City Jackdaw has a sobering post up on a young Polish Catholic girl, Czesława Kwoka, that perished at the German prison camp.
I wanted to re-post in memory of her, too. And the other children. And the gypsies.
Be sure to click on the link to her biography.
It’s important to note that these are the poor. The wealthy could flee the country until the war was over.
The crisis in Syria...what, where, and how to intervene? And why is it always the United States expected to expend the troops, finances, and risk to intervene? Where is the global community?
Global News has this up on Russia blocking websites that favored the ouster of the Russia – leaning president. More here on Ukrainian-Montrealers protesting outside Russian consulate.
This is another example of why we need Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press and how easily those in power can block them with the claim of national security.
As I listen to and read about the uprising/civil war/revolution in Ukraine, the words I hear the most are about economic factors and standing in the world. The message is framed to turn the viewers’ gaze on how this is going to effect economic status.
And the sharks are circling…waiting to capitalize on the fallout.
Democracy seems to be an afterthought.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: most folks around the world just want peace; to take care of their families; be healthy; have a purpose in life. They want a government they elect to represent their wishes…not their economic benefactors.
Pando Daily had posted this a few days ago. A billionaire funnels money to the opposition in Ukraine. Ugh…
My first thought that this is wrong, wrong, wrong.
And then I thought of the dark money of the Kochs and Bill Gates, et al, and my second thought was “is it wrong to fund the underdog when up against dark money…?”
But I don’t know that the underdogs in Ukraine are for democracy or for authoritarianism a la Russia. Reports have been that at first the original protesters were for democratic society, and then the conservatives, leaning towards authoritarianism, had taken over.
So that begs the question of who is Omidyar supporting? Does he care, as long as he can capitalize on whomever wins?
Comments section is lively and make the point that Pando is also supported by billionaires.
They responded with this article. They make the claim the Omidyar is hands-on involved in the process, while their contributors cannot touch them with a 30-foot pole.
But back to the main theme of billionaires behind upheaval…
I come back to this is wrong, wrong, wrong in that however good intentions are…somebody always seems to twist things around to the opposite. The dark ones always seem to manage to quash the emerging light.
If only politicians were put on poverty-level wages…then we would be governed by those truly serving out of duty instead of out of their own self-serving interests. You’d see a mass exodus from government positions…
**A side note~ one of the links provided was to Glenn Greenwald’s behavior.
Ralph Nader has this up on the actions of Hillary Clinton and why she would not be a good President. I heart Ralph and wrote his name on a ballot once, along with 26 other souls in my republican stronghold small town.
…former Secretary of State Clinton ordered U.S. officials to spy on top UN diplomats including Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, and those from the United Kingdom. She ordered her emissaries around the world to obtain DNA data, iris scans and fingerprints along with credit card and frequent flier numbers. Not only was this a clear violation of the 1946 UN convention, but after admitting what happened she didn’t even make a public apology to the affected parties.
~~~~~`
Big Brother, meet Big Sister…of course Hillary would not make an apology….she clearly feels she did nothing wrong. Stunning. Absolutely stunning the hubris of this politician.
Nader also notes her actions getting us into Libya with no Congressional approval.
Like I’ve said before, I’m sick of Bushes and Clintons in the White House. They have come to believe they are entitled to the position, for one. For another, their policies, along with Ronald Reagan, have led this country into the pit it is in now. How anyone could vote for her or support her after the revelations of what she has done is beyond me.
Nader links to the Nixon and Kissinger article in the NY Times, as Hillary Clinton is best buds with Henry Kissinger. Another article on Kissinger and Nixon here with more details.
If you recall, he was in the I’m-not-running-for-president video of Hillary Clinton, along with Benjamin Netanyahu:
…and Tony Blair..? Of the Downing Street Memo…?
Yes, yes, he is yet another example of ethics and humanity. /snark
It’s a movie about Hitler stealing art during World War II. My posts on it here. And here.
National Geographic channel is featuring the story with an interview with the book’s writer, Robert Edsel.
The tale is intriguing…in the days before email and computers, tracking down the artwork had to be through footwork—a phenomenal task. I love good mysteries and good detective work, and so wish I could see the movie as it opens today.
I sometimes forget about my “past life”…
I had purchased a crafted zippered “wallet”, for want of a better word, crafted by the women of Afghanistan **, featured on the Feminist Majority’s website many moons ago when I had a job…I wondered if they still had this program going. They do.
So…I hope that some of you can support the women of Afghanistan to gain some independence with a purchase of their handicrafts.
**keep the kleenex handy…for those in pain and those that never made it home, on both sides of the ocean…
Several folks have posts up this morning on Dr. King–
I’ll start with Mercedes Schneider — it is disgusting how George W. Bush used MLK to somehow try to link No Child Left a Mind with civil rights. As we are seeing, most of the public schools being closed are in neighborhoods of the poor and minorities. An excellent point made by Joanne Barkin about how they have appointed themselves as leaders of the reform movement without the rest of us included. Our opinions don’t matter…unless, of course, we agree with them.
A quibble I have with “I Have A Dream…” is the sons of former slave owners and advocating brotherhood...what is glaringly missing are women being part of the whole.
As has been pointed out by others–Dr. King was defending workers who wished to unionize…he would have no part of the destruction of teacher’s unions.
Next, Diane Ravitch has a blog up on MLK. When breaking the law is just…if one follows one’s conscience.
Finally, Democracy Now! has a video up on MLK. When I first clicked on, I heard “I Have a Dream…” and sighed that it was going to be yet another rehash of the I have a Dream speech without reference to his other great speech, Beyond Vietnam.
http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2014/1/20
I was so glad that they aired this speech. It was so wonderful hearing Dr. King’s voice again…hard not to get emotional at the love that was flowing from him. He and John F. Kennedy were advocates of Peace working against dark forces. Both were killed for it. But as Dr. King said prophetically, he had been to the mountain top and was not afraid of the consequences of doing what he knew God wanted him to do.
I want to say something about this speech by Amiri Baraka, also on DN!
He speaks about women being raped and wanting to have reparations for it…does he not think that white women have been raped, too? Where is the white woman’s reparation?
What about the Irish slaves whom also worked for no wages? Where are their reparations? What about the Irish women whom were forced to birth babies for lighter-skinned African Americans?
The music we stole? Didn’t all music come from the great classical composers? Isn’t music supposed to be a shared experience? Did we not enjoy each other’s music and share that special connection? It is deflating to hear such anger for something we both enjoyed.
And then he says “give us our lives or be prepared to forfeit your own…”
Dr. King was against violence of any kind. I can’t see him agreeing with advocating violence.
And I don’t understand “giving” someone their life….you can’t “give” someone their life. You can’t give someone self-esteem nor a purpose in life–it has always come from within…from that connection to God (or your Higher Power).
Dr. King knew this…it emanated from him. He was solidly connected and acted accordingly. He mentions the overzealous need for material things…and questioned why someone had more than enough while others had to beg for the things they need.
Advocating violence against whites is just as bad as a KKK leader advocating violence against blacks.
I see white faces amongst the black faces in the civil rights protests. I read a story of a white guy being hosed down and beaten along with the blacks during the civil rights riots. He nearly had an eye gouged out.
Other whites wrote that they had fought alongside blacks and then were told they were not welcome anymore.
White folk were right there alongside black folk, and now it seems that part of history is being rewritten.
I know I’ll probably catch hell for writing this, but it is written with an open heart, and not meant to offend, but to question biases and prejudices….and somehow get back to that love that emanated from Dr. King. Violence, anger, and hatred don’t serve anyone. Anger is only useful if that energy is used in a positive way.
As a side note~ Dr. King spoke about them keeping Vietnam going when they knew it was wrong. I happened upon this the other day–and how Kissinger was behind the scenes prolonging the war…because he loved the power and he, Nixon, et al, wanted to “save face”. They prolonged death of our soldiers, death of Vietnamese so they could keep their reputation intact. Remember, he had stated that power is an aphrodisiac…it’s as if he thought of himself as some sort of “James Bond”….how disgusting.
AIPAC is behind the new bill to put new sanctions on Iran–a list of those willing to risk peace with Iran and the Middle East here.
Netanyahu is always flailing his arms about Iran’s nuclear capabilities…so why would he and the bankers want to destroy an agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear capabilities?
(hat tip to commondreams.org)
In this post, I came upon a link someone provided in the comments section about Mother Agnes Mariam and her assertions on stuff going on in Syria.
Someone pointed me towards this piece in the Guardian and how Human Rights Watch disputed Mother Agnes’ assertions.
Human Rights Watch carries more weight with me than Mother Agnes, because I don’t know enough about her. I think she is probably scared.
Stay tuned…
In what could be called the Billionaires’ News Service, Ariana Huffington and Bill Gates, amongst other billionaires, want to control even more of the media message….er, I mean, news…
…and this, my friends, is why we need the Fairness Doctrine. This is why we need a break up of the monopoly of the press and media by the 1%–they already have their voices heard, over and over. They were able to sell the Iraq War through their monopoly of the news outlets–radio, paper, TV–as we saw in the previous blog on Iraq Veterans against the War. It was scripted without so much as one critical media reporter…oh, wait, Phil Donahue was critical…and he was fired. The more that media is concentrated, the less independent voices are heard. If we had the media we had in the 60s and 70s, there would have been more investigating of WMD’s, and less cheerleading by the talking heads.
The Guardian link, has a little more detail. Keep in mind that the Guardian has also joined forces with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation… further concentrating Gates’ media messaging…
A side note~~A commenter on the commondreams site has this link up**. Wow. If this is true, it opens up yet another can of worms of falsifying evidence to get us into yet another war….
And the questions begin: Why did Scahill and Jones refuse to share a stage with Mother Marian? If Scahill is as good as investigative reporter that he is reported to be, then why would he not investigate the accusations against Mother Marian? Why did he not seek her out to get her side of the story? This is all just mindboggling.
**also note that the author writes articles published in Huffington Post.
Eagle 
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