tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-311998772024-03-13T11:19:20.945-04:00justtryingtosortitoutJust trying to sort out the mess the world is in. It's mostly all politics, globalization, wars, climate change and the widening gap between rich and poor. Also, includes my attempts to add humor and interesting items.like `Descartes', `eating bugs` `my strawberries`, and `bullshit`Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-25059343980118046032019-02-10T11:51:00.001-05:002019-02-20T16:18:38.313-05:00Trump: "A Fool on the Loose"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="st"> TRUMP is clearly suffering from an narcissistic personality disorder. </span><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877#editor/target=post;postID=2505934398011804603;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877#editor/target=post;postID=2505934398011804603;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span class="st">People with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are characterized by persistent grandiosity, excessive need for admiration, and a personal disdain and lack of empathy for others. As such, the person with NPD usually displays arrogance and a distorted sense of superiority, and they seek to establish abusive power and control over others. Self-confidence (a strong sense of self) is different from narcissistic personality disorder; people with NPD typically value themselves over others to the extent that they openly disregard the feelings and wishes of others, and expect to be treated as superior, regardless of their actual status or achievements<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-mayo1_9-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder#cite_note-mayo1-9">]</a></sup> Moreover, the person with narcissistic personality disorder usually exhibits a fragile ego, intolerance of criticism, and a tendency to belittle others in order to validate their own superiority.</span><br />
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<span class="st">Trump is a right wing conservative and has fired and hired candidates accordingly. <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The turnover at the Top of the Trump Administration is unprecedented. Key replacements unfortunately include .thugs like Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams and John Bolton.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Pompeo </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> is a controversial figure who has voiced support for torture, wants to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open, and has a history of xenophobic remarks, particularly about Muslims. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Elliott Abrams while </span></span>serving in the administration of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, was a star of that Cold War period known as the Iran-Contra affair, during which the US illegally sold weapons to Iran and funnelled the proceeds to right-wing Contra forces busily terroisingNicaragua.<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2018/08/nicaragua-memories-bygone-revolution-180801191705953.html"></a>.<br />
Abrams's own track record also includes cheerleading for the US invasion of Iraq as well as Israeli assaults<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/15/lebanon-conflict-americans-war-217640" target="_blank"></a> on Arab civilians. He was furthermore linked<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/elliott-abrams-special-envoy-venezuela-190212012146896.html"></a> to the failed 2002 coup against Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez, a persistent thorn in the side of US imperialism.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">John Bolton </span></span>a 69-year-old Republican has been praised by conservatives as a straight-talking foreign policy hawk, while his critics label him as unhinged, dangerous and as one US television host memorably put it "a massive neocon on steroids". As a key architect of the war against Iraq, John Bolton is accused of distorting intelligence reports to build the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong. He's consistently argued for an uncompromising US stance backed by overwhelming force in crisis after crisis.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-83197098601802842382017-02-28T09:15:00.000-05:002018-10-03T10:56:41.885-04:00Canada's Russian Hating Foreign Minister<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Résultat de recherche d'images pour "chrystia freeland photo"" class="rg_ic rg_i" data-sz="f" name="P36wwaX2Gh0xVM:" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPWIhcFeiaUV2t17EpFjn2LyNLcQnG1RWnQL5hDYbNbzFjqcdr7w" style="height: 189px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; width: 252px;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chrystia Freeland</b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has replaced Stephane Dione as his Foreign Minister with Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist proud of her Ukrainian roots and well-known for her hostility toward Russia.</span> <span style="font-size: large;">Fiercely anti-Russian <b>Chrystia Freeland</b> says her Ukrainian grandfather struggled “to return freedom and democracy to Ukraine,” <b>but she leaves out that he was a Nazi propagandist justifying the slaughter of Jews. To quote her from the Washington Post: </b></span></h4>
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"Russia should stop calling my grandfather a Nazi", <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">but the truth is irrefutable that he was an active Nazi</span>. This truth is repeated in the Western press so Freeland can`t bury it as Russian propaganda. This woman is intellectually dishonest about her family history and clearly a bigot in her professed hatred for Russians. Consequently she is barred from entering Russia and unable to perform her ministerial duties.</span></h1>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Extracts from Consortium News</i></b></span>: <span style="font-size: large;"> <b>Chrystia Freeland’s</b> dark family secret is that her grandfather, Mykhailo Chomiak, faithfully served Nazi Germany right up to its surrender, and Chomiak’s family only moved to Canada after the Third Reich was defeated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army and its allies – the U.S. and Great Britain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mykhailo Chomiak was not a victim of the war – he was on the side of the German aggressors who collaborated with Ukrainian nationalists in killing Russians, Jews, Poles and other minorities. <i><b>Former journalist Freeland chose to whitewash her family history to leave out her grandfather’s service to Adolf Hitler. Of course, if she had told the truth, she might never have achieved a successful political career in Canada.</b></i> Her fierce hostility toward Russia also might be viewed in a different light.</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22738" style="width: 310px;">
<a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-2-Centre-Michael-Chomiak-and-wife-Alexandra.png"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22738" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="180" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-2-Centre-Michael-Chomiak-and-wife-Alexandra-300x180.png" style="display: inline-block;" width="300" /></a><br />
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Michael Chomiak and wife Alexandra, with their children in Canada in 1952. Freeland’s mother Halyna is second from left.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Freeland’s Grandfather</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to Canadian sources, Chomiak graduated from Lviv University in western Ukraine with a Master’s Degree in Law and Political Science. He began a career with the Galician newspaper <i>Dilo </i>(Action), published in Lviv. After the start of World War II, the Nazi administration appointed Chomiak to be editor of the newspaper <i>Krakivski Visti </i>(News of Krakow).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So the truth appears to be that Chomiak moved from Ukraine to Nazi-occupied Poland in order to work for the Third Reich under the command of Governor-General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Frank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hans Frank</a>, the man who organized the Holocaust in Poland.</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22739" style="width: 310px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-3-Governor-Hans-Fra.jpeg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22739" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="196" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-3-Governor-Hans-Fra-300x196.jpeg" style="display: inline-block;" width="300" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Governor Hans Frank (left) and Emil Gassner open the German Press House in Krakow, March 1942</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mikhailo Chomiak comfortably settled his family into a former Jewish <a href="http://www.kakanien-revisited.at/beitr/fallstudie/grossolinski-liebe2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">(or <span lang="EN-US">Aryanized) apartment in Krakow</span></a>. The editorial offices for <i>Krakivski Visti</i> also were taken from a Jewish owner, Krakow’s Polish-language Jewish newspaper <i>Nowy Dziennik</i>. Its editor at the time was forced to flee Krakow for Lviv, where he was captured following the occupation of Galicia and sent to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82%C5%BCec_extermination_camp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Belzec extermination camp</a>, where he was murdered along with 600,000 other Jews.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So, it appears <b>Freeland’s </b>grandfather – rather than being a helpless victim – was given a prestigious job to spread Nazi propaganda, praising Hitler from a publishing house stolen from Jews and given to Ukrainians who shared the values of Nazism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On April 24, 1940, Krakivski Visti published a full-page panegyric to Adolf Hitler dedicated to his 51st birthday (four days earlier). Chomiak also hailed Governor-General Hans Frank: “The Ukrainian population were overjoyed to see the establishment of fair German authority, the bearer of which is you, Sir Governor-General. The Ukrainian people expressed this joy not only through the flowers they threw to the German troops entering the region, but also through the sacrifices of blood required to fight Polish usurpers.” <i>(Because of Frank’s role in the Holocaust, the Nuremberg Tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity and executed him</i>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Beyond extolling Hitler and his henchmen, Chomiak <a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/getfile&id=5622" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rejoiced</a> over Nazi military victories, including the terror bombings of Great Britain. While praising the Third Reich, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> was also under orders by the German authorities to stir up hatred against the Jewish population. Editorial selections from Chomiak’s newspaper can be found in Holocaust museums around the world, such as the one in <a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=creators/creator&id=2136" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Los Angeles, California</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Nov. 6, 1941 issue of <i>Krakivski Visti</i> ecstatically describes how much better Kiev is without Jews. “There is not a single one left in Kiev today, while there were 350,000 under the Bolsheviks,” the newspaper wrote, gloating that the Jews “got their comeuppance.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That “comeuppance” refers to the mass shooting of Kiev’s Jewish population at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Babi Yar</a>. In just two days, Sept. 29-30, 1941, a total of 33,771 people were murdered, a figure that does not include children younger than three years old. There were more shootings in October, and by early November, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> was enthusing over a city where the Jewish population had “disappeared” making Kiev “beautiful, glorious.” Chomiak’s editorials also described a Poland “i<a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/getfile&id=5635" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">infected by Jews</a>.”</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22740" style="width: 310px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-7-Jewish-women-lined-up-waiting-to-be-shot-at-Babi-Yar.jpeg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22740" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="293" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-7-Jewish-women-lined-up-waiting-to-be-shot-at-Babi-Yar-300x220.jpeg" style="display: inline-block;" width="400" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jewish women lined up waiting to be shot at Babi Yar, September 1941</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">According to John-Paul Himka, a Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> stirred up emotions against Jews, creating <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3265280/Ethnicity_and_the_Reporting_of_Mass_Murder_Krakivski_visti_the_NKVD_Murders_of_1941_and_the_Vinnytsia_Exhumation%29." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an atmosphere conducive to mass murder</a>. In 2008, the Institute of Historical Research at Lviv National University published a paper co-authored by Himka entitled “<a href="http://www.historians.in.ua/docs/umoderna/um13/UM-13_pp252-265.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What Was the Attitude of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists toward the Jews?</a>” The paper states that, by order of the German authorities, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> published a series of articles between June and September 1943 under the title “<i>Yids in Ukraine</i>” that were written in an extremely anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi vein. The Canadian historian writes that Jews were portrayed as criminals, while Ukrainians were portrayed as victims.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Refuge in Canada</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As the war turned against the Nazis and the Red Army advanced across Ukraine and Poland, Nazi propagandist Emil Gassner took Mykhailo Chomiak in 1944 to Vienna where <i>Krakivski Visti</i> continued to publish. As the Third Reich crumbled, Chomiak left with the retreating German Army and surrendered to the Americans in Bavaria, where he was placed with his family in a special U.S. military intelligence facility in Bad Wörishofen, a cluster of hotels </span>situated 78 kilometers from Munich in the foothills of the Alps.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Extracts from Consortium News</i></b></span>: <span style="font-size: large;"> <b>Chrystia Freeland’s</b> dark family secret is that her grandfather, Mykhailo Chomiak, faithfully served Nazi Germany right up to its surrender, and Chomiak’s family only moved to Canada after the Third Reich was defeated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army and its allies – the U.S. and Great Britain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mykhailo Chomiak was not a victim of the war – he was on the side of the German aggressors who collaborated with Ukrainian nationalists in killing Russians, Jews, Poles and other minorities. <i><b>Former journalist Freeland chose to whitewash her family history to leave out her grandfather’s service to Adolf Hitler. Of course, if she had told the truth, she might never have achieved a successful political career in Canada.</b></i> Her fierce hostility toward Russia also might be viewed in a different light.</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22738" style="width: 310px;">
<a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-2-Centre-Michael-Chomiak-and-wife-Alexandra.png"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22738" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="180" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-2-Centre-Michael-Chomiak-and-wife-Alexandra-300x180.png" style="display: inline-block;" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Michael Chomiak and wife Alexandra, with their children in Canada in 1952. Freeland’s mother Halyna is second from left.</div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Freeland’s Grandfather</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to Canadian sources, Chomiak graduated from Lviv University in western Ukraine with a Master’s Degree in Law and Political Science. He began a career with the Galician newspaper <i>Dilo </i>(Action), published in Lviv. After the start of World War II, the Nazi administration appointed Chomiak to be editor of the newspaper <i>Krakivski Visti </i>(News of Krakow).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So the truth appears to be that Chomiak moved from Ukraine to Nazi-occupied Poland in order to work for the Third Reich under the command of Governor-General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Frank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hans Frank</a>, the man who organized the Holocaust in Poland.</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22739" style="width: 310px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-3-Governor-Hans-Fra.jpeg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22739" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="196" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-3-Governor-Hans-Fra-300x196.jpeg" style="display: inline-block;" width="300" /></a></span><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<span style="font-size: large;">Governor Hans Frank (left) and Emil Gassner open the German Press House in Krakow, March 1942</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mikhailo Chomiak comfortably settled his family into a former Jewish <a href="http://www.kakanien-revisited.at/beitr/fallstudie/grossolinski-liebe2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">(or <span lang="EN-US">Aryanized) apartment in Krakow</span></a>. The editorial offices for <i>Krakivski Visti</i> also were taken from a Jewish owner, Krakow’s Polish-language Jewish newspaper <i>Nowy Dziennik</i>. Its editor at the time was forced to flee Krakow for Lviv, where he was captured following the occupation of Galicia and sent to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82%C5%BCec_extermination_camp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Belzec extermination camp</a>, where he was murdered along with 600,000 other Jews.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So, it appears <b>Freeland’s </b>grandfather – rather than being a helpless victim – was given a prestigious job to spread Nazi propaganda, praising Hitler from a publishing house stolen from Jews and given to Ukrainians who shared the values of Nazism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On April 24, 1940, Krakivski Visti published a full-page panegyric to Adolf Hitler dedicated to his 51st birthday (four days earlier). Chomiak also hailed Governor-General Hans Frank: “The Ukrainian population were overjoyed to see the establishment of fair German authority, the bearer of which is you, Sir Governor-General. The Ukrainian people expressed this joy not only through the flowers they threw to the German troops entering the region, but also through the sacrifices of blood required to fight Polish usurpers.” <i>(Because of Frank’s role in the Holocaust, the Nuremberg Tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity and executed him</i>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Beyond extolling Hitler and his henchmen, Chomiak <a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/getfile&id=5622" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rejoiced</a> over Nazi military victories, including the terror bombings of Great Britain. While praising the Third Reich, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> was also under orders by the German authorities to stir up hatred against the Jewish population. Editorial selections from Chomiak’s newspaper can be found in Holocaust museums around the world, such as the one in <a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=creators/creator&id=2136" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Los Angeles, California</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Nov. 6, 1941 issue of <i>Krakivski Visti</i> ecstatically describes how much better Kiev is without Jews. “There is not a single one left in Kiev today, while there were 350,000 under the Bolsheviks,” the newspaper wrote, gloating that the Jews “got their comeuppance.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That “comeuppance” refers to the mass shooting of Kiev’s Jewish population at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Babi Yar</a>. In just two days, Sept. 29-30, 1941, a total of 33,771 people were murdered, a figure that does not include children younger than three years old. There were more shootings in October, and by early November, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> was enthusing over a city where the Jewish population had “disappeared” making Kiev “beautiful, glorious.” Chomiak’s editorials also described a Poland “i<a href="http://www.lamoth.info/?p=digitallibrary/getfile&id=5635" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">infected by Jews</a>.”</span><br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_22740" style="width: 310px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-7-Jewish-women-lined-up-waiting-to-be-shot-at-Babi-Yar.jpeg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-22740" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="293" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-7-Jewish-women-lined-up-waiting-to-be-shot-at-Babi-Yar-300x220.jpeg" style="display: inline-block;" width="400" /></a></span><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jewish women lined up waiting to be shot at Babi Yar, September 1941</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">According to John-Paul Himka, a Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> stirred up emotions against Jews, creating <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3265280/Ethnicity_and_the_Reporting_of_Mass_Murder_Krakivski_visti_the_NKVD_Murders_of_1941_and_the_Vinnytsia_Exhumation%29." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an atmosphere conducive to mass murder</a>. In 2008, the Institute of Historical Research at Lviv National University published a paper co-authored by Himka entitled “<a href="http://www.historians.in.ua/docs/umoderna/um13/UM-13_pp252-265.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What Was the Attitude of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists toward the Jews?</a>” The paper states that, by order of the German authorities, <i>Krakivski Visti</i> published a series of articles between June and September 1943 under the title “<i>Yids in Ukraine</i>” that were written in an extremely anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi vein. The Canadian historian writes that Jews were portrayed as criminals, while Ukrainians were portrayed as victims.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Refuge in Canada</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As the war turned against the Nazis and the Red Army advanced across Ukraine and Poland, Nazi propagandist Emil Gassner took Mykhailo Chomiak in 1944 to Vienna where <i>Krakivski Visti</i> continued to publish. As the Third Reich crumbled, Chomiak left with the retreating German Army and surrendered to the Americans in Bavaria, where he was placed with his family in a special U.S. military intelligence facility in Bad Wörishofen, a cluster of hotels situated 78 kilometers from Munich in the foothills of the Alps.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chomiak family was given accommodations, living expenses and health care. In her biography, <b>Freeland</b> refers to it only as “a refugee camp.” In September 1946, Mikhailo Chomiak’s daughter Halyna was born in that spa town. In May 1948, the facility was closed and Chomiak, the former Nazi editor, departed for Canada.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While it is true that the sins of a grandfather should not be visited on his descendants, <b>Freeland </b>should not have misled the public on history of such importance, especially when her deceptions also concealed how she partly developed her world view. The family’s deep hostility toward Russia appears to have been passed down from Mikhailo Chomiak’s generation to his granddaughter Chrystia Freeland.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Like many of today’s Ukrainian nationalists, including pockets of post-World War II immigrants in Canada and the United States, Freeland glosses over the violent abuses of the current regime in Kiev toward ethnic Russians, including <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/05/ukraines-dr-strangelove-reality/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the fatal firebombing</a> of the Trade Union Building in Odessa and <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/07/ukraine-merges-nazis-and-islamists/">enlistment of neo-Nazi militias</a> to prosecute the so-called “Anti-Terror Operation” against ethnic Russian rebels in the Donbass region. Overall, the conflict has killed some 10,000 people, including many ethnic Russian civilians.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But <b>Freeland</b> only sees “Russian aggression” and vows to maintain an unrelentingly hard line to punish Moscow. So, the pressing question about <b>Freeland</b> is whether her family history makes her incapable of an objective assessment of this dangerous New Cold War crisis</span>.<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Is a person who describes her Nazi-collaborating grandfather as someone who “worked hard to return freedom and democracy to Ukraine” fit to represent Canada to the world?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Chomiak family was given accommodations, living expenses and health care. In her biography, <b>Freeland</b> refers to it only as “a refugee camp.” In September 1946, Mikhailo Chomiak’s daughter Halyna was born in that spa town. In May 1948, the facility was closed and Chomiak, the former Nazi editor, departed for Canada.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While it is true that the sins of a grandfather should not be visited on his descendants, <b>Freeland </b>should not have misled the public on history of such importance, especially when her deceptions also concealed how she partly developed her world view. The family’s deep hostility toward Russia appears to have been passed down from Mikhailo Chomiak’s generation to his granddaughter Chrystia Freeland.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Like many of today’s Ukrainian nationalists, including pockets of post-World War II immigrants in Canada and the United States, Freeland glosses over the violent abuses of the current regime in Kiev toward ethnic Russians, including <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/05/ukraines-dr-strangelove-reality/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the fatal firebombing</a> of the Trade Union Building in Odessa and <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/07/ukraine-merges-nazis-and-islamists/">enlistment of neo-Nazi militias</a> to prosecute the so-called “Anti-Terror Operation” against ethnic Russian rebels in the Donbass region. Overall, the conflict has killed some 10,000 people, including many ethnic Russian civilians.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But <b>Freeland</b> only sees “Russian aggression” and vows to maintain an unrelentingly hard line to punish Moscow. So, the pressing question about <b>Freeland</b> is whether her family history makes her incapable of an objective assessment of this dangerous New Cold War crisis.</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Is a person who describes her Nazi-collaborating grandfather as someone who “worked hard to return freedom and democracy to Ukraine” fit to represent Canada to the world?</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="st"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Freeland</b> is one of thirteen Canadians <i>banned</i> from travelling to <i>Russia</i> under retaliatory sanctions imposed by <i>Russia. </i>With Trump announcing intentions to strengthen ties with Russia one has to wonder why Justin is setting himself up as a Cold War warrior.</span> </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-7652528866719741532016-12-20T13:15:00.002-05:002017-04-14T16:36:29.232-04:00Erdogan: Turkey's Facist Despot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-41492715113795523932016-08-27T13:27:00.000-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.445-05:00JOAN (1922-2016)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Joan you were my big sister, 7 years older than me. When you were still in grade school you had a bad fall when skiing on Mount Royal in Montreal. Your back suffered multiple fractures and you ended up consigned to your bed in a full body cast. The doctors worried that you might not walk again. Up until then, I remember you as a carefree and popular young woman. The war was on and you and Margaret, joined the Officer's Club to socially mix with the young officers before they were sent overseas. Now in a body cast, our home became an open house with teachers, students and my mother helping you with your assignments and preparing for your tests. It turned you into a scholar and you never looked back. When the cast came off I thought at the time it should hae been plastered onto the wall because it was covered with signatures and mostly funny statements and drawings by your friends.</div>
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As your much younger brother I was proud of you, not because of your academic accomplishments,- I was too young to think about that-, but because you attracted so many men, mostly in uniform, and some academics including professors. You were a magnet. They were mostly nice guys and some gave me a penny or two to leave the room. I can say now that you combined a shapely beauty with with a happy intelligence that seemed to make all your male acquantances take you seriously, and many certainly smitten and developing a crush. Our mother was rooting for Bernie, a young man whose father was a General. Much to her dismay Stanley Jackson, from our high school, and now a navigator in the Canadaian Airforce, arrived from overseas.You knew he was the one. Mother was finally won over.</div>
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Later as I pursued my profession as an economist and management consultant I had occasions to visit with you and Stan in New Haven on several occasions and you arranged for me to attend lectures in Yale. I even had the rare privilege of meeting and listening to a lecture by the Nobel Prize-winning economist, James Tobin, just shortly before he died. When Stan died you invited me to share the pulpit in Yale's august halls to say our goodbyes. The hall was packed and in the line-up I learned of the deep affection employees and academics had for 'Joan and Stan', and the minister commented that in Yale you were always thought of as a team.</div>
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Joan many years have passed. We have talked daily and our affection for each other has grown. I will miss you terribly, but now it is time to say goodbye.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-6655027670464630542016-02-09T07:07:00.000-05:002018-12-14T15:14:35.536-05:00God, Voltaire, Huxley and doubt <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">The secret of genius is to carry the spirit and enthusiasm of the child into old age </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;">Aldous Huxley </span></span> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span></span></li>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Superstition is to religion what astrology is to <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">astronomy.</span></span><span style="color: blue;">Voltaire</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"> </span> </span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span></li>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img align="middle" alt="Image result for pictures of earliest to modern man" border="0" class="iuth" data-deferred="1" id="uid_1" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" 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<li><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Once your faith, sir, persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life. <span style="color: blue;">Voltaire </span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one</span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>.</b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;">Voltaire</span> </span></span></span></li>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Isn't it enough</span> to<span style="color: black;"> see that a garden is beautiful without having tp believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too? </span>Adams</span></span></li>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: purple;">Organizing atheists can be compared with herding cats who tend to think independently and will not <span style="color: black;">c</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000;">onform to authority.</span> </span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dawkin</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">When the first cav</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">emen began asking the questions; why are we here? how did we get here? and what happens when we die? they came to the inevitable conclusion some higher mystical power had some answers. <span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Man invented God.</b></span> </span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-62615938036180306922016-02-09T05:12:00.001-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.570-05:00The Horrible Real Hillary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>“<span style="color: black;">Come on Bill, put your d**k up! You can’t f**k her here!!” </span></b> “Inside the White House” by Ronald Kessler, p.243-Hillary to Gov. Clinton when she spots him talking with an attractive female.</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"><b>"<span style="color: black;">I read that Hillary's staff is starting to worry that her campaign still doesn't have an official theme</span></b>. Then Hillary said, 'Yes it does – revenge.'" –Jimmy Fallon</span></span></li>
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<li><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">To listen to a Hillary stump speech is to hear a tale of endless confrontations with enemies. <span style="color: blue;">Matt Thabi, Rolling Stones</span></span></b><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
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Read more: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/hillary-clinton-is-turning-into-richard-nixon-and-bill-belichick-20150314#ixzz40v6boqAJ" style="color: #003399;">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/hillary-clinton-is-turning-into-richard-nixon-and-bill-belichick-20150314#ixzz40v6boqAJ</a> <br />
Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=rollingstone" target="_blank">@rollingstone on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=RollingStone" target="_blank">RollingStone on Facebook</a></div>
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<b>Hillary has clearly shown poor judgment before and during her role as Secretary of State in the Obama administration and is totally unqualified to become the President of the United States</b>. Here are some reasons why:</div>
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<div class="western">
1. Many months after the Bush administration itself acknowledged that Iraq had neither WMDs nor ties to Al-Qaeda, Clinton declared in a speech at George Washington University that her support for the authorization was still “the right vote” and one that “I stand by.” Similarly, in an interview on Larry King Live April 2004, when asked about her vote despite the absence of WMDs or al-Qaeda ties, she acknowledged, “I don’t regret giving the president (Bill, her husband) authority.”<br />
Hillary Clinton voted to authorize George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq. As a result of that war, tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqis died needlessly, trillions of dollars were added to the debt, and the Middle East was destabilized in a way that led to the rise of ISIS, the Syrian Civil War, and the European refugee crisis is now threatening to unravel the European Union.</div>
<div class="western">
<b>And no Apologies but now admits that she made a mistake. </b><br />
<b> </b>The 2016 Democratic presidential campaign is coming down to a race between Hillary Clinton, who supported the Bush Doctrine and its call for invading countries that are no threat to us regardless of the consequences, and Bernie Sanders, who supported the broad consensus of Middle East scholars and others familiar with the region who recognized that such an invasion would be disastrous.</div>
<div class="western">
Electing Hillary Clinton — or anyone else who supported the invasion of Iraq — would be sending a dangerous message that reckless global militarism needn’t prevent someone from becoming president<br />
Latest announcement is that Robert Kagan, an extreme right-wing pundit and author, has endorsed Hillary for President.</div>
<div class="western">
2. It also raises this ominous scenario: If Clinton were elected president despite having voted to give President Bush the authority, based on false pretenses, to launch a war of aggression — in violation of the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Principles, and common sense — what would stop her from demanding that Congress give her the same authority?</div>
<div class="western">
3. punctuated by disasters she supported U.S. intervention in Libya and Egypt, undermining governments that were no threat to American interests,<br />
<br />
.John Kerry Could End Up Outdoing Hillary Clinton.” The <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/us/clinton-seeks-state-dept-legacy-beyond-that-of-globe-trotter.html?hpw&rref=politics&_r=0">chimed in</a> with an article on the “tough comparisons with Kerry” Clinton is now facing, summing up the debate as one over whether she was anything more than a loud-mouthed “pantsuit-wearing globe-trotter” in her years as Secretary of State. Irresponsibly referring to Putin as Hitler is hardly a pronouncement for building good relationships with Russia.</div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li> </li>
<li><img alt="Hillary Clinton tells close former aide Dick Morris what she REALLY thinks of her supporters.SOURCE: http://www.amazon.com/Rewriting-History-Dick-Morris/dp/B000ECXDLC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1445767167&sr=8-3&keywords=dick+morrishttp://hillaryclintonquotes.tumblr.com/" src="http://40.media.tumblr.com/7a2a38c8e3971f5c579efd331fc3d584/tumblr_nwrta4yWAG1uk3waco1_1280.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></li>
</ul>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-16817994691296167712015-12-04T17:06:00.000-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.307-05:00Obama's policy confusion; Assad patriot or villain? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="background-color: white;">Farces and Fabrications</span></span> <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">After the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, rooting
for the rebels was, for many in the West, synonymous with rooting for
democracy and freedom.</span></li>
<li> <span style="font-size: x-small;">goal was to train about 15,000 rebels in Jordan and other countries so
they could return to Syria and fight. However, US defence officials
admitted last month that only four or five of the recruits in the
programme had actually returned to the battle.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">“If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/general-joseph-dunford-joint-chiefs-confirmation-hearing.html?_r=0"><u>said</u></a> General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., at Senate hearings on his nomination to be the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">“And if you look at their [the Russians’] behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming.<span style="color: blue;">”Editor's note/ I suspect that Dunford (alias DR Strangelove) is alarming!!</span></span></li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" height="224" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CU15Bv4UkAArQgd.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; top: -50px;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Was ist der Dum Doozle???</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Obama is calling for Regime Change in Syria. "Assad must go !" Why? Because Obama blindly accepts the doctrine of <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31887-the-ukraine-mess-that-nuland-made" target="_blank">Victoria Nuland</a> and her husband Robert Kagan, <span class="st">co founders of the Project for the New <i>American</i> Century, that led to the disastrous and bloody US invasions of Iraq and Libya, support for Nazis in Kiev, and with Republican support, ambitions for a bloody repeat in Syria. She is truly a viscious and evil woman. Putin at this point has defanged Washington by militarily supporting Assad in his battle against rebel forces within Syria and joining with him in his declared war on ISIS and Al Queda terrorists. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">To add to the confusion Washington recently initiated the bombing of the </span><span class="st">Syrian army. Take </span><br />
the time to listen to this lengthy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wELCDCPsw6M" target="_blank">interview of Assad</a> with the western press before passing US Media fed judgement.<br />
<br />
One of the toughest critics of President Obama’s strategy against the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is Rep. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard" target="_blank">Tulsi Gabbard</a>, a Democrat
who represents his home state of Hawaii. <br />
Gabbard, 34, one of the youngest members of Congress, is a Hawaii
Army National Guard captain with two deployments under her belt,
including a year in Iraq, where she served in a field medical unit. She is vehmently opposed to removing Assad, the legitimate leader of Syria, since there is no alternative and it would be simply allying US goals with terorists. She claims that we made this mistake in Iraq and Libya and would simply be repeating it again. Gabbard is clearly a brilliant and knowelgeable woman. Listen to her comments on this news clip and draw your own conclusions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=329TFfPxZBU">https://www.youtube.comd /watch?v=329TFfPxZBU</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQp5DwBtqZ-_Sz2H8WZg36z_bKeQ4HvL4J7s9k3oklPhGUQYsASnA" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Image result for " border="0" class="rg_i" data-src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQp5DwBtqZ-_Sz2H8WZg36z_bKeQ4HvL4J7s9k3oklPhGUQYsASnA" data-sz="f" name="zjYfFX5NL3-BEM:" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQp5DwBtqZ-_Sz2H8WZg36z_bKeQ4HvL4J7s9k3oklPhGUQYsASnA" style="height: 84px; margin-top: 0px; width: 128px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tulsi Gabbard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A bit about her background: Elected in 2012, she is the first American Samoan<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-samoa-news_3-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard#cite_note-samoa-news-3">[3]</a></sup> and the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu" title="Hindu">Hindu</a> member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress">United States Congress</a>. In July 2004, Gabbard Tamayo asked to deploy with her Hawaii Army National Guard unit, volunteering for a 12-month tour in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq" title="Iraq">Iraq</a>, where she served in a field medical unit as a specialist with a 29th Support Battalion medical company Those experiences have
shaped her views on the fight against ISIS and given her credibility as a
member of the House Armed Services Committee.<br />
<br />
Gabbard says she simply disagrees with elements of Obama's
foreign policy.<br />
She is an outspoken critic of regime change in Syria and like Putin believes that for now Assad must be supported since there is no credible alternative. His removal would simply play into the hands of Al Queda and would be a repeat of the drastic mistakes made by the US in Iraq and Libya.<br />
<br />
<br />
US policy and strategy reads like a script out of the Keystone Cops. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="See original image" height="153" id="il_fi" src="https://i2.wp.com/images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-06-14-keystonekops.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="200" /> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keystone Cops</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The confusion arises because the US isn't sure whether the Syrian President and his three hundred thousand strong army or ISIS is their prime enemy target. Putin suffers no such confusion and with Assad has joined in a strategy to militarily defeat ISIS. He is bombing the supply routes of rebel forces. This has resulted in so called moderate rebels supported by the US, in their quest to unseat Assad, being bombed by Russia. In effect a proxy war is underway between Russia and the US, with Iran and Syria supporting Russia and the US <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/16/us-military-syrian-isis-fighter" target="_blank">squandering its resources</a> and unsure of it's intentions. 500 Million dollars wasted on a US acknowledged military fiasco to train non existent moderate rebels with only 5 rather than 5,000 soldiers admitted before Congress being trained. To add to the fiasco the equipment America is financing has already fallen into the hands of Al Queda terrorists.<br />
<br />
Fortunately Rep. Gabbard and her supporters see the issues clearly but is Congress just listening to John McCain or following the script written in the NYTimes and Fox news? And where does Obama stand? His fog index is high. <br />
<br />
Syria and Iran strongly support Russia's military efforts while Washington vacillates and flounders with the issues. I think that the fundamental problem in Washington is their hegomonic ambitions threatening regime change in any state that opposes their objectives. NATO is their historical battering ram against Russia and a 60 Year legacy of the Cold War still exists and of late is intensifying. Proxy wars such as we are seeing in Syria will be the wars in the future since a major war with nuclear armed nations will be unthinkable unless a suicidal Dr Strangelove shows up. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0Unknown location.-56.636896333513079 -139.78124141693115-75.219806333513077 178.91016458306885 -38.05398633351308 -98.472647416931153tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-24274423381748745272015-04-06T14:17:00.002-04:002017-03-30T12:36:27.986-04:00Brain Dead conformity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tSHQDQVjWm8/VSI3oO4qy1I/AAAAAAAAA4E/5Lfi7E2Ncxc/s1600/.LA%2BMAJORITE%2BC%27EST%2BVOUS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="419" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tSHQDQVjWm8/VSI3oO4qy1I/AAAAAAAAA4E/5Lfi7E2Ncxc/s1600/.LA%2BMAJORITE%2BC'EST%2BVOUS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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</ul>
<b><span class=""> </span></b>“People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.”<br />
― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2980674.Jess_C_Scott">Jess C. Scott</a>, <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/19220493">Literary Heroin (Gluttony): A Twilight Parody</a></i><i> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/19220493"></a> </i><br />
<br />
<i> </i>“Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.”<br />
― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3447.Ken_Follett">Ken Follett</a>, <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/18116611">Winter of the World</a></i><i> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/18116611"></a></i><br />
<br />
<i> </i>“The city was filled to overflowing with persons who had neither brains nor individuality, who bore no resemblance to men that live by bread, and had only their outward shape to distinguish them from sheep.”<br />
― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/305177.Lucian_of_Samosata">Lucian of Samosata</a><br />
<br />
“I don’t like the term “Average Joe.” I prefer “Dolly,” because not only is the Everyman a sheep, but he’s also a clone. They all think alike and act alike.”<br />
― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4157885.Jarod_Kintz">Jarod Kintz</a>, <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/21376080">99 Cents For Some Nonsense</a></i><i> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/21376080"></a> </i><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Pavlov and his experiments with dogs.</b><br />
<span class="">Pavlov</span><span class=""><span class="_Tgc"> </span></span><span class=""><span class="_Tgc"><b>Ivan Petrovich Pavlov</b> was an eminent Russian physiologist and psychologist who devised the concept of the conditioned <b>reflex</b>.</span></span><span class=""><span class="_Tgc"> In his initial experiments, <b>Pavlov</b> rang a bell and then gave the <b>dog</b> food; after a few repetitions the <b>dog</b> started to salivate in response to the bell. <b>Pavlov</b> called the bell the conditioned stimulus because its effects depend on its association with food.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="">Just like the dogs we all have Pavlovian responses to repetitive stimuli. French teenage girls are exposed repetitively to TV and film images of attractive people smoking and a very high percentage of them smoke. Russians have experienced a profound rise in their living standards under the leadership of Putin and experience a positive Pavlovian response to his name. Conversely Western media associate Putin with a rejection of our American leadership and in our media he is vilified. Just like the dog's salivating response on hearing the bell ring, many in the West have an instant negative response on hearing his name. Republicans have the same </span><span class=""><span class="">spontaneous </span>bell ringing reaction to hearing Obama's name. </span><br />
<br />
<span class=""><b>Mindless Conformity </b></span><br />
<span class="">It logically follows that our Pavlovian responses can blindly lead us into collective herd-like and mindless conformity. A rush into a war in Iraq with flags waving. Oops!! a mistake based on lies that </span><span class=""><span class="">leaves a nation </span>destroyed including 5,000 American soldiers and as many as a million Iraqis dead. <span class="">Thomas Friedman, (described by Matt Taibbi of the Rolling Stones as light weight but popular columnist of the NYT) was a strong advocate for this war. </span></span><br />
<span class=""><span class="">This was a repeat that followed the disaster in Vietnam that killed an estimated 3.6 million in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and 6,500 American soldiers and ended up with an ignominious American defeat. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class=""><span class=""> </span></span><b><span class=""><span class="">The Lonely Crowd </span></span></b><span class=""><span class="">- Written in 1950 by David Riesman describes three main cultural types: tradition-directed, inner-directed, and other-directed. If we can step aside from the herd and listen to mainly inner directed personalities it can give some hope to the human race. The Internet has opened a window to these voices all of whom reject mindless conformity. Their voices are now being heard and shared by millions through the Internet. The aren't so lonely anymore. My list is long but here are a few names: Chris Hedges, Matt Taibbi, Jon Stewart, Naomi Kline, Jesse Ventura, Michael Moore, Pepe Escobar, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Snowdon, Chelsea Manning,</span></span><span class=""><span class=""><span class=""> Julian Assange (Wiki Leaks) Cenk </span></span></span><span class=""><span class="">Uygur (Young Turks), Erik Margolis, Peter Lavelle (RT).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class=""><b><span class="">Where does mindless conformity take us?</span></b><span class=""> There are many allegoric stories written about this human weakness such as</span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span class=""><span class="">Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' where the crew blindly follows Captain Ahab's obsession to kill the Great White Whale. Only the first mate rejects this maniacal obsession and survives to tell the tale.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="">The fable 'The Pied Piper' tells the story of children listening to the leaders flute and blindly following him to their death. Dates back to an actual event in Hamelin in 1284 where 130 children were killed. </span></li>
<li><span class=""><span class="">Examples of modern day Pied Pipers for military interventions, including the disastrous wars in Iraq and Libya, include Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, Fred Barnes of Fox News, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times and influential Republican right wing policy advocates such as Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan with the backing of </span><a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/06/pnac-wanting-to-control-world.html"><span class="">PNAC</span></a></span><span class=""><a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/06/pnac-wanting-to-control-world.html"><span class=""><span class=""><span class=""> (Project for the New American Century)</span></span></span><span class="">.</span></a><span class=""> She is </span></span><span class=""><span class="">currently busy in Kiev with a 5 billion dollar budget to realize her hegemonic goal to replace Putin with a US handpicked leader just as they </span></span><span class=""><span class="">replaced Ukraine's elected leader with Poroshenko, a US handpicked stooge. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class="">What can we do to prevent being swept away by mindless conformity? </span></span></b><span class=""><span class="">Unfortunately</span><b> </b></span><span class=""><span class="">the controlling and wealthy interests need their armies of well cared for sheep. The Koch </span></span><span class=""><span class="">Brothers can be included in this select group of 20 people whose wealth is estimated to amount to </span></span>a total net worth of over a <a href="http://www.usagainstgreed.org/Forbes400_2011-12.xls"><span class="s1">half-trillion dollars. </span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.usagainstgreed.org/Forbes400_2011-12.xls"><span class="s1"></span></a><br />
<span class="s1"></span> <span class="s1"><span class="">Their collective investments run into the many millions to finance chosen politicians, conservative think tanks and media campaigns. Koch brothers for example promote the rejection of global climate change regulations related to oil and gas production and generously finance conservative politicians who support their causes. </span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span> <span class="s1">The history of the Koch family makes for some very interesting reading. T</span><span class="s1">he pile of money Fred Koch and his family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil industry provided the foundation of wealth for Koch industries. Fred Koch (1900 - 1967) from this experience in Stalinist Russia became an ardent anti-communist and a founding member of the John Birch Society. He was convinced that </span><span class="s1">the evil 'socialism' was taking over America through unions, colored people, Jews, homosexuals, the Kennedys and even Dwight D. Eisenhower. He had four sons who were all rabid conservatives; Charles and David who manage the Koch empire, and Frederick, the oldest brother a philanthropist who died in 2014 and William, the youngest brother </span><span class="s1">an American businessman, sailor, and collector. William's boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/09/1254355/-The-Kochs-A-Nazi-Past-Oil-The-Foundation-of-The-Right" target="_blank">Read about an unsavory Nazi past of Koch relative</a>s.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="s1"></span><span class="s1"><span class="">Since Sheep rarely think about these issues, their complacent conformity lends a helping hand to the influence of the .00001% as they trash Obamacare and environmental protection. In my view only an economic upheaval can alter the course of this complacency. </span></span><br />
<span class="s1"> </span> <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-23123029816272707312015-02-02T17:23:00.000-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.336-05:00I Can't Take it Anymore - Feb 2015 update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b> </b>last week, <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Bank of England Governor Mark Carney</span></b> sharply
criticized austerity policies common to the Eurozone states,
warning that the single-currency area was constrained by
strangulating levels of debt that could plunge it into years of
stagnation. </li>
<li> Following Carney’s comments, UK economist and anti-austerity
campaigner <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Michael Burke </span></b>argued that debt burdens of struggling
EU states such as Greece and Ireland are unsustainable, and must
be largely written off if real growth is to occur in these
states.
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<b>Jan 2015 update</b>. The sweeping victory of Alexis Tsipras's left-wing
Syriza party raises hope for a better life in Greece and dashes Merkel's
demands for endless austerity. Read on. <br />
<br />
<i>"The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my
survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid
for 35 years with no help from the state. And since my advanced age does
not allow me a way of dynamically reacting (although if a fellow Greek
were to grab a Kalashnikov, I would be right behind him), I see no other
solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself
fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance. I believe that young
people with no future, will one day take up arms and hang the traitors
of this country at Syntagma square, just like the Italians did to
Mussolini in 1945"</i><br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/05/dimitris-christoulas-legacy-suicide-greece"><b><span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Dmitri Christoulas</i></span></b></a><br />
<div align="center">
* * *</div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Our Capitalist Manifesto:</b> <i>Welcome
to laissez-faire Global Capitalism!! Anything goes! We the bankers and
international oligarchs own the system, enforce the rules, and the
public must pay for it. As personal profit is our sole motive we
shelter our wealth off shore to hide it from Nation States, lend without
discipline and constraints to create collapsing bubbles, day trade for
speculation from tax havens sums that exceed by many times the world's
daily GDP , and take ownership of the media and flood the political
system with largess to ensure it does our bidding. We grab hold of an
ever increasing share of the nation's wealth from a less worthy
citizenry and accept that many will provide their inexpensive labour
within a modern framework of serfdom. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In
the US, Canada, Great Britain and the greater part of Europe the
public, largely disillusioned and passive, have retreated from
participation in the public debate. Demonstrations are scattered,
lacking teeth and soon forgotten. France is currently an exception that
raises hope for revolutionary reforms. This hope for change comes from a
movement on the Far Left that has become the third force in the
election battle. It is a revolutionary call for citizens to take charge
to gain their rights and bring an end to laissez-faire capitalism. It's
apparent that there is an awakening of a disillusioned public, many of
whom in the past have retreated from voting. With more than 15% of the
popular vote and not far behind the UMP(conservatives) and
PS(Socialists) they have become a deciding factor in who will take power
in France. It is also a cry that is reaching the public in Greece,
Spain and other countries now facing years of brutal restraints to pay
off the bankers who are largely responsible for creating the financial
mess they are in.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This
movement is being led by a fiery orator, Jean-Luc Melanchon who is
attracting audiences of 70, 000 or more wherever he speaks filling
public squares and surrounding streets. <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpxjil_discours-de-toulouse_news?start=63#from=embediframe" target="_blank">Here is a video of his oration in Toulouse.</a> You don't have be bilingual to gain an impression of his passionate delivery and the audience's enthusiastic response. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
His
critics, of which he has many, say that his programs for radical
reforms are unaffordable, in conflict with France's trading partners and
excessively idealistic. Clearly his is critics are right if France decided
to go it alone, but I think Melanchon is reaching out for an
international audience to bring about unbearable pressures on
laissez-faire capitalism and those fighting to maintain the status quo. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The
months ahead will determine whether this movement burns out from
exhaustion or this is the beginning of a constructive and hopefully
non-violent revolutionary movement that will
spread.<br />
<br />
Feb 2015 update. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Alexis Tsipras" data-file-height="305" data-file-width="221" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Alexis_Tsipras_die_16_Ianuarii_2012.jpg/123px-Alexis_Tsipras_die_16_Ianuarii_2012.jpg" height="320" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="231" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexis Tsipras</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Feb 2015 Update!! On Jan 25th the Greeks finally gave voice to "I can't take it anymore" and elected the left-wing party <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYRIZA" title="SYRIZA">SYRIZA</a>
led by Alexis Tsipras winning a legislative election for the first time
ever, securing 149 out of the 300 seats, 2 seats short of an absolute
majority. On the other hand, conservative and then-ruling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democracy_%28Greece%29" title="New Democracy (Greece)">New Democracy</a> lost 53 seats and obtained its worst result ever in terms of seats won.<br />
<br />
The above was written in 2012. With the election of Alexis Tsipras, Merkel's demands for endless austerity is being challenged and with it the overpriced Euro. In the months ahead we predict that southern European countries including France will rally around Greece's issues . Like Roosevelt before them, they realize that austerity is the problem and not the solution. </div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-87585946642532376802015-02-02T09:26:00.000-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.695-05:00Thomas Friedman,"Imperial Messenger'' <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><img height="228" id="il_fi" src="https://www.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/111.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="320" />The armchair warriors of
Official Washington are eager for a new war, this time with Russia over
Ukraine, and they are operating from the same sort of mindless “group
think” and hostility to dissent that proved so disastrous in Iraq, </span> <br />
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<div class="tab-content" data-tid="yui_3_16_0_1_1429376109241_2390" data-title="How Ukraine Commemorates the Holocaust" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1429376109241_2479" style="visibility: visible;">
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<span class="thread-subject" title="How Ukraine Commemorates the Holocaust">How Ukraine Commemorates the Holocaust</span> <span class="summary"></span> </h3>
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<span class="from lozengfy hcard " data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="consortiumnews@mail.democracyinaction.org" data-name="Consortiumnews.com" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1429376109241_2662" role="button" tabindex="0" title="consortiumnews@mail.democracyinaction.org"></span>Exclusive:
Pundit Thomas Friedman says the new Ukraine regime “shares our values”
but – as much of the world marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi
Holocaust finally being ended by Russian and U.S. armies – politicians
in Kiev were busy honoring Ukraine’s Nazi collaborator so what does he believe? </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #351c75;">Robert Parry.</span></b></span>
<br />
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1422721237953_2403">
<b><br /></b>
<b>The Nitwits are in charge</b><br />
<b>Exclusive:</b> Pundit Thomas Friedman laments that the
new Cold War isn’t funny enough for him, but there really isn’t anything
funny about the U.S. plunging into an unnecessary nuclear showdown with
Russia over Ukraine while Friedman and his fellow VIPs misreport
what’s happening, writes Robert Parry.<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><span class="">By Robert Parry</span></b></span><br />
Sometimes
I wonder if today’s crop of U.S. pundits and pols could ever rise to
meet some truly urgent need of the American people, let alone the
interests of the world. Everything, it seems, is done with a snigger and
an attitude – even as we stumble into a wholly unnecessary
confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia over which batch of thieves and
oligarchs gets to run Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Friedman's position as one the world’s leading pundits is “testament to the
degenerate state of the mainstream media”, and right to characterize him
as a “mouthpiece for empire and capital” and “resident apologist for US
military excess and punishing economic policies”.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"><span class=""> Belén Fernández, Verso</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></b>“The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened, making the
world much flatter than it had ever been--but the age of seamless global
communication had not yet dawned.”<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">Matt Taibbi's</span></b> comments about Friedman's prose:<br />
<blockquote>
“How the fuck do you open a window in a fallen wall? More to the
point, why would you open a window in a fallen wall? Or did the walls
somehow fall in such a way that they left the windows floating in place
to be opened? Four hundred and 73 pages of this, folks. Is there no
God?”
</blockquote>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></b> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Though Thomas Friedman, a leading New York Times Columnist is clearly a shill and has been wrong again and again such as promoting the stampede into Iraq, He is still regarded as
perhaps the preeminent foreign policy pundit in the U.S. media. I find him horribly glib
and superficial. He is a booster of globalization and with it the spreading
of the good will and intentions of US foreign policies and initiatives. He
even sees the wars in Iraq, Aghanistan and other foreign interventions as beneficial, spreading
American know how, and enlightenment to backward nations. The violence
and killings are merely an inconvenient but necessary shaking up of backward people. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Here are a few a few of his observations and beliefs. </span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>“to be a French educated Arab intellectual is the worst combination
possible for understanding globalization. It is like being twice
handicapped” </li>
<li>“the education of Hezbollah….the only long-term source of deterrence was
to exact enough pain on the civilians – the families and employers of
militants – to restrain Hezbollah in the future”</li>
<li>Friedman announces in 2003 that the reason for the
invasion of Iraq was the need to burst a “terrorism bubble” that had
emerged in “that part of the world”:</li>
<li><span class=""> His complaint that American occupying forces in Iraq “are baby-sitting a
civil war” is a direct echo of Barack Obama’s promise during the 2007
presidential election campaign that “</span><a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/01/obama_iraq_react_media_blitz_o.html"><span class="">we're not going to babysit a civil war</span></a><span class="">”,
as though the bloodbath engulfing the country was attributable to the
infantilism of its people and not to the effects of it being violently
invaded by a foreign power. Elsewhere, Friedman’s likening of the US
occupation of Afghanistan to the adoption of a “special needs baby” </span></li>
</ul>
In the Ukraine Friedman states as fact that 9,000 Rusian troops are in Ukraine. As usual Friedman throws around accusations without adequate evidence. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/22/-sp-does-us-evidence-prove-russian-special-forces-are-in-eastern-ukraine">The Guardian provides a much more balanced perspective</a> while aware of thae dated photos and uncertainty of much of the evidence. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Which
brings us to the issue of his views about Ukraine and Russia. As the United States rushes into a new Cold War with Russia, we are
seeing the makings of a new McCarthyism, challenging the patriotism of
anyone who doesn’t get into line. Friedman and Hilary likening Putin with Hitler is a pathetic cheap shot unworthy of a leader. It might be more rational to associate the very active Nazi's movement in Kiev with Poroshenko and his aid and support from the US's notorious Victoria Nuland, the famous 'regime change advocate' who when working for Dick Cheney promoted the disasters in Iraq and Libya and hand picked the leadership in Kiev. Seems this would be worth Friedman's comments.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-82454318618482275112015-01-24T05:05:00.001-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.654-05:00 Poroshenko, a Disaster for Ukraine ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Thirteen years after the end of the Soviet Union, the American press establishment seemed eager to turn Ukraine's protested presidential election on November 21 into a new cold war with Russia.<a class="authorlink" href="http://www.searchquotes.com/quotes/author/Stephen_Cohen/"> Stephen Cohen</a> </span></h1>
<h1 class="topictitle">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.cartoonmovement.com/depot/cartoons/2015/01/3aigmZaAQaqyQzYnX9-eaA.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cartoonmovement.com/depot/cartoons/2015/01/3aigmZaAQaqyQzYnX9-eaA.jpeg" height="222" id="il_fi" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="320" /></a></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> I<b>s Porosheko still working for his former masters in Washington, DC?</b></span></h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><b>Two diplomatic messages from the </b><a data-mce-href="https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/about/" href="https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/about/"><i>WikiLeaks Public Library on U.S. Diplomacy</i></a><b> indicate that newly elected President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko was an agent for United States State Department. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span><b><i>The West created [Ukrainian] President [Petro] Poroshenko, but he is in many respects the tail that wags the dog, they cannot always rein him in. He is the rogue player, he is the joker in this hand,”</i> </b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Martin Sieff </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>April 4th 2016 Update</b>:https://www.rt.com/op-edge/338675-ukraines-petro-poroshenko-biggest-loser/<br />
<br />
<h1 class="article__heading">
Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko: The biggest loser from the Panama Papers?
</h1>
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<h1 class="topictitle">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> The outcome of the elections was known in advance - Poroshenko was declared the winner of the race. The results will further split the country. many regions refuse to recognize as President this cocolate king who is notorious for pocketing government money. Poroshenko </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">has no chance to stop the bloody conflict even scrupulously carrying out all the orders given by Joe Biden, Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt. Besidess,the mission of putting an end to the bloodshed has never been set by his US bosses...</span></h1>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><u>Gregory Kolyada</u></b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Democracy, which Kiev so much adores and venerates together with the “civilized countries”, as President Poroshenko puts it, is about learning to live with differences, by respecting and accommodating it. I do not see any sign of if coming from Kiev. </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">What Ukraine really needs is a President and a government that listens to all Ukrainians and respects their right to be different. Yes, the majority of Ukrainians want to be part of Europe. But there is also the other Ukraine that wants to keep close ties with Russia. Any political project of state-building in Ukraine will succeed only if this other Ukraine is </span></b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">heard and accommodated.</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;"><b><br /></b></span> <span style="color: blue;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hal</b></i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">yna Mokr</b></i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ushyna</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<b>It has become evident that Washington is using Ukraine as a battle ground to achieve their hegemonic goals against Russia. While Merkel and Hollande are attempting to negotiate a peace accord by meeting with Putin and Poroshenko, Kerry is deliberately undermining this attempt by independently asking Congress for funds to strengthen Kievs military capacity. Washington is not interested in peace because it doesn't fit with their battle to bankrupt Russia and unseat Putin. Porkyshenko is their loyal soldier in this battle and willing to sacrifice Ukranian lives. He sits in the command post in Kiev with his American allies, Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt.</b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Don Currie</i></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">A reenactment of 'Dr Strangelove' Starring Poroshenko</span></b></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="">'Billionaire Poroshenko started his business by laundering the money of 'Soviet times’ administrators. He has never been an entrepreneur to start a business of his own. The story is invented. He made a head start thanks to the criminal connections of his father sentenced for large-scale theft in 1986. Having served the sentence, Poroshenko Sr. launched his own business and involved his son in the activities. Poroshenko Sr was rewarded for his merits in 2009 the Hero of Ukraine decoration bought for him by his son. The business was dirty, it all started with plundering state property. The Poroshenko family had plans to expand the activities beyond Ukraine. Poroshenko is well known for misappropriating budget funds. He has the reputation of someone who knows how to make money out of thin air. Many times he has been accused of being involved in large scale corruption schemes, open lobbying, </span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">embezzlement of budget allocations</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="">, tax evasion, illegal operations to acquire shares, and physically threatening political opponents and competitors. '</span></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class=""><br /></span></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="">Forbes lists Petro Poroshenko as the 130th wealthiest person in the world with 1.6 billion dollars. </span></span></b><br />
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<img src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WO-AS505_EUKRAI_DV_20140528174632.jpg" height="320" width="212" />open lobbying<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Poroshenko has received a hero’s welcome in the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, and the media, as well including their counterparts in Canada. In fact, Poroshenko has recently addressed a joint session of Congress, an honor bestowed only on America’s closest allies, especially Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who has spoken twice to joint sessions. Netanyahu typically comes to Washington when he expects to return to Jerusalem with financial guarantees, military aid packages, and other largesse courtesy of the American taxpayers. Poroshenko and other leaders know this and try to emulate the influence of the Israel Lobby that ensures huge assistance packages for their client.</span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Corruption is a major problem for Ukraine. It has become a simple, effective and sometimes the only way to do things in a lot of cases: getting a medical certificate, the permit for construction or a job, entering a university. In most cases one has to grease the hand. Even to bury someone one must pay a bribe for a place at a cemetery.</span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Graft has become the main source of income for many public sector employees. This has largely eliminated the stimulus for the government and society to reform. Corruption has become the norm for governmental relations<span style="color: #e32400;"> </span></span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Depending on the region the bribe for avoiding being sent to war fluctuated from 500 euros to 2000 euros. Special pay is envisaged for a chance to choose the military service and the place of deployment. The failure to tackle the rampant and deep-seated corruption plaguing the Ukrainian people could quickly squash any optimism that the revolution and the recently signed EU Association Agreement herald a better future.<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The speech to the joint session of Congress will place Poroshenko on the same level as other present and past U.S. allies. </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="">However, Poroshenko’s speech will be forgotten as soon at it is given. Today, few, if any, older members of Congress would recall similar addresses by NATO allies such as Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, Dutch Queen Beatrix, or Canadian Governor General Vincent Massey. All those speeches became, as will Poroshenko’s, insignificant footnotes of history.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pavel Gubarev a lea</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">der of the Donetsk Republic (who was wounded and hospitalized in an assassination attemp</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">t </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">in October 2014) </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">says: "We want to create a fundamentally new state based on social justice and equality of people. We now have a chance, an opportunity to reboot . When people understand that the new state will protect their rights and interests, they will be happy and will support us. We wanted the new government to ensure the rights of the Russian-speaking population and to consider an autonomous status for the Donbas area. However, we never saw any desire of the Ukrainian authorities in Kiev to find a compromise. How will I explain to the families who have lost loved ones in the fighting what they died for if we negotiate with Kiev? For the return of the oligarchs?"</span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The yes vote in the self-rule referendum in the Donbas was born as much from a sense of difference between eastern and western Ukraine as from deep disillusionment about the extent to which the Ukrainian state symbolized the kind of social justice to which Gubarev aspires.<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Soviet-style egalitarianism mixed with cultural mythology,geography and the historical precedent of Donbas may not only appeal to those who supported the the referendum but is also an attractive geopolitical concept from Moscow’s perspective.</span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class=""><span class="">President Barack Obama during a meeting at the White House praised Petroshenko for signing the recent “Association Agreement” with the European Union and encouraging the military exercises being conducted in Ukraine by Ukrainian and NATO forces (also the Sea Breeze naval exercises recently completed with the US Navy in the Black Sea).</span></span></span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class=""><span class=""><br /></span></span></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class=""><span class="">Canada Defense Minister Valery Heletey recently announced that NATO countries are delivering weapons to Ukraine for use against the Russian speaking population of eastern Ukraine. There are no guarantees that </span></span></span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">NATO weapons will not end up in the hands of ultra-rightwing Ukrainian militias from Kiev sporting Nazi helmets. These same miltias have entered eastern Ukraine with genocide in their foremost thoughts.</span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class=""><span class=""><br /></span></span></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="">Putin has recommended forming a federal system of government in Ukraine that would give a freedom of expression between the different languages, and aspirations of the people in Kiev and those in the Eastern cities of D</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><b><span class="">onestk and Luhansk. Ukraine could successfully use this rational approach by following Canada's federal system that recognizes the distinct cultural and language differences of it's French and English speaking citizens. Quebec where most of it's French speaking citizens live maintains strong c</span></b></span></span><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span class="">ultural and commercial ties with France. </span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Kiev government is dysfunctional and bankrupt and is deploying Western taxpayer money to wage a vicious war on several million Russian-speaking citizens in the Donbas (</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">D</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><b>onestk and Luhansk region).This area is </b></span></span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the traditional center of greater Russia’s coal, steel and industrial infrastructure. Donbas and Russia have been Siamese twins economically and politically </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for centuries. Under Poroshenko Kiev carries on with a senseless and murderous shelling and bombing of these cities on it's eastern border with Russia. </span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NATO is itching on the sidelines to enter the fray using the return of Crimea to Russia as it's justification. The fact that Crimeans in an open vote overwhelmingly elected to leave Ukraine is of course viewed by Poroshenko as illegal even though there is precedence for such a vote in Kosovo's choice to declare independence </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">from Serbia</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> and Canada's referendum in 1995 on Quebec's choice whether to remain in Canada or become an independent state. </span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Update Feb 24th 2015: Excerpts from Robert Parry's observations in Consortiumnews.com.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is a madness to the Kiev regime that the West doesn’t want to recognize because to do so would upend the dominant narrative of “our” good guys vs. Russia’s bad guys</span>.</span> If we begin to notice that the right-wing regime in Kiev is crazy and brutal, we might also start questioning the “Russian aggression” mantra.The deputy foreign minister announced that Kiev is preparing for “full-scale war” against Russia and wants the West to supply lethal weapons and training so the fight can be taken to Russia.The deputy foreign minister, Prystaiko, announced that Kiev is preparing for “full-scale war” against Russia and wants the West to supply lethal weapons and training so the fight can be taken to Russia.Yet, what is perhaps most remarkable about Prystaiko’s “Dr. Strangelove” moment is that it produced almost no reaction in the West. You have a senior Ukrainian official saying that the world should risk nuclear war over a civil conflict in Ukraine between its west, which favors closer ties to Europe, and its east, which wants to maintain its historic relationship with Russia.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b> No European government, since Adolf Hitler’s Germany, has seen fit to dispatch Nazi storm troopers to wage war on a domestic population, but the Kiev regime has and has done so knowingly. Yet, across the West’s media/political spectrum, there has been a studious effort to cover up this reality, even to the point of ignoring facts that have been well established.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b> Ask yourself why our mainstream media is hiding the truth from the American Public</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b> The New York Times and the Washington Post have spearheaded this journalistic malfeasance by putting on blinders so as not to see Ukraine’s neo-Nazis, such as when describing the key role played by the Azov battalion in the war against ethnic Russians in the east.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>The Post’s stirring words fit with the Western media’s insistent narrative and its refusal to include meaningful background about the Azov battalion, which is known for marching under Nazi banners, displaying the Swastika and painting SS symbols on its helmets.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>The New York Times filed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/world/europe/mariupol-ukraine-port-city-braces-for-worst-as-rebels-close-in-again.html?_r=0"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">a similarly disingenuous article</span></a> from Mariupol on Feb. 11, depicting the ethnic Russian rebels as barbarians at the gate with the Azov battalion defending civilization. he Post’s stirring words fit with the Western media’s insistent narrative and its refusal to include meaningful background about the Azov battalion, which is known for marching under Nazi banners, displaying the Swastika and painting SS symbols on its helmets.</b></div>
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<b>The New York Times filed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/world/europe/mariupol-ukraine-port-city-braces-for-worst-as-rebels-close-in-again.html?_r=0"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">a similarly disingenuous article</span></a> from Mariupol on Feb. 11,2015 depicting the ethnic Russian rebels as barbarians at the gate with the Azov battalion defending civilization. The Times left out the salient and well-known fact that the Azov battalion is composed of neo-Nazis.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>Based on interviews with militia members, the Telegraph reported that some of the fighters doubted the Holocaust, expressed admiration for Hitler and acknowledged that they are indeed Nazis.</b><br />
<b>Andriy Biletsky, the Azov commander, “is also head of an extremist Ukrainian group called the Social National Assembly,” according to the Telegraph article which quoted a commentary by Biletsky as declaring: “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b><br /></b> <span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>An Orwellian World</b></span></span><br />
<b>In a “normal world,” U.S. and European journalists would explain to their readers how insane all this is; how a dispute over the pace for implementing a European association agreement while also maintaining some economic ties with Russia could have been worked out within the Ukrainian political system, that it was not grounds for a U.S.-backed “regime change” last February, let alone a civil war, and surely not nuclear war.</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b> In our land of the free, there is no “official narrative” and the U.S. government would never stoop to propaganda. Everyone just happily marches in lockstep behind the conventional wisdom of a faultless Kiev regime that “shares our values” and can do no wrong — while ignoring the brutality and madness of coup leaders who deploy Nazis and invite a nuclear holocaust for the world.</b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Assistant Secretary of State for European/Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland of "fuck Europe" fame is the wife of arch-neocon policy wonk Robert Kagan. While knowing full well Poroshenko's corrupt past she can be sure to line up Congress and the media to hype Porky as the “Saviour of Ukraine” while, at the same time heaping </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">scorn on Russia. This is the same couple who advocated the disastrous wars in Iraq and Libya in the name of 'regime change' that destroyed those nations, leaving millions dead and clearly contributing to the birth of ISIS. They were only prevented from doing the same in Syria by Putin although they keep trying . Here she is handing out cookies in Ukraine. </span></b><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-31634841371157910352014-08-17T11:22:00.000-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.392-05:00Who Shot Down Malaysian Flight MH17? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "bookman old style" , "palatino linotype" , "book antiqua" , "palatino" , "trebuchet ms" , "helvetica" , "garamond" , sans-serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "avante garde" , "century gothic" , "comic sans ms" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "bookman old style" , "palatino linotype" , "book antiqua" , "palatino" , "trebuchet ms" , "helvetica" , "garamond" , sans-serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "avante garde" , "century gothic" , "comic sans ms" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>A lie gets half way around the World before the truth has a chance to put its pants on</b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: blue;">Winston Churchill</span></b><br />
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<b>All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them</b><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Galileo</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><b> telling the truth is a revolutionary act.</b>"<br />
<span style="color: blue;">George Orwell</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><b>All truth goes through three phases. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third is is accepted as self-evident.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Schopenhauer </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Dutch Intellectuals Apologize to Putin for Lies on MH17</span></h1>
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<tr><td class="sh10" style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><a class="black" href="http://www.strategic-culture.org/authors/editor-choice.html" style="text-decoration: none;">EDITOR'S CHOICE</a></b> | 31.08.2014 | 01:29</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;"> </span>When a Malaysian Airlines flight carrying 289 civilian passengers was accidentally shot down in Ukraine the western press immediately accepted reports from Kiev that a rocket fired from Donetsk<b>, </b>a city located in the rebel sector of Ukraine blew up the aircraft.</b></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana";">Only three days after the crash, Secretary of State Kerry did the rounds of the Sunday talk shows making what he deemed an 'extraordinary circumstantial' case supposedly proving that the rebels carried out the shoot-down with missiles provided by Russia. He acknowledged that the US government was 'not drawing the final conclusion here, but there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The New York Times is filled with articles since the crash pointing the finger at Vladimir Putin. The Cold War is back. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">An August 7 article in the New Straits Times, Malaysia's flagship English-language newspaper, however charged the US- and European-backed Ukrainian <nobr>regime</nobr> in Kiev with shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 in east Ukraine. <a href="http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67273.shtml" target="_blank">The evidence in this article is substantial</a></span><span style="font-family: "verdana";"><a href="http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67273.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana";"></span></a> So where is the truth? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana";">Intelligence analysts in the United States have already concluded that Malaysia flight MH17 was shot down by an air-to-air missile, and that the Ukrainian government had had something to do with it. This corroborates an emerging theory postulated by local investigators that the Boeing 777-200 was crippled by an air-to-air missile and finished off with cannon fire from a jet that had been shadowing it as it plummeted to earth."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";"> Some sections of the US intelligence have concluded that US Secretary of State John Kerry's claims that pro-Russian forces shot down the plane are lies. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana";"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana";"> <br />Testimony by a Canadian-Ukrainian monitor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Bociurkiw was one of the first investigators to arrive at the crash site. Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on July 29, Bociurkiw said: "There have been two or three pieces of fuselage that have been really pockmarked with what almost looks like machine gun fire; very, very strong machine gun fire."<br />
<br />Another source the paper cited was an article, "Flight 17 Shoot-Down Scenario Shifts," by former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry "Given the lack of any evidence supporting US charges that pro-Russian forces shot MH17 down with a Buk anti-aircraft missile some US intelligence analysts have concluded that the rebels and Russia were likely not at fault, and that it appears Ukrainian government forces were to blame, according to a source briefed on these findings."<br />
<br />The US intelligence community lacked any satellite imagery supporting Kerry's allegations, and that the only Buk missile system in that part of Ukraine appeared to be under the control of the Ukrainian military."</span><br />
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<b>Propaganda Value</b><br />
This lack of transparency, of course, has a propaganda value since it leaves in place the widespread public impression that ethnic Russian rebels and Russian President Vladimir Putin were responsible for the 298 deaths, a rush to judgment that Secretary Kerry and other senior U.S. officials (and the Western news media) encouraged in July 2014.<br />
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<a class="image-anchor" href="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/vladimirputin.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-9080"><img alt="Russian President Vladimir Putin." class="size-medium wp-image-9080" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="300" src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/vladimirputin-208x300.jpg" style="display: inline-block;" width="208" /></a><br />
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Russian President Vladimir Putin.</div>
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Once that impression took hold there has been little interest in Official Washington to clarify the mystery especially as evidence has emerged implicating elements of the Ukrainian military. For instance, Dutch intelligence has reported (and U.S. intelligence has implicitly confirmed) that the only operational Buk anti-aircraft missile systems in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, were under the control of the Ukrainian military.<br />
In <a href="http://english.ctivd.nl/documents/reports/2015/10/13/index"><u>a Dutch report</u></a> released last October, the Netherlands’ Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) reported that the only anti-aircraft weapons in eastern Ukraine capable of bringing down MH-17 at 33,000 feet belonged to the Ukrainian government.<br />
MIVD made that assessment in the context of explaining why commercial aircraft continued to fly over the eastern Ukrainian battle zone in summer 2014. MIVD said that based on “state secret” information, it was known that Ukraine possessed some older but “powerful anti-aircraft systems” and “a number of these systems were located in the eastern part of the country.”<br />
The intelligence agency added that the rebels lacked that capability: “Prior to the crash, the MIVD knew that, in addition to light aircraft artillery, the Separatists also possessed short-range portable air defence systems (man-portable air-defence systems; MANPADS) and that they possibly possessed short-range vehicle-borne air-defence systems. Both types of systems are considered surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Due to their limited range they do not constitute a danger to civil aviation at cruising altitude.”<br />
One could infer a similar finding by reading a U.S. “Government Assessment” released by the Director of National Intelligence on July 22, 2014, five days after the crash, seeking to cast suspicion on the ethnic Russian rebels and Putin by noting military equipment that Moscow had provided the rebels. But most tellingly the list did not include Buk anti-aircraft missiles. In other words, in the context of trying to blame the rebels and Putin, U.S. intelligence could not put an operational Buk system in the rebels’ hands.<br />
So, perhaps the most logical suspicion would be that the Ukrainian military, then engaged in an offensive in the east and fearing a possible Russian invasion, moved its Buk missile systems up to the front and an undisciplined crew fired a missile at a suspected Russian aircraft, bringing down MH-17 by accident.<br />
That was essentially what I was told by a source who had been briefed by U.S. intelligence analysts in July and August 2014. [See, for instance, Consortiumnews.com’s “<a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2014/08/03/flight-17-shoot-down-scenario-shifts/"><u><span style="color: #3d97c2;">Flight 17 Shoot-Down Scenario Shifts</span></u></a>” and “<a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/19/the-danger-of-an-mh-17-cold-case/"><u><span style="color: #3d97c2;">The Danger of an MH-17 Cold Case.</span></u></a>”]<br />
But Ukraine is a principal participant in the Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team (JIT), which has been probing the MH-17 case, and thus the investigation suffers from a possible conflict of interest since Ukraine would prefer that the world’s public perception of the MH-17 case continue to blame Putin. Under the JIT’s terms, any of the five key participants (The Netherlands, Ukraine, Australia, Belgium and Malaysia) can block release of information.<br />
The interest in keeping Putin on the propaganda defensive is shared by the Obama administration which used the furor over the MH-17 deaths to spur the European Union into imposing economic sanctions on Russia.<br />
In contrast, clearing the Russians and blaming the Ukrainians would destroy a carefully constructed propaganda narrative which has stuck black hats on Putin and the ethnic Russian rebels and white hats on the U.S.-backed government of Ukraine, which seized power after a putsch that overthrew elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014.<br />
Accusations against Russia have also been fanned by propaganda outlets, such as the British-based Bellingcat site, which has collaborated with Western mainstream media to continue pointing the finger of blame at Moscow and Putin – as the Dutch investigators drag their heels and refuse to divulge any information that would clarify the case.<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana";"> <br />Finally, the New Straits Times and Parry both cited retired <nobr><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67273.shtml#" id="FALINK_2_0_1">Lufthansa</a></nobr> pilot Peter Haisenko, who has pointed to photographic evidence of MH17 wreckage suggesting that cockpit panels were raked with heavy machine gun fire from both the port and starboard sides. "Nobody before Haisenko had noticed that the projectiles had ripped through the panel from both its left side and its right side. This is what rules out any ground-fired missile," Parry wrote.<br />
<br /> These events also constitute yet another indictment of the Western media, who have completely blacked out the investigation of the crash of MH17. Instead, the elements in the CIA and their Ukrainian proxies driving the war in east Ukraine have been able to escalate the confrontation with Russia and demonize Putin, without any of their unsubstantiated accusations of Russian involvement in the MH17 crash being challenged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Silence denotes consent, and the deafening silence of the Western media on the issue of Kiev’s involvement in the MH17 crash testifies to the criminalization not only of the foreign policy establishment, but also of its media lackeys and the entire ruling class."</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i>By Niles Williamson,</i> <b>WSWS</b></span></div>
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</span> <span class="fineprint" style="float: right;"> <a href="http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_67273.shtml"> </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">T</span>he US and European media have buried this remarkable report, which refutes the wave of allegations planted by the CIA in international media claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin was responsible for the destruction of MH17, without presenting any evidence to back up this charge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The media coverage is a classic example of turning a tragic accident into a tidy story that fits into a Cold War tirade supported by US and EU warriors that justifies destroying the Russian economy with relentless sanctions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">Will the truth be finally sorted out? </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-10950762669166036102014-07-24T17:10:00.001-04:002019-03-14T11:50:45.250-04:00Where did the Leadership Go?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? <span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">—</span><span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Benjamin Disraeli</span></b></span></div>
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A leader is a dealer in hope. —<span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Napoleon Bonaparte</span></span><br />
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A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. —<b><span style="color: blue;">Max Lucado</span></b><br />
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He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Aristotle</span></span></b></div>
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Great leaders capable of taking big decisions seem to be rapidly disappearing on all continents. In Europe no more heavy-weights like Churchill, De Gaulle, Adenauer, Helmut Schmidt and Willie Brandt; instead we have lightweights like Barroso, Rasmussen, Lady Ashton, Hollande and Merkel.<br />
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In Canada no more leaders like Lester Pearson, Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, Joe Clarke and Pierre Trudeau; instead we have Stephen Harper and our famous mayor, Rob Ford. Not sure how to label the US leadership. Once there was Teddy and then Delano Roosevelt, but nothing since Lyndon Johnson; Bill Clinton serving his banksters by scrapping Glass-Steagall, Hilary uttering Cold War nonsense and associating Putin with Hitler, Obama preaching America's exceptionalism and supporting disasters led by his appointed trouble makers like Victoria Nuland's <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/06/pnac-wanting-to-control-world.html" target="_blank">PNAC gang</a>, As for the UK we have Mr Cameron, America's servant, and the ever present Lady Ashton parroting whatever the script prescribes.<br />
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There was a time when leaders were capable of sitting with their sworn enemies to hammer out deals. At Yalta, Roosevelt sat a the same table with Churchill and Stalin. Now we have Obama refusing to talk with Putin, hiding behind NATO and resorting to pouting and sanctions. Western leadership is now like a club house filled with self-serving mediocrities. Ironically the only country with a real leader is Russia but Europe, US and Canada won't let him sit at the table for fear they might have to hear something that conflicts with the US song sheet they must follow.<br />
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Why do they want to destroy Vladimir Putin? Well first of all he is Russian and therefore the enemy of Washington, their loyal EU puppets and the NATO war machine. I suppose other reasons for a start might be he is an opponent of Washington's <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/06/pnac-wanting-to-control-world.html" target="_blank">PNAC</a> hegemonic ambitions, a critic of the mob scene in Kiev, resisting US ambition to appoint and control the leadership in Syria and Ukraine, and his condemning them for the failed state disasters they left in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and now in Ukraine plus US tolerating wealthy Saudi Arabian's support of Jihads,<br />
Also a reminder that Russia hasn't invaded anyone; Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia after the mentally limited US hand-picked Ukrainian leader, Oleksandr Turchnov declared that his Russian speaking citizens were<a href="http://russiancouncil.ru/en/inner/?id_4=3263#top" target="_blank"> no longer entitled to their language.</a> NYT and Globe and Mail pundit's are either avoiding this truth that doesn't fit their script or having great difficulty understanding this. If Canada had similarly declared the nullification of the French language Quebec would have instantly succeeded to join France so the departure of Crimea is clearly understandable. With the US fleet positioned in Sevastopol, Poroshenko, the chocolate oligarch new leader of Ukraine, is determined against their will to bring Crimea back into the arms of Ukraine. Poroshenko just a few years ago was described by the CIA as a self enriching crook, but he is now our crook and therefore Washington's and the EU's anointed leader.<br />
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In a nutshell, where have all the real leaders gone? Why have they been replaced with such self serving mediocrities? De Gaulle and Schmidt wouldn't have put up with any of this.<br />
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The NYT and Fox News have been preaching for some time pure propaganda that Vladimir Putin is an evil dictator. After cleaning up the financial mess from the rape of Russia's assets during the IMF aided Yeltsin period of 'Gangster Capitalism' that created overnight billionaires (most of whom now sit with their laundered stolen wealth in Britain) and impoverished the population, Putin raised the standard of living, put the economy on a sound footing and enjoys a popularity rating far above that of any Western leader. Loves animals too. He rightly imprisoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky who was recognized by the CIA of amongst other offences tax evasion including 10 billion dollars of money laundering. Putin must be bad but not sure why. The weak but obedient rabble that we now have as leaders now sit around a table to decide how Vladimir Putin and the Russian people should be punished. To save the taxpayer some money why don't these same leaders apply sanctions at the same time to America's and the UK's leaders for the far greater crimes they have committed. Their list of crimes is long; in the past two decades they have left Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Vietnam in ruins and millions have been slaughtered, but all is forgiven without sanctions and lets move on and focus on Putin. Russia in modern times hasn't invaded anyone while the West has been busy; but no matter, because maybe if we upset their borders enough they just might and NATO will have something to do. The Charge of the Light Brigade will be reborn.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Why is this happening to leadership? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">The veritable explosion of sources for information through the internet challenges our conventional view of where we can find the truth. Leaders were once looked to as a top down source for guidance, but now the internet has opened up a global village for debate the moment a leader speaks and every voice must be heard. Admittedly this is a good thing, Everyone is entitled to their opinion whether a scholar, an oracle, just a journalist or an ignorant bigot. The internet has opened up many sites that challenges the mainstream media. The cacophony is deafening. How to choose?<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom" target="_blank"> Eric Fromm's famous book written in 1941 'The Escape from Freedom'</a> is highly relevant reading today. Fromm emphasizes the human tendency of retreating from intellectual freedom by adopting the values and ideas of others. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">The choices presented in this exploding information age are vast and heightens the confusion.</span></span>The pundits and politicians of many stripes try to guide us through this swamp with many of them like our Canadian PM, Mr Harper part of the swamp and adding fuel to the confusion. We all have our favourites depending on our biases. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">Can real leaders survive in this jungle of information surrounded by a circus of media consultants, supporting politicians, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">strategists, </span></span> back room specialists, pollsters, script writers, film makers, and with equally well financed attacking opponents tearing this all to shreds. Where is Waldo in all this? With all this expertise will wealth determine the winner? Can they fabricate, cut and paste false leaders to serve their ideologies and objectives? Will any leader say anything that they have personally thought out or written? Will we be voting for well financed committees with the false leaders videoed by aides simply waving at a distance as they step out of helicopters? </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I wonder what it cost to develop and support great leaders in the past in comparison with what it costs today to produce these new humanoid leaders backed by their armies of helpers? </span></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-46706285077846048892014-06-17T16:49:00.000-04:002017-08-19T07:28:43.251-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=31199877" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img align="middle" alt="Image result for pictures of earliest to modern man" border="0" class="iuth" data-deferred="1" id="uid_1" 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" style="cursor: move; margin-top: 0px;" title="http://biol1020-2012-1.blogspot.com/2012/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-ja-x.html" /></a><img alt="" class="uh_hi" data-height="171" data-width="294" height="232" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPBxDQlNtMqSqiAgFFmH6whhBUdGsrGfKxTz0Fap_7vPdY00dbGw" style="height: 171px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 294px;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rumsfeld, Bolton, Perle, Wolfowitz, Kagan, Zoellick,Schmitt - all valiant 'Chicken Hawks'</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b class="speechtext">"At present the United States faces no global rival. America’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible."</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>PNACers seem to harken back to fuedalism. They are politically primitive.</b></span></i></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;">Jane Smiley</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">"The PNAC program, in a nutshell: America’s military must rule out even the possibility of a serious global or regional challenger anywhere in the world.</span></span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b><i> "Nineteen Arabs were named as hijackers of the 9/11 planes, but they've been a dream come true for the PNAC 'think-tank' whose 2000 Statement of Principles stated a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor" would advance their policies, i.e. justify wars and "regime changes".</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i> </i></b><span style="color: blue;"><b>Quotes from The PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses"</b></span></span><br />
<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century" target="_blank">Project for the New American Century (PNAC)</a> originated in a Washington based think tank in 1997 founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kristol" target="_blank">William Kristol</a> and <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/06/13/commentary/world-commentary/kagan-and-the-ruin-of-ideas/" target="_blank">Robert Kagan</a>. Its stated goal was to promote the view that "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world"<br />
<br />
In discussing the PNAC report<i> Rebuilding America's Defenses (2000)</i>, Neil MacKay, investigations editor for the Scottish <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Herald" title="Sunday Herald">Sunday Herald</a>, quoted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_Dalyell" title="Tam Dalyell">Tam Dalyell</a>: "'This is garbage from right-wing think tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks, men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war. Men like Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war. These are the thought processes of fanatic sociopath Americans who want to control the world."<br />
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The PNAC group have left a spectacular trail of costly failed ventures in terms of lives lost and nation states destroyed, such as in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan but they don't give up and are now attempting a repeat in Syria, Iran and Ukraine while uttering warlike challenges to Russia. President Vladimir Putin stands in their way by blocking Nuland's regime change in Syria, defending the aspirations of Russian speaking Ukrainians living in regions bordering Russia and defusing US threats against Iran's peaceful nuclear ambitions. He has also consistently condemned before the fact PNAC's interventions. The US media consistently labels him as an enemy of Washington's peaceful intentions.<br />
<br />
US foreign policy is hopelessly entangled in PNAC's goals for 'Regime Change' in Syria and this explains the bizarre US polic y of arming Jihad terrorists and in Kiev allying, <i>on an end justifying the means</i> <i>basis</i>,with corrupt and Nazi elements in the government thus inflaming the conflict and distrust between Kiev and Ukrainians living in areas bordering Russia. This destructive interference in the Ukraine is being led by the notorious Victoria Nuland of "<i>fuck Europe</i>" fame and her husband Dick Kagan (<i>who had a leading role in the design of PNAC)</i> and supported by President Obama. Strangely the EU led by knee-jerking neocons like <span class="st">Anders Fogh </span>Rasmussen, José Manuel Barroso, and strangely tolerated by Merkel and Hollande, are supportive of these costly US led disasters occurring in their back yard. Past European leaders like Willie Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Jacques Chirac and Charles De Gaulle would have brought all of this destructive nonsense to an abrupt halt and sent PNAC and its NATO war machine packing back to America.<br />
<br />
What is the future for PNAC, in a World dominated by unrivaled US financial and military dominance since WWII? The good news is that US share of the World's GDP that once stood at 50%. has since declined today to 26% which is comparable with EU figures. As the World's economy becomes increasingly multi-polar with the GDP of other leading regions and nation states (e.g. India, China, Brazil, SE Asia) growing at several times the rate of the US we can expect that the concept of PNAC <i>(The Project for the New American Century</i>) is on a collision course with reality. Despite this the US unfortunately continues to use NATO as their roving battleship to batter down nations such as Russia that threaten PNAC's hegemonic ambitions. Brussels complies because they find NATO useful to strengthen relationships, including military commitments, with countries in Eastern Europe that were once members of the Warsaw Pact.<br />
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PNAC and <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/05/nato-menace-that-has-to-go.html" target="_blank">NATO </a>are organizations designed for conflict and by their very nature and mandate require an enemy. If the humanitarian concerns of regions in conflict such as currently in Ukraine, Syria and Iran were of genuine concern, then European, Russian and the Washington would preside over joint meetings to arrange financial aid and support. Putin has put forward recommendation for such meetings but Obama and his vassals in Brussels refuse to talk with him because it conflicts with the avaristic hegemony of PNAC to gain control of the oil and industrial resources in the region and for Brussels to piggyback on this ambition.<br />
<br />
The West is playing a dangerous game with Washington's right wing led by PNAC promoting further military build up in Eastern Europe and wanting to move NATO into the Ukraine up against Russia's doorstep. Its forcing European nations to take sides and encouraging revolution in a deeply divided Ukraine. Its producing a powder keg. A powder keg kicked off World War I and it could happen again.<br />
<br />
As far as I know America is the only nation who proclaims their leadership is good for the world. Try claiming that throughout the Nations of Latin America, Iraq, Iran, India, China, Brazil - the list is long. PNAC is an aggressive invention of the right wing in America that has failed miserably in the past and is predictable to repeat the same in the future. Armed with NATO and in the hands of mediocre politicians of which there is an abundent supply of these days, it will continue to do great harm. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-71673103417412783752014-05-28T04:43:00.001-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.611-05:00It's All About Bullshit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i><span style="color: blue;"><span class=""> </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: blue;"><span class="">Definitions of Bullshit</span></span></i></span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><i>Term of disparagement and ridicule of (mainly) ideas and utterances. </i></li>
</ul>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><i>T<span class="sense-body"><span class="def-block"><span class="def-head"><span class="def">o try to persuade someone or make them admire you by saying things that are not true</span></span></span></span></i></li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><i>The faeces (poop)of a bull</i>.</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="bullshit photo: Bullshit 525.gif" data-link="id{:placeHolderId}" src="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f231/ignas110/random%20stuff/525.gif" id="placeHolder_0" style="height: 236px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 400px;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An important detector that has a universal application.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
Interview by Aimie Birdwhistle, editor of Woman's Monthly, with Professor Algernon Twithead, PhD, University of Lardberg, Birdsville, Canada. Professor Twithead is a biologist/zoologist who has made a lifelong study of bovine feces and methane emissions. <br />
<br />
<b><span class="">The Interview: </span></b><br />
<b>AB</b> "Good morning Professor Twithead."<br />
<br />
<b>AT<span style="font-size: xx-small;">PhD</span></b> "My friends just call me Twit for short. In fact many of enemies refer to me as a Twit too. Either way I am known as a Twit"<br />
<br />
<span class=""><b><span class="">AB</span></b><span class=""> "That's very funny, but Twit how did your studies of cow faeces come about?"</span></span><br />
<br />
<b>AT<span style="font-size: xx-small;">PhD</span></b> "My dad owned a farm for breeding bulls and as a young boy I worked at cleaning the barns which involved cleaning out a lot of bullshit."<br />
<br />
<span class=""><b>AB</b> "Then what?"</span><br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class=""><span class="">AT</span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class=""><span class=""><span class="">PhD</span></span></span></span></b><span class=""><b> </b><span class=""><span class=""> "I earned my way through school, including my undergraduate studies, at Lardberg U shoveling bullshit out of the barn. My classmates jokingly referred to me as a bullshitter. It made sense then that I decided to take bullshit seriously and undertake my PhD in bull faeces and methane emissions. It is an important aspect of environmental studies. </span></span></span><a href="http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/methane-cow.htm" target="_blank"><span class=""><span class=""><span class="">Did you know that bovine gas emissions (farting) are a major environmental pollutant contributing to global warming? </span></span></span></a><br />
<span class="">These emissions are more </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cow-emissions-more-damaging-to-planet-than-co2-from-cars-427843.html" target="_blank"><span class="">damaging to the planet than CO2 from cars."</span></a><br />
<br />
<b><span class="">AB</span></b><span class=""> "Wow!! I now know that I have to take bullshit more seriously. But is this true or are you bullshitting me?"</span><br />
<br />
<b>AT<span style="font-size: xx-small;">PhD</span></b> "Its no bullshit."<br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class="">AB</span></span></b><span class=""><span class=""> "So I can now see that bullshit is a very important issue that influences all aspects of our life. The environment, the mainstream media, most politicians, even academia. The opinions of my Uncle Birt and Aunt Maud on almost any subject were mostly bullshit so I have been exposed to a lot of bullshit. I now understand why you have made bullshit a lifetime study. Bullshit is everywhere and not just under our feet."</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span class="">AT</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="">PhD</span></span></b><span class=""> "Yes it is a complex subject aside from science because one man's truth is another man's bullshit. For example I believe that Mr Harper, our Canadian Prime Minister is - to use a shortened phrase - full of shit. This applies to many other politicians throughout the world and you no doubt have your own long list." </span><br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class="">BT </span></span></b><span class=""><span class="">"I certainly do. I think everyone has a long list. My sister, for example, has a high turnover of boyfriends because she always ends up claiming that they have bullshitted her about their intentions." </span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span class="">AT</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="">PhD</span></span></b><span class=""> "To sum up there are two aspects of bullshit of vital importance, one that will affect man's survival on this planet: and we can begin to do something about, and the other that is a reflection of human behaviour that is usually out of control.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class="">Man's Survival on this planet</span></span></b><span class=""><span class="">: Several factors contribute to the accumulation of methane gas in
Earth’s atmosphere,but one contender stands out above
the rest as particularly repugnant: Cow Farts!! They are having an increasingly damaging effect on climate change as people are eating more meat.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class=""><b>New Zealand </b>New Zealand in 2003 considered measures such as introducing a fart tax and feeding garlic to cows to reduces their farting. Further study is needed to determine whether feeding garlic to cows will affect the taste of their milk. As for the fart tax it was rejected by the public and I'm not sure why. As you may be aware humans produce gases daily, sometimes to their embarrassment, but nowhere near the extent of these animals."</span><br />
<br />
<b><span class="">BT</span></b><span class=""> "I never realized before how important it is to think about farting and not just because of bullshit. What can scientists do about it? What ab out affixing a balloon to the backside of the cow and capturing the gas as fuel? "</span><br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class="">AT</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class=""><span class="">PhD</span></span></span></b><span class=""><span class=""> "cows belching produce only half the gas so it is only a half solution. As for affixing a balloon the quantity of gas emitted by a cow daily is enormous and the balloon ends up much bigger than the cow and it would look unsettling in the meadow to see herds of ballooned cattle. </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class=""><span class="">Like milking the balloon would have to be expelled daily.*A barn in Germany exploded this January after a static electric charge ignited a cloud of methane gas inside the barn, the Associated Press reports.The source of the methane? The barn’s cows, about 90 of them, “belching and farting”</span></span></i></span><br />
<br />
<b><span class=""><span class=""><span class="">BT</span></span></span></b><span class=""><span class=""><span class=""> "If your story about the barn blowing up isn't bullshit then it logically follows there is an abundant amount of energy that can be harnessed from bullshit if we can learn how to do it and it would be less costly and far less damaging to the environment than fracking. I'm all for bullshit. It might be a good idea to promote this on Fox News because they are expert bullshitters. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span class="">AT</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="">PhD</span></span></b><span class=""> " I am a man of science and it has been enlightening for me to discuss bullshit with an intelligent and I might say a very pretty woman like you who understands bullshit. Thank you for the time you have spent with me. Might you join me for a pleasant dinner?</span><br />
<br />
<b>BT</b> "I accept and would be delighted to spend a romantic candlelight dinner with you, but can we avoid talking about bullshit?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-88852129342106548822014-05-21T05:13:00.004-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.702-05:00NATO - An Archaic Threatening Menace. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/nato-headquarters-in-brussels4.jpg" height="107" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Offices in Brussels</td></tr>
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<i>Unfortunately, expanding NATO over the last two decades has turned what
once was a military alliance into an international social club</i><br />
<br />
<i> While there is much about which the U.S. and Europe should cooperate,
there is no need for an American-dominated transatlantic military
alliance.</i><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/april/10/kucinich-nato-%E2%80%98anachronistic-nightmare%E2%80%99-and-should-be-disbanded.aspx" title="Kucinich: NATO ‘Anachronistic Nightmare’ and Should Be Disbanded"></a></span></h2>
<br />
<i> A Russian invasion of Eastern Europe, led by the core western members of NATO, is but a paranoid fantasy.</i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"> Doug Bandow </span></i><br />
<br />
NATO<i><span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: black;">'Anachronistic Nightmare' and should be disbanded</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;">Dennis Kucinich</span> </span></span></i><br />
<br />
<i>I think that NATO is itself a war criminal</i><br />
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span class="bqQuoteLink"><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/haroldpint366882.html" title="view quote">I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.</a></span><br />
<div class="bq-aut">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/harold_pinter.html" title="view author">Harold Pinter</a></div>
<br />
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/nato.html#Cz8iQdkG4u1TGI2k.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/nato.html#Cz8iQdkG4u1TGI2k.99</a></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><i>Harold Pinter </i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i>
</span><br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Postscript May 30 2014 - US lawmakers urge France to sell Mistral warships to NATO, not Russia. Ask yourself, which nation is using NATO as a hegemonic battering ram? </span></h1>
<br />
<a href="http://media.cagle.com/38/2009/04/06/63100_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media.cagle.com/38/2009/04/06/63100_600.jpg" height="295" width="400" /></a>NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949. The first NATO Secretary General, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Ismay,_1st_Baron_Ismay" target="_blank">Lord Ismay</a> stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." The members agreed that an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The Treaty members at the time included the USA and Canada in North America plus 26 West European countries. It has since expanded to include East European countries originally members of the Warsaw pact.<br />
<img alt="'20130829_mgobhozi': Africartoons.com" src="http://africartoons.com/sites/default/files/images/20130829-Mgobhozi.preview.jpg" /><br />
It is a cost sharing organization with about 22% of the budget carried by the US, Germany 14% ,the UK and France about 12% each, and the balance divided up by agreement between the remaining member states more or less based on their respective GNP's.<br />
<br />
<b>Clearly the original goal of 'keeping the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down' no longer makes any sense. How then can we justify NATO? We obviously can't without reinventing the Cold War because its designed to need enemies, so after Crimeans by a popular vote overwhelmingly decided to return to Russia, eureka !! the US policy wonks found a reason to vilify Russia. Mr Vershbow, The American Director of NATO, has announced that the Cold War is now back! This is much to the relief of all those companies supplying services, weaponry and people with careers dependent on NATO's existence. </b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO" target="_blank"><b>With
an annual budget in excess of 1.2 trillion dollars and reportedly with 9
million people in member states depending on its existence for careers and
employment, it has many mouths to feed </b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
What we have here is what was once a defensive organization having become a threatening war machine filled with a bureaucracy of well fed military personnel, strategic planners, clerks and technicians integrated like a giant football team with the controlling owner and coach selected from its largest backer, namely the United States. With the US's abysmal track record of dismal failures in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and currently hoping to repeat their disaster in Syria (if Mr Putin would only let them) this coach is clearly incompetent and should be fired. <br />
<br />
Yes NATO is too big to fail in its present form, but like the banks it can be broken up. <br />
<br />
<br />
The problem is that with the revolutionary turmoil in the Ukraine it provides Cold War warriors like Nuland an opportunity to revitalize NATO as a giant cudgel to take into this deepening divide between the unelected government in Kiev supported by Washington and the obedient Brussels and the Eastern provinces where a predominately Russian speaking population have for the past 300 years shared a common heritage with Russia.<br />
<br />
Why would Washington and Brussels support this Nazi dominated government in Kiev? Clearly because it is consistent with their anger with Vladimir Putin who has prevented their military strike in Syria, welcomed Crimea's enthusiastic return to Russia to escape the Nazi dominated misfits in Kiev, and condemned their invasion of Iraq and Libya. Such arrogance in the eyes of Washington deserves punishment. Sanctions, sanctions and more sanctions with the vassal states under leaders like Merkel and Hollande goaded by Washington weakly considering sanctions of their own despite deep conflicts with their own economic interests. Only an absurd unwieldy integrating monstrosity like NATO can produce this mindless behaviour. In the meantime Russia is being welcomed by China, forming pipeline and economic agreements and leaving the sanction obsessed West looking self destructive and ridiculous.<br />
<br />
Looking at the future it is an absurdity to assume that nations facing the inevitable crises that will inevitably arise will be prepared to operate from a Washington led song sheet. NATO is old, its mandate outdated and is is in the way of rational decisions. It must go. <br />
<br />
How would the process of addressing each nation's national interests look like without NATO? Certainly less automatic interference by Brussels and Washington where their intrusion is often neither welcomed nor needed. Makes more sense for states to call upon alliances with whomever when deemed necessary. World War II brought the Allies together through leaders like Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt who agreed to coordinate their efforts to achieve a common goal, and in the process rallying many nations to the cause, to defeat the axis of Germany and Japan. Certainly a rigid NATO "to keep the Americans in and the Russians out" would have been an destructive absurdity that would have lost the Wars. The reality is that the combined effort of Russia (who took far and away the greatest losses) and the Western allies won the war in Europe. There was no great love between Stalin and Western leaders but great leaders have the wisdom to come together when facing a crisis. <br />
<br />
NATO is an absurdity forcing a mindless lockstep acceptance of a belligerent form of US leadership that is bringing back the Cold War. What is urgently needed at this time while we face a revolutionary crisis in Ukraine is for rival nations to work together as they did in WWII to hammer out solutions that will unite Ukrainians. It will take bringing to the table less involved nations like China, India, and Brazil to knock sense into the thick skulls of visionless NATO bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington. NATO is now the battering ram these dunces want to move into Ukraine and with a rhetoric itching to inflame a conflict that could lead to war. <br />
<br />
Apropos of this <span style="font-size: small;">NATO's </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Deputy <span style="font-size: small;">Secretary General is traditionally an American, currently</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alexander
Vershbow, who has recently unilaterally announced that NATO is now
compelled to treat Russia “as more of an enemy"</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">. The weapons industries
will no doubt be overjoyed by this announcement.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span>NATO is an archaic menace and not a solution. It should be dead and buried<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-81958717745210638552014-04-30T10:25:00.002-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.646-05:00Vladimir Putin - great leader or villain?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</ul>
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<div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Preface </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Augst 7 2014: <span style="font-size: small;"><i>US sanctions against Russia t</i></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>o no ones surprise</i></span></span></b> are severely backfiring with the Russian</i></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><i> <b>PM Dimitry Medvedev signing a decree on the full ban for
imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and
fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway. One wonders why these countries other than the US bothers to carry the overhead of governments since the all take their orders from Washington in this insane pursuit of self-destruction. The cost to Russia and the western nations of this food fight will annually </b></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>amount </b></i></span>to hundreds of billions dollars in lost revenues. While their unfit weak leaders fluff up their feathers and huff and puff their already weak economies face further damage. Wth the battle now extending to the airlines this is becoming an economic disaster. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Is leadership so weak now that there are no EU leader that can step forward and say "lets end this self destructive nonsense"? </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
.
</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">May 1 2014</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">:</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> <i>The Cold War is back as Russia and the US/EU battle over the Ukraine. On the east side the population is predominately Russian speaking and have strong historical relationships with Russia. To the West and in Kiev sympathies lean more to developing closer ties with the EU and accepting NATO. <a href="http://www.globalexchange.org/resources/wbimf/oppose" target="_blank">The IMF have just offered a loan to Ukraine in the vicinity of 17 billion US dollars</a> and it has been accepted. The demands for austerity and the selling off of assets as part of packages produced an economic and social disaster in Russia during the Yeltsin period including imposing a brutal program of austerity to pay off the bankers. The IMF is now often referred to as global loan shark and has repeated these measures in over 70 countries including Greece and Portugal with the same disastrous results. The question at this point is whether the Ukraine, a deeply troubled nation with a highly educated population will accept living with the IMF's terms for austerity and the inevitable selling off of assets to the highest bidders. </i></b></span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="background-color: #fffffe; color: #454444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 17px;">Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev to hand out cookies to the riot police. It is not known whether she baked them or bought them from Lidl or Aldi. </span></b></i></span></li>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="background-color: #fffffe; color: #454444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 17px;">We are told to vilify Vladimir Putin and this blog is an attempt to explain why.</span></b></i></span></li>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="color: #454444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Ms Nuland was heard to say "Fuck the EU!! and Ms Merkel angrily asked for an apology. This offering of cookies might help. </span></span></b></i></span></li>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="color: #454444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span></span></b></i></span></li>
<li><img alt="" src="http://rt.com/files/galleryitem/62/e7/00/00/12.jpg" height="223" title="" width="400" /></li>
<li>The New York Times and Fox News say that Vladimir Putin is a very evil so everyone in America who watches TV and the mainstream media know that he must be a very bad guy. </li>
<li>Putin made an outrageous statement "Sometimes it seems to me that America
does not need allies, it needs vassals." and this clearly shows the thoughts of a disrespectful very bad guy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He intervened but failed to prevent the CIA-NATO coup against Gaddafi that destroyed Libya as a nation-state with the loss of many lives so Obama and his Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, are very offended and Putin must be a very bad guy<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Bitstream Charter, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span></li>
<li>He prevented the US military from finishing off the Assad Government in Syria while funding Jihad rebels and in the process forced a peace that eliminated chemical weapons, including the rebels use of Sarin gas by blocking the Jihad. Victoria Nuland is upset again because she had her heart set on bloodshed and regime change. This arrogant defiance of US striking power was further proof that he is evil and must be a very bad guy.</li>
<li>He was very critical at the outset of the US invasion of Iraq that has left the country in ruins. Here again Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan of <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2014/06/pnac-wanting-to-control-world.html" target="_blank">PNAC fame</a> who led the charge into Iraq are very upset. This is a gross insult of the intentions and use of US power and therefore he must be a very bad guy. Hillary Clinton has finally admitted that in supporting the invasion she made a mistake so maybe Putin, the bad guy, was right but all the same if the NYT says he is a bad guy. </li>
<li>He accepted the will of Crimeans in a free vote to return to their original Russian homeland, Hillary strangely called him a Nazi for supporting this, Poroshenko the corrupt chocolate king President of Ukraine and his close friend and equally corrupt and self enriched ally Yulia Timoshenko that he freed from jail are upset too, so this surely makes Putin a very bad guy.</li>
<li>He builds troops along his border as NATO points its missiles toward Russia and Obama has asked him not to do this so Putin must be a very bad guy</li>
<li>Obama feels insulted and hurt when Putin doesn't agree with him so he is sulking and has decided to stop communicating with him because he is clearly a very bad guy.</li>
<li>Putin is supplying natural gas to Western Europe and this stands in the way of promoting US fracking and shipping liquified gas to Europe at much higher prices and this is not good for US business and again clearly makes him a very bad guy. </li>
<li>The twin tower attack in Volgograd by a Saudi financed Jihadist killed 32 people and this is just one of similar Saudi inspired attacks. Putin threatens a retaliation on our beloved Saudi allies who also brought down New York's twin towers, and supplies arms and money to Jihad rebels in Syria so he must be a very bad guy.</li>
<li>Putin described the Victoria Nuland led gang in Kiev as an orgy of unelected radicals, fascists and corrupt misfits. That is true but he is insulting our Washington and EU allies so he must be a very bad guy.</li>
<li>The mostly Russian speaking population in Eastern Ukraine show more trust, loyalty and affection for their Russian neighbours across the border than for the collection of unelected misfits in Kiev and this is surely because of the influence of Putin who must be a very bad guy.</li>
<li>Obama has ordered spying to find out whether Putin is richer than the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson (who enrich the US Congress) and if so this will prove that just like them he is truly an evil and bad guy. </li>
<li>Putin's popularity rating in Russia averages around 85% according to the Washington Post. This compares with a very popular Merkel at 69%, Obama at 41% and Hollande at 26%. This proves that the Russian people know something that we don't know about this truly evil and bad guy.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Summary:</b> Does all this seem totally insane? Of course it is. Vladimir trades insults with Obama and fails to show the respect that this Nobel Prize winning US President so richly deserves. From this I am sure you will agree that he must be a very bad guy <span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>or just maybe he might be a very good guy.</i></b></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-33383774493927138892014-04-12T09:33:00.001-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.400-05:00NATO and Victoria Nuland - Ugly Cold War Relics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://otherwords.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/War-jobs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”</span></i></span>
<br /> </a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5754446.Voltaire">Voltaire</a></span><br />
<br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1395993739922_12946" style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">“War is what happens when language fails.”
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">―
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3472.Margaret_Atwood">Margaret Atwood</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000urv5tlK78WM/s/900/720/Cold-War-Cartoons-Punch-1985-02-20-42.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000urv5tlK78WM/s/900/720/Cold-War-Cartoons-Punch-1985-02-20-42.jpg" height="249" id="il_fi" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and government meet only to go through the tedious motion of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat </i></span><br />
<i><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Pierre Eliot Trudeau</span></span></b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Critics of NATO claim its noble sounding ideals of
“establishing peace” and constant “humanitarian intervention” during
times of conflict are really euphemisms for a strategy of Western
powered and financed imperialist expansion.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/AshahedM">Ashahed M. Muhammad</a></span><br />
<br />
NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949. The first NATO Secretary General, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Ismay,_1st_Baron_Ismay" target="_blank">Lord Ismay</a> stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." The members agreed that an armed attack against any one of them in
Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The Treaty member states at the time included the USA and Canada in North America plus 26 West European countries. It has since expanded to include East European countries originally members of the Warsaw pact. Today <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO" target="_blank"><b>NATO members maintain a military strength of 3.3 million active and reserve military personnel and with an annual budget in excess of one trillion dollars.</b> </a>Clearly NATO provides a lot of employment. <br />
<br />
Much has changed since 1949 but NATO retains the same goals to keep an enemy out, and to keep anyone opposing the alliance down. With so many careers dependent on thinking within the box NATO is a mental trap they can't escape. Currently there are no enemies threatening the alliance so one has to be invented otherwise NATO becomes an unwieldy and inflexible behemoth that serves no unified purpose. It is self-evident that conflicts such as in Syria and Ukraine and tensions with Iran can be better handled by bringing together nations that include those outside NATO's orbit such as Russia, Iran and China. For example Russia has negotiated the destruction of Assad's chemical arsenal and curbed the excesses of a mixed bag of rebels while American policy has floundered. NATO with its antagonistic view of Russia and Iran should not have any involvement in any of this. NATO has become a barrier to rational commercial and military alliances by identifying enemies where none exist. Its ancient mission is searching for a cause. <br />
<br />
An overwhelming majority of Crimea's citizens (predominately Russian speaking) voted to rejoin Russia for a better life rather than continue as part of a corrupt Ukraine whose inept and unelected leader ( supported by a meddling US) stupidly threatened to deny Russian speaking citizens the right to use their language. The south eastern region of Ukraine is made up of 8.3 million Russian speaking citizens, amounting to 33% of Ukraine's population. If the Canadian Prime Minister decided to deny French Canadians the right to their language it is unlikely that the country would survive. This is the situation in Ukraine. By Crimeans voluntarily deciding to break away from Ukraine it rekindled the cause of NATO's old warriors who have viewed the Ukraine as their battle ground for placing missiles pointing at Russia's along its borders. They found their justification to bring back the Cold War. The usual robotic response of Europe's NATO members was to accept American direction to apply sanctions and more sanctions and the fracking industry has found a justification for polluting the environment to produce this highly expensive gas to replace cheaper gas from those evil Russians. Happily this is falling apart as German business barons are aggressively objecting to any breakdown in their growing commercial ties with Russia. Also good news in Crimea when MacDonald halted their operations Burger King immediately announced they would take over, so the silly season is breaking down. <br />
<a href="http://rt.com/news/schmidt-crimea-russia-germany-465/" target="_blank">Helmut Schmidt</a>, the much respected ex chancellor of Germany has commented that Russia's actions in Crimea are completely understandable and the idea of sanctions "a stupid idea" The BRICS group (Chinese, Indian, Brazilian,South Korean) take the same position supporting Russia, so NATO's American "Old Warriors" and their servants in Europe's members of NATO face quite a head wind. What we have here is a very large and obsolete institution in search of
a mission and unable to change course. With Russia, its targeted enemy a
nuclear power, NATO is impotent and floundering.<br />
<br />
The West is broke so all they can offer the Ukraine is the arrival of the IMF who as in Greece, Portugal and formerly in Yeltsin's Russia, undertook IMF programs of propping up banks while implementing severe austerity programs to pay for it. The end result is a <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2012/04/i-cant-take-it-anymore.htmlhttp://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2012/04/i-cant-take-it-anymore.html" target="_blank">lowered standard of living</a>, the country faced with selling off its heritage and assets to the highest bidder to pay off the bankers and the emergence of carpet baggers who become a wealthy oligarchy. <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2013/09/vladimir-putin-voice-for-sanity-update.html" target="_blank">Putin brought this to an end in Russia</a> and brought the nation out of poverty. He has also subsidized the Ukraine, offered additional funding as an alternative to the West's cashless IMF program and approached the EU to sit down and discuss it. But NATO members cannot consider talking to the enemy although cracks are showing. <br />
<br />
<b>The Trouble Maker - Victoria Nuland, US <span class="st">Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs</span></b><br />
<b><span class="st"> </span></b><img alt="" class="uh_hi" data-height="194" data-width="259" height="194" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2hCwGZ1GW9XwBkMBujme6Ggk4RvBScipbyE7Wyz4rSJVpD73CPw" style="height: 194px; width: 259px;" width="259" /> <br />
<br />
Contributing to chaos in Ukraine and irritating Russia along its borders seems to be its only course of action for NATO and this is being assisted by the notorious Victoria Nuland,<span class="st">, (of "Fuck Europe" fame), who claims that the US has invested 5 billion dollars meddling in the Ukraine. Ms Nuland's specialty is 'Regime Change'. Her husband </span>is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historian">historian</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kagan">Robert Kagan</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations">Council
on Foreign Relations</a> member, and co-founders of the think-tank
"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century">Project
for the New American Century</a>" (PNAC). The PNAC called for,
among other things, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_change">regime
change</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq">Iraq</a>
and a strategy for securing America's global control.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As Principal Deputy National Security
Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2003 to 2005 and later as
U.S. Ambassador to NATO from July 2005 to May 2008, Victoria Nuland
previously held important insider roles during Washington’s
decisions to invade Iraq, occupy the country and later increase the
number of American troops during the “Surge” of 2007.<br />
<br />
Victoria Nuland's 'Regime Change' objectives in Ukraine and now in Venezuela are consistent with realizing PNAC objectives. Founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kristol" title="William Kristol">William Kristol</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kagan" title="Robert Kagan">Robert Kagan</a> (her husband). The <b>Project for the New American Century</b> (PNAC) stated goal is "to promote American global leadership." In other words world dominance or global hegemony.<br />
<br />
A leaked <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957" target="_blank">phone conversation between Victoria Nuland and </a><span class="st"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957" target="_blank">the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt</a> clearly reveals their meddling in governing issues in Kiev. </span><a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/us-usa-staged-ukraine-coup-570/" target="_blank">The EU and US have carried out a classic coup d'état in Ukraine</a> using ultra-right forces as human resources that includes anti-Semites, Nazi movements, and racial purists. <span class="st">What's the objective in all this? Clearly the setting up of an American/EU puppet leader and the arrival of NATO as a bayonet pointing to Russia. Understandably Putin's response has been to place a strong military presence on its border. Its a Mexican Standoff. Putin defused Nuland's attempt to initiate regime change in Syria by negotiating the destruction of all chemical weapons. She is angry and is using regime change through Kiev to get back at him. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><b>Where do we go from Here? </b></span><br />
<span class="st"></span><br />
<span class="st">NATO can't offer a solution; it's the core problem by thinking of nations as friends and enemies. Its also largely financed and driven by US leadership</span><span class="st"><span class="st"> (75% of its military budget)</span>. Since WWII US leadership hasn't performed very well; defeated in Vietnam, destroyed Iraq, entangled in Afghanistan, messed up Libya, currently confused in Syria and propping up and forming alliances with right wing and backward governments like Saudi Arabia </span><span class="st"><span class="st">who finance radical movements throughout the Middle East. </span></span><br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"> </span></span><img src="http://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/6/000/21f/3ed/27c268b.jpg" height="290" id="il_fi" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="320" /><br />
<span class="st"><span class="st">Where do we go from here and what do we stand for? I really don't know. I just know that NATO is obsolete and a dangerous communications barrier that no longer needs to exist. All nations need alliances but not through NATO's monolith .</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="st">I would like to hear the comments of anyone who has taken the time to read this. </span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-57640889181532654372013-12-25T05:23:00.000-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.539-05:00Made in China<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>"A new survey shows that 1 in 5 Americans believe that God steers the economy. Mystery solved: God is Chinese."</b></span></i><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">---<u><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">Conan O'Brien</span></i></u></span></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>"Chinese President Hu Jintao had dinner at the White House with
President Obama and first lady Michelle. They were going to exchange
gifts from the two countries, but unfortunately everything in our
country is now made in their country, so they couldn't do any
exchanging."</i></span></b> <br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">–<u><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">Jay Leno</span></u> </span></i></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>“I want to have a bunch of kids so I can open a factory and have free labor. Beat that, China!”</i></span>
</b><br />
―
<span style="color: blue;"> <i><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4157885.Jarod_Kintz">Jarod Kintz</a></span></b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. ”</i></span>
</b></span><br />
―
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/490153.Charles_de_Gaulle">Charles de Gaulle</a></span></span> </b></span></i><br />
<h1 style="font-size: 12; margin: 0;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>“Most imports are from outside of the country”</i></span></h1>
<h1 style="font-size: 12; margin: 0;">
― <u><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">George W. Bush</span></i></span></u></h1>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fw6WVrmGTAs/UsawThXy3OI/AAAAAAAAAxo/sfDDew2fRqA/s1600/Santa+workshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fw6WVrmGTAs/UsawThXy3OI/AAAAAAAAAxo/sfDDew2fRqA/s320/Santa+workshop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/18128378"></a>
</i><br />
<br />
Just finished cutting my toenails. Started off using a very attrac<span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">tive
manicure set in a leather case that has 'Roots' printed on the case. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_Canada" target="_blank">Roots is a very prestigious and successful Canadian company</a> that manufactures clothing products and sells them through over 200 Roots stores scattered throughout the world. Each tool in my manicure set has Roots clearly marked on one side but China discretely marked on the other. The tools proved to be useless. The clippers don't open up properly and the cutting edges are dull. In
short, it is crap and a toe is bleeding as I write this. We had for many years
a manicure set made in Germany and everything worked, but I doubt that the Germans
make these anymore. The boutiques and the open markets here in France are filled
with Chinese goods. Unemployment is high because we helped to improve the profits of French businesses by closing up their factories so that they could buy things more cheaply from China to sell in their stores and now my Chinese made underwear has the seams falling apart. Chinese tourism is up so some good will come from all of this. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">And lets accept the fact that the Chinese are a highly intelligent people with education a top priority and are now producing many high quality products at very competitive prices. After all, they now make high speed trains and can put toy sized vehicles on the moon, just like the Americans do. It is only a matter of time before they make manicure sets that meet German quality standards.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">But why in hell is there such a rush in North America and Europe to throw our workers out of a job by scrapping our factories and small
workshops to seek a Chinese Nirvana? Who makes these decisions for us? In North America <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2013/07/walmart-americas-welfare-queen.html" target="_blank">Walmart</a>, the largest retailer in America </span><span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962"><span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">has made the Waltons the richest family in America </span></span><span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">by buying most of what they sell from China and paying their American employees poverty level wages. They are leaders in vacuuming manufacturing jobs out of the country. Fortunately Walmart doesn't blight the landscape in Europe because their labour practices are unacceptable, but we do suffer from some of the same disease here. I don't
blame the Chinese who are quite reasonable in wanting to sell everything they grow and make; I blame our sappy politicians who pave the way to support our business leaders and bankers in their devout (and very profitable) rush into unregulated Globalization. Let's face it, if we raise our unemployment we do save a few pennies for those who have a job or are clipping coupons, and who cares about our neighbours anyway. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">I guess in all fairness to our stock brokers, business owners and conservative politicians it stuffs their pockets with easy money if companies like Apple join the rush to hand over their businesses ( and the technology that goes with it) to the Chinese. Its like winning the lottery. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="yiv8420226023tab" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1387964167676_6962">I just wonder what the wise Chinese think about us for this Lemming-like behaviour. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-64908961037213550572013-12-13T03:59:00.000-05:002017-02-28T09:03:51.585-05:00Complacency! We Become Too Comfortable With What Is<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"> <b><i>“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system,
there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless,
that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”</i>
<br /> ―
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2476.Noam_Chomsky">Noam Chomsky</a>"</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”</i>
<br /> ―
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/259666.Mae_West">Mae West</a> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>“Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself
out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm
so smart I can negate any dream.”
</b></i><br /> ―
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2546.Chuck_Palahniuk">Chuck Palahniuk</a>,
</span><br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">
</span></i><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></i><br />
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99</a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Once conform, once do what others do, and a kind of lethargy steals over all other senses of the soul</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">- <u>Michel de Montaigne</u></span></i></span><br />
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.</span><br />
<div class="bq_fq_a">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michel_de_montaigne.html">
Michel de Montaigne
</a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99</a></span></div>
<br />
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.<br />
<div class="bq_fq_a">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michel_de_montaigne.html">
Michel de Montaigne
</a></div>
<br />
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99</a></div>
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.<br />
<div class="bq_fq_a">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michel_de_montaigne.html">
Michel de Montaigne
</a></div>
<br />
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99</a></div>
<div id="r1PostCPBlock" style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; left: -99999px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.<br />
<div class="bq_fq_a">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michel_de_montaigne.html">
Michel de Montaigne
</a></div>
<br />
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99</a></div>
When you are in a steady job or securely retired you are likely to become too comfortable with <b><u>what is</u>.</b> You might whine a bit about local problems in your community but you just adjust. It is an easy lethargy. The common comment of friends and neighbours is, "<i>Why waste your time
trying to rock the boat because you are powerless to do anything. Just
get on with enjoying your life". </i>It reflects a conservative philosophy
of the financially secure avoiding unpleasant issues, respecting authority and self preservation by accepting <b><u>what is</u>. </b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It explains why the so many are complacent less likely to vote in local elections. "<i>Rob Ford (mayor of Toronto) is a liar and a incompetent drunk lacking any vision for the city, but he keeps the taxes low, is a political conservative like our Prime Minister and shares many of the conservative beliefs of my family and neighbours. Why change anything?"</i></li>
</ul>
<i></i><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It explains why conservatives dislike demonstrations in the streets, no matter what the cause. "<i>It's because they are noisy and disruptive, hold up rude signs, block traffic, are disrespectful of law and order and our flag, and set a bad example for kids. They always want to change something but I like everything <b>the way it is" </b></i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><i><b> </b></i>It confirms why conservatives support a grossly overpriced and unworkable euro that benefits a productive Germany and the wealthy few throughout Europe but assigns many of the citizens of southern European nations to a life of unemployment and poverty. But the few wealthy can say <i>"I can still afford my Mercedes so we need to manage this unrest by accepting some German generosity </i><i>to ease the pain. And don't revalue the currency because it will diminish my wealth!"</i> <b><u>Live with what is!</u> </b>For ten years we have tinkered with it while Southern Europeans suffer from staggering levels of unemployment and a bleak future. <b><u>We live with what is</u></b> to no effect when it is obvious that Germany should break off from the euro and return to the Deutschmark (as George Soros suggests) thus letting the rest of Europe take control of their destiny by settling on their own banking system with one or more competitive currencies that would encourage entrepreneurship and put people back to work.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
</ul>
<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;"></span></span></span></b>
<b><span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<br />
I live in Narbonne, a city too small to hide its human problems. I meet daily on the street with normal citizens, the passing tourists, the shopkeepers, the unemployed, the beggars, and the physically and mentally impaired. In large cities in Europe and North America with populations of several million you can live in secure sections of the city and only learn about the city's underbelly from the local newspapers and the TV. Complacency sets in as problems are hidden and we learn to accept as normal the economic conditions whatever they might be. We live with <b><u>what is</u>.</b> For example, what the employed public complacently accept as normal in parts of Southern Europe is a 25 to 50% youth unemployment rate whereas in Denmark normal is closer to maybe 5%. <u>It is just <b>what is</b></u>, and wherever we live we see <b><u>what is</u></b> as normal. <br />
<br />
With this prevailing attitude politicians whether, on the left or right, respond by tweaking the system and changes, if any, are minor, usually ineffectual and painless. We learn to live with <b><u>what is</u>. </b> <br />
<br />
This attitude in part explains why we put off addressing universally threatening issues such as global climate change, the steadily widening wealth gap in a once predominately middle class society that was the foundation of democracy, the acceptance of tax avoidance schemes, and the thievery of bankers gambling with the nations wealth. <br />
<br />
The wake-up call happens when a disaster occurs that threatens the very survival of the financially secure as well as the destitute. Then a conservative tinkering with <b>what is </b>hits a brick wall. A strong leader is then needed who realizes tweaking will accomplish little and undertakes fundamental changes. Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Nelson Mandela are examples of brilliant and powerful leaders who understood this and realized that fundamental changes in direction and not simply tweaking <b>'what is</b>' had to happen.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PstDl0vvWAc/UqhgjPkA4pI/AAAAAAAAAwk/Nz2a_vcSiNU/s1600/teddy-roosevelt.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PstDl0vvWAc/UqhgjPkA4pI/AAAAAAAAAwk/Nz2a_vcSiNU/s320/teddy-roosevelt.jpg" height="320" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teddy Roosevelt</td></tr>
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<a href="http://kapush.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/roosevelt-the-trust-buster/" target="_blank">Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt as President broke up the large industrial and railroad monopolies</a> , a defeat for JP Morgan and Wall Street. He was a man of many talents with no patience for living <b>with what is</b>; historian, naturist, Nobel Prize winner, trust buster, adventurer, hunter and military leader (Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders). His face sits on Mt Rushmore along with Lincoln and Washington.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sht0OfiA9a4/UqhgWZ_c84I/AAAAAAAAAwU/kgFQC8-XLGg/s1600/franklin-d-roosevelt-color.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sht0OfiA9a4/UqhgWZ_c84I/AAAAAAAAAwU/kgFQC8-XLGg/s320/franklin-d-roosevelt-color.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Franklin Roosevelt<br />
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt assuming the Presidency at the height of the depression recognized that fundamental changes in the financial system had to be initiated. Nothing would be accomplished <b>by tinkering with what is. </b>He defied Wall Street and undertook a major change by passing the Banking Act of 1933 with it's Glass-Steagall component that separated commercial and investment banking, designed to wall off
customer deposits from the risk-taking inherent in securities
underwriting. This was followed by social legislation enacted between 1933 and 1938 known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal" target="_blank">New Deal</a><br />
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He had no patience with the the foot dragging of Republicans determined to work within <b>what is</b>. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TiOgZKMYsR8/UqhniN_Q1PI/AAAAAAAAAw8/T8pPsPdePqE/s1600/CharlesDeGaulle.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TiOgZKMYsR8/UqhniN_Q1PI/AAAAAAAAAw8/T8pPsPdePqE/s320/CharlesDeGaulle.jpg" height="320" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles de Gaulle</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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Charles de Gaulle recognized tweaking <b>'what is'</b> following the 2nd World War would not resolve France's governing problems. He cleaned the slate with the 5th Republic thereby liberating the colonies and reforming an unworkable constitution. He also boldly announced that France would become a nuclear power with its own bomb. (interesting to note that Iran has currently made the same announcement but sacrificing the bomb)<br />
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Nelson Mandela was a young anti-apartheid revolutionary who (unprepared to live with <b>what is</b>) spent 27 years in jail for his beliefs. Pubic pressure gained his release and joining negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk abolished apartheid, led the ANC to victory and became South Africa's first black president. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCNY5r0TwPs/UqhnGIz6LKI/AAAAAAAAAw4/rrCJ_ROmaho/s1600/Nelson+Mandela+Photos1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCNY5r0TwPs/UqhnGIz6LKI/AAAAAAAAAw4/rrCJ_ROmaho/s320/Nelson+Mandela+Photos1.jpg" height="320" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nelson Mandela</td></tr>
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To summarize, great leaders invariably recognize in times of crisis that they must take on the risk of battling for fundamental changes. Conservative opposition ( that always exists) by those protecting <b>what is</b> might be tolerated as a force but must not stand in the way of fundamental changes. </div>
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The future,as in the present and past will build on <b>what is, </b>namely societies laws,cultural values and functioning institutions. It is vital however that leaders also recognize that many challenges will be facing the world in the future, both known and unknown, that cannot be handled by tweaking <b>what is</b> and new and fundamental solutions must be found. For example we know that the seas will rise and flood the coastal cities as the polar ice caps melt and massive amounts of methane will be released from the arctic seabeds. Building sea walls and dykes may help to slow the damage <b>from what is</b> but the solution may ultimately lie in reducing our dependency on carbon fuels and the wasteful energy consumption of a rapidly growing consumer society. </div>
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At the time of Christ the world's population stood at about 250 million. In the next 20 years it will probably rise from the current 7.5 billion to about 10 billion, a 40 fold increase of humans with 2 to 3 times the life span of their ancient ancestors. Our wasteful consumption is clearly negatively impacting on the climate and if current trends continue unabated it raises serious questions about human survival on many parts of this planet. Can the old governing systems with its short time cycle of four to five years to satiate immediate appetites successfully guide us through these challenges? I don't think so. We can tweak and<b> build on what is</b> but that won't be enough. We will need very different and more stable governing structures, new break through sciences and enlightened leadership with a vision of a distant future in order to address these more fundamental and critical long term survival issues. </div>
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Globalization has created a grotesque integration of world banking systems, industrial enterprises and worst of all NATO that binds nations to interconnected commitments and limiting the freedom of individual nations to act. It is a system of sticking with <b>what is</b> and destroying those who don't. </div>
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Can great leaders rise up from this or do we destroy them? Chavez and Castro failed, Dilma Rousseff Brazil's President is defiant and Vladimir Putin is attempting to lead Russia in a different direction, building alliances in the East and attempting to break the dollar monopoly, has stared no wars, does not spread his armies around the world , has intervened to stop America and Saudi Arabia from military interference in Syria and is understandingly opposed to the warlike NATO leaning against his borders. For this the integrated forces of <b>what is</b> led by America declares Russia as an enemy that stands in the way of hegemonic power. </div>
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Can great leaders to lead real change emerge in this globalized and highly integrated world or will the globalized forces to prevent it prevail? Will we remain accepting <b>what is</b> and avoid the critical decisions that will enable human life to survive on this planet? Wait and see. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-76218759404138921532013-09-02T09:30:00.001-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.628-05:00Vladimir Putin, a voice for sanity, update 03/2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Vladimir Putin Putin Meets With Merkel In Berlin" src="http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Vladimir+Putin+HCm7NUd6CvHm.jpg" height="213" title="Vladimir Putin Putin Meets With Merkel In Berlin" width="320" /></div>
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<h1 class="headline">
<span style="font-size: small;">Why Putin Is Still so Popular in Russia</span></h1>
<div class="dek">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Russians seem to prefer a strong, authoritarian state to the
weak government and economic chaos they experienced under Yeltsin. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Putin, on the issue of Syria has shown more integrity and wise
judgement than the U.S. and French governments. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Many Westerners have a negative view of Russia’s President, Vladimir
Putin, because of the unjust portrayal he receives in the Western media.
If one were to believe everything they saw in the American media, they
would probably think Putin to be a ruthless dictator who was anointed by
birth rather than a politician born into a working class family with
approval ratings higher than all of his Western counterparts.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="fsl fwb">The Bilzerian Report</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<i>U<span style="font-size: large;">pdate: March 26th 2014</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Crimea by a popular vote overwhelmingly has declared its separation from the Ukraine and has joined with Russia. There are many precedents of this where a public elects to change allegiances. For example, Kosovo chose to separate from Serbia, The Czechs chose to separate from the Slovaks and Canada accepts the possibility that Quebec through a referendum would be allowed to separate from Canada. The Americans are outraged because for years they have been using the Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia's borders with their construction of a missile shield while wooing Ukrainians with financial enticements to join the European economic community and with it the American inspired NATO and military alliances. Old 'Cold War' warriors are still looking for employment and some meaning in their useless lives. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Ukraine is deeply divided with the largely Russian speaking people on the eastern border shared with Russia opposed to joining the EU and with many favouring the route taken by Crimeans, while on its western border they favour joining the EU. Orchestrated by the US, the weak European nations have leapt onto the bandwagon and are expressing their outrage at the will of Crimeans to join Russia. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The noise and propaganda in the press is deafening as though we have all become like demented lemmings on a voyage of self destruction. Strong independent leaders like Degaulle, Helmut Schmidt and Willie Brandt have departed the scene and we now have the spectacle of the 'blanc mange' leadership in Brussels of Lady Catherine Ashton and José Barroso orchestrated by America's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland" target="_blank">Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs. </a>As an extreme right wing ideologue under Cheney and Bush she led the charge into Iraq to bring about regime change and most recently upset Merkel by using the words F--- Europe! Clearly this Cold War warrior with her dealings in the Ukraine with unelected </i><i><i>right wing corrupt politicians that includes in their midst </i>disreputable anti Semites, Nazis and other known right wing trash is intent on setting up regime change to install an American controlled puppet government. No doubt undermining Putin is on her agenda. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Putin has been a consistent voice for sanity in the midst of this international rush to go off to war and has been using his influence aggressively to oppose unjust and internationally illegal wars. He opposed the war in Iraq and he was right. He opposed the killing of Gaddafi and the collapse of Tunisia and he was right. He opposes the sanctions and threats against Iran and he is right. He opposes the rush to war in Syria with scant evidence and unclear objectives and he is right. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared ‘utter nonsense’ the idea
that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on its own people
and called on the US to present its supposed evidence to the UN Security
Council. He is right. He had every right to protect Snowden who had committed no crime and yet faced, like Manning, a lengthy prison sentence if returned to face US justice. Only through Putin has Snowden been able to express his views about NASA and the obstruction to the freedom of information. <a href="http://laughingsquid.com/edward-snowden-speaks-at-the-ted2014-conference-via-a-telepresence-robot-about-the-internet-and-the-nsa/" target="_blank">Listen to the TED series out of Vancouver to learn more about this.</a> Obama has discovered he is dealing with an equal he can't push around and Putin is right and doesn't mind that Obama now refuses to meet with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What has he accomplished for the Russian people?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab317/jlgmx/BorisYeltsin1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="boris yeltsin photo: Boris Yeltsin BorisYeltsin1-1.jpg" border="0" data-link="src{:fullsizeUrl} width{:rsWidth} height{:rsHeight}" src="http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab317/jlgmx/BorisYeltsin1-1.jpg" height="400" id="fullsizeMedia" style="height: 128px; width: 94px;" width="293" /></a><b>First a bit about his predecessor, Yeltsi</b>n: Yeltsin became President in 1991 and turned to the advice of Western economists, and Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Harvard experts, and the US Treasury Department,
whose recipe became known as the "Washington Consensus" It was a disaster for Russia. The so-called reforms devastated the living standards of much of the population, Russia's GDP fell by 50 percent, vast sectors of the economy were wiped
out, inequality and unemployment grew dramatically, while incomes fell. Personal savings were wiped out, and tens of millions were plunged into poverty. Added to this, a classic rape of Russia's assets occurred. Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a small group of oligarchs. Much of this Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, gangland murders, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems.This era was commonly referred to as a period of "Gangster Capitalism". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Vladimir Putin: </b>In 1999 Yeltsin resigned and Putin was elected as President. He has cleaned up the economic mess left by Yeltsin but what specifically has he accomplished since then? </span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Under Putin’s reign in contrast with Yeltsin era, he turned the Russian economy around and it has grown every single
year, with an overall GDP increase (net of inflation) of more than 70%. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">During the same
period, investments rose 125%, industry grew by 76%, and poverty
decreased 50%. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">He dealt with the oligarchs, imprisoned the most corrupt who hadn't fled to live under British protection, and regained control of vital assets. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Average monthly salaries in Russia increased from $80
to $640, and the middle class grew from 8 million people to 55 million.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">He introduced a 13% flat tax and the reduction
of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24%.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The national debt stands at 10% of GNP because of a wise use of national income. This compares with figures in excess of 100% in the US, GB, and many European nations. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;">Putin positioned Russia as an energy
super power that Europe has come to rely on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Putin’s business acumen, just foreign policy decisions, and
humanitarian leadership should be congratulated throughout the world. If
only American Presidents could respect freedom and other nations’
sovereignty like Vladimir Putin, the planet would be a lot more
peaceful.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sept 13th 2013 update:</b> Putin's latest agreement with the Syrian President to place all<i> </i>chemical weapons storage facilities under international
control, but also for its further destruction and then joining
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is an example of his enlightened leadership.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Putin despite the demands of the Presidency has time for a personal life
that I suspect he enjoys showing to the World. Some of it is clearly
staged such as his flight with the birds and displays of his athletic
prowess, although the hundreds of photos of him with wildlife and without a gun other than to stun and tag illustrates a man who loves and respects life in the animal kingdom. His advocacy of avoiding wars with other nations may reflect he respect for human life as well. <a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2013/06/it-helps-to-be-bit-of-fanatic-sociopath.html" target="_blank">Unlike many world leaders he is no sociopath.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html" target="_blank">Click on this to read the speech he made to the American people about Syria </a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://justtryingtosortitout.blogspot.fr/2013/06/it-helps-to-be-bit-of-fanatic-sociopath.html" target="_blank"> </a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Putin takes in the scenic Siberian wilderness while shirtless on a horse." border="0" class="slide-image-large" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5134c72ceab8ea842a000007-1200/putin-takes-in-the-scenic-siberian-wilderness-while-shirtless-on-a-horse.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="The Russian President bottle-feeds young elk at a nature reserve." border="0" class="slide-image-large" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5134c432eab8eabb1f000027-1200/the-russian-president-bottle-feeds-young-elk-at-a-nature-reserve.jpg" height="291" width="400" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="There's also a softer side to the Russian President. Here, Putin strokes a two-month-old tiger cub he received as a birthday present at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside of Moscow. It will soon go to a zoo. " border="0" class="slide-image-large" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5134c426eab8ea602200000e-1200/theres-also-a-softer-side-to-the-russian-president-here-putin-strokes-a-two-month-old-tiger-cub-he-received-as-a-birthday-present-at-his-novo-ogaryovo-residence-outside-of-moscow-it-will-soon-go-to-a-zoo.jpg" height="640" width="404" /></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-44451668265710008472013-07-27T06:20:00.001-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.468-05:00WALMART*, America's Welfare Queen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> </i></span><img alt="94541 600 Walmart class action suit cartoons" border="0" class="addthis_shareable" src="http://media.cagle.com/95/2011/06/21/94541_600.jpg" height="302" width="400" />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now I know that Walmart's policies do not reflect the best way of
doing business and the values that I think are important in America.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hillary_clinton.html">
Hillary Clinton </a></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> "More and more Americans are asking about the price that we have to pay
when Walmart comes into a community, treats workers poorly, violates
immigration laws and squashes small businesses." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Anthony Weiner </span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> </i><i>"You know, without China there is no Walmart and without Walmart there
is no middle class and lower class prosperity in the United States." </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="color: blue;">Arthur Laffer, economist </span></span></i><br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/UniteBlueOK/status/406303923918475264/photo/1" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/UniteBlueOK/status/406303923918475264/photo/1</a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Each week one third of the US population visits a Walmart store. With 3500 stores and 2500 related outlets in the US and elsewhere</span><span style="color: black;">, it is the country's largest employer. World Wide Revenues in 2011 amounted to $405 billion (about 70% in US) and profits $15.7 billion. The products it sells mostly come from China. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2006 this resulted in a trade deficit with China that eliminated 200,000 US jobs. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a
torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These
issues involve low wages and inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union" title="Trade union"></a> policies. Critics point to Walmart's high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors are involved. Approximately half of its employees leave within the first
year.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">THE GERMAN DEBACLE (an example of what is wrong with Walmart):</span></span></span></span></b><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">The Walmart way of doing business was clearly a non fit in German and they eventually left the market Here are some excerpts from an article </span></span></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">in the Huffington Post </span></span></span></span>written by David Macaray that makes for interesting reading about why Walmart failed. </span></span></span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Germany was too "green" for a slash-and-burn outfit like Walmart, with its plastic bags and plastic junk </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Walmart couldn't hack the pro-labor union culture of Germany.</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">German consumers prefer small neighborhood stores rather than large and remotely placed impersonal chains.</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Walmart requires its checkout people to flash smiles at customers
after bagging their purchases. Plastic bags, plastic junk, plastic
smiles. But because the German people don't usually smile at total
strangers, the spectacle of Walmart employees grinning like jackasses
not only didn't impress consumers, it unnerved them. </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Walmart employees are required to stand in formation and chant,
"WALMART! WALMART! WALMART!" while performing synchronized group
calisthenics.</span></span></span></span>Unfortunately, this form of corporate boosterism didn't go over
particularly well with the Germans; a group-think too
reminiscent of the one that that occurred in Nuremberg
several decades earlier<br />
</li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">in
other northern European countries where as high as half the shopping
population either walk or take bicycles to shop in nearby small and
medium sized specialty stores the NA style Walmart located in a remote location is a non fit. </span></span></span></span> <br />
<br />WALMART IN AMERICA
<br />
</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/walmart-taxpayers-house-report_n_3365814.html" target="_blank">A Walmart</a><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/walmart-taxpayers-house-report_n_3365814.html" target="_blank"> store can only prosper in a country where minimum wages are below the poverty line and with labour policies that allow companies to deprive workers of social benefits and full time employment.</a> It is active in China but it could not prosper in countries such as Australia and most of Europe where minimum wages for working adults are more than twice what Walmart offers, unions exist and labour legislation is in place.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Here are is a example of what Walmart has to offer America</span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">The merchandise is manufactured abroad, mainly in China thereby eliminating mostly well paying middle class American manufacturing jobs. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">They push suppliers to move offshore by demanding lower and lower prices. Most suppliers to stay in business have been forced to comply</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">A race to the bottom by competitors and suppliers in order to compete thus setting a labour income pattern for America</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">They lobby for policies that make it easier to move jobs overseas.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">While this money was paid to influence a range of legislation, from
promoting corporate tax cuts to opposing a bill to guarantee paid sick
time to working people, trade policy was among the issues Walmart
lobbied on most aggressively. They actively promote Free Trade Agreements. </span></span></span></span></li>
<li>Walmart has set the template for today’s economy; one in which increased
economic productivity is not shared with working people, and the vast
inequality that this creates is seen as the nation's norm.</li>
<li> Today the six members of
the Walton family who inherited the Walmart fortune enjoy wealth equal
to that of the least-wealthy 30 percent of Americans ( that's over a hundred million Americans). These billionaires are the ultimate beneficiaries of Walmart’s push to
cut costs, condemning retail employees to work in poverty and American
factory workers to unemployment. </li>
<li> <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Walmart wages
are so low that most of its workers rely on food stamps
and other government aid programs to fulfill their basic needs. It is
estimated that the government subsidy to employees amounts to about 2.7 billion
dollars a year or on the average about 402 thousand dollars per outlet.
This certainly certainly qualifies Walmart and its beneficiaries in the Walton family as one of the nation's leading Welfare Queens.</span></span></li>
</ul>
Do the Walton family need to be Welfare Queens to carry on? I don't think so. <br />
<br />
Here is a headline they should think about.<b>"Costco Pays Well and Soars, While Walmart and Others Pay Peanuts and Sink"</b><br />
<br />
While their second biggest competitor, Walmart, only saw a 1.2% rise in year on sales, Costco’s most recent <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1794682&highlight=">quarterly earnings report</a> showed an 8% rate of growth in year on sales, a 5% rise in same-store sales, and an almost $70 million rise in membership fees. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Wake up Walmart!! Its possible to change and offer your employees a better life and money to spend if you want to. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-19395031652855134862013-07-13T11:51:00.000-04:002013-07-23T08:50:25.894-04:00US National Security Agency (NSA), Spying, Secrecy and Whistle Blowing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Transnational technology corporations are indispensable to the government’s surveillance of the American people. In short, when you use products produced by these corporations you are consenting to the act of being surveilled.</i><br />
<i><b>Kurt Nimmo</b><br />
Prison Planet.com </i><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Crux of the NSA Story in One Phrase: 'Collect It All'</span></i></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The actual story that matters is not hard to see:
the NSA is attempting to collect, monitor and store all forms of human
communication</i></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/glenn-greenwald">Glenn Greenwald</a></b></i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The all knowing state is watching over us. They have decided that they have the legal right to know everything about us and to monitor our daily activities. The NSA is their information collection and spying system that employs between 30 and 60 thousand employees (actual figures are confidential) and is housed in Maryland pending the construction of a much larger facility in Bluffdale Utah. Their PRISM program collects all user information from cooperative arrangements with Microsoft, Google, Face Book, Skype, You Tube, Apple, AOL and many others. 98 percent of PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. Whatever you say when you turn on your computer is captured. Don't talk about poisoning wells, blowing up bridges or overly insulting your leaders because the NSA will pick it up and you may have a visitor knocking on your door. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The estimated power of those computing resources in Utah is so
massive it requires use of a little-known unit of storage space: the Zettabyte. To give you an idea of its capacity their 5 Zettabytes will provide enough storage to store at least something on the order of 100 years worth of the
worldwide communications, phones and emails with plenty of space left over.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">As the whistle blower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA spies on the citizens, governments and businesses of the world. Evidently the US Government believes it has this right and Snowden is a criminal for revealing this to the World.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The US monitors Germany as closely as
it does China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Daily, an average of 20 million
telephone connections and 10 million internet transactions are
collected by the NSA. The NSA does not spy in the same way on
the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, who are viewed as friends. </span><br />
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<img height="212" src="http://godhelpusall.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NSA-PRISM-Government-Surveillance-Humor-Its-Funny-Coz-Its-True.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/b/w/5/NSA-Secrets-Revealed.jpg" /><br />
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The NSA can unilaterally access data and perform extensive, in-depth
surveillance on live communications and stored information; examples include email, video and voice chat, videos, photos,
voice-over-IP chats (such as Skype), file transfers (like your banking statements), and social
networking using any device like your hand held phones. Since so much of its operations are classified as confidential the NSA are apparently legally free to do anything they want in the name of National Security with or without the agreement of foreign nations whose information they exploit.<br />
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The NSA continues to grow uncontrollably and where will it end? It is fair to assume that with its potential to control nations and the lives of the 9 billion citizens that will soon live on this planet it will never end short of an environmental disaster occurring. If they can just insert an electronic chip in our body they will track all of us, just like our dogs. <br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29#cite_note-Greenwald1-2"></a><br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-74443810713029284542013-07-01T14:53:00.000-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.620-05:00Charles Darwin:"Ignorance more frequently begets Confidence than does Knowledge".<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known." </span></i><br />
<b><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)</span></i></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Charles Darwin</b> once said: <b>"</b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Ignorance more frequently begets confidence
than does knowledge." </b>This sounds like a strange idea. Is it true that
confidence sometimes signals ignorance? Is it true that people who are
very confident about their opinions may actually be more ignorant than
people who are less confident?</span></i></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <i>Is there evidence that
confidence and ignorance may go hand in hand?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">What might this mean? When disagreeing with someone who is very
confident about his point of view, it may work counter-productively to
argue directly against his views. After all, the person is very
confident about being right. In other words, he is ignorant about his
ignorance.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></i></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uj5uqCK2bC8/UdGiJ-KBOsI/AAAAAAAAAm0/FbVjCzSA34M/s185/darwin_charles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uj5uqCK2bC8/UdGiJ-KBOsI/AAAAAAAAAm0/FbVjCzSA34M/s400/darwin_charles.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CnmZb-MRYjc/UdHHqoTCXnI/AAAAAAAAAn0/tBOH-re38bM/s233/eden-233.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Charles Darwin<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17.1562px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </i><span style="font-size: small;">born in 1809,</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17.1562px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17.1562px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">was a British scientist who transformed the way we think about the natural world.</span> </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">He published his findings in</span> </span></span>1859 in his book <i>On the Origin of the Species. </i>It explained his theory that of all species evolved
through adaptation over many millions of years including man evolving
from the apes. Most
people at the time believed in a Biblical interpretation of how the
World was created in seven days and how Adam and Eve arrived in the Garden
of Eden and ate the Forbidden Fruit that has caused us problems ever
since. <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CnmZb-MRYjc/UdHHqoTCXnI/AAAAAAAAAn0/tBOH-re38bM/s233/eden-233.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CnmZb-MRYjc/UdHHqoTCXnI/AAAAAAAAAn0/tBOH-re38bM/s233/eden-233.jpg" /></a>Now Darwin had come up with his theory that all species evolved
through adaptation over many millions of years including man evolving
from the apes.</span> It turned the Biblical tales into Fairy Tales. The anger and resentment of millions of people after publishing his findings gave rise to his observation that <b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">"<i>Ignorance more frequently begets confidence
than does knowledge."</i></span> </i></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">In other words the dumber people
are the more rigidly and fanatically they cling to their
convictions and therefore have little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions.<span id="hotword"> The fanatic therefore refuses to think further and </span>consequently, there is no way to change course</span><i>. </i></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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I recall when I was working in the lumber camps in Northern Ontario during the summers
when I was a teenager, if I raised questions about a view expressed by a
coworker it would commonly be interpreted as questioning his integrity resulting in an angry outburst and on occasion a challenge to
fight. It was 1947 and 48 when the work was labour intensive and a few
hours on the job sufficed to gain the skills required. The average level of education was much lower than it is today and illiteracy was common in the workforce. This in no way limited their confidence in their many convictions. Just don't humiliate them by asking them for an explanation. In the dining
room the tradition in the camps was to eat quickly and to remain silent throughout the meal. The reason
for this was the history of fights breaking out when views expressed
at the table were challenged.<br />
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Darwin of course was right; <b><i>ignorance begets a confidence that cannot be challenged.</i></b><br />
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Much of what we interpret as political discourse is nothing more than rigid positions taken by mentally limited politicians expressing a fanatical confidence that cannot be challenged. Nothing changes but it is an opportunity for endless babble. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span> </i></span><br />
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It certainly explains the rigid and uncompromising political positions
taken by Republican extremists as expressed by the Tea Party and the
irrational ravings of Bachmann, Perry and others like them that only Fox
News can accept. And consistent with these close minded rants has been the endless filibustering without discussion led by Mitch McConnell and John Boehmer, confident in their ignorance and, committed to closing off all debates on the issues at hand. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185358742442099957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31199877.post-2943741742527917152013-06-25T11:38:00.001-04:002017-02-28T09:03:51.383-05:00It helps to be a bit of a Fanatic Sociopath if you want to be a Leader<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A fanatic is a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm who displays very strict standards and little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions.<span id="hotword"> The fanatic therefore refuses to think further and </span>consequently, there is no way to change course.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A passionate and dedicated humanist is someone who believes that man can bring about change through his own efforts and might be considered a fanatic with firm convictions but free of any </i><i><i><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">psychopathic tendencies. </span></span></i> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">sociopath is a person</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">with</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">psychopathic</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">personality</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">whose</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">behavior</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">is</span> </span>antisocial</i><span id="hotword"><i>, <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">often</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">criminal,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">who</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">lacks</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">sense</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">moral</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">responsibility</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">social</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">conscience.</span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="hotword"><i><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;"> </span></i> </span></span></div>
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Its okay to be a fanatic, even a fanatic sociopath, if you live as a hermit in a forest because only the wind and the animals have to put up with what you do and what you have to say. And its okay to be a fanatic, and a bit silly if it is simply about something unimportant like rooting for your favorite sports team or reacting passionately to the latest dreamy teenage rock idol. This subject is a slippery slope because if we accept the definition that fanatics live with blinkers on and therefore cannot visualize any alternatives then there are categories of fanatics to consider because some are convinced that they know the absolute truth and have no patience with nonsense, and at the other extreme there are others who are simply blinded by their psychopathic obsession to take control irrespective of any underlying consequences. This essay, as the blog title implies, focuses on fanatical and often psychopathic behaviour in major national and international leadership roles Lets take a look here at some examples of these alternatives but first of all lets look at the unfortunate dumb fanatics. <br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Just plain dumb fanatics</b>. This group is generally poorly educated, lacks knowledge and typically driven by a single issue. They will support any leader of any stripe who will support their cause. Genghis Khan might be acceptable. These include Right to Bear Arms nuts who want to pack a gun wherever they might go, anti gays, racists, and many paranoids <b> </b> exhibiting extreme and irrational fear and distrust of others. They are seduced by the media that convinces these saps to reject all social entitlements, like for example, Universal Health Care and a decent Minimum Wage, that most civilized countries offer. Addicted to talk radio and Fox News that feeds their confusion, paranoia and anger they act out of spite and harm themselves. These are life's losers who provide the support and cannon fodder for the fanatic sociopaths who posses power. <i>Reference reading: The Legend of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.</i></li>
<li><i></i><br />
<span style="background-color: #cc0000;"><b> </b></span><br />
</li>
</ul>
<b>Fanatic Sociopaths with intelligence</b> and driven by ego they seize power or gain it through public support. The list is endless on a World scale. Heading this category on any list for the last 100 years would certainly include Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Maggie Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Pinochet and Dick Cheney who in their fanatical promotion and pursuit of their objectives caused, without remorse, the destruction and overthrow of nations and the death of many thousands of people. </div>
Of late I feel compelled to add President Obama to this list of sociopaths. His ongoing personal role in ordering drone attacks, supplying weapons to jihad terrorist to destabilize the popularly elected Syrian Government knowing full well that it is causing the death of many innocent civilians, his condemnation of Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange for publicly exposing this murderous truth are clearly signs of the behaviour of a sociopath.<br />
<br />
Here is a chilling and devastating YouTube documentary that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HP7L8bw5QF4" target="_blank">reinforces my claim that we are being led by sociopaths </a><br />
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<b> </b><b>Here is a rogues gallery of some who have caused the death of many thousands of innocent victims. </b><br />
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<b>PM Tony Blair of Britain </b>who joined with <b>President George Bush</b> into a disastrous war under false pretenses with Iraq that caused the destruction of a nation and the death of a million people and the refugee flight of another 4 million. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ton Blair</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1LFQ03c1WV8/UhUQiaOgbPI/AAAAAAAAAt0/t1MOwhmvp5g/s1600/george-bush.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1LFQ03c1WV8/UhUQiaOgbPI/AAAAAAAAAt0/t1MOwhmvp5g/s200/george-bush.gif" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George Bush</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="ez-primaryThumb" src="http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/gty_kissinger_sr_2_130102_ssh.jpg" height="154" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Kissinger</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Incredibly,<b> Henry Kissinger</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">—the man who rivals Pol Pot for the dubious
honor of being the person responsible for the death of the largest number
of innocent people in South East Asia (and far surpasses Pol Pot in
criminality when one factors in Kissinger's various levels of responsibility
for wholesale slaughter and repression in other parts of the world)—</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">still
wields significant power in the United States; but his role as eager
facilitator of mass murder, totalitarian repression and other atrocities
is never discussed in polite society. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1786352/thumbs/s-DICK-CHENEY-large300.jpg" height="146" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dick Cheney</td></tr>
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And who can leave out <b>Dick Cheney</b> who as Bush's VP led the "Cake Walk" into Iraq and has been an ardent supporter of all other military interventions since then including the application of torture. His face wears a permanent sneer. His pals include the infamous Chicken Hawks who never had to face an enemy in battle but willingly caused the death of millions. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="uh_hi" data-height="171" data-width="294" height="232" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPBxDQlNtMqSqiAgFFmH6whhBUdGsrGfKxTz0Fap_7vPdY00dbGw" style="height: 171px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 294px;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Psychopaths</b> - Chicken Hawks who knowingly have caused millions to die - Includes Rumsfeld, Bolton, Perle, Wolfowitz, Kagan, Zoellick,Schmitt</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b>General and Dictator of Chile, <b>Augusto Pinochet</b> (1973-1990). His years in power were marked by inflation, poverty and the ruthless
repression of opposition leaders. Pinochet was also involved in
Operation Condor, a co-operative effort on the part of several South
American governments to do away with leftist opposition leaders, often
by means of murder. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusto Pinochet</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettig_Report" title="Rettig Report">Rettig Report</a> found that at least 2,279 persons were conclusively murdered by the Chilean government for political reasons during Pinochet's regime, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valech_Report" title="Valech Report">Valech Report</a> found that at least 30,000 persons were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture" title="Torture">tortured</a> by the government for political reasons.</span>
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<b>Fanatic Sociopaths with limited intelligence. </b>This category includes thousands who have gained some power mainly within a nation. Obvious prominent US examples would include George Bush, Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and a host of Teabagging Politicians who out of spite and ignorance, and a total lack of concern for people, do great harm to populations, and are the corrupt paid servants of the 0.1% who posses great wealth. <br />
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Every country seems to breed this mediocre level of fanatic psychopathic leader who cares little about the human suffering they cause. Their leadership is supported by the '<i>just plain </i><i>dumb fanatics'. </i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Vvfid-pa2U/UbnN7kOQl0I/AAAAAAAAAk0/tHpFXJok3yY/s1600/mitch-mcconnell-troubled-budget-crisis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Vvfid-pa2U/UbnN7kOQl0I/AAAAAAAAAk0/tHpFXJok3yY/s320/mitch-mcconnell-troubled-budget-crisis.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This is an example of a fanatic sociopath with limited intelligence (Mitch McConnell) He operates from a blinkered commitment to revenge and spite and is clearly unconcerned about the human suffering he is causing. As a sociopath this might even be a source of pleasure to him.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i> </i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>Mitch McConnell</b> is the filibuster king,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">master of<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>all that he and his minority minions can obstruct in his zeal to defeat the President. With the filibuster, he zealously bludgeons to death all bills passed by a majority in the House and supported by a majority in the Senate. What was intended to be a precision tool McConnell brandishes as a machine gun, murdering all majority-supported legislation in sight</span></span><i>. </i>
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<b>Good Fanatics with high Intelligence</b><br />
This is a worthy group who demonstrate courageous and wise leadership in human affairs. Franklin D Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X immediately come to mind, and no doubt you can add to this list. In their zeal they share a conviction that there cause is just and exhibit negligible tolerance for alternatives. In that sense that can be described as having a fanatical commitment. A better term might be to refer to them as passionate humanists but in a sense still fanatics committed and undeviating from their cause despite the knowledge that their actions may sacrifice many lives. <br />
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<b> </b>H<i>ere are examples of great and highly intelligent fanatics</i><br />
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<i><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3VTds32bNe8/UhUS33Zpj0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/tjsKLR9_fTM/s1600/nelson+Mandela.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i></i></a><i><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3VTds32bNe8/UhUS33Zpj0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/tjsKLR9_fTM/s1600/nelson+Mandela.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3VTds32bNe8/UhUS33Zpj0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/tjsKLR9_fTM/s320/nelson+Mandela.jpg" width="320" /></a></i><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XKeCPpUwsSQ/Ubyz-ibupVI/AAAAAAAAAlY/2AGP7Gaj7Aw/s1600/gandhi_time.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XKeCPpUwsSQ/Ubyz-ibupVI/AAAAAAAAAlY/2AGP7Gaj7Aw/s320/gandhi_time.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3VTds32bNe8/UhUS33Zpj0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/tjsKLR9_fTM/s1600/nelson+Mandela.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></i></div>
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<b>Conclusion:</b> It takes an almost fanatical zeal and a massive ego that goes with it to rise to a leadership role where there is an opportunity to change the direction of nations. The evil fanatics have no qualms about corrupting the process for personal gain and causing death and destruction but the role more often than not requires that even the good leaders may face responsibility for undertakings that cause great human suffering in pursuit of their cause; for example, Abraham Lincoln's Civil War, and Winston Churchill's bombing of Germany. In that sense leadership on this scale must accept personality traits that can be best described as Sociopathic.<br />
So as the expression goes "If you can't accept the heat then stay out of the kitchen"<br />
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<b>Readers critical comments</b> <br />
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<li><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372268474898_2326" style="font-size: x-small;">A fanatic according to my dictionary is “a person whose
extreme zeal, piety, etc, goes beyond what is reasonable.” If you care to
be intellectually honest and objective about ‘fanatic’, you cannot cherry
pick. You didn’t include Julian Assange and Edward Snowden in your latest
blog. Because you may agree with a zealot or be pleased with the results
of their zealotry, doesn’t make him/her any less of a fanatic.</span></li>
<li><div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372268474898_3067">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Snowdon is not a fanatic. He is
a witness to a crime. Telling on criminals is not fanaticism. Not his
life's work. Assange is obsessed and has made it his life's work. </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372268474898_3070">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372268474898_3071">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If Snowdon is a fanatic then anyone who reported a crime is a fanatic. To
believe in the rule of law does not make one a fanatic. </span></div>
</li>
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<span class="yiv0383607124Apple-style-span" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372268474898_3075"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusto Pinochet</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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