Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
January 8, 2015
Open Thread 2015-02

News & views …

Comments

{38}
in other words,
those who has the cheek to insinuate chinese complicity in the
disapperance of mh370, mh17, airasia 8501 [1]
must be a fucking moron, or raving mad, or…an agent provocateur.
there’s a much more credible interpletation of this 8888 numrerical
pattern.
a *certain group of people* have been stalking the chinese nation
since the opium war, they believe they’r the chosen ones to rule the
world. they have been toppling govn via black ops , false flags to
shape the world to their liking. their ops are often pregnant with
numerical patterns like dates, time etc that reeks of biblical or satanic
significance and they like to send out msg *hidden in plain sight* to taunt
the world.
after orchestrating the mh370, mh17, airasia black ops to screw china
and its allies russia, malaysia and a relatively friendly indonesia,
concocting the numerical pattern 8888 is their way of mocking at the
chinese, for which a series of 8’s signify prosperity.
kinda like a *gong xi fa cai* geeting with their middle finger. ! [2]
in which case, they must be planning for this even while mh370 was
*disappeared*, sobs.
[1]
*Add up the numbers of the 3 “Missing” Airliners (8501, 370, 17) and
what number do you get? 8888. 4 of the same number in a row is seen
as a good thing for a certain group of people, who may have (likely
IMO) had a hand in this. * [sic, sicko]
http://sgtreport.com/2014/12/airasia-flight-a-red-herring-to-cover-up-missing-flight-mh370/#comment-792100
[2]
http://www.chinese-names.net/phrase/%E6%81%AD%E5%96%9C%E5%8F%91%E8%B4%A2

Posted by: denk | Jan 10 2015 4:06 utc | 101

@rufus magister #98:
Rufus Wainwright wrote a song called Going To A Town:

I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down
I’m going to a place that has already been disgraced
I’m gonna see some folks who have already been let down
I’m so tired of America …
I really need to know
I may just never see you again, or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down
I’m so tired of you, America

I’m so tired of the Ukraine.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 10 2015 4:34 utc | 102

CN 2 82 —
I’ve been following your posts for a bit, they’ve largely been a puzzle. Until recently. Good balance between free-form enthusiasm and sober analysis, I think you’ve hit you’re stride.
It’s all about the Benjamins.
You do seem to get around, I must say.
I caught you’re little anthem over at Charlie Hebdo thread, and your comments about the Mil.Gov.Sec there as well. “Uber Big Gulp Apocalypse Edition” — Can I SuperSize that? To go, please.
And I grooved to Analog Pussy (link at 263 there for you music lovers) — comments ID’d it as trance, I tend to crunch contemp. electronica into “tekno.”
Can I go Olde School on you? Giorgio Moroder’s “Untergang.” Visuals aren’t as nice though…. Or maybe Eno/Jon Hassell, “Chemistry,” from Possible Musics over an old-school video (two vcr’s say the notes).

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 4:58 utc | 103

D @ 102 —
Sorry to hear that.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 4:59 utc | 104

but rufus wainwright was a surprise. I like Simon and Garfunkel’s my “My Little Town.” “Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town.” Like say, Pervomaisk?

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 5:02 utc | 105

commenting on the sri lanka regime change
sri lankan
*Congradulations to President elect Maithripala Sirisena.
Hope we wont be another Egypt, Iraq or Syriya by becoming slaves to Western Countries like USA and UK who thinks that there way of governance is the only right way.*
[the guy is ignorant of the murcunt shenanigans behind the scene]
typical hypocritical cunt
*The method of government employed in the UK, at least, includes not slaughtering a large minority of your population indiscriminately. Let’s hope the president elect attempts to repair the damage*
denk
*uk partake in all of murkka’s wars in nam, iraq, afpak, syria, libya….where large number of civilians were slaughtered.
nam, iraq etc were veritable genocides.
who’r u to judge on sri lanka’s civil war ?
p.s.
i regret not to be able to use more *forceful* language over at cif,
my comments get deleted often as it is.

Posted by: denk | Jan 10 2015 5:21 utc | 106

@denk #106:

uk partake in all of murkka’s wars in nam

I like to bash Britain as much as anyone, but Howard Wilson kept the UK out of the Vietnam War.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 10 2015 5:47 utc | 107

Demian 107
ok one genocide less,
but surely the brits have as much blood on their hand as their murcunt cousins in their global wars ?
in sri lanka’s civil war, both sides accused the other of committing war crimes on civilians. the tamil tigers were hardly defenceless poor peasants.
in fukus global wars its always one sided slaughter of defenceless civies from the air.
nothing piss me more when cunts like these think they have any business lecturing on anybody’s internal affairs, especially on *indiscriminately killing large number of civilians* ,fucking @#$%^&*!
but tks for the head up.

Posted by: denk | Jan 10 2015 6:14 utc | 108

@denk #108:

but surely the brits have as much blood on their hand as their murcunt cousins in their global wars ?

Yes, I would say that Britain has as much blood on its hands as the US. The Brits were the first to use aerial bombardment and have produced centers of major tension in the world by creating the artificial countries Pakistan and Israel. The Brits were also the main actors behind starting World War I, which inevitably led to World War II. So the Brits are the main party responsible for both those wars (with the French and the Poles sharing responsibility for WW II).

Posted by: Demian | Jan 10 2015 7:37 utc | 109

in re 102 —
But on reflection, I think the only proper response would be —
Another post on a different Ukraine-related obsession, the social movement. NewColdWar conducted an interview with Boris Litvinov, head of the Communist Part of the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

The most active people and groups in the Donetsk Anti-Maidan movement were the local Communist Party, the Donetsk Republic of Andrei Purgin, a lot of women and veteran organizations–for instance, a ‘Union of Soviet officers’—and, in general, people of anti-fascist views. They were not organized in any kind of political party. They had it in their genes, in their education, in their memory. There was the progressive socialist party of Natalia Vitrenko….
It was people who took over the regional administration building. I cannot single out a specific political force. It was a 15th or 16th regional meeting. It was on April 6 [2014]. For the nth time, we demanded authorities to listen to us and to initiate a referendum on federalization. And as always, nobody listened. At that meeting, a decision was made: enough demanding! Let us get inside the building, sit in the session hall and wait till the deputies come and take a decision in front of us….
We want to build a parliamentarian republic, based on the state’s ownership of land and its resources, of air and water spaces, a state’s strong control of economic process, and a socially oriented state.

I nearly forgot this, thanks for the reminder!

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 7:54 utc | 110

Some MH17 truth coming out explaining the deafening silence but still a lot of coverup

THE HUMAN SHIELDS
High above the conflict zone in June and early July, at an altitude above 10 000 meters, passenger jets continued to fly in the eastern Ukraine. In the week before the disaster hundreds of airplanes crossed the war zone, including Lufthansa flights.
After the Antonov was shot down, the Ukrainian air security authorities closed off the airspace just below 10 000 meters. Above that level civilian air traffic continued as before.
But even this altitude is a combat zone in modern air-tank warfare.
Besides the Su-25 planes, the Ukrainian air force also uses MiG-29 fighter jets that can reach an altitude of 18 000 meters. The jets then drop down to a lower combat altitude to attack enemy tanks and BUK units. A BUK team risks its life if it does not already attack an enemy plane at a high altitude during its approach.
Civil air traffic granted Ukrainian fighter pilots valuable seconds in their fight for survival against BUKs. Ukrainian fighter jets have the ability to hide just beneath passenger planes without the civilian passengers and crew even knowing of their presence. Anyone who targets a fighter jet from the ground risks shooting down a passenger aircraft.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Security Council said the Ukraine did not deploy combat aircraft on July 17th. The spokesman did not respond to questions about civilian flights.
The EU states could have warned the airlines. Their military experts knew they couldn’t rely on cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities in a wartime situation. In July 2014 the Ukrainian state was close to falling apart, a civil war was raging, entire regions were occupied by Russian troops.
But nothing happened. Germany and the EU were slow to call the war a war; its member states knew that Russian tanks were in the separatists’ territory, but they refrained from drawing the necessary conclusions. In an email response to questions, a government spokesman cited the previously mentioned statement which said Germany did not perceive a danger to civil aviation in eastern Ukraine prior to July 17th.
For the airlines, diverting to longer alternative flight routes entails higher costs.
In an email, a Lufthansa spokesman said the German airline flew over eastern Ukraine until July 17, 2014. Furthermore, he said that Lufthansa conducted a security analysis, but only governments possess all the necessary military and intelligence information required to determine risk. The spokesman said Lufthansa’s primary concern is the safety of its passengers. “Governments are responsible for closing air routes,” the spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for German’s Foreign Intelligence Service declined to comment for this story.
Without their knowledge, hundreds of passengers became human shields in the aerial war zone over eastern Ukraine.

This here is the Dutch Safety Board Report. It says the objects came from “outside”, “above the level of the cockpit floor”, “a section of the cockpit roof also showing penetration from outside”
Above article claims this means “from above and the front”.
However there are also photographs from inside and outside holes from the cockpit sides.
And of course Ukraine does not fight Russian tanks in Eastern Ukraine but tries to terrorize the civilian population into obedience.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 10 2015 8:16 utc | 111

“FEAR SETS IN!”
Breitbart’s headline is calling for all-out Ethnic Genocide now.
This is ‘ironical’, as GWB would say, since BB is a ZioNazi rag
which employs a number of Zionist disinformation propagandists,
and has uniformly espoused on the Hard Rabbinical Right POV.
“Leave only smoking ruins and wailing widows,” sounds like it’s
right out of Mein Kampf, not so much out of Schlinder’s List.
Well, what’re ya’ gonna do about it? Bite my schmekel!
Huffpost’s headline is a little more demure (above), but since
she’s BFFs with Soros, who is BFFs with the ZioNazis in Kiev,
and as everyone is about to make $10Bs in cold play over this
military assassination operation and kosher deli cover action,
maybe the headline is a doubly-ironic call for ZioNazi funding,
against the fear they might not get the Kiev bail-in votes.
Certainly Hollande won’t be voting against Great Satan at the
next UN Security Council, ever again, so you have to wonder what
the ZioFascists have on Merkel, whose family history is Jewish,
establishing Merkel’s right of automatic IL dual-citizenship.
Of course, Hollande is also a Jew, as is Kerry-Kohn and Nuland,
and the dual-citizen junta coup leader in Kiev, Poroshenko and
his Chief (who later resigned over the ethnic cleansing issue).
All of them ZioFascists, with Nazi demonstrations sweeping west
from Kiev into Germany and France, no doubt ahead of Ukraine’s
admission into NATO, toward another $20B bail-in from taxpayers,
one that would be, again, ENTIRELY UNAUDITED.
‘Fear sets in’, indeed, as a RINO-RINO Congress of a 1000 Years
takes their seats and swears their allegiance to ‘White’ Israel,
and the CIA/MOSSAD, ZioFascist descendants of ORG, the Nazi SS
spy organization, one set up in USA after Operation Paperclip,
start celebrating the operation with schnapps and spongecake.
This #JeSuisCharlie™ really is The Gift That Keeps On Giving,
the *Dark Swastika Event* that I predicted just a few days ago.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 10 2015 10:10 utc | 112

103
I think you’ve hit on a way to keep MoA energized and enlightened in this Darkest Hour.
I’m in. Preludio dal Lohenngrin di Richard Wagner, per synth e campionatori

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 10 2015 10:36 utc | 113

What’s really pissing me off about the reactions I’m seeing is how dismissive they are of the victims. A dozen people are dead, and just because there are parts of the world where ‘only’ twelve dead would be a good day, often as a result of Western policies, doesn’t change the fact that these people are dead, and for no good reason. That’s twelve snuffed out lives, and who knows how many more shattered friends and family. And for what? The ‘crime’ of working for what was at worst an unfunny, inflamatory publication?
And assuming this isn’t some kind of false-flag attack (and frankly people around here and on Sakers sites call false-flag on pretty much everything. I remember when you guys spun an elborate tale about Hinds and Kolomoyskyi’s private security slaughtering rebellious Ukrainian soldiers, all based on virtually no evidence. All your wild speculation of course turned out to be nonsense) free-speech is a legitimate factor. And on a rather fundamental level as well, since it’s clear there of members of these communities who not only think 100% freedom of speech shouldn’t exist but that some sort of ‘right to not be offended’ also exists.
Well I’m sorry (no I’m not), but that’s bullshit. Sticks and stones the childrens saying goes; if you don’t like something, don’t read it, or protest against it. You do not, ever, have the right to use violence as a response to being ‘offended’. And I don’t give a shit how much your sacred beliefs were insulted. Let’s not lose sight of the basics of this case: a magazine printed some crass cartoons, and someone had the thought process of “this offends me. I should kill them.” Whether that person was part of a movement nurtured and aided by Western intelligence organizations is immaterial. Maybe it is the chickens coming home to roost, that doesn’t change the fact that those chickens are fucking barbarians.
Worst of all is the ‘they shouldn’t have played with fire’ attitude which Saker has espoused. This wasn’t a goddamn fire. This wasn’t someone napping on a railroad track. These were thinking human beings who decided that murder was an appropriate response to something they didn’t like. If you think like them, or think that is a valid, reasonable worldview, there is something seriously wrong with you. No one anywhere should have to feel the need to curb their speech out of fear of a violent, even lethal, response. And anyone who thinks that violence as a response to being ‘offended’ is ever a valid option has the mentality of a child.
I would think that people who exist out on (and even beyond) the fringe of accecptable public discourse like this site would understand the value of free speech. Apparently I’m wrong about that.

Posted by: Saghei | Jan 10 2015 11:11 utc | 114

@Saghei #114:
Obama had Samir Khan assassinated with a drone strike for editing a magazine and thus exercising his free speech rights. I don’t see how this terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo is any different from what the US government does every week. If anything, the attack on Charlie Hebdo was more civilized than what the US does, since the attack was surgical, whereas Obama with his drones and Hellfire missiles kills random civilians.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 10 2015 11:39 utc | 115

Posted by: Saghei | Jan 10, 2015 6:11:15 AM | 114
Problem is “the West” is hypocritical. It is ridiculous a woman is not allowed to wear a veil in France, isn’t it?
Algerian Offers to Buy Charlie Hebdo to Defend Freedom

The 43 year-old describes himself as a “die-hard republican” and says paying fines for women punished for covering their faces and helping Charlie Hebdo both stem from his commitment to “freedom of expression, religion, movement or choice of garments.”
In the last three and a half years, Nekkaz says he’s paid 894 fines for a total amount of 206,000 euros. He plans to fly to France next week to pay three more in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Longjumeau, close to Paris, and Vaulx-en-Velin, near Lyon in the south. His campaign has prompted some members of the French Parliament to push for a law to stop him.
“The gap is deepening between the Republic’s beautiful ideals and the way they’re actually implemented on the ground,” he said. “I won’t accept that fear of Islam is exploited to push through laws that restrict our freedom.”

Posted by: somebody | Jan 10 2015 12:13 utc | 116

Saghei | Jan 10, 2015 6:11:15 AM | 114
How many nick’s do you have, Nazi?

Posted by: neretva43 | Jan 10 2015 12:24 utc | 117

OK, CIA/Google gave to “satirical” magazine $400.000 and MI6/The Guardian gave $100.000. They were on verge of bankruptcy now money in pouring in.
The money pouring in not because there is anything inherently valuable with that piece of shit, but because to continue with provocation and cultural war against the “others”.

Posted by: neretva43 | Jan 10 2015 12:28 utc | 118

Today another propaganda piece has been launched …
Correctiv investigation MH-17 with Der Spiegel and Dutch AD.nl
About correctiv.org
IP address: Address: 212.204.60.150
Registrant ID HTTP-770B5DB1D19
Registrant Name Schraven, David
Registrant Organization PULS Recherchen fuer die Gesellschaft GmbH
Registrant Street Schweriner Str. 39
Registrant City Essen
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code 45147
Registrant Country DE
Registrant Phone +49.21123706698

Posted by: Oui | Jan 10 2015 13:14 utc | 119

Knowing how the U.S. operates, I think it’s inconceivable that anyone could take the attack on Charlie Hebdo at face value. Here’s Paul Craig Roberts:
“Another way of seeing the attack is as an attack designed to shore up France’s vassal status to Washington. The suspects can be both guilty and patsies. Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans.
“France is suffering from the Washington-imposed sanctions against Russia. Shipyards are impacted from being unable to deliver Russian orders due to France’s vassalage status to Washington, and other aspects of the French economy are being adversely impacted by sanctions that Washington forced its NATO puppet states to apply to Russia.”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/01/08/charlie-hebdo-tsarnaevs-trial-qui-bono/

Posted by: madisolation | Jan 10 2015 13:15 utc | 120

Satire, like God and John Lennon before it, is now officially dead. But I will continue to spit into the hurricane-force headwinds because I yam what I yam.
Je Suis Qui Je Suis

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jan 10 2015 13:47 utc | 121

Posted by: Oui | Jan 10, 2015 8:14:26 AM | 119
Nothing special about them – they are connected to DER SPIEGEL and a Dutch paper plus financed by a German media foundation.
Lot’s of the stuff they are saying is legitimate and explains the deafening silence – Europe not admitting that a war is going on in Ukraine, thereby endangering their flights, Ukraine’s military taking civilian flights for cover on their bombing runs. Rest is dubious of course and unconvincing, as the strategy of Ukraine’s government seems to be to make Eastern Ukraine unlivable, not fighting Russian tanks. Even human rights watch and Amnesty came out against cluster ammunition used by Kyiv troops and Kyiv militia’s not letting help through to the civilian population – basically trying to starve them.
More and worse will come out. It is an attempt to keep a lid on the worst stuff.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 10 2015 13:48 utc | 122

for music lovers rufus magister and ChipNikh…
soundtrack for a self-fulfillig prophecy
http://youtu.be/7ykQFrL0X74
crank it!

Posted by: john | Jan 10 2015 15:33 utc | 123

ok. apocalypsis next.
Der Spiegel starts the rumor that Assad plans to build a nuclear bomb
That is all they can come up with after the Paris attacks?

Posted by: somebody | Jan 10 2015 15:59 utc | 124

@90/92: The video does look odd but shootings in real life often do. They can range from extremely gruesome to almost prosaic. High speed rounds will frequently impart no momentum to targets and depending on where hit, and what is worn, there may or may not be noticeable blood. Recoil on an Ak firing single rounds is barely noticeable, there will frequently be no muzzle flash to speak of and ejected shell casings move very rapidly. The puff of ‘smoke’ was most likely the round hitting the cement and while the media have said he was shot in the head it seems more likely to have actually been in the neck or upper back.
Yes, all these factors together make it look strange, even suspicious if you are used to tv/movie style gunshots with high recoil and a spray of blood. Frankly I found it odd myself (moreso, however, from the behaviour of the atatckers), but it all falls completely within the bounds of plausibility. Suffice to say it is far harder to believe that a group willing to execute a dozen journalists, run over a pedestrian and shoot other police officers, would for some reason want to stage the shooting of a single victim. Unless all other killings were fake there is no real reason to suspect that this one was.

Posted by: Bran | Jan 10 2015 16:12 utc | 125

Holefield has been trolling here for years and B still has not banned him.

Posted by: Massinissa | Jan 10 2015 16:24 utc | 126

@90/92: . . . blah blah . . . blah . . . b lah.. . .. The puff of ‘smoke’ was most likely the round hitting the cement and while the media have said he was shot in the head it seems more likely to have actually been in the neck or upper back.
No, despite all your transparently obfuscatory attempts to claim otherwise, from simply watching the slo-mo video of the AK being fired, and paying attention to the angle of the gun barrel and the location of the subsequent dust trail, it seems much much more likely that the Cop wasn’t hit by that bullet at all
not in the head, not in the neck and not in the shoulder

Posted by: Rogan Josh | Jan 10 2015 17:42 utc | 127

ZEROHEDGE brought this news:
Russia can provoke an Ukrainian default:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-10/thank-you-western-taxpayer-russia-accelerate-3bn-ukraine-debt

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 10 2015 17:47 utc | 128

ChipNikh @ 103 —
Calm, but energized and enlightened. Our Ancient Greek seers would advise against hubris.
What a beautiful palette on the Wagner! Tres jolie! Sure he’s German, but it’s better to speak of beauty in French, ne c’est-pas? Moi, mais un peu parler.
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesterday, the Dawn of the Age of Sequencing, when unenlightened minds questions the musicality of mere electronic devices. Ah, what’s that, the voices say? “If it can do classical, well then, it must be an instrument.”
Heard long ago in a quiet but nearby land, Apollo 100 and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire (ex. Bach, BWV 147) . And hey, they have some Popcorn to go with that, if you like. I don’t recall vocals on the ancient radio for this one. Today is a good day! I have learned something.
Hey, cut the snark Barflies, I heard that. Neither the worst, first, nor last time.
D @ 102 —
You might find the visuals and poster’s message of interest on the Bach.
And in the cold light of day, my 98 might have been too much of a good thing. The post at 110 about Litvinov is still a good idea, but I have to say….
“Hi, everyone, my name is Rufus M. (“Hi, Rufus”) I’d like to begin this morning’s meeting of Logoholics Anonymous. I’ve been clean and taciturn less than 24 hours now, thanks. The floor is now open. Help yourself to the coffee and croissants.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 19:26 utc | 129

oops, html error, I wanted “edit” not “post” — they have some Popcorn they’d like to share at the Bar.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 19:30 utc | 130

D @ 102 —
You might like the visuals and message of the poster of the Bach. It was truly both retro and progressive at the time, quite productive of a Synthesis, no?
In the cold light of day, I still think the Litvinov post at 110 was a good Idea. But I think I’d agree that my 98 is too much of a good thing. The slow motion dropping of the other shoe on Poroshenko’s ouster is getting to me, I went on a binge, should have focused on the latest, gloomiest. So what’s left to me but….
“Good afternoon, my name is Rufus M. (“Hi Rufus”) and I’d like to begin todays chapter meeting of Logoholics Anonymous. I’ve been clean and taciturn than 24 hours, thanks. The floor is now open, help yourself to the coffee and croissants.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 10 2015 19:42 utc | 131

Obama is ‘dumping’ Ukrainian radicals
Kristina Rus notes the new good nazi/bad nazi shtick by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Here at MoA the genocide in Donbas is … so over. And Palestine is looong forgotten.
Egypt Moves to Eradicate Town Near Gaza Strip
PA: No reconstruction until we get control of Gaza
The logoholics turn up the Wagner and guzzle the cheer.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 10 2015 21:04 utc | 132

Logorrhea more like

Posted by: Rogan Josh | Jan 10 2015 21:08 utc | 133

@jfl #132:
Are you referring to my remark “I’m so tired of the Ukraine”? What I meant by that is that I am tired of the Ukraine’s existence as a state. I am certainly not tired of Novorossiya.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 10 2015 21:23 utc | 134

@97
Donohue is a moron who has a long history of insane statements.
@115
What makes you think I approve of or defend those actions?
@116
And they were wrong to ban facial coverings. I’m well aware of the hypocrisy. That doesn’t change the fact that people are dead and no one here seems to care much.
@117
I’m a Nazi? Excuse me?

Posted by: Saghei | Jan 10 2015 21:57 utc | 135

A shell explodes next to two brothers playing in a backyard in Shakhtersk, Donetsk Republic

This is the first case in his practice, says the doctor at Donetsk Hospital about 8 year old Vania.
Vania can hardly talk, his face has been punctured by 2.5-4 mm shrapnel.
He lost both legs and a right arm while playing with his 5 year-old brother in his backyard in Shakhtersk.
His brother took most of the shrapnel and died on the spot, his father-in-law was killed as well.
Vania lost more then a liter of blood. He lost one eye, and the second can barely see the light.
Doctors cannot yet tell whether he will recover his sight. His mom and dad are by his side.

Another heroic blow for freedom and human rights by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in Ukraine!

Posted by: jfl | Jan 11 2015 0:48 utc | 136

in re 132, 133.
Nice to see no good deed still goes unpunished.
I like a long draught rather than innumerable shots. Drink deep or live shallow. Can I get you you kids some wine spritzers? They still make Boones Farm? Or maybe you’re fans of jello shots.
Let’s turn up the Wagoner, by all means. But rather than Valhalla or even Avalon, I’d prefer to go to Disney Land. “I just flipped off President George,” says Dada. Works for me, but feel free to sub your own object of derision.
BTW, Dada got in trouble for that last cut, it’s “Dizz Knee Land” officially, thanks to a little commercial censorship. Corporations are people to my friend, we’ve been told. The trademark apparently found it derogatory and offensive….
Whiskey sours for the house, innkeeper. “May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead. Slainte!”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 1:10 utc | 137

Haiti Cholera Suit Struck Down

On Friday, a U.S. federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit against the United Nations launched by Haitians who say U.N. forces should be held accountable for their nation’s cholera epidemic.
“The court’s decision implies that the U.N. can operate with impunity,” she stated, according to the New York Times.
Launched in 2013, the lawsuit alleges the U.N. should provide compensation to victims of Haiti’s cholera outbreak, which began in 2010.
The outbreak has been linked to Nepalese U.N. peacekeepers. Human waste from the peacekeepers was allegedly dumped in Haiti’s waterways, leading to the rapid spread of the disease. An estimated 700,000 have contracted cholera since 2010 – 6 percent of Haiti’s population.

Haiti. They just cannot punish Haiti and the Haitians enough. The very existence of Haiti – without a Papa Doc to keep the Haitians under his iron boot heel – infuriates them, drives them mad. And, my god, what they do to the Haitians.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 11 2015 1:23 utc | 138

john @ 123 — I’m not sure I get the prophecy angle. And I’m not the biggest fan of modern classical, I have to say, Copeland, a little Shostakovich is about as far as I go.
But the idea of the Helicopter Quartet by Stockhausen is so freakin’ cool. I actually liked the intro. w/ the takeoff. I’d guess they were recording live in real time over the radio, but I think you wear those headsets in helicopters as a matter of course. I’d love to fly a copter.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 1:49 utc | 139

Plug:
Cut down on a few super-sized buggers & coke this week and send a few bucks to help John Pilger with his important work.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/john-pilger-the-coming-war-documentary#activity
Spread the word if nothing else. If you are not aware of his past record then see this 3-min overview:
http://vimeo.com/114227353

Posted by: x | Jan 11 2015 2:05 utc | 140

“Get used to it world” (Pilger interviews ex-CIA Chief Duane McClarridge, @3:09)
http://vimeo.com/114561495

Posted by: x | Jan 11 2015 2:14 utc | 141

Russian Spring
01/10/2015-20:31
Systematic strikes at combatants’ position routinely continued.
In Lugansk Republic, the bombardment clustered tenaciously in areas of settlements Smeloye and Stanitsa-Luganskaya. During last two days, in the latter, collaterally destroyed were ten homes, a kindergarten and a recreation center.
In Donetsk republic, traditionally assaulted were combatants frontiers in Donetsk, Dokuchayevsk and Yelenovka (both at south-west of Donetsk Republic), Gorlovka (north-west outskirts).
Artillery and mortars fired at combatants’ positions blocking enemy in area of Donets airport.

Posted by: Fete | Jan 11 2015 3:13 utc | 142

I haven’t seen anyone mention this here:
Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatsenyuk blames Soviet Union for invading Germany

On Thursday, January 8, Arseny Yatsenyuk, when visiting Germany, gave an interview to German TV channel ARD, in which he said: … The current “Russian aggression in Ukraine is an attack on the world order and the order in Europe.” “We still remember well the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany. This should be avoided,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said. …
In Germany, the online version of Spiegel magazine satirically wrote: “Indeed, since 1942, Soviet troops had been moving relentlessly to the West and were not afraid to pursue the army of the democratically elected chancellor Adolf Hitler even on the Ukrainian territory. (…) Finally, the Soviets transgressed the eastern border of Germany and invaded its territory, as we all remember, together with Mr. Yatsenyuk.”

“The Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany” is a favorite theme of Ukrainian nationalists.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 11 2015 4:17 utc | 143

D @ 143
This bit in mine at 98 links to a version of the story at New Cold War.
Hey, you don’t think that’s funny, how about this Yatsenyuk: “I will not allow the Russians to march across Ukraine and Germany, as they did in WWII.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 5:09 utc | 144

@Demian, 134:
“Are you referring to my remark “I’m so tired of the Ukraine”? What I meant by that is that I am tired of the Ukraine’s existence as a state. I am certainly not tired of Novorossiya.”
***
As music and lyrics seem to be in vogue of late, I’ll contribute a few lines inspired by the Clash (of Civilizations):
Nazi soldier, he wants a Drang nach Ost
Ordered by the CIA but he can’t afford the cost
Yankee dollar lures every merc to a grisly death
In land wars in Eurasia as they’re losin’ steppe by steppe
I’m so bored with the U-Ka-Raine
I’m so bored with the U-Ka-Raine
And Washington too
Yats’s volunteers can only defeat the unarmed
‘Cuz when they came to Donbass, they ran in full alarm
Never mind the MSM, let’s leak Victoria’s calls
I’ll salute the Ghost Brigade and cheer as every fascist falls
I’m so bored with the U-Ka-Raine
I’m so bored with the U-Ka-Raine
And Washington too

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 11 2015 5:14 utc | 145

I was wondering when hostilities would break out between the UAF and the NaziGuard:
Ukrainian Armed Forces are bombing Right Sector

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 11 2015 5:23 utc | 146

@rufus magister #143:
Sorry. I thought I had seen that mentioned somewhere. That is so bad that even Der Spiegel makes fun of him.
@Vintage Red #145:
LOL!
I used to love that song and have listened to it countless times. But it’s been ages since I listened to the Clash. Punk stopped being interesting to me once I discovered Joy Division. Speaking of Joy Division, this is the first Joy Division/New Order song I heard. To me, it is probably the most sublime song in all of pop music. It also has some of the best use of a synthesizer.
Does that sound like a drum machine to you, rufus? It’s funny that although we are about the same age, you seem to be most into music from the 1970s, whereas I am most into music from the 1980s.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 11 2015 5:43 utc | 147

Demian @ 147 — Don’t sweat it, it was buried under a mound of paragraphs.
For favorite New Order song, I’d have to go with Confusion. Takes me back to the embattled but hopeful 1980’s. But I had a listen to Crystal, something off-putting about the vocals, man but that music rocks.
Vintage Red @ 145 — Very well done, I am most impressed. One reason for hope in the 80’s — and who were also embattled — were the the Sandinistas. For favorite early Clash, I gotta go with their cover of Pressure Drop, which came out here in the States on the 10″ Black Market Clash

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 7:08 utc | 148

in re the Ukraine —
Now here’s something really interesting, I will avoid any temptation to gild this lily, except to say, well damn, maybe he could survive, they’ve kept critical heavy weapons from the volunteers. From the redoubtable Fort Russ, Ukrainian Armed Forces are bombing the Right Sector; Batman update.
But I would add, Yatsenyuk is a warmonger and a puppet of Ukrainian oligarchs – Bundestag deputy Wolfgang Gehrcke continues Die Linke’s critique of German foreign policy.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 7:29 utc | 149

oh crap
To D # 147 — I forgot to say I had a listen to “Temptation,” I’d forgotten it, quite nice. Now, you know with a leading question like that what I’m going to say…. certainly sounds like a lot of rhythm tracks programmed in the 80’s. Cool cover, too, I like Expressionism (plain and abstract), Dada and Bauhaus myself.
I’ve posted an array of links, from classic rock to contemporary. That Bruce Cockburn duet of “If I had a Rocket Launcher” I posted a while back is from the 80’s.
And I touted the virtues of contemporary power pop love with ““Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon earlier.
I’ve reposted that link here since such it’s such a pleasantly sappy montage of clips of lip-syncing sent in by ordinary fans. Some got some moves, Barflies, a few dance as bad as I do…. Spiffy synth solo. Didn’t happen that way with Mrs. M, but I know that feeling. “Don’t you dare look back and keep your eyes on me….”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 7:53 utc | 150

Vintage Red @ 145 —
Speaking of music, didn’t you post an Inti-Illimani link? I think I have “Flight of the Condor” on vinyl packed away somewhere. Along with a little Ruben Blades.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 8:05 utc | 151

Like i said : Logorrhea
Amd whats worse, completely self-obsessed “me me me” logorrhea,
The worst type

Posted by: Rogan Josh | Jan 11 2015 11:58 utc | 152

Here’s another form of “chickens coming home to roost”:
On March 22 of the year 2004, an Israëli helicoprter gunship destroyed the home of the palestinian sheikh/leader Yassin and killed the sheikh with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin
This news didn’t get too much attention in the West (e.g. the US & Europe) but it made big headlines in the Middle East. For the arab people in Middle East it was another confirmation that Israel could do whatever it wants to do and don’t get reprimanded by the US.
And the blowback was almost inmediate. On march 31 2004, a US (food) convoy took the wrong turning in the iraqi city of Fallujah. The americans who drove that convoy/those trucks were seized, lynched and killed. The burned remains of their body were left hanging from a bridge over the river Euphrates river.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Fallujah_ambush
And the US Army took revenge. It resulted in the “Battle of Fallujah” in November & December 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
As a result of these battles, a significant amount of people from Fallujah fled the city and moved to Baghdad and helped to ignite the civil war in Baghdad.

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 11 2015 12:02 utc | 153

Two women and a girl died in the village Kryakovka near Lugansk as a result of shelling committed by the Nazis

In time of artillery shelling arranged by Ukrainian Nazis died the girl 14 years old, her mother and her grandmother. Some shells struck their house.
The attack was since 4.00 to 7.00, it was reported by the representatives off MIA.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is wiping his European Unit into line for WW III. They, just as do my fellow Americans, obediently play the part so well.
Je Suis Donbass. Je Suis Palestine.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 11 2015 14:42 utc | 154

Rogaine Josh at 152 —
Stop, you’re such a flatterer, you embarrass me. It’s really about the music and the Donbas.
Anything of substance to say ’bout the Ukraine, do you think Poroshenko will go? Sounds like your kind of conspiracy theory.
VR @ 146 — Oops, how could I have missed that post. I got carried away with that interesting development. We’ll have to see how it’s working out.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 16:34 utc | 155

further to my 155 —
Well, the silence says enough. Back to work.
Today’s bits come from Ukraina.ru. On the high politics, Right Sector leader Yarosh: Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk could be deposed by spring. On the socio-economic angle, the Zaporizhzhia giant plant heads to insolvency.
As sample of the article on Yarosh, which quotes him as saying “Who will protect this lot? There are many questions they have to answer, but Ukrainian nationalists prefer to act in the best interests of the state. It is easy to act against interests, especially when there is an external enemy.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 11 2015 20:24 utc | 156

@rufus magister #150:
I don’t know. I think New Order’s drums sound unique, not “like a lot of rhythm tracks programmed in the 80’s”. All the great drummers have a unique style: Keith Moon, Nick Mason, Stephen Morris.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 12 2015 0:20 utc | 157

It turns out that apparently Russia can now put nuclear tipped cruise missiles into its hunter-killer submarines:
US and Russia in danger of returning to era of nuclear rivalry
That’s what the US gets for leaving the ABM treaty.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 12 2015 0:24 utc | 158

Anyone see this is in Der Spiegel?
Iran FM rejects Der Spiegel claims as ‘ridiculous’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected as “ridiculous” a report by Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly claiming that Tehran is helping Syria build nuclear weapons.

What a spiteful imperialist mirror that’s turned out to be.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 12 2015 1:58 utc | 159

Demian @ 157 — to the degree that he wanted to emulate a drum machine in that track, he did well. I would agree, all drummers have an individual style. I’d have to mull over my fav. drummer, I might have to go a little wider to rhythm sect.
I suspect I might be a bit older than yourself, I grad’d. high school around the time of the Bicentennial. I liked a lot music from the 80′ (the hgt. of new wave and later grunge), but I think you’re right in saying a good part of my taste was formed in the 70’s. Probably late 70’s and early 80’s. FWIW, It also changed somewhat in the 80’s.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 12 2015 2:54 utc | 160

@rufus magister #160:
IIRC, the “slogan” of my high school graduating class was “The Spirit of ’76”.
The first “bands” I got into (as an early teen) were the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. In high school, I listened to Emerson Lake and Palmer and King Crimson, but that all came to a screeching halt when I discovered the Floyd. My first three years in college, I was basically just into the Who and the Floyd. (I remember reading an article in a magazine in a hi fi store saying that Pete Townsend uses synthesizers to much better effect than Keith Emerson. That’s what led me to the Who.) Then I had a breakthrough and suddenly understood the Talking Heads. The next bands I got into were Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark and the Human League. But none of that really involved a significant change in musical taste. That didn’t happen until I heard “Temptation” on college radio. The Talking Heads went totally out of the door at that point, and I grew bored with that other new wave I mentioned. At this time, I discovered Roxy Music, which I should have been listening to in the 1970s. The last stage in the development of my musical taste was getting into shoegaze.
My impression is that all the possibilities of pop music have now been explored (My Blood Valentine being the last really new sound and style), so that now, existing styles and sounds are just revisited. But I suppose that everyone starts thinking that when they get old enough. (I don’t care about rhythm & blues. Something new might be going on there for all I know.)

Posted by: Demian | Jan 12 2015 3:28 utc | 161

Russian Spring
01/12/2015-01:16
Summary of the day from frontiers of Debal`tsevo pocket – Nikishino – by military journalist Boricich:
Exchange by artillery greetings started in the morning. The combat, fading off at times then revving up, took in Nikishino the entire day…
That the fight brought either side some territorial advantage is not likely. In the aftermath both sides broke even.
Today, unfortunately, here was one “300th “ – nothing known about Ukrainian casualties.
Russian Spring
01/12/2015-01:06
“Gorlovka Self-defense” informs of terrifying bombardment of the city by “Uragan” and “Smerch” rocket salvo systems:
It has been six hours as we are being killed by “Uragans” and “Smerchs”. The bombardment is carried from Artemovsk and Dzerzhinsk (north, north-west of Gorlovka).
Ukrainians employ new types of weapons – gifts from Poroshenko.
Small arms are being heard – Ukrainians are trying to break into Gorlovka. No way, we stay where we are. Some reporting combatants stand frostbitten in trenches and do not let fascists toward the city.
Russian Spring
01/12/2015-00:10
As dusk fell, Ukrainian forces had struck the center and outskirts of Donetsk from powerful large-caliber artillery:

17:46. The combat is rattling in the airport. Shells descend from Opitnoye and Peski upon districts Oktyabr`skiy, Putilovka, the airport. Our artillery actively shoots back.

18:45. The nationalists bombard district Petrovskiy from cannons and mortars.
18:45. From positions near hamlet Tonen`koye, the nationalists launched “Grad” salvo toward Donetsk.
18:47. From direction of hamlet Tonen`koye, the nationalists launched “Grad” salvo at district Kievskiy (railway station).
18:50. Struck by rockets, residential buildings burn in district Kuybishevskiy. Electricity has been cut off in area of the railway station.
18:50. Nationalists’ positions under Krasnogorovka have been struck at full scale. Per radio intercepts, at least 4 vehicles and some 10 cannons are destroyed.
19:10. Airport-Perski. A savage small arms combat going on.

00:00. From Peski, the punitive troops blast at area of the old terminal (the airport).

00:41. Our artillery responds adequately – a full “Grad” salvo went at Ukrainian fascists’ positions near hamlet Vodyanoye. Second one has gone…
Russian Spring
01/11/2015-13:17
Combatant “Sich” (“Owl”) tells about clashes under settlement Donetskiy and at the place called Bakhmutka, Lugansk Republic:
Well, the opponent lost fight under settlement Donetskiy. It left there 5 tanks and a company of troops. The rest merely ran rather just retreated.
The counter-attack continues at the moment; outpost 29 burns. But the command was not to take it.
It is being already calm here at outpost 31 (former Ukrainian). After having blown 2 mortars and 3 tanks of Ukrainian forces, they have retreated and ceased bombardment.
A combatants’ attack on Krimskoye (namely on outpost 37) was accomplished successfully – Ukrainian forces reduced firing at our positions. They have lost a lot there – same as we have. Certainly known about 3 howitzers, 2 mortars as well as 4 tanks and an APC.
All together, Ukrainian forces lost fallen and wounded up to two hundreds of personnel (mostly wounded). Our Bakhmutka losses are 12 fallen and about 20 wounded.

Posted by: Fete | Jan 12 2015 4:46 utc | 162

D @ 161 —
Well damn. Class of ’76 myself. How’s this for American — the town est’d. a summer festival on the local waterway, not on the 4th., but a bit before, part of the whole season. It turned into Mardi Gras on the Chesapeake. Until a few yrs. ago when the town fathers reigned it in.
I always loved music. My aunt and uncle had a player piano, I loved that thing. “Marchof the Toy Soldiers” was my favorite roll. We had Monkees and Beatles singles when I was I kid. All sorts of stuff caught my ear on the car radio.
Did S&G, Chicago, and hit Jethro Tull in high school. Got into an Irish rock band Horslips (flute and folksy themes from Irish music, good stuff really, they were compared to Tull and ELP) in college. Electronica even before college, when I came across Germany’s Tangerine Dream, the best of the early generation, IMHO. And seriously into the sometimes-jazzy Steely Dan and Zappa in coll. as well. As well as the Floyd (starting in HS), plenty of prog. rock like Yes. And of course, Eno, I really got into his work with “Before and After Science.” After, grunge and heavy eighties bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Bush, as well as REM.
Since I had listened to a lot of the sort of bloated bands they criticized (I nearly posted a link to ELP’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “Lucky Man” is an excellent tune, I liked Lake in the early King Crimson, Townsend’s solo album is excellent.) I saw what they were saying.
I got the whole back-to-basics thing, loved the retro-rockabilly of Rockpile (awesome show), though was not big in 50’s rock. I rode the Heads ’til they broke up, less so after Eno left as producer, though those albums are fine. The first Furs record is peerless (“Sister Europe” is my personal favorite, though “India” and “Wedding Song” are good too). And of course, early Devo and the B-52’s.
Is musical style — like history — cyclic, repetitious, is there anything left? Too deep for me — at this time.
Sorry to go on a bit folks — but it’s music. Make it worthwhile — play yourself an old, neglected favorite, or jam to something new and nice. I think I’m going with the latter myself, I like to try to stay at least a little fresh.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 12 2015 4:47 utc | 163

“Paris shooters just returned from NATO proxy war in Syria”
http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/08/paris-shooters-just-returned-from-nato-s-proxy-war-in-syria/

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 12 2015 19:07 utc | 164

“The French shooters were radicalized by Bush & Abu Graig torture”
http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/terrorist-radicalized-torture.html
(Just like Abu-al-Bakr, head of ISIS).

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 12 2015 19:28 utc | 165

“Paris Rally: Charlie Hebdo Team regret not Parading Caricatures of Hypocritical World Leaders”
http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/parading-caricatures-hypocritical.html

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 12 2015 19:33 utc | 166

The Corrupt, Boozing Philanderer Who Built the CIA’s Black Sites
This is a dog bites man story. All the Criminals In Action are corrupt boozing philanderers. Helps ‘bond’ the boys together in and protect the secrets of their shared criminal enterprise. What’s the point of being a Criminal In Action with immunity if you don’t totally disregard all laws and act with impunity on every and any debased urge and desire?

Posted by: jfl | Jan 12 2015 20:33 utc | 167

@Demian and rufus magister, 147 & 148:
Glad you liked my little offering—where other than MoA might I be able to get away with a reference to “Drang nach Ost”?
It’s hard not to love “I’m so bored with the USA”, so downright catchy and disgusted at the same time. I listened to the Clash through London Calling; I used to own Black Market Clash but having spent my teenage years in the Caribbean I was perhaps a bit OD’d on Reggae to follow non-Caribbean musicians there. Locally some was political; much more was simply humor.
I grew up listening to my parents’ array of Latin American folk, US folk, musicals, and Classical (especially Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, every Russian I’ve ever heard…)—I quickly took to rewriting lyrics for fun. S&G was as far as they got into modern music. On my own I cut my teeth on Steppenwolf, Led Zeppelin, ELP, Pink Floyd, some Tull and Zappa ( Billy the Mountain!), got into Yes’s Close to the Edge but drifted away from them after that. Graduated HS and returned to the (US) continent there discovering Heavy Metal and Acid Rock—BOC, Hawkwind and Amon Düül II figured greatly in my listening for many years, with T. Dream for more reflective moments. Then discovered the Clash, T. Heads and many other Punk and New Wave bands. Bridging Heavy Metal/Prog Rock and Punk/New Wave, my anthems in those years of my early radicalization were Third World War’s Ascension Day, Todd Rundgren’s Heavy Metal Kids and the Accelerators’ Liberate the Night. Oh, and Van Der Graaf Generator’s Godbluff album probably saved me thousands of dollars in therapy, “37 minutes and 34 seconds of raw power in four slices” as one reviewer put it.
Now in quieter moments I immerse myself in ambient music such as that of Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Alio Die and Vidna Obmana; to energize I love Ozric Tentacles and Hidria Spacefolk.
Always more to discover in the universe of music…
ps—yes, I did post a link to Inti-Illimani’s La Segunda Independencia; I also love Quilapayun, Victor Jara and other Nueva Cancion. I most love Grupo Moncada’s Hasta Siempre and Pegale Duro al Fiero (alas, can’t find link!).

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 12 2015 22:34 utc | 168

Back to news from the front:
346 miners trapped hours underground by UAF shelling
I predict a new miners’ battalion soon to be added to the NAF.
ps to rufus magister @ 155:
No worries!

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 12 2015 22:37 utc | 169

Now for something completely different:
World Island High Speed Rail, brought to you by China
This should be the inspiration for many a Mackinderian nightmare in Washington! How will they sanction this???

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 12 2015 22:38 utc | 170

@rufus magister & Vintage Red:
It’s interesting to see how our musical tastes compare. I was into Led Zeppelin IV and Close to the Edge, but didn’t have any other albums by those bands. I may check out Godbluff, since I like Pawn Hearts. Didn’t even know that Townsend put out a solo album. (I don’t like Roger Waters’ solo albums.)
@ #170:
Very interesting. And it’s interesting that China envisages connecting Alaska and Russia with its rail network. That’s very inclusive on China’s part.
I didn’t know about Mackinder. I wonder if Brzezinski has ever attributed some of his ideas to Mackinder.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 13 2015 0:02 utc | 171

to Vintage at 168 —
Perhaps I’ll favor some summertime open thread with my rendition of “Beanball Wizard,” w/ apologies to Elton and the Who. I’ve got all the verses for that, I don’t think I’ll be able to get away with a verse and the chorus. You must be a Tom Lehrer fan, too.
I’ll have to sort out the links later, but some interesting names, I can only mention a few.
Man, I can’t recall the last time I heard the name van der Graaf Generator. I think I had them on a cassette, card was parked but totaled one afternoon while I watched. But the name always stuck with me. Always thought I should get into Hawkwind, its not happened yet, though. FZ — too many good titles, let alone songs, hard to pick one. Every time I rethink this, fav. album still comes out Zoot Allures, due to “Black Napkins,” “Disco Boy,” etc.
Both sides of Just Another Band from LA, kick a**! “Magdalena” from the other side is my favorite Zappa song (along with “Camarillo Brillo” off of Over-nite Sensation). “Billy” tells a great story though. “You saw what just happened to the guy with the flies!” Who thought a little vacation could cause such a stir?
Disclaimer, Zappa lyrics may fall under the category of NSFW.
And to Demian @ 147 a late substitution on favorite New Order song. Annoyingly, title was not the chorus, finally thought to Google the lyrics, and found “Love Vigilantes.” It’s like if you took everything dark about a Joy Division song, turned it bright and happy, yet kept its essence (somehow), this would be it. Ending is ambiguous, though.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 1:27 utc | 172

@rufus magister #172:
I guess it should not be surprising that you select Love Vigilantes: that is New Order trying to do a conventional pop song. Low-life came out after the Blue Monday EP, and I found Low-life to be a disappointment, although I really liked it and listened to it endlessly of course. But I think the consensus at the time was that New Order was better at doing a 7 minute single than at doing an album. I think New Order got better at doing albums. Get Ready is probably their most successful. I think it has their best lyrics when seen in conventional terms; they were produced by composition, as opposed to free association, which is how Sumner wrote lyrics earlier.
My favorite New Order song is Temptation, but I don’t think that there’s any question that their defining song is Blue Monday. That just blew everyone’s mind when it came out. It’s more like a high-tech tank than a pop song. It is utterly audacious (the original mix, not the softened up mix used for the video with Fay Ray). It is one of those era-defining 7 minute songs, up there with Stairway to Heaven, Won’t Get Fooled Again, and Soon.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 13 2015 2:12 utc | 173

I should have added Hey Jude. That was the first one. Can’t think of any others. Oh, wait: Light My Fire. The Yanks score one!

Posted by: Demian | Jan 13 2015 2:30 utc | 174

01/12/2015
Commentary: What Strelkov (ex-Minister of Defense of Donetsk Republic) gave account for yesterday, seems, holds true for the last two days:

Russian Spring
01/11/2015-12:06
Clashes (so far positional) have already taken place along the entire front line … Donetsk is under brutal bombardment – it was long ago since it was such violently shattered.
Forget the ceasefire truce – this thing does not exist. When they consolidate for the offensive – they do not likely know themselves. The decision will come from the political leadership based on its needs.
The opponent is active on all fronts, and activity of the “giving up team” is at tide correspondingly. Which means the wait (for resurrection of the war) should not be long.

Posted by: Fete | Jan 13 2015 4:42 utc | 175

Demian @ 175 — “New Order trying to do a conventional pop song.” I always took the point of New Order was to be a more commercial, conventional pop band than Joy Division.
Frankly, I didn’t buy “Unknown Pleasures” until I started hearing New Order on the radio (Heads, Eno, Manzanera & Roxy Music, Floyd, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, TD etc. having kept the turntable busy in those years) New Order seemed disimiliar to what I heard Joy Division to be, and that got me curious. I said, well no wonder no airplay, then I kicked myself right after I played it; I should have been one of those cool people I saw with the wave form graphic T-shirt walking around….
So here, I had gotten hooked on the fabulous, dark brooding sound, and here the survivors were doing dance music, as you Wikipedia link notes about “Blue Monday”. And, BTW, links to orig. and video vers.
I blow hot and cold on snobbery about dance music (dates to disco — sure, the words are meaningless syrup, but, damn, listen to that bad syn-bass riff), that was a hot phase. They had gone in my mind, fairly or now, from Serious Music to clubbing.
P.S. — there a few quick drum beats that I recall from my tinkering with my own Roland drum machine (packed away somewhere, virtual all the way today, baby), so I would say the percussion on “Blue Monday” is at least in part machine. Or, to me, it sounds that way.
p.s to RJ — yeah, this one is about me, but I believe the opinion was solicited.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 5:01 utc | 176

D @ 174
BoSox respond in the bottom of the inning with Beatles on Sullivan, “Sweet Home Alabama/Free Bird” (in certain wide circles, certainly), and Nevermind.
And before I forget again — what’s wrong with a little Pop Muzik? From New York to Munich, everybody talks about it!

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 5:12 utc | 177

Five years since the Haiti earthquake

According to an extensive report published last June by the Institut Haïtien de Statistique et d’Informatique (the Haitian Institute of Statistics and Information Technology) and the French research institute DIAL, the number of people living in makeshift camps after the quake reached 1.6 million in July 2010. There was at least one injured person in 23 percent of families in the camps; 7 percent of the wounded have long-term disabilities, either physical or mental.
Official figures state that approximately 80,000 people remain homeless in camps five years later. While this number is staggering, it does not include thousands of others living under tarpaulins in back alleyways, or in shacks they’ve had to build themselves because much of the aid promised by the US government has been diverted to contractors like Chemonics.

Year 501, The Conquest Continues, Chapter 8 – The Tragedy of Haiti, Noam Chomsky, 1993

Hans Schmidt writes, producing three-quarters of the world’s sugar by 1789, also leading the world in production of coffee, cotton, indigo, and rum. The slave masters provided France with enormous wealth from the labor of their 450,000 slaves, much as in the British West Indian colonies. The white population, including poor overseers and artisans, numbered 40,000. Some 30,000 mulattoes and free Negroes enjoyed economic privileges but not social and political equality, the origins of the class difference that led to harsh repression after independence, with renewed violence today.
Cubans may have seemed “of dubious whiteness,” but the rebels who overthrew colonial rule did not approach that status. The slave revolt, which had reached serious proportions by the end of 1791, appalled Europe, as well as the European outpost that had just declared its own independence. Britain invaded in 1793; victory would offer “a monopoly of sugar, indigo, cotton and coffee” from an island which “for ages, would give such aid and force to industry as would be most happily felt in every part of the empire,” a British military officer wrote to Prime Minister Pitt. The United States, which had lively commerce with the French colony, sent its French rulers $750,000 in military aid as well as some troops to help quell the revolt. France dispatched a huge army, including Polish, Dutch, German, and Swiss troops. Its commander finally wrote Napoleon that it would be necessary to wipe out virtually the entire black population to impose French rule. His campaign failed, and Haiti became the only case in history “of an enslaved people breaking its own chains and using military might to beat back a powerful colonial power” (Farmer).
… The rebel victory came at tremendous cost. Much of the agricultural wealth of the country was destroyed, along with perhaps a third of the population. The victory horrified Haiti’s slave-holding neighbors, who backed France’s claims for huge reparations, finally accepted in 1825 by Haiti’s ruling elite, who recognized them to be a precondition for entry into the global market. The result was “decades of French domination of Haitian finance” with “a catastrophic effect on the new nation’s delicate economy,”

The USA collected the reparations for France. And it hasn’t let up since. The enslaved population’s having used its own might to beat back a powerful colonial ruler has never been forgiven or forgotten by the European/North American colonialists … nor now by the United Nations of the entire Planet.
Before there were Palestinians ground beneath the iron heel there were (the enslaved Africans who replaced the exterminated) Haitians, and they still are ground beneath the iron heel today.
No marches for Haiti. No Je suis Haiti.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 13 2015 5:17 utc | 178

D @ 171 —
Just saw that, Townsend’s Empty Glass is excellentl, I think “Let My Love Open the Door” and “A Little is Enough” got airplay at the time.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 5:33 utc | 179

@rufus magister #176:
Yes, She’s Lost Control was the first Joy Division song I got into. BTW, if you want brooding, there’s also this: Bela Lugosi’s Dead. But of course, that’s just goth, not “authentic” brooding. Same as the Cure’s
‘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_%28album%29″>Pornography
, which was obviously Robert Smith’s attempt to do what Joy Division had done. And one should never bring up goth without mentioning Siouxsie.
Unlike you, I consider dance music to be a highly respectable genre, not “conventional” pop music, having nothing to do with the disco music of the 1970s.
It was always obvious to me that Blue Monday uses a drum machine. In fact, I don’t know if there are any real drums in it. My point was that, as far as I can tell, there is no drum machine in Temptation.

Posted by: Demian | Jan 13 2015 5:38 utc | 180

No, I agree, about Temptation. But its the sort of simple repetitive beats that worked well on the early machines.
Touche on pop music — I’ll own up to having an mp3 of Cher’s “Believe.” I said I was of two minds. It doesn’t deal with “issues,” man. But damn, but if that riff don’t tear the roof off the sucka, like the song says. Position has softened since I met Mrs. M., former disco queen. She really likes Like a Prayer. This actually takes on some issues, too, blew me away at the time.
Pop is like any music, some good, bad, and indifferent. We can all argue about where the proportions lie for any no. of genres.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 6:00 utc | 181

@rufus magister #181:

its the sort of simple repetitive beats that worked well on the early machines.

Yes, I think it would be hard to program a drum machine to sound like Keith Moon. So I guess we are in agreement here. I just like “simple repetitive beats” more than you do. And of course, the very name “Joy Division” hints that there is a political meaning behind using simple repetitive beats.
Since you have brought up mainstream US pop music (here I most certainly cannot bring myself to use the term “American” without feeling that such use is offensive), what do you and Mrs. M. think of Lady Gaga? FWIW, I think she’s better than Madonna. (BTW, that video has two orders of magnitude greater a number of hits than anything else I’ve linked to. I didn’t even know of its existence until I just watched it.)

Posted by: Demian | Jan 13 2015 6:44 utc | 182

D @ 182 —
And part of the whole punk/new wave aesthetic was to strip it all down. I caught the overtones of “Joy Division” as soon as I heard the name, I’d already encountered them in Hohne’s “Order of the Deaths Head.” The “New Order in Europe” was a Nazi phrase for their occupation, if memory serves.
I know Lady Gaga more as a media personality. But I do know your link, “Paparazzi,” which I always liked. Never saw the video ’til now. Good beat, and a knowing cynicism.
That she sang an album of well-rec’d. duets with Tony Bennett (that big band style not really my cup a tea, generally) did get my attention. It looks like she’s in with the in crowd.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 7:24 utc | 183

@ Demian, 171:
“I didn’t know about Mackinder. I wonder if Brzezinski has ever attributed some of his ideas to Mackinder.”
My apologies for assuming you must know of the Mackinder concept of the World Island and Geopolitical Pivot! I vaguely remember your writing in a past discussion that anti-Sovietism was connected or equivalent to Russophobia, that US antipathy was not due to ideology but toward Russia itself, and thought you must be aware of Mackinder’s influence on US strategic thinking.
Yes, Brzezinski is writing from crumbs gathered from Mackinder’s meal. When I was in the US Army just after the Indochina War, I got a chance to take a geography class in which I was introduced both to Mackinder’s hypothesis as well as the “Sea Power/Land Power” hypothesis of Alfred Mahan.
Mackinder’s thought (linked to above) basically holds that the world is divided into strategic zones, a Eurasian “World Island” whose Heartland or Geographical Pivot is in Eastern Europe/Western Siberia, surrounded by an “Inner Periphery” (Western Europe, the Middle East, South and East Asia) and an “Outer Periphery” (the Americas, Subsaharan Africa—the Sahara effectively acting as an ocean—and most of Oceania). “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island controls the world.” (Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality). According to Mackinder this was why every aspiring European conqueror eventually aimed for Russia. US strategists held that since 1917 the “Heartland” emerged as an industrial power and became a “global threat” in its own right that must be stopped and dismembered—that the Russian Revolution resulted in a socialist society opposed to world capitalism was certainly the anticommunist icing on the geopolitical cake, but as we have seen since 1991 not the cake itself.
(When I was small my father told me the worst thing the US feared was an alliance between “Red Russia and Red China” and so was trying to split them up—how ironic that now the US is confronted by an emerging alliance between a capitalist/ex-socialist Russia and a China whose Communist Party is engaged in an open-ended “New Economic Policy” on steroids. Together both give each other different kinds of strategic depth: Russia gives China vast resource reserves; China gives Russia vast economic reserves; both offer each other scientific and technological resources and territorial security.)
Alfred Mahan’s contribution to this in US geopolitical strategy was the concept of most historical contentions being between a sea power and a land power: Athens vs. Sparta; Carthage vs. Rome; England vs. Spain, then France, then Germany in turn, and finally the US vs. the USSR. He held that each had its advantages and disadvantages, but over time the land power would win due to having larger resources—it could eventually just build a bigger navy than the sea power could muster (as Rome did vs. Carthage). Hence the pressure was on the sea power to destroy the land power before this could happen. Put this together with Mackinder’s hypothesis and it explains an awful lot of US global strategy and aggressiveness, no matter how thick the democratic sugar-coating: all the CIA efforts in Eastern Europe and State Dept. efforts to split China from the USSR; breaking up the USSR; subsequent interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. to “clear the flanks” before going after Iran (southern front); NATO’s drive to the east (western front); the continuing threats against North Korea (eastern front)—all are aimed at that Heartland.
Mind you, I’m enough of a (dialectical) materialist that I take geography into account in my worldview, but I don’t subscribe to this theory in the way the imperialists do. But I do think it worthwhile knowing the theory, if only to have an idea of what they are thinking so as to counter it. I recall that during WW2 Eisenhower’s staff consulted its own astrologers to try to figure out what Hitler’s astrologers were telling him (there must be a line here somewhere linking to “mine shaft gaps” but I’m not miner enough to dig it out!).
Hope this is all of interest; if anyone here is more familiar with Mackinder’s and Mahan’s work than I am I welcome any corrections/additions.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13 2015 8:05 utc | 184

@Demian, also 171:
“Very interesting. And it’s interesting that China envisages connecting Alaska and Russia with its rail network. That’s very inclusive on China’s part.”
Yes, *very* inclusive—China is capable of playing a very long game. Given the scope of this project, I can’t help but think that the next phase would be to send a line down across Gibraltar, down the West African coast to the Cape, and back up again to connect through the Middle East to the South Asian Express. Once this basically puts most airlines and much sea transport out of business, and reduces the “Grand Sea Power” US to an offshore outpost of the World Island, I think the line to Alaska is less “inclusive” in any bland sense as long range positioning to pick up the pieces from what’s left of the Former Monopole after the collapse of its currency and implosion of its military-industrial complex.
Yes, a Mackinderian-Mahanite nightmare for Wall Street and Washington! I just hope the Chinese, Russians and rest of humanity (including us in the US) find a way to neutralize the US’s nukes so that the Pentagon can’t use them in as props in a Götterdamerung exit.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13 2015 8:09 utc | 185

Willy2
Juan COle is a hypocrite himself, dont know frankly why this man gets linked here at all.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 13 2015 8:39 utc | 186

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13, 2015 3:09:11 AM | 185
Well, they already got the rail connection to Germany
European rail system is pretty good. They basically are in Gibraltar.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2015 9:45 utc | 187

p.s to RJ — yeah, this one is about me, but I believe the opinion was solicited.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13, 2015 12:01:09 AM

Lol you silly little man, theyre always almost all about you, that you fail to recognise that is an hilarious testament
Clearly youre unable to comment without making it all “me me me me me!”. Lol

Posted by: Rogan Josh | Jan 13 2015 10:57 utc | 188

in re 188 —
And damn, there it is again.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 13 2015 12:37 utc | 189

189
lol
Pee Wee you’re a never-ending source of amusement

Posted by: Rogan Josh | Jan 13 2015 13:01 utc | 190

@somebody, 187:
“rail is twice as fast as sea transport and twice as cheap as air freight…. It’s still early days yet for this mode of transport. But it could have a promising future if the conditions are right, notably in terms of safety and security, punctuality and a stable political situation”
Here is where the Empire of Chaos will attempt to interfere: safety and security and stable political situation. All aboard! for the newest incarnation of The Great Game

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13 2015 13:27 utc | 191

ps–apparently it was Alfred Mahan who coined the phrase “Middle East”…

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13 2015 13:28 utc | 192

Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 13, 2015 8:27:06 AM | 191
Eurasian land bridge seems to work quite well.
The Great Game is over – economic warfare simulation from 2009.

At the end of the two days, the Chinese team emerged as the victors of the overall game – largely because the Russian and American teams had made so many moves against each other that they damaged their own standing to the benefit of the Chinese.

They don’t learn, do they?

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2015 13:50 utc | 193

Spinal Tap best rock band ever IMO, I’m sure you are all excited to learn.

Posted by: dh | Jan 13 2015 14:15 utc | 194

Exhibit A – China in Pakistan and Afghanistan

Beijing’s efforts include an invitation for the Taliban to visit China.

Oh. There is a Taliban political office in Doha

Afghan and Pakistan media have been reporting since January 1 that a Taliban delegation led by Qari Din Mohammad from the Taliban political office in Doha went to China in late November to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Are the US withdrawing troops from Afghanistan?
The only reason, the US are needed and tolerated in Afghanistan are the Taliban. If China manages to find an accommodation with the Taliban and with Pakistan, the US may as well pack up and go.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2015 14:24 utc | 195

prologue
*In response to the growing influence of a rapidly expanding industrial China in Africa, the goal of AFRICOM is to seize key strategic areas in Africa and bring them under US control in order to block China’s access to vital energy and mineral resources for its expanding economy. But to effectively carry this out, such African countries of strategic importance such as nigeria must first of all be weakened internally and made to feel so vulnerable that they would have to inevitably seek US protection or intervention* [1]
******************************
neocon think tank brooking institute , 2011
*Liberia should not be allowed to fall into Nigerian hands with consequences to US strategic interests in the country and the region.* [1]
ffw 2014
as luck would have it,
deadly ebola virus *accidentally escaped* from us biowar labs in liberia. who, cdc declared an international crisis and designate west africa a pandemic zone.
*The US military invaded Liberia. They send in the 101st Airborne Division to Liberia. That’s an elite division of combat and they have no training to provide medical treatment to anyone. They are there to establish a military base in Liberia. And the British were doing the same in Sierra Leone. The French were already in Mali and Senegal.*
no worry of liberia falling into the lap of nigeria anymore ! [2]
in any case its a moot point.
as luck would have it,
nigeria is being ravaged by the accursed boko haram gang right now !
challenging murcunt interest is the last thing on their mind, in fact the nigerian army is now crying out for foreign intervention ! [3]
this must be music in somebody’s ear !
guess who’d be the *white knight* galloping to the rescue ? 😉
some guys have all the luck
hehehehe !
[1]
http://newsrescue.com/boko-haram-a-cia-covert-operation-americas-destabilization-plots-against-nigeria-greenwhite-coalition/#axzz3Oh7n0BAI
[2]
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40012.htm
[3]
http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-01-11-nigeria-calls-for-support-after-deadliest-boko-haram-attack/

Posted by: denk | Jan 13 2015 17:19 utc | 196

Posted by: denk | Jan 13, 2015 12:19:40 PM | 196
There don’t seem to be any takers, neither the US, nor Russia, nor China.
Maybe because of this

Lai Mohammed, the Spokesperson for the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, has told the British Parliament that President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were behind the Boko Haram crisis, a strategic meant to return Mr. Jonathan to power in 2015.

Sixth, Alh. Ali Modu Sherif, and all known persons directly or indirectly implicated in Boko Haram are members of the PDP or persons serving or with close ties to the Jonathan presidency.
Finally, the President Jonathan-PDP’s political manipulation of the Boko Haram has to be understood as part of its ‘poker-like’ calculus for clinging on to political power ahead of the 2015 elections.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2015 18:26 utc | 197

somebody 197
murcunt front man UN is already on the case, under the watchful eye of deputy oz,
its as good as murcunt boots on the ground doncha think so ?
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/un-au-to-help-nigeria-tackle-boko-haram-1.1804208
p.s.
wow, a nigerian *dissident* testifying in a fukus court against the nigerian govt..reeks of chalabi of iraq and all those syrian *dissidents* operating out of washington, london doncha think so ?
in any case…
whether some nigerian officials or even jonathan himself is complicit is moot, it doesnt detract from the fact that boko is a murcunt patsy, this is an murcunt op.
fact is, murcunts like to work with local compradors , it make the job so much easier !

Posted by: denk | Jan 14 2015 2:13 utc | 198

Meanwhile, back on the collective farm…
Things continue to deteriorate in Banderastan.
A number of reports over at Fort Russ suggest control and respect ebbing from Poroshenko & the center, and escalating tensions within the Rada super-maajority.
The volunteers remain a power unto themselves. Svoboda’s “Sich” battalion on its own initiative began a new round of hostilities in Donetsk. The Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, found himself barricaded by Donbass battalion fighters “to resolve internal issues”.
Meanwhile, Yarosh of Pravyi Sektor continues his threats on Ukrainian TV. Did you know he uses his parliamentary immunity to bring a grenade to the Rada every day? “I believe that the current Rada is a leftover of the regime of internal occupation that we have had for the last 23 years…. Unfortunately, the Rada did not undergo the revolutionary transformation demanded by the Maidan.”
The rebuilt armor supplied to the military has come under criticism, as commanders say No thanks to Poroshenko’s tanks. One wonders if this is related to his recent statement on decentralization.
The effects of the junta on the broader society are predictably regrettable. Russia Insider gives us a little insight on the mindset amongst the fashionable in Kyiv (this bit appalls me, hence the Banderaist styling of the seat of Russian civilization). The popular night club BarHot offered its guests a Cake Shaped Like Russian Baby, as well as “Odessa Trade Union Burgers”. The subtitle says it all, indeed, about the whole Banderastan Experience: “Collective psychosis at its finest.” Goes double for their paymasters, of course. Can’t bring myself to find the Kyiv Post rest. review….
But hey, some good news and bad news, again from Fort Russ. The good news — only one third of Ukrainians support renewed war against Novorossiya. Bad news — it’s the armed crazy third. Or as the translator, J. Hawk, says “Ukrainian society at the moment consists of a vocal, organized, armed, and West-supported minority dominating and oppressing the silent majority. But for how much longer?”
And at what cost in life? “Your tax dollars at work….”
ps to dh at 194 — And, hey, the only band where the dial goes up to eleven! I think that deserves a Tribute.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 14 2015 3:00 utc | 199

@Vintage Red #184:
Thank you for that extremely clear and informative explanation. I follow both left wing Anglophone media and blogs and also Russian news sites and blogs, but I not once ran across mention of Mackinder in relation to the current US assault on Russia, even though scores of people bring up Brzezinski’s plan for Russia. So I think you have raised the intellectual level of the blogosphere. 😉

Posted by: Demian | Jan 14 2015 3:20 utc | 200