Marching Into the Weekend

We are roaring into the weekend like a lion. Or will be, once we locate the Advil and the snow shovel...

Comments

[Marlene]

Morning! Oh yeah,it is cold! The roads here are in terrible condition. Around here,the local road crews will post an orange "BUMP" sign if a pothole or frost heave is really bad. The problem is that the roads are one big pothole. The towns have blown thru the plowing/salting/ sanding budgets,road repair gets little priority.

[Sandy the districts lie fallow while the capitol gorges itself daze]

the
districts
lie
fallow
while
the
capitol
gorges
itself

[Old Lurker]

Morning guys!

Has the Crimea changed hands for the umpteenth time yet?

Is Vlad scared yet?

Silly questions, both, I know.

[Miss Marple]

As near as I can tell, OL, the Russians are invading while Obama tells us not to believe our lying eyes.

Total national humiliation of the United States.

[Old Lurker]

MM, where did I see the phrase this morning that it is not an invasion, it is an "uncontested arrival"?

[narciso]

it was a Hot Air link to a CNN report about the State Department guidance,

[narciso]

Sorry Pentagon guidance;

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/28/u-s-assessment-of-crimea-this-isnt-an-invasion-its-an-uncontested-arrival/

[Miss Marple]

OL, That is exactly what they said. "Uncontested arrival."

It sounds like someone getting off a plane without a welcoming committee.

National embarrassment.

Those idiots in DC need about 6000 Russian troops camped outside their offices and we would see how they felt about an "uncontested arrival."

[Old Lurker]

Would not that phrase apply to every time Germany has taken France?

Just wondering.

[Miss Marple]

OL, Also the Anschluss and Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Just those unfortunate "uncontested arrivals."

For which my dad was in the army for 5 years.

[henry]

They won't do anything about the uncontested arrivals here except give them free stuff and promise amnesty... why would Crimea be different?

[Miss Marple]

Back during the Arab Spring, I warned Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard and Fox News that it was not what it seemed and to beware of the Muslim Brotherhood. He laughed at me and told me "credible media sources on the ground in Cairo" said it was no such thing. I was listening to Kirsten Powers who had in-laws in Cairo and knew what was coming.

I see yesterday that he is rather surprised the Russians have gone into the Ukraine.

Foreign policy genius that guy.

[Miss Marple]

henry, What an astute observation!

So, eithe the Russians are nothing more than illegal immigrants (preferred Obama vision of the situation) OR the Mexicans are part of an invading army (my idea).

[henry]

MM, the JEF went so far as to arm the Zetas with actual assault weapons... at least some of our uncontested arrivals are an army.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/28/u-s-spies-said-no-invasion-putin-disagreed.html

[Miss Marple]

I sure wish Putin hadn't decided to arrive uncontesdedly this weekend. I have work to do and now I am glued to TV and Twitter!

[Jim Eagle]

On the prior thread narc and I have posted sources that indicate the Budapest Memorandum is not an enforceable treaty or agreement but rather a bunch of feel good diplomatic pablum.

[Old Lurker]

Obama would ignore it even if it were a treaty. Which it is not. As JiB says, pablum.

[Threadkiller]

Team Arpaio: Major Media Heavily Involved In Sheriff Joe's Obama Criminal Investigation

http://www.birtherreport.com/2014/02/team-arpaio-major-media-heavily.html

I am very hopeful.

[narciso]

yes, he should have phoned ahead, so we could get dip;

http://inagist.com/all/439529519293419520/

[NKonIPad]

Henry@0:800-- is that you Vlad? You evil genius you. Vlad does want a vassal Cuban state to create havoc to the USA if need be, and to be a general nuissance. And he has a very deep foreign currency reason to keep Venezuela as a weak and inefficient oil producer to keep them from drowning the market. Yes definitely the FSB crew will be hard at work in havana and caracas.

Reminder to self-- don't play anything but penny ante with henry.

[NKonIPad]

JiB-- west london derby on right now.

[Threadkiller]

Local news is reporting on the massive front that is hitting us right now.

They showed a tipped over Vespa and a termite ridden fence on the ground.

I am not kidding.

STORM WATCH!!

[Old Lurker]

NK-Henry(Vlad)...You get the impression we are going to have to start eating at the Children's Table while the grownups handle geopolitics? Seems like just yesterday Carter gave our canal away.

[Account Deleted]

Even if the Budapest Memorandum were shining solid gold, the EUnuchs and the US lack the will and have spent the means on the SkyDragon battle. That's aside from the fact the Ukrainians seem to be struggling over whether dumpster diving will be more profitable in EUtopia or the Greater Eurasian Co-Prosperity Union.

[Captain Hate]

Obama would ignore it even if it were a treaty. Which it is not. As JiB says, pablum.

If Slick signed it, it has to be worthless. Speaking of the red nosed predator, he created the template for the JEF including getting a worthless Repuke, Hagel instead of Bill Cohen, to gut the military as Secretary of Defense.

The Fundamental Transformation he's undertaking has undone everything positive Bush accomplished, including improved relations with India, and now he's undoing Reagan winning the Cold War.

[matt]

Obama has more flexibility in his second term, doesn't he Mr. Putin?

[narciso]

Well it's like the Washngton Conference on Disarmament, we disarmed, the Germans and the Japense didn't.

[narciso]

the Japanese Control faction particularly,

[narciso]

Guess who gets a piece of the action, like Johnny Olla and the boys;

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/03/01/breaking-putin-asks-russian-parliament-for-approval-to-use-military-force-in-ukraine/

[henry]

Typhus is run by Vlad.

Oil, at least the Canadian Menace won't be flooding our markets with cheap oil!

[YATS]

Cue the surprise that the US supports Jihadists imported to Syria, and European neo-nazis to Kiev.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/28/the-swedish-neo-nazis-of-kiev.html

I hope the indigenous activists can save their country from Russkie plutocrats as well as the outside agitators.

[MarkO]

We will be told, "There's nothing to be done." That may be true. Obama has weakened, if not destroyed, all of the defensive structures that would have prevented this.

He is an extremely weak man. A classic bully. Just not that smart.

This is how it will play out in Iran over the nuclear bomb.

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

Did you see where we forgot about another player - Turkey:)

Turkey caught in the Russia-Crimea snowstorm.

[Old Lurker]

Putin is probably saying "Who needs Reagan's Granada when we have bases in Cuba and Venezuela and a canal through Nicaragua?"

[Ignatz]

Chickens, meet roost.

[Old Lurker]

strike "bases in" probably.

[Ignatz]

WeeDavey from the previous thread;

Yeah,how dare the President walk and chew gum at the same time.

Unfortunately that is the upper, Peter Principle limit on Barry's competence, except that all he does is talk and chew gum at the same time.
This seemingly unending debate about whether Barry is not that smart or clever, effective or incompetent, evil or naive seems misdirected.
It is his singular achievement to be all of them simultaneously.....
....and he's a liar.

[Old Lurker]

I suspect Turkey will find Putin cares little about fine print in a 230 year old document. Of course blocking the Bosporus in front the Kempinki Palace Hotel LUN in Istanbul would be great theater.

[Miss Marple]

Updates from Twitter:

UN Security Council envoy told he cannot enter Crimea. So he went to Geneva.

Russia has recalled its US ambassador. (By the way, what incompetent do we have in Moscow?)

[NKonIPad]

Tk/Ignatz and other californians. Congrats on the storms coming through. You have a long way to go, but moisture for the ground is good.

[Old Lurker]

I posted the LUN at 10:51 simply because that photo looks to be from the balcony of the room we had when we stayed there a few years back. It brought back nice memories.

History did not start in 2008 did it?

[Miss Marple]

EU foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday.

[Captain Hate]

Michael A. McFaul is the ambassador to the Russian Union. I know nothing about him other than he was a prof at Stanford.

[Old Lurker]

That'll show him, MM.

[NKonIPad]

The Washington Naval Conference -- wasn't that when The IJN laid down the keel for the Yamato?

[Thomas Collins]

http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-allow-putin-military-ukraine-152934357.html

Looks as if the Russian legislature's vote for war against Ukraine was also uncontested. I'll bet the Ukes wish they had held onto those nukes now.

[Miss Marple]

OL, yes. The EU foreign ministers don't even intimidate me!

I am watching this train wreck on Twitter. The Ukrainians are begging for help from the West, which is quite sad.

It is unfortunate that our media covered so much for Obama. Those of us who paid attention and knew they were in his corner were nervous abou his presidency from the start. If they had come to me for advice, I would have told Ukraine to keep their heads down until Obama was gone, as nothing is going to happen that will help them.

[YATS]

We are all Ukranians.

" Based on those surveyed, inequality is ‘impacting social stability within countries and threatening security on a global scale.’ Oxfam shares its analysis, and wants to see the 2014 World Economic Forum make the commitments needed to counter the growing tide of inequality.

Some economic inequality is essential to drive growth and progress, rewarding those with talent, hard earned skills, and the ambition to innovate and take entrepreneurial risks. However, the extreme levels of wealth concentration occurring today threaten to exclude hundreds of millions of people from realizing the benefits of their talents and hard work."

http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-summ-en.pdf

[Captain Hate]

Can we start calling it the Soviet Union again?

[Ignatz]

I assume we will see Putin's 2008 ramblin wreck from Georgia tech strategy as he effectively annexes that portion of the Ukraine he wants and emasculates what he doesn't steal.

[Old Lurker]

Do you think they noticed that of the two naval ships we sent to the Black Sea during the Olympics, one ran aground?

Shaking in their boots, they are.

[Miss Marple]

UN Security Council to meet at 2PM today to discuss Ukraine.

[Captain Hate]

It is unfortunate that our media covered so much for Obama. Those of us who paid attention and knew they were in his corner were nervous abou his presidency from the start. If they had come to me for advice, I would have told Ukraine to keep their heads down until Obama was gone, as nothing is going to happen that will help them.

Welp there was always the chance that they'd be dealing with Jeb Bush who would be just like his old man and urge them not to do anything rash after Reagan gave them the green light for freedom. So it's not like the Vichy Repukes can be counted on.

[Old Lurker]

OK, NOW they're scared MM.

Brussels, Geneva AND the UN?

Gasp.

[NKonIPad]

As someone pointed outabove now we know what 'reset' and 'more flexibility' mean. Applying the Scientific Method' to the Obama reign proves the hypothesisthat it is far easier to destroy than build. Obummer is incompetent, but it is so easy to destroy.

[Captain Hate]

Do you think they noticed that of the two naval ships we sent to the Black Sea during the Olympics, one ran aground?

It's like helicopters crashing in the Iranian desert v2.0

[Miss Marple]

Captain Hate, right you are.

It's also like Carter being shocked, shocked that the Soviets went into Afghanistan.

Even my dem sister was appalled. She told me everyone in the country knew the Russians were sneaky and aggressive except Carter!

[Threadkiller]

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers in California deflected a Republican resolution on Thursday calling for the expulsion of a state senator who was convicted of eight felonies, a move Republicans say was aimed at preserving Democrats' two-thirds majority.

Democratic State Senator Roderick Wright, who represents parts of Los Angeles and the suburb of Inglewood, was convicted last month of voter fraud and perjury after prosecutors said he did not physically live in the district he represented.

Earlier this week, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg granted him a paid leave of absence, saying that although a jury had found Wright guilty, the judge had not yet formally endorsed the verdict...

For the past year, Democrats have controlled both houses of the state legislature as well as the governorship in California, with large "super-majorities" that allow them to raise taxes and take other actions that require a two-thirds vote.

But Democrats could at least temporarily lose two seats in the Senate currently held by Wright and by Ron Calderon, who is under pressure to step down after his recent indictment on corruption charges. Should both lawmakers be unseated, Democrats would be one vote short of a two-thirds majority.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1R02E20140228?irpc=932

The only people to welcome into the GOP are people who are sick of this, but if they are of the makeup to be sick of this they weren't voting for the Dems in the first place.

Tell me about Latinos, Asian professionals, etc. all you want...

[Jane]

This is how it will play out in Iran over the nuclear bomb.

I agree and find it very scary.

I was unaware of the ship running aground. Sheesh!

[Jim Eagle]

MM,

Frederick and I are discussing the Ukraine right now because one of our students in his school comes from there. We will come up with more credible action than they will in Geneva, Turtle Bay and Brussels.

[Old Lurker]

"Applying the Scientific Method..."

You trying to start something again NK?

:-)

[Old Lurker]

Two weeks ago, Jane.

[Threadkiller]

Thanks for the water well wishes, NK.

My cistern runneth over. :-)

Did you catch my Mcclintock post?

[Ignatz]

As the world has reacted with absurd socialist and quasi socialist over-regulation over the last five years the concern about and the level of "inequality" has skyrocketed.

Correlation is not causation, unless the theory has already been established by hundreds of years of shackled free markets resulting in riches for the few, poverty for the rest and concentrated power in the hands of the state and its cronies.

But by all means lets apply some more of those leeches and let a little more blood out til we've cured inequality by killing the patient.

--We are all Ukranians.--

Indeed we are. Sevastopol has it Vlad enforcing some equality and the US has its Barry.
Give me single payer and give me death.

[Sandy The Districts Lie Fallow, While The Capitol Gorges Itselfdaze]

(Cross post from previous thread)

Well, JiB,

True, the BM was never ratified, and contains precious little, as you identify, regarding actions to be taken.

In America we can say, "A ha!, never ratified, hence, no treaty..."

But, in the Ukraine, they might see an American President and the British PM signing such a document, as a valid document.

This is the gray area in which all diplomatic activity lives. The mutual parties agree to sign a vaguely worded agreement, that allows all to go home saying "Peace In Our Time!!!"

The trick being, of course, that each country's version of the agreement is in its own language, saying things which are at variance with the other translations. Besides, what the hell is an official translation anyhow?

Law of Rule or Rule of Law?

Think of the recent so-called agreement with Iran. In short, we know that the agreement does not in any measurable sense obligate the Iranians to any changes in behavior.

For who and what was that agreement developed ? YGBSM.

I tell you thins, if I was a country holding some sort of signed document that included the signature of the American President, I'd start to think that what was written on that document wasn't worth the paper it was printed upon.

Now, if I had the sigs of both the USA Prez, and the Brit PM, well, twice times $0.00 =
You got it, ZERO.

Which conincidentally is who we refer to in the Whitehouse, Zero.

Coinkidink? Worthy of Mikey Spillane

[Miss Marple]

Sandy, David Cameron's twitter feed was pushing some sort of apprenticeship contest this morning and nary a word about Ukraine.

I think he is almost as worthless as Obama.

The difference is that at least the British parliament can vote no confidence.

I wonder what UKIP has to say about all of this.

[Sandy The Districts Lie Fallow, While The Capitol Gorges Itselfdaze]

--We are all Ukranians.--

My young teenager Ukrainian eventual grandmother got off the boat in New Jersey in the early 1900s, with an arranged marriage to another Ukrainian boy to take place a few years hence.

My mom married a man who was 50% English and 50% German.

So, when I talk about mongrelhood...

Yes, we are all Ukrainians.

Wasn't that long ago when the world was saying, We're all Americans.

WTFudge happened?

[Old Lurker]

The decision tree and probability analysis is easy for Vlad:

Right now he has Obama, Kerry & Reid. That's 100%.

Next in 2016 he might still have Obama depending on which nut you read. That's 100%.

Or he might have Hillary. That's 100%. OK maybe 99%.

Or he might have a squish GOP. OK score that 75%.

But by then our Military will be a shell and our debt will preclude a Post Carter Reagan style restoration any time soon. So revise that 75% back up to 90%.

Or he might have a grownup GOP but with no military teeth. Back to 75%.

Or he might have a grownup GOP AND a military to back it up. Can't score that one, I just listed it for completeness.

So, leaving it to Hit to do the detailed calculation, it looks to me like the Expected Value of Putin coming out on top exceeds 99%.

[DrJ]

absurd socialist and quasi socialist over-regulation

Speaking of which, I learned yesterday that if any NIH money is used to support a computer network, that that network has to include active porn filtering.

Set aside the detail that I don't know how to do that, who exactly would I be protecting myself against? The cat? I know what everyone else is doing.

[Jim Eagle]

NK,

Chelsea 3 Fulham 0 on a Schurlle hat trick with 20 min to go. 9 pts clear of Man City, who don't play another league game for 2 weeks.

Thought you'd like to know:)

[Sandy The Districts Lie Fallow, While The Capitol Gorges Itselfdaze]

The UKIP doesn't seem to have a defined position on the events in the Ukraine; you might be able to make some inkling out of this, though.

[Old Lurker]

Mrs. DrJ having access to your browsing history is all the screening you need, DrJ. Ask Mrs. OL.

[Ignatz]

Here's a bit of light hearted stuff if things are seeming a little too Munichy 1938 for ya;
You have a chance! 13 hotties who married not so hotties.

[Old Lurker]

Besides, the NIH guys are just jealous that their NSF siblings do porn 24x7 at their desks according to WaPo....

[Jeff Dobbs]

Ig:
You have a chance! 13 hotties who married not so hotties.

I'm not clicking. Am I on that list? I bet I'm on that list.

Oh, I hovered over the url. It's about the Emmys.

So I'm not on that list.

I could totally be on such a list.

[DrJ]

OL,

:) However, we don't share computers at all, or even networks (mostly).

[DrJ]

OL,

Interesting fact about that NSF porn case: I know the fellow who lead the investigation. He had to watch all the porn on the guy's computer as part of it. He said it was pretty boring after about ten minutes.

[Old Lurker]

Well DrJ if you recall that story last week that Sex in DC lasts about 2 minutes, I'm wondering what he did for the next eight?

[Threadkiller]

You must have been thinking about the Enemies list, Hit.

I think I am on that list.

[Ignatz]

My fervent hope and prayer is that "uncontested arrival" goes down in history as Barry's malaise and killer rabbit moment rolled into one.
I know he didn't say it personally but his admin produced it and he has not not retracted or even denounced it.
Neville Chamberlain and George Orwell in close consultation couldn't have come up with anything quite so grand.

[peter]

matt @ 10:18 pure genius.

[peter]

Is it too late to boycott the Olympics?

[Jeff Dobbs]

Please capitalize The Enemies List, TK. It's a formal entity.

[Jim Eagle]

Peter,

Not the Paralympics. They don't start in Sochii until March 7th.

You think Champ is prepared to piss off another sector of Americans?

[rse]

Rosett's piece is nothing we do not recognize, but still nice. http://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/if-you-like-crimea/?singlepage=true

Hubby is half Ukrainian. His grandparents came through Ellis Island around the turn of the century and some clerk anglicized the name. When I am at some diversity program and some taxpayer funded community organizer is spouting about what they are still owed, I recognize they really do not get how many white Americans descended from immigrants who came here AFTER the Civil War. And from places that were far more rough than anything going on in US in the 1890s.

But those would be facts and reality must not be allowed to get in the way of the narrative justifying power and redistribution.

[narciso]

Cameron is the House of Conquistador, the counterpart to the Top Men, yes he's totally useless,

Yes, JiB, that was the reference to the Godfather,

[Old Lurker]

LUN might have been Arlington in Janet's hood, but that it is Texas makes me very sad.

What have we become?

[Ignatz]

Might have already been linked but this guy was fortunate that the whole scene was recorded;
dashboard-cam-catches-cops-in-unbelievable-series-of-lies-that-led-to-mans-false-arrest

[henry]

rse, a similar ugly fact: most whites who were here before the Civil War not only owned no slaves, but actively opposed slavery.

[Frau Haifisch]

Obama assures us the US will *stand* with other nations in support of Ukraine.

Caption contest?

The worst words a foreign country under threat can hear from this WH is,"The US stands with you."

[Ignatz]

Obama fires verbs at Russian tanks.
Heh.

[Miss Marple]

Frau, given that Obama has a long track record of businesses folding after he visits, candidates tanking after his endorsement, it follows that a nation would not want him to "stand" with them.

[NKonIPad]

Verbs... Obummer will escalate to adjectives... And ifVlad persists, Obummer will bring out sarcasm.

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Other inconvenient fact:

Many whites that came over were indentured servants who got their debts and/or passage paid by putting themselves in voluntary slavery to get a chance at a new life.

[Old Lurker]

Henry, and any simple understanding of human history includes the plain fact that one tribe enslaving another is simply the way mankind developed throughout recorded times. Almost without exception.

[Skoot]

LUN is Hillary "...overpromising here on something we know full well.we won't deliver." on the Budapest Memo in 2010:

"The U.S. recognized Ukraine’s unique contribution to nuclear disarmament and reconfirmed that the security assurances, recorded in the Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine of December 5, 1994, remain in effect."

[narciso]

unfortunately they gave this #$@#%#$^ job to the Solon of Scranton;

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/seven-wonders-ukraine-s-revolution_783636.html?page=1

[narciso]

this is the relevant section;

The fifth wonder is how inept the response from Washington was in this crisis. When the first attacks on the barricades on Kiev occurred in early December the Obama White House was busy making plans to attend former South African President Nelson Mandela’s funeral. The job of dealing with Yanukovych was outsourced to Joe Biden, which telegraphed that the situation in Ukraine was a secondary priority at best. Ukrainian friends and colleagues were beyond furious at the “above the fray” aloofness of Obama. “Ronald Reagan would have known how to deal with Yanukovych,” said one close friend, “he would have had him by the balls and screaming for mercy. What do we get out of this White House—one milquetoast declaration after another that the Administration ‘is against violence—kumbaya.’ But not a word about what they are prepared to do to stand up for these people dying on the barricades.”