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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

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The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link ?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again Thu Jul 31, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Muhammad is once again the most popular baby name for boys in England and Wales, in a year marked by a growing trend towards global, cross-cultural naming.
The post ?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech Thu Jul 31, 2025 11:00 | Toby Young
It looks increasingly likely that the sweeping censorship powers granted to Ofcom by the Online Safety Act will be raised in US-UK trade talks, as the Trump administration becomes increasingly concerned.
The post White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef Thu Jul 31, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Despite three record years of coral growth, the mainstream media keeps pushing doom and gloom on the Great Barrier Reef ? a story that doesn't quite add up, says the Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor.
The post Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Ex... Thu Jul 31, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
Britain's migrant crimewave is only invisible to those living in leafy delusion ? just ask Steven Tucker, who rips into the blind elites mistaking burning mattresses for cultural enrichment.
The post Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Exists ? Especially Our Blinkered Rulers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Thu Jul 31, 2025 00:51 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Evo Morales "morality president" hits again!

category international | anti-capitalism | news report author Wednesday May 17, 2006 02:45author by yb Report this post to the editors

on the first of May, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia nationalised the "sub soil" hydro-carbon resources of his state with his now historic "supreme decree" 28,701.

Since then he went with all the other South American state leaders to meet with the leaders of the EU, & talk about - trade, commerce, business, economics, industry, finance, wrangling, wheeling & dealing, rackets, cartels, merchandising, traffic (all under one category we call "Capitalism") & other stuff like, human rights, poverty, ecology (carnival dancers), migration & development.

He got to stand next to Chirac for the family photo, and then went home, feeling more secure than in the last weeks, (the mafia didn't do the expected hit on him in Vienna --- what with Bertie Ahern watching ) and decided to issue another "supreme decree"....

And its a humdinger of a presidential decree! ( oh your correspondent is almost tempted to become a president of any state just to make decrees like this)

As of yesterday the Spanish based global bank BBVA has 3 days to surrender its shares in Bolivian hydro-carbon resources & exploitation.

This is jolly good news if you're into Justice, or felt bad the first time the letters "BBVA" appeared on our hallowed indymedia ireland screen - (When BBVA froze the solidarity accounts of the Zapatista network and sparked the "global red alert" of the EZLN last June, just one whole week before the then "mister Morales" emerged as popular leader of the Bolivian people.)
http://indymedia.ie/article/70351
Of course this is jolly bad news if you're a BBVA stock-holder or in any way into Mafia Capitalism.

Last article on the May day nationalisation &/or Mafia stuff :-
http://indymedia.ie/article/75832
The Mafia family photo of "some of South America" with "some of the EU" and a pretty girl's bottom (because news is so boring), where & when Evo Morales didn't get hit.
http://indymedia.ie/article/76021

author by iosafpublication date Tue Apr 24, 2007 02:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Interesting question is it not? It was raised last week & got a positive response from Evo Morales Monday afternoon. I notice that Ireland in the meantime has seen a bust of 1.5kg of Coke at Dublin airport alledgedly worth "€100,000, hidden in the false bottom of a suitcase" according to RTE.
I don't know where they get their figures from. While I'm at it, most cocaine (as you should know regardless or not if it forms part of your little treat list) in Europe is quite adulterated. Ask your local political representative to let you shine a UVA light at his or her stash before they sufflate it. If it shines (or indeed if your local club toilet cistern shines) that's crap coke. [Cocaine doesn't respond to UV light only the other shite it's mixed with]. You'll surely spoil someone's day for that, so choose a member of the party you least like. Then rub it in. (not to their gums) tell them a decent line of good cocaine ought only cost 3euros.

Anyway.

in 1968 the United Nations added Coca to the list of organisms it would like to see extinct. This is because the USA asked them to do it. Obviously many people think it a bit strange that the global organisation that stops war and saves pandabears and whales wants 2 humble little plants extinct. But that's how it goes.

This is the Bolivian State News Agency who are filing the stories on the "should Coca leaves be on the Bolivian National Shield" :
http://abi.bo/index.php?i=resumenes_texto&j=20070413110403
Since I began writing this comment (& I type quickly) a prominent member of the Bolivian state has categorically denied he supported the suggestion. It's taking on all the elements of international "polemic"
http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto&j=20070324100708
Which is why it will be front page news in Spain on Tuesday 24/4. The country which after the USA consumes the most Coca leaf derivative in the world. The Spanish state just announced last Friday it was going to give Bolivia 150,000,000 US dollars for schools. But you know how it goes- people get really generous & lacksadaisacal about their cash on Friday nights.

Just in case you're wondering - Bolivia is actually the smallest producer of Coca in South America. It's well down the list. They don't really have the agricultural traditions for it, but the farmers who do grow it - do so as a cash crop and for its well known medicinal properties. Not just to wash it in alkaloids and make it into Cocaine. This story is interesting - it's about "shock factor".

author by etc.,publication date Tue Apr 24, 2007 02:39author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Until they try a snowball or spaceball as hip groovy slang describe the cocktail mixture of heroin and cocaine most people don't appreciate how "more-ish" Cocaine is. Indeed how terribly more "more-ish" it is than smack. In fact I wouldn't be going to far wrong in saying that Cocaine and its alledgedly CIA invented ugly sister "crack" are the most addictive and destructive drugs commonly available today. Nothing else is widely available which will so quickly and so painlessly present your bank balance and personality with challenges of pernicious consequence. It is "so bad" not only because (like heroin) it feels "so good" but rather because it doesn't seem to be "so bad". A bit like some raver on experimental psychedelik drugs after three days non-stop use, one tends to lose a grip.

The plant Coca was proscribed by the UN in 1961 (a bit earlier than i wrote above). But I want you to take this a bit further than the usual "libertarian allow people to do what they want".

The Bolivian national crest is being reformed in line with government and regime policies to reflect the realities of the Bolivian nation and its largest indiginous population of any modern nation state on the continent. Of the 19 elements which make up the crest - 12 are dated from the colonial period when indeed Bolivia was a province of the Peruvian viceregency of the Spanish empire.
You can check out the crest here :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Bolivia & of course read its accompanying link to reuters on this coca crest story - http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN133...70314

Now the opposition to the coca suggestion say stuff like - But our national crest is a national symbol - we don't all grow coca only the peasants do & we've suffered their revolutionary government too long. Quite. If we examine the 19 symbols we see some of them are only provincial and well have nothing to do with Bolivia as a nation & a few more like the cannons are clearly out of date.

You could go further - let's forget the crap about how many trillions of dollars a year are lost to tax revenue or the needs for vaccines or a moonbase or R&D on HIV, Malaria or cold-sores. Let's forget about all the millions of people for whom the "more-ish-ness" of Cocaine has really proved a temptation their puny weak human minds (or bank balances) can't deal with. Let's just wonder - "how many Bolivians have taken coke - smoked a rock - sucked some paste or eaten a leaf?". Oh well you'd be surprised how many. So................ why shouldn't coca be on the national crest? Indeed. Why shouldn't opium be on the flag of Afghanistan? Why shouldn't we just be honest and change the Irish crest to the Guinness logo? Many years ago more than one person using this line of argument could have insisted both Ireland and Scotland put a syringe on their national crest. Why not?

At end - I have sadly seen peoples' lives destroyed by misuse of drugs and problem drug use. Both are not exactly the same thing. But I have never seen a campus shooting. Nor have I had to rationalize the behaviour of a 2.4 meter humanoid hunter-stalker in molybedenum carbon fibre body armour. Such creatures belong to Hollywood movies along with any notion of ending the global many trillions of dollar worth Coca based trade. It's not happening. So what happens instead is education & information based non-hypocritical socially based change. Not just "policy". Drug use of whatever type (prescribed, over the counter or proscribed) can provoke or worsen existing health problems. Drugs are Health issues. I'm not going to waste readers time waffling about coke, gnashing at my teeth and bubbles of snot coming down my numbed nose. I'm not that type of politician. But I will ask our readership to consider how many lives have been destroyed through draconian judicial policy on Cannabis. & for no other reason than the myth that allowing people to consume Cannabis (as they had done since the neolithic) would encourage a market for "harder" substances such as Cocaine. That was and is a myth. A drug doesn't lead to use of a completely different substance with completely different effects. Society and the culture of "illegality" do that.

Evo Morales with a coca leaf speaking to the UN in 2006. he appealed for the ban on the plant to be lifted.
Evo Morales with a coca leaf speaking to the UN in 2006. he appealed for the ban on the plant to be lifted.

author by -publication date Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:24author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Today the USS Sherman impounded 20 tons of cocaine just 20 miles off of Panama. Ok - that's nowhere near the USA but that doesn't matter. The boat was en route to Mexico which is a US neighbour. Many years ago one of the opinion writers of the British right-wing trusty newspaper "The Telegraph" very neatly demonstrated that every single "drug value" price published in the media is an utter fabrication. Regardless of who impounds the drugs - the figure happily and often proudly reported to the public through the media and then the courts through prosecution is invariably utter shite.
Yesterday afternoon customs at Dublin airport seized a little over 1kg which they value at 100,000eu. Today the US Coast Guard seized 20 tons (exactly 907.18474 kg each ton) which they value at with a retail street value of $600 million (300 million pounds sterling). Do the math.
Utter utter shite.

It is part of my constant criticism of anti-drug use policies at all levels, local - national or trans-national that a Health problem is worsening because of the pointless involvement of law enforcement agencies. Let me put it this way, you don't ask your local doctor or health clinic for quotas - and you don't expect them to overestimate the cases of HIV, cryptosporidium or H5N1 do you? It's not going to put a feather in their cap, is it? But the moment a cop or customs guard busts a tiny amount of product they inflate the value sometimes by as much as 20 times. Why? Quite simple - it helps them feel good about themselves & convinces their paymasters that "the war on drugs" is not only being won but that their individual performance is really so impressive they can rest on their laurels.

Oh yes.

When in fact in the big nasty world - one busted suitcase (With a false bottom such as Dublin airport's bust yesterday) or one mule carrying less than 400grammes in their stomach, or one boat carrying cargo rounded off to 20 US tons is quite simply a distraction.

"At the end of the day there is nothing like a good drug bust to lift everyone's spirit," said the USS Sherman's captain, Charlie Diaz. "We were, of course, elated."

I'm sure they were.

Another little human detail which cries for mentioning......"It was very exciting, of course. Fifteen guys moved 20 tons of contraband in five hours, so it was very exhausting."

I'm sure it was.

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detai...14000

author by sniggering iosafpublication date Thu Apr 26, 2007 14:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The US coast guard released details of their biggest ever cocaine bust in the meantime and the Brits just did their "biggest crack bust" ever. Oh yes - monty python got into the guinness book of records for a sing-in with coconut shells. But that might be irrelevent.

Serious News on Bolivia!

a small explosive device went off at the Bolivian consulate to Caracas this morning. A man is in custody. The USA DEA are barking that even though Bolivia did eradicate 5,000 hectares of coca - it is still producing lots of it and Cocaine. In fact thy're going up the charts. Peru is though well ahead of them. Ironically the main ally of the USA in the region Colombia (a terrorist state) is doing very well at eradication & will be slipping off the production peaks soon. Of course that will mean they're poorer.

To put this in perspective for you - 5,000 hectares would have yielded all the busts touched on this page and many many tons more. Get the point?
It's another war that can't be won & in teh long-term you're better off not being their ally.

The advent of slick media management in the more developed states not only meant the end to hairy nostrils or cleavage (just as women entered chambers of power : one of their powers was hidden) & all the rest of the soul-less stuff you must recognise. I can't tell you how important humour is. But please don't forget or miss that most of the best politicians and many of our "favourite" regimes are filled with humour & led by jokers.
Hands up! anyone who has read more than 4 Zapatista communications without laughing! But the genius of pisstake which has brought Chiapas into and out of red alerts, Marcus into and out of regular letters to Garzon no longer works in the soul-less dour west. I was aghast when the political parties of the Spanish state attacked the former president of the Catalan generalitat and his then number 2 the leader of the Catalan independence party for their "crown of thorns" joke whilst visiting Jerusalem in 2004. The sight of 2 senior politicians posing under a souvenir crown of thorns was for a hilarious proof of humour and humanity - not a matter which brought shame to their nation and/or state. So too Yeltsin - thanks to the dead man for taking the pissed piss.

Great men and women laugh - honestly and sincerely.
Humour and Music and Love get you through oppression and poverty & are essential to good leadership skills. Looking good in a suit and fretting about your hairy ears won't get you through a guerilla war.

Look at these photos again - examine the grotesque smirks and genuine laughs of those present.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76021#attachment20667

 
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