It is encouraging the G20 can achieve agreements that are movements toward peace.

November 20, 2015
By Olga Tanas

Russia, (click here) which has previously refused to negotiate with Ukraine over restructuring its $3 billion Eurobond, is waiting for the International Monetary Fund to respond to its proposal to change the terms on the debt and expects the cash-strapped country to initiate new talks if it’s unable to pay in full on Dec. 20.
The impasse can only be resolved “in the framework” of the IMF-led program of assistance for Ukraine because the nation lacks the financial means to pay, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov’s aide, Svetlana Nikitina, told reporters in Moscow Friday. “Until a conceptual solution to the problem is found, we still expect the debt to be repaid,” she said....

...After months of refusal to negotiate with Ukraine over restructuring the Eurobond, sold by Ukraine’s ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the proposal this week at a Group of 20 summit in Turkey, which followed his bilateral meetings there with U.S. and European leaders as well as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
Russia is ready for broader talks on restructuring the debt if its offer to change the payment terms is accepted by Dec. 8, Siluanov said Wednesday. Ukraine hasn’t received Russia’s restructuring proposal, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko was cited as saying the same day by Interfax....

There was a report in the news that the USA is increasing security at airports and trains. Please don't forget public transit and buses. Trains and buses have both been targets in London. Frequently, the lower income Americans rely on trains and buses for interstate travel.

Europe, especially, Great Britain, has had a sincere problem with Islamists preaching hate and violence. Exile is a legitimate allowance by some democraciies.

November 16, 2015
By Jack Jenkins

The French interior minister(click here)  is calling for the “dissolution of mosques where hate is preached” throughout the country in the wake of Friday’s horrific terrorist attack in Paris, saying that the “state of emergency should allow us to act more rapidly” in disbanding worship communities.

 According to MSNBC, Bernard Cazeneuve made the suggestion during an interview with French television on Sunday, speaking about possible emergency measures to be taken after a band of ISIS-affiliated assailants launched an assault on the French capital city that left at least 132 dead and hundreds more wounded....

May 24, 2015
By Dominic Evans

A Syrian-born Islamist cleric (click here) who taught one of the men accused of hacking to death an off-duty British soldier on a London street praised the attack for its "courage" and said Muslims would see it as a strike on a military target.

In an interview in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, where he has lived since being banished from Britain in 2005, Omar Bakri, founder of banned British Islamist group Al Muhajiroun, said he knew suspect Michael Adebolajo from his lectures a decade ago.
"When I saw the footage I recognized the face immediately," Bakri told Reuters. "I used to know him. A quiet man, very shy, asking lots of questions about Islam."...

In the USA: (Bob Corker of Tennessee will endorse policies of exile. He has already threatened the US Senate if they don't pass the US House bill to bar refugee resettlement. I don't know what he means by his threat.)

The US for instance had a very difficult time finding a place to relocate the Uighur deatainees from Guantanamo even thought they were generally thought to be not a threat.

January 24, 2013

...Sixteen states (click here) have constitutional provisions prohibiting banishment, and appeals courts in many others have outlawed the practice. Although it remains on the books in a handful of states—the Tennessee Constitution permits exile, and Maryland’s Constitution specifically prescribes banishment as a punishment for corruption—appeals courts usually overturn sentences of exile. There has been only one recent case of banishment from a state: In 2000, a Kentucky judge banished a domestic abuser from the state for one year. (The case never reached the state’s high court.) The District of Columbia has no constitution, and its statutes don’t mention banishment, so the legality of Grogan’s exile is unclear. Judges typically get wider discretion in prescribing conditions of bail than in sentencing, but there is a strong trend toward invalidating interstate banishment under any circumstances....

Leon Panetta is not the CIA director and his son is running for office.

Panetta is being connected with war mongering, nation building and 30 year wars by corporate media.

President Obama’s former CIA director (click here) says his old boss has spent the last four years operating without much of a plan in the Middle East.
“We’re operating on a crisis basis,” Leon Panetta, who was America’s top spy for most of President Obama’s first term, said on Wednesday at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco. “When a crisis occurs, we respond to the crisis. But we don’t have any kind of larger strategy to try to deal with what’s happening in the Middle East, what’s happening with ISIS.”...

Corporate media needs to take their message to corporate soldiers of fortune. It might be successful if you offer to pay them premium salaries.

The nerve to believe the USA treasury can be tapped for a 30 year war is not only irresponsible, but, idiocy. That is a generation and a half. That seals the USA's fate from being a country of peace in the future. They are carrying a message to put balls on everyone in the USA. That might be interesting.

Jokers like Jacobs actually believes passivity has been instilled in Americans. Ya think? 

Poor Jacobs, talking head general, doesn't get it. He still reaches back to WWII and Korea, Vietnam and Iraq in the hopes his brand of the American landscape is the only landscape for the USA.

This article might help Jacobs catch up. I doubt North Korea wants Daesh storming the palace.

November 19, 2015
By Choe Sanc-Hun

Seoul, South Korea — North and South Korea (click here) agreed on Friday to hold border talks next week, following up on an earlier agreement for such dialogue to discuss easing tensions and improving ties on the divided Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday that it had accepted a proposal from the North to hold the talks next Thursday on the northern side of Panmunjom, a village straddling the border. It said the talks would be led by working-level negotiators to prepare for a full-fledged dialogue that both countries had agreed in August to hold in Seoul or Pyongyang....

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Every general and commander should have this picture hanging in plain site and in their foot lock instead of the latest pin up centerfold. The USA entered South Vietnam long before 1065. Currently, the USA deployments in Iraq are extremely similar to Pre-Draft Vietnam.

On April 30, 1975, (click here) Communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, forcing South Vietnam to surrender and bringing about an end to the Vietnam War.

An Associated Press article in the May 1 New York Times reported: “Scores of North Vietnamese tanks, armored vehicles and camouflaged Chinese built trucks rolled to the presidential palace. The president of the former non-Communist Government of South Vietnam, Gen. Duong Van Minh, who had gone on radio and television to announce his administration’s surrender, was taken to a microphone later by North Vietnamese soldiers for another announcement. He appealed to all Saigon troops to lay down their arms and was taken by the North Vietnamese soldiers to an undisclosed destination.”...
...................................................................................................................................... 

After an illegal invasion and disastrous decade in Iraq, this is what manifested because the Saddam Ba'athists recreated itself as if assigned by Mohammad to carry out cleansing of infidels. Mohammad and Islam was never about war via drug abuse. Hello? Did anyone hear a single word about Catogen? No? Really?

I want to know how many American soldiers were abusing Catogen in Iraq. I want to know. I don't believe for one minute no one did. There were open borders between Iraq and Syria.

May 17, 2015
By Tim Arango

Baghdad — The last Iraqi security forces fled Ramadi on Sunday, (click here) as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and killed people loyal to the government, according to security officials and tribal leaders.

The fall of Ramadi, despite intensified American airstrikes in recent weeks in a bid to save the city, represented the biggest victory so far this year for the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the vast areas of Syria and Iraq that it controls. The defeat also laid bare the failed strategy of the Iraqi government, which had announced last month a new offensive to retake Anbar Province, a large desert region in the west of which Ramadi is the capital.

“The city has fallen,” said Muhannad Haimour, the spokesman for Anbar’s governor. Mr. Haimour said that at least 500 civilians and security personnel had been killed over the last two days in and around Ramadi, either from fighting or executions. Among the dead, he said, was the 3-year-old daughter of a soldier....

Jacobs needs to bone up and realize the USA is not fighting another war for profit. The American Coalition under "W" caused Daesh and now Europe is paying for it. Even the Iraqi citizens are paying for it. Does anyone actually believe having the USA return to the middle east in still yet another war, a 30 year war, is going to solve the problem? Why would the USA even purport to be trustworthy?

Jacobs and Panetta can find a playground in Afghanistan. Now explain why the USA is still there after 14 stupid years. 

When Secretary of State John Kerry was a candidate in 2004 he stated the war should have ended in Tora Bora with the death of bin Laden. He was right. 

Gold Coast Sea World is in Queensland, Australia. The fire started in a grassland area near the Sea World facility.

November 21, 2015

Gold Coast theme park Sea World (click here) and a nearby resort have been evacuated and water bombing is set to begin after a grassfire broke out.
An emergency situation has been declared and six crews are fighting the blaze which is burning near Seaworld Drive on The Spit
"Due to the fire hazard in the vicinity of Sea World Resort, if you are in the resort grounds and see this post, please immediately go to reception," Sea World tweeted on Saturday.
The evacuation comes as temperatures in the Gold Coast area track towards a top of 31 degrees on Saturday, with thousands of school leavers expected to descend on the nearby Surfers Paradise strip.
"Ground crews are working to contain the blaze which started this morning and water bombing operations will begin shortly," Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said....

Syria is far too dangerous for journalists.

November 22, 2015

...SANA (click here) says 38-year-old war reporter Wasim al-Nuqari was killed Saturday in the eastern countryside of Homs province....

The embedded journalist also creates information to opposing forces. It is strategically poor judgement to put a journalist in the middle of battle in Syria.

President Putin is on the record. The claim of Nazism is being used as a reason to stave off Minsk 2. There is absolutely no proof of Nazism in Ukraine's practices.

November 17, 2015
By AP

...In an interview with German television broadcast (click here) late Sunday, Putin said he was convinced that it was possible to end the deadlock in east Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels have been battling Kyiv’s troops in a conflict that has claimed at least 4,000 lives since March.
But the Russian leader also noted that neither the rebels nor Ukrainian troops have fully withdrawn from key locations in the region in order to create a buffer zone, a key part of a truce deal agreed to in September.
“It is true that there are certain settlements that the armed rebel formations should abandon, and they are not being abandoned,” he said. But he blamed the Ukrainians for not holding up their end of the agreement and setting a bad example for the rebels to follow....
...“I’ll say this bluntly: we’re very concerned that the desire could arise to use ethnic cleansing. We’re afraid about a drift toward neo-Nazism” in the region, he said.
In response to a question about whether Russia was arming the rebels, as contended by both Kyiv and the West, Putin said merely that “anyone waging a fight that they believe fair will find weapons.”
He stressed that without such arms the rebels would be quickly destroyed by the Ukrainian forces — something Russia “does not want, and will not allow.” While Putin stopped short of acknowledging Russia’s material role in the conflict, his comments went further in emphasizing Moscow’s willingness to support the separatists than ever before....

The political and governing transparency by Kiev is paramount to maintaining it's government in the freedoms the people demand. There is to be no secrecy about the actions of the Ukraine government. The people will welcome freedom of speech. It is important, otherwise, the current Ukraine government risks being misunderstood and defamed by Russian propaganda. Minsk 2 has to be achieved.

The United Nation's ambassadors have to address a new document for the Committee on social, humanitarian and culturism. I don't like the "No" votes or the abstentions because it plays into Russia's dialogue. The issue has to be addressed and done so vigorously to end any finger pointing as 'enemy nations.' I am surprised I have to address this here.

This is eqaully outrageous.

19 November 2015
United Nations (Sputnik) (click here) - The United States, Ukraine, Canada and Palau voted against the resolution. The European Union and NATO member countries abstained from the vote, according to a live streaming of the committee session broadcast on the UN website....

The social messaging into Ukraine regarding navism really is not appreciated and the propaganda has to end. Prohibition of an artist claiming the Ukraine government is run by Navis is an understandable prohibition, but, practicing censorship is inconsistent with freedom. If the artist is promulgating hate it needs to be reviewed and the content made public highlighting the myth against the reality of the achievements of Minsk 2. These social issues have to be addressed in transparency to the electorate because otherwise it will become a political weapon to defeat the current freedom and opportunity of the Ukraine people. 

It is easy to note this artist is also acting against Minsk 2 and should not be allowed to raise such hatred among the Ukraine people. But, all this has to be transparent and put into the context of the country's movement to freedom and better economic future.

16 July 2015

The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture (click here) asked the Interior Ministry and the National Security Council to prevent the award-winning Serbian film director from playing a concert in Kiev over his support of Crimea’s reunification with Russia....

I do know Russia has been using the political presence of neo-nazism in Ukraine to justify its military presence on Ukraine's eastern border. But, I would think combating hate and expecting Ukraine to address it's perception problem is a better path. President Obama needs to explain this and submit his own resolution to the UN for consideration. No one wants institutionalized hatred. I think there needs to be movement on this issue in Ukraine and otherwise.

At the time Ukraine removed Yanukovish from the presidency and the former Prime Minister Tymoshenko was returned to Ukraine the soldiers of the Maiden were stated to be neo-nazis. That may be the case, but, they did not instill nazism into the constitution of 2004 or in to the practice of the current government. The current and past governments have been focused on freedom and economic involvement on many fronts and not just Russia

In remind the presidency of Yushchenko disarmed the national military and placed his and his oligarchs own militias in local authority to control elections and economic practices. That is a threat to the people and threatening the people had become the mainstay of the Yushchenko presidency. He also ended the resolutions of Ukraine people to begin economic practices with Europe. 

Ukraine's current President Porochenko needs to address this issue of the perceived image of neo-nazism of his country. He should do so with transparency and conviction of Ukraine's promise of freedom and new enterprise opportunity with  Europe. This is a very important issue. The USA has problems with neo-nazi groups. The USA groups are involved in organized crime including murder. The USA groups operate regardless of placing them in prison. So this vote at the UN is uncharacteristic of the USA and requires President Obama.

Obviously, this is an ongoing issue for Russia and the USA needs to address the problem in a way consistent with addressing hatred. I remind the USA has a degree of racism and it needs to be part of that resolve.

Racism doesn't disappear from any institutionalized hatred it needs to be removed and made plan to any democracy.

...Lasalle also said Canada (click here) did not support the resolution because it referred to the "highly politicized and anti-Semitic outcomes" of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
"Given its narrow focus and these concerns, Canada did not vote in favour of the resolution," Lasalle concluded.
The U.S. and Israel both pulled their delegations from that conference, saying at the time that Arab and Islamic nations were attempting to smear Israel over its treatment of Palestinians
Canada was also one of nine countries to boycott the 2009 World Conference Against Racism. Former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier said at the time that the decision was made because of the "open and divisive expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism" at the 2001 conference.
The representative from Ukraine said before the vote last week that despite opposing Nazism, he could not support the resolution because it did not condemn Stalinism in equally strong terms.
The U.S. representative said she questioned the "overt political motives" behind Russia's resolution and similarly could not vote in favour.
Russia has claimed for months that neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists are working with Ukrainian nationalists. Last April, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his troops intervened in Crimea because he could see "neo-Nazis rearing their heads" in the Ukrainian government.
And, earlier this month, Putin told a German television program he was concerned right-wing nationalists in Ukraine could cause the country to "drift toward neo-Nazism." 

This is outrageous.

The USA must demand his release and asylum. Is Saudi Arabia still in the Midieval years? The USA cannot allow this execution to occur.

Ashraf Fayadh, right, with art historian Chris Dercon, outgoing director of Tate Modern, attend the opening of an exhibition in Jeddah curated by Ashraf Fayadh. Photograph: Ashraff Ayadh/Instagram 

20 November 2015
By David Barry

A Palestinian poet and leading member of Saudi Arabia’s (click here) nascent contemporary art scene has been sentenced to death for renouncing Islam.
A Saudi court on Tuesday ordered the execution of Ashraf Fayadh, who has curated art shows in Jeddah and at the Venice Biennale. The poet, who said he did not have legal representation, was given 30 days to appeal against the ruling.
Fayadh, 35, a key member of the British-Saudi art organisation Edge of Arabia, was originally sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes by the general court in Abha, a city in the south-west of the ultraconservative kingdom, in May 2014.
But after his appeal was dismissed he was retried last month and a new panel of judges ruled that his repentance did not prevent his execution.
“I was really shocked but it was expected, though I didn’t do anything that deserves death,” Fayadh told the Guardian....

Winter has arrived across the country.

November 21, 2015
By Greg McCune

CHICAGO — The first significant wintry storm of the season (click here)
blanketed parts of the Midwest with a foot of snow and more was on the way Saturday, creating hazardous conditions as some travelers prepared to depart for the Thanksgiving holiday.
While winter has not officially begun, the shovels and snow blowers were out from South Dakota through southern Minnesota, Iowa and southern Wisconsin to northern Illinois and Indiana. The National Weather Service said the snow would continue in Illinois and Indiana on Saturday and move into Michigan. The front will head northeast to Canada late on Saturday and into Sunday.
"In those areas it is going to be a very tough travel day," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Terry in College Park, Maryland.
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, had recorded 4 inches of snow by early Saturday with more falling. Roads were slushy as freezing rain turned to snow in the Chicago area, which was forecast to get between six and 10 inches. Marengo, about 65 miles northwest of Chicago, recorded 12 inches of snow, according to weather service meteorologist Bruce Sullivan....

The drought is moving to resolve.

There is other good news, the CO2 level is down to 398.29 in October2015. (click here)

Let's hope these trends continues.