Hands clasped in friendship, Adolf Hitler and England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, are shown in this historic pose at Munich on Sept. 30, 1938. This was the day when the premier of France and England signed the Munich agreement, sealing the fate of Czechoslovakia.(PHOTO/AP
Politicians,
Priests, and psychiatrists often face the same problem: how to find the
most rapid and permanent means of changing a man’s belief…The problem
of the doctor and his nervously ill patient, and that of the religious
leader who sets out to gain and hold new converts, has now become the
problem of whole groups of nations, who wish not only to confirm certain
political beliefs within their boundaries, but to proselytize the
outside world.” —William Sargant, “Battle of the Mind”
–
It is rather ironic that in this “age of information”, we are more confused than ever…
It had been
commonly thought in the past, and not without basis, that tyranny could
only exist on the condition that the people were kept illiterate and
ignorant of their oppression. To recognise that one was “oppressed”
meant they must first have an idea of what was “freedom”, and if one
were allowed the “privilege” to learn how to read, this discovery was
inevitable.
If education of the masses could turn the majority of a population
literate, it was thought that the higher ideas, the sort of “dangerous
ideas” that Mustapha Mond for instance expresses in “The Brave New
World”, would quickly organise the masses and revolution against their
“controllers” would be inevitable. In other words, knowledge is freedom,
and you cannot enslave those who learn how to “think”.
However, it hasn’t exactly played out that way has it?
The greater majority of us are free to read whatever we wish to, in
terms of the once “forbidden books”, such as those listed by The Index
Librorum Prohibitorum*.
We can read any of the writings that were banned in “The Brave New
World”, notably the works of Shakespeare which were named as absolutely
dangerous forms of “knowledge”.
We are now very much free to “educate” ourselves on the very “ideas”
that were recognised by tyrants of the past as the “antidote” to a life
of slavery. And yet, today, the majority choose not to…
It is recognised, albeit superficially, that who controls the past,
controls the present and thereby the future. George Orwell’s book
“1984”, hammers this as the essential feature that
allows the Big Brother apparatus to maintain absolute control over fear,
perception and loyalty to the Party cause, and yet despite its
popularity, there still remains a lack of interest in actually informing
oneself about the past.
What does it matter anyway, if the past is controlled and rewritten
to suit the present? As the Big Brother interrogator O’Brien states to
Winston, “We, the Party, control all records, and we control all
memories. Then we control the past, do we not? [And thus, are free to
rewrite it as we choose…]”
Of course, we are not in the same situation as Winston…we are much
better off. We can study and learn about the “past” if we so desire,
unfortunately, it is a choice that many take for granted.
In fact, many are probably not fully aware that presently there is a
battle waging for who will “control the past” in a manner that is
closely resembling a form of “memory wipe”.
There is an especial focus to rewrite the history of WWII at this very moment. These revisionists are attempting to rewrite this history since there lies the root from which today’s fascism stems.
Whoever understands this period of history understands today’s fascism.
For Black August, Left Voice will be presenting a collection of classic Marxist texts about Black liberation. This includes writing by C.L.R. James, Leon Trotsky, T.W. Thibedi, George Breitman, and the Communist International.
The uprisings that have swept the United States have shown something
that socialists have long argued: U.S. capitalism was founded on racist
oppression. That is why the struggle for Black liberation is one of the
driving forces of the struggle to beat capitalism. We have seen the
protests against racist police violence mobilize millions of
working-class and oppressed people in what might be the largest movement
in U.S. history.
A new generation is entering the struggle. To commemorate Black
August, we will be publishing classic Marxist texts to better understand
the deep link between the struggles for Black liberation and for
socialist revolution.
We will publish one text per day for the rest of Black August. We
hope this connects the new generation of activists with great
revolutionary thinkers from the past. Marxism is a strategy and a theory
for the liberation of the working class and all oppressed people. This
is why Black revolutionaries like George Jackson, C.L.R. James, and many
others studied texts like these. Marxism is not a dogma, but rather a
method to understand the world in order to change it.
If the Negroes want that then we must fight against
imperialism to the last drop of blood, so that they gain the right (…)
to separate a piece of land for themselves. — Leon Trotsky
The World Press Freedom Index listed by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) ranks India at an embarrassing142 out of 180 countries, actually two places worse than Myanmar (140). There’s respite here for Hindutva nationalists. India is three notches better than Pakistan (145). Bangladesh (152) is the worst performer from South Asia. The global field bottoms out with Eritrea (180), making it the one country worse than North Korea (179). Intriguingly, Afghanistan (122), currently, seems more agreeable for journalists than the world’s chest-thumping largest democracy. Conversely (or perversely), a redeeming feature about the likelihood of the Afghan Taliban taking over in Kabul is that it could help make India, Pakistan and Bangladesh look better on the freedom ladder, who knows.
It was heartening, therefore, but also puzzling that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last week spoke up for values enshrined in healthier
democracies. Addressing the G7 leaders in Cornwall in a virtual
appearance from Delhi on June 13, Mr Modi described India as a natural
ally of the group. He saw himself as the G7’s partner in “defending
democracy, freedom of thought and liberty from a host of threats
stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism, violent extremism and
economic coercion”.
As Modi spoke, the police in Uttar Pradesh under the watch of his
handpicked chief minister were framing charges of conspiracy to stir
communal violence against leading media figures critical of the BJP’s
polarising politics. The RSS mouthpiece Organiser described the
journalists as propagandists, but the RSF stood firm against the
“absurd” charges.
The RSF being a respected body to protect journalists — from
recalcitrant states among other detractors — was clear that mischief was
afoot. It urged the Uttar Pradesh police “to immediately withdraw the
absurd charges, including criminal conspiracy”. The charges were framed
against three journalists for tweeting about a video of an elderly
Muslim man being beaten up by other men.
The accusation clearly bordered on harassment, RSF said. Brought in
the form of an FIR on the evening of June 15 by the police of Ghaziabad,
bordering Delhi, the accusation named three journalists — Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub, writer Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair, one of the founders of the Alt news website. It also named The Wire, an outspoken news website, and Twitter India.
The journalists, the RSF noted, were accused of conducting a
“criminal conspiracy” although all they did was post tweets about a
video showing an elderly man identified as a Muslim being badly beaten
in Ghaziabad by several other men. The claim that the men shaved his
beard and forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, a Hindu chant that has
become a rallying cry for religious extremists, is being contested. The
RSS paper claimed the video was faked to help an opposition party.
Before the three journalists named in the FIR tweeted about the
video, which went viral on the evening of June 13, it was widely shared
and commented on by India’s leading media outlets, including, according
to RSF, The Times of India.
“The Uttar Pradesh police nonetheless decided that the three
journalists’ tweets sufficed to order their arrest under six articles of
the Indian penal code named in the FIR.”
The police charges are instructive because they represent accusations
that had been hitherto levelled at the accusers, including by Uttar
Pradesh police involving the current chief minister as opposition
leader. Provocation to cause riot, promoting enmity between religious
groups, insulting religious beliefs, public mischief, criminal
conspiracy and common intention to commit a crime, are charges that the
BJP and the RSS themselves have had to face in the not very distant
past. According to RSF’s research, each of the journalists is facing a
possible combined sentence of nine years and six months in prison.
“The accusation brought about by the Uttar Pradesh police is based on
absolutely no tangible element and clearly amounts to judicial
harassment,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“We urge Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to recover a
semblance of credibility by ordering the immediate withdrawal of the
charges against the journalists named in this absurd First Information
Report.”
The RSS version quoted state police as speaking of two videos, one in
which the elderly man was assaulted, and another in which he blamed his
assaulters, who the RSS story says were mainly Muslim, of forcing him
to chant a Hindu chant. It may all look absurd but that’s the official
view from the police. “The second video, where Saifi could be heard
saying he was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, was shot in the presence
of a maulana in the house of [an opposition politician],” the RSS report
said. The police believe the chant angle was brought in to polarise
society.
‘When
ordinary people…start to register serious doubts about the
performance of the administration, that is a sign that it may not be
light that is at the end of the tunnel that awaits it, but a crash’
No one expects Rodrigo Duterte to be another Winston Churchill,
rallying the country in the face of a savage pandemic that, like the
bombs falling on London during the Second World War, has dealt a
terrible, swift death to unsuspecting friends and loved ones.
But the country certainly expects a president who does not project
the image of a deer – eyes frozen by the headlights of an oncoming car –
in the brief addresses he gives the nation. And over the last week, the
nation has been deprived even of the chance to hear that paralyzed deer
of a president, as he seems to have gone into hiding.
Roque, spinner of fairy tales
What leadership is provided by Malacañang comes from the presidential
spokesperson, Harry Roque, a figure that, no matter how hard he tries,
elicits disdain and distrust, with his answers coming across like those
of glib salesman selling miracle cures. How can anyone believe a guy
that, just a few weeks ago, was defending the administration’s record in
dealing with COVID-19 as “excellent?” Bereft of any guidance from
Duterte or anybody else in the cabinet, Roque has been left free to
concoct lies and fairy tales in press briefings that now border on the
surreal.
While it is true that throughout Southeast Asia, COVID-19 cases are
surging, the Philippines has, by far, had the worst performance in
containing the disease since the latest surge began in the first week of
March, eclipsing former leader Indonesia. Since the beginning of the
pandemic early in 2020, the Philippines has registered 14,744 deaths,
Myanmar 3,206, Malaysia 1,321, Thailand 97, Vietnam 35, Singapore 30,
Cambodia 39, and Brunei 3.
With the national vaccine program in tatters, trust in the enhanced
community quarantine (ECQ) for the “NCR Plus” bubble eroded by
conflicting voices within the administration, and surges in infections
and deaths reaching record levels by the day, the country has been left
with the cold truth that as, Vice President Leni Robredo has put it, “Walang tumitimon,”
or “Nobody’s steering the ship.” Robredo, in fact, has tried to step
into the vacuum, providing a leadership that is rich in terms of
emotional empathy but extremely limited in terms of what resources her
office can muster. Not surprisingly, the Malacanang troll machine has
gone after her with increasingly desperate insults that are recycled
within an echo chamber that is rapidly getting smaller.
Desperate troll machine
I had a personal experience with how desperate Duterte’s
propagandists are getting. This was when the Director General of the
government’s Philippine Information Agency used my Facebook post with a
photo of me being inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine to show how,
as they put it, “DUTERTE SERVES EVERYONE, NOT ONLY ONE…As you all know,
Ex-Partylist Congressman Walden Bello is one of the staunchest critics
of this administration…THIS IS PROOF THAT PRESIDENT DUTERTE KNOWS NO
POLITICAL COLORS.”
A year ago, the administration might have gotten away with such
shenanigans, but not today, when the virus is rolling through the
population in such a devastating manner that more and more people not
only know individuals who’ve been infected but friends and dear ones
whose lives have been prematurely snuffed out. COVID-19-caused death is
no longer a a stranger to many of us, and nothing can remove the scales
from one’s eyes more effectively than death caused in great part by
government incompetence.
Health Care Sharing Ministries, or HCSMs, advertise themselves as a more affordable, faith-based alternative to health insurance. But John Oliver explains some of the massive limitations these plans can have.
Our Lady of Perpetual Excemption Compilation
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Health care sharing ministries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
‘It is highly unlikely that Cosby, 83, will ever see the inside of a prison cell again.’ PHOTO/Matt Slocum/AP Singer Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears PHOTO/Elan Life/Duck Duck Go
Cosby becoming a free man on the same day Spears lost her latest battle to free herself from a man’s control is almost too on the nose
A tale of two justice systems
It
is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a good
fortune and an expensive lawyer can get away with almost anything. See
as exhibit one: Bill Cosby. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned
the disgraced actor’s sexual assault conviction on a legal
technicality. Cosby had served two years of a three to ten-year sentence
for a 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand; before Wednesday’s
surprise reversal he had been expected to serve the maximum time after
vowing he wasn’t going to show any remorse for a crime he says he didn’t commit.
It
is highly unlikely that Cosby, 83, will ever see the inside of a prison
cell again. While he has been accused of sexual misconduct by 60 women,
the statute of limitations for all the accusers with enough evidence to
bring a case had passed by the time they went public with the
allegations. All except Constand. Now, according to Wednesday’s ruling,
Cosby cannot be retried for Constand’s assault. In a statement
the court said overturning the guilty verdict and blocking any further
prosecution “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable
expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice
system.”
You
know what? That statement is spot on: Cosby walking free is exactly
what I’d expect from the US criminal justice system. There is a reason
why the dozens of women who accused Cosby of misconduct took years to
come forward; there is a reason more than two out of three sexual
assaults are estimated to go unreported. Sexual assault victims often don’t come forward
because they don’t expect to be believed or taken seriously by the
legal system. And these suspicions are well-founded: according to the
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network out of 1,000 sexual assaults, 975 perpetrators go free. Some even go on glitzy careers. A third of the six men on the US supreme court have been accused of sexual misconduct.
If
you want to know who the US legal system protects and who it doesn’t,
you don’t need to look much further than the events that unfolded on
Wednesday. On the same day that Cosby walked free, a judge in Los
Angeles denied Britney Spears’s request
to be set free from her father’s control. The 39-year-old’s father,
Jamie Spears, will remain a co-conservator of her estate under an
arrangement Spears has called “abusive”
and will continue to make decisions about her life. Let’s just pause
for a moment and try and imagine a situation where the sexes were
reversed and a 39-year-old male celebrity was under the legal control of
his mother. Let’s try and imagine a situation where a 39-year-old male
celebrity was deemed fit enough to work, but not fit enough to make
decisions about his reproductive choices . I can’t quite imagine that, can you? Indeed, as many people have pointed out,
Kanye West has had a high-profile mental breakdown, just like Spears.
Rather than being put under a conservatorship, he went on to run for
president.
Cosby becoming a free man on the
same day that Spears lost her latest battle to free herself from a man’s
control is almost too on the nose, isn’t it? If it happened in a TV
drama you’d think the writers were being rather too heavy-handed with
the social commentary. Alas, this isn’t a TV drama, it’s just another
day in the American legal system.
President Trump proceeding to St. John’s Church after Lafayette Park was cleared of peaceful protestors on June 1, 2020.. Seen in the photo in military camouflage is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. PHOTO/USA Today/Duck Duck Go
it is common for people to keep their mouths shut
when employed …
they open up bravely
when they quit or their boss changes
ditto with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
CJCS – General Mark Milley
he was Trump’s CJCS and is also CJCS of Joe Biden
Milley’s interview in a new book, I Alone Can Fix It:
“They may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed.” “[Trump is a] classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose.” “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”
Milley is totally right about
“we’re the guys with the guns”
Trump’s people had weapons
but they were no match for the US arsenal
referring to an invasion
of the US Congress by Trump supporters, he said:
“Here’s the deal, guys: These guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II. We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in.”
the invaders were a bunch of rowdy unorganized idiots with no leader
Trump is an armchair Hitler wanting power grab without participation
but things rarely work like that
this same CJCS Milley …
had no qualms joining Trump on June 1, 2020
where peaceful protestors
were teargassed and roughed up
on Trump’s imperial orders
then to further show his power …
Trump trotted to St. John’s Church
guess who joined Trump in that walk?
his minions and this tough general
why did he not refuse to join Trump?
because he was a coward …
who now talks after the leader is out of power
nobody can deny that Trump is a horrible person
but equally horrible are people like Milley …
later, Milley apologized
for joining Trump in the walk
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”
The tragic death of a migrant farm worker has led to self-reflection in South Korean agriculture. But can technology free farmers from their dependence on imported labor?
To enter Yeo Chan-dong’s farm,
workers must put on a white lab coat and cap and then pass through an
air shower. Inside, shelves of green vegetables are in various stages of
growth, under blue and red LED lights that combine to give the space a
purple glow. On a wall near the entrance is a screen that states the
room’s temperature (24.3), humidity (78.5%), CO2 level (701 ppm), as
well as the pH and nutrient solution levels.
The plants grow in water, not soil, meaning that there is no dirt to
sully the space’s gleaming surfaces. They absorb water through their
roots, so they don’t need to be sprayed. Because the farm is indoors and
sealed off from insects, no pesticides are used, meaning visitors can
pluck and eat the greens right off the plant. The lettuce is crisp, with
a slightly buttery flavor.
Fifty-one kilograms of greens come out of this operation per day,
ending up in salads, sandwiches, and smoothies. Yeo, who wears black
slacks and a crisp white dress shirt, with spotless eyeglasses and
neatly combed hair, claims that this farm, a space smaller than 400
square meters, can produce 40 times more than conventional agricultural
land.
Located in Sangdo Station on Seoul’s subway system, the farm is the
first one out of five in the city’s metro stations, the result of
cooperation between the city government and Farm8, a private company
that develops smart farm technology and sells the produce. Amid rising
interest in smart farming, Farm8 brought in $47.8 million (54 billion
South Korean won) in 2020, up from $7.4 million in 2010.
