U.S. Ships 50 Bradley Tanks to Ukraine: Europeans Are Furious Washington's Blog

Eric Zuesse

Apparently, Obama, though he says he hasn’t made up his mind about whether to send weapons to Ukraine, actually has and is. He now seems to be quietly trashing the spirit though no provision in the Minsk II truce that was arranged by Merkel, Hollande, Putin, and Poroshenko, and signed by the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, and both of the rebelling former parts of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. Obama now appears to be sending heavy weapons to Ukraine, and thus assisting Ukraine to resume attacking the DPR & LPR.

Even conservative Europeans are expressing outrage. Followers of Italy’s Sylvio Berlusconi, and even the leader of Austria’s anti-immigrant “Freedom Party,” are shocked and appalled by this Obama action.

Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of Austria’s Freedom Party, posted online a photo alleged to be of Bradley tanks now on rail-cars in Linz Austria en-route to Ukraine; he estimated 50 of them.

Complete story at - U.S. Ships 50 Bradley Tanks to Ukraine: Europeans Are Furious Washington's Blog

The Metamorphosis of Vladimir Putin » CounterPunch

by ANDREW LEVINE

Suddenly last summer, Vladimir Putin, formerly once a decent enough Russian leader (with a few unsettling quirks), turned into a malevolent, almost demonic, force.

Congratulations to the American propaganda system for putting over this remarkable metamorphosis.

At the same time, the verdict on Barack Obama did not change – not last summer, not since he assumed office.

From the moment that it became clear that his presidency would be rife with “disappointments” and sparing in achievements, Democrats have maintained that he means well and would be a force for good – were it not for pesky Republicans thwarting his every move.

Republicans, meanwhile, have a different view. For them, Obama has always been evil incarnate – like Putin now is, maybe worse. Hell, he may not even be a Christian, and he doesn’t “love America.”

Needless to say, the Republican take on Obama is preposterous. But then the liberal view is preposterous too. Disappointed Obamaphiles are not as in-your-face stupid as GOP Obamaphobes, but it is hard to say which is worse.

* * *

Obama’s first term was, for the most part, a continuation of George Bush’s second.

Winding down (repackaging) the never-ending wars Bush and Dick Cheney started in Afghanistan and Iraq was one of Obama’s principal objectives. Bush and Cheney had been working on this too, at least since 2006.

It was the same with 24/7 surveillance. Obama’s predecessors got it going; then Obama picked up the ball and ran with it, taking it as far as he could. In this case, there was not even a pretense of winding anything down; the point was to rev the snooping up.

Complete story at - The Metamorphosis of Vladimir Putin » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Our Wars, Our Victims by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Jon Stewart: “Right now, the Middle East is spiraling out of control. What should America do about this?”
Bassem Youssef, Egyptian comedian and satirist: “Well, how about… nothing.”
—The Daily Show, February 9, 2015

Since we rarely see real images of our wars today and have to fall back on simulated ones in Hollywood movies that make us look good, I wonder what Americans would say if they were shown graphic footage of the results of US drone attacks, some of the many wedding parties or funerals we mistook for gatherings of terrorists and reduced to “bug splats,” in the parlance of those dispatching our missiles. The idea that wiping out a bunch of innocents along with a few bad guys will make us safer at home and not make us more enemies everywhere is nuts, and so is the argument that the atrocities we find appalling in others are acceptable when perpetrated by us.

All this ought to be obvious to our leaders in Washington, but apparently it isn’t. President Obama’s new request for war authorization, now pending before Congress, to fight ISIS over the next three years with further airstrikes and “limited” combat operations, despite the complete failure of all our previous attempts in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen to do any good, may make our wars legal, but no less foolish.

What Czeslaw Milosz said of the last century is unfortunately already true of this one: Woe to those who think they can save themselves without taking part in a tragedy. Millions of Americans certainly continue to think so, even after September 11 and all the wars we have fought since and are still fighting. Television footage and newspaper photographs do not convey the scale of destruction and death in New York City on that day. One needed to have stood at least once under the twin towers to grasp their immense height and magnitude. Although I did, it took me days and months to comprehend fully what had occurred. Even after the second airliner struck the towers, it didn’t cross my mind that they might collapse. When they did, my mind had trouble accepting what my eyes were seeing. It was like a movie, people said afterward. We’d exit the dark movie theater with a shudder and go back to our lives. I thought Americans would finally begin to understand what being bombed is like.

Complete story at - Our Wars, Our Victims by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

​Obama openly admits 'brokering power transition' in Ukraine — RT Op-Edge

In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Barack Obama acknowledged that the United States had "brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine," thus admitting to the highest level of democratic impropriety imaginable.

Before we consider Obama’s revealing remarks, and how the Ukrainian people sold their country for a song, let’s rewind to November 2013, when then-President Viktor Yanukovich had shocked western capitals - and, more importantly, western markets - by suspending plans for an association agreement with the European Union.

As if on command, thousands of Ukrainians suddenly poured into the streets of Kiev to protest the decision. Such a rapid reaction should not have come as a surprise. After all, a multitude of US government agencies – most notably, USAID - had been operating in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union, investing billions on its latest "democratic" pet project.

This is no conspiracy theory. On December 13, 2013, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, following her third trip to Ukraine in five weeks, told the National Press Club: "Since Ukraine's independence in 1991 the United States has…invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in needs and other goals."

Although many are tempted to believe otherwise, governments don't normally spend such prodigious sums of money in a foreign land unless it expects to get something hefty - in this case, Kiev’s loyalty - in return. Governments are by nature political opportunists, not philanthropists, which is precisely why Russia gave USAID the boot in 2012. Ukraine did not, and was forced to pay the piper, so to speak.

We should note here that it was not just US taxpayer dollars that unwittingly provided the funds to support the coup d’ etat in Ukraine. In another softball interview with CNN’s Zakaria, billionaire George Soros last May coolly admitted: “I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia. And the foundation has been functioning ever since and played an important part in events now.”

Complete story at - ​Obama openly admits 'brokering power transition' in Ukraine — RT Op-Edge

‘Empire of Chaos’ in the House — RT Op-Edge

No one in Western corporate media will tell you why US President Barack Obama is hitting Riyadh with a high-powered delegation to “pay his respects” to the new House of Saud potentate, King Salman.

Talk about a who’s who – including CIA head John Brennan; General Lloyd Austin, head of US Centcom; Secretary of State John Kerry; leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi; and even senile Senator John “Bomb Iran” McCain.

It must have been heart wrenching for most in this crowd to skip a visit to the Taj Mahal in India so they would be part of the last-minute, “unscheduled” stop in Riyadh.

This is how the astonishing mediocrity that doubles as US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, spun it; “Principally, I think this is to mark this transition in leadership and to pay respects to the family and to the people of Saudi Arabia, but I’m sure that while we’re there they’ll touch on some of the leading issues where we cooperate very closely with Saudi Arabia.”

The White House and the Pentagon did not bother to “pay their respects” in person to the people of France after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The House of Saud – “our” top bastards in the Persian Gulf – is of course much more valuable.

And yet, Air Force One, we got a problem. High-level US financial sources assure this correspondent the trip is all about Obama shoring up the new King’s support for their financial/economic war on Russia as the House of Saud is starting to have second thoughts. The Saudi role in this war has been to come up with the oil price shock – which is hurting not only Russia but also Iran and Venezuela, among others. Besides, the US puppet theoretically in charge in Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has just visited Saudi Arabia.

Russia is not Iran – with all due respect to Iran. If the House of Saud really believes they are talking to the head of a superpower rather than a ventriloquist’s puppet – which is Obama’s role – they are effectively doomed. Nothing Obama says means a thing. The real ‘Masters of the Universe’ who run the ‘Empire of Chaos’ want the House of Saud to do most of their dirty work against Russia; and in a later stage they will take care of the “towel heads” - as the saying goes in Washington - over their development of nuclear missiles with Pakistan. And especially because the Saudi-launched oil price war is bound to destroy the US oil industry - against US national interests.

Complete story at - ‘Empire of Chaos’ in the House — RT Op-Edge

Is Obama Desperate to Precipitate a Nuclear War? Washington's Blog

Eric Zuesse

Anyone who still believes Obama’s rhetoric and honesty would be wasting time to read the following analysis, which is only for people who have doubts about his honesty; and thus an open mind to the possibility of his lying about his intentions is a pre-requisite to receiving the following argument:

On Christmas Day, London’s Daily Mail bannered, “North Korea was NOT behind the Sony hack according to multiple security experts who discredit FBI findings and reveal that a studio insider named ‘Lena’ may be responsible.”

Two days earlier, on December 23rd, CBS News had headlined, “Was FBI Wrong on North Korea?” and they presented evidence that the FBI was, indeed, wrong.

On December 30th, the brilliant individual who blogs as “George Washington” assembled all of the news-reports up till that time on this matter, and headlined, “FBI Busted Falsely Blaming North Korea for Sony Hack: I Hate North Korea’s Leaders … But They Didn’t Do It.”

The evidence that he presented is overwhelming.

Nonetheless, on January 2nd, the BBC bannered, “Sony cyber-attack: North Korea faces new US sanctions,” and they reported: “The US has imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to a cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday allowing sanctions on three North Korean organisations and 10 individuals.”

Complete story at - Is Obama Desperate to Precipitate a Nuclear War? Washington's Blog

Obama outraged at Oliver Stone’s statements on Ukrainian coup | Ukraina.ru

The White House makes no secret of its indignation over Oliver Stone’s narrative of the coup in Ukraine after his interview with Viktor Yanukovych, Ron Paul Institute Director Daniel McAdams said.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone’s statements about the United States’ involvement in the February coup in Ukraine have caused a surge of indignation in the US government, followed by a media storm targeted at the film director, McAdams said.

According to McAdams, Stone, whose statements about the February coup in Ukraine have been met with hostility in the United States, is clearly aware of how the Washington mechanism of changing political regimes works, with US politicians, institutions and US-financed NGOs working in unison to achieve the goal set by the US government.

McAdams admitted that Stone is aware of the role that social media plays in overthrowing regimes, and suggested remembering the fact the representatives of the US Department of State cited social networks when presenting their disputable accusations against Russia. McAdams stressed that the main thing in Stone’s conclusions is the United States’ interference into Ukraine’s internal affairs.

Previously, Stone announced that he is working on a documentary on former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Stone is widely acclaimed for his films on acute political issues whose array of characters includes US presidents Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush.

Complete story at - Obama outraged at Oliver Stone’s statements on Ukrainian coup | Ukraina.ru

The Futility of American Politics | KUNSTLER

The futility of politics in America these days has driven the public into exactly the dream-state of zombie blood-lust depicted in so many popular video fantasies, a nightmare of decay, powerlessness, and degeneracy matching the actual condition of a disintegrating polity that has lost collective consciousness and seeks only to infect the dwindling numbers of the still-sentient. Almost nobody in this country believes we can manage our affairs anymore.

Well, can we? One of the hallmarks of an imploding culture is that people lose a sense of consequence. Things just seem to happen and unhappen, and nobody really cares about chains of decision and event. Anything goes and nothing matters.

One reason this is happening to us is that we allowed reality to be divorced from truth. Karl Rove wasn’t kidding back in the Bush-2 days when he quipped that “we create our own reality.” The part old Karl left out is that there’s a price for doing that. In the short run, it allows you to pretend that you have superpowers and can act in defiance of the way things really are. In the longer run, your view of the world comports so poorly with the facts of the world that things stop working.

The tragedy of Barack Obama is that he continued the basic Karl Rove doctrine only without bragging about it. I don’t know whether Mr. Obama was a hostage, an empty suit, or a fool, but he broadened and deepened the acquiescence to lying about just about everything. Did criminal misconduct run rampant in banking for years? Oh, nevermind. Is the US economy actually contracting instead of recovering? We’ll just make up better numbers. Did US officials act like Nazi war criminals in torturing prisoners? Well, yeah, but so what? Did the State Department and the CIA scuttle the elected Ukrainian government in order to start an unnecessary new conflict with Russia? Maybe so, but who cares? Was the Affordable Care Act a swindle in the service of insurance and pharmaceutical racketeering? Oh, we’ll read the bill after we pass it. Shale oil will make us “energy independent.” (Not.)

Complete story at - The Trigger | KUNSTLER

HARDLY ZEN: Top 5 Obama War Crimes Since His Nobel Peace Prize

21st Century Wire says…

In the aftermath of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s bombshell Torture Report, both Democrats and Republicans are now jockeying for position to occupy the moral high ground. On one side you have apologists for CIA torture, and on the other are half-hearted partisan Democrats desperate to protect their own administration’s sins overseas – and in the middle is a small minority who still believe in doing what’s right in trying to preserve America’s waning integrity internationally.

It’s times like this which really separates the wheat from the chaff…


ABU-GRAIB: US military engaged in sick games with detainees in Iraq.

A bevvy of so-called ‘military experts’ are cued-up on all the major TV networks to give their assessment as to ‘What constitutes torture?’, as well as arguing over what passes for ‘intelligence’ these days. The conversation is as banal as it is Orwellian. The pro-torture crowd, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, seems like the Pentagon’s embedded anchor and torture advocate, are all currently rallying around GW Bush’s inner circle, while the CIA stooges continue to sound a lot like Dr. Josef Mengele’s assistants testifying at Nuremberg.

They are all keen to tout their successes in their expensive ‘War on Terror’, although they’ve still yet to present anything besides anecdotes, opinion and hyperbole. Even proponents of the ‘Afghan Surge’ are being wheeled out of the Pentagon’s basement, as military buffoons continue to claim credit for it’s’success’, but who seem to be getting their military strategies from the film Starship Troopers. In other words: throw as much men as you can at the problem until the insects are killed off. They apply the exact same illogic to the torture argument, which is to dole out as much physical and psychological punishment to their ‘high value detainees’ until the subject tells them what they want to hear. This is what pretty much what passes for ‘military genius’ in the post-Bush world of ethical vacuums and moral black holes.

Even Senator John McCain sobered up from his usual mode of NATO-jihad just long enough to admit to the US, and the world this week – that torture aka ‘enhanced interrogation’ doesn’t actually work at all when it comes to gathering meaningful intelligence, and moreover, that it paints the US in a bad light internationally. 21WIRE will add to that and say: the same goes for Washington obsession with domestic spying starting with the whole NSA surveillance (see 21WIRE NSA Files) and data harvesting operation – a monolithic, 21st century digital monstrosity that’s literally wasting billions per month in scarce US taxpayer funds.

Although the Senate report was spearheaded by Democrats, that’s not to say that this White House should be given a free pass on its own outsourcing of violence. The Obama Revolution in foreign policy terms, has been all about making US militarism, especially in places like Africa, seem acceptable and almost fashionable to his young left supporters. But tell us what is really fashionable about sanctioned 2,400 murders through JSCOC and CIA covert drone programs.

The bottom line is that killing and torture has become political. If they were not, the Obama would have already closed his own government’s Guantanamo Bay torture facility a long time ago

Complete story at - HARDLY ZEN: Top 5 Obama War Crimes Since His Nobel Peace Prize

The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama in retreat on MH17

by Alexander Mercouris

Amidst all the hysteria about what western leaders said to Putin during the Brisbane G20 summit (answer: nothing new or important), the media has entirely ignored certain very interesting comments about MH17 that Obama made in his speech at the University of Queensland. His precise words (taken from the White House website) were as follows:

"We’re leading the international community in the fight to destroy the terrorist group ISIL. We're leading in dealing with Ebola in West Africa and in opposing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine -- which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17, a tragedy that took so many innocent lives, among them your fellow citizens. As your ally and friend, America shares the grief of these Australian families, and we share the determination of your nation for justice and accountability. So, yes, we have a range of responsibilities. That's the deal. It's a burden we gladly shoulder."

Obama played his usually sly trick of talking about the MH17 tragedy in conjunction with his condemnation of Russian policy ("Russia's aggression") towards the Ukraine. That way he continues to give the impression that Russia shot MH17 down.

This should not confuse. What is striking is that in this speech, delivered in Australia where the MH17 tragedy is a very hot issue, Obama did not say that Russia shot MH17 down and did not say that the NAF shot MH17 down. He did not even say (as he has said in the past) that MH17 was shot down by a surface to air missile launched from NAF controlled territory. Rather what Obama is now saying is that Russia is responsible for MH17 being shot down because by its supposed "aggression" against Ukraine it has supposedly created the conditions that led to MH17 being shot down.

This actually leaves open the possibility (for the first time coming from Obama or from anyone in the US administration) that it might have been the Ukrainians who shot MH17 down.

With a character as slippery as Obama it is never possible to be completely sure but this looks to me frankly like a retreat to a fall back position. Certainly it is a long way from the categorical claims made by Obama and Kerry in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

All this makes me wonder what Obama is been told in private by his intelligence chiefs as more information about the shoot down comes trickling in.

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama in retreat on MH17

M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition

Obama to United Nations Committee Against Torture: "We tortured some folks. We'll keep our options open to do that again and again."

The Obama administration, after an internal debate that has drawn global scrutiny, is taking the view that the cruelty ban applies wherever the United States exercises governmental authority, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. That definition, they said, includes the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and American-flagged ships and aircraft in international waters and airspace.

But the administration’s definition still appears to exclude places like the former “black site” prisons where the C.I.A. tortured terrorism suspects during the Bush years, as well as American military detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars there. Those prisons were on the sovereign territory of other governments; the government of Cuba exercises no control over Guantánamo.

Obama says that the convention against torture does doesn't apply where torture by U.S. goons is most likely.

Is there anything which tells us that the Obama administration is not using this self-defined exclusion?

Complete story at - M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition

Obama Threatens More Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Over Russian-Platinum Deal | Zero Hedge

As Martin Armstrong exclaims, Obama is out of control. According to NewZimbabwe.com, Washington has said it will accelerate sanctions imposed against Harare in 2003, due to the Robert Mugabe-led government's closer ties with Russia over the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project. Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru (who is thought to be Mugabe's spokesman), reported, Washington explained its expectations on Zimbabwe, namely that Zimbabwe was expected (read required) to support those sanctions by avoiding any association with companies sanctioned by the Americans and their Western allies, or their subsidiaries or affiliates. Manheru said "it was ridiculous for the US to refuse to lift sanctions against Harare and then demand support for its measures against Moscow... This is where I am tempted to tell the American government to go and hang, hang on a banana tree, bums up."

Via AllAfrica.com,

The United States has reportedly warned Zimbabwe about its growing economic dealings with Russia after Harare recently sealed an agreement with Moscow for a US$3billion platinum mine.

According to Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru, who is thought to be President Robert Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, the Obama administration threatened further sanctions against Zimbabwe over its ties with Russia.

...

Zimbabwe's Pen East Investments has teamed up with Afronet, a consortium of three Russian partners, to form Great Dyke Investments, which is developing the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project.

At full development in 2024, the mine will produce 800,000 platinum ounces, pushing Zimbabwe's output over one million ounces, and create 8,000 jobs.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov visited Zimbabwe last month to conclude the deal with President Robert Mugabe.

However, according to Manheru, the deal could see Washington hit Harare with further sanctions.

Complete story at - Obama Threatens More Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Over Russian-Platinum Deal | Zero Hedge

Syria: Washington has Crossed the Red Line | New Eastern Outlook

At the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) led by President Obama its members have unanimously adopted a resolution to stem the flow of foreigners into the ranks of extremist organizations such as the Islamic State. On Wednesday, September 24, all the fifteen Security Council members voted unanimously to bind the UN Member States to adopt laws under which their citizens won’t be able to fight under the banners of Islamist groups or recruit other citizens to do so, unless they are willing to go to jail.

Perhaps some people could marvel at Obama’s selfless effort to lead the fight against the new monster. But those better informed in today’s international politics, especially those introduced to Wahington’s cunning plans will ask a simple question: Where did all these organizations, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and now Khorasan Group come from, how could they possibly reach such strength that now the international community must face them? The track record of Al Qaeda is carefully documented and well known, its leadership, that was headed by now dead Osama bin Laden, is handsomely paid by the CIA at the expense of US taxpayers. The rest of the above mentioned terrorist groups are funded with the money provided by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf. They have been created on Syrian soil by the West in order to overthrow the legitimately elected government of Bashar al-Assad. None other than the US president issued the order to train and arm them. There is no need to prove anything since the actions of the United States have been carefully documented. Barack Obama himself admitted that in recent years some 15 thousand foreign fighters have been brought to Syria from more than 80 countries!

Along with these actions, Barack Obama in the spirit of the Nobel Peace Laureate created another so-called coalition to launch air strikes in Syria and Iraq. This fact should be empathized, the coalition was not created to bring peace to this highly trouble-prone region, but for carrying out military actions, to further inflate the fire. Hence the Middle East will witness even more deaths and suffering. A peculiar fact of this “pro-peace” coalition are its members: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain. There’s a saying in all languages ​​- “Tell me who are your friends are and I will tell you who you are”. This saying exemplifies the case. The so-called American Democrats are friends with the kings of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan, with the emir of Qatar and the UAE sheiks, it seems that the US president wouldn’t mind being named a king as well.

And now the aircraft of this “peaceful” coalition carries out strikes in Syria, without even obtaining consent of Damascus. Americans have already launched more than 40 Tomahawk missiles. What is the result? At least 14 militants (is there a proof?) and five civilians were killed in air strikes the United States and its allies carried out against the positions of the Islamic State in northeastern Syria on the night of September 25. As you may notice, nobody cares for civilian lives, since nobody will submit a complaint to the International Court of Justice, so there’s no need to offer apologies, no need to pay compensation to the families of the deceased. This logic is rather simple – Syrians were killed and they were second-class human beings, why should US Democrats care?
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2014/10/03/rus-siriya-vashington-pereshel-krasnuyu-chertu/

Complete story at - Syria: Washington has Crossed the Red Line | New Eastern Outlook

Why Obama Lost His War in Ukraine | The Smirking Chimp

When President Obama took control of Ukraine in February 2014, via a coup d'etat against the democratically elected President, rather than by an outright invasion of U.S. troops, the new Government that he imposed in Kiev was democratically very vulnerable. The man whom Obama overthrew had been elected by overwhelming margins in Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine's southeast and by high margins elsewhere in the country's southeast; those southeastern voters needed to be gotten rid of (exterminated &/or expelled from Ukraine) in order to make the new, pro-U.S. Ukrainian regime (which was supported only by the voters in Ukraine’s northeast), stick, if Ukraine was ever to be restored to democracy while being anti-Russian such as the the new rulers were, whom Obama had installed.

But Crimea immediately broke away from that new Government, Russian troops came into Crimea to protect them against military action that was planned by the U.S. to stop that breakaway, and Crimeans then immediately held a plebiscite in March which overwhelmingly supported reuniting Crimea with Russia -- Crimea had never voluntarily left Russia: the USSR's leader Khrushchev had donated Russia's Crimean region to Ukraine in 1954, and Crimeans were always overwhelmingly opposed to that change.

Then, elsewhere in Ukraine's southeast, locals took over government buildings and refused to accept the new coup-imposed, anti-Russian Ukrainian Government. Obama and his newly appointed leaders of Ukraine didn't like that, and were determined to stop the rebellion. They commenced an ethnic-cleansing campaign to eliminate the voters in the southeast (except in Crimea, which was now being defended by Russian troops, so Obama wouldn’t support his coup-regime’s intent to extend the ethnic cleansing immediately into Crimea and even to destroy Russia; Obama viewed that intent as being premature; his ethnic-cleansing program would be only in other parts of the southeast).

No one can understand Obama's defeat in Ukraine who does not know that he imposed upon Ukraine a Government that was committed to an ethnic-cleansing campaign to get rid of the people in the regions that had voted for the man whom Obama overthrew. That's basic to know, in order to have any possibility to understand why Obama lost this war that he started with his February coup. In fact, the man whom the Obama-team chose to design the ethnic-cleansing program announced in June that there were going to be concentration-camps for everyone in the southeast who supported the breakaway-movement.

The official U.S. line was that the people in the southeast were 'terrorists' who were bombing their own people and causing their own problems; or, as Christia Freeland said in The New York Times, "This is not a civil war." The U.S. regime always staunchly backed what the new Ukrainian Government was doing in the southeast, specifically the ethnic-cleansing campaign. One reason this line, that the southeasterners were bombing their own people (the southeasterners), was false (besides it’s being simply ridiculous) is that the civil war did not even start until May 2nd, when there was a massacre of peaceful opponents of the new Obama-imposed Government, carried out by supporters of the new government who were bussed into Odessa from Kiev in the northwest for that occasion, which massacre occurred at the Odessa Trade Unions Building. This massacre was co-masterminded and was funded by Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a Ukrainian billionaire who hired Joe Biden's son and won a local governorship from Obama's team.

Complete story at - Why Obama Lost His War in Ukraine | The Smirking Chimp

The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama places Russia between the Ebola virus and international terrorism

This is the except in which Russia and the Ukraine are mentioned:

(...) Russia’s actions in Ukraine challenge this post-war order. Here are the facts. After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their
corrupt President fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into Eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.

This is a vision of the world in which might makes right – a world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed. America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.

These are simple truths, but they must be defended. America and our allies will support the people of Ukraine as they develop their democracy and economy. We will reinforce our NATO allies, and uphold our commitment to collective defense. We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.

Moreover, a different path is available – the path of diplomacy and peace and the ideals this institution is designed to uphold. The recent cease-fire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve that objective. If Russia takes that path – a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people – then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia’s role in addressing common challenges. That’s what the United States and Russia have been able to do in past years – from reducing our nuclear stockpiles to meet our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to cooperating to remove and destroy Syria’s declared chemical weapons. And that’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again—if Russia changes course. (...)
Basically, this is the same line as Poroshenko (which is really unsurprising since they used pretty much the same speechwriters). The message to Russia is simple:"surrender or we will mobilize the entire planet against you".

Foreign Minister Lavrov commented: “As for the U.S. President’s speech, we earned the second place among the threats to international peace and stability: number one is the Ebola virus, number two is the so-called Russian aggression in Europe and ISIL and other terrorists who are now taking hold of the Middle East and primarily of the countries, which have evidenced U.S. interventions, are ranked as number three.”

Feel the love :-)

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama places Russia between the Ebola virus and international terrorism

Obama’s House of Cards » CounterPunch:

by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Obama’s September 24 speech at the UN is the most absurd thing I have heard in my entire life. It is absolutely amazing that the president of the United States would stand before the entire world and tell what everyone knows are blatant lies while simultaneously demonstrating Washington’s double standards and belief that Washington alone, because the US is exceptional and indispensable, has the right to violate all law.

It is even more amazing that every person present did not get up and walk out of the assembly.

The diplomats of the world actually sat there and listened to blatant lies from the world’s worst terrorist. They even clapped their approval.

The rest of the speech was just utter bullshit: “We stand at a crossroads,” “signposts of progress,” “reduced chance of war between major powers,” “hundreds of millions lifted from poverty,” and while ebola ravages Africa “we’ve learned how to cure disease and harness the power of the wind and the sun.” We are now God, “We” is comprised of the “exceptional people”–Americans. No one else counts. “We” are it.

It is impossible to pick the most absurd statement in Obama’s speech or the most outrageous lie. Is it this one? “Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition.”

Or is it this one? “After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their corrupt president fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.”

Complete story at - Obama’s House of Cards » CounterPunch:

The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama's Smart Syria Play

NoBC4U Note:  I've been neglecting to post from one of my favorite blogs here, the Vineyard of the Saker.  Yes, I know many of my readers come from that site, but quite a few don't.  So, here's some Saker for you. 

by Fulan Nasrullah

If you ask me I will tell you that America watched the Cancer of Al-Baghdadi and his Islamic State spread from Syria back into Iraq to create an excuse to bomb Bashar Al-Assad in Syria.

How?

Remember earlier Obama wanted to carry out airstrikes against Syria's government in retaliation for a highly questionable chemical attack, despite the fact that earlier in 2013 Iraq arrested over 150 Islamic State of Iraq affiliated takfiri terrorists who were preparing chemical weapons in Baghdad with chemicals imported from Kuwait, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Obama's airstrikes plan was put on hold because the American an Western public saw through the flimsy sham. Instead of going to bomb Assad a little as punishment for using 'chemical weapons' on civilians, the American public understood he was going to use the cover of that to use the US Airforce to serve as the Free Syrian Army's air force a la Libya where Obama used the lie of protecting 'civilians' to use the US Airforce to help the rebels defeat Gaddafi.

Anyways to save face after the American public opposed his adventurism in Syria, he claimed he needed Congressional approval to bomb Syria, thinking that McCain an Lindsey Graham (the two vultures that thrive on consuming corpses) would get it for him. Surprise! He would have lost in Congress, so Putin graciously offered him a way out of his rope I.e the agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

After that what happened? Along came ISIS or IS as it is now known or Da'ash to the Arabs. Suddenly Obama authorized the transfer of scores of millions of dollars of heavy weaponry to the moderate 'Syrian Opposition' (what a joke!) knowing fully well the so-called moderate rebels were bed partners or unwilling underdogs of Da'ash and Surprise! Surprise! All of Obama's weapons largesse ended up flowing first to Jabhatun-Nusrah and Islamic Front units which then took these weapons and defected to ISIS. In other cases ISIS simply showed up and raided the moderate and Islamist rebels and carted off their newly arrived American Candy Bars including sophisticated anti-tank missiles.

It was only a while but Al-Baghdadi's 'goon army' showed up across the border to liberate their home base of Iraq with....wait for it... America's contributions to the liberation of Syria in tow, including those million-dollar anti-tank guided missiles Mr Obama proudly sent forth to do battle on his behalf in Damascus.

With American weaponry and skills honed in Syria fighting against the ultra-skilled Hizbullah and the mediocre Syrian Army, Al-Baghdadi's Army of the Goons bested the million man Iraqi security forces and captured more American weapons as they marched across Iraq seizing whatever caught their fancy. Meanwhile Mr Obama or Mr Yes-We-Scan (depending on what you are on this week) sat in his Oval Office and preened and smiled widely like a Cheshire cat as Al-Baghdadi's Goon Army won one victory or the other, all the while making sure to scream and point hysterically like a pissed-off prostitute "See ISIS is becoming a threat to world peace"..

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama's Smart Syria Play

Vladimir Suchan: Logos politikos: US Does Have a Strategy: It Is a Combination of MAD, Samson's Option, and Pottery Barn Rule

Obama or rather people metaphorically behind his back, which, in practice, ought to be in the front, have greatly improved on Colin Powell's infamous Pottery Barn Rule, which was applied to Iraq and it worked there only half-way: the country was and is being continuously destroyed as a result, but the US did not not only failed in owning it, but the US also rejects any responsibility, not mention any guilt, for doing so. Instead, a good portion of the destruction and "owning" has been outsourced to al Qaeda of Iraq morhed into ISIS and al Nusra and then into IS or Islamic State/Petro State/Empirate/Caliphate whose key commanders are Chechens trained by Western special forces and paid by the Saudis and the Qataris.

The supposed "Pottery Barn rule"--"you break it, you buy it"--is American jargon, which describes a notable deviation from and innovation on consumerist culture, in which the consumer or customer is or was "always right." "Pottery Barn rule," which is actually not a rule of Pottery Barn is a threat and policy sometimes used by various smaller retailers who dare to assign the damage and responsibility to their consumers.

Consumption in its original sense did mean destruction, and if the consumers are to be masters of the universe, destruction, i.e., consumption, was to be their royal privilege, and that's why, as a former East European, one of the first astonishing discoveries in North America was to find in North America a place where even damaged goods were taken back by stores "without any question asked." U.S. foreign policy of THE by far greatest consumer and customer in the world was supposed to work much in the same way and often it did and sometimes still does.

In reality though, Pottery Barn, the upscale home furnishing store—does not have a "you break it, you bought it" policy. Instead, like other US retailers dependent on consumerist culture for their survival and profits, Pottery Barn too writes off broken merchandise as a loss thanks to the convenient tax policies of Uncle Sam, who approves.

"In reality," as the wikipedia entry on Pottery Barn explains, "many U.S. states have statutes forbidding policies," which would "suggest [that] if your organization inadvertently creates a problem, the organization is [also] obligated to correct it." In other words, to correct problems, which you yourself have created is not how things are supposed to work according to the statues of the Empire, that is, if you are an important organization or corporation. Or a sufficiently important consumer. Fixing or correcting problems which consumers or corporations or the US government make has not been high on the priority list. It also contradicts the basic articles of exceptionalism.

Complete story at - Vladimir Suchan: Logos politikos: US Does Have a Strategy: It Is a Combination of MAD, Samson's Option, and Pottery Barn Rule

Bombs Away Over Syria! Washington Has Gone Stark Raving Mad | David Stockman's Contra Corner

by David Stockman • August 27, 2014

America’s spanker-in-chief is at it again—threatening to bomb Syria owing to the uncivilized actions of its inhabitants. And when it comes to Syria, Washington avers that there are punishable malefactors virtually everywhere within its borders.

Exactly one year ago Obama proposed to take Bashar Al Assad to the woodshed because he had allegedly unleashed a vicious chemical attack on his own citizens. That was all pretext, of course, because even the CIA refused to sign-off on the flimsy case for Assad’s culpability at the time—-a reluctance corroborated since then by the considerable evidence that hundreds of Syrian civilians were murdered during a false flag operation staged by the rebels with help from Turkey. The aim of the rebels, of course, was to activate American tomahawk missiles and bombers in behalf of “regime change”, which was also the stated goal of the Obama Administration.

Now the White House is threatening to bomb Syria again, but this time its “regime change” objective has been expanded to include both sides! In 12 short months what had been the allegedly heroic Sunni opposition to the “brutal rule” of the Assad/Alawite minority has transmuted into the “greatest terrorist threat ever”, according to the Secretary of Defense.

So Obama has already unleashed the drones and surveillance apparatus to identify targets of attack that will help bring down a regime in northern and eastern Syria—the so-called Islamic State—which did not even exist a year ago. And a regime that is now armed to the teeth with America’s own latest and greatest weaponry as previously supplied to the disintegrated Iraqi army and the Syrian rebels trained by the CIA in Jordan.

Adding to this blinding farce is the warning of Syria’s Foreign Affairs minister that Obama should please to request permission before he rains destruction from the sky on the Opposition—-that is, the opposition to the very same Damascus regime which the White House has vowed to eradicate. Needless to say,  the Washington apparatus is having nothing to do with aiding the enemy of its new enemy:

Complete story at - Bombs Away Over Syria! Washington Has Gone Stark Raving Mad | David Stockman's Contra Corner

The Emperor’s Rage: Let Chaos Envelop the World!

DR JAMES PETRAS | JULY 30, 2014

Obama: A Liar of Munchausen Proportions with a Bad Case of Political Paranoia, War Hysteria & Megalomania

Chaos reigns and spreads as enraged leaders in the US, Europe and their clients and allies pursue genocidal wars. Mercenary wars in Syria; Israel’s terror bombing on Gaza; proxy wars in the Ukraine, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia.

Tens of millions of refugees flee scenes of total destruction. Nothing is sacred. There are no sanctuaries. Homes, schools, hospitals and entire families are targeted for destruction.

Chaos by Design

At the center of chaos, the wild-eyed President Obama strikes blindly, oblivious of the consequences, willing to risk a financial debacle or a nuclear war. He enforces sanctions against Iran; imposes sanctions on Russia; sets up missile bases five launch minutes from Moscow; sends killer drones against Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan; arms mercenaries in Syria; trains and equips Kurds in Iraq and pays for Israel’s savagery against Gaza.

Nothing works.

The Chaos President is blind to the fact that starving one’s adversaries does not secure submission: it unites them to resist. Regime change, imposing proxies by force and subterfuge, can destroy the social fabric of complex societies: Million of peasants and workers become uprooted refugees. Popular social movements are replaced by organized criminal gangs and bandit armies.

Central America, the product of decades of US direct and proxy military interventions, which prevented the most basic structural changes, has become a chaotic, unlivable inferno for millions. Tens of thousands of children flee from their ‘free market’- induced mass poverty and militarized state and gangster violence. Children refugees at the US border are arrested in mass, and imprisoned in makeshift detention camps, subject to psychological, physical and sexual abuse by officials and guards on the inside. On the outside, these pitiful children are exposed to the racist hatred of a frightened US public unaware of the dangers these children are escaping and the US government’s role in creating these hells.

The US-backed Kiev aviation authorities re-directed international passenger airlines to fly over war zones bristling with anti-aircraft missiles while Kiev’s jets bombed the rebellious cities and towns. One flight was shot down and nearly 300 civilians perished. Immediately an explosion of accusations from Kiev blaming Russian President Putin flooded Western media with no real facts to explain the tragedy/crime. War-crazy President Obama and the slavering prime ministers of the EU ejaculated ultimatums, threatening to convert Russia into a pariah state. ‘Sanctions, sanctions, everywhere . . . but first… France must complete its $1.5 billion sale to the Russian navy.’ And the City of London exempts the Russian oligarchs from the ‘sanctions’, embedded as they are in London’s money-laundering, parasitical FIRE (Fire, Insurance and Real Estate) economy. The Cold War has returned and has taken an ugly turn… with exceptions…for business.

Confrontation among nuclear powers is imminent: And the maniacal Baltic States and Poland bray the loudest for war with Russia, oblivious to their positions on the front lines of incineration…

Complete story at - The Emperor’s Rage: Let Chaos Envelop the World!