… But the funniest thing was as I was leavin' the bay
I saw three ships sailing and they were all headed my way
I asked the captain what his name was an' how come he didn't drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus an' I just said good luck…

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream

On October 12, 2017the US, and shortly thereafter Israel, withdrew from UNESCO.

UNESCO's founding mission, which was shaped by the Second World War, is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboration and dialogue among nations.[9] It pursues this objective through five major program areas: education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and communication/information. UNESCO sponsors projects that improve literacy, provide technical training and education, advance science, protect independent media and press freedom, preserve regional and cultural history, and promote cultural diversity.

(Wikipedia)

The agency's mission and methodology, as described, are clearly anathema to the ideals, goals and principles of the US' oligarchs and ruling elites, being transparently anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian, pacifist, egalitarian, socialistic, humanitarian, communalistic and otherwise just plain nasty, mean and unamerikan. The only surprise is that the US ever joined in the first place and that it took so long to withdraw after it did. It has been proposed by some scholars that its membership was originally intended as propaganda, to disguise its true intentions, purposes, goals and behavior.

Indigenous Peoples Day versus that dude's day; Cancel Culture?

Let us contemplate the statue of Christopher Columbus in many a town square. There we see a
brave, heroic, triumphal, explorer - a tribute to a man who never was. Perhaps a statue portraying the historical SOB, as he really was, would be more acceptable?

He was not brave nor heroic, and not, in his mind, an explorer so much as a merchant, imperialist, slaver, and colonist given only that somebody would capitalize his venture. He was a brutal avaricious tyrant who allowed his crews and fellow colonists to brutalize, torture and rape both the indigenous people they enslaved as well as those they did not.

He had a risk free sure fire plan to garner great wealth and power as well as dominion and control over foreign lands, resources, peoples and their labors. He would get some monarch to provide him with a fleet, hitch a ride west to the far east on the easterlies, score some spices, tea and more, work those winds to take him north a bit and ride the westerlies back home. He knew of those winds, which was pretty common knowledge and that the earth was spherical, also common knowledge, and he knew, with great certitude, that it wasn't really all that far to the far east, a mere 2400 miles or so. This plan was simple and not at all brave, bold or heroic. It was only in error in two regards, the distance to the orient was vastly underestimated and there was another continent in the way. Of course, the unexpected continent saved his bacon, allowing him to make landfall rather than being strung up by his crew for sailing further than their water could last. Knowledgeable, but no great mariner, he did manage to run his flagship aground so badly that she was lost. No great navigator, he went to his grave certain that he had reached the orient even though the travels of others piled up ever more and more evidence that he had not. He did manage to claim some lands for "Their Most Catholic Majesties", Ferdinand and Isabella, and gained dominion over them as governor/viceroy, but behaved so outrageously toward the natives and fellow colonists that even the Queen of the Spanish Inquisition had him arrested and recalled.

How about it, a statue of some guy hiding behind his armor and guns brutally torturing some helpless women and children while their mutilated husbands and fathers look on, surrounded by some sleazy looking piratical crewmen busily raping some female children. I think the descendants of the survivors could appreciate that, but could all those who have been taught to revere and honor the man?

On this day in history:

1279 – The Nichiren Shōshū branch of Buddhism was founded in Japan.



1492 – Imperialist treasure hunter and slaver Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas.



1654 – A munitions magazine blew up in Delft devastating the city



1692 – The Salem witch trials were ended by the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Province after his wife was "called out upon" .



1773 – The US' first insane asylum opened, allowing for the non-judicial incarceration and torture of non-conformists, free thinkers, uppity women and unwanted elderly



1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse became the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute. (It is not known who ws the first to do so without one.)



1871 – The British in India enacted the Criminal Tribes Act, naming many local communities "Criminal Tribes", establishing a precedent for future US behavior.



1892 – The US Pledge of Allegiance was first recited by students in many US public schools because fascist indoctrination needs to start early in life.




1915 – British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium



1928 – An iron lung respirator was used for the first time



1964 – The Soviet Union launched the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.



1983 – Tanaka Kakuei was found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from the Lockheed Corporation, and sentenced to four years in jail. This really seems excessive given how routinely Lookheed bribed members of various governments who wre never punished at all.



1992 - The city of Berkeley, California declared October 12 a "Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People" and renamed "Columbus Day" Indigenous Peoples' Day. It has since caught on somewhat widely, so don't tell Trump.


1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student, died five days after being beaten



1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia.



1999 – The world's human population reached 6 billion.



2017 – The United States announced its decision to withdraw from UNESCO, and was immediately followed by Israel.



2019 – Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge fwas the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.

Some people who were born on this day:

Virtue is to herself the best reward.

~~ Henry More

1614 – Henry More, philosopher

1687 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, lute player and composer

1860 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, engineer and businessman,

1864 – Kamini Roy, British India's first female graduate, Bengali poet, social activist, and feminist writer

1868 – August Horch, engineer and businessman

1872 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer and educator

1875 – Aleister Crowley, mystic, magician, and author

1896 – Eugenio Montale, poet and translator,

1921 – Art Clokey, animator, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor,

1929 – Nappy Brown, R&B singer, and songwriter

1932 – Dick Gregory, comedian, actor, activist, and author (

1934 – James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, singer, songwriter, and pianist

1935 – Sam Moore, singer and songwriter

1935 – Luciano Pavarotti, tenor and actor

1942 – Melvin Franklin, (bass) singer

1946 – Daryl Runswick, bassist and composer

1947 – Chris Wallace, journalist

1954 – Michael Roe, singer, songwriter, and record producer

1954 – Linval Thompson, singer and producer

1955 – Pat DiNizio, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1955 – Jane Siberry, singer, songwriter and producer

1956 – Rafael Ábalos, author

1956 – David Vanian, singer, songwriter

1957 – Clémentine Célarié, actress, singer, and director

1958 – Maria de Fátima Silva de Sequeira Dias, historian, author, and academic

1958 – Jeff Keith, singer and songwriter
1958 – Bryn Merrick, bass player

1962 – Chris Botti, trumpet player and composer

1969 – Martie Maguire, singer, songwriter, violinist, and producer

1975 – Susana Félix, singer, songwriter, producer, and actress

1979 – Jordan Pundik, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

Some people who died on this day:

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

~~ Demosthenes

#include

int main() {

int num;

printf("Enter an integer: ");

scanf("%d", &num);



// True if num is perfectly divisible by 2

if(num % 2 == 0)

printf("%d is even.", num);

else

printf("%d is odd.", num);



return 0;

}

-- Dennis Ritchie

322 BCE – Demosthenes, orator and statesman,

1492 – Piero della Francesca, mathematician and painter

1590 – Kano Eitoku, painter and educator

1654 – Carel Fabritius, painter

1845 – Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer,

1858 – Hiroshige, painter

1914 – Margaret E. Knight, inventor

1915 – Edith Cavell, nurse

1924 – Anatole France, journalist, novelist, and poet

1965 – Paul Hermann Müller, chemist and academic

1969 – Serge Poliakoff, painter and academic

1970 – Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky, illustrator and painter

1971 – Gene Vincent, musician

1985 – Ricky Wilson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1997 – John Denver, singer, songwriter, guitarist, pilot, and actor

1998 – Matthew Shepard, hate based murder victim

2002 – Ray Conniff, bandleader and composer

2005 – C. Delores Tucker, activist and politician

2009 – Dickie Peterson, singer, songwriter, and bass player

2011 – Dennis Ritchie, computer scientist, created the C programming language

2013 – George Herbig, astronomer and academic

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Indigenous Peoples' Day

Native American Day

Día de la Resistencia Indígena, "Day of Indigenous Resistance" (Venezuela)

Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural, "Day of respect for cultural diversity" (Argentina)

National Gumbo Day

Pulled Pork Day

Feast for Life of Aleister Crowley, celebrated as "Crowleymas" (Thelema)

Freethought Day

International Day Against DRM

Today's Tunes

MUSIC GOES HERE; FIRST ARTIST

Indigenous Peoples' Music:

After the playlist, go here:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=indigenous+music+

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Nappy Brown

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford

Sam Moore

Melvin Franklin

Chris Botti

Mattie Maguire

Gene Vincent

In case you forgot, go explore at this link: Indigenous Peoples' Music:
After the playlist, go here:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=indigenous+music+

Image is public domain

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Indigenus Peoples' Day, Crowleymas, Free Thought Day, Henry More, Dick Gregory, Mattie Maguire, Gene Vincent