One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Paul Craig Roberts


Pro-Russian Crimeans wave Russian flags as they gather
to celebrate in Simferopol's Lenin Square. Crimeans voted
overwhelmingly to join Russia as tensions soared in the
splintered ex-Soviet nation amid the worst East-West crisis
since the Cold War.
(Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)

Washington alone stands as the threat to life on earth.

Washington’s plan to seize Ukraine and to evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base has come amiss. But as Lenin said, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.” [*]

Do you remember all the tough talk coming from John Kerry, the White House Fool, Hilary Clinton, and the lickspittle Merkel about the harsh sanctions that would “badly damage” the Russian economy unless Russia prevented the referendum vote in Crimea?

Well, it was all bullshit, more hot air from the White House sock puppet and the lickspittle German chancellor who is a disgrace to the German nation. As the Russians kept telling John Kerry, sanctions on Russia would destroy Europe and do little damage to Russia. I wish the Russians had kept this to themselves. I was looking forward to the Washington morons destroying NATO by closing down the European economy.

Of course, after pretending that they were macho tough guys, something that Washington’s presstitute media could hype as sanctions had to be imposed, so Washington came up with sanctions, not on Russia, but on eleven individuals: the deposed Ukrainian president, an advisor to the deposed president, 2 Crimean officials, and 7 Russians. The choice of the officials is an utter mystery. The seven Russians are a Putin aid, a Putin adviser, four members of the Russian parliament (Duma) and a deputy prime minister. What any of these people had to do with the referendum in Crimea, no one knows.

Moreover, the sanctions only apply to foreign bank accounts that these 11 individuals might have outside Russia. Most likely, that means only the deposed Ukrainian president, if we are to believe all the propaganda about him. Other reports say that the sanctions are only for the next six months. If the Washington and EU criminals steal any money from these persons, the Russian central bank can replenish their stolen accounts.


Kosovo: militant cynicism of the Western democracy

Ilya Kharlamov


Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci
and Madeleine Albright

The Western world is literally going hysterical in their attempts to deny the Crimean population its free demonstration of will to return the region to its historic motherland –Russia. However, not too long ago Washington and the European capitals adamantly supported Kosovo's will to separate from Serbia despite the fact that there were significantly fewer reasons for that.

What is the reason for that? Is it caused by the fact that for the West the notions of international law, historic justice and the multi-polar nature of the world are simply an empty sound that only calls for a condescending smile?

The stories of Crimea and Kosovo clearly showed the following: the principle of double standards (the phrase is worn-out, but accurate) is something the West sticks to fully and consistently.

In essence, over the past few decades its main efforts were channeled into one direction: to dominate over the diversity of cultures, points of view, social and political models of society. In the case of an active standoff, they are to be subordinated: the elite – with money, everybody else – with arms. A special type of “geopolitical racism” appeared. Only this paradigm allows us to explain what appears to be an illogical and inconsistent position of the Western countries in some regions with similar problems. Readiness to act upon the instructions of “Big Brother” or its lack thereof becomes the main driver of their further destiny.

The support of the West of Kosovo's separation from Serbia in 2008 should have been demonstrative and instructive for everybody. Nobody paid attention to any resolutions regarding territorial integrity of states, or the UN basic legal norms. It was considered to be purely irrelevant that Serbia viewed Kosovo as their national symbol of national integrity and unity (some battles took place there that determined Serbia's destiny, and some important holy objects are located here). But by completely violating the international norms the West never brought its project to completion, points out Vladimir Bruter, a political analyst.


Crimeans Choose Russia

Stephen Lendman

March 16 was historic. It was important. Crimean authorities showed how real democracy works. They shamed America's sham process. Monied interests control things. People have no say. Both major parties control a rigged process. They're two sides of the same coin. Not a dime's worth of difference separates them. Independent candidates are virtually shut out. Americans get the best democracy money can buy.

Crimeans got the real thing. International observers praised the process. Voting went peacefully and smoothly. It was scrupulously open, free, and fair. No irregularities occurred. None were seen. No pressure. No intimidation. Not a single Russian soldier in sight. None invaded. None occupy Crimea. Claims otherwise are false. They're Western propaganda. They're malicious lies.

A previous article said Russians comprise about 60% of Crimea's population. Ukrainians around 25%. Tatars 12%.

Turnout was impressive. It was unprecedented. It exceeded 83%. In Sevastopol, it was 89.5%. Over 1.274 million Crimeans voted. Plus Sevastopol residents excluded from this total. An astonishing 96.77% chose Russia - 95.6% of Sevastopol voters. Results show Crimeans overwhelmingly reject Kiev putschists. Russians, Ukrainians and Tatars agree. Claims otherwise are false.

Referendum Commission chairman Mikhail Malyshev said: "We were receiving protocols from the 27 district commissions all night long. The last one came at around 6:00AM." "After that, our commission compiled the final protocol." Commission members signed the official document. It certified election results. A scant .72% of ballots were declared invalid.

Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksionov addressed a Simferopol rally, saying: "No one can take away our victory. We are going to Russia." He spoke accompanied by the Russian national anthem. "We are going home," he added. "Crimea within Russia. Hooray, comrades." Parliament Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov added: "We have done it! You have done it! This is our victory, and nobody can take it away from us."


The Banality Of The Guardian Of Judea

Gilad Atzmon

The once well-respected Guardian has been reduced in recent years into a lame Zionist mouthpiece - a light Jewish Chronicle for gentiles' consumption. Last week, the paper launched an attack on Martin Heidegger, the 20th century’s most influential philosopher.

“Heidegger's 'Black Notebooks' reveal anti-Semitism at core of his philosophy” the paper’s headline the ‘progressive’ British Guardian read. But what does that mean? Was Heidegger really a Jew hater? Did he oppose people for being ethnically or ‘racially’ Jewish or was he, instead, critical of Jewish politics, culture, ideology and spirit?

According to the ‘progressive’ British Guardian, the newly published Black Notebooks (Schwarzen Heften) reveals that Heidegger saw 'world Jewry'[*] as the driver of “dehumanising modernity”.

Needless to mention that we didn’t need a ‘new publication’ to assert that this was Heidegger’s view of Jewish culture and politics. The German thinker, like many of his contemporaries, saw “Jerusalem” as an oppressive and corrupted spiritual, cultural and intellectual influence as opposed to “Athens”, which portrayed in his eyes, the birth of humanism, universalism, aesthetics, ethics and pluralism.

Let’s examine what makes a prominent thinker into an anti-Semite in the eyes of the Guardian. “While distancing himself from the racial theories pursued by Nazi intellectuals, Heidegger argues that Weltjudentum ("world Jewry") is one of the main drivers of western modernity, which he viewed critically.”

But aren’t we entitled to criticize religion, culture or ideology? Aren’t we allowed to disapprove of modernity or technology and to try to identify its cultural and ideological roots? For some reason, I can’t recall the Guardian taking Max Weber to task for suggesting that Protestant ethics was the driving force behind Capitalism. Embarrassingly enough, the same Guardian that clumsily and shamelessly smears the greatest continental thinker, provides a platform to a long list of Neocons, pro-war advocates such as Nick Cohen who constantly and relentlessly criticize the so-called ‘Islamo-Fascists’ - a code name for Islamic political culture. I guess that for The Guardian of Judea, it is only Jewish culture, religion and ideology that must remain beyond criticism.


Washington Has Set The World On A Path To War

Paul Craig Roberts


With 100% ballots counted, 96.77% of Crimeans vote to re-
unite with Russia - Crimean election chief.
(Voice of Russia)

Why is Washington so opposed to Crimean self-determination? The answer is that one of the main purposes of Washington’s coup in Kiev was to have the new puppet government evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base in Crimea. Washington cannot use the government Washington has installed in Ukraine for that purpose if Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine.

What Washington has made completely obvious is that “self-determination” is a weapon used by Washington in behalf of its agenda. If self-determination advances Washington’s agenda, Washington is for it. If self-determination does not advance Washington’s agenda, Washington is against it.

The Washington-initiated UN Security Council resolution, vetoed by Russia, falsely declares that the referendum in Crimea, a referendum demanded by the people, “can have no validity, and cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of Crimea; and calls upon all States, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any alteration of the status of Crimea on the basis of this referendum and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status.”

Washington could not make it any clearer that Washington totally opposes self-determination by Crimeans.


Obama Declares Self-Determination To Be A "Threat" To US National Security

Paul Craig Roberts

In his March 6 Executive Order, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine,” Obama declares that support for Crimean self-determination constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”

Obama and the lawyers who drafted his executive order did not notice that the way the order is drafted it applies to Obama, to the unelected coup government in Kiev, and to the Washington and EU regimes. The order says that any person “responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly . . . actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine” is subject to having his assets frozen.

Washington and the EU are the only two governments whose personnel have undermined democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine by overthrowing the elected government and imposing an unelected one.


95.7% of Crimeans Give The Finger To The White House Tyrant

Paul Craig Roberts

In an unprecedented turnout unmatched by any Western election, Crimeans voted 95.7% to join Russia.

As I pointed out earlier today, under the twisted logic of Washington Crimea has never been a part of Ukraine as Russians were not allowed to vote when the Soviet dictator Khrushchev stuck the Russian province of Crimea into Ukraine in 1954.

While Crimeans celebrate in the streets and international observers declare the referendum to be totally fair and free of all interference and threat, the neo-Nazi White House declared that “we don’t recognize no stinking vote.” The moronic White House spokesperson said that the White House and “the international community”–Washington in its arrogance thinks that it is the voice of “the international community”–do not recognize the results of democracy in action.

Democracy is not acceptable to Washington, or to the two-bit punk American puppets who rule for Washington in Germany, UK, and France, when democracy does not serve Washington’s agenda of hegemony over the entire world. The neo-Nazi White House spokesperson lied through his teeth when he claimed that the referendum, which has been declared by international observers to have been completely free, was “administered under threats of violence and intimidation.”

This statement, which the entire world now knows to be false, marks the government in Washington, and its subservient media, as the worst and most dangerous liar the world has ever experienced.


The Genius of Erasmus

David Swanson

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, who lived from October 27, 1466, to July 12, 1536, faced censorship in his day, and has never been as popular among the rich and powerful as has his contemporary Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli. But at a distance of half a millennium, we ought to be able to judge work on its merit — and we ought to have regular celebrations of Erasmus around the world. Some of his ideas are catching on. His name is familiar in Europe as that of the EU’s student exchange program, named in his honor. We ought perhaps to wonder what oddball ideas these days might catch on in the 2500s — if humanity is around then.

In 1517, Erasmus wrote The Complaint of Peace, in which Peace, speaking in the first-person, complains about how humanity treats her. She claims to offer “the source of all human blessings” and to be scorned by people who “go in quest of evils infinite in number.”

The Complaint is not a contemporary twenty-first century piece of thinking; its outdatedness in any number of areas is immediately obvious. But that’s to be expected in an essay written 500 years ago in Latin for a readership made up of what we would call creationists, astrologers, monarchists, and Eurocentric bigots.

What ought to amaze us is the extent to which the Complaint does address the same troubles we face today and the same bad arguments used today in defense of wars. The Complaint offers rebuttals to such arguments that have never been surpassed. Its text could serve as the basis for dozens of important sermons were some preacher inclined to favor peace on earth.

Peace, in her Complaint to us, begins by imagining that humans must be insane to pursue war instead of her. She does not complain out of indignation, but weeps over people who actively bring so much harm on themselves and are incapable of even realizing it. The first step, Erasmus/Peace says, is recognizing that you have a problem. Or rather, “It is one great step to convalescence to know the extent and inveteracy of a disease.”


Venezuela Also Is Being Overthrown By The Criminal Regime In Washington

Paul Craig Roberts

Photo: A female demonstrator is carried away after being overwhelmed by tear gas fired by Bolivarian National Police during clashes at an antigovernment protest in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 12, 2014. According to local authorities, several deaths have been reported Wednesday, and a number of others, including National Guardsmen, have been wounded after being shot by unknown assailants in separate incidents in the central Venezuelan city of Valencia.

The Washington orchestrated coup in Ukraine has kept Venezuela out of the headlines. A confrontation with nuclear armed Russia is more dangerous than with Venezuela. But the violence that Washington has unleashed on Venezuela almost simultaneously with Ukraine is testimony to Washington’s stark criminality.

South America has always consisted of a tiny Spanish elite with all the money and power ruling over large majority populations of indigenous peoples who have not had political representation. In Venezuela, Chávez broke this pattern. An indigenous president was elected who represented the people and worked in their behalf instead of looting the country. Chávez became a role model, and indigenous presidents were elected in Ecuador and Bolivia. Chávez was hated by Washington and demonized by American presstitutes. When Chávez died of cancer, Washington celebrated.


Obama’s high crimes and misdemeanors

Joseph Kishore & Barry Grey

Photo: Sen. Dianne Feinstein speaks to reporters after speaking about her oversight committee's problematic relationship with the CIA Tuesday. CIA Director John Brennan says his agency isn't trying to delay the panel's report on the U.S. interrogation program. (Getty Images)

The speech delivered Tuesday on the Senate floor by Senator Dianne Feinstein provides clear and direct evidence of crimes against the US Constitution and the democratic rights of the American people, implicating top officials of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the White House, up to and including the president. Feinstein’s allegations of CIA intimidation, obstruction and spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she chairs, constitute “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the constitutional basis for impeachment.

Feinstein has longstanding and close ties to the intelligence agencies, which she has categorically defended throughout the months of exposures of illegal spying by the National Security Agency. Yet on Tuesday she gave an hour-long speech in which she charged the CIA with spying on and withholding documents from Congress as part of an attempted cover-up of the program of torture the agency carried out under President George W. Bush.

In the course of her remarks, she provided a detailed narrative of the CIA’s criminal actions, including the attempt by CIA Director John Brennan to intimidate the Senate Intelligence Committee and derail its investigation into the Bush-era crimes by accusing committee staffers of stealing classified documents and demanding that the Justice Department launch a criminal investigation. (Brennan, as director of counter-terrorism under Bush, is implicated in the torture program.)

The portrait that emerges is of an intelligence agency that operates outside of all legal constraints, rejects any genuine congressional oversight, and functions as a law unto itself.

The haste with which the US media has moved to bury Feinstein’s remarks—which it has generally ascribed to a mere “turf war” between the Senate and the CIA—is itself an indication of the fundamental nature of the crimes outlined by the senator and the complicity of the corporate-controlled media in those crimes.


Washington is making war inevitable (The Failure Of German Leadership)

Paul Craig Roberts

Merkel Whores For Washington: Washington, enabled by its compliant but stupid NATO puppets, is pushing the Ukrainian situation closer to war.

German Chancellor Merkel has failed her country, Europe, and world peace. Germany is the strength of the EU and NATO. Had Merkel said “No” to sanctions on Russia, that would have been the end of the crisis that Washington is brewing, a crisis unlikely to be ended short of war.

But Merkel has signed away the sovereignty of the German nation and assigned the fate of Germany to a province in the American Empire. Thus has Merkel and the weak German leadership consigned the world to war. Already blamed for World War 1 and World War 2, now Germany will be blamed for World War 3.

Washington’s mismanaged Ukrainian coup has cost Washington Crimea, which Washington wanted most of all in order to deprive Russia of its warm water naval base on the Black Sea. In addition, the mismanaged overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine is threatening to also lose the Russian cities of eastern Ukraine. Like Crimea, eastern Ukraine consists of former Russian areas that Khrushchev stuck into Ukraine in the 1950s.[*]

In what is clearly a fruitless and pointless effort to get Crimea back, Washington is demanding that Russia interfere in Crimea and prevent Crimea from seceding from Ukraine. If the Russian government refuses to follow Washington’s orders, Washington has announced that it will inflict “damaging sanctions” on Russia. Initially, EU countries expressed an unwillingness to go along with Washington, but with bribes and threats, Washington has conquered Merkel and has its European puppets lined up following orders.


Meet Obama's New Ukrainian Friends

Stephen Lendman

Photo: Dmytro Yarosh, Right Sector neo-Nazi commander who said “our revival begins with our Maidan,” is now second-in-command of the National Defense and Security Council (covering the military, police, courts and intelligence apparatus).

On February 27, 2014, they announced their so-called "Ukrainian government of people's trust." It includes a rogue's gallery of societal misfits. Many are militant fascists. They're thugs. They're criminals. They're illegitimate putschists. They're xenophobic, hate-mongering, ultranationalist anti-Semites. Combined they represent mob rule. They make mafia bosses look saintly by comparison. They vowed to fight. They urge NATO intervention. They threaten world peace.

For the first time since WW II, overt fascists have real power. They hold major government posts.

In December 2012, European parliamentarians expressed concern about "rising nationalistic sentiment in Ukraine, expressed in support for the Svoboda party, which, as a result, is one of the two new parties to enter" Ukraine's parliament. Their "racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic views go against the EU's fundamental values," they said. Europe's parliament "appeal(ed) to pro-democratic parties in (Ukraine's legislature) not to associate with, endorse, or form coalitions with" these elements.

All is forgiven. EU officials look the other way. They turn a blind eye. They embrace what they denounced months earlier. They march in lockstep with Washington hardliners. They mock democratic values they claim to support.


Obama Regime’s Hypocrisy Sets New World Record

Paul Craig Roberts

From the moment that Washington launched its orchestrated coup in Kiev, Washington has been accusing Russia of “intervening in Ukraine.” This propaganda ploy succeeded. The Western presstitute media reported (nonexistent) Russian intervention to the exclusion of coverage of Washington’s obvious intervention.

Having falsely accused Russia of invading Crimea, the Obama regime now demands that Russia interfere in Crimea and prevent the referendum set for next Sunday. Unless Russia uses force to prevent the people of Crimea from exercising their right of self-determination, John Kerry declared that the Obama regime will not discuss the Ukrainian situation with Russia.

So, Kerry has given Russia the green light to send in troops to prevent Crimean self-determination.

The presstitute Western media has not noticed that out of one corner of his mouth Kerry denounces Russia for intervening and out of the other corner of his mouth Kerry demands that Russia intervene in behalf of Washington’s interest and suppress Crimean self-determination. - What is the point of such an absurd demand on Russia?

The Obama regime claims that the Crimean vote is not legal, because all of Ukraine is not voting on Crimea’s future. When Washington stole Kosovo from Serbia, Washington did not allow Serbia to vote on Kosovo secession. In the upcoming Scottish vote on whether to secede from the UK, only the Scottish are voting, not the British population. But these normal processes established in international law cannot be permitted to Crimeans, because the vote will not support Washington’s agenda. - Clearly, an Obama regime this shameless....we're lost for words.


Crimea: Democracy Is Not Democracy…Unless Obama Says It Is…

Eric Draitser

As Crimea prepares to vote on Saturday March 16th in a crucial referendum on its future, the rhetoric coming from the West and its propaganda machine has hit a new and ridiculous low. Not only has US President Barack Obama and his administration done everything to undermine democracy in Ukraine, they have now resorted to the most naked forms of hypocrisy in an attempt to delegitimize the democratic process.

On Thursday March 6th President Obama spoke at the White House on the referendum and the issue of Crimea. In his prepared remarks, Obama stated categorically that the United States would not recognize the results of the Crimean referendum. He argued that the it would violate both the “Ukrainian Constitution and international law.” Obama kept the comedy coming when he noted that, “In 2014 we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.” As with all statements made by the US government, and the President specifically, this must be contextualized and deconstructed in order to be effectively critiqued.

First and foremost is the question of democracy and, more specifically, how exactly Washington is choosing to define this gravely abused word. In referring to the so-called “interim government” in Kiev, headed by Yatsenyuk and his associates, as “democratic leaders”, Obama demonstrates either a complete lack of understanding of the word democracy, or as I think is more likely, an utter contempt for democratic principles. By referring to an unelected entity that has seized political power in Kiev by force, and through collaboration with Nazi elements, as “democratic leaders,” Obama exposes himself and his administration to be cynical opportunists whose interests rest not in democracy but in a geopolitical agenda guided solely by strategic interests.


No Jobs, No Economy, No Prospects For Peace Or Life

Paul Craig Roberts

Over the decades various administrations, seeking to improve their economic record, monkeyed with economic statistics to the point that the statistics are no longer meaningful.

According to Friday’s (March 7) payroll jobs report, the US economy created 175,000 new jobs in February. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’ll let you have at a good price.

Even if 175,000 jobs were created in February–remember now, February was a cold month whose low temperatures are used to explain poor housing and retail sales performance, yet somehow created 40,000 more jobs than needed to keep up with population growth–that is an insufficient amount to drop the unemployment rate.

To see how screwed up US economic statistics are, consider the reported unemployment rate (U.3) of 6.7 percent in comparison with the fact that there are about 6 million Americans who have been unable to find a job and are no longer counted as unemployed. These millions of unemployed are not included in the reported rate of unemployment.

John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports that the true rate of US unemployment is around 23 percent.

Rather than examine the issue, the presstitute financial media trumpets the government’s propaganda. In America there is no more of a financial media, except for Pam Martens and Nomi Prins, than a print and TV media.


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