Pat Lang on Aleppo

On MJ today Mika [Brzezinski] bleated "but where are they going, all these poor families?" Ayman Mohy ad-Din told her that they were going to Idlib. "Where is that" she stammered. Ayman replied that this is a city and province still held by the jihadis. She stared blankly at him. It appears that she is as stupid and uninformed as Hollande.

The Borgist press carefully avoids describing the civilians voluntarily leaving East Aleppo by Green Bus (Assad Transport, Inc.) as the dependent families of jihadis as well as civilian jihadi cadres themselves.…

Well, well, well. You heard that this would happen first here and at MoA. It seems that "b" and SSTers can read a map and comprehend what happens when forces meet on a battlefield or in a campaign area.…

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Hollande - "A Day Late and a Dollar Short," as usual.
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency

Jafe Arnoldski — What languages do the Normandy Four speak together?

You were probably just dying to know this.

Fort Russ
What languages do the Normandy Four speak together?
Jafe Arnoldski

Ben Richards — Media Silent as Biggest Protests Since French Revolution Sweep France

These are workers protesting a "socialist" government.

As the country prepares to host two million visitors at the showpiece Euro 2016 Football Championship in less than two weeks, labor strikes at oil refineries and nuclear power plants; fuel shortages paralyzing aviation and public transport system; violent street protests; nationwide riots; and a state of emergency until the end of July to cover the Tour de France has proved a major headache for François Hollande — currently the least popular French president since polls began in France. The protests are being called the largest and longest lasting since the French Revolution.… 

Counter Current News

Media Silent as Biggest Protests Since French Revolution Sweep France
Ben Richards

Nika Knight — Striking Workers Shut Down France's Oil Depots, Move to Blockade Nuclear Plant

Striking workers with the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), one of France's largest unions, are clashing with French government forces after the union members blockaded oil refineries and depots in response to President François Hollande forcing unpopular labor reforms through parliament earlier this month.

Hollande's proposed legislation would make it easier to fire employees, increase employees' work hours, and move jobs offshore, in defiance of France's long history of labor protections.

The blockades shut down a quarter of the France's gas stations and forced the country to dip into reserve petrol supplies.

France's President François Hollande was forced to deny that the country was facing a nationwide uprising akin to the worker and student uprising of May 1968, as riot police clashed with protesters around the country late Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning.

The government dispatched the riot police to shut down picket lines….

France is exploding as the "socialist" government attempts to repress workers.

Common Dreams
Striking Workers Shut Down France's Oil Depots, Move to Blockade Nuclear Plant
Nika Knight

AFP — France gave Saudi crown prince its top honour 'at his request'

The awarding of France's top honour to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, which sparked a storm of criticism, was done at the royal's request, a French magazine has reported.

Causette, a monthly women's magazine, published an exchange of emails between French diplomats ahead of the awarding of the Legion d'Honneur on 7 March.
President Francois Hollande awarded the honour to bin Nayef, who is also Saudi interior minister, during a visit to the Gulf nation.…

According to one of the emails published by the magazine, Prince Mohammed requested the award "at a time in which he seeks to boost his international stature".

"I know some are raising questions about honouring the prince... certainly the kingdom does not have a good reputation," reads the email attributed to France's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, addressed to advisers in the presidency and foreign ministry.

"No reason not to do it: It must be discreet concerning the media, without covering it up," said the foreign ministry's North Africa/Middle East director.

He said that if questioned why the award should be given, the government "should respond '(for the) fight against Daesh and economic partnership'. Of course, let's add, for good measure, elements about human rights." ….

Dégoûtant.

Middle East Eye
France gave Saudi crown prince its top honour 'at his request'

AFP

Zero Hedge — Saudis Awarded France's "Highest National Honor" For "Fight" Against Terrorism

You can't make up stuff like this. It's beyond bizarre.

There are no words.

And no, it it is not the Onion. France 24 has the story.

I wonder how many Legion of Honor (Legion d'Honneur) recipients will turn in their medals.

Oh, and Hollande not only calls himself a "socialist," but also a "feminist."

Zero Hedge
Saudis Awarded France's "Highest National Honor" For "Fight" Against Terrorism
Tyler Durden

ht Don Quijones at Raging Bull-Shit

Chine Labbé And Crispian Balmer — Vowing to destroy terrorism, France seeks global coalition against Islamic State

French President Francois Hollande called on the United States and Russia on Monday to join a global coalition to destroy Islamic State following the attacks across Paris, and announced a wave of measures to combat terrorism in France.

"France is at war," Hollande told a joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles, promising to increase funds for national security and strengthen anti-terrorism laws in response to the suicide bombings and shootings that killed 129.

"We're not engaged in a war of civilizations, because these assassins do not represent any. We are in a war against jihadist terrorism which is threatening the whole world," he told a packed, somber chamber.

Parliamentarians gave Hollande a standing ovation before spontaneously singing the "Marseillaise" national anthem in a show of political unity after the worst atrocity France has seen since World War Two.…

Reuters
Vowing to destroy terrorism, France seeks global coalition against Islamic State
Chine Labbé And Crispian Balmer

Yanis Varoufakis — Schäuble’s Gathering Storm

[French Economy Minister Emmanuel ] Macron is very different from [Italian Prime Minister Matteo] Renzi in both style and substance. A banker-turned-politician, he is President François Hollande’s only minister who combines a serious understanding of France’s and Europe’s macroeconomic challenges with a reputation in Germany as a reformer and skillful interlocutor. So when he speaks of an impending religious war in Europe, between the Calvinist German-dominated northeast and the largely Catholic periphery, it is time to take notice.…

Exasperated by Schäuble’s backtracking from his own plan for political union, Macron recently vented his frustration: “The Calvinists want to make others pay until the end of their life,” he complained. “They want reforms with no contributions toward any solidarity.”

Here we go again.

Replay of the Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia, which established the principle of national sovereignty as fundamental in international relations? (Russia and China are relying on Westphalia in their counter to unipolarism.)

If Yanis is correct, the euro is toast.

Nothing short of macroeconomically significant institutional reforms will stabilize Europe. And only a pan-European democratic alliance of citizens can generate the groundswell needed for such reforms to take root.

That's not in the offing given either current or foreseeable conditions. 

Project Syndicate
Schäuble’s Gathering Storm
Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.

Alexrpt — After meeting in Berlin with Merkel and Hollande, Poroshenko appear to have backed down from restarting the war in Donbass

Some good news, sort of.

Red Pill Times
After meeting in Berlin with Merkel and Hollande, Poroshenko appear to have backed down from restarting the war in Donbass

Alexrpt

John Ward — If Cameron Says He Can Negotiate With A Triumphalist Germany, Then He Is A Liar

In just ten years, Europeans experienced total Soviet collapse, reunified Germany, accepted federalism, scoped out EMU, and launched the euro. Only recently have increasing numbers of EU and eurozone citizens really grasped the sloppiness, corruption and corner-cutting involved in this process. But still hardly anyone gets why German-led globalism and control freakery have turned the Union from fluffy dream to anarchic nightmare…and totally removed the potential for long term peace.…

The European Union, far from keeping the peace in Europe, has become a creator of tectonic tensions and social divisiveness which, after North Korea and the USA, represents the greatest threat to peace and prosperity in the contemporary world.

Why does any of this matter for Brexit?

It matters for one reason above all others. It matters for a reason that invites Leftist UK voters to take off their blinkers about the EU, and Rightist voters to do the same in relation to David Cameron.

The British Left needs to face facts: the EU is not a force for peace and harmony, it is a directionless seed blowing with the wind of neoliberalism. It is a born catalyst for social division, growing wealth divides, and yes – even civil war.

The British Right needs to face facts: David Cameron is not a brave and principled reformer out to do battle with the Horrid Hun and Beastly Brussels. The British Prime Minister is a convinced corporacrat in favour of multinational globalist banking and business, and therefore desperate to compete in that pigswill with all the other sociopathic hogs.

For all Britons regardless of political affiliation, there is an acid Troika of test questions that can be put to the occupant of Number Ten Downing Street:
Can you bring about EU reform that will bring key Sovereign powers back to the UK?
Can you get the EU to abandon federalism, and go back to being a purely economic community of nations?

Can you persuade Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt to cut their losses on the euro, and stop blaming innocent European citizens for an ill-conceived and hubris-fuelled mistake?
If he can answer a straight ‘Yes’ to all three – and if he has succeeded by the time of the referendum – then we should all vote to stay in.

But if he can’t and they won’t, we should all vote to leave at the earliest opportunity.

The Slog

Saturday Essay Special: If Cameron Says He Can Negotiate With A Triumphalist Germany, Then He Is A Liar

John Ward

Novorossia.su — Source: Poroshenko is planning an operation to destroy DPR and LPR with NATO support

This is a bold move if there is anything to it.

Fort Russ
Source: Poroshenko is planning an operation to destroy DPR and LPR with NATO support

Novorossia.su
Translated for Fort Russ by J. Arnoldski

A different take.

Indian Punchline
Kissinger: Obama is prudent but more ideological than strategic
M K Bhadrakumar, retired Indian ambassador and foreign service officer

Gilbert Doctorow — Has Gaullisme returned to France? The French parliamentary delegation’s visit to Crimea

The ins and outs of French (and German) politics and policy.

Une parole franche
Has Gaullisme returned to France? The French parliamentary delegation’s visit to Crimea

Gilbert Doctorow

Zero Hedge — French President Calls For The Creation Of United States Of Europe

France in a weak position, too, and Le Pen is rising.

Zero Hedge
French President Calls For The Creation Of United States Of Europe
Tyler Durden

Also, Forget Grexit, "Madame Frexit" Says France Is Next: French Presidential Frontrunner Wants Out Of "Failed" Euro

France 24 — France favours establishment of euro government

France favours a "stronger organisation" behind the euro led by "a vanguard of countries", French President Francois Hollande said in an interview published Sunday.
In the past week "the European spirit prevailed" in addressing the Greek crisis, he told the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

"But we cannot stand still," Hollande said, in the interview published alongside a profile of Jacques Delors, the former head of the European Commission.

Delors, a former French economics and finance minister who turns 90 on Monday, is one of the architects of the euro.

"I have proposed taking up Jacques Delors' idea about euro government, with the addition of a specific budget and a parliament to ensure democratic control," Hollande said.…

France 24
France favours establishment of euro government

France 24 — US spied on last three French presidents, WikiLeaks says

The United States National Security Agency spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, WikiLeaks said in a press statement published on Tuesday, citing top secret intelligence reports and technical documents.

WikiLeaks said its "Espionnage Élysée" files include secret NSA intelligence reports and technical documents on the communications of high-level French officials over the past 10 years.

The documents derive from NSA surveillance of Hollande as well as former presidents Sarkozy (2007–2012) and Chirac (1995–2007). French cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the United States were also targeted.

Among the issues addressed in the intercepted communications were "some of the most pressing issues facing France and the international community," WikiLeaks said, including the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis and the leadership of the European Union.

First Germany, now France.

France 24
US spied on last three French presidents, WikiLeaks says

UPDATE

The Guardian
François Hollande calls emergency meeting after WikiLeaks reveals US spied on three French presidents

James Petras — Lies and Deceptions on the Left: The Politics of Self Destruction

Over the past year, what appeared as hopeful signs, that Left governments were emerging as powerful alternatives to right-wing pro-US regimes, is turning into a historic rout, which will relegate them to the dustbin of history for many years to come.
The rise and rapid decay of left-wing governments in France, Greece and Brazil is not the result of a military coup, nor is it due to the machinations of the CIA. The debacle of left governments is a result of deliberate political decisions, which break decisively with the progressive programs, promises and commitments that political leaders had made to the great mass of working and middle class voters who elected them.

Increasingly, the electorate views the leftist rulers as traitors, who betrayed their supporters at the beck and call of their most egregious class enemies: the bankers, the capitalists and the neo-liberal ideologue….

I don't see this abandonment of the left as malicious but rather the result of ignorance. The left simply does not have a clear vision, policy, strategy and tactics worked out for actually governing from the left. Lack this, they are forced back on neoliberalism lite, but they can't even seem to get that together either. I would add other leftist governments such as Maduro's in Venezuela.

The rest is a rise of the right by default as people seeking an alternative to what's not working for them get fed up and look elsewhere for solutions.

Global Research
Lies and Deceptions on the Left: The Politics of Self DestructionJames Petras | Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Alexander Mercouris — Minsk Peace Deal for Ukraine is Falling Apart

Merkel's weakness is making the failure of Minsk 2.0 inevitable. Feeling no western pressure Kiev is unwilling to make the political concessions necessary for its implementation.

Mercouri chiefly faults Merkel for not pressuring the Poroshenko government to implement the conditions agreed to at Minsk 2. But I would say that there are many other factors contributing to the impasse. However, I would agree that Merkel should have known that the agreement would not work when Poroshenko denied the existence of a cauldron at Debaltsevo.

At that point, the agreement was grasping at straws unless she was willing to pressure Poroshenko to keep his part of the bargain. given that Ukraine has the backing of Western funding and the US and UK are encouraging a military solution, there was almost no possibility that Merkel's project could succeed. Now it is dead in the water.

It is difficult to see these as the actions of a strong leader determinedly carrying out a policy. Rather they suggest a weak leader concerned about her popularity and unwilling to take risks. Whatever Merkel’s skills as a leader who looks for and achieves consensus within Germany, the Ukrainian crisis has found her wanting and seriously out of her depth. This crisis calls for a strong and self-confident leader, which as it turns out Merkel is not, showing that the strength people tend to attribute to her is really Germany’s strength rather than hers. 

Unsurprisingly therefore Merkel's behaviour since Ukraine has failed to carry out the political commitments it took on itself through Minsk 2.0 has been the same as it was when Ukraine failed to carry out its commitments under Minsk 1.0.... 

Russia Insider

Minsk Peace Deal for Ukraine is Falling Apart
Alexander Mercouris

If there was any doubt:

On Wednesday, March 18th, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Prime Minister of Ukraine .... told his cabinet meeting, “Our goal is to regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk.” Those are the two districts comprising Donbass, the self-proclaimed independent region of Ukraine, which now calls itself “The People’s Republic“ and sometimes “Novorossiya,” and which rejects the coup and its coup-imposed Government.... 

Yatsenyuk announced there: “Adequate financial resources are available,” to retake Donbass. Those “resources” came largely from the IMF, and from the United States, all with loans to the bankrupt Ukrainian Government...

Yatsenyuk told his cabinet that, “We will fight using all methods and techniques for the resumption of peace and regaining control of Donetsk and Luhansk region.” By ‘resumption of peace,’ he meant resumption of control over Donbass....

On March 17th, Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, voted to declare Donbass to be “temporarily occupied territory,” until the residents there are conquered....

Washington's Blog
Ukraine Declares Resumption of War Against Donbass (March 18, 2015)
Eric Zuesse

Pepe Escobar — That Didn't Take Long: The First Lie about Moscow Meeting —Kerry claims the initiative came from Moscow

Kerry lied the extra mile when he said the US wanted a diplomatic solution. BUT then came the usual talk of “reviewing all options”, including “the possibility of providing defensive systems to Ukraine”. 

Do that – and the Russian response will be devastating. 

No wonder the absolute majority of the EU – apart from crackpot Lithuanians – is opposed to weaponizing Kiev’s goons. 

The Süddeutsche Zeitung – a very decent paper – last Sunday featured Russian military expert Yevgeny Buchinsky warning that if that happens, “Russia will have to intervene, and then, bluntly speaking, to take Kiev. Then NATO would be in a difficult situation. Then you would have to start World War III, which no one wants.” 

That may be a bit Dr. Strangelovian and over the top – but the Süddeutsche Zeitung was on the money to stress Washington weaponizing Kiev’s goons would be interpreted by Russia as a declaration of war.

BTW, no one should be under the illusion that Putin is the commander-in-chief in Russia in the same way that the US president. If the Russian military sees Russia being threatened they will react swiftly and decisively with overwhelming force. Is NATO really ready to start WWIII, which would almost certainly involve the destruction of Europe, over the Ukraine?

Russia Insider
That Didn't Take Long: The First Lie about Moscow Meeting —Kerry claims the initiative came from Moscow
Pepe Escobar

Ian Traynor — Vladimir Putin playing on divisions in west as war looms

In Brussels and other European capitals, the fear of Vladimir Putin is becoming palpable. The mood has changed in a matter of weeks from one of handwringing impotence over Ukraine to one of foreboding. 

The anxiety is encapsulated in the sudden rush to Moscow by Angela Merkel and François Hollande. To senior figures closely involved in the diplomacy and policymaking over Ukraine, the Franco-German peace bid is less a hopeful sign of a breakthrough than an act of despair. 

“There’s nothing new in their plan, just an attempt to stop a massacre,” said one senior official. 

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish foreign minister, said a war between Russia and the west was now quite conceivable. A senior diplomat in Brussels, echoing the broad EU view, said arming the Ukrainians would mean war with Russia, a war that Putin would win.

Announcing the surprise mission to Kiev and Moscow, Hollande sounded grave and solemn. The Ukraine crisis, he said, started with differences, which became a conflict, which became a war, and which now risked becoming “total war”.…

Putin is increasingly seen as a reckless gambler who calls bluffs, takes risks, is inscrutable, paranoid and unpredictable. Trying to work out what he wants is guesswork. The Europeans sound scared. 

Ukraine is a huge problem for Europe, not least the dawning realisation that fixing it will cost tens of billions and will take a very long time. But for Europe it is becoming clear that the real nightmare is not Ukraine, but Putin’s Russia.

 Create a problem and then wring your hands over it. Brilliant. Of course, the US is ready to fight to the last European and Russian.

This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. And the chances of a major European war in 2015 are increasing, especially with the US neocons and their UK poodles pushing for it.

The Guardian
Vladimir Putin playing on divisions in west as war looms
Ian Traynor, Europe editor

Russkiy Malchik — "We are facing a total war"--Hollande

Situation developing fast. Western European leaders freaking out?

Fort Russ
"We are facing a total war"--Hollande

Russkiy Malchik [Russian Boy]
Translated from Russian by J.Hawk