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Monday, March 31, 2014

Ukraine = Sicily of bygone days



So .... the conclusion is this:  If the new regime finds anybody embarrassing the regime or throwing a few pebbles on their shiny new white shirts, that person better make his funeral arrangements and his last will as soon as possible.  Yup, the West sure has a deep seated addiction for shady regimes and vile dictatorships.



Ron Paul: "Washington does not care about our privacy; both political parties are guilty."


Ron Paul writes:
...Congress Believes: Spy On Thee, But Not On Me. 
 The reaction of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein to recent revelations that the CIA secretly searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers reveals much about what Washington thinks about the rest of us. “Spy on thee, but not on me!”

Feinstein’s hypocrisy on this issue is astounding. She is an enthusiastic backer of the National Security Agency spying on the rest of us, but when the tables are turned, and her staff is the target, she becomes irate. But there is more to it than that. There is an attitude in Washington that the laws Congress passes do not apply to its members. They can trample our civil liberties, they believe, but it should never affect their own freedom.

Much of this started when politicians rushed to pass the Patriot Act after 9/11. Those of us who warned that such extensive new government power would be used against us someday were criticized as alarmist and worse. The violations happened just as we warned, but when political leaders discovered the breach of our civil liberties, they did nothing about it. It was not until whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden and others informed us of the abuses that the “debate” over surveillance—that President Obama claimed to welcome—could even begin to take place. Left to politicians such as Feinstein, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Obama, we would never have that debate, because we would not know.

Washington does not care about our privacy; both political parties are guilty. When serious violations are discovered, they most often rush to protect the status quo instead of defending the Constitution. Feinstein did just that as the NSA spying revelations began to create pressure on the intelligence community. Her NSA reform legislation was but a smoke screen: Under the guise of “reform,” it would have codified the violations already taking place.

What is buried in the accusations and denials about CIA snooping on Senate computers is that the issue of concern was an expected 6,000-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on the recent CIA history of torture at the “gulag archipelago” of secret prisons it set up across the world after the attacks of 9/11. We can understand why the CIA might have been afraid of that information getting out.

When CIA whistle-blower John Kiriakou exposed the CIA’s role in torturing prisoners, he was sent to prison for nearly three years. Feinstein and her colleagues didn’t lift a finger to support him.

When the government behaves like an empire rather than a republic, lying to the rest of us is permissible. They spy on everybody because they don’t trust anybody. The answer is obvious: Rein in the CIA; remove its authority to conduct these kinds of covert actions.........

Movie: Stephen King's Langoliers


As we are into all sort of conspiracies regarding  the Malaysian Flight370 ... why not consider this one too?



Police brutality in Albuquerque, New Mexico brings out thousands of protesters


Will those who are supposed to serve and protect learn from this incident of how thousands of people from all walks of life can gather together to send a message not only to the Police Force in Albuquerque but to the bullies found aplenty in all police departments in North America?

Towards the end of the day, police used tear gas as some of the protesters were damaging public property.  Use of tear gas on the protesters should also give rise to the question of why they didn't use tear gas or stun guns instead of actual bullets to kill the people they did, most of whom are found to have been mentally challenged and unable to understand or care about the barks of command coming from the cops. 

The protests were staged after the shooting of a mentally challenged homeless man. 



Russia might end up saving Europe


So thinks the author below.  IMO, most countries in Europe don't deserve saving.

James Lewis writing at AmericanThinker:
....Russia is the logical protector for the morally flabby welfare states of Europe. In France, the nationalist party of Marine Le Pen has already started overtures to the Russians. It is a logical move, because the French see their country being overrun by millions of Muslims who burn thousands of cars on a regular basis with impunity, to demonstrate their power. Intimidation is a basic principle of jihad. That is the purpose of terror attacks, to spread fear.

The EU does nothing to protect its citizens, showing over and over again that the ruling class has sold out to Arab and Iranian oil money. Tony Blair took millions from Muammar Gaddafi. Jacques Chirac grabbed even more from Saddam Hussein. The neo-fascist Italian Five Star Movement is practically run by Tehran.

Without America, Europe must therefore turn to Moscow, but this time something much closer to the old Russian Empire........

Kessab genocide: USA and her allies Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others gleefully watching ....


slaughter of Christians in Kessab and probably laughing aloud as they see Christian churches either destroyed or used for terrorist purposes.

They in fact encourage Assad's opposition to up the ante by secretly sending them their needs via Syria's enemies on Syria's borders;
supplying them with state of the art weaponry;  
Handing the terrorists bags  of crispy dollar notes;
Opening offices and headquarters  for the terrorists outside Syria where they can lobby for more money and more weaponry;
Some allies even throw open their hospitals  and the services of their medical staff for injured terrorists, all in the name of "humanity" and "goodwill towards other human beings" kind of bullshit.

Ghouls!  USA and her allies Israel, Saudi Arabia and all other sheikhdoms, Canada, Turkey, Britain and several countries of the EU.

From BarnabasFundOrg:
....Christian town in Syria  attacked by Islamists, 80 dead, thousands displaced.
The population of a Christian town in north-west Syria was forced to flee when it was besieged by Islamist rebels; 80 people were killed, at least 13 of whom were beheaded, churches desecrated and homes looted. 



Militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, Sham al-Islam and Ansar al-Sham attacked Kessab on the Turkish border early on Friday 21 March.
Around 3,000 Armenian Christian residents fled for their lives, taking refuge in neighbouring Latakia and Bassit. Some are staying with relatives and friends, but the rest are sheltering in over-crowded church buildings.
A dozen or so families with members too elderly to leave remained in Kessab and were subsequently taken hostage.

Barnabas Fund partners in Syria have been helping the displaced Christian families, who fled empty-handed. We are providing food, clothing, hygiene materials and other essentials.

Following the Islamist takeover of Kessab, a strategically important town, the Syrian army launched a counter-offensive in an effort to regain control of the territory, and fighting has continued. Kessab was the last border crossing with Turkey still in Syrian government hands. It had previously been relatively peaceful and was full of refugees who had fled violence in other parts of Syria.


Turkey, which has sided with the rebels in the Syrian civil war and provided access for fighters, money and supplies, allowed hundreds of Islamist militants to cross its border on Friday to attack Kessab.
Tensions between the Syrian government and Turkey intensified when the Turkish military shot down a Syrian fighter jet that crossed its border on Sunday during a battle over the town.

The Armenian National Committee – International condemned the attacks on Kessab and Turkey’s role in them, adding:
For months, we have warned the international community of the imminent threat posed by extremist foreign fighters against the Christian minority population in Syria.
Meanwhile, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has written to US President Barack Obama calling on him to press NATO ally Turkey to stop facilitating attacks by foreign fighters associated with US-designated terrorist groups................

As for the Canadian-Armenians pleading with the Harper govt to save Kessab from genocide,  the poor souls probably don't know that Stephen Harper and his Cons are part of the group that has rained down so much misery on Syria. They seemingly don't know that  USA, Israel, Canada, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the sheikhdoms has become the brotherhood of Evil Incarnate and their main goal, in fact their only goal is to see Assad and Syria including Christians in Syria, destroyed completely.

Where do politicians go when they need a break?


Seemingly they make a beeline to Birmingham.  They have been seen in their thousands there, strolling  nonchalantly in the city streets.

From BirminghamMail:
....Birmingham is battling  a growing problem which saw more than 5,100 rat alerts recorded in the past year.

City pest control officer Colin Watts revealed he had seen a 2ft rodent – which he said was as “wide as a brick” – on the loose.

Calls over rats in city homes were up by almost 300 on the previous 12 months.
The worst three districts were Ladywood with 982 calls, Hodge Hill with 739 and Perry Barr with 707.

Colin spotted the massive rat Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green.
“One of the biggest I’ve seen must have been 14 or 15 inches long,” he said.

“That was just the body, without the tail.

“With its tail it would have been over 2ft. It was like a small cat.”

More action seen in Albuquerque in last 10 hours than during the entire takeover of Crimea


Hah!  Tear-gassing, crowd control cop vans, Darth Vader looking riot police... the whole works.  
The West, instead of setting right what's hugely wrong in their own countries, love to poke their noses in the affairs of far away lands.



From KOBnews:
The protest against the Albuquerque Police Department    continued throughout the night on Sunday.
Several hundred people marched throughout the day between downtown Albuquerque and Nob Hill.
Eastbound Central and University was shut down for several hours. 
KOB Eyewitness News 4 learned law enforcement officers outfitted in riot gear were on the scene at Central and Girard.
APD, BCSO, NMSP and RRPD SWAT teams were all on the scene.
Tear gas was deployed against the protesters. ..........

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Turkey is creating havoc for Armenians in Kessab, Syria


What is Turkey up to?  What's in the blueprint, the architects of which are USA and her allies?  Why are Armenians suddenly the  target? Are Armenias being targetted because Armenia is being protected by Russia and Armenians by and large support the Assad regime?  The vid below has the US State Dept statement commenting on the issue ... but if we take whatever is said by Washington at face value, then the only losers in this dangerous game will be we ourselves.

If you believe the stories out there that Turkey has sent in their troops inside regions of Syria because they are after the Iraqi Sunni group ISIS,  then I have a nicely parceled stinking garbage wrapped up in shiny gift wrap which I would like to award you for being one smart cookie and a know-it-all.

From NSNBC:
.....Turkish armed forces continue artillery, tank, aerial and special forces attacks against Syrian armed forces in support of mercenary brigades in Kassab, in Syria’s Lattakia province. Prior to the large scale campaign, which was launched on March 21, some 70 percent of the residents of Kassab were Armenian Syrians. ....

From PanoramaArmenia:
....22 Armenians were kidnapped  from Kessab and taken to Turkey.
Of those Armenians who remained in Kessab, 22 were kidnapped and taken to Turkey, deputy chairman of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) Armenia office, Syrian Armenian Vazgen Mesropyan told Panorama.am. 

“We have exact information that those people who did not leave their homes in Kessab were kidnapped, with 11 people being unaccounted for,” he said.

Mr Mesropyan noted that more than 40 Armenians did not leave Kessab.

The Armenian populated villages of Kessab in Syria were the target of three days of brutal cross-border attacks from Turkey. Some 670 Armenian families, the majority of the population of Kessab, were evacuated by the local Armenian community leadership to safer areas in neighboring Basit and Latakia.


Kevork Almassian writing at AlAkhbarEnglish:
The Syrian town of Kessab,  once a popular holiday destination, has recently come under heavy gunfire from rebel groups linked to al-Qaeda. Armed men entered the town, looted Armenian shops and homes, taking families hostage, and desecrating the town's three churches.

The attack has forced at least 2,000 ethnic Armenian civilians to seek refuge in Latakia and other neighboring hills. For Syria watchers, this incident further highlights the systematic targeting of Christian communities in the country.....

Jihadists promised Syrian schoolgirls for brides


The USA and her allies have succeeded into making Syria a hell on earth. 

From InternationalBusinessTimes:
 ....Jihadists are seizing girls from Syrian schools and colleges to serve as "brides", claim activists.

In the town of Raqqa, northern Syria, liberal rebels have been driven out, and fighters from the Islamist groups Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) hold sway.

Many are foreign-born, and are promised brides by recruiters in return for fighting under the black flag of jihad.

A number of foreign women, sometimes accompanied by their children, have joined the jihadist groups, but men still greatly outnumber them, and some have started to "recruit" brides from the local community, seizing girls against their will.

One of these was 21-year-old Fatima Abdullah, from a tribal area outside Raqqa, whose brother joined ISIS, and promised her to a Tunisian fighter. She resisted, but her family backed the union, and she killed herself with rat poison.

Five activists confirmed the story to the Sunday Telegraph.

One local woman told the newspaper that she had gone to a jihadists' recruiting office to speak to a unit of female jihadists. Among them was a divorced Frenchwoman who had come to Syria with her 12-year-old daughter and four sons to join the militants.

"I went inside their headquarters, which used to be the Christian church," she said. "I asked what the conditions were to join. They said you have to be 18-25, unmarried, and you would earn 25,000 Syrian pounds.

"But if you joined you had the opportunity to marry one of the foreign fighters. However, they make sure you are a real jihadist."

French TV last week broadcast shocking footage of a brigade of about 20 French and 20 Belgian ISIS fighters, who boast of slaughtering "apostates" and film blood-soaked civilian corpses.

Since early January rival rebels groups including western-backed militias loyal to the Free Syrian Army have pushed ISIS back from territory it had taken in northern Syria.

They have succeeded in driving extremists from Idlib province while in Aleppo province ISIS have been forced into towns to the east.

In the town of Azaz, between Aleppo and the Turkish border, ISIS fighters beheaded four prisoners from rebel groups before retreating, and put their heads on a plinth in the middle of the town's main square.

One prisoner, Ahmed Primo, described how he narrowly avoided their fate.

 "I heard a voice calling my name for execution," he said. "Then suddenly there was the sound of an explosion. The guards and the emir, the militia leader, were injured, and carried away. The next day the prison was liberated and I escaped."............

Bad day for the socialists in France .... HAHAHAHAH


Marine Le Pen surges ahead. Her party is now the third party of importance and growing in strength and recognition with each passing day. And, guess what? Marine Le Pen does not hate Putin. To me, that proves she's won't be doing or saying things to please those  whose agenda is to paint Russia as hell on earth and Putin as the devil himself.

From Expatica:
....Socialists hammered in French vote,   far-right wins key towns

France's ruling Socialist Party suffered heavy losses in nationwide local elections Sunday and the far-right National Front claimed control of at least two mid-sized towns, the first exit polls indicated.
As ballots closed, the National front (FN) said it was on track to claim 1,200 municipal council seats nationwide in what one prominent activist described as the biggest electoral success in the party's history.
Exit polls indicated that candidates backed by Marine Le Pen's party had secured the mayor's seat in the southern towns of Beziers and Frejus, but missed out on key targets elsewhere.
"We have moved onto a new level," Le Pen said. "There is now a third major political force in our country.".....

Kim Willsher and Anne Penketh writing at GuardianUK:
....French Front National eyes real power after startling gains in local elections
The FN already has a new mayor and could end up in control of five towns or cities after a strong showing at the polls, with Marine Le Pen declaring 2014 'year zero' for French politics
The historic city of Avignon is up for grabs. So is Perpignan, as is Fréjus on the south coast.

In local elections on Sunday, Marine Le Pen's Front National (FN) is hoping to snatch up to 15 towns and cities from the ruling Socialist party or the opposition centre-right UMP, validating its claim to be the third force in French politics. Across Europe, where Eurosceptic, anti-immigration parties are on the rise, the results will be taken as a sign of things to come. In Britain, Ukip's Nigel Farage will be watching with interest.

Analysts say the FN, which already has one new mayor, elected outright in last Sunday's first-round vote, is in a strong position to take at least five municipalities.

Today's second-round results will establish whether the wave of "bleu marine" (navy blue – a play on Le Pen's name) from the first round was just a protest vote aimed at punishing the mainstream parties or represents a serious challenge. The FN polled more than 10% of the vote in more than half of the 598 places where it fielded candidates....

To believe or not to believe


Now, we are being told that new evidence points to airborne bacteria causing the 14th century plague in Britain and Europe that killed 20+ Million people .... not rat fleas.  

Vanessa Thorpe writing at GuardianUK:
.....Black death was not   spread by rat fleas, say researchers
Evidence from skulls in east London shows plague had to have been airborne to spread so quickly.
Archaeologists and forensic scientists who have examined 25 skeletons unearthed in the Clerkenwell area of London a year ago believe they have uncovered the truth about the nature of the Black Death that ravaged Britain and Europe in the mid-14th century.

Analysis of the bodies and of wills registered in London at the time has cast doubt on "facts" that every schoolchild has learned for decades: that the epidemic was caused by a highly contagious strain spread by the fleas on rats.



Now evidence taken from the human remains found in Charterhouse Square, to the north of the City of London, during excavations carried out as part of the construction of the Crossrail train line, have suggested a different cause: only an airborne infection could have spread so fast and killed so quickly.

The Black Death arrived in Britain from central Asia in the autumn of 1348 and by late spring the following year it had killed six out of every 10 people in London. Such a rate of destruction would kill five million now. By extracting the DNA of the disease bacterium, Yersinia pestis, from the largest teeth in some of the skulls retrieved from the square, the scientists were able to compare the strain of bubonic plague preserved there with that which was recently responsible for killing 60 people in Madagascar.  To their surprise, the 14th-century strain, the cause of the most lethal catastrophe in recorded history, was no more virulent than today's disease. The DNA codes were an almost perfect match............

From Reuters:
.... Archaeologists in Britain   said on Sunday they had solved a 660-year-old mystery, citing DNA tests which they said proved they had found a lost burial site for tens of thousands of people killed in medieval London by the "Black Death" plague.

The breakthrough follows the discovery last year of 13 skeletons wrapped in shrouds laid out in neat rows during excavations for London's new Crossrail rail line, Europe's biggest infrastructure project.

Archaeologists, who say the find sheds new light on medieval England and its inhabitants, later found 12 more skeletons taking the total to 25. They will further excavate the site in July to see if more bodies are buried nearby.........

Ballad of the Goodly Fere


This is a nice little work by  Ezra Pound in praise of Jesus Christ.  The story goes that he wrote it in anger when he read or heard someone  implying that Christ was not a manly figure. He penned it as a narrative coming from Simon, one of the apostles.  
Fere = mate or companion


Ballad of the Goodly Fere
Simon Zelotes speaketh it somewhile after the Crucifixion

Ha' we lost the goodliest fere o' all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O' ships and the open sea.

When they came wi' a host to take Our Man
His smile was good to see,
"First let these go!" quo' our Goodly Fere,
"Or I'll see ye damned," says he.

Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears
And the scorn of his laugh rang free,
"Why took ye not me when I walked about
Alone in the town?" says he.

Oh we drank his "Hale" in the good red wine
When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere
But a man o' men was he.

I ha' seen him drive a hundred men
Wi' a bundle o' cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house
For their pawn and treasury.

They'll no' get him a' in a book I think
Though they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly Fere
But aye loved the open sea.

If they think they ha' snared our Goodly Fere
They are fools to the last degree.
"I'll go to the feast," quo' our Goodly Fere,
"Though I go to the gallows tree."

"Ye ha' seen me heal the lame and blind,
And wake the dead," says he,
"Ye shall see one thing to master all:
'Tis how a brave man dies on the tree."

A son of God was the Goodly Fere
That bade us his brothers be.
I ha' seen him cow a thousand men.
I have seen him upon the tree.

He cried no cry when they drave the nails
And the blood gushed hot and free,
The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue
But never a cry cried he.

I ha' seen him cow a thousand men
On the hills o' Galilee,
They whined as he walked out calm between,
Wi' his eyes like the grey o' the sea,

Like the sea that brooks no voyaging
With the winds unleashed and free,
Like the sea that he cowed at Genseret
Wi' twey words spoke' suddently.

A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea,
If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.

I ha' seen him eat o' the honey-comb
Sin' they nailed him to the tree.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Leaders debate .... Nigel Farage vs Nick Clegg


Nigel Farage was of course the winner!  



How many young people sent off by our politicians to kill other young people commit suicide?


Would you believe the average is 22 per day?
Would you believe that 1892 veterans have committed suicide between 2009 and 2010 in the USA
How many have done so in Canada?  Anybody bothers to keep count?  
Are military families feeling proud of these figures?
Are wives, mothers, fathers, sisters happy with the pension they will receive because their husbands, sons, daughters, brothers died for no reason but were made to feel like they were doing the right thing but they knew better and couldn't live with that fact?
What is the "right" thing?

From ABCNews:
On average, 22 veterans commit suicide each day,    according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).
To commemorate them and raise awareness, 32 veterans from the group flew to Washington, D.C., to plant 1,892 flags on the National Mall today, one for each of the veterans that the group says took his or her own life in 2014. IAVA extrapolated that number from a 2012 Veterans Administration report finding that 22 veterans took their lives each day in 2009 and 2010, only a slight increase from years past, and a number that includes all veterans, not just those who served in America’s more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The event was part of IAVA’s 2014 Storm the Hill campaign, an annual week of action in which organization vets meet with lawmakers to push a veterans’ agenda picked for that year. In 2013, it was the Veterans Affairs benefits-claim backlog; this year, it’s veteran suicides.
“I know several individuals that have died by suicide,” Sara Poquette of Dallas, a video journalist who served in Iraq, said, adding that she herself considered suicide while experiencing the hardships of reintegrating into civilian life. “For me personally, it was more just getting through until I was really ready to get help, just realizing that my life was going down a path that I never really wanted it to go down.”
In Joining IAVA, Poquette said, she found a “new unit.”
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is pushing a bill, the Suicide Prevention for America’s Veterans Act, which Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., plans to introduce. Walsh commanded a Montana National Guard battalion in Iraq.
“When we returned home, one of my young sergeants died by suicide, so this is very personal to me,” Walsh told reporters on the Mall today, calling veteran suicides “an epidemic we cannot allow to continue.”........

The hypocrisy of America and her allies


Isn't it a "laugh aloud until you cry" kind of scenario when you think about how America and her allies stormed into Afghanistan because one of the things that so stunned and horrified the world was seeing the Taliban destroy the  world heritage site where the giant statues of Buddha were carved out of the mountainous rock.  
However, now, when it comes to Syria and the Taliban-like Al Qaeda affiliated groups are destroying heritage sites of the Shiites... they are doing it at the behest of the USA and her allies. 
The moral compass has stopped working for millions of Earthmen. 
Now, the immoral have a blueprint that emphasizes the end of Assad and nothing less will do even if it means WW3.

From Reuters:
Islamist fighters from an al Qaeda splinter group bombed a large Shi'ite Muslim shrine in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa on Wednesday, activists said.

The mosque of Ammar bin Yassir and Oweis al-Qarni was once a destination for Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq before it was taken over a year ago by Sunni rebels battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

One photo posted on Twitter on Wednesday under the heading "the pagan Iranian shrine" showed extensive damage to the exterior walls and roof of the site, a turquoise and white complex of domes and minarets centred around a tiled courtyard.



Another picture showed concrete and twisted metal strewn on the street outside the mosque - built under Assad's rule with support from Shi'ite Iran - while another showed an interior wall that had collapsed inward.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the al Qaeda splinter group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had set off two powerful explosions at the mosque early on Wednesday.

Many fighters from ISIL and other radical Sunni Islamist groups in Syria deem Shi'ites as infidels and consider their shrines idolatrous, and therefore legitimate targets.....

The world's top politician does it again


To Pope Francis, Converts to Christianity  = same as gaining voters for the pinocchios in the governments of the world. The Vatican is also a government body.
I fail to see how  the Pope making a "confession" to an "ordinary priest" is such a big deal.  In fact, I fail to see why Catholics think that confession means cleansing one of sins. If you truly believe that, then everybody on Facebook have no sins to cleanse off because they keep telling them to all and sundry who have the time to read them.  

From IndependentUK:
In a move that was described as "bold"  and even "noteworthy" by some, Pope Francis has stunned a congregation by confessing his sins to an “ordinary” priest in full view of St. Peter's Basilica.
The Pontiff was presiding at a service intended to show the importance he attaches to the sacrament of reconciliation, commonly known as confession, when he shunned yet another papal tradition.

His master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, pointed him toward the empty booth but Francis was having none of it.
Instead, he went straight to another one, knelt before a rather surprised priest, and confessed to him for a few minutes.
The people's Pope lived up to his name by then going back to the empty one and hearing the confessions of a number of faithful, pretending as if nothing had happened.......

Federal troops being sent into Rio to clean it of drug gangs before World Cup


Imagine that!  The drug lords and their gangs are so powerful in this Latin American country that troops have to be called in because the police force in Rio de Janeiro can't handle the violence.  One gotta wonder how it is that a police force let matters grow to this level of violence and lawlessness unless   the police force was a part of the drug business too. 

From Reuters:
....Brazil will deploy federal troops to Rio de Janeiro to help quell a surge in violent crime following attacks by drug traffickers on police posts in three slums on the north side of the city, government officials said on Friday.

Less than three months before Rio welcomes tens of thousands of foreign soccer fans for the World Cup, the attacks cast new doubts on government efforts to expel gangs from slums using a strong police presence. The city will host the Olympics in 2016.

Rio de Janeiro state Governor Sérgio Cabral met president Dilma Rousseff on Friday morning and asked for federal troops to be deployed to help stop the attacks on police units overseeing slums across Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city.

"They (gangs) want us to retreat, but with the help of the president and the federal government we will continue to advance," Cabral said after meeting with Rousseff and securing the dispatch of troops to Rio.

On Thursday night, shooting broke out between drug traffickers and police in a slum near the Manguinhos complex of shantytowns. Three policemen were shot and wounded, including the Manguinhos police chief, local media reported. The attackers set fire to and destroyed the local police post housed in a converted cargo container.

The gangs, made up mainly of drug traffickers, knocked down power lines during the attack, leaving Manguinhos in the dark.........

Cuba in process of bidding farewell to socialism


Good news if you wanna invest in Cuba.  If you have the capital or the backers,  this is a good time to open up shop in Cuba.  The people there are starving for the kind of goods easily available in the West.  Food items, clothing, knick-knacks  .... almost everything we take for granted over here is not seen by the folks in Cuba.  When moi and some friends visited Cuba a few years ago, we were told by other friends who had visited the place earlier that  the hotel staff would appreciate anything we give them as gifts.... clothes, shoes, costume jewellery,etc.   I gave some costume jewellery, makeup items and all the clothes I used on the trip and more to the maids in the hotel and they were thrilled.  I advise anybody vacationing there to take a suitcase full of stuff to give away to the friendly and very appreciative folks living in that communist country.  I sincerely hope their lot improves with these proposed new laws.

David Howden writing at LudwigVonMisesOrgCanada:
....One of socialism’s last men standing, Cuba has recently softened its stance on foreign investment. In a bid to attract capital to the stagnant economy, a newly proposed foreign investment law would cut taxes on foreigners in half to 15% and exempt most investors from paying it for at least eight years.

The country wants to also promise legal protection to foreign investors. As a general rule, foreigners have steered clear of investing in Cuba for fear of having their capital nationalized by the socialist regime.

The National Assembly is widely expected to approve the draft of the law with few changes.......

False Flag initiative to enable full scale attack on Syria imminent


Turkey with instigation or pressure and lots of help from the USA-led  NATO will carry out the attack on its own people to give the Turks an excuse to invade Syria. USA and her allies must have told Erdogan to play ball or else many more YouTube videos about corrupt him and his corrupt family are gonna air on a daily basis.  The whole world's a stage .... as Shakespeare said.

I think  the attack and invasion from Turkey's borders would be within the next few weeks.  Watch out for even the most insignificant tongue-in-cheek outright lies and pretended shock and surprise from the pinocchios in the West.  The excuse will be that the Turks have come into Syria to safeguard the ancient tomb of their prophet  which belongs to Turkey or something along that line.

The blog below has its own analysis which might also prove correct.  Each one to their own analysis, I say.  

From MoonOfAlabama blog:
Media Neglect Turkish False Flag Attack Leak   And Its Implications
The setting of the recording is this:



The voices of the illegal recording believed to belong to DavutoÄŸlu, National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) Hakan Fidan, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun SinirlioÄŸlu, and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. YaÅŸar Gürel. According to the information obtained from sources, the recording consists of a chat between four officials in DavutoÄŸlu’s office before the commencement of the official meeting with the participation of more civil and military bureaucrats in another room at the Foreign Ministry.
It is not clear when exactly the meeting happened. It would fit the situation late last year or early 2014.

The major points from my view:

Turkey has delivered 2,000 trucks of weapons and ammunition to the insurgents in Syria.
There are plans for false flag attacks on Turkey or Turkish property to justify an attack from Turkey on Syria.
The Turkish military has great concerns going into and fighting Syria.
The general atmosphere between these deciders is one of indecisiveness. Everyone seems to be unclear what Erdogan wants and is waiting for clear orders from above.
U.S. military has shortly before the meeting presented fresh plans for a no-fly one over Syria.
Then there is the fact in itself that this tape and others leaked. Internal government communication in Turkey and personal communication of Turkish official has been thoroughly.....

Erdogan's False Flag Invasion Plans Reveled.
An March 23 the AlQaeda affiliated groups Jabhat al Nusra and Ahrar al-Shams consiting of foreign men crossed the border from Turkey and attacked the western Syrian province of Latakia. The seized the Kasab border crossing and the Armenian town Kessab. People there fled as the Jihadist removed the crosses from the Armenian churches and replaced them with their black flag. The Jihadist groups were given artillery support and anti-air cover from Turkey. A Syrian jet on a bombing run against the Jihadists was shot down by the Turkish air-force.

The Jihadist managed to capture several hill sides before being stopped by reinforcing Syrian forces. After the plane was shot down Syrian anti-air radars painted any Turkish flight coming near its border ready to shot them down. Heavy artillery is used against the intruders and they are said to have high casualties. Their wounded get transported to the Turkish border and find help in Turkish hospitals. The Jihadist campaign is clearly in trouble and it may only take a few days until they will have to give up and retreat......

USA the #1 hypocrite and Saudi Arabia the #1 tyrant


Match made in hell.  

Glenn Greenwald at FirstLook:
US Takes a Break From Condemning Tyranny to Celebrate Obama’s Visit to Saudi Arabia......

...And then there’s the closest US ally of them all, which also just happens to be one of the world’s most brutally repressive regimes: the House of Saud. During Vietor’s tenure, the administration revealed “plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest US arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.” Five months ago, the Pentagon announced “plans to sell Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates $10.8 billion in advanced weaponry, including air-launched cruise missiles and precision munitions,” a package that “includes the first US sales to Middle East allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and UAE F-16 fighters.” The Obama White House has repeatedly affirmed its “strong partnership” with the Saudi tyranny.

Today, Obama arrives in Riyadh to assure the Saudi monarchs that the US is as committed as ever to its close partnership in the wake of Saudi anxiety. He’ll meet with King Abdullah, “the president’s third official meeting with the king in six years.” The purpose of this trip: “trying to smooth relations with Saudi Arabia without making the longtime US ally seem like an afterthought.” Indeed, “top presidential advisors say the visit is an ‘investment’ in one of the most important US relationships in the Middle East.”



If you want to justify all of this by cynically arguing that it benefits the US to support repressive and brutal tyrannies, go ahead. At least that’s an honest posture. But don’t run around acting as though the US is some sort of stalwart opponent of political repression and human rights violations when the exact opposite is so plainly true. And if you’re someone who has worked extensively to provide the world’s worst regimes with all sorts of vital support, don’t hold yourself out as the leader of the mob condemning others for expressing support for far more benign governments........

Friday, March 28, 2014

Movie: The Favor


Romantic comedy.  Sort of a girlie movie.



Quebec: Teen girls caught on tape bullying, pushing, slapping around a 16-yr old boy


You gotta wonder what kind of households these bullies come from.  Are their fathers in the habit of hitting out at them and their mothers?  Are both parents beating them or abusing them sexually or otherwise?  This kind of behaviour usually indicates something very wrong in the upbringing of those involved.  

I am not able to embed the video.  It's at the link.

From JournalDeMontreal: (Google translation)
 ....Criminal charges could be brought against the two girls who bullied and beaten a 16 year old whose video shocked the entire Quebec after circulating on social networks.

Adolescents 13 to 17 years will face justice and return to the court in May for their appearance.

The file is under review at the office of the Crown Attorney.

The two girls could be criminally charged with assault, threats and intimidation against their victim, a young 16 year old in this case that has all the appearances of an assault filmed and broadcast on their same.

Another investigation was opened by the police board Richelieu-Saint-Laurent about the many threats that both girls have received on social networks since the release of their video and charges could be laid in this case.

In addition, adolescents involved could see the list of charges against it since it would lengthen been involved in other stories of bullying.....

Mary Watson of Vancouver takes Canadian banks and credit card companies to court


Now, that's what I call absolutely PRICELESS!   You Go Girl !!

From CBCNews: 
....In the court documents, Watson says  she is seeking to recover the fees that the credit card companies and banks "have collected illegally from merchants."
The card companies charge a fee of 1.5 to three per cent of the total amount of the transaction each time a credit card is used. That can mean $15 in fees paid by the merchant when a customer charges a $500 purchase. The fee paid by a merchant for a debit transaction, on the other hand, is about 12 cents.

This lawsuit echoes arguments made by the Competition Bureau of Canada late last year, when it moved to strike down the rules companies impose on merchants that accept their credit cards.
The bureau said it was concerned the rules prohibit merchants from encouraging lower-cost forms of payment, such as debit and cash.

Under the current agreement, merchants cannot offer lower prices for non-credit card transactions.
In his 91-page decision certifying the class action lawsuit, B.C. Supreme court Chief Justice Robert Bauman dismissed the banks' claim that Watson hadn't demonstrated a "genuine controversy."..........

Our Canadian govt is so smart .... first it brings in Somalis in their tens of thousands and ....


then it tries to find the needle in the haystack when the haystack itself is dipping heavy with gasolene and has a violent disposition.  Yup ... that's our smart immigration policies in Canada from our ultra-smart Conservative govt.  Let's hear a nice loud big "Hurrah" for Stephen Harper and his Cons.

Joe Friesen writing at Globe&Mail:
...A Somali terror group recently banned by Ottawa claims one of its Canadian recruits has been killed in battle.

Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist faction tied to al-Qaeda, released a video of a man described as Mohamed al-Muhajiri, which means one who travels with purpose, saying he has "succeeded" and that he was "calm rushing toward death."

Several members of the Somali community in Toronto said the man in the video, which was taken at a historic site in Saudi Arabia but makes no mention of suicide bombing or a plan to sacrifice himself, is Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, one of six Canadian men of Somali origin believed to have joined al-Shabab in recent months....

Colin Freeze writing at Globe&Mail:
Undercover police officer  testifies in trial of terror suspect.  
In the fall of 2010, Mohamed Hersi met a kindred soul through his work as a security guard in downtown Toronto. The two young men, whose families had hailed from the Horn of Africa, became fast friends – and that was when Mr. Hersi began to utter warnings.

“You've got to be careful, you've got to be careful,” the University of Toronto graduate would say, adding “two young Muslim guys” like them might attract all manner of misguided scrutiny. Mr. Hersi needed no prompting to speak of U.S. terrorism cases relying on what he called “agent provocateurs.”
“That's when someone is trying to entrap you,” Mr. Hersi explained, “sitting there talking to you and basically wearing a wire."

This, at least, is the recollection of the former friend, who was actually an undercover police officer – “U.C.” in police parlance – using notebooks to log everything Mr. Hersi said. In testimony on Monday, the officer even recalled the two men took the batteries out of their cellphones while walking en route to a Raptors game, before confiding to each other that they each wanted to go to Somalia to join an Islamist insurgency group known as al-Shabab......

Kabul ... siege of guesthouse ends


Does anybody actually think that there's a bright future for Afghanistan? This country too, will likely go the way of Iraq.  There's that intensity of religious madness over there and when you couple that with their fervent desire for opium, you have a nation that will always be on the edge. Yet another US-led NATO venture of attacking and invading a country in substitution for the real culprit ... Saudi Arabia.  And, how much did Canada waste on Afghanistan?  Is it $10 Billion?  More?

And, how many Canadian lives lost?  Go  here to see the Canadian faces of the sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters ... killed in our 10 year commitment to a place whose citizenry, in their vast majority, don't like us and never will. 

From Reuters:
...Foreigners escape Taliban siege in Kabul, one Afghan child killed. Taliban gunmen stormed a Kabul guesthouse used by a U.S.-based aid group and held four foreigners hostage for several hours on Friday, just eight days before Afghanistan holds a presidential election which the militant group has vowed to derail.

Kabul is already on high alert and people across the country are on edge ahead of an April 5 vote the hardline Islamist movement denounces as a Western-backed sham.

The siege of the walled compound, which is also home to a small church, lasted several hours before Afghan security forces killed the last remaining Taliban gunman holed up inside.

At least one Afghan child was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the building and insurgents forced their way in. There were no casualties among foreigners.

A Reuters witness saw about 20 people being evacuated from the guesthouse in an upmarket residential area of Kabul, many looking frightened and shocked.........

Is something afoot at borders of Turkey and Syria?


The reason behind Turkey's banning of Twitter and the blocking of YouTube could very likely be because  the powers-that-be have now pressured Turkey  into going to war with Syria on a false flag initiative and Turkey's govt. wants to throw a blanket on what's happening at the border regions. The false flags dealing with the chemical warfare and the sarin gas attacks didn't work because of ordinary citizens of the West proving they were mightier than their false gods who strut around in the halls of power.  However,  when the slave of the same gods, Erdogan, marches into Syria on false pretexts,  we won't be able to halt the carnage which might be coming soon.  
What is  transparent  can often look murky at first sight. Always read in-between the lines, always.  Take everything that does  not seem to make sense and solve it like you would a cryptic crossword.    

From StateGovt. press briefing March 25:
QUESTION: That means you don’t have anything on the military – Turkish military buildup on the border with Syria, too?

MS. HARF: On the specific religious site that he’s asking about, I don’t have --

QUESTION: Yeah.

MS. HARF: What I said is we think this hopefully, the shooting down of a plane is an isolated incident. Obviously we’re concerned about all of Syria’s borders and free flow of people over them and – all of that. We’re obviously concerned about that. What I have said is that we haven’t talked to the Turkish Government, to my knowledge, about the plane incident and not escalating, because we think it’s an incident that took place in an isolated setting and hope that it doesn’t portend anything bad for the future, obviously.

QUESTION: But you don’t want to talk about the religious site?

MS. HARF: I think I just said I don’t have anything for you on that. You can ask five more times, and I will have the same answer. Thanks.

From StateGovt. press briefing March 27
QUESTION:  
No. But maybe – let me say it from another perspective. I ask always are you concerned, are you concerned, are you concerned. Maybe I should say: What will be the position of U.S. in the likely Turkish intervention in Syria against ISIS?

MS. HARF: I’m not going to guess in a hypothetical situation about what our position might be.

QUESTION: No, but Director Brennan, for example, raised this issue recently during his testimony.

MS. HARF: He raised certain issues. He didn’t make a – take a position on that issue of that hypothetical.

QUESTION: Yeah, he said that northern Syria, then Syria became the new national security threat against U.S. because of these al-Qaida-affiliated groups gathered there.

MS. HARF: Right. That’s a difference than saying we would take a position, that – he wasn’t taking a position on your hypothetical. We are concerned about the spillover to all of Syria’s neighbors of extremists. We’ve said that for many, many months.

QUESTION: No, I’m trying to understand why you are silent on this issue while Turks are real seriously considering this kind of military action in Syria.

MS. HARF: I’m saying I don’t have anything to share with you right now. Obviously, we are talking to the Turkish Government as a NATO ally about all of these issues. I just don’t have anything to share for you right now.....

If you thought the Conservative govt. was about boosting our economy, you are wrong


The Conservatives have turned into raving warmongers with a hatred for Putin and Russia never seen anywhere else. Offhand, I can name at least a dozen companies trading on the TMX whose stock is bleeding since Harper started his personal vendetta and imposed sanctions on Russia.  The business community is not gonna be happy with the Conservatives .... no sirreeee!  
Harper and his clowns are hoping the Ukrainian billionaires will  make a beeline to Canada and open up shop here and will also use their $$$$$$$$$$s to help them win the next election. We shall see what we shall see.

Minister Moore has the gall to talk about "Canada's foreign policy has to be principle based" when we can see what Canada's involvement has done to Libya and how "logistics support" has helped Al Qaeda-linked "rebels" in Syria kill civilians, including women and children.     

The Conservative govt. of Stephen Harper has become an ugly, ugly Mafia-like force.

Julian Beltrame of The Canadian Press at YahooFinance:
.... Industry Minister James Moore says he can offer sympathy but little help to Canadian firms affected by sanctions against Russia, adding they should have seen the situation coming.
The minister made the comments during a teleconference Thursday following his trade mission to the Netherlands as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were turning up the heat on Russia over its annexation of Crimea.

While Canada-Russia trade is relatively small, the economic relationship has been expanding rapidly and the former communist country was listed as a "priority market" in Ottawa's global commerce strategy paper issued in November. As well, dozens of Canadian firms do business with Russia and could potentially be caught in the crossfire of rising political tensions.

Asked if he would intervene on behalf of Canadian firms, Moore said businesses should not be surprised by the West's imposition of sanctions, which Merkel warned would escalate if Putin does not act to ease tensions.

"We want Canadian businesses to explore export opportunities ... but Canada's foreign policy has to be principle based and will not be held hostage to short-term business interests," said Moore.
"While we are sympathetic, I think it's a bit naive for firms not to have had their eyes wide open about the possibility of these kinds of measures," he added.

Businesses with ties to Russia have expressed concern they could be adversely impacted and many have asked the government for a balanced approach on all sides.

"We are asking that the Canadian government, the Russian government and western governments keep things as calm as possible, but we recognize politics will be politics," said Erin Chutter, a spokeswoman for the Canada Eurasia Russia Business Association (CERBA), and chief executive of Global Cobalt Corp., which has an ongoing mining project in southern Russia...........