World Politics

[blutto]

They speaking russian and in russian "work" is "rabota", "to work" is "rabotat".

Btw, though I am not fluent in russian, I understand and speak it pretty well.

Once again, get your facts right, before you post BS.

[/QUOTE]

....so...you are not fluent in Russian....but....but...you understand and speak it pretty well....that right there is a fine example of the thinking that underscores your posting here....some people would say your posts are profoundly feckless and a colossal waste of precious bandwidth, me, I think its a wonderful insight into the mind of a supporter of the glorious revolution...

...keep up the good work, I, for one, really appreciate your comments....very valuable in defining the contrast state for the Ukrainian situation...

Cheers

 

[python]

the ultimatum to the eastern anti-maidan ukrainians who occupied local administrative buildings has passed. the protesters are still inside and the promised assault on them has not been carried out yet...

curious, i checked my ipod's rss feeds...nothing in english, french, german or any major European language. then, i checked my email. a friend sent me an article from a ukrainian anti-russian portal (from-ua).

the article said that an elite police unit alfa has refused to follow its orders from kiev referring to the fact that their mission is to free hostages and fight terrorists rather than their own protesting compatriots.

according to the article. the first assistant to ukraine's prime-minister (yarema) became livid, called them traitors, expelled the officers from the meeting and promised severe punishment.

this news/information appears solid as there is a confirmed report from today's session of parliament and the fact confirmed by a parliament deputy (anna herman)

in another piece of related major news, the interim prime-minister (Yastenuk) appeared making the 1st conciliatory gestures towards the pro-russian protester in the east. he said something like the new constitution may contain previsions about local referendums...

all that ^^, imo, was positive, a sensible alternative to a disastrous civil war no one can win.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

...find below an article that comments on some of the more recent after-effects of the glorious revolution...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/pro-moscow-protesters-declare-republic-kiev-fears-invasion-005052585.html

...my favourite line...

" The White House warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against moving "overtly or covertly" into eastern Ukraine and said there was strong evidence that pro-Russian demonstrators in the region were being paid."

...frankly, given the performance of the While House in other recent pushes to promote democracy, would love to see some proof beyond a vague innuendo...and then maybe a compare and contrast with the $5 bil the US of A spent promoting democracy in The Ukraine....because from a very quick look this looks a big pile of hypocrisy....

Cheers

Where is Europe?? It's in their backyard, not the US.

Look at a map...why aren't the countries bordering this region massing their own forces on their own border? Where is Germany, France, their silence is deafening.

 

[blutto]

Where is Europe?? It's in their backyard, not the US.

Look at a map...why aren't the countries bordering this region massing their own forces on their own border? Where is Germany, France, their silence is deafening.

....yup, deafening it is....find below an article that maps out some of the parameters that are defining this particular case of deafening....

...the article is entitled...( and it speaks volumes )...

"US finding reluctance among major economic powers for tougher sanctions on Russia over Ukraine"

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-finding-reluctance-among-major-economic-powers-tougher-082254688.html

Cheers

 

[blutto]

Another example of Russian propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_hwHiLiOvY

One and the same person is used in different Russian TV stations in different roles. In first station he is presneted as part of right-wing Maidan fighter (trained in Germany, as he claims). In another TV station he is already separatist and victim of right-wing violence.

...ever seen Wag the Dog ?....great comedic primer that helps one to decipher the "news"....if you haven't seen it yet would strongly urge you to seek it out as it may open your eyes to something that the rest of us see as obvious as the day is long ( its called interpreting information...like Who says What about Whom and Why....often referred to as the 4Ws...)...

...hope that helps...

Cheers

 

[RetroActive]

New Cover-up in Boston Bombing Saga—Blaming Moscow
http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/04/10/new-cover-boston-bombing-saga-blaming-moscow/

 

[RetroActive]

CIA’s use of harsh interrogation went beyond legal authority, Senate report says
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/04/11/224085/cias-use-of-harsh-interrogation.html

...from the way back machine
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2009/02/09/35952/mohamed-torture-uk-us/

 

[RetroActive]

Riots In Spain
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=762_1397160302

 

[RetroActive]

Chief Economist Of Central Banks' Central Bank: "It's Extremely Dangerous... I See Speculative Bubbles Like In 2007"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-11/bis-ex-chief-economist-i-see-speculative-bubbles-2007

 

[Ferminal]

What a genius.

 

[RetroActive]

What a genius.

Amazing what retirement does for the IQ.

 

[python]

Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in eastern Ukraine
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/404675/pro-russian-gunmen-seize-more-buildings-in-east-ukraine

A few dozen anti-riot police who arrived at the scene were instead seen sporting orange and black ribbons symbolising support for Russian rule -- a vivid sign of Kiev's slipping hold on Ukraine's eastern rust belt.

so far, everything seems a mirror image of the pro-eu protests in the ukrainian capital several weeks ago but on a smaller scale...

-daily protests in central squares
-armed capture of administrative building
-armed patrols by masked men

here's what seems different:

a. no shooting and killings yet
b. while negotiating, the authorities do not yield ANY ground
c. the slogans are different...in kiev it was about pro-eu, in the east it is about local referendums, russian traditions and rejection of rulers sent from kiev.
d. overt and covert sponsors are different...in kiev it was the european and american diplomats PUBLICLY whipping up protests in person on the streets (in addition to suspected covert operations, training etc)... in the east, no one has seen the russian politicians on the streets yet, but every western observer 100% sure the kgb is hard at work...
e. harsher treatment of western journalists, some violence was reported.

the ominous dreadful sign, though, is that while still smaller in scale and in the face of multiple arrests of their leaders the uprising is growing in intensity and scale. that the police weapons being the prime target points to an armed conflict likely to break out soon.

 

[RetroActive]

U.S. Threatens Russia with Sanctions Over Oil Deal with Iran
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/179516#.U0l5EqL68-A

RussiaRussia Does Not Acknowledge US Sanctions Against Iran – Russian Finance Minister
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140411/18...ledge-US-Sanctions-Against-Iran--Russian.html

Welcome to the future.

 

[blutto]

...so here is a glimpse behind the curtain of the magical democratic paradise the US of A is so kindly inviting The Ukraine into....

" Thank the assiduous brilliance of Reuters’ star columnist Felix Salmon for tearing away the phony artifice of the coziness between Wall Street regulators and Wall Street. In today’s offering Salmon blew me away with his exclusive discovery that the SEC secretly promised Goldman Sachs NOT to prosecute any other notorious ripoffs of the innocent investor in mortgage back securities other than Abacus, the heretofore biggest Goldman black eye coming out of the melt-up before the meltdown. I have to admit the clever Salmon is a must-read every morning at 4:45 AM when his blog is sent about, for he is deft at getting beneath the surface of the financial culture and letting its denizens, including the financial media, get their just desserts. Salmon has a superior supply of word daggers.

The SEC took Goldman’s offer of a $550 million fine to cover its sins in the Abacus public offering, which dumped lousy mortgage-backed securities on an unsuspecting public and promised the public that the settlement did not exclude the agency from pursuing fines on other smell-like garbage deals like Hudson and others where Goldman was going mainly short but wanting its public clients to go long the same securities it was shorting. Yet, the SEC quietly told Goldman it was taking the Abacus fine as recompense for all of its sins, a hell of a fine day of fixing the government.

It beggars belief that it took a Freedom of Information Act request to dig up this rotten little arrangement from the recent past. Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda. It is a stark reminder of the message that the US is “driven by such a critical symbiotic and costly relationship “between Wall Street and official Washington,” as Nomi Prins underscores in her new book, All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power.

She writes compellingly: “The most elite U.S. bankers and government officials understand that their positions are mutually reinforcing…the U.S. bank heads retain more influence over global capital than any government, and their unique alignment with the presidency is a force that will fortify America’s power…Our choice is simple: either we break the alliances, or they will break us.” There is simply no counterbalance to the secret accommodation that goes on every day between the bigwigs of Wall Street and the powers that be in Washington. More Freedom of Information Act investigations please.

Simply stated, we are living under false posturing about the “pretense of financial reform instead of pushing for real reform… Bankers dominate the globe using other people’s money, and presidents gain command through other people’s votes.” This the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of how the nation runs at the top of its power structure. "


http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertl...n-sachs-secret-deal-with-sec-beggared-belief/

Cheers

 

[python]

am i fascinated by the ukrainian crisis ? you bet, i am.

believe it or not, my interest is not cultural, partisan or ideological - i never was to russia or ukraine, dont plan to visit and dont care about any political party .

i am primarily driven by the game/chess aspect and my deep-seated distrust of the arrogant american foreign policy...

...so, in the ukrainian chess game today there were some new significant moves played....

for starters, lets recall (i posted about that) a week ago, there was an urgent meeting in paris between lavrov and kerry. that meeting was prompted by the putin call to obama reversing kerry's flight home in mid air...

what was the urgency?

apparently, having now at least 7 days of hectic development helping our hindsight, it was about a meeting moscow was proposing, in fact, moscow was insisting on ...how did washington interpret it ?

true to their typical arrogant assumptions, washington interpreted it as moscow's display of weakness under the west's pressure and obama bombastically announced a new potential set of sanction if russia misbehaved...completely forgetting putin's record, words and deeds when emptily intimidated...

the long story short : russia was proposing a 4-party diplomatic meeting in geneva (the eu, ukraine, russia and the us) while concentrating its troops on ukraine's borders, sparking unrest in eastern ukraine and putting more pressure on the putsch govt (via raising natural gas price and putin's letter to the 18 gasprom's euro clients about threats to their supply via ukrainia pipes).

what transpired today, at least imo, was a thoughtful, almost brilliant moscow game-plan vs. a listless, disjoint, forced-upon-them eu and american responses .

specifically, today moscow warned that the 4-party geneva meeting (the eu is desperate to have given the shutdown of gas to 18 countries) 'was in dager' IF ukraine resorts to force against the demonstrations (they orchestrated ) and IF the pro-russian 'representatives of the will of eastern ukrainians' (they appointed) are not included in the meeting participants...

say what you want, while it is far from clear moscow is winning, they certainly play the complex military-diplomatic chess while the us keeps issuing primitive, bombastic sanctions threats forced to follow moscow's game...

haven't we seen it already in Syria's chemical weapons chess game

 

[blutto]

What a nonsense.
By Ukrainian constitution, there is one official state language - ukranian. Article 10 "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language."
But also in same Article 10 " In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed."

In 2012 law was passed about regional languages, by this law russian language indeed got regional language status in some regions (though ukrainian was of course still official state language in these regions). In 2014 this law was repelled, but acting president vetoed it.

So, thats the situation. Official law is ukrainian. Russian is protected by constitution. Nobody has changed constitution. Political dispute goes only over this regional language law.

To say that use of Russian was outlawed is also absurd considering that Russian language is native language for many politician currently in power. For instance several cabinet members are native russian speakers.

So, get your facts right before you post BS.

....find below another comment on the situation that you are talking about...this from a rather esteemed academic who has recently been in the vicinity and apparently has some first hand experience with the issues ( of course not the brilliant insight you bring to the table but it could be seen by some here as valuable )...btw there are some "typos" in the quoted passage as this is a transcript of an interview but the general point should be easily understood...

".....of what you have, and we want you now to--we're going to encircle Russia. We want you to make a very anti-Russian move. We want you to do--essentially ban the Russian language from use as in Latvia.

Now, imagine Canada banning the use of French. You'd have Montreal and Quebec seceding and joining the United States. Imagine New York City and America banning the use of Spanish. What people don't realize in the press is that this banning of Russian has already been promoted in the Baltics. When I taught in Latvia, for instance, I wanted to invite a Russian economist to lecture at the Riga Graduate School of Law, where I taught, and at the Stockholm School of Law in Riga. I was told by the rector that there was a law in Latvia making it illegal to give any class or a lecture in Russian in any public university and that he and I can be put under arrest for even speaking Russian there. So the result is I had to go to one of the Russian non-public universities to have my friend come.So you've already had this anti-Russian move in other post-Soviet countries.

And the Russian population there sort of accommodated themselves to it. They're not allowed to vote. There's--they're apartheid states. The Ukrainian leaders have been told by Europe, we want another apartheid state."

....from... http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017186553

...the whole piece is worth reading btw...definitely not some finely filtered fodder for the believers of the white hat black narrative but does bring valuable information to the fore...

Cheers

 

[aphronesis]

....find below another comment on the situation that you are talking about...this from a rather esteemed academic who has recently been in the vicinity and apparently has some first hand experience with the issues ( of course not the brilliant insight you bring to the table but it could be seen by some here as valuable )...btw there are some "typos" in the quoted passage as this is a transcript of an interview but the general point should be easily understood...

"of what you have, and we want you now to--we're going to encircle Russia. We want you to make a very anti-Russian move. We want you to do--essentially ban the Russian language from use as in Latvia.

Now, imagine Canada banning the use of French. You'd have Montreal and Quebec seceding and joining the United States. Imagine New York City and America banning the use of Spanish. What people don't realize in the press is that this banning of Russian has already been promoted in the Baltics. When I taught in Latvia, for instance, I wanted to invite a Russian economist to lecture at the Riga Graduate School of Law, where I taught, and at the Stockholm School of Law in Riga. I was told by the rector that there was a law in Latvia making it illegal to give any class or a lecture in Russian in any public university and that he and I can be put under arrest for even speaking Russian there. So the result is I had to go to one of the Russian non-public universities to have my friend come.So you've already had this anti-Russian move in other post-Soviet countries.

And the Russian population there sort of accommodated themselves to it. They're not allowed to vote. There's--they're apartheid states. The Ukrainian leaders have been told by Europe, we want another apartheid state."

....from... http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017186553

...the whole piece is worth reading btw...

Cheers

You omitted the crucial part of the article:

"The financial grab for Ukraine's industries is simply war by another name, as other Eastern European countries have experienced a similar fate"

Here's the relevant text

http://rebels-library.org/files/foucault_society_must_be_defended.pdf

But no one really cares anymore because it doesn't affect them directly. Better to sit on the sidelines and follow the plays in four or five languages.

Like a football game. Yee haw.

 

[blutto]

...well, the shooting has started in eastern Ukraine....here is a report from one of the major media outlets....be interesting to find out what actually happened because a report on CBC radio this morning, while reporting the official account, also reported that eye-witnesses had stories that were diametrically opposite to the official reports....a false flag?....whose false flag?...were American or other mercs involved?....were Russian troops involved?...does anyone actually have a plan or is it just the brain-dead fascist element raising $hyte hoping good things will magically happen...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-special-forces-sent-eastern-city-retake-buildings-082049113.html

Cheers

 

[blutto]

You omitted the crucial part of the article:

...nah, didn't omit it, just didn't include it, though I thought I covered that by urging a reading of the whole article which is very valuable thru and thru...could have included everything....

...ok my nit-picky moment has been drowned in warm tea and apple pie and life is better again...so whatcha think of the official beginnings of hostilities?...

Cheers

 

[aphronesis]

...nah, didn't omit it, just didn't include it, though I thought I covered that by urging a reading of the whole article which is very valuable thru and thru...could have included everything....

...ok my nit-picky moment has been drowned in warm tea and apple pie and life is better again...so whatcha think of the official beginnings of hostilities?...

Cheers

I'm running out the door, but I think they're small fires and not much more. Expect a lot of the same in coming years. Fungible is the watchword of the day.

 

[python]

for those following the dramatic escalation in ukraine, it could be helpful to get some perspective of the scale and economic impact of armed resistance (contrary to peaceful demonstrations taking place daily all over south-east ukraine)

at the moment, the ukrainian region that is most on fire is donetsk region... in it , there are almost a dozen localities, including the 1-million-inhabitants city of donetsk itself, the capital of the region, where the administrative buildings are under the firm control of armed resistance.

the region of donetsk is very special not so much because it is russian- speaking, but because it is the richest and most industrialized in ukraine.

while a home to only about 10% of ukrainian population (appr 4.5 million), it produces 25% of the countries gdp.

this crucial fact, one of the key reasons the locals DEMAND more self-rule and their voice in electing their own rulers, is absolutely and totally ignored by the glorious media calling itself 'free and democratic'.

yes, the demonstrations have a strong cultural component. but people are as worried about what may happen to their jobs and livelihood (currently geared to exports to russia ) if the eu laws and the imf demands get suddenly imposed without the proper transition period or social guarantees.

as always, economy stupid...

 

[Von Mises]

-daily protests in central squares
-armed capture of administrative building
-armed patrols by masked men

here's what seems different:

a. no shooting and killings yet
b. while negotiating, the authorities do not yield ANY ground
c. the slogans are different...in kiev it was about pro-eu, in the east it is about local referendums, russian traditions and rejection of rulers sent from kiev.
d. overt and covert sponsors are different...in kiev it was the european and american diplomats PUBLICLY whipping up protests in person on the streets (in addition to suspected covert operations, training etc)... in the east, no one has seen the russian politicians on the streets yet, but every western observer 100% sure the kgb is hard at work...
e. harsher treatment of western journalists, some violence was reported.

the ominous dreadful sign, though, is that while still smaller in scale and in the face of multiple arrests of their leaders the uprising is growing in intensity and scale. that the police weapons being the prime target points to an armed conflict likely to break out soon.

You once again forget one difference. In Kiev protesters were armed with sticks and stones. In Crimes and now in Donetsk, Slavjanks etc they are armed with assault rifles, wearing equipment, helmets, body armour, vest, gear, what is otherwise used by russian military.

 

[python]

i just watched the france24 news report...and could not quite believe my ears at how the coverage tone changed !

...i flipped the remote back and forth - no it was not a wooden russia today propaganda, indeed, it was a LIVE frence24 correspondent standing outside a police office in a donetsk region surrounded with peaceful protesters and some civilians in the background .

he said, there were no signs of any military operation since the govt ultimatum passed. everything was peaceful. he struck a conversation with a policeman nearby who told him, 'we are not in kiev, people here dont want any violence'. the correspondent then said, that the feeling he got was that if ordered to assault the protesters, the local policemen are likely not to follow the orders, rather to join the protesters as they did in other local towns... he then said, the central govt was quickly losing any support here, if it ever had any, because they do not feel that govt was legal....

there i heard it, and could not resist posting it. hopefully, this gets reflected in the official position shift of the french govt.

one important piece of news they did not report yet - it was repeated by several official ukrainian and russian sources - the decision to use force against the protesters came right after the head of cia secretly visited kiev and blessed it. lavrov personally repeated the allegation this morning as a fact he can stand by.

where do we go from here ?

this amateur strategist believes that if there will be further idiotic 'zero tolerance' from the putschists and no accommodation from the west regarding the local referendums, the next eruption of armed raids will take place in odessa and cherson. the 2 southern cities strategically close to already russian crimea and the isolated russian transnistria.

 

[Von Mises]

the decision to use force against the protesters came right after the head of cia secretly visited kiev and blessed it. lavrov personally repeated the allegation this morning as a fact he can stand by.

where do we go from here ?

Is this the same Lavrov who denied (and still denies) any Russian troop involvment in Crimea?

 

[python]

i just watched the france24 news report...and could not quite believe my ears at how the coverage tone changed !

...i flipped the remote back and forth - no it was not a wooden russia today propaganda, indeed, it was a LIVE frence24 correspondent standing outside a police office in a donetsk region surrounded with peaceful protesters and some civilians in the background .

he said, there were no signs of any military operation since the govt ultimatum passed. everything was peaceful. he struck a conversation with a policeman nearby who told him, 'we are not in kiev, people here dont want any violence'. the correspondent then said, that the feeling he got was that if ordered to assault the protesters, the local policemen are likely not to follow the orders, rather to join the protesters as they did in other local towns... he then said, the central govt was quickly losing any support here, if it ever had any, because they do not feel that govt was legal....

there i heard it, and could not resist posting it. hopefully, this gets reflected in the official position shift of the french govt.

one important piece of news they did not report yet - it was repeated by several official ukrainian and russian sources - the decision to use force against the protesters came right after the head of cia secretly visited kiev and blessed it. lavrov personally repeated the allegation this morning as a fact he can stand by.

where do we go from here ?

this amateur strategist believes that if there will be further idiotic 'zero tolerance' from the putschists and no accommodation from the west regarding the local referendums, the next eruption of armed raids will take place in odessa and cherson. the 2 southern cities strategically close to already russian crimea and the isolated russian transnistria.

forgive me quoting myself, but i just gave a listen to the same france 24 channel - absolutely clearly the same report, except the correspondent said he spoke to 4 local policemen. absolutely the same impression - they are with the locals, with the protesters against the kiev putsch govt.

perhaps the french correspondent is the paid kgb agent...anyone wishing to check on their own, his name (if i heard it right and did not misspell) oliver craig (?)