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Kiev enforces economic blockade on E.Ukraine as pensioners storm banks, sue president


RT
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 15:02 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo/Eric Feferberg
People wait in front of a closed bank on November 26, 2014 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
Kiev is enforcing an economic blockade on eastern Ukraine, where banks are closed and cash machines and credit cards aren't working. Disrupted social payments to the elderly have become the most acute issue.

Only a handful of cash machines are still functional in the breakaway parts of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions, after local banks received an order from Ukraine's central bank earlier this week to "suspend" operations.

This follows a controversial decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Porishenko on November 16 that is now coming into effect. Kiev is cutting economic ties with rebel-held areas by freezing bank accounts and stopping social payments, including pensions.

"As soon as we regain control [over E. Ukraine], all of the payments will be carried out," Ukraine's PM, Arseny Yastenyuk, said on Wednesday. "We would have liked people in the Lugansk and the Donetsk regions to be able to get their payments now, but we can't send money there, because it gets stolen in banks and in cash delivery vehicles."

Those willing to withdraw whatever's left on their accounts have to spend hours standing in queues. And what's left is not much.

"I was getting my pension via Oshchadbank," a woman from Makeevka told RIA Novosti. "I have 3,000 hryvnas (around $200) left on my account. But I can't get them. There has been no money in the banking machine for a week already. How am I supposed to live? I don't even have money for my medicines."

The only option left for many in the breakaway areas is to go to nearby towns under Kiev's control and try to withdraw cash there. Many are trying to reissue their bank accounts in government-held areas, so as not to lose money. Queues at bus stations are huge.

Comment: The economic blockade Kiev has implemented seems to be designed to bring E. Ukraine to its knees and capitulate to Kiev's Nazis but could be a NATO ploy to try and draw in the Russian military.

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Magic Wand

Fake Syrian sniper boy video and the so-called media experts

Maram Susli
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:24 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Many mainstream media websites helped a fake video go viral this month. The video showing a young Syrian boy running through sniper fire to save a little girl, was exposed as a fake when the Norwegian producer Lars Klevberg made the fact public. One of the stated aims of the Norwegian film makers was to "see how the media would respond to a fake video." This article examines how that experiment went.

The western press very quickly accepted the video as real and used it to support the US administration's narrative on Syria. Many top US news sources began to spread the story. Even though the producer said he explicitly added big hints that the video was fake, like the children surviving multiple gun shots.

Propagating false stories on Syria, is nothing new for the western press. In the lead up to the conflict many stories were exposed as frauds, such as the Anti-government activist "Gay Girl in Damascus" which turned out to be a middle-aged American man in Scotland. Syrian Danny Abdul Dayem which was frequently interviewed by CNN was using fake gun fire and flames in his interviews.


Comment: Subverting Syria: How CIA Contra Gangs and NGO's Manufacture, Mislabel and Market Mass Murder
Throughout the Syrian crisis , the media portrayal of events became a battlefield of diametrically opposing views vying for legitimacy . Indeed, this psychological warfare preceded the actual fighting. Any reportage or analysis that diverged too far from the dominant narrative found no place in the Western mainstream media (MSM). State-sponsored English language news agencies such as Russia Today and Iran's PressTV, and other outlets for independent research and analysis , offered very different interpretations of events in Syria.

To propagate the MSM version of reality, prominent news outlets such as BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera have relied almost entirely on questionable YouTube video footage, social media hearsay and admittedly unconfirmed reports from opposition activists, many of whom are not in Damascus or Homs, but in London. These sources supply inflated casualty rates and hysterical testimonies in support of foreign intervention. As the inconsistencies and official exaggerations mounted, many have begun to question the dominant narrative and the corporate news media disseminating it.

The fake sniper video wasn't enough to support US government narratives by itself, as the now deleted original upload didn't suggest the identity of the snipers. So the west's media suggested that it was Syrian military snipers that were targeting the children without any evidence. Journalists failed to mention how they reached the conclusion that an actor in Malta was shot by the Syrian military. It may be that the western press is quick to trust pro-rebel sources, as the video was uploaded by the pro-rebel Sham Times along with their own twist.
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Question

Of all the corporations in the world, does Walmart suck the most?

John Logan
Truthout
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:16 UTC
evil walmart
© Reclaim Democracy.org
That was the question posed last week by Public Eye, a counter-event to the World Economic Forum, as it sought a worthy winner for its "lifetime achievement award." For sure, Walmart - which has already won a Public Eye award in 2005 for labor rights violations in its global supply chain - faces stiff competition in the online poll. Among the other outstanding nominees for the world's worst corporation are Goldman Sachs, Chevron, Dow Chemical and Union Carbide.

Walmart's impeccable credentials for the world's worst corporation were covered last week by Truthout. The company denies a living wage, full-time work, predictable scheduling and employment security to its global workforce of 2.2 million people. It drives down wages and labor standards in its enormous global supply chain, most notably in the Bangladesh textile industry and the Thai shrimp industry. Walmart's contempt for the core labor and human rights of its global workforce and supply-chain workers is arguably second to none.

Comment: It's been said numerous times before but it bears repeating; boycott Walmart.

Once again Walmart asks employees to donate goods, rather than paying staff a living wage

Walmart gets $7.8 billion a year in tax breaks and subsidies from the US tax system - Employees forced to depend on social programs to get by‏

Walmart's death grip on groceries is making life worse for millions of people

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Evil Rays

Media spin in action: CNN's Amanpour show edits out criticism by visiting RT host


RT
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 19:17 UTC
cnn Christiane Amanpour
© Agence France-Presse/Mike Coppola
Christiane Amanpour

Comment: It's amazing how quickly a media puppet buckles when called out on their failings. CNN editors cut out what could only be labeled a tantrum by Christiane Amanpour at being questioned about her record of consistently supporting US foreign policies with her reportage. RT has served the cause of media transparency by publishing the full transcript of Ms. Amanpour's conversation with RT host Anissa Naouai and Russian fifth-columnist Mikhail Kasyanov.


Last week, CNN's Christiane Amanpour invited RT's Anissa Naouai to discuss what the US channel called 'a heated propaganda war' by the Russian government. But it never showed viewers Naouai's criticism of Amanpour's own propaganda exercises.

Naouai, host of RT's In The Now, was invited to speak along with Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian prime minister and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin's policies.


RT offers a complete video of Naouai's answers, as well as the full transcript of the discussion below.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Mr. Kasyanov, Anissa Naouai in Moscow, thank you both very much indeed for joining me. Let me first ask you, Mikhail Kasyanov, Mr. Putin, President Putin seems to believe that Russia has an image problem and wants to change the way Russia is portrayed around the rest of the world. It is an image problem or is there a problem, a policy problem?

MIKHAIL KASYANOV: That's a deep problem of the policy. The problem of Mr. Putin, because Mr. Putin believes that such a policy he pursues internally and externally, that's normality in 21st century, which is absolutely not. And therefore he is sometimes even angry on the Western society, why the Western society doesn't accept his regime as normal one. Therefore that's a problem of mentality rather than of image.

CA: Anissa, let me ask you, do you feel that "Russia Today" and other state-sponsored media is specifically designed to counter what your government, your president believes is a bad image problem, an unfair shake in the West?

Comment: And with that childish parting shot, Amanpour shuts it down. A disgraceful performance by a so-called "leading journalist".

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Attention

Here be fascists: Stay away from Kiev!

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:39 UTC
azov
"Their children will hole up in basements!" screeched Ukrainian "President" Poroshenko, the oligarch and "Chocolate King." "This is how we will win this war!" He was talking about the children of the people of East Ukraine, whose cities are being bombed from the air by the US-supported Ukrainian military. Thousands have been killed, mostly civilians: Ukraine's war on its own people has displaced nearly a million people. Many have fled to neighboring Russia, while a little under half a million are classified as internally displaced refugees. The Ukrainian military, which claims to be fighting "terrorists," is using cluster bombs - weapons that are banned in the civilized world, but freely used by Ukraine's military, which includes the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

Formally inducted into Ukraine's US-backed military machine, the Azov Battalion was organized by openly neo-Nazi groups, and has been such a success that their deputy commander, Vadim Troyan, has been appointed the city of Kiev's chief of police. Troyan is a member of the "Patriot[s] of Ukraine," a paramilitary group associated with the Social-National Assembly - an umbrella group, founded in 2008, uniting a number of ultra-rightist and openly neo-Nazi Ukrainian organizations. The appointment was made by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, a member of the "moderate" People's Front party of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

While both Troyan and the Ukrainian government deny any association with neo-Nazis, the Human Rights Group of Kharkiv says he "ran for Ukraine's parliament this year as a member of the People's Front. He is described on their site as being a member of 'Patriot of Ukraine.'" Before Troyan's elevation to the top law enforcement position in the country's capital, he and his fellow neo-Nazis were quite well-known to the police in Kharkiv, where they regularly beat up their political opponents as well as foreign students, migrants, and homosexuals.

Comment: See: SOTT EXCLUSIVE: U.S., Canada, Ukraine whitewashing fascism - CrossTalk

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Bomb

NATO top commander reiterates 'Russian threat' while pledging more military aid to Kiev


RT
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:51 UTC
Philip Breedlove
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
U.S. General Philip Breedlove, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, reacts during a news conference in Kiev, November 26, 2014.
The US and NATO have started helping the Ukrainian military 'increase its capacities and capabilities,' NATO's top military commander said during a visit to Kiev.

US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, who is the commander of the US European Command and NATO Allied Command Operations, said at a press conference during his Ukrainian visit on Wednesday that a "comprehensive" plan has been developed.


Comment: Sure looks that way.


The general said that a plan to address the requirements of Ukraine's military has been created as a result of 25 visits, with parts of it already being executed. "The work is good, it has been given great support from my command," Breedlove said, adding that the forces will proceed with developing a "series of train-advise-assist capabilities" with the Ukrainian army.

Comment: Shades of Dr. Strangelove: NATO Chief General Breedlove warns Moscow: No more 'stealth invasions' of 'little green men'

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Airplane

Transparency?! Why do we allow Kiev to write the official report on MH17?

Eric Zuesse
Washington's Blog
Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:08 UTC
poroshenko

"The Russkies are comin'! ... Where's the damn safety on this thing?!"
There are only two suspects in the shoot-down of the MH17 Malaysian airliner over Ukraine on July 17th: the separatist rebels, whom the Ukrainian Government charge had shot it down mistaking it for one of the Ukrainian Air Force bombers that routinely drop bombs onto the separatists and their families and indiscriminately onto everyone else in that region; or otherwise the Ukrainian Air Force itself, as a means for President Obama to be able to win increased international sanctions against Russia for Russia's support of those blamed rebels.

That's it, and that's all.

One of these two suspects, the Ukrainian Government, was granted by the other three member-states of the official MH17 'investigating' commission, a veto-power over anything that's written into that 'investigating' report.

In other words, basically what exists is this:

The Ukrainian Government gets to write the official 'investigation' report on that 'accident.' The other three Obama-allied nations will place their signatures onto it - or else there simply won't be any such 'final report.'

Comment: See also: Zuesse's analysis, while true in spirit, is lacking some details. A national press controlled by oligarchs is a symptom, not necessarily a cause, of a 'fascist drift'. Once a country has declined that far into ponerogenesis, yes, 'fascism' is inevitable. And by fascism, we mean full-blown pathocracy: where psychopaths occupy all significant positions of leadership and influence, where possible dissidents are kept dumbed down, or oppressed by internal police, or sent off to die in patriotic and useless wars. But the first step is always and everywhere a group of psychopaths - the oligarchs - gaining control of some key institutions of power.

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Evil Rays

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: U.S., Canada, Ukraine whitewashing fascism - CrossTalk

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:44 UTC
azov

U.S. and Canada: supporting their Nazi brothers in Ukraine!
Today, RT's CrossTalk features Dmitry Babich, Alexander Mercouris and Nebojsa Malic talking about the recent vote by the U.S., Canada and Ukraine against a Russian-proposed UN resolution condemning the heroization of Nazism. (See Revealing their fascist allegiance: US, Canada & Ukraine vote against Russia's anti-Nazism resolution at UN for details.) As host Peter Lavelle asks, "Is this an attempt to whitewash fascism, or merely a desperate maneuver to protect the Kiev regime?"

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Snakes in Suits

Did they want more violence in Ferguson? 10 'coincidences' too glaring to ignore

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 18:04 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Was it a conspiracy or was it incompetence? Those appear to be the only two alternatives that we are left with after the horrific violence that we witnessed in Ferguson on Monday night. The first round of Ferguson rioting back in August took everyone by surprise, but this time authorities had more than three months to prepare. They had the ability to control precisely when the grand jury decision would be announced and how many cops and National Guard troops would be deployed on the streets.

But despite all this, the violence in Ferguson on Monday night was even worse than we witnessed back in August. Either this was a case of almost unbelievable incompetence, or there was someone out there that actually wanted this to happen. If someone out there is actually trying to provoke more violence in Ferguson, then the rioters are being played like a fiddle.

Most of them have no idea that they could potentially just be pawns in a game that is far larger than they ever imagined. The only other alternative to explain what we just saw is incompetence on a level that is absolutely laughable.

Something definitely does not smell right about all of this, and let us hope that at some point the American people get the truth.

Comment: Certainly some interesting observations.

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War Whore

U.S. baiting Russia by increasing number of armored vehicles next to its borders


RT
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:01 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Ints Kalnins
U.S. soldiers deployed in Latvia perform during a drill at Adazi military base October 14, 2014
American armored vehicles sent to Poland and the Baltic States for military drills are to remain for the constant training of local troops and rotation of US forces. More fighting vehicles will be "pre-positioned" at US military bases in Germany.

The US Department of Defense intends to boost the number of its armored vehicles on the territory of the NATO member states in Eastern Europe.

Next year the number of M1 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles will reach 150 vehicles.

"The troops will come over and train, and they'll go back. The equipment will stay behind," the newly-appointed head of US Army forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, told AFP in a phone interview from Estonia.

This is going to be "a lot cheaper" than transporting tanks across the Atlantic for ongoing joint training missions of European and US troops, which are currently deployed in the region for several months, he said on Tuesday.

Deployment of additional hardware to Baltic States and Poland goes on within the framework of the US 'Operation Atlantic Resolve' effort, established to reassure American allies in Eastern Europe anxious about a "resurgent Russia."

Comment: The war machine must continue to churn. The U.S.-controlled NATO is surrounding Russia in blatant warmongering tactics. Russia is being extremely controlled in their response to such aggressive tactics. The fact that Western media goes around calling Putin the evil dictator who wants to take over the world is just pathetic. The media is now just the government mouthpiece, spewing whatever propaganda the psychopaths in the U.S. wish. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that the U.S. is the empire that wishes to dictate to other countries what they can and cannot do.

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