Dutch Black Pete in London
30 Nov 2014
Are Business Leaders Psychopaths?
The Trews is a YouTube web series by English comedian, actor and activist Russell Brand. "The Trews" features Brand offering his take on media as it appears in newspapers, television clips or advertisements, as well as Brand responding to comments from viewers. The show often features interviews with celebrities, activists or other guests. The series is produced and edited by ex-Independent journalist Johann Hari. (Wikipedia)
28 Nov 2014
Mass animal sacrifice at Nepal’s Gadhimai Festival
The Asia for Animals coalition is deeply concerned about the forthcoming Gadhimai Festival, held in honour of the Hindu Goddess Gadhimai, due to take place in Nepal on 28th and 29th November 2014. The festival is scheduled once every five years, will see the slaughter of many thousands of animals.
Despite campaigning by Nepalese, Indian and international animal-welfare organisations, the organisers of the festival and the Nepalese government allowed the 2009 slaughter to take place, where it was estimated that a quarter of a million animals were brutally slaughtered without stunning, resulting in extreme fear and pain.
Campaigners continue to lobby the organisers to cancel the slaughter, but despite worldwide protests, they have not introduced a single measure to alleviate the tremendous suffering. Animals are transported in appalling conditions, often with no food or water for two to three days before the sacrifice, before being forced to witness the killing of countless others before they are slaughtered themselves, including the killing of mother animals in front of their offspring.
Asia for Animals Coalition - The Gadhimal Festival: Why it must never happen Again (Think Differently About Sheep)
25 Nov 2014
Saint George and The "White Whore"
Lana Lokteff from Radio 3Fourteen and Red Ice Creations reviews the propaganda found within the TV show Saint George, starring George Lopez. She’ll also take a look at the politics of George Lopez’s stand-up comedy and discuss the strained relationship between Latinos and European Americans.
No indictment for Ferguson officer
A white police officer will not face charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager in a case that set off violent protests and racial unrest throughout the nation. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson, 28, for firing six shots in an August confrontation that killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Monday night.
Crowds of protesters filled streets near the Ferguson police station following the announcement. A police car and stores were set on fire, other stores were looted, gunfire was heard and bricks were hurled. Police said they had been fired on and responded with smoke bombs and pepper spray before using tear gas.
Police later said they came under heavy automatic weapon fire, and some buildings were left to burn because of the danger. County police said an officer suffered a gunshot wound, but it was unclear if it was because of the protest violence. Protests sprang up in cities from New York to Los Angeles and remained mostly peaceful.
USA Today – Ferguson Decision: No Justice for the Family of Michael Brown (Alternet)
24 Nov 2014
They Put Her In Solitary Confinement For 7 Months. Before That, She Was In A Prison Full Of Men
Because, while Johanna is a woman, she is also transgender. And because of her gender identity, Johanna's life is in constant danger. The bias and hatred against transgender women is very real, as Johanna's story sadly shows. Often, the people who commit violence against transgender women assume that they must be gay men because they might wear make-up or might wear their hair long.
Not only is she a transgender woman, she is a transgender woman who crossed the U.S. border undocumented. This makes things more complicated. Because, unfortunately, she didn't find help. Instead, she found herself in the immigration detention system. Johanna was placed in a jail — with men.
...being locked up was a nightmare. She was beat up by a male cellmate. Then, guards told her the only safe way to house her was solitary confinement. There, she sat in a 6-by-13-foot cell for 23 hours a day with no human contact and no view of the outside world. She waited for an asylum decision for seven months. Johanna decided that going back home was far better than being locked up in solitary confinement. She was deported to El Salvador. Almost as soon as her plane landed in the San Salvador airport, more nightmares followed.
Turkish President: 'Equality between men and women is against nature'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said equality between men and women is “against nature” at a summit in Istanbul. He sparked outrage with the speech made at a convention organised by women’s groups campaigning to eliminate gender discrimination in all its forms.
“You cannot make women and men equal; this is against nature,” Mr Erdoğan told the meeting full of women including his own daughter, Today’s Zaman reported. “You cannot subject a pregnant woman to the same working conditions as a man. You cannot make a mother who has to breastfeed her child equal to a man. You cannot make women do everything men do like the communist regimes did…this is against her delicate nature.” The President reportedly claimed that Islam dictated motherhood to be the prime role of women, reciting a hadith saying that “heaven lies at your mother’s feet”.
23 Nov 2014
22 Nov 2014
Modern Israel Is Looking Like Nazi Germany
The genocidal public discourse against Palestinians and non-Jews in Israel is reaching fever pitch, and if we’ve learned anything from the horrors of the 20th century it is that fascism doesn’t stop, it must be stopped. We need to call time on Israeli fascism.
Independent Israeli journalist David Sheen brought this image to attention, with this tweet:
You may find this image shocking, eerily reminiscent of the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, African Americans through the era of the Jim Crow segregation laws, or the UK hotel signs of the 1950’s reading ‘No Blacks, no dogs, no Irish’. I do not make these comparisons for kicks, hype or wanton disregard for these past horrors. It is because of those disgraceful periods in our history that we must not stand by while it happens again.
Fascism Grips Israel (Global Research) - Einstein Letter Warning Of Zionist Facism In Israel
21 Nov 2014
Life After Qaddafi — Libya: A Broken State
Three years after the Libyan revolution and the subsequent downfall of its dictator Muammar Qaddafi, the country has descended further into chaos and insecurity. Rebel militias, radical Islamists and former Qaddafi commander Khalifa Haftar are among the different groups vying for power and oil wealth, creating a vacuum in which violence and militancy reign supreme.
20 Nov 2014
Universal Children's Day - 20 November
By resolution 836(IX) of 14 December 1954, the General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children's Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. It recommended that the Day was to be observed also as a day of activity devoted to promoting the ideals and objectives of the Charter and the welfare of the children of the world.
The Assembly suggested to governments that the Day be observed on the date and in the way which each considers appropriate. The date 20 November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
40 000 Maasai told to leave homeland as hunters move in
Activists celebrated last year when the government said it had backed down over a proposed 1 500 sq km “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti National Park that would serve a commercial hunting and safari company based in the United Arab Emirates.
Now the deal appears to be back on and the Maasai have been ordered to leave their traditional lands by the end of the year. Maasai representatives will meet the prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma today to express their anger. They insist the sale of the land would rob them of their heritage and directly or indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80 000 people. The area is crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Maasai depend.
Unlike last year, the government is offering compensation of 1 billion shillings (£369 350), not to be paid directly but to be channelled into socio-economic development projects. The Maasai have dismissed the offer. “I feel betrayed,” said Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”
Nangiria said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.” He said it had proved difficult to contact the Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), a luxury safari company set up by a UAE official close to the royal family. The OBC has operated in Loliondo for more than 20 years with clients reportedly including Prince Andrew.
Activists opposing the hunting reserve have been killed by police in the past two years, according to Nangiria, who says he has received threatening calls and text messages. “For me it is dangerous on a personal level. They said: ‘We discovered you are the mastermind, you want to stop the government using the land’. Another said: ‘You have decided to shorten your life. The hands of the government are too long. Put your family ahead of the Maasai.’”
Wildest Things in the World
A musical tribute to the legendary conservationist & crocodile hunter Steve Irwin
19 Nov 2014
China and the New World Order
Military tensions, cyber espionage accusations, a brewing currency war; with every passing day, the headlines paint a convincing portrait of an emerging cold war between China and the West. But is this surface level reality the whole picture, or is there a deeper level to this conflict? Is China an opponent to the New World Order global governmental system or a witting collaborator with it?
18 Nov 2014
Tension rises over Russia-West standoff
Romanians and other eastern Europeans who remember Russia's past aggressions are worried about the West's ability and willingness to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. Al Jazeera's Ali Velshi reports from across Europe and the high Arctic as part of Al Jazeera's New Cold War series, looking at the stakes of the conflict.
17 Nov 2014
ANONYMOUS #OpKKK
Following a week in which a chapter of Ku Klux Klan threatened to use “lethal force” against Ferguson protesters, the hacker collective known as Anonymous announced Operation KKK (#OpKKK) designed to harass the white supremacist group.
After Anonymous posted photos and personal information, including addresses and job positions, of Klan members living in the St. Louis area on Saturday, the Klan taunted the hacker group on Sunday only to see Anonymous take over their Twitter account two hours later.
16 Nov 2014
Westminster paedophile ring investigated over murder links
An alleged victim of the British Westminister "paedophile ring" currently being investigated by police has told officers he saw a Conservative MP murder a young boy at a sex party.
The allegation in the Sunday People comes after detectives examining allegations of historic sex abuse launched a new investigation into "possible homicide". Scotland Yard said officers working on Operation Fairbank, which is looking into claims that there was a paedophile ring with links to government, have been made aware of allegations concerning "serious non-recent sexual abuse", said to have occurred more than 30 years ago.
The paper, which has worked with investigations website Exaro, printed the the testimony of a man named 'Nick' who said he had known of three murders committed by the group.
But his most sensational claim was that a 12-year-old boy was strangled to death by a Tory MP at a orgy in the 1980s. “I watched while that happened. I am not sure how I got out of that. Whether I will ever know why I survived, I am not sure," he told the paper, describing how he and the victim had been driven to the party together. “I knew we were being taken somewhere to be sexually abused by powerful men. But I had no idea of the true horror of what was about to happen.
“The MP was particularly nasty, even among the group of people who sexually abused me and others. I still find it difficult to talk about these incidents after all these years.” Nick told the paper his father had arranged for the men to have sex with him. He has given the name of the MP to police working on Operation Midland, a strand of the Operation Fairbank inquiry and has allegedly help compiled “e-fit” pictures of the apparent murder victims.
Buy A Gun For Your Son
Tom Paxton performing "Buy A Gun For Your Son" on Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" NYC PBS TV Show in 1965.
Japan's smartphone 'zombies' wreak havoc on the streets
When the lights change at the Shibuya crossing in Japan's capital, one of the world's busiest pedestrian thoroughfares, hundreds of people with their eyes glued to smartphones pick their way over the road. Despite being engrossed in the latest instalment of Candy Crush or busy chatting with their friends on messaging app Line, most manage to weave around cyclists, skateboarders and fellow Tokyoites.
But the growing ranks of these cellphone addicts are turning cities like Tokyo, London, New York and Hong Kong into increasingly hazardous hotspots, where zombified shoppers appear to be part of vast games of human pinball. "Hey, watch it!" barks a middle-aged salaryman as a hipster typing on his smartphone slams into him during one recent Friday evening crush hour. "Incidents involving people walking or on bicycles account for 41 percent of phone-related accidents," Tetsuya Yamamoto, a senior official at Tokyo Fire Department's disaster prevention and safety section, told AFP. "If people continue walking around looking at their phones, I think we could see more accidents happening."
15 Nov 2014
Up Above My Head
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (I hear music in the air) - unknown performance date (appox. around the 1960's) on the show TV Gospel Time with the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church Choir an amazing performance with a Gibson Les Paul SG custom with (polar white finish?). Solo around 1:30 min.
14 Nov 2014
13 Nov 2014
Alien conspiracy theorists think the government is on the verge of spilling big secrets
For as long as I've been reading about alien conspiracies, it's been an accepted article of faith among believers that the government was the enemy of the people and was conspiring with an alien race, or simply with other governments in our world, to keep evidence of a sentient extra-terrestrial presence hidden.
In 2012, authors Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel became instant iconoclasts within the believer community when they published a book, After Disclosure, that laid out meticulously what the government should do to prepare the public for the "disclosure" of the conspiracy. The book leans in to the notion itself. The government conspirators, say these two, think that the conspiracy is untenable and that a full and open discussion of the fact of alien sentience is the best way to unite the world. Somehow.
This big secret will be revealed in 2015, if the chatter on shows like Coast-to-Coast AM is any indication. Why? Well, the "Grays" — the name given to the aliens who either conspire with the government to keep their presence hidden or are on the verge of attacking the Earth — have somehow given an ultimatum to their human co-conspirators. Maybe it's time to move humanity into the next phase of their existence. Maybe humans are battering the planet so badly that the Grays, who need the milk of the Earth to survive, are in peril. If humans fail to disclose the Grays' existence, then the Grays will make themselves known by, perhaps, a global television event that shows off their gravity-defying hardware.
12 Nov 2014
India mass sterilisation: women were ‘forced’ into camps, say relatives
Relatives of the 12 women who died after a state-run mass sterilisation campaign in India went horribly wrong have told local media they were forced by health workers to attend the camp. More than 80 women underwent surgery for laparoscopic tubectomies at a free government-run camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. About 60 fell ill shortly afterwards, officials said. At least 14 were in a very serious condition by Wednesday and the death toll was expected to rise.
“The [health workers] said nothing would happen, it was a minor operation. They herded them like cattle,” Mahesh Suryavanshi, the brother-in-law of one casualty, told the Indian Express newspaper. Such camps are held regularly across India as part of a long-running effort to control population growth. Four doctors and officials have been suspended and police have registered a criminal complaint. “It was a serious matter of negligence. It was unfortunate,” said Raman Singh, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh.
11 Nov 2014
10 Nov 2014
Top 10 Funny Richard Dawkins Moments
Watch as Richard Dawkins taunts, humiliates and out-smarts theists and creationists like it's nothing!
9 Nov 2014
25 Years After The Fall Of The Berlin Wall, These Barriers Are Still Standing
In this day in 1989, residents of Berlin gathered on opposite sides of the concrete barrier that had divided them for nearly three decades and started tearing it down piece by piece. The wall that stood between East and West Berlin, between Communism and the West, would soon be no more.
But 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, barriers around the world are still standing. They separate communities, countries and even entire continents.
To mark the anniversary of the historic events of Nov. 9, HuffPost editors from around the world described the seemingly insurmountable barriers that still surround them to this day. Leaders around the world, the time has come to tear down these walls.
Guatemala apologizes to people displaced for dam
Guatemala's president has apologized to 33 communities of indigenous Achi people who were forced to abandon their homes to make way for construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam in the north of the Central American country (with funding from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank).
President Otto Perez Molina (accused of human rights abuses himself) says he asks forgiveness for atrocities and other human rights violations suffered by those communities over the project, which occurred during Guatemala's civil war. Some people were assassinated and others had their land expropriated.
The apology was delivered Saturday to a gathering of Achi as officials provided details of an agreement to provide $153.8 million in compensation for the damage inflicted on them. The money will be distributed among the 33 communities over the next 15 years. (Yahoo News)
In 1978, in the face of civil war, the Guatemalan government proceeded with its economic development program, including the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam. Financed in large part by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Chixoy Dam was built in Rabinal, a region of the department of Baja Verapaz historically populated by the Maya Achi. To complete construction, the government completed voluntary and forcible relocations of dam-affected communities from the fertile agricultural valleys to the much harsher surrounding highlands. When hundreds of residents refused to relocate, or returned after finding the conditions of resettlement villages were not what the government had promised, these men, women, and children were kidnapped, raped, and massacred by paramilitary and military officials. More than 440 Maya Achi were killed in the village of Río Negro alone, and the string of extrajudicial killings that claimed up to 5,000 lives between 1980 and 1982 became known as the Río Negro Massacres. The government officially declared the acts to be counterinsurgency activities - although local church workers, journalists and the survivors of Rio Negro deny that the town ever saw any organized guerrilla activity. (Wikipedia)
8 Nov 2014
7 Nov 2014
The Black Knight satellite
Legend has it that in orbit around the Earth is a mysterious, dark object which dates back perhaps 13 000 years. Its origin and purpose are inscrutable, dubbed the “Black Knight” this elusive satellite has allegedly been beaming signals towards the Earth and inspected by NASA astronauts yet only a few on Earth officially know of its existence. The origin of the ominous name is part of the enigma; it is impossible to discover who first called it this or indeed why. Humans have only in the last 60 years had the technology to launch a man-made object into space so what is the logical explanation of tales of an alien intruder on our doorstep?
Amphibious 'Sea Monster' Discovered In China Is Missing Piece Of Evolutionary Puzzle
The first fossil of an amphibious ichthyosaur has been discovered in China, and the scientists who made the discovery say it fills a longstanding gap in the fossil record. Paleontologists have long known that ichthyosaurs--dolphin-like "sea monsters" that lived from about 250 million years ago until about 90 million years ago--descended from similar reptiles that lived on land. But there was no fossil showing a transitional creature adapted for life on land as well as in water.
"But now we have this fossil showing the transition," Dr. Ryosuke Motani, a professor in the department of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis, and a member of the international team of scientists who made the discovery, said in a written statement. "There's nothing that prevents it from coming onto land." Motani and his colleagues found the 248-million-year-old fossil in China's Anhui Province, according to the statement. The fossil measures about 1.5 feet in length and shows an animal with large, flexible flippers that would have made it possible to walk on land.
6 Nov 2014
90-year-old Florida man faces 60 days in jail for feeding the homeless
Two ministers and a 90-year-old homeless advocate in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine for violating a city ordinance that effectively outlaws sharing food with homeless people in public. Homeless advocate Arnold Abbott, head of the group Love Thy Neighbor, has been feeding the homeless for more than 20 years.
“As contemplated on Sunday, I was arrested for feeding the homeless and received a citation to appear in court,” Abbott explained on Facebook. “However, only 4 people were fed before an officer told me to, ‘Drop that plate immediately!’ As though it were a weapon I was holding, and to go with him to the police car. After a time I was allowed to get the food back on the van and we were able to find a small churches [sic] driveway, where we set up, and fed the people who followed us over.”
Million Mask March Activists Clash With Police In London, Russell Brand Joins Crowds
Thousands of anti-capitalist activists took to the streets of central London on Bonfire night to protest against "political oppression", with ten people arrested as masked marchers clashed with police. Demonstrators wearing Guy Fawkes masks and carrying banners and placards descended on Trafalgar Square before marching towards Parliament Square at 6.30pm. Protesters chanted anti-establishment slogans as they milled around, and some who had climbed on to the base of Nelson's Column let off fireworks.
There was a heavy police presence at both Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, as well as along Whitehall, with officers carrying riot gear, but the protest began peacefully. The entire protest was filmed and streamed live online. Footage showed protesters pushing over bins, shouting at bemused shoppers and commuters and hitting cars and people with yellow flexible tubes. In one section they surrounded a man driving a new Mercedes car and sprayed the back of it with an aerosol, pushing their tubes at him as he opened windows to remonstrate with them. There was a chorus of boos and whistles as an officer from the Metropolitan Police warned protesters about their behaviour over a loud hailer. The protest, the so-called Million Masks March, was organised by activist group Anonymous.
4 Nov 2014
3 Nov 2014
2 Nov 2014
Provocateur’s Death Haunts the Dutch
Nothing marks the spot on an unremarkable street in east Amsterdam where on Nov. 2, 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26-year-old Moroccan Dutchman — saying he was acting to defend the name of Allah — shot dead, then slashed the throat of the Dutch filmmaker, television host and provocateur Theo van Gogh. Few events have been planned to mark the 10th anniversary, and many here are weary of the national soul searching the killing prompted. But the day is still seared in people’s minds.
In this tidy country of 17 million, which prides itself on tolerance, the murder opened a raw and polarizing debate. Was this a salvo in a larger war between radical Islam and the West? Or the act of one angry young man from a generation of young Dutch Muslims who feel shut out of the mainstream? What is the line between free speech and hate speech? Has self-censorship taken hold?
Ten years later, the debate is still raging. But in the cultural realm, which thrives on ambiguities, the picture is more complex. Books and at least one film have been inspired by the murder. A haunting 2005 portrait of Mr. Bouyeri by the Amsterdam artist Marlene Dumas has been prominently displayed in the Stedelijk Museum, without generating much controversy. And a new generation of Dutch Muslim actors, filmmakers, musicians, and politicians — including a coach on the local version of “The Voice,” the hip-hop artist Ali B — has been slowly claiming its place in the national conversation, far from the violence embraced by a deadly few.
Ukraine Crisis - What You're Not Being Told
The European and American public are being systematically lied to about the Ukraine crisis.
1 Nov 2014
The best of George Galloway vs the Mainstream Media
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. Since late March 2012 he has been the Respect Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West.
God Loves Uganda
A group of white bread, fundamentalist Christian missionaries go from America to Uganda to spread the word of God and preach the gospel.
‘This is apartheid!’ Israeli minister blasts bus segregation for Palestinians
Requests for separate buses for Palestinians in Israel are “unacceptable” and resemble “apartheid,” the country’s Justice Minister said, adding that this kind of discrimination is banned by Israeli law.
“It’s intolerable, the claims that they [the settlers] need their own buses, because one [Palestinian] didn’t get up for a woman or an elderly person, and another wasn’t nice to them. This is apartheid!” Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said. “That’s something I find unacceptable, and I’ll work against it,” she vowed. “This is discrimination that’s forbidden by Israeli law.”
Livni’s statements come after the country’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon decided that West Bank Arabs working in Israel should have their own segregated public buses when traveling to and from Israel via a single crossing.
READ MORE: Israel Apartheid? Palestinians to be banned from West Bank settlers’ buses