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Thread: The Cosmic Emporium

  1. #5116
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    Just a quick

    THANK YOU

    TO GIO
    To Malcolm
    To Vern
    TO DT
    To Elen

    and the numerous members who care to keep OUR community rolling along...

    It means to me a LOT that people here care, the forum, the membership is personal and as well sharing with the Public that reads this..

    We care and I think our Agenda is minimum compared to other's out there, Vern would call it "papa's" site. I don't call it papa's... I call this a site where folks want to speak out without fear of being censored, without fear of being slammed or cut-off for being themselves, and speaki ng out how they feel without fear of offending "papa"...

    We have our own views and we respect Malcom and Aragorn and the rest of the mods, and membership, and of course the reading Public..

    We'll try to share what we believe in, what we feel is passion to us. And we will bring what our Souls feel is good to share with the community..

    Gio, thanks my dear friend for sticking with it all these years. As an inspiration you most definitely have touched my heart and Soul..

    -- Bob

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  3. #5117
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    Love

    Thanks Bob ...


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  5. #5118
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    Wink

    And speaking of get/becoming closer in knowing ...

    Boris Johnson: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver



    John Oliver explains how Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, has succeeded – not despite
    his bumbling persona, but often because of it.

    Published on Jul 28, 2019

    22:02 minutes


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  7. #5119
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    Thumbs Up

    A reminder ...

    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    #Post 1

    Greetings Everyone,

    Welcome to my new 24/7 open share musing emporium thread ...

    It is an open thread and do invite all members to share and post here ...

    ♪ So Lets Make Some Beautiful Music Together Here ♪




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  9. #5120
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    Will ...

    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    And speaking of lodging thingy's into your head ...


    Musical Mind Control, The Possession Of Billie Eilish & Black Goo with Ryan Gable

    The Kev Baker Show

    'A Sunday night group discussion.'


    Streamed live 7/28/2019

    2:09:20 minutes


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  11. #5121
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    Question

    In the news ...



    Under Brazil’s Far Right Leader, Amazon Protections Slashed and Forests Fall



    The Amazon rain forest in Para State, Brazil. Deforestation is increasing in the country, but the current government has reduced enforcement of protective laws.

    By Letícia Casado and Ernesto Londoño

    July 28, 2019

    BRASÍLIA — The destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation’s new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching and mining.

    Protecting the Amazon was at the heart of Brazil’s environmental policy for much of the past two decades. At one point, Brazil’s success in slowing the deforestation rate made it an international example of conservation and the effort to fight climate change.

    But with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist who has been fined personally for violating environmental regulations, Brazil has changed course substantially, retreating from the efforts it once made to slow global warming by preserving the world’s largest rain forest.

    While campaigning for president last year, Mr. Bolsonaro declared that Brazil’s vast protected lands were an obstacle to economic growth and promised to open them up to commercial exploitation.
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    Seven months into his term, that is already happening.

    Brazil’s part of the Amazon has lost more than 1,330 square miles of forest cover since Mr. Bolsonaro took office in January, a 39 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the government agency that tracks deforestation.

    In June alone, when the cooler, drier season began and cutting trees became easier, the deforestation rate rose drastically, with roughly 80 percent more forest cover lost than in June of last year.

    The deforestation of the Amazon is spiking as Mr. Bolsonaro’s government pulls back on enforcement measures like fines, warnings and the seizure or destruction of illegal equipment in protected areas.

    A New York Times analysis of public records found that such enforcement actions by Brazil’s main environmental agency fell by 20 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018. The drop means that vast stretches of the rain forest can be torn down with less resistance from the nation’s authorities.


    President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, right, standing with Ricardo Salles, the environment minister.

    The two trends — the increase in deforestation and the government’s increasing reluctance to confront illegal activity — is alarming researchers, environmentalists and former officials who contend that Mr. Bolsonaro’s tenure could lead to staggering losses of one of the world’s most important resources.

    “We’re facing the risk of runaway deforestation in the Amazon,” eight former environment ministers in Brazil wrote in a joint letter in May, arguing that Brazil needed to strengthen its environmental protection measures, not weaken them.

    Mr. Bolsonaro has dismissed the new data on deforestation, calling his own government’s figures “lies” — an assertion experts called baseless. During a gathering with international journalists last week, the president called the preoccupation with the Amazon a form of “environmental psychosis” and argued that its use should not concern outsiders.

    “The Amazon is ours, not yours,” he told a European journalist.

    The Bolsonaro government’s stance has drawn sharp criticism from European leaders, injecting an irritant to a trade deal struck last month between the European Union and a bloc of four South American countries, including Brazil.

    During a recent visit, Germany’s minister of economic cooperation and development, Gerd Müller, called protecting the Amazon a global imperative, especially given the rain forest’s vital role in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, essential to the effort to slow global warming. And when trees are cut, burned or bulldozed, carbon dioxide goes directly back into the atmosphere.

    Germany and Norway help finance a $1.3 billion Amazon conservation fund, but the Bolsonaro administration has questioned its effectiveness, raising the possibility that the effort could be shut down.

    “Without tropical rain forests, there’s no solving the climate” issue, Mr. Müller said during an event in São Paulo.

    During the campaign, Mr. Bolsonaro promised to do away with the ministry of the environment altogether. He ultimately scrapped the plan under pressure from the nation’s agriculture sector, which feared the move would incite a boycott of Brazilian products.


    Deforestation in the Western Amazon region of Brazil.

    A few weeks before his inauguration, Brazil abruptly pulled out of its commitment to host a global summit on climate change. Then, once he took office, Mr. Bolsonaro’s administration cut the main environmental agency’s budget by 24 percent, part of a broader cost savings across the government.

    He has denounced environmental fines as an “industry” that needs to be shut down. And his administration has said it plans to weaken the authority of environmental protection agents to burn vehicles and other equipment belonging to loggers and miners in protected areas.

    Mr. Bolsonaro has brushed off international criticism of his positions, arguing that calls to preserve large parts of Brazil are part of a global plot to hamper his country’s development. This month, he accused European leaders of pushing for stronger conservation of the Amazon because they hope to develop it themselves in the future.

    “Brazil is like a virgin that every pervert from the outside lusts for,” he said.

    Brazil had previously tried to portray itself as a leader in protecting the Amazon and fighting global warming. Between 2004 and 2012, the country created new conservation areas, increased monitoring and took away government credits from rural producers who were caught razing protected areas. This brought deforestation to the lowest level since record-keeping began.

    But it has suffered setbacks before. As the economy plunged into a recession in 2014, the country became more reliant on the agricultural commodities it produces — beef and soy, which are drivers of deforestation — and on the powerful rural lobby. Land clearing began to tick upward again.

    Mr. Bolsonaro has promised to do away with the remaining barriers to developing protected lands. He has also spoken derisively about the environmental agency’s enforcement work, which he has experienced firsthand.

    On Jan. 25, 2012, environmental agents intercepted a small fishing boat in an ecological reserve in Rio de Janeiro state that Mr. Bolsonaro, then a federal lawmaker, was aboard. He argued with the agents for about an hour and ignored their demands that he leave, said José Augusto Morelli, the agent in charge of the team.

    Mr. Bolsonaro refused to identify himself, Mr. Morelli said. But the agent took a photo of Mr. Bolsonaro, who was wearing white Speedo-like bathing suit.

    Mr. Bolsonaro never paid the fine, which was rescinded shortly after he was sworn in as president in January. In late March, Mr. Morelli was demoted, a decision he sees as a form of retaliation for the 2012 fine.

    Mr. Bolsonaro’s refusal to pay the fine is common. All but about 5 percent of environmental fines in Brazil are contested in court, a process that often drags on for several years.

    Now Mr. Bolsonaro’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, wants to create a mechanism that would give a government panel the discretion to lower or suspend environmental penalties, worrying former officials who say it would weaken enforcement even further.

    Mr. Salles, who did not respond to several requests for an interview, has acknowledged the shortcomings of the environmental enforcement agencies tasked with policing commercial activity in protected areas. But he has argued that the system had been hollowed out by previous governments.

    As for the environment, Mr. Salles has said that the government is prioritizing urban problems, like upgrading waste management and sewage treatment systems, which he said were in a “shameful” state.

    Other senior officials in Mr. Bolsonaro’s government have responded to the sharp rise in deforestation with a mix of denial and defensiveness.

    Taking a different approach, Mr. Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, took aim at what he called attempts from abroad to shape Brazil’s environmental policy.

    “We’re not naïve,” Mr. Lorenzoni said. “There’s a view out in the world, sponsored by nongovernmental organizations, that relativizes Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon.”

    But, he warned in a recent meeting with reporters: “Here’s a little message: ‘Don’t play around with us.’”


    Source & rederence links: nytimes.com

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  13. #5122
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    Rolling Eyes


    “It’s this new app—you put in your Social Security number, and it makes you look like a cat.”

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  17. #5124
    Administrator Aragorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    Hmm, there are some respectable names on that list.

    • Richard Dolan
    • Travis Walton
    • James Gililand
    • Linda Moulton Howe

    It is of course a shame that it once again smells like a gratuitous moneymaking adventure. At least they don't have Corey Goode, David Wilcock, Simon Parkes or George Noory among their speakers.
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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  19. #5125
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    Lightbulb

    Quote Originally posted by Aragorn View Post
    Hmm, there are some respectable names on that list.

    It is of course a shame that it once again smells like a gratuitous moneymaking adventure.
    Yes indeed a captive audience ...
    Undeniable Floating Opportunity ...

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  21. #5126
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    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    Yes indeed a captive audience ...
    Undeniable Floating Opportunity ...
    Floating on liquid assets.
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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    Last edited by Gio, 30th July 2019 at 21:31.

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  25. #5128
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    Question

    Reuben the Bulldog: What's In the Box?

    8:46 minutes


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  27. #5129
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    Thinking

    A serious look into ...

    Contact with Non-Human Intelligence with Robert Davis

    Robert Davis, PhD, is a retired professor of neuroscience at the State University of New York. He is author of The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe? and Life After Death: An Analysis of the Evidence.

    Here he describes the results of a survey of individuals who believe themselves to have experienced contact with non-human intelligence associated with unidentified aerial phenomena. Over 3,000 people responded to an in-depth survey. About 70% reported that their experiences had a positive impact in their life. About 25% reported that they had strong, waking memories of having been taken aboard a craft of some sort ...

    Host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980).

    (Recorded on February 1, 2019)
    1:02:53


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    Returning Topic

    Continuing ...

    ONE DAY IN MALTA | Tourist Heaven Or Hell?

    Gabriel Traveler


    Exploring the beautiful island nation of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. But is it too touristy for its own good?
    Published on Jul 30, 2019

    22:20 minutes



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