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freshwest

freshwest's Journal
freshwest's Journal
May 3, 2014

...



May 2, 2014

About that $5 billion figure being bandied about and Neuland. It's rated 'Pants On Fire':

President Barack Obama spent "$5 billion paying Ukrainians to riot and dismantle their democratically elected government."



Facebook posts on Wednesday, March 19th, 2014 in a Facebook meme

The United States spent $5 billion on Ukraine anti-government riots


It’s a conspiracy with mainstream crossover: The United States bankrolled the bloody political uprising in Ukraine...


The Roots:

Victoria Neuland's words at a time when it garnered scant media attention:

...made clear the United States supported the protesters’ fight and spoke of how she met with Yanukovych, pressing him to end the pushback from Ukrainian security forces because it is "absolutely impermissible in a European state, in a democratic state..."

"Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations," she said. "We have invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine."

The Truth:

"The insinuation that the United States incited the people of Ukraine to riot or rebel is patently false," said Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman.

Since 1992, the government has spent about $5.1 billion to support democracy-building programs in Ukraine, Thompson said, with money flowing mostly from the Department of State via U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the departments of Defense, Energy, Agriculture and others. The United States does this with hundreds of other countries.

About $2.4 billion went to programs promoting peace and security, which could include military assistance, border security, human trafficking issues, international narcotics abatement and law enforcement interdiction, Thompson said. More money went to categories with the objectives of "governing justly and democratically" ($800 million), "investing in people" ($400 million), economic growth ($1.1 billion), and humanitarian assistance ($300 million)...

...spent over more than 20 years.

Yanukovych was elected in 2010. So any connection between the protests and the $5 billion is inaccurate.

And Obama was elected in 2008, so any connection between $5 billion and Obama also is inaccurate.


http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/19/facebook-posts/united-states-spent-5-billion-ukraine-anti-governm/

The truth does not fit the world view being promoted by conspiracy theorists. A post that went into the Neuland hatred was alerted by a DUer who described the source material:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014787623#post10

I thinkl those who believe in all of the spin offs to the Russia Today story that initiated this per the article, should give the article that was linked her, a good look. It has all the CT memes. And the end result is not at all pretty.

It will continue to work on a populace that maintains a willful ignorance, all the better to attack those doing the work of governments acting together in peaceful, but less public ways.

War talk, dirty laundry and rumor is exciting. They're cheap thrills that cost nothing except civil society.

May 1, 2014

Nah, it was just a state holiday. The Daughters of the Confederacy also had a local presence, too.

As did the KKK, Birchers and Nazis.

I likely mentioned this item relating to my taunting of a Nazi on a public radio show. He thought he had him a good little white girl, since I sounded open and all and he was so worried about race mixing and said colored women were all trying to entice him, as if they had magic powers.

Hey, freedom of speech, doncha know...

So I told him he sounded like a rapist to me and he got all huffy.

Strange how that works, you know, 'she made me...'

They had phone lines you could call to listen to the current week's two minute hate recording. Back then, it was blacks, white 'race traitors' and the Jews. Oh, and Democrats, Catholics and Communists.

A common theme was we're gonna 'ship all the blacks back to Africa.'

HAHAHA!

I remember when they tossed Columbus Day and combined all the presidents to one day, and installed the MLK, Jr. holiday.

Juneteenth was not official. But it was acknowledged by media and stores, and picnics were held in the city parks:

Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day, is a holiday in the United States that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas in 1865, and more generally the emancipation of African-American citizens throughout the United States. Celebrated on June 19, the term is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth,[1][2] and is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states.

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

Texas no longer celebrates Jefferson Davis' birthday, but does celebrate the Confederacy still. I'd hoped this was going to pass away. Since 'post-racial' America has entered our lives, it's all over...

I see above and searches they keep on adding more holidays to get even for MLK, Jr. Day. Sorry asses.

A few links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_United_States#Legal_holidays_by_states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis#Legacy

Aren't they just sooo nice to the guy who promised to seize all black freedmen in states they invaded and return them to slavery, and hold their descendents in servitude forever?

What a winner! Thank you for rebranding 'states rights' to 'Tenthers', all of you Teabaggers, Paulibans and Birchers!

Regarding the elimination of Columbus Day, here's a sweet little tidbit:

Opposition to Columbus celebrations


...There are two main strands of this critique, which are interrelated. The first refers primarily to the indigenous population collapse and cruel treatment towards indigenous peoples during the European colonization of the American continents which followed Columbus's discovery. Some, such as the American Indian Movement, have argued that the responsibility of contemporary governments and their citizens for allegedly ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans are masked by positive Columbus myths and celebrations. These critics argue that a particular understanding of the legacy of Columbus has been used to legitimize their actions, and it is this misuse of history that must be exposed. F. David Peat asserts that many cultural myths of North America exclude or diminish the culture and myths of Native Americans.

These cultural myths include ideas expressed by Michael Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute claiming that Western civilization brought "reason, science, self-reliance, individualism, ambition, and productive achievement" to a people who were based in "primitivism, mysticism, and collectivism", and to a land that was “sparsely inhabited, unused, and underdeveloped..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day#Opposition_to_Columbus_celebrations

That list of how Europeans did it better, I emboldened there, sans the criticism of 'collectivism.' is pretty much in theory the same as what I learned in college about why it all had to be done to follow theory. I objected strongly in my all white class taught by the YSA. It didn't sit well with me, that genocide is okay for the greater good. Later, I left the SWP in the seventies when they started talking about they would be the 'ruling elite' when the revolution came.

Overthrowing the USA government was discussed for whatever was from both sides of the landscape and they appear to be playing pattycake with each other nowadays.

Ain't it all precious. It makes me feel all:




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