Fasten your seat belts – Iran saving democracy in Iraq

Iran may rescue Iraq from a major threat posed by a Sunni Muslim extremist group formerly aligned with Al Qaeda.

A few days ago, ISIL, a Sunni Muslim group, attacked and captured Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul, population 1.8 million, located in Northern Iraq near Iran’s border. ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  The group was formally expelled from Al-Qaeda in February due its extremism and the fact that it was attacking Al Qaeda forces in Syria, where both groups were attacking Syria and its government. (Image: Fabian Bromann)

Ukraine President Once Agent for U.S. State Department

Ask yourself, how would you regard a high level U.S. politician who met regularly at a foreign embassy and consistently advanced the interests of that country. 

Is he still working for his former masters in Washington, DC?

Why does the US govt support attacks on civilians in Ukraine?

By Michael Collins

Support by the United States government for Ukraine reached stunning levels of immorality with the clear endorsement of the Kiev government’s attacks on civilians in eastern part of that nation. Numerous reports (see below) in the world press indicate that the Kiev government is indiscriminately attacking the city of Slavyansk.   That leaves no doubt that the Ukraine army and National Guard are attacking civilians. (Image: Save Donbass Children)

In addition to the widespread news of attacks on Slavyansk, there are also on the scene reports of Ukraine bombardments of the following eastern Ukraine cities: Seemyovka, Slavyansk, Kromatorsk and Donetsk City.

This represents a high-risk path for the Obama administration and the new cold warriors in Congress. It’s one thing to kill civilians in the context of seeking to overcome the latest evildoers. It’s quite another to support a government led by an oligarch that orders attacks on entire cities with irregular troops drawn self identified Nazi sympathizers and the nation’s regular forces. 

Hot War with Russia – The Saker

What’s the likelihood of a shooting war with Russia over Ukraine?  What are the military realities that the United States and it’s NATO collaborators see when they consider a real war in behalf of their proxy government in Ukraine?  Leading edge blogger, The Saker, provides an extended analysis that answers these questions convincingly.   Along with George Eliason’s superb analysis, The Saker is taking citizen journalism to new heights. (Image: Thomas Williams)

A short time before The Saker’s post, we got a bit of good news.  The official propaganda organ of corporate America, Associated Press,  ran this headline at 12:38 PM PDT – AP:  Ignoring Putin, Ukraine Insurgents to Hold Vote. It doesn’t take much to read these tea leaves. Putin is being let off the hook as the evil genius behind the people of Eastern Ukraine. After a little bit of corporate media rehab, Obama will be able to accept Putins ongoing offer to negotiate a reasonable ending to the mess that they created (unless the neocons sabatoge it).

Remembering the important lessons of the Cold War
The Saker at The Vineyard of the Saker

Turnabout is Fair Play – Cuba and Ukraine

Russia’s response to United States and European Union efforts in Ukraine represents a more restrained, lower stakes version of the response by the U.S. to the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1962. Today, the headline above could be inverted to read:

Russia Blockades Ukraine, Tells US to ‘Lay Off”

Proof of Turkish False Flag – Erdogan Hail Mary

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government was caught planning a false flag attack on ISIL rebels in Syria according to audio recordings released today on YouTube.   Erdogan warned Syria that any attacks on the shrine to an 11th century religious figure revered by Turks would cause a military response by Turkey.   The shrine is located just inside Syria on the border with Turkey.  There are no reports that any party in Syria has attacked the shrine. (Syrian False Flag, Mar 24)

A false flag operation could mobilized much needed support for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is facing major challenges in March 30 local elections. Since December 17, audio tapes of secret wiretaps exposed criminal behavior by Erdogan and his cronies.  The PM’s response has been varied but a clue to the desperation came when Erdogan said that he would be vindicated of all charges when his party received an endorsement from the people in the elections, now just days away.  

Turkish PM Erdogan Bans Twitter – Usage Soars

“The international community will say this and that [about the ban], and it doesn’t concern me one bit. [The world] will see the power of the Turkish Republic.”  Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister, Turkey, March 20

Things didn’t work out as planned for PM Erdogan when he tried to shut down Twitter in Turkey on Thursday, March 20.  However, the world did see the power of the Turkish people who boosted Twitter usage from 4.54 million to 6.04 million messages in the period after the government ordered the service banned according to the Somera Social Media Rating service.  In addition to the 33% increase in message traffic, Somera reported a 17% increase in users.  Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, sent a message to Turkish users offering alternatives to access the service.  (Image:  Twitter) 

Rust Chole’s Conversion – True Detective Finale

This world is a veil and the face you wear is not your own.
Preacher Joel Theriot, True Detective

Tent preacher Joel Theriot’s full sermon from episode three of True Detective provides a preview and explanation of detective Rust Cohle’s conversion from a laconic nihilist extraordinaire who can barely live with himself to an enlightened soul with some prospect for peace.

In episode 7, Cohle laments his long journey through violence and depravity then says I’m ready to tie it off. Many suspected that this forecast death for Cohle in the final episode. In a very real sense, that theory proved correct but it was a different type of death.

Emperor Obama Issues Edicts on the Ukraine

Is anybody listening?

President Barack Obama appears to be at some distance from reality.  He’s issuing statements about the Ukrainian situation as though he were the maximum leader of a vast empire that includes just about everywhere except Russia and China.

The scope of the president’s edicts is remarkable considering the lack of public support, even interest, in using the influence of the United States in this conflict.   In addition, the Obama threats and actions are riddled with inconsistencies.

Ukraine Navy is No More – Joins Crimea

Why are we not surprised?   The United States neconservative initiated action in the Ukraine is backfiring.  The head of the Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Denis Berezovsky, just announced that the navy is now in the service of the Crimean Autonomous Republic.

“I, Berezovsky Denis, swear allegiance to the Crimean people and pledge to protect it, as required by the [army] regulations. I swear to take orders of Crimea and Sevastopol’s Supreme Commander,” Berezovsky said as seen in video footage.   All Navy troops dislocated in Sevastopol are ordered to disregard any commands coming from Ukraine’s new self-proclaimed authorities,” the PM also declared. “Do not take any orders of using arms till my personal instructions.”  RT (Russia Today), Mar 2, 2014   

Seymour Hersh, Sarin, and the Obama Deception on Syria WMD

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

The people of the United States were subject to a deliberate deception by the Obama administration concerning the use of chemical weapons in Damascus, Syria on August 21 according to leading investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh.  No stranger to big stories, Hersh has a successful track record of books and articles based on sources deep in the United States intelligence community.

Masters of disaster bring cholera to Haiti and polio to Syria

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

Deliver them from their rescuers …

Haiti and Syria are victims of their rescuers.  The two nations are now sites of major disease outbreaks.  Cholera in Haiti and polio in Syria didn’t just happen.   Through negligence, those who claim to rescue the people imported the disease entities and fostered the conditions for wider outbreaks.

680,000 cases of cholera in Haiti since UN rescue mission

Obama’s Speech on Syria – Analysis

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

President Barack Obama spoke as if his political future was on the line Wednesday evening during his address to the nation on the Syria crisis. He went through the horrors of the Syrian civil war, blamed the Syrian government for the August 21 chemical weapons attack, and provided verifiable (but, as yet, unverified) statements of fact concerning his certainty that the Syrian government initiated the chemical weapons attack. (Full speech)

A serious question for Democrats on Syria

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

Leaders of the Democratic Party and their media side kicks are giving President Barack Obama a free ride on his proposal to attack Syria.  Along with the Republican leadership, they’re ignoring the strong opposition to any attack by citizens in both parties and independents.

The president’s proposed military strike targets a government that has neither attacked nor threatened to attack us or our allies.  Obama did so without any intent to get congressional approval and before any evidence was made public.  He and the Secretary of State announced the attack without regard to clear international law which bars the unprovoked attacks on sovereign nations.

One Million Protest in Brazil Last Night – Tropical Spring

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

Sparked by a public transportation fare increase in Sao Paolo a week ago, an estimated one million people showed up in cities across Brazil expressing  discontent with the limited opportunities they face and an indifferent government.

“It’s not really about the price anymore,” said Camila Sena, an 18-year-old university student at a Wednesday protest in Rio de Janeiro’s sister city of Niteroi. “People are so disgusted with the system, so fed up that now we’re demanding change.”  USA Today, June 20, 2013

How Congress let Monsanto off the hook

By Michael Collins
COTO Report

Not many people like the messes Congress makes but everybody should see how they’re made.

This article takes a close look at the legislation just passed by Congress and signed by President Obama allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to issue executive orders that bypass regulations, safety, and science for the purpose of speeding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered seeds (GE) and crops to market.  The way the law is written, Secretary Tom Vilsack can lift restrictions on GMOs for a set period and, it appears, do so without hindrance from the courts.

The People Say Stop the XL Pipeline – Will Obama Listen? Does He Care?

By Michael Collins

(Washington, DC 1/17)  The nation’s capital hosted over 40,000 citizens assembled to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  The crowd urged President Obama to bring to reality his lofty words on climate change in the inaugural address just days ago.  By stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, the president would deal a blow to the rogue energy companies who, by their actions, are ready to sacrifice everything to transport oil from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands, across the United States, for refinement in Houston, Texas and shipment to China.

The broader concern of the gathered citizens and march sponsors, 350.org, and the Sierra Club, represents the existential issue of our time.  We need to get very real, very soon on the manifest threat to the earth’s climate posed by fossil fuels and the threat to the human species embodied by insane ventures like the Canadian tar sands project.  The verdict of science is clear.  As leading climate scientist James E. Hansen said, the full exploitation of tar sands oil and use by China, or any nation, is “game over for the climate.”

Liar’s Poker – Obama and Cameron on Syrian WMD

Michael Collins
(Washington, DC, 12/9)  Here we go again.

On, December 3, President Barack Obama warned the Syrian government against using chemical weapons against, among others, NATO-Saudi sponsored fighters trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

A few days later, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s foreign secretary claimed that he had evidence the Syrian government plans to use chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the rebels.

After Obama’s December 3 warning, Syria denied any intent to use the weapons “no matter what the circumstances” as they had after an earlier Obama warning.

U.S. and British government officials are unreliable sources on this subject.

Does the government of President Bashar Assad intend to use chemical WMD?

Susan Rice’s Conflict of Interest – Major Holdings in Tar Sands Oil, Keystone XL Pipeline, and Canadian Financiers

By Michael Collins

(Washington, DC 11/29) United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice will face serious and blatant conflicts of interest if nominated and confirmed as United States Secretary of State.  Rice has major financial interests in the company extracting oil from the Canadian tar sands, the company building the pipeline that will carry the oil across the U.S., and the Canadian banks financing this deadly project. (Image)

As Secretary of State, Rice would be responsible for the key recommendation to President Barack Obama on lifting the president’s ban on construction of the Keystone XL pipeline imposed in January.  She would make the decision knowing that there would be major impact on nearly one third of her (and her husband’s) investments.

Election Fraud, November 6 – Watch for Vote Flipping and Fixed Exit Polls

By Michael Collins

(Washington, DC) Our elections are officially privatized.  They are hidden from our view by design.

On November 6, your votes will be cast and tallied on voting machines manufactured and serviced by private companies.  The computerized voting machines run on software that is closely held as a trade secret by these companies.  Our elections officials are barred from examining the most important aspects of the software.  Why?  Because those same officials signed away our right to open access and inspection of the voting systems that tell us who won and who lost each and every election.  (Image: WikiCommons)

This is the most profound election fraud imaginable.  It affects every citizen, all 311 million of us.