by sheer coincidence

 All good narratives are born in beautiful, simple, wholesome little cottages, surrounded by flowers.

Only bad people question these pristine narratives.

 ~~~~~~~~~

When we saw that Sergei Magnitsky's death had spurred various congress people to draft legislation targeting 60 people of the Russian federal government with visa restrictions and more, such action being a little over-the-top in a WTF? sort of way, and called such by the Russian government, to the point that it is nearly an "international incident," we figured there must be a reason. There must be a reason why these senators and the State Department are making such a big fuss over poor Sergei. And of course the next thought is it can't be whatever reason they claim, namely the horrible human rights violations and corruption of the Russian prison system.

Guantanamo

http://www.mynews.in/image_gallery.php?&iid=9974

Abu Ghraib

http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article11712417.ab

No, we figure there must be some special reason that the Team Browder narrative has such widespread support in the halls of power and in the press, the press that is consolidated into the hands of a few people.

The Browder narrative fits an agenda, an agenda of Russia=Bad. And yet, still, there are many narratives that fit an agenda and yet they don't rise to this level of sycophantic unison and official support to the point of making geopolitical waves as a result of asinine legislation. So it stands out to us as being rather special. In fact, the whole thing strikes us as a bit DEFENSIVE.

As in: Let's Change the Subject and Let's Point the Finger First. Let's talk about the Horrible Corruption in Russia. Look What Happened to Poor Sergei! And Poor Bill!! Something Must Be Done. And so it happened that they drafted S. 1039, Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011.

A bill to impose sanctions on persons responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, for the conspiracy to defraud the Russian Federation of taxes on corporate profits through fraudulent transactions and lawsuits against Hermitage, and for other gross violations of human rights in the Russian Federation, and for other purposes.

From the very specific to the very vague, the bill goes after the people responsible for killing Sergei, and for making fraudulent transactions and lawsuits against Hermitage, and after that for lots of other things in Russia which are, by sheer coincidence, not much specified.


Over at the Heritage Foundation, a prominent neocon think tank, Ariel Cohen manages to accuse the Russians of over-reacting to the legislation. Do you see how that works? US Senators do an outrageous thing against Russia but it's the Russians who overreact? This only works because the Team Browder narrative has gone essentially unchallenged in The West for some time now, plowing the soil.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/11/russian-threats-a-heavy-blow-to-obama%E2%80%99s-reset-policy/

Moscow’s position is as revealing as it is mind-boggling: It is ready to endanger the carefully constructed cooperation between U.S. and Russia in areas ranging from arms control to Afghanistan and Iran in order to protect a handful of corrupt police investigators and their high-ranking bosses who apparently stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian state.

Well that's just it though. APPARENTLY this has not been proven, and APPARENTLY we've only heard from Team Browder, and APPARENTLY the Russians have a different idea of what happened, and APPARENTLY they are willing to endanger the "reset" because APPARENTLY this legislation is bullshit. But you will never learn this from professional journalists or think tanks, because they are paid to pimp certain narratives.

Cohen goes on to quote the Freedom House president David Kramer, in recent testimony, that if Russia is willing to hold back the "reset" over this, then the US needs "to reexamine the relationship." A stern warning. Because if Russia wants to be one of the big boys, Russia needs to play by the rules.

http://freedomhouse.org/images/File/Kramer%20HFAC%20Testimony%20-%20Dem%20Freedom%20in%20EE%207-26-11.pdf

Of course, the HYPOCRISY of the US lecturing other countries, lecturing Russia, is something to behold. You might need a bucket.

So what do these people all have in common? Have you noticed?

A disease of the mind?

To describe the offer of giving the Palestinians 80 percent of 22 percent of 100 percent of what is originally their own land as a "generous" offer is a disease of the mind.

Oh but wait a second there Peasant, you'll say. We have no proof that Browder is a Zionist or that the Zionist agenda  has anything to do with Russia. That's true. We can't prove such things. We can only deduce the situation from the other pieces in place.

http://www.planetdan.net/blog/2007/06/missing-piece.htm

We don't know if Browder is a Zionist. But we know Browder has a narrative about Russia that he never tires of telling, and it so happens that certain powerful Zionists really like Browder's narrative about Russia, so their interests perhaps coincide? For instance, this past June Browder was given an uninterrupted platform for his narrative at The Henry Jackson Society. He met with Michael Weiss. International patrons of the society include Michael Chertoff, Dore Gold, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Richard Perle, and Natan Sharansky. We think it is safe to classify all of these people as Zionists.

Now is Browder simply being an opportunist, taking advantage of the invitation to get his story out One More Time (the poor thing)? OR might there be a synergy, a win win? You can look at it either way depending on how many puzzle pieces you've got fitted in.

http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories.asp?pageid=49&id=2334

Remember, Browder is an American from Chicago. You can see him speak at this video. Here's a snip from the "interview" with Michael Weiss on 6/28/11, posted at the Henry Jackson Society website (link above).

So we said let’s get justice outside of Russia and one of the biggest which we been doing is legislation and I went to the United States shortly after Sergei died and I met with a man named Senator Benjamin Carter, a man who was a chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, and he was aware of Sergei’s situation when he was still alive, because I made him aware it’s one thing to learn a story that everyone is moved right now, but its hundred times worse if you are somehow involved with Sergei while he was still alive even if very vaguely, because everybody thinks what could have I done differently, what more could I have done to deal with the situation.

Senator Carter was one of those people. I went to Senator Carter and I said to him – ‘Why don’t we take away the visas and their visas of the people who killed Sergei?’ We know exactly who they are; there is a list of 16, because they all signed the documents denying him medical attention. Senator Carter said that’s a great idea. He wrote to Hillary Clinton and said ‘let’s deny these people visas based on the US article of law’ and Hillary Clinton was right in the middle of her reset policy with Russia and so she rejected his request. So he said let’s not stop there, let’s make a piece of legislation, and so he came up with something called Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act, and the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act would deny their visas and also to take it one step further and freeze their assets in America. We got Senator McCain to co-sponsor it.

There's something really wrong with this interview transcript, because Bill Browder does not speak in Russian-accented English, and he does not typically make errors like getting Senator Benjamin Cardin's name wrong. So we don't know what this is all about dear reader, but there's a problem with the transcript provided by the society, as it appears to be slightly misleading. However that is merely an observation.

After Browder's narrative, Weiss lays in with a speech. At the end of this joint harangue they conclude with a curious blend of fear and ridicule toward Russia.

Russia is bad

so unlike The West

so let us laugh at their folly

and yet...

^^^^^^^

Is Russia bad? We don't think so. Does Russia have problems with corruption? Yes. But does the US have problems with corruption? Uh, yes.

Did you know that we have a huge problem of shell corporations suitable for money laundering and organized crime right here in the United States, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, among other places?

The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming. At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol....
All the activity at 2710 Thomes is part of a little-noticed industry in the U.S.: the mass production of paper businesses. Scores of mass incorporators like Wyoming Corporate Services have set up shop. The hotbeds of the industry are three states with a light regulatory touch-Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada.
The pervasiveness of corporate secrecy on America's shores stands in stark contrast to Washington's message to the rest of the world. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the U.S. has been calling forcefully for greater transparency in global transactions, to lift the veil on shadowy money flows. During a debate in 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama singled out Ugland House in the Cayman Islands, reportedly home to some 12,000 offshore corporations, as "either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record."

Yet on U.S. soil, similar activity is perfectly legal. The incorporation industry, overseen by officials in the 50 states, has few rules. Convicted felons can operate firms which create companies, and buy them with no background checks.

In the United States?!?

Are you SURE?????

Hmm... that seems so.... what's the word..... corrupt?!?

So the corruption is not isolated to Russia then?

This would be a good a time as any to remind the reader that Vladimir Putin does an annual question and answer session with the Russian people. The 2009 session ran four hours. Here's the transcript. You will see that Putin actually answers questions. He actually knows the answers to questions. Hot damn. We have never been to Russia, we've always lived here in the US where we have insipid, mewling politicians who don't give a shit about Americans but claw all over each other in their zeal to be the biggest grovelers for Israel, so we are probably biased, but we think it's pretty damn good that Putin will answer unrehearsed questions for four hours and doesn't act like it's really any big deal but in fact, CONSIDERS IT HIS JOB to know what is going on in Russia. How Quaint Is That?

On answering people's questions for four hours:

Question: Mr Putin, how do you relax after such marathons? Do you have any special relaxation techniques?

Vladimir Putin: I do not get that stressed, so I don’t need to do anything special to relax. This is part of my work, and it is a very useful part. Of course, it requires greater concentration, and you need to put extra time into the preparation. But in fact the preparation does not take that long, because my colleagues and I work hard throughout the year, dealing with all the problems mentioned today.

Oh American leaders are just as good, right? RIGHT? They all know all about your problems, RIGHT? They've all done the act of pretending to give a shit, right? Some better than others? Right.

wonkette.com

fanpop.com

But remember, according to some people, Putin is bad. Russia is bad. Russia is CORRUPT, unlike The West. The Freedom House ranks Russia as Not Free, unlike The West, where we have bushels of extra freedom on every street corner, guarded by police with tasers. Russia, on the other hand, needs some more "democracy" and "human rights."

Zionists never tire of telling you this. By SHEER COINCIDENCE, Bill Browder never tires of telling you this either.

And how does The West usually help countries that need more "democracy" and "human rights?" They drop it in from F16s.

http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/06/libyan-teen-tries-to-take-own-life-to.html

But they can't drop bombs on Russia, because Russia could fight back. So the cowards have to go about it some other way, and a relentless PR campaign is part of that. So again, it's probably only sheer coincidence that Bill Browder's narrative fits into this Zionist framework so neatly, because we have no proof that Browder is a Zionist, no proof in our purse. No doubt he's just minding his own business making piles and piles of money and fighting Russian corruption and trying to get justice for Poor Serge, and it's lucky for him that the good people at The Henry Jackson Society and the Heritage Foundation and the US State Department and the US Congress are so sympathetic to his plight. Lucky lucky lucky.


^^^^^^^

Russia is inconveniently located for a giant country not under Zionist control. Russia has lots of natural resources. Russia has pipelines that go across Russian territory. Russia has lots of neighbors with natural resources, like Kazakhstan, "Israel's partner in Eurasia" (by Ariel Cohen). Russia is close to China and Iran. Russia is friends with Syria. Damn Russia. Now if Russia happened to fall under Zionist control, if it could possibly be arranged, things would be different. Then we would hear about how good Russia is due to all those natural resources. But not before then.

So Putin was president for a long time (2000-2008), and then he was barred for another term, so Medvedev became president (2009-2012), and Putin has been alongside him as Prime Minister. Elections are coming up again in Russia (parliamentary 12/4/11, presidential 3/4/12), and Putin can run for president again. Not that anyone in The West would know or care.

However there are people who have been paying attention to events in Russia and they know all about the upcoming elections and the various opposition groups, and these are people like Michael Weiss and David Kramer, which you will note if you click on the links supplied above to their speeches. They are experts on opposition to Putin. And of course they could be Zionists but that would be a sheer coincidence.

Consider the implications.

And just imagine, if you were Bill Browder, and by some amazing stroke of lucky democracy, there was regime change in Russia and you got your visa back and justice for Serge and... hoo boy. That would be a Win Win.

^^^^^^^

But there is the problem of Putin. This is what they're up against. He is not so easy to oppose, actually.

Here's a speech he made recently in which he talks about Russia's future.

Building roads. Building Russia's infrastructure. Building ports. Building ships. Building cars. Creating jobs. Building towns, with jobs. Expanding inland waterways. Meeting social obligations. Building power plants, natural gas plants, manufacturing capacity. Exporting things Made in Russia.

You will remember how many lances were broken, and how much was said about our gas exports to Europe, and how many spanners were thrown in the works to impede, for example, the Nord Stream project, the gas system under the Baltic Sea, how many alternative projects were proposed. What happened to them? They have remained on paper. But Nord Stream has essentially been implemented. The capacity is 55 billion cubic metres a year, once two strips are in operation. One has been completed. We will start pumping process gas near Vyborg tomorrow. That will take about a month, and in late October-early November we will be able to provide gas to consumers.

What does that mean? It means that we are gradually, calmly freeing ourselves from the dictate of transit states, without any abrupt movements. This is “a window to Europe” in the energy field.

It's a political speech, granted, but unlike all the promises of hopey changey we get around here from all sides, they are actually doing the things Putin talks about, you know, with money and everything. Looks like that accountability stuff we hear so much about.

Putin knows that you can't have an economy without industrial production. So Russia is not STUPIDLY DOING what we STUPIDLY DID in the United States when we allowed globalists to dismantle our economy and send all our jobs oversees. We are the "some countries" he speaks of.

You know, I visited a school outside Moscow on September 1, and saw a social science manual which stated that unlike the 20th century, the 21st century is all about the provision of services, and that the production sphere ranks second on the list of priorities. This is a rather debatable issue.

We can see that some countries, which engaged too heavily in de-industrialisation policies, are now reaping bitter fruit. Engineering centres and skilled employees are following in the wake of disappearing production facilities. This creates conditions of degradation; therefore, it’s very premature to speak about the death of industrialisation. We need a new industrialisation based on new approaches. That is the right thing to do.

"Infrastructure is patriotic."

Russia is also ready to do something about all those drugs that keep pouring out of Afghanistan, inexplicably, despite all the international counter-efforts.  (via There Are No Sunglasses.)

Addressing reporters ahead of the Kabul meeting, Viktor Ivanov said that the top issue on the agenda would be why Afghan heroin keeps spreading across the globe despite international counter-efforts. One reason why the huge presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan failed to stop drug flows is that destroying opium plantations and drug-making laboratories is not on their mandate, Viktor Ivanov said.

No grain or vegetables are cultivated in Afghanistan, only opium poppy, he said. In this situation, the key task is reorienting the Afghan agriculture to non-drug crops.

Mr. Ivanov put forward a step-by-step anti-drug plan called Rainbow-2. It stipulates the creation of an international body that would work in close cooperation with the Afghan government, the governments of neighboring states and the United Nations. He also suggested that the Afghan drug problem be recognized as a threat to international peace and security, and that foreign troops in Afghanistan be authorized to destroy poppy plantations.

See: who moves the drugs out of Afghanistan?
See: let us count the ways

Heroin destabilizes populations. US troops are all over Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the world's supplier of heroin. By sheer coincidence, Russia has a huge heroin problem.

Also this week, Putin urged all defense contracts be concluded.


In other news this week, Russia wants to fortify military ties in the region to protect each other from the sorts of uprising that took place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

“The events in North Africa opened our eyes to many things,” Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said in an interview in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Sept. 3. “We must reflect on what happened there and develop means of defense.” 

Good idea.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html