Author: drbasuen

THIS IS NARRATIVE ABOUT THE GOOD SIDE OF TERRORISM

The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)

The Mau Mau rebellion contributed to the quickness of Kenyan independence. 2013, legal suit against the British government on behalf of the Mau Mau survivors paid out £19.9m to 5,228 Kenyans who were victims of torture 2016 – new legal suit against the British government on behalf of those affected by additional offenses (e.g., false imprisonment, forced labor, interruption to their right to education) Most colonies had an African elite who had a European education initially supportive of mother country but later became leaders of independence. During the world wars, the colonies were needed to provide resources (foodstuffs) and soldiers.

British established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895. White settlers took the best land for their own purposes. In 1920, it became known as the Kenya Colony. Africans, especially the Kikuyu who traditionally occupied the most fertile lands, were forcibly removed and placed in resource-poor areas.

Numerous economic and social changes resulted either directly or indirectly from the Mau Mau uprising. A land-consolidation program centralized the Kikuyu into large villages the Mau Mau’s. Throughout the 1950s, foreign investment in Kenya continued.

Nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta of the Kenya African Union (KAU) had been pressing the British government in vain for political rights and land reforms, with valuable holdings in the cooler Highlands to be redistributed to African owners.to give them. In October 1952, the British declared a state of emergency and began moving army reinforcements into Kenya. Officially the number of Mau Mau and other rebels killed was 11,000, including 1,090 convicts hanged by the British administration. Just 32 white settlers were killed in the eight years of emergency. However, unofficial figures suggest a much larger number were killed in the counter-insurgency campaign. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has said 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown, and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions.

David Anderson, professor of African Politics at Oxford University, says he estimates the death toll in the conflict to have been as high as 25,000. He said: “Everything that could happen did happen. Allegations about beatings and violence were widespread. Basically you could get away with murder. It was systematic.”

As Martyn Day, (A Solicitor) proclaimed that the firm “its clients suffered terribly in detention camps or at the hands of British-led soldiers. He also spoke to the court “They were put in camps where they were subject to severe torture, malnutrition, beatings. The women were sexually assaulted. Two of the men were castrated. The most severe gruesome torture you could imagine. A lot of the officers involved were white, they were controlling the violence against these Mau Mau. It wasn’t just isolated individual officers. It was systematic.” The whole purpose was to break the Mau Mau. But, as explained by Leigh Day & Co the case is an “opportunity for the British government to come to terms with the past and apologize to the victims and the Kenyan people for this grave historic wrong”.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has backed their cases. “In my view, the British government’s attempt to pin liability on Kenya for British colonial torture represents an intolerable abdication of responsibility,”

The Mau Mau uprising began in 1952 as a reaction to inequalities and injustices in British-controlled Kenya. The response – of the colonial administration was a fierce crackdown on the rebels, resulting in many deaths. By 1956 the uprising had effectively been crushed, but the extent of opposition to the British regime had clearly been demonstrated and Kenya was set on the path to independence, which was finally achieved in 1963. SAHO@20 

The four main causes of the revolt were:

Low wages,

Access to land,

Female genital mutilation (FGM)

Kipande: identity cards that black workers had to submit to their white employers. The whites that explores refused to return them or even destroyed the cards, making it incredibly difficult for workers to apply for other employment.

The great British plan to end the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya was presented to the country’s legislature. General China, captured in January, was to write to the other terrorist leaders and suggest that nothing further could be gained from the conflict and that they should surrender to British troops. British authorities in Kenya admitted that the “General China operation” legislature failed. Leaders of the Mau Mau including Jomo Kenyatta went to prison.

Kenyan opposition to British imperialism was there from the start. E.G, the Kikuyu opposition of 1880–1900—though it bears emphasis that, in military terms, armed uprisings during the opening scenes of British colonialism in Kenya were never successful. Kenyan employees were treated by their British employers, even beaten to death by them, with some settlers arguing that Africans “were as children and should be treated as such.” Kenyan, employees were often poorly treated by their European. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has said 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown, and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions. This is far more likely.

The U.K. said it not a valid because: Any liability rests by the Kenyan authorities. A big, fat, juicy, lie. Prof Anderson at Oxford University who notes that one of the things marking the battle against the Mau Mau was the number of hangings, with capital offences extended during the emergency to include “consorting” with Mau Mau.

Even though the Mau Mau were defeated by 1960, reforms that nationalists had been pressing for before the uprising had started and, by 1963, Kenya was independent.

Prof Anderson explains: “There was lots of suffering on the other side too. This was a dirty war. It became a civil war – though that idea remains extremely unpopular in Kenya today.” Even though the Mau Mau were thoroughly defeated by 1960, there were the exact reforms that nationalists had been pressing for before the uprising had started and, by 1963, Kenya was independent. Hoo-ray!

“Though systematic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for me and I imagine for some others like me if we raise our daily consciousness on the perquisites of being light-skinned. What will we do with such knowledge? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems of advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily-awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base. Ideally it is an unearned entitlement. At present, since only a few have it, it is an unearned advantage for them.”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy Macintosh

Education, social class, places, spaces and living in the “ghetto life,” etc. In America, race an inextricably salient feature of our collective consciousness. There have been multiple claims of color-blindness, or the prospect of a post-racial society has been by many normative groups, especially espousing the Eurocentric (White) vision and version of reality, history, hegemony, culture and society.

1. I can be with only white people all the time

2.If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or want to live.

3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

6. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

8.If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods, which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

12. I can sear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

18. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race.

19. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race

20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.

21. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.

22. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co- workers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.

23. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.

26. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.”

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy Macintosh. 1988

Does America Have A Caste System?

Definition of Caste

1: one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes

2: a division of society based on differences of wealth, inherited rank or privilege, profession, and occupations.

3: India is the pinnacle of a caste system. Other places with caste systems include:  Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, and even Eastern Europe. My focus is on America and India.

In the system, Hindus are divided up into four classes.

The Brahmins (the priestly class.)

The Kshatriyas (the ruling, administrative and warrior class.)

The Vaishyas (the class of artisans, tradesmen, farmers and merchants.)

The Shudras (manual workers.)

India currently has thousands of castes, they are all categorized into four different groups. Three of these four are: are beneficiaries from the scheduled castes (SC), the scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward castes (OBC.) it is true. The SCs were historically among the most repressed communities. The lowest were known, and shunned by the upper castes as “untouchables.” They constitute the lowest segment of India’s caste-based hierarchical society.

“The ST groups, on the other hand, were tribal communities living in remote forests with little contact to outside world. The SCs and STs have been granted quotas, of 15 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, in all government jobs and higher education institutions.”  https://www.dw.com/en/caste-protests-spotlight-indias-contentious-quota-system/a-19068170.

The Dalits, was previously known as “untouchables.” For centuries, inter-caste marriage was forbidden. In the main they lived in villages, castes mostly lived separately and did not share amenities such as wells to collect water. Or, no eating while the Master ate. Make sure to watch “Bandit Queen” and your critique of it. HINT: It is so sexist, class and caste-conscious.

The caste system was bolstered under the British Raj where upper-caste Hindus administrators or civil servants. Then, in the midway in 1920’s, the colonial administration introducing a system of quotas under which a certain percentage of government jobs were reserved for lower-caste Hindus.

After India gained independence (1947,) India introduced laws to make discrimination against lower castes illegal and to improve their socioeconomic positions. Quotas were introduced for college admissions and jobs.

As a result, some Dalits have made it to leading positions, such as BR Ambedkar.  (He is my hero, who played an important role as writer of the Indian constitution,) and KR Narayanan, who was elected president in 1997.

Protesters belonging to the “Jat” community recently went on a rampage in the Northern Indian state of Haryana. They were protesting by blockading traffic on the main highway connecting the state with the national capital New Delhi. They also cut off water supply to the city by seizing a crucial waterway. The funny thing about it is that the protests the “Jats, “currently listed as upper caste, are demanding that they be given quotas in jobs and education similar to those enjoyed by the country’s lower castes. Earlier they only called off their protests late.  The state government accepted their demands, pledging to introduce a bill on quotas for their community in the next assembly session.

But to fully understand the Jats’ demand, one needs to take a look at the quota policy, known in India and the U.S.A. (like the “reservation system,” that Native Indians occupy.) The Indian government has implemented since the country’s independence in 1947.

India’s post-independence constitution, adopted in 1950, mandates that “positive discrimination,” for the upliftment of those who were traditionally oppressed and neglected as a result of the caste system.

RACE AS CASTE AND CASTE AS RACE

In the mid-20th century, the American anthropologist Gerald Berreman returned home from fieldwork in India as the civil rights movement was getting underway. His 1960 essay, “Caste in India and the United States,” concluded that towns in the Jim Crow South bore enough similarity to the North Indian villages he had studied to consider that they had a caste society. America’s equivalent problems get exempted from examination. Whether caste is somehow different or similar phenomenon in America.  After all, every society has strata and ethnic groups. “In modern America, we call these ‘demographic segments’ There are ‘demographic segment such as ‘inner city African Americans’, ‘rural Hispanics’, ‘suburban whites’, ‘Asian immigrants’ etc. and these are common terms in consumer marketing. I wonder how different these are from India’s much studied castes. Yet, people give funny looks when the term ‘caste’ is suggested pertaining to America.”  https://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/american-caste-system-2/ A religion-sanctioned, segregation system that divides people into different social groups based on their birth or, in some cases, their occupation.

In the book entitled book entitled “The Invention of the White Race” by Theodore W. Allen it tells of gives an interesting account group we now call ‘white.’ “Until the 16th century, the white skin privilege was recognized neither in the law nor in the social practices of the labor classes. But by the early decades of the eighteenth century, racial oppression would be the norm in the plantation colonies, and African Americans would continue to suffer for more than two centuries African bond-laborers were turned into chattel slaves and were differentiated from their fellow proletarians of European origin.” Shocked by the solidarity across racial lines exhibited by the rebellious laboring classes in the wake of the famous Bacon’s Rebellion, the plantation bourgeoisie sought a solution to its labor problems in the creation of a buffer control stratum of poor whites, who enjoyed little enough privilege in colonial society beyond that of their skin color, which protected them from enslavement.  For example take your gated community “churn a vicious cycle by attracting like-minded residents who seek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders. These bunker communities remind me of those Matryoshka wooden dolls.  A similar-object-within-a-similar-object serves as shelter; from community to subdivision to house, each unit relies on staggered forms of security and comfort, including town authorities, zoning practices, private security systems and personal firearms.” Tim Lane, the NY Times.

As soon as these social variations are perceived, we become conscious that caste rules in American life with an iron rod, fiery furnace of much wealth or rare intellectual ability: the lower we descend, in what is called social life, the more perceptible become its demarcations. In the working class its sway is omnipotent. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1881/12/caste-in-american-society/305936/

Wealth inequality is dividing our country:  into two Americas: one that is the extreme wealth of the rich and one that is poor, very poor. Like the caste system in India, the rich don’t use the same schools, don’t frequent the same restaurants, don’t attend the same social functions, don’t support similar causes, and don’t use the same modes of transport. Unless it’s charitable concerns, such as the rich people do. 

Social Security to help the poor with health insurance, or medical care, support unemployment compensation or increase the minimum wage. The very rich write the laws produce norms and establish the rules for the rest of us to follow.

Now, the wealth gap in the United States is the forth highest in the world; only Russia, the Ukraine and Lebanon are worse. Leaders of industry and commerce are more internationalists with no real allegiance to any particular country or to its citizens. They own multiple homes perhaps in New York, Paris or London.  They are known “I’m rich, bitch” They couldn’t care less about the workers in those factories. All they care about is making more money for themselves and their heirs.

Definition of Caste

1: one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes

2: a division of society based on differences of wealth, inherited rank or privilege, profession, and occupations.

3: India is the pinnacle of a caste system. Other places with caste systems include:  Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, and even Eastern Europe. My focus is on America and India.

RACE AS CASTE AND CASTE AS RACE

In the mid-20th century, the American anthropologist Gerald Berreman returned home from fieldwork in India as the civil rights movement was getting underway. His 1960 essay, “Caste in India and the United States” concluded that towns in the Jim Crow South bore enough similarity to the North Indian villages he had studied to consider that they had a caste society. After all, America’s equivalent problems get exempted from examination. Whether caste is somehow different or similar phenomenon in America.  After all, every society has strata and ethnic groups. “In modern America, we call these ‘demographic segments’ There are ‘demographic segment such as ‘inner city African Americans’, ‘rural Hispanics’, ‘suburban whites’, ‘Asian immigrants’, etc. and these are common terms in consumer marketing. I wonder how different these are from India’s much studied castes. Yet, people give funny looks when the term ‘caste’ is suggested pertaining to America.” https://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/american-caste-system-2/

A religion-sanctioned, segregation system that divides people into different social groups based on their birth or, in some cases, their occupation.

In the book entitled book entitled The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen it tells of gives an interesting account group we now call ‘white.’ “Until the 16th century, the white skin privilege was recognized neither in the law nor in the social practices of the labor classes. But by the early decades of the eighteenth century, racial oppression would be the norm in the plantation colonies, and African Americans would continue to suffer for more than two centuries African bond-laborers were turned into chattel slaves and were differentiated from their fellow proletarians of European origin.” Shocked by the solidarity across racial lines exhibited by the rebellious laboring classes in the wake of the famous Bacon’s Rebellion, the plantation bourgeoisie sought a solution to its labor problems in the creation of a buffer control stratum of poor whites, who enjoyed little enough privilege in colonial society beyond that of their skin color, which protected them from enslavement.  For example take your gated communities, “churn a vicious cycle by attracting like-minded residents who seek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders. These bunker communities remind me of those Matryoshka wooden dolls.  A similar-object-within-a-similar-object serves as shelter; from community to subdivision to house, each unit relies on staggered forms of security and comfort, including town authorities, zoning practices, private security systems and personal firearms.” Tim Lane in the NY Times.

As soon as these social variations are perceived, we become conscious that caste rules in American life with an iron rod, fiery furnace of much wealth or rare intellectual ability: the lower we descend, in what is called social life, the more perceptible become its demarcations. In the working class its sway is omnipotent.

Wealth inequality is dividing our country:  into two Americas: one that is the extreme wealth of the rich and one that is poor. Like the caste system in India, the rich don’t use the same schools, don’t frequent the same restaurants, don’t attend the same social functions, don’t support similar causes, and don’t use the same modes of transport. Unless it’s charitable concerns, such as the rich people do. 

Social Security to help the poor with health insurance, or medical care, support unemployment compensation or increase the minimum wage. The very rich write the laws produce norms and establish the rules for the rest of us to follow.

Now, the wealth gap in the United States is the forth highest in the world; only Russia, the Ukraine and Lebanon are worse. Leaders of industry and commerce are more internationalists with no real allegiance to any particular country or to its citizens. They own multiple homes perhaps in New York, Paris or London.  They are known “I’m rich, bitch.” From the famous David Chapel show. They couldn’t care less about the workers in those factories. All they care about is making more money for themselves and their heirs.

Dalit Dastak is one of the several dedicated publications that have come up in recent years, raising issues that concern Dalits and other lower castes. Many are exclusively online and carry mainly opinion pieces. As a commercially oriented, vernacular print magazine disseminating news and reportage, Dalit Dastak has a unique position, Das contends. “It was intentional to put the word Dalit in the title. It catches the eye and differentiates us from other publications.”

After graduating from a journalism college in Delhi in 2006, Das worked for several Hindi newspapers but felt discriminated as one of very few Dalit journalists in their newsrooms. He decided to break away and start a website catering to Dalits.

Take education, so the objective of work around the analysis of Whiteness, power, and privilege to education, concluding with some suggestions for critical engagement in and through education so as to lay the groundwork for social justice and a just society.  The White House’s budget proposed striking $17.6 million in grants to expand the event.

Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons arte formed in the brain. Neurogenesis is crucial when an embryo is developing, but also continues in certain brain regions after birth and throughout our lifespan.   The mature brain has many specialized areas of function, and neurons that differ in structure and connections. The hippocampus, for example, which is a brain region that plays an important role in memory and spatial navigation, alone, has at least 27 different types of neurons. The incredible diversity of neurons in the brain results from regulated neurogenesis during embryonic development. During the process, neural stem cells differentiate —that is, they become any one of a number of specialized cell types—at specific times and regions in the brain. https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/brain-physiology/what-neurogenesis

What is an example of neurogenesis?

Neurogenesis, or the birth of new neuronal cells, was thought to occur only in developing organisms. Examples of neurogenesis are found in the hippocampus of mammals, song control nuclei of birds and the olfactory pathway of rodents, insects and crustaceans. Mar 1, 2005. Neurogenesis, or the birth of new neuronal cells, was thought to occur only in developing organisms. However, recent research has demonstrated that neurogenesis does indeed continue into and throughout adult life in both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. Examples of neurogenesis are found in the hippocampus of mammals, song control nuclei of birds and the olfactory pathway of rodents, insects and crustaceans.

On going neurogenesis is thought to be an important mechanism underlying neuronal plasticity, enabling organisms to adapt to environmental changes and influencing learning and memory. https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/brain-physiology/what-neurogenesisthroughout life.

Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain. Neurogenesis is crucial when an embryo is developing, but also continues in certain brain regions after birth and throughout our lifespan.   The mature brain has many specialized areas of function, and neurons that differ in structure and connections. The hippocampus, for example, which is a brain region that plays an important role in memory and spatial navigation, with at least 27 different types of neurons. The incredible diversity of neurons in the brain results from regulated neurogenesis during embryonic development. During the process, neural stem cells differentiate—that is, they become any one of a number of specialized cell types: at specific times and regions in the bIn summary, synaptic plasticity is undoubtedly one of the most important phenomena in neuroscience. What makes the brain amazing is that it changes with experience, allowing us to learn from and adapt to the world around us. Synaptic plasticity is a very large part of this, although neurogensis is increasingly viewed as another vital contributor.

Electrical signals move from the cell (above right) along the axon to the synapse (detail at left), where they are relayed across the synaptic cleft to neighboring cells in the form of chemicals. It can have new have suggest that neurons that are adversely affected by factors such as stress, lack of stimulation, or neurotoxins may be hampered in their ability to form new patterns of connectivity and may lose synaptic connections. “Psychiatry essentially deals with b\rain issues that transpire at the synaptic level and at connections between neurons in different brain regions,” says Eric M. Morrow, MD, PhD, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a researcher in neuroscience and genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Most medications that have been developed to treat mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders work at this level. In psychiatry, the emphasis is generally on problems and benefits that come from the functioning of the brain’s synapses and chemicals, whereas treatment for lesions of the brain such as those associated with stroke or brain injury, is done by neurologists.

Studies suggest that neurons that are adversely affected by factors such as stress, lack of stimulation, or neurotoxins may be hampered in their ability to form new patterns of connectivity and may lose synaptic connections. “Psychiatry essentially deals with brain issues that transpire at the synaptic level and at connections between neurons in different brain regions,” says Eric M. Morrow, MD, PhD, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a researcher in neuroscience and genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Most medications that have been developed to treat mood and other neuropsychiatric disorders work at this level. In psychiatry, the emphasis is generally on problems and benefits that come from the functioning of the brain’s synapses and chemicals, whereas treatment for lesions of the brain such as those associated with stroke or brain injuries.

Adult neurogenesis, a process of generating functional neurons from adult neural precursors, occurs throughout life in restricted brain regions in mammals. The past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in addressing questions related to almost every aspect of adult neurogenesis in the mammalian brain. Here we review major advances in our understanding of adult mammalian neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and from the sub-ventricular zone of the lateral ventricle, the rostral migratory stream to the olfactory bulb. No wonder. We highlight emerging principles that have significant implications for stem cell biology, developmental neurobiology, neural plasticity, and disease mechanisms. We also discuss remaining questions related to adult neural stem cells and their niches, underlying regulatory mechanisms and potential functions of newborn neurons in the adult brain. Building upon the recent progress and aided by new technologies, the adult neurogenesis field is poised to leap forward in the next decade.

TERRORISM: THE BACKGROUND.

It has spread to more than 40 percent of the world’s countries. The war isn’t being waged by the military alone, which has spent a Trillion fighting terrorism since 2001. The State Department has spent $127 billion in the last 17 years to train police, military and border patrol agents in many countries and to develop anti-terrorism education programs, among other activities. According to the Costs of War Project, 480,000 people have died from direct violence and 21 million people have become refugees from post-9/11 wars.

Following the 9/11: It has spread to more than 40 percent of the world’s countries. The war has spent $1 trillion fighting terrorism since 2001. The State Department has spent $127 billion in the last 17 years to train police, military and border patrol agents in many countries and to develop anti-terrorism education programs, among other activities.

TERRORISM IN THE USA

Terrorism, especially a range and diversity is a narrowly defined type of violence, even within the broader spectrum of ideologically motivated violence. Some of them were hailed as the ‘freedom fighters.’ Some called it ‘terrorism.’ Which one’s are terrorism, and which ones are drug induced.

Las Vegas Stephen Paddock, 64, killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 others on October 1 when he opened fire from the Mandalay Hotel music festival.

Gabrielles’ Gift: On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others during a supermarket parking lot meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” in Tucson, AZ. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Loughner was found unfit to stand trial and was given life in prison for the murders of six people.

Virginia Tech shootings: killed 32 people. He injured 23 people.  He was suffering from mental illness.

 Aurora Movie Theatre shootings: while laying in a hospital bed, I took a keen interest on the Aurora case. James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 people.

The shooting of a lone shooter had links to a Wisconsin white supremacy and neo-nazi group.  It was set in Wisconsin by shooter called Wade Page, who killed 6 people and injuring others. I followed the shootings closely. It was in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. I kept an eye on it because my mum was born as a Sikh.

The married couple Jarad and Amanda Miller who killed 2 people. The former, was killed by the police (Jarad). The later (Amanda Miller) by committed suicide.

He killed himself after murdering 9 people and himself.

Robert Dear was accused of opening fire on a Planned Parent facility of killing 1 policeman and 2 civilians.  And another 9 others were injured. 

 Sandy Hook Elementary killed 20 small kiddies and 6 teachers, etc.

I think most of them were on medication, especially Oxycodene.

FORMAL DEFINATIONS OF TERRORISM

The GTD defines terrorism as the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation. In the application of this definition, the database does not include unsubstantiated threats, nor does it include plots or conspiracies that the perpetrators did not attempt to execute. The GTD does not include acts that occurred in the context of a law enforcement operation, such as a traffic stop or warrant execution. The GTD does not typically include violence stemming from interactions that were spontaneous or reactive. This might include clashes erupting at protests or riots, or violent hate crimes. The GTD does not include violence carried out by state actors.

Note that classification of terrorist attacks by ideology can be unclear, particularly when perpetrators of attacks identify with more than one ideological group or perspective, which may or may not be relevant to the motivations for the attack itself. The classification of terrorist activity by ideology does not characterize an entire population or ideological movement as violent.

Terrorism Definitions. 

International terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by, or associated with designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).

Global Terrorism Database Inclusion Criteria

The GTD defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” (p. 10) To apply this definition, we parse it into a series of inclusion

Mandatory inclusion criteria:

The incident must be intentional; the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator.

• The incident must entail some level of violence (includes property violence) or the threat of violence.
• There must be sub-national perpetrators.

At least two of the following criteria must be met:

1. The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion.
2. There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
3. The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities, i.e. the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the admonition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants).

Domestic terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S.-based movements that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. FBI.gov For example, the June 8, 2014 Las Vegas shooting, during which two police officers inside a restaurant were killed in an ambush-style attack, which was committed by a married couple who held anti-government views and who intended to use the shooting to start a revolution.

FBI.gov

Global Terrorism Database Inclusion Criteria.

The GTD defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” (p. 10) To apply this definition, we parse it into a series of inclusion criteria.

Mandatory Inclusion Criteria:

The incident must be intentional – the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator.

The incident must entail some level of violence (includes property violence) or the threat of violence.

• There must be sub-national perpetrators.

At least two of the following criteria must be met:

1. The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion.
2. There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger groups audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
3. The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities, i.e. the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the admonition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants).
4. Between 1970 and 2016 terrorist attacks in the United States were motivated by a variety of ideological perspectives. In order to facilitate analysis of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) with respect to ideological patterns of terrorism in the United States, the GTD team conducted supplemental research to generate this auxiliary dataset that classifies attacks in the United States by ideology.

ENVIRONMENTAL: Violence in support of biodiversity and bio-centric equality. 

LEFT-WING
Violence: in support of a revolutionary socialist agenda and the view that one is a protector of the populace. Characterized by disdain for capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, and by a Marxist political focus.

RIGHT-WING
Violence: in support of the belief that personal and/or national way of life is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent. Characterized by anti-globalism, racial or ethnic supremacy or nationalism. The Irish had the alarming habit of always going into battle stark naked. On the other hand music and poetry were a key part of the local kings pleasures and if their ancient poetry is to be believed so were liberated sexual practices.

BRITISH TROOPS IN IRELAND: Unionists and the British Government referred to the long running political violence as a law and order problem of ‘terrorism’. The London government portrayed the role of state forces as being primarily of peace-keeping between the ‘two communities’.

The death toll never reached 1,000 in a year, making it a ‘low intensity conflict’. At the same time, in the city of Birmingham, the U.K. was also bombed. I heard it. I was petrified.

The conflict in Northern Ireland or most common name was ‘The Troubles’. This name had the advantage that it did not attach blame to any of the participants and thus could be used neutrally. Republicans, particularly supporters of the Provisional IRA referred to the conflict as ‘the war’, and portrayed it as a guerrilla war of national liberation.

Unionists and the British government referred to the long running political violence as a law and order problem of ‘terrorism’. The London government portrayed the role of state forces as being primarily of peace-keeping between the ‘two communities’.  The death toll in Northern Ireland, an enclave with a population of about 1.5 million, was considerable, with over 3,500 killed and up to 50,000 injured over a thirty-year period.

Independence from oppressive foreign rule was fuelled all over the world by the 1776 American war of independence, the 1789 French revolution, the liberating of some of the Mediterranean countries from Ottoman rule by the English, notably Greece. In the late 1700’s this gave the Irish, again supported by a French militia, the encouragement to campaign for freedom from the British. These Franco Irish forces were quickly “eliminated” by the powerful English. They were reluctant to give any inkling of a willingness to submit to an agenda of independence. The key was when the English persuaded the Irish Parliament to vote for its own dissolution and under the Act of Union, Ireland became a wholly integrated part of the UK. Thence Irishmen, be they only the Protestant ruling classes (Catholics were not eligible), had seats in the British Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Here is a timeline of some of the worst bomb attacks on mainland Britain by Irish dissident groups in the last 35 years.

February 1974:  Coach carrying soldiers and families in Northern England, is bombed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twelve people killed, 14 hurt.

October-November 1974 a  wave of IRA bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200.

July 1982: Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London’s royal parks kill 11 people and wound 50.

December 1983: IRA bomb at Harrods department store kills six.

October 1984: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb that kills five people at Brighton hotel during Conservative Party’s annual conference.

September 1989: Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.

February 1990: Explosion at Army recruitment centre in Leicester. Two wounded.

May 1990:  Seven wounded by blast at Army Educational Service headquarters, in London suburb of Eltham.

May 1990: One soldier is killed and another wounded by car bomb in Wembley.

October 1984: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb that kills five people at Brighton hotel during Conservative Party’s annual conference.

September 1989: Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.

February 1990:  Explosion at Army recruitment centre in Leicester. Two wounded.

May 1990: Seven wounded by blast at Army Educational Service headquarters in London suburb of Eltham.

May 1990 – One soldier is killed and another wounded by car bomb in Wembley.

June 1990: Soldier is shot dead at train station in Lichfield.

February 1991: IRA comes close to killing Prime Minister John Major and key cabinet members in a mortar attack on Downing Street. One of three mortar bombs slammed into garden behind building, exploding within 50 feet (15 metres) of the target.

April 1992 – Huge car bomb outside Baltic Exchange in London’s financial district kills three people and wounds 91.

March 1993 – Bombs in two litterbins in Warrington kill two boys aged three and 12.

April 1993 – IRA truck bomb devastates Bishopsgate area of London’s financial district, killing one and wounding 44.

February 1996 – Two people die when IRA paramilitaries detonate large bomb in London’s Docklands area.

WHY?

1(IRA) also called Provisional Irish Republican Army, republican paramilitary organization seeking the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland.

2 Formed in 1969 as the clandestine armed wing of the political movement Sinn Fein, the IRA is devoted both to removing British forces from Northern Ireland and to unifying Ireland.

3 Irish nationalists/republicans, who were mostly Catholics, wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. The conflict began during a campaign to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and police force.

There were literally hundreds of examples of soft targets.

Bloody Friday (July 21 1972)

Bloody Friday was important in demonizing the IRA. Bloody Friday happens within four months of the imposition of direct rule, when Unionists had lost out, when there were people saying, “Let’s call it a day. We’ve had enough violence.” The IRA response to Bloody Friday was that it wasn’t they who got it wrong, that they gave the warnings. It was the authorities who got it wrong, that they did not mean to kill those innocent civilians. Whatever way you look at it, it was a very important event, because what it did was that it distanced those in the Unionist community who might have been prepared to give some thought to doing deals with people in the Catholic community … they said, “All bets are off.” It reinforced the position of the Protestant paramilitaries, and made them a real force in the political game in Northern Ireland. It reinforced the fanatical voice of Protestant militarism, some of those who claim that they were not, or didn’t approve of violence, but used violent language. What it did was that it polarized the situation very, very badly.It persuaded the British government that you cannot do business with the Republican movement. So, for all of those reasons, Bloody Friday had very serious consequences.

Pbs.org

The Murder of Lord Mountbatten August, 1979 pbs.org

In August of 1979 the IRA pulled off two of their huge spectaculars with the murder of Mountbatten, part of the British royal family. But they also killed two young boys in the same boat that he was in. So, there were mixed feelings about it. There was great glee in the Republican movement. The British authorities were able to make much propaganda out of the death of the two young boys. On the same day, the IRA pulled off probably their most spectacular military operation when they blew to pieces 18 British soldiers. They happened to be British paratroopers, the people who were responsible for Bloody Sunday. So, among their followers, this was a huge, huge victory. But the downside of that was that the soldiers had been killed on the Irish border. So, the British were able to mount a propaganda campaign, arguing very strongly that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republican of Ireland needed to be sealed, that the Irish government wasn’t doing enough, that the American administration was too soft on the Irish government. It was both a win and a loss, but it became a win later on … at that time, immediately after the tenth hunger striker had gone to his death, the Sunday Times did a poll of the world’s newspapers, and what they discovered was a huge switch in opinion from sympathy with the British government, which had lost Lord Mountbatten, which had seen an attempt to blow up its whole Cabinet at Brighton, and what they saw was an insensitive, unthinking government. So, the death of Mountbatten and all the rest of it actually turned out to be a propaganda coup for the IRA rather than a loss for them.Pbs.org.

Gary Donnelly on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, or Brexit. As the possibility grows of Britain’s crashing out with no deal, so, too, does the likelihood of the reimposition of a hard border with the Irish Republic that many people see as a threat to peace and stability. But Mr. Donnelly has a different take. While he shares a sense of alarm about a hard border, he also thinks talk of its return has brought much-needed clarity to the Irish question.“Brexit” has highlighted the absurdity of partition,” Mr. Donnelly said back. “Others had always been brushing it under the carpet.” Not helping matters, the regional assembly for Northern Ireland, based in Stormont, (Stormont is an estate that includes the Parliament and houses the prime minister of Northern Ireland. It was built in 1928 -32) has been suspended for two years because of political feuds and scandals. And Northern Ireland’s fragile balance of power between Irish nationalists and pro-United Kingdom unionists has been upset, if not altogether destroyed, by the agreement of the conservative Democratic Unionist Party to support Prime Minister in London. That has turned the Democratic Unionists into Northern Ireland’s dominant force in Westminster, despite the party’s by championing Brexit. (The pro-Irish unity party, Sinn Fein, refuses to send elected leaders to Parliament at all.) NY TIMES

WHAT IS A GMO

What constitutes a ‘Genetically Modified Organism’ is every single cell, be it animal, plant, or even food does not occur naturally, but via genetic modifications. Moreover, they may be present in every day foods. A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

CONSUMPTION OF GMO’S

Genetic modification affects many of the products we consume on a daily basis. As the number of GMOs available for commercial use grows every year, the Non-GMO Project, works so as to provide the most accurate, up-to-date standards for non-GMO verification.

In order for a product to be Non-GMO Project Verified, its inputs must be evaluated for compliance with our standard, which categorizes inputs into three risk levels:

https://www.nongmoproject.org/gmo-facts/what-is-gmo/

In 2015, an ABC news survey, showed that in a survey 93% of Americans believe genetically modified foods should be labeled.

Monsanto is the world’s leading producer of the herbicide “roundup” as well as producing 90% of the world’s GMO seed. Monsanto’s GMO crops were supposed to feed the world hunger and starvation. However the truth be known, for it is the fodder is fed through the Monsanto CEO and shareholders. The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice has estimated that in 2009 alone 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide, or one suicide every 30 minutes.

The problem with GMO seeds in India is that they are often “not bred for that area, for rain-fed agriculture, so they fail more frequently,” Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmental activist and anti-globalization author, told WeAreChange.com.

According to a report by Daily Mail (a very conservative paper) every 30 minutes an Indian farmer commits suicide as a result of Monsanto’s GMO crops. In the last decade, more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers, have committed suicide because of Monsanto’s spiraling costs of seeds and pesticides. Globalization and a cadre of monopoly capitalists have forced farmers basically to buy GMO seeds. Historically Monsanto has been involved with the production of DDT, PCBS and Chemical Weapons.

Monsanto Ordered to Pay $46.5 Million in PCB Lawsuit in Rare Win for Plaintiffs A St. Louis jury has awarded three plaintiffs a total of $46.5 million in damages in a lawsuit alleging Monsanto and three other companies were negligent in its handling of polychlorinated biphenyls, or, a highly toxic and carcinogenic group of chemicals.

Originally a chemical company, until the late 1990s Monsanto was a force to be reckoned  

with.  As the market expanded, it comes with a heavy load. Manufacturing chemicals, polymers, and of course food, as wellagricultural products. www.snopes

In 2015, an ABC news survey, showed that in a survey 93% of Americans believe genetically modified foods should be labeled.

Monsanto is the world’s leading producer of the herbicide “roundup” as well as producing 90% of the world’s GMO seed. Monsanto’s GMO crops were supposed to feed the world hunger and starvation. However the truth be known, for it is the fodder is fed through the Monsanto CEO and shareholders. The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice has estimated that in 2009 alone 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide, or one suicide every 30 minutes.

Originally a chemical company, until the late 1990s Monsanto was a force to be reckoned  

with.  As the market expanded, it comes with a heavy load. Manufacturing chemicals, polymers, and of course food, as wellagricultural products. www.snopes\

Monsanto’s Roundup ‘glyphosate,’ serves her/his master well. Roundup, the weed killer, has been designated as a possible human carcinogen by the- World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016.

President Trump cardinal (one in many) sins included “business-as-usual” for the bankers (wankers), corporate cronies, who just loved industrial agriculture as an American pushover. So put down you spoon as you eat “natural” or even “healthy foods” such as Kelloggs, Ben and Jerry, General Mills, Kraft, Whole Foods 365 brand. The only way you or a trust can avoid heavy poisoning is either putting your faith in labels that are  “organic” or grow your own freshly cut vegetables, fruit and herbs. The issue I have with this is: say, for instance I grow an organic garden. Then there is some cross- fertilization and my plants were intermingled with a crop of food that is not organic. What then? Take the risk? The ways that you can avoid them include.

1-Corn is a farcical sham. DO NOT EAT IT.

2 – Soy -In one single year, 2006, there was 96.7 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed on soybeans alone.

3- Sugar – In one single year, 2006, there was 96.7 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed on soybeans alone.

4-Aspartame – a toxic additive:  including the fact that it is created with genetically modified bacteria.

5 – Papayas – GMO papayas have been grown in Hawaii for consumption since 1999. Though they can’t be sold to countries in the European Union, they are welcome with open arms in the U.S. and Canada.

6 – Canola–one of the most chemically altered drugs.

7 – Cotton – cotton oil originating in India or China carries serious health risks.

8 –Dairy – GMO papayas have been grown in Hawaii for consumption since 1999. Though they can’t be sold to countries in the European Union, they are welcome with open arms in the U.S. and Canada.

9 and 10 Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Closely related, these two squash varieties are modified to resist viruses.

The dangers of some of these foods are well-known. The Bt toxin being used in GMO corn, for example, was recently detected in the blood of pregnant women and their babies. But perhaps more frightening are the risks that are still unknown.  

All from http://naturalsociety.com/top-10-worst-gmo-foods-list/

Vermont, Connecticut and Maine have passed mandatory labeling laws for genetically modified food. At least 15 other states are considering similar regulations.

“The majority of corn, soybeans, and other GMO crops grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, a weed killer better known as Roundup. Roundup is made by Monsanto, which also produces the seeds that enable crops to survive being doused with the herbicide. Since that technology was introduced in 1996, there has been almost a tenfold increase in the use of the herbicide, as illustrated in this graph from the U.S. Geological Survey.” www.consumerreports.orgcro/magazine

Monsanto’s Roundup ‘glyphosate,’ serves her/his master well. Roundup, the weed killer, has been designated as a possible human carcinogen by the- World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016.

President Trump cardinal (one in many) sins included “business-as-usual” for the bankers (wankers), corporate cronies, who just loved industrial agriculture as an American pushover. So put down you spoon as you eat “natural” or even “healthy foods” such as Kelloggs, Ben and Jerry, General Mills, Kraft, Whole Foods 365 brand. The only way you or a trust can avoid heavy poisoning is either putting your faith in labels that are  “organic” or grow your own freshly cut vegetables, fruit and herbs. The issue I have with this is: say, for instance I grow an organic garden. Then there is some cross- fertilization and my plants were intermingled with a crop of food that is not organic. What then? Take the risk? The ways that you can avoid them include.

1-Corn is a farcical sham. DO NOT EAT IT.

2 – Soy -In one single year, 2006, there was 96.7 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed on soybeans alone.

3- Sugar – In one single year, 2006, there was 96.7 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed on soybeans alone.

4-Aspartame – a toxic additive:  including the fact that it is created with genetically modified bacteria.

5 – Papayas – GMO papayas have been grown in Hawaii for consumption since 1999. Though they can’t be sold to countries in the European Union, they are welcome with open arms in the U.S. and Canada.

6 – Canola–one of the most chemically altered drugs.

7 – Cotton – cotton oil originating in India or China carries serious health risks.

8 –Dairy – GMO papayas have been grown in Hawaii for consumption since 1999. Though they can’t be sold to countries in the European Union, they are welcome with open arms in the U.S. and Canada.

9 and 10 Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Closely related, these two squash varieties are modified to resist viruses.

The dangers of some of these foods are well-known. The Bt toxin being used in GMO corn, for example, was recently detected in the blood of pregnant women and their babies. But perhaps more frightening are the risks that are still unknown.  

All from http://naturalsociety.com/top-10-worst-gmo-foods-list/

Vermont, Connecticut and Maine have passed mandatory labeling laws for genetically modified food. At least 15 other states are considering similar regulations.

“The majority of corn, soybeans, and other GMO crops grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, a weed killer better known as Roundup. Roundup is made by Monsanto, which also produces the seeds that enable crops to survive being doused with the herbicide. Since that technology was introduced in 1996, there has been almost a tenfold increase in the use of the herbicide, as illustrated in this graph from the U.S. Geological Survey.” www.consumerreports.orgcro/magazine

The Clinton Foundation has come under increasing scrutiny, threatening to become a political albatross weighing down Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Why?

“One Thursday evening last September, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair met in New York to conduct what was supposed to be a high-minded discourse on terrorism, geopolitics, and the global economy. The setting was elegant—the beaux arts ballroom of the Essex House, an iconic tower on Central Park South. The 78-person VIP guest list included Harvey Weinstein, Eli Broad, Blackstone co-founders Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, Silicon Valley impresario Sean Parker, Billie Jean King, George Pataki, and New York City police chief Ray Kelly, along with CEOs and top executives from companies like Dow Chemical, Coca-Cola, BP, and Bank of America. Somehow, these onetime world leaders, corporate titans, and other notable personages converged in the center of New York without the event ever being noticed by the press.”  Why? https://newrepublic.com/article/114790/how-doug-band-drove-wedge-through-clinton-dynast

static2.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1822498.1402325824!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/clinton-house-chappaqua-new-york.jpg  You must check the site immediately. It shows how many houses and estates that the Clinton’s have.

“We remember that it was Bill Clinton’s administration that deregulated derivatives, that deregulated telecom, and that put our country’s only strong banking laws in the grave. He’s the one who rammed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress and who taught the world that the way you respond to a recession is by paying off the federal deficit. Mass incarceration and the repeal of welfare, two of Clinton’s other major achievements, are the pillars of the disciplinary state that has made life so miserable for Americans in the lower reaches of society. He would have put a huge dent in Social Security, too, had the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal not stopped him. If we take inequality as our measure, the Clinton administration looks not heroic but odious.”  ttps://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/bill_clintons_odious_presidency_thomas_frank_on_the_real_history_of_the_90s

And for all that time, there has been a deafening chorus of critics telling me that she’s just the most wicked, evil, Machiavellian, nefarious individual in American history. She has “the soul of an East German border guard,” in the words of that nice Grover Norquist. She’s a “bitch,” in the words of that nice Newt Gingrich. She’s a “dragon lady.” She’s “Elena Ceaușescu.” She’s “the Lady Macbeth of Little Rock.”

Long before “Benghazi” and her email server, there was “Whitewater” and “the Rose Law Firm” and “Vince Foster.” For those of us following her, we were promised scandal after scandal after scandal. And if no actual evidence ever turned up, well, that just proved how deviously clever she was.https://www.marketwatch.com/story/all-the-terrible-things-hillary-clinton-has-done-in-one-big-list-2016-02-0

As Douglas Blackmon documents in Slavery By Another Name, the Jim Crow era was in many places characterized by a mass re-enslavement process, whereby criminal laws were devised that allowed states and municipalities to put black people in chains again. Today, forced labor among African Americans persists; in Louisiana, for example, felons are sentenced to “hard labor” as well as prison time, and inmates at the infamous Angola prison still  pick cotton at gunpoint

The prison labor system in the United States has long been an unacknowledged scandal. It’s quite plainly a form of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment even admits as much: it doesn’t say that when you’re forced to work for being convicted of a crime, that isn’t slavery. It says that slavery is legal if it is imposed as part of a conviction for a crime. All manner of people benefit from the system; as Mother Jones has reported Congress actually incentivized private companies to use inmate labor, and the incarcerated now produce everything from bedding to eyeglasses. They even staff call centers, with a company called UNICOR encouraging companies to “smart-source” their call-center work to prisoners rather than sending it overseas. But two possibly unexpected beneficiaries of the contemporary prison slavery system were none other than Bill and Hillary Clinton, who during their time at the Arkansas governor’s mansion in the 1980’s used inmates to perform various household tasks in order to “keep costs down.” Hillary Clinton wrote of the practice openly and without any apparent sense of moral conflict.”https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/the-clintons-had-slaves

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton facilitated the transfer a highly enriched uranium (HEU) previously confiscated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) during a 2006 “nuclear smuggling sting operation involving one Russian national and several Georgian accomplices,” a newly leaked classified cable shows.https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-robert-mueller-uranium/

What are  your thoughts on it? For further information see below:

• https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/the-clintons-had-slaves
• The dark depths of hatred for Hillary Clinton – BBC News – BBC.com

  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36992955Oct 12, 2016 …
  

• The hideous, diabolical truth about Hillary Clinton – The Washington Post

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/10/14/the-hideous-diabolical-truth-about-hillary-clinton/Oct 14, 2016 … Fall 1969: At Yale Law School, Hillary meets Bill Clinton, who courts her … She is also a lesbian, who, interestingly, does not let this dissuade her … (She is also a lizard-person, in addition to being a Nameless, Timeless Evil.) …

• https://newrepublic.com/article/144797/hillary-clinton-doesnt-get

“The Dams Sector encompasses dam projects, power plants, navigation locks, levees, and other industrial waste compounds, dikes, hurricane barriers, and other similar water retention and water control facilities throughout the Nation. Dams Sector assets provide water supply, power generation, navigable waterways, flood and storm surge protection, recreation, environmental stability, and many other critical economic, environmental, and social benefits. The risk profile facing the Dams Sector arises from multiple sources: naturally occurring risks (such as those associated with floods and earthquakes), structural deficiencies, accidents, equipment malfunctions, aging infrastructure, and deliberate aggressor actions (such as those associated with terrorism). In addition, several overarching issues, such as cybersecurity or international border security, constitute potential sources of risk that are contextual in nature, but not necessarily sector-specific. These risk sources could potentially lead to a temporary disruption of critical functions or severe damage to-even structural failure-dams levees, and other types of sector assets.” www.cowarm.org

The idea behind ‘development’ was to ‘catch up’ with the industrialized world. The idea soon spawned an industry. However, the number of poor people of whom development was the answer, has exploded globally. Additionally, there are “terrorist” attacks. The risk profile the dams sector is as follows:

DAMNED DAMAGES TO BUILDING DAMS

“The Dams Sector encompasses dam projects, power plants, navigation locks, levees, mines industrial waste compounds, dikes, hurricane barriers, and other similar water retention and water control facilities throughout the Nation. Dams Sector assets provide water supply, power generation, navigable waterways, flood and storm surge protection, recreation, environmental stability, and many other critical economic, environmental, and social benefits. The risk profile facing the Dams Sector arises from multiple sources: naturally occurring risks (such as those associated with floods and earthquakes), structural deficiencies, accidents, equipment malfunctions, aging infrastructure, and deliberate aggressor actions (such as those associated with terrorism). In addition, several overarching issues, such as cybersecurity or international border security, constitute potential sources of risk that are contextual in nature, but not necessarily sector-specific. These risk sources could potentially lead to a temporary disruption of critical functions or severe damage to-even structural failure-dams levees, and other types of sector assets.” /news/Worldwide%20Attacks%20against%20Dams%20-%202012.pdf

The idea behind ‘development’ was to ‘catch up’ with the industrialized world. The idea soon spawned an industry. However, the number of poor people of whom development was the answer, has exploded globally. Additionally, there are “terrorist” attacks. The risk profile the dams sector is as follows:

• Naturally occurring earthquakes
• Structural deficiencies
• Aging infrastructures
• Deliberate aggressor attacks
• International order security
• Deliberate attacks on dams
• http://www.cowarn.org/uploads

The ‘Tehri’ Dam in Northern India

In the Himalayan foothills, I saw for myself that people did not participate in anything: No democratic consultation. No paying heed to the people displaced and a dismal neglect of environmental issues. Activists have rallied against the dam building in the Northern India. I asked the leader of one group, Mr Bahuguna, why this irked him so much. He replied (raising an eye brow,) that his homemade hut was submerged in water in 2000 by dam water. Protests from the poor people against Tehri dam, resulted in the chant; “We don’t want the dam. The dam is the mountain’s destruction.”

Mr Bahuguna  and others protested using various methods including intermittent fasted for up to 74 days. Despite a decade or so of fighting the Supreme Court, for over a decade, work resumed at the Tehri dam in 2001. Eventually, the dam reservoir was built in 2004.

The construction of these dams omit take place without the voices of the poor; the corruption; official secrecy; and most shockingly dirty cheap labor: consisting of women and children. Not to say all ‘development’ is bad. E.g. railroads built in India by the British. But the majority of are bad or very bad.

THINGS ABOUT SHOULD KNOW, ABOUT DAMS

About 50,000 dams with a height of 15 meters or more and millions of smaller dams have been built on the world’s rivers. Dams Are Changing the Face of the Earth: Dams trap 40 cubic kilometers of sediments every year, and starve deltas of the silt that protects them against the intruding sea. Dams Provide Important Services: Dams generate about 16% and irrigate food crops for 12 -15% if the worlds population.

Dams Kill Fish: Dams block the migration of fish, deplete rivers of oxygen, and interfere with the biological triggers that guide fish. They also reduce the ability of rivers to clean themselves. Dams Are Changing the Climate: Dams are not climate-neutral. Particularly in the tropics, organic matter rotting in their reservoirs emits methane, an aggressive greenhouse gas. The floods and droughts caused by climate change in turn make dams less safe and less economic. Dams Displace People: Dams have displaced about 80 million people. Displacement robs people who are already poor and marginalized of their resources, skills, and different categories of cultural identity and its’rites and rituals, to impoverish them further. The benefits of dams often bypass the people who sacrifice their livelihoods for them.

Dams Can Put Human Rights at Risk: In India as well as country in places such as Ethiopia, Guatemala, Sudan and other countries, dam builders have often responded to opposition with serious human rights violations. Dams Are Very Expensive: Such massive overruns make them uneconomic. Earthquakes are only one of the concerns in the mountainous region with unstable terrain. Experts say that exacerbated by deforestation, mining and a binge of dam building. Dams Don’t Last Forever: The failure of China’s Banqiao Dam killed about 171,000 killed in 1975.

Better Solutions Are Usually Available: Alternatives fare even better when social and environmental impacts are devastating.

Countries implemented more protectionist measures. In 2015, Obama added 539 trade restrictions

Advantages of International Trade

In theory, exports create jobs and boost economic growth. Imports allow foreign competition to reduce prices for consumers. It also gives a wider variety of goods and services.

Disadvantages of International Trade

The only way to boost exports is to make trade easier overall. Governments do this by reducing tariffs and other blocks to imports. That reduces jobs in domestic industries, that can’t compete on a global scale. It also leads to job outsourcing, such as relocation to call centers to India. Doing ‘nada’ for the rural communities living in India, and sites deemed suitable for dams to be built, globally, including the USA of U.S. International Trade: In 2018, President Trump wants to impose protectionist measures such as imposing 25% on steel imports as well a 10% tariffs on aluminum imports. The stock market fell, as analysts’ worried Trump’s actions might start a trade war.

The Terms Used To Describe Developing Countries

All the words to dignify the terms: developed/developing, non-industrializing, rich/poor are value laden.

Even ‘North’ and ‘South’ are really just terms for pejorative developing and undeveloped. Furthermore, during the fifties and sixties, a number of mechanisms came out to play. The UN sought out a new vision. This resulted in a broader preview of: the assault on hunger, illiteracy, disease, etc. As the new wealth came along, becoming “modern” and “educated.” Which is to say, they fitted into a ‘successful’ mimicking their ex-colonies as post-colonial constructs and reality. Compulsory displacement that occurs for development reasons, embody a perverse and intrinsic logical. In the context of development, raises the major issues of social justice and economic equity. What have the U.S.A. Trade Agreements done to the population of poor farmers? What benefits accrue to the consumers? What about the natives/or poor communities?

• Structural deficiencies
• Aging infrastructures
• Deliberate aggressor attacks
• International order security
• Deliberate attacks on dams

http://www.cowarn.org/uploads/news/Worldwide%20Attacks%20against%20Dams%20-%202012.pdf

The ‘Tehri’ Dam in Northern India

In the Himalayan foothills, I saw for myself that people did not participate in anything: No democratic consultation. No paying heed to the people displaced. A dismal neglect of environmental issues. Activists have rallied against the dam building in the Northern India. I asked the leader of one group, Mr Bahuguna, why this irked him so much. He replied (raising an eye brow,) that his homemade hut was submerged in water in 2000 by dam water. Protests from the poor people against Tehri dam, resulted in the chant; “We don’t want the dam. The dam is the mountain’s destruction.”

Mr Bahuguna  and other protesters using various methods including intermittent fasted for up to 74 days. Despite a decade or so of fighting the Supreme Court, for over a decade, work resumed at the Tehri dam in 2001. Eventually, the dam reservoir was built in 2004.

The construction of these dams not only omit the voices of the poor. Furthermore, the corruption; official secrecy; and most shockingly dirty cheap labor: consisting of women and children. Not to say all ‘development’ is bad. E.g. railroads built in India by the British. But the majority of are bad or very bad.

THINGS ABOUT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DAMS

About 50,000 dams with a height of 15 meters or more and millions of smaller dams have been built on the world’s rivers. Dams Are Changing the Face of the Earth: Dams trap 40 cubic kilometers of sediments every year, and starve deltas of the silt that protects them against the intruding sea. Dams Provide Important Services: Dams generate about 16% and irrigate food crops for 12 -15% if the worlds population.

Dams Kill Fish: Dams block the migration of fish, deplete rivers of oxygen, and interfere with the biological triggers that guide fish. They also reduce the ability of rivers to clean themselves. Dams Are Changing the Climate: Dams are not climate-neutral. Particularly in the tropics, organic matter rotting in their reservoirs emits methane, an aggressive greenhouse gas. The floods and droughts caused by climate change in turn make dams less safe and less economic. Dams Displace People: Dams have displaced about 80 million people. Displacement robs people who are already poor and marginalized of their resources, skills, and different categories of cultural identity and it’s rites and rituals, to impoverish them further. The benefits of dams often bypass the people who sacrifice their livelihoods and even their lives, for them.

Dams Can Put Human Rights at Risk: In India as well as country in places such as Ethiopia, Guatemala, Sudan and other countries, dam builders have often responded to opposition with serious human rights violations. Dams Are Very Expensive: Such massive overruns make them uneconomic. Earthquakes are only one of the concerns in the mountainous region with unstable terrain. Experts say that exacerbated by deforestation, mining and a binge of dam building. The failure of China’s Banqiao Dam killed about 171,000 killed in 1975.

Better Solutions Are Usually Available: Alternatives fare even better when social and environmental impacts are devastating.

Countries implemented more protectionist measures. In 2015, Obama added 539 trade restrictions.

In theory, exports create jobs and boost economic growth. In practice,  imports allow foreign competition to reduce prices for consumers. It also gives a wider variety of goods and services.

The only way to boost exports is to make trade easier overall. Governments do this by reducing tariffs and other blocks to imports. That reduces jobs in domestic industries, that can’t compete on a global scale. It also leads to job outsourcing, such as relocation to call centers to India. Doing ‘nada’ for the rural communities living in India, and sites deemed suitable for dams to be built, globally, including the US of A.

U.S. International Trade: In 2018, President Trump wants to impose protectionist measures such as imposing 25% on steel imports as well a 10% tariffs on aluminum imports. The stock market fell, as analysts’ worried Trump’s actions might start a trade war.

The Terms Used To Describe Developing Countries

All the words to dignify the terms: developed/developing, non-industrializing, rich/poor are value laden.

Even ‘North’ and ‘South’ are really just terms for pejorative developing and undeveloped. Furthermore, during the fifties and sixties, a number of mechanisms came out to play.

The UN sought out a new vision. This resulted in a broader preview of: the assault on hunger, illiteracy, disease, etc. As the new wealth came along, becoming “modern” and “educated.” Which is to say, they fitted into a ‘successful’ mode of mimicking their ex-colonies, as post-colonial constructs and reality. Compulsory displacement that occurs for development reasons, embody a perverse and intrinsic logical. In the context of development, raises the major issues of social justice and economic equity.

So, what have the Trade Agreements done to the population of poor farmers? What benefits accrue to the consumers? What about the natives/or poor communities?

Cancer is an emotionally charged, frightening prospect. In the early 1900s, one in 20 people developed Cancer. In the 1940s, one in 16 people developed Cancer. In the 1970s, it was one in 10. It is one in three. Now it’s 1 in 2 women and in men, 1 in 3. So what is Cancer? “Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of Cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues.” Some Cancers grow quickly and spread. Others grow very slowly and creep up on you. I had a grade 4 Glioblastoma brain cancer. Most cancers have 4 grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. Glioblastoma has only one: grade 4. That alone would be a very heavy load for me to bare.

I also had a Hemorrhagic Stroke. I. e.  A Hemorrhagic Stroke is when the arteries in your brain bleed or rupture, causing a loss of blood supply to and/or bleeding on a part of your brain, and resulting in brain tissue damage, or death. I was fully paralyzed on the right side of my body.

A Seizure is the physical findings or changes in behavior that occur after an episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

I had a broken wrist.

I also broken metatarsal.

I also had subluxation of the shoulder.

I was given 4 months to live by every doctor both here and in England.

I had pains that were so bad that I wanted to commit suicide.

Lastly a fifth of my brain was missing because of the glioblastoma  meme

Now it’s six years, and beyond.

ENIGMA: THE FLAME THAT LINGERS: Is in a publishing house and is out next year.

House Music

There is somewhat of confusion about House Music roots. Some claim that house music emanated in Studio 54 in New York, the 1978. Others claim it was derived from Chicago’s South-side. Most of the encounters were with gay or bisexual men. This new Chicago club called The Warehouse gave House music its name. Frankie Knuckles, (RIP) who opened The Warehouse, mixed old disco classics, old Motown sonic sounds and de-funked (retired) records and Euro-beats pop. The legendary Warehouse club – where many of the experiments were tried including sexual brief encounters of a naughty kind.

House was the first direct descendant of disco. In comparison with disco, House was “rawer,” and more designed to make people dance. Disco was waning but it left a mark. It was specifically at Disco DJ’s, with extended 12″ versions that included long percussion breaks for mixing purposes. Some records continually sampled with their sparse, synthesized sounds. Introducing dub, changes in tempo, and ‘drop-outs’ that had never been heard before. For instance, the Warehouse in Chicago, where a simple mix of old times music such as the O’Jays and European pop music by synthesizer groups like Kraftwerk.

INSIDE THE HACIENDA

The 4 pictures below all relate to The Hacienda. They are not originals or mine. But the experience is.

Punters and the bar you can see for yourself–mostly white.

Auctioning of the ‘tacky bender’- or the Hacienda

Demolition of the Hacienda.

A picture of the Hacienda: just before the demolition.

The Hacienda. Which was a large former steel warehouse on the corner of Whitworth Street. The initial cost of the venue was estimated at £70,000, half of which would be paid by the label, and half by New Order. Of course it was way more than that. Originally the frontage was built with red bricks. (see above.) It was in the city center.

In Manchester, in the UK, my favorite DJ’s, at the Hacienda were Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, Dave Haslam, and the two other White guys Mark (my ex- boyfriend) and Adam. Live acts which I saw were: Madonna, New Order, The Stone Roses, 808 State, Happy Mondays, Oasis, Blur, OMD, 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald, and Echo & Bunnymen. The vast number of groups were local. There were visits to the Hacienda, who inspired DJ’s like Sasha and the Chemical Brothers.  Wow, all that up-beat music. A Guy Called Gerald was the first one to create the Acid Ravers movement. Madonna performed  whilst at The Haçienda and the performance was described by Fatboy Slim as “mesmerised the crowd”

The first resident D.J. Hewan Clarke (a Black man,) said that he was hidden away in a little box-room. As I spoke to him, he was half way there, because he lobbied for the DJ box and a wooden structure on the balcony. Which was eventually built, overlooking the dance floor.  Minus my favorite D.J. Hewan Clarke.

I knew a few people at the Hacienda. Dominic and I went to the front of the line, and they let us in for a fee. The whole of the Hacienda was rocking.

As it got more popular, troves of White people came. I guess we all eventually became a little bored so we spread our wings out. We decided to branch out to other clubs. Such as the PSV, the Gallery and Man Alive. Yet, my love of House Music superseded any other music.

It was sometime in the mid-eighties at the PSV. I was with the mixed race (half Black and half Spanish) woman. She took with her some photographs, as was a very keen photographer. We went to the PSV and I was dancing. Suddenly she pulled me down to the floor, as she spotted a red laser light and she uttered those unforgettable words, “there is a shooter in the PSV.”  The whole place erupted into chaos and we crawled out of the PSV Night club on our knees. There was panic and then silence. It was a hoax. Phew!

The other place was the “Dry bar.” Opened in late 80’s. Co-owned by Factory Records and New Order. Where there some stars such as Shaun Ryder. I knew them all.

My fathers’ friend, whose daughter (Natalie) came to stay with me in Manchester. I took her inside the Hacienda. She was star struck. All the “stars” that she mentioned were from the Greater Manchester.  I was shocked and surprised to hear they were my acquaintance. To me, they were ordinary punters. I did not know anything about their “star” status, until I was reintroduced to them by Natalie. I did not know them as ‘pop stars,’ I just knew them as ordinary folks going about their business: dancing their heads off.

The Hacienda finally closed  down on 15th of June 1997. It was rumored that either mismanagement or the bar was not making enough.  The Manchester Museum of Science now hold a diversity of: recordings, posters,  and props from the Hacienda.