The NEWS !!

He outta hire this guy to talk to the press...

 

Interesting tidbit:

President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.”

Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.

 

Because two wrongs make a right?

 

More like the pot calling the kettle black*!

*it's an expression of equivalence, that has
nothing to do with skin color, or marijuana.

 

^ broken image link?

 

Better?

 

March 5, 2014
Ukraine Situation Further Confused After
Appearance by John Travolta

KIEV (The Borowitz Report)—A surprise appearance by the actor John Travolta today in Kiev’s Independence Square has further confused the situation in Ukraine, witnesses on the ground report.

According to several accounts, Mr. Travolta flew to Ukraine in his self-piloted private jet in the hopes of raising morale in the embattled country, but only served to perplex Ukrainians with a brief but indecipherable speech.

In his remarks, Mr. Travolta referred to Ukraine as “Cranium” and Crimea as “IKEA” before hopping back into his cockpit and flying away.

The speech rattled the nerves of the Ukrainians who heard it, according to reports. In the words of one witness: “We are no longer sure what country we are living in.”

​

 

Well, they're not alone for there are times I've wondered the exact same thing.

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-...arns-european-gas-supply-disruptions-possible







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-...surys-abandoning-dollar-if-us-proceeds-sancti

While the comments by Russian presidential advisor, Sergei Glazyev, came before Putin's detente press conference early this morning, they did flash a red light of warning as to what Russian response may be should the west indeed proceed with "crippling" sanctions as Kerry is demanding. As RIA reports, his advice is that "authorities should dump US government bonds in the event of Russian companies and individuals being targeted by sanctions over events in Ukraine." Glazyev said the United States would be the first to suffer in the event of any sanctions regime. “The Americans are threatening Russia with sanctions and pulling the EU into a trade and economic war with Russia,” Glazyev said. “Most of the sanctions against Russia will bring harm to the United States itself, because as far as trade relations with the United States go, we don’t depend on them in any way.”



From RIA:

"We hold a decent amount of treasury bonds – more than $200 billion – and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner,” he said. “We will encourage everybody to dump US Treasury bonds, get rid of dollars as an unreliable currency and leave the US market.”

...



US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday warned that Russian military interventions in Ukraine, which have been justified by the Kremlin as protection for residents in heavily ethnic Russian-populated regions, could result in “serious repercussions” for Moscow.

"Unless immediate and concrete steps are taken by Russia to deescalate tensions, the effect on US-Russian relations and on Russia's international standing will be profound," Kerry said.



Kerry mentioned economic sanctions, visa bans and asset freezes as possible measures.



Former deputy energy minister and lively government critic Vladimir Milov slammed Glazyev’s remarks, saying they would put further downward pressure on the ruble, which was pushed down Monday to a record low of 36.5 against the dollar amid fears about the possible outbreak of war.



“That idiot Glazyev will keep talking until the dollar is worth 60 [rubles],” Milov wrote on his Twitter account.

To be sure, a high-ranking Kremlin source was quick to distance his office from Glazyev’s remarks, however, insisting to RIA Novosti that they represented only his personal position. Glazyev was just expressing his views as an academic, and not as a presidential adviser, the Kremlin insider said.

That said, putting Russia's threat in context, the Federation held $138.6 billion in US Treasurys as of December according to the latest TIC data, making it the 11th largest creditor of the US, which appears to conflict with what the Russian said, making one wonder where there is a disconnect in "data." This would mean the Fed would need just two months of POMO to gobble up whatever bonds Russia has to sell.

The bigger question is if indeed, as some have suggested, China were to ally with Russia, and proceed to follow Russia in its reciprocal isolation of the US, by expanding trade with Russia on non-USD based terms, and also continue selling bonds as it did in December, when as wereported previously it dumped the second largest amount of US paper in history.



... especially when one considers the latest news released by the Kremlin:

PUTIN, XI DISCUSSED UKRAINE BY PHONE, KREMLIN SAYS
RUSSIA, CHINA SHARE SIMILAR POSITIONS ON UKRAINE, KREMLIN SAYS'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Fucking Hillary whippin' out the n-word and bringing uncle adolph out of the closet,
nobody's to the right of her fat fascist ass in regards to international policy!

Ukraine Crimea Crisis: Hillary Clinton Compares Russian
President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler

Hillary Clinton said that tactics implemented by Russia in Crimea are reminiscent of
those used by Nazi Germany before World War II.

But wtf, I'll probably still end up supporting her because heath care.
We eat the crumbs we are given!

 

Paul Craig Roberts is a very respected man who served in the Reagan administration and is considered one of the authors of 'Reaganomics'


http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/03/washingtons-arrogance-hubris-evil-set-stage-war/


Washington’s Arrogance, Hubris, and Evil Have Set the Stage for War
March 3, 2014 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: | Print This Article


Washington’s Arrogance, Hubris, and Evil Have Set the Stage for War

Paul Craig Roberts

In some quarters public awareness is catching up with Stephen Lendman, Michel Chossudovsky, Rick Rozoff, myself and a few others in realizing the grave danger in the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine.

The puppet politicians who Washington intended to put in charge of Ukraine have lost control to organized and armed neo-nazis, who are attacking Jews, Russians, and intimidating Ukrainian politicians. The government of Crimea, a Russian province that Khrushchev transferred to the Ukraine Soviet Republic in the 1950s, has disavowed the illegitimate government that illegally seized power in Kiev and requested Russian protection. The Ukrainian military forces in Crimea have gone over to Russia. The Russian government has announced that it will also protect the former Russian provinces in eastern Ukraine as well.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn pointed out, it was folly for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to transfer historic provinces of Russia into Ukraine. At the time it seemed to the Soviet leadership like a good thing to do. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had been ruled by Russia since the 18th century. Adding Russian territory to Ukraine served to water down the nazi elements in western Ukraine that had fought for Hitler during World War 2. Perhaps another factor in the enlargement of Ukraine was the fact of Khrushchev’s Ukrainian heritage.

Regardless, it did not matter until the Soviet Union and then the former Russian empire itself fell apart. Under Washington’s pressure, Ukraine became a separate country retaining the Russian provinces, but Russia retained its Black Sea naval base in Crimea.

Washington tried, but failed, to take Ukraine in 2004 with the Washington-financed “Orange Revolution.” According to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, since this failure Washington has “invested” $5 billion in Ukraine in order to foment agitation for EU membership for Ukraine. EU membership would open Ukraine to looting by Western bankers and corporations, but Washington’s main goal is to establish US missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine and to deprive Russia of its Black Sea naval base and military industries in eastern Ukraine. EU membership for Ukraine means NATO membership.

Washington wants missile bases in Ukraine in order to degrade Russia’s nuclear deterrent, thus reducing Russia’s ability to resist US hegemony. Only three countries stand in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world, Russia, China, and Iran.

Iran is surrounded by US military bases and has US fleets off its coast. The “Pivot to Asia” announced by the warmonger Obama regime is ringing China with air and naval bases. Washington is surrounding Russia with US missile and NATO bases. The corrupt Polish and Czech governments were paid to accept US missile and radar bases, which makes the Polish and Czech puppet states prime targets for nuclear annihilation. Washington has purchased the former Russian and Soviet province of Georgia, birthplace of Joseph Stalin, and is in the process of putting this puppet into NATO.

Washington’s Western European puppets are too greedy for Washington’s money to take cognizance of the fact that these highly provocative moves are a direct strategic threat to Russia. The attitude of European governments seems to be, “after me, the deluge.”

Russia has been slow to react to the many years of Washington’s provocations, hoping for some sign of good sense and good will to emerge in the West. Instead, Russia has experienced rising demonization from Washington and European capitals and foaming at the mouth vicious denunciations by the West’s media whores. The bulk of the American and European populations are being brainwashed to see the problem that Washington’s meddling has caused in Ukraine to be Russia’s fault. Yesterday, I heard on National Public Radio a presstitute from the New Republic describe Putin as the problem.

The ignorance, absence of integrity, and lack of independence of the US media greatly enhances the prospect for war. The picture being drawn for insouciant Americans is totally false. An informed people would have burst out laughing when US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Russia for “invading Ukraine” in “violation of international law.” Kerry is the foreign minister of a country that has illegally invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, organized the overthrow of the government in Libya, tried to overthrow the government in Syria, attacks the civilian populations of Pakistan and Yemen with drones and missiles, constantly threatens Iran with attack, unleashed the US and Israeli trained Georgian army on the Russian population of South Ossetia, and now threatens Russia with sanctions for standing up for Russians and Russian strategic interests. The Russian government noted that Kerry has raised hypocrisy to a new level.

Kerry has no answer to the question: “Since when does the United States government genuinely subscribe and defend the concept of sovereignty and territorial integrity?”

Kerry, as is always the case, is lying through his teeth. Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine. Russia sent a few more troops to join those at its Black Sea base in view of the violent anti-Russian statements and actions emanating from Kiev. As the Ukrainian military in Crimea defected to Russia, the additional Russian troops were hardly necessary.

The stupid Kerry, wallowing in his arrogance, hubris, and evil, has issued direct threats to Russia. The Russian foreign minister has dismissed Kerry’s threats as “unacceptable.” The stage is set for war.

Note the absurdity of the situation. Kiev has been taken over by ultra-nationalist neo-nazis. A band of ultra-nationalist thugs is the last thing the European Union wants or needs as a member state. The EU is centralizing power and suppressing the sovereignty of the member states. Note the alignment of the neoconservative Obama regime with anti-semitic neo-nazis. The neoconservative clique that has dominated the US government since the Clinton regime is heavily Jewish, many of whom are dual Israeli/US citizens. The Jewish neoconservatives, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, have lost control of their coup to neo-Nazis who preach “death to the Jews.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on February 24 that Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman advised “Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and even the country.” Edward Dolinsky, head of an umbrella organization of Ukrainian Jews, described the situation for Ukrainian Jews as “dire” and requested Israel’s help.

This is the situation that Washington created and defends, while accusing Russia of stifling Ukrainian democracy. An elected democracy is what Ukraine had before Washington overthrew it.

At this time there is no legitimate Ukrainian government.

Everyone needs to understand that Washington is lying about Ukraine just as Washington lied about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, just as Washington lied about Iranian nukes, just as Washington lied about Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons, just as Washington lied about Afghanistan, Libya, NSA spying, torture. What hasn’t Washington lied about?

Washington is comprised of three elements: Arrogance, Hubris, and Evil. There is nothing else there.


304



About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I don't see the issue? There is indeed a parallel to the military tactics being used now to what was used by the Germans. I mean, it did work for them before they stepped on too many toes, so its not like the Russians would be out of line to take notes...

 

sorry for the double post, but there is a character limit. (praise jeebus for cut & paste)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/04/crimea-river/


MARCH 04, 2014


Obama's Ukrainian Blunder
Crimea River
by MIKE WHITNEY
”There is no question but that Russia is confronted with an existential threat. The integration of Ukraine into the expanding anti-Moscow alliance would render Russia more vulnerable to imperialist aggression and destabilization. Future operations will unfold not only on the periphery of Russia, but within its borders. The United States and the European imperialist powers will have no difficulty finding new “human rights” causes to encourage, finance and arm.”

–”The Crisis in Ukraine”, International Committee of the Fourth International

“In the eastern part of Ukraine and Crimea in particular, we have seen the emergence of people from Kiev with a clear intention of repeating what has been happening in the Western part of Ukraine.” (Coup plotters) “want to replace regional governments.”

– Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Federation’s ambassador to the United Nations

Here’s something you won’t read in the mainstream media: Ukraine’s fake revolution is over. It ended when Russian Intelligence agents uncovered a plan by coup plotters to destabilize the Crimea using the same strategy they’d used in Kiev, that is, seizing government buildings, inciting violence, and spreading terror. The discovery, which included “hacked” e mails, shaped events on the ground. Russian troops were deployed to beef up security at the airports and government buildings making it impossible for the putsch to succeed. In other words, the Kremlin implemented its own ”preemption” scheme and it worked like a charm. The Washington-backed coup in the Crimea was foiled and order was maintained. Score one for Russia. Here’s the scoop from blogger Moon of Alabama from a post titled “The Crimean Anti-Coup Move”. Here’s an excerpt:

“On February 27 Russian forces stationed in the Crimea and supported by allegedly local paramilitary took over security at two airports and of some government buildings in Crimean cities. A Turkish flight to Simferopol airport was called back and further Turkish fights to Crimea were canceled.” (“The Crimean Anti-Coup Move” Moon of Alabama,)

So, what was Russian Intel reacting to, you ask?

Well, according to Voice of Russia, hacked emails pointed to a group of Tatar troublemakers, neo-Nazis and others who were allegedly getting assistance from Turkish Intelligence. There were also two incidents where masked men carried out paramilitary-type operations on government buildings in Simferopol in Crimea on February 27 and February 28 which suggested that something big was afoot. (Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin confirmed that the Crimean interior ministry was attacked on Saturday by armed men sent by Kiev in a statement he made before the UN Security Council.) The incidents were captured on tape and can be seen here:

Here’s an excerpt from one of the hacked emails, also from the same post, allegedly between the coup plotters in Kiev and a Tatar leader:

“Everything is going according to the plan. We are ready to proceed with the second part of the play. As agreed earlier last week, my guys together with people from the “Karpatskaya Sech” and UNA-UNSO will arrive wherever is needed and with the necessary weapons. You only need to let us know the addresses of the warehouses in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia and Yalta, and the time of the meeting…” (The Crimean Anti-Coup Move” Moon of Alabama)

Yep, “everything is going according to plan”, all right…..Everything except for those Russian regulars that are guarding the buildings we’re supposed to blow up. Where’d they come from?

Sounds like a Monty Python skit, doesn’t it?

Of course, I have no way of verifying the information here, but it seems like a plausible scenario given what we already know about foreign involvement in these phony made-in-the-US revolutions.

Here’s more from the same post:

”According to news appearing in the French, Ukrainian and Russian press, Turkish Intelligence has a finger in the ongoing pro-EU protests in Ukraine. News stories from these three nations have claimed that the governmental intelligence organization of Turkey, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) organized the transfer of separatist, jihadist Tatars trained in Turkey to the Ukraine. According to French news site Egalite et Réconciliation, dozens of Crimean Tatar Jihadists were extracted from Syria by the MİT and transferred to Ukraine via Turkey on an İstanbul-Sevastopol flight of Turkish Airlines on the 22 November. According to information based on sources from the Security Service of Ukraine, (SBU), Crimean Tatars who attended the protests in Ukraine’s capital Kiev on November 21 were charged with establishing the security of the square.” (“The Crimean Anti-Coup Move” Moon of Alabama)

Nice, eh? So, Turkey’s spy agency is arming and training “jihadist Tatars” and then shipping them off to Ukraine to fight in Uncle Sam’s NWO Sweepstakes? What a tangled web we weave. But, then, just about everyone knew that the so called Ukrainian “revolution” was a big, fat fraud engineered by foreign Intel agencies, subversive NGOs and voracious globalist oligarchs. Still, it makes it a lot easier when the main players leave their fingerprints on the murder weapon so you can figure out who’s who. In this case, we know the State Department was at least tangentially involved because of Victoria Nuland’s hacked phone call. At the very least, we know that the Obama braintrust was pulling strings behind the scenes to get rid of the democratically-elected president Viktor Yanukovych and replace him with a compliant US puppet. And they certainly succeeded in that regard, too. It’s the rest of the plan that went south.

You may have noticed that the above post mentions a third group along with the Tatar jihadis and the Nazis. They also mention the UNA-UNSO. So who the heck are these guys anyway?

SECOND HALF BELOW​

 

SECOND HALF-


As it turns out, political analyst, F. William Engdahl has done a bit of research on the group and gives a rundown in a recent article titled “The Rape of Ukraine; Phase Two Begins”. Here’s what he says:

“The question unanswered until now is who deployed the snipers? (who shot into the crowd in Maidan Square) According to veteran US intelligence sources, the snipers came from an ultra-right-wing military organization known as Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO).

…

Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the crack-para-military UNA-UNSO members have been behind every revolt against Russian influence. The one connecting thread in their violent campaigns is always anti-Russia. The organization, according to veteran US intelligence sources, is part of a secret NATO “GLADIO” organization, and not a Ukraine nationalist group as portrayed in western media….

“These people are the dangerous mercenaries used all over the world to fight NATO’s dirty war, and to frame Russia because this group pretends to be Russian special forces…..

If true that UNA-UNSO is not “Ukrainian” opposition, but rather a highly secret NATO force using Ukraine as base, it would suggest that the EU peace compromise with the moderates was likely sabotaged by the one major player excluded from the Kiev 21 February diplomatic talks—Victoria Nuland’s State Department.” (F. William Engdahl, “The Rape of Ukraine; Phase Two Begins”, Information Clearinghouse)

So, were there NATO-backed paramilitaries on the ground stirring up trouble prior to the coup? Did they instigate the coup by firing into the crowd on Maidan Square, killing innocent people and creating the panic that forced Yanukovych to flee the country? Did they execute this plan to avoid new elections which were agreed upon by the opposing parties? Did they execute the plan to take advantage of the fact that Putin was still bogged down at the Olympic games and unable to give the crisis his undivided attention?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered, but even without all the details, there’s certainly enough to suggest that agents of foreign governments played a critical role in toppling Ukraine’s president.

At present, the situation in the Crimea appears to be relatively calm due to stepped up security. The Russian military has secured the main government buildings, airports, military bases and harbors. Working people are still able to carry out their daily activities much as they had before the government was toppled. Putin has done what he had to do to defend Russian security and protect Russian-speaking people in the Crimea. Obama would have done the same thing had he been in a similar situation.

Naturally, the Obama team is hopping mad. Their plan failed, they have egg on their face, and they want revenge. That’s why they dispatched the dreary John Kerry to make the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, so he could wave his finger threateningly at Putin while boring people to death with his monotone bloviating. The whole Obama team is having a giant hissyfit because they rolled the dice and came up snakeyes. That’s unfortunate, but what do they plan to do about it; that’s the question? After all, holding your breath and stomping your feet may be personally gratifying, but it doesn’t translate into effective foreign policy. That takes insight, vision and a solid grasp of the facts, all of which are sadly lacking among the dismal members of the present administration. The problem is, there are no good options. Aside from launching a full-blown ground war, which nobody wants, Obama is just going to have to suck it up and move on, because, at the end of the day, Moscow’s still going to control the Crimea and Obama and his EU collaborators are still going to be stuck with a broken, underwater province run by technocrats, kleptocrats, and neo-Nazi, clownshoes politicos. So, deal with it.

Here’s how the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, summed it up in an interview on CNN earlier in the week. He said, “This is not Syria, where the United States did have real options, and the president chose not to implement them. Here we really don’t have very good options to introduce.”

Indeed. There are “no good options” which is why we think that Moscow will shrug off the mudslinging and the saber rattling and go about its business much like before. In the words of an old Russian proverb, “Dogs bark, but the caravan passes on.”
​

 

Fixed that for ya

 

" RT Anchor quits: I can't be part of network 'that whitewashes' Putin's actions"

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/world/europe/russia-news-anchor-resigns/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

Fucking thugs on both sides. First we had the ones that ousted a democratically-elected leader (fair election complete with the blessing of international observers) and put in their unelected crony, now we have this...

UN envoy forced out of Crimea by hostile pro-Russian crowd
UN special envoy is detained and besieged inside a cafe in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea region by a hostile crowd shouting "Russia! Russia!"

If the international community (un/nato) is not going to respect the democratic process, they will have to slice up the country, yugoslavia-style. Because that worked out so well. Or maybe a wall, berlin-style.

 

You just can't make this shit up!

UK Porn Filter Architect Arrested On Child Porn Charges
from the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do dept

The UK government has spent years trying to impose its version of morality upon the Internet, demanding that ISPs impose mandatory opt-out porn filters, even if those filters have since been easily bypassed and often block entirely legitimate websites. Worse, the UK government has seemed intent on throwing itself face-first down the slippery slope of censorship, with plans to expand these filters to block arbitrarily-defined "extremist" content. Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly and loudly proclaimed to anyone who'll listen his sole mission is to "protect the children" from the beasts that dwell in the "darkest corners of the Internet." In the process he's blamed nearly everyone, including Google and Yahoo, for not doing enough to thwart child porn.

Apparently, people who live in glass houses should not throw thermonuclear warheads (I think that's how that saying goes). Reports have emerged that top Cameron aide Patrick Rock -- who helped draw up proposals for the country's Internet porn filters -- has been arrested on suspicion of possession of child pornography. There seems to be some heated criticism pointed Cameron's direction for keeping the issue quiet, with several UK news outlets also suggesting Rock was given a little extra time between his dismissal and his arrest:"Mr Cameron's official spokesman has confirmed that No 10 was first made aware of the alleged offence regarding child abuse imagery on the evening of February 12. The matter was immediately referred to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Mr Rock resigned his position as deputy head of the policy unit. In the early hours of the morning of February 13 he was arrested at his home in London."So if this timeline is correct (and the Guardian seems a little murkier on those specifics) the government was made aware of Rock's offense on February 12, Rock "resigned" on February 12, but he wasn't arrested until February 13 after the government contacted the NCA. Presumed innocent and all that, but it seems a touch hypocritical and inconsistent to whine like a screaming banshee for years about how everybody else isn't doing enough to protect the children, while your own staff member and architect of your porn filters is storing child porn on his PC. It's of course notably worse if it's found the government gave Rock a little extra time before law enforcement came calling (though perhaps the NCA just moves slower when it's higher ranking officials).

Regardless, I think it's time for UK ISPs to begin developing sophisticated algorithms capable of filtering out David Cameron's bad ideas from the public discourse.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...r-architect-arrested-child-porn-charges.shtml

 

:

Like most wars, this one seems to be based on two distinctly different and competing realities.
On one side, the ukraine is calling up the national guard (even if they can't feed 'em),
and declaring the autonomous crimean parliment's decision to join the russian federation null and void.
Kind of like when they staged the illegal putsch of a democratically-elected leader.

Crimea vote 'will not be recognised'


"Ukraine's new authorities are fighting back - they've banned large-scale demonstrations,"
reports James Reynolds from Donetsk

Ukraine's interim prime minister has warned the Crimean parliament "no-one in the civilised world" will recognise its referendum on joining Russia.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk and others in the Kiev government have called the vote "unconstitutional" and "illegitimate".

But the referendum has the support of the Russian parliament.

The speaker of the upper house said if the Crimean people vote on 16 March to join Russia then they would "unquestionably back this choice".

The decision by Crimean MPs to seek to join the Russian Federation comes amid international tensions over the presence of pro-Russian troops in the southern Ukrainian peninsula.

A lot of Russians I have spoken to here in Crimea over the last week say they do not actually want to become part of Russia.

They say they want broader autonomy and protection of their rights, but they want to stay within Ukraine and do not want to change nationality.

There are those of course who say they would like to unite with Russia. But there is a lot of support for developing the notion of greater autonomy within Ukraine.

Certainly, the ethnic Ukrainians and the Tatars will reject it in the 16 March referendum or boycott the vote.

I think the Crimean government may have a big fight on its hands persuading citizens to endorse joining Russia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26483818#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa




On the other side, the ukraine appears to be behind on their heating bill,
and Putin doesn't appear to be concerned about the sanctions.

Putin mocks the West and threatens to turn off gas supplies
Russian leader does not want 'new cold war' but threatens to disrupt European gas supplies


President of Russia, Vladimir Putin Photo: Getty
7:35PM GMT 07 Mar 2014

Vladimir Putin has mocked diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis as Russia threatened to disrupt European gas supplies by cutting off sales to Kiev over its unpaid debts.

The Russian president said through his official spokesman that, despite deep disagreements with the West, he did not want a confrontation over Ukraine to spiral into a “new cold war”.

Nevertheless Dmitry Peskov ridiculed Western demands for direct talks between the Kremlin and the new Kiev government, claiming that the loss of credibility involved “puts a smile on our face”.

The remarks were broadcast during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, where the Ukrainian athlete carrying her national flag was given a loud cheer.

Earlier, Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, said it would start to reduce deliveries to Kiev, a move that would disrupt supplies to Europe. Gazprom said Ukraine had failed to make payments on its £1.2 billion debts.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10684333/Putin-mocks-the-West-and-threatens-to-turn-off-gas-supplies.html


As usual in matters like these,
the truth seems somewhere in the middle, and all sides are corrupt.
The deposed president seems a bit like mr. christie back in jersey:

US Provokes Russia, Acts Surprised to Get a Nasty Reaction
How crazy will Americans get over Ukraine?



If too many people get sucked in by the current, distorted media coverage of events unfolding now in Ukraine, then there’s a good chance life will get very ugly for a lot of innocent people, since one of the logical end points is the use of nuclear weapons. Everyone in power knows that’s a potential reality, but the urge to demagogue the Russians is presently overwhelming honesty and caution.

Ukraine is NOT a real place. Ukraine has never been a real place, not in the sense that Madascar or Cuba are both undeniably real places with real edges. Ukraine has no real edges, just lines on a map imposed by some treaty or army over the past several thousand years. To speak, as the more pompous do, of Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” is to speak of an imaginary construct, useful for blurring people’s minds for political purposes.

Ukraine in recent years has been what the power brokers of the disintegrating Soviet Union decided to let it be in 1991. Ukraine has no coherent history as a nation. First inhabited some 44,000 years ago, most of the region’s history is as occupied territory.

Russia’s history of maintaining a military presence in Crimea is older than United States history. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been based in Sevastopol in Crimea continuously since 1783. For the Russians, this is a crucial warm water port, currently leased from Ukraine till 2042.

To understand what this means to the Russians, it probably matters more to them than the United States would care if the Cubans decided to threaten the Naval Base at Guantanamo, and we know that wouldn’t have a happy ending.

Is anyone involved in Ukraine NOT to blame for something?

In spite of its history as a subjugated non-state, Ukraine has managed something like a functioning democratic government from time to time in recent years. Now is not one of those times. The elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, was by all accounts corrupt, but he was elected. Although the process was somewhat messy, he was duly elected in 2010 with almost 49% of the vote, concentrated in Russian-populated eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Now Yanukovych has been deposed, perhaps justly, but by an unjust process spearheaded by a street mob and a disenthralled parliament. The parliament has appointed an acting president and Yanukovych is in asylum in Russia. It’s not clear that Ukraine now has a legitimate government of any sort.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/us-provokes-russia-acts-surprised-to-get-a-nasty-reaction/


Is this an existential threat of bi-lateral nuclear annihilation,
or highly-entertaining geopolitical drama?

Time will tell!

 

Malaysian Airlines Missing Plane May Have
Disintegrated Mid-Flight: Source
Reuters | by Siva Govindasamy and Nguyen Phuong Linh
Posted: 03/09/2014 11:39 am EDT Updated: 03/10/2014 11:59 am EDT


KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC ISLAND, Vietnam, March 9 (Reuters) - Officials investigating the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on board suspect it may have disintegrated in mid-flight, a senior source said on Sunday, as Vietnam reported a possible sighting of wreckage from the plane.

International police agency Interpol confirmed that two passengers on the flight had used stolen Austrian and Italian passports, raising suspicions of foul play.

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An Interpol spokeswoman said a check of all documents used to board the plane had revealed more "suspect passports" that were being further investigated. She was unable to say how many, or from which country or countries.

Malaysia's state news agency quoted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying the passengers using the stolen European passports were of Asian appearance, and criticising border officials who let them through.

"I am still perturbed. Can't these immigration officials think? Italian and Austrian (passport holders) but with Asian faces," he was quoted as saying late on Sunday.

Nearly 48 hours after the last contact with Flight MH370, mystery surrounded its fate. Malaysia's air force chief said the Beijing-bound airliner may have turned back from its scheduled route before it vanished from radar screens.

"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," a source involved in the investigations in Malaysia told Reuters.

If the plane had plunged intact from close to its cruising altitude, breaking up only on impact with the water, search teams would have expected to find a fairly concentrated pattern of debris, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly.

Asked about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical causes.

Boeing, the maker of the 777-200ER, declined to comment and referred to its earlier statement which said it was monitoring the situation.

"The outcome so far is there is no sign of the aircraft,"
Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...irlines_n_4930152.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

 

Europe Installs Raw Milk Vending Machines, While US Rules Unpasteurized Dairy Illegal
Despite Europe’s emerging stance on raw milk, U.S. health professionals say organic milk and non-dairy options are the best option for Americans, especially since raw milk is illegal in most states.



As the U.S. government continues to issue warnings regarding raw dairy products, several European countries have done just the opposite by expanding access through unpasteurized milk vending machines, according to Wake Up World.

Compared with pasteurized and homogenized dairy, the news source argues that raw milk offers a wealth of nutrition—all without the drawbacks of oxidized fats, denatured proteins, antibiotics or growth hormones typically found in pasteurized and processed milk products.

Given the purported benefits of raw milk, multiple European nations have installed self-service vending machines that provide 24-hour access. Michel Cantaloube, who helped introduce the machines in France, the UK and Spain, hopes to expand the venture into a similar vending machine for raw yogurt.

Other countries like Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands have begun to install their own raw milk vending machines as well.

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), tells a different story.

The FDA has listed raw milk’s potential mild to severe effects and issued the following warning:

• Vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain
• Flulike symptoms, such as fever, headache and body ache

While most healthy people will recover from an illness caused by harmful bacteria in raw milk—or in foods made with raw milk—within a short period of time, some can develop symptoms that are chronic, severe or even life-threatening.

If you or someone you know becomes ill after consuming raw milk or products made from raw milk–or, if you are pregnant and think you could have consumed contaminated raw milk or cheese—see a doctor or healthcare provider immediately.

In response, Wake Up World questioned the FDA’s stance and pointed to a recent study that indicated children who drank raw milk were 40 percent less likely to come down with asthma or allergies.

A Campaign for Real Milk, an advocacy group associated with the Weston A. Price Foundation and Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, agrees, stating raw milk:

• Protects against infections, diarrhea, rickets, scurvy, tooth decay and tuberculosis
• Demonstrates better child growth profiles with longer and denser bones
• Improves vitamin A, B6 and D absorption
• Enhances mineral assimilation through the presence of lactobacilli
• Individuals diagnosed with lactose intolerance are often able to consume raw milk products without issue

Moreover, hundreds of testimonials support the value of raw milk in helping childhood behavioral problems, digestive disorders, failure to thrive in infants, arthritis, osteoporosis and cancer.

Despite Europe’s emerging stance on raw milk, U.S. health professionals say organic milk and non-dairy options are the best option for Americans, especially since raw milk is illegal in most states.

http://www.nationofchange.org/europ...-rules-unpasteurized-dairy-illegal-1394634178

 

Love this stuff. Goat milk is the #1 consumed milk in the world, tastes great . . .

Where is that plane again . . .



Edit: Looks like the Chinese might have imaged the crash from space, looks promising . . .


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http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

 

Well, still no plane . . . So far this is the best theory I can find on what happened. It explains the removal of the circuit breakers, the loss of communication and the turn towards a possibly "friendly" airport for an emergency landing. It also could explain why the Rolls Royce engines ran until fuel exhaustion (pinging all the way), with possibly an asphyxiated crew and passenger compliment.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/mh370-electrical-fire/

 

I saw that article, it's one of the best so far.

But even without evidence of foul play,
there's some pretty damning speculation out there as well:

"Whoever diverted the plane could have disabled the release of oxygen masks.
Dr. James Ho, an associate professor of medicine at Hong Kong University, said that death could come within minutes if someone were the equivalent of outdoors at 45,000 feet.
A table used by pilots for “time of useful consciousness” without an oxygen supplement at various altitudes shows only nine to 15 seconds at 45,000 feet, compared with five to 10 minutes at 22,000 feet."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/w...phone-calls-from-missing-passengers.html?_r=1


edit: This is a good roundup of theories:

Hijacking
When flight MH370 first went missing, some observers suggested that it might have been hijacked by extremists with a political agenda. After satellite data showed that MH370 had made a sharp westward deviation from its intended destination, some took this as proof of a mid-air takeover.
No extremist group has thus far claimed responsibility for such an act.

Sabotage
Flight MH370’s seemingly deliberate change of course has also spurred theories that it may be a case of sabotage. On March 14, a senior Malaysian police official said, "What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijacking still on the cards.”

Mechanical failure
Chris Goodfellow, a Canadian pilot with 20 years’ experience, has posited a rather more straightforward theory that was reprinted in Wired magazine.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-what-we-know-and-3-theories-1.2577119