Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalWankers of the Week: Chicken ŕ la Drumpf
Wankers of the Week: Chicken à la Drumpf
Posted on June 3, 2016 by Sabina Becker
Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, how about that Drumpf-Bernie debate that never happened, even though Der Drumpf got someone else to pay for it. Guess what that makes him? Yup…Buk buk buk BAWWWWWK! Ahem. And now that we’ve seen his true plumage, here are the rest of this week’s dumb clucks, in no particular (pecking) order:
1. James Fucking Weeks. If you ever wondered whether capital-L Libertarians were serious people, now you have an answer. This party leadership candidate did a strip act on a dare…right before dropping out of the race. And of course, it happened in Florida. PS: Sorry for the Moonie Times link, it’s the only one apparently covering this fiasco.
2. Barbara Fucking Bush. She doesn’t understand how women could vote for Der Drumpf? Easy, Barb…same as they did for your husband and your idiot son.
3. Sarah Fucking Palin. Jesus Christ, woman, go the fuck home. You’re fucking DRUNK.
More:
http://www.sabinabecker.com/
Haiti, a Caribbean country, is joining the African Union
Haiti, a Caribbean country, is joining the African Union
by PRI's The World
May 17, 2016
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Photo: Feed My Starving Children (FMSC)
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The African Union has 54 member states. Actually, make that 55: Next month, Haiti will officially become a member.
Yep, Haiti — in the Caribbean — will become part of Africa. It will be the first non-African country to join the AU bloc.
Culturally, though, a lot of people feel like the two are already joined.
“Haiti always calls itself … a little piece of Africa in the Caribbean, so I think it’s only fitting that now they made it official,” said Garry Pierre-Pierre, publisher of the Brooklyn-based Haitian Times.
“We share so much of the African culture from religious practices to the way we interact,” said Pierre-Pierre. “When I lived in West Africa, it reminded me so much of Haiti, it was uncanny.”
The primary benefit for Haiti in joining the AU will be the economic ties.
More:
http://matadornetwork.com/pulse/haiti-caribbean-country-joining-african-union/
Santiago's Subway Will Soon Be The First To Run On Mostly Solar And Wind Power
Santiago's Subway Will Soon Be The First To Run On Mostly Solar And Wind Power
A solar system will pump electricity directly from Chile's Atacama desert to the city, 400 miles away.
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Photo: Flickr user Osmar Valdebenito
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Adele Peters 06.03.16 1:28 PM
The Atacama region in Chile—where it essentially never rains—is the sunniest place on the planet. By 2017, some of the solar power produced there will be sent hundreds of miles away to the subway in Santiago, the first metro system in the world that will get most of its power from renewable energy.
The subway, which serves 2.5 million commuters every day, will get up to 60% of its energy from a new solar installation and up to 18% from the nearby San Juan wind farm.
Though Chile is particularly sunny, the fact that a massive, power-hungry subway will be powered in large part by the sun is a testament to the rapid rise of solar as the cost of the technology keeps falling. "I think this is a sign of the mainstreaming of solar," says Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower, the California-based solar company that is designing and building the system.
The 100-megawatt solar system will be mounted nearly 400 miles away, just south of the Atacama Desert, and then the power will be transmitted directly to the Metro. While some organizations that claim to run on renewable power are actually tapping into a standard grid—and just offsetting the amount of energy they use—the Metro is an example of a new trend in direct connections. SunPower is installing similar systems that will connect to Stanford University and some Apple data centers.
More:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060276/santiagos-subway-will-soon-be-the-first-to-run-on-mostly-solar-and-wind-power
How the British Army Cooperated with the Murderous Guatemalan Regime
How the British Army Cooperated with the Murderous Guatemalan Regime
By Phil Miller
May 31, 2016
Guatemalans are still struggling to come to terms with what happened in their civil war between US-backed rulers, left-wing rebels, and indigenous communities. One former president, Rios Montt, is awaiting trial for genocide, charged with murdering 1,771 indigenous Maya people from 1982 to 1983. Now Britain's covert collusion with Montt's regime at the height of the 36-year civil war is being called into question by files VICE has discovered at the UK National Archives.
In 1983, Britain had a garrison of 1,500 soldiers stationed along the Guatemalan border in neighboring Belize, which was a former UK colony. Politicians in Westminster and the public thought that the British army was out there to stop Guatemala invading Belize, a move it had long threatened.
In secret, however, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allowed her troops to help the ruthless Guatemalan military dictatorship eliminate its internal opponents.
Left-wing Guatemalan rebels were trying to topple Montt's regime and allegedly staged some of their attacks from Belize. The files show that British commanders feared these cross-border raids would give the Guatemalan leadership an excuse to invade Belize. To prevent this, top British army officers decided to share intelligence on rebels with Guatemalan commanders, even though they were linked to human rights abuses. Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots made reconnaissance flights over the Belizean jungle looking for guerrilla camps, and British troops carried out secret foot patrols. UK soldiers even used a Guatemalan rebel informant for one patrol, before sending him back to Guatemala, where he was arrested and later murdered by government gunmen.
More:
http://www.vice.com/read/murder-in-the-jungle-guatemala-british-army-civil-war
Pre-Hispanic tombs found in Colombia are over 2,000 years old
Pre-Hispanic tombs found in Colombia are over 2,000 years old
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Colombian archaeologists work at the excavation site of prehispanic tombs -approximately 2000 years old- which were discovered during construction works in Itagui, Antioquia department, Colombia on May 26, 2016. RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP.
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BOGOTA (AFP).- Colombian archaeologists have identified three tombs dating back more than 2,000 years, pinpointed while working squarely in metropolitan Medellin, officials said Friday.
The "first find" was May 16 in Itagui, Antioquia central Colombia in an Andean valley, said Juan Pablo Diez, whose team was working with the municipality to try to protect national heritage treasures while a local park is being built.
The finds include ceramics, known as Incised Brown Ware, and metalwork bowls, some of which were funeral urns in these farming and metalworking communities.
"One of the urns was being used as a lid for the other, and in that one we found what are most likely cremated human remains," he explained.
The artifacts are now undergoing a number of lab tests. Diez said he hoped they will end up in a new local archaeological museum.
http://artdaily.com/news/87817/Pre-Hispanic-tombs-found-in-Colombia-are-over-2-000-years-old#.V1N51uT2abw
(Short article, no more at link.)
How U.S. and U.K. Media Are Trying Their Best To Push Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela Over the Edge
May 31, 2016
How U.S. and U.K. Media Are Trying Their Best To Push Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela Over the Edge
American political and media elites would love to see the leftist Venezuelan government go down just as Brazil’s Workers’ Party has.
BY Max Ajl
Failed state. Economic and social collapse. Battlefield clinics. Humanitarian crisis. Descent into chaos. These are the apocalyptic buzzwords being used to describe modern Venezuela and the Nicolas Maduro government in the U.S.-U.K. press, shortly after a constitutional coup d’état dumped Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff of the social democratic Workers’ Party from office. U.S. political elites are happy with this turn of events. As historian Greg Grandin writes, the U.S. now “has compliant compradores in power in Argentina and Brazil, and perhaps soon in Venezuela.”
Some words you will rarely read in media coverage of Venezuela include “capital strike,” “economic sabotage,” “destabilization plan,” “coup d’état” or others which provide a far more complete and accurate account of what is going on in the country. For while the crisis is real, it is also the result of an ongoing attempt by the country’s elite and international forces like the U.S. government to subvert the Maduro presidency. In so doing, the role of the media is to wage psychological warfare against the Venezuelan government, doing its best to erode public support and sympathy for the struggling government.
Many of the articles lead with stories of babies dying amidst power shortages, antibiotics in short supply and deaths from easily treatable hemorrhages in Venezuela’s public hospital system. The crisis of medicine and medical equipment shortages is real. But for the right-wing press, it is simply a story about a socialist government mismanaging the economy, not providing enough dollars for pharmacies or medical suppliers to import the needed goods or otherwise seriously screwing up that basic mechanism of modern societies, the international supply chain—a cautionary tale about what happens when you hand the keys to a country over to leftists. But some numbers help explain what is actually going on. In 1998, Venezuela imported $222 million of medicine. In 2013, according to official numbers, that figure supposedly soared to $3.2 billion. But, as the economist Manuel Sutherland points out, the physical quantity of medicines which actually came into Venezuela decreased from 2003-2013, by 75 percent. 2003 was when the government imposed currency controls in reaction to ruinous capital flight.
Sutherland argues that the privately-owned pharmaceutical sector takes advantage of the country’s preferential exchange rate for medical supplies. It obtains dollars cheaply, then sells them dear, whether on the parallel market or to transnational corporations, which then repatriate the capital. The sector inflates its costs by falsifying import bills in order to make up the difference. The Venezuelan pharmaceutical crisis, then, is not the making of the Venezuelan government; it is largely the making of the private sector, with the government often turning a blind eye, Sutherland suggests, due to fear of further supply shortages, more intense political pressure from those transnationals parent governments and concern for officials’ reputations.
More:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19158/nicolas-maduro-venezuela-dilma-rousseff-american-media-coverage
War Has Been Declared Online Against ‘Fujitrolls’ in the Middle of Peru's Presidential Elections
War Has Been Declared Online Against ‘Fujitrolls’ in the Middle of Peru's Presidential Elections
Translation posted 4 June 2016 14:04 GMT
In Peru, the second round of the presidential campaign has caused more turmoil online than in the streets. On social media, Keiko Fujimori sympathizers (called “Fujis”), and those in favor of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (known as “Ppkausas”), have been attacking each other with every weapon at their disposal. A report from May 6 in the magazine Hildebrandt en sus Trece revealed the digital strategy of Fujimori's party, Fuerza Popular. It seems that the Fujimori side has acted in a more forceful manner and has been more inclined to insults. According to the magazine, their slogan is basically “Destroy Pedro Pablo Kucznski, members of his team and anyone who dares to criticize Keiko Fujimori.” This may be why Fujimori supporters online have become known as “Fujitrolls”.
A recent attack happened between Twitter users @clauxbryce and @elianacarlin. After @elianacarlin tweeted about the discovery of a newly exposed pro-Fujimori group, @clauxbryce responded by calling her a terrorist. He also tweeted that “we have identified them” and “they won't be around much longer.” Carlín Eliana is one of the founders of the group No to Keiko and is often accused of working for Nadine Heredia, the wife of current Peruvian president Ollanta Humala.
There is talk of teams working on three levels — the first being semi-institutional accounts or organized groups and supporters of Fujimori — although they are not officially part of her political party. For example, groups such as @CibernautasFP and @Jovenesconkeiko broadcast official statements of Keiko Fujimori and spokespeople of Fuerza Popular. The second level consists of personal accounts of Fujimori supporters (@uterofavre, for example, and @duchope, whose account was recently deleted), which were responsible for creating the trends #BajaBajaPPK (Down Down PPK) and #PPKaos (a play on PP Kuczynski's name and the “PPKausas” team that supports him, making it sound like “chaos”). The third level is a paid anonymous team that work two shifts, attacking Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and his supporters.
. . .
The @fujitrolls account, dedicated to exposing the users behind the second level Twitter accounts mentioned above, was reactivated. The account is supposedly managed by several journalists who ask their followers to help identify the anonymous users behind the belligerent Fujitroll accounts.
More:
https://globalvoices.org/2016/06/04/war-has-been-declared-online-against-fujitrolls-in-the-middle-of-perus-presidential-elections/
Waiter Working at Planalto Palace Since Lula Administration Is Fired by Temer's Team
Waiter Working at Planalto Palace Since Lula Administration Is Fired by Temer's Team
05/20/2016 - 10h32
Dilma Rousseff looked sad as she said good-bye to one of her employees on May 12. "Good-bye, Catalão. I cannot take you with me." But the man who was listening to Rousseff's words, waiter José da Silva Catalão, was actually happy as he was going to stay at Planalto Palace, the official workplace of the President of Brazil.
Catalão imagined that he would continue to perform his services waiting on the third consecutive president. However, that was not what happened. Catalão was fired after his shift ended on Tuesday, May 17, by the team of interim President Michel Temer.
Catalão said he needed the job and asked to be transferred to the kitchen of another floor of the Planalto Palace. However, he was told that they were just following orders. The Michel Temer team suspected that Catalão might tell Rousseff's group any information he heard during cabinet meetings while he was working.
Catalão, aged 52, eight of them spent with free access to the president's office, says he has no connection with the PT and was surprised by his dismissal.
More:
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2016/05/1773285-waiter-working-at-planalto-palace-since-lula-administration-is-fired-by-temers-team.shtml
For anyone interested in seeing far more images of Planalto Palace, as I just did, here's a link to Google images for great looks:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1213&bih=601&q=+Planalto+Palace&oq=+Planalto+Palace&gs_l=img.12..0l3.513.513.0.2524.1.1.0.0.0.0.100.100.0j1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.1.98.wcI0CRCSPdg#imgrc=_
It was amazing to see these pictures. Most newspaper articles showing people visiting Brazil's President give very limited views of the complex. Far more impressive than we are led to believe!
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A Very Brazilian Coup
June 3, 2016
A Very Brazilian Coup
by Conn Hallinan
On one level, the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff seems like vintage commedia dell’arte.
For instance, the lower house speaker who brought the charges, Eduardo Cunha, had to step down because he has $16 million stashed in secret Swiss and U.S. bank accounts. The man who replaced Cunha, Waldir Maranhao, is implicated in the corruption scandal around the huge state-owned oil company, Petrobras.
The former vice-president and now interim president, Michel Temer, has been convicted of election fraud, and has also been caught up in the Petrobras investigation. So is Senate president Renan Calheiros, who’s also dodging tax evasion charges.
In fact, over half the legislature is currently under investigation for corruption of some kind.
But there’s nothing comedic about what the fall of Rousseff and her left-leaning Workers Party will mean for the 35 million Brazilians who’ve been lifted out of poverty over the past decade, or for the 40 million newly minted members of the middle class — that’s one-fifth of Brazil’s 200 million people.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/03/a-very-brazilian-coup/
Thousands of Peruvian pilgrims attend Snow Star Festival
Thousands of Peruvian pilgrims attend Snow Star Festival
Rodrigo Abd, Associated Press
Updated 9:02 am, Friday, June 3, 2016
SINAKARA VALLEY, Peru (AP) — Tens of thousands of pilgrims crowd an Andean valley, with dancers in multi-layered skirts and musicians with drums and flutes performing non-stop over three days. The native melodies resound throughout a snow-capped mountain range long adored by the Quechua people.
Known as the Snow Star festival, the gathering is held every year shortly before the Christian feast of Corpus Christi and draws as many as 100,000 people to the Quispicanchis province in Peru's Cuzco region. It also coincides with the reappearance of the star cluster Pleiades in the Southern Hemisphere, signaling the abundance of the harvest season.
Inscribed on UNESCO'S Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the festival features a pilgrimage by local people to the sanctuary where a boulder features an image of Jesus Christ known as the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i (pronounced KOL-yer REE-chee), or Snow Star in the Quechua language.
The sanctuary is in the Sinakara Valley at the base of the Qullqip'unqu mountain in the Andes. Parish churches in the area provide food for the pilgrims, who camp out in the valley.
The celebration mixing Roman Catholic and indigenous beliefs honors Jesus as well as the area's glacier, which is considered sacred among some indigenous people. While the native celebration is far older, the Christian part of the ritual stretches back to the 1700s, when Jesus is said to have appeared to a young shepherd in the form of another boy.
. . .
In recent years, the pilgrims have noted a decline in the size of the glacier because of warming trends. In hopes of preventing additional melting, the ukukus no longer use the large candles that were once common in the ritual. The ukukus also used to cut away ice cubes to bring down, but no longer do so.
Jose Luis Mamani, president of the Paucartambo, one of numerous "nations" making the pilgrimage, said members of his group "are very worried about the state of this sacred place."
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Thousands-of-Peruvian-pilgrims-attend-Snow-Star-7960819.php#photo-10182307
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