I'm going to keep blinking the situation every day.
Looks like I'm going to need night-vision goggles:
"2d blackout hits Crimean capital" by David M. Herszenhorn | New York Times March 25, 2014
SIMFEROPOL, Crimea — A power failure plunged much of the Crimean capital, Simferopol, into darkness Monday, the second partial blackout in two days, as the Ukrainian government in Kiev appeared to retaliate against Russia’s occupation and annexation of the peninsula by sharply cutting electricity supplied from the mainland.
Now it is an occupation and annexation!
Russia responding by cutting of oil and gas yet?
Homes and businesses went dark across a large swath of the city, underscoring the vulnerability of the geographically isolated peninsula, which is dependent on mainland Ukraine for many vital services, including electricity and much of its water supply.
Then it is an act of war by the illegal and illegitimate right-wing thugs brought to power by the U.S-supported coup.
Officials here and in Moscow had anticipated such a move by the Ukrainian government. In recent days, regional officials said they had acquired 900 generators to provide electricity to vital buildings, including hospitals. It was not immediately clear if those generators were in use.
That sure is an eye-opener!
The blackout came as the acting president of Ukraine, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, formally ordered the withdrawal of the remaining Ukrainian military forces in Crimea, ending an increasingly futile effort by some troops to hold on to their bases after Russia’s annexation of the territory.
The Ukrainian military has put up virtually no resistance in the face of the incursion late last month by Russian special forces and other units.
In recent days, there has been a steady capitulation as Russian units seized base after base, in some cases firing in the air and using armored vehicles to smash through gates.
I guess I'm just tired of the journalistic slop they call style, folks. This shallow and regurgitated shit isn't worth the commentary.
The announcement by Turchynov, who is both acting president and the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, came after a weekend in which the Russian forces stormed two of the last major military sites in Crimea still under Ukrainian control.
*******************
While some of the base seizures have been dramatic, they have generally been carried out without casualties.
Once again a peaceful Russian restructuring, like back in the early 1990s.
In one case, at a technical and mapping installation near the Crimean capital of Simferopol, two men, a Ukrainian soldier and a member of a local pro-Russian self-defense militia, were shot and killed.
The circumstances of that incident remain murky, with the local authorities saying that the men were killed by a sniper who was a member of a right-wing nationalist group from western Ukraine.
Yes, the intelligence propaganda I call a paper always describes things their agents or assets had a hand in as "murky" (Raymond Davis in Pakistan comes to mind), and it is well known outside the propaganda prism I call a paper that the snipers are associated with the Ukrainians being supported by the West.
This is getting old, folks.
Turchynov’s announcement of a formal withdrawal was certain to speed the inevitable consolidation of Russian control over the Crimean peninsula, which President Vladimir Putin said was being annexed in part to correct a historical mistake. The majority of the population here identify as ethnic Russians.
Is that anything like a final withdrawal?
"Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations said Monday he is
‘‘certain’’ the government will soon sign an agreement with the United
States that would allow some US troops to remain behind after the final withdrawal of American soldiers."
SIGH!
Well then it isn't really a withdrawal, never mind a "final" one.
"O’Doul’s is advertised as nonalcoholic beer, but it contains a small amount of alcohol."
Any wonder why I am so sick of this shit?
Russia moved to regain control of Crimea after street protests in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev led to the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s former pro-Russian leader. Crimea was transferred from Russian control to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954.
Russia has massed troops along the eastern border of Ukraine, raising fears in the West that Putin will order a further military advance. So far, he has declared that there are no plans for such a move.
Has such a Hitlerian feel to it, doesn't it?
The United States and its Western allies, meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, said Monday they are cutting Moscow out of a major international coalition indefinitely and warned they stand ready to order tougher economic penalties if Russia moves further into Ukraine.
And they were all arrested as war criminals, right?
In Moscow on Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a government meeting that Russian ministries should begin work in Crimea as soon as possible.
Putin has ordered officials to quickly begin work on a bridge to connect mainland Russia and the Crimean port city of Kerch, but the project will take years and cost between $3 billion and $5 billion.
After he went and wasted $51 billion on Sochi.
Medvedev said that in the meantime, the issues of power and water supplies “should be settled through international negotiations,” according to the Interfax news service.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was imposing sanctions against 13 Canadian officials, members of Parliament, and other public figures, mirroring similar measures Canada imposed on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and threats against Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said the step, which includes barring entry to Russia, was taken in response to Canada’s “unacceptable moves which seriously damage bilateral relations.”
The targeted Canadians include Andrew Scheer, speaker of the House of Commons, and several aides to Prime Minister Steven Harper, who has been vocal in demanding that Russia be expelled from the G-8 group of industrialized nations.
That will lead us into the next article below.
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"West agrees to isolate Russia over Ukraine dispute" by Michael D. Shear | New York Times March 25, 2014
THE HAGUE — President Obama and the leaders of the biggest Western economies agreed Monday to exclude President Vladimir Putin from the Group of 8, suspending his government’s 15-year participation in the diplomatic forum and further isolating his country.
Nya-nya! You can't come to our shindig!
Who f***ing cares?
In a joint statement after a two-hour, closed-door meeting of the four largest economies in Europe, along with Japan and Canada, the leaders of the seven nations announced that a summit meeting planned for Sochi, Russia, in June will now be held in Brussels without Russia.
“This group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities. Russia’s actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them,” the statement said. “Under these circumstances, we will not participate in the planned Sochi Summit. We will suspend our participation in the G-8 until Russia changes course.”
The move by the group, its first face-to-face gathering since Russia’s lightning-quick annexation of the Crimea a month ago, was intended as another signal of the West’s condemnation of Russia’s actions. Leaders said it represented only part of a series of punishments that might still escalate if Russia refuses to turn back its aggressions, the statement said.
As opposed to Israel's slow, decades-long process.
In particular, the countries agreed to consider broader sanctions against large sectors of the Russian economy. Obama had signaled last week that the United States was prepared to take such a move, and officials said his decision to call a meeting of the G-8 countries was in part intended to persuade them to do the same.
Obama and other Western leaders have condemned Russia’s movements as a violation of international law and have ordered economic sanctions on Putin’s close associates, though those punishments appear to have done little to change the Russian leaders’ calculus.
In Washington on Monday, the Senate moved toward approval of Russian sanctions and $1 billion in loan guarantees for the Ukrainian government. It moved the measure forward in a 78-to-17 test vote, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to bring the bill to a final vote.
More bipartisanship in opposition to the will of the American people. Meanwhile, those things we are bipartisan upon are denied us by our "representatives."
UPDATE: US Prepares To Provide A Billion To Ukraine As Detroit Plans Mass Water Shutoffs Over $260 Million
No biparti$anship there.
Republicans have objected to a section of the Senate measure that would ratify proposed changes in the International Monetary Fund, which would allow the lending body to shift some $63 billion from a crisis fund to a general account it can use for economic stabilization programs around the world.
That provision is not included in the Ukraine bill passed by the Republican-controlled House. Republicans have long spurned the administration’s attempt to ratify the IMF changes, saying they would increase the exposure of US taxpayers in foreign bailouts managed by the fund.
Now you know why I lean Republican.
At the United Nations, Ukraine pushed for the General Assembly to adopt a resolution, possibly on Thursday, reaffirming the country’s territorial integrity and declaring that the referendum in Crimea that led to its annexation by Russia ‘‘has no validity.’’
*******************
Early Monday, Obama expressed solidarity with Ukraine. “Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people,” he said after touring the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
He makes them sound monolithic.
Obama made his remarks while standing in front of “The Night Watch,” Rembrandt’s depiction of a group of 17th-century militiamen, calling it “easily the most impressive backdrop I’ve had for a news conference.”
Now he is in favor of citizen militias?
“We’re united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far,” Obama said, adding that “the growing sanctions would bring significant consequences to the Russian economy.”
And to ours!
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Also see: American exceptionalism and Putin
I don't know if she is kinder than Kinzer or not because I didn't read it.
And with the conclusion of the Flight 370 mystery it looks like the nuclear false flag attack is off the agenda for now:
"US, Japan reach deal on transfer of nuclear materials; Move called ‘a step in right direction’ to lessen stockpiles" by Toby Sterling | Associated Press March 25, 2014
THE HAGUE — Japan will hand over to the United States more than 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and a supply of highly enriched uranium — a victory for President Obama’s efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world.
US and Japanese officials announced the deal Monday at a two-day nuclear security summit in The Hague — the meeting’s first major breakthrough.
‘‘This is a very significant nuclear security pledge and activity,’’ US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters. ‘‘The material will be transferred to the United States for transformation into proliferation-resistant forms.’’
Related: Moniz's Mexican Connection
Yosuke Isozaki, a senior national security adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said handing over the highly enriched uranium and plutonium is part of Japan’s effort to prevent proliferation and possible abuse of nuclear material by terrorists — the main aim of the summit.
A plane goes missing, the son-in-law of the boogeyman is on trial, and these stories of nuclear terror start appearing at a time when the news coverage is particularly vacuous?
Related(?): Israel closes embassies around the world
I smell something fishy in the works.
‘‘Japan shares a vision of a world without nuclear weapons,’’ he said through a translator.
As part of the deal, the United States will continue to receive spent reactor fuel from Japan for an additional 10 years. Japan originally received the material from the United States and Britain in the 1960s for use in research.
Isozaki said Japan and the United States also ‘‘have agreed to conduct cutting-edge research together with alternative fuels,’’ allowing more studies about nuclear energy.
Miles Pomper, a nuclear expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, called the return of the materials ‘‘a step in the right direction.’’
In addition to the weapons-grade material Japan is giving back, it maintains a stockpile of 9.3 tons of lesser-grade plutonium that could be easily weaponized by a country of Japan’s sophistication in a matter of months. That material also could present an attractive target for terrorists.
Yeah, we got the message loud and clear. Nuclear false flag on the way.
Additionally, Japan’s new Rokkasho nuclear plant, due to come online this year, is capable of producing almost that many more tons of plutonium per year when operational. Yet with most of Japan’s nuclear plants still shut down after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, there is no apparent use for that material.
Related: Apologizing For Delay in Japanese Post
The only thing I've seen since is this nisei article in the metro section for something that is far more destructive than any possible "terrorist" act.
UPDATE: Fukushima to be pouring radioactive water into Pacific “probably for the rest of time… forever more”
That's why it isn't "news."
‘‘So this is a step forward, but it’s not enough,’’ Pomper said.
The two-day nuclear talks in The Hague are the third such meeting of world leaders since Obama took office, and are a central part of his promise in 2009 to seek a future that is not threatened by nuclear weapons.
As long as we and Israel get to keep ours.
And I sure as hell hope it isn't another inaccurate one!
Before participating in the nuclear security sessions Monday, Obama met with President Xi Jinping of China to discuss how to secure or destroy dangerous stockpiles of nuclear material in the world.
Xi and Obama were also expected to discuss the Ukraine crisis, climate change, economic cooperation, territorial disputes between China and other Asian nations, and efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Will his wife's trip and the NSA hacking also be discussed?
On Wednesday, Obama will leave the Netherlands for a daylong summit meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels and to discuss the situation in Russia with the secretary-general of NATO.
Done for today.
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UPDATE: Obama: I'm Concerned About a Loose Nuke Being Detonated in Manhattan
Looks like the NUCLEAR FALSE FLAG is BACK ON!
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Obama hails shift on nuclear safeguards" by Mike Corder | Associated Press March 26, 2014
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — At the close of a two-day summit, the group also agreed to open up their security procedures to independent review, a further step toward creating an international legal framework to thwart nuclear terrorism....
Related: Lawlessness as the Rule of Law
I think the world understands that judging by the (lack of) applause.
‘‘I believe this is essential to the security of the entire world,’’ Obama said at a press conference wrapping up the summit.
He added that more still needs to be done: ‘‘Given the catastrophic consequences of even a single attack, we cannot be complacent.’’
All 53 countries that participated in the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague agreed Tuesday to keep looking for ways to ensure that nuclear material doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists.
But the pledge to adopt nuclear guidelines into law and undergo external checks was endorsed by just 35 nations, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan, Israel. Notably absent from that agreement were Russia, China, India, and Pakistan. North Korea and Iran didn’t even attend.
Yeah, the reason for that is because they were "excluded by mutual consent."
Nice omission, AP!
‘‘We need to get the rest of the summit members to sign up to it, especially Russia, and we need to find a way to make this into permanent international law,’’ said Miles Pomper of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies....
Then you should have stayed out of the Ukraine, asshole!
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Interesting how OBAMA'S COMMENT about a loose nuke were OMITTED from my Globe report, 'eh!!?
"Obama says Putin unlikely to back down on Crimea" by Julie Pace | Associated Press March 26, 2014
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — President Obama acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that Russia is unlikely to surrender control of the strategically important peninsula it annexed from Ukraine, conceding that Western condemnations have had little effect on Vladimir Putin.
Obama insisted the international community would never recognize Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
And yet his administration will recognize and approve Israeli annexations in a "peace deal."
But he and European leaders, gathering in the Netherlands for a two-day nuclear summit, said a military response against Moscow was unlikely.
But not out of the question, huh?
The leaders focused much of their attention on keeping Russia from expanding elsewhere in Ukraine — even if that means enacting broad sanctions that have negative implications for their own economies.
First of all, they are not expanding, and second of all, I AM SO HAPPY MY GOVERNMENT will KILL OUR ECONOMY over this!
What a bunch of -- sorry to put it this way, but -- F***ING ASSHOLES we have as LEADERS!!!!!!!!!!!
‘‘Some particular sanctions would hurt some countries more than others,’’ Obama said during a joint news conference with the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte. ‘‘But all of us recognize that we have to stand up for a core principle that lies at the heart of the international order.’’
What an asshole.
It's as if the illegal invasion of Iraq over damnable lies never happened!
Russia’s brazen incursion into Ukraine has become a fierce challenge to Obama’s leadership on the world stage.
The propaganda slop is shoveled in every frikkin' paragraph!
He arrived in the Netherlands, the first stop on a weeklong trip abroad, facing withering criticism from Republicans who have charged that the president underestimated Putin or misjudged the Russian leader’s intentions.
Among those critics is Obama’s former presidential rival Mitt Romney. The Republican declared during the 2012 campaign that Russia was America’s top geopolitical foe — an assertion Obama dismissed as a relic of Cold War-era thinking.
Related:
Romney Was Right
Romney Still Running Republican Party
That has been confirmed.
Romney to Again Run For President
Not confirmed, but who else is there?
Obama took aim at Romney’s assertion again Tuesday, using the opportunity to derisively cast Russia as little more than a ‘‘regional power’’ that threatens its allies, but not the United States.
What, they no longer have an arsenal of nuclear weapons?
The pointed comment appeared to take aim at what Western officials see as Putin’s insecurity over Russia’s standing in the world.
What an inside-out, upside-down shit spin on the situation.
‘‘Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors — not out of strength, but out of weakness,’’ Obama said. Still, he added....
He is describing the USraeli empire he figureheads, folks.
In a sign of how difficult it would be to roll back Russia’s advances, Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea piled onto buses and began their journey to Ukrainian territory Tuesday following a withdrawal order from the central government in Kiev.
While Putin did not attend the long-planned Nuclear Security Summit, his provocative actions in Ukraine dominated the two days of talks in The Hague....
(Blog editor just shaking head at what crap this is. I am so f***ing sick of the shit war media)
Russia has amassed thousands of troops on its border near those regions, raising anxieties in Washington, as well as in other former Soviet territories. Obama sought to reassure some of those nations that NATO would come to the defense of any member of the 28-nation alliance.
‘‘When it comes to a potential military response, that is defined by NATO membership,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s what NATO’s about.’’
Yeah, and UKRAINE is NOT a MEMBER!
Btw, that is the kind of reasoning that got WWI going so we can see where this asshole is headed.
The West’s preferred method for preventing an escalation of the conflict continued to be economic sanctions....
That will HURT US more than THEM!
Obama appeared to have made progress in convincing European leaders that the costs of implementing such sanctions outweighed the risks to their own economies. Europe has deep economic ties with Russia and the continent’s leaders have worried that sanctions on Moscow could boomerang and hurt their own economies.
And you thought the European people were already angry at their puppet governments? Wait until they see this!
Related: Finally Getting Around to Greece Again
I'm sure the Globe will give those protests all the coverage they are due.
During his news conference with Obama, Rutte said that while leaders could not completely mitigate the impact of the sanctions, ‘‘we will make sure that we will design these sanctions in such a way that they will have maximum impact on the Russian economy.’’
Still, it remained unclear whether the US and Europe would actually go through with broader economic sanctions if Russia does escalate the crisis.
Obama and European leaders have also been discussing ways to boost funding for Ukraine.
As we get social service cuts, sequestration, and "austerity" here at home!
What a SHIT GOVERNMENT!
The country’s fledgling government is under significant financial strain following a shake-up that saw Ukraine’s Russian-backed president flee amid popular protests.
F*** 'em!
In Washington, Senate Democrats signaled a possible retreat over the biggest sticking point blocking congressional passage of legislation clearly the way for an aid package. Up to now, the Senate and House have been at odds over a provision related to the International Monetary Fund. But legislative aides told the Associated Press that Democrats would weigh dropping language related to the IMF in the interests of securing passage.
Related: Now U.S. Republicans Propose Sending Military Aid to Ukraine!
Sure looks like things are fixed to me!
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Once again NOT ONE WORD of NUKES in NEW YORK!
Also see: Three myths about Putin’s Russia
Sorry, but I am no longer interested in reading neo-con propaganda by Nick Burns. Paper is already full with enough myths.
