Checkmate.

Remember when conservatives were gushing about Putin and telling anyone who would listen that they wanted him to be their president? And, that he was playing "chess while president Obama played checkers"?


Well, sadly for my wingnut friends , it seems that Mr. Putin wasn't such a genius after all.


But you have to wonder where all this Putin love came from. Maybe it was seeing him riding bareback on a horse. All that macho imagery. It must have reminded them of their other hero, Ronald Reagan. Or, maybe it was because he was picking fights with their enemy, Barack Obama, and he seemed to be winning at the time. (Seemed to be.)  


Anyway, things haven't been going so well for Vladi of late.


"A funny thing happened on the way to Vladimir Putin running strategic laps around the West. Russia's economy imploded.


The latest news is that Russia's central bank raised interest rates from 10.5 to 17 percent at an emergency 1 a.m. meeting in an attempt to stop the ruble, which is down 50 percent on the year against the dollar, from falling any further. It's a desperate move to save Russia's currency that comes at the cost of sacrificing Russia's economy.


But even that wasn't enough. After a brief rally, the ruble resumed its cliff-diving ways on Tuesday, falling another 14 percent to a low of 80 rubles per dollar. It was 60 rubles per dollar just the day before. The problem is simple. Oil is still falling, and ordinary Russians don't want to hold their money in rubles even if they get paid 17 percent interest to do so. In other words, there's a well-justified panic. So now Russia is left with the double whammy of a collapsing currency and exorbitant interest rates. Checkmate.


It's a classic kind of emerging markets crisis. It's only a small simplification, you see, to say that Russia doesn't so much have an economy as it has an oil exporting business that subsidizes everything else. That's why the combination of more supply from the United States, and less demand from Europe, China, and Japan has hit them particularly hard. Cheaper oil means Russian companies have fewer dollars to turn into rubles, which is just another way of saying that there's less demand for rubles—so its price is falling. It hasn't helped, of course, that sanctions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine have already left Russia short on dollars.


Add it all up, and the ruble has fallen something like 22 percent against the dollar the past month, with 11 percent of that coming on Monday alone. As you can see below, the Russian ruble has fallen even further than the Ukrainian hryvnia or Brent oil has this year. The only asset, and I use that word lightly, that's done worse than the ruble's 50 percent fall is Bitcoin, which is a fake currency that techno-utopians insist is the future we don't know we want.


And this is only going to get worse. Russia, you see, is stuck in an economic catch-22. Its economy needs lower interest rates to push up growth, but its companies need higher interest rates to push up the ruble and make all the dollars they borrowed not worth so much. So, to use a technical term, they're screwed no matter what they do. If they had kept interest rates low, then the ruble would have continued to disintegrate, inflation would have spiked, and big corporations would have defaulted—but at least growth wouldn't have fallen quite so much." [Source]


So maybe he isn't the grandmaster wingnuts perceive him to be. Maybe he exposed his Queen and Obama took it with a checkers move. It wouldn't be the first time. Obama has been beating wingnuts at their own game for eight years.






 

Shameless politics, and get that Negro away from me.

Well this didn't take long. The bodies of those who tragically lost their lives in that Malaysian Air crash in Eastern Ukraine have not been removed from the fields that the poor souls perished in, and already the political vultures are out foaming at the mouth and gnashing their teeth.


They are blaming Barack Obama for this tragedy (not Vladimir Putin) because this is what having a serious case of derangement syndrome can do to you.


From Allen West, to John McCain, they were fighting each other to get in front of a microphone and a camera to take their shots.


"It’s just been cowardly, it’s a cowardly administration that failed to give the Ukrainians weapons with which to defend themselves,” McCain said. 

The former Republican opponent to Obama’s 2008 campaign said these comments after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed into Ukraine, causing the deaths of nearly 300 people. But while rumors surface that Russian separatists were responsible for shooting down the commercial jet, McCain is taking aim at the president.

“I don’t understand this president,” McCain said Thursday on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “The crisis on the border and he did the fundraisers, the fundraisers in New York while there are major major conflicts, not to mention the loss of American lives reported … I do not understand it.”


He added, “This is what we used to call in the military AWOL.”


McCain suggested that if reports prove that Russia was behind the attacks, the United States should “impose the harshest possible sanctions on Vladimir Putin and Russia.” [Source]


They were in rare form.


Forgetting, of course, that their hero, Ronald Reagan, took four days to respond to a similar civilian plane being shot down by the Russians. For the record, Barack Obama took twenty four hours. Can you imagine if Barack Obama had taken four days to respond to this tragedy?


So Reagan didn't want to leave his ranch and Barack Obama doesn't want to cut his fundraisers short.


CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER:"What is the president's reaction? You said what matters is not where he is. He's had no reaction. He's had no reaction to anything that I can tell in the last six months. Look, it isn't as if we're going to go to war with Russia, but we've denied Ukraine lethal weaponry on the grounds that we don't want to escalate the conflict. The rebels and the Russians are killing Ukrainians in large numbers, by shooting them out of the sky. The least the president could do is make a damned decision for once in his life and announce that we are now going to supply lethal weapons to assist the Ukrainians to defend themselves and to complete the offensive that is now going on in Eastern Ukraine to actually destroy the rebel insurgents."


Hmmm, "lethal weapons to assist Ukrainians". Why? So that they can use those "lethal weapons" to achieve their own agenda when they see fit? I don't think so.


One of the truly sad aspects of this tragedy is that some really good and influential people who are actually contributing to humanity lost their lives. The irony is, of course, that the people who contribute nothing and who do more to destroy society by their actions can only offer more vacuous and meaningless commentary while the gown ups seek solutions.


Finally, I have to chase the big R before I sign off tonight.


"Florida man Thomas Thorpe, charged with attempted first-degree murder, appeared in court today to enter in a not guilty plea. But most memorable from his court appearance was Thorpe ranting about the black public defender next to him and how he didn’t want a “Negro standing next to me.”


Thorpe allegedly stabbed someone at a bus stop. In court today, he said, “I pleaded not guilty and I don’t want this Negro standing next to me. I don’t want a Negro standing next to me.”


And it wasn’t just that public defender he objected to, Thorpe refused any defense attorney whatsoever. The judge asked, “Do you understand what an attorney is and what they do?” Thorpe replied, “Yes, they screwed us.” [Source]


You gotta love racists.


Good luck Mr. Thorpe, hopefully you will get the white lawyer you desire. For your sake, though, I just hope that the facts and the evidence are on your side. If not, that "Negro" lawyer will be the least of your problems.


Mr. McCain's pic from itsybitsysteps.com






 


 















 

Their hero.

Does Vladimir Putin have a show on FOX yet? Man they sure love that dude over there. More than their own president. In fact, conservatives in general have a love affair with the guy. He must remind them of their god: Sir Ronnie of Reagan.


Someone ought to tell them that the guy is nuts. But who am I kidding? That will only make them like him even more. I mean Ronnie had mental issues as well.


Honestly, they deserve each other.


Finally, it's time to attack black.


If you are a "man (or woman) of the cloth" who happens to truly believe in the word, what do you do with folks like Kenyan pastor, Rev. Njohi?


"Kenyan pastor Rev. Njohi has raised not only a few eyebrows but red flags with his unorthodox suggestion of having his female congregants remove their bras and underwear before coming to church, so that Christ can freely enter their bodies with his spirit, according to The Kenyan Daily Post.


Njohi, who is the pastor of the Lord’s Propeller Redemption Church in Kenya, reportedly refers to undergarments as “ungodly.” The bible-toting minister called together a meeting with church officials and allegedly discussed banning the under garments because people “need to be free in body and spirit in order to receive Christ.”


After warning his female congregants about the evils of skivvies, the God-fearing pastor spoke of the damnation they will suffer if they dare not to go bare underneath.


In true fashion, the church’s female population reportedly did come to church sans their undies, the Post reports, in order to prepare for their spiritual taking." [Source]


Just sick I tell you.


But as sick as these practices are, the actions of the folks running the Kentucky Baptist Convention might be just as disgusting.   


"In an effort its spokesman has described as "outreach to rednecks," the Kentucky Baptist Convention is leading "Second Amendment Celebrations," where churches around the state give away guns as door prizes to lure in the unchurched in hopes of converting them to Christ.


As many as 1,000 people are expected at the next one, on Thursday at Lone Oak Baptist Church in Paducah, where they will be given a free steak dinner and the chance to win one of 25 handguns, long guns and shotguns.


The goal is to "point people to Christ," the church says in a flier. Chuck McAlister, an ex-pastor, master storyteller and former Outdoor Channel hunting show host who presides at the events as the Kentucky Baptist Convention's team leader for evangelism, said 1,678 men made "professions of faith" at about 50 such events last year, most in Kentucky.


In Louisville, he said, more than 500 people showed up on a snowy January day for a gun giveaway at Highview Baptist Church, and 61 made decisions to seek salvation".[Source]


 

Hawkish on Russia.

Lots of hills and trees where I live, so this snow has me chilling at home today. I honestly don't feel like digging my way out of it. Old Man Winter I give up; you win this year.




Anyway, I caught just a little of the Oscars last night, and it was nice to see the beautiful and classy Lupita Nyongo  win the statue for best supporting actress for her acting in Twelve Years A Slave. (Shout out to my man John Ridley for winning a statue for that movie as well.) Maybe "the times they are a changing."




I am still trying to figure why these very wealthy people get free clothes from very expensive designers, and gift bags with over $80,000.00 worth of goodies.


Anyway, enough about fun and games in Tinseltown , there are serious things happening in other parts of the world. Vladimir Putin is still flexing his muscle in the Ukraine region and, so far, America and her allies in Europe are still trying to figure out what to do with Russia's version of Ronnie Reagan.


I know that John Kerry says that "all options are on the table", but the White House knows that realistically economic sanctions and kicking Mother Russia out of the G8-- which would really piss off Vladi-- is the only way to go. I like that idea. Go after Russian money and try to get European and American banks to cut off the pipeline to all that money from the uber rich Russian oligarchs.
Also, get more Europeans involved and engaged. It's their corner of the world, and they better get their butts in gear to try and protect it. Vladi might be trying to get at Poland next.


Of course the right-wingnuts in Washington, as is to be expected, have all come out to condemn the president and call him weak. They claim that Putin has been playing chess while Obama has been "playing marbles." 


The thing is, though, he is also their president, and America is involved in a very complicated and nuanced foreign crisis in a very volatile part of the world. So hearing senators attack a sitting president during this time was quite stunning to me. The only people whose "eyes are rolling" are those of us who see the right-wingnuts in this country for the lunatics that they really are.


Still, given the type of people we are dealing with, we shouldn't be surprised. They should understand, though, that their language only emboldens people like Vladimir Putin and weakens the perception of America in the world.


People like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio also seem to conveniently forget that W was in the same position as it relates to Putin in 2008 when he invaded Georgia.


But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of the latest right- wing talking points.


“I am deeply concerned that Russia’s ongoing military intervention in Crimea may soon expand to eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, President Obama said that Russia would face ‘costs’ if it intervened militarily in Ukraine. It is now essential for the President to articulate exactly what those costs will be and to take steps urgently to impose them."


McCain and those of his ilk are hoping that he tries to "impose" war, and the rest of us understand that when you deal with a madman, you have to tread very carefully.






     














  

The Neocon's dream is closer to reality.

Vladimir Putin, fresh off of chilling in balmy Sochi, has turned his attention to those rowdy Ukrainians.


He has sent thousands of troops to that country and, from all indication, has launched an all out military invasion against them. (Well, at least in Crimea.)


Of course Vladi isn't like most normal leaders, he actually sent in his troops before he got permission from the Russian parliament.


Now our president here in America is wondering what to do with his counterpart in Russia, who, from day one, has been hell-bent on showing the world that his d*** is bigger than that of the black guy who runs America.


Putin says he is justified because there are Russian citizens in the region who need protecting.


"In connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine, the threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots, and the personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory (in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) ... I submit a proposal on using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine until the normalization of the socio-political situation in the that country,” 


But the Ukrainians say that they have been invaded and their country is being occupied by a foreign army.


Now president Obama has a "cold war" type situation on his hands.


"See Field, you made fun of him, but Mitt was right."


Yes, maybe. But these neocons and right- wingnuts  need to relax with their call for World War Three against Mother Russia and her allies.  A war, of course, which they (or their children) will want no part of actually fighting.
 
Anyway, we all know that these neocons are never right when it comes to such things, so why should we listen to them now?


President Obama called Vladimir Putin today, and from all indication they both made their positions pretty clear and chopped it up for about ninety minutes.
 

"According to the Kremlin, Putin told Obama that Russia reserves the right to defend its interests in the Crimea region and the Russian-speaking people who live there.

"President Obama made clear that Russia's continued violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would negatively impact Russia's standing in the international community," according to a statement released by the White House.

Ukraine, a nation of 45 million people sandwiched between Europe and Russia's southwestern border, has been plunged into chaos since the ouster a week ago of President Viktor Yanukovych following bloody street protests that left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.

Ukraine has faced a deepening schism, with those in the west generally supporting the interim government and its European Union tilt, while many in the east preferring a Ukraine where Russia casts a long shadow." [Source]

I would love to hear that conversation: "Barack, do you have a ruler? Mine is seven inches, what do you have?"

The Fascist and his friends.

This is how one MSNBC contributor feels about the GOP's sudden crush on the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

"Fox News’ Eric Bolling may prefer shirtless, gun-toting Vladimir Putin to the fully-clothed, bike-riding Barack Obama, but according to Rachel Maddow, there’s another reason why conservatives are flocking to the Russian president. On her show Friday night, Maddow revealed that an anti-gay rights group called The World Congress of Families will be hosting their 2014 meeting at the Kremlin in Russia.

As Putin’s 'becoming a hero to literally fascist groups in Europe for him being super anti-gay,' Maddow explained, 'Vladimir Putin, and Russia under Putin are also becoming kind of a north star for anti-gay forces here at home in the United States.” Some on the Christian right are even suggesting that one Russia passed anti-gay laws, “people from the west would begin to emigrate to Russia the same way russians used to emigrate to the United States and Europe. American conservatives should move to Russia.'

But, as Maddow said, those extreme conservatives were 'just ahead of their time.' Following Putin’s scathing op-ed in The New York Times, the rest of the right have chosen him to be their 'new hero.”'

'It is not just the far, far, far right, anti-gay right anymore,' Maddow said. 'It is the right in general. Both in Congress and in the conservative media peanut gallery, who have decided real Americans should show how much they love our country by maybe moving to Russia. Because Vladimir Putin is the kind of strong and decisive leader that we want and we love.'

After playing a montage of conservatives praising Putin this week, she compared it to the “NC-17″-style love they used to feel for Sarah Palin. But unlike Palin, or President Ronald Reagan, Maddow told the right that Putin is “not that into you.”

'Seriously, I know you guys hate President Obama, so it feels good to have a man crush on somebody else,' Maddow concluded, 'but this guy is a president of Russia. Zip it up, you guys, seriously. Have some respect.”' [Source]

And this is how the Russian leader feels about "American exceptionalism"

So does the GOP hate Obama more than they love America? I think they do.

But enough of this geo-politics, I have a fight to watch.

Foreign policy so easy even a "monkey" could do it, and this is no country for old [black] men.

Wow, I guess "the times they are a changing". Now the right has new found love for the Russians and Vladimir Putin is their hero. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend.) Nice. They deserve each other.

Anyway, here is hoping that O rethinks his Syria strike. Forget the poll numbers, forget the neocons and a pliant media, forget the criticism of his seemingly fractured plan when it comes to Syria. If a new compromise (A Russian proposal no less) is what it takes to say no American bombs in the Middle East, well then so be it.

The irony is, of course, that O made a big political miscalculation by asking congress to authorize the use of force in Syria. But I am glad for that mistake, because it's looking more and more like it's not going to happen.

Still, I wouldn't want to be one of O's speechwriters right about now. This was supposed to be his turn to explain to the American people why Bashar Assad was going to catch a beat down for gassing his own people. Now, given the way the world is turning, this is probably not going to happen. That, to me, is a good thing.

Sometimes the Big R wants you to chase, but it is not always wise to bite.

Take for instance Ann Coulter's latest cry for attention. Ann didn't want to be left out of the Syria debate, but rather than give us something of substance, she gives us this:

 "Ann Coulter joined Sean Hannity on Monday night to bash President Obama for a failure of leadership on Syria. Hannity called Obama “confused” and “wimpy,” while Coulter derided the White House for thinking this is a simple Aaron Sorkin monologue away from being solved, adding that she believes Vladimir Putin has made Obama into a “monkey” on Syria.

Hannity found the day’s events “embarrassing” for Obama, while Coulter acknowledged that Kerry’s off-the-cuff comment about Syria handing over their chemical weapons was ver cleverly snatched up by Putin. Hannity was astonished that Putin appears to be the “great peacemaker” in all this, with Coulter saying he’s “looking like a man” while Obama looks week.

She reminded Hannity how much the media (“Obama’s PR crew”) mocked Mitt Romney last year for saying Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” After using the Obama-as-Putin’s-”monkey” line again, Hannity asked her why she’s using that word specifically. Coulter simply insisted that “Putin is playing with him and making him look ridiculous.”

Moving right along and giving chase where the Big R needs chasing; Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

The more I read this story the angrier I get. (h/t Mike)

"When the time came to move 107-year-old Monroe Isadore to a new home, police say he resisted and barricaded himself inside. Authorities tried using a camera to monitor him, along with negotiating tactics, and finally gas to get him to come out.

None of it worked.

So, a SWAT team went inside and was greeted by gunfire, authorities say. The team fired back, and Isadore died.

The weekend confrontation raised a flurry of questions Monday as residents struggled to make sense of how someone known as a pleasant, churchgoing man who was hard of hearing and sometimes carried a cane had died in an explosive confrontation. Did authorities know how old he was? Did they follow proper procedure? Could they have done anything differently?

“It’s just a big puzzle,” said Ivory Perry, who has known Isadore for decades.

The standoff began Saturday, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. Laurie Barlow, 48, of Lonoke, told officers she had gone to the house where Isadore was living temporarily to help him move to a new home. She said Isadore had previously been excited about the move but that when she arrived Isadore barricaded himself in a room.

“Ms. Barlow stated his granddaughter finally got him to open the door and she went around to speak with Mr. Isadore, at that time she stated Mr. Isadore raised his arm and pointed a gun at her and stated `You better stop breaking in to my house,’” the report said.

After police moved Barlow and the granddaughter across the street, Isadore fired at a door moments after police tried to contact him. A SWAT team, called out when negotiations failed, maneuvered a camera into the house to see how Isadore was armed, then stormed inside after deploying gas and a distraction device, the report said. When Isadore fired, the entry team fired back.

Police Sgt. David DeFoor said Monday that Isadore had been living at the home temporarily, but did not go into more detail. The sergeant also said officers may not have been aware of the man’s age.

“The only thing they knew that I’m aware of was that he was older,” DeFoor said." [Source]

Sgt., I am quite sure that they knew something else, and it had nothing to do with his age.