United States soldiers as Saudi regime mercenaries

This 12 January 2020 video by United States Iraq war veteran and Democratic party presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard says about itself:

Trump disgraces our military

Trump disgraces our military by using our men & women in uniform as mercenaries serving the interests of multinational corporations (e.g. Exxon) & foreign countries (e.g. Saudis). We must stand side by side—no matter our political party—to end this travesty #NoWarWithIran

By Steve Sweeney in Britain:

Sunday, January 19, 2020

War boon for US military

WAR is proving a lucrative business for the US military, with Washington raking in $500 million (£384m) from Saudi Arabia last month as payment for troops stationed in the reactionary kingdom.

Pentagon spokeswoman Commander Rebecca Rebarich confirmed that the payment was “the first contribution” in a partnership deal between the two countries to support regional security.

“In response to elevated threats in the Middle East over the past eight months, the Department of Defence has deployed US military forces to the region to enhance US defences and augment Saudi air and missile defence of critical military and civilian infrastructure,” Ms Rebarich told Middle East Eye on Friday.

“The Saudi government has agreed to help underwrite the cost of these activities and has made the first contribution,” she said.

Speaking on Fox News last week, US President Donald Trump said that Saudi Arabia had “already deposited $1 billion [£768m] in the bank,” indicating the importance of the symbiotic relationship to the US economy.

These kind of payments are not new. During the war on Iraq in the 1990s, Washington received payments totalling $36bn from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states.

It also received $331m for the cost of aerial refuelling operations that the US military provided to Saudi warplanes carrying out airstrikes in Yemen during the four-year bombardment that left the country on the brink of the world’s worst famine in a century.

War is also proving to be a boon for US-based arms dealers. A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute issued at the end of last year showed they accounted for 59 per cent of the world’s total arms sales in 2018, an increase of 7.2 per cent from the previous year.

Washington is modernising its military with an ambitious and costly programme. Congress passed a record $738bn defence spending bill last month.

US actions across the Middle East, including the targeted assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International airport earlier this month, are fuelling regional instability.

Mr Trump mobilised an additional 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia at the end of last year to “protect the interests of the United States and enhance the protection of force in the region against hostile action by Iran and its forces of power.”

It had already amassed the biggest deployment of military hardware to the Persian Gulf in decades with an agreement to send 120,000 troops to the region.

FBI: SAUDI ARABIA HELPS VIOLENT FUGITIVES FLEE U.S. JUSTICE Saudi Arabia helps U.S.-based Saudi citizens flee the U.S. to avoid criminal prosecution, according to a recently declassified FBI memo. The heavily redacted bulletin, dated Aug. 29, 2019, was obtained and shared by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). [HuffPost]

Ducks, roe deer, squirrel and mushrooms

This November 2019 video shows red-crested pochard ducks, a roe deer with a fawn, a red squirrel and mushrooms in Berkheide nature reserve near Katwijk in the Netherlands.

Demjanjuk was Sobibor nazi murderer, new proof

This video says about itself:

Survivors Of Sobibor Seek Justice

The Last Holocaust Trial – June 2009

Some 170,000 Jews were murdered at the Nazi death camp Sobibor. Only 8 people out of those who survived are still alive today. Now they’re calling for justice for the last remaining Sobibor prison guard.

‘I am innocent, innocent’ Demjanjuk cried 20 years ago when falsely accused of torturing Jews at the Treblinka death camp. But there is now solid evidence that he operated the industrial killing machines at Sobibor. ‘I think of her often’ says Jules, one of the few survivors of Sobibor. On the day of arrival his wife was sent to the gas chamber. Others were whipped or taken to a quiet place and shot. ‘There’s no statute of limitation for the crimes committed there’ says genocide expert, Johannes. Many have asked whether it’s right for Demjanjuk, now 89, to stand trial. But Jules, plagued by nightmares of his wife’s murder, will not rest until it’s over – ‘That is justice, it’s not revenge’.

Translated from the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany today:

Photos show Demjanjuk im concentradtion camp Sobibor

The nazi ally John Demjanjuk was convicted in 2011 for helping a thousandfold murder – after a complicated trial.

Demjanjuk died in 2012, before the judgment against him became final.

Now photos have appeared, which then might have been important evidence.

Revealed in the estate of a former deputy commander of the extermination camp Sobibor, according to information of the Berlin Nazi Documentation Center: photos of the nazi criminal John Demjanjuk (1920-2012). It is the first time that the 2011 nazi helper, convicted in Munich in 2011, can be seen on the camp site.

It’s a small sensation: until his death in March 2012, Demjanjuk had not admitted that he had been in Sobibor. The court case against him, when in 2011 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for helping to murder 28060 Jews was complex … .

Ukrainian born Demjanjuk was one of the last Nazi criminals who were on trial for their actions. He had been unmolested for decades as an auto mechanic in the USA before being extradited to Germany. There he died in 2012 as a 91-year-old in a retirement home near Rosenheim.

Sanderlings and sand dunes

After 17 January 2020 in the Schoorlse Duinen nature reserve came 18 January. When we walked towards the North Sea, as this photo shows. It is a Lensbaby photo, like all photos of this blog post.

The morning had started with three great tits and a chaffinch.

As we walked, we passed a birch polypore on a birch tree.

Great spotted woodpecker sound.

Common broom flowers. A bit unusual for January; a sign of a warm winter.

We climb a high sand dune. During the World War II nazi occupation, a German military bunker was on top. Now, it is a viewpoint. Not far from the top, a few flowering common daisies.

A meadow pipit calls.

In the Kerf valley (see also here), many communal winter nests of brown-tail moth caterpillars on plants.

When we reached the sea, there was much foam.

On the beach, at least fifteen sanderlings.

On this photo, on the right near the floodline, some of these birds. Much too small, as the camera was fit for landscape photos, not for depicting small birds like sanderlings.

As this photo shows, there were many dark clouds on 18 January. Sometimes, rain or hail.

As we walk back through the woodland, winter stalkball fungi. A nuthatch calls.

United States censorship of Women’s March photos

This 19 January 2020 video from the USA is called National Archives apologize for blurring images critical of Trump.

In the Soviet Union in the 1930s, a photo was blurred, in which Trotsky stood next to Lenin. Because Trotsky was a rival to Stalin.

‘Such a thing could only happen in the dictatorial Soviet Union’, some people may say. ‘Never ever in the USA, the paradise of democracy’.

Have a look …

By Tom Boggioni / Raw Story in the USA, January 19, 2020:

Presidential historian slams National Archives for ‘idiotic’ decision to blur Women’s March photos that were critical of ‘vengeful Trump’

Appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, noted presidential historian Douglas Brinkley harshly criticized the decision by the National Archives to blur photos of posters that were critical of Donald Trump, saying it was a betrayal of their mission.

Speaking with host Martin Savidge, the normally staid Brinkley was blunt in his assessment of the decision — despite an apology from a spokesperson for the Archives — calling the very fact that it even happened “idiotic”.

“I could not believe the National Archives did such a thing,” Brinkley began. “It’s such a venerable institution and we all trust it. It’s the depository of our national heirlooms and leavings and here it is doctoring photos to make Donald Trump look good. I mean to the idea you take the women’s march of 2017 which was largely anti-Trump march and start changing signs like one sign said ‘God hates Trump’, they just blurred out the word Trump so the protester sign says ‘God hates’. That was replicated many times, it’s an idiotic idea to have altered that photograph. I am pleased a retraction has come our way.”

“Do you think this was mandated say by someone or do you think this was an agency that sort of self-censored?” the CNN host asked.

“I think it’s the agency or someone within the agency that self-censored,” Brinkley replied. “But we are in the age of Donald Trump, if you work in the government are you fearful of a vengeful Trump, it may be very well they want to please him.”

At all costs, we can’t have a photograph on our display that says something negative about him,” he added sarcastically. “We have to remember this is a president we are dealing with on his inauguration lied about his crowd size and blew up the Interior Department because they weren’t showing a photo that he wanted. This idea of air-brushing anything negative about Donald Trump out of our current government institutions is starting to happen more and more. It’s all the reason why we have to say knock it off, ever louder.”

First ever Caspian plover in the Gambia

This 2013 video is about a Caspian plover in Israel.

Now, another first time a bird species was seen in the Gambia.

Graham Gordon and I found the first Caspian Plover for THe Gambia yesterday at the dried out lagoons at Tujareng. Can anyone inform any birders in Gambia? pic.twitter.com/iMQksGIeFZ

— Kris Webb (@scillywebb) January 18, 2020

Planet Mercury robbed by planet Venus?

This 16 January 2020 video says about itself:

Mercury’s outer layers may have been stripped off by a young Venus

Mercury may have been robbed by Venus in the early days of the solar system. A series of close passes between the two planets when they were young could have stripped away Mercury’s outer layers, leaving behind a world that is mostly dense core.

Read more here.

Merlins on video

This video is about merlins.

Bernie Sanders rally in New Hampshire, USA

This 19 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

MANCHESTER RALLY WITH NAOMI KLEIN AND JOHN CUSACK

OUR CAMPAIGN SCARES TRUMP: In case you haven’t noticed, Trump and the Republican Party have been attacking our campaign. It looks like the most dangerous president in modern history is getting nervous, and he should be. Join us for our rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.