 |
| Silverfiddle Rant! |
The problem with the Infotainment Media Complex is that it deals in outrage and soundbites for indoctrinated patsies.
Life is complicated and full of contradictions--the world is a complex and confusing place. The issues we face as individuals, as families, societies and as a nation cannot be addressed with soundbites and cartoonish blather.
Here in the Real World
The emotional sorority girl types on the left--who think they are so smart and all that despite the fact they have no real-world experience--have dusted off the Bush-Cheney era chickenhawk "with us or against us" taunts and cleverly turned them back on their former tormenters.
As Rod Dreher observes, the Americans (prog and con) spewing overheated, id-twitch rhetoric (from the comfy confines of western luxury) lack a "Tragic Sense," just like the rightwing warhawks of a generation ago.
Have any of the pontificators--left, right or whatever--ever lived in the real world? Hell, I bet none of them have even been in a fistfight. Have any of them had to deal with difficult or even dangerous people? In the real world, nations and people have to negotiate and compromise with bad people, including predatory landlords, neighborhood bullies, creepy gropers, and the criminals and drug users down the street.
Cable TV as Emotional Therapy
The Progressive blathersphere is jumping around and hooting like rabid shitgibbons over propaganda video of Mike Pompeo's "praise" of Vladimir Putin. Of course, none of the Pavlovian fools bothered to go watch the whole interview.
This simple-minded Two Minutes Hate is an anti-intellectual rape of reason, and it discourages in-depth, frank discussions of the facts before us.
Pompeo's infamous comments came during a 45 minute interview with Harry Kazianis that was conducted before Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine.
Starting at the 13:00 minute mark, Pompeo deprecates and refutes Putin's fanciful atavistic dreams and goes on to make a clear and forceful case for how and why the west must frustrate Putin's military aggression.
Q & A
The infamous "praise" come at the 26 minute mark. The tastemakers driving the leftwing outrage machine purposely omit Kazianis' question that sparked the answer
Kazianis: "Do you consider Vladimir Putin a shrewd or reckless leader overall?"
As we now know, Pompeo commits treason by calling Putin smart and shrewd (He has made similar comments in the past. Vlad's craftiness is no news to intelligence analysts).
A quick logic lesson for the pinheads calling this praise:
1. A thing cannot be two mutually-exclusive things at once. Hot and cold for example.
2. Conversely, a person can be both evil and smart. They are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, stupid evil people usually don't enjoy Vlad's longevity.
If you can't make honest assessments of the threats around you, you cannot safely navigate them. My advice? Don't be a willing patsy. Stay away from the Red Team - Blue Team outrage bullhorns. If you must indulge in Tucker or Colbert, take it with a grain of salt, do your own research and think for yourself.
But SF, political theater requires no critical thought or civic participation. Pablum can be pumped through the airwaves and fiber-optic as modern day bread and circuses....to convince the masses that they have choice, free will and Liberties. It's the perfect opiate....they keep coming back for more.
ReplyDeleteAll the memes say so, and they can't be wrong....
Bravo, SF ...
ReplyDeleteDecontextualization is something you learn in college... although I don't believe that it was meant to be applied to Journalism. Leave it to American elites to hybridize abstract literary theories w/journalism.
ReplyDeleteMost journalism here in the US is activism in disguise
DeleteI think that the masque of disguise has slipped, and all disguise and pretense abandoned.
DeleteBeing one that scrolls a large variety of news and news aggregators, I'm not sure where this "Progressive blathersphere jumping around and hooting like rabid shitgibbons" existed. Oh, I'm sure you can find a few and yeah, some left commentators and pundits jumped on it but it pretty much came and went like most Trump admin Twitter crap has for the past 5 years.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, the news has been dominated by Ukraine and a few other topics but what I saw more was right wing media head exploding over some overhyped left reaction rather than the left's actual reaction. The Washington Examiner for instance writes "Smearing Mike Pompeo", and the list goes on.
But that's an aside. What wasn't said is something that hasn't been said all along- that Putin is a war criminal with no regard to Russian or international law, a murderer of journalists as well as anyone opposing him. He's considered an enemy of his very own people and the most evil man in the world by most western media.
Instead of hearing that, we get this continued admiration of a ruthless dictator. We heard it in January: “He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts. He knows how to use power. We should respect that". We heard “I consider him an elegantly sophisticated counterpart and one who is not reckless but has always done the math.” And Tucker Carson chimes in with: “Why do Democrats want you to hate Putin? Has Putin shipped every middle class job in your town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked your business? Is he teaching your kids to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Does he eat dogs?”
Get it? It's kinda like how "Good Nazis" wasn't so much as the wording (albeit bad enough) but what words weren't used- that Nazis and the KKK are not good people nor are their intentions, that their past did significant harm and their rise should not happen, regardless of how damn smart or savvy they are.
Ronald, thank you for being exhibit a
DeleteSerious question for Ronald:
DeleteDo you think pompeo wants Putin to succeed? Or fail?
Mike Pompeo is an adamant Trump yes man.
DeleteShould I end it there or do you seriously want me to proceed?
Silver asked RJW...
Delete"Serious question for Ronald: Do you think pompeo wants Putin to succeed? Or fail?"
I'll say I believe Pompeo wants Putin to fail. 100%.
So now let me ask you a serious question... or two.
Do you think Trump wants Putin to succeed, or fail?
Succeeding at what, Dave, Putin's "stated" goal of liberating two rebellious Ukrainian provinces, or the American propaganda goal of drawing the entire Ukraine back into the old Soviet fold? Creating two autonomous provinces is sounding pretty good right now... just sayin'.
DeleteThe US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been itching to start a war with Russia over Ukraine since before Biden authorized the 2014 coup in Ukraine.
DeleteListen to Lindsey Graham in 2014...
DeleteTHAT is when those two provinces went into rebellion.
DeleteDave and Ronald, nice deflection.
DeleteYou can't even agree that this was a gross propaganda mischaracterization of Mike pompeo's comments.
Dave, I will answer your question anyway. How in the hell would I know what is going on in Donald Trump's mind? The guy is all over the place. He has spoken quite fondly of Putin, and now laterally he's been saying that Russia must be defeated in Ukraine.
It took a US sponsored coup to set off this Ukrainian Civil War.... the same "spark" that caused Russian troops to take the Crimea.
DeletePlease note that I have restricted this post to Mike pompeo's comments, and the lefts gross mischaracterization of them.
DeleteI would never be so foolish as to mount a defense of Donald Trump's multifarious comments, although I have pointed out where the left has misquoted in this characterized what he said and taken it out of context. If you think about it, that is not even a defense of him, that is pointing out how political enemies lie and distort the comments of others, but then there's nothing new under the sun, and all sides do that.
Obama witheld lethal aid from the Ukraine because he knew that they would use it in the two breakaway provinces under rebellion. Trump "restored" that Ukrainian lethal aide funding.
DeleteErratum- That Lindsey Graham video above was from 2017, not 2014, and is a call for that lethal American aid that Obama had witheld.
DeleteI can't prove the true motives of Trump, Pompeo, and Carson Tucker but a quick look at foreign headlines shows they've become the darlings of the Russian state media.
DeleteTo be generous, perhaps they're just useful idiots. Regardless, they're certainly a real time Putin asset.
...and perhaps you and Joe Biden are just Poroshenko and Zelinsky's useful idiots. Personally, I could care less which Ukrainian oligarch gets to sell Ukrainian gas to Germany.
DeleteYou saying being an asset to the Ukraine government (be it as a useful idiot or otherwise) is a bad thing?
DeleteIf you are a US citizen? Yes.
DeleteNow go file your lobbying papers before they arrest you like they did Paul Manafort.
DeleteRonald, you are a mirror image of the bush Cheney neocon chicken hawks. Just because a foreign adversary is using the words of someone in this country doesn't mean that the person whose words are being used is wrong or is a traitor
DeleteDid I say “just because”? No. Did I call anyone a traitor? No. You’re trying to form your own conclusions by twisting what I said.
DeleteYou claim to strive for an analytical discussion yet want to stick to a script that blames Dems of altering context while refusing to accept any remote concept that Pompeo, Trump, and Carson are not helping matters with their slobbering all over Putin.
And oh, throw Tom Cotton in the lot as we’ll.
"Let the war drums beat unanswered," right Ronnie?
DeleteRonald,
DeleteThe logical conclusion of your comment about people in this country becoming the "darlings of the Russian state media" is that anyone in this nation deviating from the narrative is helping the enemy. Congratulations, you're now Dick Cheney.
And I didn’t say people of this country anything.
DeleteI said: “a quick look at foreign headlines shows they've become the darlings of the Russian state media”.
I said THEY HAVE, not us.
Putin has taken the admiration of Trump et al along with Fox News and right wing media promotions of it to sell as support to the rest of the world.
You’ve gone from full blown denial to just making up anything to suit your “own the Dems” agenda while chastising others for not being apolitical.
Putin.... BOO!
DeleteRonald, you made the argument, own it, and all of its implications.
DeleteSilver and Joe... I'm confused. Silver asks a very simple question regarding Mike Pompeo. I answered it. Directly and the pose the same question back regarding Vladimir Putin.
DeleteJoe then questions the premise of my question and wants the term defined.
That's funny stuff. I mean seriously Joe, why didn't you ask that very question of Silver? If my question was scurrilous, was Silver's too? And if so, why not push back on him when it was originally posed?
Silver, you asked a question, which I answered. How the heck is that a "nice deflection"?
@ Dave: You answered sf's question based upon an assumption you made. And sf's question was specifically directed for Ronald, not me. That why I didn't ask him.
DeleteSilver said... "You can't even agree that this was a gross propaganda mischaracterization of Mike pompeo's comments."
DeleteFirst, I didn't make any comment at all about the "gross propaganda characterization." I chose not to proffer an opinion.
And here's why...
For years many of us left leaning folks have watched as the former admin and FOX News didn't just play fast and loose with the truth, they completely ignored it and even pushed "alternative facts."
All the while, conservative Trump supporting blogs, in fealty to that admin, rarely spoke of "gross propaganda mischaracterization" by those on the right.
You're upset that I have chosen to ignore potential left favoring propaganda. Fair enough, but those are the ground rules conservatives set up.
Here's a good example.
For years conservatives and FOX News railed about the Obama Admin, their lies and media coddlers. You were among them.
Now we come to the Ukraine War. Z at GeeeZ, was apparently surprised to watch Tucker Carlson and find out he was lying about the war. Here's her comment...
"IS ANYBODY WATCHING TUCKER TONIGHT? WHAT THE H IS HE SUGGESTING ABOUT UKRAINE? THAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING? WHO SAID THAT THE NUKE PLANT WAS NEVER IN JEOPARDY AND RADIATION LEVELS DIDN’T RISE A BIT AROUND IT?
PEOPLE WHO ARE ANGRY AT PUTIN FOR DOING THIS ARE WRONG??"
Why she's angry about his lying, I don't know. Carlson has been at it for years. I dare say he engages nightly in "gross propaganda mischaracterizations."
Carlson, the biggest star in the FOX News universe has personally admitted he lies... "I mean, I lie if I’m really cornered or something. I lie"
This is the same Carlson who FOX News defended with the statement that no "reasonable viewer" takes the primetime host Tucker Carlson seriously.
Why was GeeeZ surprised at right wing "gross propaganda mischaracterization" and Carlson lying? Is she an unreasonable viewer? Is she uninformed about what FOX News said about their own host? Is she only concerned with lying when a Dem does it?
Silver, you've always been pretty balanced, except on the issue.
You want us lefties to play along and slam those we generally support. I'd certainly be open to it, and you've read enough of what I've written to know that's true.
But the people who continue to enable the deranged musings [in this case encouraging war between China and Russia] of the former president and who for years looked the other way as the right also engaged in "gross propaganda mischaracterization" are the wrong ones to expect balance.
Dave, you did answer my question. Thank you. No, I would not ask you to slam anyone. I don't like to play those games. I was just pointing out one instance or someone's comments were blown way out of proportion for partisan propaganda purposes. Of course, both sides do it.
DeleteYes, I focus on the lying liars on the left. There are plenty of blogs that focus on the lying liars on the right. I hope you do give me some credit in that I do not propagate and echo such propaganda that emanates from the right.
Ronald, do you have a point?
DeleteDo I have a point?
DeleteAre you reading the same thread I am? Let's review what's in black and white.
You asked if I thought Pompeo wanted Putin to fail.
I responded:
"Mike Pompeo is an adamant Trump yes man.
Should I end it there or do you seriously want me to proceed?"
You responded by calling that a deflection.
I responded by adding:
"I can't prove the true motives of Trump, Pompeo, and Carson Tucker but a quick look at foreign headlines shows they've become the darlings of the Russian state media.
To be generous, perhaps they're just useful idiots. Regardless, they're certainly a real time Putin asset."
You somewhat went off the rails from there.
But to be a clear as possible, I think Pompeo is simply a Trump loyalist to the bitter end.
Do I think Trump wants Putin to succeed?
Absolutely.
Okay, now I'll ask you. At what? Putin's stated goal that Trump was commenting on (autonomy for 2 provinces where a civil war has raged since 2014)? Or the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee's stated fears of a complete conquest of Ukraine?
DeleteBecause I might agree with you if you said the former, but spit in your face if you said the latter.
DeleteWhy Biden wants to play Zelensky's game now is beyond me. He overplayed his hand with Putin.
DeleteAFter the 2014 coup, NATO membership should have never been on the table.
DeleteCuz the time for THAT was pre-2014.
DeleteEstonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia all joined in 2004. Where was Ukraine?
DeleteRonald, after all your blather, you still have not answered the question:
DeleteDo you think Pompeo wants Putin and Russia to fail? or Succeed?
SF, do words appear differently on your screen than mine?
DeleteIf not, do words translate from your screen to your thought process in some dauphin squeak language unbeknown to me?
I think Pompeo wants what Trump wants and I think Trump wants what Putin wants.
If there was an option here to send images, I'd draw a picture and send it.
In other words, he thinks Trump wants the SSCIs version, even though the SSCI burned him on both Russia- Russia and the Ukraine impeachment. In other words, Trump wants to go to Sand Island, GA, for a 2024 presidential candidate meet and greet this weekend with Lincoln Republicans, Never Trumpers, and (R) leaning megadonors to plot the overthrow of Putin and Russian entry into the neoliberal globalism fold.
DeleteSacrifices must be made. And who better to make them than a bunch of Ukrainian fanatics in return for NATO and EU membership at some future unspecifed date.
DeleteAs Edward Longshanks Biden once said, "send in the Ukrainians, they cost nothing,"
DeleteRonald blathered on, filling the thread with rambling word strings, when all he had to say was, "Yes, I think Pompeo wants Putin to succeed."
DeleteRonald: You need to stop dancing around the ding dong bush and just spit it out.
No, what I need to do is quit trying to communicate with indoctrinated cultists mesmerized by the tune of the right wing piper.
DeleteIf you think I am parroting someone's party line, you need to point out the comments that you think are doing so, and then show us the comments from The pontificator you think I am parroting.
DeleteYou really are stuck in a red team blue team Doom loop Ronald, and it's a shame, because you're smarter than that.
SF, that sanctimonious gaslighting (which is straight out of Propaganda 101 Rule #2: "accuse your opponent of which you are guilty of") is so full of shit that your nickname ought to be Doodoo.
DeleteYour logical truth tables will always equal true because you forbid any conflicting inputs to change the output of the agenda you promote.
How did you respond to my original comment above? By deflecting. How did you respond to my response to your question? By deflecting while accusing me of deflecting. How did you respond to CRT coming from the Sothern Strategy playbook or other politically hot topic items that you promote? By deflecting or just dismissing entirely. Mask were useless and a million dead is an insignificant number because well, you said so so there. 130 of 143 TX GOP refusing to acknowledge the Big Lie was, was, meh. Fauci spent his entire career to lie to us.
And it isn't about finding a few of those that you can counter logically but it goes on and on, thread after thread of you being a Tucker/GatewayPundit mouthpiece rejecting any conflicting arguments, kowtowing to right wing media, and accusing me of being politically bias.
But in fairness, I should have known better as it goes against what I've said since 2016, that you just can't reason with a Trump licker. And while you may say you're not a Trump man, you are a product of the alternate fact world that he has changed the so-called conservative party into.
And spare me your "apolitical me" nonsense. You're a stubborn diehard conservative hack so full of disdain of the Democratic Party that you can't bring yourself to identifying them by their name. And you're certainly not going to concede anything that reflects favorably on them or unfriendly to the right wing spin you abet.
Admit it.
I asked a simple question, and it took 3 days and thousands of words to pull an answer out of you. You should have just said from the beginning that you think Trump and pompeo want Putin to succeed. That would have been an honest straightforward answer from you.
DeleteI haven't deflected, because there's nothing to deflect from. This is about people characterizing or mischaracterizing statements of others, depending on your point of view. That's what this conversation is about. You've been all over the place.
So, since you brought it up, I want you to go find some pontificator that you say I am parroting, and then point out the comments where I pair it that pontificator.
Of course, I can't stand the Democrat party. It is an abomination. I do however, unlike you, look at both sides, and criticize both sides. Did you see up above where I refused to issue a general defense of Donald Trump? I have criticized the hell out of that man on this blog over the years.
I don't know if you need to adjust your meds or what, but you have a very hard time staying on topic, and focusing on the actual words other people in the thread have typed. You end up bringing in all of this outside extraneous stuff, I am not your Tucker Carlson strawman. If you want to argue against people like that, then go to blogs and go to threads where people are arguing about those things. That's not what this thread is about
So, as long as you can rationalize all your delusions, all is well.
ReplyDeleteMote, beam, eye etc.
Twitter, well named as the favorite communication mediun for Twits, has contributed enormously to the "soundbite" mentality and shallow depth of thinking. How much actual information can you communicate in 140 characters? It has taught our generation that issues do not require thought and analysis.
ReplyDeleteAs SF points out, a 45 minute interview is boiled down to a Twitter message reading, "Pompeo loves Putin."
DeleteSilver quoted Rod Dreher... "...the Americans (prog and con) spewing overheated, id-twitch rhetoric (from the comfy confines of western luxury) lack a "Tragic Sense," just like the rightwing warhawks of a generation ago."
ReplyDeleteAnd posted the following... "The emotional sorority girl types on the left--who think they are so smart and all that despite the fact they have no real-world experience--have dusted off the Bush-Cheney era chickenhawk "with us or against us" taunts and cleverly turned them back on their former tormenters."
While being critical of the left today, your words and Dreher's as well, would have more heft had you spoke up when it mattered immediately in the aftermath of 9/11.
"With us or against us" was a huge mistake. Too bad conservatives and libertarians did't speak up about it in 9/11.
When Bill Maher spoke of the bravery of terrorists flying planes into US buildings, he was canceled by conservative patriots, angered by his words. I don't recall many conservatives standing up against the right wing "emotional sorority girl types" protesting Maher back then.
Nor do I recall much sorority girl love for folks like the Dixie Chicks who spoke up against the war in Iraq and were promptly canceled by the mostly right wing country music industry.
You've written in the past that you believe our issues are not confined to one party. Fine. I agree. 100%. But it sounds like revisionist history.
Funny, I spoke up after 9/11 and advised against the Afghanistan invasion. The attack on 9/11 was INTENDED to draw us closer to Osama's mujadadeen and any good strategist knows the proper thing is to NOT DO WANT YOUR ENEMY WANTS YOU TO DO. That is what made the Iraqi invasion the "better move"... although the opportunity to use Iraq as a tool against Iran was completely lost when the US forces failed to back Moqtada al Sadr and his "quietist" mentor Ali al Sistani. We have and had fools for generals.
DeleteDave your argument can be summed up: you did it to us, so it's okay for us to do it to you!
DeleteAlso, I find it dismaying that you display such a disdain for personal growth.
Those words you quoted were all mine, none of it came from Dreher. Also, if you would tamp down your rage a little bit and read, you would see that I am ascribing these things to both sides, they are mirror images of one another.
Bill Maher has a very successful show on cable TV. The chicks are still selling their music and selling out concert venues.
DeleteYes Dave, it was wrong then, and it's wrong now. Glad we can agree
Joe, if as a conservative you stood against the Iraq war, you must have been pretty lonely. But I'm glad you did. Honestly, I found few friends back then from any tribe, right or left, to join me in opposing the war.
DeleteIt wasn't a good time, IMO, for America.
Silver said... "Dave your argument can be summed up: you did it to us, so it's okay for us to do it to you!"
DeleteMy argument can be better summed up as... "It's wrong, no matter who does it."
It's just ingenious that conservatives and right leaning folks are angry that it's happening now to them.
As for Dreher, I thought you were quoting or at least paraphrasing him. Sorry. i didn't mean to mischaracterize you, or him.
And yes, people can grow, but in the Hebrew sense, atonement is needed. How do we make amends for our wrongs? Lee Atwater and David Stockman are good examples of conservatives who saw the error of their ways and publicly admitted they were wrong. Then they both did some work trying to convince their party, the GOP and their followers of the wrongness of their views and campaign shenanigans.
They grew, the atoned for their errors.
I truly respect both those guys. And I lament that I find few ppl like them within left leaning circles.
Dave, I have openly stated many times that I was a proud flag waiver cheering us on to war and Iraq and Afghanistan, I ended up being over there for quite some time.
DeleteI have stated many times that I was wrong and I lament that I didn't critically analyze things. All I can do now is be an ally of the truth. I have said I don't have a tribe. Yes, I am a conservative person, but I really don't fit in with the religious right. I also obviously cannot fit in with the Democrat party as it is currently. I used to be a Democrat. I voted for Al Gore in the Democrat primary.
All I can do now is say I'm not on the Republican side of the Democrats side, I am on the side of truth. As I see it. That is why I appear to be so conflicted about Donald Trump. I liked some things, and I really detest some things about him. That is why I also say I will rarely defend him in a broad sense, because he is so self-contradictory and all over the place, how in the hell do you defend that? That is also what I think of partisan politics. If you argue partisan politics long enough and defend a party, you will end up having to defend the indefensible.
Joe, if as a conservative you stood against the Iraq war, you must have been pretty lonely.
DeleteSorry, I'm not the best writer and I think you misunderstood me. I was FOR the Iraq invasion. I saw it as the perfect/"better" opportunity to take Iran and radical Islam in general O-U-T. The Islamic religion is split into factions, and the Iranian faction's ideology is what started the whole "suicide bomber" craze. It was an opportunity to purge those heretical elements from the Shi'a faction (through the quietism of al Sistani and the clerical superiority of Najaf in Iraq over Qom in Iran) against the Khomeini heresy that encouraged suicide bombers) and the Sunni adaptations of that heresy through certain more radical elements (Syrian use against the US Marine barracks in Beirut and Saudi's on 9/11).
Sorry if I was misunderstood. Mia culpa.
I opposed the 9/11 knee-jerk Afghan adventure. Unlike Iraq, it was not closed-ended (in my mind, anyway).
DeleteIt had "opportunities".
Delete...to kill the original heresy and remove all religiously sanctioned "justification" for suicide bombing.
DeleteThe dominant view of Shia Islam holds that Islamic society should be ruled only by those who are direct descendants of the Prophet's household.
DeleteEnter Moqtada al-Sadr, follower of Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani and Mohamed's Shi'a heir apparent.
An opportunity to smother Khomeini's successors in the cradle of Shi'a Islam.
DeleteThe key to America's "Islamic" problems.
DeleteHe is Iraq's "populist" problem going "mainstream" with America as an enemy instead of a friend (thanks US DoS and DoD bungling).
DeleteBACKGROUND
DeleteThe Left LOVES to argue that Islam was NOT the problem. They were wrong.
DeleteThe Ummah must be united!
Delete….in a COMINTERN-like analogous religious form.
Delete...or course, as forms of totalitarian global domination go, it's probably preferable to neoliberal corporate globalism. The coming computer-enforced "Society of TOTAL Control" that started with crypto isn't all that far off now.
DeleteSF excellent post. Such truth. I love it. I am going to quote you because I do have something to add.
ReplyDeleteQuote:
"The emotional sorority girl types on the left--who think they are so smart and all that despite the fact they have no real-world experience--have dusted off the Bush-Cheney era chickenhawk "with us or against us" taunts and cleverly turned them back on their former tormenters."
I would like to add that Fox News, as I have stated in other comments here is not without fault. Many, not all, but many of the women dress with their bling and cocktail party dresses, excessively long eyelashes and overdone makeup, not and the change from short to long hair in a day with hideous hair extensions is ridiculous coming from a news media that says its not "fake." I understand the idea is to float eye candy before the viewer so they will watch, especially males...BUT that is objectifying women.
The news was never to be a personal commentary, it was never to be a fashion expose, or a cocktail lounge with thighs showing thigh high. The later is fine outside the workplace but it behooves me that FOX does this with many of the younger women, and older, Dana and the Judge do it now. It is crazy. So for me Fox News is no better than CNN in many ways. They are just as fake and definitely not fair and balanced. To be fair and balanced you report the news only, not your news take on it!
I no longer watch. I get my news off reputable internet sites or YouTube sites. Less candy and opine and all news. Sometimes commentary is good, but all news media has gone way too far with it.
*note
DeleteI'm not saying people shouldn't watch cable news shows, or any other shows. I do just wish that people would critically analyze what they are watching and hearing, and realize that 99% of it is propaganda.
DeleteWe sure agree on that! :)
DeleteTo me it's sometimes okay to recognize "genius" in an adversary. If you play chess or even watch football the "other side" is - if they are good - going to counter the side you're on in perhaps unexpected ways that change the way the game is being played. At least you can learn from a loss in chess or football. War has higher stakes.
ReplyDeletePutin planned for a short war. He's getting a long one. He can conscript Dagostanis and Chechens and throw them at Ukraine all day long. He's a Russian ethnonationalist, to him Dagostanis and Chechens are fodder. Pawns. He's going to have to commit his own people, Russians to the cause, and demographically he has less of those to spare.
You can recognize genius. Putin ain't it.
At least he learned the lessons of Grozny. RUS forces could have barreled on in to Kyiv by now. And would have had the same results...this time with international outrage as a door prize.
DeleteI think Vlad showed in the past that he was a genius, brilliant. Nobody could play a bad hand better than him
DeleteI agree with you that it looks like in this case his genius has run out. I hope that he has not gone crazy, I hope that that is just one more ruse he is letting out there to warn us off of taking stronger action
Also, I pray we have serious adults in government not just taking actions because they feel good. We need to take deliberate, well thought out actions.
DeleteI don't need to tell you how important it is to be able to dictate time and place, and to control the pace.
I withhold judgement. We don't have a clue as to Putin's true objectives.
DeletePutin is shrewd. Like my dad used to say never underestimate that man (Putin). My dad disdained Putin because he is of the old regime and former KGB. But he never disrespected or underestimated that man's ability to be evil and cruel. I suggest we do not do that either.
DeleteI have changed my mind about this war for various reasons I plan to write about in a few days, but in the meantime, put nothing past Putin, Zelinsky or our very own government.
If Putin wanted to take Ukraine over, this makes NO sense.
Delete"Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars."
DeleteRussian logistics don't exist
TC, Yup. Reminds me of a similar old truism:
Delete"Armchair generals talk strategy. Real generals talk logistics."
Death comes from above!
Delete...and Uncle Ho's trail beat all of Westmoreland's sophisticated supply chains.
DeleteLearn to forage, me boys!
DeleteThere's alot of contributing factors to Russia's logistical failures. Vehicles in the front of the convoy run out of gas, vehicles in the back try to go off-road around them and get stuck in Ukraine's infamous post-winter mud or their cheap Chinese tires pop from dry rotting dormant pre-invasion. The vehicles in the middle run their engines to keep lights, heat, and radio communications going until they too run out of gas. Searches for spare parts come up empty because Ivan pawned them for vodka money. Add to this the Russian mentality that they can never be wrong - gravity is a conspiracy to make people fall - and the layers of stupid keep piling up. Just waiting for the Stalin style execution of generals for not defying physics with their slogans.
DeleteIt is both frightening and comforting that a nation of sub-68 IQ has nuclear weapons. They'd be dangerous if they could make corruption contagious.
I read something this morning from a former Russian official who now lives in the West and is anti Putin. He said that Russia had embarked on a army modernization, but all of the money was stolen, and that the army is a potemkin army. Nobody had the guts to tell Putin all the money was stolen so they just lied all the way up and down the chain.
DeleteNo one wants to gamble that we can shoot down the few nuclear missiles they can get off the ground without blowing themselves up from neglect and shoddy maintenance. I bet we could.
Delete+1 Silverfiddle
DeletePotemkin army is a very good description
lol! Ignore the Lindy Effect at your own peril, gentlemen, for there are still many anti-fragile aspects to warfare that the lovers of "new" and/or "modern" equipment that 'modern experts' tend to overlook.
DeleteCommunism was a stupid enough idea to try on its own without amplifying the stupid by having Russians attempt it.
DeleteIt took the Chinese to make Communism anti-fragile (w/ the 3 represents).
Delete...for THEY are the ones selling the ropes with which we are hanging ourselves.
DeleteThe Lindy Effect does not overcome the maintenance costs of nuclear weapons, which Russians can't pay.
Delete1931 profile of Soviet diplomat Maxim Litvinov, “The necessary money being given by millionaires, who thereby helped weave the rope from which many of them should hang later on.”
Delete1955 Major George Racey Jordan was quoted as saying, “Lenin wrote, ‘When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.'”
We trade with China because slavery is illegal in America. China will do whatever the master in Bentonville, Arkansas tells them to do.
DeleteNobody has dropped a nuclear weapon since 1945. You might want to ask yourself, "why not?"
DeleteIt could be that no one can bear its cost.
DeleteGodzilla movies.
Delete...but without the burder of logistics wagons, his army could move 20 miles a day by foraging (vs. Austria's logistics heavy 10).
DeleteCharlie's logistic in '68 were a loaded AK-47, a bag of rice, and a bicycle on the trail.
DeleteWhich became fried rice in a napalm strike.
Delete...and the a chain of Pho Restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City starting in '75...
Delete1.5 million dead North Vietnamese are proud of their logistics.
DeletePho is serious. Even the Vietnamese restaurants here in St. Louis flame war each other online about who has the best broth lol
DeletePho Ga is the chicken noodle soup of the gods.
DeleteI love Pho... but then I only add a drop of the hot sauce and a minimal number of sliced jalapeno.
DeleteYou really think this is Putin's "Jimmy Carter, helicopters in the desert' moment?
Delete...cuz I've no clue as to what info coming in about Ukraine means, at this point.
DeleteJoe, I agree. None of us really knows what the hell is going on over there.
DeleteI really do hope that the modernized Russian army is a Potemkin army, and I hope this ends with Vlad hanging naked from a lamppost, but I don't see how you cranians, no matter how staunchly they defend their nation with AK-47s from dugout trenches can resist the Russian army. Putin and his generals will just keep throwing bodies and machinery at them.
I pray there is a way for you crane to win this, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Best guestimates I've seen is it will take Russia 10 years to bring Ukraine to heel. I don't think Russia will have the stamina for that.
DeleteThere's a lot to be said for morale and belief in the mission. Ukrainian forces have it [along with the imperative of defending their homes].....Russian forces...not so much. RUS forces are going to be naturally risk-averse. Nobody wants to die so that Putin can claim the capture of Kyiv.
DeleteBefore the invasion of Ukraine, the Russians had to go to Kazakhstan to stop a rebellion over gas prices. That ain't going away. Bad logistics is one thing. Stretching bad logistics is worse.
Delete"a person can be both evil and smart." Stating the obvious, but well put! Doesn't speak well of our society that it even needs to be said. I've gotten "looks" before for pronouncing Putin smart and shrewd.
ReplyDeleteHere's a great sound bite. Sharyl Atkisson is on the same track. Her "store" items reflect our thinking. https://store.sharylattkisson.com/ My favorite: "I tested + for Critical Thinking" mug.
BAYSIDER