Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
April 11, 2014
Obama Blows Up Iran Talks Over 35 Year Old Petty Issue

The U.S. denies a visa to the new Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Hamid Aboutalebi. Mr. Aboutalebi was ambassador to several European countries and to the EU and he had on earlier occasions received U.S. visa and visited the United states:

The Obama administration had previously said only that it opposed the nomination of Hamid Aboutalebi, who was a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
…
Aboutalebi is alleged to have participated in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the takeover.
…
Aboutalebi has insisted his involvement in the group involved in the embassy takeover, Muslim Students Following the Imam's Line, was limited to translation and negotiation.

The U.S. is not allowed to decide who UN members nominate and send as UN ambassadors. This visa rejection is clearly illegal under the Headquarter Agreement between the UN and the United States:

[T]he U.N. would be well within its rights to claim a violation of the Headquarters Agreement and to demand an arbitration that it would have a good chance of winning.

No other country in the UN can agree to this U.S. behavior. All would risk to have their next ambassador to the UN rejected for some petty game issue some U.S. politicians want to play. The UN will have to fight this case.

So far the talks about nuclear issues between Iran and the U.S. had gone well. There is now even a sensible solution for the heavy water reactor in Arak which was one of the more problematic items. Iran's president Rouhani has to defend his policies against hardliners in his country. They will use the issue of the ambassador to pressure him to reject any agreement with the U.S.  Rouhani can not take back the nomination without receiving serious political damage. As the U.S. rejects the ambassador its also denies Rouhani to have a trusted person in the United States who could help should the negotiations stumble.

This whole issue seems to have been created out of thin air to blow up the talks between the U.S. and Iran. If Obama keeps ups his stance and continues to reject a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi over a 35 year old issue Obama will be guilty for ending the negotiations and the consequences falling from it. But failing negotiations may well have been his plan all along.

Comments

@Rowan Berkeley #97:
Nice catch. Fascists are people, too, so one must write about them with politically correct language which does not offend fascists. This is the postmodernism that Dugin talks about.
There’s also this:

Right Sector, a coalition of once-fringe Ukrainian nationalist groups

Evidently, the reason these fascists aren’t fringe anymore is that USG actively supports them.
And this:

Moscow’s dislike of Mr. Muzychko stretched back to 1994, when he joined Chechen separatists fighting for independence from Russia. A Russian human rights activist who knew Mr. Muzychko in Chechnya remembered the Ukrainian as a jocular, friendly character who showed little sign of the showy aggression that would later make him a hero for some and villain for many others.

If this is true, it tells one something about fascist and terrorist coddling Russian “human rights activists”.

Posted by: Demian | Apr 12 2014 7:30 utc | 101

http://lifenews.ru/news/131088 В Донецке силовики взяли штурмом здание областной прокуратуры
“In Donetsk, the security forces stormed the building of the regional prosecutor’s office
Police entered the building and brought out about 40 activists.
According to our correspondent from the scene, about half of the ninth column Moscow time to the prosecutor’s office approached two detachments employees MIA. They entered the building and a few minutes brought about 40 activists. The protesters were unarmed.
At 8 am Moscow time supporters occupied the federalization prosecutor, but to be there for a long time they did not succeed. Half an hour later arrived at the scene and police detachments Ukrainian internal troops who stormed the building. Active resistance to the security forces have not met: in the building just two guards on duty. Supporters federalization withdrawn one by one, with no weapon was used. Who is on duty near the building of the Interior Troops squad, in investigative actions. Pro-Russian activists were arrested and went to the building of the regional administration.”
This is the same action described in Posted by: brian | Apr 12, 2014 2:40:14 AM | 95. Apparently a group of protestors took over a prosecutor’s office, but were arrested about half an hour later. From what I can tell, this is not where the main protest is taking place.

Posted by: scalawag | Apr 12 2014 7:31 utc | 102

Mass killings under Communist regimes: “Several scholars, among them Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore… Posted by: Demian | Apr 11, 2014 11:45:31 PM | 78

Stop right there and see if you can get your brain to start working.

Sorry Rowan you are an antisemite. As much as I dislike that accusation, there really are good old fashioned antisemites. You happen to be one of them. You might like this anecdote. (bla bla bla) Many good comrades both Goyim and Jew have fought against fascism and Western Imperialism. Those of us who recognize this really do dislike the naked antisemitism that Rowan spreads here at MoA. Posted by: ToivoS | Apr 12, 2014 2:11:39 AM | 90

Listen, fool, I am an anti-fascist too. Your brain is just not well enough developed to grasp the complexity of the world picture I am painting.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 12 2014 7:52 utc | 103

By the way, just taking the accusation literally for a moment, I shall demonstrate what complete garbage it is.
In the first place, ‘anti-Semite’ is a racial term. It’s deliberately retained by Jewish propagandists (even tiny powerless ones like you, toivos) because it destroys any sense of current affairs or actuality, and throws us back about a hundred years, to when everybody (and I mean everybody, whether so-called Jews, non-Jews, or anything else), believed in ‘races’. This was completely normal and unexceptionable 50 years ago, it was considered a common-sense position: ‘obviously’, there were ‘races’, and they had moral and intellectual characters too: all the ‘eastern races’ were in one way or another slavish in their very essence, whereas westerners were all ‘advanced’, and understood nonsensical concepts like ‘democracy’, which easterners (aka ‘natives’) could never really do. The ‘native races’ simply lacked the fine moral development associated with the ‘western races’. And all this, I repeat, was universally accepted as ‘common sense.’ Now we live in a world transformed by fifty years of pseudo-Leftism, which has consistently and logically applied divide-and-rule by focusing the super-mighty über-Wurlitzer of the Jewish media on one secondary or symptomatic contradiction after another, viz ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘sexual orientation’ and whatever else they can dream up, but obviously not what marxism is about, viz economic class expoitation. Give them time and they will invent a theory of the oppression of the left-handed child, and all the brainwashed slaves will spend years anxiously reading the shit in the media about whether they’re all bigots or not for insisting that right-handedness is ‘normal’, obviously a vile oppressive attitude which only the Jewish intellectuals of the media can diagnose.
While the goyish fools are agonising about non-existent bigotries detected deep in their souls by the Jewish gurus who have become the embodiment of godlike superiority, the Jewish plan is of course continuing, exploiting all this nonsense as and when it seems to be working effectively to produce traumatised and suggestible mass publics, triggering wars all of which conform perfectly to the simple idea expressed in the Yinon Plan, but raised to the global scale, because by now the Yankee pseudo-Masters of the World have regressed to a psychological level so completely bereft of intelligence that their Jewish gurus could if they wished spin the argument about the oppression of the southpaws on a dime, and proclaim instead that left-handedness is really an anti-Semitic coded message, like the quenelle, so obviously the US as “Guardian of Global Freedom” or some similar shit could start a war of extermination against southpaws. It would not matter because the publics would be instructed to forget anything they might have been told previously, on the simple grounds that “Knowledge advances”. They’ve sold you crap worse than that, and it has become part of your mental furniture. You are really helpless against this sort of brainwashing, unless you have worked unusually hard on psychic self-defense, as I have.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 12 2014 8:30 utc | 104

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 12, 2014 3:52:32 AM | 101
Listen, fool, I am an anti-fascist too. Your brain is just not well enough developed to grasp the complexity of the world picture I am painting.
Sorry Rowan I do understand the complexity you describe. You are an antisemite. It is quite clear. I fully understand how this charge of antisemitism is used to undermine those of us who oppose Western imperialism – as I pointed out above both my father and myself have experienced that charge. Those of us who oppose Israel are so accused. However, we do not accept the antisemitic crap that you spread.

Posted by: ToivoS | Apr 12 2014 8:43 utc | 105

Short but relevant comment from ‘Going to Tehran’
“”April 8, 2014 at 7:48 pm
Don Bacon says:
April 8, 2014 at 7:36 pm
Yes, another day in the Court of the Mad King.
The Mad King and His Baron have – in effect – declared Shia Islam to be their enemy and are in the process of adding Orthodox Christianity to that as well.
And, at the same time, they want to Pivot to Asia to contain the Han people.
Madness…
No doubt.””””

Posted by: Sufi | Apr 12 2014 10:14 utc | 106

Matthew Russell Lee of ICP reminds of the precedent clear stance of UN in the case of the US refusing visa for Jasser Arafat 1988, and asked ‘What is the difference?’
http://www.innercitypress.com/unhost1iranarafat041114.html
The difference are Samantha Powers as UN Ambassador and Jeffrey Feltman as executive UN-Secretary General.
‘B’s headline ‘Obama blows up’ is completely misleading and deserves the shitstorm of idiocies that followed.

Posted by: TomGard | Apr 12 2014 10:59 utc | 107

@18:
“‘The Jews’ means the Jewish ruling class – like any other nation, or sizeable and distinct community of any sort, the Jewish nation is composed of classes.”
Jewish ruling class?? Are you insane? What is your problem? Maybe you need to get a life. For once Lou Proyect is probably correct when he describes you as filth or words to that effect.

Posted by: William Bowles | Apr 12 2014 11:47 utc | 108

he could be one really violent person –Toivo #90
like father like son

Posted by: Cu Chulainn | Apr 12 2014 12:03 utc | 109

Wiliam Bowles 106
“Insane”? Rather not. R.B. truely paraphrases “Mein Kampf” and Hitlers “theory” of a Jewish State within the State, being the agency of the “jewish upper class” and it’s clout within financial capital. Just that he adds some more recent semantic ornaments intended to catch nowadays petite bourgeois resentment.
I always opposed banning “Mein Kampf” from public reading.

Posted by: TomGard | Apr 12 2014 12:13 utc | 110

Posted by: TomGard | Apr 12, 2014 8:13:10 AM | 108
I’ve always opposed banning anything
B

Posted by: William Bowles | Apr 12 2014 12:37 utc | 111

Rowan @ 102:
Most interesting comment, regardless of the disapproval from the anti-antisemite watch guard detectors here which must inevitably follow. You seem to be describing US to an uncomfortable T.
There are plenty of other sites they can go to that will jump to stifle debate once someone dares to start dropping the J word.
Hope they don’t start whining too much and you end up being banned like Pragma and kalithea.

Posted by: Prey4 Justice | Apr 12 2014 13:13 utc | 112

Rowan @ 102
“Palestinians are “Semites,” but the word is never applied to prejudice against them, only to Jews. The restriction on the application to Jews, and failure to use it in reference to Palestinians, continues in face of the fact that prejudice against Jews has sharply diminished in the West from the era of Hitler, and that the Arabs have displaced them as the target of anti- “Semite” hostility.
Thus the usage itself reflects power and deep-seated bias….”What is more, the use of “antisemitism” has long been an opportunistic ploy of supporters of Israel to counter criticism of Israel, with mentions of the Holocaust and allegations of prejudice against Jews used to elicit sympathy for Israel, supposedly once again threatened by menacing enemies
“Antisemitism” has been a complement of “terrorism” in the propaganda arsenal of the “friends of Israel,” more properly designated the “supporters and underwriters of Israeli ethnic cleaning….Only the Palestinians terrorize; the Israelis retaliate and are the victims of terror….”
from Edward Herman, “Antisemitism is a tool of Israeli ethnic cleansing”.
http://www.swans.com/library/art8/herman05.html

Posted by: Society of the Spectacle | Apr 12 2014 13:37 utc | 113

“True, we have got into the habit of admiring colossal bandits, whose opulence is revered by the entire world, yet whose existence, once we stop to examine it, proves to be one long crime repeated ad infinitum, but those same bandits are heaped with glory, honors, and power, their crimes are hallowed by the law of the land, whereas, as far back in history as the eye can see—and history, as you know is my business—everything conspires to show that a venial theft, especially of inglorious foodstuffs, such as bread crusts, ham, or cheese, unfailingly subjects its perpetrator to irreparable opprobrium, the categoric condemnation of the community, major punishment, automatic dishonor, and inexpiable shame, and this for two reasons, first because the perpetrator of such an offense is usually poor, which in itself connotes basic unworthiness, and secondly because his act implies, as it were, a tacit reproach to the community. A poor man’s theft is seen as a malicious attempt at individual redress . . . Where would we be? Note accordingly that in all countries the penalties for petty theft are extrememly severe, not only as a means of defending society, but also as a stern admonition to the unfortunate to know their place, stick to their caste, and behave themselves, joyfully resigned to go on dying of hunger and misery down through the centuries forever and ever …” –
Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Posted by: Society of the Spectacle | Apr 12 2014 13:57 utc | 114

“… Bevin’s main scorn is reserved for my claim that ‘the Jews’ wanted WW1, which he has never even seen suggested before and therefore assumes is wrong….”
I’ve seen such nonsense suggested before, but never by sensible people.
The truth is that Jews were very far from power in any of the countries which were responsible for the World War. Of course there were individual businessmen, revolutionaries, financiers and so on-of all an no religions-who welcomed war. None more than the hearty British imperialists and boy scouts who longed for war to “cleanse” a corrupt civilisation. But that had very little to do with the causes of war.
I’m tempted to go through the long lists of powerful politicians and military leaders in the Twentieth Century to demonstrate that very few were Jews and many more were determined anti-semites.But I won’t.
The post at the top of this long thread said nothing about Jewish conspiracies or, for that matter, the neo-liberal meme that Communism is a variety of fascism. Had it done so, I would not have bothered to read it, because such nonsense is readily available in sewers everywhere.
The reason that I and most other people visit this blog is because “b” offers shrewd and original thoughts concerning political developments. These inspire interesting and useful debates from many posting comments. Unfortunately, by attracting an audience, they also tempt neo-nazis and other fanatics, as well as trolls employed to disrupt and discredit, to twist the discussion away from Iran and the US into interminable regurgitations of trivia as likely to be related to foreskins as mouldy propaganda of the ‘Stalin ate babies’ variety.
B’s forte is the exposure of poisonous propaganda campaigns, often stopping them in their tracks, which makes it all the more tragic that so many comments simply repeat the most threadbare propaganda themes of the Cold War and, curiously, the anti-semitism of the Black Hundreds and their unlamented contemporaries is Europe.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 12 2014 14:06 utc | 115

“in” Europe.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 12 2014 14:07 utc | 116

The question arose, “If someone from the 1950s appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing about life to explain to them?” The answer followed, “I possess in my pocket a device capable of accessing all information known to man. I use it to look at pictures of cats and argue with strangers.”
Those who comment here should understand that, after a couple of exchanges, we who frequent this site have the ability to comprehend the respective positions advanced, so that any further “back and forth” grows a bit tedious to others. Perhaps, b, you would be so kind as to force those who continue unabated to at least post links to cat pictures (preferably lolcats) to relieve the tedium their posts invoke.

Posted by: ZK | Apr 12 2014 14:26 utc | 117

The only “visa” speech I’ve heard from the US administration is by Jay Carney, the Whitehouse press guy. Has anyone heard anything from Kerry or O? Right now I’m inclined to think O delegated to someone in State Dept to deny the visa, and therefore cut off Congress’ bill.
O may be the biggest coward ever to sit in the presidency. Certainly, as Dan Rather said, “he’s weak”.

Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 12 2014 14:35 utc | 118

Well, it’s official. 9 out of 10 fake left, TED conference attendees just can’t STAND RB’s statements anymore because they detract from them being able to recycle their own posts from other “progressive” forums. Goddamnit!!! Don’t you know who they are RB?!!!! They read their own stuff regularly at any number of fake left sites and their own blogs and help to manufacture – loaded allusion there, fake lefties – the “cutting edge” of political thought in the fake left West. Why, it’s so sanitized and sweet I can feed it to my kittens and it doesn’t hurt their tummies! There’s no anger and certainly no attempts to investigate avenues that may be uncomfortable to some. Why, they’ve even invoked Proyect to help guide us all into more respectable avenues of thought. Holy shit.
Yeah, it’s sad having watched the advent of the Third Way, fake left multiculturalism in the late 80s/1990s grow to become the dominant paradigm over the last 20+ years. You’d think that after giving us Clinton, Blair, Obama etc and all of the murder/mayhem that their namby-pamby polite feel-goodism is directly responsible for they would have the wherewithal to ditch a mindset that leaves them ineffectively analyzing issues into the ground while the world burns and they patrol for any deviant comments that may offend their group-mindset. But that’s just too much to expect in a world where they and their ilk are respected as wonkish experts on how the world works. At the heart of their objections is the nonsensical fear – that is part and parcel of fake leftism and relentless hammered indoctrinated into the minds of the youth – that if even ONE person says something that may be uncomfortable, why then, it’s obviously the beginning of yet ANOTHER HOLOCAUST!!! OH NOES!!!!!I smell the ovens warming up!!!Better nip it in the bud, Progressives United for a Safe and Sensible Internet Environment in Society.
We will change the world and do it in a polite way that offends no one!!!!(or at least we will be polite!)

Posted by: JSorrentine | Apr 12 2014 14:35 utc | 119

bevin @ 113: ” trolls employed to disrupt and discredit”
Ah yes, a new growth industry.

Posted by: ben | Apr 12 2014 14:37 utc | 120

Of course there’s a global Jewish ruling class. The Jewish ruling class is not restricted by nationality and residence clauses. It’s obvious. Read some fucking Jewish history. You seem to be a complete ignoramus, Bowles, a real example of the ‘am ha’aretz..

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 12 2014 14:41 utc | 121

In feudal history for long periods ignoble crafts, trades and businesses were easy accessible and often even obligatory for Jews. It happend, that part of these more or less ignoble or disdained businesses (and not just profiteering, but also light engeneering and fine mechanics that led to manufacturing) became the most prospering branches in the ascendency of bourgeoisie. So many jewish families became forerunners and avantgardists of capitalist class rule. They did exactly the same as families of the hosting tribes: Keep the property together and plotting in parochial and clan – policys to assure and accrete it. With rural societies heavily bound to the ancient division of lower noblesse on one side and tribal gentry on the other, Jews were mostly urban people.
When in colonial history rural people were dispossessed and driven to the towns, lower class jewish families were driven out, killed or at least depraved, while upper class families were protected by the ruling class. So in many regions the proportion of ascending and depressed jewish families seemed much more favorable, than for the hosting tribes. This was the precondition of the bog out of which crawled “antisemitism”.
“Antisemitism” became an integral part of every political movement that tried to obligate the ruling political aristocracy to “ruling for the people” instead of “ruling in favor of the ruling classes”. The accent is on ruling. Antisemites are fanatics of rule, leadership and dominance entitled to be “for the people”. They are would – be aristocrats of “their” people. Thats the most abject scum of folkish capitalism, indeed. Antisemitism is but contiguous to antijudaism, which has its roots in the role of christian ecclesiastic in the tradition of private property since the fall of the Roman Empire. So antisemitism is also contiguous to racial and rassistic notions, which have other sources in capitalistic society.
And therefore any propaganda against antisemitism that is entitled by the phenomenon of antisemitism and its racial notions, is false – flag – propaganda – false flag either in favor of capitalism, or in favor of the aspirations of the zionist Oligarchy ruling in Israel and their special – often just opportunistic – friends within the bourgeois elites worldwide.
But to a growing extent antisemitism and anti-antisemitism are very well united:
Together they built the most effective anticommunist ideology – complex ever.

Posted by: TomGard | Apr 12 2014 14:57 utc | 122

@Demian. Yes, lies. Monstrous, psychosis-inducing, tobacco-is-safe lies. You use Wikipedia to prove your point. Really? Which anyone can edit?
Think on this: Jackie Kennedy was seen shinnying across the trunklid of the Lincoln Continental, after her husband had been shot, to retrieve a piece of his skull. How can this be if he was shot from behind?
Dare to disbelieve!
Oh, and Conquest was a British Agent; Montefiore hobnobbed with the Royal Family.

Posted by: ruralito | Apr 12 2014 15:13 utc | 123

Perhaps I am alone in this but if I want to read twitter comments I would, you know, log into twitter.

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Apr 12 2014 15:29 utc | 124

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Apr 12, 2014 11:29:20 AM | 124
“Perhaps I am alone in this but if I want to read twitter comments I would, you know, log into twitter.”
Those twitter comments are a hell of a lot more relevant to the discussion than your whining. You people feel a need to control everything and contribute nothing useful.

Posted by: scalawag | Apr 12 2014 16:07 utc | 125

I like the way in which I have drawn all these various people to express their fondly held convictions on such subjects as the mass political psychology of the 1930s and 40s in the less well-educated parts of central Europe. It’s good to be able to see who you are and what particular forms of illogic you imagine will restore the desired form of brainwashing. But I assure you, gentlemen, that there is unlikely to be much overlap between “racial and rassistic notions” of “the most abject scum of folkish capitalism” and what I am actually saying. I like the effect produced by the illusions you attempt to conjure, though. And indeed those who are capable of making sense of this exchange will have got as much as they can from it, and MoA does have more immediate concerns, so thank you all for your assorted insults and encouragements.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 12 2014 16:09 utc | 126

@Chip Nikh | Apr 11, 2014 11:21:09 PM | 75
Russian global exports $542.5 billion (2012 est.) Imports est. $358.1 billion
From your post “Russia’s resource trade is a tiny fraction of overall global trade in dollars.”
If this be tiny, what is small?
But there is also the example/trend: = will others follow suit?
There is also the leverage factor: sometimes even a tiny additional increment to an unstable situation or poised catastrophe can do big damage. A skier shouts lustily and an avalanche buries the village.
You posted “PCR completely ignores the rise of virtual ‘gold’ funds with zero reserves.”
From The Hows and Whys of Gold Price Manipulation by Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler.
“We conclude that ability to manipulate the gold price is disappearing as physical gold moves from New York and London to Asia, leaving the West with paper claims to gold that greatly exceed the available supply.”
and “This manipulation by the Fed involves the short-selling of uncovered Comex gold futures. “Uncovered” means that these are contracts that are sold without any underlying physical gold to deliver if the buyer on the other side decides to ask for delivery. This is also known as “naked short selling.”
PCR early and of late has written honestly about 9/11. He has not shied away from the power of Israel in the United States. If PCR is to be dismissed as a “con”, the standard for effective allies on behalf of decency eliminates pretty much the rest of humanity. .

Posted by: Robert Snefjella | Apr 12 2014 16:39 utc | 127

What do you all think is the best course for Iran? Build a bomb? Or simply use their nuclear facilities for peaceful energy generation?

Posted by: Crest | Apr 12 2014 18:33 utc | 128

The Society of the Spectacle is conducting a survey for research purposes.
As a typical Western liberal, could you please tell us which of the following issues you’re more concerned about?
1) That Goldman Sachs rules the world, with Goldman Sachs executives making $50 million a year and running America’s economy in Washington
2) That Richard Perle,Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen along with dozens of prominent Jewish Neocons who promoted and profited from the invasion of Iraq are doing very well, thank you.
Without getting anywhere near the killing zones, these Neocons have deposited fat checks from Raytheon, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, etc and are living a life of wealth and privilege….
3) That a homeless Iraqi veteran, while passing from a toxic waste dump to a tent city, is rumored to have said something [expletive deleted] antisemitic against either Richard Perle, Jamie Dimon or Paul Wolfowitz.
If you answered 3, you win a prize, and are invited to have lunch on May 17th with Amy Goodman, Host of “Democracy Now”, as well as noted journalist and a passionate voice for alternative perspectives.
Following lunch, Amy will discuss the growing problem of antisemitism, along with Michael Abramowitz, “Director of the Committee on Conscience, which conducts the genocide prevention efforts of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum”.

Posted by: Society of the Spectacle | Apr 12 2014 18:33 utc | 129

The “homeless Iraqi veteran” is “passing from a toxic waste dump to a tent city” after he subscripted to the army and went to Iraq because he wanted to kill bloddy fucking arabian niggers in order to protect America and Its Values. In case he says “something [expletive deleted] antisemitic against either Richard Perle, Jamie Dimon or Paul Wolfowitz” we know, he would go again kill niggers all over the world if a “genuin” American recommends or orders it – for a decent pay, of course.
I personally would prefer to correct his errors, instead of killing him.

Posted by: TomGard | Apr 12 2014 18:53 utc | 130

@all banned: Society of the Spectacle aka Japonica Fenway aka Apple Sunshine aka Christine
@scalawag @Rowan Berkeley: I don’t want your comments here anymore. Go elsewhere.

Posted by: b | Apr 12 2014 19:00 utc | 131

@Demina – no argument, just a discussion.
No, I don’t know why a member of the Soviet Poliburo would declare that the Soviet Union killed 20 millions of its own citizens in cold blood, though I do question why a man would devote his life to rising to the top of what would, if true, the world’s most brutal mass murdering organization, working day in and day out for its success, and only when the country collapsed declare how awful and murderous it was. I also don’t know why, for instance, a drunken fool like Yeltsin would choose to break up his own country when no one was clamoring for it, except, perhaps, the oligarchs in each republic (the Baltic countries aside).
Any part of history that where numbers range from “8 million to 61 million” should be enough to give anyone pause. Is it possible that the population of the Soviet Union, with a population of 200 million in the 1930s, lost any where between one out of five to one out of three (!) members of its population (the “crimes of Stalin” plus the war) of its population and it only came out in the 1980s?
I don’t direct this towards you, btw, but I want to make one point: We have to look at the lying and distortions in the US media not as a new phenomenon, but as an old one. There are huge numbers of people who seem to be able to say “clearly my government is lying to me all the time”, but when it comes to 80 year-old events in a country 4000 miles away – be it Russia, Iran, or China – they think they know just what the story is. And this history is still being created today – with neocon scum like Anne Applebaum writing books about the GULAG while her own country builds a string of torture prisons across the globe.

Posted by: guest77 | Apr 12 2014 20:50 utc | 132

@132 – Oops, Demian. Another misspelled name.

Posted by: guest77 | Apr 12 2014 20:50 utc | 133

The manifestation of Israel’s theft of Palestine and the grotesque domination of the American ruling class by Zionists leads to the proliferation of unworkable and implausible conspiracy theories which turn other actally key players of recent history into mere puppets.
They will diminish, these theories, as Israel’s power diminishes and the American Empire’s unipolar
dominance collapses.

Posted by: amspirnational | Apr 12 2014 21:59 utc | 134

‪#‎Syria‬ News 12/4/2014, U.S Defense Department Produced Sarin Gas Used in Syria & Delivered by Turkey By Syria News
– Austrian citizen, Anton Sarder, liberated by Syrian government from terrorists in Homs recounts horror of four-month captivity – US Defense Department Produced Sarin Gas Used in the chemical attack in Syria & Delivered by Turkey – New information Turkish involvement in chemical attack against Ghouta revealed – U.S forces are supervising the training of terrorist groups in Jordan, urges Israel to attack Syrian Army – Swiss Tv broadcast an interview with a terrorist who was recruited through internet for fighting in Syria – Hama: 2 citizens martyred and 10 injured by truck bomb – Army pursuing terrorists in Aleppo and Dara’a – Army discovers tunnels in Damascus countryside, kills terrorists in different areas – Terrorists’ dens targeted in ‪#‎Aleppo‬ and its countryside
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=HUHEL67OlM4

Posted by: brian | Apr 13 2014 1:03 utc | 135

I just noticed a dyspeptic little request from bernhard that I cease commenting here. What’s the matter with you, bernhard? Have you gone soft or something? Piss off with that polite request.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 13 2014 6:02 utc | 136

I don’t think it matters much anyway if bernhard reduces this entire forum to juvenile, anodyne, boy-scout shit. The horribly misnamed Saker (everybody assumes he is a jesus freak, not knowing that a saker is a bird), will always have worthwhile comments that actually express a significant range of honest and well thought out opinions, whereas there’s be nothing left here but ignorance and outright lies. I gather Mr Pragma is still providing his useful and encouraging rants there, for instance. So, you my dear bernhard, will eventually get so bored writing your careful posts for a bunch of PC drones that you will quit. I on the other hand, will doubtless go from strength to strength, despite my tendency to foul language. Bye bye, suckers.
🙂

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 13 2014 6:10 utc | 137

What? Am I still not banned after all that? HEY, GEDDUP, ASSHOLE! USE YOUR BAN BUTTON, YOU PISSY LITTLE FRAUD!

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 13 2014 6:12 utc | 138

Get out of bed, you lazy old sod. You should have known better than to write your weedy little request that I should cease to comment here, then go to bed and assume that somehow the angels would intercede. They haven’t, and I’m still here, and now I’m really hostile, which I wasn’t before.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 13 2014 6:54 utc | 139

A rejection of the visa application for the new Iranian UN-Ambassador might well have similar consequences as it had when no US-visa was accorded to Arafat in 1988 – the UN General Assembly decided to move its session to Geneva. Moving the General Assembly is possible by a majority vote of the Assembly.
China and countries like the Emirates or South Africa would certainly be very happy to host the General Assembly. So many states could be interested to host future meetings of the General Assembly that proposals to move the Assembly away from New York might very well reach a majority.

Posted by: alpino | Apr 13 2014 7:50 utc | 140

Rowan Berkeley is a frustrated wanker who thinks he understands everything. He is a rabid anti-semite and probably has no life aside from the internet and venting his convoluted thoughts which amount to nothing but some kind of cyber space reality.
He randomly uses Hebrew words and phrases but has no working knowledge of the Hebrew language.
Basically he sees that there is an entity called “Jews/Judaism” and he is just not part of it to his dismay.
He does not understand it because he belongs to a different reality and will do anything to deny the Jewish existence as a religion/race/people or whatever have you.
So let him cook in his own feces.

Posted by: amir | Apr 13 2014 10:59 utc | 141

Ha, it’s that boy amir, who crawled to Niqnaq last year saying he wanted to convert to the equally stupid religion of Xianity. I advised him against it, and suggested he learn to do without either of them. Amir, you should brush up on your metaphors. Our top-of-the-range choice this week is “swirling around in a cesspool of hate.” Admitted, it makes no sense, since cesspools don’t swirl, but we have found that from a psychological point of view, this actually makes it work better.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Apr 13 2014 15:43 utc | 142

wanker who thinks he understands everything. . . . and probably has no life aside from the internet and venting his convoluted thoughts which amount to nothing but some kind of cyber space reality.
that pretty much covers almost every regular commenter here

Posted by: brb | Apr 13 2014 15:46 utc | 143

ruralito @76, maybe this will convince you.
Stalin’s Jews
We mustn’t forget that some of greatest murderers of modern times were Jewish
by Sever Plocker, Ynetnews, December 21, 2006.

Posted by: MRW | Apr 14 2014 1:27 utc | 144

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Posted by: lungiworkers | Apr 25 2014 10:28 utc | 145

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Posted by: lungiworkers | Apr 25 2014 11:18 utc | 146