Slouching Towards Oblivion

Showing posts with label phonies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phonies. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Vampire Politics


Typically, the Republican Way is to run everything on vague hints and innuendo.

Trump gave us at least two instances when he told Zelenskyy all he wanted was the announcement of an investigation, and again in 2020 when he told acting AG, “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen”.

Years before that was the endless "investigations" of Hillary & The E-mails, and Hillary & Benghazi. There was never anything of substance, and Kevin McCarthy came straight out and admitted it was all about driving her approval numbers down.

Now we've got almost exactly the same playbook in action, as dog-ass Republicans try to make us believe Biden is exactly the Crime Family Boss that we all know Trump to be.

Daddy State Awareness


THE BASICS:

  • The Daddy State lies as a means of demonstrating power.
  • The lies have practically nothing to do with the subject of the lies.
  • Lying about everything is a way to condition us - to make us accept the premise that they can do anything they want.

The goal is to dictate reality to us.


THE RULES:

1. Every accusation is a confession.


Raskin rips GOP for not agreeing to open hearing for Hunter Biden

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) ripped his GOP colleagues for rejecting Hunter Biden’s request for an open hearing on Dec. 13, when the president’s son is set to appear for a closed-door deposition.

In a statement Tuesday, Raskin called the GOP move “an epic humiliation” and “a frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it,” referring to the Republicans on his committee.

“Let me get this straight,” Raskin said in his statement. “After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose?”

Raskin’s statement comes after Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, responded on Tuesday to a subpoena from the Oversight committee proposing a public hearing on Dec. 13, instead of the committee’s proposal of a closed-door deposition.

In Lowell’s letter, he wrote that he did not trust the committee to provide an accurate account of closed-door proceedings.

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Lowell wrote in a letter to Comer on Tuesday. “If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings.”

Comer rejected the request Tuesday, saying the committee expects Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on Dec. 13, but that he should have the opportunity to testify in public at a later date.

“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans,” Comer said in a statement.

Raskin argued that Republicans were afraid a public hearing would make clear that House Republicans did not have evidence proving President Biden committed any wrongdoing.

House Republicans have brought public impeachment hearings against Biden in attempts to produce evidence and prove allegations that President Biden is involved in his son’s legal troubles. The first public impeachment hearing, however, came up short, with the GOP key witness admitting there was not yet evidence proving the president committed any impeachable offenses.

“After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in. The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense,” Raskin wrote.

“Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again,” he added.
“What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.”

Other high-profile Democrats echoed this sentiment.

“The reason GOP don’t want a public hearing on Hunter Biden is because @OversightDems have hoisted them by their own petards in every public hearing this year. They’re scared of getting humiliated for not having an actual case (again), so they need to hide,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a post on X.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Today's Punk

Can you say "Stolen Valor"?

I knew you could.



What role is Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov playing in Ukraine war?

Chechen forces deployed in Ukraine appear to be more of a ‘PR initiative’ than military utility, analysts say.

Just two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine was launched, Ramzan Kadyrov, president of Russia’s Chechen Republic, announced his forces were deployed to the battlefield.

Since then, Chechnya’s leader has posted on social media regular updates and videos of Chechen soldiers allegedly participating in military and humanitarian activities on Ukrainian territory.

On March 14, he uploaded a video of himself in a room full of soldiers, saying he was with Chechen forces near the capital, Kyiv. The claim was not independently verified and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he had “no information” about Kadyrov being in Ukraine.

This was not the first time Chechen forces have been deployed to conflicts the Russian army has participated in. They also took part in the 2008 war in Georgia, the first phase of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014-15, and the Syrian war.

Observers, however, say despite their reputation as fierce fighters, Chechen forces sent to Ukraine have not played a significant role on the battlefield. Their presence has been perceived as a public relations exercise, one that reflects both Kadyrov’s own political posturing and the Kremlin’s propaganda needs.

Who is Ramzan Kadyrov?


Kadyrov came to power in 2007, three years after his father, former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated. The two fought in the first Chechen War (1994-96) on the side of pro-independence forces but in the Second Chechen War (1999-2000) switched sides and helped the Russian army defeat them. As a result, Chechnya lost its short-lived independence and became one of the regions of the Russian Federation.

Since coming to power, Kadyrov has stamped out political opposition and curbed human rights and freedoms. He has been accused of ordering torture and extrajudicial killings. A string of assassinations of Russian journalists and human rights activists have been linked to Chechnya, including the killing of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 and Nataliya Estemirova in 2009, both of whom had criticised Kadyrov.A number of his Chechen critics who had sought asylum abroad have also been attacked and some killed, including Sulim Yamadayev, a former Chechen military commander, and Kadyrov’s former bodyguard Umar Israilov.

In 2017, the United States imposed sanctions on the Chechen president over his human rights record. The Treasury Department also linked him to the 2015 assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition leader and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kadyrov’s heavy-handed repression in Chechnya has drawn little reaction from Moscow. According to Russian journalist and political commentator Konstantin von Eggert, this is because of the political arrangement Putin struck with Kadyrov.

“Russia did not win the two Chechen wars. Russia was defeated,” Eggert said. “[There was] an unofficial understanding that Russia is going to finance Chechnya … and is going to leave Chechnya to manage its own affairs in exchange for peace.”

Throughout his 15-year tenure as Chechnya’s president, Kadyrov has presented himself as a guarantor of peace, cracking down on separatists and launching “anti-terrorism” operations. He has also regularly demonstrated his devotion to Putin in his rhetoric and political activity.

“The role of Kadyrov since he became president has been to show loyalty to Putin … and to serve as a boogeyman, a constant threat to Putin’s enemies,” Eggert said.

In return, the Chechen Republic has enjoyed significant subsidies from the Russian federal government, going as high as 87 percent of its budget, which have not been reduced even when austerity measures were imposed in the past.

Federal funds have also regularly gone into the Akhmad Kadyrov Fund, along with mandatory monthly contributions from the salaries of Chechen state and private company employees. The fund, which has been sanctioned by the US Treasury, is seen as Kadyrov’s financial tool and has been used for a variety of personal projects, including allegedly paying Western actors to attend his birthday.

‘Kadyrovtsy’ in Ukraine

The deployment of Chechen troops to Ukraine has been yet another act of loyalty from Kadyrov towards the Kremlin. In his February 26 video, he said: “The president took the right decision and we will carry out his orders under any circumstances.”

Kadyrov has claimed that Chechen volunteers ready to go to Ukraine are in the tens of thousands. A report from Russian state broadcaster RT reported some 12,000 Chechen troops were prepared to deploy to Ukraine, but there has been no confirmation of how many are actually on the ground.

According to Harold Chambers, a North Caucasus analyst, Chechen forces linked to Kadyrov – also known as “Kadyrovtsy” – were part of the convoy that headed to Kyiv and are also in the besieged city Mariupol.

“The Kadyrovtsy in Ukraine have been given conventional objectives (ie, neutralising Ukrainian leadership, counterinsurgency, stopping desertion), while playing a crucial part in Putin’s initial psychological warfare campaign,” Chambers told Al Jazeera.

Although Kadyrov has said Chechen forces are participating in the fighting, the claim has been challenged by Russian-backed separatists and some observers.

In a March 15 post on social media, Igor Girkin, a former commander of Russian-backed separatist forces in Donetsk, said Chechen soldiers had not participated in the fighting in Mariupol. In a March 16 interview, Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok battalion, part of the Donetsk separatist forces, said Chechen soldiers came to Mariupol ill-equipped.

“They showed up all wrapped up, pretty, bearded, dressed up … I looked around – light armoured vehicles. They had no support means,” Khodakovsky said.

Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team, a research collective that uses open-source data to map out Russian military activity, told Al Jazeera he has seen no evidence of Chechen forces participating in fighting.

“They stand behind the front line and do ‘pretty videos’, shouting ‘Akhmat – Strength!’ and ‘Allahu Akbar!’” he said.

Other Chechen forces are in Ukraine that have joined the Ukrainian side. They are part of the Dzhokhar Dudayev and Sheikh Mansur volunteer battalions, which were also engaged in fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014-15. They are made up of Chechens who openly oppose Kadyrov, but according to Chambers, have not directly faced “Kadyrovtsy” on the front line so far.

The Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion is likely deployed to fight in the east, while Sheikh Mansur fighters are part of the forces protecting Kyiv, he said.

‘PR initiative’

Apart from claiming various military successes, Kadyrov has also posted on social media about Chechen soldiers distributing humanitarian aid, which he said had been bought with money from the Akhmad fund.

“There is a clear communication or PR task which is implemented by Chechen troops in Ukraine,” Grigory Shvedov, chief editor of Caucasus-focused Kavkazkiy Uzel media outlet, told Al Jazeera.

In his opinion, the deployment of Chechen forces to Ukraine is a chance for Kadyrov to demonstrate his usefulness after violence and insecurity in the North Caucasus declined in recent years, and the large subsidies Chechnya receives from the federal budget started to appear unjustified.

This comes as sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of the invasion are putting a significant strain on its federal budget and may undermine its ability to distribute funding to regional governments, including the Chechen one.

Kadyrov’s strategy of demonstrating loyalty and enthusiasm for the war seems to be working, particularly as reports have emerged that parts of the Russian political establishment and economic elite have opposed the invasion.

On March 16, during a meeting to discuss economic support for Russia’s federal regions, which Kadyrov attended along with other regional heads, Putin turned and thanked him for his service, adding “say hello to your guys”.

“This shows that this PR is not only a [Chechen] initiative, but something which is demanded from the highest level,” Shvedov said.

Apart from using Kadyrov’s communications tactics in the effort to win the information war at home and abroad, the Kremlin may soon resort to some of his other political strategies. According to Shvedov, the war in Ukraine is likely to increase the need for oppressive social control in Russia.

“The Chechenisation of Russian society after this tragedy in Ukraine will only increase. And it is not only repression itself, but also the use of power to build legitimacy,” he said. “We are already seeing [this] and the only question is how far it would go.”

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Phony-ass POTUS

I don't know all that much about it, but this body language doesn't exactly scream "Church-Goer" to me.


@aravosis

Monday, June 22, 2015

Today's Term Coining

"Trumpkins"

A very special thanks to National Review (yeah, I know - seems a little weird coming from me, eh?)
“But he speaks his mind!” shout the Trumpkins. Indeed, he does, in a practically stream-of-consciousness fashion: His announcement speech was like Finnegans Wake as reimagined by an unlettered person with a short attention span. The value of speaking one’s mind depends heavily on the mind in question, and Trump’s is second-rate. “He’s the candidate who will take the fight to Hillary!” protest the Trumpkins. Maybe, maybe not: He is on record as a supporter of Herself, and he’s not on record as a presidential candidate, having not bothered to file the FEC paperwork making his candidacy official. “He’ll build a wall on the border and make the Mexicans pay for it!” Unlikely, but even if he did, half of illegal immigrants arrive not on the banks of the Rio Grande but in the airports. Trumpkins: “He’ll show the political elites who’s boss!” They already know, because they already own him: You don’t get into Trump’s game without being a creature of the ruling class. Neither casino licenses nor Manhattan building permits find their way into the hands of the unconnected, in this case the heir to — not the creator of — a New York City real-estate empire.
--and--
Trump may be made out of cookie dough — he has a lot more in common with Paris Hilton than with Henry Ford — but he plays an iron man on television, and a certain sort of man — forgive me for pointing this out — finds the theatrical preening of Trump’s alpha-male act erotically compelling. (Properly understood, The Apprentice and its ilk constitute a subgenre of pornography.) That is not entirely surprising: We live in an age of economic insecurity, and it is attractive to imagine having Trump’s wealth and confidence, even if neither of those rests on as sure a foundation as Trump would have us believe. It’s better to be the boss — to be the man who says, “You’re fired!” — than the man who has to go home emasculated and face his wife’s disappointment.
I would normally have to take the National Review calling Trump a blowhard phony and make the connection for myself regarding what they must be implying about anybody who believes what Trump is saying - but they've left very little room for doubt on that one this time.  So...thanks, guys - uhmm...I'll have to hold off thinking you might make a habit of it for now, but yeah - way to go.  I guess.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Prediction

Repubs continue trying to spin Benghazi into something more than the standard-issue mundane little fuck up that happens in big organizations every day.  This one happened to get 4 of us killed in rather gruesome fashion - and of course that really sucks and I wish we could figure out how to keep that shit from going down - but since when did Americans getting killed in service to their country become so worrisome to Republicans?  They love that shit.

Anyway, the point here is not about making trouble for Obama and that should be obvious to everybody outside of the Rube Demographic - the 25% of the GOP's voter base who'll swallow any dick the RNC waves in their face.

They'll do everything they can do to keep it all simmering; and I suspect they'll go on fishing for anything that Winger Media can use to fan the flames during the Mid-Terms, but the strategy is to make trouble for whoever the Dems run in 2016, and the tag line will be a redux from 2000 - "aren't you tired of all the scandal?"

They're betting on Hillary getting that Dem nomination, and since they're taking some real hits on their Do-Nothing-Block-Everything-Stall-For-Time-So-We-Can-Go-On-Doing-Nothing approach to "governance", recalling "The Scandal Fatigue" is about all they've got.

You know I'm right.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Welfare Cowboy

Cliven Bundy is a deadbeat who can either pay us what he owes us for the use of our land, or he can get off our land.  There are no free rides here.  Pay up or get out.


Some truly amazing things:
--The absolute certainty that Bundy's the victim of a ruthless tyrannical government, and not just some dipwad running a scam at the expense of taxpayers - which includes every last one of his "supporters".

--The cool disregard for the lives of the women and children who they expect to die first.

--The simple fact that they're convinced Da Gubmint will kill women and children no matter what.  Because if it happens, then they can crow about how they were right all along.  It's not much of a stretch for me to think they don't just expect it, and they're not just hoping for it; they're doing what it takes to make it happen.

So if you're trying to get people killed because it'll make you look good on TV; how the fuck does that make you the good guys?

These people have no soul and no honor.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Today's Seer

I really do try not to be too dismissive of most people's heart-felt beliefs (yeah, I know - that one prob'ly seems pretty hard to swallow).  The problem is that when guys like Pat Robertson get to where they're guys like Pat Robertson, it just always seems like they goes right 'round the fuckin' bend.

Notice here - in 2011 - the guy makes predictions with some fairly hard dates attached - even tho' he issues the usual bullshit caveat about how it's risky to do exactly what he ends up doing.



Did you get it?  Right now, we're supposed to be completely broke; creditors banging on the doors of the treasury; unemployment way higher than it is; with strife and turmoil; and and and.

These people are phonies.  Stop giving them money you don't have for something that doesn't exist, and which you don't need in the first fuckin' place.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Can't Say It Better

From Democratic Underground:
I really have to say I think it's great that Fox has taken time to profit off of "honoring" America's veterans during these World Series games, seeing as how Fox News worked so hard to feed so many thousands of soldiers into the meat grinders of Iraq and Afghanistan...again, for profit.

You really want to honor our veterans, Fox? Send Rupert Murdoch and the rest of his henchmen out to home plate, have them get on their knees, and let them beg for forgiveness from the shades of the men and women who can't do something so simple as watch a baseball game because they're dead in wars your network promoted as if they were a fucking game show.

Fuck you sideways, Fox. The only thing you honor is ratings, and I will literally thank God out loud the day Major League Baseball un-fucks itself and finds another network for these great games. The troops deserve far, far better than the saccharine bullshit "honor" Fox is peddling.