Thursday, December 14, 2017

Rebuilding Consensus

Better Angels,

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said Thursday that the North Korean nuclear crisis would be resolved through talks and negotiation rather than war..."The two leaders agreed on four principles for peace and stabilization on the Korean peninsula," said Yoon Young-chan, senior adviser to Moon in a televised press briefing. "First, not to accept war on the Korean peninsula. Second, to hold firmly to the denuclearization principle."  He said the third principle was to resolve all issues, including the denuclearization of North Korea, peacefully through negotiations. And finally, to improve relations between the two Koreas which will help solve problems on the peninsula. The Blue House said that Moon and Xi also agreed to open a emergency phone line between them.

The US State Dept. reversed Secretary of State Tillerson's statement that the US was open to completely open and un-preconditioned talks with North Korea, with President Trump understanding that North Korea couldn't easily change course before that. (What game is this? Is it intentional to sabotage any possibility of American dependability in negotiations?)

A Russian military delegation met with North Koreans in Pyongyang the day before South Korean/Chinese negotiations and statement detailed above. Coordination? Trust?

"In this complicated context, Donald Trump emerges as a destroyer of US interests in the (Middle East) region... Turkey is just an example of the delicate balance upon which the region rests. Moscow has become the sole mediator for all parties, and does not appear to have bad relations with any of them... The rest of the world, with mounting bewilderment, watches on while all manner of decisions are made with no rhyme or reason, such as the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The only ones to lose in this scenario are naturally the closest allies of the United States: Israel and all the Arab countries united behind the Saudi (money) state that are now obliged to stand up for the Palestinian cause. Whether out of incompetence or a strategic inability to take a position, it matters little why these decisions are being made. Donald Trump, MBS and Netanyahu are exactly what the region and the world needed. Why? Because these three figures, thanks to their actions, have reunited the axis of resistance in the Middle East, fortified the Russian presence in the region, and opened the door to Asian money for reconstruction, focused on integrating the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. These three stooges have open the door to total defeat thanks to their reckless decisions."

The U.S. "lets Assad stay" because there is simply nothing else it can do without waging a large scale war. It has tried everything else - and lost. In 2012 it attempted to assassinate Assad, but he wasn't at the security meeting that the CIA blew up. It send 100,000 Takfiri fighters from all over the world to Syria and shipped in ten-thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition. The global anti-Syrian propaganda campaign in favor of the Takfiris was unprecedented. It tried to build a political opposition and sponsored it with hundreds of millions. It lastly invaded the country and tried to split it by force. It failed on all fronts.

Again, Erdogan announced that Turkey and Russia are “determined to complete in the shortest possible time” the Turkish Stream (which will bring more Russian gas to Turkey and use Turkey as a hub to supply southern Europe) and the US$25 billion Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. The US opposes the Turkish Stream, which will frustrate its plans to export LNG to Europe. Putin joined Erdogan to criticize the US decision regarding Jerusalem. Putin said, “It is destabilizing the region and wiping out the prospect of peace”; Erdogan said he was “pleased” by Putin’s stand. Erdogan said the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) summit in Istanbul on Wednesday would be a “turning point” on the crisis; Putin promised to send a representative.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has declared East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, rejected the US stance as "dangerous" and called on the international community to follow in its footsteps. At a summit held in Turkey a week after US President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the group of Muslim leaders on Wednesday called on all countries to "recognise the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital".

The Internet is the last commons, which must now be looted for short term profit and more complete mind-control:  
A poll released this week by the Program for Public Consultation and Voice of the People at the University of Maryland found that 83 percent of Americans—and 75 percent of Republicans—favor the current system (the group that conducted the poll clearly explained the current regulations as well as the proposed ones). Pai, meanwhile, has said that “volume and vitriol are not substitutes for actual arguments” and has stated that “desperate” people are raising “hyperbolic fears” about net neutrality violations that “never materialized before 2015.”

In an internal email to all of the FCC commissioner offices, CTO Eric Burger, who was appointed by Pai in October, said the No. 1 issue with the repeal is concern that internet service providers will block or throttle specific websites, according to FCC sources who viewed the message. "Unfortunately, I realize we do not address that at all," Burger said in the email. "If the ISP is transparent about blocking legal content, there is nothing the [Federal Trade Commission] can do about it unless the FTC determines it was done for anti-competitive reasons. Allowing such blocking is not in the public interest."

The Republican Tax Bill not only cuts corporate tax rates (which are effectively around 13% in many cases), cuts taxes for the top 10% some, but cuts open the throats of grad students and retirees, who are trapped without recourse, already. (but, it's not absolutely final, so it'll probably be just fine... no need to fight before Christmas...)

Jada sends this 2013 TED Talk from Alan Savoy, and Environmental Research Scientist, who discovered that the traditional wisdom about reclaiming lands from desertification was wrong. The North American Bison herds were part of the ecosystem that built the deep, rich soil of the Great Plains. Recreating the movements of large herds over vast lands, immediately and measurably begins rebuilding the soil ecosystem and retaining water. (File under: "Don't fence me in")

Growing Up Together

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