Washington Empire's Ukraine Civil War caper spawns global economic war

Two interesting threads on the Real News Network in the past few weeks - the first about the new low Oil Price - and the other about the recent splitting of the Global Economy into two powerful camps

Together I consider these as part of the continuing fallout from the Washington Empire's recent annexation of western Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence ...

Below are embeds and links to three The Real News Network stories from second half of December 2014:

______________

Update - Dec 30 2014: Part II of the Larry Wilkerson Interview on Economic Warfare is up - where Wilkerson does make the connection between the Ukraine Civil War and the new low Oil Price.

Update Video:

TRNN - December 29, 2014:

What are U.S. Objectives in Weakening Russia's Economy?

Larry Wilkerson and Paul Jay discuss the "tactical strength and strategic weakness" of Putin in Ukraine and whether the West is trying to turn Russia into another "Greece".

What are U.S. Objectives in Weakening Russia's Economy?

Youtube- TRNN Channel | What are U.S. Objectives in Weakening Russia's Economy?: http://youtu.be/_ai9nDDk3sQ

1st Video:

TRNN - December 28, 2014:

US/Saudi Oil Play Is Economic Warfare

Lawrence Wilkerson says the target of low oil prices is Russia and Iran, throwing their economies into turmoil and opening their doors to sovereign raiders.

US/Saudi Oil Play Is Economic Warfare

Youtube- TRNN Channel | US/Saudi Oil Play Is Economic Warfare: http://youtu.be/fux6lsz9HU8

The 2nd Video:

TRNN - December 15, 2014

Russia Rejects South Stream Pipeline Through Europe

Hudson Report: Europe's effort to join the US in isolating Russia has backfired, it makes no sense to build an oil and gas pipeline for Russian exports that would be owned and leased to them by the US and Europe.

Russia Rejects South Stream Pipeline Through Europe

(Embedding disabled by request)(?)
Youtube - TRNN Channel | Russia Rejects South Stream Pipeline Through Europe | http://youtu.be/7YAIiF3hvzM

The 3rd Video:

TRNN - December 14, 2014:

Russia Pivots to Eurasia for Trade and Military Alliances

Michael Hudson Report: The United State's renewed cold war policy to isolate Russia is dividing Europe and changing the orbit for China and Asia

Russia Pivots to Eurasia for Trade and Military Alliances

Youtube- TRNN Channel | Russia Pivots to Eurasia for Trade and Military Alliances | http://youtu.be/nflZSjiofr8

______________

In the top video I think Lawrence Wilkerson misses the chance to make the connection between the Eastern Ukraine Civil War (Washington, Russia proxy war), and this Oil Price Economic Warfare.

This Ukraine Adventure is the first great test of the American Empire. The Empire's gambit is to break Russia's hegemony in Central Asia through a Crimean Civil War (which they started, and will supply). The Russian embargo has lead to Russia to create other trading relationships - and this is the reason for the flood of cheap American oil in the market today.


I look at it in an historical context:

Today at the wsj they say US Oil production is to remain high; and the Saudi's announced last week they will not drop production.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, The Global Empire Project has been probing Russia's sphere of influence for weakness. To Russia's west - new NATO members (Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania); and to her south (coupes, black-ops in Kyrgyzstan¹, Georgia² and Azerbaijan - and in 2014, Ukraine).

These ancient boundaries and sphere's have been in place for millennia. It is common knowledge amoung historians³ that in order for Russia to maintain her global position she must hold the Black Sea (and in the modern naval era - 1750 to present⁴ - that means a naval port at Sevastopol, Crimea).

In Georgia in 2008, when the CIA/US Embassy tried to pull of a putsch, Russia sent in crack armies into Georgia. Russia was saying - this region is strategic. Here is a line that you shall not cross (at threat of mutually assured destruction - great-power war).


But this isn't American two-super-power tactics - where a hot war is just left to simmer - now this is Empire. In the Ukraine The Empire has taken a bold march east; and she must now hold on to it, and project it. An Empire is too over-stretched to allow a perception of mortality - it cannot lose or draw; cannot be seen to lose or draw.

Oil (and other energy) is what projects the Empire's power around the globe. So to use the price of oil as a weapon in this cracking of the Russia sphere at Crimea shows the observer just how important The Ukraine is the the geopolitical chess masters in Washington.

For Russia their understanding is that the G7 is no longer pretending to be the world government that all economies would somehow share a representative say in - Russia knows now, it is just another a weapon of the Global Empire - with Russia looking on from the outside.

Russia's response is to try to expand trade agreements with China - and other not-so-globally-supreme powers. The Eurasian Economic Union⁵ for example.

So now with lower energy prices China is enticed back to her seaports to import her energy needs - and all of a sudden a pipeline deal with Russia seems a lot less important. China's ease is Russia's worry - just the way the US has always played this part of the grand game. Geo-politically, unity of the economies of China and Russia would be a disaster for the Global Empire.

So deals that China and Russia are making right now take them out of the US Oil Dollar economy, creating economies outside the US economic sphere. These 'sub-economies' are created by using state-to-state bond transfers, the creation of internal subsidies and the use of internal monetary mechanisms not based on World Bank policy (not allowed in G7 economies).


Next step towards WWIII is a political one - the fascist-quisling puppets in Kiev are to vote to join NATO next.

This little skirmish in eastern Ukraine is Russia's last military stand before Volgograd - her gateway on the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

References:

¹ EurAsiaNET - December 28, 2014 | While U.S. Negotiated Over Manas, Pentagon Intensified Kyrgyzstan Special Forces Training | http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71496

² NYT - August 13, 2008 | Bush, Sending Aid, Demands That Moscow Withdraw - reported by Steven Lee Myers, Sabrina Tavernise, Ellen Barry - written by Sreven Lee Myers | http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14georgia.html?oref=slogin&_r=0

³ Recent History of Empires in Crimea:

Map (image via Wikipedia | The Golden Horde | http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Golden_Horde ) shows the extent of the Mongol state known (in the west) as 'The Golden Horde' (1240s–1502).

Later - the Ottoman Empire(1299–1923) controlled the region. As soon as it controlled Crimea(1481) it controlled the Black Sea coast and parts of Asia to the east. As soon as it lost Crimea (Russian Empire - 1774) the Ottoman's no longer controlled the northern coast or any part of Asia north of Georgia. (Check the "Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923int.gif" from Wikipedia)

This border alignment is reflected in the later Russian Empire (1721-1917) and the Soviet Union's borders (1921-1998).

If you control Crimea, then you control the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia east to the borders of China and Mongolia.

In modern times that means huge proven sources of natural resources - including Oil and Gas that could supply  China's emerging advanced industrial economy.

⁴ Wikipedia | Naval Artillery, Scientific Gunnery, New Principles in Gunnery (1742) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_artillery#Scientific_gunnery

⁵Eruasian Economic Union | Guardian Weekly - October 28, 2014 | "Vladimir Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union gets ready to take on the world" - by Benoît Vitkine | http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/eurasian-economic-union-russia-belarus-kazakhstan

Video News Stories at TRNN:

TRNN - December 29, 2014 | What are U.S. Objectives in Weakening Russia's Economy? | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12894

TRNN - December 28, 2014 | US/Saudi Oil Play Is Economic Warfare | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12892

TRNN - December 15, 2014 | Russia Rejects South Stream Pipeline Through Europe | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12811

TRNN - December 14, 2014 | Russia Pivots to Eurasia for Trade and Military Alliances http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12786

Recent History of Crimea - at Wikipedia:

 Wikipedia | The History of Crimea | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea

Wikipedia | The Golden Horde(1240s–1502) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horde

Wikipedia | The Ottoman Empire (1300-1923) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_Ottoman_Empire

Wikipedia | The Russian Empire (1721-1917) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire



mh

Outing the Content Lawyers - MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY

MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY - 2014-12-22 | Joe Cocker RIP - by Chris Castle | http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/joe-cocker-rip/#comment-2207

"..

Many years ago, Roger Davies walked into my office in the green bungalow on the A&M lot with a list of issues to cover for his artists. One was a license of “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker for a major motion picture. We came to have Joe on the label due to Jerry Moss’s relationship with the late Howie Richmond that also gave us a couple other artists called The Move and Procol Harum back in the day.

Roger’s feeling was that “You Are So Beautiful” was one of Joe’s signature recordings and it had become undervalued due to overlicensing at less than premium prices. Remember, Joe hadn’t been on A&M for years, but when you have a catalog of classic recordings by an artist who was as much of a creative force as Joe Cocker, those relationships are timeless. Also remember that Roger Davies had just pulled off the revival of Tina Turner’s career (and we had released “River Deep, Mountain High” by Ike & Tina Turner).

So I was very much interested in respecting that history. I asked Roger what he had in mind, and he said $250,000.

Now, that’s a lot of money for a licensed track, even for an end title. I kind of looked at him.

And another $250,000 for trailers.

I said, just so I have this straight, you want $500,000 for an end title license on a 20 year old master?

That was, of course, exactly what Roger wanted. This was not going to go over well. I thought about it for a few seconds and then thought, fuck it.

I put in a call to the head of music for the major studio that was releasing the picture and said I got your request here for Joe Cocker. The quote is 250.

..."

And my comment (which never gets published):

What a load of self-serving bullshit.

In the day when 'shooting fish in a barrel' was what the selling of content was - and in that particular day - in the dying days of that formula - you guys got a sweetheart deal from a studio that was also feeling the same pinch that your record industry was - now-gone-by.

Copy-right is over - all the Christmas story of that by-gone era are irrelevant.


Michael Holloway
Toronto

mh

MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICYs' Chris Castle runs off the rails - again...

MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY - December 6, 2014 | "A Royale With Cheese: How Google Taught the U.S. Congress to Lead With Their Chins" - by Chris Castle | http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/a-royale-with-cheese-how-google-taught-the-u-s-congress-to-lead-with-their-chins/

In response to an interesting piece by Chris Castle at MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY WordPress blog (where comments are moderated, but no message tells you if your comment died in the ether of a bad user interface; or whether it's just pending moderation by the author) I link to the read and publish my comment to it here (see below quoted passage).

"..

I’m not surprised to see Rep. Jared Polis signing up to the letter, given his own threatening letter that successfully protected Google from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission–having been on a panel with Mr. Polis and watched him reading from talking points printed from the website of Google Shill-Lister the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Fellow letter writer Rep. Darrell Issa wrote his own threatening letter to the FTC that pretty clearly was about the FTC’s investigation of Google, but had the good taste not to actually mention Google by name, an accomplishment he shares with the EU resolution.

..."

- from: MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY - December 6, 2014,
A Royale With Cheese: How Google Taught the U.S. Congress to Lead With Their Chins
- by Chris Castle

Comment - Monday, December 8, 2014 - 7:05 pm est:

Chris,

I agree monopoly media companies are not good for progress; especially fellow giants with Google from the analog era. But please don’t throw out the baby with the bath water as you often do when talking about the new age of media. Electronic Frontier Foundation is the great, best hope for a free and open internet – as well as in their role in protecting our on-line privacy in the law. Please refrain from impugning their reputation just because they get grant funding from Google. Web best practices are what they are; but you often confuse best practice in internet business with the tactics often employed by cartels.

Michael Holloway
Toronto

mh

@BillHicksBar - Best Bar west of Carlaw

A friend told me where to find it.

I immediately meet three people who knew me as Ward 30 Bikes guy - (that's a good thing).

I danced like a slut to Mick Jagger - and loved it. A woman I noticed was brave enough to approach me and say so.

Very cool.

When I got there and started taking pictures, everyone told me not to write about it.

"Save it" they said,

"Wait til it's too full to get in."

So no address for you - west of Carlaw will have to do.

Up the stairs beside the Bill Hicks signboard.

It's a small place - smaller than a one bedroom apartment.

Vinyl records cover the ceiling ...

Album Covers cover every wall:

Posters of every artist that you love are scattered here and there ...

.. and that's the music - on a great stereo system too. Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine. And so on.


Behind the Bar are icons to the god you know that you are. A Marshall McLuhan reference to the Medium is the Message fallacy, where the medium is ... well you know.




On a Video monitor in the corner is a continuous replay of Major League (1989). I asked bartender/owner Teddy if he's ever play Bull Durham (1988) continuously,

He said yes.


Beside the fact that I got physically assaulted by Teddy at last call because I wasn't given a chance to chug my 10 dollar piece of crap beer I didn't want in the first place; I guess I'll have to say I'll be back to discuss what happened.

After all - as all bartenders know, I was drunk; therefore I am wrong.


First bar on Queen East to break the mold.

Best bar west of Carlaw (east of Broadview).



Michael Holloway,
Drunken Slut

Drone Airspace Restrictions over Toronto

Note that the map shows an American FAA 5 mile (8 km) radius restriction around Toronto's Airports; the Transport Canada website says the rule here is 9 km!



Also note that Transport Canada's "Don't" list basically says you can't fly drones in urban places.


Transport Canada | Flying an unmanned aircraft | http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/standards/general-recavi-uav-2265.htm?campaign=2014-uav-socialmedia-facebook&WT.mc_id=hruzf#safety



mh

I'm Being Evicted - for doing the Right

"..used his power of place and precept to limit by distortion the lawful rights of individuals in his building at every turn.."

Since the bedbug infestation in my house became a Foundation-to-Attic infestation in the summer of 2013, I began to organize my room-mates to get it taken care of properly.

I rocked the boat...

..And now I'm being evicted in the only way a rooming house operator can evict a tenant - to claim that the owner is moving into the unit that I occupy.

This is disingenuous to say the least.

The owner of the building I have lived in for 4 years lives in a very nice semi-detached home in Scarborough.

I have been a model tenant. I have not once been late on rent - and including doing maintenance work for the him for no charge, and on an ongoing basis (that he is labial under the landlord tenant law to do himself) has on the other hand, constantly played the edges of the law and used his power of place and precept to limit by distortion the lawful rights of individuals in his building at every turn

To correct the cultural standing of the rule of law in this regard - and to create a livable space for myself going forward - I organized the tenants on the upper floors of my dwelling (I could not effectively organize the lower floors for various reasons) - I forced the slum-lord to put into effect a whole-house treatment protocol based on the City of Toronto, Public Health, Bedbug Initiative best practices web pages at the City of Toronto website - by simply calling Toronto Public Health and asking them to do an inspection of the upper floors (which I had all tenants on the upper floors buy into before proceeding).

The result is - last Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - the entire building, from Attic Dormer to the landlord's Basement Apartment, was treated for bedbugs as per the protocols at the City of Toronto website, by ORKIN pest control management company - the premier pest control agency in the city.

This was step one in a process that along with sociological intervention, will likely result after several treatments, in an eradication of the infestation - or at least - one more step towards and effective control regime that could be adopted by Toronto Public Health - and then ratified by Toronto to City Council - in their wisdom based on those scientific understandings.


I will take these evil-doer's to the extreme - for the Commons.



mh

Times Like These; Orange Crush. 2 important narrative songs about our times

Admittedly - I have a sucky computer and an unstable internet connection - but it seems to me that Youtube is doing everything they can to block my music listening.

I will not pay for content, the ad model is the thing.

This guy has it - he pretends to play along with the sound track from REM's Orange Crush - but really, you aren't that stupid are you? The crappy splices are the first clue.



But what about the fact I can't just listen to the radio on the internet?

I'm serious - what the fuck?

This one - which is the quinquennial video for this song - won't play on Youtube today for me on this system (Windows 2000 on a wifi connection which I found in the gutter) - let's see if it plays on embed... .





mh

Mount Polley Gold and Copper Mine Tailings Pond Breach foreshadows Coming Tar Sands Disaster

Maps & Video - Mount Polley Gold and Copper Mine Tailings Pond Breach - Monday, August 4, 2014 near Likely British Columbia.

Mount Polley Gold and Copper Mine Tailings Pond Breach Spill Diagram
Path of the spill - a torrent of toxic waste including arsenic, creates a new river valley & takes out a forest of trees before discharging into Quesnel Lake
Image: Google Maps Satellite View

Mount Polley Mine Spill Disaster - Geographic Context - Image: Google Maps

View Larger Map


Mount Polley Mine Tailings Pond Breach


Video via Cariboo Regional District on Youtube | Mount Polley Mine Tailings Pond Breach | http://youtu.be/M1YgX2jXnpA



mh

Living at Tenant Hell

--- For the Record --- written Wednesday, September 4, 2013 --- published Wednesday, June 4, 2014 

In the midst of a Public Health involved attempt to stop a Bed Bug infestation at this address - the landlord's street-smart push-back against the rule of law; a vicious campaign by the landlord involving constant harassment visited upon the three tenants involved in calling Public Health - I publish these notes held in draft since last fall.


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

This essay is to allow me to get all those little things out - off my shoulders so to speak - with regards to a recent bug problem at the place where I live.

The Coach Roaches road to Primacy

Right now I have a cockroach infestation in my apartment. I've been trying different approaches to try to win the war over these incredibly adaptable insects over the last two months - but aside from:

• the sometimes shocking way they appear out of nowhere;
• not being able to leave food out for even minutes;
• making sure all food is sealed in plastic or glass;
• the possibility that they may spread to my neighbours apartments;
• and that I may carry them to other peoples' places in the creases of my clothes

I believe that there are really no health concerns about them. The idea that they carry diseases is urban legend I believe - but the article linked below lays out some plausible health issues with them:

"PestWord"
(a National Pest Management Association website):

"The Truth about Cockroaches and Health"
By Dr. Jorge Parada - a National Pest Management Association doctor
 - from Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - http://www.pestworld.org/news-and-views/pest-health-hub/posts/the-truth-about-cockroaches-and-health/ -

"..proteins (called allergens) found in cockroach feces, saliva and body parts can cause allergic reactions or trigger asthma symptoms, especially in children."

As soon as I see that last bit - about the allergens in the chemical make-up of cockroach body parts and fluids - I know in my heart there has been no research on this - and that cockroaches have simply been dumped into a job-lot of possible causes of the pandemic. This list of possible causes and triggers from the Mayo Clinic describes my point perfectly:

Childhood asthma - Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff

The underlying causes of childhood asthma aren't fully understood. Developing an overly sensitive immune system generally plays a role. Some factors thought to be involved include:

• Inherited traits
• Some types of airway infections at a very young age
• Exposure to environmental factors, such as cigarette smoke or other air pollution

Increased immune system sensitivity causes the lungs and airways to swell and produce mucus when exposed to certain triggers. Reaction to a trigger may be delayed, making it more difficult to identify the trigger. These triggers vary from child to child and can include:

• Viral infections such as the common cold
• Exposure to air pollutants, such as tobacco smoke
• Allergies to dust mites, pet dander, pollen or mold
• Physical activity
• Weather changes or cold air

Sometimes, asthma symptoms occur with no apparent triggers.

(http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-asthma/DS00849/DSECTION=causes)

In other words, we don't know what causes this recent explosion in hyper-sensitivity in young people's airways - but note the use of  'tobacco smoke' - rather than the more obvious and ubiquitous - car, truck and industrial pollutants which form weather system sized clouds of smog that drift northeast across the North America - and local instance of carcinogenic release: residences near-by freeways, and near-by arterial roads and especially at intersections.

 - a cause-lot that studiously avoids the obvious and most inconvenient truth - that being, pollution from car and truck exhaust caused by our choice of a road transportation model over much more efficient modes - like rail.

I can see the feces and saliva issue - and the body parts are calcium based crystal exoskeletons (ceramic) - that can cause abrasions and itchiness, and that with out cleaning can lead to scratching and open wounds - that can become infected.

On top of the stress of living with this infestation - I have a landlord (who lives on site) who thinks it's his role is to be as argumentative he can be. By treating the normal and unending series of issues that come up in the pursuit of his business model (landlord of a unlicensed rooming house) - as an excuse to treat his tenants like beaten dogs, sub-human-beings; to be insulting; to name-call; to threaten with eviction at every opportunity (with no reference to Landlord, Tenant Law) - my life at this point has become a big pile of shit. But I stand for tenants rights - I will not be driven out by his inhuman treatment - and I will not use the courts or the regulatory agencies - but I will if I am forced to do so.

The house that I have lived in for going on five years, can best be described as an unlicensed rooming house - individuals rent rooms from the landlord and share a kitchen and bathroom. I have the biggest room on my floor, a nice bay-windowed space about 14 foot by 14 foot. The other rooms on this floor are smaller - in one case tiny - spaces with enough room for a bed, a desk and an area rug and not much more. As such, these other rooms turn over about every-other-month - because desperate, between-a-good-place folks move in - stay a month or two - save up first and last for a real apartment and then move out.

In these days of great global migration, lower standards of health management, and lax regulation of unlicensed residences - we are seeing an on-going bed bug infestation in Toronto that tenants flee and then restart at new locations.This metric means that the more folks move in and out of this clean space, the higher the likelihood that an infestation will start here (again).

As well, houses in the core of the City of Toronto, run for the most part by absentee landlords trying to squeeze every buck they can out of them; put as little money in as possible - waiting for the wreaking ball to make way for (they must hope) an expensive condo development - are over-run by cock roaches, that eventually force their tenants out to look for better places.

One such individual moved into the room above me a couple months ago (he has since moved) and brought some of those cockroaches with him.


My landlord is getting old and has some health issues that prevent him from walking up flights of stairs without getting very winded - so he comes up here to the second floor less regularly now, then he would probably like to - as a result the cockroach infestation that began in the kitchen was allowed to get a little out of hand. For three months I would come into the kitchen at night, flick on the light and watch dozens of little bugs scurrying for the cover of shadow off the counter-top area.

His 'boy' on the floor (a 'rat fink' as we know it in this culture, who tells the landlord absolutely EVERYTHING that happens and is said up here) somehow missed telling the landlord about our bug problem. I didn't because I thought rat-boy would - and more to the point - I try to avoid talking to the landlord unless it is absolutely necessary.

Soon enough I told him about the problem and he had it fixed in two days (with some truly evil neurotoxin that the cockroaches carry with them back to their nest  for the others - wiping them out in very short order).

As the guy who brought in the cockroaches, left, he gave away some things to people he liked - including me - a computer keyboard for example.

A week later I started seeing the odd cockroach around my writing area - and soon elsewhere in my room.

I thought since there was only a few of them, that I could win the battle with them through starvation - so I took great care in making sure there was absolutely nothing for them to eat. I found out that cockroaches are very adaptable. From my observations I believe that they live in colonies who's collective behaviour can change very quickly - generation to generation - in order to suit the environmental situations which are evolving around them.

Soon the cockroaches were colonizing my desk drawers to survive - where they were apparently eating the glue on each envelope and the paper also I understand. My desk drawers quickly became surprises on open - a half dozen or so little tiny cockroaches scurrying for cover as the light spilled in.

I have also discovered that cockroaches love carbohydrates - given some brown sugar vs a bread crumb - they eat the bread and leave the sugar. I expect they'll eat sugar - but I'm not seeing it here. To confirm or destroy my hypothesis I looked it up.

Some cockroaches apparently, have developed a revulsion to sugar:

Time Magazine, Mutant Cockroaches Have Learned to Evade Sugar Traps
http://science.time.com/2013/05/24/mutant-cockroaches-have-learned-to-evade-sugar-traps/

The bait traps known as 'roach hotels' had no effect on the buggers at all - they walked through my roach traps (perhaps because I bought them at a convienence store, and they were too old -  perhaps the stickiness of the medium that's supposed to stick them in place (leading to their starvation) had dried out.

In short - I have lost the first battles with the cockroaches; and so my next step was to inform the landlord and get some of that neurotoxin I saw him use in the kitchen - in here.

The Bed Bugs Begin Their Rise to Primacy

But before I could talk to him about it, he over-heard me discussing it with a new neighbour who has a bed bug infestation starting in his room. (the landlord seems to have lost that rooms anti-insect bag which was on the mattress in that room - and thus the eggs from an earlier infestation, have been activated by the fellows' body heat - and since there was no bag to keep them in, they got out and started eating his blood and producing more eggs.

I found out last year that my basement dwelling landlord listens at the bottom of the forced air ducts in order to hear every word his tenants say. From knowing him for more than four years, I think it's because he lives in a terrible world where none tell the truth, and everything that anyone says to him is a lie; where conspiracies against him are everywhere.

I believe this paranoia has lead to another dysfunction that could be a non-sexual form of voyeurism; which is the result of a disconnection from reality where the sufferer tries to resolve his insecurity about who he is - and what the nature of the culture that he lives in, but apart from - is - by watching people when they don't know they are being watched. In order to see what 'normal' life is really like with out the pretenous masks that people wear in public, and especially at work --- such that the patient can then practice that behaviour - and deceive others into thinking they do not suffer from the disconnection that so concerns them that it has resulted in a life of loneliness.

Stuck in this night-mire he is probably *becoming* right - I for one, after four years experience, try to talk with him as little as possible. I don't need to get yelled at, belittled and muy faith in human nature gutted from my soul. For some reason, I chose to try to avoid that.

So having heard through the heating ducts (or from his 'boy' on our floor) about the bugs - now here's the landlord in my face accusing me of husbanding bugs to try and destroy his house.

Having lived in a house for a year and a half with a bug bed bug infestation - scenes from which could be used in a psycho-horror film - I'm not a likely candidate in infest my own house with the little bastards. While I've found my time with the cockroaches very interesting - in discovering their many adaptation capabilities - I am not crazy enough to bring them in to my own home - a place where I have lived bug free for four years.

My procrastination in acting on the cleaning issue, and the cockroach issue - I think - is a function of clinical depression (intensified by the bugs); the landlords' terrible social skill set, and the fact that I haven't cleaned properly in six months. As such I knew the landlord would be all over me about it if I told him about the cockroaches and he toured my space in order to fix the problem.

So, true to form, the landlord has threaten eviction, yelled and berated me - all the weapons at his disposal to grain primacy - in a place where he already has primacy.

A little politeness can go a long way; a lesson this landlord it seems - despite all my trying - is unlikely to be able to learn.

The Landlord Switches Faces - again

Harassment Log

Sunday, September 1st - The landlord and I are sitting in my room talking about the cockroach infestation - suddenly out of the blue he accuses me of bringing in the roaches in a little jar - mischief - that I am purposely trying to ruin his house (which contradicts what he just said in the sentence before that one - where he accused me of making up the stories I have just told him about the cockroaches) - and also bringing in bed bugs (which the tenant next door has just discovered in his room - the result of a missing bedbug 'bed-bag' a control system he bought 2 years ago that isolates bed-bug eggs from the person using the bed (they hatch with the body heat that they sense, but cannot get out of the bed-bag - and so die).

Monday, September 2nd - Landlord told me 'Robin' (the building owner) wanted to move into my room. Knowing that this is not the way that section of the landlord tenant act works, I shrugged my shoulders. He retorted that if I made trouble leaving this place he would get some big friends of his to evict me another way.

Tuesday, September 3rd - The Landlord is upstairs for about 2 hours in the evening - spying on me I think - to see if I'm slaking off or actually cleaning my room towards the cockroach treatment he has agreed to buy and apply. His attitude does not reflect the previous days threats, he seems friendly and conversational. I sit with him in the kitchen for a minute while I'm doing my laundry there - hoping to smooth out the previous days threats. We talk a little bit about the treatment process, and then he comes out of left field with this statement:

"I have affidavits from the last five tenants saying they moved out because of you." 

(referring to me?!).

This must be a lie - as I have been friends with everyone who has come through this place. Most often the tenant leaving has to my knowledge, been either simply moving to a better place or a different location - closer to a new job or family.

The reason, I believe, for the high turn-over of tenants is the size of the rooms - they are small, big enough for a bed and a dresser and a path between; plus the house is uninsulated and the air conditioner system is too small for the building and does not cool the second floor more than a couple of degrees; and plus the building is very old frame house with no insulation that is very cold depending on what direction the wind is blowing; and the way the landlord purports himself: he is aggressive in the way he talks to the tenants - using a macho style of .verbal intercourse better suited to the locker room or a bar, and not appropriate when talking to women tenants, as his discourse is offhandedly sprinkled with inappropriate sexual allusions (a defensive construct I believe, that many men use in conversation with their male friends - but which is wholly inappropriate with-in an unequal power relationship like that between a male landlord and a female tenant).

I'm thinking of asking every tenant who moves out to sign an affidavit as they leave that I am not the reason they are leaving --- in case the landlord tries to evict me on the basis of quiet enjoyment.

I am a quiet, respectful, clean roommate who makes sure the shared parts of the house are clean after I use them; and in many, many cases - clean up the after younger tenants (and offer hints towards better, future habits) who don't quite understand the accepted protocols regarding cleaning up the stove and sink area after they have finished cooking - or wiping up the floor and counter tops, shelves and mirror in the bathroom after they have finished there.

I have sweep and mopped the common areas many times over four years living here - and I regularly clean the bathroom tub and walls, and the toilet and floor. All of which - if this is considered a rooming house in the law - are the landlords' responsibilities. He has never offered to pay me for these jobs I do - even though his deteriorating health has made it so he needs to soon hire someone to do these jobs for him. I would be happy to be in charge of this - I could use the extra pocket money - but the landlord swings from being a good friend off mine to paranoid delusions that I am out to destroy his house, set the other tenants against him and even bring bugs into the place.



Written Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - Published Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - Because I feel like any day now, the landlord is going to carry through on his threat to implement an extra-judicial eviction process.



mh

Truth Out - Ukrainian Fascist coup from Democratic #Maidan Protest against 5 #Ukraine Oligarch Families

The Real News Network - Mar 30, 2014  | Oligarchs, Fascists and the People's Protest in Ukraine

"Derek Monroe - The Ukrainian far right, backed by local oligarchs, the US and the EU - hijacked the peaceful protest against corruption"

What he said:

Oligarchs, Fascists and the People's Protest in Ukraine




Read Derek Monroe's report:

Truth Out - SpeakOut 17 March 2014 | "Euro Maidan 2014: The Ruptured Rebellion of Incoherent Revolution" | By Derek Monroe | http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/22515-euro-maidan-2014-the-ruptured-rebellion-of-incoherent-revolution



mh

Stupid business model appbuchet snappzmarket get 5 years ... Chris Castle finds a way to blame(?) Open Source, Google

Texas based Music Business Attorney, Chris Castle is busy again misrepresenting the communications revolution. I post another retort to his seemingly uninformed anti Open Source rantings...

First you might want to read some clear reporting about what Castle in on about this time:
ars technica - Mar 24 2014 | "US gov’t secures first-ever win against Android app pirates" | by Cyrus Farivar | http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/us-govt-secures-first-ever-win-against-android-app-pirates/

..And now this week's exceptionally annoying snippet from Castle's  "MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY" blog:

MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY

Light the Cat Signal: Did Google Ask the Feds to Arrest Android Hackers?

April 2, 2014 - by Chris Castle

Are These More Alike Than Not?

According to the Department of Justice, the operators of the Android version of Megavideo have–with one exception–pleaded guilty. Recall that the DOJ seized two domain names earlier this year under its pre-trial seizure process (kind of like they did with Rojadirecta, the tiny Spanish single member LLC pirate site–more about them later–during the SOPA days).

Remember this is not just any pirate app site–this is an Android pirate site. And this exists because Google and Google alone allows unknown third parties to maintain storefronts for Android apps. Unlike Apple that actually thinks its more important to maintain brand integrity than to allow their footprint to be used for illegal activity. You can get iOS apps from one place only–the App Store. Windows Phone Apps from the Windows Phone Store. If Google had the same values as Apple or Microsoft, this problem would not exist, and app developers would face much lower risk of being pirated. All the more reason not to develop apps for Android.

...

To which I respond:

Chris Castle, your unenlightened knee jerks against Google's business model are extraordinarily annoying. But because you represent popular reaction when complex reasoning is required instead ... I must respond.

First off - 'Did Google Ask the Feds to Arrest Android Hackers?'

No.

Google allows crowd sourced development because developers in offices at Apple and Microsoft (especially MS) don't know what the world needs apps for. Free enterprise in software development speeds the adoption of new innovation - enables innovation that would not have occurred otherwise.

Also there are only two major web phones Apple and Google - one uses the propitiatory model, and the other doesn't - not as you say, 'Google is the only one that allows independent development'. As well, because Google does allows independent development based on their open source software architecture (as does Firefox), there are lots of Android style brands out there - and they're all hackable too. So to put it correctly - there are thousands of web phone brands - only one (major one) uses the propitiatory model.

A mobile browser is a very simple thing - it's like a radio - anyone can build a radio from parts found at an electronics store. Fooling the consumer public with branding and a beautiful containers is a symptom of the early years of this particular communications revolution. You don't need an App to access the weather for example - what you need is a way to manage links on a mobile browser - like bookmarks.

As a natural function of development problems with software will be found and exploited; and developers will create fixes; criminals will innovate new exploits; the web development community will plug the holes --- and so on.

This is a revolution, and it's not going to end any time soon. Get used to it - learn how to secure your web platform - just like you secure your wallet.

Don't bank online for example.

_____________

List of mobile browser software containers, and the mostly proprietary software that are slightly tweaked versions of the same thing) inside each:
Wikipedia | "Mobile browser" | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_browser#Popular_mobile_browsers

Read the rest of Castle's rant at his blog:
MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY | "Light the Cat Signal: Did Google Ask the Feds to Arrest Android Hackers?" | http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/light-the-cat-signal-did-google-ask-the-feds-to-arrest-android-hackers/



mh

Change backgroundColor - Baseball Scorecard, At-Bat Box in HTML5 Canvas - part 3

<!--- <div id="myDIV" style="background-color: #00c900; height: 40px; width: 40px;"><br /> <br /> <br /> <input onclick="myFunction()" style="background: transparent; border: 1px dashed; height: 40px; width: 40px;" /></div><script> function myFunction() { document.getElementById("myDIV").style.backgroundColor = "red"; } </script>-->

Baseball Scorecard, At-Bat Box in HTML5 Canvas - part 2

Blogger's Compose Interface creates issues with all the scorecards for Blogger that I have built.

The Compose Interface is the place where bloggers compose their writing (or score baseball games). It is equipped with all kinds of html shortcuts that write html for you via javascript enabled buttons along the top of the Compose window - just like your Email Compose Box.

When I create the markup for the baseball scorecards in a text editor - and then view the results in my browser - the results are radically different when I then take that code and paste it into the Blogger Compose widow set to 'HTML' - and then switch over to Compose mode tab. And then differently again when I publish it and look at the result on the Blog.

In this version of the html baseball scorecard for Blogger - which I guess I'll call the "Canvas Series" (ending the "Minima Series") - the Javascrpt that creates the box outline; the separation between the pitching notation area and scoring notation area; and the infield and outfield icons - are all produced via script - and that doesn't render in Bloggers Compose Interface at all!

Your browser does not support the HTML5 canvas tag.

BBBB
BBBB





BBBB

1234567
2
3
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5
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7

1234567
2
3
4
5
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7

1
BBBBBB
3
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#1,#2-1B
2
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7

That's why I added dashed lines to the text boxes - so I can see which quaderant I'm going to write in, and on which line in that quadrant.

Here's an image I took of what I see in the Blogger Compose Interface, that you see rendered just above as a baseball scorecard 'At-Bat box'.

The next step in this Canvas Baseball Scorecard is to get the colour coding going. I've never seen the coding that makes the Compose shortcuts go ... I'm wondering if I can create some javascript that will allow me to use the text background colour pallet in the Compose Interface to colour code around the infield icon to indicate the progress of a base runner.


Next post is an experiment to see if I can get one javascript 'ChangeStyle' function to render one colour change in a background area in the Compose Interface box.



mh

"We Declare a New Enlightenment" - a response to David Lowery's 'A Letter to Emily'

Further on Music Lawyer Chris Castle's view of the Revolution - a link to - and a critique of - a piece by David Lowery - Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Georgia, Artists Rights blogger at "The Trichordist", and former guitarist for Camper Van Beethoven:

The Trichordist, June 18, 2012 | "Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered."
by David Lowery
http://thetrichordist.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/


Interesting article (I suggest read it first; and then my retort below).


I posit that what we*, the internet generation are perusing is an open and free (as in connected) internet; and the problem with David Lowery's take is that it remains stuck in the old broadcast universe. What it doesn't see is that digital copying means that ALL content can no longer be held in a vault and distributed with the rotation of a turn-stile that is held open or closed by a vendor.

To explain I will make the following statement with in the context that I see, we exist in - as an extreme example to illustrate the point.

In order to illustrate how the new architecture of the digital content universe is so inexorably different that of the previous, just passed model represented by the movable type printing press (1440) to broadcast networks (1999) - the architecture of the world wide web - in a form as envisioned by it's founders, and integrated into the base level of ALL computers (the computing system under the Operating System - the computer itself), and the architecture that supports the world wide web - means that:

'All content that hither-to was produced with an eye to pay the creators and their partners via the turn-stile pay-per-view model ... is dead.'

Other-wise the internet will become an undemocratic place where the sum of all human knowledge will be parceled out to those you can afford it.

We stand at a nexus between a great democracy enabled by a world wide connectivity - or on the other hand, a connectivity that serves only an elite with special knowledge; that uses the web's other great possibility - it's ability to act as a two-way portal ... to surveil, and to use this function of the two-way technology to hold down the populace - to continue the 'special knowledge combine'. In short, to enable a global totalitarian epoch; a new Dark Age.

So when David Lowery compliments the internet generation's great moral and ethical stance on a wide variety of social justice issues - and then criticizes their immoral use of the www as it applies to how how they get their music - he does a great disservice to their ethical enlightenment. What they are doing in refusing the DRM, DMCA universe of the dinosaur broadcast (one-way) universe in the new, two-way universe.

It is nothing short of Martin Luther nailing the notice to the Holy Roman Empire's Church door.

'We declare a new enlightenment'.

The stark choice we face is - free all the content that was hither-to sold in order to pay the creators - and begin to find a new way to pay the creators. Creators will still create - we do this becuase we have to - it's not a career - it's like breathing air - all humans need to create - it's a foundation stone of what it means to be human. The cannons of a culture's creative content are crucial inexorable - not something fun, entertaining, titillating.

The recording industry will die, and so too will the TV networks - and the Newspapers - and Hollywood - and the Book Publishers ... But another way to employ creators and keep them crafting us our stories (we all are not the craft-persons we need to be to reflect back to us what we are). In short - the process that defines us - the act that is at the foundation for all other conversations in a culture ... will find a new metric; there is no question about that - and it will happen very quickly.

What needs to happen right now, is that the systems in place that dominate that content production economy, must get out of the way - and permit the new economy to birth and flourish.

The seeds and the sprouts of it are already abundant - they just aren't robust an spread around so much just yet.

Fear not, the future is coming - and it will be much better than the past.

Of this I believe, the digital generation is absolutely certain.


(I note that in this revolution there are a great number who may have little exposure to the philosophy here - but yet play with glutinous glee in this pirate garden that seems to be 'free' content. Nothing is free, the price may be quite steep after - by participating in this discussion I hope to shine some light towards that dark corner as well.)

____________________

Via today's email notification from Chris Castle's: MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY | "The MTP Interview: David Lowery on artist rights" - by Chris Castle | http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/the-mtp-interview-david-lowery-on-artist-rights/


* 'we, the internet generation' - in 2006 - from three newspapers every day, writing on paper, drawing on paper, recording to tape, broadcast TV - I turned it all off in the wake of the propaganda run-up to the Iraq War and the long unfolding of the horror itself; and dove - 'all-in' - into digital communications:
"michaelhollowaysblog" - 2006/12/20 | "The Tension of Life; and the Death of Ease." | http://michael-holloways-blog.blogspot.ca/2006/12/tension-of-life-and-death-of-ease.html




mh

You take the Low Road and I'll take the High Road --- I hate the way Texas Music Lawyer, Chris Castle sees the world

Chris Castle writes about music, technology and policy.

A subject very dear to my heart.

He and I don't see eye to eye.

Today he re-posted a post from 2012 in his blog, "Music • Tech • Policy" that I thought I'd comment on - but he uses WordPress and the widget there wanted me to give them my password in order to leave a comment.

No thanks - so here.

A casual example of how Google profits from lyric piracy and screws songwriters

June 4, 2012 by Chris Castle

I just happened to get a call from a songwriter about an illegal use of the lyrics from his songs. Thus we found http://www.lyrics007.com registered in–wait for it….China. Statshow estimates the monthly revenue is $41,000.00, 112,000,000 annual visitors and Google indexes over 600,000 pages.

After a little poking I found that Lyrics007 has just about any song you would want and–I know this will come as a shock–plenty of advertising. Served by? Google, of course. In fact, we saw plenty of ads for Google Play itself as well as YouTube partner promotions.

Little Big Town promotes Google Play and McDonalds as well as some drug ad for birth control:

IMAGE 1

Not only that, but Google is serving this illegal site ads for the H20 Festival and the Warped Tour to help a pirate site stay in business–oh, and make money for Google, of course.

IMAGE 2

And you know where the AdChoices “Free Music Download” ad goes to?

IMAGE 3

And then if Bob Dylan thought that getting a Presidential medal would get him any copyright protection, boy was he wrong:

...

[Read the rest and see the images at the link below]

To which I replied:

Why demonize Google? They're innovating all kinds of cool new ways to monetize music online using digital networking best practices.
You don't really want Google (all search engines) to stop listing do you?
What you really want is a bigger slice of an increasingly bigger online pie. Why not just say so?
I firmly believe that Artists should get 50% of all revenues derived from their work; so now that record companies no longer have a role in publishing and distribution - artists need to form a union of artists/publishers/distributors that fights for 50% of all revenues from all sources globally.
Google is your 'friend' - make the best deal you can - but not with threats to sue your friend (re: partner) - but with Artist's Unity! (and lawyers).

:)

Michael Holloway.
Singer-songwriter,
Toronto

P.S. Ethnocentric slurs aimed at China (cold war anti-communism?), and plays to divisive politics (moderating toxic effects of birth control pills) are very disturbing. Chris, please take the high road in this.

MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY - June 4, 2012 | "A casual example of how Google profits from lyric piracy and screws songwriters" by Chris Castle | http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/a-casual-example-of-how-google-profits-from-lyric-piracy-and-screws-songwriters/




mh

Twitter embed example - #BikeMonthTO

How to make a updating Twitter embed that lists all Tweets that include a hashtag of your choosing:

• Sign into your Twitter account; at the top of the page, click on the gear icon;
• Click and chose 'Settings'; 
• Then in the list on the left choose 'Widgets'; 
• Now a page with some tabs across the top will appear.
• For a updating hashtag list, click on the 'Search' tab; 
• Add your hashtag (like ‪#BikeMonthTO) in the box where they provide an example;
• Adjust the 'Height' and 'Link color';
• Click 'Create'; 
• Copy the code offered at the bottom of the page and;
• Embed it in 'widget container' on your blog or website.

Here's a test embed that shows every Tweet that includes "#BikeMonthTO":

Tweets about "#BikeMonthTO"


(you don't have to set 'width' - the embed adjusts itself according to the width of the container it is placed in.)




mh

"Third Force" behind #Kyiv Maidan Sniper shootings Feb 19-20 - events that precipitated #Ukraine #Fascist Revolution

 All progressives must rally for Peace.

- Yanukovych Feb 19-20 Repression at Maidan, Order of the battle; Right Sector leads revolutionary occupations of Regional Authorities;
 - In Kyiv: Svoboda holds session of Parliament as Party of Regions members flee Kyiv as Police administration collapses;
 - Svoboda Parliament Feb 22 throws out Yanukovych Constitution, reconstitutes State, issues arrest warrant for President, declares Russian language not official, considers ban on Communist Party, Yanukovych's Party of Regions;
 - Neo-nazi group C18, attack Kyiv Communist Party Offices, occupy them.

During the days after the Viktor Yusenko ordered clearing of the Maidan that started on the evening of February 19th and which resulted in 125 deaths of strangely nearly equal numbers of police and protestors - I began to compile evidence of what I thought were important events in a chaotic situation - which appeared to me then to be not just the resignation of the government - but an overthrow of the State in Ukraine.

Order of Battle:

1) 8pm - Feb 19, 2014 - Maidan Attacked by a coordinated assault by Police working closely with all levels of Government (Streets Closed, Subways didn't stop at Maidan subway).

2) Evidence those occupying Maidan were very well organized:
The initial police tactic - simultaneously advance on the Trade Union Building (Occupied by the elite Maidan defense forces lead by 'Right Sector') - and at the same time Police began a slow march into the tent city portion of the square using a barrage of water cannon and gas.
In response the Trade Union building was set on fire as the Right Sector retreated from the building. At the same time in the Maidan Tent City, Right Sector set the tent city on fire and retreated behind it. The tent city acted as a barricade to stop the police advance. Protestors added tires and Molitof's onto the fire to prevent water cannon and fire crews for extinguishing the flames - stopping the Police advance.

3) I extrapolate (by what I know happened next) that an outside force was introduced in the mayhem at Maidan that night - there was to be slaughter at Maidan that night, no matter what the Government tactics were - so as to facilitate the seizing of Regional Government Buildings all around Kyiv - to the east and south of Kyiv (as far into the Party of Regions Provinces as possible - the western Ukraine Government buildings had mostly all been seized by Right Sector and other neo-nazi groups the week before).

______________

Today a leaked phone call from the Estonian Ambassador to the Estonia President was leaked - the Ambassador tells her that he talked to doctors on the scene at Maidan on the bloody day - Feb 19-20. He said the chief of Maidan Doctor Corps. told him that from pictures she had seen of dead Police Officers and the wounds she noted on shot Protestors that she treated - both were shot by the same bullets (I'm assuming hollow point assassination bullets), and in the same manner of shooting - to the head in the eye in the base of the neck - in short, she thought those killed that day (both Police and Protesters) were shot by the same snipers.

______________

The news of the massacre at Maidan the next day - caused the Police to defect from their posts, and I expect caused the army to split at the same time (evidenced by the defection of army and navy elements since Russia landed troops to protect Black Sea coast positions that are tactical to securing their navel base and airport on Crimea 3 days later)  - the with news from someone in the anti-Party of Nations, Union Coalition that that Parliament had been suspended, plus the roaming gangs of violent thugs beating everyone they came across plus the coordinated seizure of all government buildings caused a defacto collapse of the Government. Then Slovida called a rump Parliamentary Session with almost all the Party of Regions members had left Kyiv - and struck down Viktor Yancovich's constitutional changes made in 2010 and thus dismantled the State with a Parliamentey vote in a rump Parliament.

______________

On Feb 20 - the day of the sniper shootings, the Right Sector used the news of deaths coming out of Kyiv to lead angry pro-democracy demonstrators in occupations of Regional Government buildings wherever they could - this resulted in the collapse of not just the Government - but the Ukrainian State.
In Kyiv Svoboda (the fascist Party in the anti Yanchovich group) used the killings on the Maidan - with Party of Regions members defecting to the Unity Coalition and others fleeing the city under threats of murder - to hold a 'rump' Parliamentary session.
In this rump session they threw out the Yanchovich Constitution (which had a super strong presidency at it's core), banned the Russian Language and out-lawed the Communist party - essentially tipping any new session of Parliament in the Unity Coalition's favour.
What this new government and new State represents can be seen in how many, and what, government posts that the fascist Svoboda Party members got as the State reconstituted:

Rabble.ca - March 9, 2014 | What's really at stake in Ukraine | by Murray Dobbin | http://rabble.ca/columnists/2014/03/whats-really-stake-ukraine

Among the members of Svoboda in the cabinet are, according to Raimondo:

"*Andriy Parubiy -- National Security Council chief, and co-founder of the party when it was called (not so subtly) the "Social-National Party."

* Oleh Makhnitsky -- Svoboda member of parliament, is prosecutor-general.

* Andriy Moknyk -- the new Minister of Ecology, has been Svoboda's envoy to other European fascist parties. Last year, he met with representatives of Italy's violent neo-fascist gang, Forza Nuovo.

* Ihor Tenyukh -- interim defense minister and a member of Svoboda's political council. Formerly commander of Ukraine's navy, in 2008, during Russia's war with Georgia, he ordered Ukrainian warships to block the entrance of the Russian Navy to the bay of Sevastopol."

Wikipedia | Cabinet of Ukraine - #Cabinet | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Ukraine#Cabinet
(Retrieved 2014-03-10 - 1:30am est)

_____________

@DemocracyNow #Ukraine Roundtable http://t.co/fWjTRfWyis Anton Shekhovtsov Snipers likely Third Force Key event that lead to revolution #OWS
— Michael Holloway (@m_holloway) March 10, 2014

Anton Shekhovtsov was arguing the State Departmen position, others were confused about the sniper report on Thursday thinking the Maidan fired on their own people, and the police for some unknown reason - Anton Shekhovtsov comment on Friday March 7th reflects my thinking and what I wrote above - writing days before - the key words are "Third Force".

And we all know who the third force in Kyiv is - the US Embassy, the CIA and US Special Operations.

And that Svoboda (and their military wing Pravy Sektor) was ready (previous week they had greened leaders in taking over Western Provincial Rada) - and executed take-overs of Regional Government apparatus - ***as the sniper fire was happening*** - all over the proximate Kyiv Provinces and as far east and south as they could muster forces for.

For the timing of events on Feb 19-20 see Wikipedia linked  - note Feb 20 (I have a screen print of the page as it appeared on Feb 25 which I publish here as well - but the page has not been altered in the interim):

Wikipedia | 2014 Ukrainian Regional State Administration occupations | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Ukrainian_Regional_State_Administration_occupations#20_February

Understanding this series of events we then understand that the US was using troops on the ground, in the name of fascist Pravy Sektor to execute a well timed and provocated coup d'tat.

A look at the previously progressive - or at least 'truth searching' Twitter list #Ukraine - today shows a massive onslot of pro-US Empire Tweets. The Empire is in full blown propaganda and disimformation mode as we speak. The same was true at Twitter list #Euromaidan the weeks before.

Un-like Georgia, where the fascists were hurled back easily by Russian troops - in this case the Kyiv government can be supported with troops through new NATO member countries on the Western boarder.

With unconfirmed reporting of Blackwater Fascist Ukraine hired US military forces on the streets in the Eastern Ukraine Industrial city of Donetsk - expect a shooting war in Ukraine between US Mercenaries and Russian troops sooner rather than later - if this report is true. 
(It looks a little if-y. But it could be a faint to get an advance north by the Russians - an attempt by the US to choose the site of the first battle ... of World War 3).

Charles Shoebridge is a Soldier and Intelligence officer, and a progressive:

Are #Blackwater now in #Ukraine? http://t.co/x8kWbBb9Rb If so, may suggest a new hired militia for the now far right run security ministries
— Charles Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeC) March 9, 2014

Written Feb 25 to March 9th 2014




mh

The Vatican re-Brands

Sometimes PBS Frontline does investigative journalism. Other times they do branding, and work as partners with their subjects.

Two Frontlines:

Hand of God
A moving, and frankly told story of a family's confrontation with the church that betrayed them, and how they survived it all with their humanity and humor intact.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/)

Secrets of the Vatican
An inside look at the scandals that rocked Benedict’s Papacy.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/)


The top one was produced by the brother of one of the estimated 10,000 children who are victims of Catholic Priest sexual abuse in the United States.

The bottom one is a narrative that seems to indicate that the Vatican and the church's 'embassies' world-wide are infected with a multitude of sin - and that the past pope, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) sacrificed himself for the church by leaking the "Vatileaks" - and then resigning; which has resulted in the beginning of a rebirth of the institution in likeness of pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Francis).

The top one is a stirring piece of journalism.

The bottom one ... I feel like I just got played. I'll only believe it if the sanction against sexual conduct is ended, and the Catholic Church allows women equal access to all positions in the church.

The business stuff, the banking, the arms dealing, and the acquiescence to fascist death squads sponsored by the CIA in Central America ... well, the most progressive form of government to date - the Republic of the United States of America - is breaking under that paradox (Military Industrial Complex), so I won't put it on the church in rome to lead that us out of that particular hell. That's on us.

Both programs are very important. I recommend watching them.

(Both are available online in Canada at the links provided.)



mh

#Ukraine - Jan 30 2014 - Democratic #Euromaidan has defeated Government - #fascists hold the street - want to overthrow the State and pivot to power

2014-02-25 - This piece was written Jan 30, 2014 - I held back this piece as the situation was unclear and very volatile. Since the weekend of Feb 19-22 the situation has some-what clarified. I'm corralling my sources and real-time documentation now, for my next piece on this unfolding situation. At this writing according to several sources in the field, the situation seems to have pivoted as I had feared it might when the article below was written. The State has collapsed as revolutionary "People's Rada" have sprung up all over the country. Around Kyiv to the proximate east and South - and especially to the West - Right Sector has lead in an apparently focused, organized and well timed  popular uprising that resulted in the decapitation of local government offices and institutions - which has resulted in the collapse of the central government and it's Constitution.


Jan 30, 2014 - The #Euromaidan movement is represented in Parliament by the United Opposition - which includes the fascist Svoboda "third position" neo-nazis.

With an understanding of the situation that flows from an historians perspective - what I see is that the fascists at this moment - in this very fluid situation - hold the keys to the next developments - and that - it appears that if western liberals remain divided and in this state of considering all the facts - the moment may be lost to effect this in a positive fashion - and at the same time, and most importantly - prevent a fascist government from coming to power in the Ukraine.

I just listened to Russian Studies expert Professor Stephen F Cohen's way-to-short debate with Anton Shekhovtsov on DemocracyNow! (Debate: Is Ukraine’s Opposition a Democratic Movement or a Force of Right-Wing Extremism? | Democracy Now!).

Professor Cohen says the fascists, through their control of the street demonstrations - have control of the #Euromaidan democratic movement - just at this moment now - .

At this time Professor Cohen is reading the situation as I see it also.

Here's how I saw the last 9 days play out:

When the government fell last week and all power resorted to Parliament, we saw the government fire all it's Ministers and dissolve the session of Parliament and promise the first new order of business would be to repeal all the anti-protest laws. (the laws that turned the peaceful protest into a week long running street battle run by the fascists, and which caused an ungovernable state of affairs --- the exact occurrence that toppled the government).

At that point the President proposed a power sharing government of national reconciliation. And the deputies of the opposition at first began to respond to that by asking the street to give up the occupations of the government buildings. That resulted in divisions on the street with one group holding the Agriculture Ministry being fired upon by the Svoboda fascists:


According to a NY Time Opinion piece from today the Agriculture Ministry is still occupied - by the fascists:

"Another problem is that the opposition is united largely in its disgust with the corruption and authoritarianism of the Yanukovych-led political elite and a vague longing for Westernization and transparency. Beyond that, the protesters are sharply divided. The differences were on display Wednesday when five people were wounded in a spat over who would control the occupied building of the Agriculture Ministry."

(NY Times Editorial - Time for a Deal in Ukraine - by The Editorial Board - JAN. 30, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/time-for-a-deal-in-ukraine.html).

After prolonged discussion in Parliament the amnesty law was passed by the majority government party - without the support of the United Opposition deputies:

Tiahnybok votes to fight on
5:48 a.m, Jan. 30 -- EuroMaidanPR report: After parliament voted to pass the amnesty laws, Svoboda Party opposition leader Oleh Tiahnybok addressed protesters from the main stage of Independence Square, saying that until all the main demands of the opposition are fulfilled, the opposition will continue fighting. Tiahnybok added that the opposition demands are aligned with those of the protestors and that the opposition will continue representing the protesters’ interests and demands. -- Brian Bonner

(EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine (Jan. 28-29-30 live updates)


It was at this point - and how it stands now - that the fascist hold the trump card in what happens next. If they won't give up the street positions the United Opposition can't negotiate with the majority.

I think it is important to understand that the Ukraine is a capitalist liberal democracy in name only - it has none of the deep institutions of a robust liberal democracy we understand here (that are very tenacious and difficult to dismantle). So the Ukrainian State is very fragile - with just a little push this Ukrainian state could fall - and a fascist government could come to power in the centre of Europe.

As the US has been funding this radical element in an attempt to destabilize and disrupt the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States region (a geopolitical plan that is diametrically opposed to NATO's plan for the region - a US plan to weaken Russia systemically - and at the same time provide for the moving of Southern Eurasian oil and resources West, rather than East or North.

Therefore the US will have no choice but to support this new Ukrainian fascist state - or lose this particular round in the 'grand game' at a moment when it's economic house is collapsing.

This fact of a fascist state in the middle of Europe will have the effect of a cancer inside Europe. Like a house divided - it will either become all one thing - or all the other.

And as the lynch pin of American hegemony in Europe - it must therefore become all fascist - and so then too the fascist forces inside America would also then gain ascendancy in the grand game inside the gates of Rome Washington.


As the fascist maintain their pivot point at the centre of the Ukrainian popular revolution - so too will we see a continuation of the inability of the opposition to negotiate in Parliament.

A continuation of the dysfunction of the state will lead to further economic hardship in the very short term - thus drawing more and more angry young men to the fascist barricades.

Maintain the truce at the barricades in the squares - but end the occupations of the Government buildings and let the government begin to do it's work.

Begin the coalition government that the majority party has offered. Politically dislodge the fascists from that pivot point they now occupy.




mh

Failure of #Ukraine Progressives - rise of Fascist leadership in #Euromaidan movement

A source on the ground in Kiev - from any stated (democratic) perspective - would be nice...
 ..Voila:

The Final Straw Radio (AshevilleFM)

A weekly Anarchist Radio Show

Euromaidan: An Ukrainian Anarchosyndicalist perspective on these protests

December 31, 2013

In late November of 2013, Kiev and other parts of Ukraine saw the building of spontaneous plaza occupations and street demonstrations against President Yanukovych apparent decision to stall steps towards integrating Ukraine into the European Union. The protests, known as Euromaidan or EuroPlaza in Ukrainian, called on the ruling government to move forward with the integration, fearing that the stalling was a sign that the Ukraine was giving in to pressure from the competing Customs Union (made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) which had been courting Ukrainian participation. The protests are ongoing, despite the signature of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych into a deal with Russia for promised purchases of billions of dollars of Ukrainian products and a 30% discount on Russian Natural Gas. Euromaidan have been compared in scale, and sadly in lack of critical debate about issues among the populace, to the 2004 Ukrainian Orange revolution which saw the rising to power of those who would become the status quo today.

This week on the Final Straw, we’ll be speaking with Denys. Denys is an organizer and activist with the Kiev Local of the Autonomous Worker’s Union

..."

read the rest and listen to the podcast... http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2013/12/31/euromaidan-an-ukrainian-anarchosyndicalist-perspective-on-these-protests/

Podcast link: https://archive.org/download/AfmFinalStraw12222013/afm-final-straw-12222013.mp3



mh