By August Løvenskiolds:Okay, so you think you’ve become the master of “Yes” means “Yes”. You are careful to get not just affirmative consent, but indeed, enthusiastic consent for all your campus sex positive adventures. They are all sober: you test all your partners for drugs, alcohol and mental disorders beforehand and reject any that are suspect. You’ve got signed consent forms from your partner(s), living witnesses to the signing of the consent forms, video and audio records of the sex in both visible and infrared light, and living witnesses to the sex, some of whom watched while wearing infrared military-class gear. Your many partners are well satisfied and admit they consented to the sex of their own free will, and would happily do so again if they get the chance.
By Paul Craig Roberts: This week I was invited to address an important conference of the
Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Scholars from Russia and from
around the world, Russian government officials, and the Russian people
seek an answer as to why Washington destroyed during the past year the
friendly relations between America and Russia that President Reagan and
President Gorbachev succeeded in establishing. All of Russia is
distressed that Washington alone has destroyed the trust between the two
major nuclear powers that had been created during the Reagan-Gorbachev
era, trust that had removed the threat of nuclear armageddon. Russians
at every level are astonished at the virulent propaganda and lies
constantly issuing from Washington and the Western media. Washington’s
gratuitous demonization of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has
rallied the Russian people behind him. Putin has the highest approval
rating ever achieved by any leader in my lifetime. Washington’s reckless and irresponsible destruction of the trust
achieved by Reagan and Gorbachev has resurrected the possibility of
nuclear war from the grave in which Reagan and Gorbachev buried it.
Again, as during the Cold War the specter of nuclear armageddon stalks
the earth.
Submitted by Tyler Durden: When it comes to the Ukraine proxy war, which started in earnest just about one year ago with the violent coup that overthrew then president Yanukovich and replaced him with a local pro-US oligarch, there has been no ambiguity who the key actors were: on the left, we had the west, personified by the US, the European Union, and NATO in general; while on the right we had Russia. In fact, if there was any confusion, it was about the role of that other "elephant in the room" - China.
To be sure, a question few asked throughout the Ukraine civil war is just whose side is China leaning toward. After all the precarious balance of power between NATO and Russia had resulted in a stalemate in which neither side has an obvious advantage (even as the Ukraine economy died, and its currency hyperinflated, waiting for a clear winner), and the explicit or implicit support of China to either camp would make all the difference in the world, not to mention the world's most formidable axis. Today we finally got the answer, and the winner is... Putin:
Zio-Nazis attacked two separate groups of Palestinians protesting in the occupied West Bank and opened fire to disperse the crowds. Press TV: On Friday, dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a demonstration in the village of Bil’in, located about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) west of the city of Ramallah, to express their resentment over the construction of the separation wall, which snakes across the occupied West Bank, isolating large swathes of Palestinian land. Violence erupted when Israeli troops assaulted the protesters and fired tear gas canisters to break up the protest. Israeli soldiers also arrested several people. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The total length of the wall being built in the West Bank is approximately 700 kilometers. Palestinians see the wall as a symbol of occupation and Tel Aviv’s apartheid policies, saying the structure has divided people and communities.
By Clint Carpentier: As arbitrarily promised, the second part of Over reading the nice guy… I was talking to my Dad some time ago about fe/male relations. I’ve always thought of him when watching Clint Eastwood, they look nothing alike, but similar purple pill Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) mentality and no-holds-barred directness; I love him and his insight, despite his not actually raising me (but that’s a whole different topic: moms!!! They can fuck everything up!). My Dad, is the quintessential MAN!!! I can NOT… exaggerate his general manness. For instance, back when I was able to visit him during school holidays, I have this memory; I was sleeping on his couch, he and his girlfriend were arguing (if I got the story straight, it was about me), next thing I know, both of them are scuffling all the way up the length of his trailer, naked, and he shoves her out the door, and goes back to bed. Say what you want about that scene, his rarely seen child (he has no daughters, so I can’t extrapolate any difference), was more important to him, than his regular lay; Understand that, and you will understand most fathers, pussy is everywhere, your kids are finite, and time is short. My Dad, bless his soul, worries an exorbitant amount, over things I’ve long since forgotten; like not being allowed by trailer management, to let me build a tree fort, or teaching me how to swim; he still stresses about the time I was stung by a yellow jacket, and when he had to pierce a canker in my mouth. This is a 6’4″ MAN, a Vietnam vet, who still worries about his influence, or lack thereof, on his only child;
By KTG: Greece plans to exclude German companies Siemens and Rheinmetall as well as Franco-German helicopter manufacturer Airbus Helicopters(former Eurocopter) from public procurements. Furthermore, the new Greek government intends to bring the issue of the practices of these three companies to the agenda of the European Parliament. Speaking to defense news website Onalert.gr, Alternate Defense Minister Kostas Ysichos (SYRIZA) said that these three companies have to be excluded from procurements due to illegal practices, “the proven fraudulent transactions they have done in order to secure public procurements.”
“The Rheinmetall has been already sentenced in Germany for bribes,” Ysichos said adding that the Greek authorities are also investigate the issue.
In December 2014, German courts fined Rheinmetall with €37million for “bribes aiming to secure public contracts in Greece.” (Der Spiegel). NH90 helicopters contract under investigation Kostas Ysichos revealed that the Defense Ministry investigates the purchase of 20 NH 90 military helicopter ordered from NHIndustries, a company owned by Airbus Helicopters, AgustaWestland and Fokker Aerostructures.
By Wolf Richter:The Greeks – the poor, downtrodden, Troika-tortured Greeks – yanked €12 billion out of their own banks in January alone to send this moolah out of the country or hide it in their fridges, culminating waves of capital flight that started years ago. Greeks have been busy siphoning their wealth out of Greece in other ways too, buying homes in Berlin and London, and investing their money elsewhere in a myriad ways.
The Greeks trust their already bailed-out but still putrefying banks as far as they can throw them. To keep them from toppling, the ECB is propping them up via the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) program, providing many billions in cash so that Greeks can continue to yank their own money out and send it for safekeeping somewhere else. Greeks at all levels are notorious for not paying their taxes. Successive governments tried to levy new taxes to make up for taxes that Greeks simply refused to pay. They tried to crack down on select groups of tax cheats, going variously after the small fry or a few trophy rich. But to no avail. Greeks simply don’t like to pay their taxes. In that respect, they’re the same as the rest of humanity. They’re just better at it.
In wide ranging interview, the founder of Fathers4Justice, Matt O’Connor, talks about his 14-year campaign for shared parenting, political corruption, broken Conservative Party promises, secret family courts and the plight of Britain’s fathers with Mike West from Bastion Radio.
There is an answer from the Austrian perspective, but first I want to highlight some thoughts from other prominent bloggers. Option A: Paul Krugman of The New York Times believes that they need a major reduction in their debt burden.
“Two years after the Greek program began, the I.M.F. looked for historical examples where Greek-type programs, attempts to pay down debt through austerity without major debt relief or inflation, had been successful. It didn’t find any.”
“Advice remains, stop fooling around, massive structural reform tomorrow morning, grow like crazy, pay off debt.”
Option C: Scott Sumner wants the country to build a factory that pumps out nGDP units at an ever increasing, but predictable, pace (I’m kidding, he thinks leaving the euro is likely their best bet):
By Luigi Logan (aka Fidelbogen): The accumulated wisdom of the activated non-feminist sector finds feminism to be, on balance, pernicious. The reasons for this verdict are many and have been examined elsewhere. For a start, know this: we mean to draw a line against the encroachment of feminist power into the non-feminist world. Since we find that power pernicious, we naturally find ourselves at odds with almost every aspect of it. This brings us to the topic of the moment: post-argumentalism. Post-argumentalism is the stage “beyond argument”, the stage you enter after you deplete the possibilities of debate or persuasion in a given setting. It is a kind of existential crisis in the face of an intractable other: the other may find your stance unacceptable but you find his equally so – and there you stand! Since argument has not settled the issue and apparently never will, you are excused from such activity and may henceforth either agree to disagree with the other, or enter a state of “war” with the other. None of this holds any great mystery. If you have ever dealt with a fanatical cultist or an incorrigibly pigheaded person of any kind, you will perfectly understand the base dynamic. And what is true of a solitary individual can as well be true of an entire group or subculture. The intractable other that now confronts us is the subculture called feminism. As said, we find feminism pernicious – and that implies that we have already settled the debate to our own satisfaction.
You are careful to get not just affirmative consent, but indeed, enthusiastic consent for all your campus sex positive adventures. They are all sober: you test all your partners for drugs, alcohol and mental disorders beforehand and reject any that are suspect. You’ve got signed consent forms from your partner(s), living witnesses to the signing of the consent forms, video and audio records of the sex in both visible and infrared light, and living witnesses to the sex, some of whom watched while wearing infrared military-class gear. Your many partners are well satisfied and admit they consented to the sex of their own free will, and would happily do so again if they get the chance.
