Simon: I think we use language differently and our background gives us different expectation about what terms like "the left" and "the right" means. I think it is more accurate insofar this site is concerned that I say I am part of "the center" (aka the cowards) rather than redefine "the left".
Posts by bohm
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491What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
LUHE: Read about Russian politics. Kasparovs book is a good place to start.
Optics about Putin are very important internally in Russia. He has to be seen as a strong man and this image is very well controlled in a number of ways in the propaganda.
It sounds retarded, but it makes sense of many things Putin is doing. For instance, that is why he always leaves leaders waiting for him if at all possible. That is why he has the particular body language he has.
Putin has an ongoing campaign of aggression against the west and he has so far come out on top again and again (paradoxically, that he wagers this campaign is a sign of weakness: he needs victories abroad).
What can be done to stop Putin is to ensure that the consequences of this campaign outweigh the benefits. In other words, he must be made to look weak or risk being made to look weak. That is being accomplished with the sanctions (which he can't do anything about) and by credible threats of losing or being forced into concessions.
If Putin is given Crimea now against lifting sanctions, why not continue with Donbass? Why do anything different in Europe? Because he promised not to? There would be no incentive for him to do so.
This approach, make Putin promise (sort of) something and believe he will keep it, is the approach Bush and in particular Obama took with Putin. In reality, Putin computes the cost/benefits and do what seems best.
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Simon: Just to make the distinction, I did not say returning ISIS terrorists were not dangerous, I meant that ISIS is not insofar as I know actively sending terrorists to the west yet.
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
LUHE:
It is a rather simple point. In popular speech, "the left" and "the right" are two mutually exclusive and exhaustive sets. Within both sets, you find subsets of people. For instance, you find the Nazis within the right and the nut-left SJWs within the left.
I belong to one of those sets, namely "the left". When you are therefore saying "the left <something bad>", that sentences assume whatever follows apply to me.
That is not nice if it does not, in fact, apply to me as a member of the "center-left", but only a subset of the people on the left. Do you see my point?
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Since someone said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, perhaps a change in the way the US deals with Russia is in order? Just a thought.
What do you propose? Lifting sanctions against Russia and hope they will stop the current operations to take Donbass?
I am curious: This opinion you express here is that purely your own or is it based on official studies on Russia/US policy?
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Simon: Well, I disagree with you on Afghanistan because at the time this was where Bin Laden was located and Al Queda had it's headquartered. They even got a choice: Hand over Bin Laden or face the consequences. They choose the consequences.
I must admit I didn't study the Libya conflict closely, so I am not very familiar with the story. From what I know, the story is about how weapons for Libyan rebels made it to Syria?
Can we agree that getting rid of Ghadaffi was a good thing?
Re. ISIS, no, I support vetting of refugees and very harsh punishment for western sympathizers who travel to Syria. I think per default a person who travel to Syria understands he will participate in warcrimes and crimes against humanity and his prison sentence should reflect that.
As I understand the situation, there is little evidence ISIS is sending terrorists to the west to perform acts of terror, because ISIS is still focused on the Kaliphat (I might be wrong). If you got evidence to the contrary I would be interested in seeing it. (I did my reading on ISIS 6 months - 1 year ago and things might have changed).
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Simon:
Re. the travel thing with Trump.
A problem with the media is IMO that they run in news cycles where a few stories are "selected" and then dominate. Usually, these are "easy" stories that are quick to explain and relate to & does not require sending journalists to expensive places: "Trump promised not to go on vacation, is now on his third vacation" is one such story; you got pictures of Trump playing golf, Obama playing golf and every random pundit is an expert.
These "holiday" stories WAS a feature of the Obama presidency in his first term, I can remember that and you can find them if you google... Trump has a ton of angry tweets about it where he promises not to play golf if he is president. Bush, for his part, also got flack because he happened to be more often on "holiday" than Clinton or something
I don't know if there is a media study somewhere comparing how many such stories there was to Bush, Obama and Trump (it is likely too early), but IMO it is just what we can expect. Trump made it a bit harder for himself because his "holiday" stories also contain the angle he promised not to play golf (and here he is...), where he playes golf (at his own private club, thereby earning himself money), that he (so far) has a relatively high-security budget bc of Melania and the many travels and his son rammed up a 90'000 hotel bill on a promotional tour for a Trump hotel. <--- each of these add extra spice and give a pundit something extra to talk about.
I don't know if we can agree on these conclusions:
Every president has some "he travels too much" stories
+ Trumps stories have extra glitter (Extra cost, Eric Trumps promotional tour, on private resort earning Trump org. money, promised not to play golf)
= Trump will get more stories than usual.
IMO this is actually good news for Trump since these travel stories are going to be forgotten in 3 months.
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Simon: That is a critique of Obama that I can agree with.
It is kind of difficult. After 9/11 Afghanistan had to go, but then Iraq also got invaded. I happen to think that a very good case could be made for invading Iraq in 2003 (not involving WMDs), but the instability showed just how unpredictable the removal of a cruel regime could be.
Then came the Arab Spring, Libya collapses, Syria is not looking good and using WMDs in the battlefield and what do you do?
Looking at what happened, harsher action against ISIS early on would IMO have been a good idea (though ISIS was still fairly fringe at the beginning of the conflict), but from what I can read Pentagon did not have a clear idea about what would happen if you supported some given faction in the conflict (rebels or Assad).
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
-
-
bohm
The point is that many on the left (but not you) cannot see that their beliefs need improving and may be part of the problem. They aren't too good at self-awareness and self-criticism. ... the left ... The left ...
If you accept that I don't believe those things, can't you stop boxing me in with the deep end of "the left" which does? Some on the crazy spectrum of "the right" are nazis, but if I started making those kinds of generalizations about you as a member of "the right" that wouldn't be productive or nice.
Answer me this: if it was Obama's and NATO's aim to stop Putin annexing Crimea, they failed. Y/N?
I don't understand the question. You are asking if the first round of sanctions (begun early march) failed to stop the Russian annexation (begun February and planned long before that)?
Since you haven't bothered to read about the sanctions, according to the sources I have read they have brought Russian economy on its knees. That provides real leverage over Putin because many powerful people understand that with Putin gone that will free up a lot of money, and all things considered a weak economy is bound to make life more difficult for Putin.
But let me just understand your position:
You believe that when, say, Russia takes a part of Ukraine and continue aggression for two years the best move is no consequences?
When he attack EU countries infrastructure, no consequences?
when he tries to assassinate a head of state of an EU country, no consequences?
If you believe there should be consequences, what should they be? a harshly worded UN resolution?
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491
What is your opinion of the news media?
by minimus into me they have an agenda and they really don't care about professional journalism.
most are untrustworthy and that's a shame.
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bohm
Simon:
But it's obviously biased when they didn't do this for Obama. Same for vacations - is the coverage factual or meant to give an impression of someone's not doing their job?
CNN report on cost of Obamas inauguation
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/16/news/economy/inauguration_costs/
Washington times complain about expensive vacation:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/15/obama-heads-to-hawaii-for-the-holidays/
BTW, I don't think the security cost is the big deal (well, except it is kind of funny Trump was constantly complaining about Obamas holidays and now here he is...), what is more important is that Trump is using his presidency to bring extra money into his private club.
What I think they should do is to put a bullet point from the President's daily brief at each hole on the golf course. I am sure many would then draw a sigh of relief every time he was headed to Mar a Lago ;-).