This is the real reason why Obama went to Copenhagen. General Stanley McChrystal flew up there for the speech. Obama was there for less than 5 hours and gave an embarrassing speech for Chicago. If you recall up to 2 days before had we weren't even told Obama was going. McChrystal gave that speech on Afghanistan and suddenly they both end up in Denmark for an unscheduled trip.
I left a lengthy comment on this, so I'm not going to offer commentary here. This is an article out of England about how the world is ditching the dollar. This is the legacy of conservative social policy and liberal military involvement, imho. Raise our taxes, interest rates, and bust up over-reaching corporations or we are the next Russia.
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
Unless Israel’s nukes can reach the US I’m not sure what sway they hold over us. We look the other way from their war crimes, land grabs, and totally disregard the suffering of the Palestinian people. Jerks like Lindsey Graham advocate attacking Iran for Israel. Why don’t we just make them the 51st state and be done with it. What surprised me was how long this silence has been going on.
“In 2007, the Nixon library declassified a July 19, 1969, memo from Henry Kissinger, then national security adviser, that comes closest to articulating US policy on the issue. That memo says "while we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact".”
A few hours ago, I was looking for clips of Cate Blanchet to share with Lisa, and I ran across this trailer of a film that had previously been suggested to me by a good friend. I decided to watch it and it may be one of the best period pieces I had ever seen with unbelievable acting. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. I want to share the trailer with you and try to sell it a bit in case you had not seen it before.
It features Milla Jovavich, John Malkovich, Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway among others. It is a biography about the coming of Joan of Arc, the battle of church and state, and intense political pressure. I can't really sell it to the degree it deserves. Just trust me if you like emotional, intense, empowering, and moral films and are interested in politics and religious history this movie is for you. I promise you will LOVE it.
I’m not saying Rio is a bad place but this is what I read about them today at Democracy Now’s website:
Rio is considered to be one of the world’s most dangerous cities and has a notoriously corrupt police force. Over 2,000 murders were reported in the city last year. According to the United Nations high commissioner for Human Rights. the Rio police committed one in five of the murders. Executions by police death squads are considered common. In July, 30 police officers in Rio were charged with homicide, after an investigation that implicated them in the formation of a death squad and unlawful killings.
I’m not sure how Chicago fares in those areas but somehow I bet it is not as bad. Be careful if you go down to watch the Olympics.
I haven’t written much about the trial because it has just been more testimony from doctors. Nothing interesting is happening. Hopefully the jury can start deliberating early next week.
Lindsay Graham calls for us to destroy every jet and every ship, and it wouldn't be right for Israel to do it. So we need to do it..... Before the end of the year. As a last resort though. THAT IS 2 MONTHS!
Explain to me why Senators wonder why countries lie about what they have. Iran hasn't been aggressive and only announced that they had the bomb or the technology to build one. How are we going to exhaust every avenue before January? We can't even give ourselves health insurance in 2 months. The world might be mad at Israel if they attack Iran? Surely they won't be pissed at us if we go in and bomb the fuck out of a country we have no business bombing. It isn't like we don't have precedent.
You know why WE must do it? Because if Israel does, then KBR, XE, Amaco, Shell, and all those defense contractors who build drones and shit do not make any money. Is this going to happen? Are we seriously going to end up in another war that we don't belong in?
How do people like Graham even get elected? If he were in high school he would be the kid sitting at home with no friends. How the hell does he get the popularity to be elected to federal office? My guess is defense lobbys.
PS. When have sanctions worked? In what world do we not look like bullys right now? Seriously have sanctions worked? I only know about the cuban embargo, old Iraqi sanctions, and the sanctions on Palestine. None of those did anything but bring the people to their knees while their leaders are doing fine. Surely we don't think Iran cares about its people after the last election. Sanctions would not work. It would just ruin the lives of millions of people and make life hundreds of times worse. We really do need our own revolution, if not to just stop our aggression. We are the pit bull of the world. We'll turn on you in a heartbeat and rip your face off, just because.
I'm no expert on Iran, but from what I understand the only truly crazy person in their government is Achmedijuad (totally jacked up his name) and he has no real power. This totally reminds me of that movie Minority Report. Just like Iraq we would get punitive on them for something they didn't even do yet.
This is the only known video that Ann Frank was ever in. Apparently the couple getting married lived next door and Anne was hanging out of her window. That family has been sitting on this video for nearly a century. Amazing. The Anne Frank House released this like 2 days ago.
When you take this out of historical context it is just a little girl looking out the window and being playful. Like I'm guessing kids all over the country are doing right now. I'm sure if you were to walk into their world at that moment and tried to warn them about the direction of things, that you'd have been laughed at in the face.... My point is, things are relatively ok right now, but at any moment something could change that with one swoop. I wonder how different this Anne Frank was from the one that who wrote the diary. I'm sure the events changed the most fundamental parts of her personality.
