News Articles
Brace Yourselves 2 to 3 Feet Officials cautioned Northeast residents to not be misled by a relatively smooth Monday morning commute, and pressed their cautions to prepare for a "crippling and potentially historic" storm that could bury communities from northern New Jersey to southern Maine in up to 2 feet of snow starting later in the day. The National Weather Service said the nor'easter would bring heavy snow, powerful winds and widespread coastal flooding through Tuesday. A blizzard warning was issued for a 250-mile stretch of the Northeast, including New York and Boston. ...
Read more and here How Is 'Citizens United' Ruining Democracy and How Can We Stop It? The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision changed our political landscape, allowing outside spending groups (and their often undisclosed donors) more influence than ever before. How bad is it?
Which Cut of Meat Is Least Likely to Make You Sick? Every time you eat, you're rolling the germ dice. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 6 Americans contracts a foodborne illness annually; 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Pathogens from meat kill more people than those from any other food group. A CDC study found that between 1998 and 2008, contaminated meat was responsible for 29 percent of all deaths from foodborne illness (23 percent of deaths were from produce, 15 percent from dairy and eggs, and 6.4 percent from fish and shellfish). Most carnivores don't let the risk of sickness stop them from eating meat--and a lot of it. The average American eats nearly 271 pounds of meat a year. ... Read more 60 Minutes - Syria and ISIS
*60 Minutes | Inside Syria Homs: video from inside the besieged city of Homs offer a rare and disturbing window into the cruel realities of the Syrian civil war. (12/13/14) [13:27]60 Minutes | War and hunger in Syria: The men and women of the World Food Programme who are risking their lives to save Syrians from starvation. (11/30/14) [13:51] 60 Minutes | Campaigning for ISIS in the West: Islamic radicals in London about accusations they recruit British citizens for battlefields in Syria and Iraq. (11/02/14) [14:01] |
DemocracyNow - http://www.democracynow.org/
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, January 26 [13:50]
DN | Anti-Austerity Syriza Party Sweeps to Power in Greece (01/26/15) [2:36]DN | Black Lives Matter: New Film on Jordan Davis Captures Family's Struggle to Convict White Vigilante (01/26/15) [3:21] PBS Frontline
*PBS Frontline | The Rise of ISIS: Correspondent Martin Smith, who made "Truth, War & Consequences," "Beyond Baghdad," "Private Warriors" and "Gangs of Iraq, investigates the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. (10/28/14) [53:41]
PBS Frontline | Firestone and the Warlord: based on the inside accounts of Americans who ran the company's Liberia rubber plantation. (11/18/14) [1:23:40]TRNN News - http://therealnews.com/
*TRNN | American Sniper: Honoring a Fallen Hero or Whitewashing a Murderous Occupation? (01/26/15) [12:58]
Journalist Max Blumenthal says the film American Sniper promotes lies falsehoods about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
*TRNN | McCain Calls 'Cold Warriors' to School Senate on National Security (01/26/15) [7:25]*TRNN | John Boehner, & GOP Leadership's Invitation to Netanyahu a Provocation Aimed at War with Iran (01/26/15) [11:35] Madawi al-Rasheed: Saudi Arabia and the al-Qaeda Monster (recent) [10:53] TYT News - http://www.tytnetwork.com/
TYT | Should We Tape The Supreme Court? (01/25/15) [4:34]TYT | Mitt Romney Vs. Jeb Bush. Who Will Be On The Republican Ticket In 2016? (01/25/15) [8:12] TYT | Justice For Sale? Supreme Court Ruling Coming Soon (01/25/15) [5:45] TYT | NY Times: The Sky Is Blue, And Torture Didn't Work (01/25/15) [2:44] RT - http://www.rt.com/
*RT | CrossTalk: Wealth Abyss (01/26/15) [24:29]Ring of Fire - http://ringoffireradio.com/
Thom Hartmann - www.thomhartmann.com/
|
I have always been amazed that the modern Middle East history is only about 80 years old! Please take a moment and read some of the history below. I tried to be short and concise, but there are a lot of references back to Wikipedia.
Ottoman Empire - Caliphate (1453 - 1918)
After the occupation of Constantinople by British and French troops in November 1918, the Ottoman government collapsed completely and signed the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. However, the Turkish War of Independence forced the former Allies to return to the negotiating table before the treaty could be ratified. The Allies and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey signed and ratified the new Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, superseding the Treaty of Sèvres and solidifying most of the territorial issues. One unresolved issue, the dispute between the Kingdom of Iraq and the Republic of Turkey over the former province of Mosul was later negotiated under the League of Nations in 1926. The British and French partitioned the eastern part of the Middle East (also called "Greater Syria") between them with the Sykes--Picot Agreement. Other secret agreements were concluded with Italy and Russia (see map). The Balfour Declaration encouraged the international Zionist movement to push for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Tsarist regime had also had wartime agreements with the Triple Entente on the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire but after the Russian Revolutions, Russia did not participate in the actual partitioning. The Treaty of Sèvres formally acknowledged the new League of Nations mandates in the region, the independence of Yemen, and British sovereignty over Cyprus.
The Ottoman Empire had been the leading Islamic state in geopolitical, cultural and ideological terms. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire led to the rise in the "Middle East" of Western powers, such as Britain and France. Resistance to the influence of these powers came from the Turkish national movement and became more widespread in the post-Ottoman states after World War II.
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and that the purpose of existence is to worship God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. They maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted or altered over time, but consider the Arabic Qur'an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to family life and the environment.
Most Muslims are of two denominations: Sunni (75--90%) or Shia (10--20%). About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, 25% in South Asia, 20% in the Middle East, and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its total population is Morocco. Sizable minorities are also found in Europe, China, Russia, and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world (see Islam by country). With about 1.6 billion followers or 23% of world population, Islam is the second-largest religion and one of the fastest-growing major religions in the world.
Five Pillars of Islam that make up Muslim life, prayer, concern for the needy, self purification and the pilgrimage. They are:
- Shahadah: declaring there is no god except God, and Muhammad is God's Messenger
- Salat: ritual prayer five times a day
- Zakat: giving 2.5% of one's savings to the poor and needy
- Sawm: fasting and self-control during the holy month of Ramadan
- Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if one is able
After the death of Muhammad, Muslims who accepted Abu Bakr as the first Caliph became known as Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah or "the people of tradition and unification" in order to differentiate them from the Shia, who rejected Abu Bakr's authority in favor of Ali, whom Sunnis accepted as the fourth Caliph rather than the first.
Shia consider Ali to have been divinely appointed as the successor to Muhammad, and as the first Imam. Shia Muslims believe that just as a prophet is appointed by God alone, only God has the prerogative to appoint the successor to his prophet. They believe God chose Ali to be Muhammad's (Sallallahu alaihi wassallam - Peace be upon him) successor, infallible, the first caliph (khalifa, head of state) of Islam. Muhammad, before his death, designated Ali as his successor.
Mapping the Global Muslim Population (pdf)
And then there is/was OIL | Resource Exploitation | and Western/American Intervention Aljazeera | The Secret of the Seven Sisters () [3:10:03]
Aljazeera | Empire: War on Terror, War on Muslims? (10/27/14) [47:51]
01.26.2015. 13:02
Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title
I'm still working on this
GOOD Short VideosNote: To view a video, click on code at left of the title
I'm still working on this
Newer DocumentariesNote: To view a video, click on code at left of the title
Documentaries (small | pop-up)
Documentaries (big | full screen)
Note: To view a video, click on its name/title
Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)
Lindsey Graham
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Environment
The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
AI - Artificial Intelligence
AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.
The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Wall Street and Banksters
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Nukes
Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Rana Foroohar
Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes
Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Kuznick Interviews
Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay
The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
China Valley of Tunnels
A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
911
On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
The Vietnam War
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Trump's Mashups
Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Trump's Sexcapades.
Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Trump's Speeches | Rallys
Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.
Or click here for a tablet or a small screen device
Sponsors
I'm looking for sponsors to financially help with this site. If you might be interested please send me a message using the Contact form.
But I have a modest standard of living so I plan to give all extra donation, beyond my immediate needs, to several of my favorite charities.
News June 2024
News May 2024
News April 2024
News March 2024
News February 2024
News January 2024
News December 2023
News November 2023
News October 2023
News September 2023
News August 2023
News July 2023
News June 2023
News May 2023
News April 2023
News March 2023
News February 2023
News January 2023
News December 2022
News November 2022
News October 2022
News September 2022
News August 2022
News July 2022
News June 2022
News May 2022
News April 2022
News March 2022
News February 2022
News January 2022
News December 2021
News November 2021
News October 2021
News September 2021
News August 2021
News July 2021
News June 2021
News May 2021
News April 2021
News March 2021
News February 2021
News January 2021
News December 2020
News November 2020
News October 2020
News September 2020
News August 2020
News July 2020
News June 2020
News May 2020
News April 2020
News March 2020
News February 2020
News January 2020
News December 2019
News November 2019
News October 2019
News September 2019
News August 2019
News July 2019
News June 2019
News May 2019
News April 2019
News March 2019
News February 2019
News January 2019
News December 2018
News November 2018
News October 2018
News September 2018
News August 2018
News July 2018
News June 2018
News May 2018
News April 2018
News March 2018
News February 2018
News January 2018
News December 2017
News November 2017
News October 2017
News September 2017
News August 2017
News July 2017
News June 2017
News May 2017
News April 2017
News March 2017
News February 2017
News January 2017
News December 2016
News November 2016
News October 2016
News September 2016
News August 2016
News July 2016
News June 2016
News May 2016
News April 2016
News March 2016
News February 2016
News January 2016
News December 2015
News November 2015
News October 2015
News September 2015
News August 2015
News July 2015
News June 2015
News May 2015
News April 2015
News March 2015
News February 2015
News January 2015
News December 2014
News November 2014
News October 2014
News September 2014
News August 2014
News July 2014
News June 2014
News May 2014
News April 2014
News March 2014
News February 2014
News January 2014
News December 2013
News November 2013
News October 2013
News September 2013
News August 2013
News July 2013
News June 2013
News May 2013
News April 2013
News March 2013
News February 2013
News January 2013
News December 2012
News November 2012
News October 2012
News September 2012
News August 2012
News July 2012
News June 2012
News May 2012
News April 2012
News March 2012
News February 2012
News January 2012
News December 2011