Steady stream of “minor” terrorist provocations in Baghdad (grenade attacks against homes and offices of key individuals), attempting to derail Iraqi government coalition formation… way too confusing for me, would be interesting to get explanations / interpretations.

Posted by: ptb | Jan 26 2022 19:36 utc | 4

So Russia has received a written response which the US asked to be kept secret. Wonder if it was serious or not?
Posted by: the pessimist | Jan 26 2022 19:36 utc | 5
It seems clear at this point that Blinken intends to stall and dissemble. We’ll have to see how far he gets with that.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 26 2022 19:49 utc | 6

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 26 2022 18:55 utc | 1
Hilarious link, thanks. What a piece of anthropological testimony. Sydney has its fair share of these too. It’s a feature of nations composed of poor illiterate migrants from Europe who start again and think that material success is demonstrated by excessive quantity crafted from some children’s illustration of “Olden Times” only with every architectural cliché from the 12th-18th century crammed in. Like people who buy Porsche 4WDs (if there was a Ferrari SUV they’d buy it in a heartbeat). It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer’s brother asks him to design a car. Umberto Eco discusses this phenomenon in his Travels in Hyperreality in his discussion of the Hearst Castle. Eventually their grandchildren will disown them and their crass ignorance, which will be the real token of success. I’m pretty sure my ancestors were like this. In Australia and the USA I’m pretty sure everyone’s ancestors were like this. Thanks for the laugh.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 26 2022 20:09 utc | 8

Here is the same kind of report claiming “Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/26/australia-could-send-extra-gas-to-europe-as-russia-cuts-supplies-due-to-ukraine-tensions
I’d be interested in b’s take on this. This ‘Europe-will-not-be-blackmailed’ crap and faux solidarity with Germany from US, Australia, UK, etc seems like one last ditch attempt to stop NATO from heading into the dustbin of history.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 26 2022 20:33 utc | 10

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/547400-china-russia-us-semiconductor-chips/
China needs to ally with Russia on chips. This article seems to support my idea that computer chips are a primary roadblock to ending US hegemony.

Posted by: Eighthman | Jan 26 2022 21:03 utc | 12

C1ue @ 1
That author did Barrington. He should take his camera to Skokie. Same houses built lot line to lot line on much smaller lots. In neighborhoods of fifty foot lots they will demolish four houses to build a 200foot “long house”.
Of course these oversized structures crowded onto small lots violate zoning ordinances, but who is building these places are gangsters. Russian and Ukrainian gangsters. Also illegal are the tactics used to acquire the contiguous lots. Some people you do not argue with. They have become a bit more quiet in terms of you no longer see steroidal Special Forces types standing guard out front.
Or he could photograph the compound of our governor, Jay Pritzker, who acquired and razed an entire city block in what was once Old Town to display his vulgarity.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 26 2022 21:10 utc | 14

@Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 26 2022 21:05 utc | 13
I expect Chinese to be “Plane junk, don’t want, our better.”.

Posted by: Abe | Jan 26 2022 21:47 utc | 16

Posted by: Abe | Jan 26 2022 21:47 utc | 16
That’s what they are really afraid of, that the Chinese won’t rush to get a look at it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 26 2022 22:08 utc | 18

We do not want to make our proposals public is a good proof of precarious situation. Not even the core proposals have been hinted at.
Slowly I get the idea that these politically responsible people believe that the people in Europe are hopelessly blinded. Under the mask of “solidarity” a hypocritical marketing idea is propagated. The trust since AUKUS, JCPOA etc. is long lost. If Boris, the clown, would have explained, I could understand that and would have laughed out loud. But the majority of the people in Europe have not given up the hope that at least from the USA still halfway trustworthy proposals are brought in. If further so silly statements are made I see black for the NATO at the most as English-American twaddle club.

Posted by: ted | Jan 26 2022 22:27 utc | 20

Structural Contributory Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Americans
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/structural-contributory-factors-associated

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Jan 26 2022 22:34 utc | 22

More adventures with the Turkish weasel reported here.

It was with this in mind that Erdogan’s key aide Ibrahim Kalın met Biden’s National Security Advisor in the second week of January. As the statement issued after the meeting shows, Ankara was particularly keen to project its role as a regional mediator – a strategic balancer – for the US. Ibrahim stressed that the “Ukraine crisis should be resolved through dialogue” and that Turkey is “determined to continue its role in ensuring peace and stability in the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.”

My emphasis.
I suspect that speech by Ibrahim Kalin was written by his little weasel word mate Richard Moore the previous english ambassador to Turkey and now head of MI6. It reeks of englander hubris and dishonesty.
However in this report the eminent fool erdogan is currying favour with the usa proposing it be recognised as their ‘friend’ and agent for stability in exchange for some of those shiny flying machines.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 26 2022 22:37 utc | 24

Deep sea fishing in hostile waters…….
“The US Navy is going to fish a wrecked F-35 out of the South China Sea. Here’s how it’s likely to get its stealth jet back.”
https://ca.yahoo.com/news/us-navy-going-fish-wrecked-204814664.html

Posted by: dh | Jan 26 2022 22:41 utc | 26

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 26 2022 18:55 utc | 1
LOL pretty funny. The rest of the site is good too. I’d been planning to use all my crypto to buy a McMansion too!

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 26 2022 22:47 utc | 28

Idiocrates #27
Whilst I appreciate Reiner Fuellmich has good intentions, I doubt he has good implementation.
There are many legal options in most jurisdictions to seek common law remedies for the assaults and incompetencies of states in their covid responses. None are being utilised by any legal teams that I can see. There are exceptions in the USA where court powers have been granted mandating various medicinal uses. But the public interest prosecutions are thin on the ground elsewhere.
Fuellmich seems to be taking a long time at the posturing stage of his prosecution.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 26 2022 22:52 utc | 30

Tom_Q_Collins #25

“Every indication” is that Putin plans to “use force” by mid-February. This shit is ridiculous.

Indeed it is and fully expected from the CIAFrance24 team. That sad little CIA megaphone can only tweet one pathetic tune. It will be interesting to hear from russia in the next 24 hours and to get some impression of the scribbling from the usa side. My hunch is that it will be entirely hedged in by weasel words and non committal language and pretty much useless.
Meanwhile I expect continuous shenanigans in ukraine and elsewhere. Business as usual will be the actual response from usa and that is what counts. I am keeping an eye on the middle east as it may be one barometer of a changed russian stance.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 26 2022 23:04 utc | 32

I will not pollute the message board with my insanity. But Tom Q Collins – we are all being played. Be happy you are in Texas – if I read correctly. I have decided to become the one man army of an ad agency to promote States of Emergency by Kees van der Pijl. Just finished it. Pretty scared and upset. Listening to Russian hardbass makes me feel better though. At least we aren’t in Kazakhstan without electricity. Still haven’t heard from my friends there.
Off to work. I am ready to move to Dallas. Houston has better music though…

Posted by: lex talionis | Jan 26 2022 23:07 utc | 34

C1ue @ 1, Patroklos @ 8:
What Patroklos says about past faux-palaces in Sydney was true once a upon a time. During the 1950s/60s the bulk of poor immigrants were from Greece, Italy and Malta (Greece and Italy then suffering political instability and Greece in particular going through civil war, a monarchy no-one except the British and the Americans wanted and then a military coup in 1968) and built up fortunes in Australia through their own efforts which they then celebrated in building or extending homes – often housing three generations of the one family: elderly parents, brothers with wives and their children – into double-storeyed mansions featuring balconies with those ubiquitous white balustrades, fountains and white statues in the front gardens, and lots of marble. These houses were often built or renovated by their owners themselves and some might still exist in western and southwestern Sydney (especially Fairfield Council area where many Italians settled in the 1950s/60s). I used to see a lot of these houses as a child when sometimes my parents drove through Sydney and I’d look out the car windows and see these large brick houses with the balustraded balconies, the fountains and the life-sized Virgin Mary marble statues. Although a lot of them probably broke local council rules at the time, they never looked all that ugly, their features were not very over-sized, and many actually looked as if they’d been built by people with an innate sense of balance, style and beauty even if inside their homes they were discussing and divvying up local Mafia gang territory.
(The current equivalent of past Italian and Greek migrants recreating their past historical glories in their homes might be Iranian and Chinese migrants in parts of northern Sydney turning their streets into local historical kitsch theme parks.)
The McMansions that infest so many parts of Sydney today, particularly in the northwest (Baulkham Hills Shire area), but all right across the city’s metropolitan areas, are project homes built by private companies for a new generation of nouveau riche clients. These homes are properly McMansion houses of the type C1ue refers to. The main difference between the Chicago McMansions and the Sydney McMansions is that the Sydney McMansions literally look as if they won’t last longer than a few years before rot sets in rapidly: they are that flat and cardboard-looking, and look as if they all came out of the same crappy 3D-printing machine.
I don’t object to migrants who make good in their new countries wanting to have a little bit of what they call culture (however kitsch it is) in a land that otherwise wouldn’t have any culture apart from what bacteria provide.

Posted by: Jen | Jan 26 2022 23:15 utc | 36

Posted by: lex talionis | Jan 26 2022 23:07 utc | 34
I too will not pollute this board anymore after this. Honestly, I’ve lived in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston and El Paso and of course the better music scene was in Austin, but Dallas is pretty good too. We’re about 45 min from downtown Houston and at the age where I don’t really bother too much with live music anymore. That has less to do with the pandemic than it does with my having discovered JBL compression drivers and waveguides (horns) which make music at home sound exactly like it does live. Anyway I’m confident you’ll be happy with the live music in Dallas.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 26 2022 23:16 utc | 38

Oh this is too wonderful for words!

Prince Andrew denies being co-conspirator of Epstein and insists on jury trial
Duke denies Jeffrey Epstein ‘trafficked girls to him’ and demands trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/26/prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-lawyers-court
This is wonderful because at this very moment his mother is in the process of removing the right to trial by jury in the United Kingdom in just these cases!
The lead is being taken in Scotland, under Führer Sturgeon, because Scots do not have the Magna Carta of 1215. As you know from American jurisprudence, Magna Carta prohibits taking a man’s liberty other than by a jury of his peers. So Sturgeon and the mad judge Doreen are in the vanguard in castrating the enemies of the Crown.
England and Wales will follow in due course once we’ve been softened up.
Of course Prince Andrew deserves better than she wants for the rest of us.
He’s a Royal “Prince of the blood”.
And a Knight of the Garter

Posted by: John Cleary | Jan 26 2022 23:25 utc | 40

@19 bevin
re: Gilbert Doctorow, open letter of German intellectuals
Gives some hope to read that, thanks. Likely to fall on deaf ears for the time being, but it’s certainly worth it for all Europeans, far beyond just Germany, to open their eyes – that it’s they who bear the price for the artificial breakdown in relations between EU and its primary energy supplier.
In contrast to US (together with other LNG exporters) who actually collect economic benefits, with little risk to them and little effort required other than propaganda and the threat of sabotaging international commerce via the inexplicable veto power over of other countries’ banking systems.
At the end of the day, the remarkably harmful US imperium, in all it’s drone-bombing-glory, exists because of the mental laziness of so-called elites in OECD countries who facilitate it.

Posted by: ptb | Jan 26 2022 23:32 utc | 42

Phil Butler takes a peek at Africa and the state of play of geoplitics in the region at Alert Africa: Get Ready for the Customary “Predatoriness” From the West
https://journal-neo.org/
(Apologies for no direct link as it fails to post for some mystery.)

This World Economic Forum report tells us what’s really going on with all the Russophobia/Africa dialogue. Get this, I love it. Colin Coleman, who was at the time the CEO of Goldman Sachs in Sub-Saharan Africa, gave us “This region will be worth $5.6 trillion within 5 years – but only if it accelerates its policy reforms.” Interestingly, I should say surprisingly, Coleman’s assessment of Africa’s current situation is not far off. It’s refreshing to know that the biggest predators on Earth, the Wall Street lions, do actually understand the situation. But before we hire Goldman Sachs to run the world, let’s dig deeper.
Coleman has now left Goldman Sachs to be a senior-fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. I won’t detail this school here, but former Secretary of State John Kerry established the so-called “Kerry Initiative” here. Oh, and since Wagener Group seems such a hot topic in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa, the presence of McChrystal Group LLC founder, the disgraced former commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), four-star General Stanley McChrystal as a fellow-fellow of Coleman seems pertinent. While the reader stews on this, more news from South Africa, where Coleman is one of the most influential people, bears mentioning here.
We need to understand the depth and breadth of American policy in Africa and the world. Warriors, the US State Department, and banksters educating future leaders should be of concern, or am I delusional? Fortunately, all the machinations of Wall Street, Downing, Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Think Tank Row do not seem to have swayed South Africa’s leadership with regard to Russia, and the NATO forward position in Ukraine.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 26 2022 23:36 utc | 44

Addendum to comment @ 36:
Then of course there was this newspaper article of nearly 10 years ago about a councillor in Hornsby shire (northern Sydney) pushing a motion to have mock-Federation houses in a street listed as an actual historical kitsch theme park … sorry, heritage conservation area.
Built in the 1990s, mock-Federation McMansions now heritage listed

“… Hornsby councillor Bruce Mills is leading a push to have Cannan Close, Cherrybrook, gazetted as a heritage conservation area.
While the cul-de-sac was only developed in the 1990s, Mr Mills said it was already architecturally significant, and brushed aside claims that it was too new to be listed.
“I don’t think anyone turns into Cannan Close who doesn’t let out an involuntary ‘wow’,” Mr Mills said. “The houses are consistent in their look, feel, style and materials, the width of the blocks, even the trees and gardens.
“I know that the Cannan Close dwellings are only 20 or so years old, but what will our grandchildren be debating if we say it’s not old enough?
“Under these new planning laws, nothing will survive until it’s 70 years old because nothing is protected.”…”

I’m sure the houses are consistent in their look, style, use of substandard materials and oversized scale.
Needless to say, the article had something to say about a building deserving of heritage conservation status consideration being bulldozed.

Posted by: Jen | Jan 26 2022 23:44 utc | 46

Legal cognitive dissonance on display:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognitive%20dissonance
I wonder who governments believe they are actually elected to represent?
Vaccine ‘mandates’ in Western Australia:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-01/vaccine-mandate-passes-for-majority-of-workers/100729986
Vaccine ‘mandates’ in New Zealand:
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-response-planning/covid-19-mandatory-vaccinations
$24,000 fine in NZ:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/127586262/lone-star-new-lynn-gets-24000-fine-for-breaching-vaccine-mandate
Vaccine ‘mandates’ in Quebec:
https://reclaimthenet.org/walmart-vaccine-passports-quebec/
US veterans battle the VA over vaccine induced Gulf War Syndrome:
https://ptsdlawyers.com/anthrax-vaccine-presents-long-term-effects/
Australian Navy Gulf War refuseniks:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/03/anth-m01.html
Obviously the ‘legal’ framework has changed since 2003 in many countries.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/covid-vaccine-side-effects-compensation-lawsuit.html
Indemnity in the UK:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-pfizer-vaccine-legal-indemnity-safety-ministers-b1765124.html
2003 Gulf War origins:
https://amirmortasawi.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/isil10.pdf

Posted by: Paul | Jan 26 2022 23:49 utc | 48

lex talionis
That was in response to Stoltenburg’s speech in relation to the written response. For me, the important part of lavrov’s response was that other had always attacked Russia and got what they deserved.
I guess Stoltenburg is too much of a fool to realize how close he and NATO are to ceasing to exist.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 27 2022 0:02 utc | 50

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 26 2022 23:35 utc | 43
Yes, obviously some people are naturally less susceptible and others more. That said, I generally catch every bug that comes within 50 feet of me and my wife is a little more lucky. It’s the fact that neither of us caught anything for so many times combined with the other fact that I’m 90% sure we already had COVID in January of 2020 after visiting many places in California (which is I guess too long ago to still have the antibodies, but perhaps the body gains a sort of memory and even with no antibodies present can quickly generate them if encountered again). We were horribly ill. The wife had a dry cough and felt miserable, I was bedridden for 2 straight days although I don’t remember any shortness of breath or loss of taste/smell. It wasn’t assumed to be spreading in the continental US until February or March, but I don’t buy that for a second.
I’m just in minor shock that I haven’t caught it yet. My wife’s immune system is usually better than mine.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 27 2022 0:25 utc | 52

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 26 2022 21:53 utc | 17
Oh no! I was in denial. I’d get one but only if it had tail fins and a bank of spotlights on the top for nights out hog-shootin’.

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 27 2022 0:31 utc | 54

Patroklos 54
Second hand merc SUV is the go. Low mileage out of date mercs are cheap as chips and nice to drive. Plastic and stuff seems to fall off when you take them off the beaten track but they seem to keep going. Only problem with mine at the moment is a sensor or connection issue that stops it kicking into low range. High range is traction control between front and rear diffs work but traction control for front and rear differential only works in low range.
I have another for spares but lost interest/energy for that sort of stuff so I guess I will just drive it until it or I stops.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 27 2022 0:50 utc | 56

@ #1; Thanks for the amusement, kinda’ mimics American foreign and domestic policies, pathetically
pretentious and, for, the most part, all showing imagined grandeur.

Posted by: vetinLA | Jan 27 2022 1:05 utc | 58

Cue the fight over who gets appointed to the SCOTU$. Now, we can forget about accountability for the clown show on 1/6.
Which wasn’t about to happen anyway…..

Posted by: vetinLA | Jan 27 2022 1:15 utc | 60

Tom at 52
There is nothing too strange about your story. First to get infected you need a reasonably high number of bugs, because you first line defences – nasal hairs etc keep many out. So you were probably not up close and personal with any of the infected people.
Also the level of ventilation and quality of the air filtration- open windows or air flow away from you will all reduce the chance of catching the virus.
Then there is simple probability ie luck.
Oddly enough it is possible (this is my own theory based on some science but by no means proven) is that as with many diseases the more you catch the better your immunity- at least until really old or sick. It is quite possible that all your previous infections probably included corona infections as common colds, and while that does not prevent infection there is a reasonable chance that you second line defences are better primed to avoid infection – we know this from diseases such as polio, which emerged very much as a disease of the wealthy and clean- in less hygienic environments babies would have got the disease while very young often still with some maternal antibodies – this would cause a gastro illness in the babies. Of course many would die because that is what babies do in such environments, so the acute and severe forms of polio would not have emerged (or at least not been noticed). My apologies on this- I was taught it many years ago and science may have moved re polio, on but the basic point is valid enough. Put in simple terms your previous infections may have given you a natural vaccine, which your booster vaccines may have enhanced.

Posted by: watcher | Jan 27 2022 1:32 utc | 62

Well done you Canuks for having such a great Banderist supporting leader. Elected him again? Dumb and dumber.
https://www.rt.com/russia/547467-canada-boost-troops-ukraine/
400! More?!
Can we have their names now before they are put on som monument to their sacrifice soon?
I wonder how many have parentage from these Banderist parts?
Time to call these shots out, loud & daily. Especially you Canadians.
‘Boots on the Ground’ !!!
Fuck you Trudeau.

Posted by: D.G. | Jan 27 2022 2:38 utc | 64

Well there I was taking time out to read a few posts about the chaos stupid amerikan imperialism is causing us all when someone posted more hysterical and un necessary nonsense about whatchmacallit sars-covid19 or whatever.
Un-necessary because I doubt there is a human on the planet who hasn’t made up his/her mind on the subject, positions which are mostly informed by emotion rather than logic despite what the protagonists on either ‘side’ claim.
When people are quick to point out that even instances of racism which are driven by class conflict are considered no-go around here, on the grounds that they are intentionally divisive ploys by the elites to keep the 99% rest of us divided, so we don’t fucking join together and toss the parasites out on their arses, why is it that this conflict which is so obviously elite driven and designed to divide the hoi polloi cops a free pass? Or are we going to pretend that Fauci & Kennedy jnr have never rubbed shoulders at DC cocktail parties?
As I said above all the important points about this virus have been made ad infinitum, the lines are clearly drawn. Now it is time for all of us to consider whether further arguments about the debate are constructive or whether they only serve to further the interests of the rich & powerful elites. Particularly so when an issue that has not had all sides of it available to all, Ukraine, is continually pushed aside for yet more emotive & histrionic rhetoric about a non-sentient & life free, complex protein molecule.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 27 2022 2:45 utc | 66

The producer is The Maria Pevchik

Posted by: Platero | Jan 27 2022 2:50 utc | 68

“by the elites to keep the 99% rest of us divided, so we don’t fucking join together and toss the parasites out on their arses,”
Well at the moment there is just a huge number of whingers, me and you amongst them. There is also the obvious paid warriors, the military units or troll factories spouted in MSM to fight isis in the social media.
A combined effort requires a manifesto that the majority can agree on. online..everything goes into ECHELON same as phones. You ever looked into the abyss?
It is only external powers that will change the circumstances Debs. For us it is very much guerilla warfare and awaiting opportunities of the circumstances.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 27 2022 3:10 utc | 70

Debsisdead | Jan 27 2022 2:45 utc | 66
unfortunately the virus doesn’t obey people’s beliefs. not an accident that at the worst point of the virus, Huxleyan “Death Acceptance” hucksters and frauds are everywhere, mostly with nothing to say other than the virus is inconvenient to them and they are tired of it. why? not because they don’t care what the virus is doing, only what it’s supposedly doing to their “lifestyle.”

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 27 2022 3:16 utc | 72

D.G. #64

‘Boots on the Ground’ !!!
Fuck you Trudeau.

If Canada can find 400 you can bet the down under team can find 100. Aussies next in the parade of the ridiculous in search of the absurd wrapped in the flag of the devil.
And you scotty, just in case.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 27 2022 3:53 utc | 74

Eighthman #71

Payback to the US and EU is going to be a b**ch once China gets those foundries flying past them.

I reckon it is a safe bet that China and Russia and Iran have had their scientists and graduates working on this for many many years. A decade++ ago it was clear that the malign western thought formers were out to stymie the eastern capacity in all higher tech realms. A glass ceiling to hold them all in the chopstick factories etc. That did not work out well of course.
When those foundries fire up and start production the entire Taiwan issue becomes passe as far as the chip issue is concerned. Watch for Chinese, Russian or Iranian papers on optics and chip photo lithography. It can’t happen soon enough IMO.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 27 2022 4:08 utc | 76

ptb #77
UKUSA is isolated.
Good.
Expect novichok incident any day now :/

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 27 2022 5:07 utc | 78

Honduras
Xiomara Castro will become president of Honduras tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 27, reclaiming power which was violently taken from her husband, Manuel Zelaya, in June, 2009, at the beginning of the Obama presidency. Hillary was involved. Honduras was gutted.
Xiomara Castro is said to be a center-left, similar to her husband but I’m more hopeful for her administration than I am for Boric’s in Chile. Castro and her husband were betrayed. It’s personal. She will soon recognize China and support BRI.
This subtitled video describes the neoliberal endgame: “Zedes”.
“In 2013, the national congress of the Republic of Honduras amended the Constitution of the Republic and issued a decree, 120/2013, which gave life to the creation of what is now called “Special Zones for Employment and Development” ZEDES. It is a disastrous project for the country, for the people, and for national sovereignty.
With these ZEDES, the National Congress of the Republic will hand over to transnational companies with transnational capital, extensions of land and territory.
They are not small parcels, they are large parcels, kilometer after kilometer; But not only that, but everything that is within those areas, within those territories, would correspond to the administration, management, and use of these natural resources to those ZEDES. The land, the territory, the water, all the wealth of the subsoil, the forests, absolutely everything.”
https://kawsachunnews.com/honduran-campesino-leader-explains-the-zedes

Posted by: migueljose | Jan 27 2022 5:34 utc | 80

Platero @ 67 – 69:
Yes, that’s what I’ve heard too, that the executive producer of the “Navalny” documentary (snort!) is none other than Maria Pevchikh, the same person who went back to the hotel (where Navalny stayed the night before boarding the plane in Tomsk that was to take him back to Moscow) and picked up the water bottles that had supposedly been tampered with by GRU agents. These bottles went on the plane that took Navalny to Berlin. One of the bottles turned out to be one Pevchikh bought from a vending machine at the Tomsk airport.
Pevchikh escaped being interrogated about Navalny’s poisoning by Russian detectives and returned to London where she lives.

Posted by: Jen | Jan 27 2022 6:16 utc | 82

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jan 27 2022 2:45 utc | 66
The way that reads it’s one of your worst comments ever. I hope I’m misinterpreting it, but if not, oh well.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 27 2022 6:21 utc | 84

@Toxik | Jan 26 2022 22:32 utc | 21

B. Do you remember you posted a US Government request for proposal to maintain the sevostopol naval base in crimea during the coup? Can you direct me where I can find that please.

I am not B and the original page is removed, but you can find an archived copy here
https://web.archive.org/web/20140704105643/https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=2bb691b61c59be3a68180bd8c614a0cb&_cview=1

Renovation of Sevastopol School #5, Ukraine
Solicitation Number: N33191-13-R-1240
Agency: Department of the Navy
Office: Naval Facilities Engineering Command
Location: NAVFAC Europe and Southwest Asia
Solicitation Number:
N33191-13-R-1240
Notice Type:
Combined Synopsis/Solicitation / Cancelled
Synopsis:
Added: Sep 05, 2013 2:58 am
The purpose of this request for proposal is for the design and construction for the renovation of Sevastopol School #5 in Sevastopol, Ukraine in accordance with the attachments.
Added: Sep 12, 2013 7:58 am
Amendment 0001 is issued on September 12, 2013 to replace the original Technical Specifications with revised Attachment 1 – Technical Specifications School #5 Ver 002. As a result, CLIN 0005 – OPTION 4 Additional Roof Repair has been deleted and replaced with CLIN 0005 – OPTION 4 Additional Facade Renovation and Window Replacement.
Offerors MUST use Attachment 1 – Technical Specifications School #5 Ver 002 as the basis for their price proposal.
Added: Sep 26, 2013 9:11 am
Amendment 0002 is issued to address preproposal questions.
Added: Apr 15, 2014 5:18 am
Due to the current climate in Ukraine, the subject solicitation is hereby cancelled.

Obviously, climate change does have an effect

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 27 2022 6:43 utc | 86

@Idiocrates | Jan 26 2022 22:42 utc | 27

I wonder if b will effect a correction of his COVID narrative.

He already did, this was his original post
The Coronavirus – No Need To Panic
More interestingly is why the need for panic after all

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 27 2022 6:52 utc | 88

re Debsisdead @85
I think everyone, regardless of their position on Covid issues, should try to imagine what new, unexpected data, facts, etc., would be sufficient, hypothetically, to cause them to make a pi-radians reversal in their opinion(s).
I wonder if many or any would even consider reflecting on this.

Posted by: spudski | Jan 27 2022 6:59 utc | 90

Our local radio station, SAFM, has a guy called Steven Grootes who runs the breakfast show. He actually works for the Daily Maverick, which is the local CIA propaganda organ. All week he’s been hyping the “DRACULA PUTIN PLOTTING AGAINST UKRAINE” meme, using two Americans, another Daily Maverick stooge, plus an “Emeritus Professor” who’s so senile that he kept talking about the Soviet Union.
But today he was talking about Boris Johnson. I wonder whether an e-mail has gone out urging the front-people to start cooling things down?

Posted by: MFB | Jan 27 2022 7:18 utc | 92

@lex talionis | Jan 26 2022 23:47 utc | 47

Russian FM Lavrov says NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg ‘lost touch with reality’

I can confirm this, it happened a long time ago, even before the point of no return 22. July 2011.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 27 2022 7:21 utc | 94

@Eighthman | Jan 27 2022 3:11 utc | 71

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylin_%28operating_system%29
I thought China was using this OS.

Ubuntu Kylin is derived from the Open Source OS Ubuntu, that is how it is supposed to be. I write this using the Kubuntu OS, another Ubuntu derivative (with KDE desktop). A lot of people are using Ubuntu or other Linux distros, all over the world. It would be good if more people realized that there really is no need for the US monopolies of MS and Apple.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 27 2022 7:39 utc | 96

It would be good if more people realized that there really is no need for the US monopolies of MS and Apple.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 27 2022 7:39 utc | 96
—
Today the Operating System is just one small part of the software stack that makes our modern computing experience possible.
The OS is bookended by a virtual machine in firmware on the hardware side and tunneled applications running in the cloud on the software side.

Posted by: too scents | Jan 27 2022 8:10 utc | 98

@96 norwegian- wow! i had never heard of the kubuntu thing. Super interestng. Thank you. I an going to explore it more tomorrow. Much love to the MoA community. On my way home from work this evening I happened on a spontaneous rave. I hung out. Made new friends. It was what like was like before they told us what isn’t what it used to be like.
I had a really fun time. I hope everyone finds little jems like that one and remembers what it used to be like before. before the vast majoirity of humanity chose fear and obedience. (it’s spelled with an “e” right?)

Posted by: lex talionis | Jan 27 2022 9:31 utc | 100