Showing posts with label #tcot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #tcot. Show all posts
10/18/14
3/5/14
Quote of the day, on Putin and Benghazi
Today, I kept being gobsmacked – smack, smack, smack, smack, smacked in the gob. By which I mean Rumsfeld – yes Rumsfeld! – and Cheney and Butters – yes, Butters! – are actually out there in public condemning president Obama for “weakness”. In an inspired moment of total lunacy, Butters even blamed Putin’s Crimea bullying on Benghazi! I know we all have to pretend that they have every right to speak their minds (and, of course, they do) – but really. The men responsible for the collapse of America’s military deterrent by losing two strategically catastrophic wars of choice actually have the gall to get up there and accuse Obama of weakness! The men who let Osama bin Laden get away; the men whose Putinesque derangement led to the total disintegration of Iraq; the men who presided over Iran’s achievement of nuclear infrastructure; the men who made a laughing stock out of US intelligence; the men who lost Afghanistan; the men who bankrupted the country by war and spending … these men now claim strategic prescience, manly foresight and a record of a “strong” America? There are times when the gob smacks itself.-- Andrew Sullivan
3/4/14
"Putin-envy": America's right-wing has a crush on Putin, for 'decisive', shoot from the hip leadership style. Just like they did with George W.
From The Daily Dish:
You and I were watching McCain at the same time and thinking essentially the same thing. McCain,like Graham, Bolton and others of that ilk, watch the events in Ukraine and are filled with Putin-envy. Vladimir Putin is a master of the game, they seem to think. Look at his almost effortless projection of force, his willingness to dispatch troops and threaten war with so little hesitation or circumspection. They love it! If only we had our own Putin at the helm!
But how pathetic and short-sighted is this vision? In fact, Putin is stirred to move because he feels humiliated. His puppet was ousted from power by a popular uprising. His plans to seal Ukraine to Russia for another generation are evaporating. His hold on a plausible plurality of the Ukrainian people was shattered. The fuel deals are clearly seen as a crude power-play by most Ukrainians. Even the Russian-speaking Ukrainians of the eastern and southern provinces are slipping out of Moscow’s grasp. There, when we look more deeply into the demographics, we see that even if the 50+ers feel nostalgia for Moscow and support for the Kremlin, the generation of 35-down increasingly sees more promise from an alignment with Europe. The pro-Russian regions of Ukraine will predictably cease to be pro-Russian within a generation.
Putin, the crass intelligence officer, turns quickly to brute force. But what is the cost to him of this step? Not only in Ukraine, but in all the other states of the “near abroad,” the fear of Russia is moved up several notches, the image of Russia as a reptilian predator rises. Even within Russia, most citizens understand the shrill propaganda of ORT (the Russian state TV) for what it is and consider war with Ukraine to be irresponsible nonsense. Putin’s credibility as a leader fades. Increasingly he appears to be someone motivated by fear of loss and failure, not by greatness.
The Putin who shows his face to the world today is not some dynamic new Napoleon delivering a new master stroke. He is a tired, failed leader, who is steadily losing the confidence of his own people, who is seen as hopelessly corrupt, and who is being deserted by Russian elites and detested by the youth in particular. Putin is a spent force. He may hang on for another year or another decade, but in Russia the demand for a new leader will grow steadily from this point.
The McCains, Grahams and Boltons don’t understand this dynamic, and that’s frankly because they are too much like Putin. The worst imaginable thing would be for the leaders of the West to think and behave like Putin.
Researchers show that gay marriage opponents think that most Americans agree with them. But they don't
According to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, only 41 percent of Americans oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry. But that same 41 percent has a highly skewed perception of where the rest of the country stands: nearly two-thirds of same-sex marriage opponents erroneously think most Americans agree with them. And only two in 10 same-sex marriage opponents realize that the majority of Americans support marriage equality.
Same-sex marriage opponents are unique in the depth of their misunderstanding of the issue. Because they skew strongly conservative and deeply religious, this may be a manifestation of what Andrew Sullivan has termed "epistemic closure." Think of this as an extreme case of confirmation bias -- that tendency of people to filter out information that challenges their beliefs and preconceived notions.
Epistemic closure was most publicly and hilariously on display during Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, when conservatives "unskewed" the polls to tilt the data in their favor, and the GOP establishment appeared to be blindsided by an electoral result that many independent observers saw coming months earlier.That's the danger of living in silos of like-minded people, whether you are a progressive or conservative: you can become disconnected from reality. This research also explains the rise of the Tea Party movement: mostly angry older white people who are not tracking the changes in the society and, when some big event happens, like Barack Obama being elected, they are surprised and scared.
2/16/14
Quote of the day, on the GOP, Christianists, and LGBT equality
If you were devising a strategy to make the Republicans look like the Bull Connors of our time, you just stumbled across a winner. If you wanted a strategy to define gay couples as victims and fundamentalist Christians as oppressors, you’ve hit the jackpot. In a period when public opinion has shifted decisively in favor of gay equality and dignity, Kansas and the GOP have decided to go in precisely the opposite direction. The week that the first openly gay potential NFL player came out, the GOP approved a bill that would prevent him from eating in restaurants in the state, if he ever mentioned his intention to marry or just shack up with his boyfriend. Really, Republicans? That’s the party you want? As for the allegedly Christian nature of this legislation, let’s not mince words. This is the inversion of Christianity.-- Andrew Sullivan on the proposed GOP legislation in Kansas that would allow businesses to refuse service to LGBT people.
2/10/14
Tweet of the day
This gave me chills. Love you guys #mizzounation RT @Mizzou Support for Sam at Memorial Stadium. #OneMizzou pic.twitter.com/pVejgYWiC2
— Michael Sam (@MikeSamFootball) February 10, 2014
2/6/14
1/4/14
12/16/13
12/7/13
Forgive but don't forget: in 1986 the Congress overrode Reagan's veto of the Anti-Apartheid Act, which put severe measures on the South African government
From PolicyMic:
Ronald Reagan was angry. It was October 1986, and his veto against the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act had just been overridden — and by a Republican-controlled Senate, at that.
He had appeared on TV a month earlier to warn Americans against the Anti-Apartheid Act, decrying it as "immoral" and "utterly repugnant." Congress disagreed, and one month later, it produced the two-thirds majority needed to override Reagan and pass tough new measures against South Africa's apartheid government. These measures included a ban on bank loans and new investments in South Africa, a sharp reduction of imports, and prevented most South African officials from traveling to the United States. The Act also called for the repeal of apartheid laws and the release of political prisoners like African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela, who had spent the last 23 years in prison.
It is difficult to fully comprehend the evils of apartheid today. Blacks were denied citizenship and the right to vote. They were forcibly relocated into impoverished reservations. People of color were barred from operating businesses or owning land inside white areas, which comprised most of the country. Sexual relations or marriage between people of color and whites was strictly forbidden. Racial segregation was enforced in public areas, including schools, hospitals, trains, beaches, bridges, churches and theaters. To enforce apartheid, the government often resorted to police brutality, the imprisonment and assassination of political dissidents, and the murder of black protesters.
10/15/13
I am worried. The US (and world) stands at an economic and political precipice today; I just hope the radical wing of the GOP doesn't push us into the abyss...
This paragraph from Politico.com sums up our situation on October 15, 2013:
Speaker John Boehner, who has wrestled with an unruly pack of conservatives for months, will soon be faced with an uncomfortable choice: Pass an emerging bipartisan Senate deal to lift the debt ceiling and fund the government, or don’t — and risk massive political and economic consequences.
10/13/13
10/11/13
10/8/13
10/7/13
The Tea Party mentality revealed...
They refuse to compromise because, to them, compromise is capitulation. If you go back to [Paranoid Style of American Politics author Richard] Hofstadter’s work when he’s talking about when the John Birch Society rode high, he talks about how conservatives would see people who disagree as political opponents, but reactionary conservatives saw them as evil. You can’t capitulate to evil.-- Christopher Parker, co-author of Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America Via the Daily Dish
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