands from the last thread: Obama’s NSA has access to every hard drive on the Internet.
But nobody in Balloon Juice land sees an issue with it.
bobbo
and the effect this will have on Republican electoral prospects is a whopping none.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Please proceed, GOP.
VFX Lurker
@Iowa Old Lady: I just reenabled Tampermonkey and Troll-B-Gone solely to block Zandar’s cyberstalker. Worked like a charm.
Buddy H
@Pogonip: I can finally sort of get around, crabwalking sideways. There is definitely physical therapy in my future.
Keep us posted on your progress; we’re rooting for you.
Bobby Thomson
Remind me how being blamed for the 2013 shutdown hurt them in the 2014 elections. They do it because they can.
mattH
@catclub: Opinion is one thing, priority is another. The NRA learned early that they only need a small percentage of very motivated voters to control policy regarding gun law. For most of us, even though it’s important, it’s still really low on the list of priorities. Sucks, but until that is swayed, it won’t make any changes possible.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
As Buzz said, “What a pathetic little man you are.”
Kidding of course – I have to confess that my initial incentive for reading the comments was to see if psycho-stalker had said anything yet, so seeing your comment made me feel a little less weird about it.
ETA: And, of course, between the time I hit “Reply” and when I actually submitted, psycho-stalker turned up. Outstanding.
chopper
@Pogonip:
long as you go “WOOPWOOPWOOP” as you do it.
Zandar
@Gene108:
This.
We’d rather sit around and complain Obama didn’t give us a reason to vote than actually vote, because I am told “preventing the GOP from destroying the country” is not a viable reason to get off your ass and head down to the precinct.
2014 proved that.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Also, too, lots of people blamed the Republicans for the government shutdown in 2013, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt them in the 2014 elections. The only way this matters is if it scares enough of the Republican leadership that they give up and agree to go along with the Democrats.
Origuy
Scott Walker wants Wisconsin state parks to pay for themselves. Of course, when they don’t, he’ll sell them off.
Buddy H
@mattH: The NRA learned early that they only need a small percentage of very motivated voters to control policy regarding gun law. For most of us, even though it’s important, it’s still really low on the list of priorities. Sucks, but until that is swayed, it won’t make any changes possible.
A small right wing minority amplifies itself in reader comments on every news or cultural site I visit. You’d think there were hundreds of them, but then the administrator checks IP #s and it turns out to be the same one or two people posting under different names.
I truly believe some of them are paid to post their stuff. The others are just grumpy basement amateurs…
Punchy
Uh, well…..it got a shit ton of them elected, diddnit?
SFAW
@Zandar:
Fortunately, the 2014 disaster will provide sufficient motivation for Dems to come out in force for years to come.
Just as 2010 did.
Southern Beale
Why do Republicans continually play this game? And God forbid there’s a national security issue of some kind, and they’ve held up DHS funding … they’ll deny it was their fault and no one will believe it. Lather, rinse, repeat. How many times do they need to sing this song before they realize nobody is buying it?
Amir Khalid
I typed an ETA to my comment #1, but it timed out before I could save it. Here I go again:
I saw Boyhood. There’s no plot as such, and you don’t feel its absence: for 2 hours and 45 minutes you get to watch the actors age/grow up over the 12-year shoot, and to track the characters’ evolution. At the end of the thing you feel like you’ve come to know them from the inside, and empathise with them as people. Wonderful move, just wonderful.
Gene108
@Zandar:
Firing up right -wingers by screwing up government has a double bonus. Right-wingers stay engaged, as their rage meter is stuck at 11 and everyone we gets discouraged because government is not working for them.
2010 and 2014 shows how easily voters can become discouraged with the way things are.
trnc
Sorry, off topic but I thought people would want to know about this and that it might garner its own thread. Peavey Electronics is in the middle of a PR crapstorm of its own making after the CEO and COO were featured on Undercover Boss last night. Standard synopsis – corporate boss blends in with workers to get their point of view and see how improvements could be made to the work environment. But 4 months after taping, employees (including 2 featured on the show) got the shaft. Pretty big discussion now on corporate practices.
Short rundown of the episode – http://realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com/2015/02/15/undercover-boss-recap-an-unhappy-ending-for-peavey-electronics/
Gene108
@mattH:
Not just the NRA, but especially the fundies when the started organizing into a Republican voting block 35 years ago.
Roger Moore
@Southern Beale:
Because to them it actually is a game. They only care about the politics as it affects their reelection chances. Any real-world effects are completely beyond the point as long as they can successfully blame them on the Democrats. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and for them, that’s enough to get reelected.
Zandar
@Southern Beale:
Because they win at it.
We didn’t punish the Republicans for shutting down the government in 2013. Instead we rewarded them for it because people. Do. Not. Vote.
opiejeanne
I had to get a routine blood test this morning and I noticed that among the symbols of things not allowed inside the clinic, was a gun. Yes, we have to be told not to bring a gun to the doctor’s office.
Just Some Fuckhead
So thirty percent of Americans don’t know how a bill becomes a law. I blame Schoolhouse Rock.
japa21
@Origuy: So the expectation is that by charging higher fees, they can cover what the state doesn’t fund, except for the fact that fewer people will then afford going, so there will be even less revenue, which then means fewer staff which then means the parks fall into disrepair, which then means fewer people go, which then means selling them off to some mining company.
What is it about “State” Park System that implies the state doesn’t have to fund them.
Amir Khalid
@opiejeanne:
So where you live, it’s still legal for a doctor to forbid guns in the clinic?
VFX Lurker
@opiejeanne:
I had a routine checkup this morning, too. My checkup was at a Kaiser facility in Southern California. No signs about guns, but I was asked if I had visited West Africa and if I had come into contact with anyone who might have Ebola.
There was also a sign posted asking people with symptoms of measles to wear masks.
catclub
@SFAW: I larfed, I did.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Buddy H: They are. I think this industry is much larger than anyone realizes. When it comes to light just exactly how many comments in discussion boards, especially the political ones, are written by paid trolls, well…nothing will happen, because a hit the owner gets paid for is a hit the owner gets paid for. Markos and Ms. Wonkette gotta send their kids to college, amirite?
The only way to stop this is for the people paying for clicks to realize that they’re being scammed and to stop paying, and I just don’t see that happening anytime soon. People who buy advertising are not the best and brightest our civilization has to offer.
Bob In Portland
News from Germany on Fukushima. Didn’t make the cut for the NY Times.
burnspbesq
@kc:
Permanently. Put CBP and the Coast Guard back in Treasury, and put ICE in DOJ. Any other function that can prove a need for its existence goes to either DOJ or DNI.
DHS is one bureaucracy we can live without.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@trnc: Of interest. I worked in that industry a long time. If there are less qualified people than former musicians to run a business out there, I’ve never met any.
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: By a nose!
Bobby B.
Let’s get Chuck Todd to interview Louis Gohmert on Sunday for his point of view! Odds are that’s already in Todd’s Erotic Friend Fiction.
burnspbesq
@chopper:
Flashing warning lights would also be a good idea.
Pogonip
@Buddy H: Can you get jingle balls in your area? They’re a little cage of tough plastic with a bell inside; kittens love them and even grownups will swat them around for a few minutes. Availability is spotty, for some reason. And don’t forget the humble ping-pong ball.
Pogonip
@Buddy H: Why thank you!
catclub
@Southern Beale:
They have paid a heavy price for cutting State Department Security funding. Benghazi!1!
Buddy H
@Pogonip: Yes! She’s got three jingle toys… one of them is even an antique we found behind a water heater… looks circa 1971. She bats them around and sends them under furniture. But she loves the crackle mice my wife made for her. Carries them around. Does the “hug with my front paws and disembowel with my hind paws” trick with them. All without cracking a smile. Very serious in her play.
I’ve seen people use laser pointers for cat play, but that strikes me as somewhat mean. Why chase something you can never catch (like me with a single payer health system)?
Amir Khalid
The Republican strategy seems to be: we should keep shooting ourselves in the foot; our aim is so bad that one of these days we’ll wind up hitting Obama’s foot.
Pogonip
@burnspbesq: I can be the world’s largest cat toy! Finally, I have a purpose in life!
I should get one of those trolling jobs. As long as I’m going to wander around the Internet leaving remarks anyway, I might as well get paid for it. How much do you get paid per comment?
Morzer
@Amir Khalid:
At which point a fight will break out over which illiterate racist SOB forgot to pack the special silver hollow points.
srv
The internets are all in your hard drives! Hodor?
Where were the black helicopters at WTC7?
Elizabelle
@burnspbesq: I agree.
Break up DHS. It’s too big. Complete boondoggle. Huge bureaucracy. GWOT overreaction.
There may be other ways to insure agencies share info.
Bob In Portland
The Mother of Violence.
Tree With Water
If it is a blunder, until and unless congressional democrats begin hammering them for it- on a daily basis, in unison, forevermore- it’s a risk worth running. Republican party “strategic thinking” since November 1980 has exploited and relied upon the unwillingness of democrats to engage in sustained rhetorical attack. In turn, that unwillingness ceded political initiative across the board in favor of republican party policy making. When the next generation of democrats take over, the overturn of that mentality should be a priority with them all.
God bless senator Warren (D-MA).
Villago Delenda Est
@Spinwheel: One notes that the problem isn’t with the NSA, it’s with the ni*CLANG*’s NSA.
Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey
@SFAW: You’re an optimist.
There’s also the problem that nominal Democrats don’t bother to vote in sufficient numbers to allow the Democratic agenda to advance. We shouldn’t have to wait for the Republicans to fuck up before people get off their asses and vote.
Democrats only care about Presidential elections. This is a problem.
raven
@Tree With Water: Hey, Lesley Gore didn’t close the TAMI Show. The Stones, against their better judgement, followed James Brown for the last performance.
Buddy H
@trnc: I remember watching a few episodes last year and it made me uncomfortable. It reminded me of every shit job I’ve ever had, and every clueless boss. I can recall three occasions over the past thirty years where I was told to train a new person, and the new person was being paid more.
The top bosses always tried to portray themselves as captains of industry, that they are so highly-compensated because they know EVERY ASPECT of their business and can do any job, but “undercover boss” shows that the wealthiest CEO is incapable of performing even the simplest tasks their underpaid people do.
I always thought the show was designed to be human interest advertising for the featured corporations, even though they were made to look horrible. “Their intentions are good!”
Not surprised a bunch of people got laid off. It’s happened to me many times.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Tree With Water: Be careful, that kind of talk around here will get you a warning about “taking the high road”, “rather lose than utter an uncivil word” and my favorite, “rather lose than act like them”.
Democrats would rather lose than fight. That pacifism has been the Achilles’ heel of our party has been obvious for a while. Maybe that will change. Hopefully we can start saying some uncivil things, and doing some uncivil, possibly offensive things. Long overdue.
Elizabelle
@Zandar: Shutting down the government did help win the governor’s race in Virginia. It helped Terry McAuliffe a lot. Northern VA voters were pissed.
McAuliffe was up against a a creepy GOP reactionary, Crazy Ken Cuccinelli, foe of Obamacare and suer of UVa climate change researchers (as Virginia attorney general), batshit crazy, and the election was still closer than one hoped.
McAuliffe’s been doing a fine job as governor, IMHO. He’s not succeeded yet in expanding Medicaid, but he’s tried mightily.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@trnc: Some background: the old CEO of Peavey, Hartley (the current jackass is the stepson of one of Hartley’s kids) could have done every job in the factory, was the CEO who really did treat all the employees well, and forgot more about how to run a successful music store than most people ever knew.
Then his wife died right after the 1998 NAMM show, as we were all getting ready to go to Germany. He was done. I don’t think he ever set foot in his office again.
Pogonip
@Buddy H: We had a cat who liked to be lifted in that position. He’d cling to your wrist, brace his back feet firmly against your arm, and look at you expectantly till you stood up with your arm out and him hanging on. After a few reps, he’d drop off and race around like with the evening crazies, no matter what time of day it was.
Good thing all those cat books telling you never to do that had not yet been published.
Spinwheel
@Villago Delenda Est:
Because the emphasis couldn’t possibly be there to make the point that if this was Bush’s NSA, all of you would suddenly believe that the president was a fascist.
But oh, wait! This group of NSA super hackers has been around since 2001, which means it’s another example of NSA excess that Obama has continued from the Bush era without a peep from liberals like you and Zandar.
That’s racist to point that out. Good to know.
SFAW
@Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey:
One hopes you were making a joke.
Pogonip
@burnspbesq: Yes, even the name is creepy, and I for one see no reason why they should spy on every single person in this country, and I don’t give a damn what color the President is.
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: I live in Washington, just outside Seattle. We have our share of gun nuts here, even West of the Cascades, but I was startled to see that icon posted on the big glass doors. I think it’s legal for the owner to exclude them from any privately owned business. The state lawmakers are just catching up with that idea, after a bunch of these idiots carried big guns into the viewing area of the statehouse last month, when the legislature was on vacation.
Tree With Water
@raven: I actually saw the TAMI show when it was released. That was such a weird interlude of time in film & music. In fact, a Frankie & Annette movie was probably the featured film on the bill. The only other time I saw it was maybe 20 years ago. My memory may be playing tricks ion who closed the show, but not where the Smokey grinning quizzically at Leslie Gore is concerned. I’m don’t doubt they made her feel welcome, though. After all, Smokey is a gentleman.
jeffreyw
I blame burgers.
opiejeanne
@VFX Lurker: That was my HMO when we lived in SoCal. Our kids were born at the Fontana facility and my Hep C was treated at the Anaheim facility. Over the years they have been a very good fit for us. When we moved to Washington they eventually figured out that we were three hours away from the nearest Kaiser hospital, so now we have Blue Shield Blue Cross, and I hate them. Stuff that was covered by Kaiser’s system is not being covered by this policy, which costs more than Kaiser did.
Pogonip
@Buddy H: The place I work decided they needed a more domesticated. SWPL workforce, the kind who don’t stand up in meetings and say flatly, “That won’t work because [long list of excellent reasons born of experience].”. So they brought in a bunch of SWPLs, most of whom really were white as the big boss recruited mostly from her home state out west. People who had helped design the systems were told to train these kids to be their bosses. It worked out about as well as you’d expect. It was rough on the kids, who, after all, did not cook up the program, but most of them only stayed a year to gain enough experience to get CPAs anyway; they never had any intention of making a career of Bigstupidplace anyway.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spinwheel: Yup, you’re a racist sack of shit. But I’m stating the obvious.
Buddy H
@Tree With Water: Helen Shapiro recorded “It’s My Party” before Leslie Gore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMH-5tU_lgE
I had such a cross on Helen when I was five years old.
raven
@Tree With Water: They finally released it on a Collector Edition with the full blast Beach Boys. I’d had the bootleg for years and had the record when it came out. I spent the school year in Chicago and the summers in LA from 63-66 and my family lived in Hawthorne and knew some of the Boys so I was way into this.
rikyrah
you will find out how much of the crazy Harry Reid kept at bay.
SFAW
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Not sure that’s the case. I think they’re afraid of attacking, because the RWTM screech-machine is so much more polished and proficient, and they think the voters will believe the screeching. They’ve been conditioned to accept getting kicked by Fox et al.
It would be nice if some critical mass of Dems (in positions of authority, or at least where they have relatively easy access to media coverage) would watch this clip every day. Or read Steve Gilliard’s sermon daily.
It’s going to be a slow process, unfortunately, since the RWTMs have done a good job at destroying public education, but it can be done.
[And, yes, I know that Ron Silver was – or became – a winger. But his (well, Bruno Gianelli’s) speech wasn’t.]
ETA: I guess I’m not really disagreeing with you, after re-reading your comment. I apparently just felt it was so damn important for me to “flap my lips” (so to speak).
jonas
Congressmen in the House do. not. give. a. shit. They don’t represent the broader public indicated in these opinion polls; they represent ultra-safe, gerrymandered districts and are accountable to an even smaller slice of the rabidly partisan base who is perfectly happy throwing our national security under the bus if it means an opportunity to poke Obama, and brown people more generally, in the eye.
Goblue72
No one will care come election day. They’ll only care about who will cut their taxes and make sure the Browns are kicked off welfare.
BTW, John Judis, the co-author of that Coming Democratic Majority book a few years back? He’s now saying they were wrong and the South is gonna strangle us due to its population growth rates.
Buddy H
I remember watching Leslie Gore on BATMAN back in the ’60s. I always loved the girl singer stuff from that period.
Helen Shapiro never made it really big. She toured with the Beatles during the height of beatlemania. Here she is singing “Look Who It Is” while John, George and Ringo try to make her laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx87XHTtFPA
Seanly
Fugg the Republicans.
Happy Fastnacht Day – I used to never find other people outside of my family who knew WTF I was talking about. Eat up!
In other news, my wife had finally gotten out of the hospital & rehab centers after a nearly fatal lung infection, but is now back in the hospital with C. diff. It doesn’t seem to be responding to the oral & IV antibiotics. Here’s part of what I posted on Facebook: “This whole leukemia/chemotherapy/blood stem cell transplant/lung infection/ICU/rehab/bowel infection affair has been going on for over a year. We’re both exhausted. We just want her home where we can have some semblance of a normal life.” I’m 2000 miles away trying to maintain our home and out of vacation time to visit her. Already did family medical leave which the new 3rd party admin refused to renew.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Spinwheel:
Yes, it’s all proof positive:
Case closed! If the evidence “implicates” the NSA, then it’s all true!
Also, you may want to check the dates on those actions before you exonerate your buddy George W Bush from any responsibility. Just sayin’.
Belafon
@Tree With Water:
If it wasn’t for the blogs I read, I wouldn’t know that’s she’s done jack since she was elected. Which is the problem Obama and the Democrats are having. All those speeches Obama was giving on issues we keep saying he should give, it turned out the news stations would cut away from them or just not show them.
trollhattan
@Pogonip:
Either there’s a cracking backstory that I’ve missed or you have a plotline for the strangest book ever.
“Pitch me”
“It involves crabs, crabs and dog crap. Crab and crap!”
“Get out.”
Pogonip
@Seanly: Is that legal? I thought they had to let you go up to the twelve-week limit. My best wishes to you and your wife and I hope she gets well soon.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Spinwheel:
Another bit from the article:
Amazing how Obama was controlling the NSA while he was still a state senator in Illinois. Sneaky, that guy is.
SFAW
@Seanly:
Best wishes for your wife’s quick recovery, I guess C. diff. is pretty nasty, from what Mrs. SFAW (the nurse) tells me.
Buddy H
@Buddy H: Damn autocorrect. I had a CRUSH on Helen Shapiro, not a cross.
Bill Arnold
@Spinwheel:
Your paraphrasing of the linked article is not accurate. It reports that malware can rewrite the firmware of some hard drives, which is bad, but malware can only do this if it is run on a machine, with sufficient access rights. At least that’s how I read the article. (Also, “Obama’s NSA”??)
SFAW
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Not that amazing. After all, he was able to travel back in time to alter the Honolulu newspapers to carry his “birth” announcement. Plus, he retroactively caused the Great Recession. All in a day’s work for the
Antichristseventh King, I always say.blueskies
@Southern Beale:
Maybe it’ll be like the NYPD. They’ll inadvertently prove that we don’t really need DHS.
Pogonip
@opiejeanne: That would be the one place they’d find out you were carrying concealed!
We have those signs up around here too. People just laugh at them. In the very unlikely event I was packing, it would not be apparent to anyone but a metal detector. I think the signs are mainly to placate helicopter parents.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Buddy H:
There was a slightly different version that ran on cable that had CEOs doing the low-level jobs at their companies, but they were not undercover (everyone knew who they were) and it didn’t have the “reward/punishment” bit at the end. That one I liked because it was all about the CEOs being clueless, like the head of Hilton hotels taking 90 minutes to clean a room when the standard was supposed to be 15 minutes.
rlrr
@burnspbesq:
Permanently. Put CBP and the Coast Guard back in Treasury
Coast Guard was a part of the Department of Transportation from 1967-2003. It was a part of Treasury before that (except during WWI and WWII).
Grumpy Code Monkey
@SFAW: More like, I can’t read for comprehension.
SFAW
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
(Kidding.)
trollhattan
@Buddy H:
I would never want a cross Helen Shapiro.
Buddy H
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Radio Shack’s happier days, when it sold $2495 cellphones:
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/17/radio-shacks-happier-days-w.html
“True, that was 1987, but it was also 1987 dollars; the same price comes out to over $5301 today. You’ve got to stay up pretty late at night to misspend that kind of money coming in, but somehow, Radio Shack always managed.”
Zandar
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Also surprising is how a Russian infosec firm with ties to the Kremlin just happens to release information about a Bush-era 9/11 NSA program at the exact time when Vlad the Dudesplainer needs a nice distraction from the world noticing that he’s currently cementing his military hold on Crimea.
Something something Obama’s NSA.
kc
@burnspbesq:
I agree. I thought it was a big boondoggle from the start.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: I really enjoyed “Boyhood” too. I loved the father’s answer when the son asked about magical creatures.
trollhattan
@Zandar:
Let’s not forget the
NSA…CIA…OSSU.S.Cavalry traveling back in time to release AIDS in Africa in the 1930s. Those are some bad, bad people.Amir Khalid
@Buddy H:
I find myself wondering what sort of features a US$5,300 smartphone would come with in 2015.
Helmut Monotreme
@Buddy H: Those prices would only have made Radio Shack rich if people were buying cell phones at that price.
Jack the Second
I’m tentatively hopeful. The strategy pre-2015 was “Don’t get anything done,” but the strategy pre-2016 is “Don’t scare people”. Republicans in Congress are way, way better not getting anything done than not scaring people.
I expect at least two shutdowns and one attempt to cut Social Security before the next election.
Spinwheel
@Zandar:
PUTIN DID IT completely justifies Obama both hiding this program from the public and continuing to use the program to spy on everyone, including Americans.
And no, none of this “But the malware is 12 years old” bullshit unless you are going to really argue in front of the entire Balloon Juice readership that Obama is not using this back door anymore.
You damn well know that you would be the first to attack this under a Republican president. Obama gets a pass. That makes you a shitbag and I’m calling you out.
Buddy H
@Amir Khalid: The ability to communicate telepathically with babies and small animals?
@Helmut Monotreme: Good point. The boingboing people forget that folks weren’t lining up to buy these phones. Back then the only ones I saw talking into cell phones were Gordon Gecko types.
Bob In Portland
Is Netanyahoo trying to fulfill the Fugu Plan?
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Obama controls nothing, twit. He’s your master of ceremonies, not your government leader.
Tree With Water
@rlrr: Americans get more bang for their buck with Coast Guard than with any other service.
trollhattan
@Buddy H:
A big ol’ cellphone with base and handset was a plot point in the last “The Americans” episode. Took me awhile to realize what the heck it was. Basically the size of a car battery.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Spinwheel:
I admit I only skimmed the article, but I didn’t see any action dates later than 2009. Do you have those?
Though one does wonder why you’re OUTRAGED that the US is spying on Russia, China and Iran. Because, what, they’re all innocent lambs who totally don’t spy on the US?
Belafon
@Spinwheel:
Actually, yes it does. And I will go so far as to say that I want my government spying on other governments, until such time that all the governments of the world aren’t trying to destroy each other, which isn’t now.
Since you want to keep inserting Obama into this, show me where he’s done the spying or even had the NSA actually spy on Americans.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Pogonip: Supposedly
Fox News PRsome people were paid 5-10 cents per post.FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who figures most trolls are true-believers and don’t get paid.)
Roger Moore
@Buddy H:
Why catch something you can’t eat? I think many cats actually know they’re playing games with their humans and are doing it for the fun of the chase. My parents’ cat actually prefers to chase the shadow of the toy they’re waving for her rather than the toy itself, which doesn’t make sense if she’s hoping to get her paws into something.
Bob In Portland
@Spinwheel: The backdoor began back with the Promis software, the Cabazon Indians and the invesigative reporting of Danny Casolaro. If you showed interest back in the early nineties about this you were considered a conspiracy theorist, and Bjers are not conspiracy theorists. There may be some hinky stuff going on, but no reason to actually pay attention to it at the time it happens. Better to wait a decade or three and then serve up the revelations with snark.
Oh so typical.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tree With Water: Which is why the Rethugs are gunning for it.
WaterGirl
@Seanly: I’m sorry, Seanly. This setback feels especially cruel since it seemed like you were so close to her being able to come home soon. You guys deserve a fucking break. Now.
rlrr
@Tree With Water:
The Coast Guard provides a legitimate peace time service….
trnc
@Buddy H: I’ve only seen a few different episodes. The first one spotlighted a restaurant like Denny’s. The CEO promised to fix equipment problems and some management issues. No idea if he followed through, but if he did, the proposed solution actually fixed the apparent problem for more than just the workers on the show.
I’ve seen a couple of other episodes where the boss wound up giving a bunch of money to the workers they happened to work with for the episode. Great for those particular people, but of absolutely zero benefit for other employees. Those felt like nothing more than PR.
I would say the Peavey episode was the anti-PR. I would almost wonder if the COO holds a grudge against his CEO stepdad and this was a chance to ruin the company, but that’s pretty far-fetched. I think they were both just out of touch buffoons.
Pogonip
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Well, there goes that get-rich-quick idea. I’m a fast typist but I live in the U.S., so that renders me unemployable as a professional troll.
Pity. I had visions of typing messages in which I let FY Autocorrect’s loony changes stand. They’d be great fun to read.
Botsplainer
@Spinwheel:
?
Listen to Billy Badass. So brave.
Pogonip
@Bob In Portland: Bob, if you haven’t already been banned from there, cluborlov.blogspot.com wants to discuss Ukraine.
trnc
@Buddy H:
I don’t even mind that a CEO can’t do every employee’s job well, particularly when the employee has been doing that job for years. But the CEO should recognize that if a clearly loyal woman who has been doing the work for over 10 years is having trouble with the work pace, the answer isn’t “ship that job to China” if he cares at all about quality.
Tree With Water
@Belafon: That strikes at the heart of my point about wielding political rhetoric, which boils down to taking the initiative against the birdbrain republican party, and putting them on a continual defensive footing. There is nothing to stop congressional democrats/the administration from the attack (nothing but themselves, that is)- from pounding on the doors of the networks and demanding access, and/or calling the networks out for unfairness* if they don’t get it.
There’s a word that terrifies the GOP, by the way, especially when used in conjunction with the phrase, “the people’s airwaves”.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Spinwheel:
You damn well know that you would be the first to attack this under a Republican president. Obama gets a pass. That makes you a shitbag and I’m calling you out.
You aren’t very smart are you.
…
trnc
@CONGRATULATIONS!: The episode was taped 4 months ago, and Hartley was still the CEO. The dumbass stepson is (or was) the COO. Although maybe not for much longer after this debacle.
jl
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Did they fund blog trolls? If so, evidence here is that Fox skimped on that budget, big time.
Zandar
@Botsplainer: Authentic Frontier Gibberish!
jl
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
” Obama gets a pass ”
Every poster and commenter here has given Obama a ‘pass’ on his national security and civil liberties policies? That is news to me. I don’t even give him a pass on his macreconomics. And I am not giving him a pass on his stupid corporatist TPP trade deal.
I am dupe because I did not condemn Bush II on all things, and I am a PUMA, or racist, or GOPer mole because I do not praise Obama on all things, and an Obot because I do not damn him every Tuesday. (/snark).
SFAW
@Bob In Portland:
Danny Casolaro? Wow. I thought I was the only one who cared about his work.
I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll start commenting endlessly on Ukraine/Russia/Crimea.
SFAW
@Zandar:
No cracker croakers here, pal.
catclub
@jonas:
The ultra safe districts are the ones that are 80% democrats, so that all the other districts in the state can be 55% GOP. I am tired of making this correction, but will continue.
Bob In Portland
@SFAW: Don’t worry. No need. When everyone is surprised by the collapse of the Kiev government in a couple weeks you can tell everyone you heard it here at BJ first.
I’d also note that everyone commented endlessly on Iraq for years.
catclub
@Tree With Water:
Obama is just about incapable of making any complaint that sounds like whining. I think that is a very political ( and given his record compared to mine, politically effective) decision.
catclub
@mattH: Just my point.
trollhattan
@jl:
Tactical decision to prefer quantity over quality. Our very own UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!! was the most blatant example since I’ve been stinking up this joint.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
Uh, who’s going to be surprised when the Russians drive Ukraine’s government into collapse? It’s what Russia has been trying to do for a year now. The only surprise will be that Ukraine held out longer than Crimea did.
Bob In Portland
@Belafon: It’s hard to be a pimp for the Democratic version of NSA.
Remember the big sweep of indictments following Clinton’s election? Sort of like all those traitors who lied America into war in Iraq and Afghanistan getting put on trial when Obama was elected. Oh yeah, it’s hard to be a pimp for a Democrat’s foreign policy.
jl
Speaking of blame game:
Obama’s ‘Crusades’ controversy highlights war on terrorism’s rhetorical minefield
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-s–crusades–controversy-highlights-war-on-terrorism-s-rhetorical-minefield-172358986.html
So, after 9/11 what was worst mass murder in recent history? Something in OK City, IIRC? That was done by a rightwing Christianist extremist. And same type murdered over 70 people in Norway. But Obama is under fire for not making his summit exclusively on extreme Islamic terrorism.
Keep the Base happy seems to be the GOP prime directive.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@jl:
Well obsessing about what people are not obsessing about using a specially calibrated mind reading devices serve the concerns of trolls quite well, specially if they are complicit in Dubby Bush Legacy Burnishing Related Pogrom Activities…
Anti-Obot seems to be the new black in some circles, I try to steer clear of those pillow fights in general… ;-)
…
sparrow
Have you guys seen the hilarious tweets by freshman state senator Jeff Jackson of NC? Apparently he was the only one who showed up to work during the snow storm so he has been humourously “tackling all the problems” with a #justoneLegislator hashtag. A politician who is actually pretty funny – that’s rare.
https://twitter.com/jeffjacksonnc
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: “However, I think that Kiev is on the verge of collapse economically and won’t be able to wage its war into the fall.”
Bob in Portland, August 19, 2014.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): It’s always been the same, so nothing changes.
jl
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
” Uh, who’s going to be surprised when the Russians drive Ukraine’s government into collapse? ”
To be fair, there are several players who have driven Ukrainian governments to collapse, and they don’t need a lot of outside help for that to happen. Putin is bad and playing a cynical game in Ukraine, but others do to. :Putin does it more with guns and ammo than others though.
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: You’re right. Gravity works more slowly in the fascist lands.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Bob In Portland: If anyone is surprised when that happens they ought to be taken out back and euthanized for being too stupid to live.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Cling tightly, my dear, to the lies you have learned. Get a good seat to watch the next Cold War.
Bob In Portland
@jl: Back away from the propaganda. Choose whether to root for Nazis or not. Your choice.
Bob In Portland
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Please, you’re sounding like the guys in the Azov Battalion.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
Yeah, speaking of that fascist government in Ukraine, it’s so weird that all of those Nazis in Ukraine’s parliament chose a Jewish guy to lead them. But I guess it’s all a false flag and he’s not really Jewish, right?
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Choice-of-Jew-as-Ukrainian-parliament-speaker-wont-have-direct-impact-on-community-383252
Congratulations, Bob — in your enthusiasm for overthrowing the fascist government of Ukraine, you’re also cheerleading the overthrow of Ukraine’s first Jewish Speaker, the guy who’s next in line if the president resigns. I guess the only real way to support Ukrainian Jews is to make sure the government they lead collapses.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Held out longer than Crimea did? Ha ha ha ha. You obviously need a lifeline here, Mnemsy.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
It would be a bog-standard smartphone equipped with an insanely expensive designer case.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’ve referred you several times to the fascist third position. Fascists post-WWII are more flexible with anti-Semitism. Maybe not all of them in Europe, though.
Why one of the greatest fascists of the world today is Netanyahoo! He’s trying to revitalize the old Fugu Plan.
Sorry, Mnemsy, you’re late again.
Belafon
@Bob In Portland:
I am curious, other than it being in the same blog post, what this has to do with my comment?
Iowa Old Lady
@Seanly: I’m so sorry. Take care of yourself too. This has to be exhausting.
Scamp Dog
The blame game…let’s see here…
Congress, Congress, bo Bongress, Bonana fanna fo Fongress,
Fee fy mo Mongress, Congress!
Yes, there’s isn’t any name that I can’t rhyme!
srv
I’m glad we have a President who follows legacy disk firmware exploits in his secret meetings with the IMF aliens.
This d00d probably designed Stuxnet while he was pretending to be a Senator. Imagine what he’s doing now.
Question is, if anti-fascism is anti-semitism now, is Franco still dead?
Mandalay
@jl:
Digby wrote a great column yesterday “The everyday terror we all live with“, showing that the domestic threat posed by any form of terrorism is miniscule compared to the very real threat posed by guns.
This graph comparing deaths from terrorism vs. death by gun murders over 10 years says it all far better than words.
Bob In Portland
@Belafon: Really, you need me to explain you to you?
If Obama wages wars around the world, no sweat. If Obama is in the big chair as the NSA continues to spy on Americans, no sweat. Iran-contra? BCCI? Well, Clinton had other things, like NAFTA and flaming up the drug war while bombing the Serbs.
Our fascist state keeps marching on and as long as you, Mnemsy, Nipple Chains and the other BJers keep ignoring how the world works, how our country works, you’ll only get more of the same.
shelley
Fugu? I thought that was that poisonous japanese fish you had to be a specially licensed sushi chef to prepare.
Belafon
@Bob In Portland:
Coming from the person that constantly gets Ukraine wrong, so badly you’re like the foreign policy version of Chuck C. Johnson.
Considering that my original question was proof of Obama directing the NSA spying on Americans, or even some proof that he condoned it, you throwing up that he didn’t arrest those who got us into Iraq does not count as an answer.
Bob In Portland
@srv: Ah, when you sit in the White House you get a free pass to all that has happened before. You don’t have to prosecute anyone, you don’t have to change the rules (much).
Just like Clinton decided the best way to resolve all those unconstitutional things under Reagan and Bush by playing golf with Bush.
And really, if Presidents get a free pass, why shouldn’t the citizens of Balloon Juice for refusing to hold a President responsible?
Bob In Portland
@Belafon: Your original question was the wrong question.
The President does not control the NSA, like he doesn’t control the CIA or the military or the State Department. You mean you haven’t noticed that yet?
The President hasn’t been in charge since 1963. You still don’t get it.
Botsplainer
I just like how Bob in Brighton Beach is enthralled with nutjob Danny Casolaro and the whole INSLAW/PROMUS/OCTOPUS conspiracy nothing.
Hey, Bob – Casolaro never died. He’s actually in hiding at your local bookseller and putting copies of Catcher in the Rye on shelves.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Bob In Portland:
The President hasn’t been in charge since 1963. You still don’t get it.
None of us do apparently. And apparently your consistant cajoling on the subject has not been exactly sucessful, though it must feel good to have the keys of knowlege while lording it over the rubes…
So sparky what are we gonna do about it…
BTW The president hasn’t been in charge since 1947 actually…
…
srv
@Bob In Portland: I bow to no one when it comes to blaming Obama, it’s my raison d’etre here.
But when I was a asked where Obama had touched me, I couldn’t find my metadata.
burnspbesq
@Spinwheel:
No one here cares what you think. Go away.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
@Bob In Portland: I am genuinely interested in more explanation from you on this comment (like why 1963 – that was like over 25 years before I was born) and not at all interested to see if this thread can go past the 200 comment mark.
Bob In Portland
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™: If you’re typical of the people around here you’ll do this: You’re probably going to complain about the weather. You’ll ignore our wars until you can blame them on Republicans. You’ll post a cute puppy picture. You’ll speak with a heavy heart about racism in America and ignore the Nazis we’re supporting in Ukraine.
In short, you never have to answer if no one asks the questions, and no one here is going to ask the questions. So what do you do? Remain in ignorance. It’s safe here in Balloon Juice.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
Note to self: commenter Provider_UNE… Knows too much
burnspbesq
@Bob In Portland:
Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to a city 1200 km from Donetsk to watch a football match that would be held in Donetsk if your boyos hadn’t shelled the stadium, persistent backer of the wrong side?
Linnaeus
So, I’ve completed the most important task of my day: obtaining pączki.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
@burnspbesq: dude they are playing the Germans right now. Bavarians even!
burnspbesq
@Gordon, the Big Express Engine:
I’m guessing Bob is a big Zenit St. Petersburg fan. Yeah, the club whose supporters have threatened to kill its own black players.
Gin & Tonic
@Gordon, the Big Express Engine: So an all-Nazi match, then?
Bob In Portland
@Gordon, the Big Express Engine: In 1963 the President was assassinated. The people who assassinated JFK run the country: military, intelligence services and corporations.
I know how crazy that must seem. If that had really happened we’d be fighting never-ending wars around the world, not for the benefit of Americans but for the benefit of corporations. As Jim Garrison said in 1967:
But Garrison must have been wrong. He must have been a conspiracy theorist, unlike the fine people here at BJ. Fascism didn’t come to America in the name of national security, did it? Congress hasn’t been reduced to a debating society, has it? Why, if it were our Congress would merely be sitting around passing tax breaks for the uber-wealthy and making the military budget bigger and bigger. Why, many in our government would discourage people from education. We’d have giant flags to open up football games, and B-2 jet flyovers at the end of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” At baseball games we’d have TWO patriotic songs because, jeezus, you just can’t get through nine innings anymore without questioning someone’s patriotism. If Garrison were right about this: In Washington, deceiving and manipulating the public are viewed by some as the natural prerogatives of office.
If Garrison were right our government would be lying us into wars. But that would never happen.
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: Currently 17F/-7C in L’viv. From what I’ve seen on Instagram, spectators at the match are pretty well bundled up.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Bob In Portland:
In short, you never have to answer if no one asks the questions, and no one here is going to ask the questions. So what do you do? Remain in ignorance. It’s safe here in Balloon Juice.
You seem to be a master of the conclusion Jump, and a mind reader to boot. Having myself traveled in any number of left leaning communities in which there wer many pictures of cute things and the like bandied about in comments, which almost always went off topic after a time, It seems to me that many like to find a community of like minded sorts who are aware of the shit that makes one crazy and for whom ones immediate meatspace circle has long tired of hearing about.
People obsess about and prioritize these obsessions in many different ways, but are not necessarily always interested in a constancy of rancor.
I do find it hilarious when people like you seem to be march up and down comment sections calling people out for not being as obsessed about their particular vendetta of the day, and assuming that as it is not the constant focus of attention that people care insufficiently about pet peeve Y.
You could start your own blog, devoted to your issues, which might actually be more effective than insulting the intelligence of your fellows, but that might be hard, however you might find that you could assemble a properly pure Grumbletariat…
…
Bob In Portland
@burnspbesq: I like Red Star Belgrade, and only because it was mentioned in a Billy Bragg song.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
I wonder if I have to solve the genital mutilation problem before talking about misogyny in the skeptic community…..
….
Rob in CT
Somebody watched the movie JFK and thought it was a documentary.
Botsplainer
@Linnaeus:
As jelly doughnuts go, awesomesauce.
Bob In Portland
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™: It’s not failure to act. I’m an old man, I wore out my knees between the army and the post office. I’m not marching anymore. What’s troubling is the denial of what is happening all around us. I have the utmost respect for people who don’t swallow nationalist propaganda. You know what people here need to do? Call bullshit on the US. But most people here are incapable of doing that because it’s too far ahead of the herd. The herd here at BJ may step out a step, issue some snark, and then hide back in the herd. That’s the extent of moral courage here. People like Mnemsy are so soaked in propaganda she’s a non-starter.
And so what happens is that history continues. Eventually people here get a glimpse of something and try to fit the fragment into the unfortunate lie in which they are living.
Fifty thousand people are supposed to read BJ every day. If I’m the only one who recognizes that there is a world that doesn’t conform to the editorial pages of the NYT and WaPo then sadly, we will march off whatever cliff is designated to walk off from.
Bob In Portland
@Rob in CT: Who was the guy who impersonated Oswald a month and a half before the assassination?
Oh, you can’t even address the question because, even though it’s been public knowledge since the Warren Report you have no clue. Google Oswald imposter, look at the pictures, then ask yourself: Who wanted to impersonate Oswald in Mexico City, to tie him to the Cuban consulate and the Soviet embassy? In front of CIA surveillance cameras?
You see, if you can’t follow the simplist logic regarding the violent overthrow of our government you really don’t have any right to live in a real democracy. And you don’t.
patroclus
Wow! I haven’t been here for awhile and I come back to learn in this thread that “Obama’s NSA” is responsible for shutting the DHS down and all BJers are cowards for not condemning it or something…
My view is that I don’t think the Republicans are really going to shut down the DHS, but if they do, they’ll get blamed for it. And I also think that the U.S.’s NSA has had access to everyone’s hard drive since hard drives became popular and that they share this access with the police and the FBI and others if there is any illegality. I also thought that self-touting Kaspersky report had more to do with bank theft than anything else and I support Obama’s proposed legislation to require reporting of any occurrences of this kind.
Otherwise, who should I vote for in the Chicago mayoral election?? RAHMMMM? Or someone else?
henqiguai
@Amir Khalid (#38):
Those Constitutional protections do not trump private property; if the owner says ‘No’ it means ‘no’. That’s why free speech protections don’t work in the (private) workspace.
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: I keep thinking this is Obama’s end game: get the GOTea so POd at immigration that they shut the monster down. He wins, immigrants win, Dems win, GOTea loses BIG, and a Shrub boondoggle gets retired quickly. Added plus: by pointing out that shutting down DHS automatically gives ALL immigrants amnesty, he gets the Reichwing ticked at their representation.
Bob In Portland
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™: You have to do nothing. Carry on… doing nothing.
By the way, female genital mutilation has been discussed here a number of times. I’m wondering when the last time a thread was dedicated to Ukraine and the war we created there. Oh, let me see, last summer when you were all sure that Russia was responsible for MH17. But it’s oh so hard to blame Russia for that, except offhandedly, when Ukraine and its buddies still withhold the information. You can’t actually discuss the evidence. You are led from false flag to false flag.
Now Russia is America’s greatest fear. Again. Welcome to tomorrow.
As Garrison said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of National Security.” Enjoy.
catclub
@henqiguai: Except the factory parking lot is considered a free speech zone as far as guns are concerned. (In some states, Companies, by law, cannot forbid guns in the cars in their own parking lots.)
Bob In Portland
@Tree With Water: Gore’s final song backed by half of the top forty black artists was certainly curious.
Botsplainer
@Bob In Portland:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Catcher-Rye-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769487
Bob In Portland
@Botsplainer: One day I’ll quote the entire text of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” but you won’t read that either.
I’ll summarize what Garrison said in 1967. The fascists won.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Bob In Portland:
Fifty thousand people are supposed to read BJ every day. If I’m the only one who recognizes that there is a world that doesn’t conform to the editorial pages of the NYT and WaPo then sadly, we will march off whatever cliff is designated to walk off from.
50,000 might read the front pages every day, but I doubt seriously that that many wade into 200 comment threads to take advantage of the wisdom contained therein.
You still seem to have a problem assuming that people around here are ignorant of “the way the world works”, an assumption of facts that I do not see in evidence. Obviously Your Mileage Varies.
I Observe that your current approach is failing, and calling people ignorant and likening them to sheep and assuming that they don’t care, isn’t gonna move the chains…
just sayin.
Anyhoo I’m gonna bounce, got some new linux distros to try out and a late lunch to sort.
…
Helmut Monotreme
Bob,
I’m going to share something with you, each and every person on this blog has a pet issue. For some it’s racism, for some it’s global warming, for some it’s sexism or any of a few dozen injustices explicit and implicit in the modern world. My big concern is water. Between droughts and rising sea level, the way the world gets drinking and irrigation water is going to undergo some serious changes in the next 50 years. Large portions of low lying coastal areas are going to be tidal swamps, like most of Florida and Bangladesh for instance. The southwest has in the last 2000 years had multiple droughts that lasted longer than 50 years, their current four year drought may just be the cartoon before the double feature. When I consider that, I’m astonished that more people aren’t building reverse osmosis plants, building solar powered desalination projects, restricting construction in low lying areas, and building dikes around NYC like the dutch on a country-wide meth binge. But nobody is discovering a new Amazon. Nobody knows how to wash clothes or cook spaghetti or brew beer without water. That’s what keeps me up at nights.
So please keep in mind, your obsessions are yours alone. Your fears belong to you, and not anyone else. Keep thinking that we are all ‘good Germans’ and not people who are more or less informed and letting our own experiences guide what we choose to freak out about. And your experiences and personality tell you what is important. We’ve got different personalities and experiences. So, keep on paying attention to the puppet show in the bloodlands, watch the next 5000 Russians and Ukrainians (Both sides of which happily put neo nazis in their armies). Right now I will award you one “I told you so” that you can use if the slapfight in Ukraine goes nuclear. The noted Russian opposition figure Garry Kasparov sounds a whole lot like you, only he’s claiming that it’s Putin that needs to be stopped and the US inaction on that front endangers world peace. He’s on twitter every day. If you want to engage someone that is informed on the issue and takes a stand, go a few rounds with him.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
So I guess all of your wailing about the imminent pogroms and burning of synagogues in Ukraine is inoperative now that you’ve received your new talking points, and you have devised a new excuse for why it’s totally okay for the Russians to foment civil war to protect
Ukrainian Jewsethnic Russians.Also, the next time you start whining about “Ukrainian Nazis” controlling current events, I will publicly point out again that the second most powerful man in their government is Jewish just so people not closely following our little drama know what a mendacious, two-faced liar you are and how ignorant you actually are about Ukraine.
Tree With Water
@catclub: Obama is nearly as bad as Merlin Olsen (ex NFL Hall of Famer and later broadcast partner of Dick Enberg*). Olsen was a sweetheart of a guy who was congenitally incapable of leveling substantive criticism towards the players of whatever game he and Enberg were assigned to cover. Everything was “a good effort that came up short by the big fella”, rather than pointing out the player in question had just been faked out his jock strap. But as you note, the president is necessarily more calculating. I submit too calculating by half on that score, because there is no doubt in my mind he’s got a mean mouth when he chooses to use it. He should use it more often.
Woodrowfan
then again, BiP and SpinFool might simply be nut jobs not worth paying attention to.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Bob In Portland:
By the way, Bob, you just demonstrated one of the classic signs of someone who’s clinging to a conspiracy theory: when you were shown a fact that contradicts your theory (Nazis are controlling Ukraine!), you immediately altered your theory to encompass the new fact rather than examining your theory for flaws.
A true conspiracy theory can never be proven wrong no matter what the actual facts are, just like Rapture believers still think the Rapture is due any day now no matter how many predicted dates pass with no Rapture. The theory or Rapture date is simply altered with no reference to the old claims.
Gin & Tonic
Here’s one for the ages – let’s see how long before Bob is quoting it as fact. Lifenews.ru reporting from Debaltsevo – drunk (pro-Kiev) Negroes dancing on tanks rolling through the city, and firing automatic weapons at innocent civilians. Sorry, article is in Russian, but Google Translate will give you the gist.
David Koch
There’s no difference between Bush and Gore.
Morzer
@Bob In Portland:
Funny isn’t it that so many Jews can’t wait to get as far away from Putin’s Russia as possible? Not much flexibility from the fascist in the Kremlin, is there?
The only revelation you’ve managed in all of this is the revelation of your own colossal ignorance of Russia. But hey, who needs facts when there are Nazis under every bed?
Mazeltov, Romanov!
Morzer
@Gin & Tonic: @Gin & Tonic:
Clearly Abram Petrovich Gannibal was more active and productive in the Ukraine than anyone knew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Petrovich_Gannibal
No doubt Comrade Romanov will now explain that:
“The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey?”
Smiling Mortician
@Helmut Monotreme: Nicely said.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Morzer:
I hate Illinois Nazis.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Helmut Monotreme: Great post, and some scary fucking points about water
Bob In Portland
@David Koch: How about, there’s not too much difference between Bush and Obama, except we believe Obama’s lies.
Bob In Portland
@Morzer: I thought that the big push was for Jews to leave Europe.
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: There is a report of black American soldiers among the Ukrainian military trapped in Debaltsevo.
Morzer
@Bob In Portland:
The push from Netanyahu, maybe. Funnily enough, Europe’s Jews don’t seem very keen to join Bibi in the bunker.
MNP
Uh, so do you think GOP 2014 midterm performance would have been improved had there been no 2013 shutdown?
So what if people blame Republicans, it doesn’t actually hurt them because voters’ memories are short.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Things take time and I cannot say I can predict the outcome. Netanyahu has been talking up Jews to leave France and Germany, and I’ve seen articles from the Israeli press encouraging Jews to head to Israel.
While many of the thugs in the street are anti-Semitic in accordance with regular fascist guidelines there hasn’t been a pogrom, undoubtedly because people like Kolomoisky have their own militias.
Morzer
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/17/russia-shelled-ukrainians-from-within-its-own-territory-says-study
Which, of course, just proves that the Ukrainian fascists were the real aggressors because FALSE FAG, PEOPLE, FALSE FLAG!
Morzer
@Bob In Portland:
Regular fascist guidelines? Gosh, next you’ll be telling us that they all went through the Biden-Alinsky FEMA reeducation camps!
It’s fascinating to see you assert all these things so confidently despite not knowing enough Russian or Ukrainian to order coffee, never mind assessing the ideology and motivation of people on the street thousands of miles away.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Morzer:
Like I said, it’s bog-standard conspiracy theory bullshit: if the facts don’t fit the theory, adjust the theory just enough to fit the new facts and pretend that’s what you were saying the whole time.
I am fascinated by the notion of these new, pro-Jewish Nazis, though. I don’t suppose this throws the theory of Bob’s favorite book about Ukrainian Nazis controlling the US government into question in any way?
Nah, of course not, silly to even ask the question — the conspiracy theory can never be disproven by facts, because contrary facts only prove how deep the conspiracy goes.
Larv
@Bob In Portland:
But Bob’s not a conspiracy theorist, no siree! He just sees so much more clearly than the rest of us. BTW Bob, you haven’t answered this the last few times I’ve asked, so I’ll try again – Do you still believe that DARPA created HIV and AIDS?
Bob In Portland
@Larv: Larv, of course I’m a conspiracy theorist. Rarely does the government publish their conspiracies in the press. Was it a conspiracy that the US invented the Gulf of Tonkin to escalate the war? Yes, it was, but damned if the government announced it. No siree. Then we overthrew Allende, and damned if the government didn’t keep that a secret too. Do you think that the people who lied to us about WMDs in Iraq conspired to do so or was it just a bunch of felons in government coincidentatlly lying to us? How about 9/11? Why did George Bush fly all those Saudis out of the US on the day after 9/11 if he didn’t know something? Coincidence.
Sorry, Larv, but if you’re arguing against the existence of conspiracies by people in power then you’re going to have to sit next to Mnemsy and Nipple Rings on the doofus bench.
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee and Dreamer Of The Day by Kevin Coogan. I didn’t invent the fascist third position. You just didn’t know it. But then there are lots of things you are apparently not informed about. Thank you for presuming that I made up things you don’t know about, but I’m not that clever. It’s just that you’re that ignorant.
Bob In Portland
@Larv: Also, why are the gay men who were part of the Hepatitis B program in San Francisco still classified top secret?
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Read up on Kolomoisky. Thank, Mnem. You type. Do you read?
Bob In Portland
@Morzer: Morzer, your nipple rings must be hurting you. All you have to do is to read. Read books, read the other half of the news.
Would you call Netanyahu fascist or is he excluded because he’s a Jew? It’s not hard to figure out. If you go back to the quote from Jim Garrison you’ll know that fascism arises from the human condition, it’s not a strictly German condition. You ignorant twit.
Bob In Portland
@Morzer: I won’t deny it. Just say that almost everything that’s come out of the mouth of western investigative reporters in Ukraine has been a lie.
Larv
@Bob In Portland:
Got a source for that “top secret” bit, Bob? If you just mean why haven’t those names been released, it’s probably because it’s unethical to release the name of study participants without their consent. Especially gay men who may or may not want their name and medical histories bandied about. I tried to explain this the last time we discussed this many years ago, but it apparently didn’t sink in.
But you’re dodging the question. Do you still think the US government is responsible for AIDS?
Yes, your preferred Russian sources are obviously the less biased and more trustworthy. Russian media and government have such a great record of transparency, after all. It’s very peculiar how you insist that western media sources must be treated with the utmost skepticism, but whatever crap you read on RT is just accepted uncritically.
What you’re reading isn’t the other half. It’s more like the other 1%. You just choose to assign it more weight because it suits your ideological preconceptions.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Bob In Portland:
So the point of your insisting that Ukrainian Jews were in danger of being slaughtered by resurgent Ukrainian Nazis and that anyone who supported Ukraine was supporting a new Holocaust was … what, exactly? After all, if Ukrainian Nazis were never a danger to Ukrainian Jews and said Ukrainian Nazis welcome Jews into their ranks, what was all of your hand-wringing about?
Pulling a few books out of your ass months after claiming that Ukrainian Nazis were planning to slaughter Jews and pretending you didn’t really say it is pretty chickenshit, Bob.
But I realize that you’re just parroting Russian propaganda and don’t have any realization that you’re contradicting your own claims at this point. All you need to do is expand the conspiracy theory to include the inconvenient facts and you never have to question it.
Morzer
@Bob In Portland:
Romanov, you are without doubt the most ridiculously silly commenter I have seen on this blog – and I remember the “glory days” of matoko-chan. You’ve been claiming knowledge of the Ukrainian Nazi on the street, despite knowing neither Ukrainian nor Russian. You now claim that all the Western news sources reporting on the Ukraine are lying. Given this combination of facts, you are now in the position of having no on the ground sources who use languages you can speak, while talking grandly about conspiracy theories sourced from … why yes…books that are by the same Western reporters you told us were lying.
I hope your medical insurance covers treatment for your extreme proctocephalic condition. Try the Bavarian Illuminati Secret Medical Facility in Portland. I am sure you know the one I mean.
Larv
@Morzer:
Lol. Whatever happened to Matoko-loko? But Bob’s been around since even before that. If you’re curious, look up an old thread of TimF’s about the origin of HIV being traced to chimpanzees in Cameroon. Bob (under his old nym of BobInPacifica) gives a fantastic demonstration of the fact that much like Otto in A Fish Called Wanda, he may read a lot, but he doesn’t necessarily understand it. As we see now with Ukraine, he’s not one to let his ignorance of a subject interfere with his desire to believe in a nefarious western conspiracy.