To note: Mike Whitney at Counterpunch quotes our commentator bevin at length. It is nice to see that the comments here have reverberation even outside of this bar.
Use as open thread for your news & view (ex Ukraine, Syria) …
Back to Main
March 16, 2014
Counterpunch Quotes MoA & Open Thread
Comments
b
You should write articles outside of this blog too.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 16 2014 12:09 utc | 1
World War III Risk Due to U.S. Meddling in Ukraine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_tt7uLmq3s&list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dSHbmKocovKdYMNf7kT3Iwu
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Mar 16 2014 12:18 utc | 2
My hat is doffed to b and MOA, and to Bevin for his eye-catching comments.
Posted by: Lefty | Mar 16 2014 12:45 utc | 3
Just as in Palestine, the Russians ethnically cleansed the indigenous population of Crimea and moved the Russians in. Just as in Palestine, the majority of the Russians migrated to the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine after WW II. Just as the foreign Jews in Palestine, the Russians are occupiers in the Crimea and Ukraine. Just as Israel, Russia ignores international law, starting with the Fourth Geneva Convention which forbids the moving of your own populations onto occupied lands.
Russia, the inheritor of the Soviet Union, has used the same pattern starting with Hungary in 1957 and ending with Georgia. Putin’s dream is to reconstitute the old Soviet Union. The actions in the Crimea were hardly a spontaneous reaction to the Maidan, the were well planned months in advance.
There are millions thruout the world who have not forgotten that it was the Russians who, as policy, starved six million Ukrainians to death. Millions remember the Gulag system that starved and worked to death millions more. The last camp was only closed in 1981.
The Germans were purged of any Nazi inclinations. The Russians still glorify their murderous system, and there are always fellow travelers who are fools enough to shut their eyes to the murderers in their midst. Well, statistics tell us three out of five Russian men die while drunk. It is obvious many Russians them suffer from fetal alcoholic syndrome. Maybe that makes them delusional.
Putin the KGB man uses the excuse of “protecting the Russian speakers” as an excuse to invade another independent country. Apparently he missed that call for help from a lone Russian in Nizny Novgorod, asking Putin to help the Russians that live in Russia proper. Ask anyone who has traveled in Russia outside of the large cities. Rural Russia is nothing but a puddle of muck inhabited by drunks. Putin, worry about your own Russians. Your people are fast dying off.
Posted by: Crimean Tatars | Mar 16 2014 13:16 utc | 4
Crimean tatars
You will get banned with that racist views against russians.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 16 2014 13:24 utc | 5
To Crimean Tatars:
Just as in Palestine, the majority of the Russians migrated to the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine after WW II.
And after all those tragedies of 50-60 years ago, it’s great to see Crimea has opted for the ‘one-state solution’, the only workable one. Let’s hope Israel someday sees the light and allows all of Palestine/Israel the opportunity, one person one vote, to decide the direction and governance of that future state.
Just as the foreign Jews in Palestine, the Russians are occupiers in the Crimea and Ukraine.
No, none of Crimea’s citizens, Russian speaking, Russian ethnicity, Ukrainian ethnicity, Tatar ethnicity, none of them are “occupiers.” All are citizens and equal before the law and equal participants in Crimean democracy. Let’s fight for a future in Israel/Palestine when everyone who lives there is a citizen participating with equal rights in that future state.
Now the idiot criminals in kiev threat to bomb russian gaspipes in ukraine (rt.com).
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 16 2014 13:54 utc | 8
@4
How dare you compare the plight of Palestinians to the Tatars of Crimea? How dare you use that load of garbage propaganda to diminish their cause? There is no comparison. You have the right to vote. You don’t have to stand in cattle cages at checkpoints for hours. Your homes are not being demolished and you haven’t lived in refugee camps for decades waiting to return to your land. You don’t live in an open-air concentration camp where the 4th largest military in the world uses your people for target practice and burns your children with white phosphorous, orphans and maims them and blockades goods and services in a decade long humanitarian blockade! You don’t have to risk your life going through underground tunnels to get essentials that you are deprived of. You are not surrounded and imprisoned within a Wall, separated from part of your family, your orchards your farmland, your schools, mosques and hospitals. You don’t get systematically beaten while tending to your crops. And on and on! It’s shameful that you compare your situation to these people!
In fact you are luckier than most at this time and yet ungrateful for the protection and benefits you will have.
A resolution passed by the Crimean parliament guarantees proportional representation in the republic’s legislative and executive bodies for the Crimean Tatar ethnic minority and grants their language official status, among other things.
http://rt.com/news/crimea-tatar-rights-guarantee-122/
Go and live in the Occupied Territories for a year and then get back to me.
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 14:00 utc | 9
@4 Just a few weeks ago, you were using the number “7 million”. Is your history that flexible?
The fact is that not even the Orange Color Revolutionists and putschists claim “the Russians starved 6 million as policy”. Not even those desperate to cleave the Russians from their Ukrainian brothers and sisters, using ancient Nazi propaganda, claim that. Not even those who would say anything to push their policy of invasion, investment, and IMF forever.
As head of SBU Nalyvaichenko put much effort into presenting the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators and organizers of pogroms against Jews and Poles as friends of Jews by a selective use of archive materials. SBU then created a historical myth exaggerating the number of victims of the famine in several parts of Soviet Union by separating Ukraine, taking the highest scholarly estimate and adding 6,122,00 “unborn” children ending with the claim that 10,063,000 had been murdered in a genocide by Soviet Union. This was part of national policy to glorify the extreme right and Ukraine as a nation of victims with the famine in the 1930s as the pinnacle under the Yushchenko’s presidency after the Orange revolution.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 14:10 utc | 10
Excuse me, I forgot to add – no one claims that except for the worst of the Ukrainian Nazis.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 14:12 utc | 11
@ 9: Think I’ll second that post.
This statement from the Counterpunch article mirrors my sentiments exactly: “going about his business, fulfilling the terms of his employment, doing what he was asked to do…”
Kudos b, and bevin. Now, just wait for paid trolls to show up.
Posted by: ben | Mar 16 2014 14:26 utc | 12
It’s funny you mention denazification. There is two countries that have yet to be denazified, and that is the United States and the United Kingdom. They were pleased enormously to take in the Nazis and continue their policies against the Soviet Union and Russia. And that’s exactly how we got to where we are today.
Despite the fact that everyone with a beef against Russia wants to act as if Stalin is still sitting in the Kremlin, the Soviet Union went through a long and important process of de-Stalinization in the late 1950s, in which the cult of personality the Stalin had built around himself was dismantled. And even the name of the city of the greatest battle of the Second World War (if not all of human history) was renamed.
I do not believe that the people of the world are so daft as to see another victory for the butchers of Baghdad as a step in the right direction. The world knows that these are the worst of the worst now in control of Europe’s second largest state. The world knows that the United States will do anything to hurt its rival Russia. And the world will stand behind Russia.
We’re still in the midsts of a classic media campaign, just like the supposed “gas attack” in Syria. But the truth will come out.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 14:32 utc | 13
“U.S. surprises oil market with sale from strategic reserve”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/us-usa-energy-reserves-idUSBREA2B12V20140312
As a wise commenter noted on another forum (almost verbatim)…
This a very Anti-American thing to do. The strategic oil reserves are there for a REAL national emergency, not to be used as a poker chip in trying to illegally overthrow a government of a foreign nation.
Posted by: Cynthia | Mar 16 2014 14:35 utc | 14
When you look up Fareed Zakaria in the thesaurus, you get: tool, shill and quack clairvoyant.
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 14:44 utc | 15
Speaking of Counterpunch, they have an excellent piece about the vast size of the US DoD budget. Despite all the talk of the “smallest size in decades” it still comes in – when all is accounted for – at $1 Trillion dollars.
This doesn’t even count the massive black budgets of the CIA, NSA, and DHS, nor does it count all the money used for research that benefits the military.
It is hard to imagine. $1 Trillion. 1 Year.
This is the massive boondoggle you won’t hear about. And for what benefit?
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 15:12 utc | 16
Paramilitaries arrested in Venezuela with C4 explosives.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10486
But the Venezuelan government has, so far, performed excellently. They have kept the riots confined to the neighborhoods containing the most agitators while life goes on as normal in those neighborhoods that want peace.
This is a reversal of the old dynamic of Venezuelan society, where the poor always suffered when the rich launched a coup or gave in to the IMF. During this coup, for the first time, it is mainly the rich suffered from their own excesses. This divided them, forcing, for the first time, those who wanted peace in their country to take on members of their own class.
So far, it has gone brilliantly. Which is likely why we see the US-backed golpistas turning to paramilitaries.
Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles took to Twitter to hit out at Maduro over Acosta’s death.
“How many more deaths and injuries, Nicholas? You in the government are largely responsible for the country’s peace,” the former opposition presidential candidate tweeted.
The right-wing elite has some chutzpah. They start riots, then complain that the government has not kept the peace.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 15:32 utc | 17
just a small sidenote:
german “der spiegel” live-ticker has this photo of a pro-maidan march in london.
Notice the poster saying “venezuela and ukraine solidarity”? 😉
Posted by: peter radiator | Mar 16 2014 15:57 utc | 18
Guest77 It is hard ti imagine 1 Trillion dollars. Imagine no longer…http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/calculations.html
Posted by: harrylaw | Mar 16 2014 16:16 utc | 19
Flight MH370, from McClachty:
~,,,someone with significant flying experience must have commandeered the flight, or that a hijacker managed to coerce the crew to take two actions that diverted the flight from reaching Beijing. One involved disabling the flight’s “Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System” over the northeast coast of Malaysia. Then, at 1:21 a.m, someone turned off a transponder that was reporting the aircraft’s location, altitude, speed and other information.
Forensics work and a review of Malaysian radar, Najib said, has now revealed that MH 370 turned back and started traveling in a westerly direction. But the flight was still tracked by satellites overhead. A review of that data, Najib said, revealed that the last confirmed communication between the plane and the satellite was at 8:11 a.m. Malaysian time last Saturday, nearly seven hours after air traffic controllers lost track of it.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/15/221344/malaysia-missing-plane-deliberately.html#storylink=cpy
Posted by: okie farmer | Mar 16 2014 16:31 utc | 20
hmm – now we have a troll named “Crimean Tatars”?
Interesting. There is an “information operation”, i.e. military propaganda campaign, ongoing to elevate awareness of Crimea tartars. The major U.S. propaganda outlets, NYT, WaPo,are helping it. The troll is obviously part of it.
The “information operation” is preparing the media battlefield.
My assumption is that the Crimea joining Russia will be responded to with an attempt to instigate some “Jihad” among Crimean tatars against those evil Russians. The Turkish foreign minister is already threatening to “help”. We know from Syria how such help looks.
Before the attack on Libya some troll, or rather payed shill, also showed up her trying to advertise for that campaign.
I am super happy Counterpunch cited MoA – brought a new reader into the fold. Love you stuff!
Posted by: Sean | Mar 16 2014 16:48 utc | 22
Bevin cites whitney and counterpunch all the time
In return whitney cites bevin
Sounds like the usual cozy lefty mutual circle jerk one expects from these people
How little it takes to excite the chattering classes.
Posted by: getaroom | Mar 16 2014 17:00 utc | 23
Yesterday Hamid Karzai addressed Afghanistan’s parliament for the last time before elections next month and literally told the U.S.: GET OUT!
Something the U.S. lamestream is not to keen to cover.
One day Ukrainians will be saying the same thing.
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 17:03 utc | 24
For those that are interested/dont know, anyone can send in articles for Counterpunch.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 16 2014 17:39 utc | 27
The question should have been submitted to the open discussion of the Supreme Council of the Russian SSR. Moreover, a referendum should have been conducted to find out the opinion of the residents of the two republics. Nothing of that happened. The Presidium of the Supreme Council gathered for a session on February 19, 1954 – only 13 of 27 members were present. There was no quorum, but the decision was adopted unanimously.
The Supreme Council of Russia ruled in 1992 that the Crimean region had been delivered to Ukraine illegitimately.
http://english.pravda.ru/history/19-02-2009/107129-ussr_crimea_ukraine-0/
So the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine that happened in a mere 15 minutes was illegal to begin with. There was no quorum the day the Supreme Council voted in 1954 and there was no referendum in Crimea, either. So finally, it is just and fitting that Crimea’s population get to speak, set the record straight, and make things right by voting in a referendum that should have taken place in 1954. As it should be.
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 17:45 utc | 28
from al-monitor:
SUMMARY:
Pro-regime militias such as the Al-Quds and Baath Brigades are at the forefront of the battle against rebels in Aleppo, and they’re mostly Sunni.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/syria-aleppo-sunni-quds-baath-brigades.html#ixzz2w9Hh9VzB
Posted by: okie farmer | Mar 16 2014 17:45 utc | 29
[some borderly anti-semitic links/quotes deleted. I feel no need to have such discussions here. Go elsewhere with such stuff or get banned.
b.]
Posted by: ProPeace | Mar 16 2014 17:58 utc | 30
@24 okie farmer: I’m quite certain it is not “the trolls” but simply “the troll”.
We know he knows how change his IP, and the targets are always the same. So let’s not pretend there is some team out there. It is our solo troll, doing his same bit again and again, month in, month out.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 18:03 utc | 31
Global Capitalism March 2014 Monthy Update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9EiUxHRm-I
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 18:04 utc | 32
@28 okie:
Thanks for that. That’s a major point that really should be in the media more: by far the largest group fighting on the side of the government are the Sunnis. These groups, as well as the Syrian Army itself, are mostly Sunnis.
So as long as there is so much speaking about myths – we can add “The Sunni/Shia divide” and “sectarian civil war” to the list.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 18:08 utc | 33
I’ve only had this blog in my feed for a few weeks, and I have to say I learn more from commentors here than any other site I’ve ever visited. And of course the blog itself is excellent, and I thank you all for contributing to my knowledge. Unfortunately I had found this blog many months ago via Naked Capitalism and forgot all about it. My bad. Anyways, the quotes from bevin and the article from Mike Whitney, whom I’ve also come to appreciate very much recently, were spot on regarding Obama. “The greatest public relations invention of all time”. About sums it up.
To ‘Crimean Tatars’, there is no comparison to the plight of the Palestinians to the Tatars today. And I’m sure while the modern Tatars have some legitimate grievances, which can be said about hundreds of peoples around the world in nearly every country on earth, I’m sure the fascists in Kiev would be your saviors, right? Riiiiiiiight. And I’m also sure the Tatars were blessed angels of freedom when in charge of the region circa 1400ish-1700ish. Except for all those millions of slaves they captured from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania and sold to the Ottoman Empire. Maybe that had some bearing on more recent history? Not to excuse mistreatment on behalf of the Russian Empire or any other group. And wasn’t it the Nazi collaborators who committed the genocidal deportations in the first place? One more thing, I really don’t know what the drunkeness of rural Russians has to do with anything but the level of drunkeness in rural Russia and it’s negative effects there. And only there.
Posted by: Colinjames | Mar 16 2014 18:12 utc | 34
nice, Bevin, congrats on articulating a resonate description of the sociopath running US PR. I blogged about it here.
Posted by: lizard | Mar 16 2014 18:19 utc | 35
guest,30 I think there are 2. Looking at the language used shows personnel quirks making me think 2. Certainly changing IP is not a problem if you have access to counterintelligence forces’ unlimited IT resources.
Whatever. They need to IGNORED.
Posted by: okie farmer | Mar 16 2014 18:25 utc | 36
Early results of Crimea referendum to come in around 4:20 p.m. EST. But I hear preliminary results might come shortly after polls close and I believe polls just closed at 8:00 p.m. local time, 2:00 p.m. EST.
Despite rain, turnout was just under 80%. But weather expected to clear just in time for the big celebration in Lenin Square, Simferopol and no doubt throughout Crimea, today and tomorrow which will be a holiday.
BREAKING!!!: EXIT POLLS SAY 93% OF VOTERS IN CRIMEA SUPPORT ACCESSION TO RUSSIA
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_16/93-of-voters-suppport-Crimeas-accession-to-Russia-exit-polls-8596/
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 18:26 utc | 37
@22 getaroom
And here I am worried when I post that I have nothing to add to the conversation.
Looks like you have no such issues.
Posted by: Prey4 Justice | Mar 16 2014 18:34 utc | 38
More celebratory news for Russia and Putin. Sochi Games and Paralympic games being hailed as record-breaking and spectacular!
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/disability-sport/26591251
Russia topped the list again at the Paralympics with 30 Gold Medals and 80 medals in total.
Congratulations to all Russians and of course, Crimeans, who picked at great day to express themselves!
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 18:36 utc | 39
Against the grain.
Counterpunch? Huh? I don’t think that deserves any pats on the back or medals. Sure that is a trivial matter compared to world events right now.
Counterpunch, for ex. upholds the 9/11 islamist perps terrorist myth. It is a typical ‘leftist’ site that goes so far and stops at the well-know limits. With…a lot of words! Of course some of the writings there are interesting.
For ex. in this article (March 11, 2014 by Grossman) which waxes heavy about right-wing fascists in Ukr., one can also read:
But even before Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea gave the ultranationalists new grist for the mill, their representatives were named to the new government in Kiev, led by the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
(…)
A pro-Putin biker gang that has supported his Crimea invasion, and pro-Russian rioters in eastern Ukraine, play as Russian “young tough” ..
The conclusion is predictably lame, consensual, weak and comforting in its bland, empty, US superiority:
In a contest between Ukrainian and Russian ultranationalists, we do not need to pick sides. We can defend peace and the democratic rights of civilians, and all minorities on both sides of the divide, without contributing to the polarization and strengthening the rise of fascism. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
(See similarity to US left-dem discourse about 9/11, it is blowback, and understandable, those pooor oppressed muslims.., etc.)
http://tinyurl.com/qhok7ux
Yes, I cherry-picked. Sure, it is only one author on Counterpunch. Yet so typical! It was the top article with search term ‘Ukraine’, I know nothing about the author etc.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 16 2014 18:38 utc | 40
kalithea #36 93% of 80% ? Could we call that a landslide? Why yes, yes we could. ;~) And I’d like to thank you for all your posts, too. You always provide knowledge, analysis, reason and a good ethical sensibility and even when I do know something about what you’re writing about, I always learn more.
Posted by: Nora | Mar 16 2014 18:39 utc | 41
A Reagan Republican state senator in Virginia gets it. We must be approaching the End Times. http://original.antiwar.com/Sen._Richard_H._Black/2014/03/14/the-west-should-stay-out-of-ukraine-crisis/
Posted by: Nora | Mar 16 2014 18:53 utc | 43
@b I think the person who really deserves the congratulations has been left out. B, I believe you must have missed the post where JSorrentine informed us that he is the originator of all of bevin’s thoughts?
bevin apparently just has the (certainly arduous) task of turning the mostly retarded prepubescent all-caps meme-speak into something readable, but all the same – credit where credit is due, right? *chortle* <-- if I may borrow that, is that okay, JSore?
😉
Ah, I'm sorry all. That felt really good.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2014 19:01 utc | 44
Actually, voter turnout in Crimea was 85%.
Here’s the U.S. response:
poop-poop-poop
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/white-house-not-recognise-crimea-referendum-us
Euphoria in Crimea!
http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/people-celebrate-in-lenin-square-after-a-day-of-voting-on-news-photo/479119239?Language=en-GB
Posted by: kalithea | Mar 16 2014 19:03 utc | 45
Mike Whitney quoted kalithea from MoA last week in his Counterpunch column. Wasn’t that noticed?
Posted by: ToivoS | Mar 16 2014 19:29 utc | 46
@16 “it still comes in – when all is accounted for – at $1 Trillion dollars”
accounting and accountability have never been the strongest point of the DoD and this for ages. f.i. the accounting part:
“Pay errors are part of a larger phenomenon that Reuters will explore in a series of articles: the Defense Department’s endemic failure to keep track of its money – how much it has, how much it pays out and how much is lost or stolen.
The department’s authorized 2013 budget, after sequester, totals $565.8 billion – by far the largest chunk of the annual federal budget approved by Congress. Yet the Pentagon is literally unable to account for itself. As proof, consider that a law in effect since 1992 requires annual audits of all federal agencies – and the Pentagon alone has never complied. It annually reports to Congress that its books are in such disarray that an audit is impossible.”
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part1
By Scot J. Paltrow and Kelly Carr
Filed July 2, 2013
@16 “It is hard to imagine. $1 Trillion. 1 Year. This is the massive boondoggle you won’t hear about. And for what benefit?”
The DoD, military industrial complex, is a big part of the economy and society in the USofA. You could better ask “And for whose benefit, work, profit, income …”
Nick Turse’s The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives.
It’s an eye-opener on the degree to which we are, without realizing it, a militarized society
“When President Eisenhower warned of the dangers to democracy posed by the military-industrial complex, he had no idea how far it would penetrate into every aspect of our everyday lives. In impressive detail, Nick Turse shows how the military is now tied to everything from your morning cup of Starbucks to the video games your kids play before turning in for the night. It’s not just political anymore—it’s personal. Turse sounds the alarm bell about the militarization of everyday life. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.”—Bill Hartung, author of How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy?
f.i. Tomgram: Nick Turse, The Pentagon Goes Hollywood
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174908
Posted by: c | Mar 16 2014 19:49 utc | 47
@TovioS – Mike Whitney quoted kalithea from MoA last week in his Counterpunch column. Wasn’t that noticed?
Not by me. Link?
@44
bevin apparently just has the (certainly arduous) task of turning the mostly retarded prepubescent all-caps meme-speak into something readable, but all the same – credit where credit is due, right? *chortle* <-- if I may borrow that, is that okay, JSore?
HEY ARE YOU SURE YOUR GIRLFRIEND WILL READ YOUR POST?!!!!! BETTER TEXT HER!!!! TELL HER U REALLY MADE JSORRENTINE CRY!!!!IT’LL MAKE HER FEEL BETTER!!! WE MISS HER!!!
No, but really, guest77, it won’t be until bevin himself apologizes and thanks me that it will matter. I usually don’t like to speak through people’s secretaries and/or girlfriends. Srsly, txt her.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Mar 16 2014 19:55 utc | 49
@Crimean Tartar @4 THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE BEST PART!!!!The whining…cant wait to hear ol’ general Zignut Brezynski himself..and John McCain’s boo hoo-ing will be epic.. enjoy everyone
Posted by: Solerso | Mar 16 2014 19:58 utc | 50
@Crimean Tatars.
To misquote Britney, I am a slave for u. Not.
Posted by: TL | Mar 16 2014 20:47 utc | 52
@44
The Sorrentine was most prominent, as the joker who was ridiculing the conversation itself, for which bevin is rightfully being congratulated here. Anyone who read that thread remembers what this joker’s attitude was. The joker thought the whole discussion was a waste of time, and berated those who were discussing the nature of evil in high office.
I was most pleased to read Whitney’s article in counterpunch. I thought it was splendidly written from beginning to end. We are lucky to have writing of the quality of bevin’s, with his insight, which brings credit to the quality of critical thought found at MoA.
And much thanks again to b, who has made all this possible.
what a pair of pathetically childish commenters Copeland and guest77 are
Posted by: brb | Mar 16 2014 20:58 utc | 54
@53
The joker thought the whole discussion was a waste of time, and berated those who were discussing the nature of evil in high office.”
You are a liar AND a retard, sir. Which is surprising since “retarded” usually implies that one lacks sufficient intellectual means to prevaricate in the first place. I don’t know how you do it. Good show.
Succinctly, – to set the record straight – I was berating the reverse-hagiographical humanizing of Obama by the fake-left “smart-set” peons as being a waste of time because even in gently – don’t do it too hard! – castigating Obama it still was providing the means by which to subdue what would normally be a sub-section of the populace whose insightful individuals would normally be at the forefront of really changing things instead of getting roped into the flowery analytical propaganda specifically designed for their “smart-set” brains and which allows the “smart-set” to idly sit around – the uncouth would say “whacking off” – coming up with ever-more colorful analogies for Obama and the rest of the war criminal crowd when “war criminal” will suffice. Bevin didn’t like this at all and in the course of his nonsensical meanderings likened me to an anti-intellectual, evangelical Pol Pot Jr. and then days later he stole my shit but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Let’s not go there.
So, again, liartard for thee.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Mar 16 2014 21:19 utc | 55
You can see reverberations (translation) of your post, here, down the Rio Grande, in our bar, São Paulo, Brasil, in http://redecastorphoto.blogspot.com.br/2014/03/ucrania-estado-que-cai-aos-pedacos.html
Cheers! 😎
Posted by: Coletivo de Tradutores Vila Vudu (Brasil) | Mar 16 2014 21:28 utc | 56
from Russia’s “Stratfor”, Strategic Culture blog
Markets fear Russia has cut US treasury bill holding over Ukraine crisis
Financial markets were on high alert last night over the Ukraine crisis amid speculation that the Kremlin had pulled its vast US treasury bill holdings out of New York.
News that more than $100bn had been shifted out of the US in the past week – at least three times more than at any time since the financial crisis – prompted fears that Russia is preparing for a western backlash in the form of sanctions and is moving its funds to safe havens beyond US influence.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/03/16/markets-fear-russia-has-cut-us-treasury-bill-holding-over-ukraine-crisis.html
Posted by: okie farmer | Mar 16 2014 21:33 utc | 58
JSorrentine, you come to a contest of wits unarmed.
Posted by: Copeland | Mar 16, 2014 5:33:08 PM | 57
Oh Copey – you really are a hoot – you keep telling yourself that now if it makes you feel better.
Posted by: brb | Mar 16 2014 21:44 utc | 59
A 99.7% pro Ruski vote in the Crimea — even North Korea couldn’t achieve that. What a bunch of deluded, under-achieving welfare recipients we have here. I am convinced that very few if any of you are able to hold down a real job. Suggest three months residence in a Russian town for y’all. No welfare in the Ruski system.
Posted by: Crimean Tatars | Mar 17 2014 14:53 utc | 60
“A 99.7% pro Ruski vote in the Crimea — even North Korea couldn’t achieve that.”
Actually it was 95.7%, but it is not close to the record which is still held by the recent and US supervised election for the Presidency of Yemen, in which the winner got 100% of the votes polled.
Then there was the result of the Presidential election in Haiti which was won by a candidate who really wasn’t on the ballot, having lost in the first round. This too was an election carried out by the US in its entirety.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 17 2014 15:09 utc | 61
News from the north Korean/or Egyptian tanker carrying smuggled Lybian oil
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26609025
Posted by: Mina | Mar 17 2014 15:23 utc | 62
Hey, weren’t the Tartars allied with the Nazis? Didn’t they raise 20,000 of their members for Wehrmacht? Didn’t they kill partisans and civilians in the Yaila Mountains? Didn’t they kill partisans, rape women and burn towns in France?
I’d say the Russians were more than forgiving.
Posted by: Yankeenoodle | Mar 18 2014 14:03 utc | 63
@61
Ahh, don’t be sore. I mean, just because Putin spanked your imperialistic arses and all. Maybe you can invade some other country. Hell, you don’t even need to hold a referendum!
Posted by: Yankeenoodle | Mar 18 2014 14:08 utc | 64
Kavkazcenter says, Doku Umarov has been killed. Should that be true, it’s another message from russia that their counter-terrorism is up and doing.
(Picked the source from spiegel once again. The mention there might mean anything, maybe one can see clearer if that story takes a further turn).
Posted by: peter radiator | Mar 18 2014 16:20 utc | 66
@ 237 of March 18th thread:
Depending on what part of North America you’re from, it may be easy and seem cost-free to score points by taking cheap shots at Southerners, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.
Gee, delivering veiled threats instead of addressing any of my valid points?!! From a Southerner?!! NO WAY!!!!
Hey, y’know what Israelis are trained to say – i.e., hasbara – when outsiders correctly call them on their apartheid and genocide? Do ya?
That if you don’t live in Israel there you have no RIGHT to have an opinion or talk about Israel.
Even though the US gives them boatloads of money each year? Even though it’s OUR F*CKING MONEY we don’t have a right to talk about Israel?
Later on in my post, you’ll see how the analogy is even MORE fitting. People in the South tell everyone else the SAME F*CKING shit. If you don’t live in the South you can’t talk about it. Well, you know what we’re PAYING FOR THE SOUTH, so suck on it, it’s MY EFFING MONEY and if you’re taking it then you gotta listen. Sorry, boys, dem deres the rules.
What did I say was cheap and not true? Was or was not the South responsible for everything I mentioned? Is or is not the South still reveling in their heritage that directly includes all of the things I’ve mentioned? Is the ethos of the South and their secessionist dreams et al NOT clearly analogous to the apartheid state of Israel? Has there NOT clearly been a pro-South bias in the media over the last two decades?
None of what I said is wrong or incorrect. Not a word so tell me what is so effing cheap about it? Because it pisses Southerners off so much that they can’t articulate a valid response to it other than “you better watch your mouth, boy”?
That’s great man. And I bet you hate the anti-democratic fascists in Ukraine, too? And I didn’t even bring up the well-known facts that the South is BY far the largest recipient of federal money even though they bitch about federal spending etc enough:
All the states petitioning to secede from the United States that obtained enough signatures to elicit a response from the White House — with the exception of Alabama — were some of the largest recipients of federal funding in 2010.
Census records show that six of the seven states that amassed more than 25,000 signatures on their petitions to form independent nations in the past week took more than $10 million in revenue from the federal government that year.
The seven states – Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina – took more than 23 percent of all federal revenue allotted to the states that year.
Here’s another story showing – surprise surprise – just like the apartheid genocidal state of Israel – that without the largesse of the US Federal Government slush fund the South would also cease to exist.
And what is the South’s response in general: watch your mouth, boy! Effing brilliant.
Just keep on taking our/MY MONEY like the ungrateful effing Israelis and keep on telling us to STFU!
Wow, that’s effing awesome. No wait, I meant pathetic.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Mar 18 2014 18:52 utc | 67
@Anonymous and Noirette:
Anyone may be able to submit stories to Counterpunch. I don’t know whether they accept all submissions. The editors do not appear to put any effort into proofreading spelling — as is evident from Franklin Lamb’s articles. Even so, Counterpunch carries many excellent articles, including those by professors of journalism. Regular readers are aware that the quality of writing and analysis varies.
Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Mar 18 2014 20:03 utc | 68
Rusty Pipes
Indeed I wasnt criticizing Counterpunch (which is a wonderful site), it just seemed that some people here thought Counterpunch had their own writers etc.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 18 2014 20:47 utc | 69
Judge orders FBI to explain withholding records of alleged Occupy Houston assassination plot
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Judge-orders-FBI-to-explain-withholding-records-5327676.php?cmpid=hpts
[quote]Shapiro said in his complaint that the existence of an assassination plot against Occupy Houston’s leaders became known through the FBI’s earlier release of information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
“According to one of the released records, … [REDACTED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles…,” Shapiro stated in his complaint.[/quote]
Also see, Nancy Pelosi Admits That Congress Is Scared Of The CIA
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140317/07441526589/nancy-pelosi-admits-that-congress-is-scared-cia.shtml
[quote] “I salute Sen. Feinstein,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference of the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I’ll tell you, you take on the intelligence community, you’re a person of courage, and she does not do that lightly. Not without evidence, and when I say evidence, documentation of what it is that she is putting forth.”
Pelosi added that she has always fought for checks and balances on CIA activity and its interactions with Congress: “You don’t fight it without a price because they come after you and they don’t always tell the truth. [/quote]
Have we crossed thr rube yet, daddy?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 19 2014 0:19 utc | 70
Well yeah, unc_$, we have crossed the rube but remember what happened to Cesar. Infighting did him in. My expectation is CIAFBINAS will eventually spell DEMISE. Some of our greats understood; JFK wanted to scatter the CIA to the wind, Truman decried the day he authorised them, MLK and Malcolm effectively vocalized it, Bobby knew too much and was prepared to challenge them. There will be causalities along the way but their seeds are already sown. My greatest fear – they take all of us with them. We are all cursed to live in interesting times.
Good to see you still occasionally hang out here before b has to closed the door again.
Posted by: juannie | Mar 19 2014 0:55 utc | 71
@ Sorrentine 67
Blanket characterizations of everyone living in a geographical area are as invalid as those made about all members of a race or ethnic group. When the characterization includes accusations of racism and intolerance, the cognitive dissonance rises to a level rivaling the US’s accusations of “actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine.” So, yeah, watch your mouth, boy.
Posted by: Snake Arbusto | Mar 19 2014 10:40 utc | 72
Good to see you still occasionally hang out here before b has to closed the door again.
Shhh!
Posted by: DM | Mar 19 2014 11:24 utc | 73
Timely and well executed humor always reminds me not to take myself too seriously and lifts me out of my doldrums. This puerile septuagenarian is now in your arrears DM.
Posted by: juannie | Mar 19 2014 18:17 utc | 74
@72
Blah blah f*cking blah.
Likewise, if I had a penny for every freaking Zionist who told me that I couldn’t criticize the apartheid genocidal state of Israel because there were some “good” Israelis living there the South would be asking me to loan them money, too.
No really though, I enjoy your continuing to completely prove my point – i.e., that the US South is nearly perfectly analogous to the apartheid genocidal state of Israel – with ever single hasbaresque defense that you duct tape together.
To review, you’ve told me that since I don’t live in the South I can’t legitimately criticize it. Check. And now you’re telling me that I can’t criticize the South overall because not every single person there is racist. Check.
Replace “South” with Israel and you’ve got a JPost column! Nice work.
Please continue. I might have enough material for a doctoral thesis by the time we’re done.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Mar 28 2014 12:04 utc | 75