“Every morning I wake up at 4:45AM just to get to work here in Amsterdam. I’m from the North of the country and I’m actually a carpenter not a construction worker but since to financial crisis it’s hard to get a contract so I take any job I can get. I make long heavy days, I spend a lot of time in traffic but honestly I’m just glad that I have a job.”
Eco Escuela : Ideas para habitar el planeta
Eco Escuela : Ideas para habitar el planeta by Cabrales, Benjamin , Casadiego . El documento relata la historia de la comunidad de Belén de los Andaquíes, Caquetá, que se organizó en tiempos de guerra para defender su entorno y en menos de treinta años lograron transformar una región caracterizada por la extracción de indiscriminada de los recursos naturales, en un lugar protector del agua y los bosques amazónicos como respuesta al reto del cambio climático. Es a partir de esas historias y ese contexto regional donde se inscribe el proyecto Implementación de un Centro de Educación y Capacitación en utilización de Energías Renovables para protección y adaptación al Cambio Climático.. “Los resultados de la expedición Colombia Bio en el Parque Municipal Andakí revelaron que la estrategia de los lugareños para cuidar la Biodiversidad de Belén de los Andaquíes produce buenos resultados. En sólo 26.000 hectáreas aparecieron 47 especies nuevas para la ciencia”. Revista Semana (Edición 1850, octubre de 2017). un grupo de líderes ambientales cuentan cómo lograron salvar los bosques que rodean su municipio.. Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing – eBooks
S. 2161: A bill to prevent gun trafficking.
Introduced: Sponsor: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary which will consider it before sending it to the Senate floor for consideration.
Tuesday Open Thread | The Traitor in the White House
From the beginning, my thoughts on why 2016 was different have been this:
It’s the TREASON.
We have all lived through Presidents that we didn’t agree with. Presidents whose policies were antithetical to our own.
But, what we have on Dolt45, is a President, and a cabal around him, who willing slept with a hostile foreign power to undermine American Sovereignty.
There is a reason why the IC has reacted the way that they have, and it’s because, for the first time, The Intelligence Community believes that the President of the United States and those around him, are assets of a hostile foreign power.
They believe that they are TRAITORS to this country.
Because of this, you don’t just have our IC that is on this, and feeding the press news about the gang in the White House, you have the INTERNATIONAL IC doing so, because they understand the danger that Dol45 and his cabal mean to not just the United States, but to the world.
Hat tip-Balloon Juice for this article:
From Vanity Fair:
Exclusive: What Trump Really Told Kislyak After Comey Was Canned
During a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office, the president betrayed his intelligence community by leaking the content of a classified, and highly sensitive, Israeli intelligence operation to two high-ranking Russian envoys, Sergey Kislyak and Sergey Lavrov. This is what he told them—and the ramifications.
by Howard Blum
November 22, 2017 2:27 pm
On a dark night at the tail end of last winter, just a month after the inauguration of the new American president, an evening when only a sickle moon hung in the Levantine sky, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters flew low across Jordan and then, staying under the radar, veered north toward the twisting ribbon of shadows that was the Euphrates River. On board, waiting with a professional stillness as they headed into the hostile heart of Syria, were Sayeret Matkal commandos, the Jewish state’s elite counterterrorism force, along with members of the technological unit of the Mossad, its foreign-espionage agency. Their target: an ISIS cell that was racing to get a deadly new weapon thought to have been devised by Ibrahim al-Asiri, the Saudi national who was al-Qaeda’s master bombmaker in Yemen.
It was a covert mission whose details were reconstructed for Vanity Fair by two experts on Israeli intelligence operations. It would lead to the unnerving discovery that ISIS terrorists were working on transforming laptop computers into bombs that could pass undetected through airport security. U.S. Homeland Security officials—quickly followed by British authorities—banned passengers traveling from an accusatory list of Muslim-majority countries from carrying laptops and other portable electronic devices larger than a cell phone on arriving planes. It would not be until four tense months later, as foreign airports began to comply with new, stringent American security directives, that the ban would be lifted on an airport-by-airport basis.
In the secretive corridors of the American espionage community, the Israeli mission was praised by knowledgeable officials as a casebook example of a valued ally’s hard-won field intelligence being put to good, arguably even lifesaving, use.
Yet this triumph would be overshadowed by an astonishing conversation in the Oval Office in May, when an intemperate President Trump revealed details about the classified mission to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and Sergey I. Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Along with the tempest of far-reaching geopolitical consequences that raged as a result of the president’s disclosure, fresh blood was spilled in his long-running combative relationship with the nation’s clandestine services. Israel—as well as America’s other allies—would rethink its willingness to share raw intelligence, and pretty much the entire Free World was left shaking its collective head in bewilderment as it wondered, not for the first time, what was going on with Trump and Russia. (In fact, Trump’s disturbing choice to hand over highly sensitive intelligence to the Russians is now a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia, both before and after the election.) In the hand-wringing aftermath, the entire event became, as is so often the case with spy stories, a tale about trust and betrayal.
And yet, the Israelis cannot say they weren’t warned.
……………………………………….
“Trump betrayed us,” said a senior Israeli military official bluntly, his voice stern with reproach. “And if we can’t trust him, then we’re going to have to do what is necessary on our own if our back is up against the wall with Iran.” Yet while appalled governments are now forced to rethink their tactics in future dealings with a wayward president, there is also the dismaying possibility that a more tangible, and more lethal, consequence has already occurred. “The Russians will undoubtedly try to figure out the source or the method of this information to make sure that it is not also collecting on their activities in Syria—and in trying to do that they could well disrupt the source,” said Michael Morell.
What, then, was the fate of Israel’s agent in Syria? Was the operative exfiltrated to safety? Has he gone to ground in enemy territory? Or was he hunted down and killed? One former Mossad officer with knowledge of the operation and its aftermath will not say. Except to add pointedly, “Whatever happened to him, it’s a hell of price to pay for a president’s mistake.”
The graphic whaling footage the Government didn’t want you to see
The vision captured by Australian Customs officers in the Southern Ocean is so sensitive the Government fought for years to keep it secret, saying it could damage relations with Japan.
Source: The graphic whaling footage the Government didn’t want you to see
Vietnamese Blogger Gets 7 Years in Jail for Reporting on Toxic Spill
major fail… makes government look bad Nguyen Van Hoa was convicted of spreading information about the discharge that killed marine life and sickened people along a 120-mile stretch of coastline.
‘Their own media megaphone’: what do the Koch brothers want from Time?
Is Time important to anyone under 40? I think not but if Kochs want to throw money away – go ahead!
The company’s decline is readily apparent – but if the billionaire brothers’ other interests are a guide, their investment will be about more than money
That Charles and David Koch are putting $650m into Meredith Corp’s purchase of Time would ordinarily be cause for great soul-searching in media. But then, these are not ordinary times.
Meredith’s Koch-backed deal with Time – which owns, in addition to Time magazine, titles including People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated – was sealed Sunday night. Meredith said in a statement announcing the deal that they are building “a premier media company serving nearly 200 million American consumers.”
This past week, the trials began for seven of the 230 defendants facing 70 years in prison for protesting Trump’s inauguration. The case has wide-reaching implications for activists, including feminists, and we all should pay attention. ICYMI: During protests of Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, police used a technique called
Source: Feministing
Plague – Madagascar
Building Resilience and Community in Puerto Rico
Bill in Congress wants a 20% tariff on goods produced in Puerto Rico – like it’s a foreign country and its people not American Citizens – being brown is enough for many white-rights nazis in Congress and White House!
By Carson Bear
Saving Places
With Puerto Rico still reeling from Hurricane Maria, the community there faces an urgent need. During the storm, thousands of buildings—historic and new—lost their roofs. Fresh rain furthers damages to these places, delaying people’s return to their homes, businesses, and normal routines.
To address this need, the National Trust is working with our partner, Para La Naturaleza (Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico) to provide tarps to 200 homes and other buildings in Puerto Rico. Every donation of $75 will provide a tarp to an affected home or other building to protect it from the elements, slow the structural damage, and help our fellow citizens get back on their feet faster.
We sat down with Ivonne Sanabria Pérez, Board and Advisory Council Coordinator of Para La Naturaleza, to talk more about the Tarps Campaign and how Puerto Rico is building resilience in the wake of tragedy.
As Puerto Rico begins rebuilding, what preservation needs are most important to address?
Right now, we are working together with over 50 Puerto Rican communities in naturally protected places. Part our funding is going towards helping community centers serve their residents’ needs. If the community center doesn’t have power, we’re getting them solar power. If the community doesn’t have filtered water, we’re sending them filters. We’ve already been working on that part of the relief effort.
For us, handing out food and water is over. We’ve moved onto the second phase, and we’re rebuilding; we want to build resilience within our communities.
Why are Puerto Rican buildings in need of tarps? How does the Tarps Campaign work?
[Hurricane Maria]—which led to over 20 hours of sustained hurricane force winds—caused major damage to roofs in particular throughout the island. A lot of the roofs [which are usually made of galvanized metal] went with the hurricane. For the next two or three weeks, water kept coming into the homes as it continued to rain.
We originally thought that our organization could set aside zones with buildings in historic areas that had suffered damage to provide them with tarps but, because we weren’t the owners of these homes, we couldn’t really do anything. That part of the relief response is rather slow, and getting tarps to each home depends entirely upon its owner.
“It’s really important to have hope that we won’t have to rebuild on our own. The Tarps Campaign will go a long way in symbolizing that help is coming. ”
Ivonne Sanabria Pérez, Board and Advisory Council Coordinator of Para La Naturaleza
We were also concerned, because there is a sense that we’re all alone in this, that each resident whose home had sustained damages felt they were fighting this on their own. Residents who lost their roofs may be staying with a family member or at a shelter, or may not have food. They definitely don’t have power and may not trust the water, so everything is a challenge.
We want to provide a sense that help is coming, that people understand there’s someone out there who knows what we’re going through. I think it’s really important to have hope that we won’t have to rebuild on our own. The Tarps Campaign will go a long way in symbolizing that help is coming. And all this effort made by people we don’t even know? That’s wonderful.
What can we do in the future to support long-term resiliency, especially because of the lessons we’ve learned from the way natural disasters have been handled in the past?
One of the most wonderful things in coming to the States has been networking with people who already went through this in Katrina and in Florida. They understand exactly where I’m coming from. I know what FEMA can and can’t do because someone who already lived through that [explained it to me]. That exchange of knowledge should be perpetuated, so it’s accessible for those who are making decisions about the next disaster.
photo by:Carlos Giusti/AP
Hurricane damage in Old San Juan.
We also need to train people in the trades of rebuilding, and particularly in rebuilding historic structures. [Para La Naturaleza] was already beginning to work on that, but Maria has really sped up the process and prioritized skills we hadn’t thought were priorities before the hurricane.
There is a place for other nonprofits and businesses in all of this. The people who are overseeing the preservation of Puerto Rico in an official capacity [employees at Puerto Rico’s State Historic Preservation Office, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and other government organizations] have experienced massive loss, as well.
One lesson learned is that we can all work to support each other. Our nonprofit has something to contribute to state preservation groups. They don’t have to wait for their employees to be able to survey the island because we have volunteers to help out. We can convey information with one voice, and we can decide how we need to tackle the future together.
What is the connection between preservation and human life when it comes to a disaster like Hurricane Maria?
When it comes to preservation, your home is your home. Preserving these places matters to you because they are more than historic places. I am not as concerned with preserving historic institutional buildings because they will get funding and resources. But most of our historic areas are in towns and residential areas, and that’s all they have. This is their sense of place. It’s where they wake up every morning, it’s where they eat. I can’t fathom the notion that preservation is not important or relevant to daily life, or not something that needs to be tackled immediately.
Most people are saying that there are phases to disaster recovery—that we need to get water, food, and shelter first, and that assessment of damages for historic homes and historic properties can wait. But our organization isn’t giving out water or providing shelter, so what can we do? The organizations who handle these two types of needs are separate, so both can work [on addressing Puerto Rico’s needs] at the same time. That way, when our state preservation organizations are ready to move onto the next phase of rebuilding, they’ll have more information than if they had to wait to make an assessment for damages.
Is there a silver lining to all of this?
It has to do with the psyche of surviving a catastrophe. We’re connecting to our neighbors and helping each other out, because we don’t have any devices to rely on right now.
I’ve asked people from New Orleans if this understanding of what really matters will last, or if we’ll regain power and forget what our communities have recovered. The answer seems to be that we can do both: We can keep the human connections and friendships that we’ve made, and the feeling that our community is cognizant of our neighbors’ needs—but we can also use Facebook. The way you grow when you survive a catastrophic event really does inform who you become.
I’m hoping to look back in 15 years and see that we did [the right thing]. The past few months have been very difficult, but I wouldn’t change what’s happened. I wouldn’t change what I’ve learned for the world.
Featured Photo: Adobe Stock Photos
Carson Bear is an Editorial Assistant at the National Trust. She’s passionate about combining popular culture with historic places, and loves her 200-year-old childhood farmhouse in Pennsylvania.







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