aerdil posted:Shortly after taking over, Xi asked,
I'm getting pretty sick of these tumblr pronoun jokes, guys.
Psaki: Well, just to be clear - and maybe I wasn’t as clear yesterday, so let me try to do this again - it’s - our concern is about activities they might conduct in the region, and the question is: Why are they in the region? It’s not about specifically refueling or telling the Vietnamese not to allow them to refuel.
Lee: So there hasn’t been a request to stop refueling them, or there has?
Psaki: It’s more about concerns. It’s not as much about Vietnam as much as it - as it is about concerns about what activities they would be in the region for.
Lee: Okay. Well, you - I mean, there are U.S. planes flying over there all the time.
Psaki: Sure, there are.
Lee: So you don’t want Russian planes flying there, but it’s okay for U.S. planes to fly there? I mean, I just - it gets to the point where you - the suggestion is that everything the Russians are doing all the time everywhere is somehow nefarious and designed to provoke. But you can’t - but you don’t seem to be able to understand or accept that American planes flying all over the place, including in that area, is annoying to the Chinese, for one, but also for the Russians. But the suggestion is always that the American flights are good and beneficial and don’t cause tension, and that other people’s flights do cause tension. So can you explain what the basis is for your concern that the Russian flights there in the Southeast Asia area are - raise tensions?
Psaki: There just aren’t more details I can go into.
A Year After Euromaidan Ukraine's Standard of Living on Par With Tajikistan's
Well, not exactly, as Ukrainian minimum wage and pension levels are actually lower than those of its former brotherly republic
Tajikistan has long been considered the poorest of the former Soviet republics. For example, in 2013 its GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity was $2,536, whereas for the Ukraine it was $8,652. It would seem that to compare impoverished Tajikistan, which went through the crucible of civil war, with the until recently prosperous Ukraine was in bad taste.
But it’s not that simple. The start of the civil war and the disintegration of the Ukraine have rendered such a comparison possible and appropriate, because to understand the extent of the Ukraine’s impoverishment in only one year it is fitting to compare some of its economic indicators with those of Tajikistan.
All civil wars resemble one another
Although the people of the Ukraine began to fight one another in their 23th year of independence, war broke out in Tajikistan only five months after it declared its independence on September 9, 1991. And it was not until June 27, 1997, at the ninth meeting between representatives of the Tajikistan government and the united opposition at the Kremlin that a final peace agreement was signed.
In 1992-1993 alone, about 60,000 people were killed in Tajikistan, and the number of refugees in 1994 alone was estimated at one million to 1.5 million. According to various estimates, the economic damage amounted to $7 billion to $10 billion. About 150,000 houses were burned down and another 15,000 were looted. In the Qurghonteppa Oblast (Qurghonteppa Oblast was an administrative subdivision of Tajikistan until 1992, when it was merged with Kulob Oblast to create Khatlon Province) in the south, about 80% of the industrial capacity was destroyed. By 1997, Tajikistan’s industrial production had fallen by 72%.
The Ukraine has just started its journey down this bloody path, but even before the Debaltsevo Cauldron the war had claimed more than 50,000 victims according to German intelligence. At the end of the fourth quarter, the Ukraine’s real GDP was down 15.2%, not including that of Crimea and the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, which together accounted for about 20% of the country’s GDP. By February 20, as a result of fighting in the DPR, 90% of its industrial capacity had been destroyed or idled. The destruction of houses and infrastructure is incalculable. And, even though this is just the beginning, the people of the Ukraine have already fallen to Tajikistan’s level of impoverishment.
Basic pensions and salaries
The basic pension in the Ukraine is 979 hryvnia, and the minimum wage is 1,218 hryvnia. The basic pension and minimum wage in Tajikistan are both 250 somoni.
At the official exchange rate, one U.S. dollar was worth 21 to 22 hryvnia on March 14, but the actual rate was 26. The number of solomi to the dollar was 5.53.
So, if we convert the pensions and salaries in the Ukraine and Tajikistan into U.S. dollars, we find the following:
– The basic pension in the Ukraine at the official rate is about $44 (at the real exchange rate it is $37.60), and the basic pension in Tajikistan is $45.20; and
– The minimum wage in the Ukraine at the official rate is about $55 (actually $46.80), and the minimum wage in Tajikistan is $45.20.
For comparison purposes, a year ago, when one dollar was equivalent to eight hryvnia, the basic pension in the Ukraine was $118, and the minimum wage was equivalent to $152.
In September Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rahmon promised to raise the minimum wage by 50%, to 400 somoni. Stipends for students will be increased by an average of 30%. Six billion somoni will be allocated for this purpose.
In the Ukraine, the next increase in the basic pension and the minimum wage is to take effect on December 1 of this year. The Kiev cabinet has promised to raise the basic pension to 1,074 hryvnia, and the minimum wage to 1,378 hryvnia, but only if it is not obliged to cut spending on social programs. Given the IMF’s imposition of austerity measures, an increase in pensions and salaries seems about as likely as landing astronauts on the nebulous surface of Uranus. Even if Emomali Rahmon does not fulfill his promise, in terms of minimum wage and basic pension Tajiks already live a little better than Ukrainians do.
Migrant workers
According to figures provided by Konstantin Romodanovsky, director of Russia’s Federal Migration Service, in 2013 about three million Ukrainian migrant workers earned $27 billion in Russia. At the beginning of 2015, there were more than 1,300,000 Ukrainian men of military age in Russia. Over all, five million to seven million Ukrainians have left the country to seek work and in 2014 they remitted $9 billion to the Ukraine.
The number of Tajik migrant workers in Russia is estimated at one million to 1.2 million, and they account for more than 90% of all migrants from Tajikistan. Together, they sent their families $1.7 billion in the first half of 2014.
The population of Tajikistan in 2014 was 8.2 million people, and the proportion of the working-age population was about 60%, or 4,920,000.
The population of the Ukraine was 45,490,000 in 2013. Since 2014, when the Euromaidan protests started the process of disintegration, Crimea (with about two million people) has officially left the Ukraine, and the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics (the LPR with 1.2 million and the DPR with 1.8 million) have for all practical purposes also left. Thus, according to rough estimates, the population of the Ukraine has fallen to 40.5 million. The proportion of the working population in the Ukraine in 2013 was about 48%. Consequently, in 2014 the number of able-bodied citizens was only 19.4 million (if the LPR and the DPR are included, 21.2 million).
If we do a rough calculation of the share of working-age citizens who have left the country in search of work (because this writer does not have data on the number of migrant workers from Crimea and the two people’s republics), it turns out that a quarter to a third of the Ukraine’s working population has left. In comparison, in Tajikistan this number is also about 25%.
Thus, about a quarter of the population has left both Tajikistan and the Ukraine in search of work.
***
Only God knows how long the civil war will last, how many victims it will claim and how many cities it will demolish, but one year after the war began the Ukraine has already reached the level of destruction wrought by Tajikistan’s civil war.
The Ukraine has not yet defaulted on its debt, but its minimum wage and basic pension have fallen to the levels of Tajikistan’s, although a year earlier such a steep decline, which was then only starting, seemed inconceivable. Moreover, in Russia migrant workers from the Ukraine are gradually displacing people from Central Asia.
And this is only the beginning. Now Ukrainians and Tajiks have more than one thing in common. Not only were they both part of the Soviet Union, but they also share a similar fate: with their lives in ruins, they are wandering the world in search of work.
French Intelligence: Russian Intervention in Ukraine is a MythTheodorakis
Russian military intervention in Ukraine is a myth, General Christophe Gomart, France’s Military Intelligence Head has said.
As reported by RT, General Gomart made his explosive comments in a parliamentary hearing on the Ukrainian crisis. He questioned NATO’s claims of Russia preparing to attack Ukraine as French agents failed to spot any activities signaling this – either before or after the crisis began.
A statement by the chief of France’s military intelligence, General Christophe Gomart, was published on the National Assembly’s website:
“NATO announced that the Russians were about to invade Ukraine. But, according to French intelligence, there is nothing to corroborate this hypothesis – we determined that the Russians were deploying neither command posts nor logistical facilities, including field hospitals, needed for a military incursion,” General Gomart told a parliamentary hearing.
The real difficulty with NATO is that US intelligence is dominant, while French intelligence is more or less taken into account – hence the importance for us to supply enough information of French origin to NATO commanders.
NATO announced that the Russians would invade Ukraine while according to the information of the DRM, nothing came to support this hypothesis – we had indeed found that the Russians had not deployed command or logistics centers, including field hospitals, to consider a military invasion and the units of second level had made no movement.
Later it turned out that we were right, because even if Russian soldiers were actually seen in Ukraine, it was more of a ploy to put pressure on Ukrainian President Poroshenko than an attempted invasion.”
Meanwhile, on Friday five Northern European states, non-NATO Finland and Sweden included, signed a declaration on the expansion of military cooperation to counter “Russian aggression against Ukraine,” RT reported.
Since Finland and Sweden intend to interact with NATO on a matching contribution basis, which might indicate a desire to join the alliance, Moscow will view this declaration as an act of aggression, Norwegian defense analyst Janne Haaland Matlary warned.
“Finland and Sweden have also decided to keep their exercises to NATO standards, which implies a step on the way toward NATO. Today, there are no political grounds for them to join NATO, public opinion is not frightened enough, and referendums will be required. But what is happening now still looks like a preparation for membership,” Matlary told Aftenposten newspaper on Friday.
Now the articles have all been pulled and the website is being shut down due to some bizarre, vague reason:
OffGuardian is Going Away
We Couldn’t Meet Minimum Ethical Standards
Sadly, despite a great deal of fine material published here, some of our original editors were responsible for posting material that, in my assessment, was so misleading as to constitute nothing less than propaganda. The original posting was not intentional, but seems to have resulted from sloppiness, confusion or inattention to detail. When I saw the problematic material, I took it down and told the other editors about the problem.
By the time I returned to the site, the next day, the other editors had conferred and reposted the offending piece, complete with the false byline; the original, extremely provocative photograph that had nothing to do with the accusations in the post but gave the appearance of supporting them; and without a clear link to the source of the quoted material. I lost my temper and raised holy hell.
In the angry arguments that followed, my fellow editors simply could not accept that the subject material was inappropriate (they have, rather, been obsessed with the fact that I dared to get angry and speak harshly to them) and it became abundantly clear to me that we were never going to be able to reach agreement on matters of ethics, accuracy and honesty.
Important note: This conflict did not involve editor Theodorakis [Crow note: the editor who published the piece above], who has demonstrated a clear understanding and principled adherence to the highest standards at all times.
As the owner of the site and the domain, I’ve decided that the best thing to do is to cease publication. Thanks for visiting the site.
~Doug Salzmann
anyway, weird
Edited by Crow ()
Crow posted:Now the articles have all been pulled and the website is being shut down due to some bizarre, vague reason:
lol. there is some good stuff in archive.today
https://archive.today/KRmPO posted:Mention the word “nazi” in conjunction with the Aidar Chicks and your comment would disappear before the ink was even dry.
A user called Bananasandsocks pointed this out…
But not for long…
If you want to know what the establishment doesn’t want discussed in public on any one day – visit the Guardian BTL and check out what facts are being regularly scrubbed.
Today, in this article, it was the numbers on this van…
The ISIS articles were still in the google cache so I saved them. They're pretty awful. Killing the entire site is weird tho lol https://archive.today/7W5aN https://archive.today/AIoCe
shriekingviolet posted:reading this thread in the morning is a good way to prep for a day full of fear and bitterness. wouldn't have it any other way
Watch this to prep for Russian imperialism
Edited by walkinginonit ()
wasted posted:
someone get her an account
NOT joking
walkinginonit posted:Watch this to prep for Russian Imperialism. They drove tanks into Wrestle-fucking-mania
Lets start a rhizzone minstrel show. Curtains open and Tpaine can shimmy out and do a Yo Yo YO N-word B*tches Haha I sho like da dollar dollar boss. Will do anything for dolla dolla. LMOA
walkinginonit posted:Watch this to prep for Russian Imperialism. They drove tanks into Wrestle-fucking-mania
so did master p.
http://www.novorosinform.org/news/id/27011
(Google translated)
Four US troops in Kiev raped two underage girls
Two days ago, four American soldiers stationed in Kiev raped two Ukrainian girls. One of whom had turned 13, another hasn't yet.
Two of the criminal-pedophiles -- private military contractors, and the other two -- in the US military. The latter belong to the personal staff of Lt. Gen. Hodges in Wiesbaden. It is unlikely that they arrived in Kiev for the sole purpose of raping children, [Crownote: Dubious reasoning. Striken.] but that is the business of their commander.
When Avakov greatly enhance the professional level of the police officers. As a result of the noise perturbations of citizens, police managed to identify the dangerous pedophiles and attempt to conduct their detention in the restaurant on the street Vladimir.
However, arrived SBU ordered police dispersion- army cited full diplomatic immunity, while militants American PMCs in Ukraine are also protected from prosecution.
Crow posted:It is unlikely that they arrived in Kiev for the sole purpose of raping children,
catchphrase
"Without Washington, Kiev would be in bankruptcy court and have no military at all. Why didn’t Washington say, “Don’t call it anti-terrorist?” Because if you call it “anti-terrorism” you can never have negotiations because you don’t negotiate with terrorists, you just kill them, a murderous organization with murderous intent.
By saying that this is not a civil war, it’s just Russian aggression—this omits the human dimension of the entire war, and also the agency of the people who are actually fighting in the east—the hairdressers, the taxi drivers, the former newspaper reporters, the school teachers, the garbage men, the electricians, who are probably 90 percent of those fighting. There are Russians there, from Russia. But Ukraine’s army has proved incapable of defeating or even holding off what began as a fairly ragtag, quasi-partisan, ill-equipped, untrained force.
The horror of this has been Kiev’s use of its artillery, mortars and even its airplanes, until recently, to bombard large residential cities, not only Donetsk and Luhansk, but other cities. These are cities of 500,000, I imagine, or 2 million to 3 million. This is against the law. These are war crimes, unless we assume the rebels were bombing their mothers and grandmothers and fathers and sisters. This was Kiev, backed by the United States. So the United States has been deeply complicit in the destruction of these eastern cities and peoples. When Nuland tells Congress there are 5,000 to 6,000 dead, that’s the U.N. number. That’s just a count of bodies they found in the morgues. Lots of bodies are never found. German intelligence says 50,000.
Ever since the Clinton administration, we’ve bleated on about the right to protect people who are victims of humanitarian crises. You’ve got a massive humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine. You’ve got 1 million people or more who have fled to Russia—this is according to the U.N.—another half a million having fled elsewhere in Ukraine. I don’t notice the United States organizing any big humanitarian effort. Where is Samantha Power, the architect of “right to protect?” We have shut our eyes to a humanitarian crisis in which we are deeply complicit. This is what’s shameful, whether you like or don’t like Putin. It’s got nothing to do with Putin. It has to do with the nature of American policy and the nature of Washington—and the nature of the American people, if they tolerate this."
They use the excuse that everybody wants to join NATO. How can we deny them the right? It’s very simple. People say every country that qualifies has a right to join NATO. No, they do not. NATO is not a junior Chamber of Commerce. It’s not a non-selective fraternity or sorority. It’s a security organization, and the only criterion for membership should be, “Does a nation enhance the security of the other member countries?” The Ukrainian crisis proves beyond any doubt, being the worst international crisis of our time, that the indiscriminate expansion of NATO has worsened our international security. That’s the end of that story. I don’t know what they think NATO is. Is it like AARP membership and you get discounts in the form of U.S. defense funds? It’s crazy, this argument.
Edited by Crow ()
Later, when Dmitri Medvedev was president [2008-12], I think, he told a group of people that Yeltsin hadn’t actually won the election, that Gennadi Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party, had. So assuming that Medvedev wasn’t lying and assuming he was in a position to know, all this talk of American support for democracy, when it comes to Russia, at least, is, shall we say, complex.
I’m not talking about these sappy fascists who run around the streets in Western Europe. I’m talking about guys with a lot of weapons, guys who have done dastardly things and who have killed people. Does that warrant discussion? Well, people said, if they exist they’re a tiny minority. My clichéd answer is, “Of course, so was Hitler and so was Lenin at one time.” You pay attention and you think about it if you learn anything from history….
-_-;
https://niqnaq.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/enigmatic-stuff/
The new finance minister of Ukraine, Natalie Jaresko, may have replaced her US citizenship with Ukrainian at the start of this week, but her employer continued to be the US Government, long after she claims she left the State Department. US court and other records reveal that Jaresko has been the co-owner of a management company and Ukrainian investment funds registered in the state of Delaware, dependent for her salary and for investment funds on a $150 million grant from the US Agency for International Development. The US records reveal that according to Jaresko’s former husband, she is culpable in financial misconduct.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F6gm2cqeQsTTVKSHR5bmozTUU/view
Urbandale posted:Commies in Novorossiya are publishing things. Take a look!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F6gm2cqeQsTTVKSHR5bmozTUU/view
Im very disappointed in the 2-column format today