{"id":13088,"date":"2014-02-22T00:50:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T00:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13088"},"modified":"2014-02-22T00:50:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T00:50:18","slug":"us-medias-knee-jerk-response-to-putin-leads-to-berlin-moscow-axis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13088","title":{"rendered":"US media’s knee-jerk response to Putin leads to Berlin-Moscow axis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mercer_ilana\"<\/a>by Ilana Mercer<\/p>\n

[followbutton username=’IlanaMercer’ count=’true’ lang=’en’ theme=’light’]<\/p>\n

Like Ilana Mercer’s Facebook page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to President Vladimir Putin, who enjoys an approval rate of 65 percent among Russians, the motto of the menagerie of morons that is the American media is ignorance \u00fcber alles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The energetic and reflexive demonization of a Russian leader \u2013 unparalleled during communism \u2013 against the backdrop of the Sochi Olympic Games and the conflagration in the Ukraine, is the handiwork of a conga-line of cretins, stateside, whose bombast comports with the boorishness of their pronouncements.<\/p>\n

The \u201cShangri-La of Socratic disinterest,\u201d one wag\u2019s delicious description of broadcaster Bill O\u2019Reilly, is not delimited by ideology. Instead, \u201cwanton Putin bashing,\u201d as scholar of Russian history Stephen Cohen attests<\/a>, is the order of the day at the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, on and on.<\/p>\n

As to \u201ctraditional journalistic standards\u201d: In the service of their anti-Putin monomania, the U.S. Pussy Riot press and its approved phalanx of \u201cexperts\u201d routinely omit \u201cfacts and context,\u201d conflate \u201creporting with analysis,\u201d and court conformity and unanimity at the cost of veracity and impartiality.<\/p>\n

(Revered in the U.S., Pussy Riot is a punk rock Russian band of feminists, whose fort\u00e9 is breast-baring, defiling places of worship, punching the air while shrieking, \u201cF\u2013k you Putin,\u201d and participating in public-orgy protests<\/a> and other criminal acts.)<\/p>\n

The \u201cShangri-La of Socratic disinterest,\u201d fortunately, is not a feature of the nuanced and informed analysis available on the John Batchelor Show,<\/a> where the scholarly host and his guest, professor Cohen, delve deeply into the region\u2019s geopolitical dynamics.<\/p>\n

Cohen, who tackled O\u2019Reilly\u2019s out-and-proud ignorance with aplomb, was slightly more flummoxed by that of MSNBC\u2019s Andrea Mitchell. She blamed Putin for Ukraine having \u201cspun into politician chaos.\u201d To wit, Europe had offered Ukraine $800 million in aid. The Kremlin \u201coutbid the West\u201d to the tune of billions, but held back on the last installment because it wanted to see to which government Russian funds would ultimately be going. Although Putin has since released the remaining funds to Ukraine, Mitchell surmised that Putin had orchestrated recent events so as to compel Kiev to sell-out to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Nonsense on stilts. If anything, Putin\u2019s impetus would be to avert trouble in Ukraine during the Sochi Olympics. Add Putin to the list of people who do not control what unfolds in Kiev, belabors Cohen.<\/p>\n

\"Into<\/a><\/p>\n

Contrary to America\u2019s Democracy Alinskyites<\/a> \u2013 media, academia, members of the Stupid and Evil Parties, State Department floozy Victoria Nuland (taped plotting to \u201cmidwife a new, anti-Russian Ukrainian government\u201d), John McMussolini \u2013 the Ukrainian People, not unlike the \u201cAmerican People,\u201d are not one people. The country is riven \u2013 divided into Western and Eastern regions, respectively. The West has been seduced by EU membership; the East is culturally and historically enmeshed in Russia.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re witnessing is a tale of two Ukraines.<\/p>\n

As it stands, explains Cohen, Kiev has lost control over Western Ukraine. Moderate voices are being silenced. Armed provocateurs are inciting matters and undermining moderate leadership. Revolution is being fomented.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is not a dictatorship, it is an anarchy.<\/p>\n

As to the demands issued by Vice President Joe Biden that the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych withdraw forces from the Maidan, the site of the protests: \u201cpreposterous,\u201d avers Cohen. The \u201coccupation of government buildings in Kiev and in Western Ukraine, the hurling of firebombs at police and other violent assaults on law enforcement officers \u2026 all documented and even televised\u201d: these would not be tolerated in any Western democracy.<\/p>\n

Equally outrageous is the Obama administration\u2019s improvised and impromptu demands that the same democratically elected president step down before elections are held next year. The rational solution to the chaos in Ukraine is to allow the parties to \u201cchill out\u201d and resolve to wait until the February elections, next year, whereupon a referendum question can be tagged to the ballot to help decide whether Ukraine should sign up with Europe or Russia. (Cohen advocates an either\/or \u201cdemocratic\u201d decision; I say secession<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Should cool heads fail to prevail in the negotiation of a political solution, the division of Ukraine is impending, with part of the country cleaving to Europe, the other to Russia.<\/p>\n

The \u201cstruggle for Ukraine\u201d<\/a> is a chapter in a series of U.S.-orchestrated provocations, which began with the expansion of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) eastward to abut Russia\u2019s borders \u2013 an expansion pursued by Clinton, Bush and Obama alike. It gathered momentum with the U.S.-backed attempts to incorporate Georgia and Ukraine into the North Atlantic alliance.<\/p>\n

The next stage in goading the Russian Bear consisted in American-funded NGO political-action groups \u2013 many of them backed by George Soros \u2013 flooding Russia proper. (\u201cPurple\u201d in Iraq, Blue in Kuwait, Cotton in Uzbekistan, Grape in Moldova, \u201cOrange\u201d in the Ukraine, \u201cRose\u201d in Georgia, \u201cTulip\u201d in Kyrgizstan, \u201cCedar\u201d in Lebanon, Jasmine in Tunisia, Green in Iran, still un-christened in Russia and Syria: Dig around and you\u2019ll find American activists \u00e0 la Alinsky behind these \u201ccolor-coded,\u201d plant-based revolutions, blessed and backed by Foggy Bottom.)<\/p>\n

\u201cA U.S.-NATO military outpost in Georgia and missile-defense installations near Russia\u201d completed the provocation. \u201cWhether this longstanding Washington-Brussels policy is wise or reckless, it \u2013 not Putin\u2019s December financial offer to save Ukraine\u2019s collapsing economy \u2013 is deceitful,\u201d inveighs<\/a> Cohen.<\/p>\n

Also upon us is a second Cold War between the U.S. and Russia, which will see a close, bilateral collaboration between Berlin and Moscow \u2013 Putin and Angela Merkel enjoy a cozy and copacetic relationship and will likely work together to dominate Eurasia.<\/p>\n

Having flouted America\u2019s national interests and squandered Russian goodwill \u2013 the ignoramuses of the Beltway will have no place in this grand geopolitical realignment.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 by Ilana Mercer<\/em><\/p>\n

[followbutton username=’IlanaMercer’ count=’true’ lang=’en’ theme=’light’]<\/p>\n

Like Ilana Mercer’s Facebook page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ilana Mercer [followbutton username=’IlanaMercer’ count=’true’ lang=’en’ theme=’light’] Like Ilana Mercer’s Facebook page When it comes to President Vladimir Putin, who enjoys an approval rate of 65 percent among Russians, the motto of the menagerie of morons that is the American media is ignorance \u00fcber alles. The energetic and reflexive demonization of a Russian leader … Continue reading “US media’s knee-jerk response to Putin leads to Berlin-Moscow axis”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[8419,7637,4669,1342,66,8418,7484,7636,67],"class_list":["post-13088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-ilana-mercer","tag-joe-biden","tag-kiev","tag-obama-administration","tag-pussy-riot","tag-russia","tag-sochi-olympic-games","tag-ukraine","tag-viktor-yanukovych","tag-vladimir-putin"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/IlanaMercer2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13089,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13088\/revisions\/13089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}