Russia

The expat oligarchs holed up in Londongrad won't like these results for sure. And the west will have to put up with more of Putin's rhetoric against the crooked financial system crippling the global economy. There will be more Putin speak against the fascist military occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan etc and the fascist manouvering against Libya, Syria, and Iran. And their corporate sponsored propaganda machines doubling as news agencies will have to do their best to censor Putin for at least another six years. Whoa is them.

Yeah, it can't be easy to get spare parts for those Russian built private jets they used to flee the coop, after having stolen all they could during the Yeltsin years.

Erik Redburn wrote:

Well I think its obvious now that the US doesn't really attack other nations for their lack of democracy. 

It's been made quite obvious for many decades actually, but it still bears mentioning whenever hanging chad Americans, or 39% majority Canadians for that matter, bemoan the state of democracy in places like Russia as if the thought of denying to Russians what we have here in North America profusely saddens them.

Slumberjack wrote:

It's good enough for me that Russians seem to have decided all on their own, despite western corporate media inferences of vote tampering and suppression.  Which resembles a dog faced boy crying wolf if you ask me, in light of their reporting on all the springs that sprouted up everywhere, except in the west of course where protesters are depicted as troublemakers and thugs.  Other countries are not obliged to set term limits on their politicians to suit the interests of Wall Street and Warshington.  Mubarak was kept in power for decades, as was Saddam in the heady days of handshakes with handyman Donald Rumsfeld.  Meanwhile, US chums the Saudi Royal Family needn't ever worry about term limits, preferring the hereditary approach to power succession when the ruler croaks.

So because Canada has an old fashioned electoral system - therefore Putin can fix elections and be president for life of Russia - who cares

and because protesters aren't being taken seriously here in Canada by the media, politicians or the general public -  all the protesters in Russia are phony and who cares how they are treated or what they are fighting for.

This seems such a simplistic take on Putin and Russia for an intelligent person and unprogessive in general.

Dostoyevsky wrote:

So because Canada has an old fashioned electoral system - therefore Putin can fix elections and be president for life of Russia - who cares

Elections in the U.S. and Canada are fixed all of the time with big money control of presidential candidates and political parties. There is basically one party in the U.S. and Canada pretending to be two - the property party representing the richest one percent in both countries.

They even admit to U.S. Government funding attempts to overthrow foreign governments. It's called sedition in the U.S. and dozens of other countries and punishable by years in prison(The U.S. Government would surely view it as an act of war).

As an example, U.S. "ambassador" to Russia Michael McFaul answers his own question about U.S. meddling in Ukrainian elections:

<a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/indianalawreview44110unse/indianalawreview44110unse_djvu.txt">Michael McFaul</a> wrote:

Yes. The American agents of influence would prefer different language to describe their activities - democratic assistance, democracy promotion, civil  society support, etc. - but their work, however labeled, seeks to influence political change in Ukraine. The U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and a few other foundations sponsored certain U.S. organizations, including Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the Solidarity Center, the Eurasia Foundation, Internews and several others to provide small grants and technical assistance to Ukrainian civil society. The European Union, individual European countries and the Soros-funded International Renaissance Foundation did the same.

dostoyevsky wrote:

and because protesters aren't being taken seriously here in Canada by the media, politicians or the general public -  all the protesters in Russia are phony and who cares how they are treated or what they are fighting for.

Admittedly it is true that NYC and other city Policemen asked American reporters for their credentials during Occupy Wall St protests, and at least a few of them were credentialed in the head, legs, kidneys and cranium. Hundreds were arrested and imprisoned for exercising their democratic rights to protest.

They are tear-gassing students in Quebec City for their protest actions/direct democracy.

And there were army snipers on rooftops during G20 protests in Toronto. 

Yes, that is hypocritical. Yes we need democracy right here at home before we can even begin to consider how Putin's support group(ie Russians) have countered foreign 'democracy promotion"/seditious activities funded by the U.S. Government. Put simply, if Occupy Wall Streeters were known to be accepting money and otherwise support from a foreign government, they would end up at the Gitmo Gulag for torture or Rikers Island so fast their heads would spin. The seditioners would be put so far away from daylight that they would need oxygen pumping to their small prison cells, which are so tiny that they can't change their minds unless on a pass to the exercise yard.

Dostoyevsky wrote:

So because Canada has an old fashioned electoral system - therefore Putin can fix elections and be president for life of Russia - who cares ... and because protesters aren't being taken seriously here in Canada by the media, politicians or the general public -  all the protesters in Russia are phony and who cares how they are treated or what they are fighting for. This seems such a simplistic take on Putin and Russia for an intelligent person and unprogessive in general.

It seems to me that the simplistic take would accept at face value, like a gullible fool, western corporate media accounts of election fixing and so called 'home' grown protests in Russia, given what we know about these feckless teleprompt readers posing as journalists on what passes as our news.

How our Understanding of History is Manipulated 

Quote:

It's becoming increasingly apparent that in order for us, the general population, to understand the deeper issues of the current geopolitical situation, it is imperative for us to understand the relevant history.

I will not attempt here to go into what their motives were, but rather into why it is that we, the general public, rarely remember the lessons of the past and continue to be misled about the circumstances leading to each and every conflict.

You see, it's rather like being fed plates of dung, one serving after another.  Instead of recoiling in horror however; the customer, in this case the western media audience, proceeds to lap into it, and with a culinary arrogance to rival the most sophisticated pallette, proceeds to scoff at the uncultured patrons who insist on another menu selection entirely.

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

As compared to accepting at face value, like a gullible fool, state run news media like RT and PressTV?  Please...

Well, it certainly doesn't come down to a 50/50 toss up as to which version of events to believe. Credibility needn't be assigned at all to non-western media sources. One merely needs to interrogate any source of information in terms of the reliability of what is presented, and match it against current and historical events, outcomes and trends. In such an exercise it is better to avoid preferential allowances for our s.o.b. propaganda outlets over someone else's.

Russia Approves WTO Membership Amid Protests

http://rt.com/politics/duma-wto-ratification-entry-807/

"The State Duma has ratified the protocol on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) despite protests by the parliamentary opposition parties. The document that opens a door for the country into the world trade club was supported by all members of the majority United Russia (238 deputies). Members of opposition factions - 201 deputies from the Communist party, LDPR and Fair Russia - voted against.

Earlier on Tuesday, a group of protesters representing the Communist Party (KPRF) gathered in central Moscow with banners reading 'WTO ACCESSION - ROAD TO THE ABYSS!' and 'WTO WILL STRANGLE RUSSIA'..."

Too bad. They're right.

It looks like the babble inquisition is out in full force again and threatening anti-imperialist babblers with suspension under the guise of insulating feminists from overbearing macho types concerned with another round of U.S.-funded sedition and this time in Russia. It's sad, really. It's sad that moderators think so little of feminists with presuming they are incapable of defending their own opinions without protection from the highly opinionated moderators.  The feminist POV on the matter is dictated to feminists before anyone else has a chance to form their own opinions including other feminists. We've been told by Rebecca and Catchfire that our opinions are worthless and amount to so much "conspiracy theory", or pro-American bafflegab for the unspeakable truth. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that this thread is presumed to be safe from the inquisitor's bullying and threats.

Feminists should feel free to express their opinions about Russia in this thread without fear of babble moderators conspiring to steer and shape your thought processes for you in the "Pussy Riot" thread.

54 year-old multimillionaire cold warrior posing as feminist

Because $650 million net worth makes joining the chickenhawk brigade and neoliberalist cause worthwhile. She likely wouldn't spit on ordinary women if they were on fire.

Hi Fidel. You are spamming this thread and the abuse queue with off-topic stuff, which also constitutes harassment. I'm giving you the weekend off.

Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been jailed for two years after staging an anti-Vladimir Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral.

Judge Marina Syrova convicted the women of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had "crudely undermined social order".

The women say the protest, in February, was directed at the Russian Orthodox Church leader's support for Mr Putin.

The US, UK and EU all criticised the sentences as "disproportionate".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19297373

P.S. We have to find a better way to handle the misbehaviour of regulars than by handing out suspensions. This isn't a criticism of the mods decision but rather a plea for another mechanism by which to handle misbehaviour.

ETA:

Ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov was among several people arrested outside the court in Moscow, where three members of Pussy Riot punk band were found guilty of hooliganism.

Caissa wrote:

 

P.S. We have to find a better way to handle the misbehaviour of regulars than by handing out suspensions. This isn't a criticism of the mods decision but rather a plea for another mechanism by which to handle misbehaviour.

The only 'misbehaviour' has been by the moderators. And this IS a criticism..

 Free Voina-Pussy Riot Performance Art from bourgeois Western Liberal Pinhead Political Appropriation End Babble's Authoritarian Message Control Suppression Moderation Police! (and vid)

http://theendofbeing.com/2010/07/30/voina-vaginal-liberation-of-food/

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a4d_1204458756

FREE SLUMBERJACK! FREE FIDEL! And an end to Babblers complicity,servility and acquiescence to unjust and arbitrary power!

Strangely enough, Kasparov also got the absurdist NSFW treatment a few years back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRslKeT0EmQ

And @ Eliza Q

Exactly.

Just because the U.S. is currently the worst of the worst that means we are rooting for everyone else trying to claw their way to the bottom, and everyone trying to resist them is just an American stooge? Remind me again how that is counter-revolutionary activity, now that the Soviet Union is gone, and the joint has been run by gangsters for the past 20 years. They aren't even pretending to be socialists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

This is who I am supposed to shake my pom poms for? Sorry, I'm not quite that stupid.

The links I posted above are to situate and broaden awareness of VOINA and PUSSY RIOT in the Russian Avant Gard performance art scene. I have long admired the performance art work of VOINA but have not been at all pleased with the very careful and circumscribed treatment of Pussy Riot, in MSM and here. Despite the overlapping memberships of key members in both collectives. That people have been maligned, banned and suspended for raising the not so little matter of a huge exploitation - connection to Western geopolitical designs on a supposedly progressive site but which is actually run in a very small minded and parochial manner continues to cripple and diminish.

The problem at issue is the selective liberal mass-advocacy of only those issues  close to the heart of the US State Department complete with their interpretation as well, while all around is wilful and studied indifference to other joints and other gangsters..This tendancy to be led by the nose of the MSM with respect to issues is most unfortunate.

Pussy Riot Spotlight Takes Focus Off Western-Backed Human Rights Issues (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/pussy-riot-global-media-spotlight-035/

"As the Pussy Riot sentence creates a global outcry with governments framing it as 'disproportionate' and the public rallying in 'We are all Pussy Riot' demonstrations, Robert Naiman from Just Foreign Policy tells RT who is behind the sensation. over 5,100 federal and regional news outlets have reported the Pussy Riot verdict and sentence, media monitor News Effector reports...

Catchfire wrote:

Hi Fidel. You are spamming this thread and the abuse queue with off-topic stuff, which also constitutes harassment. I'm giving you the weekend off.

Sorry, but it was a grand total of two flagged posts in the queue, the first to alert you to someone's repeated endorsements of a pro warmongering newz site based in a country ruled by an absolute monarchy. FYI broadcasting pro war propaganda is supposed to be illegal since the Nuremberg trials. It has no place here. Or at least, I don't think it does and esp. not if babble is advertised as an anti-imperialist social forum for progressive people. 

The other flagged message sent to the queue was, I admit, unnecessary. I wrote three words, "Same to you." in response to a certain other mod's bizarre ad hominem attack against me in the "Pussy Riot" thread. Pussy Riot is receiving far more attention from certain people than they ever gave the Dixie Chicks during the NeoMcCarthyite Al CIA'duh/red scare decade of the 2000's. And it doesn't surprise me or those of us who identify with anti-imperialism. It's noticeable.

And if we lookup the meaning of the word spamming, it means something else entirely.

You shouldn't take this personally, but have you ever considered the possibility that you are just not a very good moderator sometimes? j/k. 

Fidel wrote:

 receiving far more attention from certain people than they ever gave the Dixie Chicks

Yeah, whose post "I'm ashamed the president is from Texas" album debuted at #1, was the 9th biggest seller of 2006, won all 5 grammy awards for which it was nominated, got them on the cover of Newspeak...

If suspensions were intended to resemble cold showers on a blustery Siberian morning, the effect was lost on me because it was sweltering here the last few days.  In the meantime, Vic Toews is reportedly interested in locking up the Roma on sight, and so I had a few thoughts to spare on that for the crowd at the cbcnews.ca gulag, where many minds are imprisoned by hatred it seems.  There's bigger things going on than virtual jailers on the rampage.  There's people in real jails that shouldn't be for instance, which should tear at our souls far more than any results from of our interactions here.  Thanks for the support though.  I coudn't respond to the PMs or posts because they didn't provide any toilet paper to write on.  Anyways, there's more than enough grudges in society that we needn't maintain any here.  I hope the thought will be borne in mind during the next heinie paddling session.

Fidel wrote:

The U.S. Government openly admits to supporting Pussy Riot. They'ev fess'd up already. And if members of Pussy Riot were to intentionally offend religious people in the U.S. similarly, it would be a hate crime.

Is that supposed to mean something?

Hell, the German high command ordered Lenin put in a sealed train and shipped across enemy lines. And I am sure you know the conspiracy theories about how Trotsky got out of jail in Halifax.

I guess that makes the Bolshevik revolution an act of western Imperialist aggression too, right?

I have to ask, how do you resolve these simplistic "enemy of my enemy" flow charts of yours when they run into a wall? Do you throw a couple of polyhedral dice like in D and D to figure out who is more bad so you know who to cheer for?

Or is it always the Americans by default?  (oops. I guess I just outed myself as one of their covert agents)

Come on ElizaQ and S&W get with the program... everything on the planet is a big CIA false flag triple layered extra crispy all-seeing counter thing-a-ma-jigger plot: even the punk rock scene in Moscow is controlled by the CIA. They probably even faxed Pussy Riot the lyrics to their songs.

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Come on ElizaQ and S&W get with the program... everything on the planet is a big CIA false flag triple layered extra crispy all-seeing counter thing-a-ma-jigger plot: even the punk rock scene in Moscow is controlled by the CIA. They probably even faxed Pussy Riot the lyrics to their songs.

 

Well at least they seem to have some good writers and picked some intelligent and well spoken women to serve them up.  I suppose I could at least be thankful for that. 

 

ElizaQ wrote:

Well if saying they support Pussy Riot is the only evidence needed of them being behind it as in plot, then I guess people like Madonna and Sting and whoever else around the world has thrown in their support must be in on it too.  Wonder how communication is coordinated.

Ever hear of "non-governmental organizations"? They are supposed to operate at arm's length from U.S. Government, but they aren't very good at covering-up their ties to Uncle Sam. 

They've been funding the political opposition in Russia for a long time. If foreign governments were to ever fund political opposition in the U.S., or even the Dixie Chicks, people would be thrown in prison left and right. FYI funding political opposition or protest groups in the USA is illegal under a host of old U.S. sedition laws and now with the expansion of repressive anti-protest laws under Homeland "Security." The USA does it all the time with the intent of overthrowing foreign governments. The Yanks would consider it an act of war if it happened in America and likely pin the blame on some oil-rich nation as a result.

Geez, I guess next they'll be sending the Black Marias over to the offices of Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy, Physicians for Peace, Amnesty International and the Society of Friends.

Of course after that they will head over to round up those two criminals who somehow managed to successfully sue the govenrment over the Bush T-shirt arrest you mentioned.