#Christian Democratic Party of Cuba

[minnesotafollower]

Cuban Human Rights Organizations Denounce Imprisonment of Protesters 

On December 5, the Christian Democrat Organization of America and one of its members (the Christian Democratic Party of Cuba) issued a letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel, the President of Cuba, that was delivered to the Cuban Embassy in Madrid, Spain.[1] This letter stated, “Cuba, as a nation with a rich history of struggle for dignity and human rights, deserves to move towards a model in which respect…

[generallemarc]

Michael Flynn and Jill Stein having lunch with Vladimir Putin a year after he conquered Crimea

This is at a celebration event for the 10-year anniversary of the founding of Russia Today, which ought to be called Pravda 2.0. The fact that Flynn went on to unironically believe in QAnon(no, that's not something the left made up, he's sold merch related to it and been on podcasts that push it) and that Stein went on to simp for Maduro in Venezuela and Castro in Cuba doesn't really that surprising anymore, at least not to me. Here they are almost a decade ago, cozying up to the man who'd just conquered the Crimean peninsula and provoked the Donbas Conflict. The third Western politician there, Willy Wimmer, is a former member of the German Bundestag with a long history of denouncing NATO whenever it decided to do its job. And no, he's not a member of Die Linke or AfD, he was a Christian Democrat. Why they let him stay in the party when the party itself was so committed to the alliance I'll never know.

So, Green Party voters, lemme ask-are you alright with voting for a candidate so accepting of dictators? And to anyone familiar with Emir Kusturica and/or his work, the hell is a film director doing here?

[thetepes]

I'm gonna yap in here for a sec, cuz honest to god I feel you're one of the few people whom I can have a nuanced convo about this in this damned website

I REALLY havent been vibing with the glorification of people like stalin and mao here. Like, I too hate the current wild and unregulated capitalistic system we have in place, but to go and defend men who killed so fucking many is wrong as fuck.

I get wanting to question things reported by the US and th US military, that is a good instinct (as someone whose country has been negatively affected by US intervention, I dont trust the US and the military) and i also think its good to not paint everyone living in china or north korea as mindless, unemotional drones, these people lived there their whole lives and have families and emotions and bla bla. But. To go on and say that both of those govts have done nothing wrong is like ??? (And denying the ongoing uyghur genocide is also scummy as fuck)

I am also very iffed that people say that everyone who left cuba had family members that owned plantations and shit, i think the castros suck but i also think it was shitty that it was a US playground for a long time.

Sorry for the extended yapping

Yapping is always welcome.

I feel the reaction is similar to... well, any standard in the west? Christianity is king so we have to swing the total opposite and be anti-theist, ignoring how that can be deeply antisemitic, belittling, and harms minorities more than anyone else. They just see themselves as taking a swing at their oppressors, but like a kid at a party having a go at a piñata, there's other kids standing behind them that just got cracked over the dome they have no idea about.

They've been hurt by republican politics so they defensively swing so far left they to say they're democrats is an insult. Now all republicans are evil, they support Trump, don't they? They support all this evil so they're evil. These people have completely lost sight of the human condition. We aren't all knowing. We aren't all understanding. We aren't a hive mind, perception rules us and there will simply be people who see things as better another way.

Nevermind that, let's face it, people in America voted red this time because a gallon of milk costs 5$ now in a lot of places. Inflation is killing people as fast as the complete lack of healthcare and on top of it, no one is hiring. Insurance rates are insane. Housing, car, and health. Unaffordable. The wages haven't gone up since the 70s and they aren't hiring anyone. Everyone 20 to 40 is just getting fucked around. Biden did nothing to help, he got lost walking to the podium multiple times.

That's why they voted red.

These people are not online. They don't know about the insane racist bullshit. I don't know how to delicately explain that everyone I know in real life doesn't have time for the internet and has no idea what a proud boy is or what white privilege is or what's going on in California, Boston, or New York. I barely do. I worked three jobs last year and did under the table work for a few places. I have bills to pay. I have to make money to send home. My family lives in a country that couldn't even afford to be in Eurovision last year, I have 14 siblings - some of which are minors - and we are hosting people fleeing the war with Russia.

We live in one of the richest most advanced countries in the world and we can't afford to enjoy it. People see two options. Red and blue. Your third party candidate doesn't mean shit. It's red or blue. That's how America works and if you don't vote because you see yourself as above the system, oh enlightened soul, you're just giving your vote to whatever evil you see as worse.

Red promised to lower the cost of living. Blue banked on women's rights. They lost. Women voted red. They voted red the same reason countries like mine accepted communism at one point. Freedom for security.

That's the cost of communism.

Hell, that's the cost of socialism in a lot of ways. Socialized medicine sounds so good until you look at your taxes. Where do you think that free education and healthcare comes from? It all sounds like a fairytale until you've sat waiting months to see a general practitioner. Want to see a specialist? Good luck. You need a referral then you're put on a list. How long's the wait? Well, it depends. On what? If someone else gets tired of waiting. It could be months. It could be longer. Suddenly just being able to go get same day xrays starts looking good.

You couldn't pay me to go back to Europe just based on healthcare alone. I'd die. I have chronic issues, are you kidding me? You need referrals in America for some doctors, but the longest I've waited is about two weeks. You can just pay to go see a guy. You can just walk in any ol' place. I've gone in and been asked if I have a referral, said no, and seen the doctor anyway because at the time I could afford it because I was married.

I'm sorry, but Americans are so privileged. I'm staggered every day I'm here by just how oblivious you all are about being so comfortable with how terrible you all treat one another. Not saying there aren't good people, but you all get away with dog shit that would get you completely iced out of any other community in any other country and you think you can handle communism? HAH!

You can't even effectively communicate with people in your own discord servers.

Free living sounds so damn good until you get in that block, your room is the size of a prison cell, there's over 50 of you in one building and your whole floor is sharing one bathroom. You do not get to choose who you live with. If you get lucky, you might get one with multiple stalls. You have to clean it. There's no janitor that comes in and cleans the building. That's you. You and your neighbors have to clean and keep your building . The government isn't going to come cut the grass for you. They aren't going to fix your sink. You'll be put on a list for repairs. It will not be a short list.

Block living is shit I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy and these people have no concept of it.

The food is rationed. Comparable to food stamps. You only get as much as the government allows. You pay for that, it comes out of your taxes. Want to grow your own? You can't. There's no community garden in a block and you can't own land for you and your friends to start one. You can ask. You'll be put on a list. They'll get back to you. If you do manage to get that garden, you have to clean and keep it. If it gets trashy they'll take it from you. There's no "Well my chronic issues" The government does not care.

This isn't even getting into the construction of the place. That there would be multiple blocks in one place and the actual reality of overcrowding or having a job the government picks for you that you get no say in. This isn't getting into being completely out of control when it comes to your own country. Not knowing what evil is happening because they control television, radio, newspaper, books, everything. It just keeps going and going and they put up Eastern Europeans DNI because when we try to tell them they can't listen because the opposite of capitalism can't be bad.

Communism isn't the opposite of capitalism. It is it's equally fascist cousin and it has a body count just as high as any capitalist nation.

Those mass graves are deep and some people just disappeared. Work camps aren't summer camps where you ride horses and play in the streams. The Nazis and Ceaușescu are Romania's two greatest evils and the body count is something I can't even truly begin to explain. We, my people, my family, we're just gone and no one talks about it. We never got answers. "Where is our loved one" Just gone. "Where is our home?" Just gone. Our culture has to be kept so fucking secret for our own safety. We can't practice it openly still because it isn't safe and then I come online and see people say tarot is Romani culture and I just want to scream.

The west is so disconnected. Reading it in a book will never do it justice and these tankies prove it. Imagine thinking Stalin is worth following? The man who let Nazis kill his own son in a camp. Mao, with at least 80 million deaths to his name.

You can't trust what America says. You can't trust the American military about ANYTHING. The American military is a horrible dog owned by a cruel master. They abuse and kill and leech then send those people home completely unsupported and loose them on the civilian population to figure out the toll of that evil for themselves. It's inhumane. Do not trust America about these places, but why wouldn't you trust the people who suffered there? The people who survived and told what happened? Sometimes a fact is just a fact, but they don't care about that.

They only care about "the right side of history". They don't know the history. They care about social credit. They care about optics. They can't do an evil because they are so obsessed with black and white that the fact they're actively supporting a machine that's just like the one they hate so much is something they can't stomach. They can't see it because they'd be wrong. And being wrong is bad. Being bad is evil and evil is unforgivable. There is only good and evil to them. And people like you and I who don't fall into that thinking are unforgivable evil people, but they want us to believe their way of thinking is the way things should be.

They don't know what happened to people who communism found evil. The death means nothing to these people because if you disagree with them you deserve it.

They don't care about disabled people. They don't care about minorities. They themselves might be those things and yet somehow it doesn't get through they'd be seen as not worth keeping housed, healthy, and fed and end up in the same place I would. They don't care about anything, but themselves and all they see is free housing, free food, free healthcare. They see security. They don't care about the cost.

[darkmaga-returns]

A Political Price is Being Paid for Being in the West

by Ted Snider | Nov 15, 2024

The concept of “the West” is a complex and difficult one. At times it excludes countries in the geographical west, like Cuba and Venezuela and sometimes Brazil. At times it includes countries not in the geographical west, like Japan and Australia. As Richard Sakwa has explained, the West can refer to a 500 year old civilizational West or to a cultural or historical West of which Russia considers itself to be a core member.

The twin ticket admission into the political West is membership in the U.S.-led, post-Cold War security community built around NATO and in a cultural community allegedly built around free trade, freedom and democracy. The political West, by definition, excludes Russia and, now, China.

But recently, there seems to be a political price being paid by governments in the political West. It is being exacted at the polls by their citizens.

On November 6, the government of Germany, Europe’s most populous country and its largest economy, collapsed when Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister, the leader of one of his two coalition partners, dissolving the coalition government. The government will limp along until a confidence vote is held in parliament in January. If Scholz’s Social Democrat Party does not survive the confidence vote, that would trigger early elections in March.

The catalyst of the collapse is disagreement by the coalition partners over a weakening economy and budgetary struggles. There are multiple reasons for Germany’s economic decline, including competition from China in the automotive industry. But key among Germany’s economic challenges is the hammering Germany’s energy intensive industrial sector has taken by the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. German industry has struggled to adjust to the higher price of energy caused by U.S.-led sanctions on Russian oil and by the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline. Being the largest economic supporter of Ukraine has further strained the economy.

All three members of Scholz’s already unpopular coalition have been losing support. Scholz’ Social Democrats are polling only around 16% and the combined support of their coalition hovers around 30%, while the opposition Christian Democrats by themselves have 32.5% support. Two fringe parties, the far right populist Alternative für Deutschland and the populist leftwing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance are both gaining support in part because they oppose further support for Ukraine.

[beardedmrbean]

Finnish President Alexander Stubb's quips on alcohol and double-entendre Estonian words during his state visit to Estonia were not too well-received by some Estonians and Finns, according to an Iltalehti report.

Finnish experts on Estonia suggested to Iltalehti that the jokes were outdated, and hearkened back to the alcohol tourism of the 1990s.

At a dinner on Monday evening at the Tallinn cruise terminal, Stubb mentioned his playlist of Estonian artists like Eleryn Tiit, Stefan and Karl-Erik Taukar. He noted that Taukar has a song called 'Cuba Libre' and Smilers has a song called 'Mojito.'

Stubb then quipped in English, "I wonder when Eleryn Tiit will release a song called Viru Valge?" This remark was met with awkward chuckles, particularly from the Estonians. Viru Valge is a popular Estonian vodka brand.

In his speech, Stubb also mentioned Estonian words that mean something entirely different in Finnish. One of them was 'ämmä' which Stubb explained means a grumpy old woman in Finnish.

Tapio Reini, editor-in-chief of the Finnish-language radio station SSS-radio in Estonia, was among those who felt Stubb's jokes were distasteful and outdated.

"The rule of thumb is that if a Finn starts telling alcohol jokes in Estonia, they always backfire," said Jari Havia, a Finnish non-fiction writer specializing in Estonia.

On Tuesday, Stubb visited the Rakett69 science studio in Tallinn, where Estonian IT guru Taavi Kotka introduced the HK Unicorn Squad, an initiative promoting women in tech. To this, Stubb quipped, "In Finland, the name HK is already claimed by sausage."

This particular HK sausage also represents an unfortunate chapter in Finnish-Estonian economic history, as HKScan, the manufacturer of the HK sausage, owned production units in Estonia for over 20 years but ultimately withdrew from Estonia and the Baltics.

Parties say EU must pay for border fence

The EU should pay for a fence to be built on Finland’s eastern border — this was the opinion of the representatives of all nine parliamentary parties in Ilta-Sanomat’s European election debate on Tuesday.

The debate at Sanomatalo in Helsinki featured several votes where participants displayed their stance on various issues with yes or no placards.

Helsingin Sanomat reported that the question about funding the eastern border fence was the only one to receive unanimous support from all nine parties.

The question read: "Should the EU pay for a fence to be built on the eastern border?"

Those who raised the green placard were Petteri Orpo (National Coalition Party), Antti Lindtman (Social Democratic Party), Riikka Purra (Finns Party), Petri Honkonen (Centre Party), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), Sofia Virta (Greens), Anna-Maja Henriksson (Swedish People’s Party), Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats), and Harry Harkimo (Movement Now).

All parties were represented by their leaders at the event except the Centre Party, which sent former Culture Minister Honkonen.

After the vote, Finns Party chair and Finance Minister Purra said the EU’s border security funding instruments currently do not allow for funding of the fence from union funds, but hopes it could be possible in the future.

Purra added that Finland’s 1,300-kilometer-long eastern border cannot be protected entirely with fences and that such barriers are expensive. Fences are being built only in areas where the Border Guard deems them most beneficial.

The Border Guard plans to build about 200 kilometres of barrier fence on the eastern border from 2024 to 2026. In the first phase, a total of 70 kilometres of border fence will be built at border crossing points and their surrounding areas. The total cost of the project is estimated at 380 million euros.

End of Foodora market

Food delivery service Foodora plans to shut down its online grocery store, Foodora Market, in Finland, as reported by Taloussanomat.

Foodora Market's director Anni Ahnger confirmed to the paper that the company has started layoff talks with employee representatives aimed at ending Foodora Market's operations in Finland. The talks will potentially affect 80 employees.

The company has a total of seven Foodora Market stores in Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Espoo, Jyväskylä, and Oulu. Products could be purchased from these stores through the Foodora app and then delivered to the customer. The first Foodora Market opened in Helsinki in December 2020.

An Aamulehti report stated several reasons behind the closure of Foodora Markets, with consumers' price consciousness being one of them.

Online grocery shopping has also not developed as hoped in Finland after the boom during the Covid period, compared to other European countries, Ahnger told Aamulehti.

She added that the profitability of Foodora Markets in Finland is impacted by regulation. In Sweden and Norway, Foodora delivers alcohol, tobacco and pharmacy products.

Foodora Market will continue to operate normally in other countries.

Foodora, which is a part of the German group Delivery Hero, has faced significant financial losses in Finland over the past years. In 2022, the company reported a loss of approximately 15.5 million euros despite generating a turnover of around 175 million euros.

Finland among hottest in Europe

Finland is currently basking in some of Europe's warmest temperatures, as reported by commercial broadcaster MTV.

While southern and eastern Europe boast similarly warm or even hotter conditions, cooler air masses dominate in the west.

MTV Meteorologist Aleksi Jokela explains that the reason behind Finland's exceptionally warm May is a high-pressure area formed over northern and eastern Europe and Russia. Continuous cold air flows into Siberia through the high-pressure area, but the high pressure system transports warm heat masses from southern Europe to Finland via eastern Europe.

On Wednesday, some parts of Finland are expected to hit the 30-degree mark.

[bm2ab]

Arrivals & Departures . 20 November 1925 – 06 June 1968 . Robert Francis Kennedy

Robert Francis Kennedy, also known by his initials RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is considered an icon of modern American liberalism.

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy attended Harvard University, and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a correspondent for The Boston Post and as a lawyer at the Justice Department, but later resigned to manage his brother John's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1952. The following year, Kennedy worked as an assistant counsel to the Senate committee chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He gained national attention as the chief counsel of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee from 1957 to 1959, where he publicly challenged Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa over the union's corrupt practices. Kennedy resigned from the committee to conduct his brother's successful campaign in the 1960 presidential election. He was appointed United States attorney general at the age of 35, one of the youngest cabinet members in American history. Kennedy served as John's closest advisor until the latter's assassination in 1963.

Kennedy's tenure is known for advocating for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. He authored his account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a book titled Thirteen Days. As attorney general, Kennedy authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on a limited basis. After his brother's assassination, he remained in office during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson for several months. He left to run for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating, overcoming criticism that he was a "carpetbagger" from Massachusetts. In office, Kennedy opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and raised awareness of poverty by sponsoring legislation designed to lure private business to blighted communities (i.e., Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration project). He was an advocate for issues related to human rights and social justice by traveling abroad to eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa, and formed working relationships with Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Walter Reuther.

In 1968, Kennedy became a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency by appealing to poor, African American, Hispanic, Catholic, and young voters. His main challenger in the race was Senator Eugene McCarthy. Shortly after winning the California primary around midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, allegedly in retaliation for his support of Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. Kennedy died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested, tried, and convicted, though Kennedy's assassination, like his brother's, continues to be the subject of widespread analysis and numerous conspiracy theories.

[generallemarc]

A few interesting facts to note:

Unlike every other election since '92, the Libertarians were not the best-performing third party, actually coming in 5th place, with the Greens taking third. This is absolutely because of RFK, since if you were to combine his vote tally with the Libertarians' they'd be nearly double that of the Greens.

The parties of all the minor candidates not among the big three(RFK, the Libertarians, and the Greens, are as follows):

Cornel West: Independent, running on some kind of libertarian socialist platform with a focus on how everything is racist or whatever.

Joel Skoussen: Constitution Party. If the Greens are the party of morons who got rejected from the Democrats for being too far left and too retarded about supporting Russia, China and every other autocracy they can find, then the Constitution Party is the party of morons who got rejected from the Republicans for being too far right and too retarded about wanting to go full isolationist and pull out of every treaty we're in and also abolish basically the entire government based on incredible feats of logic like "the Federal Aviation Administration wasn't specifically mentioned in the Constitution, therefore it is unconstitutional and must be abolished." These are the guys who actually would implement Project 2025.

Richard Duncan: Perennial candidate(meaning a candidate who runs in every election despite not having any meaningful support), independent, running to oppose the two-party system. Only on the ballot in Ohio.

Shiva Ayyadurai: Conspiracy theorist who believed that covid was being intentionally spread by the government and that vitamins could cure it. Claimed to have invented the idea of email in the 80s. Ineligible to actually become president due to not being a natural-born American citizen. His Wikipedia page spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince the reader that this Indian man born in Mumbai is a white supremacist.

Claudia De La Cruz: Party for Socialism and Liberation. Ran on a platform of cutting military spending by 90%, paying reparations for slavery to people never affected by it using money that could have gone to poverty relief for all races instead of just one, nationalizing the 100 largest companies in America, and other commie bullshit. Her party is a member of the International Peoples' Assembly, which has held meetings in Venezuela and Cuba and is generally filled with rabid supporters of every far-left and anti-Western autocracy on the planet. Only candidate on this list whose platform was basically "I will end representative democracy in this country", unless you count the Constitution Party's plans as promising that by way of deliberately tearing down so much of the government that the country falls apart, at which point there is no representative democracy in the country because there is no country at all.

Mattie Preston: Independent. Pastor running on a platform that's both based in religion(she spoke in an interview about God's love for everyone, including the unsaved and demographics that are stereotyped as being "rejected" by Christians such as gay people) but not in a "make the Bible law" kind of way. Non-partisanship was a part of her campaign, with her declaring "God is not a Democrat; He's not a Republican." Wanted to close the border until the immigration system could be fixed up enough to properly vet all incoming immigrants. Ballotpedia lists her as running for the "Godliness, Truh, Justice" party, but since I can't find any information on that alleged organization anywhere else it's likely that it's nothing more than a name to put after hers on the ballot.

Michael Wood: Prohibition Party. This group has actually changed over the past few elections, taking a more moderate stance on issues like abortion(they say it ought to be left up to the states and do not support a nationwide ban) and immigration(supporting stricter standards but not calling for a border closure and speaking positively of immigrants as a whole). They have even dropped their long-held goal of bringing back the 18th Amendment wholesale and banning all alcohol nationwide. That said, they're still quite nutty on the issue of alcohol and drugs. They want a nationwide ban on all recreational drugs, marijuana included, as well as a nationwide ban on all tobacco products and vaping. While they no longer seek to apply this to alcohol, they do seek a ban on alcohol advertising "similar to that on tobacco advertising", which basically means none whatsoever, stricter controls on the licensing of "alcohol outlets"(so stores and bars), and a presumably large increase in the excise tax on alcohol, which while not stated directly is definitely for the purpose of discouraging its purchase by making it too expensive.

Peter Sonski: American Solidarity Party. A syncretic party that is center-left on fiscal issues(so basically the current administration) while mostly right-wing on cultural issues, but due to being a Christian-democratic party in the European style they support what is known as the "consistent life ethic", that being opposition to all forms of state-sponsored death, namely abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty, the latter of which they believe should be abolished.

Best-Performing Third-Party candidate by county in the 2024 Presidential Election

[mint-moon25]

Things I Hate To See As An Interior Designer #Interiordesigner #designha...

TUMBLR - LOUSY - NEED

T-MOBILE - PREMIUM - PLAN

$80 - MONTHLY - 5 G - EVERY

MINUTE - 2 - ACCESS - SANAZ

VIDEO - I'VE - CHOSEN - 4 THE

DEMOCRAT - CHEERLEADERS

AND - FAMILY

UPGRADE - DEMOCRAT PARTY

DEMOCRATS

ACROBATIC - CHEERLEADERS

INSTEAD - OF - $25,000 HOURLY

BIBLE - 'DANGEROUS - AND YES

PERILOUS - TIMES'

IN - USA - AND - WORLDWIDE

NEW - HOURLY - WILL - BE

$500 BILLION - X 2 - HOURLY

TAX - PAID - 25 HRS - LOCAL

EACH - WEEK - I - COULDN'T

FIND - WITH - SMARTPHONE

SANAZ - VIDEO - HAVE - 2 YES

SEARCH - BUT - IN - LIBRARY

WAS - ABLE - 2 - FIND - WITH

SMARTPHONE - WI FI

BOOST MOBILE - MAIN

LIBRARY - BUT - LAPTOP

USES - MY - MOBILE HOTSPOT

AND - TETHERING - AND - ITS

NOT - GREAT

BOOST - MOBILE

ADD - MORE - GIGABYTES

$10 - MORE - 2 - $25 - FRM

AMAZON - PRIME - WHILE

EVERYONE - IDENTITY

THEFT - GETTING - YOUR

ADDRESS - BIRTHDAYS IN

FUTURE - THEY - WILL NEED

SOCIAL - SECURITY

DEAR - DEMOCRATS,

US - BUSINESSES - KOREAN

JAPANES - AS - GOVERNMENT

THEY - KNOW - HOW - 2 STEAL

KILL - AND - DESTROY

DEMOCRAT - PARTY

4 - ASSASSINATED IN OFFICE

4 - PRESIDENTS - DIED IN OFC

OFFICE - THEIR - US - HISTORY

OUR - SYSTEMS - WILL PROVIDE

DEMOCRATS

DE - MEANS - 2 - DESTROY

EVERYTHING - WHAT IS NEEDED

2 - DESTROY - DE - MEANS - 2

DESTROY - WHAT's - OUT THERE

BARBIE - WORLD

ITZY - HELLO KITTY - WORLD

AESPA - CHARLIE BROWN MALL

ALL - 3 - LOCATIONS

WORLDWIDE - ASIA - EUROPE

QATAR - ARAB - NATIONS

DEAR - KOREAN - GIRLS,

OUR - VIRGINITY - PROTECTION

PROGRAM

YOUR - LOUIS VUITTON

FIREPROOF - WATERPROOF

DON'T - CLEAN - WITH WATER

VENEZUELAN - MIAMI - POLICE

FORMER - FIRST - BILLIONAIRE

PRESIDENT - IN - US - HISTORY

COMPLETED - FOLLOWING

COUNTRIES - DENIED ENTRY

VIOLENCE - VIOLENCE

1) CUBA

2) HAITI

3) VENEZUELA

4) COLUMBIA

AND - MORE - NO - LONGER

ALLOWED - UNITED STATES

2 - HAITI - BLK - MALE

POLICE - OFFICERS WANTED

2 - SHOOT - ME - AND - MY

AIR - MAT - AND - TENTS

BOTH - SAID - WALMART

SELLING - ILLEGAL ITEMS

HAITI - BLK - MALE POLICE

SAID - AIR MATS - LIKE YES

HEROINE - ILLEGAL IN - USA

WALMART - ILLEGAL STORE

HAITI - POOREST - COUNTRY

IN - LATIN - AMERICA - AND

POOREST - CARIBBEAN

COUNTRY - CATHOLIC BIBLES

CHRISTIAN - VUDU - AND VUDU

THEIR - BIBLE - STUDY - THEN

THEY - ASK - DEMONIC SPIRITS

2 - FILL - THEM - UP

DEAR - KOREAN - GIRLS,

ONLY - MALE - DEMONIC

SPIRITS - THEY - LIKE EARTH

WOMEN - USE - 2 - GET - THEM

PREGNANT - THUS - U - SAW IN

HISTORY - 19 FEET - IN - HEIGHT

GIANTS - SCIENTISTS - HAVE

PROVEN - 40 DAYS - 40 NIGHTS

EARTH - WAS - FLOODED

DEMONIC - SPIRITS - CAN NO

LONGER - IMPREGNATE - YES

DEMONIC - SPIRITS - USUALLY

PREFER - WOMEN - AND - YES

NERDS - NOT - BARBARIC

BULLIES - BUT - THEY YES

ENTER - GENTLE - MALES

BARBIE - WORLD

3 - GROUPS - ERASE - YOUR

FINGERPRINTS - 4 - FREE 2

DEMOCRAT - PARTY

DEMOCRAT - CHEERLEADERS

YOUR - BAGS - POLICE WON'T

B - ABLE - 2 - OPEN - EVEN

WITH - COMBAT - KNIVES

PROTECTING - YOUR - CASH

JEWELRY - YOUR - CARDS 2

BARBIE - BANKS

ITZY - HELLO KITTY - BANKS

AESPA - CHARLIE BROWN

BANKS - ALL - CARDS ARE

NON-TRACEABLE

BUT - TRACES - WHO - IS

TRACING - THEM - BIG TIME

WE'RE - EMPLOYING - 18 AND

OLDER - BOUNTY - HOUNTERS

AMATEURS - 2 - PROTECT OUR

OWN - RESTRAINING - ORDERS

FREE - FREE - GETTING

LEGAL - PERMIT - HARVARD

LAW - OVER - 300 YEARS - 2

FREE - RESTRAINING ORDERS

AIR - WILL - BRING - THEM TO

ANOTHER - AREA

DEMOCRATS - TONGUES

DEMOCRAT - CHEERLEADERS

TONGUES - ONLY

SINGERS - ONLY

BARBIE - WORLD

ALL - 3 - PROVIDING

NEW - IDENTITIES

NEW - BIRTHDAYS

WESTERN - ASTROLOGY

ME - APRIL - ARIES

YOU - WILL - HAVE - NEW

BIRTHDAYS

AUTHORIZED - GIVERS

NEW - SOCIAL SECURITY NOS

EVERY - YEAR - ALL - ISSUED

SOCIAL - SECURITY - NOS

ILLLEGAL - YOUR - BOSSES

EMPLOYERS - LANDLORDS

HAVE - THIS - ILLEGAL

IDENTITY - THEFT - 2 - KILL

YOU - AND - TAKE - YOUR

PLACE - MOST - CURRENT

PHOTOS - BUT - DIFFERENT

WE'RE - ISSUING - PAPER

AND - GLOSSY - THIN YES

4 - SOCIAL - SECURITY TO

LOCK - IN - YOUR SIGNATURES

THEY - WANT - 2 - FORGE - THE

SUICIDE - LETTER

KIDNEY - BLADDER

$9,000 - EACH

TENTS - CAN - B - RUN OVER

BY - LOCAL - POLICE - 2 KILL

FEMALES - AND - PREGNANCY

USA - ILLEGAL - MISOGYNY

HARM - ABUSE - AND MURDER

OF - SMALL - BREASTED - YES

FEMALES - HARM - ABUSE

AND - MURDER - OF - GIRLS

NO - VISIBLE - BREASTS

HARM - AND - ABUSE OF

LARGE - BREASTED FEMALES

THEY - DIDN'T - KILL - THEM

'MILK - THE - COWS'

SAG - THEIR - BREASTS

NO 1 - NON-VIRGIN - MEN

NO 2 - NON-VIRGIN - WOMEN

ILLEGAL - MISOYGYNISTS

WILL - TELL - PRUNE BAG

LISA - LOOKS - LIKE - AGE 175

I'M - OLDER - WILL - GIVE HER

CASH - AS - WE - HAND - OVER

KEEPING - SOS - RADIO - THAT

IS - COAST - GUARD - WILL YES

PARK - VEHICLE - REAL - EASY

UNDER - OPENS - AUTO BRIDGE

THEN - STEP - THAT - EASY

MIAMI RIVER - LANDMARK

FOLLOW - SOUND - JUST

ATTACH - 2 - FENCE - LOTS

OF - FENCE - IN - MIAMI FR

PARKING - LOTS - THEY

HEAR - SOUND - BECAUSE

100 MPH - WINDS - FOGGY

GRAYISH - NIGHT - TIME ITS

FOGGIER - AS - THEY HEAR

SOUND - SEE - RED - LIGHT

LESS - THAN - 10 MIN - 2 FIND

ME - SW NORTH RIVER DR

AND - SW 2 ST - HISPANICS

AND - BLKS - SCREAMING NOW

IN - PARKING - LOT - 7:!7A EST

AS - COAST - GUARD - GETS ME

MY - THINGS - BUT - THEY - YES

RETURNS - US - UNLIKE POLICE

SPORTS - STADIUMS - THEY

HAVE - THOSE - FOLDABLE

SO - MANY - SLEEPING THERE

AS - THEY - STEAL - ALL THEIR

THINGS - CORRECTION - WHITE

AND - BLK - MALE - FINALLY

WOKE - UP - THEIR - TARPS

SLEPT - ON - SIDEWALK SO

THEY - WOKE - UP - STREET

BELONGS - 2 - NEW COMERS

PUBLIC - NUISANCE - 7:!9P EST

BUS 77 - JUST - PASSED - BUT

WHEN - ALL - SCREAMING AT

EACH - OTHER - 5A - NONE OF

THEM - NO ONE - WOKE - UP

2 C - WHAT's - GOING - ON

PUBLIC - NUISANCE - SHOT

2 - DEATH - IN - EUROPE - 4

DANGER - 2 - KIDS - AND

PREGNANT - FEMALES

SCENARIO

DEMOCRATS - NEW - IDENTITY

IF - THEY - DESTROY - BAGS - 2

SO - U - CAN - SIGN - UP - FOR

T-MOBILE - 5G - PREMIUM

PLAN - WE - WILL - REIMBURSE

YOU - BY - DOUBLE - TAX - PAID

ALL - THOSE - EXPENSES

SO - AS - THEY - CALL YOU

ANOTHER - NAME - WE'RE

PREPARED - AS - UPS STORE

AND - POST OFFICE - NEEDS

YOUR - PAPER - DEMOCRAT

VOTERS - INFO - CARD - TOO

WE'RE - PREPARED - 4 - USA

PEOPLE - WORLDWIDE

PAPERWORK - IDENTITY

WE - GIVE - AWAY - FOR THEY

ARE - DOING - IDENTITY THEFT

2 - KILL - U 4 - YOUR - MONEY

DEBIT - CREDIT - CARDS - TO

GET - YOUR - BANK - MONEY

JESUS - IS - LORD

[treadmilltreats]

My united nations of friends

With all of this racial unrest going on in this country and the world, I still can't grasp why people are like this.

I can't understand racism because I have a rainbow of color in my life. I can't understand war because no one wins, just so many innocent people are killed.

I looked back at the times of my life, and I saw the United Nations of my friends. I have friends from Cuba, from Puerto Rico, I have friends from Nicaragua, Black friends, Chinese friends, who are all from different backgrounds, different religions, different sexual orientations and yea, even from different political parties yet we are all friends.

This mixed group is here for one another. We all love each other. They are there for one another through thick and thin, and we always help each other out.

These are the friends I choose for my family, and I know that they are with me through thick and thin, through good times and bad times. They are there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on, when I needed groceries for my kids, when times are hard, these are the people that I know will be there for me, and they know I will be there for them.

I have Caribbean friends and friends from Antigua, St. Thomas, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Haiti, and Columbian friends. I have black, brown, yellow and white friends. I have friends who are gay or straight. I have LGBT friends and drag queen friends. I have Christian, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, and even Atheist friends.

I have friends who are democrats, republican, independent, and people from the we don't give a shit party. It does not matter to me. They are all the people I choose to invite into my life. The ones who love me for me and that I love for their heart and soul.

So what I don't get is why it is so hard for others to get this? There are good and bad in all, in police, in blacks, in whites, in Christians, in Muslims, in all, there are good and bad but to hate one race, one culture, or one religion on what a few bad apples have done, well that is just horrible.

I say in my blogs all the time, to be compassionate towards others, to love one another, to step out of your box and meet new people who aren't like you.

So many people don't even know another person of another race or they may have the one "token" black friend but know nothing about others.

I am here to tell you that you are missing out, as I have learned such culture from these different groups. I learned to enjoy different foods, music, and religions, but most of all, I have learned to be open enough to learn from them and their ideas and their heritage.

Did you get that message? Let me repeat it for those in the back!

I am open enough to learn from people who are different from me.

Because when you are open enough to learn, you will learn that we are all not so different after all. We all love our children and our families. We want a better life for them than we had. We all want to be loved and respected. We all want to have equal rights. We all want to be seen for what we have on the inside.

Common HUMAN rights. Not religious or race or political goals, just common human decency.

So today my friends, I invite you to open up your mind, to step out of your box, to embrace others different from you, because it will be amazing what you will learn if you do.

And to my incredible bunch of United Nations of friends, thank you for being my friend, for allowing me into your world and your hearts, and I am truly humbled to know and love you all.

"Be the change you want to see,"

@TreadmillTreats"Be the change you want to see"

@Treadmilltreats

"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

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[stephenjaymorrisblog]

This is What The·oc·ra·cy Looks Like!

(The Overturn of Roe V. Wade is Only the Beginning.)

Stephen Jay Morris

6/25/2022

©Scientific Morality

What the hell do you care about this?! You’ve got your own problems! You car payment is overdue! You’re behind in your mortgage! You have to watch the mileage on your car because of Big Oil’s price gouging! Your small business is bossing you around ‘cause, now, IT runs YOU! To top it all off, your daughter was gang-raped by some Proud Men and, now, she is pregnant! By the way, she had a gun in her purse, but she couldn’t get to it. She’ll have to travel to California to terminate the pregnancy, but you don’t have the money for airline tickets! Maybe you can sell some meth? Yeah! This radical action by the Supreme Court will personally affect you and the whole, fucking country!

Maybe you’re not hip to politics. Well, now is time for on-the-job training. Theocracy? It doesn’t matter what religion controls a country, the result the same. Take Islam, for example. Look at Iran; it’s worse than Communist Cuba! Not only is there no abortion allowed, it is illegal to masturbate! If someone sees you engage in this Satanic activity, then they are required to contact the morality police squad. Should they discover that you did not report it, then you’ll be whipped in public! And, if you don’t pray to Allah three times a day, then its jail time for you, bub.

Religious repression causes people to become Atheists. Did you know that, in Iran, the Millennial kids secretively embrace Atheism? In the same vein, Cuban exiles become fanatical, anti-Communists, then immigrate to the USA and become supporters of American Fascists! Thank you, Castro, you fucking asshole! I’m glad you’re dead!! Thanks to you, the political Right is removing our freedom!

You know who else is taking our freedom away? Rich, elitist, WASP Republicans. They couldn’t care less about abortion rights; they can get an abortion on demand, anytime! These rich pigs are decadent sinners. They make concessions to the Religious Right—like making abortion illegal, without exception.

You see, the rich pigs want to arrest all those with instincts of resistance or rebellion. Humans are not evil, they are inherently rebellious—and the powerful rich are terrified about it! They think that strategically having religion to restrain human immorality will stop all revolution against them. When they say they want people to be moral, they mean people who will be submissive to the Corporate State. I have repeated this dynamic of the rich and the religious, time and time again. Will anybody listen? Nope? Well, then, it’s on them. Not me, babe!

If you believe that voting Democrats into office will help the USA, well...not so much. The two-party system must be destroyed or it will destroy us.

So, here is my gratuitous advice to you, America. First: Yes, go ahead and vote blue if makes you feel better. Second: Do you remember when Islamic terrorists were making the scene? The Conservatives in America had this talking point; it was a question: “Why don’t the mainstream Muslims denounce Islamic terrorists?” Well, now is the time for us to ask this question: “Why don’t the mainstream Christians denounce the fundamentalist Evangelical Christians?” When I say mainstream, I mean these denominations: Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Pentecostal, Methodist, Calvinist, and even the Roman Catholic Church. They should all make a joint statement denouncing the Theocratic Army of Christian Nationalists. I’m calling them out!

The best form of heterosexual sex is with contraceptives, unless the objective is to increase the population of the White race. Abortion as a choice, however, is about premarital sex. The whole crux of this debate—and I reiterate this belabored point—is: You have the right to worship any God you want, but I don’t have to follow your God’s rules! Just because you can’t recruit people of their own volition, into your fold, it doesn’t give you the right to make laws based upon your own dogma. The Supreme Court justices should exchange their black robes for white robes, because they have openly surrendered to the Religious Right.

You see, I knew this was coming. Back in the day, only a minority of citizens supported the American Revolution. The rest were loyal to the British Crown. If not for those revolutionaries, we would be speaking the Queen’s English today.

My point is that a minority of Americans can turn this country into a Theocracy—unless the rest of us, the majority—wake up and rebel against it!

[emerald-studies]

The thoughtful Stokely Carmichael 

“As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Stokely Carmichael challenged the philosophy of nonviolence and interracial alliances that had come to define the modern civil rights movement, calling instead for “Black Power.” Although critical of the “Black Power” slogan, King acknowledged that “if Stokely Carmichael now says that nonviolence is irrelevant, it is because he, as a dedicated veteran of many battles, has seen with his own eyes the most brutal white violence against Negroes and white civil rights workers, and he has seen it go unpunished” (King, 33–34).

Carmichael was born on 29 June 1941 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. He moved to New York when he was 11, joining his parents, who had settled there 9 years earlier. Carmichael attended the elite Bronx High School of Science, where he met veteran black radicals and Communist activists. In 1960, as a senior in high school, Carmichael learned about the sit-in movement for desegregation in the South and joined activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) protesting in New York against Woolworth stores, a chain that maintained segregated lunch counters in the South.

Carmichael enrolled as a philosophy major at Howard University in 1960 and joined the university’s Nonviolent Action Group, which was affiliated with SNCC. In addition to working against segregation in Washington, D.C., Carmichael traveled south on the Freedom Rides. When the freedom riders traveled to Mississippi, Carmichael was arrested for the first time. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) awarded Carmichael a scholarship designed to support arrested students, and he continued his studies at Howard. Throughout his four years in college, Carmichael participated in civil rights activities ranging from the Albany Movement to New York hospital strikes.

After graduating in 1964, Carmichael joined SNCC’s staff full time, working on the Mississippi Freedom Summer project and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Carmichael found himself frustrated by what he saw as unsuccessful agitation for political rights, and grew skeptical of the prospects for interracial activism within the existing political structure.

After the Selma to Montgomery March in March 1965, Carmichael stayed in Alabama to help rural African Americans outside Selma form the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, an all black, independent political group that became known as the Black Panther Party. (Activists Bobby Seale and Huey Newton would later borrow the Black Panther symbol when organizing the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California in October 1966.) He recalled how people in Lowndes County responded to King’s leadership: “People loved King … I’ve seen people in the South climb over each other just to say, ‘I touched him! I touched him!’ … The people didn’t know what was SNCC.” When asked, “You one of Dr. King’s men?” he replied, “Yes, Ma’am, I am” (Carson, 164).

Carmichael had always seen nonviolence as a tactic, rather than a guiding principle. In May 1966 Carmichael replaced John Lewis as chairman of SNCC, a move that signaled a shift in the student movement from an emphasis on nonviolence and integration toward black militancy. One month later, Carmichael, King, and CORE’s Floyd McKissick collectively organized a march supporting James Meredith, who had been wounded by a sniper on the second day of his planned 220-mile walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Although Carmichael and King respected one another, the two men engaged in a fierce debate over the future of the civil rights movement, black radicalism, and the potential for integration. When the march reached Greenwood, Mississippi, Carmichael was arrested for the 27th time. At a rally upon his release, he called for “Black Power.” King disapproved of the slogan’s violent connotations, and Carmichael admitted he had used the term during the march in order to force King to take a stand on the issue. Although King initially resisted publicly opposing Carmichael and Black Power, he admitted a break between those still committed to nonviolence and those willing to use any means necessary to achieve freedom.

King and Carmichael did come to agree on public opposition to the Vietnam War. Carmichael encouraged King to speak out against the war while advisors such as Stanley Levison cautioned him that such opposition might have an adverse effect on financial contributions to SCLC. Nearly a month after delivering his “Beyond Vietnam” address at New York’s Riverside Church in April 1967, King preached “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” at Ebenezer Baptist Church, with Carmichael seated in the front row at his invitation. King declared before the congregation: “There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and press that will praise you when you say be nonviolent toward Jim Clark, but will curse you and damn you when you say be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children” (King, 30 April 1967). Carmichael joined the congregation in giving King a standing ovation.

Although Carmichael opposed the decision to expel whites from SNCC, in the later 1960s he joined with black nationalists in stressing racial unity over class unity as a basis for future black struggles. After relinquishing the SNCC chairmanship in 1967, Carmichael made a controversial trip to Cuba, China, North Vietnam, and finally to Guinea. Returning to the United States with the intention of forming a black united front throughout the nation, he accepted an invitation to become prime minister of the militant Oakland-based Black Panther Party. In 1969 he left the Black Panthers after disagreeing with the party’s willingness to work with radical whites.

Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture and moved to Guinea, where he conferred with exiled Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. He helped form the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party in 1972 and urged African American radicals to work for African liberation and Pan-Africanism. Carmichael died of cancer in Guinea on 15 November 1998 at the age of 57.” (source)

[newstfionline]

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Biden’s Afghanistan plan a plus to some vets (AP) Patrick Proctor Brown says the war in Afghanistan was lost within a year of its start. The suburban Milwaukee lawyer, who was an infantry captain in Iraq, said the trillions of dollars spent and the thousands of lives lost, including a lieutenant he trained with, make it “a tragedy.” “And the Taliban will be back in power in a year,” said Brown, 35, who also studied diplomacy at Norwich, a military university in Vermont. “It’s insane.” Brown supports President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, and by voting for the Democrat, he represents a subtle but potent shift in the voting behavior of some in the military. Voters who served in the military have long leaned toward Republicans. But there are signs that Biden may have cut into that advantage. “This president has got to end these wars,” said Jon Soltz, a former Army tank captain who formed the Democratic-leaning VoteVets.org in 2006. “He’s got to fulfill some of these promises. There’s a war-weariness in the military.”

Riot declared after windows smashed in Portland protests (AP) Police in Portland, Oregon, declared a riot Friday night after authorities said protesters smashed windows and burglarized businesses during demonstrations that started earlier in the day after police fatally shot a man while responding to reports of a person with a gun. The vandalism downtown came after the Friday morning police shooting but also was part of vigils and demonstrations already planned for the night in the name of people killed in other police shootings nationwide. They include 13-year-old Adam Toledo of Chicago and Daunte Wright, a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb. Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis told reporters earlier in the day that a white man in his 30s was shot and killed by police, who opened fire with a gun and weapons that fire non-lethal projectiles. A witness who spoke to reporters at the scene said the man, who had removed his shirt and was blocking an intersection, appeared to be in a mental health crisis.

Castro era in Cuba to end as Raul confirms he’s retiring (Reuters) Raul Castro confirmed he was handing over the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party to a younger generation at its congress that kicked off on Friday, ending six decades of rule by himself and older brother Fidel. In a speech opening the four-day event, Castro, 89, said the new leadership would be party loyalists with decades of experience working their way up the ranks and were “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit.” The new generation of leaders, which did not forge itself through rebellion, has no easy task. The transition comes as Cuba faces the worst economic crisis since the collapse of former benefactor the Soviet Union, while there are signs of growing frustration, especially among younger Cubans. A tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo and the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated a liquidity crisis in Cuba’s ailing centrally planned economy. Shortages of even basic goods mean Cubans spend hours lining up to buy groceries.

Argentina closes schools, imposes curfew in Buenos Aires as COVID-19 cases spike (Reuters) Argentina’s government will tighten pandemic restrictions in and around the capital Buenos Aires to rein in a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases, including shutting schools and imposing a curfew from 8pm to limit social activity. President Alberto Fernández, 62, given his all-clear earlier in the day after he was infected with the virus, said the South American country needed to “gain time” in the fight against COVID-19 after daily cases hit a record this week. The measures will see schools closed in Greater Buenos Aires from Monday, and the suspension of indoor sports, recreational, religious and cultural activities until April 30.

The queen says goodbye to Philip, continues her reign alone (AP) Sitting by herself at the funeral of Prince Philip on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth cut a regal, but solitary figure: still the monarch, but now alone. The queen sat apart from family members at the simple but somber ceremony in accordance with strict social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic. But if the ceremony had been for anyone else, at her side would have been her husband of 73 years, who gave a lifetime of service to the crown. The monarch’s four children and eight grandchildren sat in small groups nearby, during a stripped-back service at Windsor Castle that made their loss somehow more personal for people who often live their lives in public. The service was quiet and without excessive pageantry. Philip was deeply involved in planning the ceremony. At his request, there was no sermon. There were also no eulogies or readings, in keeping with royal tradition. Former Bishop of London Richard Chartres, who knew Philip well, said the 50-minute service reflected the preferences of the prince, who was a man of faith but liked things to be succinct. “He was at home with broad church, high church and low church, but what he really liked was short church,” Chartres told the BBC.

Philip’s legacy lives in chef who traded prison for kitchen LONDON (AP)—Jon Watts was 18 years old when he woke up in a prison cell and decided he had to change. He enrolled in every course he could find, from mathematics to business. But he says it was a program founded by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, that gave him a “passion for food” and a career as a chef when he got out of prison 3 1/2 years later. “I was a young boy in prison,” Watts, now 32, told The Associated Press. “It helped mold me to be what I like to think is a good person, and it set me up to believe in myself, to believe that I can achieve things.” After Philip’s death last week at age 99, politicians and world leaders rushed to eulogize his lifetime of service to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, and to the British nation. For many people across the country, though, his greatest contribution was the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a program which seeks to give young people the skills and confidence they need to succeed. Participants in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award must complete volunteer work, improve their physical fitness, learn new skills, and go on expeditions to earn each of three progressively more difficult levels of achievement—bronze, silver and gold. More than 6.7 million people between the ages of 14 and 24 have taken part in the U.K., and the program has expanded to 130 countries since Philip founded it in 1956.

A Bitter Family Feud Dominates the Race to Replace Merkel (NYT) With less than six months to go before Germans cast their ballots for a new chancellor, the political vacuum Angela Merkel leaves behind after 16 years of consensus-oriented leadership is coming more sharply into focus. A rare and rancorous power struggle has gripped Germany’s conservatives this week as two rivals vie to replace her, threatening to further hobble her Christian Democratic Union, which is already sliding in the polls. Normally, Armin Laschet, 60, who was elected in January to lead the party, would almost assuredly be the heir apparent to Ms. Merkel. Instead, he finds himself unexpectedly pitted against his biggest rival, Markus Söder, the more popular head of a smaller, Bavaria-only party, the Christian Social Union, in a kind of conservative family feud. Experts and party members alike are calling for the dispute to be resolved within the coming days, as it risks damaging the reputation of the two conservative parties, jointly referred to as the Union. Because the two parties operate as one on the national stage, they must choose one candidate for chancellor.

Russia to expel 10 US diplomats in response to Biden actions (AP) On Thursday, the Biden administration announced sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agencies—activities Moscow has denied. The U.S. ordered 10 Russian diplomats expelled, targeted dozens of companies and people, and imposed new curbs on Russia’s ability to borrow money. Russia responded by saying it would expel 10 U.S. diplomats and take other retaliatory moves in a tense showdown with Washington. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said Moscow will move to shut down those U.S. nongovernment organizations that remain in Russia to end what he described as their meddling in Russia’s politics. The top Russian diplomat said the Kremlin suggested that U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan follow the example of his Russian counterpart and head home for consultations. Russia will also deny the U.S. Embassy the possibility of hiring personnel from Russia and third countries as support staff, limit visits by U.S. diplomats serving short-term stints at the embassy, and tighten requirements for U.S. diplomats’ travel in the country.

Russia’s surveillance state (Washington Post) Russian authorities are ramping up the use of facial recognition technology to track opposition protesters to their homes and arrest them—a powerful new Kremlin tool to crush opposition. But when state security agents are suspected of murders or attacks on journalists and opposition activists, surveillance cameras have at times been switched off or “malfunction.” And the system is so leaky that surveillance data on individuals can be bought for a small sum on Russia’s notorious black market in data, along with all kinds of other personal information. There is even a name for the clandestine cyber-bazaar: probiv. China leads the world in rolling out a vast network of facial recognition technology, including a system to track and repress its Uyghur minority. But Putin’s Russia is racing to catch up. Russian firms such as NtechLab produce some of the world’s most sophisticated facial recognition software as authorities grapple with counterpunches by the opposition, including using social media to expose Russia’s kleptocracy such as extravagances by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political allies. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the facial recognition system—rolled out in Moscow en masse in January 2020 and expanded to at least 10 other Russian cities—is now used in 70 percent of crime investigations. Moscow has more than 189,000 cameras with facial recognition capabilities, as well as more than 12,300 on subway cars in Moscow’s Metro.

Health care: The medical cost crisis will outlast COVID (The Week) Few would disagree that “much-reviled Big Pharma pulled off one of the great achievements in medical history,” said Geoff Colvin at Fortune—quickly developing multiple effective COVID-19 vaccines. Hospital workers, too, “have been heroes in the truest sense” in the fight against the pandemic. These are not groups America “wants to punish” right now. But something has to give. A system of “perverse incentives,” from drug distribution to insurance rebates, has made health-care costs “maddeningly untamable.” In the six years since the Affordable Care Act was passed, health-care spending per capita has increased faster than it did in the six years prior. Three-quarters of Americans say that the quality of the health care they get isn’t worth what they are paying for it. Big Hospitals and Big Pharma are “at each other’s throats” over who is to blame, but the trend in costs “isn’t about to reverse.” Poorer hospitals have “limped through the year,” straining under the costs of COVID, said Jordan Rau and Christine Spolar at Kaiser Health News, but many wealthier ones have done just fine. The U.S. has budgeted $178 billion in aid for health-care providers, and even profitable hospitals have gotten help. After receiving $454 million in federal aid, Baylor, the biggest nonprofit hospital system in Texas, “accumulated an $815 million surplus, $20 million more than it had in 2019.” Despite this, hospitals have devised ways to pass on costs, said Sarah Kliff at The New York Times. Lenox Hill, one of the oldest and best-known hospitals in New York City, has “repeatedly billed patients more than $3,000 for the routine nasal swab test” for COVID, “about 30 times the test’s typical cost.” The hospital “advertised its COVID-19 testing on a large blue-and-white banner,” then charged each visit as an emergency room procedure. Federal legislation mandated that coronavirus testing be free for patients. “But eventually, American patients bear the costs in the form of higher insurance premiums.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.1

Pre-Julian Roman calendar

153 BC – For the first time, Roman consuls begin their year in office on January 1. Early Julian calendar (before Augustus' leap year correction) 45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year. 42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.

Julian calendar

193 – The Senate chooses Pertinax against his will to succeed Commodus as Roman emperor. 404 – Saint Telemachus tries to stop a gladiatorial fight in a Roman amphitheatre, and is stoned to death by the crowd. This act impresses the Christian Emperor Honorius, who issues a historic ban on gladiatorial fights. 417 – Emperor Honorius forces Galla Placidia into marriage to Constantius, his famous general (magister militum) (probable). 1001 – Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Sylvester II (probable). 1068 – Romanos IV Diogenes marries Eudokia Makrembolitissa and is crowned Byzantine Emperor. 1259 – Michael VIII Palaiologos is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Laskaris. 1438 – Albert II of Habsburg is crowned King of Hungary. 1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is first explored by the Portuguese. 1515 – Twenty-year-old Francis, Duke of Brittany, succeeds to the French throne following the death of his father-in-law, Louis XII. 1527 – Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin. 1600 – Scotland recognises January 1 as the start of the year, instead of March 25. 1651 – Charles II is crowned King of Scotland. 1700 – Russia begins using the Anno Domini era instead of the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.

Gregorian calendar

1707 – John V is proclaimed King of Portugal and the Algarves in Lisbon. 1739 – Bouvet Island, the world's remotest island, is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier. 1772 – The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, are issued by the London Credit Exchange Company. 1773 – The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17", is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Norfolk, Virginia is burned by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action. 1776 – General George Washington hoists the first United States flag, the Grand Union Flag, at Prospect Hill. 1781 – American Revolutionary War: One thousand five hundred soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781. 1788 – First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published. 1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is proclaimed. 1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi. 1803 – Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tây Sơn dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Huế, Vietnam. 1804 – French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black-majority republic and second independent country in North America after the United States. 1806 – The French Republican Calendar is abolished. 1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves. 1810 – Major-General Lachlan Macquarie officially becomes Governor of New South Wales. 1822 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1834 – Most of Germany forms the Zollverein customs union, the first such union between sovereign states. 1847 – The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh, United States, by a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland; the name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world. 1860 – The first Polish stamp is issued, replacing the Russian stamps previously in use. 1861 – Liberal forces supporting Benito Juárez enter Mexico City. 1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory. 1877 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India. 1885 – Twenty-five nations adopt Sandford Fleming's proposal for standard time (and also, time zones). 1890 – Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government. 1892 – Ellis Island begins processing immigrants into the United States. 1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs. 1899 – Spanish rule ends in Cuba. 1901 – The Southern Nigeria Protectorate is established within the British Empire. 1901 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister. 1902 – The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California. 1910 – Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members) since Horatio Nelson. 1912 – The Republic of China is established. 1914 – The SPT Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline to use a winged aircraft. 1923 – Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMS. 1927 – New Mexican oil legislation goes into effect, leading to the formal outbreak of the Cristero War. 1928 – Boris Bazhanov defects through Iran. He is the only assistant of Joseph Stalin's secretariat to have defected from the Eastern Bloc. 1929 – The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia are amalgamated into Vancouver. 1932 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth. 1934 – Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison. 1934 – A "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring" comes into effect in Nazi Germany. 1942 – The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations. 1945 – World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops kill 60 German POWs at Chenogne. 1945 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed, attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow. 1947 – Cold War: The American and British occupation zones in Allied-occupied Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later (with the French zone) became part of West Germany. 1947 – The Canadian Citizenship Act 1946 comes into effect, converting British subjects into Canadian citizens. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen. 1948 – The British railway network is nationalized to form British Railways. 1949 – United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly. 1956 – Sudan achieves independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom. 1957 – George Town, Penang, is made a city by a royal charter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. 1957 – Lèse majesté in Thailand is strengthened to include "insult" and changed to a crime against national security, after the Thai criminal code of 1956 went into effect.:6,18 1958 – The European Economic Community is established. 1959 – Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces. 1960 – Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom. 1962 – Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa. 1964 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia. 1965 – The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul, Afghanistan. 1970 – The defined beginning of Unix time, at 00:00:00. 1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television. 1973 – Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom are admitted into the European Economic Community. 1976 – A bomb explodes on board Middle East Airlines Flight 438 over Qaisumah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 81 people on board. 1978 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747, crashes into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Bombay, India, due to instrument failure, spatial disorientation, and pilot error, killing all 213 people on board. 1979 – Normal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States. 1981 – Greece is admitted into the European Community. 1982 – Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations. 1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet. 1984 – The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T. 1984 – Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom. 1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone. 1987 – The Isleta Pueblo tribe elect Verna Williamson to be their first female governor. 1988 – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. 1989 – The Montreal Protocol comes into force, stopping the use of chemicals contributing to ozone depletion. 1990 – David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor. 1993 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. 1994 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican state of Chiapas. 1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect. 1995 – The World Trade Organization comes into being. 1995 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves. 1995 – Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU. 1998 – Following a currency reform, Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence. 1999 – Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union (with the exception of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden; Greece adopts the euro two years later). 2004 – In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, is "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007. 2007 – Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. 2007 – Adam Air Flight 574 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes near the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, killing all 102 people on board. 2009 – Sixty-six people die in a nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand. 2010 – A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more. 2011 – A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new year service, killing 23 people. 2011 – Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th Eurozone country. 2013 – At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. 2015 – The Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. 2017 – An attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, during New Year's celebrations, kills at least 39 people and injures more than 60 others.

[transienturl]

There’s apparently a challenge going on at Twitter where you gotta list off what you know about each state of the US, so I’m stealing the prompt from @fixaidea since it might be interesting!

I’ll be particularly interested to see how much of my knowledge of the states is either from sports (which in the past few years I guess I have become a follower of, sort of, insofar as I only read articles about them) or politics.

Edit from the future: Holy crap this got long. I’m gonna stop after doing the first... half-ish and do another post with the rest later, lol.

Alabama: The stereotypical “red state:” highly Christian, highly conservative. No idea about demographics - I feel like I haven’t heard of a sizable Black population, for some reason? Seems odd for a southern state. Massively into college football and the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.

Alaska: Lots of unpopulated or sparsely populated land, probably largely federal land. Pretty in the supper, supposedly. Lots of wildlife; bears and fish seem like the stereotype. Hard not to associate with Sarah Palin. Used to have a major international airport when the Soviet Union didn’t allow flight over its territory. Population mostly in cities in the southwest coast(?)

Arizona: Hot, dry. Low population density. Significant amount of Native American reservations, I... think? (Not sure that is actually the most appropriate and respectful term?) Only things I know of there are the Grand Canyon, one university, and the Cardinals NFL team.

Arkansas: Uhh... it has a low population, is not on the coast, is probably west of the Mississippi, and probably tends to vote Republican? I don’t actually know where Arkansas is. Actually, maybe that’s Kansas, and Arkansas is near Tennessee and, like, North Carolina. Actually, that sounds right. Forget what I said earlier. That being said, I (clearly) have no idea whatsoever.

California: Huge, so hard to summarize; climate especially varies a lot between north and south. Huge, diverse population. Significant Asian-American population, including Governor. Reliable Democrat vote. LA is basically the biggest population center in the US; has Hollywood and lots of media production. Expensive place to live. Has 2 teams of most sports leagues just like NYC, and still has high population-per-team. San Diego is further South. San Francisco area has tons of tech companies, large bay, golden gate bridge, significant homelessness issue. State is also big on surfing, wine production.

Colorado: Fairly low population density overall, as you might expect from a western non-coastal state, but Denver is actually pretty dense. Has a bunch of the sports teams that basically represent that area of the US. Fairly liberal on the whole(?); was known for early legalization of marijuana. Lots of mountains. (No idea if it’s just Denver that’s a mile high or most of the state’s area.)

Connecticut: Tiny. Usually thought of in the same breath as its neighbors like Massachusetts and New York. I can’t actually think of anything specific to Connecticut that’s not about New England. Has a highway.

Delaware: Tiny. Joe Biden lives there. Uhh...

District of Columbia: Has more population than... I forget how many, but enough states that it obviously should be one. Ridiculously, absurdly blue “state.” (Partially from not including ~any rural area, I’m sure, but still.) The whole federal government is there. Square-ish.

Florida: Big, warm, wet. Nice weather for retired people and those trying to escape the cold. Lots of swamps and wildlife (alligators, stereotypically). Palm trees. We launch rockets there so they can go East over the ocean and are near the equator. Has Disney... uh, world? land? Miami is known as a destination city for partying. Tampa Bay is... I don’t know. Jacksonville has a military port. I would have assumed Miami and Orlando were the only large cities if not for sports. Cuba is close to Miami, so there’s a significant Cuban population. (Hispanic, too, possibly?) Swing state.

Georgia: Southern state with all that entails. Significant Black population. High Christian population, I assume. Elected a Black governor, which is a huge deal. Atlanta is a huge Black cultural center(?).

Hawaii: Y’all know what Hawaii is, so gonna skip the general stuff. Big Polynesian(?) population. Big military population and influence. Big Asian population and a common vacation destination from Japan, China, etc. Expensive as hell, obviously. Very liberal. Big on fighting climate change. Surprisingly diverse climate, considering how small it is.

Idaho: Lots of farming, not a lot of people. The stereotype is potatoes, but I don’t actually know how accurate that is. Midwestern.

Illinois: Has Chicago, a huge city, and a bunch of non-Chicago area, serving as the common example of how states are designed to have diverse population density. Chicago is on the (one of the great lakes), and sometimes it’s very windy and cold. Uh... I don’t actually know a lot about Illinois. Usually votes blue? People seem to like their sports teams?

Indiana: Midwestern. Red state. Known for the Indy 500, Mike Pence being from there, John Green living there, and... not sure what else, really. Has sports teams in Indianapolis, so presumably it’s fairly populous.

Iowa: Midwestern...ish, I think? Known for the first caucuses, and thus for being a small swing state comprised of basically just white people. Has... farms, I think?

Kansas: See entry for Arkansas.

Kentucky: Southern state known for bluegrass music, barbecue(?), uh... and probably some other stuff? In what I’m calling the Tennessee area. Super red state.

Louisiana: Southern coastal state. Has the Mississippi river mouth, I think. Has New Orleans, which is known for cuisine, French influence, and getting hit by Hurricane Katrina. (And football, both college and professional.) Also, mardi gras. Super red state.

Maine: Lots of forests. Not lots of not-white-people. So far northeast it’s basically Canada. Known for Lobster fishing, having an independent-party senator, ranked-choice voting, and... well, being full of forests.

Maryland: Hm. Washingon D.C. was originally Maryland, so this must be near Virginia. Oh, right, Baltimore is in Maryland. Which is known for crab fishing. And uh... I’m gonna guess red state? I feel like I should have more here.

Massachusetts: Where I grew up, which surprisingly makes it hard to describe since you just think of your birthplace as the default. Insert New England things here. Clam chowder, being pretty in the fall, I dunno. Has Boston, the biggest(?) city in New England. Won basically ever sport one year.

Michigan: Is between all the great lakes. Was once a manufacturing powerhouse, and to a lesser extent presumably still is. Has Detroit, known as Motor City, where all (or a lot of) the US auto manufacturers are based, and Flint, known for poisoning a ton of its poor population with lead piping and doing fuck all about it.

Minnesota: Amy Klobuchar’s state, so midwestern and presumably moderate-democratic. Has a professional football rivalry with Wisconsin that almost seems to indicate a general rivalry of sorts. No idea what it’s known for economically.

[bustedbernie]

Seven years after Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to George Wallace as "perhaps the most dangerous racist in America today," a young Bernie Sanders praised the segregationist Alabama governor.

In an interview with the Brattleboro Reformer in 1972, Sanders, then 31, said Wallace "advocates some outrageous approaches to our problems, but at least he is sensitive to what people feel they need."

Sanders, now a Vermont senator and 2020 Democrat, said, "What we need are more active politicians working for the people."

The 1972 remarks surprised the interviewer at the time, who wrote that "even though [Sanders] has been labeled a 'leftist radical' by some persons, Sanders had some praise for [Wallace]."

At the time, Sanders was in the midst of his first political bid, as a gubernatorial candidate for the socialist Liberty Union Party. During that race, Sanders garnered only single-digit support — the first in a series of losses in bids for political office, before winning the Burlington mayor's office, Vermont's single House seat in 1990, and his current Senate seat in 2006.

Wallace was among the most well-known segregationists of his era. Wallace declared in his 1963 inaugural address as governor — he served three different non-consecutive terms — that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Wallace won further infamy for standing in the front of the entrance of the University of Alabama, blocking the paths of black students.

He died in 1998 at 79, after becoming a born-again Christian and apologizing to black Americans for his previous policies.

The resurfacing of Sanders's comments come after many Democrats begin fearing his rise in the presidential primary. For nearly a year, most of Sanders's rivals have refrained from directly targeting his long paper trail of controversial statements and positions.

While there was a bipartisan consensus in the 1970s and 1980s against the totalitarian policies of the Soviet Union and Cuba, Sanders regularly touted what he saw as positive aspects of the regimes.

And last year, the Washington Examiner reported on Sanders's history campaigning for the Marxist Socialist Workers party in 1980 and 1984. At one point, Sanders's involvement with the SWP led to an FBI investigation when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont...

Why the hell am I not surprised? Y’all think Joe Rogan is an anomaly? Nope! That’s just how Bernie sees the world! You either learn, grow and change as a person or you don’t. Bernie’s whole thing is that he’s consistent. Sounds about right to me, consistently a racist POS.

[caribbean-civilization-blog]

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The Caribbean region is complexed in that no one definition properly encapsulates its essence. Geographically, it is based on the concept of the ‘Caribbean Basin’ where the Caribbean Sea is rimmed by islands and mainland territories. However, this definition falls short of relaying the region’s unique reality and social institutions that were born as a by-product of the shared historical experience of colonialism, indentureship, and independence. The human geography of Caribbean nations all similarly converge on this historical factor, which when paired with the islands’ proximity, naturally led to the hybridization and creolization that formed the renowned “melting pot” of people, beliefs, and practices. As a result, the diversity of the Caribbean’s plural society has been both its strength and weakness. While the shared experiences of the nations may promote a sense of social solidarity and collective consciousness to some, to others it invites intricate levels of stratification that manifests itself in issues of race, religion, class, and politics, among others. As such, this article seeks to assess the claim that “All ah we is one” by examining the factors that hinder and promote a unified Caribbean identity.

           To begin, the division of race and color hinders a unified Caribbean identity. There exists a high level of insularity and social tension among the different races in the contemporary Caribbean, mainly due to each group’s historical experience. This is particularly evident in the disunity between the two predominant races, Indians, and Africans, and can be traced back to the period of Indentureship. During this time, the former planters promoted division between the ex-slaves and indentured laborers to maintain social control. Additionally, indentured labor and slave labor were not comparable due to their different circumstances. Unlike slaves, indentured laborers were not considered property, consequently, they benefitted from less deplorable working conditions and even had the opportunity to acquire land or return to India (Baldeosingh). Due to their differing circumstances, a strain was put on integrating as one in society, restricting their identities to their respective races instead of a unified “West Indian” identity (Puri). This polarization is evident in the rampant identity politics that exists in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago today, whereby many voters support political parties due to its ethnic composition. Moreover, included in race is the idea of colorism, which is an internalized form of racism that has roots in slavery (Deborah). During colonialism, the dynamic of European superiority and black inferiority was used as a tool to ensure conformity, enabling planters to control the slaves who outnumbered them several times over (Baldeosingh). Subsequently, a rigid stratification system centered around characteristics race and color emerged in the Caribbean, arising in class distinctions that created more barriers to a unified identity. Thus, race and color have widened the divide between and within races by being the basis for resentment of others, hindering the idea that “All ah we is one”.

           However, race and color can be also be used as a mechanism in forming a unified Caribbean identity. While the different races are set apart from each other in terms of their historical circumstances, the common experience of being transplanted can also serve to unite them. Apart from the Amerindians, all races in the Caribbean represent diasporas that were similarly forced to adapt to a new environment as laborers. This paired with the region’s common inheritance of the norms and values of the Plantation society invites economic, political and social challenges that all West Indians endure, corroborating the idea that “all ah we is one”. For instance, the legacy of the pigmentocracy continues to persist, manifesting itself in many aspects such as beauty standards which are based on an ascriptive-particularistic basis, favoring lighter complexions (Mustapha). West Indians are unified in overcoming how they view themselves based on these standards, fighting practices such as skin bleaching, where 300,000 Jamaicans were reported to practice (Chappell). Beyond this, issues of social stratification are still paramount, with the Plantation Society Theory claiming that the contemporary Caribbean society mirrors the plantocracy, inviting economic challenges such as unemployment and difficult social mobility which further contribute to high crime levels found throughout the region  (Chinapoo). These challenges have united races in finding solutions, leading to some of the largest social movements in the Caribbean, such as the fight for Independence and the Black Power Movements of the 1970s. Further establishing ethnic unity are interracial unions that have blurred the lines of the region’s plural society through miscegenation. These experiences show the Caribbean is united in enduring and overcoming common challenges, justifying the notion that “all ah we is one”.

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        Secondly, social institutions have created barriers to forming a unified Caribbean identity. As coined by M.G. Smith, the Caribbean is referred to as a Plural Society. He outlined that unlike in a homogenous society, a Plural society has exclusive institutions for each group (Mustapha). This phenomenon exists as a by-product of the Caribbean’s history whereby each transplanted group held on to their original way of life and has since been a catalyst for division. Evidently, groups have adopted different family types, with African families following a matriarchal structure whereas Indian families opt for a patriarchal approach, and polygamy is practiced by Muslims and Africans. As the primary agent of socialization, the family influences how individuals think. This can breed ethnocentrism when the way of life of groups do not align, as seen in the disunity in religion and education. This manifests itself in many aspects, for example, the criticism of religious dress like the Hijab or dreadlocks and certain foods such as the prohibition of beef by Hindus and pork by Muslims. Additionally, literary work differs between cultures in the form of religious texts, traditional music, writings, and poems as well as distinct festivals such as Divali and Eid-ul-Fitr, which further socializes individuals into the norms of their groups. Lastly, education was historically used as an agent of socialization to facilitate the colonial agenda. Denominational schools continue this by perpetuating the agenda of their group, further dividing people. Thus, the Plurality of the Caribbean has raised obstacles in the realization that “all ah we is one”.

        However, social institutions have also contributed to the formation of a common Caribbean Identity. Through the consistent interactions of different groups in the region, the process of Creolization was facilitated. Through this, cultures have merged to create something new which can provide a basis for unity among different groups, showing that “all ah we is one”. The Caribbean’s history has born new family types, such as common-law unions and visiting unions allowing for a common understanding of the circumstances and socialization patterns between groups (Mustapha). Furthermore, socialization patterns within families are becoming more tolerant due to education and globalization, normalizing acceptance of interracial marriages, same-sex couples, and other cultures. Creolization is also found in religion, with the mixture of beliefs giving rise to syncretic religions and acculturation of religious practices. The historical interactions of Christianity and African religions have allowed for the formation of “home-grown” religions such as Rastafarianism and Santería through slaves trying to integrate aspects of their beliefs into the dominant ideology. Syncretism is also seen in religious practices, such as Hindu marriages which have adopted aspects of Christianity (Barrow, Reddock). Moreover, cultural diversity in the Caribbean has enriched the lives of many, creating elements that are unique to the region. New genres of music, including calypso and soca, unique foods such as pelau and iconic festivals, namely Carnival have all emphasized the common elements of Caribbean culture and corroborated the idea that the region is one. Exposure to different cultures has also facilitated a greater understanding and appreciation of other groups, with countries such as Trinidad and Tobago renaming their highest award, the Trinity Cross, to the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to avoid religious discrimination. Thus, the interaction of different groups has created a uniquely Caribbean Identity that proves “all ah we is one”.

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        Lastly, the differences between Caribbean countries hinders the formation of a unified Caribbean Identity. Territories were historically occupied by different powers, such as the British, Spanish, French, and Dutch. Consequently, aspects of these powers endured after independence, resulting in a plethora of systems today. For instance, legal systems vary between countries, with common law systems existing in most of the Caribbean, islands like Haiti adopting a civil law approach, and a hybrid legal system existing in St. Lucia (Antoine). Additionally, there is not a unanimous final court of appeal, with most territories appealing to the Privy council and others to the CCJ. Thus, there is a lack of legal cohesion in the Caribbean, making a uniformed identity difficult. Furthermore, many different forms of governments exist in the region, with most opting for a democratic approach and countries like Trinidad and Tobago following the Westminster model. These differing systems have fostered resentment for other forms of government, such as the Communist approach that exists in Cuba. The geographical distances between the islands are also a source of insularity. While the territories are close in proximity to one another, the makeup of the archipelago means that they are separated by a body of water. This allows citizens of each nation to view themselves solely in a local context, not as a part of the wider Caribbean. Resulting from this is the phenomenon of competition between islands instead of working alongside each other, therefore creating barriers in the development of a unified identity and the productivity of the Caribbean as a whole (Smith, Livingston). Therefore, the differences between Caribbean territories raises difficulties in the realization that “all ah we is one” in the region.

        Nevertheless, differences between territories are being broken down to form a unified Caribbean identity. Upon examination, the legal systems that exist in the region have deviated from their original inheritance, creating unique Caribbean legal systems. This is evident in the common law tradition that most territories follow. Here, there is an advent of a written constitution, a bill of rights, and the doctrine of constitutional supremacy that does not follow the traditional common law system (Antoine). Furthermore, the hybridization of legal systems and the influence of the Caribbean’s distinct customs on the law has created unique legal systems, that validate the idea that “all ah we is one”. Moreover, the idea of regional integration has been contemporarily encouraged largely due to globalization, with many different forms of association between territories being experimented with. This began with The West Indian Federation and was continued by CARIFTA which focused on economic integration by removing barriers to trade between territories and had notable accomplishments such as the establishment of the Caribbean Development Bank. The links within the region were further deepened with the emergence of CARICOM which facilitated internal free trade through a common market (Mohammed). These organizations encouraged a more intimate relationship between territories, allowing for a strong sense of social solidarity to take root. The knowledge that economic survival depends on a unified Caribbean identity also informed the formation of the OECS and ACS which established the Eastern Caribbean Dollar and more intimately unified its members (Mohammed). Thus, the Caribbean territories have noted their common goals and similarities and are making active efforts in unifying the region, bringing justice to the idea that “all ah we is one”.

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         In retrospect, the Caribbean is a pluralistic society that has diverse historical, cultural, and political realities. It is often this diversity that creates resentment for others based on their race, color, culture, and nationality, creating disunity between people and territories. However, the diversity of the region has also become a mechanism in achieving unity, giving rise to creolization, tolerance, and cooperation among people and territories. As a result, a unique Caribbean identity that everyone in the region is a part of has emerged, proving that  “all ah we is one”. Although insularity still lingers as the region is yet to fully integrate, many barriers hindering this has been overcome and continue to be broken down, making true unity a reality.

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PHOTOS

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https://www.thecaribbeanist.co.uk/destination/tobago/

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 https://uggggh.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/its-a-shameful-thing-to-be-dark-skinned/

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 http://caribbeantl.com/caribbean-people-culture-traditions-and-customs/

image 4

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Regional_integration_provides_resilience_%26%238211;_CARICOM_Secretary_General?profile=1228

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 http://www.classifieds.guardian.co.tt/business-guardian/2011/06/16/no-caribbean-society