World Politics

[python]

^^^moreover, the original article in german very clearly indicated that the ukrainian image evidence was falsified:

Der BND kam zu eindeutigen Ergebnissen: Ukrainische Aufnahmen seien gefälscht, sagte Schindler

overall, the german intelligence report is a balanced assessment attempting to steer a fair angle. while the german chief spy also refuted russian claims of a ukrainian military airplane in the vicinity, it is unclear how...as far as i recall, the official dutch investigation team was handed over the russian radar data. at least, that's what they said...it would be quite an embarrassment, though hardly novel or unheard of when the kgb descendants get involved, if the data was forged...

additionally, as far as i recall, it was 2 independent german professionals (the links and the names are somewhere upthread) who both concluded it wasn't the rebel action.

 

[python]

over to you python, i'll let u handle this cat

there's nothing to handle...people have the right to their beliefs, particularly when so much is still unknown.

the important aspect of the german report is that it clearly departs from the initial flood of western media spin putting the blame solely and only to the deliberate crime committed by the evil, wild vlad.

when in all likelihood it was a tragic accident, whoever is responsible.

the same type of tragic accident that happened before, including the american missile killing dozens of innocent iranians etc...

when a tragic accident was exploited by the state department (and their western mouth pieces) to their political means the tragedy turned into a farce

 

[Amsterhammer]

 

[Sciocco]

1. No they're not, many Americans, myself included, dislike that our government supports the state of Israel. If it were up to me, we'd leave them on their own decades ago.
2. Possibly, if a guest shows up at your door, do you slam the door shut?
3. There is definitely a **** ton of land.
4. Well they wouldn't be hostile I suppose.
5. Please ****ing god, I don't wanna pay taxes to support Israel.
6. Meh.
7. Maybe, wouldn't be surprised if more crazy **** happened if Israel left.
8. This I doubt, they would certainly be less for the Middle East to be crazy about, but Israel isn't the only problem there.
9. Until the next problem...

Where would the Israeli state be placed within America? Put em in ****ing Alaska.
Which Americans would displaced because of it?

 

[python]

i have read the following news in the last couple days. the sources are easily available...dont really know with which one to start or how to connect the seemingly disjointed events except they all relate to the us foreign policy... here goes

-a high ranking american official accused turkey, the fellow nato member, of turning a blind eye, that is, of facilitating the islamic state's illegal sales of oil
-foreign secretary kerry publicly stated that russia had agreed to help the us anti isis effort. curiously, vlad's foreign minister soundly refuted it. lavro added, 'you chaps broke the anti-terrorist cooperative agreements despite us alerting you to the boston bombers, thus it is you chaps who ought to fix them. we are not excited to jump when washington tells us to'
-india, despite the recently highly touted visit by their pm, has snubed the us by choosing an israeli anti-tank missile contractor over an american javelin contractor. all despite, the obama fierce lobbying.
- america has officially refused the visiting israeli defence minister meeting several key american policy makers apparently as a sign of new tensions.
--
the sample above, despite my personal sympathy for some american impulses, appears the norm now...i mean, the tensions between both the us and its allies and particularly foes always existed. but we the public only rarely heard of them.

i imagine if we hear now of so much tension PUBLICLY, it would appear that the real disagreements in private are tenfold.

i am confused by the obama foreign policy. i really am.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Ukraine elections:
-Svoboda out, Communists out (?)
-Terrible low turnout. Seems normal for the country, but in times like this? Only 40% went voting??
-Pro-Western parties win (even in the center-east)
-Far right strongest in the east (surprise for me)


Also elections in Brasil: Rousseff for an other term. Good news imo.

 

[Echoes]

Vladimir Putin performs Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill. Gérard Depardieu in the audience. Which statesman in the West could do that?

 

[python]

the brazilian election result was indeed significant and frankly i like it. but the ukrainian 'pro-western choice' was imo absolutely irrelevant and no news except some potentially dangerous implications down the road...

here's why. a major brick country like brazil headed by the leftist and essentially anti american govt is a bad news for washington's backyard. recall, unlike the multiple political cowards of the opposite sex it was this courageous lady that refused an official state visit over the us spying. she is also quite popular with (and supportive of) the other latin-american govts that oppose what they call an american imperialism.

as for ukraine, that election meant very little b/c it was supposed to formalize the results of the already accomplished putsch/revolution. the same 'revolutionary' forces representing the same oligarchical circles and their western sponsors already won. they only needed to manipulate the tired, impoverished nationalistically brain washed electorate to purge the parliament of the remnants of the disposed prez.

some extreme right (the embarrassing pro-nazis) and some extreme left (the pro-vlad commies) were simply not given a chance in the media controlled by the victorious oligarchs.

there are, though 2 maybe 3, potentially ominous things flowing from the uki election:

1. the faction that wants to keep the seize fire (the president responding to moderate germany) has substantially underperformed compared to the 'war party' (the pm yatsenuk responding to america). this =more fighting soon.
2. the russian announcement today that they will recognize the separatists own election coming on 2nd november. frankly, i fail to see the development, if and when it may happen as positive. it would play into the hands of the ukrainian war party, imo. unless vlad's intention is to weaken and unbalance the politicians who hate him any way by promoting their infighting. perhaps his goal is to have their foreign sponsor (germany and the us) to clash as well while he cements under frozen conflict in the east
3. and finally, it is about the natural gas which ukraine needs but does not want to pay for. tomorrow is the tri-party talks where the eu is supposed to come up with billions to pay the ukrainian debt or...face another cold winter. i dont see vlad giving an inch. all part of the same strategy to stimulate their domestic and foreghn sponsor clashes and economic pressure.

seems like vlad's strategy is working. the imf has announced today that ukraine aint getting the rest of the promised 2014 billions. i am not sure of the official reasons, but it must be about the usual draconian conditions imf always attached to any loan.

i am not optimistic...

 

[blutto]

...oh my!...the Pope dude just kicked over another apple cart....so we now know climate change bad, gays tolerable, evolution and the big bang are cool and the financial industry/money manipulators are not really the leaders of a modern economy but just greedy bottom-feeding scumsuckers whose business model tears food out of babies mouths.....

...jeez what does a money grubbing Prosperity Gospel Wrong Wing "christian" have left to believe in now?....I can hardly wait till Pope dude tells us the God is not white.....and not a male....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pope Francis'.."Wealth Made from Financial speculation intolerable-Speculation on Commodities a Scandal"


Francis has been labelled a communist by some hard right elements in the US after denouncing the ‘tyranny of capitalism’, calling the wealth made from financial speculation as intolerable and saying speculation on commodities was a scandal that compromised the poor’s access to food.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Catholic-teachings-defending-rights-poor.html

Why are we allowing Goldman Sachs to speculate on food when As the U.S. emerges from the worst recession since the Great Depression, 25% of children don’t have enough food to eat

Goldman lobbied Congress to drive our costs up to make themselves more money. They even named it after themselves "Goldman Sachs Commodity Index" GSCI

Now millions in this country are suffering without enough to eat because Goldman Sachs needed more money.

Just as easily as this was started, just like the Koch brothers introducing oil speculation, we can reverse this and stop these *******s from stealing our money.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...really hope those Swiss Guards stay sharp....

Cheers

 

[rhubroma]

...oh my!...the Pope dude just kicked over another apple cart....so we now know climate change bad, gays tolerable, evolution and the big bang are cool.....

...jeez what does a money grubbing Prosperity Gospel Wrong Wing "christian" have left to believe in now?....I can hardly wait till Pope dude tells us the God is not white and not a male....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pope Francis'.."Wealth Made from Financial speculation intolerable-Speculation on Commodities a Scandal"


Francis has been labelled a communist by some hard right elements in the US after denouncing the ‘tyranny of capitalism’, calling the wealth made from financial speculation as intolerable and saying speculation on commodities was a scandal that compromised the poor’s access to food.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Catholic-teachings-defending-rights-poor.html

Why are we allowing Goldman Sachs to speculate on food when As the U.S. emerges from the worst recession since the Great Depression, 25% of children don’t have enough food to eat

Goldman lobbied Congress to drive our costs up to make themselves more money. They even named it after themselves "Goldman Sachs Commodity Index" GSCI

Now millions in this country are suffering without enough to eat because Goldman Sachs needed more money.

Just as easily as this was started, just like the Koch brothers introducing oil speculation, we can reverse this and stop these *******s from stealing our money.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...really hope those Swiss Guards stay sharp....

Cheers

A few days ago in his response to those who accuse him of communism Pope Francis said, in his habitual and (apparently) disingenuous frankness: "Land, work, home...it's strange that if I speak of these things they say I'm a communist."

 

[blackcat]

cant be. he is still a puppet in the Vatican, in terms of how he can push them. He is more like the spokesperson in the Whitehouse issuing motherhood statements once a week.

and, lets not forget the Vatican's riches and tax free status anywhere. One massive hypocritical utterance, and it does have the scent of anti-semitism.

When the catholics are tax free and use the I-banks for their investments, it is a little mealy mouthed of the robed one. muppetry, when they have been so tight fisted paying out compensation for child abuse throughout the world.

 

[blackcat]

1. No they're not, many Americans, myself included, dislike that our government supports the state of Israel. If it were up to me, we'd leave them on their own decades ago.
2. Possibly, if a guest shows up at your door, do you slam the door shut?
3. There is definitely a **** ton of land.
4. Well they wouldn't be hostile I suppose.
5. Please ****ing god, I don't wanna pay taxes to support Israel.
6. Meh.
7. Maybe, wouldn't be surprised if more crazy **** happened if Israel left.
8. This I doubt, they would certainly be less for the Middle East to be crazy about, but Israel isn't the only problem there.
9. Until the next problem...

Where would the Israeli state be placed within America? Put em in ****ing Alaska.
Which Americans would displaced because of it?

i gotta say, we could use the intellectual capital in Australia cos we are a pretty dumb nation. And MArk Regev their gov't spokesperson is/was Australian, he might be able to line it up for us. I have been pretty tough on Marky Mark, because the lies were a bit much, but I recognise he is expert in his job, and manages to project credibility when he was baseless. I had him pegged as an Israeli PM soon, if he takes up a seat in the knesset. Naftani Bennet is the dude favoured to unseat Bibi. A point of symmetry, the next Australian PM could potentially be of Palestinian lineage, the exchequer Joe Hockey's father was/is(refugee or not) a Palestinian, well, Australian now. Would be ironic tho, in ten years, If Hockey is PM for Australia and Regev is PM for Israel. There is also a jewish parliamentarian on the make for the government, and exceedingly competent and expert and will be up for a ministry if he does not have one already, think he might be assistant, or a secretary. Josh Frydenberg. He also has the safest seat in parliament, and is quite young, ~41. So if he is in the long game, he could have another 30 safe years in Parliament. definitely one to watch.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Yesterday, Russia and Ukraine agreed a gas deal that (supposedly) ensures supplies for Ukraine and Western Europe, at least for this winter.

Today, there are reports in Dutch media (not yet seen them anywhere else) that 63 unmarked military trucks, some pulling heavy weapons, entered Donetsk from the east.

Coincidence? I think not.

 

[cineteq]

Also elections in Brasil: Rousseff for an other term. Good news imo.

Yup, it's good news for establishing comunism in LatAm.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Yup, it's good news for establishing comunism in LatAm.

You could say that, if you don't understand what communism is.

Well, people seem to even 'accuse' the pope of communism. Heck, Obama is called a communist multiple times. It's clear those people never even read Marx

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Yup, it's good news for establishing communism in LatAm.

I think ya gotta do some research as to what things like 'communism' and 'socialism' and the like actually are.

 

[rhubroma]

cant be. he is still a puppet in the Vatican, in terms of how he can push them. He is more like the spokesperson in the Whitehouse issuing motherhood statements once a week.

and, lets not forget the Vatican's riches and tax free status anywhere. One massive hypocritical utterance, and it does have the scent of anti-semitism.

When the catholics are tax free and use the I-banks for their investments, it is a little mealy mouthed of the robed one. muppetry, when they have been so tight fisted paying out compensation for child abuse throughout the world.

You did not get my sarcasm, evidently. The problem is that it is a little too late to cash in on a media face lift. Not least of all because the aristocratic nature of the Vatican has lost cultural currency of late. In this regard the neo-evangelists, or even the Dalai Lama have a much more widespread appeal. The ones because they fit in well with the praxis of contemporary marketing, while the other offers a more exotic spiritualism to the radical chic.

The problem, of course, is that the Church of Rome embraced being a state in the medieval period, for which Francis' neo-pauperism - it isn't for nothing that he is the first pope to be named after the mystic ascetic from Assisi - in light of the present global economic iter (which, to be fair, wasn't thrust by the Catholic Church) seems contradictory. Against the pontiff's pleas for social concerns, therefore, is a history of greed, mendacity, baseness and secular power that guided the Holy See for centuries.

Best of luck Francis.

 

[Echoes]

Yeah Francis is a pauperist, sure.

That's why the so-called "canonizations" of anti-Popes John-Paul II and John XXIII were sponsored by Nestlé, banks, and oil giants... http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ne...canonization-sponsored-banks-oil-giant-n88811

Remember that Francis is not the Pope. The Chair of St Peter has been vacant since 1958. He's an anti-Pope, like his post-Vatican II predecessors.

 

[blackcat]

You did not get my sarcasm, evidently. The problem is that it is a little too late to cash in on a media face lift. Not least of all because the aristocratic nature of the Vatican has lost cultural currency of late. In this regard the neo-evangelists, or even the Dalai Lama have a much more widespread appeal. The ones because they fit in well with the praxis of contemporary marketing, while the other offers a more exotic spiritualism to the radical chic.

The problem, of course, is that the Church of Rome embraced being a state in the medieval period, for which Francis' neo-pauperism - it isn't for nothing that he is the first pope to be named after the mystic ascetic from Assisi - in light of the present global economic iter (which, to be fair, wasn't thrust by the Catholic Church) seems contradictory. Against the pontiff's pleas for social concerns, therefore, is a history of greed, mendacity, baseness and secular power that guided the Holy See for centuries.

Best of luck Francis.

sry for missing sardony. I only pop in occasionally, to my defense

 

[l.Harm]

Don't know if it's the right topic, but there's a live stream of an interview with Piketty in the Netherlands (in English).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdLQ-nSFeEs

 

[Merckx index]

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released its so-called “synthesis report”, the fourth and summarizing document of the past year, providing the most comprehensive view and projections of climate change to date. Among its conclusions:

1) humans are definitely responsible for climate change

The atmospheric concentration of key greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — is “unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years,” the report warns, and our fossil-fuel driven economies and ever-increasing population are to blame.

2. Climate change is already happening.

Each of the past three decades has been warmer than the last, and warmer than any decade since we started keeping records.

3. It will get worse.

“Heat waves will occur more often and last longer … extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions. The ocean will continue to warm and acidify, and global mean sea level to rise,”

4. Most of the warming has been absorbed by the ocean, which means higher ocean temperatures, higher acidity, and higher sea levels in coming decades.

5. Fossil fuels must be phased out completely by 2100 (I would have thought we would have run out of oil, at least, before then, anyway).

And science writer Chris Mooney argues that the report, if anything, is too conservative.

 

[python]

kissinger, at 91, still shows political astuteness...summary of interview to das spiegel (link to the full interview inside)...

Kissinger warnt vor "Neuauflage des Kalten Krieges"
(german)
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausla...-neuauflage-des-kalten-krieges-a-1001870.html

...warned against return of cold war, skeptical of sanctions, urged germany to a more active role in europe etc. though he sees vlad masking his strategic weakness as a tactical strength, overall, he advised against nato hasty expansion east and (not in the summary) he considered west underestimating vlad's reaction a mistake.

 

[Pazuzu]

And science writer Chris Mooney argues that the report, if anything, is too conservative.

Indeed. Scientist Guy McPherson posits that human extinction will occur within the next 20 to 30 years as self-reinforcing feedback loops kick in and push climate change into overdrive, or has McPherson puts it, catastrophic non-linear climate change. http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/ The biggest concern is the methane that's being released as the oceans warm. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a heat trapping potential 30 times that of CO2! Cthulhu has been awakened.

 

[Jagartrott]

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released its so-called “synthesis report”, the fourth and summarizing document of the past year, providing the most comprehensive view and projections of climate change to date. Among its conclusions:

1) humans are definitely responsible for climate change



2. Climate change is already happening.



3. It will get worse.



4. Most of the warming has been absorbed by the ocean, which means higher ocean temperatures, higher acidity, and higher sea levels in coming decades.

5. Fossil fuels must be phased out completely by 2100 (I would have thought we would have run out of oil, at least, before then, anyway).

And science writer Chris Mooney argues that the report, if anything, is too conservative.

Don't worry - we have fracking now. All our problems are history.

 

[BigMac]

Indeed. Scientist Guy McPherson posits that human extinction will occur within the next 20 to 30 years as self-reinforcing feedback loops kick in and push climate change into overdrive, or has McPherson puts it, catastrophic non-linear climate change. http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/ The biggest concern is the methane that's being released as the oceans warm. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a heat trapping potential 30 times that of CO2! Cthulhu has been awakened.

Ay. Stop animal farming which alone is more dangerous than all transportation, mainly because of it's high methane emitions. Now add the transportation required for animal farming. This issue has been reported by the U.N and other agencies as early as 2006, yet most could not care less. Who would have guessed...

As Peter Singer put it, “We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet- for the sake of hamburgers”.