Russia is the new paradise for US conservatives


Since today seems to be my day for winter Olympics-related posts, I thought I’d link to The Daily Show’s Jason Jones who has been in Russia during the games and discovers that the country that US conservatives used to hate for being the main component of the ‘evil empire’ now seems to have adopted all the attributes that US conservatives want to see in the US. They would feel right at home there.

(This clip aired on February 19, 2014. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post. If the videos autoplay, please see here for a diagnosis and possible solutions.)

Comments

  1. colnago80 says

    Of course, the criticism of Russia from the left tends to get muted because the left’s here, Snowden, has found refuge there.

  2. Friendly says

    Of course, the criticism of Russia from the left tends to get muted because the left’s here [sic], Snowden, has found refuge there.

    I have seen no evidence that Snowden being in Russia has “muted” criticism of Russia from the left. Russia remains an authoritarian country and becomes more so daily; although I know a lot of people were glad that Russia gave him a (temporary) place to be, I’ve seen lots of leftist commentary to the effect of “Snowden is fortunate that Czar Putin likes to thumb his nose at the U.S.” and absolutely no commentary to the effect of “Gee, maybe Russia isn’t as bad as we thought! They let Snowden stay!”

  3. Chiroptera says

    To be fair, the pre-fall Soviet totalitarian regime was always a model for the conservatives who wanted to establish the national security state here in the US. Their main gripe was always that they couldn’t make tons of money in the Soviet economy or in their client states.

  4. wtfwhateverd00d says

    It’s cute, but lets not forget

    Here in the US, our liberal President Obama seems to be doing everything he can to recreate the Soviet Union policies of the 60s.

    Papers please to travel?
    Domestic spying?
    Rendition?
    Drone strikes and assassinations?

    Yeah, not as much progressive push back on that as I would like, or as many other civil libertarian professors like Professor Turley would like.

    Also guns? Maybe you should read TalkLeft every now and then.
    Immigration? Catch up on Paul Krugman’s views of safety nets versus open borders.
    Feminism? Read the SlymePit to find many liberal and educated people with intelligent arguments about feminist excesses. From the SlymePit you’ll find many atheists and scientists on twitter, on the net, in conferences all able to educate you about feminist excess.

    But yeah, cute video.

  5. Friendly says

    Papers please to travel?

    Other than requiring passports to drive to Canada, etc., a requirement that was in preparation before Obama took office, to which “travel papers” are you referring?

    Domestic spying?
    Rendition?
    Drone strikes and assassinations?

    Yeah, not as much progressive push back on that as I would like

    The progressives of my acquaintance are very angry about all of those things.

    Feminism? Read the SlymePit to find many liberal and educated people with intelligent arguments about feminist excesses. From the SlymePit you’ll find many atheists and scientists on twitter, on the net, in conferences all able to educate you about feminist excess.

    Oh, so you’re a Slymepit defender? I guess I haven’t been paying close enough attention. Now I feel honored to be the object of your scorn.

  6. leni says

    From the SlymePit you’ll find many atheists and scientists on twitter, on the net, in conferences all able to educate you about feminist excess.

    Do you go there for medical advice too? Look, if I want to be “educated” about anything, the last place I’m going is the Slymepit. I’m also not going to Stormfront to learn about the “excesses” of Israel, or to Fox News to get “educated” about the socialist “excesses” of Obama. Or to the Russian Information Ministry (yes, I just made that up) about the excesses of gay propagandists.

    If that is your standard for “educational” resources, I almost feel sad for you. I wouldn’t even go there to get advice on how to recover from an embarrassing Twitter meltdown, despite the fact that I suspect some of the regulars there are quite well-versed in the subject.

  7. doublereed says

    Paul Krugman’s view on immigration and the welfare state? What about it? The fact that he focuses almost entirely on the economics of it, because he’s an economist?

    Basic decency requires that we provide immigrants, once they’re here, with essential health care, education for their children, and more. As the Swiss writer Max Frisch wrote about his own country’s experience with immigration, ”We wanted a labor force, but human beings came.” Unfortunately, low-skill immigrants don’t pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the benefits they receive.

    Worse yet, immigration penalizes governments that act humanely. Immigrants are a much more serious fiscal problem in California than in Texas, which treats the poor and unlucky harshly, regardless of where they were born.

    We shouldn’t exaggerate these problems. Mexican immigration, says the Borjas-Katz study, has played only a ”modest role” in growing U.S. inequality. And the political threat that low-skill immigration poses to the welfare state is more serious than the fiscal threat: the disastrous Medicare drug bill alone does far more to undermine the finances of our social insurance system than the whole burden of dealing with illegal immigrants.

    http://www.progressivesforimmigrationreform.org/paul-krugman-on-immigration/

  8. wtfwhateverd00d says

    @Friendly

    “Papers please to travel?”

    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/01/16/aclu-arizona-border-patrol-checkpoints-routinely-violate-rights-us-citizens/

    http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2011/09/papers-please.html

    (obfuscated to annoy spam bot)

    reason dot com/blog/2009/08/15/something-is-happening-here-bu

    youtube dot com /watch?v=YUzd7G875Hc (interesting guy, read his blog, see his vids, I haven’t heard what happened to him since about 2011 or what happened in court.)

    US nationals ‘under siege’; citizen dies at Border Patrol checkpoint

    america dot aljazeera dot com/articles/2013/12/29/us-nationals-undersiegeamidsuspiciousborderpatrolcheckpointdeath.html

    google for video of citizens being detained and threatened at border patrol checkpoints over 100 miles from a border

    google tsa vipr

    google talkleft subway stops

    You’ll find bloggers, lawyers, law profs, on the left and on the right discussing the new papers please mentality.

    I think it goes even further in that my children have been brought up to find all of this normal as opposed to us old farts who think it’s the stuff we grew up being told differentiated us from the Russkis.

  9. wtfwhateverd00d says

    @leni, I am not sure how to respond, but yeah, SlymePit, I would claim, is mostly liberal and liberal leaning voices, and a huge percentage of ph.ds, academics, and at least one MD.

    It’s a great place to ask questions of experts in medicine, biology, and tech and most of them have for at least some significant chunk of time considered themselves feminists or even still do.

    You should drop on by, you too Professor Singham.

    (fwiw, you don’t need to visit StormFront to learn about the excesses of Israel, you can get a fine discussion of that right here.)

  10. wtfwhateverd00d says

    @doublereed That’s a wonderful link (from 2006). I wish you had quoted more of it. Here is an updated version of it from 2010 http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/the-curious-politics-of-immigration/

    On the other side, however, open immigration can’t coexist with a strong social safety net; if you’re going to assure health care and a decent income to everyone, you can’t make that offer global.

    Krugman is one of my personal heroes (Franken another), but the above quote shows how out of touch he “is” with most progressive thinking on borders.

    However, to be honest, in reviewing Comedy Central’s video, I have no idea what point I thought I had when I made the comment originally.

  11. wtfwhateverd00d says

    @Friendly,

    A tweet from Ana Kasparian moments ago

    “I never go jogging with my ID. Does that make me a criminal now?”

    links to

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/21/austin-police-drag-jogger-to-car-screaming-after-jaywalking-without-id/

    Austin police drag jogger to car screaming after jaywalking without ID
    By John Byrne
    Friday, February 21, 2014 9:34 EST

    A Texas woman was dragged screaming to a police car in Austin, Texas after being arrested for failing to provide ID while jaywalking.

    The woman, pulled to a police car in gym clothes, was captured on video shouting, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

    A University of Texas Student filmed the police capturing the jogger and placing her in an officer’s car.

    “I was sitting at the Starbucks at 24th and San Antonio,” the student, Chris Quintero, told the Daily Texan, the student newspaper for the University of Texas-Austin. “Then I hear a cop shout at an innocent girl jogging through West Campus with her headphones on.”

    Police told the woman to provide identification, Quintero remarked. When she wouldn’t, the officer grabbed her arm and placed her in handcuffs.

    “She repeatedly pleaded with them, saying that she was just exercising and to let her go,” Quintero said. Quintero is heard in the video saying, “I saw you,” after the woman calls across the street, saying, “I was doing nothing wrong. I was crossing the street.”

    Police then apparently called for backup. Two additional officers on bicycles arrived as the arresting officers were putting the jogger in the car.

  12. leni says

    It’s a great place to ask questions of experts in medicine, biology, and tech and most of them have for at least some significant chunk of time considered themselves feminists or even still do.

    I’m sure there are some excellent gardeners there too. Still, guess where I’m not going for gardening advice? (Though I could see how mold enthusiasts unfamiliar with the site might make a mistake and up there.)

    You should drop on by…

    I have and I didn’t stick around for a reason. If I returned, it would be for entertainment, not education

    fwiw, you don’t need to visit StormFront to learn about the excesses of Israel, you can get a fine discussion of that right here.

    For what it’s worth, I don’t need to visit the Slymepit to be “educated” about the “excesses of feminism”, either. I see plenty of it here. And everywhere. Pretty much every god damned day. Maybe it is new for you, but to me it’s like reading creationists complaining about eugenics. It ceased being educational or entertaining a long time ago.

    So no thanks, I’ll take my gardening tips and medical advice without the inane and endless axe-grinding about the “excesses of feminism”.

  13. Nick Gotts says

    Of course, the criticism of Russia from the left tends to get muted because the left’s here, Snowden, has found refuge there. -- colnago80

    Produce the evidence for your claim.

    I am not sure how to respond, but yeah, SlymePit, I would claim, is mostly liberal and liberal leaning voices -- wtfwhateverd00d

    Then clearly, you wouldn’t know “liberal” if it bit you in the arse. No-one willing to frequent a misogynist hate site such as the Slymepit on a regular basis can possibly be liberal.

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