You might remember that a few years ago I posted a video called 66 Seconds in which I presented a brief snapshot of ordinary life here in Romania.

This morning I was working on another project and I used my iPad to take snapshots of what was going on today in this country via B1TV, a Romanian 24-hour news channel. I thought all of you might find it interesting.

First, Georgiana Sandu told me that it was going to be 19 degrees here in Unicorn City.

LITTLE YELLOW: Warrants being served at the Albita border crossing station.
BIG YELLOW: FRONTIER POLICE SUSPECTED OF CORRUPTION
Black: Member of Parliament Stefan Stoica switched parties from PPDD to PSD

The DNA “anti-corruption” agency swooped in there this morning, somehow magically without any masked police, and shut down the entire Albita (Little White) border crossing in Vaslui County near its borders with Iasi County and the nation of Moldova.

Just two years ago the DNA did the same thing, filing charges on 47 police officers for taking bribes, accusing them of raking in half a million euros in just two months. The linked article is in Romanian but there is a hilarious quote from one of the busted agents, who speaks in a strong Moldovan accent and uses some Russian words.

Later it turned out that the DNA raid in 2011 was all because the head of the Albita border crossing was the informant, turning on his own guys, with strong accusations that he was snitching to the anti-corruption agency to protect his own self from criminal charges. Then he literally admitted to the another newspaper later that he wasn’t even sure it was worth doing.

Must not’ve been because the DNA just swooped in there again this morning.

True fact: I know some smugglers from Moldova and I wrote about why they do it so I tend to find the whole thing a little hilarious.

YELLOW: DNA warrants also being served in Iasi and Vaslui counties
BLUE: THE GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS ALL EXPLORATIONS
BLACK: Mediafax: Negotiations intensify between Israelis and Palestinians

I’ve already written about Rosia Montana, which has a hardcore professional organization at its core, so you know the protest there is about gold mining.

Last week a new faction popped up on the media from a rather rural area in Vaslui County called Pungesti, where Chevron was planning on doing some fracking explorations until a group of people chained themselves together to block the road and everyone got to see footage of a line of gendarmes savagely throwing the protestors to the ground.

Ponta, however, is gallivanting around Washington, DC at the moment and just met with some Chevron lackeys in a cheap conference room and then gave a statement to the Romanian media traveling with him, averring his continued support for energy companies to try and extract this country’s resources. Not pictured this morning was Wesley Clarke, the genocidal former American military general who is paid to liaison between Ponta and Chevron.

YELLOW: The suspects are 16 Customs agents and 4 Frontier Police
BLUE: On the telephone, Zina Domitean, a protestor
BLACK:: Agerpres: Turkey reduces its mandatory military service requirements

Here’s the protestors in Pungesti this morning, their ninth day out there. I’ve never been to that part of Vaslui County but it’s clear by the video that it is extremely windy out there. Those flags and signs are really whipping around.

Remember, we’re in the third week of October out here so it’s got to be pretty cold out there.

YELLOW: Warrants being served in other locations in Iasi and Vaslui Counties
BLUE: THE NINTH DAY OF PROTESTS AT PUNGESTI
BLACK: Ziarul Financiar: RomGaz paid its stockholders 627 million Euros over three years

Not only are these hardy Pungesti protestors out there in the cold, they’ve got people riding around on horseback. That lady isn’t the only one, there are several more.

Look again at the lady on the horse. See something missing? She has no saddle! I don’t know what kind of badass Moldovan cowboys live out in Vaslui but not a single horseback protestor has a saddle.

Awesome!

YELLOW: TAROM’s executive board will meet today at 5:00 pm
BLUE: SALE OF LAND TO FOREIGNERS IN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S HANDS
BLACK: Venice Committee – Romania’s power sharing agreement isn’t working out so well

Hey do you want Romania to look like this, gigantic megafarms turning food into a factory product?

Well it’s about to. Currently, it is very difficult for non-Romanians to buy agricultural land in this country. The European Union wants to change that and is expected to force Romania to change its laws so that multinational corporations can buy up land.

YELLOW: Nicolae Demetriade has resigned from his position at TAROM
BLUE: WINTER IS COMING AFTER NOVEMBER 20
BLACK: Prahova is the only city (Constanta Mayor Radu) Mazare’s “Republic” can compete with

Uh, what? How do you know winter will come exactly on November 20? LOL

YELLOW: Demetriade was an administrator at TAROM
BLUE: PONTA WITH A SHIRT TO HIS KNEES

This guy never gets tired of embarrassing himself. He went down to visit the professional NBA basketball team in Washington and played a little “pick-up” ball for the cameras. The players hilariously gave him this oversize basketball shirt, which he put on.

Look at all the Romanian journalists (who are, by law, all young attractive women) cracking up as this idiot clowns around. I don’t care, I love it.

YELLOW: TAROM’s executive board will meet today at 5:00 pm
BLUE: LEO: YOU NEED A LOT OF MONEY
Black: Evenimentul Zilei: Elena Udrea harshly critical of Ponta, Crin Antonescu and Sorin Oprescu

No morning news broadcast in Romania is complete without your horoscope, duh! Do you love this one? I do.

I’m also just bilingual enough to find it hilarious that this astrological advice could also be applied to Daddy Mugur and the Central Bank of Romania. I wonder what Isarescu’s birth date is. Hm.

HAPPY TUESDAY!