Lessons posted:jools posted:and going by HDI, the post-communist countries are... really much of a muchness. from what i remember of their relative levels of development through the 20th century, there's not been much juggling of positions at all. i mean, turkey is well below moldova even. belarus is more developed than romania or (lol) albania. and so on.
That's not actually true with Moldova vs. Turkey unless you're talking about pre-'91. Did you mean Belarus or Ukraine?
ah, by inequality adjusted hdi turkey is still lower, though it's not hugely substantial
conec posted:some serious d`ck riding all fa fitty bones show some shame`~!~!
we need to pay the bills somehow, there are only so many papers we can write for college students.
5 May 2014 Last updated at 18:08 ET
The US has said it will allow Syria's main opposition alliance to open a diplomatic mission in the US capital of Washington DC.
It also announced an additional $27m (£16m) in non-lethal aid to rebel commanders.
The move comes ahead of talks between senior US officials and Ahmad al-Jarba, president of the opposition council.
The US first recognised the group as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in December 2012.
The move does not mean the US recognises the council as Syria's government, nor grant its members diplomatic immunity, says the BBC's state department correspondent, Barbara Plett.
Nor does it allow the opposition to take over the Syrian embassy, suspended by the state department in March, our correspondent adds.
But an unnamed US official told the Associated Press news agency in a press call it had been a key request by opposition members, as they believe it will give them greater presence and credibility with officials in Washington and among Syrian expatriates in the US.
In a statement, Mr Jarba said the move was a "diplomatic blow against Assad's legitimacy and demonstrates how far the opposition has progressed".
The Syrian conflict began with largely peaceful protests in March 2011, but has since become a civil war, with more than 150,000 people killed and millions of people displaced.
A delegation from the Syrian Opposition Council, also known as the Syrian National Coalition, arrived in Washington on Monday ahead of talks with state department officials.
Mr Jarba is expected to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday.
His visit comes amid battlefield gains by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Mr Assad has announced the country would hold presidential elections in June, a move the US has characterised as a "parody of democracy".
The $27m of aid would bring total US assistance to $287m since the Syrian conflict began three years ago.
While the US government did not specify what type of non-lethal aid would be given, past shipments to opposition military commanders have included communications and computer gear, vehicles and defensive gear, such as body armour.
http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2004/usa.html
which points out that the reason we give for keeping our stockpile of landmines (the world's largest) is that we still want to use them in north korea.
Synopsis of the Odessa massacre: Andrey Parabui, the head of the Ukraine Security Council, arrived in Odessa apparently the day before the massacre. There is a video with him, giving several armor vests to a Right Sector check point at a crossing before Odessa on the day of his arrival.
After massive 1 May antifascist demonstration, the Right Sector and the Ukrainian National Socialist Organization and not just "soccer fans") converged on the city. There are numerous videos showing the Odessa junta police and the fascist paramilitaries consulting with each other and the authorities in Kiev their joint actions.
On several videos, the police and the fascist mob can be seen as working closely together--militants shooting from behind the police, the police letting them pass, etc. In the morning hours, the fascist "pro-unity" marches congregated in several central streets of Odessa, thus drawing there antifascist protesters.
It is evident that this early phase was well planned as a diversionary tactic for the main target was the Kulikovo field with the Labor Union building which was the center of nearly all antifascist manifestations in Odessa. It is also there where antifascist patriots set up their makeshift tent city. The junta felt that this needed to be cleared and that, at the same time, the protesters must be taught a harsh lesson which would break the spirit of this "hero city," a title Odessa gained with several other select cities in the Great Patriotic War.
The diversion worked, and many of the young antifascist activists remained in downtown. In well synchronized and organized columns, the fascist paramilitaries then quickly regrouped and moved against their principal target--the antifascist tent city on the Kulikovo field accompanied by units of the Odessa police. Because of the successful diversion, most of the people on the Kulikovo field were middle-age and older people with many women among them. As soon as they arrived there, the militants not only started burning and destroying the tents, but they also started killing the people. They did in such a way that, for most people, the only exit left was into the Labor Union building. That was a trap.
Once they got the people inside, the fascists started throwing Molotov cocktails and shooting. However, as can be seen on the photos and videos, the fire was mainly at the main entrance and in few several rooms elsewhere. Only a smaller number of victims showed signs of being completely burned. Many of the victims died of suffocation or strangling or their upper bodies or faces were burned. Many of the victims were shot into the heads. Many were beaten to death.
This means that most of the victims were hunted and killed one by one inside the building. This killing spree given the size of the building apparently lasted over several hours and as going on even when the much delayed and very feeble response of the fire department was detected.
All this time, the Odessa police stood by and some of the police with ties to the Right Sector reportedly assisted the fascists by shooting into the people who were climbing on the windows. After several hours, the police then acted and detained ... guess who ... some 60-80 antifascist survivors who then, without food or water, were kept for many hours in the police department, and charged with multiple crimes, including murder.
The one main thing, which the police was interested most, was trying to find at least one "Russian" in the group. Alas, this did not succeed. All the victims and now detainees were Odessites (unlike may of the fascist militants). An angry crowd later that day forced their release .... which profoundly upset the Right Sector murderers. An Odessite grandmother was memorably recorded "beating" with lilacs (who used to symbolize Victory Day--lilacs blossom in May) Odessa policemen who were blocking on Saturday the Labor Union building with the corpses (most likely well over 100) still there.
Only when it was dark, the Right Sector crawled back and came back to the scene of their crime singing and shouting "glory" to themselves. Evidently, the corpses were removed soon after--during the night for today, as various videos show, people started to roam the devastated building still shocked, distraught, and upset. As expected and true to its character, the junta first blamed the victims. They allegedly caused the fire themselves and burned themselves by throwing Molotov cocktails on the peaceful pro-junta protesters.
A later modified line, repeated by Western media, was that what happened was a "tragedy," but one without a perpetrator. The one problem identified was some sort of further unspecified failing on the part of the local police. The head of the police was replaced .... with an even more over Right Sector hand.
Following a cue from Catherine Ashton, Yatsenyuk, the junta's PM, then issued a call (to an unspecified addressee) for an "independent investigation." The same assembly of fascist murderous thugs was planning to hit in a similar way Kharkov. The massive outrage and mobilization appears to have stopped this or at least delayed for now.
Some of the evidence is here: http://ai-zhilin.livejournal.com/1360753.html
Trolling covers a multitude of sins but a particularly nasty strain has emerged in the midst of the armed conflict in Ukraine, which infests comment threads on the Guardian and elsewhere, despite the best efforts of moderators. Readers and reporters alike are concerned that these are from those paid to troll, and to denigrate in abusive terms anyone criticising Russia or President Vladimir Putin.
One complaint came to the readers' editor's office on 6 March. "In the past weeks have become incredibly frustrated and disillusioned by your inability to effectively police the waves of Nashibot trolls who've been relentlessly posting pro-Putin propaganda in the comments on Ukraine v Russia coverage.
"... the quantity of pro-Kremlin trolling on this topic … which has been documented extensively since 2012 as a real and insidious threat to online communities of idea and debate, has rendered commenting on these articles all but meaningless, and a worthless exercise in futility and frustration for anyone not already being mind-controlled by the Kremlin."
On 23 April the writer complained again: "One need only pick a Ukraine article at random, pick any point in the comments at random, and they will find themselves in a sea of incredibly aggressive and hostile users (the most obvious have accounts created since February 2014 … but there also exist those who registered with the Guardian before the high point of the crisis) who post the most biased, inciteful pro-Kremlin, anti-western propaganda that seems as if it's taken from a template, so repetitive are the statements. Furthermore, these comments are consistently capturing inordinate numbers of 'recommends', sometimes on the order of 10 to 12 times what pro-Ukrainian comments receive."
swampman posted:yeah. we are such fuckers. i was just reading this
http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2004/usa.html
which points out that the reason we give for keeping our stockpile of landmines (the world's largest) is that we still want to use them in north korea.
"if it aint broke..." -USMIC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvnLsshOJ18
According to Radio Svoboda (E: Don't take it as truth in an instant.), head doctor of one of Odessa's clinic has, after seeing photo of allegedly pregnant woman dead in Trade Union building, instantly said that she clearly is aged woman that has been specifically put in such pose for purpose of creating pregnancy effect. According to them, Odessa's department of forensic pathology has already finished inspection of all bodies found in Trade Union building and none of them has been pregnant. Source.
Tokyo_Sexwale posted:lol the russians tried to pull their crap in Odessa and they've had their teeth kicked in by an angry mob
i didn't see many people here revelling in incidents of police brutality against Euromaiden protesters in the same way you are celebrating fascist mass murder.
babyfinland posted:Is funny u guys day "fascist mass murder" like mass murder isn't bad, need to be clear is the bad kind
babyfinland posted:Is funny u guys day "fascist mass murder" like mass murder isn't bad, need to be clear is the bad kind
to be clear Tom when we talk about Mass Murder we're measuring it by bodyweight so when we get you it'll probably be equal to 3.2 Holodomors
discipline posted:Frenz posted:Nothing happened. The head doctor saw the photo and said it was just an old woman
just an old woman guys not even fertile anymore burn the witch
yLTVjb612_k
HenryKrinkle posted:http://louisproyect.org/2014/05/06/greek-fascists-on-the-crisis-in-ukraine/...and?
hahah he just commented that at me./ some guy was like 'When you're on the same side as Golden Dawn, Le Pen and Geert Wilders, you might want to reassess your position.' but then what does that make people who are on the same side as Vice magazine?