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A Movie Recommendation And Open Thread
Adam Curtis' new masterpiece, Bitter Lake, was unfortunately only released for the iPlayer platform. But there are now some free sources available online.
The movie, again with fantastic music and pictures, tells the grant political story of the last seventy or so years using historic and current footage. The (non-)development of our world is investigated using the example of Afghanistan and the outer forces involved in it.
From Curtis' own description:
It tells a big historical narrative that interweaves America, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia. It shows how politicians in the west lost confidence – and began to simplify the stories they told. It explains why this happened – because they increasingly gave their power away to other forces, above all global finance.
…
[I]t is important to try and understand what happened. And the way to do that is to try and tell a new kind of story. One that doesn’t deny the complexity and reduce it to a meaningless fable of good battling evil – but instead really tries to makes sense of it.
The movie is quite long, some 140 minutes, but highly recommended.
Part 1, 2 and 3.
Use as open thread.
The US has had a change of heart. Say ..press titles like: “The US is making moves to repair relations with Russia…” (See for ex. Fort Russ 16 may for articles in this mode.)
The telling sign is Kerry’s trip to Sotchi, a few days after the US was absent at the Commemoration in Moscow.
Apparently aggregate sites haven’t noted that Radio Liberty (USA) published a damning article about Poroshenko. When I read it the top lead article was about more proof of a Russian Buk downing MH17, in true RL style. May 16.
Makes it official I think and points to Poro *perhaps* being a sacrificial victim. He is certainly looking dead stressed.
What happened? In some situations, slow attritition, build up of negativity, or even just an unfavorable stasis that lasts too long explain turnabouts. The docs finally reluctantly decide to intern the patient; Marie-Lucille wakes up one morning and just decides to split after her uplifiting dream, her marriage to Jean-Luc has been dead for years. (see for ex. Escobar and the May 9 Moscow parade below.) Maybe. I’m not keen.
One US faction winning over another and managing to reverse, or change course? Obama is fast in the grip of the neo-cons, neo-libs, and that can’t just miraculously change. So? Kerry is being presented as a ‘realist’, as per usual. Disarray certainly.
Was there some event or some new information? What occurred? I haven’t a clue.
One has to take into account that Minsk 2 rests on negotiations. (See wiki.) In the MSM, the terms autonomy, decentralisation, federalisation, are tossed about but nobody says what exactly they mean, feel-good words without content. The devil is in the details.
The Federation -DPR + LPR- have made a proposal, or proposals, (from various readings, it is all very murky, the below is my interpretation from several sources, please correct if.)
These include conditions that come out of ‘federalist’ and ‘autonomous region’ playbooks. While in my eyes they leave important matters in the shade, and are in part contradictory, the crucial point is that Kiev cannot ever accept them.
Ex. Novorussiya (to call it that for now, NovR) to have only its own police force / militias. This demand makes sense (Kiev Pravy Sektor cops can’t possibly be tolerated) – but leaves aside that then indepedent criminal law and an ind. Judiciary is to needed and neglects the ‘Crimes against the State’ issues. Leaves the potential Ukr. Federation with no police powers in part of its Regions. There is only one successful Federal model in the world that has structure close to / approaching that (and its an iffy ex.), Switzerland, which can’t be a model for Ukr. Scotland perhaps for a judiciary model…not suited either.
Ex. NovR proposes that it be free to make its own trade agreements (bi-lateral between it and others), and not be bound by Central Gov. deals (e.g. with the EU.) Again, this makes complete sense from their pov. However, that is not possible in a Federation, I don’t need to explain. NovR also proposes to make itself ‘finlandised’ and commits to refrain from entering any military treaties / blocs / orgs, and to not allow any ‘foreign forces’ to act on its territory. Once more, a good move, yet incompatible with a minimal adherence to National Defense.
Yet, at the same time, NovR as a possible part of ‘Unitary Ukraine’ demands that the Central Gvmt. restore payment for State employees, pensions, transport, banking, etc.
Conclusion: it is *inevitable* that NovR will end up as autonomous / result of partition, or as part of the Russian Federation — the only two possible ‘positive’ outcomes. (The others are more dire.) If I can glom this, it is certainly understood by the likes of Putin and Kerry.
I haven’t even mentioned the ‘fascists’ in Kiev who want to Genocide and/or Cut Off (as a cancer that poisons the Pure State) NovR, a gaol, even oath, from which they now cannot turn back. See for ex. Yats who ‘admitted to genocide.’ Nor that the violent hate and now lasting bitterness can’t be overcome by big-wigs around a dinner table in Belarus. So what we see now is posturing and temporising rather than a true move towards some kind of solution.
radio liberty http://tinyurl.com/k33jo54
minsk 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_II
escobar http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41871.htm
yats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdNecwGjFoM
-thx for the vid recommendation, I will watch.
Posted by: Noirette | May 18 2015 13:49 utc | 24
@ jfl | May 21, 2015 8:09:07 PM | 88
USEFUL CHART TO HAVE:
Table 7.2a Electricity Net Generation: Total (All Sectors) thru January, 2015
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec7_5.pdf
GOOGLE ABANDONED THEIR 4-YR RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT
The Google engineers involved in the project were interviewed in the Journal of the IEEE:
“At the start of RE“>http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change
In a review of the Nov 2014 IEEE article, The Register pens
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/21/renewable_energy_simply_wont_work_google_renewables_engineers/
“Renewable energy ‘simply WON’T WORK’: Top Google engineers
Windmills, solar, tidal – all a ‘false hope’, say Stanford PhDs”
Even if one were to electrify all of transport, industry, heating and so on, so much renewable generation and balancing/storage equipment would be needed to power it that astronomical new requirements for steel, concrete, copper, glass, carbon fibre, neodymium, shipping and haulage etc etc would appear. All these things are made using mammoth amounts of energy: far from achieving massive energy savings, which most plans for a renewables future rely on implicitly, we would wind up needing far more energy, which would mean even more vast renewables farms – and even more materials and energy to make and maintain them and so on. The scale of the building would be like nothing ever attempted by the human race.
The Oil Sands in Alberta Canada are NOT an environmental disaster. (No one calls them Tar Sands; only people who have never been there.) I downloaded Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index widget from Apple, and have looked at them X-times a day on my dashboard for the past three years. Occasionally, I copy them. Last time May 5 or 8 (can’t remember), 2015
Have a look. The outdoor air quality in Fort McMurray (where the Oil Sands are) is persistently and consistently better than Ontario and Quebec. All sorts of pollutants are included in this index.
http://s22.postimg.org/wg5k875ox/Environment_Canada_Air_Quality_Health_Index_2015.png
If that link doesn’t work, try this:
http://postimg.org/image/l3syqewzx/
Another thing, jfl. Here in the US, we do not have the draconian reclamation laws that Alberta has. One or two 30-year mines have been reclaimed.The oil companies (mostly American, btw) have to present plans that take up to a year to get approved by the province that show the land they’ve rented for all the flora they will be removing, they have to present plans that show how they plan to maintain that flora for the duration of the mining, they have to put money in escrow to pay for the reclamation, which can take 20 years after the mining is over. That’s before they can even start operations. They have to prove that they’ve hired the biologists, zoologists, hydrologists, and all the other -ists that will be managing the reclamation. Why? Because the law in Alberta is that you can take anything you want out of the ground, but you have to pay the people of the province a royalty (called a Heritage Fund) and you must restore the ground to the same or better condition. Or, you go to jail and pay a hefty fund. Ditto for strip-ming coal. The operators have to get certification that they have done it properly before they can leave, and get their money back. You could never do in Alberta what they do in West Virginia.
So far one of the mines has been restored to natural grasses, the bison have come back, and the birds (pic here: http://www.capp.ca/responsible-development/land). Watch a youtubie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgcfFp13lDU&feature=youtu.be
The other is a beautiful community with hiking and bike trails, schools, community buildings and services. Have a photo of that but can’t find it.
Reclamation is an ongoing process during the life of a project. Companies apply for government reclamation certification when vegetation is mature, the landscape is self-sustaining and the land can be returned to the Crown for public use. “>http://www.oilsandstoday.ca/topics/RestorLand/Pages/default.aspx
Posted by: MRW | May 22 2015 2:27 utc | 94
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