Where's Putin?

Every reasonable person knows why it took over a year for the "Panama Papers" to hit the headlines. Sure, those thousands of Soros minions on the  "investigative team" were getting all their ducks in a row..., but what they were mostly doing was looking for evidence of Putin's perfidy.

Yes, in eleven million documents there just HAD to be evidence of Bad Vlad's malfeasance somewhere... and even though they couldn't find any in a year of searching, have you noticed that practically any headline about the Panama Papers is accompanied by a photo of Putin?

That's what's known in the annals of counter-intel as "the mark of Soros."

Speaking of Soros, where's he at in the land 'o tax evasion?

Latest poll shows Trump thumping Hillary in November

The think tank here at Falling Downs called it three months ago.

Three months later the mainstream is beginning to acknowledge the possibility.

In between we've been treated to a lot of highly improbable speculation that either Cruz or Kasich could prevail over Hillary, but Trump couldn't. That line of reasoning was obvious hokum from the beginning. The tortured logic that led to such a fanciful conclusion was just wishful thinking on the part of a mainstream media that has long been little more than the propaganda arm for the Wall Street - Pentagon nexus that holds the levers of power in both parties, aka "the establishment."

What the msm is only grudgingly beginning to acknowledge is that the establishment has alienated a wide swath of American voters across the political spectrum. The more the media sense the impending overthrow of that establishment, the more they pile on the bullshit. For instance, it's impossible to go anywhere in the mainstream news universe without reading multiple accounts of "Putin's aggression" and how critical it is that America and her NATO allies do more to stare him down.

That's another way of saying we need to hand over tens or hundreds of billions more to the very same military-industrial cartels that have been working their miracles on American foreign policy for the last twenty years. One reason for the surge in support for anti-establishment candidates is that Joe Public finally sees this bullshit as the brazen fear-mongering that it is. Seriously, the US outspends Russia ten to one on military spending by we're still supposed to fear Russia every time a Beltway "defence expert" waves Putin at us?

Get outta here!

Unfortunately, there is no candidate on either side who is more closely identified with that big-money, big-military establishment than HRC. No, she hasn't been a serious alternative for Bernie's supporters and isn't about to become one going forward.

Trump, on the other hand, could be. Take for example his much ridiculed "Foreign Policy Speech" the other day. It was much ridiculed mostly by the same "experts" and their media cheer-leaders who have led America into one disastrous war after another... does their track record suggest that Americans should be heeding their advice?

I'm thinking it's their track record of stupid, bloody, illegal, fabulously expensive (but tremendously enriching for the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) wars that have made the anti-establishment candidates so appealing in the first place.

So Trump wants to go "isolationist?" The US could close hundreds of foreign military bases and still have far more than the rest of the world combined. I don't see the harm in that. Trump is also the first candidate for a major party to tell the truth about what the "free trade" agreements that have been in fashion for the last thirty years have really done to America's working class. That's another powerful reason that more American voters than ever before believe it's time for a serious change.

Those dubious relationships with "allies" wherein the costs are paid by one side and the benefits accrue to the other have long passed their stale-dates too. Sure, let Trump make some symbolic gesture like moving the embassy to Jerusalem, but why should wealthy and powerful nuclear-weapons-equipped Israel get one more penny from the US tax-payer?

These are of course all non-starters for "the establishment." They need the status quo. They need the current policies to keep the enemies to justify the massive arms spending to keep the profits rolling in.

Hillary Clinton is the candidate of and for the status quo.

The silent majority of Americans are fed-up with that establishment.

That's why Trump will bury her in November.

Most important news of the week

I see where Vanity Fair has devoted a few column inches to the question of who Selena Gomez might be dating next.

This is big stuff. After all, she's been known to two-time none other than the great Biebs, and pop-tart news is a more than filling fill-in for real news in Vanity Fair these days.

While idle minds speculate over who Selena might be dating next, there are actually really important things going on in the real world...

Like "Putin's aggression" for example.

Not content with annexing Crimea, he seems intent on annexing Syria next.

Maybe he has his annexation eye on Turkey as well.

You never know with Putin.

Just like you never know with Selena Gomez.

When we allow international relations to become a side-bar to relationships among "teen idols," we get what we deserve.

General Hillier is right!

Wasn't that long ago that I couldn't imagine agreeing with Hillier on anything.

In fact, we've been a little harsh on Hillier in the past.

Real harsh.

But times change. People change... some people learn from their mistakes.

I'm beginning to believe General Hillier could very well be one of them.

Here he is today tying the refugee crisis to ISIS. He claims ISIS must be "decapitated."

America and her so-called coalition have been playing footsie with ISIS for more than a year with their bombing campaign. Far from decapitating them, they seem to be more interested in ensuring that ISIS gets the weapons they're constantly dropping for those imaginary "moderate" rebels.

You'd almost think that they were, in spite of the rhetoric, actually supporting ISIS in the interests of regime change in Syria.

That would explain the howls of indignation that have arisen in the past week as Putin decided to help the US coalition with their battle against terrorism.

Why the oil price slump might not last as long as you think

I see where even that indefatigable optimist, Todd Hirsch, is crying "uncle" over low oil prices.


That's quite a climb-down for Todd. He's one of the greatest optimists I've ever run across. Todd has invented so much hilarious shit that he can single-handedly keep a reasonably competent satirist going for years.


Between the gig economy and unemployed lumberjacks reinventing pizza deliveries, this blog has grown rather fond of Todd.


So no offence to Todd, but just as he's bailing out, I'm bailing in.


In case you've not been following the MAKS 2015 Airshow, there's been a ton of interesting goings on going on over there. Seems there's been a steady flow of Arab potentates lining up to kiss the hand of Bad Vlad.


And while these Arab potentates have a number of differences with Mr. Putin, they also have a profoundly persuasive common interest.


None of them want to see $40/bbl oil.


Why would you want to deplete your God-given legacy for forty bucks a barrel when the world would be more than happy to pay you $100 plus?


The major problem is those countries that don't mind poisoning their fresh-water aquifers with willy-nilly fracking all over the place. That would be the US and a few satellite states who have agreed to bend over and spread 'em for a few short years of a fracking bonanza.


Those are the countries that have ramped up the supply and thereby driven down the price. The last nine months of OPEC's open taps have been a message telling the frackers that when push comes to shove, they'll let the upstarts drown in their own oil.


But that can't last forever.

Putin killed my puppy

The Putin haters are having a field day with the Litvinenko inquiry in London.

No one in London is safe from the Kremlin...

Indeed! Thousands of high-living Russian expats can't go to the grocery without constantly looking over their shoulders, because Putin's evil minions are EVERYWHERE!

In this particular case it's Yuri Felshtinsky sounding the alarm. Felshtinsky once wrote a book claiming Putin was a pedophile, thereby upping the ante on those mining the anti-Putin genre with tales of Putin's 40 billions or 400 billions squirreled away in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Or maybe it was 4 trillions...

It's a perennial favorite in the West, the anti-Putin trope.

Putin's perfidy...

Putin's aggression...

Those so-called punk-rockers Pussy Riot have milked the anti-Putin meme so skillfully they even got to share a stage with Madonna for a precious few moments!

Alas, all the hysteria doesn't seem to be making much of an impression in Russia. According to this recent story in the Washington Post, Putin's approval ratings are close to 90% among the folks he was elected by.

No wonder Cameron et al want us to hate him!

How Ukraine can defeat Putin's plan to destroy their country

Having discovered that Putin secretly controls not only the separatists in the east, but also the ultranationalist militias and the Poroshenko government itself, solving the "Ukrainian crisis" becomes stunningly simple; all the Ukrainians have to do is collectively defy Putin by stopping their wars against each other!

Problem solved! Gonna clear some space on the mantle for my Nobel Peace Prize...

Down the bunny hole in Kyiv; all sides in cahoots with Putin!

We're all well aware that Putin is behind the so-called separatists in the Donbas region, because it's frankly impossible to read any news item about Ukraine in any Western media without being repeatedly reminded of that "fact."

Trying to find out what's going on in the fallout between the Poroshenko government and Right Sector boss Dmytro Yarosh is a challenge exponentially more difficult. Well over a week has passed since tensions between the US installed Poroshenko and the country's main ultra-nationalist militia exploded into violence, and it's a week ago today that the President delivered his ultimatum that they be disarmed.

So how's that going? Impossible to tell. It's not a story visible in Western media. I did however make a startling discovery while perusing The Ukrainian Weekly. Turns out those Pravyi Sektor thugs who have been fighting Putin's puppets in eastern Ukraine are themselves stooges of the great chess-master in the Kremlin!

But wait, there's more! The same article informs us that Poroshenko himself has been making secret deals with Putin! Ergo, we are now at the threshold of a three-way civil war in Ukraine, and all three sides are secretly sponsored by Putin!

Russian President Vladimir Putin is irrational, quixotic, dumb, and desperate

What you might have missed in the news, is that the same day that those claims were made in the New York Times International Weekly, a Russian rocket delivered a critical load of essential supplies to the International Space Station.

So while we're busy as can be vilifying Putin, he's busy greenlighting a space mission that will save an American vanity project. The last three American attempts at resupplying the ISS have ended in unscheduled fireworks.

I'm really thrilled to be able to get the New York Times International Weekly way up here in the Deep North.

I'm so glad that top US journos like Cohen and Friedman can clue me in to the perfidy of Putin.

Frankly, I think that's the sort of brazen propagandistic overreach that's going to lead to the demise of the Empire.

If a pot-addled hillbilly blogger in Bruce County can see through the bullshit, lots of other folks can too.

Why Putin gets an hour with the Pope while Canada PM Harper only gets ten minutes

It's completely obvious, isn't it? Bad Vlad has been a naughty boy and has many sins to atone for, whereas Saint Stephen is a Godly Man of Impeccable Virtue. What would he have to atone for?

Either that, or the Holy Father makes time for Putin because Putin matters, whereas Big Steve is a political lightweight of no consequence.

Take your pick.

Pope ignores US pressure to politicize Putin visit

That's got to be a troubling thing; a Pope who won't take direction from Washington.

What next?

Sanctions against the Vatican? Drones? A Hellfire missile to the dome of St. Peter's?

How do we get His Holiness to understand that Putin is really the devil?

And if that's not enough, did you see the pictures of Putin yucking it up with Italian PM Matteo Renzi? It's like they're two old golfing buddies who haven't seen one another in a while. What's the matter with that guy? Hasn't he read fellow G-7 PM Harper's many exposes denouncing the Russian leader?

Canada PM "Big Steve" Harper too busy to keep up with news

When the G-7 invented itself back in the '70's, it was an exclusive club for the seven biggest economies in the world. Canada squeaked in, but just barely.

Today Canada sports the 11th largest economy in the world but remains in the G-7, while four countries that have sailed by us in terms of their economic clout (Brazil, Russia, India, China, the "BRIC" countries) are not in the club.

It's not that their economies don't cut it; it's that they don't "share our values."

We are the Nations of Virtue. It is important that members share the values of the Alpha Dog, which our Mr. Harper excels in doing. The G-7 flirted with permitting Russia into the club, back when Boris Yeltsin held the big chair at the Kremlin, but the infatuation cooled off rapidly once Putin came to power. Unlike Boris, Putin was never keen on taking instruction from Washington, and after the Kiev coup (or the Crimea "annexation," take your pick) they stopped inviting Putin altogether.

Big Steve's got an election coming up later this year, and he's pulled out all the stops in wooing the million plus Ukrainian-Canadian vote. He doesn't actually provide any meaningful assistance to the Poroshenko regime, but he's hoping to win those votes with a lot of tough talk against Putin.

Here's his most recent rant;

"Mr. Putin runs an entirely different system … he runs an economy that is dominated by oligarchs and criminal syndicates. It is not at all like our economy, it doesn't share our interests, it doesn't share our values, and so I think we need to have discussions where we can really rally the shared interests of the Western democratic world."

I especially like that bit about the Russian economy being not at all like those in the Nations of Virtue. Instead, it is dominated by oligarchs and criminal syndicates. Here's a few recent stories Mr. Harper obviously missed:

From the US Department of Justice, a press release announcing that Bank of America has paid a $16 billion fine for financial fraud for events leading up to the collapse of 2008.

From Reuters, the story of a six billion dollar fine against four too-big-too-fail banks for "brazenly cheating their clients" by manipulating foreign exchange rates.

From Financial Times, this tale of a $2.5 billion fine against Deutsche Bank, for manipulating the interbank lending rate to its advantage.... and there are plenty more stories where those came from.

And we haven't even touched on how the oligarchs won the day with the odious Citizens United ruling!

So, assuming that Mr. Harper is correct when he claims that the Russian economy is dominated by oligarchs and criminal syndicates, he's obviously wrong about it being an "entirely different system."

In fact, that would make it pretty much a mirror image of our system!

Big Steve makes headlines in Russia

Big Steve Harper has got some notice in Russia thanks to his hard line on Russian membership in the G7. Mr. Harper opined the other day that Russia doesn't belong in the G7 "under Putin" because Mr. Putin is a nasty dude. Or something.

Sounds like Big Steve is advocating for regime change in Russia.

The Kremlin response to Mr. Harper's ruminations was remarkably level-headed. What with the recent findings of genocide against the native population in Canada by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Russians could have gone off on all manner of finger-pointing and name-calling tangents.

Instead, they merely regret Canada's unfortunate lapse into Cold War rhetoric.

The G7 was once comprised of the seven biggest economies in the world. Canada has long left that fold. The influence of the G7 over global economic policies remains formidable but is fading fast. We still belong in the G20, but certainly not the G7.

As far as Russia is concerned, under Putin they have a lower unemployment rate than Canada, a bigger economy than Canada, and a far better debt to GDP ratio than Canada, in spite of the spurious sanctions imposed since that so-called "annexation" of Crimea.

I have a hunch that the history books a hundred years from now will feature several chapters on the leadership of Vladimir Putin.

Harper is unlikely to be much more than a footnote.

Canada's warmongering press shills for Ukraine escalation

While even US puppet Poroshenko seems to realize he's up a stump, that's not stopping Canada's right-wing paper of the far-right record from shilling for more death and destruction in Ukraine.

The National Post was originally a Conrad Black contrivance dreamed into being because Conrad, back when he was still marginally solvent, thought that Canada's newspaper of record, the solidly right-slanting Globe and Mail, was a bit too leftish for his tastes.

Now the Post is little more than an anchor around the neck of the flailing Postmedia Network, but they still have two or three writers on staff who aren't unpaid interns, and John Ivison is one of them.

As you can see, John is a true believer in the "Putin plots world domination" theory, and therefore it behoves him to rally all freedom loving peoples the world over to do what they can to fight Putin.

And if that means supplying the bankrupt failed state of Ukraine with weapons, well, we gotta do what we gotta do!

The "Putin plots world domination" theory is an uneasy cousin of the "Putin isolated" meme that the National Post and like-minded propaganda outlets like to spin out for our edification.

Putin is so isolated that yesterday he received a warm welcome in EU member Hungary.

In the past month the isolated Putin has signed off on mutual cooperation deals with India, China, NATO member Turkey, Egypt, and others.

That doesn't sound like isolation to me.

Fahmy family lashes out at Canadian govt

Mohamed Fahmy's family in Canada has had some rude things to say about the Harper government's utter disinterest in the case.

Can't say I blame them.

Have to admit the think tank here at Falling Downs believed Baird was going to make Fahmy's release his swan song. Apparently five millions wasn't enough to seal the deal. After all, what's five million from Canada when Mad-Dog-Putin shows up a week later and puts a multi-billion nuclear energy program on the table?

Canada under the Harper gang has never missed an opportunity to poke Putin in the eye. Had we been but a tad more diplomatic in our "diplomacy," it's not hard to imagine Putin lobbying for the release of our Canadian journalist. (Interesting to read the comments for the NP article and see how many Canadians don't consider Fahmy a "Canadian.") The non-stop anti-Putin vitriol out of Ottawa for the last decade could give al-Sisi a motive to keep Fahmy just to suck up to Putin.

Ironically, at the time al-Sisi was deposing the democratically elected Morsi, he was getting nothing but accolades from Canadian media and the Harper gang. The praise was virtually universal.

And there he is today, holding hands with Putin.

Obviously we've had some shortcomings in the world 'o diplomacy...

As for the Fahmys, I understand their confusion. The Canada they thought they moved to when they arrived here twenty-five years ago isn't the Canada they live in today.

Sorry about your luck, folks, but you'll get more sympathy from the Egyptian embassy than from the government of Canada.

Some questions about Russia's economic crisis

There's been a lot of triumphalist gloating in our media of late about how our sanctions and oil-price-manipulation have got the Russian economy on the brink.

The usual anti-Putin pundits (pretty much the only ones we get to meet on CNN et al) are gleefully suggesting Putin prepare an exit plan.

On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that the Russian economy is in far better shape, even with sanctions and $50 oil, than the US economy. There is no doubt that Russia can weather a sustained run of sub-$60 oil. The US fracking industry can't.

Long before Russia is crippled, the US fracking industry and the $500 billion in debt obligations tied to it will be ancient history. How that $500 billion write-off will effect the US economy remains to be seen.

Perhaps the prospect of that half-trillion $ default is one reason for the desperate lobbying by Citigroup and others to have Dodd-Frank emasculated. The big banks will have those toxic 500 billions repacked and sold off to one another in some form, and before you know, oopsie!... well what a surprise, the taxpayers are on the hook yet again!

Meanwhile, winter has descended on Europe, as it predictably does at this time of year, and Europe has very limited short and medium term options when it comes to replacing Russian gas. For the most part, they can't and they won't. That makes them half-hearted participants at best in the Washington-driven sanctions regime. Quite aside from their dependence on Russian gas, they must deal with the pressure of their own business communities who are saddled with substantial losses as a result of sanctions.

Obama imposes sanctions; France, Germany, Poland pay the price. How long do you suppose that's going to fly in Europe once sanctions start hurting European employment and economic well-being? While the more obsequious ass-kissers among the European leadership (Cameron, Tusk) make much noise about Putin, the reality is that European business leaders generally consider Russia a sound business partner.

Also overlooked in this recent euphoria is that Russian energy is sold to Europe in dollars. The much-ballyhooed "collapse" of the rouble this week was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was a short-term aberration driven by speculators, and even the most deep-pocketed and well-connected speculators will be unable to sustain it, at least not without having their potential losses underwritten by the US tax-payer or the US government's printing presses. So long as the dollars and euros keep pouring in from outside, it's inevitable that the rouble will rebound.

Short term, the Russian economy is taking some unwarranted bad press in the West, but that's hardly new. The usual suspects who have been salivating for regime change there probably see this as their last best chance.

Unfortunately for them, Putin's popularity in Russia seems to be holding up, and in the medium to longer term, the Russian economy is on much firmer ground than America's.

Hard times for the Putin-haters

Here's a headline steeped in irony; Rosneft and Exxon discover Arctic oil.

And it looks to be what used to be called a "gusher," although what that means in this era of oil surpluses is uncertain.

But it sure is diplomatic of Rosneft boss Igor Sechin, personally targeted by the anti-Russian sanctions that have been all the fad in the Nations of Virtue these last six months, to thank by name his American partners who made this discovery possible: Exxon Mobil, Bakerhughes, Schlumberger, Haliburton, Trendsetter, and FMC.

Now, do you think that this discovery may have something to do with how quiet things have been on the Eastern Front in Ukraine lately? Do you think somebody from Exxon sent Joe Biden a memo telling him to stop egging on his cipher Poroshenko?

Or maybe it was Cheney - he still has a substantial position in Haliburton stock, doesn't he?

Meanwhile in Canada, first among the me-too nations, at least in the bombastic rhetoric department, it has come to light that Canada leased a Russian ship to make that great Franklin Expedition breakthrough.

That's gotta be tough on Big Steve. Bad-mouthing the Ruskies to kingdom come in front of the TV cameras every chance he gets, but relying on their good offices to get his research team and his corporate sponsors into the Arctic, because even though Harper has talked a lot of ships, Canada under his watch has not actually built any.

Russia invades Ukraine again

What's that, the 10th time this month?

The New York Times has the honest truth for you.

Or not, whichever the case may be.

Frankly, you never know whether you're reading actual news that really happened, or wishful thinking concocted by Poroshenko or one of the fabulists in his cabinet.

This particular invasion has all the hallmarks of wishful thinking. A scary and, if true, very serious incident has occurred, an act of war, in fact!

This is serious business indeed!

For such a serious incident, there is a notable and highly conspicuous absence of evidence. Luckily, an unnamed US military official can confirm, anonymously of course, that there exist, under lock and key, actual photographs of Russian armoured convoys crossing into Ukraine, but unfortunately such evidence cannot be shared with the public for reasons of national security.

How does that make any sense?

But then those bullshittin' babes over at State go on TV talking up the story, and before you can say "your nose is growing", the New York Times is printing up the entire yarn as though it really happened!

American foreign policy has pretty much devolved into sabre-rattling and Putin-baiting. Given the track record over the past few decades, it is difficult to discern why a military confrontation with Russia would be a good idea from any point of view.

EU welcomes new "nigger" state

It was all rainbows and unicorns as newly minted Ukraine PM Petro Poroshenko signed a deal for tighter ties with the EU today.

If you take a good hard look at how EU membership has fucked the ordinary people in the weaker EU member states, it's utterly mind-boggling to contemplate what lies in store for Ukraine, which is destined to be the weakest of the weak if and when it gains full EU membership.

Trading the benevolent pragmatism of Putin for the didactic paternalism of Frau Merkel doesn't seem like a very intelligent trade-off, and I suspect that the Ukrainian street will soon be out on the street to verify this assessment.

But America's many engines of democracy have not invested five billions in Ukraine for nothing. Many ordinary Ukrainians are convinced by the barrage of Western propaganda that happiness and prosperity will automatically ensue once they snub Putin and embrace the Merkel austerity enema.

Good luck to them!

Russian tanks advance on Kiev

Operatives in the Falling Downs network have forwarded images of Sovi... I mean Russian tanks heading in the general direction of Ukraine's capital. This confirms a story seen earlier on Deutsche Welle about a Russian tank column having crossed the border into Ukraine.

Pictures don't lie.

The German news organs claim that there are ongoing discussions between Putin and Poroshenko. Of course they would say this, because the Germans are keen on appeasing Putin, just like they tried to appease that Chamberlain chap back in the 30's.

And isn't it just like the sneaky commi... I mean Russians to slip a tank battle group across the border while the world is distracted by the latest jihadi hi-jinx in Iraq!