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Post by jdredd on Apr 29, 2014 15:15:07 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/28/us-to-impose-newsanctionsonrussiaoverukraine.html"Russia has vowed to respond to a newly imposed set of sanctions from the West, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said Tuesday as the European Union released its list of 15 Russians and Ukrainians subject to asset freezes and travel bans. That list includes a deputy prime minister, deputy chairman of the the lower house of parliament, the chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces and several pro-Russian rebel leaders in Ukraine. Notable omissions from the list were the heads of Russian energy giants, like Igor Sechin of Rosneft, who was included on a new U.S. sanctions list released Monday. “After the second wave of sanctions, the government is developing measures in response, first evaluating the potential damage to our economy,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted Matviyenko as saying. “Such unfriendly attacks … cannot be left without a response, and I believe there must certainly be a response.” So the "tit for tat" continues. I'm sure this will be very productive for all concerned.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 30, 2014 22:44:56 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/business-27233152"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $17.1bn (£10.1bn) bailout for Ukraine to help the country's beleaguered economy. The loan comes amid heightened military and political tension between Ukraine and neighbouring Russia. The loan is dependent on strict economic reforms, including raising taxes and energy prices. The money will be released over two years, with the first instalment of $3.2bn available immediately. The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said the IMF would check regularly to ensure the Ukrainian government followed through on its commitments." With friends like this, who needs enemies?
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Post by jdredd on May 7, 2014 23:45:26 GMT -5
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/ukraine-crisis-putin-referendum-autonomy-postponed"The Kremlin beat a tactical retreat over a regional referendum following days of soaring tension that have left dozens dead and fed fears of a civil war in Ukraine. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, said the referendum being staged by pro-Russia separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine on Sunday should be postponed. If the referendum goes ahead, it will provide an argument for the region joining Russia as happened in Crimea in March. Overt Russian support for the plebiscite could have triggered more substantive EU and US sanctions against Russia. Putin's statement, following talks with the president of Switzerland in Moscow, looked likely to delay the imposition of a harsher round of economic penalties." I thought Putin was supposed to be a tough guy. Looks like he's just another Eurowimp.
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Post by jdredd on May 10, 2014 12:27:14 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/5/international-lawrussiaukraineiraqinvasion.html"The events in Ukraine, however, should not be viewed in isolation, as if they came from nowhere. Disregard for international law in the post–Cold War era was thoroughly demonstrated in the American invasion of Iraq. The United States used force to accomplish “regime change”; it disregarded the Security Council; it used private contractors and unidentified agents in place of identifiable troops. While it did not formally redraw the borders of Iraq, informally the north of Iraq has operated as an autonomous Kurdish region since the invasion. The United States had no more legal right to invade Iraq than Russia had to seize Crimea." So Putin is the Russian George W. Bush?
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Post by jdredd on May 14, 2014 14:39:19 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27387204"France's National Front is expected to score well in this month's European election, following a breakthrough at local polls in March. Henri Astier reports from Henin-Beaumont, its flagship municipality in the north, to examine whether its success there can be repeated nationally." The efforts to connect with the people of Henin-Beaumont have been richly rewarded. At the recent municipal elections, the FN won more votes than all other parties put together, capturing the town in the first round. This was quite a feat for a far-right party in a town that had been a socialist stronghold for 70 years. Mr Briois is now the most prominent among 11 new FN mayors across France. The front's signature issues - such as security and immigration - have clearly struck a chord in Henin-Beaumont, and sympathisers are not hard to find at the barbecue." What are the chances of a future United Fascist Europe, I wonder? Could happen. Ideas never die, even bad ones.
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Post by jdredd on May 25, 2014 0:06:13 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27540360They used to hate Metalist Kharkiv's guts - a trip by Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk supporters to that neighbouring eastern city meant risking a broken jaw or worse. Pre-arranged mass fights and knifing were a routine thing. Not any more. In fact, Dnipro's hardcore fanatics, the Ultras, now call the Metalist lot their brothers in arms. For those uninitiated in Ukraine's pitch battles, it's like Arsenal and Tottenham fans in England or Spain's Real Madrid and Barcelona faithful embracing each other. The trigger was the Maidan - mass protests in Kiev that led to the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Virtually all Ukrainian top division clubs - many of them sworn enemies - signed a "gentlemen's agreement" to fight against what they saw as corrupt and brutal authorities." This tells me a lot- football thugs are traditionally far right.
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Post by jdredd on May 26, 2014 4:54:05 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/22/poroshenko-chocolateking.html"Poroshenko is not new to politics, having served as both a minister of economy and minister of foreign affairs. A fluent English speaker, he’s currently an independent member of parliament. During the protests on Kiev’s central square this winter, Poroshenko frequently delivered motivating speeches on the Maidan’s central stage, and he became a face of the opposition pushing for Yanukovych’s ouster. Like Tymoshenko, he is considered an oligarch and and amassed his estimated $1 billion fortune by buying up former Soviet-era confectionery factories and consolidating them into the Roshen candy company. He also owns one of Ukraine’s most popular independent television stations, Channel 5. On the campaign trail in Lviv on Thursday, Poroshenko addressed a room full of business students, professors and local professionals about the painful economic and political reforms that Ukraine will need to adopt to keep the country from collapse. Many of the reforms are conditions attached to a $17 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Whoever ends up being president will have to adopt tough, unpopular austerity measures, Poroshenko said." So the Ukraine elected a billionaire (well, NYC had a billionaire mayor for many years) President, and he is a toady of the investors of the IMF, ready to stick it to working class Ukrainians. Should I care?
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Post by jdredd on May 28, 2014 16:43:18 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/opinion/friedman-putin-blinked.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0"There was a moment at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 when Soviet ships approached to within just a few miles of a U.S. naval blockade and then, at the last minute, turned back — prompting then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk to utter one of the most famous lines from the Cold War: “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.” The crisis in Ukraine never threatened a Cold War-like nuclear Armageddon, but it may be the first case of post-post-Cold War brinkmanship, pitting the 21st century versus the 19th. It pits a Chinese/Russian worldview that says we can take advantage of 21st-century globalization whenever we want to enrich ourselves, and we can behave like 19th-century powers whenever we want to take a bite out of a neighbor — versus a view that says, no, sorry, the world of the 21st century is not just interconnected but interdependent and either you play by those rules or you pay a huge price. In the end, it was Putinism versus Obamaism, and I’d like to be the first on my block to declare that the “other fellow” — Putin — “just blinked.” I guess it turns out Putin is just as big a wimp as Obama. Obama blinked when it came to Syria, and now Putin has blinked in Ukraine. Fine with me. Does make me wonder though. I thought Thatcher's war with Argentina was excessive response to their invasion of the Falklands, and I have a feeling if it was repeated today, no UK PM would send the fleet. I suppose we are better off with all this wimpyness.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 17, 2014 13:46:11 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28354856"A Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people has crashed in east Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, amid allegations it was shot down. Bodies are scattered around what is believed to be the wreckage of the jet near the village of Grabovo, which is under the control of separatist rebels. Flight MH17 had been due to enter Russian airspace when contact was lost. Ukraine's president called the loss of the plane an "act of terrorism" as the rebels denied shooting it down. The separatists are believed to have shot down two Ukrainian military planes over the region in recent days. There is no official closure of Ukraine airspace but Germany's Lufthansa, Air France and Turkish Airlines are all now avoiding eastern Ukraine." Get ready for an orgy of Russia-bashing. Is this a hint the Cold War was not all that much about Communism and more of an anti-Russia thing? I don't know.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 5, 2014 11:27:58 GMT -5
www.economist.com/news/leaders/21615582-sad-reality-vladimir-putin-winning-ukraine-west-must-steel-itself"Even the whiff of peace will encourage some Europeans to argue that Mr Putin need not be punished further—just as there were some who used his denials of involvement as a pretext to equivocate. That would be an inexcusable mistake. As Angela Merkel says, Russia cannot simply be allowed to invade its neighbours and shift Europe’s borders with impunity." As I said before, the European Powers-that-be hate it when the status-quo borders are changed without their permission. So they are going to continue to "punish" Putin, which also (surprise, surprise!) means a call for more defense spending.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 16, 2014 22:22:50 GMT -5
www.newrepublic.com/article/119456/scottish-referendum-campaign-last-days-great-britain"These are dangerous and unstable times, with the beginnings of a new cold war and the Middle East in flames. As John Gray has written, we are witnessing the return of classical geopolitics—“a struggle for resources between contending empires not unlike that in the late nineteenth century.” If Britain cannot work out how to stay together when so much unites us—language, culture, shared sacrifice, blood—the portents for the twenty-first century are dark indeed. If the vote is Yes on September 18, the 307-year-old Union will have been shattered, the British state will have been broken, and we will be plunged into a constitutional crisis with devastating consequences for David Cameron and Ed Miliband."
Yes, the status quo in Great Britain would be broken. Oh well. But as I said before, I doubt independence is more important to the average Scot than their personal wealth that might be threatened by it. Besides, borders mean a lot less than they used to.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 18, 2014 10:38:46 GMT -5
Today is the day the formerly proud Scots wimp out...Heck, the Irish shed blood to gain their dignity only a hundred years ago, but this is a new, more complacent time.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 18, 2014 23:55:35 GMT -5
HEY SCOTLAND: I CAN SEE YOUR VAGINAS UNDER YOUR KILTS FROM HERE
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Post by jdredd on Dec 14, 2014 20:36:11 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30436692"Most famous of the exponents is journalist Eric Zemmour, whose new book French Suicide reads like a desperate cavalry charge, sabre aloft, into the massed ranks of the progressives. Zemmour is scorned by most of the Paris establishment but his book is a runaway bestseller. To date it has sold 400,000 copies. "The big divide today is between the elite and the people," he tells me at Le Figaro newspaper's headquarters, where he works. "And that is why my book has done so well. Because I have become a kind of representative of the people. They have adopted me. They say that what I write is what they think." "Zemmour says he is fed up with being asked about the FN. "Can't they understand that the FN is not a cause, it is a consequence. It is a consequence of the disintegration of France. "People vote for the FN to say to their elites, 'Stop doing what you are doing!' But they never do. "It was Stalin who first realised how effective it was to turn the enemy into a fascist. That is what they are doing to us today."
If it quacks like a duck...
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Post by jdredd on Dec 19, 2014 16:46:33 GMT -5
www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/18/good-news-greeces-anti-austerity-left-first-round-election-fails"Asked how the European private sector and financial market would respond to having a Marxist economic professor running the Greek Treasury if Syriza were to take over control of the government, Stathakis smiled as he replied, "The left at this very moment represents the very hope of change and getting Greece back into a proper—normal—economic society as we know it." In a recent interview with the BBC, another prominent Syriza member, Nikos Samanidis, emphasized how the prospect of taking power in Greece has not blunted the radical nature of his party.
"The rich, the elites, the markets, the super-rich, the top 10%, yes, they obviously do have reason to worry," Samanidis said. And he explained why. The wealthy and the elites, he said, "will lose their privileges." "Our voter base has expanded greatly, but the grassroots, radical nature of Syriza has been preserved thanks to the crisis," he continued. "Our party has not and will not sever its ties with the streets, with the social movements it arose from." You can bet CIA puppets in Greece are working overtime to defeat Syriza. If Syriza wins, I'll probably have to add Greece to my "Looking for Enemies" series. That's if the CIA doesn't prod the Greek military to take over first. I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA is bankrolling Golden Dawn too.
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