Category Archives: police

The Last Independent TV Channel in Russia

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…needs your help.

Be sure to click on the link to Julia Ioffe’s piece.  In it, she has a link to this:

Note the armed forces at the Crimea voting places–more evidence that this vote was not what the people of Crimea truly want.

And the link to Joshua Yaffe’s report has this:

In Russia, the will of the state is expressed with signals of varying subtlety; the invocation of “national traitors” is among the less oblique examples of the genre. A new Web site called predatel.net—the word means “traitor”—has recently launched, featuring a list of public figures that the site’s anonymous creators deem to have betrayed Russia, whether by criticizing the annexation of Crimea or by supporting Western sanctions. As the site’s short manifesto puts it, “We believe that Russian citizens who insult our soldiers and who cast doubt on the need to fight neo-Nazis are traitors, no matter whether they are talented journalists, writers, and directors.” The site has a form for users to “suggest a traitor.”

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Holy crap.  The Salem Witch Hunt on steroids.  Label someone  a “witch” on the internet, where the accused has little access to protest their innocence…or put forth a differing point of view without being labeled a “traitor”…pfft. Cowards.

Weak arguments attack the person (Ad Hominem).  Strong arguments attack the idea.

I found a news piece on Alexi Navalny’s sentencing hearing:

 

Finally, the link to Irina Kalinina has this:

Dmitry Kiselyov, probably the single most influential person in the Russian mass media, considered by many as the Kremlin’s chief propagandist, provides another distinctive voice on Russian television. He is best known in the West for his idea that the internal organs of gays were not fit for donation and, more recently, for his reminder that Russia could turn America into “radioactive ash.”

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…and he calls the Ukraine people’s fight to keep their independence, a “mass psychosis”.  Seriously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey, Syria, and Armenians

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It’s really depressing that Turkey has apparently supported the violence in Syria.  More detailed report here.  (hat tip to Jared Leto).  I pretty much ignore the WSJ piece, given the bias of Rupert Murdoch.  It starts off with the Canadian Ambassador for Religious Freedom protesting Turkey…and yet my blogs on the Canadian gov’t treatment of First Nations people smacks in the face of that.

For those who don’t know, the Armenians suffered through a massacre a hundred years ago.  A survivor of the massacre tells her story.

Another tragic story of survival here. 

French mayor pushes for Turkey to recognize the genocide.   Others join in.

My past blog on Syria here and here. Bishop Desmond Tutu on Syria here.

Fred Klonsky’s blog on helping in Syria.

 

 

 

Canada’s Spy Agency and the First Nations

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The Canadian gov’t  was vewy vewy skeered of those pesky indigenous whom honor their traditions and refuse to be completely assimilated.  Good Grief.  They act like these people have tanks, helicopters, drones, etc….like it’s a freaking war.  Who…or What are they fighting against…?

And the quote that CSIS would not be involved if there wasn’t sufficient threat…who are they kidding?

My other posts:

Here we have a First Nations woman removed from a public meeting for…well, we don’t know because she wasn’t doing anything.  Her mere presence, apparently, made her “guilty” of a crime.

First Nations protests

Setback for First Nations protestors.

First Nations continue to stand up

Finally, this celebration on sacred Native American grounds that Mall of America was built on.

 

 

Dear White People… **edited

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DN! has a piece up today on a documentary entitled “Dear White People…”

We need the conversation to begin, so I’m glad that they are taking it on…but as I viewed the excerpts, I started to get that feeling of dread.  Because a young African American woman states that we (black folks) are all different and another clip one states that because she is the person of color in the room, suddenly she becomes the “voice” of the African American community.  But it seems lost on the black community that perhaps whites feel the same way?  We don’t all think alike and because one treats you badly or is prejudiced does not mean that we all agree with that person’s actions.  Most white folks have good hearts but don’t realize some of the stuff that is said and done is hurtful (as the producer of the documentary states.)

During the interview with “Reggie” –he talks about his personal life and how he lived on an all-black floor in college.  He said it helped to be with his “people’ after having people touch his hair and professors say “stuff” to him….my thought was:  doesn’t he think some white people could understand that?  Again, it is a block put up to sharing a common bond.  White people whom have been bullied, put down, ostracized can all understand how being singled out feels.  They may not understand how it is to be black, but they can understand pain.

And the tipping thing?  Hello! Women are also stereotyped for being bad tippers.  A long time ago, when I had a life, I sat in a restaurant and waited while the white waitresses were gossiping for twenty minutes until one finally came over to take my order.  And it was cold when she brought it out.  And yeah, I left a penny tip.  Screw that.

In other instances, I would leave 15% tips when the going rate was 10%.  Sometimes the service warranted that, but most times it was just okay, but I left the bigger tip because of the prejudice against women.

As far as his admission that black folk use their blackness as a tool sometimes to navigate the world…but it creates barriers. As I experienced in Ft. Wayne, an African American guy had created a serious problem for the entire building that could have meant injury or death for the residents.  When one of the white fire fighters said something to him because he was yelling at them to shut the alarm off (they could not do that–it was a door alarm and they had the door open to let all the smoke out)** edited, he immediately blamed it on racism.  He went on and on about it instead of taking a step back and realizing HE was the problem, not his skin color.  And this is not a condemnation of the guy–he wasn’t a bad person, but had a screwed up view of the world.

It’s funny that this came up today, because when I was getting dressed this morning, I thought about seeing the Light in others.

Buddhists popped into my head –the Buddhists don’t believe in a God as one Supreme Being, but that God resides in each of us.  Their greeting “Namaste” means that they recognize God within you and within themselves.

Even if one doesn’t believe in the Buddhist religion, if we could stop looking at each other’s skin color…or anything physical…and recognize the Light within the other, we could move past the prejudice.  Our hearts involved in decision making instead of just our heads…

**edited for link to DN and further explanation above.

School Bullies?

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Has it really come to this?  That a mother has to assert her child’s civil rights to be let alone from government intrusion, via the pro-Common Core/anti public schools mob??    That a child can be interrogated by Chicago Public Schools for opting out of an abusive test?

Who are the bullies in this scenario? Because it ain’t the kids…

Getting us into yet another war

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John I-don’t-know-how-many-houses-I-own McCain is once again banging the war drum…although he is careful to not make it sound that way.

Let’s take a look back, shall we?

My blog here on the media’s culpability in getting us into Iraq.

John McCain on Iraq here.

I want the Ukraine people to have their democratic government, but I am not willing to go to war over it. I am sick of wars and I’m sick of warmongers like McCain and Clinton who slobber at the thought of going to war.  One has to wonder how much they are invested financially in defense contractors or other war profiteering.

Let’s not forget the lie of the reasons to go to war…as she smiles and says “it’s the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make…”  Utter bullshit

And this video on Hillary Clinton’s views on the media and exchange of free information is chilling.  Without a free exchange of ideas, without the media uncovering greed & corruption, and violations of our Constitution, our democracy is lost.    Why is Hillary so afraid of that?

Finally, my Russian reader has not been back since Putin clamped down on the media.

My hope is that he/she will be back when things settle down.  I hope so….please know that not all Americans are like Clinton and McCain…we value peaceful solutions to conflict.  We are all connected.  Peace to you.

And this is heartening…a journalist quits the Russian media in protest of Putin.  Bless her.

 

Freed U.S. Hikers write book

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Democracy Now! featured the three hikers captured in Iran.

They emphasized during the program that they did not hate the Iranian people.  I think this is an important point because it sends the message of peace instead of revenge.

It’s fascinating that this incident apparently was the beginning of tentative peaceful relations that was behind the historic Iranian nuclear deal.

I’m glad that they are using what could be a negative–anger for what happened to them–and turned it into a positive–working for the end of solitary confinement and other ills of the prison system.

A concrete dog run?  Are you kidding me?  Talk about being treated like an animal.  I always thought that they were allowed out into fresh air on a grassy yard.  They’re not even getting that much.  It’s pretty sad when someone in a U.S. prison is experiencing the same thing as prisoners in Iran.

In one of the prisons here, the prisoners once had an organic garden.  Governor Daniels got that stopped.  Um-hmmm….

 

Greenpeace in France, too, against Nuclear Power

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Greenpeace activists were also protesting a dangerous nuclear power plant in France.  They are concerned about the plants far-reaching effects.

There has always been a narrow-minded view of nuclear power in that only the immediate area was in danger…but as we have seen with Chernobyl and Fukushima—one country’s nightmare spreads to other countries.  The country that benefits from the nuclear power risks radiation, but countries that don’t share that benefit of power will ultimately share in the disaster of radiation.