Oil price slide rocks world economy

While American financial markets appear thus far to have been only marginally affected by the OPEC decision, the falling oil price will have major long-term consequences. One of the motivating factors for the Saudi decision appears to have been its determination to squeeze relatively high-cost US shale oil producers out of the market by driving prices lower. …
A continued slide in the oil price will have major consequences for junk bond and leveraged loan markets in the US. With oil prices reaching around $100 per barrel in 2011, shale oil production became profitable, even at extraction costs of between $60 and $70 per barrel. As recently as the start of the year, it was expected that oil prices would remain at $100 per barrel and shale oil was increasingly held up as providing a new vista for American economic expansion.
Over the past five years, using ultra-cheap money provided by the Fed, banks and financial speculators poured money into companies involved in shale oil extraction, with the result that energy debt now accounts for 16 percent of the $1.3 trillion US junk bond market, compared to 4 percent a decade ago.
Unlike more traditional methods of oil production, where physical capital has a relatively long life, shale oil extraction requires the continuous acquisition of new capital equipment. This means the industry is highly dependent on the flow of funds from financial markets. If this begins to dry up, companies could go bankrupt, with major flow-on consequences for the financial system as a whole.
As the case of Russia so clearly demonstrates, the underlying recessionary tendencies have been exacerbated by the increase in geo-political tensions.
Now a negative feedback process could be set in motion as the deepening global slump heightens conflicts among the major powers.

Today Turkey, tomorrow Saudi Arabia …

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 2 2014 19:44 utc | 3

@1: Peep this, TM: http://cannonfire.blogspot.ca/
Scroll down to the “Hands up” piece.
Usually, differing accounts require a TRIAL, with an actual DEFENCE being presented to a Jury.

Posted by: ben | Dec 2 2014 20:29 utc | 5

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 2, 2014 2:20:06 PM | 2
Yep, Amerika plenty of money for bullets and bombs but to feed people wither here in Amerika or all the refuges we create not so much. Sad:(

Posted by: jo6pac | Dec 2 2014 20:31 utc | 7

The UN’s NPT vote

In a 174-6 with six abstentions, the General Assembly called on Israel Monday to join the NPT “without further delay,” and to open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The US, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau deserve praise for once again standing by Israel.

That’s Canada, Israel, and the US voting 4 times. The 800 kilogram (or is it megaton) gorilla remains seated in the middle of the room, on a pile of bodies … Palestinians’ and Iranian Physicists’, pointing its finger at Iran, claiming that Iran ‘might’, at some point in the future, enrich Uranium to make a bomb. And it’s puppets dance at the ends of their strings.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 2 2014 20:52 utc | 9

jfl – i enjoy the direction of your posts.
@4 demian.. i guess Link to ACLU is another arm of the new kiev propaganda wing – funded perhaps by rich bozo’s like soros..
john helmer has a good post up here titled “THE RUSSIA WAR PARTY CAN’T SPEAK GERMAN, TRAMPLES CHANCELLOR MERKEL’S MEANING”.
and in other interesting news from the kiev post here george sorry ass soros found some chump change for helping “Global recruiting agencies find 24 foreigners to work in Ukraine’s government.”

Posted by: james | Dec 2 2014 21:19 utc | 11

Chris Hedges video from TRNN: Don’t care for the host, but CH is always interesting:
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/78439

Posted by: ben | Dec 2 2014 21:26 utc | 13

NYT Shows How Propaganda Works
usa mainstream media pretends it operates with professional standards of objectivity and fairness, but – especially in its international reporting – the only real standards are double standards, as the New York Times has shown on Ukraine and Syria
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/02/nyt-shows-how-propaganda-works/

Posted by: Agent 99 | Dec 2 2014 22:09 utc | 15

In a country where police brutality and murder is in evidence every day, where every cop now looks like a black-shirt stormtrooper, in a country with the highest rates of incarceration anywhere, in a country where innocent people are routinely found languishing on death rows, where police forces and repression have more to spend than schools and hospitals, where spying is routine and held to no accountability, in a country where “democracy” is little more than a facade for rule by the wealthy and the powerful – what else should we expect from the police here?
The biggest surprise is that people feel the need to spend their free time defending one of the most powerful and well-organized forces in the United States.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 3 2014 0:32 utc | 17

There is every reason to believe that the United States intends a role of Ukraine similar to what the Western Powers sought for the Nazis in Germany: a fanatic bulwark against Russia, fully capable of entering a war with it – winning it not necessary).
Do we really imagine that powerful people sitting in Washington care a whit for Ukraine or her people? That they wouldn’t sacrifice all 45 million Ukrainians to further their chances to rule the world? A war between Ukraine and Russia – two people who just 20 years ago were hardly different at all – benefits the United States in every way.
Of course there is no chance that Ukraine would last a week in such a conflict – but then war in Europe benefits only one power.
I suppose this is what those traitors – Yeltsin and Kravchuk – expected would happen when they so gleefully and short-sightedly broke up a giant nation? When the Americans promised them “Freedom” and “Liberty” and “Capitalism”? Right?

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 3 2014 0:50 utc | 19

re: UN can’t provide vouchers, short 64 big, several million beneficiaries threatened in the middle east.
Maybe they should offer Goldman Sachs the job of issuing plastic data cards and figuring out the vig to run the “outsourced natives of Syria” gold card. Capiche, lets make a deal.

Posted by: Jay M | Dec 3 2014 1:39 utc | 21

@16 jfl..answer to your question – nothing, but if you see the format for posting a link – the example uses Link to ACLU in it.. i forgot to remove that and put “this” in it’s place..
i thought the john helmer was a little more specific by pointing out how the russian war party translators are doing merkels comments a dis-service by being poorly translated. that wasn’t discussed in the spiegel article that i recall.
your conclusion on monsanto getting a seat at the table thanks to soros makes a lot of sense. i don’t know, but if bidens kid can get a gig at an important corp – may as well spread the mayham or raping and pillaging around.. what better corp to do this with them monsanto..
@14 demian.. that article was worthwhile, but perhaps a bit optimistic..
@22 augmented ether.. that is all cool on an open thread. i will take a look when i get a chance and try to comment later.

Posted by: james | Dec 3 2014 2:09 utc | 23

Posted by: Demian | Dec 2, 2014 4:52:22 PM | 14
Thanks, good article. On Monday, RT covered the joint address by Putin & Erdogan, at length, after their final meeting. Unfortunately, everything but the gist of what was said was lost on me due to RT forgetting to mute P & E’s voices to give the English translation prominence, and I haven’t had time to visit RT or the Kremlin websites. But it’s a step in the right direction for Turkey and I’m tempted to assume that Erdogan got tired of being a (humiliated) stooge for the US 1%’s M-IC.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 3 2014 2:25 utc | 25

@26
Which one is more likely to ‘go’, Assad or Erdogan?

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 2:47 utc | 27

“Not in the mood to write.”
b.
Dec 2, 2014.
Cheer up, b.
I’ve been visiting the Excellent MoA for a couple of years and this is the first time you’ve taken a deep breath. If it’s any comfort, I was being ironic when I accused you of panicking as an intro to my ‘analysis’ of the AP article. I was fully aware that you drew attention to it BECAUSE it was such a load of simpering idiocy.
Also, I think ChipNihk was correct to insinuate that commenting on Washington’s blizzard of reflexive, defensive, deflecting, horseshit is reminiscent of Karl Rove’s
“and you, all of you, will be left to just examine, judiciously as you will, what we do.”
or whatever…
There’s no easy solution to that problem. So take you’re time. I can wait …

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 3 2014 3:10 utc | 29

Our story up unitl now : The CIA brings the Tsaernaev family to Washington from Chechnya planning to groom the brothers as terrorists to be sent back to ‘trouble’ Russia in Chechnya. The boys’ uncle even marries the daughter of Graham Fuller, the CIA’s godfather of al Qaeda.
Things don’t go as planned. The boys, especially the elder, become disenthralled with the CIA/USA.
There is a bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, and the boys are implicated.
After bizarre totalitarian police FBI/(CIA)/Police action in Boston, the elder boy is killed and younger captured.
With the exception of ocassional, bizarre, incidents incompletely reported, the whole ‘incident’ is flushed down the memory hole by the MSM.
The most recent, bizarre, incompletely reported incident …
Shocking new information in Tsarnaev case casts doubt on official story about the killing of Ibragim Todashev

In a stunning reversal, federal prosecutors claim in an October 2014 court filing that they have “no evidence” to suggest Tamerlan Tsarnaev “participated in” a triple murder in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2011. Officials had previously leaked to the press assertions precisely contrary to the new declaration. The federal government’s new claim comes in response to motions filed by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s attorneys seeking information from the government about Tamerlan’s participation in the murders. Documents confirming Tamerlan’s involvement in the 2011 murders would help the defense show that the elder Tsarnaev intimidated his younger brother.
By claiming to possess “no evidence” that Tamerlan was involved in the slayings, the DOJ might very well succeed in its goal to keep secret records related to the Waltham investigation and sought by the defense.

Terrorism, anywhere on the planet, but certainly in the USA or in the vicinity of the USA’s ubiquitous presence almost always involves the CIA. And, in America, the CIA always walks. No problem.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 3:27 utc | 31

@Susan Sunflower #28:
Thanks for that link; that’s a good story. I’m not sure about the Syrian air force dropping bombs on known populated areas, however. But destroying infrastructure is certainly a central part of the American way of war. See Serbia and Ukraine, not to mention World War II and the Civil War, in which I guess this practice started.
Speaking of Washington and Syria, there is this interesting development:
Washington takes heat off President Bashar al-Assad
@ john francis lee #31:
WhoWhatWhy and Boiling Frogs are good on the Boston Marathon bombings/Tsarnaevs. The FBI also always gets walks, like that execution of a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s friend in Florida.

Posted by: Demian | Dec 3 2014 4:10 utc | 33

Russian Spring
11/30/2014-18:35
Summary by Council of National Security of Ukraine (remarks by combatant Prokhorov in parantheses):
In Donetsk region, at 7 a.m. Ukrainian troops repelled yet another storm of the airport (at that time Ukrainians attempted to enter the territory of airport; the column and the opponent in the airport building were subjected to mortar fire; several of 95th airmobile were wounded, 93rd lost an APC; Ukrainians requested artillery support, which the combatants were suppressing by “Grads” and self-propelled artillery).
“Grads” and mortars struck bases near hamlet Novobakhmutovka four times (this was yesterday – zone of security moves further north of Donetsk).
In Lugansk region, under settlement Stanitsa-Luganskaya one more storm of a platoon outpost following mortar bombardment was repelled (an reconnaissance group passed into Ukraine-controlled part of Stanitsa-Luganskaya, where Ukrainians, 128th brigade, expelled locals and retrofitted residences into facilities for soldiers’ rest and dining; those were hit in the morning; Ukrainians raided to get the reconnaissance; due to chaotic fire some residences and administration buildings were damaged; the reconnaissance left unharmed).
In area of Bakhmutka, positions in settlement Donetskiy, under hamlet Sokol`niki, were bombarded (Ukrainians are hesitant to admit a strike at an outpost at a road intersection Zolotoye-Lisichans-Lugansk , and similar strike near town Gorskoye).
In Debal`tsevo region, Ukrainian’s forces near hamlet Nikishino and town Debal`tsevo were attacked by mortars and firearms.
In Mariupol` region, Ukrainian forces were bombarded near hamlets Nikolayevka and Petrovskoye.
Casualties: 2 Ukrainian soldiers had fallen, 4 were wounded.

Posted by: Fete | Dec 3 2014 4:48 utc | 35

D@33
Todashev was a steroid doped cage fighter, street thug and admitted triple murderer. There is video of his verbal confession not long before he freaked and attacked the FBI agent leaving him needing five staples to close the head wound from the table Todashev attacked him with.
Todashev was so dense he asked the officers how long he would be in jail for the murders. All he had to do was be quiet and he would have left for Russia the next day but he was too stupid to realize the Feds had no evidence of his involvement.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Dec 3 2014 5:36 utc | 37

The “taming” of Europe or Putin’s new compromise

“We will reroute the flow of our energy resources to other regions of the world, including through the promotion and accelerated implementation of projects for liquefied natural gas. We will develop other markets, and Europe will not receive these volumes, in any case, from Russia. We believe that this is not consistent with the economic interests of Europe and undermines our cooperation. But this is the choice of our European friends” ( RIA Novosti )
Europe has a problem – it is sick with “Americanism” and “Obamamania”. A good friend and doctor Putin had prescribed the best medicine – the healing energy starvation. Judging by the screams of European politicians and media at the sight of the prescription, the treatment will be difficult, but effective.

One of the Merkel links above had Merkel ‘cautioning’ that following US plans – which of course she will continue to do, like a good girl – had the ‘potential’ of splitting Europe.
Yeah. Maybe when she wakes up she will discover that the split has occurred not only between the German voters and herself and her party, but also that Russia has succeeded in isolating the USA … and not even on purpose but in self-defense. And that the people for whom she worked so faithfully – hint, not the Germans – don’t even remember her name.
I used to think that only the financial collapse of the USA would end the Bush/Obama string of aggressions and war crimes … and that probably still is the case.
But if they had only cut to the chase and gone after Russia soonest, gotten their asses kicked soonest, we – and the world – might have avoided oh! so much death and devastation at the hands of Cheney and his successor, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 7:59 utc | 39

@33
Was Todashev – thanks for his name WoW – killed buy an FBI agent? I read somewhere, right after his murder, that the guy who offed him was ‘on loan’ from the CIA. Then, of course, there was never anything said along those lines again.
Not that uncommon a pattern, apparently, the CIA using FBI cover for American operations. The guy who denied the request to impound Massoui’s laptop right before 9/11 was a CIA guy ‘on loan’ to the FBI as well, as I remember.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 8:10 utc | 41

Tomas Young: November 30, 1979 – November 10, 2014 – My Last Words to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney by TOMAS YOUNG
Brilliant and tasteful summation of a soldiers opinion about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the perpetrators of those wars.

Posted by: really | Dec 3 2014 8:30 utc | 43

Test..

Posted by: ndcenter | Dec 3 2014 9:47 utc | 45

14, 25
Erdogan has a $1BILLION presidential palace to explain to the Turkish voters, actually it’s far over budget at $1.2BILLION. So I’m sure the plutarchs in Putin’s Deep Cabinet offered to help Erdogan make his mortgage payments disappear, in return for an alternative to the South Stream pipeline cancellation. But Erdogan will play both sides against the middle, as always. There is nothing in his past to suggest your optimism that he’s ‘changed sides’, nor is there any reason to believe that Russia will escape US sanctions and KSA crush by
‘Turning to Asia’. Their first pipeline project with China is fraught with disaster.
37
Officer Opie double-tapped the Brown kid thru the forehead and right eye socket. I would say that’s pretty strong forensic evidence that Officer Opie assassinated the poor kid, for shoplifting some ‘cigarillos’. Let’s assassinate all lower-class shop-lifters, shall we? What about all the white bitches that shoplift mascara, purses, dresses, every damn thing?
What about those UberMenschen wives who return $10,000 items the next day, after the Big Party, essentially high class theft. Shall we double-tap them too, to a Gershwin ballad:
‘One Tap, Two Tap, Double Tap Them All,
Cut the Shrinkage, Build the Margins,
We Have to Save This ****’g Mall!!’
Now opening on Tin Pan Alley.
41
Ukraine is seen as a pawn in the Russia Play, as a significant global arms manufacturing profit center, and as the rocket motor nexus for a new Boeing-Lockheed heavy lift Mission Mars con on the American taxpayer, nothing more.
The dual-citizen Israeli coup leaders may see Ukraine as an Israeli tax-dodge banking haven, imitating Syria, I’d guess that’s their game, and as the beneficiary of US Deep Government largesse, like the $5B Kerry gift, the coup leaders immediately disappeared.
Kiev will shell Donetsk into rubble, the same as Hebron shelled Gaza into rubble.
42
JFL, you are crazy if you think CBH2 is going to save humanity, or MENA. Hydrogen gas is extremely, extremely difficult to handle, extremely dangerous to store pressurized, and frankly has an extremely low energy potential when burned with atmospheric oxygen. It will be converted to methanol, then you have the same problem with ethanol, it can’t be shipped by pipeline, it absorbs water from the air, it has zero lubricity, and eats engine parts.
There is NOTHING on the horizon that even REMOTELY replaces the role of hydrocarbon fuels, and as that’s now the centerpiece of all global unrest, the likelihood is that Hydrogen™ will be just another Boeing tax-credit grab from the helpless US taxpayers. They can’t even make it work in Iceland. It is possible that roof PV will be combined with electrolysis on demand together with Japanese space heaters/water heaters/fuel cells, but that’s about it.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Dec 3 2014 10:38 utc | 47

@ TM #37: “There is no physical evidence that contradicts Officer Wilson.”
True. Because the police department was derelict in collecting evidence promptly. My issues are no longer about what happened between Brown and Wilson, but how the authorities handled the case.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 3 2014 11:50 utc | 49

HRW praise Poroshenko.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/12/ukraine-human-rights-201412210270208204.html

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 3 2014 13:51 utc | 51

Then there’s this inconvenient fact:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12719

Posted by: ben | Dec 3 2014 15:33 utc | 53

jfl@40
Most of what was reported, about the incident, immediately after the killing of Todashev was incorrect so the CIA connection is probably BS, I think the agent was an ex cop. Even if there was some connection it doesn’t change the facts of this incident and the fact that Todashev admitted he was a triple murderer and freaked out when he realized what was going to happen to him, at best life in prison and probably a death sentence.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Dec 3 2014 16:27 utc | 55

@56 noirette. thanks.

Posted by: james | Dec 3 2014 18:03 utc | 57

Ah, just saw Noirette’s excellent post at 56, very much expanding on our current, less than ideal conditions and less than trustworthy powers involved.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 3 2014 18:19 utc | 59

@really #60 “The other problem is the de[m]onization of the word liberal. The constitution of the United States of America is as liberal as it gets. The word freedom is also as liberal as it gets. Think about it, Americans are free to law abidingly roam in public spaces without persecution, they have the freedom to speak their mind, they have they freedom to worship as they see fit etc., etc. These are liberal ideals and conservatives practice them everyday. In my opinion the word liberal should not be demonized or deemed dirty in the eyes of conservatives, it should be seen as just another word which is related to those other words called freedom and liberty. ”
Part of the reason for the demonization noted above is that “Freedom to speak minds” has morphed into “Freedom to agree with political correctness”.
What was once a nation where the Golden Rule existed – effectively where your right to punch ends right before my nose – is evolving to one where people aren’t even allowed to practice their own beliefs in their own homes, businesses, or families.
The essence of conservatism isn’t anti-abortion, GWOT or neoliberal economics – it is the notion that all that is not necessary for public governance is none of the government’s business – much as the essence of liberalism/progressivism isn’t gay rights or whatever rights, it is the equalization of society and society’s opportunities for all.
Today, both ostensible political conservatives and liberals have united in serving the 1% – primarily through attacking the 99%.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 3 2014 20:21 utc | 61

Here are a couple of complementary articles on color revolutions:
The Color Revolution Model: An Exposé of the Core Mechanics
Egypt: Revolution Versus the Counterrevolution in the Age of Social Media
The first one describes Euromaidan down to a t.

Posted by: Demian | Dec 3 2014 22:21 utc | 63

@60
The problem with liberal, to me, is that liberal, as in liberal democracy or neo-liberal, has come to mean my freedom to exploit you, if I am strong enough to do so, without any interference from you and your collective, similarly exploited brothers and sisters. The word’s connotations have overshadowed its denotation.
I’ve been reading Michael Parenti, and a chapter of his book Democracy for the few – Chapter 2, A Constitution for the few – is devoted to the original sins of the founding fathers. With good links to other sources. The book is easy to find – its title brings it right up at btdigg.org.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 23:56 utc | 65

@jfl – Thanks for mentioning Parenti. He is a great to hear – and an excellent historian to boot.
Here is my favorite talk by him: Reflection on the Overthrow of Communism

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 4 2014 0:26 utc | 67

Having been quiet for a few days, I have a couple of rounds of intoxicating links to pour out. Belly up, Barflies, slainte.
Back then to my current obseession, coups and rumours of coups by the militias, served straight up.
Talk of trouble by the “volunteer battalions” is seeping towards the MSM. New Cold War has this from the Daily Beast Ukraine Militias warn of Kiev Coup. It begins by noting that many of the battalions are privately funded by oligarchs and goes on to discuss their grievances and demands.

They have been funding Ukrainian self-defense militias formed in response to what they see as the ineffectiveness of the Ukraine Armed Forces in the face of pro-Moscow separatists and Russian troops in the country’s southeast. And they suggest something worse than incompetence is at work there. The word “betrayal” often plays on their lips. They predict the government of President Petro Poroshenko may not last another three months. “That’s optimistic,” says Alexander [a self-described “patriotic businessman” and militia funder]….
Gratitude isn’t what volunteers in the so-called territorial defense battalions want from Kiev. They want more determination from authorities, a greater sense of direction, and they need more equipment.

As a responsible commentator, after having discussed the complaints of the volunteers, the DB is suitably dismissive. Here’s a classic media ploy — unnamed source, with a swipe at Moscow and a finely hedged bet. (I wonder what the London oddsmakers have on that action? Do I want the over/under or the point spread?)

A Kiev-based senior Western diplomat here discounts the likelihood of some kind of uprising by frustrated volunteer battalions, saying that is something Kremlin propagandists like to forecast. “That would fit into the Kremlin narrative,” says the diplomat. “Russia never got it that the Maidan uprising was a truly popular rebellion by ordinary people who just had had enough of Yanukovich and felt angry and humiliated.”
“I can’t see hundreds of thousands of ordinary people coming out on the streets of Kiev like they did for the Maidan uprising, if the battalions descended on the capital,” he says. “Is it possible there could be trouble from the volunteers? I don’t know. I hate to make predictions here: No one saw Maidan happening.”

But folks are out in the streets — Masked people block Khreshchatyk Street in Kiev.

A group of young people wearing masks gathered by the Stela monument on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). Then the column of activists headed toward Bankova Street, throwing firecrackers at passersby. The objective of this march remained unknown for some time because the protesters did not make a sound.
However, our sources reported that the protesters demanded the resignation of Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Vitalyi Yarema. The protest was backed by Dnipropetrovsk Governor and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, because the Prosecutor-General’s Office has opened criminal cases against many of his subordinates.

And our heroes in the Azov Brigade have been busy in Kiev as the Nazi battalion raids Kiev plants. According to the report, the volunteers have seized a number of factories with good transport links as staging areas for as yet unspecified future action.
And now on to the next round, a cocktail of politics and war. Stirred, not shaken.
I believe I’ve seen Yury Kot’s work before, the name seems familiar but I don’t recall anything specific. But a name worth noting, I’d say. Here he is predicting Kiev will join Novorossiya in 2017. FWIW, Ukraina.ru (run by Rossiya Segodnya) is by far the slickest of the sites cited here. NCW is clean and professional, I find Russia Insider a little busy.
Anyway, this cat is throwin’ it down.

You will never learn to love. Your patriotism is defined entirely by hatred of Russia, not love for Ukraine.
But, on the other hand, you will have the unique opportunity of going where nobody wants you, namely the EU and NATO. What? Do you still believe they are waiting for you there? You are a funny lot. Now, without the southeast, they don’t want you, not even for free.
Nobody needs a rump Ukraine, without industrial and intellectual Novorossiya, and packed with neo-fascists that the hunger and cold will soon turn into suicide bombers or Golden Trident extremists. Quite the contrary, they will all dissociate themselves from it. And you will be left to face your yellow-and-blue karma.

Reuters reported on Strelkov’s softball interview with “Zavtra.” In presenting it, Russia Insider describes it as a slanted opinion piece that “…does present important background on Strelkov and his role, even as it tries to use him to present Russian policies and narrative of East Ukraine conflict in the worst possible light.” Key fact, IMHO, is that after weeks of anti-Maidan demonstrations —

Having just lost Crimea to Russia without a fight, the provisional government in Kiev was confused and unresponsive. Meeting almost no resistance, pro-Russian protesters stormed the regional administration in Donetsk and proclaimed a “people’s republic.” Less than a week later, Girkin led the takeover of a string of towns north of Donetsk.

The Donbas is doin’ it for itself, so to speak, in Miners in the Armies of the Peoples Republics. “We are neither separatists nor terrorists. We are people of the working class”, the miners explain on June 18th at the Lenin monument in Donetsk. “We want peace in our country and we want to be heard. Kiev sends mercenaries, murderers, tanks and aircraft against us. We demand an immediate armistice!”
Here’s an interesting piece — Arms Experts Believe Most Weapons In Ukraine Are Locally Sourced.

The majority of arms and munitions documented in service with separatist forces have evidently been appropriated from the Ukrainian security forces and their installations within Ukraine…. The Ukrainian regime has access to more powerful weapon systems, in greater numbers, and with a more robust logistical chain than separatist forces could hope to muster without overt support from a foreign power.”

And finally, the most interesting bit, I think, again courtesy of NCW. You may recall, I’ve commented that I usually don’t do videos, except for tunes. But I would call this one some “Must See TV.” Ukrainian Army Major Condemns the War in Eastern Ukraine. Reserve Maj. Oleksandr Taran speaks with Espresso TV about his recent trip with humanitarian aid to the Donbas, where he spoke with fighters on both sides. Attractively sub-titled.
It’s a fascinating presentation, IMHO. At 1.46, he says the main complaint of folks in Lugansk was that Kiev was not listening to their concerns. At about 2.09, he says the rank and file on both sides want peace, but a few in power want the war to continue, in part to line their own pockets. He saw no Russian regulars, though he saw Cossacks and Russian during his 300-km trip through the region, including combat zones (3.07). After accusing the junta of failing to follow the law and Constitution in regards to the war in the Donbas, he describes the army as acting like terrorists and torturing detainees (4.35).

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 4 2014 0:59 utc | 69

And now on to the next round, a cocktail of politics and war. Stirred, not shaken.
I believe I’ve seen Yury Kot’s work before (as Yuri the Cat, I think) . The name seems familiar but I don’t recall anything specific. But a name worth noting, I’d say. Here he is predicting Kiev will join Novorossiya in 2017. This cat is throwin’ it down.

You will never learn to love. Your patriotism is defined entirely by hatred of Russia, not love for Ukraine.
But, on the other hand, you will have the unique opportunity of going where nobody wants you, namely the EU and NATO. What? Do you still believe they are waiting for you there? You are a funny lot. Now, without the southeast, they don’t want you, not even for free.
Nobody needs a rump Ukraine, without industrial and intellectual Novorossiya, and packed with neo-fascists that the hunger and cold will soon turn into suicide bombers or Golden Trident extremists. Quite the contrary, they will all dissociate themselves from it. And you will be left to face your yellow-and-blue karma.

Reuters reported on Strelkov’s softball interview with “Zavtra.” In presenting it, Russia Insider describes it as a slanted opinion piece that “…does present important background on Strelkov and his role, even as it tries to use him to present Russian policies and narrative of East Ukraine conflict in the worst possible light.” Key fact, IMHO, is that after weeks of anti-Maidan demonstrations —

Having just lost Crimea to Russia without a fight, the provisional government in Kiev was confused and unresponsive. Meeting almost no resistance, pro-Russian protesters stormed the regional administration in Donetsk and proclaimed a “people’s republic.” Less than a week later, Girkin led the takeover of a string of towns north of Donetsk.

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 4 2014 1:18 utc | 71

Thank you rufus. The Kiev cocktail, without the South Stream pipeline, must be less and less popular in Brussels (and Berlin).

Posted by: dh | Dec 4 2014 1:29 utc | 73

“…However the Europeans did not envisage that Russia would just supply them with energy. Rather they always supposed this energy would be extracted for them in Russia by Western energy companies.
This after all is the pattern in most of the developing world. The EU calls this “energy security” – a euphemism for the extraction of energy in other countries by its own companies under its own control It never happened that way. Though the Russian oil industry was privatised it mostly remained in Russian hands.
After Putin came to power in 2000 the trend towards privatisation in the oi ndustry was reversed. One of the major reasons for western anger at the arrest of Khodorkovsky and the closure of Yukos and the transfer of its assets to the state oil company Rosneft was precisely because is reversed this trend of privatisation in the oil industry In the gas industry the process of privatisation never really got started. Gas export continued to be controlled by Gazprom, maintaining its position as a state owned monopoly gas exporter. Since Putin came to power Gazprom’s position as a state owned Russian monopoly has been made fully secure.
Much of the anger that exists in the west towards Putin can be explained by European and western resentment at his refusal and that of the Russian government to the break up of Russia’s energy monopolies and to the “opening up” (as it is euphemistically called) of the Russian energy industry to the advantage of western companies.
Many of the allegations of corruption that are routinely made against Putin personally are intended to insinuate that he opposes the “opening up” of the Russian energy industry and the break up and privatisation of Gazprom and Rosnef because he has a personal stake in them (in the case of Gazprom, that he is actually its owner). If one examines in detail the specific allegations of corruption made against Putin (as I have done this quickly becomes obvious…”
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-importance-of-cancellation-of-south.html?m=1
The western oil industry always attempts, sometimes with deadly success, to attack and smear leaders who stick to there guns and keep their oil industries in their country’s control. Look at the examples of the late Cesar Chavez of Venezuela and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Putin is the current target of the western oil industries venom. Disgusting tactics if you ask me.

Posted by: ndcenter | Dec 4 2014 1:46 utc | 75

Russian Spring
12/03/2014-13:20
Summary from fronts by combatant Prokhorov:
The night passed relatively peacefully in “hot spots” such as Donetsk, Avdeevka, Debal`tsevo and gorskoye.
In one exception the combatants retaliated for shelling Komsomol`skoye and Dokuchaevsk (Volnovakha region, south of Donetsk). The strike targeted positions of 28th brigade near Stepnoye (faces Dokuchayevsk).
A couple of hours ago “Grads” struck outposts 13 and 21 near Mariupol` (settlements Vinogradovo and Talakovka). Ukrainians shot back hour and half later at empty already positions.
After short morning calm, battles reignited in Lugansk Republic. Zolotoye against Pervomaysk exchanged courtesies; Ukrainians were hit in Bakhmutka and Lisichansk area.
Comment: A new truce was apparently negotiated from yesterday evening. In addition to summary from combatant Prokhorov, a serious artillery fight resumed on fringes of Debal`tsevo half-caldron/pocked in hamlet Nikishino: “through day, combatants’ artillery actively competed with Ukrainian artillery”…

Posted by: Fete | Dec 4 2014 4:26 utc | 77

@john francis lee #76:
Ah, you quote from this link, which I had not followed. I think the joke about “appropriation of ‘Marxist®’ intellectual property” is uncalled for (and I have never considered myself to be a Marxist). I think that the Syncretic Studies people are just infuriated that with the “theory” used by USG for color revolutions, capitalism is yet again coopting revolutionary/progressive thought (in this case Gramsci (whom I have not read)).
As for “electronic society”, I do not think that too much attention is being paid to it. The appearance of social media and blogs, creating an alternative to official media, certainly changed the environment within which the destabilization and overthrow of governments operates. And everyone having a cell phone from which they can instantly send a photo or video they have just taken is also a significant development. For example, there are countless videos on YouTube of Right Sector thugs roughing up people who are not pro-Maidan, so I don’t have to take some blogger’s word for it that that is a common occurrence.
You talk about “the abject failure of the western instigated and financed color revolution in Ukraine”. But there is a reason it is called the empire of chaos. The objective is to create chaos in regions which the Empire has not been able to subjugate, simply because a major part of US foreign policy is not allowing any countries who do not enter the “global economy”, become “liberal and democratic”, and follow the anglophone economic model to succeed. In this respect, the Vietnam War was a success from the USG point of view.

Posted by: Demian | Dec 4 2014 6:42 utc | 79

@77
Well I’m sorry I was trying to be a smart ass and making a joke at their expense.
I was puzzled by Gene Sharp, am puzzled by Gene Sharp. I embraced his book on ‘The Anti-coup’, which I read after my first coup here in Thailand in 2006. Then I got drift of his CIA association … sent him an email asking him point blank, he denied it. Now I just let the work stand on its own, the motivation behind its creation regardless. But the pique of Ernesto at the lack of footnotes probably does add fuel to the CIA story, if he wrote it for them it would hardly do to footnote the ‘commies’ would it?
On the internet … well here we are. It’s great, I love it. I no longer go to the library because the library has come to me. I no longer buy newspapers because there are many more various accounts of the news available right here than there are in the ‘real’ MSM. But there is a shallow, ‘TV’ side to the internet as well and that’s the side that is capitalized, free pun, by NED/USAID and CDD. I think that point made in the counterpoint article is worth noting. The internet is a revolutionary invention, but it works for all sides and does not, somehow, favor one side over another. In fact the argument that it is centralized and physically controlled by a handful of hegemons is easier to make than not. Ask Edward Snowden.
I am aware that the Empire has settled for death and devastation in place of ‘victory’ … but it’s mask is off now. The points made from the Russian side about the US as viscous hypocrites laid bear are relevant. And facing chaos Russia and China and the other world actors are just going to stand for it any longer.
No one believes the Emperor’s story any more. The US and Israel, the Five Eyes, are all exposed as the utter frauds they are and that is the sense of abject failure I was referring to as their failure in Ukraine and in Iraq and everywhere else they’ve wreaked death and devastation in this millennium.
Those places have suffered and will suffer monstrously but will survive. And they will never forget who did this to them and why. The empire is driving the nails into its own coffin, no matter how loudly it whistles while it works, and walks by the cemetery.
Maybe I’m wrong. I hope not.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 4 2014 9:03 utc | 81

“…The death of the 18-year-old Michael Brown in early August sparked several weeks of riots n the St. Louis suburb and exposed racial tensions that have been building up for years.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said last week Russia was closely following the events and would like to remind Washington of the need to strictly comply with its commitment to guarantee democratic standards and civil liberties.”
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930912001579

Posted by: really | Dec 4 2014 9:13 utc | 83

But then he says “we all know how capital is earned here but let’s forget it once and forever” and I have no idea what he means. Can anyone with an in-depth knowledge of Russian economics explain that?
Posted by: Ulster | Dec 4, 2014 4:46:03 AM | 81
It’s Russian humour. No-one seriously believes that oligarchs, in Russia or anywhere else, “earned” their billions by “working.”

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 4 2014 11:42 utc | 85

… unless one defines “work” as buying politicians to get a semi-exclusive right to export the jobs of workers, living 3 suburbs away, to China.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 4 2014 12:13 utc | 87

But I thought it’s not allowed by law in Russia? This would imply that oligarchs and politicians in Russia are violating law or doing something illegal…

Posted by: Ulster | Dec 4 2014 12:46 utc | 89

The expectation of peaceful protests by elected officials is going to lose traction. You can not have the enforcement, judiciary, and elected representative arms of government all fail their responsibilities to a portion of society, then expect them to to walk passively by plate glass storefronts owned by people who are being supported by public institutions.
The manner in which the NYTs reported that Eric Garner’s widow rejected the officer who killed her husband was absurd. As though she should take the high road and give him peace of mind. As though in Ferguson people shouldn’t have responded by burning it down. Today, polite and well organized protest fails to be covered in the news enough to affect change. Occupy was an enormous, but largely peaceful movement that seems to have changed nothing. Perhaps the only thing it changed, was the urgency of law enforcement to ramp up efforts to blunt the next protest.
These movements are going to continue as the abuses continue. Each iteration will try new tactics and I would guess that more militant and and aggressive movements are inevitable. Obviously the police and NSA have potent weapons to defang and pacify, so you can guarantee that change is going to have to be earned with a lot of people getting beaten, arrested, and likely worse.

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Dec 4 2014 13:21 utc | 91

On Gene Sharp.
The PTB looove him. Allow all those lame, deluded, protesters occupy parks, streets, barrios, plazas. even Gvmt. buildings, who gives f**, it is great, they will be all in the same place at the same time, ka-boom (as expressed by one person i heard.)
Plus, glorious pix or footage of color-revol. crowds can be used to rationalise, justify, etc. whatever we like! This is so fantastic we couldn’t have invented this guy if we tried. (Maybe they did. Not blaming Sharp himself. Non violent opposition is a legitimate topic.)
Sharp has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize but apparently hasn’t made the cut.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 4 2014 16:55 utc | 93

To Tom Murphy @ 1
Peep also KU Journalism Major Shreds “Case” Against Mike Brown, referenced by Chief Bromden at Naked Capitalism.

Owner of Ferguson Market states that he did not call police to report a theft of cigars, that the theft had nothing to do with Mike Brown, and that the man on the security footage is not Mike Brown.

Posted by: kyria | Dec 4 2014 18:22 utc | 95

Posted by: really | Dec 4, 2014 4:13:08 AM | 83
you can be sure Moscow is enjoying the chaos in USA….
also note theres been no effort to take this to the next level and organise a MAIDAN

Posted by: brian | Dec 4 2014 22:03 utc | 97

Posted by: brian, 97:

you can be sure Moscow is enjoying the chaos in USA….
also note theres been no effort to take this to the next level and organise a MAIDAN

Can you imagine the reaction in DC and the corporate media were the Russian ambassador to hand out cookies in Ferguson?

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 4 2014 23:05 utc | 99