[Majorityrights News] KP interview with James Gilmore, former diplomat and insider from first Trump administration Posted by Guessedworker on Sunday, 05 January 2025 00:35.
[Majorityrights News] Trump will ‘arm Ukraine to the teeth’ if Putin won’t negotiate ceasefire Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 12 November 2024 16:20.
[Majorityrights News] Alex Navalny, born 4th June, 1976; died at Yamalo-Nenets penitentiary 16th February, 2024 Posted by Guessedworker on Friday, 16 February 2024 23:43.
New Observer, “Nigeria: Power Grid Collapses for 7th Total Blackout This Year”, 17 June 2018:
Nigeria—regarded by the World Bank as an “emerging market”—has demonstrated sub-Saharan Africa’s inability to maintain an advanced Western infrastructure as its power grid collapsed for the seventh time this year, plunging the entire country into darkness.
Local Nigerian media reported a total collapse of “all the nation’s power plants” and said that a “top executive of one of the nation’s electricity distribution companies” admitted on condition of anonymity that the national grid first collapsed on Friday.
When asked to explain the cause of the outage, he said “It’s a general thing; it is a system collapse. It happened yesterday and this morning. All the power plants were shut down.”
Another report said that data obtained from the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing showed that the grid had collapsed seven times this year already.
“Fifteen out of the nation’s 27 power plants were not generating any megawatts as of 6am on June 9, as the collapse led to the shutdown of five additional plants, including Egbin in Lagos,” the report continued.
The management of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has “appealed to customers within its network not to engage in illegal connections to save lives and property.”
The Head, Branding and Corporate Communications, IBEDC, Angela Olanrewaju, who gave the warning in a statement, urged customers not to tamper with electricity cables.
According to her, the habit of tapping electrical power directly from low tension lines to power light bulbs during parties and community carnivals is illegal and should be stopped.
She said, “The act has been identified as a major source of leakages and commercial losses to the company, making it difficult for the company to account for the full monetary value of the energy received from the market operator.
Africa: What are you looking at me for? It has nothing to do with me, there’s nothing more to be said. Israel: We’re going to be deporting 40,000 African migrants, and they’re going to need some place to go. ...listen, we just don’t have enough room in our country. This is the right policy to ease the suffering in South Tel Aviv, where the evil traitors reside. My duty is to return peace and quiet to Tel Aviv and many neighborhoods across the country. In fact, it’s a national duty to protect the Jewish and democratic character of the state. Africa: No, Israel, just No! We’ve been through all of this before. I categorically told the EU in 2015 that we are not taking anyone back. Zero! Israel: Well, they’re not staying in Israel, I can tall you that. Africa: What about asking the Arab oil countries? Israel: (laughs uproariously): Oh, Africa, you crack me up! Africa: Yeah, that was a good one! Israel: Here, wake up the EU and see what she has to say on the matter. I think she’s been drinking again….
The EU: (In drunken swirl, confused about her identities) What? Huh? Did I miss anything? Israel: EU, I’m going to be sending over 40,000 unwanted Africans to you - that alright? EU: Sure, why not? Israel: You already have millions. A couple more won’t make a difference. Israel (to Africa): She doesn’t give a hoot about who enters. Africa: She doesn’t.
EU: What are you talking about? Israel: Now, we’re all signing this document. It’s irreversible and legally binding. EU: What’s going on? Israel: Do you think you can manage this? Do you think you can hold the pen?
EU: Israel!?! ..You! ..You!... uh… (giggles in nervous resignation) ...I forgot what I was going to say.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 13 June 2018 11:27.
While John Ziegler is a darling of (((the neo-cons))) in their criticism of Trump and his (((paleocon))) agenda, Ziegler’s criticisms of Trump remain informative nevertheless. In this podcast he criticizes Trump’s deal making preparation for meeting Kim Jong-un:
John Ziegler: “There are so many elements of this that are just mind-blowing. I can’t believe that he’s even meeting without any agreement being made to begin with. If you remember, when this whole thing started, the story was that he would meet IF North Korea would gave-up unilaterally their nuclear program. That was going to be a precondition for meeting. That’s gone! This is just an equal-footing get-together - giving-up what ever is left of the prestige of The Presidency of The United States, elevating this evil dictator, this horrible piece of crap - I mean Kim Jong-un is a horrible human being! who tortures people, tortures his own people, has threatened this country with nuclear war, and we’re elevating him! Trump has already called him ‘a very honorable person.’
Can you imagine if Obama or Hillary Clinton had decided to meet with Kim Jong-un with no precondition, with no agreement on his part - Kim doesn’t have to give up anything in order to meet with Obama or Hillary? Can you imagine the heads of Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh exploding into fourth of July fireworks? over even the suggestion of this?
But instead, this is now praised as a great idea, and I think it’s a horrible idea. One of the more baffling takes I’ve heard on this is that ‘well, you need to give Trump credit for meeting.’
Why? What? Credit for meeting? The meeting does us no good. The meeting of itself only does Kim Jong-un good. We’re being brought down to their level, he’s being brought up to our level for nothing! He’s giving up nothing in return; and that’s just the best case scenario…
All Trump cares about is the headline of the day, ‘Trump Makes Historic Deal’, doesn’t matter that the deal might suck, and we get noting in return or that it creates further dangers down the road - Trump doesn’t care about anybody but himself - that is a double whammy when it comes to negotiating nuclear deals with deranged dictators. It’s effectively like he’s got the world’s credit-card and he’s having a big party for himself, and he’s not going to be around when we have to pay the bill.
And, by the way, the fact that comes out of the G7 meeting makes this even more vulnerable to a bad deal. Why? Because Trump had this bizarre temper-tantrum and we’re now - this is not an exaggeration folks, and its mind blowing to even contemplate, but - based upon the statements of our President in the last few days, Russia and North Korea are our allies, they’re the ‘good guys’ and Canada, Germany, Great Britain and France - they’re ‘the bad guys.’
And that’s the other part of this. There are people who think, bizarrely, that Trump knows what he’s doing!
There are two things I’m positive about - I’m not a foreign policy expert (but neither is Donald Trump) - there are two things that I’m positive about - if he was doing exactly the same things, and his name was Obama, or Hillary Clinton The Right would be going bananas! That is a hundred percent factual. And number two, there is absolutely no evidence, what-so-ever, that Donald Trump is playing some amazing eight-dimensional chess and knows what the hell he’s doing. He has no idea what he’s doing - none!
And more importantly, his goals are completely at odds with what is good for the world and good for the country because he wants the headline and he wants the history - and he needs it even more now that he took a dump at the G7. This dump at the G7 wasn’t just a little stinky-one. This was a massive dump.
....when Donald Trump said, on the eve of the G7, that Russia should be let back-in, there is no other way to interpret that but that they’ve got something on him!
...the key wasn’t the statement that Russia should be allowed back in the G7 - that got a lot of play - but what is most interesting was that he prefaced it with, ‘I have been Russia’s worst nightmare’ - that’s classic Trump; why is that classic Trump? Because Trump knows his own weaknesses. And Trump lies the biggest to cover those weaknesses. It’s been part of his M.O. for ever. So whenever he makes a declarative statement, for instance, ‘nobody reads the bible more than I do’, you know that’s bullshit - that means he never reads the bible. So when he says, ‘I have been Russia’s worst nightmare’, if you put that through the Trump translation machine, that means Putin has something on him. That’s the way Trump operates, he believes in the big lie theory - you cover your weakness with a massive lie because you know nobody will call you on it.”
Sword raised in power and defiance, the figure is a monument to the brutal Battle of Stalingrad, as the city was then called. It is also a reminder of a time when Russia and Britain were allies.
But as Volgograd prepares to host crowds of England fans, that World War Two alliance is distant history.
The political hostility that exists now appears to have dampened appetite for Russia’s World Cup.
There were clear signs of the new reality as city residents made their annual pilgrimage up to Volgograd’s iconic war memorial to mark the anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis.
One man climbing the long flight of steps wore a T-shirt depicting Mother Russia slicing the head off the US Statue of Liberty. “Welcome to Stalingrad,” the slogan read.
“I’m wearing this because the West is Russia’s enemy. They want to kill us all,” explained Ivan, a former history teacher. “I see that they hate us, and they have done for hundreds of years.”
Such hostile talk is increasingly common, fed from the top by both politicians and the state-run media machine. Both now portray the West as intent on “containing” Russia as Vladimir Putin oversees the country’s “rightful” return as a global power.
The same message came from spectators at last month’s Victory Day parade of soldiers and tanks through central Volgograd. “England was never our ally,” a pensioner in military uniform snorted. “No-one wants a strong and powerful Russia.”
Relations were far warmer in 2010 when Russia won the right to host the World Cup.
Then came the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s military campaign in Syria and, most recently, the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter using a military nerve agent.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 06 June 2018 15:31.
Protesters attend a demonstration against alleged slavery in Libya, at Sergels torg in Stockholm, Sweden, 25 November 2017. [Claudio Bresciani/EPA/EFE]/ Euractiv
Voice of Europe, “Asylum seekers cost Sweden 347 billion euros during their lifetimes”, 6 June 2018:
Svenska Dagbladet journalist, Per Gudmundsson, writes that the net costs of the average refugee are higher than expected. Gudmondsson bases his opinion on a financial report that was published by Sweden’s ESO research institution earlier this week.
Gudmundsson says some immigrant groups are even more costly due to integration failures and labour costs. Therefore, the costs of a refugee or asylum seeker are higher than the previously thought, 291,000 euros (3 million crowns) during their lifetimes.
“The actual costs are higher because no direct costs have been calculated, for example, the cost of subsidised employment,” he says.
Sweden’s migrant population has grown from 690,000 in 2015 to 830,000 in 2017. The ESO report states that “Refugees who immigrate today, are expected to live 58.3 years in Sweden on average”.
During these years, an asylum seeker with an average integration potential is expected to represent a net cost to Sweden’s public finances of 7,184 euros on average per year.”
If you multiply 7,184 euros per refugee x 58.3 (average lifetime) the costs per refugee will be 418,827 euros during their lifetime in Sweden.
By multiplying this with the total number of refugees, we get the total costs for all refugees during their lifetimes:
418,827 x 830,000 = 347 billion euros or 3,580 billion Swedish crowns.
According to the report, The 58.3 years, is about the group that immigrated recently, it is unclear if this varies considerably.
Gudmundsson says this is an inefficient use of funds, which could have had a greater impact in homelands of the refugees.
Related:
Voice of Europe, “Hundreds of thousands of Swedish pensioners live in poverty, according to recent report”, 5 June 2018:
A new report published by the Swedish Pensions Agency shows that as many as 245,000 people of over the age of 65 are below the poverty threshold.
In comparison with the rest of the Nordic countries, Sweden has the highest proportion of poor pensioners (or as the Pension Agency calls it, pensioners with a “relatively low financial standard”).
In the press release, the agency wrote that “the main reason why older people do not reach the upper limit of a relatively low economic standard is that they do not have, or are not entitled to, maximum housing allowance and/or elderly support”.
Of the 245,000 people who were below the limit of relatively low economic standard in 2017, 162,000 were women.
“Women, single individuals, and the oldest in the age group over 65 are those that are at the greatest risk of falling below the income threshold for relatively low economic standards. The main reason for this is a combination of low income-based pensions and low housing costs,” says chief Pensions Agency analyst, Ole Stettergren.
Posted by DanielS on Saturday, 02 June 2018 15:36.
New Observer, “Italy: Political Deadlock Broken as Lega Leader Salvini becomes Interior Minister”, 1 June 2018:
A new cabinet deal designed to circumvent the Italian president’s political deadlock has been hammered out and today a coalition between the Five Star Movement (M5s) and the Lega Party became that country’s new government—with the all-important post of Minister of the Interior going to Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who has promised to expel the African invaders from Italy.
The new government—appointed 88 days after the election which saw the M5s and the Lega party emerge as the two largest parties—means that Italy will now not be subjected to a new election, as the liberal Italian president Sergio Mattarella had hoped.
The first attempt at forming a government failed when the liberal President used his constitutional powers to refuse to appoint a euro-sceptic finance minister proposed by the M5s and Lega parties.
That crisis led to the coalition prime minster candidate, Giuseppe Conte, stepping down, and the president nominating an establishment figure to form a government.
However, that attempt to circumvent democracy also collapsed when it became clear that the replacement government would never survive a motion of confidence in the Italian parliament.
After renewed negotiations between the coalition partners and the president’s office, a compromise was reached over a new finance minister, and the Mattarella today swore in the new MS5-Lega coalition government.
As before, neither the Lega leader Salvini, or the M5s leader Luigi Di Maio, will be prime minister (known in Italy as the “President of the Council of Ministers,” and instead both hold Vice President positions.
Conte, an independent aligned to the M5s, will be President, while the Lega member Giancarlo Giorgetti will be his immediate deputy, or “Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council and Secretary of the Council.”
Di Maio will be Vice President and Minister of Labor, while Salvini will be Vice President and Minister of the Interior.
The new Economics and Finance minister will be the independent Giovanni Tria, and the rest of the portfolios will be divided up between the Lega and the M5s.
Italian media reported that the lineup will face a vote of confidence on Monday or Tuesday in both houses of parliament, which it is almost certain to win thanks to Five Star and the League’s combined majority in parliament.
Salvini previously announced that he was going to “stop the business” of illegal immigration, crack down on the smuggling networks and speed up the expulsions of illegals.
The interior ministry includes the departments responsible for national security and public order, a fact which will allow him to easily implement his election promises, one of which—to deport half a million African invaders within a year—has now become official coalition policy.
Salvini is also on record as saying that he opposes homo marriage, and famously once posed next to a bulldozer on a Twitter entry, with the message “We’re working for you,” a reference to an earlier promise to bulldoze all Gypsy camps in Italy, which are nests of crime and vice.
Lagos, Nigeria
Protesters attend a demonstration against alleged slavery in Libya, at Sergels torg in Stockholm, Sweden, 25 November 2017. [Claudio Bresciani/EPA/EFE]/ 
