One 77-year-old’s search for the truth: 9/11, election fraud, illegal wars, Wall Street criminality, a stolen nuke, the neocon wars, control of the U.S. government by global corporations, the unjustified assault on Social Security, media complicity, and the "Great Recession" about to become the second Great Depression. "The most important truths are hidden from us by the powerful few who strive to steal the American dream by keeping We the People in the dark."
I like VICE. They actually go places and show you what they look like and talk to real people. The Lame Stream news media could learn a few lessons. This footage is from March. We'll be showing more recent footage in future broadcasts. In this case, Russian civilians and Russian military units have just surrounded the Ukraine's Naval High Command in Sevastopol. They're blocking all the entrances and exists and the base is
essentially under a state of siege.
Here's something you don't see every day. Citizens block a convoy of armored personnel carriers packed with troops armed to the teeth. They block them and hold them and eventually the troops are disarmed. The troops in question are Ukrainian "anti-terror" troops and the citizens are pro-Russian protestors. Pretty calm and orderly. I'm afraid I can't imagine our own steroid-jacked police and troops handling such a tense situation with such calm and poise. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/ukrainecrimea/citizens-disarming-troops-in-the-ukraine.html#sthash.7BFXFQNk.dpuf
John Kerry: War and Sanctions for Russia over Ukraine (image by YouTube)
Let's cut to the chase -- short and sweet.
1. The Obama administration's "strategic" gambit to subcontract the
State Department's "Khaganate of Nulands" to extricate Ukraine from the
Russian sphere of influence -- and ultimately annex it to NATO -- by
instrumentalizing a coalition of willing neo-nazis and fascists with a
central bank veneer (prime minister "Yats"), is in utter shambles.
2. Moscow's counterpunch was to prevent in Crimea -- as intercepted by
Russian intelligence -- a planned replay of the putsch in Kiev. The
referendum in Crimea -- 85% of turnout, roughly 93% voting for
re-joining Russia, according to exit polls -- is a done deal, as much as
the oh-so-democratic European Union (EU) keeps threatening to punish
people in Crimea for exercising their basic democratic rights. (By the
way, when the US got Kosovo to secede from Serbia, Serbians were offered
no referendum).
3. The main rationale for the whole US "strategic" advance -- to
have their proxies, the regime changers in Kiev, cancel the agreement
for the Russian naval base in Sevastopol -- is up in smoke. Moscow
remains present in the Black Sea, and with full access to the Eastern
Mediterranean.
And the rest is blah blah blah.
All aboard the Finland station
The US State Department
has practically agreed to a federal, and in fact, Finlandized Ukraine[1]
which, by the way, is the solution being proposed by Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov right from the start, as this Russian white paper attests.
US Secretary of State John Kerry -- as when Moscow saved the "red line"
Obama administration from bombing Syria -- will go on overdrive to
steal all the credit from the Russians. US corporate media will duly buy
it, but not independents such as Moon of Alabama.[2]
This -- sensible -- road map implies, among other crucial points;
strong autonomous regions; Russian reinstated as an official language,
alongside Ukrainian; and most of all political/military neutrality, that
is, Finlandization. To get there will be the mission of a support group
-- once again, proposed by Moscow from the start -- with the US, EU and
Russia as members.
All that finally sanctified by a UN Security Council resolution (true,
it could go spectacularly wrong, and most of all sabotaged by the
"West.") And all that, as well, without Moscow having to officially
recognize the regime changers in Kiev. In a nutshell; Moscow called
Washington's bluff -- and won.
So after all that barrage of ominous threats including everyone from
Obama, Kerry and assorted neo-con bomb-firsters down to minions such as
Cameron, Hague and Fabius, the meat of the matter is that the Obama
administration concluded it would not risk a nuclear war with Russia for
the Khaganate of Nulands -- especially after Moscow made it known,
discreetly, it would create the conditions for eastern and southern
Ukraine to also secede.
Sweden, for instance, proposed an arms embargo on sales to Moscow.
Paris took a quick glance at its industrial-military complex interests
and immediately said no. Only the brain dead entertain the notion Paris
and Berlin are willing to jeopardize their trade relations with Russia.
As well as the notion that Beijing would ever join sanctions against
fellow Group of 20, BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization member
Russia just because what they perceive as an increasingly irrational --
and dangerous -- Washington said so.
And yet, Western hysteria of course will persist unabated. In the US,
where it matters, the meme of the subsequent days will be, inevitably,
who lost Syria and who lost Ukraine.
Here's the record. Dubya launched two wars. He (miserably) lost both.
Obama attempted to launch two wars (Syria and Ukraine). He -- lucky for
him -- lost both even at the "attempt" stage. Assorted neo-cons and the
whole exceptionalist brigade are predictably livid. Expect the
editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to go ballistic. And expect US
ambassador to the UN Samantha "R2P" Power to wish she were Sinead
O'Connor singing Nothing Compares to You.
It's a gas, gas, gas, not!
The Kiev regime-changers are
already announcing their intentions, as in Right Sector capo and
confirmed neo-nazi Dmytro Yarosh saying, "... Russia makes money sending
its oil through our pipelines to the West. We will destroy these
pipelines and deprive our enemy of its source of income."
That's a brilliant strategy straight from the Khaganate of Nulands
playbook. So homes and the whole industrial base in Ukraine should be
out of (cheap, discounted) gas, not to mention great swathes of Germany,
so the neo-nazis can claim "victory." With friends like these...
Gazprom's executives are not exactly raising an eyebrow. Russia is
already shipping roughly half of its gas to Europe, bypassing Ukraine,
and after South Stream is completed in 2015, that percentage will
increase (EU "sanctions" against South Stream are just empty rhetoric.)
The regime changers will be trying to wreak havoc in other fronts as
well. The new Ukrainian parliament has voted to assemble a 60,000-strong
National Guard crammed with "activists." Guess who will be in charge;
the new security chief, Andriy Parubiy, one of the founders of the
neo-nazi Social-National Party. And his deputy happens to be none other
than Yarosh, the leader of the paramilitary Right Sector. Feel free to
add your own custom-made Hitlerian metaphors -- even as the risk
persists of Ukraine breaking apart. Which is not necessarily a bad deal.
Let the "democratic" EU pay Ukraine's gas bills.
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent
for Asia Times. His regular column, "The Roving Eye," is widely read. He
is an analyst for the online news channel Real News, the roving
correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and
TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows
ranging from the US to East Asia. He argues that the world has become
fragmented into "stans" -- we are now living an intestinal war, an
undeclared global civil war. He has published three books on
geopolitics, including the spectacularly-titled "Globalistan: How the
Globalised World Is Dissolving Into Liquid War".
His latest book is "Obama Does Globalistan."
A
crowd of angry pro-Russian demonstrators, as well as police and media,
accompany Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko as he walks through the streets
of the Crimean city of Simferopol. (image by ALEXEY FURMAN / NBC NEWS)
Time waits for no one, but apparently will wait for Crimea. The speaker
of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, has confirmed there
will be a referendum on greater autonomy from Ukraine on May 25. Until then, Crimea will be as hot and steamy as carnival in Rio --
because Crimea is all about Sevastopol, the port of call for the Russian
Black Sea fleet. If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a bull, this is the red
flag to end all red flags. Even if you're deep in alcohol nirvana
dancin' your troubles away at carnival in Rio -- or New Orleans, or
Venice, or Trinidad and Tobago -- your brain will have registered that
NATO's ultimate wet dream is to command a Western puppet Ukrainian
government to kick the Russian navy out of its base in Sevastopol. The
negotiated lease applies until 2042. Threats and rumors of reneging it
have already emerged. The absolute majority of the Crimean peninsula is populated by
Russian speakers. Very few Ukrainians live there. In 1954, it took only
15 minutes for Ukrainian Nikita Krushchev -- he of the banging shoe at
the UN floor -- to give Crimea as a free gift to Ukraine (then part of
the USSR). In Russia, Crimea is perceived as Russian. Nothing will
change that fact. We're not facing a new Crimean War -- yet. Only up to a point. NATO's
wet dream is one thing; it is quite another to pull it off -- as in
ending the Russian fleet routinely leaving Sevastopol across the Black
Sea through the Bosphorus and then reaching Tartus, Syria's
Mediterranean port. So yes, this is as much about Syria as about
Crimea. The new Ukrainian Orange, Tangerine, Campari, Aperol Spritz or Tequila
Sunrise revolution seems so far to have answered NATO's prayers. But
it's a long and winding road for NATO to reenact the 1850s and remix the
original Crimean War. For the foreseeable future, we will be drowning in a white sea of
platitudes. As in Pentagon supremo Chuck Hagel "warning" Russia to stay
out of the turmoil, while NATO's defense ministers issue the requisite
pile of statements that no one reads "showing support" for the new
leadership, and corporate shills reassure the populace this is not a new
Cold War.[1] Dance to my strategy, suckers
Where's H L Mencken when we
need him? No one ever lost money underestimating the mendacity of the
Pentagon/NATO/CIA/State Department system. Especially now, when
Ukrainian policy seems to have been subcontracted by the Obama
administration to the likes of neo-con Victoria "F**k the EU" Nuland,
married to Dubya darling neo-con Robert Kagan. As Immanuel Wallerstein has already observed,[2] Nuland, Kagan and the
neo-con gang are as much terrified of Russia "dominating" Ukraine as of a
slowly emerging, and eventually quite possible, geopolitical alliance
between Germany (with France as a junior partner) and Russia. That would
mean the heart of the European Union forging a counter-power to the
dwindling, increasingly wobbly American power. And as the current embodiment of wobbly American power, the Obama
administration is really in a class by itself. They are now lost in
their own, self-concocted "pivot" maze. Which pivot comes first? That
one to China? But then we need to pivot to Iran first -- to end that
Middle East distraction. Or maybe not. Take this latest sound bite by US Secretary of State John Kerry, on
Iran: "We took the initiative and led the effort to try to figure out if
before we go to war there actually might be a peaceful solution." So suddenly it's not about a nuclear deal to be possibly attained in
2014 anymore; it's about "if before we go to war." It's about bombing a
possible deal so the Empire may bomb a country -- again. Or maybe that's
just a wet dream supplied by the Likudnik puppet masters. The great Michael Hudson has speculated that "multi-dimensional chess"
might be "guiding US moves in the Ukraine." Not really. It's more like
if we can't pivot to China -- yet -- and if the pivot to Iran is going
to fail anyway (because we want it to), we might as well pivot somewhere
else. Oh yes, that pesky place that prevented us from bombing Syria;
it's called Russia. And all that under the profound guidance of Victoria
"F**k the EU" Nuland. Where's a neo-Aristophanes to chronicle these
marvels? And never forget US corporate media. That CNN hack has been Amanpouring
lately about the Budapest Agreement -- stressing Russia should stay out
of Ukraine. Well, visibly a horde of producers at
ratings-falling-to-the-floor CNN have not even read the Budapest Agreement which,
as University of Illinois professor Francis Boyle has noted, "also
states that the US, Russia, Ukraine, and UK need to immediately jointly
'consult' -- meaning meet at least at the foreign minister level." So who pays the bills?
The new prime minister of
Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, is -- what else -- a "technocratic
reformer," code for Western puppet.[3] Ukraine is a (torn) basket case.
The currency has fallen 20% since the start of 2014. Millions of
unemployed Europeans know the European Union does not have the dough to
bail out the country (perhaps Ukrainians could ask former Italian prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi for some tips). In Pipelineistan terms, Ukraine is an appendix to Russia; it's Russian
gas that transits through Ukraine to European markets. And Ukrainian
industry depends on the Russian market.
Let's take a closer look at the new Aperol Spritz "revolutionary"
wallet. Every month, the natural gas import bill from Russia is roughly
US$1 billion. In January, the country also had to spend $1.1 billion in
debt repayment. Foreign currency reserves plunged to $17.8 billion from
$20.4 billion. Ukraine has a minimum debt repayment of no less than $17
billion in 2014. They even had to cancel a $2 billion eurobond issue
late last week.
Frankly, Russian President Vladimir Putin -- aka Vlad the Hammer --
must be grinning like the Cheshire cat. He could simply erase the
significant 33% discount on natural gas imports he gave Kiev late last
year. Rumor after rumor already state -- ominously -- that the Aperol
Spritz revolutionaries won't have the cash to pay pensions and public
servants' salaries. In June comes a monster payment to a bunch of
creditors ($1 billion in debt will mature). Afterwards, it's bleaker
than north Siberia in winter.
The US offer of $1 billion is risible. And all this after the "'F**k
the EU' strategy" of Victoria Nuland torpedoed an Ukrainian transitional
government -- by the way, negotiated by the EU -- which might have kept
the Russians on board, money-wise.
Without Russia, Ukraine will totally depend on the West to pay all its
bills, not to mention avoid being bankrupt. That amounts to a whopping
$30 billion until the end of 2014. Unlike Egypt, they cannot dial the
House of Saud's number and ask for some juicy petrodollars. That $15
billion loan from Russia promised recently could come in handy -- but
Moscow must get something in return.
The notion that Putin will order a military attack on the Ukraine
should be billed to US corporate media's sub-zoological intellectual
quotient. Vlad the Hammer just needs to watch the circus -- as in the
West squabbling about where to get those billions to be squandered in a
(torn) basket case. Or the International Monetary Fund churning out yet
another dreadful "structural adjustment" to send Ukraine's population
back to the Paleolithic.
Crimea could even stage its own delayed carnival, voting not only for
more autonomy but to leave the (torn) basket case altogether. In this
case, Putin will even get Crimea for free -- Krushchev-style. Not a bad
deal. Thanks to that oh so strategic "F**k the EU" Russian "pivot."
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His regular column, "The Roving Eye," is widely read. He is an analyst for the online news channel Real News, the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He argues that the world has become fragmented into "stans" -- we are now living an intestinal war, an undeclared global civil war. He has published three books on geopolitics, including the spectacularly-titled "Globalistan: How the Globalised World Is Dissolving Into Liquid War".
His latest book is "Obama Does Globalistan."
