Crimeans Enthusiastic About Mass Murder

The crowd in Sevastopol seems to be genuinely enthusiastic about this "Stalin's return" song.  The lyrics about squashing enemies and the victory in the forthcoming war is clearly touching the nerve.

The whole thing seems vaguely reminiscent of that other song, albeit the quality isn't as good.  Especially when people stand up from their sits one by one and join in the romanticized mass-muder-worshipping hatefest.

Another question for Jeremy Corbyn to answer.

So, the future leader of Her Majesty's opposition regularly goes on the Russian propaganda TV to support Russia, castigate America and to compare it to ISIS (unfavorably).  In the mean time, I have not heard him condemn Putin's Russia even once.  Here is my question to Jeremy:

1. Why is this Russian man not only free but also rewarded with a new BMW?

2. At the same time Russia  put in a cage, and tortured, this man.

Fucking Commies

So, it turns out that there hasn't been an anti-Semite or a terrorist who isn't the best friend of the next leader of the British Labour Party. I am starting to wonder whether this is why he is so popular, but that's not the subject of this post.

A leading British Jewish newspaper asked Jeremy Corbyn a few questions.  In response they received a letter from "prominent anti-Israeli activists" castigating journalists for the cheek of asking questions.

A quick check against several arbitrarily picked names of the signatories showed that ALL of them had two things in common:

1. Of Jewish background.
2. Communist.

Let us agree that among all the communists in the beginning of the 20th century there were a couple of people who were not complete vile assholes.   They "believed" and didn't know.  The excuse no longer applies in 2015.

Russian Orthodox Activists Imitate ISIS

Vadim Sidur...  Remember visiting a tiny museum on the outskirts of Moscow.  It was in the early 90s, about 5 years after Vadim's death.  Sidur's art had been banned until USSR started to fall apart and the exhibition I visited must have been the first chance to see his work.

The visit was a major shock.  Never before or after have I been so impacted by art.  I am saying this, having had the luck to enjoy some fairly decent museums - from Louvre to  Prado, from Tate Modern to Metropolitan...

Sidur's face was disfigured by a war wound and some of the works transmitted the horror the author must have lived through.  He also touched on the subject of Holocaust.  Sidur's "Treblinka" is the simplest tribute to the victims... Also the best.

What stunned me most wasn't the horror and the sadness though, but the strength of his work.  The love, the rebellion, the humanity were projecting through the totalitarian suppression depicted by art.  I don't know why the simple figure of Sidur's kneeling slave is a perfect symbol of liberty.  I only know that it is.

On Friday Russian Orthodox activists attacked exhibition, where Sidur's works were presented.  Some of the statues were destroyed.  The attackers have been arrested, but let go on the same day.

Russian Orthodox Church stated that the attackers were "provoked".  Suppose it's true.   Sidur started it.   His Slave is an eternal attack on totalitarian ideologies.

Feminism - Islam Style

Can Someone Please Explain...

The Obama's Administration and New York Times maintain that:

1. The Iran deal is in Israel's best interests.
2. Americans, who oppose the deal, are acting in Israel's interests.  

White House Spins the Iran Nuclear Deal

Obama's Administration provided a slick site with  several lines of arguments designed to justify the Iran deal.  The arguments are clearly presented, well formulated and intended for a non-expert reader.  They are also extremely misleading and full of holes.  A brief outline of the  claims is provided below:

1. White House identifies 4 paths to nuclear weapons.  That is correct, except for the claim that all of them are "blocked".

2. White House claims that without a deal, Iran can produce enough fissile material for a bomb within 2-3 months.  That's true.  It also claims that under the deal the breakdown time will increase to 1 year.  True, if there are no clandestine activities.

Now let's recall that it took us 3 years to discover the clandestine Fordow Fuel Enrichment plant.  That's an awful lot of fissile material that could be produced within another clandestine facility.

3. White House states that every step of weapons production from Mining to Spent Fuel management will be under continuous IAEA monitoring. Multiple problems with this claim:

- Iran already signed an agreement which ensures continuous monitoring by the IAEA.  It's called "Non-Proliferation Treaty.   Iran has not complied with the NPT.  Why make a new deal with someone who isn't following the original one?

- IAEA can only monitor what it knows about.  See item 2.

- IAEA will only monitor KNOWN facilities for a fixed period of time (10 to 25 years).  Any other country which signed the NPT has it's civilian facilities monitored by the IAEA indefinitely.  That includes the US of A.

- Only Uranium ore extraction and manufacturing of certain equipment will be monitored for over 15 years.  Monitoring of ore extraction will be rather useless because there are no constraints on how much ore Iran can extract.  After 15 years Iran will be able to enrich at a very high rate without any monitoring and in full compliance with the deal.  No other signatory to the NPT is allowed the same privileges.

4. White House claims that breakout time has been increased from 2-3 months to 1 year.  That is only true for the first 10 years of the deal, following which all restrictions on enrichment are lifted.  And even before they are lifted, the claim is only accurate if we were to assume there are no clandestine activities. That assumption in relation to Iran proved false on multiple occasions within the last 10 years.

5. White House claims that 24-day access rule is more than adequate to verify that Iran follows the deal because "it can take 6 months to several years to clean one of these facilities".  True for enrichment plants.  Utterly false for research on detonator systems, computer modelling of nuclear devices and neutron  initiation systems.  All of these are supposedly banned under the deal, but the ban is unverifiable because of the 24-day rule and because we are not permitted to interview Iranian specialists.

Let us remember that ALL Iranian enrichment activities have exclusively military purpose.  This is because Iran has no capability to manufacture reactor fuel for Russian-designed reactors and never will.  Furthermore, according to the deal, after 15 years Iran will be permitted to manufacture Plutonium (e.g. by operating a heavy water reactor and reprocessing).  Plutonium also has one practical use - military.

In summary, the deal legalizes development of nuclear weapons by Iran.  This is not allowed under the NPT, which Iran signed.  As such the new deal actually relaxes constraints on Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

Blogging will be light for a while.

During the two coming months. A few interruptions of silence possible, but otherwise it will be quiet.

Meanwhile - behave, people.