Issa Same Old Shit.

So Darryl(sp-2) the Unpleasant is acting out again...this time, turning off Rep. Cummings' mike in a hearing, and cutting off any testimony that would appear to dissent from the Teabilly Tale of Obama-as-Kenyan-Dictator.
To be fair, Dems have done something at least resembling this, too...although, in the first instance, it was in response to an early example of the Obstructionism that the Goptea has now perfected. They(GOP) were mad that they 1. didn't have enough votes to keep the House in Session, and 2. that none of the Dems wanted to hear any more of the same, repeated endlessly.( http://sweetness-light.com/archive/2-flashbacks-dems-cut-off-lights-lock-out-gop?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sweetness-light%2FsURR+%28Sweetness+%26+Light+-+Articles%29#.UxoWlYV0mXl)
Sorry, that's not what is happening, here.
Here, Issa simply doesn't want a fair hearing...which is sort of his Brand, these days.
I'm reminded of a hearing on the Patriot Act, in 05, where Sensenbrenner turned off the lights.(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061002110.html)
Just like today,Dems weren't being dick-heads...they weren't trying to hijack the proceedings.
They just wanted a fair hearing.
The Dem and Repug examples of this behaviour are not Equal.
Issa should be reprimanded.
This is just more of the same nonsense...a “dispute”, between those who think of government as a Necessary Evil, and those who think it's just Evil.(at least those portions of it that they don't like,lol. I've seen no Goptea People calling for an end to the Pentagon, for instance...or to Federal Subsidies for Big Oil.)
That's something I'd like to have a Public Debate about.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/debate)
(How utterly sad, that we must define such terms,lol)
Perhaps a Lincoln-Douglas Style Debate...with ball gags for “some people” who cannot refrain from outbursts during their opponent's time at bat?
(Such Outburst and Interruption are a key and defing feature of the O'Reilly/Hannity Style of Debate. Liberals who dare to appear on those shows should remember to bring water guns to shut the host up, for a moment.)

Crimea in Context.

(off the cuff)
So Ukraine has a sort of Revolution...again....and suddenly the Geopolitical Situation has reverted to Mean (Confusion)...and the Ahistoricity of the American People, and their media and policy institutions is on full display.
Maddow is on it, as usual, with a near comprehensive overview of Ukrainian History, back to 1954, when Krutchev *“gave” Crimea to Ukraine.(* I will unashamedly spell all the Russian names and words wrong)
Rachel is missing a lot of things, though...which I'll get to in a minute.
The Right, however, is still in thrall to hormones, it seems...the Mancrush on Putin(a real Dictator,lol), is on full display. Rudy “911!” Guliani, Marco Rubio, Krathammer, all the usual suspects...falling over themselves to pine for Putinesque “Leadership”. ...saying, essentially, that our President(whom they often accuse of “Dictatorship”, of being a “King”, an “Autocrat”) is a Pussy, because The Shirtless One is a Real Man, and a Real Leader.
Such is American Righty Rhetoric, during the Age of Obama.(sigh)
(Remember, Action over Thought is a hallmark of Protofascism...just saying)
Meanwhile, Ukraine is in turmoil.
Pro European Union vs. ProRussian.
It's confusing, of course, because it's the former Soviet Union.
It appears that this is a continuation of a Ukrainian Civil War/Revolution(see: Euromaidan)...in which many in Ukraine want to further separate from Russian influence, and become, essentially, European(echos, which I'll also get to).
But there's a bunch of others who don't want this, and want to remain a Russian Client.
Crimea is a hotbed of ProRussian sentiment...around 60% of the population of Crimea is Russian...and Russia maintains a warmwater port there, as well as the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, at Sevastopol, and elsewhere in the area.
This has been going on since the collapse of the USSR, in 91-92...but it has historical tendrils reaching back centuries.
Crimea has been basically Russian for a very long time...the Russians claim it, sometimes overtly, sometimes tacitly, as the political situation warrants.
Were I king of the world, I'd consider giving Crimea to Russia, and being done with all of this mess...but it ain't that simple.
A feature of Russian history, and of the Russian Mindset, since at least Peter the Great, is a deep psychological need to be regarded as either a part of European Civilisation, or at least as on par with that Civilisation. For that whole period, Russia has been thought of as the Hillbilly Cousin of Europe...a backwards and crosseyed place, hopelessly unibrowed. The Appalachia of Europe.
This sentiment, and the resentment it causes in the upper classes, and even the pseudo middle classes of Russia is essential to understanding the history of the entire region.
It's the reason Putin, and his “I vill hunt bear with my teeth” posturing, is so popular...it's the reason he's gotten away with hanging on to power for so long.
It's also the reason behind the belligerent attitude of the Soviets, and of the Tsars, before...chest thumping...what anthropologists might call “Territorial Display”...similar to “little man syndrome” in psychology.
Add to this psychological/emotional mix the strategic need for a Warm Water Port...and the long term Ethnic Russian Majority in the Crimea...and there's the root.
I've seen nothing of all of this in the media.
The EU is limited in it's response matrix, due to it's dependence on Gazprom.
The US is limited by the stupidity and craziness of it's Right Wing....as well as the lingering distrust and lies and duplicity, left over from the Cold War.
The UN may have a chance at brokering a settlement, but I doubt it...would that the UN had a little more functionality,lol.
At root, I think that Russia saw in the latest unrest in Ukraine;1. An opportunity to take back Crimea,for psychology's sake, and 2. a strategic and economic need, backed up by history and ethnic makeup, to defend it's main Warm Water Port, as well as the substantial Military infrastructure in Crimea.
I'd like to see a peaceful resolution...but I do not expect one.

Too, the shameful display of everyone from Lindsey Graham to McCain(who should both know better) to the Shouters and Mouthbreathers in the Right Wing Media, would be cause for our own Revolution, if it were the American Left making such stupid and radical statements.
Pat Buchannan, especially, should apologize, and return to under his rock.

A review of the Two Borgias.

Just finished the second viewing of the European “Borgia”, after watching the Showtime version.
Both sent me into a frenzied Wiki-wander that roamed all over Political Science, Philosophy, Religion, Ethics, as well as History(of course), and even stranger frontiers...like the History of Organised Crime, and “Dominator Society”(Patriarchy)...and the place that those two meet in the shape of our World, today...our Power Structures, and all the attendant mores, folkways and similar automata, that defines who we are...as Civilisations, as well as Individuals.
It is hard not to admire, if not like, Cesare Borgia...in spite of his many, many faults.
The Incest made even me squirm.
But here we have if not the first, the quintessential Individual; unwilling, or unable, to allow others to define him....forging his own path.
Remember, that the very Idea of “Individual” was a new thing, then, at the apex of the Italian Renaissance. Prior to this time, the vast majority of Human Beings thought of themselves as something else...as 'serf' ..as 'member'of the tribe, the city, the Manor...as cogs in a great machine...
“Remember that thou art dust”....
This is one of the fundamental aspects of the rediscovering of Greek Thought, after a thousand years of European Darkness.
Similarly, the idea of “Fate is my Whore”...no longer subject to her whiles and whims, Cesare was Free, as few men, before or since.
Of course, the failure to produce the Third Season leaves us wanting...for there, we would have seen Fortune,the Goddess Nemesis ,strike down his Hubris at last...many would argue proving him wrong in his assessment...but the point has already been made.
As for Lucretzia...I was surprised, there, as well,that I ended up admiring her at the end.
Here is the spirit of community and compassion, leavening the hyper-Individualism of Cesare....for such an unlikely one to end up embodying this is remarkable.
I encourage anyone interested in History, Philosophy or Ethics, to watch these 2 versions.
Two thumbs, and 2 big toes, up.