(I plagiarized the idea from Washingtonsblog) If you can’t see the Tweets in their entirety, hold down Control as you press -, then +, – again if you’d like; they should justify.
Save the Children, indeed.
The Great Escapes from Crimea
(h/t marym)
How many invasions by Iran? US? Poster credit to Occupy London, but not sure all the dates are correct. http://t.co/t6Dos03g—
Falguni Sheth (@FalguniSheth) September 26, 2012
And by the by: Happy 66th Birthday, NATO!
Bonus: ‘NATO is Building Up for War: The Rising Swell of Anti-Russian Propaganda’, by Brian Cloughley
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Miz Al-Rasheed seems conflicted over the Saudis bombing the shit out of Yemen is *actually* a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but she does give some fairly good context, given other things I’ve read. (Transcript)
E卐CEPT, as in WWII, the Amerikan deep Bush country remains the fundament E卐CEϟϟ Of EVIL afflicting the world; just consider all the NUTO “crooked crosses” (and Obamanable double crosses) across the Globe, even divotting into EastAsia! (WTF ever happened to Poppy’s SEATO; pretexted for the protection of the opium Bushs of the ‘Nam, anyway?)
But, those NUTO emblems sure bear an uncanny resemblance to the Bush Company logo in Langley, VA! :
Is there a little similarity there? 0, I Think SO!
Read that Counterpunch feature yesterday. $Billion$ more in US arms ought to help the US jobs picture. Not too far away, local snooze was celebrating the award of another Littoral Combat Ship, US Navy contract, promising to hire 200 more workers and a payment of $80M is only the first of several in the $400M price, of course ignoring the larger eventual costs for humanity.
Meanwhile no money to keep seniors and disabled adults in their homes, out of much more costly private care institutions.
Sunny, warm and breezy, got to get back to the garden. Feeding flowers today. ;)
bruce: whoa, the logos are quite similar, and hoo-boy, you’re gettin’ proficient with your alt keyboard symbols! it’s all insane, but nato’s justifications for war evermore *and* the secrecy of the huuuuuge cost over-runs of the new nato palace in brussels are key pieces of fukkery, yes? i love the myth-busting russian series. “no record exists of the promise to *not* expand nato!” (oh, except in libraries full of books…)
the other hoot is that there is a whole list of de facto members, or “friends of nato’s”, which of course includes…ukraine.
jen is also on a charm offensive in europe; they must be worried on accounta so many euro nations joining the new asian development bank. ha ha! pivot, divot, swirl, and twirl. then bomb the hell outta somebody.
there are also great tweets concerning ISAF handing over ‘operations’ in afghanistan to nato. oddly, some of their tweeties were all but impossible to embed. that mean anything, ya think? ;-)
i’ll be back soon.
Fu¢Kerry, InDeed (BEFORE the ink dries):
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/237747-obama-hails-historic-iran-nuke-deal
http://www.sott.net/article/294699-Hypocrites-US-may-bomb-Iran-even-if-a-peace-agreement-is-signed-US-Defense-Secretary
Iran better consider Barry-0’s Invariable RENEGE upon ANY of his serial “promises”! From the PNAC Attackers’ “On the Beach boys’ ” greatest HIT$:
nonquixote: did you ever see eugene jarecki’s ‘why we fight’? (it’s on youtube). one of his major themes was that defense companies would arrange to have components of a fighter jet, say, built in as many states a possible, thereby, making it all but impossible for a congress-critter to nix exorbitant ‘defense’ budgets, even for that cursed jet the military didn’t even want.
well, yes, what we have is a reverse keyenianism now, but: there’s always room for War-O!
it’s too bad that more us-ians don’t care more about ending the war machine. many don’t want this or that war, but they don’t dislike them nearly enough. well. factor is the duopoly electoral system, and all most folks vote for at the federal level are morally bankrupt sell-outs.
bruce: i can’t even afford to play mccain just now. he is truly and demonstrably insane, and why he’s still in front of microphones is a symptom of the degraded state of the nation’s political discourse.
and yes, i’d seen that comment by ashton carter. gareth porter at counterpunch says that no one even knows the text of the deal, and what he read in a transcript is quite ambiguous, and that the eu and amerika ould choose *their* interpretations of iran’ compliance (or not) as they wish. the head of the iaea is a tool of the u.s.a., to boot. but this is a companion piece to yours (the WSJ, iirc, vi RT):
‘Pentagon upgrades biggest ‘bunker buster’ bomb in case Iran talks fail – report’ ‘bunker busters’ being limited tactical nukes, i believe.
http://rt.com/usa/246753-pentagon-ugraded-bunker-bomb/
Wendy, the wanker commenters are a little confused over at RT, this is a deep penetrator bomb with conventional explosives no nukes needed but if it is used it could spread nuke fallout from the nuke facility it targets.
Look at this as just more rhetoric and bullying by the Beasty Boys at the Pentagon who know they can only threaten Iran not attack it because, you know, oil.
I think the Pentagon may have gotten this idea from the WW2 German Schwerer Gustav, a monster rail mounted bunker buster that shot 14,000 lb projectiles and destroyed an ammo bunker, 30m under the bay wrapped in 10m of reinforced concrete, in Crimea.
i was going from earlier explorations of what a bunker buster bomb is, but when i just re-googledy-binged, hoo-boy! the first i dunno how many hits were israeli news sites.
a scan of wiki agreed with you that they were first made by the germans in the wayback, but the wsj notes that it’s the guidance system that is key. but yes, who knows what nuclear material might be unleashed, and that has been a burning question for how many years? not that iran doesn’t have the right to have enough enriched uranium to build a bomb, but any non-proliferation is a laudable idea, imo.
at least they are signatories to the non-proliferation treaty, and as i remember, the US is not. rail mounted, eh? ah, what the hell’ bruce will love it, and it was big when we were coming of age (although the ‘enemies’ seem funny now). me, i grew up reading books on marie curie, and never felt safe again. never mind hiding under my desk in the basement of the grade school i attended, thinking: wtf?
Oh, wendye, this is a lovely post and your golden poppies are the most joyous greeting this our Orthodox Palm Sunday, reflected in the golds and yellows on your first map – I have been meaning to tell you that I come to your site with great anticipation since you have been rotating these splendid ribbons of beauty across the top – thank you!
In my garden it is now the cherry trees and pears that have full,l radiant, bridal blossom, cherry in front, oriental and standard pear in back. We have so much to learn from flora! We are surrounded by an Eden unique in the universe, or at least it does seem to be unique in our galaxy (according to Nova, whose scientists have been diligently hunting light years beyond our perfect little world, and have found planets aplenty – but this one is a wee bit too large, and that sun is somewhat too small; and so it goes. . .)
For the Orthodox, the week this Sunday ushers in is called “Great, Good, and Holy Week.” For Western celebrants of Easter, this is the day. We call the week which then westerners shall be moving through and we will enter after next Sunday, Bright Week. These are the names of beauty, and it is beauty that will save the world, such beauty as that with which you dress your website.
Greetings, golden poppies! You are the peace of the world! Solomon in all his glory, go to the back of the line!
i’s so glad that you like the new banners, ww. i dunno if it’s a new wordpress feature or not, but once i saw it, i stumbled my way through guessing what portions of my photos could work, and *then* noticed a funny icon that turned out to be close to: ‘rotate banners at random’. i just got bells of ireland, another fave of mine, when i clicked in.
the golden poppies are california poppies, and do seem to reseed themselves every year. when the sunlight travels through them, they are a special joy, and their stamens and sepals add such great textural contrast, eh?
Bright Week. who could not love that?
this year i’m planting lots of seeds to make blue flowers, although i had to hunt for them online.
a good palm sunday to you, and a good first day of passover as well.
Lovely letter from your granddaughter, a treasure!
Back to business – in reference to the third tweet above, I backtracked to this:
http://russia-insider.com/en/nato-leader-did-promise-not-expand-heres-proof-his-own-words/5148
it was one our daughter had written to the Eater Byne, found by mr.wd not too long ago while going through old packets of kid stuff in the desk.
but to business: fascinating, and i’ll read it more slowly again, but oddly enough, this morning (instead of making ready to do taxes) i was trying to find more on the original agreement i’d remembered as between poppy bush and gorby. again, a lotta takes out there, but some say from a 2007 speech in a meeting that included helmut kohl, although apparently no text from the meeting survived. but it may not be a formal treaty, not that the usa ever honors its treaties unless it wants to.
thank you.
and wayoutwest: pardon me for breezing by ‘the beasty boys’. it’s purrrrfect.
I wonder why some supporters of Russia continue to whine about an ambiguous rhetorical statement made 25 years ago. The expansion of NATO is a fait accompli and no rehashing of a near meaningless statement will change that fact.
If Russia was concerned about NATO expansion why didn’t they attack the problem then and demand a written, signed agreement, they couldn’t have been so slow as to believe vague promises delivered in a speech.
good point, but wasn’t it likely the missile shield that brought the subject front and center? stir in all the new cold war agitprop, and again it’s being re-debated. brookings institute says that gorby even says it wasn’t a promise in declassified documents, this piece makes the case that plenty of arrangements between or among nations are never formalized, but binding (until they’re not, of course).
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142310/joshua-r-itzkowitz-shifrinson/put-it-in-writing
to me, that nato is trying so hard to debunk it is fascinating, as were the twitter videos they put up trying to discredit the notion that neo-nazis had battalions fighting against the separatists in the east.
“we are taking our cameras into the main squares in various cities to bust the right sektor myths. do you see any nazis here? or here? (more film footage). i find it all hilarious.
even their operation names slay me: the new “noble jump extreme readiness”; “noble justification” in june. disgusting pandering.
added on edit: one other thought about nato’s take on “no promises existed” would be that they may be quite defensive about it all, and even now pretend or state that ukraine and a few other nations i’ve forgotten “aren’t ready for admission to nato”, but at the same time staunchly state that “WE will defend all of our ALLIES”.
I read the whole speech not just the one almost meaningless statement and it seemed to be more about the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance, including the New Russia and Warsaw Pact as vassals under new management directed by the winner of the Cold War.
What bothers me about the harping on this irrelevant point is that it makes Russia look weak and stupid or a victim unable to defend itself which will be necessary if it is to survive under Putin.
i’m in awe of your diligence, not to mention the time you’re able to spend reading, peter. i will take you at your word, as i’ve traveled miles and miles today between visits back here.
i suppose you’re right that putin looks weak and/or stupid, but it might be that because he wants to avoid war that he is speaking to any allies he hopes for, as did maduro when the empire labeled VZ a danger to their security. the outraged pushback from the global south was swift.
will there be similar cracks developing in the nato alliance? maybe, maybe not. are you seeing any effective regime change attempts that i’m not seeing in your wide-ranging reading?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/05/czech-president-bans-us-ambassador-prague-castle
the western world ignores the fact that the ussr seriously made the difference in wwII, i think.
I don’t recall if Putin has ever mentioned this ‘Promise’ as it was allegedly made before he was in power but I do question what use it is to Russia’s situation now whomever is repeatedly bringing it up. Expecting the vassals of Europe to do anything positive, unless it’s self serving, because of pity for Russia is wishful thinking. Greece may produce the crack you mention if the new government is able to survive the troika assault but I doubt many others would follow. Obama has a shiny new plum to offer Europe, trade with Iran, to replace what was lost because of sanctions against Russia.
I didn’t intend to be passive-aggressive in stating I read the whole speech so you don’t have to mock my wide-ranging reading, I have nothing better to do at the moment.
So long as Putin and Russia steers an independent course and refuses the status of Western vassal there will be no recognition of their contributions in WW2 and on other subjects even though the West certainly knows that history.
I hope you enjoyed your Easter dinner, I had some very tasty baked ham thanks to my lovely neighbor ladies.
oh, goodness; i hadn’t been mocking you, just a bit in awe since i’m always too hurried to even read *well* what i read. case in point as to my scattered-brain syndrome: in my dream last night, you had said in answer to my questions: “now focus, wendy”. arrrgh; i even tsk tsk myownself in dreams. ;-)
i’ve been extra jammed this week trying to start seeds, clean up after the family thundering herd, and yesterday i got out all of the paperwork to start the taxes. turns out the irs no longer even sends instruction books, which includes no: envelope, tax tables, work sheets, and tra la la. so…i flipped my zoris, then went to the irs website trying to see what i could use there, and downloading the forms we need.
i made latkes, partly because we had a lot of potatoes, and partly because it’s a traditional passover dish. they were yummy, but your ham sounds good, too. how nice your neighbors shared with you.
i guess i was musing about whether cracks could develop in the now-nato russian periphery nations, but i don’t often make good guesses at geopolitical shifts. but i can say that nato is avidly drumming up support from them, according to nato’s twitter account.
anyhoo, i need to take some time for taxes before i make myself into more of a nutbar than usual. (i’ll post about it.) meanwhile, fdl is falling to dust, although ruth calvo’s potato salad post did have 141 comments, lol.
added on edit: i’d forgotten to mention that you not only remember what you read, and can recall it, create some sort of whole picture, all abilities increasingly lacking for me (not that i always agree with your construction, of course, but they are worthy even so).
It’s difficult for me to see weakness in what sound to me sensible quid pro quos behind the scenes of the difficult negotiations of diplomacy that prevent war. There wasn’t a war over the reunification of Germany, and that in terms of lives potentially lost is a matter to be praised and not called weakness. The same thing happened during the Cuban missile crisis, where events on the surface did not take in all of the parameters of the face off which only surfaced after the event and are still being discussed.
I guess it is a matter of how you define weakness. I think it’s a sign of weakness that the US has to confront and antagonize Russia in order to maintain a powerful hold on the rest of the world’s resources. Weakness with a touch of insanity thrown in.
The erstwhile weak, or rather, the meek, are sitting up and taking notice. It is, after all, the one way forward in a very dangerous situation.
On the subject of the Yemen incursion, I was trying to listen to the explanations on the latest Crosstalk – I was already alarmed that two of the participants came from questionable areas, Oklahoma for one, Dubai the other. Gave up in disgust as the Oklahoman claimed these were people’s uprisings.
“Women and children are people!” I shouted at the two dimensional important person.
I then went to Counterpunch and found this answering paragraph:
Hyping a Proxy War in Yemen
by KEVIN SCHWARTZ
“It is an axiom in mainstream analyses of the Middle East that Sunni and Shii Muslims overwhelmingly operate in society based on their sectarian identity and not much else, regardless of their location (Iraq, Syria, Yemen), profession, tribal or regional affiliations, or other economic and political factors. It is a slight variation on the larger manner in which Muslims, particularly in the West, are deemed to interact in society solely based on their “Muslimness,” where aspects of their identities- whether they are mothers, doctors, businessman, or possibly gamers- are deemed subsidiary to their membership in a religion that has over a billion adherents. The obvious unacceptability of such an approach as applied to members of other religions and ethnicities need not be recounted here. . .”
To a hammer everything becomes a nail. To an extremist, only other extremists exist. To a crazy person, only other crazies make sense.
Can’t we get them to go colonize Mars? They would truly be extremely happy there.
Juliania. I wasn’t referring to the situation at the time of the disintegration of the USSR but to the people today who are bringing up one sentence from a speech from that era. This was a speech not part of any negotiations that happened over the reunification of Germany..
What the USSR believed or even understood what that sentence meant at that time is unknown. Now that Russia is much stronger than then bringing up this issue seems to me to be petty whining that reflects poorly on those involved and on Russia as a whole.
Quite a rogue/rouge gallery near the end of BarryMcGuire’s pre-emptive elegy; but in the “final analysis”, no one beats BozObama! :
http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/war-with-russia-now-much-likelier/