Ukraine Watch...

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03 ... s-m03.html

The crisis that has erupted in Ukraine following the right-wing coup engineered by the United States and Germany and the intervention of Russia into Crimea has created the most dangerous international confrontation since the end of World War II. Almost overnight, in a manner not seen since the 1930s, ultimatums are being issued and military forces are being placed on high alert in Europe.

All of the claims that the dissolution of the Soviet Union signaled the end of the 20th century era of wars and revolutions have been blown to pieces by the events of the past several days. The 20th century was the “unfinished century,” whose unresolved economic, social and political contradictions underlie the explosive tensions of the present century. One hundred years after the outbreak of World War I and 75 years since the beginning of World War II, mankind is again facing the dangers of world war and fascism.

The principal responsibility for the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine rests with the United States and Germany. Both countries, along with their European Union allies, systematically intervened to channel popular dissatisfaction with the corrupt regime of President Viktor Yanukovych behind ultra-right nationalist and fascist forces. Their aim all along was to topple the elected government and install a regime aligned with Western imperialism and willing to participate in its well-advanced plans for the geopolitical isolation and carve-up of Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with leaders of the right-wing opposition. Her party, the Christian Democratic Union, financially supported the Udar party of former boxer Vitali Klitschko. Top European Union officials marched with the Svoboda party fascists and Right Sector armed gangs in Kiev’s central square.

Good read and summarises the geopolitical clash between Russia and the West.

[biffvernon]

most dangerous international confrontation since the end of World War II.

Nah, I don't believe that.

[biffvernon]

Europe last 1000 years action replay (with dates)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFD4NRHcywY

Here's another: http://geacron.com/home-en/?&sid=GeaCron130764 Whole world, all of time (except that a long time ago nobody recorded what was where for most of the world).

[jonny2mad]

We have a region that has never had stable borders for long, is lived in by folk with different ancestries and much intermarriage and speaking two major languages and a few others, a history in the living memory of some of occupation by opposing powers, repression, forced migration, starvation and the rest, intense nationalism on the part of some, though they dispute which 'nation' they support, demarcation in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, government by kleptocracy, oligarchy, organised crime and corruption, gangs of organised criminals fighting turf wars and a woman with pretty plaits. Now let's add the issue of peak oil and gas whereby global rates of supply outstrip demand so somebody has to go with less than they want and global warming that could have caused the drought and fires of a couple of summers ago. Those two issues can only get more problematic in future and will need adapting to.
It seems to me that there are just too many silly people on all the many sides so we should not take sides. The best we can do is offer a nice cup of tea and a biscuit to anyone willing to sit down and have a chat rather than waving an AK47 about.

I thought having no borders or weak borders was a good thing

[raspberry-blower]

In among all the drivel spouted in the MSM, there are a few really good articles on the Ukraine situation.
A good view on the hypocritical stance taken by the U.S is from James Howard Kunstler in Let's You and Him Fight

Secretary of State John Kerry — a haircut in search of a brain — is winging to Kiev tomorrow to pretend that the USA has a direct interest in what happens there. Since US behavior is so patently hypocritical, it raises the pretty basic question: what are our motives? I don’t think they amount to anything more than international grandstanding — based on the delusion that we have the power and the right to control everything on the planet, which is based, in turn, on our current mood of extreme insecurity as our own ongoing spate of bad choices sets the table for a banquet of consequences.

America can’t even manage its own affairs. We ignore our own gathering energy crisis, telling ourselves the fairy tale that shale oil will allow us to keep driving to WalMart forever. We paper over all of our financial degeneracy and wink at financial criminals. Our infrastructure is falling apart. We’re constructing an edifice of surveillance and social control that would make the late Dr. Joseph Goebbels turn green in his grave with envy while we squander our dwindling political capital on stupid gender confusion battles.

On Russian paranoia and national boundaries, Peter Hitchins offers some succinct analysis in Further Thoughts on Russia

If they knew more about it, they might understand why Russians are ‘paranoid’. The country has no natural defensible borders. A street in southern Moscow, Ulitsa Bolshaya Ordinka (the street of the Great Horde) commemorates to this day the five-yearly visits to Moscow of the Great Horde, to collect tribute from that frontier city. We tend to think that the Urals, supposedly mountains but really rather unimpressive hills, form Russia’s eastern boundary. But it isn’t really true. From every direction, the heart of Russia lies open to invaders. Moscow has been invaded or occupied by Swedes, Poles, Lithuanians, The Golden (or Great) Horde, Crimean Tatars, Napoleon, No wonder the Russian word for ‘security’ (Byezopasnost) is a negative construction (‘Byez’ means ‘without’ ; ‘Opasnost’ means ‘danger’). The natural state of things is danger.

This is why Russians were alarmed and perturbed by the NATO meddling in the Balkans, the outer edge of Slavic, Orthodox influence. And several readers have rightly pointed out that the NATO intervention in Kosovo (1998-9) provides an interesting precedent for Russia’s intervention in Crimea. The province was lawfully part of Serbia. But its majority population desired independence. NATO thereupon lent its air force to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), so securing Kosovar independence from Serbia (recognised by the USA, Britain and most EU states), which will perhaps end in a merger with Albania.

There is also a good commentary on the Ukraine situation (along with Syria) over at www.moonofalabama.org

[3rdRock]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26442381

Russia reports ballistic missile test amid Crimea tension

I can see tomorrow's headline in The Sun already.

'Putin puts bootin'

[cubes]

[emordnilap]

I remember someone (Frank Muir? Call My Bluff?) using that joke decades ago. Spoilsport, eh?

Edit: I just remembered - it was Barry Cryer in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Phew. Back to work.

[RenewableCandy]

Yeah, but they didn't put the shades on afterwards

[biffvernon]

Nafeez Ahmed has done the homework:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -pipelines

[cubes]

The ones are always the best!

[emordnilap]

Nafeez Ahmed has done the homework:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -pipelines

Agreed. Extremely impressive reporting.

Biff, reading it, alongside your link to the environment audit committee's twelfth report, makes me want to curl up with a good book and a cuppa and forget about the world. Not the answer to things but simply a head-shaking sadness at the sorts of mindsets we're dominated by.

[emordnilap]

[emordnilap]

For those who haven't seen it, it's worth posting this link to Robert Newman's History of Oil again. It seems relevant and shows how little changes with time.

What a wonderful entertainer and a superb production.

[raspberry-blower]

If you missed it, Dmitry Orlov on the Keiser Report

Far sharper analysis than what is being said in the western lamestream media..