RTSat, 03 May 2014 14:33 UTC
© Reuters
39 anti-government activists have died in a fire at Odessa's Trade Unions House. Some burned to death, while others suffocated or jumped out of windows, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported. The building was set ablaze by pro-Kiev radicals.
[WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT INSIDE]A total of 46 people have died in Odessa's violence on Friday and almost 200 others have sustained injuries, Odessa Region prosecutor Igor Borshulyak told journalists on Saturday.
39 of the dead lost their lives in the fire at the Odessa Trade Unions House, according to the Ukrainian emergencies agency.
"31 of the dead were found inside the building, eight more were found outside by law enforcement officers," the agency's statement reads.
© Fred Lum/The Globe and MailQueens Park, home of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
A gap in transparency has allowed millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts to be awarded to friends and allies of political operatives in Ontario without the checks, balances and disclosures that accompany a public tendering process.
A Globe and Mail review has found a pattern of payments, about which little information is available, involving a tight circle of advisers that surrounded former premier Dalton McGuinty during his time in office. Among them were payments of more than $50,000 in the same year to two different companies in the name of the former premier's campaign director; money repeatedly directed to a high-profile strategist through his then-wife's business; and more than $300,000 paid to a former chief of staff shortly after he was pushed out of his job.
While there is no indication that any of the transactions were illegitimate, the lack of transparency makes it difficult to determine what services were provided at taxpayers' expense.
© Alexei Nikolsky/AP
Between the anti-Russian propaganda pouring forth from the Obama administration and the deeply biased coverage from the U.S. news media, the American people are being prepared to accept and perhaps even cheer a massacre of eastern Ukrainians who have risen up against the coup regime in Kiev.
The protesters who have seized government buildings in ten towns in eastern Ukraine are being casually dubbed "terrorists" by both the Kiev regime and some American journalists. Meanwhile, it's become conventional wisdom in Official Washington to assume that the protesters are led by Russian special forces because of some dubious photographs of armed men, accepted as "proof" with few questions asked by the mainstream U.S. news media.
© Forexcrunch.com
I have stated in my rants and several previous articles the obvious about the insane push for war by the criminal US administration... They are now running scared and know that their days are numbered due to the potential total collapse of the US economy that could happen as early as this coming summer!
To help people understand the insanity of the US government, and their push for World War III to basically save their collective butts, I want to present the following very important article from the
Voice Of Russia website, at
www.voiceofrussia.com. This important article again shows clear evidence and exactly what I have been saying for a very long time that the US administration will indeed cause World War III to occur just to divert the American public's attention away from their own collapsing economy! Here is that article right here for everyone to view for themselves... My thoughts and comments to follow:
© Jewel Samad/AFP/GettyBarack Obama at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
The US president, Barack Obama, joked about the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and issues much closer to home as he headlined the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night.
The annual tradition has the president mocking others and himself as celebrities mingle with journalists and politicians.
Obama made fun of conservative television hosts' talk about Putin's bare chest and a comment from one last year about Putin being headed for a Nobel peace prize. "
To be fair, they give those to just about anybody these days," said Obama, who received the prize in 2009.
The president also joked about opposition claims that he had been born overseas rather than in the United States. Looking ahead to a possible successor, Obama said it will be a lot harder for Republicans to prove that Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Kenya.
Comment: If you want a glimpse into the American mindset and character, look no further than the annual White House Correspondents' dinner! While a leader like Vladimir Putin annually spends several hours answering ordinary peoples' questions, the American president makes bad jokes, ridiculing real issues and poking fun at things that should be taken very seriously. WMD, drones, death and destruction are all fair game for the glib 'leader of the free world'! If Obama had a SHRED of real decency, he would return his Nobel prize and start doing community service.
Oliver Darcy
The BlazeWed, 23 Apr 2014 11:42 UTC
© InstagramHe's surfed in Hawaii
Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) appears to be living quite the life - at least judging by his Instagram. Despite the congressman locking down his account earlier this year and switching it to private, he has still continued to post photos from his adventures around the world.
Here is Rep. Schock's incredible past year, as told by his Instagram account.
© Lukas Coch/AAPThe attorney general, George Brandis, says it is a misconception that the present act prohibits racial vilification.
The federal government is planning a major revision of the Racial Discrimination Act, removing the provisions that make it an offence to "offend, insult and humiliate", while introducing an offence of "vilification" on the grounds of race, and widening the exemptions for public debate.
The draft amendments immediately gave rise to a fierce debate. The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said they were liable "to give a green light to some forms of racism". The amendments will be open for public comment for a month.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, told parliament the government deplored racism. "We want to maintain the red light for bigotry but remove the amber light for free speech," Abbott said. "All of us deplore racism. We deplore bigotry. We want all of us to be our best selves."
The Latest and Biggest Battle Between East and West Converges in the UkraineThere have been many wars - terrible wars - fought on Planet Earth over the past 100 years. However, the greatest war of them all could literally be around the corner, unless it is stopped by the people of this planet. The epic confrontation in the Ukraine presents the most dangerous and unprecedented conflict between the world's superpowers since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Truly, this clash between East and West represents an economic, political and religious battleground that will dwarf every other war save WWI and WWII. If the conflict in the Ukraine is not resolved peacefully, it has the potential of evolving into a full blown World War III scenario.
That may sound like hyperbole until you read what is truly at stake for both sides of this War of the Titans. There is a very serious settling of scores going on with this intensifying skirmish that has multiple roots in history. On the one side, the real perpetrators want to get even as they so often do. On the other side, there is the inexorable force of destiny which compels them to assume a courageous stance toward a seemingly intractable situation.
The Ukraine conflict is fundamentally a war between East and West, between radically different cultures, different races, different religious orientations, and between very different people. Because of the profound lack of understanding on the part of the West, as well as the desperate agenda which they are fully committed to, it appears that this war will play out in some fashion no matter what. That doesn't mean the world will once again be drenched in a hail of bullets and bombs. The post-modern battlefield often migrates into the economic sectors and financial realms, as this one has with the imposition of the Anglo-American sanction regime.
Comment: Not a bad analysis. However, given what is known about the likely psychopathological state of mind of those engineering crises such as the latest in the Eurasian Heartland, it's improbable that they are
aware of the global dangers their actions present, and that they
actively seek out cataclysmic events to 'fend off the eventual collapse of society'.
Such things are the
consequences of their actions, consequences they do not foresee. They see them
when they happen, then blame others for them and institute even harsher punishments on others. But in their own minds, they are the perfect 'reality-creators'; it's
those other people (i.e., the masses of ordinary humans) who just don't understand their munificence, benevolence and all-around awesomeness.
We rather suspect that when things didn't turn out the way they expected in Ukraine, they went "Huh, that was unexpected. Oh well, send in the jackals (CIA and mercenaries)"... In other words, they are not so all-knowing that they foresaw what would happen. They just do what they do because they are programmed in a 'cold, rational' way. Then when something unexpected happens, they just react in the only way they know how. They have zero insight and so are unable to see the situation from others' shoes.
This part, for example,
Surely, Obama, Kerry, Biden, Nuland et al. understand the extremely serious position in which they are putting Putin and the Russian Parliament.
No, they don't. They don't understand, and they don't care. Conscience and understanding born of awareness go hand in hand, and these types have neither.
Here's another assumption:
This evolving geopolitical chessboard is actually being set up by the real powers that be so that Russia will fulfill its duties in upholding the dharma of world governance.
This again suggests some all-knowing, all-powerful elite that has set this up from the beginning. If all is pre-determined, what then is the point of anything? There is as yet
some free will in this world!
The question is, are Putin and others willing and able to put a brake on their greed? Putin, and any other leaders cooperating in this most delicate task of ending U.S. hegemony as peacefully as possible, has to approach resolution to this crisis from the point of view of 'stalking the petty tyrant', as don Juan Matus described it. The tyrant doesn't know reason, it must be corralled into a situation in which it destroys itself.
Putin's first responsibility will be towards the Russian people, but he does appear to have realized that he can only protect Russia's interests by getting others onboard and having them support
their own interests, thereby building a global consensus of 'NO!' to American hegemony.
While Crimea has already had a referendum, the situation in other Ukrainian regions is still unstable. People want their voices to be heard and are demanding a vote. RT managed to get footage from people living in various cities in southeastern Ukraine. Many of the videos and interviews you will see in this film have never been shown on television.
Comment: If you want a glimpse into the American mindset and character, look no further than the annual White House Correspondents' dinner! While a leader like Vladimir Putin annually spends several hours answering ordinary peoples' questions, the American president makes bad jokes, ridiculing real issues and poking fun at things that should be taken very seriously. WMD, drones, death and destruction are all fair game for the glib 'leader of the free world'! If Obama had a SHRED of real decency, he would return his Nobel prize and start doing community service.