POWER: Unclear. Again, we're going to see how events transpire today and in the next few days.
Nicely done in that the public relations visit of "Yats" to the city Donestk a few days ago - while he did not meet with the protesters - is a cover your ass preparation for the crushing response that should come within days.
Powers' statement on the protests that "It's professional, it's co-ordinated, there is nothing grass-roots-seeming about it" belongs in the pantheon of mockery that should be given to US foreign policy statements right next to Skull and Bones alumni John Kerry's incredibly asinine enduring classic statement that: "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text". The reference to "coordination" could be rather than anything orchestrated by Russia and Putin the work of globe-trotting corporate mercenaries. There are multiple reports that such hired guns are already involved in the US backed "destabilization" campaign of opposition to the same sort of campaign that was used to overthrow Yanukovych .
Now there was an example of a campaign that rather than being "grass roots" was the culmination of billions of dollars spent to foment rebellion by US taxpayers through the front group The National Endowment for Democracy which took over many of the functions previously undertaken by the CIA during the Reagan administration. Come on now, who are you going to believe? A government whose political class and bureaucrats no longer even bother with any pretense of telling the truth and where practically everything is a staged and focus group tested effort to dupe the public into passive acceptance of decidedly anti-American policies? In a brilliant example of exactly how the propaganda apparatus here in The Homeland operates there is a puff piece at ESPN.COM extolling the virtues of Mrs. Sunstein-Power and the infamous war criminal Henry Kissinger discussing baseball - Kissinger is a Yankees fan and Power's loyalty is with the Boston Red Sox. This will be followed by Sports Illustrated's role in the national celebration of the undeclared state of martial law that was declared last April in Boston when paramilitary police conducted warrantless house to house searches ostensibly to capture Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev but in what was likely an excuse for a live martial law drill in a major US city. So it continues to go on and on, the lies and propaganda never stop as the dismantling of the country and outside of our blissfully cocooned lemming colony the rest of the planet continue with abandon.
The dirty little secret of the entire Ukraine situation is that prior to the orchestrated putsch that installed the puppet government the country had already been sliced, diced and carved into bite sized pieces to be fed to the rapacious, insatiable corporate vultures that comprise the real power behind the throne. Less known than Victoria "f*ck the EU" Nuland's intercepted phone call where she and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt discussed their intent to circumvent the EU to install former central banker "Yats" is an appearance that she made at the National Press Club in Washington to advise the circling corporate vultures that the Obama regime had their back. Nuland advised that "We have invested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine to achieve these and other goals " -- this is taxpayer money that sure could be better used right here at home given the dismal job market and gutting of essential and social service programs than to finance the warfare state and the expansion of the corporate empire to a foreign land. Displayed behind Nuland on the right of the dais was a prominently featured logo for oil giant Chevron, which has a $10 billion shale oil deal with Ukraine on the line. It is of note that the $10 billion is exactly the same figure that officials of the unelected government in Kiev were bemoaning as being lost by the Russian annexation of Crimea. Which took place after a local referendum that won't be recognized by the hypocritical US-EU-NATO schemers who only preach "democracy" when it is one of their corrupt thugs that comes out on the winning end. The violence is coming though, anyone with a working knowledge of US history can see that and soon the jackals, mercs, neo-Nazis and the military will soon be fully engaging in "anti-terrorist" operations. But you won't hear about any of this on ABC's This Week or any of those other surreal inside the beltway circle jerks falsely advertised as news shows on Sunday morning.
For the corporate dismantling of Ukraine there are a few excellent pieces of reading that come with my highest recommendation. Chiefly among them is fine the work of JP Sottile aka The News Vandal. The following excerpt comes from his piece "The Corporate-Foreign Policy 'Deep State' at Work in Ukraine" which links to his pieces published over at Consortium News and Buzzflash as well as provides additional links to all sources:
The visible maneuvering over Crimea and the Cold War nostalgia expressed by belligerent U.S. politicians doesn't quite match the corporate takeover we saw in Iraq. Rather, it feels more like Guatemala & the United Fruit Co. in 1953, or Iran & the CIA in 1953.
The moves are happening on two fronts: energy and agribusiness.
To read my story on Condi Rice and Chevron's new 50-year lease to develop shale gas in Ukraine go to BuzzFlash: The Business of America Is Giving Countries Like Ukraine the Business
Excerpt: Like most American Exceptionalists, Condi Rice's bluster and posturing can be reverse-engineered to find the banal truth about U.S. foreign policy. For example, her steadfast belief that Ukraine "should not be a pawn in a great-power conflict but rather an independent nation" might have something to do with Chevron's 50-year lease to develop Ukraine's shale gas reserves.
When that lease was signed on November 5, 2013, it stoked Russian fears about losing its influence on, and a major gas market in, a former satellite. It also came on the eve of the much-disputed trade deal with the European Union that, once abandoned due to Russian pressure, led to the toppling of Ukraine's government. Reuters characterized Ukraine's "$10 billion shale gas production-sharing agreement with U.S. Chevron" as "another step in a drive for more energy independence from Russia."
To read my story on growing investments by Cargill, Monsanto and Big Ag in the Soviet Union's former breadbasket go to Consortiumnews: Corporate Interests Behind Ukraine Putsch
Excerpt: Despite the turmoil within Ukrainian politics after Yanukovych rejected a major trade deal with the European Union just seven weeks earlier, Cargill was confident enough about the future to fork over $200 million to buy a stake in Ukraine's UkrLandFarming. According to Financial Times, UkrLandFarming is the world's eighth-largest land cultivator and second biggest egg producer. And those aren't the only eggs in Cargill's increasingly-ample basket.
On Dec. 13, Cargill announced the purchase of a stake in a Black Sea port. Cargill's port at Novorossiysk -- to the east of Russia's strategically significant and historically important Crimean naval base -- gives them a major entry-point to Russian markets and adds them to the list of Big Ag companies investing in ports around the Black Sea, both in Russia and Ukraine.
Both stories touch on the "Deep State" of interlocking interests, political fixers and policymakers steering U.S. policy into a long-desired collision with Russia. Ultimately, it's about opening the door to Ukraine's resources for well-connected corporations.
Mr. Sotille also is interviewed here on the libertarian Scott Horton Show at Antiwar.com. Also The News Vandal looks like a good place to visit for information on commentary on a wide range of topics so check it out. I plan on adding it to my list of daily visits.
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