Ukraine Satraps Launch Murderous Military Assault on Eastern Ukrainians to Provoke Russian Invasion

The puppet Ukrainian regime chosen by the U.S. and installed by a violent, fascist-dominated mob financed by the U.S. (and by American billionaire Pierre Omidyar) is taking off the gloves and launching a full-scale military assault on eastern Ukrainians who refuse to bow to its ersatz authority. The city of Donetsk is the first target. The satrapy regime is targeting government buildings in the east that were taken over by armed citizens there, in an ironic reversal. Remember, this Western stooge regime seized power by seizing government buildings. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the new rulers are moving decisively to crush rebellion, as the elected government they overthrew fatally failed to do. And the U.S. and its Eurolackey stooges has also done a neat reversal. When they were overthrowing the elected former president Viktor Yanukovych, they demanded that security forces retreat in the face of murderous cop-killing mobs. Now they demand the opposite, that people seizing buildings surrender.

You couldn't design a better provocation to get Russia to send in troops to protect sympathetic Russophile Ukrainians and ethnic-Russian Ukrainian citizens then an armed military attack on them. At the same time, western media and politicians and apparatchiks issue threats daily against Russia, telling it not to “invade” Ukraine and screeching loudly about Russian “aggression” and “subversion.” Moldova is said to be a victim of Russian “aggression” (because of a breakaway region), and the Georgian-Russian war is invoked as part of a pattern. (Never mentioned is the fact that Georgia started the war, stupidly calculating that NATO would start a war with Russia to rescue Georgia. Seems the Ukrainian satraps may be making the same dumb miscalculation.) In Odessa in western Ukraine, 30 Russophile Ukrainians have just been burned to death when the building they were occupying was set on fire.

Preparing for civil war to control ALL of Ukraine, “President” Oleksandr V. Turchynov has just announced the imposition by his personal fiat of a military draft for those 18 to 25 years old, for unspecified terms of “service.” (Western media refer to him, and to Victoria Nuland's pet “Prime Minister” Arseniy “Yatz” Yatsenyuk, as “interim” or “acting” president and pm, not “unelected” or “U.S.-installed.” You can bet if the shoe were on the other foot, it would be “Russian-installed, unelected,” “illegitimate,” “installed by force,” and so on.) [For Nuland designating “Yatz” as PM-to-be, see “U.S. Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion”]

Conscription by personal ukase- just like a Tsar! So who is trying to “return to the past”? Putin? He's not the only authoritarian around, apparently. (But not even Putin personally reviews a weekly murder list, which has so far eliminated thousands of “enemies,” or has the power to indefinitely imprison people in a military gulag without trial or charges. Guess who has that power? The “Leader of the Free World.”^TM) Turchynov The Interim also whined about police and military personnel “defecting” to the anti-Kiev cabal cause. So this is shaping up to be quite a messy civil war. Expect U.S. military “special operations” assassins to be added to the mix. And the CIA is already there- in fact the head of the CIA, John “Torture & Kill 'Em” Brennan himself was just in Kiev, plotting god knows what sinister mayhem.

Turchynov makes a point of consistently referring to the eastern resisters to him and his cabal as “terrorists.” That term makes clear the intent to use violence, not negotiations or reconciliation, to cement the rule of his cabal.

And while conducting this military assault on the east, the Kiev cabal will stage a “presidential election” later this very month, under the tutelage of their Western puppet-masters. Which will give Western politicians, apparatchiks, and propagandists another chance to wax hypocritical, as they will no doubt be hailing this snap election as a paragon of democracy, unlike the “illegitimate,” “illegal,” “Unconstitutional” Crimea referendum “held under Russian guns” in which Crimeans voted 93% to reunite with Russia (called “Russian annexation” in Western media). [1]

Meanwhile, U.S. and Eurolackey regimes and media pile higher the stinking pile of hypocritical rhetoric. There's no end to talk of Russia “subverting” and “destabilizing” Ukraine, when it was the U.S. grab for Ukraine and overthrowing of the elected government that did precisely those things. We hear that Russia is “on the march,” and Putin is “starting the Cold War again,” “grabbing territory,” and “trying to recreate the Soviet Union.” For example- and there are hundreds by now- U.S. government propaganda radio network NPR is talking about “growing Russian aggression against Ukraine.” (But interestingly, this time phrasing it as “what they [Germany and Britain] see as Russian aggression.”) [NPR, Noon EST, May 2.]

Actually, all Russia is doing to desperately trying to preserve the status quo, as the waters of a hostile military alliance (NATO) rise higher and higher around it. Now it's just trying to preserve the vital naval base in Crimea, and access to the output of factories in eastern Ukraine, which produce key military parts for Russian ICBMs and other weapons. Seizing Ukraine is like aiming a dagger at Russia's strategic heart. No surprise Russia is stirred to react. Instead we are told this is all part of some expansionist scheme by “thug” Putin, not breathtaking western aggression and subversion.

Russia has been mostly passive, contrary to hysterical western agitprop, as the U.S. reneged on the agreement made with Gorbachev that in return for a total retreat from eastern Europe, the U.S. wouldn't expand NATO eastwards. Now NATO is lapping on Russia's very borders, and Russia is expected to roll over and play dead as it loses its only warm water port in the west and access to strategic industries.

The double standard that the U.S. empire and its lackeys insist on imposing is mind-bending. A group of pro-Russian Ukrainians released some western spies- oh, excuse me, “observers”- military officers sent by the OCSE (yet another western imperialist organization) without obtaining freedom for prisoners they originally demanded. (The western media called the officers “hostages.”) This while the satrapy regime is waging war on resisters to their rule. Yet daily the U.S. and its toady stooge governments demand that Russia force the resisters to surrender, as they “agreed to do” at Geneva. But those governments aren't stopping the Ukraine coup regime from starting a civil war.

The Obama regime seems determined to press on with this deranged crusade, ratcheting up unjust sanctions against Russian government officials for doing their jobs, Russian businessmen who are guilty-by-association with Putin, and Ukrainians who haven't hopped on the coupists' bandwagon. [2]

The U.S. and Europe are trying to cut all Ukrainian ties to Russia, which are extensive and critical for Ukrainian well-being. (The standard, draconian International Monetary Fund “program” for the Ukrainian people has just been unveiled. It is revealing and will be the subject of a future essay.)

Of course, even if Obama started a nuclear war, it probably wouldn't be “strong” enough for the likes of John “Permanent POW” McCain, and the Republican Party, whose policy is Nothing a Democrat Can Do Is Any Good. Which has never stopped Obama from trying to appease them, whether it's the destruction of ACORN, the summary defenestration of Shirley Sherrod, passing a health care scheme taken straight from the Reaganite Heritage Foundation (now called “Obamacare”), crushing of domestic dissent, and a never-ending global campaign of mass assassination to “fight terrorism.”

There was a slogan during the Vietnam war; “Two, Three, Many Vietnams.” The idea was that the more “conflicts” the U.S. got embroiled in, the better (except for those murdered by the U.S., and the maimed, and the other survivors who have to live in devastated, destroyed lands poisoned by dioxin, depleted uranium, and other deadly substances U.S. imperialism has brought to the world). The theory is the U.S. would be spread thin, perhaps to the breaking point. So maybe we should hope that the arrogant, hyper-aggressive create more “crises” in more “troublespots” of their own making.

Well, I don't think two, three, many Ukraines will break the U.S. Just as the Iraq war didn't, merely weakened it in some ways- at terrible cost to Iraqis. The question is, how stupidly can the U.S. Goliath behave before it seriously catches up to it? Its hostility to Russia runs smack against the strategic imperative to construct a balancing coalition against China. Any such coalition will have a gaping hole without Russia. Obama just returned from an errand in Asia where he was trying to knit together just such a coalition among small Asian powers like the Philippines and Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, plus Japan, and India down the road. I wonder if the thought of this contradiction ever even occurred to him.

Not that I want to help him. I don't work for U.S. imperialism, in case you hadn't noticed. And I've personally experienced worse repression under his regime than under his predecessor Bush the Younger. So much for the “lesser evil” argument for voting for the Democratic Party!

1] Oddly, even though periodic, passing references are made to this “presidential election” in western media (but nothing at all by the western politicians!) there's been no “coverage” of any campaigning, no mention even of who the “candidates” in this “election” are! I'm guessing it's be Turchynov The Temporary President vs. A Bunch of No-Names Nobody Has Heard Of. That'll be real fair. The people have spoken!

2] Guilt by association is a long-standing actual principle of U.S. power practice, contrary to their wonderful-sounding, high-minded proclaimed principles. Currently it is employed massively in the “war on terror.” The NSA is creating “terrorist links” by seeing who calls who calls who calls who. So if a “suspected terrorist” called someone who called someone who called YOU, for example, your life gets inexplicably harder. That's called “three hops” tracing by the secret police. They have their own secret lingo for things, which makes them feel special.

Obama: “I'm a Big Believer in Conning People”

No, he didn't say that. He said “I'm a big believer in net neutrality. I campaigned on this, I continue to be a strong supporter of it,...” And he is referring in this 2010 interview to the then FCC Commissioner. The current Obama-appointed Chair of the FCC is industry lobbyist Tom “Wheeler-Dealer” Wheeler.

So from at least 2007 to at least 2010, Obama presented himself publicly as a staunch supporter of net neutrality. Now, without any public notice, he is sneakily moving to “destroy one of the best things about the Internet,” to quote the man himself.

                                                                                                                                                    

But then, Obama tries to conduct most of his evil in secret. From massive, omnipresent NSA surveillance, to assassinations, to draconian laws, to organized repression of protest in the U.S., to supporting some of the worst dictatorships in the world (like Egypt), Obama tries to keep what he does hidden, while trumpeting verbiage designed to dupe. Immigration is a prime example of the glaring contradiction between his words and deeds. While deporting record numbers of people from the U.S. (2 million and counting), smashing to bits tens of thousands of struggling families in the process, and unleashing a violent, murderous Border Patrol, when the political heat from average people starts to rise, he spouts “immigration reform” rhetoric, while doing nothing to push Congress to act. He announces ameliative programs with great fanfare, which in practice remain virtually dormant. (That happened with “mortgage foreclosure relief” too.) The actual programs he pursued with vigor are for greater repression, such as the Orwellian-named “Secure Communities” program, which turn local police into arms of the Immigration Police. This turns immigrant communities into fearful, Insecure places where people cannot report crimes because they will in effect be turning themselves in for summary imprisonment and deportation.

The larger reality to grasp is that the Democratic Party is just as repressive as the Republican Party, and there is plenty of evidence for this, from every Democratic regime form Woodrow Wilson to the current one, as I have described in previous essays in detail.

Obama Says He Himself “Destroys one of the Best Things About the Internet”

Barack Obama, back when he was first hustling his way into the Oval Office, made many false promises and representations about his intentions and policies. Starting as soon as he achieved state power, he showed his true colors by doing the opposite of what he promised.

Technically these are broken promises, but that implies an initial intention to do what he said he was going to do. With the possible exception of closing Guantanamo Bay for PR purposes to tidy up America's image (and moving the prisoners to other prisons- that part wasn't mentioned, including by the corporate media) there is no evidence he ever intended to do what he said. For example, as soon as he got in office, he appointed the architects of the financial calamity and Clinton regime retreads to key positions of power. He has worked to steadily increase the power of the secret police state and ratchet up domestic repression. Abroad, he personally presides over a never-ending campaign of mass assassination (over 4,000 killed by drones so far, and others killed by various means such as airstrikes, military death squad raids, etc.). As far as winding down the Iraq war, it was already being wound down, so he merely was continuing Bush regime policy, as in other matters.

The correct term isn't broken promises. It's betrayals. With malice aforethought, he conned his way into the White House.

I was on to this con man in 2004, when he was first trotted out on the national stage at the Democrats' party convention that year. Others have been much, much slower to “figure Obama out.” There's really nothing complex here. He's an obvious hustler and extremely calculating and ambitious self-promoter (the pattern goes back to his college days), just like the previous Democratic regime heads, the Clintons, with absolutely no moral limits or ethical values. The only limits are imposed by political considerations, which includes imagery.

I don't know how often or egregiously Obama needs to lie to and double-cross people for them to get over being “disappointed” or “disillusioned” with him to finally see reality clearly and take the true measure of the man.

Anyway, here's the latest betrayal. He ran in 2007 and 2008 voicing full-throated support for “net neutrality,” the concept that different websites shouldn't pay for privileged access to homes and other endpoints of data transfer, and ISPs (Internet Service Providers, the corporations that connect end users to the Internet, namely cable TV companies, Telecoms, and satellite providers, and other intermediaries that have to pay to use the wires, fibers, or bandwidth of those companies) shouldn't charge website for privileged, faster transmission speeds while in effect discriminating against smaller websites that lack the capital to pay up.

Now he's done another of his complete reversals. He just appointed a new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a wheeler-dealer by the name of Tom Wheeler, who just happens to be the number one lobbyist for both the cable and telecom industries (both of which honored him with awards for his outstanding service on their behalf), and Wheeler is pushing through permission for cable companies to differentiate speed of transmission for websites based on their paying to in effect jump to the head of the transmission line. (And you thought that only Republican regimes appointed foxes to guard the hen houses!) No less than a former FCC commissioner, Michael Copps, who was the longest serving chairman, has denounced this policy.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane and refresh our memories about this Barack Obama Forgotten Pledge. Here he is saying his policy of today “destroys one of the best things about the Internet.” The occasion was an arranged setup with MTV, a channel set up targeting youth, which was helping him in his Pied Piper strategy of getting credulous young people to follow along behind him:

                                                                  

“So as President I'm gonna make sure, that that is the principle, that, my FCC commissioners, uh, are applying, uh, as we move forward.” Did you hear that? Right at the end. Ah, but all that was then. This is now. He should adopt Nixon mouthpiece Ron Ziegler's formulation, and say those previous false statements are "inoperative."

This was in answer to a question from an alleged small businessman with a website. (Longer version with the questioner below.)

He also went out of his way to mislead the digital drones at Google. Here he is at Google HQ:

                                                                      

Apparently “the next chapter in American innovation” is even greater corporate consolidation, power, and control. Comcast, the cable giant that is at the forefront of throttling “freeloader” websites and demanding payment for privileged access to its subscribers, is right now absorbing Time-Warner cable, creating a gargantuan cable system. There is less and less competition for providing Internet access. Most Americans have a choice of either two or one cable providers as it is.

Well, at least ONE Google executive was swayed by the con:

                                                                       

Then we have a young Obama foot soldier (note his teeshirt) who was probably a ringer tasked with “asking a [pre-determined] question.” Anyway, it gave Obama another opportunity to trot out one of his lies:

                                                                         

                                                                               

There he goes again, decrying the idea of access providers wanting to “charge a premium” to some websites, and defending “net neutrality.” “That's going to be a major battle,” he said. And now we can see without any doubt which side he's on. What a treacherous guy! He's an enemy infiltrator of all progressive movements, in effect. Maybe NOW fools will finally STOP INVESTING HOPES in establishment politicians. At least vote for genuine reformers, like Nader (savagely attacked by the Democratic Party enforcers at The Nation magazine, among others).

Here's the longer version of the Q and A from MTV:

                                                                                  

But all this is small beer next to thousands of assassinations, signing into law (and fanatically defending in court) a law allowing Americans to be indefinitely imprisoned in the military gulag at the whim of the President, erecting the most massive system of population surveillance in human history, the deportation of two million non-citizen workers (smashing countless families to bits in the process), and empowering the U.S. Border Patrol to shoot dead Mexican citizens in Mexico for “throwing rocks” (which isn't even true sometimes), to name a few monstrous horrors of the Era of Obama.  

Arrogance and Stupidity in Obama Regime Power Grab in Ukraine

You'd think having to contain the growing power of China would be enough of a priority that a U.S. regime wouldn't stir up trouble in a small country thousands of miles away and pick a wholly gratuitous fight with Russia. But the same blundering empire that engaged in a prolonged, pointless, sadistic war against Vietnam, that invaded Iraq just to prove it could overthrow governments it disliked (and to settle a grudge that a stupid man, George Bush, had towards the Iraqi dictator because he fell for a fabrication cooked up by the Kuwaitis to make it look like that dictator had tried to assassinate his father, George Herbert Walker Bush), that learns nothing from history and sticks itself in quicksand in Afghanistan, just couldn't resist trying to seize control of the small country of Ukraine on the border of Russia, where Russia has a critical naval base, and wrest it out of the Russian sphere of influence. The U.S.' junior EU partners even rejected a Russian offer of shared economic links with Ukraine.

Well, when you get greedy, sometimes things go badly. The trouble with the U.S. is it's too powerful. It needs to get its nose bloodied more. Apparently Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were not sufficiently chastening for it to stop making trouble.

So now, at a time when realpolitik would dictate focusing on how to contain China, the U.S. goes and creates a “trouble spot” right on Russia's border. And true to form, when the U.S. doesn't get its way, it immediately issues ultimatums and demands and inflicts punishments on the offending party, in this case Russia, for daring to defy the U.S. And if Russia doesn't knuckle under, why, that just proves that its President, Vladimir Putin, is a “thug” (the favorite epithet for him, liberally employed by U.S. politicians and the chattering elite who fill the media here, inflicting their propaganda and deranged worldview on the rest of us) who is “out of touch with reality” (a common characterization, including one attributed to Angela Merkel in a phone call to Obama, as whispered in the ears of the New York Times by some anonymous White House apparatchik). Then the amateur, laughable psychoanalysis of what “drives” Putin begins.

Hey bourgeoisie, here's a clue for you: any Russian leader who would LET you drive Russia out of such a strategically vital area on its border, with an irreplaceable naval base and access to the world's seas, would be guilty of political malfeasance. ANY Russia ruler at all qualified to be ruler would have to stop you!

Now that pathetic joker Joe Biden, VP of the U.S., the man who as Senator did more than anyone to place the sex offender Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, is flitting in and out of Ukraine and other states in the region, tongue-lashing Russia and “showing support” for the pathetically weak puppet government the U.S. just installed with mob violence and false flag snipers. (It's all in the previous essays below.) And U.S. Secretary of State John “Look Ma! Now I'm a Hawk!” Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to once again demand that Russia make the eastern Ukrainians who refuse to be ruled by the new puppet government in Kiev abandon the buildings they've seized, or else, we are informed by State Department mouthpiece Jen Psaki. Psaki tells us that Kerry "urged Russia to take concrete steps to help implement the Geneva agreement, including publicly calling on separatists to vacate illegal buildings and checkpoints, accept amnesty and address their grievances politically." Yeah, politically. Like through peaceful processes? And elections? Like the violent fascist-led mob backed by the U.S. and EU that seized power in Kiev DIDN'T do, you mean? Sounds so reasonable! Maybe if the U.S. and EU hadn't caused this fissure in Ukraine to split open we wouldn't be enduring this “crisis” in the first place, ya think? [Today in Kiev, apparently reading from the same script, Biden parroted the exact same words as Psaki, demanding that Russia make the eastern militants clear out of their strong points, “accept amnesty, and address their grievances politically.” And the U.S. announced it's sending troops to Poland and other new NATO states, apparently to reassure the insecure rulers of those states and lay down a tripwire in case of a hypothetical, far-fetched Russian invasion.]

The U.S. has managed to weaken itself, pointlessly, because now if it fails to roll Russia back and force it to abandon eastern Ukraine, Asian countries fearful of Chinese island land grabs and the expansion of Chinese power generally will have renewed doubts about the strength of the U.S. “commitment” to their security. Why create a needless test over Ukraine? It is idiotic! The U.S., scrambling to shore up this collapsing sand castle of a government it created in Ukraine and salvage the situation, is warning Asian nations not to take advantage of economic sanctions on Russia, apparently signaling that the U.S. will be displeased if Asia starts buying Russian petroleum and natural gas and otherwise undermine the punitive sanctions.

The Russian reaction to the U.S. coup, contrary to the blather of the bourgeois commentariat in need of a cover story to hide the responsibility of their own side in provoking this situation, is not part of some pre-planned Putin “plot” in which Russia is going to “invade” country after country, another domino “theory” concocted to justify U.S. aggression and invert reality. Nor is it just anti-Imperialists like me who say the Russian reaction is predictable and provoked by Western action. Self-described “conservative” University of Chicago “International Relations” professor John J. Mearsheimer, a promoter of what is called “realism” theory in I.R., thinks so too, as he has stated publicly (on PBS NewsHour). [1] But hey, that's not my problem. They're going to keep forcing me to give them my money and shovel it into the maw of their gargantuan military and secret police establishment, no matter what.

But as usual, the U.S. is trying to dress its naked power play in the finery of high moral principle. “International order is at stake,” pompously trumpeted Ben Rhodes, deputy “national security adviser” to Obama. “Our policy on Ukraine is not targeted at Russia specifically, it is targeted at upholding the international order that we believe has been violated.”

If we parse “international order” correctly, that makes perfect sense. The “international order” in question is the system in which the U.S. holds global dominance, and all other nations must give way before U.S. demands and desires. Failure to do so is a violation of “the international order,” by definition. Once you understand the U.S. view of the world, there's nothing opaque about such statements.

Rhodes also thought it was brag-worthy that the U.S. got a meaningless vote through the toothless UN General Assembly taking Russia to task over the Ukraine situation (aka “crisis”). The U.S. managed to line up barely half the members of the General Assembly- 100- behind its scolding of Russia for reunifying Crimea by popular referendum of Crimea's inhabitants.

“One of the reasons you saw that vote in the UN was that Asian nations don't like precedent being set that a sovereign nation's territorial integrity can be violated with impunity,” crowed Rhodes. [My emphasis.]

Like the U.S. DIDN'T do when it invaded and conquered Iraq, Grenada, Panama, the Dominican Republic, (during the regimes of Bush the Younger, Reagan, Bush the Elder, and Lyndon Johnson), overthrowing unwanted regimes? Or when Reagan invaded Lebanon? And mined Nicaragua's harbors, and committed much murder and mayhem in that country, both with a proxy terrorist army and U.S. military “Special Operations Forces”? Or when the U.S. “secretly” bombed Laos and Cambodia, and invaded Cambodia? Or on scores of other occasions in U.S. history, including when it took a huge chunk of Mexico by force and incorporated it into the U.S. in 1848? (The Mexicans didn't get to vote on that either.) Or its invasions and conquests of the Philippines, and of Cuba? One could go on, and on, and on. But why bother? Clearly people like Rhodes, and all those who labor in the vineyards of the Western propaganda system, are completely immune to obvious facts. Their ideological fanaticism is such that they can make such brazenly hypocritical statements from within their glass castles, secure that no one will throw a stone back at them. Or if someone does, the stone-thrower can be dismissed with contempt as a brainwashed ideologue out of touch with reality!

Oh, and Rhodes had something to say about deaths resulting from the Ukrainian puppet government's allied fascist forces attacking pro-Russian Ukrainians in the east at one of their checkpoints:

“We are looking into it. We have been very clear that we do not support any types of violence and we want to see de-escalation.” Right. Just the opposite of when fascist-led mobs besieged the seat of government in Kiev, and were burning the place down, and hurling Molotov cocktails at police and shooting them. The U.S. was all for violence then, and in fact Obama himself demanded that the then-President PERMIT the mob to take over by withdrawing the security forces.

Rhodes repeated the U.S. demand that Russia should quell the rebellion against the new puppet government: “The road map laid out in Geneva requires pro-Russian forces to lay down their arms and vacate those buildings. As long as they are there, the risk of this type of confrontation is acute,” added Rhodes. Of course, the eastern Ukrainians weren't at Geneva and didn't agree to anything. It's kind of like France and Britain negotiating with Hitler to give Germany part of Czechoslovakia- and then telling Czechoslovakia what happened! Little wonder the easterners immediately announced after the Geneva confab that they weren't budging, notwithstanding Russian public calls for them to stand down. (Not that I think Russia is trying too hard to get them to, and why should it?)

Some apparatchik on Biden's plane even fed reporters on board the line that it wasn't forces from Kiev that were involved, as if he could know for sure. The fascists who now control the Kiev "security forces" have previously attacked eastern militants to try and dislodge them from buildings they've seized.

The anonymous apparatchik went on to make more threats against Russia, saying the U.S. would impose “costs” on it if the rebellious Ukrainians in the east didn't slink off into the night with their tails between their legs. Yeah, count on that happening.

As the U.S. well knows, projection of power at distances requires naval power. It was a U.S. Navy officer who wrote the book on this, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, by Alfred Thayer Mahan, in 1890- a book that is currently in vogue in China, note. I'm sure the Russians know exactly what the U.S. is up to by threatening its continued tenancy in Sevastopol, Crimea, by its Black Sea Fleet, and the U.S. knows too. It is trying to cut Russia off at the knees, reduce its power some more. Other than that base, Russia has one naval base outside its territory, a small one in Syria. The U.S. has, oh, only about 750 military bases of all kinds all over the planet. It has a couple of dozen bases just on the island of Okinawa. This is some empire we're talking here! And it can't stand rivals.

But given the already weak state of Russia, and the continuing rise of China as the only significant potential competitor to the U.S., as I said, it strikes an objective observer as quite an indulgence to pick a fight with Russia over Ukraine. But the U.S. has been picking fights since 1812, when it invaded what is now Canada to try and rip off some territory, burned York, Ontario, and the British had to teach the U.S. a lesson by marching down to Washington, D.C., and razing it in retaliation in 1814. (The U.S.' provocation of burning York and other towns is usually omitted in the U.S. version of what happened, just as the fact that the Iranian “hostage crisis” was precipitated by the U.S. letting the hated Shah into the U.S. is omitted in the retelling of this alleged, and unforgivable atrocity by Iran against the U.S. By the way, zero “hostages” were killed, zero “hostages” were harmed- but 250,000 Iranians lost their lives under the tyrannical reign of the Shah, who was installed in a CIA coup in 1953. But man, those Iranians have a lot to answer for over what they did to the U.S.!)

The greedy U.S. thinks it can swallow the whole of Ukraine, but it's looking more and more like the country will split between eastern and western halves, as the economic, cultural, and linguistic links the easterners have with Russia are too strong to be suppressed by a weak, newly installed puppet regime, and if bloody civil war breaks out, Russia will aid the easterners. At best, a prolonged period of instability, insecurity, illegitimate government, and violence is in store. Unless NATO is hankering for a land war in Ukraine, Russia ultimately will not be expelled, and either Ukraine will be split, or the entirety of Ukraine will have to accommodate to Russian interests. [2] The West, which caused the trouble in the first place to a large degree, will screech to high heaven about the awfulness and crudity and thuggishness of Russia and see it all as the culmination of some deep dark Russian plot. The truth is, the plot here is the EU-U.S. plot, which is unraveling, predictably. Blinded by imperial hubris, they couldn't see the obvious; that Russia couldn't, and wouldn't, allow itself to be forced out of a critical strategic area on its own border.

1] Mearsheimer on PBS NewsHour March 4, 2014. Video clip here:

2] Geoffrey Pyatt, of all people, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and one of the chief coup plotters, as glaringly revealed by the infamous intercepted phone call between him and his boss, Assistant Secretary of State, said this on CNN: "The geography and balance of power is such, there is no military solution to this crisis. The fact is that militarily, as Crimea showed, Ukraine is outgunned." Gee, maybe you guys should have thought this through better in advance. Look before you leap.

And the new Ukrainian “prime minister,” the one hand-picked by Victoria Nuland, as we know from that same phone call, popped up on NBC TV's “Meet the Press” (U.S.) to rattle his beggar cup for alms from the Superpower: "We need a strong and solid state. We need financial and economic support. We need to overhaul the Ukrainian military. We need to modernise our security and military forces. We need real support." Hey buddy, you missed Christmas. Mail your wish list to Santa Claus, address: the North Pole. Maybe he'll leave a surprise under your Christmas tree this December.

Ukraine Imches Closer to Civil War: Kerry Scales New Heights of Hypocrisy

The U.S. coup and seizure of the central government in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, has fissured that nation
into two parts; the eastern section with its economic, social, linguistic, and cultural ties to "Mother Russia," and the western part, now dominated by fascists and U.S. functional puppets who seized power violently, overthrowing an elected government. The western populace hallucinates a pot of gold awaiting them to the west, whereas in fact what awaits (and is already being agreed to by the new puppet regime) is World Bank-imposed "austerity" and debt collection.

Yesterday at least three people were killed in attacks on Russian-leaning ad hoc militias who have seized government buidings in the eastern cities. In response to this, U.S. Secretary of State John "These Days I'm a Hawk!" Kerry has ordered Russia to make the easterners surrender to the authority of the puppet regime in Kiev or else face further sanctions, on the assumption that Russia exercises iron control over the eastern population.

Contrast that with U.S. behavior when it pumped $100 million into subverting the Ukrainian elected government and backed a terrorist mob that besieged the seat of government in Kiev, murdering cops and burning buildings and vehicles, complete with false flag snipers killing both police and rioters (which was blamed on the targeted regime of Yanukovych, since overthrown). At that time, it denounced the government it was working to overthrow and demanded the removal of the police who were holding back the fascist-thug led rioters! Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the U.S. does a 180 and demands law and order.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claims that the U.S. side is in violation of the interim deal reached in Geneva by not disarming fascist militias.

No doubt the Russians aren't trying very hard, if at all, to convince Ukrainians who want no part of the forced separation from Russia to stand down and surrender. But Russia has far more legitimate interests in Ukraine than does the U.S.

Russia can't even raise the price on natural gas it sells to Ukraine from the cut-rate sweetheart rates it charged to market prices without the western propagandists calling it extortion.

After this fracturing and destabilizing of Ukraine by aggressive Western imperialism, they have the call to pin the blame for destabilizing on Russia.

So now we know what makes a "bad guy." Anyone who gets in the way of the plans of Godfather U.S.

Sinister U.S. Secret Police Chief Appears in Kiev

CIA head John Brennan himself personally went to Kiev, capital of Ukraine, to arrange God knows what evil. As the CIA's stock-in-trade is assassination and torture and the creation of police states under U.S. control, we can expect no good to come of this.

Brennan is Obama's chief enforcer, a man who worked cheek by jowl with Obama for four years in the White House overseeing the U.S. global assassination program. During the previous Bush regime, he was involved in the torture program. This involvement stopped Obama's plan to make Brennan chief of the CIA several years ago, but eventually Obama was able to arrange it.

Brennan will of necessity be working with Ukrainian fascists, as these are the people who were handed control of the Ukrainian "security forces" (Internal Security). The U.S. of course has a long history of warm relations with fascists going back to the 1920s, and the CIA in particular has been chummy with them since its founding in 1947, enlisting many Nazi war criminals, protecting them, learning their torture methods, paying them to help run a torture center in Germany in the 1950s, and forming alliances and nurturing relationships with them in numerous countries all over the world. You could say the U.S. has been the arsenal of fascism since World War II.  [1]

Brennan is a leading suspect in the murder of investigative journalist Michael Hastings last year, who was working on a highly sensitive story about the CIA at the time.

In other Ukraine-subversion news, Russia agreed to join a U.S.-EU demand that anti-coup Ukrainians vacate government buildings they're occupying in eastern Ukraine. The U.S.-and EU made no such demand when their coup mob occupied government buildings in Kiev, and firebombed vehicles and buildings and shot cops Back then, from Obama on down, the demand was for the now-overthrown Yanukovych government to pull out the police and let the mob take over the city.

1]  For the CIA-Army torture center in Germany in the 1950s, see "Code Name: Artichoke -  Conspiracy Documentary," dealing with the CIA murder of CIA scientist Frank Olson. The section on the torture center starts at 24:00 in the video.

U.S. Bloc Ups the Ante on Ukraine Confrontation, With More Violence and Military Reinforcements

The U.S. isn't backing off one inch from its brazen attempt to rip the Ukraine out of the Russian sphere of influence and have it all to itself- the entire Ukraine.

Recall that repeated Russian offers to share the Ukraine with the Western empire- incredibly generous and not something the U.S. would ever consider regarding Mexico, say, or Canada- have been rebuffed. Starting with the “take it or leave it” deal the EU demanded ousted president Yanukovych sign earlier this year, when the Russians offered a three-way economic arrangement which the EU peremptorily rejected, through the power-sharing arrangements Yanukovych offered the “opposition,” which they rejected, the U.S.-bloc has been playing a winner-take-all power game over Ukraine.

Now NATO blowhard-militarist Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a reliable U.S. tool in all matters who has been making veiled threats against Russia for weeks, has announced that NATO will send more military forces into NATO-states on the Russian border. The U.S. Navy is sailing warships in the Black Sea. (And the U.S. had the chutzpah to grouse about a Russian plane “buzzing” one of the intruder warships.)

On the same day the now fascist-led Ukrainian puppet government's forces were killing and wounding scores in their “anti-terrorist operations” to seize key facilities occupied by pro-Russian Ukrainians in eastern cities, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was saying this: "We appreciate the [Western-installed Ukrainian client] government’s statements that any actions it undertakes will be gradual and responsible, and we agree that the use of force is not a preferred option. That said, the Ukrainian government has a responsibility to provide law and order, and these provocations in eastern Ukraine are creating a situation in which the government has to respond. The best way to de-escalate this situation is for the armed militants to leave the buildings they have seized." (April 16^th.) Or, surrender or die.

Notice what carney said; the U.S. PREFERS that the Ukrainians resisting the U.S. takeover of
Ukraine just give up and stop resisting. But if they don't, the puppet government HAS to crush them ("has a responsibility...")

Funny, when Western-sponsored “armed militants” (many of them fascists and flaming anti-Semites whose hero is World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera) had occupied government buildings in Kiev, gutting some by fire, shooting and throwing Molotovs at police, with false flag snipers working for Maidan (the “moderate” group which overthrew the government; see Ukraine Snipers Worked For U.S. Puppet Government, Estonian Foreign Minister Told Ashton), Obama demanded that then-President Yanukovych withdraw the security forces! (Which of course would have allowed the violent mob to completely take over Kiev and seize state power, as they subsequently did.) Now that the shoe is on the other foot, in eastern Ukraine, of course the U.S. takes exactly the opposite position.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State herself was physically present on the streets of Kiev during the violent siege of the seat of government, handing out cookies to the killers who were killing cop and who ultimately overthrew the elected government, leading to the installation of new rulers handpicked by Nuland herself. (As we know beyond a shadow of a doubt from the intercepted phone call between her and her underling, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, in which she gives Pyatt his marching orders. See U.S. Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion.)

Now Secretary of State John “These Days I'm a Hawk!” Kerry is meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, along with the U.S.' EU lackeys and Ukrainian puppets, to try once again to jawbone the Russians into surrendering their interests.

GOP Senator John “Permanent POW” McCain assumed his usual perch on the Sunday morning TV propaganda shows to demand that Obama ship more arms to the Ukrainian puppet regime to fight the Russians. Of course, Russia could crush the Ukrainian military with one finger, so the real purpose of more weapons would be to fight and win a civil war.

So after destabilizing Ukraine with a coup and takeover (the U.S. and various private donors spent up to $100 million or so on the destabilization effort and takeover) which included false flag snipers killing both policemen and rioters (and blaming it on the hapless former president Yanukovych), we hear from Western politicians, apparatchiks, and propagandists incessant condemnations of Russia for “destabilizing” Ukraine and for breaking “international law”

Something tells me Russia is not going to allow itself to be landlocked along its entire southern border just so “the West” will stop saying mean things about it, or so Putin's pals can sun themselves on the Riviera.

This is the gratitude the U.S. shows Russia for providing crucial logistical support for the U.S. crusade in Afghanistan. The U.S. depends on transit through Russia for its expeditionary force there.

Interestingly, Pakistan gets a much better deal from the U.S., even though the Taliban is the cat's paw of the Paki military secret police, the malevolent ISI! (Inter-Services Intelligence.) Go figure.

Fascist Ukrainian youth honor their idol, World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

Ukraine Snipers Worked For U.S. Puppet Government, Estonian Foreign Minister Told Ashton

Another ignored phone call.

Just as the infamous phone call between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, has been consigned to oblivion by western media and governments as if it never happened, so too the telephone conversation between the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton, the grandly-named “High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,” aka “EU foreign minister.” In the former conversation, we heard U.S. apparatchiks discussing U.S. subversion of the Ukrainian government and plotting to install a puppet regime. In the latter call, the Estonian Foreign Minister revealed that those infamous snipers were NOT working for the Viktor Yanukovych regime (subsequently forced out of power) but were elements of the opposition, shooting both street protesters/rebels and policemen. (A couple of dozen policemen were murdered during the two-month-long violent attack on the elected government, most by the snipers.) This phone call became public in the first days of March. As of today, U.S. polemicists and propagandists and pseudo-scholars are still pretending that the snipers were acting under orders from the ousted Yanukovych. (They present no evidence for the assertion, but merely state it as established, undisputed fact.)

Let us look at that phone call (you can listen to it below). EU poohbah Ashton is debriefing Paet on his recent visit to Ukraine, to get an update on how their political manipulations are going. Estonia, Paet's country, is a very junior member of the EU, and a recent addition to that anti-Soviet and now anti-Russian military alliance, NATO. (Having lost its claimed reason for being with the extinction of the Soviet Union, the U.S. has been using NATO as a recruitment vehicle for roping European forces into joining it in its various military adventures outside Europe.)

Paet met various politicians and other people in Ukraine. He told Ashton that the “head of doctors” in Ukraine, “Olga,” and others from “civil society” told him:

“There is no trust in new government....They know everybody who will be in new government, all these guys have dirty past.” Fascist thugs beat a member of Parliament in front of Parliament, journalists who witnessed it told Paet. “There is extraordinary pressure on members of Parliament,” such as middle-of-the-night “uninvited visitors” to parliament members. [That is, fascist goons.] The EU wants “Olga,” to be Health Minister. She's balking, according to Paet. Ashton is quite cynical. Ashton proposes lines to feed to “Olga” and others to convince them that the foreign-installed puppet government is not all bad and to induce them to join it, to lend it legitimacy.

After Ashton instructs Paet that Yanukovych must be blamed for the death, Paet gives her unwanted news, namely that the snipers were working for the Western-backed opposition.

Paet: “In fact and what was quite disturbing, the same Olga, told that well, all the evidence shows, eh that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among, policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers, killing, people from both sides.”

Ashton, sounding flustered: “Well that's, yes, that's-”

Paet: “So that um then she also showed me some photos, uh she said that as medical doctor she can you know say that it is the same, same handwriting [sic], the same type of bullets, and it's really disturbing that now the, new, uh [he sighs] new coalition, that they don't want to investigate, what exactly happened, So that there is, now stronger and stronger understanding, that behind snipers they were, it was not Yanukovych, but, it was somebody from the new coalition.”

Ashton basically ignores the facts, and contradicts Paet on the last point. "I think they do want to investigate I mean I didn't oh pick that up that's interesting. Gosh.” (GOSH!) We can see that Ashton would prefer the truth about the snipers not be mentioned. The truth flies in the face of the western propaganda line that Yanokovich is responsible for all “the violence.”

Listen carefully to the recording. Ashton pushes to manipulate “Olga” to be an EU stooge and join the government to legitimize it. Ashton's whole thing is trying to make the new puppet regime look legitimate, paper over the crimes, misdirect people's anger, and cynically manipulate their grief. And blame all the chaos and violence on the just-overthrown Yanukovych. The first approximately two minutes of the call are underlings setting up the call, so you might want to skip ahead if you're impatient:

                                       

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton discuss Ukraine over the phone

   [sound might be clearer at version at link above.]

The western media, a highly-disciplined collection of propaganda organs, simply ignores this stunning evidence, and various anti-Russian polemicists and agit-propagandists continue to blame Yanukovych for the snipers. This is just one of many lies, which gain currency through repetition, within the Big Lie, that Russia somehow fomented the “crisis” in Ukraine, not the U.S. and its lackeys by instigating and egging on a violent mob coup, with fascist anti-Semites at its core (somehow the U.S. ALWAYS ends up in league with fascists, you notice that?). The fact that the U.S. and EU couldn't wait until the next scheduled elections this spring puts the lie to the idea that “the Ukrainian people” rose as one to overthrow the elected government. What was the big rush to overthrow Yanukovych that it couldn't wait until May?

Recall that as the violent mob besieged the seat of government for two months, and repeatedly tried to storm the Parliament, Obama demanded that Yanukovych “end the violence” by withdrawing the police!! Yanokovich proposed compromises and tried to bring opposition figures into the government. Under U.S. direction, all compromise by the “opposition” (U.S. puppets) was rejected.

All this because Yanukovych didn't sign an economic treaty with the EU!!

Yes, he was corrupt. So are all Ukrainian governments, and so will the new U.S.-puppet one be. In fact, the U.S. prefers corrupt governments. They are much easier to control through bribery and blackmail than honest governments. Also the politicians and bureaucrats in corrupt governments don't give a damn about the well-being of their countries and peoples, and thus are willing to sell them out to foreign meddlers like the U.S. and EU nations for a few gold coins or a promotion by the imperialist string-pullers.

The idea that being corrupt is justification for a violent foreign-backed mob coup is ludicrous, when the Ukrainian voters have it fully within their power to oust that government in an election in a few months! But that's the excuse that's put forth, along with the sniper-murders falsely pinned on Yanukovych, and “violence” generally, violence committed by the fascist mob. (There are numerous videos on youtube.com of the mob's siege of the seat of government in Kiev, their arson, their violent attacks on police lines holding the mob back from overrunning the government buildings, and so on. All the evidence is ignored in this giant propaganda campaign by western medias, following the leads of their governments. Those media might as well be state-controlled, as they are acting no differently than state-controlled media would be.)

On this strategy of false-flag snipers as part of a foreign subversion effort, the same thing happened in Venezuela. Domestic elements trying to destabilize and overthrow a government, with a hidden U.S. hand pushing them along, use snipers to assassinate opposition protesters in the street and blame the government. The U.S. and other western media (and governments) then loudly blare the lie that the government is using snipers to murder peaceful protesters in the street.

Here's a video, with testimony from a CNN reporter, on how coup plotters in Venezuela used snipers in this fashion:

From “Counter Intelligence III: The Strategy of Tension.”

And here's Chalmers Johnson on the topic, who also mentions an example of the shameless mendacity of U.S. media propagandists, in this case JFK-assassination accessory Dan Rather, blaming sniper-murders on the hated Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Johnson points out that using snipers to gun people down and blaming the murders on the government targeted for overthrow is a standard U.S. destabilization tactic:

                                                             

From “Decline of Empires: The Signs of Decay.”

Thus do gangster empires behave. They are a blight on humanity.

U.S. Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion

Remember that phone call between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt? The one that made a stir because she said “Fuck the EU,” which became public back in early February. Well that part was used as a distraction by the western media, which then quickly ignored it. (The U.S. government reaction was to attack Russia for intercepting and publicizing the call. There's a saying in American football, the best defense is a good offense.) What's important in that call, and what she said right before she cursed the U.S.' Eurolackeys, was that the U.S. got UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to aid the U.S. in its coup and installation of a U.S. puppet government. Ban Ki-Moon is sending a UN apparatchik to help subvert the elected Ukrainian government. The key sentence:

“So that would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it, and, you know, fuck the EU.”

Ambassador Pyatt chimes in:

“No exactly and, I think we've gotta do something to make it stick together because, you can be pretty sure that if it does, if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it.” (“It” being the U.S. coup effort and installation of a puppet government chosen by the U.S.) Pyatt also says “we wanna try to get somebody with an international personality to, um, come out here and help to midwife this thing.”

Nuland mentions that Biden is being dispatched to pitch in to help the U.S. subversion and takeover plot.

Amazingly, this has passed totally unnoticed. The UN Secretary General helping subvert the government of a UN member state. Of course other UN Secretary Generals have been U.S. stooges. And ever since World War II, members of the Japanese political elite have been slavishly loyal to U.S. orders. Witness the current head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN body, now headed by a U.S.-picked Japanese stooge. In fact, Ambassador Pyatt had the job of helping get rid of his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei, and installing Yukiya Amano as the new head.. ElBaradei's crimes included not being willing to lie about Iran's nuclear program but instead investigating and monitoring it with honesty, integrity, and objectively, and refusing to lie and help the Bush regime in its claim that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program going. Refusing to carry out U.S. orders is simply outrageous and unacceptable.

Nuland begins talking about how the U.S. roped the UN stooges into the U.S. coup plot at 2:35 in this video.

                                                                  

Veteran CIA officer Ray McGovern (retired) comments on Pyatt. The reference to handing out cookies refers to Nuland giving cookies to the violent mob that barricaded and assaulted the government buildings and killed policemen for two months before the coup succeeded. (Even retired right wing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser calls it a "coup.")

                                                

Ukraine Coup Had all the Hallmarks of U.S. Operation

A paid mob, false flag snipers, NGOs used as funnels for $100 million in funds, and a media propaganda
campaign. They were all there in Ukraine, a classic U.S. destabilization campaign. (A very similar U.S. subversion campaign is currently underway in Venezuela.)

I will be breaking this down with video clips and commentary in more posts.

New York City Government Kills Man For Sleeping In Stairwell

A mentally ill, homeless U.S. Marine Corp veteran, Jerome Murdough, was arrested for trespassing when he was found sleeping in a stairwell in a housing project. Bail of $2,800 was imposed. Then he was put in a cell in the city's massive prison complex on Rikers Island. The temperature in his cell exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, (38 degrees Celsius), killing him. He was 56 years old.

Sounds like a story out of some Third World hellhole. No, this is the U.S. Welcome to the real America.

There's so much wrong here- where to begin?

Let's start with arresting someone for the “crime” of being homeless. You would think the police could have told him to move on. Or taken him to a homeless shelter, or arranged that. Or, if he didn't respond in a way they considered rational, take him to a city hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

No, they arrest him. Now, a question that isn't answered- or even asked- is why set bail for trespassing? And an exorbitant amount that a destitute homeless man obviously doesn't have? His “case” wouldn't have been resolved for months. So in effect some vicious judge sentenced him, pretrial, to months in jail for allegedly sleeping in a stairwell. No information on this in the local media, except a passing mention of the bail amount. [1]

Next,- Why would the prison “authorities” allow there to be life-threatening conditions in a cell? How long was it like that? Surely some inmate would have complained. But you can guess the indifference and contempt with which prisoner complaints are met by their jailers. (If you've been in jail, you don't have to guess.) I suspect this was a “punishment” cell deliberately overheated (other punishment cells are freezing cold, a torture technique used by the CIA, U.S. military, and by the Border Patrol). What, you thought merely being imprisoned was punishment enough? You must be one of those bleeding heart soft-on-crime liberals!

The “authorities” have rushed to claim that the “condition” has been “fixed”- they claim a defect in the heating system. (!) Initially they cast blame on their victim, saying he failed to open a vent in the cell. (Yeah, I'm sure that would have helped a LOT. A cool sea breeze would've magically found its way into the bowels of the prison and wafted into the cell, reducing the temperature to a comfortable 70 degrees F, right?)

The only thing the local media is focused on is the “question” of why the guards didn't check on him more often in the sweatbox cell! This is to be “investigated” by the prison bosses. The establishment is keeping the focus microscopically on this one issue.

Oh by the way, the victim was black. Sort of predictable, that one. Not that “white” people are never killed by the system- if they're poor. It's just a lot more dangerous to be “black.” But this tawdry killing will soon be forgotten. So far, the new mayor, the “progressive” Bill deBlasio, has been silent. He has jumped into the media spotlight whenever it's snowed, however- important stuff like that. [2]

The propaganda system and those wielding government power probably won't draw any useful conclusions from this case of their criminally negligent homicide. (They already have a rule that the guards were supposed to monitor mentally ill prisoners. Maybe they could enact a new rule saying prisoners can't be cooked above 98 degrees, say.) But we can draw useful conclusions. They of course see it as a temporary public relations problem, to be smoothed over. It will be forgotten in days. The family will sue, and get some taxpayer money. Allowing this avenue of “redress” in such matters ensures there won't be a militant response of resistance- they don't want another Black Panther Party arising, after all. And they can keep people faith in “the system.” [3] Other than buying off the family, at most, a guard might be reprimanded for inattention. The police, the judge, the prosecutor's office- they aren't even mentioned so far by the media.

We should see three obvious conclusions here. First, U.S. society is cruel. No, one incident doesn't prove that. But this is one of millions of examples of gratuitous cruelty, piled up over the years. Many, like this one, end up in death. The specific cruelties here are indifference to providing care for the mentally ill, who if they don't have financial means or families who can provide for care, are left to their own devices, and draconian punishment for any poor person who gets out of line to even the slightest degree. (His slumbering body was where it wasn't allowed to be.)

Second, there's a generalized hostility to the poor. The mentality of those in power, and of their muscle that enforces their will, the police, is to see the poor as enemies, a source of potential resistance, rebellion, trouble. The U.S. has gotten increasingly oppressive since 1980, and one way this is manifested is in more and more repressive laws, the brunt of which fall on the poor. And the power of the police and prosecutors has been increased at the same time.

Third, this was a veteran. Once his usefulness as cannon fodder for the empire was over, he was discarded by the system like so much human waste. Once again the foolishness of joining (or submitting to being conscripted into) the U.S. armed forces is underlined. Loyalty is a one-way street with those in power. Exhibits for this thesis include: the abuse suffered by the Gulf War Syndrome vets, who were called malingers and fakers and gold diggers; the long battle Vietnam vets suffering from the effects of Agent Orange had to wage to get a bit of recognition that they actually were sick, and it was from Agent Orange (of course their offspring have to live with birth defects too, don't forget- and don't even ask about the Vietnamese!); the contempt and abuse heaped on soldiers mentally damaged by combat; and the fate of the World War I “bonus marchers,” who in the midst of the Great Depression, marched on Washington to demand payment of a promised war bonus, which they really needed at that time, but instead of paying up, the government sent in the Army to forcibly disperse them. This task was carried out by a new crop of soldiers, commanded by Douglas MacArthur and his aide, Dwight Eisenhower. (This based on the principle enunciated by one of the most notorious of the robber barons, Jay Gould, who quipped, “I can always hire half the working class to kill the other half.”)

After all this, and more, you'd think people would be wised up about the U.S. military. This is the great advantage to the rulers of never teaching people true history- there are new suckers born daily who can be duped. (By the way, they often cheat their dupes out of promised benefits, such as college tuition, and discharge the wounded on spurious grounds to deny them medical care. They've got a thousand tricks to evade their responsibilities and double-cross the credulous cannon fodder. Even the establishment media has run stories on such mistreatment of veterans- some of the propagandists are smart enough to know that this mistreatment is potentially a dangerous practice. Eventually they may not be able to dupe enough suckers into fighting their wars for them. People might actually stop volunteering for “service” if word gets around. Hence the media applies a bit of pressure on the government with infrequent reporting.) The only valid reason for joining the U.S. military is get obtain military training and steal weapons.

The utter hypocrisy and cynicism of all the “honor our vets” hoopla is exposed again as a cynical sham. The nationalism card is played to induce fools to fight for the power elite and enforce U.S. diktat around the world, in the name of “defending our country,” a ludicrously absurd claim on its face when set against the facts. U.S. power is as far from defensive as one can get, except in the sense that American imperialists are “defending” their global dominance. But they are actually doing even more than that. They are constantly driving for global hegemony, as their brazen grab for the Ukraine throws into stark relief. (Did they actually believe the Russians would just passively let themselves be pushed out of their key strategic naval base on the Black Sea, located in Crimea? Truly they are drunk on power.)

Just one more thing about the homeless man killed for trespassing. Last Sunday a teenager was arrested for trespassing in the replacement tower on the site of destroyed World Trade Center. He made it upstairs to take pictures. This put “the authorities” in a tizzy because of the sensitivity of the site. The episode made headlines in media across the U.S. and even abroad (such as the Guardian UK). Charged with two misdemeanors, he was released on his own recognizance- no bail.

1] Some local judges have been demonized by the NYC media when they were considered insufficiently punitive or released people on bail. No such high dudgeon about this- the judge hasn't been named or even mentioned. As for the cops, who were no doubt trying to make their monthly arrest quotas, they could have released him from the precinct after arresting him with a Desk Appearance Ticket, which orders the “perp” (cop talk for perpetrator, embedding the assumption that you “did it,” whatever they accused you of), to appear in court on a certain date. This is an option for minor “crimes,” at the discretion of the police in NYC. Instead he was “put into the system,” held, taken to court, where the prosecutor could have dropped the charges then and there, and the judge could have freed him “on his own recognizance” (without bail) and a return court date set.

Some people have been imprisoned for a year or more on Rikers awaiting trial. This is one way the local District Attorney's office (the criminal prosecutors) pressure people to plead guilty.

Housing projects are groups of multiple large apartment buildings where poor people are concentrated. New York City has a number of these projects. Increasingly they are run like quasi-prisons. The NYPD (NYC police department) has had a policy under the 12 year reign of Mayor Michael Bloomberg Billionaire of arresting visitors and even residents of these projects for “trespassing,” even when they had IDs proving they lived there. Finally, after numerous such bogus arrests over a period of years, a class action lawsuit was brought against the police and city government.

2] DeBlasio replaced Michael Bloomberg Billionaire in January, following the November 2013 local elections. Bloomberg, bored with the job, declined to grab a fourth term, which would have necessitated gutting yet again the city term limit law, passed twice by popular referendum, as he had to do when he ran for a third term.

3] There is a “New Black Panther Party,” apparently a project of the Nation of Islam, but they don't confront police or carry guns, and don't seem to be drawing members. It acts more like a theatrical project than a political one. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were inspired to create the first BPP to stop the rampant police brutality against blacks. It's original name was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Notorious racist J. Edgar Hoover recognized the “threat” it posed, and using his command of the national political police, the FBI, moved to violently destroy it.

Nowadays the police are still free to kill blacks, as long as they don't kill too many, or too often. That includes “liberal” New York City too, where city police on “narcotics” duty recently followed a young black man, Ramarley Graham, on the street, broke into his apartment building, smashed down the door into his family home, and shot him dead on the floor of his bathroom, apparently to stop him from flushing marijuana down the toilet. He was unarmed. No, they don't need a warrant to do that- they did it, didn't they? So obviously they don't need no stinking warrant. But the resulting outburst of public anger, and coverage by “alternative” (non-establishment) media, eventually forced the system to indict the killer cop for manslaughter. Of course the police union is solidly behind the killer. The outcome is pending, while the system kicks the can down the road. They have an unenviable choice of alienating their hired muscle that protects their power structure, or reinflaming that part of the public that identifies with the victim (“blacks”) or that has a sense of justice (people with a normal moral sense), and eroding a bit more of the legitimacy of their system. Legitimacy meaning people's acceptance of their system and willingness to submit to it and obey its rules.

Calibrating the correct level of oppression is delicate for them. Too much, and they risk resistance, even rebellion. Too little, and they risk having their captive populace escape their control.

The Hypocrisies Keep Piling Up Thick and Fast In Ukraine “Crisis”

Well, as expected, the residents of Crimea voted to break away from Ukraine (now ruled by a mob-installed and foreign-controlled government) and become an independent nation, presumably in advance of rejoining Russia, which it was part of from the 1700s until around 1954. The U.S. and its European helpmates dutifully denounced the referendum yet again as “illegitimate” and “illegal” and contrary to the Ukraine Constitution (they apparently consider the mob overthrow of the previous elected president of Ukraine, and the choosing of the new “leader” of Ukraine by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, as Constitutional) and announced their refusal to recognize it. [1]

Obama has ordered the assets of top Putin aides frozen, and those of members of the Duma (Russian Parliament), and of Ukrainians who spoke in favor of secession, as punishment for their actions and advocacy. The U.S. can do this since it controls the world financial system. [2]

Since it doesn't control the world financial system, Russia can't freeze the assets of John Kerry, or Victoria Nuland, or John McCain, for destabilizing the elected government of Ukraine and replacing it with people more to their liking, and for stirring up opposition in Kiev to self-determination for Ukrainians who didn't support the mob coup.

Much has been made of the Tatars, indeed they've received more attention in Western media than the rest of the Crimean population. By the way, the Tatars are 12% of Crimeans, according to that same media (a fact deeply buried in long articles). We're reminded over and over that Stalin deported the Tatars during World War II. Not mentioned much is that this was because 9,000 Tatars joined the Nazi invaders to fight with them in the attempt to destroy the Soviet Union. (In fact, if the Germans had won, the Tatars probably would have ended up being exterminated, as Hitler's plan was to murder three fourths of the “subhuman Slav” population of the S.U. upon victory. I doubt if he held Tatars in high regard.) After the war, the Tatars were allowed to return. Whether or not this mass deportation was prudent and justified during a nation's struggle for its very survival or an unacceptable violation of human rights is something that can be debated. [3]

By the way, the Tatars weren't the only population internally exiled during that war. The Japanese-Americans of the U.S. west coast were forcibly deported to internal concentration camps, lined with barbed wire and guarded by watch towers with machine guns. They lost all their property, for which they were never compensated. The number of Japanese-Americans who joined the Japanese armed forces after Pearl Harbor totals, as far as I know, ZERO.

The words “self-determination” are taboo in Western media discussion of the “crisis.” Instead we're told Russia “invaded” Crimea and is “annexing” it. Yet the contradictions are visible even in the Western media. For example, the New York Times has reported on crowds of thousands of Crimeans- and in other parts of Ukraine- waving Russian flags and chanting “Putin” and Russia.” I don't think Russia imported thousands of Russians from Russia and disguised them as pro-Russian Ukrainians. (But the leaders of the militias are Russian veterans from Russia.) 

By the way, I can recall the U.S. dividing Vietnam in half and setting up a fascist dictatorship in a new “country” it called “South Vietnam.” And invading Grenada to overthrow the government there. And waging a decade-long terror and sabotage campaign against Nicaragua to destabilize the government there. And a three year campaign, including terrorism and the assassination of the Chilean Army chief of staff in 1970, to overthrow that government in 1973. And supporting in practice (and funding to the tune of billions of dollars in free military weaponry a year) Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and the best parts of the West Bank. And numerous other examples of, let us say, “interference.” Hell, the U.S. “redrew” its border with Mexico to take a third of Mexico and make it part of the U.S., by force, not by referendum of the inhabitants.

Meanwhile, people in the U.S. who try to comment rationally and objectively on the “crisis” are smeared as parroting “Russian propaganda.” An asshole from the “Peterson Institute for International Economics,” in particular gleefully hurls this insult at people who cite facts he has no refutation for.

And before the referendum was even held, a propagandist on The Daily Beast website inoculated people against thinking the vote could possibly be legitimate by saying anyone voting in favor was either brainwashed by Russian propaganda (the Russians have had like a whole week to “brainwash” people- plenty of time to turn people into zombies, right?) or terrorized by Russian guns. Neither assertion has any relation to reality- as is clear from the Western reporters in the Crimea, who have done their best to skew the picture in the desired anti-Russian and anti-secession direction. But what makes the jobs of propagandists so easy is their total detachment from facts. They can just make stuff up- so much easier than having to study things, think seriously, and make sober judgments! And they get paid!

Which brings me to another- no, not hypocrisy, flat out psychological projection and the most cynical inversion of reality: propagandists from places like the “Peterson Institute for International Economics” (a reactionary factory of propaganda for greed) and the “Atlantic Council” calling serious scholars like Stephen Cohen and others “Russian propagandists” or “a shill for the Russian Government.”

We're also being subjected to official screeches that the Russians have violated the understandings of 1991! Excuse me, the understanding was that the U.S. bloc wouldn't advance right up to Russia's border. And various establishment politicians and polemicists keep accusing Russia of bringing back the Cold War. What is so like the Cold War is NATO pressing right up to Russia's borders, like Reagan did when the U.S. threatened the Soviet Union with a first strike nuclear attack. Given the history of European invasions of Russia (Napoleon, the Kaiser, 22 Western powers that invaded on the side of the White Russians against the Bolsheviks, Poland at various times, and Hitler), why wouldn't Russia (or any nation) want a buffer zone around itself? (We only ever hear about Soviet conquests, which are part of history of course. But deliberately excising half of history is the mark of propaganda.)

I think there's no question about two things: 1) the U.S. created the situation that led to secession by overthrowing the Ukrainian government and installing a puppet regime, and 2) the people in Crimea (and perhaps most of eastern Ukraine) want to join Russia, as they were deeply shaken by events in Kiev, including a new law delegitimizing the Russian language, which is the native tongue of many eastern Ukrainians. Indeed, most of the Crimeans are of Russian extraction. (The new boss in Kiev scotched the anti-Russian law after the new, reactionary-dominated legislature passed it, probably on U.S. instructions.) The U.S. wants the pro-Russian Ukrainians to live under repressive rule of its puppet government in Kiev, backed up by violent fascists who are now inside the government with their hands on key levers of power- police and prosecutor's office, for example.

As U.S. politicians run around denouncing Russian “aggression” and Putin as the second coming of Hitler (Hillary Clinton did as much, invoking the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia- if I remember, the Nazis didn't ask the Czechs if they wanted to be invaded, and didn't hold a referendum on that), the U.S. still expects Russia to be a “good partner” in bludgeoning Iran into surrendering its right to enrich uranium (which the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran signed says they have a right to do) and in other ways to be the U.S.' helpmate. This is the definition of being “a responsible member of the international community,” doing the U.S.' bidding.

So the U.S. thought Russia would just roll over and play dead as the U.S. moved to shove them out of their strategic Black Sea naval base. And it expects Russia to keep serving U.S. interests, such as in demanding that Iran wipe out its own nuclear research and uranium enrichment program. (By the way, the U.S. needs Russian cooperation as it evacuates its expeditionary force from Afghanistan. But don't expect gratitude, Russia. The U.S. takes it for granted that all other nations should serve U.S. interests. That's just the natural order of things. Refusing or failing to do so is a violation of the natural order.) This kind of extreme arrogance that blinds one to the obvious and predictable reactions of others to one's own aggressiveness and trampling on their vital interests, is a lot more reminiscent of the Nazis than anything Russia is currently is doing.

1] Regions seceding from larger political entities is a fairly common occurrence historically. Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan, West Virginia broke away from Virginia, when Virginia and the other southern states seceded from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The U.S. and EU didn't object to Yugoslavia breaking up into several states, nor to Czechoslovakia dividing into two separate nations- both in the last couple of decades. And the U.S. pushed for the secession of South Sudan from Sudan and midwifed that breakup process.

Why it's considered absolutely essential that "Ukraine" continue to maintain it's current borders, and absolutely no changes must be allowed, nor formal political divisions created that reflect the real political divisions of the people there, is a mystery. Oh wait, not it isn't. The U.S. wants to swallow the whole
thing, THAT's the reason.

2] The EU is punishing 21 people, both Russians and Ukrainians, for supporting the holding of the referendum, with asset freezes and visa denials. And Obama has slapped sanctions on the overthrow, elected Ukrainian president for good measure.

3] The Tatars boycotted the referendum. Knowing they were going to lose, they can now denounce it as “phony” and “fixed.” (These words were being slung around even before the vote.) I wonder how much of this is on the advice of U.S. operatives.

As for their joining the Nazi invaders, at least initially, no doubt they were motivated by the delusion that the racist self-styled “supermen” would liberate them from Stalin's awful tyranny. The truth is they were caught between a rock and a hard place, or they jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, if you prefer. So I would not be too quick to morally judge their choice- nor the decision to deport their brethren. Reality can impose hard choices on people.