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Ukraine: Central European Powder Keg
by Stephen Lendman
Kiev's so-called day of silence remains shaky at best. Reports indicate casualties after its announcement. Peace is a convenient illusion.
Illegitimate oligarch president Petro Poroshenko wants Donbas democrats crushed. Large troop contingents and heavy weapons are positioned east.
Despite dire economic conditions, weapons production continues. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Ukraine ranks 8th among world arms suppliers.
Almost 97% of output heads east. Readying for all-out war. At a time Ukraine is effectively bankrupt. Needing billions of dollars in aid to run government. Pay bills. Prevent defaulting on debt.
Lawless US Sanctions on Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman
On December 8, US Senate members passed "S. 2142: Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014."
"A bill to impose targeted sanctions on persons responsible for violations of human rights of antigovernment protesters in Venezuela, to strengthen civil society in Venezuela, and for other purposes."
Passed by voice vote. Unanimously. Disgracefully. House members expected to follow suit. More on the bill below.
The world's leading human rights abuser targeted one of its staunchest defenders. Constitutionally guaranteeing fundamental rights. Enforcing them. Chapter I, Article 19 stating:
Crime Without Punishment
by Stephen Lendman
Longstanding US policy reflects business as usual. Ruthless and then some. With bipartisan support.
Democrats and Republicans largely in lockstep. Rhetoric alone separating them.
Supporting permanent wars of aggression. State terror at home and abroad. Abrogation of fundamental democratic principles.
Systematic breaches of international, constitutional and US statute laws. Supporting wealth, power and privilege exclusively. Letting popular needs go begging.
Burying hard truths. Substituting Big Lies. Including about torture remaining official US policy. At home and abroad.
In US prisons. Federal, state and local ones. Global black sites. In dozens of countries. Authorized by Bush and Obama.
EU Demands Russia Bail Out EU & Ukraine
Eric Zuesse
IMF says Ukraine will be bankrupt ‘within weeks’ and needs $15 billion more for war against eastern Ukraine; EU threatens Russia with more sanctions if Russia lets Ukraine go bankrupt; EU will lose billions on Ukraine if Russia won’t bail them out.
The details are here and here.
And here’s the back-story to that:
Mark Adomanis of Forbes is the clearest and most honest writer in the West about Ukraine’s financial situation, though he propagandizes constantly against Russia just like all the rest of the West’s aristocracy-paid ‘reporters’ do (and must do, in order to keep their jobs). He wrote on 15 April 2014, that, “when it bought $3 billion worth of [Ukrainian Government] bonds at the end of 2013 Russia inserted a clause that stipulates that the total volume of Ukrainian state-guaranteed debt cannot exceed 60% of its annual GDP. If that threshold is breached, Russia can legally demand repayments on an accelerated schedule. Given the parlous state of the Ukrainian economy and its government’s extremely weak finances, this essentially means that if Ukraine’s debt exceeds 60% of its GDP Russia can legally force it to default.”
HAWKING'S FEAR OF HUMAN EXTINCTION IS ALL ABOUT PROGRAMMING
Allen Roland
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking fears that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could lead to human extinction but I feel that it all comes down to programming and the eternal question ~ are we innately programed to love and cooperate with one another or are we programed to hate and separate from one another? Artificial intelligence without a soul is a garden without sunlight and is doomed to extinction and irrelevance: Allen L Roland. Ph.D
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." ~ Albert Einstein
Professor Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence and he is essentially correct.
Gorbachev and Lavrov on US/Russian Relations
by Stephen Lendman
Since Soviet Russia's 1991 dissolution, Washington tried imposing its will on all 15 former republics and Warsaw Pact countries.
Wanting pro-Western stooges in charge. Turning independent states into virtual US colonies. Without sovereign independent rights.
America largely succeeding. Even in 1990s post-Soviet Russia. Under Boris Yeltsin. The Russian Federation’s first president. A caricature of a leader. A hooligan.
A political criminal. A world-class thug. An incompetent drunk. A lost decade under his leadership.
Letting US-directed shock therapy produce mass unemployment and impoverishment. Economic genocide.
Hard Truths in Occupied Palestine Media Scoundrels Suppress
by Stephen Lendman
Numerous ones. Important ones. Longstanding ones. Relating to humanitarian, human rights and other international law abuses.
US constitutional and statute laws. Israeli laws. Basic ones in lieu of an Israeli constitution.
Knesset enacted statutes. Recent and past. Good and bad. High Court decisions in both countries. Relating to civil and human rights.
War and peace. Equity and justice. Self-determination. A universal right. "(B)ased on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples," according to the UN Charter, Article 1.
A fundamental human right. "Everyone…entitled to all" Universal Declaration of Human Rights "freedoms…"
West Wants Putin Deposed
by Stephen Lendman
Regime change is longstanding US policy. All independent states are targeted. Mainly Washington's two main rivals - Russia and China.
Long sought US dominance depends on toppling their existing governments. Replacing them with pro-Western vassal ones. Puppet leadership subservient to Washington.
No easy task given their formidable power. Determination to remain independent. Free from outside control.
Especially Washington. Wanting unchallenged world dominance. Perhaps willing to risk nuclear war to achieve it.
The Grand Inquisitor Planet
SARTRE
Understanding the world is difficult at best. However, knowing how the world works is a task that can be readily recognized. The ability to grasp and admit both functions, is seldom achieved by most souls. Those who accomplish a rare and accurate comprehension of the human condition, appreciate the social conflict that permeates civilized life. Society is an invention to effect dominance. The Grand Inquisitor exacts compliance, for that is his function. Not that it is essential, but because it is ingrained and instinctive.
In The Brothers Karamazov, Fydor Dostoevsky has Ivan Karamazov use his intuition to deliver a psychological view of his internal struggle. “My poem is called ‘The Grand Inquisitor’- an absurd thing, but I want you to hear it.” His encounter bears witness to duel aspects of mankind. On the one hand God is needed, even if He is denied; and if His presence is in dispute, humankind will invent His omnipotence in the form of a civil structure.
Israel Partners with Obama's War on Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Both countries partner in each other's wars. Israel bombs Syria at its discretion. Naked aggression by any standard. Longstanding Israeli practice.
The latest incident striking a Damascus' international airport warehouse. Believed to contain Iranian and Russian-supplied weapons.
Separate attacks targeted a Dimas area military site near Lebanon's border. Syrian and Lebanese sources reported at least 10 strikes.
Israel's last air attack was in March. Against alleged Syrian Quneitra region military positions. On Syria's side of the Golan.
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