Slavyangrad is reporting on shock therapy in the Ukraine:

The bottom of the barrel continues to be scrapped in Ukraine.

Ukraine will cancel any social benefits for those who were abroad for more than 30 days. A strange rationale for a government that goes on air everyday claiming their country is being destroyed.

You will also lose benefits if you have a car newer than 5 years, more than around 2500 Euro as assets, or have your own house. You are too rich to need help if you have that in Ukraine, apparently.

They are also looking into how to deprive more people of their paltry unemployment benefits: a maximum of 170 euro for three months.

This obviously will encourage those who manage to escape from the giant concentration camp Ukraine became to not return, aggravating their demographic crisis. But the Ukrainian state continues to evade all its responsibilities towards their citizens with the war as an excuse.

When the People's Liberation Army makes landfall on the western coasts of North America, I will be here to greet them as heroes

Ecuador Elections Update

Earlier this afternoon, a shooting attack was reported on the campaign motorcade of Daniel Noboa, from the MOVER Movement (Big Tent Socdem/Liberal Party). Fortunately, there were no injuries

Update for August 16th

"Supreme Court Judge of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, has authorized the request for international cooperation made by the Federal Police (PF) to the USA and the FBI to break the financial privacy of the accounts of Jair Bolsonaro, General Mauro Cid, Cid's father, and, if any, Bolsonaro's lawyer, Wassef."

MoA's latest article, while being negative on shitheels Trump and RFK Jr., what-ifs RFK Jr. as VP for Trump

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/how-will-trumps-fourth-indictment-and-rfk-jr-influence-the-election-season.html

it feels kind of off to me, I personally suspect that Trump is going to pick a woman

Increasing carbon dioxide is making our food less nutritious

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels negatively impact key mineral nutrients in plants, reducing the nutrition derived from consuming them, reveals a recent review article in the Trends in Plant Science Journal which summarises findings from several studies. The review by scientists from France explained that almost all C3 plants – which employ the C3 pathway for photosynthesis where the first carbon compound has three carbon atoms – that are exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide show reduction across nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and sulphur.

While being a vital resource for plants, carbon dioxide is also among the prominent greenhouse gases. Considering that the majority of plants on the planet, including cereals like wheat, rice, barley and oats, use the C3 pathway, the review article raised alarm bells about increasing carbon dioxide levels not only impact the quantity of food produced but also its quality.

Canada mulling 'game plan' if U.S. takes far-right, authoritarian shift: Joly

What's the deal with Lithuania closing the border crossings with Belarus? I've been off the news for a bit but some lib friends were going on about it like it's a big deal but it sounded kinda like a nothing. Is it remotely worth caring about?

Colombia's president Petro has written a piece on the growing violence in Ecuador, saying that it may be related to drug markets - particularly fentanyl, which is plaguing the United States right now.

"Today the largest coca growing area is not located in Tumaco in the Nariño Pacific, nor in Catatumbo. The new area with the highest cocaine production in the world is located in a 10-kilometer strip along the Colombo-Ecuadorian border, on the Colombian side," Petro explained.

Petro highlights that the cocaine market collapsed in the United States, replaced by that of fentanyl, which, according to him, leaves more than 100,000 people dead a year.

"It is for this reason that the price of coca leaf falls in the areas dedicated to export to the United States and the armed organizations based there replace the loss of profits from cocaine with illicit gold, extortion and kidnapping against the same population of the area," he stressed.

"This is why, from being a peaceful country, Ecuador has surpassed Colombia in violence, and perhaps this is why presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated,"

I do like his ending quote:

"From the marijuana of welfare capitalism and its rebellious youth, we move on to cocaine, the drug of competitiveness and neoliberalism; and now we enter the drug of death, fentanyl: the drug of capitalism, of the climate crisis and war," he concluded.

Ecuador’s CNE President Denounces Threats and Harassment

"I want to make a public denouncement. Unfortunately, in these last hours we have received threats..."

On Monday, a few days before the presidential elections are to be held in the country, the president of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador (CNE), Diana Atamaint, denounced that she has received threats to her security and to the electoral authorities.

"I want to make a public denouncement. Unfortunately, in these last hours we have received threats, I have received threats from Mr. Captain Ortega, in social networks", she stressed.

Likewise, Diana Atamaint stated that she "holds Ortega responsible for these threats in which I am being continuously affected". "It is a harassment, a harassment", referred the official.

"In these last hours we have received threats from Mr. Captain Ortega, on social networks. They are going to bend us to make decisions that are outlawed," says Diana.

Furthermore, she also insisted that the electoral authorities "are not going to bend us with pressure in social networks so that we make decisions that are outside the law" and it is not the first time they occur.

On the other hand, the president of the Ecuadorian CNE requested this day to President Guillermo Lasso, "that in favor of citizen security and the election day of August, that the Armed Forces of the country be deployed and can guard the Electoral Precincts days prior to the Early Elections 2023."

the US and the oil companies are using violence to prevent people from voting for a popular left-wing president?

BBC and Sky News are reporting Spain's new speaker of parliament as "socialist" is this accurate?

I don't understand who really makes decisions in Ukraine. What individual or group of people need to make the call on suing for peace? Ukraine has a unicameral parliament (Verkhovna Rada) with 450 members not including prez, prime minister and cabinet. Any law passed by the parliament can be vetoed by the president; parliament can override their veto with a 2/3 constitutional majority vote. Rada's history reads like a shitshow (fist fights, bribes, Ponzi schemes etc.) and they don't inspire a lot of confidence.

March 2022 everybody was saying Zelensky would be assassinated if he didn't take a hard line and other Ukrainians have already been murdered for even suggesting a peace deal with Russia so in this kind of a paranoid environment who would even do that? Are they really waiting for Biden to give them an ok? Russia seems to still be in land acquisition mode. If they start an offensive in the north and far south while holding the line in the middle they could force Ukraine to choose between Odessa and Kiev. Once they secure the south they could make the situation untenable for Ukie politicians and bypass USA/UK approval (maybe) for a peace deal. Ukrainian leaders like those big bags of USD but you can't spend it when your dead.

Sweden raises its terror threat to four out of five after Quran burnings

Sweden has raised its terror threat to four out of five after a series of public Quran burnings enraged Muslim communities around the world. Acting on advice from law enforcement and security service leaders, the Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson made the announcement on Thursday. It comes after a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran in the Scandinavian country by a handful of anti-Islam activists, sparking angry demonstrations across Muslim countries.

"I understand that many Swedes are right now feeling worried about the meaning of the new and raised threat level," said Kristersson. "To all of you I want to, like the police, say that we should live our lives as usual. We protect our open society against those who threaten it. We stand up for our democratic values but we protect ourselves. We stand up for our way of life but we protect ourselves."

:sweden-cool: