The truly Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan knew that summits with Gorbachev were the one way he could directly telegraph a message to the walled-off Soviet public. After all, even Soviet TV was obliged to cover these events.

The partners’ first handshake took place outside a 120-year-old Geneva chateau. Reagan arrived first and burst out the door, bounding down the steps without his coat on a cold day, as Gorbachev’s limo pulled up. Gorbachev, bundled in a gray overcoat, looking very much like the guest, was greeted by a dapper Reagan, 20 years his senior.

To top it off, Reagan put his arm under Gorbachev’s, as if he were aiding him up the stairs. All this was captured live on Soviet TV, and it was the first step in reshaping the view of Reagan in the eyes of the Soviet public.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan smiles as he talks to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev outside the villa Fleur D’Eau at Versoix near Geneva, Switzerland, November 19, 1985

In the U.S., Reagan’s talk of the sinister nature of Communism was often dismissed as the rhetoric of a right-wing ideologue. In Moscow, policymakers believed he meant business. The Communist Party newspapers (of course, back then all of them were party newspapers) whipped themselves into a frenzy with invective about the 40th U.S. President.

He was portrayed as a wild “cowboy,” a “shameless liar,” and “a rabid militarist” who employed the “slogans and methods of Hitler.” Cartoons depicted him waving a Stetson as he gleefully sat atop a ballistic missile. He may have called them the Evil Empire, but in the Soviet view, Reagan was evil incarnate. (more…)

Important notes:  •The deadline for force surrender is 10:00pm tonight.  •Secretary Kerry arrives in Ukraine tomorrow.  •Russia has declared  a new state: “The Autonomous Republic of Crimea“.

(Via NBC)  The Russian military has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 5 a.m. Tuesday (10 p.m. ET Monday) to surrender or face a “storm,” Interfax news agency reported.

“If they do not surrender by 5 a.m. tomorrow, we will start a real storm in Ukrainian bases in Crimea,” according to the statement sent by the Russians to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, a ministry source told Interfax. NBC News could not immediately confirm the report.

The ultimatum was attributed to Alexandr Vitko, chief commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. (more…)

The New York times deposits a story today titled “Pressure Rising as Obama Works to Rein In Russia“.   The generally sympathetic article toward Obama is being cited by numerous politicos while the left-leaning media are circling an almost bizarre wagon to prop up the perception of Obama as strong.

MSNBC’s Mark Halperin is winning so far in the over-the-top water carrying category by stating that Ronald Reagan never faced a Russian adversary as strong as Russia’s President Putin:

The political analyst and author also cited a New York Times report published Sunday that said in her call with President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised doubts about Putin being in touch with reality, saying he is “in another world.”  Halperin called it “the scariest thing I’ve seen in the last 24 hours.”

“President [Ronald] Reagan never faced a Soviet leader like this. This guy is ruthless,” Halperin added.  (link)

{ Slobber – DRINK – Slobber }

However, what Mark Halperin, and the rest of the media, fail to see in the Times article is the evidence it holds for the ineptitude of the White House.  (more…)

HatTip MoonBattery

A rogue street artist has ambushed the 86th Academy Awards with a slew of street art posters poking fun at President Barack Obama and the Oscars.

The posters, of unknown origin, feature the Oscar statue with Vladimir Lenin’s head and the title “OCZARS,” referring to the proliferation of “czars” — powerful officials with no congressional oversight — in the Obama administration. The “O” is the Obama campaign’s familiar symbol.  (more…)

Hat Tip Weaselzippers:

On March 6th 2009 then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously used a prop, “a reset button“, to announce a new approach toward relationships between the United States and Russia.   Clinton presented the button to her counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In an attempt to break the ice with Lavrov, Clinton handed him a makeshift “reset” button wrapped in a ribbon at the start of their meeting. Laughing, she told the foreign minister that “we want to reset our relationship” and “we will do it together.”

Lavrov promised to keep the button on his desk, but pointed out that the Russian word written on it, “peregruzka,” meant “overload” — not “reset.”  (link)

At the time many people forewarned the Obama Administration was taking a very naïve position if they collectively thought the Russians would in any way align with U.S. interests.

The reasoning for the caution was simple. For two decades the general Russian political class had felt “the West” in a general sense, and the U.S. in particular, had been dancing in the end zone about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Regardless of whether or not the Obama administration wanted to admit there was a resentment in place, it factually existed. (more…)

As reported by Ed Driscoll at PJ Media,apparently the transition of American leadership from the John Wayne/Malboro Man prototype of sturdy masculinity has now morphed to ….. Pyjama Beta Boy Petulance.

“…Imagine you’re a backroom boffin in Vladimir Putin’s Russia assigned to monitor all of the news media out of the West that references Russia and your boss. Imagine the chuckle you know Putin’s going to get when you show him the following screen capture from CNN…”

(more…)

Note:  the following is an opinion piece, protected under the rights afforded by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.  Offended Obot trolls will not be let out of the basement to “comment”.  That is all.

Just when you thought the domestic battle for “hearts and minds” couldn’t get any more perverse, in steps “helper Monkey” Hollywood to drag us down into the sewer, reaching a new low in cultural marxism.

There has been an ongoing psyops war waged by the Obama Administration and its sycophants against the U.S. military.

Traditionally, the U.S. military has always enjoyed high approval ratings from the American public at large – they support the military in funding; in its non-combat humanitarian missions as diplomatic outreach (such as the US Navy Hospital Ships, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy); and are, for the most part, proud of the work that the US military does in defending freedom and the highest ideals of “America” –

individual liberty, peace, free trade, domestic stability among the many hallmarks of the “shining city on the hill”.  In very few other countries, do so many citizens have direct experience – having served, themselves – or a first degree relative connection to someone who has served in the armed forces. (more…)

Anyone else here catching on to a trend ?

(Via Daily Caller) Police charged a New Jersey man with resisting arrest and assaulting an  officer, but recently revealed footage from a dashboard camera told a different  story: Not only did the officers start beating the man for no apparent reason,  but they actually crashed one of their vehicles into the man’s car.

Then they allegedly lied about what transpired and suppressed the evidence,  but were somehow found innocent during an internal investigation.

Prosecutors, however, dropped all charges against 30-year-old Marcus Jeter, a  black man, once they saw the incredible video footage, which fully corroborates  Jeter’s side of the story.

Jeter was not resisting in the slightest. And yet he was eventually charged  with eluding arrest, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. Prosecutors  offered him a plea deal of 5 years in prison, according to Watchdog Wire.

(more…)

We can’t let this little far-left hypocrisy escape attention.

Ideological far-left Democrats are the most racist of all self-identified political types.

In 2012 Spike Lee tweeted out what he thought was the address of George Zimmerman.

The message within his objective was to harass and threaten the life of George Zimmerman around the premise the shooting of Trayvon Martin was racially motivated.

The address was wrong, and an elderly couple was terrorized by far-left “Occupy Wall Street” types and their Black Grievance counterparts.   Fearing for their lives the family was forced to move out.  Spike Lee settled a lawsuit and gave the victimized family money to compensate for the terror he created.

Recently Spike Lee stepped into the controversial race mix yet again only this time he demanded that white New Yorkers move out of black neighborhoods.

(more…)