LOOK PEOPLE, THE POLICE with COLUMBIA UNIV LIED!! it was all a pro-Israel LIE to make you think the protestors were violent. See how this works? read this part…
– ‘…31 cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The DA’s office said surveillance cameras inside the building had been covered and that no police officers were injured during the arrests.’
Interesting, within a year of Armenia breaking away from Russia’s orbit they recognise Palestine as a state – this doesn’t quite fit the Tankie/Campist propaganda narrative, does it?🤔
“The Republic of Armenia has joined the resolutions of the UN General Assembly, which call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” it said.
“Moreover, the Republic of Armenia is sincerely interested in the establishment of peace and stability in the Middle East, the establishment of lasting reconciliation between the Jewish and Palestinian peoples.
another great scene of Donald Sutherland’s acting career…
https://youtu.be/pllRW9wETzw –– ‘The music video, directed by Julian Doyle, was conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush. The video features Canadian actor Donald Sutherland playing the role of Wilhelm Reich, and Bush playing the part of his young son, Peter.’
More than 400 Ukrainian women are currently being held in Russian captivity, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Those who’ve been released recount inhumane conditions, sexual assault, and torture during their detention. In the new film Captivity, the independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain) interviews some of these women about their experiences and speaks with the daughter of a woman who is still imprisoned. Meduza shares excerpts from their stories.
video: How Ukrainian women are tortured and raped in Russian captivity. The story of the survivors – by RAIN TV [50min documentary]
Mutual Aid Networks: Toward a Constructive Critique
by Thomas Hummel
‘…The issue at hand bears some similarity to a debate going back to the mid-19th century between Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon was a utopian socialist and the father of modern anarchism. Proudhon believed that a new, post-capitalist society could be created alongside capitalism and slowly grow to the point where it became dominant. This process, he believed, could happen in a decentralized way. Marx, by contrast, judged that the capitalist state would never allow this to happen, and would attempt to destroy and undermine these forms of collective care. He argued that the state must be challenged with a fighting organization of the working class. This organized resistance can put pressure on the state and the wealthy, forcing them to provide resources that ordinary people need. But, for Marx, a better society could only come when our forms of organization were strong enough to directly confront the state and replace it with something better.
What’s at stake today is something similar. While acts of solidarity and mutual aid organizations are extremely important, there are limits to what they can achieve inside capitalist society…’
‘…Borglum was born the son of Danish Mormon polygamists in 1867 in Idaho. A talented artist, he spent his childhood on the Western frontier and plains, in Utah and Kansas until leaving for Europe in the early 1880s to study sculpture. There, Borglum became fascinated with art on a grand scale with nationalistic subjects, which suited what many described as his bombastic, egotistical personality. [….]
Then, in 1915, Helen Plane, the founder of the Atlanta chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, approached Borglum about a possible project.
[….] Right away, Borglum was interested in sculpting on such a grand scale. After visiting the site, he saw the potential to build a colossus of his own, a tribute to what he considered great men. He immediately accepted and drew up a proposal featuring Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and J.E.B. Stewart riding in a cavalry carved in deep relief across a 1,200-foot-span of the mountain’s eastern face. The fathers of the confederacy would be 50-feet-tall, surrounded by stampeding horses and cavalrymen.
[….] He attended Klan rallies, served on Klan committees and tried to play peacemaker in several Klan leadership disputes, Taliaferro writes…’
Ok, this is dumb. I don't think anyone ever demanded from the photography business that this be changed, but hey!, Canon corporation can get a little bit of positive press during this economic depression.
‘…Canon began ending use of “master” and “slave” in 2017 and has officially discontinued their use moving forward across its product lines.
“Canon started to phase these [terms] out since the end of 2017,” a Canon Europe spokesperson tells Fstoppers. “[In] all new products and materials, these terms are no longer used.”
The change will only be found on new Canon gear, as the terms are permanently baked into existing gear…’
This is a special 4th of July #Murica edition of Text Dump. Enjoy.
Trump’s Nazi Speech at Mt Rushmore
“This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly.”
He added darkly: “In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished.”
Gesturing to the overwhelmingly white crowd, he said: “Not going to happen to us.”
Trump added: “Make no mistake, this leftwing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution.”
Mount Rushmore before it was destroyed by a member of the KKK
and then…
‘…The Democratic National Committee tweeted at one point that Trump had disrespected Native Americans and that his South Dakota trip was “glorifying white supremacy”. It subsequently deleted the tweet…‘
‘A California bill that would require companies like Amazon to guarantee restroom breaks is moving through the state’s legislature.
The bill, AB-3056, was introduced earlier this year and passed the state’s house in June and is currently being reviewed by the state Senate. The bill aims to ensure that workers are not penalized for spending time using the restroom or washing their hands.
The bill would apply to warehouse workers of large retailers across California like Amazon, Target and Walmart. California – the country’s most populous state — has more warehouses than any other state in the U.S., according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bill would also require these employers to pay employees overtime if they have to work beyond the time they were scheduled to complete a quota set by the company.
meanwhile in the ‘socialist’ European Union ????????????????????????…
‘Working time and rest
As an employer, you must ensure that your staff does not work more than 48 hours per week on average (including overtime), over a reference period of up to 4 months. Your employees must be given at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest every 7 days, over a reference period of 2 weeks. Breaks
If your employees work more than 6 hours a day, you must ensure that they are given a break, the duration of which is specified in the collective agreements or by national law….’
Crap journalism is a plague during the times of a plague.
No, Alabama frat boys aren’t doing snot shots and betting on who can get sick first. Why does the media keep suggesting otherwise?
‘…It is, of course, technically impossible to rule out the existence of Covid parties. Maybe somewhere in this vast and complex nation there are some foolish people getting infected on purpose. It’s also possible that the miasma of media coverage will coalesce into a vector of its own, inspiring Covid parties that otherwise would not have happened. But so far there’s no hard evidence that even a single one has taken place—just a recurring cycle of breathless, unsubstantiated media coverage.’
Fascinating how British imperialism trumps xenophobia, racism and isolationism.
‘…Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said. [….] About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years. And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship…’
‘…France’s armed forces ministry has provided local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War Two, so that streets and squares may be named after them.
France’s reappraisal of its colonial past is fuelled by the global anti-racism protests and Black Lives Matter.
There are many Senegalese and North African soldiers on the list, but none from what was French Indo-China.
Africans played a big role in the liberation of France in 1944.
More than 400,000 Africans in the Free French Forces took part in the Allies’ landings in the south of France in August 1944, codenamed Operation Dragoon. They were involved in heavy fighting to liberate Toulon and Marseille…’
Jeff Bezos’s Wealth
‘…[Jeff Bezos’s] gains — $56.7 billion this year alone — underscore a widening wealth gap in the U.S. during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Initial public offerings and buoyant equity markets have bolstered mega-fortunes, even as tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. This week, after receiving complaints about ending pandemic hazard pay, Amazon said it would spend about $500 million to give one-time $500 bonuses to most front-line workers…’
‘…The employment-population ratio — the number of employed people as a percentage of the U.S. adult population — plunged to 52.8% in May, meaning 47.2% of Americans are jobless, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the coronavirus-induced shutdowns tore through the labor market, the share of population employed dropped sharply from a recent high of 61.2% in January, farther away from a post-war record of 64.7% in 2000…’
‘…Soon after Columbus’ first expedition, the treaties of Tordesillas and Saragossa divided the oceans of the newly-known world. The Portuguese effectively took the Atlantic and Indian oceans, while the Spanish took the Pacific. With that, the Portuguese established forts and trading posts along India’s Malabar coast. In time, aloo (potato), tamātar (tomato), and mirchī (chilies) were available on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. Later, the English set up their first trading posts in India in the eastern Gangetic plain, bringing these same staples into North India.2
So what was curry like before Columbus? Well, curry didn’t exist.
In these cases, I find it useful to consult my Hobson-Jobson, the nineteenth-century dictionary of Anglo-Indian loan words. According to that source, curry comes from the Portuguese word karil (caril) via the Tamil word kari (sauce, relish for rice). In the sixteenth century, this was transliterated into English as caril, but by the 1680s entered English as carrees, perhaps from caris, an Anglicized plural form of the Portuguese.3 It’s a circle: I’m back to Tordesillas and Saragossa…’
Worth watching. There are many examples in this video I hadn't heard of before. And I don't understand why some youtubers have been excluded. Seems like a stricter definition of 'Left' than what I have? But it is true there is an amazing resurgence of Left media. Sadly almost all of the media is online. Whatever happened to the old radical zine or cheaply printed alternative newspaper?
Why have US deaths stayed steady while Covid-19 infections are spiking
‘…Which means that a crucial issue affecting mortality is whether the raging epidemic in Southern states will result in the virus further spreading into nursing homes.
Because there is no mandatory reporting of cases by nursing homes, as well as the suggestion that some states have not been forthcoming about their nursing home cases, the only way to estimate what’s ahead is to examine cases and rates among persons 65 years old and older. Of course, most of the approximately 50 million people in the US in this age group are not in chronic care facilities, which provide care to about 1.3 million Americans, but most who are in chronic care facilities are in this age group.
Overall, looking at the 65+-year-old group is extremely important when examining Covid-19 mortality: Though they make up only 16% of the US population, more than 80% of the US Covid-19 deaths have occurred in this group…’
Los Angeles is racist, by design – and with Federal money
‘…Los Angeles was never a paradise of racial acceptance, but in 1910 some 36% of L.A.’s African Americans were homeowners (compared with 2.4% in New York City) — tops in the nation. L.A.’s comprehensive Red Car transit system, which offered easy, unsegregated access to the region’s growing economic opportunities, was fundamental to this success. Integrated, racially diverse neighborhoods like Watts and Boyle Heights emerged and thrived along these transit corridors.
[….] When the 1944 Federal-Aid Highway Act allocated funds for 1,938 miles of freeways in California, planners used the opportunity, with full federal support, to obliterate as much as possible the casual mingling of the races.
[….] Officials justified these actions as “slum clearance”— intended to upgrade the city’s supposedly crumbling housing stock. But their racially malign intent was obvious, laid bare when officials moved the Santa Monica Freeway so that it ran directly through the stately African American middle class neighborhood of Sugar Hill — anything but a slum — wiping it off the map…’
‘…The government will not apologize for the Netherlands’ history of slavery, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a parliamentary debate on institutional racism on Wednesday. While he understands the calls for a apology, this is not the time, he said. “Apologies form a risk that society will further polarize” he said. [….]
“I understand the requests and I know what apologies can mean,” Rutte said. But the government carefully considered the matter and came to the conclusion that this is not the time. He called the considerations “a struggle”, adding that the decision not to apologize had nothing to do with fears of financial claims or repatriations. But that the question of how far back in time apologies can reach was a consideration. The concern that an apology now would only increase polarization in society was also an important factor, he said. [….]
“It is 2020 and this is the harsh reality for many of our fellow countrymen. The fact that all those Black Lives Matter demonstrations are waking up more and more people is good, but it also deserves follow up in our systems, our institutions and in our policies,” Jetten said. “To experience racism is to experience inequality and the generations of the future have the right to a world without racism. That will not happen after one debate or overnight. D66 therefore wants a coherent and long-term approach.”…’
2020.07.02 US coronavirus deaths estimated to be 28 percent higher than reported
‘…Coronavirus-related deaths tallied from March through May were 95,232, or 28 percent less than the excess number of deaths. The undercount may be due to early nursing home deaths or deaths attributed to pneumonia rather than COVID-19, Reuters reports …’
Missouri Law Suggests St. Louis Lawyers Could Be Prosecuted for Threatening Protesters with Guns
‘Two attorneys in St. Louis who brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters over the weekend could be charged with a felony.
Under Section 571.030(4) of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, it is a crime when a person “[e]xhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner.” Such a person “commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons,” which is defined as a class E felony. Such felonies carry up to four years in prison, one year in jail, and/or a $10,000 fine–but are subject to probation.
Here, personal injury attorneys Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey went viral after being featured in a video holding what appears to be an AR-15 style rifle and a small pistol, respectively…’
Beijing’s national security law to enter force in Hong Kong, draft still a secret
‘…While the draft law was not disclosed to the public, the NPC revealed some of the details to the media in a briefing on June 20:
• The law would criminalize acts including secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with external forces.
• The new law will override local legislation should any conflicts arise.
• Beijing will set up an agency in Hong Kong to collect intelligence and “monitor supervise, coordinate and support” local government.
• Some cases — “very few” as stressed by the NPC — will fall under Beijing’s jurisdiction. This implies that the offenders could be put on trial in mainland China where a hearing can be conducted in secret.
• The Hong Kong government will set up a commission chaired by the chief executive under Beijing’s supervision to oversee the implementation of the new law.
• The chief executive will appoint designated judges to preside over cases.
The latest source information from NPC suggested that breaking the law will carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment…’
Church Faces Backlash for Giving Out Free AR-15 During Sunday Service
‘…The church’s website noted that this was “Round Two,” as a previous giveaway of an AR-15 was held back in 2014. Pastor John Koletas said that the giveaways were meant to honor gun owners and hunters who have “been so viciously attacked by anti-Christian socialist policies,”…’
‘String players who traveled from all over the U.S. to Aurora, Colorado for a violin vigil and peaceful protest over the death of Elijah McClain were met with police in riot gear, attacking people with tear gas and pepper spray Saturday…’ https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20206/28342
Jack Goldstone predicted current US unrest and ‘civil war’ a decade ago
‘In the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton was in the White House and the United States looked unshakeable, the administration appointed Jack Goldstone to study how states fail. They meant other states; not the US. Few expected that his model would later predict their country’s collapse. [….]
Ten years ago, Professor Turchin pointed his model towards the future, and made an uncannily accurate prediction. Just like in the 1850s, crisis indicators were rising, he wrote in the journal Nature. They could be a reliable indicator of looming instability and “look set to peak in the years around 2020,” he wrote. [….]
Professor Goldstone predicts the real problems will begin after July 31, when Americans’ $600 a week COVID-19 unemployment welfare expires.
“Social tensions likely continue to grow as we move to November,” he said. “The risks of violence in November are very high.”…’
I bet those 'reductions' will be considered 'aspirational' until the economy 'gets back on track' - rather than this being seen as an opportunity to stop greenhouse gas emissions where they are now. Just a wild guess.
‘Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it will write down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion in the second quarter, after revising down its long-term outlook for oil and gas prices.
It comes after the energy company announced in mid-April an ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.’
‘The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, [….]
“What we have in the United States, it’s hard to describe because it’s so many different outbreaks,” Schuchat said. “There was a wave of incredible acceleration, intense interventions and control measures that have brought things down to a much lower level of circulation in the New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey area. But in much of the rest of the country, there’s still a lot of virus. And in lots of places, there’s more virus circulating than there was.”
The coronavirus has proven to be the kind of virus that Schuchat and her colleagues always feared would emerge, she said. She added that it spreads easily, no one appears to have immunity to it and it’s in fact “stealthier than we were expecting.”
“While you plan for it, you think about it, you have that human denial that it’s really going to happen on your watch, but it’s happening,” she said. “As much as we’ve studied [the 1918 flu pandemic], I think what we’re experiencing as a global community is really bad and it’s similar to that 1918 transformational experience.”…’
wait, so CNN sat on this story for 4 months?
/jd
'The sources were interviewed by CNN repeatedly over a four-month period extending into June'
Trump attacks female world leaders in phone calls
‘…The sources were interviewed by CNN repeatedly over a four-month period extending into June.”
Trump got belligerent with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the report said.
“Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her ‘stupid,’ and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russians,” one source told Bernstein. “He’s toughest [in the phone calls] with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with.”…’
In Israel a fountain at ‘Donald Trump Square’ turned blood-red
‘…The fountain of Donald Trump Square in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva was vandalised on Sunday evening, Israeli police said on Monday, with the water turned blood-red by activists who also sprayed graffiti reading “Annexation will cost us blood”.
The incident came two days before the official date when the Israeli government was expected to reveal its plans for unilateral annexation of around one-third of the occupied West Bank. [….]
“The vandalisation of public property is a nefarious act, which must be ripped out by its roots,” Petah Tikva’s mayor, Rami Greenberg…’
In Racial Justice Victory, Johnson & Johnson to Pay $2B to Women in Asbestos-Laced Baby Powder Suit
‘Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who developed ovarian cancer after using talcum powder contaminated with asbestos. Johnson & Johnson heavily marketed the powder to African American women despite warnings that the products could cause cancer. Six of the plaintiffs in the Johnson & Johnson case died before the trial started. Five more of the women have died since 2018. We get response from M. Isabelle Chaudry, senior policy manager at the National Women’s Health Network, who says the company must ban the products globally and do more to address the harm it has caused, particularly to communities of color. “They have a history of engaging in racist practices,” she says…’
The killing of Patrice Lumumba was one of the most significant assassinations of the 20th century. The signal moment in the West’s campaign to destroy the nascent independence of de-colonising Africa. The MI6 agent who organised it. Daphne Park, then becomes a governor of the BBC https://t.co/ltTIJ24idG
‘…ran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January [….] Interpol said it “would not consider requests of this nature.” It explained that it was not in accordance with its rules and constitution, which states “it is strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”…’
‘…Most importantly of all, Germany was much better prepared. This was true both of the German state and of German industry. Germany had a manufacturing sector capable of making the medical equipment the country needed. Its health spending had risen in real terms for most years since the millennium. Contact tracing was also well developed across the German health system before the pandemic and was able to swing into action straightaway. Germany had many more intensive care beds too; 28,000, compared with Britain’s 4,000. Above all, German testing worked: while Britain abandoned mass testing in March, Germany conducted 160,000 tests a week that month, rising to 360,000 tests by mid-May. The contrast between the two countries was in most respects pitiful…’
‘…The New York Police Department (NYPD) commissioner on Monday defended the officers who drove into anti-policy brutality protesters late last month, saying they did not violate the department’s use-of-force policy…’
NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could‘ve killed them, &we don’t know how many they injured.
NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings.@NYCMayor these officers need to be brought to justice, not dismissed w/“internal reviews.” https://t.co/oIaBShSC1S
Richard Wolff: ‘..what that effectively means is that the government is backstopping the entire credit apparatus of the United States. It already stands behind most homes through the mortgage systems that we’ve developed since the 30s and now it is standing behind all the corporate loans because in effect it becomes the banker of last resort.
Any idea that the economy is now quote-unquote a free private enterprise economy is is downright silly as well as ideologically backward.
We now have an economic system utterly dependent on the creation of money by our Central Bank I could go on but these are signs of disintegration of one kind of economic system and the transition towards another. One it’s not clear exactly where this will end but as I said to you this is a level of breakdown that is really impossible for me to find in the prior history of our capitalism…’
