Putin was not “emboldened by Obama”: he was inspired by Bush

Take a gander at that flock of sphincter birdies: they were paid political operatives sent to Florida to stage a fake riot at a Board of Election, thus helping steal the 2000 election for Gee Dubya Bush. The idea was; create a false impression of public outrage and dissent that the government “had to deal with right away”, thus allowing “extraordinary measures” to be taken to “preserve public order”. As we all know by now, that effort was a success, and the Bushistas robbed, pillaged, and murdered their way across the country and the Middle East for 8 interminable years of illegitimate government.

This year in Crimea, Vladimir Putin and his oligarch buddies followed the same model: they sent in faux “demonstrators” to create the impression of disorder, and so Russia just HAD TO send in troops to restore order and allow the oppressed locals the opportunity to shuffle off those dreaded shackles of Western Oppression, blahblahblahblahBLAHblahblah. (Guns were required in Ukraine because they, unlike we wimpy Americans, were unlikely to allow a bunch of corrupt billionaires to steal their entire nation. We rolled over and accepted it without a fight.)

Now in Eastern Ukraine, what was done in Crimea and Florida is being done again. The Russians are staging more fake riots and creating a “need” for “immediate intervention” yadayadayada. And any number of Right Wingnuts would have you believe this is being done because of Obama’s “weakness”.

Nonsense: a President who orders the invasion of sovereign countries to kill our enemies there (via drones and SEAL teams, mostly) is not a wimp. Obama is a hard-assed Chicago lawyer who would cut off your wedding tackle if need be, were you a threat to him. And we have ample proof of this. Ask the Taliban and various Al-Quaida groups: well, ask the surviving members, that is. He has killed a s***load of ’em, and never shed a tear.

No, if Putin needed guidance from an American Prexy, he got it from the Shrub. What Russia is doing in Eastern Europe is straight out of the “Republican” south Florida playbook.

It’s just as transparent, just about as illegal, and just as successful as it was in 2000.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Sovereign Citizen” found mentally incompetent.

An Ohio man named Mark Kulis, who was busted for having his house wired up with half a dozen bombs, a terrorist to be precise, has just been committed to 6 months locked up in the nut hatch in the hopes that he can be brought a bit closer to sanity. The hope is that he can at least understand that he has been doing illegal and dangerous things to himself and those around him. And with that understanding, be tried for his crimes in accordance with the law.

This writer is struck by the similarities between this “sovereign citizen” and many others in our world today. It seems that frustration causes people to create alternate realities in their minds, and they live in those fantasylands instead of the world around them. A couple of examples:

Number A: Fox “News” viewers are, most of us have found, living in a dream world – one in which Commander Stuffed Flightsuit won the Global War on Terror, white people are superior, poor people are evil, and Obama is everything bad/nothing good. And you Can. Not. Reach. Them. Not with logic, not with facts, not even with what is happening to themselves and their children. No, the echo chamber has captured their minds, and they cannot absorb anything from outside of the Cones of Silence in which they dwell.

Letter 2: Vladimir Putin and his Petersburg Posse have convinced themselves that their lives suck because of the collapse of several Russian empires, and that the way to un-suck said lives is to create a new and improved Russian empire. So far, it’s not going very well for anyone, but that isn’t stopping them. In their minds, they are hammers pounding on nails, and the fact that the problems are, say, open-heart surgery instead of nails does not register. They see nails because they want to see nails, and they swing their hammers, breaking people and countries in the real world that they refuse to see.

These are only two examples of many, of course. And it’s a problem. We cannot lock up hundreds of thousands of people in psych wards, no matter how badly they may need treatment. And until the lot of them wake up from their dreams, the entire planet is at risk.

Just as the poor, deluded Mr. Kulis could have blown up the houses of his neighbors along with his own because of what he firmly believes to be true, people like John McCain and Vladimir Putin could blow up the planet. They may have a more socially acceptable version of insanity, but they aren’t any more sane than he, and their insanity can kill a lot more people.

Until we all live in the same, evidence-based, real world, we are at risk. All we can do is reach the reachable and teach the teachable, and hope that’s enough.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Putin has succeeded. Therefore, Russia will continue to take over more of its former colonies.

Toldjaso. Russia illegally stole the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in order to increase Moscow’s wealth and influence. Lo and behold, the Russian state-controlled energy agency has taken control of gas and oil production in Crimea, thus shutting out other potential companies and countries.

“Gunpoint business deals”, we might call such operations: Russia is not doing anything irrational here. They are using military force to take control of the European energy market. Power, literally flowing from the barrel of a gun.

Yes, Putin’s Peeps are planning to commit massive human rights abuses in the area they have taken over. And yes, they are planning to swallow up more of the former Soviet Union, creating a greater Russia in the process. But there is nothing crazy about what they’re doing.

Immoral, illegal, unethical, inhuman, and despicable, yes. Loony, no. Putin and his renascent empire are acting with cold, pure, infernally logical intent as they seize land and power: power that will continue its accretion until the rest of the world punches Vladimir in the metaphorical nose and stops him.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

America is NOT like Russia. Obama is NOT like Putin.

WTF, America? Idiots like Palin and Graham are praising Putin and slamming our Prexy, Libertarians and Lefties are doing likewise, all while Russia holds a fake election in Crimea and invades a foreign country. Neither of which we are doing.Nor are we committing the many crimes that the Russian government does on a daily basis, while pretty much getting a pass from various Western nitwits.

Three specific examples for the clue-challenged:
Number A: Obama does not control American media, and has no one threatening nuclear strikes against us. Putin does, and has goons that are threatening to turn us “into radioactive ash”.

Letter 2: Neither America nor NATO have sent troops into Ukraine. Russia has.

Thirdly: Obama has taken no steps to expand America’s boundaries by taking over other sovereign nations. Russia
has, more than once.

People who are comparing the two countries are intellectually dishonest at best, clueless perhaps, or useful idiots at worst. America is far from perfect, but our Prexy isn’t busy having gays horse-whipped, taking over the media, or using natural gas to blackmail half of a continent.

Stop it, OK? Just stop it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Masked gunmen installing petty thugs is, like women distributing swords, no basis for a system of government.

Just stop for a second and focus, OK? The man people call Crimea’s leader was NOT legitimately elected to be such. Unless you’re fool enough to believe in the validity of secret elections held with guns pointed at voters’ heads, and that a man who previously barely got into his previous office as leader of a fringe party with only a few paltry seats could somehow magically win power in his nonexistent “nation” when nobody was looking. In reality, Mr. Aksyonov is a criminal who is part of a Russian land grab that is reminiscent of Russia’s previous actions in Georgia, and Germany’s in Poland:

Crimea has been swept into turmoil over the past two weeks, as Moscow, furious over the fall of Yanukovych and the pro-Western outlook of the new government, used hundreds of Russian soldiers to seize political control of the peninsula. The Russian soldiers — who Moscow insists are members of a Crimean self-defense force that Aksyonov created last year — ringed the regional parliament. Then, with armed soldiers inside the chamber, Aksyonov was named prime minister.

His critics say it’s clear that Aksyonov is simply a puppet, someone installed by Moscow to ease what has become, in effect, a Russian takeover of its former territory.

“If six months ago someone would have told me that Aksyonov would become prime minister, I would have laughed,” said Valentina Tsamar, a prominent Simferopol journalist with the TV channel Chernomorskaya.

So, after Russia took over Crimea’s government at gunpoint, and said fake government called for a fake referendum on “joining” Russia, the “Prime Minister” is already taking steps that shouldn’t be taken until after the election results are known. The obvious conclusion, Gentle Reader, is that the results of the next “election” will be rigged, just as the recent parliamentary “election” was. The results are already known, because the referendum is a farce, a ruse, a smokescreen erected to scare the cowards, fool the foolish, and gull the gullible.

This is as illegal as Mexico storming the Texas Capitol, deposing the elected government and installing a posse of Narcos in its place, and then voting to secede from the United States and rejoin Mexico. After all, there are Mexican nationals in Texas who have to be protected from the American government, right? And there are cultural ties that go back centuries, yes? And such ties surely supersede any silly latter-day political boundaries, right?

Wrong. Just as in Ukraine. This is an illegal land grab, like countless others throughout history (including some by the United States, Britain, France, and so on). And like all those other invasions and occupations, it is illegal as Hell and completely illegitimate.

Those loons of the political extremes who shriek and shout at the West for alleged “imperialism” as it insists on Ukraine following a path based on international law; the jackass Conspiracy Theorists who ignore the facts on the ground and and use their own fantasies in lieu of those facts; said shouters are but useful idiots that are helping the real imperialists in this case. Said imperialists being, of course, Putin and his corrupt buddies.

Such bulls***. Wake up and smell it, peeps.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The many faces of Vladimir Putin

This is how Vlad wants you to see him:

And this is what he actually is, and does:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ivT-I-yxtdY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DivT-I-yxtdY

Always remember, Gentle Reader: Putin was the head of the KGB back in Soviet times. That means he was in charge of torture, genocide, murder, and brutal suppression of any tiny hint of dissent.

From recent events, it is clear that he hasn’t changed a bit, no matter how many nipple shots the scumbucket butcher shows us:

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Yes, this is still a racist, sexist, unequal world.

Yesterday’s MLK holiday produced the usual passive-aggressive racist twaddle from twits like Sarah Palin, who would like us to believe that there is no more racism in the world, blah blah blah. And we also got extremely aggressive racism from the “fashion and art” world, which decided it was a great day to publish a racist, sexist, forced servitude-endorsing image. Said image being cropped and re-issued after a few thousand people told the editors that the picture was disgusting, but not disavowed or apologized for.

The perpetrator of this outrage is a privileged “socialite” and wife of a Russian criminal gangster oligarch, and she has as yet said nothing about the picture of her scrawny white rich-assed self objectifying, using and degrading black women. But there are only a few reasons for posting such an image:
Number A: to use an offensive image to create publicity,
Letter 2: because she is such a rich little stupid-f*** that she doesn’t even know this is insulting, or
Thirdly: she hates her some black women. Hates them a LOT.

Regardless of her actual reason, the fact that this happened on a holiday that honors a slain civil rights leader shows us that humans have not created a color-blind, classless, or gender-equal world. And as long as a billionaire thinks it acceptable to visually exhibit her “superior” position in the world in such a humiliating, degrading, and arrogant fashion as this, we will continue to inhabit a world that oppresses anyone who is not rich, white, and male.

And to hell with that.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

On edit – it appears the “artist” is not happy that the picture got used in this fashion, and a good bit of passive-voice “explanation” has been to the above link, to tell us all how so-not-racist she is. Fair enough. So who DOES bear the blame? Let me know and I’ll update the post accordingly.

The third time, it’s enemy action.

The first international Snowden revelations were about China. And they were released to the “news” media, right before Obama met with Chinese leaders.
The scheduled talks were derailed and damaged by the resulting brouhaha.

The second time involved Russia. Shortly before Obama and Putin were supposed to meet. So much fuss was raised, the meeting didn’t happen at all.

And right before this week’s EU meeting, some Snowden revelations hit the press about… You guessed ‘er Chester, about the NSA spying on Europeans. American/European relations have taken a big hit.

“The first time is coincidence, the second time happenstance, and the third is enemy action.” Someone is trying to damage the United States. The only question remaining is who’s behind it.

But the intent is now clear. Yes, the Bushies screwed us but good with the “Patriot Act” and all that came from it. And yes, the NSA needs to be put on a tight leash. These are needed reforms, sorely and urgently needed.

But reformers don’t try to weaken or destroy the thing they are trying to reform. Indeed, reformation aims to strengthen its object. That is the polar opposite of what is being done with Snowden’s stolen NSA files.

“The first time is coincidence, the second time happenstance, and the third is enemy action.” The only question remaining is who that enemy is.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad

Was there any doubt? No, there wasn’t. Mr. Al-Assad won the LSoSOTW competition going away: he started the week by claiming to have no chemical weapons, then claimed he’d be happy to give them up, then saying he maybeprobablywouldn’tunlessthisandthathappened.

And of course, you can’t give up something that doesn’t exist. So unless he developed the technology to create and deliver chemical weapons (and then made the chemicals and missiles, too) in a day or less, he’s lying.

A Sarin-encrusted Crown O’ Polished Turds, then, for the Syrian Prexy. A most exemplary Lying Sack of S*** of The Week.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

(Honorable mentions to Putin, Lavrov, Obama, and Kerry for the pretense of an “accidental slip of the tongue” that “started” this week’s diplomatic effort. Dudes, it was kinda lame. Everybody knew you made that s*** up – you have been talking about this idea for a year. But it was a pretty big lie – not as big as ol’ Bashie’s was, though.)

Because Bush Lied, More Children will Die

By now, most of us have seen pictures of the innocent children who were murdered by nerve gas, provided by the Syrian regime. Truly horrific. If anyone in our country did that to, say, a kitten or a penguin, the punishment would have been severe and already have been meted out. But Assad has killed thousands of human beings and is now gleefully thumbing his nose at the world. Why is he getting away with gassing little kids?

One word: Iraq. Because the Bushistas lied the world into invading that country, nobody believes Obama now. We hear it at the UN, see it in Parliaments and Congress, and read about it in the media. Citizens of the world hear “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and immediately say “bulls***”.

Bush The Dumber has much to answer for, from 9/11 to the Middle East and the global economic collapse. But this may be the most heartbreaking result of his ill-advised and illegitimate occupation of the White House: because he and his cabal lied about WMD in Iraq all those years ago, people are justifiably suspicious when a President talks about WMD being used today.

And that suspicion leads to inaction. Said inaction is then taken by a brutal, murdering dictator as tacit permission to kill at will. Which he is doing even as we speak.

Another hod of brimstone will surely be heaped upon the fire when the Shrub meets his maker. Punishment for the deaths of these poor children, who died convulsing in agony and struggling to breathe through the lungs that were destroyed by chemical weapons in Syria. But Bush’s eventual and eternal punishment will not bring the kids and their mothers back to life, nor will it make it any easier to stop such international war crimes from happening in the future.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky