The Evening Blues - 6-10-20
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features boogie woogie piano player "Cripple" Clarence Lofton. Enjoy!
Cripple Clarence Lofton - You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
-- Ursula K. Le Guin
News and Opinion
This is a long and generally excellent article. It's a little short on specifics about how to go about ending the economic and class inequality that is the root of the problem, but, I am glad to see somebody barking up the right tree. Here are some excerpts, but it would be worth your while to click the link and read the whole thing.
How Do We Change America?
The relentless fury and pace of rebellion has forced states to shrug off their stumbling efforts to subdue the novel coronavirus that continues to sicken thousands in the United States. State leaders have been much more adept in calling up the National Guard and coördinating police actions to confront marchers than they were in any of their efforts to curtail the virus. In a show of both cowardice and authoritarianism, Donald Trump threatened to call up the U.S. military to occupy American cities. “Crisis” does not begin to describe the political maelstrom that has been unleashed. ...
By now, it should be clear what the demands of young black people are: an end to racism, police abuse, and violence; and the right to be free of the economic coercion of poverty and inequality. The question is: How do we change this country? It’s not a new question; for African-Americans, it’s a question as old as the nation itself. A large part of the reason that rebels swell the streets with clenched fists and expressive eyes is the refusal or inability of this society to engage that question in a satisfying way. Instead, those asking the question are patronized with sweet-sounding speeches, made with alliterative apologia, often interspersed with recitations about the meaning of America, and ultimately in defense of the status quo. There is a palpable poverty of intellect, a lack of imagination, and a banality of ideas pervading mainstream politics today. Old and failed propositions are recycled, but proclaimed as new, reviving cynicism and dismay.
Take the recent comments of the former President Barack Obama. On Twitter, Obama counselled that “Real change requires protest to highlight a problem, and politics to implement practical solutions and laws.” He continued to say that “there are specific evidence-based reforms that would build trust, save lives, and lead to a decrease in crime, too,” including the policy proposals of his Task Force on 21st Century Policing, convened in 2015. Such a simple, plain-stated plan fails to answer the most basic question: Why do police reforms continue to fail? ...
This points to the importance of expanding our national discussion about what ails the country, beyond the racism and brutality of the police. We must also discuss the conditions of economic inequality that, when they intersect with racial and gender discrimination, disadvantage African-Americans while also making them vulnerable to police violence. Otherwise, we risk reducing racism to the outrageous and intentional acts of depraved individuals, while downplaying the cumulative impact of public policies and private-sector discrimination that, regardless of personal intent, have crippled the vitality of African-American life. ...
In 1968, King, in the weeks before he was assassinated, said, “In a sense, I guess you could say, we are engaged in the class struggle.” He was speaking to the costs of the programs that would be necessary to lift black people out of poverty and inequality, which were, in and of themselves, emblems of racist subjugation. Ending segregation in the South, then, was cheap compared with the huge costs necessary to end the kinds of discrimination that kept blacks locked out of the advantages of U.S. society, from well-paying jobs to well-resourced schools, good housing, and a comfortable retirement. The price of the ticket is quite steep, but, if we are to have a real conversation about how we change America, it must begin with an honest assessment of the scope of the deprivation involved. Racist and corrupt policing is the tip of the iceberg. ...
We have to make space for new politics, new ideas, new formations, and new people. The election of Biden may stop the misery of another Trump term, but it won’t stop the underlying issues that have brought about more than a hundred thousand COVID-19 deaths or continuous protests against police abuse and violence. Will the federal government intervene to stop the looming crisis of evictions that will disproportionately impact black women? Will it use its power and authority to punish police, and to empty prisons and jails, which not only bring about social death but are now also sites of rampant COVID-19 infection? Will it end the war on food stamps and allow African-Americans and other residents of this country to eat in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression? Will it finance the health-care needs of tens of millions of African-Americans who have become susceptible to the worst effects of the coronavirus, and are dying as a result? Will it provide the resources to depleted public schools, allowing black children the opportunity to learn in peace? Will it redistribute the hundreds of billions of dollars necessary to rebuild devastated working-class communities? Will there be free day care and transportation? ...
We have the resources to remake the United States, but it will have to come at the expense of the plutocrats and the plunderers, and therein lies the three-hundred-year-old conundrum: America’s professed values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, continually undone by the reality of debt, despair, and the human degradation of racism and inequality.
“Out of Options in Terms of Reform”: Khalil Gibran Muhammad on the Racist History of Police in U.S.
Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over
The US’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic was far from over, calling Covid-19 his “worst nightmare”.
“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Fauci said, speaking to executives at a conference of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.”
About 7 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and 400,000 people are known to have died. Many countries, including the US where more than 110,000 have died, are now relaxing quarantine rules despite rising rates of infection in some areas.
“That’s millions and millions of infections worldwide. And it isn’t over yet. And it’s condensed in a very, very small time frame,” said Fauci. ...
But Fauci said he was “very heartened” by the pharmaceutical industry, which he said, “stepped up to the plate”. There are more than 124 Covid-19 vaccines under development as of 2 June, according to the WHO, and Fauci said he was “almost certain” that more than one would be successful.
Coronavirus: more than a dozen US states see record high of new cases
A total of 14 states and the US territory of Puerto Rico have recorded their worst week yet for new coronavirus infections, with Texas hitting a record high in Covid-19 hospitalizations, all while restrictions to curb the pandemic are being relaxed across America. A resurgence in new infections has been detected in states including Florida, Texas and California, as authorities allow certain businesses and public places to reopen.
According to data tracked by the Washington Post, since the start of June, 14 states and Puerto Rico have experienced their highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
The surge in cases, which public health experts have described as worrying, and had warned about repeatedly, shows that while Covid-19 is now in retreat in New York City and other major urban centres, it is sweeping across rural areas, infecting smaller towns.
DC National Guard members called to respond to protests test positive for COVID-19
The D.C. National Guard confirmed Tuesday that multiple members have tested positive for coronavirus following their deployment to respond to protests around the White House in response to the police killing of George Floyd.
A spokeswoman for the Guard told McClatchy that more than one positive case had been confirmed among Guard members, though she did not specify how many.
“We can confirm that we have had COVID-19 positive tests with the DCNG,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Davis, the Guard's spokeswoman. “The safety and security of our personnel is always a concern, especially in light of the COVID-19 era.” ...
The news comes as health officials have warned that large public demonstrations like the ones held in D.C. in recent days carry the risk of further spreading coronavirus at a time when many states are beginning to reopen nonessential businesses.
With His Latest Lunacy, Trump Has Moved Into Nixon Territory — and Perhaps Beyond
It’s tough to determine the most bizarre thing President Donald Trump has ever said. But what he tweeted on Tuesday morning is definitely in the running:
Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020
... It’s tempting to dive into the details to demonstrate that the president of the United States was wrong to claim the sky is green. But it may be more useful to ask what this says about Trump’s current psychological state, and how it compares to other Americans who’ve wielded the power of life and death.
On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese troops dropped napalm on the village of Trang Bang. As Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a nine-year-old girl, fled naked down a road — her clothes had been burned off by the 2,000-degree jellied gasoline — an Associated Press photographer took a picture. The photograph went around the world, and immediately became a symbol of the war’s berserk cruelty. Four days later, on June 12, President Richard Nixon mused about the picture in a conversation captured by his Oval Office taping system. “I wonder if that was a fix,” he said to his chief of staff H.R. Haldeman. “Could have been,” Haldeman replied. “Because they got that picture of the little girl without any clothes … Napalm bothers people.”
What we see here is the people at the summit of power as they actually are — not super-villains delighting in their barbarism, but regular human beings who, like many, can’t bear to face the reality of what they do to others. So the immediate instinct of Nixon was to escape into a fantasy world. ...
Kim Phuc suffered grievous third-degree burns across her body. When the AP photographer took her to a Saigon hospital, doctors did not expect her to survive. She did live, however — and it appears that Martin Gugino will. Like Gugino, she has spent her life as a peace activist. So it’s no surprise that Trump is desperately grasping for any explanation that his “side” does not casually hurt people like this. As the poet T.S. Eliot said, “human kind cannot bear very much reality.” Those who run the world can bear the least.
Rioters, Looters, and Thugs: Watch How Trump Has Described the George Floyd Protesters
'Your Turn, Amazon and Microsoft': Civil Liberties Advocates Applaud IBM Decision to Ditch Facial Recognition
Tech giant IBM is getting out of the facial recognition software business, the company's CEO announced Monday in a letter to Congress calling on lawmakers to develop polices to address racial injustice and inequity, leading rights advocates to call on other companies in the field to walk away from the technology.
"This huge IBM move will force other large tech companies to take a stand, even if their silence is their statement," tweeted Wired writer Jessi Hempel.
This huge #IBM move will force other large tech companies to take a stand, even if their silence is their statement. https://t.co/GRRO5IBOye
— Jessi Hempel (@jessiwrites) June 9, 2020
The company's CEO, Arvind Krishna, declared in his letter to Congress that IBM was stepping away from facial recognition due to the technology's racial and gender biases as well as other concerns about mass surveillance and its use by law enforcement.
"IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values," said Krishna.
Trump moves to close the critical ice-breaker gap.
Trump orders fleet of icebreakers and new bases in push for polar resources
Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a fleet of icebreakers and bases to pursue US interests in the Arctic and Antarctic by the end of the decade in a signal that his administration is going to take a more aggressive approach to the contest with Russia and China for polar resources.
Trump issued a memorandum on “safeguarding US national interests in the Arctic and Antarctic regions” which calls on the administration to come up with a plan within 60 days that would include at least three heavy icebreakers to be built by 2029, and recommendations for locations to build two support bases in the US and two on foreign soil. ...
The US currently has just one heavy icebreaker, the ageing Polar Star, and one medium. Russia currently has 40 breakers in total, Finland has seven, and Canada and Sweden have six each.
As the sea ice is melting, China is also laying claim to Arctic resources, although it does not have an Arctic coastline, by funding various infrastructure projects.
Canada doubles weapons sales to Saudi Arabia despite moratorium
Canada sold a record amount of military hardware to Saudi Arabia in 2019, despite sharply criticizing its poor human rights record and placing a moratorium on any new exports to the kingdom.
Newly released figures show Canada sold nearly C$3bn (US$2.2bn) worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2019 – more than double the total of the previous year, reported the Globe and Mail. The bulk of the exports were light armoured vehicles, part of a deal with the Saudis worth C$14.8bn.
The record figures come despite a moratorium on export permits following the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and mounting civilian deaths from the war in Yemen. The ban on new permits appears to not have affected existing contracts.
“I struggle to know what ‘moratorium’ means to this government, because to me, when there’s a moratorium on something, you can’t increase the sales of that thing. And exactly what seems to have happened,” said Mark Kersten, deputy director of the Wayamo Foundation.
Palestine says it will declare statehood if Israel annexes West Bank
Palestine will declare statehood over all of the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital, and push for global recognition if Israel goes ahead with plans to annex land it occupies, the Palestinian prime minister has said.
Mohammad Shtayyeh described the possible step pledged by the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, as an “existential threat” to a decades-long international effort for Israelis and Palestinians to reach an agreement that establishes two states side by side.
He said Palestine would not continue to wait on statehood just to honour previous agreements made with Israel if it broke them by annexing territory. “It takes two to tango.” Shtayyeh said he was leading a concerted push to gather diplomatic pressure against Israel and wanted world powers to threaten sanctions on Netanyahu’s government so that “Israel does not get away with murder”.
“What we want is that Israel should feel the heat,” Shtayyeh said at a press conference held by the local Foreign Press Association in Ramallah on Tuesday.
Author Joel Kotkin: How young people are 'really getting screwed' by this depression
Fed’s Repo Loans to Wall Street Skyrocket by 230 Percent Week Over Week
The Federal Reserve is desperately hoping that the pandemic, the coast-to-coast protests and the military generals’ scathing rebuke of the President’s plan to “dominate” grannies and college kids with bayonets and Black Hawk helicopters in the streets would distract the public from its money-feeding tube to Wall Street. ...
Between Monday and Friday of last week, the Fed made $304.20 billion in repo loans to Wall Street’s trading houses. That was 230 percent of what it made the week before and 700 percent of what it loaned the week before that. [...] This would suggest that the liquidity crisis is heating up and/or that it’s taking ever larger amounts to levitate the stock market as sellers come back in.
The Fed has gone completely bonkers when it comes to its money spigot to Wall Street. On March 17, the New York Fed announced that it was going to be offering daily one-day loans of half a trillion dollars to Wall Street’s trading houses. That offer has been going on ever since but the daily amounts actually borrowed from the Fed have never gotten near that daily amount – thus far. The Wall Street banks that own the trading houses to whom the Fed is making the loans know that the Fed will likely be sued to release this information to the public. If they borrow too much from the Fed it will taint their reputation as a firm that was potentially insolvent or, at best, couldn’t get access to loans elsewhere.
The Fed gets the added advantage of frightening the shorts out of the market with that giant, daily, half a trillion dollars number. What short trader wants to compete against a potential daily influx of half a trillion dollars being levered up and going long.
Not only is the size of what the Fed is offering to trading houses nuts, but the interest rate is crazy as well. Never before in history has the Fed made emergency loans to Wall Street’s trading houses at 1/10th of one percent interest, as it is presently doing on its repo loans. Why aren’t we reading about this in mainstream newspapers? It’s an outrageous subsidy to Wall Street with no comparable subsidy to the public. Private student loans are running as high as 12 percent while interest on credit card debt is even higher.
The Fed can’t seriously claim to be helping families while ignoring this interest rate disparity.
In Age of Unrest and Economic Decline, Critics Cry Foul as GOP Refuse to Provide Additional Covid-19 Aid for Suffering Communities
Despite an unprecedented and ongoing economic crash in the U.S. spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are refusing to consider further aid and stimulus until July at the earliest—a decision critics warn will result in misery and deprivation for tens of millions of Americans.
"Communities of color can't wait for you to slow walk more coronavirus aid, Senate Majority Leader" Americans For Tax Fairness executive director Frank Clemente tweeted Tuesday.
Communities of color can’t wait for you to slow walk more coronavirus aid, @senatemajldr.
The protests spotlight not only police violence, but COVID-enhanced gaps in healthcare, education, housing & more. State & local services need a big federal boost now. https://t.co/3S9lIfeD2w
— Frank Clemente (@clemente_frank) June 9, 2020
The economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus outbreak in March has put millions of Americans out of work. The nation's unemployment rate remains in the double-digits, though May's jobs report showed an uptick in employment—albeit one that some economists noted was based in faulty data and underreporting.
Stunning revelation that Chauvin 'bumped heads' with Floyd before murder
The Cops Who Got Fired for Tasing Black College Students in a Car Are Now Suing Atlanta
Former Atlanta cops Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner were fired by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms after a viral video showed Streeter, Gardner, and several other officers violently arresting college students Messiah Young, 22, and Taniyah Pilgrim, 20, on May 30. The pair of students, who respectively attend the historically Black Atlanta colleges Morehouse and Spelman, had picked up food when they were caught in traffic during the first weekend of protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Just hours prior, the mayor had implemented a curfew beginning at 9 p.m. that night.
The cops rushed the car, broke the windows, yanked out Pilgrim, and repeatedly tased Young. Young later told CNN that he had remnants of the taser darts in his back for hours until they were finally removed later that night.
The next day, the mayor announced that Streeter and Gardner, who are also Black, would be fired. The two officers, as well as four other cops, were later charged with crimes after the incident, including allegations of aggravated assault, simple battery, and criminal damage to property. (Five of the six were charged with felonies.) Police Chief Erika Shields later called the charges brought by Fulton County DA Paul Howard “political jockeying” in an internal memo.
Streeter and Gardner filed a lawsuit in state court on Monday naming both Bottoms and Shields, which argued they didn’t break any laws in their use of force and that they were fired without an investigation, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The two were also seeking to be reinstated into their old jobs.
People aren’t just demanding statues of racists and confederate leaders be taken down, they’re doing it themselves. pic.twitter.com/cZQMveI5gX
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 9, 2020
The Robert E. Lee Statue in Richmond Isn’t Coming Down Just Yet
A judge in Richmond, Virginia temporarily blocked the removal of a prominent statue honoring former Confederate general Robert E. Lee, after Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans last week to remove the statue and put it in storage.
Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley C. Cavedo on Monday granted a 10-day injunction to a man named William C. Gregory, who says he’s the great-grandson of a couple who were signatories on the deed transferring the land the Lee statue stands on to the state, according to the Washington Post, which received a copy of the order from Gregory’s attorney.
In that deed, the state of Virginia promised to “affectionately protect” the statue and “hold said statue and pedestal and circle of ground perpetually sacred to the monumental purpose,” Gregory’s lawyer argued.
The Lee statue, which was dedicated in 1890, is the largest of five Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue in Richmond, standing approximately 60 feet high including its base. The others honor Confederate president Jefferson Davis, Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart, and Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury. All but the Lee statue are controlled by the city of Richmond; mayor Levar Stoney said last week he would introduce an ordinance to remove the statues next month.
'Powerful Advocate for a Progressive Agenda': Sanders Endorses Jamaal Bowman's Bid to Unseat Hawkish Democrat Eliot Engel
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday endorsed former New York public school principal Jamaal Bowman's bid to unseat 16-term incumbent Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, calling the challenger "someone we can trust to be a powerful advocate for a progressive agenda in Congress."
"Jamaal understands that low-income families are locked out of opportunity and a decent life due to a system that is rigged to benefit the wealthy," Sanders wrote in an email announcing his support for Bowman and five other progressive congressional candidates. "In Congress, he will lead the fight for investing in our public schools, ending mass incarceration, and addressing the housing crisis."
Sanders' endorsement could bring Bowman a significant boost in small-dollar donations with exactly two weeks to go before New York's congressional primary on June 23. Bowman, who is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, thanked the Vermont senator for his support in a tweet on Tuesday.
"I'm honored to have the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, someone who has been fighting for civil rights, racial and economic justice, and on behalf of working people for his entire life," Bowman wrote. "He led the way for the kind of campaign we're running: grassroots and no corporate donations."
Bowman has repeatedly lambasted Engel—the chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee—for his reliance on big donations from the arms industry and his hawkish foreign policy record, including his support for the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"My opponent accepts donations from corporations and arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon," Bowman's website states. "He supports a hawkish and costly foreign policy agenda instead of focusing on the communities in our district that have been neglected for far too long."
The Intercept's Akela Lacy reported last month that while Engel's campaign is far better funded than Bowman's, the challenger "has generated grassroots energy in the district and around the country, and racked up more than 40 endorsements, including from leading national progressive groups like Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement."
Last Thursday, as Common Dreams reported, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also threw her support behind Bowman.
"Jamaal has dedicated the last decade of his life serving his community as a school principal and community servant," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "Not only is Jamaal a profound community leader, but I believe he'd make a fantastic colleague in the United States House of Representatives."
Krystal Ball: Is a populist revolution coming against Mitch McConnell?
Progressive Democrat Charles Booker Gains Steam Against 'Pro-Trump Democrat' Amy McGrath in Bid to Take Down McConnell
A primary victory for Amy McGrath, the centrist Democrat running to challenge Republican Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, is no longer seen as a "foregone conclusion" in Kentucky as progressive state legislator Charles Booker picked up key endorsements on Tuesday and his campaign continues to gather steam ahead of the June 23 election.
Both Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced their endorsements just as Booker's first major ad campaign hit airwaves throughout Kentucky. The $400,000 ad buy comes after recent fundraising success for the state House member, who has raised about $100,000 per day since the beginning of June.
"A couple weeks ago [Booker] couldn't afford an ad buy. A couple weeks ago he couldn't afford a poll," strategist Matt Erwin told HuffPost. "But the last couple weeks have changed everything."
Ocasio-Cortez applauded Booker's "principled, inclusive, and winning coalition" and wrote on Twitter that "the U.S. Senate will be a better place with him in it."
Bucking the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sanders sent an email to his supporters announcing his endorsement of six progressives running for U.S. House and Senate seats. Along with Booker, he announced his support for House candidates Samelys Lopez, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Mike Siegel, and Cori Bush.
"As Louisville has become an epicenter of national tragedy and protests due to the police murders of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, Charles has shown leadership by showing up on the frontlines," Sanders wrote of Booker. "He was an endorser of our campaign for president and supports progressive policies such as criminal justice reform, Medicare for All, and getting big money out of politics."
"Here is the truth: if we want to build a political revolution to transform this country, it can't be up to one candidate, one campaign, or one election," Sanders added. "It is going to take all of us."
Along with Medicare for All, Booker supports the Green New Deal, student debt relief, and a universal basic income.
Booker has labeled his primary opponent, Amy McGrath, a "pro-Trump Democrat" due to her promise to ensure Trump's 2016 campaign promises are passed by Congress. McGrath has argued as an appeal to voters that McConnell has stood in the way of Trump's agenda.
McGrath also suggested after announcing her campaign last July that she would have supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"Kentucky needs a real Democrat to take on Mitch McConnell," Booker says in his new ad campaign, describing himself as someone who will fight for working Kentuckians—"not help Trump just get his way." ...
Other recent key endorsements for Booker have come from popular Kentucky sportscaster Matt Jones, three members of the state Democratic leadership, and the Lexington Herald-Leader editorial board, which backed him on Tuesday.
'She still lives!' Famed Yellowstone bear emerges from winter – with cubs
A few weeks ago, a nature photographer who lives near Yellowstone national park sent a four-word text message to Dr Jane Goodall, the British primatologist. “Miraculously, she still lives!”
The photographer, Thomas Mangelsen, was referring to a grizzly bear known as “399”, probably the most famous wild bruin in the world. At 24, not only is she one of the oldest grizzlies living outside a zoo, she has also continued having cubs to a venerable age, becoming a poster child for the recovery of bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. ...
In mid-May, the 350lb grand dame emerged in Grand Teton national park, striding alongside Pilgrim Creek. Trailing close behind the matriarch were four cubs, born this winter in a wilderness den high in the snowy backcountry. ...
The population of grizzlies in the Yellowstone region was given protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1975 after their numbers dipped to less than 150, and scientists feared they could disappear altogether. But their recovery, thanks to habitat protection, crackdowns on poaching and a ban on hunting, is considered one of the greatest conservation triumphs in US history. Today, at least 700 grizzlies inhabit the region and, luring tourists, they have paid tangible economic dividends.
About half of those in 399’s bloodline have died. One was shot by a big-game hunter, another was killed for preying upon cattle, and a few have been struck by cars. ... There is a heated public debate about whether sport hunting of bears should again be allowed in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, where the Greater Yellowstone population lives. That question, along with the possible removal of endangered species protections, is tied up in the courts.
Native lives matter? | Protests predicted in Canada after Alberta’s Bill 1 passes
Save the Insects, Save the Farmers, Save Ourselves: New Global Report Calls for End of Industrial Agriculture
A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both agriculture and the six-footed creatures.
The publication, entitled Insect Atlas, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation.
"The global loss of insects is dramatic," Heinrich Böll Foundation president Barbara Unmüßig said in a statement.
The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction.
While there's no definitive count of the global loss of insects, Insect Atlas says the trend is unmistakable.
That decline has major impacts on food.
"Three-quarters of the world's most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production," says the report.
The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects.
"Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global decline in insect numbers," the report adds.
This type of farming is dependent upon expanding pasture—often at the expense of destroying Indigenous land and wild animal habitat—and prioritizes monocultures and therefore insect-killing pesticides, the use of which has steadily increased for the past nine decades, the economic profits of which are predominantly flowing towards just four entities: BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, and Corteva. From the publication:
What is more, the number of chemical products in use around the world continues to increase. And, their negative effects on the insect world are also becoming more and more evident. This is not just because a growing number of chemicals are being applied; the formulations are also increasingly effective and can be used more selectively
Even when some nations ban certain pesticides over concerns, the chemicals' adverse impacts don't disappear; they just change locations.
The developed world is waking up to the risks associated with the use of pesticides. The situation is different in the developing world: chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America are still used routinely to control pests. Stricter controls are needed, along with better information for farmers.
Dismantling industrial agriculture, says the report, is essential. "There is no alternative: to protect insects, farming must become part of the solution. Not just for the sake of society, but also for the sake of farming itself—because it, too, needs insects."
"The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production," Mute Schimpf, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a statement.
"A handful of corporations control the bulk of pesticide supply, and if left unchecked will continue to use their immense political influence to lock in a system of industrial farming which will continue to wipe out nature and destroy rural communities," she continued.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Defund the Police, Defund the Military
US cities and states take moderate steps to reform police departments
Protesters across US attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns
Minnesota Authorities Admit Officers Slashed Car Tires During Protests
Truly, Truly Good News as Americans Get Serious
New Poll Shows Political Risks of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Bailout of Corporate Lobbyists
Police Union Recruits Fired Officers For New Jobs in Florida
Krystal and Saagar: Top Biden surrogate CAUGHT admitting they want Biden in the basement
Kyle Kulinski: The wild success of Joe Biden's do nothing strategy
Krystal and Saagar: SHOCK POLLS show massive swing in support for Black Lives Matter
Saagar Enjeti: Media, Public Health Officials SHOULD APOLOGIZE For Lockdown Hypocrisy After Protests
Police, Protests, And Human Transformation: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
A Little Night Music
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Monkey Man Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie
Cripple Clarence Lofton - I Don't Know
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Early Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - The Fives
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Brown Skin Girls
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Streamline Train
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Crying Mother Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Juice Joint
Cripple Clarence Lofton - When The Soldiers Get Their Bonus
Comments
Aww, I always knew that Trump is just a cuddly Teddybear
right?
Not that I would take him to bed with me ... but some people might try him for a sleeping aid. I wonder what song he would sing for me to make me fall asleep faster and better.
Have a good one, you all, nevertheless.
I want a music revolution on the streets, how about that?
Good Night and Good Luck and many miracles for all of you.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
heh, a music revolution? sounds good!
Whee hoo
up on cripple creek
don't have to speak
drunkards dream
if you ever done seen one
bow de bow
question everything
evening qms...
have a good time at the boogie-woogie in your living room.
Hola, Joe! Watching a serial documentary-type
show that took place in your (general) neck-of-the-woods.
But, first, got a couple links to articles to post,
Trump to restart MAGA rallies this month despite coronavirus
Sanders says "I don't agree with push to defund police departments"
Terry McAuliffe tells Democrats that Biden is 'fine in the basement'
Also, I found the excerpt, below, as I was trying to re-locate Emanuel's white paper on rationed care in The Lancet.
A doozy, if I do say so -
[Note: My italics/boldface and parentheses.]
Gotta run--will drop back by, later, about the Netflix show. It's about a Catholic nun that was murdered decades ago, after confronting priests about reports of abusing female, and, maybe male, students. (in West Baltimore) It's called, "The Keepers."
Wondering if you recall anything about that case. (Sister Cathy Cesnik) We're going to re-watch the second segment, since I was multi-tasking so heavily last evening, and had to miss a good bit of it.
Heh, as I was typing, just now, heard a Dude call for the banning of political gatherings, unless, they're protests. (on MSDNC) I'll see what I can find out about him, and, hopefully, furnish a transcript. Surreal. Especially, since I thought he had lamented the fact that it was next to impossible to do contact tracing at protests. Also, he expressed concern that many people have "lost faith in our institutions, and won't choose to go along with it (contact tracing)." You think?
Later.
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Sanders don't agree because
Sanders says "I don't agree with push to defund police departments"
That would mean he would have to disagree with his "good friend" Biden.
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
SOS, Joe - since you're always up to
your neck in 'news'--please, let me know if you run across a recent study that gives the projections of COVID-19 cases resulting from protests. (definitely, not asking that you go out of your way, to look--just let me know, if you should run across anything) Earlier today, there was a MSDNC Dude talking about the study, but, he didn't quote the source of the study. Fox did give the source, but, I wasn't listening closely enough to catch it.
I told SD that I've post it, after I checked it out. Could be I'll be forced to just post the two 'versions.'
(I was going to re-watch the FNC show video, and do my own transcription, but, I'd have to register with them, giving them beau coup info--including the kitchen sink. No way.)
BTW, there will be a MTP Daily transcript generated that I can post (with the Guy wanting to ban political gatherings), but, looks like they're a few days behind. Maybe I'll have it by early next week.
Today's been beautiful, although a tad warmer than I prefer. At least, the humidity is pretty low.
Oh, yeah--got a little brown bird (wren ?) making a nest right outside the door, in an alcove. It's amazing that she built a nest there, as much activity as there is with
KaityRambo regularly going out, getting brushed, etc. Found one egg busted on the concrete. But, there appear to be three in the nest. Hope her fledglings are good flyers, since Rambo's quite rambunctious, and, we're doing good to control her under ideal circumstances. Goldens, obviously, tend to want to retrieve water fowl/birds. Hope the situation doesn't get too dicey, since I luv my birds.Everyone have a nice evening. Take care; stay safe.
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
heh...
well, this crossed my eyeballs earlier, but it is not terribly conclusive.
Will the protests lead to a spike in coronavirus cases? That depends
Bad if it's so, and worse if it's not
A spike in Covid-19 cases due to the protests would be bad - but if there's no spike it'll be a lot worse. That would show that the draconian lockdown measures were never necessary, and people will get even angrier than they already are.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Excellent point, TOM. Hey, I'll definitely
be happy and flat-out grateful if there's never another surge in COVID cases.
But, yeah--if I found out that the parameters (regarding the seriousness) of this pandemic have been greatly exaggerated--I'll be madder than an ol' wet hen. (for what good it'll do)
Stay safe.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Psych! “The Left changed the coronavirus narrative overnight”
Tuesday’s Evening Blues featured a link to this Guardian op-ed about how the Left, to accommodate the burgeoning protest movement, turned on a dime re the danger of demonstrating sans distancing and is basically pulling a huge switcheroo:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/08/we-often-accuse-th...
heh...
... and tomorrow night's eb, will have an article with a different point of view:
It Won’t Be Protests That Bring On the Next Big Wave of Covid Infections
Not a valid interpretation:
1) The protests were outdoors and not in enclosed spaces.
2) Few if any protestors didn't wear masks.
The widespread lockdowns could have been avoided if there were any intelligent life in federal, state, and local government and public health professionals have the requisite skill set, the resources, and a voice at the seats of power. As it is, the lockdowns did flatten the curve, at least temporarily, but as none of the other measures required to suppress or even mitigate the virus weren't implemented, the value of the lockdowns (at great cost to individuals and the government) was squandered.
Reminds me of the Iraq War -- two months in it was clear that there was no exit strategy and therefore, the occupation would last for a very long time. Warmer weather isn't knocking out the virus. Too soon to tell if its reducing the severity and deaths. (The AZ health department just told hospitals to prepare for a surge in patients.) A chronic phase isn't as bad as an acute phase, but it will be disruptive for a long period of time.
Thanks, Joe--I'll bookmark that. Got two transcripts
that I may post later this week--finally figured out who the Dude was that I heard earlier today, who's calling for the ban on political gatherings, other than protests. I suspect he's wasting his time--heard this afternoon that DT already has scheduled a rally next week in Tulsa (also heard, Jacksonville, so dunno for certain which is correct).
If Repubs hold rallies--or, a convention--and don't practice very strict social distancing protocols, they're nuttier than I thought. And, totally irresponsible.
Having said that, I sincerely hope that protesters will do the same--to the best of their ability.
All of the above should self-quarantine at home after their participation, if at all possible. (IMO)
Gonna run Rambo out, so we can re-watch the show I mentioned. It's quite moving, and, one of the survivor's experiences were almost beyond belief.
As a young teen, the sicko/criminal priest took her to the body of the young Nun who confronted him (on behalf of the young female students). Then he threatened that same survivor, telling her that if she ever talked about her abuse, the same thing would happen to her. (Her abuse occurred in about 1969.) She was so frightened, she never told anyone for over 40 years. The priest died in 2001, having never been charged. So, so sad.
Also, rewatched the documentary/movie "Black Fish." About Sea World's (late) whale Tilly, or Tilikum. Made me cry. Thank God, he's out of his misery.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
thanks for the articles. i am not surprised to see trump reactivate his roadshow. it seems a sort of natural (if desperate) response to his sagging poll numbers.
bernie sanders seems to be reverting to the fellow that he was before black lives matter took the microphone away from him and schooled him.
heh, i heard about mcauliffe saying biden was better off in the basement in one of the rising clips that i linked. it seems quite reasonable, in a way. biden is guaranteed a spot on the ballot at this point if he can just remain above room temperature, while trump is making a hash of things and his poll numbers are dropping like a rock.
seems like all biden has to do is keep his mouth shut and people might just vote for him due to trump's awfulness.
i am dimly aware of a couple of cases of priests-gone-bad in west baltimore in the last few decades. while the outlines of the story (nun murdered to shut her up) sound vaguely familiar, i don't really remember the details. abuse by clergy is such a regular occurrence anymore, it just blends into familiar patterns.
Good evening Joe. That first article, as excerpted, last
para:
WE could go on and on and on, but that, right there, that's it.
Icebreakers? WTF? They gonna take them inland or what?
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I lol when I read the icebreaker story
Trump wants them operational by 2029? Well Russia already has theirs up and running around the Arctic right now. They also have a floating nuclear power plant supplying power to remote areas. Just imagine what we could have made that helps people here if we hadn’t wasted trillions on blowing things and people up. It’s beyond criminal what has been done with too many of us' consent. Is that worded right? Ours consent? We the...never mind.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening el...
i guess you couldn't get published in the new yorker, if instead you said that the design of capitalism is the plain reason for "human degradation of racism and inequality." america can keep its political system and its matinee values, or, it can keep its economic system and its enormous private wealth, but not both sets of things.
i can save america a lot of money on icebreakers. learn patience, the ice will all melt soon enough.
"The ice will melt soon enough" - damn near already has.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
That’s the big deception underlying the New Yorker
All that NYC cultural erudition and (neo-) liberal virtue-signaling is froth floating on the scummy economic pond of Wall Street.
Grasp the fact that Bernie Madoff, former head of NASDAQ, could get away with his scam for so long because he was a consummate insider — character-wise, the Wall Street rule, not the exception. Everyone covered for him, right up to the moment when it couldn’t be ignored anymore — as with Jeffrey Epstein.
Defund Wall Street. Cancel the bankers. Audit the New York Fed, etc. Let us, the public, see and understand how the 0.01% cook their books to screw us. Panama Papers, WikiLeaks, financial-style — turn it up to eleven. That would be real change. Then we might be getting somewhere.
Yeah. And let's really make an effort
...to find the missing $21 trillion dollars the Pentagon misplaced and divvy it up among the 80 percent.
Joe, your Evening Blues are great.
Just wish they didn't overwhelm my pedestrian mind to the point of speechlessness most days.
Very nice Le Quin quote. Not much comfort as art for the past couple of decades hasn't been exuberant. (Foreshadowed neoliberalism and Trump?)
Trump is well into Nixon territory -- paranoid, devoid of humor, lacking any artistic sensibility, and project their sins onto others. The DNC Chair O'Brien's phone was wiretapped on or about 28 May 1972 (after months of planning) and the second break-in was only five days after Nixon's musings about the Napalm Girl.
Isn't it time for the National Park Service to remove the Robert E Lee Memorial at Arlington House? It wasn't built by or for Lee, but to honor George Washington by his step grandson, GW Parke Custis. Lee was Custis' son-in-law. This country would be better of if we stopped overlooking/forgiving traitorous and criminal acts by US presidents and generals.
That'll take a long, long time
There's too much of a cult built up around ol' Marse Robert, and too many people who want a piece of his bloodline. Think I'm kidding? I spend some of the rest of my time on a collaborative genealogical site, and everybody with a Lee in their background anywhere either wants, or already believes themselves, to be related to him. It's a sickness, I tell you!
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Good grief -- some people are obsessed
with the silliest things. (Jackie Kennedy's mother often suggested that she was a descendant of the Lees of Virginia; sounded better to her than Irish immigrant great-grandparents.) OTOH, all direct descendants of Robert E Lee's father qualify to become members of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution; so, their ancestors were American patriots before they were traitors.
evening marie...
heh, thanks for reading despite the sadness of our reality. i am usually worn out by the news at the end of the week, too. i am delighted lately to see people that i agree with making the news instead of being in the news. that is a big step forward and a hopeful sign.
i like the way that some of the former soviet satellite countries deal with their former overlords' statuary. i've read about a number of places where they create a sculpture garden on the outskirts of town to house the works. in many cases they are popular tourist attractions.
I need to read Ian Welsh more often
From another article on his site.
It seems like a no brainer that they should have placated us just a wee tad, but they just couldn’t do it. Unless they want to push us too far so they can do something else? I’m not hearing anything about rent strikes lately are you?
From The New Yorker
How is it that people don’t know that? Especially the ones who think Biden is the right guy for the job after we’ve seen how it was his policies that have brought us to where we are right now? Yesterday DK had a diary that said that although he wasn’t his first choice or second or third or even his fourth he has decided that he absolutely is the right guy to run against Trump. He also wrote that Biden has always been on the right side of history. WTF? Seriously... anyone who questioned it was told they were wrong and that we would welcome them here. Groan!
I posted some of an article on how Biden would actually be the worst person to replace Trump in the BIDEN essay that is an excellent read. But then Bernie just believes that we can push Biden to do the right things. Gahh. I’m close to blocking him on Twitter because he just keeps saying what congress needs to do for us.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Something tells me Bernie's going to hang it up in 2024
He's getting way up there in years, and unless he wants to pull a Boxer and keep working till he's hauled off to the knackers, it's time to start thinking about "life after the Senate".
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
heh...
it's so nice that orange state still cares about us enough to send us the people who wake up and start having independent, critical thinking skills.
Isn’t it?
We should post an essay here saying “Thank you”. And then whoever’s job it is to come here and see what we’re talking about and then report back to them can see how grateful we are.
Hahahaha!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
About that Rober E Lee statue
It is art. It is a glorification of Lee and Traveler. They were not that big, not that handsome. I have seen "stuffed Traveler". A small, rather ordinary horse that would win no points at a horse show with those slanted, narrow hips. That thin neck.
He is a major historic figure. His battle tactics are studied in military academies the world over.
I take nothing away from his genius or importance.
But he was a traitor to the very soldiers he once led, fielded an army to kill and conquer them.
The deflection was and is often about secession. That doesn't touch the reason for secession. Slavery could only be continued and justified by the constitutional right of secession. Read the speech given by the South's "president" and read their "constitution".
Whether or not secession was a guaranteed right or not is still not settled. Texas absolutely joined the Union with the absolute right to secede at their will. We threaten it all the time down here.
I think the Confederate statues should be placed in an art or a history museum. No need to hide our hideous past. We need to know it, so that we can understand it, and not repeat it.
No government building or courthouse should be decorated with the art of the traitorous champion of slavery.
No black person should ever enter a courthouse for a trial, walking past a man that fought for the right to stripe them with a bull whip on their backs for getting uppity.
Talking about secession is like the argument between the protesters and the looters.
It is, as this country always does, deflect.
Robert E. Lee NEEDS to be remembered.
If it takes a damn glorification of him on his crappy little horse to make Southerners feel all that, the let them get all sparked up in a museum.
Know how many Southerners might visit a damn museum? LOL!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
yep, that's why i like what many of the former soviet satellite states do with the statues of their former overlords - put them in a sculpture park on the outskirts of town and encourage tourists to go visit them. it recontextualizes the sculptures and creates a way of appreciating them as art and history.
Exactly!
I have seen Stalin's body removed to an appropriate place.
His glorified body has been removed from Red Square, and I didn't care to stand in line to see it in the museum location. He shouldn't be disappeared, but he should not be gloried.
I have these Confederate Statue toppling conversations a lot.
It is art, glorification. Placement is imperative. Don't, for heaven's sake, put them in place of government, you know, that place that works for everyone? What a damn joke.
Anyway, just want you to know, TLOML is far away, and just writing about this stopped me from crying for a while.
Thanks for this.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
in some cities (baltimore among them) offensive sculptures are being removed and put into storage. apparently, the politics of it is easier here than in, say, virginia or other places where their is a wider culture of worship of the lost cause.
sorry about your cause for sadness. i hope that everything works out soon with smiles all around.
I think I will be ok come what may
I have a solid support group to keep me between the ditches. They may have to go full muscle.
Thank you for caring. Very kind of you.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I am fully in favor of this
I am conflicted on the other statues from the civil war though because they are part of our history. A museum works for me.
Imagine if we had been taught Columbus' true heinous history in school instead of "in 1492 columbus sailed the ocean blue" crap we did. It wasn’t until I started surfing the net that I found out the truth about him. If the truth had been told from the beginning I’m betting that this event would have happened long ago.
But then I want all statues of war put in them too. Why do we feel the need to glorify wars?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Columbus was Italian-Americans’ (and many Catholics’) MLK figure
in the sense of being a symbol and a focus for an official holiday honoring, by extension, all people who share and identify with a certain heritage.
Columbus Day, in many U.S. locales, has been for the Italian community what Saint Patrick’s Day is for the Irish.
For a long while, the Church of Rome was seriously considering “canonizing” Columbus — declaring him a saint.
The Catholic service organization for men is called the Knights of Columbus.
When for decades the popular narrative framing was that Catholics and Italian-Americans deserve respect and redress as the historical victims of discrimination, characterizing Columbus as evil was taboo. In the Northeast, particularly in places like New York City, such criticism, while fine if confined to academic circles, would have been quickly silenced outside academia as stepping on toes, upsetting necessary ethnic alliances, and therefore politically stupid.
Edited to add: Well, I wrote that last paragraph in the past tense, as if Italian-Americans were beyond the habit of seeing themselves as victims. But actually that narrative is as alive as ever. Andrew Cuomo is being proposed as Democrats’ savior to be parachuted in for Biden — here’s a story on Cuomo, his defense of Columbus as community symbol, and his thin-skinned reaction to criticism and ridicule:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/andrew-cuomo-n-word-radio.html
Thanks for this information
Like every issue it is complicated, but on the part when we celebrate Columbus 'finding' America and his treatment of the natives I hope most people agree that glorifying him is just as wrong to the NA as it is the confederate statues for the AA community.
That the catholic church thinks it has any leg to stand on when preaching mortality is a joke.
I was not taught the true history of the catholic church either in those long years of learning church history during catechism either. Funny story. My Jr. High coach wanted to take the volley ball team to watch a regional playoff at the college and I told her my mom wouldn't let me miss catechism that night. She asked if that was a disease. Most of my friend then we Mormon and we were at least open to learning about each others religions which hearing from other non Mormons later was quite unusual. When Mormon kids get baptized and get their choose the right rings many non Mormon kids were suddenly told that they couldn't be friends anymore. What a cruel thing to do to kids at that age. Lots of trips down memory lane lately.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Indigenous people have opposed the Columbus cult for 500+ years
When, in 1992, Spain held 500th anniversary celebrations of both Columbus’s voyage and the defeat of the last Muslim forces on the Iberian peninsula, there were all sorts of mental moral gyrations. Organizers were careful to stress that they were not celebrating the expulsion of the Jews, likewise in 1492, and did go to some effort to give indigenous groups a sliver of attention and a little “free speech zone” to tell their side of the story …
An animated cartoon, shown on German TV, depicted a hypothetical world where Mesoamerica had “discovered” and conquered Europe rather than the other way around. At the 500th anniversary festivities, “Chinese tribes,” i.e. the remnants of the white nations of Europe, were shown holding protest marches — being referred to as “Chinese” even after 500 years, the Mesoamerican “Columbus” having stubbornly maintained until his dying day that he had reached China, not a previously unknown continent.
Bamm!
The second tweet
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I went to the place in Panama
where Christopher Columbus cut arms off the non-believers, piled them up.
No good bastard, religious nut, murderer, great sailor and navigator.
Catholic Church, and all that.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
DCOTN has been replaced by
How the f’ck can people be like this?
First off there was plenty of space for her to go up the stairs and second how the hell can people have this much hate in them?
Yeah she gets my vote for KoY.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
wow...
that's pretty warped. i feel sorry for anybody named karen.
There is such a thing as “Karen people” in Myanmar border region
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_people
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=karen+people+myanmar
Some of them even live in Minnesota now.
http://culturecareconnection.org/matters/diversity/karen.html