TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  

April 30, 2015

Foreign Service Updates








While this is getting a bit stale now, this is some news that recently caught my attention:
Zimbabwe 
Lawyers for Human Rights
petition Police Comm-General Augustine Chihuri
re:  anti-riot  police /assaulted HR activist Sydney Chisi

video 20 police indiscriminately bashing Chisi w. batons
excessive force on peaceful protest
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2015/04/24/civic-society-petitions-chihuri-over-activists-assault/


Turkey
NYT Declines to Run Turkish Ad on 1915  b/c no recognition Armenian Genocide
Ad run by WaPo instead

On April  24
Turkish-American community to march WA DC
 White House to Turkish  Embassy
100th anniversary of 1915 atrocities

NYT contended
Ad depicts 1915 events as civilian tragedy costing lives Ottoman citizens incl. Armenians, Turks, Kurds & Arabs.
NYT
do not accept ads denying history generally accepted as fact, incl
Armenian Genocide, Holocaust + WTC bombing
Ad says:
>no academic consensus on incidents.
>number of international scholars declined to label atrocities as genocide
*The 'no consensus' argument reminds me of the global warming / climate change method of rebuttal. 
LOOK-UPS 
The Washington Post
=  Nash Holdings LLC
Jeff Bezos = founder & CEO Amazon
bought WaPo 2013 for  $250 million in cash  [wp]

WaPo
Jeff Bezos member of Bilderberg Group
17th wealthiest person in world with est. net worth of $32.3 billion [2012] [wp]

http://massispost.com/2015/04/the-new-york-times-declines-to-run-turkish-ad-on-1915/

Zimbabwe
16th Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa)
donors & corporates sponsor
Norwegian Embassy active

Norway Ambassador to Zimbabwe Bård Hopland
 ... Norway gives biggest bilateral contribution to festival.

Other sponsors:
  • British Council
  • Osisa,
  • Prohelvetia
  • Australian govt
  • Finland Emb.
  • Lusaka & Zimbabwe German Society
  • + others
LOOK-UPS
Zimbabwe
= rich in natural resources
produces over 40 types of metals & minerals.
est 40% of foreign exchange = such export

where there is mining, there is also need for infrastructure.
more in resources:  http://www.zimbabwe.8m.com/zimmin.html

https://www.newsday.co.zw/2015/04/24/donors-corporates-hail-hifa/


Philippines
40 members of specialist British military unit 77 Brigade in PHL
to conduct training exercises on urban earthquake response
part of an annual training exercise in different parts of the world
http://www.rappler.com/nation/90982-british-troops-manila-drills


Argentina
Antonio Stiusso
suspect in death of Alberto Nisman
fled Argentina & is in USA

not attending court
Stiusso travelled from Argentina to USA with Italy passport
interl arrest warrant issue = an Argentina justice issue (vs govt issue)

Stiusso, also charges of:
>money laundering
>false info to authorities
>contraband
>dereliction of duty
>hiding evidence +
>illicit enrichment (among others)
Likely to seek USA political asylum
strong relationship US embassy in Buenos Aires

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentine-Ex-Intelligence-Chief-Will-Not-Attend-Bomb-Inquiry-20150423-0029.html

Pakistan
PM Nawaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia to mend relations after Pakistani lawmakers rejected a Saudi request for military in Yemen
Meeting took place April 23:
PM Sharif, accompanied by army chief + Defence Min.
http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/232239773

Nigeria
Super Rich Nigerians, Others Spend $900m On Luxury Property In UK

Africa big spenders having impact on London property market =
>Nigeria
>Ghana
>Congo
>Gabon
>Cameroon
>Senegal
http://leadership.ng/news/428137/super-rich-nigerians-others-spend-900m-on-property-in-uk

Czech
Hynek Kmonícek, head Pres Office foreign affairs section
praised by US Ambassador to Prague Andrew Schapiro
http://www.praguepost.com/czech-news/47231-u-s-ambassador-praises-zeman-s-man-as-skilful-diplomat

Obama
broke 2008 campaign promise to recognize Armenia genocide

by refusing to use term “genocide” on 100th anniv.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/04/23/mainstream-media-refuses-to-condemn-obama-for-broken-promise-on-armenian-genocide/


Poland
US ambassador to Poland apologized for FBI director’s comments about Poles being accomplices in the Holocaust
http://www.ijn.com/ijn-news/international/5367-ambassador-to-poland-apologizes-for-fbi-comments


Turkey
Seven world capitals now without Turkish ambassadors
>Syria
>Egypt
>Israel
>Libya
>Yemen
>Vatican
>Austria
List could be added to, following expected parliamentary declarations on 1915 killings of Anatolian Armenians as “genocide”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/seven-world-capitals-now-without-turkish-ambassadors.aspx?PageID=238&NID=81488&NewsCatID=510 
Row in Bulgaria over proposal for Parliament to recognise Armenia Genocide

EU member states who lawmakers have adopted recognitions, in some cases with prison or fines for denying the event:
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • France
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Lithuania
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Slovakia
  • Sweden.
April 25 - European Parliament commended the statement pronounced by the Pope and encouraged Turkey to recognise the genocide and so pave the way for a “genuine reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples”.

Ankara vehemently denies the charge of genocide, saying the deaths occurred in a civil war, in which many Turks died, too.

http://sofiaglobe.com/2015/04/23/row-in-bulgaria-over-proposal-for-parliament-to-recognise-armenian-genocide/


US sends New Charge d' Affaires to Gambia to run US Embassy in Banjul
Joseph D. Stafford replaces George Staples

Experience incl.

"In Washington, his assignments included teaching at the faculty of the National War College and serving as the State Department's Deputy Director of Maghreb Affairs."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201504231126.html


North Korea  
Russia is still expecting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to visit Moscow in May
AFP / thepeninsulaqatar  - http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/latest-news/334018/russia-still-expecting-n-korea-s-kim-in-may-diplomat

Ukraine
US embassy in Kiev surrounded in protest over interference
/ At least 500 ppl attend rally chanting slogans
Protest decisions:
eg appointment of foreigners
incl. former US State Dept official to senior position in new govt.

Ukraine
Protest US embassy Kiev
US interference = more violence
Condemned:  US troops training national guard units

Ukraine
So far, Washington has provided US$75 million worth of military aid to fascist Ukraine puppet regime

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_70124.shtml

Bahrain
Received:  US Military Attaché and Chief Liaison Officer of US Embassy to Bahrain, Colonel Scott W Rizer 
http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/665318


Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
aim: eliminating chemical weapons
EU support for OPCW

Countries that have not agreed to OPCW terms:
  • Egypt
  • South Sudan
  • North Korea
  • Angola
Not ratified convention:
>Myanmar
>Israel
http://bioprepwatch.com/news/latvian-official-pledges-support-to-chemical-weapons-ban/341646/

Norway
Ambassador Leif H Larsen announces embassy opening:
Norway consulate begins operations in Lahore Pakistan
http://tribune.com.pk/story/874645/norwegian-consulate-begins-operations-in-lahore/

Sweden Internet Tech
Social Good Nigeria PopUp Incubator Project Nigeria
developing techie skills
http://techcabal.com/2015/04/24/social-good-for-nigeria-unveils-an-incubator-project-for-techies/

British Embassy Tokyo hosts same-sex staff marriage
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/04/24/national/social-issues/british-embassy-hosts-sex-marriage-staff/

Poland
Presidential Election:   May 10
Parliamentary & PM Election:  by October 30
[RussianInsider]

Poland
Radoslaw Sikorski under investigation "for fiddling state budget funds for personal expenses"
http://russia-insider.com/en/so-long-siklebaum-poland-under-us-pressure-over-failure-war-against-eastern-ukraine-russia/5962


Assange - Aussie Govt Does Nothing ... Oh, & ... Sweden Law Firm CIA Collaboration




Two good articles regarding Assange

Although I hate simply putting up links to articles without summarising them for myself with masses of insane highlight (in the vain hope I'll remember everything), in this case, I might have to post links for these two lengthy articles or I'll be highlighting forever ... with an impatient, clammy 'mouse-hand'.  Yew!
Australian government denies Julian Assange effective diplomatic assistance

Article 1


Article:  'The futility of regret'
April 29, 2015 By Kellie Tranter  - here.
What stood out for me:

Senator David Leyonhjelm didn't even get the embassy straight.  Er ... how many years has it been?  And:
" ... he failed to acknowledge that Assange was granted asylum only after a formal assessment by the government of Ecuador in relation to the current and future risks of persecution and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the United States in response to his publishing activities and political opinions." [Article 1 - here]
How bad is that?

And it gets worse. 
No response from the following senators:
  • Senator Xenophon
  • Senator Lazarus
  • Senator Muir
  • Senator Madigan    [Article 1 - here]
By this stage, I bet you're thinking:  I'd hate to be an Aussie in trouble abroad.  Eh?
The author concludes that Australia:
" ... has simply asserted that it has provided appropriate assistance, but it has taken no active steps to look at what its ally the United States has been trying to engineer, or to objectively assess Assange’s situation in relation to the allegations being made against him purely on the basis of his personal position as an Australian citizen.

This represents a profound failure on the part of the Australian government in terms of its obligations to one of its citizens." [Article 1 - here] 
Yikes!  Thomas Bodstrom collaborated with CIA!
Article 2
Article:  'According to the UN International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, Assange’s detention should be ended'
30 Apr, 2015 By Admin - here.
The following really caught my attention in the second article, concerning Sweden's legal manoeuvres:
" ... the case was reopened after a petition to the prosecutor office of Ms Marianne Ny by the law firm Bordström & Borgström. [11] Lawyer Thomas Bodström, in his role of ex Minister of Justice, has been identified by Eva Franchell (press secretary for the late Minister for Foreign Affairs, Anna Lindh) as directly implicated in the collaboration with CIA over the illegal extradition (so called secret extraordinary renditions) of prisoners from Sweden. [12]

Bordström has been reported to the Swedish Parliament ’s constitutional committee over the extraordinary renditions to the CIA in 2001. For this Sweden has already been sanctioned by the United Nations for infringement on the UN Torture Ban. [13]

At that time (10 August 2010), the U.S. government had requested the countries participating in the US-led military occupation of Afghanistan to initiate prosecution of Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. [14]"
  [Article 2 - here]

That's pretty shocking, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, I'll leave those that are interested to check out the articles themselves, at the links provided.







Anonymous - CloudFlare - ISIS - Internet Censorship





Posted: April 29, 2015
Anonymous Charge CloudFlare: Justice or Hypocrisy?
Activists Protest ACTA Proposal
Anonymous — the group of hacktivists — has launched a campaign called Operation Isis several months ago. The members of the group did not just identify and attack websites that are somehow connected with the Islamic State, they also searched for the companies in U.S. and in U.K. that host such websites and published their lists on the Internet. The cause for such attention from Anonymous is terrorism promotion.

Recently, Anonymous focused on CloudFlare, which is not even a proper hosting company, because it protects over 50 Isis related websites against DDoS attacks. The hacktivists launched a petition to the U.S. government so that the company would be criminally charged for supporting terrorism.

According to the comment, given to the International Business Times by company’s CEO Matthew Prince, CloudFlare is not going to fulfill Anonymous’ request and block its services to the Isis websites, because, firstly, it would not make a difference anyways, for the content would not be removed, and secondly, such actions could be evaluated as censorship.

    “We’re the plumbers of the internetWe make the pipes work but it’s not right for us to inspect what is or isn’t going through the pipes. If companies like ours or ISPs (internet service providers) start censoring there would be an uproar. It would lead us down a path of internet censors and controls akin to a country like China.”

Discrimination and censorship is something CloudFlare couldn’t be blamed for — just a few weeks ago, while analyzing the causes of Pirate Bay going down, the Inquisitr mentioned that this website also uses CloudFlare’s services.

    “It is quite possible, and what is worse is that Pirate Bay’s CloudFlare service is not working, either.

    CloudFlare is the website caching service Pirate Bay uses to keep visitors on their site even when it experiences downtime.”

Basically, the fact that CloudFlare provides services to such controversial websites, as Pirate Bay is, should have been sufficient to certify that the company is not going to deny any of its customers.

The petition, however, is unlikely to be a success — till the present moment, it got 185 signatures and needs to get 99 815 more before May 25 to actually make the government take action against the company.

And perhaps it is for the best, because in this case hacktivists seem to act hypocritically. After all, it was Anonymous who waged a huge Operation Payback campaign against PayPal and Amazon for cutting off services to Wikileaks without a legal decision — and that’s exactly what they request from CloudFlare.

http://www.inquisitr.com/2053153/anonymous-charge-cloudflare-justice-or-hypocrisy/
COMMENT

Censorship always freaks me out, so this caught my attention.  Censorship of ISIS doesn't freak me out as much the implications for everyone else.  If censorship of one group can lead to a 'path' of censorship by providers of internet 'pipes' or whatever, it doesn't sound too good overall.

Not sure why material that various groups broadcast on the internet is seen as such a threat that it cannot be countered by alternate broadcasts (ie alternate ideas, arguments, ridicule, other responses etc), rather than by censorship that eliminates the opposing/undesirable message in its entirety.

Anyway, this is just something I found interesting. 


Ukraine Historical & Cultural Revision







Ukraine Pays a Terrible Price for Banderaism
As the Ukrainian government that seized power in the coup rewrites Ukraine’s history, it commits an ever-widening circle of atrocities in conformity with the ideology of Stepan Bandera that it has adopted.

“Two Ukraines but what seem like two different worlds. …And if you want, you can call me a Pro-Russian Communist, but, personally, I much prefer the red star of the partisans of Odessa than the reversed swastika of the Banderites. Although, I repeat, I am a Jew and a Zionist from Israel.” – Arkady Molev (after visiting Lvov and Odessa, Fort Russ)

Life in Ukraine these days is full of fads and fancies, some of them criminal and deleterious, some – just outright stupid. For example, the latest craze is to get rid of all the names of cities, streets and squares associated with Russia.

The effort to erase their own history — after all Ukraine in its present borders was created by the Soviets — leads to some funny or maladroit results.

Vladimir Kornilov, head of the Ukrainian Center for Eurasian Studies, in an interview with the newspaper Vzglyad, suggested that the names that are assigned to the cities and streets by the Ukrainian authorities will not hold for too long.

This is a passing fad, he thinks. After all, “The history of, say, the lion’s share of Ukraine is Russian history, and partly Polish, Romanian, and Austro-Hungarian history. In this sense, the Ukrainians have got used to distort the historical names and rename them back and forth. For example, with rare exceptions, there are no historical names in Lvov [western Ukraine, former Poland].”

The absurdity of this situation is that the Ukrainian nationalists, declaring their fight with the Soviet past, demonstrate the very methods of the Bolsheviks after October Revolution of 1917 – they bring down the monuments and rename all and sundry.

Beside the Bolshevik methods, “they have adopted tactics and ideology of the Nazis and try to completely clean all the historical memory in Ukraine,” says Kornilov. “Everything is done systematically and gradually: on the Maidan in 2004, it was impossible to imagine that someone would glorify Bandera. But after a few years, Bandera is the hero.”

Kornilov said that he won’t be surprised if, in a couple of years, they make Hitler’s birthday a national holiday. “Right now, it seems absurd and preposterous, but 10 years ago it seemed absurd and ridiculous that Ukraine will glorify Bandera and UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).

As far as Bandera’s political cult in Ukraine is concerned, there is a fascinating book by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist. Fascism, Genocide, and Cult (published in 2014). It sheds light on the history of this violent nationalist movement, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In it, the author says:

“Bandera was the ultranationalist or fascist alternative to Stalin and Khrushchev. Though the OUN-B frequently claimed after the Second World War that the UPA was fighting against the totalitarian Soviet Union for a nationalist democratic Ukraine, the reference to democracy was nothing more than a pretence, intended to persuade the United Kingdom and the United States to provide support for the insurgent movement.”

The refrain of fighting for democracy is way too familiar these days – in fact, it is used frequently by the current puppet regime in Kiev. As it was with Bandera’s UPA in the past, this reference brings the same result, that is, a lot of violence toward anyone with dissenting views, as well as the unconditional support of the U.S.A. However, the cruel irony is that it is exactly most blood-thirsty politicians who typically sing this refrain, thus rendering the word “democracy” utterly meaningless. As sad as it sounds, this refrain leaves a bitter taste.

Rossoliński-Liebe doesn’t embellish the darkest moments of the Soviet regime in Ukraine.  He skilfully demonstrates the complexity of the entanglement between Ukrainian and Soviet histories.

“The only enemies of the OUN and UPA remaining after the Second World War II in western Ukraine were the Soviet authorities, who, ironically enough, implemented some of the main goals of the Ukrainian nationalists. By the incorporation of western Ukraine into the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet rulers had achieved the sobornist, or unification of Ukrainian territories in one state, and, by resettling the Poles and other nationalities, they had made Ukraine more homogenous than it had ever been before.

In the end, the historical amnesia of the current Ukrainian government and of some of the brainwashed population leads to the outright ingratitude toward their own past. A past that is intrinsically connected with Russia, whether they want it or not.

In the last year alone, these proverbial “Ivans without roots” have vandalized many memorials and statues that remind them of Soviet times. Just recently, overzealous nationalists demolished a monument to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov in the village of Povcha in Rivne region of Ukraine.

Nikolai Kuznetsov, subsequently recognized as “scout number one” during the Great Patriotic War, personally eliminated 11 generals and high-ranking officials of the occupation administration of Nazi Germany. It was precisely Kuznetsov who managed to obtain information about the preparation of the German offensive at Kursk. According to TASS, he died on March 9, 1944, during a shootout with soldiers of UPA – yes, that same notorious Nazi-collaborating organization whose members have been proclaimed as national heroes of Ukraine on April 9 this year.

In Velikiy Lyuben (Lviv region), the followers of UPA demolished a monument to the 5-year-old Roma Taravsky, a Polish boy who was killed by the Bandera gang. Their perverted pangs of conscience may be the reason why these contemporary ultra-nationalists cannot cope with the truth.

Nonetheless, the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to recognize the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighters as freedom fighters will have numerous repercussions, especially among those who suffered from UPA atrocities the most.

Just a few days ago, former Deputy Defense Minister of Poland, Ret. General Waldemar Skrzypczak, publicly expressed his outrage about this egregious law. He said that he is opposing the policies of the current Ukrainian government, as well as withdrawing his support of Ukraine, expressed earlier when he advocated the supply of offensive weapons for the war in the Donbass.

UPA murdered my uncle. They nailed him with a pitchfork to a barn door. From what I know, he died three days later. Their savagery was beyond imagination. Even the Nazis did not invent the things the Ukrainians did. They hacked people with axes. And they began to kill the Poles in 1939, not in 1943,” he said (as reported by Vzglyad).

“Many people do not know, and those who know are mostly silent, about the fact, that when our soldiers retreated to Hungary and Romania, they were attacked by armed Ukrainian gangs. I would like to know on what foundation is President Poroshenko building the future of Ukraine? Blood-thirsty nationalism? It’s terrible! I have long been telling that Ukrainians must get rid of nationalism, because otherwise cooperation with Poland would be very difficult, if possible at all,” the retired general said.

The ominous shadows cast by “Eurocentric” Ukrainian maniacs are many and various. Among the most prominent are cruelty, Russophobia, servility before their western masters, and a lack of compassion toward their own citizens. Also, a callous indifference.

Ukrainian politicians don’t want to set Donbass free.  However the pompous government that presides in Kiev refuses to provide Donbass with elementary social and medical needs though the people who live there are Ukraine’s citizens.

In the middle of November of 2014, Kiev officially stripped itself of responsibility for civilians caught up in the zone of the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (ATO). In December, the Kiev authorities stopped budget payments for pensions and wages, canceled banking services and stopped passenger transportation by rail to those regions of Donbass that are outside their control. Moreover, they even block whatever humanitarian aid may go that way.

At the end of February, the authorities of Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) confirmed the tightening of the economic blockade by Kiev. “Not a single truck with food is allowed [to enter our territory] … This is against a range of measures signed in Minsk,” said Deputy Chairman of the People’s Council of LPR Vladislav Danego.

According to a recent report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), food is the most essential commodity for the self-proclaimed republics in the Donbass. “It is urgent to provide food assistance to more than 670,000 people, 90 percent of whom are located in the areas not under control of the [Kiev] government,” the document says.

The same report also says that on April 2 another convoy of humanitarian aid from Russia, consisting of 42 trucks, arrived in Donbass. On April 16 another, the 24th in a row, was sent to the Donbass.

Facts like these are seldom mentioned in the western mass media. Anti-Russian paranoia results mostly in far-fetched reports of Russian tanks “invading” Ukraine – none of which are confirmed. One may wonder if humanitarian trucks are wilfully confused with tanks.

In the meantime, the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics declared that they count only on the support of Russia. According to the newspaper Vzglyad, a parliament speaker of the DPR, Andrei Purgin, has also confirmed that the Ukrainian side has actually imposed a blockade of the republic, which greatly complicates the humanitarian situation there. Purgin noted that Donbass is not able to provide its citizens with food and is critically dependent on supplies from outside, because the surrounding steppes are not suitable for agriculture. “Food security on our territory cannot be achieved – here is an industrial region, a land of the cities, industry, and mechanical engineering. We make active attempts to start the food import from the Russian Federation and to find other sources as well. For the most indigent people, we have a network of soup kitchens and a distribution of humanitarian aid. There is progress in a positive way, but the situation is complicated,” Purgin said.

Meanwhile, the OSCE noted on April 7 that the Donbass lacks medical supplies as well.

According to a press-secretary for the special mission of the OSCE, Michael Bochurkiv, the mission recently published a report on the state of infrastructure in the observed area. “The report is based on 55 studied institutions, including hospitals, clinics and orphanages. The facts are shocking: we describe the situation as very unstable from a humanitarian point of view”. According to him, his colleagues found many people on the verge of death due to the fact that they don’t have enough medication. “The situation is similar in some child care centers, where children are on the verge of death because of the lack of medical supplies”.

According to a representative of the mission, the situation is compounded by the fact that “people do not have access to money, pensions, banks, they cannot afford to buy their own medicines that are sometimes offered in hospitals.”

Despite the dire conditions in Donbass, the authorities of Novorossia are full of optimism.  According to Prime Minister of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, the war unleashed by the Kiev Nazis in Donbass will end with the collapse of their regime and the Bandera ideology. “The Kiev clique which seized power in Ukraine has not yet realized that the outcome of the war that was unleashed by them will be a full liberation of the country from the Bandera ideology, and that the Ukrainian people themselves will liberate the country from the fascist plague – those same people who became hostages of the mad politicians.” Zakharchenko stressed that Kiev politicians and their Western “friends” miscalculated when they started a bloodbath in the Donbass. By unleashing war, they have jeopardized the existence of Ukraine as a state, and thus have driven themselves into a trap.

“The instigators of the so-called ‘ATO’ and their foreign backers have played the wrong card and didn’t take into consideration that the Donbass is an impregnable fortress that nobody has been able to win.”

Amen to that!

Alevtina Rea is  a freelance analyst and writer; for seven years (2005 – 2012), she worked as an assistant editor with CounterPunch. Ms. Rea is a contributing author to CounterPunch, Cyrano’s Journal Today, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. She can be reached at rea.alya@gmail.com.
http://russia-insider.com/en/ukraine-pays-terrible-price-banderaism/6191

COMMENT

Interesting update.

Thought I'd check on the difference between Ukraine and Russian language:

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

UKRAINE

RUSSIAN

Take a good look at the Cyrillic script:  it's exactly the same.
Oops.  That's because it was the same pic (which I've now removed updated with the correct corresponding pic).  LOL

How embarrassing. 
I'll have to blame this on someone interrupting me and talking to me while I was loading.  I can't do two things at once.  LOL

Anyway, I've updated with the correct image.
While there is minor differences in both the Cyrillic script and the Latin script, it appears to be merely a matter of pronunciation - kind of like the difference in the way (some) people say 'tomato', 'potato' etc  (with the exception of the word for 'morning' which is materially different).

Yes, I know this is only a small sample, but I'll nonetheless argue that the language differences between Ukraine and Russia probably aren't all they're cracked up to be. 


Holy #%!!$$%@ Batman!

I feel like I'm driving this thing drunk.  Fixed another unexpected boo-boo.  LOL





April 29, 2015

ASSANGE - Media Distortion - The Local








Sweden pulls paracetamol meds from retail sales 1 Nov. b/c of a 40% jump in poisoning cases / young women self-harm

TRANSLATION

"The reason is that more and more poisoned by pain pills since the sale was allowed outside pharmacies for almost six years ago - especially young women who deliberately try to harm themselves." 
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article20707538.ab

COMMENT

The above article caught my attention, so I thought I'd check out information relating to suicides in Sweden.  Random look, out of curiosity.

Got onto The Local Sweden and was surprised to find a pic of Julian Assange in the margin of an unrelated July 2014 article, with a link to a 'Timeline' of 'Julian Assange sex allegations in Sweden.'
Unrelated Article - 28 July 2014
FAIR USE - COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Of course, there's no association whatsoever:  the Assange 'timeline' link features in all The Local Sweden articles - new and old, apparently.
So even if you click on a current article, Why Americans trust Swedish companies, for example, there's the same Assange pic and 'timeline' in the margin.
 Unrelated Article - 28 April 2015

FAIR USE - COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
A quick check indicates this 'timeline' is only a Sweden feature, as it isn't featured in the Austria, France and Germany online editions (although I haven't checked Italy, Norway, Spain or Switzerland).

Back to The Local Sweden edition 'timeline' (which I haven't checked in its entirety for accuracy):
the very beginning of this 'timeline' has left out some pretty important details: 
the matter was dismissed by a prosecutor for lack of evidence before it was revived (which is very unusual); the 'allegations' are police allegations rather than party allegations (the parties merely sought an STD check); the parties had discussions and had met in advance; statements were not taken in accordance with regulations; a policewoman involved in the matter was friend of one of the parties; an unread and unsigned statement was abandoned by one party on learning of police intentions; the unread, unsigned & abandoned 'statement' was loaded onto the police database and subsequently amended.
And that's just off the top of my head without digging up a bunch of other relevant material, in response to only the first brief entry under 'August 2010'.
I've previously noticed such a 'timeline' in their publication, but I didn't examine it and I had no idea it linked to all their stories.  
Uncertain whether it has been an enduring feature of the site, or whether the The Local digs up the link to 'hang out' for a period of time, whenever there is fresh news of Assange.

Whatever the case, it looks like that 'timeline' has been active to some extent or other since 28 Oct 2014:
Published: 28 Oct 2014 12:09 GMT+01:00
Updated: 11 Mar 2015 10:36 GMT+01:00
So what, exactly, is the point of having a simplistic (and therefore distorted) Assange 'timeline' in the margin of every story, new and old, in The Local Sweden?
Perhaps The Local is aiming for an intended audience that's merely interested in some light information?  Even so, I think a 'shallow' readership (ie those with my short attention span ... LOL), wouldn't exactly be overloaded by brief mention of the dismissal and irregularities.

The feeling I get is that a simplistic 'timeline' that excludes material facts (and references to police and other irregularities) is a distortion that may be prejudicial to the public perception of Assange, even if that's not intended effect.
After these look ups and messing around with formatting, I'm over my original intention for the time being.  See.  Short attention span.  LOL.
Suicide rates might have to wait until I take an interest some time again. 




PS ...

Been a bit embarrassed, wondering whether I have a bias, and whether it's too much to expect inclusion of a host of particulars in a 'timeline' of 'allegations'.

But I've gone around full circle and am back at my earlier conclusion:  a 'timeline' that excludes a heap of relevant information is distortion by omission, as the completely whittled down version of events changes how events are perceived by those unfamiliar with the details.
It reminds me of those TV shows where someone's on trial answering a question, and they're immediately cut off by a bullying prosecutor and prevented from providing anything but a 'yes' or 'no' answer, while those that sit in judgement are denied the whole picture.
What is presented and what is withheld is hugely important.





Iran Seizes Merchant Ship 'Maersk Tigris' - 24 Crew On Board





Pentagon: Iran seizes Marshall Islands-flagged ship, US destroyer on standby
Published time: April 28, 2015 14:37
Edited time: April 28, 2015 18:40
Tags
Arms, Army, Conflict, Iran, Military, USA
The Iranian Navy has reportedly seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship with 24 crew members on board. It was previously reported by media that it was a US vessel, though the Pentagon denied those claims.

The navy seized the Maersk Tigris under court order at the request of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, Fars news agency reported.

"The ship was seized after a relevant court order was issued for its confiscation," Fars quoted a source as saying.

The manager of the confiscated ship told a Danish news channel that the 24 crew members are mostly from Eastern Europe and Asia.

IRNA news agency reported conflicting figures, saying that there were 34 crew members on board the vessel, the majority of whom were Europeans.

    Track of #MaerksTigris Marshall Islands-flagged, turning to Bandar Abbas, Iran. http://t.co/B2Qd4WmKqkpic.twitter.com/EqEvNcx2ce

    — MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) April 28, 2015

Pentagon spokesman US Army Colonel Steve Warren confirmed that Iranian forces boarded the Marshall Island-flagged Maersk Tigris vessel after patrol boats fired warning shots across its bow and ordered it deeper into Iranian waters, Reuters reported. He called the decision "inappropriate."

"At first appearance it does seem to be provocative behavior, but again we don't have all the facts yet," Warren told a Pentagon news briefing.

The vessel initially ignored the warning but complied after the shots were fired, Warren said.

The ship had no US citizens on board and was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz when it was seized, the spokesman added, stating that US planes and the destroyer USS Farragut responded to a distress call from the vessel and are monitoring the situation.

    URGENT: Pentagon confirms Iranian forces boarded Marshall Island-flagged cargo ship http://t.co/QvwvM0ZZRA pic.twitter.com/odF6roCL1y

    — RT (@RT_com) April 28, 2015

According to Reuters tracking data, the Maersk Tigris is 'underway.' Its status is set to 'fast' and its destination is listed as Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The Marine Traffic tracking system also says it is heading for Jebel Ali, at a speed of 4.5 knots.

Fars and Al Arabiya previously reported that an Iranian warship was taking the vessel to the city of Bandar Abbas.

The Maersk Tigris is managed by Singapore-based Rickmers Ship Management, part of the Hamburg-based Rickmers Group.

It comes as Iran continues talks with the six world powers on the development of a nuclear deal.

    reports of US ship taken to Bandar Abbas proved false. #VesselTracker#AIS confirms track of Maersk Tigris as vessel pic.twitter.com/aiZipLlEpO

    — Mark Deverill (@mdeverill) April 28, 2015

US Secretary of State John Kerry told a global gathering on nuclear disarmament on Tuesday that a deal is “closer than ever” but that tough negotiations lie ahead. The comment came after Kerry met with Iran's foreign minister on the sidelines.

In a tentative deal reached earlier this month, Tehran agreed to curb sensitive nuclear work for at least a decade in exchange for sanctions relief.

Though Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, the West fears Tehran is using the program to develop atomic weapons.

http://rt.com/news/253853-iran-seize-us-ship/
LOOK-UPS
Rickmers Group
leading German ship owner & manager
concluded negotiations with bankers
to restructure US$1.43 billion of loans
Mar 2015

{Prolonged downturn container & bulk markets}
1st German charter ship-owner to issue bond
raising 175-million euros in June 2013

Rickmers Group
= partnership with US-based Oaktree Capital Management
= joint venture NY-based Apollo Global Management
Mar. 2015
Rickmers Group
= 103 vessels under management / book value of 2.2 billion euros
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/ships-shipbuilding/rickmers-group-seals-14-billion-refinancing_20150302.html

Oaktree Captial Management
Los Angeles
Howard Marks

Apollo Global Management
New York
Leon Black

Rickmers Group
HQ Hamburg
family-owned co.
roots back 179 years
CEO Ronald D. Widdows
http://gcaptain.com/rickmers-group-raise-258-million/

"flags of convenience" to reduce operating costs and sidestep regulation.
Ship owned by Danish conglomerate Maersk.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-28/marshall-islands-needs-u-s-help-in-iran-standoff
*Combo:  Panama, Liberia, and Marshall Islands = 40% flags convenience
---

AP Moller–Maersk Group
Danish
HQ Copenhagen, Denmark
Shipping, Oil & Gas, Retail, Shipyards + more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk

2011 co-op US navy testing algae biofuel
2013 ceased business in Iran - to prevent damage to business w. USA re sanctions
Oil & gas 2008:
22% of revenue
68% of profit
*Suez diversion (away from Africa) b/c piracy {est. $100-m pa costs of piracy}
COMMENT

Shipping seems very exciting.

Piracy looks to be profitable ... if you survive the challenge.

Looks like Suez Canal might be very important to trade/shipping.






April 27, 2015

Ellen Brown article: TPP - Death of the Republic






The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic
Posted on Apr 26, 2015

By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt

Mark Zuid (CC BY 2.0)

This piece first appeared at Web of Debt.

    The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.

    — Article IV, Section 4, US Constitution
A republican form of government is one in which power resides in elected officials representing the citizens, and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people . . . .”

On April 22, 2015, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade agreement that would override our republican form of government and hand judicial and legislative authority to a foreign three-person panel of corporate lawyers.

The secretive TPP is an agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries that affects 40% of global markets. Fast-track authority could now go to the full Senate for a vote as early as next week. Fast-track means Congress will be prohibited from amending the trade deal, which will be put to a simple up or down majority vote. Negotiating the TPP in secret and fast-tracking it through Congress is considered necessary to secure its passage, since if the public had time to review its onerous provisions, opposition would mount and defeat it.

Abdicating the Judicial Function to Corporate Lawyers

James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers:

    The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, . . . may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. . . . “Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator. . . .”

And that, from what we now know of the TPP’s secret provisions, will be its dire effect.

The most controversial provision of the TPP is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) section, which strengthens existing ISDS procedures. ISDS first appeared in a bilateral trade agreement in 1959. According to The Economist, ISDS gives foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever the government passes a law to do things that hurt corporate profits — such things as discouraging smoking, protecting the environment or preventing a nuclear catastrophe.

Arbitrators are paid $600-700 an hour, giving them little incentive to dismiss cases; and the secretive nature of the arbitration process and the lack of any requirement to consider precedent gives wide scope for creative judgments.

To date, the highest ISDS award has been for $2.3 billion to Occidental Oil Company against the government of Ecuador over its termination of an oil-concession contract, this although the termination was apparently legal. Still in arbitration is a demand by Vattenfall, a Swedish utility that operates two nuclear plants in Germany, for compensation of €3.7 billion ($4.7 billion) under the ISDS clause of a treaty on energy investments, after the German government decided to shut down its nuclear power industry following the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.

Under the TPP, however, even larger judgments can be anticipated, since the sort of “investment” it protects includes not just “the commitment of capital or other resources” but “the expectation of gain or profit.” That means the rights of corporations in other countries extend not just to their factories and other “capital” but to the profits they expect to receive there.

In an article posted by Yves Smith, Joe Firestone poses some interesting hypotheticals:

Under the TPP, could the US government be sued and be held liable if it decided to stop issuing Treasury debt and financed deficit spending in some other way (perhaps by quantitative easing or by issuing trillion dollar coins)? Why not, since some private companies would lose profits as a result?

Under the TPP or the TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership under negotiation with the European Union), would the Federal Reserve be sued if it failed to bail out banks that were too big to fail?

Firestone notes that under the Netherlands-Czech trade agreement, the Czech Republic was sued in an investor-state dispute for failing to bail out an insolvent bank in which the complainant had an interest. The investor company was awarded $236 million in the dispute settlement. What might the damages be, asks Firestone, if the Fed decided to let the Bank of America fail, and a Saudi-based investment company decided to sue?

Abdicating the Legislative Function to Multinational Corporations

Just the threat of this sort of massive damage award could be enough to block prospective legislation. But the TPP goes further and takes on the legislative function directly, by forbidding specific forms of regulation.

Public Citizen observes that the TPP would provide big banks with a backdoor means of watering down efforts to re-regulate Wall Street, after deregulation triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression:

    The TPP would forbid countries from banning particularly risky financial products, such as the toxic derivatives that led to the $183 billion government bailout of AIG. It would prohibit policies to prevent banks from becoming “too big to fail, and threaten the use of “firewalls” to prevent banks that keep our savings accounts from taking hedge-fund-style bets.

    The TPP would also restrict capital controls, an essential policy tool to counter destabilizing flows of speculative money. . . . And the deal would prohibit taxes on Wall Street speculation, such as the proposed Robin Hood Tax that would generate billions of dollars’ worth of revenue for social, health, or environmental causes.

Clauses on dispute settlement in earlier free trade agreements have been invoked to challenge efforts to regulate big business. The fossil fuel industry is seeking to overturn Quebec’s ban on the ecologically destructive practice of fracking. Veolia, the French behemoth known for building a tram network to serve Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, is contesting increases in Egypt’s minimum wage. The tobacco maker Philip Morris is suing against anti-smoking initiatives in Uruguay and Australia.

The TPP would empower not just foreign manufacturers but foreign financial firms to attack financial policies in foreign tribunals, demanding taxpayer compensation for regulations that they claim frustrate their expectations and inhibit their profits.

Preempting Government Sovereignty

What is the justification for this encroachment on the sovereign rights of government? Allegedly, ISDS is necessary in order to increase foreign investment. But as noted in The Economist, investors can protect themselves by purchasing political-risk insurance. Moreover, Brazil continues to receive sizable foreign investment despite its long-standing refusal to sign any treaty with an ISDS mechanism. Other countries are beginning to follow Brazil’s lead.

In an April 22nd report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, gains from multilateral trade liberalization were shown to be very small, equal to only about 0.014% of consumption, or about $.43 per person per month. And that assumes that any benefits are distributed uniformly across the economic spectrum. In fact, transnational corporations get the bulk of the benefits, at the expense of most of the world’s population.

Something else besides attracting investment money and encouraging foreign trade seems to be going on. The TPP would destroy our republican form of government under the rule of law, by elevating the rights of investors – also called the rights of “capital” – above the rights of the citizens.

That means that TPP is blatantly unconstitutional. But as Joe Firestone observes, neo-liberalism and corporate contributions seem to have blinded the deal’s proponents so much that they cannot see they are selling out the sovereignty of the United States to foreign and multinational corporations.


__________________
Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 300+ blog articles are at EllenBrown.com.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_trans-pacific_partnership_and_the_death_of_the_republic_20150426#.VT2JQGZfSsk.twitter

COMMENT
firewall

1. Banking:
Laws that obligate a bank to completely segregate its securities underwriting business from its deposit taking and loan making activities. 
These legal firewalls aim to prevent banks from using the depositors' funds in speculative ventures, and thus comply with the statutes such as US Glass-Steagall Act or 1933. 
Also called Chinese wall, or ethical wall.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/firewall.html
Glass-Steagall Act

Passed in 1933 as the Banking Act, Glass-Steagall was chipped away over the years and eventually repealed during the Clinton Administration with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Legislation

James Madison - here.  Fourth President USA.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Thought this was a very good article. 

How scary is the TPP?
I haven't investigated the Glass-Steagall Act repeal or what regulations were subsequently put in force again after the financial meltdown of 2008, or whenever it was.  Post financial meltdown controls put on financial insinuations are now in danger of being negated by the provisions of the TPP.   Too lazy to look now.  This is enough info for me for the time being.
Might have to come back & read about Madison.  Got have a shower.  ;)