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March 23, 2012
Open Thread 2012-08
Comments
i asked you, “what caused france to knuckle under to the neocons?” and you refer me back to a previous non-answer…
now then, i know what caused the US to knuckle under to the neocons, and we can take it clear back to the kennedy assassination if you want to… i’m not saying that israel killed kennedy –maybe they did, maybe they didnt– but judging form the unanimity and cowardice displayed by the US government, you got to assume there’s a great big stick to go along with AIPAC’s paltry carrots.
then there’s the zionist media, and the deathwish christians, and the corporate fascists who profit from wars and hope to gain access to oil at american taxpayer expense by supporting the neocon project.
i know that about america, but you are unwilling to explain why france has embraced the neocon project…
first you say it’s sarkozy, then you say the change came before sarkozy, and neither explanation gives us much understanding of the mechanics… are we supposed to think the french people are as cowed as the americans, and allow themselves to be bulldozed by a pipsqueak wannabe napoleon? …but that doesnt work, either, since you say, “The change of French foreign policy precedes Sarkozy.”
seems like you got an idea about the real answer, but you dont want to spit it out.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 26 2012 23:02 utc | 101
Just a bit of advice to somebody and others:
I’d be very careful, if I were you, of using main stream, and even ‘alternative’, media to come to a conclusion re the incidents in Montauban and Toulouse.
Ever since the events of 9.11, defenseless ‘tools’ are being exploited, like Nidal Malik Hasan, of the US Ft Hood incident, rendered hemiplegic, accused and judged en première instance by the media, much like the “justice” that’s being dispensed to the now dead Mohamed Merah.
In the case of Merah, a witness to the Montauban shooting of two French paratroopers [who were of North African origin!], described a corpulent indivdual with tattoos and a scar on the left cheek, in stark contrast to the scrawny young, tatooless Merah.
Was Merah the killer?.
What is so distressing is that, even in “progressive”, “independent” sources, Hasan and Merah, both, were tried and convicted, in the first instance, by the MEDIA!!
There is rarely a single voice, ‘enlightened’ or otherwise, in French blogs, that mentions the virtual lack of evidence against Merah …
Meanwhile, from the outset of the 32-hour “standoff’, Merah’s mother, brother and the bother’s petite amie were immediately detained by French police, in order that they be unavailable to make statements to the press.
This case is a product of the desperate, post 9.11 campaign to create financial profitability, from nothing; political positioning out of bogus “sectarian” division.
.
Posted by: Hyssop | Mar 26 2012 23:26 utc | 102
I guess the main change is that France revisited colonialism in the Mediterranean (a stupid idea).
They should have been warned by this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/08/france.comment
“Who really bombed Paris?
The evidence is that the 1995 Islamist attacks on the French metro were in fact carried out by the Algerian secret service.”
So in the next century France created problems for themselves with Turkey, with Qatar in Libya, with Syria and Lebanon …
to be faced with this now …
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/05/banlieue_bailout_0
While the investors and credit ratings agencies may be mulling over the economic turmoil gripping France, one set of investors is seeing opportunity. In Le Monde, Arthur Frayer profiled the efforts of Qatar to create a 50 million euro investment fund for the banlieues, France’s poverty-stricken, largely-immigrant suburbs. ”
by the way, everybody seems to want to invest in French banlieues just not the French state
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23france.html?_r=2&ref=world
“The United States Embassy in Paris has formed a network of partnerships with local governments, advocacy groups, entrepreneurs, students and cultural leaders in the troubled immigrant enclaves outside France’s major cities.
Begun in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks as part of an effort to bolster the image of the United States within Muslim communities across the globe, American outreach in these hard neighborhoods — often referred to collectively as the “banlieues,” or suburbs — has grown in scale and visibility since the election of Barack Obama. ”
The problem with having diverse friends is they might not like each other
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Aug-26/Israel-to-sever-ties-with-Qatar.ashx#axzz1qGeOMhOe
which is bad for business, as something has to be done …
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2012/03/26/sarkozy-bars-qaradawi-from-france-says-radical-imams-unwanted-after-toulouse/
I assume it wasn’t the Algerian secret service this time … which secret service owns “forsane alizza”?
By the way, they know that they in effect support the French right, they openly cooperate
http://maxblumenthal.com/
France’s Toulouse killings and the Salafist-Far Right alliance
Posted by: somebody | Mar 26 2012 23:27 utc | 103
ah, the neocons’ “clash of civilizations” surfaces in france… is that what you guys are driving at?
do you think you can stir up enough trouble with this “clash” to distract people from peak oil, the neocons and their PNAC project, and the fact that israel is the biggest mistake jews ever made?
i got to admit i’ve thought for quite a while now that the US would dissolve in race wars… lately i’ve come to think they’ll be orchestrated for maximum distraction from the real problems.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 26 2012 23:42 utc | 104
@somebody #103 – all these investments sound a lot like “farming” jihadis
Posted by: claudio | Mar 27 2012 0:03 utc | 105
Now there’s this from The Slog:
EXCLUSIVE: GREEK GOVERNMENT ROBBED PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS TO COMPLETE BOND SWAP
@claudio, which is what Marine le Pen is saying.
So this is configured to turn people to the right.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 5:37 utc | 107
Hyssop, of course he was the killer, just as those planes really flew into the world trade center. Wild theories without a touch of reality just help the powers that be to validate their narrative, as people challenging it then can be described as crazy.
How do you stage a shootout like this with someone who has no training nor heavy weapons?
How do you make sure, nobody talks about the setup?
Not having to talk to the press actually is in most people’s interest.
The point is, who helped him. Who planned this. How come he could do all this under surveillance.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 5:46 utc | 108
What kind of reasoning are they applying? What makes Jews more worth than Palestinians?
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 26, 2012 4:12:12 PM | 89
well, hang around some of the more fundamentalist jewish folks online, and you may eventually see some of the theology here. specifically, only jews are believed to have a godly soul, and gentiles are sometimes referred to as “talking animals”. to those people, all gentiles are basically “ni**ers”. and this attitude, if not the same verbiage, seems to persist in the secular zionists, as well.
Posted by: Proton Soup | Mar 27 2012 5:52 utc | 109
MARCH 26, 2012
8.2K
Occupy Wall Street Must Battle “70 Years of Corporate Propaganda”
Ayn Rand’s Nightmare is Today’s Wall Street
by PAM MARTENS. Counterpunch…and how many hundred years of bankster manipulation (perhaps that was the invisible hand refered by A. Smith?) and distorted history? Well, a think it is nice to go deeper than Cameron at the Marianas…
Posted by: Rift | Mar 27 2012 7:39 utc | 110
The French press actually is pretty good – Sarkozy trying to make a “monstre”, a lonely wolf out of the killer fails with reports like these
http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/exclusif-le-dernier-voyage-de-mohamed-merah-26-03-2012-1445069_23.php
“Coiffé d’un bonnet “rasta”, il fait du ski dans une station du Jura proche de la frontière suisse. Un mois avant les attentats de Toulouse et de Montauban commis par “le tueur fou au scooter”, Mohamed Merah se trouvait dans la petite station des Rousses avec deux amis, les 9 et 10 février 2012. Les dates sont celles des photos et des vidéos enregistrées sur le disque dur d’un ordinateur portable Mac Book Air.”
Whoever did this for what reason, it is unlikely to change the French election …
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 8:07 utc | 111
So CNN works like Al Jazeera …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfSwJi_LUWk
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-23/middleeast/world_meast_syria-cnn-allegations_1_syrian-state-cnn-correspondents-cnn-team?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST
“Syria, which has long accused Arab and Western satellite news networks for fabricating and falsifying events, now has CNN in its sights.
State-run Syrian media asserted Thursday that CNN journalists were involved in blowing up an oil pipeline in Homs province, collaborating with “saboteurs.”
The allegations surfaced when Syrian state TV aired portions of the CNN documentary “72 Hours Under Fire,” about the challenges faced by a CNN team while on assignment in Homs.”
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 8:22 utc | 112
and this here sums it all up
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/netanyahu-and-sarkozy-the-blood-merchants-1.420915
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 8:42 utc | 113
Anybody manage to find the video of the Toulouse killings on the net yet?
Posted by: alexno | Mar 27 2012 10:09 utc | 114
is NATO accountable to anybody?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/sunday-review/natos-secrecy-stance.html?_r=4
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 12:37 utc | 116
Regarding China, from NRK teletext, found it on TV, so sorry, no link, and translated from Norwegian.
Syria accept Annans peaceplan
Syrian government has written the UN envoy Kofi Annan and accepted the 6-point plan he suggested. This was confirmed tuesday by Annans spokesperson Ahmad Fawsi, while Annan was in Beijing asking Chinese government for support. China encouraged all parties in Syria to cooperate with Annan.
Syrian forces inside Lebanon
Syrian forces has passed the Lebanese border, shelling houses harbouring Syrian rebels. More than 35 Syrian government soldiers crossed the border and destroyed buildings, Abu Ahmed, and eyewitness said. He lives in a willage in the Lebanese mountain-area Al-Qaa. Another witness says the soldiers, that came in armoursed vehicles, shot RPGs at rebels.
Syrian charges of weapons-smuggling
Syrian rebels are receiving weapons from Lebanon and other neighbouring countries, the regime in Damascus claims in a complaint to the UN.
Experts, fofficials and observers all agree on this, the Syrian UN-ambasador Bashar Ja’afari wrote in a letter to UN generalsecretary Ban Ki Moon. According to Ja’afari, Syrian forces have intercepted large amounts of weapons. He does not specify what political forces supply the rebels with weapons.
Off topic, but:
Israel breaks ties with UN
Department of foreign affairs in Israel cut its ties with the UN human rights council, because they want to investigate Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian areas. The departments public affairs Vigal Palmor in a statement to AFP. Palmor adds, the council still isn’t formally oriented about the decision. The human rights council decided last week to investigate Israeli settlements.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 12:51 utc | 117
somebody: NATO can be held accountable to UN, with a UN resolution. But in practical terms, USA has the right to veto anything from the UN, so, no – NATO can not be held accountable, except if Russia and China goes USA on the USA.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 12:59 utc | 118
re 117
Syrian forces inside Lebanon
Syrian forces has passed the Lebanese border, shelling houses harbouring Syrian rebels. More than 35 Syrian government soldiers crossed the border and destroyed buildings, Abu Ahmed, and eyewitness said. He lives in a willage in the Lebanese mountain-area Al-Qaa. Another witness says the soldiers, that came in armoursed vehicles, shot RPGs at rebels.
That’s a Reuter’s report, not confirmed elsewhere, and perhaps a smear. The Daily Star said the Syrians didn’t cross the border. I doubt that they would dare; only Israel crosses borders with impunity. But they could have crossed the border by mistake.
Posted by: alexno | Mar 27 2012 13:49 utc | 119
alexano @ 119
You’re probably right. I don’t trust that report myself, I only relayed it. It’s interesting what lies are planted. Anyway, if there is anything to that report, it could be some rivaling rebel-group punishing defectors from the uprising. I mean, those were refugees, fleeing from the fight, if anyone could have interest in bombing them, it would be their comrades in arms, left to fight alone.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 14:17 utc | 120
nobody wants to answer my question…
why did france knuckle under to the neocons?
does it have anything to do with PNAC’s master plan for energy distribution?
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 27 2012 14:18 utc | 121
i guess you could make a case that the neocons’ “clash of civilizations” is a valid concept, especially in view of the fact that the neocons are starting clashes all over the world to gain control of oil, the better to deprive rival civilizations of access to oil.
so, to provide cover for the neocon operation, rival civilizations have to be painted as aggressors, whatever that takes… false flags, massive propagganda campaigns, and devouring the last crumbs of free lunch.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 27 2012 14:30 utc | 122
re 121
nobody wants to answer my question…
The fact is, I don’t really know the answer. I remember a meeting at the Affaires Etrangères, where, talking to the official, it seemed that they felt that they had gone too far out on a limb with the refusal to support the SC resolution on Iraq. That the consequences for them had been negative and that they accepted that France was no longer an independent power (which of course was why we all admired them over the failed resolution). Since then they’ve not wanted to stand out.
And of course with Sarko, he’s just a worshipper of everything American.
I don’t know whether that really adds anything.
Posted by: alexno | Mar 27 2012 15:31 utc | 124
what i’d like to know, is… how did france go from “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” to mainstays of the neocon PNAC project?
Chirac opposed the Iraq war. And would have no truck with the terrorist threat. (Other countries, such as CH started to examine bank accounts of Muslims and so on.) Chirac, iirc, simply ignored and ducked, an Ok strategy. Old guard. Republican values. Perfidious Albion.
Sark, with his ambition to be on the side of the powerful, be a guy to go to, get in the swim, be famous, admired, moneyed, changed that instantly, though no word was said (iirc) during the campaign.
His most serious move was to re-integrate NATO.
Sark has some Jewish roots, fwitw, and Israel, always on top of these things, supported him to the hilt, going so far as to create a commemorative laudatory stamp (postal stamp, yes) – *before* he was elected. Ha ha ha 🙂
He dreamed of teaming up with the new Glitz USA Prez but Obama snubbed him brutally, which must have been a bitter pill for Sark to swallow.
Sark promised to break old molds, and did it with a vengeance. Personal ambition, simply a desire to be in the powerful, winning camp? Old roots, contacts? Globalization? Direct financial advantage? Put France on the map? Blackmail, secret ententes? Banks? Arms sales? My own reading is that he is just a huckster, see his hanging on the tail of Merkel, Europe will be strong and all that. So, yes, I see it as real personal.
Alexno made the point that policy changed before Sark. I can’t think of anything specific (legal), but he is on the mark. Traditionally, the left or center right in France upholds the Holocaust and makes a fuss about it, even plays mea culpa (though not too loudly) for Vichy and the treatment of Jews, etc.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 27 2012 16:02 utc | 125
timidocurioso @123… china’s the long-term threat…
alexno @124, who doesnt know the answer…
maybe a map will help us see what’s going on…
PNAC progress 12mar12
we will boil the chinese frog until he starts objecting… maybe by dumping US “securities”…
at that point, the US defalts on its debt to china,
what is our military and our “nuclear primacy” for? …might makes right, and that’s that, according to neocon/israeli american philosophy.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 27 2012 16:04 utc | 126
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/27/how-the-new-american-empire-really-works/
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 16:07 utc | 127
somebody @127
PCR, in that counterpuch article, says that everybody’s a looter… well, that’s pretty much the truth except for the zionist diehards, the deathwish christians, the israelis, and big oil.
there are factions that PCR ignores in that article.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 27 2012 16:18 utc | 128
i got to admit this shit gives me a headache… it’s like being forced to watch reruns of “i love lucy” for hours on end… terminally boring, and if i had a real life, i’d be better off.
so would the rest of us.
once you know the basic outline, the rest of this crap can be ignored, because everything falls into the basic pattern. and it’s a pattern of racism hitched to a belief in might makes right.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 27 2012 16:51 utc | 129
Hey, lets save some money and endanger the lives of millions of Americans…..
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_20264852/apnewsbreak-report-warns-nuke-risk-calif?source=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
“Among the modifications to the generators, the report said the alloy was changed, bracing was redesigned and more tubes were added. The company never disclosed that such extensive changes were made, instead describing it as an exchange of similar equipment, the report said”
“That allowed SCE “to avoid the requisite NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) oversight of a steam generator replacement process,” the report said”
Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Mar 27 2012 17:00 utc | 130
And, uh, you seen anything in our media lately about Fukushima??? Move along folks, nuthin’ to see here…..
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/26/tokyo-soil-blanketed-fukushima-radiation-considered-radioactive-waste-106081/
“Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen took 5 random soil samples in Tokyo recently, and found that all 5 were so radioactive that they would be considered radioactive waste in the United States, which would have to be specially disposed of at a facility in Texas”
Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Mar 27 2012 17:16 utc | 131
Then, of course, theres this….
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-says-fukushima-no-2-reactor-water-level-only-60-cms
Tepco says that the #2 reactor vessel is almost empty of water, despite the millions of gallons that have been pumped in. And, uh, the water temp is low. So, doesn’t common sense dictate that we canmise that the core is no longer in the containment vessel? And, uhm, I’m no nuke expert…but…uh….doesn’t this seem to be a likely china syndrome event?
Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Mar 27 2012 17:55 utc | 132
@ 132
From the day of the earthquake and zunami there was discussios of evacuation. And indeed, most foreigners were. The China Syndrome is what’s going on for sure.
Evacuating the whole of Japan is not doable, even if Japan is as radioactive as the evacuated Tjernobyl. So they move people out of the most radioactive areas, and try not to panic the japanese people. Not to screw things up even worse, they only burn fossile fulels now, except for one remaining plant, that will be closed soon. They are desperately working on renewable green technologies there now, too bad it took a catastrophe.
No wonder San Onofre is closed. That one is the technological twin of Fukushima, as well as placement, both by the sea at a fault-line.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 19:34 utc | 133
We got our very own offshore drilling catastrophe here in the ocean between UK and Norway now, a natural gas drilling platform that had to be evacuated after the product started bubbling up uncontrollably from the seabed. And this one isn’t going to come under control, probably not until the whole gas reservoir is drained, and this will take some time. I’m not sure how big the gas-field is, no-one is, but to assume it will blow gas for not months, but years, is a fair assumption. Unless they light the damn thing, the amount of gas will have some effect on the climate, because for now it’s not CO2, it’s natural gas going straight to the atmosphere.
We even have had some earthquake activity in the area, I’m not sure if the earthquake caused the leak, or the other way around though. The whole thing gives a eerie forboding feeling, I almost feel the headache coming on by the gas.. I can almost see the scorching summer, and warmer mantle of the earthcrust, making the rock expand, making for techtonic plate-movement, and some more global earthquake-catastrophes.. It’s going to be a rough ride this year.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 19:52 utc | 134
#134…..
And meanwhile, scientists have determined that hyrdocarbons have entered the ocean’s food chain due to the BP spill. And, dolphins are increasingly showing illnesses attributed to chemical exposure, with deaths occurring as well. Now, these ignorant greedy fuckers are going to drill in the arctic, where even getting to a spill with remediation equipment would be impossible during a good portion of the year. Besides, such a spill would occur UNDER the icem and how the hell would you clean THAT up?
To be honest, I think the rest of mankind’s follies, such as our effort to wage war on each other because of racial, ethnic, and religious bigotry are becoming kinda irrelevent to our future, because we will undoubtedly poison ourselves to extinction before we manage to exterminate ourselves with weaponry and hatred.
Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Mar 27 2012 22:02 utc | 135
I wonder what sense the Kofi-Annan proposal makes?
When “both” (given there are just two like government – opposition) parties agree on a ceasefire and in the following days a bomb or more go off or “civilians get shot” on some occasion, who is going to decide whose fault it is? Isn’t it just the same situation then as it is now or as it was before?
Isn’t the crucial point about this whole conflict the “who is to blame”. Why would that Annan plan make it any clearer who’s the aggressor and who the defendant. I can’t quite see it.
Another explanantion may be that with the Annan mission all parties have indeed found an agreement that satisfies them and renders further violence obsolete. Given the radical Saudi-Salafi ideology and a strategic interest of both Saudi and Turks, I can hardly imagine how such an agreement might look like?
Maybe Assad has agreed to loosen Syrias ties with Iran?
One doesn’t hear much about the kurdish stance in this conflict, although they probably (given their wealth of oil and their inhabitance of three countries that are involved in this conflict) do have their role and weight.
This region from around russia turkey and iran really is really confusingly full of parties and power structures, it’s quite fascinating in a way.
Posted by: peter radiator | Mar 27 2012 22:22 utc | 136
@136, by now Assad has won militarily and politically in Syria, so Kofi Annan’s proposal is a face saver for the parties involved.
I guess Syria will be part of any official or unofficial agreement with Iran.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 27 2012 22:37 utc | 137
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/27/1000-sieverts-hour-fukushima-reactor-2-radiation-106831/
TEPCO announced plans to perform an endoscope operation inside the Fukushima Reactor 2 on March 26th during which they discovered the water level had dropped to only 60 centimeters from the bottom
The operation continued into its second day on March 27th and the data released is absolutely shocking during which radiation levels in the reactor’s containment vessels were measured at 73 sieverts per hour.
Even more alarming is TEPCO is radiation levels inside the actual reactor are so high that TEPCO was prevented from even attempting to get video of the the exposed nuclear fuel inside.
According to a Fukushima worker, TEPCO calculates the radiation being emitted from the exposed fuel to be far in excess of 1000 sieverts per hour that the endoscope is rated to handle.
Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Mar 27 2012 22:38 utc | 138
#130, 131, 132, 135
Samo, samo, business as usual, nothing new there; So is that supposed to explain your handle? Shit, VT Yankee is now running on extended (borrowed) time.
I’m thinking of changing mine to something more appropriate.
Posted by: juannie | Mar 27 2012 22:44 utc | 139
PissedOffAmerican @ 135
Poisoned we are indeed. What politicians can stand on TV and defend with a straight face is incredible. Tar-sand, arctic drilling… companies pay off politicians to get permission to do these risky things, with the guarantee that they will not be liable or prosecuted, or economically responsible when it goes tits up.
We should have a system to stop politicians from recieving money under the table.
Anyway, the gas-blowout in the north-sea:
Elgin platform gas leak: Gas cloud reported at site
Oil company Total has revealed it could take six months to drill a relief well to stop the gas leak on its Elgin platform in the North Sea.
A cloud of gas was reported to be surrounding the platform, which is located 150 miles (240km) off Aberdeen.
Lorna Gordon reports from Aberdeen
No immediate danger from platform flare, says Total
The BBC’s Colin Blane: “It is a serious, uncontrolled leak”
The operator of a North Sea platform which is leaking gas has said there is no immediate danger of ignition.
Oil company Total said the escaped gas is at a lower height than a flare which is still alight on the installation.
Earlier, it revealed it could take six months to drill a relief well to stop the gas leak on its Elgin platform in the North Sea.
The company is looking at several options to stem the flow of gas following Sunday’s incident.
Jake Molloy, of the RMT union, said the potential remained for “catastrophic devastation”.
Exclusion zones have been put in place around the platform. Shell also announced a shutdown of a platform.
The Scottish government said ministers were being kept “fully informed of developments”.
A cloud of gas was reported to be surrounding the platform, which is located 150 miles (240km) off Aberdeen.
Coastguards said shipping was being ordered to keep at least two miles away and there was a three-mile exclusion zone for aircraft.
Shell has moved 120 non-essential staff from the Shearwater platform and Hans Deul drilling rig, about four miles from the Elgin, because of the drifting gas.
—-
He said: “It is a very deep well. The gas they are bringing up is what we call sour gas.
“That gas has a high proportion of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide and that makes it very flammable and quite poisonous.
“So the big problem they have got is dealing with a very combustible gas – unlike Deepwater Horizon where we were dealing with crude oil which ironically is very difficult to light sometimes.”
They are talking about 6 months for a releave well to be drilled, but that will only take off some of the pressure, not fix the problem, so we’re talking years here.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 27 2012 23:03 utc | 140
Alexander at 140 — Not a mention that I’ve come across in US media coverage. Thank you for this info (not that our Mainstream Corporate Media, aka MCM, tends to cover much which isn’t helpful to the Powers That be…).
Posted by: jawbone | Mar 27 2012 23:36 utc | 141
France was not set on opposing the USA as a matter of policy, they just had their own agenda, which included refusing to go support the Second Iraq War. That sent a lot of people into a frenzy of hatred against them.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 28 2012 6:41 utc | 142
France was not set on opposing the USA as a matter of policy, they just had their own agenda, which included refusing to go support the Second Iraq War. That sent a lot of people into a frenzy of hatred against them.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 28 2012 6:41 utc | 143
Anyone else starting to wonder about the significance of the end of the Mayan Calendar during Dec. 2012?
Uncontrollable gas blowout at Total’s evacuated Elgin-Franklin platform
(you’ll need to scroll down a few pages past the index to read the article)
…Total Gas Leak in North Sea Out of Control for Foreseeable Future
…Crews from Elgin, other platforms evacuated
…Impossible to stop
In Bellona’s analysis, the discharge at the Elgin field is going to be very difficult to stop. When the gas escapes it becomes impossible to get back on board the platform to deal with it. Gas in the water affects the buoyancy of possible rescue rigs, and the water is flammable. […]
When gas and condensate coming from such great depths as great as 5000 meters at high pressures rise, they will expand exponentially on their way to the surface. Sand and debris will dig holes in metal near the bore hole. If the gas is moving outside of the well, it will dig further and further into the bore’s rise.
Problematic relief wells
Bellona believes that when a platform is evacuated, the only remaining measure to bring the situation under control is drilling a relief well – as was done at Deepwater Horizon.
But Bellona fears this may difficult if not impossible. Such a well must be drilled very deep depending on how deep the leak in the Elgin well is. To dig the relief well, workers must somehow drill in under the leak and put in a new plug. Doing this depends on using highly advanced platforms in a nearly surgical procedure that can take months.
High gas concentrations in the area along with the fact that gas is in the air as far as 6 kilometers away is telling as it shows how far from any platform a relief well must be drilled to avoid aerial gas pollution.
But with buoyancy and flammability issues to consider, any rig drilling a relief well would have to do it from a great distance. To get a rig any closer than 10 kilometers, said Hauge, rescue workers would have to set the gas in the sea on fire.
But if there are platforms available to drill from such distance and this deep, the question that remains is will they do it? This, thinks Bellona, will be very difficult to arrange. Platforms of this nature would first have to be released from their current contracts, which will take time as such highly specialized rigs are used for drilling other complex wells. Drilling for the relief well alone could then take as long as three months if not far longer.
So task number one at the moment, says Bellona, is to immediately secure a drilling platform that is capable of drilling the relief well. If such equipment is available, it must immediately be requisitioned.
If drilling a relief well is not possible, the only solution is the worst-case scenario of letting the reservoir blow out until all of its pressure is tamped down. As the quantity of gas in the reservoir is unknown, fears that large amounts remain are founded. This gas would then be released into the water and air for a long time to come.
Posted by: juannie | Mar 28 2012 12:50 utc | 144
juannie @ 144
Anyone else starting to wonder about the significance of the end of the Mayan Calendar during Dec. 2012?
Indeed, this does feel like the apocalypse. I don’t think reporting has become more comprehensive, I think more stuff is actually happening these times.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 13:36 utc | 145
I think the chemical reaction we call life, has been picking up speed as the temperature’s been rising.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 13:39 utc | 146
BTW, has anyone seen any news about Edith Bouvier, the rescued French journalist? The last I found on Google was dated March 1 and 2, all about the rescue and evacuation from Syria.
Nothing since.
Posted by: jawbone | Mar 28 2012 13:56 utc | 147
@ the dooomers…
this gas blowout is not the end of the world… fukushima is not the end of the world…
both are merely syptoms of western civilization outsmarting itself by inventing clever little technologies that degrade their own habitat… sure, whites will eventually poison themselves to death (unless they come to their senses) but it’s gonna take a long agonizing time, assuming, of course, that they sont commit nuke suicide first, in a fit of infantile rage because they didnt get their way.
and how anybody can justify an operation like the PNAC project or the israel project based on the supposed racial superiority of white, especially jewish, civilization, is beyond me.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 14:07 utc | 148
The Pope pulling up in his Pope-Mobile in Cuba now, they are talking about the Pope-Mobile on BBC and Al Jazeera, The Pope, sounds like some superhero, with his super-Pope-Mobile.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 14:24 utc | 149
well, if the pope gets too uppitiy, i’m sure there are reams and reams of unpublished child abuse cases that can be trotted out…
do you ever wonder about the timing of the catholic priest buggering scandal? …it’s pretty amazing… the pope mouths off about his objections to the iraq war, and the first thing he knows, he’s up to his gills in sex abuse cases.
what a miracle.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 14:27 utc | 150
heh,,,
anyway, they are having a segment on the North-Sea gas-belch on CNN now.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 14:44 utc | 151
i guess it’s pretty common knowledge by now that the “news” agencies are pretty desperate for filler… that’s why they have to sensationalize everything…
i mean, they cant talk about anything that matters, because that would cast an unpleasant light on the benevolence of our aspiring hegemony… anything about the project and the wars must be approved and sanitized, and people are starting to catch on…
if one of the goals of the whole project is to demoralize people, then it makes sense to dramatize and exaggerate the bad stuff that’s unconnected to the main project… the goal being, get people so down that they cant muster enough will to do any resisting.
oughta work for a while… at least until things get so bad that public opinion is no longer a factor, because anyone that opens his yap will be shipped off to some FEMA gulag.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 15:02 utc | 152
@149: Still, whenever the pope is in the news, begs the question, what drives certain portions of humanity to believe he’s anymore holy than anyone else? Strange.
Posted by: ben | Mar 28 2012 15:06 utc | 153
“… what drives certain portions of humanity to believe he’s anymore holy than anyone else?”
people are getting over it… for instance, i thought the pope’s objections to the iraq war might have had some bearing on france’s political stance, the one that got them dubbed “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” before they joined up with the neocons…
so i google france, and find out that the catholic church is losing lots of horsepower in france, so it’s not likely the pope’s attitude had much to do with it.
meanwhile, from william gibson’s “spook country”…
Brown didn’t like the New York Times. Brown actually didn’t like news media of any kind, Milgrim had come to understand, because the news conveyed did not issue from any reliable, that was to say, governmental, source.
Nor could it, really, under present conditions of war, as any genuine news, news of any strategic import whatever, was by definition precious, and not to be wasted on the nation’s mere citizenry.
so, we gotta beat that blowout to death, ridicule the pope mobile… anything to divert attention from what’s really going on.
you’d think that flat global oil production for the last six or seven years would be newsworthy… not so, not under the current definition of “news”.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 15:28 utc | 154
thing about the gas well blowout, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 supposedly is. i’ve even seen it claimed that the agricultural revolution saved us from an impending ice age cycle by creating large amounts of methane. if it could in any way be burned off, that would be better than direct venting.
and the bouyancy problem it causes… there is a theory this is the mystery of the bermuda triangle disappearances. quite a lot of methane gets locked up on seabeds as methane hydrate ice, enough around japan alone to keep them going for a few hundred years if only they could harvest it. of course, one way to get it to the surface is to heat it. as the earth warms, methane is going to spontaneously surface in more places than just bermuda. this is going to then cause a runaway effect – more heat leads to more eruptions, which leads to more heat and more eruptions.
about the mayans, because their calendar didn’t have leap years, hasn’t the end of days already come and gone? you suppose if there were a rapture that anyone would notice?
Posted by: Proton Soup | Mar 28 2012 15:43 utc | 155
It took a while before the media picked up on how dramatic the gas blow-out is. But it’s going to dominate in the news for a long time.
The belching sea
The gas is bubbling up from the seabed at 5000 meters below the surface at very high pressure. The gas is a mix of mostly methane, with some hydrogen-sulfide – a smelly poisonous gas, and some CO2 which is also poisonous.
There is supposed to be two barriers for any gas to escape, but both have failed, and they can’t say why (can’t or won’t). The gas is poisoning both the seawater and the air. Some of the product condensates on the surface, some is dissolved in the sea, and some floats along the air at sea-level, and a lot goes into the atmosphere. The gas-cloud is clearly visible 7 miles away.
The Elgin Well Head platform, operated by French Total, as well as two nearby rigs, have been evacuated, 323 workers in all. The platform is located 240 km east of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the North-Sea between Norway and the UK.
Having this gas uncrontrollably sifting thru the water makes approaching the disaster in a boat very dangerous, not only because the gas is poisonous and explosively flammable, but any boat caught under the gas-stream would sink straight to the bottom. The exclusion zone around the rig has been extended again, from 2 miles at sea, to . Helicopters and planes has to keep 5 km away.
Lighting the sea on fire
Right now the gravity of the situation has to sink in before the paralysis lets go. There seem to be some reservations against lighting the gas. Sooner or later, they have to ignite the gas, because they can’t do anything until it’s burnt off. The exclusion zone has to take into effect the poisonous nature of the gas, so to get closer, they have to set it on fire.
They are hesitant to burn the gas because they then lose the drilling rig. But as the situation is now, the rig is lost anyway. The gas leak isn’t going to stop by itself, that is only wishful thinking, and this will be realized eventually, and in a few weeks at the most. Despite a flare burning at the top of the rig, the leak is still not burning.
Drilling a relief-well
To releave some of the pressure, they are contemplating drilling a new well nearby. This will not stop the leak, only reduce the rate at which it flows, and reduce the total amount lost to the atmosphere. The drilling of a relif-well takes months, and will be very expensive.
The Elgin Head Platform has a capacity to produce 15.5 million cubic-meters of gas per day. This gives some idea of what is going into the air. Methane is of course a very potent greenhouse-gas, and burning it off has to be done bot for immediate safety and for the climate-effect.
Here is what BBC says about it.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 16:32 utc | 156
Proton Soup @ 155
about the mayans, because their calendar didn’t have leap years, hasn’t the end of days already come and gone? you suppose if there were a rapture that anyone would notice?
The Mayan calender ends December 21 i believe.
you suppose if there were a rapture that anyone would notice?
Not if they don’t report it on CNN.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 16:45 utc | 157
“…it’s going to dominate in the news for a long time.”
of course it is, for all the reasons mentioned above.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 16:48 utc | 158
retreatingbladestall
you’d think that flat global oil production for the last six or seven years would be newsworthy
When Oil hits the 200$ mark, and the motives for war is too obvious, that’s when the 2005 oil-peak reaches the headlines. Of course, admitting Irans place among the superpowers is not done willingly.
Because oil-extraction has become more effective, the oil-peak-curve will look something like this:
..oooOOOo..
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 17:47 utc | 159
that blowout is not getting as much attention as i thought it would… somebody suggested on one of the energy sites that the main media is not hyping it because of the push to expand offshore drilling in the US.
who knows?
as far as peak oil being news… one of the main purposes of theoildrum is to plant the idea that the main media is never gonna acknowledge peak oil… i dont know if they’re some kind of limited hangout or gatekeeper or safety valve or steering committee, or what… but they seem to be working at cross purposes to themselves.
they’re saying that peak oil is the biggest thing to happen to humanity since sliced bread…
if peak oil was that important, you’d think they’d have balls enough to make a connection to 9/11 and all this push towards more wars…
but they ban anybody that makes that connection.
then they say that the the general population is never gonna figure out that peak oil is the basic problem, because they say the main media will never inform them.
pretty fucked up site, except for the technical stuff, which gets pretty boring after while, especially once you start connecting a few forbidden dots.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 18:23 utc | 160
theoildrum has been prone, in the past, to go off the deep end… one of the founders was especially bad at that, and seems to have been shunted off to the side, hopefully because of his hysteria.
but the coverage of the deepwater horizon and fukushima, the hurricanes and other stuff has been kinda over the top in places.
they seem to be calmer about this north sea blowout.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 18:32 utc | 161
and finally, i dont want anyone to get the idea that i’m picking especially on theoildrum… their behavior is just another exapmple of the “free lunch” syndrome, and the whole main media and most everything else is infected, so theoildrum is not outstanding in that respect.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 28 2012 18:50 utc | 162
The thing about the North Sea blowout, gas is less visible than the Deepwater-Horizon, that’s why they don’t light it up right away, cause that would look really spectacular in the news. When fish show up dead, it’s more easily deniable in the media.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 28 2012 19:05 utc | 163
the silencing of peter tickner
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ruling-of-26-March-2012.pdf
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 28 2012 20:45 utc | 164
FYI
US and yemeni dictators keep yemeni journalis in prison for his telling the truth about US bombing civilians in yemen in 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phrXBQZg_AU
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/democracy_now_on_the_imprisoned_yemeni_journalist/
http://www.allvoices.com/news/11717932-jeremy-scahill-why-is-president-obama-keeping-yemeni-journalist-abdulelah-haider-shaye-in-prison
Posted by: brian | Mar 28 2012 20:50 utc | 165
BTW, has anyone seen any news about Edith Bouvier, the rescued French journalist? The last I found on Google was dated March 1 and 2, all about the rescue and evacuation from Syria.
she was on France 24 (english version) a few days ago. for someone with a shattered femur she looked good and did not have a visible cast nor any external fixators. It was apparent from the interview that France is driving very hard for a war with Syria. I am guessing they are quite pleased with themselves after the resounding success they had in Libya.
quite remarkable.
Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 28 2012 21:06 utc | 166
Alexander @117…
there are no syrian ‘rebels’ there are ‘insurgents’ who are mixed syrian libyan qatari etc. These use terrorism such as car bombs to terrorise the syrian people
Posted by: brian | Mar 29 2012 0:41 utc | 167
brian @ 167
Know, I know, NRK insist on calling them Syrian rebels.
.. And French troops, don’t forget French. Anyone heard any more about those? The 13 or 120 French soldiers caught?
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 29 2012 1:34 utc | 168
hey!
us seppo mofos arent all bad… here’s a nice car lovin’, beer drinkin’, dart throwin’, girl chasin’ song for you
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 29 2012 10:32 utc | 170
well #166 Dan of Steele in the interview
Edith Bouvier a) refuses to comment on the situation in Syria apart from saying that getting correct information is impossible
b) insists that she would have taken the Red Cross ambulance if it had been possible
c) explains that part of the videos taken from her were without her consent and the quotes from her were false
d) decidedly does not take up the interviewer on his invitation to talk about the terrible destiny of civilians in Homs – as a matter of fact does not talk about anything but her and the other journalists.
e) insists that she is a journalist, no militant, and is very much on the defensive in that respect
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2012 11:26 utc | 171
@somebody, 171…
i wonder why there isnt any information about this girl on the internet…
hell, you cant even tell if she’s related to jackie onassis.
what do you spose would account for this absence of information?
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 29 2012 12:25 utc | 172
what? Edith Bouvier is no relation to Jackie K. Bouvier is an uncommon but ordinary F name.
The NYT times reported she came home and — da ta ta dah – the Sark was there to greet her.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/world/middleeast/french-journalists-home-after-being-trapped-in-syria.html
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 29 2012 16:30 utc | 173
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/crime/zimmerman-dad-worked-as-magistrate
Zimmerman’s father was a magistrate on the *Virginia* supreme court.
Pat Lang has been carrying water (promoting bogus pics, threatening to delete people for pointing out they’re bogus, promoting the “Zimmerman was attacked” story, etc) for the Zimmerman team from the very first moment the story broke national news.
Pat Lang is notably a Virginia nationalist/localist, and in the wake of this Martin/Zimmerman case has implied that he thinks “stand your ground” laws are a useful extension of “Southern Culture”, and a good “git’em back” for “Lincoln’s” civil war (not making this stuff up – read his comments carefully). The South is extending itself upwards and outwards….
Zimmerman, according to Lang, wasn’t “white” because he was of Mexican genetic stock.
Never mind Zimmerman was raised by white Jewish parents, in a white neighborhood, according to White principles.
Plausible deniability: “the genes were rotten, y’know; we tried our best” — or “Look at how the Spics can do just as well as we, given the right guidance!”
Lang’s fallen apart in this set of events. Surprising, considering how composed he typically is. Either something’s pushing him to over-reach, or he’s getting old.
Posted by: china_hand2 | Mar 29 2012 17:40 utc | 174
@ somebody re: 169
what I meant is that France 24 is actively promoting war with Syria and the interviewer was doing everything he could to get Ms Bouvier to say things that would enforce that meme
Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 29 2012 18:29 utc | 175
What claudio said — I’ve been wondering since yesterday how b is doing.
Get well,b! And if you’re still recuperating, take care and rest well.
Posted by: jawbone | Mar 29 2012 20:57 utc | 177
@174
Scratch the southern gentry with tales of black men with hoodies and you get . . . . . Pat Lang.
I think it’s time for the colonel to retire to the attic.
Posted by: assizi | Mar 29 2012 22:20 utc | 179
the prior discussion of Bouvier and her apparent lack of injury made me think of Colvin again. i did a search, and apparently it’s been mentioned here since, but without attracting much interest, that she had an autopsy. the autopsy didn’t say she died of shelling from the Syrian army, but from a nail bomb. wikipedia references a french language story, and sorry, i do not speak french, so here is google.
this would back up my prior suspicion that she and Remi were murdered.
Colvin’s body was conveniently cremated, destroying any evidence(and leaving open the conspiracy theory that her death was faked). still, the video provided by those insurgents looks queer to me, like they were placed in the location to be filmed.
another story claiming a nail was in her head: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/230073.html
but i haven’t seen any western story about her autopsy. only one link comes up in google news for “marie colvin autopsy”, and nothing there about hers.
Posted by: Proton Soup | Mar 30 2012 0:06 utc | 180
been trying to make a post about colvin, but it just won’t go through for some reason. did anyone ever hear more about her death being from a nail bomb?
Posted by: Proton Soup | Mar 30 2012 0:09 utc | 181
in afghanistan , media is silent andUS getsawaywithmurder
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30906.htm
its clear from reading how US military refuses to cooperate with the afghans on the mass murder of 17 afghan that this was orchestrated.
also:
‘In addition, they have treated Bales as if he were a cache of radioactive material, keeping him in complete isolation after spiriting him out of Afghanistan to Kuwait – without having notified the Kuwaitis – where his presence caused consternation and protests from the local authorities when it was discovered. He was soon back in the US’
this freedom to override local laws (a sign of them imperilist, for whom laws dont exist), recalls how terror suspect american Michael Meiring in the philipines was spirited away by the FBI:
According to a Mindanao newspaper, Meiring was whisked away “without the knowledge of any police, military or government official in the city or region,” prompting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to brand this an “affront to Philippine sovereignty.” Worse, Meiring was even visited by a governor, a congressman and some military officials prior to his flight, which shows that he was well connected
http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-leon-panetta-wheres-michael-meiring.html
‘
Posted by: brian | Mar 30 2012 0:32 utc | 182
re: 99…what caused France to knuckle under to the neocons?
I thought we all knew the answer to that.
The answer is:
France was almost certainly threatened with international financial annihilation by
a representative of the almost absolute control of the world’s financial institutions by Zionist Jews. France was told in no uncertain terms to get on board with the Rothchild’s World Bank view of the world…or face the consequences…
Geez! I thought everyone knew that!
Posted by: arthurdecco | Mar 30 2012 1:47 utc | 183
This open thread is about to go into page three. I believe a first on this blog.
I echo claudio,jawbone and Alexander. Are you ok b?
We miss you but if you just need the space/time, at least let us know.
I think b-real and/or r’giap may have some closer connection?
What’s up?
Concerned,
John
Posted by: juannie | Mar 30 2012 2:19 utc | 184
Doing my part to push us toward the 3-page milestone! 🙂
Here’s Bruce Schneier on why the TSA is AFU:
Harms of Post-9/11 Airline Security
Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Mar 30 2012 2:39 utc | 185
I think we’ve had longer threads, back in the day. hopefully yer mate b is just having a few days off.
See I never understood why some peeps were so friendly towards Lang. I wrote him off as just another white supremacist, amerikan exceptionalist piece of warmongering imperialist dog-shit right after reading what he wrote.
His surface bonhomie with the scratchproof ‘gentlemanly’ facade is just another of the deception skills that some intelligence agents use to keep normal humans off balance.
The more hat-tippingly polite those types act, the more vulgar & loud I prefer to treat them, because that is the only response that could possibly push them off balance.
Humans learn that politeness generally causes the other person to act a bit politer or more reasonably too. Thing is these professionally polite hypocrites such as Lang have a streak of viciousness buried deep.
This is what motivates them into such acts as deliberately inciting sectarian division among Iraq’s population. One million dead Iraqis later they are still sounding reasonable when discussing the people whose decimation they architected.
But the horrible core is always there and if you don’t respond to these assholes with the politeness they are patronising you with; eventually the pretense will slip and you’ll get to see the ugliness within them.
Allowing that to happen will upset and annoy the Pat Lang style asshole much better than any rational inventory of their fucked up philosphy & character flaws could.
Posted by: Did | Mar 30 2012 3:54 utc | 186
@181 Meiring. A chilling tale. But I understood that armed US embassy staff brushed by Philipine police who were guarding Meiring and took him back to San Diego. I’ve always wondered about the Philipines, their ability to absorb Yanqui humiliation is epic.
Posted by: yes_but | Mar 30 2012 4:16 utc | 187
Good grief. I loathe the chattering idiocy of the new MoA clients. Obsequious drones without a queen. b come home.
& where’s rgiap? I miss his obloquies seeded with tortured cititions to Agee and Celan.
Posted by: slothrop | Mar 30 2012 4:25 utc | 188
slothrop does a victory lap…
well, enjoy it while it lasts… you know how it works, and it wont last very long.
you guys will make sure of that, because that’s just how your system works.
not my fault.
Posted by: retreatingbladestall | Mar 30 2012 4:43 utc | 189
Are you ready?
Why Does The Department Of Homeland Security Need 450 MILLION Hollow Point Bullets?
Somebody out there has decided that the Department of Homeland Security needs a whole lot of ammunition. Recently it was announced that ATK was awarded a contract to provide up to 450 MILLION hollow point bullets to the Department of Homeland Security over the next five years. Is it just me, or does that sound incredibly excessive? What in the world is the DHS going to do with 450 million rounds?
What possible event would ever require that much ammunition? If the United States was ever invaded, it would be the job of the U.S. military to defend the country, so that can’t be it. So what are all of those bullets for? Who does the Department of Homeland Security plan to be shooting at? According to the U.S. Census, there are only about 311 million people living in the entire country. So why does the Department of Homeland Security need 450 million rounds of ammunition? Either this is an incredible waste or there is something that the Department of Homeland Security is not telling us. […]
Posted by: Juan Moment | Mar 30 2012 8:38 utc | 191
#175, yes, actually she was very clear that she was embedded with the Free Syrian Army and not with Avaaz activists … go figure …
Posted by: somebody | Mar 30 2012 8:55 utc | 192
Looks like the US government are preparing for an apocalypse.
Posted by: Alexander | Mar 30 2012 11:27 utc | 193
@ 190.
That info, if it’s true, reminds me of my favourite #Occupy poster…
The American Dream – you have to be asleep to believe it
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 30 2012 13:46 utc | 194
“ATK was awarded a contract to provide up to 450 MILLION hollow point bullets” …
Admittedly I am no good at in depth web searching… however I cannot find one credible (to me) link on this.
Rense dot com and other tinfoil hat sites repeating themselves is not credible to me. Anyone find a credible link on this?
Posted by: Eureka Springs | Mar 30 2012 13:46 utc | 195
b should be in the final stages of recovery by now.
Having suffered a respiratory ailment as painful as the one b mentions @ #28, several decades ago, I wasn’t expecting him back for at least 7 days.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 30 2012 13:54 utc | 196
@ Eureka Springs
Press release via MarketWatch:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/atk-secures-40-caliber-ammunition-contract-with-department-of-homeland-security-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-dhs-ice-2012-03-12?reflink=MW_news_stmp
Posted by: Juan Moment | Mar 30 2012 15:21 utc | 197
Fukushima on the ground.
8 very short films, in F, Japanese, and English, with subtitles in French.
by Alain de Halleux.
the theme is treated thru the future of the children.
http://www.rue89.com/rue89-planete/2012/03/10/recits-de-fukushima-huit-temoignages-poignants-230020
(can also be found on arte site, if this link does not work)
It is soft, even poetic in a way, low-key, no huge drama, yet gives a window into how ppl manage such catastrophes, handle life day by day, how they see their future (e.g. teen girls sadly saying no kids for them) – it doesn’t make light or deny…I post this because it is a rare doc of ordinary ppl (carefully chosen to be sure, but still.)
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 30 2012 17:23 utc | 198
Thanks Juan… It’s always worse than we think. Nobody buys 450 millions rounds of ammo unless the intend to do a whole lot of murdering people. When, oh when, will the majority of Americans admit the coup is complete?
Posted by: Eureka Springs | Mar 30 2012 18:40 utc | 199