Category: Uncategorized

There IS an Alternative to the TPP

I wished a lot of people would read this. I reblog it!

wolfess's avatarWolfessblog -- Guillotine mediocrity in all its forms!

Published on Friday, March 06, 2015
by Campaign for America’s Future Blog

Congressional Progressive Caucus Offers A Real Alternative on Trade

by Robert Borosage
 

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. (Photo: Bloomberg)

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch just postponed the introduction of fast-track trade authority legislation until April.

Fast track is designed to grease the skids for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that is still being negotiated behind closed doors. Postponing the debate on fast track gives opponents another month to build opposition. It gives Republican leaders and the administration a month to line up every vote so that once introduced, it could be voted on overnight. They’re hoping to fast-track fast track.

The month does provide time for a long overdue serious national debate on our global trade and tax policy. The U.S. has racked up an unimaginable $6.75 trillion in trade deficits since 2000. Good…

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The Airlines’ Toxic Little Secret

It is about time that pilots have more say about safety regulations!

stuartbramhall's avatarThe Most Revolutionary Act

How Safe is Air Travel?

If you’re planning a plane trip soon you need to know about a condition that can cause airline pilots to develop brain fog and become confused and disoriented during flights. It’s known as aerotoxic syndrome. Tristan Loraine, former pilot and founder of the Aerotoxic Association, has documented dozens of cases (and two deaths) among pilots and cabin crews. It can also affect passengers and is suspected as the cause of unexplained midair collisions.

A Dorset (UK) coroner investigating the 2012 death of a British Airways pilot Richard Westgate has brought the issue to mainstream media attention by calling on British Airways and Britain’s Civil Aviation authority to take “urgent action to prevent future deaths.”  Frank Cannon, the lawyer for the Westgate case, also represents fifty other air crew, employed by several different airlines, affected by the condition.

The Cause of Aerotoxic Syndrome

Although aircraft manufacturers…

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TODAY IN BERLIN: FEBRURY 8th – THE STASI

It is quite horrendous. One wonders, how all this was possible!

Berlin Companion's avatarKREUZBERGED - BERLIN COMPANION

65 years ago and less than half a year after the birth of the DDR – German Democratic Republic or East Germany – the new state moved on to secure its position by introducing one of the most effective tools of social control in history: the Stasi.

Short for Staatsicherheit – State Security – the ministry in its charge called it to life with the Soviet secret police as its blueprint. In its first year, the Stasi had 2,700 official  employees. Three years later that number grew to 13,000 – a rather moderate count compared to the 91,015 on the official Stasi payroll recorded on October 31st, 1989.

Between 1950 and 1989 the East German secret police provided regular employment to 250,000 people, at the same time using the “services” of 624,000 unofficial agents. Considering the numbers, one in 30 East Germans was more or less actively involved with the…

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What the Obama Administration issued

http://www.globalresearch.ca/national-security-strategy-document-affirms-us-drive-for-world-domination/5430114?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign

By Patrick Martin
7 February 2015

The Obama administration issued its National Security Strategy document Friday, ostensibly laying out the principles on which its foreign policy will be based for the final two years that Obama occupies the White House.

The document was presented by National Security Adviser Susan Rice at the Brookings Institution on Friday afternoon, no doubt aimed at focusing attention on US threats against Russia over Ukraine. The Obama administration is currently considering providing direct arms to the US-backed regime in Kiev, a move that could lead very quickly to a direct war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power.

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To read more please go to:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/national-security-strategy-document-affirms-us-drive-for-world-domination/5430114?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign

A Prime Minister has to be a team player

Very timely post by Robyn Oyeniyi. Well worth reading!

Robyn Dunphy's avatarRandom Observations of Life

Tony Abbott makes far too many Captains’ Calls. Knights and dames, the $20 Medicare rebate reduction, Prince Philip’s knighthood and now the call to move the leadership spill discussion/meeting/vote to Monday at 9 am. Make no mistake: this is a strategic move with personal motivation. It is not true leadership style.

Abbott seems to be under the illusion he is a president, not a prime minister. The Australian system is the party that wins a majority in the lower house forms government and chooses the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister MUST be a team player, otherwise democracy is undermined. Despite the number of Abbott supporters wailing they voted for Abbott as Prime Minister, they didn’t. That is impossible in the Australian system, irrespective of what any individual might like…

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Nan Tien Temple revisited 2013

I just reblogged a post by Pethan about Nan Tien Temple. I want to reblog now also this post by Berlioz to show some more of these beautiful pictures of the temple and surrounding gardens.

berlioz1935's avatarBerlioz1935's Blog

Here in the Illawara, not far from Dapto, where we live, there is a beautiful Buddhist Temple. It is on a small hill overlocking the plain towards the escarpment.

Last year I wrote a post for my German blockabout it. Today I will post something on this blog.

We always like going there as we find it very peaceful there. The people, mostly worshippers, are not the hectic tourists. The pagoda greets the visitor .

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From up there one has a beautiful view of Mount Kembla and the escarpment.

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We had beautiful sunshine today and therefore many people from Sydney were making the trip down the highway. Some go to the temple proper some relaxing in the well kept gardens and enjoying the little Buddha figures, spread all over the gardens, doing their Tai Chi.

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Walking along the path we found a sitting Buddha who looked at us with…

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