@Monkey:
Naw, I doubt China is motivated by that. China has economic interests in Burma.
I didn't mean it as in "motivation", more as in "an excuse".
@Monkey:
Naw, I doubt China is motivated by that. China has economic interests in Burma.
I didn't mean it as in "motivation", more as in "an excuse".
More sanctions today by the US and EU on Syria.
Also, the Syrian National Council said that they have reached an agreement with the army defectors (Syrian Free Army) to coordinate their struggle against Assad's rule.
-It is agreed that it would be a coordinated movement, there would be coordination,
-The council recognised the Free Syrian Army as a reality, while the army recognised the council as the political representative of the opposition.
Nandos just removed the commercial poking fun at the last dictators standing.
Nandos just removed the commercial poking fun at the last dictators standing.
Why ? It was hilarious -_-
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EX–vdxh4
Quick guys, download it before they take it off so we can rehost it :O
That's a pretty bad Mao.
@Monkey:
That's a pretty bad Mao.
Looks more like Kim to be honest.
Still, pretty good Gaddafi and Sadam.
And speaking of Bobby Mugabe
loll what the fuck??
So, Khamenei just told people to buy anything and everything that Syria sells without exceptions. Everything.
So, Khamenei just told people to buy anything and everything that Syria sells without exceptions. Everything.
The logic is inarguable.
It does make sense, try and keep the Syrian economy running. I am just hoping that there is no war between Iran/Israel/everyone else.
@bartholemew:
It does make sense, try and keep the Syrian economy running. I am just hoping that there is no war between Iran/Israel/everyone else.
Oddly enough i think a war between those two would be the best option viable. Both are stubborn swines that have no time for negotiations or common sense.
Let them have a war. I seriously doubt the outcome could be worse than the various scenarios we already have in place with those two.
its a bit harsh i know. Though if peace was available i'd vote for that.
@Monkey:
loll what the fuck??
There's tons of these Za News sketches.
Some of the puppets are so malformed that if the show was made by white people, they'd get acussed of being racist :P
^
Its good to see that the puppeteer from Genesis's "Land of Confusion" can still get work in this day and age.
Remember the Arab league's request of allowing observers into Syria? The first time there was no agreement because the Syrian regime made some conditions that would literally make the observers useless.
Now, they say they're cool with allowing observers in the country, but ,before that, they have three conditions:
The Syrian government would like the signing of the protocol between the League and the [Syrian government] to take place in Damascus based on the Arab Action plan that was agreed on in Doha on 30/10/2011.
All decisions made by the League’s council in the absence of Syria, including the suspension of Syria’s membership and the issuing of sanctions by the ministerial committee and the ministerial councils against Syria, will be considered null at the time of the signing of the protocol between the two parties.
Following the signing of the protocol, the Secretary General of the League will notify the UN Secretary General in a written letter that includes the agreement and the positive results that have been reached, and will ask him [the UN Secretary General] to distribute the letter to the president and members of the Security Council and the member states as an official document.
The AL has not yet made any official statement.
The Arab League's official statement ought to be some variation on "Kiss our ass."
I mean, look at this.
First of all, their representatives have to go to Damascus to sign a protocol based on the Arab Action Plan from Doha. It's not the actual Action Plan from the way this is phrased, but something based on it. Presumably in such a way to make it acceptable to the Syrian Government.
Secondly, anything that the Arab League has done lately would be considered null and void, which is basically Syria saying "The Arab League's actions without us are illegitemate."
And finally, the best part is the Arab League gets to write a letter to the UN pointing out how superspecialawesome Syria is at negotiating and how much the Arab Lague sucks without them. This letter is going to be passed around the Security Council presumably so that Syria's bros China and Russia can wave it in the face of the United States before doing the Safety Dance in celebration.
I keep forgetting that all this massiveness and tectonic shift was literally caused by one 27 year old guy killing himself out of protest and despair.
A new thread, cool. Unfortunately I was falling way behind in the last one. My own fault.
The Arab League's official statement ought to be some variation on "Kiss our ass."
I mean, look at this.First of all, their representatives have to go to Damascus to sign a protocol based on the Arab Action Plan from Doha. It's not the actual Action Plan from the way this is phrased, but something based on it. Presumably in such a way to make it acceptable to the Syrian Government.
Secondly, anything that the Arab League has done lately would be considered null and void, which is basically Syria saying "The Arab League's actions without us are illegitemate."
And finally, the best part is the Arab League gets to write a letter to the UN pointing out how superspecialawesome Syria is at negotiating and how much the Arab Lague sucks without them. This letter is going to be passed around the Security Council presumably so that Syria's bros China and Russia can wave it in the face of the United States before doing the Safety Dance in celebration.
But does a statement like that needs more than 2 days to make? Or maybe they want to make it as if they thought hard about it? Hmmmm.
Oh, and Assad had an interview with ABC in which he said that "I don't own them (the army). I'm president. I don't own the country, so they're not my forces."
Say, Assad! What the fuck do you do exactly?
And: "There's a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials. There is a big difference."
The interview is gonna be aired today.
Russia is getting interesting all of a sudden.
Apparently there could be a masssssive protest on Saturday.
And Gorbachev just called for a new vote.
Confirmed tampering by the way.
But even if they made a new vote, will it effect Putin's party's win or just the number of seats they have in the parliament?
Even with the tampering, Putin's United Russia is reduced to a simple majority and no longer has the numbers that have let him change the Russian Constitution to do whatever he feels like. Without the tampering, it's doubtful he even has a majority at all even as a coalition government.
And the rigging is pretty considerable. There are scans where the votes per party are totalled by an election official after the polls closed at one location in Moscow.
Here are the numbers from the polling place in question.
CPRF - 285 - Communist Party
United Russia - 271 - This is Putin's Party.
Just Russia - 218
Yabloko - 167
LDPR - 133 - Zhironovsky's Party that always votes with United Russia.
Right Cause - 16
Patriots of Russia - 15
I don't know anything about the rest of those parties.
When the results were announced later by the Central Electoral Committee, this is what came out:
United Russia - 662
CPRF - 295
LDPR - 133 - No change.
Just Russia - 118 - Lost one hundred votes.
Yabloko - 67 - Lost one hundred votes.
Right Cause - 16
Patriots of Russia - none. - Lost fifteen votes.
So United Russia managed to gain 391 votes between the time that polls ended and the results were announced. Exit polls, which admittedly not always accurate, pegged support for United Russia in Moscow at 27% while the "actual" results were twenty points higher. There's also the matter of journalists finding ballot boxes with United Russia marked on them before voting even began.
People are actually coming out onto the streets in Russia, angry with the massively fraudulent election results. Good luck trying to weasel out of this with empty promises, United Russia. Without oil's prices rising, you won't be able to take advantage of the economic growth that has kept people on your side anymore.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/12/2011121053755418485.html
Russia suddenly notices it's vicious cycle.
It's a pity that the elections were held this late. If it wasn't so darn cold out there, we'd have more people demanding changes on the streets..
Then again, when has snow ever stopped Russians from advocating changes in power?
It's a pity that the elections were held this late.
Historically speaking, November isn't really a great time for Russians to decide things about their political future.
So far, the protests have attracted decent sized crowds that are, if I recall correctly, larger than some people were predicting in the media.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/10/world/europe/russia-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Come on, 2011, you only have three weeks left, make them count.
2012 is going to be more more more, Zimbabwe is apparently holding a presidential election next year 8D
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And than another Iranian preisdential election in 2013
So, projected chopping block for 2012:
The protests in Russia aren't good for my nerves.
I just see the people kicking off over the voting fiasco resulting in the military being used to counter any violence. From there we see the shit hit the fan…
In other news, the Tunisians have drafted up a new provisional constitution.
I'm a bit concerned about the rule stating that presidents have to be Muslim, but I've heard that Tunisians are pretty uniformly Muslim though.
I like what's happening in Russia right now. 2011 isn't over yet.
@Cyan:
So, projected chopping block for 2012:
- Putin
- Mugabe
- Lukashenko
- Chavez
I notice a severe lack of Teodoro Obiang on that list.
I mean this is the guy who said in an interview
"What right does the opposition have to criticize the actions of a government?"
I like what's happening in Russia right now. 2011 isn't over yet.
To be honest, unless more and more people start massing on the streets, I can't see anything radical happening in Russia quite yet. Putin and Medvedev could just try to promise closer collaboration with the other parties and somehow weasel their way out of this. The high elite is not ready for big changes yet, and the people are not demanding a lot right now. Putin's people even announced they wouldn't do anything about the election results, and we don't see things getting out of control. People on the streets is a good sign - ten years ago that would not have been possible - but is it enough? Not necessarily.
The situation may very well change in the near future, though. This farce has made the upcoming presidential elections much more interesting to follow, if nothing else. Russian's are starting to become more and more aware of the poor shape their nation is in. That will come to trigger something in time.
ten years ago that would not have been possible
I was of the impression that even 1 year ago it wouldn't have been possible, that there is a real change in the people's behaviour and that from here on out Putin only has 2 choices: repression or make compromises with the people.
Putin can always do the tried-and-true Russian method of kill all who oppose.
@Cyan:
Putin can always do the tried-and-true Russian method of kill all who oppose.
But then who would be left to actually vote?
The people from Kamchatka can always hope they will be forgotten. Their little peninsula is so remote that it's almost mind-boggling that they actually are still a part of Russia.
People in the Russian far east all secretly wish Japan would annex them.
@Monkey:
People in the Russian far east all secretly wish Japan would annex them.
Well there's the Kuriles :P
How much Californians know about Egypt
I am offended by how stupid my own country is.
How much Californians know about Egypt
I am offended by how stupid my own country is.
I'll be honest, my first reaction was 'Aw shit are they interviewing our governor or something?'
Then I was relieved that it was a bunch of airheads I didn't give a crap about.
Eh, I have to admit I don't know the current leader either (I do know the military more or less run things) and I wouldn't be able to point out Cairo.
Disturbs the hell out of me, not the least when it comes to countries we actually have wars in and people talk like that.
I never thought of myself as the kind of guy returning soldiers would love to chat with, but that exact sort of shit is apparently depressing a lot of troops.
They come home to all those plastic corny YAY TROOPS things like when they are riding on a plane for some reason (I don't mean their family and towns welcoming them back obviously) that are always about 50% perfunctory and 100% shallow and impersonal jingoism. And than when they actually sit down with people, the fucking people might not even know where the guy was serving at exists as a real place.
I overheard a coworker talking about her nephew coming back from Afghanistan because "that's where Obama just pulled them all out of" which was actually Iraq, this was FAMILY even.
And half the droogs I used to hang out with couldn't be damned to find Iraq on a map so much as talk about in depth details on Celebrity Apprentice. Drove me crazy, imagine if you were in Iraq and lost a friend and a leg, and we're talking with a population of people like that.
You might as well have lost your leg on Tatooine, more people have heard of it.
Maybe I can do a veteran service thing to go around knowing where shit is on maps and why it's important. Apparently that's a TOUGH thing to come by. -_-
Or we could teach some fucking geography past elementary school (if it's taught at all) and maybe maybe maybe just possibly some history past World War II for once.
Honest to god High School history half the time made you think World War II was the end of hisotry, and if you're lucky you get Russians or something Vietnam hippies watergate blada blada crammed into the last week because the teacher ran out of time, but the boards of ed don't care because apparently the Cold War isn't history yet because "totally lived through that braw". Never mind that current 23 year olds were born in 1988 or so. Totally lived through jack shit.
In my school's 8th grade history class WWII was at the start of they year. Then we got to do the fifties and sixties, which included a lot of cultural aspects (rock 'n' roll, the birth of the teenage years as a demographic, fucking BEATLES) as well as more serious events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. Honestly the idea of stuffing all of recorded history into a single year and trying to teach all of it is just so fucking dumb. Probably even worse than having American history just inexplicably end at WWII because at least with that you aren't overloaded with information.
But even with the better handling of the history curriculum at my school, the situation you described is even worse for me since you'd be damned to find more than a couple of politically aware kids in my grade. I could see why though, as being politically aware usually doesn't help with cheering me up at all.
I remember my global studies class last year going through 1989 with Tienemen Square and all that, but not once referencing the crazy shit the east Europeans were doing aside from a small mention of the former Yugoslavia going to shit (not one goddamn mention of Srebrenica, and we did it during the week that Mladic was captured for god's sake.)
My Latin teacher, for some reason, runs a better history curriculum. Hell, she's the only teacher I can talk to on an equal level when it comes to the world.
Knowledge of history and geography isn't readily measured by standardized testing. Sure, you can test some of the most basic knowledge, but maps take up valuable real estate in test booklets that could be used to cram in two or three more math or science questions, which is what the Federal Governemnt is basing your funding on anyway. At best, you might find a few cursory questions to establish that people have a vague idea who George Washington was or Abraham Lincoln.
On the other hand, the idea that people can't find countries on a map or couldn't tell you who FDR was to save their life is easily translated into embarassing news paper headlines. So they make noise about improving the system to avoid that sort of thing from time to time, but again, it's not really an effort that is going to be rewarded either since they don't stand to gain increased funding from improving scores in World History. Geography and History aren't easy subjects for most people; as such, they're going to be the courses that having a C or D is acceptable in. The goal is to make sure that there aren't enough people flunking them that it drops the graduation rate.
The situation will only improve when one of two things happens:
1. Detailed knowledge of Geography and History becomes important enough on standardized testing that funding is somewhat dependent on them.
or
2. The entire education system is overhauled to remove the emphasis on standardized testing.
Until that happens, a History Teacher in the United States is whatever Coach you hired last.
How much Californians know about Egypt
I am offended by how stupid my own country is.
i think california is a special kind of stupid
@Cyan:
Putin can always do the tried-and-true Russian method of kill all who oppose.
And get away with it too.
None of Europe would mess with the man holding all the gas/energy. And the US is too afraid to restart another cold war scenario.
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i think california is a special kind of stupid
I don't think that is just confined to California.
@Cyan:
aside from a small mention of the former Yugoslavia going to shit (not one goddamn mention of Srebrenica, and we did it during the week that Mladic was captured for god's sake).
WHAT
What even is that.
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i think california is a special kind of stupid
I don't think that is just confined to California.
Yeah Taboo, he has a point.
i think california is a special kind of stupid
Hey, did Texas ever fix that law that banned all marriage or those textbooks that ignored the existence of Thomas Jefferson?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16187519
Syria 'authorised forces to shoot to kill' in crackdown
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based organisation, said about half of the 60 defectors from the Syrian army whom they interviewed had been given direct orders to open fire at protesters or bystanders.
The report includes the case of "Amjad," a soldier deployed to Deraa who said that he received direct orders from his commander to fire on protesters on 25 April.
"He said: 'Use heavy shooting. Nobody will ask you to explain'. Normally we are supposed to save bullets, but this time he said: 'Use as many bullets as you want'."
In a recent interview, Mr Assad said he had given no orders for violence to be used against protesters and that he did not control the security forces.
He has also denied that there was ever a command "to kill or to be brutal" though he has admitted that "mistakes" have been made.