Today there is a news scoop on that topic.
The Georgian Connection
The same story from somebody else.
What we already know:
THE 'ROYAL' CANADIAN.....the ravings of somebody who's been out in the 'Big White' too long.
Showing posts with label Ukraine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ukraine. Show all posts
Friday, November 17, 2017
The Maidan Snipers : a smoking gun.
One of the things that has yet to happen in the new, rebutylhydrated EUkraine is the trial of some Berkut riot police accused of 'inhumanity' on the Maidan and indirectly blamed, by the current government, with killing Maidan protesters. The most notable incident of the killing as video recorded for posterity - the Maidan 'snipers' who changed a protest into a coup.
Today there is a news scoop on that topic.
The Georgian Connection
The same story from somebody else.
What we already know:
Today there is a news scoop on that topic.
The Georgian Connection
The same story from somebody else.
What we already know:
Monday, September 25, 2017
Canada and Ukraine
UPDATE: Another Ukrainian arms dump goes 'kablooie'! A day after somebody tried to assassinate a 'dissident' leader in Donetsk. Co-inky-dink? Who knows? Canada better 'pitter-patter' on their free 'bang-bang!
This past weekend after a meeting with Poroshenko the ("peace") President of Ukraine, Canada's Justin Trudeau announced that his government was giving the green light for the export of restricted weapons to that benighted land.
This in counterpoint to the US announcement that it would not be arming the Ukraine.
A decent overview of the Canada-Ukraine relationship was written by Jim Miles for Global Research
Global Research Site
Here's his article:
"“We continue to stand with Ukraine against the illegal illegitimate incursion of Russia into Ukrainian territorial sovereignty and their attempts to destabilize Ukraine economically and many other ways,” Trudeau said. CBC, September 22, 2017.
This past weekend after a meeting with Poroshenko the ("peace") President of Ukraine, Canada's Justin Trudeau announced that his government was giving the green light for the export of restricted weapons to that benighted land.
This in counterpoint to the US announcement that it would not be arming the Ukraine.
A decent overview of the Canada-Ukraine relationship was written by Jim Miles for Global Research
Global Research Site
Here's his article:
Poroshenko and Trudeau: Canada’s Ukrainian Attitude
"“We continue to stand with Ukraine against the illegal illegitimate incursion of Russia into Ukrainian territorial sovereignty and their attempts to destabilize Ukraine economically and many other ways,” Trudeau said. CBC, September 22, 2017.
Donbass
The Canadian government operates under as many double standards as that of the U.S. and its other NATO allies. Russia did not invade Donbass, but more than likely supplied the rebel defenders with equipment, (much as the U.S. does globally). And what were they rebelling against, you dare not ask?
Well, they rebelled against the U.S. covert actions against the democratically elected government of Yanukovich, not wanting the newly installed neonazi Maidan strongmen (e.g. Arseniy Yatsenyuk) to control their region of the country. Further, the same bunch also used language that indicated they wished for ethnic cleansing and even genocide – Yulia Tymoshenko, the new revived darling of the western backed government, called for their complete destruction. The criminal Saakashvili (wanted for crimes in Georgia, his home state) is attempting to do something now that he has returned to Cherkasy in the geographical centre of Ukraine, another CIA sponsored overthrow of their first internationally illegal operation?
The Minsk agreement is an agreement signed between Donetsk-Luhansk on one side and Ukraine on the other, with France and Germany as co-signees – not the Russians. The agreement calls for unconditional ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line, release of prisoners of war, and constitutional reform in Ukraine. All of these are dependent on the Ukraine government in Kiev to act upon (not Russia) and they have not acted on any of them.
Heavy weapons have not been withdrawn and continue to fire daily and nightly from the front line into the Donbass region, mostly at civilian targets. Some prisoners were exchanged, but many from the Minsk side were simply civilians rounded up to use as ‘trade’. There has been no constitutional reform from the Ukrainian Rada.
The current desire to place peacekeepers inside Donbass is a non-starter for Donbass residents who have suffered under continual artillery fire since the Minsk agreement was signed. If the peacekeepers were on the ceasefire line, that might be acceptable, but for Poroshenko that obviously recognizes that the real problem is internal rather than with Russia.
Canada’s integrity
So where else is Canada concerned about territorial integrity? Hmmm, perhaps Syria, with its support for U.S. actions against Assad – nominally against terrorism, but the intelligent broad reader would know that the real target is Assad astride a critical oil route (as well as having ongoing troubles with Israel, the country that illegally annexed the Golan Heights, an action that the Canadian government never criticizes.)
Or perhaps Libya? Canada was one of the lead brave bombers that destroyed that country, aggravating the ISIS terror nexus, aggravating the immigrant problem to the EU, once again supporting U.S. international criminal actions under the false accusation of genocide (there wasn’t any, Gaddafi was fighting against ISIS affiliates in his eastern provinces).
Or maybe Yugoslavia/Serbia, where once again the brave Canadian bombers destroyed civilian infrastructure and more in order to carve apart another country that did not fit the U.S. definition of what a country should be – that is, subservient to the U.S., as Canada is.
Crimea
Trudeau and cohorts would of course cry out that Crimea is an obvious illegal international intervention. But consider….Crimea had always wanted independence from Ukraine ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. Twice they voted for it, twice they were denied it by Ukraine, and Russia at that time was to weak to do anything to assist them (remember originally Crimea had been ‘gifted’ to Ukraine by Khrushchev).
When the U.S./Yatsenyuk team overthrew the duly elected (if corrupt) government, the Russian forces already in Crimea blocked any attempts of the Ukraine towards violent actions such as happened at the Maidan, in Odessa, and in Donbass. Really they should be thanked for the prevention of another area with a large loss of life due to U.S. imperial desires (sort of like they should be thanked for destroying most of ISIS in Syria, you know, the Saudi backed group the U.S. covertly supports).
It also became known that U.S. warships were bound for the Crimean port of Sevastopol, an action prevented by the quick move of the Russian forces stationed there. What would have happened if the U.S. had arrived first, once again violating an international boundary – well of course, the sycophantic Canadian government would have lauded the action, while the Ukrainian forces rampaged against all things Russian in Crimea – which is most of it.
Following that a referendum was held to know if the people wished to join with Russia. The vast majority said yes, not at gunpoint as the western MSM wished to argue, and the Russian Duma accepted the request. Peaceful, no lives lost, and Crimea is better off than the rest of Ukraine and the Donbass.
Trudeau can lament that all he wants, there is no way Crimea will voluntarily return to Ukraine. But as long as the U.S. wants it, so long as the domestic Ukrainian lobby wants it, so the lament will continue.
Economic destabilizing
If the actions of the countries involved are looked at closely, the main economic destabilizing factor for Ukraine has been its own actions. It was Ukraine that blocked coal shipments from Donbsas. It was Ukraine that stopped the farmers and citizens of Kherson from trading with Crimea. It was Ukraine that knocked down power lines to Crimea, and cut of water to Crimea as well as parts of Donbass. It is Ukraine that continues to shell civilian structures in Donbass (water pumping stations, power stations, railways, schools, hospitals et al) causing serious economic damage to that region. Donbass has not responded in kind, and has withdrawn its heavy weapons from the contact line.
Ukraine itself has devolved into familiarity, with various oligarchs controlling the political, industrial, and financial actions both domestically and internationally that have ruined much of what little the Ukrainian people had. Factories are closing (lack of coal, lack of orders, for the latter a significant part being industries that used to sell equipment to Russia). The war effort of Kiev against Donbass is itself a costly affair, both in human lives and in economic losses to the economy.
Canada’s Ukrainian attitude
Canada’s Ukrainian attitude – that is its anti-Russian attitude – is a combination of both domestic politics as well as its subservient role to U.S. interests via NATO. The ultimate U.S. goal is to deconstruct if not destroy Russia, to make it part of the U.S. empire as it tries for global hegemony. Unfortunately for the world it is that very U.S. imperial desire that has wreaked havoc across many countries on all continents of the world.
Personally, I support the actions of Russia in Syria, an area where they are operating within international law, as opposed to the U.S., Canada and all the other uninvited nations fighting – theoretically – against terrorism. Given the global method that the U.S. uses to destabilize nations – through economics (sanctions, embargoes et al) combined with covert military means that frequently become overt military means – I support the growing positive relations between Russia and China and their efforts at building infrastructure and economic relationships across Eurasia (and Africa and Latin America), without using the military.
That of course is another reason for Ukraine being used as it is – to keep Eurasia from developing independence from the U.S. economic system and the reserve currency status of the US$. With Ukraine as another puppet U.S./EU/NATO government, it will be easier to try and block the Chinese BRI (Belt and Road Initiative). That then spreads globally to U.S. actions in Syria, Iran and anywhere else in the Greater Middle East where Canada plays its supporting role in all things imperial. After all it’s only natural – the U.S. and Canada are children of the once greatest colonial-settler imperial nation in the world, the U.K.
In short then, Canada’s Ukrainian attitude is supported by its internal Ukrainian cohort and more broadly by its warmongering imperial backing of U.S. adventurism to capture…well, the world.
Featured image is from Radio Canada International.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Jim Miles, Global Research, 2017
For all his 'evil stupidity Muammar Ghaddafi had Ukraine all figured out years ago. He was right, it did have serious implications.
For all his 'evil stupidity Muammar Ghaddafi had Ukraine all figured out years ago. He was right, it did have serious implications.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Shut 'Em Down!
In these days of false news and the growing focus on mobilizing 'the grass roots' to do your revolutions, or demand 'justis', or lock somebody up, is it much of a surprise when some governments that really can't stand much heat, or dissident viewpoints, enlist the help of the grassroots to shut down 'propaganda'? Rather than trying to cope with it?
In Canada the former government - through its self-defined 'grass roots' mandate - took it into mind to have a good look at registered charities. As a result of which a number of charities that had objectives 'at odds' with government policies, found themselves un-registered or investigated by the tax department or both. It had a chilling effect on donations and doing much to help, except for 'big charity', or - even better - political parties.
So it's not much of a surprise to see this to-day
BBC News lambastes 'war via charity'.
Of course the BBC has less to do with this than Sam Bright, another freelance journalist who thinks he's found something that Kyiv already knows, and through him, the 'revolutionary government of dignity' that unseated the last lot. Not only have they been running a fruitless little ATO (anti-terror Operation) in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, they have also been somewhat peeved by a couple of westerners who simply will not be shut up. Until now, perhaps, if they can get themselves banned on fund-raising sites.
Britain came out early on the side of the Maidan 'angels', buying into the myth of 'democracy' and the need for Euro-closeness (who would have thought Britain would have reversed its own need of 'Eurocloseness' before the revolution of dignity was completed)? The Brits are still 'hyper-Euro' for EUkrainia, however. Just last week they sentenced a Brit (assisting terror) , who had foolishly been subject of a BBC piece on Brits fighting against the Kyiv government, to 7 years in the slammer. A simlar piece on a Brit fighting FOR the Kyiv government, got him some public recognition and no penalty at all.
The problem this time is with an American fighter and two newsies who have been known to do some charitable work in the Donbass, as well as write about the 'war' there. The subjects of this piece are Americans: anti-fascist 'warrior' Russell Bentley and videographer/helper Patrick Lancaster and British videographer/reporter Graham Phillips. All three have little good to say about the technocrats in Kyiv or the army of louts they have unleashed on the 'Russians'.
I don't know how much real fighting Russell Bentley has actually done - he talks a good game - but his videography is wide-ranging and depicts many facets of life in the 'novorussian' regions,. He often depicts himself, armed and in military gear, but is not very often depicted in combat operations. He does give some valuable insights into a lot of things we do not see on 'mainstream' media and, if the camera lens doesn't lie, it adds to our understanding of the situation, a dimension we certainly won't get from the 'what war'/ 'Putin Invades' department in Kyiv.
Graham Phillips has been documenting his time in Ukraine since well before the polyankiy went up. He was there for a large amount of the Maidan 'celebrations' and on both sides of the line as a 'good thing' went sour. Since the actual fighting has started, his 'slant' has been increasingly anti-Maidan, to the extent that, now, he is a marked man,with a price on his head for illegal entry into Ukraine ( all three have done that) as well as 'inciting violence'. He is the subject of a couple of attempted government intimidations in Great Britain. Phillips has done his anti-Ukrainian 'reportage' in a number of places outside Ukraine. He is a fluent Russian-speaker and often has an infuriating effect on Ukrainians he interviews, or depicts. Phillips was wounded during the first year of the fighting and has documented the horrors of war.
Patrick Lancaster is truly a 'oner' with a gut feel for the people affected by this trouble and a willingness to do what he can to help. He not only documents the home front and the little things that give the impression that the people of the dissident regions are truly 'soldiering on', he also reports on, and has been exposed to, the fighting itself. At Christmas time last year, he was visiting the trenches in the Delbaltsevo area - on the occasion of another failed government 'tooth-breaking' attempted territorial integration. His reports showed actual artillery and mortar barrages striking within meters of his position - front line reporting at its best. Lancaster is one of the three who claims to be running a one-man charitable operation, as well as reporting. He has done stories on delivering relief supplies that he has purchased for civilians with donations of money he has received.
While the initial problem is what these men do, the BBC is carping about how they raise the money to do it.
For all three are 'free lancer' journalists, who wouldn't be employed (any longer - for at least one was) by western media . The BBC claims they are using "crowd funding" and 'charitable donations ' to fund their 'war activities'. The BBC claims that "Go Fund Me" or "Indigogo" being two that Bentley's supposedly recommending. The BBC claims that Bentley has raised over $2 000, while pointing out that a similar 'charity' raised $2.5 million for victims of the Manchester bombing (huh?). Last time I looked, Indiegogo wasn't a charity fundraiser and, while Gofundme might be used for that purpose, one would have to be able to 'sell' the case for giving. The BBC fails to mention that all of three of them use 'Patreon', another 'pay site' dedicated to supporting independent writers and artists, a category into which these three definitely fit. At least two of them have been banned by common payment sources like Paypal but can receive money directly through email addresses and credit card companies.
In Canada the former government - through its self-defined 'grass roots' mandate - took it into mind to have a good look at registered charities. As a result of which a number of charities that had objectives 'at odds' with government policies, found themselves un-registered or investigated by the tax department or both. It had a chilling effect on donations and doing much to help, except for 'big charity', or - even better - political parties.
So it's not much of a surprise to see this to-day
BBC News lambastes 'war via charity'.
Of course the BBC has less to do with this than Sam Bright, another freelance journalist who thinks he's found something that Kyiv already knows, and through him, the 'revolutionary government of dignity' that unseated the last lot. Not only have they been running a fruitless little ATO (anti-terror Operation) in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, they have also been somewhat peeved by a couple of westerners who simply will not be shut up. Until now, perhaps, if they can get themselves banned on fund-raising sites.
Britain came out early on the side of the Maidan 'angels', buying into the myth of 'democracy' and the need for Euro-closeness (who would have thought Britain would have reversed its own need of 'Eurocloseness' before the revolution of dignity was completed)? The Brits are still 'hyper-Euro' for EUkrainia, however. Just last week they sentenced a Brit (assisting terror) , who had foolishly been subject of a BBC piece on Brits fighting against the Kyiv government, to 7 years in the slammer. A simlar piece on a Brit fighting FOR the Kyiv government, got him some public recognition and no penalty at all.
The problem this time is with an American fighter and two newsies who have been known to do some charitable work in the Donbass, as well as write about the 'war' there. The subjects of this piece are Americans: anti-fascist 'warrior' Russell Bentley and videographer/helper Patrick Lancaster and British videographer/reporter Graham Phillips. All three have little good to say about the technocrats in Kyiv or the army of louts they have unleashed on the 'Russians'.
I don't know how much real fighting Russell Bentley has actually done - he talks a good game - but his videography is wide-ranging and depicts many facets of life in the 'novorussian' regions,. He often depicts himself, armed and in military gear, but is not very often depicted in combat operations. He does give some valuable insights into a lot of things we do not see on 'mainstream' media and, if the camera lens doesn't lie, it adds to our understanding of the situation, a dimension we certainly won't get from the 'what war'/ 'Putin Invades' department in Kyiv.
Graham Phillips has been documenting his time in Ukraine since well before the polyankiy went up. He was there for a large amount of the Maidan 'celebrations' and on both sides of the line as a 'good thing' went sour. Since the actual fighting has started, his 'slant' has been increasingly anti-Maidan, to the extent that, now, he is a marked man,with a price on his head for illegal entry into Ukraine ( all three have done that) as well as 'inciting violence'. He is the subject of a couple of attempted government intimidations in Great Britain. Phillips has done his anti-Ukrainian 'reportage' in a number of places outside Ukraine. He is a fluent Russian-speaker and often has an infuriating effect on Ukrainians he interviews, or depicts. Phillips was wounded during the first year of the fighting and has documented the horrors of war.
Patrick Lancaster is truly a 'oner' with a gut feel for the people affected by this trouble and a willingness to do what he can to help. He not only documents the home front and the little things that give the impression that the people of the dissident regions are truly 'soldiering on', he also reports on, and has been exposed to, the fighting itself. At Christmas time last year, he was visiting the trenches in the Delbaltsevo area - on the occasion of another failed government 'tooth-breaking' attempted territorial integration. His reports showed actual artillery and mortar barrages striking within meters of his position - front line reporting at its best. Lancaster is one of the three who claims to be running a one-man charitable operation, as well as reporting. He has done stories on delivering relief supplies that he has purchased for civilians with donations of money he has received.
While the initial problem is what these men do, the BBC is carping about how they raise the money to do it.
For all three are 'free lancer' journalists, who wouldn't be employed (any longer - for at least one was) by western media . The BBC claims they are using "crowd funding" and 'charitable donations ' to fund their 'war activities'. The BBC claims that "Go Fund Me" or "Indigogo" being two that Bentley's supposedly recommending. The BBC claims that Bentley has raised over $2 000, while pointing out that a similar 'charity' raised $2.5 million for victims of the Manchester bombing (huh?). Last time I looked, Indiegogo wasn't a charity fundraiser and, while Gofundme might be used for that purpose, one would have to be able to 'sell' the case for giving. The BBC fails to mention that all of three of them use 'Patreon', another 'pay site' dedicated to supporting independent writers and artists, a category into which these three definitely fit. At least two of them have been banned by common payment sources like Paypal but can receive money directly through email addresses and credit card companies.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The Trooth? We Can't Handle the Trooth.
Trump's latest foible - foreign governments and 'enemies'.
Twitterganda
The fifth man at that meeting: Chris Steele? Nope! It was a former KGB agent, top-secret and now resident in America, known only to NBC - and not the fabled 'Jimmy Bond' and Clinton classmate, ex MI 6 secret operative, DNC-contractee and finder of Trump's 'wet Russian hookers. If Trump Jr. was smart he would have had somebody 'Russian' present to translate, if nothing else, and to perhaps determine if the 'dirt' he was about to receive was plausible - maybe that's why Manafort was there. When 'the Russian lawyer' announced she was really there to get Trump's help with beautiful Russian babies, Kushner and Manafort left the meeting. There was nothing they were interested in. Trump Jr. gave her a listen - which is more than Podesta would have done.
Meanwhile when it came to Trump's peeing hookers, it took months - while 'Washington insiders' circulated the Steele report - possibly because they knew it as bullshit - until it developed the email 'legs of truthiness' and could be passed along to the NATSEC supersluths for 'investigation'. That took the form (apparently for this this all hush-hush, too) of Big John (no horseshit) Brennan asking Trump 'if Putin had him by the balls', with the outgoing Supreme Adjudicator standing watch.
We're still waiting for somebody to actually table Steele's 'report' - which has him hiding from a 'speznaz hit squad' and editing out the parts that have already been debunked.
Talki about debunking. Enemy Hacking Identification 101
But what dumped Dolly Clinton's run for the Rose Garden was the niggling fear that Trump, or somebody like Putin, had the goods, or video of Willie Jeff taking part in what Willie Jeff likes to do more than anything else - BJ's. It was contended that he had done more than merely 'get away' the 11 times he adnmitted guesting at Jeffrey Epstein's 'pleasure island' complex. A line-up of overdeveloped 'dollies' had helped convict Epstein and caused a Royal Highness a few troubled moments in regard to the sexual predation of tweenagers that seems to have been what it was all about. Rumor had it that Jeffrey was doing for Israel twhat the KGB was doing for Putin - helping get the goods on somebody worth negotiating with. Had not Hilary let herself down towards the end of the campaign, somebody else was going to. Needless to say since that stuff never came out it doesn't need to be investigated, like the true stulff that did come out doesn't either. Huh?
Donald speaking in front of a silent panel of Willuie accusers while the big fella sat in the audience and watched his wife flounder didn't need any Putin. That was the night that drove old Dicksie down.
It's OK for good guys to jack an election
Ukraine is an ally dontcha no? It's not an enemy like Russia. They vote with us as all the important UN sanctions votes and they deployed troopps to Afghanistan and Iraq even theiough they didn't have to and couldn't afford it. And even if they did try changing our regime it's only because they're entitled after all we recently changed theirs.
Twitterganda
The fifth man at that meeting: Chris Steele? Nope! It was a former KGB agent, top-secret and now resident in America, known only to NBC - and not the fabled 'Jimmy Bond' and Clinton classmate, ex MI 6 secret operative, DNC-contractee and finder of Trump's 'wet Russian hookers. If Trump Jr. was smart he would have had somebody 'Russian' present to translate, if nothing else, and to perhaps determine if the 'dirt' he was about to receive was plausible - maybe that's why Manafort was there. When 'the Russian lawyer' announced she was really there to get Trump's help with beautiful Russian babies, Kushner and Manafort left the meeting. There was nothing they were interested in. Trump Jr. gave her a listen - which is more than Podesta would have done.
Meanwhile when it came to Trump's peeing hookers, it took months - while 'Washington insiders' circulated the Steele report - possibly because they knew it as bullshit - until it developed the email 'legs of truthiness' and could be passed along to the NATSEC supersluths for 'investigation'. That took the form (apparently for this this all hush-hush, too) of Big John (no horseshit) Brennan asking Trump 'if Putin had him by the balls', with the outgoing Supreme Adjudicator standing watch.
We're still waiting for somebody to actually table Steele's 'report' - which has him hiding from a 'speznaz hit squad' and editing out the parts that have already been debunked.
Talki about debunking. Enemy Hacking Identification 101
But what dumped Dolly Clinton's run for the Rose Garden was the niggling fear that Trump, or somebody like Putin, had the goods, or video of Willie Jeff taking part in what Willie Jeff likes to do more than anything else - BJ's. It was contended that he had done more than merely 'get away' the 11 times he adnmitted guesting at Jeffrey Epstein's 'pleasure island' complex. A line-up of overdeveloped 'dollies' had helped convict Epstein and caused a Royal Highness a few troubled moments in regard to the sexual predation of tweenagers that seems to have been what it was all about. Rumor had it that Jeffrey was doing for Israel twhat the KGB was doing for Putin - helping get the goods on somebody worth negotiating with. Had not Hilary let herself down towards the end of the campaign, somebody else was going to. Needless to say since that stuff never came out it doesn't need to be investigated, like the true stulff that did come out doesn't either. Huh?
Donald speaking in front of a silent panel of Willuie accusers while the big fella sat in the audience and watched his wife flounder didn't need any Putin. That was the night that drove old Dicksie down.
It's OK for good guys to jack an election
Ukraine is an ally dontcha no? It's not an enemy like Russia. They vote with us as all the important UN sanctions votes and they deployed troopps to Afghanistan and Iraq even theiough they didn't have to and couldn't afford it. And even if they did try changing our regime it's only because they're entitled after all we recently changed theirs.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
So Many Evil 'Trannies', So Few Humanitarian MOBEs
This has nothing to do with royally-decorated Brits, or transvestites. Watching TrumpCo at work, this past one hundred days, one has to be struck with the number of 'troubles' with which the poor man has been afflicted that the 'hopeful' one, before him, wasn't! Thank goodness the recent developments seem to have obviated the other developments that threatened to abort his Presidency. But pending a victory somewhere, the 'Vita-Suck' tissue-extractor hasn't been turned-off. That somewhere could be Trump's war - in Venezuela.
Not only is America still dealing actively with the very real 'war fronts' it has in Afghanistan and Iraq, it still has kinetic 'boots on the ground' 'kicking ass and taking names' in Libya, and Somalia, in (unofficially) Syria and Eastern Europe - thanks to Obama. Now we're seeing the traditional 'bug-a-boos' galumphing back into traditional 'flare-ups', as Trump tries to 'address' the 8 years they were 'neglected' or 'ignored'. North Korea is definitely in somebody's sights, Afghanistan is now re-'Surge'-ent and Iran , which wasn't ever off the table, still actively isn't - again. Not only that, Trump has now made Syria an 'official' red line for somebody unAmerican to cross, to-day there's Venezuela - where there's just too much 'tyranny' going on - for America to 'ignore' much longer.
La revolucion es mas photogenico
'Bolivarian' Venezuela has been in America's Monroe Doctrine poster child for quite some time. The problem was that the trouble there was 'indigenous' and couldn't be laid to the traditional European 'interference' in America's hemisphere - although, for a while, both the Russians and Chinese were being faulted for supporting the 'regime'. Even though the OAS tried getting (NATO representative) Juan Carlos of Spain into it - inviting him as a 'guest speaker' to be "insulted" by Chavez - that came a cropper on nobody else getting excited but El Rey.
Ordinarily extraordinary people
When Chavez 'stepped into the mystery' it seemed that 'the times to come' had advanced themselves notably well-enough that America had only to bide its time, for the 'pistoleros' who had failed once before to unseat 'the usurper' and get 'theirs' back, set about trying to unseat his successor.
Even ordinary girls protest - Nuns, even!
Surprisingly this sad process is taking overly long - the Bolivarian Army doesn't seem to be obeying orders - probably something to do with the "justly merited" charges of 'narco-trafficking' with which the US has threatened them all, or at least the head 'honchos' and the government. Even the recent attempt to unseat another tyrant - the Russian one - by 'crashing' Russia's oil-based economy (and every other oil-based economy on earth that didn't have access to IMF 'emergency' funding) failed to do more than 'deepen' the economic (consumer) 'crisis' in 'cash-strapped' Venezuela - where people were forced to find a replacement for imported bum-wipe! The opposition hit the streets - apparently 'supported' by the 'suffering' people - who were being forced to travel abroad to buy the consumer goods (Bulgari and Oscar de la Renta) they could no longer get at home. Patriotic businesses were forced to shutter their doors and stop importing - which led to 'shortages' of basic foodstuffs, rioting and, lately we are told, the looting of what few local shops and government outlets still remain.
Near THE looted bakery, not near the GM pant
This past week we were treated to the 'spectacle' of the 'reds' socialistically 'taking over' THE GM factory in Venezuela that hadn't produced a single car in two years. That hadn't stopped GM from continuing to keep the 2700 Venezuelans it had hired, 'on the payroll' for all that time - good corporate citizens of wherever they are, that they are. Left out of the saga was the fact that the (corrupt) courts had recently ruled against GM, in lawsuits brought against the company in relation to contracts they had with Venezuelan GM dealerships - and that those 'employees' were busy tearing the factory down for transshipment to more lucrative markets (back in the USSA?).
Apparently this is not the first US firm to 'come a socialist cropper' in Venezuela. When the 'Clorox' company decided to cease operations there, three years ago (how come this wasn't news?), the 'socialists' who worked for the company 'took-over' the factory and continued to provide Venezuela with the means of producing chemical WMD's (should a better reason for humanitarian bombing ever be needed). Needless to say GM fired everyone, yesterday (by email - they're all connected?). The operations staff having already departed the country. GM also informed the employees they were receiving an unspecified 'separation payment' - those good guys that GM are - probably enough to purchase a handful of magic frijoles - or a gun.
To-day there are 'fears' the 'protests' will turn violent - or morph into 'civil war' - if 'military arms' supplies are compromised - or that a massacre of good people (protestors) may occur if the government arms its 'socialist militias' and turns them loose on the 'dissidents' - sort a reverse EUkrainia - with a really hyper-aggressive 'crazy man' , who isn't even really 'concerned' or 'threatening' anything yet, ready to defend freedom and unborn democracy - from Washington. Hell, he might even 'invade' or 'annex' something! There already is a carrier strike group in the area.
So while we watch a US fleet close-in on possible danger from the Norks, or the Marines taking Helmand back from the Talies, Assad not crossing the line, Putin not invading Ukraine, Dutarte stopping whatever that is , the Somali pirates going away again, the Saudis having their vict'ry parade in Sanaa, and Lindsay Lohan's unmolested 'pussy', let's just hope that Venezuela stays on the path of Jebus and Liberty - and that Putin, stealing the French election, doesn't remind Americans, again, that he stole theirs too - and started all this crap.
Not only is America still dealing actively with the very real 'war fronts' it has in Afghanistan and Iraq, it still has kinetic 'boots on the ground' 'kicking ass and taking names' in Libya, and Somalia, in (unofficially) Syria and Eastern Europe - thanks to Obama. Now we're seeing the traditional 'bug-a-boos' galumphing back into traditional 'flare-ups', as Trump tries to 'address' the 8 years they were 'neglected' or 'ignored'. North Korea is definitely in somebody's sights, Afghanistan is now re-'Surge'-ent and Iran , which wasn't ever off the table, still actively isn't - again. Not only that, Trump has now made Syria an 'official' red line for somebody unAmerican to cross, to-day there's Venezuela - where there's just too much 'tyranny' going on - for America to 'ignore' much longer.
'Bolivarian' Venezuela has been in America's Monroe Doctrine poster child for quite some time. The problem was that the trouble there was 'indigenous' and couldn't be laid to the traditional European 'interference' in America's hemisphere - although, for a while, both the Russians and Chinese were being faulted for supporting the 'regime'. Even though the OAS tried getting (NATO representative) Juan Carlos of Spain into it - inviting him as a 'guest speaker' to be "insulted" by Chavez - that came a cropper on nobody else getting excited but El Rey.
When Chavez 'stepped into the mystery' it seemed that 'the times to come' had advanced themselves notably well-enough that America had only to bide its time, for the 'pistoleros' who had failed once before to unseat 'the usurper' and get 'theirs' back, set about trying to unseat his successor.
Surprisingly this sad process is taking overly long - the Bolivarian Army doesn't seem to be obeying orders - probably something to do with the "justly merited" charges of 'narco-trafficking' with which the US has threatened them all, or at least the head 'honchos' and the government. Even the recent attempt to unseat another tyrant - the Russian one - by 'crashing' Russia's oil-based economy (and every other oil-based economy on earth that didn't have access to IMF 'emergency' funding) failed to do more than 'deepen' the economic (consumer) 'crisis' in 'cash-strapped' Venezuela - where people were forced to find a replacement for imported bum-wipe! The opposition hit the streets - apparently 'supported' by the 'suffering' people - who were being forced to travel abroad to buy the consumer goods (Bulgari and Oscar de la Renta) they could no longer get at home. Patriotic businesses were forced to shutter their doors and stop importing - which led to 'shortages' of basic foodstuffs, rioting and, lately we are told, the looting of what few local shops and government outlets still remain.
This past week we were treated to the 'spectacle' of the 'reds' socialistically 'taking over' THE GM factory in Venezuela that hadn't produced a single car in two years. That hadn't stopped GM from continuing to keep the 2700 Venezuelans it had hired, 'on the payroll' for all that time - good corporate citizens of wherever they are, that they are. Left out of the saga was the fact that the (corrupt) courts had recently ruled against GM, in lawsuits brought against the company in relation to contracts they had with Venezuelan GM dealerships - and that those 'employees' were busy tearing the factory down for transshipment to more lucrative markets (back in the USSA?).
Apparently this is not the first US firm to 'come a socialist cropper' in Venezuela. When the 'Clorox' company decided to cease operations there, three years ago (how come this wasn't news?), the 'socialists' who worked for the company 'took-over' the factory and continued to provide Venezuela with the means of producing chemical WMD's (should a better reason for humanitarian bombing ever be needed). Needless to say GM fired everyone, yesterday (by email - they're all connected?). The operations staff having already departed the country. GM also informed the employees they were receiving an unspecified 'separation payment' - those good guys that GM are - probably enough to purchase a handful of magic frijoles - or a gun.
To-day there are 'fears' the 'protests' will turn violent - or morph into 'civil war' - if 'military arms' supplies are compromised - or that a massacre of good people (protestors) may occur if the government arms its 'socialist militias' and turns them loose on the 'dissidents' - sort a reverse EUkrainia - with a really hyper-aggressive 'crazy man' , who isn't even really 'concerned' or 'threatening' anything yet, ready to defend freedom and unborn democracy - from Washington. Hell, he might even 'invade' or 'annex' something! There already is a carrier strike group in the area.
So while we watch a US fleet close-in on possible danger from the Norks, or the Marines taking Helmand back from the Talies, Assad not crossing the line, Putin not invading Ukraine, Dutarte stopping whatever that is , the Somali pirates going away again, the Saudis having their vict'ry parade in Sanaa, and Lindsay Lohan's unmolested 'pussy', let's just hope that Venezuela stays on the path of Jebus and Liberty - and that Putin, stealing the French election, doesn't remind Americans, again, that he stole theirs too - and started all this crap.
Friday, March 10, 2017
дезинформация (dezinformatsiya:disinformation)
The American disease is spreading north! It's called "disinformation", Russian disinformation, and how it's gonna wreck civilization.
"Left foot in, left foot out - doing jiggery pokery, shake it all about"
For the past two days, it would appear, Canada has either been under attack or is imminently going to be attacked (depending on which one of the two 'media sources' (Macleans Magazine, National Post) that 'discovered' it) by whatever parts of Russia are accused of 'attacking' America - skewing the vote there and electing a President nobody - 'except Putin' - wanted.
What more needs be said?
The 'threat', we are told, has arisen since Canada announced, on Tuesday, (well that's a fib, Putin has been trying to 'screw' Canada, or Krystia Freeland or both, for a much longer time), that it will be continuing to 'support' Ukraine, in small part, by maintaining a force of 200 military trainers, in Ukraine, until 2019. No mention of Canada's already having had military forces, periodically, in Ukraine dating back some 20 years and that whatever 'parts of Russia' etc, not attacking us - until now.
Khristia .... and freedumb. She even looks like a real Canadian
What this 'disinformation attack' is about is our (relatively) new Foreign Affairs Minister, Krystia Freeland and her stalwart defence of EUkrainia. It would appear that 'Russia' has, lately, been attacking her, personally, by claiming that her grandfather - a Ukrainian 'refugee' (they used to be called "DP's" after WW2), spent some of his 'war' time working for a pro-Nazi, anti-Jew, -Pole, -communist, etc publication that blossomed after Ukraine was 'liberated' by Hitler & Co. The Russians have already listed Freeland on a 'sanctioned persons' list for some of the things she said and did, in person, to get Russians sanctioned here in Canada. This latest 'move' (other than having been attributed to 'pro-russian blogs', there is no proof the Russian governmment is actually attacking at all) is, supposedly, just like the Russian 'disinformation campaigns' that have blighted recent modern history. Although it would seem that, like the other 'disinformations', the facts of the story are essentially true - but 'lacking in nuance'.
That good 'nuance' is being provided in Canadian media (Toronto Star) to correct the disinformation 'nuance' goes like this:
1. You won't understand if you weren't there. "War is hell", General Sherman said that, and you can't make omelets without breaking heads. Dirty deeds get done, by accident mostly, and, well, just because "good people" are scared for their lives and willing to do almost anything to survive.
2. Some of them pretend to do one thing (bad stuff) but they are really heroes (Brad Pitt and the Nazi-killerz?) , like Krystia's grandad, who used his 'job' to get documents for, and save the lives of, "anti-nazi fighters". Don't even try to understand it, except the 'other guys' were worse.
3. It's been so long now and, heck, Krystia had nothing to do with it - except editing the book her Uncle wrote about his Pop.
4. There were a few of 'ex-nazis' who may have 'sneaked in' with the real refugees but they went on to live in peace and, we hope, tried to live down any evil they had done. If we caught them, we dealt with them ... so we're good and now so are they - unless somebody from Israel finds them.
5. The whole family would have been dead - murdered by the filthy Russians or Russian-sympathizing 'Commie' Ukrainians - if they'd stayed in Europe - so would Krystia and she's innocent.
Hier Wir haben den gutes Nazis. So?
This is the 'Canadian chapter' of the 'other' Russian 'disinformation': that there are modern 'Nazis' fighting in Ukraine, and in the 'revolutionary' government there. Once again the 'disinformation' may be in the nuance, for there are 'nazis', or people who seem to espouse the 'value' of that aspect of Ukrainian history, who actually do form voluntary military units fighting alongside regular Ukrainian armed forces, in what they call 'the ATO'. And some of the (former) leadership of such groups do hold high office in the government of Ukraine. One of them was invited to, and did, address the Parliament of Canada. But, once again, our 'nuance' might (probably does) make him a great guy. The truth may be that, politically, he's still well 'right' of Oskar Dirlewanger.
Pariuby, founder of the Ukrainian Nazi party, smiles on parliament
So what's the effect of all this?
Well for starters - it's going to make any sort of improvement in the relationship between Canada and Russia 'more complicated' - if we wanted anything like that. Not that Canada needs worry, for we've gotten along well without Russians for so long, now. For about 9 years Canada has been in the forefront of those nations of the world who have more concern for downtrodden Russians and the 'evil that is done to them by their government' than we do for the downtrodden of most other places on earth. Human rights for Russians seem far more important, to Canada, than, say, human rights for a lot of other people - many kinds of Moslems come to mind. For instance what Putin is 'doing to the gay population of Russia' is somehow much worse than anything Israel does, regularly, to the ordinary people of Gaza or what's happening to the Rohinga, or the Houthis. We complain about Russia and 'defund' our charities aimed at helping Palestine - or Yemen - or the Assad side of Syria. Moslems 'do things' to "deserve" their treatment and Russian gays, well, they just don't.
But this isn't only about Russia for, you see, like Israel - (and this is perhaps why we don't gripe about human rights there; they have great human rights - for Israelis), Ukraine is 'under attack'. Yes they don't like gays there, either, but the 'new' Ukrainian police, unlike Russian police, show-up to 'protect' the 'Rainbow March'. If Putin wasn't being so bad to them, they'd be nicer to everybody - or pass more nice laws they won't 'be able' to enforce. Ukraine has been "invaded", parts of it "illegally annexed" (Disinformation? Nah, undebateable 'facts', dropped and left because they're 'common knowledge') and right now Ukraine is 'holding the Russians back from destroying European culture' (dezinformatsiye - in Ukrainian) . It needs "more effective" weapons, and it needs more money to fight - and to look after culture, art and beauty - things they would be more interested in than armored divisions, bulletproof vests, night vision glasses and ballistic helmets if only ... Putin would leave them in peace!
Canada is willing to help train-up the army to do all that the 'right way'. We have, and will, continue to give them money. Ms Freeland and the Ukrainian-Canadian community would like Canada to give them, (even sell if necessary), "more effective" weapons to shoot at 'their' Donbass. But I may be 'disinformed' - maybe EUkraine doesn't need money, or weapons, or anything else and is really at peace ..... nah.
'Russian invasions' play better - we grew up with that threat - we've 'seen' them on the TV - in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. We've 'seen' what the Russians have done to Afghanistan, to Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia - oops, those may have been anti-Russian events. We've seen Kruschev and his UN shoe (something else never actually recorded on film) and we've 'known the fear' of a nuclear stand-off. We've heard the warning sirens - and we've ducked and covered.
Like the nice man in the Star said, to-day, 'We weren't really there and we can't understand' - he may be right. But if he is, then shouldn't we take into consideration that, having lost World War One and come very close to losing the Second World War Two, the Russians have 'been there' more than we have? And might understand Ukraine better than some romantically-homesick 'Canadian' greatgrandchildren?
Definitely NOT bullshit - it's Love
Disinformation aside, what we need to bear in mind that this could all be heading in a direction our grandparents (who "didn't want to know" about war (?)- the Star) had some real fear of going. Depending on everybody to be 'rational' about nuclear weapons when they can't be rational about an election, accents the point that emotions 'make us' do more than common sense - and often the 'wrong' thing. Disinformation, whether coming from Russia, or the counter-disinformation 'necessary' to make 'theirs' look bad - drives an emotional reaction. If you've heard Krystia when she gets' upset' you would know that.
I checked out the word 'disinformation' - it didn't look like a 'real' word. It wasn't - until sometime in the 1980's. According to Wikipedia, it's a 'translation', or transliteration, of a probably-just-as-contrived "Russian word". Isn't it strange that, having bested the propaganda of the Comintern, and International Communism, the 'agitprop' and a plethora of Soviet propaganda forms about almost everything we love, we have to 'borrow' another 'Russian word' to describe something even more nefarious - 'twisting the truth'.
Definitely not bullshit either - it's desecrating a Presidential bed
It's a pity that there are such 'truths' for them to find, and twist.
Some other of our 'truths'? Good guys have to be evil - otherwise, 'the other guys would win'. THEY 'choose' to do evil and WE have it forced on us. We're good and they're just not. Like Krystia's granddad and all the German Nazis?
Casey, Casey... Casey from the emerald isle - and 'the agency'
ADDENDUM: Smashback Canada
From the pages of the little tabloid that should - Canada's opposition leader (pro tem) - the gorgeous and smart Rona Barrett - reminds us all of the diplomat and pantywaister that was Steve Harper 'standing-up' to Putin when all the other leaders of 'the wurld' were too afraid. Yes! Steve told Vlad to 'Get out of Ukraine' and backed-that-up by banning a couple of Russian businessmen and some others from ever coming to Canada, if they were thinking about that. He deployed the forces (or a couple of hundred of them) to go on a mission to 'train-up' a 'real' military for EUkrainia and backed their fight for 'freedumb'. He gave them money and flak vests, boots and helmets ( they left most of those unused for the rebels at Debaltsevo). But he failed to send them the lethal weapons they so desperately needed to kill even more eastern Ukrainians than the 10 000, or so, they already have, with the lethal weapons they've already got.
And now, having so desperately tried , striven even, to "normalize" relations with the Russians - it's time for 'the Kid' to "get serious" (never mind the new troops he's deployed to Ukraine and the Baltics, or the money he's donated for us, the Mounties now 'training-up' a real police force to match that military in EUkraine, or all his support for their 'freedumb') and do "what we've done for the Kurds", fer pete's sakes, arm those poor Ukrainians!
And Jesus wept again.
For the past two days, it would appear, Canada has either been under attack or is imminently going to be attacked (depending on which one of the two 'media sources' (Macleans Magazine, National Post) that 'discovered' it) by whatever parts of Russia are accused of 'attacking' America - skewing the vote there and electing a President nobody - 'except Putin' - wanted.
The 'threat', we are told, has arisen since Canada announced, on Tuesday, (well that's a fib, Putin has been trying to 'screw' Canada, or Krystia Freeland or both, for a much longer time), that it will be continuing to 'support' Ukraine, in small part, by maintaining a force of 200 military trainers, in Ukraine, until 2019. No mention of Canada's already having had military forces, periodically, in Ukraine dating back some 20 years and that whatever 'parts of Russia' etc, not attacking us - until now.
What this 'disinformation attack' is about is our (relatively) new Foreign Affairs Minister, Krystia Freeland and her stalwart defence of EUkrainia. It would appear that 'Russia' has, lately, been attacking her, personally, by claiming that her grandfather - a Ukrainian 'refugee' (they used to be called "DP's" after WW2), spent some of his 'war' time working for a pro-Nazi, anti-Jew, -Pole, -communist, etc publication that blossomed after Ukraine was 'liberated' by Hitler & Co. The Russians have already listed Freeland on a 'sanctioned persons' list for some of the things she said and did, in person, to get Russians sanctioned here in Canada. This latest 'move' (other than having been attributed to 'pro-russian blogs', there is no proof the Russian governmment is actually attacking at all) is, supposedly, just like the Russian 'disinformation campaigns' that have blighted recent modern history. Although it would seem that, like the other 'disinformations', the facts of the story are essentially true - but 'lacking in nuance'.
That good 'nuance' is being provided in Canadian media (Toronto Star) to correct the disinformation 'nuance' goes like this:
1. You won't understand if you weren't there. "War is hell", General Sherman said that, and you can't make omelets without breaking heads. Dirty deeds get done, by accident mostly, and, well, just because "good people" are scared for their lives and willing to do almost anything to survive.
2. Some of them pretend to do one thing (bad stuff) but they are really heroes (Brad Pitt and the Nazi-killerz?) , like Krystia's grandad, who used his 'job' to get documents for, and save the lives of, "anti-nazi fighters". Don't even try to understand it, except the 'other guys' were worse.
3. It's been so long now and, heck, Krystia had nothing to do with it - except editing the book her Uncle wrote about his Pop.
4. There were a few of 'ex-nazis' who may have 'sneaked in' with the real refugees but they went on to live in peace and, we hope, tried to live down any evil they had done. If we caught them, we dealt with them ... so we're good and now so are they - unless somebody from Israel finds them.
5. The whole family would have been dead - murdered by the filthy Russians or Russian-sympathizing 'Commie' Ukrainians - if they'd stayed in Europe - so would Krystia and she's innocent.
This is the 'Canadian chapter' of the 'other' Russian 'disinformation': that there are modern 'Nazis' fighting in Ukraine, and in the 'revolutionary' government there. Once again the 'disinformation' may be in the nuance, for there are 'nazis', or people who seem to espouse the 'value' of that aspect of Ukrainian history, who actually do form voluntary military units fighting alongside regular Ukrainian armed forces, in what they call 'the ATO'. And some of the (former) leadership of such groups do hold high office in the government of Ukraine. One of them was invited to, and did, address the Parliament of Canada. But, once again, our 'nuance' might (probably does) make him a great guy. The truth may be that, politically, he's still well 'right' of Oskar Dirlewanger.
So what's the effect of all this?
Well for starters - it's going to make any sort of improvement in the relationship between Canada and Russia 'more complicated' - if we wanted anything like that. Not that Canada needs worry, for we've gotten along well without Russians for so long, now. For about 9 years Canada has been in the forefront of those nations of the world who have more concern for downtrodden Russians and the 'evil that is done to them by their government' than we do for the downtrodden of most other places on earth. Human rights for Russians seem far more important, to Canada, than, say, human rights for a lot of other people - many kinds of Moslems come to mind. For instance what Putin is 'doing to the gay population of Russia' is somehow much worse than anything Israel does, regularly, to the ordinary people of Gaza or what's happening to the Rohinga, or the Houthis. We complain about Russia and 'defund' our charities aimed at helping Palestine - or Yemen - or the Assad side of Syria. Moslems 'do things' to "deserve" their treatment and Russian gays, well, they just don't.
But this isn't only about Russia for, you see, like Israel - (and this is perhaps why we don't gripe about human rights there; they have great human rights - for Israelis), Ukraine is 'under attack'. Yes they don't like gays there, either, but the 'new' Ukrainian police, unlike Russian police, show-up to 'protect' the 'Rainbow March'. If Putin wasn't being so bad to them, they'd be nicer to everybody - or pass more nice laws they won't 'be able' to enforce. Ukraine has been "invaded", parts of it "illegally annexed" (Disinformation? Nah, undebateable 'facts', dropped and left because they're 'common knowledge') and right now Ukraine is 'holding the Russians back from destroying European culture' (dezinformatsiye - in Ukrainian) . It needs "more effective" weapons, and it needs more money to fight - and to look after culture, art and beauty - things they would be more interested in than armored divisions, bulletproof vests, night vision glasses and ballistic helmets if only ... Putin would leave them in peace!
Canada is willing to help train-up the army to do all that the 'right way'. We have, and will, continue to give them money. Ms Freeland and the Ukrainian-Canadian community would like Canada to give them, (even sell if necessary), "more effective" weapons to shoot at 'their' Donbass. But I may be 'disinformed' - maybe EUkraine doesn't need money, or weapons, or anything else and is really at peace ..... nah.
'Russian invasions' play better - we grew up with that threat - we've 'seen' them on the TV - in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. We've 'seen' what the Russians have done to Afghanistan, to Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia - oops, those may have been anti-Russian events. We've seen Kruschev and his UN shoe (something else never actually recorded on film) and we've 'known the fear' of a nuclear stand-off. We've heard the warning sirens - and we've ducked and covered.
Like the nice man in the Star said, to-day, 'We weren't really there and we can't understand' - he may be right. But if he is, then shouldn't we take into consideration that, having lost World War One and come very close to losing the Second World War Two, the Russians have 'been there' more than we have? And might understand Ukraine better than some romantically-homesick 'Canadian' greatgrandchildren?
Disinformation aside, what we need to bear in mind that this could all be heading in a direction our grandparents (who "didn't want to know" about war (?)- the Star) had some real fear of going. Depending on everybody to be 'rational' about nuclear weapons when they can't be rational about an election, accents the point that emotions 'make us' do more than common sense - and often the 'wrong' thing. Disinformation, whether coming from Russia, or the counter-disinformation 'necessary' to make 'theirs' look bad - drives an emotional reaction. If you've heard Krystia when she gets' upset' you would know that.
I checked out the word 'disinformation' - it didn't look like a 'real' word. It wasn't - until sometime in the 1980's. According to Wikipedia, it's a 'translation', or transliteration, of a probably-just-as-contrived "Russian word". Isn't it strange that, having bested the propaganda of the Comintern, and International Communism, the 'agitprop' and a plethora of Soviet propaganda forms about almost everything we love, we have to 'borrow' another 'Russian word' to describe something even more nefarious - 'twisting the truth'.
It's a pity that there are such 'truths' for them to find, and twist.
Some other of our 'truths'? Good guys have to be evil - otherwise, 'the other guys would win'. THEY 'choose' to do evil and WE have it forced on us. We're good and they're just not. Like Krystia's granddad and all the German Nazis?
ADDENDUM: Smashback Canada
From the pages of the little tabloid that should - Canada's opposition leader (pro tem) - the gorgeous and smart Rona Barrett - reminds us all of the diplomat and pantywaister that was Steve Harper 'standing-up' to Putin when all the other leaders of 'the wurld' were too afraid. Yes! Steve told Vlad to 'Get out of Ukraine' and backed-that-up by banning a couple of Russian businessmen and some others from ever coming to Canada, if they were thinking about that. He deployed the forces (or a couple of hundred of them) to go on a mission to 'train-up' a 'real' military for EUkrainia and backed their fight for 'freedumb'. He gave them money and flak vests, boots and helmets ( they left most of those unused for the rebels at Debaltsevo). But he failed to send them the lethal weapons they so desperately needed to kill even more eastern Ukrainians than the 10 000, or so, they already have, with the lethal weapons they've already got.
And now, having so desperately tried , striven even, to "normalize" relations with the Russians - it's time for 'the Kid' to "get serious" (never mind the new troops he's deployed to Ukraine and the Baltics, or the money he's donated for us, the Mounties now 'training-up' a real police force to match that military in EUkraine, or all his support for their 'freedumb') and do "what we've done for the Kurds", fer pete's sakes, arm those poor Ukrainians!
And Jesus wept again.
Thursday, February 02, 2017
Save Us President Trump!
The civil war in Ukraine has become a hot one again. The Kyiv governent is claiming to have been "attacked" after it 'slowly advanced' into rebel territory to 'restore its territorial integrity'.
Last week the Kyiv cabal were announcing the liberation of the ''Pig Farm" at Ardiivka, one of the largest commercial hog-farming operations in EUkraine, and, lately, feeding the Donbass Republics. Since then the fighting - most usually in the form of artillery fire - has spread along the front. Kyiv makes very much of separatist forces 'committing war crimes' by shelling civilian areas.
Here Graham Phillips posts about the on-site first-person reports of American Patrick Lancaster, from Donetsk, Ardivka and other towns in the DPR. You don't get reality like this coming from Kyiv.
Graham Phillip' s site
Donbass January 30. Ukraine is under attack!
January 31st Slava Eukrainia - stop those miners!
You don't see this on our news.
Feb 1st 'freedom' is still "under attack"
The 'Russian' attackers.
Both Phillips and Lancaster are independent journalists - depending on donations to fund their reporting.
Both also do a lot to bring relief to the civilians of the affected areas. Last week the trains were stopped for the first time in 4 years. Water and electricity are disrupted daily and of course the Ukrainian government pays nothing to any Ukrainian citizens inside what they call 'temporarily occupied' areas.
Check them out and please consider helping.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
1000 Days of War
It is coming up to 1000 days of war Ukraine.
The struggle seems as intractable as ever, seen by the Ukrainian side, and most of the 'civilized' west, as a 'Russian aggression' - a defense of freedom, civilization and Europe from the potential of Russian threat and aggrandizement.
From the other side it appears somewhat less complex - some apparently very foolish people resisting 'goodness' for reasons only known to themselves. For if Putin's 'Red hordes' were involved, the propaganda would be in overdrive, wouldn't it? Or it would be even more secret than how he hacked an election.
I relay Graham Phillips photographic tribute to what war really looks like in Eastern Ukraine. CAUTION: He shows war as it, sickeningly, can be. Propaganda it ain't.
Far less graphic and more heroic, a view from the other side.
The struggle seems as intractable as ever, seen by the Ukrainian side, and most of the 'civilized' west, as a 'Russian aggression' - a defense of freedom, civilization and Europe from the potential of Russian threat and aggrandizement.
From the other side it appears somewhat less complex - some apparently very foolish people resisting 'goodness' for reasons only known to themselves. For if Putin's 'Red hordes' were involved, the propaganda would be in overdrive, wouldn't it? Or it would be even more secret than how he hacked an election.
I relay Graham Phillips photographic tribute to what war really looks like in Eastern Ukraine. CAUTION: He shows war as it, sickeningly, can be. Propaganda it ain't.
Far less graphic and more heroic, a view from the other side.
Friday, October 07, 2016
True Colours
This past week marked the 75 anniversary of 'Babi Yar' - aside from Auschwitz, probably the single other 'iconic' representation of the Holocaust. It was to that ravine in the northwest part of the Ukrainian city of Kyiv that Sonderkommando 4(a) , assisted by German police and army units and number of the new mobilized Ukrainian 'auxiliaries' marched what Jewish people they could find (they reported some 32 000 over two days) left in the population of that city. German forces had suffered some significant lost time and lost lives besieging and then assaulting Kiev. They lost more in street fighting and from a number of sabotage attacks in the weeks after they occupied the city. German newsreels of the time made much of local indignation at finding a number of 'patriotic' corpses executed in the recently evacuated NKVD headquarters, and also referred to the Ukrainians' 'natural thirst for revenge' on Communists, and Jews.
From the moment German forces stepped into the Ukrainian SSR , eager Ukrainians were offering them the traditional welcome gifts of bread and salt and volunteering to show them Russian positions or help track-down Russians left behind in the retreat. Although there was little love lost between them, the Germans realized that gift horses shouldn't be looked in the mouth and, with the large number of Russian weapons being taken every day, a 'home guard' force might be useful. Those 'ersatz' Ukrainian 'hilfe' units were morphed into auxiliary police units as the invasion pressed east and by the time Kyiv was taken, Ukrainian 'police auxiliaries' were ready to take over those duties among the Ukrainian population if nothing else.
The fall of the city led to a 'squaring of accounts' with any Communist party 'apparatchiks' who hadn't fled east. The Ukrainians among them were killed quite efficiently. So when the einsatzgruppe appeared with their own 'special handling' assignment, it didn't take long to get some help. But given the Jewish population - some 133 000 - there was going to be a substantial need. Happily, elements of the 6th German Army were 'resting' in the area and they would help too.
Babi Yar was itself a godsend when it comes to such things, a short march from the city centre, the deep ravine had been used in previous times as a burying ground. The Jewish cemetery was there and the sandy loam soil meant that pick and shovel should suffice for earth moving requirements. The physical formation of the gully meant that preparatory activities could occur out of sight, if not out of sound of the final solution. The victims could be herded in close quarters to the execution site with little chance to escape. There are no recorded escapes after the victims arrived at the site, although some survivors escaped by playing dead among the corpses and clawing their way out of the gully after dark. Some victims were shot on the march to the site.
At the site the sonderkommando personnel attended to the actual shootings while army personnel formed an inner cordon. Ukrainian volunteer 'helpers' escorted the march, guarded the prisoner preparation and formed an outer cordon to see off any of the curious. Who the volunteers were was not recorded.
At the site the victims, already separated by gender, were relieved on their belongings, forced to undress 'for disinfection', they were told they were being relocated. They were taken in groups to the 'finger ends' of the gully and either shot into prepared pits or told to lie down on the feet and legs of those ahead of them and them shot individually by SS personnel told-off for that purpose. The sonderkommando report of the 'aktion' and some photographic evidence supports this.
As the war proceeded Babi Yar was the site of further executions and interments - other Jews, partisans, Gypsies and Russian POWs were done to death there. In early 1944 as things started to take a turn for the worse, a concentration camp was built at the site with the sole purpose of excavating the graves and destroying the bodies by burning. Some 300 prisoners were kept occupied at this for most of the year. that their hearts or something may not have been in their job is evidenced by the fact that numerous bodies have been disinterred in the ravine in the years after the war.
To-day the ravine is a memorial park in the City - with monuments commemorating the dead of all nations involved - Russia, Ukraine and the Jews. In all some 140 000 were thought to have met their end in Babi Yar. It is the largest Holocaust event to have happened on Ukrainian territory.
The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, whose family was killed in Ukraine, attended the commemoration ceremonies for the tragedy, held last week in Kyiv. As part of his role, he was invited to address the Rada. He mentioned Ukrainian involvement in the deaths of Jews. Within minutes of the conclusion of his speech the fascists and right wingers who 'no longer have a part in the government' - Rada Member Oleh Lyashko for one - were haranguing the air waves with charges that the Israeli had insulted the Ukrainian people and "spat in the face of the nation" and making demands for an apology.
Overview
Reaction
And again
A Little Something Extra
Friday, September 30, 2016
The Rain from Spain falls Mainly in Ukraine
It's getting wet again in Ukraine, the wet season that used to precede the mud season, and if the wreckage and remains of MH17, still ungathered in the fields around Hrabove, are getting another washing, the fate of the jet has received another, unsurprising, laundering too.
The JIP announced its long awaited (since last year) finger-pointing report on not only the latest clarification of 'what happened', but the indication of 'who dunnit'.
What happened? Nothing new there: "pro-Russian", not anti-Kyiv, forces got a Buk system from Russia - drove it all around Donetsk and Lugansk regions for a day and, for want of something better to do with it, parked it in an obscure corner of east central Donetsk, and used one of the four missiles they had, to down a Malaysian Airliner. Then they drove it back, to the flat bed truck they had used to drive it into the regions, packed it up without any attempts to hide the cargo and drove it around the two regions again, through a 'highly fluid battle zone' ( a government armored thrust the day after the crash, cut across the Buk's withdrawal route twice), perilously close to Government "fortifications of dignity" at Debaltsevo and east to Lugansk, where, apparently it went 'poof' or unobserved, back into Russia.
One Russian response:
'Who dunnit'? Aside from Putin, the 'Seps on the radio and telephone', and members of a Russian rocket regiment - 100 souls in all, who had something to do with the BUk, the truck, the escorts, command structure or all of the preceding,
And how do we know all this? Well although there really isn't much proof by way of actual witnesses, or physical evidence of anything but the crashed plane, great minds - or at last 6 of them - have mined the repositories of knowledge - Facebook and YouTube. They found and connected a plethora of 'dots'. Not the JIT - they've done little but interview experts and have free lunches - but the 'experts' they have interviewed have made all things clear. Or clear enough to make a cartoon movie to help us all 'get it'.
So who were the experts? Well no Russians were needed. The info came from the Ukrainians, who if they weren't possibly suspected, would have been the prime investigators. The Dutch were the lead, on-the-ground investigators, retrieving remains and wreckage, dealing with the dead and reconstructing the downed aircraft. The EU waded-in and, as usual, so did the Americans. The Brits deciphered the flight recorders. Most of the 'saga' was unearthed through the army of a half-dozen "independent investigative journalists" associated with a website called Bellingcat and its whiz-bang, unemployed, blogger-proprietor. The Malaysians, who actually got to the site first - more than a week before anybody official appeared - got the bums' rush. But at least now they're being assured that given some more time - 3 short years - and a little help from concerned citizens in Russia, they may be able to sue Putin at the Hague, if the gallant EUkrainians don't do it first, maybe.
Within an hour of the jet hitting the ground Ukrainian sources were accusing their 'russian' separatists of downing the aircraft, claiming to have phone intercepts of at least two rebel leaders discussing the crash and celebrating having downed 'another' Ukrainian aircraft. Surprising, insofar as either the Ukrainians were only starting to tap into the dissident area's 'national' cell phone grid, or that the separatists hadn't tweaked to the fact that their using a cell phone was probably going to be overheard in the State Security Office, too. This is a unique eclat compared to the rest of Ukraine's ATO. Even more so because the Seps weren't talking about the other military matters, (or stopped), and that resulted in nasty military 'surprises' all over the east (Saur Moglia within three weeks, and Ilovaisk, within a month of MH17). On those things the Seps were maintaining telephone silence?
Maybe MH 17 cost Kyiv it's 'victory'. After it the Seps dummied-up and the Ukrainian army of liberation was mauled in a series of 'sneak attacks'?
That notion of the Seps doing it and Russia being responsible became the 'lingua fanca' of anybody sensible - for it was as understandable an act for Russia, as was annexing Crimea and invading the Donbass. Putin was just being the 'total ass' that President Obama was telling the world he was. He was on the 'outs' with goodness and civilization and downing a planeload of tourists would prove that to everybody.
Question was 'how sick is Putin?' The answer comes back, "He's not." For it wasn't a falling out of over Ukraine that iced Putin, it was a veto at the UN - of another of Obama's increasing number of 'humanitarian' interventions, this time about Syria. Ukraine 'just happened' and Putin wasn't cheering the US on to another victory. In the absence of evidence forcing a change, the chorus just do better repeating the refrain: "Putin did it."
In so many words - although the JIT was careful to say they weren't accusing Russia of actually ordering the shoot down or nodding approval at the target acquisition radar, saying they gave the Seps a missile and the Seps used that missile to do it, is much like the same thing. Add to that, that at least 80 of the dirty rotten suspects are members of the Russian Armed Forces and you have a slam-dunk closed case, chapter and verse. Hell, you could make an animated short subject film about it all. And they did.
But the greatest part of the saga, and the detail of the cinematographic reconstruction is straight from the on-line archives of Bellingcat.
Bellingcat is a web site registered in great Britain started by a 30-something blogger called Elliot Higgins. In 2012, Higgins - unemployed and playing stay at home Daddy to his daughter - started blogging about the developing War in Syria. He developed an 'expertise' identifying weapons depicted in YouTube postings, providing what he called 'proof' of Syrian government's use of 'barrel bomb's, cluster munitions and poison gas. Using a synthesis of Google Earth/Google Maps to fact-check posts made on Facebook and other social media, some of his 'revelations' involved locating the sites of ISIS' beheading western and other hostages and identifying the situations around other outrages. When the Ukrainian incident began Higgins became interested in that as well - looking for evidence of Russian involvement in the Donbass. After MH 17, he formed Bellingcat with 6 assistants to investigate the downing of that aircraft. He is credited with 'debunking' satellite imagery presented by the Russians, claiming it had been 'photoshopped'. His 'work' has been largely accepted by investigators because they have very little of their own.
Bellingcat's singular failing - subjectivity
While Bellingcat's work comes off as "professional and decisive", it remains open to a number of challenges. First is the notion that anything can be taken from internet sources without being adapted in some way, or that things posted on the internet are pristine or uncorrupted. It is increasingly evident, that, aside, from the obvious sensitive information, some can be 'staged' including manipulation of attached, metadata identification. One of these, for instance, involves video footage of the Buk missile system being transported through eastern Donbass on the day of the aircraft downing. The videographer who filmed that claims he made the video 12 days before the incident. Something that doesn't jibe at all with the Bellingcat narrative presented by the JIT. Bellingcat's reaction to this is that he's wrong and they're right - the video was shot according to their 'investigations'.
One of the other gaps in Bellingcat's narrative is in relation to the transport truck, which originated in Donetsk but was apparently driven to Russia to fetch the Buk, and then driven all around both Donetsk and Lugansk regions, including those two cities, after being 'stolen' by separatist forces. After it reaches Lugansk, on the way back to Russia, it disappears completely from the story and Bellingcat's ambit, as does the Buk unit itself.
The most notable aspect of the report? The extension of the 'investigation' for another three years.
The JIP announced its long awaited (since last year) finger-pointing report on not only the latest clarification of 'what happened', but the indication of 'who dunnit'.
What happened? Nothing new there: "pro-Russian", not anti-Kyiv, forces got a Buk system from Russia - drove it all around Donetsk and Lugansk regions for a day and, for want of something better to do with it, parked it in an obscure corner of east central Donetsk, and used one of the four missiles they had, to down a Malaysian Airliner. Then they drove it back, to the flat bed truck they had used to drive it into the regions, packed it up without any attempts to hide the cargo and drove it around the two regions again, through a 'highly fluid battle zone' ( a government armored thrust the day after the crash, cut across the Buk's withdrawal route twice), perilously close to Government "fortifications of dignity" at Debaltsevo and east to Lugansk, where, apparently it went 'poof' or unobserved, back into Russia.
One Russian response:
'Who dunnit'? Aside from Putin, the 'Seps on the radio and telephone', and members of a Russian rocket regiment - 100 souls in all, who had something to do with the BUk, the truck, the escorts, command structure or all of the preceding,
And how do we know all this? Well although there really isn't much proof by way of actual witnesses, or physical evidence of anything but the crashed plane, great minds - or at last 6 of them - have mined the repositories of knowledge - Facebook and YouTube. They found and connected a plethora of 'dots'. Not the JIT - they've done little but interview experts and have free lunches - but the 'experts' they have interviewed have made all things clear. Or clear enough to make a cartoon movie to help us all 'get it'.
So who were the experts? Well no Russians were needed. The info came from the Ukrainians, who if they weren't possibly suspected, would have been the prime investigators. The Dutch were the lead, on-the-ground investigators, retrieving remains and wreckage, dealing with the dead and reconstructing the downed aircraft. The EU waded-in and, as usual, so did the Americans. The Brits deciphered the flight recorders. Most of the 'saga' was unearthed through the army of a half-dozen "independent investigative journalists" associated with a website called Bellingcat and its whiz-bang, unemployed, blogger-proprietor. The Malaysians, who actually got to the site first - more than a week before anybody official appeared - got the bums' rush. But at least now they're being assured that given some more time - 3 short years - and a little help from concerned citizens in Russia, they may be able to sue Putin at the Hague, if the gallant EUkrainians don't do it first, maybe.
Within an hour of the jet hitting the ground Ukrainian sources were accusing their 'russian' separatists of downing the aircraft, claiming to have phone intercepts of at least two rebel leaders discussing the crash and celebrating having downed 'another' Ukrainian aircraft. Surprising, insofar as either the Ukrainians were only starting to tap into the dissident area's 'national' cell phone grid, or that the separatists hadn't tweaked to the fact that their using a cell phone was probably going to be overheard in the State Security Office, too. This is a unique eclat compared to the rest of Ukraine's ATO. Even more so because the Seps weren't talking about the other military matters, (or stopped), and that resulted in nasty military 'surprises' all over the east (Saur Moglia within three weeks, and Ilovaisk, within a month of MH17). On those things the Seps were maintaining telephone silence?
Maybe MH 17 cost Kyiv it's 'victory'. After it the Seps dummied-up and the Ukrainian army of liberation was mauled in a series of 'sneak attacks'?
That notion of the Seps doing it and Russia being responsible became the 'lingua fanca' of anybody sensible - for it was as understandable an act for Russia, as was annexing Crimea and invading the Donbass. Putin was just being the 'total ass' that President Obama was telling the world he was. He was on the 'outs' with goodness and civilization and downing a planeload of tourists would prove that to everybody.
Question was 'how sick is Putin?' The answer comes back, "He's not." For it wasn't a falling out of over Ukraine that iced Putin, it was a veto at the UN - of another of Obama's increasing number of 'humanitarian' interventions, this time about Syria. Ukraine 'just happened' and Putin wasn't cheering the US on to another victory. In the absence of evidence forcing a change, the chorus just do better repeating the refrain: "Putin did it."
In so many words - although the JIT was careful to say they weren't accusing Russia of actually ordering the shoot down or nodding approval at the target acquisition radar, saying they gave the Seps a missile and the Seps used that missile to do it, is much like the same thing. Add to that, that at least 80 of the dirty rotten suspects are members of the Russian Armed Forces and you have a slam-dunk closed case, chapter and verse. Hell, you could make an animated short subject film about it all. And they did.
But the greatest part of the saga, and the detail of the cinematographic reconstruction is straight from the on-line archives of Bellingcat.
Bellingcat is a web site registered in great Britain started by a 30-something blogger called Elliot Higgins. In 2012, Higgins - unemployed and playing stay at home Daddy to his daughter - started blogging about the developing War in Syria. He developed an 'expertise' identifying weapons depicted in YouTube postings, providing what he called 'proof' of Syrian government's use of 'barrel bomb's, cluster munitions and poison gas. Using a synthesis of Google Earth/Google Maps to fact-check posts made on Facebook and other social media, some of his 'revelations' involved locating the sites of ISIS' beheading western and other hostages and identifying the situations around other outrages. When the Ukrainian incident began Higgins became interested in that as well - looking for evidence of Russian involvement in the Donbass. After MH 17, he formed Bellingcat with 6 assistants to investigate the downing of that aircraft. He is credited with 'debunking' satellite imagery presented by the Russians, claiming it had been 'photoshopped'. His 'work' has been largely accepted by investigators because they have very little of their own.
Bellingcat's singular failing - subjectivity
While Bellingcat's work comes off as "professional and decisive", it remains open to a number of challenges. First is the notion that anything can be taken from internet sources without being adapted in some way, or that things posted on the internet are pristine or uncorrupted. It is increasingly evident, that, aside, from the obvious sensitive information, some can be 'staged' including manipulation of attached, metadata identification. One of these, for instance, involves video footage of the Buk missile system being transported through eastern Donbass on the day of the aircraft downing. The videographer who filmed that claims he made the video 12 days before the incident. Something that doesn't jibe at all with the Bellingcat narrative presented by the JIT. Bellingcat's reaction to this is that he's wrong and they're right - the video was shot according to their 'investigations'.
One of the other gaps in Bellingcat's narrative is in relation to the transport truck, which originated in Donetsk but was apparently driven to Russia to fetch the Buk, and then driven all around both Donetsk and Lugansk regions, including those two cities, after being 'stolen' by separatist forces. After it reaches Lugansk, on the way back to Russia, it disappears completely from the story and Bellingcat's ambit, as does the Buk unit itself.
The most notable aspect of the report? The extension of the 'investigation' for another three years.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Suppose They Gave an Election and Nobody Came?
Well nobody, or at least very few of them, cast their ballots in yesterday's Russian election. Consequentially, Putin's party will run the Duma for another term - and he'll still be the President. What's special about any of this is that the election has totally made all the world's other cares go away - as we are directed to focus on what we can't do to help the poor, downtrodden non-voting Russians.
Walking it the doggie 'Putin huylo!'
"Sic it nasty coppers Putin-huylo, sic it!"
We could hope they'd hit the streets, fill a square or two with the detritus of protest and, hopefully, the blood of more martyrs for democracy, human rights and free markets ... and give us something to be gladder about.
What all this does do is take our minds off the need to respond to a couple of terror attacks in America. One of those targeted a Mall - the place where George Bush told the American public they were going to 'win the war on terror' by shopping. Another thing they hate us for is Piggly Wiggly's open 24/7 and The Gap. A 'jihadi' stabbed nine full-grown American men, causing a panic in Minnesota, until he was 'stopped' by an 'off-duty', ex-police chief who maybe shouldn't have been carrying a gun in a 'gun free' Mall. Why would Americans need 'gun free' Malls, if the President declared them a war zone?
But I diverge.
The Toronto Star, usually a font of wisdom, but of late just another member of somebody's publishing cartel, took the world outrage about 'Russian election cheating' to a 'higher level'. Along with the ballot-stuffing and double voters and bad stuff busting out all over Russian polling places, the Star accompanied the standard pap with visual proof that "disorders" had accompanied the polling.
Ukrainians celebrate the Russian election
by lynching a Jew (just pretending - that only happens to gypsies).
Giving a kick for democracy in Kyiv
They were right, disorders had accompanied the Russian election, but not in Russia. Ukraine, the unfriendly neighbor to the west, had announced, early last week, that it would not brook any Russian elections on EUkrainian territory. While they were understandably incensed that the vote went on, as planned, in "occupied" Crimea - which is 'de facto' a part of Russia - they also turned out the security forces to guard the Russian embassy in Kyiv from the 'protestors' who were scheduled to appear. The right-wing Volkstrurm Frontline Fighters Association that doesn't exist in dignified Eukrainia, did appear with their EUkraino-doggies and 'slava EUkrinies!!' and prevented any unpatriotic Russian expats from getting near the election booth inside. Not only that, those 'security forces' actually arrested a 'Russian' for "voting irregularities" - a Ukrainian crime covering a Russian election. The forces of freedom in the democratic west should be so observant.
A Russian caught election-rigging in Kyiv
Probably most people in the world and, from the amount of ink expended on the subject, very few members of the western media, were aware until this morning, the Russians were having an election at all. Like how could anybody, threatening world peace in eastern Europe, holding massive military manoeuvres to threaten EUkrainia, backing-up the Chinese and Assad in world trouble spots, or making the poor, recently-discovered yet massively acclaimed "White Helmets" of Aleppo starve in the rubble of the city they helped destroy, take time out for an election?
Everybody on earth - shy a bad dose of hydrocephalus - knows that a real election is taking place in America. It has been for almost a year now. And we also know, again from those media sources which we trust for the 'truthiness', that the evil 'Merlin of Moscow' has been 'hacking' into the US electoral system to such an extent that he has, single-handedly, or with a division of militarized computer geeks, successfully reduced the slate of candidates and left Americans with only two choices for 'Commander-in-Chief'. We know as well, and perhaps more importantly, that there is the imminent likelihood that his 'hacking' will do to America what his election shenanigans have done in Russia, elect one of those Korean War era 'mongoloid candidates ' to sit in the Oval Orifice!
Putin's apt to calling-up on November seventh to say, "Congratulations Mr. President on the big win." And really meaning it.
"Sic it nasty coppers Putin-huylo, sic it!"
We could hope they'd hit the streets, fill a square or two with the detritus of protest and, hopefully, the blood of more martyrs for democracy, human rights and free markets ... and give us something to be gladder about.
What all this does do is take our minds off the need to respond to a couple of terror attacks in America. One of those targeted a Mall - the place where George Bush told the American public they were going to 'win the war on terror' by shopping. Another thing they hate us for is Piggly Wiggly's open 24/7 and The Gap. A 'jihadi' stabbed nine full-grown American men, causing a panic in Minnesota, until he was 'stopped' by an 'off-duty', ex-police chief who maybe shouldn't have been carrying a gun in a 'gun free' Mall. Why would Americans need 'gun free' Malls, if the President declared them a war zone?
But I diverge.
The Toronto Star, usually a font of wisdom, but of late just another member of somebody's publishing cartel, took the world outrage about 'Russian election cheating' to a 'higher level'. Along with the ballot-stuffing and double voters and bad stuff busting out all over Russian polling places, the Star accompanied the standard pap with visual proof that "disorders" had accompanied the polling.
Ukrainians celebrate the Russian election
by lynching a Jew (just pretending - that only happens to gypsies). 
Striking a blow for democracy in Kyiv
A Russian caught election-rigging in Kyiv
Probably most people in the world and, from the amount of ink expended on the subject, very few members of the western media, were aware until this morning, the Russians were having an election at all. Like how could anybody, threatening world peace in eastern Europe, holding massive military manoeuvres to threaten EUkrainia, backing-up the Chinese and Assad in world trouble spots, or making the poor, recently-discovered yet massively acclaimed "White Helmets" of Aleppo starve in the rubble of the city they helped destroy, take time out for an election?
Everybody on earth - shy a bad dose of hydrocephalus - knows that a real election is taking place in America. It has been for almost a year now. And we also know, again from those media sources which we trust for the 'truthiness', that the evil 'Merlin of Moscow' has been 'hacking' into the US electoral system to such an extent that he has, single-handedly, or with a division of militarized computer geeks, successfully reduced the slate of candidates and left Americans with only two choices for 'Commander-in-Chief'. We know as well, and perhaps more importantly, that there is the imminent likelihood that his 'hacking' will do to America what his election shenanigans have done in Russia, elect one of those Korean War era 'mongoloid candidates ' to sit in the Oval Orifice!
Putin's apt to calling-up on November seventh to say, "Congratulations Mr. President on the big win." And really meaning it.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Egyptair: MH 17 The Putin Connection?
The recent downing of the Egyptair Airbus over the Med must have reminded somebody that MH17 is still in need of some definitive proving. And so there is a regurgitation of the 'social media ' evidence that Putin dunnit.
Tell that to the Aussies, who are convinced they're going to be able to convince the ICJ that the chips are all turning-up 'Putin' - and they'd like a few hundred million to assuage the grief involved. The US attorney who got Ghaddafi to cough-up the boodle over Lockerbie - or was that to ensure the release of the convicted, and at that time dying, bomber - has signed-on to 'assist' the case. It might help if any Russians had been convicted since having a Libyan charged, and found guilty, probably made the Lockerbie case a slam-dunk even if the money did come later. But there are no convicted, or even identified, Russians - so MH17 might be tougher.
Although the first part of the MH17 investigation was concluded and the conventional wisdom that 'the russians did it' was upheld by Dutch investigators, enough questions were left unanswered to at least hint that the final word may not be emanating from Kyiv. The Ukrainian side of the issue was adopted from virtually the first moment and only lacking proof would indicate it isn't wrong. Facebook posts of what 'Bellingcat' thinks the Russian military are up to, his evidence is - to a large degree - open to some questioning or interpretation. It is no 'smoking gun'. That's a large part of the problem that could apparently be resolved easily. But for some reason it has not been.
Within two days of the incident, US Secretary of State John Kerry gave every indication that he knew all there was to know about MH17, so much so that he appeared at the UN to demand a sanctions program. But statements aside, one would think if definitive proof was available, as he claimed it was, it would have been made available to the investigation - even 'sub rosa' if military secrets were involved. Here's what he told America and the world three days after the crash.
Kerry on 'Meet the Press' July 20, 2014.
The discussion had been wide-ranging before Kerry Arrived but he launched himself into the topic 'ab initio', he remarked on the separatists' guilt, the Russian commander admitting as much, rejoicing over the hit etc , their control of the crash site, the loading of victims bodies into trucks, knowing Russia had supplied them with Buks and then.
DAVID GREGORY:
"Are you bottom lining here that Russia provided the weapon?
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
There's a story today confirming that. But we have not, within the administration, made a determination. But it's pretty clear, when, you know, there's a build-up of extraordinary circumstantial evidence. You know, I'm a former prosecutor. I've tried cases on circumstantial evidence. It's powerful here. But even more importantly, we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing. And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards.
DAVID GREGORY:
Right.
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
So there's a stacking up of evidence here, which Russia needs to help account for. We are not drawing the final conclusion here. But there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible. And what President Obama believes and we, the international community, join in believing, everybody is convinced we must have unfettered access."
There was a conclusion drawn then that still exists and this is a 'smoking gun' story if I've ever hard one. Yet Kerry has yet to provide the evidence of which he speaks. Or admit making a creative statement to 'color' an already bloody disaster.
The most development in the saga is a recently release dash cam of what is claimed to be the rebels Buk 'moving into position' shortly before it downed the Malaysian airliner.
David Perry of Consortium news deconstructs the updated conventional wisdom
David Perry "More Gameplaying on MH17?"
The second part of the investigation. The presentation of incriminating evidence and the proof of Russian perfidy is not expected anytime soon.
In the meanwhile there is another plane - Egyptair - fallen from the sky and even now (almost two weeks later) almost beyond the ability of modern man to retrieve let alone know exactly what happened. We're nor getting much better at air disasters, are we?
Tell that to the Aussies, who are convinced they're going to be able to convince the ICJ that the chips are all turning-up 'Putin' - and they'd like a few hundred million to assuage the grief involved. The US attorney who got Ghaddafi to cough-up the boodle over Lockerbie - or was that to ensure the release of the convicted, and at that time dying, bomber - has signed-on to 'assist' the case. It might help if any Russians had been convicted since having a Libyan charged, and found guilty, probably made the Lockerbie case a slam-dunk even if the money did come later. But there are no convicted, or even identified, Russians - so MH17 might be tougher.
Although the first part of the MH17 investigation was concluded and the conventional wisdom that 'the russians did it' was upheld by Dutch investigators, enough questions were left unanswered to at least hint that the final word may not be emanating from Kyiv. The Ukrainian side of the issue was adopted from virtually the first moment and only lacking proof would indicate it isn't wrong. Facebook posts of what 'Bellingcat' thinks the Russian military are up to, his evidence is - to a large degree - open to some questioning or interpretation. It is no 'smoking gun'. That's a large part of the problem that could apparently be resolved easily. But for some reason it has not been.
Within two days of the incident, US Secretary of State John Kerry gave every indication that he knew all there was to know about MH17, so much so that he appeared at the UN to demand a sanctions program. But statements aside, one would think if definitive proof was available, as he claimed it was, it would have been made available to the investigation - even 'sub rosa' if military secrets were involved. Here's what he told America and the world three days after the crash.
Kerry on 'Meet the Press' July 20, 2014.
The discussion had been wide-ranging before Kerry Arrived but he launched himself into the topic 'ab initio', he remarked on the separatists' guilt, the Russian commander admitting as much, rejoicing over the hit etc , their control of the crash site, the loading of victims bodies into trucks, knowing Russia had supplied them with Buks and then.
DAVID GREGORY:
"Are you bottom lining here that Russia provided the weapon?
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
There's a story today confirming that. But we have not, within the administration, made a determination. But it's pretty clear, when, you know, there's a build-up of extraordinary circumstantial evidence. You know, I'm a former prosecutor. I've tried cases on circumstantial evidence. It's powerful here. But even more importantly, we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing. And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards.
DAVID GREGORY:
Right.
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
So there's a stacking up of evidence here, which Russia needs to help account for. We are not drawing the final conclusion here. But there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible. And what President Obama believes and we, the international community, join in believing, everybody is convinced we must have unfettered access."
There was a conclusion drawn then that still exists and this is a 'smoking gun' story if I've ever hard one. Yet Kerry has yet to provide the evidence of which he speaks. Or admit making a creative statement to 'color' an already bloody disaster.
The most development in the saga is a recently release dash cam of what is claimed to be the rebels Buk 'moving into position' shortly before it downed the Malaysian airliner.
David Perry of Consortium news deconstructs the updated conventional wisdom
David Perry "More Gameplaying on MH17?"
The second part of the investigation. The presentation of incriminating evidence and the proof of Russian perfidy is not expected anytime soon.
In the meanwhile there is another plane - Egyptair - fallen from the sky and even now (almost two weeks later) almost beyond the ability of modern man to retrieve let alone know exactly what happened. We're nor getting much better at air disasters, are we?
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