"Romney moves to reassemble campaign apparatus for 2016" pic.twitter.com/BEb7DenPvv
— Joseph Hughes (@nczeitgeist) January 12, 2015
As an early (2002!) detractor of Willard Mitt Romney, it has entertained me no little to watch people from every section of the political spectrum greet the tentative marketing campaign for Romney ’16: Third Time’s the Charm! with the contempt it so richly deserves.
A “Romney donors want him to run again” story can be neatly filed in the “rich people aren’t as smart as you think” column.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 9, 2015
As Slate’s Betsy Woodruff put it, “The only people excited about Mitt Romney running for president in 2016 are excited because they think he will fail.” And she was talking to Republicans!
The ego of Mitt Romney is long and it bends towards repeated humiliations.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) January 10, 2015
Jonathan Martin, in the dependably mealy-mouthed NYTimes, “Third Chance for Romney? G.O.P. Is Torn“:
… [I]nterviews with more than two dozen Republican activists, elected officials and contributors around the country reveal little appetite for another Romney candidacy. Beyond his enthusiasts — a formidable constituency given that many are donors — opinions range from indifference to open hostility.
Some party leaders are still angry about the former venture capitalist’s struggles to fend off the inevitable attacks on his business background, his awkward demeanor, and his inability to connect with working-class and minority voters. While political circumstances change between campaign cycles, Mr. Romney’s vulnerabilities, they say, are a constant…
Nearly without fail, Republicans call Mr. Romney a decent man, and in public they prefer to speak delicately about him. But beyond the ritual accolades there is an unmistakable weariness, and in private, their criticism of him can be fierce…
"I want this nation to meet the real Willard Mitt Romney," the candidate booms. "I have a lot of new weird ideas and wear dungarees now."
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) January 9, 2015
Jonathan Capeheart, in the Washington Post, on “A Sad Quest for Relevance“:
The Wall Street Journal should have given its readers a piece of chalk with every copy Wednesday. The better to draw a chalk outline around the blow-torched image of Mitt Romney after reading the paper’s scorching editorial that belittles the 2012 Republican presidential nominee’s chances for a third attempt at the party’s nod in 2016.
I and others, particularly Democrats, have been giving side-eyes to the idea of a Romney repeat ever since the former Massachusetts governor started hinting at the prospect late last year. Whatever criticism I could articulate would have been dismissed as partisan harping of an Obama water-carrier, as I’ve been called by more than a few charmers in my inbox. But when the equivalent of the principal’s office of the GOP takes it upon itself to lambast the wanna-be favorite son, folks pay attention…
According to Dylan Byers, Politico‘s premier CW water-carrier, Rupert Murdoch said “He had his chance, he mishandled it, you know? I thought Romney was a terrible candidate.” Professional Reagan hagiographer Peggy Noonan sighs that there is “no Mitt-momentum.” Jennifer Rubin, once “Mitt’s most reliable media hack”, has repudiated him.
Even the guy with the Romney face tattoo thinks it’s a bad idea!
But Mitt still has a few proponents. Spencer Zwick, his former campaign finance manager, defended him to Buzzfeed. The Boston Globe reports that Romney’s “often kept in touch with the advisers who have shepherded his political career since 2002,” (people like Zwick, professional coat-holder Ron Kaufman, and Eric “Etch-A-Sketch” Fehrnstrom. And, as of Friday afternoon, Ramesh Ponnuru. So I guess you can’t buy love, but if you’ve got Romney money, you can still buy loyalty… or at least rent it.
Clinton aides want to run against Romney: "I would like to run against Mitt Romney in every election forever.”
http://t.co/XfXS2y6wus
— Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) January 15, 2015
#Romney2016 in five headlines from The Fix pic.twitter.com/kTcYHfdLVg
— Brian Powell (@briandpowell) January 16, 2015
How Obama looked when he responded to a question about Mitt Romney running for president again pic.twitter.com/mrBAwHjXbx
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) January 16, 2015
Just Some Fuckhead
Romney is in the Dog Strapped To Top Of Car stage of his political career where he’s powerless against the drive of his own ambition while he continually shits himself publicly.
debit
Please proceed, Governor.
TR
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Oh, this.
Mike R
Mitt has the social awareness of a sea cucumber and this may offend the poor sea cucumber. His family must really dislike the guy or maybe they are as clueless as the Mittbot, he should just go away. On the otther hand if he stays he will be a running joke, so from my perspective it wouldn’t be all bad.
muddy
I love when the president makes that face. Sometimes there is a tiny “huh” at the end, it’s just perfect.
I turned the tv on today, and the very first thing I heard was Mittens saying that the gap between rich and poor has gotten bigger under Obama, and we need to do something to lift people out of poverty! Luckily my coffee was not ready yet, so I did not spew it.
I said that his plan probably was to lessen taxes for rich people, then they could afford to own more serfs. Or the poor people would be encouraged by seeing that when *they* were lifted and rich, they would not have to lose it all to mean taxes. Or some similar bullshit. Of course he did not offer details, but it was just ludicrous to hear him even bring it up.
shelley
Romney 2024. “I may speak softly, but I carry a big stick, the better to beat this dead horse with”
BruinKid
What… the… FUCK?!?!?!?!?
The newborn died. And… I’m done with the Internet for today. :-(
Just Some Fuckhead
@BruinKid: What if the baby was The Anti-Christ?
raven
@BruinKid: Yea, it’s not the incident it’s the internet,
Tommy
Everybody does seem to hate him, even many in his own party that supported him last election with their fist clinched. I’ve known some very, very rich people in my life. Powerful AND rich people. Few pretty close friends. Now not as rich as Mitt, but tens and tens of millions. They were not all liberals I might add. Almost all of them were not in fact “dicks.”
The right likes to think many liberal don’t like Mitt because he is super rich. I am sure there are a few that dislike him just because of that. But I bet far more feel the way I do. That he actually an uptight asshole. Thinks he is better than everybody us not in his tax bracket. That his religion is the one true faith and the rest of us are sinners going to hell. That if we don’t agree with him on some issue and/or topic it isn’t because he might be wrong, it is just we don’t understand the world as clearly as he does from the “high horse” he is sitting on.
I could list a number of other things, like that totally fake smile and laugh, but I think it clear why I don’t like him. It has nothing to do with his wealth! In fact his wealth is why down the list of things I despise about him.
Amir Khalid
@Just Some Fuckhead:
No, man. Just … no. This child was murdered in a gruesome fashion so soon after being born. You do not make a joke about that.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Amir Khalid: Too soon? This is why I can’t do Twitter.
Bob In Portland
For Amir Khalid.
c u n d gulag
Jen Rubin?
Oh, she’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO over Mitt!!!
It seems he embarrassed her at the prom.
She gave him his class ring back, so you know she’s done with him!
Tommy
@Mike R: I said this in a comment about Mitt awhile back. The man has more money than he could spend in lifetime even if he bought everything in sight. By all accounts he has both a large, closeknit, and loving family. It appears he and his wife truly love each other (and good for them).
He has houses all over the country/world. He could get a job doing anything he wanted. He could consult. Run another Olympics. Fund and run a start-up in any industry he wanted. Teach or even run BYU. Set up a charity like Bill Clinton did. Or he could just kick it on a far off island he bought for the rest of his days on earth being waited on hand and foot.
That he’d choose, and it is his choice, I don’t see PACs forming to get him to run like there are for other Republicans …. makes me thinks he just really, really wants to be POTUS more than anybody that would hold the office should want.
I don’t normally wish ill-will on anybody, even people I really don’t like. But I am 110% sure this is NOT, I repeat NOT going to end well for him. He will be savaged in the primaries more than the last time. And if Hillary is our candidate she’ll eat his lunch with both hands tied behind her back.
Somebody that cares about him needs to do an intervention ………..
Amir Khalid
If Mitt is set on running in 2016, I don’t know what could dissuade him, short of a thumping in the early primaries. This man was convinced, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary, that he was about to win the 2012 election. He didn’t even prepare a concession speech, just in case.
Tokyokie
@Tommy: Although I dislike him for all the reasons you mentioned, his wealth, or more to the point, how he obtained it, makes me hate the bastard even more. Making millions by destroying the livelihoods of thousands of peasants is despicable. It’s like Mittens is the leader of a 21st-century enclosure movement and is incapable of understanding why so many ingrates don’t find him admirable.
srv
@Just Some Fuckhead: It’s only acceptable if napalm and a drone was involved.
cmorenc
There’s precedent for someone winning one of the two major-party nominations three times (if Romney runs in 2016 and wins the GOP nomination, he will have run three times but won the nomination only twice) – William Jennings Bryan was the nominee of the Democratic Party in 1896, 1900, and 1908 back when the Democratic Party was preponderantly the more socially conservative tea-party flavored party. In Jennings’ first try, he lost the national popular and electoral votes by a coincidentally similar percentage margin as did Romney in 2012 (1896: popular 51.0% to 46.7% – a little over 4%, the electoral vote by 271 to 176(21.2%) ; 2012: popular 51.1% to 47.2%, electoral vote 332 to 205 (23.4%).
But that’s not even the truly creepy part, which doesn’t directly involve Romney at all (though Romney certainly has a significant creepiness quotient): look how eerily similar this 1896 photograph of William Jennings Bryan is to Rick Santorum. Recall that in his later days, Bryan was the prosecuting attorney in the Scopes Trial prosecution of a Tennessee schoolteacher for violating state laws against teaching evolution. (Clarence Darrow was the defense attorney).
Emerald
I have heard it rumored that there is a Mormon prophecy that a Mormon will be President some day.
It’s possible that Mitt and his family believe this, and also believe that HE is the One.
He not only believes he deserves it, he believes that a miracle will put him there.
But hey, I’m not Mormon. Anybody who knows differently please correct.
jc
Romney always reminds me of the candidate played by Matt Damon in “The Adjustment Bureau” —
“My shoes, you know shiny shoes we associate with a high priced lawyers and bankers. If you want to get a working mans vote you need to scuff up your shoes a little bit, but you can’t scuff ’em so much that you alienate the lawyers and the bankers, cause you need them to pay for the specialist back in Tenafly.”
“So what is the proper scuffing amount? Do you know we actually paid a consultant seventy three hundred dollars… for a consultant to tell us that…[he takes off his shoe and brings it up to show everyone] this is the perfect amount of scuffing.”
Just Some Fuckhead
@Emerald: It’s called the Mormon White Horse Prophecy and what makes it particularly eerie is that Romney is a white mormon who owns a horse.
Amir Khalid
@Tommy:
He has a prophecy to fulfill, didn’t you know?
Debbie
@BruinKid:
And yet, for some, even this would be preferable to abortion.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Emerald: The White Horse Prophecy. Who knows how literally individuals take their religion, but I think that somewhere between the White Horse prophecy, the desire to the Mormon JFK– not the least aspect of which is giving Trick or Booger or whichever Mittlet a leg up on Jason Chaffetz for Hatch’s seat, and to rub the Huntsmans’ noses in it– and your garden variety Daddy issues lies the motivation of Mitt. The Mittivation.
The Gray Adder
Well, there are probably many people who think Mitt 3.0 could win, and plenty others who, upon seeing Mitt 3.0, will completely forget about the first two versions, thinking to themselves, “this must be the real Mitt.”
God, I hope I’m wrong.
Josie
@Just Some Fuckhead: You are definitely in Thought Leader territory with this comment. I can only think that the people (whoever they are) who are encouraging him to run secretly hate him ferociously.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
It would be nice if the sources you like to cite at least pretended to be knowledgeable or objective. As it is, the last source you tried to cite to me showed nothing but complete ignorance of Malaysian politics.
MattF
What we are seeing is that Mitt has no constituency. No one, except for a half-dozen individuals who are physically attached to specific unmentionable convex projecting elements of his body, wants him to run. He’s not even everyone’s second choice– he’s everyone’s ‘minus infinityth’ choice.
Tokyokie
@Emerald: it’s the White Horse Prophecy, and despite his demurrals, Mitt has heard all his life that he is the chosen one. And I’ve long contended that his goal is president of the church, not president of the US., and that achieving the former will guarantee him the latter.
Amir Khalid
@The Gray Adder:
How can people be so deluded? It’s always been obvious that there is no real Mitt.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Josie: I’d appreciate your support in this year’s Thought Leader awards.
Josie
@Just Some Fuckhead: Consider it done.
Tommy
@Tokyokie: No I get that, but honestly I can’t get that upset about how he made his money. If he wouldn’t have done it somebody else would have. I don’t think that makes it OK, nor would I do what he did, but just the world we live in. Often times a pretty flipping sad world.
I am more upset, from a money point-of-view, that he shelters his money off-shore. But don’t even get me started on that topic. For every dollar he doesn’t pay in taxes and those of is ilk, it means the local and state governments we live under will have to raise taxes that YOU and I pay when we buy a gallon of milk or put new tires on our car.
We’re picking up this slack. That pisses me off.
Mike in NC
Few of us believed Romney after 2012 when he said he had no further interest in running for president. He’s been consumed by the idea for over 20 years. He will run in 2016 and again in 2020 and probably in 2024 if his health permits.
Despicable Mitt would prefer to be coronated, but unfortunately that’s not possible in this country.
P.S. — He has a terrible wife who makes a certain Dowager Countess seem cuddly and lovable.
feebog
@MattF:
Really? Because I keep seeing polls where Mittens does very well, even when Jeb ! is included. Of course very well is still under 25% when you have such a full clown car. But obviously he has a pretty strong base of support. I would not be surprised to see him do well, especially if Christie continues to have legal problems and if Jeb! stumbles.
scav
@Amir Khalid: Well, it would be nice, if unlikely. The signal is rarely better than the conductor it travels along (whatever the source) and when it’s the dodgy wire choosing what to plug itself to. . .
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I always said the reason he didn’t release his tax returns is because it would’ve blown the lid off just how ridiculous our tax code is. The most glaring example probably being how he funneled (IIRC) $100 million to his kids with out them paying any taxes on it.
and I did RC
Mike in NC
Pretty sure Obama was tempted to say, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
As somebody pointed out the other day, at this point in the ’08 cycle, Rudi Giuliani had a commanding lead. i think that’s a cromulent comparison. If you look at how hard it was for Willard to lock it down against Santorum and Gingrich, I can’t imagine he’ll fare better in a tougher field. I’m only surprised Ted Cruz doesn’t poll better
Villago Delenda Est
Every time a Mormon dismisses the “White Horse Prophecy”, they only make it more obvious that they actually believe that claptrap. Not to mention the other utter nonsense that the L. Ron Hubbard of the 19th Century came up with.
Caprice
“Every time a Mormon dismisses the “White Horse Prophecy”, they only make it more obvious that they actually believe that claptrap. Not to mention the other utter nonsense that the L. Ron Hubbard of the 19th Century came up with.”
It’s all utter nonsense… Some of it is just newer, that’s all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: Why should Hodor demonstrate any more understanding of Malaysian politics than he does of Ukrainian politics?
Tokyokie
@Tommy: Sure, somebody else would have done it and the paroles still would have been screwed. But those others are not running for president as paragons of moral virtue.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, he wanted to expound on some MH370 conspiracy theory involving, and this is the word he used, “Islamofascists”. I can say for Bob that he understands America’s politics every bit as well as he understands Malaysia’s or Ukraine’s..
Villago Delenda Est
@The Gray Adder: Personally, I’m waiting on Mitt XP before I make any judgements.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: What, one of the favorite labels of the American right wing, which knows darn well that “fascist” is a pejorative even as they rabidly embrace its tenets?
Well, at least they have an ethos, I guess….
Villago Delenda Est
@Just Some Fuckhead: Not possible. The antichrist is occupying the Oval Office of the White
PeopleHouse.Villago Delenda Est
@Tommy: This is a problem that a lot of the rich have. It’s not that they’re rich…it’s that they’re assholes, and their wealth amplifies their assholishness.
Marc
@Just Some Fuckhead:
That is unusual!
JPL
@Mike in NC: That’s the entire republican party.
I have to admit, that I haven’t spent a lot of time wondering if I like or dislike the Romney’s. Mitt’s policies suc.k and Ann is clueless, though, That became apparent when she said how they suffered through college. My gosh, they even had to sell stock.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Our tax dollars pay for Ann’s horse.
Citizen Alan
Granted, I think Hillary and Mittens are living in different universes of electability, but it’s interesting to read that sentence when a sizeable percentage of Democrats look towards Hillary 2016 with a certain amount of dread.
Citizen Alan
It is also fascinating for me to think about Mormons in general and Mittens in particular looking at a White Horse Prophecy ™ as being some wonderful thing, when nearly the entirety of mainstream Christianity thinks the Man on a White Horse is the Antichrist. Then again, if we learned anything in 2012, it’s that millions of fundamentalist Christians will vote for someone they think belongs to a satanic cult if the alternative is a black man who wants to help poor people buy health insurance.
Curt
Since I’m rooting for injuries in the 2016 Republican primary, I’d be thrilled if Mitt made a serious run of it and threw sharp elbows all over the place. The idea of up to three establishment candidates spending a whole primary season throwing zillions of dollars in negative ads at each other warms my heart. Some of that is bound to leave a mark or two that carries over into the general. Not to mention lower-tier candidates like Huck, Rick, and Rick all bringing grudges toward Romney to the contest. He’ll have a target on his back, all right. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. The only thing better than seeing all that abuse wear him down would be if he won the nomination anyway, too bloodied and damaged to get anywhere in the general.
The Ancient Randonneur
Ann wants to be First Lady, Tagg and the RMoney Bros want to see daddy ascend to his rightful place in America. How can Mitt possibly say no to that?
Caprice
@The Ancient Randonneur: I didn’t know much about Ann when Mitt ran. I remember seeing her on stage with Chris Christie, and her nostrils were curled in disgust. Her body language said she found him repugnant. But others here have said that’s her default manner.
Amir Khalid
@Citizen Alan:
I wasn’t aware that mainstream Christianity took the White Horse prophecy seriously.
muddy
@The Ancient Randonneur: It’s his turn! He hasn’t had his turn yet!
MattF
@feebog: I think that choosing Mitt in a poll at this stage is equivalent to ‘none of the above’. But I should add that I think pretty much all of the talked-about possibilities are only a hair above that.
SWMBO
Run! Mitt! Run!
karen
When your former fluffer is fluffing a new pony it’s time to get out of the barn.
Bob In Portland
@Amir Khalid: The last article wasn’t about Malaysian politics. It was about an FBI investigation in the wake of 9/11. Perhaps that confused you. It was never about Malaysia other than people connected to terrorist funding. Now maybe you like some of the people mentioned and don’t like them being connected to Operation Green Quest. Unless you think that the FBI was lying, which is a possibility. You can do what you want with that.
The above article was in response to your “proof” from an article in VICE, I believe it was, about the faux story of Russia sneaking a BUK launcher into Donbass, shooting down an airliner, and then sneaking it back across the border the same day, although within a few hours I’d figured out that the author of the VICE piece was an amateur, the guy with the false information about the poison gas attack in Syria. Plus, the guy who owns VICE is right-winger in the security business through Giuliani who is also married to a descendant of Herbert Hoover. So we know what team he plays for.
I wonder how long until we see the results of the autopsies of the crew. Any day now, I’m sure. Only been six months.
Bob In Portland
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, that gives you an excuse not to follow the links.
Bob In Portland
@Amir Khalid: What would you describe people who financed Muslim terrorists? Would you call the House of Saud Islamofascists? Would you call bin Laden an Islamofascist? How about Mo Atta? Operation Green Quest was looking at those funding conduits.
Bill
Don’t you guys remember? Mitt rides a Missouri foxtrotter!
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Well, not so much.
“White” and “Mormon” are almost synonymous, and among the 0.01% like Mitt, horses are an obligatory lifestyle accessory, so any Mormon wealthy enough to qualify for national candidacy would be dead certain to fulfill any Mormon/ Horse prophecy.
rikyrah
60 PHUCKING DAYS??
………….
Man who hit, killed local mother gets 60 days in jail
Daughter of woman killed in hit-and-run: Sentence is ‘nothing at all’
Author: Francesca Amiker, News4JAX Reporter, [email protected]
Published On: Dec 17 2014 09:52:04 PM EST Updated On: Dec 17 2014 11:14:07 PM EST
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
The daughter of a woman hit and killed in May said she is reliving her mother’s death after being inside the courtroom this week when a judge handed down a judgment of 60 days in jail to the man charged in the accident.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, 55-year-old Paula Abdullah (pictured below) was walking home from work along New Berlin Road on the Northside around 9:45 p.m. on May 6 when she was hit and killed. At the time, the incident was labeled a hit-and-run, but the next day, after seeing news reports, 22-year-old Brandon Fruscella came forward, saying he thought he’d hit a mailbox. After an investigation, Fruscella was charged only with leaving the scene of an accident.
Monday morning at Fruscella’s sentencing hearing, the judge gave Fruscella the maximum penalty for a second-degree misdemeanor, which is 60 days. Paula Abdullah’s daughter, Sharifah Abdullah, said she’s heartbroken for her family and her mother.
Our mother’s not here, but you get 60 days? Those 60 days to him are going to feel like six months, but to us it’s going to feel like two months,” Sharifah Abdullah said. “It’s nothing at all.”
She said she feels the punishment just doesn’t fit the crime
“I was shocked. I was like, ’60 days — that’s it?’ I mean, I wanted to stand up in front of the judge and say, ‘No way it’s going down like that. He needs to get at least one year.’ That’s the least he should get for taking someone’s life away.”
Fruscella’s defense attorney, Mitch Stone, said the prosecution could only prove Fruscella had left the scene of an accident.
“He knew he caused damage to his car, but not to something else,” Stone said.
Stone said police conducted a thorough investigation, checking Fruscella’s alibi and testing him for alcohol and drugs. He said in court, he fought for Fruscella to receive probation and community service.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/man-who-hit-killed-local-mother-gets-60-days-in-jail/30287568
rikyrah
@Tommy:
Said it before and will continue to say it..
Don’t nobody have anything good to say about Willard unless they’re getting a check from him.
And, I include his family in this.
Just Some Fuckhead
@LWA (Liberal With Attitude): I think you are being a little glib.
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
@Caprice: In all fairness to Ann Romney, were I to find myself onstage with Chris Christie, my nostrils would curl in disgust as well.
Just Some Fuckhead
@LWA (Liberal With Attitude): Ann wasn’t disgusted. She was smelling the White Castle cheeseburgers Christie carries in his coat pockets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Caprice: I saw the Mittlets before I saw much of The Lady Ann, and I knew those godawful, entitled knobs couldn’t be the result of just one asshole parent.
@LWA (Liberal With Attitude): but, yeah, that too. I remember when Willard decided he needed Trump on board, and they let him throw Herself a birthday party. I’m sure she hated every minute of it, and I’m glad.
Mike in NC
@The Ancient Randonneur: Tagg has been promised his very own F-35 to play with, just like those Saudi playboy princes get to do!
Bob In Portland
@Villago Delenda Est: This is a rewrite of an article I wrote from my union paper back in the early 90s.
I’m open to all your criticism if you actually read it. It may help you to understand your fear of the term “fascism.”
As for MH370, the pilot was a follower of a guy connected to funding terrorists. Since the plane went down the night after this guy was arrested the author thought, gee, maybe there’s a connection between the two. If he thinks that’s not reasonable or plausible, I’m always open to hearing Amir’s (or is it Khalid’s) explanation and why he’s willing to dismiss the article. Maybe he has an alternative theory for the disappearance of MH370.
Now, maybe I don’t know anything about Ukraine. You tell me what I don’t know. I know which side is wearing the swastikas, which happens to be the side you seem to be rooting for. Maybe The Nation lied about America’s seventy-year history of involvement with the fascists of Ukraine. Prove it.
I keep asking asking timid BJers what the hell the point of our foreign policy in Central Asia is. But all the brilliance you all share, none of you connect it to OIL. How peculiar. And now you can’t any connection between the coup in Ukraine and US energy strategy. Why? Well, I’m guessing that that your intellectual boundaries don’t permit you to think of it that way.
If I raise historical parallels I get folks like Mmen saying We’ve always been fascist, so I’m not going to talk about the intentions of the US around the world today. Then there’s you delenda, who leads the group here who uses namecalling and homophobic attacks to dismiss me.
You are, most of you, intellectual cowards. You live in a lie and you’re very comfortable. Enjoy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bob In Portland: “Fascism” implies a warping of the Romantic movement with an infusion of social Darwinism, a splash of through the lookingglass utilitarianism, and pure capitalist greed.
The Bandit House of Saud and their Wahhabist allies aren’t that advanced. They’re still stuck somewhere prior to the Renaissance…let’s say the 14th Century, CE. Amazingly, it’s the 14th Century by the Muslim calendar.
Mike G
I think it’s more along the lines of “Rich people demand to control the government and don’t give a shit what you think”.
Ripley
And you’re the purest motherfucker around, for all to see.
Sigh. Bob in Portlandia.
Cervantes
@Bob In Portland:
I wouldn’t say that — but regardless, what did you make of the article on “How to Save Ukraine” that George Soros has in the latest NYRB?
James E Powell
@Bob In Portland:
And don’t forget Connie Chung’s secret Committee of 12 or what really goes on in the “Green Room”
srv
I was supposed to get a weekly Beluga Caviar shipment for my part in demonizing Putin and I haven’t gotten shit yet.
Here’s the latest conspiracy:
http://www.macdougherty.com/posts/the-swiss-national-bank-hit-putin-hard-last-week
sm*t cl*de
I will say this for BiP, his links soon lead one to entertainingly full-on weapons-grade craziness.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@rikyrah:
Uh, how could the prosecution only prove that he left the scene of an accident when there’s A DEAD BODY!? Did the jury actually think it was likely that someone else just happened to come along and kill her around the same time?
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Amir Khalid:
No, it would still be asinine.
karen marie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: OMG – remember the hideous cake? http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/abc_ann_romney_birthday_cake_ll_120417_vblog.jpg
Bob In Portland
@Villago Delenda Est: We’re not in the 14th Century.
Bob In Portland
@Cervantes: Soros has been putting money into Ukraine since before the coup. I didn’t read the article, should I? I certainly wouldn’t bring it up here because Soros is a demon for right-wingers and mentioning him would bring an avalanche of BJers trotting out their favorite theories of me being some kind of right-winger.
Bob In Portland
Okay, the US staged a coup in Ukraine just like they’ve done in so many other countries. I’m tired of writing lists. The US lied to the public about Ukraine as they’ve lied about their foreign policy around the world. The purpose of the US’s involvement in Ukraine is to weaken Russia. Russia is a competitor in the energy business and has a huge supply of oil and natural gas and the US wants to control it. (Hint: Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Indonesia, throw in Venezuela)
It’s that simple. Your country lies to you. They keep lying to you. The foreign policy is not to protect you, it’s to make rich people richer and to make powerful people more powerful. The police and intelligence agencies spy on you. They’ve always spied on you but now their spying is more sophisticated. The spy on you for the same reason. This also to make rich people richer etc. The CIA is above the law, as is the US above international law. Being above the law means that they can and do violate it. And like other people who violate the law, they’d just as soon not tell you why or how or when. They lie to you about the criminal things that they do, too, if somehow the crime becomes known.
When rich people get richer and powerful people get more powerful it does not benefit you. Trust me.
The NYTimes lies to you, like they lied to you about WMDs, like they lied to you (or your parents) about Vietnam. A couple of the same guys who lied to you with Judith Miller are lying to you now about Ukraine. We didn’t invade Afghanistan to catch Osama and we didn’t stay there fifteen years to bring them democracy. And there is a reason why they lied to you about Afghanistan and why they keep lying to you about it.
Have a nice evening.
Cervantes
@Bob In Portland:
Unless, of course, you were agreeing with some or all of his ideas …
Anyhow, the article is there. Read it if you will.
Cheers.
Cervantes
@Bob In Portland:
Five paragraphs.
One could quibble re words (for example, “country” and “government” are not the same) and one could quibble re standard of proof (for example, the US having staged coups in X and Y and Z does not prove it staged one in Ukraine) — but I don’t think there’s anything outlandish in what you’re saying.
low-tech cyclist
I’d like to shake the hand of the person who came up with that riff on “the arc of history is long and bends towards justice.” S/he is my sort of guy/gal.
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This early in a presidential election cycle, presidential poll results are essentially measures of pre-existing name recognition. Of course Mitt Romney does relatively well; people all over the country know his name. On the Democratic side, no other prospective candidate has name recognition like Hillary Clinton, not even the Vice-President.
Bob In Portland
@Cervantes: Sometimes it’s hard to understand what BJers are so offended about. It seems that if a sufficient amount of time passes between the US’s crime it’s okay to criticize it. And if it’s committed by a Republican adminitration it’s more easily recognizable by BJers. Which is why it’s important to understand that the deep state trumps electoral politics, especially in foreign policy.
Despite the obviousness of the CIA’s Mexico City faux pas most liberals/progressives feel safe in believing the lie about JFK’s assassination. Even the folks who know about Smedley Butler and how the importance of that was squirreled away, safe from the sheep, are hesitant to admit that the assassination was brought about by the people who benefited by it.
Despite the obviousness of the US’s 70-year history with fascist Ukrainian organizations both in North America and in Ukraine itself, despite the uses of these fascist organizations (and others from various eastern European countries) by first the Republican Party, and then becoming fixtures in the State Department, most BJers ignore this in favor of media narratives. Generalities are safer than specifics.
The problem with critiquing a country run by a deep state (that is, where power structures are different than what we learned about in civics class) is that by nature deep states don’t announce their actions, don’t announce their intentions. They wear the flag and the myths of democracy. I presume that all countries are run by a deep state. And just like in 1963 the motives of the deep state are still oil, money and power.
There is also a presumption that I somehow am a Putin-lover. I’m not. I see myself as how an anti-fascist German felt during the Third Reich. Victory for Hitler was not going to translate into anything to benefit me. I have been around long enough to recognize how the Mighty Wurlitzer works, although in the age of the internet it is even more efficient than ever. Putin is working for the best interests of Russia. The US is trying to overthrow Putin. The talk about a coup to overthrow Russia may be their plan, it’s easier than a nuclear war, but it’s unlikely. Putin is an old KGB hand and understands completely how the US works better than most of the BJers. I suspect that he has identified who the fifth column are and has taken proper precautions.
I doubt that he’ll let the American puppets in Kiev commit mass murder in Donbass. If he’d wanted to absorb Donbass into Russia it would have been done and the Ukrainian army would have been destroyed if they ever tried to make a move against them. But Putin is playing another game. Having Donbass within Ukraine will eventually moderate its politics. He is protecting Russia. That’s why he seized Crimea before it came under western control. A violation of international law? Much like Kosovo, but without the killing.
The US has been using its economic leverage to destroy Russia’s economy, but I don’t think Russia is integrated enough into western economics to be destroyed this way. BRICS is a threat to the American dollar, and supplies another reason for America’s actions against Russia.
Just like warring and regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria haven’t made America (or its Sunni vassal states) any safer, neither will whatever happens in Ukraine. And what seems likely to happen in Ukraine will be more economic disaster and killing. And it will be to use western Ukrainians’ hostility against Russia to further weaken Russia with the ultimate goal of taking back the big energy pool in Central Asia.
I’m open to other theories, but most BJers can’t seem to even comprehend that the US has a strategy in its unending wars. The invasion of Iraq can be dismissed as “stupid” just as arming “moderate anti-Assad” forces who morphed into ISIS was “stupid”. Just like our fifteen-year occupation of Afghanistan is stupid. It’s not stupid. It’s their plan.
Most BJers assume the default position is that if it’s something between the US and Russia, then they are on the US side because “Putin.” Just like Vietnam got lots of folks rich but it hurt the average American so too do all these Asian wars. When the rich get richer, when the rules of law are tinkered with or ignored in order to make government more secretive and less responsive to average Americans then average Americans will suffer. I don’t believe in BJer exceptionalism, they are somewhat better-informed than my 89 year-old mother in Florida but they still fall for the propaganda directed at them and are intellectually afraid to venture outside their prescribed boundaries.