"Pants On Fire" Obama's latest

The following is an assemblage of lies, of course, from champion dissembler Obama: "But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that can make decisions about its own future." https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/26-7

Boycott Coke AND Stolie

This may, given how vehemently I've condemned Russia as a SICK SOCIETY both in its domestic and international policies, surprise some folks. But I think it's WRONG to send billions of dollars in (undoubtedly military) aid to Ukraine, especially at a time when the piggish Republicans in Congress refuse to renew extended unemployment benefits to millions of desperate Americans. Sending aid to Ukraine is only another Western provocation, dove-tailing well with NATO's Drang Nach Osten, or "Drive toward the East." Better for this nation's rich piggies to boycott Russian caviar, vodka and those few other consumer goods Russia produces. I don't mind giving up my Stolichnaya, yuk yuk. It goes without saying the Rest of the World should boycott Atlanta's tooth-destroying Coca Cola.

Putin's Russia - it sure as hell isn't Utopia

I know I've been coming down pretty hard on Russian foreign policy, just as I've come down hard on US foreign policy. But another measure of a sick society like Russia (and USA, of course) is to examine its domestic situation - the way it treats its own less-than-filthy-rich citizens: *According to multiple sources, Russian police are extremely corrupt, and they engage in frequent brutality and even murder. In that respect, Russia strongly resembles the USA. *Russian prisons are brutal, nasty and regressive in their practices. No role model whatsoever. In that respect, Russia strongly resembles the USA. *Russia is an extreme case of Laissez Faire Capitalism in action, to the benefit of its heartless billionaires, and the detriment of the numerous homeless - including many children - down on their luck, and living on the streets of Moscow. The Russian capital is now one of the most expensive cities on Earth. While it's true the West, especially Americans like Jeffrey Sachs, pressured Russia to implement the harshest, most callous type of Private Enterprise "system" during the 1990s, in order to receive a pittance in "aid guarantees," Boris Yeltsin was only too happy to go along with schemes proposed by the IMF and other Western institutions. (See; Naomi Klein, "The Shock Doctrine") *It's understandable that Russia produces and exports huge quantities of oil and natural gas; the country doesn't produce a whole lot of consumer goods that other countries want to purchase. That doesn't negate the fact that Russia is making its own very substantial contribution to global warming. While Russia doesn't emit nearly as much CO2 into the atmosphere as do either the USA or China, it does plenty of damage in its own right. And even now, decades after the Chernobyl catastrophe, Russia still generates 16% of its energy needs in its nuclear power plants. *Putin's attitude toward gays and lesbians is discriminatory at best, cruel at its worst. Gays and Lesbians, for those who aren't aware, are fellow human beings who should enjoy all the rights and privileges granted to others. Of course, Russia's never even made the pretense of being a democracy, so I guess with respect to it's treatment of homosexuals, it is at least.... consistent, and less hypocritical than the United States. *Russian policy on hard drug use is quite punitive; in that respect, Russia is similar to the United States. Russia's drug prohibiton contributes substantially to the significant HIV problem in cities like St. Petersburg: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/how-punitive-drug-policy-fuels-hiv-epidemic-russia

Fixed my web, er, spycam today

I just stuck a small piece of black electrical tape on top of this laptop's spycam, er, webcam. Hope it's sufficient to do the job. While I'm positively flattered that NSA Director James Clapper's people are working night and day to keep abreast of my social networking and other online activities, I just couldn't stand the idea of our faithful guardians observing me on a bad hair day, or during one of my periodic Gerald Ford Moments. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

"Brevity is the Soul of Wit"

I can, for a change, put it very succinctly. Remember when Osama bin Laden was killed, (or so they tell us) and all the young yahoos gathered outside the White House chanting: "USA! USA!?" Well, according to several reports, the more revolting Russian nationalists have been chanting "Rossiya! Rossiya!" ("Russia, Russia!). Same kind of jingoistic horseshit, just a different channel on a different day. "Under glittering chandeliers in a Kremlin hall – and with his audience chanting 'Russia! Russia!'– Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored sanctions imposed by the West and went ahead Tuesday with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/globe-in-ukraine-russian-annexation-of-crimea-turns-bloody/article17560229/

Some modifications to my previous "Ukraine stance"

I wish to amend some previous remarks re: the Ukraine situation. My rant below was scarcely comprehensive, nor completely fair minded. As my wise FB friend P.N. succinctly pointed out: "Maybe if the US and its European sycophants hadn't moved eastward installing the NATO menace on Russia's borders....." Touche', P.N., that's a devastatingly correct and pertinent observation. As Putin rightly stated the other day: "They tell us that we are violating the norms of international law. First of all, it's good that they at least acknowledge that international law exists.... Our Western partners, led by the United States prefer to proceed not from international law, but the law of might in their practical policies." (See: "With stroke of Putin's pen, Russia grows, Ukraine wilts," Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press, March 19, 2014) None of this Putin-propagated piece of undeniable veracity does anything to moderate my view of Putin as a miserable autocrat and bigot, but it is imperative to make note of it, in order not to come off as being, well, one-sided. With that in mind, I must add that it was a reckless provocation to extend NATO's "Missile Defense" apparatus into Poland. It was a very risky maneuver against the Russians to send a nuclear-armed US Navy warship into the Black Sea during the height of Russia's gruesome 2008 war against Georgia. For that matter, it was unwise to so blatantly support certain anti-Kremlin machinations emanating from Georgia; doing so probably only encouraged the Russian leadership to respond even more forcefully against Georgian civilians, bombing Tblisi, etc. Covert American intervention in Ukraine, especially during and every day since 2004's "Orange Revolution," is a well-known fact. Sorry if it seems like I'm on a roller-coaster ride of hair splitting analysis; it's always been hard for me to speak out publicly on controversial matters without coming off as though I find myself omniscient. I'm not all-knowing, and I often blurt out things in an emotionally charged way, without reigning in periodic bouts of hyperbole. One thing's for sure: I'm going to be very careful about even SEEMING to support one side over the other. Ukrainian leadership of the last two decades has been hugely corrupt, and certainly hasn't served the Ukrainian people well. I still despise Putin and the bullying, nauseating Russian chauvinism he embodies, much in the same I way I despise George W. Bush for his nauseating, bullying wars of opportunity. But Russia HAS experienced several highly lethal historical lessons indicating it needs to protect itself from Western invasion and subterfuge.

"Please God, get rid of Putin!

Sure Vladimir Putin, whatever you say. Crimea's population is up to 60% ethnic Russian, so break it off from Ukraine, in part by a likely fraudulent balloting process that claims a 95+% level of support for transferring the district to Russia., so break it off from Ukraine, in part by a likely fraudulent balloting process that claims a 95+% level of support for transferring the district to Russia. Reminds me more than a bit of another aggressor, Adolf Hitler. Der Fuehrer insisted Sudetenland Germans belonged in his "Thousand Year Reich." So Hitler worked out a deal with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that enabled Nazi Germany to annex large parts of The Sudetenland, or "South-east land" from Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain called the pact "Peace In Our Time." That sordid September 1938 deal is more widely known to History as "Appeasement." Particularly since Hitler soon incorporated ALL of Czechoslovakia into his "Gross Deutschland," or "Greater Germany." Such a profound historical lesson should not be lost on the world community today. Since Crimea was "given" to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, and remained with Ukraine after the Soviet Union split apart in 1991, it should stay "as is," and not just for the sake of national sovereignty. More powerful Leaders (like Russia's) shouldn't start monkeying around with established national borders in Europe and elsewhere. Certainly not for the sake of their own hunger for power, avarice and vanity. But since Russia is clearly determined to detach Crimea through either brute force or clever artifice, it follows logically that Russia lays no valid claim to the breakaway republic of Chechnya, whose population is 95.3% CHECHEN. Of course this whole Crimean crisis is complicated. Obama and the other "Western" leaders don't have military options, thankfully. Not without the prospect of starting WW3, they don't. Any idea that the US, Britain or other countries should attempt a military response is sheer madness; Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham surely must know that already. Nor can the US President impose economic sanctions - as he just did - upon other nations for their violations of international law, without "hypocritizing" himself silly. Remember Obama's destructive escalation in Afghanistan. Remember Fallujah. Remember the Invasion of Panama in 1989, and so many other interventions of that kind - all ILLEGAL and UNJUSTIFIABLE. The US doesn't have an ethical leg to stand on. Putin is an international criminal who should face some kind of "peaceful," effective sanction, as impossible a prospect as that appears. But "The West" is not a part of the world morally qualified to declare such sanctions. Nor are all those on the "Ukrainian Side" guiltless. There's MORE than enough culpability to go around. But I still maintain Ukrainians as a People have as much right to their territorial integrity as any other nation. As the Pussy Riot women rightly shouted in that Moscow Cathedral: "Please, God, get rid of Putin...!" P.S: Just as a matter of fact-checking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Crimea#Ethnic_groups

Sympathy for the Devils

I've never read a book on the US Civil War before wherein all the principal characters were praised, all their positive attributes placed consistently in the limelight. But that has been an impossible-not-to-notice feature of Jay Winik's highly informative "April 1865; The Month That Saved America." This opus even has something good to say about penultimate "Bad Guy," John Wilkes Booth! Jefferson Davis? Not an absolute tyrant and irascible sadist; not JUST the cruel villain who wanted and DID drag the war out for weeks and months beyond what any "Sane Leader" would have done. Jeff Davis was not JUST a defender of that incalculable evil, Slavery pure and simple. He read Greek and Latin, you know. President Davis was a scholar who had a fine appreciation of French and Spanish Literature. He loved poetry, too. Did you know there's even a middle school named for the Confederate President in West Palm Beach? Ah well, that's NOT the same as say, "Adolf Hitler Career Academy," not the same at all! Ulysses S. Grant? Not simply a ham-fisted, reckless "butcher" who lost the staggering total of 100,000 Union soldiers within just a few brief months during the last year of the conflict. Who lost 7000 of his soldiers to an insane, suicidal frontal assault against Lee's cannon at Cold Harbor... all in the space of seven short minutes! (Though at least Grant expressed regret for Cold Harbor in his memoirs, another very fascinating read.) But Grant loved animals, horses especially - he could brook no mistreatment of our equine brothers and sisters. And General Grant actually HATED the sight of blood; all his meat had to be practically charred before he'd touch it. General Grant USUALLY kept his drinking under control. Really. To be sure, it was Grant and Sherman and Lincoln who won the war for the North, bloody and horrific as the slaughter they (and their Rebel counterparts) engendered WAS. That brings us to the person of... General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was not (merely?) the "Monster" who bestowed upon History the cold honest phrase "War is Hell." And he really wasn't JUST the first modern strategist, which this tome argues. Sherman was a much more complex individual than the man who laid waste the better part of Georgia, whose troops raped women and burned cities. And who remained steadfastly unrepentant. General Sherman restrained his formerly pillaging troops, upon pain of death, from looting and burning when they reached North Carolina. Better late than never. Sherman was fair (too fair, as things turned out) and generous, magnanimous in victory, the day he received the surrender of Joe Johnston's Army of the Tennessee. And he restrained his formerly pillaging troops, upon pain of death, from looting and burning when they reached North Carolina. Better late than never. Even Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate Raider and Murderer Supreme, comes in for faint praise. "That Devil Forrest" flouted the "Laws of War" which "civilized" 19th Century Generals like Robert E. Lee, to his credit, tried to enforce. His atrocities were widespread and infamous. Forrest was later a co-founder of the Ku Klux Klan, but Jay Winik still finds some good things to say about the South's "greatest" guerrilla warrior. And greatest Forrest was, in the sense of "formidable." I've enjoyed and learned a lot from "April 1865." But I'm left wondering... perhaps I should describe the work as a "multiple hagiography?" Were I a successful author, I doubt very much whether I'd continually find a soft spot for famous figures responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. No matter how remunerative such praise might seem. Seems to me heaping accolades upon generals shouldn't be the most common literary inclination. Moreover, when it comes to the pestilential subject of WAR... surely there exists some kind of understated human need to STOP GLORIFYING MASS VIOLENCE UTILIZED AS A MEANS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION. Even arguably necessary mass violence, like the Civil War. This has been my first full-length book report posted on Facebook. Not too fancy but I expect I'll have occasion for further revisions. Next week's topic : "Meet the Rockefellers' warm, fuzzy kittens!" http://books.google.com/books?id=gUfZxiau_fgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=1865+the+year+that+saved+america&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ISYiU9yILYaIygG6qoG4Bg&ved=0CC0Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=1865%20the%20year%20that%20saved%20america&f=fals

DiFi is outraged.

Now THAT's a piece of work. Dianne Feinstein! Or "DiFi," as people in San Francisco have been overheard, referring to their former mayor. There's no one else quite like her in the whole Senate. For years, I, like everyone who reads, have noted Senator Feinstein's enthusiastic support of unconstitutional, intrusive, insidious mass surveillance. On average Joes and Janes, that is. On you and me! Well, everybody who is anybody in the pundit world is fulminating fervently about this - they beat me to it days ago. Yet I too must join in the "fun." DiFi, who's very much in favor of intercepting any and every communication that ever traveled between the "Little People." The Senior Senator from California simply cannot stand being spied upon herself. My my, how her tune has changed... overnight! It couldn't have happened to a more "patriotic" law-maker. http://www.thedailysheeple.com/karmas-a-bitch-too-feinstein-complains-her-4th-amendment-rights-were-violated-when-she-was-spied-on_032014