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Thread: Generational Dynamics World View - Page 17







Post#401 at 02-26-2013 04:46 PM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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02-26-2013, 04:46 PM #401
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Quote Originally Posted by Justin '77 View Post
Except to make sure the things actually work, of course. Models are fine and great and all, but the NHTSA doesn't take their word, no matter how good they are -- and those guys are only concerned with relatively small amounts of potential harm.
When we quit testing nuclear weapons, it was due entirely to the maturity of our models. When the models match the test results consistently and accurately, the time for testing is over.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#402 at 02-27-2013 12:18 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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27-Feb-13 World View -- Italy's election portends trouble throughout Europe

*** 27-Feb-13 World View -- Italy's election portends trouble throughout Europe

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Italy's election portends trouble throughout Europe
  • John Kerry says that Americans have the right to be stupid
  • U.S. military to air drop toxic mice on snakes in Guam


****
**** Italy's election portends trouble throughout Europe
****



Silvio Berlusconi with his young fiancée Francesca Pascale in this photo from December. Pascale has been invisible during the electoral campaign.

In Italy's parliamentary elections over the week, angry Italian voters
send a clear and unmistakable message to Europe's leaders: That
Italians are tired of efforts to raise taxes cut pensions and curb
budget deficits, and are tired of taking orders from Germany. Voters
firmly rejected the austerity measures of Mario Monti. Center-left
leader Pier Luigi Bersani got the largest vote, but just a sliver
higher than the vote given to Silvio Berlusconi, who promised to end
the austerity taxes and refund the taxes already collected, and Beppe
Grillo, a standup comedian who wants to reject all austerity demands
from Europe. The rise of Berlusconi from the dead is particularly
disturbing to European leaders, since they blame Berlusconi for
causing the financial crisis in Italy in the first place. Monti has
called Berlusconi Italy’s "Pied Piper," leading Italians to their
doom. Italy's rebellion against austerity bodes ill for other
European countries that have to go further than Italy, particularly
Spain and Greece. The worst may be that since the vote was roughly
even split among Bersani (about 31%), Berlusconi(30%) and Grillo
(25%), leaving Monti with just 10%, it seems likely that Italy's
government will be in ungovernable chaos, and a new election will be
required soon. Spiegel and Bloomberg

****
**** John Kerry says that Americans have the right to be stupid
****


John Kerry, the new Secretary of State, is the cockroach who testified
to the Senate in 1971 that American soldiers regularly raped people,
tortured people, cut off their ears and mutilated people, and were
doing these things on a day to day basis. (See "John Kerry and Seymour Hersh trash the armed forces."
.) In 2006, he vehemently reaffirmed his
claim that American soldiers are nothing but rapists and terrorists,
and also said:

<QUOTE>"You know, education -- if you make the most of it,
you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to
be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in
Iraq."<END QUOTE>

It's not surprising that Kerry thinks that America soldiers are
stupid, in addition to being rapists and terrorists, but now, in a
trip through Europe, he's implying that most Americans are stupid:

<QUOTE>"In America, you have a right to be stupid, if you
want to be. And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody
else if you want to be. And we tolerate that - we somehow make it
through that."<END QUOTE>

I can only think that whatever room he's in, he's always the
stupidest person in the room.

He's been making one gaffe after another in his Europe trip:

  • He refused to back Britain in the dispute over the Falkland
    Islands.
  • In a speech, he referred to the nonexistent nation of
    "Kyrzakhstan," apparently confused about Kyrgyzstan and
    Kazakhstan.


I've said many times that Hillary Clinton would have been a better
president than Barack Obama because she actually knows what's going on
in the world, while Obama does not. But replacing Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton with John Kerry brings Washington stupidity to new
heights. Daily Mail (London)

****
**** U.S. military to air drop toxic mice on snakes in Guam
****


The U.S. military plans to air drop tens of thousands of dead mice
laced with acetaminophen (Tylenol) onto foliage surrounding Andersen
Air Force Base, in order to control the population of the brown tree
snake. Acetaminophen is harmless to humans, but toxic to the brown
tree snake. The snakes are natives of Australia, and came to Guam on
board military boats after WW II. The native bird population is
defenseless against the snake, and has wiped out almost all of Guam's
native birds, making most of the species extinct. The dead mice will
be fitted with tiny parachutes, so they'll catch on trees to make them
more attractive to the snakes. The fear is that a similar infestation
of brown tree snakes to Hawaii would cause over $2 billion in damage
per year. The new mouse drop follows a pilot experiment in 2010 that
worked well. However, activists from PETA (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals) are expressing outrage that snakes will suffer,
though hopefully the snakes at least won't get headaches. AP and CNN (9/2010) and Russia Today



KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Italy, Mario Monti, Pier Luigi Bersani,
Silvio Berlusconi, John Kerry, Seymour Hersh, Hillary Clinton,
Gaum, PETA, Andersen Air Force Base

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Post#403 at 02-27-2013 03:25 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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02-27-2013, 03:25 PM #403
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Help!!!!!

HELP!!!!!!

I have to find a new web hosting service for GenerationalDynamics.com,
today if possible, and I'd appreciate suggestions. The requirement
is that they be capable of running my Perl web site software.

This morning I received an e-mail message from Network Solutions
saying that they terminated my web hosting because I was "abusing"
system resources, with no further explanation.

I called Customer Support, and the conversation with "Paul 041", or
"Paul Zero" as I like to call him, went something like the following:

Paul Zero: You have to do what the e-mail message says -- get rid of
the [Perl file] D.PL.

Me: That's the whole web site. All requests go through that.

Paul Zero: That's what you have to do.

Me: What system resources am I abusing?

Paul Zero: I don't know. Maybe bandwidth.

Me: That's ridiculous. The web site is text only, with small images.
No videos or other media.

Paul Zero: Well, maybe it's something else then.

Me: Then what is it?

Paul Zero: I don't know. That's all I can tell you.

Me: You obviously don't know a thing. Is there someone else I can
talk to.

Paul Zero: No, there's no one else. I've told you all you need
to know.

Me: But you haven't told me anything.

Paul Zero: You have to do with the e-mail message says: get rid
of D.PL.

Me: But I can't do that. That's the whole web site.

Paul Zero: I understand how you feel. But that's what you have
to do.

Me: Are you crazy?

Paul Zero: There's no need to get insulting.

It went on like this for a while. The net is that they think
there's some problem, they won't tell me what it is, and
my web site will be down until I fix it. (Kafka)

So I need to move to another web hosting company as soon as possible.
Network Solutions used to be good, but they've turned into an evil
company.

You can post a message here, or send me a message at
jxenakis123@gmail.com

Moving my web site will be a major project, and I have to
do it as quickly as possible. I don't mind spending a little
more money, but I can't afford to spend a lot of money.

Thanks - I really appreciate any help that anyone can give,
as quickly as possible.

John







Post#404 at 02-27-2013 11:06 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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28-Feb-13 World View -- U.S. will provide military aid to Syria opposition

*** 28-Feb-13 World View -- In major reversal, U.S. will provide military aid to Syria opposition

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • GenerationalDynamics.com unavailable for a couple of days
  • In major reversal, U.S. will provide military aid to Syria opposition


****
**** GenerationalDynamics.com unavailable for a couple of days
****


Network Solutions has crashed GenerationalDynamics.com again,
apparently because they're unable to handle the increased number
of visitors in the past couple of months.

So I'm currently in panic mode, moving the web site to another
web hosting service. I've already signed up with another service,
but it takes a couple of days for the domain name pointers to
propagate through the internet.

Unless you see World View on another web site, or receive it in
e-mail, then by the time you read this the web site will have been
moved.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

****
**** In major reversal, U.S. will provide military aid to Syria opposition
****


We reported two weeks ago that the opposition Syrian National
Coalition (SNC) canceled plans to attend meetings in Rome, Moscow and
Washington to discuss the Syria issue, on the grounds that these
meetings did not thing but provide a cover for the regime of Syria's
president Bashar al-Assad to massacre innocent mothers and daughters
in their homes, and innocent students in their college dormitories.
Well, this apparently shocked the Obama administration into action,
and now the administration says that they've reversed policy, and
they're going to send aid to the Syrian rebels. The aid will include
body armor, armored vehicles, and humanitarian aid. So the SNC has
changed its mind, and will attend the meetings after all. However,
this may well be an empty promise, since it has to be coordinated with
the Russians, who have vetoed any aid attempt in the past. Washington Post


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Network Solutions, Syria,
Russia, Syrian National Coalition, SNC

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Post#405 at 02-28-2013 11:58 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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1-Mar-13 World View -- China moves missiles near coast to target Japan

*** 1-Mar-13 World View -- China moves missiles near coast to target Japan

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • GenerationalDynamics.com is back
  • German official says that 'two clowns have won' in Italy
  • McDonald's in France promises '100% French' French fries
  • China moves missiles near coast to target Japan
  • No Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese or dogs, please


****
**** GenerationalDynamics.com is back
****


The web site GenerationalDynamics.com is now up and running on a new web
hosting company. I'll have more to say about the Network Solutions
nightmare later, but for now I'm hoping that the "web site crisis" is
over for a while.

****
**** German official says that 'two clowns have won' in Italy
****



Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo

Italian officials are furious and have canceled talks with Germany,
after German politician Peer Steinbrueck said of Italy's recent
parliamentary elections:

<QUOTE>"To a certain extent, I’m appalled that two clowns
have won. One professional clown who is also not offended if you
call him one – Grillo – and another who is clearly a clown with a
testosterone boost."<END QUOTE>

The clown who is not offended would be Beppe Grillo, a former standup
comedian turned renegade politician who did amazingly well, with his
"Five Star Movement" coming in a solid third in Italy's election. The
other alleged clown would be former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi,
who has long been mired in sex scandals.

Actually, neither Grillo nor Berlusconi won. The problem is that
nobody won, and Italy has no government, and has little hope of having
one soon, perhaps not before another election. What the voters did do
is send a strong message to Germany that they don't want any more
Teutonic austerity forced on them, and the fear around Europe is that
the euro crisis is returning. Telegraph (London) and Euro News

****
**** McDonald's in France promises '100% French' French fries
****


Fast Food chain McDonald's France has promised to serve "100% French"
French Fries before the end of the year in all its 1260 restaurants.
In 2012, McDonald's bought 30% of its 200,000 tonnes of potatoes from
outside France, mostly from Belgium. But now McDonald's has
contracted with McCain France to contract 100 more potato farmers, who
will supply McDonald's with all the additional potatoes it needs to
makes its French fries 100% French. Potato Pro

****
**** China moves missiles near coast to target Japan
****


U.S. intelligence agencies have detected that China's military is
shifting its mobile ballistic missiles to the coast near the
Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in preparation for war with Japan over the
islands. A Hong Kong newspaper, the Oriental Daily News, quotes aa
military source as saying that the People's Liberation Army were
preparing to target the Senkaku islands, as well as U.S. military
bases in Okinawa. The report also claims that the multiple-warhead
DF-16 missile can defeat the U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries
deployed at U.S. and Japanese military bases in the region. The fear
is that a small-scale military conflict between Japan and China would
spiral into a major war, since the U.S. military are committed by
treaty to defending Japan. Free Beacon

****
**** No Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese or dogs, please
****



Sign in Beijing restaurant (Thanh Nien news)

The owner of a Beijing restaurant specializing in pigs' offal dishes
finally took down a sign that said: "This shop does not receive The
Japanese, The Philippines [sic], The Vietnamese and dog." China is
having island disputes with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. The
owner is not apologizing, and says

<QUOTE>"It was a patriotic action. ... I just didn't want to
serve Japanese. Am I not allowed to do that?"<END QUOTE>

He took it down because he was tired of responding to media requests.
The picture of the sign went viral on social media sites after a
Brooklyn housewife visiting Beijing posted it, drawing hundreds of
comments. Global Times (Beijing) and Thanh Nien News (Ho Chi Minh City) and Japan Daily News


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Germany, Peer Steinbrueck,
Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo,
McDonald's, China, Japan, Senkaku, Diaoyu,
Philippines, Vietnam

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Post#406 at 03-02-2013 12:01 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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2-Mar-13 World View -- Syria conflict turning into a proxy war

*** 2-Mar-13 World View -- Syria conflict turning into a proxy war

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Report: Turkey and Israel might be headed for reconciliation
  • Turkey's Erdogan calls Zionism a 'crime', and retracts it
  • U.S. and Turkey's objectives in Syria appear to be diverging
  • Euro zone unemployment rises to record level
  • Personal income plummets, but spending rises anyway


****
**** Report: Turkey and Israel might be headed for reconciliation
****



Weapons found on the Mavi Marmara

Turkey and Israel have had almost no diplomatic relations for almost
three years, ever since an Israeli commando raid in May, 2010, killed
nine Turkish men. The commando raid was on a "Freedom Flotilla" ship,
the Mavi Marmara, that was attempting to break the Israeli sea
blockade on Gaza. Israel has expressed "regret," but refused to
apologize for its actions in the raid, infuriating Turkey's prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But now, the Turkish weekly Radikal is
reporting that Israel may have found a formula to apologize to Turkey
for “operational errors” during the raid on the Mavi Marmara. An
apology in the past has been blocked by Israel's former Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman, but Lieberman is now on hiatus, facing
charges of corruption, opening a window in Israel's government for an
apology. Despite the diplomatic tensions between Israel and Turkey,
trade has between the two countries has been rising. Arab News

****
**** Turkey's Erdogan calls Zionism a 'crime', and retracts it
****


A speech by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday
in Vienna contained the following sentence:

<QUOTE>"As is the case for Zionism, anti-Semitism and
fascism, it is inevitable that Islamophobia be considered a crime
against humanity."<END QUOTE>

(Hmmmm. I wonder if hating asparagus is also a crime against
humanity?)

Anyway, American Secretary of State John Kerry called the remark
"objectionable." Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called
Erdogan's comment "dark and mendacious statement, the likes of which
we thought had passed from the world." However, Erdogan apparently
retracted the comment. The official Anatolia news agency has sent out
a correction, removing the reference to Zionism from Erdogan's
remarks, an hour after reporting them. It said the correction was
"made by the source" but gave no other explanation.

However, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said that
there was still good reason for relations with Israel to be
poor. Davotoglu said that Turkey had always stood
against anti-Semitism, and that Turkey had presented
numerous opportunities to Israel to restore relations, but:

<QUOTE>"If we must talk about hostile acts, then Israel's
attitude and its brutal killing of nine of our civilian citizens
in international waters may be called hostile. ...

If Israel wants to hear positive statements from Turkey, it needs
to review its attitude. It needs to review its attitude toward us,
and it needs to review its attitude toward the people in the
region and especially the West Bank settlements
issue."<END QUOTE>

Zaman (Istanbul) and Deutsche-Welle (Berlin)

****
**** U.S. and Turkey's objectives in Syria appear to be diverging
****


On Friday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed that the
U.S. and Turkey have exactly the same objectives for Syria. However,
evidence is growing that American and Turkish objectives are
diverging. In particular, Turkey is providing support to Islamists
and even jihadists in Turkey, and would like to see a Sunni Islamist
government replace the regime of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.
He is showing no sympathy at all for the Alawite, Christian and
Kurdish communities. Turkey is thus aligned with Saudi Arabia and
Qatar, who are reportedly supplying weapons to opposition fighters.
America and the West, however, want to support only non-Islamist
opposition fighters, and fears that any support given to jihadists
will eventually be used against the West. Tensions are building
throughout the Mideast over the situation in Syria, which is
increasingly appearing to be a proxy war involving the West versus
Turkey + Saudi Arabia + Qatar versus Russia + Iran + Iraq + Hezbollah
+ the al-Assad regime. Al-Monitor (Washington) and Arab News (Saudi Arabia)

****
**** Euro zone unemployment rises to record level
****



Eurozone unemployment rate, 2012-13 (AFP)

The euro zone jobless rate rose to 11.9% in January, a record level.
Eurozone youth unemployment rose to 24.2%. Spain had the highest
unemployment rate at 26.2%, with youth unemployment rate at 55.5%.
The eurozone inflation rate fell to 1.8% in February, well below the
European Central Bank's target rate. Gross domestic product (GDP)
contracted 0.6% in the fourth quarter of last year, and is expected to
decline again in the current quarter. Irish Times and AFP

****
**** Personal income plummets, but spending rises anyway
****


Personal income in January plummetted 3.6% in January, the biggest
one-month decrease since 1993, partly due to a pullback from the
December holiday surge, and also due to tax increases in January.
However, the good news is that even though they had a smaller income,
they spent more money -- 0.2% more than in December. eCreditDaily

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Avigdor Lieberman, Mavi Marmara, Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu,
Ahmet Davutoglu, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Iraq,
Spain, euro zone

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Post#407 at 03-03-2013 12:19 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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3-Mar-13 World View -- Kenya: Presidential candidate threatens violence if he loses

*** 3-Mar-13 World View -- Kenya: Presidential candidate threatens violence if he loses

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Kenya: Presidential candidate threatens violence if he loses
  • Chad says it killed two al-Qaeda linked terrorist leaders in Mali
  • Gun control talk increases public interest in 3D Printing
  • 7 year old schoolboy is suspended for shaping pastry into a gun


****
**** Kenya: Presidential candidate threatens violence if he loses
****



Odinga supporters rally on Saturday (AP)

Kenya's current prime minister, Raila Odinga, on Saturday accused his
opponents of planning to rig the vote in Monday's presidential
election, and said that if he loses, it will be because of "blackmail
and intimidation":

<QUOTE>"I have warned them the consequences may be worse than
last time round. The people will not stomach another
rigging."<END QUOTE>

The "last time around" that he's referring to was the last election,
in late December 2007, which was followed by massive ethnic violence
between Odinga's Luo tribe, and his opponent's Kikuyu tribe. (See
"Post-election massacre in Kenya raises concerns of tribal war"
)

For Monday's presidential election, the two leading candidates are
Odinga once again, facing another Kikuyu candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta,
the son of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, the "founding
father" of Kenya as a nation. Kenyatta called Odinga's threat
"dangerous and inflammatory," and demanded a rejection. Odinga issued
a statement saying that he had been misquoted.

The Luo and Kikuyu tribes have had many ethnic wars in the past, and a
new one would not be a surprise. Kenya's last generational crisis war
was the Mau-Mau rebellion, which climaxed in 1956, so enough time has
passed, and a new generational crisis war is a possibility.

However, there are 8 candidates in Monday's election, and the rules
require a vote over 50% to be a winner. Odinga and Kenyatta are each
expected to get a plurality and lead the vote, but neither is expected
to gain a majority, so some analysts believe that this outcome will
mean no violence this time. However, this outcome will force a
run-off election in April, and tensions may be higher than ever at
that time. ABC News and AP

****
**** Chad says it killed two al-Qaeda linked terrorist leaders in Mali
****


Chad's army claims to have killed terrorist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar,
who led January's attack on an Algerian gas plant where at least 37
hostages were killed. (See
"18-Jan-13 World View -- Did France kick a hornet's nest with military intervention in Mali?" .)

Belmokhtar began a two-decade career of Islamic militancy, first as a
member of Algeria's Islamic Armed Group in the country's civil war,
then as a joint founder of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
(SGPC), which later evolved into Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM). However, after an AQIM leadership split, Belmokhtar formed
his own terrorist group, the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade, which
claimed responsibility for the attack on the gas plant.

Chad's army also claims to have killed another AQIM leader, Adelhamid
Abou Zeid, in Mali on Friday. The deaths cannot be confirmed until
DNA tests have been completed, but if the claims are true, then it
will al-Qaeda terrorists in Mali back for a couple of months, until
they can regroup. Guardian (London) and Reuters

****
**** Gun control talk increases public interest in 3D Printing
****


Talk of gun control, which is one of Washington's stupidest ideas, in
a city where extreme stupidity is the hallmark of everyone from the
president on down, is having more unintended consequences. It's
already been reported that gun owners and would-be gun owners
are buying up all the guns and ammunition they can find, for fear
of losing the opportunity.

When I wrote about gun control
in
December, I pointed out that there's no evidence that prohibitions in
the past -- of alcohol, drugs, abortion and prostitution -- had any
actual effect, but they had a large negative effect of creating
bootleggers, organized crime, drug cartels and prostitution rings.

I particularly mentioned that 3D printing would, within a couple
of years, allow anyone to manufacture guns in his garage or basement.
That day is arriving much more quickly as another unintended consequence
of the talk of gun control. Media attention has increased,
including a great deal of coverage by al-Jazeera on how 3D printing
would effectively end gun control in the UK.

A Texas gunsmith, Cody Wilson, last year demonstrated a 3D-printed
AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, but his work was ridiculed because the
fell apart after firing six rounds. However, Wilson has fixed the
design flaws, and has now demonstrated an AR-15 that can shoot 600
rounds without failing. He's put his entire design template on the
internet for anyone to download and use with their own 3D printers.

Manufacturing an AR-15 with a 3D printer is still an expensive affair.
The printer itself costs several thousand dollars, and then each gun
takes 9-12 hours of print time and costs $150 in materials. But
within a couple of years, those prices will have come down, and there
will be even more advanced templates available on the internet
available for anyone with a 3D printer to use. Al-Jazeera and Ars Technica

****
**** 7 year old schoolboy is suspended for shaping pastry into a gun
****


Josh Welsh, a second grader with attention deficit disorder in
Baltimore, was suspended for "manufacturing" his own gun. He was
eating a strawberry tart, and decided to shape it into a mountain, but
apparently the result looked like a gun. The teacher became furious,
and Josh was suspended for two days. Fox News


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kenya, Raila Odinga, Luo,
Uhuru Kenyatta, Kikuyu, Jomo Kenyatta,
Chad, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Adelhamid Abou Zeid,
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, SGPC,
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM,
gun control, Cody Wilson, 3D printing, Josh Welsh

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Post#408 at 03-03-2013 11:09 AM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
****
**** Gun control talk increases public interest in 3D Printing
****


Talk of gun control, which is one of Washington's stupidest ideas, in
a city where extreme stupidity is the hallmark of everyone from the
president on down, is having more unintended consequences. It's
already been reported that gun owners and would-be gun owners
are buying up all the guns and ammunition they can find, for fear
of losing the opportunity.

When I wrote about gun control
in
December, I pointed out that there's no evidence that prohibitions in
the past -- of alcohol, drugs, abortion and prostitution -- had any
actual effect, but they had a large negative effect of creating
bootleggers, organized crime, drug cartels and prostitution rings.

I particularly mentioned that 3D printing would, within a couple
of years, allow anyone to manufacture guns in his garage or basement.
That day is arriving much more quickly as another unintended consequence
of the talk of gun control. Media attention has increased,
including a great deal of coverage by al-Jazeera on how 3D printing
would effectively end gun control in the UK.

A Texas gunsmith, Cody Wilson, last year demonstrated a 3D-printed
AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, but his work was ridiculed because the
fell apart after firing six rounds. However, Wilson has fixed the
design flaws, and has now demonstrated an AR-15 that can shoot 600
rounds without failing. He's put his entire design template on the
internet for anyone to download and use with their own 3D printers.

Manufacturing an AR-15 with a 3D printer is still an expensive affair.
The printer itself costs several thousand dollars, and then each gun
takes 9-12 hours of print time and costs $150 in materials. But
within a couple of years, those prices will have come down, and there
will be even more advanced templates available on the internet
available for anyone with a 3D printer to use. Al-Jazeera and Ars Technica
You do realize that this can only end at a point where possession of any weapon not specifically licensed will become a felony? Wide open gun ownership is destabilizing to democracy, since the most fervent gun procurers will be the most socially alienated. After the inevitable bloodbath, think Branch Dravidian standoff on steroids, The 2nd will be trashed and that will be that.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#409 at 03-03-2013 12:26 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
> You do realize that this can only end at a point where possession
> of any weapon not specifically licensed will become a felony? Wide
> open gun ownership is destabilizing to democracy, since the most
> fervent gun procurers will be the most socially alienated. After
> the inevitable bloodbath, think Branch Dravidian standoff on
> steroids, The 2nd will be trashed and that will be that.
There are a couple of issues I would have to take with these remarks.

First, fervent gun procurers are not socially alienated. There are
310 million guns already in the U.S., and to call all of the owners
socially alienated is absurd. What they are is a separate culture.
Now you can call the blacks a socially alienated group or the
evangelicals a socially alienated group or labor unions a socially
alienated group or the gun owners socially alienated. I wouldn't use
that phrase. I would just say that the gun owners are a different
culture, and that what they're alienated from is Washington and Wall
Street, especially the President of the United States, who is
incapable of opening his mouth without spewing vitriol, hatred, and
sheer stupidity. The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are to
blame as well, of course, but the country's leader is the President,
and he's leading the way in expressing loathing, malevolence, vitriol
and hatred -- and utter stupidity.

You refer to the Branch Dravidians, as if they were typical of groups
advocating or perpetrating violence. Much more typical in the 1960s
were labor unions, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and
other violent left-wing groups. In the current period, you have the
left producing a 2006 movie, "Death of a President," portraying the
assassination and murder of President Bush. You have mainstream media
types like CNN's Anderson Cooper and David Gergen who spew hatred by
referring to Tea Partiers as teabaggers, and then howling with
laughter. You have the President and mainstream media ignoring or
condoning rape and violence in OWS groups. You have Teamsters
president James Hoffa, a close advisor to the president, openly
declaring war and calling for violence against the Tea Party. The
last time he did that, the Newtown massacre occurred four days later.
And you have mass murderer Chris Dorner expressing open admiration for
left-wing media reporters, a connection which seems to have surprised
everyone but me. It's the left that's openly calling for and
condoning violence, not the right.

So yes, there may well be more bloodbaths, but history shows that
they're far more likely to be perpetrated by the left than the right,
and in this era by the President's supporters, rather than by his
opponents. That would certainly be the case in a generational
Awakening era like the 1960s and 1970s.

However in this case, we're in a Crisis era, and I would expect the
war with China to engulf the nation long before 3D printers are used
to mass produce guns.







Post#410 at 03-03-2013 08:31 PM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
There are a couple of issues I would have to take with these remarks.

First, fervent gun procurers are not socially alienated. There are 310 million guns already in the U.S., and to call all of the owners socially alienated is absurd. What they are is a separate culture. Now you can call the blacks a socially alienated group or the evangelicals a socially alienated group or labor unions a socially alienated group or the gun owners socially alienated. I wouldn't use that phrase. I would just say that the gun owners are a different culture, and that what they're alienated from is Washington and Wall Street, especially the President of the United States, who is incapable of opening his mouth without spewing vitriol, hatred, and sheer stupidity. The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are to blame as well, of course, but the country's leader is the President, and he's leading the way in expressing loathing, malevolence, vitriol and hatred -- and utter stupidity.
So I’m supposed to seriously consider the opinion of someone who thinks the President expresses, “loathing, malevolence, vitriol and hatred -- and utter stupidity”, yet considers the gun culture is bang-on (pun fully intended). Sure.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis …
You refer to the Branch Dravidians, as if they were typical of groups advocating or perpetrating violence. Much more typical in the 1960s were labor unions, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and other violent left-wing groups. In the current period, you have the left producing a 2006 movie, "Death of a President," portraying the assassination and murder of President Bush. You have mainstream media types like CNN's Anderson Cooper and David Gergen who spew hatred by referring to Tea Partiers as teabaggers, and then howling with laughter. You have the President and mainstream media ignoring or condoning rape and violence in OWS groups. You have Teamsters president James Hoffa, a close advisor to the president, openly declaring war and calling for violence against the Tea Party. The last time he did that, the Newtown massacre occurred four days later. And you have mass murderer Chris Dorner expressing open admiration for left-wing media reporters, a connection which seems to have surprised everyone but me. It's the left that's openly calling for and condoning violence, not the right.
Anyone who bundles labor unions and the Weather Underground in the same category is certainly someone to take seriously … not.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis …
So yes, there may well be more bloodbaths, but history shows that they're far more likely to be perpetrated by the left than the right, and in this era by the President's supporters, rather than by his opponents. That would certainly be the case in a generational Awakening era like the 1960s and 1970s.

However in this case, we're in a Crisis era, and I would expect the war with China to engulf the nation long before 3D printers are used to mass produce guns.
History shows bloodbaths as being the domain of the mentally ill and megalomaniacs. Neither category has an identifiable political leaning.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#411 at 03-03-2013 11:23 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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4-Mar-13 World View - Nearly 60 dead in 4 days of deadly ethnic clashes in Bangladesh

*** 4-Mar-13 World View -- Nearly 60 dead in four days of deadly ethnic clashes in Bangladesh

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Terrorist bombs target Shias in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 47
  • Nearly 60 dead in four days of deadly ethnic clashes in Bangladesh
  • The 'Harlem Shake' is shaking up the Mideast


****
**** Terrorist bombs target Shias in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 47
****



The two Karachi bombs blew apart several apartment buildings (AFP)

The Taliban terror jihad against Shia Muslims in Pakistan continued on
Sunday when two terrorist bombs, planted in a Shia neighborhood near a
Shia Muslim mosque, exploded, killing 47 and injuring hundreds. The
first bomb was planted in a vehicle and exploded via a remote signal.
The second bomb exploded shortly thereafter. Tehrik-i-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP - the Pakistan Taliban) has apparently applauded the
bombings, but claim they weren't responsible. TTP-linked
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), has been perpetrating one Shia Muslim
bloodbath after another (see "18-Feb-13 World View -- Protests boil across Pakistan after mass slaughter of Quetta Shias"
), and is suspecting of
Sunday's bombing, but they haven't yet claimed responsibility. There
is a rising fury among the Shia Muslims in Pakistan that the
government is either in league with TTP to kill Shias, or at the least
is afraid of TTP. Dawn (Karachi) and BBC

****
**** Nearly 60 dead in four days of deadly ethnic clashes in Bangladesh
****


When the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into Pakistan and India
in 1947, what is now known as Bangladesh was made part of Pakistan,
and called East Pakistan. With East and West Pakistan separated by
the vast expanse of India, the two regions didn't get along. The 1947
Partition war was a generational crisis war for (West) Pakistan, but
not for East Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan fought a liberation war
from (West) Pakistan, resulting in independence for Bangladesh. (See
"FBI will aid Bangladesh investigation of border guard officer massacre"
from March,
2009.)

But the 1971 war was actually an ethnic generational crisis civil war
between the market and government dominant Bahari minority versus the
Bengali majority. This was also a proxy war between Pakistan, who
sided with the dominant Baharis, and India, who sided with the
Bengalis. During the war, as many as 3 million people were killed,
and hundreds of thousands raped, allegedly by the Baharis, supported
by the West Pakistan army. When the war ended, the Bengalis got
revenge with brutal violence against the defeated Bahari minority,
including rapes, mutilations, butchery, torture and murder. Associated Press, December 20, 1971

Today, Bangladesh is in a generational Awakening/Unraveling era, and a
war crimes conviction, and there is a war crimes tribunal in progress
to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Hundreds of
thousands of demonstrators have been massing for weeks to protest
economic conditions. But the conviction last week of Delwar Hossain
Sayedee for war crimes in 1971 has triggered new ethnic violence.
Soldiers are being deployed to control the spreading violence between
demonstrators and police, which has resulted so far in 58 casualties.

So, (West) Pakistan is in a generational Crisis era, and we can
expect that violent attacks by Sunni Taliban-linked terrorists against
Shia Muslims to lead to a new civil war. But Bangladesh is in
an Awakening/Unraveling era, so the current clashes are expected to
fizzle before long.
Guardian (London)

****
**** The 'Harlem Shake' is shaking up the Mideast
****


The "Harlem Shake," a viral dance craze invented by Australian
teenagers a few weeks ago, is being used by protesters in Tunisia and
Egypt to demonstrate against Islamist governments. In Tunisia,
Salafists tried unsuccessfully to stop the filming of a staging of the
Harlem Shake at a Tunis school last week. However, the staging was
completed, and video footage, which shows participants smoking,
dancing wildly in uncoordinated manner and simulating sexual acts, has
spread on the Internet, attracting millions of views. Egypt's
anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters have copied the idea. A group of
Egyptians posted videos of themselves on YouTube doing the "Harlem
Shake" in front of the Giza pyramids, with one of them, wearing white
underwear and a bow tie, dancing while riding a camel. A number of
social media sites run by Salafists and other Islamist groups have
denounced the "Harlem Shake" as indecent, with participants smoking,
dancing wildly and simulating sexual acts. Middle East Online (London) and Daily Star (Beirut)


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Pakistan, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, TTP,
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, LeJ, Karachi, Quetta, Shia Muslims,
Bangladesh, Baharis, Bengalis, India, East Pakistan,
Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Australia, Harlem Shake,
Tunisia, Egypt, Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood

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Post#412 at 03-04-2013 08:18 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
> Anyone who bundles labor unions and the Weather Underground in the
> same category is certainly someone to take seriously … not.
In September, 2011, Teamsters president James Hoffa was the person
giving the speech to introduce the next speaker, who was President
Obama. During his speech introducing the president, he said the
following, referring to the Tea Party:

<QUOTE>"We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons
of bitches out and give America back to an America where we
belong."<END QUOTE>

President Obama has never criticized this violent threat, nor has ANY
other Democrat, but instead has actually magnified the violent threat
by making his own disparaging remarks directed at the Tea Party.
Someone with a gun and a disturbed mind might well believe that Obama
was calling for violence against Tea Partiers.

In December 2012, a pro-union politician in Wisconsin said "there will
be blood" to threaten his opponents. After that, union thugs
assaulted a Fox news reporter, and also violently tore down a tent set
up by conservative organization Americans for Prosperity.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/12/...will-be-blood/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...s-in-michigan/

http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/best...will-be-blood/

Once again, there was no comment from President Obama or from ANY
Democrat decrying the violence. On the contrary, he magnified the
effect of the violence by ignoring the violence on his behalf, as he
took the side of the unions in opposing right-to-work legislation.
Someone with a gun and an unstable mind might well believe that Obama
and his union thug supporters were calling for violence for anyone who
opposes Obama.

Four days later, the Newtown massacre occurred.

See also:
** 26-Dec-12 World View -- Andrew Sullivan and the Gun Control Fantasy
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/...121226#e121226







Post#413 at 03-04-2013 11:58 AM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
In September, 2011, Teamsters president James Hoffa was the person giving the speech to introduce the next speaker, who was President Obama. During his speech introducing the president, he said the following, referring to the Tea Party:
<QUOTE>"We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong."<END QUOTE>

President Obama has never criticized this violent threat, nor has ANY other Democrat, but instead has actually magnified the violent threat by making his own disparaging remarks directed at the Tea Party. Someone with a gun and a disturbed mind might well believe that Obama was calling for violence against Tea Partiers.
Football coaches use similar language, but they rarely if ever mean "kill the other team". You're a sophisticated guy. To misrepresent this as a death threat is the worst kind of hyperbole.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
In December 2012, a pro-union politician in Wisconsin said "there will be blood" to threaten his opponents. After that, union thugs assaulted a Fox news reporter, and also violently tore down a tent set up by conservative organization Americans for Prosperity.
This was covered in depth at the time, and the "assault" was overblown hype. You might be able to criticize tearing down the tent. Maybe.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
Once again, there was no comment from President Obama or from ANY Democrat decrying the violence. On the contrary, he magnified the effect of the violence by ignoring the violence on his behalf, as he took the side of the unions in opposing right-to-work legislation. Someone with a gun and an unstable mind might well believe that Obama and his union thug supporters were calling for violence for anyone who opposes Obama.

Four days later, the Newtown massacre occurred.
Project much?
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#414 at 03-04-2013 11:53 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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5-Mar-13 WV-China defends its booming military spending as promoting global peace

*** 5-Mar-13 World View -- China defends its booming military spending as promoting global peace

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • 30 million locusts descend on Egypt in 'Biblical' plague
  • China defends its booming military spending as promoting global peace
  • China's anti-ship missile a game-changer, despite Western disbelief


****
**** 30 million locusts descend on Egypt in 'Biblical' plague
****



Locust swarms in the Canaries (AFP)

Some 30 million locusts came to Egypt over the weekend, destroying
crops on tens of thousands of acres of farmland. A particularly bad
swarm infested a major Cairo market on Saturday. They appear to have
originated in Sudan and traveled up the Red Sea coast to Egypt,
Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. Worldwide, global damage from locusts in a
single year can reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Locusts feed
on a wide variety of plant species – including leaves, flowers, fruit,
seeds and tree bark. One ton of locusts -- a small part of a locust
pack -- can consume enough food meant for 2,500 people. Next in line
for the locusts could be Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, and all three
countries have been put on alert. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Jerusalem Post

****
**** China defends its booming military spending as promoting global peace
****


At the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
National Committee opened its annual meeting on Monday, China defended
its booming military spending and massive military buildup saying that
they contributed to global peace and stability. According to a
spokesman:

<QUOTE>"As such a big country, China's inability to ensure
its own security would not be good news for the world. Our
strengthening of our defense is to defend ourselves, to defend
security and peace, and not to threaten other
countries."<END QUOTE>

China has not yet announced its military budget for 2013, but is
expected to do so as early as Tuesday. Military spending has grown
substantially each year for more than 20 years, and last year rose
11.2 percent to $106.4 billion an increase of about 67 billion.
However, the Pentagon believes that China's military budget is
substantially higher than China is claiming. AP

****
**** China's anti-ship missile a game-changer, despite Western disbelief
****


China’s DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is no longer merely
an aspiration. Beijing has already successfully developed, partially
tested and deployed in small numbers the world’s first weapons system
capable of targeting American aircraft carriers from long-range,
land-based mobile launchers. Beijing expects to achieve a growing
degree of deterrence with it. What is perhaps most surprising is the
foreign skepticism and denial that has accompanied the DF-21D, though
officials were in similar denial about many things prior to World War
II. China has tested all the DF-21 components over land, but the
ability to employ it against a moving, uncooperative sea-surface
target remains unproven. China may be avoiding making such a test,
for fear of alarming all of China's neighbors. The U.S. has defensive
weapons to counter a DF-21 attack, but sequestration could hinder
efforts to maintain and enhance those defenses. =40542&tx_ttnews[backPid]=25]Jamestown


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Egypt, locusts, Jordan, Israel,
China, DF21, anti-ship ballistic missile,
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, CPPCC

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Post#415 at 03-05-2013 10:39 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
> You do realize that this can only end at a point where possession
> of any weapon not specifically licensed will become a felony? Wide
> open gun ownership is destabilizing to democracy, since the most
> fervent gun procurers will be the most socially alienated. After
> the inevitable bloodbath, think Branch Dravidian standoff on
> steroids, The 2nd will be trashed and that will be that.
Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
> Football coaches use similar language, but they rarely if ever
> mean "kill the other team". You're a sophisticated guy. To
> misrepresent this as a death threat is the worst kind of
> hyperbole. ...

> This was covered in depth at the time, and the "assault" was
> overblown hype. You might be able to criticize tearing down the
> tent. Maybe. ...

> Project much?
You certainly are proving my point for me.

You refer to gun owners as "socially alienated" who are "destabilizing
to democracy," and who will produce "the inevitable bloodbath."

You make this ridiculous statement without presenting any evidence
whatsoever. It reflects nothing but your own biases.

When Gabrielle Giffords was shot, people in your camp immediatedly
blamed Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, with no evidence whatsoever,
based on their own bias, hatred and bigotry. These accusations went
on for week after week after week, and I still hear an occasional
similar accusation, even though there's zero evidence.

Now, when I present you with actual statements and behavior of union
officials who declare war on the Tea Party, and who violently assault
President Obama's political opponents, once when it happened four days
before the Newtown massacre, you call it "hyperbole" and "projecting."

And yet, through all of that, you never once take this opportunity to
criticize the left for violent threats and assaults, and you never
criticize the left for using "hyperbole" or "projecting" in making
completely unsubstantiated accusations and implied accusations against
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party -- which isn't surprising, since you do
the same kind of thing yourself.

Instead of criticizing these people, you excuse, condone and support
their actions, and then criticize me and call me names for merely
quoting them and describing their actions.

But don't worry, you're in good company, with our country's President,
who evidently believes that violence is perfectly OK as long as it's
perpetrated by his supporters and targets his political opponents.
That kind of violence is evidently "civil," while his political
opponents are "uncivil."

Once again, to refer to the original point, if there is going to be a
bloodbath in this country, it's far more likely to be perpetrated by
the left than the right.







Post#416 at 03-05-2013 02:47 PM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
You certainly are proving my point for me.

You refer to gun owners as "socially alienated" who are "destabilizing to democracy," and who will produce "the inevitable bloodbath."

You make this ridiculous statement without presenting any evidence whatsoever. It reflects nothing but your own biases.
No, I'm concerned about the people who would buy a $10,000 3D printer, so they can make as many guns as they wish. Unless they're planning on a militia of their own, it would be far cheaper, and the products much better, if they went to the gun store to buy what they want. That they may choose otherwise is instructive, and not in a good way.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
When Gabrielle Giffords was shot, people in your camp immediatedly blamed Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, with no evidence whatsoever, based on their own bias, hatred and bigotry. These accusations went on for week after week after week, and I still hear an occasional similar accusation, even though there's zero evidence.
I blamed Sarah Palin for being an idiot who thought she could run the country. For the Gabby Giffords shooting, and plenty of others, I blame the NRA and its numerous mindless syncophants. If Sarah is inside that tent, she gets some moinor blame ... along with the rest.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
Now, when I present you with actual statements and behavior of union officials who declare war on the Tea Party, and who violently assault President Obama's political opponents, once when it happened four days before the Newtown massacre, you call it "hyperbole" and "projecting."
Yes I did and still do.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
And yet, through all of that, you never once take this opportunity to criticize the left for violent threats and assaults, and you never criticize the left for using "hyperbole" or "projecting" in making completely unsubstantiated accusations and implied accusations against Sarah Palin and the Tea Party -- which isn't surprising, since you do the same kind of thing yourself.
I'm against the use of force in all cases. The Weather Underground and the Black Panthers reserved their share in their time. I don't see any orgainzed leftist groups doing that today, though. Today, the revolutinary gun rhetoric is all originating on the right, though most of the actors are wacknuts of no political persuassion ... at least nonr known to the public.

Then again, only the Tea Party would be proud that a guy came to a Presidential rally carrying an assault rifle. That tis was the act of a rational guy, with taling points as to why it was important, make it even scarier. No, it's not all right to meander in publiic armed to the teeth.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
Instead of criticizing these people, you excuse, condone and support their actions, and then criticize me and call me names for merely quoting them and describing their actions.

But don't worry, you're in good company, with our country's President, who evidently believes that violence is perfectly OK as long as it's perpetrated by his supporters and targets his political opponents. That kind of violence is evidently "civil," while his political opponents are "uncivil."
If this is a reference to drone attacks, then i condemn them as much as you do (assuming you do, of course). If it's a vailed reference to some other activity, then you'l need to be more specific.

Quote Originally Posted by Xenakis ...
Once again, to refer to the original point, if there is going to be a bloodbath in this country, it's far more likely to be perpetrated by the left than the right.
Based on what evidence? Who is armed? Who has the desire?
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#417 at 03-05-2013 02:59 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
For the Gabby Giffords shooting, and plenty of others, I blame the NRA and its numerous mindless syncophants.
This is absolutely moronic. You saying it proves my point, and makes further discussion pointless.







Post#418 at 03-05-2013 03:55 PM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
This is absolutely moronic. You saying it proves my point, and makes further discussion pointless.
In a country where it's harder to buy a beer than a Beretta, moronic is an understatement.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#419 at 03-05-2013 04:31 PM by Justin '77 [at Meh. joined Sep 2001 #posts 12,182]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
In a country where it's harder to buy a beer than a Beretta...
Saudi Arabia? Yemen?

I can't figure which country you're talking about there, what with how every country I've ever spent time around has beer on sale in practically every corner market and grocery store, but guns for sale (if they are at all) only in very tightly controlled, zoning-restricted places. I figure it must be somewhere that alcohol is actually strictly controlled...
"Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela, la loi ? On peut donc ętre dehors. Je ne comprends pas. Quant ŕ moi, suis-je dans la loi ? suis-je hors la loi ? Je n'en sais rien. Mourir de faim, est-ce ętre dans la loi ?" -- Tellmarch

"Человек не может снять с себя ответственности за свои поступки." - L. Tolstoy

"[it]
is no doubt obvious, the cult of the experts is both self-serving, for those who propound it, and fraudulent." - Noam Chomsky







Post#420 at 03-05-2013 07:27 PM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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Quote Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon View Post
> In a country where it's harder to buy a beer than a Beretta,
> moronic is an understatement.
I personally don't buy either beer or Berettas, so I asked a couple of
people who know about such things, and they tell me that it's
infinitely easier to buy a beer than a Beretta.







Post#421 at 03-05-2013 07:43 PM by pbrower2a [at "Michigrim" joined May 2005 #posts 15,016]
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Pirates against the People's Republic of China... executed for murder in the Mekong River.

Sai Naw Kham (8 November 1969 – 1 March 2013) was the leader of a major drug trafficking gang in the Golden Triangle, a major drugs-smuggling area where the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand converge. He was formerly a subordinate associate of Khun Sa, a major Burmese drug lord who surrendered to the Burmese government in 1996 in exchange for amnesty. Naw's gang numbered in the hundreds and included members of Khun Sa's former paramilitary forces, along with ethnic rebels. On 21 September 2012, Naw Kham pled guilty at the Intermediate People's Court in Kunming, Yunnan to the murders of thirteen Chinese sailors killed during the Mekong River massacre. He and three of his subordinates were sentenced to death. On 26 December 2012, the Yunnan Higher Court rejected Naw Kham's appeals, upholding the death penalties.

At its height, Naw Kham's militia, the Hawngleuk Militia (a Burmese people's militia force) had 100 members and was based out of Tachileik, near the Thai-Burmese border. The militia was involved in trafficking of methamphetamine and heroin, kidnapping, murder, racketeering and banditry in the Mekong River area. Over the years, Naw Kham generated an estimated $63 million USD in income through his crimes. After the Mekong River massacre in October 2011 and subsequent backlash from the Chinese, Laotian officials arrested Naw Kham and extradited him to China on 10 May 2012. Then in the July 2012 raids of Naw Kham's militia bases, Burmese authorities seized over 600,000 methamphetamine pills and 120 bars of heroin. Hunting for Naw Kham, the Chinese "special task group" has used new technologies such as the Beidou System according to the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China. Because of the gang's remote hiding area is difficult to reach, even a UAV "execution operation" was once proposed.

Naw Kham was excuted by lethal injection in Kunming on 1 March 2013 together with his three subordinates: Hsang Kham from Thailand, Yi Lai, stateless, and Zha Xika, a Laotian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naw_Kham

(My comment: Commit terrorist murders of Chinese citizens -- and DIE!).
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."


― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters







Post#422 at 03-05-2013 11:36 PM by Marx & Lennon [at '47 cohort still lost in Falwelland joined Sep 2001 #posts 16,715]
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03-05-2013, 11:36 PM #422
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Quote Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis View Post
I personally don't buy either beer or Berettas, so I asked a couple of people who know about such things, and they tell me that it's infinitely easier to buy a beer than a Beretta.
That was intended as humor, though the comparison isn't that far off. There is a gun show going most weekends somewhere close, and gun buying is extremely easy - even for the less than fully mature buyer. At least they might get carded buying beer.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.







Post#423 at 03-06-2013 12:07 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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03-06-2013, 12:07 AM #423
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6-Mar-13 World View -- Venezuela's mestizo president Hugo Chavez dies of cancer

*** 6-Mar-13 World View -- Venezuela's mestizo president Hugo Chavez dies of cancer

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez dies of cancer at 58
  • Venezuela accuses America of conspiracy to kill Hugo Chávez
  • Chávez became a hero to the mestizo majority


****
**** Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez dies of cancer at 58
****



Hugo Chávez (Trome)

Venezuela's people were stunned Tuesday by the news from vice
president Nicolas Maduro that president Hugo Chávez had died. Maduro
cried and had tears running down his face as he announced that Chávez
died at 4:25 pm local time (3:55 pm ET) "after battling hard against
an illness for nearly two years." Chávez has not appeared in public
since his fourth cancer treatment in Cuba in December. When he
returned to Venezuela on February 11, his supporters were overjoyed,
though some wondered if he was returning home to die. It now appears
that was the case, although the reason for his death was not
announced.

According to Venezuela's constitution, there must be a new election
within 30 days. The military has announced that will enforce the
constitution, and not permit chaos to ensue. Chávez has previously
anointed Maduro as his successor. Maduro is a hard-core anti-American
socialist like Chávez, but he's entirely lacking in Chávez's charisma.
The man that Chávez defeated in last year's election, the youthful
Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, is expected to run against
Maduro.

Chávez has said that he considers Cuba's Fidel Castro to be like a
father to him, and a lot of people expected Chávez to live longer than
Castro, who is still alive but unwell. The two socialists forged a
close relationship, especially when Cuba's rich sponsor, the Soviet
Union, collapsed, ending Russian subsidies to Cuba. But Venezuela
stepped in with its own subsidies. Maduro will undoubtedly wish to
continue the subsidies to Cuba, but without Chávez's charisma, and
with a faltering Venezuelan economy, he may be forced to back down.
AP and BBC

****
**** Venezuela accuses America of conspiracy to kill Hugo Chávez
****


Several hours prior to the death of Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez,
vice president Nicolas Maduro gave a vitriolic press conference
blaming "imperial forces," particularly from the United States, of a
conspiracy to kill Chávez. The accusation stems from remarks made by
Chávez himself in December 2011. Chávez made his remarks the day
after Argentina's president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced
she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Recent years have seen a
series of leftwing Latin America leaders diagnosed with cancer,
including Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, Paraguay's Fernando
Lugo, and the former Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to Chávez, in a speech broadcast on live TV:

<QUOTE>"Would it be so strange that they've invented the
technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50
years?

I don't know but ... it is very odd than we have seen Lugo affected
by cancer, Dilma when she was [presidential] candidate, me, going
into an election year, not long ago Lula and now Cristina.

It is very hard to explain, even with the law of probabilities,
what has been happening to some leaders in Latin America. It's at
the very least strange, very strange. Evo take care of
yourself. Correa, be careful. We just don't know.

Fidel always told me, 'Chávez take care. These people have
developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you
eat, what they give you to eat ... a little needle and they inject
you with I don't know what.'"<END QUOTE>

According to Maduro on Tuesday, there will be an investigation to see
whether Chávez was inoculated with the cancer that killed him. Maduro
announced that one of the alleged conspirators, US Defense Attaché
David del Mónaco, was the mastermind of the plot, and "He has been
evicted; he has 24 hours to leave Venezuela; our armed forces should
be respected; we have forwarded a legal notice to the US government."
El Universal and Guardian (December 2011)

****
**** Chávez became a hero to the mestizo majority
****


Racism is a big problem throughout Latin America, based on three
population sources: The indigenous "Amerindians" that have been around
for centuries prior to 1492; Christopher Columbus made his first visit
in 1492, and led the European invasion and colonization of Latin
America; and black Africans were brought into Latin America originally
as slaves. Intermarriage among these groups has dulled the
boundaries. Offspring of European-African marriages are called
"mulattos," and offspring of European-Amerindian marriages are called
"mestizos." Of course, further intermarriage dulled even these
divisions, and in Venezuela today, the word "mestizo" for anyone who
isn't a "pure" European white. (There's also a "pure" indigenous
population, but it's small, around 2%.)

The Spanish colonized and took control of most of Latin America.
The first leader to defeat the Spanish was Simón Bolívar. Here's
a brief history of Simón Bolívar from the Bolivar, Missouri,
web site:

<QUOTE>"Simon Bolivar (1783-1830)

Simon Bolivar was one of South America's greatest generals. His
victories over the Spaniards won independence for Bolivia, Panama,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. He is called El Liberator
(The Liberator) and the "George Washington of South America."

Bolivar was born in July 24, 1783, at Caracas, Venezuela. His
parents died when he was a child and he inherited a fortune. As a
young man, he traveled in Europe.

As he returned to Venezuela, Bolivar joined the group of patriots
that seized Caracas in 1810 and proclaimed independence from
Spain. He went to Great Britain in search of aid, but could get
only a promise of British neutrality. When he returned to
Venezuela, and took command of a patriot army, he recaptured
Caracas in 1813 from the Spaniards.

The Spaniards forced Bolivar to retreat from Venezuela to New
Granada (now Colombia), also at war with Spain. He took command
of a Colombian force and captured Bogota in 1814. The patriots,
however, lacked men and supplies, and new defeats led Bolivar to
flee to Jamaica. In Haiti he gathered a force that landed in
Venezuela in 1816, and took Angostra (now Ciudad Bolivar). He
also became dictator there.

Bolivar marched into New Granada in 1819. He defeated the
Spaniards in Boyar in 1819, liberating the territory of Colombia.
He then returned to Angostura and led the congress that organized
the original republic of Colombia (now Ecuador, Colombia, Panama,
and Venezuela). Bolivar became its first president on December
17, 1819.

Bolivar crushed the Spanish army at Carabobo in Venezuela on June
24, 1821. Next, he marched into Ecuador and added that territory
to the new Colombian republic. After a meeting in 1822 with
another great liberator, Bolivar became dictator of Peru. His
army won a victory over the Spaniards at Auacucho in 1824, which
needed Spanish power in South America. Upper Peru became a
separate state, named Bolivia in Bolivar's honor, in 1825. The
constitution, which he drew up for Bolivia, is one of his most
important political pronouncements."<END QUOTE>

Venezuela's last crisis war was shared with Colombia, where most of
the genocide and destruction took place. It took place from 1948-58,
and was known as "La Violencia," or the Colombian Revolt. More than
200,000 persons lost their lives and more than a billion dollars of
property damage was done.

Until the last few decades, Venezuelan social structure was quite
rigidly organized along class and racial lines, with a small number of
direct white European descendants as a market and government dominant
minority. Hugo Chávez, himself a mestizo, considered himself to be
the new Simón Bolívar, and began the Bolivarian movement in the 1990s.
He defeated the élite European descendants, and used Venezuela's oil
wealth to make himself a hero to the mestizo majority. Country Studies - Venezuela and Bolivar history and On War - La Violencia



KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, Nicolas Maduro,
Cuba, Fidel Castro, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, David del Mónaco,
Christopher Columbus, Amerindians, mulattos, mestizos,
Simón Bolívar, Colombia, La Violencia

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Post#424 at 03-07-2013 12:06 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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7-Mar-13 World View-China's Wen Jiabao warns of unrest and environmental destruction

*** 7-Mar-13 World View -- China's Wen Jiabao warns of unrest and widespread environmental destruction

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • China's Wen Jiabao warns of corruption and widespread environmental destruction
  • China announces big increase in domestic security budget
  • Syrian refugees top 1 million, flooding into neighboring countries
  • Arab League opens the door to arming Syrian rebels


****
**** China's Wen Jiabao warns of corruption and widespread environmental destruction
****



Beijing's belching smokestacks viewed from Tiananmen Square (Reuters)

In 2007, China's premier Wen Jiabao famously said that China is 'unsteady, unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable
. In this week's speech, the
outgoing premier indicated that things have only gotten worse, with
widespread environmental destruction, a widening gap between rich and
poor, and endemic official corruption:

<QUOTE>"Some of these problems have built up over time, while
others have emerged in the course of economic and social
development, and still others have been caused by inadequacies and
weaknesses in our government work."<END QUOTE>

Mao Zedong in 1949 said:

<QUOTE> "I hope the day will come when all you can see from
Tiananmen Gate is a forest of tall chimneys belching out clouds of
smoke."<END QUOTE>

Mao's dreams have become a reality, as Beijing's skyline has many
chimneys belching smoke. China uses coal for 70% of all its energy
needs, and consumes about as much coal as all other countries
combined.

But be careful what you wish for, because China's environmental
destruction has become increasingly noticeable and severe. According
to one expert:

<QUOTE>"The biggest development in China lately has been the
seepage of pollution into the ground water. Large-scale
contamination of the water table is a terrible thing that will
harm future generations, and the whole world, because ground-water
pollution is very hard to clean up, and hugely expensive, and
takes a very long time."<END QUOTE>

Even worse is the air pollution. In January, Bejing fine particle
pollution rose to such high levels -- 20 times the "safe" level --
that it was difficult to breathe outdoors, and people were warned to
stay indoors. In one city, a furniture factory burned down because
the air was so thick with pollution that security guards didn't notice
the smoke. Many of the country's rivers are so polluted that
authorities do not permit residents to even touch the water, not to
mention use it to irrigate fields. Fruit and grain grown in the
country's contaminated and over-fertilized soil contains massive
amounts of pollutants, and are unsafe to eat. (Some of them are
imported into the U.S.)

Although Chinese bloggers are still angry about corruption, and the
widening gap between rich and poor, the issue of environmental
destruction has leapfrogged those issues, to the extent that the fury
over toxic air, food and drinking water marks a political turning
point. Radio Free Asia and Spiegel

****
**** China announces big increase in domestic security budget
****


China's history is filled with huge, massive internal rebellions
(civil wars), the most recent of which were the Taiping Rebellion
(1850-64) and Mao's Communist Revolution (1934-49). The leaders of
China's Communist Party (CCP) are well aware of this history, and the
fact that a new internal rebellion is now due, and possibly overdue.

In the same speech that China's outgoing premier Wen Jiabao expressed
grave concern about widespread environmental destruction, a widening
gap between rich and poor, and endemic official corruption, he
announced that military spending will rise 10% to $114 billion and,
more significantly, he announced that spending for "domestic security"
will rise to an even higher figure, $124 billion.

The increase underscores the CCP's fears of increasing popular unrest.
The number of "mass incidents" of unrest recorded by the Chinese
government grew from 8,700 in 1993 to about 90,000 in 2010, according
to several government-backed studies. Some estimates are higher, and
the government has not released official data for recent years.

People sometimes ask me how it's possible for China to be preparing
both for a civil war and an external war with the United States. The
answer is provided by looking back at World War II. China was
embroiled in a very bloody civil war from 1934 to 1949, but the two
sides temporarily united to fight the external war. Reuters

****
**** Syrian refugees top 1 million, flooding into neighboring countries
****


The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) has identified Bushra,
a 19-year-old mother of two, as the one-millionth Syrian refugee to
register with the council. She signed up along with her 4-year-old
daughter Batoul, and her 2-year-old son, Omar. Nearly 4 million of
Syria's 22 million people have been driven from their homes by the
civil war. Of the displaced, 2 million have sought cover in camps and
makeshift shelters across Syria, 1 million have registered with UNHCR
in neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, and several
hundred thousand more fled the country but haven't signed up with the
UNHCR. Even worse, the number of refugees has been increasing every
month. There were some 4,000 per day in December, and now it's close
to 8,000 per day. This situation is creating an increasing crisis for
neighboring countries, which are unable to handle the flood of
refugees. AP

****
**** Arab League opens the door to arming Syrian rebels
****


With the flood of Syrian refugees threatening to destabilize the
entire region, on Wednesday the Arab League for the first time voted
to say that Arab States are free to offer military support to Syrian
rebels. Previously, the League had said that only humanitarian aid
should be provided. According to the final statement,

<QUOTE>"[The League] stressed the right of each state
according to its wishes to offer all types of self defense,
including military, to support the resilience of the Syrian people
and the Free [Syrian] Army."<END QUOTE>

In addition, the Arab League offered the opposition Syrian National
Coalition (SNC) to occupy Syria's seat at the League. Syria was
expelled from the League shortly in November 2011, after it became
clear that the regime of president Bashar al-Assad was conducting an
extermination policy, targeting innocent people in their homes,
hospitals and schools. It's been rumored that Qatar and Saudi Arabia
have been secretly supplying weapons to the Syrian rebels for some
time, but this is the first time that supplying weapons has been
openly approved. As we've been reporting, Syria is increasingly
turning into a proxy war. The National (UAE)


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Wen Jiabao, Mao Zedong,
Taiping Rebellion, Communist Revolution,
United Nations Human Rights Council, UNHCR, Syria,
Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt,
Arab League, Syrian National Council, SNC,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia

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Post#425 at 03-08-2013 12:03 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,012]
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8-Mar-13 World View -- N. Korea threatens death to America for U.N. Security Council

*** 8-Mar-13 World View -- N. Korea threatens death to America for U.N. Security Council vote

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • N. Korea threatens death to America for U.N. Security Council vote
  • Venezuela's Hugo Chávez's body will be kept on permanent display


****
**** N. Korea threatens death to America for U.N. Security Council vote
****



N. Korean rally in Pyongyang in front of billboard that depicts a large bayonet pointing at U.S. soldiers and reads, 'If you dare invade, only death will be waiting for you!' (AP)

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on
Thursday imposing new restrictions on North Korea in the areas of
travel, banking and trade. The sanctions were imposed as punishment
for N. Korea's recent tests of long-range missiles and nuclear
weapons, in violation of United Nations resolutions. Even China
supported the new resolution, having frequently expressed its
strong disapproval of the tests.

In the last few days, N. Korea's public rhetoric has been getting
increasingly shrill. First, they've said that they're canceling the
1945 armistice agreement that ended the fighting in the Korean War,
even though we've technically still been at war ever since. It
threatened "precision nuclear strikes" that will create a "sea of
fire." And on Thursday it threatened to "exercise the right to a
preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors
and to defend the supreme interests of the country."

Would North Korea actually go ahead and launch a nuclear attack on
either South Korea or the U.S. (assuming that it's really capable of
doing so)? Many analysts point out that any such attack would be met
with massive counterstrikes by both countries. In fact, the South
Korea government announced on Thursday that in case of any provocation,
they would target the highest ranks of the North Korean regime:

<QUOTE>"When we refer to command, it usually signifies
divisional or corps commanders. But if Seoul comes under attack,
the top levels of North Korea's regime including [leader] Kim
Jong-un could become targets."<END QUOTE>

However, we have some recent history that suggests a different
scenario. In 2010, North Korean launched two separate attacks on
South Korea, one a missile attack that sank a South Korean warship in
international waters, and another that killed civilians on an offshore
island. In both cases, N. Korea simply denied that they were
responsible, and China backed them, even though no one doubted what
they had done. The N. Korean denial gave cover to the South Koreans
to back down and not retaliate in any way. So the N. Koreans simply
got away with these deadly attacks on S. Korea.

So one could imagine that the N. Koreans learned a simple lesson from
all this: If you're going to launch some kind of nuclear attack on
S. Korea or the U.S., then do it in such a way as to preserve
deniability, and you'll get away with it. And the way to do it and
preserve deniability is to smuggle some kind of nuclear device into
the target area and set it off remotely. There will be weeks or
months of forensic investigations to prove that the N. Koreans did it,
but in the end, the proof will never be 100% certain, and the Chinese
will back them. LA Times and Chosun Ilbo (Seoul)

****
**** Venezuela's Hugo Chávez's body will be kept on permanent display
****


Following the death of Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez,
acting president Nicolas Maduro said:

<QUOTE>"I want to tell the nation and the world ... it has
been decided to prepare the body of the comandante president,
embalm it, so it can be eternally open for the people to have it
there always.

So, like Ho Chi Minh, like Lenin, like Mao Zedong, the body of our
commander-in-chief will remain embalmed ... for our people to be
able to have him forever."<END QUOTE>

The glass tomb will rest forever inside a future Museum of the
Bolivarian Revolution.

One of the most amazing things about this situation is that the
mainstream press is totally oblivious to what's going on here. I've
heard one commentator after another express amazement at how wildly
and enthusiastically beloved Chávez was, even after over a decade in
office. I heard words like "unbelievable" and "it's a conundrum."

That's why when I wrote the article reporting Chávez's death,
I emphasized that he was a mestizo (mixed
blood), and that he was a hero to the other mestizos, comprising about
70% of Venezuelan population. Racial feelings run very deep in Latin
America, and that 70% majority had been oppressed for decades by the
"pure" European descendant élite minority, who had control of the
government and businesses until Chávez was able to defeat them -- just
as Simón Bolívar had defeated them two centuries ago. That's why
Chávez was so wildly popular, even after over a decade in office:
Because as badly as he messed things up in Venezuela, he was still
considered hugely beloved since he had defeated the European
oppressors.

As I understand it, Chávez has left a major bombshell behind for his
successor. He won reelection for president last year, and he did so
by borrowing huge sums of money, putting Venezuela very deeply in
debt, and used the money to buy votes. The constitution calls for a
new election within 30 days, and Chávez's anointed successor, Nicolas
Maduro, is expected to win. He'll have to deal with the debt
bombshell, and he doesn't have even a fraction of the charisma of
Chávez. Latin American Herald Tribune


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Security Council, North Korea, China,
Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, Nicolas Maduro, Simón Bolívar

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