3.31.2014

Russia Nearly Doubles Pensions for Crimeans - IMF Mandates Ukrainian Pensions Cut in Half

Russians unconcerned about Western sanctions over Crimea – Poll

The average monthly pension in Russia in 2013 was about $277US at the current exchange rate. In comparison, the average pension in Ukraine in December of last year was $160US. The pre-conditions of the IMF 'loan' state that Kiev must cut pensions in half, to $80US per month. Whereas yesterday Russia's Putin signed a decree nearly  doubling pensions in Crimea, to $300, and another increasing salaries for public sector workers like teachers and doctors, according to a statement posted on the Kremlin’s website on Monday. Officials also announced a number of new investment plans and tax breaks for Crimea. - N.Y.Times

Worldwide people are asking the same question: Does the US suffer from terminal arrogance, ignorance and incompetence? First the blundering State Department's' Victoria Nuland and her 'Project for the New American Century' husband Robert Kagan get caught arrogantly bragging about the neo-nazi puppets they were about to install in Kiev. Then the US starts shouting empty and ignorant threats that even their EU allies can't stomach. Then they incompetently use their installed puppets to bring in the IMF structural adjustment noose and tell Ukrainians to "tighten their belts".

Many individuals and countries may still fear the US militarily, but very few respect them anymore. Almost everyone everywhere sees that the US is completely out of touch with reality and are instead driven by a blind faith in Milton Freedman economics, the Project for a New American Century and various right wing support groups like the MSM and 'think tanks'. As a result Putin and Russia  don't have to invade or even threaten Ukraine. They can and will sit on the sidelines and watch as the Ukraine slides further into depression then pick up the pieces in a year or two.

In another semi-suicidal move last week the US administration cajoled VISA and MasterCard to stop serving certain banks in Russia. Within two days Russia announced it will create a national payment system similar to those in Japan and China. As a poll taken two days ago shows Russians themselves are unconcerned about Western sanctions over Crimea. Unlike Americans who only learn what their corporate MSM tells them, Russians read the opinions from everywhere. Russians, like the almost everyone else, understands that the US MSM is simply playing its role as U.S. propagandists, much as they did in Iraq in 2002-03 with their usual preference for a simplistic “good-guy/bad-guy” dichotomy.

Outside of America In the that arrogant, ignorant and incompetent dichotomy has been challenged again by the reemergence of those inconvenient neo-Nazis that the US MSM have worked so hard to ignore. Everywhere outside the USA! USA! USA! chanting home of the ignorant it's a the well-established fact that neo-Nazi militants spearheaded the coup on Feb. 22 [see video below].

Even news outlets in the US considered progressive there are blinded by the jingoist repetition of 'American Exceptionalism'.A few days ago the Boston Globe ran an article that could be considered a critical look at 'American Exceptionalism and Putin' in the US. saying, "Change doesn't always progress the way the US wants it to. But sometimes our faith in “the will of the people” seems too blind. We’re so gung ho about democracy that we forget how hard it really is, and how long it really takes to get right." It's frightening as a person who grew up in America, who was taught to think critically, that today America has slipped so far from its ideals of my era that even those who criticize still are blinded by their own propaganda about the 'rightness' of their solution.