The Voice of Protest is alive and Well in the New Music Industry

By: Stewart Brennan

The Real Voice of protest is alive and well in today’s underground music scene.

Music will always reflect the attitudes and feelings of the ordinary person on the street because “Music is the peoples voice”.

However, suppression is another story…Censorship is a multi legged creature that can be found wherever a corporate bottom line is affected and since the music industry is owned by the multi-conglomerate weapons industry, you’re not going to hear any anti-war songs or any anti-corporate songs for that matter on the mainstream airwaves, especially if the message in the song draws negative attention to a product or affects the sales and bottom line of an associated company.

That is why, what passes for music on the mainstream airwaves and television today is totally disconnected from reality, while being foreign to what is really going on in life. The corporations that control the mainstream music industry have successfully removed the collective consciousness and voice of the people from the airwaves and replaced it with a fabricated one that is empty of any meaningful substance. Most of the songs are alike and have been standardized into sterilized clones of each other.

This is precisely the reason why the music Industry has taken a nosedive in sales; much the same way mainstream TV news lost its viewers because they both evolved into a corporate fabricated medium for trash and propaganda. Music has taken the same disastrous path as televised News because it is owned by the same corporations that own the News…

The voice of the people (thoughts and feelings) is found in music, and that voice is found mostly in the underground and Independent music scenes, where reaction to current events play themselves out in the lyrics and performances of the artists.

Take the events from the false flag attacks in Paris France for example, the voice and expression of the people resulting from those events comes out in music. Here is one song that speaks to the human reaction and attitude from those events, which coincidently is missing from the mainstream airwaves, but is alive and well in the underground music Industry.

Je Suis Free - Healthy Junkies

Source: HealthyJunkies

Corporate arrogance and its dehumanizing platform, which is all too often legislated by corporate lobby groups against all humanitarian ethics and morals, is the real battle we find ourselves in today, and we are losing...losing because we have lost our voice on the mainstream airwaves.

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010, was the largest environmental disaster by a corporation in history, until Fukushima topped that one in 2011, but I digress. The establishment did everything they could to sweep all news of the BP Oil disaster under the carpet, and did so with law enforcement.

Had the BP disaster happened in the 1960’s or 1970’s, a song would have been written about it and played over the national radio airwaves, it would have been in the top 10, and would have also sparked an environmental movement right across the USA, and indeed other countries...here's a song that was written by an Independent band to, "Save Us from Ourselves"

Save Us from Ourselves - Blackberry Wednesday

Source: David Wade

Yes, save us from ourselves! “…Can you hear that sound, there’s a war coming…”…Passionate, Empowering, Prophetic and Missing from the mainstream music airwaves…are you surprised?

Sometimes music expresses our anger and dissatisfaction with the status quo of corporate governance, their insolence and corruption…because as you revolutionaries know, the people that control our world are truly "Crooked and Bent"!

Crooked and Bent - The Inflictors

Source: The Inflictors

In response to censorship, "Alternative News" websites have sprung up all over the Internet as people are becoming the press and really challenging the insanity of mainstreams fabricated news. Likewise, an alternative music Industry is growing beneath the decaying remains of the mainstream music Industry because music with the peoples voice, has been suppressed...and it needs a place to vent.

Music is always evolving and represents the common threads of how we feel about life. Musicians, artists, activists and their dedicated fans will never back down, and always, “Put Up a Fight”.

Put Up a Fight - Michael Mazochi

Source: World United Music

This is what the revolution looks like, people like you and I taking life by the horns and becoming what we envision instead of following a zombie herd over the cliff behind mainstreams pied pipers…the manual on “How to Start a Revolution” is in your hands…

How to Start a Revolution - Some Velvet Morning

Source: Some Velvet Morning

Of course, Revolution does not just belong to the unsigned and Independent bands and artists alone, it has also reached some of the best acts still remaining under the mainstream labels, even though you wont hear their protest songs on the radio airwaves, they still fight for what is right.

Revolutions won't work? Just try to imprison or suppress a person’s thoughts or idea’s…censorship and suppression will never be successful, because thoughts and ideas are like seeds with wings that fly around until they find fertile soil to take root. …the next thing you know there are “99 Revolutions” planted and growing…

99 Revolutions - Green Day

Source: Green Day

The revolution begins when the people unite and stand up against corporate dictatorship. That’s where the real war will be waged to bring back our freedom of expression. People vs Corporate Interests.

Today, Free Trade is the main tool used by corporations to takeover the resources of our planet, regardless of the destruction they entail…and so we need a revolution, to battle back against the corporate war being waged on people all over the world…a revolution in every country. Music is the medium that connects our common thoughts, the common airwaves is what sparks the movement to unite us in a determined stand together.

We need to stand up and say THIS!!...THIS IS “MY COUNTRY”! 

My Country - Rachel Van Zanten

Source: Video

The Environment is truly one of the biggest topics today, yet the problems and concerns are not being addressed in mainstream music…however, it is being addressed by many in the underground music scene.

In our daily lives, fighting back seems to be a hopeless venture especially when we see our schools filled with the establishments history, lies and corporate message, teaching our children the "Wrong Lines"…

Wrong Lines - Darling and Co

Source: Darling and Co

The message is there, protest and revolution is still within music, but it needs a medium to reach the people. If we work together towards this goal, to stand up where we either take the airwaves back from mainstream or create our own airwaves, then we will be on the right track to “Finding a Better Way”.

Finding a Better Way - Tom Moriarty

Source: World United Music

Music is what connects all of us together, especially when it is played across common airwaves. It did so in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and could easily do so again today if we create the platform together that introduces new music in reflection to the peoples voice…

“100 Years from Now” our grandchildren could look back and say…”How did we ever survive”...well it's because we stood up and did something about it.

Not all is doom and gloom in the World because there are many moments of hope and there are many songs of hope out there that help make all the difference. Music is your voice and there are a lot of people singing...just have a listen and you'll experience the hopeful signs as well.

100 Years from Now - Michael on Fire

Source: Michael on Fire

Oh, and by the way, 100 years from now, “Little Richard” will STILL be the “King of Rock n Roll”… 8-)

Little Richard Live in France 1966

Source: YouTube Video

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ARTIST LINKS:

Healthy Junkies 

Blackberry Wednesday 

The Inflictors 

Michael Mazochi 

Some Velvet Morning 

Green Day

Rachelle van Zanten 

Darling & Co 

Tom Moriarty

Michael on Fire 

Little Richard 

World United Music 

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Vladimir Putin’s full speech on the Results of the Crimean Referendum

Video Source: RT YouTube

http://youtu.be/PDLwu4E35us

Putin: Crimea similar to Kosovo, West is rewriting its own rule book

Source: Russia Today

http://on.rt.com/0e4qji

Crimea’s secession from Ukraine was just like Kosovo’s secession from Serbia, and any arguments otherwise are just attempts to bend the West-advocated rules that were applied to the Kosovo case, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

The statements came as Putin was addressing the Russian parliament to convince lawmakers to ratify a treaty, which would make Crimea part of the Russian Federation.

In the speech he challenged Washington’s position, which says that Kosovo was a unique case and could not justify any other move towards independence in the world.

“Our western partners created the Kosovo precedent with their own hands. In a situation absolutely the same as the one in Crimea they recognized Kosovo’s secession from Serbia legitimate while arguing that no permission from a country’s central authority for a unilateral declaration of independence is necessary,” Putin reminded, adding that the UN International Court of Justice agreed to those arguments.

“That’s what they wrote, that what they trumpeted all over the world, coerced everyone into it – and now they are complaining. Why is that?” he asked.

Putin dismissed the argument that Kosovo was unique due to the large number of victims during the Balkan wars and the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

“It’s beyond double standards,” Putin said. “It’s a kind of baffling, primitive and blatant cynicism. One can’t just twist things to fit his interests, to call something white on one day and black on the next one.”

The president dismissed the allegations that Russia is violating international law with its actions in Ukraine.

“Well’ it’s good that they at least recalled that there is international law. Thank you very much. Better late than never,” Putin said adding that in fact nothing of this kind happened.

‘In Ukraine the West crossed the red line’

In fact, it was Russia that defended international law and its institutions, while western countries have been diminishing them. The situation in Crimea is just a reflection of this broader process, which has been happening for decades now.

“In the practical application of policies, our western partners – the United States first and foremost – prefer to be guided not by international law, but by the right of strength. They believe in their exceptionalism, that they are allowed to decide on the fate of the world, that they are always right,” Putin charged.

This disregard to rule of law was evident in Yugoslavia in 1999, when NATO bombed the country without a UN Security Council mandate, the Russian president said. There was Afghanistan, Iraq and the perversion of the UNSC resolution on Libya, when instead of imposing a no-fly zone NATO bombed the country into submission.

There were also orchestrated “colored revolutions” in Europe and the Arab World, which cynically used the feelings of people tired with corruption and poverty. The latest Ukrainian events are just the latest of such actions, and Russia’s willingness to seek dialogue and compromise was stonewalled again, Putin said.

“They were cheating us once more, took decisions behind our back, presented us with a fait accompli,” he said, adding that the patter is identical to that which accompanied NATO’s expansion to the east, the deployment of an anti-ballistic missile system, visa restrictions and numerous other issues.

“They are constantly trying to corner us in retaliation for our having an independent position, for defending it, for calling things by their names and not being hypocritical,” Putin accused. “Everything has its limits, and in Ukraine our western partners crossed the red line. They acted brutally, irresponsibly and unprofessionally.”

Putin said the West must stop being hysterical, restrain from the Cold War rhetoric and admit the obvious: “Russia is an independent and active participant of international relations. Just like any nation it has national interests that must be taken into consideration and respected.”

As for the Ukrainian red line, the coup-imposed authorities in Kiev voiced their desire to join NATO, and such a move would pose an imminent threat to Russia, Putin said.

“We stand against having a military organization meddling in our backyard, next to our homeland or in the territories that are historically ours. I just cannot imagine visiting NATO sailors in Sevastopol,” he stressed. “Most of them are fine lads, by the way. But rather let them visit us in Sevastopol than the other way around.”

At the end of his speech, Putin announced the submission to parliament of a draft federal law which would incorporate Crimea and the City of Sevastopol into Russian territory, as well as a request to ratify an international treaty with the government of Crimea to make this happen. He said he was sure of the legislature’s support for both documents.

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News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Kiev snipers shooting from bldg controlled by Maidan forces – Ex-Ukraine security chief

 

 

Reuters / Konstantin Chernichkin

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-snipers-security-chief-438/

Former chief of Ukraine’s Security Service has confirmed allegations that snipers who killed dozens of people during the violent unrest in Kiev operated from a building controlled by the opposition on Maidan square.

Shots that killed both civilians and police officers were fired from the Philharmonic Hall building in Ukraine’s capital, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Aleksandr Yakimenko told Russia 1 channel. The building was under full control of the opposition and particularly the so-called Commandant of Maidan self-defense Andrey Parubiy who after the coup was appointed as the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Yakimenko added.

Furthermore the former security chief believes that Parubiy has been in contact with US Special Forces that could have coordinated the assault.

“Shots came from the Philharmonic Hall. Maidan Commandant Parubiy was responsible for this building. Snipers and people with automatic weapons were ‘working’ from this building on February 20. They supported the assault on the Interior Ministry forces on the ground who were already demoralized and have, in fact, fled,” Yakimenko said in an interview with Russian television.

The police officers were chased by a group of rioters armed with various weapons and at that point, Yakimenko says snipers fired at pursuers themselves.

“When the first wave of shootings ended, many have witnessed 20 people leaving the building,” former chief says, noting that they were well-equipped and were carrying military style bag for carrying sniper and assault rifles with optical sights. Not only the law enforcers, but people from the opposition’s Freedom, Right Sector, Fatherland, and Klitschko’s UDAR party have also seen this, Yakimenko claims.

The former security head also said that according to the intelligence those snipers could be foreigners, including mercenaries from former Yugoslavia as well former Special Forces employees from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

Yakimenko claims that Parubiy was part of a group that was heavily influenced by the people associated with the US secret services. “These were the forces that carried out everything that they were told by their leadership – the United States,” Yakimenko explained, claiming that Maidan leaders practically lived in the US embassy.

 

 

Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko

According to Yakimenko, during the massacre the opposition leaders contacted him and asked him to deploy special force unit to scoop out the snipers from buildings in central Kiev, but Parubiy made sure that won’t happen.

“The Right Sector and Freedom Party have requested me to use the Alpha group to cleanse these buildings, stripping them from snipers,” Yakimenko said. According to him Ukrainian troops were ready to move in and eliminate the shooters.

“I was ready to do it, but in order to go inside Maidan I had to get the sanction from Parubiy. Otherwise the ‘self-defense’ would attack me in the back. Parubiy did not give such consent,” Yakimenko said noting that the Maidan leader had full authority over the access to weapons on Maidan, and not a single gun including a sniper rifle could get in or out of the square.

Aleksandr Yakimenko’s account supports previously voiced concerns over unknown snipers shooting both protesters and the police indiscriminately – who were the topic of the recently leaked phone conversationbetween EU’s Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet.

In a leaked phone conversation that took place February 26 Ashton and Paet discussed rumors that snipers were hired by some of the opposition leaders.

“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Paet said during the conversation. “I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton answered.

)

Almost 100 people were killed and another 900 injured during the violent standoff near Maidan Square in Kiev last month that forced president Yanukovich out of the country and installed a new government. Ukrainian self-proclaimed authorities maintain that the shooting was authorized by Yanukovich.

On Wednesday Moscow suggested setting up a probeto investigate the crimes perpetrated by extremist and armed elements of the opposition over the past three months. The proposal to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) also seeks to examine the legitimacy of the post-coup Ukrainian government.

 

Detailed Analysis of Shooting at Maidan Activists

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Video Source: http://youtu.be/J5qXS8Xc274

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Crimean parliament votes to join Russia, hold referendum in 10 days on ratifying

 

AFP Photo/Vasily Batanov

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-status-ukraine-154/

A referendum on the status of Crimea will be held March 16, the region’s deputy prime minister announced. Crimeans will be asked to decide if the autonomous republic stays part of Ukraine or joins Russia.

"The referendum will take place March 16," said the autonomous region’s First Deputy-Premier Rustam Temirgaliev, according to ITAR-TASS.

The new date is two weeks earlier than the one announced last week.

There will be two questions on the ballots.

“The first one: Are you in favor of Crimea becoming a constituent territory of the Russian Federation. The second one: Are you in favor of restoring Crimea’s 1992 constitution,”Temirgaliev said.

According to the 1992 constitution, the autonomous republic is part of Ukraine but has relations with Kiev, defined on the basis of mutual agreements.

Sevastopol residents will take part in the referendum, despite the city enjoying a special status and not officially being a part of Crimea, according to Sergey Shuvainikov, a Crimean MP.

“We will give Sevastopol an opportunity to have its say,” he said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile the Crimean MPs have unanimously voted for the region to become a part of Russia.

"To become part of the Russian Federation as its constituent territory,” says the text of the Crimean parliament’s statement, obtained by RIA Novosti.

When the decision was announced to the people outside the parliament building, they welcomed the news with cheers and screams of “Russia!”

There are currently several thousand people in front of the parliament building, according to ITAR-TASS.

The parliament has also made a decision to ask the Russian leadership to “launch the procedure of Crimea becoming part of Russia.”

The speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, explained that the parliament’s decision on the region joining Russia still has to be approved at a referendum.

Russia’s State Duma (parliament) could possibly debate the bill on Crimea joining Russia next week, said leader of the ‘Fair Russia’ party, Sergey Mironov.

“I think that taking into consideration the date of the referendum – March 16 – we have time to consider the bill as part of normal business. The Bill is going to be debated next week,” Mironov said as cited by RIA Novosti.

More than half the Crimean population are Russian and use only this language for their communication.

Crimean authorities denounced the self-proclaimed government in Kiev and declared that all Ukrainian law enforcement and military deployed in the peninsula must take orders from them. The majority of troops in Crimea switched sides in favor of the local authorities.
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Crimea: Unmasking Revolution

An RT Short Documentary

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News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Deploying military force is last resort, but we reserve right - Putin

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Alexey Nokolskiy)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/putin-statement-ukraine-russia-743/

Russia will not go to war with the people of Ukraine, but will use its troops to protect citizens, if radicals with clout in Kiev now try to use violence against Ukrainian civilians, particularly ethnic Russians, Putin told the media.

Putin, who was given a mandate by the Russian senate to use military force to protect civilians in Ukraine, said there is no need for such an action yet.

Putin cited the actions of radical activists in Ukraine, including the chaining of a governor to a stage as public humiliation and the killing of a technician during an opposition siege of the Party of Regions HQ, as justification for Russia to be concerned for the lives and well-being of people in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Incidents like those are why Russia reserves the option of troop deployment on the table.

“If we see this lawlessness starting in eastern regions, if the people ask us for help – in addition to a plea from a legitimate president, which we already have – then we reserve the right to use all the means we possess to protect those citizens. And we consider it quite legitimate,” he said.

Russia is not planning to go to war with the Ukrainian people, Putin stressed, when a journalist asked if he was afraid of war. But Russian troops would prevent any attempts to target Ukrainian civilians, should they be deployed.

“We are not going to a war against the Ukrainian people,” he said. “I want you to understand it unambiguously. If we do take a decision, it would only be to protect Ukrainian citizens. Let anybody in the military dare, and they’d be shooting their own people, who would stand up in front of us. Shoot at women and children. I’d like to see anyone try and order such a thing in Ukraine.”

Putin dismissed the notion that the uniformed armed people without insignia who are currently present in Crimea are Russian soldiers. He said they are members of the Crimean self-defense forces and that they are no better equipped and trained than some radical fighters who took part in the ousting of Yanukovich.

He assured that the surprise military drills in Russia’s west which ended on Tuesday had nothing to do with the Ukrainian situation.

Sanction threats are counterproductive

Asked about criticism of Russia over its stance on Ukraine, Putin dismissed the accusations that Russia is acting illegitimately. He stated that even if Russia does use force in Ukraine, it would not violate international law.

At the same time he accused the United States and its allies of having no regard to legitimacy when they use military force in pursuit of their own national interests.

“When I ask them ‘Do you believe you do everything legitimately,’ they say ‘Yes.’ And I have to remind them about the US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where they acted either without any UN Security Council mandate or through perverting a mandate, as was the case in Libya,” Putin said.

“Our partners, especially in the United States, always clearly and formulate for themselves their geopolitical and national interests, pursue them relentlessly and then drag the rest of the world in, using the principle ‘You are either with us or against us’. And harass those refuse to be dragged in,”he added.

As for the sanctions Russia faces over Ukraine, Putin said those threatening them should think of the consequences to themselves if they follow that path. In an interconnected world a country may hurt another country if it wishes, but it would be damaged too.

Threats are counterproductive in this situation, Putin warned. He added that if G8 members choose not to go to Sochi for a planned G8 summit, that would be up to them.

 

(Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili)

Putin sympathies with Maidan protesters, rejects coup

Putin stressed that the Ukrainian people had a legitimate reason to protest against Yanukovich’s power, considering the overwhelming corruption and other faults of his presidency.

But he objected to the illegitimate way his ouster took place, because it undermined the political stability in the country.

He said that while he personally was not fond of months-long streets protests as a means to pressure the government, he sympathized with the Maidan demonstration members, who were genuinely outraged with the situation in Ukraine.

But at the same time he warned that what happens in Ukraine now may be a replacement of one group of crooks with another, citing the appointments of certain wealthy businessmen with questionable reputations.

Asked about the presence of snipers during the violent confrontation in Kiev last month, Putin said he was not aware of any order from the Yanukovich government to use firearms against the protesters. He alleged that the shooters could have been provocateurs from one of the opposition forces. He added that what he was sure of is the fact that police officers were shot at with lethal arms during the confrontation.

Yanukovich is certainly powerless in Ukraine, but legally speaking he is the legitimate president of the country, Putin said. The way the new authorities in Kiev replaced him did not enhance their credibility.

At the same time Putin does not see any political future for Yanukovich, which he told the ousted Ukrainian president himself. He added that Russia allowed him to come to its territory for humanitarian reasons, because if he remained in Ukraine he could have been summarily executed.

 

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych arrives for his press-conference in southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, on February 28, 2014. (AFP Photo / Andrey Kronberg)

Equal participation in Ukraine's future for all Ukrainians

The Russian government is currently engaging with the self-proclaimed govern of Ukraine with the goal of preserving economic ties between the two countries. However, any normal relations would only be possible after Ukraine has fully legitimate branches of government, Putin said. He considers that he has no counterpart in Kiev now, so he personally has no partner to communicate with.

The Russian president stressed that Russia wants to see equal participation of all citizens of Ukraine in defining the future of the country. The resistance to the authorities in Kiev, which is evident currently in the eastern and southern Ukraine, shows clearly that currently Kiev does not have a nationwide mandate to govern the country.

Russia will be watching the planned presidential election in Ukraine, Putin said. If it is conducted in an atmosphere of terror, Russia will consider it unfair and will not recognize its results, he warned.

Putin commented on the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which Russia committed to preserve. He said that Western powers reject Russia’s assessment of the events in Ukraine as a coup and insist on calling it a revolution.

Some Russian experts, Putin warned that if Ukraine had undergone a revolution, then the nation that came out of it is not the same that it was before, similarly to how Russia transformed after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

If this is the case, Moscow may consider itself no longer bound by any treaties it has with Ukraine, Putin warned.

 

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

 

Washington’s hubris, evil sets stage for war

 

Anti-government protesters clash with Ukrainian police during a rally in Kiev on January 19, 2014

By: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/03/03/353111/usas-hubris-evil-set-stage-for-war/

In some quarters public awareness is catching up with Stephen Lendman, Michel Chossudovsky, Rick Rozoff, myself and a few others in realizing the grave danger in the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine.

The “puppet” politicians who Washington intended to put in charge of Ukraine have lost control to organized and armed “neo-nazis,” who are attacking Jews, Russians, and intimidating Ukrainian politicians. The government of Crimea, a Russian province that Khrushchev transferred to the Ukraine Soviet Republic in the 1950s, has disavowed the “illegitimate” government that “illegally” seized power in Kiev and requested Russian protection. The Ukrainian military forces in Crimea have gone over to Russia. The Russian government has announced that it will also protect the former Russian provinces in eastern Ukraine as well.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn pointed out, it was “folly” for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to transfer historic provinces of Russia into Ukraine. At the time it seemed to the Soviet leadership like a good thing to do. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had been ruled by Russia since the 18th century. Adding Russian territory to Ukraine served to water down the “Nazi elements” in western Ukraine that had fought for Hitler during World War 2. Perhaps another factor in the enlargement of Ukraine was the fact of Khrushchev’s Ukrainian heritage.

Regardless, it did not matter until the Soviet Union and then the former Russian empire itself fell apart. Under Washington’s pressure, Ukraine became a separate country retaining the Russian provinces, but Russia retained its Black Sea naval base in Crimea.

Washington tried, but failed, to take Ukraine in 2004 with the Washington-financed “Orange Revolution.” According to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, since this failure Washington has “invested” $5 billion in Ukraine in order to foment agitation for EU membership for Ukraine. EU membership would open Ukraine to “looting” by Western bankers and corporations, but Washington’s main goal is to establish US missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine and to deprive Russia of its Black Sea naval base and military industries in eastern Ukraine. EU membership for Ukraine means NATO membership.

Washington wants missile bases in Ukraine in order to degrade “Russia’s nuclear deterrent,” thus reducing Russia’s ability to resist US hegemony. Only three countries stand in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world, Russia, China, and Iran.

Iran is surrounded by US military bases and has US fleets off its coast. The “Pivot to Asia” announced by the warmonger Obama regime is ringing China with air and naval bases. Washington is surrounding Russia with US missile and NATO bases. The “corrupt” Polish and Czech governments were paid to accept US missile and radar bases, which makes the Polish and Czech “puppet” states prime targets for “nuclear annihilation.” Washington has purchased the former Russian and Soviet province of Georgia, birthplace of Joseph Stalin, and is in the process of putting this “puppet” into NATO.

Washington’s Western European "puppets" are too greedy for Washington’s money to take cognizance of the fact that these highly provocative moves are a direct strategic threat to Russia. The attitude of European governments seems to be, “after me, the deluge.”

Russia has been “slow” to react to the many years of Washington’s provocations, hoping for some sign of good sense and good will to emerge in the West. Instead, Russia has experienced rising demonization from Washington and European capitals and foaming at the mouth vicious denunciations by the West’s media w…. The bulk of the American and European populations are being brainwashed to see the problem that Washington’s meddling has caused in Ukraine to be Russia’s fault. Yesterday, I heard on National Public Radio a presstitute from the New Republic describe Putin as “the problem.”

The ignorance, absence of integrity, and lack of independence of the US media greatly enhances the prospect for war. The picture being drawn for insouciant Americans is totally false. An informed people would have burst out laughing when US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Russia for “invading Ukraine” in “violation of international law.” Kerry is the foreign minister of a country that has illegally invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, organized the overthrow of the government in Libya, tried to overthrow the government in Syria, attacks the civilian populations of Pakistan and Yemen with drones and missiles, constantly threatens Iran with attack, unleashed the US and Israeli trained “Georgian army” on the Russian population of South Ossetia, and now threatens Russia with sanctions for standing up for Russians and Russian strategic interests. The Russian government noted that Kerry has raised hypocrisy to a new level.

Kerry has no answer to the question: “Since when does the United States government genuinely subscribe and defend the concept of sovereignty and territorial integrity?”

Kerry, as is always the case, is “lying” through his teeth. Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine. Russia sent a few more troops to join those at its Black Sea base in view of the violent anti-Russian statements and actions emanating from Kiev. As the Ukrainian military in Crimea defected to Russia, the additional Russian troops were hardly necessary.

The “stupid” Kerry, wallowing in his arrogance, hubris, and evil, has issued direct threats to Russia. The Russian foreign minister has dismissed Kerry’s threats as “unacceptable.” The stage is set for war.

Note the absurdity of the situation. Kiev has been taken over by ultra-nationalist “neo-nazis.” A band of ultra-nationalist thugs is the last thing the European Union wants or needs as a member state. The EU is “centralizing power” and “suppressing the sovereignty” of the member states. Note the alignment of the neoconservative Obama regime with anti-semitic neo-nazis. The neoconservative clique that has dominated the US government since the Clinton regime is heavily “Jewish,” many of whom are dual Israeli/US citizens. The “Jewish” neoconservatives, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, have lost control of their coup to neo-Nazis who preach “death to the Jews.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on February 24 that Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman advised “Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and even the country.” Edward Dolinsky, head of an umbrella organization of Ukrainian “Jews,” described the situation for Ukrainian “Jews” as “dire” and requested Israel’s help.

This is the situation that Washington created and defends, while accusing Russia of stifling Ukrainian democracy. An elected democracy is what Ukraine had before Washington overthrew it.

At this time there is no “legitimate” Ukrainian government.

Everyone needs to understand that Washington is lying about Ukraine just as Washington lied about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, just as Washington lied about Iranian nukes, just as Washington lied about Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons, just as Washington lied about Afghanistan, Libya, NSA spying, torture. What hasn’t Washington lied about?

Washington is comprised of three elements: Arrogance, Hubris, and Evil. There is nothing else there.
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Dr Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Putin holds aces, Obama deuces

By: Finian Cunningham

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/03/353101/putin-holds-aces-obama-deuces/

As Russian troops pour into Ukraine consolidating control over the southern Crimea region it looks as if President Putin has finally had enough of playing games according to bent Western rules.

Vladimir Putin knows that world public opinion and a good many nations are on Russia's side in its show of strength against the cabal of rogue Western states led by Washington.

The morally bankrupt Western cabal tried to play its "sanctimonious card" at the weekend after Putin ordered more troops into the southern Ukrainian territory. American President Barack Obama said with tiresome cliché "the US stands with the international community in condemning violation of Ukraine's sovereignty".

Even more absurdly, US Secretary of State John Kerry later lambasted Russia's "brazen aggression". With a ridiculous straight face, probably due to years of botox treatment, Kerry said: "You just don't invade another country on phoney pretext in order to assert your interests. This is an act of aggression that is completely trumped-up in terms of its pretext. It's really 19th century behaviour in the 21st century."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shot back that US threats of sanctions and veiled military confrontation against Moscow are "completely unacceptable".

And the subsequent increase in Russian troop deployment in the Crimea seems to be a clear sign that Moscow is snubbing Washington's warnings with the contempt that they deserve.

For a start, Russia knows that it is morally and legally right to make its latest moves. With a Russian ethnic population comprising up to 60 per cent of the Ukraine, particularly in the East and South of the country, Moscow has a responsibility to protect its compatriots in a territory with a long shared history and heritage. Russia has real vital national interests at stake in the Ukraine, and it is entitled to exercise this protection - unlike countless American trumped-up interventions around the globe.

Secondly, Russia knows that the phoney American rulers and their European proxies have been making a mockery of international law in Ukraine over many years and especially in the last three months, during which the West has inflamed social and political unrest to the point where the elected authorities in Kiev were ousted two weeks ago in a Western-backed coup d'état. It is only Western rulers and their delusional media who pretend that the events in Ukraine were "a popular uprising".

The American, British, French and German governments have orchestrated a regime change operation, which now sees a rabble of neo-Nazis and fascists in power in Kiev. The rabid anti-Russian politics of this Western-backed junta poses a real and present threat to the pro-Russian population. True to plan, this junta of unelected quislings who came to power on the back of murderous street violence - violence fully supported and encouraged by the Western states – will in short order give the green light to NATO troops being stationed on Russia's borders.

A third factor emboldening Putin to act decisively in a show of strength against these Western powers is that the Russian leader knows that world opinion is on his side. The world has had enough of US-led state terrorism and lawlessness, declaring war on countries on trumped-up pretexts, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than one million have been killed by American and British forces with total impunity. These illegal wars of aggression were based on proven outright lies and fabrications with the collusion of Western media.

The world has had it with US-led aggression against Iran with murderous sanctions that, again, are based on wanton and transparent lies that infringe on the legally entitled rights of the Iranian nation to develop nuclear technology.

The world is sickened by American sponsorship of the genocidal Israeli regime against the Palestinian people - a grotesque regime whose illegal stockpile of nuclear weapons is an affront to international law and morality.

And the world is abhorred by the US-led covert war of aggression on Syria for the past three years, conducted with the help of Arab despots and head-choppers, which has resulted in over 130,000 deaths and millions thrown into abject misery.

More than anything perhaps, the world, including many ordinary Americans, is disgusted by the shameless deception, double standards and hypocrisy of Washington and its European acolytes who claim to represent decency, democracy and the "international community".

In a hollow headline, the London Financial Times claimed: "World rounds on Russia over Crimea move". This is typical Western elite vanity that presumes to speak for the world majority.

The New York Times added: "So far, the Kremlin has shown no sign of yielding to international pressure".

What international pressure? The only people that seem to be in a fluster are the elites in Washington and their slavish coterie of European stooges in London, Paris and Berlin.

In actuality, the world has pointedly remained muted on Russia's moves to defend its interests in Ukraine. China, now the world's biggest trading nation, has indeed sided with Russia. India and the other members of the Non-Aligned Movement have made no comment.

This is because the majority of the world knows who the real aggressors are. The latter are the US and its cronies among the financially and morally bankrupt G7 capitalist club of elite mis-rulers.

With Russia supplying up to 35 per cent of Europe's oil and gas, Moscow knows too that it holds an important ace in this new game. If the EU is foolish enough to push Washington's asinine agenda against Russia over the unrest and violence in Ukraine - which the US and the EU instigated in the first place - then Moscow can bring bankrupt Europe to its knees by turning off the fuel taps.

The old game of one-sided, bent rules - long played by Washington and its Western allies - is over. There's a new game in town, and where Putin has a few aces to play, the bankrupt West is holding a bunch of deuces.
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Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Originally from Belfast, Ireland, he is now located in East Africa as a freelance journalist, where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring, based on eyewitness experience working in the Persian Gulf as an editor of a business magazine and subsequently as a freelance news correspondent. The author was deported from Bahrain in June 2011 because of his critical journalism in which he highlighted systematic human rights violations by regime forces. He is now a columnist on international politics for Press TV and the Strategic Culture Foundation.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine