I found this interesting…
“The Dalai Lama, widely known for his compassionate views, has said that “too many” refugees are seeking asylum in Europe, according to German news.
Speaking to reporters in the de facto capital of Tibet’s exiled government, he said: “Europe, for example Germany, cannot become an Arab country,” in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Germany is Germany. There are so many that in practice it becomes difficult.””
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/dalai-lama-says-too-many-refugees-in-europe-a7058911.html#commentsDiv

Posted by: dh | Jun 3 2016 19:49 utc | 3

#2
Aren’t those alleged assassins spilling blood on the street to bring about collapse of the current political system?

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jun 3 2016 20:57 utc | 5

DH @ 3:
You’ll find this old Melbourne Age article dated 2007 about the Dalai Lama, his being on the CIA payroll for well over a decade (late 1950s to 1974) and the various relatives of his who work in his government-in-exile even more interesting than that Independent article.
Michael Backman: “Behind Dalai Lama’s holy cloak”
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/behind-dalai-lamas-holy-cloak/2007/05/22/1179601410290.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
An excerpt from the article:
“… Like many Asian politicians, the Dalai Lama has been remarkably nepotistic, appointing members of his family to many positions of prominence. In recent years, three of the six members of the Kashag, or cabinet, the highest executive branch of the Tibetan government-in-exile, have been close relatives of the Dalai Lama.
An older brother served as chairman of the Kashag and as the minister of security. He also headed the CIA-backed Tibetan contra movement in the 1960s.
A sister-in-law served as head of the government-in-exile’s planning council and its Department of Health.
A younger sister served as health and education minister and her husband served as head of the government-in-exile’s Department of Information and International Relations.
Their daughter was made a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile. A younger brother has served as a senior member of the private office of the Dalai Lama and his wife has served as education minister.
The second wife of a brother-in-law serves as the representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile for northern Europe and head of international relations for the government-in-exile. All these positions give the Dalai Lama’s family access to millions of dollars collected on behalf of the government-in-exile …”

Posted by: Jen | Jun 3 2016 22:19 utc | 7

@Inkan1969 | Jun 3, 2016 4:57:56 PM | 5
Aren’t those alleged assassins spilling blood on the street to bring about collapse of the current political system?
Let me try this LG.
In a free and democratic society. Head they win tail I loose. They, meaning NeoCon and NeoLib. I appreciate your thought and what choices do we have?
Back to the question, lesser of two evils. Hallelujah! Bernie Sanders.
…..and the endless wars continue Israel continue to slaughter Palestinians and Bernie continue what Obomo and predecessors trying for the last 70 yr. Get the two sides sit down and talk. All the while settlements (and killing) continue. Last checked there is no way a two-states can exist The Swiss cheese turn almost to Mozzarella cheese.

Posted by: Jack Smith | Jun 3 2016 22:56 utc | 9

By Gordon Duff with Nahed al Hussaini and Dr. Bassam Barakat, VT Damascus
Exclusive: “Iraqi forces have captured an Israeli military commander trying to escape from Fallujah. We expect to have his identity in a few hours.
Advance units of the Syrian Arab Army, supported by forces of Hezbollah, Iranian volunteers and Russian Aerospace fighter/bombers are advancing on the ISIS held Tabqa Military Airport, just south of Raqqah.”
“Sources in Damascus have told VT that this drive, supported by Russian Aerospace sorties, is advancing through the night to seize the ISIS held airport after it was learned that America planned to open a major base there, dominating this vital region, part of a secret agreement to split Syria, a plan made showing a shocking level of cooperation between “strange bedfellows,” most notable an American deal with ISIS against Damascus.”
source – http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/06/02/breaking-surprise-syrian-drive-on-raqqah-blocks-secret-us-plan/

Posted by: ALberto | Jun 3 2016 23:16 utc | 11

“Posted by: Jack Smith | Jun 3, 2016 6:20:46 PM | 8”
LOL but at the same Cry:-(

Posted by: jo6pac | Jun 3 2016 23:57 utc | 13

jo6pack @ 14
I would hate to be on the losing side of this one but that said, I do not believe there will be any winning side. Very sad days ahead. Death and massive destruction in the name of an ‘Exceptional Empire.’

Posted by: ALberto | Jun 4 2016 0:54 utc | 15

Thanks Jack …
To everyone else …
Alas awakening a somnolent people only seems to make them greedy. There seems to be so little concern for others … whether next door, down the street, in the next town, next county, next state, next country …
I am of the opinion that a revolution, bloody, ugly and horrific is the only solution to reset what is – but being brain-washed or brain-dead the chances are very small.
It isn’t really capitalism … that is just a fancy name for greed, selfishness, … and maybe just the hard wiring of the human …

Posted by: rg the lg | Jun 4 2016 1:34 utc | 17

rg the lg @2 Sad should not be the emotion. Outrage is the only appropriate response.

Posted by: Macon Richardson | Jun 4 2016 2:06 utc | 19

Outrage?
Macon:
Why bother … as a cynic [ cynicism: the thick, hard shell an idealist grows to protect idealism from reality ] the outrageous won’t happen, though it should – thus, I am left with just being sad.

Posted by: rg the lg | Jun 4 2016 2:58 utc | 21

Continuing a discussion of Crimean Tatar nationalism begun on the last Open Thread; see nrs. 63, 78, 85-6, 89, 93, 110 and 128
The folks at the International Committee for Crimea have worked hard to shape the discussion on the issue of Tatar collaboration with the fascist invaders and its consequences. Compare the wiki on Deportation of the Crimean Tatars with this posting from their archive.
Apologia for the Tatars, like this account which the Committee cites, elide several key issues. It stresses the men serving in various capacities with the Wehrmacht, noting that duties included mundane functions like nursing, clerking and driving. While it does allow that many were in police units affiliated with the Army or the SS, no mention is made that a major functions of these units were to combat partisans and generally keep secure the rear areas. This included aiding in the round-up of Jews and Slavs, for deportation to death or forced labor.
This account, “False Charges of Treason” officially published by the Committee omits any discussion of the police auxiliaries, and instead works Stalin’s paper trail on regarding the typical figure of 20,000 collobrators, between Wehrmacht, police, and SS formations. It does not deny collaboration, but says that it was not “mass treason.” It does not actually attempt to document the exact extent of collaboration; it wants a muddy backwater, not a clear spring.
The author, Otto Pohl, wants to argue that the commonly accepted figure is an artefact of Stalin’s policymakers. While he notes a formal transferrence was never made, he argures that early reports of 20,000 Crimean Tatar deserters became 20,000 collaborators, magically assuming all deserters later fought for the Nazis (as opposed to returning to their homes and trying to get on with life).
He posits the 5,989 arrested by the Soviets immediately after liberating the Crimea (from a population of 197,000) as the true figure. This ignores, of course, the fact many of the military and paramilitary formations accompanied their masters back to the ruins of the Reich, with many others soldiers killed in action. And that other actual collaborators might have been missed in this initial sweep.
But presuming his accounting true, a 10.15 pct. collobation rate is definitely mass treason, while a rate of 3.04 is not. One wonders where he is setting the upper boundary of mass treason; five percent?
Pohl also tries to suggest that the Tatars were unfairly singled out. Most colloborators were Ukrainian and Russian, why weren’t Russian and Ukrainians deported en masse?
Well, certainly the Russians weren’t anti-Russian nationalist seperatists. And deporting everyone from the Ukraine doesn’t seem feasible.
And more to the point, the Tatars show a high rate of colloboration. If we use the Waffen-SS enrollments as a proxy for all colloboration, 25,000 Ukrainian and Russians served in the ranks. This would be much smaller percentage of the Soviet population. Cf. to the deaths of Slavs vs. Tatars in fascist death camps; millions vs. a number near zero.
So as with so many things in live, one needs to look at quality as well as quantity. Given the sort of activities of the Crimean volunteers are known to have conducted, I’m not surprised the ICC favors these sorts of abstract, high-level, high-policy discussions.
The fact is, as this Vineyard of the Saker-sourced repost at Russia Insider makes plain, the Germans found the Tatars well-disposed towards them. Even as the fascists were besieging Sevastapol, their leaders were, said the chair of the Tatar Committe that greated them in Jan. 1942, “honored to have the opportunity to fight under the leadership of… the greatest son of the German people… Our names later will be honored along with names of those who advocated the liberation of oppressed peoples.”
Scott Humor, the author, goes on to note the invading Nazi commander, von Manstein, described the Tatars as “very friendly to us.” He also quotes partisan commanders reporting that while the German war machine plundered the Russian population, the left the Tatars alone. The Wiki on the Crimean ASSR sheds light on why.
The local head of the civil administration, long-time Austrian Nazi Alfred Frauenfeld, thought the Crimean Tatars descended from the Goths, who put in an appearance there in their own course of nomadic plunder. His Wiki notes he was involved in resettlement schemes involving Volga Germans, from as far away as North America.
These activities were co-ordinated by Himmler’s RSHA, the Race and Resettlement Office of the SS and were a pet project of the Reichsfuhrer-SS and Chief of the German Police. This connection certainly gave him the juice to resist the more hardline measures the Reich Commissar for Ukraine Koch expected.
Tatar nationalists like to attribute the soft attitude towards them to von Manstein, who commanded the siege of Sevastopol. The talented von Manstein was only convicted of not speaking up enough soon enough against the Fuhrer, and not directly of any war crimes, was needed elsewhere, serving at Leningrad before re-assuming overall command in the South for Stalingrad. Frauenfeld seems to have been there throughout the Nazi occupation.
The army did not run the rear areas, the police did, and that meant the SS. The Nazi bureacracy was not a well-oiled machined, but rather, a collection of competing fiefdoms arbitrated by the Leader. Frauenfeld, as a local official, had a certain amount of discretion in his duties, which in his opinion included important research on his Goth connection.
Throughout the expanded Reich occupation troops would be augmented by assorted local auxiliaries. Even while von Manstein was there, they formed nine battalions of Tatar Schuma paramilitaries to fight partisans. As we shall see, whatever laxity Frauenfeld might have preferred did not prevent the usual rigorous methods from being applied to the very serious problem of partisan activity.
There is an additional factor in considering the treatment of the Crimean Tatars. As this essay documents, the Nazis strategists envisioned using assorted Moslem populations in Central Asia to fight against and destroy the Soviet Union. In order to try to woe Turkey into the war, the Germans involved it in propagandizing and organizing, but as the ebb and flow of battle began to favor increasingly the Allies, they kept their participation minimal.
I find it interesting that in a region where in the constellation of local fascist fiefdoms circumstances towards laxity were good, the Tatars proved quite brutal. Or rather, to restate it, while circumstances may have been spared the Tatars the rigors of occupation, the Slavic inhabitants felt the full weight, applied in large part by the Tatars.
The Wiki on Turkic and Crimean collaboration lists three formations, Tataren-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment der SS (“SS Tatar Mountain Regiment”), Waffen-Gruppe Krim, and a Schutzmannschaft battalions. The Schuma were police auxiliaries, used againt partisans. The first two were Waffen-SS units.
The Wiki on Waffen-SS foreign volunteers states the Mountain Regiment contained 3,518, and gives the total of 12,000 Turkic fighters in Waffen-SS; the only other formation it gives a figure on is an Azerbaijani regiment of 2,851. The essay on Moslem collaboration reports that the Mountain Regiment was composed of Schuma survivors, making of course for larger number of original collaborators.
Overall, an estimate of 20,000 having collaborated over the course of the occupation, in capacities civil and military, does not strike me as unreasonable.
The essay notes at least one other auxiliary formation. “Khimi,” which is I believe a battalion, raised by Yalta Mayor Maltzev to fight partisans. Its zeal for burning villages and other demonstrative brutality so impressed the Germans that they transferred it to the Western front to fight the maquis.
Against non-Russians, many of the Eastern Front auxiliaries did poorly. Not so our plucky Crimeans. During an early July 1944 two-week ordeal of murder, rape, and arson, they killed 35 and destroyed the village of Dortan for aiding the partisans.
Frankly, though, it pales in comparison to what they did back home. Humor brings up the “Krasnii” camp, founded in the summer of 1942 after the fall of nearby Simferopol. He cites an article from Novii Krym. The 152 Schuma Battalion of 320 men ran the detention camp at the “Krasnii” kolkhoz, under the supervision of about a half-doozen Germans. They killed as many as 15,000, destroying the bodies in an improvised crematorium. This short piece from May 2015 notes the opening of a museum on the sight. The facility in its short lived operations matched the Buchenwald kill rate. The few Tatar prisoners were strictly captured partisans, unlike the mix of Slavic military and civil prisoners.

The camp’s guard differed especially with a “creative” approach to the destruction of the prisoners… [including] massive burning of several stacked tiers of living people bound with barbed wire, soaked in gasoline and set on fire. Eyewitnesses claimed that “the most fortunate those who lay at the bottom”-suffocating under the weight of human bodies even before the penalty.

He also provides a longer account drawing on the testimony of surviors, from Fishki.net Their underlying site “Velikoross” is a “Literary-Historical Journal” on the Great Russian pass. The author writes:

Today, nobody knows how many prisoners were in camp for the whole of the time. The poultry houses and barns, with very dense settlement, could fit about two thousand people. But every day in the camp died up to 50 prisoners, and the vacated seats are filled immediately.

The unit melted away elsewhere in the Soviet Union as liberation neared, but members were apparently later caught and sentenced.
The site was both before and after the war a model poultry farm. The original used imported, state-of-the-art equipment, as the facilities of the First Five Year Plan often did. The post-war rebuild was also a model facility, only closing in 1993 as the post-Soviet Ukrainian economy tanked.
In the end, the Tatars obtained permission and indeed encouragement to return during glasnost, though the deportation was first officially renounced in 1967, under Brezhnev. Their numbers today roughly match the pre-war population, even though many Tatars remained in Central Asia and elswhere in Russia.
Frankly, little of it would matter much if the Meijlis hadn’t taken the side of Kiev in the matter of reunification of Crimea with Russia. Given that Kiev authorized them in 1999 as an official representative body, not a surprise.
Next, a look at the ongoing politics of Crimea’s reunion with Russia. There is an Istanbul-Berlin-Kiev Axis.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jun 4 2016 4:09 utc | 23

the open thread as perpetual usa election thread.. a regular phenomenon at moa! apparently the last thread wasn’t enough… continue, lol… i was away from the asylum for a day and just got back to see..
anyone for an october 2016 surprise along the lines john helmer suggests?

Posted by: james | Jun 4 2016 5:42 utc | 25

Russia said to be considering special forces in Syria. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44793.htm

Posted by: Penelope | Jun 4 2016 6:49 utc | 27

Wait a minute. Desmond Tutu is one of the most stand up shoot- from- the-hip guys around. He is an astute judge of character and never ever lies. And he loves the Dalai Llama. I dont care much, but I would trust him. There has been a massive Chinese propaganda campaign to slander him. Beware.

Posted by: dan | Jun 4 2016 7:10 utc | 29

He still is the greatest.
Robbed of the right to work in his prime because he spoke up against US aggression in Vietnam, he had to resort to the rope-a-dope and a battle of (his own) attrition against his opponent when he could no longer float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. And he couldn’t escape the results in his later years.
He was, is, and will remain the greatest, in my book, anyway.

Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2016 7:35 utc | 31

Re: Posted by: james | Jun 4, 2016 1:42:33 AM | 24
October surprise – the more Hillary looks like losing the greater the chance of an October surprise directed against Russia to save her and discredit Trump.
No doubt about it.
US military has spoken about the dangers of Trump have they not?

Posted by: Jules | Jun 4 2016 8:37 utc | 33

Since the U.S. has deployed nuclear cruse missiles there, it is very possible that Russia will simply use conventional bombs to destroy the Deveselu Air Base airport in Deveselu, Romania. Probably with fuel air (thermobaric) bombs.

Posted by: blues | Jun 4 2016 12:16 utc | 35

In an email from the Greens they are asking everyone to vote for bernie in the Calif. primary. Then for them at Show Time Nov.

Posted by: jo6pac | Jun 4 2016 13:42 utc | 37

Jjo6pac at 36.
So Stein’s pack has joined the “sheepdogs”? ROTFLMAO!

Posted by: rufus magister | Jun 4 2016 14:44 utc | 39

Obama and his family were in Indonesia in 1965. His stepfather admitted killing lots of people. His mother was supposedly doing anthropological research for USAID and the Ford Foundation. The U.S. is known to have handed over kill lists to the Indonesian military. There is a lot that is suspicious about Obama’s life as a young adult: nobody in his class at Columbia — and not even the chairman of his department remembers him, mysterious first job at a firm that looks CIA-connected, mysteriously accelerated political career.

Posted by: lysias | Jun 4 2016 14:45 utc | 41

further to 41 —
Note the broader context of German hopes for the Islamic population of the Soviet Union. As this essay documents, the Nazis strategists envisioned using assorted Moslem populations in Central Asia to fight against and destroy the Soviet Union. In order to try to woe Turkey into the war, the Germans involved it in propagandizing and organizing, but as the ebb and flow of battle began to favor increasingly the Allies, they kept their participation minimal.
Scott Humor, in perhaps one of the most informative pieces on the Eurovision song victory award to the Ukraine for its paen to the results of collaboration discussed some of the historical background. It is reposted at Russia Insider from the “Vineyard of the Saker” website). He quotes the German commander of the invading forces, von Manstein, as describing the Tatars “very friendly to us.”
So friendly that they welcomed them on arrival with relief money for the invaders and officially welcoming them. They were in Jan. 1942 “honored to have the opportunity to fight under the leadership of… the greatest son of the German people… Our names later will be honored along with names of those who advocated the liberation of oppressed peoples.”
As partisan attacks began to immediately began to harass the rear of the entire front, Humor continues, von Manstein authorized the fomation of nin Schutzmannschaft battalions.
Throughout the expanded Reich occupation troops would be augmented by assorted local auxiliaries. The Schuma were under the control of the police, who were responsible for the rear areas, which meant the SS. They worked closely with the Wehrmacht, which approved of the efficacy of their rough methods; I will document those separately directly.
It will not be for the fainthearted.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jun 4 2016 14:50 utc | 43

@42 The white-washing of the Crimean Tartars dovetails with the image of Stalin as monster. Clearly Stalin was a brutal man. It’s also clear the Crimean Tartars picked the wrong side.

Posted by: dh | Jun 4 2016 15:09 utc | 45

US Secy of Defense Ashton Carter seems intent on making the dispute over tiny Scarborough Shoal very hot, soon. He even kind of attacked Trump in his Singapore speech:

In an apparent counter to “America-first” policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement.

Posted by: fairleft | Jun 4 2016 16:10 utc | 47

Oh that was ugly. Kiev-authorized Mejilis. Always preview….

Posted by: rufus magister | Jun 4 2016 16:23 utc | 49

@48 And Kiev was the capital of the Kievan-Russ.

Posted by: dh | Jun 4 2016 16:43 utc | 51

I am generally opposed to mass immigration, so I’m not specifically condemning the Dalai Lama’s comments on that, but I think he needs to be viewed as a political figure who has been quite skillful at presenting his image to the west in whatever form is most palatable.
See also this Christian Parenti piece:
http://www.swans.com/library/art9/mparen01.html

Posted by: RudyM | Jun 4 2016 17:02 utc | 53

USS Harry S. Truman launches airstrikes against Islamic State from Mediterranean …
“The strike marks the first launched by the United States from the Mediterranean since Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, as Naval air strikes have typically been launched from carriers in the Persian Gulf.”
“Neither Russian nor Syrian officials were notified in advance of the strikes. The Truman and the rest of the fleet traveled through the Suez canal on Thursday.”
source – http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/06/04/USS-Harry-Truman-launches-airstrike-against-Islamic-State-from-the-Mediterranean-Sea/1351465039639/

Posted by: ALberto | Jun 4 2016 17:08 utc | 55

This whole book was quite interesting, but again, the subject matter is so esoteric (in every sense) that I can only really come to tentative views on what is discussed, without immersing myself into Buddhism and Tibetan history far more than I have any interest in doing:
http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm

Posted by: RudyM | Jun 4 2016 17:24 utc | 57

(I was drawn to Tibetan Buddhism in my teens (blame Allen Ginsberg, mostly), though my investigation didn’t go particularly deep, so I have a special interest in anti-apologetic material on that religion.)

Posted by: RudyM | Jun 4 2016 17:27 utc | 59

dh at 48-9
And a branch of the Kievan house of Rurik ruled as the Moscow prince and later Tsar until the late 1500’s.
Just another modern cult of personality. Let’s add The Donald to the list. “I know your anger, I know your dreams.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Jun 4 2016 17:40 utc | 61

the Dalai Lama – whom none of us knows as a person

So is there something wrong with passing judgment or even just forming opinions about a public figure?

Posted by: RudyM | Jun 4 2016 18:14 utc | 63

@61 I think a lot of Western thinking towards Tibet….and Buddhism in general has to do with a vague belief in some kind of Shangri-La where monks spin prayer wheels all day. Tibet was never that. In fact it seems to have been a rather nasty feudal state. Anybody who knows Thailand will tell you how materialistic Buddhists can be.
As you say in #51 the Dalai Lama is quite skillful at presenting his image to the West. Presumably he sees China as the biggest threat to Tibet’s cultural survival.

Posted by: dh | Jun 4 2016 18:32 utc | 65

I don’t think it’s possible to fix our problems, here on earth.
It was difficult to fix our problems when 3 billion short-sighted, self-centered humans populated the earth. With 7 billion short-sighted, self-centered humans, there’s “no freaking way”. Aldous Huxley anticipated this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=alasBxZsb40#t=69
Ali (implicitly, in the first half of this video) and Bill Burr both explain how little discretionary time people actually have to themselves (to do things like “think”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsDH9SXKZtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc3HiKQDPCQ#t=259
So, the odds are stacked against the masses digging out from the mountain of ignorance under which they exist. They’re destined to be led by whoever manipulates them most adroitly.
At one point, I considered “sea-steading”. But, setting aside all the technical issues, I doubt the world’s extortion rackets would let one apple cart remain independent. (Why isn’t the Melian Dialogue taught in K-12??) In short, there’s no “democratic” solution to be found here on earth.
So, shouldn’t us MoA-types devote our discretionary time to work on our own S.S. Botany Bay?
We better start construction soon:
“The Most IMPORTANT Video You’ll Ever See” — a class lecture
Part 1 of 8 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5iFESMAU58
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-13/early-death-assured-in-india-where-900-million-go-hungry.html

Posted by: dumbass | Jun 4 2016 18:43 utc | 67

Check out this graphic:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-04/visualizing-americas-dominance-military-spending
and notice that Australia, Japan, KSA, Israel, Colombia, and Korea aren’t but should be counted towards Oceania totals.

Posted by: dumbass | Jun 4 2016 19:10 utc | 69

I just finished skimming through Richard Charnin’s book Matrix of Deceit, about fraudulent elections in the U.S. and exit polling. One of Charnin’s most striking pieces of evidence that elections in the U.S. are fraudulent is this. Through 2008 exit pollsters always asked those they questioned who they had voted for in the previous presidential election. Exit pollsters have always adjusted their poll results with the reported results of elections by weighting some of the answers they get more heavily than others. In this way, a 52-48 result favoring Kerry in 2004 in the raw data can be adjusted to yield 52-48 in favor of Bush. But that means the results for the subsidiary questions they ask are also “adjusted”, on the assumption that certain segments of the population were more heavily represented in the population of actual voters than they were in the population of those who were polled. For the 2004 presidential election, this adjustment resulted in the extremely anomalous result that 110% of those who voted for Bush in the 2000 election also voted for him in 2004. This is doubly impossible, not only because it is more than 100%, but also because about 5% of the voters for Bush in 2000 would have died in the intervening four years. For earlier elections, there were similarly anomalous results, especially regarding the question on who they had voted for four years earlier.
So what did the pollsters do in response? They eliminated the question about who people had voted for four years earlier. And presumably the question will be missing from now on.

Posted by: lysias | Jun 4 2016 19:29 utc | 71

@70 juannie
Thanks for the links. I had read the Saker and Orlov pieces, but not Helmer yet, and I just did – great overview from him. Helmer spells it out: in Putin’s own warnings, the red line was crossed in 2014 in Ukraine, and the need for a defensive strike against the NATO missile emplacements in October has just now been announced, from Greece.
As Orlov, the Saker and others are saying, MAD – mutual assured destruction – has disappeared from the international consensus. The question now is what will it take to restore MAD? Will Russia’s defensive strikes escalate the truly mad in Washington, or will the balance of tensions be restored, to allow peace?
Suddenly I have an intimate sense of Putin’s visit to Athos. He went there to pray. To calm his soul before the coming challenges of real war. It will be a hot summer.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 4 2016 20:49 utc | 73

@46, noirette
Got the first and the last, the first is very educational, but the two in the middle are unreachable. Number two is adobe flash, and I just can’t have that on my machine, and number three just looks is just three red concentric circles on a black background surrounded by month names with a title invoking years, even after I enabled javascript. None of this is your fault, certainly, and the first one is very enlightening. So thanks!

Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2016 22:23 utc | 75

@46 noirette
The same data from your number three in a spiral, rather than flat, with its purplish bottom around a 1 degree C rise in global temperature in the 1850s and it’s rapidly widening yellow top in the 2000s, with 2016 looking to cross 1.5 degrees C. Now I can turn off the winking-blinking, driving-to-distraction animated gifs again 🙂 Thanks, again.

Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2016 23:01 utc | 77

…
The subterfuge of the covert machinery of the US has been astonishingly deft in its relationships with genuinely concerned and compassionate people. Color revolutions would not work if the agencies were not first able to come across as so damned kind and concerned – before they send the snipers in.
The balance to be amazed at, I suggest, is not in a putative mix of compassion and asshole in the Dalai Lama – whom none of us knows as a person, but apparently Tutu did and praised him as such – but in the balance of the CIA in fooling some of the most perceptive, if idealist, people of a nation, prior to unwrapping the Trojan horse and unleashing hell.
That’s a balance that still shocks me every day I contemplate it, and one that I’m still trying to understand.
Posted by: Grieved | Jun 4, 2016 1:36:51 PM | 60
Spot on!
The only thing missing is a reference to the likelihood that the CIA has also been tasked with responsibility for dumbing down ordinary AmeriKKKans and smearing and framing ‘undesirable’ AmeriKKKans. The Insular Idiocy & Ignorance of AmeriKKKans is appallingly neocon-ish. It would be interesting to discover what % of CIA employees harbor “Israeli” loyalties?
My guess would be many, many, many multiples of “fewer than 1%.”

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 4 2016 23:58 utc | 79

jfl,
I like your term “civil religions”. If only we could separate the useful myth from current reality.
I think the MoA commetariat is a bit optimistic to think that the world is waking up to the latest empire, and if awakened will do anything “intelligent” about care and feeding of the species.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 5 2016 0:21 utc | 81

I think the loyalty of the nihilist CIA ’employees’ is to The Company, exclusively. To the extent that they have any loyalty at all beyond that to ‘number one’.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4, 2016 8:08:34 PM | 80
Let’s not quibble over what name to give the phenomenon Grieved was contemplating.
My thesis is that there are entities in the US (and elsewhere in White World) whose job it is to make 99% of the people on the planet, who aren’t being treated like Palestinians right now, to nevertheless FEEL like Palestinians (insignificant and powerless). French Citizens seem to be saying Enough Is Enough.
French Revolution 2.0 (if it gets off the ground – which it seems to be doing) will, like Revolution 1.0, be against Enemies of The People – and will spread beyond France if it is successful.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 5 2016 1:37 utc | 83

Hoarsewhisperer & jfl
While the French revolution 2.0 may spread to some other countries, American have been inculcated to do the opposite of the French…i.e. Freedom Fries Not that I wouldn’t like to see some life from the American disadvantaged.
What would French Revolution 2.0 do with private finance? That is my qualifier of support for any movement.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 5 2016 1:57 utc | 85

Californian please read – No Party Preference (NNP) Voter Option
If you are registered No Party Preference (NNP) on June 6th make sure you get Democratic Crossover ballot from poll workers, otherwise your vote will be place on provisional ballot and will not be counted.
Newly-trained California poll worker speaks out about how she was trained to suppress “No Party Preference” (NPP) voters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o800P2MyWSw&feature=youtu.be
http://www.acgov.org/rov/crossoverfaq.htm
Thanks

Posted by: Jack Smith | Jun 5 2016 9:11 utc | 87

@ Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 5, 2016 7:14:42 AM | 88
These brainless Duhmerican twits seem driven to self nominate for the aforementioned awards. No challenge is beneath their competitive drive to dominate any endeavour no matter how revealing of their character it may be.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jun 5 2016 11:29 utc | 89

Another serious question needing asking is: If there was anything remarkable in that space between Canada America and Mexico America, why is most of it considered fly-over territory?

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jun 5 2016 11:40 utc | 91

I had seen several of William R Polk’s articles on the Middle East previously, linked to from consortiumnews.com, and was impressed by the man’s knowledge of the area. He was associated with – worked in – the Kennedy administration, and left at the beginning of Johnson’s after Kennedy’s murder. He is a ‘Camelot’ partisan, but he is also a very well-informed man. I just finished Understanding IRAN, having read Understanding IRAQ a week or two ago. He does focus the ‘blame’ on Republicrats and skip over Demoblicans’ but his distortions are fairly transparent, easily seen through, and he delivers plenty of facts. A footnote from Chapter Four, FROM POLITICAL REVOLUTION THROUGH SOCIAL REVOLUTION TO VIOLENT REVOLUTION :

[43] Corruption was on a monumental scale. The Shah used the Pahlavi Foundation as a funnel through which funds provided by various government departments were passed to family members, selected government officials, and even American officials. As Fred J. Cook documented (“The Billion-Dollar Mystery,” The Nation [April 12, 1965]), on the basis of court and bank records and both Senate and congressional committee hearings, in the one year of 1962,
  “some $159 million in American aid funds and Iran oil royalties (those royalties supposed to have been used to supplement American aid) had been deposited in the numbered bank account of the Pahlavi Foundation in Switzerland.”
Not only Iranians were beneficiaries. Mr. Cook lists American officials and prominent Americans whose favor was thought to be valuable who received checks from the foundation for $1 million each. He also furnishes a copy of the Union de Banques Suisses statement for the Pahlavi Foundation that lists Loy Henderson (American ambassador to Iran during the coup against Mossadegh), Selden Chapin (Henderson’s successor as ambassador from 1954 to 1958), and George V. Allen (who was Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East at the same time). Each is listed as having received $1 million.

Not unlike the Israeli laundering of US ‘foreign aid’ funds, before it is returned to Americans in Congress and elsewhere ‘whose favor is thought to be valuable’. No pretense of ‘campaign contributions’ in the good ole days. US Ambassadors on the take. $1 million 1962 ~ $8 million 2016. The two books are quite an education on the Middle East, at least for this ignorant American.
There’s much more of value in the text itself, a very good socio-historical treatment of each country before the death and devastation, destruction and deceit dished out primarily by the Bush regime. The books were written in 2005 (Iraq) and 2009 (Iran) respectively, before the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate showed us all the DDD&D that he was/is capable of.

Posted by: jfl | Jun 5 2016 13:48 utc | 93

62;No,intrigant is in the Merriam Webster college Dictionary;those who intrigue.
Ding;I finally figured out TPP.
Cohen at the lying times says we must pass it to hurt China.
So its really to make our goods produced in other third world nations,as China is now the first world nation,an unseen event from neolibcon morons.
Capcom scares the shite out of them.

Posted by: dahoit | Jun 5 2016 14:23 utc | 95

Open thread;No mention of no political views?
As the upcoming US election might be the most important re the world and the future going,why the hostility?
I guess Australian politics are so bad they aren’t worth mentioning?

Posted by: dahoit | Jun 5 2016 14:35 utc | 97

French Revolution 2.0, if it gets off the ground – Hoarse.
I doubt it. Not this time round anyway. Because:
1) The F opposition is divided.
a) One part is very like Occupy in the US – Nuit Debout. Young people, students, intellectuals, discussions about all and everything, etc.
b) Labor (Unions etc.) with ‘actions’, strikes and so on.
c) The National Front, which, while making some OK statements, has not taken sides, or recommended anything. They are right-wing after all and can’t possibly hold hands with Unions or the “radical Socialists” who are feebly, and probably falsely, against Hollande, as the FN condemns the whole lot of them.
d) Marginal pols/parties that are completely excluded from public space. For. ex. Asselineau, Popular Republican Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Asselineau
e) Last is a motley crew, potentially quite powerful, but vilified and hounded: followers of the likes of Alain Soral and Dieudonné, both of whom are repressed viciously with court-cases, fines, worse, etc. They in a sense ‘represent’ part of the under-class (…> colonialism), and from the Soral side with a strong ‘reconcilation’ message. But they have no political structure in place. They are branded anti-Semites, conspiracy theorists, a danger to society, nutters who aren’t respectable, terrorist apologists, supporting Islam, etc.
None of these factions are talking to each other.
2) Similar opposition has been frequent, and each time the Gvmt. ‘makes some concessions’, crushes the oppo’ and year by year neo-liberal economic policies gain apace.
3) The media are Gvmt./ Oligarch / Bankster owned and are now denoucing anybody who prevents France from becoming ‘modern’, hindering ‘trade’, ‘advancement’, etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Jun 5 2016 14:59 utc | 99