Displaying 601 To 630 Of 3,237 Comments AT LAST! The Sarah Palin Channel……You Betcha! This video has been “played with”. I am NO fan of SP- quite the opposite….BUT whoever did this….slowing down the playback rate whenever she speaks may be making a joke but ONLY if it is presented as such and not as an accurate depiction of the interview. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 30, 2014 @ 5:44 pm Putin’s Ukrainian Gambit is Really Starting to Hurt the Russian Economy Glad to hear about your business initiative and your avocation in the arts. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 31, 2014 @ 3:05 pm Welcome- keep on making your presence felt in your observations on the comment that folks make…you have a git in that. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 30, 2014 @ 6:06 pm The Cold War was a complex series of engagements between a Soviet and a U.S. bloc. The U.S. bloc still exists, although it is far less unified than it used to be and far less dominated by the U.S. The Soviet bloc is gone and it is this that Putin is, in part, seeking to address. The U.S. military presence in Europe is much diminished, even under the GOP this was so as military resources were needed for two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even in matters of economic sanction, without European commitment to them, U.S. unilateral action is going to have low level impact. Add in the growing number of unaligned nations, or nations clustered into new alignments, and the continued presence of China as the other Great Power, and the U.S. vs. Russia meme as the cornerstone of world power politic is outdated. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 30, 2014 @ 8:33 am Not a word here with which I would disagree. This is the other side of the story and worth recalling. Still. It has been 25 years since the events surrounding the dissolution of the USSR, followed by the short lived CIS. Suspicion of Russia remains in place and it has failed to entice former Soviet aligned states into a treaty or association based alliance. Thus the movement toward the EU and NATO is natural, and now even more so as Putin has chosen to set aside the route preferred by Medeved. Why? Well, it was not having much success as the rise of the Western leaning parties in Ukraine demonstrates. But, I suspect that Putin’s approach is also very much about a restoration of Russian preeminence and the recreation of an expanded sphere of influence which mirror, even if only vaguely, the days of the Warsaw Pact. Putin, perhaps as a manifestation of his personality as a “macho man” and his experience as a KGB colonel who founded a party to express reemerging nationalism has looked to the military rather than diplomats or trade negotiators has his primary agents….and that is a great concern. In doing so he has actually made a stronger case for NATO’s expansion and for increased membership in the EU. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 30, 2014 @ 7:46 am I thought I replied to this earlier….I know I read it and I know I framed the response…well, duh! Articles like this one tell me that the PR war still favors Putin. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/putins-position-within-russia-seems-secure-2014-7 Although there is a “free press” in Russia it is very much constrained by a variety of laws carefully written to allow a lot of coercive leeway for the government. Alternative versions of events have a hard time getting through. So, even if the sanctions begin to have an impact further down the socio-economic pyramid, I expect that Putin will remain highly successful in shaping the message in his favor. Someone I know in Eastern Europe tells me that the Russian Media is full of images of Russians standing resolute against the forces of imperial oppression and transgression as it did during the Great Patriotic War, i.e. WWII. Interesting. Just as the Western media is comparing Putin’s efforts as reminiscent of 1938, Russian media is citing the same dates but in reference to Western aggression. Still, I think in the long game your reading on this is correct. Before the real pain that comes with long term sanction materializes undermining Putin’s solid support he will feel the pressure to moderate from his own top level of support. The question is how will he respond. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 30, 2014 @ 7:09 am You might want to read the reply I left for Monica….you could have written it. Right on the mark! The song….lovely, and interesting….. I thought I had replied….this business of hopping around five sites is more than a little confusing. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 29, 2014 @ 8:15 am You are undoubtedly correct that there will be impact across the economy but the brunt of the burden is on those whose wealth is determined by securities and currency trade, exchange, and negotiated value. This approach is certainly better than providing additional arms to Ukraine and vastly better than considering any U.S. personnel involvement. As to the “Eastern bloc”. This term refers to the USSR’s sphere of influence established in the days following WWII when its forces occupied most of Eastern Europe and a good chunk of Central Europe. East Germany Revolts in East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia; Solidarity Movement in Poland; the dissolution of Soviet influence in the 1980’s and the end of the USSR in the 1990’s have made “Eastern Bloc” a meaningless term in today’s Europe. This Map of the European Economic Union tell the tale. With Ukraine and three other former Soviet States in the process of joining the Union and similar developments in expanding NATO membership apparent, Putin’s Duma backed efforts to secure a pro-Russian buffer is understandable (although not acceptable). [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Member_States_of_the_European_Union_%28polar_stereographic_projection%29_EN.svg[/img] It is Russia that is at the heart of this neo-Cold War situation not the U.S. or its allies and associates. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 29, 2014 @ 8:13 am No- it means that another route is being used to undermine his position and given recent Ukrainian regular forces victories in pushing back the Russian back separatists, this approach seems the wisest one to me. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 29, 2014 @ 7:55 am F’d Up: Even so…Why Western Europe Hesitates in its Sanctioning of Russia Money is Power in the day to day world, but when Power is expressed in other forms such as the repression of rights or military aggression we are into a new paradigm. It strikes me that Putin and his Duma allies have one foot in the money camp and one foot in repression/aggression camp. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 2, 2014 @ 6:22 am Curious…you have written a lot about how our leaders have to do what is brave, and difficult, return to a devotion to the constitutional rights at the heart of the Revolution….where do you stand on the action of foreign leader like Putin. I have an image on the front page of Putin as Hitler….do you think that this is an exaggeration or is it an accurate depiction. What should the U.S. and the Western Powers in Europe be doing? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 2, 2014 @ 6:19 am hello there…I take it you have been hyper busy…thank for the pat on the back! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 2, 2014 @ 6:16 am Good point. Nothing like a common enemy to create a sense of unity and promote cooperation. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 1, 2014 @ 4:17 pm Correct. From U.S. News “The past 12 years of “Putinism” orchestrated through a game of presidential and prime ministerial musical chairs between Putin and Dmitry Medvedev is essentially a system that “…depend[s] on the Russian economy growing rapidly enough that most people had rising standards of living and, in exchange, were willing to put up with the existing soft repression.” Putin’s initial liberal economic Land Code, Civil Code reforms coupled with flat income and lower profits tax resulted in rapid growth of real GDP (gross domestic product) and a 50 percent reduction of poverty in Russia. Over the past 12 years, under the Putin and Medvedev machine, Russians have seen their real living standards—i.e. GDP and real income—more than doubled, average salaries increase eightfold from $80 to around $640, and regained much of their pride—hence Putin’s popularity.” Since economic growth has slowed (from 4.2 percent in 2012 to around 3.5 percent in 2012) and Putin’s internal support is waning as the people are pushing back against increased state repression, he now needs an external opposing force—the West—to rally the Russians under him. ======================= This was published in October 2012. Its author is Scheherazade S. Rehman a professor of international finance/business and international affairs at The George Washington University. Prophetic? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 1, 2014 @ 4:12 pm I think so too. Putin’s efforts to relaunch the Russian Empire, as the founder of United Russia which has quickly become the dominant political party, and then as Premier and President flow out of his ideology, his experience as an officer in the KGB, his time with Yeltsin and his macho persona. All of this leads me to agree with your conclusion. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 1, 2014 @ 11:12 am What States Get More Money From The Federal Government? Interesting article and references. The Tax Foundation provides another way of looking at this This illustrates what percentage of a state’s general revenue is made up of federal aid. Mississippi relies more heavily on federal assistance than other states, with 49% of its total general revenue coming from federal aid. Close behind are Louisiana at 46.5% and Arizona at 45.7%. On the other end of the spectrum, Alaska relies on federal aid for only 24% of its general revenue, followed closely by Delaware at 25.9% and North Dakota at 26%. [img]http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/Federal-aid-as-a-percentage-of-state-general-revenue-%28large%29_0.png[/img] Still Texas is so certain of its ability to go it along that sotries like this keep popping up: Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, has filed a bill designed to move $1 billion worth of Texas-owned gold bars from the Federal Reserve in New York to a Texas Bullion Depository. Gov. Rick Perry quickly expressed his support for reclaiming the gold as only a Texan can: We’ll come and take it. “If we own it,” Perry said on a radio program last week, “I will suggest to you that that’s not someone else’s determination whether we can take possession of it back or not Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/24/4724519/what-if-texas-really-did-secede.html#storylink=cpy » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 27, 2014 @ 9:23 pm The Brutal Politics of 10 Year Old Girls’ Softball Teams Remember my e mail about wrestling…..it is actually difficult to make this scheme fit inter-scholastic wrestling. Football…oh, yes indeedy. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 10:18 am Isn’t this grand! Leave it to you to apply the political meme to a kids game…..but, of course, you are correct…..politics is at play, well, in play. Where two or more are gathered in whoevers name, politics is there and political personalities are easy to recognize. David Rosen created this list of political peronalities- I imagine you can find names from your extended team of players, managers, coaches, parents, friends to attach to some of these. I was thinking of my church- they are there too. Or my coop. Or my activist groups. ALL of which are liberal and progressive. A progressive totalitarian. You bet. The Narcissist. Most politicians have at least some narcissism. After all, you have to have a rather inflated image of yourself to believe you deserve power over the lives of others. But the signs of a narcissistic personality are attention-seeking, grandiosity that verges on exhibitionism, and a tendency to scapegoat when things go wrong. Narcissists are extremely convincing liars, and they are the ultimate users – demanding loyalty from others they seldom give in return. They don’t always make the best decisions, but these highly charismatic personalities generally make the best leaders. Examples: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan. The Obsessive Compulsive. These hard-working, conscientious, and ethical personalities are driven by a need for accuracy. Their biographies and professional capabilities usually outshine their personalities. Indeed, their deliberative decision making and love of complexity makes them extraordinarily good at policymaking, but terrible at leading – particularly in a crisis when quick decisions have to be made with limited and often ambiguous information. In addition, obsessive-compulsives typically go to extraordinary lengths to avoid rocking the boat with their actions. Examples: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush. The Machiavellian. Machiavellian personalities are master manipulators. They walk into a room and immediately begin sizing people up to identify their interests and exploit their personality weaknesses for personal and political gain. Machiavellians focus on the game more than the outcomes. These cool and calculating types are not generally burdened by the ethical qualms that keep others up at night. Winning is everything; the rest is negotiable. Examples: Karl Rove, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi. The Authoritarian. Not to be confused with authoritarian social systems or authoritarian beliefs, the authoritarian personality is quintessentially hierarchical. Authoritarians are sycophantic toward superiors, competitive toward peers, and domineering toward subordinates. They value toughness, believe might makes right, and have contempt for mercy. They also tend to be conservative, sexually prudish, rule-oriented and prejudiced – projecting their own flaws and insecurities onto low-status groups. Examples: Bill O’Reilly, Dick Cheney, John McCain. The Paranoid. Secretive and suspicious, paranoid personalities perceive hidden meanings in ordinary things and reject evidence which would disconfirm their conspiratorial intuitions. They harbor doubts about the loyalty of even close confidants, and hold grudges sometimes for decades. Their paranoid fantasies serve an important psychological function: ego inflation. After all, if the world is out to get you, you must be a very important person. The paranoid personality is actually compensation for deep feelings of inferiority, often mixed with anger and resentment. Examples: Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy. The Totalitarian. Totalitarian personalities are extremely rare in electoral politics because they demand absolute obedience from underlings, believe in their own infallibility, and wield power through a combination of awe, terror, and the gullibility of their supporters. The hallmarks of a totalitarian are a cult of personality, the rejection of facts that contradict goals and fanaticism. Examples: Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-il. http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/426587/the-6-political-personality-types.thtml » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 23, 2014 @ 3:23 pm Please read my comment to kes above. Let me add that other in our crowd wondered if the “fear of government” shouldn’t start at home with fear of local policing. Others wondered if all of this was being proposed in anticipation of civil unrest resulting from economic upheaval and dissatisfaction with our government at all levels. When some in the crowd began to push back saying that we do not need to fear our own police, there were plenty of local examples of police over reaction. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 12:23 pm Here is another image from the same presentation: [img]http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-12-05-JohnstonCity.jpg[/img] » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 12:19 pm I used that stat and the points I made in my comment at a public hearing on a plan by our county. This image or one like it captured what they were looking to do in developing a “rapid response” team for our rural county [img]http://motherboard-cdn-assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/6069/1399664785847.jpeg?resize=1000:*&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=90[/img] I asked them to outline what circumstances they imagined would required a force like this. They spoke of massive raids on fortified compounds, large scale hostage situations, massive civil unrest, terror attacks…..I asked what they would do right now in a case like these. They said they would call for backup from the state police and urban units but that our County needed to have its own rapid and heavy response unit so we were not dependent on other. I asked how many times they had called for assistance in the last five years. They said they did not have those tats with them. I did. From local media reports. 3 times in five years. I suspect we will still end up with this stuff because they DO LUV EM OME BIG GUNS and ARMOR….GI JOE, DONCHA KNOW! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 12:16 pm I picked up on the same bit of trivia… Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–8) » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 11:02 am Quis custodiet ipsos custodes Surprisingly within Juvenal’s poem from the Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–8), it refers to the impossibility of enforcing moral behavior on women when the enforcers (custodes) are corruptible. By the 17th century it was being applied to concepts such as tyrannical governments, uncontrollably oppressive dictatorships, and police or judicial corruption and overreach » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 25, 2014 @ 10:58 am Whatever happened to Serve and Protect as the ideal? There are a dozen episodes like this currently before the public. Perhaps there is more to THIS incident or to some of the other incidents than is currently in evidence- but, as a whole these kind of events point to a disturbing pattern…. A mentally ill old woman pummeled by burly officer on the shoulder of a highway; a homeless man shot for not obeying officer instructions 150 feet away; a group of boy scout manhandled for taking photos of border guards; etc. etc. What is to be done? 1) Far too many in uniform are power hungry individuals who get off on having too much power, which leads into them abusing the powers they get when they become a Police officer. Weed out these people in the recruiting process is a good start. Training that emphasizes alternative to violence. Evaluation that reinforces proper conduct in this. 2) There needs to be real accountability. I guarantee there would be a lot less Police misconduct if Police officers had to face real consequences and had to pay large fines.Someone needs to Police the Police.Internal review boards protect police far more than they protect citizens. Prosecutors do the same. Courts, in law suits, are a bit more fair in this. 3) STOP GIVING THEM MORE POWER! The militarization of Police has to stop. Giving an out of control system more power has so much potential to be a disaster. Yes, in rare cases it could help, but most of this military equipment doesn’t belong in the hands of Police, who are already known to abuse their powers. Patrol officer look like SWAT team members in terms of their gear, and their weapons. Here’s a statistic that should get you thinking: 4489 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Iraq war. The number of Americans killed by Police in the last decade is over 5000. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 23, 2014 @ 4:05 pm Cable News Channels Declare, “Sorry, There’s Not Really Any News Today!” You made a VERY Serious point wrapped up in a humorous veneer- hard to do- looks like most folks got it. Remember when Offices of Professional Standards were just presumed to be in place? or when the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists was the core of the profession in the legit press? Remember when equal time was sacred? Now it has to make money or serve the needs of the money suppliers. Back to Hearst- if it bleeds, it leads. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 14, 2014 @ 5:54 pm The punch line: “There was snap polling of the regular viewers of each channel which revealed some interesting results. An average of 28% of viewers said they enjoyed the news-less programming, 18% said they did not enjoy it and ==============Literally a punch line i.e. a punch in the gut========= Much of what shows up on the big three networks and the big three cable satellite channel is worn out news with the same story told over and over again; or it is empty news with the story having no substance devoid of the who, what, when, where, and why important that are at the heart of sound journalism; or it meaningless news that cannot be applied to lives of the listener, viewer for lack of meaningful and honest interpretation; or is is deceptive news that misinforms in service to a particular ideology or commercial interest. THIS IS THE NO NEWS THAT IS BEING DISPENSED EVERY DAY. It is not benign of the type your amusing parody presents. In the real world it is an emptiness with malicious intent. Turn to Link or Al Jazeera or BBC; read McClatchy or Time; spent time at a blog where ideas are presented in context and with substance….and the contrast is striking. I gave you nine stars because the truth that underlies your well done post is for me the deeper message of your narrative. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 14, 2014 @ 3:16 pm The Sunday Funnies to Take a Brief Hiatus Dear Sally, I have, as you know, been e mailing the link to your wonderful, and unique, compendium of the best (and the worst) in editorial cartooning to my political listserv almost from the first. I have 150 or so folks on my list. Nearly all are activists with whom I have worked on campaigns and other political actions. I shared note from some of them and how several actually feature your funnies in their own work. I know that a number of them pass them on to others since I regularly get the link back in a message to a group from one of them. I have been astounded at how complete your effort has been- spanning the globe, spanning the spectrum of opinion, spanning the current event of the day. By it nature, a work like that one does not invite easy replies – I know I read through them religiously (on Sunday, get it) every Sunday. I cut and paste my favorite into a special file. About 2/3 of the time I drop you a “thanks” comment and about 1/2 the time I leave replies with my commentary on a number of your selections. I hope that when you return we can find other ways to assist you, to spread the word on your extraordinary effort and to give you more feedback. You deserve it. Please know that I will thinking of you and your family as you walk cope with a major surgery- physical, emotional, social stress walk hand in hand in such moments. I hope you will let us know how you are doing in whatever way you choose to do this….. P.S. I came across this interesting article on the special place that editorial cartoons have in news reporting. The number of cartoonists has dwindled significantly but publishers continue to note that they connect with readers at a very particular, and often peculiar level, transmitting complex multi-faceted thinking in an image which tends to remain fixed in the mind of the looker maintaining access to an often sophisticated analysis. Your work multiplied that by 100 plus! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 14, 2014 @ 6:10 am Ted Cruz: A Thorn In The Side Of The GOP Establishment anyone who has access to a Vulcan dictionary is a nerd. Reference: The Big Bang Theory. [img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__KJX2vsWUNU/TUgiosYABJI/AAAAAAAAA-c/yj_0pqghoiA/s200/spock-spock-star-trek-smiley-emoticon-000554-large.gif[/img] » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 16, 2014 @ 6:51 am YES and YES Reminds of this: A famous quote from the Vietnam War was a statement attributed to an unnamed U.S. officer by AP correspondent Peter Arnett in his writing about Bến Tre city on 7 February 1968: ‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it’, a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 16, 2014 @ 6:05 am Dif-tor heh smusma, RSGMushek. Am I a nerd or what? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On July 16, 2014 @ 6:03 amComments Posted By MurphTheSurf3
Poland
Hungary
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
Romania
Albania
Yugoslavia
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2012/10/31/putins-russia-wont-achieve-super-power-status
52% claimed they hadn’t noticed any difference.”
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