Monday, January 27, 2014

Revolution: East and West (Ukraine, Thailand)

Amber Larson, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; FEMEN.org/en; BBC.co.uk
The EuroMaidens for freedom in Ukraine, Baltic states, and worldwide (femen.org)
Thailand wants a people's coup, as does Ukraine, and Pussy Riot wants to protect prisoners
  
FEMEN (feminist topless protest collective) started its fight with the dictatorship in Ukraine, a former member of the Soviet Union now leaning in favor of joining the West through the European Union, four years ago. Now FEMEN's brothers are making a revolution and it appeals to the world for help. Ukrainians need our support! Revolution cannot be stopped! Ukraine must be cleansed of its dictatorship! Together we will win this fight -- and with it the struggle against sexism (patriarchal systems, bias based on gender or biological sex), racism, and extreme class divisions. 

An independent congressional panel has concluded the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records is illegal. In a new report, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board says the NSA program should be brought to an end, is illegal, and has had only minimal benefits in stopping any kind of "terrorism." 

(Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)
The panel says the program "lacks a viable legal foundation under [PATRIOT Act] Section 215, implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments [about intrusions into our privacy, searches, and seizures], raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value, adding: "The board recommends that the government end the program." President Obama said last week he intends to reform the bulk collection, but his plan would preserve it.

When The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers published the first of Edward Snowden's NSA-GCHQ leaks in June, it unleashed a stream of abbreviations...
Sextremism: FEMEN means death for patriarchy (sexist male domination)
 
Ukraine to scrap anti-protest laws
(BBC.co.uk, Jan. 27, 2014)
Police state (Sergei L. Loiko/latimes.com)
The Ukrainian president and opposition leaders have agreed to scrap anti-protest laws that had fueled anger at the government, the presidency says.
 
Pres. Viktor Yanukovych also offered an amnesty to protesters, but only if they cleared barricades and stopped attacking government buildings. The president made the offer in talks with the three main opposition leaders.
 
The demonstrators had demanded the protest law be repealed, but they also want Mr. Yanukovych [who is accused of being a traitor who is selling out Ukraine to Putin and Russia] to quit.
 
The law was hastily passed in parliament by Yanukovych loyalists on 16 January. The changes included a ban on unauthorized tents in public areas [, a ban on wearing protective helmets or masks], and criminal responsibility for slandering government officials. 
 
Correspondents say it is likely to be overturned during a special session of parliament on Tuesday, arranged last week to discuss the crisis.
 
Unrest spreads east
The [anti-protest] law angered protesters and helped to spread unrest across Ukraine, even to Mr. Yanukovych's Russian-speaking strongholds in the east. The protesters, closely allied to the opposition parties, targeted government buildings and have briefly occupied several ministries in Kiev. More Watershed moment - Who are the protest leaders? - Media: Point of no return? - Q&A: What's behind crisis?
 
Thailand's Red Shirts vs. Yellow: People's Coup
Red: leftwing, Yellow: rightwing
(BBC, Jan. 26, 2014) BANGKOK, Thailand - Protesters block early election vote. They have surrounded polling stations, blocking early voting ahead of next week's [hastily convened] general election, officials say. [Street demonstrations are bringing down Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of corrupt billionaire and former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who pulled her strings.] Meanwhile, one opposition leader was shot dead as he addressed a crowd at a rally outside a polling station in east Bangkok where advance voting was supposed to take place. Jonathan Head reports from Bangkok. More + VIDEO
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