The old words are on the rebound, the ones that went out in the last century when the very idea of a Gilded Age, and the plutocrats and oligarchy of wealth that went with it, left the scene in the Great Depression. Now, those three classic terms that were never to return (or so it once seemed) are back in our vocabularies. They've been green-lighted by society. (If they're not on SAT tests in the coming years, I'll eat my top hat.)

Of course, an inequality gap has been widening into an abyss for decades now, but when it comes to the present boom in old-fashioned words that once went with being really, really, obscenely wealthy and powerful, give the Occupy movement of 2011 credit. After all, they were the ones who took what should already have been on everyone's lips -- the raging inequality in American society -- out of the closet and made it part of the national conversation. 1%! 99%!

House Republicans accused the Obama administration Thursday of "perhaps criminal" behavior for having withheld for months key email that sheds light on how the administration framed its post-Benghazi talking points, potentially violating a congressional subpoena.

House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said Secretary of State John F. Kerry will have to come before Congress to explain why his department refused to release the email until forced to do so by a judge.

Meanwhile, a retired Air Force brigadier general who was in the U.S. Africa Command's headquarters the night of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic post in Benghazi testified that he and others quickly realized the assault was spawned by terrorists. The general said it was either negligence or willful ignorance that led the White House, amid a re-election campaign, to say the violence was ignited by anger over a video.

German parliamentarians, particularly those of the Die Linke Party, called on the government of Angela Merkel to order an independent investigation into the presence of mercenaries in Ukraine.

Voltaire Network informed its readers as of March 3 and 4 about the presence of Israeli and U.S. mercenaries in Kiev [1]. On 9 March readers of the German weekly Bild am Sonntag got a glimpse of a video showing mercenaries employed by Academi (see below).

Czech, Hungarian and Slovak leaders are blaming the EU west bloc in hypocrisy in regard to Russia during the crisis in Ukraine. Eastern Europe refuses to get more economic damage which could be inflicted by wider sanctions.

While Eastern Europe undergoes an economic crisis, the West continues on dealing with Russian companies even as they threaten Russia with more sanctions. "It is hypocritical," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said at a conference today in Bratislava, the nation's capital.

His Czech and Hungarian counterparts, Bohuslav Sobotka and Viktor Orban, said they don't want to lose out on business opportunities.

"We are talking about solidarity here and France is selling warships to Russia," Fico said at a Globsec security conference. "We are talking about how to help Ukraine with its energy security and the very same day we were taking fundamental decisions at the European Council," while Russian gas exporter OAO Gazprom "signed a contract on South Stream," a pipeline, "with German, French and Italian companies."

Naturally, Polish Premier Donald Tusk struck a different tone, saying the EU must show unity and assume its costs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that it was wrong to turn Crimean Tatars into a small coin in settling disputes between Russia and Ukraine.

"Under no circumstances can we allow that Crimean Tatars become a small coin in disputes, especially in inter-state disputes such like the one between Russia and Ukraine," Putin said at a meeting with representatives of the Crimean Tatars.

Russian human rights ombudsperson to meet Crimean Tatars "I should call your attention to one thing. We, including the federal authorities, regional and local power bodies, are ready to work with all people who genuinely, I would like to note that specially, want to improve the life of people on their land," Putin said at a meeting with representatives of Crimean Tatars.

"Nevertheless, under no circumstances can we allow that Crimean Tatars become a small coin in disputes, especially in inter-state disputes such as the one between Russia and Ukraine," Putin stressed.

The US government is considering doing away with a four-decade-old law that bans the sale and export of American oil abroad. The decision follows a slew of US-led strategic wars and sanctions in the Middle East that have raised oil prices and demand.

The policy shift comes on the heels of the crisis in Ukraine, as the US may be taking advantage of an opportunity to disrupt Russian oil exports to Europe. The US produces 10 percent of global crude oil supply, but exports precisely zero barrels because of a ban Congress set in reaction to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo.

Washington is seriously considering changing federal laws to let oil flow abroad, according to US Energy Department Secretary Ernest Moniz.

"The issue of crude oil exports is under consideration... A driver for this consideration is that the nature of the oil we're producing may not be well matched to our current refinery capacity," Moniz said on Tuesday at the end of an energy conference in Seoul, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Many Democrats in Congress oppose the idea, as lawmakers believe newfound oil wealth should be kept inside the US to keep domestic energy prices low.

Two phone conversations have recently been intercepted by "parties unknown" (thank you Spetssviaz & 6th GRU!) which are truly revealing of the true nature of the folks put in power by the CIA.

The first one is a conversation between Igor Kolomoisky, mega-oligarch, Mafia don, dual Ukrainian-Israeli citizen and "junta governor" of the city of Dnepropetrovsk in southeastern Ukraine and Oleg Tsarev, ex-candidate in the Presidential election (ex Party of Regions, now independent), the one who was brutally assaulted in Kiev after participating to a show called - I kid you not - "free speech". This is the machine translated transcript of the conversation (slightly corrected by me):

Kolomoysky: Hi.
Tsarev: Hi.
Kolomoysky: Where are you? Same place?
Tsarev: Same place.
Kolomoysky: How are you?
Tsarev: Good.
Kolomoysky: There's big trouble happened . A Jew of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community was killed.
Tsarev: What happened there?
Kolomoysky: Well, a Jew got killed, one of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community . I am right now in the synagogue.
Tsarev: What was he doing there?
Kolomoysky: Well , no matter what he did. They said that they would put a contract on your life, fuck, big money.
Tsarev: For my life?
Kolomoysky: Million dollars. For your life. Yes. Moreover , they said that will be looking everywhere. Well, I just say that this so you say in Moscow, don't travel anywhere.
Tsarev: Let me tell you something . In Africa, there are ...
Kolomoysky: Tomorrow they will go after your people (family) here.
Tsarev: In Africa, there is such a ... such a poison ...
Kolomoysky: Look, I don't give a fuck about Africa. I don't care about this. I am telling you that in the synagogue on the eve of the Sabbath there was a prayer. They prayed for the slain fellow Jew, comrade Shlemkevich, who was killed in Mariupol, fuck!
Tsarev: So ...
Kolomoysky: And they said that Tsarev is to blame for it all, fuck. And tomorrow, fuck, the first thing they will do is look for all your loved ones, fuck. You better tell them to get the fuck out of here. Because we will hang them right on the public square, fuck ... And tell Markov not to come here. Well, in the Ukraine. Under any circumstances . You hear me?
Tsarev: Do not call me . Do not call me , Igor.
Kolomoysky: Not to call you? Ok. So long Tsarev
Tsarev: Come on. Bye.

Charming no?

Vietnam insists that China stops offshore oil exploration in the South China Sea within Vietnam's territorial waters, the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the phone on Thursday.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said on Friday the Minister had criticized Beijing's installation of the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 in early May near the Paracel Islands, which the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines as part of Vietnam's 200 mile exclusive economic zone. Such actions contravene all earlier agreements between the two countries about the settlement of South China disputes, said Pham Binh Minh.

The Vietnamese Minister confirmed Hanoi's adherence to peaceful settlement of the new turn in relations with the northern neighbor as "Vietnam remains moderate and is guided by good will to ease tension in the two countries' relations". Binh Minh has sent his deputy to Beijing as a special representative and hopes for China's positive reaction.

A former general is accusing the U.S. military of not even trying to save the Americans under attack at Benghazi in 2012.

A high-ranking officer in the U.S. Africa Command on the night of the Benghazi attacks is now saying that the U.S. military did not try and was never even ordered to save the Americans under attack at the U.S. diplomatic outpost on the September 11, 2012 attack.

In explosive testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell said bluntly about the military's response on the night of the Benghazi attack: "The discussion is not in the 'could or could not' in relation to time, space and capability, the point is we should have tried."

The death toll in Iraq shows no signs of decreasing as the country suffered one of its deadliest months in April with 1,009 people killed, according to the country's Interior Ministry.

Civilians were the biggest casualties with 881 deaths, while 128 law enforcement members were also killed. Terrorist attacks were the biggest cause of loss of life, with these attacks killing in the region of 750. During April, 1375 Iraqi's were injured.

The figures could have been even higher but data from the restive region of Anbar in the west of the country was not included. The province borders Syria and has seen heavy fighting between government forces and Islamist terrorist groups.

Iraq has been torn by a new wave of violent attacks since April 2013, with the numbers of dead jumping to its highest levels since the worst of the country's sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2008.