For Those Who Remember

“And the tragedy that you referenced of tens of thousands of children who have dysentery and cholera, a million displaced, 10,000 dead, it seems that here we are sitting in Washington and listeners sitting around the country, it's hard to imagine.” -Yochi Dreazen of Foreign Policy magazine, speaking of Syria, on the Diane Rehm show, 3/14/14. [1]

Well pal, it shouldn't be so "hard" for you to "imagine." You guys killed 500,000 Iraqi children during the Clinton regime's sanctions on Iraq in a failed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein by starving the populace there. That wasn't so long ago that you should have forgotten it already,

This isn't even disputed by Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who didn't deny it, didn't flinch, didn't apologize, when asked about it by Leslie Stahl during a 60 Minutes interview (CBS). Albright said “we think it was worth it.” What the “it'” was that was worth half a million children's lives, that is, what was accomplished, Albright didn't say, and Stahl didn't ask.

Here's iceberg-hearted Albright unperturbed by helping kill half a million children. And it won't do it blame it on Saddam Hussein. The U.S. can't wash its hands of the crime by putting all the blame on that cruel tyrant. Bill Richardson, another Clinton regime apparatchik and governor, also endorses this deliberate mass murder. We all know what the reaction would be to the sight of a Soviet or Nazi official coolly brushing aside the deliberate killing of half a million children in the alleged pursuit of some policy goal. (The fatuous Richardson defends the policy by saying "it was the policy," and claiming it "contained" Saddam Hussein. As if that was necessary to "contain" him. 

                                                                  
                                                                    

                                                                                           
But Albright got the usual reward for apparatchiks of her rank- made members of the U.S. nomenklatura. She's rich, she got paid far more for her book than its market value, she's paid handsomely to give talks on such topics as “The Art of Leadership,” and Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the U.S. equivalent of the Soviet Order of Lenin and the highest U.S. civilian medal). [2]

By the way, this is a good opportunity to recall that the U.S. and its Eurolackeys supported the murderous tyrant Hussein wholeheartedly for all the years of his career UNTIL he invaded Kuwait. They supported his war of aggression against Iran, supplying him with location information on Iranian troops so he could GAS them. They covered for his gassing of the Iraqi Kurds during the war, even putting out a false “intelligence report” by the Pentagon's “Defense” “Intelligence” Agency asserting that IRAN had gassed those villages. (Notice they never mention that these days. Down the memory hole!)

The West sold Hussein the precursor chemicals used to make the gas. Earlier in his career, the CIA helpfully provided him with names of communists so he could round them up and exterminate them. (The CIA's attitude towards communists is exactly the same as the Nazis attitudes towards Jews: they are subhuman vermin to be exterminated wherever they can be found. And the fascist CIA has a very loose definition of who is a “communist.” Could be a Jesuit priest, a left-wing activist, a labor organizer, a Marxist intellectual, a human rights lawyer- anyone interfering with a reactionary social order backed by U.S. power, covertly or overtly.)

And why did the corporate media refer to him as “Saddam”? That was his first name, and they hated him by then. Perhaps to avoid confusing him with U.S. lapdog “King” Hussein of Jordan? (Now deceased and succeeded by his spawn, “King” Abdullah, who like his daddy took an American woman as a bride- to show his loyalty to his masters, I suppose- who is now a “Queen,” as is his mother.)

1] The Diane Rehm show comes out of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the empire. It's carried on the government radio propaganda network NPR five days a week. Guests are typically from “elite” U.S. and European media. The thought processes of the hosts and guests are enclosed inside the ideological bubble of the media and political elite of that city, referred to by themselves as “inside the Beltway,” with only vague self-awareness.

Here's a typical example of the ideological mind-bubble in which these people operate. When now and then, someone on the show refers to U.S. torture, they never say “torture.” It's always the euphemism “harsh interrogation tactics.”

And there's all the other standard euphemisms and ideological and political assumptions. U.S. aggression is “defense.” U.S. power is “national security.” U.S. repression is “security” or “law enforcement.” Secret police agencies like the FBI and CIA are “law enforcement” or “intelligence” agencies. The U.S. is always good, everything it does has virtuous aims, and its opponents are malign or evil. Any doubt about official cover stories are crackpot “conspiracy theories.” Any political options outside the two-party dictatorship of the Democrats and Republicans is literally unthinkable. All economic analysis stays within the mystified realm of doctrinal economic dogma.

2]  FAIR made some pertinent observations at the time of Albright's interview. See 'We Think the Price Is Worth It'

Annals of Newspeak

In George Orwell's famous classic of totalitarianism, 1984, the ruling dictatorship had its own vocabulary, called Newspeak, which basically meant inverting words to mean the opposite of their previous meanings. For example, Slavery is Freedom.

Barack Obama and his minions have shown themselves to be assiduous disciples of the principle of Newspeak; to invert the meanings of words. Examples are legion: here are two recent ones I happened to notice.

In Ukraine, a violent mob overthrew the elected government, and the U.S. installed replacement “leaders.” These people Obama refers to as “democratic leaders.” Unelected, yet somehow “democratic.” Capitalists better no longer sneer at Bolshevik misuse of the word “democratic.” [1]

Another recent example is Obama's secret police henchman John Brennan. Obama wanted Brennan to replace Democratic Party apparatchik Leon Panetta as CIA head a few years back, but Brennan's involvement in CIA torture programs scuttled that back then. So Brennan was brought to Obama's side to run Obama's drone assassination program for him. So beloved by Obama is Brennan, that Obama last year once again moved to install Brennan at the top of the CIA, and this time he succeeded.

Brennan, as you'd expect of a career secret police type like him, can barely open his mouth without lying. But he has a habitual phrase whenever he utters a real howler. It's “Nothing could be further from the truth.” So during his Senate confirmation hearings for CIA Director, in denying that the drone death program ever harmed a hair on an innocent person's head, he used the phrase. [2]

Now that he was caught spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers and stealing documents off their CIA-provided computers, he once again denies what is proven fact with the phrase “Nothing could be further from the truth.

You can be guaranteed that if John Brennan says of something that “Nothing could be further from the truth,” it's true. It's like a tell in a poker player, a dead giveaway.

1] See “Obama Dictates Terms to Russia To Keep Its Naval Base in Crimea.”

2] See “Jeremy Scahill: Assassinations of U.S. Citizens Largely Ignored at Brennan CIA Hearing,” democracynow.org, February 8th, 2013.

Guide To Ukraine “Crisis” Vocabulary

Guide To Ukraine “Crisis” Vocabulary

First, “crisis.” That means, the U.S. isn't getting its way 100%.

“Ukraine.” Can mean the actual country. Often it means the satraps the U.S. installed in power in Kiev. As in “Ukraine asked for Western help against the Russian invasion [sic],” or, “the American government supports Ukraine.”

“International law.” The rules the U.S. insists on imposing, which boil down to, the U.S. does whatever it wants, and other nations do what the U.S. wants. If the U.S. does it, it's legal. So arranging the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government by a neo-Nazi led mob and installing people in power handpicked by the U.S. State Department is perfectly legal, whereas Russia protecting its naval base in the Crimea and letting people vote in a referendum to choose to secede from western Ukraine or not is “a violation of international law.” And of the Ukrainian Constitution, too, which apparently has a provision allowing for neo-Nazi hoodlums to overthrow the government and its replacement by U.S.-approved puppets.

“The international community.” All the lackey and stooge nations that line up behind the U.S.

“The rights of all the Ukrainian people.” The U.S. decrees there shall be no partition and the entirely of Ukraine shall henceforth be in the U.S. domain. Self-determination for the populace of eastern Ukraine is not allowed. Controlled elections next year will ratify U.S. and neo-Nazi dominance of Ukraine.

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine.” No self-determination by the people of eastern Ukraine shall be allowed. A secession referendum is intolerable to the U.S. bloc, aka “the West.”

“Legitimate government.” The government of the U.S' choosing. See Obama statement of March 6th.

"Illegitimate." Any action the U.S. doesn't like.

"Unconstitutional." See "illegitimate."

"Destabilize." Interfere with the U.S. takeover of Ukraine.

"Violation of internationall law." Action that conflicts with the U.S. program for controlling Ukraine.

“Democratic leaders.” See “legitimate government.”

.

“Democracy.” A regime obedient to U.S. wishes. This is what that word always means.

Naval Blockade of Russian Black Sea Fleet Suggested By Career U.S. Apparatchik

In an interview with the consistently reactionary NPR radio host Scott Simon on March 1^st, former prominent U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering raised the possibility of bottling up the Russian Black Sea Fleet inside the Black Sea, presumably with the cooperation of NATO member and U.S. client Turkey, through whose territory the narrow Dardanelles straits passes. The Dardanelles are the only exit from the Black Sea, leading to the Mediterranean Sea. [1]

After invoking the Cuban missile crisis (a crisis of the U.S.' creation) and the U.S. military alert during the Yom Kippur War, Pickering suggests blockading the Russian fleet based in Crimea. After suggesting this “tougher step” as a possibility “to reinforce diplomacy,” he then claims “no one wants to see a military confrontation” and “no one that I know of now, is threatening the stability or indeed security of the Black Sea Fleet...” Well take a look in the mirror and you'll see someone who just did, pal. Although he did say one has to be “very careful” about such a move. And presumably only if “diplomacy” doesn't force the Russians to give in to U.S. diktat. “Diplomacy” includes every kind of pressure and punishment short of military force. And Pickering mentions some of them.

Other than Pickering, however, I haven't heard any other imperialist apparatchiks, active or “retired,” suggest a naval blockade. Nor am I aware of any politicians or media figures explicitly suggesting it, although probably one of Murdoch's minions or their “guests” have, given their chronic bellicosity. Nevertheless, Pickering has put the threat out there, and Ukraine's U.S.-installed puppet “prime minister” has been running around shrilly exhorting the U.S. and EU to push Russia out of Crimea. He even went to the Emperor's official lair, the White House; whether on his own desperate initiative or because the Emperor summoned him, I don't know.

One problem Pickering noted was the dependency of Europe and Ukraine on Russian natural gas. He invoked Russia's past attempt to raise gas prices (to something closer to the market value- Ukraine was getting gas dirt cheap from Russia, and still today pays below fair market value- a fact very rarely mentions by U.S. media and establishment apparatchiks, and Pickering, let us say, “forgot” to mention that, thus painting Russia as extortionist) and elides the fact that Ukraine stole gas transiting through its pipelines bound for western Europe. Seems to me if you're going to mention Russia raising the price, you should mention that they were selling it at a discount. Since Ukraine at that time was behaving in a hostile manner towards Russia, no surprise that Russia would say, “You know, we're selling you gas at way below market price- we want more now.” Instead what western elites do is distort reality by painting a picture of Russian “extortion.” And who knows? Maybe they've brainwashed themselves into believing their own propaganda.

Pickering also spews the standard blather about “fair treatment to all Ukrainian citizens,” which is boilerplace U.S. rhetoric. What he really means is “it's unfair to divide Ukraine,” because the U.S. wants it ALL.

If you want to hear the interview with this imperialist poohbah, or read the transcript, here's the link to npr.org.

1] NPR is the U.S. government-created and Congressionally-controlled domestic propaganda radio network.

Obama Dictates Terms to Russia To Keep Its Naval Base in Crimea

American Emperor Barack Obama made this public statement on March 6^th:

“The proposed, referendum, on the future of Crimea, would violate the Ukrainian Constitution, and, violate international law. Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government, of Ukraine. In two thousand fourteen we are well beyond the days when, borders can be redrawn over the heads, of, democratic leaders. While we, take these steps [sanctions on Russia] I wanna be clear that there's also a way to resolve this crisis, that respects the interests of the Russian Federation, as well as the Ukrainian people. Let international monitors, into all of Ukraine, including Crimean, to ensure the rights of all Ukrainians are being respected, including, ethnic Russians. Begin consultations, between the government of Russia and Ukraine, with the participation, of the international community. Russia would maintain its basing rights in Crimea, provided that its abides by its agreements, and respects, Ukraine's, sovereignty and territorial integrity. And the world should support, the people of Ukraine as they move, to elections, in May. That's the path of de-escalation, and Secretary [of State John] Kerry is engaged in discussions with all of the relevant parties, including Russia and Ukraine, to pursue that path. But, if this violation of international law continues, the resolve of the United States and our allies and the international community, will remain firm. Meanwhile we've taken steps to reaffirm our commitment to the security and democracy of our allies in Eastern Europe, and to support, the people of Ukraine.” [video of Obama at bottom]

Now, it isn't easy to capture Obama's speaking patterns in a text transcript. His speech is typically (but not always) jerky, not flowing and smooth, so one must decide how long a pause between words merits a comma. He has pauses of varying lengths between words. Also, what words he emphasizes (which I have italicized) is tricky, since his speech is “cool,” not “hot,” that is, he mostly lectures like a university professor. So should the words on which his voice rises in tone be italicized? Sometimes the second syllable of a word seems emphasized. Anyway, you can watch and listen to him yourself below.

So let's parse this amazing speechlet. He really stands reality on its head in a most mendacious fashion. The chutzpah and hypocrisy would be breathtaking, except that it's more or less routine for U.S. Emperors.

First, he asserts that the referendum on secession would violate the Ukrainian Constitution. What, having a mob overthrow the elected government in Kiev, and then the U.S. anoint its hand-picked choices as a new “government,” is allowed under that Constitution? That just takes a lot of smug and arrogant chutzpah to assert. And I don't know what part of international law bars a referendum asking people to make a decision on their political alignment. On the other hand, international law might have something to say about foreign powers subverting and overthrowing a government and replacing it with one more to its liking. But the real reason the U.S. and its lackeys is so hysterically opposed to the referendum is because they know the majority in eastern Ukraine look set to vote in favor of it- hence the need to brand it as “illegitimate” and “illegal” in advance.

Then he refers to this puppet U.S.-installed “government” as “the legitimate government of Ukraine.” Not the elected one the U.S. just helped overthrow. And this new “government” is to have a veto on even holding a referendum in Crimea, the apparent meaning of his second sentence. His third sentence absurdly called the U.S.-installed, unelected puppets “democratic leaders.” I guess if you interpret “democratic” as code for “U.S.-controlled,” then it makes sense. The elected leader was overthrown. Most people equate “democratic” with “chosen by the people.” Which you would think would require an election. Obama promises a May election (which was already scheduled before the coup). Given that a fascist-led mob now wields significant power in Kiev, and just engineered a unanimous “vote” in the parliament there to endorse the coup, one is entitled to wonder how free and fair- and legitimately contested- the May election will be. After all, the mob now deemed “the legitimate Ukrainian government” by the U.S. and its lackeys couldn't even wait until that election to seize power.

As for borders: Obama doesn't have a problem with Israel redrawing its borders, in blatant violation of international law, to absorb its conquests of 1967. In fact the U.S. is paying it to do so, and protecting it, and arming it, so it can.

Next, feigning reasonableness, Obama tries to steer Russia down the path of surrender to the U.S. Let so-called “international monitor” into Crimea (and the rest of Ukraine, because Obama is SO fair and even-handed, you see) he demands, “to ensure the rights of all Ukrainians are being respected.” I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. I think it means “so we can veto secession in the name of the 'Ukrainian people.'” They're frantically calling the referendum “illegitimate,” apparently because they think the eastern Ukrainians will vote to split off from the coup puppet government in Kiev. Obama and his Eurolackeys just put a cop-killing mob in power in Kiev. Now he's prattling about “rights.” Obviously all he cares about is power. This is a guy who picks Americans to assassinate, who defends his right to imprison American citizens in military gulags without trial or charges indefinitely, who blows up wedding parties in other countries, and he wants us to believe he cares about the rights of Ukrainians? Are there sentient beings on this planet who still give the slightest credence to such guff?

Obama references the “crisis,” that is entirely of his and his Eurolackeys' making, and tells Russia what it has to do to “resolve” it. Russia has to pretend that the coup government is legitimate, and beg it to let Russia keep its naval base in Crimea. We can dismiss the empty rhetoric about “respecting the rights of all Ukrainians.” A fascist-led mob just overthrew the elected government and took over Parliament, and the U.S. installed a client regime. This blather about “respecting the rights of all Ukrainians” is horseshit. It is the RIGHT of the eastern Ukrainians to secede from this Western neocolonial creation if they so choose, just as it was the right of the southern Sudanese to secede (the U.S. supported that secession), for example, or the right of the Kosovar Albanians to secede from Serbia (again, with U.S. support). And those secessions were done by force of arms, not by referendum. (We're already being brainwashed to think that a Russian gun will be pointed at every eastern Ukrainian's head to make him or her vote for secession. The fact that Western propagandists- aka “journalists”- are freely roaming the Crimea makes me doubt that picture of repression.)

Then comes some doubletalk, starting with a demand: “Begin consultations between the government of Russia and Ukraine, with the participation, of the international community. Russia would maintain its basing rights in Crimea, provided that its abides by its agreements, and respects, Ukraine's, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Now in one sentence he's ordering Russia to talk to Ukraine. In the next sentence he says Russia “would” keep its naval “basing rights,” (not “base,” see the subtle difference?). Well how does Obama magically know in advance what the outcome of “consultations” between Russia and the “government of Ukraine” would be? Because it's a puppet government, and the U.S. said that for now Russia won't be immediately shoved out of Crimean.

But look at the poison pill Obama inserted, the conditions for the U.S. to allow Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet and access to the worlds seas and oceans from there: “provided that its abides by its agreements, and respects, Ukraine's, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” And who will be the judge of that? The U.S., obviously. And given how distorted the U.S. view of reality is, how could the Russians breath easy over that? The mere presence of Russian troops in Crimea has already been denounced, repeatedly, as “a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.” And if the easterners vote to secede? Why, that would be a “violation of blah blah blah.” The puppet “prime minister” who Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the U.S. ambassador to install, in that infamous intercepted phone call (that the Western media has conveniently chucked down the memory hole) has already made noises about abrogating the base treaty with Russia. The rump parliament voted to demote the Russian language from having official status in Ukraine, jamming a thumb in the eye of millions of Russian-speaking Ukrainians (hey Obama, who exactly is violating whose rights here?) which the “prime minister” had to hurriedly reverse, no doubt on U.S. orders.

And let's remember, that this business of moving NATO right up to the borders of Russia violates the understanding Gorbachev thought he had with the U.S. when he allowed the Soviet Empire to collapse peacefully. The U.S. wasn't supposed to push the edge of its empire right to the Russian border. Now, not only is Russia not to be permitted any buffer zone at all from Western encroachment, it is not even to be allowed to maintain its naval base on the Black Sea, through which it transits to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. This is the thanks Russia gets for aiding the U.S. in its war in Afghanistan (quite a generous gift, considering what the U.S. did to Russia there!). It doesn't pay to do the U.S. any favors, would seem to be the lesson. (Iran can draw a similar lesson from the help it extended to the U.S. after 9/11/01 when the U.S. went to war against the Taliban. The U.S. is an arrogant ingrate which thinks that all its demands are merely its due.)

The U.S. basically recognizes only its own interests as legitimate- and of course Israel's, which are Super-legitimate, superseding even the U.S.' own.

Obama throws in “the international community” a few times. Which is just a way of saying “the whole world against Russia.” The U.S. always uses that rhetoric. It seems that whichever nation the U.S. is attacking at the moment, it's always THE WHOLE WORLD against the target nation. Because the U.S. is so morally righteous and good, of course the WHOLE WORLD is always behind the U.S. I don't think there's ever been a nation as arrogant as the U.S. But “the international community” here really means the EU. Ever since World War II, Europe has been nothing but a collection of U.S.-flunky nations. We see that again here, as we have in the “war on terror,” where even Sweden- Sweden!- helped the CIA kidnap “terrorists” from Swedish soil and spirit them away to secret torture dungeons. (Some of those torture dungeons were in Europe too.) And thanks to Edward Snowden, we find that the European secret police help the NSA spy on the people of Europe, whose rulers supposedly care so much about human rights. Well, pleasing the Master comes first, I suppose. Politicians aren't really human beings. They are creatures of power. So they line up with the natural direction of power, like iron filings in a magnetic field.

Obama ends his peroration with a hackneyed faux-”stirring” pledge of support for “the people of Ukraine.” Well, the U.S. certainly supports some people of Ukraine- namely the new puppets it anointed as the “legitimate government” of Ukraine. And those satraps can rely on U.S. support until the U.S. decides not to support them. That happens sometimes. It happened to Diem in “South” Vietnam, where the U.S. gave permission for his assassination in a military coup. It happened to Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of the Philippines. It even happened, eventually, to the white racist rulers of apartheid South Africa, even though their regime was not much different from the “Jim Crow” U.S. South. Sometimes even the most iron-clad U.S. “guarantee” rusts away. [2]

Now, I don't really care if Russia keeps its naval base in Crimea. That's Russia's problem. I don't even believe that the division of humanity into nation-states is necessarily a good thing. I'm not on Russia's “side” in this. I simply don't side with this hyper-aggressive, megalomaniacally arrogant attitude on the part of U.S. imperialists that they should rule the entire planet. It's like the greed of the megarich. Just as the thirst of the megarich for more money is unquenchable, so the lust for more power on the part of the American imperialists can never be satisfied. While the U.S. maintains 750 military bases outside its national borders, an incredible number which is ignored in the western propaganda media, the U.S. want to shove Russia out of its historic Black Sea naval base, which is has maintained for centuries. [1] Crimea was part of Russia, until Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a native Ukrainian, got it into his head to redraw the internal borders of the Soviet Union and transfer Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Ukraine then was like a U.S. state, like Texas, a political subdivision of a nation, not a nation in its own right. Now suddenly the U.S. says you can't redraw borders. As if borders aren't redrawn all the time! They're lines on a map! And Russia is not redrawing the borders, it is giving the eastern Ukrainians the opportunity to weigh in on whether they want to be dragged against their will, via a coup, into the arms of the EU (and sooner or later, of NATO).

The truth is, it's Russia that has been weak here. Russia has in effect ceded western Ukraine to the U.S.-bloc. Now it is trying to maintain a vitally strategic naval base. It's the hyper-aggressive U.S. that is demanding every inch of Ukrainian soil for itself, against the will of half the population (while Obama and the entire chorus of western politicians and propagandists falsely proclaim the fight is between “the Ukrainian people” and Russian “aggressors.”

Ask any American political scientist in the field of “international relations,” whether it is realistic to expect Russia to cede such a vital strategic interest as access to the sea. The U.S. won't even clear out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which it has no need for and where Cuba has made clear for over half a century the U.S. “presence” (occupation, in point of fact) is not wanted.

It's not a “crisis” if the Ukraine divides in two. The only “crisis” is ENTIRELY a U.S. creation, since the U.S. won't accept a Russian presence outside its own borders, except to fall in line behind the U.S. to gang up on Iran, say, or otherwise act as a U.S. vassal state, as the U.S.' European lapdogs do. It takes the kind of monumental gall that only the U.S. seems to possess, to destabilize the Ukraine, as the U.S. and its Eurostooges did, and then to loudly denounce Russia for “destabilizing” it, and for “interfering” in the Ukraine's internal affairs! I would submit to you that Russia has a far more pressing interest in Ukraine than does the U.S., which is thousands of miles away. Ukraine is on Russia's borders and hosts a vital Russian naval base. Yet Russia hasn't declared a “Monroe Doctrine,” as the U.S. did almost two centuries ago, claiming the entire Western Hemisphere as its exclusive property (“our backyard”). But apparently the fundamental foreign policy principle of the U.S. is- What's Mine Is Mine, What's Yours Is Mine Too.

Update: Kerry is threatening Russia if the secession referendum isn't cancelled. And German chancellor Angela Merkel has been yapping at Russia. Apparently she's forgotten all about how the NSA tapped her cellphone. And Obama never even apologized!

1] In case you were wondering, against the U.S.' 750 bases on other people's lands, the Russians have- count 'em- two. The one in Crimea, and a naval base in Syria. Which they'd have a hard time getting to if the U.S. succeeds in kicking them out of the Crimea.

Oh, and speaking of “occupations,” the people of Okinawa positively despise the U.S. military occupation of their small island, which the U.S. invaded and conquered in World War Two, slaughtering an estimated 100,000 Okinawan civilians in the process. They especially don't like the constant rapes committed by U.S. Marines and sailors. And roaring jets flying low right over the main city every day. Gets annoying. But hey, Russia has to respect the will of “the Ukrainian people!” So says the U.S.! And that's an order!

The best, concise description of Okinawa's condition, still true today, is this segment of a talk by the late Japan expert, Chalmers Johnson, "Okinawa, Japanese Colony under USN-USMC boot heel."

2] Here's an interesting semantical tally. In his self-righteous pronouncement, Obama used the word “violate” or “violation” three times, “respect” or its variations three times, “people,” referring to the Ukrainians, three times, plus a reference to “all Ukrainians.” “Rights” pops up twice. The word “international” appears FIVE times. And naturally the words “sovereignty,” “integrity,” “reaffirm,” “support,” “firm,” “commitment,” “allies,” and “democracy” trot across the stage. A word processing program could have written the speech for him. For all I know, one did. U.S. imperialist rhetoric at this stage of history is a grab bag of trite cliches and bogus hot air, intended to send signals rather than impart meaning.

 

Here's the Ukraine, with the Crimea peninsula, site of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. From there, Russian ships can sail through the Dardanelles (straits that pass through Turkey) into the Mediterranean Sea and from there to the Atlantic Ocean, or through the Suez canal to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and east Pacific.

Here you see the limits of Russian access to the sea. Its northern border is inside the Arctic Circle and is icebound much of the year- although global warming is gradually increasing the passable days. It has access to the Pacific on its far eastern coastline. Ukraine is on the left side, between and below the words "Europe" and "Moscow" on the map.

Here's a larger area view of Asia. You can see how cutting off Russian access to the Black Sea would add many thousands of miles of sea distance to the oil-rich Persian Gulf region for Russian ships.

                                                                 Here's that unctuous Emperor I was telling you about.

Obama Has Egyptian Military Regime Break American Peace Activist's Arm

Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the anti-war activist group Code Pink, was on her way to participate in a solidarity action for Palestinian women imprisoned in the Gaza Strip when she was seized at the Cairo airport, held overnight, assaulted by secret police goons who broke her arm, tore her ligaments, and dislocated her shoulder, and then deported her to Turkey. During her over 14 hours as a captive, the U.S. embassy was called repeatedly to come and assist her, as is their putative duty, to aid a U.S. citizen in distress, and they never showed up, including after the vicious assault on her, which they were also informed about. I suppose the State Department apparatchiks were high-fiveing each other in their lair. This refusal to intervene constituted a thumbs-up to the Egyptian regime, which has long employed its torture skills to prisoners delivered to them by the U.S.

Last year (May 2013) Medea Benjamin committed the grave offense of interrupting a mendacious speech by Obama to confront him about some of his murderous policies. One question she shouted as she was being dragged from the room by Obama's Praetorian Guard was about the “killing” as she politely put it (murder is the correct word- and remember, Obama personally approves each name on the death list) of the 16 year old son of “terrorist” Anwar al-Awlaki, who was blown apart by a drone-fired Hellfire missile in a cafe in Yemen along with some of his cousins. She also shouted questions about various similar U.S. atrocities. Well you don't insult the Emperor like that and get away with it scot-free. [1]

So here's a concrete example of how Egypt “supports” the U.S. Mutual persecution of each other's dissidents is one way repressive regimes “support” one another and “protect” the “interests” of the each other.

There's no reason to think that the Egyptian secret police would have undertaken this assault on their own, or would be aware of Benjamin's travel plans, or even who she was, without the U.S. telling them.

The U.S. tracks the travel of dissidents (“terrorists” in U.S. government lingo) in advance, since any time a dissident books a plane reservation a computer alert immediately brings it to the attention of a secret police monitor. There were a hundred women participating in the solidarity action including Benjamin. Yet the Egyptian state thugs singled her out for seizure and mauling. The totality of the circumstances point to Obama's guilt.

Another strike against Benjamin was showing support for Palestinians, Anything that merely draws attention to the plight of Palestinians is considered an “attack” on Israel. The U.S. is Israel's rottweiler. When Israel murdered American Rachel Corrie, who stood in front of a U.S.-made bulldozer to try and stop the demolition of yet another Palestinian home, the U.S. was fine with that. As in the murder of 34 American sailors and the wounding of 174 in the 1967 Israeli attempt to sink the U.S.S. Liberty (a Navy spy ship) in a two-hour jet and torpedo boat attack, the murder of Corrie was called an “accident” by Israel, and the U.S. government said OK. Loyalty is a one-way street with our rulers. Citizens and soldiers are supposed to be loyal to them, but they owe us nothing. [2]

So Obama has an Egyptian goon squad do yet another favor for the U.S. imperialist government. Meanwhile the American media is keen to remind us almost daily that Putin is a “thug.” Which I don't dispute. It just gets annoying to constantly hear the pot calling the kettle black.

But the State Department has done worse than what they did to Benjamin. The movie Missing portrayed their complicity with the Pinochet junta of Chile in the murder of American Charles Horman, and their protection of the Pinochet regime, for example. So what's a broken arm? (The U.S. military had the junta murder Horman and another American, Frank Teruggi, because of their presumed political sympathies. At least 3 Americans are known to have been murdered by the fascist junta installed by the U.S., a well as citizens of other nations, especially Spaniards. For that matter, Kissinger gave the go-ahead to Pinochet's overseas assassination program, which included murdering Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington, D.C., by car bomb.)

So I guess you could say Benjamin “got off easy.” She wasn't murdered, like Michael Hastings was, for “sticking his nose where it had no business being,” in the gangsters' lingo. Or like the FBI execution of Ibragim Todashev in his apartment after hours of questioning. [3]

So what's a broken arm? Hell, they blow up grandmothers with drones! All in a day's work, for a repressive global empire that daily degenerates further into barbarism.

[Postscript: Obama's Revenge has proven durable. See "Medea Benjamin’s Arm 'Wakes Me Up Every Single Night in Pain.'”]

1] See the interview with Benjamin at democracynow.org.

2] A surviving officer, James Ennes, wrote a detailed account of the attack and its context, Assault on the Liberty.

3] And this was at least the fifth day of interrogation of Todashev. A series of preposterous stories was then planted in the media by unnamed FBI agents aka “law enforcement sources.” The initial story was this vague line, anonymously sourced of course, which appeared on ABC “News;” “There was some sort of aggressive movement that led the FBI agent to believe he was under threat and he opened fire.” This version omitted the facts that the room was full of cops and FBI agents, and that Todashev was recovering from knee surgery at the time on which he could only hobble around. It also left out what we later discovered from autopsy photos smuggled out to Todashev's father- that he was shot 6 times, including in the top of his head. The U.S. media blacked out the father's press conference at which he displayed the photos. Todashev was obviously executed either as he was seated in his chair or on the floor.

Todashev knew the Boston Marathon Bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers. All three were Chechen immigrants in the U.S. During his interrogation by the FBI, they apparently discovered that he knew something they didn't want to get out, and so they silenced him. We know that the FBI was alerted to the Tsarnaevs by the Russians well before the bombings, yet they pretended to look the other way. At the least, it smells like another 9/11, where the secret police deliberately allow a terrorist outrage to occur in order to seize more power for themselves.

Or worse- that the FBI helped instigate the bombings.

The Tsarnaevs apparently went on jihadi websites to get instructions on making the pressure cooker bombs they constructed. Given that NSA, CIA, and FBI monitor jihadi websites and plant spyware on the computers of anyone who views those websites, it really stretches credulity to claim that the Tsarnaevs somehow “flew under the radar.” And it is a matter of public record, reported by the bourgeois media, that the Russians WARNED the FBI about the Tsarnaevs well in advance of the bombings. The absurd excuse that the Russians didn't give the FBI specific enough information is absurd. As someone who has been under surveillance (and persecution) for decades for having opinions that the reactionaries of the secret police hate, I find it darkly humorous for the FBI to claim they blew off monitoring people identified as terrorists because there wasn't specific enough information!

But the corporate propaganda system repeats this insulting (to the intelligence of any thinking person) nonsense uncritically and moves on. Thus do they aid and abet the crimes of the FBI. As indeed they do in covering up the FBI's murders. The FBI knows they can count on this media complicity, which is why their crimes get increasingly brazen.

See the numerous articles at the Atlantic monthly website, such as “Yet Another Explanation for the Killing of Ibragim Todashev,” and also their numerous articles on the matter.

The only corporate broadcast coverage I'm aware of was by Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. See for instance “Maddow: Something's Very Rotten w/ FBI Tsarnaev-Todashev Boston Bombing-Linked 'Investigation',” and “Rachel Maddow Tries Her Best Not To Call FBI killing Of Ibragim Todashev A Conspiracy.”

U.S. Hounds Baying at Russia Over Ukraine

Here's U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha “Saint Sam” Powers speecifying at UN: [1]

“The United States would condemn any attempt [by Russia, it's understood] to undermine Ukraine's sovereignty.”

How's that for gall? This from the nation that just overthrew the elected president and installed its own handpicked replacements. That's not intervention? But maybe only the U.S. is allowed to “intervene” (meddle in the internal affairs of other nations), and those doing so with U.S. permission. Well, when you're Boss of the World, I guess it's only natural to see things that way.

Powers called for an “urgent” UN “mediation” committee to be set up, to try and cement the U.S.' precarious victory and keep the Crimea in Ukraine (which would give the U.S. puppet regime official control over the Russian naval base there) instead of splitting off. At the same time, Obama threatened to be a no-show at the next G-8 Big Shots' Preening gathering, to be held in Moscow, if Putin doesn't roll over and play dead in response to the U.S. seizure of Ukraine. Just a hunch, but I don't think Putin will want to trade Russia's Crimean naval base just to have Obama drop by for a photo-op. (No doubt the omnipresent neofascist chorus of U.S. right-wing politicians, ex-apparatchiks, "think" tank pseudo-scholars and professional opinionators will soon be out in force to denounce Obama for weakness and demand he get tough with Russia. As usual, these imperialist zealots will have no practical options to offer, just fulminations.)

As soon as the U.S. installed its puppet government, high State Department apparatchik William Burns hied to Kiev to “consult” with the newest U.S. clients/satraps. (I.e. to pull their strings.)

The U.S. now keeps threatening Russia- You better not intervene militarily! [2] (Or else what, I wonder?) At the same time, they're struggling to keep their newly filched prize from crumbling like a stale cookie in their greedy fingers. Ukraine seems likely to split in two, between the part “the West” just grabbed, (on the pretext that Yanukovych, the elected president their mob just overthrew, failed to sign a trade deal! There's the first rule of “international relations,” as imposed by the U.S.: do what we say, or else!) and the Russian-leaning eastern section. The population is genuinely split, it would seem, with easterners tied economically, culturally, linguistically to Russia, and the coupsters with dollar signs (or Euro signs, actually) in their eyes, thinking the West is a giant welfare state that will put them on Easy Street. (Those fools will soon learn. The World Bank is already hovering in the wings with its usual austerity demands to pay off debt.)

Oh, and Russia just raised the issue of Ukraine's arrears on paying for the discounted natural gas it gets from Russia. Russia is threatening to raise the price. We've seen this before. The West thinks Russia should give away free gas, and regards it as the worst kind of extortionist imperialist bullying if Russia wants to be paid for its product. Maybe the Russians should take a leaf from U.S. history and send in troops to collect the debt, as the U.S. repeatedly invaded Caribbean nations with Marines to act as collection agents.

Quick Quiz: What's the difference between a “democracy protester” and a “gunman”? Answer: the first are backed by the West, the second are not. “Pro-Russian gunmen” seized the Crimean parliament, the BBC “news” reiterated again March 1^st. And more threats of “consequences” if Russia intervenes militarily. And here's an example of “objective journalism,” courtesy of the New York Times, the self-anointed “newspaper of record” of the U.S. (and presumably of the world), the top of page one headline and subhead on February 28^th: “GRAB FOR POWER IN CRIMEA RAISES SECESSION THREAT” “Pro-Russia Militants Overrun Buildings as the Rift in Ukraine Deepens.” Say, didn't a Western-backed violent mob led by fascists “overrun” government buildings and “grab power” in Kiev, overthrowing the elected government? And isn't that violent seizure of power exactly what led directly to the current secession “threat”? Just asking.

And now, after destabilizing Ukraine, the U.S. and its Euro-lackeys are busy blaming Russia for the mess. Cute. I don't care for Russia. It's a repressive, autocratic, backward nation. But blaming them for what the West just did in Ukraine makes as much sense as blaming Russia for the global financial crisis the U.S. created in 2008, for example. It's absurd.

Prying Ukraine away from Russia's sphere of influence would mean threatening the Russian navy's base in the Crimea, the southern peninsula of Ukraine that juts into the Black Sea. The Black Sea provides Russia with access to the Mediterranean via the Dardanelles. From the Mediterranean the Russians can sail to the Atlantic Ocean, or through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean. Thus depriving Russia of access to this sea route would be a partial strategic blockade of Russia. It's incredibly aggressive of the U.S. and its Eurolackeys to attempt this- not to mention hostile. Yet at the same time the U.S. expects Russia to fall in line behind U.S. goals such as forcing Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program and kill the Arak reactor.

The propaganda drumbeat is growing louder by the day, with the U.S. media and much of European establishment media shrilly accusing Russia of meddling, destabilizing, intervening...all the things the West is doing in Ukraine. The BBC has been particularly sleazy, constantly speculating that the eastern Ukrainians who seized the Crimean parliament and refused to accept the coup in Kiev of being Russian soldiers in disguise. “The West” regards it as a “crisis” that Russia would use troops to protect its naval base and other interests in the Crimea. Just as in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the “crisis” is entirely of the U.S.' making, with its unreasonable, hyper-aggressive demands. (Cuba had every right, as a sovereign nation, to invite the Soviet Union to station nuclear-armed missiles there to deter U.S. invasion. And the U.S. had long had nuclear weapons in Turkey and Europe and in the Far East aimed at the Soviet Union at that time, making it hypocritical as well as unreasonable to demand that the missiles be withdrawn, on threat of a nuclear war.)

This is a good time to deconstruct that word, “stability,” and its uses in U.S. Imperialist-Speak. “Stability” is invoked, always as a Good Thing, when the U.S. wants to keep some dictatorship or oligarchy in power. “Instability,” a Bad Thing, means unwanted changes in the political status quo. But as we see in Ukraine, the U.S. is fine with destabilizing things to get what it wants. Stability becomes a virtue only after the U.S. has the set-up it seeks. Then “instability” becomes a bad thing. So destabilizing and destroying democratic systems in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1965), Chile (1973), etc., were Good Things. (They called it “fighting communism,” but that's just fascist code for destroying democracy, human rights, labor rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and so on.)

1] As part of the U.S.' never-ending “human rights” burlesque, Powers wrote a hand-wringing book about the Rwandan genocide that rued the fact that the U.S. didn't intervene to stop it. Based on that credential, Powers is put forth as a moral avatar. We've seen acts like this many times before. Jimmy Carter's entire presidency was in part a “human rights” charade. His actual record: forming the contra terrorists who helped the U.S. wreck Nicaragua; initiating the U.S. arms pipeline to Afghan jihadists after the Soviet invasion; conniving with China to invade Vietnam (he also opined that the U.S. didn't owe Vietnam anything for destroying that country, because “the destruction was mutual,” by which I guess he meant the U.S. bombed Vietnam, and the Vietnamese shot down some of the U.S.' bombers); praising the Shah of Iran, one of the worst dictators on earth at the time (as per Amnesty International) as a great friend; the standard U.S. support for Israel's crushing of the Palestinians (now, decades later, he's a critic of Israel- too bad he didn't say- and DO- anything when it would have made a difference); and more.

2] By the way, there are large numbers of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. When Reagan invaded Grenada to topple a regime there that was anathema to U.S. reactionaries, the excuse used was a bogus threat to the safety of American third-rate medical students there (who couldn't get into med school anywhere else, apparently). So it seems that Russia as ample VALID concern for a military incursion in Ukraine!

But of course the usual hypocritical double-standard applies, so Russia will be vociferously denounced by the West if it does so.

U.S. Bloc Overplays Its Hand In Ukraine

Well, no sooner has the U.S. and its EU handmaidens [1] installed the "government" of its choosing in the Ukraine (including various fascists and the man Victoria Nuland chose to be president, as revealed in her intercepted phone conversation with the U.S. ambassador in Kiev) then certain, shall we say, complications have arisen. Turns out that it's NOT the "will of the Ukrainian people" to turn Ukraine into a Western vassal state, just the desire of some of them. This should come as no surprise, given that those in the eastern part of the country are closely tied economically and culturally with Russia. The separate parliament in the Crimea region (which was part of Russia proper until the 1950s) has been occupied by opponents of the mob coup in Kiev.

“Gunmen” (the U.S. media term for them- BBC's too) took over the parliament in Crimea, with a crowd outside backing them. (Was it not a “gunman” who shot a cop in the head in Kiev, and one who threw a grenade, which started the killings there? No, it was “demonstrators.” And notice how the Western media carefully avoided the words “occupiers” or “occupying” during the three month occupation of the government buildings and main square in Kiev, to avoid creating mental linkages with the Occupy Movement- and reminders of how hostile that media was to it, and its brutal crushing by the police in the U.S. Oh, but that was different!)

What's happening in the Crimea is an “armed standoff” (as the U.S. government's NPR and its satellite radio stations describe it, for example). But the armed occupiers facing the police for three months in Kiev didn't constitute an “armed standoff.” (Recall they were throwing bricks and firebombs at the police all along too.) 

Obama, his Secretary of State the unctuous John Kerry, and War Secretary Chuck "Wagon" Hagel, are all waging their fingers at Russia and "warning" it not to intervene. It would "complicate" matters, in the words of a former U.S. ambassador served up to us by NPR (formerly National Puke- I mean Public- Radio, a U.S. Government propaganda radio network).  Meanwhile "journalists" from "Radio Liberty" (the "Cold War" propaganda arm of the U.S. government, which- surprise!- still exists, even though we're told the Cold War is over, the U.S. having won it) and other Western propaganda organs apparently broke into the home of the overthrown president and stole thousands of documents, which they are gleefully waving about and posting online. (These same hypocrites demonize the likes the Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, et al. Double standard, anyone?) We're told the ousted ELECTED president is "wanted" for killings of demonstrators. (Funny, no arrest warrant was ever issued for, let's say, Nelson Rockefeller, for ordering the Attica Prison massacre, or for Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, and Louis Freeh for the deliberate slaughter of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, burned alive and shot, including 17 children, or Wilson Goode, who as Mayor of Philadelphia ordered a bomb dropped on the home of Move!, with most of the survivors shot dead as they fled the ensuing inferno, against mostly women and children, or how many massacres of native Americans. Well, just because they'd been here 15,000 years, they still had no right to be here- their ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower,)

But I digress.

The U.S. media (and BBC and no doubt most of the rest of the European establishment media) has slavishly parroted the line that Russia should just passively stand by and let the West seize control of a country on its borders. Imagine if a mob seized the government in Canada, and Russian-picked stooges were then proclaimed as the new government, while top Russian officials warned the U.S. not to intervene. You'd have to be on some powerful hallucinogen to even imagine such a thing! The U.S. has threatened to start nuclear wars for less than that. "The" media is also straining the find a Russian hand in the Crimea rebellion against the rebellion- with the BBC even trying to claim, without evidence by their own admission, that the "gunmen" who seized an airport and other places are really Russian troops disguised as civilians. (They apparently rounded up a supportive crowd before seizing the Crimean parliament.)

Now "the West" apparently expects Russia to surrender its naval port in the Crimea. How about the U.S. clear out of Guantanamo Bay first, which is occupied by force and against the will of Cuba?

The point isn't that I'm pro-Russian. It's Russia's problem. The point is the utter arrogance, hyper-aggressiveness, and outrageous hypocrisy of U.S. Imperialists and their lackeys. They always push it to the hilt, while claiming victimhood: victims of "terrorism," of "Soviet expansionism," of "communist aggression," of  "drug lords," of dangerous radicals, black militants, dirty hippies, whatever excuse they can cook up to justify external aggression and subversion and internal repression. The aggressive attempt of the U.S., aided and abetted by various lackey nations, to rule the world, is a source of constant conflict and destruction- and oftentimes mass murder. The truth is, viewed objectively, the U.S. has been a negative for humanity overall throughout its history. That's not to say the world would be a swell place if the U.S. magically disappeared- just that the U.S. is the MAIN source of trouble in the world today- although Islamofascism is a strong contender for second place.

1]  Known as “Fuck the EU” in internal State Department parlance- as per Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, formerly chief State Dept. flack, in yet another revealing display of the contempt in which U.S. Imperialists hold everyone else on earth, even “close allies.” The NSA spying revelations was another example. This is because those who live for power, who revel in it, who consider it glorious, hold in contempt those weaker than themselves- and fawn over those more powerful. Since no nation is more powerful than the U.S., the U.S. Imperialist elite holds all others in contempt.

U.S., Obama Regime, Busy as Bees, Trying to Overthrow Three Governments Simultaneously

(And Media Handmaidens Play Their Assigned Roles.)

This might be a first in U.S. Imperialist history: trying to overthrow three governments at the same time. Namely in Ukraine, Thailand, and Venezuela. It's a feat you might see in an Olympics of Imperialism, or maybe something an overachieving empire would do. There may be even more governments the U.S. is currently working to destabilize, of course; these three are just very blatant examples that are visible to the naked eye, as it were.

The coup attempt in Ukraine appears on the verge of success. The president has disappeared. His allies in parliament are jumping ship. The police are withdrawing, and if we can believe Western media reports (always a big IF, given their propensity for disinformation- aka lying) some police even have joined the “protesters.” (Maybe they can put in a word for their colleagues the rebels are holding hostage.)

One of the surefire signs of U.S. “foreign policy objectives” is how the establishment media “covers” (slants and distorts) a story. In all three cases, the clear preference of this media, and thus indirectly of the U.S. state, is obvious. In Venezuela, the U.S. media (and British and other overseas U.S. lapdog media) has demonized Hugo Chavez since Day One, not because of incompetence per se (as if they automatically oppose incompetent rulers and support competent ones) but because of the class interests Chavez openly championed, namely the “lower” classes- the majority of Venezuelans. Now that Chavez is dead, his successor Nicolas Maduro has to deal with U.S. subversion and hostility. So far on three occasions the Venezuelan government has had to expel U.S. “diplomats” trying to provoke unrest and subvert the government. The latest batch were trolling for troublemakers on college campuses. Their cover story? “Visa outreach.” Good one, State Department! You made me laugh! (I'm sure the people with Wrong Thoughts who have been put through the grinder trying to get a U.S. visa would enjoy that joke. People seeking U.S. visas go to the U.S. consulates or embassies. U.S. staff don't go hunting for people to give visas to- unless they're up to no good.)

But Maduro has shown weakness. Suddenly he's asking to talk to Obama to straighten things out with the U.S. Big mistake. Now the U.S. is going to increase the pressure, since it sees it's working. So the U.S. is coming closer to its goal of reestablishing a bourgeois class dictatorship in Venezuela.

In the case of Thailand, this clear class bias in favor of the upper classes everywhere and hostility to the majority of the world's people manifests in sympathy for the Thai minority that is rebelling against the government and even prevented voting in parts of the country. The alleged Great Devotion To Democracy that the U.S. government and media profess was nowhere on display- no condemnation of this prevention of voting, in fact barely any mention of it, much less detailed coverage. “Even” NPR and the BBC (UK) were slanted,  though if you listened carefully to the facts they presented, the facts belied the interpretation and framework those organizations placed on the situation (requiring them to ignore their own facts). In Thailand a distinct minority of the population- the elites, the privileged- is trying once again to overthrow an elected leaders. (They have one coup under their belt already, thanks to the Thai military, who drove out the brother of the current head of state, in the process violently suppressing his supporters who rallied behind him.) That time too, “the” media sided with the coupists and against the majority.

In the case of Ukraine, the media “bias” has been the most outrageous. There, violent demonstrators have occupied government buildings in the heart of Kiev, the capital, for three months, and barricaded the area. They have violently attacked police, starting with paving stones and dumping cold water on them in the freezing winter, then escalating to Molotov cocktails (homemade firebombs), and just recently shooting a policeman dead and hurling a grenade in their midst, costing another cop his leg.

Yet the Western media have presented these goons (spearheaded by fascists) as the Good Guys, and the police as the Bad Guys. New laws designed to control the violence of the “protesters” and take back the part of the capital city and government buildings held hostage by them were immediately labeled as “anti-protest laws” by propaganda organs such as NPR, the BBC, and CBS. (Those are ones I heard it on; there are probably others.) The protesters were said to be “defending their right to protest.” Western governments weighed in on this grave violation of human rights (while maintaining their silence on the real repression going on in Bahrain, to cite just one example, or Israel, or Jordan, or just about any client state or satrapy of the U.S. bloc). The “democratic West” thus maintains its consistency and continues its traditions of hypocrisy and double-standards. (For more on Ukraine go to democracynow.org and search for the interviews Stephen Cohen gave on the subject.)

Care to speculate how such protesters would be handled in any Western capital? Based on the violent repression of peaceful protesters in the U.S., for example, most recently the Occupy Movement, we can confidently predict a bloodbath would be the response. During the black riots in American cities, “looters” were shot by the scores by State Police, local police, and National Guardsmen. (Scores of dead were the “official” count in the various cities, a count which isn't trustworthy of course because the repressive state and Federal governments doing the killing were issuing those numbers, meaning they had an incentive to lowball the numbers. The corporate propaganda media faithfully transmitted these death tolls to the public as “fact.”) Airborne Divisions were even kept stateside instead of going to Vietnam to fight there, in order to have a reliable domestic-suppression force. Yet Obama has the nerve to threaten the Ukrainian government with “consequences” if they “cross that line” and refuse his demand to withdraw security forces from the scene of the occupation! At the same time, Obama blamed “the violence” entirely on the regime, with the U.S. media (and BBC) marching in lockstep behind this line. Obama imposed a Catch-22 on the Ukrainian president, simultaneously demanding that he withdraw the police, AND "end the violence." Since the protesters are committing violence, police action is required to end violence. [1]

Now, I don't care who rules Ukraine, or whether the ELECTED president of Ukraine signs or doesn't sign a trade deal with the EU. He was going to sign, and Russian pressure apparently caused him to change his mind. It's also a fact that Europe and the U.S. have been aggressively pushing the border of their economic and military sphere right up to the border of Russia ever since the Soviet Union collapsed. (Wonder how the U.S. would react if the Russians were grabbing Canada and Mexico into their sphere! It would probably be war.)

The U.S. and EU aren't even willing to wait for the next Ukrainian presidential election next year- apparently they don't want to risk “losing.” (As if it should be any of their business.) Hence the drive for the coup. The fact is, the people of Ukraine are divided as to which way their country should lean- East or West. This is a fact rarely alluded to in the mendacious media “coverage,” which assiduously gives the impression that the entire Ukrainian people are rising up against an intolerable regime.(Not jumping into bed with the EU by signing a trade treaty apparently is beyond the pale.) [2]

It's a textbook example of how a small nation that doesn't do EXACTLY what the U.S. Empire and its lackeys demand has its government overthrown. There are numerous such cases- two of the most notorious being Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954. As in the current Ukraine case, the demands in those cases were also economic. [3]

Obama is a classic overachiever, a very dangerous personality type to have as U.S. Emperor. With the immense destructive power of the U.S. at his disposal, such a character, with an ego-driven mania for “accomplishments,” can do tremendous harm in the world- and Obama has certainly caused his share of misery, suffering, and death so far. He has also inflicted lasting damage on human rights inside the U.S., by his lead role in the destruction of personal privacy via the omnisurveillance system centered around the NSA, which he has championed and protected (and attempted to sneak past the people under a cloak of secrecy- hence the revilement of whistleblower Edward Snowden by the establishment power structure.) [4]

1] To mention just a couple of examples of the repression of peaceful Occupy protesters, in “liberal” New York City, OBEYING a police order was cause to be pepper-sprayed and/or arrested by the police and falsely charged with crimes. The facts are well-established. The police led 750 marchers onto a bridge in order to capture them and take them into captivity and falsely charge them. And there's the notorious case of the vicious Inspector Anthony Bologna, who gratuitously pepper-sprayed two women who were standing exactly where he had ordered them to stand. Obviously Bologna is a reactionary fanatic who hates his political/ideological enemies (enemies in his mind- unfortunately most of the victimized dissidents haven't figured out that the police are their enemies, despite ample evidence over many years- violent assault, false arrests, malicious prosecutions, infiltration, surveillance, sabotage, disruption- everything a police state like the U.S. does to dissidents). Unfortunately for Bologna, he forgot to take them into a back room in a police lair to torture them, instead doing it right on the street in front of numerous witnesses and being recorded in his criminal act. Police Commissar Raymond Kelly, Master of Repression, was forced to dock Bologna a few days of paid vacation time as a result. Pretty mild punishment for a high-ranking officer publicly committing a malicious assault. Bologna maintained his rank, power, and authority in the New York City Police. (Known as the NYPD.)

2] American reporter David Stern let slip on the BBC the morning of February 22 that “as much as 46%” of Ukrainians support the overthrow movement. I.e. Maximally, less than half of Ukrainians want to oust the president by force. Real democratic. Notice that Stern and BBC waited until the coup is almost complete to mention this rather significant fact.

What's also ignored in the Western media propaganda offensive is the fact that eastern Ukraine is economically dependent on Russia, and the people there favor not alienating Moscow as a result. They're Ukrainians too, not just the cop-killers in Kiev. (They've killed about a dozen cops so far, by the way, a fact Western media now hides by lumping the police deaths in with all deaths, as in "X number of people have died in the violence," implying they're all dead coupsters.)

3] In Iran, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh committed the grave crime of deciding that his nation should get more than a negligible share of revenues from Iranian oil. The British oil firm British Petroleum (now the criminal, incorrigible polluter BP) ran to its government, which got the U.S. to help in a joint CIA-MI-6 coup. In the case of Guatemala, President Jacobo Arbenz naively thought that he could appropriate unused land held by the United Fruit Company, and pay compensation in the value that United Fruit had stated on its Guatemalan tax returns for the land, and allow poor peasants a shot at a decent living. This was an unconscionable theft in UFC's eyes, so they went whining to the U.S. Government, where two former elite corporate lawyers from the criminal firm Sullivan and Cromwell, now had their bloody paws on the top levers of power- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and his brother Allen, Director of Central Intelligence. (CIA boss.) In short order they got President Eisenhower on board to brand Arbenz a “communist” and arrange a CIA coup there (as in Iran). In both cases, the coups ended democracy in both countries, and it hasn't returned. In both countries, massive slaughters of civilians ensued in the following decades, carried out by state terrorist regimes coached by the U.S., especially the CIA, U.S. military, and State Department.

If Arbenz had read up on history, he might have realized how dangerous his move was. The U.S. already had a history, going back at least aa century, of attacking Latin American nations whenever some rich Americans were displeased with a situation. For example, in 1854, a century before the Guatemalan coup, it was necessary for the U.S. Navy to burn down the Nicaraguan port town of San Juan del Norte. Why? Because when American plutocrat Cornelius Vanderbilt sailed his yacht into town, the local authorities had the effrontery to try and levy port charges on his boat. Clearly a corrective lesson for the natives was in order. This also nicely illustrates, as do most such cases of U.S. imperial criminality, that ultimately U.S. power is deployed on behalf of American plutocratic interests, whether corporate or even individual, as in this case. And no crumb is too small for the Big Dog to snatch away from the world's poor.

Yes, that really happened. It's amazing all the dirty shit in American history that those in power manage to bury with barely a trace that it ever happened. Of course, this is only possible because of the willing assistance provided by such accomplices as “teachers,” “professors,” “scholars,” and “journalists,” the main indoctrinators and keepers of “truth.” A handful of actual historians, such as the late Howard Zinn, have rescued the interred bones of history from the enforced amnesia of establishment guardian priests of ideological rectitude.

Here's an excerpt from a presentation by Noam Chomsky in 1985 that mentions some of the U.S.' depredations in Latin America, which the U.S. Imperium still calls “our hemisphere,” as in “we own it.” (See the glorious “Monroe Doctrine,” which declared the Western hemisphere off-limits to European imperialisms. “Our” doesn't mean “we happen to be located here,” it means “it's ours.”) Chomsky insightfully illuminates the sham pretexts the U.S. uses for its aggression and domination.

The full talk is on youtube.com, titled “Noam Chomsky Lessons of Vietnam 1985 FULL Speech (RARE).”

Someone better tell Maduro he's not dealing with reasonable people.

4] By the way, the BBC in the last couple of days referred to Edward Snowden as “infamous,” as in “the infamous Edward Snowden,” like it's an objective fact. And that wasn't in a commentary, but the intro to a “news” piece, offered as a matter-of-fact-descriptive. They don't even call Bashir al-Assad that! (The Butcher of Syria.) They've outdone even U.S. “news” organs with that one. (Some people are of the opinion that Snowden is “infamous.” It is not a fact and far from a universal view. Some regard him as a hero. Thus the BBC could have called him “hero Edward Snowden” with equal validity. A more neutral, objective term would be whistleblower. NOT "leaker"- leakers are anonymous. And they're usually "officials" hiding behind anonymity to plant propaganda in the media. Most thinks the establishment media calls "leaks" are really propaganda plants by those in state power.)

Anyway, Thank You, “Great” Britain, for being so slavishly and sycophantically loyal to your U.S. masters! I know the U.S. imperialists take you for granted, so I'll thank you on their behalf, you rotten propagandist wankers.

Hamid Karzai's “Job”

“President” Karzai of Afghanistan just released 65 putative Taliban terrorist prisoners from Bagram Air Base (who had been handed over to Afghan custody by the U.S. with the understanding that they wouldn't be freed- that's what they get for thinking Karzai's word is worth more than a bucket of warm spit). Here's his defense of this reckless action:

“It is my job as President to look after the interests of the Afghan people.” [BBC interview, February 13, 2013.]

So, it's in the “interests of the Afghan people” to unleash fanatical terrorists on them, huh? That's a rather debatable proposition, I'd say.

He also couched it in terms of Afghans' “human rights.” (His laissez-faire attitude towards crimes against women and children by “traditionalists” would warrant our skepticism of this claim- and demands that Karzai explicate his definition of “human rights.”)

Asked by the BBC as to ISAF's* motive in imprisoning innocent Afghans, he says “the only possible reason” is to make Afghans “hate the government” of Afghanistan, i.e. his own regime.

What a crazy allegation! How's that for gratitude for the billions shoveled into the maw of his corrupt regime, including regular delivery of satchels of cash by the CIA to Karzai personally, to hand out as bribes- from which he no doubt skimmed some for himself as a “carrying charge.” I see scant evidence of the West trying to undermine Karzai. Certainly they should have stopped supporting him many years ago. Obviously Karzai thinks by being “anti-American,” somehow he can ingratiate himself with the Taliban. Even the Taliban's murder of Karzai's last two top “peace” negotiators haven't disabused him of this delusion. I only hope he sticks around after the Taliban seize power again, if they do, and he ends up like one of his predecessors, ghoulishly castrated and hung by the sadistic gunmen empowered by the U.S., Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to dominate Afghanistan since their joint anti-Soviet crusade.

The BBC said U.S. gave them a dossier for half the released prisoners, which claimed they were armed, or had explosives' residues, and so on. And many were seized within the last 6 months, not long-time prisoners as Karzai claims. One was a senior Taliban leader- says the U.S. Of course, it's fair to be skeptical of any U.S. claims about the matter. But I doubt that every single U.S. prisoner is innocent and the U.S. never captures any Taliban terrorists. Even Karzai said “most” of those he precipitously freed were innocent, not “all.”

But the U.S. is on shaky ground thanks to its own behavior over the years in its “War On Terrorism.”^TM

It has rounded up thousands of non-terrorists, many on payment of bounties, and imprisoned them for years without recourse by the victims or their families. It has institutionalized torture, and used the resulting “intelligence” as “proof” of its claims and even as “evidence” in its kangaroo-court “military tribunals.” Just last year the New York Times, no less, reported on the unearthing of bodies around a Special Forces base in Afghanistan, where torture and murder of prisoners is conducted. So the U.S. unfortunately is in a weak position to squawk (which hasn't stopped it from doing so anyway, of course) about Karzai's dismissal of the U.S.'s characterization of the released prisoners.

So basically both Karzai and the U.S. are immoral and untrustworthy. Pick your poison.

* The International Security Assistance Force, the umbrella for the U.S. and helpmate foreign military forces in Afghanistan.

Russian People Gouged For Huge Putin Vanity Project

So the Winter Olympics in the summer resort town of Sochi, Russia (which is akin to staging them in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or somewhere like that) is costing the Russian People $51 billion (or rather, its equivalent in rubles). To put that in perspective, that's more than the cost of all previous Winter Olympics combined.

Naturally, there is mega-corruption, and Putin's crony capitalists are making a killing. For good measure, locals have been evicted and their homes demolished to make way for this ephemeral extravaganza. Local water supplies have been dried up, toxic waste dumps created, cropland ruined. And many of the imported workers who built the facilities were stiffed for their wages and run out of town by Putin's goon squads. (And if you're homosexual, you better keep it a deep, dark secret, if you know what's good for you.)

But it's for a good cause- Vladimir Putin's vanity.

The Olympics is a giant scam, run by corrupt bribe-takers. The eminence grise of the enterprise is still the avowed (and proud of it) fascist, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Sports Minister to the late Spanish fascist dictator and mass murderer Francisco Franco. (Samaranch's son is currently on the board of the International Olympic Committee, along with a bunch of his dad's hand-picked stooges.0

Virtually every city that hosts Olympic games loses big money on it. It is sought after by local politicians for their own vainglory. And the athletes are shamelessly exploited by this multi-billion dollar racket. On the corporations and television broadcasters and the IOC itself benefit.

The Russian people, suffering from poor nutrition, rotten health, terrible (or not) jobs, and a decayed and decrepit social structure, sure could have used that $51 billion to benefit them, instead of the ego of KGB Colonel/Dictator Putin.

Immoral and Proud of It

“My Country Right or Wrong.” I.e. I'm openly proclaiming my immorality, and proud of it too!

This is a classic jingoistic American slogan, loudly brayed.

Evil doesn't get more blatant or naked than this. To my knowledge, not even the Nazis went this far rhetorically (although in their actions they certainly took barbarism and evil to their limits).

Dictionary of Obama Regime Vocabulary

The Obama regime, and especially its Godfather, uses words in idiosyncratic ways that might confuse people. (Indeed that's the obvious intent.) Here, as a public service, a translation guide to common Obamaoid terms and their plain English meanings.

“Imminent threat.” - Hypothetical at some indeterminate future point.

“No one is reading your emails/ listening to your phone calls” - No one you know, that is.

“The proper balance between privacy and security.” - is zero to one hundred. (0:100.)

“Security.” - Deep state power.

“Freedom.” - Of those in power to do whatever they like.

“You can keep your health care plan if you like it.” - Until you can't.

“We're looking forward.” - by immunizing U.S. state torturers.

“I will close Guantanamo Bay in one year.” - Not.

“Due Process.” - Secret cabal of Obama officials draw up a weekly death list and Obama approves it.                     [ As per Eric Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the U.S.] 

“Transparent” government - Opaque and secretive. For good measure, persecuting journalists, including 

 wiretapping (AP and Fox, among others) criminally investigating (Fox), seizing notes and digital devices at U.S. borders, imprisoning them (Barrett Brown) and murdering them (Michael Hastings).

“Whistleblower protection” - Persecution of whistleblowers, including FBI home raids, felony charges, directives to all Federal agencies to make employees spy on each other, FDA spyware planted on scientists' computers, etc. etc.

“Immigration reform” - Record 2 million people deported by Obama regime, thousands of families smashed to bits, doubling of Border Patrol size, thousands incarcerated in county jails and private prisons.

Assad Bring Polio Back to Syria

Children are being paralyzed by the polio virus, which thanks to the regime of dictator Bashir al-Assad

has returned to Syria. Assad's Alawite oligarchy, (Assad himself inherited the dictatorship from his exsanguinous dad, Hafez) has been waging a war of extermination against the civilian population of the country it misrules in areas where rebels have driven out Assad's gunmen. This war of extermination includes use of starvation, poison gases, and bombing and shelling of schools, markets, and wherever else groups of civilians of any ages might congregate and thus be killed in numbers.

From the beginning of the civil war over two years ago, the Assad regime has targeted health care workers suspected of aiding the wounded in rebel areas, and medical facilities have been special targets. The regime just murdered a doctor, after torturing him for 8 months first. With their special signature cruelty, Assad's minions led the doctor and his family to believe he was about to be released just before murdering him. Then, in their usual smarmy and hyper-cynical fashion, insisted he'd committed suicide. Pushing such obvious lies in the world's face is one way they show their contempt for morality and the opinion of humanity. Indeed, like the Nazis (a number of whom were harbored in Syria after World War II), the Assadites draw psychological strength from their openly reveling in their own immorality and criminality. This is characteristic of devils. They glory in their evil.

As part of the criminal way the Assad regime wages its war of extermination against anyone who dares question the Alawite oligarchy's right to rule Syria in perpetuity and without a peep of protest, as I said, medical services in areas it has lost control of are targeted for destruction, and medicine, like food, is cut off. Thus two enemies of humanity are effectively in league: the polio virus, and the Assad regime.

Both need and deserve to be extirpated from the face of the earth.

P.S. The UN just issued yet another report on Syria, this one on the torture, maiming, and sexual crimes

against children there, mostly by the regime, but some crimes committed by the rebels too. Not to worry: the UN diplomats and bureaucrats are still well fed and sleeping in comfortable beds. I'm sure this report will prompt some renewed hand-wringing and crocodile tears shed by the political bosses of the world.