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#Cinematography

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#Cinematography


"13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi " Restricted Red Band Trailers

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 09:20 AM PST



FromRedBand.Ca, Sneak Peek 'red band' restricted footage from director Michael Bay's upcoming biographical action feature "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi", based on the book "13 Hours" by author Mitchell Zuckoff, opening January 16, 2016:


"...six members of a security team fight to defend the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, after an attack by radical terrorists September 11, 2012..."


Cast includes James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Demetrius Grosse and Freddie Stroma.


Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"...


"The Walking Dead" - Lauren Cohan For "Women's Health"

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 08:29 AM PST



Take another look @ revealing images of actress Lauren Cohan aka 'Maggie Greene' from AMC's "The Walking Dead", posing for "Women's Health" Magazine:


Besides her work on "The Walking Dead", Cohan is noted for her recurring roles as 'Bela Talbot' on The CW's "Supernatural" and in "The Vampire Diaries".


Cohan also played 'Avery Jordan' in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit".



She recently voiced the character 'Juliana Calderon' for 4 episodes of the animated spy series "Archer".


Cohan also recently worked on the series "Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories", in the episode titled "The Bathroom Boys" as the character 'Stephanie'.


Click the images to enlarge...

Kristen Stewart: "Personal Shopper" - Leaked Set Images

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 12:36 PM PST



Sneak Peek leaked images of "Twilight" actress Kristen Stewart, on the Paris set of director Olivier Assayas' currently shooting supernatural thriller "Personal Shopper":


"...'Personal Shopper', a supernatural thriller is a 'ghost' story based in the Paris fashion world..."


Aside from the "Twilight Saga" series, Stewart has starred in a range of films, including "Speak" (2004), "Zathura" (2005), "Into The Wild" (2007), "Adventureland" (2009), "The Runaways" (2010), "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012), "On the Road" (2012), "Camp X-Ray" (2014), "Still Alice" (2014) and "Equals" (2015).


Click the images to enlarge...

#Car

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#Car


Ferrari F12tdf Makes Thunderous Debut At Mugello

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 10:11 AM PST


Still images, specs and a tech analysis of Ferrari's ultimate road legal front-engined V12 supercar was all we had until now. Finally, the wait to see it on the move is over.
Read more »

Modded Lexus GS F And RC F Make A Scene At SEMA

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 08:02 AM PST


Lexus brought along two models with a touch of JDM to SEMA, and they look terrific.
Read more »

Coolest Benz Ever? Desert-Spec 1991 Mercedes 300SE Goes Up For Sale

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:23 AM PST


We can all thank the Saudi car culture for cars like this lifted and insanely cool 1991 Mercedes Benz 300SE.
Read more »

Lorinser Ups The Ante With Latest Mercedes-Benz G500 Mods

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:31 AM PST


Since the last Lorinser-tuned car we saw was a humble smart fortwo, it was only fair of them to announce this beautifully crafted G500 next. And yes, these mods aren't just skin deep.
Read more »

All-Wheel-Drive, 650 HP Chevrolet Camaro From SEMA Up For Grabs

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:36 AM PST


The 2015 SEMA show featured a lot of outstanding projects and vehicles. Like, for example, this 2010 Chevrolet Camaro.
Read more »

Review: New Scion iM Reminds Us Toyota Knows How To Do Practical And Fun

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 06:36 PM PST


The Scion iM is the latest alias for the Toyota Auris or the Toyota Corolla hatchback. Whatever it's called, this is the biggest sign yet that Toyota – the maker of stoic and traditionally forgettable sedans – has made a car that goes beyond ticking all of the boxes required by a mainstream compact.
Read more »

E-tron Quattro Concept Displayed At The Audi Forum

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 05:10 PM PST


What's great about visiting the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm is that you're bound to see plenty of specials such as Audi Exclusive models, a whole bunch of RS cars and of course its everyday supercar, the R8.
Read more »

F1 Legend Alain Prost Samples The Renault Talisman

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 03:50 PM PST


While the jury is still out on the Renault Talisman being a surprisingly sporty mid-size saloon, four-time F1 champion Alain Prost is rather impressed with its dynamics.
Read more »

Toyota Goes To Silicon Valley, Enters Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Industry

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 02:33 PM PST


Toyota announced the establishment of a new company, Toyota Research Institute, as an R&D enterprise focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics.
Read more »

Misha Design 458 Italia Is A Ferrari Unlike Any Other

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 01:02 PM PST


Until now, the Liberty Walk wide-body kit was the most outrageous offering for the 458 Italia. Or so we thought.
Read more »

Lamborghini Updates Huracan LP610-4 For MY2016

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 11:26 AM PST


MY2016 brings some updates for the Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4, bringing it in line with its recently revealed Spyder counterpart.
Read more »

#Conspiracy

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#Conspiracy


1955-1957 Thunderbird

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 08:50 PM PST

Thunderbird

1955-1957

im000196_rmackey-600x450

1955 Thunderbird1955-1957
First generation 1957

ford-thunderbird_1957_1024x768_wallpaper_04

FordThunderbird

Production 1955-1957
Assembly Dearborn, Michigan
Body style(s) 2-door convertible
2-door coupe
Engine(s) 292 cu in (4.8 L) Y-block V8
312 cu in (5.1 L) Y-block V8
 

1957Ford Thunderbird

The car was shown at the Detroit Auto Show on February 20, 1954. The first production car came off the line on September 9, 1954, and went on sale on October 22, 1954 as a 1955 model, and sold briskly; 3,500 orders were placed in the first ten days of sale. Ford had only projected building 10,000; eventual 1955 sales were 16,155.

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As standard, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird included a removable fiberglass top; a fabric convertible top was an option, although commonly specified. The engine was a 292 Y-block V8. The car had fender skirts. The exhaust pipes exited through twin bumper guards, which are bolted to the rear bumper. 

1955 Ford Thunderbird

Created to act as a retort to the Chevrolet Corvette, it was also the first mass produced edition of all the Ford Thunderbird models. Exactly 53,166 models were produced. It was produced with a Fordomatic or Overdrive transmissions, and featured four-way powered seats and pushbutton interior door handles.

1605_main_f

Equipped with a V8 engine, the Thunderbird could hit 110-120 mph. It was a smaller two-seat “personal luxury car“, compared to the wallowing barges that roamed all the roads in the 1950s. It was designed to be a brisk luxury tourer, and not a sports car.

24164910743_large

For the 1956 model, more trunk space was added, the spare wheel was mounted outside, the exhausts were moved to the ends of the bumper, and air vents were added behind the front wheels to improve cabin ventilation. To improve rear-quarter visibility with the removable hardtop in place, “porthole” windows were made available as a no-cost option. An optional 312 Y-block V8 was made available for those that wanted more performance. 1956 sales were 15,631, the lowest of all three 2-seater Thunderbird model years.

3900

For 1957, a more radical restyle was performed. The front bumper was reshaped, the grille and tailfins were made larger, and larger tail-lights were fitted. The spare wheel moved inside the trunk again, which had been redesigned to allow it to be mounted vertically. The side “Thunderbird” script moved from the fins to the front fenders. As well as the standard 292 and 312 engines, versions of the 312 were produced in higher states of tune, and even a few McCulloch supercharged versions, rated at 300 and 340 hp (254 kW) respectively. 1957 sales were 21,380, including three extra months of production because the 1958 models were late. The 1957 Thunderbird would be the last two-seater Ford ever built and sold to the public until the 1982 Ford EXP sport compact car.

Ford Thunderbird (1957) with pictures and wallpapers

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1958_Ford_Thunderbird_(6097640434)

Filed under: Art, Culture, Design, Economy, History, Inspiration, INTERNATIONAL, Reflections, Society, Technology

George S. Patton participated in the unsuccessful attempt to capture Pancho Villa in 1916-17

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 08:50 PM PST

Pancho Villa on horsebackGeorge S. Patton

participated in the unsuccessful attempt to capture

Pancho Villa

in 1916-17

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Patton

Pancho Villa: Merchant Of Death

pershing_hqs

punitive-expedition

ca. 1916-1917 --- Various American Officers with the Expedition force in Mexico. Including Brigadier General John J. Pershing, and Lieutenant George S. Patton, Aide (4th and 5th from l.) --- Image by © CORBIS

180px-patton_at_vmi_1907During the Mexican Expedition of 1916, Patton was assigned to the8th Cavalry Regiment in Fort Bliss,Texas. He accompanied then-Brigadier GeneralJohn J. Pershing as his aide during the Punitive Expedition in his pursuit of Pancho Villa, after Villa’s forces had crossed into New Mexico, raided and looted the town of Columbus, and killed several Americans. During his service, Patton, accompanied by ten soldiers of the 6th Infantry Regiment, and using three armored cars, conducted the world’s first armored vehicle attack, and in the process killed two Mexican leaders, including “GeneralJulio Cardenas, commander of Villa’s personal bodyguard. The bodies were brought back to Pershing’s headquarters strapped to the hoods of the vehicles in a manner similar to game animals such as deer brought home by hunters. For this action, as well as Patton’s affinity for the Colt Peacemaker, Pershing titled Patton his “Bandito”. Patton’s success in this regard gained him a level of fame in the United States, and he was featured in newspapers across the nation

Villa, Pershing and Patton (Patton is on the right)

In the Pancho Villa Museum in Columbus, New Mexico

In Pursuit of Pancho Villa 1916-1917

Columbus, New Mexico

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Filed under: Culture, History, INTERNATIONAL, People, Political, Society, Technology, Terrorism, War, World

#TV

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#TV


Images 8/11/15

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 10:13 PM PST

Vatican's Curious Jet

a coin minted in the vatican in 1985 with a jet and trails..no idea why..

pull&bear t-shirt

this is a t-shirt design for “pull bear”..

angry minds t-shirt

a company called “angry minds” makes these..

Lily-Rose Depp and Karl Lagerfeld chanel 2016

something really creep about seeing lily rose depp and karl lagerfeld like that at a chanel event..

leadhorror1-e1444327390504

she is a horror story..

horror1

we have seen it so many times..

unnamed

google it..

eleven paris t-shirt

“eleven paris” makes this lovely number..

02 fbi-report-sandy-hook-shooting

where are the dead numbers?

Heroes-Reborn-Official-Poster

eye..eye..worship it..

1zp61dz.jpg

no idea who this is..but we know what he is selling..

adele-id-magazine-thatgrapejuice1

adele..

apparently this little shit is popular on instagram..go figure..

28l6x3q

the girls love arrow..

CScerfcWEAA7NWo

yeah..think about that for a while..i could find some assholes from the other side as well..

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Filed under: Images, Music, Sport & Entertainment, World News

#Science

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#Science


Human-caused climate change increased the severity of many extreme events in 2014

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 05:25 PM PST

Human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, influenced specific extreme weather and climate events in 2014, including tropical cyclones in the central Pacific, heavy rainfall in Europe, drought in East Africa, and stifling heat waves in Australia, Asia, and South America, according to a new report.

Growing pains in a cluster of protostars

Posted: 04 Nov 2015 10:32 AM PST

A new study has found a cluster of young stars that develop in distinct, episodic spurts. It is the first time astronomers have seen such a growth pattern within a star cluster -- a chaotic, turbulent environment that is common for star formation. Previous observations have focused on stars forming in more isolated regions of space.

Trampolining water droplets

Posted: 04 Nov 2015 10:32 AM PST

Materials that actively repel water and ice very strongly are sought after by the aviation industry and for many other technical applications. Researchers have now found out how to specifically design the rigid surfaces of such materials: by teaching water droplets how to trampoline.

Births down and deaths up in Gulf dolphins

Posted: 04 Nov 2015 06:52 AM PST

Scientists are reporting a high rate of reproductive failure in dolphins exposed to oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The team has monitored these bottlenose dolphins in heavily oiled Barataria Bay for five years following the spill. Their findings suggest that the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will be long-lasting.

#Arab / Information

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#Arab / Information


ISIS loyalists behead 3 women, 4 men in Zabul province

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST

ISIS loyalists AfghanistanThe loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Afghanistan have beheaded three women and four men in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan.

According to the local government officials, the victims were hostages who were kidnapped by the loyalists of the terror group from a main highway in this province.

The provincial police chief Jilani Farahi confirmed the dead bodies of the deceased individuals were left in Khak-e-Afghan district on Sunday.

He said the dead bodies were transferred to the district hospital in Shahjoi with the help of the local tribal elders.

The head of the provincial council Ata Jan Haq Parast also confirmed that the abducted passengers, including the women were brutally killed by the militants.

It is yet not clear if the victims belonged to a group of 31 people who were kidnapped from the highway earlier this year.

At least 19 of the hostages were freed three months after they were kidnapped by the militants.

The militants had abducted at least nine passengers from Kabul-Kandahar highway in the restive southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan in mid August this year.

Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq signs 1 year contract with Afghanistan cricket

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:37 AM PST

Inzamam ul HaqThe former Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has signed a contract with the Afghanistan Cricket Board as head coach of the Afghan team.

ACB said Saturday that the contract with Inzamam was extended for another one year following the Afghan team’s performance against Zimbabwe under Inzamam’s coaching experience.

Afghanistan clinched historic series wins against Zimbabwe by winning both the One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 series last month.

It was Afghanistan’s first series victory against a full International Cricket Council (ICC) member nation. The ODI series was won 3-2 and followed that up by emerging victorious in both T20s.

Having one and half of cricketing experience, Inzamam had originally agreed to coach Afghanistan on a temporary basis ahead of the ODI and Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe.

He has played 120 Test matches and 388 One Day International (ODI) matches for Pakistan and was offered a similar position by the Pakistan Cricket Board in 2013.

Earlier reports emerged from Pakistan quoting Inzamam as saying that reports regarding the extension of his contract with Afghanistan were baseless.

Afghan intelligence thwart deadly car bomb attack in Kabul city

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:11 AM PST

The Afghan Intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) thwarted a deadly car bomb in Kabul city plotted by the notorious Haqqani terrorist network.

A statement by NDS said “The Haqqani terrorist network was planning to use a hatchback taxi car having a fake registration number of (-5 38754) packed with explosives, anti-tank mines, artillery explosives and hand grenades for an attack on a government institution in Kabul city.”

The statement further added that the Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) was confiscated while it was enroute to Kabul from central Logar province.

NDS also added that a deadly attack was thwarted with the seizure of VBIED by the intelligence operatives.

The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far which comes as the capital Kabul has been relatively peaceful from the terrorist attacks during the recent weeks.

The Pakistan-based is accused of staging numerous cross-border attacks from their base in North Waziristan, including the 19-hour siege at the US Embassy in Kabul in September 2011.

The network was formed in the late 1970s by Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group is allied with al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations in the region.

It is considered the most lethal insurgent group targeting the NATO-led coalition security forces and Afghan personnel in Afghanistan.

The US Department of State designated the HQN as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 7, 2012.

NRC vehicle targeted in Jalalabad explosion

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 03:02 AM PST

nrcA vehicle of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) was the target of a bomb blast in capital of eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday morning.

According to reports, the bomb was placed in a hand cart and exploded when IRC vehicle was passing through the area in first sector of Jalalabad city around 10:00 am.

Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, spokesperson for Nangarhar police confirmed the blast. "Luckily it did not have casualties," he said.

NRC also confirmed explosion on one of its vehicles in Jalalabad city this morning.

A statement released by the organization states that two employees were in the vehicle by the time of the blast and both of them have survived.

No group has claimed responsibility for today’s explosion on the welfare organization that provides legal assistance, education, shelter, WASH and emergency assistance to Afghan refugees returning to country.

NRC which begun its welfare services in Afghanistan in 2002 also provides assistance to conflict and disaster-induced Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Pentagon spokesman misspoke to refer to Taliban as “partner”

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:02 AM PST

This picture taken 26 December 2011 shows the Pentagon building in Washington, DC.  The Pentagon, which is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense (DOD), is the world's largest office building by floor area, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (600,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (340,000 m2) are used as offices.  Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STAFF/AFP/Getty Images)

Pentagon

The United States embassy in Kabul says that the Department of Defense official misspoke in referring to the Taliban as a “partner” in a Wednesday evening news briefing.

"They most certainly are not.  Our position has not changed.  The United States continues to support an Afghan-led political process by which all Afghan opposition groups, including the Taliban, enter a political dialogue so that Afghans can talk to other Afghans about the future of their country and to eventually resolve the conflict in Afghanistan," states a statement released by the embassy on Sunday.

"The Taliban have a choice.  They can accept the Government of Afghanistan's invitation to engage in a peace process and ultimately become part of the legitimate political system of a sovereign, united Afghanistan, supported by the international community.  Or, they can choose to continue fighting fellow Afghans and destabilizing their own country.   "

The statement further states that the United States and the international community support any outcome of this political process in which the Taliban and other armed Afghan opposition groups pledge to end violence, break associations with international terrorism, and accept the Afghanistan constitution and its protections for women and minorities.

Four killed, 43 wounded in traffic accident on Kabul-Balkh highway

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:44 AM PST

woundedFour people have lost lives and 43 others sustained injuries in a traffic accident on Kabul-Balkh highway.

The crash happened between a "404" model passenger bus and a truck in Dilkhagi area of Samangan province last night.

The passenger bus was traveling from Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh province, to Kabul and the truck was coming from the opposite side.

Abdul Qadir Panjsheri, traffic police officer of Samangan province said the accident took place because of the careless driving.

"There are children among the victims," he added.

Those wounded have been transferred to hospitals in Ayback and Mazar-e-Sharif. The death toll is likely to increase as some of those wounded are in critical condition.

Unprofessional driving and bad road conditions usually turn into traffic accidents in Afghanistan leaving hundreds of people killed and wounded every year.

Afghanistan announces U-19 squad for cricket tri-series

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 12:44 AM PST

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squad

Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced Under 19 squad to participate in the Under-19 cricket tri-series from November 20 – 30, 2015.

According to information released by ACB, members of the selection committee earlier met and selected Hazratullah Zazai, Naveed Obaid, Ihasanullah Janat, Tariq Stanikzai, Sayed Waheedullah Shafaq, Parwiz Malikzai, Rashid Khan Arman, Muslim Musa, Karim Janat, Mohammad Sardar Wali, Nasir Khan Omar, Zia Ur Rehman Akbar, Muhammad Zahir Ahmadzai, Naveenulhaq Murid, Shams Ur Rahman Wali Khail, Ikram Ali Khil, Nijat Masood and Rahim Sahak for the tournament to be played among Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India.

The team officials are Dawlat Ahmadzai, Noorullah Khalil, Naweed Sayem and Ghazi Afghan Babakar Khel.

Chairman of ACB says these tournaments will increase skills of U-19 cricketers.

 "We are determined to improve cricket in Afghanistan, cricketing with other nations will improve and enhance skills and techniques of ACB's Under-19 cricket," said Nasimullah Danish.

Shafiqullah Stanikzai, CEO of ACB said inspiration given to the cricketers is to win.

"We are always dreamt of holding the bat and winning games for Afghanistan. This is our inspiration to take up cricket for Afghanistan."

33 militants killed in drone strike, military operations in Nangarhar

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 10:22 PM PST

Drone33 militants have been killed in drone strike and military operations in eastern Nangarhar province.

A statement released by spokesman of Nangarhar police states that 25 insurgents were killed in a military operation in Achin District while three others were killed in a drone strike in Gulai area of Ghanikhil District yesterday.

Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal further writes in the statement that five militants were killed in a raid conducted by a special unit of Nangarhar Airfield in Lachpoor area of Bati Kot District.

"Seven suspects were also detained," the press release adds.

Three Kalashnikovs, eight pistols, 16 hand grenades, two transmission sets, ammunition and a military suit was confiscated during yesterday's raids.

Nangarhar which was one of the comparatively safe provinces of Afghanistan is now witnessing deteriorating insecurity situation.

President Ghani orders review of ‘Smart City’ project

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 09:02 PM PST

President Ghani

Following the criticism of the release of Khalilullah Ferozi, accuse of Kabul Bank scandal, Presidential Palace has ordered the cancelation of a contract with him.

A statement released by the Presidential Palace on Saturday states that on the basis of the legal advice of the Kabul bank clearance committee and the good will to expedite the collection process of the loans of Kabul Bank, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the Ministry of Urban Development with Nabi Zada Wardak and Khalilullah Ferozi on 13th of Aqrab of the current year (November 4, 2015).

For further precision and care aimed at compatibility of this MoU with the applicable law of the land and given the binding nature of the court's verdicts regarding the sentenced individuals under the Kabul Bank's case, the President of Afghanistan has issued the order to urgently and thoroughly review the project.

“All parts of the court's verdict on conviction of Khalilullah Ferozi and his liability to pay back the loans are unalterable and binding. It is binding by the text of the constitution that no institution apart from the judicial branch of the country is authorized to amend the court's verdict,” the statement states.

The press release adds that Kabul Bank clearance committee has been ordered to review the grounds for transferring the 68 Jeribs of land allocated by Ferozi for the project “Smart City” as a compensation for the outstanding debts.

Although, the press release issued by the Presidential Palace mentions the Ministry of Urban Development Affairs and Housing but documents received by Khaama Press reveals that Ali Mohammad, legal advisor to the President, had requested the implementation of this project.

"On the basis of the law and regulations related to Nabi Zada Wardak Construction Company, contribute to allow the construction of the city in accordance with standards," an official letter sent by Ali Mohammad to the Ministry of Urban Development Affairs and Housing states.

Ali Mohammad who was also present at the inauguration ceremony of 'Smart city' said that the purpose is to receive the outstanding debt of Kabul Bank.

Sayed Sadat Mansour Naderi, Minister of Urban Development Affairs and Housing earlier told reporters in Kabul that Ferozi has not invested money into the project but the land belongs to him and that the decision was made by the government.

Internal clashes leave 40 fighters of Taliban, Daesh killed in Zabul

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 08:04 PM PST

Taliban 2 (2)Heavy clashes have been erupting between two dissident Taliban groups in Arghandab District of southern Zabul province.

Governor of Arghandab District says one group belongs to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Masnsour and another belongs to Mullah Mansour Dadullah.

Haji Mohmand Nasratyar said 40 fighters from both sides have been killed and 10 wounded since Saturday morning when clashes started.

Nasratyar added that Mullah Mansour Dadullah's group is supported by Daesh (IS-Khorasan) and those killed include members of Daesh group.

According to the district governor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour's group has captured 30 fighters of Daesh alive.

Eight civilians who were kidnapped by Daesh group awhile back have also lost their lives in clashes, Nasratyar added.

He said that resident of the area have been leaving their homes because of the tense situation.

Taliban split into two groups following the appointment of the new Supreme Leader to replace Mullah Mohammad Omar.

One group pledged allegiance to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour while the other one recently announced Mullah Mohammad Rasoul as their leader.

Mullah Mansour Dadullah whose fighters are fighting with Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour's men in Zabul province was appointed as the deputy to Mullah Mohammad Rasoul.

#USA / Information

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#USA / Information


SILENCE! Eleven Chicago Cops Suspended For Viewing Zack Emanuel Robbery Report—So We're Publishing It

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:22 AM PST


Eleven Chicago cops have received one-day suspensions and disciplinary action for accessing the police report that documents the robbery of mayor Rahm Emanuel's son last December, the Sun-Times reports today.

Police reports are public records that virtually anyone can review, given a few modest redactions. In fact, we've decided to publish the Emanuel robbery report right now (click to enlarge):

CLICK FOR MORE AND TO VIEW THE ACTUAL POLICE REPORTS


ADDITIONAL SOURCE: 

The Case Report that Rahm has been trying to hide for 1 year (his son getting mugged)
 
If you were curious about that Rahm case report, CrimeInWrigleyvillandBoystown blog has posted it up for everyone to read.
 
And since it's not a Department site, you can't get disciplined.
 
 
Over 200 police, lockup keepers, desk personnel, detectives, and Lord only knows who else read this report and Rahm want's revenge for it being leaked.
 
 
Whoop. Tee. Doo.
Oh, sure. There's plenty of stuff in this report that certain people may not like the public to see. Like the special treatment that the mayoral son received. But giving cops the shaft for reading something that they could legally acquire as easily as we did?
A police spokesman told the Sun-Times yesterday that the officers are being punished for "inappropriately access[ing] police reports."

Rrrrrrright.

From the comments section;
 
 
But no punishment for the cop(s) who intentionally flubbed the Koschman/Vanecko case?? Unreal folks, just unreal. You just can't make this stuff up. What college counselor was his son talking to at 10pm on a Friday before x-mas break?? Mr. Blueberry? Mr. Super Silver Haze? Mr. Northern Lights? Who?
 
Yes, they were wrong to sneak a peek, but if CPD and Rahm had been up front when it happened == remember all that promised 'transparency?' ....
 
How are Police Officers going to follow up on a crimes, if they get punished for looking at a simple report?

Seems to me that the Chicago Police dept. discourages Police Officers looking for Offenders via not allowing Police Officers to review reports for wanted suspects, patterns and possible solutions to a crime!

If I worked for this Chicago Police dept. I would NOT do anything for fear of taking suspension time!

My family and livelihood is way more important than getting suspended for trying to do my job!

The Crooked City, How the Chicago Media, States Attorney's Office, Investigative Outlets Work (or don't), what gets reported by the Chicago Media Outlets is like reading one page out of 100 pages.

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:58 AM PST

The Crooked City blog once again, covers the story the media won't (or can't) cover - how reporters have become the story rather than reporting the story and how members of the media have helped release a number of psychopathic killers onto the streets of Chicago.

We can't even quote the article in order to do it justice, so you'll have to click on the link here and go read it at the source. It is truly a tangled web and spans so many different aspects of the broken system here in Cook County.
 
An Excellent Read;
 

Yale Student Goes Into Shrieking Hysterics Over Threat to P.C. Totalitarianism

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:56 AM PST

Everyone likes her inside her safe space. But then someone threatened it by not conforming completely to totalitarian political correctness. So she started shrieking…
Yale University Students Protest Halloween Costume Email (VIDEO 3) - YouTube
 
 
A new video shows a student at Yale University screaming at one of the school's professors for allegedly failing to make the campus a "safe space" for students.
Yale University has been hit by controversy in the past week after professor Erika Christakis, associate headmaster of the school's Silliman College, sent an email to the college's members suggesting that they shouldn't be overly sensitive about Halloween costumes that engage in "cultural appropriation." Instead, Christakis encouraged students to tolerate them and avoid trying to censor expression.

CLICK FOR MORE 

BOO-HOO: Black U.S. Olympic medalist skater Debi Thomas says she’s broke and lives in bug-infested trailer

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:59 AM PST

In 1988, one stumble kept Debi Thomas from standing atop the podium for figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, taking home the bronze instead.
Now, 27 years later, a series of subsequent missteps have led to the former athlete living jobless and penniless in a bed bug-infested trailer.
Thomas, who made history as the first African-American athlete to medal at any Winter Games, has turned to life coach Iyanla Vanzant to get her life back on track. Thomas's fall from grace will be documented in Saturday night's episode of "Iyanla: Fix My Life," which will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Black Ghetto Hood-Rat Mom Karla Lee Of 9 Year Old Tyshawn Lee Chicago Boy Shot 7 Times Goes Off About Using Donation Money To Buy A Car!

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:01 AM PST

NIAGGA: Why be one if you can't act like one



The mother of murdered nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee is being bashed on the Internet for using money intended for his funeral expenses to buy a car, but she is defending the purchase.


A total of 727 people had donated to the GoFundMe site "Help Me Lay My Baby to Rest" as of 4 p.m. Saturday, contributing $17,492. The fund's creator writes specifically on the GoFundMe page that the donations were to be used to lay Tyshawn to rest. But Karla Lee said in several profanity-laced Instagram posts that were posted Saturday,before she took the page private, that yes, she used it for a car and that her son mostly likely would approve.
"They already took my son," she said in an enraged voice. "I walk to work. I get on the bus. I'm not trying to be a target for nobody."

CHICAGO POLICE COMMANDER GLENN EVANS CASE A LESSON FOR COPS, FOP?

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 10:26 PM PST


EVANS CASE A LESSON FOR COPS, FOP?

CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF THE CITY'S ANTI-POLICE MACHINE, POLICE COMMANDER TURNS THE TABLES ON HIS ACCUSERS... 


In a stunning turnabout, a Chicago reporter may be called to testify as a witness in the criminal trial of a Chicago Police Commander.

WBEZ public radioreporter Chip Mitchell may be compelled to testify by lawyers representing Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans. Evans is charged with nine felonies for allegedly sticking his pistol in a suspect's mouth in 2013 and threatening him.

Since Mitchell has been listed as a witness, he cannot hear the testimony of other witnesses in court, potentially forcing him off the case as a reporter.

Mitchell tweeted about the development in two statements:

CLICK FOR MORE

#Sports

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#Sports


Gisele Telling Bob Kraft She Woke up at 3:30AM To Tom Studying Film is Why I Love My QB

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:37 PM PST

In case you missed the Washington Post article titled “Deflate Gate Got Tom Brady So Mad, and The Rest of the NFL is Paying The Price“, it is an excellent read. Gives us a great look at Brady and just how much he wants to win. One of my favorite lines in this article is the paragraph titled, Proving His Doubters Wrong

Over the years, the diamond gleam of Super Bowl rings and gloss of magazine covers have obscured the grinder with awkward feet who is desperate to prove everybody wrong. But he's still there — he shows himself occasionally in a fit of sideline temper, a seizure-like scream of frustration or a geyser from a thrown water cup. At the start of training camp this past summer, wide receiver Julian Edelman told a local radio station, "You don't want a mad Tom Brady, and he's a little ticked off." Less than two weeks ago Brady threw for four touchdowns in a 36-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins, yet still pounded the ground in frustration over a single missed third-down pass. His wife told Kraft that she woke up recently at 3:30 in the morning to find her husband studying film.

Awesome, just awesome. Brady is pissed, and it’s not just from Deflate Gate, its from everything. He’s had a chip on his shoulder his whole career. The 6th round, that was the first chip. A couple of team scandals later and the desire to be the best ever makes for one hell of a pissed off QB that wants to stampede your team and the rest of the league. Sure he wants to win because of Deflate Gate, he wants Roger to personally hand that Lombardi trophy to him in San Francisco (If Goodell decides to grace the Super Bowl with his presence) but mainly, Brady wants #5.

Related: Singer of God Smack Burns Seahawks Fan at Show in Seattle Area

He lives and breathes football. Gisele waking up at 3:30 in the morning to find Tom studying film tells me and everyone everything they need to know about this guy. He wants it bad, and he’s has a great opportunity to get it. And this is exactly why I love my quarterback.

My question is, when does the NFL get investigated? Numerous domestic abuse cases. Cases that involve brutal beating of women. Cases that are blown off and only brought to light when film or images appear. Cases in which the images we are shown match exactly to the police report… Suspensions that are light based on those same police report. Plain and simple, the NFL has its own problem, and it doesn’t involve air pressure in footballs, it involves the thugs in Rogers league. Clearly the NFL believes in women’s right…. and lefts.

Also, the NFL has been collecting air pressure data this year but has yet to release any of that. When is this going to be released? Surely you would have released that by now if your results went against the Patriots theories.

Related: Blogger Says Patriots are Cheating Because Brady Isn’t Making What He Should Be with Home Team Discount!

There are many holes in the league, people outside of New England just have one thing to stick to and one thing only “the Patriots are cheaters”. Understand this, I assure you there is no cheating going on, this team is under a finer microscope than any of you could imagine this year.

I promise, we are destroying your team and your league fair and square, and honestly, that leaves a sour taste in a lot of peoples mouths. And I LOVE IT…

EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Patriot Nation Anxiously Awaiting Report on RB Dion Lewis and his Injury

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:40 PM PST

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England running back Dion Lewis has left the Patriots’ game against Washington with a left knee injury.

Lewis caught a screen pass and was making a cut when he appeared to reach for his knee late in the third quarter. He was on the field for a while being attended to by the team’s medical personnel.

He walked off the field slowly on his own and straight to the steps behind the bench that lead to the locker room. On his way, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia stopped him, put his arm around Lewis and said something to him.

A few minutes later the team announced he would not return to Sunday’s game.

Tom Brady after the game spoke briefly about Lewis: “Tough to lose such a special player…”

Indeed it is Tom. The win almost gets lost amid Lewis’ injury

We will update you as we hear about his injury, we are hopeful that him walking off the field under his own power is a good sign…

More Awful News for Pittsburgh, Big Ben Leaves Game Again With Injury

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:21 PM PST

Ben Roethlisberger was helped off the field and carted away in the Steelers game against the Raiders on Sunday… With the loss of RB Le’Veon Bell last week, this is another shot to the Steelers who have now lost Roelthlisberger in another game. Roethlisberger was sacked by Raiders defensive end Aldon Smith in the fourth quarter today and had to hobble off the field with assistance from teammates and was then carted to the locker room. It appeared that Roethlisberger may have hurt his foot or ankle when Smith fell on him.

You know, I never really believed in karma until this year, but after seeing what has happened to all these teams that have crossed the Patriots, I am 100% on board. Karma is one evil evil bitch and she is ruthless! This will teach you 2 things Ben, #1 Don’t rape women, and #2 Don’t cross the Patriots… The fact that your coach was so persistent that we “Cheated” by messing with your head sets make me feel no remorse towards anything that happens to anyone on this team. The NFL handles the head sets, not the teams…

This is how I feel about Big Ben going down again and being carted off the field.

RIP STEELERS

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Wes Welker Continues to Look for Employment in the NFL: “I want to Play”

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:40 AM PST

NFL — Every Sunday, Wes Welker watches football from his couch and comes away with the same thought: I should be out there. It’s a feeling that will be repeated today.

Eleven seasons in the NFL, one of the most prolific slot receivers in history, his resume speaks for itself. Yet the 34-year-old remains a free agent in Week 9. He’s had opportunities, but never quite the right ones. He’s had two visits and two physicals — passing them both — but no signed contracts.

He’s being selective where he signs — he wants to be on the right contending team in the right situation with the right coaching staff. Recently, he instructed his agents at Athletes First to reach out to his list of teams again to see if there was a place that was a fit. He’s enjoying being home with his wife, Anna, and their two babies. But in his mind, it’s time to play football.

The question of why it hasn’t worked out yet baffles this season’s most decorated jobless player. “The frustrating part sometimes is you look out there on the field and you see guys who are playing, and you’re like, ‘I should be playing,'” Welker told NFL.com over the phone this week from his Florida home, his two, three-month-old twins nearby. “That gets me a little bit. I love being at home with my kids, but at the same time, you have that itch and you’re looking out there and seeing how you can fit in with this team or that and there’s never really a perfect plan.” The former Broncos and Patriots pass-catcher follows by saying that if he never plays again, he’ll know it’s meant to be. His family will be at peace with it — still, they also know him.

“They know I’m a ballplayer,” Welker said.

You know who else sits on their couch and says they should still be out there and they can still do it? This guy:

I hope that doesn’t start to show my age… Anyways, Welker wants to come back. I have one bit of advice to Wes, DON’T. You are a good solid hit from Jamie Collins away from being a vegetable. For the sake of your family and your new baby, hang it up! Every player when they are done is going to probably have a tough time watching the game thinking they should be there still. I still think I can run a 7 minute mile, but if I went back out there and tried, I’d kill myself the first 100 yards.

This is also the ultimate story of a player thinking the grass is greener on the other side. We don’t know exactly what transpired between Welker and the Patriots at the end of his career in New England, but plain and simple he left because he thought he had a chance to win a Super Bowl, and he didn’t. And it HAS to pain him knowing that the Patriots got another one without him.

Truth be told, the Patriots knew the direction they wanted to go in long before Wes left. Belichick called it back in 2009 that Edelman would supplant Welker, if you don’t believe me check this out.

And Wes being picky about where he goes back to is the ultimate Wes Welker move. You don’t get the chance to be picky pal. You try to make a come back and want to play the game so bad, you go with whoever will take you. Beggars can’t be choosers. I want to bang Carmen Electra too but you don’t always get what you want…

Stay retired Wes…


Politic #American

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Politic #American


Sanders denies seeking primary challenge to Obama

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 08:35 AM PST

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, and Bernie Sanders (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Bernie Sanders says he’s had some disagreements with President Obama, but did not work to gin up a Democratic primary opponent against him in 2012.

“I worked very hard to see Barack Obama elected,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

Democratic opponent Martin O’Malley, who is trailing Sanders in polls as they both try to catch the front-running Hillary Clinton, has criticized the Vermont senator for talking about a primary challenge to the incumbent president in 2012.

“When President Obama was running for re-election, I was glad to step up and work very hard for him, while Senator Sanders was trying to find someone to primary him,” O’Malley said during a Democratic forum on Friday.

In his ABC interview, Sanders noted that he discussed criticism of Obama on his radio show, and that in the run-up to 2012 he said people had the right to challenge the president if they wanted to.

But that doesn’t mean he worked against Obama, and that idea is “categorically false,” Sanders said.

Barack Obama is a friend of mine,” Sanders said.

Carson says he's getting 'special scrutiny'

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:03 AM PST

Ben Carson (Associated Press)

Ben Carson (Associated Press)

Ben Carson says he is under political attack because of his rise in the polls.

“There’s no question I’m getting special scrutiny,” Carson told CBS’ Face The Nation on Sunday, saying that people — unnamed — “are very threatened” because they see how well he is doing in surveys against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“They’re worried,” Carson said. “There is no question about it.”

Carson appeared on Sunday interview shows amid news reports that question his past statements about his life story, ranging from claims of youthful temper and acts of violence to the prospect of an invitation to attend West Point.

Donald Trump, who is battling Carson for the top spot in many Republican polls, has picked up on the criticism of Carson, telling ABC’s This Week that there is “a weird deal going on” with the retired neurosurgeon.

“I hope it all works out, because I don't want to see Ben have problems over this stuff,” Trump said.  “And, you know, it's a very strange situation.”

In his Sunday interviews, Carson again criticized the news media, though he added that the negative coverage has helped his campaign raise more money from supporters.

“Vetting is one thing,” Carson said on NBC’s Meet The Press, but he is being asked about incidents that happened 20 and 50 years ago.

“You can do that every single day from now until the election,” Carson said. “And I could get distracted, and I could deal with all of those things, or I can deal with what's important.”

An Instagram scrapbook of the 2016 campaign so far

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:08 AM PST

Since Election Day 2016 is exactly one year off, we offer a brief history of the presidential campaign as told through Instagram pics. What’s your favorite moment?

Marco Rubio driving recklessly

Instagram Photo

This microphone made history

Instagram Photo

Hillary Clinton’s hard choices

Instagram Photo

Carly Fiorina practices her poker face

Instagram Photo

All eyes on Ben Carson

Instagram Photo

Jeb Bush — Nothing but net

Instagram Photo

Feel the Baby Bern

Instagram Photo

Keep it clean, Mike Huckabee

Instagram Photo

President Bobby Jindal will have someone else carry his luggage

Instagram Photo

Ted Cruz meets with his kitchen cabinet

Instagram Photo

Can we just talk about baseball for a minute?

Instagram Photo

… and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

Instagram Photo

#Economy

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#Economy


U.S. futures lower, China and Japan stocks rise

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 11:42 PM PST

Trader Kevin Lodewick, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Nov. 2, 2015. (Photo: Richard Drew)

Trader Kevin Lodewick, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Nov. 2, 2015. (Photo: Richard Drew)

U.S. stock futures were lower Monday, while Chinese and Japanese stocks rose.

Here is where major market index futures stood ahead of the start of regular trading:

Dow: -0.2%

Nasdaq:  -0.2%

Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 2% and the Shanghai composite index gained 1.6%, taking in stride a possible U.S. interest rate hike next month after weak China trade suggested more stimulus is in store for that economy. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.6%.

European shares were mixed in early trading Monday.

An unexpectedly strong October jobs report fueled expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as early as next month after keeping them close to zero since the 2008 financial crisis.

Contributing: Associated Press

#Curiosity and Information

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#Curiosity and Information


Storm Q&A Regarding current test – 08 Nov

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:37 AM PST

– Storm has a list 10 pages long, of the problems in the game, and is actively used for work planning. The list is heavily influenced by reports and discussions on his livejournal.

Q: It’s the fourth test, but the minimap bug is still there.

A: The work being done right now is fixing critical problems. Most likely that bug didn’t get on the list.

Regarding gold rounds:

– If you have 2 rounds at the same price, one doesn’t pen and does no damage, the other pens but does reduced damage, then which round will you use? And how much easier will it be for the one you are shooting, if they live for 1 more penetration?

– From a statistic balance stand-point, obviously, everything will change. Some vehicles will need rebalancing. But even with any possible changes, players will still say that “everyone is penning me with gold”.


Post-patch Battleship Damage Averages (WoWS)

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:22 AM PST

SHIPOverall2 WeeksYesterday
Yamato93,88588,61879,894
Montana78,62367,65067,787
Iowa63,93855,59951,693
Izumo59,91653,93547,130
Amagi59,46759,22253,777
North Carolina51,01048,30043,161
Tirpitz46,85049,43046,100
Nagato48,78149,32443,676
Colorado39,11842,45540,737
Fuso44,99044,67641,600
New Mexico38,69437,20934,699
Warspite35,53543,25340,956
Kongo33,90133,21530,843
New York29,46226,65825,572
Myogi21,71223,66422,753
Wyoming26,88327,62128,418
Arkansas Beta30,28537,45838,040
Ishizuchi24,04526,76225,311
Kawachi17,66318,44118,082
South Carolina17,55216,64215,597

On Track: M48 Patton (NA)

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:21 AM PST


#Information / Worldwide

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#Information / Worldwide


Why It’s Impossible to Tune a Piano

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:15 AM PST

In this video from MinutePhysics, Henry Reich looks at exactly why even a freshly tuned piano isn’t actually in tune. If you like this video, go check out and subscribe to MinutePhysics here. You can also join us in supporting Henry's efforts to make more videos like this by donating via MinutePhysics'Patreon page here.

If you liked this video, you might also enjoy:

Bonus Facts:

  • Catgut strings were never made out of actual cat guts. Catgut is (and was) made from the walls of various animal intestines though. Generally sheep or goat intestines are preferred, but occasionally other intestines are used, such as intestines from pigs and cows. This practice of making strings and cord from animal intestines can be found going all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians. Both the Ancient Egyptians and catgut makers all the way up to today tend to prefer making these cords and strings from herbivorous, rather than carnivores, like cats. So if catgut was never made from actual cat intestines, where did the name come from? One theory is that it came from "cattle-gut" and was eventually shortened down to just "catgut". An equally plausible argument is that it derived from "kit-string" also known as "kit-gut"- a "kit" being a fiddle. Another theory, which is probably dubious, is that makers of these strings in the 17th century chose the word to fool people into thinking the strings were actually made from catgut, thus, protecting their trade secrets.
  • Catgut strings are prepared by cleaning the intestines of undesirable additions. They do this by soaking the guts in water, then using a knife to scrape off the fat and other such things attached to the intestines. From there, the intestines are soaked in an alkaline substance and smoothed out. The surviving microbes on the catgut are then killed via sulfuric fumes. From there, the intestines are ready to be stretched/wound/etc. into appropriately sized strings.
  • Animals that are quite lean tend to produce significantly higher quality strings than animals that possess large amounts of fat. This is one of the reasons pig gut isn't typically preferred.
  • Catgut isn't just used for instruments, but is also often used in very high quality tennis rackets; bow-strings; for hanging weights on high-end clocks; and sometimes used for stitching wounds, though that practice has gradually given way to using cotton and synthetic threads, which seem to make wounds less prone to infection.

The post Why It’s Impossible to Tune a Piano appeared first on Today I Found Out.

Who Invented the Shopping Mall?

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:05 AM PST

The following is an article from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

Victor_GruenModern shopping malls are so common that we forget they've only been around for about a half century. Here's the story of how they came to be…and the story of the man who invented them, Victor Gruen—the most famous architect you've never heard of.

FATEFUL LAYOVER

In the winter of 1948, an architect named Victor Gruen got stranded in Detroit, Michigan, after his flight was cancelled due to a storm. Gruen made his living designing department stores, and rather than sit in the airport or in a hotel room, he paid a visit to Detroit's landmark Hudson's department store and asked the store's architect to show him around. The Hudson's building was nice enough; the company prided itself on being one of the finest department stores in the entire Midwest. But downtown Detroit itself was pretty run-down, which was not unusual for an American city in that era. World War I (1914–18), followed by the Great Depression and then World War II (1939–45), had disrupted the economic life of the country, and decades of neglect of downtown areas had taken their toll.

STRIP JOINTS

The suburbs were even shabbier, as Gruen saw when he took a ride in the country and drove past ugly retail and commercial developments that seemed to blight every town.
The combination of dirt-cheap land, lax zoning laws, and rampant real estate speculation had spawned an era of unregulated and shoddy commercial development in the suburbs. Speculators threw up cheap, (supposedly) temporary buildings derisively known as "taxpayers" because the crummy eyesores barely rented for enough money to cover the property taxes on the lot. That was their purpose: Land speculators were only interested in covering their costs until the property rose in value and could be unloaded for a profit. Then the new owner could tear down the taxpayer and build something more substantial on the lot. But if the proliferation of crumbling storefronts, gas stations, diners, and fleabag hotels were any guide, few taxpayers were ever torn down.

The unchecked growth in the suburbs was a problem for downtown department stores like Hudson's, because their customers were moving there, too. Buying a house in suburbia was cheaper than renting an apartment downtown, and thanks to the G.I. Bill, World War II veterans could buy them with no money down.

Once these folks moved out to the suburbs, few of them wanted to return to the city to do their shopping. The smaller stores in suburban retail strips left a lot to be desired, but they were closer to home and parking was much easier than downtown, where a shopper might circle the block for a half hour or more before a parking space on the street finally opened up.

Stores like Hudson's had made the situation worse by using their substantial political clout to block other department stores from building downtown. Newcomers such as Sears and J. C. Penney had been forced to build their stores in less desirable locations outside the city, but this disadvantage turned into an advantage when the migration to the suburbs began.

As he drove through the suburbs, Gruen envisioned a day when suburban retailers would completely surround the downtown department stores and drive them out of business.

SHOPPING AROUND

When Gruen returned home to New York City, he wrote a letter to the president of Hudson's explaining that if the customers were moving out to the suburbs, Hudson's should as well. For years Hudson's had resisted opening branch stores outside the city. It had an image of exclusivity to protect, and opening stores in seedy commercial strips was no way to do that. But it was clear that something had to be done, and as Hudson's president, Oscar Webber, read Gruen's letter, he realized that here was a man who might be able to help. He offered Gruen a job as a real estate consultant, and soon Gruen was back driving around Detroit suburbs looking for a commercial strip worthy of the Hudson's name.

The only problem: There weren't any. Every retail development Gruen looked at was flawed in one way or another. Either it was too tacky even to be considered, or it was too close to downtown and risked stealing sales from the flagship store. Gruen recommended that the company develop a commercial property of its own. Doing so, he argued, offered a lot of advantages: Hudson's wouldn't have to rely on a disinterested landlord to maintain the property in keeping with Hudson's image. And because Gruen proposed building an entire shopping center, one that would include other tenants, Hudson's would be able to pick and choose which businesses moved in nearby.

Furthermore, by building a shopping center, Hudson's would diversify its business beyond retailing into real estate development and commercial property management. And there was a bonus, Gruen argued: By concentrating a large number of stores in a single development, the shopping center would prevent ugly suburban sprawl. The competition that a well-designed, well-run shopping center presented, he reasoned, would discourage other businesses from locating nearby, helping to preserve open spaces in the process.

FOUR OF A KIND

Oscar Webber was impressed enough with Gruen's proposal that he hired the architect to create a 20-year plan for the company's growth. Gruen spent the next three weeks sneaking around the Detroit suburbs collecting data for his plan. Then he used the information to write up a proposal that called for developing not one but four shopping centers, to be named Northland, Eastland, Southland, and Westland Centers, each in a different suburb of Detroit. Gruen recommended that the company locate its shopping centers on the outer fringes of existing suburbs, where the land was cheapest and the potential for growth was greatest as the suburbs continued to expand out from downtown Detroit.

Hudson's approved the plans and quietly began buying up land for the shopping centers. It hired Gruen to design them, even though he'd only designed two shopping centers before and neither was actually built. On June 4, 1950, Hudson's announced its plan to build Eastland Center, the first of the four projects scheduled for development.

Three weeks later, on June 25, 1950, the North Korean People's Army rolled across the 38th parallel that served as the border between North and South Korea. The Korean War had begun.

WORST-LAID PLANS

Though Victor Gruen is credited with being the "father of the mall," he owes a lot to the North Korean Communists for helping him get his temples of consumerism off the ground. He owes the Commies (and so do you, if you like going to the mall) because as Gruen himself would later admit, his earliest design for the proposed Eastland Center was terrible. Had the Korean War not put the brakes on all nonessential construction projects, Eastland might have been built as Gruen originally designed it, before he could develop his ideas further.

Those early plans called for a jumble of nine detached buildings organized around a big oval parking lot. The parking lot was split in two by a sunken four-lane roadway, and if pedestrians wanted to cross from one half of the shopping center to the other, the only way to get over the moat-like roadway was by means of a scrawny footbridge that was 300 feet long. How many shoppers would even have bothered to cross over to the other side?

Had Eastland Center been built according to Gruen's early plans, it almost certainly would have been a financial disaster. Even if it didn't bankrupt Hudson's, it probably would have forced the company to scrap its plans for Northland, Westland, and Southland Centers. Other developers would have taken note, and the shopping mall as we know it might never have come to be.

ALL IN A ROW

Shopping centers of the size of Eastland Center were such a new concept that no architect had figured out how to build them well. Until now, most shopping centers consisted of a small number of stores in a single strip facing the street, set back far enough to allow room for parking spaces in front of the stores. Some larger developments had two parallel strips of stores, with the storefronts facing inward toward each other across an area of landscaped grass called a "mall." That's how shopping malls got their name.

There had been a few attempts to build even larger shopping centers, but nearly all had lost money. In 1951 a development called Shoppers' World opened outside of Boston. It had more than 40 stores on two levels and was anchored by a department store at the south end of the mall. But the smaller stores had struggled from the day the shopping center opened, and when they failed they took the entire shopping center (and the developer, who filed for bankruptcy) down with them.

INSIDE OUT

Gruen needed more time to think through his ideas, and when the Korean War pushed the Eastland project off into the indefinite future, he got it. Hudson's eventually decided to build Northland first, and by the time Gruen started working on those plans in 1951, his thoughts on what a shopping center should look like had changed completely. The question of where to put all the parking spaces (Northland would have more than 8,000) was one problem. Gruen eventually decided that it made more sense to put the parking spaces around the shopping center, instead of putting the shopping center around the parking spaces, as his original plans for Eastland Center had called for.

WALK THIS WAY

Gruen then put the Hudson's department store right in the middle of the development, surrounded on three sides by the smaller stores that made up the rest of the shopping center. Out beyond these smaller stores was the parking lot, which meant that the only way to get from the parking lot to Hudson's—the shopping center's biggest draw—was by walking past the smaller shops.

This may not sound like a very important detail, but it turned out to be key to the mall's success. Forcing all that foot traffic past the smaller shops—increasing their business in the process—was the thing that made the small stores financially viable. Northland Center was going to have nearly 100 small stores; they all needed to be successful for the shopping center itself to succeed.

SUBURBAN OUTFITTER

Northland was an outdoor shopping center, with nearly everything a modern enclosed mall has…except the roof. Another feature that set it apart from other shopping centers of the era, besides its layout, its massive scale, and the large number of stores in the development, were the bustling public spaces between the rows of stores. In the past developers who had incorporated grassy malls into their shopping centers did so with the intention of giving the projects a rural, almost sleepy feel, similar to a village green.

Gruen, a native of Vienna, Austria, thought just the opposite was needed. He wanted his public spaces to blend with the shops to create a lively (and admittedly idealized) urban feel, just like he remembered from downtown Vienna, with its busy outdoor cafés and shops. He divided the spaces between Hudson's and the other stores into separate and very distinct areas, giving them names like Peacock Terrace, Great Lakes Court, and Community Lane. He filled them with landscaping, fountains, artwork, covered walkways, and plenty of park benches to encourage people to put the spaces to use.

NOVELTY STORES

If Northland Center were to open its doors today, it would be remarkably unremarkable. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of similarly-sized malls all over the United States. But when Northland opened in the spring of 1954, it was one-of-a-kind, easily the largest shopping center on Earth, both in terms of square footage and the number of stores in the facility. The Wall Street Journal dispatched a reporter to cover the grand opening. So did Time and Newsweek, and many other newspapers and magazines. In the first weeks that the Northland Center was open, an estimated 40,000-50,000 people passed through its doors each day.

DON'T LOOK NOW

It was an impressive start, but Hudson's executives still worried. Did all these people really come to shop, or just look around? Would they ever be back? No one knew for sure if the public would even feel comfortable in such a huge facility. People were used to shopping in one store, not having to choose from nearly 100. And there was a very real fear that for many shoppers, finding their way back to their car in the largest parking lot they had ever parked in would be too great a strain and they'd never come back. Even worse, what if Northland Center was too good? What if the public enjoyed the public spaces so much that they never bothered to go inside the stores? With a price tag of nearly $25 million, the equivalent of more than $200 million today, Northland Center was one of the most expensive retail developments in history, and nobody even knew if it would work.

CHA-CHING!

Whatever fears the Hudson's executives had about making back their $25 million investment evaporated when their own store's sales exceeded forecasts by 30 percent. The numbers for the smaller stores were good, too, and they stayed good month after month. In its first year in business Northland Center grossed $88 million, making it one of the most profitable shopping centers in the United States. And all of the press coverage generated by the construction of Northland Center made Gruen's reputation. Before the center was even finished, he received the commission of a lifetime: Dayton's department store hired him to design not just the world's first enclosed shopping mall but an entire planned community around it, on a giant 463-acre plot in a suburb of Minneapolis.

NUMBER TWO

Southdale Center, the mall that Victor Gruen designed for Dayton's department store in the town of Edina, Minnesota, outside of Minneapolis, was only his second shopping center. But it was the very first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in history, and it had many of the features that are still found in modern malls today.

It was "anchored" by two major department stores, Dayton's and Donaldson's, which were located at opposite ends of the mall in order to generate foot traffic past the smaller shops in between. Southdale also had a giant interior atrium called the "Garden Court of Perpetual Spring" in the center of the mall. The atrium was as long as a city block and had a soaring ceiling that was five stories tall at its highest point.

Just as he had with the public spaces at Northland, Gruen intended the garden court to be a bustling space with an idealized downtown feel. He filled it with sculptures, murals, a newsstand, a tobacconist, and a Woolworth's "sidewalk" café. Skylights in the ceiling of the atrium flooded the garden court with natural light; crisscrossing escalators and second story skybridges helped create an atmosphere of continuous movement while also attracting shoppers' attention to the stores on the second level.

GARDEN VARIETY

The mall was climate controlled to keep it at a constant spring-like temperature (hence the "perpetual spring" theme) that would keep people shopping all year round. In the past shopping had always been a seasonal activity in harsh climates like Minnesota's, where frigid winters could keep shoppers away from stores for months. Not so at Southdale, and Gruen emphasized the point by filling the garden court with orchids and other tropical plants, a 42-foot-tall eucalyptus tree, a goldfish pond, and a giant aviary filled with exotic birds. Such things were rare sights indeed in icy Minnesota, and they gave people one more reason to go to the mall.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

With 10 acres of shopping surrounded by 70 acres of parking, Southdale was a huge development in its day. Even so, it was intended as merely a retail hub for a much larger planned community, spread out over the 463-acre plot acquired by Dayton's. Just as the Dayton's and Donaldson's department stores served as anchors for the Southdale mall, the mall itself would one day serve as the retail anchor for this much larger development, which as Gruen designed it, would include apartment buildings, single-family homes, schools, office buildings, a hospital, landscaped parks with walking paths, and a lake.

The development was Victor Gruen's response to the ugly, chaotic suburban sprawl that he had detested since his first visit to Michigan back in 1948. He intended it as a brand-new downtown for the suburb, carefully designed to eliminate sprawl while also solving the problems that poor or nonexistent planning had brought to traditional urban centers like Minneapolis. Such places had evolved gradually and haphazardly over many generations instead of following a single, carefully thought-out master plan.

The idea was to build the Southdale Center mall first. Then, if it was a success, Dayton's would use the profits to develop the rest of the 463 acres in accordance with Gruen's plan. And Southdale was a success: Though Dayton's downtown flagship store did lose some business to the mall when it opened in the fall of 1956, the company's overall sales rose 60 percent, and the other stores in the mall also flourished.

But the profits generated by the mall were never used to bring the rest of Gruen's plan to fruition. Ironically, it was the very success of the mall that doomed the rest of the plan.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Back before the first malls had been built, Gruen and others had assumed that they would cause surrounding land values to drop, or at least not rise very much, on the theory that commercial developers would shy away from building other stores close to such a formidable competitor as a thriving shopping mall. The economic might of the mall, they reasoned, would help to preserve nearby open spaces by making them unsuitable for further commercial development.

But the opposite turned out to be the case. Because shopping malls attracted so much traffic, it soon became clear that it made sense to build other developments nearby. Result: The once dirt-cheap real estate around Southdale began to climb rapidly in value. As it did, Dayton's executives realized they could make a lot of money selling off their remaining parcels of land—much more quickly, with much less risk—than they could by gradually implementing Gruen's master plan over many years.

From the beginning Gruen had seen the mall as a solution to sprawl, something that would preserve open spaces, not destroy them. But his "solution" had only made the problem worse—malls turned out to be sprawl magnets, not sprawl killers. Any remaining doubts Gruen had were dispelled in the mid-1960s when he made his first visit to Northland Center since its opening a decade earlier. He was stunned by the number of seedy strip malls and other commercial developments that had grown up right around it.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

Victor Gruen, the father of the shopping mall, became one of its most outspoken critics. He tried to remake himself as an urban planner, marketing his services to American cities that wanted to make their downtown areas more mall-like, in order to recapture some of the business lost to malls. He drew up massive, ambitious, and very costly plans for remaking Fort Worth, Rochester, Manhattan, Kalamazoo, and even the Iranian capital city of Tehran. Most of his plans called for banning cars from city centers, confining them to ring roads and giant parking structures circling downtown. Unused roadways and parking spaces in the center would then be redeveloped into parks, walkways, outdoor cafés, and other uses. It's doubtful that any of these pie-in-the-sky projects were ever really politically or financially viable, and none of them made it off the drawing board.

HOMECOMING

In 1968 Gruen closed his architectural practice and moved back to Vienna…where he discovered that the once thriving downtown shops and cafés, which had inspired him to invent the shopping mall in the first place, were now themselves threatened by a new shopping mall that had opened outside the city.

He spent the remaining years of his life writing articles and giving speeches condemning shopping malls as "gigantic shopping machines" and ugly "land-wasting seas of parking." He attacked developers for shrinking the public, non-profit-generating spaces to a bare minimum. "I refuse to pay alimony for these bastard developments," Gruen told a London audience in 1978, in a speech titled "The Sad Story of Shopping Centers."

Gruen called on the public to oppose the construction of new malls in their communities, but his efforts were largely in vain. At the time of his death in 1980, the United States was in the middle of a 20-year building boom that would see more than 1,000 shopping malls added to the American landscape. And were they ever popular: According to a survey by U.S. News and World Report, by the early 1970s, Americans spent more time at the mall than anyplace else except for home and work.

VICTOR WHO?

Today Victor Gruen is largely a forgotten man, known primarily to architectural historians. That may not be such a bad thing, considering how much he came to despise the creation that gives him his claim to fame.

Gruen does live on, however, in the term "Gruen transfer," which mall designers use to refer to the moment of disorientation that shoppers who have come to the mall to buy a particular item can experience upon entering the building—the moment in which they are distracted into forgetting their errand and instead begin wandering the mall with glazed eyes and a slowed, almost shuffling gait, impulsively buying any merchandise that strikes their fancy.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Victor Gruen may well be considered the "father of the mall," but he didn't remain a doting dad for long. Southdale Center, the world's first enclosed shopping mall, opened its doors in the fall of 1956, and by 1968 Gruen had turned publicly and vehemently against his creation.

So it would fall to other early mall builders, people such as A. Alfred Taubman, Melvin Simon, and Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., to give the shopping mall its modern, standardized form, by taking what they understood about human nature and applying it to Gruen's original concept. In the process, they fine-tuned the mall into the highly effective, super-efficient "shopping machines" that have dominated American retailing for nearly half a century.

BACK TO BASICS

These developers saw shopping malls the same way that Gruen did, as idealized versions of downtown shopping districts. Working from that starting point, they set about systematically removing all distractions, annoyances, and other barriers to consumption. Your local mall may not contain all of the following features, but there should be much here that looks familiar:

  • It's a truism among mall developers that most shoppers will only walk about three city blocks—about 1,000 feet—before they begin to feel a need to head back to where they'd started. So 1,000 feet became a standard length for malls.
  • Most of the stairs, escalators, and elevators are located at the ends of the mall, not in the center. This is done to encourage shoppers to walk past all the stores on the level they're on before visiting shops on another level.
  • Malls are usually built with shops on two levels, not one or three. This way, if a shopper walks the length of the mall on one level to get to the escalator, then walks the length of the mall on the second level to return to where they started, they've walked past every store in the mall and are back where they parked their car. (If there was a third level of shops, a shopper who walked all three levels would finish up at the opposite end of the mall, three city blocks away from where they parked.)
  • Another truism among mall developers is that people, like water, tend to flow down more easily than they flow up. Because of this, many malls are designed to encourage people to park and enter the mall on the upper level, not the lower level, on the theory they are more likely to travel down to visit stores on a lower level than travel up to visit stores on a higher level.

THE VISION THING

  • Great big openings are designed into the floor that separates the upper level of shops from the lower level. That allows shoppers to see stores on both levels from wherever they happen to be in the mall. The handrails that protect shoppers from falling into the openings are made of glass or otherwise designed so that they don't obstruct the sight lines to those stores.
  • Does your mall's decor seem dull to you? That's no accident—the interior of the mall is designed to be aesthetically pleasing but not particularly interesting, so as not to distract shoppers from looking at the merchandise, which is much more important.
  • Skylights flood the interiors of malls with natural light, but these skylights are invariably recessed in deep wells to keep direct sunlight from reflecting off of storefront glass, which would create glare and distract shoppers from looking at the merchandise. The wells also contain artificial lighting that comes on late in the day when the natural light begins to fade, to prevent shoppers from receiving a visual cue that it's time to go home.

A NEIGHBORLY APPROACH

  • Great attention is paid to the placement of stores within the mall, something that mall managers refer to as "adjacencies." The price of merchandise, as well as the type, factors into this equation: There's not much point in placing a store that sells $200 silk ties next to one that sells $99 men's suits.
  • Likewise, any stores that give off strong smells, like restaurants and hair salons, are kept away from jewelry and other high-end stores. (Would you want to smell cheeseburgers or fried fish while you and your fiancé are picking out your wedding rings?)
  • Have you ever bought milk, raw meat, or a gallon of ice cream at the mall? Probably not, and there's a good reason for it: Malls generally do not lease space to stores that sell perishable goods, because once you buy them you have to take them right home, instead of spending more time shopping at the mall.
  • Consumer tastes change over time, and mall operators worry about falling out of fashion with shoppers. Because of this, they keep a close watch on individual store sales. Even if a store in the mall is profitable, if it falls below its "tenant profile," or average sales per square foot of other stores in the same retail category, the mall operator may refuse to renew its lease. Tenant turnover at a well-managed mall can run as high as 10 percent a year.

HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE

Malls have been a part of the American landscape for so long now that a little "mall fatigue" is certainly understandable. But like so much of American culture, the concept has been exported to foreign countries, and malls remain very popular around the world, where they are built not just in the suburbs but in urban centers as well. They have achieved the sort of iconic status once reserved for airports, skyscrapers, and large government buildings. They are the kind of buildings created by emerging societies to communicate to the rest of the world, "We have arrived." If you climb into a taxicab in almost any major city in the world, be it Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, or Shanghai, and tell the driver, "Take me to the mall," he'll know where to go.

KILL 'EM MALL

America's love-hate relationship with shopping malls is now more than half a century old, and for as long as it has been fashionable to see malls as unfashionable, people have been predicting their demise. In the 1970s, "category killers" were seen as a threat. Stand-alone stores like Toys "R" Us focused on a single category of goods, offering a greater selection at a lower price than even the biggest stores in the mall couldn't match. They were soon followed by "power centers," strip malls anchored by "big box" stores like Walmart, and discount warehouse stores like Costco and Sam's Club. In the early 1990s, TV shopping posed a threat, only to fizzle out…and be replaced by even stronger competition posed by Internet retailers like Amazon.

By the early 1990s, construction of new malls in the United States had slowed to a crawl, but this had as much to do with rising real estate prices (land in the suburbs wasn't dirt cheap anymore), the savings and loan crisis (which made construction financing harder to come by), and the fact that most communities that wanted a mall already had one…or two…or more.

Increasing competition from other retailers and bad economic times in recent years have also taken their toll, resulting in declining sales per square foot and rising vacancy rates in malls all over the country. In 2009 General Growth Properties, the nation's second-largest mall operator, filed for bankruptcy; it was the largest real estate bankruptcy in American history.

FULL CIRCLE

But mall builders and operators keep fighting back, continually reinventing themselves as they try to keep pace with the times. Open-air malls are remade into enclosed malls, and enclosed malls are opened to the fresh air. One strategy tried in Kansas, Georgia, and other areas is to incorporate shopping centers into larger mixed-use developments that include rental apartments, condominiums, office buildings, and other offerings. Legacy Town Center, a 150-acre development in the middle of a 2,700-acre business park north of Dallas, for example, includes 80 outdoor shops and restaurants, 1,500 apartments and townhouses, two office towers, a Marriott Hotel, a landscaped park with hiking trails, and a lake. (Sound familiar?)

In other words, developers are trying to save the mall by finally building them just the way that Victor Gruen wanted to in the first place.

This article is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. The big brains at the Bathroom Readers' Institute have come up with 544 all-new pages full of incredible facts, hilarious articles, and a whole bunch of other ways to, er, pass the time. With topics ranging from history and science to pop culture, wordplay, and modern mythology, Heavy Duty is sure to amaze and entertain the loyal legions of throne sitters.

Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers' Institute has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter). With more than 15 million books in print, the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series is the longest-running, most popular series of its kind in the world.

If you like Today I Found Out, I guarantee you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books, so check them out!

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This Day in History: November 9th- A Bloodbath

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST

This Day In History: November 9, 1520

stockholm_bloodbathThe situation in Sweden in 1520 was chaotic. The point of contention was Swedish sovereignty. The pro-union faction that championed allegiance to King Christian II of Denmark was headed by Archbishop Gustavus Trolle. The supporters of Swedish independence were led by Sweden’s Regent Sten Sture the Younger.

King Christian II had already stepped in to assist Archbishop Trolle, who was under siege in his fortress. Sten Sture and his army defeated the King's troops and forced him to make an undignified retreat to Denmark. Christian tried once again to get Sweden under his control in 1518 but was bested by Sture yet again. But the third time proved to be a charm for the King when Sten Sture was killed on January 19, 1520 at the Battle of Bogesund.

While many surrendered at this point, Sture's widow, Lady Kristina Gyllenstierna, had not yet begun to fight. She rallied the remaining resistance to her, determined that Sweden would remain independent. The war raged on for many months, culminating in the Danish fleet arriving in May and Stockholm being attacked by both land and sea. Nevertheless, Lady Kristina kept up the fight until September when she finally surrendered on the condition that a full amnesty would be granted to all members of the resistance.

Christian II played himself off as the very personification of the merciful monarch in this, granting this request in writing. But he had no intention of letting bygones be bygones. After he was officially crowned king of Sweden, he almost immediately instigated what is known as the Stockholm Bloodbath, which occurred over November 7-9, 1520.

During the coronation festivities, the King invited members of the nobility to a special meeting where the newly reinstated Archbishop Trolle announce that most of the noblemen present were guilty of heresy since they had attempted to depose an archbishop from his archbishopric (Trolle, of course) a few years earlier.

Kristina immediately cried foul, and produced the document proving that Christian had promised full amnesty. But the King noted that while he could, and did, grant amnesty for the offenses against himself, the crime in question was a Church matter- something he had no authority over.

The accused nobles, for their supposed crime of heresy, were ultimately brought out to Stockholm's main square and either beheaded or drowned.

Over 80 men were executed during the Stockholm bloodbath, and it was no coincidence that they were supporters of Sten Sture the Younger and his widow Lady Kristina. On top of that, the King ordered the body of Sture and his toddler son dug up and burnt as heretics as well.

Kristina was reportedly given the choice of death by burning at the stake or being buried alive. However, before the deed could be performed, the king’s advisers recommended against such a course of action. Instead, she was exiled to Copenhagen.

The exile didn’t last long.

The bloodbath didn’t go over well with the locals (shocker) and a new revolt began under Gustav Vasa, the future king of Sweden (from 1523 to 1560) and the son of one of those who’d been massacred, Erik Johansson Vasa. This revolt ultimately resulted in Christian II being ousted from Sweden (and indeed his whole kingdom, being replaced in Denmark by his uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein) in 1523 and soon saw Sweden and Denmark permanently separated.

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The post This Day in History: November 9th- A Bloodbath appeared first on Today I Found Out.

#AirForce

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#AirForce


Pentagon Confirms Submarine Missile Test in Pacific

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:46 AM PST

USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) transits the Hood Canal during its return to Naval Base Kitsap – Bangor, Wash., on April 16, 2015. The ship completed a weeklong sea trial period after emerging from an overhaul period at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo/Kenneth G. Takada) USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) transits the Hood Canal during its return to Naval Base Kitsap – Bangor, Wash., on April 16, 2015. The ship completed a weeklong sea trial period after emerging from an overhaul period at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo/Kenneth G. Takada)

 

The U.S. Navy's USS Kentucky (SSBN-737), an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, launched an unarmed Trident missile as part of a test over the weekend in the Pacific Ocean.

The Pentagon released a statement late Saturday confirming the scheduled test flight of the Trident II (D5) missile in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of southern California.

The exercise, conducted by Navy Strategic Systems Programs, was "part of a scheduled, ongoing system evaluation test. Launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system. Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems, thus contributing to assurance in our capabilities," it stated.

"The missile was not armed. Strategic Systems Programs does not routinely announce missile testing," it continued. "Information regarding the test launch of Trident II (D5) missiles is classified prior to the launch."

The statement was apparently designed to curb speculation on social media that the object was a meteorite or even an unidentified flying object, or UFO (see image below.

The Kentucky is armed with 24 UGM-133 Trident II ballistic missiles, along with Mk-48 torpedoes. Each of the missiles made by Lockheed Martin Corp. measures more than 44 feet long and 6 feet wide, has an operational range of more than 7,400 miles and can carry as many as 14 thermonuclear warheads.

The Navy is upgrading its arsenal of Trident II D5 nuclear missiles to extend their service life for 25 more years aboard the nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet, service leaders have said.

This Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015, image from video provided by Julien Solomita, shows an unarmed missile fired by the U.S. Navy from a submarine off the coast of Southern California, creating a bright light that streaked across the state and was visible as far away as Nevada and Arizona. A Navy spokesman told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the missile test at sea Saturday from the USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile submarine. (Julien Solomita via AP) This Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015, image from video provided by Julien Solomita, shows an unarmed missile fired by the U.S. Navy from a submarine off the coast of Southern California, creating a bright light that streaked across the state and was visible as far away as Nevada and Arizona. A Navy spokesman told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the missile test at sea Saturday from the USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile submarine. (Julien Solomita via AP)

#curiosity

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#curiosity


DNA : WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION … THOUGHTS AND DIALOGUE ON HUMANKINDS 2 STRAND DOWNGRADE

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 02:24 AM PST

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ALLICAT
+Tann Hauser DNA is a creation of Tiamatt – the root word for matter- not a creation of the One. These hybrid bodies are DNA. When we leave these bodies, created by Set and Tiamatt, we leave the system of DNA behind, and return to our spiritual, incorruptible bodies, which have nothing to do with DNA, although they are still ‘physical’ forms, but lighter and less ‘dense’ than the bodies of matter we currently occupy.

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ROSE
There are 8 branches Above, and 9 branches Below. And there is the Tree, which is the "All". The Branch of Mankind won the War. The 8 and the All, are taking their share of the division and leaving. Everyone on the
planet, "Earth", is being pulled off. No one is staying for a 'new Earth', in this location. "Earth" goes with Mankind. It leaves this "universal" system. The Sun will Nova. These are the facts as presented.

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MASTER LEAP

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MASTER LEAP : THE POINT OF THE 2 STRAND DNA WAS TO DUMB YOU DOWN AND REMOVE YOUR CONNECTIONS TO YOUR HIGHER SELF

an/set/satan/saturn pulled the children of adam and eve through the east gate into the abyss an's people used to refer to the leviathan serpent as abyss-sol hence sol-ar system which is the abyss which is where we are today the sol-ar system isnt a small part of giant universe or one verse but a server or branch on the tree of life .

This is the war in heaven. galactic man was a 12 strand 15 foot monsters but was wiped out hence all the giant skeletons that are only now being revealed as they have been destroyed in the past to hide what happened we were given half reptilian half man bodies with 2 strand dna easily manipulated and harvest-able energy/food source.

The reptile/bird branches or feathered serpents that did this are refereed to as the EL or elohiem or ANg/EL's they are who govern us through institutions as the feder(el)'s Roy(el) and provinc(el) and vatikin aza(el).

The zodiac cycles used to indicate the entrance and exit portal points for each branch in heaven and hell which connected to the bigger gate system which nasa soho c3 cams record the lens armature is an actual system function of the black sun the hidden one behind selene\liliths\ISIS\IShtar\easter firewall or the current sun they show you currently the armature is pointing at the west gate of hell the 6-7 oclock position which if people actually watched is where a massive battle has been taking place where the forces of heaven are blockading their exit in mass panic cause they are about to be deleted dont believe me about the armature go look back in 2014 it moved on september 24 any internet doomsday-er will recognize that date as when the world is suppose to end why because its a portal window.

The point of the 2 strand dna was to dumb you down and remove your connections to your higher self so that the branches of set could seal you and claim you at the time of the division/harvest and they laughed at how easy it was to do so.

The term Easter seals takes on a whole new meaning doesnt it. Praying to the wrong God or branch father was religions biggest trick you kept sealing yourself to their branch reinforcing the subconscious link and seal to his branch.

But the good news is the war in heaven was won which will be revealed soon enough and your branch choices will be based on your actions and choice once again as was suppose to be the way the law is all good goes up and you have to have enough of an energy signature to make the gate to heaven or hell its called spiritual fat which the branches of set and his covens and coven(ant) dont have due to the fact they broke or manipulated almost every esoteric law there was and go to the deletion bin refered to as the pit.

News flash people your not on a globe go put a telescope on any beach that boat isnt going below the horizon nor would any lighthouse old and new have any effectiveness if you go by nasa's curvature calculation. Don't believe me goood! go research everything youve been taught and dont take anything for granted even if it comes from the most trusted of sources

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Robert Owen

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Without writing a book on this subject, this was just one of the main thrusts of what is really a multi-pronged attack to the entire way branch of mankind, to completely stack the deck against us, by doing everything possible with not only human biological epigenetic-induced influences of how the biology of belief based on *ull*hit fed to the subconscious early in life that becomes the disk-operating system of values and beliefs that we adopt early in life that becomes a daunting task later to learn how to merge the conscious with the subconscious, to have a real-time filter for knowing truth from fiction through your soul.

And that which is mediated through the biological machine they have hijacked, tampered with and thus tried to fill our heads our heads with a, "garbage in garbage out" system of information processing that forms our belief system, and thus becomes the foundation upon which our social behaviors are based, and the biologic unit operates on,

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JOHN TAYLOR … THE ULTIMATE HISTORY LESSON PLAYLIST 1 – 5

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Along with an artificial cultural construct of empire, male dominant role modeling to suppress the beauty and artistic expression of the feminine, that further supports the sociopathic hard-wiring to the reptilian brain, all of which for millions of people, makes it so difficult to ever come to know how this came about, if they even have the ability to accept it as a truth, of who and what your soul is, when you have a public mass schooling system that is wholly designed to eradicate the energy stream of your soul identity from who you are, and saturate us with a steady diet of having it pounded into our heads, that all there is is the human machine and matter that we interact with, where spiritual matters agree all rotted in myth.

The evidence of just how successful SET and the EF have done in accomplishing their objectives to seal the soul of mankind, to the other branches of the construct, is nothing short of brilliant strategy, sadly, as evil as it is.

Its actually one of the learning tools I havee adopted for people to reverse engineer their own strategy to break through denial, as a way to overcome many years of indoctrination of a steady diet of socially reinforced lies, ommissions, and convoluted misinformation,of whats been done to us, and the refusal people have in believing whats been done to them, by putting them in the driver seat of being the devils advocate in if this was an objective of their own malevolent force against a spiritual-being who was their hated enemy, how would they clip their wings and nuder them into submission, docility and instead making them a servant and being responsible for having a hand in their own souls destruction.

This ties actually into much of what Aldous Huxley spoke to in many of his seminars on his book, Brave New World of how the ruling elite can get 100% obedience and serfdom to serve the ruling sociopathic elite, and that is by their own willingness to do so with their own wishes.
That same social engineering strategy has been incorporated not only through social mass media, but it began early in kinder-care and mass public schooling of indoctrination, that created what I call, "Learned helplessness" and the welfare state, where fear tactics of money and as a security blanket becomes an effective tool in getting people to believe, that they lack the God given skills and resources to actually do anything they wish to create for themselves.
Instead what the public school system does is the following, called the philosophy of bio-economic mass schooling principles.Much of this btw, came about as a result of David S. Jordan a whiz bang academic out of Indiana U, and Stanford U in the early 20th century, who along with Elwood Cubberly his mentor at IU and SU became head of Americas education syndicate for mass public schooling, to essentially engineer out of the minds of children and adolescents, any notion we have that might connect us with our origins, and the fact we all were born with a unique personality signature tied to a positive proton spiritual-energy stream of what we know as our "soul" .

So as a 'SOUL" to do "souls work' and be the free spirit we can uniquely and freely express ourselves as in life, as a learning journey to evolve to an ever higher purity of being one in mind. body and spirit with the mind of our mother and father as the true source of all energy and life in the universe we come from, to enjoy that which gives us our greatest memories, treasures of what it means to have truly meaningful relationships with others, that is based on service to the community of life we derive our greatest gifts of love, and further the expericnes we have to live in peace, love, harmony and balance with all living beings.

Our idea of expressing our true selves with a soul, had to be corrupted and our spiritual needs and the nurturing of love, care and meaningful attachments to others that warm our hearts and souls, had to be washed out of our mind, and replaced with our obsession to satisfy ourselves with the artificially saturated culture of worship over money and material needs, and the success they have had on that front, has been nothing short of brilliant, considering I am old enough to have been born at the end of WWII, to have been born and have lived through when it was just the opposite, what happened and what it is like now.

I was fortunate enough to have been born at a time when the spiritual needs of love and my soul were supported by the social network of reinforcement in my community, which is the complete opposite today, even in the same small foothill mountain community I grew up in now, which is a smog-covered town or noise and chemical pollution, where serving self is king.
and serving each other is only out of necessity when it is hit with a 100,000 acre wildfire, and they all go up in smoke and ns left but carbon ash.

BIOECONOMICS

1. To disconnect children from the energy stream of love, their soul is connected to with God(Atum) and Eve.

2. To be molded and shaped at an early childhood age to respond and obedient to specific criteria of operant conditioning stimuli

The end game objective is for the average individual to unknowingly abandon their own energy stream of soul driven consciousness, replace it with a drive to satisfy material needs of the biologic machine, that in turn, becomes hardwired to the sociopathic nature of a operant-conditioned automaton, coupled to the herd mentality of culture that is reinforced with the same mass media diet of self-reinforcing artificial constructs that support their belief and value system of Demetrius materialism..

NOTE: And to the extent I have both experienced and witnessed this as both a participant an educator, the evil proxies of the covens of SET have been highly successful at destroying what it means to be connected with your soul and doing soul work in service to the community, to live in peace, love, balance and harmony with everyone.

Remember, government derives its power from the consent of the governed, because we have a creative free voice of liberty to determine our own outcomes.

Well those outcomes have been decided for us, without our consent or approval, and have instead been semi-forced to be put into Skinner's box of Pavlov's dog human conditioning, in which their desire is for us to voluntarily dismiss any notion there is a creator life force in this universe from which we are the source and is our history.

2. Create a super-race of epigeniticaly influenced superior beings, in which to serve the corporate state of ruling elites,which btw, when the NAZI Nuremberg Trials were held in Germany at the end of WWII for Crimes Against Humanity, the crime of medical experiments came up against the NAZI's in these trials, for which in defense, the NAZI'S claimed, that their research and experiments were largely the result of what was already in practice and began in the United States against children here-and that's true.

SEE: Forced sterilization of Americans, in Indiana, 1927, US Sup.CT. Buck v. Bell
Even Walt Lippman in his 1922 book, "Public Opinion" noted that there should be restrictions put on any public debate on Eugenics.
As Edward Bernay's the Freudian nephew who is known as the father of public relations had stated during this time, "that invisible power is now firmly in control of every aspect of American life".

Bernays went further, "Democracy is only a front for skillful wire-pulling of puppets to perform new tricks, and manipulate mental processes for places of disposal to policy managers for a price".

By 1944, the jettisoning of "Natural Rights" as our soul given rights from birth as free loving spirits to have a voice in American life, was over, had resonated throughout every corner of academic life in America

Any academic who expected free money from any source had to placate the chord of scientific management of children to manipulate mental processes in mass public-schooling, to make bionomics more efficient.

By 1995, the mainstream mass media had resoundingly repudiated the organic nature of "natural law rights", and what we represent as living soul-spiritual beings, to express ourselves in having any God given inherent right to give consent or non-consent to our our lives are affected by what others do.

In 1995, the purchasing power of a working couple was the equivalent of a single working man only a 100 years before..

In a word, your soul becomes meaningless in any social context to the artificial simulation construct we are living in, but I can remember a time when I experienced life in America when it most certainly did.

Nowadays, this society expresses itself in-context, to nothing more en masse to serve the central nervous system, and the neurological cognitive memory and brain-function of the hardwired reptile brain, to become as those we are expected to serve as sociopathic participants in their genocidal and ecocidal insanity to serve material needs, for which have little to do with serving what love represents by service and love for life we have with expressing our soul and free spirit.

Not the least of which all of the self-evident truth in this society is everywhere in plain sight, when people open up their eyes and take the time to unplug themselves with mass media and spend some time in silence and how to transform yourself to some semblance of sanity, and regain the organic reality of whats been done to us, and begin to heal ourselves through the nurturing of our souls and the service we do for each other through the love, peace, balance and harmony that allows for much more positive energy to release us from the grip of such evil negative electron influences this society saturates us with.

We are not supposed to ever being able to make the truth connection to what it means to acknowledge within your biologic-machine, that you even have a soul driven stream of energy and love that makes us with a unique personality in which to express ourselves as free loving spirits to help build a world where no-one suffers.

3B. Thus it becomes relatively easier to scientifically manage adult-children, than it does to train "self-reliant" ones.

And that goes without saying how the core tool of FEAR and the security blanket of money is used by those international banking covens of the Rothchild Crown Templar in London and the Vatican can put an entire population of people out on the streets at a drop of the hat, since the money we use as fiat, has no intrinsic value, and what that means for everyone ever paid in a federal reserve note was never paid in lawful money, as demanded by the US Constitution in ART I Sec. 8 that only gold can be used as lawful-tender in payment of debts, and we have not had that article amended or repealed and have used this as an affidavit many times with courts of law successfully in courts demanding to be paid in dollars for which gold is the only lawful money.

The insecurity of FEAR that comes from no longer feeling self-reliant and connected with your former knowledge as Galactic man and the sabotage of our natural energies and intelligence's to create what we needed, and in our own right having the power and the knowledge to not fall for this trap, for we have the same confidences of our mother and father as free creative and powers to create, to ever feel helpless and in fear of such evil tyranny and despotic tactics used to oppress anyone.

The following functions of mass public schooling, which came out of the 1967 TEACHER TRAINING EDUCATION ACT was the following;

1.The first function is 'ADJUSTMENT" schools are established as Skinner Box operant conditioning institutions, in which to setup "FIXED HABITS OF REACTION" to a given set of operant conditioning criteria.

NOTICE" This mechanism leaves out entirely, any notion students might have of infusing their own critical judgement or assessment to the process of their learning environment.Its a, "my way or the highway proposition" and since mass public schooling for many years was compulsory, and after signing away your children as wards of the state through applying to become members of the trust as a corporate agent through their birth certificate, the John Law of enforcement and failure to comply, your child ends up on Ridyln or some other juvenile facility as I did at age 15, when the courts deemed me to rebellious against the authority of society that any parent was capable of handling.

I started a off-campus business of having bought a machine at a office supply store that was a time stamp machine just like the one the high school used to readmit students back into class.
I managed to get a copy of ever teachers signature and thus could stamp and sign a student rreadmit into class whenever any student for .50 cents wanted one to cut class.

I won't go into everything my peers did to sabotage our school, which in 1967 we knew was nothing but a school to train the Hitler Youth of America, and we refused to be participants, as many swastikas 10 feet high with black and red spray paint was put on all the big main campus buildings to denote their identity to us.

Eventually I was completely expelled from the entire school district, so that was a major victory for God and my Mother Eve.

The irony of this, which is an entirely different story to tell and why I did it, but many years later, like 40 years later, at age 55, I graduated with honors with an M.S. Ed. from the University of Arkansas.

NOTE: This also ties into the US Army study after WW II, where they found out only 255 of every infantryman ever fired his rifle to kill the enemy.
So a new philosophy of again, by-passing the soul-mechanism we have on knowing right from wrong, must be addressed and overridden.
How did they do it?
Simple, put you into a competitive rapid firing moving target range, where your score is determined by how fast and how accurate you are at hitting rapid pop-up targets that could come up at any second, any where.

This was meant to wash out reflective thinking and replace it with rapid fire reflexive action, and when we fast forward this training to Afghanistan and Iraq, where the KILL numbers are now phenomenal, and answers presumably why, we have so many American service-members who don't have the time for their soul to contemplate their acts, end up sending the suicide rate off the charts.

Do you hear much public debate on why this is?
Of course not.

Matters relating to the soul, are now taboo in America.
Its also a good example of how the highly trained human-biologic machine, becomes in this case, the souls major liability, when your soul has been exposed and has to wrestle with counteracting how the biologic responds to the subconscious, particular when its been fed a steady diet of socio-pathic, male dominant warrior class nature of the predatory reptile to pound our chest with we are tough and thus prove our manhood with violence, as nothing more than operant conditioning that soul and that soul trapped in the human biologic didn't have much of a chance all its life, especially by the military, who are experts at it.

But by the time we get out of the Skinners Box of mass public schooling, that's precisely the point.

To be ready to jump in the seat of being a killing machine for the Satanic covens of the Abyss.

And we can thank the Rothchild, Carnegie, Rockefeller Education Trusts and the fact, that murder of a fellow spirit is suicide anyway.

Its why during the Viet Nam war, I refused to ever serve the enemy of God.
The same people who murdered and conducted a coup de etat' against the American people on November 22, 1963 in Dallas TX against JFK, who with National Security Memo 255, 215 had all but told Rothchild and his CIA Murder Inc, they were done as a covert agency to overthrow sovereign nations, to install his own puppet regime, and these memos came out in October 1963, 3 weeks before Dulles and his brethren over at State who served as ambassador to the Soviet Union in WWII for FDR, JFK had to go then.

So after JFK we had and have had ever since a rogue terrorist NAZI Satanic regime running this nation, even though in his memos, he stipulated that JFK would only have his Joint chiefs at the Pentagon as his advisers on matters using the military or any extra national intervention in geo-political matters.

2. REFLEXIVE OBEDIENCE-

3. DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTION\-Determine students proper social role, logging their entire K-12 history, for their suitability and future role in society to benefit the ruling class elite.

4. SORTING FUNCTION

-School sorts children by their individual performance record to a set rubric of criteria that serves the state and industrial hierarchy, not for the benefit of the individual.

5. CONFORMITY

A systematic induction for people to be made alike in their response to operant conditioning to similar criteria of specific stimuli.

6. HYGENIC FUNCTION

Without writing a book on this subject, this was just one of the main thrusts of what is really a multi-pronged attack to the entire way branch of mankind, to completely stack the deck against us, by doing everything possible with not only human biological epigenetic-induced influences of how the biology of belief based on *ull*hit fed to the subconscious early in life that becomes the disk-operating system of values and beliefs that we adopt early in life that becomes a daunting task later to learn how to merge the conscious with the subconscious, to have a real-time filter for knowing truth from fiction through your soul.

And that which is mediated through the biological machine they have hijacked, tampered with and thus tried to fill our heads our heads with a, "garbage in garbage out" system of information processing that forms our belief system, and thus becomes the foundation upon which our social behaviors are based, and the biologic unit operates on,

Along with an artificial cultural construct of empire, male dominant role modeling to suppress the beauty and artistic expression of the feminine, that further supports the sociopathic hard-wiring to the reptilian brain, all of which for millions of people, makes it so difficult to ever come to know how this came about, if they even have the ability to accept it as a truth, of who and what your soul is, when you have a public mass schooling system that is wholly designed to eradicate the energy stream of your soul identity from who you are, and saturate us with a steady diet of having it pounded into our heads, that all there is is the human machine and matter that we interact with, where spiritual matters agree all rotted in myth.

The evidence of just how successful SET and the EF have done in accomplishing their objectives to seal the soul of mankind, to the other branches of the construct, is nothing short of brilliant strategy, sadly, as evil as it is.

Its actually one of the learning tools I havee adopted for people to reverse engineer their own strategy to break through denial, as a way to overcome many years of indoctrination of a steady diet of socially reinforced lies, ommissions, and convoluted misinformation,of whats been done to us, and the refusal people have in believing whats been done to them, by putting them in the driver seat of being the devils advocate in if this was an objective of their own malevolent force against a spiritual-being who was their hated enemy, how would they clip their wings and nuder them into submission, docility and instead making them a servant and being responsible for having a hand in their own souls destruction.

This ties actually into much of what Aldous Huxley spoke to in many of his seminars on his book, Brave New World of how the ruling elite can get 100% obedience and serfdom to serve the ruling sociopathic elite, and that is by their own willingness to do so with their own wishes.
That same social engineering strategy has been incorporated not only through social mass media, but it began early in kinder-care and mass public schooling of indoctrination, that created what I call, "Learned helplessness" and the welfare state, where fear tactics of money and as a security blanket becomes an effective tool in getting people to believe, that they lack the God given skills and resources to actually do anything they wish to create for themselves.
Instead what the public school system does is the following, called the philosophy of bio-economic mass schooling principles.Much of this btw, came about as a result of David S. Jordan a whiz bang academic out of Indiana U, and Stanford U in the early 20th century, who along with Elwood Cubberly his mentor at IU and SU became head of Americas education syndicate for mass public schooling, to essentially engineer out of the minds of children and adolescents, any notion we have that might connect us with our origins, and the fact we all were born with a unique personality signature tied to a positive proton spiritual-energy stream of what we know as our "soul" .

So as a 'SOUL" to do "souls work' and be the free spirit we can uniquely and freely express ourselves as in life, as a learning journey to evolve to an ever higher purity of being one in mind. body and spirit with the mind of our mother and father as the true source of all energy and life in the universe we come from, to enjoy that which gives us our greatest memories, treasures of what it means to have truly meaningful relationships with others, that is based on service to the community of life we derive our greatest gifts of love, and further the expericnes we have to live in peace, love, harmony and balance with all living beings.

Our idea of expressing our true selves with a soul, had to be corrupted and our spiritual needs and the nurturing of love, care and meaningful attachments to others that warm our hearts and souls, had to be washed out of our mind, and replaced with our obsession to satisfy ourselves with the artificially saturated culture of worship over money and material needs, and the success they have had on that front, has been nothing short of brilliant, considering I am old enough to have been born at the end of WWII, to have been born and have lived through when it was just the opposite, what happened and what it is like now.

I was fortunate enough to have been born at a time when the spiritual needs of love and my soul were supported by the social network of reinforcement in my community, which is the complete opposite today, even in the same small foothill mountain community I grew up in now, which is a smog-covered town or noise and chemical pollution, where serving self is king.
and serving each other is only out of necessity when it is hit with a 100,000 acre wildfire, and they all go up in smoke and ns left but carbon ash.

BIOECONOMICS

1. To disconnect children from the energy stream of love, their soul is connected to with God(Atum) and Eve.

2. To be molded and shaped at an early childhood age to respond and obedient to specific criteria of operant conditioning stimuli

The end game objective is for the average individual to unknowingly abandon their own energy stream of soul driven consciousness, replace it with a drive to satisfy material needs of the biologic machine, that in turn, becomes hardwired to the sociopathic nature of a operant-conditioned automaton, coupled to the herd mentality of culture that is reinforced with the same mass media diet of self-reinforcing artificial constructs that support their belief and value system of Demetrius materialism..

NOTE: And to the extent I have both experienced and witnessed this as both a participant an educator, the evil proxies of the covens of SET have been highly successful at destroying what it means to be connected with your soul and doing soul work in service to the community, to live in peace, love, balance and harmony with everyone.

Remember, government derives its power from the consent of the governed, because we have a creative free voice of liberty to determine our own outcomes.

Well those outcomes have been decided for us, without our consent or approval, and have instead been semi-forced to be put into Skinner's box of Pavlov's dog human conditioning, in which their desire is for us to voluntarily dismiss any notion there is a creator life force in this universe from which we are the source and is our history.

2. Create a super-race of epigeniticaly influenced superior beings, in which to serve the corporate state of ruling elites,which btw, when the NAZI Nuremberg Trials were held in Germany at the end of WWII for Crimes Against Humanity, the crime of medical experiments came up against the NAZI's in these trials, for which in defense, the NAZI'S claimed, that their research and experiments were largely the result of what was already in practice and began in the United States against children here-and that's true.

SEE: Forced sterilization of Americans, in Indiana, 1927, US Sup.CT. Buck v. Bell
Even Walt Lippman in his 1922 book, "Public Opinion" noted that there should be restrictions put on any public debate on Eugenics.
As Edward Bernay's the Freudian nephew who is known as the father of public relations had stated during this time, "that invisible power is now firmly in control of every aspect of American life".

Bernays went further, "Democracy is only a front for skillful wire-pulling of puppets to perform new tricks, and manipulate mental processes for places of disposal to policy managers for a price".

By 1944, the jettisoning of "Natural Rights" as our soul given rights from birth as free loving spirits to have a voice in American life, was over, had resonated throughout every corner of academic life in America

Any academic who expected free money from any source had to placate the chord of scientific management of children to manipulate mental processes in mass public-schooling, to make bionomics more efficient.

By 1995, the mainstream mass media had resoundingly repudiated the organic nature of "natural law rights", and what we represent as living soul-spiritual beings, to express ourselves in having any God given inherent right to give consent or non-consent to our our lives are affected by what others do.

In 1995, the purchasing power of a working couple was the equivalent of a single working man only a 100 years before..

In a word, your soul becomes meaningless in any social context to the artificial simulation construct we are living in, but I can remember a time when I experienced life in America when it most certainly did.

Nowadays, this society expresses itself in-context, to nothing more en masse to serve the central nervous system, and the neurological cognitive memory and brain-function of the hardwired reptile brain, to become as those we are expected to serve as sociopathic participants in their genocidal and ecocidal insanity to serve material needs, for which have little to do with serving what love represents by service and love for life we have with expressing our soul and free spirit.

Not the least of which all of the self-evident truth in this society is everywhere in plain sight, when people open up their eyes and take the time to unplug themselves with mass media and spend some time in silence and how to transform yourself to some semblance of sanity, and regain the organic reality of whats been done to us, and begin to heal ourselves through the nurturing of our souls and the service we do for each other through the love, peace, balance and harmony that allows for much more positive energy to release us from the grip of such evil negative electron influences this society saturates us with.

We are not supposed to ever being able to make the truth connection to what it means to acknowledge within your biologic-machine, that you even have a soul driven stream of energy and love that makes us with a unique personality in which to express ourselves as free loving spirits to help build a world where no-one suffers.

3B. Thus it becomes relatively easier to scientifically manage adult-children, than it does to train "self-reliant" ones.

And that goes without saying how the core tool of FEAR and the security blanket of money is used by those international banking covens of the Rothchild Crown Templar in London and the Vatican can put an entire population of people out on the streets at a drop of the hat, since the money we use as fiat, has no intrinsic value, and what that means for everyone ever paid in a federal reserve note was never paid in lawful money, as demanded by the US Constitution in ART I Sec. 8 that only gold can be used as lawful-tender in payment of debts, and we have not had that article amended or repealed and have used this as an affidavit many times with courts of law successfully in courts demanding to be paid in dollars for which gold is the only lawful money.

The insecurity of FEAR that comes from no longer feeling self-reliant and connected with your former knowledge as Galactic man and the sabotage of our natural energies and intelligence's to create what we needed, and in our own right having the power and the knowledge to not fall for this trap, for we have the same confidences of our mother and father as free creative and powers to create, to ever feel helpless and in fear of such evil tyranny and despotic tactics used to oppress anyone.

The following functions of mass public schooling, which came out of the 1967 TEACHER TRAINING EDUCATION ACT was the following;

1.The first function is 'ADJUSTMENT" schools are established as Skinner Box operant conditioning institutions, in which to setup "FIXED HABITS OF REACTION" to a given set of operant conditioning criteria.

NOTICE" This mechanism leaves out entirely, any notion students might have of infusing their own critical judgement or assessment to the process of their learning environment.Its a, "my way or the highway proposition" and since mass public schooling for many years was compulsory, and after signing away your children as wards of the state through applying to become members of the trust as a corporate agent through their birth certificate, the John Law of enforcement and failure to comply, your child ends up on Ridyln or some other juvenile facility as I did at age 15, when the courts deemed me to rebellious against the authority of society that any parent was capable of handling.

I started a off-campus business of having bought a machine at a office supply store that was a time stamp machine just like the one the high school used to readmit students back into class.
I managed to get a copy of ever teachers signature and thus could stamp and sign a student rreadmit into class whenever any student for .50 cents wanted one to cut class.

I won't go into everything my peers did to sabotage our school, which in 1967 we knew was nothing but a school to train the Hitler Youth of America, and we refused to be participants, as many swastikas 10 feet high with black and red spray paint was put on all the big main campus buildings to denote their identity to us.

Eventually I was completely expelled from the entire school district, so that was a major victory for God and my Mother Eve.

The irony of this, which is an entirely different story to tell and why I did it, but many years later, like 40 years later, at age 55, I graduated with honors with an M.S. Ed. from the University of Arkansas.

NOTE: This also ties into the US Army study after WW II, where they found out only 255 of every infantryman ever fired his rifle to kill the enemy.
So a new philosophy of again, by-passing the soul-mechanism we have on knowing right from wrong, must be addressed and overridden.
How did they do it?
Simple, put you into a competitive rapid firing moving target range, where your score is determined by how fast and how accurate you are at hitting rapid pop-up targets that could come up at any second, any where.

This was meant to wash out reflective thinking and replace it with rapid fire reflexive action, and when we fast forward this training to Afghanistan and Iraq, where the KILL numbers are now phenomenal, and answers presumably why, we have so many American service-members who don't have the time for their soul to contemplate their acts, end up sending the suicide rate off the charts.

Do you hear much public debate on why this is?
Of course not.

Matters relating to the soul, are now taboo in America.
Its also a good example of how the highly trained human-biologic machine, becomes in this case, the souls major liability, when your soul has been exposed and has to wrestle with counteracting how the biologic responds to the subconscious, particular when its been fed a steady diet of socio-pathic, male dominant warrior class nature of the predatory reptile to pound our chest with we are tough and thus prove our manhood with violence, as nothing more than operant conditioning that soul and that soul trapped in the human biologic didn't have much of a chance all its life, especially by the military, who are experts at it.

But by the time we get out of the Skinners Box of mass public schooling, that's precisely the point.

To be ready to jump in the seat of being a killing machine for the Satanic covens of the Abyss.

And we can thank the Rothchild, Carnegie, Rockefeller Education Trusts and the fact, that murder of a fellow spirit is suicide anyway.

Its why during the Viet Nam war, I refused to ever serve the enemy of God.
The same people who murdered and conducted a coup de etat' against the American people on November 22, 1963 in Dallas TX against JFK, who with National Security Memo 255, 215 had all but told Rothchild and his CIA Murder Inc, they were done as a covert agency to overthrow sovereign nations, to install his own puppet regime, and these memos came out in October 1963, 3 weeks before Dulles and his brethren over at State who served as ambassador to the Soviet Union in WWII for FDR, JFK had to go then.

So after JFK we had and have had ever since a rogue terrorist NAZI Satanic regime running this nation, even though in his memos, he stipulated that JFK would only have his Joint chiefs at the Pentagon as his advisers on matters using the military or any extra national intervention in geo-political matters.

2. REFLEXIVE OBEDIENCE-

3. DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTION\-Determine students proper social role, logging their entire K-12 history, for their suitability and future role in society to benefit the ruling class elite.

4. SORTING FUNCTION

-School sorts children by their individual performance record to a set rubric of criteria that serves the state and industrial hierarchy, not for the benefit of the individual.

5. CONFORMITY

A systematic induction for people to be made alike in their response to operant conditioning to similar criteria of specific stimuli.

6. HYGENIC FUNCTION

Weed out the inferior phenotypes

And no one I know better than John Gatto, a former veteran of the NY public and private school domain, who addresses in his many seminars and books, the "Dumbing Us Down" of our ability to be creative thinkers and use what intellect and souls we have to connect with the enormous connection we have with the source of all life and energy our mother and father the divine couple that gave birth to us and all Creation.

Gatto makes clear the importance of the early 20th century impact that the Prussian philosophy of educating its population was adopted by the Rockefeller and Carnegie Education Trusts in the early 1900's,tied to the early work of geneticists using X-Ray experiments at the University of TX.

They learned how ruling Reptile sociopathic elites can utilize eugenics and whats known as bionomics philosophy to tweak the epigenitic aspect of human biology to create a sociopathic hardwired to their reptile central nervous system, and thus see and express ourselves to the world around us, through the sole lens of the biologic machine coupled to the Freemason Darwinian doctrine myth of evolution, that every public school adopts, to create a super-race of human beings, that become used at the service and disposal of pure satanic sociopathic ruling class elite.

Which is what our mass public schooling system has become with very little success other than testing memory for a test they keep track of, along with a complete jacket on our children s behavior and academic achievement to their standards, and thus dumbing down the population of america into becoming what they wanted, "learned helplessness" as adult children able to simply follow the orders of the line of authority above them.

Meaning..completely devoid the connection we have to our souls and that of where we come from as the children of the branch of man with our mother and father as the divine couple.

Vatican and Monarchs tied to the Leipzig connection of Skinner's box and operant conditioning, was how

RESOURCES:

TRAGEDY & HOPE WITH JOHN GATTO
JOHN T. GATTO-GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL NOW
JOHN T. GATTO STATE CONTROLLED CONSCIOUSNESS
WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION
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JUDY CRESS ENERGY UPDATE : IT’S A SELF REFLECTING UNIVERSE … KNOW YOUR SELF

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:51 PM PST

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JUDY CRESS

Energy Update Solar Storm over . Gamma Ray Burst 07/17;26 Surfing the theme is Threats of all kinds. Mostly from ef influenced fear porn ,to keep us fearful.Even the language we use is full of secret spells to hurt others,

This is crappy. So all one can do is to share their words with as much intelligent love as possible. Most folks on a quest for spiritual knowledge have seen the following statements . It’s a self reflecting universe, Know yourself ,All healing is self healing, All mastery is self mastery. Humanities problem is we don’t remember ourselves. The whole ef control system is to keep us from actually reconnecting to this illusive SELF.

Most of you folks have probably see the series of the alien movies,ef fear porn at it’s finest. An alien being is going to grow inside you exactly where your real self can reconnect & this being is going to destroy you. LOL –I actually learned from those horror movies .the mother alien was the perfect metaphor for the level of fear I buried deep ,afraid of my crazy mom. We are told by religion we have a soul & this is misdirection Your are a soul level being in this construct,over laid with ef lies etc.

So we polish & clean our soul selves by becoming fearless and responsible adults-we make the one in the mirror proud of ourselves. The last step is to go deeper and reconnect with your own Divine spirit ,energy self. This is self that gives mastery , healing & rememberance and the only guide that will tell you truth for yourself because it is your Real self. Go deep & ask sincerely & respectfully for guidance. Take care it’s intense & bumpy .pictures to show that .Love Judy Cress Russia is posting critical frequencies -very high ,solar soft -ed spewing.

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CLONING, SYNTHETICS, CHIPPING, DRONES, SOUL SCALPING, MEMORY WIPING & ERASING, MEMORY DOWNLOADING, MEMORY UPLOADING, MK ULTRA PROGRAM, PROJECT MONARCH

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:16 PM PST

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CLONING, SYNTHETICS, CHIPPING, DRONES, SOUL SCALPING, MEMORY WIPING & ERASING, MEMORY DOWNLOADING, MEMORY UPLOADING, MK ULTRA PROGRAM, PROJECT MONARCH, are all part of another huge secret kept from the masses.

Cloning Centers are the hang outs for the elites, politicians, entertainers, and so on.

Here is a nice collection of videos that will blow your mind, if you are not very awake on this subject yet.

Enjoy, some really good stuff in here.

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“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” — George Carlin

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1- 18 PLAYLIST

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THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE … THE BEAUTY IN THE MOMENT OF NOW

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 12:56 PM PST

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THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE

THE BEAUTY IN THE MOMENT OF NOW.

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HUMAN HYBRIDS … FREEMASONS : FOUNDING FATHERS OF AMERICA TAKING ORDERS FROM DISCARNATE DEITIES

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 10:04 AM PST

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Human Hybrids are Real! Secret Agenda Revealed
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BLUE UFOS or Top Secret Military Operation Off California Developing: Missiles Fired

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:45 AM PST

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Expanding on a story that was reported earlier today, Top Secret military exercises are taking place off the coast of California. Earlier today there was no word from the government, no word from LAX Airport which is having flights re-routed, and now thee appears to be more footage of what is said to be taking place there. Remember from the previous article, that U.S. military agencies were even diverting civilian aircraft in an effort to make sure not one person gets a glimpse of what exactly is going on. Is there a threat to the people on the coast land or now?

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In this most recent video, shown by DAHBOO77, there is a strange light in the sky in the exact same location that the the top secret exercises are taking place. Many reports that have come in from locals suggest that the bright light seen in the video was a missile test. What's strange, is directly in front of what is said to be a rocket, is a possible UFO is an unidentified flying object out in front of the, then it appears all hell breaks loose trying to shoot something down.
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It's anyone's guess what is really going on out there, because everything is as top secret as can be, however why fire missiles where so many people could see? None of these activities seem to add up.

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Missiles

In the first video below, ABC reports that top secret military exercises are taking place just off the coast of California, and in the process they are interrupting the normal air traffic patterns at Los Angeles International Airport. What's interesting in the first video is the overall attitude of the people interviewed. Most seem pretty annoyed with the noise level, but not much skepticism beyond that, even after all the military activity this summer with Operation Jade Helm. One local resident even goes as far as to say he's glad the military is out there making it "safer" for residents. He says he'd be more worried if they weren't'T doing anything. Some of us are a bit more skeptical.,,,

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In the second video below DAHBOO777 takes a more pragmatic approach to what is going on as he reviews some very strange military activity going on off the West Coast of the United States. It's forcing a change in Los Angeles International Airport landings late at night, meaning noise for thousands of people in the flight path… LOUD noise.

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Normally, Instead of landing from the east over Inglewood, planes begin flying from the west and over the ocean to keep noise levels down, but due to secret military operations, the airspace over the Pacific is closed to incoming flights for the next week. What doesn't sit right about this top secret military exercise, is how hush hush the whole "exercise" is. The military refuses to talk about it, the "exercise" has no official name, the airport knows nothing, and the people in the nearby communities know nothing.

The military is even diverting all passenger planes completely away from the area preventing ANYONE from even getting a glimpse of what is going on. If it is a training mission that is THAT serious, what are they training for? Is there something the people in those coast lands should be concerned about? No one is talking, and don't expect the military to warn anyone even if there was danger. Anyone with any intel on this matter please write in and share what you know…

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LOS ANGELES (KABC) reports:

Mysterious maneuvers over the Pacific are forcing a change in Los Angeles International Airport landings late at night, meaning noise for thousands of people in the flight path.

Instead of landing from the east over Inglewood, planes begin flying from the west and over the ocean to keep noise levels down, but due to secret military operations, the airspace over the Pacific is closed to incoming flights for the next week.

"We clearly understand that neighbors and communities east of the airport will experience noise and we apologize for that," said Nancy Castles, LAX public relations director.

The military is not saying what exactly is causing the change, and LAX claims it's also in the dark. Castles said all they know is planes can't be flying at low altitudes to our west.

Six years ago, ABC7 cameras captured a military operation in downtown LA. Helicopters were seen swooping between high-rises, close enough that residents were able to see armed soldiers in camouflage outside their window.

Authorities claimed it was part of a training exercise designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments and to prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployment.

What's going on this week is a mystery.

"And plus if it's a military thing it's a good thing, that means they're making it safer for us so I wouldn't let it bother me," said Steve Devosion of Inglewood. "I'd be more interested in them not doing something about what's going on than them doing something about what's going on."

One part of the operation that raises a red flag is the fact that the military is keeping the press in the dark, keeping the airport in the dark, but even more suspicious is that the military isn't letting anyone NEAR the area to see what is actually going on.

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Pictures taken from many different sources. The news is reporting they have been given conflicting information from Naval base and Coast Guard. Let the spin begin! Whatever it was it got the attention of thousands. California November 7th 2015 UFO, METEOR, TEST MISSILE?.

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WE ARE THE ONES WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:38 AM PST

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CLASS I BODIES
119
The group of bodies commonly called Human and Humanoid are Class I
bodies. The definition of Class I is a physical body which contains all
five of the Alchemical elements, namely Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and
ETHER. There is no class of body higher than Class I. The next “step up”
from Class I is to leave the worlds of forms and move up to the Planes
of pure Spirit.
Souls with Class I bodies outrank Angels and all of the other
assorted disembodied entities who are within the limits of the lower
creation or the worlds of forms. The reason they do is because a Class I
body is the only situation which provides the Soul with the “exit
opportunity” to leave the lower creation. An Angel, for example, no
matter how good or powerful it might be, cannot leave the lower creation
from its present position. It must incarnate in a Human body to do
this.
People sometimes entertain thoughts of inferiority and develop a
quite low opinion of themselves. It is unfortunate because for every
Human on the Earth there are literately thousands of entities who would
give anything to have that Human body if they could. They know what most
Humans simply do not understand.
Earth Humans have no idea of the incredible potential that the form
they are using has because they have not made the effort to develop it.
Human bodies, balanced and “tuned up” can do almost anything. For
example, they can generate the anti-gravity fields used by space
vehicles which allow them to “phase out” in one part of the physical
universe and “phase in” at any other location they choose. These devices
came into existence when Humans lost the ability to do such things on
their own. Powers such as these- as well as many others – are latent in
Earth Humans and they could have them if they would only wake up and
develop them and use them. They just won’t do it.

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Unfortunately, although Earth Humans do not know their potential,
other groups of Humanoids and lesser forms DO. And so human genetic
material has become a product in demand for other cultures – many of
which are not Class I – to seek [by abducting Humans] to use in
hybridization and amalgamation experiments to attempt to make themselves
“more human”.
And so, although no life form out ranks a Human, Earth Humans may be
facing a “Use it or Lose it” situation because if they will not make the
effort to realize their potential, other groups who know what that
potential is will gradually “screw them over” and perhaps even
eventually take them out all together. Should this happen, it is the
fault of the Earth Humans and no one else. If Earth people were anywhere
close to the full potential of their form no entity from anywhere else
would dare to challenge them. But, sadly this just is not the case.

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TEXT

https://outofthisworldx.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/text-by-w-v-vetsch-the-text-book-kept-for-the-elite-now-shared/

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ERIC COMMENTS

Who ever composed this seemed to have worked on for fifteen years lots of research on all levels but the last two chapters on soul evolution is based off the law of one material.. while I believe that information was indeed channeled I believe that race ( the same ones that are called the Babylonians on the inside ) who are the further evolved spiritual beings now then when they walked among us ( they are the same two groups depicted in Sumerian tablets that set up in the Mediterranean and South America ) they did not have a grasp on the spiritual energy system in place here ( maybe from their planet by example ) but it’s evident their understanding of the other side was limited.. today we know more then they did back then. I investigate the other side I don’t research it however I have looked at every past life regression done by others. Human souls are separate from animal species contrary to the Ra material . No one has ever said they were a cat or a dolphin in a past life ( not a legitimate regression anyway ) My own investigations communicating with spirits and regressions where we have gone back hundreds of years and several lives ..they “we” are always human. Some have lived hundreds of times …some millions . While it makes sense that souls should progress I see that the energy is very different between species. And it does not match up to what we are finding. I realize he the author is speculating but the information is not correct , at least not on what I found ….However in 77 when Ra sent us the five volumes of the law of one they still claim that you’re moving up in “density”. Your Last life you could have been an oak tree or cat or even a garden lovingly attended and that soil moves to second density to third …and that soul you tended could be your child in the next life. I see no evidence of this … And trusted spirits say the same thing which is in part why I believe it. Maybe their is an agenda in making us believe this ? Even by Ra ? ( but my belief is the Ra consciousness current ) is the same race that came here 450k years ago ( only in higher density now ) …Everyone has an agenda. —-not discounting Ra as it seems to be our hope – but why am I not getting a match up here in data ?? They should certainly know by 1977 as they manage use spiritually ) —-addressing “making souls ” It is possible for a human to create a conscious thinking entity that mimics a soul but it cannot incarnate into a human form it simply exists and can develop ( as mind blowing as that seems it’s fact ) .. I’ve talked to “them” ( as many have ) and trusted human spirits have identified who they are and their capabilities they are very limited but can cause serious harm in your life — they are attracted to negativity thrive on it and cause it ” . Only the divine spark from the creator creates – souls. Their energy is at a vibration that matches their form. You can’t take a worm soul energy and have it move to a complex human form. Next chapter on Greys : this is all based on what is out in the public forums. Greys don’t eat people and they don’t make soup of us. This makes me think this document was commissioned by the cabal to destroy faith in any assistance as these beings are higher density and positive. Some are constructs for an operator to use from a distance ( a PLF) programmable life form ( and our Gov and the U.K. Has this technology and their own “aliens ” which are negative. It’s all in the experience. They have had it since the mid 90s that I know of. The Greys are midwives of the universe. Advanced beings forms engineered no doubt for space travel and it seems they have been used in the PLF form anyway going back to the Sumerian landings. When we communicate with trusted spirits they claim that they are positive and here to help. They have a snobby attitude ( if I recall the words ) but they certainly mean no harm. My opinion is all ETs have learned they can no longer land and walk among us. They have tried several times and the hermetic teachings end up becoming a control system of distorted religions. Our people have murdered every ascended master they sent us ( prob 70) or destroyed at min or discredited them. They are going to try to awaken us and offer spiritual protection this time ( protection ) for those who make the calling for help. So the cabal ? They have no card to play except one … Send in highly credible contacts and printed info ( the Ruiner is possibly one ) to destroy your trust and faith and cause anxiety and fear so you reject their help to as they attempt to awaken and assist us into “freeing ” ourselves from this rouge ancient Babylonian black sun cult ET blood line that has been using our energy and blood to sustain them for thousands of years. Chapter 72 or 75 ? Transfer of souls ; no doubt factual though anyone can come to that conclusion ( I did and still subscribe to it ) you invite promising politicians with traces of their blood line in their veins and while they may be positive in this incarnation they take them into those little cabins with the cute names at the Grove and after a night of drinking they summon a dark shadow low Energy being ( an ancestor archon of theirs ) and it suffocates you in your bed during sleep when your Ora is damaged and low from any substance severed and through black rituals the transfer is made. The host still has brain memory to function In its current life undetected and yet their is a dark soul puppet master installed that will guide it for their agenda. They make offerings to their 40 foot stone owl and that energy gives them protection. This is how you get hundreds of functional adults to attend this ceremony and they all in unison make locust sounds with their lips. This is an example of a negative ancient ET race ( that is in our eyes evil ) Higher density ETs do not use Magic as it has karmic consequences But if you have no intention of making your way back to “source ” or creation then you don’t care. You also create an environment where most of your subjects End up repeating lives back stepping spiritual paths right along side you. This is what it’s all about opting out and taking that humble path walking in the light raising your vibration as you go to God. Great document lots of secrets and insider info but like the Ruiner they feed you that one part of disinformation which works in their favor. It’s the last card they have. They have no protection against hi density I vibrational positive Interdimensional’s that are here to “bring back knowledge” in how to Advance spiritually and finish your mission in one lifetime. The cabals biggest nightmare one day having no servants..

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OBSERVING TWO SUNS (CALIFORNIA SCOTLAND UK)

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:00 AM PST

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OBSERVING TWO SUNS

(CALIFORNIA SCOTLAND UK)

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#World Alert

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#World Alert


Protesters gather in Calais to expose mass immigration and White Genocide

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:23 AM PST

On Sunday 8th, more than one hundred protesters gathered in Calais, France, to show resistance to certain agendas enforced on the country. The event was started by a Facebook page called “We will not give the keys to Calais“, and had…

The post Protesters gather in Calais to expose mass immigration and White Genocide appeared first on White GeNOcide Project.

UK Government cuts immigration courts budget – Half a million illegal immigrants cannot be deported

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:01 AM PST

Over half a million illegal immigrants who have had their asylum claims rejected cannot be deported due to recent budget cuts. The cuts mean immigration courts cannot afford to process asylum appeals lodged by illegal immigrants. In addition to the…

The post UK Government cuts immigration courts budget – Half a million illegal immigrants cannot be deported appeared first on White GeNOcide Project.

This is the craziest thing you’ll ever see in Austria…

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:48 AM PST

This is probably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It can’t go on forever – Europe is going to snap some day and all hell will break lose. When an army of illegal immigrants marches through your streets, with the…

The post This is the craziest thing you’ll ever see in Austria… appeared first on White GeNOcide Project.

Black Politician calls for Whites to come back to South Africa

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:16 AM PST

Over the past decade, there has been a mass exodus of White South Africans, who are concerned for their safety and future. Many anti-White laws have been put in place such a land grabs on White owned farms, and affirmative…

The post Black Politician calls for Whites to come back to South Africa appeared first on White GeNOcide Project.

White Supremacists or White Separatists? Which one is it RawStory?

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:14 AM PST

RawStory recently published an article titled: "White supremacist conference proposes whites-only states: We'll 'give the blacks Manhattan'" RawStory tries to backup their use of the "White supremacist" lie by saying that the South Poverty Law Center has "identified" it as…

The post White Supremacists or White Separatists? Which one is it RawStory? appeared first on White GeNOcide Project.


#Technology

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#Technology


Xiaomi unveils 2nd gen Mi Band fitness tracker with heart-rate monitor, costs just $15

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 02:10 AM PST

xiaomi-mi-band-2

Xiaomi sure knows how to make affordable products that punch above their price point. Whether it’s an Android-powered TV, flagship smartphone or a fitness tracker. The Chinese manufacturer just updated its range of fitness trackers with the second generation Mi Band, and it offers a lot for the money.

The updated Mi Band has many of the features you’d expect to find in a basic FitBit or Jawbone tracker. It’ll help you set goals via an Android app and calculate distance travelled, calories burned and track various exercises. It can track your sleep, and has a built-in vibrator motor to alert you when receiving calls. What’s more, if you manage to pick up the more expensive 99 yuan ($15 USD) model, you’ll get a heart-rate monitor too.

Design-wise, it’s a toned-down affair. It’s essentially a metal capsule containing all the necessary sensors and components inside a basic, flexible TPU wrist-band. No watch-face or screen of any kind, just a few LED lights. Saying that, it’s designed to be waterproof, drop-resistant and can last 30 days on a single charge. In other words: It’s not fancy, but has all the features necessary to be a great phone-connected fitness band and it lasts forever.

The 2nd gen Mi Band is launching in China on November 11, and the company hasn’t announced its plans to ship internationally. However, you should still be able to pick them up on specialist Chinese tech import sites in Europe and the US cheaply. A quick search on eBay reveals that the first gen Mi Band isn’t hard to get hold of, although you may have to pay a couple of dollars extra to get it.  The 2nd gen will undoubtedly follow soon.


Filed under: Android Tagged: accessories, Android, fitbit, fitness trackers, Jawbone, Mi Band, mi band 2, xiaomi

For more news on Android, Android, and xiaomi continue reading at 9to5Google.

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Android Wear 1.4 rolling out OTA w/ new firmware change log, removal of battery life graph, more

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:34 PM PST

huawei-watch

The Android Wear companion app received an update to version 1.4 over the weekend, and these 1.x updates to the phone app are usually a sign that a new update is coming to the watch(es) as well. Tomorrow will see the introduction of Tag Heuer’s long-awaited luxury entry, so the stars might be aligning for more than just hardware announcements in the morning…

A teardown of the app reveals that next version of Wear’s firmware (possibly 6.0?) will see the ability to take advantage of the speakers found on the latest generation of watches to take calls and play sounds.

The full change log of the next version of Wear is as follows:

-Ability to play sounds and take calls on watches with a speaker
-Support for sending WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Telegram, and Nextplus messages with your voice or via touch
– New gestures to control your watch with one hand
– Battery life improvements
– Language options for Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Polish, Dutch, and Thai

Android phones already have the ability to send messages through third-party apps purely by voice. Coupled with new gestures to control your watch, it seems Google is also moving towards making voice the primary means of interaction on Wear. Battery life improvements can be a red herring for a Marshmallow update to Android Wear as improved battery life is a marquee feature of Android 6.0 on phones and tablets.

Version 1.3Version 1.3Version 1.4

Currently, the most user facing feature of the updated companion app is the removal of the battery life graph and the ability to disconnect/connect from the watch via a toggle (versus having to manually turn Bluetooth on and off). There’s also a new option to send diagnostic information to Google, though it is off by default.

The Wear update is rolling out to users right now (you can grab it on the Play Store for free) and stick to 9to5Google for continued Android Wear coverage as Tag Heuer announces their Wear device tomorrow.


Filed under: Android Wear Tagged: Android, Android Wear, android wear 1.4, app, release, update

Visit 9to5Google to find more special coverage of Android, update, and app.

What do you think? Discuss "Android Wear 1.4 rolling out OTA w/ new firmware change log, removal of battery life graph, more" with our community.

Google’s OnHub gets its first OTA software update w/ minor improvements

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:56 PM PST

onhub-google-wi-fi-router

Google’s OnHub launched a few months ago, and now the expensive router is getting its first software update. It’s not clear at this point if the update is also rolling out to the newer ASUS model quite yet, but the original TP-LINK router is definitely getting it as has been confirmed by one owner on Google+.

There doesn’t seem to be anything groundbreaking here, as many of the things listed on the change log are just improvements to what’s already there. There is “improved client device naming,” optimizations for the antenna, “expanded use of 5GHz channels,” and more.

Interestingly, as noted by Android Police, the update seems to have been able to install itself on the router without requiring a reboot. As those who own pretty much any desktop OS, a Chromecast, or an Android phone will know, this is a really nice feature to have.

Here’s the full change log, as can be found on Google’s website.

Some highlights of this software update include:

  • Improved client device naming
  • Antenna optimizations
  • Expanded use of 5GHz channels
  • Improved port forwarding performance
  • General stability improvements

Filed under: Android, Chrome/OS, Tech Industry Tagged: Android, app, fixes, minor fixes, onhub, release, update, updated

Visit 9to5Google to find more special coverage of Android, Android, and Tech Industry.

What do you think? Discuss "Google’s OnHub gets its first OTA software update w/ minor improvements" with our community.

#World Alert

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#World Alert


Ex-GAO Head: US Debt Is Three Times More Than You Think

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:48 PM PST

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By Bradford RichardsonNovember 08, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “The Hill” – The former U.S. comptroller general says the real U.S. debt is closer to about $65 trillion than the oft-cited figure of $18 trillion.
Dave Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said when you add up all of the nation's unfunded liabilities, the national debt is more than three times the number generally advertised."If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it's growing automatically absent reforms," Walker told host John Catsimatidis on "The Cats Roundtable" on New York's AM-970 in an interview airing Sunday.
The former comptroller general, who is in charge of ensuring federal spending is fiscally responsible, said a burgeoning national debt hampers the ability of government to carry out both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
"If you don't keep your economy strong, and that means to be able to generate more jobs and opportunities, you're not going to be strong internationally with regard to foreign policy, you're not going to be able to invest what you need to invest in national defense and homeland security, and ultimately you're not going to be able to provide the kind of social safety net that we need in this country," he said.
He said Americans have "lost touch with reality" when it comes to spending.
Walker called for Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan politics to come together to fix the problem.
"You can be a Democrat, you can be a Republican, you can be unaffiliated, you can be whatever you want, but your duty of loyalty needs to be to country rather than to party, and we need to solve some of the large, known, and growing problems that we have," he said.

©2015 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43366.htm


On Bended Knee to Netanyahu

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:41 PM PST

bennatobama
Despite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's in-your-face attempts to sabotage President Obama's foreign policy, Official Washington's liberal establishment is on bended knee in an obsequious show of obeisance, apparently in line with Hillary Clinton's political wishes, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

By Paul R. Pillar

November 08, 2015 “Information Clearing House” –  On the eve of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, we have gotten yet another of the statements from members of his government that are sufficiently unrestrained or unhinged to cause a flap both in the United States and Israel.

While Netanyahu's own comment about the Holocaust being a Palestinian idea is still fresh in our minds, the latest ear-catching remarks come from Ran Baratz, an inhabitant of a West Bank settlement whom Netanyahu has chosen to be chief of hasbara, the selling of Israeli policies overseas. Baratz has posted a trail of entries on Facebook that have insulted, among others, President Rivlin of Israel, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Baratz says has the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, and President Barack Obama, whom he accuses of being anti-Semitic.

Netanyahu has reacted to the flap by saying that these postings do not represent the views of his government and that he will be reviewing the appointment of Baratz. But whether Baratz keeps or loses the job of chief propagandist doesn't really matter. The backtracking that customarily follows these sorts of Israeli comments (including Netanyahu's sort-of retraction of his assertion about the origin of the Holocaust) are less representative of what this Israeli government is about than were the original comments.

The government's insulting or embarrassing of senior U.S. officials is nothing new and has happened repeatedly in the past, such as when it announced new construction of settlements in East Jerusalem while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. The playing of the anti-Semitism card as a response to criticism of Israeli government policy is habitual, on the part of not only the Israeli government but also some of its most loyal supporters in the United States.

Throughout the history of Netanyahu occasionally being pushed into saying something that could be interpreted as support for a Palestinian state, his more genuine statements, as indicated by their consistency with his actual policies, have come when he has not been pushed — such as his statementmost recently that he intended to "control all of the territory" and "live forever by the sword."

Rather than seeking a meaningless retraction or apology or mouthing of words we would like to hear, we should accept the original statements for what they are and not try to pretend that they were some sort of slip of the tongue.

Statements that denigrate others may not be a slip at all but rather part of a pattern of shifting blame, even when a particular accusation is patently false. There is the pattern of placing all blame for the violence and endless continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Palestinians, even when this includes asserting that Palestinians in general have genocidal aspirations. There is the pattern of attributing opposition to Israeli policies to ethnic bias, even when this includes calling Barack Obama an anti-Jewish bigot.

Statements that refer to Israel's own intentions should be taken as truthful and not as a slip when they reflect Israel's actual policies and practices on the ground. This certainly is true of a statement by the Israeli prime minister expressing his intention to cling forever to the occupied territories, using military force as necessary to do so.

There will be much evaluation of Netanyahu's meetings in Washington in terms of whether frictions between the two governments have been smoothed over, at least as far as the public face that they present is concerned. There already has been much commentary ahead of the visit that has essentially adopted that standard for assessing the meetings. But the kumbaya scale is not the right means for measuring success or failure of the visit. And harmonious U.S.-Israeli relations per se do not have value; harmony is valuable only if it advances U.S. interests.

Pretending there is more harmony of interests than there really is only obscures and confuses the diplomatic work that can and should be done. Such pretending also carries the additional disadvantage for the United States of associating it all the more closely with the actions of the other party in the relationship, including actions that are contrary to U.S. interests and that the rest of the world understandably condemns.

As with any bilateral relationship, being honest about differing interests and objectives provides an accurate basis on which to address problems that need to be addressed. It also clarifies where there are truly convergent interests that can be the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Major, substantial differences exist between U.S. interests and Israeli interests — at least given how the latter are defined by the current Israeli government. The differences were in full display with the strenuous efforts by Netanyahu's government to sabotage a major U.S. foreign policy priority: the multilateral agreement to restrict Iran's nuclear program.

The underlying difference on that issue was between on one hand the U.S. interest in using all available diplomatic tools to pursue nonproliferation and other goals consistent with improving regional stability, and on the other hand the Netanyahu government's objective of keeping a competitor for regional influence isolated and maintaining conflict with Iran as a bête noire in perpetuity.

Certainly major differences of interest also persist regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More generally, the gulf between the United States and Israel has grown even wider insofar as Israel (including the territory it occupies) has become an increasingly intolerant place in which civil and political rights are apportioned according to ethnicity and religious belief.

About the best outcome from the U.S. standpoint — which is the standpoint that ought to matter to Americans — of Netanyahu's meetings that could reasonably be expected given the circumstances would be for the two sides to issue a communiqué saying that they had a "frank, businesslike exchange of views."

That is the sort of language that typically describes dialogue between governments with major differences that nonetheless are willing to talk honestly about those differences and to explore ways of possibly reducing them.

The public statements that actually will come out of the meetings probably will sound much more kumbaya-like than that. Netanyahu has a strong interest in making it appear that, despite all the attempted sabotage of U.S. policy and the pokes in U.S. eyes, his government is in good graces in Washington.

We all are familiar with the realities of U.S. politics that lead players in the United States to go along with him in maintaining such an appearance. With this month's visit even a paragon of the liberal establishment such as the Center for American Progress is welcoming Netanyahu into its spaces, despite all his blatant interference in U.S. politics in a direction opposed to what CAP stands for.

That decision probably has mostly to do with how Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign sees its near-term interests. But that is distinctly different from the interests of the United States — and even, over the long term and looking beyond the current government, the interests of Israel.

Paul R. Pillar is Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution.  He is a contributing editor to The National Interest, where he writes a blog.

©2015 The National Interest.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43365.htm


Tony Blair Heading for Handcuffs and a War Crimes Indictment?

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:38 PM PST

blairiraq
Further Revelations – "Bombshells". "Burning" the Evidence

By Felicity Arbuthnot

November 08, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “GR” – "I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sort of guy, and I am." (Tony Blair, 21st October 2011, BBC1.)

Given the ongoing revelations on the extent of Tony Blair's duplicitous collusion in the illegal bombing and invasion of Iraq, it seems – to muddle metaphors – the "bunker busters" and Cruise missiles are finally coming home to roost.

In what has been dubbed "an apology" Blair even took to CNN in an interview with his pal Fareed Zakaria to – sort of – explain himself. It was no "apology", but a weasel worded damage limitation exercise as more and more revelations as to disregard for law – and to hell with public opinion – surface. The fault was that "… the intelligence we received was wrong", there were "mistakes in planning" and a failure to understand: "what would happen once you removed the regime", said Mr. Tony. Statements entirely untrue. It is also now known he plotted with George W Bush in April 2002, a year before the onslaught, to invade, come what may.

He also found it: "hard to apologise for removing Saddam." Sorry Mr. Blair, the all was lawless, illegitimate and criminal – and Saddam Hussein was not "removed", he was lynched, his sons and fifteen year old grandson extra-judicially slaughtered in a hail of US bullets – the all in a country whose "sovereignty and territorial integrity" was guaranteed by the UN.

Whatever opinions of the former Iraqi government, the crimes committed by the US-UK war of aggression and aftermath, make the worst excesses of which Saddam Hussein's Administration were accused pale by comparison.

Blair brushed off the mention of a war crimes trial and made it clear that he would trash Syria as Iraq, had he the chance. To this barrister (attorney) by training, legality is clearly inconsequential.

Now no less than the UK's former Director of Public Prosecutions (2003-2008) Sir Ken Macdonald has weighed in against Blair. That he held the post for five years during the Blair regime (Blair resigned in 2007) makes his onslaught interesting. Ironically Macdonald has his legal practice at London's Matrix Chambers, which he founded with Blair's barrister wife Cherie, who also continues to practice from Matrix Chambers.

In a scathing attack, Sir Ken states (1):

"The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions …" Referring to the CNN interview he witheringly dismissed Blair's performance saying: "… playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage."


Moreover: "It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner, George Bush, and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn't want, and on a basis that it's increasingly hard to believe even he found truly credible."

Macdonald cuttingly cited Blair's: "sycophancy towards power" being unable to resist the "glamour" he attracted in Washington.

"In this sense he was weak and, as we can see, he remains so." Ouch.

"Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that 'hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right'. But this is a narcissist's defence, and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death." No wonder Sir Ken had headed the country's legal prosecuting service.

Macdonald's broadside coincides with further "bombshell revelation" in the Mail on Sunday (2) revealing that "on the eve of war" Blair's Downing Street "descended in to panic" on being told by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that "the conflict could be challenged under international law."

There was "pandemonium", Blair was "horrified" and the limited number of Ministers and officials who had a copy of the written opinion "were told 'burn it, destroy it'" alleges the Mail.

The "burning" hysteria centered on Lord Goldmith's thirteen page legal opinion of 7th March 2003 – just twenty days before the attack on Iraq. The "pandemonium" related to the fact that at this late juncture with: "… the date the war was supposed to start already in the diary", Goldsmith was still: " saying it could be challenged under international law."

It is not known who gave the "burn", "destroy" order, but the Mail quotes their information as coming from a former senior figure in Blair's government. They then "got to work on" Lord Goldsmith. Ten days alter His Lordship produced an advice stating the war was legal. It started three days later, leading eminent international law Professor Philippe Sands to comment memorably: "We went to war on a sheet of A4."

A spokesman for Tony Blair called the claims or orders to destroy "nonsense" adding that it would be: "… quite absurd to think that anyone could destroy such a document." With what is now known re the lies, dodging and diving related to all to do with Iraq under Blair, the realist would surely respond: "Oh no it wouldn't."

The US of course stole and destroyed or redacted most of the around 12,000 pages of Iraq's accounting for their near non-existent weapons, delivered to the UN on 7th December 2002 and Blair seemingly faithfully obeyed his Master's voice or actions.

In context of the lies and subterfuge of enormity being told both sides of the Atlantic at the time, it is worth remembering George W. Bush, that same December, on the eve of a NATO summit, addressing students and comparing the challenge of the Iraqi President to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, which led to World War II.

We face … perils we've never seen before. They're just as dangerous as those perils that your fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers faced.

On 1st November this year, in an interview on BBC1, Blair was asked: "If you had known then that there were no WMDs, would you still have gone on?"

He replied: "I would still have thought it right to remove (Saddam Hussein.")

Adding: "I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat."

Thus he would, seemingly, have concocted a different set of lies to justify the assassination of a sovereign head of State.

Perhaps he had forgotten the last line of Attorney General Goldsmith's legal advice of 12th February 2003: "… regime change cannot be the objective of military action." (3)


So is Charles Anthony Lynton Blair, QC. finally headed for handcuffs and a trial at The Hague? Ian Williams, Senior Analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus, New York, has a view. He believes:

… it's increasingly serious enough to be worrying to him. And I think Tony Blair is rapidly joining Henry Kissinger and Chilean Dictator Salvador Allende and other people around the world.

Now, he's got to consult international lawyers as well as travel agents, before he travels anywhere, because there's said, (may be) prima facie case for his prosecution either in British courts or foreign courts under universal jurisdiction or with the International Criminal Court, because there is clear evidence now that he is somebody who waged an illegal war of aggression, violating United Nations' Charter and was responsible for all of those deaths.

Justice, inadequate as it might be given the enormity of the crime, may be finally edging closer for the people of Iraq as international jurisprudence slowly encroaches on Tony Blair.

Notes

  1. http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/how-tony-blair-lied-misled-and-cajoled-the-british-people-into-a-war-they-didn-t-want
  2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3298498/Burn-destroy-Pressure-builds-Blair-Chilcot-report-s-revealed-ministers-told-destroy-key-evidence-eve-conflict-showed-Iraq-War-ILLEGAL.html
  3. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/how-goldsmith-changed-advice-on-legality-of-war-2015252.html
  4. http://presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/26/435016/UK-Iraq-War-Tony-Blair-UN-Williams

Copyright © Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, 2015

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43363.htm


‘Make No Mistake About It, This Is a War’

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:33 PM PST

thisiswar

U.S. ground troops are being sent to Syria without congressional authorization. Why are so few members speaking up?

By John Nichols

November 06, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “The Nation”–  Congressman Peter Welch has done his due diligence. He has studied the circumstances on the ground in Syria and surrounding countries. He has traveled to the region as part of a congressional oversight trip. He has visited centers for refugees on the Syrian-Turkey border. The Vermont Democrat, who serves on the Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has gone out of his way to engage in debates, discussions, and inquiries regarding US policy in the region.

So the congressman's words should carry particular weight when he discusses last week's decision by President Obama to put US troops on the ground in Syria. After the president—who once declared, unequivocally, that "we're not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach" in Syria—ordered several dozen Special Operations troops into Syria for what The New York Times describes as "the first open-ended mission by United States ground forces in that country," Welch said: "Make no mistake about it, this is a war."

It is not, however, a clearly declared or authorized war.

As Welch observes: "The legal framework justifying this war is loosely tied to the fumes of a Congressional authorization approved in response to the 9/11 attack on America over 14 years ago."

That's an absurd construct, argues Welch.

"A civil war in Syria did not exist 14 years ago. ISIS did not exist 14 years ago. Neither the United States nor Russia were conducting military operations in Syria 14 years ago," notes the congressman, who says it is time for Congress to focus on the question of whether the United States should be engaged in a new war in the Middle East.

"The biggest question raised by [deployment] announcement is, 'When will Congress finally accept its responsibility?'" says Welch, who adds that "The Constitution is clear that only Congress can authorize war."

Welch is not alone in expressing concern about a military intervention that is expanding in scope and character—in Syria and in Iraq—without adequate approval or oversight from Congress.

"I am deeply concerned by escalating mission creep in Syria, especially since Congress has yet to debate the costs and consequences of this military operation,"says Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-California, a longtime supporter of the president who served as a Representative of the United States to the 68th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. "The Constitution is clear: the power to declare war rests with Congress. We serve as the voice of the American people—our actions in Congress should reflect that sacred responsibility."

Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, decries the decision to dispatch troops to Syria as "a strategic mistake."

"The Administration's announcement that it will deploy Special Operations Forces into Syria to combat ISIL marks a major shift in US policy—a shift that is occurring without congressional debate—is unlikely to succeed in achieving our objective of defeating ISIL and instead threatens to embroil the United States in Syria's civil war and could bring us into direct confrontation with the Russian Federation military and Syrian government forces,"says Schatz. "In the 16-months since the United States began its participation in the regional fight against ISIL, our military involvement has escalated without a clear sense of how our escalating involvement will achieve our strategic objectives. With ISIL's control of northern Syria, we cannot reasonably expect that the deployment of Special Operations Forces would be limited in scope or duration."

This is a big issue, yet it has received scant attention from media and political elites. As such, many Americans are unaware of the seriousness, and the potential consequences, of the Obama administration's policy shift.

There should be no question that a congressional debate is required—and needed. Americans should be brought into this discussion, and the way to do that is by raising the issue in Congress. The House and Senate should reject the flimsy excuse of a 14-year-old AUMF and vote on whether to authorize the growing intervention that the administration is now implementing across Iraq and Syria.

"Congress must act immediately to repeal the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for military force (AUMFs), which continue to be used as blank checks for endless war,"says Congresswoman Lee. "It is past time for our elected officials to recognize that there is no military solution to the problems in the region. Only a comprehensive, regionally-led strategy that addresses the underlying political, economic, humanitarian and diplomatic challenges can ultimately degrade and dismantle ISIL."

It is not certain that Congress would say "no" to intervention of the sort that Obama proposes—even if there are contingents on both the Democratic and Republican parties that believe, as Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, does, that "the fighting on the ground needs to be done by the people who live there."

There are genuine divisions on this issue. "The senator believes that the crisis in Syria will be solved diplomatically, not militarily,"says the campaign of Democratic president campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, while the campaign of Hillary Clinton says the former secretary of state "sees merit in the targeted use of special operations personnel to support our partners in the fight against ISIS, including in Syria."

This debate can, and should, be had on the campaign trail.

But it must be had in Congress.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43358.htm


Russia Wins While West Spins

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:28 PM PST

internationallaw

By Finian Cunningham

November 08, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “SCF” — Like a good laundering machine, the Western media operate an efficient spin cycle for rinsing out dirty water. No sooner had Russia's foreign ministry issued a fairly straightforward statement on Syria's political future this week, then Western media news outlets were getting all in a lather with the spin that Moscow was preparing to hang Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out to dry. What that reaction shows is that these outlets are dutifully laundering the political agenda of their governments. That agenda seems to involve getting Russia to implement, unwittingly, the Western objective of regime change in Damascus.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS as saying that the Syrian leader's hold on power was not a matter of principle for Moscow. She also spoke about other important issues: the imperative to respect the sovereign right of the Syrian people to decide the political future of their country; and that regime change in Syria would usher in even greater disaster from terrorism and refugees.

However, it was the words on Assad that got picked up and thrown into the spin cycle with haste. Britain's state broadcaster, the BBC, issued a breaking news flash with the headline: 'Russia says keeping Assad not crucial'. While American channel CNNadverted that: 'Russian leaders were opening the door for Assad's exit'.

Such so-called news items are laughably becoming more like commercial breaks. Commercial breaks between, well, more commercial breaks. Low on intelligent content and pitched to get viewers to buy somebody's tawdry product.

There was nothing further to back up either report on BBC or CNN – only a selective, speculative interpretation of the words from the Russian foreign ministry. There was no mention of the sovereign right of the Syrian nation nor of the global-scale disaster if regime change were to take place. Just a seemingly puerile gaze at the words about Assad's staying in power not being «a matter of principle» for Moscow.

What the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman actually said was this: «We have never said Assad’s staying in power is a principled aspect. We are saying that the change of regime in Syria could become a disaster not only on a local or even regional scale, but, with account for that problem with refugees that we have now, this could become a big black hole».

Russia had already warned about Western media «juggling with its words» over Syria, and in particular on attempts to wilfully distort its policy. Following the Vienna summit last weekend on Syria, there was Western speculation that Moscow had tacitly agreed  to  Assad  relinquishing  power. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sternly dismissed then what he called were «rumours».

«I heard that the rumours are being spread already that it has been or will be agreed that Assad will step down in some period of time. This is not the case,» said Lavrov.

If Western media were to provide a journalistic service instead of laundering their governments' political agenda then they might have reported that Russia's position is rightly centred on the sovereignty of Syria and on the defeat of foreign-backed terrorism in that country. That Moscow is saying that the question of Bashar al-Assad staying in power, or not, is not a matter of principle is simply stating that Russia does not view the Syrian leader as a life-long president. Assad's presidency will be subject to the democratic will of the people, which is the all-important sovereign point. What is so controversial or enigmatic about stating that? Nothing, unless there is a mischievous will to misconstrue.

Put another way, if Russia had said instead that Assad staying in power was a matter of principle for Moscow, then the Western media would no doubt have gone into double-spin mode and claimed that the Kremlin was dictating that the Syrian leader must remain in presidential office forever – regardless of the will of the electorate. One can imagine the headlines in that scenario: 'Putin lays down law to Syrian people' and so on.

Of course, Western media spinning is hardly new and the consequences of the latest dash to misinterpret will no doubt be as fleeting as a soapy bubble. But the alacrity with which Western media outlets operated on the issue is instructive.

As argued in a previous column, what appears to be the underlying purpose of Washington and its allies in the recently convened so-called peace talks over Syria is that these powers are seeking their illicit objective of regime change by alternative means. The talks are decidedly less about seeking peace or conflict resolution, as Western media advertise, quoting Western government leaders at face value.

Russia's military operation in Syria to protect the state and its sovereignty from foreign-orchestrated mercenary terror groups has dealt a devastating blow to Washington's covert military agenda of regime change. That agenda, instrumented by the deployment of mercenary terror groups, predates the outbreak of violence in Syria in March 2011 by several years, as uncovered by American journalist Seymour Hersh. Also as disclosed by former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, as well as leaked US diplomaticcables indicate from as early as 2009.

Washington and its allies are now being compelled to use a political means to achieve what they couldn't otherwise pull off by covert military means – because of Vladimir Putin's bold intervention in Syria, beginning on September 30.

Recall, too, that US Secretary of State John Kerry demanded last month, with typical haughtiness, for Russia to «bring Assad to the negotiating table». Not that there is much to discuss as far as Washington, London or Paris are concerned. Assad has to go, in their arrogant view, sooner or later.

By going into so-called «diplomacy mode», as opposed to covert terrorist-supporting mode, what the Western imperial overlords expect is for Russia to comply with a political framework concocted in order to push Assad from power. That modus operandi is a negation of Syrian sovereignty, of course. And Russia is much too intelligent to be hoodwinked by these Western charlatans.

Nevertheless, we can expect all sorts of chicanery and inducements from the West to inveigle Russia into, in effect, acceding to its regime change agenda. Notably, John Kerry appeared to be angling for such concessions from Russia this week when he said that the United States would consider cooperating militarily with Moscow against the Islamic State terror group in return for «progress» on the issue of «political transition» in Syria.

One aspect of chicanery will be continued Western claims aimed at undermining Russia's military operations in Syria. Russia's operations have inflicted severe blows against various terror groups. But those significant gains, rather than being welcomed, have perversely prompted the Western media to carry unverified reports of civilian casualties from Russia's air strikes. Last week, Western media, citing US sources, claimed that Russian strikes had hit six hospitals – claims which turned out to be false.

Also, on the day that the talks opened in Vienna last Friday, Western media reports pointedly claimed that a multiple-rocket attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma was caused by Russia's Syrian government ally. But there have been no follow-up reports on the atrocity which reportedly claimed nearly 100 lives. It would not be the first time that a massacre has been stealthily perpetrated by foreign-backed mercenaries with the intention of smearing the Assad government. (See for example the Ghouta chemical gas attack in August 2013, or the Houla massacre in May 2012, both initially blamed on government militia but later found to be likely the work of Turk or Saudi-backed al Qaeda-linked extremists.)

As the Vienna talks proceed over the coming weeks, the Western media will no doubt carry out more laundry services for Washington and its allies. High on the list will be attempts to misrepresent Russia's political position on Syria with a view to cajoling Moscow into cutting off Syria's Assad.

Western governments and their complicit media have so corrupted international law over the past two decades and more, from criminal interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, among other countries, that they no longer know the meaning of principle. They only think of price. Everybody and everything can be bought for a price, in their debased view.

Or as the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once said, «they know the price of everything, but the value of nothing».

Russia, by contrast, has conducted its policy on Syria with principle and integrity. It is standing by the sovereign right of the Syrian people, as international law obliges. In that case, Western laundering and spinning of its foul articles will simply not wash.

© Strategic Culture Foundation

The World Order: New Rules Or No Rules

Speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin given to audience at Valdai International Discussion Club XI session on 24 October 2014 in Sochi city.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43359.htm


Plagiarism and Fake Intelligence Used to Justify the War on Iraq: Copied and Pasted from the Internet into an “Official” British Intel Report

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:24 PM PST

Introduction by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, November 08, 2015

100513Fake intelligence, plagiarism contained in an official intelligence report which was used to justify war on Iraq in 2003.

Glen Rangwala's Submission to the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (June 2003). Introduction by Michel Chossudovsky (November 8, 2015)

Introduction

The damning evidence presented by Cambridge Lecturer Dr. Glen Rangwala was first revealed by Britain's Channel 4 TV on February 6, 2003, on the day following Secretary of State Colin Powell's historic Iraq WMD presentation to the UN Security Council: 

"I would call my colleagues' attention to the fine paper that the United Kingdom distributed . . . which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities."

Powell was referring to "Iraq Its Infrastructure Of Concealment, Deception And Intimidation", published on January 30, 2003.

According to Rangwala, the  British intelligence document was fake. It had not been prepared by British intelligence. It was copied and pasted from the internet by members of Tony Blair's office:   

The Downing Street authors state they drew "upon a number of sources, including intelligence material" (p.1, first sentence). In fact, they copied material from at least three different authors and gave no credit to them. Indeed, they plagiarized, directly cutting and pasting or near quoting.

A close textual analysis suggests that the UK authors had little access to first-hand intelligence sources and instead based their work on academic papers, which they selectively distorted. Some of the papers used were considerably out of date. This leads the reader to wonder about the reliability and veracity of the Downing Street document.

It was a fake document prepared on the instructions of prime minister Blair with a view to building a "credible" justification to wage war on Iraq.  

Rangwala's analysis was more than a smoking gun. It revealed the Big Lie. It invalidated Colin's Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council. In many regards, it was far more important than the leak of the Secret July 2002 Downing Street Memo:  

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

The "WMD facts" had to be "documented". Did British intelligence refuse to comply with Tony Blair's demands to produce a fast track report which would "fix the facts"?  

The "facts" were put together in a hurry (not by MI6) by Tony Blair's public relations' officials.

The report was finalized one week before Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council; the "facts" and supporting quotations were copied and pasted from the internet and inserted in an official and authoritative document.  

Plagiarism had become a means to waging war on Iraq. 

The Rangwala revelation was the "unspoken truth". It was not the object of subsequent media coverage.  It had to be suppressed because the war on Iraq had already been scheduled for March 2003

The Role of Colin Powell in Planning the War on Iraq

In retrospect, the Rangwala findings also bring to the forefront the insidious and complicit role of Colin Powell, who organized the Crawford Texas meetings in early April 2002 between Bush and Blair, as confirmed by the recently leaked emails (see below).

What these emails suggest is that Colin Powell had been entrusted in setting the stage for the war on Iraq, initially at the Bush-Blair Crawford meetings on April 5-7, 2002, leading up to his presentation of the British intelligence dossier on Iraq's alleged WMD at the UN Security Council on February 5,  2003.

Lest we forget Colin Powell played a behind the scenes role in the Iran Contra Affair. 

The Crawford meetings were intended to plan the war on Iraq. 

Colin Powell was a central political instrument. The issue is who was Behind Colin Powell?

Who was present at the Crawford meetings?

In the wake of the Iraq invasion, the plagiarized "British intelligence Iraq Dossier" presented to the UN Security Council by (former) Secretary of State Colin Powell was so to speak "forgotten".  

The plagiarism issue nonetheless confirms beyond doubt the war crimes' allegations against George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

Michel Chossudovsky, November 8, 2015


.

Plagiarism and Iraq's WMDs: British Intelligence Iraq Dossier Relied on Recycled Academic Articles

by Glen Rangwala

Below is the text presented by Dr. Rangwala to the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs 

It was presented in June 2003, in the wake of the invasion and occupation of Iraq

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmfaff/813/813we18.htm

THE PRESENTATION OF THE 30 JANUARY 2003 DOSSIER

1.  The 19-page dossier, entitled "Iraq—Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation", was released on 30 January 2003. The document begins with the statement that:

    "This report draws upon a number of sources, including intelligence material (. . ."

2.  The assertion that the intelligence agencies were involved in the production of the dossier was made more explicitly by Prime Minister Blair when he announced the release of the dossier to the House of Commons on 3 February 2003:

    "We issued further intelligence over the weekend about the infrastructure of concealment. It is obviously difficult when we publish intelligence reports, but I hope that people have some sense of the integrity of our security services. They are not publishing this, or giving us this information, and making it up. It is the intelligence that they are receiving, and we are passing it on to people."

www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk

A REVIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE 30 JANUARY 2003 DOSSIER

Sources

3.  The bulk of the 19-page document (pp 6-16) is directly copied without acknowledgement from three different sources that are on the internet. The most extensively used source is an article in the on-line Israeli journal, Middle East Review of International Affairs (September 2002), entitled "Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis".

http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue3/jv6n3a1.html

4.  The author of the piece is Mr Ibrahim al-Marashi, a postgraduate student then based at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California, who is completing a doctorate at Oxford University. He has confirmed to me that his permission was not sought; in fact, he didn't even know about the British document until I contacted him on 4 February to enquire whether his permission was given.

5.  In addition to Mr Marashi's work, there is also the use of two articles from the specialist security magazine,Jane's Intelligence Review. On-line summaries of articles by Mr Sean Boyne in 1997 and Mr Ken Gause in 2002 are on the GlobalSecurity.org website, at:

http://globalsecurity.org/intell/world/iraq/

These texts were also amalgamated in part into the UK dossier.

6.  The fact that these sources were copied is most clear from the typographical errors and anomalous uses of grammar in the original pieces that are incorporated into the Downing Street document. For example, Mr Marashi had written:

    "Saddam appointed, Sabir `Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri as head (. . .)"

There is a misplaced comma after the second word. On p 13, the British dossier incorporates the same misplaced comma:

    "Saddam appointed, Sabir `Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri as head (. . .)"

7.  Because the texts of these three authors are copied directly also results in a proliferation of different transliterations (for example, different spellings of the Ba'th party, depending on which author is being copied).

Modifications to the original articles

8.  The only exceptions to these acts of copying were the tweaking of specific phrases. For example, most of p 9 on the functions of the Mukhabarat (General Intelligence) is copied directly from Mr Marashi's article. However, Marashi writes of the Mukhabarat's role in:

    "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq".

This becomes in the British dossier:

    "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq".

Similarly, on the same page, Marashi writes that the Mukhabarat had a role in:

    "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes"

The British dossier renders this as:

    "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes".

9.  A further example is from the section on "Fedayeen Saddam" (Saddam's Self-Sacrificers). Most of this text is copied from the 1997 article by Sean Boyne. However, Boyne writes that the personnel of this organisation are:

    "recruited from regions loyal to Saddam", and refers to their original grouping as "some 10,000-15,000 `bullies and country bumpkins.'"

10.  This becomes in the British government's text, at pp 15-16, a reference to how its personnel are:

    "press ganged from regions known to be loyal to Saddam" . . . "some 10,000-15,000 bullies."

11.  The reference in Mr Boyne's article to how the organisation was made up of "bullies and country bumpkins" was shorn of its last three words in the UK dossier, perhaps to render a more threatening picture of the organisation than that contained in the original article.

12.  Numbers are also increased or are rounded up. So, for example, the section on "Fedayeen Saddam" (pp 15-16) is directly copied from Boyne's article, almost word for word. The only substantive difference is that Mr Boyne estimates the personnel of the organisation to be 18,000-40,000 (Ken Gause, in another article that was substantially copied, estimates personnel in the region of 10,000-40,000). The British dossier instead writes "30,000 to 40,000″. A similar bumping up of figures occurs with the description of the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

Errors

13.  There is at least one serious substantive mistake in the British text, on p 14, about the Iraqi organisation the Military Security Service (al-Amn al-Askari). After an initial two paragraphs copied from Marashi's 2002 article, the remainder of the text is taken from the description by Sean Boyne in his 1997 article of a wholly different organisation called the General Security Service (al-Amn al-Amm). That is, it mixes up the descriptions of two different organisations.

14.  The result is a confusion that renders the description incoherent. The description of the Military Security Service (al-Amn al-Askari) begins by relating how this organisation was created in 1992 (in a section copied from Marashi). It then describes how the Military Security Service moved headquarters in 1990 (in a piece copied from Boyne on the activities of the General Security Service), two years before the organisation was even created.

15.  Later in the same section, the UK dossier claims that the head of the Military Security Service is Taha al-Ahbabi. This is from Boyne's description of the General Security Service. In fact, the Military Security Service was headed by Thabet Khalil when the dossier was released.

FURTHER COMMENTS

16.  The information in the UK dossier is presented as being an accurate statement of the current state of Iraq's security organisations. However, it may not be anything of the sort. Mr Marashi—the real and unwitting author of much of the document—refers in his article to his primary source as being the documents captured by Coalition forces in 1991, and which are now retained by the Massachusetts-based organisation, the Iraq Research and Documentation Project. His own focus is the activities of Iraq's intelligence agencies in Kuwait in the period from August 1990 to January 1991, as this is the subject of his thesis. As a result, much of the information presented as relevant to how Iraqi agencies are currently engaged with UNMOVIC is 12 years old.

17.  When the document was first released as a Microsoft Word document, I checked the properties of the text in the File menu. It revealed the authors of the text as P. Hamill, J. Pratt, A. Blackshaw, and M. Khan. Those names were removed within hours from the downloadable file. However, in collaboration with journalists, I have since checked who these individuals are. The identity of the authors is as follows:

    Paul Hamill, a Foreign Office official;
    John Pratt, a junior official from the Prime Minister's Strategic Communications Unit;
    Alison Blackshaw, Alastair Campbell's personal assistant;
    Mustaza Khan, news editor of the 10 Downing Street website.

THE ORDERING OF THE DOSSIER

18.  The dossier is ordered as follows:

p 1 is the summary.

pp 2-5 consists of, firstly, a repetition of the comments of Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, to the Security Council in January on the difficulties they were encountering. Further claims about the activities of al-Mukhabarat follow. These claims are not backed up, and have in some cases been specifically denied by Hans Blix. For example, the UK dossier claims on p 3 that:

    "Journeys are monitored by security officers stationed on the route if they have prior intelligence. Any changes of destination are notified ahead by telephone or radio so that arrival is anticipated. The welcoming party is a give away."

This can be contrasted with the assessment of Hans Blix on 14 February 2003 that:

    "Since we arrived in Iraq, we have conducted more than 400 inspections covering more than 300 sites. All inspections were performed without notice, and access was almost always provided promptly. In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in advance that the inspectors were coming."

http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/blix14Febasdel.htm

Similarly, the UK dossier claims on p 3 that:

    "Escorts are trained, for example, to start long arguments with other Iraqi officials `on behalf of UNMOVIC' while any incriminating evidence is hastily being hidden behind the scenes."

By contrast, Dr Blix relates in the same presentation of 14 February that:

    "we note that access to sites has so far been without problems, including those that had never been declared or inspected, as well as to Presidential sites and private residences."

p 6 is a simplified version of Mr Marashi's diagram at: http://cns.miis.edu/research/iraq/pdfs/iraqint.pdf

p 7 is copied (top) from Mr Gause (on the Presidential Secretariat), and (middle and bottom) from Mr Boyne (on the National Security Council).

p 8 is entirely copied from Mr Boyne (on the National Security Council).

p 9 is copied from Mr Marashi (on al-Mukhabarat), except for the final section, which is insubstantial.

p 10 is entirely copied from Mr Marashi (on the General Security Service), except for the final section, which is insubstantial.

p 11 is entirely copied from Mr Marashi (on Special Security), except for the top section (on General Security), which is insubstantial.

p 12 is entirely copied from Mr Marashi (on Special Security).

p 13 is copied from Mr Gause (on Special Protection) and Mr Marashi (Military Intelligence).

p 14 is copied from Mr Marashi (first two paragraphs) and then wrongly copied from Mr Boyne (on Military Security). The last section, on the Special Republican Guard, is copied from Mr Marashi.

p 15 is copied from Messrs Gause and Boyne (on al-Hadi project / project 858).

pp 15-16 is copied from Boyne (on Fedayeen Saddam).

p 16: The final section, on the Tribal Chiefs' Bureau, seems to be copied from Anthony H. Cordesman, "Key Targets in Iraq", February 1998, http://www.csis.org/stratassessment/reports/iraq_argets.pdf, pg. 8

pp 17-19 make general claims about human rights in Iraq.

Dr Glen Rangwala

Newnham College

Cambridge

16 June 2003

http://www.globalresearch.ca/plagiarism-british-intelligence-iraq-dossier-relied-on-recycled-academic-articles/513


TPP, WTO, NAFTA: The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:18 PM PST

Global Research, November 08, 2015
Truth Dig 6 November 2015

tpp_worse_than_we_thought-400x209The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared.

"The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history," Ralph Nader told me when I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C.

"It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections [to be] unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws."

  A 2014 protest in Tokyo against the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. (Shizuo Kambayashi / AP)

A 2014 protest in Tokyo against the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. (Shizuo Kambayashi / AP)

The TPP is part of a triad of trade agreements that includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA, by calling for the privatization of all public services, is a mortal threat to the viability of the U.S. Postal Service, public education and other government-run enterprises and utilities; together these operations make up 80 percent of the U.S. economy. The TTIP and TiSA are still in the negotiation phase. They will follow on the heels of the TPP and are likely to go before Congress in 2017.

These three agreements solidify the creeping corporate coup d'état along with the final evisceration of national sovereignty. Citizens will be forced to give up control of their destiny and will be stripped of the ability to protect themselves from corporate predators, safeguard the ecosystem and find redress and justice in our now anemic and often dysfunctional democratic institutions. The agreements—filled with jargon, convoluted technical, trade and financial terms, legalese, fine print and obtuse phrasing—can be summed up in two words: corporate enslavement.

The TPP removes legislative authority from Congress and the White House on a range of issues. Judicial power is often surrendered to three-person trade tribunals in which only corporations are permitted to sue. Workers, environmental and advocacy groups and labor unions are blocked from seeking redress in the proposed tribunals. The rights of corporations become sacrosanct. The rights of citizens are abolished.

The Sierra Club issued a statement after the release of the TPP text saying that the "deal is rife with polluter giveaways that would undermine decades of environmental progress, threaten our climate, and fail to adequately protect wildlife because big polluters helped write the deal."

If there is no sustained popular uprising to prevent the passage of the TPP in Congress this spring we will be shackled by corporate power. Wages will decline. Working conditions will deteriorate. Unemployment will rise. Our few remaining rights will be revoked. The assault on the ecosystem will be accelerated. Banks and global speculation will be beyond oversight or control. Food safety standards and regulations will be jettisoned. Public services ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to the post office and public education will be abolished or dramatically slashed and taken over by for-profit corporations. Prices for basic commodities, including pharmaceuticals, will skyrocket. Social assistance programs will be drastically scaled back or terminated. And countries that have public health care systems, such as Canada and Australia, that are in the agreement will probably see their public health systems collapse under corporate assault. Corporations will be empowered to hold a wide variety of patents, including over plants and animals, turning basic necessities and the natural world into marketable products. And, just to make sure corporations extract every pound of flesh, any public law interpreted by corporations as impeding projected profit, even a law designed to protect the environment or consumers, will be subject to challenge in an entity called the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) section. The ISDS, bolstered and expanded under the TPP, will see corporations paid massive sums in compensation from offending governments for impeding their "right" to further swell their bank accounts. Corporate profit effectively will replace the common good.

Given the bankruptcy of our political class—including amoral politicians such as Hillary Clinton, who is denouncing the TPP during the presidential campaign but whose unwavering service to corporate capitalism assures her fealty to her corporate backers—the trade agreement has a good chance of becoming law. And because the Obama administration won fast-track authority, a tactic designed by the Nixon administration to subvert democratic debate, President Obama will be able to sign the agreement before it goes to Congress.

The TPP, because of fast track, bypasses the normal legislative process of public discussion and consideration by congressional committees. The House and the Senate, which have to vote on the TPP bill within 90 days of when it is sent to Congress, are prohibited by the fast-track provision from adding floor amendments or holding more than 20 hours of floor debate. Congress cannot raise concerns about the effects of the TPP on the environment. It can only vote yes or no. It is powerless to modify or change one word.

There will be a mass mobilization Nov. 14 through 18 in Washington to begin the push to block the TPP. Rising up to stop the TPP is a far, far better investment of our time and energy than engaging in the empty political theater that passes for a presidential campaign.

"The TPP creates a web of corporate laws that will dominate the global economy," attorney Kevin Zeese of the group Popular Resistance, which has mounted a long fight against the trade agreement, told me from Baltimore by telephone. "It is a global corporate coup d'état. Corporations will become more powerful than countries. Corporations will force democratic systems to serve their interests. Civil courts around the world will be replaced with corporate courts or so-called trade tribunals. This is a massive expansion that builds on the worst of NAFTA rather than what Barack Obama promised, which was to get rid of the worst aspects of NAFTA."

The agreement is the product of six years of work by global capitalists from banks, insurance companies, Goldman Sachs, Monsanto and other corporations.

"It was written by them [the corporations], it is for them and it will serve them," Zeese said of the TPP. "It will hurt domestic businesses and small businesses. The buy-American provisions will disappear. Local communities will not be allowed to build buy-local campaigns. The thrust of the agreement is the privatization and commodification of everything. The agreement has built within it a deep antipathy to state-supported or state-owned enterprises. It gives away what is left of our democracy to the World Trade Organization."

The economist David Rosnick, in a report on the TPP by the Center for Economic and Policy Research(CEPR), estimated that under the trade agreement only the top 10 percent of U.S. workers would see their wages increase. Rosnick wrote that the real wages of middle-income U.S. workers (from the 35th percentile to the 80th percentile) would decline under the TPP. NAFTA, contributing to a decline in manufacturing jobs (now only 9 percent of the economy), has forced workers into lower-paying service jobs and resulted in a decline in real wages of between 12 and 17 percent. The TPP would only accelerate this process, Rosnick concluded.

"This is a continuation of the global race to the bottom," Dr. Margaret Flowers, also from Popular Resistance and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said from Baltimore in a telephone conversation with me. "Corporations are free to move to countries that have the lowest labor standards. This drives down high labor standards here. It means a decimation of industries and unions. It means an accelerated race to the bottom, which we must rise up to stop."

"In Malaysia one-third of tech workers are essentially slaves," Zeese said. "In Vietnam the minimum wage is 35 cents an hour. Once these countries are part of the trade agreement U.S. workers are put in a very difficult position."

Fifty-one percent of working Americans now make less than $30,000 a year, a new study by the Social Security Administration reported. Forty percent are making less than $20,000 a year. The federal government considers a family of four living on an income of less than $24,250 to be in poverty.

"Half of American workers earn essentially the poverty level," Zeese said. "This agreement only accelerates this trend. I don't see how American workers are going to cope."

The assault on the American workforce by NAFTA—which was established under the Clinton administration in 1994 and which at the time promised creation of 200,000 net jobs a year in the United States—has been devastating. NAFTA has led to a $181 billion trade deficit with Mexico and Canada and the loss of at least 1 million U.S. jobs, according to a report by Public Citizen. The flooding of the Mexican market with cheap corn by U.S. agro-businesses drove down the price of Mexican corn and saw 1 million to 3 million poor Mexican farmers go bankrupt and lose their small farms. Many of them crossed the border into the United States in a desperate effort to find work.

"Obama has misled the public throughout this process," Dr. Flowers said. "He claimed that environmental groups were supportive of the agreement because it provided environmental protections, and this has now been proven false. He told us that it would create 650,000 jobs, and this has now been proven false. He calls this a 21st century trade agreement, but it actually rolls back progress made in Bush-era trade agreements. The most recent model of a 21st century trade agreement is the Korean free trade agreement. That was supposed to create 140,000 U.S. jobs. But what we saw within a couple years was a loss of about 70,000 jobs and a larger trade deficit with Korea. This agreement [the TPP] is sold to us with the same deceits that were used to sell us NAFTA and other trade agreements."

The agreement, in essence, becomes global law. Any agreements over carbon emissions by countries made through the United Nations are effectively rendered null and void by the TPP.

"Trade agreements are binding," Flowers said. "They supersede any of the nonbinding agreements made by the United Nations Climate Change Conference that might come out of Paris."

There is more than enough evidence from past trade agreements to indicate where the TPP—often called "NAFTA on steroids"—will lead. It is part of the inexorable march by corporations to wrest from us the ability to use government to defend the public and to build social and political organizations that promote the common good. Our corporate masters seek to turn the natural world and human beings into malleable commodities that will be used and exploited until exhaustion or collapse. Trade agreements are the tools being used to achieve this subjugation. The only response left is open, sustained and defiant popular revolt.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/tpp-wto-nafta-the-most-brazen-corporate-power-grab-in-american-history/5487363


Look Who’s in Charge of UK Government Cyber Security

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:12 PM PST

Global Research, November 08, 2015

Matthew_Gould-400x254A chilling remark from a House of Lords debate just caught my eye.

Column GC355 in Hansard, the verbatim report of proceedings of the UK parliament, dated 4 November 2015, said:

Lord Mendelsohn: We welcome the appointment of the former British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, who will have a key role in cyber security inside the Cabinet Office – a very useful and important position.

Sure enough, the UK government's website confirms that Gould is now director of cyber security and information assurance at the Cabinet Office. "He and his team are focused on keeping Britain safe from cyber attack, through delivering the UK's Cyber Security Strategy."

They must think we have very short memories. As Britain's first Jewish ambassador to Israel, Gould described himself as a "passionate" Zionist and while in Tel Aviv he was instrumental in setting up the UK-Israel Tech Hub. In the words of MATIMOP (the Israeli Industry Centre for Research and Development), the hub was established

to promote partnerships in technology and innovation between Israel and the UK, and is the first initiative of its kind for the British government and for an embassy in Israel. The hub's creation followed an agreement between prime ministers David Cameron and Binyamin Netanyahu to build a UK-Israel partnership in technology.

Three years ago Cameron appointed venture capitalist Saul Klein as the UK Tech Envoy to Israel with the task of promoting the partnership, leading UK technology missions to Israel, bringing Israeli start-ups to Britain, and hosting technology events in both countries.

MATIMOP quotes Britain's National Health Service as an example of successful UK-Israel technology collaboration. The NHS

has now formed strong collaborations with Israeli life sciences companies conducting clinical trials in the UK. The cooperation was made as part of the burgeoning partnership between Israel and Britain's life sciences industries initiated by the UK-Israel Tech Hub.

Driven by the Israel lobby

Four years ago Craig Murray, a former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, argued that British policy was being driven in an underhanded fashion by the Israel lobby. He linked Gould with the Fox-Werritty scandal and raised questionsabout meetings between disgraced former Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Fox's friend/adviser, Adam Werritty (who was backed financially by Israel lobbyists but had no security clearance and therefore no authorised role) and Gould.

Murray wrote to Gould asking when he first met Werritty, how many times he had met him, and how many communications of every kind had passed between them. He was told these questions would be answered in Cabinet Secretary O'Donnell's investigation. "But Gus O'Donnell's report answered none of these questions," wrote Murray. "It only mentioned two meetings at which Fox, Gould and Werritty were all three present…"

This prompted Murray to dig further. "There were at least six Fox-Werritty-Gould meetings, not the two given by O'Donnell… Matthew Gould was the only British Ambassador who Fox and Werrity met together. They met him six times. Why?"

Murray, with many useful sources from his days as an ambassador, claimed to have serious evidence connecting Gould with a secret plan to attack Iran, but the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Secretary blocked questions. Murray published his story, "Matthew Gould and the plot to attack Iran", here.

In it he pointed out that

Matthew Gould does not see his race or religion as irrelevant. He has chosen to give numerous interviews to both British and Israeli media on the subject of being a jewish ambassador, and has been at pains to be photographed by the Israeli media participating in Jewish religious festivals. Israeli newspaper Haaretz described him as "Not just an ambassador who is Jewish, but a Jewish ambassador". That rather peculiar phrase appears directly to indicate that the potential conflict of interest for a British ambassador in Israel has indeed arisen.

He went on to say that Gould stood suspected of long term participation with Fox and Werritty "in a scheme to forward war with Iran, in cooperation with Israel". The stonewalling by O'Donnell and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office led Murray to conclude that "something very important is being hidden right at the heart of government".

Labour Member of Parliament Paul Flynn remarked that no previous ambassadors to Israel had been Jewish so as to avoid conflict of interest and accusations of going native. He immediately came under intense flak. Flynn too asked about meetings between Werritty and Gould, as some reports suggested that Gould, Werritty and Fox discussed a potential military strike on Iran with Mossad. "I do not normally fall for conspiracy theories," said Flynn, "but the ambassador has proclaimed himself to be a Zionist and he has previously served in Iran."

Fox had earlier made the idiotic claim: "Israel's enemies are our enemies" and "in the battle for the values that we stand for… Israel's enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we all stand together". The Jewish Chronicle hailed him as "a champion of Israel within the government". Furthermore, Fox continually rattled the sabre against Iran which, of course, was no threat to Britain but is regarded by Israel as a bitter enemy. Iraq too was Israel's enemy, not ours. Yet Fox, according to the theyworkforyou.com, voted "very strongly" for the Iraq war. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Afghanistan.

Gatekeepers or fifth columnists?

Given that Fox so eagerly waved the flag of a foreign military power and was a man with dangerous beliefs and demonstrably weak judgement, how could those who appointed him not see that he was unemployable as a minister of the British Crown – unless they were similarly tainted?

When the Werritty relationship came to light Fox jumped before being flung from the battlements. But the good people of North Somerset, in their wisdom, re-elected him at the general election last May. He's already on the road to political rehabilitation among the Conservative high command.

Gould's new job as head of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA) involves giving strategic direction to cyber security and information assurance for the UK. This includes  internet crime, working with private sector partners on exchanging information, and engaging with international partners in improving the security of cyber space and information security. Does it seem right for such a person to be in charge of crucial security matters at the heart of our government? What was in fellow Zionist David Cameron's mind when he appointed him?

Well, here's a possible clue. In March of this year Francis Maude, the previous Cabinet Office minister responsible for cyber security, announced three UK-Israel academic collaboration ventures with cyber research funding, the partnerships being University of Bristol/Bar Ilan University, University College London/Bar Ilan University and University of Kent/University of Haifa. They'll be working together on six specific areas of research:

  • identity management
  • governance: regulating cyber security
  • privacy assurance and perceptions
  • mobile and cloud security
  • human aspects of security or usable security
  • cryptography.

This builds on existing UK-Israel cooperation. Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on digital cooperation in March 2014.

Still sitting comfortably? Only this week the Cameron government was lecturing us on threats to national security and announcing plans to trawl through our personal emails and web browsers in order to "keep us safe". The question is, who trawls Gould's private emails?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/look-whos-in-charge-of-uk-government-cyber-security/5487359


Israel Terrorizes Hebron Residents. Settlers urge Soldiers to Kill the Palestinians.

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:07 PM PST

Global Research, November 08, 2015

1024px-Hebron_redeployment_1997-400x430Hebron is a microcosm of Israel's war on Palestine, unrestrained state terror, at least 22 of its residents murdered by security forces since October 1 alone.

Israel's claim about "continu(ing) to allow as normal a fabric of life as possible for all residents" is baloney – B'Tselem calling it "a far cry from (horrific daily) reality."

"There has been no 'normal fabric of life' in Hebron for many days, and the measures taken in the name of security are draconian and not dictated by reality," it stressed.

Tel Rumeidah neighborhood near Hebron's Old City is besieged, completely closed off and isolated – access granted only to so-called "registered residents," forced to endure intrusive security checks on entering or leaving, discouraging free movement altogether.

Some residents refused to submit their names to a security list required for them to enter their own homes freely. Others are denied entry for various intolerable reasons.

Tel Rumeida resembles a ghost town. Visible residents are settlers, many openly displaying guns, protected by heavily armed soldiers in combat gear.

Palestinian shops and other businesses were closed, their owners denied access. Draconian measures were imposed on area villages and towns, sealed off like Hebron.

All vehicles leaving the city of Yatta are stopped, contents and passengers intrusively searched, making travel impossible. All youths are suspected "terrorists."

Thousands of Palestinians endure severe disruptions to their daily lives, collectively punished, commonplace Israeli policy – US major media ignoring what's ongoing entirely, reporting nothing, horrific human rights abuses unnoticed.

Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements (YAS) is an activist group against Israeli colonization of Palestine – "through non-violent popular struggle and civil disobedience," explaining:

Ostensibly to protect approximately 600 fundamentalist Israelis that have forcibly established a settlement right in the heart of Hebron, the Israeli state has imposed on the Palestinian residents of the city a regime of forced evictions, curfews, market closures, street closures, military checkpoints, subjection to military law including frequent random searches and detention without charge, and lack of protection from rampant settler violence, which has pressured approximately 13,000 Palestinian civilians to flee their homes in the Hebron city center, turning it into a virtual ghost town.

The area is surrounded by hostile settlements, Palestinian residents terrorized by harassment, violence, and vandalism, Israeli closed military zones imposed to displace them from their own land – forcing them to leave, preventing their return, confiscating their property and possessions, whatever they can't take with them.

YAS coordinator Issa Amro said Hebron "is besieged. Soldiers storm Palestinian homes pre-dawn, evicting their residents, taking them over.

Settlers urge them to kill the Palestinians. "They are rejoicing that they took over my home and building," Amro explained. "One of the soldiers said that they were (raiding the home) as punishment for speaking to the international media about what's happening in Hebron."

The raid happened hours after heavily protected settlers attacked Hebron area Palestinian homes. Besieged residents call draconian conditions intolerable.

Overnight Saturday into early Sunday morning, soldiers kidnapped 18 Hebron area Palestinians, at the same time storming and ransacking homes.

On Sunday, Israeli media said Netanyahu will offer Palestinians supposed goodwill gestures when he meets with Obama on Monday, aimed at easing tensions, a shameless ploy to try ending justifiable resistance, another unconditional surrender scheme likely to be denounced and rejected by long-suffering people demanding freedom.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.


November 7: The eternal values of the Revolution

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 08:09 AM PST

56725

AP Photo

November 7, 1917, the Great Socialist Revolution in Russia. Medieval and feudal values were swept aside and people’s power was internationalized, creating public services of excellence, making available public resources as universal property, implementing regimes of social mobility and externalizing the Revolution to the four corners of the Earth.

November 7, in the Gregorian Calendar, marks the date of the October 25 Revolution in the Julian Calendar, the Great October Socialist Revolution, which brought medieval societies into the front line of development within one generation, which created a worldwide revolution enshrining workers’ rights, women’s rights and human rights into Constitutional law around the world.

The eternal values of the Revolution

The Russian Revolution was an exercise in power to the people, implementing democracy, freeing serfs, creating the proletariat, freeing women and giving them the vote, taking children out of the mines, creating Trade Unions which defended workers’ rights against the hegemonistic tendencies of societies controlled by Capitalists.

It was an exercise in massive programs of literacy, freeing people constrained by the imposed yoke of ignorance, being unable to read or write or communicate, it was an exercise in the creating of public services – universal healthcare, universal education, the right to a house, the right to a job, the right to social mobility, where excellence and endeavor were rewarded over family connections or the power to bribe.

It was an exercise in a universal movement of goodwill, brotherly and sisterly relations being favored over differences in race, in creed, in ethnicity, in color; it was an exercise in the implementation of social leaning programs worldwide. Whole societies and countries were freed from the yoke of imperialism, colonies were disbanded, people were educated, people were empowered, women were given universal rights, universally.

Providing universal and free public services

Public services existed for the first time in developing countries which had been the playgrounds of the rich and prosperous from the northern hemisphere, more specifically North America and Western Europe, countries which had enslaved millions of people in the Negro Holocaust, i.e. slavery. They have yet to apologize and make reparations.

The climate was one of goodwill, one of providing knowledge, discussing ideas and enshrining ideals in Constitutions. For the general goodwill of Humanity. The idea was a free education, the idea was security of the State against invasion from imperialist powers, the idea was safety on the streets, with people free to venture out at any time of day or night, free to do what they wanted, the idea was to provide free medical care, including dental care. The idea was to export these universal rights and values to all countries.

It worked, and it was successful. The model existed, was implemented and enjoyed, it was celebrated, it freed millions of people from the yoke of imperialist tyranny, it provided an example, a model and a path to follow. It also provided a beacon of light for the future, after the neo-imperialist wave which is the reactionary knee-jerk force we feel today and see around the globe in the wars provoked by the 666 – the Big Six Lobbies which shape the policies of the FUKUS Axis (France-UK-US) and their NATO poodles (Banking, Finance/Economics, Energy, Food, Pharmaceutical, Weapons).

The Great October Revolution brought previously unknown benefits to countless millions of people, despite having been forced to defend itself right from the beginning when the countries which have historically fostered and sponsored social terrorism interfered in the Russian Civil War; the Great October Revolution surpassed the provocations from external forces creating dissent through acts of terrorism and sabotage via agents provocateurs; the Great October Revolution created an industrialized society capable of withstanding and destroying the Hordes of Hitler and then decades later, spending 250 billion USD a year (forty years ago), providing public services for peoples enslaved by those exponents of social terrorism.

Ninety-eight years later, we can see that the world has changed little, and that the values of the Great October Revolution continue to strike a chord with those of the vast majority of humankind, being core values in the hearts and minds of Humanity. Those who practiced social terrorism, continue to practice social terrorism.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru 

(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)

*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/08-11-2015/132530-november_revolution-0/


Jason Carter @carter4governor: historic step forward

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Myanmar's historic parliamentary elections drew long lines of enthusiastic voters Sunday and represent a milestone in the Southeast Asian nation's transition to Democracy, said the incoming chairman of the Carter Center, which monitored the process

Speaking from Yangon, Jason Carter — former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's grandson — said he met voters who showed up hours before the polling stations opened and then waited patiently for their turn to cast ballots.

"For the most part, it was excitement," said Carter, 40, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is on his first overseas trip as the incoming chairman of the Carter Center, an independent election observer organization based in Atlanta. "You had a lot of folks who were very calmly waiting in very long lines in order to cast ballots.

A nation of more than 50 million people, Myanmar has been ruled for decades by its military, which controls important ministries and a quarter of the seats in parliament. That parliament is expected to choose a president in March.

#Asian

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#Asian


DAP to contest next election under PAN

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 02:39 AM PST

mt2014-corridors-of-power

DAP has already spoken to Muhyiddin Yassin and the ex-Deputy Prime Minister has agreed to help resolve this problem when he becomes Prime Minister. So DAP is backing Muhyiddin in the effort to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In the last general election in 2013, the DAP candidates went to the nomination centre with two surat watikah — one signed by DAP and the other signed by PAS. The reason for this was because they were not sure whether the DAP surat watikah was valid since they were signed by a Secretary General who was not legally appointed.

You see, in December 2012, DAP's party election was declared invalid due to the attendance of hundreds of illegal delegates-voters and in April 2013, one month before the general election, DAP was told to correct this discrepancy by holding its AGM and party election again, and this time properly.

The Registrar of Societies (RoS) decided to allow DAP some leeway and because of this the Election Commission (SPR) allowed DAP to contest the general election under its own party banner even though the surat watikah was signed by a Secretary General who was appointed by a CEC that should not be in office until DAP holds its party election again.

That was almost three years ago but since then DAP has done nothing. Hence the issue is: if its 2012 AGM and party election is invalid and since its CEC, therefore, is also invalid, and since the Secretary General appointed by the CEC would equally be invalid, can he still sign the surat watikah in the next election?

To avoid the possibility of the DAP candidates not being allowed to contest under their own party banner, they will be going to the nomination centre with two surat watikah— one under DAP and the other under PAN. If the election commission will not allow the DAP surat watikah to be used then they will use the PAN surat watikah instead.

The other problem is, some states might say yes and some might say no. So in some states the DAP candidates might be contesting as DAP candidates while in some states they might be contesting as PAN candidates.

This will create utter confusion if some DAP wakil rakyat are DAP wakil rakyat while some are PAN wakil rakyat. Hence, to avoid this confusion, unless the RoS and SPR can both declare beforehand that there are not going to be any issues, DAP candidates would all be contesting under PAN.

DAP has already spoken to Muhyiddin Yassin and the ex-Deputy Prime Minister has agreed to help resolve this problem when he becomes Prime Minister. So DAP is backing Muhyiddin in the effort to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Yesterday, DAP said it is in the interest of the opposition that they allow Najib to stay until the next general election. However, in the interest of DAP, they need to help oust Najib so that Muhyiddin can take over, after which he will help solve DAP's illegal status issue.

This is another reason DAP was so keen to break up PAS and create PAN. DAP needs another party to contest the next general election. They cannot use PKR because the Chinese in PKR just hate the Chinese in DAP, since way back.

DAP also cannot use PAS after saying so many bad things about the party. So they created a new party called PAN, which is neither PKR nor PAS, and now will use that party to contest the next general election like what they almost did with PAS in the last general election.

Using PAN to contest the next general election is supposed to be a backup plan in case DAP candidates cannot contest under their own party banner. However, as it stands now, using PAN is the first alternative as the status of DAP is far from resolved and which will never be resolved since DAP refuses to comply to the RoS instruction to hold its December 2012 party election again.

Hence Muhyiddin taking over as Prime Minister is very critical for DAP, and if that is not going to happen then PAN would instead be very critical to DAP, unless the RoS and SPR are both prepared to close both eyes like they did in the 2013 general election.

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Now back to the Altantuya issue

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 02:28 AM PST

mt2014-corridors-of-power

So there you are, four bullets and all duds. So the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion issues are not going to bring down Najib after all. So they may need to go back to the Altantuya Shaariibuu issue and try, yet again, to use that issue to force Najib's resignation.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWWR

Raja Petra Kamarudin

As I have said many times before, if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is still Prime Minister by Christmas this year then he is going to still be Prime Minister for a couple of Christmases to come. It is very crucial, therefore, that Najib gets ousted by December 2015 at the very latest and should not be allowed to celebrate Christmas as Prime Minister.

That means this next one month is very critical and many things are going to happen in this next one month.

First of all the anti-Najib forces need to rally at least 112 Members of Parliament to their cause and make sure that the vote of no confidence in Parliament succeeds. Currently they are struggling to get 90, let alone 112. So that Plan is out the window (what is it again, Plan D, E or F?). Anyway, whatever alphabet it is, that Plan is no longer workable.

So the next hope is for the 1st December 2015 PAC hearing when Arul Kanda Kandasamy will be testifying and will be replying to questions regarding 1MDB. The anti-Najib forces have heard that Arul Kanda is well-prepared and will be able to satisfy all the PAC questions.

And that is why Tony Pua wants Arul Kanda to debate Rafizi Ramli instead of testifying at the PAC hearing. He knows they are going to fail at the PAC hearing so he hopes that if Arul Kanda goes on with the debate he would be barred from testifying in the hearing.

Third would be Najib's speech in Parliament when he will be informing Parliament about the details of the RM2.6 billion. MACC has already confirmed that the money did not come from 1MDB and Arul Kanda would be able to prove that on 1st December.

Finally has to be the Umno General Assembly next month. Muhyiddin Yassin plans to openly ask Najib to resign and he hopes that the ripple he starts will turn into a tidal wave and maybe even into a Tsunami. However, this plan is already known and will most likely not gain traction. So the ripple is going to end up as a fizzle.

So there you are, four bullets and all duds. So the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion issues are not going to bring down Najib after all. So they may need to go back to the Altantuya Shaariibuu issue and try, yet again, to use that issue to force Najib's resignation.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has got in touch with Sirul Azhar Umar in Australia and is trying to get him to testify that Najib had instructed him to kill Altantuya. Sirul, however, has refused.

The impression being created is that Sirul was Najib's bodyguard. Actually he was not. He was the Prime Minister's bodyguard, at that time Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. However, a few days before Altantuya was murdered, someone switched Sirul's duty roster and sent him to Pekan as Najib's escort.

Who did that and why it was done has never been revealed because the documents regarding this 'transfer' has disappeared. Someone does not want it known that Sirul was not really Najib's bodyguard and had been asked to escort Najib to Pekan just for that one occasion to create the impression that he works for Najib.

It has now been revealed that Sirul was actually Dr Mahathir's bodyguard and later became Abdullah's bodyguard. But they needed to create this story that Sirul was Najib's bodyguard to link Najib to the murder. And now Dr Mahathir wants Sirul to say that Najib did, in fact, ask him to murder Altantuya.

It looks like all those earlier moves to oust Najib have failed and they need to revert to the Altantuya issue as the last resort. If not the plan for Najib to celebrate Christmas in retirement is as good as dead in the water.

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Pas gets greenlight to table Hudud bill

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:20 AM PST

hudud

(NST) – Pas can now proceed with the tabling of a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament that seeks to enable Kelantan to implement its Hudud law.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang can go ahead with the tabling following today’s High Court dismissal of a suit that sought to halt the move.

Shamsul appeared for co-defendants Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and his three deputies, whom with main defendant Hadi were sued by plaintiff Mansoor Saat and three others.

Hadi’s counsel Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan said Judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad allowed his client’s bid to strike out the suit as the four plaintiffs had no right or “locus standi” to even initiate the legal action.

Takiyuddin said nothing in the court documents showed whether the four plaintiffs – Mansoor, Azira Aziz, Hasbeemaputra Abu Bakar and Hazwany Jamaluddin – are voters or supporters of Pakatan Rakyat, who could potentially be affected by the Bill-tabling.

“The court found the suit premature, academic, theoretical and presumptuous as the thing has not even happened,” said Takiyuddin in reference to Hadi’s Bill – which seeks to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 – having not even been debated during the current ongoing Dewan Rakyat session.

Pas had sought the amendment in order to expand the powers of the Kelantan Syariah courts to pass judgments in cases linked to the state’s Hudud law, which was passed by the state legislature on March 19.

On that date, the Kelantan legislature passed the Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 (Amendment 2015) to enable the implementation of Pas’ Hudud law in the state.

However the state is still hobbled by the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, which limits state Syariah courts to handing out sentences not exceeding three years’ jail, RM5,000 fine, or six strokes of the rotan.

Today Takiyuddin said the High Court ruled that Hadi – as Marang Member of Parliament – had abided by proper Parliamentary laws and rules such as the Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 49 when he tabled the Bill.

“According to the Government Proceedings Act 1956, the court cannot allow injunctions (restraining order) against government officials,” said Takiyuddin in reference to co-defendants Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and his three deputies – Datuk Ismail Mohamed Said, Datuk Ronald Kiandee and Datuk Roosme Hamzah.

Takiyuddin said the court also found the four plaintiffs’ mode of initiating the legal action was wrong as they should have begun it as a judicial review rather than the present originating summons suit.

“The court found the action (suit) was an abuse of court process,” said Takiyuddin, adding that the court dismissed the suit with no order to cost. Counsel Farez Jinnah – who acted for Mansoor, Azira, Hasbeemaputra and Hazwany – said he would seek further instructions from his clients on the next course of action.

In early June, Mansoor and the three plaintiffs filed the constitutional challenge against Hadi’s attempt to table the Bill that sought to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act.

Hadi filed the striking-out application – supported by Pandikar Amin, Ismail, Ronald, and Roosme – on July 2.

 

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Ambiga willing to work with Mahathir to fix government

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:16 AM PST

Ambiga Sreenevasan

(The Star) – Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (pic) is willing to work with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad only if he is willing to fix the country's system of government.

The former Bar Council President said this at the launch of the book "Malaysia Post-Mahathir: A Decade of Change at Sunway University" on Monday.

"If Dr Mahathir is concerned about what has happened over the past 30 years, if indeed he is trying to fix it as opposed to just kicking out one prime minister, then I think we should be open to working with anyone who is trying to do that," said Ambiga.

She said that the whole system has to be changed beyond replacing Najib as Prime Minister.

Ambiga added that she saw things she had never expected to see after Dr Mahathir stepped down.

“I would never thought I would have seen Dr. Mahathir being investigated by the police, I never thought that I would see Dr Mahathir at Bersih," said Ambiga.

She added that she never thought she would see Dr. Mahathir, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and many of the old guard coming out and lamenting abuses of power and the failure of Malaysian institutions.

Ambiga also commended the efforts made by the group of prominent Malays as they were made up of high profile individuals who were trying bring about change

She added however that she was sceptical as to whether anyone could get through to the present regime as to what is needed to make things change in this country.

Ambiga said that these individuals would be challenging a "fortress of power" created by Dr Mahathir who created a system where all power was concentrated in the hands of the prime minister

"I don't just hold Najib responsible for our woes today, I hold the entire cabinet responsible for our woes today. They are supposed to run this country honestly and efficiently and that is something that is severely lacking," said Ambiga.

"Mahathir Post-Mahathir: A Decade of Change" is being published by Singapore based Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited.

The book was edited by Professor James Chin of the University of Tasmania and  Prof Joern Dosch of the University of Rostock.

 

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Dr M the champion of Malay supremacy, says prof in book

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:08 AM PST

Professor-James-Chin

Professor James Chin says former PM supports race-based politics and thinks Najib Razak's 1Malaysia gives false hope to non-Malays of equal treatment.

(Free Malaysia Today) – Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a firm supporter of Malay supremacy and thought nothing of racial discrimination levelled against those of other races, said a professor in his latest book.

In the book, 'Malaysia Post-Mahathir: A Decade of Change?' Professor James Chin of the University of Tasmania, writes, "For Mahathir, 'Ketuanan Melayu' (Malay supremacy) is the cornerstone of Malaysian politics and of political stability in Malaysia.

"In his view, Najib's 1Malaysia not only undermines Malay supremacy but gives false hope to the non-Malay community that they may get political equality."

This critique was made in the chapter "Identity Formations in Contemporary Malaysia: Traversing and Transcending Ethnicity."

The report in The Star Online also said that according to Chin, Mahathir was the country's biggest "roadblock" in its effort to free itself from an "ethnic-based (and increasingly Islamic-based) political system."

He added, "Mahathir is one of the strongest supporters of race-based politics in Malaysia and does not see racial discrimination against the non-Malay population as a problem."

He also said that Mahathir, despite having retired so long ago, still saw himself as the "ultimate arbitrator of Malaysian politics" and that "For him, Malaysia belongs to Umno, an Umno with his imprint."

READ MORE HERE

 

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Can G25 be above politics?

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:04 AM PST

g25

To call for moderation and good governance is to make a political statement

T K Chua, Free Malaysia Today

Today's statement by G25, the group of prominent retired Malay civil servants and scholars, is an interesting read. The group said it wished to remain "non-partisan" and "above politics." It said it was keen only to focus on governance, the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability, the independence and professionalism of public institutions and moderation in Islam, among other things.

Most of us would agree that these are noble objectives. But can these objectives be achieved by being non-partisan and above politics?

To speak of moderation and good governance is to make a political statement and to be partisan. Moderation is against extremism and parochialism. Good governance and transparency are against corruption, opaqueness and incompetence.

If G25 had asked itself why it was formed in the first place, its present stand for moderation, integrity, strong institutions and good governance would have become clearer. Obviously, it must have realised that our nation has probably taken a wrong turn and has been on the wrong path for some time.

Isn't extremism a political statement? Aren't religious bigotries and prejudices intentional and political? Aren't corruption, opaqueness, abuse of power, erosion of institutional independence manifestations of political manoeuvring and orchestration?

If all these problems are borne out of partisan politicking and methodical consolidation of power, how do the non-partisan and above-politics approach help?

If we stand for something, why pretend otherwise? What is so wrong in taking a partisan stand for moderation? What is so abhorrent in being political to solve political problems?

If G25's members have talked to the Malay Rulers and past and present political leaders as reported, they must have talked about national issues that have political, social and economic ramifications. They must have talked about reforms and changes, which have implications on the roles of leadership.

How could G25 avoid partisanship and remain apolitical when the issues it is concerned with have much to do with the civil service becoming politicised, some agencies intentionally becoming parochial, and some public institutions or branches of government being seen as taking sides?

READ MORE HERE

 

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Najib will stay until youth leaders step up

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:48 PM PST

najib-g25

The lack of leadership material in the country means a shift in power is near impossible.

Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today

Prime Minister Najib Razak will likely remain Prime Minister for the foreseeable future, even after the next general election. Whether he's besieged by controversy or not, a weak leader is only as weak as his opponents are strong, and with each passing day, it seems increasingly clear that Najib's opponents just don't have what it takes to depose him.

With news that G25, the group of eminent Malay figures who emerged as a response to growing conservatism in the country, has rejected an overture by Muyhiddin Yassin and Mahathir Mohamad, it looks like Najib's enemies no longer have the clout to remove him.

Among all the Prime Minister's detractors, it is the man who handpicked him that has been loudest in the call to remove him, and whatever his agenda, many Malaysians have entrusted him with their voices. It's his endless campaigning and refusal to be silenced that has led to the anti-Najib sentiment bubbling at the top of public opinion. Many consider him the only man with the credibility in Umno to affect any change against Najib.

However, G25's rejection means that the moderate and liberal Malays are not willing to support Mahathir and his agenda. With Umno and the conservatives looking more impregnable by the day, it seems like the elder statesman's campaign is beginning to run out of steam. With the outcome of several international investigations remaining as the last moving gearwheel in Mahathir's plans, it is unlikely Najib will be removed before GE14, or even after it.

Read more here

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Tun Dr Ismail’s son wants Jakim abolished

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:45 PM PST

TAWFIK_ISMAIL_TTDI_05112015_TMIKAMAL_ARIFFIN_02

(TMI) – “Jakim is an advisory body to the government, but constitutionally it really has no role. Islam is the province of the sultan of the state, it has nothing to do with the government.”

There was a time in the country’s history when the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) did not exist, Putrajaya did not tell Malaysians how to practise their faith, and no one batted an eye when Muslims owned dogs.

And the former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman’s eldest son, Tawfik Ismail, wants those days back.

The main step is to dissolve Jakim, Tawfik said during an interview in conjunction with the release of “Drifting into Politics”, a collection of his late father’s writings during the nation’s formative years, edited by Tawfik and academic Ooi Kee Beng.

Jakim was created during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad‘s time and seems to serve no other purpose than to intervene in the personal lives of Malaysians, Tawfik told The Malaysian Insider when met at his house in Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

“I think Jakim should be abolished. I don’t think Jakim should exist. What is the government afraid of? You have 13 muftis with 13 different fatwas and 13 different ways of approaching it (religion).

“What is the purpose of Jakim? Halal certificates? That can go to the health ministries, trade ministry. What else does Jakim do? Print the Quran? We have a communications minister,” said the softspoken, yet candid, 64-year-old former MP.

Naysayers may argue that Jakim is needed to “protect” the sanctity of Islam, but Tawfik was quick to point out that the Agong, sultans, imams (Muslim scholars) and muftis already filled that void.

“Jakim is an advisory body to the government, but constitutionally it really has no role. Islam is the province of the sultan of the state, it has nothing to do with the government.”

So which areas of Muslim life should the government intervene in? Tawfik flat-out said nothing at all.

“National integration in this country is the biggest challenge. How do you integrate the nation if you are going around this route of looking for faults among Muslims?” he asked.

But, Tawfik clarified that his views on dismantling Jakim were his own, and that G25, the group of retired Malay top civil servants of which he is a member, did not share them.

G25 does, however, want Jakim to justify its existence as well as the hundreds of millions of ringgit it receives from the federal budget each year, which he said could have been funnelled to the Health or Education Ministry instead.

Read more here

 

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No third force, G25 prefers NCC

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:40 PM PST

i967.photobucket.com_albums_ae159_Malaysia-Today_Mug shots_nazir-razak-1_zps47dbf08d

(The Star) – A note from the meeting revealed that the group turned down the idea as it wished to remain apolitical, expressing its interest in the concept of a National Consultative Council (NCC) mooted by Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

The group of prominent Malays (G25) has been asked to consider working with a group led by an unnamed Datuk as a third force in Malaysian politics, but it declined.

The idea was posed to the group during a closed-door meeting with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at his residence on Oct 17.

There, the former deputy prime minister discussed events leading up to his removal from Cabinet and also the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investigations.

A note from the meeting revealed that the group turned down the idea as it wished to remain apolitical, expressing its interest in the concept of a National Consultative Council (NCC) mooted by Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

Nazir presented the idea at the recent Khazanah Megatrends forum, and the G25 is keen to work on this as a platform as it covers much of the group's vision and mission.

"Representations are being made to DS Nazir to see when we can act on the initiative," the group said in the note, which was made available to The Star yesterday.

The group members had also reportedly made it clear that they did not want Muhyiddin and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be part of the proposed NCC, labelling them antagonists in the matter of 1MDB.

They feel that the present antagonists in the matter of 1MDB should not be involved in the NCC because it could result in a stalemate in whatever reforms needed to be made.

They also expressed concerns regarding a successor to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, saying that they were doubtful that the current pool of leaders in Parliament would change things for the better.

The group said it backed what it called "Nazir's generation" to take the lead as that age group would be the one to carry the burden of nation-building forward.

G25 member Tawfik Ismail told The Star yesterday that the group had met Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin on separate occasions, where the topic of replacing Najib had been raised.

Dr Mahathir met with the group earlier this year and again on Oct 12.

Tawfik, who is the son of Malaysia's second deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, said G25 still regarded Najib as the best person to lead the country as he was a moderate by nature.

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Majority resentment and the rise of chauvinism

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:37 PM PST

BAHASA JIWA BANGSA

All their life they speak Mandarin, listen to Mandarin songs, watch Mandarin TV programs, mingle only with their own kind. In short, the Chinese live within their own colony and in their own cocoon. The majority will argue why they should be given equal rights as Bumiputeras?

Hafiz Ahmad

I have been observing racial relations in this country for quite some time. After the historic March 2008 election, there were many controversial issues that threatened our multicultural social fabric. I noted political awareness have risen significantly especially among the Chinese community. From the voting patterns for the last 2 elections, a majority of the Chinese have chosen to be anti-establishment by supporting the opposition coalition. This trend is expected to continue in the next 14th general election.

MCA can prepare for its demise by pre-ordering coffins. The Chinese community sees MCA as a weak party. MCA does not put up enough fight for Chinese interests. The Chinese see MCA as no more than UMNO's lackey. The Chinese frustration and anger becomes deeper when the UMNO leadership insanely spews disparaging remarks and insults directed toward the Chinese. Meanwhile, DAP is on the rise.

The Chinese have chosen DAP as their savior. Although DAP repeatedly claims itself a multicultural party that fights for all Malaysians regardless of race and religion, its leadership line-up is mostly Chinese and they filled all important positions giving some sense of security for the Chinese.

DAP has been very vocal in fighting for minority interests. Issues ranging from the Malay language bible confiscation, the existence of vernacular schools, recognition for UEC examination, government premises dress codes to even protesting against the existence of Jawi road signs around Kuala Lumpur back in 2008.

In my hometown Muar, every road sign around the city has Jawi characters alongside Roman characters. The Chinese in Muar have no problem with it. DAP probably wants to be seen as a hero among the Chinese at the expense of Malay feelings by attacking Jawi road signs. Even road signs can be used as a political weapon to boost its credential as the one true minority protector.

Dress codes imposed in government premises is another issue where DAP has shown itself as a new hope for the Chinese. The Chinese see this government directive as a blatant attack against their freedom despite knowing dress codes have been there for decades even before they were born. DAP leaders quickly responded by condemning the government. DAP has to respond otherwise they will lose the trust of their vote bank. Some DAP leaders went a little bit far by saying dress code regulation is creeping Islamisation. Suddenly Islam that has nothing to do with the dress code has been brought upon for their supporters to debate.

DAP leaders have no qualms looking chauvinist to consolidate their support at the expense of Malay feelings. The more fiercely and vocal they become to defend and fight for minority and non-Muslims interests, the more support they gain. This strategy actually works. One of my close friends was a former student leader in UM that was quite active with opposition parties. He has participated in many political events and forums organized by PKR, DAP and PAS. He said to me, even Chinese members in PKR are uncomfortable with the extreme/chauvinist approach within DAP. This explained how severe chauvinist political approach is within DAP.

This is where the majority and Malay resentment lie. The majority has become more vigilant and anxious than before. Their anxiety is solidified when they see minorities, particularly the Chinese, become increasingly more hostile in fighting for their rights. Recently, UiTM pro-chancellor Tan Sri Arsyad Ayub suggested that UiTM should be opened for non-Bumiputeras. I applaud this suggestion; in fact this suggestion should be done a long time ago. Many Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) already have non-bumiputera students. I do not see why UiTM cannot open its doors to non-Bumiputeras to study.

Instead of seeing this as social progress, non-Bumiputeras reacted negatively to this suggestion. All this time non-Bumiputeras screamed out loud why UiTM discriminates non-Bumiputeras, and when this suggestion came out, they mocked and insulted UiTM calling this institution low class, they do not want to their children to be stupid by sending them to UiTM. If UiTM is so low class, why make noise that UiTM does not accept non-Bumiputeras in the first place?

Non-Bumiputeras’ responses are usually very hostile. This makes the majority of the Malays feel non-Bumiputeras mock and insult them. They read all your comments. This will deepen their resentment toward non-Bumiputaras. I bet even liberal Malays raise their eyebrows reading all the negative comments. They might be re-thinking their position and probably shifting to the right due to chauvinist attitudes shown by the minorities, particularly the Chinese. The liberal Malays have nothing to lose if they shift to the right.

Another factor of the majority’s resentment is vernacular schools and the inability and simply laziness of the minorities to speak our national language. Undeniably, the Chinese that go to vernacular schools have a poor command of Bahasa. In extreme cases, some do not even know how to speak the national language at all.  This is understandable because of the environment they are in. After they finish primary school, some may opt to further their secondary education in SMK, some may go to an independent Chinese school or SMJK. After they finish secondary school, they further their studies in Taiwan or Hong Kong. If they cannot afford to send their children overseas, they send them to Kolej New Era or Tunku Abdul Rahman College.

All their life they speak Mandarin, listen to Mandarin songs, watch Mandarin TV programs, mingle only with their own kind. In short, the Chinese live within their own colony and in their own cocoon. The majority will argue why they should be given equal rights as Bumiputeras? They speak a different language than us, their children go to different schools from our children, they hardly communicate with us, they do not join the military or police forces to defend our country, they live in a different world. They are nothing like us, they are not us. Now they want equal rights and status as Bumiputera?

Imagine the minorities in Western countries, let's say the Muslim minority in Britain or Australia, living their life the way the Chinese do. They only speak Arabic; go to Arab private schools funded by their own community; do not know how to speak English, even if they do they do not have the English accent; they refuse to mingle with the mainstream society – they definitely would be fiercely condemned. They will be exposed to all kinds of vicious propaganda attacks. They will probably be accused of trying to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and establish the Caliphate system. They would be treated like second class citizens for generations to come. The British or Australian majority will resent and discriminate against them.  

One of my lecturers casually asked me this question: Why do we not have Chinese football players in our national team? He explained vernacular schools are generally small, they do not have a proper football field or a football field at all. Where will the students play football? He stopped there. I think what he was trying to say is that vernacular school is one of the reasons why we no longer have Chinese football players unlike in the 60's and 70's. It makes sense because most football players start playing football when they are very young. If they went to vernacular schools, they will not have a chance to play football. I remember during my primary school, football is the most popular and the most played sport in national schools.

I think Malaysia is the only country on God’s green earth that can tolerate citizens that are not proficient in speaking the national language. Some of them do not have some sense of ownership and love for the national language. I guess Indonesia was right to force assimilation down the throats of their minorities. All Indonesians regardless of race and religion identify themselves as Indonesian; they all speak the Indonesian language. Jakarta has a Chinese descent as their Governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or popularly known as Ahok. Probably in future, Indonesia will have a Chinese descent as President.

Nothing good comes out from being chauvinist kiasu especially when you are the minority. Maybe you can feel good about yourself but negative consequences are colossal. You only give far-right Malay groups more ammunition to cause more racial tension. In fact, being chauvinist, you sabotage the works that have been done by the liberal Malays who all this while speak on your defense against far-right Malay groups and religious fanatics.

I do realize liberal Malay figures are very popular among non-Malays. Current racial relations in this country is very fragile and precarious. Just put a Malay and a Chinese in one room, you will get a racial riot just like what happened several months ago at Low Yat although there was nothing racial about the cause of the incident. It was a hand phone theft. Distrust and resentment have taken over our society.

Pro-bumiputera policies are not meant to stay forever. I do hope that those policies will be more reasonable, more liberal and gradually disappear. Opening up UiTM for non-Bumiputeras is the right thing to do. Do not mock this suggestion just to intentionally hurt others’ feelings. Do not be kiasu. I also hope that English medium schools will be revived. Convert all national schools to become English medium schools – but the Malay language as the national language needs to be protected and strengthened.  All citizens must be proficient in speaking Bahasa. All business signboards, road signs, government building signs must use Bahasa Melayu alongside English as a second language. Signboards with language other than Bahasa Melayu and English must be banned and taken down.

I believe there are more open minded and reasonable people than there are religious fanatic extremists. Do not paint a picture with the same brush.

 

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Stop Humiliating Tun M

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:47 PM PST

Zaid-Ibrahim

Why drag in the police? Najib Razak should just sue Tun Mahathir for slander, or civil defamation—that, at least, is how a man should behave.

Zaidgeist

For the first time in our history, the police commenced investigation on a 90 year old former Prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad presumably for criminal defamation. I heard it's regarding something he said about the current Prime Minister during the Bersih 4.0 rally two months ago. Sadly the same Police force still have not shown any interest to question the current PM Dato Sri Najib Razak Najib over 1MDB, despite police reports had been lodged against him more than 10 months now.

From what I recall, Tun Mahathir did say something that could well be grounds for a civil claim, but why drag in the police? Najib Razak should just sue Tun Mahathir for slander, or civil defamation—that, at least, is how a man should behave. After all the issue is a simple straightforward one; did Najib take the money from 1MDB / SRC or not. Then did he pay off all those UMNO / BN leaders to keep them quiet , and continue to support him in power?

Criminal defamation laws that use the police and the state to coerce and stop citizens from speaking up are outdated and should be repealed. They were created by the colonial masters to instill fear on the populace . They have a pernicious effect on society and should be abolished.

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, the Human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international bodies have all called for the abolition of criminal defamation. Our self-styled transformative and moderate Prime Minister, however, prefers to humiliate Tun Mahathir by sending in the Police.

But Tun Mahathir, as always, is being extremely smart and strategic in his approach. He has refused to answer any question posed by the police. I have received many calls from Tun Mahathir's admirers, asking me if the police can charge him for not answering their questions. I told them that in a police state—which we clearly are at this point—whether one answers the question or not is immaterial; if the police want to charge you, they will. They will ask you questions even if you do not know the basis of the investigation against you. That's probably why Tun has so far refused to answer their questions.

Read more here

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Why persecute Basheer Azmin out of up to 500,000 Malaysians who took part in Bersih4 peaceful rally?

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 06:42 PM PST

i967.photobucket.com_albums_ae159_Malaysia-Today_Mug shots_tony-pua1-250613_zpse8731477

 It has been two months since the Bersih rally and suddenly, out of the blue, is it merely sheer coincidence that the police require Basheer's attendance on the day of his final exams?

Tony Pua

We refer to the tweets by the Chief Minister of Selangor, Azmin Ali, concerning his son Basheer Azmin who has been summoned by the police pursuant to Section 111 of the Criminal Procedure Code in relation to the recent Bersih rally.

DAP Selangor urges the Home Ministry to stop such selective harassment on Basheer Azmin, a 15 year old school boy who is starting his final examinations in school this week.

What were the Police thinking?  It has been two months since the Bersih rally and suddenly, out of the blue, is it merely sheer coincidence that the police require Basheer's attendance on the day of his final exams?

Worse, of all the people the Police could summon to assist with the investigations, whether as a suspect or a witness, why summon a 15 year old boy who just happened to be the son of the Selangor Menteri Besar, Azmin Ali?  Is the Police going to summon up to 500,000 people who took part in the Bersih rally for investigations?

Such high-handed police intervention does not assist in shaking off the perception that the police force is politically motivated and that the Barisan Nasional led Federal Government is utilising its every machinery to oppress the Federal Opposition.

With confidence in the Barison Nasional leadership at an all-time low causing a slowdown in the economy, crime is likely to increase, as warned by the Deputy Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed recently.

As such, DAP Selangor implores the Home Ministry to be more professional in discharging their duties, and to employ its resources into investigating real crime instances, and we reiterate that participating in a peaceful Bersih rally is definitely not one of them.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

#TV

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#TV


New Movies This Week: By the Sea, The 33 & More

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 09:08 PM PST

New Movies Nov 13 2015
By the Sea 1

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in “By the Sea”

New movies this week include Angelina Jolie’s “By the Sea,” the Chilean mining disaster “The 33” and more. In limited release are “Heist,” starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Robert De Niro (also On Demand), and “Shelter” starring Jennifer Connelly. Let’s take a look at the wide releases.

BY THE SEA

R for strong sexuality, nudity and language | In Theaters 11/13 | Ok for Kids 17+ | Universal | Reel Preview: 4 of 5 Reels | By the Sea

Written, directed and produced by Oscar winner Angelina Jolie Pitt, this movie centers on American writer Roland (Brad Pitt) and his wife, Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis.

As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Melanie Laurent) and François (Melvil Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Niels Arestrup) and Patrice (Richard Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.

THE 33

PG-13 for a disaster sequence and some language | In Theaters 11/13 | Ok for Kids 13+ | Warner Bros. | Reel Preview: 3.5 of 5 Reels | The 33

In 2010, the eyes of the world turned to Chile, where 33 miners were buried alive by the catastrophic explosion and collapse of a 100-year-old gold and copper mine. Over the next 69 days, an international team worked night and day in a desperate attempt to rescue the trapped men, as their families, friends, and millions of people waited anxiously for any sign of hope.

A story of resilience, personal transformation and triumph of the human spirit, “The 33” takes us to the Earth's darkest depths, revealing the psyches of the men trapped in the mine, and depicting the courage of both the miners and their families who refused to give up. Directed by Patricia Riggen, this movie stars Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, James Brolin and Lou Diamond Phillips.

JAMES WHITE

R for drug use, some sexuality/nudity, and language | In Theaters 11/13 (limited) | Ok for Kids 17+ | Film Arcade | Reel Preview: 3.5 of 5 Reels | James White

James White (Christopher Abbott) is a troubled 20-something trying to stay afloat in a frenzied New York City. He retreats further into a self-destructive lifestyle, but is forced to take control of his life as his mother (Cynthia Nixon) battles a serious illness. As pressure mounts, James must find new reserves of strength or risk imploding completely. The directorial debut of “Martha Marcy May Marlene” producer Josh Mond, “James White,” explores loss and the deep relationship between a mother and son.

MY ALL AMERICAN

PG for thematic elements, language and brief partial nudity | In Theaters 11/13 | Ok for Kids 13+ | Clarius | Reel Preview: 3.5 of 5 Reels | My All American

What Freddie Steinmark (Finn Wittrock) wants most in the world is to play football. Deemed too small by the usual athletic standards, his father trains him hard, and Freddie brings a fight to the game that ultimately gets him noticed by legendary University of Texas coach Darrell Royal (Aaron Eckhart). Awarded a scholarship and a chance to play for the Longhorns, Freddie moves to Austin with his high school sweetheart Linda (Sarah Bolger), determined to make the team.

Alongside his old teammate Bobby Mitchell (Rett Terrell) and new pal James Street (Juston Street), Freddie is put through the paces of a grueling practice schedule. But just as the team is reveling in the success of the season, Freddie suffers an injury that leads to a shocking diagnosis and the biggest challenge he will ever face.

LOVE THE COOPERS

PG-13 for thematic elements, language and some sexuality | In Theaters 11/13 | Ok for Kids 13+ | CBS Films | Reel Preview: 4 of 5 Reels | Love the Coopers

This comedy centers on the Cooper clan, four generations of extended family who come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. As the evening unfolds, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn things upside down, leading them all toward a surprising rediscovery of family bonds and the spirit of the holiday. Directed by Jessie Nelson, this movie features an all-star cast, including Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Diane Keaton, Anthony Mackie, Amanda Seyfried, and Olivia Wilde.

MAN UP

R for language and sexual references | In Theaters 11/13 | Ok for Kids 17+ | Saban Films | Reel Preview: 3.5 of 5 Reels | Man Up

When Nancy (Lake Bell) is mistaken for Jack's (Simon Pegg) blind date under the clock at Waterloo Station, she decides to just go with it. What could possibly go wrong? “Man Up” is an honest, heartwarming romantic comedy about taking chances and rolling with the consequences. One night, two people, on a first date like no other. Directed by Ben Palmer, this movie also stars Olivia Williams and Stephen Campbell Moore.

JANE'S REEL RATING SYSTEM
One Reel – Even the Force can't save it.
Two Reels – Coulda been a contender
Three Reels – Something to talk about.
Four Reels – You want the truth? Great flick!
Five Reels – Wow! The stuff dreams are made of.

Jane Boursaw is the film critic and editor-in-chief of Reel Life With Jane. Images in this feature used courtesy of the studios and distributors.

The post New Movies This Week: By the Sea, The 33 & More appeared first on Reel Life With Jane.

Daniel Craig as 007 in ‘Spectre’: ‘My Entire Body Hurts, But It’s Worth It’

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 07:36 PM PST

Daniel Craig and "Bond Girl" Lea Sedoux | Columbia Pictures

In its third day at the box office, "Spectre" has already raked in $73 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Already a huge hit in Europe, foreign sales are up to $80.4 million for a whopping total of $153.4 million. And 007 is just getting started in this country.

Thursday evening, Bafta hosted a screening of "Spectre" for its members and guests, followed by a Q&A with stars Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Christoph Waltz, producer Barbara Broccoli and director Sam Mendes. (In the next theater, the ticket buyers were standing in line for a 7 p.m. screening of "Spectre" with no idea that Daniel Craig would be making an appearance just next door.)

Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz and Lea Sedoux at the "Spectre' Q&A in NYC | Paula Schwartz Photo

Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz and Lea Seydoux at the “Spectre’ Q&A in NYC | Paula Schwartz Photo

The theater was packed and I had a front row seat. Daniel Craig looked great in blue jeans and a close fitted shirt. He carried an Olympus camera he put by his feet during the Q&A.

When asked how she liked being the new Bond girl, Seydoux said, "I was very happy when Sam added me to the cast."

Mendes then told the story of how Seydoux may have initially been underwhelmed by the screenplay, which he brought over to her personally because, he said, "confidentiality hovers over the script." He meant to wait while she read it, thinking, "She'll probably get through it in two hours. She was in her dressing room. I waited two hours and I was nervous because I wanted her to like it," he said. "And I came in to find her in a deep sleep… slumped over page 3."

It was reported that production on "Spectra" had to stop for several weeks because of an injury to Daniel Craig's knee during a stunt. A Bafta member asked Craig if his knee was still injured. Not just his knees, “every joint in my body,” he replied. “But it's worth it. All worth it, all worth it.”

Lea Sedoux at the "Spectre' Q&A in NYC | Paula Schwartz Photo

Lea Seydoux at the “Spectre’ Q&A in NYC | Paula Schwartz Photo

As to what was included in the Bond movie to keep the tradition going, the director noted, "It's a job of reverse engineering, to a degree. You know you have to have your action sequences, three big action sequences, beginning, middle and end, literally," he said. "Then you've got to have your Christoph, you've got to have your villain. You have to have your girl, then you have to have two, possibly three more women," Mendes said. “Here's a blank page, go! That's what it feels like. That is, in fact, the job to a degree. It's like buying the furniture to a house and then having to design the house around the furniture."

As the new Bond villain, Christoph Waltz was asked if there was a particular challenge in playing the villain and how he gave his character extra menace. "No, really my conviction is that the villain serves the purpose and the purpose is the hero and the obstructing of the hero's path. So whenever the hero required serious obstruction, I did my utmost to (accommodate)."

The moderator asked Ralph Fiennes if he saw his character of M as a kind of father figure to Q and to Moneypenny, given that he gives them guidance.

"I texted my sister today, who saw the movie and she thought I was a father figure. But it was news to me. No, in fact I think what we felt was I'm a new M and this is a team that has been close to Bond in the previous film and that, in essence, we were sort of learning who we were."

"Spectre" makes references and pays homage to previous Bond films, as anyone who has followed the 007 filmography knows. The head of Spectre is Ernst Blofeld, referred to as No. 1 in the Ian Fleming books. He is Bond’s greatest nemesis and appeared in "You Only Live Twice." Spoiler Alert: "What you have, obviously, is a sort of creation story of how Blofeld came to be," Mendes said, adding, "We find out how he got that scar. Of course he is alive again, so I may not have a job next time, but Christoph does.”

Waltz was asked if he was ready to shave his head for the next Bond film. "No, definitely not," he said. “I think if you have Punch and Judy you need a crocodile." (And of course in typical Waltz fashion, it was a funny retort, although I have no idea what he meant.)

One of the pleasures of Bond films is how they pick up on current political and personal fears. "Spectre" seems to be Bond in the Snowden era and the invasive and pervasive nature of surveillance. A Bafta members asked, how much did that play into scripting the film?

"That's true," said Mendes. "The last movie was a post Julian Assange movie and spoke to our fear of corporate crime and hacking, and this is a post Edward Snowden movie. There was a time when we unquestionably felt that Bond worked for the good guys, and we can't be certain of that anymore. These days, there's a concern that, yes, they're spying but they're spying on us, and the erosion of civil liberties and the idea that we're being treated as guilty until proven innocent is of genuine concern."

He added, "One of the nice things about starting with a blank sheet of paper is that you can write into these movies some degree of contemporary nightmare, contemporary concerns, contemporary worries about what's happening politically, and so you (can) always animate that debate."

Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig were asked about the first Bond movie they ever saw.

For both, it was "Live and Let Die.""Roger Moore in his prime," said Mendes, adding how he pays homage to the film in "Spectre.""There's a bit of voodoo. We pay homage to that in the beginning of this movie, the immortal line – I may paraphrase it – when he gets up and the woman to whom he'd just made love  says, 'Bond, you're going to kill me? We’ve just made love!' and he says, 'Well, I wouldn't want to kill you first. I'm not sure we can get away with that anymore.’" Barbara Broccoli called out, "Definitely not!"

Mendes added that it would be overkill to imagine too many references harkening back to previous Bond films in "Spectre.""People see the snow and go, 'Oh my god! 'The Spy Who Loved Me!' No, he's just in the snow."

Craig was asked, of all the gadgets in the film which would he most like to take home? (There aren't actually that many in "Spectre.")

"I hate electronics. I hate phones. I hate computers. I hate them. And I always sort of loved the sort of simple gadgets, the ones with kind of a button and the flashing red light," said Craig.

The openers of Bond films are always spectacular, and this doesn't disappoint with its massive explosions. On filming one scene where a building crumbles and Bond falls from a massive height to land on a couch, Mendes said some results were serendipity. "On the day he was supposed to land on his feet, and about ten minutes before we did it, I said, ‘wouldn't it be funny if he was comfortable on a sofa?’ And Daniel was like 'Yeah, let's get a sofa.’"

Mendes began to deconstruct the scene and how it was shot, "And that shelf, by the way, is just Daniel standing on a…"

"No, don't ruin it!" Craig interrupted loudly. "I'm falling from miles, 80 feet at least. That's why my knees are gone."

The post Daniel Craig as 007 in ‘Spectre’: ‘My Entire Body Hurts, But It’s Worth It’ appeared first on Reel Life With Jane.

#History

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#History


Earliest church in the tropics unearthed in Cape Verde

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 08:32 PM PST

A team of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge has unearthed the remains of the first known Christian church in the tropics on the Cape Verde island of Santiago. The church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição was built around 1470, shortly after the Portuguese discovered the island, out of wood. What the team has found are the remains of an expansion of the church from 1500 with masonry walls and an interior decorated with vibrant colored tile imported from Lisbon.

Documentary evidence pointed to the location of the first church, so in 2007 the team dug test pits and found foundations and a significant burial ground. With the support of the mayor and the Cape Verde government, archaeologists were able to return this season and fully excavate the site.

“We’ve managed to recover the entire footprint-plan of the church, including its vestry, side-chapel and porch, and it now presents a really striking monument,” said Christopher Evans, Director of the CAU.

“Evidently constructed around 1500, the most complicated portion is the east-end’s chancel where the main altar stood, and which has seen much rebuilding due to seasonal flash-flood damage. Though the chancel’s sequence proved complicated to disentangle, under it all we exposed a gothic-style chapel,” he said.

“This had been built as a free-standing structure prior to the church itself and is now the earliest known building on the islands — the whole exercise has been a tremendous success.”

The Cape Verde archipelago was discovered in 1456 by Alvise Cadamosto, an Italian explorer hired by Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal to explore the west coast of Africa. The islands were uninhabited. There weren’t any mammals at all, in fact, or trees. They were, however, conveniently located in the Atlantic 350 miles off the coast of Africa, which would soon make the archipelago an important platform for the transatlantic slave trade. In 1462 the Portuguese founded the first permanent European settlement in the tropics on the Cape Verde island of Santiago. The island and its capital, the city of Ribeira Grande (modern-day Cidade Velha), flourished from the trade in human flesh both economically and culturally, becoming the second richest city in the Portuguese empire and developing through the mixing of European and African cultures into the first Creole society.

The city declined rapidly in the 18th century after it was sacked by the French pirate Jacques Cassard in 1712. He gutted Cape Verde so thoroughly that, according to his memoirs, he had too much loot to fit on his eight ships and had to leave some of it behind for fear his fleet would sink from the weight. Ribeira Grande never recovered from the Cassard blow. When the slave trade was outlawed in the 19th century, the economic engine of the city died. Necessary maintenance was abandoned and the hill wash carried down into the city by seasonal floods was left to accumulate. The capital was moved to the town of Praia and Ribeira Grande became a sleepy village.

Nossa Senhora da Conceição followed this pattern, falling into disuse around 1790. The archaeological remains from its heyday, however, give us a unique glimpse into the early history of the island. The discovery of the tombstones of dignitaries like mid-16th century town treasurer and slave trader Fernão Fiel de Lugo confirm the existence of people who while known were enveloped in an aura of legend. An estimated 1,000 people were buried under the floor of the church before 1525, an incredible density of information about the dawn of the first Creole society.

Preliminary analysis of samples shows that about half the bodies are African, with the rest from various parts of Europe. An excavation is being planned to collect data for isotope analysis of more bodies to learn more about the country’s founding population and its early slave history.

“From historical texts we have learned about the development of a ‘Creole’ society at an early date with land inherited by people of mixed race who could also hold official positions. The human remains give us the opportunity to test this representation of the first people in Cabo Verde,” said Evans.

Watch this video for an overview of the history of the city and for great footage of the excavation of the church.

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#Politics

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#Politics


Stephen Colbert, Moderate Republican John Kasich against pot legalization

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 07:36 AM PST

Stephen Colbert, Moderate Republican John Kasich against pot legalization

Stephen Colbert, Moderate Republican John Kasich against pot legalizationDear Millennials,

You have had an attraction to Rand Paul because he says states should be able to make pot legal, though he also says pot is for losers. Full Article & Video

Dear Angry White Male

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 06:30 AM PST

tle flag

Those who fight so intensely against Affirmative Action belittle the slavery and apartheid of the past while ignoring the racism of the present.

Full Article & Video

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver- UK’s New Privacy Law – video

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 06:00 AM PST

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver- UK

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver- UK's New Privacy Law - video

On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, citizens of the United Kingdom are protesting a controversial new law which could empower the government to intrude upon their privacy..The British are rightly concerned about a law that would merely collect their online activities for a year, and then of course share the information – if necessary. Full Article & Video

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – Re-entry from Prison – Video

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 06:00 AM PST

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Prisoner Re-entry  and Interview with Bilal Chatman -video

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Prisoner Re-entry  and Interview with Bilal Chatman -video

On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver looks at the tremendous obstacles former offenders face once they leave prison – and sits down with Bilal Chatman, an ex-prisoner, to discuss the challenges of reentering society. Full Article & Video


#Cinematography

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#Cinematography


Emma Watson Is In "Vogue"

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 09:11 AM PST



Sneak Peek new images, plus footage of actress Emma Watson in the Fall 2015 issue of British "Vogue" magazine, photographed by Josh Olins:


The 25-year-old actress has found new purpose since deciding to balance her on-screen jobs with her work as a UN Goodwill Anbassador.


"Part of me relaxed after I took on that position," said Watson. "It gave me a sense of belonging and purpose." 


 "Everything clicked in to place, in a way that it hadn't before. I understood what I'm here to do and knew where to channel all this energy that has been coming at me.


"I now feel this sense of peace. People say that I'm different since I did it..."


Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek Emma Watson...

Kiera Knightley Covers "Elle"

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 09:01 AM PST



Sneak Peek actress Kiera Knightley in a series of variant covers supporting the Fall 2015 issue of "Elle" magazine, photographed by Paola Kudacki:


"I don't think my career will ever get better than it was in my late teens, early twenties,"said 30-year old, new mother Knightley, "but as a person, you're changing so much and you're trying to figure stuff out.


"Some people go wild and have a great time and throw caution to the wind, and I was the complete opposite. I was very shy. 


"It took me a lot of years to try and stop pleasing a lot of people and allow myself to have fun.


Click the images to enlarge...

"The Simpsons: Lisa With An 'S'" - New Images

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 05:06 AM PST



Sneak Peek new images from "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa with an 'S'", airing November 22, 2015 on Fox:


"...when 'Homer' loses $5,000 at a poker game with Broadway legend 'Laney Fontaine', the only way he is able to settle the bet is if he loans 'Lisa' to Laney for a month.


"Then, Laney turns Lisa into a show biz kid and 'Marge' and Homer fear they made a mistake letting her go.


"So they head to New York to get her back..."


Click the images to enlarge...

"The Walking Dead: Always Accountable"- New Footage

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 04:37 AM PST



Sneak Peek promo footage from the next episode of "The Walking Dead", titled "Always Accountable", written by Heather Bellson and directed by Jeffrey F. January, airing November 15, 2015 on AMC:


"...in 'Always Accountable', 'Daryl', 'Abraham' and 'Sasha' run into multiple obstacles...


"...including a new threat, while trying to return to 'Alexandria' after a mission..."


Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Walking Dead: Always Accountable"...


"Doctor Who: Sleep No More" - New Footage

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:23 PM PST



Sneak Peek promo footage from the next episode of "Doctor Who" titled "Sleep No More",  written by Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss, airing November 14, 2015 on BBC America:


"...found footage is discovered in the wreckage of the 'Le Verrier Space Station'..."



Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Doctor Who: Sleep No More"...

"Doctor Strange" - More Leaked Set Footage

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 08:03 AM PST



Sneak Peek more leaked footage, plus images of actor Benedict Cumberbatch as superhero 'Doctor Strange', with Chiwetel Ejiofor as super-villain 'Baron Mordo', on the Nepal set of Marvel Studio's currently shooting "Doctor Strange" feature:



"...'Doctor Stephen Strange' is a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon who only cares about the wealth derived from his career.


"But a car accident damages his hands. Shattering the bones. The damage effectively ends his ability to conduct surgery, with his fingers trembling uncontrollably. 


"Too proud to take on a teaching job, Strange desperately begins to search for a way to restore his hands...


"...consulting various doctors, homeopathic treatments and traveling around the world to remote regions for exotic cures.


"Strange locates a hermit called the 'Ancient One' (aka the Earth's 'Sorcerer Supreme') in the Himalayas.


"But the Ancient One refuses to help Strange...


"...because of his selfishness, but senses a good side that he attempts to bring to the surface.


"He fails, but Strange's goodness appears when he discovers the Ancient One's disciple, 'Baron Mordo' attempting to kill the old man. 


"After Strange thwarts Mordo's plans, (and becomes Mordo's arch enemy), the Ancient One teaches Strange the 'mystic arts'.


"After completing his training, Strange returns to New York and takes up residence within a 'Sanctum Sanctorum'...


"...townhouse located in Greenwich Village guarded by Strange's personal servant 'Wong'.


"As the Ancient One's disciple, Strange encounters 'Dormammu', a warlord from the 'Dark Dimension'. 


"Strange falls in love with 'Clea', the niece of Dormammu.


"When Strange helps a weakened Dormammu drive off the rampaging 'Mindless Ones', returning them to their prison...


"...he is allowed to leave unchallenged..."


Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Doctor Strange"...

#Politic / American Information

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#Politic / American Information


'The Liberal government has a heavy agenda ahead with numerous commitments. What changes or measures should it pursue first? Should it reconsider any?'

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 07:43 AM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

Kate Purchase
Liberal strategist

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Bringing real change to Canada’s knowledge culture

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 10:07 AM PST

The new Trudeau government has signalled a course correction when it comes to the sciences.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

read more

Cabinet will finally have gender parity, get over it

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 10:13 AM PST

This step could be precisely what Canada needs to get the ball rolling on breaking our institutional glass ceiling, and finally normalizing women's equal access to opportunity in government and beyond, says Jenn Jefferys.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

OTTAWA—You know what breaks my heart? Nay – you know what makes my blood boil? When otherwise completely rational, well-educated, critical-thinking men spontaneously devolve into Victorian patriarchs whenever a woman might actually be afforded equal access to power.

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Canadian Senate, a simple fix

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:34 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

The Canadian Senate is unpopular, but it can serve a useful purpose. In should be a voice for the provinces (not the federal political parties), a “Chamber of Sober Second Thought,” and a check on the unfettered power of the Prime Minister.

 Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister appoints Senators. Amending the Constitution is effectively impossible, given needed “deals” with the provinces and likely another referendum. 

read more

Canadian society most tolerant, but room for improvement on talent, technology

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:52 PM PST

Canada ranked fourth overall in the school's 2015 Global Creativity Index, which measured 139 countries on sustainable prosperity according to talent, technology and tolerance.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

While Canadian society is considered the most tolerant in the world, according to the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute, there is some room to improve on talent and technology.

Canada ranked fourth overall in the school’s 2015 Global Creativity Index, which measured 139 countries on sustainable prosperity according to talent, technology and tolerance. 

read more

Championing innovation as important as unleashing science

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:59 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

read more

Colleges underestimated institutions, say innovation experts

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:51 PM PST

A Conference Board of Canada study, paid by Colleges Ontario in 2010, says college-based applied research is a catalyst for driving innovation and productivity.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

While the Conference Board of Canada says that college-based applied research is a catalyst for driving innovation and productivity, some innovation experts say that colleges are underestimated institutions.

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Commitment to science essential for new government

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:46 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

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Conservative MPs feel ‘certain liberty’ after 10 years under Harper’s message discipline

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:55 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

Conservatives are feeling a “certain liberty” to speak candidly, without fear of “reprisals” or the pressure of government where even a minor difference of opinion could be construed as a split in the party since Stephen Harper stepped down as leader on Oct. 19 following their election defeat.

“They were told not to talk to the media. Any association with the media was tended to be frowned upon,” said former Alberta Conservative MP Lee Richardson, who won four consecutive elections between 2004 and 2011. He was also a Progressive Conservative MP from 1988 to 1993 under former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

read more

Conservatives Senators showing troubling, potentially destructive partisanship

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:44 PM PST

This is wrong. The Senate is indeed Canada's second House of Parliament but it is not, and was never intended to be, a second House of Commons.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

OTTAWA—The new government has just been sworn in and already some Conservative Senators are talking about delaying, blocking, or defeating government bills passed by the House of Commons.

One Senator is quoted as saying “there may be some things that Trudeau and some of his colleagues are very supportive of that an overwhelming majority of Canadians are not comfortable with.” 

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Do we really need innovation in health care?

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:48 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

Talk of innovation is everywhere. The formula is simple—innovations, like driverless cars, Smartphones and block chain databases disrupt existing markets, increase productivity, and drive economic growth. Investors make returns and life improves for everyone. 

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Ebola vaccine: A Canadian success story

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 04:03 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

In December 2013, when the symptoms of the Ebola disease began to appear in the West African nation of Guinea, few could have predicted the magnitude and virulence of the epidemic that would follow and rapidly spread to the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

read more

Five steps Ottawa could take to compete, prosper in global clean energy economy

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:53 PM PST

With a new government in Ottawa and a clear mandate from voters, it's time for Canada to hit refresh on its climate reputation and clean energy ambitions.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

Our newly-elected federal government has a clear mandate to start rebuilding Canada’s reputation on climate change and capitalizing on its clean energy potential. As the new federal ministers pick up their briefing binders and begin mapping out the best path forward on energy, the economy and the environment, here are five steps Ottawa could take to position Canada to compete and prosper, both now and as the global clean energy economy takes off.

 

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Flawed copyright case places spotlight on Canada’s digital lock problem

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:46 PM PST

When the copyright reform debate returns to Parliament Hill, the Liberals' best chance to fix the problem is to follow their own advice by permitting circumvention for lawful purposes.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

OTTAWA—Does asking a friend for a copy of a newspaper article from a subscription website constitute copyright infringement? According to an Ottawa small claims court, it does. The court recently issued a deeply flawed copyright ruling, providing a timely warning about the dangers of Canada’s restrictive digital lock rules that were enacted by the Conservatives over the strong objection of many copyright watchers. 

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Getting it right in the Arctic

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:49 PM PST

If Nunavut is to flourish it is urgent that the Government of Canada work closely with us to solve deep-seated, long-standing, and debilitating social and economic issues that are holding us back, and potentially weakening Canada's ability to assert Arctic sovereignty.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT—Aboriginal issues, specifically Arctic and Inuit issues, did not get much attention in the long federal election campaign. Few voters live here, but several issues in Nunavut—one-fifth of Canada—are of national importance. But all is not right in the Arctic. If Nunavut is to flourish it is urgent that the Government of Canada work closely with us to solve deep-seated, long-standing and debilitating social and economic issues that are holding us back, and potentially weakening Canada’s ability to assert Arctic sovereignty. 

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Goodale, Freeland, Wilson-Raybould, LeBlanc, Foote take big roles on Cabinet committees

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 04:49 PM PST

Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

He wasn’t put back into his old role as Finance minister but Ralph Goodale features prominently in influential Cabinet committees, sitting on five and chairing one.

Public Safety Minister Goodale’s (Regina-Wascana, Sask.) Cabinet committee roles include the Agenda and Results Committee—which replaced the influential Plans and Priorities—and he chairs the committee on Canada in the World and Public Security.

“He’s starting to look like a deputy prime minister even if there’s no such title,” said Don Boudria, a senior counsellor with Hill and Knowlton Strategies and former Liberal Cabinet minister.

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How will Trudeau change Canada?

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 03:40 PM PST

I expect that even with change-happy Trudeau sitting in the Prime Minister's Office, a lot of stuff will remain the same.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

OAKVILLE, ONT.—Now that all the formalities associated with the ancient, venerable traditions of British parliamentary democracy have been met and Justin Trudeau, along with his newly-minted, ethnically diverse, gender-balanced, progressive-leaning Cabinet are firmly ensconced in power, it’s time to talk about change.

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Innovation critical economic challenge facing new Trudeau government

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST

The big challenge is to transform our economy from an innovation laggard into an innovation leader in the face of big challenges due to a new technology revolution and globalization that we cannot escape.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

TORONTO—Innovation is the critical economic challenge facing the new Trudeau government.  While immediate stimulus through large-scale infrastructure spending, middle-class tax cuts, and a budget deficit will provide a helpful boost to the economy, that’s far from enough. The big challenge is to transform our economy from an innovation laggard into an innovation leader in the face of big challenges, due to a new technology revolution and globalization that we cannot escape. 

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It’s time to promote innovation to create jobs and growth

Posted: 06 Nov 2015 10:06 AM PST

Canadian innovators and entrepreneurs are looking for a reliable federal partner that will help leverage Canadian know-how to grow the Canadian economy. We want to be that partner.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

In an increasingly competitive global economy, innovation is a key to creating growth and good-paying middle class jobs.

 While other countries are strengthening their commitment to research, development and commercialization, Canada is falling behind.

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It’s time to ‘think different’ about innovation

Posted: 05 Nov 2015 04:02 PM PST

Continued investments in science and technology are essential to improving the lives of Canadians and ensuring their prosperity well into the future.
Mon, 2015-11-09 (All day)

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#World Alert

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#World Alert


URGENT ALERT: Tel Rumeida declared ‘Closed Military Zone’; human rights activists expelled; homes raided

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:39 PM PST

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) urges the international community to take immediate and urgent action against the Israeli Occupation Forces' recent declaration of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood and Shuhada street in downtown Hebron as a closed 'Closed Military Zone.'

On November 1st, the occupation forces instructed all Palestinian residents to 'register'. Since November 3rd, all non residents, including human rights workers, doctors, teachers, plumbers, and others are barred from entry.

This declaration comes amidst a month long escalation claiming the lives of over 70 Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza – one third of them in Hebron.  Many of the extrajudicial killings in Hebron are occurring in the areas now evacuated of all internationals who had been monitoring and reporting what they witness.

As of November 3rd, all international human rights monitors in Tel Rumeida have been evicted from the area under threat of arrest and subsequent deportation.  Although the order is being issued for one day, and renewed daily, the occupation forces have told residents and evicted human rights workers that it will be in force for the long term.

Yesterday, November 7th, Israeli forces raided several Palestinian homes, trapping families inside, while settlers freely roamed the streets and chanted "Death to the Arabs!"

"Soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world", explains Tel Rumeida resident Abed Salaymeh. Other international human rights observers have been directly targeted by Israeli forces through arrests, evictions and settler violence. Such conditions facilitate further extrajudicial killings in this neighborhood, as well as further takeovers of Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers.

The ISM calls for:
–       An immediate end to the 'Closed Military Zone' order on Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street
–       Cessation of threats and harassment of residents and foreign human rights activists
–       Removal of restrictions on movement throughout downtown Hebron
–       Removal of all Israeli settlers from Hebron

We call on civil society worldwide to support the above demands and do all they can to pressure the Israeli government to cease its severe human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, including joining the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Press contacts:
USA (1) 813 401 5617 | Palestine (972) 59 740 6401

For more information, please see:

B'Tselem Press Release, Nov. 6, 2015: "New restrictions on movement in Hebron and area disrupt lives and constitute prohibited collective punishment"

B'Tselem, Oct. 20: "Footage from Hebron: Israeli military enables 5-day settler attack"

International Solidarity Movement, Nov. 7: Palestinians held hostage in their own homes by Israeli forces in al-Khalil (Hebron)

International Solidarity Movement, Nov. 4: International human rights defenders arrested and evicted while "Hebron is becoming ghettoized"

International Solidarity Movement, Oct. 30: Palestinian residents of Hebron required to register in preparation for severe new restrictions

School children kept waiting on stairs by Shuhada street for nearly an hour, 1 November

School children kept waiting on stairs by Shuhada street for nearly an hour, 1 November

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Israeli navy attacks fishermen in Gaza sea

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:33 PM PST

GAZA, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation navy on Sunday morning opened machinegun fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Khan Younis city, south of Gaza, with no reported injuries.

Local media sources said the gunfire attack forced the fishermen to go ashore or work near the coast.

The Israeli gunboats target Palestinian fishermen and their boats almost on a daily basis, although they work within the permitted fishing zone.

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Nablus: Palestinian shot dead after alleged run-over of settlers

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:28 PM PST

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A Palestinian youth was shot by Israeli soldiers on Sunday morning, at the Taffuh junction near Nablus, under the pretext that he ran over three Israeli settlers.

Israeli media said that two settlers were seriously injured, and one of them had light wounds.

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This morning, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have opened fire on, then kidnapped a 17-year-old Palestinians after he approached the Mishur Adummim settlement, east of occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli military spokeswoman said that the boy was not injured in the shooting, claiming that he tried to climb the wall of the settlement

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Israeli Soldiers Kidnap Eighteen Palestinians In Hebron

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:06 PM PST

Several Israeli military vehicles invaded, on Sunday at dawn, Hebron city and a number of nearby towns, searched scores of homes, and kidnapped eighteen Palestinians.

Hebron soldaten

The soldiers invaded Hebron city, searched and ransacked homes, and kidnapped seven Palestinians, identified as Jihad Abu Rmeila, Ala Asem al-Ja’bari, Zeid Jamal Abu Zeina, Said Abu Zeina, Amjad Salhab, Yousef Shawar and former political prisoner Baha’ Sa'id.

The army also invaded Bani Neim town, north of Hebron and kidnapped Tamer Hisham Zeidat, Osama Bassam Ezweid, and Yazan Harahsha, 24, after searching their homes and interrogating their families.

In addition, several military vehicles invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron, and kidnapped Ahmad Fayeq Nassar, 21.

Two Palestinians, identified as Mohammad Aziz Roshdi and Tal’at Aziz Roshdi, were kidnapped from their homes in the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, south of Hebron.

The soldiers also attacked and injured Firas Khaled ash-Shamessly, 19, and kidnapped him along with ‘Odai Nidal Shreiteh in Yatta town, south of Hebron.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded homes in the ath-Thaheriyya town, south of Hebron, and kidnapped a university student identified as Osama Mohammad Qaisiyya.

Another Palestinian, identified as Hazem Jibrin al-Jeyyawi, was kidnapped from his home in Ethna town, west of Hebron.

The army also installed roadblocks closing the main roads of Halhoul town, in addition to Hebron's northern and southern roads, before stopping and searching dozens of cars, and investigated the ID cards of the passengers.

Moreover, a child, identified as Ali Walid Abu ‘Ayyash, 15 years of age, was kidnapped in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, after the soldiers stormed and searched his family’s home.

Media Coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Hebron, Mohammad ‘Ayyad ‘Awad, said the soldiers have kidnapped nine Palestinians, including six children, in Beit Ummar since the beginning of this month.

Also on Sunday at dawn, the soldiers kidnapped child in Jerusalem, and a young man in Bethlehem after attacking and injuring his mother and sister.

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Israeli Military Thugs Execute Wounded Palestinian Youth in the Street in Broad Daylight

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 02:00 PM PST

Warning: The videos below contains graphic images of violence.

21st Century Wire says…

A shocking video offers yet more proof of how Israel's occupying Police State soldiers do not value Palestinian lives. Here we see an Israeli soldier executing an injured Palestinian youth in Hebron in the West Bank.

After first injuring Mahdi Muhammad Ramadan al-Muhtasib, 23 yrs old, the Israeli soldier in question stood and watched his victim lying in the road, before aiming his gun at him and killing the youth.

1-West-Bank-IDF-Execution

Electronic Infifada reports:
Summary Execution

Mahdi Muhammad Ramadan al-Muhtasib, 23, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Hebron on Thursday after he allegedly lightly injured an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint with a knife.

This video published at the Facebook page "Ramallah Mix" shows the injured al-Muhtasib lying on the ground.

An Israeli soldier stands at a distance of several meters. Al-Muhtasib moves and the soldier, still at a distance of several meters, aims his rifle at him and fires. Al-Muhtasib continues to writhe on the ground as the soldier moves around him.

Two more soldiers then approach al-Muhtasib but at no point is he provided medical assistance.

Video corroborates this clear case of extrajudicial execution, a war crime and part of a pattern of such killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

Five Palestinians have been killed since Thursday, bringing the total this month to 71, accordingto the Palestinian Authority health ministry.

This number includes five Palestinians who died as a possible result of tear gas inhalation, delayed medical treatment due to checkpoints and medical neglect by prison authorities.

Fifteen of the dead are children.

(…)

"On 27 October, Amnesty International said it had documented at least four other recent instances "in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions."

Nine Israelis were slain in the same period.

More than 1,200 Palestinians, including at least 256 children, have been injured by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 20 October, the United Nations monitoring group OCHAreported.

Continue this story at Electronic Intifada 

(Source / 08.11.2015)


UN: 90 percent of Egypt’s Syrian refugees living in poverty

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:53 PM PST

Refugee agency documents obtained by Middle East Eye show thousands who sought safety in Egypt lack resources to ‘live a dignified life’

Syrian refugees have been living in poor conditions in Egypt for years

CAIRO – The majority of registered Syrian refugees in Egypt are now classed as severely vulnerable by the United Nations’ refugee agency, according to donor briefing documents obtained exclusively by Middle East Eye.

The findings, which document need up until September 2015, are part of a recent study launched by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to target dwindling funds to assist those most in need.

The report, which has not yet been released, presents a stark picture of Egypt's Syrian refugee population, which is often regarded as better off than those in other countries in the region, such as Lebanon.

According to the documents, 59.65 percent of Syrian refugees surveyed (61,683 people, or 70 percent of the total registered population) are classed as "severe vulnerable”.

A further 27.72 percent (22,879 people) are classed as "high vulnerable". This means that close to 90 percent of the Syrians surveyed are effectively living on or below the poverty line set by UNHCR.

The UNHCR estimates that Syrians living in Egypt need a minimum of LE592.40 (around $75) per capita per month to meet basic needs.

Syrian refugees classed as "severe vulnerable”, only have access to between 0 to 50 percent of that, meaning that their income is a maximum of $37.50 a month.

"High vulnerable" refugees have access to between 51 and 99 percent of the UNHCR's target minimum needed to "live a dignified life".

UNHCR report extract obtained by MEE

Ranghild Ek, who heads the communications team at UNHCR's office in Cairo, said the results had left UNHCR feeling "quite apprehensive”. However, as refugees interviewed at the beginning of the ongoing study are re-assessed, there are fears that the numbers could get even worse.

"We're [now] assessing each registered Syrian family so that funding can be more targeted," Ek told MEE, while admitting that funding shortfalls and economic realities were forcing UNCHR towards "stricter targeting" despite the fact many Syrian refugees in Egypt were in need of assistance.

"What is clear is that the situation is dire for many. We have a very large amount of either severely or highly vulnerable people. I think our fear in many ways is that when they do the re-assessment, the results will be even worse."

Egyptian officials meanwhile have repeatedly claimed that Syrians in Egypt can "live like any Egyptian citizen"– a claim that human rights groups have argued ignores Egypt's record of arbitrary arrests, deportations and administrative detention of refugees.

Naela Gabr chairs the National Coordinating Committee for Combatting and Preventing Illegal Immigration (NCCPIM), which comprises 18 government bodies and recently drafted a migration bill expected to be passed soon.

"We are not a rich country, but we are not doing terrible things to [refugees]," Gabr told Middle East Eye in September, claiming that Egypt hosts 300,000 Syrian refugees despite the country's economic problems. "We never made a show or publicity out of that, unlike many European countries."

"We are trying to help," she added, "but we are not rich and we don't have the facilities to host them."

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Palestinian shot, injured after stabbing attack near Gush Etzion

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:47 PM PST

Palestinian shot, injured after alleged knife attack near Gush Etzion

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli security guard on Sunday shot a Palestinian woman after she stabbed him at the entrance to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the southern occupied West Bank, an Israeli army spokesperson said.Israeli media initially reported that the Palestinian woman was shot and killed, although the Israeli liaison department later said she was in moderate condition.The security guard was lightly injured during the incident, an Israeli army spokesperson said.Security footage believed to be of the stabbing emerged on social media shortly after the incident, which shows a woman pull a knife from her purse and lunge at a security guard.The head of Israel’s civil liaison affairs, Danny Sandler, said in a statement that the video footage came from surveillance cameras and “proves that the woman planned a stabbing attack.”He called for Palestinian “media and social media” to stop “incitement,” saying that further attacks would harm the lives of Palestinians and the economy.The footage does not show the shooting of the woman, identified by her family as Hilwa Salim Darwish, from Husan village west of Bethlehem.The attack came just hours after another Palestinian was shot dead near the Tapuah Junction south of Nablus after allegedly ramming a car into three Israelis.Another Israeli was shot and injured in the leg at the scene, with Israeli media reporting that the Israeli army was investigating whether Israeli forces had been aiming at the Palestinian driver.One of the four Israelis injured in the first attack on Sunday is reportedly in critical condition.Recent attacks come as Israeli intelligence said earlier this week that a recent lull in violence was unlikely to be long-term, citing high levels of frustration among the Palestinian public and a weakened Palestinian Authority.

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Hebron sealed shut

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:30 PM PST

Photo: Hebron Defense Committee

Israel has sealed off the city of Hebron in act of collective punishment following two weekend attacks in the area

Some 160 thousand Palestinians in Hebron are currently locked in what locals describe as a "ghetto" following Saturday night’s military closure of all entrances to the city. Apart from one entrance manned by Israeli troops, all others have been closed by sandbags, boulders and dirt mounds.

Tharwat Sharawi, age 72, was shot and killed by Israeli forces Friday morning as she drove in Halhul, north of Hebron. Israeli authorities claim she attempted to run over soldiers and was subsequently shot. Her death was pronounced at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital, which reported that she was dead upon arrival.

Sharawi was the 74th Palestinian killed since the beginning of October by Israeli forces.

No Israeli injuries were reported.

Clashes erupted following the shooting of Sharawi and 17 Palestinians were wounded throughout the city of Hebron, 14 of them from live ammunition. The Health Work Committees medical centre reports that nine Palestinians were wounded by live fire in the city of Halhul, whilst three were wounded by live fire in the nearby town of Beit Ummar. Clashes further took place in the al Aroub and al Fawwar refugee camps in the southern Hebron district.

Three Israeli soldiers were shot and wounded Friday in Hebron’s Old City. Israeli authorities arrested a 16-year-old boy accused of the shooting.

Israeli settlers reportedly stoned numerous Palestinian-owned homes near downtown Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque and in the area west of the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Soldiers furthered invaded the office of local activist group Youth against Settlements, holding the group’s head, Issa Amro, inside with Italian journalist Francesca Borri.

The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reports that a German activist had also been held there, but the German embassy was able to secure his release.

Israeli forces arrested 17 Palestinians late Saturday night and early Sunday in Hebron and nearby towns. The Palestinian News and Info Agency reports that six Palestinians were arrested from their homes in Hebron; three in the town of Bani Na’im; three in the al Aroub and al Fawwar refugee camps; two in the town of Yatta; one in Dahiriya; one in Beit Ummar; and one in Idna.

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Lebanon arrests three for spying for Israel

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:25 PM PST

Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) demonstrate their skills at the forces simulation training village during their inauguration ceremony in the town of Aramoun south of the capital Beirut on October 8, 2015. ( AFP Photo)

Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) demonstrate their skills at the forces simulation training village during their inauguration ceremony in the town of Aramoun south of the capital Beirut on October 8, 2015

Authorities in Lebanon have arrested three people for spying on Lebanon's military and security bodies and individuals for the Israeli regime.

Lebanon’s security service said in a statement on Sunday a Lebanese man plus a Syrian man and his Lebanese wife had been detained over espionage activities.

“In the framework of pursuing operations to combat terrorism and espionage… the directorate of General Security arrested a spy network working for the Israeli enemy in the south (of Lebanon),” the statement said.

The statement did not provide any information about how and when the three were arrested, but said the detainees had admitted to spying.

The statement also noted that the three had been gathering information on strategic roads and other areas in south Lebanon to be sent to "their employers to be used in later attacks.”

Israel launched wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed in the 33-Day War of 2006. On both occasions, however, Hezbollah fighters defeated the Israeli military and Tel Aviv was forced to retreat without achieving any of its objectives.

The Tel Aviv regime launched an intelligence war against Hezbollah following its defeat in the two wars on Lebanon.

In September, the Lebanese army said it had discovered a rock-shape Israeli espionage device in a district of the southern town of Bani Hayan. The device was connected to four large electric batteries and was equipped with a hidden camera and some transmission devices.

A rock-shaped Israeli-made espionage device was found in the southern Lebanese town of Bani Hayan on September 30, 2015

Israel also violates Lebanon's airspace on an almost daily basis through sending reconnaissance drones, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.

Lebanon's government, the Hezbollah resistance movement, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, have repeatedly condemned the overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 and the country's sovereignty.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 2006 war, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

(Source / 08.11.2015)


Hossam Bahgat: Journalism is not a crime

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 01:18 PM PST

Instinct says to howl injustice at the sky but the mind says to relay the facts about Hossam Bahgat's detention by Egyptian military intelligence, earlier today, and let the reader make up their mind.

Approximately 9 hours ago, Bahgat walked into the Military intelligence building and has yet to emerge. All news reports and credible social media information from human rights defenders close to Mr. Bahgat indicated the reason for the summons is unknown.

However, that changed within the hour when a military source close to the investigation told BBC Arabic that military intelligence considers Mr. Bahgat to have published news deemed ''a security threat' to the military establishment.

Supporters of Mr. Bahgat had hoped that the summons was merely that, a summons, but that charge, in the era of the Terrorism law, is a potentially serious and financially exhaustive charge meant to give pause to those who hold dissident views and to neuter a press establishment in Egypt that is very rarely independent.

The BBC source used the term penned into existence by the terrorism law ''false news'' as being the chief accusation levied against Hossam. Earlier this summer, while writing about the Anti-Terrorism Law, I laid out the highly punitive nature of the law which initially sought to jail offenders for 2 years. However, in its final incarnation that clause was deleted but 2 deeply troubling elements were left: a fine of 200-500,000 EGP and a denial of the practice of the profession for one year.

These potential punishments are a kiss of professional and intellectual death for such a prominent, and deeply respected journalist and human rights defender like Hossam Bahgat. For Bahgat, who founded the highly respected EIPR, to come under attack is without question a pointed knife to the heart of the activist and human rights community, as well as journalists. The message is clear: write what we wish or face literal and/or figurative jail.

Hossam's work is understandably terrifying for a regime looking for hegemonic control over discourse in the public domain. Among the highly thorny issues he tackled in his brilliant investigative career two stand out prominently.

First is Who Let The Jihadis Out which incisively and authoritatively spells out that it was in fact the Supreme Council Of the Armed Forces (SCAF) who released into Sinai, and other spots, extremists, not, as alleged by the regime, ex-president Mohamed Morsi. The second piece the regime likely found embarrassing was a much more recent piece published less than a month ago entitled A Coup Busted which exposes a military trial where 26 Egyptian officers were sentenced for the crime of ''regime change''. Such an article, in the mind of the military institution which believes it is in a state of war against the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism, was particularly troubling as it highlighted divisions within military ranks. With the army's ex Chief, Abdel Fatah El Sisi, at the helm of the presidency, it should come as no surprise that Hossam Bahgat's freedom is under threat today.

Make no mistake about it, there is an element of look at the birdy in the timing of this investigation as Egypt faces a potential disaster with news emerging in the past 48-72 hours that favors a terrorism scenario in relation to the downed Russian plane in Sinai. The cost will be steep for a regime that continues to hemorrhage public support and there is nothing like a potential public case like Hossam Bahgat's to draw some of the spotlight away from the Russian plane' fiasco. After all, Bahgat's name is well known to most Western journalists and the New York Times, as of the writing of this article, had already written about his detainment.

There can be no question: the detainment of Hossam Bahgat is a desperate act by a desperate regime.

Let us hope it is a regime that gains wisdom with utmost speed lest it tighten the noose around its own neck.

But lets us also be blunt: an attack on Hossam is an attack on all journalists.

(Source / 08.11.2015)






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