Tuesday, August 28, 2012

28 August - Quick Notes

Press conference with the laureates of the 30th Right Livelihood Award 2009: David Suzuki Svenska: Presskonferens med 2009 års Right Livelihood-pristagare: David Suzuki (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kremlin (Photo credit: Spolster)

Billboard with portrait of Assad and the text God protects Syria on the old city wall of Damascus 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Project Syndicate
‎"Kremlin policy in the post-Soviet space makes little sense, because Russia gains nothing. Presumably, Putin hopes to whip up nationalist sentiment to strengthen his weakened hold on power at home. The problem for him is that, increasingly, Russians are not fooled."

"Putin’s Bad-Neighbor Policy" by Anders Åslund
www.project-syndicate.org

With its adamant support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has resumed its aggressive anti-American policy of 2007-2008, which culminated in war with Georgia

PS obviously supports foreign policy as war for the USA however. That aggressive antiAmerican policy meme did not suffice to stop economic sanctions warfare by the West in the cases of Libya and Syria, nor Davos poverty in Egypt and the rest of the Thid World suffering under artificially low currency valuations
'Aggressive antiAmerican policy' compared to what ? Sanctions from Hell on those who are subject to WMD hypocrisy where the unarmed are the 'real threat' ? Davos economic warfare, IMF loan conditions, artificially low exchange rates for Third World currencies ? Free Trade and globalization in a race to the bottom for workers ? Food crisis and mass starvation with Monsanto taking over seed distribution with agriculture in its dying throes and nitrogen pollution from fertilizer adding to the brew of poison and crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico ? Not that the Mississippi will be adding much of that this summer ! You think we have a food crisis now ? Ha! Just wait.

NaturalNews.com
“Any scientist who tells you they know that GMOs are safe and not to worry about it is either ignorant of the history of science or is deliberately lying. Nobody knows what the long-term effect will be.” – Geneticist, David Suzuki, giving the 2008 Commonwealth Lecture in London http://www.naturalnews.com/non-GMO.html

Bridge the Gulf via The Land Mass Between NOLA and Mobile

So in case you missed it, a day or so ago The Weather Channelreferred to Mississippi as "The Land Mass Between New Orleans and Mobile".

Alabama
AND HERE COMES THE WATER IN CYPRESS SHORES/CANAL CIRCLE EAST.

Bridge the Gulf via Government Accountability Project

A tenacious whistleblower and former client, Maria Garzino, is US Army Corps of Engineers ("the Corps") mechanical and civil engineer who revealed the inadequate state of New Orleans' floodwater pumps built by the Corps after Hurricane Katrina. The disclosures, which both the Department of Defense Inspector General’s (DoDIG) office and the Corps fought for years, showcase how New Orleans residents are still in great danger if flooding occurs again.

Is New Orleans Ready for Isaac?: Daily Whistleblower News

www.whistleblower.org

Seven Years after Katrina, New Orleans Still Has Defective Pumps Revealed by Whistleblower Summary: A US Army Corps of Engineers whistleblower revealed,

opednews.com updated their cover photo.
· · 1 · about an hour ago ·

Dave Johnson in today's Chimp: "Look where we are: Deregulation pretty much destroyed the economy. Tax cuts have partially defunded the government's ability to empower and protect We, the People. The 1% and their giant corporations get so much of the benefits of our economy now. The climate is obviously getting worse and worse, already risking crop failures, incredible heat waves and terribly destructive storms. And with all of this going on one party blocks efforts to improve things, so they can campaign saying nothing is getting done. Yet with all that going on, the election so far is all coming down to billionaires spending hundreds of millions to run ads that say Obama is taking your money and giving it to black people."

The Daily Chimp for Tuesday, 28 August 2012 | The Smirking Chimp

www.smirkingchimp.com

RT shared a link.

France opens Yasser Arafat murder inquiry

rt.com

French prosecutors have launched an official inquiry into the 2004 murder of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, after his family claimed he died of radioactive polonium poisoning.

Stone-throwing youths have clashed with the police in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, Kenya's second biggest city, in a second day of violence prompted by the killing of a Muslim religious leader accused by the US of helping fighters in Somalia. Police fired tear gas and warning shots on Tuesday as youths barricaded streets with burning tyres in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Majengo.

Grenade attack on police in Kenya riots

aje.me

Muslim youth clash with police and throw grenade in second day of unrest after shooting of "al-Shabab-linked" cleric.

AlterNet

Here we go....

6 Right-Wing Zealots and the Crazy Ideas Behind the Most Outrageous Republican Platform Ever

www.alternet.org

They're breaking out the crazy down in Tampa.

Center for Media and Democracy shared a link.

Six More Corporations Dump ALEC; 38 Companies Have Now Cut Ties with Corporate Bill Mill | PR Watch

www.prwatch.org

Now you can swap out that GE lightbulb, Western Union

A Watery Rebirth for Heartland Theory?

James Holmes at the Naval Diplomat has yet another very interesting post on retired Admiral Patrick Walsh’s comparison of the South China Sea to a new, Mackinderite “heartland.” Given this blog’s demonstrated interest in dissecting Mackinder commentary and maritime issues both, there are a few interesting aspects of this discussion I’d like to highlight. First, in the Asahi Shimbun interview Holmes highlights, here are Walsh’s comments on what he means by the South China Sea being a new “heartland”:

What he meant was that if this pivot area was stable and secure, then it would have an effect and an impact that went far beyond the local area. For us today, it’s the South China Sea. And there are a number of factors that come into play.
It begins with trillions of dollars of economic activity that flows through a region that has historic disputes on where boundaries and lines of delimitation are formed.

Hollowpoints: An Optional Post

Dan Solomon, a curse upon his harvests, directed me towards this absurd little piece from The New Inquiry, hoping I would respond. Generally, I try not to respond to work like this, but Dan, it’s your lucky day, so here it goes. We’ll take this line by line.
The story first broke with the salacious glee of a journalist knowing he’s about to get paid.

England’s Charging Orders Could be On Their Way to Scotland

A recent report has found that four large finance banks have been abusing charging orders in England and Wales, supplying consumers with misleading and oppressive paperwork.

Charging orders are a legal method of debt enforcement which exist in England and Wales and allow unsecured lenders to secure a consumer’s unsecured debts over the customer homes, resulting in some people losing their homes for as little as £600 of debt.

Lying is his way of life--end justifies the means. (0+ / 0-)

Mitt is an entitled, shameless opportunist who believes he was ordained by God and the Angel Moroni to become President in our hour of need. So he magnifies the sense of crisis and shamelessly says whatever he thinks will get him what he wants, relying on a compliant press and a shriekfest of right wingers to keep the attention off his lies.

But as Mark Twain said, if you always tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mitt's lies have become a moebius strip turning back onitself, a bunch of interlocking moebius strips, and he is so tangled up in them he doesn't know what he is saying and his people can't keep up with the lies. Witness the lies on welfare and the suggestion the worker's wife could have lived if she'd had Romneycare in Mass or, by implication, lived long enough to enjoy OBamacare.

He is worse than George Bush, and proves that brains without virtue is a very dangerous thing.

The scientific uncertainty doesn't mean that climate change isn't actually happening.*

by Mimikatz on Wed Aug 08, 2012 at 04:54:00 PM PDT

* Are you surprised I agree ?