BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O SWEPT THROUGH 2008 ON HIS OWN VERSION OF GIRL POWER BUT NOW HE'S LEARNING LIFE'S NOT ALWAYS SO EASY.
LA RAZA PRESIDENT JANET MURGUIA FOLLOWED UP ON HER PROMISE (SEE "Look what gets floated" AND "THIS JUST IN! HE MIGHT GET CALLED OUT! MAYBE!") AND HAILED BARRY O AS THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF AND NOTED THAT HE WILL SOON HAVE DEPORTED 2 MILLION PEOPLE.
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, THE DAHLI BAMA INSISTED THAT HIS ACTIONS HAD BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD, "WHERE THEY SEE DEPORTATIONS, I'M REALLY JUST TRYING TO HELP THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY. PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT LACK OF JOBS BUT DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PILOTS IT TAKES TO FLY 2 MILLION PEOPLE? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY FLIGHT ATTENDANTS IT TAKES TO SERVICE 2 MILLION PEOPLE? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY AIR MARSHALLS IT TAKES TO WATCH 2 MILLION PEOPLE? AND THAT'S BEFORE YOU CONSIDER AIRPORT NEWS STANDS AND BARS. OR HOW ABOUT AIRPORT BATHROOMS. DO YOU REALIZE HOW MANY CUSTODIAL JOBS I AM CREATING WITH 2 MILLION PEOPLE BEING DEPORTED? I DON'T CARE THAT LA RAZA CALLED ME OUT. I STILL THINK SHE WAS GREAT AS PINKY TUSCADARO."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Alsumaria reports that Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee announced that a private plane was charted to bring Iraqi college students studying in the Ukraine back to Iraq.
Ukraine? We've been noting events outside of the snapshots for the most part. We're bringing it into the snapshot today.
We're going to start with who Glenn Greenwald got into bed with this time, a billionaire who bought Glenn's ass and mouth. When he broke the Ed Snowden story, we gave him credit for that. And it would have been great to offer praise over and over. But he's Glenn Greenwald and his circle jerk has always been pretty nasty. Now it's apparently involved in attempting to overthrow governments.
Chris Floyd (CounterPunch) reports, "The Western intervention in Ukraine has now led the region to the brink of war. Political opposition to government of President Viktor Yanukovych — a corrupt and thuggish regime, but as with so many corrupt and thuggish regimes one sees these days, a democratically elected one — was funded in substantial part by organizations of or affiliated with the U.S. government, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (a longtime vehicle for Washington-friendly coups), and USAID. It also received substantial financial backing from Western oligarchs, such as billionaire Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and sole bankroller of the new venue for “adversarial” journalism, First Look, as Pandodaily reports." Marcy Wheeler of Empty Wheel fame and now part of Omidyar's First Look was speculating on who in the US might have been involved in the attempt to destabilize the Ukraine and Mark Ames (PandoDaily) pursued that angle:
Wheeler is partly correct. Pando has confirmed that the American government – in the form of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – played a major role in funding opposition groups prior to the revolution. Moreover, a large percentage of the rest of the funding to those same groups came from a US billionaire who has previously worked closely with US government agencies to further his own business interests. This was by no means a US-backed “coup,” but clear evidence shows that US investment was a force multiplier for many of the groups involved in overthrowing Yanukovych.
But that’s not the shocking part.
What’s shocking is the name of the billionaire who co-invested with the US government (or as Wheeler put it: the “
Step out of the shadows…. Wheeler’s boss, Pierre Omidyar.
Yes, in the annals of independent media, this might be the strangest twist ever: According to financial disclosures and reports seen by Pando, the founder and publisher of Glenn Greenwald’s government-bashing blog,“The Intercept,” co-invested with the US government to help fund regime change in Ukraine.
What's going on in the Ukraine? Left Voices explores that with attorney, human rights expert and international law professor Francis A. Boyle. (Click here for SoundCloud.)
Excerpt.
Andrea Sears: This is Left Voices for Monday, March 3, 2014. I'm Andrea Sears. Tonight [. . .] is the crisis in the Ukraine a popular uprising or an orchestrated coup d'etat? Russian forces have virtually occupied the Crimean peninsula without firing a shot and pro-Russian demonstrators have taken over the regional government building in the city of Donetsk in the eastern Ukraine. Secretary of State John Kerry is threatening to cast Russia out of the G8 and the newly installed government of Kiev is calling on NATO for assistance. From the protests in Kiev to the ouster of former Prime Minister Yanukovych to the military stand-off, the press is buzzing with depictions of corruption overthrown, massing troops and reported threats. In the US, Russia is being condemned on all sides. Without acknowledging any irony, [US Secretary of State] John Kerry, who voted for the invasion of Iraq, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext," calling it an incredible act of aggression. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has called the Obama administration weak and indecisive and urged the President to do more than deliver empty threats to thugs and dictators. And Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is calling Russia an enemy of the United States. At the height of the civil unrest in Kiev there were scattered reports that far right elements were playing a major role in the protests but there's been little follow up. Francis Boyles is a professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of several books including Foundations of World Order. Boyles says an audio tape that has appeared on YouTube -- allegedly a recording of a conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US Ambassador to the Ukraine tells part of the story that's been missing.
Francis A. Boyle: It's clear what happened was that the United States government orchestrated a neo-Nazi coup d'etat in Kiev. And the people in power there now are fascists, neo-nazis, anti-Semites. You have at least four people from Svoboda in the government including one in charge of the security policies and another from right sector that's basically neo-Nazi skinheads. So we launched a coup d'etat, put these people in power in Kiev and now it appears that Secretary of State Kerry is going over there to consolidate them in power and demonstrate the support of the US. UK Foreign Minister [William] Hague was just there. It looks like we've mobilized NATO to their defense at least in terms of statements -- so far not troops, but we'll have to see what happens, how those further developments -- I don't know. But one could certainly understand why Russia is concerned about us putting neo-Nazis in power in Ukraine and overthrowing a democratically elected government which we did do.
Andrea Sears: How much of this is the power play over the tension between Russia and the European Union and the United States over the eastern expansion of NATO into former Soviet states. Has this been a major part of the conflict?
Francis A. Boyle: Yes, of course, that's what this is really all about. As you know, Soviet President Gorbachev agreed with President Bush Sr. that, if he went along with the reunification of Germany that NATO borders would not move to the east. Unfortunately, he was so naive as to note get that written in a treaty and only accepted oral assurances. So the moment Clinton came to power, NATO was moved to the east right up to the borders of Russia and there two prizes left were Georgia and Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine under the previous administration before Yanukovych signed a partnership for peace agreement with NATO and NATO membership was -- is the next step. The European Union, this so-called association agreement, had security provisions in there which would have required cooperation with NATO. And I regret to say today the European Union pretty much functions as a stalking horse and catch-all for NATO. So this is all about extending NATO into Ukraine itself.
Fatimah (Carbonated TV) observes this is taking place on the anniversary of the start of the illegal war on Iraq (March, 2003):
It is therefore rather ironic that the US, which led the attack in Iraq, is warning Russia that it is considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia for “being on the wrong side of history.”
Around 112,017 - 122,438 civilian deaths were recorded by Iraq Body Count (IBC) between 20 March 2003 and 14 March 2013 during the Iraq War. Although the conflict came to an end in 2011, the number of deaths is constantly increasing due to the ongoing insurgency the invasion wrought.
What’s worse, the grave mistake was never acknowledged by the then or current governments of the Western countries involved in the false cause.
So, is it not an act of sheer hypocrisy when such unapologetic invaders accuse another country of “violating international law” for committing the same mistake after a decade?
When Russia decided to attack Ukraine on Saturday, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would consider the aforementioned action against Russia.
Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned Russia’s “act of aggression over phony pretexts” in Ukraine.
The irony and hypocrisy of both of these statements is just unmistakable, especially when the White House – despite several appeals from the United Nations – has failed to halt its illegal drone program in Afghanistan, Yemen and several parts of Pakistan.
Singer-songwriter and musician Liz Phair (Exile in Guyville being her major classic) Tweeted:
"We can't allow a nation (USSR) to enter another country just because
they don't like the way a situation turns out" um, Iraq? Afghanistan?
Chris Marsden (WSWS) offers:
Kerry and Obama have spent the past days consolidating a strategic alliance of imperialist and regional powers against Moscow—insisting above all that the European powers, led by Germany, take a hard line on Ukraine and on economic sanctions. In addition, Washington has repeatedly met with the leaders of Georgia and Moldova, encouraging both to make a high profile stand against Russia to encourage others to do the same.
On February 26, Kerry spoke to the US-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission, announcing additional US assistance “to help support Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic vision,” while denouncing Russia’s continued military presence in the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Dave Lindorff (CounterPunch) weighs in noting:
Of course there’s also the matter of the US role — overt and covert — in helping to fund and organize the mobs who ousted the elected government of Ukraine. That too was a violation of international law. For years now, the US has, through its National Endowment for Democracy, US AID, and other government and quasi-government bodies, been funneling money to anti-government groups in Ukraine (as it did also in Egypt and Russia itself, and as it is doing now in Venezuela and other countries whose leaders it opposes). The leaked tape of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt discussing how to staff the new government of Ukraine after the anticipated collapse of the elected government shows how deeply the US was involved in the undermining of the government of Ukraine. Again, this interference in another country’s political system is a horrendous violation of international law.
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