The Ukraine Thing

I think back to what I witnessed via livestream in 2014 in Kiev and Odessa, and I have a hard time finding fault with Vladimir Putin's rage-speech declaring the non-existence of "Ukraine" -- well, at least without the intervention of Lenin and the Soviet Union.

Seeing him as angry as he was during the speech was startling, though, as his implacability has been one of his consistent characteristics. Commentators are having a hard time figuring it out as they've never seen anything quite like it from him before. 

Baiting the USandNato the way he has been seems terribly unwise, and yet there it is, the Bait, and where it leads, who knows. 

What was going on in Kiev and Odessa among other places around Ukraine back in 2014? I wrote considerably and passionately about what I saw going on in those places during and shortly after the Maidan uprising and coup. It was shocking to say the least.

Most of the many videos that I posted then of what was going on, the violence and the murders, the Right Sektor rampages, and so on are gone, but some are still available, and reviewing it now is disturbing. The parallels between some of the aktions of the Right Sektor and the insurrectionists and their fans in the US and elsewhere is remarkable. So, is there a "system" in play?

This is one of the posts from those terrible days. Most of the video links are now dead, but there is plenty of description of what they showed.

Another post from back then

A video summary of the events surrounding the burning of the Odessa Trades Union building on May 2, 2014 with English subtitles. 

There are many, many more. I was horrified and disgusted by what I was witnessing, and I furiously despised the Americans and Europeans who were encouraging it. 

It's a wonder Russia didn't intervene more than it did. On the other hand, it seemed that Putin wanted the whole world to see what these Ukrainian fascist thugs were doing. When they show you who they are, believe them.

The current anti-Russian propaganda mirrors what was going on then. Let's hope the outcome isn't as dire.

Meanwhile Over in Kiev City

At the inauguration ceremony of the Chocolate King one of his Chocolate Soldiers got the Vapors...



Musta been the heat and the thrill of it all....

Disturbing Though Not Surprising

Been hearing and reading very brief dispatches about this all day, but only now have I been able to see the RT report that started it off:



There is no reason to assume anything about the report is inauthentic.

There is no reason to believe the snipers firing on the crowd and police in the Maidan in Kiev weren't what the speculation now suggest they were: snipers (mercs?) hired by the opposition as murderous provocateurs.

There is at this point no proof, however.

As far as I can recall the events of the day -- and they are a bit hazy as I only came upon reports after the fact -- the Yanukovych government's interior minister deployed armed internal security personnel for the first time on the date in question (February 19?) and authorized them to use deadly force. There were reports of dozens killed, upwards of 80 or 90, mostly demonstrators but some police as well. Many hundreds wounded. But something was odd about these reports. Something that reminded me...

Cairo, last year. When Muslim Brotherhood supporters rallied and protested against the coup which overthrew the Morsi government, snipers were deployed -- presumably by the government -- to dispatch the protesters by picking off individuals in the crowd one by one, shooting them in the head or heart, and terrifying the rest of the crowd. This happened day after day, and on some occasions, it seems that hundreds were killed.

The sniping in Kiev that day seemed an awful lot like what had happened in Cairo, and so it was natural to assume the Yanukovych government was behind it, but Yanukovych said no, he had never ordered any such thing. There were hints and suggestions that the snipers were not "government" snipers, but who they were, nobody could say. This leaked phone call turned up on Russia Today -- more than likely leaked by the Kremlin itself, though the story claims it came from Ukrainians loyal to Yanukovych -- and indications are that those European representatives who went to Kiev (for example, the Estonian foreign minister heard in this call) were made aware that something was not right about the news reports of government security personnel firing on the crowds, and they were told the snipers appeared to have been hired by "the coalition" -- ie: the anti-Yanukovych opposition.

It's pretty clear from the evidence -- as opposed to the propaganda -- that Ukrainian "ultra - nationalists," fascists and neo-Nazis were utilized as shock troops of a sort during the demonstrations in Kiev, committing acts of violence and sabotage on an ever growing scale, including firebombing police, destroying government buildings, and other acts that appeared to be intentional provocations. These acts were almost always blamed on the police in western media, and claims that the police were killing demonstrators were regularly made, but the police in Kiev were unarmed, at least officially, and how they were able to kill demonstrators was never entirely clear. It was simply asserted as fact in western media.

There was rarely any mention in the mainstream media of the violence committed by demonstrators in Kiev; but many alternative media carried shocking videos of mayhem against police and government buildings.

As the demonstrations became more intense, so did the violence until finally there was a kind of Day of Rage outburst which was met by sniper fire.

Come to find out now that the snipers may not have been government deployed forces at all.

I've been poring through the list of agencies and organizations that were under the umbrella of "New Citizen" -- a project of Center UA -- both funded by the Omidyar Network to the tune of over a million dollars (they got much more from USAID). It is a varied collection of opposition groups, but among them are some not nice people whose interests do not lie with the Ukrainian people. They represent, instead, an oligarchic dismantlement of Ukrainian society.

Would they, could they have made such a murderous and bloodthirsty move to overthrow the Yanukovych government?

Well, the golpistas had no trouble doing it in Cairo to secure the success of their coup.

None whatsoever.
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The leaked call:

Propaganda on the Ukraine Thing is Going Hot And Heavy in Full Cry and Constant Loop

Richard Engel, on location, Kiev 02/23/2014 Revolution Complete

The Yanukovych regime's evacuation of Kiev has led to something akin to chest beating, fist pumping, and knuckle dragging on the part of the Establishment and its media handmaidens. I saw the spectacle of Richard Engel "live from Independence Square" in Kiev on Meet the Press this morning that was stomach churning and really rather chilling when you deconstruct it. Let's see if I can embed:

[Potentially] Alarming Developments in Kiev, Bangkok, Caracas, Sarajevo. Cairo Set the Standard...

Morning Screen Grab from Kiev

Generally speaking, people have a right -- and duty -- to rise up in the face of tyranny and oppression. It's not easy, and it can be very risky for those who engage in it, but by and large, large scale social progress is made by means of protests and uprisings of the oppressed all over the world and in all eras.

Generally speaking, the progress that has been made through the means of protests and uprisings has been more or less liberating to those who have previously been oppressed, and that liberation has generally led to more liberation from tyranny and oppression. Thus, most uprisings of the sort we have witnessed for decades now, since the beginning of the fragmentation of the Soviet Union in the '80s, have led to more and more liberated societies and nations.

But the liberation from tyrannical regimes, be they Communist or otherwise, often comes at a huge price to the erstwhile liberated masses, a price that's paid in institutional failure, economic collapse, desperate living conditions, and destruction of social cohesion. The notion that what is lost is somehow "creative" -- thus the term, "creative destruction" so popular among the economic, social and political hit men (and women, I'm looking at you, Legarde) and mercenaries roaming the globe -- simply ignores or even celebrates the suffering left in the wake of so many Color Revolutions and the like over the years.

"Ukraine is burning" ran a breathless headline by one of my favorite authors over at dKos, jpmassar, one of the usually brightest and most keyed in to matters of uprising, revolt, and revolution they have over there. Well, I'd been watching the livestream from Kiev for a good portion of the day already, a livestream that I noted was labeled: Євромайдан -- революция,(ie: "Euromaidan -- Revolution"),  in the upper right corner, something most Americans might miss because they can't read the Cyrillic alphabet, and the corner label would just appear to be some gibberish in a foreign language. Probably (ick) Russian and therefore, given the way media and politics work in the world, slanted to favor the (ick) Russian point of view about (the foreign and unfamiliar) Ukraine.

Uh, no. In fact, the video feed was coming from a rather slick media operation run by the rebels who were burning their barricades in a spectacle in Independence Square in Kiev. As I watched the livestream, it was clear this wasn't just a slick media operation, the visuals were being consciously designed for maximum propaganda impact, not unlike Soviet filmmaking back in the day. It was really very well done, I have to say, but at the same time, it was highly deceptive and manipulative.

First of all, the images made it seem as if the city was on fire -- it's not -- and that the uprising was... general. It's not. These sorts of things don't generally involve a large percentage of the whole population, but they can involve a large proportion of a certain segment of that population (which is apparently what was going on in Cairo and Egypt too just prior to the al Sisi coup which overthrew the Morsi government and led to a brutal and bloody crack-down on Muslim Brotherhood resistance to the coup. But I'll get to that in due time...) The theory is that if a large enough segment of a single population sector or multiple sectors can be convinced to participate in demonstrations and protests and rebellion, then the Revolution is not only nigh, it has already come -- and quite likely whatever results from it will be something like victory for the rebels.

Revolution does not require and will hardly ever involve the whole population in any case. Most people will rationally choose to stay out of the way.

The images last night from Kiev also made it seem that there was some kind of "heroic" action taking place. Debris was being continually fed into the bonfires burning ("gloriously") in Maidan Square, luridly illuminating the scene. Police and firefighters were occasionally seen milling around the margins of what seemed to be a large -- but indistinct -- crowd. Now and then, there would be close ups of the fires and some silhouettes of the crowd passing back and forth in front of the blaze. From time to time, fireworks would be ignited and Molotov cocktails would fly through the air. There was no sound most of the time, but occasionally, there would be heard the pop-pop-pop of gunfire or fireworks, and from time to time, one could hear what sounded like many voices raised in song (was it the Ukrainian national anthem? It was.) Flags were flying, but what was on them was indistinguishable in the dark and the smoke. Some seemed tattered, battle worn, others more or less pristine.

The images from from at least three cameras, and probably more, were being intricately and expertly interwoven, so as to show close-ups, medium and long shots in turn, and at one point, a camera was focused on the silhouette of a young person climbing the outside of a building near the square. A lurid orange glow came from inside the building, and soon enough it would be apparent that the building was on fire. What was the silhouetted figure doing, though? I couldn't tell, and I didn't watch that scene long enough to find out, but in daytime views this morning, it appears he may have been heroically hanging a heroic Revolutionary banner on the outside of the burning trade union building -- or maybe he was just showing off, who knows? It made for some dramatic imagery, however.
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Since the murderous rampages of Al Sisi's forces in Cairo in response to protests against the military coup there, I haven't been much inclined to watch the Global Revolution streams or closely follow the various uprisings that have been or are taking place, whether in Venezuela or Thailand, Ukraine or Bosnia  or much of anywhere else, because it seems to me that they are all rightist rebellions for the purpose of installing rightist regimes which will serve the interests of international finance. It's sickening.

This is not at all what the Occupy Movement was and is about, but every one of these uprisings is using Occupy tactics (along with a little ultra-violence) to gain and have its way. It has reached the point where even otherwise rightist supporters are wary and somewhat puzzled at what is going on.

It's fairly obvious to me. By utilizing the successful tactics of the Arab Spring and the later Occupy Movement to gain the attention and widespread sympathy of media and oppressed peoples around the world, factions of the oppressor class are seeking to mobilize media and world opinion on their behalf to undermine and overthrow governments which dare to take more interest in the people than in the oppressors.

This is obviously what's been going on in Caracas, so obvious it's breathtaking in its chutzpah. But in Thailand, Bosnia, and Turkey it's not been so obvious at all, as it seems the rebels have valid complaints and they are not trying to impose rightist rule -- and the oppression of the lower orders that goes with it -- at least not on the surface. Scratch a bit below the surface, however, and you will find many of the same dynamics, of a minority class based revolt, generally of the relatively well off, backed by a rising plutocratic class, trying to force ("inject") their interests into the popular consciousness enough to be able to overthrow the duly constituted and elected government and replace it with their own unelected one.

They use the tactics of Occupy, Arab Spring, and the Color Revolutions of Gene Sharp -- because they work, or they can work. But their intentions are to impose, to rule, to plunder, and to oppress.

Kiev is not actually burning, but it could erupt in flames at any time. The fires in the square last night were for show, and the show is one of a rightist, populist character, one we're seeing more and more of around the world.

And I have no doubt our metastasizing surveillance and security state apparat is deeply involved in every one of these uprisings. But will that story ever be told in the chest thumping, fist pumping, but largely content-free New Media ventures of Omidyar or any other billionaire? I doubt it.

Even the once iconoclastic Mark Ames and Yasha Levine now of Pando appear to be neutered and are mostly silent about the global rightist coups.

Yes, it's alarming.

Kiev Is Burning

See more US News from ABC | World News

They tell me this is yet another Color Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine, like that in Bangkok, one in which a militant and rising middle class demands that the more or less populist -- though oppressive -- government aligned with the 'lesser people' be gone and neo-liberal "democratic" government and economic policies be instituted.

When Gene Sharp's manual for Color Revolutions was being promoted heavily at Occupy events, I read it, tried to understand Sharp's philosophy about these things, and looked deeper into their results, and I said, "Whoa! Wait. Is this what you want? Is this what you really want from Occupy or any other revolutionary movement?"

Few knew what I was saying, or why, because very few understood the nature and purpose of Color Revolutions, nor did it ever occur to most of them that there were particular -- and highly exploitative -- economic interests behind every one of them, interests that were perfectly delighted to use whatever discontents they could find among the People to get what they wanted out of them, at whatever cost to the People it took.

Those who did understand what I was asking wanted nothing more than to shut me and anyone else who questioned the semi-divinity of Gene Sharp up.

Where I saw the Sharp methods and revolutionary practices had value was in their systems and organization -- which any movement can adopt and utilize, even anarchist ones. The problem is that any movement can adopt them, and that includes counter-revolutionary and reactionary ones. Sharp's directives and directions for carrying out a Color Revolution, and the Revolution itself, are not required to be "leftish" or carried out on behalf of the People (though they are always "in the name of the People.")  Yet that's a marketing slogan. It doesn't have to be -- and typically isn't -- real at all. It's marketing. Bernays on steroids.

In fact, the whole "Color Revolution" schtick is marketing. That's what Sharp was selling. How to organize and market your uprising so it will be successful in the marketplace, how to sell it. Not, by any means, how to achieve the revolutionary ends most beneficial to the greatest number of People. Apart from some yammering about "freedom" and "democracy" the ends are never discussed in Sharp's extensive work. I even dared to ask why that was so. If you don't know why you're having an uprising -- apart from some vague concepts of "Freedom" (for whom, from what?) and "Democracy" (In what way?), then why are you having it?

So I glance every now and then at what's been going on in Kiev and Bangkok, and ponder the disasters in the aftermath the Arab Spring, the general failure of the populist movements in Spain and Greece (among other places), and I see a common pattern. We can go all the way back to the Philippines insurrection against Marcos, or the numerous "Color Revolutions" in Eastern Europe and the eventual destruction of the Soviet Union and any hint of popular resistance to the looming economic and political catastrophe Soviet citizens were being forced to endure,  and see a common thread: these "populist" uprisings were all -- every one of the them -- conducted on behalf of a nascent 'new' oligarchy which wanted to replace the sclerotic 'old' one, using the discontents of a rising but blocked middle class and the often suppressed longings of the poor to gain the leverage necessary to overthrow the Old Order and institute a New one -- a new one that is as bad as, or even worse than, what it replaces. Every. Single. One.

And it is always all about the marketing in Sharp's vision.

Of course, it's supposed to be nonviolent, with nonviolence used as a weapon against internal opposition and against the Old Order, but on the margins, these successful "revolutions" -- or reactionary movements, which is what I came to believe they were -- were remarkably not non-violent at all. The "peaceful revolutionaries" always -- ALWAYS -- held the threat of violence over the state or oligarchy they wished to replace, while simultaneously claiming otherwise, and they sought ways to precipitate or initiate violent repression by the police and authorities so as to gain sympathy for their cause. This is not non-violence; it's an embrace of violence. In Kiev -- and in many other sites where this sort of double-tracking goes on -- there is a lot of violence initiated by the state to be sure, but there is also sabotage and violence initiated by the reactionary-revolutionaries, whether it is burning down symbols of the regime (as happened over and over again in Cairo, for example) to actually burning members of the police force with Molotov cocktails (Kiev, Athens, etc.) .

By comparison to almost any revolutionary movement in history, Occupy was almost preternaturally non-violent. Yet it was met with extraordinary levels of state violence that was widely approved by the general population in large part because they were convinced that Occupations were dirty and disgusting hotbeds for disease, rape and murder.

That, too, was marketing -- by the authorities -- to ensure that Occupy could not become a successful Revolution against the oligarchy that rules the world with rod and staff. Many of the same tactics that were used in the United States (and elsewhere) against Occupy and similar demonstrations are being used against protesters in Kiev and Bangkok, whereas in Cairo, the authorities just shoot into crowds, killing and maiming many thousands so far -- with no apparent end to the mayhem in sight.

But what is it for?

Some loud and energized Ukrainians would would rather be under the thumb of EU Bankers, Neo-Liberals and Technocrats than be aligned with (ick) Russia? Oh Kay, then. Let's have a Revolution!

They say that this year will mark another in a series of years of rage and rebellion around the world. We shall see, shan't we?


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UPDATE: This video has been making the rounds. It shows a phalanx of police in Kiev confronting a large and enthusiastic crowd, members of which are hurling rocks, bottles, paving stones, smoke bombs, and Molotov cocktails at the police who are arrayed behind barricades and shields. Someone in the crowd is driving a front-loader repeatedly into the police line and appears to break through at one point but retreats. The version that is going around stops as the front-loader retreats, but there is another one that shows the action from the ground level, and that's the second one posted here.





You'll note that members of the crowd are attempting to stop the driver of the front-loader and try to speak/reason with the more militant members of the crowd. Others have pointed out that if anything like this demonstration were to happen in the United States, the front-loader driver would be taken out by a police sniper, and the crowd would be gassed and bludgeoned and shot by the police who would promptly arrest any survivors.

Though we're given to believe that the uprising in Kiev has wide popular support, some observers and commenters in this country and elsewhere have noted that much if not all of the violence has been instigated by what amount to Neo-Fascists whose determination is not at all in the interests of the Ukrainian people. In addition, the Ukraine apparently has a broadly divided population, with Eastern populations widely supporting closer ties with Russia (many ethnic Russians live in the Eastern areas) while Western populations widely support closer ties with Europe.

Eventually, this may lead to the break up of the Ukraine -- which wouldn't be the first former Soviet sphere republic to split apart or even engage in civil war.