putin's amerika

there was a time when a vision of america like this scared the literal jesus into a lotta americans. but under the trump regime, the meaning of being a "red-blooded" conservative has come full circle:

and a new amerika deserves a new capital ...

you too can be a winner

even in the fiercest bear markets, rest assured that our littlest clients always come out a winner:

so crazy it actually worked, redux

thought i might revisit a certain 2018 post:

art:

dr. zola:	schmidt believes he walks in the footsteps of the gods.
col. phillips:	hmph!
dr. zola:	only the world itself will satisfy him.
col. phillips:	you do realize that's nuts, don't you?
dr. zola:	the insanity of the plan is of no consequence.
col. phillips:	and why is that?
dr. zola:	because he can do it!

(tommy lee jones and toby jones in "captain america: the first avenger", 2011)

life:

what was our idea with donald trump?

for four years and two days ... it was necessary to get to everyone in the brain and grab all possible means of mass perception of reality. ensure the victory of donald in the election of the us president. then create a political alliance between the united states, france, russia (and a number of other states) and establish a new world order.

our idea was insane, but realizable.

(konstantin rykov, kremlin social media agent)

the gop finally settle on an impeachment strategy

reliving doonesbury's watergate

only the names have changed ...

original 1973 artwork © g.b. trudeau:

so crazy it actually worked

from putin's top troll at the kremlin ...

what was our idea with donald trump?

for four years and two days ... it was necessary to get to everyone in the brain and grab all possible means of mass perception of reality. ensure the victory of donald in the election of the us president. then create a political alliance between the united states, france, russia (and a number of other states) and establish a new world order.

our idea was insane, but realizable.

(konstantin rykov, kremlin social media agent)

... which proves we are now living in a comic book universe:

dr. zola:	schmidt believes he walks in the footsteps of the gods.
col. phillips:	hmph!
dr. zola:	only the world itself will satisfy him.
col. phillips:	you do realize that's nuts, don't you?
dr. zola:	the insanity of the plan is of no consequence.
col. phillips:	and why is that?
dr. zola:	because he can do it!

(tommy lee jones and toby jones in "captain america: the first avenger", 2011)

the smoking gun?

dominoes revisited

we've been here before, haven't we?

one year in

the trump retirement plan

yes, we have no collusion, part two

washington post:

a few days after the attack, the now-former secretary of state, rex tillerson, called the poisoning "a really egregious act" and linked it "clearly" to russia. by contrast, the president himself has said nothing so definitive. on his twitter account, where he comments regularly on islamist terrorism, he has not mentioned the use of a chemical poison in an english city. nor did he mention it during a telephone conversation with the russian president.

the headline practically writes itself ...

yes, we have no collusion

ripped from the headlines of tomorrow's soon-to-be-not-so-fake news: the name of the one country that the trump crime family™ most definitely has not been guilty of conspiring with:

george on my mind

stephanopoulos:	you’ve now met with president obama many times, at least fifteen meetings and phone calls —
medvedev:	sixteen times.
stephanopoulos:	sixteen, ok, i knew it was fifteen, i wasn’t sure about the sixteenth. ah, what do you make of barack obama the man?
medvedev:	he's a very comfortable partner. it’s very interesting to be with him. the most important thing that distinguishes him from many other people — i won’t name anyone by name — he’s a thinker. he thinks when he speaks.
stephanopoulos:	[laughing] you had somebody in your mind, i think!
medvedev:	obviously i do have someone on my mind, i don’t want to offend anyone.

(hat tip to think progress)

kobayashi morituri

the rest of task force 141 brought in the ACS, allen. two men took down an entire base. i ask much more from you now. yesterday you were a soldier on the front lines, but today, front lines are history. uniforms are relics. the war rages everywhere and there will be casualties. this man makarov is fighting his own war and he has no rules, no boundaries. he doesn't flinch at torture, human trafficking or genocide. he's not loyal to a flag or country or any set of ideals. he trades blood for money. he's your new best friend. you don't wanna know what it's cost already to put you next to him. it will cost you a piece of yourself. it will cost nothing compared to everything you'll save.

that was your mission commander speaking. you're a covert cia operative inserted into a freelance russian terror group.

their plan: kill everyone in a busy moscow airport during broad daylight.

your mission?

for some reason, you're never actually told.

and that's the set-up to the graphic and controversial airport massacre scene in infinity ward's latest first-person shooter call of duty: modern warfare 2.

*** warning: spoiler alert ***

the faint of heart have the option of skipping this mission. those who choose to participate have only two options: to idly watch or to shoot. you may shoot bystanders or you may shoot your teammates.

either way, the scene ends the same. you die.

star trek fans will be reminded of the kobayashi maru scenario:

the infamous starfleet academy test challenges the cadet to rescue a defenseless ship under enemy attack. however, despite the superficial similarities, the airport massacre is no kobayashi.

that's because your mission is not to save innocent lives and/or to stop the terrorists. you're not there to learn how to conquer fear in a no-win situation. you're not there to stare down death and go out a hero.

your mission is to die, so that your corpse can trigger the next world war.

according to the game's story arc, each of the characters you inhabit is only the unwitting pawn of your mission commander, who is ultimately exposed as a traitor. at the end of the airport massacre, the terrorists leave your corpse as evidence of american treachery, which provokes the new ultranationalist government to launch a massive surprise invasion of the U.S.

so the airport scene was made a no-win situation not as a character-building exercise. it's no-win because the game simply can't move forward without it, even if you are allowed to skip it. and unless you enjoy the methodical, withering, loud and joyless mowing of screaming civilians, you might want to.

georgia on her mind

gibson:	would you favor putting georgia and ukraine in nato?
palin:	ukraine, definitely, yes. yes, and georgia.
gibson:	because putin has said he would not tolerate nato incursion into the caucasus.
palin:	well, you know, the rose revolution, the orange revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, i believe, deserve to be in nato. putin thinks otherwise. obviously, he thinks otherwise, but ...
gibson:	and under the nato treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if russia went into georgia?
palin:	perhaps so. i mean, that is the agreement when you are a nato ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

hmmm ...

i have one question — among many, of course — that i wish gibson had asked our would-be lieutenant commander-in-chief:

which american cities are you prepared to lose in defense of georgia? and is wasilla on that list?

why is this even a friggin contest ... ?!?

good god, do we really need four more years of this ...

... i was in a conference in germany over the weekend and, uh, uh, president putin of germany gave one of the old cold-war style speeches, uh, as he addressed the conference there ...

psst ... dont tell anna merkel!

now if mr mcgoo had mixed up the leaders of indonesia and micronesia i’d let it slide, but these are g8 members and well-known leading world figures and countries he’s alzheiming here …

so he was either in germany hallucinating listening to putin or he was in russia hallucinating he was in germany!

(h/t oliver willis)

punked by putin

when president bush was asked at the end of today's joint presser with russia's president vladimir putin — in prelude to the weekend g8 summit in st. petersberg, russia — about his "concerns about russian democracy", bush responded:

... i talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and i told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that russia would do the same thing ...

um, nice setup, dubya. his iraq comparison allowed putin to deftly close the session with this quip:

we certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in iraq, i will tell you quite honestly.

heh.

all dubya could do amid the laughter was helplessly blurt: "just wait — !"

but i have a feeling no one, especially putin, will be holding their breath.

man, that vladimir can be a tough act to follow ... especially when you try to pretend iraq isn't an ungovernable disaster.