@1 james
I’m only on page 28 but if that isn’t the clique talking to the claque, I don’t know what is. If that’s what passes for “research and analysis” no wonder everything is so fucked up.

Posted by: Benu | Feb 20 2015 20:20 utc | 3

@3 benu.. a poster over at kremlin stooge pointed out the irony of the house of lords lecturing russia on the need to become more democratic!
@3 georgeg.. i started around page 18 and read a few pages then started skipping to the bolded conclusions they made in the different sections. i got to about page 28..

Posted by: james | Feb 20 2015 20:48 utc | 5

Ministers agreed on extending bailout for Greece by four months, under condition that Athens details adequate reforms
Can anyone tell me the point of this farcical exercise by Syriza, other than to discredit the left, and give an opening for the revival of fascism in Greece? Varoufakis said “There is no plan B”, but apparently there is. Plan B is to bend over and grab your ankles. I sure hope the Troika/EU/Bilderberg crowd at least gives them a nice tip, when they’re finished.
Or as Shakespeare put it:
Let’s further think of this;
Weigh what convenience both of time and means
May fit us to our shape: If this should fail,
And that our drift look through our bad performance,
‘Twere better not assay’d: therefore this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof.
Hamlet 4:7
King Claudius discussing the “removal” of his nephew

Posted by: gersen | Feb 20 2015 22:22 utc | 7

@7,8
I don’t know what you expect at this point from Syriza but so far they have confronted the EU bullies and the bullies blinked first. I may change my mind about them after we see what the actual deal is in a few months but so far they are using what little power they have to confront neoliberalism in Europe without destroying the whole experiment or driving Greece further into misery.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 20 2015 23:10 utc | 9

But I would have loved to see Varoufakis (who looks so like Bruce Willis) grab some of those Troika frails and just cold cock ’em right in the snoot…several times. I didn’t expect it, but it would have thrilled me no end. Someone needs to. Jaime Demon should get it, too. Mozillo…the gang at GS. the list is long.
One can dream…

Posted by: Benu | Feb 20 2015 23:39 utc | 11

This shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada is an excellent example of what the United States is becoming. Americans are hell bent on murdering one another.
The story is a bit weird – it was portrayed as “road rage”, but the fact is that the woman and the 19-year old man who shot her were neighbors – the husband of the woman apparently had taken to telling the man to “pull up his pants and be a man” repeatedly. So when they had a run in on the road, and she went to get her son and told him to bring a gun to go confront their neighbor – when they arrived – armed – at the neighbors house, he promptly shot the woman dead. Well – what exactly did she expect should have happened? We’re supposed to watch candle light vigils for her now – as if a woman who starts armed confrontations is some sort of model citizen? Now we have to watch her husband – who frankly was clearly part of the problem between the neighbor and the family – “grieve” and organize candlelight vigils? No thanks. For once, how about a brief look into the national mirror.
It’s America writ small. Anger and violence, no respect for others, simple irritations turning into armed confrontation in which neither side can be said to be in the right – and then instead of some solemn soul-searching – it’s just a bunch of overdone bogus tears, “candlelight vigils”, media dramatization and finger pointing. Five lives destroyed in an instant for nothing, and the media just interested in ratings-mongering. The whole country is being taught to understand such events through the lens of a cheap tabloid – unable to tease out even the slightest real meaning from it all. No serious moral voice to be heard in the fray.
It will probably mean more such events, not less. Just look at the rash of neighbor shootings we have now – these three Muslim students, Zimmerman, the man who blew away the woman on his porch looking for directions or whatever…. We’re a country at war not just with our foreign “enemies” (though we certainly are that!)- but with ourselves, first and foremost.
Talk about societal collapse. Imagine when there’s no food on the shelves and no gas at the gas stations.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 21 2015 0:21 utc | 13

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 20, 2015 6:53:03 PM | 12
Sincerely…Do you think that’s actually possible? What with the NSA’s despicable exploits and rampant oligarchy here and fascism there…and climate change coming at us like a freight train. I admit to having become quite hopeless. I fill the gaps with irony and black humor these days. It’s like when friends encourage voting…my question is “for whom?” It seems to me that the political process all over the wold is quite broken. In fact, as I said before…owned. I hope it is as you say. That it could be. I wish…fervently. But I think prob’ly not is the reality.
I actually think that if I paid less attention, I would be more hopeful.
A good evening to you.

Posted by: Benu | Feb 21 2015 0:31 utc | 15

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 20, 2015 7:21:57 PM | 13
Mostly agree with your take on this incident.
Is it possible that Americans arm themselves because they feel so powerless, and that a gun is such an effective antidote that they become (irresponsibly) omnipotent?
That seems to be what happened to the USG.
Mind-boggling cowardice infects the whole of US society, from the 1% down.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 21 2015 0:56 utc | 17

Benu, we better hope that things change in Europe or Greece and Spain may be better off under the Islamic Caliphate than the EU. Here in the Homeland we may be relegated to the position of observers until the Hegemon is defeated.
Did you read Richard Wood’s essay at Counterpunch? It is very long but worth the time to read and his analysis is the best I have seen on the ME.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 21 2015 1:39 utc | 19

Did you read Richard Wood’s essay at Counterpunch? It is very long but worth the time to read and his analysis is the best I have seen on the ME.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 20, 2015 8:39:19 PM | 19
Yes, until I got to this, which diminishes its credibility somewhat…
“The US has decided not to attack Syria’s As’ad (mostly Allawi) regime, despite the incredible ferocity of that Government’s war on its own people since 2011 …”
…mercifully, not far down from the top. But I suppose it’s not easy to decide where best to insert the fatuous claptrap in a rambling and verbose Hasbara hit piece.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 21 2015 3:49 utc | 21

I think it’s still way too soon to count Syriza out. Tsipras/Varoufakis are not an Obama redux. It’s a long shot but I’m hopeful once they’ve exhausted the exercise in futility that is negotiating with the EU they’ll play the wild card:

So if Tsipras’s refinancing proposal is refused tomorrow will Greece quit NATO and the EU, to join the Eurasian Union? Not if Mr Putin gets his way: Greece is worth much more to Russia as an ally within the EU and NATO than outside – where it can veto more trade sanctions against Russia, block the TTIP and CETA trade deals with the USA and Canada, and oppose NATO’s increasing belligerence from within.
But we could see Greece simply renouncing its manifestly unpayable and unjust €320 billion national debt, and quitting the Eurozone straitjacket – while receiving an emergency liquidity package from Russia to support the launch of the New Drachma.
In fact, we could see a re-run of important elements of the Ukraine play of December 2013, when Russia offered a support package under which it would buy $15 billion in bonds from Ukraine, supporting its collapsing currency, and supply it with deeply discounted gas – £268 per cubic metre rather than the maarket price of $400.
A $15 billion purchase of New Drachma denominated Greek bonds would be a superb launch for Greece’s new currency, and would firmly cement Greece’s long term alliance with Russia, providing it with a valuable long term bridgehead into both the EU and NATO.

Posted by: Nana2007 | Feb 21 2015 5:33 utc | 23

Having a hide like a rhinoceros isn’t the same as knowing what you’re talking about, WoW.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 21 2015 5:36 utc | 25

H@25
Having a thick hide is not the same as having a thick head as you should know, Hoarse.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 21 2015 6:03 utc | 27

guest77 13: Just another symptom of the 4th reichs new (or not new), economic plan for the peons of the world. Less for the workers (peons), more for the elites, or if you prefer, austerity for the masses, massive profits for the mega-wealthy. Especially acute, here in the U.S. Stress kills.

Posted by: ben | Feb 21 2015 15:52 utc | 29

ps to 30 — no problem with gay marriage, or open borders (in principle), but with po-mo spectacle culture. See Huxley’s Brave New World Revisited for the phenomena in its infancy.

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 21 2015 16:02 utc | 31

@32 You also have a lot of wishful thinking. The UAF simply isn’t up to the job. Not without air support anyway and that won’t happen without NATO.

Posted by: dh | Feb 21 2015 16:39 utc | 33

“The Treasury Department and the State Department are closely monitoring this situation and are considering tools that may be available that can better steer the Venezuelan government in the direction that they believe they should be headed,” said White House spokesman, Josh Earnest.

Really says it all. The US has steered so many countries straight off of cliffs… now they’re trying again.
That US government makes such blatant statements about interfering in the affairs of others and hardly a peep is heard in the press.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 21 2015 17:01 utc | 35

@26 US and UK discussing more sanctions I see. Will Hollande and Merkel raise any objections? Probably not. They don’t want to be called chicken.

Posted by: dh | Feb 21 2015 17:34 utc | 37

Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO is never boring, but I found an interview with him that I think is the best I’ve ever heard – better even than his talk with Mearshimer. Maybe it is just because it focuses so much on Europe’s turn from independent power in the early 2000s, to the lap dog of the USA it has become. Here it is:
http://fromalpha2omega.podomatic.com/entry/2014-11-01T01_52_13-07_00
Moreover, the podcast of which the Rozoff interview is part of is excellent. Tim O’Brien is an Irish podcaster which gives him an interesting perspective living in one of the countries squashed by neo-liberal capitalism in the Eurozone. He interviews several of todays more interesting activists:
Yanis Varoufakis: http://fromalpha2omega.podomatic.com/entry/2012-10-01T13_48_15-07_00
Bill Black on Ecuador (he’s an expert on Ecuador, who knew?): http://fromalpha2omega.podomatic.com/entry/2013-06-22T02_33_39-07_00
Economist Steve Keen: http://fromalpha2omega.podomatic.com/entry/2012-08-30T12_14_49-07_00
Dimitri Orlov: http://fromalpha2omega.podomatic.com/entry/2012-05-19T01_58_18-07_00

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 21 2015 17:57 utc | 39

Did you read Richard Wood’s essay at Counterpunch? It is very long but worth the time to read and his analysis is the best I have seen on the ME.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Feb 20, 2015 8:39:19 PM | 19
I read this ‘analysis’ upon your recommendation. As a piece of writing, I must say it was rather like pushing my head through oatmeal. The author’s insistence on unusual (to Western eyes) spellings of common place and people names — for example “Mecca” is spelled “Makka” — are beyond annoying and only served to make me wonder who is the intended audience, really. In addition, more seems to be obfuscated than revealed by this and such tactics as the larding on of excessive detail. I was put in mind of the short story “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges, which I have always found instructive.
Had I run across Wood’s piece on my own, I would have stopped reading at the paragraph Hoarsewhisperer pointed to: “The US has now entered Syria’s conflict, from which it recently demured (sic) after the use of chemical weapons was discovered.” And if not that, then this: “The US has decided not to attack Syria’s As’ad (mostly Allawi) regime, despite the incredible ferocity of that Government’s war on its own people since 2011, presumably because his most vehement and effective opposition is composed of Sunni Islamists, including ISIS/IS, none of whom would advance Western or Israeli interests if victorious.”
My initial reaction, fueled by perhaps one too many India Pale Ales was a resounding, “Pshaw! Disinformation.”
But this morning I persevered with coffee and will share just a few thoughts. (I have many, but I’ll keep it a bit short as I also need to do work around the house today.)
If the history is one of backstabbing, secret collusion, “deadly factions and rivalries,” and “cruel hoaxes, engineered by secular oligarchs (except for Ayatollah Khameini) cynically legitimizing oppressive regimes by claiming religious heritage as founding narratives”…why does the author insist on taking ‘mainstream understanding’ of current events — such as the origins, funding, leadership and goals of IS — so much at pollyanna face value?
One quite egregious glossing over occurs here: “Yet another new generation of Ikhwan militants captured Makka and Madina again, until they were brought to heel by King ‘Abd al Aziz ibn Sa’ud.” Brought to heel? If I’m not mistaken, after the House of Saud had taken power and was finished with their Ikhwan sectarian warriors, they liquidated them. It seems to me this bodes ill for the fighters of the Islamic State. When the PTB no longer need them to do their ‘all your base are belong to us’ dirty work, I suspect they’ll be herded into a Debaltsevo-style cauldron somewhere and pounded to smithereens.
And then there’s this mild interjection: “As French scholar of Islamism in North Africa, Francois Burgat has reported, many of the massacres attributed to the GIA in Algeria were actually  the work of Algerian security forces posing as Islamists to discredit their revolutionary movement in the 1990s. That possibility certainly remains to be explored in relation to ISIS.” Indeed, and perhaps this author might have explored that with some original scholarship rather than rehashing a cherry-picked history from others’ books.
But then perhaps some of these oddities have to do with the author’s funding and associations. Although he disdains to say so in his “about the author” statement at the end, I do believe the author of this article is this Richard Wood, Associate Professor of Sociology at Univ. of New Mexico and Founding Director of the Southwest Institute on Religion & Civil Society. He says of himself: “Wood’s scholarly expertise focuses on the cultural and institutional bases of democratic life, especially those linked to faith communities.” A look at his CV is educational. Nearly a million dollars from the U.S. State Department for Web Access for Civil Society Initiatives. Work for the infamous Albuquerque police department and the DOJ around police culture. Work related to Catholic faith-based organizing in Central/South America. I find such activities quite problematic.
Even though I am highly critical, I nonetheless thank you for sharing this article with me. I learned a few things, even or perhaps because of my disagreements with the piece.

Posted by: Benu | Feb 21 2015 20:48 utc | 41

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
An interesting story of corruption, death, and Curtis Le May: the Military Industrial Complex and the B-70 Bomber.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 21 2015 21:40 utc | 43

dh @ 37 — Good question, will Merkel & Hollande have their states participate, or will they leave it an Anglo-American affair? I’d guess they’ll complain, but comply, to keep a united front, esp. if there are largely token PR measures taken.

Posted by: rufus magister | Feb 21 2015 23:32 utc | 45

@ 45
This story incensed me. I completely agree that Greenwald and Poitras need to open the gates, quite honestly, even if that means breaking some sort of promise to Snowden. Not least because their Omidyar catbird seat could become the shit end of the stick at any time.
Have you also read about Superfish on Lenovo laptops? The company that created the spyware is Komodia. Here’s a place to start if you haven’t heard about it.
“Komodia founder and former Israeli intelligence agent Barak Weichselbaum….”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/02/20/komodia-lenovo-superfish-ddos/

Posted by: Benu | Feb 22 2015 0:26 utc | 47

Manuel Ochsenreiter is not a household name either in the United States or in his native Germany. He’s the editor of “Zuerst! German News Magazine” whose promotional material says that it’s “committed only to the life and survival interests of the German people and the precious heritage of our European culture“, and describes other German media as being under the control of “foreign interests.” In a format familiar to readers of mainstream news magazines, Zuerst! promotes Neue Rechte and Völkisch ideas such as the preservation of “German ethnical (sic) identity”, burnishing the image of the Third Reich in popular culture and opposing what it regards as the humiliating legacy of denazification.
The current edition of Zuerst! features a story about “welfare immigrants” and another about “gypsy pickpockets”. Other articles focus on the evils of globalization and loss of ethnic identity. A piece combining art criticism with implications of corruption slams Berlin’s Holocaust memorial. (They also have a piece which implausibly claims that many Russians would like to return Kaliningrad to Germany, comparing this to the situation in Crimea.) Zuerst!’s publisher is longtime far-right Dietmar Munier, a veteran of Germany’s far-right political scene and reportedly a friend to several Holocaust deniers.
RT has singled Manuel Ochsenreiter out as their primary on-air spokesman for the German point of view, featuring him on talk shows and extended interviews on the network scores of times over the past four years. While it may seem strange for RT to choose the editor of a neo-Nazi magazine to be their expert on German public opinion, in a way it makes perfect sense precisely because so few people know who he is. RT identifies him on air only as a German journalist. Moreover, judging by his on-air performance, he is very happy to say whatever it takes to keep his patrons at RT happy.
full: http://www.interpretermag.com/rts-manuel-ochsenreiter/
_

Posted by: Louis Proyect | Feb 22 2015 0:51 utc | 49

ps – rt has a lot of catchin’ up to do competing for an alternative universe the west thought it had proscribed for europe..

Posted by: james | Feb 22 2015 1:05 utc | 51

Posted by: Cu Chulainn | Feb 21, 2015 7:37:01 PM | 47
I knew he had an interest in a gay porn film enterprise some time back…but…well, I guess I should just say outright that my tendency is to want to put my hands over my ears and shout la la la. Greenwald has warts, but…he has been something of a hero to me.
Sigh. I will give it a listen. I have been worried about the association with Omidyar for a while. And I think I mis-spoke earlier because I believe Poitras severed her (at least official) connections to Omidyar and The Intercept when the news of his Ukrainian NGO involvement hit the fan.

Posted by: Benu | Feb 22 2015 1:23 utc | 53

from her FB page
Cynthia McKinney
4 hrs ·
I am on a fact-finding mission, right now in Beirut, with the former Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark! After I return from the region, I will be able to make a detailed report on what is actually happening on the ground in the places that we visit.

Posted by: brian | Feb 22 2015 1:37 utc | 55

Could it be that while we were distracted by the evil empire’s wreaking havoc from Afghanistan to Libya and by Quantitative Easing creating the winners in the New World Order, that WWII has been re-fought economically and German mercantilism has won? Does Europe look much different today than it would have looked if the Nazis had won? The Left has disappeared from Europe.
This has been abetted by international banking, of course. And now Germany must pay and play the game by helping with the destruction of the “real enemy”, Russia. Some days this seems the only explanation for why German leaders would gamble with sanctions and possible war, harming its own citizens and those of EU, while advantaging an unreliable empire.

Posted by: mrd | Feb 22 2015 1:46 utc | 57

The faux leftist Louis Proyect came here to lay another turd, and it had just the desired effect.

Posted by: Demian | Feb 22 2015 2:03 utc | 59

Cu Chulainn #47:
the use of boys by his gay porn film business
Really? Obvious CIA/NSA troll is obvious.
The CIA has known better days. But then, so has USG in general.
Also, the CIA and the State Department are not on the same page. The State Department is now a fervent champion of gay rights. Yet the CIA still peddles homophobia.

Posted by: Demian | Feb 22 2015 2:31 utc | 61

P.S. It only stands to reason that any successful, prominent journalist who is critical of USG who just happens to be gay must have a porn business which uses underage boys.
Are we back in the 1950s? Some people posing as progressives obviously are. (And note that smearing Greenwald as a producer of porn is not enough. He must also be smeared as a pedophile.)
I hope Edmonds’ reputation gets totally destroyed by this. It doesn’t matter if she has done good work otherwise.

Posted by: Demian | Feb 22 2015 2:46 utc | 63

Kudos to Owen Jones for this. h/t zerohedge

Posted by: Benu | Feb 22 2015 3:04 utc | 65

@Benu:
I did some googling. I had not heard about the Daily News story. Here is what it says:

Greenwald was enjoying a career as a litigator when friend Jason Buchtel offered him a partnership in his consulting company, Master Notions Inc., back in 2002.
Court papers show that one of the company’s clients was then known as HJ — short for “Hairy Jocks” — and that Greenwald was the one who negotiated their deal.
Owner Peter Haas “had this pornographic company he wasn’t able to maintain,” Greenwald said.
Greenwald and Buchtel agreed to help Haas in return for 50% of the profits.

And here is a story about what the response was to this story:
Journalists Unimpressed With Daily News Scoop on Glenn Greenwald’s Dog
It’s interesting that Edawards comes up with this on the eve of Citizen Four probably winning an Oscar. I wouldn’t be surprised if she made a deal with the feds for them to leave her alone.
@Benu #64:
Thanks for that, but I can’t muster the motivation to read it. I don’t really follow Brit journalism any more after the fiasco over the investigation of the BBC for coming out with a story about how Blair knew that the evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMDs was fabricated. I only try to follow what’s going on with the US, German, and Russian press. I just don’t think the UK matters anymore globally. It’s always going to be America’s poodle on everything until NATO falls apart, so the nature of its press doesn’t matter. (I hope you’re not a Brit. If you are, please don’t take offense. None intended.)

Posted by: Demian | Feb 22 2015 3:36 utc | 67

for any with a serious interest who may be reading, the point of Sibel’s podcast is not to focus on any individual, but to show how journalists serve the same interests as, and often coordinate with, intelligence services, and in particular to show how what appear to be alternative media sources (an earlier podcast in the series went into Morton Halperin’s role in vetting potential recipients of Soros funding) are often co-opted
but yes, GG as an individual has played a big role both in stifling revelations from genuine whistleblowers, and in putting out disinformation
the argument that the change in his professional trajectory (earlier in his career, for example, he had made a name for questioning the 9/11 anthrax attacks, for example, a topic he no longer touches) was the result of blackmail is not slander or conjecture, but based on firsthand knowledge of the FBI source who had been involved in the GG child porn investigation, and who was outraged by the coverup–this source provided the NYDN with the story which was censored not by the reporter but by his editor
this is but one of many examples known to Sibel through her work with the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition–a group whose record and members can be easily verified, who did not benefit from the media attention of the Greenwald/Snowden circus–of how government investigations often had the purpose not of correcting wrongdoing but, as Russell Tice (look him up) put it, of establishing leverage so that significant players in politics and journalism can be manipulated. GG is just one example of this.

Posted by: Cu Chulainn | Feb 22 2015 3:55 utc | 69

Presumably Snowden is pleased with how it has turned out, I suppose. He certainly is active with all the movie promotion.
It just seems as though these folks seem to have used the exposure of this treasure trove of government documents to insert themselves into the elite. That’s what it seems like to me. As opposed to Assange, Manning, Jeremy Hammond, et al who really just went for the jugular and are all paying dearly for it, this group is just making the most of it for themselves personally. I mean, these three getting interviewed by the New York Times and getting nominated for Oscars is only going to get the rest of us so far…

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 22 2015 4:22 utc | 71

17
John Bolton, who is now a NOBODY, is back before Congress giving his best Neville Chamberlain hash tag attack on Obama’s reluctance to reinsert into Iraq and fight the Al Nusra and The Caliph forces that John McCain openly armed and funded in Syria last July.
Just remember this Neocon-RagHead SockPuppet Bolton is one of the ones that got USA into Iraq and lost 4,500 of our kids, maimed 10,000s, killed 100,000s of innocent civilians (Iraq had NOTHING to do with 911), and left our US Treasury BANKRUPTED.
“Bolton supported (sic) the Vietnam War but enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard
to avoid being sent overseas, and consequently did not serve in Vietnam. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy.
I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.”
Wait a minute, if he graduate Yale in 1970, and was in the Guard, HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO GO!
So Viet Nam lost, Run and Hide John. Iraq lost, oh, bloody thunder let’s have Iraq War III!!
Thanks, John, you candy ass draft dodger, just another Bush the Lesser AWOL on the campaign trail, and Cheney the ‘I have better things to do’, chicken-hawk!
We need lettuce launchers and tomato catapults all around Congress when Bolton ambles out.
Nothing like a good pelting with rotten produce to take him down a notch or two.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Feb 22 2015 6:15 utc | 73

This week I email (below) Intercept regarding their article on Russian’s drone, but Intercept choose not to post it. Can anyone trust G. Greenwald?
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/17/russian-drone-shot-ukraine/
Nope not me.
Jack Smith
======================
Addressing Glen Greenwald,
Reading the comments, your readers are NOT stoopid. They know and understand what going on in Ukraine. I’m surprised Intercept remains silence. Is it because of Pierre Omidyar funding the civil war in Ukraine and you not offend your employer?
Just for your info, this is my first post, been following you since Salon days. How can you remain silence more than 5,000 innocents lives taken away by Kiev’s regime in Donetsk National Republic and Lugansk people’s Republic. I’m beginning to mistrust you.
I don’t go to MSM for my news and don’t trust neither Democrats nor the Republicans. We need third party and that includes Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein or others to stop our government endless wars and focusing on the people HERE who are suffering.
Sorry, I don’t write well but someone needs to cry out loud!
Jack Smith

Posted by: Jack Smith | Feb 22 2015 8:08 utc | 75

Greenwald is beginning to sound more and more like the new Jeff Gannon https://www.google.de/search?q=jeff+gannon
You hero worshippers sure know how to pick em
Although Gannon was never linked to pedophillia, as far as I know, while Greenwald has been, some maybe the comparison is a little unfair to Mr Gannon

Posted by: TLC | Feb 22 2015 13:27 utc | 77

Here’s the delightful Nick Denton (yes THAT Nick Denton”) running interference for old Gay-Porno-connected, and possibly paedophilia-connected, Mr Glenn Grunwald

I did hear another story, not from Greenwald himself, about the Guardian writer’s life in Brazil. The Out profile of him mentioned the pack of stray dogs that Greenwald had adopted. But it skipped over the boys — mainly friends of his partner David Michael Miranda — who sleep over and play videogames at the house. That would have given too much ammunition to Greenwald’s conservative critics.

LOL
yeah Nick
Cos only those nasty nasty “conservatives” might see an issue with the Gay-Porno-connected, and possibly paedophilia-connected, Mr Glenn Grunwald, facilitating “sleepovers” with young boys, who apparently show up under the lure of playing video-games, in his Brazilian love-pad
Oh those horrible horrible “conservatives”

Posted by: TLC | Feb 22 2015 14:09 utc | 79

You hero worshippers sure know how to pick em
Too funny! What would their boy Putin say if he heard they were touting a pedophilic homo (redundant in Putin’s book) as their go to source for independent, objective journalism? He’d jail them and torture them for a year before killing them like he did to Magnitsky.
The debate is moot, anyway. Both Edmonds and Greenball are Americans, and as we’ve been told by a sage commentator in this thread, something that wasn’t disputed, all Americans are cowards — no exceptions. Sibel and Glenngarry Glen Gay are cowards, so they’re not worth the defense that’s being mounted for each respectively in this silly feud.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Feb 22 2015 15:05 utc | 81

These are ‘economic wars’, against Greece, against Russia..
There’s no economic war against Russia. Russia is at war with itself. It always has been and it always will be until Russia is no more. What The West needs to do is not get in the way of that, and don’t let the kleptocratic contagion spread beyond Russia’s current borders. Hell, even throw in Ukraine for good measure, and then say “that’s it, now you must eat only each other and leave the rest of the world alone until you’ve finished devouring yourself.” Then, and only then can enlightenment finally come to Russia and plant its seeds on and in the rotting flesh & bones of Obscurantism.
Putin’s Path To Prosperity

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Feb 22 2015 16:36 utc | 83

@83 foff’s on a roll today with the Greenwald thing Cold. You need to get him writing for your blog.

Posted by: dh | Feb 22 2015 16:50 utc | 85

@75 jack smith.. thanks for sharing all that.. i go with the unidentified russian source as to the background on this story – “was used as an aerial target”.. regardless it is interesting to see intercept being willing to give the ukrainian side more coverage and support for the story.. thanks for sharing that.
@80 noirette. thanks – your quote “The underground issue left hovering and not mentioned is that all this is at least in part controlled by the finance so-called ‘industry.’ These are ‘economic wars’, against Greece, against Russia..” i agree.

Posted by: james | Feb 22 2015 17:17 utc | 87

What’s to be made of this?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/02/21/257386/russian-news-report-ukraine-invasion.html

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Feb 22 2015 17:54 utc | 89

@89 – propaganda piece.. its so one sided, there is no other way to read it..

Posted by: james | Feb 22 2015 18:46 utc | 91

@86 Just trying to help foff. I know Cold One is always looking for ways to liven up his blog and you have such a way with words.
My blog is plenty lively as it is. I have the liveliness of millions at my fingertips. It’s blogs like MOA that need livening up. It’s like a wake in here. Someone needs to open the windows and let the decaying air out and the fresh air and sunlight in. It’s also very much like a Ladies’ Garden Club Meeting. In either case, my services serve the same purpose — to bring life where there is only death.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Feb 22 2015 19:08 utc | 93

Very difficult to unpack this torturous supposition-filled prose ol’ Hoarsey just posted, but I’ll give it a go
Any thoughts on why, precisely, the Great Unwashed should be encouraged to hate the very same whistleblowers whom the Empire wants them to hate (and be shamed into ignoring)?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 22, 2015 1:49:31 PM | 92
The Great Unwashed? lol
Where?
“should be encouraged to hate the very same whistleblowers”
“Whistleblowers”?
lol
Where?
Anyway, lets just pretend I accept the premise of your completely inaccurate framing of the issue:
So far I’ve seen little media that “encourages” anyone to “hate” these alleged “whistleblowers”***
I’m sure such media exists but it’s a small percentage of the totality – the majority of media bloviating on this subject seem decidedly PRO these alleged “whistleblowers”***
(*** By “Whistleblowers”, since you don’t specify, I’m forced by your lack of specificity to presume you mean to include Agents Grunwald, Poitras & Appelbaum in your vague little phrase “whistleblowers”)
By my reckoning, even if one accepts the “official”-media narrative, only Snowden could properly be called a “whistleblower” – the other three are at best merely self-declared “dissidents” – at best – that is certainly how they wish to describe themselves anyways – occasionally one or two of them will toss “Journalist” in there as well, just for laughs.
And regarding the aforementioned Trios alleged “Dissident-ing”: What they were supposedly Dissidentin’ about, before this little gold mine of Snowden’s landed in their laps, is a bit of a mystery.
Maybe it was the IRS they were Dissidentin’ from, or the very notion of “paying yer bills” is perhaps what Agent Grunwald was Dissidentin’ about, cos ol Glenn sure seems to have had his run-ins with people trying to get him to pay his bills
Laura claims she is a class-A Dissident also and needs to hide out in Berlin to escape the long arm of US legality.
So, far from encouraging anyone to hate the likes of Glenn and his friends, the Media is for the most part doing the exact opposite from what ol Hoarsey claims they are doing

Posted by: TLC | Feb 22 2015 19:35 utc | 95

@96 Or how about ‘Laura is now being chased around Berlin by somebody called Oscar’….it makes about as much sense.

Posted by: dh | Feb 22 2015 20:10 utc | 97

I think I’ve got it! Laura and Oscar are trapped in a bunker at Tempelhof Airport waiting to be rescued by Omidyar.

Posted by: dh | Feb 22 2015 20:30 utc | 99