The New York Times has just published a story which seeks to undermine criticism of the Ukraine coup linked to the aborted mediated agreement reached shortly before Yanukovych and his deputies were forced to flee. According to this new revisionist version, the agreement was a minor and irrelevant footnote since the security services had already stood down thus undermining the standing government. As well, according to the Times journalists, that Yanukovych agreed to the mediated settlement served only to demoralize his political supporters since the agreement somehow meant that Yanukovych had threw in the towel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/world/europe/ukraine-leader-was-defeated-even-before-he-was-ousted.html?_r=0
No where is it mentioned that the security services were ordered to stand down under threat of legal and economic sanction by the U.S. What is described, interestingly, is that U.S. ambassador Pyatt held a personal meeting with coup leader Andriy Parubiy while the EU mediation session was ongoing. Description of events as a coup is painted as simply Russian spin designed to justify aggression and that “few outside the Russian propaganda bubble ever seriously entertained the Kremlin’s line.”

Posted by: jayc | Jan 4 2015 21:06 utc | 3

To show the role of the “intellectuals” of the Empire:
Watergate burglar and long-time CIA agent E. Howard wrote his memoirs, in which he gave much credence to the ideas that Kennedy was killed by people inside the US Government. Hunt is certainly one of the most important figures of post-war US history – he ran the coup in Guatemala, he was instrumental in the Bay of Pigs invasion, and he was, of course, involved in the Watergate burglary. Here is the reaction of “intellectuals” at the major newspapers:

…Tim Weiner of The New York Times wrote: a work “in a long tradition of errant nonsense” and “a book to shun“. Joseph C. Goulden of The Washington Times … summarized his review: “I wish now that I had not read this pathetic book. Avoid it.”

Here you have two “intellectuals” basically telling people NOT to read the memoirs of one of the key figures of US post-war history. Two men basically repeating themselves: “Avoid it” “Shun” it. This is ridiculous. Wether you believe Kennedy was killed by Oswald all by himself or not – what kind of “intellectual” tells people not just to make up their own minds, but to shut their minds off from any more investigation without coming up with a counterstatement – just to say “ignore this” – is bizarre. Which is not to say one should simply take Hunt at his word.
More than ever, I’m realizing that much of being an American – a “good” American, not far distance from those famous “good” Germans – is to be able to simply pretend you do not know things. To pretend you have not heard things, and to make a habit of ignorance. How else to survive in a country that regularly engages in murder and aggression? How else to collect your big salary from the major newspapers, send your children to private schools – when everyone in the social circle is looking for reasons to cut one another out of the action?
The modus operandi of the CIA – “plausible deniability” – is not just a tactic of America, it is our way of life. There is something bizarre in this and deeply unsettling about living in a country whose intellectuals profess with every ounce of commitment in their hearts – the glaring hypocrisies of our leaders.
______
This was new to me, and its worth what it is – in 2008 when Hunt was dying, he made some audio tapes about his role in the Kennedy Assassination – he pointed the finger directly at LBJ and members of the CIA like Cord Meyer, whom Kennedy had taken the wife of as his mistress.

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 4 2015 23:34 utc | 5

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 4 2015 23:57 utc | 7

@ 4: This fairly new outfit may be one exception. So far, a good source for alternative opinions and information here in the US.
http://therealnews.com/t2/

Posted by: ben | Jan 5 2015 2:59 utc | 9

quote from RT news service.
“There is something wrong with Ukraine,” the Czech Republic’s leadertold radio F1 on Sunday. “Yesterday evening I was browsing the Internet and discovered a video showing the demonstration on Kiev’s Maidan on January 1.”
“These demonstrators carried portraits of Stepan Bandera, which reminded me of Reinhard Heydrich,” Zeman said referring to one of the main architects of the Holocaust and at the time a Reich-Protector of Czech Republic’s territories.
“The parade itself was organized similar to Nazi torchlight parades, where participants shouted the slogan: ‘Death to the Poles, Jews and communists without mercy,”Zeman explained.
good for zeman.. when do we expect a colour revolution in czech now? if the european leaders can’t be forced to walk in lockstep, they will have to be given the colour revolution treatment.. orban, and next zeman.. all for something that is the opposite of emancipation and a modern day version of slavery thanks corporations (financial and etc) without borders..

Posted by: james | Jan 5 2015 4:23 utc | 11

Russian Spring
01/04/2015-18:04
Chairman of the Parliament of Novorossia Oleg Tsaryov: The US playing with “Svoboda” (“Freedom”):
In the aftermath of “Maidan” many criticized the performance of Ukrainian Security Service (USS) of the times of Yanukovich (former Ukrainian President). In my opinion the criticism is not warranted.
Gathered information was comprehensive. It was furnished to the President. Decisions were the President’s prerogative. And on many issues decisions were more than strange.
For example, to bribe some leaders – strongmen of “Maidan”, to vacate number of seized administrative buildings, designated money was in such quantity that for a hundredth an enforcement unit like “Alpha” would carry protesters by hands outside Kiev region.
USS agents tracked down how the sum was split and stashed around Kiev. The deal allowed to temporary free some buildings. A passage through Kreschatik (the central square) was cleared. But then, a part of the sum was spent to support further protest actions of “Maidan! Yet the most of the sum remained with the “Maidan” leaders.
A desire to solve problems through clandestine bribery – clearly idiotic – but, to then leaders of the State, it seemed ingenious.
The mobile conversations of leaders of opposition parties and significant activists were surveyed entirely. Changing phones periodically did not help.
The special services were fully aware of situation in seized buildings. In principle, “Maidan” might arrange for pickets at a number of SSU offices to spy out the visitors arriving with evening reports daily.
USS periodically briefed the President of meeting of Yatsenyuk, Tyanibok and Klichko. What seemed odd, the most weighed position was Tyanibok’s. He had his faction, electorate; he was wary of risk. Yatsenyuk was antigovernment but was afraid, therefore, demanded increasing foreign pressure on Yanukovich. Klichko called for seizures and storms.
Nevertheless, Tyanibok, having lost the election, gave up a status of a leader of parliament party.
This mainly happened because in the radicalized society he was perceived insufficiently radical. Additionally, the launched project “Praviy Sector” attracted some voters of “Svoboda” (“Freedom” – Tyanibok’s party).
In the light of humiliating failure in the parliamentary election, under colleagues’ pressure, Oleg Tyanibok promised to resign as the party leader. At the same time, he will do the most to be reelected at a party conference in January.
Outcome of the conference is uncertain. The American Embassy is betting on A. Il`enko. Tyanibok is not as radical and anti-Russian as they want see. Besides, Tyanibok retains connections with people from Yanukovich entourage. Il`enko was promised an assistance including financial.
In December Il`enko met US Embassy representatives three times, two times –representatives of Canadian Diaspora.
The American policy in Ukraine is to watch the exchange of pro-American politics for even more pro-American.
What is regretful that among the government elite in Ukraine there only those who represent the US. There are neither proponents of friendship with Russia nor ones who represent and care of interests of the people of Ukraine.

Posted by: Fete | Jan 5 2015 5:07 utc | 13

The American Embassy is betting on A. Il`enko. Tyanibok is not as radical and anti-Russian as they want see. Besides, Tyanibok retains connections with people from Yanukovich entourage. Il`enko was promised an assistance including financial.

Tyanibok is a violent street fighter, a racist, and a Nazi – not “radical enough”?
If they’ve found someone more radical than Tyanibok, it’s hard to imagine what kind of asshole they’ve found.

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 5 2015 6:44 utc | 15

@guest77 #14:

“To use the name of the continent as a designation of your nationality makes you an imperialist,”

For better or worse, USAians are called “Americans”. It is not Americans’ fault that unlike Russia, which spans eleven time zones and has its own culture the name of which can be used to refer to inhabitants of that country, Americans have no specific culture of their own, being a nation of immigrants (with their country only spanning six time zones, the four for the continental US plus Alaska and Hawaii), so what else can you call them other than invoking the name of the landmass they inhabit?
Also, calling Americans “Americans” is well entrenched in pop culture. Take for example, India by the Psych Furs:

India, India, India, India
India, I’m American, ha ha ha

There is also the outstanding Wim Wenders film The American Friend. So the use of the term “American” to refer to Americans is perfectly legitimate.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 5 2015 8:19 utc | 17

ben@12- thanks for the Norman Finkelstein link- wasn’t his academic career ruined for his speaking up for Palestinians by that ponce and Mossad agent Alan Dershowitz?

Posted by: Nana2007 | Jan 5 2015 8:48 utc | 19

More on the sudden Western rewriting of history or rather geopolitical silence on historical facts.

I spend in Lviv 3 days from 26 to 29 of September, 2014. So let me be clear: I am a Jew, I live in Israel since 1991, and am a committed Zionist. I have no sympathy for Vladimir Putin. I don’t like what he has done with Russia. And my previous attitude toward him I expressed in my articles (links are in the Russian text).
I thought that the fascism that takes place in Ukraine is the marginal phenomenon exaggerated by Russian press. I have visited recently both Kiev and Odessa and didn’t witness it there. But my visit to Lviv has totally changed my point of view.
…
In 1991, when I came to Israel and wanted to get into University, we had to take a on history of Jewish people. And we are told about the way German Nazis conducted their genocide through the hands of UPA – Ukrainian Rebellious Army, the Bandera nationalist organization. We’ve been shown documents and photographs, that revealed that the Jews were taken to Baby Yar by UPA soldiers, that Germans shot the Jews together with UPA soldiers, that the guards in Auschwitz were UPA soldiers. And even more, that Germans were mostly organizers, and that the all dirty work was carried out by UPA soldiers. I was told about this not by Soviet Communists but by Israeili Zionists, and these pictures were shown at Jerusalem institute of Holocaust, Yad Vashem.
…
As an Israeli, I have a question to my government, to the Jerusalem Museum, to the Wiesenthal’s Center. You who chase the Nazi criminals all over the world… how can you miss the Lviv Nazi Renaissance? Why do I pay you taxes? Don’t you know who Bandera and UPA are? Why didn’t you scream about it all over the world, why didn’t you require the Ukrainian boycott? In 2000 you recalled the ambassador in Austria, only because some neo Nazi came to power in one region and said that under Hitler it was easier to get a job than under current government? He didn’t erect a 20 meter sculpture to Herring? Didn’t call SS people heroes? And yet, we forced this governor to quit politics. What are we so blind toward the events in Ukraine? Let me say something heretical here. Maybe for the members of Israeli Establishment, for all these Holocaust officials – all this Holocaust business is just that – profitable business…. Maybe the Ukrainian Banderites are good partners, they want to join EU and NATO, they are against Russia? TO fight with them means to fight with America? And that’s why their fascism has to be ignored? IF that’s the case, I hate you.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 5 2015 9:16 utc | 21

In contrast to b’s evanescent Moonie-Future-As-A-Russiophile, it should be fairly clear that we’re in terminal stage of a JebHillary ‘Mindwar’, as Toffler put it, the NeoCon Third Way, where the carrion flowers exude scent for the bot flies. Draghi is giving his ‘all in and all done’ high-sign to the UberMenschen for a Pan-QE bail-in, towards the inevitable syncretic Black Swastica Event.
‘Mindwar’, of course, is a Full Spectrum Dominance exhortation 365x7x24 that the Cartels are going to Win, and we’re going to Die serving them, but no, really, we’ll all be Fine, Everything is under Control, we are Triumphally Exceptional, …or at least I know I am.
‘Mindwar’ includes, and increasing revolves around, constant domestic psyop, because, as everyone knows by now, the ‘Axis of Evil’ aren’t sheep, and Polo Step and Enduring Freedom were just means to soften up the Zeks anyway, for the Post-2011 Kleptocracy, waiting just until the World Banks can jack into a Perpetual Interest-Only Saigner L’humanité.
It appears we’re moving toward a cyborg cell/man mind-fusion anyway, of Blade Runneresque malt-liquor and sponge-bread and binge-watching, where hospice- then elder-care disappear, schools are shut-in, asylums disgorged, and the No Longer Employable Common Man will battle with bindlestiff against the hordes of starving urchins to find a spare straw pallet beside the Crèche de Noël.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 5 2015 10:52 utc | 23

@Demian, you’re wrong about Mon oncle d’Amérique. The French use “Amérique” to refer to the continent.
Also, your other arguments are not very good either.
America refers to 2 continents, not to a country except to imperialists like yourself.

Posted by: Wolfgang | Jan 5 2015 12:59 utc | 25

Nanna2007 @19: In a word, yes. For me, Dershowitz has shown himself to be 100% dirtbag.

Posted by: ben | Jan 5 2015 15:19 utc | 27

Hello “b” and commentators,
I’d like to share my latest story:
“Hezbollah’s Drug Trafficking: A Mere Propaganda”

Posted by: M. Tomazy | Jan 5 2015 17:28 utc | 29

Roy Gutman:
– When the US left Iraq in 2011 they were hated by everyone. Now the US is back increasing the amount of troops in Iraq to fight ISIS, the US is actually welcomed by several factions in Iraq.
– The REAL danger of ISIS is that it can create in Iraq a breeding ground for terrorists who want to wreak havoc all around the world.
– In that regard US support will help to stabilize Iraq and prevent islamist terrorism spreading all over the world. But supporting the rebels in Syria did precisely the opposite and helped to create ISIS.
Mitchell Prothero, Roy Gutman & Jonathan Landay (all from McClatchy) are regularly interviewed by Scott Horton (the former host of Antiwar.com radio).

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 5 2015 18:32 utc | 31

Whenever I read an article in an outlet like the New York Times or the Guardian, I always find myself trying to figure out which sentences or clauses were inserted by editors. Sometimes it’s surprisingly easy to tell.
The content of the New York Times article on the February Ukraine rebellion actually supports “the Kremlin’s line” and is inconsistent with the editorial color of the piece. For example, the article editorializes that “An investigation by The New York Times into the final hours of Mr. Yanukovych’s rule . . . shows that the president was not so much overthrown . . .” But the article’s factual content details what amounts to the forceful overthrow of a president. The editorial color tries to insert a wedge between Yanukovych’s allies abandoning him and the armed rebellion and tries to blame Yanukovych’s ouster on the abandonment, but of course the armed rebellion and Yanukovych’s abandonment cannot be causally separated. Yanukovych was abandoned because of the armed rebellion.

Posted by: ee | Jan 5 2015 19:51 utc | 33

NYT reporters Higgins and Kramer wrote a shorter almost identical story last February — the weapons looted from Lviv were on the way to Kiev and the Berkut security forces were told to stand down by a mysterious deputy interior minister.
In yesterday’s story, Higgins and Kramer name the deputy interior minister, a Viktor Dubovik, who has left Ukraine and cannot be located. No doubt he was bought off. The story leaves the distinct impression that U.S. Ambassador Pyatt might have been involved.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jan 5 2015 21:21 utc | 35

Doug Valentine’s “The True Relationship Between Crime and Law Enforcement” is terrific. It appeared on the CounterPunch website this past weekend. Valentine tells the story of being a young man long-haired tree trimmer in a small New York town in 1968 when his father opened his eyes to the reality of the “thin blue line.” Very well written.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jan 5 2015 23:26 utc | 37

to Wolfgang at 25 —
Well, to be fair, it was just us when we set the business up in 1787. And this whole imperialism thing didn’t blow up until the late 1800’s (as a theory, vs. practice). So we’re a little stuck on it.
I take your point though, we norteamericanos get a little proprietary about this hemisphere (and largely not for the better). Let’s hope the Bolivarians can get it together and demand more of a say. That will give the world a different spin on “American” then.
On a related topic — MSM is reporting Sen. Menendez as saying the Sen. will not confirm an amb. to Havana. So much for the rapproachment. As I said before, Cubans in So. Fla. too strong in GOP, I don’t see Admin. having the cojones to fight them.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 6 2015 0:10 utc | 39

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dershowitz allegations were true. The man is one of the world’s most immense scumbags. Not the least reasons of which is what he did to Finkelstein.

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 6 2015 0:21 utc | 41

Who’s Batman? from the Saker
Monday, January 5, 2015
About the murder of Batman
Dear friends,
I want to remind you all that WE DO NOT HAVE ALL THE FACTS!! (sorry for the “screaming” CAPS). I will be the first to admit to this about myself. Colonel Cassad is doing some stellar reporting about this on his blog, and he also is very very cautious (I don’t share Cassad’s political views, but I have learned to admire his intellectual honesty and his excellent reporting).
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/

Posted by: okie farmer | Jan 6 2015 0:33 utc | 43

Who would care what Wolf’s opinion of Putin was after she said she was “a committed Zionist?”
Now, if she said she was a committed anti-Zionist Jew, I might at least give a skeptical listen.

Posted by: truthbetold | Jan 6 2015 0:53 utc | 45

Christmas is a time when I realize the number of sheep is actually increasing. Some posts recently have alluded to the fact that the populace of Europe and the Anglo countries are beautifully brainwashed and that even gently challenging the narrative creates anger. A friend who long ago gave up his degree course to join some revolutionary left party is now a staunch Guardianista and supporter of the Luke Harding/Shaun Walker school of fiction and lies (b. noted Walker’s treachery on August 15). A former trade unionist who owes everything to his union now gobbles up huge doses of the Economist and lectures me about the “thug” who rules Russia. A friend of my niece who nannies for a Russian oligarch was allowed to go much further than I was, presumably because she was mouthing the opinions of an oligarch – therefore anti-Putin they surmised.
Erstwhile animal rights activists, feminists, vegans, “greens”, climate-change-aware people, all of them – in my circle – to a woman or man have swallowed the mainstream take on Syria, Libya, MH17 and the complete works of Ukraine. I even met someone who is in the remote controlled aircraft/demolition brigade on 9/11 but is convinced Putin is embarking on imperial conquest. From LA to Berlin, from Oslo to Madrid, the media message has never ever been so pure and undiluted… and so unchallenged.

Posted by: Lochearn | Jan 6 2015 2:01 utc | 47

from the Irrussianalty article:
Ukraine currently has a problem with ‘warlords’, local military leaders who pursue their own political agendas and often act in contravention of the law. This is the case both in the part of Ukraine under government control and in the rebel Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR & LPR). Adrian Karatnycky writes in The Washington Post that paramilitary groups, many with extreme political views, ‘threaten Ukraine’s rebuilding’. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ‘clearly wants this problem resolved but has been reluctant or unable to act. … Ukraine’s elected leaders can no longer sweep this emerging threat under the rug.’ Karatnycky seems to be suggesting that the government of Ukraine needs its own Thermidor.
The DPR and LPR, meanwhile, have been undergoing a slow moving Thermidor for several months. This began with the August 2014 resignation of the original Minister of Defence in Donetsk, Igor Strelkov, and continued through the elections of Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky as heads of the two rebel republics in November, and on to the resignation of two more commanders, Igor Bezler and Ataman Koznitsky, in December. Now it has taken a violent turn with the death last week of Aleksandr Bednov, a.k.a. ‘Batman’, the leader of a rebel unit in the LPR.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jan 6 2015 3:12 utc | 49

further to 49, 48, 46
From Fort Russ, a statement by the prosecutor in Lugansk on the arrest and further measures to obtain a monopoly of force. All Fighters Who Have Not Joined LPR People’s Police Will Be Classified As Members of Illegal Armed Groups. Speaking of the attemption detention of Bednov, “During searches in places of residence of the members of the gang were found a large number of firearms and ammunition, cash and property, previously illegally seized from civilians, and four private homes were returned to their owners. The criminal investigation is ongoing. The facts confirming the illegal activities of detained persons are being established.”
Thinking aloud — can we declare the social revolution over, when it does not seem to have really begun? If we were talking about Mozgovoy, I might consider Thermidor. Seems more like the early purges of the nobles from the revolutionary armies. The very real problem at hand is gaining control over operations, not forestalling social change.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 6 2015 3:32 utc | 51

@Demian #44
Languages change. People change. Sometimes changes in languages reflect changes in people’s awareness. In my neck of the woods we have long referred to USAns, pronounced U. S. ans, partly for the fun of it.

Posted by: d.l.finn | Jan 6 2015 4:01 utc | 53

@okie farmer #50:

Demian 48, I think you’ve got the exactly right take on that blogger piece.

I read that Batman took a hard line against the selling of marijuana. Since I imagine that most American progressives are for the legalization of marijuana, I think that alone made Batman an unappealing figure. (Also, his adopting the name of an American comic book figure does not impress. That reminds one of Pussy Riot. Why can’t these people use Russian names to call themselves?)
@rufus magister #51:

can we declare the social revolution over, when it does not seem to have really begun?

There has not really been any kind of revolution either in Kiev or in eastern Ukraine. What happened was that there was a coup in Kiev – which just led to the consolidation of power by oligarchs, so that coup was in fact an anti-revolution – which triggered a civil war. Where the Thermidor idea comes in is that some anti-fascist leaders, most notably Strelkov, wanted to march all the way to Kiev. It is that “extremism” which is now being eliminated in the current consolidation of power in Novorossiya. The ambitions for Novorossiya are now very modest: to be a sore in the side of the Ukraine, in the same way that the Ukraine is a sore in the side of Russia. Ukraine is the anti-Russia; Novorossiya is the anti-Ukraine. Yuri Orlov has written about this, expanding on ideas of Nikolai Starikov (in Russian).

Posted by: Demian | Jan 6 2015 7:45 utc | 55

@47
Thanks for the assessment. Sounds as though you’re speaking from personal experience of European and North American attitudes : fear and paralysis.
People’re putting on their war faces.
They’re all invested in the status quo, or think they are, or want to be … and the bottom’s falling out, and they know it.
They’re desperately banking on war and $trife to … if not pull their chestnuts out of the fire, at least to keep them afloat ’til ‘something turns up’ … they hope they’ll sink more slowly with than without war and $trife … a mindless recipe for more war and more strife.
With the amount of war and strife at large already … more, and more, and more … will surely get out of hand at some point, and then the Real War will be for keeps. Just like before, WW I & WW II; or else, the ‘unthinkable’.
Looks like that’s what we’re in for, if no one says ‘no’ rather ‘ok’ to their continued slide down the hill. If no one punctures the pipe dreams of all these sleep walkers and wakes them up.
Maybe Russia will sanction the US/EU … default on their debts and turn off Europe’s fossil fuels. Maybe China will buy gold and yuan and rubles with their 3 terabucks in T-bills and KO the USA.
A crashed economy and a new world order beat nuclear winter, or even ‘just’ a hot WW III.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 6 2015 9:37 utc | 57

@ d.l.finn #53:
Sorry, even Russians refer to Americans as “Americans”. However, if you find referring to the United States as “America” to be politically incorrect, in English, German, and Russian they can be referred to as “the States”.
That is not to say that I do not see how referring to Americans as “USAns” can be fun. But the very term “Americans” in itself is very often used humorously and ironically in every language I know. The very fact that there is such a thing as “Americans” is an inside joke among Europeans. A good example of that is the Psychedelic Furs song I quoted from. Thus it is just another example of the bizarre habits of Americans that some of them think that it is wrong to refer to themselves as “Americans”.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 6 2015 13:29 utc | 59

@James (#32): Agree, all the US wars have benefited the US arms manufacturers. But what A LOT OF people overlook is that all those wars abroad have been funded by those foreigners. To understand that one has to have knowledge of international money flows.
A number of analysts predicted before 2011 (when the US witdrew from Iraq) that the US would be able to be more influential in Iraq when they would withdraw its troops from Iraq. And that’s precisely what’s happening now. We can debate whether or not I should have used the word “stabilize” but it shows my line of thinking.
Ultimately the US citizens will put their foot down and FORCE the US govt to withdraw ALL US troops from around the world and bring them back here to the US.
I am convinced that only upcoming MAJOR changes in US money in- and outflows will force the US to withdraw those troops.

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 6 2015 14:53 utc | 61

Interesting article on NPR about Strelkov that I can’t make much sense of. (with soundtrack)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/01/06/372872870/the-russian-who-claims-credit-for-fanning-the-flames-in-ukraine?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

Posted by: okie farmer | Jan 6 2015 16:11 utc | 63

Hey b, I hope you’ve been following Xymphora this year. Xymph thinks the Prince Andrew /Alan (scumbag) Dershowitz sex abuse scandal has the potential to become the story of the Century. Xymph suspects that the pro-Israel Lobby’s influence on Western politics is derived through blackmail (and he’s not Robinson Crusoe on that score). Anyhow, one of the people whose name has come up has Mossad affiliations and has become a multi-millionaire, with extra-ordinary rapidity, by means which are less than obvious or transparent.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 6 2015 16:17 utc | 65

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/01/06/391853/Iceland-plans-to-revoke-EU-accession-bid
Iceland is reportedly planning to withdraw its application to become a member state of the European Union (EU).
“Participating in EU talks isn’t really valid anymore. Both due to changes in the European Union and because it’s not in line with the policies of the ruling government to accept everything that the last government was willing to accept. Because of that, we’re back at square one,” a local media outlet quoted Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson as saying.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jan 6 2015 21:20 utc | 67

in re 55 —
I understood what they were driving at, I find the imprecision in the original posters annoying.
As Wikipedia notes in its discussion of Thermidor, “The new regime, known as The Directory, introduced more conservative policies aimed at stabilizing the revolutionary government. Consequently, for historians of revolutionary movements, the term Thermidor has come to mean the phase in some revolutions when the political pendulum swings back towards something resembling a pre-revolutionary state, and power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership.” No social revolution, no Thermidor.
Sticking with the Revolutionary calendar, perhaps 22 Prairial An II is a better analogy.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 7 2015 0:18 utc | 69

Courtesy of Fort Russ, here’s an informative interview witha Russian political scientist which clears up a couple of matters:

“A few words about “united Ukraine”. Yes, this slogan sounds from the mouth of Putin and Lavrov almost as often as from the mouth of Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk. But, you know, the medieval scholastics used to say that if two people say the same thing, it does not necessarily mean the same thing. In this case, it is important for me that every statement of Putin and Lavrov about “united Ukraine” is accompanied by a description of the conditions under which Ukraine can in principle be united. A list of these conditions shows that the current Kiev usurpers cannot fulfill a single demand from this list. That is, in the words of Putin and Lavrov’s the phrase “united Ukraine” actually means a radical change, constructing a completely new government, capable of ensuring equal rights, bilingualism and much more of what is really needed. Anything similar to what Kiev usurpers consider “united Ukraine” Russia will not accept,” – said Wasserman. …
“I’m talking about Russia, as a whole, although in my domestic publications I repeatedly emphasise that the Russian government is divided into two parts, as, indeed, the authorities in most countries of the world. One of these parts represents the interests of manufacturers and is grouped around the security block of the government and is headed directly by the President. Another part protects the interests of the merchants and is grouped around the economic block of the government and is headed respectively by the Prime Minister. The balance of these two parts explains and defines many of the oddities in the behaviour of the Russian Federation. But in relation to Ukraine, as far as I can tell, the positions of both parts of the Russian government are practically identical simply because in case of victory of the U.S. and its puppets in Kiev, not only the manufacturers in the Russian Federation will be destroyed, but a significant proportion of the merchants will pushed aside and they already understand this.

By the way, the weakening of the ruble may help the manufacturers at the expense of the merchants, since the merchants got the central bank to maintain the ruble at an artificially high level, which made domestically produced goods uncompetive with imports. Hopefully, the weak ruble will usher in a period of import substitution.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 7 2015 1:27 utc | 71

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 6, 2015 9:21:02 PM | 72
Thank you.
A timely reminder that there is probably already more than enough Collective Wisdom in the Thought Continuum – but our Dear Leaders are so intent on scaring us, annoying us or boring us, that we’re focusing too much on their deflections and deceptions and not enough on the search to re-discover that (neglected) wisdom.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 7 2015 3:45 utc | 73

to clarify 74 — ltd. palette of Events commonly known by their Revolutionary dates

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 7 2015 4:04 utc | 75

@rufus magister #74:
Yes, I think your analogy with American revolutionary history is much better. The Thermidor analogy doesn’t work because we’re dealing with military, not political, groups.
Thanks for that link to Komsomolskaya Pravda. I see Mozgovoy is still in the picture. I hope he survives: I like him. (I saw a few interviews with him.)
Kiev has at least as much of a problem with getting its militias under a unified command as the LPR does:
The Right Sector Refuses to Submit to Ukrainian Ministry of Defense

The moment of truth seems to be approaching with every passing day. The government is attempting to finally take the Right Sector and other paramilitaries under its control. The paramilitaries, for their part, likely have other plans. The question that now stands before the two conflict parties is, to cite Lenin, “who whom?” Will the Kiev government bring its own stormtroopers to heel, or will the lunatics at long last take over the asylum?

Posted by: Demian | Jan 7 2015 4:40 utc | 77

@rufus magister #78:
Yes, to me the DPR and LPR actually look more stable than Banderastan. From what I’ve read lately, Russia will not dump Novorossiya (although concern about that has picked up again lately; I mostly ignore it), whereas neither the US, NATO, nor the EU have a comparable commitment to Banderastan.
And here’s an excellent blog post. I may have run across the link here. I didn’t know about this Anglophone Russian blog.
The Identity Warfare in Ukraine

People are ready to kill and die for their identity, for what they see as protection of it against the ‘Russian agression’ or ‘Nazi threat’. The tragedy of the Civil War is basically that in REALITY people are killing not ‘Nazis‘ or ‘terrorists‘, ‘fascists‘ or ‘vatniks‘ but their OWN sons, brothers, sisters, fathers, etc. …
The binary opposition (‘Euromaidan vs Russian Spring’ as manifestations of modern Ukrainian and Russian cultural identities correspondingly) with all its apparent (strategic) essentialism shows that the locomotive behind the Civil War in Ukraine is a conflict between rival identities and corresponding political projects: (unitarian anti-Russian) Ukraine vs (forming concept of pro-Russian) Novorussia (aka Novorossiya) by now represented by Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics fighting for their independence.

I think that everything in this blog post is correct. Actually, I think I’ve learned something from it, because I tended to see the civil war as being about being for or against racist fascism, but judging by this essay, that characterization is a bit crude.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 7 2015 5:22 utc | 79

And here’s an excellent blog post. I may have run across the link here. I didn’t know about this Anglophone Russian blog.
The Identity Warfare in Ukraine

People are ready to kill and die for their identity, for what they see as protection of it against the ‘Russian agression’ or ‘Nazi threat’. The tragedy of the Civil War is basically that in REALITY people are killing not ‘Nazis‘ or ‘terrorists‘, ‘fascists‘ or ‘vatniks‘ but their OWN sons, brothers, sisters, fathers, etc. …
The binary opposition (‘Euromaidan vs Russian Spring’ as manifestations of modern Ukrainian and Russian cultural identities correspondingly) with all its apparent (strategic) essentialism shows that the locomotive behind the Civil War in Ukraine is a conflict between rival identities and corresponding political projects: (unitarian anti-Russian) Ukraine vs (forming concept of pro-Russian) Novorussia (aka Novorossiya) by now represented by Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics fighting for their independence.

I think that everything in this blog post is correct. Actually, I think I’ve learned something from it, because I tended to see the civil war as being about being for or against racist fascism, but judging by this essay, that characterization is a bit crude.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 7 2015 5:43 utc | 81

As a formerly dual US/Venezuelan citizen (now strictly US citizen), I grew up with a somewhat different perspective on the word “American”… America refers to two continents with many countries, and it is simply appropriative (imperialist in attitude if not practice) for US citizens or institutions to call themselves “American” when they should say “US.” Imagine, say, Chinese using the term “Asian” to refer to things Chinese as if India or Indochina didn’t exist, or Germans using the term “European” as though Germans were the only real or important Europeans, while admitting in passing that “Oh, yeah, the French and Greeks and Poles are on the continent, too.” If such usages would not be [master] racist in themselves, they would certainly be ethnocentrist tendencies in that direction.
If most US citizens identify as “American” when “U.S.” is really more proper, that is simply a function of lack of geographical and cultural consciousness reinforcing the ethnocentrism carefully cultivated by the real imperialists, the ones in Wall St. and Washington. I don’t believe it a good idea to let such false consciousness be. In the countless instances of smacking up against it in this country I don’t simply call such speakers “imperialist”–I’m trying to educate working class people into solidarity, not provoke needless resistance–but I try to find the best way to get more conscious usages across that don’t reinforce imperialist consciousness.
If most Europeans, Asians, Middle Easterners, etc., have taken on the common US appropriative usage it is doubtless due to massive exposure to it at the hands of the US government, military (World Wars 1, 2 and Cold), and corporate media. As Latin America emerges into a multipolar world, I believe its people will educate the rest of the world to use the term “American” properly, and to put the “US” in its proper place.
Even in its official title, the United States is of America, not the other way around.
Languages do change over time, and just as we have mostly changed from gender-exclusionary terms such as “men” to the more inclusive “people,” so too can we change from “American” to “US” (or “USian” if wished–in Spanish the term is exactly that: *estadounidense* or “UnitedStatesian”). Raising concerns around just such issues is a major way languages change. Resistance only helps keep that imperialist-identified geographic and cultural ignorance in place that the real imperialists find so useful…
I love how it is expressed in Inti Illimani’s song La Segunda Independencia (The Second Independence):

Yo que soy americano,
no importa de que país,
quiero que mi continente
viva algún día feliz.
…
Si hay que callar
no callemos,
pongámonos a cantar.
Y si hay que peliar,
peliemos,
si es el modo de triunfar…
(I who am an American,
It doesn’t matter from what country,
Want that my continent
Someday will live free…
And if we are to be silent
We will not be quiet,
We will break into song.
And if it’s necessary to fight,
We will fight,
If that is the way to win…

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 7 2015 7:20 utc | 83

prologue….
*ever since the Hildebeast warned Africa about its growing (and mutually beneficial) trade with China, a string of ‘bad luck’ has afflicted Western Africa. Yes, that’s it; ‘bad luck’. Right.
……………………..
Starting with the murder of Qaddafi (Africa’s unofficial leader), followed by frequent Africa bashing from Sulzberger’s Slimes, followed by the massive expansion of AFRICOM, followed by the Boku Haram/Ebola ‘1-2 punch* [1]
**********************
nov 13,
xi jing ping visited malaysia.
xi, pm najib and ex pm dr mahathir had a good time toasting to sino malay friendship and further economic cooperation.
somebody must be straining at his leash in washington and here’s why. [2]
mar 14,
mh370 *lost in space* with 250 chinese nationals on board, including a dozen top level defence scientists.
beijing and kl engaged in bitter recriminations., sino malay relation dropped a few notches.
the five eye msm had a field day deriding pm najib’s *bungling* performance. [2a]
aug 14,
mh17 lost in ukaine.
another fatal blow to the struggling malaysian airline.
five eye msm launched a smear blitzkrieg on russia, accusing its *complicity* in the alleged shot down of the airliner.
nov 13
xi, putin had a ball in jakarta with the indon prez banbang, drinking to indon bric friendship and future development.
dec 14
a malaysian/indonesian airliner disappeared.
150 passenger missing, majority ethnic chinese from indonesia.
five eye msm lambast indonesia’s poor air safety record.
only the blind could fail to see the pattern here,
cui bono ? [3]
only someone with a sick mind would suggest that the chinese are somehow behind this airasia disaster.
robbers crying robbery ! [4]
many murcunts seem to be born with this dna in their system.
[1]
http://www.tomatobubble.com/id689.html
[2]
http://space4peace.blogspot.sg/2014/12/exploding-navy-budget-threatens-food.html?showComment=1420082350971#c3537963322143950350
[2a]
before..
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/china-s-xi-praises/1465796.html
after….
http://rt.com/op-edge/malaysia-airlines-flight-political-costs-805/
[3]
yet there’r *savvy* posters here who echoed the msm peddled *accident* meme, even after i presented more than enough evidence to suggest of ff after the disappearance of mh370. !
[4]
http://sgtreport.com/2014/12/airasia-flight-a-red-herring-to-cover-up-missing-flight-mh370/

Posted by: denk | Jan 7 2015 8:27 utc | 85

@Demian #83:
I’ve aware of de Tocqueville’s *Democracy in America* since as a child I read his quote: “There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans… Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.”
I’m sure that one could construct an argument that this European usage goes back even further, since the first “USians” in fact learned it along with other colonialist worldview from our European ancestors/teachers.
But as I wrote, language does change, and it was pretty standard then to write “men” when we would now say “people” or “humanity” (unless specifically meaning males). That the “American = US” usage persists is I think very much due to the conditioning of the US population and the global pervasiveness of the US corporate state and media, and that it has not been sufficiently challenged yet.
I hope this puts my “absurd claim” in better context. People are of course free to adhere to whatever usage they think best; I hear that in Cuba this type of discussion is routinely referred to as part of the “struggle of ideas” that pervades all aspects of language and culture. But I fully expect that the “traditional” usage will fade over time, particularly as Latin America weighs in on the matter. There it is heard as stemming from nothing other than the same Anglo-US arrogance that is otherwise so well exposed in this forum.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 7 2015 10:50 utc | 87

@82,
It could be false flag.

Posted by: MRW | Jan 7 2015 13:00 utc | 89

In 2014 a guy ran in to a france museum with a Kalashnikov too and killed some people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_of_Belgium_shooting
Maybe a connection of some sort?

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2015 13:10 utc | 91

Mitchell Prothero’s (McClatchy Newspapers) opinions:
– For ISIS the conquest of Kobani is important, partially as a “Public Relations” statement. We (ISIS) still are able to conquer a (large (??)) city. In spite of US airstrikes.
– ISIS wants to conquer Aleppo as well. Because it’s an ancient city that played an important role in the ancient caliphate.
– The US is very hesitant to do anything in Syria because there seems to no good choices left anymore. Whatever choice the US makes the possible outcome “stinks”. (It seems Prothero isn’t aware that the US & Israel are supporting & building up Jabat-Al-Nusrah in the south of Syria).
– Foreign fighters from ISIS & Jabat-Al have returned to e.g. the US, Canada & Europe and will perform “lone wolf attacks” in their native countries. (When will radical islamists from Libya start to blow up things in Europe ? Seems this way overthrowing the Khadaffi government is going to haunt e.g. Italy & France for many years to come.)
– Assad was able to survive from 2011 onwards because Iran & (Iran supported) Hezbollah poured tonnes & tonnes of weapons into the hands of the Syrian government. And that was the reason Saudi Arabia started to pour in weapons as well. (Reese Ehrlich states that Russia has send weapons to Syria as well)
– The US has another problem. The Saudis have their own agenda. The saudis have supported jihadis/al qaida, promoted wahabism for over 30 years and will continue to do in the future. And they are not going to listen to the US when the US is asking them to stop that support.
– There’s a proxy conflict/dispute/war going on between Saudi Arabia & Iran. This proxy “conflict/war” is being fought in Syria, Lebanon, Bahrein, Jemen, Iraq. Iran also is in an economic competition with Qatar & United Arab Emirates. (think oil & natural gas). Both Iran & Saudi Arabia consider themselves to the dominant regional power and are using the US to advance their own agenda. But when push comes to shove both countries are going to do whatever is in their own interest and not in US’ interests. And US influence in the Middle East is smaller than a lot of people think. The US decision in september 2013 to not bomb Syria (keywords: chemical weapons) was for a number of countries in the Middle East reason to take matter more into their own hands.
– Turkey has (like Iran & Saudi Arabia) also aspirations to enlarge its influence in the region. Also think “Central Asia”. (And that’s where Turkey will compete with the saudis. Turkey’s economic fundamentals are very shaky, I expect A LOT OF financial turmoil in Turkey in the coming weeks/months/this year).
– “Syria is gone”. (The Syrian government controls only ~ 1/3 of the country). It will break up in several “independant” (fighting (??)) state-lets, like in Libya ??
– “The Free Syrian Army (FSA) were a bunch of clowns in a hotel in Istanbul”.
Source: “http://scothorton.org”.

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 7 2015 13:17 utc | 93

Killer of cop on streets of Paris yells out Bullshit. To my ears, it’s an anglicized pronunciation. Why isn’t he saying “merde” or something similar? The French are protective of their language. At 0:13 seconds. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/shooting-at-charlie-hebdo_n_6428290.html

Posted by: MRW | Jan 7 2015 14:06 utc | 95

EU Parliament President Criticizes Merkel over Greece Comments

“This should be clear for everyone: there will be no exit from the euro zone. These unwanted comments transmit to the Greek people the feeling that it will not be the Greeks, with their votes, who will decide their own future, but Brussels or Berlin,” said the German member of the European Parliament.

I think that Martin Shulz is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It’s pretty obvious that Merkel and Shaeuble were in facrt, and are, doing their absolute best to negate the Greeks’ decision on their own future.
As the Herr Professor Doktor said before them, they don’t see why they need stand by and watch a country go TIAA because of the irresponsibility of its own people.
It’s Deutschland ueber Alles! Just like the Good Old Days.
It’s springtime for Merkel and Germany!
  Winter for Greece … and France?

Posted by: jfl | Jan 7 2015 15:56 utc | 97

I should add, thanks to guest77 for posting the original link … to Part II of the interview, which I hope to transcribe as well, bye and bye.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 7 2015 16:55 utc | 99