Brussels Forum, 2015, weekend conference, live.

If anyone is interested, this is a current conference going on live all weekend and it can be viewed from the site as it happens. These happen every year around this time, and lucky me, I get to be a transcriptionist on the fly. Last year when it was going on, I noticed there were no threads about it, so this time I thought I would post it. (There's also a similar forum that happens in the fall called the Atlantic Dialogues).

What it is, is a large conference put on by the German Marshall Fund where guest speakers come in from all over the world to discuss world events. I thought it was appropriate to put in here. It started this morning about 9:30-ish EST.

The main site is here : Brussels Forum

From there, there are links to the weekend's agenda, a list of speakers and participants and the transcripts of the event. The speakers are all kinds of different people who are foreign ministers, congressmen, journalists, sometimes presidents of different nations will come in.

There is a live stream on the front page, and there are links to the agenda and topics that will be discussed, along with all the speakers. As it is transcribed, transcripts for each segment will be posted. After each segment, it usually takes about 2 hours to get it all transcribed, proofed, formatted and uploaded to the site, so there's nothing there yet.

Personally, I find it a bit boring, but the topics they discuss are relevant to what is happening around the world and include topics current events in Russia, ISIS, transatlantic and pacific trade agreements and things of that nature.

I thought it would be of interest to some folks here who may not know about it. As far as I know, there haven't been any posts here about it, at least not recently. I apologize if there are and I overlooked them.

a reply to: CoherentlyConfused

Thanks OP ....I will go and watch for a bit and surf around .There is probably bigger things happening behind the scene and we will only get a bit of tokenism ,but you never know who might be ready to blow ....peace

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Hard to imagine that Victoria (Fu%@ EU) Nuland is actually speaking .I wonder how she manages to gloss that over :>) eta ..guess they needed a coffee break after her 2 cents worth ...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Yeah, lots of people who's names we've all heard and we all know they know way more than they're saying, but we just get the happy, glossed-over & press-friendly stuff.

In the past years, no extraordinary stuff ever came out of them, so I expect more of the same this time around.

a reply to: the2ofusr1


Syria is not a good spot and will continue to be, not a good spot until all the sides can come to a agreement . Well good luck with that eh . The aid person works it down to the weapons . Well it's normal for any Govt. to have weapons so it's more about stoping all the other arms . One person wants the US to go in and Bomb the crap out of the place ...She must have been talking to McCain on that one ....

The best she can come up with is ,maybe we need to accept part of the Assad regime but just not him . So Pakistan will be helping more terrorist groups via $$$ from Saudi Arabia . I guess the house of Saud has a extra Billion they can throw at peace in the middle east .......The Kurds in the north are helping a larger group of refugees the Turkey is . I like the Kurds ..

There are a few that keep bringing up the evil Putin . That has always been one part of Putin I have had issues with but I always figured it was more of a enemy of my enemy thing . In response to a question about uniting the opposition in Syria , the representative actually said that there is no need to . Maybe the situation there is not so complicated but it sure looks that way from outside . In response another thinks the US should tell them what to do ...mmmm why not just ask Bibi ...??

A reporter from the NYT asks the question with a statement that the US never had a policy on Syria until it went south and now they seem to have the policy of the southern state . I wonder if he was actually getting at that Washington seems to have a policy of kaos .I haven't been able to follow the story line because they go from Kosovo to Ukraine to trying to get Humpty Dumpty back together again .
So now they don't want to support the opposition but don't want to support Assad . So it's working up to Dron dron dron ,dron dron Syria is the only way the US sees a end to it ......

a reply to: CoherentlyConfused

I am not sure if the audience is screened but that guy from Pakistan that said Saudi Aribia gave them 1 Billion dollars to enter into the ISIS conflicts over there . I wonder if this is going to show up in the 24/7 news cycle .

eta ...a second Pakistani from america I assume because of his accent just stated the same thing . He wants to know what the Saudi's are not being brought to task ...Russia would like to know that too especially on the oil thing .


The person dealing with humanitarian aid said the solution is to force all the parties into a room ,lock the door and throw away the key until they get peace . The opposition says more war and keep at it ..sick bitch despite her cute looks .I could never understand that a woman that good looking could have such a twisted heart .