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war and peace...
I wonder how we got where we are today, though I know the “enlightenment” period of the 17th/18th century had something to do with this, by expressing the “idea of god” was just that: an idea, not a reality.
Philosophical and scientific progress could thus restart anew with the dismissal of god, after having been both thwarted by the Catholic religion for many years.
What is quite amazing is the present revival to belittle proper scientific and philosophical advancements, by the religious loonies in our political institutions, including on the education front. These faithful idiots can’t let go of the godly-teat, despite the obvious historical falsities that gave rise to their delusive faith.
Enters the controversy: the ANU has outraged an outspoken group of culture warriors by rejecting funding for a chair of western civilisation from a pressure-group organisation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation for Western Civilisation.
The foundation is supported by the worst former Prime Minister Australia ever had for being a religious fascist, a worst liar and a bigger thief than McMahon, Tony Abbott. This former lying PM, is a fanatic of the Paul Ramsay Foundation for Western Civilisation which he suggests "is not merely about studying Western civilisation but is in favour of it". Nothing wrong with that – but there is enough wrong with it — and a university has to reject this loaded fund and its major ideological strings attached. You can smell the sulphur and the Church incense in the pile of cash.
My grand parents and great grand parents were of similar mixed marriages as my parents, often leading the progeny to be educated in one faith versus the other. I am quite surprised that “Orthodox” didn’t come up into our family recorded history, nor any Ashkenazy Jewish inheritance, though it’s most likely that a DNA test would show both.
In the light of this Western Civilisation “superiority” discussion, brought upon us by this major “gift” (beware of gift bearing Goons), it’s important to know where these misconstrued self-inflated boots came from. The Judeo (old testament)/Christian (new testament) influence in the development of the Western World is undeniable, but these influences were extremely bipolar. There were some good and some terrible influences coming from the evolution of the Churches in Christianity.
By the fourth century AD, Christianity had already split in three major groups: the Copts (Christian religion started around 42 AD), the Orthodox (around 330 AD), themselves split in two major groups, and the Catholics — and quite a few smaller groups that did not survive well, due to the alignment of “big churches" with authoritative governments — kings and emperors. Meanwhile the Jews stayed put, still awaiting their prophet’s first coming.
All of this has been based on the assumption on the supposed existence of god and His (god is a male) relationship with “man” (bugger women). Men ruled. Old men ruled.
So how can a "great” civilisation be born from this grand delusion?
By the end of the 12th century, there were continuing dissent in the Catholic Church. Having become a kingdom within kingdoms, the Catholic Church was by then a fully fledged business, second to that of kings and emperors in amassing the loot. The Catholics did not like breakaway faiths in competition for souls and cash.
In these dark days, most of the flock were uneducated sheep trained to believe, while working like mules, breeding like rabbits and dying for glory (and god) on the battlefields. The only noticeable Christian improvement was the way the Church itself amassed golden fortunes by threats to subjects, of burning hell and of imprisonment, and enticements including indulgences, while the religious leaders rolled in massive debauchery like pigs in shit.
The Cathars, who were quickly becoming rich from money lending, "had to be eradicated". The Cathars also had an equal social standing for men and women. This was heresy to the Catholic dictums. Men ruled. Old men ruled. Anyone joining in the fun had to pay cash. Those who did not pay cash were persecuted.
The Inquisition thus became a group of institutions within the government of the Catholic Church whose aim was to fiercely combat “heresy". It started in 12th-century France against such religious dissenters as the Cathars — and also the Waldensians.
The Waldensians were a pre-Protestant Christian movement, later on developed by Pierre Vaudès (Peter Waldo) in Lyon around the 1170s. These Waldensians influenced Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger later on. With other reformers’ ideas similar to their own, the Waldensians merged into the larger Protestant movement, as part of the Calvinist tradition. The Waldensian movement still exist in Northern Italy, and small communities are also found in Southern Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, the United States, and Uruguay.
The movement, had started as the "Poor Men of Lyon”, these heretics were known as "Valdensis," condemned during the pontificate of Pope Lucius II in 1144, decades before Pierre Vaudès came on the scene. Vaudès was a wealthy merchant who gave away his property and preached apostolic poverty as the way to perfection. These teachings were in conflict with the gilding Catholic Church. By 1215, the Waldensians were fully declared heretics and became subject to persecution. They were nearly wiped out in the 17th century, facing discrimination in the centuries that followed.
Other groups that attracted the ire of the Catholics were the Spiritual Franciscans — The Fraticelli "Little Brethren" — who were proponents of Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), especially in regard to poverty. Young Francesco (the French Guy) had earlier got involved with young louts, addicted to evil and vice, until he got converted by god Himself (god is a male) possibly disguised as a leper (male). One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, who loved beauty, picky about food and hating deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance of the leper, Francis jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. When his kiss was returned, Francis was filled with joy. As he rode off, he turned around and saw that the leper had disappeared. He looked upon it as a test from God… and he had passed. This is why he wanted to be poor… Boy, do these sainthood revelations are a bit lacking in the narrative development.
Anyway, his followers, the Franciscans, thus regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous. They revolted and were declared heretics in 1296 by Boniface VIII.
Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. The term Medieval Inquisition covers these courts up to mid-15th century. The idea was to use torture and other enticing methods, including death, to make people recant their "wrong ways”.
During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the concept and scope of the Inquisition significantly expanded in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. It expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. Further more this conflict soon developed into massive religious wars that killed up to 30 million people — all in the name of god.
The Spanish and Portuguese operated inquisitorial courts throughout their empires in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (resulting in the Peruvian Inquisition and Mexican Inquisition).
The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions focused particularly on the issue of Jewish anusim and Muslim converts to Catholicism, because these minority groups were more numerous in Spain and Portugal than in many other parts of Europe, and because they were considered suspect — due to the assumption that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions despite the thumbscrews.
The institution of the Inquisition was "officially" abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and after the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The institution survived though as part of the Roman Curia, but in 1908 was given the new name of "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office". In 1965 it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It does not torture anything but naive souls with pseudo-psychology of eternal damnation.
So one thing leading to another, the “reformation” was really about rediscovering poor Jesus’ "humility” while the Church was about splendour, cash and power, designed to keep the merchants firmly in the temple.
Things have changed a bit as most “reformed” evangelicals churches, especially in the USA, have seen the light: “there is more power to gain with cash and glorious stained glass windows than in humility”. It's impossible to conquer the world with "humility".
Even back then in the 12th century, dwindling secularists complained about the tax-free churches, similarly exempt to tax-free kings. In order to allay the guilt, there has been a token shift to “give charity", but on most occasions this gift has deliberately been used to retard social justice or equality, and help continued the kingdom-bullies’ rule.
Now, all this history of the Western Civilisation could appear academic, but the ANU academia is as it should refusing to take the bait on offer from the CONservative perspective. One can see “propaganda” in that CONservative package… Universities are about “freedom of thoughts” and but you could laugh aloud considering that most of the universities are already hell-bent on creating accountants, lawyers and social workers to maintain the Western Civilisation’s capitalistic enterprises, with small variations and fiddles. Adding this Paul Ramsay Foundation for Western Civilisation cash for comments scam could only be seen as adding more slanted sauce to this already well-drenched cakewalk.
Propaganda was not invented recently. The Greeks wrote their own version of "history", including that of Christianity, later on to be translated in Latin for Church purpose to mesmerise audiences with incomprehensible lingo.
The Church and the kings blatantly indulged in propaganda and wars to protect their patch, but the tools of propaganda in the Western World have gone a few notches up, including the damning of whatever does not fit the present Western narrative as “fake news”.
The Chinese invented gunpowder and water torture, the West invented global warfare and through their present leader in mischief, the USA (since the end of the 18th century), improved on these mechanical tools. World wars were the continuation of religious warfare under different guises.
The Romans invented “colonialism", and the Arabs practiced this conquering a few centuries later on. The Europeans improved upon the colonialism ideal by including slavery, until the world wars of the 20th century helped the USA supersede them.
The latest edition of empire building by intent is the Americanisation of many countries, through multinational products, media manipulation and flickering Hollywoodian illusions. These are the modern tools of propaganda, slowly turning the average thinking moron into fully fledged fat thinking moron, now addicted to sugar and bubbles.
The USA is still mostly a country of god fearing people — god help us. Ahah.
So, the present Western Civilisation was not helped by peace, but by indulging in wars, continuing the momentum of the religious wars and of the crusades of times gone.
This sorry state of affairs has to stop. But will it? With god firmly on the side of the US empire, I’m afraid not. Even in this new century which should have seen better international relationships, we already have destroyed quite a few countries for oil and profits — and still pushing the can as far as we can on others. We know that the really deluded nasty US leaders (on both sides of politics) are in charge of bringing in more wars for delusions that have nothing to do with reality, but promoting the size of their dicks. Men still Rule. Old men still rule. More wars are on the card, often for no other reason than having an army of idle-men, the army gets rusty. It needs biffo to maintain the hype of its own existence...
The REAL greatness of the Western World was not achieved by the warring conservative forces preserving the religious hubris, but by fairly dealing with complex issues such as feminism, gay marriage, equal opportunity, sciences, looking after the sick and developing workers rights. These are are the true elements with which to judge a proper evolving social network by. These are the elements that are hated by the Paul Ramsay Foundation for Western Civilisation pushers such as Alan Jones, Tony Abbott and the other shock-troops on the liarwaves.
The Malcolmians — the Kanbra church of beige blancmange’s understanding is still limited at the power of cash and the size of one’s dicky army — with a superior caveat of surprised bonhomie.
The rest, including the pure arts and philosophical understanding have become the last deadbeat nags out of the stable, to be shot and to be replaced by the new propaganda tools: television, iplates (phones and derivatives), kids screaming into microphones to vent their puerile energetic hormones before becoming divorced capitalists, drugs, sweets and vitamins.
Pure arts never were a reality mind you.
Art was always at the service of kings and church indulging in wars and deception, and, when the arts revolted because of being superseded by photography and phonographs, they were absorbed by the merchants of decoration who sold them to the masses as new interesting wallpaper.
This is the decadence of the West, seen through its own looking glass: war and delusion of grandeur.
Gus Leonisky
your local decadence expert.
Picture at top: part of secret coded document to Mary, Queen of Scots, to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I...
- By Gus Leonisky at 8 Jun 2018 - 3:50pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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the babington connection...
The document at top was sent by a Babington to Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1901, a certain Babington, a reverend wrote a very informative book about the reformation...
Meanwhile at the gadfly:
Little Winston Howard and Ten Flags Tony, guiding lights of the Ramsay Centre, must be livid that the Australian National University has pulled the pin on their sponsored degree in Western civilisation.
With these former Nasty Party prime ministers at the helm, the ANU is missing out on a doozy of a course, funded by the gushing well that pumps money from the chain of Ramsay private hospitals.
While Winston talks glibly of the grand forces that shaped our Western heritage, such as the Judeo-Christian ethic, parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and the Enlightenment, as prime minister he busily set about making Australia as narrow and mean a place as the horizons of his imagination.
A Howard degree in Western civilisation would not be complete without semesters devoted to the Pacific Solution, flogging government assets to corporate benefactors, the brilliance of the monarchy, the perfection of trickle-down economics, how Margaret Thatcher saved the world, the marvels of man–woman marriage, why a banking royal commission is the pathway to “socialism”, how to play the race card and win, putting your lips together for dog-whistling, and why Sir Robert Menzies’ profile should be on all the coins.
Other universities have also rejected the Ramsay syllabus, which has at its core the notion that Western civilisation reached its zenith in 1953 and that, whatever faults are found by nitpickers, everyone should realise “how lucky they are to live in this country”.
The Australian Catholic University’s Professor Greg Craven seems to be flapping his hand at the board of the Ramsay Centre while he declares that the ANU’s rejection was “the greatest act of gutlessness since Trevor Chappell bowled underarm to New Zealand”.
Read more:
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2018/06/09/gadfly-the-cash-civilisat...
More to come
western civilisation 101...
The Reformation
by Rev J A Babington, MA, published 1901.
The good Rev. starts his introduction with:
“The Reformation is one of the most important events in the history of the world. it has not only been a decisive turning point in the spiritual and moral life of the Christian Church ; it serves as a great landmark in the intellectual, political, and social development of mankind.”
From then on, Babington explains how the papacy was completely corrupt, in which most of the actions of the Church were done for cash, while also corrupting devious politicians or become devious corrupt politicians. Cardinals often became “the most venal and corrupt of statesmen, the chief debauchees, spendthrifts, bullies and bravoes [thugs, hired assassins] of Europe.”
In the sixteenth century, in the Catholic Church “there was none that did good, no, not one.” writes Babington.
For example, Thomas Wolsey was an English cardinal of the Catholic Church. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the King’s advisor. By 1514 Wolsey had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state and extremely powerful within the Church. His appointment in 1515 as a cardinal by Pope Leo X gave him precedence over all other English clerics.
After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey was stripped of his government titles. He was soon recalled to London to answer to charges of treason — a common charge used by Henry against people who fell out of favour—but Wolsey died on the way "from natural causes".
A satire called “The Burying of the Mass” (1845) tells the true picture of Wolsey’s vice, worldliness, boundless extravagance, "pride like Lucifer’s" and indifference to all things spiritual.
The Burying of the Mass (1845)
Rede me and be nott wrothe
For I saye no thynge but trothe.
I will ascende makynge my state so hye
That my pompous honoure shall never dye.
O Caytyfe when thou thynkest least of all
With confusion thou shalt have a fall
What is astounding, but should not surprise anyone, is that Wolsey was not unique. The entire ruling system in Europe was infected with the same — or worse — religious decadence which Milton, the poet decribes for it being so careless:
“The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.”
One can sense the revolt brewing. But the ensuing schisms and wars, were not exclusive to Christianity, as Islam had (and still has) its own divides, the main one of which is still bruising today — the wars between the Shias and the Sunnis on various territories. Though the “Reformed” Churches and the Catholics have made an armistice (not a peace), we’re now helping “the good Muslims” to become model citizens as our former police-goon, now supremo-honcho minister for the security of pumpkins, morals and ASIO, has decided "to do” — to minimise the prospect of “terrorism” on this fair dinkum land.
So, as the pope refused the annulment of Henry’s marriage, Henry did the only things supremo kings can do. Become the head of the Church Himself and tell the pope to “bugger off”. This is politics and it is still continuing in the same vein today.
This is the Western Civilisation in action. In those days, the debauchery and decadence of the papacy was obvious to people like Henry, who knew the intricacies of their deceitful papal works. What is the pope going to do? Send an army of his Swiss Guards, or other mercenaries that worked so well on the elimination of the Cathars? Against England? No…
Revenge is a cold dish, even for moralistic religious despots like the pope. The next popes shall take care of this business by sending a Spanish Armada — but god was not with this fleet, as the weather turned nasty — OR try to outs the damsel queen — Elizabeth the First, who was barren. So the Catholics plotted with Mary, Queen of Scots, to overthrow the English Queen. This is where the other Babington comes in. “Anthonie” Babington (see signature at top), who fed secret messages to Mary, via a double agent who unknown to him was working for Lizzie the first as well. The plot went arse up. The rest is history as they say. Babington, aged 24, and his thirteen co-conspirators were convicted of high treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. A pleasant sight for a Lady Queen, who did not hesitate to show some bloody balls in her breeches. Mind you when she tried to repay the Spanish with an invasion, this armed nicety failed.
Meanwhile in Europe, Luther had already posted his edicts to great acclaim from the sheep (I mean the peasants) who revolted against their rulers. Some tinpot Dukes and Counts saw an opportunity to overthrow the king or emperor of the day and aligned themselves with the peasants and the new "Reformed" morality — seeing cash and treasures at the end of the rainbow. And so started one of the most murderous bloodshed in Europe: the 100 years war. There was barely any time to bury the dead. Meanwhile, Luther who was “bipolar” — sometimes elated and depressed at the same time — hated the jews far more than the Muslims which he really hated.
Civilisation was thus improving: Vengeance, hate and viciousness was rife. The delicacy of vengeance, hate and viciousness of our present days is to make these awful sentiments pass for morality and goodness — especially in international relationships, by manipulation of intents through a dozy media: “the people we are bashing are worse that our awful NECESSARY solution.”
Bomb Assad. Bash Russia.
Easy as Western Civilisation 101.
Read from top.
Gus Leonisky
Your local grandstander.
in love with tyrants, except those who don't kiss our arse...
It is not normal or right, they tell us, for US presidents to meet with and applaud dictators of brutal regimes. This kind of phony virtue-signaling was all over the airwaves and the Twittersphere on Tuesday. It was like a competition with the winner being the person who could publicly register their disgust and dismay in the most dramatic fashion possible.
One former Republican lawmaker tweeted that “never before” in history had a US president “spoken this way of a dictator accused of crimes against his own people” — an outright lie, as pointed out by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who detailed a number of occasions when American presidents and top ranking officials had indeed heaped praise on dictators — from Barack Obama’s praise of the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a man who had “the courage of his convictions” and who was “dedicated” to his people, to Ronald Reagan’s praise of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt as "a man of great integrity" — to Hillary Clinton’s description of Hosni Mubarak as a "friend of my family."
In the real world, even the most mildly politically-aware person knows that meeting with and praising dictators is par for the course in US foreign policy. The United States has a long history of befriending, praising and propping up brutal dictators all over the world — and flattering Kim with a few meaningless comments designed to foster goodwill is absolutely mild in comparison with the tangible support the US lends to other dictatorships.
Curiously though, many of those shouting loudly in protest at Trump’s praise of Kim are unbothered when American presidents — Trump included — lavish praise on those friendly dictators that Washington relies on to help serve its geopolitical interests. While they breathlessly condemn Trump for cozying up to Kim for a few hours in Singapore, they are nonchalant about US support for brutal regimes like Saudi Arabia.
Last year, peace activist and former Green Party candidate for Illinois governor Rich Whitney, compiled research in an effort to dispel the myth that the US opposes dictatorships and champions democracy around the world. What he found would not come as a surprise to any rational observer of global affairs, but would surely shock heavily propagandized Americans who have been led to believe that their country promotes freedom and democracy since they were waddling around in diapers.
Analyzing publicly available data, Whitney found that the US provides military assistance to 36 out of 49 nations that democracy watchdog Freedom House classifies as dictatorships. In other words, the US provides military support to a whopping 73 percent the world’s dictatorships while simultaneously claiming to be the most virtuous and well-intentioned nation on earth.
There is one determining factor when it comes to the decision to lend US support to a foreign government or regime — and it is a simple one: If that government or regime is sufficiently subservient to Washington and serves US global interests in any meaningful way, it will be protected and propped up at almost any cost. Its crimes will be swept under the rug and human rights concerns, along with freedom and democracy, will go straight out the window. Every now and then, some US official may pay lip service to its supposed moral values by expressing “deep concern” over some heinous incident or other before swiftly moving on.
This is the reality, yet we are still told to believe Trump is some kind of historical anomaly and subjected to endless think-pieces and on-air pearl-clutching over his “problematic” affinity for some questionable characters. The narrative goes, that before Trump, US leaders were all going around crushing dictatorships and delivering peace and prosperity to oppressed peoples everywhere. This kind of revisionist commentary is completely disingenuous and utterly at odds with reality and history — yet it is spewed unquestioningly from the mouths of journalists, analysts, various “experts” and regular Americans without so much as a pause to consider whether it has any basis in fact. It would take far too long to list every instance of the US supporting — and indeed installing — brutal dictatorships around the world, but there are some that stand out as particularly shameful moments in American history.
Read more:
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/429889-trump-kim-us-dictators/
Meanwhile at Spiegel, still reeling from Crimea voting to join Russia:
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't actually all that interested in football. He's more of a martial arts guy, and he loves ice hockey. But when the World Cup football championship gets started on Thursday in Moscow, Putin will strive to be the perfect host. The tournament logo is a football with stars trailing behind it, evoking Sputnik, and a billion people will be tuning in as Putin presents Russia as a strong and modern country.
During the dress rehearsal, last summer's Confed Cup, Putin held an opening address in which he spoke of "uncompromising, fair and honest play ... until the very last moments of the match." Now, it's time for the main event, the World Cup, giving Putin an opportunity to showcase his country to the world.
The World Cup, though, will be merely the apex of the great autocrat festival of 2018. On June 24, Turkish voters will head to the polls for the first time since approving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's constitutional reforms last year. The result of the vote will in all likelihood cement his claim to virtually absolute power until 2023 or even beyond. Should he miss out on an absolute majority in the first round of voting -- which is certainly possible given rising inflation in the country -- then he'll get it in the second round. The result will likely be a Turkey -- a country with around 170 journalists behind bars and where more than 70,000 people have been arrested since the coup attempt two years ago, sometimes with no grounds for suspicion - that is even more authoritarian than it is today.
And then there is Donald Trump who, after turning the G-7 summit in Canada into a farce, headed to Singapore for a Tuesday meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. And many pundits have argued this week that the greatest beneficiary of that summit was actually Chinese President Xi Jinping, the man who poses a greater challenge to Western democracy than all the rest.
Read more:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-putin-and-co-liberal-dem...
Read from top.
2 million roses...
A documentary with Peter von Berg to watch:
https://off-guardian.org/2018/06/25/watch-nyc-to-donetsk-back-a-new-film/
Watch it...
another young diplomed turdy explains our greatness...
While Rome and Jerusalem provide guidance for what we should be, they do not explicitly make clear what we, as Westerners, actually are. Rome and Greece show us how to think and structure society; Christ tells us how to connect with God and rise above our earthly nature. And without them both, what would we be? If Christ had never come and Athens had never existed, what would we have become?
Read more:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/there-is-no-tomorrow-wit...
What? "There is no tomorrow without heroes and myths?" and this young idiot, deluded like an Abbott, adds to the sauce:
The West is undoubtedly the greatest civilization of all time, the proof of which is in its fruits. From the Nocturnes of Chopin to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the contributions of Westerners have been innumerable.
This is unbelievable. Ah yes, the young "Dylan Stevenson is a recent graduate in history and economics from the University of Notre Dame, having previously attended Harrow School in England, the country of his birth. He is presently working as a banking analyst in New York."
I could wonder if Dylan Stevenson was not Jewish from the god-chosen people as well, but this would be racist — or elitist. The "Western World"'s greatness is not due to its heroes and myths but to its ability to wage war, and lie more successfully than others — though it was never fully tested, possibly until now when total annihilation of the life on this planet is possible. This delusion would make Russia a non-player in the defeat of Hitler.
Improvement? Philosophically speaking, the rebellious spirit of sciences and the modern ability to entertain with distraction, presently pop music being a poor cousin of Chopin, has been far more valuable than the rituals and deception of Christianity. But these lies have been exposed and the West has run out of hubris: Jerusalem has been a hotbed of conflict and delusions since Abraham, while Rome has been the blueprint for war. It this what we should be? Is this greatness?
We got lucky... and, as we use our own measuring stick to our own valuation, we tend to ignore other human visions that do not fit our narrow self-inflated view of ourselves, us, westerners.
The REAL greatness of the Western World was not achieved by the warring conservative forces preserving the religious hubris, but by fairly dealing with complex issues such as feminism, gay marriage, equal opportunity, sciences, looking after the sick and developing workers rights. These are are the true elements with which to judge a proper evolving social network by. There is still a long way to go...
Read from top.
Read also:
κατασκευάζοντας το makra teiche...
for a civil society...
how can one not be a satirist when your uncles own a local statue-making shop?
the oak tree pyre of hercules...
tonight's the night...
The greater meaning of meaninglessness...http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/8011
death of a true people's hero...
The Donetsk People's Republic Operational Command said Friday that exits and entrances to Donetsk have been closed following a blast that left the republic's head Alexander Zakharchenko dead and three more injured.
A lawmaker of the People's Council of the DPR confirmed reports about the death of DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko in a bomb explosion in downtown Donetsk on Friday.
Read more:
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201808311067645316-explosion-dpr-victim/
Read from top. See the film:
https://off-guardian.org/2018/06/25/watch-nyc-to-donetsk-back-a-new-film/
plainly inappropriate...
“It would be plainly inappropriate to gather the Normandy format, especially since neither Berlin nor Paris condemned the political murder committed in Donetsk,” Lavrov told Russia's Channel One on Monday.
The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, was killed by an explosion at a café in the city of Donetsk on Friday. His bodyguard was also killed, and 11 other people were injured.
Russia is not leaving the Normandy format completely, Lavrov stressed. Still, he said that none of the EU members of the group have been able to press Kiev to stick to its Minsk deal obligations, which were supposed to bring about peace in Ukraine.
The Normandy format, also known as the Normandy Four, is a contact group made up of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia. The group was designed to negotiate standing peace in eastern Ukraine, where a civil conflict is still ongoing.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko “continues to dodge his responsibilities,” and the only country that could set him straight is the US, Lavrov said. Direct talks between Kiev and the rebel republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are the only existing format that can yield lasting peace, so Ukrainian authorities should stick to their promise and sit down with them, he stressed.
The neighboring regions of Donetsk and Lugansk have been engaged in an armed conflict with Kiev since the 2014 coup which ousted Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich and installed the current Ukrainian authorities.
Zakharchenko’s Donetsk associates have blamed his death on Ukraine’s security services. The Russian Federal Security agency (FSB), said it strongly suspects their involvement, as well. Ukraine’s security agency (SBU), however, was quick to reject the allegations within hours after the blast, citing infighting in the Donetsk Republic as the likely cause.
Read more:
https://www.rt.com/news/437638-lavrov-ukraine-zakharchenko-normandy/
Read from top.
the economic integration of the Donbass...
Moscow has strengthened its position in Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LDNR) on Sunday, November 11. Now there are legitimate authorities in the republics, with which Russia can implement the project of the economic integration of the Donbass.
Representatives of Western countries and Ukraine released a joint statement at the UN, in which they said that they did not recognise the elections. This was predictable and uninteresting. Everyone understands that the elections in the breakaway republics became a real step towards the recognition of the independence of the People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk by the Russian Federation.
Moscow has repeatedly reminded that Russia was only a guarantor of the Minsk Accords. Kiev shows unwillingness to implement them and even tries to kill those who signed the documents. After the assassination of Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the People's Republic of Donetsk, the Kremlin lost its patience. Moscow eventually agreed to hold the elections in the breakaway territories on November 11, even though Russia had earlier declined such an opportunity in 2015 and 2016 at the request of Normandy format "partners."
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/13-11-2018/141983-donbass-0/
Read from top.