Tag Archives: soviet-union

African American Immigrants Were Given Red-Carpet Treatment In 1930′s Russia

Interesting… 1930′s African American Immigrants To Russia Lived The High Life Filmmakers and professors are now discovering and reporting about the lesser known crop of African Americans who left the US for the USSR back in the early 1930′s, and lived lives much more welcoming and successful than what was afforded to them back home. Via LATimes : Most of the African Americans who came to Russia were seeking a better life, desperate to flee the social inequality and Depression-era hardships that racked America at the time, said Allison Blakely, professor emeritus of history at Boston University who has written a book on the African American immigrants. “They were looking for a society where they could escape color prejudice and racism,” Blakely said. Today, fewer than 50 descendants of these African Americans are believed to still live in Russia. In all, their numbers in the former Soviet republics could be between 100 and 200, according to researchers. They have become footnotes to African American and Russian history, said Yelena Demikovsky, a New York-based Russian film director and researcher who is making a movie, “Black Russians — The Red Experience,” about the immigrants to the Soviet Union and their descendants. Officials actively recruited skilled foreign laborers and professionals, Blakely said. About 18,000 Americans answered the call to work in the 1930s, he said. Among them were several hundred African Americans who traveled to the Soviet Union, including dozens who lived there for “the good part of a decade,” Blakely said. The Soviets gave the African Americans red-carpet treatment, including fat paychecks, subsidized housing and free vacations. The experience of African Americans who traveled to or settled in Russia was overwhelmingly positive, descendants said. In turn, they made valuable contributions to Soviet society, said Blakely, the professor. Agricultural specialists helped devise different uses for materials, such as rope made from hemp. They also helped develop plant species that were cheaper to cultivate. Their contributions provided a boost to the Soviet economy. The lesser-known parts of our history are always so enlightening, aren’t they? LA Times

More:
African American Immigrants Were Given Red-Carpet Treatment In 1930′s Russia

The Blacklist Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: Moving On

The Blacklist will be ringing in the new year with a fresh slate. Yes, we’re talking about 2015 already because  The Blacklist Season 2 Episode 8 marked the 2014 finale of this strong NBC drama. Watch The Blacklist Season 2 Episode 8 Online The installment found Reddington working to find out who framed him for Berlin’s daughter’s death, while also investigating a bombing in the Soviet Union that killed 50 people. After a few twists and turns, we learned that Red’s associate Alan Fitch (Alan Alda) was actually behind the frame job. Technically, Fitch used people to do his dirty work because that’s how wealthy folks roll, but let there be no doubt: he’s the guilty party. This revelation prompted Berlin to kill Fitch… and Reddington to subsequently kill Berlin. And – bam ! – just like that, The Blacklist has dispensed of a major chunk of the plot from Seasons 1 and 2. And it’s done so in an organic, impressive manner. With the second half of The Blacklist Season 2 set to kick off on Super Bowl Sunday, we now know where things are going: Fitch’s group, known as The Fulcrum, will be going after Red. Meanwhile, Tom is on the loose. He’s more connected to Red than previously believed, as Lizzie couldn’t bring herself to kill her shady husband, which is at least true to her character. Lizzie shared a nice moment with Reddington toward the end of the hour that speaks volumes about how much closer they continue to grow. What did everyone else think of this episode? Does it leave you wanting more next year? A lot more? Go watch The Blacklist online via the video above in order to relive the fall finale and wonder exactly what may in store this February.

View original post here:
The Blacklist Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: Moving On

Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko Height Bio

Biography for Olga Kurylenko Born Olha Kostyantynivna Kurylenko 14 November 1979 (1979-11-14) Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Height 1.75 m Hair colour Dark brown Eye colour Green Olha Kostiantynivna Kurylenko (Ukrainian: Ольга Костянтинівна Куриленко, Russian: Ольга Константиновна Куриленко; born November 14, 1979) better known as Olga Kurylenko, is a Ukrainian actress and model. She is perhaps best known as the Bond girl, Camille Montes, in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Sola

View original post here:
Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko Height Bio

CNN’s Spitzer Twice Refers to START Treaty as Being With the Soviet Union

It seems that Eliot Spitzer's mind is still in the 1980s, as he twice stated on Thursday's Parker-Sptizer on CNN that the new START Treaty was with the Soviet Union. Spitzer trumpeted “the all-important START Treaty, that will finally cement a nuclear disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union ,” and then noted that the treaty would deal with the ” nuclear warheads that are pointed by the Soviet Union at us ” . The former New York governor and co-host Kathleen Parker led their 8 pm Eastern hour program with the current affairs of the lame-duck Congress. Spitzer highlighted the recent Gallup poll that found that only 13 percent of American approve of the job the legislative body is doing, and bemoaned how “for the past couple of hours, they have been spending your tax dollars in a debate about- and I don't know how else to say this- how they're going to debate.” After Parker replied that the House debate was specifically about extending the current tax rates, her CNN co-host focused his attention on the Senate and made his first gaffe about the START Treaty. Parker must not have caught his error, as she didn't correct him: [ Video embedded below the page break ] read more

Link:
CNN’s Spitzer Twice Refers to START Treaty as Being With the Soviet Union

11 reasons why the threat from Al Qaeda is not real

“All governments lie.” You can add to that great quote “and all newspapers lie, too.” -American journalist I. F. Stone. Knowing the truth matters in a democracy because without the truth citizens can’t make informed decisions about government policies that impact their lives. It is not possible to consciously answer fundamental societal questions like “should we go to war?” without a firm grasp of all the facts at hand. When independent journalists fail to provide the simple and straightforward facts to the public, they become complicit in government murder and fraud, and deserve even more ridicule than dishonest government officials and government-owned journalists. 11 Reasons Why The Threat From Al-Qaeda is Not Real Al-Qaeda is either one of these things, or it is a combination of them: a) a completely fake threat; the organization does not exist, b) an organization that exists in small numbers but was created by the CIA to serve a corrupt U.S. foreign policy, and remains a U.S. intelligence asset in the manufactured global war on terrorism, or c) a small organization that exists independently of the U.S. government but its strength and influence in the Middle East is exaggerated by radical policymakers and officials in Washington. Out of all three statements the first and second deserve the most serious attention because they are supported by the evidence listed below. #1. Radical American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was ordered to be assassinated by President Obama, met with top military officials at the Pentagon months after the 9/11 attacks. #2. CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed in June 2010 on ABC’s This Week that there are less than 100 Al-Qaeda members in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. #3. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), one of the world’s leading security think tanks, published a report this year which said that the threat of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban is exaggerated by Western policymakers. #4. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to the Los Angeles Times’s Patt Morrison in October 2010 that Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist. #5. The U.S. government created, and funded Islamic fundamentalism in the 1980s to be used to draw the Soviet Union into Afghanistan, and bleed it to death in a costly and unwinnable war. #6. Robin Cook, who served as a British MP for 22 years and as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001, wrote an article for the Guardian in July 2005, a month before his death, called “The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means.” #7. A BBC article from July 2004 called “Al-Qaeda’s origins and links” reveals that Osama Bin Laden was a CIA agent in the 1980s. #8. J. Michael Springmann, a 20 year foreign service official, and a former Consulate officer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has publicly stated for many years that the CIA brought over Muslim radicals to the United States for secret terrorist training. #9. Germany’s Der Spiegel’s published an article by Siegesmund von Ilsemann called “Arming the Middle East: The Checkered History of American Weapons Deals” in June 2007. The article backed up the reporting done by the BBC, and elsewhere that the United States government “supplied Afghan freedom fighters in the 1980s with money and arms for their struggle against occupying Soviet troops. One of the best customers for the CIA back then was Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden.” This account is only half-true. The CIA funded and trained a network of Muslim fighters not to liberate Afghanistan from corrupt Soviet influence, but to create havoc and instigate a Soviet invasion so that it would drain itself of blood and treasure. Once the objective of bringing down the Soviet Union was achieved, the stage was set for the United States and the West to invade Afghanistan and take advantage of the country’s vast resources, from oil to heroin. #10. Selig Harrison, a current member of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a former senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and an expert on South Asia, said in March 2001 at a conference called “Terrorism and Regional Security: Managing the Challenges in Asia,” that the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI helped create the backward and tyrannical Taliban. #11. The September 11, 2001 attacks, which serve as the basis for America’s wars in the Middle East, were committed by the United States government with assistance from the government of Israel. This is an indisputable fact added by: maasanova

Open Thread: America Is Becoming The Soviet Union

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: America is becoming the Soviet Union! Is he right? 

See the rest here:
Open Thread: America Is Becoming The Soviet Union

DSM-V – Psychiatry Enters Dangerous Territory – Inventing Disorders Again

Written by Bruce Walker Thursday, 20 May 2010 15:40 The new fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association may define several new psychiatric disorders. Some of these do not sound like varieties of mental illness at all, but rather opinions and attitudes. What would “oppositional defiant disorder,” for example, represent? According to the new edition of the Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, this would include those who have “negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures.” Other varieties of newly created mental illnesses included being antisocial, arrogant, or cynical. Those familiar with psychiatry in the Soviet Union will cringe at this sort of neo-psychiatry. Authority, for example, may often be wrong in a society. The right to contend with authority has long been considered a primary right of a free people. Soviet psychiatrists, however, institutionalized and “treated” those who defied Soviet authority, which was considered, per se, a variety of mental illness. Cynicism is often the most sensible attitude of those who find government and politics to be a cesspool of corruption. The presumption that society and government are functioning properly, which is implicit in these new psychiatric “disorders,” looks very Orwellian. Only the dullest mind, or the most sheepish people, can look at our tax code, our school system, our immigration policies, and our foreign policy and see only goodness and wisdom. Psychiatric opinions can have a dramatic impact upon court rulings. Laws are often built around those opinions: the right to bear arms, for example, is denied to those who have a history of mental illness. What if that mental illness is defined as a profound distrust of government in America? Then government would have the right to disarm those who saw something very wrong in our political system. Many parents already worry about the over-medication of children, who may well be the first group diagnosed under these new standards. Eccentric children have often been the greatest men in history. Mozart, for example, was hyperactive (by today’s standards) and approached music differently than conventional composers did. Did he have a mental illness? Or was he rather, as the Pope who knew him said, “Amadeus” — Beloved of God? How about Capablanca, the greatest child chess prodigy in history? Was he mentally ill? Both of those men led relatively conventional lives, but what about men like Newton and Beethoven, who were considered to be misanthropic. Was this mental illness, which must be treated with therapy and drugs? Or was it, rather, the expected response of geniuses living among men of much weaker minds? Treating such unique men with drugs and therapy might deprive mankind of its greatest innovators and analysts. The politics of collectivism permeates every aspect of modern life. Individuality, uniqueness, privacy, and separation are inherent rights of free men. These are also anathema to collectivism, which views us all as interchangeable parts of a vast, impersonal, statist machine. Psychiatry which does not account for the particular nature of each of us is not medicine and it is not science: it is simply collectivism lathered on something called medical science. http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/health-care/3586-psychiatry-enter… added by: PepsiJuror

Irving R. Levine, International Man of Mystery

Former NBC News reporter Irving R. Levine , who died last year, was a hilariously nerdy TV presence: A soft-spoken, bow-tied mensch

Originally posted here:
Irving R. Levine, International Man of Mystery

Jessica Simpson’s Breasts Need A Hand

Taking a break from her busy schedule of getting dumped and making movies that only get released in break away republics of the former Soviet Union, Jessica Simpson was spotted on the runway at the Ozlem Suer fashion show in Paris, France today. This must have been a fashion show for plus sized women because Jessica hasn’t exactly been the slimmest as of late, not to mention that there’s something strange going on in the neighborhood of her boobs.

See more here:
Jessica Simpson’s Breasts Need A Hand

HOME (Trailer)

In 200000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it’s too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth’s riches and change its patterns of consumption. More than a movie, HOME will be a major event all over the globe : for the first time ever, a film will be released on the same day in over 50 …

http://www.youtube.com/v/G8IozVfph7I&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata

Go here to see the original:
HOME (Trailer)