Semolina Porridge ... Nom, nom, nom

The Kitchen Semolina Porridge ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT I love semolina and preferably a coarse texture and 'dry' sort end result, rather than smooth and runny consistency. I also throw in a beaten egg in mine.  Soooooo yummy. Heaps of recipes online, but this works for me: The Yummy Things: 1.5 cups full cream milk - heated on stovetop 1 dessert spoon fine grain sugar pinch of salt 1 beaten egg 1/4 cup measure of semolina (I prefer coarse grain)  *1/4 cup goes a long way ... expect it would be sufficient for a 2 cup serve (1/4 cup is equivalent to 2 fluid ounces or 60ml). The Porridge Way: whisk milk & sugar, heating when milk is coming along (ie you can tell it's getting hot, but not about to boil over) - pour in the semolina from a distance, in one steady stream (while whisking steadily) keep whisking continually as it begins to thicken, pour in beaten egg - whisking! *MUST WHISK rapidly as this is happening or you get scrambled egg heat until desired consistency, whisking continually to prevent stick serve with jam or other condiment on top Love the feel of the grains on my tongue and the squishiness and milkiness of the semolina porridge ... it's so nice. The egg is more nutrition, but I also love the colour it turns.  It makes what's yummy even more attractive. Had mine with a jam & brandy concoction, and I've just about inhaled that bowl.  I want more, but I'll have to restrain myself.    LOL *Lucky I tend to proofread ...  Was mindlessly typing 'course' instead of 'coarse'.  Wow, the brain is failing.   I've had a run of forgetting things, too ... Uh-oh.   LOL

European Union Forced Resettlement Scheme

Ring the Warning Bell & Raise the Flag European Union Forced Resettlement Scheme duration:  13:01 English Subtitles Viktor Orban Prime Minister Hungary https://youtu.be/EbINrdyAXlE ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT What they call 'democracy' is over-rated. Too much talk, and not enough action. When a nation is facing an existential threat, politicians trying to reach public 'consensus' is a detrimental waste of time and a waste of breath. Martial law should be put in place, borders should be secured, and the dangerous, sovereignty-usurping organisation that is the European Union should immediately be exited.

Brussels - Terrorist Attacks

-------/\/\/ Brussels  Terrorist Attacks Explosions Tuesday 22 March 2016 Explosions 1.  Zaventem airport - 8am local time - 2 blasts 2.  Maelbeek metro station - shortly after 8am local time - 3rd blast  BBC Article Brussels raids: Paris attack suspect Abdeslam arrested 19 March 2016 Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has been wounded and arrested in a dramatic raid in Brussels after four months on the run. Another man arrested, Monir Ahmed Alaaj, was also on a wanted list, Belgian prosecutors said. Three members of a family accused of harbouring Abdeslam have also been detained. ... Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national born in Brussels, had lived in Molenbeek before the Paris attacks.     Is Molenbeek a haven for Belgian jihadis?     What happened during the Paris attacks?     Who were the Paris attackers? He is believed to have returned to Belgium immediately after the attacks, in which his brother Brahim blew himself up. In January, police said they may have found a bomb factory in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels used as a hideout by Abdeslam. Police found traces of explosives, three handmade belts and a fingerprint of the suspect. ... Abdeslam has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks, claimed by militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group. ... A number of suspected attackers lived in the Belgian capital, and police have carried out a series of raids. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35846954 -------/\/\/ Express Article Missiles thrown at police in Molenbeek by Salah Abdeslam 'supporters' - their sick 'HERO' TENSE scenes have broken out between locals and security forces in Molenbeek following the arrest of Salah Abdeslam with some residents reportedly “praising” the evil Paris terrorist. By Selina Sykes PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sat, Mar 19, 2016 | UPDATED: 11:32, Sat, Mar 19, 2016 Riot police were called in to disperse the crowds who gathered in the Brussels suburb after missiles were thrown at the Belgian authorities. Tensions were sparked after young people from the troubled area started declaring their support for their “hero” Abdeslam, according to a witness. An eyewitness posted on Twitter: “Great tension in Molenbeek with young people from the area praising their ‘hero’ Salah Abdeslam." Police officers were targeted by locals, many of which were young people, who threw objects including bottles, according Belgian newspaper La Libre. Video footage of the incident shows large crowds in the road where the dramatic terror raid took place, with shouts heard before objects are thrown at officers. Other journalists at the scene confirmed the tense scenes, with officers using police dogs to get people to leave the area. Stones were also reportedly thrown at police, according to French media. Police dogs are heard barking at locals shouting and hurling objects while officers attempt to push the crowd back. ... Riot police armed with batons and shields move into the area, while several young men appear reluctant to leave the scene. The presence of riot police at the scene suggests authorities were concerned about potential riots, according to some Belgian media. The authorities had the tough task of managing the tense and nervous atmosphere among locals on the streets while a dramatic raid was still underway. Many exasperated locals who left their houses after hearing rumours of Abdeslam's capture gathered by the security cordons blocking off the area. Tensions have been running high in Molenbeek since the Brussels suburb was linked to the murder of 130 people by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis in November last year. Several of the Paris attackers, including Abdeslam and ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, came from the troubled area which has been dubbed Europe’s ‘jihadi haven’. The Brussels district, where some areas are up to 80 per cent Muslim, was also searched as part of anti-terror operations in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015. In January three journalists were attacked when they tried to interview family members of Chakib Akrouh, the suicide bomber who blew himself during a police raid in Saint-Denis, Paris, after the November attacks. The Belgian government has vowed to crack down on extremism in Molenbeek which has been thrust into the international spotlight after the atrocities in Paris. Many Molenbeek residents, particularly young people, are suspicious and hostile towards authorities, who they believe are infringing their liberty with patrols and surveillance. Earlier this year clashes broke out between young people and soldiers who were patrolling a metro station in Molenbeek, according to Belgian media. Abdeslam has been captured alive by Belgian terror police after a dramatic raid in which two suspects were shot. The three suspects arrested at the scene are all linked to the atrocities that happened in Paris on November 13 last year. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/653818/Molenbeek-terror-raid-Paris-attacks-Salah-Abdeslam-Belgium-riot-police -------/\/\/ Brussels Capital of Belgium (officially Brussels-Capital Region) 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels French Community of Belgium Flemish Community + large non-European population + low birth rates de facto capital of European Union hosting European Union institutions (one of three, incl. Luxembourg & Strasbourg) location of: HQ - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Benelux secretariat historically Dutch speaking shift to French late 1800s onwards 'official' majority language:  French -------/\/\/ Gatestone Institute 2012 Belgium Will Become an Islamic State "The rise of the Islam Party comes amid a burgeoning Muslim population in the Belgian capital. Muslims now make up one-quarter of the population of Brussels, according to a book recently published by the Catholic University of Leuven, the top Dutch-language university in Belgium." "In real terms, the number of Muslims in Brussels -- where half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live --- has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled "Capital of Europe" is now the most Islamic city in Europe." source: Gatestone Institute 2012 http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3442/belgium-islamic-state ---------------------- ----------------------   COMMENT No surprise here. The politicians that have made decades worth of moronic decisions are responsible for this. Europe had better: 1)  Put its police and what's left of its military on steroids, asap. 2) If there's any sense of self-preservation left in Europe, all of Europe's heirs should immediately be conscripted as a civil force, armed and fully trained for urban warfare. European authorities need to recognise that they've lost control of the their nations. Where there's no-go zones and non-indigenous inhabitants of those regions violently challenge the police and even the military forces of the nations they have been permitted to occupy, it's time to wake up. European people need to be trained to defend themselves and their nations. And the morons that have spent decades facilitating the destruction of their own nations need to take immediate steps towards reversal.

Near-Enough Beef Rendang

The Kitchen Project:  Beef Rendang Served ... Click Image to Enlarge On the way ... Rendang Parts Assembly Right-Click Select:  Open Link in New Tab Use Magnifier to Enlarge ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT Mission Beef Rendang temporarily suspended my 'autistic' time-wasting online-absorption ... and got me out of the house for once. It's been ages since I've shopped for anything. Don't really miss it.  But at least it seemed really quiet at the shops and on the roads.  Big plus. The cost of things at the supermarket is a shock: a single stick of lemongrass, a lime, a piece of ginger, & some fresh coriander adds up very quickly. The 'international' section of the supermarket was unimpressive, although I at least got my jar of lime leaves in case I couldn't find fresh at the produce end of the supermarket (I couldn't).  And I couldn't be bothered driving to an alternate supermarket, where I'm pretty sure they stock this. As it is, I had to make two trips to get all the ingredients I needed. Anyway, was saved by a reasonably close Asian grocery, where I managed to get my shrimp paste & frozen products: galangal & tumeric roots (no tumeric leaves ... but I'm good for other kinds of leaves, there). Fresh galangal & tumeric would have been heaps better, but this was sort of impromptu.  So there's a limit to how widely I research and travel.  Just wanted the job done, on a near-enough basis, before maybe fussing about getting it 'right' somewhere down the track ... after I've had some shots at playing around with the curry. Fresh produce market shopping might be the go down the track, for what I think I'll need.  Bulk-buying & DIY freezing is the plan.  Couldn't be stuffed making special trips on a per curry basis, as it's not handy and I don't like crowds.  Frozen will have to do. I've watched a series of Rendang preparation videos and have gone with an Alvin,  Karen & Malaysian lady hybrid. Bit of a laugh checking out the online comments, where people argue over the origins of the dish.  The dish is a traditional Indonesian one, I think.  I liked all three videos and have pinched ideas from all, and kind of made it up along the way, by using these as a guide.   Although nobody uses coriander stalks, I've thrown some into my blend -- simply because I had some on-hand (preparing the smashed cucumber, lime & coriander salad).  Normally I freeze the stalks & roots for throwing into my green curries, but I felt like throwing the few I had into this batch. Shrimp paste is quite strong-smelling ... hope I didn't get carried away with the amount I used (I think I might have, although the flavour of the curry is OK, so far). Lucky I got a fresh shrimp paste.  The long-forgotten one we had in the refrigerator was well out of date. Would recommend rubber gloves for anyone sensitive to chillies.  Found my hands burning after handling the dry chillies.  Oddly, I was also coughing.  Not sure why.  Don't think I could handle a capsicum spray ... LOL. The cut of meat I've used must be a tough one.  But, as  I went a bit overboard with the coconut cream and the water, it's no problem.  I can cook the additional liquid right down and tenderise the meat at the same time. Like preparing curries.  Easy.   No fuss.   And you can make huge batches that you can freeze, so you have multiple meals. That's about it ... fingers crossed, hoping it turns out OK. If this is any good, it will go on my curries list. Result: OMG!  Really yummy! Getting whinges that there's something in there not 'nice' tasting ... but I love it. Maybe less chillies next time.  I always get carried away with the chillies. This is good. Food prep can be fun, but it's also a sort of thankless task ... and it leads to nothing but weight gain. Meals are eaten and then promptly forgotten.  Countless meals and countless hours for nothing, really.   Maybe there's something to be said for take-aways. * x1 meal for two set aside for freezing

Steve Kangas - Timeline of CIA Atrocities

A Timeline of CIA Atrocities By Steve Kangas http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html Steve Kangas Steven Robert Esh d. 1999 journalist political activist -- worked for US military intel until 1986 -- critical of US overclass & of CIA web page: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/ death:  firearm 39th floor office of:  Richard Mellon Scaife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kangas -------/\/\/ ---------------------- ---------------------- -------/\/\/ Found this when I was checking out the CIA in Guatemala in 1954. Thought the brief list might be interesting. Read about this guy some time ago, but I'd forgotten all about him. The story didn't make much sense to me (as in, the behaviour didn't make sense) when I first read it.

The Kitchen

The Kitchen #KitchenFail Binned ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT We're in hysterics over my improvised donuts or fritters. They were like mini oil sponges and impossible to eat. Disgusting.  Like eating an oil spill disaster. But very funny. Guess desserts need to be precise. Next project:  Beef Rendang This could end badly. Ingredients a pain to get hold of, so it could involve deciding on a few substitutes ... and I've never made this one before. This looks good, but I was hoping to get away with slow cooker method ... which probably won't give the same result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfDJR9wo2Cw This one also looks appealing & somewhat easier ... I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v88CVMgsnNs Well, it looks like I won't be making this unless I can find tumeric leaf and galangal.

Naomi Klein 'The Shock Doctrine' - El Modelo is Finito & Neo-Liberalism Sucks

Transcript: [confirm audio, for quotation purposes] [transcript directly below via Big Think channel YouTube - LINK] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKTmwu3ynOY Naomi Klein on Global Neoliberalism Published on 23 Apr 2012 Naomi Klein on the end of "El Modelo" Question: Why did you write The Shock Doctrine? Naomi Klein: It came out of reporting that I was doing in Iraq after the invasion the first year of occupation. But I guess it dates back earlier than that. I happen to have been in Argentina making a documentary film when the war in Iraq began. And it was a really amazing time to be in Latin America. This was 2002, 2003. And this was, I guess, the beginning of what we now think of as this pink tide that has swept Latin America. But it was a moment in Latin American history -- certainly a moment in Argentinian history -- where the economic model that Latin Americans call neo-Liberalism, Americans call the free market. But these policies of privatization; free trade . . . the so-called free trade deregulation in the interest of corporations; deep cuts to social spending; healthcare and education cuts; things like that, in Argentina they actually just call this "el modelo" -- the model. Everybody knows what the model is. It's the so-called Washington Consensus. It's the policies that have been imposed on Latin America first through military dictatorships, then as conditions attached to loans that were needed during economic crises . . . the so-called "debt crisis" of the 1980s. When I was in Argentina the model was collapsing, and Argentinians overthrew five presidents in three weeks. So it was this moment of incredible tumult and political excitement because people were trying to figure out what would come next. But it went beyond Argentina. In Bolivia they hadn't yet elected Evo Morales, but they had these huge protests against water privatization. And Bechtel had just been thrown out of Bolivia. And in Brazil they had just elected Lula. And of course Chavez was already in power in Venezuela, but he had successfully overcome a coup attempt. He had been brought back to power. So there were all of these things going on in Latin America that were all connected in this rejection of this economic model. So to be in Latin America when the invasion of Iraq began was a really unique vantage point from which to watch the war. I'm very grateful to have had that experience to have been able to watch that through the eyes of my Latin American friends who saw the war so differently from . . . from the way it was seen, I think, by so many of us in North America. They saw a real connection between their rejection of these economic policies and the fact that the same economic program was being imposed in Iraq through tremendous violence. And you really saw and felt those connections in Latin America. You know Bechtel just thrown out of Bolivia suddenly shows up in Baghdad with the exclusive contract to rebuild their water system. And what it felt like was that . . . was that there was a change going on; that this model that had been imposed coercively though peacefully through the International Monetary Fund, through the World Bank, through the World Trade Organization -- that that wasn't working anymore. People were rejecting it that the legacy of these policies . . . the legacy of inequality was so dramatic that the sales pitch of "Just wait for the trickledown" wasn't working anymore. And so now there was this new phase. And it wasn't even asking, and it wasn't negotiating. It was just imposing through raw violence. And that's where I came up with the thesis for the book, which is we have entered this new phase that I'm calling "disaster capitalism"; or The Shock Doctrine using a shock -- in this case the shock and awe invasion of Iraq -- to impose what economists call "economic shock therapy". So I think it was . . . It was definitely that experience of seeing it from Latin America -- a continent in revolt against these policies -- that made it easier to identify this as a new phase. And once I identified that I started to see these patterns recurring. After the Asian tsunami there was a very similar push to use the shock of that natural disaster to push through, once again, these same policies. Water privatization, electricity privatization, labor market [flexibilisation]..., displacing poor people on the coasts with hotel developers. So a sort of social re-engineering of societies in the interest of corporations, which I think is what we've been doing under the banner of free trade. But now it's under the banner of post-disaster reconstruction. [above transcript, via Big Think channel YouTube - LINK] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKTmwu3ynOY -------/\/\/ Continued: Further (DIY) transcript beginning at 4:48 [of 14:24]  [confirm audio, for quotation purposes] 4:47 - Is shock necessary for imposing neo-liberal economic policies? Naomi Klein Well, if we look at the history of the advancement of this really quite radical economic model of privatising key state assets, deep cuts to these key social spending areas that people tend to protect, like healthcare and eduction, or these reform to labour laws that take away protections, take away pensions, take away the safety net. What we know is that when politicians try to do this during normal circumstances, people tend to organise and resist, because they like their healthcare systems and they actually like, you know, having labour protections. So the use of crisis for political ends has been a part of the advancement of this ideology in many lesser ways. You know, in my country -- in Canada -- we have a public healthcare system, we have a pretty strong social safety net. This is really how we distinguish ourselves from the United States. We lost a lot of these protections in the mid-1990s.  Not because the Canadians wanted to.  In fact they had just elected a Liberal government that ran on the platform slogan "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs."  But we ended up getting an austerity budget with deep cuts to a lot of the social protections because there was a debt crisis.  That's another kind of a shock, and it was really hyped in the media.  If we think back, it's true in the United States, as well, this endless rhetoric that, you know, our countries are going to go bankrupt unless we do deep, deep, welfare reform or reform of unemployment insurance. So, what I do in The Shock Doctrine is that I take another look at 35 years of history in which this economic model has swept the globe, from former Eastern bloc countries, China, Latin America, Africa, and North America.  And I look at how crisis -- various different kinds of crises have facilitated the advancement of this ideology -- have prepared the ground. What I'm arguing in the book is that the shocks are getting bigger, that a debt crisis no longer does the trick, that a hyperinflation crisis isn't enough to disorient a whole society ... or convince them to accept their bitter medicine; that there needs to be something more disorienting and, so, what we are seeing now is that bigger shocks are being harnessed. But I do believe that crisis is required to rationalise policies that would be rejected under normal circumstances. It's not a secret that people do protect those policies that make their lives easier. 7:34 How do you reconcile this with China & India's development? Naomi Klein: My argument is not that no-one benefits. My argument is that the legacy of this economic system is tremendous inequality. It's an opening up of a gap -- a gaping gap -- between the haves and the have nots. And that's certainly the case in China.  That's certainly the case in India.  And in both countries, you have governments that have identified inequality as their greatest political challenges to, what the Chinese call, 'social stability'; because when you have such a dramatic gap between a peasant still living on $1 a day and the super rich, who are part of the Davos stratosphere, it creates a tremendous amount of resentment and instability within a country.  So, in China, they're seeing unprecedented levels of protest for this era, that had 87,000 [comment:  what?  error?  that's abt. 280 a day] protests a year ... starting in 2005 and the number of protests have been going up and up, which has required more and more surveillance, more and more repression, particularly in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, a lot of concern about this instability. So, I think the difficulty, really, about this economic model of free trade is generalising the idea that you can just talk about 'Is it good for China?' or 'Is it good for India?' It's definitely --  it's good for a lot of people in India, it's good for a lot of people in China. It's brutal for a lot of people in both of those countries, because part of these policies require displacement in the name of mega-projects, in the name of building a new export processing zone. So a huge part of this economic model requires displacing millions of people from where they live. So then they become migrants.   Where do they go?  Well, they go to the cities first and move to the slums. And, so, the flip side of this economic model of the sort of dazzling version where the world is flat is the explosion of slum dwellers, with the projections that one in three people in the world will be living in slums within the next decade. So, you really can't make these generalisations.  And that's what we know from having lived with these economic policies now for some three decades.  I think in the early stages of this economic transformation, it was possible to just use the language of 'GDP', you know, 'growth' is going to 'trickle-down', and all the promises that were a part of the first phase of this expansion.  But now you have all these parts of the world that have actually tried it.  Right? And the legacy in Latin America is this legacy of following the rules. In countries like Argentina, which were held up as the model students of the 1990s -- the model students of the International Monetary Fund --  and then so much inequality, so much capital flight, that 60% of the population fell into poverty. So that's why the model's in crisis:  the model's in crisis because people have a track record and they can measure the rhetoric against the reality. 10:59 - What system works? Naomi Klein: I think that mixed economies work better than a fundamentalist market system. I'm not a utopian and I don't believe it's perfect:  there's still going to be violence, there's still going to be repression, there's still going to be poor people -- but acceptable to UN measures of standard of living. What we see is that countries which have a mixed economy -- ie have markets, so that people are able to go shopping, so I'm not talking about a totalitarian Communist state -- but also have social protections that identify areas that are too important to leave to the market, whether it's education, healthcare -- the minimal standards of life that everybody must have. There are countries that really commit themselves to that vision of a mixed economy. The Scandinavian countries are the obvious example. Canada, before this restructuring that I'm referring to, in the 1990s was another. But it's certainly, in comparison to the United States and Britain, it continues to be. Germany as well, before their transformation.  I mean, by UN rankings, these are the best countries in the world to live in. And the countries that are trying to resist liberalism -- this economic model -- are being vilified as tyrannical, Communist and all the ways that Hugo Chavez is being vilified right now in the United States.  If you actually look what the economic program is, it's pretty Keynesian.  And it's really just a recovering of some of these principles that the state can have a role in the redistribution of wealth. And these ideas are treated as very radical, when they're coming from poorer countries that have traditionally played an economic role of straight extraction ... they've just straight supplied, whether raw resources, labour.  And that's a very profitable relationship for a North American and European multinational, so when those countries challenge that and say, "Actually, we'd like an economic system more like yours," right, then there's tremendous push-back. But, historically, if we follow the US military coups -- the CIA backed coups, starting with Mosaddegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala -- you have this pattern of presenting developing world leaders as much more radical than they actually are. Mosaddegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala (these were the first two CIA coups in 1953 and 1954):  they were economic nationalists who were trying to build mixed economies and their attempts to build those mixed economies stepped on the toes of some powerful multinationals. In the case of Mosaddegh, it was BP, and in the case of Arbenz, it was the United Fruit Company. That is actually what led to the blow-back. -- 14:15 - end audio -- -------/\/\/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat Bechtel Bechtel Corporation -- largest construction and civil engineering company in USA -- ranking as 4th-largest privately owned company in USA -- HQ, San Francisco -- f. 1898, Warren A. Bechtel, construction of railroads w. team of mules -- series of railroad contracts during the early 1900s -- incorporated 1925, as leading construction company Western USA -- worked w/ California Standard Oil Company building pipelines & refineries -- 1931 - joined consortium contractors Hoover Dam - won bid. -- Warren Bechtel died unexpectedly in Moscow on business 1933. -- Hoover dam was finished 1935, Bechtel's first megaproject -- got rich building WWII x60 cargo ships with no prior cargo experience -- worked pipeline Yukon to Alaska for US Dept. of War -- expanded abroad; turnkey projects (concept pioneered by Stephen Bechtel -- 1940 Venezuela Mene Grande pipeline - first project abroad -- 1947 - Trans-Arabian Pipeline, Saudi Arabia + Jordan + Syria, ending Lebanon -- expansion 1940s Middle East -- 1949 - working w. nuclear power:  Experimental Breeder Reactor I Idaho -- built Dresden Generation Station, first commercial nuke for Illinois 1957 -- Trans Mountain Pipeline in 1952 (Canada) -- preliminary study for the English Channel (1957) -- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system (1959) -- 1960s & 1970s, Bechtel involved in constructing 40% USA nuke plants -- 1972 - Bechtel involved in abt. 20% of all US new power-generating capacity -- by end 1970s moved from nukes construction to nukes clean-up projects -- clean-ups incl. Three Mile Island 1979 -- built the Ankara-Gerede Motorway in Turkey (part network of roads Europe & Turkey) -- project management:  undersea tunnel linking the UK and France (Channel Tunnel) -- recession 1980 ->> goes environmental clean-up + alternative energy projects -- Gulf war, Bechtel - extinguishing oil well fires in Kuwait in 1991 -- part of rebuild the infrastructure of Kuwait -- numerous other big projects abroad -- Bolivia:   2000, after a protest against water prices being raised by Bechtel owned co. -- Bechtel owned company pulls out of Bolivia & sues for $25 million in losses -- settled claim 2006 for $0.30 GOOD LUCK DOING THAT UNDER THE AMERICAN FREE TRADE CORPORATE SLAVE GIVE UP NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AGREEMENTS - NO CHANCE -- 2003, Bechtel won a $680 million contract -- rebuilding infrastructure in Iraq for U.S. Agency for International Development WHAT A RORT -- ILLEGALLY DESTROY THE COUNTRY & THEN GIVE U.S. COMPANIES CONTRACTS TO REBUILD     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKTmwu3ynOY ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT This was a random video selection. Deregulated trade sounds:  crap. Just as I thought, everyone will be in slums. Why don't governments make the bulk of capital non-transferrable, to prevent companies starving the poor when they decide they've had enough of bleeding one location, in preference for bleeding another for greater profit?   India and China are creating a massive gap between the wealthy and poor, and they're supposed to be socialists of some kind.  That's just not right.  Everyone should suffer equally.  ;)  No, I mean it.  :) America's a complete write-off and an appalling disgrace.  It's oligarchs' paradise with no safety nets and no anything, but modern-day slavery at an Amazon warehouse.   Nations that enslave their populations have no right to lecture the world on human rights, democracy, freedom, women's rights or whatever else these oligarch-serving politicians and their oligarch-funded NGO echo-chambers use as pretexts to open new slave markets abroad. The US masses are beyond help.  It must be some amazing kind of brainwashing that has kept the masses down, self-flagellating ... wearing a 'kick me' sign, begging to remain oligarch-enslaved.  That's quite an education and media indoctrination achievement.  Wow.  I'm impressed. I've not read Klein's book.  I'm just ranting whatever comes to mind. Once the US free trade agreements are signed up, we're all f*cked ... and we can look forward to living in slums.