Monday 10/19/2015
Selective review of October 19 in history, cherrypicked from Wikipedia:
Not a good day for Carthage. In 202 BC during the Second Punic War Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage, at the Battle of Zama. Then, in 439 the Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, took Carthage.
What are we doing toward ending US Policy of Endless War?
Of the many missed opportunities during the first Democratic Presidential debate, none were larger than the failure to challenge Hillary Clinton's description of her record regarding Libya.
Argentina President Cristina Fernandez has asked for the full involvement of of federal and Buenos Aires police in finding the person who killed transgender and LGBT activist Diana Sacayan.
Sacayan's body was found in an apartment in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. It is believed she had been stabbed to death.
Fernandez spoke from the city of Garin. She personally presented Sacayan with the first identification document in Argentina to indicate a gender change.
We have been pretty much movie free except for airline movies since we began our current Africa trip back in early August, so tonight we took advantage of the free wifi here at the guesthouse and watched someone's copy of "The Green Zone" posted up on YouTube. I won't provide the link to the youtube posting we watched but here's some info from the wikipedia entry in case you, like me, are unfamiliar with the flick.
Good morning 99percenters!
Morning news dump and music by Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings.
150 Countries Pledge to Curb Carbon Emissions
Some 150 countries representing around 90 percent of the world’s carbon emissions have now filed pledges to curb them, dramatically increasing the chances of a deal at the Paris climate summit in December.
The promises made so far would still put the world on track for a dangerous global warming rise of 3°C (around 9°F). But they could be adjusted in the future to meet the 2°C target recommended by international scientists, the EU’s climate commissioner, Miguel Cañete, told a U.N. conference in Rabat, Morocco.
It has been ten whole days since I wrote about the murder of a trans woman of color.
In the early evening on Thursday Zella Ziona, 21, was walking in an alleyway between two shopping centers in Montgomery Village, Maryland when she was surrounded by four or five teenagers. According to a witness, one of the youths pulled out a gun and shot Ziona in the head.
Zella was rushed to a hospital, where she died.
Police initially identified the victim as a woman, but by later in the evening insisted on misgendering and dead-naming her. As usual, the media followed suit.
An impromptu vigil took place last night.
So when you become the president, and you start to settle in to the serial-killing portion of the job, apparently you develop a card fetish.
This is an article that I wrote back in 2012 that in light of The Intercept's recent articles seems worth revisiting.
It's 2020, and unless Mr. Obama has successfully declared himself President-for-life, somebody else is President. Perhaps this time the lesser evil has lost. Thanks to the groundwork laid by President Obama and the boys at DARPA, the new president has the sort of technology that dystopian fiction is based upon.
In 2020 the president has at his disposal the drone technology to surveil anyone, anywhere on earth. The technology has the visual resolution to see disturbed dirt from a mile high in the sky and track footprints, to identify individuals using biometric data, even to "see" through walls and ceilings. Drones will also be outfitted with the means to collect electronic communications, phone calls, texts, gps location data, etc., creating a tool that can track individuals in the physical realm as well as their "footprints" in cyberspace to deliver the information needed for lethal actions
In 2020 the Earth will be surrounded by a triple canopy of drones at various heights to surveil us and deliver sudden death and destruction from above, wherever on earth or space the president desires:
At the lowest tier of this emerging U.S. aerospace shield, within striking distance of Earth in the lower stratosphere, the Pentagon is building an armada of 99 Global Hawk drones equipped with high-resolution cameras capable of surveilling all terrain within a 100-mile radius, electronic sensors to intercept communications, efficient engines for continuous 24-hour flights, and eventually Triple Terminator missiles to destroy targets below.
