Another good one from the op-ed pages of Pravda.ru :lol:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/14-04-2014/127349-washington_worst_enemy-0/
QuoteWashington is humanity's worst enemy
How does Washington get away with the claim that the country it rules is a democracy and has freedom? This absurd claim ranks as one of the most unsubstantiated claims in history.
There is no democracy whatsoever. Voting is a mask for rule by a few powerful interest groups. In two 21st century rulings (Citizens United and McCutcheon), the US Supreme Court has ruled that the purchase of the US government by private interest groups is merely the exercise of free speech. These rulings allow powerful corporate and financial interests to use their money-power to elect a government that serves their interests at the expense of the general welfare.
The control private interests exercise over the government is so complete that private interests have immunity to prosecution for crimes. At his retirement party on March 27, Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor James Kidney stated that his prosecutions of Goldman Sachs and other "banks too big to fail" were blocked by superiors who "were focused on getting high-paying jobs after their government service." The SEC's top brass, Kidney said, did not "believe in afflicting the comfortable and powerful." In his report on Kidney's retirement speech, Eric Zuesse points out thatthe Obama regime released false statistics in order to claim prosecutions that did not take place in order to convince a gullible public that Wall Street crooks were being punished. http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/09/65578/
Democracy and freedom require an independent and aggressive media, an independent and aggressive judiciary, and an independent and aggressive Congress.The United States has none of the above.
The US media consistently lies for the government. Reuters continues to report, falsely, that Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. The Washington Post ran an obviously false story planted on the paper by the Obama regime that the massive protests in former Russian territories of Ukraine are "rent-a-mobs" instigated by the Russian government.
Not even Washington's stooges in Kiev believe that. Officials of the Washington-imposed government in Kiev acknowledged the need for some autonomy for the Russian-speaking regions and for a law permitting referendums, but this realistic response to widespread concerns among Ukrainians has apparently been squelched by Washington and its presstitute media. US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to turn a deaf ear to the Russian Foreign Minister and continues to demand that "Russia must remove its people from the South-East."
What is happening is very dangerous. Washington misjudged its ability to grab the Ukraine. Opposition to the US grab is almost total in the Russian-speaking areas. Local police and security forces have gone over to the protesters. The corrupt Obama regime and the presstitute media lie through their teeth that the protests are insincere and mere orchestrations by "Putin who wants to restore the Soviet empire." The Russian government keeps trying to end the conflict and unrest that Washington's reckless coup in Kiev has caused short of having to reabsorb the former Russian territories as it was forced to do in Crimea. But Washington continues ignoring the Russian government and blaming the unrest on Russia's not Washington's, interference. http://rt.com/news/lavrov-kerry-ukraine-talks-200/ See also:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38196.htm
The Russian government knows that Washington does not believe what Washington is saying and that Washington is systematically provoking a continuation and worsening of the problem. The Russian government wonders what agenda Washington is pursuing. Is Washington in its arrogant stupidity and superpower hubris unable to acknowledge that its takeover of the Ukraine has come amiss and to back off? Does Washington not realize that the Russian government is no more able to accept the application of violence against Russian populations in Ukraine than it could accept violence against Russians in South Ossetia? If Washington doesn't come toits senses, the Russian government will have to send in troops as it had to do in Georgia. http://rt.com/news/ukraine-russia-operation-criminal-288/
As this is clear even to a fool, is it Washington's goal to start a war? Is that why Washington is massing NATO forces on Russia's borders and sending missile ships into the Black Sea? Washington is putting the entire world at risk. If Russia concludes that Washington intends to drive the Ukraine crisis to war rather than to resolve the crisis, will Russia sit and wait, or will Russia strike first?
One would think that the Chancellor of Germany, the British Prime Minister, and the President of France would see the danger in the situation. Perhaps they do. However, there is a large difference between the aid that Russia gives countries and the aid given by Washington. Russia provides financial support to governments; Washington gives bagfuls of money to individuals in the government with the knowledge that individuals are more likely to act in their own interest than in the interest of their country. Therefore, European politicians are silent as Washington pushes a crisis toward war. If we don't get to war, the only reason will be that Putin comes up with a solution that Washington cannot refuse, as Putin did in Syria and Iran.
It is a paradox that Putin is portrayed as the heavy while Washington pretends to be the champion of "freedom and democracy." In the 21st century Washington has established as its hallmarks every manifestation of tyranny: illegal and unconstitutional execution of citizens without due process of law, illegal and unconstitutional indefinite detention of citizens without due process of law, illegal and unconstitutional torture, illegal and unconstitutional rendition, illegal and unconstitutional surveillance, and illegal and unconstitutional wars. The executive branch has established that it is unaccountable to law or to the Constitution. An unaccountable government is a tyranny.
Tired of being spied upon and lied to, the Senate Intelligence Committee has produced a thorough investigation of the CIA's torture programs. The investigation took four years to complete. The Committee found, unequivocally, that the CIA lied about the extent of the torture and kidnappings, that detainees did not undergo some mild form of "enhanced interrogation" but were subjected to brutal and inhumane torture, that the CIA, contrary to its claims, did not get even one piece of useful information from its grave crimes against humanity. The American presstitutes assisted the CIA in inaccurately portraying the effectiveness and mildness of the CIA's Gestapo practices. During the entirety of the investigation, the CIA illegally spied on the Senate staff conducting the investigation.
Is the public ever to see this report beyond the parts that have been leaked? Not if the CIA and Obama can prevent it. President "change" Obama has decided that it is up to the CIA to decide how much of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation will be made public. In other words, unless someone leaks the entire report, the American public will never know. Yet, "we have freedom and democracy."
The Senate Intelligence Committee itself has the power to vole to declassify the entire report and to release it. The committee should do so immediately before the members of the committee are browbeat, threatened, and propagandized into believing that they are endangering "national security" and providing those mistreated with grounds for a lawsuit.
The US government is the most corrupt government on earth. There is no independent judiciary or media, and Congress has acquiesced to executive branch encroachments on its powers. Consider the judiciary. Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights represented the father of the American citizen, who Obama said would be murdered by the US government on suspicion that he was associated with terrorism. When Ratner asked the federal courts to block an illegal and unconstitutional execution of an American citizen without due process, the federal judge who heard the case ruled that the father of a son about to be murdered did not have standing to bring a case in behalf of his son.
After several lives were snuffed out by President "I'm good at killing people" Obama, Ratner represented relatives of Obama's murdered victims in a damage suit. Under US law it was clear as day that damages were due. But the federal judge ruled that "the government must be trusted." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38202.htm
Whether or not anyone has standing is entirely up to the government. The IRS takes a completely different position on the matter. Children have standing to have their tax refunds confiscated by the IRS if the IRS thinks the IRS may have overpaid the parents' Social Security benefits. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101576080
So in "freedom and democracy" Amerika, children are responsible if the IRS "thinks"--no proof required--that it wrote parents too large of a Social Security check, but a father has no legal standing to bring a lawsuit to prevent the US government from the extra-legal murder of his son.
Thanks to the Republican Federalist Society and to the Republican judges the Federalist Society has managed to have appointed to the federal bench, the federal judiciary functions as a protector of executive branch tyranny. Whatever the executive branch asserts and does is permissible, especially if the executive branch invokes "national security."
In America today, the executive branch claims that "national security" is impaired unless the executive branch can operate illegally and unconstitutionally and unless citizens are willing to give up every constitutional right in order to be made safe in a total police state that spies on and documents every aspect of their lives.
Even the Government Accountability Office has been neutered. In 2013 the Government Accountability Office told the TSA to eliminate its behavior screening program as it is a waste of money and does not work. So what did the TSA do. Why, of course, it expanded the useless intrusion into the privacy of travelers.
This is Amerika today. Yet, Washington prances around chanting "freedom and democracy" even as it displaces the greatest tyrannies in human history with its own.
Only gullible Americans expect leaders and elites or voting to do anything about the institutionalization of tyranny. Elites are only interested in money. As long as thesystem produces more income and wealth for elites, elites don't give a hoot about tyranny or what happens to the rest of us.
Paul Craig Roberts
www.paulcraigroberts.org
I don't know. I thought the whole problem with Obama is that he isn't too good enough at killing people.
That seems pretty right.
Yeah. I'm sure this is a very popular piece in Europe, Asia, and Berkley.
Well, thing is that Russia is probably a lot worse, but it's not very public about it, and there's not much public discussion in the country about those things.
Of course a Russian will tell you that that's why the Russian state is so much better than Western democracies.
"prostitute media"? Gimme somma dat ass for $50, Maddow.
Or for 5 bucks, Maddow impersonator Chris Hayes.
Man the Russians sure seem to care a lot about Libertarian interpretations of the Constitution. Who knew they were such anarchists?
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 14, 2014, 07:52:25 AM
Or for 5 bucks, Maddow impersonator Chris Hayes.
"You sure is purdy. I suppose you'll do in a pinch."
Russia is like that psycho girlfriend who turns around to project all her vices onto you. Russia has no free media, is massing troops for an invasion, is a sham democracy, etc, etc.
Projection. At least pravda.ru agrees that Putin's rule is immoral illegal and unethical.
Sound like Greenwald.
QuoteThanks to the Republican Federalist Society and to the Republican judges the Federalist Society has managed to have appointed to the federal bench,
You had me at the first Federalist. :blush:
Man, that was some piece of craptacular writing.
Quote from: Legbiter on April 14, 2014, 08:15:01 AM
Russia is like that psycho girlfriend who turns around to project all her vices onto you. Russia has no free media, is massing troops for an invasion, is a sham democracy, etc, etc.
I think it's more nefarious than that. It seems all of these ridiculous pronouncements is part of a deliberate psychological attack. Kremlin and Kremlin's bots on the blogs seem to be very deliberate about constantly saying things that aren't just ridiculous, but are infuriating in their chutzpah. I assume that some KGB experts calculated it to be an effective obfuscating strategy.
I wonder if he was like this when he worked for the Reagan administration.
Quote from: Razgovory on April 14, 2014, 03:05:08 PM
I wonder if he was like this when he worked for the Reagan administration.
No, but nice attempt to bring partisan hackery into the debate.
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
Go back to the blueberry patch.
Quote from: DGuller on April 14, 2014, 03:52:43 PM
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
You seem to forget that the truth is what most people agree upon, not actual facts.
I love Faux News, because they're peddling Rupert Murdoch's tears of defeat upon defeat. When that man dies, I will do a little dance and wipe my arse with a copy of "The Sun" I have saved for the occasion.
I like looking at the legs on Fox News. :)
Not just Shep's legs either.
I prefer The Colbert Report. Gives me real insight. :hug:
Ugh.
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 14, 2014, 04:32:16 PM
Ugh.
You know Colbert's taking over for Letterman next year, right?
Quote from: Barrister on April 14, 2014, 04:33:10 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 14, 2014, 04:32:16 PM
Ugh.
You know Colbert's taking over for Letterman next year, right?
No, I don't watch the news.
That was sarcasm.
Quote from: DGuller on April 14, 2014, 03:52:43 PM
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
Asoka?
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 14, 2014, 04:35:59 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 14, 2014, 04:35:12 PM
Quote from: Barrister on April 14, 2014, 04:33:10 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 14, 2014, 04:32:16 PM
Ugh.
You know Colbert's taking over for Letterman next year, right?
No, I don't watch the news.
So you watch Fox News?
For the legs...oh, I see what you did there.
Quote from: derspiess on April 14, 2014, 03:13:37 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on April 14, 2014, 03:05:08 PM
I wonder if he was like this when he worked for the Reagan administration.
No, but nice attempt to bring partisan hackery into the debate.
I guess the previous partisan hackery flew under your radar.
Quote from: DGuller on April 14, 2014, 03:52:43 PM
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
I think it goes a bit deeper. If Putin was an American, he'd be popular amongst certain US right wingers. Anti-gay, pro-religion, pro-military and even a flat tax! He also has that "tough guy" approach that conservatives love, and has no problem sticking his thumb in the eyes of his traditional enemies (unlike the weak, "Mom Jeans" Obama). I wonder if we see Putin in the same way the rest of the world saw George W. Bush.
I'd vote for him.
Well this thread took a turn for the Raz.
Quote from: Razgovory on April 14, 2014, 05:10:34 PM
Quote from: DGuller on April 14, 2014, 03:52:43 PM
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
I think it goes a bit deeper. If Putin was an American, he'd be popular amongst certain US right wingers. Anti-gay, pro-religion, pro-military and even a flat tax! He also has that "tough guy" approach that conservatives love, and has no problem sticking his thumb in the eyes of his traditional enemies (unlike the weak, "Mom Jeans" Obama). I wonder if we see Putin in the same way the rest of the world saw George W. Bush.
You might be on to something there. But most of the west see Putin as Putin. A bully, a ghost from the past, someone not fit to hold any office except maybe comptroller of the beluga caviar.
The fact that this man and his cronies wield so much power baffles me. And what baffles me more is that Dubya vouched for him in his War On Stuff We Might Think Be Terrorism Or Such And Stuff.
Quote from: Valmy on April 14, 2014, 05:16:03 PM
Well this thread took a turn for the Raz.
Wags shot first.
Quote from: Valmy on April 14, 2014, 05:16:03 PM
Well this thread took a turn for the Raz.
I think a turn from Pravda to Raz is an improvement.
Quote from: Razgovory on April 14, 2014, 05:10:34 PM
I wonder if we see Putin in the same way the rest of the world saw George W. Bush.
Then, as we already know, the rest of the world needs to get its vision checked.
I have noticed a dramatic decline in marriage offers from both Russia and the Ukraine. Might be because I stiffened up my online security, might be something more sinister. They ARE coming, you know.
Quote from: Norgy on April 14, 2014, 06:10:52 PM
I have noticed a dramatic decline in marriage offers from both Russia and the Ukraine. Might be because I stiffened up my online security, might be something more sinister. They ARE coming, you know.
If you are becoming less attractive in that market you know you have a problem. :P
Quote from: derspiess on April 14, 2014, 03:13:37 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on April 14, 2014, 03:05:08 PM
I wonder if he was like this when he worked for the Reagan administration.
No, but nice attempt to bring partisan hackery into the debate.
Kinky fuckery?
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 14, 2014, 06:20:55 PM
Quote from: Norgy on April 14, 2014, 06:10:52 PM
I have noticed a dramatic decline in marriage offers from both Russia and the Ukraine. Might be because I stiffened up my online security, might be something more sinister. They ARE coming, you know.
If you are becoming less attractive in that market you know you have a problem. :P
:Embarrass: I've gained weight. It's a glandular thing. And big bones. And... okay, it's just no willpower.
Quote from: Norgy on April 14, 2014, 04:08:27 PM
Quote from: DGuller on April 14, 2014, 03:52:43 PM
There are some commonalities in the Republican assault on truth and the Russian assault on truth. The central tactic of both is to whip the base into fervor and get them into the habit of self-brainwashing, and spam the public discourse with absurd counter-accusations to confuse the uninformed middle into the "both sides are to blame" mindset.
You seem to forget that the truth is what most people agree upon, not actual facts.
I love Faux News, because they're peddling Rupert Murdoch's tears of defeat upon defeat. When that man dies, I will do a little dance and wipe my arse with a copy of "The Sun" I have saved for the occasion.
So then he got your money? Sounds like he won to me.