by Oui
Fri Jun 11th, 2021 at 10:51:43 AM EST
America would be wise to tidy up a bit at home before spreading their form of democracy attached to slavery of the laborers and depletion of natural resources in third world countries.
by Oui
Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 02:29:41 PM EST
by Oui
Wed Jun 9th, 2021 at 05:44:02 PM EST
Why politicians should be wary of publicly pursuing the Wuhan lab-leak investigation | The Conversation - June 7, 2021 |
The theory that SARS-CoV-2 originally leaked out of a laboratory in Wuhan, China, is making a comeback - so much so that President Joe Biden has publicly ordered the US intelligence community to "redouble" its investigations into this hypothesis. Politicians, however, should be wary of publicly advocating the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis. In doing so, they risk fuelling groundless and dangerous conspiracy theories.
by Helen
Sun Jun 6th, 2021 at 01:46:26 PM EST
There was a sitcom on UK TV back in the 70s called "Whatever happened to the Likely Lads". A revival of an early 60s comedy show, showing how the 2 original young men were adjusting to early middle age and their changing responsibilities.
The Theme song went;-
Oh, what happened to you?
Whatever happened to me?
What became of the people
we used to be
Tomorrow's almost over
the day went by so fast
the only thing
we look forward to's
.....the past
Frontpaged with minor edits - Bernard
by Frank Schnittger
Sat Jun 5th, 2021 at 01:21:51 PM EST
Irish Independent, Letters: Edwin Poots's decision to stir trouble with his own `facts' is straight from the Trump playbook
The rhetoric from DUP leader Edwin Poots, about the Irish government, does little to promote peace and harmony. Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne, June 05 2021 02:30 AM
by Oui
Sat Jun 5th, 2021 at 10:38:24 AM EST
Canadians copying indigenous project established after the Civil War in the US.
Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned journalist and politician Nicholas Flood Davin to study industrial schools for Indigenous children in the United States.
Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds | Ottawa - 14th March 1879 |
Report based on study President Ulysses S. Grant to assimilate Indian tribes through Peace Commission of 1869.
Most stupid comment ever heard from Canadian PM Trudeau ...
by IdiotSavant
Fri Jun 4th, 2021 at 12:12:40 AM EST
We all know multinational corporations cheat on their taxes, using complicated legal arrangements to funnel money through different jurisdictions to avoid paying anything to support the societies that host them. How obscene are such arrangements? This obscene:
An Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of $315bn (£222bn) last year but paid no corporation tax as it is "resident" for tax purposes in Bermuda.
The profit generated by Microsoft Round Island One is equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland's gross domestic product - even though the company has no employees.
The subsidiary, which collects licence fees for the use of copyrighted Microsoft software around the world, recorded an annual profit of $314.7bn in the year to the end of June 2020, according to accounts filed at the Irish Companies Registration Office.
The company's profits jumped from just under $10bn in the previous year and compare with Ireland's 2020 GDP of €357bn ($433bn).
by gmoke
Mon May 31st, 2021 at 05:15:27 PM EST
I recently read No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg (NY: Penguin Books, 2018, 2019 ISBN 9780143133568), a slim book of her speeches since she started her Friday School Strike, "that idea was inspired by the Parkland students, who had refused to go to school after the school shootings." [More on Parkland at https:/www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/7/1877501-Parkland-When-the-Targets-Talk-Back]
"And sometimes NOT doing things - like just sitting down outside the parliament - speaks much louder than doing things. Just like a whisper sometimes is louder than shouting."
As usual, I flagged passages as I read and then copied them over to my computer when I was finished. Then I thought about how to share what I learned from this remarkable young woman, finally deciding that my collection of notes from her words could make one coherent speech.
What follows is my cut-up of her book to present what I believe are her core concepts. All the words are hers joined together with ellipses (...) and my own commentary in brackets ([ ]).
We want you to follow the Paris Agreement and the IPCC reports. We don't have any other manifestos or demands - you unite behind the science, that is our demand...
Right there (page 108, chapter 2, in the latest [as of July 2019] SR15 IPCC report) it says that if we are to have a 67% chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5ºC, we had, on 1 January 2018, 420 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide left in our CO2 budget. And of course that number is much lower today. We emit about 42 gigatonnes of CO2 every year. At current emissions levels, that remaining budget is gone within roughly 8.5 years. [3.5 gigatonnes per month, 0.80769 gigatonnes per week, 0.115 gigatonnes per day] And now that figure is already down to less than 360 gigatonnes [in 2019, the May 2021 figure is 276 gigatonnes and falling according to https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/clock/carbon_clock.htm]...
But perhaps the most dangerous misconception about the climate crisis is that we have to "lower" our emissions. Because that is far from enough. Our emissions have to stop if we are to stay below 1.5-2ºC of warming. The "lowering of emissions" is of course necessary, but it is only the beginning of a fast process that must lead to a stop within a couple of decades, or less. And by "stop" I mean net zero [Greta and others are strongly interrogating the idea of "net zero" as accounting tricks have been used in some current "net zero" claims] - and then quickly on to negative figures. That rules out most of today's politics...
And our main enemy right now is not our political opponents. Our main enemy now is physics. And we cannot make "deals" with physics...
The fact that we are speaking of "lowering" instead of "stopping" emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind the continuing business-as-usual...
If the EU is to make its fair contribution to staying within the carbon budget for the 2ºC limit, then it means a minimum of 80% reduction [in greenhouse gases] by 2030 and that includes aviation and shipping. So, it is around twice as ambitious as the current proposal...
If the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions...
We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground and we need to focus on equity...
To do your best is no longer good enough. We must all do the seemingly impossible. [Be realistic, demand the impossible - a Che Guevara quote used as graffiti on the walls of Paris in 1968 and by Prof Donald Sadoway of MIT, the developer of the Ambri flow battery and a way to decarbonize steel production, to inspire his students]...
We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases. We should no longer only ask: "Have we got enough money to go through with this?" but also: "Have we got enough of the carbon budget to spare to go through with this?" That should and must become the centre of our new currency...
In Sweden, we live our lives as if we had the resources of 4.2 planets. Our individual carbon footprint is one of the worst in the world. This means that Sweden steals 3.2 years of natural resources from future generations every year: Those of us who are part of these future generations would like Sweden to stop doing that. Right now...
Now we probably don't even have a future any more. Because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit, and that you only live once. [The sky WAS the limit and now it's striking back.]...
Many people say that we don't have any solutions to the climate crisis. And they are right. Because how could we? How do you "solve" the greatest crisis that humanity has ever faced? How do you "solve" a war? How do you "solve" going to the moon for the first time? How do you "solve" inventing new inventions?...
"That's still not an answer," you say. Then we start talking about a circular economy and rewilding nature [or geotherapy, see http://solarray.blogspot.com/2021/04/geotherapy-not-geoengineering-please.html for more] and the need for a just transition. Then you don't understand what we are talking about...
Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling. [Sacred]...
And yes, a transformed world will include lots of benefits. But you have to understand. This is not primarily an opportunity to create new green jobs, new businesses or green economic growth. This is above all an emergency, and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. This is not something you can like on Facebook...
We already have all the facts and [some of the] solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.
by IdiotSavant
Sun May 30th, 2021 at 11:24:01 PM EST
Denmark has been spying on Germany for the NSA:
Denmark's secret service helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a European media investigation published on Sunday revealed.
The disclosure that the US had been spying on its allies first started coming to light in 2013, but it is only now that journalists have gained access to reports detailing the support given to the NSA by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE).
The report showed that Germany's close ally and neighbor cooperated with US spying operations that targeted the chancellor and president.
The then chancellor candidate for the German center-left socialist party (SPD), Peer Steinbrück, was also a target, the new report disclosed.
As the article notes, we'd known they were cooperating with the Americans to spy within the EU since 2013. What's new is the targets, which are explosive. And its not just Germany that was targetted: the article says they also spied on politicians in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France.
The good news is that the Danish government sacked the entire leadership of the FE last year over this. But the fact it even happened is highly disturbing, and really makes you wonder who the EU's spy agencies are really loyal to: their own European governments, or their American "allies".
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Sat May 29th, 2021 at 06:32:25 PM EST
Further to the discussion in Intergenerational Justice - Updated 15/5/21, the Irish Times has published another letter of mine trying to move the debate forward:
by Oui
Fri May 28th, 2021 at 07:54:55 PM EST
Amongst calls for a 5th election in two years and another delay in the triple corruptions trial for PM Bibi Netanyahu, it appears there may be a Change government in the making a few days before the deadline date of June 2nd.
by Oui
Thu May 27th, 2021 at 08:13:21 AM EST
See update below: Downing Street #10 didn’t follow science nor advice from SAGE experts ...
The Bull of herd immunity was advocated by the Trump administration, UK's Boris Johnson and Oxford "math" which in turn was parroted on the hour by Conservative PM Mark Rutte in The Netherlands.
Real people died unnecessarily, especially to loved one's grandparents and elderly in homes of Care. Nurses were confronted with unspeakable trauma and number of patients without the normal level of PPE. Greed and cronyism delivered tens of millions of pounds in deep pockets without delivering on substance of the contract to the NHS and Healthcare.
by Oui
Wed May 26th, 2021 at 06:03:12 PM EST
Trump and Kushner teamed up with Abu Dhabi and Crown Prince Salman to reshape the Middle East the Zionist way.
In a single century from tribes in the Arabian Sands to unheard of wealth reaching the twinkling stars of heaven. Nearly upsetting a Holy Land where peace should be symbolized by the three religions of Abraham with a center of worship in Jerusalem. Instead it was greed and lust for power from a handful of inhumane persons in an attempt to upset the crafted balance of historical development. The fascist regime of Israel and authoritarian Sheikhdoms of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia that connived to remove King Abdullah II of Jordan.
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See my writings from March/April ...
by Oui
Tue May 25th, 2021 at 05:46:16 PM EST
Simply by definition the movement build on WASP doctrine - Colonialism and the Empire - has transformed into extreme white supremacist groups.
by Oui
Tue May 25th, 2021 at 11:37:49 AM EST
Ahead of meeting top US representative Antony Blinken ...
On the eve of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first visit to Israel and neighboring countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made unusually tough remarks regarding Iran, including hinting that Jerusalem could take military action against the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites without Washington's okay.
Israel still in a political quagmire ...
by Frank Schnittger
Mon May 24th, 2021 at 12:01:46 AM EST
The Irish government has issued a call for expert evidence in preparation for the Climate Action Plan 2021 that it committed to as part of the programme for Government negotiated by the three parties in the coalition government: Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party.
I had not intended to write a submission, as I do not consider myself to be a climate science expert. However I came across a submission written by the climate change sceptic Irish Climate Science Forum and decided that it required a response. Their submission is not yet published on-line, and I will link to it when it is. However in summary, they contend that:
- There is no scientific basis for declaring a climate change emergency
- The government has not seriously considered the real implications of the proposed 2030 climate mitigation targets
- Ireland cannot afford the likely costs of meeting those targets.
by Oui
Sat May 22nd, 2021 at 08:29:19 PM EST
Who does the old man think he is kidding?
by Oui
Tue May 18th, 2021 at 09:13:52 PM EST
A Free Palestine 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸
Austria flies Israeli Flag in Support
by Oui
Mon May 17th, 2021 at 06:44:13 PM EST
Happened before during the Bush and Obama administration. Shipping arms and munitions to replenish stocks used by Israel to crush the Palestinian people in Gaza. Unconscionable ... immoral ... equates to war crimes and/or complicit to bombing civilians. The United States will live with impunity, Israeli leaders will be judged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The White House and U.S. Congress will always stand by Israel to avoid prosecution.
US approves $735 million sale of precision-guided weapons to Israel | i24 News |
The arms sale, which Congress was notified of on May 5, a week before the current Israel-Palestinian escalation began, includes Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which are used to turn bombs into precision-guided missiles.
Palestinian Rights and E Jerusalem
Days of Kahane Terror Returns
Timeline of the attacks and escalation by the fourth most powerful military on earth. No effort for peace since the Oslo Accords, a long line of criminal acts by Israel contravening International law and UNSC resolutions.
by Frank Schnittger
Sun May 16th, 2021 at 12:51:26 PM EST
I am currently re-organising my diary index into a series of sub-indexes as it had exceeded the maximum length allowed for a diary and was losing entries at the bottom. This will take some time as some data was lost and as I have not been able to update the main index for a year in consequence. Please bear with me as publishing the sub-indexes one by one is the only way I can do this. This is a background activity so please don't recommend the sub-indexes as they are published as I don't want them to appear prominently under recommended diaries. I will re-publish the main index with links to sub-indices in due course. Thanks.
