In sticking with the theme from yesterday....
Related: Peace Migrating Through Asia
I was wondering how it was going to be ruined, and it happened with the arrival of one man:
"Gum-chewing brings Obama relief and diplomatic friction" by Terrence McCoy | Washington Post November 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — In June, President Obama’s physician dispatched the results of his third physical examination of the commander in chief. The doctor said Obama was in ‘‘excellent’’ health except for one minor problem: his history of smoking. But Obama, the report found, was now ‘‘tobacco free,’’ buoyed by the ‘‘occasional use’’ of nicotine gum.
It’s difficult to find a larger advocate of gum chewing than the president.
Obama chews gum while ensconced in Air Force One watching football. He chews gum while in the throes of a campaign. He chews gum when presiding over World War II commemorations.
And to the horror of conservatives, he chewed gum at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Beijing.
This is even worse than Putin making a pass.
Obama’s aides described his quest to kick cigarettes as a ‘‘lifelong struggle.’’
‘‘I was one of these teenagers’’ who smoked, he said in 2009. ‘‘And so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.’’ As late as mid-2010, his medical team reported he was still smoking.
Navy Captain Jeffrey Kuhlman, the White House physician, recommended Obama stick with ‘‘smoking cessation efforts,’’ such as ‘‘the use of nicotine gum.’’
Not everyone is sympathetic. British and French citizens have decried his gum chewing at official events. The Chinese weren’t so keen on the president’s chewing at the Asian summit last week. ‘‘This is the American manner and humor, but in traditional Chinese culture, it is immature and not serious behavior!’’ The Wall Street Journal quoted one blogger.
Republicans seized on the gum chewing as another example of Obama’s fecklessness. On “Fox News,’’ columnist Charles Krauthammer castigated Obama for chewing gum at this pivotal moment.
“Look, the Chinese of all people have been extremely sensitive to the rituals, the decorum, the subtleties, the deference of diplomacy,’’ he said. “In China, chewing gum is a sign of disrespect.’’
There is cause to dispute that, given the wild popularity and eclectic nature of gum in China, where it enjoys ‘‘dynamic growth,’’ The Wall Street Journal found this year.
‘‘Since 1999, China has become Wrigley’s second-largest market, behind only the United States,’’ the Asia Times reported. ‘‘If ever there was an American company that has actually cashed in on the mythic slogan, ‘If every one of China’s billion people bought just one . . . ’ it is Wrigley’s. . . . Chinese, on average, buy 10 sticks of gum a year.’’
That means the Chinese consume a whopping 14 billion sticks of gum per year.
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I'm sorry the Globe has lost its taste with me, dear readers. I suppose chewing on it for eight years will do that.
"Beijing strengthens trade ties to its neighbors" by Keith Bradsher and Alexandra Stevenson | New York Times November 11, 2014
HONG KONG — As President Obama and other heads of government arrived in Beijing on Monday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, China unveiled economic measures aimed at tying the region more firmly to itself — and potentially weakening Asia’s ties to the United States.
China and South Korea revealed a wide-ranging trade agreement Monday, deepening a relationship that has become South Korea’s largest, surpassing its commerce with the United States.
Of course, the Koreans are more concerned with other things anyway.
Australia, which also trades more with China now than with the United States, announced it’s on the verge of an agreement with Beijing and could finish a deal in the next few days.
China’s central bank unexpectedly pushed up the value of the country’s currency, the renminbi, on Monday in the sharpest single-day move in more than four years, making goods from other Asian nations, as well as from the United States, more competitive in the Chinese market. And Chinese securities regulators said they would begin allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each other’s stock markets on Nov. 17, which could strengthen both cities’ roles as financial centers in Asia.
Coming after President Xi Jinping announced Sunday a $40 billion Silk Road fund to invest in infrastructure and natural resources development in China’s neighbors, the initiatives Monday amounted to a comprehensive vision for binding economies in the region more firmly to China.
AmeriKa destroys, China builds.
“It’s a real attempt to exert leadership and to project a responsible image in wanting to lead the whole of Asia — they’re all very much linked politically,” said Patrick Low, who was chief economist of the World Trade Organization for many years and is now vice president at the Fung Global Institute, a nonprofit research group in Hong Kong.
China already accounts for 21 percent of South Korea’s two-way trade and 23 percent of Australia’s two-way trade.
China also has tried to rally support for its vision of a trade agreement that would encompass all of Asia and the Pacific. US officials have been pushing a narrower agreement, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that would include 12 countries — China not among them.
The US plan would require each country to open even some of its most fiercely protected markets to foreign goods and services. China has been vague on the details of a broader pact, saying an initial study should be done over the next two years. But most economists expect that a Chinese-led deal would be much more modest in terms of letting each country continue to protect some industries from imports.
The timing of the sharp rise in the Chinese currency, just as Obama arrived, represented an olive branch of sorts not just to the United States, which has pressed for years for Beijing to allow a stronger Chinese currency, but also to other Asian heads of government.
China has emerged as the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States.
I've heard they have surpassed us.
A stronger renminbi would help the exports of other economies in the Asia-Pacific region — although the benefits may be limited for countries such as Australia that export mostly commodities like iron ore, which is priced in US dollars.
That's why the trade deals the Chinese and Russians are doing are delinking from the dollar, as did this one. How odd of my new$paper to distort such a thing.
China’s renminbi strengthened Monday by 0.37 percent, to 6.1377 renminbi to the dollar. It was the largest single-day increase since June 22, 2010.
The various moves Monday reflected not only China’s willingness to liberalize its markets, but also a practical need on the part of the government. With near-record trade surpluses continuing to bring a torrent of dollars into the country, China’s leaders have been looking for a more productive approach than continuing to have the central bank buy huge sums of dollars.
In other words, China no longer wants dollars.
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"With an awkward handshake, leaders of China, Japan meet" by Christopher Bodeen | Associated Press November 11, 2014
BEIJING — An uneasy handshake Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe marked the first meeting between the two men since either took power and an awkward first gesture toward easing two years of high tensions.
As the two men approached each other, stern-faced, to shake hands in front of cameras, Abe briefly tried to say something to Xi, who gave no response and turned away, appearing distinctly uncomfortable, to fix his gaze toward the cameras for the rest of the handshake.
The tense moment seemed to show how far apart the two sides remain. Although staged for cameras, their handshake lacked customary trappings such as the national flags displayed in the background when other leaders met.
Their meeting afterward in a closed room at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People lasted just 30 minutes, but that they met at all gave some hope the two countries could smooth the friction in talks arranged on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
I'm encouraged. I'm just wondering how someone is going to try and f*** things up.
The spat between China and Japan over uninhabited East China Sea islands and other contentious issues has raised concerns of a military confrontation between Asia’s two largest economies, which could draw the United States into the fray alongside ally Japan.
Someone sure is hoping to do that, and I can't imagine why.
Although core divisions won’t be resolved soon, Abe told reporters afterward that the countries made a ‘‘first step’’ toward reconciliation.
‘‘I believe that not only our Asian neighbors but many other countries have long hoped that Japan and China hold talks,’’ Abe said. ‘‘We finally lived up to their expectations and made a first step to improve our ties.’’
China also has been angry over what it sees as Japan’s efforts to play down its brutal 20th century invasion of China, a lingering sore point for its 1.3 billion people.
It shouldn't be played down because it is the forgotten Holocaust™; however, nor should it be played up right now, either. It was over 70 years ago and most of us were not even alive at the time. It's my war paper using any wedge it can is what it is.
China’s leader must balance the need not to appear too solicitous of Japan, for his domestic audience, while still being statesman enough to host Abe ahead of Tuesday’s summit, when the two men will join 19 other world leaders including President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
China hopes to use the consensus-oriented summit to assert its ambitions for a larger leadership role in US-dominated trade structures.
China’s Foreign Ministry described the meeting as being at Abe’s ‘‘request,’’ a phrase not used in its reports on Xi’s meetings with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and other foreign leaders Monday.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Xi urged Japan to ‘‘do more things that help enhance the mutual trust between Japan and its neighboring countries and play a constructive role in safeguarding the region’s peace and stability.’’
The two sides issued a joint statement Friday agreeing to gradually resume political, diplomatic, and security dialogues.
In the statement, Japan said it acknowledged differing views over the status of the islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japan, a concession likely to please Beijing.
I can't tell you how happy I am to read such things. Peace is popular!
China has long demanded that Tokyo agree the islands’ sovereignty is in dispute, something Japan has refused to do for fear that would open the floodgates to further Chinese demands.
China and Japan have had poor relations for decades, rooted in Beijing’s enduring sense of victimhood and Japanese fears of China’s economic and political rise.
Japan’s nationalization of the islands in September 2012 infuriated Beijing, sparking anti-Japanese riots and raising regional security fears as Chinese patrol ships repeatedly entered the surrounding waters to confront Japanese coast guard vessels.
Gee, the article really left me with the feeling of war hanging over it all.
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I love the "I can't believe I had to shake hands with this guy" look!
"Obama, in China, calls for restraint in handling Hong Kong protests" by Mark Landler | New York Times November 11, 2014
BEIJING — President Obama appealed Monday for official restraint in dealing with the prodemocracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, saying that the United States did not want to see the tensions in the city erupt into violence.
You know, the restraint his nation's security forces did not show. Never mind that the tensions were created by the U.S.
Related:
"PORTRAITS AMID THE PROTESTS -- A soon-to-be-wed couple donned gas masks as they posed for a wedding photographer on Friday in a village of makeshift tents set up by pro-democracy demonstrators at a protest site in Hong Kong (Boston Globe November 15 2014)."
It's another round in their battle of images and rhetoric.
Obama’s carefully calibrated remarks were his first on the Hong Kong protests since arriving in Beijing earlier in the day for the start of a three-nation trip. He will also visit Myanmar and Australia.
“Obviously, the situation between China and Hong Kong is historically complicated and is in the process of transition,” Obama said.
“Our primary message has been to make sure violence is avoided,” the president said, adding, “We don’t expect China to follow an American model in every instance. But we’re going to continue to have concerns about human rights.”
Pfft!
See: Obama Rolls On ISIS
Well, there is violence, and then there is violence.
And just forget the torture that is still going on, 'kay?
What a sphincter!
Obama’s comments came during a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The remarks left no doubt that the president did not want the protests in Hong Kong to disrupt a wide-ranging US agenda with China.
Oh. So he's not with you, kids.
Touching down on Monday morning under blue skies — the government had idled factories and ordered vehicles off the road to minimize smog — Obama plunged into a hectic schedule that mixed the solemn rituals of a state visit with the deal-making of an economic summit meeting.
The centerpiece of the visit will be Obama’s session with President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, where he will encounter a Chinese leader who has moved boldly to reinforce the primacy of the Communist Party with a radical anticorruption campaign, an overhaul of China’s economy, and a crackdown on dissent.
Obama announced a reciprocal agreement with China that would extend the validity of tourist and business visas from one year to 10 years. The agreement, he said, would make it easier for business people investing in each country and for students to study abroad.
The White House said it hoped the deal would encourage more Chinese travelers to visit the United States, bringing billions of dollars into the US economy and helping to create jobs. The US government plans to start issuing the new visas Wednesday.
How sad is it that we need foreigners to come do it?
So when are the factories being moved back?
The agreement does not apply to visas for journalists, which China has restricted for some foreign news organizations after coverage that the authorities viewed as unfavorable. Obama is expected to raise that issue separately with Chinese officials.
That's why the propaganda pre$$ pot is always hollering kettle at the Chinese.
The president also put in a pitch for his ambitious trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, meeting with the leaders of other countries involved in the negotiations. Efforts to forge a deal have made progress recently, and the Republican takeover of Congress has buoyed hopes that Obama might be able to win ratification of a trade treaty more easily.
Not why we voted against Obama.
Still, there was no evidence that the talks were close to a breakthrough. Obama noted that he and other leaders would have to build domestic support for a deal.
Oh, despite the shit-shovel full of propaganda the previous paragraph....
and you wonder why I hate this garbage these days?
The proposed trade agreement does not include China, so Obama made a strong pitch to the Chinese for a new bilateral investment treaty between the countries. Economists said that deal could be the most significant opening of the Chinese market for US companies since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Why not just include them in the TPP then?
Obama’s visit, his second to China as president, began on a promising note with North Korea’s release Saturday of two Americans held there.
Yeah, that made me happy.
Administration officials did not speculate about whether the release was timed to coincide with the trip, but the North Koreans’ action sent an unmistakably conciliatory message on the eve of talks that are certain to include discussion of the nuclear-armed rogue state.
That second reference must be to Israel.
Obama also met on Monday with President Joko Widodo, a plain-spoken populist whose recent election as leader of Indonesia makes a vivid contrast with the authoritarian ambitions of Xi.
He didn't make the inauguration?
Now my 1% mouthpiece known as a paper likes populism.
Pfffft!
Later in the day, Obama addressed business executives from the region, saying that “the United States welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable China.” The two countries must work together, he said.
They sure have a funny way of showing it.
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"US, China agree to cut tariffs but vie for trade blocs" by Mark Landler | New York Times November 12, 2014
BEIJING — China and the United States on Tuesday vividly displayed why they are both rivals and partners atop the global economy, announcing an agreement to reduce tariffs for technology products even as they promoted competing free-trade blocs for the Asian region.
The maneuvering came at a conference of Pacific Rim economies in Beijing that has showcased China’s growing dominance in Asia. It has also shown the determination of the United States, riding a resurgent economy, to reclaim its historic role as a Pacific power.
That's offensive, because if you look at the history of the "founding" of this country it is from the Atlantic. It's "historic" role is simply a fancy way of saying they want to dominate the sphere.
On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping invited President Obama to dinner at his official residence, saying he hoped they had laid the foundation for a collaborative relationship — or, as he more metaphorically put it, “A pool begins with many drops of water.”
Xi greeted Obama at the gate of the walled leadership compound next to the Forbidden City and squired him across a stone bridge and into the residence. Obama told the Chinese president that he wanted to take the relationship “to a new level.”
“When the US and China are able to work together effectively,” he added, “the whole world benefits.”
But as the world witnessed this week, it is more complicated than that. Xi won approval Tuesday from the 21 countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to study creation of a China-led free-trade zone that would be an alternative to Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trading bloc that excludes China.
Obama, meanwhile, met with members of that group Monday and claimed progress in negotiating the partnership, which is a centerpiece of his strategic shift to Asia.
I really am tired of chewing on this $hit.
Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership are much further along than those for the nascent Chinese plan, known as the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific, and some analysts said the Pacific Rim nations’ approval of a two-year study was mainly a gesture to the Chinese hosts to give them something to announce.
Screw you, New York Times. China got everything it wanted, and it's time to pass on this rank-rot slop-shit propaganda.
What, the Chinese not give you a visa?
Tuesday’s biggest headline was about a breakthrough in negotiations with China to eliminate tariffs on an array of information technology products, including video game consoles, computer software, medical equipment, and semiconductors.
GUM!
The understanding, US officials said, opens the door to expanding a World Trade Organization treaty on these products, assuming that other countries accept the same terms. With China on board, officials predicted a broader deal would be reached swiftly.
“We’re going to take what’s been achieved here in Beijing back to Geneva to work with our WTO partners,” said the US trade representative, Michael B. Froman. “While we don’t take anything for granted, we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to work quickly” to conclude an expansion of the treaty, known as the Information Technology Agreement.
It was all for show, sorry -- to give the Chinese something to wave around.
The breakthrough is most likely to be among the most tangible outcomes of Obama’s visit to China, although US officials expressed confidence he and Xi would also make progress on developing a common position on the reduction of carbon emissions.
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFTT!!!
Nothing about the snowstorms I saw on the college football games yesterday, of course.
Related: Saturday’s cold sets records
It's cold again today.
Obama’s dinner with Xi was the first in a series of meetings before Obama flies to Myanmar Wednesday evening. In the morning, Xi is set to formally welcome the president at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People.
Administration officials said Obama would press Xi to resume a US-China working group on cybersecurity. It stopped meeting after the United States charged several Chinese military officers with hacking.
Related: ISIS At Bottom of Hacking
Which means it is all a U.S.A. government operation.
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Related: US and China reach a deal on emissions" by David Nakamura and Steven Mufson | Washington Post November 12, 2014
That didn't make print, thank God, because I'm so sick of NYT and WaPo $hit.
China’s vow to cut emissions offers huge lift to climate talks
Not so fast, Globe:
"China’s climate change plan raises questions" by Edward Wong | New York Times November 13, 2014
BEIJING — When the presidents of China and the United States pledged Wednesday to reduce or limit carbon dioxide emissions, analysts and policy advisers said the two leaders sent an important signal: The world’s largest economies were willing to work together on climate change.
“This is a very serious international commitment between the two heavy hitters,” said Li Shuo, who researches climate and coal policy for Greenpeace East Asia.
Still, many questions surround China’s plans, which President Xi Jinping announced in Beijing alongside President Obama after months of negotiations. In essence, experts asked, do the pledges go far enough, and how will China achieve them?
Many scientists have said that 2030 may be too long to wait for China’s greenhouse gas emissions to stop growing, if the world is to keep the average global temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the preindustrial average. That goal was adopted by governments from around the world at talks in Copenhagen in 2009....
Where they froze their asses off, remember?
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"Obama’s tour shows foreign policy shift; President puts climate change, trade out front" by Mark Landler | New York Times November 16, 2014
BRISBANE, Australia — When President Obama ended his last trip to Asia in the Philippines in April, he delivered a defense of his foreign policy as a slow, steady pursuit of American interests — casting himself as a batter who hits singles and doubles, but avoids reckless errors.
With the body count to prove it.
As he finishes his tour of the region in Australia this weekend, Obama seems to have found a formula for a more ambitious approach overseas, built on two issues that recently climbed to the top of his agenda: trade and climate change.
PFFFFFFFFFFTTT!
The scorecard for this trip looks drastically different from the last one: a landmark climate-change agreement with China, a trade deal with the Chinese on technology products, signs of progress on a regional trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and a $3 billion pledge to a climate-change fund for developing countries.
Another pot-o-loot for the elite to plunge their grubby mitts into -- as you suffer under government-imposed tyranny, I mean, austerity!!
As for the rest, it's all $hit spin -- against their own words above!!
Some of the difference is merely a question of timing. Talks with the Chinese on the climate and trade agreements had been underway for months. The prospects for a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal improved in recent months, and may actually be helped further in the United States by the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
Nor do these issues come without traps of their own. Republicans immediately condemned Obama’s climate pact with China. The Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said it would require China to do nothing for 16 years while “creating havoc in my state and other states across the country.”
But administration officials said the accomplishments of the trip exemplified what Obama hopes will be an “affirmative agenda” in foreign policy — one that will offset the relentless stream of crises he has confronted, including Islamic State militants, the Ebola outbreak, and Ukraine.
Related:
Obama Rolls On ISIS
NATO Seeing Little Green Men
The Boston Globe is Finally Ebola Free
Not for long.
“Even as we have to manage crises, we want to make sure we’re focusing on an affirmative agenda,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. “I think that’s the common thread on this trip.”
That's the narrative, huh?
Obama clearly relished having momentum as he arrived in Brisbane for a meeting of the Group of 20, the organization of 19 industrial and emerging-market countries plus the European Union.
Speaking at the University of Queensland on Saturday, he drew loud applause when he talked about how the climate deal with China could galvanize efforts to negotiate a new global climate treaty in 2015.
After the Australians rejected it?
“You’ve got to be able to overcome old divides, look squarely at the science, and reach a strong global climate agreement next year,” Obama said. “If China and the United States can agree on this, then the world can agree on this. We can get this done.”
Or walk right outside your door.
Obama’s words carried an extra edge in Australia, where Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a blunt skeptic about the science behind climate change. He boasted to the leaders at the meeting that his government had repealed a tax on carbon emissions — a key tool to curb the greenhouse gases that heat up the atmosphere.
When is it going to heat up again?
Abbott tried to keep climate change off the agenda at the Group of 20 meeting. But Obama’s $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund, announced in his speech here, made that difficult.
It will create a green climate for some money junkies, that's about it.
The timing was clearly intended to prod other would-be donors, like Japan, which was expected to announce a contribution of up to $1.5 billion toward the fund’s total goal of $10 billion.
Bunch of pussies.
Obama seemed well aware of what he was doing. Australia and the United States, he said, both have bad track records on carbon emissions because they share a frontier tradition and an abundance of fossil fuels — “which means,” he said, “we’ve got to step up.”
And the Pentagon is the world's largest polluter!
That line drew a burst of applause from the audience. Australian officials listened respectfully but left little doubt where they stood in comments afterward.
“Australia is a resources-exporting economy: coal, gas, uranium,” said Tim Nicholls, the treasurer and minister of trade of the state of Queensland. “We think a sensible debate is absolutely necessary, but we also think there is a future for coal, as there is for gas.”
So does Obama, what with all the fracking and everything.
"Don Blankenship joined a small club of executives when he was indicted Friday. University of Virginia law professor Brandon L. Garrett, who has been tracking corporate prosecutions since 2001 and has written a book on the subject, ‘‘Too Big to Jail,’’ said that chief executives are rarely prosecuted because ‘‘it can be hard to show that someone at the top knew what the people below were doing.’’ But far from being a head-in-the sand boss, the indictment portrays Blankenship as a bullying micromanager who insisted on and received daily reports that should have told him that the mines were unsafe."
What about the on-the-take regulators, where were they?
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"Putin gets cool reception from G-20 leaders at summit" by Emma G. Fitzsimmons | New York Times November 16, 2014
NEW YORK — As President Vladimir Putin of Russia joined world leaders for the Group of 20 summit meeting in Brisbane, Australia, on Saturday, he faced criticism from President Obama and other leaders about the conflict in Ukraine.
No wonder he left early.
When Putin approached Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, to shake his hand, Harper said, “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine,” a spokesman for Harper said told the Associated Press.
What a sphincter is Harper! I wouldn't shake his hand!
At a speech at a university in Brisbane, Obama called Russia’s aggression against Ukraine a “threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shootdown of MH-17, a tragedy that took so many innocent lives, among them your fellow citizens,” a reference to Australian residents who were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down in eastern Ukraine.
“As your ally and friend, America shares the grief of these Australian families, and we share the determination of your nation for justice and accountability,” Obama said.
Yeah, sure you do. That's why the incident has been forgotten and the "official evidence" kept hidden.
Meanwhile, Russian state television released a satellite photo that it claims shows that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
That's the limited hangout version; I think the pieces of MH370 were trucked in to provide the photos for this hoax.
But the US government dismissed the report as preposterous and online commentators called the photo a fake.
Then it MUST BE AUTHENTIC, and talk about pot-hollering-kettle!!!
The American citizen has been subjected to more fraud, lies, deceptions, distortions, and staged and scripted hoaxes than anyone in the history of the world.
All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when it was shot down July 17 over a rebel-held area of Ukraine. Ukraine and the West have blamed the attack on Russia-backed rebels using a ground-to-air missile.
The photo released by Russia’s Channel One and Rossiya TV stations purportedly shows a Ukrainian fighter plane firing an air-to-air missile in the direction of the MH17. The channels said they got the photo from a Moscow-based organization, which received it via e-mail from a man who identified himself as an aviation expert.
That is the working hypothesis many in the alternative community have been holding.
The US State Department on Friday dismissed the Russian TV reports as yet another ‘‘preposterous’’ attempt by Moscow to ‘‘obfuscate the truth and ignore ultimate responsibility for the tragic downing of MH17.’’ It renewed a call to Moscow and Russia-backed separatists to ‘‘grant unfettered access for international investigators to the crash site.’’
Mark Solonin, a Russian author who is an engineer by training, said in his blog that both aircraft looked disproportionate to the landscape and found their images were crudely edited into a satellite picture.
Others noted that the commercial airliner in the photo appears to be of a different type, a Boeing 767.
Whatever. The propaganda pre$$ hollering fake is really beyond all decency, folks.
Russian TV stations stood by the report, saying their source was the Russian Union of Engineers, an obscure Moscow-based group that had previously issued a report claiming that the Malaysian plane had been downed by Ukrainians.
The organization’s vice president, Ivan Andriyevsky, said in televised remarks that it received the image via e-mail from a man who said he was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 20 years of experience as an aviation expert.
Attempts to reach Andriyevsky by phone and e-mail Saturday were unsuccessful.
Most of the victims of the MH17 crash were Dutch, and a preliminary report issued by Dutch investigators in September said the Malaysia Airlines plane was probably downed by ‘‘high-energy objects,’’ a finding aviation experts say is consistent with a missile strike.
Pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine have always denied any involvement in shooting down the plane.
And I believe them before I believe anything I see in the shit war paper.
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The bear seems pretty warm to Putin, although I suppose it would.
Related:
"An industry that has operated with almost no oversight on the assumption that space travelers, like mountain climbers, know the risks."
What's with the pieces of wreckage when I saw none in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001?
At least its stock is rising.
Spacecraft sticks the landing — on a comet
Cliff shadow could impede study of comet
Comet lander starts drilling but batteries a worry
Comet lander completes initial phase of its mission
I no longer believe the in the moon landing; why would I believe the comet photoshops getting so much coverage?
And look who is bearing gifts:
"US-Russian diplomacy continues in gifts" by Ishaan Tharoor | Washington Post November 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — This year, US-Russia relations have been shrouded in acrimony and distrust. Washington and Moscow have butted heads on a range of geopolitical crises, from turmoil in Ukraine to resolving the bloody civil war in Syria.
But away from the glare of the headlines, the delicate art of diplomacy continues. That’s very much on display in the State Department’s mandatory annual listing of gifts received from foreign dignitaries, published last week in the Federal Register.
The listings of gifts received in 2013 include a couple of conspicuous offerings from Russian President Vladimir Putin: The circumstances for accepting the presents in the first place are almost always the same: ‘‘Nonacceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and US government,’’ read the listings.
It is one instance, at least, where Washington cares about Putin’s feelings.
Ending where I started this post: with junior-high silliness brought to me by the Washington Post.
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