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…’
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…’
U.S. Used Missile With Long Blades to Kill Qaeda Leader in Syria
‘…The modified Hellfire missile carried an inert warhead. Instead of exploding, it hurled about 100 pounds of metal through the top of Mr. al-Aruri’s car. If the high-velocity projectile did not kill him, the missile’s other feature almost certainly did: six long blades tucked inside, which deployed seconds before impact to slice up anything in its path…‘
‘…“Under the current trajectory, President Trump is on the precipice of one of the worst electoral defeats in modern presidential elections and the worst historically for an incumbent president,” said former Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg, who remains a supporter.
Nunberg pointed to national polls released by CNBC and New York Times/Siena over the past week showing Trump receiving below 40 percent against Biden.
If Trump’s numbers erode to 35 percentage points over the next two weeks, Nunberg added, “He’s going to be facing realistically a 400-plus electoral vote loss and the president would need to strongly reconsider whether he wants to continue to run as the Republican presidential nominee.”…’
‘…Baggette lives in Germany, Drayton in Trinidad and Tobago, Kambon in Ghana.
All three are part of a small cultural cohort: Black emigres who, feeling cornered and powerless in the face of persistent racism, police brutality and economic struggles in the USA, have chosen to settle and pursue their American-born dreams abroad.
No official statistics cover these international transplants.
In Ghana, where Kambon is involved in a program that encourages descendants of the African diaspora to return to a nation where centuries earlier their ancestors were forced onto slave ships, he says he is one of “several thousand.” Kambon rejects descriptors such as “Black American” or “African American” that identify him with the USA…’
Carl Sagan explains how the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round and calculated its circumference over 2,000 years ago.
British firms fulfilling fighter jet contracts which enable kingdom to wage war in Yemen, despite the trade being ruled unlawful
‘…The government stands accused of ignoring a landmark court ruling restricting UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In a judgment handed down a year ago, the court of appeal ruled it was “unlawful” for the government to have allowed the sale of arms to the kingdom for use in Yemen, where independent estimates suggest a Saudi-led coalition has been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians since 2015…’
