I have a PS tonight to the Russian President.

The origin of Turkmenistan's Darvaza Crater (click here) – nicknamed the "door to hell" – is disputed, but the theory most widely accepted involves a Soviet expedition to explore for gas.

A Turkmen geologist claims the borehole was set alight in 1971 after fears it was emitting poisonous gases. It has now been burning for 40 years....

The Saudis had a pipe or two that would not stop burning as well. They tried everything to cut off the methane. What finally did work was to dig a hole next to the open drill space and place a small nuclear charge to interrupt the geology that was allowing the chronic leaking of methane. It worked. That might actually be the only time a nuclear explosion made sense and was beneficial.

Would the Russians kindly entertain the idea of ending this nasty expulsion of a greenhouse gas? I realize this is not the biggest problem with emissions on the planet, but, it certainly is one of the more easier solutions we all have to face.

Stagnant American policy.

The USA is in an obvious rut. It needs to reassess it's ability to be an instrument of peace, because, it seems there is little change in any dialogue engaged by the USA for at least a half a century.

That assessment needs to include domestic progress as well.

It is convenient to have the status quo be arranged in such a way there is no need to think before engaging in policy. The USA feels threatened or has a president willing to be an instrument of military aggression, other nations fall. It is that which plagues the USA in it's relations internationally.

I have been a horsewomen in the past. I was good at it. But, I never rode a "Push button horse." The type of horse that doesn't need a rider to work through a class at a horse show, but, is well tuned to the course, it's patterns and outcome. A push button horse literally takes a mediocre rider and helps win that "Medal McClay" (click here) when it wasn't possible before. A horse worth the $25,000 that Daddy paid for it as a holiday gift, while the old favorite mount is retired for posterity.

That is what the USA has become, a push button government, set in it's ways and predictable in it's response. The USA gets all the attention of the world because of a mistake that made it "the last superpower." Well, hell's bells, why does the world's only superpower have any use for their own weapons of mass destruction? There are few that can even work up a good challenge.

Of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the only countries that can mount a decent attack against "THE WORLD'S ONLY SUPERPOWER" are Russia and China. Even China and Russia are not truly interested in confrontation, but, would enter the fray if challenged.

I was astounded by Russia's abandonment of Syria. I never thought it would ever happen. That speaks louder to Syria's present circumstances more than any other factor.

But, for the other countries that are equipping themselves with nukes, such as Pakistan, I mean you've got to be joking. Pakistan is all of about 310,000 square miles, about the size of California. Where does any leader in Pakistan get the idea they could survive any nuclear assault by anyone? It makes no sense. It makes no sense for Iran or any other smaller country. Nukes would annihilate large swaths of people and destroy cities and infrastructure. In a sincere assault by nuclear exchanges between any of these countries and others, they would destroyed. Why do it? Some idea that nukes can save your country and people? That is a fallacy.

The entire world of nations need to speak to the idiocy of these weapons and their effect in every country that pretends to be defended by them. The only survivors after a multi-nation nuclear confrontation would be the larger countries. There would still be some habitable land. Some land may even produce crops. There might be uncontaminated water resources even. But, in reality, nuclear weapons are simply the human race carrying out self-annihilation.

But, USA domestic policies have leveraged Wall Street success over that of the Middle Class. There is absolutely no reason to believe the next two years will return the Middle Class so much as the negative economic feed back loop of the pre-2008 economy. The Republicans no nothing else and care about nothing else. Wall Street pays for their elections and in turn they isolate any opportunity for sincere small businesses in a local economy. The Republicans definition for small business is the office staff of Bechtel Industries which is less than 50 in it's headquarters. Those are not the small businesses I discuss here. 

The sincerely small businesses that have grown in the past six years should sustain for two years with President Obama in the White House. But, I remind of the collapse of the Clinton economy when Bush took office in 2000. There were many of these small businesses that ended their success when a Republican was in the White House. 

I encourage local economies to feed their economy and resist giving in to larger corporations that will ultimately remove a more vibrant and diverse economy that thrives before and after a recession of any kind. The sincere small businesses are more resilient to any recession and are the first to regain momentum. They are the glue that holds a local economy together. They are the cultural flavor that encourages and strengthens tourism. Every local economy needs to assess itself today and realize the strength it now enjoys and the resiliency to maintain jobs and good pay.

I am more than frustrated with the militarization of the police. The entire culture in that method was fostered because of the idea that foreign terrorists would take over and strike to an unwitting population. Let's think about that a minute.

Okay, time's up.

Al Qaeda never saw the profit in crashing jets into Iowa's pig farms. I wonder why that is?

There is a message in the words, "The World Trade Towers and US Pentagon." The jet that crashed in Pennsylvania was intended for the US Capital where most of the elected members were in session. Remember their appearance on the Capital steps shortly after the attacks?

I don't mean to make light of the world today, but, there has to be some balance to what is political rhetoric and what is sincere danger. 

The USA doesn't need militarized police. They need to stop killing innocent and unarmed people. We have problems today after September 11th we never had before; it is time to put it into context and move on.

The next two years is going to be a rough ride for many, but, it will be the most hideous Congress this country has ever witnessed. I thought I heard some creaking on election day this year. When I traced the source it was our forefathers turning over in their graves.

The police shootings in NYC is not a reason to increase tensions between demonstrators and law enforcement.

The events in New York City is an isolated incident, there is no reason to believe otherwise.

This is what exists in Wisconsin now backed by the most corrupt company in the world, Koch Industries.



December 21, 2014
3 hours ago
By Ashley Luther
The Wisconsin National Guard (click here) began calling up members over the weekend to respond, if needed, to protests in Milwaukee related to the fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton by a Milwaukee police officer.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. made the request, which was approved by Gov. Scott Walker, the Guard's director of communications, Maj. Paul Rickert, said Sunday.

"We are currently making preparations to stage National Guard members and will be ready to respond rapidly if needed," Rickert said. "We don't have a mission yet but should we be needed, we will be able to send those forces."

Clarke's request Saturday came one day after protesters blocked traffic on I-43, an action that resulted in 74 people being arrested.

Hamilton's death has prompted a series of protests in downtown Milwaukee. Demonstrators have called for Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm to issue charges against former officer Christopher Manney in the fatal shooting of Hamilton on April 30 in Red Arrow Park....

Our laws are always written by those that don't understand the brevity of their actions.

Nate Hamilton, the brother of Dontre Hamilton, speaks at the Marquette University student union before a march to the Milwaukee County Courthouse on Dec. 8. Sheriff’s deputies did not allow the group into the courthouse, an action the Milwaukee County corporation counsel says was improper.

December 19, 2014

By Don Behm

The Milwaukee County Courthouse (click here) must remain open to protesters during regular business hours unless the sheriff's office has clear evidence of intent to disrupt offices and courts or initiate other unlawful conduct, Corporation Counsel Paul Bargren told county officials.

The opinion comes in response to the actions of sheriff's deputies on Dec. 8 to successfully block a group of 40 protesters from entering the courthouse during business hours when criminal courts were in session.

The group of Marquette University students and other supporters of the Dontre Hamilton family marched that day from the student union on campus to the courthouse....

It never fails; the poor, the mentally ill and the minorities are always the victims of unintended consequences.

May 23, 2014

This story was submitted to Occupy Riverwest by guest writer Kelly R. Brandmeyer. 

Even though (click here) this only happened three days ago, I’ve recounted this story more times than I can count. But that’s okay, because this is a story that needs telling. This story has been told in multiple places, multiple times and almost always slightly different than how I actually remember it happening. This story will not just be a retelling, but a discussion, and a realization of what is happening to not just this city, but to our American society on the whole.

This story is about Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old black man that lived in the Milwaukee area. I didn’t know him before this incident, but it’s clear to me that his passing leaves many friends and family in its devastating wake. On Wednesday, April 30th, Dontre lost his life in an event that was totally unnecessary and preventable....

...Around 1pm, my coworker and I noticed a man sleeping fairly close to where we have set up shop. He lay sleeping next to the big, stone red arrow: the landmark and namesake of the park. As per Starbucks policy, if we are uncertain or uncomfortable around a sleeping individual (or somebody that may be passed out), we are to call a non-emergency line to prevent any potential conflict – and that is precisely what was done....

...I totally disagreed with heavy-handedly removing people that just want a place to exist....

...The officers informed them that Dontre was doing nothing illegal, there was nothing for them to enforce, and that we should stop calling....

...I was wholly caught off guard for what would occur next. I didn’t see the entire event unfold. I was only alerted to the presence of another officer, after trouble had already started....

...Chris was frozen for a second, then reached down for his side arm. When he pulled this weapon out, I had a sickly feeling about what was going to happen next. Chris didn’t say anything to Dontre.  Nothing like “calm down”, or “back away”, or anything of the sort, with his brandished firearm. He had his gun pointed at Dontre from about 10 feet away for a couple seconds.  That’s when I heard the shots.

I counted the shots as they happened. I guess I expected Chris to just disable him, so I didn’t know how many shots to expect. I counted 3…then 5…then 7…then 10 all in very quick succession....

Today the language of change in the USA could have turned to violence, but, it didn't.

December 21, 2014
By TWC News Staff

CHARLOTTE -- Protests surrounding (click here) the killings of unarmed black men by police continued Saturday.
One interrupted holiday shopping at Charlotte's SouthPark Mall on Saturday.
Dozens of people marched through the mall, Nordstrom department store and across Fairview
Road, escorted by police.
The protests were peaceful, and no one was arrested.

This was January 29, 2002. It was a few days past four months after September 11, 2001.

It was an inflammatory speech that included Iraq and Iran as well as North Korea. How is a country and it's leadership to decide about any relationship with another country when they don't share a language and there are no reference points in their cultures?

This speech created a laundry list for confrontation. It was completely inappropriate and only set the stage for an illegal and immoral invasion into Iraq that killed many, many innocent people. What is Iran and North Korea to believe when there is profound tensions between them and the USA. The Bush White House wouldn't even talk to Iran. Some might say the tensions changed the hearts of the people to elect a diplomatic president to plead their case. Maybe. Maybe not. I think the Iranian people want peace and have for a long time since they were evicted from the country under the Shah.

When this divisive a speech is conducted from the podium of a joint session of Congress no other country or nation of people questions the words within as the policies of the USA.

Ah, yes; "North Korea arms itself with arms and WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION while it starves it's people." It was a lie, too. Why wouldn't North Korea rearm? The facts are very clear. North Korea acted to begin again it's nuclear program AFTER this insult to it's efforts to disarm and find a better path for it's people. This is memory in North Korea. This is how the government has measured itself in regard to it's foreign policy and national defense. This is why the North Koreans are so very sensitive to the words and images from the USA. It knows no other way or has no other measure than to decide in it's favor when exposed to this western culture.

Updated: February 2014

By Daryl Kimball and Kelsey Davenport

For years, (click here) the United States and the international community have tried to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and its export of ballistic missile technology. Those efforts have been replete with periods of crisis, stalemate, and tentative progress towards denuclearization, and North Korea has long been a key challenge for the global nuclear nonproliferation regime.

The United States has pursued a variety of policy responses to the proliferation challenges posed by North Korea, including military cooperation with U.S. allies in the region, wide-ranging sanctions, and non-proliferation mechanisms such as export controls. The United States also engaged in two major diplomatic initiatives in which North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons efforts in return for aid.

In 1994, faced with North Korea’s announced intent to withdraw from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires non-nuclear weapon states to forswear the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons, the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework. Under this agreement, Pyongyang committed to freezing its illicit plutonium weapons program in exchange for aid.

Following the collapse of this agreement in 2002, North Korea claimed that it had withdrawn from the NPT in January 2003 and once again began operating its nuclear facilities....

Few Americans will remember this and even fewer the "Axis of Evil Speech."

A 2002 satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in North Korea. Photograph: AP/Space Imaging Asia AP

September 24, 2008
By Mark Tran and agencies

North Korea has moved a step closer to restarting its nuclear programme after removing a UN watchdog's seals from its Yongbyon reactor.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the agency's board that Pyongyang had said it would reintroduce nuclear material within a week. Analysts have said North Korea would need at least several months - and probably more - to restart the largely dismantled complex.

On Monday, North Korea asked the IAEA to remove seals and cameras from Yongbyon, its main atomic complex, after vowing to restart the facility, effectively reneging on a nuclear disarmament deal with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

At six-party talks last year, Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear programme in return for aid from the US, and in November it began dismantling the Yongbyon plant....

Why can't we get back there? Why can't North Korea begin to unravel all the hostilities between itself and others? Why can't this be a turning point whereby the North Korean people receive some kind of reverence from other countries? Why can't the diplomats recognize the sincere insult this pays to a young leader who worries no different than any other government about the image of it's leader?

The Korean people don't have a voice that recognizes their needs and the relief they deserve to become a country that honors it's leader for the benevolence he can find for their problems. The diplomats have to recognize the movement needed to return to a better posture for North Korea and seek to end this hideous set of circumstances which is profoundly defined in the cultures of each country.

There should be no basis for war in these facts. This is a terrible assault on a well established movie production company and it hurt. It hurt at least as much as the parody of the film that was felt by the North Koreans. And if anything is the truth about this cyber breach it is the inflicted injury to Sony, it's leadership and the stars appearing in their films. It was well defined as an attack meant to hurt. And it did. It is obvious what this is about and I think everyone can recognize that fact as well.

When are things going to be better for North Korea?

If the President of the United States of America can see the very flawed strategy with Cuba, why not North Korea? Nukes? North Korea has nukes for the USA to worry about on the heels of "The Axis of Evil" speech by "W". 

When will a course correction occur with this relationship between the USA and North Korea. It is that which victimizes the Korean Peninsula, the entire region including China and Russia, the government of North Korea and above all the North Korean people. The tensions that exist between North Korea and the USA have grown to a crescendo for almost 65 years since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.

December 18, 2014

By Donald Kirk

The digital divide (click here) between the haves and have-nots is probably more sharply pronounced in North Korea than in any other country. 

Members of an elite corps specialize in the recondite skills of the computer age while the vast majority of North Koreans have never seen a computer, much less gone on line. “They have an entire army of hackers,” says a former operative for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. “They are trained in the cyber-war against North Korea’s enemies.”

Leader Kim Jong-un and members of his inner circle presumably can go on line whenever they wish, but the real stars of the computer age in Pyongyang are several thousand young North Koreans whose mission is to wage cyber-war as passionately as other North Koreans are developing long-range missiles and nuclear warheads....                    

This all comes as the cyber industry is protesting American legislation proposed that would reign in freedom.

The USA has dissolved it's interest in controlling the domaine names used in address bars to locate websites. This was Newt Gingrich's answer to that decision. So, all this additional stuff going on with Sony will be misinterpreted by American legislators that sometimes believe the internet is a set of pipes. If there is adverse legislation completely inappropriate that results from all this I would expect the cyber industry to sue through the courts to remove the restriction on freedom.

December 18, 2014
KPCC staff
Google spoke out (click here) Thursday against efforts the Motion Picture Association of America, the film industry's lobbying group, was reportedly involved in trying to push an approach to combating piracy that was previously defeated legislatively — and, as part of that, attacking Google. The information about the MPAA, which represents studios including Sony, came out in information released by hackers from the Sony hack.

"We are deeply concerned about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) led a secret, coordinated campaign to revive the failed SOPA legislation through other means," Google senior vice president and general counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post on Google's Public Policy Blog, "and helped manufacture legal arguments in connection with an investigation by Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood."

The Stop Online Piracy Act, aka SOPA, was a piece of congressional legislation that included provisions that would block websites seen as being involved with piracy. Google, citing statistics from an anti-SOPA nonprofit, notes that 115,000 sites participated in a protest against SOPA and that Congress received more than 8 million phone calls and 4 million emails regarding SOPA.

"One disappointing part of this story is what this all means for the MPAA itself, an organization founded in part 'to promote and defend the First Amendment and artists' right to free expression,'" Walker writes. "Why, then, is it trying to secretly censor the Internet?"                                        

Every culture has a dark side and the USA is no exception. 

It is the ying and the yang. 

The right and the wrong. 

The black and the white.

And while the art (that is what a movie is) is sometimes distasteful there always seems to be an audience.

I am not going to defend the movie, because, to be completely honest I think it is done in poor taste to the delicate nature of the USA, Japan and South Korean relationships with North Korea. I don't find it at all funny to create an entire movie with the theme of "Take him out" to any global leader. I am serious about that. Like, what were they thinking?

But, that is me. That is not the entire of the USA and quite frankly North Korea created their own problem in even recognizing the movie. When it is distributed with or without Sony's permission there won't be any copies left to purchase in an hour after it's release. What better but to be an American that actually purchases a product that pokes North Korea's leadership in the eye? Seriously. This was a really dumb move by North Korea and I am sure they don't like me saying that either.

North Korea forced the USA government to interpret the actions of it's hackers and qualify it further as an 'evil' country. That is not good. North Korea should have simply made it known through diplomatic channels Sony was producing a picture it believed to be ill willed in it's image of North Korean leadership and it strongly objects to it's distribution. With that North Korea would have a chip to play in any talks with the USA and Japan.

I think having a film made about ending life and especially the life of those known around the globe, in this case North Korea's president is extremely stupid. This does very little for democracy anywhere. But, to be precise this is more freedom than most countries tolerate and that is something the USA prides.

Freedom of expression is the way the USA keeps all the citizens connected to each other in either friendship or criticism. Every American has a right to express their ideas and emotions about any topic WITHIN the laws of the country, state or local government. It is a point of pride to the USA and that will never change, so I hope this is a learning experience for all involved.

As much as some, including me, seem to dislike the picture for as much as I know about it; I defend it's right to exist.

"The Interview" is not the policy of the USA.

December 22, 2014
By Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama (click here) moved to prevent US anger at North Korea from spiraling out of control on Sunday by saying the massive hacking of Sony Pictures was not an act of war but instead was cyber-vandalism. 

Washington's longstanding dispute with North Korea, which for years has centered on its nuclear weapons program, has entered new territory with the accusation that Pyongyang carried out an assault on a major Hollywood entertainment company. 

Obama and his advisers are weighing how to punish North Korea after the FBI concluded on Friday that Pyongyang was responsible. North Korea has denied it was to blame. 

The US president put the hack in the context of a crime....

Everyone is a critic.

December 21, 2014
By Dante D'Orazio

China (click here) has given its first hint of its stance on the Sony Pictures hack and The Interview, and Americans will likely be displeased. An editorial in The Global Times, a paper run by the state's Communist Party, largely sides with North Korea and strongly criticizes The Interview.

The editorial reads, in part, that "any civilized world will oppose hacker attacks or terror threats. But a movie like The Interview, which makes fun of the leader of an enemy of the US, is nothing to be proud of for Hollywood and US society." It continues, "No matter how the US society looks at North Korea and Kim Jong Un, Kim is still the leader of the country. The vicious mocking of Kim is only a result of senseless cultural arrogance....

It's the Sunday Night before Christmas

"You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" by Thurl Ravenscoft (click here)

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel,
Mr. Grinch.
You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders.
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr Grinch.
I wouldn't touch you with a
Thirty-nine and a half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile,
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile,
Mr Grinch.
Given the choice between the two of you,
I'd take the seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks.
Your soul is full of gunk,
Mr Grinch.

The three best words that best describe you,
Are as follows, and I quote"

Stink!
Stank!
Stonk!

You're a rotter Mr Grinch
You're the king of sinful sots
Your heart's a dead tomato squashed with moldy purple spots
Mr Grinch

Your soul is an appalling dump heap
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
Assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr Grinch
With a nauseous super nos
You're a crooked jerky jockey and,
You drive a crooked horse
Mr Grinch!

You're a three-decker sauerkraut
And toadstool sandwich,
With arsenic sauce!

Everyone wants to look toward the number of political prisoners in Cuba, but,...

...there are other demographics to consider.

This is a diagram of the Cuban population assembled by US Census. Interesting the USA lives to keep track of the people of Cuba, but, it won't reach out to help, except, on conditions. It can be said those conditions of failed Republican politics are failing them.

The Old Age Dependency (click here) rate increased by almost 40% over the 1990-2010 period. Child Dependency rates declined by about 30% in the same period, reflecting the declining fertility rate.  (Table 1.).

The diagram above clearly shows a drastic fall in Cuban births. The births declined after the implementation of the USA embargo. They were far different 30 to 40 years ago. They returned to pre-embargo levels with a minor growth rate increase after the embargo. 

For ten prosperous years Cuba did well and it was realized throughout the country, but, when the embargo was enacted the Cuban economy was impoverished. Such embargoes work for awhile, but, forty to fifty years results in an economy that doesn't work for anyone and belief in the future is lost. When a society loses it's belief in the future, the desire to bring children into the world becomes a burden rather than a joy.

What has occurred under the USA Embargo is a society that is stuck in their circumstances and aging. The USA Embargo has served the political rhetoric of the USA political right wing IN THE FACE of a deteriorating population and economic status.

I am not surprised the number of political prisoners has increased under President Raul Castro. The country has been waiting the death of Fidel allowing a new regime/government to bring about change and hope with their neighbors to the north. There is no doubt the USA has overshadowed Cuba's economy and society. So, when the ailing Fidel was unable to proceed with leadership and his brother took over, the people were at the very least disappointed, hence, more political prisoners to bring about stability.

I would expect the very sad status of the Cuban people to change under the new relationships with the USA. I would expect their economy to revitalize and it's political opposition to diminish. In time the so called political prisoners will be seen for what they are, average Cubans angry about their oppression and poverty.

A democracy is not necessary for capitalism, actually quite the contrary. In the USA today voters are very aware of voting rights impingement and a thirty year stagnation of upward movement of the Middle Class. It has been getting more and more difficult to maintain the status of Middle Class because capitalism has attacked that class of people with tax burdens and cost of living. The 2008 global economic collapse was the last bite from the USA capitalists. It changed the circumstances for Americans for the worse resulting in hopelessness, poverty and economic downturns that classified the recession as the worst time in USA history next to the Great Depression.

In China we notice a growing Middle Class to bring about a better quality of life. China has become one of the most promising economies in the world. It is anxious to become partnered with the USA to end as much greenhouse gas emissions as possible and that is very good thing. China as a side note has been interested in Cuba's outcomes for sometime. Cuba has a large Chinese diaspora.

...For Choy, growing up in Cuba had not been easy. The son of a humble Chinese shopkeeper, he suffered from the racism and wretched living conditions that plagued Havana under Fulgencio Batista’s regime. Batista’s brutal social indifference to poorer Cubans was, as Arthur Schlesinger Jr. put it, “an open invitation to revolution.”

After being jailed for taking part in student protests in 1957, Choy joined the uprising that toppled Batista’s dictatorship. He became one of three Chinese Cubans who were made generals in Castro’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). Later, in 1981, Choy went to Africa to fight with Cuban troops supporting Angola’s leftist government against a U.S.-backed invasion by South Africa’s apartheid regime. All along he was motivated, he says in Our History is Still Being Written, by a deep personal commitment to “to act in the interests of the majority of humanity inhabiting the planet earth—not on behalf of narrow individual interests, or simply Cuba’s national interests.”...

...Former Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Cuba in November 2008 while touring Latin America. Meeting with Fidel and Raúl, he proclaimed, “History has proved that [China and Cuba] are worthy of the name of fast friends, good comrades, and intimate brothers.” Raúl bounded onto stage before the Chinese delegation and sang “The East is Red,” a popular song during Mao’s Cultural Revolution evoking sentiments of world revolution. In faltering Mandarin he crooned: “The East is red, the sun has risen; China has produced a Mao Zedong. He creates fortune for the people; he’s the saviour of them all!”...

For at least the last decade, China has sought trade relationships with the countries throughout the Caribbean, including Cuba. Perhaps with the USA removing it's embargo and Cuba in need of a far better economy, there will be investors to move Cuba's impoverished to a Middle Class.

This lifting of the Cuban embargo is not an experiment or misguided, the USA has dominated the circumstances every Cuban faces. This will change the course of Cuba. When I hear the words, "Cuba didn't have to do anything, it was all the USA that gave into the Castro regime." I have to laugh. Cuba has nothing to give and at least they have housing and food under the veil of Communism. The USA offered no guarantees to the success of removing the embargo, so what would anyone expect? First move to a different form of government and capitalism, too? You've got to be joking. The USA can't even tout it's own success under capitalism, except, for the 1 percent.

October 31, 2006
By Wayne S. Smith
The Embargo is Obsolete
Critics of U.S. policy on Cuba say the U.S. government is living in the past and has yet to shake its Cold War-mentality with regards to the embargo and Cuban policy on the whole. As Wayne Smith indicates, “Early on, there may have been some logic to US efforts to isolate Cuba and bring down its government – at a time, that is, when Fidel Castro was trying to overthrow the leaders of various other Latin American states and moving into a relationship with the Soviet Union, one that led to the missile crisis in 1962. But all that is now ancient history. Castro has built normal, peaceful diplomatic relations in the region, while any threat posed by the so-called Cuban-Soviet alliance ended with the demise of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago.”

After 46 years of failure, we must change course on Cuba (click here)

The Saudis have customer loyalty and they always have. It is within their culture and morality.

ABU DHABI — The world’s top petroleum exporter, (click here) Saudi Arabia, said on Sunday that it would not cut output to prop up oil markets even if non-OPEC nations did so, in one of the toughest signals yet that it planned to ride out the market’s biggest slump in years.

Referring to countries outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister told reporters: “If they want to cut production they are welcome: We are not going to cut, certainly Saudi Arabia is not going to cut.”

He added he was “100 percent not pleased” with prices but they would improve, although it was unclear when.

He said speculators were responsible for the fall in prices to half their levels of six months ago and what he called a lack of cooperation from non-OPEC producers....

This goes to prove how criminal the minds of the American petroleum industry actually is and always has been. This is the same criminality that lives in the dangers to human life in the climate crisis. They don't care about anyone, except, their own pockets.

One might recall the affection shared between the former President Bush and his friends from the Middle East. This is not artificial. This is a sincere friendship and this is an expression of those feelings. It is that depth of meaningful relationships that dictate the actions of the OPEC governments to a greater extent, even including Venezuela. They are powerful men, but, they handle their power well.

American petroleum knows no friendship with the depth as those in the Middle East, they are profiteers and if they could sell oxygen on Mars they'd do it. 

The American petroleum industry pushed their luck all across their paradigm of control. They over invested in petroleum infrastructure and occupied the American railroads with oil, killed people along the way when their 50/50 mixture of naphtha and tar blew up. Oil burns when ignited and doesn't explode. They never accepted responsibility for their part in those deaths and damage to our country and our infrastructure or that of Canada.

The American petroleum industry is nothing short of ruthless. Do I have to remind everyone of the corruption it brought to the old Minerals and Mining Management administration? The American petroleum industry is corrupt to the core and only answers to laws they have to answer to.

Today one of their cronies was one television touting the entire uptick in the economy that President Obama calls his own is only due to oil exploitation. They want the USA to believe their industry is the only method of economic power for the USA and the dollar. 

NOT.

If that were true on a global market the Russian Ruble would be out performing the currency of the USA. It's nonsense.

What has struck me as completely ruthless is the demands by American petroleum to OPEC in reducing their oil outputs. Wouldn't that be interesting, huh?

The price of a barrel of oil would escalate to the point where it was previous to the glut on the market. A glut due to OVERPRODUCTION by the American oil barons and THE REDUCTION IN DEMAND. This drop in the price of oil is not totally due to overproduction by the American barons, there is also a reduction in need due to a warmer planet and to a smaller degree the implementation of alternative energies.

But, the most ruthless aspect of the American barons is the fact that OPEC has customers (market share) they want and what better way to get them except demand OPEC reduce production and allow American suppliers to pick up the slack in deliverables. Now, what happens to OPEC when the price rebounds? Does OPEC still have the same income as before? No. Because the customers of the American oil barons would have to sign contracts and they would no longer be available to OPEC.

The supply of substandard oil would be the cost to OPEC's customers and the emissions of greenhouse gases would go through the roof. 

So, case in point. OPEC has been a long trusted friend of the global economy for decades and decades. The American barons are ruthless and if they ever obtained the majority of need of oil in the world through their current oversupply, the price of oil would no longer react to market pressures, but, at the whim of the American petroleum industry. You can take that to the bank. 

The killer was on a shooting spree. He'd already killed once, he decided to die than face justice and did what some do carried on as a martyr.

December 21, 2014
By Tevor Hughes

The suspect identified in the shooting (click here) of two New York City police officers shot his ex-girlfriend in the Baltimore area early Saturday before posting on her Instagram account and other social media, New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said at a news conference.

The postings indicate Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, had a "very strong bias against" police, and are being investigated as authorities search for a motive, Bratton said.

The two officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot "execution-style" in their parked patrol car Saturday afternoon. Brinsley fled from the scene to a nearby subway station, where he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Bratton said....

....Police said they found a silver handgun by Brinsley's body.

The user's next post shows what appears to be a bloodstained pants leg and the caption "Never had a hot gon on your waist and blood on your shoe … you aint been through what I been through you not like me and I'm not like you."

The account was suspended shortly after the shooting.

The Instagram account is linked to Facebook user named Bleau Barracuda, who police said appears to be Brinsley....

The sincerest sympathies to the family of all the dead. The officers were obviously killed because they were in uniform, in a police cruiser and a target of a person without a future to gaze into.

It is obvious this is an assassination and it is not the way civilized people solve their problems. The reason this shooting occurred is because black men are afraid for their lives and this was the result.

The stigma attached to black men by police due to their unions and the permission it may have given to carry out excessive force within a legal methodology is just as much a problem today as before. Peaceful protests are still valid and the people within them still innocent. This was an act of a single gunman and nothing more.