From Bad to Freakin' Horrible

Since last I wrote,  Syria has taken another distinct turn for the worse. Not the least part of this is the far-more-evident problem of Syrian refugees seeking safety by storming the walls of the EU.

First the Syrian part. There are really no new developments to note, ISIS continues to be the 'pain in the ass' and bombing target it was last month.  Anti-ISIS operations in Iraq are as bogged-down as they have been since the great offensive to liberate Tikrit flopped last spring. The only good news there is that the bombing goes on, unopposed and unabated. But there are now some new 'boots on the ground' - the Turks have gone to war.



 No friends of the Assad regime, the Turks have been calling for his ouster all along but until this last fortnight, aside from allowing some 'free access' to those foreigners 'pouring in' to join ISIS  and setting up some camps for the hordes pouting out, the Turks haven't done much at all. Twitted, no doubt, by the USA - which is looking for all the coalition they can get - the Turks announced they'd be bombing targets in Northern Iraq. Problem was that when the bombs started falling, the folk underneath them were the other great Turkish 'dislike', the Kurds.

Now as we all know the Kurds are being 'prepped' as the saviors of most of the middle east for goodness, decency and the democratic way. They've been de-listed as world-terrorists, trained by the Israelis and the Germans, armed by America and supported by a number of military contingents from all he best warfighting nations in the free world. A start-up of Turkey's 'long war' with America's best 'friends and allies' was not in President Obama's game plan. The report that over 100 people have been killed in 'terrorist' attacks in southern and eastern turkey over the past two weeks does not bode well for a unified resistance to ISIS.

Turkey - last Friday - the Kurds strike back

It was briefly hooted around, this week,  that the Russians were coming 'on-side' to face down ISIS, and - it was hoped -  to stop supporting Assad. That hope was dashed yesterday when the Russian Foreign Secretary was called to hear America's concerns that the Russians were expanding their presence in Syria and substantially increasing Assad's supply of heavy weapons and aircraft. Fear that Russian Spetznaz operatives might somehow wind-up clashing with US special forces on clandestine operations in eastern Syria were mooted in some military websites.  Vlad pulled another 'fast one' while the gipper was contemplating Alaska.

The latest 'offensive' to recapture Ramadi has bogged-down (as all such Iraqi government operations seem to do). Somehow their hearts don't seem to be in taking back Sunni territory - even if the elected government does have the right. They'd have to fight the Kurds, too, for the chunk they hold.  If it wasn't for the on-going horror of the beheadment knives, the Shiites might just quit. I have a feeling Iran is saving something for later, right now they just want to not help America.

The war on terror is what it is but the western media are filled with the plight of refugees displaced by the war in Syria and Iraq.  The warm-up of Turkey's Kurdish trouble destabiliazed the area where most of the refugees have been placed, making them some kind of camouflage for the Kurds and potential targets for government retribution. Educated by the past 10 years,  they have wisely voted with their feet and headed for Turkey's Mediterranean coast.  No doubt happy to see them going, Turkey hasn't stopped them traveling to the Greek off-shore islands from where they are able to island-hop to the mainland and Europe. From Greece they travel north into former Yugoslavia and through that to Hungary. For a while it seemed that was the finish line. The Hungarians announced a border fence - not yet constructed - and no passage for refugees - or as they were increasingly described 'migrants'.  Numbers overwhelmed the border and a second attempt was made to stop them using the railways to head for Austria and Germany. Once again that failed and large numbers have managed to work their way to the German border. Angela Merkel is under some pressure to deal with the problem and just to-day the Hungarians - goaded no doubt by fearful fellow-members of the EU announced they were deploying troops to the southern border. Clashes between refugees and Hungarian police were reported to-day.

All it would take is another tragedy.

The first tragedy came last week in the form of one of those pivotal photo ops, this time of a dead four-year old on a Lido beach in Greece. The image shot round the world and initially generated a wave of sympathy - with the concomittent appeals for cash by western charities. The dead child may have accomplished more by dying than he ever could have in life - or he might have been the savior of mankind, but not any more. He did put a beaming, happy face on what to most people was something very safely ignored. The news also generated the typical spate of (mostly Australian) anti-moslem rhetoric about it being a 'scam', a fake a false flag,  a cover for creeping jihadis to avoid the invasion rowboats and have 'us' paying to import 'them' where they could do the most harm, etc.

 Aussie perspective

Somebody even 'reported' the grieving father to be 'living in luxury' in Turkey (as if), that he'd invented the story or fled Syria,  to "get new teeth". An English newspaper followed him, and his coffins, back to a ruined house in Kobane and photographed the funeral,  as well as the bombed town the family fled.

Daily Mail

The Prime Minister of Canada (which had rejected a sponsorship application for the boy's family - his aunt lives in Canada) ruminated, empathized, not only with Syrians but "the millions displaced" in the GWOT. He blamed ISIS for the plight and reminded Canadians that this tragedy shouldn't interfere with Canada's very necessary bombing of northern Iraq and eastern Syria.  He also pointed out what good job Canada had done with refugees on his watch, allowed as how we could do more but had to be careful about letting the bad guys sneak through with the needy. Eminently sensible considering he, personally, declared us a target in the anti-Islamic terror wars.

In a fit of hubris PM Harper was embarrassed this morning to be greeted by video of one of his 'team' running for reelection taking a leak into somebody's coffee cup. By such things are the mighty humbled. Something like that should happen to the jackass governing Australia - but it would just serve to make him more 'human'.   (Off topic but I just had to mention it.)

Take Those Gals Outside and Shoot Them

Yesterday morning (two weeks ago - mea culpa)  - up early - I happened across an interesting story that ISIS had recently shot 19 young women for refusing to (marry?) have sex with their fighters. The story of sex slavery among ISIS fighters almost differentiates them from all the other Islamic evils  - who have also been accused of massacres and lopping-off heads for the edification of the young 'uns too. But this particular tale - as recounted - the piece mentioned - by an unnamed "Kurdish official" who claimed it happened in an unnamed location last week - grabbed my attention, not only for the garish subject material, but also because of the vitriolic response of the readership.  The source was a CNN-affiliated site IN India, and the respondents, I assume, were Indians, outraged at the killing of a perfectly good answer to the national shortage of females, or something, and who were demanding that Europe, of all places,  get involved to stop it. Why they weren't calling on the Indian armed forces escapes me.

By 9:00 am the story was appearing in the Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media sources. By now the official had a name and other details and tie-ins to related stories (a UN official's 'slave price list'  a notable one).  The story spread westward, throughout the day, until CNN discovered its affiliate's piece in time for the evening news.

Today the story has spawned a host of 'studies' of ISIS predilection for sex slaves. One military site, in relation to Gen.  Odierno's  retirement, calling for the 'restrategization of Syria',  cited sex-slavery as a potential 'winning' strategy for ISIS and demanded a strategy to counter it. Sex slavery was all over the place to-day. The British Daily Mail upped the ante to accuse ISIS of securing young girls to the windshields of their captured 'humvees' as they drove into battle. The graphics used were the same ones used to accompany the sex-slaves stories from the day before.

Daily Mail; human shield

Daily Mail - rape is religion

The Mail is tabloid journalism at its finest, but for some reason more sober (WaPo, NYT) sources  (WaPo, NYT) seem to feel 'sensible'  citing  its material.   Note that in none of this - nor in the sober sources is there any fact checking, corroborating details of even the basis on which the story could be checked.  But the cry for revenge is noteworthy - any world leader considering slinging some bombs on Syria couldn't help but feel the effort was justified. Even Ghaddafi wasn't abusing little girls. .

All of this is remarkable in two ways. First there is a tremendous response from readers almost all of whom demand more European involvement in Syria. The Brits last week flew their first RAF sorties against ISIS targets - they had been flying USAF machines as seconded pilots before this time. The second aspect is that there is not one iota of corroborative evidence appearing in any internet sources, to back these stories up. That Kurdish official, who started it all, could qualify for a Pulitzer if column inches and volume of citations were the requirements.  But, stangely, he wasn't recorded giving his statement, nor asked about how he learned of it.  In fact no by-lines have been attached to the story, until possibly to-day - and it's strange with a capital S.

A Catholic news site in the USA  (Catholic Online) ran the standard story, but extended the work - with the same graphics, etc, into an appeal for prayer and one assumes donations, as if the dead girls and sex slaves are all Roman Catholics.   The interesting part is that it attributes the story to one "Abigail Jones"  at "News Consortium" - its own news service - and claims that Abigail wrote it on August 7th - a week before the world found out courtesy of India.

Catholic Online Story

If it wasn't for the hue and cry, and for remembering a heartbroken young woman from Kuwait (who turned out to be the ambassador to the US's  daughter) telling the UN of watching Iraqi soldiers empty incubator babies onto the floor (it turned out to be a 'story') in preparation for US 'warfighters' cheering as the baby-dumpers were carbonized when American air strikes 'caught' them fleeing a month later,  I might almost believe this. But it smacks of the kind of bullshit we need to make our wars 'right'.

Publishing this on September 1,  I can say that the 'outrage' dissipated as quickly as it arose. Save that the French are supposedly joining the English to bomb Syria  tomorrow.

 It apparently worked.

MH 17

Last July the singular event of Ukraine's recent tribulation came to earth in the fields around the village of  Grabovo. After an investigation lasting a year, and more, the report of the commission looking into the cause of the tragedy is to be made public in October - this after a requested 'delay' of some four months.

In the meantime, members of the investigations panel have continued to blame Russian separatists and have, more recently, approached the UNSC to pass a a resolution setting-up a UN tribunal to adjudicate the matter. The Russians have called the move premature,  inferring it is a move to preempt publishing the investigation findings, as promised,  by opening a court process.  Each of the four participants in the investigation - Holland, Ukraine, Belgium and Australia  - have an individual veto on publication should any of them 'disagree' with the findings. The fifth member Malaya - doesn't. That Ukraine, (in the absence of tangible proof of its claims is starting to look like a major actor in the tragedy or even might bear an innocent responsibility for possibly diverting that plane into danger rather than away from it), has a veto on the report,  is an unprecedented turn of events.



Using the evidence that does exist - the wreckage of the aircraft - it seems to be increasingly evident that an air-to-air missile followed by cannon fire may have brought the aircraft to earth. If that is indeed the case, then the fault lies entirely at the feet of the Kyiv government and a year of  increased EU and US  'sanctions', designed to bring down the Russian economy,  are an unwarranted act of economic aggression.

The Australian government has been 'leading the verbal charge' in support of Ukraine, that Russia is to blame, that sanctions should be broadened, that the UN should take over. And yet the Australian media have been highly selective in revealing details of the incident at a variance with the 'conventional wisdom' on the topic.  Here is a piece written on this by an Australian lawyer.

http://journal-neo.org/2015/04/27/mh17-how-the-media-failed-the-victims-and-the-families/

A recent RT documentary on the topic explores the Malayan connection, interviewing the families of the aircrew and exploring the possibility that something may have been missed or covered-up in the deaths of the crew.  The Global Media report of this indicates that the pilot's seats were left at the crash site, even though the cockpit area was identified, by the panel, as the site of the greatest damage by whatever it was downed the aircraft. The seats, as well as the bodies, should have been a fount of evidence of what those 'high velocity' objects entering MH17 really were. Nothing has been reported about the autopsies. And those seats were 'news' to investigators.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-mh17-pilots-corpse-more-on-the-cover-up/5467351

One of the main proponents of Russian involvement is a British blogger who claims that  popular media postings can be used to back-up the Ukrainian claims that the rebels had a Russian Buk system in eastern Ukraine, used it on the airliner and then evacuated the unit back to Russia for  eradication. His investigations have also revealed a spurious 'evidence' auction  purportedly buying audio transmissions relating to the crash. One of these involved an American, supposedly working for the CIA who was near the crash site the day the airliner was downed.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/07/29/the-strange-story-of-the-ten-thousand-bitcoin-mh17-investigation/comment-page-2/#comment-25289

Then there is another tangential report of an Malayan airliner 'twin' belonging to a US company and stored at an Israeli airport. A number of possible uses for such a dummy aircraft are reported. Along with this one of the last photographs taken of MH17, at the boarding gate for its last flight, by an interested Israeli who was not a passenger.

http://www.bollyn.com/home#article_14814

And finally there's the Corbett report on the topic, dated August 2014, but containing some points, even at that early date that have yet to be explained.

https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-294-crashes-of-convenience-mh17/

Even nuttier: the separatists were searching for 'pilots' who had descended by parachute. 5 parachutes were reported to have existed the passenger plane, or it's vicinity.  No pilots from the UAF were reported captured, or killed, the day of the crash, or in succeeding days. It could be possible parachutists were 'rescued' and taken to safety - in Ukrainian territory. .

"Mossad did it!" : those cockamamie Russians

The very latest up to the minute, etc

"Possible" missile fragments may have been found in the wreckage.  Seems this old hat as somebody was turning-up Buk fragments last August. They didn't turn out to be much at all,  as it couldn't be proven they even came from the incident, or the area. But who knows - the 'possibility' lit-up the twitterverse like Holy Writ.

To-day the 'russians' are being mocked over a completely terrible 'phone interception' of calls between Boris Badinov and a CIA agent in Donbass discussing their mission 'to down a passenger jet' last July.  The story has been around for a while, but recently was resuscitated when translated and published in a German Blog. The 'russians' claim it was presented to them by the former, now relieved,  head of the Ukrainian security service - the same interceptors of rebel missile shooters. They need such 'presents' like they need a new Czar.

But the supposed CIA man is an American blogger who actually was in Ukraine. He writes for a number of US sources, so somebody should ask him where he was and what he was doing the day the Boeing was dropped. That seems like a no-brainer.

Defaulto the Wonder Pup

Default is defined as "the failure to perform a task or responsibility".  In law it means to 'lose a case by failing to appear in court.' In computer terms it means the standard operation that occurs as programmed, barring a change by the operator.'  Lately however the world has been fixated on the financial application of the term: 'failing to pay one's obligations'.

 We watched in wonderment as the Greek 'default' loomed onto the horizon. The world drew bated breath as the Greek people hoisted the middle digit towards Berlin and then we gasped in relief when a 'revolutionary government' kowtowed to the bankers and apologized for ever dreaming of not paying a massive national debt.  They've now got an even larger national debt, but what they really wanted was the time to get another government elected before it all happens again.

 It's too bad the Greeks weren't like the gallant Ukrainians.  They aren't in the EU, yet, and so they can let their money sink to abysmal rates of exchange, or go as bust as they like. There are no Germanic banking laws to hold them back. Why, they've already voted approval for the President to declare 'a moratorium' on debt payments.   For this they're being lauded by the same banking community that was prepared to close Greece.

Ukraine has already had one small international loan fall due in July. No doubt they were able to make the minimum payment with some borrowed money, for they didn't have to do that 'default' thing.  Come the end of August there are more loans falling due, and a fairly hefty one (30 billion) coming up in September. For these loans the Ukrainians want the same thing the Greeks wanted - a 'principle trim'.  The Ukrainians want the debt holders to 'forgive',  or remit, 40 percent of the amounts owed and restructure the remaining debt.  They've already received a 'promising' reply from the Templeton Group of New York - who said they're willing to drop a 5 percent 'bonus' for terms on the rest.  That's, in Ukraine's eyes, like having someone admit she's  a hooker, and so now they are preparing to 'seriously negotiate' the price of the drop.  Templeton must be receiving some generous  tax considerations 'in lieu' - in short the US taxpayer will be paying the Ukrainian tab. The same situation should apply to the larger debts. Ukraine will not be 'forced into default' over loans owing to western banks.  And the Russian loan - 3 billion - due and payable in full in  October - will most likely get that Presidential 'ki-bosh'. Ukraine wouldn't give Putin the sweat of somebody's testicles,  even if he needed metabolytes.

Porko will need to be seen  'standing up' to somebody financial to make the masses proud to take reduced pensions and less 'free' government services than they've had since Leon was a Trotsky. They will need something about which to feel proud and neither the 'American School' of govvermint' nor the Governor of Odessa is it.

Hush!  Listen!  (SILENCE) 

That's the sound of the unvitation to become a 'real part' of Europe.

Putinic Trollery

If you Google 'Ukraine  invasion'  you turn up more than 15 million hits - 99 percent of them telling the sad tale of how gallant little Ukrainia was just minding its own business when Vlad the impaler stuck one of his appendages into the rear end of that sad land. 15 million. Do the same for 'Ukraine Russia' conflict and you pop 35 million hits. Googling 'Novorossia' gets 580 thousand or 'Crimea' will get you 19 million - again telling what's wrong, instead of what's right.

The Atlantic 'fingers it out'.

Yet for some reason the sad side of the story keeps crying the blues about 'Putin's trolls' and how they're' somehow' trying to make the world think there's something 'screwy' with the Maidan thing and the government the US 'brokered' as a result. As if reality can be topped by creative writing.

Maybe the first thing 'screwy' is who's doing the trolling. Maybe it's a language thing - you could pick a Ukrainian out of any crowd, especially one speakink English, so it's easier to copy 'Putin's troll' from the white board than it is to come up with a cogent counter argument for any of the objections to NEUkrainia. But you can't say they haven't been busy getting 'the word out'. Whatever little cottage industry there isn't in Kyiv, it ain't the ministry of propaganda.

 You have to laugh, though, (if it wasn't for the very real killing that goes on) at the sophistry that passes for wisdom in the 'leadership' of Ukraine.  Poroshenko's speeches a case in point.  Yatseniuk is less 'poetic' but more  malignant and Turchynev just isn't fit for western consumption, so they try to keep him away from a mike. This is the triumvirate that runs Ukraine. All the rest - the oligarchs, the rebutylhydrated neo-nazis, the foreign advisors and deputies, are window-dressing to flesh-out the 'saga'; to put some 'shinola' on the turd - 'lustration' it's called. Some of them speak and write english quite well,  coming, as they do, from US schools, if not 'ex-pat' backgrounds. That doesn't, however, improve the quality of the malarkey.



     

                                           Sieg Yats with 'Nazi' Tyahnybok and Klitschko

Alina Mokhrushyna of the University of Ottawa did a critique on one of president Poroshenko's recent,  more Castro-like (time wise) , presentations. He made a lot of factual errors and oversights - not hard to understand considering his backgrounds. He is 'bent' enough to be considered crooked. Actually it's reminiscent of Jim Jones before the kool-aid arrived.

Poroshenko: 'Chapter and verse' - the poet speaks.


If you have an hour of reading time to spare,  'Porko's state of the union' address to the Rada at the end of May, is an education on dissembling, but not on 'Porko'.  I don't think even he believes a word he says.

And just to-day, August 4th, Yatseniuk is in the news claiming the western media aren't devoting enough space to gallant little Ukrainia.  Putin should be so lucky. 

Ramadana-ding-dong

Isis turned one this past month and, according to them who know these things, it's a 'real' , 'new', evil that seeks, not a place at the 'table', but the actual removal of said table. According to the wise, it's celebrating the feast of Ramadan in a very special way because of that.

 Counterpunch exposee!

Clear-eyed realists, (it beats the drug-induced kind) such as Canada's Steve Harper and 32 percent of all Canadians 'know' (otherwise he wouldn't have deployed half the Canadian Air Force, and all of the sniper force, to aid Iraq in their destruction of ISIS/IL) what a 'threat' they really are - even more than the evils that are Putin, and the NDP.   (Well not really - 65 percent of us recognize the 'threat' of Putin to be so great we want to send the whole army to eastern Europe. And the NDP is actually starting to 'come a winner' for Canadians!). Can we be faulted if there aren't as many targets in northern Iraq as there were in downtown Libya, or Afghanistan?  Target richness is variable, eh? But that shouldn't stop us looking, or bombing.

Naturally, you have to have security for 'the mission' and so that's why most Canadians are earning their campaign ribbon in sun-blasted Kuwait, where the fear of the 'bolshie bomber' is lessened and the 'jihadi jitters' not so bad.  Although that's equivalent to flying out of Base Trenton to a war zone around Iqualuit . Even with their 'long legs', Canada's F-18's require air-to-air refueling to get here, stay there to look/bomb and  then return to base. It's a good thing we have 'friends and allies'. I wonder what they're charging for the 'joy juice' even if delivery is free.

It makes one wonder what happened to the magnificent forces that 'shock and awed' Saddam, blasted Iraq into the middle ages and now seem to have redeployed somewhere else. Do  8 Canadian aircraft make all that much difference?

While Canada was 'holding the line' in Iraq, Isis apparently is running amok , (to 'celebrate its birthday'?), almost everywhere else. There have been on-going attacks in Nigeria, Niger and other parts of Central Africa. Isis is still fighting in Libya. ISIS took Ramadi and Palmyra in the face of the best mediocre 'bang-bang' some money could buy (We've 'trimmed that fat' in Iraq.).  It attacked the friendly AU forces in Somalia last week. It made an outrage in Pakistan. Yesterday, it struck at Egypt in the Sinai. 'ISIS fighters' (viz a guy with a gun - but completely different to shooting-up a black Bible study class) supposedly struck in peaceful Tunisia and in France with 'front page-grabbing terror attacks'. About the only thing the west can counter with, is a growing number of 'security arrests' and regular announcements that the drones have nailed another 'biggie'.  Thank goodness the Taliban haven't shared the secret of the 'invasion rowboats' - but then, they are 'enemies' of ISIS as well and, maybe, because of that, they are no longer, perhaps, as much the 'enema' we've been fighting for the past 14 years as they are  potential 'peace partners'. Or maybe they still are scumbags in need of killing,  we haven't figured it out yet.  All is couched in possibilities.

 What we have figured out is that Iran is behind it all.  Not, as some wags thought, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab forces of light and goodness. From Ansar al Aqba to Zeddi al Djinn ANY and EVERY  problem in the middle east leads back to Teheran - in an almost straight line! The mad ayetollehs of Teheran are plotting the demise of western civilization, don't cha no?  Just the same as did Darryl the Mede as he swept down on snoozing Nebuchadnezzar.

And just a soon as they spill the atomizer:  Kablooie! Civilization as we know it goes poop!

In the meantime - even though their economy has 'gone bust' with the sanctions program - they're shipping-off the last of the national wealth to pay for unibombers. Somebody ought to tell the Iranians. They, being the decent people they are, wouldn't stand for that and there is a perfectly good Shah ( 'Och, he's a lovely wee boy"- as Mum would say) and his court-in-waiting in New York.

Meanwhile we'll keep the table polished and gather around it the 'hard core' forces of 'piece and progress'. The world needs gay marriage and real 'love' more than it needs high explosives or even another banking fiasco. If there's one thing we can stand for and they can't,  it's human rights, and the free-market system. We don't shoot innocent sunbathers, or even drop bombs on them. Well not unless they're Russians, for, you see, them 'Islamics' don't doff their duds at the beach, where you could really scope 'em out with the drone optics and nail them. Or at least get some 'actionable' imagery to post in the trailer.

We will, for the foreseeable future, 'keep on keeping on'.  It's them invasion rowboats (robots???), eh?

And the Beast Goes On

Last week another shocking incident of racially-motivated gun violence didn't shock America. A deranged white gunman shot up a church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people.  While it didn't shock America - at least not the white part of America, it did make the news. And in a number of unique ways.

 First of all, when compared to the Tsarnaev case, now winding-up in a Massachusetts courtroom, the counter points seem quite obvious.  Tsarnaev and his older brother planted a couple of home-made bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. When the bombs exploded 3 people were killed and 230 were injured, some seriously. For that incident, a national hue and cry that eventually involved some 3 000 police and security officers ensued. The two brothers were tracked-down. One was killed in the initial attempted arrest and the other was riddled, but survived a police action the next day, before being arrested and charged with terrorism. The resulting investigation saw related charges laid against three other 'conspirators',  another of whom was shot dead by arresting officers. In Charleston, Dylann Roof, a 21 year-old, grade nine dropout and video game player, shot nine people participating in a Bible study session at that city's historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.  Like the Tsarnaevs, he was recorded on video security and within hours his face was on APB's issued nationwide. An Uncle identified him to authorities.  He was arrested in a traffic stop, early the next day, some 200 miles west.  Unlike the Tsarnaevs police were not shooting to kill, perhaps because, unlike them, he wasn’t also accused of killing a policeman. He waived his rights and was extradited back to S. Carolina where he confessed to the killings as an attempt to start a race war.

Given that the dead were all black and the shooter was white, and he told survivors why he was dong it., authorities labeled this a 'hate crime'. Perhaps if, like Tsarnaev's case, they hadn’t known the immediate motive, this would have been called an 'act of terrorism', too. Starting a race war isn’t as terroristic as fighting a religious one?  The mill of ‘justis’ will grind on and  - worst case scenario - another Charlie Manson is born - but we all know he’s just nuts.

 Speaking about ‘nuts’ is the second part of this story, the ‘fleg that made him do it’. For the national soul-searching, this time, has focused on the ‘battle flag of the Confederacy’ that "starry cross" featured on the Dukes of Hazzard’s Dodge and a thousand BassMaster tackle boxes. A relic of America’s great national ‘shivarree’ and ‘set-to’ - the Civil War over the darkies. A symbol of the ‘heart of Dixie’ and the culture of a ‘better’ time,  long-past. America wants the rebel flag removed from the national vexillology and consigned to the same place reserved for the ‘swastika’ and the ‘hammer and sickle’ (not in Moscow - that’s a nexus of nastiism).

The shootist was holding that flag in a photograph, along with his .44 cal Glock.  Pity he wasn’t armed with the flag that day last week. He might not be in jail to-day and 9 people might not be dead. But nobody ‘sensible' in America, remarks on the obvious.  Obama weighed-in on the shootings and he almost said it. But he’s been accused of stealing too many ‘freedoms’ already. It’s seems more sensible to ban that flag than it does to curtail a 20 year old getting a .44 calibre automatic pistol, from his Daddy, for his birthday. It's certainly more 'American' than controlling guns.

The President looked whupped. Maybe he’s just gone up against 'the great national stupidity' one time too many. Perhaps he’s come to beginning to realize the USA might just be that ‘sick puppy’ the Tsarnaev’s said helped them decide to bomb a footrace. But then he’s had a lot to do with helping it become a lot meaner, along with more stupid.

What a Month it Was

"Bless us fadda, it has been a month since me last"  post, but a lot like a confession this one will be.

Ukrainia  continues to fester over low heat. The situation is reminiscent of the joyous Christmas season (Ukrainian Catholic) with desultory shelling around Donetsk, east of Mariuople and a steady report of casualties on both sides. There are no 'trapped' garrisons to be rescued and resupplied (or eliminated). So there shouldn't be be any 'massive tooth breaking offensive' written-off as humanitarian mission, but that doesn't mean there won't be.

Kyiv has a 'new' army some 35 000 youngsters 'called to the colors' during and since the last fiasco. And what's the sense of having an army of heroes-in-waiting and not using it? I would imagine, however, that even  patriotic arms-refurbishers are demanding greenbacks up front before taking government orders these days. The only weapons Porko has been seen 'giving' to the new army, just drove off a USAF C-17 in the form of "non-lethal hardware". But we'll see. A good fight is always better than a bankruptcy.



Meanwhile the handcart has come off the rails elsewhere (Or, things are working out according to plan.). What was looking like the same old, same old in Yemen has turned into another 'coalition exercise'. This time the Saudis have taken the aggressive bit between their teeth and are practicing what America preaches on  Houthi rebels who "overran" the western part of the country and 'illegally couped' the former almost-elected President in favor of the son of the previously president 'legally couped' by AQ.  None of this, however, is in any way comparable to , say, Ukraine, for this is all about Iranian "hegemony" in the Red Sea don'tcha no?  Or illegal estoppage thereof.

America is 'officially' sitting this one out, but restocking the Saudi arms bunker,  in order to see what transpires - maybe it will be peace and good times. But a close eye is being kept lest the Ayetolleh tries to 'putin' the situation by sending in volunteers, armor, or any of that 'humanitarian' assistance. Needless to say, the civilian population, of any stripe, has been taking the rap on the nose, as the military try to avoid actually wrecking any of the expensive hardware America has so thoughtfully  provided to both sides.

A couple of interesting factoids coming out of this:  the Malaysians (of MH17 fame)  have almost done a back-flip denying that they are any part of 'the coalition', after an Malaysian aircraft landed in Saudi Arabia to rescue Malaysians trapped in Yemen and the media were told it was full of Moslem seamen, or something.

Another recent development was a unilaterally-declared halt in the bombing coming from Riyadh. While ostensibly for 'humanitarian reasons', the halt was more like the interval while the dentist changes the drill bit -you know what's coming. And it did, after 'quiet' 5 days during which the UN was able to fly about 5 tonnes of supplies in to Sanaa, the 'boom boom' restarted with an Arab 'adler tag'.

Meanwhile the Iranians continued to be thwarted trying to get 2500 tonnes of supplies in by ship.  At last report it was steaming for Djibouti, of all places,  for an international inspection. That's no guarantee 'the coalition' will allow it to dock in Yemen.  My guess?  Not!.

Beware the Jealous Peon

While America's steely gaze was focused on the threats from the east, while her fightin' men were training-up a new generation of heroes in places all across the globe, the tyrannical 'communists' of Venezuela, trampling all over the freedom of anti-government protestors to protest, arrested the ringleaders, flung them into a dungeon and demanded war powers for their enfeebled leadership.  In doing so Venezuela has parlayed itself into an official 'threat to US national security'.  So, just when President Obama was about to strew Cuba with the blessings of American friendship, the sanctions program will be refocused on the land of uppity peons.

What is the nature of that threat?  Harboring enemy WMDs?  Playing host to a jihadis? Plotting to overthrow a federal government?  A Conspracy to flood the US market with cheap dope? Overwhelm border security with a wave of illegal immigrants? Corner the market on 'ass-wipe' and adult paper diapers?  Stop selling America oil?  What could it be that the fat Wayne Newton look-alike has done to warrant being banned from OAS group photos?

Why he's made America waste another whack of cash fomenting nothing!  Unlike the $6 billion 'eclat' in Kyiv, a year of the best subsidized mayhem money could buy hasn't shifted the tyrants a millimeter. All it has done is get the 'useful idiots' unfairly arrested and a series of CIA operatives sent back home. Where's Vicki Nuland when you need her? But America doesn't have many 'EUkrainian type' pals in Venezuela  (at least not smart ones like in Kyiv). The majority of the simple don't want to go back to the 'good old days', even though things are tight and the army hasn't all been 'proselytized' in the School of the Americas..

Even the US agitprop of 'peaceful' protest turned violent, of shootings and tear-gassings, expensive sneakers, wife beaters , face masks, baseball caps, and 'murdered beauty queens' haven't had the kind of traction the dog-waggers need.  So it's well  past time to kick things up a notch and kick them in the slats. Obama hasn't announced the sanctions yet,  but Venezuela is starving for the simple things in life - a regular supply of toilet paper for one thing. (although I'd bet some of the poor haven't seen that, ever) decent razor blades, dippitydoo, and American jeans. And then there's the banking system, trade and the economy can always be 'shut right down'.

Just like Russia.

The Strong Right Arm of EUkrainia

 There has been an outbreak of killings - of old politicians and new and old journalists,  that could be described as either 'flying accidents' when they fall from heights or 'hunting accidents' when they get themselves shot. There are also a growing number of 'suicides' among those who 'can't ' live in the new EUkraine.. Such a demographic doesn't seem to exist among 'real' Ukrainians

While Poroshenko bends backwards to make his government more acceptable to the west, he promotes his neo-nazi and rabidly nationalist supporters out of the public eye and into the increasing maelstrom that is EUkraine to-day.  The RADA is  taking on the semblance of an eastern European UN as expatriate Ukrainians come 'home' to take up the reins of government and foreign technocrats are 'nationalized' and given vital portfolios. In the meanwhile, the under-evil that seems to drive the new 'folk nation' is taking root and spreading out.

'Youth' has been a driving force in many of the staged  'lustrations', confrontations, provocations and punishments meted out to those who fail the test of ethnicity. Youth, backed up when necessary by strong-arm squads like the Kyiv security battalions,  regularly confront and beat those accused of being less than fervid in their love for country.

Until very recently a website helped those 'punishers' find their targets. (see below)

It was such an information that is, in some circles being blamed for the recent murder of former Minister Kalashnikov - shot to death answering the door to his 8th floor apartment. His assailants escaped without even video evidence. ( A car licensed in Latvia was reported to have been found and related to the killing.)

Youth has often been recorded rampaging and destroying 'Russian" businesses in the western regions. Here is a recent video of such 'youth' in action. Being stopped by elderly Ukrainians and put to shame by a grandmother. Such youth is the foundation of such 'volunteer battalions' as the Azov - noted for its front-line fighting.

Then there are members of the former governing party or administration who have failed to see things the 'new way'.

And there are journalists.

This one brings the number up to 14 since a year ago November.

Kalashnikov's 'rap' page

And most of them were listed on a terrorists and criminals site that encouraged good citizens to watch them or turn them in - along with a couple of hundred others who haven't been 'brought to justis'. The site was subsequently taken down and somehow purged from Google archives. but not before some information about it was retrieved.

MoA scooped

In a very recent development, Kyiv media were reporting that the "Ukraine Insurgent Army" - the latest anti-Maidan 'terrorist force' accused of bombings and demolitions in western cities -  are claiming to have killed these people. That gets those who really hated them off the hook, eh? It's almost poetic (something that appeals to the EUkrainian soul?) they were killed by worse enemies of freedom than they were ho, ho!

Keep on keeping on; Slava Ukrainie

The land that just keeps on 'fighting' continued to do so yesterday with another Rada punch-up - but not before they passed a resolution to celebrate of the birthday of an old nazi collaborator - the commander of WW2's 31st (Ukrainian) SicherheitsPolizei (security police) Regiment.  

By the time it formed, in 1944, there was little to do except shoot some 6 000 (or so) jews, Soviet prisoners and other traitors to 'the motherland' before beating a hasty retreat west with the fleeing Germans.  Those of the unit who weren't caught and killed by the Russians (or other rival Ukrainians) were 'refugeed' to new homes in Canada, the US and South America. Currently  one of the unit's sub-commanders (Michael Karkoc) is under investigation for war crimes in the USA.

 The unit commander 'Petro Diachenko' is to-day being held up to young EUkrainians as a patriotic role model. 

 

The Rada legislation  

Ivan Katchanovski PhD - Univ. of Ottawa - has done extensive research on the topic of Ukrainian history in the second World War, a topic which forms the basis of the current Ukrainian political schema.  He writes of the 31stst SiPo regiment below:

"A platoon (chota) of the 31st SiPo and SD battalion, which was also called the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion, deserted to the UPA in the middle of 1944, and a significant number of its commanders and members served in the UPA before joining this unit, which was organized by the SD and the OUN-M in Volhynia in the end of 1943. (Bolianovsky, Ukrainski 266, 301; Klymenko and Tkachov 193-201, 236–59). However, most of this battalion was incorporated into the SS Galicia Division. While a number of them were prosecuted in the Soviet Union and Poland, the majority of the legion’s servicemen were given refuge after the end of the war in such countries as the UK, the US, and Canada.6

A large proportion of commanders and members from the 31st security police and SD battalion served in the local militia and police in the Kremenets, Lutsk, and Volodymyr- Volynskyi areas when these formations assisted in mass murder of Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles there (Katchanovski, “OUN(b)”; Klymenko and Tkachov; Sprava 372, Vol 032, 182-96). For example, Mykola Nedzevedsky, who was the town and regional police commandant in Kremenets in 1941-43, served as an UPA commander after he was forced to join it along with many other members of his OUN-M unit in July 1943 and before most of them deserted and joined the SiPo Battalion 31 in December 1943 (Klymenko and Tkachov 99–100, 249). Most of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi police, which was under informal control of the OUN-M and the OUN-B and participated in Nazi-led mass executions of more than 20,000 Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians there, joined the UPA in 1943. A significant proportion of several dozen legion members from the Volodymyr-Volynskyi area worked in the police and Kripo/SD there, and many of them also were later in the UPA. For, example, Petro Glyn was one of several 31st battalion commanders and members, who served in the police or the Kripo/SD in the town of Volodymyr-Volynskyi and nearby locations and can be identified by name. Glyn also was an adjutant of an UPA company commander in the same area. The main UPA formation there, called “Sich,” was comprised mostly from former policemen from Volodymyr-Volynsky and neighboring towns and districts, and its commander (Porfyrii Antoniuk) was a police commander in Volodymyr-Volynskyi and Olevsk before he joined the UPA in the spring of 1943. (See, for instance, Katchanovski, “OUN(b)”; Klymenko and Tkachov 240; Tsaruk 377, 411, 867).

However, when remains of close to 1,500 people were found in 2011-13 and in 1997 near a former prison in Volodymyr-Volynskyi by Ukrainian and Polish archeologists, Ukrainian and Polish officials, media and experts initially publicly claimed that these were Polish victims of the Katyn-style executions by the Soviet NKVD in 1939-41. The evidence, such as historical studies, archival documents, eyewitness testimonies, German bullets, and predominance of children and women in some of the mass graves, indicated that these people were executed by the Germans and the police in 1941-1944. The victims primarily included local Jews, but also many Poles, specifically former policemen, a large number of whom joined the AK, and Ukrainian civilians.7 (Katchanovski, “OUN(b)”; Litopys UPA, Vol. 11, 119; Sprava 376, Vol. 071, 6, Vol, 075, 62-67).

The 31st security police and SD battalion is implicated by different sources in the mass executions of Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles in the Volyn Region of Ukraine and in Poland. For example, analysis of testimonies by eyewitnesses and former battalion members, interviews with local residents, archival documents, and the fact of the urgent redeployment of this unit from the Kremenets area to the village of Pidhaitsi near Lutsk a day before a massacre there indicates its likely involvement in the mass murder of 21 Ukrainian residents of Pidhaitsi, half of whom were children, on December 3, 1943, under the pretext of a retaliation for the killing of a German soldier.8 The same sources and a number of historical studies show that this security police unit was responsible for the execution of about 100 prisoners from the Lutsk prison on the old grounds of the Pidhaitsi School in January 1944. Testimonies by local residents and former legion members and an exhumation of one of the mass graves indicate that the victims of the execution included both Jews and Ukrainians. There are also reports that this unit located and killed the same month more than 70 Jews, who were hiding in a forest near the Pidhaitsi village (Nakonechnyi 24). Testimonies by former legion members and historical studies implicate the legion, and, specifically, one of its companies under command of Michael Karkoc, in massacres of Polish residents of Korchunky and Edvardpole in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi area and Chlaniow, Wladislawin, and Ameryka in the Lublin Region, and participation in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in 1944. (See Klymenko and Tkachov; Littman 53-58; Majewski; Rising, Herschaft, and Scislowska; Sprava F-253).

(excerpted from “The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and the Nazi Genocide in Ukraine” -  Ivan Katchanovski PhD - U Ott. - 2013.)

It should be remembered that as many Ukrainians, with a leftist perspective on life, sided with the Soviet Union and spent their war either in the Red Army, or as partisans - often  in combat with their fellow Ukrainians in the 'security forces'.  Some eastern Ukrainian separatist units, to-day, wear emblems and markings of the old 'soviet' forces and see the current struggle through the old lens of communism vs fascism.

Perhaps it's because the country is  in such parlous state that the 'real' Ukrainians are blaming each other now that Putin's 'invasion' has been back-burnered by a ceasefire. As so often happens when victors divide the spoils, dissension occurs. In this case however it seems to be losers dividing the blame. 

Fight abbreviates the March 3rd session of the Rada 

This is 'militia general' "freeze them in the dark" Serhei Melnychuk  - commander of the 'newly-officialized' Aydar regiment of goonic patriots (to which Ukraine's Joan of Arc belonged) being 'lustrated' by the 'mouth that walks',  Oleh Lyashko because the Aydar dirtied up the National Defence HQ until Melnychuk got a uniform and the Aidar got on the payroll.  The circus continues.

 

Slava EUkrainie!

What you need to know about the 'Ukraine Crisis'

Robert Perry on recent history

For much of what we know, the current 'crisis' in Ukraine started when the Russian President Putin 'annexed' the Crimean Peninsula, declaring 'war' on the newly 'democratized' country. After that Russian forces 'invaded' eastern Ukraine and, despite the attempts of the Ukrainian government to 'free' its citizens from subjugation to "criminals, terrorists and Russian invaders", Ukraine is in critical need of weapons, and money, and somebody else to continue to  'free' itself.

Russia - particularly President Vladimir Putin and the 'oligarchs' who support him - has obstinately refused to stop interfering in the Ukrainian situation. The west (led by the USA) has been 'forced' to lay political, social and economic sanctions on him and  them, personally, and  on organs of the Russian state and economy 'under their control'.

Much of what we consider to be a 'whole story' is missing.

Until 1992 the Ukraine was one of the Soviet Socialist Republics of the USSR. At that time, like many other of the Soviet republics, the Ukraine became independent of what was to be re-formed as the Russian Federation.  Although it was independent, it maintained many social, political and economic ties with Russia and the other ex-republics. At that time, too, the territory of the Ukraine was 'set' - in keeping with that of the former SSR which, after 1953, had been itself reformed to include the annexed parts of Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland that had fallen as 'war spoils' to the victorious Red Army.  The Communist leadership at that time, under the rule of  Nikita Khruschev - a native Ukrainian - attached to Ukrainian SSR,  the formerly 'imperial oblasts' of NovoRussia and the Crimean Peninsula.

 A series of political 'changes' beginning with the "Orange Revolution" in 1994 saw the advancement of 'democrats' and Ukrainian nationalists in the government of the country.  That period also marked the rise of oligarchs who became owners of a number of 'privatized' state industries and publicly-owned concerns. It also led to growing political clashes in the Ukraine and a series of changing government administrations. One of the earlier Presidents was poisoned by, purportedly, 'Russians'; another, Julia Timoshenko, was charged, tried, convicted in a Ukrainian court and jailed  for corruption after her term in office - her family wound-up owning the national gas distribution system. The latest nationally-elected President, Yanukovich, served in the government from the beginning and was, eventually, elected three times to the country's highest office.

The notion of Ukraine becoming an integral part of Europe was present all along.  Indeed Ukraine, as a military 'occupied zone' during WW2, had a collaborationist government, aligned with Germany, and raised two complete divisions for the German Waffen SS,  as  well as maintaining a security apparatus that 'dealt with' communist partisans, subversives, non-Ukrainians and Jews. At the end of the war these Ukrainian forces fled west with the retreating Germans. Many emigrated to the Americas, under the auspices of the Catholic Church, as 'anti-communist refugees'. Some, like Stepan Bandera continued an anti-communist movement in Europe. Bandera was assassinated in Munich, in 1959, by (purportedly) the Russian KGB.  Other Ukrainians returning 'home' were arrested, tried and, if found guilty of treason or war crimes, executed by Ukrainian authorities.  After 1992 many of these began to return to Ukraine, some were repatriated and others maintain 'visitor' or 'temporary resident' status. They were no longer potential war criminals after 1992.

By 2000 the European Ukraine and Nationalist Ukraine movements were well-established. Ukraine sent its military to serve in a number of UN peace-keeping missions and, after 2001, Ukrainian forces were deployed to assist the 'allies' in Afghanistan and Iraq. The costs for these involvements were largely covered by US assistance grants and loans for the Ukrainian military which had been debilitated by economic cutbacks.

 The Ukrainian military, in 1992, had fallen heir to the resources of the forces of the USSR air, naval and land 'fronts' stationed inside its territory. Those included strategic rocket forces and military production plants. In 1993 it had the largest, most well-equipped, army in Europe. By 2001 that force's equipment  had been mothballed, or sold-off to nations in Asia and Africa. Ukraine remained home to Russian aircraft manufacturers such as the Antonov concern  and, until last year, was producing and exporting Russian-designed rocket engines for the US and other space programs and maintaining, under contract, the Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation. Much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was transferred to Ukraine, and the former soviet naval base at Sebastopol was leased on a long term basis. Other Russian Federation air and land forces were permitted in Crimea under lease agreements and treaty with Kyiv government.

Over recent years Ukraine failed to thrive economically and ran-up a considerable international debt, as well as steadily  reducing its standard of living. Industries were poorly-maintained and previous production fell  as unemployment became a social fixture. Some western-trained officials saw a hope of redemption in the free market theories espoused in America: low taxation rates, and curtailed government spending. To them the economic austerity being demanded by western banks as precursor for further credit, evoked a closer alignment with the west and a less-socialist government, as the salvation of Ukraine. When the annual bond sale of 2014 failed to generate interest, or funds ($1.5 billion on the sale of $15 billion in bonds through the Bank of Ireland) and European,  World Banks and IMF  remained obstinate in demanding reforms and open markets, the then-President Yanukovich,  reversed his previous position and announced interest in a Russian proposal at a November meeting of the G8 in Sweden. Within hours the "EuroMaidan" protests started. They built in violence and intensity from November 2013 to January 2014 when protestors and police were shot on the square. Yanukovich resigned and fled the country to safety in the RF. An 'interim' government under the appointed President Turchynev and Prime Minister Yatseniuk ruled by decree until general elections installed President Poroshenko. Also elected were  the newly-released Juilia Timoshenko and a small number of right-wing and neo-nazi radicals - some of whom were appointed to government Defence, Police and Security portfolios.

The interim government,  among its initial decrees, had outlawed the use of Russian in Ukrainian territory and criminalized some aspects of 'russian' life.  Street disturbances, targeting 'russians', were extended from Kyiv to outlying cities such as Odessa (where a number of people burned to death when a 'russian' trades union building was stormed). There were killings  and rioting, with street fights in eastern cities like Mariuopol, Donetsk, Kharkiv and  Dniepropetrovsk.

Russian separatists in Crimea voted to secede and join the RF. That was done. Others in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (and others) occupied government buildings and disarmed government forces and police. The 'interim' government declared war, announced conscription and deployed 5 divisions of the army to the east to retake territory and put down the rebellion.  The campaign was described as an 'Anti-Terrorist Operation' (ATO) and is, still, as is the area under rebel control,  as that name, to-day.

Beginning in May,  the UA rapidly fanned out across the eastern regions stopped only by the protests of local citzenry blocking roads.  A couple of incidents caused by zealous 'heroes of the Maidan' who thought they were putting-down Russian invaders, led to bloodshed and retaliatory ambushes as citizens of the east, with military experience, armed themselves from government supplies (including 'the world's largest arms repository' under the City of Slavyansk).

By midsummer, widespread fighting was underway - ending with a cease fire just before the fall of Slavyansk. A subsequent 'push' by government forces 'liberated'  Slavyansk and almost severed the link between Donetsk and Lugansk leaving a rebel area almost bisected. The  'massacre' of a government unit in the north east of the ATO,  followed by an another unit being trapped against the Russian border and the downing of MH17 followed and resulted in a temporary lull in operations. Before government forces could regroup, they found themselves being 'kettled' in a number of places in Lugansk and in two places north east and south east of Donetsk. One of these latter units was eradicated.

A separatist 'offensive' in late August, started in the extreme south east of the ATO and drove toward Donetsk and Mariuople pushing government forces back out of the entire southern part of the Donetsk region.Government forces were 'hanging on' to villages outside Donetsk, the airport there and at  the transportation hub at Debaltsevo when another ceasefire was called in September.

An abortive government (announced as "massive")  offensive ("Punch in the teeth") was stopped in early January after rebels forces succeeded in clearing Donetsk airport. The rebels maintained their pressure retaking a number of villages from which the airport area had been supplied and later, shelled. In early February operations were underway to cut-off the salient and 'kettle' a considerable (7 000) government force at  Debaltsevo. This was being resisted, as the city of Donetsk continued to be shelled from this position,  but it was isolated 40 Km from the nearest help.

This was the situation before which a third ceasefire was announced on February 13th,  2015.

WTF's Happenin' to the ERL - Part TOO

About a month an a half ago I penned a screed about the plunging price of oil at the pump.  Since then, gasoline - which at that point was just dipping below a dollar-a-litre, took a further dive in January to a low of, in our little community,  0.81 cents per litre. It seemed for a day, or so, that a 'reign of happiness' had fallen upon us. Then the price, almost imperceptably at first, started to millimeter itself back up. A road trip that cost the better part of $200 in gas last summer, was a bargain at $120 just at the end of January.  And then ... and then   ... and then .....

And then the price of a barrel of oil on the world market, blipped, almost overnight and for no good reason at all, 'back up' to the $40 US mark.  That necessitated an overnight .13 cents per litre 'adjustment' at the pump. A week later, and this time without another hike in world price, the pumps started charging 7 cents more.

So now in mid-February the gas price is set to crest $1 per liter  - probably because the Canadian dollar is worth 81 cents  in the ' land o' the free, home of the brave' and gas prices, to maintain the "traditional bulk price differential", have to be almost 2 times higher for litres, than Billy Bob and the swami-haters pay in gallons (US).

A remarkable thing that I, a user of 'premium grade' gasoline, have noticed, is that the price of diesel fuel seems strangely unaffected  by all the Saudi shenanigans - and, given that - in the oil-cracking business - the 'cheap stuff' comes off first with less effort, so should the price of home heating oil and aviation fuel remain as drivers of the profit margin, while the oil industry 'takes its bath' in reduced gasoline revenues.

I'm still trying to figure out which aspect of dementia might have driven the Saudis - who market the most easily-produced oil on earth -  to go 'mano a mano' with the producers of the dirty, expensive stuff that drives the world price higher,  in order as we've been told,  to  'put them out of business'??


It just beggars the imagination that the heads of OPEC would choose this route to punish Putin (who hasn't done anything, lately, to them - even supporting Assad or the Ayetolleh)  let alone mess up a $100+ a barrel 'good thing' they've had going for a long while.  I don't care if their economies are predicated on $45 a barrel. It used to be we in the west squawked whenever OPEC tried to get 'their due' out of  'our' oil investments, but now we're grousing because the 'cheapness' is affecting our cash flow?   We just can't catch a break?

                               Buy Alberta - it ain't noways as scary
                              or as cheap and it won't need as much subsidy


At a similar rate of increase should the world price of oil ever again get near the $100 dollar a barrel mark - and why shouldn't it?  There's even less now than there was last summer - the price at the pump should get to an even $2.00 .... right where the oil producers panned it would be  .... on its way to  $5.

Battle Scars and Public Policy

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/physical-and-mental-trauma-souvenirs-battle-afghanistan-280405.html

You can judge a society by how it treats its veterans. 

By that measure to-day's societies are a vast improvement from days past.  In the not so very long ago crippled and wounded veterans had a place on the sidewalks of the nations they served. Post World War One Germany comes to mind as a place where the war-wounded were very much on their own - aside from any familial support they might have received. I don't know if the Nazis awarded war pensions to the disabled of the Great War, (I couldn't imagine not) but the Weimar Republic simply couldn't afford it.

In Britain and France there were 'homes' for the wounded, a pension in some cases,  and the 'dole' for many others. In Canada the 'permanently hospitalized' in the Great War were conveniently dying, to be replaced by the  'basket cases' produced by the Second. It was only in the 1980 that the Sunnybrook Military Hospital, in Toronto was 'converted' for civilian use, it still maintains a 'veterans' wing'. There were, and are, others.

There are, of course, places where veterans are still very much 'on their own'. I couldn't imagine there are many benefits for the native wounded in Nigeria, Somalia or any of Africa's wars. Aside from a reward for suicide bombers' families, I couldn't imagine much beyond community charity for those who merely fail to die in many Muslim countries. We know that Muslim 'charity' is often the first target of western 'anti-terrorist sanctions'.

But how is it in the First World?

 The first thing we need remember is that Military and 'casualties' are essentially mutually exclusive. The casualty is a net loss to the military effort in a large number of ways. Studies have been written in an effort to minimize the effect of  'the casualty'.  By that, of course, we mean 'the wounded', the dead are a very simple matter to be resolved.  Most armies strive to inflict the greatest number of wounded on an enemy. Killing may be a short term solution, but generally isn't as effective as sending lots of the enemy home in an ambulance.

First off,  all  wounded men require at least some degree of assistance and protection. The 'walking wounded' my help each other, but they still require provision and a safe place to be. They require first aid and medical attention. They also require a period of time out of service, or on light duty, to recover - all that time they still need to be clothed and fed.

The more heavily wounded need to be transported away from the fighting. Aiding the wounded was often perceived as disguised 'shirking' as the 'help' was often able to 'lose' itself, on the way back to the front. At times 'aid'  was against orders.  The wounded sometimes died where they fell,  often days after they were wounded. It was a risk to life to retrieve them, and if that was done - or if they managed to make it back into lines - then some fighters had to be told-off to tend to and protect them. Moving an immobile soldier required at least two of his fellows and often, under 'rough' conditions, a considerably greater number.

Once safe,  a more protracted hospital stay is then followed by recuperative therapy and possibly retraining for less arduous service. Some cases were irretrievably lost to future military service and became a client of a non-military body.

Militaries by and large are casualty-averse for a number of reasons. One of the first is psychological - the wounded sap morale. While the burial of a fallen comrade may be a depressing event, it is transitory once the immediacy passes and, in time,it may be a boost to morale or unit cohesion. The presence of a wounded comrade has an opposite, and on-going, effect that becomes more pronounced with exposure. The sights and sounds of the wounded are more affecting than the presence of the dead - the necessity of attending to them, in addition to other, perhaps more important duties, are after the first curiosity, deleterious to those as yet unhurt.  Evident suffering does most fighters no good. The adage that 'there is nothing sadder than a sick soldier' is more than a truism.

Modern armies seek to evacuate the wounded, as much for the fighting spirit of their pals, as for their own good. In practice this is shown to be the first step in the depersonalization and disconnection that later affects these men.

                                          The Golden Hour

On return to the home front the wounded veteran faces a range of new challenges. The military may provide some aid and assistance, but the essential duty there is to get the wounded man off the roster, and the pay roll, as quickly as possible and hopefully into the tender care of a different organization.

Such organizations have been set up, in times past, by ex-soldiers themselves - to look after the needs of wounded comrades and the widows and children of the fallen. Such 'benevolent societies' still exist. Other ex-service organizations take a primary role in advocating for the veteran and for veterans' benefits, with government bodies and organizations set up by government,  to 'look after' them.

Veterans' affairs are often at the whim of political forces because they are most often funded by the taxpayer.  In times past, the qualification for veterans' benefits has been dependent on the number of veterans in the electorate and on the number of potential qualifiers for such benefits. For instance, veterans of World War Two rarely qualified for service pension benefits unless they could prove they were wounded or injured in the course of their military duties. The onus of this proof was often laid on them. As the large number of such veterans began to dwindle in the late twentieth century, the qualifications - and the actual benefits - were opened and increased for all aging ex-servicemen - dependent on their financial status. The 'wise' veteran often divested himself of any accrued wealth by setting it 'in trust' to  family members, before applying as a 'pauper' for government benefits. A whole 'planning  industry' grew up around this.

These benefits were made available to a larger number of current war veterans than was the case to their grandfathers - again because there were far fewer of them. A service pension comes after a lesser period of service and, for the wounded, can begin after they are militarily discharged. After numerous court cases, veterans' benefits have been extended to those who in times past might not have qualified for them. Girlfriends and illegitimate children qualify for survivor benefits due the families of deceased soldiers.  Divorce is creating a whole new set of problems in looking after the possibly multiple  families of the dead. That did not exist in times past, as only one beneficiary was permitted. No doubt gay rights' will have the same effect.

Indeed the term 'veteran' has been extended from those who actually served in a combat or 'war zone',  to those who served in any capacity, and of late to police and firemen as well. With that blurring goes the possible extension of veterans benefits. This is getting to the point where the actual war wounded are disappearing in a sea of 'PTSD'-affected servicemen, who - in some cases - never left the country to serve overseas, let alone in combat. The costs are encouraging some governments to curtail such spending - 'in fairness' - across the board. This latter eventuates in a number of ex-service personnel, including combat veterans - particularly those with mental, emotional or social problems 'falling through the cracks' to find themselves unwanted, and unhelped, living on the streets.  Many veterans organizations are quick to divorce themselves from such 'sick soldiers'  in order to look to their own economic interests in politically-oriented milieux.

Wounded Warriors Scam

Letterman Scores a Bulls .....eye! Sniper -style.

Dave's retiring, probably none-too-soon, but not soon enough to stop him from laying another dose of the dolt he must truly be under the silk sox and unpressed 'strides'. He's pulled a few boners, literally and metaphorically, and presented an academy performance or two in the on-air apology category, but what he did while 'ennertaining' Ms Siena Miller on a recent evening, takes one of his proverbial pizza prizes.

 Ms Miller was on the show, reveling in her latest success in the 'blockbuster hit 'American Sniper (although I'll bet she doesn't have 'points' in the profits). Dave was at his charming best, leering down at the anorexic beauty while reviewing the 'narrative' surrounding the film.

Q: How was it working with Eastwood? Ans: A 'cool guy' who made fun of her prosthetic baby belly ("Morning fatty!") at the site commissary. She didn't comment on whatever on earth possessed the 'great one' to substitute a plastic dolly, or the cadaver of a real infant, in the big 'Ah luv mah baybee! But it a-lookin like a sand spider'  PTSD scene.

Letterman

Working with Hollywood's leading leading man, Brad Cooper, was a real experience, considering he packed-on close to 200 extra pounds to 'flesh out' the heroic sniper. She also referred to a notable speech, or facial, defect portrayed in the first half of the movie, that magically disappears by the end of it.  One would think that improved elocution wouldn't be a by-product of post traumatic stress but, hey, maybe? Or maybe it was all just a giant Texas 'chaw'. The 'meat roll' at the back of the star-hero's neck, however, isn't depicted in any photos of the real McCoy and the lumbering gait of the Hollywood star is contrasted with the 'Prince of Persia' gymnastics displayed by a leaner, infinitely meaner, AQ antagonist. Thank goodness wind-sprints and extended sex scenes weren't part of shooter Cooper's film repertoire, he might have 'busted' Ms. Miller (her film tata's were 'prosthetic' too?)

There was, of course, time spent on Siena's role as the wife of a trained killer. Mrs Kyle has credits on the movie, probably due to her insight and advice on her husband, the man - on his struggles with his demons and, by the end of the movie, with his success in 'overcoming'. And about his desire to help his fellows, even the ' nasty little coward who shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave.' - another 'important American pitcher',  about another important American shootist.  Nobody mentioned she was being sued to cough-up  3.1 million bucks  (probably more now) due to the 'success' of the 'story'  - because a part of it, unmentioned in the movie but part of the 'successful book' on which the movie was based, was found, in a court, to be an out-and-out lie

                                                       Chris Kyle and "Scruff-face"
                                                      - his "bitch-slapped coward"

But the best part of all was when 'the Daverino' started waxing all Hollywood critic-ky about the film.  "Important" is the word he used to describe it, in explanation of an otherwise inexplicable box office bonanza (the highest earning movie of the year - if ever). It was, as Dave intoned to the 'starlet',  'important' because it was "about modern times" and about "something that's going on in the lives of everybody in the world."

Having seen the movie, and thinking perhaps that Dave had skipped some medication, I realized that Dave was a victim of 'wag the dog'.  Somehow he had bought the staged media reports of 'world crises', and 'evil doings', and 'heroes fighting for our freedoms' as a real part of his life, right up there with taking a dump or keeping his hands off the interns. Like having another row with the 'harridan' who had 'trapped him' in a 'loveless', but very expensive, marriage,  Dave lived the experience of  'the warrior', 'deploying daily' to 'keep overwatch' and 'save lives'. That's about the only thing that I got out of the film, that's 'a part of our lives', or the media's saga of such.  It wasn't, surely, leaving ones' family for years spent killing, coming home with 'troubles' to be overcome in a variety of destructive ways, or even playing with the baby. If those were the point, why a war movie?  That stuff apparently happens to the guy at the grocery store too - in a far more common and shared environment.

I'm pretty sure that centering the crosshairs for a body shot on a potential bomber, or dropping a kid by hailing him in the forehead, aren't things any of us do on a regular basis for a living, or, simply, for 'some fun'. The bullet's eye view of Kyles long-shot to  take out  the AQ sniper is straight out of a video game, along with the cinematographic brain splash. If he was still able  to dream, that one would have made a real killer somewhat damp. Some few of us might have found ourselves letting the others exit the theater first,  after 'experiencing' that.

By the way,  'American Sniper' was knocked-off the number one box office  position by the new "Sponge Bob Square Pants' cartoon.  That's ennertainment, and real life.

A Skewed View on History, NATO and the 'Truth' that is EUkrainia

James Bissett has outstanding qualifications as a diplomat and a participant and observer in the great events of modern history. His 'slant' on modern times, while it flies in the face of 'conventional wisdom' and the philosophy that justifies modern aggressive war, is the kind of truth that should be setting us free.

Our 'enemies' may not be waging Jihad, or 'invading' Ukrainia,   but sitting behind desks in the power centres of the western governments and corporate offices.  Along with the political shenanigans, the rationale for  'eternal war' is based in the greed of the 'free market' and the need to control the earth's resources to 'create wealth' for 'the deserving'.

Western 'democratic' governments have been co-opted, or 'created' by corporate interests to fulfill a purpose that often has nothing to do with ordinary people. Except that the ordinary people are expected, and legislated,  into supporting and paying for it. The democracy part stops at the 'election process' which sees a list of 'selected' characters stand and, often, given the deepest pockets, elected to office. Democracy like this we haven't had since the days of the Roman forum.

We in the democratic west used to make mock of the Russian system of 'official' candidates and a uniparty approach.  But what's the difference between multi-parties with only coloured icing to differentiate and the same 'donors' getting the same favors from whichever wins an election and would like to win the next one?  The Electorate can't recall a 'mistake' in mid-term, doing so, in most democracies, would be greeted by the riot squad or the military. In Ukraine it took $6 billion in foreign investment and a few years of  'organizing'.  Something like 'the Maidan' in New York City, or London, wouldn't be tolerated - squatters in the 'business district' weren't.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk , Prime Minister of the Black Hundreds was in Berlin last week drumming-up some Eurosupport (money) for besieged little Ukrainia, made a very interesting speech to the Germans. While I'm pretty sure he might have mentioned some aspects of their common history, I'm pretty sure that BabiYar didn't come up.  What did come up was the following:"All of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany,"

Other 'Invasion' Lviv 1941

While speaking for himself might indicate a failing grade in high-school history, or at least a term paper that might not have panned-out as planned,  but what 'all' in Germany might remember, even though it isn't on the curriculum, is what most Germans to-day call 'the Nazi era' and the resulting liberation by Allied forces - one of which was Russian. The defeat of Naziism may be recalled, maybe even the defeat of Germany, but "invasion'"- only to Adolf.  Unless you're counting the British, French and American, along with lesser allies,  as well. The Russians certainly were 'in company' for that "invasion." They 'did Ukraine', that time, all on their own, and the valiant forces of Bandera, for the most part, fled west, with the Wehrmacht behind them - 'scorching' Ukraine as they retreated. In that light, if nothing else, can it be contrasted to what hasn't happened, yet, to Ukraine.  His statement is certainly at odds with the experience of most of EU outside Germany but does demonstrate the adage that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Kyiv after the Soviet 'invasion'1944