Recession Revolutions Thread Part II: Arabia and Beyond

[WarshipArc]

^
Its good to see that the puppeteer from Genesis's "Land of Confusion" can still get work in this day and age.

[asm00200]

Remember the Arab league's request of allowing observers into Syria? The first time there was no agreement because the Syrian regime made some conditions that would literally make the observers useless.

Now, they say they're cool with allowing observers in the country, but ,before that, they have three conditions:

1) The Syrian government would like the signing of the protocol between the League and the [Syrian government] to take place in Damascus based on the Arab Action plan that was agreed on in Doha on 30/10/2011.

2) All decisions made by the League’s council in the absence of Syria, including the suspension of Syria’s membership and the issuing of sanctions by the ministerial committee and the ministerial councils against Syria, will be considered null at the time of the signing of the protocol between the two parties.

3) Following the signing of the protocol, the Secretary General of the League will notify the UN Secretary General in a written letter that includes the agreement and the positive results that have been reached, and will ask him [the UN Secretary General] to distribute the letter to the president and members of the Security Council and the member states as an official document.

The AL has not yet made any official statement.

[Ubiq]

The Arab League's official statement ought to be some variation on "Kiss our ass."

I mean, look at this.

First of all, their representatives have to go to Damascus to sign a protocol based on the Arab Action Plan from Doha. It's not the actual Action Plan from the way this is phrased, but something based on it. Presumably in such a way to make it acceptable to the Syrian Government.

Secondly, anything that the Arab League has done lately would be considered null and void, which is basically Syria saying "The Arab League's actions without us are illegitemate."

And finally, the best part is the Arab League gets to write a letter to the UN pointing out how superspecialawesome Syria is at negotiating and how much the Arab Lague sucks without them. This letter is going to be passed around the Security Council presumably so that Syria's bros China and Russia can wave it in the face of the United States before doing the Safety Dance in celebration.

[Monkey King]

I keep forgetting that all this massiveness and tectonic shift was literally caused by one 27 year old guy killing himself out of protest and despair.

[Outerspec]

A new thread, cool. Unfortunately I was falling way behind in the last one. My own fault.

[asm00200]

The Arab League's official statement ought to be some variation on "Kiss our ass."

I mean, look at this.First of all, their representatives have to go to Damascus to sign a protocol based on the Arab Action Plan from Doha. It's not the actual Action Plan from the way this is phrased, but something based on it. Presumably in such a way to make it acceptable to the Syrian Government.

Secondly, anything that the Arab League has done lately would be considered null and void, which is basically Syria saying "The Arab League's actions without us are illegitemate."

And finally, the best part is the Arab League gets to write a letter to the UN pointing out how superspecialawesome Syria is at negotiating and how much the Arab Lague sucks without them. This letter is going to be passed around the Security Council presumably so that Syria's bros China and Russia can wave it in the face of the United States before doing the Safety Dance in celebration.

But does a statement like that needs more than 2 days to make? Or maybe they want to make it as if they thought hard about it? Hmmmm.

Oh, and Assad had an interview with ABC in which he said that "I don't own them (the army). I'm president. I don't own the country, so they're not my forces."

Say, Assad! What the fuck do you do exactly?

And: "There's a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials. There is a big difference."

The interview is gonna be aired today.

[Monkey King]

Russia is getting interesting all of a sudden.
Apparently there could be a masssssive protest on Saturday.
And Gorbachev just called for a new vote.
Confirmed tampering by the way.

[asm00200]

But even if they made a new vote, will it effect Putin's party's win or just the number of seats they have in the parliament?

[Ubiq]

Even with the tampering, Putin's United Russia is reduced to a simple majority and no longer has the numbers that have let him change the Russian Constitution to do whatever he feels like. Without the tampering, it's doubtful he even has a majority at all even as a coalition government.

And the rigging is pretty considerable. There are scans where the votes per party are totalled by an election official after the polls closed at one location in Moscow.

Here are the numbers from the polling place in question.

CPRF - 285 - Communist Party
United Russia - 271 - This is Putin's Party.
Just Russia - 218
Yabloko - 167
LDPR - 133 - Zhironovsky's Party that always votes with United Russia.
Right Cause - 16
Patriots of Russia - 15

I don't know anything about the rest of those parties.

When the results were announced later by the Central Electoral Committee, this is what came out:

United Russia - 662
CPRF - 295
LDPR - 133 - No change.
Just Russia - 118 - Lost one hundred votes.
Yabloko - 67 - Lost one hundred votes.
Right Cause - 16
Patriots of Russia - none. - Lost fifteen votes.

So United Russia managed to gain 391 votes between the time that polls ended and the results were announced. Exit polls, which admittedly not always accurate, pegged support for United Russia in Moscow at 27% while the "actual" results were twenty points higher. There's also the matter of journalists finding ballot boxes with United Russia marked on them before voting even began.

[Dryish]

People are actually coming out onto the streets in Russia, angry with the massively fraudulent election results. Good luck trying to weasel out of this with empty promises, United Russia. Without oil's prices rising, you won't be able to take advantage of the economic growth that has kept people on your side anymore.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe...755418485.html

[Cyan D. Funk]

Russia suddenly notices it's vicious cycle.

[Dryish]

It's a pity that the elections were held this late. If it wasn't so darn cold out there, we'd have more people demanding changes on the streets..

Then again, when has snow ever stopped Russians from advocating changes in power?

[Ubiq]

It's a pity that the elections were held this late.

Historically speaking, November isn't really a great time for Russians to decide things about their political future.

So far, the protests have attracted decent sized crowds that are, if I recall correctly, larger than some people were predicting in the media.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/10/wo...html?hpt=hp_t1

Come on, 2011, you only have three weeks left, make them count.

[Monkey King]

2012 is going to be more more more, Zimbabwe is apparently holding a presidential election next year 8D

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

And than another Iranian preisdential election in 2013

[Cyan D. Funk]

So, projected chopping block for 2012:

- Putin
- Mugabe
- Lukashenko
- Chavez

[Smudger]

The protests in Russia aren't good for my nerves.

I just see the people kicking off over the voting fiasco resulting in the military being used to counter any violence. From there we see the shit hit the fan...

[Mr. Truth]

In other news, the Tunisians have drafted up a new provisional constitution.
I'm a bit concerned about the rule stating that presidents have to be Muslim, but I've heard that Tunisians are pretty uniformly Muslim though.

[Mugiwara_no_Ice]

I like what's happening in Russia right now. 2011 isn't over yet.

[No Maam]

So, projected chopping block for 2012:

- Putin
- Mugabe
- Lukashenko
- Chavez

I notice a severe lack of Teodoro Obiang on that list.

I mean this is the guy who said in an interview

"What right does the opposition have to criticize the actions of a government?"

[Dryish]

I like what's happening in Russia right now. 2011 isn't over yet.

To be honest, unless more and more people start massing on the streets, I can't see anything radical happening in Russia quite yet. Putin and Medvedev could just try to promise closer collaboration with the other parties and somehow weasel their way out of this. The high elite is not ready for big changes yet, and the people are not demanding a lot right now. Putin's people even announced they wouldn't do anything about the election results, and we don't see things getting out of control. People on the streets is a good sign - ten years ago that would not have been possible - but is it enough? Not necessarily.

The situation may very well change in the near future, though. This farce has made the upcoming presidential elections much more interesting to follow, if nothing else. Russian's are starting to become more and more aware of the poor shape their nation is in. That will come to trigger something in time.