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Category: General
2020.03.26 – COVID19
FIFA: Five steps to kicking out coronavirus
https://www.fifa.com/who-we-are/news/five-steps-to-kicking-out-coronavirus#five-key-steps-to-tackle-the-coronavirus-overview-graphic
‘FIFA and the World Health Organization (WHO) have teamed up to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) by launching a new awareness campaign led by world-renowned footballers, who are calling on all people around the world to follow five key steps to stop the spread of the disease…’
– – –
Hungary to consider bill that would allow Orbán to rule by decree
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/hungary-to-consider-bill-that-would-allow-orban-to-rule-by-decree
– – –
Coronavirus – China Construction Bank donates 20,000 face masks to Hungary
https://dailynewshungary.com/news_to_go/coronavirus-china-construction-bank-donates-20000-face-masks-to-hungary
– – –
Hungarians should be rising to the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak in spite of Orbán ǀ View
https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/21/hungarians-should-be-rising-to-the-challenge-of-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-spite-of-orban
2018.10.16 LinkBlog
The Suffocation of Democracy
by Christopher R. Browning
‘…In threatening trade wars with allies and adversaries alike, Trump justifies increased tariffs on our allies on the specious pretext that countries like Canada are a threat to our national security. He combines his constant disparagement of our democratic allies with open admiration of authoritarians. His naive and narcissistic confidence in his own powers of personal diplomacy and his faith in a handshake with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un recall the hapless Neville Chamberlain (a man in every other regard different from Trump). Fortunately the US is so embedded in the international order it created after 1945, and the Republican Party and its business supporters are sufficiently alarmed over the threat to free trade, that Trump has not yet completed his agenda of withdrawal, though he has made astounding progress in a very short time….’
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy/
The point of a space elevator is that it would be a long term investment that makes the EU hardwired to service earth's space needs. It would require a massive amount of money and global cooperation. But it is not a 'frill' but an essential contribution to getting us off this rock. All the above ideas are about getting individuals into space for a period of time – this is about building a motorway to the stars to be used by all.
Europe can do this.
/jd
My Great-Grandfather the Bundist
by Molly Crabapple
‘…Founded in 1897 in Vilna (Vilnius in modern-day Lithuania), and reaching its height in interwar Poland, the Bund was a sometimes-clandestine political party whose tenets were humane, socialist, secular, and defiantly Jewish. Bundists fought the Tsar, battled pogroms, educated shtetls, and ultimately helped lead the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Though the Bund was largely obliterated by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the group’s opposition to Zionism better explains their absence from current consciousness. Though the Bund celebrated Jews as a nation, they irreconcilably opposed the establishment of Israel as a separate Jewish homeland in Palestine. The diaspora was home, the Bund argued. Jews could never escape their problems by the dispossession of others. Instead, Bundists adhered to the doctrine of do’ikayt or “Hereness.” Jews had the right to live in freedom and dignity wherever it was they stood….’
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/06/my-great-grandfather-the-bundist/
Last surviving prosecutor at Nuremberg trials says Trump’s family separation policy is ‘crime against humanity’
‘…The lawyer said it was “painful” when he heard about how the Trump administration had separated more than 2,000 children from their families after they had crossed the US-Mexico border.[….] “We list crimes against humanity in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. We have ‘other inhumane acts designed to cause great suffering’. What could cause more great suffering than what they did in the name of immigration law? It’s ridiculous,” the prosecutor of war criminals said regarding the family separation policy…’
my video
/jd
Az Európai Baloldal szolidáris azokkal hajléktalanokkal – 2018.10.14
Egy mondat. Demonstráció a hajléktalanságban élők védelmében – 2018.10.14. . .Európai Baloldal Barátai: Az Európai Baloldal szolidáris azokkal hajléktalanokkal,akiket a kormány már fizikailag is üldöz, és mindenkit a szegények támogatására kérünk.Ők is egyenjogú állampolgárok, akik többet érdemelnek az államtól.Rövid távon a szociális lakások rendszerét kell kiépíteni.Hoszzabb távon véget kell vetni a neoliberális gazdaságpolitikának, az emberi jogokat veszélyeztető Fidesz-rezsimnek.
Publiée par A MI IDŐNK sur Mardi 16 octobre 2018
‘…For months in war-torn Yemen, some of America’s most highly trained soldiers worked on a mercenary mission of murky legality to kill prominent clerics and Islamist political figures.
Their target that night: Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist political party Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be the Yemeni branch of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE calls a terrorist organization. Many experts insist that Al-Islah, one of whose members won the Nobel Peace Prize, is no terror group. They say it’s a legitimate political party that threatens the UAE not through violence but by speaking out against its ambitions in Yemen.
The mercenaries’ plan was to attach a bomb laced with shrapnel to the door of Al-Islah’s headquarters, located near a soccer stadium in central Aden, a key Yemeni port city. The explosion, one of the leaders of the expedition explained, was supposed to “kill everybody in that office.”…’
Yeah, no one cares really - but the MSM sure love to talk about their friend Jamal Kashoggi, don't they?
/jd
Saudi war on Yemen: World’s Worst Famine in a Century could Claim 13 Million
‘…Yemen is a country of some 29 million persons, but over a third of them are at risk of starvation if Saudi and UAE bombing campaigns continue. Lise Grand, the United Nations coordinator for Yemen, has warned that the world has only 3 months to halt the slide toward catastrophe.
[….] The war has so far taken at least 10,000 lives, and has displaced millions and left most of the country food insecure (i.e. not yet starving but one paycheck away from it)…’
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/famine-century-bombing.html
When will people learn that 'fiscal discipline' is a bait and switch ideology?
/jd
Under the Fog of Kavanaugh, House Passes $3.8 Trillion More in Tax Cuts
‘…September 28, 2018
With attention fixed on the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new $3.1 trillion tax cut on Friday. The vote was 220 to 191, including three Democrats [….] The House’s new bill takes effect starting in 2025, and would add $600 billion to the national debt within the next decade, and then $3.2 trillion in the 10 years after that…’
http://fortune.com/2018/09/28/house-3-8-trillion-tax-cut-passes
2018.09.18 LinkBlog
Sadly, I do not know the specific year that this was true, but it doesn't really matter because it has been like this for a long time
/jd
re: Impeachment
Liberals have the law, Conservatives have the guns.
/jd
2018.09.11 LinkBlog
#WTF is it really true that 70% of people in USA prisons have NOT been convicted of a crime but can’t pay the bail?
/jd
Innocent until proven guilty? 70% of people in prison have NOT been convicted of a crime but can’t pay the bail. Why did #KaliefBrowder spend 3 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit? Why does freedom have a price tag? #EndCashBail & follow @playercoalition pic.twitter.com/9rUccNMlDg
— Malcolm Jenkins (@MalcolmJenkins) September 11, 2018
Endless wars are good for someone, but who?
/jd
The US has spent $1.5 trillion on war since Sept 11 attacks
‘…The collective wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.5 trillion since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a Defense Department report [….] Currently there are approximately 14,000 Americans in Afghanistan…’
This is the kind of insanity that only John Bolton could conjure up
/jd
US threatens to arrest ICC judges if they pursue Americans for Afghan war crimes
‘…The United States threatened Monday to arrest and sanction judges and other officials of the International Criminal Court if it moves to charge any American who served in Afghanistan with war crimes.
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton called the Hague-based rights body “unaccountable” and “outright dangerous” to the United States, Israel and other allies, and said any probe of US service members would be “an utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation.”“If the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly,” Bolton said.
He said the US was prepared to slap financial sanctions and criminal charges on officials of the court if they proceed against any Americans.
“We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system,” he said.
“We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans,” he said…’
EU, founded as project of peace, plans military future
‘…After decades of the EU viewing itself as a peace initiative and seeing defense as a matter of national sovereignty (made all the less urgent thanks to the EU’s existence) there is still no consensus on how to create, organize or wield joint military power. Few are eager to turn over authority to Brussels.
In Germany, under fire from U.S. President Donald Trump over military spending, there is renewed debate about becoming a nuclear power. In France, President Emmanuel Macron, citing a worrisome lack of joint EU military planning, has called for “a common intervention force, a common defense budget and a common doctrine for action.”
In the U.K., security cooperation is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed post-Brexit relationship with the EU — one of few British demands that has won unvarnished praise in the rest of the EU.
[….] Some EU countries have shown a willingness to go their own way. Poland, for instance, asked the Trump administration to establish a new military base on its territory — a unilateral request that was not discussed in advance either among EU partners or NATO allies — and that some other European countries fear could unnecessarily provoke Russia…’
Trump $10 million from FEMA’s budget kidnap children and jail parents
‘….The Trump administration took nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s budget this summer to help boost U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to budget documents [….] The nearly $10 million was taken from various places within FEMA, including training, preparedness and protection, and response and recovery operations…’
Today is Leonard Peltier’s 74th Birthday Today❤????
Sadly, he still in prison after 43 years????
GET INVOLVED ????❤????????
Please Share Everywhere????
http://Whoisleonardpeltier.info
Susan Sontag in the New Yorker writes just after after 9/11 2001
/jd
click to read more comments on Twitter…
from the Sept 24 2001 issue of the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/tuesday-and-after-talk-of-the-town
The Obamas are the 1%
‘…On April 15, 2016, Obama released his 2015 tax returns, which showed that he and his wife filed jointly and reported an adjusted gross income of $436,065. They paid $81,472 in taxes according to their 18.7 percent tax rate. They also donated a total of $64,066 to more than 30 charities.
[….] The power couple’s storytelling has already proven lucrative as their most recent book deal with Penguin Random House, for example, is worth up to $65 million, according to NBC News…’
https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/politicians/barack-obama-net-worth/
via R. Crumb facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rcrumb
John Feffer asks WHY?...
/jd
Anonymous And Trumpism Without Trump
‘..I’ll support Anonymous just like I support the Colin Kaepernick ads despite Nike’s failure to pay livable wages to its workers. Sometimes you have to praise the action and ignore the actor.
But the question remains: why did Anonymous do it?
[….] I think it’s part of an effort within the Republican Party that will gain strength over the next two years: to build a movement of Trumpism without Trump.
[….] So, I’ll certainly join hands with Anonymous to rid America of its present danger. But let’s not kid ourselves about the future danger that Anonymous wants instead.’
https://lobelog.com/anonymous-and-trumpism-without-trump/
2018.09.11 LinkBlog #911
911 day. the day american foreign policy went off the rails.
/jd
my photos from my photoblog
/jd
Sept 11th 1973
‘…Suppose that on 9-11 the planes had bombed the White House. Suppose they’d killed the president, established a military dictatorship, quickly killed thousands, tortured ten of thousands more, set up a major international terror center that was carrying out assassinations, overthrowing goverments all over the place, installing other dictatorships, and drove the country into one of the worst depressions in its history and had to call on the state to bail them out. Suppose that had happened? It did happen. On the first 9-11 in 1973. Except we were responsible for it so it didn’t happen. That´s Allende’s Chile. You can’t imagine the media talking about this…’
– Noam Chomsky on the Pinochet coup. .
17 years today people started believing in a lot of bullshit on teh internets.
/jd
And continuing on the topic of conspiracy theories, why do not people dwell obsessively on this real issue?? I have never even read of ChemTrails being blamed for this. Why is it that people are entranced by 911 bullshit, but do not see much worse things on the immediate horizon?
/jd
‘…A strange thing has happened to men over the past few decades: We’ve become increasingly infertile, so much so that within a generation we may lose the ability to reproduce entirely. What’s causing this mysterious drop in sperm counts—and is there any way to reverse it before it’s too late?
[….] The results, when they came in, were clear. Not only were sperm counts per milliliter of semen down by more than 50 percent since 1973, but total sperm counts were down by almost 60 percent: We are producing less semen, and that semen has fewer sperm cells in it. This time around, even scientists who had been skeptical of past analyses had to admit that the study was all but unassailable. Jørgensen, in Copenhagen, told me that when he saw the results, he’d said aloud, “No, it cannot be true.” He had expected to see a past decline and then a leveling off. But he couldn’t argue when the team ran the numbers again and again. The downward slope was unwavering…’
https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero
Conjuring Up the Next Depression
Chris Hedges writes..
‘During the financial crisis of 2008, the world’s central banks, including the Federal Reserve, injected trillions of dollars of fabricated money into the global financial system. This fabricated money has created a worldwide debt of $325 trillion, more than three times global GDP. The fabricated money was hoarded by banks and corporations, loaned by banks at predatory interest rates, used to service interest on unpayable debt or spent buying back stock, providing millions in compensation for elites.
The fabricated money was not invested in the real economy. Products were not manufactured and sold. Workers were not reinstated into the middle class with sustainable incomes, benefits and pensions. Infrastructure projects were not undertaken. The fabricated money reinflated massive financial bubbles built on debt and papered over a fatally diseased financial system destined for collapse.
What will trigger the next crash? The $13.2 trillion in unsustainable U.S. household debt? The $1.5 trillion in unsustainable student debt? The billions Wall Street has invested in a fracking industry that has spent $280 billion more than it generated from its operations? Who knows. What is certain is that a global financial crash, one that will dwarf the meltdown of 2008, is inevitable. And this time, with interest rates near zero, the elites have no escape plan…’
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/conjuring-up-the-next-depression/
These Are the 3 Pernicious Forces Protecting Trump from Impeachment
Here’s why Trump continues to survive all the scandals and crises of his administration.
By J.M. Opal
• The tycoons
• The chosen people
• The real estate mogul unites the right[….] Individually, these groups cannot win elections…’
Bell Burnell: Physics star gives away £2.3m prize
‘One of the UK’s leading female astronomers is to donate her £2.3m winnings from a major science prize she was awarded.
The sum will go to fund women, under-represented ethnic minority and refugee students to become physics researchers.
Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been awarded a Breakthrough Prize for the discovery of radio pulsars…’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45425872
11th Sep 1973: the Chilean coup d'etat was carried out. Thatcher went on to thank Pinochet for bringing "democracy to Chile". pic.twitter.com/OWzgrXkgT6
— Crimes of Britain (@crimesofbrits) September 10, 2018
and Cas Mudde adds to this map…
Useful map, but forgets:
1) Fidesz ???????? (49.3%)
2) SNS ???????? (8.4%)
3) VB ???????? (3.7%)Some would argue, it also forgets
4) PiS ???????? (37.6%)
5) FrP ???????? (15.2%)
2018.09.06 Link Blog
ROBERT WEISSMAN
‘…And a couple of those cases had to do with a lawsuit you all have covered extensively, which had to do with ExxonMobil’s operation in Indonesia and villagers in Aceh suing for really horrible human rights abuses conducted by the Indonesian military on behalf of Exxon. Judge Kavanaugh ruled in two separate cases regarding that, first saying, “Look, if the government says—the U.S. government says there’s a foreign policy consideration here, case closed. We’re not even going to look at it.” Secondly, getting actually to the legal question presented by a different set of villagers about the same matter, he said they should have no right to sue in U.S. courts, first, because the abuses occurred overseas, but, secondly and crucially, he said that the relevant statute, which is known as the Alien Tort Statute, doesn’t apply to corporations, that you can sue human beings under the Alien Tort Statute, but you can’t sue corporations.
So, corporations, it turns out, aren’t always people. They’re not people for Judge Kavanaugh when they might be held liable. And if you look across his record, you see, time and time again, this theme that comes through: There is one standard that applies to corporations, and it is very favorable, and there’s a different standard that applies to human beings as they’re trying to get their rights recognized, either as consumers, workers, breathers of clean air or victims of human rights abuses…’
Full interview and transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2018/9/5/report_finds_judge_kavanaugh_ruled_against
Brett Kavanaugh's record on human rights
Opinions from Judge Brett Kavanaugh's time on the U.S. Court of Appeals suggests he side human rights and police abuse cases on the U.S. Court of Appeals suggests h http://ow.ly/ZSD530lHmrC
Publiée par Democracy Now! sur Mercredi 5 septembre 2018
Nike’s NFL Deal – Nike makes money from all sides
While Colin Kaepernick was 'taking the knee', Nike negotiated an 8 year contract withe NFL, then turned around months later to negotiate another contract with him using his political stance against the NFL. Amazing.
/jd
‘….The two brands announced on Tuesday that they would be extending their partnership for another eight years. The new deal will take place when the current one expires in 2020 and will run through 2028.
As part of the deal, Nike will set up all 32 teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel that bears the swoosh logo [….] Financial details of the NFL deal weren’t released…’
https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/27/news/companies/nike-nfl-gear-contract/index.html
check out Ray Serrato's data analysis of how searching for #Chemnitz on Youtube results in a feedback loop of bias-confirmation that drives people to Alt-Right racist/fascist videos. Quite disturbing, I think. /jd
3. When I sorted these videos by view count, an unsettling trend emerged: most of the highly-viewed videos were from the perspective of the Alt-Right and its subgroups of conspirators, white nationalists, media like RT Deutsch, and other fringe right figures. pic.twitter.com/ET4qfJh4vz
— Ray Serrato (@raymserrato) September 2, 2018
Read the entire twitter thread: https://twitter.com/raymserrato/status/1036349167394795527
Free speech determined by AI? I feel safer, already
/jd
‘…Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. Congress that artificial intelligence would solve the problem of accurately tracking hate speech in 5 to 10 years…’
by Ray Serrato and Michael Meyer-Resende work for Democracy Reporting International
Oh those colonial laws...
'...157-year-old colonial-era law which criminalises certain sexual acts as "unnatural offences"...'
‘In a historic decision, India’s Supreme Court has ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence.
The ruling overturns a 2013 judgement that upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377, under which gay sex is categorised as an “unnatural offence”.
The court has now ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a fundamental violation of rights.
[….] What is section 377?
It is a 157-year-old colonial-era law which criminalises certain sexual acts as “unnatural offences” that are punishable by a 10-year jail term…’
more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45429664
India decriminalises gay sex in landmark verdict
‘…Neighbouring China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997 and with this landmark ruling in India, a majority of Asians now will not face criminal charges for their sexual identities. [….] “LGBTI communities in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also working to repeal similar remnants of British colonisation in their own country and the ruling from India will feed into more dialogues, at least among LGBTI civil society across these countries,” she added. Homosexual acts are still illegal in most of India’s neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh…’
re: Kaepernick & Democrats in 2018
Book Review by Danny Haiphong:
The Einstein File Exposes the FBI as an Enemy of All the People
‘…The book The Einstein File’ further shows that the world’s most famous scientist was a social democrat whose specific experience with anti-Semitism in Germany and anti-communism in the US greatly influenced his political strivings. Einstein vocally rejected communism but that didn’t matter to the FBI. Einstein never leaked nuclear secrets to the Soviets not only because he disagreed with Soviet policy but also because it was the US intelligence apparatus itself that prevented Einstein from participating in the Manhattan Project (and he certainly opposed the use of the atomic bomb after witnessing the horrors inflicted on Japan). Einstein declined an invitation to the Soviet Union when many other leftists in the US visited the country. Yet by the end of his life, Einstein was the target of charges of espionage and efforts on the part of the INS to deport him from the country for his alleged ties to communism.
Einstein faced such an assault from the FBI precisely because of his strong adherence to the principle of solidarity…’
read more: https://blackagendareport.com/review-einstein-file-exposes-fbi-enemy-all-people
also see: http://www.theeinsteinfile.com/portal/alias__Einstein/lang__en-US/tabid__3339/default.aspx