Framing Comics: Daredevil #1 -- ASMR -- Male, Soft-Spoken, Tapping, Clicking

See Table of Contents for additional material related to Comic Books and ASMR.

Reading Comics: Creatures of The ID, Mike Allred's Madman, 1990 -- ASMR -- Male, Soft-Spoken, Superhero, Humour

See Table of Contents for additional material related to Comic Books and ASMR.

Reading Comics: Mystic #6, Basil Wolverton's 'The Eye of Doom!', 1952 -- ASMR -- Male, Soft-Spoken, Science Fiction, Horror

See Table of Contents for additional material related to Comic Books and ASMR.

All about Comic Books: Introduction

See Table of Contents for material related to Comic Books, ASMR, and Mathematics.

Learning Your Multiplication Table: Two Hand Tricks (Language of Mathematics #157)

Table of Contents: Language of Mathematics and Math in Real Life

Erowid
www.erowid.org

ASMR Math: Two Hand Tricks to Learn Your Multiplication Table (update)

I have had a lot of requests to create more ASMR videos, so after one of my YouTube subscribers mentioned that it would be great to combine my ASMR work with what I’m creating for The Language of Mathematics and Math in Real Life, I decided to put it on my to do list.

Below you will find the first set of such videos. A shorter more condensed edit of these videos will be uploaded within the next couple of weeks for both of my math related websites: Math in Real Life and 420Math.

Hope you enjoy.

Peace :)

ASMR Math: Two Hand Tricks to Learn Your Multiplication Table

ASMR Math: Finger Multiplication Tricks for 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10
(First Person Perspective)

Eating Autumn Olives (ASMR - Update)

For the ASMR community. Hope you enjoy (Table of Contents: ASMR Videos.

Eating Autumn Olives -- ASMR -- Soft-Spoken, Male, Chewing, Crunching, Munching

Prepping to Make Autumn Olive Jam: Picking the Berries - ASMR - Soft-Spoken, Male, Clicking, Tapping

Infinity, Part 1 to 3: Until the End of Time and the Universe Explodes; Limits and Asymptotes, Visualizing Infinity; Going Halfway, Travelling from A to B Forever (The Language of Mathematics, Series IVb, #154 to #156) - UPDATE 2

As a follow-up to one of the first videos that I produced for The Language of Mathematics, the 2007 teaser video regarding Zero and Infinity, below you will find three additional videos discussing the concept of infinity in more detail. The original teaser video is also embedded.

My Two Infinities, Part 1: Goes on Forever until the End of Time, and the Universe Explodes (#154)

My Two Infinities, Part 2: Limits and Asymptotes, Visualizing Infinity on a Graph (#155)

My Two Infinities, Part 3: Going Halfway, Travelling from A to B until Reaching the Planck Length (#156)

The Language of Mathematics (5): Zero and Infinity

“And prove to me, America, that you care. And prove to me, America, you’re aware” - 'Is It For Freedom?' by Sarah Thompson

A message to the citizens of the United States of America regarding your doctrine of endless war, delivered through song by Sara Thomsen.

“Is It For Freedom?” by Sara Thomsen

Below you will find the Lyrics for “Is It For Freedom?” from the 1999 album “Fertile Ground”.

Rulers of the nations as you fuss and fight
Over who owns this or that and who has the right
To design, build, sell and store and fire
All the bombs and guns to defend your holy empire

There are children hungry, children sick and dying
There are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers crying
They’re only pawns in your play of power and corruption
Slowly starve them, your new weapon of mass destruction

And prove to me, America, that you care
And prove to me, America, you’re aware
Who’s dying for your freedom in this land
Who pays the cost for the liberties you demand

Is it for freedom, or our comfort and convenience
Is it to profit for big business we pledge our allegiance
Are we prisoners in the land of the brave and the bold?
Held by indifference or hearts grown hard and cold (refrain)

And prove to me, America, that you care
And prove to me, America, you’re aware
Who’s dying for your freedom in this land
Who pays the cost for the liberties you demand

Children of the world, you have the right
To sing and dance, run and play, let your dreams take flight
As the innocent die you rulers carry the shame
And if we stand idly by we share in the blame

And oh, America, do we care
Oh, America, are we aware
Who’s dying for our comfort in this land
Who pays the cost for the convenience we demand?

Children of the world, you have the right
To sing and dance, run and play, let your dreams take flight

Free Radical Media Podcast: Mathematics, Education and True Learning with chycho

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the folks at Free Radical Media to see if I would be willing to be a guest in their fledgeling podcast network. I checked out some of their work and really liked what I found, so I nervously agreed – I’ve never been a guest on a podcast before.

We ended up discussing a myriad of topics focused on mathematics, education, and some of the problems associated with our centralized systems as well as some of the solutions available to us at the moment.

It was a very fun experience and I would like to thank Eric and Patrick for having me as a guest. Below you will find the podcast.

FRM - Mathematics, Education and True Learning with chycho

For those interested in further exploring some of the topics that we discussed, you will find additional information regarding these topics at:

Book: Jiddu Krishnamurti’s “Education and The Significance of Life” (pdf)

Interview: The Ultimate History Lesson with John Taylor Gatto

Article: Paradigm Shift in Education: Krishnamurti on the Educator, RAW on Ignorance, Gato on the System, and Hamming on Learning

Article: Why is Math Important? Because the language of mathematics plays a vital role in our evolution

Mathematics: Gödel's incompleteness theorems

Episode of Star Trek Voyager: “The Omega Directive”

Synopsis of Our Present Predicament: What the Future Holds, a Final Word

Consider the following the introduction to Politics on this site and it will be the last strictly geopolitical discussion that we have here for quite some time.

Additional informatin at: The Mathematics of Economics

Some Thoughts Regarding the Elections: A Short Discussion on Politics and Economics

---

In the last few years the information presented on this and the previous site have provided my perspective on our present predicament regarding geopolitics, specifically, what we are in the midst of (2, 3) and what the future (2, 3) may hold.

In short, the main problem with our society is that our education system is designed to instill obedience, and it has done so extremely well. We have willingly consumed propaganda to the point where our hypnosis has turned us into servants of totalitarian regimes:

“The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin uses the term inverted totalitarianism in his book Democracy Incorporated to describe our political system. In inverted totalitarianism, the sophisticated technologies of corporate control, intimidation, and mass manipulation, which far surpass those employed by previous totalitarian states, are effectively masked by the glitter, noise, and abundance of a consumer society.”

Bill Hicks - JFK

Further information on the JFK assassination at: “Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City”, and “The Death Of John Kennedy: The Media helped sell the lie of the lone assassin”.

We have allowed poverty and inequality to flourish by believing in Wall Street’s mantra, practicing accounting magic of indefinite growth, and normalizing scarcity based economics. We’ve come to believe that the world is less violent now than at any other time in history while we’re permanently scorching large segments of the earth. We have allowed ourselves to be surveilled for our own security. Our might has allowed us to state that we stand for peace and justice when waging war, and that war crimes are only war crimes (2) when others commit them. We call genocide ‘defense’ (2). We mimic and worship psychopaths and are unabashedly proud of our achievements as we create sacrifice zones to feed our addictions.

“We will leave behind, after our defeats, wreckage and death, the contagion of violence and hatred, unending grief, and millions of children who were brutalized and robbed of their childhood. Americans who did not suffer will forget. People maimed physically or psychologically by the violence, especially the Iraqi and Afghan children, will never escape. Time and memory will play their usual tricks. Those who endured war will begin to wonder, years from now, what was real and what was not. And those who did not taste of war’s noxious poison will stop wondering at all.” - Chris Hedges, “Pity the Children”

How CIA Kills Countries - John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”

By 2012, 55% of the world’s refugees came from five countries, all of which we have bombed ‘back to the stone age’ (2): Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. Yet, we are not the primary providers of sanctuary for the tens of millions of refugees that we have created. On the contrary, majority of the countries waging war on these nations have turned their backs on their victims:

“Since 2003, when war broke out, at least 4.7 million Iraqis have been uprooted, creating the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since Israel was founded. About half of the displaced remain in Iraq, while more than 2 million have spilled into Syria and Jordan, where the influx has overwhelmed hospitals and schools and created water and housing shortages….

“But most Western countries have refused to offer direct aid to Syria and Jordan, or welcome more than a handful of refugees….

“On average, European nations grant just 11 percent of Iraqi asylum claims, according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, and some countries -- among them Greece -- accept fewer than 1 percent.”

For example, by 2007, the United States had only taken in 466 Iraqi refugees, and had promised to “try to resettle 7,000” out of the estimated 2 million that had been displaced by the coalition of the willing. Syria on the other hand, during the same period, by 2007, was estimated to have been the recipient of 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, equal to approximately 5% of the total population of Syria.


click to enlarge - source (pdf)


click to enlarge - source (pdf)

It’s anyone’s guess if those responsible in the West for these wars of aggressions - crimes against peace - will ever be held accountable. What we do know is that by allowing these crimes against humanity to go unpunished we have transformed the global political landscape (emphasis added):

“Kofi Annan, declared explicitly… that the US-led war on Iraq was illegal. Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN security council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter. In an interview with the BBC World Service… he was asked outright if the war was illegal. He replied: ‘Yes, if you wish.’

“He then added unequivocally: ‘I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and from the charter point of view it was illegal.’”

"We’ve Lost Our Country": An Iraqi American Looks Back on a Decade of War That’s Devastated a Nation

The Torturers: Donald Rumsfeld; President George W. Bush; Dick Cheney

UPDATE:
- Rectal rehydration and waterboarding: the CIA torture report's grisliest findings
- Did Gitmo "Suicides" Cover Up Murder? U.S. Sgt. Speaks Out on Deaths & Prison’s Secret CIA Site: "Professor Denbeaux, you’re saying that this camp was used to experiment on people."... "Yes. That’s what General Dunleavy referred to when he referred to it as America’s battle lab. That’s what General Miller was referring to when he described Guantánamo as America’s battle lab. And he was Dunleavy’s successor. The only question was: What were the experiments? And, of course, the question became fairly clear once we discovered this giving of these psychotic-inducing drugs they gave them the minute people arrived."
- READ: Senate Committee’s Report on the CIA’s Use of Torture
- "Psychological Torture is Enshrined in U.S. Law": Complicity in Abuses Began Long Before Bush
- After Duo Created CIA Torture Methods, Did World’s Largest Group of Psychologists Enable Abuses?
- Mike Gravel to Senator Mark Udall: Make Full Torture Probe Public Like I Did with Pentagon Papers.
- Endless War: As U.S. Strikes Tikrit & Delays Afghan Pullout, "War on Terror" Toll Tops 1.3 Million (March 26, 2015).

By not punishing those who commit war crimes we have become desensitized to misery and are condemned to perpetual war. We have become a pariah nation, creating enemies across the globe as we fund campaigns of death and destruction.

“Obama sent Congress a $500 million request Thursday for a Pentagon-run program that would significantly expand previous covert efforts to arm rebels fighting both the Sunni extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.” - June 27, 2014, “Obama seeks $500-million to arm select Syrian rebels”

“Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.” - July 7, 2008, “PREPARING THE BATTLEFIELD: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.” by Seymour Hersh

The Plan (2, 3) -- according to U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.)

Present Middle East

click map to enlarge

New Middle East

click map to enlarge - source - Further information on the new map of the Middle East at: “World War III began in May 2006: Building the New Map of the Middle East in Real Time”

We do all of the above and more with the conceded arrogance of the privileged, the exceptional, and then have the audacity to ask our deities to bless us for the ensuing carnage.

“The end of the political process, futile as it may have been, triggered the collapse of the status quo as we have known it for the past 47 years. It set in motion a series of events that will confront us with two stark alternatives regarding Israel and Palestine: either the permanent warehousing of an entire population or the emergence of a single democratic state….

“The message is clear, unilateral and final: This country has been Judaized: it is now the Land of Israel in the process of being incorporated into the state of Israel. You Arabs (or ‘Palestinians’ as you call yourselves) are not a people and have no national rights, certainly to our exclusively Jewish country. You are not a ‘side’ to a ‘conflict.’ Once and for all we must disabuse you of the notion that we are actually negotiating with you. We never have and never will. You are nothing but inmates in prison cells, and we hereby declare through our military and political actions that you have three options before you: You can submit as inmates are required to you, in which case we will allow you to remain in your enclave-cells. You can leave, as hundreds of thousands have done before you. Or, if you choose to resist, you will die.”

“Warehousing is worse than apartheid. It does not even pretend to find a political framework for ‘separate development,’ it simply jails the oppressed and robs them of all their collective and individual rights. It is the ultimate form of oppression before actual genocide…” - Jeff Halper, “Israel’s message to the Palestinians: Submit, leave or die”.

Jeff Halper Interview: Occupation of Palestinian Territories Likely to Intensify in Coming Months

“And I think that if I have to give one allegory to this whole thing... I would imagine it as gang rape. And forgive me for using this hard language, but when you have a group of people raping someone, and this person that is being raped starting to scratch, the first thing you want to do in order to stop the scratches is to stop the rape. And what Israel, official Israel, is trying to do is to continue the rape and deal with the scratches. And I say, stop the rape, stop the occupation, stop the apartheid, stop this inhumane ghettoization of Palestinians, and then—then—we can start talking, and we can reach peace agreements and all these beautiful words that now don’t mean anything for us.” - Yonatan Shapira, a former Israeli captain and Air Force pilot.

Young American Jew, very brave اعتقال شاب يهودى امريكي شجاع جدا

Israel police beat American teen Tarek Khdeir

Additional information on Tarek Khdeir at: 'I am only 15 but I will never think of freedom the same as I did two months ago': US teen speaks out after he was beaten by Israeli authorities while on holiday

“There are many illustrations. Take a current one. In May, the U.S. agreed to support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Syria, but with a proviso: there could be no inquiry into possible war crimes by Israel. Or by Washington, though it was really unnecessary to add that last condition. The U.S. is uniquely self-immunized from the international legal system. In fact, there is even congressional legislation authorizing the president to use armed force to ‘rescue’ any American brought to the Hague for trial — the ‘Netherlands Invasion Act,’ as it is sometimes called in Europe.” - Noam Chomsky, “America’s corporate doctrine of power a grave threat to humanity”

Howard Zinn -- “The Myth of American Exceptionalism” (lecture begin at 6:10)

Edward Said on Orientalism

If we only appreciated and understood what it meant when we were told that war is a racket and that all wars are banker’s wars:

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” - Major General Smedley Butler, “War Is A Racket”

Additional information and quotes about and from Major General Smedly Butler available at: General Smedley Butler Quotes on War, Patriotism, and More

War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler [Full Reading, Soft-Spoken, ASMR AudioBook, Math]

Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve

Collectively we have been lulled into obedience. Become selfish and self-centered, delusional sadistic beings fearing our own shadows and totally out of touch with reality. Our collective ignorance is what our governments have banked on; that the severity of our stupidity will hold steadfast as they commit genocides and collapse economies. Unfortunately, so far, they have been brilliant tacticians since psychopaths still govern our daily lives and corporations continue to convince us to consume what we do not need, or so is the doctrine of compliance that they are trying to instill upon us.

“…to make visible the invisible war... Tiqqun argues that, like the YoungGirl archetype, we are commodities, products and agents of capital caught in an invisible war in which we are our own oppressors.” - Mallory Amirault, “Tiqqun’s Tits: Preliminary Materials for Exposing the Young Girl” (pdf)

Mallory Amirault, Topless Artist Smashes Ceramic Breasts - CBC News Vancouver

When I think of all of this and more, the only fathomable excuse that comes to mind as to why we have forfeited so much; the only words that bring me comfort regarding our collective insensibility come from George Carlin pointing out that the cause of our ills is because half of humanity is dumber than the average person.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” - George Carlin

George Carlin Stupid People

Why George Carlin’s words bring me comfort is because they imply that the problem has a solution, education, hence my work on mathematics. The alternative, that we are aware of our history and are indifferent to it, is unthinkable.

Since I have no desire to document the play-by-play symphony of carnage that is being unleashed and is to come, and since I have said what needed to be said, or as Arundhati Roy would say; “I feel that I don’t have anything direct to say without repeating myself”, we’ll consider this post to be the introduction to politics on chycho and it will be the last strictly geopolitical discussion we have on this site for quite some time, at least until Russia, China, Iran, or another formidable enemy of our choosing or making (2, 3, 4) is duped into directly confronting NATO (2), or until the next major false flag operation (2,3) sends the world into a frenzy.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me a message or post a comment. You can find additional information in the Politics and Economics sections of the Table of Contents. Some of the more popular posts can be found in the right hand column of this site.

Peace,

chycho

The Subjugation of Africa, the Battle for a Continent: Full Throttle into Oblivion

The following is Part 4 of: “The future of Africa looks bleak, here is why” (Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

---

For part four of “The future of Africa looks bleak”, instead of doing a full write-up connecting all the dots as we did in the Introduction, “Part 1: Western Powers Go Full Retard on Africa: China vs. AFRICOM, a Resource War”, “Part 2: France Has Forgotten the Battle of Algiers, Africa Never Will”, and “Part 3: Recolonization of Africa, a Symptom of Our Addiction to Growth: Differential Accumulation, Why GDP Growth Rates Influence Foreign Policy”, I thought it would suffice to provide links to some of the most recent developments, news and information, that would complement our discussion so far.

The picture being painted should be quite clear, after all, what else would anyone think was happening in Africa other than the recolonization of its land and the subjugation of its people.

Western powers did not destroy Libya, a country that had achieved the highest living standard in Africa (1, 2) and did not just start selling weapons to one of the most brutal military dictatorships in Africa (see Egypt below) because they are interested in human rights, peace, prosperity, or a myriad of other reasons that our corporate representatives in government would like us to believe.

We are not in Africa because we care about the children, we are in Africa with force because we need Africa to subsidize Western living standards and corporate profits.

“Africa’s classic depiction in the mainstream media, as a giant basketcase full of endless war, famine and helpless children creates an illusion of a continent utterly dependent on Western handouts. In fact, the precise opposite is true – it is the West that is reliant on African handouts. These handouts come in many and varied forms. They include illicit flows of resources, the profits of which invariably find their way into the West’s banking sector via strings of tax havens.… Another is the mechanism of debt-extortion whereby banks lend money to military rulers (often helped to power by Western governments, such as the Congo’s former President Mobutu), who then keep the money for themselves (often in a private account with the lending bank), leaving the country paying exorbitant interest on an exponentially growing debt.…

“Another form of handout would be through the looting of minerals.… Finally, and perhaps most importantly, are the pitifully low prices paid both for African raw materials and for the labour that mines, grows or picks them, which effectively amount to an African subsidy for Western living standards and corporate profits.

“This is the role for which Africa has been ascribed by the masters of the Western capitalist economy: a supplier of cheap resources and cheap labour. And keeping this labour, and these resources, cheap depends primarily on one thing: ensuring that Africa remains underdeveloped and impoverished. If it were to become more prosperous, wages would rise; if it were to become more technologically developed, it would be able to add value to its raw materials through the manufacturing process before exporting them, forcing up the prices paid….

Additional news and information below:

1. Libya

2. Nigeria

3. Egypt

4. Sudan

5. Water

6. Food

7. China and the United States

I. Libya

Libya in shock after murder of human rights activist Salwa Bugaighis - “The couple had just returned from voting in Wednesday's election, the attack reminding Libyans of the growing power of extremists in a country racked by violence….

“Bugaighis, a lawyer from a prominent Benghazi family, was among the first to the barricades in Libya's 2011 Arab spring revolution, and later resigned from the first rebel administration, the National Transitional Council, accusing it of freezing-out female members….

“Most recently Bugaighis had been a prominent member of a commission trying to bridge Libya's growing factional divide. That divide appeared as wide as ever on Thursday, with rival militias deployed on the streets of Tripoli and the supreme court suspending sessions amid fears of violence. “

“A car bomb wounded two people outside the assembly designing Libya's constitution in the eastern city of al-Baida and security officials said three soldiers deployed to guard ballot boxes were killed by Islamist militias in Benghazi.”

Libya War: What They Don't Want You to Know

Additional information on Libya:

Johann Hari: We're not being told the truth on Libya

WikiLeaks documents shed light on US-backed intervention in Libya

The Top Ten Myths in the War Against Libya

Libya Truth (DnB Soundtrack)

Libya’s “Water Wars” and Gaddafi’s Great Man-Made River Project

France eyes Libya deals after unfreezing $2 billion assets

Look at ‘Liberated’ Libya and Despair

U.S. moves more forces closer to Libya as unrest grows

II. Nigeria

Kidnapped Girls Become Tools of U.S. Imperial Policy in Africa - “The ‘humanitarian’ U.S. military occupation of Africa has been very successful, thus far. ‘The Chibok abductions have served the same U.S. foreign policy purposes as Joseph Kony sightings in central Africa.’ Imagine: the superpower that financed the genocide of six million in Congo, claims to be a defender of teenage girls and human rights on the continent. If you believe that, then you are probably a member of the Congressional Black Caucus….

“A chorus of outraged public opinion demands that the ‘international community’ and the Nigerian military ‘Do something!’ about the abduction by Boko Haram of 280 teenage girls. It is difficult to fault the average U.S. consumer of packaged ‘news’ products for knowing next to nothing about what the Nigerian army has actually been ‘doing’ to suppress the Muslim fundamentalist rebels since, as senior columnist Margaret Kimberley pointed out in these pages, last week, the three U.S. broadcast networks carried ‘not a single television news story about Boko Haram’ in all of 2013. (Nor did the misinformation corporations provide a nanosecond of coverage of the bloodshed in the Central African Republic, where thousands died and a million were made homeless by communal fighting over the past year.) But, that doesn’t mean the Nigerian army hasn’t been bombing, strafing, and indiscriminately slaughtering thousands of, mainly, young men in the country’s mostly Muslim north.

“The newly aware U.S. public may or may not be screaming for blood, but rivers of blood have already flowed in the region. Those Americans who read – which, presumably, includes First Lady Michelle Obama, who took her husband’s place on radio last weekend to pledge U.S. help in the hunt for the girls – would have learned in the New York Times of the army’s savage offensive near the Niger border, last May and June. In the town of Bosso, the Nigerian army killed hundreds of young men in traditional Muslim garb ‘Without Asking Who They Are,’ according to the NYT headline. ‘They don’t ask any questions,’ said a witness who later fled for his life, like thousands of others. ‘When they see young men in traditional robes, they shoot them on the spot,’ said a student. ‘They catch many of the others and take them away, and we don’t hear from them again.’”

Boko Haram Kidnappings An Excuse For The U.S. To Further Entrench Itself In Africa

III. Egypt

The Al Jazeera trial: first they came for the Muslim Brotherhood... - “The Al Jazeera verdicts - roundly condemned by foreign governments, media organisations and human rights groups - are just the tip of the iceberg. Since the unseating (by military coup?) of Morsi a year ago, we’ve had hundreds of people sentenced to death, thousands arrested (estimates range between 16,000 and 41,000), and at least one secret military prison set up where torture is rampant.

“Egypt’s anti-Muslim Brotherhood, anti-Salafist and anti-democracy activist purges have reached such a fever pitch that surely even traditional backers of Egyptian military rulers are starting to squirm. Well, sort of. After the jailing of the Al Jazeera journalists, John Kerry said the sentences were ‘chilling’ and ‘draconian’, and the White House chimed in with its own condemnation. But only a few hours before Peter Greste et al were getting their hefty sentences it emerged that the USA was unfreezing military aid to Egypt (aid cut off last year after the violent ousting of ... the elected president Mohamed Morsi). Though the USA chides Egypt in public, behind the scenes it's still arranging mammoth arms deals - just as it did in the Mubarak era.”

U.S. Renews Aid to Sisi-led Egypt Despite Ongoing Political Repression

Additional information on Egypt:

"Journalism in Egypt is a Crime": Global Outcry After 3 Al Jazeera Reporters Sentenced to 7-10 Years

Egypt is a Police State: Senior Muslim Brotherhood Member Condemns New Mass Death Sentence for 683

Inside the Brutality of Egypt's New Regime: 2,500 Killed, 16,000 Political Prisoners, Torture Allegations Are Widespread

IV. Sudan and Somalia

South Sudan crisis: Donors pledge $600m at conference - “Donors including the US and the UK have pledged more than $600m (£360m; 440m euros) in aid to South Sudan at a conference in Norway. The sum raised will go towards the target of $1.8bn the UN says is needed to help millions facing starvation. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos says it is still possible to prevent a famine in the conflict-torn country. More than a million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in December.

“Thousands have now died in the crisis that started as a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar, but escalated into ethnic violence. The conflict has left people unable to farm and with little access to food, aid experts say.”

Somalia on the brink of food crisis

V. Water

Map Room: Hidden Waters - “Across Africa, deep beneath a host of varied terrains, vast groundwater reserves lie almost untouched. These aquifers are some 410,000 cubic miles thick and contain 100 times the freshwater that exists on the continent’s surface. As Africa’s population expands, these aquifers could prove critical in increasing food production, reducing poverty, and adapting to climate change.

click image to enlarge

“Last April, scientists published the first comprehensive map of African groundwater reserves in the journal Environmental Research Letters. In the image above, World Policy Journal shows these water resources alongside historic drought conditions in an effort to define the enormous scope of this vital resource. Much of the groundwater lies beneath the Sahel belt, one of the most drought-prone stretches on the planet. Since water scarcity in the Sahel will remain a problem, tapping these hidden freshwater reserves could become a priority.

“Some countries have successfully exploited these gigantic fossil reserves in the past. In 1984, Libya’s surface freshwater was becoming contaminated with saltwater, so Muammar Gaddafi ordered construction of a $25 billion ‘Great Manmade River’ project to extract water from beneath the Sahara and bring it to cities near the sea. Some estimates suggest that despite its price tag, this method was still one-tenth the cost of the alternative—desalinating water from the Mediterranean. Though the “river” works for now, large government subsidies are still the only way most Libyan farmers can afford water to irrigate their crops. And contrary to Gaddafi’s claim that the aquifer would last 4,625 years, independent research has indicated that it will run dry in just 60 to 100.

“Many specialists say drilling fossil reserves should only be a last resort. They are costly to tap, and once they are gone, they are gone forever. Still, last-ditch options like the Libyan strategy could appeal to countries suffering from droughts when there is an abundance of clean freshwater beneath their feet.”

Water Wars: Land snatched from Syria supplies third of Israel's H2O

VI. Food

Stunner: Researchers retract paper because company complains it’s hurting profits - “It’s not unusual for us to hear allegations that journals have caved to corporate demands that they retract papers. And companies have certainly objected to the publication of results that painted their products in an unflattering light.

“But what we’ve never explicitly seen is a retraction notice that comes right out and says that the only reason a paper is being removed from the literature is that a company complained. That’s the jaw-dropping case with ‘Visual defects among consumers of processed cassava (gari),’ a paper published earlier this year in the African Journal of Food Sciences:

“The retraction is based on the fact that a Gari processing company has requested the retraction this paper from journal’s website and publisher’s database since it is crumbling their business inputs to their competitors leading to a drastic reduction in customers and consumers hence affecting their productivity and profitability.…

“The incidence of color blindness is higher in gari consumers than the non consumers. Visual defects are correlated to the frequency of eating gari, for how long gari has been eaten and age. The high prevalence of visual defects among the consumers of gari may be due to the exposure to unsafe amount of cyanide in gari that was consumed over a long period of time. This may consequently contribute to high prevalence of blindness and severe visual impairment especially among those aged ≥ 40 years.”

Gari and Cassava production – A small business that can change your life!

VII. China and the United States

China to build railway linking East Africa - “China has signed a deal to build a $3.8bn railway link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link neighbouring Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. The agreement was signed in Nairobi on Sunday by visiting Chinese premier Li Keqiang and witnessed by the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“Under the terms of the deal, Exim Bank of China will provide 90 percent of the cost to replace the crumbling British colonial-era line with a 609km standard-gauge link, and Kenya the remaining 10 percent. Construction is due to start in October and will take three-and-a-half years to complete, with China Communications Construction as the main contractor, the AFP news agency reported.”

Jeremy Scahill: Al-Shabab’s Nairobi Mall Rampage Tied to "Disastrous" U.S. Meddling in Somalia

Betrayal, Freedom and Justice: Forces of Order, Why V Embraced Anarchy (excerpts from Alan Moore and David LLoyd’s ‘V for Vendetta’)

Without a doubt, if you were to ask any comic book aficionado to put together a top five comic book creators list, Alan Moore would be in every list. Some even consider him to be the greatest comic book writer of all time.

“When waiting for a train at London's Victoria Station in 1984, Gaiman noticed a copy of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore, and carefully read it. Moore's fresh and vigorous approach to comics had such an impact on Gaiman that he would later write; ‘that was the final straw, what was left of my resistance crumbled. I proceeded to make regular and frequent visits to London's Forbidden Planet shop to buy comics’.” - Neil Gaiman: Journalism, early writings, and literary influences

Neil Gaiman - 3 books that have changed my life

Alan Moore has touched many hearts, and his creation that has influenced more people than any other is his masterpiece ‘V for Vendetta’, which he co-created with David LLoyd.

Aside from inspiring many across a wide spectrum, the tale told in this series has given birth to a social movement that has instilled fear in the hearts of the intelligentsia of the ruling class as well as encouraging those who have succumbed to authority and accepted governance to question their obedience.

V for Vendetta: The Revolutionary Speech (HD)

Below you will find three pages from Book One, Chapter Five of V for Vendetta. They provide a glimpse into the mindset of one of the most famous fictional terrorists in human mythology, and as to why he declared war on injustice and embraced anarchy (click images to enlarge).

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NOTE: Spoilers below.

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As for how V defines anarchy, the following excerpts provide further insight.


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A New User-Generated News and Information Aggregate Site That Shows A Lot of Promise: A Message to Whoaverse’s Admin, Please, No Defaults

If you, like me, share and acquire news and information and entertain and are entertained by browsing forums and user-generated news and information aggregate sites, then you should be aware, there is a new player in town and it shows a lot of promise.

whoaverse.com is in its early alpha stage right now but the buzz its creating is intoxicating. I haven’t felt this much excitement about sharing information online for quite some time.

The admins of the site appear to be dedicated to transparency and at present are very receptive to suggestions on how the site should be managed. Have your say, I have already had mine. Here is my take regarding default subs:

1) “Personally, I don't think there should be any defaults if at all possible. I think once people join they should see the top subs and be able to click on the ones that they want to join, like a list.”

2) “I think there should be no defaults, but a list from which people can choose what they want as their defaults. I also think this should be implemented as soon as possible before the flood really begins, because it's coming.

“Just imagine what a beauty it would be if as soon as you join there is a list of the subVerses, from most to least... even an option to categorize the subs based on a certain topic (a list with sorting ability).

“IMHO, The main downfall of Reddit (2, 3, 4, 5) was that there were defaults, so people were being herded into specific locations. It made it way too easy to manipulate.”

Whoaverse.com first video ad

A Little Bill Hicks Break

After the marathon video editing session for the previous post, I am in need of a little Bill Hicks break. I’ll be back in a few days, until then, here is Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks ★Revelations ★ 1993

Let Me Show You My Grandmother's Backgammon Board: Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon

The first half of the first video embedded below provides a full explanation of what this post and the related videos are about.

In short, I like layering my work, and in the following videos you will find five layers, some of what I love: backgammon, ASMR, craps, mathematics, and family.

We will return to these videos in the future, for now, here is what my grandmother’s backgammon board looks like and some of its history, as well as six videos of me and my grandma playing backgammon.

Hope you enjoy.

Let Me Show You My Grandmother's Backgammon Board [ASMR]

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #1

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #2

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #3

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #4

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #5

Me and Grandma Playing Backgammon: Round #6

The Mantra on Wall Street Is ‘Don’t Fight the Fed’, but Do You Know What the Fed Is Doing? And Where Did Belgium Get $141 Billion to Purchase U.S. Treasury Bonds?

The main mantra on Wall Street is ‘Don’t Fight the Fed’, implying that if monetary policy is geared towards easing – lowering of interest rates - then riskier markets are the game in town, and if monetary policy is geared towards tightening – rising interest rates – then volatile markets are to be avoided. But do we know what the Fed is up to?

1. DOW, S&P 500, QE, and Tapering
2. The Fed and Belgium
3. What’s Going On?

I. DOW, S&P 500, QE, and Tapering

Both the DOW and S&P 500 are sitting at all-time highs. Since bottoming out in early March 2009 (DOW, S&P 500), the DOW is up approximately 150% and the S&P 500 approximately 180%. Astronomical returns no matter what period you compare this to.

It’s no secret that the only reason the markets have been soaring is because of unlimited quantitative easing [QE], i.e., stimulus, stimulus, and indefinite-stimulus - “fundamentally a regressive redistribution program that has been boosting wealth for those already engaged in the financial sector or those who already own homes, but passing little along to the rest of the economy.”

By December 2012, funds were being pumped into the markets to the tune of $85 billion a month - a last resort, desperate measure that the FOMC began so that their ‘growth’ targets could be met. This was tapered down to $65 billion a month in June 2013, which resulted in a major sell off in the markets - “the stock markets dropped approximately 4.3% over the three trading days” - prompting the Fed to “hold off on scaling back its bond-buying program”, underscoring the fact that the Fed still has Wall Street’s back and is still in the business of transferring wealth from Main Street to Wall Street.

click to enlarge - source

After the initial shock that ‘free’ money was going to be less readily available subsided and the markets stabilized, the tapering continued; “after three additional reductions, the program currently stands at $45 billion per month. Fed Chairman Janet Yellen expects the program to wind down steadily through 2014 and conclude by year-end, assuming the economy remains healthy.”

“The FOMC will likely continue to taper the pace of its asset purchases by a further $10 billion — split equally between Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities — as hinted at in Chairman Bernanke’s press conference following the December meeting. While the Committee has taken pains to note that the path of asset purchases is 'not on a preset course,' a substantial change in the outlook would likely be required for the Fed to either pause or accelerate the gradual pace of tapering started at the last meeting. We think this relatively high bar has not been met, some weaker recent data notwithstanding. Based on a roughly $10 billion per meeting tapering schedule, the last QE3 purchases should occur in October 2014.”

II. The Fed and Belgium

But all is not as it appears. According to Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler, “The Fed Is The Great Deceiver” - it has not been tapering, but pumping more funds into the markets than ever before.

The Fed has been laundering money into the markets through third parties, Belgium being the primary one:

“Further analysis of the source of funds to finance the U.S. deficit shows Belgium and the Fed are the only two buyers on the margin currently driving rates lower…

“The strange aspect of the data is that in the published figures, the tiny country of Belgium with a GDP of only $509B, somehow managed to purchase $40.2B in Treasury securities in the month of March. The purchases follow a six-month barrage of purchases by Belgium in which $214.6B in Treasuries were added to security accounts held in the country. Based on the data, Belgium has escalated to third, behind only Japan and China (mainland) in the rankings of foreign countries which hold the most U.S. Treasury reserves.”

click to enlarge - source

In a three month period, from November 2013 through January 2014, Belgium, with a GDP of only $484 billion, miraculously acquired enough funds to purchase $141.2 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds. As Roberts and Kranzler point out:

“Is the Fed ‘tapering’? Did the Fed really cut its bond purchases during the three month period November 2013 through January 2014? Apparently not if foreign holders of Treasuries are unloading them.

“From November 2013 through January 2014 Belgium with a GDP of $480 billion purchased $141.2 billion of US Treasury bonds. Somehow Belgium came up with enough money to allocate during a 3-month period 29 percent of its annual GDP to the purchase of US Treasury bonds.

“Certainly Belgium did not have a budget surplus of $141.2 billion. Was Belgium running a trade surplus during a 3-month period equal to 29 percent of Belgium GDP?

“No, Belgium’s trade and current accounts are in deficit.

“Did Belgium’s central bank print $141.2 billion worth of euros in order to make the purchase?

“No, Belgium is a member of the euro system, and its central bank cannot increase the money supply.

“So where did the $141.2 billion come from?

“There is only one source. The money came from the US Federal Reserve, and the purchase was laundered through Belgium in order to hide the fact that actual Federal Reserve bond purchases during November 2013 through January 2014 were $112 billion per month.

“In other words, during those 3 months there was a sharp rise in bond purchases by the Fed. The Fed’s actual bond purchases for those three months are $27 billion per month above the original $85 billion monthly purchase and $47 billion above the official $65 billion monthly purchase at that time.”

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Fed Laundering Treasury Bonds in Belgium, Real GDP was Negative & More

III. What’s Going On?

Paul Craig Roberts explains in his article and the video above why the Fed is working off the books to prop up the markets. The gist of it is that the U.S. economy is not as rosy as the government claims it to be, and that the U.S. dollar is not a safe haven anymore.

So Wall Street’s mantra of not fighting the Fed is a little confusing. If you believe the official statements about QE and tapering, then you should be concerned about a market downturn with the taps turning off. If you know what’s going on behind the scenes, that the Fed is more worried about the economy and the U.S. dollar than ever before, pumping more funds into the markets than at any other time in history, then you might want to take advantage of more ‘free’ money and be inclined to go long.

As for me, as I have stated in the past, with boomers cashing out, inflation on the rise, margin debt at a record high, trading-revenue dropping across-the-board, U.S. technology companies being in trouble, the game at play being the business of war, and a few other reasons, I’m short the market.

Review of David Lynch’s 'Inland Empire': a Psychedelic Trip Report

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Staying with the theme of the previous post, a review of Joon-ho Bong’s ‘Snowpiercer’, thought I’d share a review of David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’ that I posted on my previous site in 2007 after watching the movie for the first time - I ended up going back to the theater 2 more times within a week of making this post so that I could experience it again. This was one of my first extensive pieces and wanted to give it a home on this site as well. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend the movie.

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I walked out of ‘Inland Empire’ seven hours ago and was too exhausted to tackle this recommendation. I ended up getting something to eat and after five hours of restless sleep I think I’m ready to at least pique your interest enough to consume David Lynch and go for a ride.

I want to get one thing out of the way before I go any further. The actors in this movie will blow you away. They catch you by surprise and amaze you with delight. If you are a casting director then this movie will teach you how to put the right people in the right place. If you are a director then you better line up now and make sure your script is strong enough and your vision brilliant, because if you win the lottery then you may hope to get the opportunity to work with at least one of these people. And if you think you are an actor then these roles, this director, this movie, this experience would have been an opportunity of a lifetime, if you could have pulled it off to perfection the way it was done by everyone involved. The flawless range of characters played by each individual actor will make you wish you had the ability to play just one of the personas from these schizophrenic personalities.

With ‘Inland Empire’, Lynch takes chaos, creates order within multiple timelines, through multiple characters, portraying different realities, each one more psychotic then the previous, just to tell us that life is worth the ride. He’s used psychedelic patterns everywhere and in every form. From the set and soundtrack, to the lighting and script, Lynch’s directing bonds every inch of the screen, playing with our emotions and sense of reality as if we were children trying to grasp the drama that comes with growing up.

Just when you think a perspective has been understood it changes. Infinite possibilities converge to a coherent rant that dissipates instantaneously, bringing to light pathways that lead into a panoramic view of realities yet before unseen.

The story is not the movie, the experience is. The emotional roller coaster that Lynch takes us on makes the worst psychedelic journey seem palatable. Within fractions we are taken from laughter to perplexity, to a fear that makes your bones rattle to the core, not just for an instant, but long enough to melt into other perspectives. A princess becomes a prostitute, a lover turns into a killer, a victim the hunter. Wives and mothers turn into disease ridden homeless whores doing a dance routine that puts a smile on your face, providing an interlude before you are catapulted into the next wave.

The events in this convoluted pulsating smorgasbord bring you to the brink of madness. The reasoning behind each word spoken, each sound bite, each gesture pointing towards the unknown just around the corner makes your heart misfire. You are unaware of your hypnosis until it’s too late. The logic embedded within each scene makes you believe each reality and possible outcome, witnessing the events unfolding with awe.

I’m not sure how Lynch did it, or how the actors maintained their sanity knowing exactly which lives they were living. It’s possible that the nexus is the lighting, or is it the music? I cannot be sure because I have only experienced it once. Like all-powerful psychedelic journeys it will require multiple exposures to decipher, but it is too exhausting to consume consecutively. So I will wait until I am ready to consult the Lynch oracle again. To know what it means to love and to obey, to take control and let go, and face my fear of circus clowns, now that I have one.

The title of this so-called review is a little misleading because this is not a review; it is, as I stated in the opening paragraph, a recommendation. To call this a review would be equivalent to calling a biography of a prophet a review. ‘Inland Empire’ needs to be experienced in the true sense of the word. It is not a story, it is a message. The lesson is life from a teacher that you will not soon forget.

Just make sure that you find a theater with comfortable seats and that you are dehydrated, because you will not want to leave the movie for a break, possibly missing a glimpse of a truth that cannot be. You will not be able to retain the facts because it’s all part of a Maybe Logic that embraces our collective. Just like life there are no absolutes in ‘Inland Empire’ and no guarantees of a coherent reality; however, one thing is for certain, as the curtains descend you will exit the theater from a Sinful Nina Simone wrap party.

INLAND EMPIRE - HQ ending credit

May I Recommend a Post-Apocalyptic Movie, a Brilliant Thesis about Society: Joon-ho Bong’s ‘Snowpiercer’, Based on the French Graphic Novel ‘le Transperceneige’

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Note: If you are a post-apocalyptic movie aficionado and appreciate the ones that provide an in-depth critique of our civilization and the problems that we face, then you should skip the write-up below and just watch Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Snowpiercer’, especially if you enjoy accessible Korean movies – the dialogue in the movie is mainly in English.

If you do plan on reading what’s below, please keep in mind that I don’t like providing spoilers, so I’ve refrained from discussing too many details, but instead have approached this write-up as a recommendation. The write-up will probably make more sense post-viewing.

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There is a certain intensity about Koreans. I realized this during the early 1990’s while attending university. One of my roommates was Korean and he was kind enough to introduce me to his world. We became very close and he and his friends welcomed me into their midst. I spent a good three years among them.

I learned a lot about Korea during that period: the history of its people, their traditions, their passions, the depth of their camaraderie, the honor that they are bound to, and their love of gambling, drinking, and eating – so much eating, drinking, and gambling.

I tell you this because where they come from is ingrained in the Korean psyche, and if you know anything about their history, you will know why, and if you know this about Koreans then you will appreciate their movies that much more, which brings us to Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 masterpiece, ‘Snowpiercer’.

Snowpiercer is a post-apocalyptic movie based on the French graphic novel ‘Le Transperceneige’. The setting of the story is as follows:

“In the near future, an experiment to counteract global warming causes an ice age that kills nearly all life on Earth. The only survivors are the inhabitants of the 'Snowpiercer', a massive train, powered by a perpetual-motion engine, that travels on a globe-spanning track. A class system is installed, with the elites inhabiting the front of the train and poor inhabiting the tail.”

English translation of ‘Le Transperceneige’, the French graphic novel created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette - source - click to enlarge

There are two main types of post-apocalyptic movies; the ones that are meant just for entertainment, and the ones that are not just about entertaining us but about providing a critical analysis of our society. Snowpiercer is of the latter type and one of the best that you will ever come across from this genre.

What makes this movie a masterpiece is the ease and simplicity in which it depicts humanities current predicaments: how a closed system has to manage growth, the problem of compartmentalization of life, the totalitarianist desire to control information and discourse, the way our class structures are set, how we educate and recollect history, how leaders are chosen and the burden of responsibility we bear, the workers, pawns, generals, denialists, and fanatics in the game, the conspiracies at play, and why at some point we must put our bodies upon the gears and stop the machine from churning:

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” - Mario Savio, Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley, 2 December 1964.

I’ll refrain from discussing the movie any further and just provide the trailer below, however, I don’t recommend watching it since it contains a lot of spoilers, spoilers that are best left unseen.

If you would like to experience the full brilliance of Snowpiercer, with its gradual revelations depicting bare the insanity of our society, just go directly to watching the movie; it is bound to stay with you for quite some time.

Snowpiercer International Trailer (2013) - Chris Evans Movie HD

Cover of graphic novel created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette - source: “Snowpiercer: The Most Overlooked Comics Film of 2013?”

movie poster

Update on Ukraine: NATO and Its Military Bases Surrounding Russia, Fracking and Natural Gas, US Policy and Disintegration of Ukraine, CIA, FBI and Obama’s Lies

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Further information at: Not-so-Random Information: Introduction and Table of Contents

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The following information is being appended as an update to:

• What Cold War? This Cold War: Death Follows McCain to the Ukraine as the Armenia-ultimatum to Screw over Russia Fails Again for the EU and the U.S.

Additional Posts on Ukraine at:

• Actual Jubilation in Crimea vs. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq: Can You Spot the Difference?
• What’s Really Going On: Bahrain vs. Ukraine, Can You Spot the Difference?
• The Hypocrisy Is Unbearable: Iraq vs. Crimea, Can You Spot the Difference?

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I. James Corbett Podcast, Interview 88: Rick Rozoff Calls Out the NATO Warmongers - "Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO International breaks down the history of NATO’s global partnership program, its decades-long build-up in Eastern Europe, the people and organizations in whom the fate of the world is increasingly hanging in the balance..."

II. NATO Military Bases Surrounding Russia and Around the Globe.



III. Why US fracking companies are licking their lips over Ukraine - “The way to beat Vladimir Putin is to flood the European market with fracked-in-the-USA natural gas, or so the industry would have us believe. As part of escalating anti-Russian hysteria, two bills have been introduced into the US Congress – one in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6), one in the Senate (S. 2083) – that attempt to fast-track liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, all in the name of helping Europe to wean itself from Putin's fossil fuels, and enhancing US national security.”

IV. The Farce Is Complete: Joe Biden's Son Joins Board Of Largest Ukraine Gas Producer - “R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: ‘Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.’”

V. Former U.S. Ambassador: Behind Crimea Crisis, Russia Responding to Years of "Hostile" U.S. Policy

VI. After Chaotic Autonomy Votes, Negotiations Could Be Sole Path to Prevent Ukraine’s Disintegration

VII. CIA, FBI agents 'advising Ukraine government': report - “Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday. Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure. It said the agents were not directly involved in fighting with pro-Russian militants. ‘Their activity is limited to the capital Kiev,’ the paper said.”

VIII. Obama Calls Coup Government in Kiev "Duly Elected"