Comedian Russell Brand on "Mind Shift" (video)

Xochitl, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Daniel Pinchbeck ("Mind Shift," Gaiam TV)

Brand with the Dalai Lama

(GaiamTV) Daniel Pinchbeck interviews comedian and actor Russell Brand ("Messiah Complex"), who alludes to ex-wife Katy Perry when he gently jokes about our Reptilian Overlords, whom he laughs about as being just another frequency like us. Also in this episode, feminist and activist Eve Ensler ("V-Day," "Vagina Monologues") brings progressive momentum to the show promoting kindness and egalitarianism.

Buddhism in Russia: Lhasa's Emissary to Tsar

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; John Snelling; J. Anderson

The Kremlin in Red Square, Moscow: imperial capital of vast land holdings that again include Crimea but not the "Stans" of Central Asia, formerly Buddhist countries overtaken by Islam.

 

Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev: Lhasa's Emissary to the Tsar is a fascinating story of political and religious intrigue.

It tells the story of Agvan Dorziev, a Mongolian Buddhist Lama, who was instrumental in the founding of Buddhism in Russia.

 

[Russia/USSR as an empire spread out to include many formerly Buddhist lands in Central Asia. It also contains Kalmykia -- Europe's only indigenous Buddhist country, the home of international chess tournaments and Lenin's grandmother. The shamans of Siberia practice a shramanic/shamanistic form of Esoteric Buddhism from Mongolia, Tibet, Western China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and faraway Afghanistan (Gandhara, India), Russia's "Vietnam." With secret CIA help, Afghans eventually repelled the USSR so the USA/MIC could illegally invade, occupy, and plunder it.]

The book includes an update on the status of Buddhism in Russia since Glasnost.

NUMBERS: There are under-counted Russian Buddhists throughout the country -- particularly in Buryatia, Yakutia (Sakha Republic), Kalmykia, and Siberia -- with census numbers reflecting more "atheists," "animists," and "Eastern Orthodox Christians" as if any of these designations negated one's Buddhist beliefs or practices. A Moscovite who practices the Dharma will still routinely be listed as an official atheist (formerly a good Communist party member) unless s/he is from a Buddhist Russian republic or territory.
 

Soviet slice of Buddhist history

J. Anderson, edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

Gorgeous Russian Buddhist temple, Buryatia, Russia (J. Weeks/VOA.com)

 

Civil war in Ukraine gathering pace

John Snelling's major work was being completed when he passed away in 1992. It tells a fascinating story about Ven. Agvan Dorzhiev, a brilliant Mongolian lama and the Tibetan capital's emissary to Russia in the 19th century.
 

Arrayed against the backdrop of the fiercely Orthodox court of the Russian Tsars -- with its sacred religio-political [unseparated church and state] dominance over nearly every aspect of Russian life, the extraordinary progress made by Ven. Dorzhiev in setting Tibetan Buddhism on a solid footing in that land is a story of remarkable courage and success.
  

Odessa's tragedy buries Ukraine's hope

Snelling's books can be a bit dry and academic, but his scholarship shines, and the text is surefooted and informative. The book's success rests on its thoroughness. Snelling takes a comprehensive look at the early and post-Communist state of Buddhism in Russia.
 

The enormous expanse of Russia bordering the rest of Northern Europe on the left and Siberia on the right with America just to the right beyond the Bering Straits. Buddhist Kalmykia is shown in red on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Russian Buddhist monk, Vesak 2013 (rbth.ru)

This, indeed, makes a valuable contribution to the study of the spread and influence of Buddhism as a world religion. It even speculates with respect to the future of the Dharma in Russian Asia.
 
Included are some marvelous photos of Ven. Dorzhiev and a brilliant mini-history of the Buryats (from which he arose). While readable, it is definitely a specialist's book. More than biography, less than hagiography -- it concerns itself with what is rather than what if.

I want a Pussy Riot! - We do, too, Comrade.

In any case, it is a tale unlikely to be told anywhere else.
 
Certainly, it is told nowhere else with as much authority, passion, and carefully wrought scrutiny as Snelling delivers. Recommended for anyone inclined toward the myriad diversity of Buddhist history beyond India and Southeast Asia. 

World War II: Behind Closed Doors

J. Anderson, edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

This is a welcomed reappraisal of Churchill, a film incorporates information from Soviet files not available until the 1990s. One important outcome is a new and welcome delineation of the lying duplicity of England's Winston Churchill, his involvement in handing half of Europe to Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin, sentencing the Eastern Bloc nations to half a century of Stalinist (Orwellian) suffering. On the whole, it presents a view of history distinct from stories regurgitated in the West... More

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Slave Resistance in America (Berkeley audio)

CC Liu and Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Gerald Horne (UH), Mitch Jerserich ("Letters & Politics," KPFA.org), norcal.cpusa.org

Counter-Revolution of 1776

Dr. Horne will be appearing at UC Berkeley today, at UC Santa Barbara tomorrow, and Saturday at 2:00 pm, Ebony Theatre Los Angeles (KPFK.org). For those unable to visit any of these appearances in person, Dr. Horne sat down with Pacifica's Mitch Jeserich this morning in the City of Berkeley (KPFA 94.1 FM).

• PLAY NOW or download (MP3)
• (Letters and Politics, May 7, 2014, 10-11 am)
  

• When: May 7, 2014 4:00-5:30 pm
• Where: UC Berkeley, Barrows Hall, Rm. 652
• University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
• When: May 8, 2014
• Where: UC Santa Barbara

This is not a mere exercise in American history; slavery exists today! (freetheslaves.net)

The CIA took down young Mandela (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org, Dec. 13, 2013

"One of Our Greatest Coups": The CIA and the capture of Mandela

CIA capitalists could not stand for a communist success in Africa: life sentence for Mandela

 

Young communist freedom fighter

As South Africa prepares to hold a state funeral for beloved Nelson Mandela, Democracy Now! looks at how the CIA helped the South African government track down and capture Mandela in 1962.

In 1990, the Cox News Service quoted a former U.S. official saying that hours after Mandela’s arrest, a senior CIA operative named Paul Eckel admitted the agency’s involvement. 

Eckel was reported as having told the official, "We have turned Mandela over to the South African security branch. We gave them every detail, what he would be wearing, the time of day, just where he would be. They have picked him up. It is one of our greatest coups." Several news outlets have reported the actual source of the tip that led to the arrest of Mandela was a CIA official named Donald Rickard. 

On Thursday, Democracy Now! attempted to reach Rickard at his home in Colorado. On two occasions, a man who picked up the phone hung up when we asked to speak with Donald Rickard.

The activist group RootsAction has launched a campaign to urge the CIA to open its files on Mandela and South Africa, and the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has questioned why corporate media outlets have largely ignored the story. Democarcy Now! speaks to journalist Andrew Cockburn, who first reported on the CIA link to Mandela’s arrest in 1986 in The New York Times. VIDEO 

Do WP readers deserve FULL disclosure in CIA coverage?

The Washington Post should be honest with readers about a big conflict of interest: The newspaper's new owner Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon -- which recently landed a $600 million contract with the CIA. Drone delivery, anyone?

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Remote viewing and the mystery of Comet Ison (Nirbiru?)

• Ukrainian official: Gov’t WILL sign EU pact after protests
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• Los Titulares de Hoy (Today's headlines in Spanish)
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Protest: An Ultimatum in Ukraine

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Victoria Butenko, Sergei L. Loiko (latimes.com)

A protester faces riot troops protecting Ukraine's presidential administration building in Kiev (Sergei L. Loiko/latimes.com)

 

Ukraine bows to Russian pressure (LAT)

KIEV, Ukraine - Protesters toppled a monument to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin on Sunday during the biggest march and rally in central Kiev since Pres. Viktor Yanukovich galvanized his opposition by turning down a trade deal with the European Union (EU).

 

The protesters blocked and barricaded government offices and said they were giving Yanukovich 48 hours to disband his government [just as happened in Iceland] before marching on his country residence near Kiev. A government spokesman said Yanukovich's administration was "ready for negotiations."
 
In turning down the trade deal with the EU, Yanukovich was in effect asserting that Russia remained Ukraine's key trading partner. The country [formerly a part of Finland] is politically and geographically divided between those who favor ties to Russia and those who would like to see Ukraine more aligned with Western Europe.
 

Seven Balkans still not part of EU (LAT)

That gave the toppling of the Lenin statue symbolic resonance -- despite the fact that most Lenin statues in Russia itself were torn down during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Statues of the Soviet leader were once ubiquitous throughout the East bloc, but those that remain are more likely to be museum pieces than public memorials.
  
No police officers could be seen anywhere in the vicinity of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, where the granite and marble monument was brought crashing into the street by a group of young protesters. "It is amazing how the authorities allowed Lenin to go down!" said Sergei Andriyenko, a 51-year-old Kiev businessman who applauded the action. "Where were the police, where were the communists who were always protecting him?" More

Sheriffs indicted for crimes against humanity; "sad day," Sheriff Baca laments

In spite of what Baca claims, the misconduct and abuse charges suggest a larger, institutional problem with the abusive guards in L.A. County jails.

Police abusing and murdering SoCal citizens  at will

18 LA sheriff's officials indicted, accused of abuse, obstruction

Eighteen current or former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials have been indicted in five separate criminal cases in...

Retired FBI agent: "Deadly force" used on Kelly Thomas

The use-of-force expert says striking a suspect in the head with an impact weapon is NOT acceptable police procedure. 

Viagra for women? Blue pills may help alleviate menstrual cramps 

Beached whales, all female or calves, died near each other

Striking L.A. County social workers rally on Monday

Kendall (Kardashian-)Jenner leaves Harry Stiles in UK