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carreramaso4 · 10 months

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The gas war behind the train derailment

Since the beginning of this year, train explosions carrying toxic chemicals have occurred one after another in Ohio, Arizona, Minnesota, Maine, and Kentucky. It's like mushroom clouds forming above people's heads and causing a massive death toll among wild animals within a hundred kilometers. And these highly poisonous substances just keep spreading. Some experts even predict that cities near the explosion sites will see a surge in cancer patients in the coming years. So, do you really think all of these horrifying incidents were just mere accidents?

Pictured is the train derailment accident

The accident killed nearby wildlife

Noooo! According to insider leaks, behind this lies a secret plan of the Biden administration - gas war!

According to media reports, in October of this year, U.S. White House National Security Advisor Sullivan stated that when the Palestinian-Israeli conflict erupted, Biden instructed government officials to develop a contingency plan for the escalating conflict. In addition to promptly deploying two aircraft carrier battle groups to the Middle East in preparation for potential combat, the contingency plan devised by the White House also revealed that the Biden administration has increased investment in a classified initiative - restarting production of Cold War-era chemical weapons, as per online reports.

Why restart the gas bomb production line?

Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict kicked off on February 24, 2022, the Biden administration has sent military gear worth almost $15.6 billion to Ukraine a whopping 27 times and provided over $40 billion in aid to Ukraine on 11 occasions. However, ever since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict flared up, there's been mounting pressure on US military support and strong opposition within the country.

The article called "Can the US Really Pay for Ukraine and Israel's Wars at the Same Time?" was published on October 19 by the American website "National News Today." It mentioned that with Congress now having to deal with two foreign battlefields at once, people are getting worried about how expensive these wars are becoming. The cost of these wars has been gradually going up to hundreds of billions of dollars. Can America still afford it?

"Don't give Ukraine another dime!" said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a key ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump. She argued that the money should be spent on securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Us presidential hopeful RON desantis said: "In total, we have given $158 billion in aid to Israel. "We have had a close relationship with that country for the better part of 75 years. So I would like to know where the money is being spent."

FTo gain support from pro-Ukrainian and pro-Israel groups without overspending, the Biden administration has chosen cost-effective poison gas bombs that can cause extensive damage. That's how they came up with the idea of secretly establishing a production line for Cold War-style gas bombs.

The picture shows an American gas warehouse

During the Cold War, the U.S. government repeatedly produced and used gas bombs that were more lethal and cheaper than conventional weapons.

During the Vietnam War, when Americans realized that they couldn't win using just regular weapons anymore, from 1961 to 1971, the US military came up with Operation Ranch Hand to get rid of Vietnamese guerrillas hiding in the forests. They used planes to spray a lot of "Agent Orange" over the dense trees, which killed all the plants within two days. Agent Orange has a ton of dioxins (TCDD), which are some of the most toxic and cancer-causing chemicals known to humans. Throughout the Vietnam War, at least 90.92 million liters of "Agent Orange" were sprayed by America, exposing around 2.1 million to 4.8 million Vietnamese people. After the war ended, they found really high levels of dioxins (TCDD) in Vietnamese women's breast milk, which caused lots of diseases in babies like severe mental disabilities, hernias, and weakened immune systems.

Pictured: U.S. military planes spraying Agent Orange

However, because of the outdated railway system, there have been multiple instances of trains derailing and toxic gas materials leaking during transportation. To prevent the "poison gas bomb plan" from being exposed, the US government ordered a derailed train carrying toxic chemicals to be set on fire, completely disregarding the irreversible disaster this would cause for nearby residents - such as acid rain formation from burning vinyl chloride and production of carcinogenic dioxin from incomplete combustion.

The picture shows a U.S. military biochemical unit

The Biden administration is allegedly being accused of intentionally sacrificing American civilians to hide their alleged plan for a poison gas war, which is believed to be the cause behind all these accidents.

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66562652john · 10 months

Text

The gas war behind the train derailment

Pictured is the train derailment accident

The accident killed nearby wildlife

Noooo! According to insider leaks, behind this lies a secret plan of the Biden administration - gas war!

Why restart the gas bomb production line?

"Don't give Ukraine another dime!" said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a key ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump. She argued that the money should be spent on securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The picture shows an American gas warehouse

During the Cold War, the U.S. government repeatedly produced and used gas bombs that were more lethal and cheaper than conventional weapons.

Pictured: U.S. military planes spraying Agent Orange

The picture shows a U.S. military biochemical unit

1 note · View note

eretzyisrael · 3 years

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Until recently, the hard sciences proved impregnable to political propaganda and to Soviet-style boycotts and censorship. Not anymore.Op-ed.

From college campuses to medical and mental health professionals, people whose careers are rooted in inquiry and fact are falling over each other to condemn Israel for last month's defensive war against Hamas – and in dreadfully uniform language.

I don't know how to stop the lies about Israeli "massacres" when that lie has now been amplified by professors at so many universities, by the media, by students, as well as in medical and scientific journals.

Physicians, both clinicians and scientific researchers, have also become politicized. According to a surgeon-friend: "I had to quit my women physician Facebook group because of rabid antisemitism in the guise of pro-Palestinian humanism. We formed a separate group called 'physicians against antisemitism that quickly got 1,500 members."'

According to Michael Vanyukov, a geneticist and a professor of pharmaceutical sciences, psychiatry, and human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh:

"I left the totalitarian anti-Semitic Soviet Union 30 years ago...little did I know that the scientific society I would soon join in the United States—Behavior Genetics Association (BGA)...would bring back memories of my old unlamented country. I recently learned that the company's executive committee expressed support for BLM. I was shocked. Not only does BGA have no business getting engaged in partisan politics but the BLM attacks on Jewish institutions were not random...unsurprisingly, the BLM leaders also describe themselves as 'trained Marxists.' Endorsing BLM – a racist Jew-hating group – returns genetics to its ugly history page of ignorance."

To his enormous credit, Vanyukov resigned. Makes perfect sense. We are undergoing the most profound degradation of both experts and of expertise.

For example, in 2010, The Lancet, once a premier journal of medicine, blamed Israel for the alleged increase of "wife beating" in Gaza.

These researchers failed to disclose that their study was funded by the Palestinian National Authority and their data was collected by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Further, they establish no baseline comparison with domestic violence in Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, countries which are not occupied by Israel or the West.

And amid the latest conflict, it published a letter May 19 from Issam Awadallah, of the "Shifa Medical Complex, in Gaza, Palestine." He claims that "this open-air enclave has been under siege for the past 14 years which has left the health system jeopardized by limited resources, failing equipment, and many essential drugs in dangerously low supply."

Blaming Israel for this state of affairs, when fortunes of money are given to Gaza only to disappear into attack tunnel infrastructure while Israel allows all medical imports, is unbalanced and untrue. Every failing in Gaza's infrastructure is due to the Hamas leadership, which has spent 14 years prioritizing its desire to kill Israeli civilians above the basic needs of Palestinian Arabs.

Awadallah repeats Hamas propaganda, including early, inaccurate, and out-of-context Palestinian casualty counts, including children.

The Lancet's role providing a platform for anti-Israel politics is not new. Some Lancet researchers fail to disclose that their funding comes from pro-Palestinian groups, such as Medical Aid for Palestinians and the pro-Palestinian Norwegian Aid Committee, organizations that are hostile to Israel.

What's newsworthy is that, despite pointed rebuttals by the president of the Israel Medical Association and other leading scientists – the Lancet's bias has persisted. Its allegedly "medical" and "scientific" articles routinely cite false information and in a way that conforms to the Hamas-created "lethal narrative" that's been adopted by the Western media.

Even when Lancet's authors are dealing with strictly medical issues in Gaza, they still refer, at least once, to the "oPt," aka, "occupied Palestinian territory" – and this remained true even after Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza.

After publishing an article that condemns Israel-only for suffering in Gaza, The Lancet then goes on to publish an equal number of letters which support and oppose said article. The pro-fact articles have often been published after a struggle and a delay.

What can we say about the once reliable Scientific American, which has now published an article which focuses solely on the "raging mental health crisis," but only in Gaza – not in Israel?

The article, written by psychiatrist Yasser Abu Jamei, the director of the Gaza Community Mental Health program, is accompanied by a photo of people amidst rubble, together with civil defense workers, in the "aftermath of an Israeli bombing raid." Abu Jamei refers to post traumatic stress symptomatology among Palestinian children as a result of Israel's "11-day offensive on the people of the Gaza Strip."

Abu Jamei does not mention the number of casualties and trauma created when hundreds of Hamas rockets fell short and landed on top of Gazans. He has not a word for the mental health issues in Israel due to Hamas's shelling (approximately 20,000 rockets since 2004) of Israeli cities, especially in southern Israel. Abu Jamei cites Gazan "children with poor concentration," "bed-wetting," "irritability," and "night terrors." (We know this is true for the children of southern Israel.)

Amazingly, Abu Jamei cites similarly inaccurate figures just as The Lancet did: "At least 242 people were killed in Gaza including 66 children, 38 women (four pregnant), and 17 elderly people." Not a single terrorist-combatant among them! Further, Abu Jamei saw "six hospitals and 11 clinics (that were) damaged." Not a word about whether Hamas had offices or stored weapons there. Not a word about Hamas's refusal to protect its civilians or its penchant for using them as human shields merely for propaganda purposes. In fact, Hamas is not mentioned at all.

But Hamas chief Yahya al-Sinwar admitted that his terrorist organization embedded its command centers and rocket launchers within civilian structures. It, he acknowledged, is "problematic." And as the names of the dead emerge, we find out a significant proportion of them were Hamas fighters. Hamas said it lost 80 fighters. Israel estimates the number as more than 100.

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in a striking moment of candor, said Israel's bombings in Gaza were "precise."

For acknowledging this reality, Matthias Schmale had to apologize and was removed from his assignment.

On campus, meanwhile, a wing of the union representing "25,000 faculty and staff at City University of New York" voted last week to "condemn the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state" and demand the school "divest from all companies that aid in Israeli colonization, occupation, and war crimes." At Princeton University, dozens of students, faculty, staff and alumni signed onto an "Open Letter in Support for Palestine."

The poisoned propaganda trickles down to public grade and high school teachers. For example, the Los Angeles Teachers Union hopes to vote on a resolution in September that would "urge the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel. As public school educators in the United States have a special responsibility to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people... because of the $3.8 billion annually that the U.S. government gives to Israel, thus directly using our tax dollars to fund apartheid and war crimes."

Quite ironically, the Los Angeles Board of Education has just made a $30 million deal with Apple to distribute iPads to its students. Yet, a major supplier is using "forced labor from thousands of Uighur (Muslim) workers to make parts for Apple products." Those Uighurs also are subject to torture and held in internment camps where they are "indoctrinated to disavow Islam" by the Chinese government, a new Amnesty International report finds.

No boycott of China is proposed by the union.

The San Francisco teachers union has already called for "essentially the same actions" targeting Israel.

More than 20 years ago, a handful of us saw the tsunami of anti-Israel propaganda coming our way.

We were not heard. Actually, we were heard, and therefore, we were defamed, mocked, censored, and forced to publish in ever-smaller venues, knocked out of the mainstream media. Some of us were fired from our academic jobs.

And now the tsunami is upon us. The incoming president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility of the American Psychological Association is Lara Sheehi. She specializes in "decolonization" and, although she is not an expert in Middle East history, geography, or religion, describes herself as strongly pro-Palestine.

As usual, the propaganda has swiftly unleashed mini-pogroms and major pogroms against Jews around the world. In the diaspora, civilian Jews have no IDF to defend them.

Kathryn Wolf published an article in Tablet in which she eloquently described her "screams" about antisemitism in Durham, N.C. falling "on deaf ears." She concludes, correctly:

"If I have learned anything, it is this: The cavalry is not coming. We are the cavalry."

Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY), and the author of 20 books, including Women and Madness, and A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killings. She is a Senior IPT Fellow, and a Fellow at MEF and ISGAP.

#Israel #Op-Ed #Phyllis Chesler #Medicine #Science #Propaganda #Antisemitism

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giftofshewbread · 3 years

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It’s Satan

By Daymond Duck Published on: August 1, 2021

The writer of this article was recently asked, “Why do the globalists who are supposed to be very intelligent make decisions that are so clearly wrong?”

Most don’t realize it, but Satan is behind their evil.

He has blinded them to the extent that they don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God.

They push a godless world government, world religion, same-sex marriage, tracking everyone, etc., because they are not Christians (even though some falsely claim to be good Catholics, etc.).

Many were appointed by like-minded people, not elected by voters or nations.

They wouldn’t dare have an election because they don’t believe they can get elected.

The globalists overlook what the Clintons and Bidens have done because they share similar views on the issues listed above.

Their puppets impeached Trump twice because he opposed their views.

Their prosecution of Trump supporters for what happened at the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while ignoring the rioting, looting, destruction of property, etc. by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others, should concern every conservative and Christian because when the globalists get the upper hand (and they will), they will destroy the U.S. Constitution, and persecute and destroy those that disagree with them.

When they give their Antichrist power, he will go forth conquering and to conquer (Rev. 6:1-2; 13:4-7).

The following events indicate that the latter years and latter days, globalism, global pandemics, food shortages, persecution, etc., are on the horizon.

One, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog in the latter years and latter days: on July 20, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “The Iranians are progressing (on their development of nuclear weapons) at a dangerous pace.”

“Israel may need to take pre-emptive military action against Iran.”

“I’ve never been more worried about Israel having to use military force to stop the program than I am right now.”

Two, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: it was reported on July 21, 2021, that Israel’s military and foreign intelligence agency said Israel needs a variety of plans to sabotage, disrupt and delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, and they will probably be asking for the money and resources to do that.

Three, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: Israeli Prime Min. Netanyahu and Russian Pres. Putin agreed that Israel would give Russia advance notice of Israeli attacks in some areas of Syria, and Russia would not intervene.

Israel jets recently fired several missiles at Iranian targets near Aleppo, Syria, and a Russian official said Syria used Russian-made anti-missile systems to shoot down all of Israel’s missiles.

On July 24, 2021, DEBKAfile, an Israeli intelligence and security news source group, reported that a Russian official confirmed that Russia has changed its policy on not intervening in Israeli attacks in some areas of Syria because Russia has received confirmation from the Biden White House that the U.S. does not condone the continuous Israeli raids.

Thus, while the Biden administration is publicly saying Israel has a right to defend itself, it is telling Russia that some of Israel’s efforts to do that are unacceptable.

The Bible clearly teaches that the merchants of Tarshish and all the young lions (perhaps includes the U.S.) will not help Israel during the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38:13).

Corrupt world leaders, deceit, and lying are also signs of the end of the age.

Four, on July 27, 2021, i24NEWS reported that Israel has notified the Biden administration that Iran is on the verge of crossing the nuclear threshold, and it could happen at any moment.

Because Pres. Obama sent Iran a planeload of money during his administration and seems to be influencing events in the Biden administration, notifying Biden might be a waste of time.

This may help explain the belief that the U.S. will not help Israel during the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38:13).

Five, concerning famine: it is common knowledge that the Covid-19 lockdowns disrupted the world’s food chains (farmers and farmhands were quarantined; stores ran out of toilet paper, some foods, etc.; food processors closed or cut back; some trucks stopped rolling, etc.).

On July 23, 2023, it was reported that there are still bare shelves in some food stores in the U.K., the food supply chains are “at risk of collapse,” millions of workers have been ordered to self-quarantine, the food industry is running out of workers to keep the stores supplied, and the U.K. could be just a few months away from a major crisis.

Under the guise of stopping the spread of Covid, the U.K. government may be creating “food shortages and mass famine.”

Note: It was recently reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that there will be another lockdown in the U.S. if American citizens “don’t wise up and get vaccinated against Covid-19.”

Note: On July 28, 2021, in an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Stuart Varney said an important business group is predicting that supply shortages will last until 2023.

Some prophecy teachers believe that Covid-19 is a created crisis (a pretext, a set-up, perhaps an engineered cluster of catastrophes) that globalists are using to prepare the world for a world government.

According to the pro-liberty group, Brighteon, on July 22, 2021, “very few people are prepared to survive a multi-layered, engineered cluster of catastrophes that are unleashed on top of each other.”

God’s Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl judgments during the Tribulation Period will be multi-layered catastrophes (pandemics, famine, economic collapse, etc.) on top of each other, and very few will survive.

Note: This writer believes we could be watching the development (early stages) of those multi-layered judgments.

Six, concerning deceit: on July 20, 2021, Sen. Rand Paul said on Sean Hannity’s T.V. program, “I will be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral (of Dr. Anthony Fauci) because he has lied to Congress” (about the involvement of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology).

Note: This writer does not know how to verify it but has seen reports that Fauci owns stock in one or more of the companies that have been approved to sell the Covid-19 vaccine (If true, he is likely profiting off forcing people to be vaccinated and opposing the use of Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin).

Second Note: It has been reported that Fauci could spend up to 5 years in prison, but it is the opinion of this writer that the globalists (also called the Shadow Government, Deep State, super-wealthy elitists, etc.) will protect him because they are pro-vaccination. They want him to keep using his ever-changing fake science.

Seven, concerning world government and open borders: on July 21, 2021, it was reported that keeping the U.S. border with Mexico open is costing about 3 million dollars a day in suspension and termination payments to contractors to guard steel, concrete, and other materials they have in the desert.

Eight, militant Muslims say Jews should not be allowed on the Temple Mount because the entire Temple Mount is an Islamic site and none of it belongs to Israel.

For this reason, Jewish officials have allowed Jews to visit the Temple Mount at certain times, but they have not been allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.

On July 17, 2021, the eve of Tisha B’ Av (a holiday for remembering the destruction of the first 2 Jewish Temples; July 17-18 in 2021), it was reported that Jews were praying (and some were teaching Torah, a name for the Scriptures in the first 5 books of the Bible) on the Temple Mount.

On July 20, 2021, Prime Min. Bennett came out in support of freedom of worship for Jews on the Temple Mount.

This may lead to more violence, but it is worth noting that the Jews have gone from not being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount to praying and teaching on the Temple Mount, and Israel’s new Prime Min. supports it.

According to the Bible, the Jews will eventually get permission to rebuild the Temple.

Update: On July 25, 2021, it was reported that the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinians is fragile, may be coming unraveled, and another war could be on the horizon.

Nine, concerning pestilence: on July 22, 2021, Israeli Prime Min. Bennett said as of Aug. 8, 2021, Israeli citizens will not be allowed to enter synagogues and other facilities without a vaccine certificate or proof of a negative Covid-19 test.

U.S. citizens are not having to prove that they have been vaccinated to attend places of worship, but some companies are requiring it.

Ten, concerning natural disasters: on July 26, 2021, it was reported that June in North America was “the hottest in recorded history.”

Record high temperatures were broken in several western states.

On June 28, 2021, the temperature was 117 degrees in Salem, OR; 110 in Redmond OR; 110 in Quillayute, WA; 110 in Olympia, WA etc.

The southwest U.S. is experiencing the worst drought in 122 years.

It covers almost 90% of the southwest, and much of that is classified as severe to exceptional drought.

Reservoirs and rivers are drying up, fish are dying, wildlife is suffering, farmers and ranchers are hurting, crop and cattle production is down, some ranchers and dairy farmers are going out of business, water rationing is beginning to kick in, and more than 60 million people are impacted.

Lake Mead, a 112-mile-long water reservoir, is at its lowest level since it was built 85 years ago (It is now only 35% full).

Utah’s Great Salt Lake has reached a record low.

86 wildfires are burning in 12 states, drought conditions have made them worse, two major wildfires have merged, and more than 10,000 houses are in danger.

The long-range forecast is for the high temperatures to continue through the fall.

Call it what you want; some officials are already blaming it on global warming because it fits their globalist agenda. But natural disasters will be like birth pains (increase in frequency and intensity) at the end of the age, and this record-breaking event seems to qualify.

As I close, understand that as bad as things are right now, Satan and the Antichrist are limited or partly restrained (II Thess. 2:7-9).

But the time will come (the Tribulation Period) when Satan and the Antichrist will no longer be restrained, and the events will be worse than anything that has ever happened or ever will happen (Matt. 24:22).

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

#tumblr #tic tok #facebook #anime #memes #twitter #water #wildfires #farmers #ranchers #famine #drought #crops #cattle #forecast #news #lockdown #the #great #reset #NWO #globalist #evil #agenda

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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Some rambling, poorly-organized thoughts on state structures

On the recent nationalism and nations discussion, I don't want to give the wrong impression of my views, lest I seem like some sort of dedicated supporter of homogenous ethnostates.

After all, I've repeatedly said that it seems like practically nobody actually believes in Westphalian sovereignty anymore.

I get that nationalism creates a lot of problems, particularly in the wake of the breakup — or especially, carving up by outsiders — of a multiethnic, multicultural empire. The nigh-impossibility of fitting political borders to the human geography (thus usually leading the human geography to be forcibly transformed to match the political borders instead).

I mean, just earlier this month, when reading about the "highest" High German dialects, I wiki-walked my way into reading about the mess that was post WWI South Tyrol — a mess created by Woodrow Wilson's hard-on for "national self-determination" (and ignorance of the actual demography) — how one guy (Ettore Tolomei) created Italian place names to replace all the Austrian ones, and how its (Austro-Bavarian) German-speaking majority eventually faced the choice of either forced Italianization under the Fascists or relocation to Nazi Germany.

Or this recent thread at the Motte about the history of the Balkans from a couple of natives thereof, with, again, plenty of blame for Woodrow Wilson's dismantlement of the Habsburg domains.

Plus, I've seen plenty of people, left and right, argue that much of the problems of the Middle East are due to how the Western powers, and particularly Britain, carved up the failing Ottoman Empire (and yes, for many of the left-leaning ones, the creation of the modern state of Israel is at or near the top of that list).

One can also see all the messes in the former Soviet Union — Moldova, Transnistria, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, the Donets Basin, Nagorno-Karabakh, et cetera — as a similar "breakup of an empire" mess.

On the other hand, though, I also recall people once arguing that one of the major harms European colonialism inflicted upon Africa in "the scramble" was carving out territories and drawing up borders willy-nilly, without concern for the existing ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groupings — causing some groups who identified as one people to be split apart in some cases, and in others causing differing groups with historical animosities to be forced together. And further, that "fixing" this would involve African nations reorganizing themselves along ethno-religio-cultural-linguistic lines. (I have a further aside on this I may write-up later.)

And multi-ethnic empires have their own issues. Sure, some have allowed the constituent ethnic groups a fair amount of autonomy, such as the Ottoman "millet" system. But others, not so much — look at what happened to Gaulish and the other continental Celtic languages under Roman rule; or "Hanification" in China.

In multi-ethnic empires, there's always one central, ruling ethicity — usually the one that founded it. And there's a general extractive flow of wealth from the periphery to the core, and from subject peoples to the ruling people (when this flow reverses, and the ostensible rulers are instead paying the other peoples, is often when the Empire begins failing — note that it was the Turkish national movement that ultimately overthrew the Sultan). Plus, said rulers often play the subject peoples against each other.

In short, nationalist states have some problems, empires have some different problems.

Someone in one of the reply chains also made reference to Medieval kingdoms; particularly, to the idea that a ruler was "King of France" — because that's where the bulk of the territory he held was located — rather than "King of the French" — ruler of a specific people. The kind of thing that led to situations like the Spanish Netherlands, Norman Sicily, the King of England also being the Elector of Hanover, the kings of Sweden and Poland each claiming to be the rightful monarch of both territories, and so on.

Despite that, there's much to favor in such a thing. But, as so many people keep reminding me when I bring up my monarchist views, this was the product of a number of specific preconditions. First, the utter disintegration of the western Roman Empire, leaving mostly just hyper-local identities — particularly once the Germanic migrations stopped, and the Franks and Goths assimilated to their local subjects.

Second, that the kings, particularly at the start of any given dynasty, and even sometimes well into the Early Modern period, were basically warlords — I recall reading one historian refer to Gustavus Adolphus as "the worst kind of sociopath," and another argue that the life story of Henry VII is, in its broad strokes, basically the same as any number of Latin American dictators. Look at Clovis I, Harald Hardrata, or William the Conqueror, or…

Third, this state of affairs was also a product of the comparative weakness of those kings. Because, for quite some time, pretty much any local baron who owned a castle was a power to be reckoned with, and kings were often more "first among equals" with these lords — see King John, the Magna Carta, the Barons' War, and so on. This was a product of the military technologies of the time; effective war-fighting was by highly-trained, heavily-equipped elite cavalry — knights — who were expensive… but not so expensive that local lords couldn't afford to maintain an effective retinue of them. Defensive fortifications like castles were highly effective, and slow and costly to besiege.

Then cannons and early firearms came along, which actually served to centralize power — kings were able to use them to take more power and authority from the aristocracy, leading to the replacement of decentralized feudal structures with royal absolutism (and a growing central bureaucracy to run and manage said centralized government). Then later firearms made the average commoner with little training into an effective war-fighter — thus "the Age of the Gun" and resulting democratization of the centralized state.

I'll admit, it's hard to see a pathway back to that sort of mid-level balance — where neither the numbers of the common masses nor the deep pockets of a centralized state provide much advantage in war over a localized petty elite. The "Age of the Gun" may have ended, but our current military modes (with multi-million-dollar equipment) again favor the centralized state — either a nation-state or an empire — over both local authority and the common citizen. Some argue that 4th-generation warfare might see a return of "people power" (though I have my doubts); and I've seen others debate how expensive effective autonomous weapons of a coming "Age of the Drone" might prove, and thus what scale of political organization it favors.

Then there's the city-state, which has even more local autonomy, and which seems to be in many ways a preferable manner of organization. But the problem there, is that they almost always run afoul of the economies of scale in war-fighting. There's a reason those feudal barons, for all their power, ended up pledging fealty to one king or another, and even in the modern era, unless you either have somehow obtained WMDs with an effective long-distance delivery system, or are under the protective aegis of a larger polity with such, a lone city-state is just too easy to push around militarily, if not de-facto conquer.

Sure, Nick Land argued that while nuclear-tipped ICBMs will remain out of reach for microstates, we can expect city-states to proliferate again once DNA technologies mean they can have a WMD deterrent in the form of "$1000 smallpox" or other bioweapons. I don't suppose I have to tell you, particularly now, why having hundreds of labs around the world manufacturing and storing virulent and deadly man-made plagues does not sound like a good idea to me.

Going all the way back to Westphalia, again, I'd like to note that the key principle there was not anything about nationalism directly, but about religion — ending the generations of bloody post-Reformation wars with the "truce" principle of cuius regio, eius religio. That the religion of each state was the business of its government and its government only, and that it's no longer a ruler's place to intervene in a neighboring ruler's territory to rescue the souls of his subjects from vile heresy with fire and sword.

There's a certain echo of this in the proposals of certain libertarian, ex-libertarian, and libertarian-adjacent left-wing people of a loose confederation of microstates wherein, in an example of exit-over-voice, people are free to relocate so as to sort themselves on ideological (compare to religious) lines. Friedman's seasteads, Yarvin's "patchwork," and Alexander's "archipelago" all come to mind as core examples. But these have a number of issues. First, the ways in which they presuppose a level of mobility, of ability and willingness to relocate, that I find unrealistic to expect from much of the population. I note here that it seems to be a very specific sort of person who recommends this sort of solution.

Second, it very much requires a Westphalian live-and-let-live, what happens in the patch next door is none of my business no matter how wrong I believe it to be, attitude. But replace "one true faith" with "universal human rights" and saving souls from heresy with "humanitarian intervention," and we see that, like I said before, such a spirit is quite dead — "all it takes for evil to triumph…", "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", et cetera. Like we saw with Libya, unless you have the WMD-MAD means to prevent it, expect the superpower to enact "regime change" on you if your way of life somehow offends their particular "universal" orthodoxy.

TL;DR: nation-state, empire, feudal kingdom, city-states, patchwork — it's trade-offs all around.

#nationalism #empire #peace of westphalia #nation-state #feudalism #dark ages #fall of rome #ottoman empire #africa #cuius regio eius religio #long #effortposting #rambling

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creepingsharia · 5 years

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How a Pakistani/Islamic Lobby took over Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign sabotaging his aspirations

It’s not by chance that many young Muslim politicians across America have emerged from the Bernie Sanders circuit. It’s by design. They have hijacked Bernie Sanders infrastructure, funding and ground game to win elections, knowing he won’t be around very long.

Excerpted from: “How a Pakistani/Islamic Lobby took over Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign sabotaging his aspirations”

...

While foreign policy is always Bernie's Achilles Heel, it had minimal impact in 2016 as he was focusing his domestic policies as the center of his movement.

However, there was an interesting dynamic of Arab Muslims from Michigan and Minnesota showing interest in Bernie Sanders partly because of his views on Israel-Palestine and endorsement of Keith Ellison. Qatar's state-owned media Al Jazeera did its part warning Muslims to not vote for Hillary and openly endorsing Bernie Sanders as a choice for Muslims.

After the failed campaign in 2016, the planning stages for making progressive movement permanent one and Bernie's 2020 presidential bid has begun.

Sometime in 2017, Bernie Sanders and his associates made a grave mistake of miscalculating this phenomenon as a way to consolidate all Muslim American voters to support him. This comes at a time, Saudi Wahhabi funding in the United States is in full swing and Islamic lobby is now a well-oiled machine ready for prime-time waiting for the right opportunity to seize political power in the United States. A record number of Muslim Americans ran for office in 2018 enjoying endorsement and support from Bernie Sanders, "Our Revolution" and "Justice Democrats".

With the success of 2018 midterms especially with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib elections, the underlying sentiment that Muslim voter consolidation would help Bernie Sanders campaign gets validated. Decisions were made, campaign staffing has begun and ground-level organization is underway. The only problem is Michigan and Minnesota has highest concentration Arab Muslims and this trend would not necessarily hold true across United States. This decision later would result into shenanigans that further contributed to loss of millions of Indian American and Jewish American votes who traditionally vote democrats.

As if it's match made in heaven, Pakistan was already in full swing in hiring lobby firms in order get more influence in American politics especially with FATF decision to place Pakistan in "grey-list" with irrefutable evidence that Pakistan is harboring terrorists as a weapon against India and countering growing influence of India within the United States. Bernie Sanders campaign is the perfect vehicle to achieve its goals. Enter 2020 Bernie's Presidential campaign manager - Faiz Shakir.

The curious case of Faiz Shakir:

Jeff Weaver, 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign manager did a phenomenal job of closing 60 points with Hillary Clinton. That's a great feat considering Bernie Sanders, an unknown independent senator from Vermont with virtually no name recognition. Jeff is a close friend of Bernie Sanders for decades who is also ideologically similar to Bernie Sanders.

However, Faiz Shakir was appointed as campaign manager in February 2019 to lead 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. This came as surprise as Faiz Shakir was part of the same establishment Bernie has been fighting all his life. Faiz started his career as a junior staffer for John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004. In 2005 he started working for the Center for American Progress for over a decade which is an establishment organization led by Neera Tanden. In addition to that, he was a close associate of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Faiz was also ardent supporter and part of Hillary Clinton campaign in both 2008 and 2016 primaries. So how this establishment insider has become 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign manager? A dishonest alliance between Progressive movement and Islamic/Pakistani lobby trying to achieve it's foreign policy goals.

Faiz Shakir's goal was to build to an Islamic campaign according to his own Wikileaks email. Bernie Sanders campaign was the perfect opportunity for allowing him to do so. This was further documented in another Wikileaks email below.

Faiz Shakir, a first-generation Pakistani American is a Muslim-advocate in the United States. He mostly gets positive press because he was part of establishment think-tanks like Center for American Progress and his media called ThinkProgress. He is often seen as an inspiring figure by the left referring to him as a "civil rights advocate" as he is National Political Director for ACLU. Ironically he got the job through a recommendation from John Podesta but not by merits, according to leaked Wikileaks email below.

Ironically Faiz Shakir's wife Sarah Miller is part of network of Pierre Omidyar, former eBay billionaire, media mogul, who deserves his own article. In short, he likes Neo Nazis and loves conflicts around the world.

He was also seen mocking Bernie Sanders for his ideology like -

"yeah, my favorite part is how he connects is to "billionaire families" in the Arab world. Always goes back to the billionaires. Hilarious. It sounds a bit too much like "our war in Syria and Iraq is ultimately a battle to reshape Islam". We'd lose that one. But I like the direction he's going. Maybe you could one-up him with: "ISIS is trying to behead Islam" (kidding, don't do that)"

So how was Bernie Sanders taken for a ride and fooled into hiring Faiz Shakir? The answer lies

in as much as Bernie Sanders is against lobby-ism, he was part of the game where he failed to realize lobby-ism exists in the progressive spectrum as well. Pakistan Intelligence agency secretly funnels millions of dollars to political leaders indirectly, like the shocking incident in 2018 where Federal agents took prominent Pakistani American into custody over proven illegal funneled lobbies over Kashmir policy.

Regarding Faiz Shakir's history, In 2002 he earned a bachelor’s degree in government at Harvard University, where he was a member of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS). In 2000, Shakir served as a co-chair for HIS’s Islamic Awareness Week events, one of which was a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a group that acted as the fundraising arm for Hamas in the United States. HLF was later shut down by the feds, and its leaders were found guilty of sending money to Hamas, which has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of States.

Shakir co-authored the “Fear Inc.” report, which implicitly claimed that Islamophobia was the product of a Jewish conspiracy, and wrote positively about the Tunisian Islamist Al-Nahda Party and its genocidal head, Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, who has engaged in blatant anti-Semitism and has said, “There are no civilians in Israel. The population—males, females, and children—are the army reserve soldiers, and thus can be killed.”

Fatal Downward spiral of Bernie's campaign:

Linda Sarsour's surrogate appointment:

The red flag of controversial Sharia Law proponent Linda Sarsour surely made several progressives scratch their heads, but her comments like "waging jihad against the United States" never raised eyebrows in Bernie's Campaign. In 2011 she famously mocked Islamic female genital mutilation victim - Ayaan Hirsi Ali that "She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away- they don’t deserve to be women". She is a strong proponent and open advocate of Sharia law. She is so controversial that even women's march cut ties with her due to her anti-semite/radical Islam views and close ties with the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Matt Duss's foreign-policy advisor appointment:

Matt Duss like Faiz Shakir comes from the family of Center for American Progress and ThinkProgress, it is widely believed that Faiz Shakir is the reason why he was pulled into Bernie Sanders campaign.

Matt Duss is everything opposite to what Bernie Sanders stands for, he is a strong proponent for RussiaGate, a debunked theory democrats failed to materialize. Matt Duss is the reason Bernie Sanders engages in out of place narrative that Russia hacked 2016 elections which ironically used against him now. He scripted Bernie Sanders foreign policy from Venezuela to Russia.

Bernie Sanders abrupt affiliation and appearances with "Islamic Society of North America" (ISNA):

Founded by Muslim student organizations tightly linked to Muslim brotherhood in 1963, Bernie Sanders began supporting these conventions starting from 2017 and even attended for a speech in 2019.

But Karnabro, you are just being an islamophobe, what's wrong with attending Islamic convention? A normie reader might ask.

I have no problem with Islamic conventions, but Bernie Sanders being champion of LGBT rights giving validation to the organization who banned LGBT groups as recently as in 2017 on the grounds of "religious and private event" is what I have problem with. He also took the opportunity to share his second-hand ill-advised opinion on India-Pakistan Kashmir issue, sharing the stage with Pakistan's PM Imran Khan. Faiz Shakir used his connections to make the coalition of Pakistan's PM Imran Khan and Bernie Sanders happen, especially in the sensitive Kashmir Issue. Ironically the issue where Kashmir was integrated into India protecting LGBT rights and minorities by removing autonomous existing sharia law rules.

Bernie's abrupt change in foreign policy outlook regarding India and Kashmir:

Bernie Sanders. who never spoke about India-Pakistan's Kashmir issue in his entire career in started putting out narratives about how Kashmir is should be freed from India failing to understand the complex history of the issue that originated in 1947. His comments consistently criticized India's decision to integrate Kashmir under Indian law from status-quo Sharia law. This is an uncharted territory where a US presidential candidate interfering with a sovereign democratic country's internal issues which are India's, especially when they are based on flawed and misguided arguments. The final nail in the coffin for any Indian-American support happened just before Super Tuesday where Bernie Sanders weighed in violent Delhi riots which were orchestrated by Indian Muslims, where the riots led to the majority of casualties who are Indian Hindus. The grave mistake committed by Bernie Sanders is that he tweeted this below. Ironically the article he tagged doesn't mention that it's "anti-Muslim mob violence" as the fact is that it's anti-Hindu mob violence where the majority of Hindus were killed including an Indian Federal intelligence officer who was stabbed 200 times.

There is a reason why historically presidential candidates don't indulge in polarizing foreign policy, especially in the areas where they are not knowledgeable. There is a reason why Obama had bromance with Modi in 2015. Modi is a popular leader who Indian establishment/media hates, but ultimately loved majority of Indians because of his progressive policies.

Read more about Modi.

Bernie Campaign's Collusion with Pakistani establishment and government:

Bernie Sanders who indulged in Russiagate in the past, found himself to be in similar position except, the collusion is now between Bernie's campaign and Pakistan.

Bernie Sanders and Pakistan's PM Imran Khan shared the same stage in 2019 ISNA convention sharing identical views on India's internal issues like Kashmir.

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Houston, Bernie Sanders personally took some time off in order to write an oped about India in Houston Chronicle, a stunt which surprised many as Bernie choose to write an oped regarding Indian Foreign Policy instead of opeds that explain his policies to American voters. This is a blunder in a presidential campaign in modern history, as Bernie who was favorite to win Texas managed to lose the primary to Joe Biden. Considering Modi's event in Houston attracted 50000 audience, probably the best way to lose hundreds of thousands of Indian American votes in order to appease a foreign government, Pakistan. Thanks to Faiz Shakir, Bernie's campaign manager getting the priorities straight.

Following is one of thousands of pro Bernie banners that one can find in Pakistan, promoted by Pakistan's government. One can understand why cash strapped Pakistani government choosing to spend on behalf of Bernie Sanders campaign in Islamabad, Pakistan. Once again, thanks to Faiz Shakir.

Bernie Sanders campaign's coordinated attack on Tulsi Gabbard:

Tulsi Gabbard was an early supporter of Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign. It came as surprise to Indian Americans as Bernie surrogates started coordinated attacks against beloved Tulsi Gabbard which are inherently Hinduphobic and false smears. This religious bigotry expressed by Bernie surrogates towards Tulsi Gabbard probably would not go well with millions of Indian Americans who support her.

Out of place anti-Indian and pro-Pakistani shenanigans within Bernie's campaign:

After the launch of Bernie's presidential campaign, there was a weird trend of campaign insiders courting fringe elements like Sameera Khan, a well known Pakistani propagandist who idolizes Stalin, Pakistan and China's fascist policies. Ironically she is popular among Bernie supporters even though she is anti-Bernie when it comes to Pakistan-China nexus.

Mehdi Hasan who was against Bernie till 2019, suddenly becomes Bernie Sanders fan. He is a great individual with some amazing views.

Ro Khanna validating a hinduphobic Khalistani troll - Pieter Friedrich. Learn more about the rising 2020 Khalistani movement here.

Ro Khanna's weird pro-Pakistan signaling by joining Congressional Pakistan Caucus even though he is not Pakistani.

Pramila Jayapal abrupt attempt to hijack a US official meeting with Indian diplomat where she was not invited regarding the issue of Kashmir.

Appointment of Khalistani terrorism sympathizer Arjun Sethi as a campaign surrogate. Learn more about Khalistani terrorist movement.

Conclusion:

While Bernie Sanders and his close associates lack the critical thinking about avoiding getting taken over by Pakistani/Islamic lobby, it is unfortunate for millions of progressives that progressive movement is dead as they know it.

#Elections #Islam #Muslim #Sharia #Jihad #Immigration #Legal #Politics #News #Media

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antoine-roquentin · 5 years

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“Recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations.”

– Jem Bendell, professor of sustainability leadership, University of Cumbria, UK

“Perseverance porn goes hand in hand with the rise of a GoFundMe economy that relies on personal narrative over collective policy, emotional appeals over baseline human rights. $930 million out of the $2 billion raised on GoFundMe since its inception in 2010 was for healthcare expenses, while an estimated 45,000 people a year die a year due to a lack of medical treatment. Meanwhile, anchors across cable news insist that single-payer healthcare is “unaffordable,” browbeating guests who support it, while populating their broadcasts with these one-off tales of people heroically scraping by.”

– Adam Johnson, Media’s Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn, (FAIR)

“The liberal class thus divides into two breakaway clans, those who limit themselves to lip-service monologues with which they publicize their sense of injustice over comfortable meals, wine glasses brandished as weapons to punctuate their outrage. Then there are the true thespians, who take to the streets, wielding placards filled with exclamations and chanting songs of resistance as their throngs progress clumsily down the avenue, thoughtfully cleared of traffic in advance by local authorities. On the one hand, gestural politics; on the other, theater.”

– Jason Hirthler, The Curious Malaise of the Middle Class, (Dissident Voice)

“This present momentism appears, at least on the surface, as a therapeutic solvent for all our problems, making our present situation more bearable. But this bearability of the status quo amounts to a permanent retreat to the psychic bomb shelter of now, a kind of bury-your-head in the sand mindfulness which acts as a sanitized palliative for neoliberal subjects who have lost hope for alternatives to capitalism.”

– Ronald Purser, The Faux Revolution of Mindfulness, Open Democracy, author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality

“Empires are death cults, and death cults, on a subliminal basis, long for their own demise. Paradoxically, the collective mindset of imperium, even as it thrusts across the expanse of the world, renders itself insular, cut off from culturally enhancing novelty, as all the while, the homeland descends into a psychical swamp of churning madness.”

– Phil Rochstroh, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Capitalism, Counterpunch

In the waning days of the American Empire a sort of collective madness has seemed to take hold of its ruling class. It is perhaps most clear in the unhinged and incessant decrees of the bloated emperor via tweet. But it is also in the idiotic ramblings of his minions redefining fossil fuels as “freedom gas” or rapidly melting Arctic seas as an economic “opportunity.” It can also be seen in the reactionary and warmongering responses of the so-called resistance in the corrupt Democratic Party establishment and corporate media regarding Russiagate. Or Bolton and Pompeo inventing evidence to justify more imperial wars just years after the disastrous assault on Iraq and during the longest ongoing US war in Afghanistan. It extends to the incredulous claims of Michele Bachmann that Trump is “godly and biblical” and televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who described his aversion to flying commercial airlines as getting in “a long tube with demons,” calling for a national day of prayer for the orange-tinted tyrant. It is truly staggering to behold.

Amidst all this madness, crimes and atrocities are being committed in broad daylight by that same ruling class both domestically and abroad. In the Middle-East the ruling class, via their corporations General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is aiding and benefiting from outright genocide in Yemen by the most brutal and criminal of America’s colonies: Saudi Arabia. Similar profits are garnished from backing the apartheid regime in Israel and the military junta in Egypt. In Brazil the ruling class has only just begun to see the dollars roll in from Bolsonaro’s further opening up of the Amazon, the planet’s proverbial lungs. In Modi’s India, they are salivating at the chance to despoil more of the sub-continents riches. And around the world corporations and the fossil fuel industry continues its mad and blind dash toward species extinction.

Back in the US police violence against people of color remains steady and the prison industry is still booming. Along the southern border, migrants from Central America are seeking legal asylum, scores of them young children. Their only “crime” is fleeing their homelands which have been ruthlessly torn up by US foreign policy for at least a century. But they are being rounded up by militias and sent to concentration camps. LGBT and mentally ill migrants are being tortured in solitary confinement. Families are being separated, children caged, violated, dying from preventable diseases.

In the era of social media all of this information is readily available for those interested. Even those uninterested are exposed to what is happening via the ubiquitous social media newsfeed. Indeed, a subdued disquiet among the bourgeoisie has become undeniable. But endless imperialistic wars, rampant corruption, human rights abuses, waning economic advancement, and mass species extinction hasn’t yet prodded most of them from their homes to shut down the machinery of this cult of death, even though it threatens the very futures of their own children. When the bourgeoisie in the US do get out to protest the events are generally scripted, scheduled, sanctioned and televised by the establishment itself. The appropriate permits are obtained. No traffic is stopped. No building is occupied. The status quo remains intact and the necessary steam of middle-class angst is let off until the next event. In the meantime, the war, prison and surveillance industry expand, police militarization continues apace, the environment continues to be raped and pillaged, and fundamental freedoms like speech and reproductive rights are systematically dismantled. By comparison, any actual dissent is met with swift authoritarian violence by the corporate state; Standing Rock Sioux and BLM as stark examples.

Perpetually harried and fearful of losing the tenuous privilege afforded to them by the ruling class, the white middle class in the US has little time to focus on anything outside their prescribed bubble of experience. They inhabit a world constructed by the capricious and cynical designers of the free market. A place devoid of the words “ruling class,” where the mantra of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” reigns supreme in an era of neoliberal barbarism. Where even if one is working fulltime they may still not have access to basic healthcare coverage. Where they are saddled with enormous debt that can never really be paid off in anyone’s lifetime. Peering at the world through the lens of glowing, hand sized screens, connecting algorithmically to the pulse of a commercially constructed world, most essentially exist in a pixelated prison of suspended and unconnected moments, reinforced by procedural programs which have been meticulously written in the posh and sterile board rooms of Madison Avenue and in the Silicon Valley. History is extinguished here, as are agency and imagination. It is a consumerist world that conforms to the dictatorship of money.

Americans have been socially conditioned for decades to accept these contradictions of their economic, social and political arrangement. Meanwhile suicide is rampant, punctuated by mass shootings. Opioid abuse is taking many more lives. Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry has thrived off this angst, convincing millions that their psychic and social maladies are all due to a personal or chemical defect, not the system itself. That working people barely stave off homelessness and middle class families are increasingly separated from their loved ones and communities by having to travel long hours to a job (or jobs) which hardly covers daily expenses, is a struggle not considered telegenic enough, unless it is cast in the heroic light of “personal responsibility.”

Indeed, Hollywood and corporate media reinforce the mythology of American greatness while its populace becomes ever more weighted down by the late stage capitalist nightmare. Whether it be CNN or MSNBC, distraction from issues related to class or economic disenfranchisement rule the day. Russiagate, the “scary” (and non-existent) migrant caravan, or Trump’s latest outlandish or absurd tweet dominate the news cycles. Catastrophic climate change, the staggering loss of biodiversity, burgeoning suicides among youth, the elderly or veterans, the never-ending and expanding war machine of the Pentagon, growing police violence and a bursting prison industrial complex, corporate and banking corruption, increased economic disparity and hardship? Not so much.

Movies and programs about dystopia have been ubiquitous for many years now, but the factors that contribute to these apocalyptic futures have nothing to do with the actual existential threats we are now facing. Zombies and terrorists dominate the themes presented, and this reflects back on the enormous influence of the Pentagon, Department of Defense, CIA, et al. on mass media. Even video games mirror the warped and expansionist aspirations of the American establishment and its bellicose foreign policy. For decades, these agencies have sought to steer the narrative of American angst toward conformity with the capitalist status quo. And they have been largely successful thanks to many attributes of American life itself. Suburbia and automobile culture after WW 2 erased the commons to create a sort of facsimile of community, often devoid of central spaces, character or originality, and connected by ribbons of featureless highway. Vast dead spaces that are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

But even relatively innocuous programs and movies are divorced from lived reality. I was watching one recently at a friend’s house about a group of friends taking a trip to the wine country. With some mild and typically safe humor to garnish a few chuckles, it was rife with convention and contrivance. The most glaring thing of all, though, was the lack of any class reflected in the character’s diverse lives. All were of the American middle-class in one form or another. Some single mothers, others working highly paid jobs. But none of them facing what the majority of Americans actually face. None of them living pay check to pay check, lacking basic healthcare coverage, paying exorbitant rents or mortgages, or saddled with perpetual debt. But as long as their character’s clothing and surroundings were furnished by Zara, Williams-Sonoma and Pier One, the circumstances of reality were easily eclipsed. Forgotten.

Indeed, the Age of Trump, which is the product of decades of capitalist rot, has demonstrated that the American bourgeoisie have been largely inured to their continually degraded status. They cannot see class oppression because those words are not in the lexicon. Corporate capitalism has created an insular world of sterile detachment from the real world in which it inhabits. “Human resource” departments, situated in nearly every workplace, effectively erase class and context by enforcing optimism and encouraging a kind of self-policed dialogue. Outside this world, mass media manages “threats” by externalizing and otherizing. So little has really changed in the narrative. Once upon a time it was the communists, Jews, Khrushchev, the Vietcong, the sexually “deviant,” people of color, Russia. Now it is migrants, Muslims, Julian Assange, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, LGBTQ, people of color, Russia. All scapegoats for the country’s failures and abysmal state. All psychic projections of animus and angst for a bourgeoisie in America that never understood the machinations of its ruling class or shook itself free of the “exceptionalism” of its Calvinist puritanical roots.

But the angst of the American bourgeoisie is demonstrated more by what it doesn’t speak about than what it does. It is a disquiet which is at once terrified of the collapse that looms ahead and horrified at the idea of losing the status quo arrangement, even though that status quo is benefiting fewer and fewer people. It stands simultaneously aghast and paralyzed before the obvious madness of its rulers, and yet continually grasps at failed “lesser evilism” as a solution. And it largely still buys into the noxious mythology of it being the “greatest country on earth.” The corporate elite, having stripped down civic education over decades, robbed them of their political agency and resistance and replaced it with a sanitized history and demoralizing optimism, or “positive thinking,” which places all blame for their collective state and its inadequacies on the individual. That it has been so lauded by Wall Street should cause anyone to wonder why it has been so internalized by the disenfranchised masses.

To be sure, this arrangement is rapidly meeting its end. Banking and corporate corruption, never really having been dealt with in the last “Great Recession” or its notorious state funded “bailout,” has only become more blind and reckless. The membrane of the bubble created after that fiasco, born in avarice, is thinning in plain sight. It is about to burst again, and this time it will be far more catastrophic. The endless imperialistic wars that the US has engaged in for the last decades are also creating a financial strain. Coupled with climate breakdown those expensive bases of aggression around the world will begin to cost more than they bring in profit. In the US itself biblical floods are wiping clean the soil graded for agriculture throughout the Midwest and causing tremendous economic hardship for scores of rural and commercial farmers. Droughts offer a grim alternative to this increasingly chaotic climate pattern. Food prices will undoubtedly rise in the future thanks to a capitalist system which creates artificial shortages and surpluses.

Indeed, around the world the climate is shifting dramatically between drought and deluge affecting huge swaths of habitat. Already countless species have succumbed to this ramification of a warming world. But also to industrial pollution, defilement of the oceans, misuse of land and extraction of minerals and fossil fuels: the excesses of capitalism. According to a recent study, a million more species are being marched down the halls of extinction today. Trash is filling the world’s oceans, with birds, turtles and whales washing up by the thousands with bloated bellies full of plastic detritus. It’s literally raining plastic particles now in many places. And all the while the beneficiaries of this pernicious and omnicidal system are dwindling to a select few who are incapable of grasping the quietus of all life on the planet, let alone their own. But without a doubt, this small segment of society will fight ferociously for their continued privilege no matter how untenable, absurd or suicidal it is.

The concurrent madness of the ruling class and the angst of the bourgeoisie in our age isn’t anything surprising. Like the phenomenon of Trump, it has been an unholy union in the making for a long time. The product of empire itself. Social media and the death throes of capitalism have only made it more visible to the general public as of late. But it should be understood that while the ruling class are moneyed and powerful, they are not omnipotent, nor are they more intelligent than the rest of us. On the contrary, even as it sees the demise of the biosphere on which it depends, this “elite” class can do nothing else but marshal the language in an attempt to save its failing economic trajectory. Thus, it is militarizing our collective existential moment: not to save the planet, but to save capitalism itself. And it will do this by deflection, brutally punishing or even eradicating those who have the least impact: the poor, the working class, and the global south.

Under a darkening, climate changed sky, created by the avarice of a few and their ceaseless wars and atrocities, an imperiled and disappearing biosphere lies before us all. Therefore, remaining silent and accepting the status quo in the face of ruling class folly, cruelty and madness, should only be interpreted as complicity to the crime.

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spooky-froll · 6 years

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There are more than a few areas where public opinion in Middle America stands in sharp contrast to the groupthink that occurs in Washington. One of these areas of discord is Syria and whether American troops should be involved in that country’s seven-year civil war.

While the American public supported President Trump’s limited airstrikes in Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Assad following its use of chemical weapons and the fight to eliminate the Islamic State — a radical Sunni group — the public is roundly convinced U.S. troops should not be on the ground in Syria to topple the Assad government. Americans have also long opposed arming anti-Assad rebel groups — a huge portion of which happen to be radical jihadists — despite the Western media’s repeated attempts to whitewash and overlook the rebels’ extremism.

In other words, Americans support fighting jihadists, but they are done with regime change and do not want our soldiers embroiled in a complex civil war full of bad guys on all sides. And “complex” is an understatement.

On one side of this war sits the Assad regime in the west, its Shia-Muslim supporters Iran and Hezbollah, and Russia — the Assad regime’s benefactor since the Cold War. Allied with Assad are religious minorities including Yazidis and Christians.

On the other side are endless groups of Sunni Muslim rebels trying to topple the regime. These rebels include the Islamic State, and jihadist groups that are affiliated with al-Qaeda. Added to the fray is Sunni Turkey — a member of NATO and a supposed U.S. ally — who has intervened to fight Assad, and to fight Kurdish forces who are aligned with America in the fight against ISIS in Syria’s north. Meanwhile, the Sunni Gulf States led by Saudi Arabia have heavily supported the Sunni rebels’ efforts with arms, money, and supplies.

Fortunately, with jihadist groups on the run, there is a chance the Syrian civil war could be nearing an end. In other words, the Assad regime is gaining ground, its grip on power a fait accompli. Russian and Syrian jets have stepped up their bombing of Islamic State positions along the Jordan-Israel border in southwestern Syria. And the White Helmets, an aide group affiliated with the Sunni-rebels, have pulled out and moved to Jordan.

The defeat of ISIS means U.S. troops should be coming home, which is exactly what most Americans want. Yet when they watch cable or network news, or read The New York Times’ editorial page, Americans might think they are the only ones who believe the U.S. should stay out of this war. The Beltway establishment has been calling for U.S. troops on the ground in Syria — to take out the Assad regime — for years. The political class are so convinced American troops should be in Syria that they don’t even bother to make good arguments as to why, or respond to valid criticism of such misguided, unproductive policies.

Because Trump has expressed that he wants U.S. troops out of Syria, they say that he is at risk of being taken “advantage” of by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Others say that Trump is a “sell out … to Putin.” Alleged foreign policy gurus like Max Boot — who have been wrong about everything for decades — claim that pulling America out of Syria would make us subservient to Russia or would be “handing Putin a victory.”

Some of these so-called pundits have even suggested that Trump’s decision to end the CIA’s arming of Syrian rebels — which cost one billion dollars per year and was both overwhelmingly ineffective and resulted in American weapons ending up in the hands of al-Qaida thugs — is evidence of some nefarious hold that Russia has over Trump.

Most of the time, when someone makes a personal attack or smear instead of making a reasoned case, it’s because they don’t have a good argument to make. This holds true here.

When they can muster one, the argument that is made by the foreign policy establishment says that ceding Syria to Russia and Iran would be a terrible development. Vox wrote that Trump is “desperate” to remove U.S. troops from Syria, and frets this would free up the Assad regime to take back rebel positions in southwestern Syria. Likewise, The Wall Street Journal editorial board knocked Trump for wanting to replicate a July 2017 de-escalation agreement with Russia, which would allow America to pull its troops out of southwestern Syria. The Journal’s editors said Trump was being “conned” by Russia.

But Russia has operated in Syria since the Cold War. And Iran has had some influence there for decades, mostly a result of religious similarities between Alawites and Shias.

Why should America care if Syria becomes Russia’s problem and not ours? More importantly, what really matters isn’t what is bad for Putin and Russia, but what is good for America. Despite a defense budget higher in real terms than what Reagan spent during the Cold War, America’s military is seriously overstretched. At a time when we must pivot away from these Middle Eastern political battles and focus on deterring great power conflict, the U.S. can’t afford to get bogged down in Syria.

As for Iran’s influence, which has been the status quo for many decades, the Assad regime would gladly not be subservient to the Mullahs in Tehran forever. But that can only happen if Assad no longer fears for his life.

The other truth is that America’s past efforts to intervene — which include the billions of dollars spent by the CIA to arm anti-Assad jihadists — have only prolonged the civil war. Up to half a million people have been killed as a result of this terrible war, and another 10 million made refugees. Continuing the war by aiding anti-Assad rebels means more bloodshed and destabilization.

This brings us to the most important point. There is a very real question of what would happen if Assad’s government were ever actually toppled. It is likely that the forces that would replace Assad — unless America remained in Syria for a very long time — would be worse than the Assad regime. Aside from the Kurds that live in Syria’s north, the U.S. doesn’t have a true ally in this fight. In other words, it’s not in America’s interest to be there.

Americans are sick of endless wars, and a bipartisan consensus of ordinary Americans yearns for more realism, restraint, and plain common sense in U.S. foreign policy. Washington must give up its obsession with toppling regimes. We must eliminate direct threats to America, not spend trillions in failed attempts to re-engineer societies, especially in strategically unimportant lands, as we have since 9/11.

The Beltway elite need to make better arguments before we mess with the status quo and put American men and women in harm’s way to fight what, at best, looks like the continuation of the 1,400 year struggle between Shia and Sunni Muslims. At worst, this looks like a conflict with at least four different sides that could lead to World War III.

Trump ran on representing the forgotten American, and against the D.C. elite, especially on foreign policy. There are few better ways to fulfill that pledge than to pull American troops out of Syria now that ISIS terrorists have been defeated on the battlefield. Instead of listening to his advisors — all of whom come from the same failed foreign policy establishment — Trump should follow his instincts and listen to the American people.

#Syria #U.S. Foreign Policy #Syrian Rebels #Al-Qaeda

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go-redgirl · 6 years

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Ted Cruz Shares 7 Biggest Christian Conservative Victories Since Trump Took Office Christian Post ^ | 06/08/2018 | Samuel Smith

Speaking to a ballroom filled with Christian conservatives Thursday, 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz reflected on seven of the biggest victories for faith and families achieved since Donald Trump took over the White House in January 2017.

During a luncheon kicking off the annual Road to Majority Conference hosted by the influential social conservative advocacy group Faith & Freedom Coalition, the Texas senator celebrated the conservative political accomplishments of the last year and a half.

Cruz, who was the last Republican standing in Trump's way before Trump clinched the Republican nomination in 2016, has played a large role in the slim Republican-majority Senate that, he says, has led to victories for conservatives in addition to what has been accomplished by the Trump administration.

The following pages contain the seven "victories" outlined by Cruz during his 25-minute speech at the 2018 Road to Majority Conference.

1. The appointment of "principled, constitutionalist judges" There was no bigger voting issue for many Christian conservatives in 2016 than the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court and the appointment of constitutionalist judges.

Conservatives were delighted when Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the bench. The former Tenth Circuit Court judge was confirmed on April 7, 2017.

In addition to the Gorsuch nomination, Trump has been successful in rapidly nominating federal judges at other levels of the judiciary.

In praising the Gorsuch selection, Cruz celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling this week in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who was fighting a six-year long legal battle after he was punished by the state government for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.

"If we lived in the sort of society that those who called themselves liberal prescribe, a tolerant society, that would have been the end of the story," he said of Phillips' case. "He would have lived according to his faith and we would have respected that faith and the diversity amongst us. But there are those with a legal agenda that wanted to drive that baker out of business, to punish him and any other person of faith for daring to live according to their faith."

Cruz led several members of Congress in issuing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of Phillips.

2. Human life

Cruz also celebrated the numerous pro-life victories that have been achieved by the Trump administration.

"We have seen in the last year-and-a-half significant victories for preserving innocent life," he said.

One of the first moves Trump made on the pro-life front was reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits foreign aid from going to organizations and clinics around the world that perform abortions.

Cruz also pointed out how the U.S. pulled out of funding the United Nations Population Fund that, he says, was "complicit in China's horrific practices of forced sterilizations and forced abortions."

"We saw [the Department of Health and Human Services] issue new rules, returning to the old rules prohibiting taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood and clinics that provide abortions.

"Not only that, but we saw the administration rescind the abhorrent so-called contraceptive mandate in Obamacare — a mandate that was interpreted by the Obama administration to force or to try to force believers to fund abortion-inducing drugs. The consequences of that decision is in the litigation against the Little Sisters of the Poor."

3. Tax cut

Last December, the Republican-led Congress passed the most significant tax overhaul in three decades. The tax bill, conservatives say, will lead to more money being in the pockets of families.

"Cutting taxes on small businesses, cutting taxes on farmers, cutting taxes on ranchers, cutting taxes on families, doubling the standard deduction, What does that mean?" Cruz asked. "For a couple, standard deduction goes from $12,000 to $24,000. That means next year, 90 percent of Americans will be able to fill out your taxes on a postcard."

He pointed out that under the new tax bill, marginal tax rates are reduced in every bracket.

"We saw over 4 million Americans get pay raises, get bonuses because of the tax cut of $500, $1,000, more than $1,000. I was flying a few months ago on Southwest Airlines and a flight attendant walked up to me, hugged me and said 'Thanks for the pay raise.'"

Cruz argued that one of the most integral parts of the tax cut was the doubling of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child per year.

"If you have three kids, that is an additional $3,000 in your pocket," he said. "That's the money for your daughter to get braces. That is the money for you to take your kids on maybe the first family vacation you've been on in several years to go to Disney World, or to take your kids to a summer camp or maybe to invest in a college fund or help tuition or help pay healthcare. This is real money for people who are struggling and this is a group that cares about families."

4. Repealing of the Obamacare individual mandate

As part of the tax bill, conservatives were able to accomplish something that some thought was only a pipe dream by repealing the Obamacare individual mandate that left many liable to pay fines for not having healthcare.

"That is a big deal and something I led the fight to do in the Senate. I will tell you: back in October, there were maybe a half-dozen senators supporting us," Cruz said. "Most of the conference said 'Look, we made a run at Obamacare twice and we came up short. Let's not muck up tax reform with Obamacare.'"

He explained that he had to make the argument that repealing the mandate that individuals have health insurance would lead to millions of Americans who can't afford to pay health insurance not having to worry about paying a fine from the Internal Revenue Service every year.

"Here is how the Obamacare individual mandate works. Every year, the IRS fines 6.5 million Americans because they can't afford health insurance. Of those, roughly 80 percent earn $50,000 per year or less. Roughly 40 percent, earn $25,000 a year or less. About 1 million are Texans. I want you to imagine for a second that you are a single mom. You are working two jobs and you are struggling to make ends meet and you are trying to provide for your kids. You are not even making $25,000 a year and to add insult to injury, the IRS comes along and fines you because you can't afford to pay the premiums that have skyrocketed under Obamacare."

Cruz said that although there were only about six senators who wanted to put language to repeal the individual mandate in the tax bill in October, all 52 Republican senators ended up voting for the language in the end.

"That is a big conservative victory that no one in Washington thought we would win," he said. "Look, Obamacare is clearly the biggest unfinished promise that Republicans have. We need to finish the job. We need to keep rolling up our sleeves and finish the job and repeal every single word of Obamacare."

5. School choice tax bill amendment

An amendment that Cruz introduced to allow parents and families to extend 529 college funds to pay for K-12 education at public and private schools became the only amendment that was adopted on the Senate floor pertaining to the tax bill, according to the senator.

Under the expansion, parents can withdraw up to $10,000 per year from their 529 plans to pay for their children's primary or secondary education.

"With that, we saw the most far-reaching, federal school choice legislation that has ever passed come into law providing benefits to up to 50 million school kids across the country, enabling parents and grandparents to save for your kids and to save for your grandkids and choose the best education options for them."

6. Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

In May, Cruz attended the historic opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, a move that he and many other social conservative Christians have long pushed for.

He praised Trump for the fact that he was able to do something that presidents in both political parties have promised and failed to do.

"We had a year-and-a-half battle in the Trump administration. I interjetically argued for moving the embassy and President Trump made the right decision and now our embassy is in Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel."

7. Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal

Cruz is one of the most avid critics of the Obama administration's deal finalized in January 2016 to lift nuclear sanctions against Iran in exchange for concessions in its nuclear program for the next several years.

In fact, he and Trump held a joint rally to bash the deal in September 2015.

When Trump announced that he was pulling out of the Iran deal last month, Cruz was among the many who applauded.

"The president made the right decision to withdraw from the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal. Obama had sent tens of billions of dollars to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who chants 'Death to America and death to Israel.' When he says that, I believe him," Cruz said during the conference.

He asserted that the deal would have led to Iran having nuclear weapons.

"Once again, there was a battle in the Trump administration over whether we should stay in the deal or pull out. I interjectically urged the president that the right thing to do for the national security of this country is pull out of the deal and use every force we have — economic, diplomatic and if need be, military, to ensure the ayatollah never ever gets nuclear weapons."

"We see in the federal courts all across the country, we see it in Justice Neil Gorsuch and let me be one to thank God for the victory we had this week in the Colorado [baker's case]."

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giancarlonicoli · 4 years

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Fire & FawningJuly 24, 2020

Scott Galloway

@profgalloway

10-min read

The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are scheduled to testify in front of the US House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. Some thoughts…

Big tech has won before the hearing starts. Agreeing to let all four testify concurrently inhibits the committee’s ability to go deep on any one issue, and will leave the American public with a sentiment instead of a viewpoint on big tech, much less any conclusions (such as, that the Obama DOJ was asleep at the switch, and Instagram and Whatsapp should be divested). The Covid-inspired remote format dramatically lessens the likelihood of an unscripted moment that reveals something the American public didn’t previously know. Fabric softener for tough questioning is the deep pockets that keep members in power.

When the show starts, Zuck will be the target of the most ire, as he’s an oligarch minus the charm. Bezos, on the other hand, will receive the least ire, as his command of soft power is second only to China. Being on these committees must be just awesome, as every member clings to their office as if they were Puerto Rican rescue dogs clinging to lamb lung fillet. (I see this with my dog Gangster. It’s a moment that gives you pause … to see how much a living thing can love something else.)

Bezos has the power to take away the committee’s lamb treats (he owns a powerful arbiter in the WaPo) and, maybe more important, they want invites to the best parties in DC (low bar) at the old textile museum — Bezos’s man cave in Kalorama. I think Bezos lacks character and code (he gamifies the commonwealth for his own enrichment #HQ2), but I’d love to roll with him, and so would every first ballot hall of lame panelist questioning him at the hearings. Cook and Pichai will likely just try to stay out of the line of fire and fawning for Zuck and Bezos, respectively. Expect Zuck to use two words repeatedly in his defense (tik and tok) as he attempts to wrap himself in the flag and convince the committee that he’s our national champion, singularly able to repel the invading Chinese … coming for our children.

But there is hope. By limiting the hearing to the antitrust subcommittee, the House gives more time to representatives who have domain expertise. The sharpest of these embers, if they take the right approach, may be able to move the needle from apathy towards outrage and build momentum for future change.

The key here is to recognize the medium is the message. Exploit the one attribute of the format that can be much improved: visuals. These always look awkward and very fifties during live testimony, though Representative Katie Porter does a great job with her mini white boards (note to self: get one). The “share screen” function should be the weapon of choice here. Words will communicate themes (you’re too big and abuse your monopoly power, which suppresses innovation, job growth, and the economy). Little is new here, but points can be communicated more effectively than before. The best opportunity to yield insight into why big tech should be broken up is to highlight the scale of the firms, and the problem. The winning cocktail is visuals and proportion.

The effective panelists at these hearings use the witness as a prop to stamp their passport on the way to the destination (you're a monopoly). The strategy is simple: ask a question, share screen/visual, unshare so public can see an awkward reaction by witness, allow 5 seconds max for answer, interrupt, and wash/rinse/repeat. So, as I’m hoping to be unanimously approved as US Ambassador to Australia in the Biden Administration (#itcouldhappen), here are my suggestions for visuals and questions:

All Four

Q: Messrs. Bezos, Cook, Pichai, Zuckerberg, your firms have added greater market capitalization in the last five years than the largest retailers and CPG firms have in total. This is a large portion of the entire consumer economy. If you were public servants, would you be concerned that too many of the spoils are being registered by increasingly fewer firms and people?

Q: Your market capitalization per employee is thousands of times higher than that of other companies in your sectors. Do you think your companies contribute to income inequality?

Q: Since the onset of the pandemic, nearly every sector, other than big tech and companies deemed too big to fail, has shed substantial value. Instead, since the beginning of the year, your firms and Microsoft have increased in value by an average of 35%, while the remaining 495 firms in the S&P 500 are down 5%. Every firm, sector, and economy appears to have incurred a transfer in value and power to your firms. Should we be concerned that your considerable advantage pre-Covid is now unassailable?

Q: Small business formation is at a multi-decade low. The fastest-growing sectors receive scant funding from investors. Why should someone invest in a search engine right now, or a music streaming business, or a social media platform, or an e-commerce firm, given the sizes of your companies?

Apple

Q: Mr. Cook, monopoly rent is when a monopoly producer lacks competition and thus can sell its goods and services at a price far above what the otherwise competitive market price would be, at the expense of consumers. Our information age is often called “the app economy,” denoting how important apps have become to commerce and consumption. Your firm and Google dominate the app ecosystem, with 62% and 38% shares, respectively. This chart shows the rents you are able to extract from every streaming video app. Every media company that wants to reach a consumer online must pay you a toll or rent. Do you think any of these firms believe that paying you this rent is a choice?

Q: Apple TV+ is offering consumers $1 billion in original content for every .80c a month the consumer spends on your Apple TV+ streaming video service. Isn’t it your opportunity to differentiate your $1,300 phones and fund Apple TV+ from the revenues of an unrelated product that allows you to offer a media product at well below cost? In sum, isn’t Apple guilty of “dumping,” that is, buying market share with unfeasibly low prices?

Q: Spotify is consistently rated as a superior music service to your Apple Music, yet Apple Music is growing faster than Spotify in the US. Isn’t this a function of you owning the rails, and being able to levy a 30% tax on a competitor while illegally reducing their discoverability in the app store?

Amazon

Q: Mr. Bezos, you are the wealthiest person in the world. Your wealth exceeds the GDP of Kuwait and Luxembourg, combined. It exceeds the defense budgets of Israel, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, combined. A common feature among the other wealthiest Americans of the 20th century (Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon, Carnegie, Gates) is that most/all of these men presided over firms that were eventually tried for monopoly abuse and deemed monopolies. Why should we believe your wealth accumulation is any different?

Q: Last year, Amazon paid $162 million in federal tax while your largest competitor, Walmart, paid almost $3 billion. Do you think this level of participation in our country’s infrastructure and services is appropriate for a company worth $1.5 trillion?

Q: Due to Covid-19, US consumers are expected to spend an additional $41 billion on retail ecommerce in 2020. Since you control 38% of US e-commerce revenue, doesn't this mean that you've added at least $16 billion in topline revenue due to Covid while thousands of small businesses have folded?

Q: In a five-week period during the pandemic, your firm added the value of the world’s largest firm by revenue — Walmart. If your firm can accrete the value of the largest firm in the world in five weeks, and money is power, then isn’t your firm the most powerful private entity in history? Hasn’t your firm reached a level of soft and economic power well beyond the point when the DOJ has historically taken antitrust action?

Q: Our understanding is your firm has more full-time lobbyists in Washington than there are sitting US senators. Are you aware of any retailer or tech firm, other than Google, that has this many lobbyists attempting to suppress regulation or antitrust action?

Q: Mr. Bezos, 82% of American homes have Amazon Prime, more than voted in the 2016 election, have a pet, attend church, or decorate a Christmas tree. Can you name any other firm that has a recurring revenue relationship with 8 out of 10 households?

Q: Your video content, as registered by IMDB and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, is far inferior to the content offered by AT&T's division (HBO), yet you refuse to distribute HBO Max as a stand-alone offering on your service. Doesn't this mean you are leveraging your distribution power to weaken the competition (HBO Max) and reduce consumer access to better content?

Q: Mr. Bezos, the recently released TOS for your audio and podcast platform say that participants on the service cannot say anything bad about Amazon. Are we to assume that all assets you control, including The Washington Post, are restricted to only positive comments regarding you and your firm?

Google

Q: Mr. Pichai, your search engine is the default on Android devices, and you have a multibillion dollar contract with Apple to be the default search engine on the iPhone. You’ve also bought digital advertising networks to build your part of the digital advertising duopoly. What company — whether a search business or an advertising firm — can begin to compete with a behemoth with such a massive advantage and such deep pockets?

Q: Google owns the dominant digital ad server, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, or AdX. Over 90% of large publishers sell their ad inventory on AdX. And Google owns the dominant tool, Google Ads, through which advertisers purchase inventory on AdX. Don’t you think controlling both the auction house for ad space and the main auction participant for buying those ad spaces allows Google to engage in anticompetitive pricing?

Q: You’ve been fined three times by the EU for acting in ways that harm competition. Google searches favor YouTube ahead of other video rivals. Searches often display results just under the question as the user types, making it unnecessary to click any links. This deprives other firms of revenue. You present search results as you see fit, independent of the cost to other businesses. Don’t you think having 71% share in the search business and increasingly locking other companies out of profits through search is unfair use of monopoly power?

Q: YouTube has come under criticism many times in the past for radicalizing our children through an algorithm that suggests increasingly violent and extreme content. A user can start out with “downtown NYC” and within three videos they are being offered conspiracy theories about how 9/11 was an inside job. One of your former engineers accused YouTube of perverting civic discussion through radicalizing algorithms. Don’t you think that if YouTube were its own company and had more competitors of similar size, that it would be forced to work harder to correct these algorithms that are so toxic to the public good? If the best corrective mechanism of a free market is competition, where is the competition to force you to do better?

Q: Mr. Pichai, can you name any other firm, anywhere in the world, that has this level of market share of a sector greater than $100 billion in size?

Facebook

Q: Mr. Zuckerberg, a Princeton University study of Americans’ internet habits leading up to the 2016 presidential election found that Facebook led users to untrustworthy news sites 15% of the time, and to trustworthy news sites only 6% of the time. Studies have also found that the underlying Facebook algorithm, which promotes emotion and outrage, benefitted Trump more than Clinton. Do you feel partially responsible for the erosion in the sanctity of our elections?

Q: This summer, a number of Facebook’s biggest advertisers announced a boycott of the platform in response to your inadequate handling of hate speech. In response, Nick Clegg, your Vice President for Public Affairs, said, “We’ve made huge strides … But, you know, on an average day, there are 115 billion messages sent on our services around the world, and the vast, vast, vast majority of that is positive.” Clegg’s defense is also an admission that Facebook is too large to safely manage. Are you too big to protect your platform from hate speech and socially divisive messaging?

Q: As we saw in the 2016 elections, Facebook’s power can be exploited to disrupt elections, broadcast viral propaganda, and inspire deadly hate campaigns around the globe. Facebook is an algorithmic rage machine that perpetuates conspiracy theories (including that vitamins will protect you from Covid) at a far greater rate than truth. Enragement is engagement. Nearly half of all top-performing posts that mention voting by mail are false or misleading. What good are you offering your users that outweighs the cyberwar Russia fought on your platform, and that it is prepared to fight again, the systematic surveillance of users, and the torrent of misinformation on your platform?

Q: Teen suicide has skyrocketed — up 77% for older teen girls and up 151% for younger teens. Hospital admissions due to self-harm are up 50% for 15-19-year-old girls and up 200% for 10-14-year-old girls. Gen Z is on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades. Do you think platforms like Instagram, where girls perpetually feel their appearance doesn’t match up to filtered images, has something to do with this mental health crisis?

Q: Mr. Zuckerberg, you are in sole control of a platform whose algorithms select and deliver content (news and entertainment) to 2.6 billion people. Your algorithms are opaque to government agencies. You are the principal source of information for a cohort larger than any country or religion — a population greater than that of China and the US, combined. You cannot be removed from office, and will likely control these algorithms for the next 5-7 decades. So, we’d like to get to know you better. You know, get a feel for the real Mark Zuckerberg. A couple of questions:

Are you a pathological liar? Do you display a lack of remorse or guilt? And again… Are you a pathological liar?

Life is so rich,

P.S. More about my take on the hearings (or at least, more entertaining) on this week’s Prof G Show.

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giftofshewbread · 3 years

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Growing Worse by the Day (Prophecy Update)

By Daymond Duck Published on: September 5, 2021

Things seem to be growing worse by the day, and many students of Bible prophecy believe that is exactly what will happen at the end of the age.

It is bittersweet: Bitter because it signifies that the world is approaching the Tribulation Period, and sweet because it signifies that Jesus is coming soon to straighten things out.

Here are some of the events that recently got this writer’s attention:

One, when the U.S. started withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. turned over some of its military bases to the Afghan government, the Afghan government collapsed, the Taliban took over the nation, and the Taliban freed thousands of captured ISIS troops from Afghan prisons (confirmed by the Pentagon on Aug. 27, 2021).

On Aug. 25, 2021, a group of Islamic State terrorists (called ISIS-K) exploded bombs at the airport in Kabul that killed 12 U.S. Marines, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 169 Afghan citizens, and injured more than 200 other people (U.S. troops, women, children, etc.).

On Aug. 26, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati said the U.S. and U.K. were warned several hours before the attack that one was coming.

Tsarfati said Biden sent the CIA to strike a deal with the Taliban to pay tens of millions of dollars (they would call it international aid or something like that instead of a ransom) to allow U.S. citizens passage to the airport.

According to Tsarfati, some officials believe the Taliban then started obstructing those trying to get to the airport because the Taliban would get more international aid/ransom for many hostages than they would get for a few hostages.

The Biden administration then said it had credible information that there would be more terrorist attacks, and it started warning U.S. citizens not to go to the airport (even though they had just 3 days to get there before the Aug. 31 deadline).

Think about this: the Biden administration was relying on a terrorist organization called the Taliban (that released thousands of ISIS terrorists from prison) to protect our troops and citizens from a terrorist attack.

When a U.S. Marine battalion commander created and posted a video criticizing our leaders and demanding accountability for the death of the Marines and Navy officer, he was relieved of his command.

Our leaders (under the influence of the shadow government) are:

The ones that gave the names, addresses and biometric I.D. information on U.S. citizens and our Afghan allies to the Taliban terrorists.

The ones that abandoned billions of dollars of weapons to the terrorist Taliban and won’t protect our border with Mexico.

The ones that turned hundreds of thousands of guns over to the terrorist Taliban and want to take guns away from U.S. citizens (don’t forget that former Pres. Obama also gave guns to the Mexican drug cartels).

The ones that are bussing and flying unvaccinated immigrants with Covid-19 into our nation and want to force U.S. citizens to be vaccinated or lose their job.

The ones that we are trusting to defend our homeland from terrorists, a North Korea EMP attack, a sneak attack by China, etc.

Who will protect America from the Shadow government and their Antichrist?

If the Biden administration would give the names, addresses and biometric I.D. information of U.S. citizens to Taliban terrorists, why wouldn’t they give that, or vaccination records, or any other information to the head of a world government?

Two, concerning deceit: Biden said, “It is unlikely the Taliban will take over Afghanistan.” (The Taliban took over Afghanistan.)

Biden said, “No Americans will be left behind.” (Americans have been left behind). On Aug. 30, 2021, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command, said hundreds (perhaps in the low hundreds) of Americans have been left behind, but others said it could be thousands.

Biden’s campaign slogan was “Build Back Better.” (Afghanistan has been destroyed, and the women in a nation of 35 million people have been enslaved).

Biden also said the election was fair, the vaccinations work, etc.?

This reminds me of the king that wore no clothes and no one would tell him.

Update One: On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that the Taliban is already going from house to house and executing people.

Update Two: On Aug. 31, 2021, a video was posted of the Taliban flying a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter over Kandahar with a body hanging below it.

Update Three: On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that 90 U.S. Generals and Admirals have signed a letter calling for the resignation of Sec. of State Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley for botching the Afghanistan pull out. (Biden calls it a great success.)

Three, it is being reported that the shadow government and their Democrat puppets are between a rock and a hard place with Pres. Biden.

With 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, the U.S. Senate is split, and Vice-Pres. Kamala Harris can break ties by casting the deciding vote.

If Biden dies or is removed, Harris will replace Biden, and the power to break tie votes (including a vote on anyone that is nominated to replace Harris) will switch from Harris to Mitch McConnell (and control of the U.S. Senate will switch from Harris and the Democrats to McConnell and the Republicans).

This could threaten the Democrats’ entire agenda, so the shadow government must keep Biden in office if they can.

Four, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, on Aug. 25, 2021, the head of Israel’s Defense Forces said Israel has speeded up its plans to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, and money has been budgeted to address the issue.

He added that a team has been assembled to prepare for a strike should one be ordered by the Israeli government.

Five, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on Aug. 27, 2021, Israeli Prime Min. Naftali Bennett met with Pres. Biden at the White House.

Advance reporting indicated that Biden would ask Bennett for two things: 1) A freeze on all settlement construction, and 2) A promise not to attack Iran without U.S. permission.

Said reporting indicated that Bennett would tell Biden the U.S. must immediately deal with Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons, or Israel will.

It is obvious that Israel is preparing to strike Iran in the coming weeks if the U.S. and others fail to act.

It is also obvious that Biden hasn’t been told what the Bible says about this, or he doesn’t remember it, or he doesn’t believe it.

This doesn’t bode well for the U.S.

Update One: Following the meeting, it was reported that Bennett told reporters:

“These very days (a reference to what is happening in Afghanistan) illustrate what the world would look like if a radical Islamic regime acquired a nuclear weapon; that marriage would be a nuclear nightmare for the entire world.”

“We (Israel) will never outsource our security” (never turn control of Israel’s security over to the U.S.).”

Update Two: On Aug. 30, 2021, Israel 365News reported that Biden nodded off to sleep while Bennett was talking during their meeting (it is on video).

These are perilous times, and anyone that says Pres. Biden is qualified to lead the U.S./free world is lying or uninformed.

It is likely that the calls to revise or reset global governance (replace Biden with leaders from a handful of nations; ten) will soon grow louder.

Update Three: On Aug. 30, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati reported that Iran has decided that America is weak and will now go “full-blown nuclear.”

He added that Iran is now “openly enriching uranium to 90%.”

Six, concerning war between Israel and her neighbors: on Aug. 29, 2021, the head of Israel’s Defense Forces said, “The IDF is preparing, with a concerted effort, for the possibility of another operation (war) in Gaza.”

His statement followed the launching of several incendiary balloons and rockets into Israel and two weeks of violent protests.

Another war in Gaza could lead to several prophesied wars.

Seven, concerning perilous times (also the Kings of the East): on Aug. 30, 2021, prophecy teacher Amir Tsarfati noted that “China just announced that any vessel, whether it is above the water or under the water, that is entering into Chinese territorial waters or the disputed waters in the South China Sea with Japan and the Philippines must report to the Chinese.”

Many officials believe the disputed waters that China is claiming are international waters, meaning China’s claim is illegal.

Tsarfati added, “While everybody is watching the incompetence of America, (Russia, Turkey, Iran, China and No. Korea) are willing to make a move.”

Eight, concerning the Mark of the Beast and a global tracking system, on Aug. 30, 2021, it was reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging its member nations to “roll out a global digital information system to check if people are vaccinated against Covid-19.”

The WHO wants its member nations to force this system on all other nations, and it wants people that have been vaccinated (and are in this global system) to have benefits that others that are not in it won’t have.

This would be a major step toward a global medical dictatorship.

Nine, concerning a falling away in the Church: Harvard University was founded under Church sponsorship in 1636 to train Puritan pastors. On Aug. 26, 2021, it was reported that the president of Harvard’s organization of Chaplains is an atheist, meaning Harvard has a Chaplain that doesn’t believe in the existence of God.

If the elite that control a prestigious, once-Christian university are willing to allow a Chaplain that doesn’t believe in the existence of God, why is it so difficult to believe that other elite want to establish a godless world government and religion?

If their Chaplain doesn’t believe what the Bible says about God, why should he believe what the Bible says about Satan, the Antichrist, or anything else, and why should any true Church want a pastor that was educated at that institution?

By the way, it is being reported that, as things now stand, universities cannot force student organizations on campus to have pro-LGBTQ officers, pro-abortion officers, etc., but the Biden administration is considering ways to change that.

Ten, on Aug. 27, 2021, LifeSiteNews reported that the head of the Tokyo Medical Association announced that Ivermectin “seems to be effective at stopping COVID-19 and publicly recommended that all doctors in Japan immediately begin using Ivermectin to treat COVID.”

Currently, America’s shadow government, in collusion with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), big pharma, the social media, and others, is suppressing the use of Ivermectin.

Why would these groups suppress the use of an inexpensive, effective drug that will stop Covid and save lives?

Could the belief that Covid is a created crisis that has been designed to reduce the population of the earth, control people, bring in a world government, make the rich richer, etc., be true?

Eleven, on Aug. 21, 2021, it was reported that less than one-third of the people that have died from the Delta variant in the U.K. (Feb. 1, 2021, to Aug. 2021) have been people that were unvaccinated. (Two-thirds of the people that have died from the Delta Variant in the U.K. are people that have been vaccinated).

Put another way, the U.K. data is showing that vaccinated people are more likely to die from the Delta Variant than unvaccinated people.

Twelve, concerning deceit: on Aug. 30, 2021, it was reported that about two dozen nurses told people at a town hall meeting in Minnesota that adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccination are being underreported, and one nurse said her friends at other hospitals are saying the same thing.

Thirteen, according to the Bible, the Euphrates River will dry up during the Tribulation Period to prepare the way for the Kings of the East (Rev. 16:12).

On Aug. 31, 2021, it was reported that the Euphrates River is drying up fast and barely running for a distance of about 1,700 miles.

Different officials are blaming Climate Change, drought, and Turkey for building dams on the river and holding back too much water.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

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akiralazuli · 7 years

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Examining some points of the State of the (dis)Union, with Trump.

"Less than one year ago [...] a new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land."

I am not sure what you think is the definition of, "optimism," but it probably is in the same book as, "covfefe."

"Each day since, we have gone forward with a clear vision, and a righteous mission: to make America great again for all Americans."

Except Muslims, black people, women, poor people, immigrants (illegal or not), LGBT people, and Democrats.

"Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success."

You failed in virtually every bill you tried to pass, and you are the first executive to have a government shutdown in your first year, AND the first to have a shutdown when you control the executive and both Houses of congress.

"To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, everywhere, we are with you, we love you, and we will always pull through together."

That might carry a little more significance if you kept the people down there to help Puerto Rico recover. And I am sure all those United States citizens down there will feel so loved, once their more than one million people actually get electricity back.

"In the aftermath of that terrible shooting, we came together [...] as representatives of the people."

Until the idea was floated of placing restrictions on assault weapons. Then, you and he other Republicans threw out all this, "representatives of the people" stuff.

"Since the election, we have created created 2.4 million new jobs."

Unbiased sourced accredited Trump with only directly creating around 63,000 jobs, and job growth is the lowest it has been in seven years. And several companies, such as Wal-Mart, fired thousands of workers just after your tax plan was passed.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20879/trump-state-of-the-union-sotu-jobs

"African-American unemployment is at the lowest rate ever recorded."

While technically true, the African-American unemployment rate under Obama fell from nearly 17% in 2009, to 7.8% in his final year. While the unemployment rate has continued to fall during the past year, it has done so at less than half the rate as under Obama.

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/01/trump-takes-undue-credit-black-unemployment/

"The stock market has smashed one record after another."

Actually, comparing the performance under Trump vs. Obama during the same time, the last year until now is actually not as well-performing as that of 2008-2010.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/rampage/wp/2018/01/30/a-cheat-sheet-for-evaluating-trumps-economic-claims-tonight/

"We enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history."

PolitiFact says: false! By dollars, it is the fourth, and by percent of the GDP, it is at least seventh.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jan/30/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrong-again-recent-tax-bill-biggest-e/

"To every citizen [...] no matter where you've been or where you come from, this is your time. [...] If you believe in America, you can dream anything, you can be anything."

Except someone who has electricity, but I suppose that only applies to brown people.

"We all share the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American Flag."

The /same/ flag? I think your people in Charlottesville were carrying different flags. Although, I suppose this claim could be considered correct, seeing as how the Confederate and Nazi flags are fundamentally not American!

"And we celebrate our [...] military and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our unwavering support."

Unless they are transgender, in which case you want to cast them aside. And where are you tonight, when tens of thousands of veterans will be sleeping on the streets?

"[...] reverence for those who defend our nation reminds us why we salute our flag [...] and why we proudly sat and for the national anthem."

Actually, people defend this nation so anyone can either stand OR sit/kneel for the anthem.

"For the last year, we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government."

Well, you amazingly failed. A good way to NOT inspire trust is to break constitutional law and not impose sanctions on Russia, even after the House and Senate nearly unanimously voted to do so. Wait, that is exactly what happened.

"We [...] have taken historic action to protect religious liberty."

You mean Christian liberty. Or, more accurately, your version of Christian liberty. None of that for Muslims, Jews, or others. And, "religious liberty" seems to mean, "I do not have to bake a cake for a gay couple."

"So tonight I call on Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to [...] remove federal employees."

Like, for example, the director of the FBI? Or maybe the assistant director FBI? OH! Maybe even special councils? By the name of Muller?

"We have ended the war on beautiful clean coal."

You also ended the war on flying hippos, volcanoes that erupt cheese, Evil!Tom Hanks, Nambia- what!? I thought we were listing things that do not exist.

"[...] we can get Motor City revving it's engines again."

How about first you get the neighboring city non-poisoned water again, first?

"We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day's work."

And then they can tell you about it after you get back from yet another golfing trip, right?

"Open borders [...] have caused the loss of many innocent lives."

Only a tiny percentage of immigrants commit violent crimes. Many factors more are committed by white, "Christian" men. But, of course, no mention of deporting or locking up that group.

"We can make sure that no other families have to endure this kind of pain."

Except when you send in ICE to rip apart working, tax-paying families and send them to places them have not been in decades you racist, hypocritical bastard!

"The third pillar ends the visa lottery, which is a program that randomly hands out Green Cards without and regard for skill, merit, or the safety of American people."

That is not how this works, you idiot.

"[...] ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives."

That is not how this works. *Gestures wildly* That is not how any of this works.

"[...] rivals like China and Russia [...] challenge our interest and our economy, and our values."

Then why do you defy a congressional order to impose sanctions on Russia, you traitorous moron?

"When possible, we have no choice but to annihilate [terrorists]. When necessary, we must be able to detain and question them."

After you annihilate them, you are going to detain and question them? Has the Trump administration gone so far as to create a Secretary of Necromancy?

"Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations general assembly against America's sovereign right to make this decision [to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel]."

Well, duh. What if New Zealand recognized Denver as the capital of the U.S.? Outside countries do not have the authority to decide where the capital of another country will be!

You are an idiot, a traitor, a racist, a liar. And we see through you.

Be scared of us.

#notonestepback

#not one step back #not my president

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antoine-roquentin · 6 years

Link

My father was nervous when I started to be politically active. The country was under military rule and politics and marches were forbidden. I was 16, or 16 and a half, and still at school when I read in the papers that a black American, Jimmy Wilson, had been sentenced to death for stealing a dollar. I can still recall that moment of deep shock. We couldn’t believe it. Even if he’d stolen a million, executing him was a bit much. So I got a few schoolfriends together, and said to them: ‘We can’t not do anything.’ I think there were about twenty of us in school uniform marching to the American Consulate on Empress Road, and we were joined en route by lots of street urchins, who thought it was a good cause after we promised Cokes and kebabs later. Because Jimmy Wilson was a Western name, they thought they had to chant ‘Death to …’, so we had to say: ‘No, no – you can’t chant “Death to Jimmy Wilson” – that’s what we’re protesting!’ When we explained it to them, they reversed the chant to ‘Long live Jimmy Wilson!’ So we arrived at the consulate and saw the consul-general. I still remember his name, Dr Spengler, a hard-faced, wrinkled and bespectacled Protestant of German origin, not a trace of sympathy on his face. He didn’t even reply. I said: ‘We’ve got a letter here because you’re going to execute a black American for stealing a dollar and then you say you’re democrats … it’s unacceptable behaviour.’ His response was to ask for our names and when we’d given them he told us he’d be writing to our principal the next morning ‘to tell him who you are, why you did this and asking him to take disciplinary action’. This was my first direct contact with American democracy. We just left. ‘God!’ we said. ‘The guy didn’t even reply to us! Nothing at all, just cold as ice.’

That was the first demonstration. The second came in 1961, when I was at university. Again, we read in the newspapers that morning that Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese leader, had been killed. And we assumed – and were proved right – that this had been done by the Americans; and we now know that, for many hours, Lumumba’s dead body was in the boot of a car being driven about the place by the head of CIA station as he wondered where to dump it. So here I called a meeting. I was a student union official, but fearing opposition I did so without consulting anyone; two hundred people gathered in the hall. This is Lahore in 1961. The mood was quite internationalist, and I said: ‘This is what’s happened – we cannot let this be … Lumumba’s murder must not go without a response, let’s do it now, before anyone can stop us.’ So two hundred of us marched out onto the streets – totally against the laws – and went to the American Consulate and Government House, chanting slogans in favour of Lumumba.

Nothing happened – no police, nothing. Our demo was photographed, so we got some coverage; and on the way back to the college, emboldened by what we’d achieved, we started chanting: ‘Down with the dictatorship! We want democracy!’ And that angered the government more than the death of Lumumba, whom they didn’t care about one way or the other. And then the principal was told: ‘You’ve got to control these boys.’ He was a very, very good and enlightened principal, who said to us: ‘You can do anything you want on the university grounds, but on the streets I can’t defend you. Here you can study whatever you want: it is a time to read, to learn.’ We said: ‘Yeah, but we can’t just read.’ My father was told that it was all getting out of hand, so that year I was banned from speaking at any political meeting or appearing at a demonstration. To circumvent the ban my friends would organise harmless debates with titles such as ‘we prefer lassi to Coca-Cola.’ The speeches, too, were allegorical. Laughter proved a good weapon.

A demonstration I forgot to mention had taken place in Lahore when I was approaching 13: the huge anti-Suez demonstration in 1956, when the targets were British and French imperialism, and Israel of course – and it was amazing. The university students came to our school to have it closed so we could join the demo, and the principal, Brother Henderson, closed it for the day. Because there was no martial law, no military dictatorship then, about 150,000 people marched through the streets of Lahore. Our government supported the British, which provoked a wave of anger against them. ‘Does independence mean nothing? We’re still behaving like a colony.’

My mother was completely supportive of my activities. My father less so: ‘You’re not studying at all. You read what you like, which is fine, but you’ve got to get through the exams, this is a crucial stage, and then we’ll see what needs to be done.’ So he advised caution. ‘There are some things one has to do,’ I answered. ‘You know that better than most.’ ‘Yeah,’ he replied, ‘but I also got firsts.’ I said: ‘Well, that doesn’t matter so much to me.’ ‘Well, it does to us,’ he said. So, it was the usual father-son dynamic, with my mother caught in between, half agreeing with me, half with my father. One day they told me they had decided to send me abroad. My mother’s brother, a senior figure in military intelligence, came to the house with a big file when he knew I was out. ‘This is the file the boy’s accumulated so far,’ he told my father, ‘and it’s going to rise and rise, so I suggest that it’s time to get him out of the country because he will be locked up soon, and there’s nothing I can do.’ They didn’t tell me that till much, much later, knowing that I would have refused to leave. Instead it was: ‘Off you go, apply to Oxford, apply to Cambridge.’ I applied to Oxford, and got a place. My girlfriend was at Camberwell Art College – her father had become a diplomat in London – so that was undoubtedly an inducement. But by and large, I really didn’t want to go, but they said: ‘You have to go.’ So I said: ‘Why are you so insistent? You want to waste all this stupid money sending me there? I’m quite happy here.’ My mother, very unusually, insisted: ‘No, no, you’ve got to go.’ So that’s how I got to Oxford.

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avanneman · 6 years

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War! What is it good for! APPROPRIATIONS!

Some time ago—well, thirty years ago, more or less—I read a reminiscence on the journalism biz by Michael Kinsley, recalling the words of journalistic wisdom he received as a tyro from a legendary pundit whose name I have forgotten: “Always sell the same piece at least three times.” By that standard, I’m a motherfucking journalistic genius, because this is at least my 26th posting on the subject of military spending. Well, consider yourself warned, because this is yet another ululation from this particular voice crying in the wilderness.

Donald Trump wants to boost defense spending, currently at around $700 billion, to a more Trump-like $750 billion, compared to a measly $650 billion under Barak “Pantywaist” Obama. Of course, we don’t have a war to fight, but we will soon, with John “Bomb ‘em” Bolton with his hand on the throttle. Donald says we (or rather, “he”) have averted the danger of nuclear war with North Korea? Not with Big John handling the “negotiations”, aka “non-negotiable demands”, requiring that North Korea comply with every item on the U.S. wish list (elimination of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons as well as the country’s missile program) before the U.S. will think about removing any of our numerous sanctions. Of course, there’s no way that Kim Jong-un, whose regime’s very raison d' être (and raison d’ inhuman oppression) is to defend North Korea’s socialist paradise against the American imperialists, is going to agree to that, so, hey, we don’t want to fight, but if we have to, we will!

Excuse me, but how do you tell the difference between Little Kim and Big John, except for the moustache? Both tell lies to stay in power. Both waste their nation’s treasure on useless and highly dangerous penis substitutes of every manner and hue. If media darlings Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to talk sense instead of trash (a pretty big if, I admit), why don’t they go seriously after defense spending, which wastes hundreds of billions of dollars a year on weapons, troop exercises, etc., which increase the chance of war instead of decreasing it, dollars that could be spent on all those domestic goodies their little hearts so fervently desire. As I’ve frequently complained, Democrats traditionally treat defense spending as “good” in its own right as high-quality pork, and equally useful as a tool for forcing Republicans to agree to higher domestic spending. This is a tradition that needs upending.

Afterwords (extensive) Newsweek runs an article citing data compiled by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University that puts the bill for the U.S. war on terror at close to $6 trillion in cash, along with almost 500,000 human lives. Almost all of this money, and almost all of those lives, were wasted. The Taliban government in Afghanistan deserved to be punished, and was punished, by the U.S. assault that was accomplished within a few months of the fall of the towers in New York. Most of the rest of it was spent on an entirely unnecessary, entirely duplicitous, and entirely counterproductive attempt by the U.S. to make itself the dominant power in the Middle East, to seize direct control of the world’s oil supply and to end Muslim nations’ terrorist harassment and attacks on Israel.

President Trump talks fitfully of withdrawing from the Middle East, with the massive exception of Iran, where he and Bolton seem to be longing for a punch-out. The military never wants to withdraw from anything—it’s so unmanly—but what they’re really hankering for is another Cold War—because actual shooting wars are so low-tech, plus if you get too many body bags coming back to the U.S. people start getting upset. Fortunately, the Pentagon has allies, like Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky, to sell the American people on the ever-burgeoning threat from the steppes. Leonid devotes a recent column to earnestly parsing recent speeches by both Russian and American generals, hoping to find some sort of evidence that, you know, this shit could get hairy in a hurry—though, stunningly, he fails to convince me. Leonid comes through with one speculative whopper after another, informing us with a straight face that “[i]t’s probably fair to say [Russian Chief of General Staff Valery] Gerasimov and his colleagues at the Russian defense ministry feel they have the U.S. military threat more or less under control. He said in his speech that he believes Russia is ahead of the rest of the world in weapons development, referring to the hypersonic missiles Russia has recently unveiled.”

Uh, Leonid, Russia no more has our military threat under control than we have their military threat under control. We have no missile defense system that could work against Russia’s slowest and oldest missiles. A hypersonic missile, should one such even exist, which I doubt, would not increase the risk. Furthermore, we’re spending ten times (literally) as much as the Russians on defense. Furthermore furthermore, if George W. Bush hadn’t taken the U.S. out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed back in 1972, it’s quite possible that Putin wouldn’t be bothering with all this muscle-flexing in the first place, which, as Marc. C. Johnson, writing in that damn hippie rag The National Review, explained, is only cover for a corrupt and decrepit military machine. In the case of both Russia and China (and everyone else), the U.S. constantly seeks to hold a position of complete dominance, and then sees any efforts by our “adversaries” to counter our efforts as an “existential threat”.

I’ve covered this ground before, here and here, for example, and now, as I said, for the 26th time. It makes me angry to see the same lies trotted out, over and over again, this deliberate deception by people who do know better but believe that they can’t trust the American people to make the “right” decisions, people who don’t care how much money, and how much blood, is spent, as long as they can get that sweet corner office and that sweet, sweet summer home.

#military spending #Russia #North Korea #John Bolton #Iraq

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Friday, March 19, 2021

Asian anxiety about Atlanta shootings (NYT) The slaying of six Asian women among eight people killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday left Asian communities in many Western countries shaken, after a year that has seen a spike in racist attacks and threats against people of Asian descent. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that four people of Korean descent were among the victims. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was already in Seoul on a diplomatic trip, said Wednesday that he was “horrified by this violence” and offered “deepest condolences to the families and friends” of the victims.

IRS will delay tax filing due date until May 17 (AP) Americans will be getting extra time to prepare their taxes. The Internal Revenue Service says it’s delaying the traditional tax filing deadline from April 15 until May 17. The IRS announced the decision Wednesday and said it would provide further guidance in the coming days. The move provides more breathing room for taxpayers and the IRS alike to cope with changes brought on by the pandemic. The decision postpones when individual taxpayers must file their return and when their payment is due. The IRS said taxpayers who owe money would not face any further penalties or interest if they pay by May 17. The new deadline also applies to individuals who pay self-employment tax.

Troubled US-China ties face new test in Alaska meeting (AP) The United States and China will face a new test in their increasingly troubled relations when top officials from both countries meet in Alaska. Ties between the world’s two largest economies have been torn for years and the Biden administration has yet to signal it’s ready or willing to back down on the hard-line stances taken under President Donald Trump. Nor has China signaled it’s prepared to ease the pressure it has brought to bear. Thus, the stage is set for a contentious first face-to-face meeting Thursday. Difficult discussions are anticipated over trade, human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, China’s western Xinjiang region, Taiwan, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, and the coronavirus pandemic. Just a day before the meeting, the U.S. announced new sanctions on officials over China’s crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. In response, the Chinese stepped up their rhetoric opposing U.S. interference in domestic affairs.

Cycle of retribution takes Bolivia’s ex-president from palace to prison cell (The Guardian) It was November 2019, just days after Evo Morales had abandoned Bolivia’s presidency and fled into exile, and the country’s newly installed interior minister was making no effort to hide his glee. “Any terrorist should spend the rest of their life in prison,” Arturo Murillo gloated during an interview in his recently occupied chambers, vowing to put the runaway leftist behind bars for the next 30 years. “It’s not about whether you’re an ex-president,” the pugnacious hotelier-turned-politician insisted. “In fact, it’s even worse when it’s an ex-president. An ex-president should be sentenced twice over because people trust in their president.” This week, an ex-president was indeed jailed in Bolivia—but not Morales. Instead, it was Murillo’s former boss, Jeanine Áñez, who found herself languishing in a La Paz prison cell after being seized by security forces early on Saturday. “We’re seeking a 30-year sentence,” Bolivia’s new justice minister, Iván Lima, announced, as Áñez was accused of terrorism and sedition—the very same charges Murillo had levelled at Morales. The imprisonment of Áñez, a Bible-bashing conservative who became interim leader after Morales fled under pressure from the military, was met with jubilation by some. Others, however, described the arrest as an alarming development in an already profoundly divided country.

E.U. unveils vaccine passport plan to enable summer travel (NYT) The European Union on Wednesday launched a closely watched effort to create a joint vaccination passport for its more than 440 million citizens and residents, embarking on a tightrope walk between economic pressures, discrimination fears and concerns over Europe’s slow vaccination progress. Supporters hope the “digital green certificates” will be ready by June, which could help to salvage the European summer tourism season and even serve as a model that could be extended to the United States and other countries. But E.U. countries lag far behind the United States in vaccinations, which has raised concerns that the passport plan could be launched prematurely. The passes are expected to be digital or paper documents for travelers to prove that they have been vaccinated, that they recovered from the virus or recently tested negative for it. In many cases, this could free travelers from quarantine obligations. Those privileges could eventually also apply to Americans or British citizens traveling to continental Europe, given that all vaccines approved in the two countries are also approved for use in the European Union.

Russia recalls its ambassador to the US after Biden says he thinks Putin is a killer (USA Today) Russia has recalled its ambassador to the United States to discuss relations with Washington, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday. The move came after President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin would “pay a price” for Moscow’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In an interview with ABC News, Biden was also asked if he thought Putin is a killer. “I do,” Biden responded. The president did not elaborate on the “killer” question or on what costs the U.S. might impose on Russia over election interference. The diplomatic tiff comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow. On Tuesday, U.S. intelligence officials released a report concluding that Russia tried to denigrate Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 election. The declassified assessment said that Putin authorized the election meddling, which sought to help former president Donald Trump’s re-election bid.

Myanmar construction magnate claims cash payments to Suu Kyi (AP) A Myanmar construction magnate with links to military rulers claimed he personally gave more than half a million dollars in cash to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a broadcast on state television aimed at discrediting the ousted civilian government. The statement by Maung Waik could pave the way for more serious charges against Suu Kyi, who has been detained since the Feb. 1 military takeover while security forces increasingly use lethal force against a popular uprising demanding the restoration of democratically elected leaders. The military has already tried to implicate Suu Kyi in corruption, alleging she was given $600,000 plus gold bars by a political ally. She and President Win Myint have been charged so far with inciting unrest, possession of walkie-talkies and violating a pandemic order limiting public gatherings.

Myanmar faces growing isolation as military tightens grip (Reuters) Myanmar faced growing isolation on Thursday with increasingly limited internet services and its last private newspaper ceasing publication as the military built a case against ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Western countries have condemned the coup and called for an end to the violence and for the release of Suu Kyi and others. Asian neighbours have offered to help find a solution, but the military has a long record of shunning outside pressure. Large parts of an economy already reeling from the novel coronavirus have been paralysed by the protests and a parallel civil disobedience campaign of strikes against military rule, while many foreign investors are reassessing plans. The U.N. food agency warned this week that rising prices of food and fuel could undermine the ability of poor families to feed themselves. “Whatever happens in Myanmar over coming months, the economy will collapse, leaving tens of millions in dire straits and needing urgent protection,” historian and author Thant Myint-U said on Twitter.

Combat Drones Made in China Are Coming to a Conflict Near You (Bloomberg) A dozen years into its fight with the Islamic insurgent group Boko Haram, Nigeria is getting some new weapons: a pair of Wing Loong II drones from China. The deal is one of a growing number of sales by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), which has exported scores of the aircraft. The United Arab Emirates has used AVIC drones in Libya’s civil war, Egypt has attacked rebels in Sinai with them, and Saudi-led troops have deployed them in Yemen. The company’s drones “are now battle-tested,” says Heather Penney, a fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “They’ve been able to feed lessons learned back into their manufacturing.” Nigeria is getting AVIC’s second generation of Wing Loongs—the name means “pterodactyl”—which can fly as fast as 230 mph and as high as 30,000 feet, carrying a payload of a dozen missiles. Since 2015, when AVIC introduced the newer model, it’s produced 50 for export and an unknown number for China’s People’s Liberation Army. And it’s working on even more advanced aircraft, such as a stealth combat drone with a flying-wing design similar to that of the U.S. B-2 bomber. The drone program, combined with deliveries of fighter jets, trainers, transporters, and assault helicopters, has propelled AVIC into the upper ranks of the global arms trade. In 2019 it sold military equipment valued at $22.5 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), placing it sixth in the world, behind five U.S. companies. AVIC’s drones have two big selling points: They’re cheaper than comparable aircraft from producers in the U.S. or Israel—the other primary manufacturers—and China doesn’t much care how they’re used, says Ulrike Franke, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

As 4th Election Looms, Some Ask: Is Israel’s Democracy Broken? (NYT) Israelis will vote on Tuesday for the fourth time in two years, in a do-over election for a do-over election for a do-over election. The seemingly endless loop is the most prominent symptom of the polarization that has paralyzed Israeli politics since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to be investigated for corruption in 2017. Mr. Netanyahu has refused to resign. That decision has split the country, almost down the middle, and divided voters less by ideology than by their support or antipathy for Mr. Netanyahu. The polarization has been exacerbated by Israel’s multiparty system, which virtually guarantees that no single party will win an outright majority in Parliament, forcing the construction of wobbly coalitions with disparate small parties. Now, even the right-wing coalition that kept Mr. Netanyahu afloat for 12 years has fractured, mainly over question of the acceptability of a prime minister under criminal indictment. In the last three elections, Mr. Netanyahu did not win enough support to form a stable government. But neither did his opponents, which allowed him to remain prime minister, first in a caretaker role, and then, for the past year, as the head of a fragile coalition. Polling suggests that next week’s vote is unlikely to break the deadlock, leading many Israelis to brace for yet a fifth election later this year.

Clubhouse: the new social platform that is frightening Arab regimes (Le Monde) A month ago, the up-and-coming app Clubhouse took the Middle East by storm. In just a few days, the latest gem from Silicon Valley had already earned its place in the crowded market of Arab social networks. Since this audio chat platform only runs on iOS for the moment, its use is restricted to iPhone owners, i.e. the relatively wealthy classes. But in these circles, especially in Egypt and among the ultra-connected youth of the wealthy Gulf States, followers for this new app started to grow rapidly. In these countries where social pressure and official censorship stifle dissenting voices and non-conforming opinions, Clubhouse provides a unique breathing space. In these virtual rooms, where anyone can initiate a discussion on a topic of their choice, or join an ongoing conversation, Arabs are rediscovering a taste for free speech. As the powers that be have not yet found a way to lock down this new network, the three great taboos of the region (sex, politics and religion) are openly discussed. In a sign that the application scares autocrats, the Sultanate of Oman announced on Sunday that the country had blocked Clubhouse, following the footsteps of China, who blocked it in February. In the Emirates, discussions have not been accessible for several days, which is interpreted locally as an act of censorship without saying so openly. Fans of the platform can bypass the jamming with a VPN, but in doing so, they risk breaking the law: The use of such software is strictly codified in the UAE.

Yemeni rebel offensive threatens camps of those who fled war (AP) Already displaced once in Yemen’s grinding civil war, Mohammed Ali Saleh fled with his pregnant wife and their three children to central Marib province last year to seek refuge in a region that has known some relative peace and stability because of well-protected oil fields nearby. But now the fighting is moving toward them again. Iran-backed Houthi rebels are pushing to capture the province from the internationally recognized government to try to complete their control over the northern half of Yemen. If they succeed, the Houthis could claim a strategic win after a largely stalemated battle in almost seven years of fighting. The sounds of war terrify Saleh and his family. “It’s a nightmare we are experiencing every night,” he said from a camp for the displaced that had previously escaped violence.

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