UPDATE 3:00 PM PDT: Analyze this using what I just told you.
Crimeans overwhelmingly vote for secession
Associated Press NEW!SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds Sunday after residents in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and Europe condemned the ballot …
Mission Accomplished — if you’re named “Vladimir.”
Russian election monitors spill across the border to help with the voting
Vlad the Macho Failer put on his shirt for a change and engaged in one of the most transparent land grabs of modern time. And the Western Press got right in there to legitimize the most bald-faced rape of democracy and “voting” that the world has seen since Banana Republic Bush blatantly helped his brother steal the 2000 election AND our future. A rose by any other name would be, in other words, a hippop0tamus. And, conversely, a hippopotamus CALLED a rose is, in fact, now a rose:
Crimea holds referendum to split from Ukraine
Yahoo! NewsSimferopol (Ukraine) (AFP) – Crimeans took to the polls on Sunday for a referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia that has precipitated a Cold War-style security crisis on Europe’s eastern frontier.
Crimeans took to the polls? You mean that pro-Russian separatists voted in the sham “referendum” that offered no way to say “NO” to Russian annexation? THOSE POLLS?
It gets worse:
Here’s Reuters from EIGHT MINUTES AGO:
Tense Crimea votes overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine for Russia
Reuters – ?8 minutes ago?
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break away from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum on Sunday that has alarmed the former Soviet republic and triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.
Why, to read the headline and the lede, you’d SWEAR that this was some kind of actual legitimate “election” and that hanging chads were just a joke by sore loser Democrats. Golly.
Russian Election Vehicles in Crimea. The Actual article this is from?
Crimea Votes as Ukraine Says Russian Troops Across Border …
Crimeans are voting on whether to secede from Ukraine
The media has legitimized an illegitimate sham “election” as a WORLD of lazy reporters and lazy headline writers have TAKEN PUTIN AT HIS CORROSIVE WORD.
One of the key — if not THE key — principles of modern propaganda is the old saw “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This is why the Democratic bloggers and pundits of the past two decades have had such a poor track record in fighting GOP/Tea propaganda is that once the impression is made, it tends to stick even if debunked. Take a l0ok at GOP/Faux Nooz viewer belief that Saddam Hussein had 1) weapons of mass destruction and 2) something to do with Nine ‘Lebbin, if you doubt me.
Each and every headline and news story below — even if it mentions the ‘illegitimacy’ of the fake ‘referendum’ with no choices — gives the undeniable impression that this is a legitimate “election” and that people are “voting.” Nowhere will you see in the first paragraph the fact that the Tatars (from whom the Crimean Peninsula was stolen by Peter the Great in conquest) are BOYCOTTING the phony election.
But by the time you might get to that actual FACT, the fake language of the propagandist has already been mindlessly repeated, doing the job of Putin’s Ministry of Propaganda for it.
Here’s a paragraph from that Bloomberg/Businessweek article:
“I voted for Russia as only Russia can save us from war in the region,” Nadezhda Kolkina, a 64-year-old retiree, said near a polling station in the region’s capital, Simferopol, as banners proclaiming “Together with Russia” festooned the surrounding area. “I am crying because this is a special day.”
Seriously? I’ve got a bridge to sell the following (from Google News):
Vladimir Putin and fellow “democracy” fan
George “Illegal invasion and torture” Bush
Turnout in Disputed Crimea Vote About 64 Percent
Voice of America – ?32 minutes ago?Crimea referendum: live report
AFP – ?4 minutes ago?Simferopol — 20:05 GMT – ‘The turnout was 81.36 percent’ – “The turnout was 81.36 percent,” says the referendum commission chairman Mykhaylo Malyshev, AFP’s Dario Thuburn reports from Crimea. 19:40 GMT – ‘Three days to annex Crimea’ – Over in …
Clearly the Russians have learned
how to subvert democracy
from American elections
Crimea exit poll: About 93% back Russia union
BBC News – ?45 minutes ago?
About 93% of Crimean voters have backed joining Russia and seceding from Ukraine, exit polls have suggested. Crowds of pro-Moscow voters celebrated in the main city of Simferopol, and Crimea’s pro-Russia leader said he would apply to join Russia on …Ukraine crisis: Crimeans vote to join Russia in referendum slammed as ‘illegal …
Sydney Morning Herald – ?15 minutes ago?
Crimea crisis: Secession referendum polls close, Russian media says Crimeans …
ABC Online – ?23 minutes ago?Crimea poll leaves Moscow isolated
Financial Times – ?22 minutes ago?
Moscow headed deeper into international isolation on Sunday as Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula pressed ahead with a contentious referendum that appeared to have delivered a big majority in favour of joining Russia.
from the film Judgment at Nuremberg. Don’t know
how THAT got into this post …
Crimea votes to join Russia
The Australian – ?24 minutes ago?
CRIMEANS have voted overwhelmingly to join former political master Russia as tensions soar in the splintered ex-Soviet nation amid the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War. Exit polls cited by local officials showed 93 per cent of voters in favour of …Crimea’s vote under ‘illegal occupation’ changes nothing, Canada says
The Globe and Mail – ?12 minutes ago?
With Russian state media reporting Sunday that exit-poll data shows 93 per cent of voters in Crimea supported union with Russia, Ottawa reiteratedPro-Russian demonstrators burn books, storm buildings in eastern Ukraine
Sydney Morning Herald – ?34 minutes ago?
Ukraine Crisis. Donetsk, Ukraine: Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine smashed their way into public buildings and burned Ukrainian-language books on Sunday in further protests following two deadly clashes in the region last week. Protests, some …UPDATE 1-Exit poll shows 93 pct of voters in Crimea back union with Russia …
Reuters – ?48 minutes ago?
(Adds details). MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) – Ninety-three percent of voters in Ukraine’s Crimea region supported union with Russia in a referendum on Sunday, Russian state media quoted an exit poll as saying. The European Union and the United States …
Nazi Christmas tree ornaments
Ukraine’s Crimea chooses to join Russia, exit polls show in vote viewed as …
Sydney Morning Herald – ?29 minutes ago?
Crisis in Ukraine. Simferopol: A majority of Crimeans chose to join Russia in a disputed referendum exit polls showed, deepening the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. A total of 93 percent voted today in favor of leaving …Ukraine crisis: Pro-Russians flock to Crimea vote
BBC News – ?4 minutes ago?
Supporters of Crimea’s attempt to secede from Ukraine and join Russia have flocked to vote in a referendum denounced by Kiev and Western powers. Polls closed at 18:00 GMT and officials hailed a “record” turnout. Preliminary results were expected within …
Ukraine crisis: Crimea counts votes in referendum that divides Russia, US
CNN – ?1 hour ago?
Perevalnoye, Ukraine (CNN) — Ballots were being counted, and the first numbers from the referendum on whether Ukraine’s Crimea region should join Russia or become an independent state were expected soon as polls closed Sunday night, an election …Crimean lawyer: We have always felt Russian
BBC News – ?9 minutes ago?
Crimea is voting on whether to rejoin Russia or stay with Ukraine but with more autonomy. The referendum has been condemned as “illegal” by Kiev and the West but is backed by Moscow.
Hitler made Nazism cute and cuddly, too. Wonder how
uncritical today’s press would be about this?
High turnout seen at secession vote in Crimea
Businessweek – ?1 hour ago?
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — As Russian flags fluttered in the breeze and retirees grew weepy at the thought of reuniting with Russia, residents of Ukraine’s Crimea region held a secession vote Sunday. The U.S. and Europe condemned the referendum as …White House says Russia to face ‘increasing costs’ for Ukraine crisis
Reuters – ?48 minutes ago?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Sunday rejected the referendum in Ukraine’s Crimea region and saidCrimeans Vote on Joining Russia
Wall Street Journal – ?1 hour ago?
A referendum on whether Crimea should secede from Ukraine and join Russia went on Sunday with a sense of inevitability, as Russian President Vladimir Putin defended a vote the West has slammed as illegal. Crimean officials said turnout was high, though …Ukraine mobilises troops as it braces for Russian invasion
Financial Times – ?38 minutes ago?
Ukraine mobilised its military on Sunday as it braced for a potentially broader Russian invasion even as the Crimean peninsula appeared to slip from the country’s grasp. With Ukraine’s defence minister claiming 60,000 Russian soldiers were amassing on the …
Annexing the Sudentenland. Deja vu?
Crimea goes to polls for secession referendum
Tehran Times – ?25 minutes ago?
Voting got underway in Crimea on Sunday in a referendum that will decide whether the Black Sea peninsula leaves Ukraine and becomes part of Russia. At a high school in the Crimean regional …Crimea: Annexation And Recognition — The Legal Battles Ahead
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty – ?16 minutes ago?
Print · Share: Members of a local electoral commission empty a ballot box for counting at a polling station in Sevastopol, in Crimea, Ukraine, on March 16…
And so it goes, in the original Tralfamadorian coinage.
MORE peace in our time!
NOTE the enabling language. “Referendum” “exit polling” percentages! Why it’s almost just like a REAL election.
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT DEMOCRACY!
The sleep of reason breeds monsters, said Goya, and reason has most assuredly been asleep, as the “referendum” is given tacit legitimacy in article after article, granting this bald-faced “North Korean election” the same legitimacy as, say, any stolen presidential election in Florida. The Western and US complaints invariably are relegated to subordinate clause status, as a half-hearted addition to the lede. But it is NOT an election or referendum.
It is a naked attempt to provide a fig-leaf of “democracy” to a naked land grab by an autocratic dictator. There is no democracy here, and it is an insult to the sensibilities of the world to pretend that it IS, in any wise.
But lazy journalists the world over, too stupid or too pliant to CHANGE THE LANGUAGE of the Russian propaganda have legitimized the rape of Crimea as if everything were kosher.
Kosher
Ham for seder, I guess.
I could say a lot of other stuff to vent the utter rage that I feel at this complicity in tyranny; this compliance with ham-handed and brain-dead propaganda that a clever four-year-old could see through in a New York Minute.
But what’s the point?
Freedom of speech only works if those who pretend to be our “press” actually attempt to speak the truth. Otherwise, we’re looking at exactly what we’re looking at: a worldwide press emulating old Soviet Pravda.
I guess the idea of self governance was just too difficult for an uneducated and amoral world press.
And nothing I can do to damn them will damn them as thoroughly as they have damned themselves.
[You might want to take a look at yesterday’s “Annexing the Sudetenland, Putin Redux” for some more background.]
The “people” have spoken
Courage.
UPDATE, St. Patrick’s Day, WEE HOURS: They keep uncritically reporting these overwhelming turnout numbers, these incredible results, this “exit polling” data. And even the Wall Street Journal bites, but one quick rhetorical question: who do you suppose estimated turnout, executed polling (and exit polling) and counted the final “official” results?
The Keebler Elves?
Seriously. Just because it is called a thing doesn’t mean it IS that thing.
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A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.