While the Obama administration insists that supporting Ukrainian Presidential elections are vital to national interests, some members of the US political elite are questioning the costs of getting involved. During a two hour House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland shared her assessment of the US role in Ukraine's crisis and the upcoming presidential election. But instantaneously she came under fire from Dana Rohrabacher, a republican congressman from California. “We did have legitimate election before, and the legitimate president was removed after we had major street violence. There were pictures of people running around that we were told were neo-Nazis,” Rohrabacher challenged Nuland. Nuland faced a hard time coming up with answers.

Kiev’s forces are using heavy weaponry and tanks in the eastern city of Mariupol to storm the local Interior Ministry building, where police have barricaded inside. After residents began flocking to the scene, Kiev fighters opened fire on civilians. Many people came to mark Victory Day, but as the reports of shooting started coming in, they moved on to show support for a few dozen policemen who had barricaded inside the building, refusing to take orders from Kiev. Federalization supporters screamed “Fascists!” as the Kiev forces approached.

Chemical weapons used against self-defense in Mariupol - pro-federalization activists
Three people die, 25 injured in Ukraine's Mariupol - Donetsk authorities
Clashes in Ukraine’s Mariupol kill 8: Reports - Video

An anti-government protester near a barricade
in Kiev February 21, 2014. (Reuters/Baz Ratner)

Moon of Alabama ■ Putin's offer from yesterday was not accepted within the Ukraine. The coup government announced to continue its "anti-terrorism" campaign against federalists in the east and the federalists in Donetsk and Lugansk announced not to cancel their referendum. Elsewhere Putin's offer was somewhat accepted. It had, as Putin had announced, already been coordinated with the German chancellor Merkel and today the OSCE as the relevant organization presented a yet to be published roadmap to Russia. If there is no serious offer of federalization in the roadmap Russia will let the Ukraine issue boil on a lower flame. The social-economic upheaval that is sure to come will in due time swamp away the coup government. Russia can always use its economic and energy leverage to hasten or slow down that process. The whole case of Ukraine is no likely to be a longer run issue and, unless some unforeseen massacre takes place, I expect no further immediate action from the Russian side.

Alex Lantier ■ US, Kiev puppet regime escalate Ukraine conflict after Russian concessions || Yesterday, officials in Washington and in the US puppet regime in Kiev dismissed attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine, vowing to step up attacks on anti-Kiev regime protesters in eastern Ukraine. On Wednesday, Putin had asked the protesters, who are calling for a May 11 referendum on autonomy or separation from the unelected regime in Kiev, to postpone the vote. He also endorsed the May 25 presidential elections planned by the Kiev regime and announced that Russian troops along the Ukraine-Russian border had returned to their normal bases. The Kiev regime responded by threatening that military operations that have left dozens dead across eastern Ukraine and in last Friday's fascist massacre in Odessa would continue. Yesterday, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk mocked Putin's statements as “hot air.”

Pepe Escobar ■ The IMF has approved a $17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche has arrived on Wednesday. It’s essential to identify the conditions attached to this Mafia-style “loan.” Nothing remotely similar to reviving the Ukrainian economy is in play. The scheme is inextricably linked to the IMF’s notorious, one-size-fits-all “structural adjustment” policy, known to hundreds of millions from Latin America and Southeast Asia to Southern Europe. The regime changers in Kiev have duly complied, launching the inevitable austerity package – from tax hikes and frozen pensions to a stiff, over 50 percent rise on the price of natural gas heating Ukrainian homes. The “Ukrainian people” won’t be able to pay their utility bills this coming winter. Predictably, the massive loan is not for the benefit of “the Ukrainian people.” Kiev is essentially bankrupt.

Lasha Darkmoon ■ Pornography is deployed today as a psyop or mind weapon: to pacify, control, brutalize, and ultimately enslave the masses. || How do you take a nation of free and independent citizens and turn them into slaves? How do you do this slowly and imperceptibly, without violence, and with the willing participation of the slaves-to-be? The answer is simple. You corrupt them, undermine them, deprave them, demoralize them, until they have acquired all the characteristics of slaves. As the sorceress Circe, with a wave of her magic wand, turned the followers of Ulysses into grunting swine, you can wield your weapon of mass hypnosis, the media, over a nation and transform its citizens into willing slaves. You can learn to roboticize man and turn him into a living machine. This is power. This is what it must feel like to be God — or the Devil. Is there a secret weapon or “magic wand” for turning men into swine? Yes, there is. Sex is the secret weapon, the magic device, that turns men into swine.