#civil services 2018 results

[septembermonologues]

i am so fucking terrified, i don't know how to get through this waiting

I guess I'm asking if there's any hope left to be had

the wait is so brutal but yes, i firmly believe that there is always hope!! some things i'm trying to keep in mind are:

- the red haze-- early results seem widely red because in-person votes lean republican. those votes are also counted first and faster because they're smaller counties compared to denser ones that lean democrat. make sure you're looking at the % of ballots counted because projected results aren't true results. the race won't start to actually solidify until tomorrow morning.

- keep an eye on your state and local reps! the nitty gritty stuff can be more positive than the national (i live in a pretty rural area but i just happily voted for rep underwood--a younger progressive black woman--a second time).

- just because results come short of what we hoped doesn't mean they represent popular opinion. in florida, marijuana and abortion rights have fallen short even with a 50%+ majority because they require a 60% majority to pass. i know it's incredibly disheartening to not see popular opinions supported by law but i also believe that you have to remember that people, especially people in historically red states, don't necessary tow the stereotypical line. there is room for movement and change.

- there are ballots that currently aren't being counted because they have errors that are CURABLE and CAN be counted if corrected. i already reblogged something about it but if you voted (esp if by mail) please answer unnamed calls because it could be about your ballot. if you go here at vote.com you can also track your ballot.

- there are always, always things for us to do between elections. encourage your friends and family to look forward at the 2026 midterms (they can have huge effects on congress) and start planning, see if there are any campaigns that could use your help moving forward, look into working polling stations in the future (i did it in 2018 and it was a long but fulfilling day), get the fuck outside and moving around. find out where you can volunteer around you- homeless shelters, food banks/kitchens, community events. read some history and some theory-- we aren't actually in completely unprecedented times and it's important to remember where we've progressed from.

- honestly? stop giving batshit crazy people the attention they want. no rage engagement. its what they want. focus on raising awareness without directly interacting with them.

- it fucking sucks ass that its this close and that extremists win. i will never ever say that it doesn't. but it will not be the end. it will be hard but thats when we have to lean on each other. we can't be afraid to ask each other for help and we have to find things to be excited and hopeful for. there is some truth to "other people have it worse so i have to keep going". who are we to give up on the whole?

maybe im just tipsy but i just find so much hope and inspiration in the work so many people put into civil service. people want better than what we have and are fighting for us. i can't let myself get too negative because it doesn't do any good to wallow. just in general i love humanity too much to let the bad win.

[mariacallous]

For decades, Americans United for Separation of Church and State called its adversaries “religious extremists.” Today, the group has a more specific target: fighting Christian nationalism.

The decision to sharpen the language was made by Rachel Laser, the group’s president for the last six years. A Jew and the first religious minority to lead Americans United since its founding in 1947, Laser wanted the group to be more clear-eyed about what she sees as a growing threat to religious pluralism in the United States: the belief that American laws should favor Christian values over those of other religions.

But it was not an easy decision for her to make. “On some deep level, I worry about alienating Christians, as many Jews do,” Laser wrote last year in the group’s magazine. “When you are part of a mere 2% of the population, it can feel perilous to risk fostering adversity with 65% of the population.”

That anxiety about the optics of her leadership surfaced even before she took the job. During her interview, Laser recounted to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, she asked the board outright: “Why aren’t you hiring Christian clergy?”

Americans United had always been led by pastors, but Barry Lynn, who served as the organization’s previous leader, from 1992 to 2018, said he welcomes a departure. If there were any concerns about having a Jew lead a fight against Christian nationalism, Laser has proven it’s possible to do so, he said. 

“I’ve thought about that a lot, but I just don’t think it’s a burden or a problem because she works very collaboratively with board members who are themselves Christians and she works in coalitions,” Lynn said. “She understands the depths of the danger that Christian nationalism presents to both Christianity and to religious minorities.”

Laser, 55, is married to intellectual property lawyer Mark Davies. They have three children and the family belongs to Adas Israel, a Conservative congregation in Washington, D.C. She began her journey in Chicago, where she grew up with Jewish activist parents who didn’t prioritize religious life. But when she followed a friend to Sunday school, she encountered Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, a progressive Reform Jewish leader who was deeply involved in civil rights and other social justice causes.

“I was a very curious kid, and he encouraged me to ask questions,” Laser said, fighting back tears as she recalled Wolf, who passed away in 2008. “The more questions I asked, the more he appreciated me. That’s why I value being Jewish.”

Laser (her name is pronounced LAZZ-er) carried those values into a career focused on public service. After earning a law degree, she held senior roles in organizations advocating for reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and interfaith dialogue, including as the deputy director of the Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of Reform Judaism.

“She’s a knowledgeable Jew who cares deeply about Jewish concerns,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, who led the Religious Action Center during Laser’s time there. “She fit very comfortably into the Reform movement’s view that social justice was a central part of what it means to be a Jew.”

He said he hired her because she was already a proven bridge builder, and it was important for the organization to work across political and ideological lines in Washington. It’s a skill that would be critical when Americans United tapped her in 2018, tasking her with adapting the group for a polarized era.

She took the helm during the second year of Donald Trump’s first presidency, as debates over religion in public life were intensifying. Laser commissioned research to gauge public attitudes and test Americans United’s messaging.

The results were mixed. “Religious extremism” resonated with most audiences, but “Christian nationalism” was less familiar — and even sounded positive to some people. “We didn’t want people to think we were insulting Christianity or patriotism,” Laser said, so she decided against emphasizing the term.

Then came the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Laser saw the insurrection as a wake-up call. In the rioters’ biblical rhetoric and religious rituals, she recognized Christian nationalism as a potent and underappreciated threat. She soon hired Andrew Seidel, a prominent critic of Christian nationalism. On his first day as the new vice president of strategic communications at Americans United, Seidel testified before Congress about the role of Christian nationalism in the Capitol insurrection.

Americans United began using the term regularly, aiming to educate the public while highlighting church-state separation as a critical countermeasure.

“The antidote to Christian nationalism is church-state separation,” Laser said in an interview. “It’s the kryptonite that prevents Christian nationalists from codifying their views into our laws.”

Under Laser’s leadership, Americans United has taken high-profile legal actions, such as suing Oklahoma over its proposed religious charter school and representing a Tennessee Jewish couple rejected by an adoption agency due to their faith. The group also helped raise awareness earlier this year about Project 2025, a detailed conservative proposal for Trump’s second term from the Heritage Foundation. 

Donors have responded to these efforts. In 2023, the organization reported $17.9 million in revenue — almost triple what it was raising before Laser took over.

But Laser’s tenure hasn’t been without controversy. The organization’s employee union and some former board members have accused her of fostering a toxic work environment and prioritizing publicity over policy and legal work. After commissioning an outside investigation of the organization’s work culture, the board said Laser has its full support.   

Laser’s efforts to counter Christian nationalism reflect broader tensions in American society. While religious affiliation is declining, Trump’s political alliance with the Christian right has energized a vocal minority.

“I love you, Christians,” he said on the campaign trail. “In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” And the vast majority of them did vote for him.

Since the election, Trump has put together for his next administration a slate of deputies that reflects his strong political alliance with the Christian right, from his nominee for White House budget director Russell Vought to his preferred candidate for defense secretary, Pete Hesgeth. 

But while giving Republicans a resounding victory, American voters also rejected many of the specific policies promoted by conservative Christians. In seven states, including four won by Trump, voters approved measures to protect abortion rights. All three state proposals to allow public funding to flow to private and religious schools were defeated. Laser calls these outcomes a rejection of Christian nationalism and a continued endorsement of the principle of church-state separation.  

In saying that a solid majority of Americans agree with her worldview, Laser relies on surveys like those from the Public Religion Research Institute. “We find that by a margin of about two to one, most Americans reject Christian nationalism,” said PRRI’s president, Robert Jones. 

He said he’s confident in the results because the statements the surveys test against are ”fairly unambiguous.”

“They’re things like, ‘U.S. law should be based on the Bible,’ ‘To be truly American, you must be Christian’ and ‘Christians should take dominion over all areas of American society,’” he said.

As the term “Christian nationalism” has come into play in recent years, Jones’ group has been studying how people respond not only to the underlying attitudes, but also to the term itself. 

“We are finding people who qualify as Christian nationalists based on our criteria have a positive view of the term, and people who are rejecting that worldview have a negative view of the term,” Jones said. “So it’s not just a term used by one side to smear the other.”

The phenomena can be seen in the strong sales of a 2022 book called “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” by conservative political theorist Stephen Wolfe, and in prominent politicians, like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sen. Josh Hawley, who have embraced the moniker.

But even as one term has become more common, the question of what language to use is far from settled. Advocates on either side of the debate over the place of religion in public life make various choices for strategic or other reasons. 

Sorting through the rhetoric has required substantial attention from Ruth Braunstein, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. That’s because earlier this year, she was awarded a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to map out the individuals and groups fighting Christian nationalism.

Many of the 100 groups added to the list so far don’t use the term Christian nationalism. 

“Some, for example, talk about defending or promoting pluralistic democracy,” Braunstein said. “Others talk about creating a more inclusive vision of American identity.”

A growing bunch, including Americans United, do. And for Braunstein, it was easy to figure out how Laser’s group fit into her project.

“They have a high profile, historical gravitas and respect, and the resources to be able to provide support to other organizations,” she said. “So I think of them as an important node in this broad network.”

A few weeks ago, Laser went on CNN to be briefly interviewed about her opposition to plans in Oklahoma and Texas to bring Christianity into the classroom. She didn’t mention anything about her identity. She simply delivered Americans United talking points: Parents, not politicians, should decide when and if children are exposed to religion; state mandates sully rather than enhance religion; mixing church and state goes against the country’s founding ideals. 

But one viewer who contacted CNN to complain about Laser’s statements discovered through Google, or correctly assumed, that Laser is a Jew. He made her identity the center of a lengthy tirade, which he ended with a broad threat. 

“When Jews go into the public square to attack Christianity, then we have a problem,” the angry viewer wrote. “Stop abusing the people that treat you kindly because, eventually, the patience will run out.”

Asked if this kind of threat gives her anxiety about the place of Jews in the United States, she said, “Firstly, I’m Jewish. There’s always anxiety. So, fair question.”

But then she went on to emphasize that she’s never felt alone in her activism. She’s always surrounded by Christian allies.  

As soon as she took the helm, for example, she set up a faith advisory for Americans United and packed it with pastors (as well as other faith leaders). When her group files lawsuits against policies it opposes, it always includes Christian plaintiffs. 

“It’s more important to make it clear that Christians are leaders in this cause,” she said. “In any case, however, I don’t plan to go anywhere. This country has given so much to Jews and I feel gratitude for that. I want to ensure that my kids and my kids’ kids can enjoy and be proud of the same America.”

[lilithism1848]

Atrocities US committed against ASIA

Between 1996-2006, The US has given money and weapons to royalist forces against the nepalese communists in the Nepalese civil war. ~18,000 people have died in the conflict. In 2002, after another civil war erupted, President George W. Bush pushed a bill through Congress authorizing $20 million in military aid to the Nepalese government.

In 1996, after receiving incredibly low approval ratings, the US helped elect Boris Yeltsin, an incompetent pro-capitalist independent, by giving him a $10 Billion dollar loan to finance a winning election. Rather than creating new enterprises, Yeltsin’s democratization led to international monopolies hijacking the former Soviet markets, arbitraging the huge difference between old domestic prices for Russian commodities and the prices prevailing on the world market. Much of the Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, and as a result of persistent low oil and commodity prices during the 1990s, Russia suffered inflation, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems that affected Russia and the other former states of the USSR. Under Yeltsin, Between 1990 and 1994, life expectancy for Russian men and women fell from 64 and 74 years respectively to 58 and 71 years. The surge in mortality was “beyond the peacetime experience of industrialised countries”. While it was boom time for the new oligarchs, poverty and unemployment surged; prices were hiked dramatically; communities were devastated by deindustrialisation; and social protections were stripped away.

In the 1970s-80s, wikileaks cables revealed that the US covertly supported the Khmer Rouge in their fight against the Vietnamese communists. Annual support included an end total of ~$215M USD, food aid to 20-40k Khmer Rouge fighters, CIA advisors in several camps, and ammunition.

In December 1975, The US supplied the weaponry for the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. This incursion was launched the day after U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia where they had given President Suharto permission to use American arms, which under U.S. law, could not be used for aggression. Daniel Moynihan, U.S. ambassador to the UN. said that the U.S. wanted “things to turn out as they did.” The result was an estimated 200,000 dead out of a population of 700,000. Sixteen years later, on November 12, 1991, two hundred and seventeen East Timorese protesters in Dili, many of them children, marching from a memorial service, were gunned down by Indonesian Kopassus shock troops who were headed by U.S.- trained commanders Prabowo Subianto (son in law of General Suharto) and Kiki Syahnakri. Trucks were seen dumping bodies into the sea.

In 1975 Australian Constitutional Crisis, the CIA helped topple the democratically elected, left-leaning government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, by telling Governor-General, John Kerr, a longtime CIA collaborator, to dissolve the Whitlam government.

In 2018 after the release of a suppressed ISC (International Scientific Commission) report, and the release of declassified CIA communications daily reports in 2020, it was revealed that the US used germ warfare in the Korean war, 2. Many of these attacks involved the dropping of insects or small mammals infected with viruses such as anthrax, plague, cholera, and encephalitis. After discovering evidence of germ warfare, China invited the ISC headed by famed British scientist Joseph Needham, to investigate, but the report was suppressed for over 70 years.

Between 1963 and 1973, The US dropped ~388,000 tons of napalm bombs in vietnam, compared to 32,357 tons used over three years in the Korean War, and 16,500 tons dropped on Japan in 1945. US also sprayed over 5 million acres with herbicide, in Operation Ranch Hand, in a 10 year campaign to deprive the vietnamese of food and vegetation cover.

In 1971 in Pakistan, an authoritarian state supported by the U.S., brutally invaded East Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. The war ended after India, whose economy was staggering after admitting about 10 million refugees, invaded East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and defeated the West Pakistani forces. The US gave W. pakistan 411 million provided to establish its armed forces which spent 80% of its budget on its military. 15 million in arms flowed into W. Pakistan during the war. Between 300,000 to 3 million civilians were killed, with 8-10 million refugees fleeing to India.

In 1970, In Cambodia, The CIA overthrows Prince Sihanouk, who is highly popular among Cambodians for keeping them out of the Vietnam War. He is replaced by CIA puppet Lon Nol, whose forces suppressed the large-scale popular demonstrations in favour of Sihanouk, resulting in several hundred deaths. This unpopular move strengthens once minor opposition parties like the Khmer Rouge (another CIA supported group), who achieve power in 1975 and massacres ~2.5 million people. The Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, carried out the Cambodian Genocide, which killed 1.5-2M people from 1975-1979.

In 1969, The US initiated a secret carpet bombing campaign in eastern Cambodia, called, Operation Menu, and Operation Freedom Deal in 1970. An estimated 40,000 - 150,000 civilians were killed. Nixon lied about this campaign, but was later exposed, and one of the things that lead to his impeachment.

US dropped large amounts of Agent Orange, an herbicide developed by monsanto and dow chemical for the department of defense, in vietnam. Its use, in particular the contaminant dioxin, causes multiple health problems, including cleft palate, mental disabilities, hernias, still births, poisoned breast milk, and extra fingers and toes, as well as destroying local species of plants and animals. The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to Agent Orange.

US Troops killed between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians, including women, children, and infants, in South Vietnam on March, 1968, in the My Lai Massacre. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated. Soldiers set fire to huts, waiting for civilians to come out so they could shoot them. For 30 years, the three US servicemen who tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned and denounced as traitors, even by congressmen.

In 1967, the CIA helped South Vietnamese agents identify and then murder alleged Viet Cong leaders operating in villages, in the Phoenix Program. By 1972, Phoenix operatives had executed between 26,000 and 41,000 suspected NLF operatives, informants and supporters.

In 1965, The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Indonesian leader Sukarno with a military coup. The CIA had been trying to eliminate Sukarno since 1957, using everything from attempted assassination to sexual intrigue, for nothing more than his declaring neutrality in the Cold War. His successor, General Suharto, aided by the CIA, massacred between 500,000 to 1 million civilians accused of being communist, in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66. The US continued to support Suharto throughout the 70s, supplying weapons and planes.

Between 1964 and 1973, American pilots flew 580,000 attack sorties over Laos, an average of one planeload of bombs every eight minutes for almost a decade. By the time the last US bombs fell in April 1973, a total of 2,093,100 tonnes of ordnance had rained down on this neutral country. To this day, Laos, a country of just 7 million people, retains the dubious accolade of being the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita.

From the 1960s onward, the US supported Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The US provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, which was crucial in buttressing Marcos’s rule over the years. The estimated number of persons that were executed and disappeared under President Fernando Marcos was over 100,000. After fleeing to hawaii, marco was suceeded by the widow of an opponent he assasinated, Corazon aquino.

Starting in 1957, in the wake of the US-backed First Indochina War, The CIA carries out approximately one coup per year trying to nullify Laos’ democratic elections, specifically targeting the Pathet Lao, a leftist group with enough popular support to be a member of any coalition government, and perpetuating the 20 year Laotian civil war. In the late 50s, the CIA even creates an “Armee Clandestine” of Asian mercenaries to attack the Pathet Lao. After the CIA’s army suffers numerous defeats, the U.S. drops more bombs on Laos than all the U.S. bombs dropped in World War II. A quarter of all Laotians will eventually become refugees, many living in caves. This was later called a “secret war,” since it occurred at the same time as the Vietnam War, but got little press. Hundreds of thousands were killed.

In 1955, the CIA provided explosives, and aided KMT agents in an assassination attempt against the Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai. KMT agents placed a time-bomb on the Air India aircraft, Kashmir Princess, which Zhou was supposed to take on his way to the Bandung Conference, an anti-imperialist meeting of Asian and African states, but he changed his travel plans at the last minute. Henry Kissinger denied US involvement, even though remains of a US detonator were found. 16 people were killed.

From 1955-1975, the US supported French colonialist interests in Vietnam, set up a puppet regime in Saigon to serve US interests, and later took part as a belligerent against North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was later found to be staged by Lyndon Johnson. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see Vietnam War casualties). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 source to 3.8 million.source Some 240,000–300,000 Cambodians,source23 20,000–62,000 Laotians,4 and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict, with a further 1,626 missing in action. Unexploded bomb continue to kill civilians for years afterward.

In the summer of 1950 in South Korea, anticommunists aided by the US executed at least 100,000 people suspected of supporting communism, in the Bodo League Massacre. For four decades the South Korean government concealed this massacre. Survivors were forbidden by the government from revealing it, under suspicion of being communist sympathizers. Public revelation carried with it the threat of torture and death. During the 1990s and onwards, several corpses were excavated from mass graves, resulting in public awareness of the massacre.

In 1984, documents were released showing that Eisenhower authorized the use of atomic weapons on North Korea, should the communists renew the war in 1953. The 2,000 pages released show the high level of planning and the detail of discussion on possible use of these weapons, and Mr. Eisenhower’s interest in overcoming reluctance to use them.

In the beginning of the Korean war, US Troops killed ~300 South Korean civilians in the No Gun Ri massacre, revealing a theater-wide policy of firing on approaching refugee groups. Trapped refugees began piling up bodies as barricades and tried to dig into the ground to hide. Some managed to escape the first night, while U.S. troops turned searchlights on the tunnels and continued firing, said Chung Koo-ho, whose mother died shielding him and his sister. No apology has yet been issued.

The US intervened in the 1950-53 Korean Civil War, on the side of the south Koreans, in a proxy war between the US and china for supremacy in East Asia. South Korea reported some 373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths, the US with 34,000 killed, and China with 114,000 killed. Overall, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs—including 32,557 tons of napalm—on Korea, more than they did during the whole Pacific campaign of World War II. The US killed an estimated 1/3rd of the north Korean people during the war. The Joint Chiefs of staff issued orders for the retaliatory bombing of the People’s republic of China, should south Korea be attacked. Deadly clashes have continued up to the present day.

From 1948-1949, the Jeju uprising was an insurgency taking place in the Korean province of Jeju island, followed by severe anticommunist suppression of the South Korean Labor Party in which 14-30,000 people were killed, or ~10% of the island’s population. Though atrocities were committed by both sides, the methods used by the South Korean government to suppress the rebels were especially cruel. On one occasion, American soldiers discovered the bodies of 97 people including children, killed by government forces. On another, American soldiers caught government police forces carrying out an execution of 76 villagers, including women and children. The US later entered the Korean civil war on the side of the South Koreans.

In 1949 during the resumed Chinese Civil War, the US supported the corrupt Kuomintang dictatorship of Chiang Kaishek to fight against the Chinese Communists, who had won the support of the vast majority of peasant-farmers and helped defeat the Japanese invasion. The US strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. Over 50,000 US Marines were sent to guard strategic sites, and 100,000 US troops were sent to Shandong. The US equipped and trained over 500,000 KMT troops, and transported KMT forces to occupy newly liberated zones as well as to contain Communist-controlled areas. American aid included substantial amounts of both new and surplus military supplies; additionally, loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars were made to the KMT. Within less than two years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $4.43 billion from the US—most of which was military aid.

The U.S. installed Syngman Rhee,a conservative Korean exile, as President of South Korea in 1948. Rhee became a dictator on an anti-communist crusade, arresting and torturing suspected communists, brutally putting down rebellions, killing 100,000 people and vowing to take over North Korea. Rhee precipitated the outbreak of the Korean War and for the allied decision to invade North Korea once South Korea had been recaptured. He was finally forced to resign by mass student protests in 1960.

Between 1946 and 1958, the US tested 23 nuclear devices at Bikini Atoll, using the native islanders and their land as guinea pigs for the effects of nuclear fallout. Significant fallout caused widespread radiological contamination in the area, and killed many islanders. A survivor stated, “What the Americans did was no accident. They came here and destroyed our land. They came to test the effects of a nuclear bomb on us. It was no accident.” Many of the islanders exposed were brought to the US Argonne National laboratory, to study the effects. Afterwards the islands proved unsuitable to sustaining life, resulting in starvation and requiring the residents to receive ongoing aid. Virtually all of the inhabitants showed acute symptoms of radiation syndrome, many developing thyroid cancers, Leukimia, miscarriages, stillborn and “jellyfish babies” (highly deformed) along with symptoms like hair falling out, and diahrrea. A handful were brought to the US for medical research and later returned, while others were evacuated to neighboring Islands. The US under LBJ prematurely returned the majority returned 3 years later, to further test how human beings absorb radiation from their food and environment. The islanders pleaded with the US to move them away from the islands, as it became clear that their children were developing deformities and radiation sickness. Radion levels were still unacceptable. The United States later paid the islanders and their descendants 25 million in compensation for damage caused by the nuclear testing program. A 2016 investigation found radiation levels on Bikini Atoll as high as 639 mrem yr−1, well above the established safety standard threshold for habitation of 100 mrem yr−1. Similar tests occurred elsewhere in the Marshall Islands during this time period. Due to the destruction of natural wealth, Kwajalein Atoll’s military installation and dislocation, the majority of natives currently live in extreme poverty, making less than 1$ a day. Those that have jobs, mostly work at the US military installation and resorts. Much of this is detailed in the documentary, The Coming War on China (2016). 

After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Douglas MacArthur pardoned Unit 731, a Japanese biological experimentation center which performed human testing of biological agents against Chinese citizens. While a series of war tribunals and trials was organized, many of the high-ranking officials and doctors who devised and respectively performed the experiments were pardoned and never brought to justice. As many as 12,000 people, most of them Chinese, died in Unit 731 alone and many more died in other facilities, such as Unit 100 and in field experiments throughout Manchuria. One of the experimenters who killed many, microbiologist Shiro Ishii, later traveled to the US to advise on its bioweapons programs. In the final days of the Pacific War and in the face of imminent defeat, Japanese troops blew up the headquarters of Unit 731 in order to destroy evidence of the research done there. As part of the cover-up, Ishii ordered 150 remaining subjects killed.

In 1945 during the month-long Battle of Manila, the US in deciding whether to attack Manila (then under Japanese occupation) with ground troops, decided instead to use indiscriminate carpet-bombing, howitzers, and naval bombardment, killing an estimated 100,000 people. The casualty figures show the US’s regard for filipino civilian life: 1,010 Americans, 16,665 Japanese and 100,000 to 240,000 civilians were killed. Manila became, alongside Berlin, and Warsaw, one of the most devastated cities of WW2.

US Troops committed a number of rapes during the battle of Okinawa, and the subsequent occupation of Japan. There were 1,336 reported rapes during the first 10 days of the occupation of Kanagawa prefecture alone.1 American Occupation authorities imposed wide-ranging censorship on the Japanese media, including bans on covering many sensitive social issues and serious crimes such as rape committed by members of the Occupation forces.

From 1942 to 1945, the US military carried out a fire-bombing campaign of Japanese cities, killing between 200,000 and 900,000 civilians. One nighttime fire-bombing of Tokyo took 80,000 lives. During early August 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing ~130,000 civilians, and causing radiation damage which included birth defects and a variety of genetic diseases for decades to come. The justification for the civilian bombings has largely been debunked, as the entrance of Russia into the war had already started the surrender negotiations earlier in 1945. The US was aware of this, since it had broken the Japanese code and had been intercepting messages during for most of the year. The US ended up accepting a conditional surrender from Hirohito, against which was one of the stated aims of the civilian bombings. The dropping of the atomic bomb is therefore seen as a demonstration of US military supremacy, and the first major operation of the Cold War with Russia.

In 1918, the US took part in the allied intervention in the Russian civil war, sending 11,000 troops to the in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions to support the anti-bolshevik, monarchist, and largely anti-semitic White Forces. 

In 1900 in China, the US was part of an Eight-Nation Alliance that brought 20,000 armed troops to China, to defeat the Imperial Chinese Army, in the the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-imperialist uprising. 

In 1899, after a popular revolution in the Philippines to oust the Spanish imperialists, the US invaded and began the Phillipine-American war. The US military committed countless atrocities, leaving 200,000 Filipinos dead. Jacob H Smith killed between 2,500 to 50,000 civilians, His orders included, “kill everyone over the age of ten” and make the island “a howling wilderness.”

Throughout the 1800s, US settlers engaged in a genocide of native Hawaiians. The native population decreased from ~ 400k in 1789, to 40k by 1900, due to colonization and disease. In 1883, the US engineered the overthrow of Hawaii’s native monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani, by landing two companies of US marines in Honolulu. Due to the Queen’s desire “to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life” for her subjects and after some deliberation, at the urging of advisers and friends, the Queen ordered her forces to surrender. Hawaii was initially reconstituted as an independent republic, but the ultimate goal of the US was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which was finally accomplished in 1898. After this, the Hawaiian language was banned, English replaced it as the official language in all institutions and schools. The US finally apologized in 1993, but no land has been returned.

[beardedmrbean]

The Supreme Court unanimously handed the National Rifle Association a win Thursday in the gun rights group's effort to revive a 2018 First Amendment lawsuit accusing a New York official of causing damage to the NRA's relationships with banks and insurers.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a unanimous opinion that found the NRA "plausibly alleged" that Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, illegally retaliated against the pro-Second Amendment group after the Parkland, Florida, high school mass shooting that left 17 people dead.

The question before the justices was whether Vullo used her regulatory power to force state financial institutions to cut off ties with the NRA in violation of constitutional First Amendment protections.

Vullo, who worked in former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration, said her regulations targeted an insurance product that is illegal in New York, which is dubbed by critics as "murder insurance." In essence, such insurances are third-party policies sold via the NRA that cover personal injury and criminal defense costs after the use of a firearm.

"Here, the NRA plausibly alleged that Vullo violated the First Amendment by coercing DFS-regulated entities into disassociating with the NRA in order to punish or suppress gun-promotion advocacy," Sotomayor, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in her decision.

Although the gun rights group is typically involved in litigation surrounding the Second Amendment, the case marked an unusual departure to a First Amendment claim that even had backing from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has historically targeted the gun rights group in other cases before the high court.

The result of the case means the NRA can continue its lawsuit against Vullo.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson penned separate concurrences.

[pilawturkey]

Dispute Resolution Service in Turkey

Dispute resolution service requires an innovative and comprehensive strategy for each case. Overall, there are a wide variety of methods for conflict resolution at the domestic or international level. Dispute resolution service lawyers have a substantial impact upon concluding disputes between parties. Dispute resolution service lawyers have been at the center of providing best results for their clients. It has been already established that dispute resolution service is very essential to provide a chance of success.

What are the 4 types of dispute resolution service in Turkey?

It is significant at the outset that there are four main accepted forms of conflict resolution: negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation.

Firstly, negotiation brings partners together with a view to solving the relevant dispute on their own.

Second popular dispute resolution tool is mediation. Indeed, mediation requires the existence of a neutral third-party assuming responsibility to help disputants for a consensus. It is noteworthy to stress here that Turkey adopted the Law (No:7282) approving the ratification of the Singapore Convention on Mediation, published in the Official Gazette on 11 March 2021.Our article on A Brief Analysis of the Singapore Convention highlights the implementation of international mechanisms dedicated to mediation.

Thirdly, natural or legal persons are also free to choose the best dispute settlement process by selecting arbitration process.

Last but not least, litigation may be used to finalize any conflict complained of by the judicial authorities.

It is useful to understand that judicial review will cover a full-fledged examination when a dispute resolution service is needed for enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. As underlined in our article on 2024 Case Analysis of Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Turkey, the judgment by Istanbul Appellate Court 14th Chamber on 17 September 2020 [E. 2018/2196, K.2020/917], the below-mentioned criteria must be controlled by a judicial review for enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Turkey:

· The fact that the arbitration rules are applicable to any dispute between parties must be accepted in accordance with the contract between parties,

· The final award must be given by the arbitrator after review and fair trial within the framework of the representation of all parties,

· The dispute must be suitable for arbitration in terms of Turkish law,

· The evaluation of these defense claims was included in the final award,

· The addressee company was present at every stage of the proceedings at the Arbitration Center,

· The defense arguments must be taken properly during the arbitration proceedings,

What is the meaning of dispute resolution service in Turkey?

It is not hard to maintain that the most commonly used method for dispute settlement is litigation in Turkey. Huge backlog before court rooms has already establishes this argument. Increasing number for civil and administrative litigation has been a matter of concern over the years in Turkey. Dispute resolution through arbitration agreements and|or dispute resolution arbitration is newly improving in Turkey. There is much work needs to be done for alternative dispute resolution methods. Building dispute resolution owing to the alternative ways such as consumer dispute resolution may be found very workable and reasonable solution to all parties of a dispute.

With regard to a comprehensive analysis of implementation of foreign arbitral awards see our article on Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards

What is the most common dispute resolution?

Litigation has still been considered as the most workable solution in Turkey. Therefore, there is an increasing workload before civil and administrative courts in Turkey. It seems clear that dispute resolution service needs to more concentrate on other methods for faster solutions.

What is the importance of dispute resolution service for administrative cases?

All administrative acts and actions are bound by the law. This principle is reiterated in Article 2 of the Turkish Constitution guaranteeing the rule of law. Administrative disputes are settled by administrative courts in Turkey, as examined in our article on Administrative Cases in Turkey

What is the significance of dispute resolution service for criminal cases?

It is beyond doubt that criminal cases in Turkey requires a full-fledged dispute resolution service by criminal defense lawyers at the time of any criminal investigation or prosecution.

What is the concept of the enforcement and bankruptcy Law in Turkey in terms of dispute resolution service?

Generally speaking, fundamental purpose of the enforcement and bankruptcy regulatory framework is to settle disputes between the creditors and debtors concerned. Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law in Turkey regulates detailed procedures for insolvency, bankruptcy and enforcement. What is more, the Law in question stipulates the bankruptcy liquidation steps for insolvent debtors.

What is the importance of dispute resolution service for divorce proceedings?

Divorce proceedings for foreigners in Turkey is categorized in two main types: consensual divorce through negotiation and contested divorce through litigation. It should be remembered that the first legal instrument to be applied in divorce proceedings for foreigners is the Act on Private International and Procedural Law (Numbered 5718). According to Article 14, the grounds and provisions for divorce and separation shall be governed by the common national law of the spouses.

[whitesinhistory]

Louisiana Officially Disenfranchises Black Voters and Jurors

On May 12, 1898, the State of Louisiana adopted a new constitution with numerous restrictive provisions intended to exclude African American men from civic participation. At this time in the U.S., women of all races remained barred from voting, while Black men had recently gained the right to vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The new Louisiana Constitution, however, created a poll tax, literacy and property-ownership requirements, and a complex voter registration form all designed and enforced to disproportionately disenfranchise Black male voters.

The year 1865 included the Confederacy's defeat in the Civil War, widespread emancipation, and the abolition of slavery. All of these developments threatened to overturn Southern culture and social relations, which were based on white supremacy and racial hierarchy. After Reconstruction ended in 1877 and white politicians and lawmakers regained control and power in the South, many efforts were made to restore that racial order through very strict laws that stripped Black people of many of their new civil rights—including the right to vote. In Louisiana, framers explicitly expressed their goal to “purify the electorate.”

When the restrictive voting provisions were first proposed for the 1898 Louisiana Constitution, some white officials expressed concern that the property and literacy requirements would also disenfranchise an estimated 25% of the white male population of voting age. In response, lawmakers drafted a “Grandfather Clause” which created an exception for those whose ancestors were registered to vote before 1867. This clause enabled many illiterate and poor white men to get around the literacy and property requirements. Black people remained blocked because Louisiana laws before 1867 disenfranchised nearly all Black men—especially those who were enslaved.

The 1898 Louisiana Constitution also eliminated the requirement of unanimous jury verdicts, allowing as much as a 9-3 split to still stand as a conviction. Because the U.S. Constitution now prevented states from wholly barring Black people from jury service, this provision was enacted to render small numbers of Black jurors inconsequential. Thomas Semmes, a former Confederate senator and head of the convention’s judiciary committee, praised the provision for success in its goal “to establish the supremacy of the white race in this State to the extent to which it could be legally and Constitutionally done.”

The 1898 Louisiana Constitution eliminated federally enforced voting rules that had enfranchised Black men in Louisiana during Reconstruction. As a result, in a state with 650,804 Black residents, the number of Black registered voters dropped from 130,000 before the new Constitution to just 5,000 by 1900. By 1904, the number dropped to just 1,000.

Throughout the Southern states, disenfranchisement laws targeted Black communities for generations. Louisiana’s 1898 Constitution was revised slightly in 1913, but most of its restrictive language remained until 1972. The non-unanimous jury rule remained in effect for more than a century, until Louisiana voters approved a Constitutional amendment to abolish it in November 2018.

[swiftsnowmane]

A former leader of the Iranian Baha’i community says the Islamic Republic gives them no chance of “leading a normal life” on account of their faith.

“For forty-five years, we Baha’is have been constantly disqualified from leading a normal life in our ancestral homeland,” Mahvash Sabet, a former member of the Baha’i community’s leadership group wrote in a letter from Tehran’s Evin Prison.

She reflected on the impact of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, stating, "Our ancestral homeland was abruptly taken from us, and we became 'the others'." Sabet recounted the misfortunes suffered by the Baha’i community, including the execution of nearly 250 of its members and the confiscation of assets belonging to many others.

The Shia clergy consider the Baha’i faith as a heretical sect. With approximately 300,000 adherents in Iran, Baha’is face systematic persecution, discrimination, and harassment. They are barred from public sector employment and, in certain instances, have been terminated from private sector jobs due to pressure from authorities.

In her letter, a copy of which was received by Iran International, Sabet has used the term “disqualified” (radd-e salahiyat) to describe Iranian Baha’is deprivation of civil and human rights including freedom of religion, the right to higher education, and most jobs.

In the context of ideological screening primarily carried out by security and intelligence bodies, Radd-e salahiyat means “found disqualified” for a position or status. Screening is conducted in a wide range of situations including higher education, civil service, participation in national sports teams, and elections.

Belief in the absolute guardianship and rule of a jurisprudent cleric (velayat-e motlaqqeh-ye faqih) and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic as a governing system are two of the fundamental requirements for being “qualified” in these situations.

Sabet, now seventy-one, was dismissed from her job as a school principal after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She has been consistently denied the opportunity to publish her poetry in Iran, where books undergo scrutiny and rejection not solely based on their content, but often due to the authors' ideology, religion, or private lives.

In her letter, Sabet, who has spent nearly twelve years in prison for her faith, reveals that authorities appropriated a sand processing factory her husband had been constructing just a week before its launch. “He was disqualified, too!” she wrote in her letter.

In 2009, seven leaders of the Baha’i community, collectively known as Yaran (friends or helpers), including Sabet, were arrested. They were sentenced by a revolutionary court to 20 years in prison on fabricated charges, including "insulting" Islamic sanctities, propaganda against the regime, and alleged spying for Israel, for which the prosecutor had sought death sentences.

Some of the charges, including espionage, were dropped by an appeal court in 2010, resulting in a reduction of their sentences to 10 years. However, authorities reinstated the original 20-year sentences in 2011.

All members of the Yaran group were released from prison between September 2017 and December 2018. However, Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, another female member of the group, were arrested again on August 1, 2022.

Both women endured months of solitary confinement while awaiting their trial. In December, they were handed another decade-long prison term for "forming a group to act against national security," a sentence they are currently serving.

[bobbinacrossafricatake2]

Jo’burg

May 16, 2024

There’s really nothing like the feeling of someplace that is home away from home. Last night we got through immigration in record time, despite the fact that there is an immigration/customs go-slow (worker strike) going on, resulting in minimal service lanes. While we got through quickly, the downside for us is that we missed our one opportunity to meet Mike, our Toronto-based Africa guy and the mastermind of this adventure.

Zem met us at the gate (gotta love seeing our names on a sign!), escorted us through immigration and customs where we met our driver. The two of them led us to a money exchange counter and then off we went to The Residence. In 2018, on our first trip to Africa, we overnighted in this lovely, gracious, wonderful, small hotel in the Houghton neighborhood of Johannesburg. We loved it so much that we wanted to come back and what a wonderful place to spend our first two nights in Africa, recovering from jet lag and settling into vacation mode. The staff is so so welcoming and we were upgraded to an amazing suite with jacuzzi, overlooking one of multiple swimming pools. Mike had a bottle of wine and cheese platter waiting in the room for us – wonderful. We did not indulge on arrival but rather took showers and settled into the wonderful beds after our very long journey.

In the morning, an excellent night’s sleep for Seb and a decent night’s sleep for Jill, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the restaurant, sitting at the same table where we enjoyed a dinner six years ago! Cappuccino and coffee with soy milk, respectively, such as civilized start to the day. We decided to have a low-key get-over-jet lag day, and headed out to an arts district. It wasn’t a total bust, but not as interesting or extensive as we expected. That said, at a gallery down the street (with a wonderful exhibit), they recommended another arts area called Victoria Yards. So with a little bit of electronic finagling, we caught an Uber there. (So crazy to go half way around the world and use the Uber app we can use from our front doors!) From our hotel to guards at the galleries, we were given some level of security cautions. Even knowing that there must be safety issues in town, it was lovely knowing that people were watching out for us and giving us tips on how to make sure we stay safe. Victoria Yards was a compound of old warehouse type buildings with working artists. It turned out to be nice to be there on a low-key weekday, when various artists were quite happy to chat and explain their techniques. A jewelry maker, book binder and silkscreen artist were some of the highlights.

After we were through, we contacted our hotel driver (through WhatsApp, as you do); he collected us and we headed “home.” There, the hot tub beckoned. Neither of us typically frequents hot tubs, but WOW - it was ever so relaxing, with a glass of wine from Mike’s gift. After turning into prunes, we set to work, blogging and preparing (tip) money in local currency (Rands) for our next stop, Namibia. As we know from our last trip to Africa, tipping (and tipping well, but not extravagantly) is simply part of the planned cost of the trip, and very much a part of how the African hospitality economy works. It’s certainly a way to show our appreciation for the wonderful service we experience and anticipate.

Dinner was in the hotel. We were intercepted on the way through the bar and ended up ordering a bottle of wine to share in front of a roaring fire. Wonderful! Piano music in the background, attentive staff and just chilling. They even brought over the menus so we could order. When our meals were just about ready, we were escorted to our table and seated. We each put our small bag on the table, at which point, small side tables appeared next to each of us for our bags. LOL. Holy moly, the service. Dinner of ostrich (yes, the bird) and kingklip (a fish) was fabulous. We ordered two things to share and they arrived already split and plated. Did we mention that we love this place? The restaurant was near empty so we enjoyed all the attention and graciousness. At the end of the meal, four chocolate truffles arrived with over a dish of smoking, overflowing coldness of the dry ice. Presentation is, after all, so important. Indeed, The Residence was everything we hoped for and more than what we expected. We asked for more water for the room, and (of course) it had already been delivered to by the time we asked for it. We did some pre-departure packing and settled again into our cushy beds for a wonderful - if too short - night’s sleep. 0430 pick-up by our driver will come, oh, too soon. Our only wish - to someday have the opportunity to again experience this hospitality.

P.S. Now that kingklip has been identified as eel (not fish), it’s a shock to the system, and we may not admit to it having been so tasty.

[anniekoh]

Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors                                        edited by Grist (2023)

Afterglow is a stunning collection of original short stories in which writers from many different backgrounds envision a radically different climate future. Published in collaboration with Grist, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions, these stirring tales expand our ability to imagine a better world.

Inspired by cutting-edge literary movements, such as Afrofuturism, hopepunk, and solarpunk, Afterglow imagines intersectional worlds in which no one is left behind—where humanity prioritizes equitable climate solutions and continued service to one's community. Whether through abundance or adaptation, reform, or a new understanding of survival, these stories offer flickers of hope, even joy, as they provide a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

Afterglow welcomes a diverse range of new voices into the climate conversation to envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress. A creative work rooted in the realities of our present crisis, Afterglow presents a new way to think about the climate emergency—one that blazes a path to a clean, green, and more just future.

Magazine: https://grist.org/fix/arts-culture/imagine-2200-climate-fiction-afterglow/

Economic Science Fictions  https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781906897734/economic-science-fictions/

Edited by William Davies (2018)

An innovative new anthology exploring how science fiction can motivate new approaches to economics.

From the libertarian economics of Ayn Rand to Aldous Huxley's consumerist dystopias, economics and science fiction have often orbited each other. In Economic Science Fictions, editor William Davies has deliberately merged the two worlds, asking how we might harness the power of the utopian imagination to revitalize economic thinking.

Rooted in the sense that our current economic reality is no longer credible or viable, this collection treats our economy as a series of fictions and science fiction as a means of anticipating different economic futures. It asks how science fiction can motivate new approaches to economics and provides surprising new syntheses, merging social science with fiction, design with politics, scholarship with experimental forms.

With an opening chapter from Ha-Joon Chang as well as theory, short stories, and reflections on design, this book from Goldsmiths Press challenges and changes the notion that economics and science fiction are worlds apart. The result is a wealth of fresh and unusual perspectives for anyone who believes the economy is too important to be left solely to economists.

Drowned Worlds

edited by Jonathan Strahan (2016)

Review: “The title and the editor both pay tribute to the inspiration of J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World, that prescient piece of nascent cli-fi first published in 1962. Strahan lauds this “lush, powerful book that tells of a post-apocalyptic world … seen through a romantic haze that hangs over the flooded, inundated ruins of a world laid waste by rising oceans.” Many of the stories in the collection, indeed almost all, share a similar dreamlike or fantastic Ballardian ambience of a world long past the climate change, where remnants of our current civilization often persist just as fantastic fragments.“

Futures From Nature: 100 Speculative Fictions from the pages of the leading science journal

by Henry Gee (2008)

Are aliens really not interested in us at all? Is there a significant health benefit from drinking your own urine? Is loading your personality into a computer the best way to survive the death of the body? Is the death of the body really necessary? Here are a very large number of very small fictions on the subject of the future and what it might be like. The authors include scientists, journalists, and many of the most famous SF writers in the world. Futures from Nature includes everything from satires and vignettes to compressed stories and fictional book reviews, science articles, and journalism, in eight-hundred-word modules. These pieces were originally published in the science journal Nature between 1999 and 2006.

[thoughtportal]

It shouldn't be against the law to provide an encrypted app. But if the STOP CSAM Act passes, it would make it a crime to offer encryption, because it could "facilitate" the sharing of illegal child abuse material (CSAM)—even if there's no evidence that a platform or service intended to do so. The law would undermine digital security for all internet users, impacting private messaging and email app providers, social media platforms, cloud storage providers, and many other internet intermediaries and online services.

Free speech would also be at risk. STOP CSAM would create a carveout in Section 230, the law that protects our online speech, exposing platforms to civil lawsuits for merely hosting a platform where part of the illegal conduct occurred. This carveout is similar to the disastrous SESTA-FOSTA law, which passed in 2018, and immediately resulted in companies removing online content and spaces for discussion in order to protect themselves from potential liability.

Congress already has tools in place to remove CSAM from the internet: current law prohibits the distribution of CSAM, and since 2008, providers have faced large fines if they fail to report CSAM after receiving actual knowledge of its presence on their platforms. Yet we know of no case where the federal government has ever enforced this provision. Congress must not pass this broad and dangerous law, and instead must use the tools that are already in place rather than outlawing important encrypted services.

Tell Congress: don't pass this law that would undermine security and free speech online.

[orossii]

hi! first of all, love you blog and your artwork is wonderful! secondly, i don't really have anyone to discuss this with, so i thought, i might as well bother a stranger on the internet. i recently came across dmitry orlov, a russian-american analyst-writer-blogger. while i disagree with him on a lot of things, he has rather sharp humor (the title of this post alone sure is something) and a strong conviction that the us is going to collapse a-la the soviet union, probably even worse. such predictions are usually met with an eye-roll, and i made a "pfft" sound and rolled my eyes as well. but then i come across an article stating that 50% of the respondents in the us expect no less than a civil war (!) in just a few years. where did this come from? is it just uber-maga people or what? along with other things, this type of info makes me scratch my head. what do you think?

thank you so much for the kind words and this ask @haissitall! i'm always open to messages and questions, though I can be a little spotty when it comes to answering sometimes. i'm unfamiliar with dmitry orlov but what i'm seeing of his work is very interesting so i'll try to backread some of his articles and keep up with his work going forward.

i found his article where he outlines the indications that the US is close to collapse and agree with them completely. the one i found was published in 2018 too, before the ukraine proxy war and the economic devastation and political polarization that exploded during COVID had even happened yet. i don't make the claim that i'm a geopolitical or economic expert by any stretch, but from my sort of above average level of understanding i think the US is absolutely in a state of free fall that i can't see taking much longer than another couple of years or so to really become fully apparent domestically. i'm going to put this reply under a cut because it ended up being pretty long. sorry for the text wall, this is just something i've wanted to put into words for a while now and you gave me an excuse to do so lol

so. the US dollar has been, up until recently, the world's reserve currency, meaning that much of international trade is reliant on a country having large amounts of US dollars in order to buy and sell goods internationally. from what i understand, this means that the US can leverage predatory loans against the global south via the IMF, whose terms entail that they agree to devastating economic austerity measures and buyouts of their national industries if they're to survive. this means that the US can plunder these countries for its own financial gain while also outsourcing domestic labor for a fraction of the cost. as a result of the US's heavily financialized imperialist economy, industry (and the skilled labor jobs that accompany it) have largely left the country, and our domestic economy now revolves around finance

to put that another way, americans that used to benefit from well-paying industrial jobs found themselves growing rapidly poorer as the reagan era delivered the death blow to labor unions and the subsequent flight of american industry to the global south made the domestic economy increasingly reliant on jobs in disposable, low-paying unskilled labor positions in the service industries, tech, and non-productive professional-managerial positions like doctors, office workers, and teachers. this means that the US working class had less economic power over the means of production, effectively crushing most of the working class's leverage to demand reforms or wage revolution against the ruling class of capitalists who derive their income from finance

this new, defanged working class is entirely dependent on the ruling class for their day to day survival. the cost of living is dramatically disproportionate to the income of most american families, so in order to pay for things like houses, cars, healthcare, education, and various day to day expenses, we have to take on predatory loans with high interest rates. this, in turn, allows the big banks to extract much of the meager wealth earned by the working class in order to enrich themselves exponentially. due to the endlessly greedy nature of capitalism, every year the working class grows poorer and more disenfranchised as the cost of living increases and the ruling class devises new ways to squeeze pennies out of people who are already largely a missed paycheck or two away from not being able to pay their bills

part of this form of capitalism's leverage over the working class is what's referred to in marxism as the reserve army of the unemployed-- this is a pool of unemployed workers that can be selected from at the ruling class's leisure in order to quickly fill vacancies in these poorly paying unskilled or low-skilled job positions. when workers are easily replaceable they'll do whatever they can to hold onto employment even if it means tolerating poor working conditions, low pay, and insufficient benefits. homelessness and incarceration is the implicit threat that keeps this neo-feudalist engine oiled and the people obedient

when a large proportion of the population is poor and the standard of living declines every year for people of the so-called middle classes, you naturally have a lot social instability that emerges. which is where the culture war comes in. i don't think it's a coincidence that the race to more deeply distinguish the cultural ideologies of the republican and democratic parties coincided with american de-industrialization. the ruling class needed to create a sort of good cop-bad cop dynamic for the people to project their angst onto. if you're a democrat, you're expected to blame the republicans for your ever-increasing misfortune, and the inverse is true of republicans. they advance intentionally divisive and increasingly drastic cultural positions that are guaranteed to repel a certain target subsection of the population while pairing that position to the core belief system of another subsection of the population. races are decided by where politicians stand on cultural issues such as abortion or gun rights, and while those issues are of course relevant to public consideration, both parties are united in advancing the economic interests of the imperial rent-extracting finance capitalists that fund their campaigns in relatively equal measure, depending on who is currently in power

there's a strong incentive to deepen the culture war every year, because the same messaging doesn't work forever. they have to create new fronts and inflame rhetoric more and more in order to hold peoples' interests. as a result, you end up with a population that's extremely individualistic, highly ideological, and loaded with contempt for other people within their class. they're so busy calling the other side fascist that they fail to realize that they're already living in a fascist country that's upheld by neo-feudalist and neo-colonial rent extraction policies as well as non-stop war and political interference abroad. in congress, neither side is able to concede to one another or agree on anything of substance so the only thing that really gets passed is funding for the US war machine

this is the domestic context the US is working with at the same time it started to realize that new economic rivals to its hegemony were starting to emerge. china in particular is set to surpass the US as the wealthiest country on earth within five years or so because of the unprecedented buildup of their productive industrial capacity that the US itself invested in because of the immediate promise of cheap outsourced labor. russia is a massive oil-producer with enough oil supply to easily provide europe with an alternative to more expensive US-owned oil, which was the purpose of the now-destroyed nordstream pipelines. iran is rich in a number of resources including oil and natural gas and serves as a military counter-balance to US domination over the middle east

the US, being almost completely de-industrialized and totally reliant on extraction from its imperial subjects in the global south for its industrial production, absolutely 100% can not under any circumstances tolerate the existence of a competitor to its highly aggressive foreign trade strategy. china and russia aren't without fault of course, but they've historically engaged in relatively straightforward, equitable trade with the leadership of the global south. they bring in affordable commodities while investing heavily in local infrastructure in order to increase domestic industrial capacity by providing them with resources and education on how to build and maintain their own factories and railways. they also don't meddle in their political affairs with assassinations and media manipulation, impose unpayable debt on developing nations, or use the threat of military intervention to coerce them into unfair trade deals. russia even helped syria, a key russian trade partner, militarily fight off US-backed forces seeking to overthrow its government, which would have happened were it not for their assistance

in the 20th century the US employed a divide and conquer strategy to pit the soviet union and china against one another to prevent them from forming a bloc, but by targeting russia, china, and iran all at the same time, they've catapulted all three into an iron-clad alliance that the US has no way of disrupting. the supremacy of the US dollar is falling rapidly as the neocons that run our foreign policy realize that they underestimated russia's economic resilience that comes with being an industrial power. the sanctions they imposed after goading russia into a military intervention in ukraine only hastened the emergence of a new multipolar world order that is already serving as a far more attractive counterbalance to the mafia-style US-led international order

i was utterly shocked by how little time it took for one-time US lapdogs turkey, india, and saudi arabia to start jumping ship and turning toward the eurasian axis. the EU and NATO states (aside from Turkey) have proven themselves to be total puppets to the interests that rule the US empire and are voluntarily de-industrializing themselves by cutting themselves off from russian oil all at once, and de-militarizing themselves all at once by sending all of their military infrastructure to ukraine to be blown up by the russian military. this is utterly catastrophic for the US. the global south is oriented more and more toward the russia-china-iran axis the longer the US drags out this unwinnable proxy war that it paradoxically can't afford to lose

europe is going to collapse without the russian oil needed to keep its industry and the US will be close behind. the US empire's capacity to maintain the hundreds of expensive military bases that pepper the globe will decrease dramatically when it can no longer rely on a constant inflow of imperial rents from a newly industrializing global south. the eurasian and eurasian-aligned countries will benefit from cheap and abundant energy while the european and american people will face a full scale economic disaster. people will freeze to death in winter, lose their houses and life savings, struggle with rampant food shortages. i feel like the US will probably try to re-industrialize, it seems like biden's nodding in that direction, but it would be impossible to do so in time for a collapse that in my largely uneducated opinion will probably be here in the next three to four years, if that, given how already pushed to their limits the people were at the start of this thing. no idea what happens from there. it'll be a total fucking nightmare but will ultimately, in my view, precipitate the re-industrialization and gradual socialist development of the west. i'm not looking forward to it but it needs to happen, the US empire is well beyond its expiration date and the slaughter has to end

if you'd like to read more about this from people i keep up with, i'd start with michael hudson and garland nixon. the above is a poor articulation of their analysis along with various others, so if you want to get it from the source, i'd start with them. i remember being profoundly impacted by this piece by michael hudson when i was still getting my bearings re: the ukraine proxy war, i think it's a good jumping off point

[docpiplup]

@asongofstarkandtargaryen There's a couple of comics and films I wanted to post something about them some time ago, so here they are

Black is Beltza is a duology of comics, the first one was published in 2014 and the second in 2022, and they have been adapted into two Basque animated films recently in 2018 and 2022, Black is Beltza and Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa.

One of the main things of the comics are the sociopolitical environment of the places and the period the films are set in, for example the first one is set in the 60's mainly in New York and the sequel is set in the 80's and among other places, in Pamplona.

Black is Beltza (2018)

October 1965. The Pamplona troupe of giants, a typical image of the San Fermín festivities, is invited to parade on Fifth Avenue in New York. But not everyone will be able to leave: due to racial discrimination, the North American authorities prohibit the participation of the two black giants. Based on this real event, "Black is Beltza" tells the story of Manex, the waiter in charge of carrying one of the giants. Headed for a long and unexpected journey, Manex will witness key events in history: the racial riots resulting from the assassination of Malcolm X, the eccentricities of the characters in The Factory, the alliance between the Cuban secret services and the Black Panthers, and the proto-hippie psychedelia of early music festivals.

Duration: 87 min.

Script: Harkaitz Cano, Fermín Muguruza, Eduard Solà (Comic: Fermín Muguruza, Harkaitz Cano, Jorge Alderete)

Animation Companies: ETB, Setmàgic Audiovisual, Talka Records & Films

Cast

Unax Ugalde: Manex

Isaach de Bankolé: Wilson Clever

Iseo: Amanda Tamaya

Sergi López: Warren Philips

Ramón Agirre: Xebero

Jorge Perugorria: Sargento Bravo

Angelo Moore: Rudy

María de Medeiros: Amira

Emma Suárez: Laia

Oscar Jaenada: Che Guevara

Rossy de Palma: Ruth Abransom

Ramón Barea: Ramiro

Hamid Krim: Yassim

Guillermo Toledo: Teniente Muñoz

Ander Lipus: guardia civil

Josean Bengoetxea: Juanpe, Pancho Villa

Lenval Brown: Jimmy

Valeria Maldonado: Esperanza

Sergio Arau: Juan Rulfo

Jorge Ferrera: Eliseo

Giancarlo Ruiz: Tin-Tan, Smithy, Sergei Titov

Josh Kun: Dwayne

Ray Fernández: Cte. Antonovich

Victor Navarrete: Guerrillero 1

Iban Rusiñol: Laurent

Exprai: Pedro del Taller, Hernán Cortés

Márgenes Dermer: azafata

Ramón Zumitrenko: Sf dentista

Stuart Casson: Otis Redding, Emory Douglas

KO the Knockout: Ben Cauley

Sistaeyeire: Angela Davis

Dratzo Gomex: policía fronteriza I

Marieder Iriart: Iman

Mariam Bachir: Amal

Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa (2022)

Ainhoa ​​was born by a miracle in La Paz (Bolivia) after the death, in a parapolice attack, of her mother Amanda. She grew up in Cuba and in 1988, at the age of 21, she traveled to the Basque Country to see the land of his father Manex. In the middle of the repressive conflict, she meets Josune, a committed journalist, and her gang of friends. When one of them dies of a heroin overdose, Ainhoa ​​and Josune set out on an initiation journey that will take them through Lebanon, Afghanistan and the city of Marseille. These are the last years of the Cold War and both will delve into the dark world of drug trafficking networks and their close ties to political plots.

Direction: Fermin Muguruza

Duration: 86 min.

Script: Fermín Muguruza, Isa Campo, Harkaitz Cano (Comic: Fermín Muguruza)

Music: Maite Arrotajauregi

Photography: Animation, Mariona Omedes

Companies: Co-production Spain-Argentina; Talka Records & Films

Cast

Maria Cruickshank: Ainhoa

Itziar Ituño: Josune

Manex Fuchs: Hamid

Antonio de la Torre: Rafael

Darko Peric: Igor

Ariadna Gil: Isabelle

Eneko Sagardoy: Diego

Mikel Losada: Mikel

Ramón Agirre: Xebero

Miren Gaztañaga: Amatxi Tere

Maite Larburu Iman

Ximun Fuchs: Jean-Pierre

Gorka Otxoa: Iñigo Kortatu

Fermín Muguruza: Fermin Kortatu

Jon Plazaola: Javier Salutregi

Peio Berteretxe: Didier

Maryse Urruty: Armineh

Isidro: Isidro

Joseba Sarrionandia: Martin

Maria Forni: Yady

Iban Rusiñol: Commisaire Marcel

Natalia Abu-sharar: off Sabra y Shatila

Moraysys Silva: Tania

Maykel García Cardo: Felix The Cat

Bruno Coscia: Arthur

Maria Amolategui: Amaia Apaolaza

Papet-J: Chef Chérif

[industrynewsupdates]

AI Governance Market: Trends and Future Growth Prospects

The global AI governance market size is anticipated to reach USD 1,418.3 million by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 35.7% from 2025 to 2030. Owing to the increasing benefits of Al, businesses, and governments across the globe are beginning projects to adopt artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML) technologies and establish themselves as market leaders. To embrace Al governance solutions, government organizations from many nations are creating councils, new rules and regulations, and frameworks. The main goals of governments using Al governance solutions are to increase public trust in Al technology and to preserve private information and civil rights. Additionally, several businesses have established committees in partnership with suppliers of Al solutions, academic institutions, and research centers to identify risk issues for Al technology.

Cloud providers progressively implement ethical norms and principles to ensure AI workloads, which are developed and utilized responsibly. Cloud providers work with governing bodies, regulatory agencies, and other organizations to create AI governance frameworks. These collaborations pool knowledge from several fields to create comprehensive and efficient AI governance frameworks. For instance, In February 2022, Virtana announced the creation of a platform for managing hybrid cloud installations that use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. With this platform's observability, customers can manage app workloads in private, public, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments.

Explainability and transparency are critical components of AI governance in healthcare. Healthcare professionals and patients must comprehend how AI algorithms function to enhance patient care. Healthcare AI governance frameworks strongly emphasize the requirement for concise and open explanations of AI algorithms' operation. All medical technologies are developed by businesses or through public-private partnerships. IoT has several applications in healthcare and can improve physician treatment delivery while keeping patients healthy and safe. As a result, there is an increase in demand for Al governance in healthcare, which is projected to fuel the growth of the segment in the future.

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the AI Governance Market

AI Governance Market Report Highlights

• The global market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 35.7% over the forecast period. 

• Based on verticals, the government and defense segment dominated the market for AI governance in 2024. 

• Healthcare facilities across the globe are utilizing AI systems to identify diseases through a patient's voice or a chest x-ray. Several nations have also proposed surveillance systems to track the person-to-person spread of several viruses. From Asia to Europe, several organizations from the public & private sectors have joined forces to track the spread of the various viruses using AI-based technology. 

• The solutions segment is anticipated to expand throughout the projected time frame for several reasons, including increasing user adoption for AI-based systems, growing dependency, among others. 

• North America leads the global AI Governance market accounting for a leading share of 32.6% in 2024.

AI Governance Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global AI governance market report based on component, deployment, organization size, vertical and region:

AI Governance Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2018 - 2030)

• Solution

• Services

AI Governance Deployment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2018 - 2030)

• On-Premises

• Cloud

AI Governance Organization Size (Revenue, USD Million; 2018 - 2030)

• Large Enterprise

• SMEs

AI Governance Vertical (Revenue, USD Million; 2018 - 2030)

• BFSI

• Government and Defense

• Healthcare and life sciences

• Media and Entertainment

• Retail

• IT and Telecommunication

• Automotive

• Others

AI Governance Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2018 - 2030)

• North America

o U.S.

o Canada

o Mexico

• Europe

o UK

o Germany

o France

• Asia Pacific

o China

o Japan

o India

o Australia

o South Korea

• Latin America

o Brazil

• Middle East & Africa (MEA)

o KSA

o UAE

o South Africa

Order a free sample PDF of the AI Governance Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

[legacyias1]

Top Alumni from Bangalore’s Best IAS Coaching Institutes

Bangalore, often hailed as the educational hub of India, is home to some of the finest IAS coaching centres that have consistently produced exceptional civil service officers. Over the years, these institutes have shaped the careers of numerous aspirants, guiding them to crack the UPSC Civil Services Examination and serve the nation with distinction. In this blog, we celebrate the achievements of top alumni from Bangalore’s best coaching for IAS, their inspiring journeys, and the role of coaching in their success.

The Role of Coaching in IAS Success

Preparing for the UPSC exam requires structured guidance, discipline, and access to the right resources. This is where Bangalore’s best IAS academy stands out, offering mentorship, exhaustive study material, and mock tests tailored to meet the needs of aspiring civil servants. Many toppers have credited their success to these institutes, which have created a legacy of excellence in producing results year after year.

The alumni from Bangalore’s best IAS coaching institute have gone on to become distinguished IAS, IPS, and IFS officers. Let’s take a closer look at some of these remarkable individuals and the institutes that played a pivotal role in their journeys.

1. Arun Prakash (Rank 8, 2021)

Coaching Institute: Legacy IAS Academy Arun Prakash, a graduate from IIT, switched gears from a corporate career to pursue civil services. He relied heavily on Legacy IAS’s personalized mentorship program and test series to secure an All-India Rank of 8. His story is a testament to the quality of training offered by Bangalore’s top IAS coaching.

2. Sneha Reddy (Rank 14, 2020)

Coaching Institute: Legacy IAS Academy Sneha Reddy, an alumnus of Bangalore’s own Legacy IAS Academy, achieved her dreams through hard work and the guidance of seasoned faculty. The academy, known as one of the best coaching for UPSC, provided her with a well-structured timetable and personalized feedback that helped her excel in mains and the interview. Highlight: Legacy IAS Academy continues to be one of the most sought-after IAS coaching classes in Bangalore for its student-centric approach and consistent results.

3. Ankit Verma (Rank 25, 2019)

Coaching Institute: InsightsIAS Ankit’s journey to the top was marked by strategic preparation. He opted for Bangalore’s best IAS coaching centre, InsightsIAS, which provided him with a comprehensive test series and regular answer writing practice. His disciplined approach and the institute’s structured mentorship made all the difference.

4. Priya Sharma (Rank 56, 2021)

Coaching Institute: Shankar IAS Academy

Priya Sharma cracked the UPSC exam while juggling a full-time job. Shankar IAS Academy, known for its flexible UPSC coaching classes, played a crucial role in her preparation by offering weekend batches and an exclusive current affairs module.

5. Ravi Kumar (Rank 18, 2022)

Coaching Institute: Vision IAS Bangalore

Another proud alumnus of Vision IAS Academy, Ravi Kumar, credits the institute for its holistic approach to preparation. Recognized as one of the best coaching for IAS, the academy’s rigorous mock tests and one-on-one mentoring were instrumental in his success. Fun Fact: Vision IAS Academy’s alumni network is filled with rank-holders who inspire the next generation of aspirants.

6. Meera Nair (Rank 40, 2018)

Coaching Institute: Rau’s IAS Study Circle Rau’s IAS Study Circle, one of the oldest coaching for IAS institutes in Bangalore, helped Meera secure a top rank with its in-depth classroom programs and highly competitive peer environment.

7. Arjun Shetty (Rank 33, 2020)

Coaching Institute: ALS IAS Arjun opted for ALS IAS, known for its cutting-edge online learning programs and classroom sessions. His success highlights the importance of Bangalore’s UPSC coaching centres in providing aspirants with both flexibility and quality.

8. Kavya Srinivas (Rank 51, 2019)

Coaching Institute: Plutus IAS Kavya’s success story showcases how Plutus IAS, a premier IAS academy, prepared her for every stage of the exam, from prelims to the interview, with its top-notch faculty and regular assessments.

9. Rajesh Pillai (Rank 22, 2021)

Coaching Institute: BYJU’S IAS Rajesh, a tech enthusiast, benefited from BYJU’S IAS’s digital-first approach to IAS coaching classes. The institute’s online modules and doubt-clearing sessions were key to his preparation.

10. Aditi Rao (Rank 29, 2020)

Coaching Institute: Drishti IAS Drishti IAS, one of Bangalore’s leading UPSC coaching providers, helped Aditi with its focus on ethics and essay writing, two critical areas that many aspirants struggle with.

Why Choose Bangalore for IAS Preparation?

The success stories of these alumni highlight the critical role played by Bangalore’s best IAS coaching institutes in shaping their careers. The city is not just a coaching hub but also offers a thriving environment for aspirants, complete with libraries, study circles, and peer networks.

Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned aspirant, enrolling in one of Bangalore’s UPSC coaching centres can provide you with the tools, resources, and mentorship needed to achieve your goals.

[beardedmrbean]

A former Army financial counselor was sentenced this week to more than 12 years in prison for using his position to defraud Gold Star families out of millions, the Justice Department announced this week.

Caz Craffy, also known as “Carz Craffey,” 42, pleaded guilty in April after officials charged him with multiple charges, including six counts of wire fraud.

As a result of the scheme, the Gold Star families — relatives of service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice — lost more than $3.7 million, while Craffy earned more than $1.4 million in commissions.

In addition to the prison term, a federal judge sentenced Craffy to three years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $1.4 million, according to a department release, which added that restitution will be determined at a later date.

“Craffy made a conscious decision to defraud Gold Star families suffering from losing their loved one who paid the ultimate sacrifice serving this country,” FBI Special Agent in Charge James Dennehy said in the announcement.

“They believed Craffy was acting in their best interest, but instead, he was using their money as a method to make his own,” he said. “Heartless and despicable don’t even begin to sum up his crimes.”

House moves to strengthen vetting for military financial counselors

From November 2017 to January 2023, Craffy was a civilian Army employee, working as a financial counselor with the Casualty Assistance Office, responsible for providing advice to the surviving beneficiaries of deceased troops who can be eligible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.

From May 2018 to November 2022, he obtained more than $9.9 million from Gold Star families to invest in accounts he managed on his own and outside the system, repeatedly executing trades often without the families’ authorization, earning himself high commissions in the process, the release states.

He let the vast majority of them mistakenly believe his management of their money was done on behalf of and with the Army’s authorization.

Authorities pursued Craffy — who is also a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he has served since 2003 — following an investigation by The Washington Post.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has a pending civil complaint against Craffy based on the same and additional conduct, according to the feds, and Craffy has been permanently prohibited from association with any member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

The Army Reserve acknowledged Craffy received his federal sentence, but declined to say whether he is expected to face additional punishment by the military.

“The U.S. Army Reserve remains committed to holding personnel accountable for conduct that does not align with DoD and Army policies,” Army Reserve spokesperson Lt. Col. Addie Leonhardt told Military Times in a statement. “However, the Army Reserve generally cannot comment on pending military personnel matters.”

Craffy’s attorney declined a request for comment. _____________

Let the UCMJ take care of him

[politijohn]

Five years ago, this Court recognized the “general rule” that religious and philosophical objections to gay marriage “do not allow business owners and other actors in the economy and in society to deny protected persons equal access to goods and services under a neutral and generally applicable public accommodations law.” Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm’n, 584 U. S. (2018). The Court also recognized the “serious stigma” that would result if “purveyors of goods and services who object to gay marriages for moral and religious reasons” were “allowed to put up signs saying ‘no goods or services will be sold if they will be used for gay marriages.’”

Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class. Specifically, the Court holds that the First Amendment exempts a website design company from a state law that prohibits the company from denying wedding websites to same-sex couples if the company chooses to sell those websites to the public. The Court also holds that the company has a right to post a notice that says, “ ‘no [wedding websites] will be sold if they will be used for gay marriages.’ ”

What a difference five years makes.” Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. , (2022). And not just at the Court. Around the country, there has been a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities. New forms of inclusion have been met with reactionary exclusion. This is heartbreaking. Sadly, it is also familiar. When the civil rights and women’s rights movements sought equality in public life, some public establishments refused. Some even claimed, based on sincere religious beliefs, constitutional rights to discriminate. The brave Justices who once sat on this Court decisively rejected those claims.

Now the Court faces a similar test. A business open to the public seeks to deny gay and lesbian customers the full and equal enjoyment of its services based on the owner’s religious belief that same-sex marriages are “false.” The business argues, and a majority of the Court agrees, that because the business offers services that are customized and expressive, the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment shields the business from a generally applicable law that prohibits discrimination in the sale of publicly available goods and services. That is wrong. Profoundly wrong. As I will explain, the law in question targets conduct, not speech, for regulation, and the act of discrimination has never constituted protected expression under the First Amendment. Our Constitution contains no right to refuse service to a disfavored group. I dissent

-Justice Sotomayor, with whom Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson join, dissenting

Source