Unholy Trinity, Ramadi, hizbollah.tv, Daniel Ortega, Western Union

Ian Dunlop
Former coal executive, chaired the Australian Coal Association 1987-88
This sort of chap usually holds tight to the government teat, big subsidies to big carbon.
But Dunlop has has a conversion:
smh 16Otc06

We are about to experience the convergence of three of the great issues confronting humanity. Climate change, the peaking of oil supply and water shortage are coming together in a manner which will profoundly alter our way of life, our institutions and our ability to prosper on this planet. Each is a major issue, but their convergence has received minimal attention.

He repeats that tired old canard "The tragedy of the commons" put forward by that bitter cripple Hardin forty years ago.
- A careful examination of history reveals that societies in harmony dont trash their place, and capital is the cause of much recent destruction. Ownership doesnt guarantee sustainability. Atlantic cod may have been a commons, but it took capital loans to launch the giant trawlers which extinguished them. Privatisation doesnt ensure cheap clean water, it can and ought to lead to the overthrow of the privateers. Planning is what we require, along with the permanent ability to toss any Stalin or Bush out of their palace.

However the main message of Dunlops comment is absolutely correct and astonishing.

The pressure for change must come from the community at large, where it is building toward a "tipping point" which will force a fundamental realignment of political and corporate attitudes.

Historically, this has rarely happened without a crisis. Fortunately the trinity are about to trigger that crisis with a prolonged period of "creative destruction" which will radically transform society and economy whether we like it or not.

Dig that "Fortunately" - I suppose he means that the sooner the trigger the better. I dont imagine that Dunlop is eager to see a crisis, but there is an edge of glee in his comments, unusual for such an establishment figure

I am somewhat sorry that I wont be around to see the peak of the crisis, which I reckon will arrive in about 20 or 30 years. I may be surprised, signs of mass famines and wide resource wars are abroad now, and perception of the impending crash may trigger an apocalypse now, rather than later.

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an average increase in global temperatures of just two degrees centigrade could cause increasingly severe weather patterns, droughts, flooding, species extinction, rising sea levels, widespread disease and famine.

2° is looking super-optimistic. If you dont accept a 30kph speed limit and the total banning of electric clothes dryers, then you are in the vast majority who will do nothing about the crisis until the ocean is in the living room, and it's way too late. Do you detect an element of glee in my comments?

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Everythings hunky dory in Ramadi?
aljazeera
Streets such as Al-Maarith, Muhafatha and Al-Iskan, on which many schools are located, have also been cordoned off by US forces, leaving families with no choice but to keep their children at home.
Noor said: "When you want to pass these areas you have to carry a white banner, otherwise American snipers may deal with you as terrorists and shoot you without any hesitation … they are perched on the buildings over the streets."

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slow...http://www.moqawama.org/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/hassan004.jpg
Good to see hizbollah.tv is still online. No pictures of busted Merkovas. I guess neither HA nor IDF want to reveal their weak spots.

update 30/10/2006


You know how it is... the Zionist censor/spy machine always slows down so much when you atempt to load a HA picture, or a "Kill Bush" picture, I guess they have to load a copy on some big eschalon disc somewhere.
Anyway, I now get Sheik Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah from photobucket.
Eventually neozion will get to that server I suppose...
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Haaretz, 12-10-2006

Problems in the cooperation with the air force were also raised, particularly with regard to airlifting troops during the last two days of the fighting and the decision to withdraw a battalion of reservists already on its way by helicopter after a helicopter was downed by Hizbullah.
..
- The navy: The investigation of the missile strike against the destroyer INS Hanit, in which four soldiers died, has been completed. The main controversy is over the warnings that Military Intelligence gave the navy about Iranian surface-to-sea missiles in Hizbullah`s arsenal. The failure to operate the INS Hanit`s defensive mechanisms while it was operating 17 kilometers off Beirut was severely criticized.

It appears that the IDF was reluctant to fly helicopters, which deprived their troops of close air support. Those amazing Russian rockets: Tanks,houses, helicopters, what cant they destroy?

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moqawama
To have blanketed Lebanon with these cluster bombs is as vindictive as it is barbarous. It is, in short, no less than an act of profound evil.

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dneiwert

Their ability to take over the government depended on their ability to short-circuit government's capacity to exercise any kind of planning or foresight (or, importantly, oversight) on behalf of the people. The War on Science that Chris Mooney so amply documents was accompanied, in a much lower key, by a War on Planning that gutted all the various methods the government used to develop large-scale plans, track leading indicators, and detect and adjust for disruptions.

After the CCCP Stalinists imploded, USA has decided that no planning at all is the way.
Bets are now shifting to the PRC; Socialism with a capitalist face.

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iht
Noam Chomsky in The New York Times, what is the world coming to .. 3Oct2006

Five centuries after the European conquests, Latin America is reasserting its independence.

In the southern cone especially, from Venezuela to Argentina, the region is rising to overthrow the legacy of external domination of the past centuries and the cruel and destructive social forms that they have helped to establish.

The mechanisms of imperial control - violence and economic warfare, hardly a distant memory in Latin America - are losing their effectiveness, a sign of the shift toward independence. Washington is now compelled to tolerate governments that in the past would have drawn intervention or reprisal.

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Ollie is worried by democracy:
military
Oliver North | October 06, 2006

..Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan is gone, and today Nicaragua looks like a case of “back to the future.”
On 5 November -- just two days before our own “mid-term” congressional elections -- the people of Nicaragua will cast ballots for a new president. Friends of democracy (sic) in Latin America have been stunned by new polls showing that Daniel Ortega .. is again poised to take control of government..
Ortega's backers in the region have learned to use the “democratic process” -- elections -- to their advantage.

Why hasnt anyone shot North, that slimebag?

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Explicit warning that the USA will attempt to reinsert Death squads:
commondreams
Burton declared matter-of-factly, ..During the 1980s, under the government of Daniel Ortega, .. thousands of Nicaraguans lost their lives…it´s important that the people know what can happen if the government returns to the kind of government there was in the 1980s.

Burton also springs to the defence of Western Union.

..Referring to a campaign promise by Ortega to “make sure that Nicaraguans get 100% of their remittances” (..Western Union take out a healthy commission..around 20%), Burton stated that a state-run remittance program would result in “families receiving much, much less money and a significantly reduced quality of life”. Remittances are the primary source of income for many families and for the country itself,

I hadnt put the pieces together: Remittances from the centre of Empire are desperately needed at the poor periphery. Western Union is a huge rapacious monster. I feel deep humiliation each time I use it. The obvious substitute is an ATM card. 1/5 the fee, and a decent conversion rate. Unfortunately my recipient proved unable to keep her PIN secret, so after canceling several cards, I have fallen back on WU.
Unholy Trinity Ramadi hizbollah.tv Daniel Ortega Western Union