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Thursday, 22 January 2015

BEST OF THE WEB: Another European Holocaust looms as Kiev mulls concentration camps to 'filter sub-humans out of Ukraine'


"Long live the White Races, and down with the Semite-led subhumans and interracial contacts".



Look at that slogan. Should this be regarded as a great and laudable sentiment or call-to-action?

If you think so, then here are some equally laudable sentiments, provided by the same person and organisation:



"The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led subhumans".



and

"Punish severely sexual perversions and any interracial contacts that lead to the extinction of the white man".



and

"Prepare for further expansion and to struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race from the domination of the internationalist speculative capital".



If you don't like or agree with these sentiments, then you are obviously not a citizen of any European Union country, or any NATO country, or of the United States of America.



Democracy in Ukraine post US coup d'etat



That is because the person who said this - on his own behalf, and on behalf of his organisation "Patriots of Ukraine" - is the commander of the unit which is currently fighting under the banner of the glorious and heroic "Azov Battalion ". The Azov battalion is - along with many other identically-orientated "Special Units" of the "National Guard" of Ukraine (established by the "Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine") - currently fighting to "liberate" Eastern Ukraine from "Semites" and "Semite-led subhumans"; with the full encouragement of the Ukrainian government.

The Ukrainian government, and all of the many organisations - such as the "Socialist-National Assembly", the "Patriots of Ukraine", the "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists", the "Tryzub", the "Swoboda" and other such organisations - have taken over the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Internal Affairs and other Key Ministries within the current post-coup government of Ukraine. They are also providing the personnel from within their political party structures to form the "Special Units" of the "National Guard" - tasked with liquidating the (in their words) Semites and Semite-led subhumans in Eastern Ukraine. In this "historic mission" of theirs, they are being completely supported to carry it out with impunity by the member states of the European Union and NATO, and the United States of America.


In fact, it is only the financial, diplomatic and military support provided by the European Union, NATO and the United States of America that has enabled these views to prevail with impunity in Ukraine, and enabled corresponding acts to be perpetrated with impunity in Eastern Ukraine by those who hold these views, against the people that they regard as "Semites" (aka Ukrainian citizens who have the Jewish faith) and "Semite-led subhumans" (aka Ukrainian citizens who are of Russian ethnicity, and all Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, Arabic people and "non-White races"); as well as against those who engage in "interracial contacts".


It is therefore worth noting that if you are a citizen of any European Union or NATO country, or of the United States of America; seeing as these are democratic countries where the governments are elected by you to represent and carry out the will of their people (i.e. your will), and where they are funded by you to carry out your will through the money paid in taxes by their people (i.e. your money); it is, in fact, you who is facilitating, condoning, supporting and encouraging these views.


Consequently, if you are a citizen of the European Union, a NATO country or the United States of America, the question is, therefore - do you feel satisfied, or proud of yourself, for your association with these views?


Moreover, the people whose speech and views are being facilitated, supported and condoned don't just talk. They translate their words into deeds and actions - rapidly, efficiently and thoroughly.


That is why in the last two months, far more "Semites and Semite-led subhumans" (including very many women and children) have been killed in Eastern Ukraine through indiscriminate shelling and bombing - including by ballistic missiles - or burnt alive, beaten to death, shot or starved, than were killed in Gaza over the corresponding period. Moreover, over seven hundred thousand have fled to refugee camps in the Russian Federation, while over one hundred thousand more are internally displaced within the Donbass region of South Eastern Ukraine. All this has been done most efficiently and premeditatedly, by the people that the EU and NATO country governments, and the government of the USA, are facilitating, supporting, condoning and paying for.


To illustrate the level of impunity which this support has now led the persons implementing this "solution" to their "problem" enjoy, please see here a recent public quote from the Prime Minister of Ukraine; who was installed in his post not according to the will of the Ukrainian people, but rather according to the will of the USA's Department of State:



"They lost their lives because they defended men and women, children and the elderly who found themselves in a situation facing a threat to be killed by invaders and sponsored by them subhumans. First, we will commemorate the heroes by wiping out those who killed them and then by cleaning our land from the evil". ~ Arseniy Yatsenyuk - Prime Minister of Ukraine



According to him, the heroes of the Azov Battalion and other "Special Units" of the "National Guard" will be honoured, and the subhumans will be wiped out, after which the land will be cleaned of the subhumans' evil. Although the written record of his public comment was re-written to change "subhuman" to "inhuman" to cater for the required public narrative, a screenshot of the posting of his original speech is here. In any event, as that speech was broadcast live to the "subhuman" inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine, they all got it first-hand themselves, and they therefore know what awaits them - if the government in Kiev has its their way.

It seems that once the "heroic" wiping out of the subhumans has been completed in the main, the post-coup Ukrainian government also has a plan in place for how to deal with the ones who're still there. Here it is:



"There will be a thorough filtration of people. There will be special filtration measures put in place. We will filter out people, including women, who are linked to separatism, who were committing crimes on Ukrainian territory. Crimes related to terrorist activities. We have a lot of information about this, and we have a formidable framework to combat this. Various power structures will carry out this operation. ~ Mykhailo Koval - Minister of Defence of Ukraine



Read this quote carefully. Especially look at the phrase "Special 'Filtration' Activities ". One wonders what the Ukrainian government ministers and their advisors from other countries who formulated this plan had in mind. Perhaps if they closed their eyes and thought about it they could catch the faint sound of freight trains moving off into the dark of the night, travelling to parts unknown; full to the brim with an unusual cargo. It would not be the first time that something like this has happened in Ukraine .


The current post-coup government in Ukraine clearly has a problem with people that it perceives to be "Semite-led subhumans", and - according to Ukrainian political leaders - this problem must be attended to. In stirring up a section of their (presumably non-subhuman) population through rhetoric, it seems that they have driven many people to start "helping" with this, and helping most thoroughly. As such, their will will be done - in fact, it is currently being done. As for the survivors, it seems that they'll just be ethnically cleansed from the land (to make the land "clean", it seems).

As with all thorough plans, it also seems that the current Ukrainian government has already worked out how to recompense the people who are cleaning the land of the "evil of the subhumans". Here it is:



"Land parcels will be given out for free to the servicemen of the Armed Forces and other military formations, as well as to the employees of Interior Ministry and the Security Service that are defending territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country". ~ Land Agency of Ukraine



Clearly, according to the current Ukrainian government, the land, possessions and businesses of the subhumans will be taken over and given away to the "heroic" personnel of the "Special Units" of the "National Guard" for free . It seems that in the "New Ukraine", those classified as subhumans have no rights, so ownership and title don't apply to them. Not anyway in the "New Europe" being forged within Ukraine.

If any Ukrainian speaks out against these acts too loudly, they are, more and more, just grabbed off the street and "disappeared" . Also, if any Ukrainian wants to broadcast anything other than the required narrative on Television, such a person will be assaulted and forced to resign (in this case, being assaulted and forced to resign by the Member of Parliament of Ukraine responsible for "Free Speech") . Similarly, if any Ukrainian wants to speak out against this in the Ukrainian Parliament, they will similarly be silenced by force applied in the parliament building (and then have their political party banne d).


The iron-clad priority of the current Ukrainian government - and their supporters - appears to be that at all costs they must project the required narrative to outsiders in order to justify their conduct. The required narrative is that the prevailing situation is a war between Russia and Ukraine , not that it is a civil war inside Ukraine between Ukrainian citizens - with the Ukrainian "Special Units", "National Guard" and army killing and ethnically cleansing the "subhuman" category of the Ukrainian civilian population in the Donbass Region of South-Eastern Ukraine.





Ukrainian SS soldiers slaughtering subhuman Ukrainians in 1941...






Ukrainian NATO soldiers slaughtering subhuman Ukrainians in 2014.



As for the so-called "subhuman" section of the population trapped inside South Eastern Ukraine, it is not as though these acts are being carried out against them in silence. They are being done openly. However, although the people trapped inside the surrounded cities are crying out for help most publicly, nobody's listening. It seems to be that the narrative has been accepted that all 8 million of these "subhumans" are "terrorists" , so their money can be taken from their bank accounts and from the money due for their pensions, insurance won't pay for their destroyed houses, businesses or possessions - and whatever's left can just be confiscated, and their water, electricity and gas supplies can be cut.

Moreover, it seems as though these people's residential houses can be rocketed and shelled and bombed with impunity, and their windows can be blown out and roofs destroyed. In that part of Europe this can force people to - in winter, with minus 40 degree centigrade weather - risk freezing to death or otherwise be forced to leave their homes.


Also, there are, apparently, no consequences incurred by the current Ukrainian government, their "National Guard" units, or their supporters for the daily contraventions of multiple Ukrainian and International Laws, including:



Even though more than enough documentary, photographic and video material already exists for criminal charges to be brought by any person or organisation, from any jurisdiction, for contravention of numerous of these laws and conventions against:

  • any private persons, or

  • any organisation leaders or members, or

  • any military leaders or soldiers, or

  • any private military company or organisation directors, leaders or members, or

  • any political party leaders or members, or

  • any government leaders or members,

  • from any country involved with these acts directly or indirectly,

  • for either their acts or their failures to act,

  • or against any person (or spokesperson) for aiding, abetting or encouraging such acts, or concealing information on such acts,

  • and although there is no statute of limitations for when these charges can be brought;


Total impunity for the members of the current Ukrainian government, the members of the "National Guard" and their supporters - in Ukraine and abroad - seems to be the order of the day. For now.

This is especially as very few foreign journalists are reporting from within the encircled cities or areas or the border of the Russian Federation; but also primarily because the "solution" being applied to this "subhuman terrorist" problem is being applied with the support and protection of the governments of the EU and NATO countries, and the USA. As a result, there is a total absence of balance when it comes to reporting of statements or to reporting of rebuttals from parties being mentioned in the media.


Other than this, all statements from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and any other party that doesn't follow the required narrative appear to being kept out of the primary media in many countries. Other events that are contrary to the required narrative also appear to be left out of primary media reports in some countries.


In amongst this situation have also occurred some very irregular events which do not and could not pass muster if measured against any yardstick of probity or decency whatsoever.


Moreover, since early 2014, Ukraine has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy due to default on tens-of-billions of dollars of debt. Where has that all suddenly disappeared to? Also, the requirement to pay back any of the other tens-of-billions of dollars in loans from multiple international creditors, or to pay for gas supplies, or any other normal requirement for any normal country in any normal situation seems to either have mysteriously disappeared, or be able to be totally ignored by the current government - primarily, it seems, due to external protection provided to Ukraine's current government by the governments of the EU and NATO countries, and the USA.


Similarly, despite Ukraine's financial bankruptcy, there is, however, suddenly and just as mysteriously - from thin air, it seems - a tremendous amount of money available for military spending. This is specifically for the current Ukrainian government to launch the very expensive and ongoing military operation against the eight million "subhuman terrorists". This includes money for the brand-new military equipment used by the "Special Units" of the "National Guard" to kill the terrorists, much of whose equipment does not come from Ukraine.


Perhaps it is time - as the "Watergate" saying went - to "follow the money", and see where it leads to.


For all of this, the citizens of EU and NATO countries, and of the USA - whose governments are covering for, or guaranteeing the cost of, this land-cleaning of the evil of subhuman terrorists - are morally co-responsible if you allow your governments to continue this policy of support, condoning or financing of these actions.


Therefore, look again at the headline of this article. Look at the quotes, in bold. Systematically review the documents and videos located at hyperlinks like this one in this article. Take your time and do it thoroughly. If they leave you cold, or if you agree with what is being done, well then - stand aside and let it happen, because then, you will never again have to concern yourself about it.


If, however, you are not in agreement with what is going on - whether you are a citizen of an EU or NATO country, the USA, or for that matter, any country - and it does not leave you cold, then there is some action required. You see, disagreeing but doing nothing is akin to consent. If you don't agree with what is being done, you have to actually do something to stop it. In doing so, you should take note of this very important point.


If you are a citizen of a democratic country, it is you who is the ruler. Your government is not elected to rule you, to tell you what to do or to do as it pleases. No indeed.


Your government - comprising citizens who are no better or worse than you, and no more or less worthy than you - is elected to serve you. To administer the affairs of your country on your behalf, according to your wishes. As such, you can compel them to accede to your will.


Regrettably, many of them lose sight of this fact once they are elected, and think they are kings or queens, so you may have to remind them of who, in fact, works for who.


One way to do this is through the use of the law.


Just as a company director can face legal consequences for reckless endangerment of a company, so can a political leader face legal consequences for reckless endangerment of a country or of people's lives. Just as a company director can face legal consequences for making false and misleading statements, so can a political leader. When a company director takes a company in a direction that the majority of its shareholders disagrees with, they can band together and force him out - and the same can be done with political leaders and citizens or voters. There are many avenues of recourse, and many intelligent and committed law firms and legal minds that know how to do this.


If this avenue is not open to you, then make your voice heard in any way that is possible. Doing anything - as long as it is non-violent and geared towards achieving positive change - is preferable to doing nothing.


Let your political leaders and governments know your thoughts. Make them comply with your will - for if you do not, they will condone or support the carrying out of these acts in your name.


Moreover, because this situation is being ignored or condoned by governments, and because many ordinary people think that the condoning of this situation by their governments is perverse, they are taking matters into their own hands, and what is happening in that region of Europe is starting to spread its tentacles far and wide - and very rapidly too.


Therefore, take note that as sure as night follows day, if you allow the Law of the Jungle to reign supreme in Ukraine today, you run the risk that tomorrow, when you open your front door, the jungle could be on your own doorstep.


A cold wind is blowing through Europe. It carries on it the sound of voices from the past - gone but not forgotten. Voices of people who cried out for help - but no help ever came. Mingling in are the sound of new voices, also crying out for help - but their cries too go unanswered.


Pay heed to this wind, and to the voices that it carries; for if you do not, this wind can become a storm; and if it does, you will find, when that storm arrives, that tomorrow belongs to you.



About the author


The writer is an executive at a multinational company based in Europe. Prior to his business career, he provided Strategic Geopolitical Consulting services to national and federal governments in Eastern and Western Europe and the CIS, as well as to international organisations. He is the author of geopolitical articles which are published in the press internationally, and is also a guest commentator on geopolitical affairs for international television stations. He has been a delegate and guest speaker at United Nations conferences. He has chaired a Humanitarian Organisation in Europe and a Military Veterans Organisation in South Africa as pro-bono activities. Prior to his career in Strategic Geopolitical Consulting, he was a Special Forces Operator and member of the Directorate of Special Tasks of Military Intelligence, and participated in the Angolan War, where he took part in combat operations against USSR and USSR-proxy forces during the Cold War.



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Miracle escape for couple as watery sinkhole swallows their car in Tampa, Florida




The car was removed from the water around 4am on Monday



A car plunged into a massive, watery sinkhole late Sunday evening - forcing the couple inside the vehicle to flee as it continued to be engulfed.

Ashley Guzman was with her boyfriend Christopher Atkinson when the incident took place at the intersection of North 20th Street and East Yukon Street in Tampa, Florida, she told WTVT.


'Right when I got out the car it just - like the floor just started cracking towards me,' she told the affiliate station. 'That's when I started panicking more and I started yelling at him so he could get out.'


[embedded content]




Guzman continued 'And the water, it just started flooding the whole street, it started going down, and after that the car just kept going down and it was just - I'm just very glad we didn't stay stuck in the car because if we would have stuck in the car it would have been real bad, you know?

'And I just thank god for that, that we actually, you know - we're good, we're not hurt or nothing. It's just the car.'


According to WFTS, it was slightly after 11pm when the hole opened due to a water main break - and the car was removed around 4am on Monday morning.


Guzman told the news outlet 'I started panicking, my legs were shaking real bad. I couldn't even talk to police on the phone. He was stuck still inside the car trying to back it up, trying to get it out, and he ended up having to get out.


'By the time he got out that's when the floor actually fell like how it is right now and the car just kept going deeper and deeper. At that moment we couldn't do nothing. We was just terrified.'


Guzman and Atkinson drove into the water, believing it to be surface water from a broken pipe - and the road sank when the vehicle traversed the intersection, WFTS reported. The couple told the station they ought to have turned the vehicle back instead.


'The neighbors around the streets was telling me that the water actually been running for three hours period to the time that the car accident happened,' Guzman told WFTS. She said there should have been a road block set up.


Police told the news outlet that they had gone through the neighborhood shortly ahead of the car's submersion.


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No honor among thieves: Oleg Tsarev predicts Poroshenko's overthrow in February

Oleg Tsarev

Chairman of Novorossia Parliament Oleg Tsarev gave an exclusive interview to . He said why the Kiev US embassy puppetmasters, together with Turchinov, Yatsenyuk, and the odious oligarch Kolomoysky who is always chasing dollars, want to see Poroshenko overthrown with every fiber of their beings.


: Oleg Anatolyevich, you said that the overseas patrons of Poroshenko are preparing his overthrow. How did he fail to satisfy the US president?


: There are three groups working on Ukraine in the US embassy. And even though they are competing for influence over policy, just as local elites compete for US approval, they are in agreement that Poroshenko needs to be replaced.


First of all, he has good relations with the Russian ambassador Zurabov and a profitable business in Lipetsk. There are also other factors which I don't wish to describe so as not to complicate the situation further.


Secondly, Poroshenko is more likely to conclude peace with the Donbass, while the US needs a war. Not because his conscience is bothering due to the innocently murdered children. Poroshenko understands that in peacetime he will have more power. Then he would become the second most important political figure in Ukraine. While the top of the podium is occupied by the US ambassador.


During the time of military operations MVD head Avakov has an advantage, and Avakov is a protégé of Turchinov and Yatsenyuk, who are Poroshenko's competitors. Then there's Kolomoysky, who has formed an entire army in the east of the country out of criminal elements, which does not take Kiev's orders. Poroshenko can deal with his competition only in peacetime.


: What are the disagreements between Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk, Turchinov, Kolomoysky?


: Poroshenko has been in conflict with Yatsenyuk and Turchinov since Yatsenyuk became prime minister. Yatsenyuk began to earn a lot of money off that job and did not want to share with anyone.


Poroshenko understands that one of them (Yatsenyuk or Turchinov) can occupy the president's seat. He did everything to exclude Yatsenyuk from the political team. But VP Biden flew in and insisted on a big coalition. Games continued up to then. On the one hand Yatsenyuk wanted a coalition without Poroshenko, on the other, Poroshenko wanted a coalition without Yatsenyuk.


Kolomoysky needs resources to improve his business, which is in a difficult situation. But Poroshenko did not give him refinancing. He received refinancing only once, after he established his assets in the Crimea. Then he threw means his assets onto the currency market, leading to a jump in national currency.


Incidentally, at the moment the hryvnya exchange rate is holding on only because all exchange points have been closed. There is an exchange rate, but dollars can be bought only from "bosses." The actual exchange rate is 30-40% higher than the state acknowledges.


Kolomoysky desperately needs money and is not getting them. That's why the conflict with Poroshenko. And, believe me, I know Kolomoysky well. If he thought such conflict were impossible, he would not have entered into it. Kolomoysky considers Poroshenko a very weak figure.


And that's all there is to it. Poroshenko has nobody to rely on. Americans don't like him, and neither does the internal competition. So the president is in a critical position. The stakes are very high. His competitors want to carry out another armed overthrow, and might simply kill Poroshenko. So for him what's at stake is not even money, but life.


: How are Poroshenko's opponents preparing?


Answer: Arseniy Yatsenyuk already held a closed meeting with Avakov and a few deputies. Yatsenyuk tasked them with organizing an information campaign against Poroshenko. He must be made appear guilty for the economic catastrophe. What's more, they'll blame Poroshenko for the course of the hryvnya, the failure of the military operation on the Donbass, and also appointing foreigners to ministerial posts.


Avakov reassured everyone that he will share with the media participating in the attack information from wiretaps on Poroshenko and from collected secret information.


: There is a version in the internet that at some point Ukraine will suffer an economic collapse, and the current Kiev regime will simply dissolve. How would you comment that?


: Things don't happen all by themselves. There is no reason for optimism. The US has many scenarios. First of all, they have created a whole slew of loyal politicians. Once the pro-US Poroshenko leaves, he'll be replaced by the pro-US Turchinov or Yatsenyuk. Then the mayor of Lvov Sadovy or someone else. They are all pro-US. There are no non-pro-US politicians capable of coming to power. The bench is well protected and will implement the will of the US.


During the Vietnam War, the pro-US authorities of that country changed many times. But the war continued. Every new leader shifted responsibility for earlier failures to the earlier one, and the cycle continued without pause. The war stopped only when the communist North won it. Neither the political situation nor the military nor economic influenced it.


: Are there also several scenarios for the Donbass?


: Absolutely. The first scenario is the military confrontation, which is showing its flaws. But the Ukrainian authorities believed they had enough military power to overcome LPR/DPR resistance. They considered two variants: a complete elimination of us - the separatists or, if the worst comes to worst, take three quarters of Donetsk and isolate LPR and DPR from one another. But it didn't work out like that.


Novorossia armed forces offered resistance and are now storming Avdeevka and Peski in order to stop the shelling of Donetsk. The Ukrainian army is panicking. The road from Donetsk to Kiev is full of vehicles, nationalists are fleeing with their loot. Something similar is taking place in Mariupol.


The second scenario is the economic isolation of the Donbass. LPR and DPR cannot run their economy without support. Russia will be forced to help. Then it faces a choice. If they help, Russia will be punished for military assistance, if no, they'll punish for economic support.


Right now none of the Ukrainian politicians are speaking of peace and restoring neighborly relations with Russia. They understand that the US will control the situation for some time to come and therefore are using the anti-Russian slogans just to survive. However, some of my fellow deputies are taking their families out of Kiev abroad or to other cities because they don't want to suffer from the vacuum of power that will occur in the event of a coup.


: So the Ukrainian tragedy will continue to make headlines for a long time?


: If nobody shows interest in Ukraine, for a very long time. Russia has not interfered in Ukrainian politics for over 20 years. Americans and Europeans entirely freely worked in the country. They spent billions of dollars. They created 5 thousand of NGOs, 150 thousand workers received their salaries. That's an entire army that obeyed orders and created the Maidan when it was needed.


Russia was working with individual members of the elite, not paying attention to the public opinion. And those representatives did not always discharge their responsibilities due to their personal mentality. That was a big mistake.

Also, when CIS was formed, Russia undertook not to work on the territory of adjacent states. It meant that Russia for a long time had no ability to influence CIS countries' public opinion.


Therefore right now we must not let the situation resove itself. The fascist regimes in Latin America survived for decades with US support. Political opponents were eliminated, death squads were at work, the masses suffered in poverty, the economy was destroyed, but nobody could do anything.


: So they'll overthrow Poroshenko, but the peaceful citizenry will continue to die...Minsk Agreements are not being implemented, the "Normandy Four" meeting was cancelled...


: Right now Russia is trying to establish some sort of a relationship with Poroshenko. But if he is overthrown, it will be an entirely different country. Even greater Russophobes will come to power, hard-core US puppets who have no ties to Russia.


Poroshenko spoke about his presidency already three years before coming to power. He came to Moscow, met with influential people. Poroshenko, as you may remember, was a minister of foreign affairs, he has excellent contacts.


I know that the overthrow is planned for the anniversary of the Maidan. On February 15 there will be a national assembly in Kiev. And it's entirely possible that about 8pm it will transform into an armed assault on the president's administration, as it did when Yanukovych was president.


Poroshenko understands the risks perfectly well. He already created a working group to prevent a coup. Its members are highly placed "power ministry" officials and those members of the administration who oversee the power structures.


Translator's Note: There are no indications the US is planning to open the spigots once Poroshenko leaves, and there is no anti-Poroshenko campaign in the Western media, which would be a sure sign of an impending overthrow. The people who are likely to be doing the overthrowing, the Right Sector et al., do not follow orders from the US or anywhere else - they are merely reacting to the weakness of the current system, including not only Poroshenko but also Yatsenyuk, Turchinov, and everyone else, who are as vulnerable as Poroshenko, if only because it's Yatsenyuk whose face is associated with the "shock therapy", not Poroshenko.


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Oil pipeline leak causes saltwater and crude oil to spill into Missouri river

oil leak williston north dakota

© AP Photo/Williston Herald, Zack Nelson

In this photo taken Jan. 12, 2015, crews dig up land at a saltwater spill site near Blacktail Creek outside Williston, N.D. A North Dakota health official called the 70,000 barrel spill the state's largest during the state's current oil boom.



Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater and an unknown quantity of crude oil have leaked from a North Dakota pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River, by far the largest spill of its kind in the state's history, officials said.

The leak, from a four-inch saltwater pipeline operated by Summit Midstream Partners LP approximately 15 miles north of Williston, occurred sometime earlier this month and was reported to state officials on Jan. 7.


It's not clear what caused the leak and an investigation is underway, a Summit spokesman said.


The leak does not pose a threat to drinking water supplies, the North Dakota Department of Health said in a statement released on Wednesday. Summit said it does not believe wildlife was affected.


The spill was first publicly reported on Jan. 8, though Wednesday's statement from the Department of Health was the first to mention the spill's volume.


It is by far the largest saltwater spill ever in North Dakota, eclipsing a leak of about 1 million gallons last July from a Crestwood Midstream Partners pipeline into Lake Sakakawea.


Saltwater is a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process. Typically it is filtered and re-injected back into the earth after oil is extracted, though pipelines or trucks are required to transport it to injection sites.


The saltwater from the Summit line leaked into a creek that passes by Williston, considered the capital of the state's oil boom, and flows into the Missouri River. Williston's drinking water comes from the Missouri River, though the city's water department has the ability to turn off collection valves until any harmful material washes downstream.


Summit has hired Stantec Inc clean up the spill. About 2 million gallons of water have been pulled so far from one of the affected creeks, though it was not immediately clear if that amount was all saltwater or normal water flow.


Remediation will be difficult given that much of the affected area is covered by ice.


"We will continue to work tirelessly to see that the cleanup is completed," Rene Casadaban, Summit's operating chief, said in a statement.


It's not clear when the line will re-open, though much of Summit's business involves natural gas transport, meaning day-to-day operations should not be affected too much.


The state's Department of Health said it is monitoring cleanup efforts, and the state's Department of Mineral Resources is inspecting Summit's entire pipeline network, officials said.


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Kiev shelled the city of Gorlovka for 14 hours straight

Gorlovka

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS



A Donetsk republic militia fighter seen in eastern Ukraine's Gorlovka in December 2014



Sleep well, Gorlovka, tonight ...

Fourteen hours lasted the artillery fire in Gorlovka. 840 minutes of fear. 50 400 seconds. The time when Gorlovka turned into a giant adrenaline polygon of hopes. Half-hour of explosive volleys, ten-minute "breaks" and more fire. "Grads", howitzers, mortars, machine-gun fire. Gnashing, hissing, "bam!", whistle, screech.... Damp basements filled with children cowering next to tired parents. Doctors and nurses - exhausted, but helping the wounded. Bus and taxi drivers rushing passengers home under shelling. And all this in a city with a total area exceeding Cologne, Seattle and Edinburgh, and the population of Veliky Novgorod, Brussels or Little Rock. The city with one of the largest chemical plants in Eastern Europe and one of the most interesting art museums in Eastern Ukraine. The city where I live.


There is little information. So I don't want to believe that today in Gorlovka hundreds of my countrymen were killed, and even more wounded. That dozens of homes are razed to their foundation. That this is not the last such bombardment. Let it be a rumor, as it already happened more than once. I want to wake up tomorrow and not believe in the numbers of casualties/damage/consequences. Let the most intense fighting today happen in the virtual battles in VK and FB. And may only the nerve cells be on the lists of the dead.


Ozerniakova. "Well, how are you there?" - I ask relatives. "Scary, but not in the basement. Mikhailovka was chilling, there was a lot of heavy equipment. The village, they say, almost leveled to the ground. What's really going on - I don't know. Shells flew above us all the time". "Hold on!", I say to them from powerlessness to say anything else.


Fifth quarter. "Alive?"- cautiously asking. "In my opinion there is not a single glass left in my district" - answers my friend. - "Equipped the basement with a mattress, threw an outlet, brought a heater. Sitting around, devouring the neighbor's soup. Delicious! Now glued to the screen of the tablet and reading "Self-Defense". Scary." "Take care of yourself", I say with a smile.


Shterovka. "How is it now?", - write to one FB friend. "We have not left the house since Saturday. Pounding. Was down in the basement the first time. A missile fell in the garden. Everything intact. We are used to this. We survived August". "Hold on," I write with hope.


Ispolkom district. "How is it?", asking a friend. "My blood pressure went up 150 over 110. The heart is junk. Laying in the basement. The whole house in the basement. 10 adults and 3 children. Explosions nearby. Loud". "Well, brother, heavens keep you safe...", - I am not sure what to say.


Bessarabka. No connection.


Kurgankha. "Zdarov. What have you got there?", - shout to a friend on the phone. "Remember the defense of Sevastopol? That's it! Only without the sea and the opportunity to escape to Novorossiysk. Goddamn Boogie-woogie. Like Mike's: "well, at leisure, I dance Boogie". The house is dancing. But it is not scary anymore. Whether the adrenaline is gone, or the consumed in a day has not gotten out of the system. In short, we'll break through". "Be careful," - jokingly I advise.


No energy to think. To worry. To say something. Fatigue. Overwhelming and hopeless. Before the next unknown 14 hours. 840 minutes. 50 400 seconds. Good night, my city. As ever I want to wish you a good night. Peace and anti-war dreams.


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Norman Finkelstein: Charlie Hebdo is sadism, not satire




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NEW YORK


In Nazi Germany, there was an anti-Semitic weekly newspaper called Der Stürmer.


Run by Julius Streicher, it was notorious for being one of the most virulent advocates of the persecution of Jews during the 1930s.


What everybody remembers about Der Stürmer was its morbid caricatures of Jews, the people who were facing widespread discrimination and persecution during the era.



Its depictions endorsed all of the common stereotypes about Jews - a hook nose, lustful, greedy.

"Let's say, ... amidst all of this death and destruction, two young Jews barged into the headquarters of the editorial offices of Der Stürmer, and they killed the staff for having humiliated them, degraded them, demeaned them, insulted them," queried Norman Finkelstein, a professor of political science and author of numerous books including "The Holocaust Industry" and "Method and Madness."


"How would I react to that?," said Finkelstein, who is the son of Holocaust survivors.


Finkelstein was drawing an analogy between a hypothetical attack on the German newspaper and the deadly Jan. 7 attack at the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, that left 12 people dead, including its editor and prominent cartoonists. The weekly is known for printing controversial material, including derogatory cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and 2012.


The attack sparked a global massive outcry, with millions in France and across the world taking to the streets to support freedom of the press behind the rallying cry of "Je suis Charlie," or "I am Charlie."


What the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad achieved was "not satire," and what they provoked was not "ideas," Finkelstein said.


Satire is when one directs it either at oneself, causes his or her people to think twice about what they are doing and saying, or directs it at people who have power and privilege, he said.


"But when somebody is down and out, desperate, destitute, when you mock them, when you mock a homeless person, that is not satire," Finkelstein said.


"That is, I give you the word, sadism. There's a very big difference between satire and sadism. Charlie Hebdo is sadism. It's not satire"


The "desperate and despised people" of today are Muslims, he said, considering the number of Muslim countries racked by death and destruction as in the case of Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.


"So, two despairing and desperate young men act out their despair and desperation against this political pornography no different than Der Stürmer, who in the midst of all of this death and destruction decide its somehow noble to degrade, demean, humiliate and insult the people. I'm sorry, maybe it is very politically incorrect. I have no sympathy for [the staff of Charlie Hebdo]. Should they have been killed? Of course not. But of course, Streicher shouldn't have been hung. I don't hear that from many people," said Finkelstein.




Streicher was among those who stood trial on charges at Nürnberg, following World War II. He was hung for those cartoons.

Finkelstein said some might argue that they have the right to mock even desperate and destitute people, and they probably have this right, he said, "But you also have the right to say 'I don't want to put it in my magazine ... When you put it in, you are taking responsibility for it."


Finkelstein compared the controversial Charlie Hebdo caricatures to the "fighting words," doctrine, a category of speech penalized under American jurisprudence.


The doctrine refers to certain words that would likely cause the person to whom they are directed, to commit an act of violence. They are a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment.


"You are not allowed to utter fighting words, because they are equivalent of a smack to the face and it is asking for trouble," Finkelstein said.


"So, are the Charlie Hebdo caricatures the equivalent of fighting words? They call it satire. That is not satire. It is just epithets, there is nothing funny about it. If you find it funny, depicting Jews in big lips and (a) hook nose is also funny."


Finkelstein pointed to the contradictions in the Western world's perception of the freedom of the press by giving the example of the pornographic magazine Hustler, whose publisher, Larry Flynt, was shot and left paralyzed in 1978 by a white supremacist serial killer for printing a cartoon depicting interracial sex.


"I don't remember everyone celebrating 'We are Larry Flynt' or 'We are Hustler,'" he said. "Should he have been attacked? Of course not. But nobody suddenly turned this into a political principle of one side or the other."


The West's embrace of the Charlie Hebdo caricatures was because the drawings were directed at and ridiculed Muslims, he said.


The characterization by the French of Muslims as being barbaric is hypocritical considering the killings of thousands of people during France's colonial occupation of Algeria, and the French public's reaction to the Algerian war from 1954 to 1962, according to Finkelstein.


The first mass demonstration in Paris against the war "did not come until 1960, two years before the war was over," he said. "Everybody supported the French annihilatory war in Algeria."


He said French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre's apartment was bombed twice in 1961 and 1962, as was the office of his magazine, Les Temps Modernes, after he came out in full force against the war.


Finkelstein, who has been described as an "American radical," said the pretensions of the West about Muslim attire exposed a dramatic contradiction in the face of the West's attitude toward natives in lands they occupied during colonialism.


"When Europeans came to North America, the thing they said about the native Americans was that they were so barbaric, because they walked around naked. The European women were wearing three layers of clothes. Then they came to North America, and decided that the native Americans were backward because they all walked around naked. And now, we walk around naked, and we say that the Muslims are backward because they wear so much clothes," he said.


"Can you imagine anything more barbaric? Banning women wearing headscarves?" he asked, referring to the 2004 ban on headscarves in French public service jobs.


Finkelstein's work, accusing Jews of exploiting the memory of Holocaust for political gain and criticizing Israel for oppressing the Palestinians, has made him a controversial figure even within the Jewish community.


He was denied a tenure as a professor at DePaul University in 2007 after a highly publicized feud with fellow academic Alan Dershowitz, an ardent supporter of Israel. Dershowitz reportedly lobbied the administration of DePaul, a Roman Catholic university in Chicago, to deny him tenure.


Finkelstein, who currently teaches at Sakarya University in Turkey, said the decision was based on "transparently political grounds."


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Horse rescued from sinkhole in Arroyo Grande, California




Rescued: This horse was eventually able to get out of a sinkhole on Tuesday



Fire officials worked together to help a horse get out of a sinkhole it fell into near Arroyo Grande, California on Tuesday.

Cal Fire San Luis Obispo's Twitter account posted multiple updates on the horse's rescue Tuesday.


The fire department first tweeted at 11:34am on a report of a 'horse stuck in hole' on Sunray Place.


The department quickly updated at 11:53am, writing 'Horse is trapped in a sink hole. The incident is off of Noyes Rd. USAR [Urban Search and Rescue] team is responding. Veterinarian has been contacted.'


Images from the fire department's Twitter account showed USAR team members on hand to help the horse, as well as fire officials from both San Luis Obispo County Fire Department and Cal Fire.


Cal Fire San Luis Obispo later tweeted at 1:36pm 'Update on horse rescue: The horse has been successfully extricated from the sink hole.'


Battalion Chief Paul Lee told KCBX he thinks the hole actually was manmade, saying 'In and around that hole was a lot of lumber.'


Lee also said that the horse was stuck between two-by-fours and plywood.


Lee told KCBX there were 22 responders and approximately three hours were needed in total to get the horse out. He also said that sheriff's department officials were also present as responders.


The affiliate station reported that a neighbor had a backhoe and volunteered, and that a veterinarian managed to help soothe the distraught horse.


'We were able to dig enough of the dirt away from where the horse was trapped to be able to act as a ramp for the horse to walk out under his own power,' Lee told KCBX.


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