ED. Note: Foreigners are not allowed to purchase as many properties as they wish. … Foreigners buying property in China are required to have a Chinese name …
Manufacturing has been destroyed and shipped off to China, Mexico et al. Post depression, Detroit has been working to rebuild itself with Deflation of property being an excellent opportunity to create a new and better Motown! This effort has been blocked by the Federal and Local government tightening the noose of regulations, and compliance laws.

This thing stinks to high heaven! The west is standing by doing “nothing” as the country and its people are encouraged to protest against its own Sovereignty. Also at stake is Russia’s influence and who will control the  Ukraine’s natural crucial gas supply. – JB
 
Protesters in Kiev Topple Lenin Statue as Rallies Grow

Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press
Ukrainians on Sunday toppled and decapitated a statue of Lenin in Kiev.

Slight Conflict of Interest? How deep does this really go?

 
  Washington Free Beacon

 
Did you miss an extortion payment on your new construction add on? Get ready….
Agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are using Google Maps as part of their tool kit to audit taxpayers and organizations, The Daily Caller has learned.

David L. Smith of the Geneva Business Insider blog joins us once again for our monthly conversation on economics, finance and politics. This month we tackle the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, the latest in the Eupocalypse with the latest abysmal stats out of France, and a new Swiss initiative to provide every Swiss citizen a guaranteed basic income.

The Babylonian Talmud: Just a series of debates?By Michael HoffmanOur enemies and detractors among the rabbis and their allies insult the intelligence of the uninformed by deceitfully claiming that Hoffman’s "Talmud quotes only reflect a series of debates between rabbis," rather than serving as a law-making function within Judaism. In the course of attempting to forge a connection between the U.S.

Right-wing political hit man-for-hire, Basil KimbrewI was saddened this week when a friend of mine, a smart and idealistic young guy who has been working on the ground for candidates, told me he's getting out of the field.

By Bob Finch | January 6, 2009

It is indeed Sunday again, and I am just sitting down to do my usual rant... Also trying to stay warm on this extremely cold morning in central Canada..Gosh, darn this Global Warming... What we are experiencing right now in both the Canadian and the American west with these unusual extremely cold conditions should put that scam completely out of its misery once and for all time...

by Judith Curry Some interesting discussion this past week on the topic of public engagement and communicating climate uncertainty. APPCCG Tamsin Edwards has a post entitled Nine Lessons and Carols in Communicating Climate Uncertainty, comprising  notes form the All Parliamentary Party … Continue reading →

Press TV – December 8, 2013

US Congress has threatened giant oil companies with “severe financial penalties” should they resume business with Iran following an interim nuclear agreement.
In interviews with Foreign Policy Magazine, several American officials expressed concerns about the international firms’ interest to enter the Iranian oil market in the next six months.

Space4Peace
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
December 6, 2013
First NATO Global Hawk Drone
Bruce Gagnon

Bahrain News Agency
December 8, 2013
State Minister for Defence meets NATO Deputy Secretary-General
Manama: Minister of State for Defence Affairs, Lieutenant-General Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa met on Sunday with Ambassador Alexander Vershbow the Deputy Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and his accompanying delegation currently visiting the Kingdom of Bahrain to participate at the Manama Dialogue Forum2013 on Regional Security.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
From Iphigenia in Tauris (1786)
Translated by Charles E. Passage

IPHIGENIA: If your heart has been steeled for this barbaric
Decision, you should not have come! A king
Who asks inhuman actions will find henchmen
Enough who for reward and favor will

Press TV – December 8, 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington will continue to consult with Tel Aviv about the final nuclear agreement with Iran.
“While we may sometimes favor different tactical choices, the United States and Israel have always shared the same fundamental goal,” Kerry said during a speech at the Brookings Institution’s 10th anniversary Saban Forum on Saturday.

 

 
Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Director General of the Saudi Intelligence Agency has commanded thousands of militants to prepare to attack the Christian city of Saidnaya in the war-torn Syria.

People in Santa Clarita are breathing a sigh of relief that after more than 2 corruption-marred decades Buck McKeon is finally retiring from Congress to further disgrace himself as a lobbyist for the arms manufacturers and military contractors who have funded his congressional career. Good riddance! But if it were only that simple!

Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio December 7, 2013 [download audio]  

Monday candidate registration for the 2014 congressional elections close in Texas. So far "Oily" Joe Barton doesn't have a Democratic opponent, just a teabagger, Frank Kuchar, in the primary and then a Libertarian, Hugh Chauvin, in the general. Another dismal DCCC failure presided over by Steve Israel!

I decided to call the next Depression the Greatest Starvation, because I want to shock people from their slumbers. I tell people that according to the demographer Borisov between 3 and 7 million Americans died from starvation in the Great Depression. American record keeping was so poor in the 1930s that he can only prove at least 3 million died from starvation. But it could have easily been a lot more than that. The United States only had 125 million people at that time and Americans lived closer to farms 80 years ago.

At least 21 Iraqis were killed and 36 more were wounded. Gunmen attacked a number of liquor stores in Baghdad.

by Ken Last night we heard a historic performance of a movement from a great symphony.

It is hard to believe that it is now 72 years since that fateful day in 1941 when the Japanese strike force, known as "Kido Butai" comprising 6 fleet carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Soryu, Hiryu) approached the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, and launched two strikes of some 351 aircraft against the US naval facility at Pearl Harbor and airfields on Oahu itself….

Interesting House race shaping up in Alaska this cycleMatt Moore is a Democrat running for Alaska's gigantic at-large House seat, presently occupied by ethically-challenged Don Young. I spoke with him on the phone earlier this week and I;m happy to report that he has a refreshingly progressive world view.

By Scott Creighton | American Everyman | December 7, 2013

By Cyrus Safdari | Iran Affairs | December 7, 2013

Oh the gall to title this article “Iran and the nuclear reality“!
Get this bullshit:

By Felicity Arbuthnot
 
Accusing politicians or former politicians of “breathtaking hypocrisy” is not just over used, it is inadequacy of spectacular proportions. Sadly, searches in various thesaurus’ fail in meaningful improvement.
The death of Nelson Mandela, however, provides tributes resembling duplicity on a mind altering substance.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describes itself as a "scientific body." Where in its multi-year, multi-thousand-page bureaucratic report-writing process is science actually practiced?

 
by Adri Nieuwhof   - The Electronic Intifada
 

By Gilad Atzmon | January 3, 2009

Communicating with Israelis may leave one bewildered. Even now when the Israeli Air Force is practicing murder in broad daylight of hundreds of civilians, elderly persons, women and children, the Israeli people manage to convince themselves that they are the real victims in this violent saga.

Is Hawaii about to elect a conservative anti-gay crusader disguised as a Democrat to Congress?President Obama won Hawai`i’s 1st Congressional District-- the urban Honolulu district where he was born, went to high school and partied to the tunes of both Stevie Nicks and Stevie Wonder-- last year with 70 percent of the vote.This is a solid-blue district.

December 7, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - For the second time during recent anti-regime protests, a mass mobilization is planned to begin this Monday, December 9, 2013 at 9:39am at Democracy Monument. Universities across Bangkok are setting times and locations for pre-rally staging.

By ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH | CounterPunch | December 6, 2013

The (interim) nuclear agreement that was signed on 24 November 2013 by Iran and the so-called P5+1 group in Geneva is questionable on a number of grounds.
The Irony and Absurdity of the Negotiations: When the Guilty Tries the Innocent

 
 
Paul Balles
 
Helen Thomas
 
When Helen Thomas told a Rabbi that the Jews should go back to where they came from, he asked where that would be.
 Her response was as honest and appropriate as it was direct: “Poland, Germany, America…” For that she lost her job as the best White House reporter America has had.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Maritime Command
December 5, 2013
NATO Maritime Group Passes Through Suez Canal en route to Counter-Piracy Mission

The Alvaro de Bazan and other NATO warships in the Mediterranean in 2012

====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Erich Maria Remarque: Selections on war
====
Erich Maria Remarque
From The Road Back (1930)
Translated by A.W. Wheen

by Judith Curry A few things that caught my eye this past week. Mullers on fracking Richard and Elizabeth Muller have written an article on tracking:  Why Every Serious Environmentalist Should Favour Fracking.  Summary points:  Environmentalists who oppose the development of … Continue reading →

It's nothing new to hear progressives bloggers-- particularly this one-- try to persuade donors, and even Members of Congress, to defund the DCCC, particularly while Steve Israel is recruiting fellow corrupt conservatives to serve in the interests of Big Business and undercut ordinary working families. The Democratic Establishment, Beltway "professional Democrats," don't care for us either.

By David Matthew Carr | December 7, 2013

The new media venture from billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar will enlist the muck-raking talents of Glen Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill. Omidyar’s record of promoting and funding “free-market solutions” to social problems is a good indicator of what the limitations of the project will be.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 105. This is an interview I did a couple years ago with my friend, Dr. John McGinnis, on his radio show, “Open Mike with Dr. John McGinnis,” WRTA  (Sep. 19, 2011), discussing the America Invents Act. I met John when I lived in Philadelphia in the 90s, when we were both involved with the Freeman […]

Aliakbar Salehi is a former member of the Iranian parliament and an Internet freedom and human rights advocate now living in Washington, DC. In 2006, he was arrested and jailed by the Iranian government for urging human rights reforms. But the authorities are not the only ones to shoulder blame for quelling dissent, he says. […]

Today we are joined by John Bush of the "Sovereign Living" reality TV series. John and I discuss connecting with the community through gardening, peaceful parenting, home education and self-sufficient/natural living.

We also cover the personal and emotional rewards of escaping from politics, the rat race and social media. Enjoy!

Today we are joined by John Bush of the "Sovereign Living" reality TV series. John and I discuss connecting with the community through gardening, peaceful parenting, home education and self-sufficient/natural living.

We also cover the personal and emotional rewards of escaping from politics, the rat race and social media. Enjoy!

Today we are joined by John Bush of the "Sovereign Living" reality TV series. John and I discuss connecting with the community through gardening, peaceful parenting, home education and self-sufficient/natural living.We also cover the personal and emotional rewards of escaping from politics, the rat race and social media.

[This post originally appeared in somewhat different form on January 8, 2010. By Sunday it should be clear why I've resurrected it.] by KenYes, this audio clip is in mono -- and we'll have another one [nope!

Luscious Luciana Paluzzi, seen here as the evil Fiona with Sean Connery as James Bond, was honored that Thunderball director Terence Young schlepped from Rome to give her away at her second wedding.by KenAnd the answer is: Thunderball (1965). Okay, there are 22 other Bond films you could have picked. I'm just telling you that the answer is Thunderball.You probably saw that Amazon Gold Box offer last week: all 23 Bond films on Blu-ray for $100.

 
 
Obama Can’t Do Multitasking
 
by Philip Giraldi
 

Press TV – December 6, 2013

A Pakistani immigrant has filed a lawsuit against the US government in a federal court in Miami, saying he was kept for over ten months in solitary confinement after being falsely arrested on ‘terrorism’ charges.
Forty-year-old Irfan Khan, who immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 1994, filed the complaint on December 3 at US District Court of Miami, Reuters reported on Thursday.