by Oui
Mon May 3rd, 2021 at 07:43:16 AM EST
After ping-pong diplomacy under Nixon/Kissinger the Western world was urged to find compatible markets for manufacturing of cheap goods. The left protests followed against globalization and undermining workers rights. The third way under Tony Blair and Bill Clinton gave way to capitalism uniting after 9/11 attacks with populist politicians. Big tech and social media further undermined democracy and a rules based international order. Policy failures over half a century with unnecessary wars and conflicts placed the world in chaos ... it destroys nations, the means of living and displacement of families for survival. China has taken advantage of staying out of foreign conflicts and are building infrastructure, new cities and industrial complexes beyond anyone's imagination.
by Oui
Fri Apr 30th, 2021 at 02:42:47 PM EST
Does remind me of the US and NATO allies designating Islamist fighters in Chechnya as "Freedom Fighters" in the civil war against the Russian Republic after 1990. As a result, EU countries have accepted up to 100,000 Chechen refugees or asylum seekers. More later.
The Russian government under Yeltsin and later Putin destroyed much of Grozny to root out terror of separatism and defeat the Sunni Jihadists from across the Islamic world. Not the Shia forces of Iran, but the Sunni fighters trained in Afghanistan and elsewhere by Western allies under leadership of the CIA and US Armed Forces.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Apr 29th, 2021 at 01:49:02 PM EST
Such has been the DUP's reputation for incompetence under leader Arlene Foster that many might make the mistake of seeing her departure as a positive development. However what finally broke the back of her support within the party is not the many scandals under her tenure - the collapse of Northern Ireland's power sharing executive in 2017, the loss of the unionist majority at Stormont, or the intense scrutiny of a judicial inquiry into her stewardship of the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme. It was her decision to abstain rather than vote against a Stormont motion condemning "gay conversion" therapies that ensured her demise.
by ARGeezer
Thu Apr 29th, 2021 at 03:21:10 AM EST
Depressions usually start with a contraction of the money supply. In 1929 that contraction occurred in the fall, just when money needed to come out of the stock market so it could be used to transport crops to market. But the stock market was in a speculative bubble and this demand to sell stocks for cash caused the bubble to collapse.
In 2008 there was a massive bubble in securities backed by real estate. When it was discovered that the assets backing most of these securities was only worth 60% of their face value, and that most banks and financial institutions had lots of these securities on their books all confidence in the financial system collapsed. Banks would not lend to other banks. Money Market funds 'broke the buck', letters of credit needed for the export market ceased to be honored and the entire payment clearance system in the USA and the world froze.
Frontpaged with minor edit - Frank Schnittger
by Oui
Wed Apr 28th, 2021 at 12:57:02 PM EST
Criticism and protest should be genuine based on human rights, not used as a tool of propaganda for a political goal or commercial profit.
There is a historic link between colonialism and oppression of minorities. Today in the 21th century, it's universal and there should be a major effort to clean house first. Hypocrisy in policy set by politicians is so very obvious it is quite ridiculous. What's often missing is historic content.
So Joe Biden is the first president to call Armenian genocide ... genocide!
by Oui
Tue Apr 27th, 2021 at 07:30:56 PM EST
by Oui
Tue Apr 27th, 2021 at 01:13:54 PM EST
Crimean Khanate and Tatarstan - Golden Hordes
An Cultural Introduction to Russia's Tatar People
History
The ancestors of the Kazan Tatars are the people of the Mongol khanates that once ruled across parts of central Asia, Russia and eastern Europe. In the 13th century, the mighty Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan, pulled in many of the region's Turkic nomads into this army. This was the beginning of Tatar culture and people, who were then aligned with the Golden Horde, the successor khanate. Native to Crimea, the Crimean Tatars are the other major group of ethnic Tatars.
by Oui
Sat Apr 24th, 2021 at 08:00:03 PM EST
by gmoke
Sat Apr 24th, 2021 at 02:30:06 AM EST
The Online Ecovillage Summit (https:/summit2021.ecovillage.org/schedule) will present talks
every Wednesday at 1pm,
April 28, 2021 to May 26, 2021,
from members of different ecovillages around the world. It looks like quite a broad line-up.
April 28, 2021, 1:00 pm
La Cite Ecologique - Quebec-based ecovillage
La Comarca y La Tierrita - Uruguay-based sister ecovillages
May 5, 2021, 1:00 pm
Sunshine Ecovillage - Chinese organization promoting the ecovillage movement
Los Portales - Spanish intentional community
May 12, 2021, 1:00 pm
Comunidade Ceu do Mapia - Brazilian village in the Amazonian South Meso-region
Kibbutz Lotan - Israel-based Eco-Jewish intentional, collective community
May 19, 2021, 1:00 pm
Ecodorp Boekel - Dutch ecovillage
Ganas Community - American 20 year old NYC intentional community
May 26, 2021, 1:00 pm
Las Canadas Bosque de Niebla - Mexican centre for agro-ecology and permaculture
Maleny Co-housing - Small australian co-housing community on collectively owned land
by Oui
Fri Apr 23rd, 2021 at 05:17:42 PM EST
Succumbing to the Israel lobby in the UK that aims to destroy Labour.
by gmoke
Fri Apr 23rd, 2021 at 12:03:03 AM EST
The first solar video I produced was for the Urban Solar Energy Association [USEA] back in the early 1980s. One of the 10 second public service announcements was "A south-facing window is already a solar collector. Learn how to use it." with the contact information for USEA. Another was "A south-facing porch can become a solar greenhouse. Learn how to build one." We got a few hundred dollars in a grant from a group that was refusing to pay war taxes to make 3 inch tape copies and I took them around to the TV stations. Even saw the spot, once, late at night, I think on Channel Five.
The next round of solar videos was a set of 30 second spots I did with a graphic designer, Ed Hill, for the successor organization, Boston Area Sustainable Energy Association in the 1990s when I was doing a lot of public access TV, including videotaping and cablecasting the monthly talks that BASEA hosted. There is still a lot of information to be mined from that archive but it is just gathering dust in a storage area in my house in the form of VHS and 3/4 inch tape.
My favorite of that second series was the one on solar history which showed photographs of local solar buildings since the 1940s and back a few thousand years to the solar techniques of Greek houses (https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIGS5LSjlnk).
Unfortunately, when I took these solar PSAs to the local TV stations they had no time available. Only one local UHF station (remember UHF?), Channel 56, took a copy but I'm not sure that it ever made air.
Since then I've made some of my own short Youtube videos on simple solar principles as I have always believed that you can teach the basics of practical solar energy, at least for emergency/survival electricity and heat, in a half hour or less.
Recently, I compiled a playlist on Youtube of all my simple solar stuff at https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NN__fS5pM&list=PLkauPyDTdD2A9t4w-ZVMytJS8MpE2dB7N
Some of the products mentioned are no longer available but I believe the basic solar information is still good.
by Oui
Wed Apr 21st, 2021 at 08:32:33 PM EST
France's Macron says 'clear red lines' should be drawn with Russia -CBS | Reuters - Apr. 18, 2021 |
Well ... thank goodness... two leaders in agreement with one another 😄 I can imagine Macron checked first with NATO commanders or the White House. 💪🏼
by Oui
Tue Apr 20th, 2021 at 12:51:44 PM EST
The outrageous Defense Production Act still blocking necessary raw materials for Indian Serum Institute COVID-19 vaccine production. Have you no shame?
What's the goal of Biden's White House ... serving Big Pharma in AmericaFirst?
Shortage of vaccine raw materials, SII CEO to Biden: End export embargo
Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla Friday urged US President Joe Biden to lift the embargo on export of raw materials needed to ramp up production of Covishield and Covovax, the Covid-19 vaccines it is making in India.
by Bernard
Mon Apr 19th, 2021 at 06:26:45 PM EST
Coming back to the infamous "sofagate" incident after two weeks, there are still a couple of points that look important and are worth pointing out.
First, cui bono? There are good arguments that the snub wasn't deliberate because (1) Erdogan had nothing to gain from humiliating VDL and the EU, and (2) Turkey wanted to cool down the relations that had gone quite tense with EU countries like Greece or Cyprus (or even France), and discuss more concrete things like customs union, which is very important for Turkey. The former Turkey ambassador to the EU blames the faux-pas on "on inexperience and a lack of institutional memory on both sides."
Then again, the opposite view is that Erdogan did humiliate the EU because he could and would never do that to, say, Merkel. In any case, there could have been a mixture of both, actually.
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Oui
Mon Apr 19th, 2021 at 02:49:36 PM EST
U.S. Intelligence and American policy kept a Cold War intact. Doing a repeat performance, Europe build on Four Freedoms does not get the opportunity to grow from infancy through adolescence to mature as a force for peace. Communism and corruption in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states have been incorporated in Western countries and Israel to its very own detriment. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have led the attack on Russia, a failed state created during the leadership, or lack thereof, of Boris Yeltsin.
America doesn't want an united Europe as a strong economic power and will do the utmost to undermine the union. Bush and Rumsfeld split Europe into Old and New Europe. The former Soviet satellites states were like a warm bun that was easily taken into America's orbit. The allegiance to U.S. military and CIA intelligence came not really as a surprise as America is seen as the liberator of continental Europe and the defeat of Communism. With the Afghan expedition of the U.S. and NATO, many ugly abuses of human rights were seen as "acceptable" for the right cause to defeat the Islamists. Terror became the great evil across the globe and most nations in the NATO alliance left no stone unturned to cooperate.
Torture of prisoners, rendition across the globe run by the CIA, got open support from many U.S. allies. The strong ties of Eastern Europe to U.S. military and its intelligence became a strong bond above the legitimacy of being a member of the European Union.
The ugly propaganda machine with Anglo-Saxons leadership of the U.S. and U.K. was quite effective. After Afghanistan the world was led into the Iraq invasion and occupation. Under Obama, the Arab unrest - food and jobs - led to uprisings which were exploited by the West and ultimately NATO nations intervened in Libya and Syria. As was seen before in former Yugoslavia, arms and mercenaries (jihadists) were transported into the region. This scenario has become common good in the years since. An important role for the illegal arms contracts, transport and distribution was coordinated by American intelligence and its allies. Eastern European countries have played an important role in illegal arms distribution to warring parties across the world for decades.
by gmoke
Sun Apr 18th, 2021 at 05:53:44 PM EST
Pleistocene Park Discussion with Manager, Nikita Zimov
Sunday, April 18, 9 - 10:30 AM ET (GMT-4)
Zoom https:/soil4climate-org.zoom.us/j/83756644945?pwd=elVTLytWbU5YVExIZ3k0MU9TWFRtQT09
Soil4Climate
https:www.facebook.com/groups/Soil4Climate
Kiss the Ground Movie Discussion with Producers and Writers, Josh & Rebecca Tickell
Tuesday, April 20, 2 PM ET (GMT-4)
Zoom https:/soil4climate-org.zoom.us/j/89664652320?pwd=bUozL0xpMnhkNWhjKzVHUkNDM2ZUUT09
Soil4Climate
https:www.facebook.com/groups/Soil4Climate
Free viewing of Kiss the Ground until Tuesday, April 20, here
https:/bigpictureranch.vids.io/videos/4d9ddcb41c18e5c7c4/kiss-the-ground-4k-for-soil4climate
password: soil4
"Nature-Positive Food Production" with Dr. Martin Frick of the United Nations Food Systems Summit
Thursday (Earth Day), April 22, 7 AM ET (GMT-4)
Zoom https:soil4climate-org.zoom.us/j/81682866355?pwd=b0J4dnNqMTJ6Um8yd1JJMXZqYSsvdz09
Soil4Climate Facebook group
https:www.facebook.com/groups/Soil4Climate
I believe all of these discussions will be archived at the Soil4Climate Facebook group.
by Oui
Fri Apr 16th, 2021 at 12:38:42 PM EST
Some philosophical thoughts to save our planet. Green vs evils of greed. Thinking out of the box of growth, capitalism and globalization ...
by Oui
Thu Apr 15th, 2021 at 06:45:29 PM EST
We Got him!
Total violent deaths in Iraq 288,000 ... and counting.
Mission Accomplished
Total death toll in AfPak region (unknown) ... and counting.
We saw, we came, he died.
Civil War in Libya, Tuareg fight for Independent Azawad (Mali). Maghreb countries and transport Libyan arms to Boko Haram in Nigeria.
More people died from terrorism than ever before--and mostly in these five countries - 2014
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Apr 15th, 2021 at 03:17:03 PM EST
Peter Cardwell is an author and journalist and former special adviser to two Conservative secretaries of state for Northern Ireland. He lost his job as special adviser to the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor at the Ministry of Justice in a Boris Johnson cabinet reshuffle last year, and was previously special adviser to then Tory NI secretary of state James Brokenshire between 2016 and 2018.
The Irish Times has given him space to pen his view that "Unionism [is] not emotionally ready for conversation about united Ireland" in the latest of a long series of opinion pieces it has published from British and unionist sources, most of which have received a scathing reception from the Irish Times commentariat. I have written a long letter to the editor in response:
by Oui
Wed Apr 14th, 2021 at 09:14:09 AM EST
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank that has promoted U.S. military strikes on Iran and is funded by one of President Donald Trump's biggest campaign megadonors, served as a messaging hub for a controversial taxpayer-funded project, the Iran Disinformation Project, that engaged in harassment of American critics of the Trump administration's foreign policy in the Middle East.
