gatestoneinstitute | The idea that in the United States there is "structural racism" (defined
by the Aspen Institute as "a system in which public policies,
institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work
in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity")
has led, it seems, to a form of obsessive expiation. Films have been
removed from streaming services. Gone with the Wind will now be shown with five-minute disclaimer. (One minute would not have been enough?)
The film is probably just first on a lengthening list. A reporter from Variety recently listed "10 Problematic Films That Could Use Warning Labels". They include Forrest Gump:
for a brief moment, the title character is described, in an ironic
fashion, as having been named after a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Consumer product brands, such as Uncle Ben's Rice and Aunt Jemima syrup are abruptly having their names and logos changed. Princeton
voted to expunge the name of Woodrow Wilson from its public policy
school. Demands have been made that universities and corporations show
that they are not racist by declaring their support for Black Lives
Matter. Many have bowed to the demand.
Of course there is still some racism among individuals, but the idea
that the United States today is a society where "structural racism"
exists is contradicted
by decades of political decisions to repair the damage and, as in, for
example, affirmative action programs, to favor equality for all
Americans. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an American author who fled her homeland
of Somalia, wrote:
"The problem is that there are people among us who don't
want to figure it out and who have an interest in avoiding workable
solutions. They have an obvious political incentive not to solve social
problems, because social problems are the basis of their power. That is
why, whenever a scholar like Roland Fryer brings new data to the table—showing
it's simply not true that the police disproportionately shoot black
people dead—the response is not to read the paper but to try to
discredit its author."
For many years, American films dealing with racial questions have
been explicitly hostile to any racial discrimination, and it would be
impossible to find a book put out by a U.S. publishing house supporting
racial discrimination, unless it dates from an era long gone. Rewriting
history by falsifying it is simply an attempt to replace history with propaganda.
Removing films and other information that do not correspond to a
predetermined vision of history has long been the practice of totalitarian
despotisms. Dictating that universities and corporations face severe
consequences if they refuse to bowdlerize the past is simply a
fascistic, tyrannical
means of coercion. Worse, the submissive attitude of so many
universities and corporations is what enables the bullying to continue.
libcom | Coexisting with this egalitarian ideology was the Civil Rights
movement's appeal to a functionalist conception of social rationality.
To the extent that it blocked individual aspirations, segregation was
seen as restricting artificially social growth and progress. Similarly,
by raising artificial barriers such as the construction of blacks'
consumer power through Jim Crow legislation and, indirectly, through low
black wages, segregation impeded, so the argument went, the free
functioning of the market. Consequently, segregation was seen not only
as detrimental to the blacks who suffered under it, but also to economic
progress as such. Needless to say, the two lines of argument were met
with approval by corporate liberals.[31]
......
Outside the South, rebellion arose from different conditions. Racial
segregation was not rigidly codified and the management sub-systems in
the black community were correspondingly more fluidly integrated within
the local administrative apparatus. Yet, structural, generational and
ideological pressures, broadly similar to those in the South, existed
within the black elite in the Northern, Western, and Midwestern cities
that had gained large black populations in the first half of the 20th
century. In non-segregated urban contexts, formal political
participation and democratized consumption had long since been achieved:
there the salient political issue was the extension of the
administrative purview of the elite within the black community. The
centrality of the administrative nexus in the "revolt of the cities" is
evident from the ideological programs it generated.
Black Power came about as a call for indigenous control of economic and political institutions in the black community.[33]
Because one of the early slogans of Black Power was a vague demand for
"community control," the emancipatory character of the rebellion was
open to considerable misinterpretation. Moreover, the diversity and
"militance" of its rhetoric encouraged extravagance in assessing the
movement's depth. It soon became clear, however, that "community
control" called not for direction of pertinent institutions — schools,
hospitals, police, retail businesses, etc. — by their black
constituents, but for administration of those institutions by alleged
representatives in the name of a black community. Given an existing
elite structure whose legitimacy had already been certified by federal
social-welfare agencies, the selection of "appropriate" representatives
was predictable. Indeed, as Robert Allen has shown,[34]
the empowerment of this elite was actively assisted by corporate-state
elements. Thus, "black liberation" quickly turned into black "equity,"
"community control" became simply "black control" and the Nixon
"blackonomics" strategy was readily able to "coopt" the most rebellious
tendency of 1960s black activism. Ironically, Black Power's supersession
of the Civil Rights program led to further consolidation of the
management elite's hegemony within the black community. The black elite
broadened its administrative control by uncritically assuming the
legitimacy of the social context within which that elite operated. Black
control was by no means equivalent to democratization.
There are now, in my view, at least seven fairly distinct camps among
Black political figures — concentrated in the Democratic Party but also
stretching into the GOP. These groupings — which come from my own
reporting and talking to experts, rather than any specific data set —
are mostly informal. But the idea is to explain some common patterns and
themes we are seeing, not necessarily to perfectly describe the
politics of any particular person or faction in the party. I should also
emphasize that these camps do not correspond exactly to rank-and-file
Black voters, although I will talk about some places where there is overlap between activists and voters.
I have tried to order the camps by size, from largest to smallest. They are:
universetoday | This movie was created using an imagery from Mars Express’ High
Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The images are normally taken looking
straight down (nadir), and the video combines topography information
from the stereo channels of HRSC to generate a three-dimensional
landscape, which was then recorded from different perspectives, as with a
movie camera, to render the flight shown in the video.
Korolev Crater is 82 kilometers (50 miles) across and at least 2 km
(1.25 miles) deep. This well-preserved crater is located the northern
lowlands of Mars, just south of a large patch of dune-filled terrain
that encircles part of the planet’s northern polar cap (known as Olympia
Undae).
That’s not snow you’re seeing, but this crater is constantly filled
with water ice, and its central mound is about 1.8 kilometers (1.1
miles) thick all year round. It’s one of the largest reservoirs of
non-polar ice on Mars.
This view reminds me of a flight I took where I flew over Meteor
Crater in Arizona USA. But for comparison, Meteor Crater is less than a
mile across (.737 miles/1.186 km) and just 560 feet (170 m) deep.
You may be thinking, how can this ice remain stable in Korolev Crater;
doesn’t water ice sublimate away in Mars thin atmosphere? Just like dry
ice does here on Earth, water ice on Mars usually goes from solid to gas
with the low atmospheric pressure. (Mars has approximately 8 millibars
while on Earth the average, atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1013.25
millibars, or about 14.7 pounds per square inch.)
tatler | The news comes following a public back and forth between the US
Department of Justice and Prince Andrew’s legal team over the royal’s
alleged lack of cooperation in the ongoing investigations into Epstein.
But one of the US prosecutors leading the enquiries, Geoffrey Berman,
has now been sacked from his role as Attorney for the Southern District
of New York by Donald Trump after refusing to stand down.
According to the Times, the US Attorney General,
William Barr, asked President Trump to remove Berman – who had also
overseen the prosecution of a number of Trump’s associates. Berman
initially responded by stating that he had ‘no intention of resigning’
after Trump ally Barr unexpectedly announced that Berman was ‘stepping
down’.
Earlier in June it was reported that the US Department
of Justice had asked the Home Office to help it question Andrew over his
links to Epstein. The Duke of York’s legal team accused the DoJ of
‘breaching their own confidentiality rules’, claiming that the royal had
‘offered his assistance as a witness’ on at least three occasions this
year.
Berman retaliated by stating that Andrew had
‘yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and
willing to cooperate.’ He added that in fact, the Duke ‘has not given an
interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request
to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us
unequivocally – through the very same counsel who issued today's release
– that he would not come in for such an interview… If Prince Andrew is,
in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal
investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we
should expect him.’
It was subsequently reported that
Andrew would not cooperate with the Epstein investigation unless
American investigators offer him ‘an olive branch’. The Duke of York has
consistently denied any wrongdoing in regards to his links with his
former friend.
dailymail | Speaking to The Sun,
Epstein's former employer Steven Hoffenberg said the paedophile's
ex-girlfriend Maxwell 'knows everything' and will 'totally co-operate'
after her arrest.
Hoffenberg, a
convicted fraudster who employed Epstein at Towers Financial in the
1980s, said 'there's a lot of people very worried' about what Maxwell
could reveal. 'She's going to cooperate and be very important. Andrew is
definitely, definitely concerned,' Hoffenberg said.
On
Thursday, a source close to the Duke of York's legal team told
DailyMail.com that he was 'bewildered' by prosecutors' remarks that they
wanted to speak to him.
'The Duke’s
team remains bewildered given that we have twice communicated with the
DOJ in the last month and to-date, we have had no response.'
On
Thursday, Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss said the investigation into
Epstein's decades of abuse is ongoing and that she'd 'welcome' Prince
Andrew 'coming in to provide a statement', prompting speculation that he
may among people investigators may focus their attention on next.
'We
would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk to us. We would like to
have the benefit of his statement. Our doors remain open. We would
welcome him coming in and giving us an opportunity to hear his
statement,' she said.
It opens the
door to questions of jurisdiction and whether or not US Attorney Strauss
may charge for alleged incidents that happened in London and not
America. Among the claims in the indictment is that Maxwell groomed one
of the victims in London. At her press conference, Strauss said some of
the sexual abuse also happened at Maxwell's house in London.
US
attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents one of Maxwell's accusers, said
'all others accused of enabling Jeffrey Epstein's predations must
immediately be brought to justice as well'.
'Maxwell's
brutal, ruthless behaviour caused my client tremendous pain,' Ms Bloom
said in a statement, adding that she and her client applauded the
socialite's 'long overdue arrest'.
One
Epstein accuser, Michelle Licata, has previously voiced hopes that
prosecutors looking into Epstein were 'going to start digging into his
life... and start pulling out this spider web of people that were
related to it', according to the New York Post.
Former
federal prosecutor Jessica Roth told Bloomberg: 'There is no way for
prosecutors to present a case against her without going into all the
evidence they had against Epstein, because the charges here are
intertwined.
'The original indictment
against Jeffrey Epstein made it clear that he didn’t act alone and that
the government had evidence that other people were also involved.'
Celebrating
Maxwell's arrest, Prince Andrew's accuser, Roberts said last night:
'Thank you to the FBI, Southern District of New York and anyone involved
in the arrest of this insidious creature. Hope the judge throws the
book at her. So so so happy- she’s finally where she belongs.'
kmbc | Mayor Quinton Lucas is calling on a special session of the Missouri General Assembly to address violent crime in Kansas City.
On
Friday, Lucas released a letter she sent to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson
calling the situation in Kansas City a ‘crisis point.’ In the letter, he
asks Parson to call for a special session of the assembly to allow
state senators and representatives to vote on legislation to enhance
witness protection funding in Missouri.
“We need state legislative action on several items we have previously
discussed to address our problem,” Lucas said in the letter. “While we
will continue to pursue a broad set of social services and other tools
to address violent crime now and in the future, specific action from
Jefferson City can help us apprehend and incarcerate murderers currently
walking the streets of Kansas City and protect witnesses in our
neighborhoods who are frequently scared to speak.”
Lucas
said additional help is also needed to provide more tools for law
enforcement and prosecutors to “interrupt conspiracies to commit murder
and other violent acts, particularly offenses committed by felons using
deadly weapons.”
“Kansas City is too fine a city, and Missouri too
fine a state to allow violent criminality to define our way of life,”
Lucas wrote. “We will persevere through these challenges, but our
children, our law enforcement community, and all Kansas Citians need
change quickly."
bloomberg | Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime friend of Jeffrey Epstein arrested
Thursday for helping him sexually abuse underage girls, could wind up in
the same jail where he committed suicide last year.
Maxwell,
58, was arrested early Thursday morning in New Hampshire and is set for
an afternoon hearing in federal court there. Federal prosecutors in
Manhattan, who are handling the case, are opposing bail and seeking to
have her held in custody before trial.
“We will be seeking detention,” Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey
Strauss in Manhattan said in a press conference announcing charges.
Prosecutors said Maxwell helped Epstein entice girls as young as 14 into
sex from 1994 through 1997, then lied about it under oath in 2016.
Prosecutors warn that Maxwell has a “strong incentive” to flee if
she’s not detained because she faces years in prison. “That risk is only
amplified by the defendant’s extensive international ties, her
citizenship in two foreign countries, her wealth, and her lack of
meaningful ties to the United States,”
they wrote in a detention memo. “In short, Maxwell has three passports,
large sums of money, extensive international connections, and
absolutely no reason to stay” in the U.S.
Back to New York
Unless
the judge in New Hampshire releases her on bail, Maxwell will either be
held overnight in a local jail there or transported immediately back to
New York, said Jack Donson, a consultant who formerly worked for the
federal Bureau of Prisons. In New York, she would likely be transferred
to one of two federal lockups, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in
Lower Manhattan or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Newsweek | "I oppose the destruction of evidence that may contain smoking gun
proof that my false accuser made up her story," Dershowitz said. "I want
all the evidence preserved because I have absolutely nothing to hide. I
did nothing wrong. The evidence to be destroyed may also contain proof
of wrongdoing by others. It should be preserved for appeal and for
history. Destroying evidence risks destroying truth."
Upon
returning from a trip to France in 2019, Epstein was arrested.
Indictment documents alleged that Epstein had "sexually exploited and
abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and
Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations." Epstein also allegedly
"created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually
exploit." Investigators also reported finding incriminating photographs
of underaged naked girls inside a safe in Epstein's Manhattan home.
Giuffre
claimed that she had been brought into Epstein's circle by Epstein's
lover Ghislaine Maxwell. While involved with Epstein, Giuffre alleged
that she had been involved in sexual relations with Prince Andrew while
she was 17 years old at Epstein's behest.
Prince Andrew denied the allegations, saying in a 2019 statement that he
"deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he
would condone, participate in or encourage and such behavior is
abhorrent."
Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges. While awaiting trial, Epstein
died by hanging in his prison cell. After it was discovered that prison
guards had failed to perform safety checks on Epstein, some believed
that Epstein had actually been murdered. However, the coroner officially
ruled Epstein's death a suicide.
nuclearwarsimulator | The goal of this project is to build a realistic simulation and
visualization of large-scale nuclear conflicts with a focus on
humanitarian consequences. There are currently over 13000 nuclear
weapons on this planet of which over 9000 are in military stockpiles.
This software should help you answer the question: what will happen if
Russia and United States or India and Pakistan use their arsenals?
There
are a lot of interlocking systems and processes in a nuclear conflict:
the command and control system, locations and movement of forces,
weapons delivery systems and humanitarian consequences. By simulating
the most relevant of these systems you should be able to tell a credible
story about how nuclear conflicts play out and what are the
consequences.
The simulation is developed in Unity and will be distributed as a stand-alone application.
Currently implemented features:
visualise and calculate effects of nuclear weapons (thermal
radiation, overpressure, fallout and mass fires) on a high-density
population grid (similar to Alex Wellerstein’s NUKEMAP)
visualisation
of overpressure, thermal radiation, radiation dose from fallout, areas
affected by mass fires, population density and casualties density
(prompt radiation is not considered)
effects from hundreds to thousands of explosions can be calculated and visualised in seconds
design and place nuclear forces to recreate current, past or future arsenals using an intuitive UI
create attack plans and conflict scenarios and share them with others
place yourself, your family and your friends inside the simulation and calculate the probability of your survival
simulate
the dynamics and timing of the conflict and effects of a first strike
using a damage model based on CEP and overpressure
simple production cost model: how many weapons can a country build if it wants to?
Some more details can be found in the screenshots-section. Technical
details on the models and databases being used here will be added soon.
Follow me on twitter to stay updated.
nbcnewyork | Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and heiress who became a
confidante of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and was later
implicated in his alleged sexual crimes, has been arrested by the FBI.
She was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire around 8:30 a.m. Thursday
on charges she conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, and is
expected to appear in a federal court later today.
The six-count indictment in Manhattan federal court alleges that
Maxwell helped Epstein groom girls as young as 14 years old, going back
as far as 1994. She faces up to 35 years in prison.
"This case against Ghislaine Maxwell is the prequel to the earlier
case we brought against Jeffrey Epstein," Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney
Audrey Strauss said at a news conference on the indictment. The FBI
said that it had been tracking her movements for some time, though she
was not indicted until June 29.
mashable | “We have better topographic data from Pluto than we do from Venus,”
says Darby Dyer, the current chair of NASA’s Venus Exploration Advisory
Group, with a frustrated chuckle. “NASA and the majority of planetary
scientists have bought into the notion that Mars is the most likely
place to have water and evidence of life. Overturning that paradigm is a
tough battle, but we’re fighting it.”
Dyer is 62; the days when Venus was thought to be a swamp planet are
within her living memory. She also remembers being in grad school at MIT
in the 1980s, on the day Ronald Reagan canceled a NASA mission that was
going to take an orbital radar to Venus.
“There were people crying in the corridors,” she says. “Ph.D.s whose
whole theses vanished in an instant.” The Venus community gathered its
energy and pushed back enough to create one final mission, planned for
1986, which was delayed by the Challenger shuttle explosion until 1989.
That was Magellan.
Still, even with that Magellan data and our limited Earth-based
spectroscopy, what wonders and mysteries we’ve been able to uncover.
There are the strange dark patches, large enough to affect the planet’s weather, which may be where those microorganisms are hanging out. A 2020 study says that Venus’ volcanoes are still active, erupting as we speak.
And it’s only been four years since a groundbreaking study
that suggested we might have been right all along about Venus being
covered in liquid water; we just got the wrong era. Turns out Venus had
oceans between 4 billion and 1 billion years ago — way longer than
liquid water existed on Mars, and more than enough time for it to
develop life.
“If you had water for 3 billion years, life probably arose on Venus
before it did on Earth,” says Dyar. “Maybe they had trilobites in those
oceans; maybe they got as far as whales.”
We may raise CO2 in the atmosphere to the point where it threatens
the threads of human civilization, but only a growing sun can boil the
oceans and burn the land, creating enough CO2 to dominate the atmosphere
for a full-on runaway greenhouse effect.
But! It’s also possible that Venus was slammed by multiple impacts,
including a possible former moon, which might explain why the whole
place is spinning upside-down and so slowly. You know what would help us
figure it out? More data.
Right now we don’t even know what Venus’ core is made of, or whether
it has tectonic plates like Earth, or whether there’s evidence of old
oceans to be found in the atmosphere, or exactly what kind of organisms
have clung to it like mushrooms thriving in the radioactive ruin of Chernobyl’s old reactor.
It won’t be dinosaurs, but life on Venus may well have, uh, found a way.
yanisvaroufakis |You said that “either we unite
with progressives around the planet in a shared struggle for justice, or
we surrender to the forces of nationalism and free-market
fundamentalism”, how could reuniting progressives help in any way?and
what is your plan beside the website?
Let me give you a simple example: During every recent crisis,
bankers banded together and forced governments to apply socialism – for
them! The price was austerity and hardship for almost everyone else.
This led to discontent. Discontent then breeds fascism, xenophobia,
nativism, ultra-nationalism. The representatives of this misanthropic
type of politics unite across borders (look at the love in between
Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi, Le Pen, Salvini etc.). Is it not the time for
progressives to band together in the interests of the majority in every
country, on every continent?
This is what our Progressive International is about. How are we
organising this, besides a website? In two ways. First, by putting
together a global plan for shared, green prosperity. (We must be
able to answer questions such as “How much should we spend on fighting
climate change? Where will the money come from? How will we redistribute
wealth from the few to the many and from the Global North to the Global
South?”) Secondly, by organising global actions in support of local
causes (e.g. a global campaign in support of a few striking women
workers in, say, India). To accomplish these hugely hard, but essential,
tasks the Progressive International has put together a Council,
comprising leading activists from around the world, and a Cabinet,
consisting of a few dedicated organisers working on our campaigns on a
day-to-day basis. Our next meeting will take place on 18th September in Iceland, under the aegis of Katrin Jacobsdottir, the country’s Prime Minister.
What should be the role of the
state in all of this, specially after the Covid 19 and critics to
capitalism and private sectors which was not able to cope with the
crisis?
The state’s role is crucial. Even politicians inspired by
small-government libertarianism have had to call for governments to step
in and, effectively, save everyone. The question is not whether the
state has a role. The question is: On whose behalf is the state acting?
nakedcapitalism | The
racial categories of white and black were developed around 1600.
Probably a little after by wealthy Americans who used it to keep divided
Black slaves, poor often indentured Whites, and the often enslaved
Indians. These people were
not disposable because they were useful as workers, but who often
worked and even socialized frequently. As a group they had potentially
considerable political power during the 1600s. This was deliberately
dealt with. The Blacks were brutally suppress with
(the category of Black indentured was eliminated. There was no Southern
style chattel slavery for Blacks at first). The Whites were placated
with some very modest reforms. The Indians (labeled as savages) were
just driven off at gunpoint. This is also where
the Southern Slave Patrols started to terrorize and keep down the slave
population as well as keep down any poor whites. Where they started
asking for people’s papers.
When my Irish great whatever grandfather stepped off the Coffin Ship around 1850, he was barely considered human, never mind white, and about on par with the black community. This was true for decades as were the “Irish need not
apply signs” and the creation of the Paddy Wagons. Would you consider him having White Privilege?
It was only after the development of political
power over multiple generations that the Irish-Americans were given the
status of being both human and white, which only really happened during
the early 20th century. Similarly with the Italians,
Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Greeks, and so on.
Then there are the
Jews. The Italians only finally became real whites after the Second
World War although I do not think that they were quite as abused
as the Irish. Going up to an individual in these
groups at anytime before the 1960s and saying that they have White
Privilege would have had them laugh at you in your very face. Today,
they have been giving the category of White with its very real privilege
of being treated like a human being, so long as
you are not poor. But in the past?
During the Antebellum South and after
Reconstruction when a poor white farmer or laborer even got friendly
with a black person, the local wealthy white landowner and his hired
goons would often beat up the offending white man. After Reconstruction,
the allied white and black reformists in the South were literally
extirpated via guns and the rope. If they were lucky and in the
government, they were merely deposed, and run out of town by armed white
supremacists during actual coups. Much like the American
led coups in the Americas and elsewhere.
When a leader, especially a black one, becomes
successful in his leadership and starts to bring up class and poverty,
to suggest crossing class and race as well as mentioning our common
humanity they often wind up dead like MLK and Fred
Hampton. Working just on racism is much less dangerous.
Actually in the South and Southwest during the 19th
century Blacks, Hispanics, and the very, very occasional White who were
too successful as business owners were sometimes lynched for just that
reason. To destroy the opposition.
There are a number of ways to destroy reformists
movements besides murder especially those that threaten the power and
money of the elites. Hell, you can find elite co-option, police and goon
squad assassinations in the labor movement,
equal rights movement, even in feminism (no murders, but plenty of
false arrests and beatings). All of these movements were captured by
elitists who expunged first the non-whites, then the socialists, then
the working class from what became their movement.
Any economic benefits from these “reforms” only accrued to the Upper
Class Whites.
Why do cries of racism become so strident and the
very real problem of racism become something that must be solves right
now, today when cries of poverty and want are also raised. Every single
time? Do you think that the current debates
about racism just happened right after Bernie Sanders near success and
the rise of an actual American Left fifty years after it was destroyed
is a coincidence? Really?
If this was really and truly about racism or even
poverty, why are the Native Americans, trapped on their Reservations
with the highest poverty, drug use, rape and murder statistics of any
group of Americans, bar none, not mentioned. They
have the most police brutality as well and some of the reservations,
due to legal loopholes, are happy hunting grounds for rapists coming
from outside of some of the reservations. Their leaders usually do not
have political power and wealth and they are isolated
and beaten down at least compared to the national political leadership.
So just under three million people are ignored and targeted.]
People are finally taking some notice of the
shrinking middle class and of the increasing homeless population. If you
wanted, I can take to some of the skosh less then fifteen thousand
homeless in San Francisco. Or the over one hundred
thousand throughout the state. At least half of whom are White. Are
there any real protest over them? We can look at the millions wasted
every year by San Francisco with cushy jobs being created, but not much
progress. However, there are fine demonstrations
on racism, which is good because racism and also police brutality with
no mention of the increasing poverty in this country. Even now large
sums of cash are used to “deal” with the problems, nationally. Problems
that always get worse.
So cui bono? At least half of any negative
statistic one could name, with the possible exception of prison, which
IIRC only one-third are White. Unemployment, poverty, drug use, police
brutality and police murders. Poor and struggling people
are much easier to manipulate, aren’t they?
However, when there are protests about those issues
it very often morphs into one about just racism. Let’s tear down some
statues. Yah! When ever there is smart, hardworking, talented, and
dedicated reformist or a successful non-profit
making progress dealing with those issues, including racism, money from
somewhere drops from the sky like manna. So long as small concessions
are made. Or a slick person applies for a job there. Always has money
somehow and eventually takes over or at least
co-opts the organization. Or cushy jobs are offered elsewhere to
certain people. In the old days like the 1960s and before, if that
didn’t work s*** would happen, sometimes fatally. Sometimes nothing
needs be done because often college educated are already
brainwashed into uselessness by Neoliberal propaganda. The wealth and
power of the Haves remain protected.
As an aside, Social Darwinism and Eugenics were
created and spread by very wealthy people and foundations in the United
States. Much like racism. If one doubts this, I can recommend some books
I have. A good start would be War Against
the Weak by Edwin Black.
So, in two part harmony, the Black Misleadership
Class starts it latest performance along with the Backup of the White
Misleadership Class (what else should I label Pelosi, Schumer, and
McConnell? Or the leaders of the entire state of California?).
Racism, the horror! And the police, oh my! Screaming, shouting (a
whisper about poverty, homelessness, hunger, unemployment.) Perhaps
Obama pops out and says some soaring nonsense or some very poor white
fool is interviewed. A fantastic tempest in a teapot
with nothing every actually getting done.
Then some Alt-Right creeps pop out and start saying
you are White or not, and that’s all that matters! There is no American
nationalism, only White Nationalism. White Power! Join us! (and don’t
forget the Jews!) Finally, lies like the 1619
Project or propaganda like White Fragility are published.
Yes, racism does exist, and as a percentage of all
the ills of our American nation, Blacks get it the worse excepting the
Native Americans, of course. White Privilege is a real thing. But just
as the categories of White and Black, of racism
were deliberately created in the 17th century, for benefiting the
powers that be, I wonder about Identity Politics and Cancelling. That
blend of Nazi racialism and Maoist thought control. I wonder how racism
and its pernicious child Identity Politics has been
created, nurtured, fed a steady diet of hate, and then used as a weapon
upon those who would care about everyone regardless of there supposed
identity. I also wonder what would happen if I approached the man
sleeping on cardboard, perhaps in the usually three
month rainy season, or that family living in their car/van/RV on some
out of the way road, that the do have White Privilege, which the do and
usually means being treated as a human being. I also wonder about my
nose.
stltoday | ST.
LOUIS — As protesters made their way to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home on
Sunday night, demanding her resignation, they marched and shouted along
private Portland Place. They were met by a couple pointing guns and
telling protesters to get away.
Protesters
chanted to a drumbeat of “Let’s go!” Hundreds of them filed by. The
couple, Mark T. and Patricia N. McCloskey, stood outside with weapons.
They are personal-injury lawyers who work together in The McCloskey Law
Center and own a million dollar home.'
“Private
property!” Mark McCloskey shouted repeatedly at the crowd, as he held a
rifle. “Get out! Private property, get out!” Patricia McCloskey pointed
a small handgun.
Someone
in the crowd replied, “Calm down.” A woman protester yelled, “Then call
the (expletive) cops, you idiot!” and “It’s a public street
(expletive).”
The
Post-Dispatch photographed the exchange. A video on Twitter had been
viewed more than 10 million times by Monday morning. President Trump
retweeted an ABC News account of the confrontation.
The couple’s renovation of their storied Renaissance palazzo mansion on Portland Place was featured in St. Louis Magazine.
City records show the property is appraised at $1.15 million. The
couple could not be reached Monday morning to talk about the incident.
The windows at the couple's law firm were boarded up; no one responded
to a knock on the door of their home.
kshb | Mayor Quinton Lucas's face mask mandate went into effect in Kansas City, Missouri, Monday.
Anyone going inside a public building is now required to wear a face covering.
The
Kansas City, Missouri Health Department will be enforcing the mandate
by asking customers and businesses to hold each other accountable.
As of 5 p.m. there were 21 Health - Communicable Disease 311 complaints according to the city's 311 database.
The Health Department will follow up with businesses in those
complaints one by one, beginning with a phone call to determine if the
business needs a reminder about the rule or if it is actively ignoring
it.
Joe Zwillenberg, owner of the Westport Flea Market Bar and
Grill, said he welcomes the oversight by the public and the government.
"You
might get that new employee who just moved here that maybe doesn't know
about the ordinance going on and fell through the cracks," Zwillenberg
said. "The last thing any restaurant wants to do is get somebody sick."
After
an initial follow-up call from the health department, next steps, if
necessary, include sending a certified letter, visiting the business,
sending a mitigation order and pulling the occupancy permit.
The Health Department wants to stress that customers hold the power. If
they see a business not allowing for distancing or not enforcing
mask-wearing they should leave.
cnbc | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
on Sunday said that a federal mandate on wearing masks is “long
overdue,” as state governors call for a consistent national message on
the issue amid a surge in coronavirus cases across the nation.
Pelosi
said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended
the use of masks to reduce the spread of the virus but never mandated it
as to “not offend” President Donald Trump.
The
president has repeatedly flouted public health guidelines by refusing
to wear a mask in public since the start of the outbreak.
“The
president should be an example. Real men wear masks, be an example to
the country, wear a mask,” Pelosi said in an interview on ABC’s “This
Week.” “It’s not about protecting yourself, it’s about protecting
others.”
Mask wearing has become a point of contention across the U.S.,
despite research showing that face coverings prevent coronavirus
transmission.
U.S. coronavirus cases surged by more than 45,000 in one day on
Friday, a record breaking spike that brought the nation’s total to more
than 2.5 million cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins
University.
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday deflected a
question about a federal mandate requiring Americans to wear masks, and
said people should listen to what state and local officials are saying
about wearing masks in public.
The
vice president said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that
“every state has a unique situation” and “we believe people should wear
masks wherever social distancing is not possible.”
strategic-culture | With the specter of a New Great Depression hovering over most of the
planet, realpolitik perspectives for a radical change of the political
economy framework we live in are not exactly encouraging.
Western ruling elites will be deploying myriad tactics to perpetuate
the passivity of populations barely emerging from de facto house arrest,
including a massive disciplinary – in a Foucault sense – drive by
states and business/finance circles.
In his latest book, La Desaparicion de los Rituales,
Byung-Chul Han shows how total communication, especially in a time of
pandemic, now coincides with total vigilance: “Domination impersonates
freedom. Big Data generates a domineering knowledge that allows the
possibility of intervening in the human psyche, and manipulating it.
Considering it this way, the data-ist imperative of transparency is not a
continuation of the Enlightenment, but its ending.”
This revamping of Foucault’s Discipline and Punish coincides with
reports about the demise of the neoliberal era being vastly overstated.
Instead of a simplistic plunge into populist nationalism, what is on the
horizon points mostly to a Neoliberalism Restoration
– massively spun as a novelty, and incorporating some Keynesian
elements: after all, in the post-Lockdown era, to “save” the markets and
private initiative the state must not only intervene but also
facilitate a possible ecological transition.
The bottom line: we may be facing a mere cosmetic approach, in which
the deep structural crisis of zombie capitalism – barely moving under
unpopular “reforms” and infinite debt – still is not addressed.
Meanwhile, what is going to happen to assorted fascisms? Eric Hobsbawm showed us in Age of Extremes how the key to the fascist right was always mass mobilization: “Fascists were the revolutionaries of the counter-revolution”.
We may be heading further than mere, crude neofascism. Call it Hybrid
Neofascism. Their political stars bow to global market imperatives
while switching political competition to the cultural arena.
That’s what true “illiberalism” is all about: the mix between
neoliberalism – unrestricted capital mobility, Central Bank diktats –
and political authoritarianism. Here’s where we find Trump, Modi and
Bolsonaro.
WEF | Geneva, Switzerland, 3 June 2020 – “The Great Reset” will be the
theme of a unique twin summit to be convened by the World Economic Forum
in January 2021. The 51st World Economic Forum Annual Meeting will
bring together global leaders from government, business and civil
society, and stakeholders from around the world in a unique
configuration that includes both in-person and virtual dialogues.
“We only have one planet and we know that climate change could be
the next global disaster with even more dramatic consequences for
humankind. We have to decarbonize the economy in the short window still
remaining and bring our thinking and behaviour once more into harmony
with nature,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the
World Economic Forum.
“In order to secure our future and to prosper, we need to evolve
our economic model and put people and planet at the heart of global
value creation. If there is one critical lesson to learn from this
crisis, it is that we need to put nature at the heart of how we operate.
We simply can’t waste more time,” said HRH The Prince of Wales.
“The Great Reset is a welcome recognition that this human tragedy
must be a wake-up call. We must build more equal, inclusive and
sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face
of pandemics, climate change and the many other global changes we face,”
said António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations, New York.
“A Great Reset is necessary to build a new social contract that
honours the dignity of every human being,” added Schwab “The global
health crisis has laid bare the unsustainability of our old system in
terms of social cohesion, the lack of equal opportunities and
inclusiveness. Nor can we turn our backs on the evils of racism and
discrimination. We need to build into this new social contract our
intergenerational responsibility to ensure that we live up to the
expectations of young people.”
“COVID-19 has accelerated our transition into the age of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution. We have to make sure that the new
technologies in the digital, biological and physical world remain
human-centred and serve society as a whole, providing everyone with fair
access,” he said.
“This global pandemic has also demonstrated again how
interconnected we are. We have to restore a functioning system of smart
global cooperation structured to address the challenges of the next 50
years. The Great Reset will require us to integrate all stakeholders of
global society into a community of common interest, purpose and action,”
said Schwab. “We need a change of mindset, moving from short-term to
long-term thinking, moving from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder
responsibility. Environmental, social and good governance have to be a
measured part of corporate and governmental accountability,” he added.
Two by Stan Getz: Focus and Voices
-
Note: Each video links to the first selection in a play-list that links to
the whole album, one cut after the other.
*Focus*
Wikipedia:
*Focus* is a...
Celebrating 113 years of Mama Rosa McCauley Parks
-
*February 4, 1913 -- February 4, 2026*
*Some notes: The life of the courageous activist Mama Rosa McCauley Parks*
Mama Rosa's grandfather Sylvester Ed...
Monsters are people too
-
Comet 3I/Atlas is on its way out on a hyberbolic course to, I don't know
where. I do know that 1I/Oumuamua is heading for the constellation Pegasus,
and ...
Remembering the Spanish Civil War
-
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the launch of the Spanish Civil
War, an epoch-defining event for the international working class, whose
close study...
Return of the Magi
-
Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
us, s...
Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
-
sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
-
(Damn, has it been THAT long? I don't even know which prompts to use to
post this)
SeeNew
Can't get on your site because you've gone 'invite only'?
Man, ...
First Member of Chumph Cartel Goes to Jail
-
With the profligate racism of the Chumph Cartel, I don’t imagine any of
them convicted and jailed is going to do too much better than your run of
the mill ...
