#Operation Ghetto Storm: Every 28 hours

[serious2020]

The White Settlers' Bizarre Economic Strategy Of Terrorizing Black People

https://popularresistance.org/the-white-settlers-bizarre-economic-strategy-of-terrorizing-black-people/ By Jon Jeter, Black Agenda Report. December 15, 2024 Educate! Jordan Neely’s killing and the subsequent acquittal of Daniel Penny can be seen as part of the reactionary existential panic felt by whites whenever the country experiences growing economic instability and hardship. That jurors…

[ausetkmt]

US Lacks Moral Legitimacy to Lecture Others on Human Rights | Online Version

The United States publishes global human rights reports every year. Referring to allegations of grave human rights violations, the US Treasury Department imposes sanctions on organizations and individuals from different countries. Decision-makers, academics, civil rights activists, and most crucially, the general public, became interested in this issue. Many of them, however, contend that the United States does not have the authority to talk about the human rights of other countries. Such claims cannot be disregarded for a number of reasons. Some believe that regardless of the human rights situation in China, Bangladesh, or other nations, there are logical reasons to question the right of the United States to speak out on human rights matters. When the United States, the human rights trader, discusses the human rights of other nations, the adage "the pot calling the kettle black" immediately comes to mind. Does the US government have the moral right to impose sanctions on others when its stance on international human rights standards is questioned and numerous human rights crimes are committed by its defense and security agencies? The mantra "war means peace" has inspired many cases of cold-blooded murder without following any legal procedure in different parts of the world. The US administration tries to justify meddling in other countries or the extrajudicial killing of civilians under the guise of "fighting terrorism and maintaining national security”. In January 2020, military strategist General Soleimani's killing in a US drone strike in Iraq was one of the prime examples of "state terrorism." It is believed that the aspiration of America to build an empire in the Middle East was thwarted by this general. This "targeted killing" is against international laws and conventions relating to legally protected persons adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1973.

On August 29 of last year, the US launched a drone attack on a vehicle in Kabul, suspecting the location of IS militants. Ten civilians, including three adults and seven children, were killed in that attack. US Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie later described the incident as a "tragic mistake," but he refused to prosecute anyone for the extrajudicial killings. In the 20 years following 9/11, US drones and airstrikes have reportedly killed at least 22,000 civilians, according to a recent report from The Guardian newspaper. As a result, the rationality of US counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and other nations of the Middle East has been called into question.

American society is constantly confronted with racial discrimination, extrajudicial killings, and police brutality. A culture of impunity for extrajudicial killings also exists. Despite having a reputation as a "champion of democracy and human rights," the US is failing to uphold these rights within its own borders. Racism and police violence have long been problems in America. In essence, Western white perceptions of blacks are still stuck in slavery and colonialism. In May 2020, the death of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in the city of Minneapolis in the United States during the pandemic caused intense protests around the world. The way black people are shot dead by the police without trial and choked to death with boots around their necks, human rights scream, "We can't breathe."

According to a Washington Post survey, only 13 percent of Americans are black. But their death rate from police shootings is more than double that of whites. A black man, woman, or kid is killed extra-judicially every 28 hours in America, according to a report dubbed "Operation Ghetto Storm." Unfortunately, racial profiling is still a legal practice in several US states.

The socioeconomic structure in America today is identical to the apartheid system in South Africa, according to Robert Reich, Clinton's secretary of labor. White-black discrimination exists in the very structure of the state and social order. Barack Obama once said, "Racism is profoundly ingrained in our society and related to our history and it is the worst chapter of our history."

RAB in Bangladesh has been charged by the US Treasury Department with missing 600 individuals between 2009 and 2021. However, 612,846 people went missing in the USA in 2018, according to statistics from the National Crime Information Center of the USA. Among them, 85,000,459 (sic) Americans have gone missing just in December. In the United States, gun violence has escalated into a serious social issue that cannot be stopped. The number of fatalities was 19,384 in 2020, the most since 1968.The most comprehensive data on gun attacks in the United States, according to the US-based research institute Pew Research Center, was available in 2020. A total of 45,222 people lost their lives in such incidents in that year, which is an increase of 14% from the previous year, 25% from five years prior, and 43% from ten years prior.

The Washington Post reported that since 2015, police had killed 1,000 people on average annually in the United States. Gun Violence Archive, a statistical website, reports that 1,120 people were killed by police in 2020, yet in 99% of those incidents, no charges were filed. Ironically, in criminal and civil cases, police personnel are afforded special legal protections under American law. As a result, these murderers go unpunished.

New questions have been raised about the role of the US police since the public is in a state of panic as a result of regular gun incidents. Human rights organizations accuse the government of failing to stop these crimes. Amnesty International claims that the current "castle doctrine" and "stand my ground" laws are making the issue even worse. So, it is time for the US administration to concentrate on fixing the crisis in its own country before offering counsel or advice to others.

Since the US and its allies launched military operations dubbed "War on Terror" in 2001 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the name of democracy, they have killed hundreds of thousands of people, injured millions more, uprooted tens of millions of people, and triggered humanitarian catastrophes. Approximately 209,000 Iraqi civilians perished in wars and other violent conflicts between 2003 and 2021, while 9.2 million Iraqis became refugees, according to Statista, a global statistical database.

US violations of human rights are clearly demonstrated by the deaths of innocent Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans, and Syrians at the hands of American soldiers. Further evidence may be found in the videos, which show the way the US troops abused detainees at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, and the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Several countries including Israel, the United Kingdom, Libya, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, and Zambia, have been identified to host covert US federal prisons.

To address the widespread issue of enforced disappearances by law enforcement agencies, a global accord known as the "Enforced Disappearance Pact" was formed in 2010. Surprisingly, only 13 EU Member States adopted the "ICPPED" Convention ten years later, in 2020. The United States has consistently been a strong voice for democracy and human rights on a global scale. The US, however, acts like a buzzed witness when it comes to its allies. For instance, Israel, one of the USA's closest friends, continues to violate the rights of Palestinians, including through torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and denial of legal rights. However, the USA chose to ignore this. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the US uses democracy and human rights as levers to subjugate nations.

Somalia, Sudan, Palau, and the United States are among the nations that have not ratified the International Convention on Human Rights on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). That means the United States lags behind Somalia and Sudan in terms of enacting laws that protect women.

To sum up, the United States' continual disregard for the human rights situation in its own country while lecturing others is nothing more than a strategy to maintain pressure on the targeted nations in order to achieve its foreign policy goal. If the US truly wants to be considered a "genuine" defender of human rights, it must avoid the violations, ambivalence, and "immoral" parts of its foreign policy that cast doubt on its role in defending democracy and human rights.

[esprit-de-corps-magazine]

Canada & Russia’s Common Legacy: Victory over Nazi Germany

by H.E. Ambassador Alexander Darchiev - Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canada

As Hitler’s lair in Berlin fell to the Red Army, and Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the USSR and the Allied powers on the night of May 9th, 1945, the cruelest and deadliest war in the world’s history came to an end. 

This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of this glorious date by paying tribute to our fallen heroes, and to the many millions of victims tortured and exterminated by the Nazi death machine.

For the Soviet people it was the Great Patriotic War and the epic battle for survival. According to Hitler’s Generalplan Ost, the European part of the USSR should have been completely cleansed of Jews, Russians and other “non-Aryan” ethnicities labeled as subhumans to provide Lebensraum (living space) for eventual Germanization of this conquered territory.

By amassing a massive invasion force and mobilizing the military-industrial potential of conquered Europe, Nazis arrogantly put stakes on a surprise blitzkrieg assault upon the USSR in the early hours of Sunday, June 22, 1941. The scale of the attack by German and Axis powers’ forces was unprecedented as it erupted along a 2900-kilometer front with more than 4 million troops, 4,600 tanks, up to 5,000 aircraft and 50,000 artillery pieces.

Over a series of fierce battles, starting from the border - where Soviet defenders of the Brest fortress continued fighting for almost a month, even after the German frontline had pushed a hundred kilometers eastward – Germany’s self-confidence in its invincibility faded away. During the initial offensive, the Nazi forces failed to capture Leningrad and they were stopped on the outskirts of Moscow just 25 kilometres short of the Kremlin. 

The whole world breathlessly waited for the outcome of the Moscow battle. Highly inspiring was the traditional November 7th, 1941 military parade on the Red Square which demonstrated to everyone that Russian capital remained unvanquished. Shortly after this the Red Army delivered a devastating blow to the previously undefeated Wehrmacht in a major counteroffensive which pushed the Germans back.

By the spring of 1942, the Germans changed their strategy and attempted to crush Soviet defenses by seizing the Caucasus and Caspian oilfields as well as cutting vital supply routes from the south to Moscow. Hitler took aim at Stalingrad, a key industrial and transportation center on the Volga river. 

The battle of Stalingrad which lasted from August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943, was the largest and bloodiest clash in the history of warfare, with an estimated 2 million total casualties on both sides. Together with almost 100 thousand German troops, 24 generals and their commander Field Marshal Paulus were taken prisoners. As a result, Hitler’s dreams to defeat the USSR miserably failed and the tide of war turned westward.

Amidst fierce fightings in summer 1942, as German tanks were rushing toward the Volga river, with the Soviet troops struggling hard to shore up their crumbling frontline, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King sent encouraging greetings on behalf of men and women of Canada to “the gallant peoples of the Soviet Union”. Stressing that “today our nations fight side by side”, Mackenzie King praised the “forcefulness and determination” of the Red Army “which have aroused the profound admiration of the civilized world”.

It was in this spirit of solidarity that the USSR and Canada established diplomatic relations on June 12, 1942.

Canada’s contribution to the war efforts of the anti-Hitler coalition was widely known and appreciated in the Soviet Union. The weekly magazine “British Ally” published in Russian by the UK Ministry of Information offered stories about Canadian operations, including the dramatic Dieppe raid in August 1942 (intended to test waters for a future landing in France) and the liberation of Sicily in August 1943.

A special praise and admiration has always been extended in Russia to the heroic Canadian sailors who braved the perilous Murmansk Run convoys to deliver weaponry and supplies in support of the USSR. These important missions from the sea ports of Saint John’s and Halifax to the Russian Artic harbours of Murmansk and Archangelsk took a heavy toll. Eighty-five Allied merchant vessels and 16 warships were lost to heavy German attacks. One particularly ill-fated convoy – PQ17 – lost 24 out of 35 ships at a cost of 153 lives. 

Alex Polowin is one of those Canadian heroes. He joined the Navy in 1942 at the age of 17 and he currently resides in Ottawa. In 2013 Polowin was recognized for the noble service with the Russian medal which is named in honour of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov.

Mr. Polowin, whose name is now given to one of Ottawa’s streets said in an interview that “he’s fiercely proud of his contribution” to the war effort.

Another important Canadian input to the USSR’s war effort was the delivery of 1388 British designed Valentine infantry tanks which were assembled under licence in Montreal at the Angus railway shops. They took part, along with the famous Soviet T-34 tanks, in many of the Red Army operations, including the largest ever tank battle at the Kursk Bulge in July 1943. Kursk was the largest tank battle in history, and when the dust settled the Germans had suffered fatal defeat. From that point onward the Wehrmacht could only retreat.

By the end of 1943 the ground was literally burning under the feet of Nazi invaders. Around one million USSR citizens, young and old, men and women, who were located in the Nazi occupied territories were actively involved as partisans in a fierce underground struggle. This spirit of resistance and Red Army battlefield victories inspired prisoners of Nazi death camps and Jewish ghettos to revolt against the torturers and butchers of the Holocaust. Their anthem was the “Partisan song” which includes the lyrics “never say there is only death for you” penned by Girsh Glick, a young poet who escaped the Vilna ghetto and was later captured and executed by Germans. Most notable and the only successful uprising of its kind was the one at Sobibor concentration camp in 1943 which was led by the courageous Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky.

Symbolizing the courage and stamina of these defenders of the Motherland, their deep conviction that “ours is a righteous cause”, as proclaimed by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov in his radio address on June 22, 1941, was the heroic death of General Dmitry Karbyshev. Starting his service in the Russian Imperial Army, he was later promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Corps of Engineers in the Red Army. His manuals on the theory of engineering, battlefield operations and tactics were mandatory reading for Soviet commanders.

Captured by the Nazis after being rendered unconscious in combat in August 1941, General Karbyshev was held in succession of concentration camps. He refused to collaborate with his captors and despite his advanced age, led the camp’s underground movement. On February 18, 1945 Germans executed him at the notorious Mauthausen death camp by dousing him with ice water and then leaving him to expire in the freezing cold. This inhuman murder was witnessed and later testified to by a Canadian Army Major Seddon de Saint-Clair who survived captivity at the same place and unfortunately died a year after his liberation in a UK hospital.

Starting in January 1944, ten strategic Soviet offensives along the huge frontline from the Arctic to the Black Sea drove the Nazi forces out of the USSR’s territory paving the way for the liberation of Eastern Europe. The Wehrmacht’s resounding defeat near Leningrad fully relieved that long besieged city’s barbaric blockade during which close to one million inhabitants died from shelling and hunger. The Nazis and their satellites were expelled from the Soviet Ukraine and the Baltic states, with Finland, then a German ally, exiting the war. The 1944 Soviet victory in Belarus wherein 28 of 34 German divisions were completely destroyed, allowed the Red Army to secure a bridgehead for the final strike on Berlin. 

The Hitler regime found itself between a rock and a hard place, with the Western Allies having finally opened the long awaited second front in Europe when they landed  on June 6, 1944 in Normandy. Once ashore, the allied expeditionary force pushed through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and started to advance towards the German Rhineland. Overcoming heavy German resistance, Soviet troops successfully forced the Nazis out of Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. After two weeks and two days of massive storming Berlin fell on May 2, 1945 to the Red Army.

Symbolically, on this very day the first direct contact between Russian soldiers and Canadian paratroopers from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion happened in the northern German city of Wismar. Several days earlier, on April 25, 1945, the historic encounter of Soviet and US troops occurred at the Elbe river marking the long-awaited link-up of the Allies' Eastern and Western fronts. Despite later biased interpretations influenced by the Cold War politics, these were the true and unforgettable moments of unity and happiness that the common deadly foe was finally vanquished. 

Germans signed the instrument of unconditional surrender in Karlhorst, Berlin on May 9th, 1945 at the ceremony presided over by Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the presence of US, British and French generals. This date which is sacred and deeply meaningful for every Russian family has been celebrated ever since as Victory Day in Russia and most of the former USSR. Remarkably, Israel has also made it a national holiday expressing the gratitude of Shoah survivors and the Jewish people.

The Victory was won at an enormous price. The Soviet Union lost 27 million lives, of whom only one third were military losses, while millions of civilians became victims of mass brutal killings, bombardments and hunger both on occupied territories and in concentration camps. 

Without the bravery and solidarity of the USSR and the Allied nations, Nazism would have never been destroyed. Echoing other world leaders, Prime Minister Mackenzie King congratulated Joseph Stalin on May 13, 1945 with the warm message stating that Canada will never forget “the tenacity and the heroism of the armies and the peoples of the USSR”.

Let us remember well this important history lesson that global challenges can only be overcome by acting together putting aside political divisions, phobias and short-sighted ambitions. WWII experience should not fall victim to pro-Nazi revisionism or be thrown into oblivion. For the sake of peace and the well-being of future generations.

[alllivesmatterseries-blog]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday 2017

Peace and Justice need Truth

State sanctioned violence ain’t New

Black Lives need All Lives

To Protect from Red, White & Blue

Boycott Bully Billionaires Brandishing Bombastic Bull

How will I celebrate and illuminate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

Hold Hope High Happily Helping Healing Happen

Do we understand evil that killed the man sits set to systematically sabotage all the good Dr. King Jr. dreamed would stand?

Connect The Dots announced planned protest at schools across the country at 7am Thursday, January 19th alerting our communities of the potential jeopardy of public schools if Betsy DeVos is confirmed as United States Secretary of Education. I’d prefer a dialogue even debate at every school regarding all the nomination’s of President elect Donald Trump.

Why?

Even today as we recall and recognize Dr. King’s impact on American society, particularly in light of an incredibly accomplished 8 years of the first African-American President one can  analyze the extent of our Nation’s progress in practicing compassionate civil rights considering these cabinet nominations.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said ,”Question the capitalistic society.” And he said, “America must be born again.” Anyone familiar with the tradition from which “born again” comes understands that the phrase is far from “great again”. I do pray Mr. Trump’s meeting with Dr. King’s son results in “born again” and not just free government photo id cards. Perhaps an ultra- capitalistic President with an exceptional black surgeon leading the Housing Urban Development, being “born again”, and encountering the living JAH in you, a talking mule, the talking drum of Jazz, Roots & Rock, Hip-Hop, or Dr. King’s lasting words will heed the Spirit. The Spirit singing, “A host of positive psychological changes will inevitably result from wide spread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when decisions concerning his own life are in his own hands, when he has means to seek self improvement. Personal conflicts among husbands, wives, and children will diminish when the unjust measure of human worth on a scale of dollars is eliminated.”

Can we expect massive reparations to African-Americans from President Donald Trump? Maybe?

Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee is a billionaire that desires to eliminate public education in favor of vouchers, for-profit charters, and school choice. Check out her views in consideration of your protesting. I’m not endorsing the nominee. I am recognizing vouchers means money to families. And I know many educators that would with good intentions and results launch schools in their communities. But starting a school takes resource. Thus there must be more than vouchers for communities to work at improving education. Reparations?

Obviously not all agree. Not so obvious is why some do and some don’t. For example, President of Interfaith Alliance, Rabbi Jack Moline says, “Americans can always send their children to private schools and religious schools but raiding the public treasury to subsidize private businesses and religious organizations runs against the pubic trust and the Constitution.” But countless Jewish day schools receive plenty, and lobby for even more, tax credit programs, i.e. subsidies.

The community at Beit T’ Shuvah in Culver City reflecting on “Shared Legacies: Honoring The Black/Jewish Civil Rights Alliance” with great food and a trailer of a film so titled, reiterated the importance of not keeping silent when witnessing the abuse, persecution and oppression of others. As well, repeated references to Nelson Mandela and Apartheid reminded us of our need for truth and reconciliation. Appealing to an urgency for decency, a guest Rabbi suggested that Dr. King’s “Letter From The Birmingham Jail” be read at every Seder ceremony. And Christ Our Redeemer pastor, Rev. Mark Whitlock passionately recommended that anyone wishing to do something useful come out of themselves and into the fullness of God to love one another.

Peace and Justice need Truth

State sanctioned violence ain’t New

Black Lives need All Lives

To Protect from Red, White & Blue

Perhaps more Colin Kapernick type responses in more fields of employment and more areas of society to injustice anywhere for everyone is what we need. From everyone, particularly the youth, like in the civil rights movement or struggles against Apartheid, as John Lewis said, “Find a way to get in the way to stop wrong”. Amazingly, well not so amazingly when one honestly reflects on our history but still, it is wild how “self-declared” Christians, same faith as Dr. King rebuked Colin for his compassionate action. Jim Denison, for example, says Colin’s mistaken interpretation of the flag’s meaning as justice rather than freedom makes his protest misplaced. Should one celebrate freedom in this place at this time as this people face acts of genocide?  

Dr. King warned of the three-headed evils of racism, economic exploitation and war. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement calls it Operation Ghetto Storm as black and brown communities find themselves under siege from their own government. Every 28 hours being killed by law enforcement without significant cause with total impunity are African- American, Native-American and Latin American communities at war for economic exploitation. And a tenacious government prosecutes those with the audacity to pursue justice, i.e.. Marilyn Mosby and the only person to be arrested in the Eric Garner choking, Ramsy Orta.

The economic exploitation evil head often blinds people to the existence and devastation of the other two, war and racism. People’s love for money allows them excuses or ignorance of the sickest devaluing of other human beings. College football coach Dabo Swinney, being asked about the Black Lives Matter movement and his response if his team followed Kaepernick’s lead said, “It is so easy to say there is a race problem. But we have a sin problem” Can he not see that the sin is racism? Coaching on a former plantation that now as a University will make millions each game, and himself making multi-millions per year coaching primarily black players in a most violent game says if college players ever get paid, “I’ll go do something else as there is too much entitlement in this world as it is.” Ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not killed because he had a dream of racial solidarity and social harmony but because he had an idea of what it would take for that dream to be realized. Power! He said, “Power is the ability to achieve purpose. The ability to bring about political, economic, and social change.” Money can certainly provide power in our society but so can organization, knowledge, art and compassion. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. started asking people to ask why America had so many poor, he talked about the need for America’s restructuring. Why must we pay for water in a world that is 2/3rd water and who owns the oil are questions he asked people to ask.

Questions that got King shot are hot topic again as Ex-Exxon Executive Rex Tillerson looks set to become US Secretary of State. Did Trump pick him or did Rex and Putin pick Trump? Drill baby drill in Russia’s Arctic territory? All I know is we gotta stand with our Native American family in the Dakotas against devastation of the water and wildlife just like we must stand with our family in Flint, Michigan and Gardena, California.  

Has Dr. King’s dream been deferred? We are facing police killing kids and district attorney’s prosecuted for daring to pursuing justice for the people against the police. And Trump’s nomination for Attorney General, the country’s main prosecutor, Eric Holders old job, is a man already deemed too racist to become a federal judge, a fan of the Klu Klux Klan until he discovered they too smoke herb, and a proponent of cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment for prisoners, staunch anti-immigration legislator, Jeff Sessions.

Truth and reconciliation is going to take time and conversation to achieve progressive action, more than protest. Rabbi Sharon Brous, staggered by Black Lives Matter’s platform’s inclusion of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian peoples and the sharp language with which the nation was included as abusers, had to empathetically consider the truth from another’s perspective.  Even remaining in disagreement with the BLM platform, Rabbi says, “the bottom line: we are teetering at the edge of the abyss. We must not walk away- from,  the work or from each other,” says the Rabbi.

Though so many of our questions today seem like no brainers, I beg we think about em. Think about how to do everything in Love. Think about how to love your enemies as well as love your friends and family and self. Dr. King’s most critical legacy is his profession of faith.

I John 4:7-10 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is Love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”

Peace and Justice need Truth

State sanctioned violence ain’t New

Black Lives need All Lives

To Protect from Red, White & Blue