Man. “Pence” seems to overstate his value.
Can we start a petition to rename him to “Mike Farthing?”
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Actually, at least in the US the monied interests (eg, Gates Foundation) are investing quite a lot in efforts raise the level of education, at least in select fields which they view as useful for the labor force. Unfortunately, an awful lot of that is coming in the form of disruption for which there is little supporting evidence, and is a threat to other fields which are equally important (and useful) though maybe less obviously so.
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The crash in 08 was related to government though, or rather a lack of oversight in the financial realm. When Glass- Steagal ended it was a massive boon for banks as a single entity was allowed to do both investment and savings & loan and mixes between the two. Then we have the agencies that were supposed to certify bond ratings and the ultimate game of hot potato. Granted off hand, IIRC the Agencies were private entities, but the fact that a sector had grown that large without oversight just begs to be exploited by corporations. The uncontrolled sale of debt turned into a game of hot potato. There are lots of the things the government could have done to prevent the crash, but didn’t. Which is not to say that the government can make everything better, I’d say it’s not in its best interest to really fix the problems, which is why we need a new generation of governors and congressmen.
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Trump Jr. has already implied that daddy would essentially abdicate the office to Mike “Evil Race Bannon” Pence, while he concentrated on “making America great”, which I guess means playing golf.
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“I never ate that baby. If I ever ate a baby, you better believe I would be great at it.”
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That’s how you transliterate the Ukranian spelling of the place. Russians spell it Kiev. And it is a thing among the more scrupulously correct to use the Ukranian transliteration 'cos, you know. It’s a Ukrainian city and all. You certainly wouldn’t like it if your homeland was called S-SH-A by everyone just because Russians happen to spell it that way. So your common Western spelling is in fact Russian. (This point, I only now see, is made by others. Still true, though).
Second, you do realize that people occasionally disagree with you who aren’t paid for it, right? I swear that I’ve seen more cut-from-the-same-cloth “You are a shill!” comments then I have seen actual shill comments. I guess it is possible this user joined three years ago (only days after you, in fact) to make this one specific pro-Russia post and disappear into the ether but it isn’t… very likely.
I mean if you say I’m a shill—you won’t embarrass both of us by doing so, will you?—how do I defend myself against the charge? Do I ritually condemn Putin for something unsavory he’s done[1]? Do I dox myself?[2] Do I record myself in a non-Russian city holding a current newspaper and a printout of this post? What?
It’s an unanswerable charge, a cheap way to poison the well, and making it is unworthy.
And one quick thing I disagree about: You can hate Yanukovych all you want. He’s an oligarch scumbag as far as I’m concerned, but he wasn’t a Russian puppet. He was properly elected by the Ukrainian people who deserve to have their vote recognized. You can’t claim that people whose policies you don’t like are dictators or puppets or improperly elected when this is in variance with the simple truth of the matter. That makes any accusation you can make on grounds of the illegitimacy of results instantly less credible and it is vitally important to point out when democracy hasn’t been followed.
Also, recall that he initiated the EU thing. He wanted in. He panicked when Russia said that if he entered they couldn’t enjoy the same deals as before (this was 20% tit-for-tat diplomacy, and 80% that maintaining a porous border with a EU member state would mean that Russia would have drawbacks of EU membership and none of the benefits, the biggest risk, of coursed, manufactured goods dumping) which would have caused huge problems especially with gas. Ukrainian forums at the time bandied about something like 20% GDP gone. The Ukrainian economy is heavily integrated with the Russian one, especially in the east because of obvious historic reasons. Anyway, he panicked, withdrew, and chaos began.
He was, however, against NATO membership preferring to be in a treaty with both Russia and NATO as a neutral buffer. This is not a pro-Russian position (compare Belarus) but it isn’t a pro-West one. I think he may have been trying to evolve a foreign policy of his own, as shocking as that seems for Mr. Yolka himself. (Old Ukrainian joke. Now less funny than before.)
He did have some pro-Russian positions but these, from all I can recall and all I can read now, are pro-Russians-in-Ukraine not pro-Russian-Government. Which makes sense. Ukraine has a natural fault line between the east and the west because the population in the East is heavily Russian and is also Russian-speaking. I make the distinction because Yanukovich himself is an Ukrainian whose first language is Russian. It is not uncommon at all, and neither is the opposite situation. His party was the ‘Party of Regions’ which indicated that he had poor support in the capital but was heavily favored among those in the East Ukraine.
Am I defending him? Hell no. He was an oligarchic thug who couldn’t lead his country and helped screw it up. Am I defending Putin? Hell no. He’s your basic strongman whose sole positive trait is that he appears downright saintly if you compare him to the outside perception of America. Why? Recall: your current president claimed the power to kill anyone, anywhere, for secret reason he has no plans to disclose, and with no recourse or legal remedy. He actually did this. And while in America this seems an interesting debate about the limits of executive power and the ethics of preemptive warfare, outside of it this is the cause of stark terror compared to which Putin’s relative lack of random bombing of countries half a world away seems statesmanlike and diplomatic. More people would dislike Putin if you lot raised the bar.
Instead this November you are picking between the Big Orange Thing and someone apparently hell-bent on starting WWIII.
Great.
So if I’m not defending anyone (except possibly m_holloway, only insofar as I don’t plan to judge him on as far as I can make out no evidence at all) why am I making this post? Because facts matter and your sense of political rightness does not absolve you of the need to heed them, I guess.
[1] I think the conduct of the Russian military in the Chechan wars was deplorable and he has command responsibility for that one. Mm… lesseee… I think the Georgian conflict was not justified at the level it was pursued. Protest, I can see. Intervention, even. But that was war and that was too much.
[2] I’d prefer I didn’t.
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Great conversation!
I feel impelled to reply to some of the McCarthyist/Putin baiting,
I am a Canadian living in Toronto. My mothers side goes back 8 generations in Southern Ontario originally form Scotland; my dad’s side goes back 4 generations originally from Ukraine. Politically I’m a lefty, but not a communist, I consider myself a progressive and a truth seeker with a tendency towards libertarianism. I am a carpenter, a writer and a sustainable cities advocate (à la Jane Jacobs) who wants more people places that will better create community - as such I advocate for more bike lanes in Toronto. Crack-head Mayor Rob Ford who you may have heard of, was my great enemy from 2010 to 2014.
The Québec referendums were really close - AND - they were legal votes.
In 1976 the vote in Québec was 49.42% in favour of separation (so we didn’t have to deal with the fact of it); in 1980 the Chretien government upped the anti by introducing the Clarity Act that required a supermajority (2/3rds) in order for a Province to separate (thus putting the whole separation process on a legal footing in modern Canadian law - we were repatriating the Constitution at the time - before 1982 we didn’t have one, the British North America Act was the high law of our land — and it should be noted here that not just Québec was trying to separate, also Alberta was talking about separation at the time); in 1980 the Parti Québécois held another referendum that lost with a vote of 40.44% for separation (actually a sovereignty-association deal where in Quebec would remain in within a deep economic association with Canada, but with a separate federal constitution).
Also of note - we have two official languages in Canada, English and French; which is required on all Federal correspondence.
Fascinating diversity in this thread (and across the diaspora), Trump point makers, Clinton point makers, progressives, libertaians, anarchists, fascists, know-nothings… rock on people!
I’ll respond again if I feel it is necessary. I think that those 3 paragraphs tha I wrote above were my best-yet synthesis of the situation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and the global situation - developments which I have been following VERY closely since November of 2013 (minute by minute in January and February 2014 as they relate to the Ukrainian Putsch. The day of the snipers is very important.)
Also agree with the poster who mentioned alternative news sources like ConsortiumNews. Other keywords are TheIntercept (Glenn Grunwald), John Pilger, The New Cold War by Roger Annis (Canadian).
I’ll stop here.
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The strategy is to get in the news as much as possible, whether it’s good press or it’s bad press, it doesn’t matter. This guy is proving the idea that there’s no such thing as bad press is true. This press has a value and he knows how to milk it.
So just to be fair, Trumps team probably know more about Ukraine than HRCs team. I make Drumpf more right than George S. Crimea was always russian till Khruschev transferred it to ukraine. And the Russians conducted a vote which they won 96% in favour of joining Russia. Trump is a horrible candidate, but if he is in Putin pocket I would elect him to be well briefed on ukraine
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Good points. When it comes to financial regs, they can be stifling or helping keep unscrupulous people in check. Which is why since the financial sector got themselves into the mess, I think they should have gotten themselves out. (No bail outs.) And while I am for oversight in general, I just caution putting too much faith in the gov, as even with clear cut stuff like Madoff it took forever for them to act on it.
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Yeah, the VP is clearly going to be the president in every substantial way, the question is whether something like a meeting of heads of state (where sending the VP from the beginning would be weird) would be something that Trump would want to do for appearance’s sake. I think he’d want to go, it would stroke his ego to be with all those important people. At least until all the other world leaders reached their breaking point in trying to deal with the fuckwit. Then the VP would probably take over in that, too.
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All I see in the first photo is a bunch of babies. Please advise.
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Well, the large orange baby—that’s the one in the middle—is running to be President. The ones on the left and right haven’t yet decided.
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That one in his left arm looks especially pained. The one in his right arm seems confused while trying to hold on to its mother. Nope, no parallels to the 2016 U.S. general election that I can see.
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And neither is happy, has any earthly clue what’s actually going on, and both may burst into tears at any point.
No… not seeing any parallels either.
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ISTR that St Ronnie of the Sacred Ray Gun had some words to say about walls.
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You’ve just described the economy under both Bush Jr. runs and I’m guessing you were happy with it then…so what’s your problem now, sonnyboy?
