Open Thread 2015-14
News & views ... (and NOT evermore 9/11 theories)Posted by b on March 13, 2015 at 19:12 UTC | Permalink
« previous pageOoops, I think this is the correct url. It makes a difference whether you search for The White Tiger (2012) (wrong, or not known to be right at any rate) or White Tiger (2012) ... which does deliver with English subtitles. I took the two-part cd version, labelled as subbed.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 16 2015 10:52 utc | 102
Putin "mysteriously reappeared". Newest theory: he did not show up for a week because he was busy trolling with sock puppets. Others say that it is mind boggling why less than daily appearances are mysterious.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 16 2015 12:25 utc | 103
@102 Thank goodness he's back. The Western media has been going frantic. The Kardashians have been working overtime.
Posted by: dh | Mar 16 2015 13:49 utc | 104
@Copeland #90
Once again you attempt to disprove fact with other people's theories.
I've shot bolt action rifles myself - it is no feat whatsoever to fire off 3 shots in 5 seconds. Equally, it is no feat at all to hit a target at 80 meters with zero deflection for a skilled marksman - which I hope even you will at least admit that shooter was.
Whitman was only in the Clock Tower for approximately 2 hours before he was shot and killed - he shot nearly 50 people in that time span. After the first dozen, people were dodging and ducking because the gunshots were clearly audible - as were the screams - for a large radius. The police were also running around telling people with bullhorns to take cover.
You are stupid and ignorant, and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or have any rational means of understanding the real world.
Posted by: ǝn⇂ɔ | Mar 16 2015 15:23 utc | 105
It seems the extra-terrestrials have returned Putin to Earth in one piece. Unfortunately there are no images of this close encounter.
As luck would have it, though, a photo was snapped as the aliens paid visit to Kiev and greeted the Ukie leadership:
Posted by: Ben Zanotto | Mar 16 2015 15:34 utc | 106
This is almost as good as the images of Russian troops crossing the Ukrainian border with heavy weapons
http://petroart.ru/art/r/rubo/img/7.jpg
It was accepted as the proof by US Senators, but some Putin trolls questions the topography and the date.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 16 2015 15:43 utc | 107
@104
I've never questioned the fact that Oswald shot Kennedy but I do have doubts about him being the only shooter.
The day of the assassination classes were canceled and as I walked home I passed two neighbor boys who were laughing and saying loudly "We Got Him" This behavior puzzled me as all my other classmates were in shock but these two were the sons of our Mafia neighbor whose wife was the daughter of the Capo of the Detroit Mob. This is just a personal recollection but the incident was always fresh in my memory when the many theories about the assassination surfaced.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Mar 16 2015 15:56 utc | 108
9/11 - META.
It is a terrible topic for a generalist board. It can even blow it up. Not only because there is disagreement, that is regular, and much of the time, hopefully -!-, can be handled, or ignored, ppl see different sides, maybe they can be reasonable, etc. But on this issue it brands ppl as being in one or another camp, or even simply as supporting one argument on one detail or aspect (steel, passports found, Atta’s whereabouts in Portland, Pentagon cameras, nano thermite, Mark Bingham’s phone call, and on and on) against another pov...
I have come to the point where I consider that the level is that of religious quarrels… Nobody condemns a poster for being a practising Catholic, rightly so. (I know that is not really comparable, but what can one do?) So I will shut up about it, but it remains the case (as some posters above have said) that not being able to discuss this event is not only dismaying but very telling of the power of the MSM, propaganda and the confusion created on purpose, partly, imho, by ‘allowed opposition’ groups, sites, etc.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 16 2015 16:17 utc | 109
It seems ISIS fighters fear the wrath of the shia that conquered Tikrit.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/jihadi-joans-isis-fighters-caught-5336795
Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 16 2015 18:08 utc | 110
109 "It seems ISIS fighters fear the wrath of the shia that conquered Tikrit."
And rightly so. The reputation of the death squads the last time the Shia militias were unleashed on Sunni insurgents and their terrorist friends precedes them.
“With Steele and Coffman as his point men, Petraeus began pouring money from a multimillion dollar fund into what would become the Special Police Commandos. …
With Petraeus’s almost unlimited access to money and weapons, and Steele’s field expertise in counterinsurgency the stage was set for the commandos to emerge as a terrifying force. One more element would complete the picture. The US had barred members of the violent Shia militias like the Badr Brigade and the Mahdi Army from joining the security forces, but by the summer of 2004 they had lifted the ban.
Shia militia members from all over the country arrived in Baghdad “by the lorry-load” to join the new commandos. These men were eager to fight the Sunnis: many sought revenge for decades of Sunni-supported, brutal Saddam rule, and a chance to hit back at the violent insurgents and the indiscriminate terror of al-Qaida.
Petraeus and Steele would unleash this local force on the Sunni population as well as the insurgents and their supporters and anyone else who was unlucky enough to get in the way. It was classic counterinsurgency. It was also letting a lethal, sectarian genie out of the bottle. The consequences for Iraqi society would be catastrophic. At the height of the civil war two years later 3,000 bodies a month were turning up on the streets of Iraq — many of them innocent civilians of sectarian war.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/13/the-myth-of-the-surge/
Posted by: Ben Zanotto | Mar 16 2015 19:02 utc | 111
@109
If you were actually paying attention you would know that Tikrit has not been conquered only penetrated by the Iraq/Iran forces and the battle is stalled. The head of the Bader Brigade is begging for "experienced" fighters to come to their aid, no one has shown up yet.
The Iraqi military leaders are now pleading for US coalition air strikes to save them from another failure to take Tikrit.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Mar 16 2015 19:03 utc | 112
You are stupid and ignorant, and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or have any rational means of understanding the real world.
ǝn⇂ɔ @ 105
ǝn⇂ɔ, your argumentum ad hominem directed against Copeland is unacceptable. I will scroll past your posts in the future.
Copeland is a regular barfly - never one to attack another.
Posted by: crone | Mar 16 2015 21:00 utc | 113
@109
It's like the Necker cube, the difference in perspective is under the control of the viewer. Fear dominates in those who focus on one visual frame and hope dominates in those who focus on the other. The trolls drop by to whip up the fear and keep it The Perspective.
It seems their actual fear - that their conjured fear is failing - is rising to unusual heights at this point. Because it has become apparent to more and more people, as people lose more and more of everything they once considered essential, that opposition is not only possible but as easy as trusting their own lying eyes?
The Big Lies are becoming universally acknowledged. The fraud is becoming apparent to nearly everyone by now; more scales are dropping everyday.
Some outfit in Mexico has just given Paul Craig Roberts an award, and his little speech on acceptance notes what is becoming more obvious every day. Hence the fear and panic among those here and elsewhere fanning fear's flames.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. And freedom of that sort is spreading on its own, like wildfire.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 16 2015 21:09 utc | 114
"Obama’s Syria plan doomed, former US ambassador says"
"ISIS recruitement efforts are boosted by Assad's brutality"
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/former-us-ambassador-obama-s-syria-plan-doomed-1704437140
Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 16 2015 21:17 utc | 115
@112 wow, i think you mean @111, not @109..
@109 noirette.. that is very true.. same thing is happening on the latest thread (Leader Of The Jewish People Reveals Vast Jewish Conspiracy) and the topic of the protocols of the elders of zionism. it seems certain topics regardless which side of the argument one sides with, are enough of a reason become totally hostile to an opposing view.. says a lot about human nature and some posters on internet forums generally... same thing seems to be taking place on this thread too.. all i can chalk it up to is human nature never being able to see the whole picture and a lack of insight into this basic character flaw of all of ours..
Posted by: james | Mar 16 2015 21:17 utc | 116
john helmer has a new article up here titled "IMF MAKES UKRAINE WAR-FIGHTING LOAN — ALLOWS THE US TO FUND MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST RUSSIA, MAY REPAY RUSSIAN BOND AND GAZPROM BILL – FRANKLIN TEMPLETON BOND DEAL IN FREEFALL"
Posted by: james | Mar 16 2015 21:19 utc | 117
J@116
Thanks, J and sorry N @109, @110 was my target.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Mar 16 2015 21:36 utc | 118
Noirettte at 111 -- Well, actually, I've been accused of being a non-practicing Catholic, by our resident Hegelian/Lutheran-Orthodox inquisitor, the MIA Demian. Hope nothing is wrong with the old curmudgeon (and at least some-time comrade).
crone at 113 -- While I do agree that en1c is a bit over the top at 105, I share the sense of frustration. "Occam? We ain't got no Occam. We don't need no stinking Occam." I caricature here, of course.
Just because the National Security State(TM) exploited it to the max does not mean they caused it or even let it happen. "Let it happen" is about as far as I think the evidence can be made to go. The bits of the plot that NatSecState(TM) picked up didn't rate usage of the not-unlimited resources.
But that it was our friends (intimates of the House of Saud and the petro-dollar) doing it meant that HQ was a little too sanguine, in general, about the dangers of promoting Wahabist fundamentalism. More worry, more resources, maybe it wouldn't have fallen on deaf ears.
Some folks continue to make this mistake, see Syrian "moderates." I think we are seeing a little buyers' remorse over Libya now, however.
I do wish some of our skeptics would attempt to integrate the earlier 1993 attack on the WTC into the "grand scheme" of things. I see it as an inspiration, a trial run, a dare, a "Can you top this?"
We human beings can be so darn clever and resourceful when put our minds to it. Fiendishly clever. That's what the US trained bin Laden and his associates to be when they aided the mujahedeen vs. the Afghans and Soviets. And with the Saudis and Pakistanis helping us out with it, what could possibly go wrong?
And speaking of the mind, we have pro and con. My vote is pro, by the way.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 16 2015 23:15 utc | 119
"I've shot bolt action rifles myself - it is no feat whatsoever to fire off 3 shots in 5 seconds."
That's your word against all the people who have tried and failed to do the same with the same model rifle, including the Warren Commission.
I was watching a 1965 Oxford Union debate between William F. Buckley, the prick, and James Baldwin. Baldwin mad ethe point - quite apart from discussing Kennedy - that in Dallas, only ONE PERCENT of Blacks were registered to vote. That's the kind of city Dallas was. This was a real Klan town, a town that hated Kennedy. A town that just so happened to have as a mayor the brother of one of the JCOS Generals Kennedy had just fired (Charles P. and Earle Cabell). Dallas was full of far-right Kennedy hatred. From the very top offices of the city, down through the police force.
As for Oswald, I don't know of any other assassin who's been so lucky as to have his target show up to his place of work, but seeing as how the FBI was certainly aware of Oswald - the "first US soldier to defect to the Soviet Union" and "a radical leftist" and "noted head of a 'Fair Play for Cuba Committee'" worked in a tall building along the route, you'd think they'd have made sure to close up the windows or something. But no.
Who can claim to know what happened? No one. But who can possibly think it isn't worth questioning? Something obviously stinks pretty big time, and at probably the stinkiest time in US history. So many great people were killed - and we know the FBI was actively trying to get MLK killed. So what is more probable? That the most powerful forces in the United States made sure things went "their" way? Or that some guy who just happened to be willing to shoot Kennedy was lucky enough to have Kennedy drive by his place of work?
_____________
For people who really want to get into the Kennedy Assassination, there is a 17 hour course (which I've posted here before) on the topic, taught by Dan Sheehan, someone very interesting and accomplished in his own right (as for his UFO shit, it doesn't seem that far out than any other religious theorizing I've heard).
http://www.romeroinstitute.org/archives/ucsc-course-archive/jfk-alternative-theories
He did another, even more interesting class, based on all the court cases he's been a part of (Pentagon Papers, Iran Contra, Karen Silkwood, and many more)
http://www.romeroinstitute.org/archives/ucsc-course-archive/the-trajectory-of-justice
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2015 23:34 utc | 120
Here's a great episode of Alternative Views re: the Kennedy Assassination. It's got former CIA big wig John Stockwell in on the discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGQ7Z1VZLL8
The Kennedy Assassination and the discussion of a possible cover up was far more actively discussed in the mainstream media and by major intellectuals than 9/11. Mostly, I think, because the case was stronger, the government was weaker, as well as (apologies to those in the 9/11 truth movement) there was a more serious approach to questioning it.
My brief thoughts on 9/11: saying "al Qaeda did it" and "the US government did it" are NOT mutually exclusive, in my opinion. Especially seeing what we've seen in Syria and the 'Arab Spring'.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 16 2015 23:53 utc | 121
As the anniversary approaches, a Germany documentary recalls the NAZI holocaust in Ukraine : lauffeuer - The atrocities of Odessa on May 2, 2014 [engl. subtitles].
And continuing abuses at the hands of Ukrainian NAZIs are taking their toll and sparking popular uprising in Donbass.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 17 2015 0:22 utc | 122
@121
' saying "al Qaeda did it" ' and "Mossad did it" ' and "the US government did it" are NOT mutually exclusive, in my opinion '.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 17 2015 0:27 utc | 123
@121
' Especially seeing what we've seen in Syria and the 'Arab Spring'. '
Assad Demands an End to US Support to 'Terrorists'
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on the U.S. to end its "logistical, financial and military support to terrorists" to end the current conflict in the war ravaged country.
And that's catching on ...
ALBA Presidents to Meet in Venezuela about US Aggressions
US Preparing for Military Aggression on Venezuela
Venezuelan President Responds to Latest US Accusations
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. And freedom of that sort is spreading on its own, like wildfire.
No one believes the official US stories anymore, whether at home or abroad, and once the credibility of the narrative drops in one case the credibility drops in all other cases. Let's hope that German documentary on the Odessa holocaust brings the "Russian Aggression in Ukraine" narrative and the NAZI resurgence in Europe into the spotlight.
Outside the US, and perhaps Germany, everyone knows the Kennedy assassination and 9-11 were inside jobs.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 17 2015 0:44 utc | 124
g77 -- you do not cite the Commission. You cite a webpage of someone flogging a book about it. Not the most disinterest presentation of the evidence.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 17 2015 0:57 utc | 125
Speaking of spreading like wildfire:
On March 16, a Ukrainian military BMP ran over a mother and her two children (including one infant in a stroller), standing on a sidewalk at 14:30 local time in Konstantinovka. Eight year old girl was killed immediately.Reports indicated that the driver of the BMP was speeding, some reported he was drunk.
The residents of Konstantinovka took to the streets.
In isolation this incident may not have caused such a reaction, but looks like it was the last straw in a series of incidents which this town went through over the last year (like many more other towns), which we may not be aware of, as well as a dire social-economic situation in the country - all of which are caused by the new Kiev authorities.
People are burning Ukrainian military equipment:
An SUV with the Right Sector blew up on a mine. Looks like everyone is dead
"Konstantinovka. Mayhem at school #7, where the Ukrainian occupants set up the barracks and weapons warehouses. People are breaking into the doors and setting up fires, chanting slogans and throwing stones and bottles at Ukrainian Nazis. Incendiary substances are being used."
http://fortruss.blogspot.com.ar/2015/03/konstantinovka-revolt-live-updates.html
Posted by: Nana2007 | Mar 17 2015 1:04 utc | 126
jfl at 122 & nana2007 at 126 -- Here's the only news account so far, says Bing. Ukrainian police get ‘shoot-to-kill orders’ amid unrest over army hit & run killing of 8yo. "According to Popular Front deputy Anton Gerashchenko, shoot-to-kill orders are enforced in Konstantinovka, to stop those trying to “incite” the violence."
The Fort Russ piece notes Kiev is blaming the victims.
Sergey Gorbachenko posted to the Right Sector, blaming the residents for the tragedy:"Condolences to the parents of the girl. When innocent children die, you get a knot in your throat, but what to do with this: "According to the source of "Ukrainian News" in Konstantinovka city council, the BMP lost control, when a group of residents with anti-Ukrainian sentiments began to throw stones at the passing UAF column"
These vatno-colorado bastards should get their teeth knocked out, according to "martial law" ... these bastards brought suffering to another family ... there are no Minsk agreements, none ... "
Looks like a cover story has already been invented! - KR
You know, thrown stones can be quite damaging to armored vehicles.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 17 2015 1:23 utc | 127
jfl at 114 -- I think you underestimate the speech PC Roberts gave in accepting the International Award for Excellence in Journalism at the Club De Periodistas De Mexico, Has Washington's Power Peaked? Truth is Our Country. Roberts is much more precise about the problem than "The Big Lies." He begins by bemoaning the "presstitutes" of the MSM, and lauds his host. "Despite intimidation the Mexican press has not abandoned its job. Because of your courage, I regard this award bestowed on me as the greatest of honors." He draws these conclusion on the media.
The US media has never performed the function assigned to it by the Founding Fathers. The media is supposed to be diverse and independent. It is supposed to confront both government and private interest groups with the facts and the truth. At times the US media partially fulfilled this role, but not since the final years of the Clinton Regime when the government allowed six mega-media companies to consolidate 90% of the media in their hands.
This is rather a sidebar to his larger point about the nature of the post-Soviet world and present practice.
But this is prologue. Now we turn to the challenge that Washington presents to the entire world....Washington intends to control the world.
Michael Gorbachev is correct when he says that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the worst thing that has happened to humanity, because the Soviet collapse removed the only constraint on Washington’s power....
The United States government has proven to the entire world that it is lawless. A country that flaunts its disrespect of law cannot provide trusted leadership.
My conclusion is that Washington’s power has peaked.
Another reason Washington’s power has peaked is that Washington has used its power to serve only itself and US corporations. The Rest of the World is dispensable and has been left out....
Today there is a massive propaganda campaign against the Russian government. The incessant flow of disinformation from Washington and the media has destroyed the trust between nuclear powers....
I conclude my remarks with the observation that there can be no greater media failure than to bring back the specter of nuclear war. And that is what the US media has achieved.
Roberts can be very astute and quite sobering. Great damage is being done by American exceptionalism (which Roberts notes). The world is tiring of paying for it. This is why the illusions are starting to fade.
I fear too many norteamericanos, however, are still Living the Lies.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 17 2015 3:03 utc | 128
03/16/2015-22:02
Sporadic fire by Ukrainian artillery of about ten rounds was reported from Petrovskiy district of Donetsk. The fire came from direction of Volnovakha (south-west of Donetsk).
Arriving of reinforcing enemy hardware and personnel was reported from settlements Granitnoye, Staroignatovka, Mirnoye and Kamenka (same south-west direction). In Volnovakha itself, contingent of Ukrainian soldiers overgrew local population.
34 Ukrainian tanks passed city Konstantinovka (north of Donetsk) toward the capital of Donetsk Republic. Reconnaissance data confirm massive transit of military hardware, artillery systems, wrapped on flatcars, anti-aircraft systems through the city.
Military journalist “Step`”
03/16/2015-09:27
About 6 a.m. a column of Ukrainian tanks advanced from Mariupol` toward Shirokino. The column comprised of more than ten vehicles.
Having approached Shirokino, the tanks opened fire at combatants.
Also in the morning of March 15 (a day ago), Ukrainian artillery opened fire towards settlements Shirokino and Bezimennoye from howitzers of caliber larger than 100 mm. The shelling originated from positions near hamlet Lebedinoye (10-12 km north-east of Mariupol`).
Military Journalist “Samur”
Posted by: Fete | Mar 17 2015 3:49 utc | 129
@128
I don't think I underestimated the speech ... it's just that anyone who has followed PCR has read all this before. And as far at there being a difference between government's big lies and their daily reinforcement in the msm ... that's a distinction without a difference. I think PCR chose the presstitute theme because it was a press award he was receiving.
It was a good speech, I thought, if one I've read many times before from PCR. I'm glad he had the opportunity to deliver it outside the US.
There is no difference any longer between what government says and what the press echoes ... between the big lies of government and their (non-)coverage and reinforcement by the press. Both government and media are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the TNCs, in North America and in Europe certainly, and in most of the res of the world as well.
@128
I think PCR sang the presstitute song at this event in particular because he was being presented with an award for his journalism. He's said all of this many times before. I'm glad that he had the opportunity to speak on journalism especially and outside of the USA.
But government's big lies and their (non-)coverage and reinforcement in the press are cut from the same cloth. Governments and the press are just two wholly-owned subsidiaries of the TNCs at this point. Whether you work for State, the NYTinms, the CIA, or the Washington Post is of little account : you're promoting the same big lies for the same big liars.
Haven't really analyzed the situation lately, but I still think Iraq/Iran's best move to do with ISIL is to contain then negotate terms of coexistence.. ISIL has support from the Sunni out of fear for the Shia.
Better for Iran to maneuver to Syria and clean house
Posted by: PeteCaroll | Mar 17 2015 6:01 utc | 132
Article on the handwriting on the wall for DC neo-cons at wsws.org : Divisions emerge between Britain and US over China bank.
The Brits have hitched their wagon to the Chinese AIIB. Although that is a no-brainer in the face of the Chinese rise in the face of its own decline, the US is shocked! Shocked! at British "accommodation" of the "rising power" of China.
Not only the Brits, now the Australians - hitherto cowed by the US - are reconsidering their previous coerced decision not to join the AIIB. How many more?
Of course ...
For most of the post-war period, Britain had been able to “punch above its weight” because it was a staunch ally of the US, but now that relationship was under strain.
Seems clear that Britain has assessed the future value of its "staunch ally" and found it lacking.
They're following the money ... trying to convince the Chinese they need an agent in Europe, I imagine.
I further imagine the Chinese are clever enough to understand that Berlin, say, is more nearly the center of Europe than is London.
Can the incipient collapse of the EU/NATO be unaffected by this resounding vote of no-confidence by the US' very own lapdog ... I mean its "staunchest ally"?
@131
Contain - subvert - ISIS and shore up Syria? Sounds like a plan. A lot of the folks who've joined ISIS are probably not so much party to this or that side of the Sunni/Shia split as they are - well, looking for a paychek number one - and trying to identify with a winner in the 'home country' of the imagination.
If Iran can succeed in bottling up the ISIS and strengthening Syria and Iraq in so doing it just might appear to be the winner with whom to identify. No paycheck of course ... well the Iraqis might help out a bit ... but the Iranian-Iraq-Syrian alliance might hold out the allure of the spoils to be had if the KSA/GCC alliance with the USA/Israel were itself to be destroyed ... and punished.
*China-Burma tensions rise after bomb kills Chinese citizens*
[1]
do i need to spell out the agent provocateur ?
*washington goaded japan to poke the dragon's eyes,
encourage vn, ph to escalate their claims.
*Sri Lanka-China tensions rise over suspended port project*
right after us organised regime change [2]
*pro china nepalese mornachy ousted by india/washington sponsored *maoists*
*china friendly thaksin yingluck of thailand, booted out by pro us military, impeachment looming.
*china and ex buddy malaysia embroiled in bitter recriminations after the us orchestrated mh370 FF ......[3]
ever since washington successfully *turned* the myanmar govn after 2009 strange things keep coming up at the border.
i'd be damned if uncle sham isnt the mastermind behind these border provocations.
this is crimea's asian edition....right down to rangoon blaming the separatists for the atrocities.
+ROBBER CRYING OUT ROBBERY.
+SPEAKING IN FORKED TONGUE
the myanmese generals learn real fast from their new mentors in washington, no mean teachers those murcunts.
[1]
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/17/burm-m17.html
[2]
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/16/chin-m16.html
[3]
chinese families,.
*malaysians are ‘executioners’ , 'liars' [5]
MALAYSIANS
*Countries whom we call friends must now do more to prove their friendship
*The search for this missing plane has shown them the limits of their technology, their muscle. It puts China in its place,.
It will take them some time before they get the same kind of respect as America, England or Australia would get [wow, the *respectable* 5 eyes !]
*China demanding the full truth and complete transparency about the plane crash? How about they come clean about Tiananmen Square first? [such is the power of western propaganda, once they do a hatchet job on u, it sticks for life !]
Posted by: denk | Mar 17 2015 9:08 utc | 135
The Saudi/Israeli Axis close ranks against the Syria/Iraq/Iran Allies ...
Saudi Arabia Warns Against US-Iran Nuclear Deal
Prince Al-Faisal is adamant that if Iran has the ability to enrich uranium to any level at all, Saudi Arabia and other nations will demand the same.
... or maybe they'll just buy their nukes from the Israelis?
The Israelis have the bang and the Saudis and GCCs have the bucks.
No nuclear non-proliferation treaty worries there. No signatory there.
Nothing but the Israelis/Saudis/GCCs and their big, brain-dead protector : Uncle Sam.
Could be a 'growth industry' for Israel, eh? Maybe it already is?
134
who the fuck does palau think it is ?
who told this nano speck in the pacific that it can also shoot some chinks n get away with it ?
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/05/open-thread-2013-09.html#c6a00d8341c640e53ef01901c55330e970b
Posted by: denk | Mar 17 2015 10:48 utc | 137
jfl at 130 -- We're under capitalism, and the Golden Rule applies. Those with the gold rule. The fall of the Soviet Union has made that rule more brutal and the world more dangerous. This cannot be stressed enough. Nor can the danger DC's regime of volunatarism continues to breed.
It all rests on The One True Lie -- there is no alternative to presently existing capitalism. It seems to me that capital promotes various conspiracy theories as a safety valve, a tool of distraction, diversion and division.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 17 2015 11:47 utc | 138
"Netanjahu undermined US & Israëli interests"
http://www.juancole.com/2015/03/netanyahu-sabotaged-interests.html
Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 17 2015 12:10 utc | 139
A man from Portland, Oregon was tortured in the United Arab Emirates because he refused to become an informant for the FBI.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/16/portland-man-tortured-uae-behest-of-fbi
Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 17 2015 12:13 utc | 140
@crone #113
If the best you can do to defend Copeland is to say he's a regular, then you're just voting yourself to be in an identical category.
Skip over and be welcome to it.
Posted by: ǝn⇂ɔ | Mar 17 2015 13:01 utc | 141
The people claiming that you can't make 3 shots in 5 seconds from a bolt-action rifle seem blissfully unaware that the rifle would be locked and loaded for shot No. 1, thus requiring only 2 reload cycles (@ 2.5 seconds each) to produce shots 2 & 3.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 17 2015 13:11 utc | 142
jfl@100
A Russian film I saw recently was Kin-dza-dza! from 1986. It's one of the best films I've seen in a while, and I watch a lot of films. It's often described as having a "cyberpunk" aesthetic but I think "steampunk" would be more accurate. It's a rumination on social structures; I pondered it for quite a while. Ah! Makes me want to watch it again.
Posted by: Benu | Mar 17 2015 13:24 utc | 143
@jfl #100, Benu #142:
Thank you for those recommendations. I had never heard of either of those films, although I see they both got a positive reception. Some people say that Kin-dza-dza! is their favorite sci-fi movie. I am very intrigued.
@143
The unsubtitled version would be the one for you, I imagine. It's not at all hard to find. I don't know to what extent the speech at the end is literally an account of something that was actually said, but certainly it seems to accurately represent the NAZI point of view ... which lives on, the whole point of the film ... now in Ukraine and in Israel and elsewhere, supported by our USA. The la-and of the freee, and the home - ofthuh - braaave. You are an actual American, right? I mean in addition to your other, voluntary self-identifications?
If you like films I just watched a very fine one, BURN! (1969). Marlin Brando plays a CIA ... well M16 or whatever the Brits term theirs ... operative in a Caribbean(/Southeast Asian) operation. On the recommendation of Michael Parenti. Who elsewhere makes a few fine points on Conspiracy and Class Power as well.
There certainly is an alternative.
@143
Found it. I'll have to discover what "steampunk" might mean ... right now it sounds like the Mississippi and Mark Twain and Huck Finn ... but I don't imagine that's what you have in mind. Doesn't rhyme with "cyberpunk", does it? Thanks for the link.
The Russian movies above remind me of Nikita Michalkov - Oci ciornie, which I think is a very fine movie measured along any of the dimensions it embodies. And its a true story, turns out.
jfl @ 145
Thanks mucho for the tip on Burn!. Although I am not a fan of Brando, that looks to be right up my alley and I now have it on My List. The Italians were making some amazing films in the 60's and 70's. (Early 80's, too...Bava's Rabid Dogs is a real punch in the gut.)
A sardonic favorite of mine from this period is The Tenth Victim, a 'reductio ad absurdum' take on guns and violence. It's also very stylish in a Courreges kind of way.
Posted by: Benu | Mar 17 2015 15:31 utc | 149
Keep it up NAZIs ...
The morning after the riots: Konstantinovka is a ghost town
Russian President Putin says Ukraine crisis threatens nuclear war
Russia to deploy long-range nuclear bombers to Crimea for drills
... although they believe they've no alternative to war ... those of us uninvested in their schemes know quite well TIAA.
jfl @ 146
Steampunk is an art/fashion style and can probably best be described concisely as "Victorian futurism"...I have a book that has that as the subtitle.
Posted by: Benu | Mar 17 2015 15:38 utc | 151
@149
I thought there was no there there in Brando for a long while myself, but I'm finding I was very wrong ... The Missouri Breaks, for instance. And he's violent, which you seem to like, and playing it for a goof as well; and, somehow, he carries it off. Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Lloyd are really good, too. I think.
@jfl #145:
Yes, I can get by with the unsubtitled version, although really, any decent video release does not have hard subtitles, so with a given video, you have the choice of watching it with subtitles or without.
Yes, I am an actual American, which makes it hard for me to understand the hardcore nationalism of Ukrainians in the diaspora (mostly the US and Canada). My mother was a hardcore White Russian nationalist, and told me about the evils of communism and how a tsarist form of government must be restored. This was when I was six or eight. I thought to myself: "This has nothing to do with me. I am an American. The Reds won. Get over it." Why don't Ukrainians from expat families have the same attitude? I find it very odd.
Thanks for the recommendation of BURN!. Hehe, you linked to a torrent tracker Web page. Naughty naughty. I haven't dared to do that. That the duration of copyright rights keeps on getting extended is barbaric. The founding fathers got it right, with fourteen years.
Yes, I have seen The Missouri Breaks and it is very good. No, I am not really into violence in movies or real life. I prefer obviously el fake-o violence and I avoid dominant West war movies and "painting with blood" shite like Dario Argento makes. I avoid most Hollywod films, too. But I do like Marxist-inspired spaghetti westerns esp when the bad guys get their comeuppance.
Posted by: Benu | Mar 17 2015 15:58 utc | 154
@ jfl and Demian
Another really excellent Russian (Soviet, actually) film I meant to recommend, if you haven't seen it: Stalker (1979), directed by the incomparable Andrei Tarkovsky and adapted from a sci-fi novel called Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. Tarkovsky shows it rather than tells it and that makes for a slow paced, mysterious and ultimately un-resolved unfolding. (Quite different from the Strugatsky novel.) It's a beautiful film that looks as though it was shot around Chernobyl, post-disaster. And it even seems to reference that disastrous event…except the film was made some 7 years earlier, so that just can't be. I found that foreboding sense of folded time to enhance the eeriness of the film.
Tarkovsky also directed Solaris which is a very disquieting film, from an unnerving and highly original Stanislaw Lem novel. No Clooney in this version, thank you.
Posted by: Benu | Mar 17 2015 17:15 utc | 156
@Benu #150:
It's a beautiful film that looks as though it was shot around Chernobyl, post-disaster.
It was shot near a chemical plant. From Wikipedia:
As Tarkovsky, his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya and actor Anatoli Solonitsyn all died from the very same type of lung cancer, Vladimir Sharun, sound designer in Stalker, is convinced that they were all poisoned when shooting the film near a chemical plant.I think Stalker and Solaris are much better known than the films that were just mentioned. All of Tarkovsky's films are worth seeing.
As for Chernobyl, there is the 1990 film Raspad. (Revealingly, even though it is set in the Ukraine, not a single word of Ukrainian is spoken.)
Demian at 153.
Why don't Ukrainians from expat families have the same attitude? I find it very odd.
Because it gives them minor power, a platform, an oppo to speak out, to be someone, to earn kudos, admiration, position, money, without it costing them anything in their personal lives as is. That is the mechanism for all the ‘expat’ supporters of US invasions and bullying.
many thx for the movie recomendations above.
sidebar:: OT - movies
.. for french speakers this fillum the first full length to hit the screens with success by Jean-Luc Godard, treats international relations and islamic terrorism. everytime in the movie the radio is turned on it burbles on about islamist atrocities. it is set during the time of the Algerian war, filmed in 1960. Le petit soldat (see wiki - spoilers) is in b & w, sort of nouvelle vague, with a young Anna Karina, way above (imho) Truffaut and the like. i saw it for the first time recently, and was appalled and thrilled, it show my place in all its ramifications at the time, as i imagine it. themes: a reluctance to murder, cowardice, the play between state and gangsterism, submission to power, an end point which is senseless torture - Anna is tortured to death. 1960 to 2015, same story…though the movie of course makes it personal..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Soldier
vimeo, full movie (works for me, but ?)
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 17 2015 20:24 utc | 158
Fyi, Most classic russian/soviet movies could be watched with subs. on Youtube, just google the movie.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 17 2015 20:28 utc | 159
After a quiet period of orientation to the new post-Minsk environment, politics is back on in the Ukraine.
The august Rada of Solons has passed legislation on the status of the Donbas. Politnavigator via Fort Russ has one view, the Kyiv Post is somewhat more restrained.
Mikhail Ryabov of "Politnavigator" quotes one speaker in the debate as saying the Ukraine will negotiate and hold elections only when "all the fighters, all equipment, all Russian mercenaries leave the territory, and the process of renewal of life on our Ukrainian lands will begin".
Only Yuriy Voropayev from the Opposition Bloc spoke in opposition. "These laws ask one side to capitulate, and only after that projects that provide special conditions will be considered."
This prompted Deputy Speaker Andrey Paruby to exclaim, "What party do you represent in the Parliament? The other side are Putin's occupants! The occupier will be forced to capitulate, or will be destroyed by the Ukrainian army! Don't listen to the militants, the State Duma, don't be afraid to vote for Ukraine!"
Translator K. Rus says "Don't have any illusions - they will blame the resumption of the war on DPR and LPR." April or May, says one of Poroshenkos minions.
The Kyiv Post did not mention any of the open exchange of view in the Rada in its more limited coverage. "A total of 265 Ukrainian lawmakers backed the decision to give a special status to the territories, but only after clean and transparent elections are held on those territories under Ukraine's law...."
The parliament has also voted for a separate law recognizing the specially defined territories as 'temporary occupied'..." and asked that UN peacekeepers be deployed. See the map there, too.
The grim tide begins to roll. Right Sector enters Konstantinovka, begin mass arrests.
Finally, something a little more uplifting. For fans of the class struggle and/or mass popular action, Ukrainian trade unionist Vitaly Makhinko has a long interview discussing The threat from within: trade unions vs. the Kiev junta. Four (red) stars.
ps to D. -- see 119, I trust all is well with you.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 17 2015 23:58 utc | 160
Syria air defense shoots down US drone
"Syrian air defenses brought down a hostile US surveillance aircraft over north Latakia," AFP quoted the official SANA news agency as saying on Tuesday.The US military has confirmed that communication with an unarmed predator drone over northwest Syria was lost on Tuesday and that it is investigating claims that its unmanned aircraft was downed.
If confirmed, the incident would be the first time Damascus has engaged a US aircraft over its airspace since the US-led military coalition began its so-called battle against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in the Syrian territory in September 2014.
The coalition, which claims to have been targeting ISIL positions, has also attacked the provinces where the ISIL militants are not active and even hit Syrian infrastructure.
The US-led coalition’s airstrikes have failed to dislodge the terrorists.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 215,000 people, according to reports. New figures show that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria last year.
Over 7.2 million Syrians have reportedly become internally displaced due to the ongoing crisis.
The Takfiri terrorist groups, with members from several Western countries, control swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, and have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.
Learning to Love Drone Proliferation
On February 17, the Obama Administration announced new, less strict conditions for selling killer drones to foreign governments. [1]The Obama Administration has told us this much: prospective purchasers of UAS (unmanned aerial systems, i.e., drones) must meet the end-use restrictions set out in the State Department’s February 17 “Fact Sheet” [2] :
- Purchasers must use UAS “in accordance with international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable.”
- Purchasers must not use “military UAS to conduct unlawful surveillance or use unlawful force against their domestic populations.”
- “Armed and other advanced UAS are to be used in operations involving the use of force only when there is a lawful basis for use of force under international law, such as national self-defense.”
The problems with these restrictions should be immediately apparent. Discussing armed drones in February 2014, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said: “I would hope, as other countries acquire similar capabilities, that they follow the model that we have for the care and precision that we exercise.” [3][1] Missy Ryan, “Obama Administration to Allow Sales of Armed Drones to Allies,” WASHINGTON POST, Feb. 17, 2015.
[2] [T]he State Department Fact Sheet: the new UAS export policy “also ensures appropriate participation for U.S. industry in the emerging commercial UAS market, which will contribute to the health of the U.S. industrial base, and thus to U.S. national security which includes economic activity.” In other words, what’s good for General Atomics, make of the Predator, is good for America. Micah Zenko writes: “With a projected $80 billion in global spending over the next ten years, drones constitute a potential growth industry for the aerospace and defense sectors.” [4] Putting corporate profits before human lives—there’s the real US model.
[3] Quoted in Micah Zenko and Sarah Kreps, Limiting Armed Drone Proliferation, Council on Foreign Relations Special Report No. 69, June 2014, at page 15.
[4] Micah Zenko, Reforming U.S. Drone Strike Policies (Jan. 2013), at p. 18
How much does an Israeli 'tactical' nuke weigh? How much can a predator/reaper or other such demonic device deliver?
The mad, humanity-hating lunatics - led by their Nihilist Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - are firmly in charge of the asylum. It's never too late to (try to) change that. To non-violenly bring about the end of their Thousand Year New American Century.
In honor of the day, let me stand you a Bushmill's and some fine Irish music. Only semi-traditional.
Horslips pioneered the use of traditional instruments and melodies within a rock format. This cut, a recent performance on Gaelic TV ofTrouble with a Capital "T", is from their concept album based on the Book of Invasions. Many consider their Dearg Doom from the earlier The Tain the finest Irish rock song; this is from its debut in the 70's.
A little more towards the traditional, the Pogues live in Dublin in 1986 with Dirty Old Town.
May you all be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows your dead. Slainte.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 18 2015 2:13 utc | 162
ALBA Summit Backs Venezuela: Live Updates
Presidents and foreign ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA) began an extraordinary summit Tuesday, where they will analyze Barack Obama's latest executive order against Venezuela. The ALBA leaders will prepare a joint statement in face of Obama's determination to declare Venezuela a threat to his country's national security. The bloc's declaration will be presented at the Summit of the Americas, which will take place April 10 and 11 in Panama.
Evo Morales: Latin America Stands United Against US Aggression
"We are coming together as Latin Americans. UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) was first in rejecting the threat of interference and intervention, and now the countries of ALBA, and then the CELAC, but also the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which we are a part of,” he added, recalling the many expressions of solidarity with Venezuela.Morales added, "We condemn, we repudiate, in the 21st Century we won’t accept this kind of intervention by the United States. All of our solidarity and our support goes to President Maduro, and the revolutionary Bolivarian government and people of Venezuela.”
US Senate Subcommittee Mulls More Action against Venezuela
Chaired by one of Washington's most outspoken Venezuela critics, Senator Marco Rubio, participants in the hearing largely applauded the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, while Rubio openly called for more unilateral action against the South American nation.Witnesses at the hearing claimed Venezuela is a “nuclear threat” to the United States, and that the country carryies out acts of torture similar to those in Guantanamo Bay. Venezuela is not a nuclear armed nation, and has stridently opposed human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay.
Fact Checking the US Senate Subcommittee on Venezuela
The claim:
Venezuela is supporting an Iranian plot to take over the world with a holy war.The facts:
Venezuela has not declared jihad against any other nation.The claim:
Venezuela's “state policy” is to support drug traffickers.The facts:
Since Venezuela stopped cooperating with the United States in counter-narcotics operations, annual drug seizures have more than doubled, according to figures from Venezuela’s National Anti-Narcotics Office.The claim:
In a footnote to his prepared speech, Farah claimed former President Hugo Chavez' military policy was based on a theory that explicitly advocates the “use of biological and nuclear weapons” against the United States.The facts:
There is no credible evidence Venezuela has nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, and neither Chavez nor Maduro ever advocated for the use of weapons of mass destruction.The claim:
Venezuela is run by a dictatorship.The facts:
The Venezuelan president is elected every six years. All elections since the late 1990s have been approved as free and fair by all major international observers, and praised by the Carter Center as some of the best in the world.The claim:
The Venezuelan government holds people in secret prisons deprived of natural lighting as a method of “torture.”The facts:
There is no credible evidence Venezuela holds people in such prisons. However, a U.S. Senate report in December 2014 revealed the United States has conducted widespread torture in a network of secret prisons across the world, including depriving people of natural light.The claim:
The “colectivos” are a “paramilitary group.”The facts:
“Colectivo” is an umbrella term in Venezuela used to describe groups ranging from community organizations to groups of workers. Colectivos run initiatives as diverse as communal gardens, childcare centers and taxi companies.The claim:
The notion that the United States would invade a Latin American nation is “absurd” to “anyone familiar with U.S. policy.”The facts:
The United States and its proxies have a long history of invading Latin American countries, such as Grenada in 1983, Nicaragua in 1981, Cuba in 1961, Guatemala in 1954 and others.
Nicaragua UN Rep: US Threat to Latin America, Not Venezuela
“In the region we cannot permit attacks against a sister republic, wherever they are from. Because today it's Venezuela, and tomorrow it could be anywhere else, as history has demonstrated,” Maria Rubiales said during the 59th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women“It is absurd and unreal what Obama put forward, how Venezuela could constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat for the United States,” said Rubiales. “The planet knows that the only and true danger for the sovereignty of the people is imperialism, represented by the North American government. We will continue fighting, we cannot accept this new aggression against Latin America and the Caribbean.”
It's never too late to (try to) change that. To non-violenly bring about the end of their Thousand Year New American Century.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 17, 2015 8:27:03 PM | 161
Non-violently? Rubbish.
Violence is the only language cowards and liars understand. That's why it's so effective against meek populations. We were supposed to learn that as children. The ones who didn't learn didn't try. Pride isn't something to swallow. It is wrenched from those who seek to deprive you of it.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 18 2015 2:52 utc | 164
* The Taiwan-based WantChinaTimes reported that a high-level US diplomatic and military delegation, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence David Helvey and US Pacific Command deputy commander Lieutenant General Anthony Crutchfield, visited Burma from January 11 to 15.
“Crutchfield and other high-ranking military officers made a low-key visit to Myitkyina in Kachin State, meeting with members of the General Staff Department, the Myitkyina Military Region command and front line brigade-level officers of Myanmar’s armed forces,” the article stated. “The officers also got briefed on the conflict between government forces and civilian militias currently ongoing in the region, as well as the performance of the first batch of Myanmarese soldiers to receive military training from the US on their return to the front line. There was also discussion on a second batch of soldiers receiving military training in the US.”
No further details were provided. However, it is highly significant that a top American military officer should visit frontline Burmese troops, in this case fighting ethnic Kachin fighters* [1]
coincidence ?
my ass. !
i had warned china on several occasions, PACOM means big TROUBLE.
pro china king birenda of nepal taken out by pacom ?
*According to unblemished sources in Kathmandu, the king and his family were quickly dispatched by a Nepali army commando unit trained at the time by U.S. Special Operations forces sent by U.S. Pacific Commander in Chief Adm. Dennis Blair (he’s the same guy who propped up Gen. Wiranto with special training while the good general was committing genocide in East Timor* [2]
wherever pacom cic goes, mayhem follows. !!! [3]
[1]
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/17/burm-m17.html
[2]
http://monthlyreview.org/commentary/comparisons-between-recent-u-s-backed-coups/
Posted by: denk | Mar 18 2015 3:38 utc | 165
03/18/2015 00:29
The Supreme Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) utterly failed the proposed law to favor special status to Donbass regions.
Instead, Rada voted for declaring “occupied” the territories controlled by combatants.
Even the controversial proposal of early election in Donbass was postponed: “The local elections will become possible after the Ukrainian army and the state bring the Ukrainian flag, the Ukrainian parties and the Ukrainian law to these territories”, the leader of President’s faction “Bloc Poroshenko”, Yuriy Lutsenko, announced from rostrum.
“This is a sharp departure from the Minsk agreements, and the entire concept founded in Minsk on February 12. The concept assumes approval of all steps with the leaders of South-East. The order of these steps is of principle importance”, Sergey Lavrov, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, stated.
“The law of the special status already exist. How it is applied to Donbass is an attempt to alter this special status, link it to elections in Dobass, which assume no participation the current leaders of Lugansk and Donetsk Republics.
Posted by: Fete | Mar 18 2015 4:12 utc | 166
@guest77 #121
Ever wonder why the only videos shown by the conspiracy theorists are from the 60s and 70s?
That's because the newer ones all employ people who actually know how to shoot and using weapons they are familiar with. TLC did a presentation where they had a couple of actual shooters who have used the Carcano before demonstrate that yes, you can consistently hit a zero deflection moving target from 80 yards away with 3 shots fired in 8 seconds.
Furthermore, there used to be a legendary annual event in North Texas where law enforcement officers would recreate the scene replete with convertible and dummies. Every year, at least 2 of the shooters would duplicate the success.
A real shooter using his own rifle can do a lot. Only people who have zero personal experience with guns and shooters think what happened there was not credible.
The most expert sniper with an unfamiliar weapon, however, especially if not sighted, won't do squat. This is what was demonstrated by the 60s and 70s demos: recreations run by non-shooters.
Posted by: ǝn⇂ɔ | Mar 18 2015 13:38 utc | 168
Police Arrest Hundreds of Anti-Austerity Protesters in Frankfurt
Anti-riot police attacked protesters gathering against the inauguration of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) new headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, early Wednesday morning, arresting over 550 of them, reported Reuters.The confrontation started around 5 a.m., as police used pepper gas and water canons in order to open a path to the entrance of the building, while a minority of protestors threw stones or other projectiles, and set fire to at least seven police cars. More than 100 protesters have been reported to be injured.
"Our protest is against the ECB, as a member of the troika [the ECB, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund], that, despite the fact that it is not democratically elected, hinders the work of the Greek government. We want the austerity politics to end," Ulrich Wilken, one of the organizers, told Reuters.
"We want a loud but peaceful protest," he added.
The new headquarter of the ECB was targeted not only as a symbol of austerity measures imposed on European countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal, but also because the cost of the building itself skyrocketed from the initially allocated budget of approximately US$900 million to US$1.3 billion.
"Free caviar for everyone," read the banners denouncing the austerity policies imposed by the ECB.
Great to see the Germans in the streets for the Greeks ...
Further from Konstantinovka via Fort Russ, according to Kharkov Anti-maidan, DPR is contemplating offensive on Konstantinovka to defend the citizens from mass repressions.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 19 2015 1:53 utc | 170
And of course, The Disgusting Media Blackout of the 8-Year-Old Girl Killed by Drunk Ukrainian Soldiers should surprise no one.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 19 2015 1:56 utc | 171
03/18/2015 12:17
The amendments to the law about “special status of Donbass”, which the Ukrainian Parliament upheld yesterday, suspended the “special status” until local elections that meet the Ukrainian legislation.
As the speaker of the Supreme Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) put it: “The decision that we adopted yesterday means that the condition of enacting the law about peculiarities of local governance is to hold free, democratic local elections with full adherence to the Ukrainian Constitution and international standards. The law provides for neither particular status nor authorities in contrary to the Ukrainian Constitution”.
Earlier the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko stated that essence of the changes to the law about special arrangement for local self-governance of certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions was “to hold honest, transparent and open elections of local leadership, and to re-integrate said territories into Ukraine”.
03/18/2015 11:13
According to Strelkov, the situation is grim. The combatants will be due to fight.
That a brilliant scheme was devised to create two banana republics with banana leaders and to cram them back into Ukraine as autonomies. Ukraine becomes a federation. Crimea remains de facto Russian, and everyone forgets it.
But the Ukrainian side justly says following: wait boys, Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea are our unitary state. Leave your hope of Russian second state language. And besides, forgive for a metaphor, take your trousers off and stoop...
Posted by: Fete | Mar 19 2015 4:12 utc | 172
The U.S. Military Just Plunged Philippine Politics into Crisis
Early in the morning of January 25, commandos belonging to the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police crept into the southern town of Mamasapano — a stronghold of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The elite Seaborne Unit had come for Zulkifli Abdhir, a Malaysian bomb maker better known as “Marwan.”By the end of the morning, dozens lay dead.
The episode has severely discredited the administration of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, jeopardized decades of progress on peace talks with Moro separatists, and underlined the perils for developing world governments that put themselves at the beck and call of Washington.
Indeed, Washington’s fingerprints were all over the operation: There was a $5-million bounty placed by the Americans on Marwan’s head. A U.S. military helicopter appeared in the area after the long firefight, allegedly to help evacuate the wounded. Marwan’s finger disappeared after the battle and showed up at an FBI lab in the United States a few days later.
With friends like the CIA puppet, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Barack Obama ... you have no need of enemies.
The best way to treat the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - the USG in general - is simply not to return their phone calls.
It's always trouble - for you! - calling, on the on the US end of the line.
J. Hawk from Fort Russ provides an interesting analysis of the post-Cold War world in The End of History, the Third Way, and the Ukrainian Civil War.
The West’s Left, having abandoned social policies in favor of a slightly less extreme version of economic neo-liberalism, tried to reinvent itself by adopting the so-called “Third Way,” which amounted to little more than a policy of economic expansion into the “emerging markets”, many of which were the post-Soviet states making a difficult transition to capitalism. However, while Globalization was marketed as a win-win proposition for both the global North and South, in reality the developing states have gotten the losing side of the bargain. The same is unfortunately true for the post-Communist states.
The piece cites favorably White Tiger and links to an earlier item they had on it. I'd glossed over it before, thinking it some sort of a nature film, the plot of the ghost panzer haunting Soviet tankers makes an interesting metaphor.
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 19 2015 14:09 utc | 174
US Threatened Germany Over Snowden, Vice Chancellor Says
[O]ne of two things is true:1) the U.S. actually threatened Germany that it would refrain from notifying them of terrorist plots against German citizens and thus deliberately leave them vulnerable to violent attacks, or
2) some combination of high officials from the U.S. and/or German governments are invoking such fictitious threats in order to manipulate and scare the German public into believing that asylum for Snowden will endanger their lives.Both are obviously noteworthy, though it’s hard to say which is worse.
How about
3) the U.S. actually notifies Germany of non-existent terrorist plots, because the U.S. feels it serves some geopolitical purpose to do so, or
4) the U.S. electively fails to notify Germany of what it takes to be bona fide terrorist plots, because the U.S. feels it serves some geopolitical purpose to do so
with or without any reference to Snowden in either case?
In other words, why would anyone believe anything the U.S. government said about anything?
03/19/2015
Clashes reported today took place under Shirokino (Mariupol` direction). The sides fired small arms, grenade launchers and low-caliber, 82 mm, mortars. For no gain was claimed, it was likely the punitive regiment “Azov” harassing combatants.
Posted by: Fete | Mar 20 2015 2:52 utc | 176
UN Security Council discussing non-fulfilment of Minsk agreements — Russian mission
A Russia-initiated session is being held behind closed doors
The Russian Army drops another subtle hint
... on the photographs from the readiness drills held by that unit published by Russian blogger nortwolf_sam, it is evident that many of the soldiers are wearing patches signifying they are...peacekeeping troops ...
The Russians pitch a UN-sanctioned, peacejeeping occupation/defense of Novorossya?
Posted by: jfl | Mar 21 2015 1:21 utc | 177
Here's a sensible suggestion from the LA Times that should please everyone:
Marking the May 9 anniversary in Kiev would allow Obama, Merkel, Cameron and other leaders to pay homage and respect to the millions who fought so bravely and died in stopping Hitler's war machine on the eastern front. But they could do so on their terms, not Putin's.Gathering in the Ukrainian capital would also send a powerful message to the Russian populace of the isolation of their country's leader because of his aggression against Ukraine. Let the Kremlin propagandists try to hide the sight of Western leaders in Kiev respectfully honoring the heroic World War II struggle of the Soviet people, including Russians.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have rightly turned down Vladimir Putin's invitation to go to Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allies' victory in Europe, and President Obama may soon follow suit.
And let the western propagandists try to hide the neo nazis that come May will likely be fully in charge of Kiev. Who said propaganda had a short shelf life?
Posted by: Nana2007 | Mar 21 2015 1:42 utc | 178
*tension bet china and japan escalated after unitedsnakes lapdog abe's open provocations.
*tension bet china and india after washington signed defence pact with bharat.
*tension bet china and ph after a bus load of hk tourists were slained in a *failed rescue mission* by ph commandos.
*tension bet china and myanmar after chinese sailors were murdered execution style and dumped into the mekong river.
*tension bet china and myanmar after us trained myanmese forces attacked a chinese enclave , sending 100000 refugees into yunan.
[shade of crimea]
*tension bet china and myanmar after unitedsnakes new poodle bombed chinese village, killing five.
*tension between china and malaysia after mh370 ff killed 200 chinese nationals,
*Tension between Seoul and Beijing over Washington’s desire to deploy a ballistic missile defense system in South Korea intensified on Tuesday as South Korea made an unusual public retort to China, asking it not to meddle in its defense policy.*
how those chicoms suck eh, they just dont seem to be able to get along with everybody !
no wonder that BritishBushitCunt deign to lecture the chinese envoys
*make friends, not enemies*
hehehehe
Posted by: denk | Mar 21 2015 3:38 utc | 179
03/20/2015
Comment: Nothing remarkable was on-line today. True, Donbass is tense. Yet, reciprocal cessation of artillery is noteworthy success. It is not clear what could tilt the balance to resume combat. The combatants seem content with status quo. Until Ukrainians make their own Javelins (anti-tank missile-robot) in sufficient quantities, their upper hand is doubtful.
Posted by: fete | Mar 21 2015 4:13 utc | 180
if u'r a regular firefighter, u watch porn in your office waitig for calls.
u get ur paycheck at mth end all the same.
but if u only get paid when there's a fire call, how u gonna survive ?
so a pro arsonist doesnt sit on his ass waiting for call, he goes out every day to start fire, thats how he makes a living.
thats what the murcunts have been doing since 1895.
they just couldnt help it, just like dracula couldnt stop sucking blood,
its strictly business, dont take it personal.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/05/1081017106683.html?from=storyrhs
*stick it up to those chicoms , the 7th fleet is just a call away* !!!
Posted by: denk | Mar 21 2015 4:37 utc | 181
Collective Security Treaty Organization has been ready to send peacemakers
CSTO agrees to send peacemakers to Donbass if it get appropriate permit from the UNO. It was announced by the general secretary of military-politic union Nikolay Bordyuzha.He reported that the organization has enough peacemaking contingents that passed necessary mission of preparing.
Ukrainian has not expressed their reaction yet. Kiev keeps on holding negotiations with the western partners concerning the question of bringing peacemakers or European police to Donbass.
I cannot imagine this getting by an American veto in the UNSC ... do they have some other means of obtaining UN approval?
The US seems definitely to be preparing for WW III, with the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate slash Manchurian Candidate on point.
Bellum Americanum: US imperialism’s delusions of world conquest
The US Congress and White House are currently in discussions over the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in October. Amidst the various tactical disputes over ruling class policy, on one issue there is near-universal agreement in Washington: there must be a significant and immediate increase in funding for the already gargantuan Pentagon war machine.The lead in this campaign has been taken by the White House, with Obama’s new defense secretary, Ashton Carter, declaring Wednesday that the president would veto any budget that did not remove the so-called “sequester” caps on military spending introduced in 2011. While Congress has found various ways to get around these caps over the past several years, the Pentagon is insisting that they be formally eliminated.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 21 2015 14:37 utc | 183
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I saw an article on a Russian film - White Tiger (2012) - which sparked my interest, and then found it over the wire, with English subtitles. I haven't yet watched it myself, but I have opened it and it does seem to have English subtitles.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 16 2015 10:46 utc | 101