Evil Russia Strikes Again!

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 4:49pm

Why are a million protestors out in the streets in Chile?
Could they have legitimate grievances and minds of their own?

A senior State Department official on October 31 said there were "clear indications" people were taking advantage of the unrest and "skewing it through the use and abuse of social media, trolling."
"We have seen indications of Russian activity supporting this negative course of the debate," the official said.

The official added that Moscow has been stepping up its influence in South America, with "very little of it positive."

"They seem to prefer a region divided and they seem to prefer democratic debate mired in conflict, which is unfortunate," he said.

It's perfectly OK for the same people who recently used the Monroe Doctrine as a justification for foreign policy, to lecture Russia over democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
The U.S. would never meddle in other countries.

Russia on Friday accused the U.S. Embassy of having meddled in Russia’s internal affairs when it published a map online showing the route of an unauthorised anti-government protest earlier this month.

Hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians were also recently under the influence of Putin.
After all, it's simply unimaginable that so many working class people could oppose neoliberalism. So it must be Putin!

Meanwhile, Putin continues with his evil plan of supplying Germany with cheap gas.

After months of delays, Denmark’s energy agency announced Wednesday that it had given the green light to allow Nord Stream 2 — an undersea pipeline that will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine when delivering gas to Europe — to build its pipes in Danish waters.
The decision comes as a blow to U.S. efforts to prevent the completion of the Russian-led project, after repeated warnings it will increase European dependence on Russian energy.
...
“I would be surprised if the U.S. does not roll out sanctions on things related to Nord Stream as they are eager to get a foothold in the European gas market via LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports,” Ash added in a research note.

Cheap gas? What's more evil than that?
We should roll out more sanctions pronto. That'll work for sure.

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Submitted by studentofearth on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 7:35pm

Test balloons to shift blame

Asia Times today "Latin America is on fire: Who’s to blame?" suggesting Bolivarian breezes.

Perú, Ecuador, Colombia (to a lesser extent) and, most recently, Chile (with exceptional fury) have endured violent protests challenging government policies that reduced subsidies to products and services.

These four countries are all critical of Venezuela and its dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and have called for his removal. Maduro has responded with a vow to harm them in any way possible.

The Organization of American States (OAS) issued a communiqué stating: “The recent currents of destabilization of the political systems of the hemisphere have their origins in the strategy of the Bolivarian and Cuban dictatorships, which seek to reposition themselves once again, not through a process of re-institutionalization and re-democratization, but through their old methodology of exporting polarization and bad practices, to essentially finance, support and promote political and social conflict.”

Bolivarianism, born in Venezuela, is the late President Hugo Chavez’s anti-imperialist, pro-equality and anti-corruption ideology combining pan-American, socialist and national–patriotic ideals and named after Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century general who opposed the Spanish monarchy in the 19th century and led an independence movement in much of South America.

If (when) our economy goes south the blame can be laid at Russia, Venezuela or Cuba. In addition to Trump and China not finalizing first stage of a Trade Deal.

Chile said it’s calling off the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago in mid-November.

President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were scheduled to meet at the gathering to discuss a possible “phase one” deal that the two countries are close to finalizing.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 8:16pm

With respect to energy

policy in Europe and your reference to Nord Stream 2, Pluto's Republic had a fascinating comment and link about Ukraine. Bold type is my emphasis:

http://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-plundering-of-ukraine/

The Plundering of Ukraine by Corrupt American Democrats
A talk with Oleg Tsarev reveals the alleged identity of the "Trump/Ukraine Whistleblower"
ISRAEL SHAMIR • OCTOBER 25, 2019

… The Ukraine has a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption. The cost of its production was quite low; and the Ukrainians got used to pay pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that the Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did. Despite low consumer price, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure.

After the 2014 coup, IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. The prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating; and huge profits went to coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, President Poroshenko demanded the gas companies to pay him or subsidise his projects. He said that he arranged the price hike; it means he should be considered a partner.

Burisma Gas company had to pay extortion money to the president Poroshenko. Eventually its founder and owner Mr Nicolai Zlochevsky decided to invite some important Westerners into the company’s board of directors hoping it would moderate Poroshenko’s appetites. He had brought in Biden’s son Hunter, John Kerry, Polish ex-President Kwasniewski; but it didn’t help him.

Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, and asked the Attorney General Shokin to investigate Burisma trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these ‘stars’ between 50 and 150 thousand dollar per month each just for being on the list of directors. This is illegal by the Ukrainian tax code; it can’t be recognised as legitimate expenditure.

At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to the Ukrainian corruptioners.

... AG Shokin said he can’t close the case within six hours; Poroshenko sacked him and installed Mr Lutsenko in his stead. Lutsenko was willing to dismiss the case of Burisma, but he also could not do it in a day, or even in a week. Biden, as we know, could not keep his trap shut: by talking about the pressure he put on Poroshenko, he incriminated himself. Meanwhile Mr Shokin gave evidence that Biden put pressure on Poroshenko to fire him, and now it was confirmed. The evidence was given to the US lawyers in connection with another case, Firtash case.

… This is not the only case of US-connected corruption in Ukraine. There is Amos J. Hochstein, a protege of former VP Joe Biden, who has served in the Barack Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources. He still hangs on the Ukraine. Together with an American citizen Andrew Favorov, the Deputy Director of Naftogas he organised very expensive “reverse gas import” into Ukraine. In this scheme, the Russian gas is bought by Europeans and afterwards sold to Ukraine with a wonderful margin. In reality, gas comes from Russia directly, but payments go via Hochstein. It is much more costly than to buy directly from Russia; Ukrainian people pay, while the margin is collected by Hochstein and Favorov. Now they plan to import liquefied gas from the United States, at even higher price. Again, the price will be paid by the Ukrainians, while profits will go to Hochstein and Favorov.

In all these scams, there are people of Clinton and spooks who are fully integrated in the Democratic Party. A former head of CIA, Robert James Woolsey, now sits on the Board of Directors of Velta, producing Ukrainian titanium. Woolsey is a neocon, a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), pro-Israel think-tank, and a man who relentlessly pushed for Iraq war. A typical Democrat spook, now he gets profits from Ukrainian ore deposits.

Submitted by entrepreneur on Sat, 11/02/2019 - 9:28am

Really informative. Also confirms that the neolibs were trying

to innoculate themselves by accusing Trump of exactly the unethical behavior that Biden engaged in, possibly because they thought that Biden was their best hope of getting into the White House.

@Linda Wood

At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to the Ukrainian corruptioners.

policy in Europe and your reference to Nord Stream 2, Pluto's Republic had a fascinating comment and link about Ukraine. Bold type is my emphasis:

http://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-plundering-of-ukraine/

The Plundering of Ukraine by Corrupt American Democrats
A talk with Oleg Tsarev reveals the alleged identity of the "Trump/Ukraine Whistleblower"
ISRAEL SHAMIR • OCTOBER 25, 2019

… The Ukraine has a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption. The cost of its production was quite low; and the Ukrainians got used to pay pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that the Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did. Despite low consumer price, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure.

After the 2014 coup, IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. The prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating; and huge profits went to coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, President Poroshenko demanded the gas companies to pay him or subsidise his projects. He said that he arranged the price hike; it means he should be considered a partner.

Burisma Gas company had to pay extortion money to the president Poroshenko. Eventually its founder and owner Mr Nicolai Zlochevsky decided to invite some important Westerners into the company’s board of directors hoping it would moderate Poroshenko’s appetites. He had brought in Biden’s son Hunter, John Kerry, Polish ex-President Kwasniewski; but it didn’t help him.

Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, and asked the Attorney General Shokin to investigate Burisma trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these ‘stars’ between 50 and 150 thousand dollar per month each just for being on the list of directors. This is illegal by the Ukrainian tax code; it can’t be recognised as legitimate expenditure.

At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to the Ukrainian corruptioners.

... AG Shokin said he can’t close the case within six hours; Poroshenko sacked him and installed Mr Lutsenko in his stead. Lutsenko was willing to dismiss the case of Burisma, but he also could not do it in a day, or even in a week. Biden, as we know, could not keep his trap shut: by talking about the pressure he put on Poroshenko, he incriminated himself. Meanwhile Mr Shokin gave evidence that Biden put pressure on Poroshenko to fire him, and now it was confirmed. The evidence was given to the US lawyers in connection with another case, Firtash case.

… This is not the only case of US-connected corruption in Ukraine. There is Amos J. Hochstein, a protege of former VP Joe Biden, who has served in the Barack Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources. He still hangs on the Ukraine. Together with an American citizen Andrew Favorov, the Deputy Director of Naftogas he organised very expensive “reverse gas import” into Ukraine. In this scheme, the Russian gas is bought by Europeans and afterwards sold to Ukraine with a wonderful margin. In reality, gas comes from Russia directly, but payments go via Hochstein. It is much more costly than to buy directly from Russia; Ukrainian people pay, while the margin is collected by Hochstein and Favorov. Now they plan to import liquefied gas from the United States, at even higher price. Again, the price will be paid by the Ukrainians, while profits will go to Hochstein and Favorov.

In all these scams, there are people of Clinton and spooks who are fully integrated in the Democratic Party. A former head of CIA, Robert James Woolsey, now sits on the Board of Directors of Velta, producing Ukrainian titanium. Woolsey is a neocon, a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), pro-Israel think-tank, and a man who relentlessly pushed for Iraq war. A typical Democrat spook, now he gets profits from Ukrainian ore deposits.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 8:31pm

More accusations of something we're guilty of doing

A senior State Department official on October 31 said there were "clear indications" people were taking advantage of the unrest and "skewing it through the use and abuse of social media, trolling."

lol. Seriously. How many color revolutions have we been involved with that has seen protests turn violent? But to blame that on Russia is taking this Russian farce crap too far. It's bad enough that half the country thinks that Trump and the republicans are under Putin's thumb and that Trump is trying to make Vlad in charge of everything that isn't nailed down by the USA. Or giving the things that are to Russia. The insanity has got to end some time. McCarthy's run at it finally did so what is it going to take to get people to wake the hell up and see that they have been swallowing pure grade A propaganda?

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by Bisbonian on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 8:43pm

Oh Gawd

And I thought I had put up with enough of the Cold War, back in the day.

—

"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Fri, 11/01/2019 - 10:18pm

I sure did.

@Bisbonian
The Powers That Be have found Russia!(tm) and Russiagate(tm) to be useful dogwhistles.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 11/02/2019 - 1:30am

Election night 2016, felt very sorry for sad Javits Center crowd

Three years of Russiagate and now I’m more like, “Well, if that’s all y’all can come up with as a way to cope with having lost, I guess we deserved to lose.”

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 11/02/2019 - 10:09am

Their tears were delicious

@lotlizard

I never felt sorry for those bamboozeled fools at the Javitz Center. Watching Hillary lose was the best thing that happened in 2016, especially after that Machiavellian primary and convention.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Sat, 11/02/2019 - 11:01am

Maybe we should post recipes for those.

@Anja Geitz

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by edg on Sat, 11/02/2019 - 12:38pm

Recipe

@UntimelyRippd

The Tear Soup Recipe

That recipe needs two small modifications. First, change the ingredient "a dash of bitters" to "a dash of bitterness". Second, add the key ingredient "a truckload of Putin and Russia blame".