Never, EVER, give in to Bullies and Terrorists.

Waaaay back in the day, your humble correspondent was bullied at elementary school. The bullying continued and indeed grew more violent as time went on without punitive action from any source. Finally, I had had enough and the bully got the living s*** beat out of him, after which he stopped bullying my nascent blunt and cranky corpus. He did it as long as it was successful, and stopped bullying when it stopped being successful.

Back in the day, Ronnie Reagan negotiated with Iranian terrorists, giving the lie to our oft-stated “never negotiate with terrorists” policy (you remember the Iran-Contra scandal? That.) and thus encouraged decades of terrorist attacks against the USA: because our weak, two-faced actions did not match our tough rhetoric.

Somewhat later, Russia invaded Georgia, and the Bushistas made all manner of blustering, bellicose threats, none of which they could (or did) back up. So the Neo-Soviets in Moscow went right ahead and stole part of a foreign country, and just recently did it again (Crimea) and is currently doing it yet again as this is being written (Eastern Ukraine). Because the West showed that our big talk was just that: all talk, no walk.

And last weekend, a bunch of mouth-breathing domestic terrorists waved their cheap plastic guns at Federal agents, and the Feds showed their bellies and surrendered. Granted, no one wants bloodshed, but this sets a precedent and sends the same message to these un-American “militia” scumbuckets that Reagan sent to Iran, and Bush sent to Russia. And the results are all too likely to be similar.

Because you cannot reason with the unreasonable. Because humans tend to do this time what worked last time. So the treasonous bastard terrorists in America will say to themselves, “threatening to kill Feds worked so well, let’s do it again”.

Short-term appeasement of violent extremists might seem reasonable in a given moment: but it always ends badly. The BLM officials who caved to violent terrorists have emboldened these white, Teabagging, anti-America, strong-argument-for-retroactive-abortion yahoos, and you can bet they will take the same lesson that bullies and terrorists always do. Those stupid f***s.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

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

Obama Recently Ordered Military Action. And We Won. You Never Heard About it, Did You?

Yes, that “weak”, “indecisive”, “mom-jeans-wearing” President of ours just ordered a military strike against Middle-Eastern terrorists.  They kicked some Libyan Rebel butt. And the news media kinda sort reported on it. Here is the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/world/middleeast/libya-oil-tanker.html?_r=0

You’ll notice this went down a week or so ago, when the airwaves were filled with Foxish, Rushish, Rightish bashing-on-the-wimpy-black-Prexy noise; small wonder that this story got minimal coverage. But contrary to the prevailing “wisdom”, our Prexy saw a threat to Libya’s democratically-elected government and ordered a military strike to save said government. Oh, and that is the same Libyan government that “Republicans” accuse Obama of being such a little nancy-boy about (hint: “Benghazi”).

So why didn’t you hear about this? A simple reason: the “news” media is largely controlled by people who hates them some Obama: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6  So, if you heard about this at all, it was a few plaudits to to the SEALS who carried out the attack. In fact, they deserved a lot more and better coverage, as did the rest of the command and control apparatus. And yes, that includes the President, no matter what that great military expert Sarah Palin may have to say about it.

As noted before on this blog, the infotainment machine wouldn’t know real news if it bit them on the ass: http://wp.me/p2jksg-2kb  And this is but another example of that phenomenon. If you’re relying on less than, say, ten or more news sources, you are getting the Mushroom Treatment.

This writer mistrusts the corporate media, so he listens to it, and then checks a load of other sources, including foreign media outlets, and even some of the fringe whacko sites here in the USA. Nothing goes onto this blog without being subjected to the crankiest of analyses: it’s a pity that, say, Fox “News” can’t take the time to do the same.

So, please, Gentle Reader, take a few minutes and stroll around the InterTubes, to see what is going on. That is to say, what ELSE is going on that the bean-counters and Raging Righties in their Tightie Whities don’t want you to know. Today’s example: despite the lies that are being spewed, President Obama is capable of ordering swift, decisive military action (like he also did when he caught Bin Laden).

Good one, Mr. President. Way to give the terrorist scumbuckets one in the eye. Even if (or especially if) hardly anyone gives you credit for it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Ethnic Cleansing in Crimea, already? Yes.

Putin doesn’t waste time, that’s for sure. The new Russian overlords of Crimea are relocating the Tatars, just like they did back in the Soviet era that Vladdy-Boy still pines for. Like it says in the Moscow Times:

Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea will ask Tatars to vacate part of the land where they now live in exchange for new territory elsewhere in the region, a top Crimean government official has said.
The Crimean Tatars, a historic people of the region, were deported en masse to Central Asia by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin 70 years ago. Although many of them returned in the early 1990s, they were unable to reclaim the land they had possessed before their deportation.

Yep, just like in Kosovo, Germany, and colonial America, the people who the government dislikes are being dispossessed of their lands in the name of “social needs”. Russia is openly planning ethnic cleansing. Let’s say it again: RUSSIA IS OPENLY PLANNING ETHNIC CLEANSING.

No doubt all of the American Putinistas will now forswear their allegiance to St. Vladimir of Poot, right?

Oh, hell no. All those useful idiots will continue to deny, obfuscate, and pretend that it isn’t really the same thing as when it was done by, say, the Nazis or the Serbs; because, hey, Putin the shirtless bear-wrestler is doing it. Christ on an ICBM, you f***wits, wake the f***ing f*** up.

Another Trail of Tears is about to occur. Anyone who STILL supports Russia after this is one with the perpetrators of genocide. F*** anyone and everyone who does so.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Note to the West: Stop being stupid.

For example, stop pretending that Putin isn’t an imperialist who is trying to expand Russian hegemony. He doesn’t make any such pretense: “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century.” Given his two (thus far) illegal annexations of previously sovereign nations’ land in Georgia and Ukraine, he clearly meant every word of that statement.

Using illegally-installed cronies and stooges where possible, and the Russian Army where political tricks fail, Russia is expanding itself. Even though extremist loons peddle conspiracy theories of shadowy fascist western cabals, the reality is clear: Putin is taking back the land that Russia “tragically” lost.

While useful idiots over here are playing chorus to this illegal land grab, Russia’s former colonies are doing no such thing: in fact, they are quite reasonably scared s***less and have yelled for help. Lithuania and Latvia have asked for NATO to honor its obligations and protect them from being Russia’s next victims.

It’s seemingly easy for Americans to act all high-and-mighty and indulge in silly political parlor games: Russia isn’t invading us, and isn’t likely to, regardless of whatever movies you might have seen. It seems as if we can afford to be stupid. But the people of Eastern Europe lack that luxury. And the more we fiddle about, bleating our idiotic ideological irrelevancies, the more license we give Russia to reconstruct such parts of the Soviet Union as it wishes to.

But with high Russian state-controlled media officials promising, a’la Khrushchev, to nuke us out of existence, we might well want to rethink our smug assumptions of safety from Russian action. Because we have a former KGB chief in charge of Russia, and he is slowly rebuilding the empire whose loss he so loudly laments. Whether the new Russian imperial structure is Communist, Czarist, or Kleptocratic matters very little to us: the new Russia is NOT planning on being our friend.

We know this because they are not being the friends of our friends. We need to stand with our allies, lest we, like they,  suffer the fate of   Ossetia,  and Crimea. Or worse.

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

Russia, Crimea, the West, and Ukraine: a Parable.

Suppose, Gentle Reader, that your belligerent neighbor finally stops trying to talk you into selling him your property, and does a home invasion with a load of his shady cronies. He points guns at your head (and the heads of your family) and gives you two choices: sell him your land, or lease it to him for now (but he will be in total control of you and your property for the duration of the lease: and you know he’s gonna take it in the end, anyway).

When you say, “no, I don’t like either option, this land is mine and I want to keep it”, your invading neighbor says, “not an option”, and you hear the clicking sound of the safety on his gun being disengaged. That weapon is cocked, a round is in the chamber, and your head is about to go splat, in a very noisy manner. The only person in your family who likes the situation is your estranged daughter, who thinks the neighbor’s thuggish son is hot. So even if the motherf***er shoots you dead, he gets the land.

Thus, the situation in Ukraine writ small. Russia strolled into Crimea with guns, took control of the situation, and presented the populace with a “heads you lose it all now, tails you lose it all later” set of options. A few of the locals like it, most don’t, and some are vehemently opposed; but that gun is pointed at their collective noggin, and they don’t want to die, especially since they are f***ed no matter what.

This parable is accurate so far as it goes, but of course the real-life version is far worse. Putin’s thug cronies have already declared the outcome as a done deal, never mind how the vote turns out. And the other “neighbors” can’t call the “cops” to protect the Ukranian people, even though (or perhaps because) they know they could be next on the chopping block. These poor people are SO f***ed.

That, my friends, is what is going down in Ukraine. And it sucks.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Attention all violent extremists: take your death threats and shove ’em up your kazoos.

Assuming you can get them past your heads, that is.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky got another threat from a Right wingnut yesterday in response to this post. Here is the stupid-f*** blowhard’s idiotic, infantile screed, submitted using someone else’s name and via a bogus AOL account:

One of the main reasons we should not go to war, not only now but anytime soon, is because Obama is an incompetent idiot. In facts, all liberals are incompetent idiots. If North Korea were to row over in canoes and invade the USA, and there’s a Dem/liberal in office, we should just let them do what they want. Anything democrats and libs would want to do would only be another screw up.

Putin is more intelligent than Obama can ever hope to be. At least until 2017, we’re stuck with a prez in office that’s as stupid as that ******idiot at DU, and you can’t get any more stupid than him. In fact, ** better watch his mouth in response to this or he might just wake up one day to find out he’s dead. Got it, jackass? No, I’m not fucking kidding.

Judging from the IP address, this is either Born-Again Bill in a different location, or a kissing cousin of his. And his pathetic diatribe is as good an example of why this blog is needed as any: violent extremism in all of its forms, no matter the reason or cause, is wrong. And my writing promulgates the antithesis of the “reasoning” behind violent, extreme, “revolutionary” people and their organizations.

Radical Centrism is, in large part, the renunciation of murderous means in service of ideologies; both those I agree with, and those with whom I do not agree. Said extremism being exemplified here. This cyber-bullying skidmark on the Tightie-Whities of American Politics, with his stupid and impotent threats and fantasies of murdering anyone who does not agree with him 24/7/365, is well deserving of being flipped off, with a Bronx cheer as accompaniment.

Bullies should never be allowed to succeed, and unlike the kind and gentle practices advocated these days, your humble correspondent is a firm believer in whooping right back on that bully’s ass. This wussy-boy assassin wannabee who cowers behind other peoples’ identities whilst broadcasting ineffectual threats of bodily harm and death is just another bully. And an example of everything that is wrong with America in the modern age.

Instead of promising to kill a writer with whom he disagrees, the needledicked yutz could simply not f***ing read this blog. That is how free speech works: we have the right to speak, and we also have the right to not listen. There is no need to kill someone we don’t agree with: just ignore them. Problem solved, without first-degree murder having been committed.

Of course, the relevant authorities have been alerted, as well as AOL and the individual this toerag was impersonating. Including IP and email addresses and all that jazz. Not that I believe he has the testiclar fortitude to actually carry out his jackass threats, but it’s always a good idea to have the cops on your side when whackos rear their butt-ugly heads.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Putin is a scumbucket. That does NOT mean we should go to war.

Russia is (again) invading a sovereign nation. Just as in Georgia, they sent lots of Russians into part of the Ukraine, and now claim these Russians are in “danger” and in need of “protection” from the other country. A patently transparent way of expanding Russian territory via military force.

And of course, the War Cheerleaders amongst the Right Wingnuts are urging Obama to follow the lead of Bush the Lesser, because, well, maybe sending troops in to stop a motherf***er will work this time. But anyway, freedom. And money for the arms merchants, of course.

Too many Americans (and foreign leaders) think Obama is weak and/or as dumb as the Bushistas, who got played like a violin during the Georgia adventure. If we have seen anything during the current Prexy’s tenure, it is the exact opposite: he is smart and cautious, perhaps too willing to believe in the goodness of others, but not soft. (Anybody who really thinks that Chicago lawyers are wimps hasn’t encountered one.)

We aren’t going to war over Pooty-Pants’ invasion of a foreign country. We aren’t because our Prexy is smart, our Secretary of State is a combat veteran, our nation wouldn’t support it, and the international community still doesn’t trust us after 8 years of Bush II.

In the end, what Putin is doing today is what Shrubya did when he chose to lie us into Iraq. Nobody believes Putin, and it’s not just because he is such a motherf***er; it’s because Putin and Gee Dub are two sides of the same imperialistic coin. And that currency has lost more value than a Mt. Gix Bitcoin, due to Georgia and Iraq.

We did not intervene in Syria, even though their leader is at least as big a scumbucket as Vladimir. Nor have we sent troops to many other motherf***er-owned-and-operated countries. We have other tools that we can use, and sometimes they work better than just randomly counter-invading sovereign nations.

Plus, both Russia and America have proven that starting off by rolling in with tanks and machine-gunning the locals is not a good way to do business. It might seem like a good idea to scumbucket leaders who have big eyes and want a territory to match, but it always ends badly.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

For the Putin-arse-kissers among us:

He is a despicable mass murderer, warmongering, profiteering, homophobic serial invader of sovereign nations, and by all rights should be doing time in a UN prison. Without possibility of parole.

Putin can aid and abet a wanker who fancied himself a tech wiz and become a darling of libertarians on the left and right, and that may charm them into thinking he is a good guy, but the reality is quite different. One calculated act of maskirova does not outweigh the brutal repression , invasions, and perversions of justice for his own benefit. And that isn’t even including the crimes against humanity committed during his KGB days.

A question to any and all Putinistas, Putin apologists , Putin fans, and suchlike: how in the f***ing f*** can you do it? In the face of these atrocities, how can you give aid and comfort to such a monster?

And what does your support for a demon make you? Just a gullible idiot? Or a monster yourself?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky