Google’s CEO Larry Page on Improving the World, NSA, Security, and Tesla: TED Talks Interview That Can Make You Smile If You’re Oblivious or Make You Want to Vomit If You’re in the Know

The following TED Talks interview with Google CEO Larry Page will either give you a warm fuzzy feeling all over, or turn your stomach making you feel nauseous to the point where you want to projectile vomit all over your screen.

Larry Page: Where's Google going next?

1. Larry Page on Improving the World
2. Larry Page on the NSA
3. Larry Page on Security
4. Larry Page on Nikola Tesla

I. Larry Page on Improving the World

Now don’t get me wrong, Google has done some good, but why are we expected to dismiss the bad? For example, when Larry Page so valiantly smiles and states that:

Larry Page: “It kind of takes a while to get these projects going, but, you know, I’m super excited about the possibilities of that, improving the world… making life better.” - at approximately 15:45

So are we to forget about the fact that Google, Apple & the biggest tech companies colluded to fix workers' wages:

“Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names, like Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt, were directly involved in a wage-fixing agreement between their companies. That's according to analysis of confidential internal Google and Apple memos reviewed and published by the news site PandoDaily. They found that it wasn't just Google and Apple who were guilty, but dozens of other tech companies were also involved, affecting the salaries of more than a million employees….

“So Steve Jobs goes to Google, which is the big high-flying company at the time in 2005, goes to Google's Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin and basically says, you guys are recruiting my guys. If you don't stop it, we're going to go to war. And generally war in Apple's Steve Jobs' mind means patent infringement lawsuits, frivolous or otherwise.

“So the Google guys backed down. They agreed to a non-recruitment, non-solicitation secret agreement. In the emails that have been revealed later in court documents, you can see that Eric Schmidt, CEO at the time, was worried. He understood, clearly, that it was illegal. You're not allowed to have these cross agreements like this.

“But, nevertheless, it started expanding and expanding from there because it worked in their interest.”

Now ain’t that a kick in the head for the million plus people whose wages were stolen by one of the largest companies in the world colluding with some of the other largest companies in the world to scam their employees from what they should have been paid?

"U.S. companies outside of the finance industry are holding more cash on their balance sheets than ever, with $1.64 trillion at the end of 2013. That’s up 12 percent from the prior record in 2012, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report today. Technology led the charge, with Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. (GOOG), and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) topping the list of cash-rich companies."

How Google, Apple & the Biggest Tech Companies Colluded to Fix Workers' Wages

II. Larry Page on the NSA

If that’s not enough, then how about when the conversation about privacy, Edward Snowden (2), and the NSA (2, 3, 4) begins and Larry Page with his puppy eyes tries to imply that Google was taken advantage of by the NSA:

Larry Page: “For me, I guess privacy and security are very important things. We think about it in terms of both things, and I think that you can’t have privacy without security. So let me talk about security first because you asked about Snowden and all of that, and then I’ll say a little about privacy.

“I think, for me, it’s tremendously disappointing that the government sort of secretly did all this stuff and didn’t tell us. I don’t think we can have a democracy if, you know, we’re having to protect you and our users from the government for stuff we have never had a conversation about.… and I think we haven’t had that conversation, so I think the government has actually done itself a tremendous disservice by doing all that in secret.” - approximately 11:00

This is when Charlie Rose asks the following question/makes the following statement:

Charlie Rose: [The government] “never coming to Google to ask for anything?”

A reasonable comment by Charlie Rose considering how Larry Page was spinning the conversation, but this ended up pushing Page between a rock and a hard place, so he was forced to clarify:

Larry Page: “Not Google, but the public.”

This statement appears to be an admission that Google knew what was going on, but that’s me reading between the lines, so if you’re the trusting sort that would be inclined to believe Mr. Page when he states that the government did this in secret, then the following little fact, that Google gave NSA direct access to its servers, might convince you otherwise:

“The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

“The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says….

“Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan ‘Your privacy is our priority’ – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007.

“It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online….

“Companies are legally obliged to comply with requests for users' communications under US law, but the Prism program allows the intelligence services direct access to the companies' servers. The NSA document notes the operations have ‘assistance of communications providers in the US’.”

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the creepy line of privacy

"A Massive Surveillance State": Glenn Greenwald Exposes Covert NSA Program Collecting Calls, Emails

Google CEO Eric Schmidt on privacy

III. Larry Page on Security

As for when Larry implies that he is concerned about protecting the integrity and security of the Internet, it is common knowledge that NSA has weakened both, in turn seriously hurting American technology companies. As Bruce Schneier has pointed out:

“I think about this all the time with respect to our IT systems and the NSA. Even though we don't know which companies the NSA has compromised -- or by what means -- knowing that they could have compromised any of them is enough to make us mistrustful of all of them. This is going to make it hard for large companies like Google and Microsoft to get back the trust they lost. Even if they succeed in limiting government surveillance. Even if they succeed in improving their own internal security. The best they'll be able to say is: ‘We have secured ourselves from the NSA, except for the parts that we either don't know about or can't talk about.’”

In a recent interview, Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, confirmed Bruce Schneier’s concerns, that NSA’s program is not about creating a “secure cyberspace” but about compromising security; creating backdoors so to eliminate privacy:

“Wizner says that the documents handed over by Snowden to journalists have sparked two different debates: one about law and policy and what Congress should do, and another among the tech community about the way their security has been compromised by intelligence agencies, with the weakening of encryption standards and finding weaknesses in tech giants’ data centers to suck up information.

“‘The tech community, particularly people worried about security, has been radicalized by these disclosures. They now see that their threat model needs to include the NSA as an adversary if they are going to protect their systems,’ says Wizner.”

Edward Snowden and ACLU at SXSW

IV. Larry Page on Nikola Tesla

And for the straw that broke the camel’s back, Larry Page’s comment that compelled me to create this post was the one he made about Nikola Tesla:

“I think invention is not enough. I mean, if you invent something – Tesla invented electric power that we use – he [had trouble getting] it out to people. It had to be done by other people. It took a long time. And I think, you know, if we can actually combine both things, where we have innovation-invention focus plus the ability to really – company that can really commercialize things and get them to people in a way that’s positive for the world, and to give people hope.” - approximately 19:00

This is the comment that made me want to vomit. Anyone who is remotely familiar with what the oligarchs of that period and the banking institutions did to Tesla; how they destroyed his life, stole his inventions, ridiculed him, tried to wipe his name from history, relegating him to a distant whisper on the mouths of scientists and enthusiasts - for anyone who knows what the government, Wall Street and their minions did to one of the greatest minds to ever walk this earth, the man that brought us electricity and much more, the man that had a dream of providing the world with free energy for the betterment of society not for increasing shareholder value to enrich oligarchs, Larry Page’s comments about Tesla would also make you want to vomit.

If you would like to know about Tesla, then the following documentary is a great introduction: “Tesla: Master of Lightning”

Nikola Tesla - Master Of Lightning

The Next Phase of the Economic Collapse Has Begun, Be Prepared: I’m Short the Market, Here Is Why

Consider the following the introduction to Economics on this site and it will be the last in-depth discussion regarding the Markets that we have here for quite some time.

Update: Also see The Mathematics of Economics for additional discussion on Economics.

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Since I know there are a few regular readers on this site that have been here from the beginning, before moving on to this years work on mathematics, I wanted to put out a summary piece on the economy.

I believe we are about to witness the next phase of the so-called economic ‘crisis’ kick in, so here is my perspective. Below, in point form and using my big brush, here is where I come from and what I see.

1. Introduction
2. Disclaimer
3. Five Economic Principles
4. The Business of War
5. Interest Rates and the Nortel Effect
6. Trading Revenue Drops
7. Margin Debt Hits Record High
8. U.S. Tech Companies in Trouble
9. Final Thoughts

I. Introduction

When I first began this project economics was one of the main themes. In 2007 I started compiling data and sharing my perspective of what I saw: a calamity, the coming economic collapse.

From what I understand and what I have been told, those of you that took some of what I wrote to heart were able to protect yourselves and your loved ones from the 2008 economic meltdown. Thank you for your comments and emails, it put a huge smile on my face knowing that what I put my heart and soul into was put to good use.

For those who know not what I am referring to, you will find some of the more in-depth pieces that I wrote about the economy on the Table of Contents from the previous site. Some of the highlights being:

• Collapsing the Economy in the Buildup to World War III: 11 of the Most Important Economic Events of the Last 11 Years
• The environmental revolution will surpass that of our technological evolution: One of our best solutions is to end prohibition
• The dot-com crash did not kill technology: Evolving through exponential growth
• Resignation of David M. Walker, the most important economic indicator of things to come: The Fall of Rome
• Analysis of Our Socioeconomic Metamorphosis
• An economic hurricane is about to wipe out the United States and collapse the global economy: What the future holds

Some of the information from those pages is out of date, some of it was off the mark, most of it was bang on, and some of the events have yet to unfold. The general premise, however, was consistent and is unchanged. The crisis that manifested itself in 2008 has not ended, far from it.

In 2014, the bubbles are larger, the corruption systemic, the veil has mostly been lifted, and the pretence is over. It should be obvious even to the most obtuse that crony capitalism governs every aspect of our society.

As Chris Hedges has pointed out, the system that best describes the ideology of our governments is inverted totalitarianism. It is a system in which economics trumps politics: where short-term corporate profits supersede human rights, environmental protection, and the law. It is a system that creates sacrifice zones, spreading misery across the globe.

Chris Hedges on the 'inverted totalitarian' corporate state

The stimulus that was and continues to be pumped into the markets is a stopgap measure only meant to buy time for those invested in the system to prepare for the inevitable. With interest rates on the rise and the beginning of ‘tapering’, the game has played out (for more on this, see below, “Interest Rates and the Nortel Effect”).

I believe that we are about to enter the next phase of our economic transformation: our growth depended, scarcity based, bubble economy is about to burst, again, so be prepared. Some of the more recent articles regarding our current predicament can be found in the Table of Contents on the left-hand column of this site under ‘economics’. Highlights include:

• Why Stocks Have Risen: Stimulus, Stimulus, and Indefinite-Stimulus, i.e., Transfer of Wealth from Main Street to Wall Street
• Recolonization of Africa, a Symptom of Our Addiction to Growth: Differential Accumulation, Why GDP Growth Rates Influence Foreign Policy
• The 2005 Bankruptcy Bill: Knowing a Financial Crisis Was Imminent, Banks Lobbied Government to Pass Laws to Preserve Their Wealth
• The Surveillance State Killed BlackBerry, and the Same Fate Awaits Other Tech Giants (Update 4)
• Government Shutdown and Appointment of Janet Yellen Guarantees Flow of Funds to Wall Street: They are reducing “two-thirds of this country to subsistence level”, Chris Hedges

I will expand on what is being presented here in the future, however, since my main focus for the next few months will be mathematics, I wanted to make sure that I made it clear where I stand regarding the economy. I don’t have a specific timeline on when or how fast these bubbles will be popping, or slowly deflating, but since the downturn may begin before I have a chance to share further information, I thought it was important to clarify my position.

II. Disclaimer

Please note that this is not financial advice, it is simply my perspective and analysis on what I believe to be happening with our civilization, do with it as you please. For me, I’m 100% short the market, Puts to be exact. I will not expand on this further, just thought I’d share.

III. Five Economic Principles

Five of the main principles that I adhere to are presented below: first, our scarcity based economic system, which is depended on constant growth, has a limit; second, for corporations to maintain this facade of constant growth they require to consolidate their power through mergers and acquisitions; third, disruptive innovation is the driving force of the collapse and rise of industry; fourth, at some point all debt must be reset; and fifth, the military–industrial complex long ago hijacked the U.S. government, thriving with the expansion of war (more on our war based economy below at, “The Business of War”). The following five videos expand on these five principles, respectively.

Limit to Growth: The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8) Continued at Playlist or available as a Full Lecture.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Accumulation Through Crisis: Global Stagflation & the New Wars -- by Jonathan Nitzan The core principle behind this economic theory is Differential Accumulation. Further information on this train of thought at “Differential Accumulation” by Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan.

Disruptive Innovation: Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation - Clarendon Lectures 10th June 2013 The following two lectures continue and expand on his train of thought: “Clayton Christensen on management” and “Clayton Christensen about the process of research”.

Resetting Debt: Authors@Google: David Graeber, DEBT: The First 5,000 Years

Eisenhower warns us of the Military Industrial Complex

Further discussion on our war based economy below.

IV. The Business of War

As I wrote in a piece in 2009, the game at play is the business of war.

In 2008, despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales, “the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals:”

“The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.”

That was in 2008, during one of the world’s greatest recessions. “Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high”, totalling $66.3 billion, “more than three-quarters of the global arms market”, almost 14 times greater than their closest rival, Russia at $4.8 billion.

The United States is in the business of war, and the military–industrial complex does not just influence U.S. foreign policy, it sets it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid.

Tax Dollars At War

To maintain the status quo, our corporate governments will “do anything they can to try to whip up support for the policies they pursue”:

“Governments are power systems. They follow the interests of the concentration of domestic power to which they’re committed.”

One of the primary methods in which governments maintain control is by allocating tax revenues to projects that expand their power. In most cases, the projects that have been deemed worthy of financing guarantee the prosperity of the ruling class.

For the United States of America, its allegiances can easily be determined by examining the total federal receipts relative to the total federal outlays - where the government gets its money and where it spends it.

Obama administration's 2012 budget “contained $2.627 trillion in revenues and $3.729 trillion in outlays (expenditures) .” “The military budget of the United States during FY 2012” totalled approximately $651 billion and $822 billion if all in, between 18% to 22% of total expenditures.

“If we separate the mandatory spending and look only at the discretionary spending component appropriated by Congress on an annual basis and for which all the federal programs compete”, then military spending, depending on the year, accounts for approximately 55%-58% of total expenditures.

source

And that’s what’s on the books, just imagine what’s not on the books.

“Sadly, that is the story of our foreign policy,… We have attacked at least five countries since 9/11. We have launched drones against many more. We have deposed several dictators and destroyed several foreign armies. But, looking around at what has been achieved, it is clear: It is all irrelevant.”

I’m betting, hoping maybe, that the citizens of the United States will put an end to this business, preferably before their country is economically decimated by this all consuming machine, the war racket:

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”

Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential

V. Interest Rates and the Nortel Effect

From 1999 to early 2000, the Federal Reserve had increased interest rates six times, raising the Fed Funds Rate from 4.75% to 6.5%, an increase of over 35%. This meant the end of cheap money for investors, venture capitalists, and technology companies whose lifespan was measured by their burn rate. In essence, the Federal Reserve brought an end to Greenspan’s irrational exuberance, or more accurately stated, the end to expansion of wealth - a self-induced prophecy many have argued.

One of the largest casualties of the tightening of monetary policy was Canada’s Nortel Networks. A company which at its height “accounted for more than a third of the total valuation of all the companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, employing 94,500 worldwide.”

Through accounting magic, Nortel had extended credit to all of its major clients. When interest rates rose, those companies defaulted, and Nortel took the hit:

“Nortel's market capitalization fell from C$398 billion in September 2000 to less than C$5 billion in August 2002, as Nortel's stock price plunged from C$124 to C$0.47. When Nortel's stock crashed, it took with it a wide swath of Canadian investors and pension funds and left 60,000 Nortel employees unemployed.”

This is what I refer to as the Nortel effect, and this is what we are about to witness again in the markets.

The end to stimulus is coming, tapering has already begun, and interest rates will be rising, they have already done so in certain parts of the world. Be prepared.

VI. Trading Revenue Drops

Trading-revenue is dropping across-the-board:

“Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are bracing investors for a fourth straight drop in first-quarter trading, a period of the year when the largest investment banks typically earn the most from that business.

“Citigroup finance chief John Gerspach said yesterday his firm expects trading revenue to drop by a ‘high mid-teens’ percentage, less than a week after JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said revenue from equities and fixed income was down about 15 percent. If trading at the nine largest firms slumps that much, it would extend the slide from 2010’s first quarter to 36 percent.”

Banks in Canada are now in a bidding war to try and drum up business:

“Following RBC’s mid-January announcement that all DIY investors would now pay only a flat commission of $9.95 per equity trade through RBC Direct Investing online and mobile channels. Now TD Direct Investing has responded in kind.”

There are multiple reasons why this is occurring, but all of that is irrelevant. What’s important is that trading revenue is down, indicating a more systemic problem.

60 MINUTES - "The market is rigged."

VII. Margin Debt Hits Record High

During the peak of the NASDAQ bubble, margin debt was at an all time high. Investors and speculators were borrowing against their holdings to be able to purchase additional stocks. When the correction occurred, the value of their securities dropped, which meant that they were required to deposit funds or securities into margin accounts to maintain margin requirements set by their brokers. This in turn created a chain reaction. To cover margin calls, stocks were sold, reducing their value since there were more sellers than buyers, which in turn reduced the value of securities in margin accounts, which in turn resulted in additional margin calls which caused more selling. This was one of the main reasons for the rapid decline in stocks in the year 2000.

In 2007, this was one of the main fears of what was happening to the markets. The amount of margin debt hit a record $285.6 billion in January of that year on the New York Stock Exchange “raising concerns on Wall Street about what might happen if a major correction occurs.” Those concerns raised in 2007 proved to have been valid. Bank writedowns from subprime mortgages resulted in margin calls, which at the beginning of 2008 were predicted to cost mortgage lenders $325 billion - an extremely low estimate as we soon found out.

As of March 2014, Margin Debt has hit a record high of $451 billion:

“Investors are still partying like it’s 1999 — or maybe 2007 — but if you believe in technical indicators the charts might be showing signs of vulnerability. And remember, when the trend really turns, you won’t see it until 6 weeks later.”

source

VIII. U.S. Tech Companies in Trouble

I’ve written extensively on how NSA’s activities have compromised online security and how that in turn is seriously hurting U.S. technology companies so I won’t bother rehashing the same material and just direct you to the relevant articles:

• The Surveillance State Killed BlackBerry, and the Same Fate Awaits Other Tech Giants (Update 4)
• U.S. government knew that revelations about NSA’s PRISM program would hurt American Technology companies, but they didn’t “really really care”, Bart Gellman
• The Irony and the Hypocrisy, the U.S. Department of Defense Is Using Blackberry for Its Privacy (Update on The Surveillance State)
• NSA’s Desperation for Secrecy Leads to Stupidity, Alienating the Hacker Community: ‘Freedom Downtime’, a Call to Arms

IX. Final Thoughts

There are numerous other reasons why I’m short the market: from fake government data to peak resources, from rise in human migration due to extreme climate to rising mistrust of the public in the markets and the banking institutions, from the war on information to market technicals to the expanding wars, but I won’t bother getting into those and other reasons at this time. I just thought it prudent to officially state my position.

The present economic crisis that is enveloping the world is brilliant and frightening. A rapidly changing spectacular play unfolding in real time so encompassing that it will affect every species on this planet. Unfortunately, many still continue to believe that our centralized governments will be able to prevent a global economic meltdown; I don’t think they will, and I don’t think we should allow them to, since under their stewardship we are guaranteed misery.

Actual Jubilation in Crimea vs. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq: Can You Spot the Difference?

1. Actual Jubilation in Crimea

2. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq

3. Can You Spot the Difference?

I. Actual Jubilation in Crimea

The first three videos embedded below are coverage of the celebrations in Crimea regarding the referendum to join Russia. The first is news and footage from western mainstream media sources and the next two contain raw footage provided by RT, the Russian-based television network.

I thought it was prudent to supply the news from the western sources so there would be no doubt as to the authenticity of the footage, just in case anyone thought that the jubilation in Crimea and Russia were orchestrated. We can now move onto Iraq, since there is nothing more to say about Ukraine and Crimea that hasn’t already been said HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Russia Won Crimea Vote - Celebrates Victory over Joining Russia

'We're coming home!' Crimea celebrates after 97% vote for joining Russia

Ukraine: Sevastopol celebrates Crimean referendum with fireworks and flags

II. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq

The two videos embedded below are of the 9 April 2003 orchestrated celebration that was broadcast around the globe by mainstream media (2) supposedly of a spontaneous gathering of Iraqis marching down Firdos Square in the center of Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein’s statue.

taking down saddam

SADDAM'S STATUE TOPPLES

This event was staged. The crowd was small, gathered by the coalition forces, and surrounded by the U.S. military. To complete this farce, in response to what was taking place, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense at the time, told reporters:

“The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad are breathtaking. Watching them, one cannot help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain.”

The Toppling: How the Media Created the Iconic Fall of Saddam's Statue

As Robert Fisk pointed out, it was “the most staged photo-opportunity since Iwo Jima.” David Robie, professor in Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies, stated that:

“I watched BBC World in the lead-up to the toppling. The square was largely empty except for three strategically positioned U.S. Abrams tanks and an armored personnel carrier plus a small paltry crowd of 100 or so, many of then apparently journalists. A BBC World news presenter kept asking, ‘Where is everybody?’”

The mainstream media did not report this as a staged event with barely anyone there to witness it, except for their cameras of course. They celebrated this propaganda extravaganza:

"It is absolutely, without a doubt, a vindication of the strategy." (BBC News at Six, April 9)…

"A war of three weeks has brought an end to decades of Iraqi misery." (ITN Evening News, April 9)…

“On the BBC's News At Ten (April 9), Matt Frei pushed the accepted media interpretation of events: ‘For some, these images have legitimised the war’, he suggested….

"Frankly, the main mood [in Downing Street] is of unbridled relief. I've been watching ministers wander around with smiles like split watermelons." (BBC News At Ten, April 9)…

"[Blair] said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right." (Marr, BBC 1, News At Ten, April 9, 2003)…”

Below you will find four pictures: two wide angle shots of the square showing the small crowd surrounded by the U.S. military, one close up picture of the crowd surrounding the statue, and the fourth, most telling of all, a U.S. soldier draping an American flag on the head of Saddam Hussein’s statue. A video interview with this soldier follows the pictures. (click images to enlarge)









Video: 10 years later: Saddam and the American flag

III. Can You Spot the Difference?

Can you spot the difference between what’s taking place in Crimea and what took place in Iraq? If not, below you will find three videos that will hopefully shine a light on the situation: the first is of George W. Bush declaring the end of hostilities in Iraq in his infamous 2003 ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech given on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln parked just off the coast of San Diego; the second video is of Obama flexing his muscles after NATO and its allies bombed the shit out of Libya, a country that use to have the highest living standard in Africa before we destroyed it; and the third video is of Madeline Albright valuing children’s lives based on their citizenry.

“During his presidency, Bill Clinton presided over the most devestating regime of economic sanctions in history that the UN estimated took the lives of as many as a million Iraqis, the vast majority of them children. In May of 1996, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Madeline Albright, who at the time was Clinton’s UN Ambassador. Correspondent Leslie Stahl said to Albright, ‘We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And — and you know, is the price worth it?’

“Madeline Albright replied ‘I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.’”

It’s amazing that the architects for the normalization of assassinations and those who embraced redefining ‘civilians’ as ‘combatants’ in the drone wars have the audacity to criticize the Crimea referendum, or anything else for that matter. As Ron Paul has pointed out:

“Critics point to the Russian ‘occupation’ of Crimea as evidence that no fair vote could have taken place. Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by U.S. troops was called a ‘triumph of democracy’? Perhaps the U.S. officials who supported the unconstitutional overthrow of Ukraine's government should refocus their energies on learning our own Constitution, which does not allow the U.S. government to overthrow governments overseas.”

Bush: "Mission Accomplished"

President Obama's Libya Speech in 3 Minutes

Madeleine Albright - 60 Minutes

Additional Posts on Ukraine at:

• What Cold War? This Cold War: Death Follows McCain to the Ukraine as the Armenia-ultimatum to Screw over Russia Fails Again for the EU and the U.S. (Update 2)
• What’s Really Going On: Bahrain vs. Ukraine, Can You Spot the Difference?
• The Hypocrisy Is Unbearable: Iraq vs. Crimea, Can You Spot the Difference?

The Hypocrisy Is Unbearable: Iraq vs. Crimea, Can You Spot the Difference? (update)

UPDATE: "Ukrainians must take up arms against Russians so that not even scorched earth will be left where Russia stands; an example of former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko's vitriol in phone call leaked online. She confirmed the authenticity of the conversation on Twitter, while pointing out that a section where she is heard to call for the nuclear slaughter of the eight million Russians who remain on Ukrainian territory was edited (not present in this clip)."

Time to grab guns and kill damn Russians: Tymoshenko tape leak

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Since the hypocrisy of the United States calling for international law to be observed is only lost to the mainstream media, the uber rich, and the bought and paid for of this society with the attention span of a worm, here is a quickie about Iraq vs. Crimea.

1. Iraq Invasion Was Illegal

2. Crimea and the 100 Orders Imposed on Iraq

I. Iraq Invasion Was Illegal

The war in Iraq did not end when the United States was kicked out, not by a long shot (2). The violence in Iraq is on the rise and for decades to come we will have to deal with what the United States and its allies have unleashed.

It’s anyone’s guess if those responsible for this war of aggression (crime against peace) will ever be held accountable for their crimes, what we do know, however, is that the decision to invade Iraq has transformed the global political landscape because according to the UN charter, the invasion was illegal:

“Kofi Annan, declared explicitly… that the US-led war on Iraq was illegal. Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN security council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter. In an interview with the BBC World Service… he was asked outright if the war was illegal. He replied: ‘Yes, if you wish.’

“He then added unequivocally: ‘I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and from the charter point of view it was illegal.’”

Since this post is about the hypocrisy of the fervor regarding Crimea from oligarchs, puppets, and the brain dead, we’ll skip the details of the devastation and the bloodbath that ensued the invasion of Iraq and continues to this day in places like Fallujah.

Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah in 2004: U.S. War Crimes in Iraq

If you do feel the need to understand what really took place, then the following lecture by Scott Ritter provides it. The lecture, which in my opinion should be mandatory viewing for every American and part of every high school curriculum, explains what took place in the buildup to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the opening of Pandora's Box:

“The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday [2006] that the Iraq invasion had opened a Pandora's box of sectarian conflicts which could lead to a regional war and the rise of religious extremists who ‘would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play’.”

Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential

II. Crimea and the 100 Orders Imposed on Iraq

Crimea “is an autonomous republic in the southwestern region of Ukraine, located on the Crimean Peninsula on the North shore of the Black Sea with a predominantly Russian ethnic majority (58%).” The region was part of Russia until 1954 when it was transferred to Ukraine as a ‘symbolic gesture’ by the Soviet Union.

It is also important to note that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been located in Crimea since 13 May 1783, since before the United States was even a recognized country.

On 16 March 2014, the citizens of Crimea voted in a referendum and “97% of voters backed breaking away from Ukraine and joining Russia.” The vote was held approximately three weeks after the democratically elected government of Ukraine was violently overthrown by a western supported coup d'état:

“What I’d do is not have USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy working with U.S. taxpayers’ money to knock off an elected government in Ukraine, which is what they did. I wouldn’t try to force the people of Ukraine into a deal with NATO against their interest or into a deal with the European Union, which is against their economic interest.” - Dennis Kucinich.

Dennis Kucinich about US involvement in Ukraine

I would like to address one main point that many people in the western world keep on bringing up, specifically, that ‘the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was never about occupying or annexing the region forever, while what’s going on in Crimea is about the permanent takeover of the region by Russia’ [sic]. On this issue, we should always remember “Bremer’s 100 orders: The true scale of Iraq’s rape and destruction”, specifically, that one of the main reasons of the invasion of Iraq was to begin the privatization of the region, i.e., the western corporate takeover of the Middle East.

The best example of this new ‘market economy’ being forced on Iraqis from the 100 orders, “binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people that create penal consequences or have a direct bearing on the way Iraqis are regulated, including changes to Iraqi law” - illegal orders mind you based on “The Law of Land Warfare” - was Order 81, the ‘corporate control’ of the country:

“When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called ‘transfer of sovereignty’ in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on ‘Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety.’ This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy….

“The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe. Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these companies to open up operations in Iraq, which the new law has achieved. Taking over the first step in the food chain is their next move.”

Much more information on western hypocrisy regarding Ukraine at: “What’s Really Going On: Bahrain vs. Ukraine, Can You Spot the Difference?”

The Expansion of NATO

From the Pages of Barry Ween: What We Would All Like to Do and Say to the Minions of the Surveillance State

"The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius #1" by Judd Winick

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Barry Ween is a fictional “10-year-old boy who secretly possesses the most powerful intellect on Earth”. His escapades are brilliantly depicted by Judd Winick in the pages of “The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius”.

Barry is a genius, and we’re not talking about the regular Einstein type of genius, or beyond belief Tesla genius, we’re talking about 350 I.Q. “by far the smartest organism on the planet” genius. We’re talking about “self-awareness-in-the-womb-smart” (click images to enlarge).



Being the smartest creature to ever walk this earth, he realizes early on that for his safety and the safety of those that he loves, he would have to remain hidden. After all, we all know what humanity is capable of once fear of the incomprehensible and the unknown takes hold.



His first few years were long and arduous but he withstood them, and at the age of 10 he acquired enough freedom to explore the limits of science and understanding, albeit, still in secret.



NOTE: Spoilers below.

The above six panels are from the first page of the debut issue of the comic published in 1999 (full page). It was a three issue miniseries and contained some of the funniest most amazing adventures that a boy genius and his best friend, Jeremy, along with his childhood crush, Sarah, could have; including, getting sucked into a “big glowing vagina”, turning Jeremy into a dinosaur, and taking a field trip to the museum of modern art.

In 2000, Judd Winick released another three issues containing the adventures of Barry Ween. The comics included tales of aliens, Jedis, time travel, cowboys, Native Americans, and a run in with the surveillance state.

Staying true to one of the main themes of this site; privacy, government secrecy, surveillance, and the inverted totalitarian nature of our corporate state’s war on information, it is the account of Barry’s encounter with the surveillance state that we will sample.

The story so far:

Even though Barry has been fanatically methodical about covering up his tracks, he has underestimated the persistence of the surveillance state. They have been tracking movements of technology across the globe and have been able to narrow a significant percentage to one region, North Eastern United States, where Barry lives (click images to enlarge).



Two years of analysis later, the surveillance state pinpoints the location of the shipments to Barry’s house. Now they want him. They want to use his “powerful intellect” for their own means, much like how the NSA is desperately in search of the youngest and brightest minds in our society to join their ilk.



But there is a mishap. In their haste to get their hands on Barry, the data is inaccurately interpreted and the surveillance state ends up grabbing the wrong kid, Jeremy, the person that Barry cares for more than life itself.



Big mistake, because these “people are fucking with the wrong ten-year-old.” Jeremy is Barry’s best friend, the person that knows him and his capabilities better than anyone else, the person that he would go to the ends of the earth for.



Barry tracks down Jeremy in the headquarters of the NSA… oops, I mean the surveillance state. He gets as close as he can in stealth mode, but once they begin to hurt Jeremy, he breaks stealth and goes berserk, the way that only “the most powerful intellect on Earth” can.

Below you will find what happens once Barry comes to the rescue. I’m willing to bet that what Barry does in these pages is pretty close to what many of us would like to do and say to the minions of our surveillance state, especially the ones that bare such an uncanny resemblance to the main villain in charge in this issue (click images to enlarge).



The following pages are from “The Adventures of Barry Ween: Boy Genius 2.0”, issue #3, p. 21-26.

NSA’s Desperation for Secrecy Leads to Stupidity, Alienating the Hacker Community: ‘Freedom Downtime’, a Call to Arms

In 2012 we witnessed NSA’s Director Gen. Keith Alexander put on a black t-shirt and jeans and head out to DEF CON, “one of the world's largest annual hacker conventions”, in search of the youngest and brightest minds in our society to join his ilk:

“‘In this room, this room right here, is the talent our nation needs to secure cyberspace,’ Alexander told the standing-room-only audience at DefCon, a grassroots gathering in Las Vegas expected to draw a record 16,000 attendees this year. ‘We need great talent. We don't pay as high as everybody else, but we're fun to be around.’”

DEF CON 20 By General Keith B Alexander Shared Values Shared Response [sic]

We all know that top government officials lie, this should be obvious to everyone, especially after watching the “National Director of Intelligence James Clapper commit perjury when he testified before the Senate” when he stated that the NSA does “not wittingly” spy on Americans, but the lies that Gen. Keith Alexander dishes out are something else.

I’ll leave the fun factor bit of working for the NSA to the reader, but to claim that the NSA is working to secure cyberspace, now that’s a pack of lies, unless, of course, he is using the military definition of ‘secure’, implying that he wants to “gain possession”, to obtain ownership, of the Internet. In that case, he is one-hundred percent correct.

As Thomas Drake has revealed on numerous occasions, that is exactly what he meant. It’s something that Michael Hayden, the former Director of the NSA and the CIA and the former Principal Deputy of the DNI, has also confirmed, that the United States government wants to own the Internet.

“It’s important. Very few people are still getting it. It is an information war. See, information is power. Information is the coin of the realm, and the government has decided in the Internet age, the way to control it is to own it. Hayden actually said this well over a decade ago, that ‘we have to own the net.’ I don’t think people fully appreciated what that meant.” - quoted text begins at approximately 5:20 in the following video.

NSA Whistleblower was Witness to 9/11 Foreknowledge

So my money is on the latter, that the U.S. government wants to own the Internet, in which case they should be stopped at all costs, but let’s humor Gen. Keith Alexander’s doublespeak that the NSA is trying to create a safer Internet, in which case, he is blatantly lying.

Everyone knows that the NSA has weakened security, which in turn is seriously hurting American technology companies (2). As Bruce Schneier points out:

“I think about this all the time with respect to our IT systems and the NSA. Even though we don't know which companies the NSA has compromised -- or by what means -- knowing that they could have compromised any of them is enough to make us mistrustful of all of them. This is going to make it hard for large companies like Google and Microsoft to get back the trust they lost. Even if they succeed in limiting government surveillance. Even if they succeed in improving their own internal security. The best they'll be able to say is: ‘We have secured ourselves from the NSA, except for the parts that we either don't know about or can't talk about.’”

In a recent interview, Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, the person in charge of “expanding the right to privacy and increasing the control that individuals have over their personal information; and ensuring that civil liberties are enhanced rather than compromised by new advances in science and technology”, confirm Bruce Schneier’s concerns, that NSA’s program is not about creating a “secure cyberspace” but about compromising security; creating backdoors so to eliminate privacy:

“Wizner says that the documents handed over by Snowden to journalists have sparked two different debates: one about law and policy and what Congress should do, and another among the tech community about the way their security has been compromised by intelligence agencies, with the weakening of encryption standards and finding weaknesses in tech giants’ data centers to suck up information.

“‘The tech community, particularly people worried about security, has been radicalized by these disclosures. They now see that their threat model needs to include the NSA as an adversary if they are going to protect their systems,’ says Wizner.”

Edward Snowden and ACLU at SXSW

The cat is out of the bag, the NSA is undermining the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communication on the Internet:

“The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world.”

Everyone knows what the end game is for the NSA, as Glen Greenwald puts it, “to eliminate all privacy globally.”

Glenn Greenwald "The Goal Of The U.S. Government Is To Eliminate ALL Privacy Globally!"

The government’s latest attempt in trying to ensure that they maintain control by preventing additional leaks of sensitive information is to implement a system where they can “scan workers with secret clearances” (emphasis added):

“US intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances…

“‘What we need is a system of continuous evaluation where when someone is in the system and they're cleared initially, then we have a way of monitoring their behavior, both their electronic behavior on the job as well as off the job,’ Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress last month.”

Government Officials To Spy on Workers With Secret Clearance

And this is how the NSA is shooting themselves in the foot. They are bringing out their top guns, trying to hire the best in the field to help them spy on everyone, including themselves. But they are stupid and arrogant enough to think that the best in class will actually agree to put themselves under a microscope where their every move will be scrutinized.

Anyone remotely familiar with the ‘hacking community’ - I prefer to think of it as anyone that has decided to make the Internet their home - will know that no one from this community will willingly submit to having observers watched their every move, not even close, and definitely not those that are the best at what they do.

If you would like to have a feel for what this hacker community is all about then the following 2001 documentary sharing Kevin Mitnick story, “Freedom Downtime”, will give you a glimpse into this world. You be the judge; do you believe the majority of this community is gullible or corrupt enough to actually decide to work for such people as James Clapper, Michael Hayden, and Gen. Keith Alexander, or are they more likely to create beautiful open-source systems that will undermine what the NSA is trying to achieve; to own the Internet? Where lies the glory; in protecting your home and family, or being a judas? This is a call to arms:

“I think this is a community that will welcome this chance to have a conversation with Ed Snowden,” continues Wizner. “Ed can still do the Oprah interview one day if that’s what he wants to do. But we’re not here to talk about his personal life, or what he does every day, or what any network journalist would have to ask. We’re here to talk about the issues. It’s a call to arms.”

Freedom Downtime

What’s Really Going On: Bahrain vs. Ukraine, Can You Spot the Difference?

1. Introduction

2. Bahrain

3. Ukraine

4. The Point

I. Introduction

What amazes me is that sane intelligent people have become hysterical by consuming western mainstream media propaganda designed to divert our attention away from the root cause of what ails our society.

For example, with the Ukrainian crisis shock doctrine tactics are being used to bombard us into a frenzy, the ultimate purpose for which is to distract us from the great game: Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard (2, 3), our economy’s addiction to indefinite growth, the transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street (2), the resource wars, The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the geography of energy pipelines, the misconception of American exceptionalism and how it influences our foreign policy specifically on how it relates to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the significance of war being a racket (2), and the inverted totalitarian nature of our governments waging war on information (2, 3).

To have a better understanding of what all this is about, below you will find a brief summary of what’s been going on in two major conflict zones, Bahrain and Ukraine. Can you spot the difference?

II. Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a monarchy which has been ruled by the al-Khalifa dynasty since 1783. The present king is Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and he rules the country with an iron fist. He was molded for this position, receiving training from the “British Army at Mons Officer Cadet School at Aldershot in Hampshire” and the “United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas” where he acquired a “degree in leadership” [sic].

In 2011, when faced with a mass popular peaceful uprising from the majority Shia population demanding equality and freedom, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa decided to brutally suppress the protests; injuring, killing, and kidnapping countless people in the process. Some news reports even cited it as ‘genocide’.

“At least 32 doctors, including surgeons, physicians, paediatricians and obstetricians, have been arrested and detained by Bahrain's police in the last month in a campaign of intimidation that runs directly counter to the Geneva Convention guaranteeing medical care to people wounded in conflict….

“Many of the doctors, aged from 33 to 65, have been ‘disappeared’ – held incommunicado or at undisclosed locations. Their families do not know where they are. Nurses, paramedics and ambulance staff have also been detained.”

When it became evident that if this unrest continued the al-Khalifa dynasty might lose their 220 year old strangle hold on the nation and that king Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa might be deposed, a request for assistance was make to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UAE, who in turn sent in their militaries to quell the protests.

Poets, activists, artists, children, lawyers, journalists, doctors, nurses, writers, musicians, along with countless others have been and continue to be imprisoned. Some have even been sentenced to jail for listening to music not approved by the regime. The brutality of the totalitarian nature of this kingdom has gone as far as passing a new law that makes ‘offending’ the King of Bahrain “punishable by up to 7 years in prison.”

“Offending King Hamad can now result in up to seven years in prison, Bahrain announced Tuesday. The news comes just days before the third anniversary of the Shiite-led, Arab Spring-inspired protests against the kingdom’s Sunni monarchy….

“Bahrain convicted and jailed two activists for one and four months, respectively, in 2012 for Twitter comments that supposedly insulted King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Social media comments are included in the new edict.”

Most of western mainstream media has chosen self-censorship, refusing to expose the brutality of this regime. Western mainstream media’s coverage of Bahrain has been so benign that “the regime in Bahrain often openly trumpets the hagiographical treatment it receives”, which is evident by CNN’s international arm’s decision not to air its own documentary on Bahrain's Arab Spring repression:

“Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi.

“It is CNN International that is, by far, the most-watched English-speaking news outlet in the Middle East. By refusing to broadcast ‘iRevolution’, the network's executives ensured it was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.”

Bahrain portion of iRevolution on CNN June 19 2011 (Amber Lyon)

By the way, did I mention that at the time that these protests were taking place, “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived… on an unannounced visit to [Bahrain to] offer American support to the royal family”, and that the “U.S. [was] actively feeding that regime new weapons” (2), and that the United States has a large military base in Bahrain that they have operated since 1971, and that “in 2010, the Navy embarked on a five-year, $580-million project to expand the base, proposing to essentially double the size of the current 62-acre facility”?

During a visit to Bahrain “US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that the United States would not abandon the region. ‘Although the Department of Defense is facing serious budget constraints, we will continue to prioritize our commitments in the [Persian] Gulf, while making sure that our military capabilities evolve to meet new threats,’ he said.”

source

click image to enlarge - source

Just to help put things into perspective, the following two maps show the approximate locations of U.S. Military Bases in South-Central Asia and the Middle East, and some of the Existing and Proposed Oil and Gas Pipelines. Additional maps for this set providing a lot more information available at: “Target is Still Iran: Clear Cutting the Middle East and the Coming Blood Bath (Mapping World War III)”.

click map to enlarge - source

click map to enlarge - source

It’s very important to keep in mind that the protests in Bahrain were and continue to be largely peaceful, and that no delegates from any other country have ever appeared in support of the protesters at any of the locations where demonstrations have been taking place.

Now let’s take a look at Ukraine.

III. Ukraine

Ukraine is a “unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea) and two cities with special status: Kiev, its capital and largest city and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.”

It is widely accepted that Ukraine has been ruled by oligarchs for a very long time, the democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was removed from power by the Ukrainian parliament in February 2014, being one of the most prominent.

We can pick up the Ukraine story in 2004 from the Orange Revolution, or from the 2008–09 Ukrainian financial crisis brought about by Wall Street shenanigans followed by an IMF bail-out (2), or in 2010 when Ukraine passed a law “against joining military alliances such as NATO”, or from 2013 when China decided to buy 3 million hectares of Ukrainian farmland, or we could even go back as far as 1954 when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic transferred Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic:

“On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued a decree transferring the Crimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The transfer of the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine has been described as a ‘symbolic gesture,’ marking the 300th anniversary of Ukraine becoming a part of the Russian Empire. The General Secretary of the Communist Party in Soviet Union was at the time the Ukranian Nikita Khrushchev.”

How about we pick up the story from 21 November 2013, with this latest round of unrest; Dubbed Euromaidan, the protests began in response to a sector of the public “demanding closer European integration” through a trade agreement with the EU which the Ukrainian government had decided to reject.

The agreement was a modified version of the same deal that the EU had offered Armenia, which Armenia also rejected, since the government and the majority of Armenians realized that it was a bad deal. To find out how bad this offer was all we have to do is look at why Armenia also ended up rejecting the offer.

In September 2013, Armenia called off an Armenia-EU Association Agreement after they found out that the trade deal was not really about easing trade restrictions with the EU but about screwing over Russia, and themselves by extension (emphasis added):

“The apparently smooth progress towards a final deal came to a shuddering halt in early September, when President Serzh Sargsyan met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and announced plans to join another economic bloc, the Moscow-led Customs Union. Membership of the grouping, which currently includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan, would require Armenia to adopt a different set of trade tariffs and agreements which EU officials say are not compatible with the Association Agreement.

“Despite this, President Sargsyan says Customs Union membership would not conflict with the EU accord, which he argues could be uncoupled from the DCFTA.

“‘Armenia is ready even now to sign an Association Agreement with the EU,’ Sargsyan said in a question-and-answer session after addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 2. ‘Sadly, our partners in the European Commission have said there is a clear contradiction between the Customs Union and the agreement on a free trade zone.… We have suggested that we could sign just the Association Agreement, which mainly covers political reforms.’….

“‘There has recently been a lot of talk about the civilisational choice facing members of the Eastern Partnership initiative. We have always stated that we don’t believe it’s right to view the issue in those terms.’”

What the EU wanted Armenia and Ukraine to do is equivalent to telling someone that they can come over and play at your house as long as they are willing to permanently tell the rest of their family to fuck off! Insanity!

This rejection by Yanukovych’s administration did not sit well with Eurocentrics, western oligarchs, Euromaidan’s core protesters, the EU, or the United States government. So, the protests turned violent as did the oppression by government forces, which in turn kicked off what is now being referred to as the 2014 Ukrainian revolution which has brought about the ascension of Oleksandr Turchynov and Arseniy Yatsenyuk to power, as President and Prime minister respectively; Yatsenyuk being the person that the U.S.’s top diplomat in Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine had agreed would be the best person to rule Ukraine:

"The two officials also discuss frankly the merits of the three main Ukrainian opposition leaders - Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleh Tyahnybok. The female speaker [Victoria Nuland] says that Mr Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing world champion, should not be in any new government. 'I don't think it's a good idea.' She adds: 'I think Yats (Arseniy Yatseniuk) is the guy who's got the economic experience.'"

Марионетки Майдана (Marionettes of Maidan)

Further information on what was being discussed in the above leaked telephone conversation through the following video in which the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Jen Psaki, is grilled with questions on why the United States is, in essence, conducting a coup d'état, planning a regime change in Ukraine:

“What I’d do is not have USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy working with U.S. taxpayers’ money to knock off an elected government in Ukraine, which is what they did. I wouldn’t try to force the people of Ukraine into a deal with NATO against their interest or into a deal with the European Union, which is against their economic interest.” - Dennis Kucinich.

State Dept. Psaki grilled over leaked ' F**k the EU ' tape - Russia leaked it

This, of course, did not end with simple words. Western oligarchs, one of whom was John McCain, were involved in supporting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine (2):

“We watched today what is going on from the Eastern Europe. Europe parliamentarians are coming to Kiev demonstrating and even camping. Polish parliamentarians are camping in Kiev in Maidan, main square of Kiev city.

“And so yesterday Russian TV showed John McCain arrival to Kiev and he brought with him some luggage, diplomatic luggage, eight big bags: one of them only was set for ... [his] diplomatic car and the seven other big bags were placed in Ukrainian cars and they said that it is money. Huge amount of money brought to spread, to support opposition.

“I asked where is international law? How is it possible to intervene in such ugly way in the internal disturbed situation in Ukraine?

“Money, money and all this was spread [among opposition] and made based on huge amounts...

“So I think that not Russian intervention but European, American intervention, direct appearance in demonstrations, appearance among oppositions, take and flow, making some speeches, encouraging for revolution.

“That I can say, I as a former diplomatic, my job, I cannot even imagine such kind of behaviors are suitable for current international law...”

Victoria Nuland Admits: US Has Invested $5 Billion In The Development of Ukrainian, "Democratic Institutions"
- Please note the Exxon Mobil and Chevron logos flanking Victoria Nuland on the podium -

As for what’s currently unfolding in Ukraine? The situation is dynamic: there is an “anti-Russian revolutionary government in power in Kiev”, “Russia has taken control of Crimea”, Canada’s Stephen Harper is comparing “Russia’s Crimea moves to Third Reich aggression” [sic], Crimea's parliament has voted to join Russia (2), the United States is threatening Russia with sanctions (2) and accusing Russia of a “breach of international law”, Russia is close to calling in a $2 billion Ukraine gas debt (2), some are calling this a new Cold War (2, 3, 4), and video and testimonials have surfaced that indicate the snipers that were assassinating people during the protests were hired by Maidan leaders (2, 3, 4, 5, 6):

“The first day when there was killing, out of the 28 people dead, nine were police. I mean, it’s not normal in these demonstrations, when one side opens fire, and it’s usually the police, but nine of their own people die. So one was always suspicious, at the beginning.

“But from this phone call that you just played, it seems that almost all the snipers were from the opposition side, which is a terrible indictment of their behavior, and also of the—most of the foreign media, which have completely suppressed this phone call, and of Western governments, who have made no reference to it. I mean, to their credit, the new authorities in Kiev claim that they’re going to have an investigation of the sniper issue, but I’ve not heard John Kerry or David Cameron coming out publicly and saying, ‘That’s a very good idea, and these are very disturbing suggestions.’”

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton discuss Ukraine over the phone: Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders - leaked EU's Ashton phone tape
(conversation begins at approximately 2 minutes into the video)

As for what all this is about, as Pepe Escobar, “the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia”, states:

“In a nutshell; Washington’s bipartisan Ukraine policy has always been anti-Moscow. That implies regime change whenever necessary. As the European Union (EU), geopolitically, is nothing but an annex to NATO, what matters is NATO extending its borders to the Ukraine. Or at least Western Ukraine – which would be a valuable consolation prize.

“This is a purely military-centric game – the logic of the whole mechanism ultimately decided in Washington, not in Brussels. It’s about NATO expansion, not ‘democracy’. When neo-con State Department functionary Victoria Nuland had her 15 seconds of fame recently, what she actually meant was ‘We’re NATO, F**k the EU.’ No wonder there will be an urgent NATO Defense Ministers meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, centered on Ukraine.

“No one will ever read that in US corporate media – or in academia for that matter. Harvard Professor Francis Boyle talking to Voice of Russia, or Princeton’s Stephen Cohen in a recent article for the Nation, are glaring exceptions.

“Every informed analyst knows the mastermind of this ‘policy’, since the 1970s, is Zbigniew ‘The Grand Chessboard’ Brzezinski. Dr. Zbig was US President Barack Obama’s mentor at Columbia and is the Talleyrand of the Obama administration’s foreign policy machine.”

The Expansion of NATO

As for what will happen when the dust settles, Pepe Escobar does have some predictions:

“Ukraine is slouching towards federalization. The Kiev regime-changers will have no say on autonomous Crimea - which most certainly will remain part of Ukraine (and Russia by the way will save $90 million in annual rent for the Sevastopol base, which until now was payable to Kiev.)

“The endgame is all but written; Moscow controls an autonomous Crimea for free, and the US/EU ‘control’, or try to plunder, disaster capitalism-style, a back of beyond western Ukraine wasteland ‘managed’ by a bunch of Western puppets and oligarchs, with a smatter of neo-nazis.

“So what is the Obama/Kerry strategic master duo to do? Start a nuclear war?”

Below you will find four maps that should help in providing further information on what some of this chaos may be all about: First is an Ethnolinguistical map of Ukraine (excluding minorities), and the next three are maps of pipelines connecting Russia to the EU.

click image to enlarge - source

click image to enlarge - source

click image to enlarge - source

click image to enlarge - source

IV. The Point

What would the discourse in the United States be if western mainstream media used their resources to investigate the feasibility of U.S. foreign policy; spending billions of dollars overtly and countless billions covertly to overthrow democratically elected governments across the globe? Would the citizens of the United States continue to point their fingers at other nations, and demand the overthrow of those corrupt governments, or would they look inward, and question the overwhelmingly opulent life of their own leaders? What would the world look like if those responsible for so much chaos, death and destruction were brought to justice? Will we ever see that day?

Bill Hicks - It's Just A Ride