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Russian polling stations in Ukraine blocked by police & radicals preventing voters from participating (VIDEO)


RT
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 18:00 UTC
Ukrainian radical nationalists
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
Ukrainian radical nationalists hold a rally near the Russian embassy in Kiev on March 18, 2018.
Ukrainian police and radicals have blocked Russian diplomatic missions to prevent voters from participating in the presidential election. The move was condemned by Russian officials as a "blatant violation of international law."

The Russian embassy in Kiev, as well as other diplomatic compounds across Ukraine where the voting was supposed to take place, have been cordoned off by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and picketed by radical nationalists. In Kiev, the radicals displayed anti-Russian banners and effigies of incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, while blasting nationalist songs through loudspeakers.


In the city of Odessa, the nationalists erected a mobile toilet, which they labelled "polling booth," near the police cordon. Ukrainian law enforcement officers did not appear to intervene, videos from the scene indicate.

Comment: Can you imagine the outrage had this happened in a country beholden to US interests? But since it interferes with the Russian elections, they pay no mind to it.

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Fire

Cartel gunmen torch Michoacán, Mexico to force release of recently arrested drug kingpin

Jose Luis Lara
Breitbart
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
cartel gunmen torch Michoacán mar 2018
Cartel gunmen were deployed in the hundreds throughout Michoacán to force the release of a recently captured leader who was arrested following a Breitbart Texas exposé revealing photographic evidence of the Mexican army's friendly relationship with the drug cartel boss.

The violence began one day after soldiers arrested Jordy Villa Patricio, a man better known as Jordy "El H" Oseguera, the chief enforcer for Los Viagras Cartel in Michoacán. His arrest came six days after Breitbart Texas published a series of photographs where Oseguera is seen interacting with soldiers.

Comment: See also: Horrific: Mexican cartel dismembers, grills innocent civilians

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Megaphone

France: Pensioners take to the streets to protest tax hike, unions plan to strike

Earl Bousquet
teleSUR
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 20:55 UTC
French pensioners strike
© Reuters
Pensioners and Workers march against Macron's reforms.
Measures that affect workers and retirees follow reductions in wealth and capital gains taxes, leading many to argue Macron is governing for the rich.

Thousands of pensioners took to the streets of Paris and other cities and towns across France on Thursday to denounce President Emmanuel Macron and his government's tax and pension reforms.

Pensioners are opposed to a new 1.7 percent hike in taxes on salaries and pensions that go towards France's social security system. The measure will affect 60 percent of France's 15 million pensioners, who will pay roughly US$31 more every month.

According to Michel Salingue, member of the General Federation of Public Pensioners they can't afford the hike because the average monthly pension in France is only 1,300 euros, or US$1,600. This hike, they argue, adds to a hike in diesel prices and reductions in social welfare.
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Handcuffs

FBI foils one of its own plots again: Honduran migrant pleads guilty to plan to bomb Miami shopping mall

Ben Kew
Breitbart
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 20:37 UTC
Vicente Adolfo Solano
© Miami-Dade Corrections
Vicente Adolfo Solano
A Honduran migrant has pleaded guilty to his involvement in a plan to blow up a shopping mall in Miami on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS).

Vicente Adolfo Solano, 53, told an undercover agent in 2017 that he was unhappy with the United States and wanted to carry out an attack in Miami's Dolphin Mall, and also expressed a desire to join the caliphate.

"According to the stipulated factual basis filed with the Court, in early 2017, Solano told an individual, who later became a Confidential Human Source ('CHS') for the government, that he was upset with the United States and wanted to conduct an attack in Miami," reads a statement from U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. "Later, Solano told this CHS that he wanted to join ISIS."

Comment: This is just a short list of the FBI's heroic efforts to save us from their own terror plots:

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People

Bali's airport, shops and internet shut down for national Day of Silence


The Times of India
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 20:29 UTC
Balinese fire fight
© AP
Balinese men fight with flaming coconut leaves during the fire fight ritual called 'Lukat Gni' before Nyepi on March 16, 2018.
Indonesia's normally bustling Bali has shut down social media, turned away flights and shuttered all shops for a Day of Silence that marks New Year on the predominantly Hindu island.

"Nyepi" began at 6 a.m. on Saturday, emptying streets and beaches for 24 hours except for special patrols to ensure silence is observed. This year for the first time, phone companies have agreed to turn off the mobile internet on the Indonesian island.

Aside from no Facebook, Instagram or instant messaging apps, television and radio broadcasts cease and Balinese stay indoors, covering the windows and not even turning on a light, for the day of reflection that is the most sacred in Balinese Hinduism.
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Cloud Grey

Research shows that China is winning the war against air pollution

Michael Greenstone
The New York Times
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 17:45 UTC
Shanghai smog
© Aly Song/Reuters
A smoggy day in Shanghai in 2017. China is cutting pollution significantly, especially in urban areas.
On March 4, 2014, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, told almost 3,000 delegates at the National People's Congress and many more watching live on state television, "We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty."

The statement broke from the country's longstanding policy of putting economic growth over environment, and many wondered whether China would really follow through.

Four years after that declaration, the data is in: China is winning, at record pace. In particular, cities have cut concentrations of fine particulates in the air by 32 percent on average, in just those four years.

The speed of the anti-pollution drive has raised important questions about its human costs. But if China sustains these reductions, recent research by my colleagues and me indicates that residents will see significant improvements to their health, extending their life spans by months or years.

Comment: From 2013:

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Bomb

Americans clueless to the staggering death toll, scale of violence and chaos US unleashed in Iraq

Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies
Alternet
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 09:34 UTC
Mass bodies Iraq
© History News Network
Mass of corpses from gravesite near Baghdad.
March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-UK invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The U.S. military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, "We don't do body counts." One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.

The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, the U.S. has led the heaviest bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble.

Comment: An informed median estimate of 2.4M Iraqis killed since 2003 - and that it could be more - is astounding. You won't hear this on MSM nor from government sources. And, this is just Iraq.

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Attention

The VA - closest thing to single payer - and now Trump wants it privatized

Bryce Covert
Alternet
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 10:37 UTC
Trump VA
© KXII.com
The VA has problems, but more "vouchers to veterans" won't help.

Aaron Hughes, who was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 and 2004, now has a serious, very rare lung condition. But he told In These Times he gets "really outstanding care" at the nearby Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. "The doctors are at the top of their class," he said.

Because his condition is so rare, Hughes has been sent to a hospital outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for specific tests. And his taste of the private healthcare system has been sour.
"As soon as I went there, all hell broke loose," he said, explaining there were problems with sharing records between the two institutions. "With the VA system, when you do tests, it's all integrated." Every doctor Hughes sees is aware of all the other treatment he gets, from vision to mental health. The private hospitals, on the other hand, often refuse to send the records back to the VA. "The private sector isn't about sharing your information," Hughes explained. "It's not about healthcare, it's about ownership of care."
Hughes thinks these problems could get worse if efforts to fully privatize the VA are successful. President Donald Trump has supported privatizing the system, and has called to make permanent the Veterans Choice Program, an experiment Congress launched in 2014 that gives vouchers to veterans to see private doctors, while cutting other parts of the agency. These developments have provoked concerns that Trump will usher in a full private sector takeover.

Comment: While this is a positive report and has meaningful points, not all the publicity regarding Veterans healthcare has been as reassuring. See also:

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Brain

The "male feminist" is a myth

Debra W. Soh
Playboy
Fri, 29 Dec 2017 21:00 UTC
myth male feminist
© Michele Paccione
As we close out 2017, let's take some time to reflect on lessons learned over the past 12 months. In an act of no holds barred brutal honesty, this year completely obliterated the myth of the male feminist. Though these men claim to be champions of women's rights, we've seen time and time again how they are nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing.

In the last several months, Harvey Weinstein, Joss Whedon, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose have all fallen into this camp. In the case of writer Michael Hafford, who has been accused of physically assaulting four women, he went as far as authoring a column for Vice's women-focused site, Broadly, in 2015 titled "Male Feminist Here," parodying the deceitfulness of this very group of men. [Editor's Note: Hafford is a former contributor to Playboy.com; the company was unaware of the allegations made against this individual during the brief time he contributed to the website.]

Comment: For more information:

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Horse

Mane Street: Rebellious horses create chaos on busy Atlanta Highway 78 (VIDEOS)


RT
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 17:49 UTC
Horsefarm
© Little Creek Horse Farm / Facebook
Motorists experienced a new meaning of the word "horsepower" after being forced to share the road with a group of cheeky equines that broke free from their farm. Their adventure was brought to an end by their owners and police.

The 10 horses entered Highway 78 in Atlanta on Saturday, prompting confused motorists to drive slowly behind the unpredictable group. Footage posted online showed the horses galloping with confidence, despite it likely being their first time on the road.

The adventurous farm animals took advantage of an open gate at Little Creek Horse Farm, employee Brad Williams told CBS 46. "Fortunately nobody got hurt. They all had a good gallop up the road..."
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