#if guns were legal in the uk there would be more gun violence rather than knife violence

[siaradwast]

yk how like. some british people make "jokes" about school shootings in the usa which are obviously not at all funny. well not only is it not funny but also it's like. not hypocritical, exactly, but something like that. because whilst the usa's issue with violence against children is based around gun violence, the uk actually has a pretty similar issue with knife crime against children. so i think the bigger thing to focus on is "hey it's pretty fucked up that there is so much violence against children" rather than "at least we don't have guns". because whilst i don't agree with the first amendment, im not entirely sure guns themselves are the whole issue, since a similar level of knife crime exists in the uk.

basically: the "violence" part of "gun violence in the usa" is quite possibly the bigger thing to focus on rather than "gun", especially when you consider that you can say "knife violence in the uk" and it would be a comparable sentiment

[feminist-propaganda]

The War - On Drugs

One of the things that pisses me off when it comes to drugs, is the idea that somehow they make people more peaceful.

Drugs tend to be associated with spirituality (LSD, marijuana) or parties (cocaine, MDMA). Not taking drugs is seen as something “fachist” or “intolerant”. All of the cool kids are doing it, only the stuck up ones are saying no.

Even though humans discovered a lot of psychotic substances by observing animals use them (such as the goats who were chewing on the coffee beans in Ethiopia ) it simply isn’t true that drug usage is a peaceful practise. Quite the opposite.

I want to talk about how historically drugs have been used to fuel war.

1. Snorting Cocaine in the Trenches

The very first factory that ever produced cocaine is located a couple of kilometers away from my house, in a town called Amstelveen. 

In 1875, some coca plants were transferred from Brasil to Java, where they were cultivated by the locals under Dutch supervision. In 1900, the Nederlandsche Cocaïnefabriek was created and quickly became the biggest producer in Europe.

It’s only during the first World War though, that the Nederlandsche Cocaïnefabriek really made it’s mark on the pages of History. It sold cocaine to both sides (The Allies and the Germans). Soldiers were taught to cope with the atrocities they saw on the battlefield, the long marches and the rest of it all because they were using cocaine as an upper and opium as a downer.

In the period between the two Wars; some regulations were passed and manufacturing cocaine ceased to be so lucrative, as you could only sell it as a medical product. Fortunately for the Nederlandsche Cocaïnefabriek, during the Second World war, they were once again able to turn a profit by selling opiates to the German Army.

2. Walking to Russia on Ecstasy

During the Second World War, Hitler used methamphetamines to motivate his soliders and give them the energy they needed to walk 30 km a day. People have written at length about the engines and machinery that were developped during the Third Reich, but fail to mention or understand that twenty year old men would’ve probably not commited mass murder and genocide had they not been high on methamphetamines.

Don’t believe me? This is how Time magazine put it in January 2020:

“Few drugs have received a bigger stimulus from war. As Lester Grinspoon and Peter Hedblom wrote in their classic 1975 study The Speed Culture, “World War II probably gave the greatest impetus to date to legal medically authorized as well as illicit black market abuse of these pills on a worldwide scale.”

3. Murdering people on Hash

You might not be convinced that Drugs are the fuel of war and violence because I’ve only talked about the hard drugs, also known as the “party drugs”. How about Hash? The word “assassin” comes from a murder cult called the “Hashishin”. These people formed a group of killers in Northern Iran in the 11th century. The members of the group were offered hash and while they were high would enjoy sensual pleasures such as sex with young women and good food. When they came out of their transes, they would go on murdering expeditions where they were expected to kill specific people.

The secret group was very well organized in a hierarchy of five levels, and only the lowest level was tasked with killing individuals. The decision makers believed that it was better to kill a select number of people that had differing opinions or views than them rather than waging a war.

The killers belived that they were fighting a holy war. In reality, the leaders of the organization would receive commissions from third parties who would pay for the assassination they ordered. They were also great at extorting money, and used the threat of the “Hashishin” to convince their victimes of paying up. 

But why do I care about this anyway? Can’t I just let users use whatever they want to? Why am I giving you this history lesson?

The reason I care is because we tend to think that men are violent, we use the phrase “boys will be boys” to illustrate our belief that we don’t think there’s anything we can do about this. It’s almost as if we think it’s intrinsic to their nature, that they have to let it out sometimes. We think it’s expected and we can’t be upset if they use violence to express themselves.

The idea that men are violent serves a very specific purpose. We don’t perpetuate it for nothing. It’s function is to justify Wars. We teach little boys to own guns and fight, we make videos games that are full of violence, then when they become teenage boys we give them beer and joints. By the time they are adults they’re transformed into violent, dangerous citizens. 

Sending such a man off to war is easier than sending a man who is well read, who likes to paint and writes poetry about his emotions. How could such a man accept the War? 

We perpetuate the idea that men are violent to justify War.

I disagree. Men are not intrinsically violent. During their childhoods, they are told to suppress their emotions, taught that emotions are dangerous, that their emotions make them less worthy of love, that their emotions are so undesirable that if they allow themselves to feel them; they might be excommunicated, that their own mothers might stop loving them.

Later in life, men start resorting to drugs to avoid feeling and dealing with their emotions. And we all know what the consequences of this behavior is. But hey, let me just share some numbers:

- In the UK, suicide is the second biggest cause for deaths in Men. According to one article on the BBC:

It’s the same in many other countries. Compared to women, men are three times more likely to die by suicide in Australia, 3.5 times more likely in the US and more than four times more likely in Russia and Argentina. WHO’s data show that nearly 40% of countries have more than 15 suicide deaths per 100,000 men; only 1.5% show a rate that high for women.

- Men are more likely to develop an addiction to the effects of alcohol. The Center for disease Control in the US reports:

Adult Men Drink More than Women

Almost 59% of adult men report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days compared with 47% of adult women.1

Men are almost two times more likely to binge drink than women.1-3 Approximately 22% of men report binge drinking and on average do so 5 times a month, consuming 8 drinks per binge.2

In 2019, 7% of men had an alcohol use disorder compared with 4% of women.4

-Men are also more likely to be homeless. According to the Demographic Data Project: 

Homelessness in America is largely a gendered phenomenon. Men are the overwhelming majority individuals counted in the HUD-required annual Point-in-Time Count. They are also more likely than women to be unsheltered.  Ending homelessness requires better understanding of the issues that cause so many men to become homeless, and the particular housing, employment, and services solutions that would best end their homelessness.   

When will we stop romanticising drugs as something that makes us creative, friendly or funny and actually see them for what they are? 

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #156

“you’re such a perfect little human wreck, but i like you.”

Have you given anything up for Lent?  When I was Catholic, I mighta tried but never succeeded. Who was the last person you went shopping with?  Mom. Are you planning on dyeing your hair any time soon?  Yes.  I have a few ideas in mind. Who was the last person you saw that you haven’t seen in a while?  Hm, not sure. Do you sing in front of people or only when you’re alone?  Usually when I'm alone. When was the last time you left your cell phone somewhere?  No idea.  I rarely lose it. Do you prefer fake tanning or real tanning?  Neither.  I actually like being pale, and I also don't fancy skin cancer. Have you ever dated someone that was a different race than you?  Hispanic for less than a day (race had nothing to do with it). How old is your best friend?  23. What does your favorite necklace look like?  It's a black, spiked choker with some silver chains and crosses. Would you take a million dollars if it meant you had to die a month later?  No way. Are you a visual, audio, or kinesthetic learner?  Kinesthetic.  I have to do it with most subjects. Cover songs or the original song?  Depends. Have you ever been evacuated from a public building because of an emergency/fire?  I think for a bomb threat once? What is one responsibility you have that you hate?  Cleaning Roman's litterbox. Is there a TV show you used to love, but then lost interest in?  Not really. Do you ever worry about any potential damage you may be doing (knowingly or unknowingly) to your body?  Yeah. Have you ever been to a rave?  No. Have you ever been on public transportation that broke down or got stranded?  No. When’s the last time you did something you were really scared to do?  Recently when I had to call vocational rehab back. What’s an old video game you used to play that you really miss?  Shadow of the Colossus.  I lost the disc. :<  Haven't bothered buying it again 'cuz I wanna get a PS4 and the remaster anyway. If you have a case for your phone, what does it look like?  I don't have one. What are your feelings towards glitter?  Good shit. Are the blankets that are on your bed now made by someone you know in real life?  No. Would you ever have a child just to get someone to fall in love with you?  Oh my god, fuck off. Ever have a drug overdose? What did you OD on exactly?  Yes, and all I'm saying is it was a cold medicine. The most painful medical procedure you’ve ever had?  Getting an infected cyst drained and having not nearly enough numbing.  I felt it, all right. Have you ever met someone in person that you met online?  Yes, Sara. Ever have an ultra-sound performed on you? What was it for?  Yes, on my liver. What color is your digital camera, if you have one?  Black. When was the last time you were sick and what illness did you have?  Idk.  I rarely get sick. What is the strangest food combination that you enjoyed as a young child?  Sandwiches with potato chips in it. Have you ever had to call the cops on someone else before?  No. Are you supposed to be doing something else?  Nah. If you were with your favorite person right now, what would you be doing?  I've been having horny spikes lately, and I've also just felt extremely attached to her recently (more than normal), so probably making out tbh if she was ready. Do you own a gun?  I legally can't due to mental illnesses and a suicidal past.  I wouldn't want one anyway. Do you know how to play chess?  No. What is something the world needs less and more of in your opinion?  Less violence, more love. How hard is it for you to open up to others?  Hard as fuck. Do you think before you act in serious situations?  I sure try, but I can easily slip up if I'm mad. Ever done something you knew was wrong and kept doing it anyway?  Yes. Are you religious?  I believe in a higher power, but I don't really *act* religious. Are you superstitious?  No. Have you ever experienced insomnia?  Yes.  I went through a juncture where it was pretty serious and I couldn't sleep without Melatonin. Are there any words that you just absolutely hate?  The derogatory words for gays and blacks. Do you have an accent?  Not really. Do you say “soda” or “pop”, or something else?  "Soda." Do you believe in reincarnation?  No. Do you have auto correct on your phone?  Yep. Do you know anyone who suffers from depression?  Too many people, myself included.  But mine's well-managed. When you lost your virginity, do you honestly feel like you were ready?  I didn't realize I'd lost it until the beginning of this year lmao.  Don't ask. How much older/younger than you was the person you lost your virginity to?  Two years older. When you were younger, did you plan on saving yourself for marriage?  Yeah, oops. Have you ever had sex with more than one person?  Like, have I had a threesome?  No. What country do you think produces the best musical artists?  Tied between the US and UK, probs. Which year was your favorite year of middle school?  7th. What amusement parks have you been to?  Disney World. What is a song that always makes you happy?  Something from my childhood, probably. Are your parents still married or divorced? For how many years?  They'd been officially divorced since like... 2014. What meal do you usually miss the most?  Breakfast or lunch. Do you have the same political views as your parents?  Some. Are you closer to your mom or dad’s family?  I don't really remember my dad's family, so I can't answer this.  Though I'd honestly probably like his more. Who in your phone has a heart after their name?  Sara. Have you ever hated someone, but ended up being friends with them? More like she ended up my girlfriend lmao. Do you have a favorite soft drink? Mountain Dew Voltage is my weakness. Do you have someone who you can be your complete self around?  Just Sara. Have you ever broken a couple up? Unintentionally.  We were talking too and he ended up wanting me instead.  Probably the thing I'm most ashamed of.  She was my best friend at the time. Are you one of those people who are always cold?  No, I'm usually hot. What are you listening to?  "Get Away With Murder" by Jeffree Star on repeat ahhhhh. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket?  No. If you could make your lips bigger, would you?  I don't think so, I'd have to see a preview of something. What season is your favorite and what season do you feel represents you?  Autumn is my favorite, but I think spring would represent me. Would you rather learn more about space or more about the ocean?  Space. Do you have a mental illness? If yes, how have you learned to cope with it? If no, do you ever suspect you may have one?  I have a lot, but the only two I can't really cope with is anxiety and AvPD.  I've learned with all the others in various ways.  I'm also pretty convinced I have ADD. Do you have a favorite character from the Avengers?  Thor, probably.  Or Loki. Are you alive or just existing?  Alive, finally. What is your favorite type of cookie?  Chocolate chip. What is your favorite type of candy?  Probs strawberry sour punch straws, but if you count chocolate, the Reese's square bars. What do you think is creepy that society accepts as normal?  Stealing the last person's answer: Sexualization of young girls. What do you think is a good date other than dinner and a movie?  I'm up for anything, dude. What time do you wake up most mornings?  Like, 8-ish, typically. What is something you have given a lot of thought to lately?  My future. What do you get complimented on the most?  That I've lost weight. Do you believe in soul mates?  No. Would you move out your house if you could right now?  If it was to move out with Sara, yes. Are you biracial?  No. What kind of booze did you last take shots of?  Never done shots. What color of hair do you find the sexiest on the opposite gender?  Black. If the last person you had sex with asked you to date them, would you?  HAHAHAHA NOOOOOOPE. How long until your next birthday?  A bit less than five months. When you lost your virginity, were you sober?  Yeah. Do you think your best friend’s significant other is attractive?  He's all right.  He's not ugly. Do you own any books written by musicians?  Yeah, Ozzy's autobiography. What’s the chorus to the song that’s been stuck in your head? "I'm gonna break your heart and get away with murder.  You shoulda known from the start that it wouldn't last forever.   I can't control myself; I feel like someone else.  I'm gonna break your heart and get away with murder." Who was the last member of the opposite sex to give you a hug?  Dad. Are you going to make a New Year’s resolution?  No. What does the outfit you’re currently wearing look like?  Red plaid pj pants, black shirt that says, "We would save ourselves if we could. - The Animals." Are you accepting of criticism?  Depends on how harsh it is but also the subject.  I can eaaasily get hurt over it, admittedly.  It's an AvPD thing; I get embarrassed. Have you ever felt like you couldn’t fully trust a significant other? Yes, Tyler and Girt both.  Only because I'm very scared of men now. How many relationships have you been in?  I'll just count everyone who's had the title.  Six. How long did each of those relationships last?  Idk about the first.  Second, less than a day.  Third, three and a half years.  Fourth, like two weeks.  Fifth, I think four months.  My current one is eleven months in. Has anyone lost their virginity to you?  No. Would you raise your children the way your parents raised you?  No. How long was your longest friendship?  I don't know about years, but with Colleen since girl scout days.  Legitimate, talk all the time and hang out type of friendship, middle school. Do you like facial hair on guys or do you prefer the clean shaven look?  It depends on the guy. Who was your first celebrity crush?  Jesse McCartney. How long do you usually spend on the internet in a day?  All day. .-. Would you ever commit a crime if you know you wouldn’t get caught?  Well, I already have.  Downloading music is a crime. Are you good with kids?  No. Which was the worst phase in your life?  Late 2015 - very beginning of 2017. Is it easy to make you cry?  YEAH. Are you good at applying makeup?  Noooo. Do you like pastel colored hair?  I FUCKING.  WANT IT. Do you take your medications in the morning or at night?  Most in the morning, but my second dose of my OCD med and my birth control are at night. Do you think oatmeal tastes better when made with water or milk?  I'll only eat it if made with milk. Do you like thrift stores? Yeah. Have you ever used a fake name at Starbucks?  I don't go to Starbucks. What are you passionate about?  A LOT!!!! Have you ever tried vlogging, and if yes, did you stick with it? No, I never could. What country do you most want to visit? South Africa to see wild meerkats.  For aesthetic/vacation reasons though, probably Scotland. Do you have a birthmark? If yes, what color is it?  Yeah, tan. Who is your favorite Lisa Frank character? ANGEL KITTY. What were you voted in the senior class polls?  Nothing. Do you want to give your kids common names or unique names? I'm not having kids, but if I did, there's no way I'd give them a common one. Favorite Spice Girl? I don't remember the members. Favorite Cheetah Girl? ^ Backstreet Boys or *N Sync?  The boiz. What is your favorite tattoo that you’ve seen?  Those by Brando Chiesa.  Fuckin' aesthetic.  I'd die to have a tat by him. Do you knit or crochet?  No. What season do you want to get married in?  Autumn. Is your Pinterest cluttered? No. What is your favorite insect?  Butterflies. What bugs scare you?  Most, really. Who picked your name, your mom or your dad? Probably Mom.  I can't imagine Dad having much of an opinion unless it was awful. When was the last time you got a new phone?  Like... three years ago. Have you ever made your parents cry?  Mom, yes. Have you ever been cheated on or had a guy move on extremely fast after a long, seemingly sincere relationship?  I'm aware Jason was talking to a girl preeeetty soon after our breakup.  I'm sometimes suspicious if he was cheating or liking someone more than me and thus he lied about the reason for the breakup, but I'll give him enough credit to say I doubt that. Have you ever had someone tell you they wanted to be with you forever only to have them break up with you?  ^ :) Does your ex’s new romantic interest know about the things you two did together?  I don't know if Jason's taken now, but I don't see why he would share anything. Do you ever tell your current significant other about the things that you did with an ex-partner?  I'd only tell her in she asked.  It's not something I'm gonna just randomly talk about. Have you ever felt like your heart actually stopped?  The moment I realized Jason was leaving, it legitimately felt like everything stopped.  Can we stop with questions that bring him up? What’s something you’ve vowed to never eat?  Wild animal/venison. Are you good at holding back your laughter if needed?  NO. Have you ever had a “thumb war” with someone?  Yeah, has any kid not? What was the last movie that made you teary-eyed?  Johnny Got His Gun. Have you had two friends that absolutely hated each other?  Not absolutely hated, I think. Has a laptop ever burned your legs?  Yes.  I actually had marks for quite a while. Do you know anyone who has a scar through their eyebrow?  Juan. Have you ever just screamed really loud in an attempt to feel better?  Once that I recall.

[expatimes]

Assange vs the violence of imperial ‘humanitarianism’ | Human Rights News

In the United Kingdom court decision sparing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from extradition to the United States (for now, pending appeal), the intimately symbiotic relationship between humanitarianism and violence was evident once again.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that it would be “oppressive” to extradite Assange – but not because of the injustice of the US government’s campaign of retribution against him for exposing its massacres, misrepresentations and manipulations, but rather due to the fragility of Assange’s mental health.

The same “justice” system that has eviscerated Assange’s mental wellbeing with prolonged psychological torture, in the assessment of the UN special rapporteur on torture, now poses as his hope for salvation.

Like a large-scale governmental version of Munchausen by proxy, the state mystifies its own role in producing the pathology in question, then attempts to extract moral capital from exhibiting a modicum of care. Structural violence creates the need for humanitarianism, which mitigates some of the excesses of violence, ensuring the flourishing of both violence and humanitarianism.

Judge Baraitser not only declined to find that the US’s prosecution of Assange is for political “offences” – and therefore barred by the UK-US Extradition Treaty – but held that there is no judicially enforceable barrier against political extraditions at all: “the defence has not established that the UK-US treaty confers rights on Mr Assange which are enforceable in this court” since the treaty is “not yet incorporated into domestic law”. Perversely, according to this judgement, Assange (and other extradition targets) are subject to the treaty, but precluded from invoking its protections.

The fact that Assange revealed damning truths about state atrocities that would otherwise have remained concealed was also dismissed as irrelevant. “The defence have not established that the principle of the ‘right to truth’ is a legal rule that is recognised in either international law or domestic law.”

The defence of necessity was similarly discarded: “he has not provided evidence of any individual incident which was going to create a danger to members of the public which his disclosure was designed to avoid.”

US allegations that WikiLeaks endangered the lives of US military informants, in contrast, were accepted as reality despite the absence of evidence. In a remarkable feat of guilt transfusion, it is not the US military but Julian Assange who is inculpated for having “blood on his hands”.

Having stripped away all of Assange’s defences, the court left him with no shield against extradition other than his own psycho-pathologisation – continuing the long tradition of depoliticising claims for justice by reframing them as issues of the claimants’ “mental illness”.

Judge Baraitser concluded that exposing Assange to the tortures of US super-maximum security imprisonment under “special administrative measures” – characterised by intensive solitary confinement and sensory deprivation – would create a serious risk of suicide. She located the underlying problem, however, not in the pathologies of the US carceral system but in the dark recesses of Assange’s psyche. “Whilst the imminence of extradition or extradition itself would trigger the Mr Assange’s mental disorder that would lead to an inability to control his wish to commit suicide.”

In some quarters, this decision has been hailed as a takedown of US mass incarceration. But in fact, the carving out of such “humanitarian” exceptions has proven to be perfectly compatible with the entrenchment of carceral rule.

“Reform efforts targeting protected categories like the young, or the mentally ill, or more recently, pregnant women, leave behind a core of people who are not young, not (yet) mentally ill, not pregnant, and therefore not deserving of protection,” notes criminologist Keramet Reiter. “This durable core of punishable subjects becomes an ongoing justification for the need for solitary confinement.”

Professor Reiter’s research shows how human rights litigation provided the design template for the torture chambers of US super-max prisons. Judges castigated the dark, unsanitary, violent, noisy “holes” of previous solitary confinement regimes. So in the super-max version of solitary 2.0 (constitution-compliant edition), the fluorescent lights are left on 24 hours a day, the cells are constructed of sterilised concrete and steel, hi-tech automated food flaps remove the need for any human interaction, and heavy sealed doors muffle the sounds of prisoners’ cries. 

Everything exceeding the courts’ bare minimum requirements has been recast as a superfluous “privilege” and eliminated – corroborating writer Arundhati Roy’s observation about human rights serving as a discount substitute for justice.

US super-maxes are a “clean version of hell,” in the words of a former warden quoted in another extradition case, Babar Ahmad and Others vs the UK. While the UK requires assurances that those extradited will not be subject to the quick death of execution, imposition of the slow, “living death” of solitary confinement is allowed.

In extradition cases like Babar Ahmad and Others vs the UK – in which the defendants have been British Muslims accused of amorphous “terrorism” offences – mental illness and disability have not been grounds for empathy and alleviation of punishment, but further demonisation. The colonial exception to humanitarian protections for those deemed “savages” and “barbarians” – or as they are known in contemporary terminology, “terrorists” and “unlawful combatants” – continues to operate under the aegis of universal human rights.

Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan, for example, were extradited to solitary confinement in the US in 2012, despite diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (Ahmad) and depression and Asperger syndrome (Ahsan).

In the European Court of Human Rights decision green-lighting the transfer, the US’s supposedly “long history of respect of democracy, human rights and the rule of law” was cited as a justification. Both Ahsan and Ahmad ultimately pleaded guilty under the threat of life sentences, although the sentencing judge subsequently acknowledged that neither was engaged in “operational planning or operations that could fall under the term ‘terrorism’.”

Their co-complainant Haroon Aswat received a temporary reprieve from extradition, due to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, but this was ripped away following US assurances he would receive treatment in incarceration.

“No mechanism is available for verifying the claims made in the assurances,” as a group of experts on US terrorism prosecutions pointed out. “In effect, the decision meant Haroon Aswat could be subjected to the mental health deterioration that will most likely result from solitary confinement … so long as he enjoys occasional access to a psychiatrist.” “Assurances” become a humanitarian shield for abuse.

In our “humanitarian present”, the “moderation of violence is part of the very logic of violence,” as academic Eyal Weizman dissects in his book The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza. “It is through this use of the lesser evil that societies that see themselves as democratic can maintain regimes of occupation and neo-colonization” – not to mention torture and mass incarceration.

Documents publicised by WikiLeaks illuminated how practices of domination are packaged in the logic of humanitarianism: a blueprint for self-proclaimed virtuous violence.

The Guantanamo Standard Operating Procedures manual, for instance, contained detailed instructions for stripping and shackling detainees (many wrongfully captured, including elderly men and children), inflicting psychological terror with military dogs, force-feeding hunger strikers (a form of torture), violently disciplining “mass suicide” attempts, and performing “Muslim funerals and burials”. But not to worry – camp officials must “respect all detainees as human beings and protect them against all acts of violence.”

The US military’s Rules of Engagement for Iraq, meanwhile, authorised soldiers to inflict “collateral damage” of up to 30 civilians at a time. But rest assured – all “use of force” will be “necessary and proportional.”

In practice, as we also know from WikiLeaks, this meant shooting pregnant women, disabled people, and children at checkpoints, killing Iraqis trying to surrender, and gunning down journalists and rescuers from helicopters (the infamous “collateral murder” video). None of which were prosecuted as war crimes, under an international humanitarian law (law of war) that condemns the indiscriminate violence of the poorly-resourced while privileging the “precise,” technologically-advanced carnage of powerful states.

As US General James Mattis warned prior to the invasion of Fallujah in 2004, “We will always be humanitarian in all our efforts … May God help them when we’re done with them.”

And yet Assange is the one who is in the dock. Having unmasked the machinery of imperialism, he is now being crushed within its gears. In one of his final acts as US president, Donald Trump refused requests to grant Assange clemency, having previously pardoned four Blackwater mercenaries for the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad: a reminder that the power to save and the power to condemn are two sides of the same coin.

If the prosecution of Assange is permitted to succeed, it will be yet another brick in the fortress of impunity for those who kill, torture and invade in humanitarianism’s name.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=17250&feed_id=30466

[tacticalshit]

Lantac BOSS “THINKS” UK Gun Laws Sensible

Then he says we should try to be more like them. Check THIS OUT!

The UK GQ Writes

But here are a couple of things you may not know: in the United Kingdom it is perfectly legal to buy an AR-15 rifle, In the UK at least, it’s the gun of choice for the modern-sporting-rifle enthusiast. Rifles like the AR (another common misconception is that AR stands for Assault Rifle; it actually stands for Armalite Rifle, after its original manufacturer) are generally used for target shooting and, in the US, hog hunting too. Where it gets murky (and, in my opinion, disturbing) is when you hear from Americans who want them to defend against an imagined tyrannical government – an admittedly vocal but thankfully small minority of gun owners.

Yorkshireman Paul Oglesby grew up around guns. His father, a film cameraman, took him fishing and shooting and Oglesby told me country sports were in his blood. Today he runs Lantac, a UK supplier of custom AR-15s.

Oglesby sells fully automatic weapons to the military, and single-action models (on which you have to pull the bolt back to empty the chamber and re-load) to British target shooters who have applied for a licence. Semi-automatic models are also legal in the UK but they fire .22 rimfire cartridges – lower calibre bullets than their single-action equivalents. “Us Brits are exceptionally good [at shooting sporting rifles],” Oglesby told me. “We have some of the best competitive shooters.”

Oglesby worries that the demonisation of the AR and its accessibility in America will draw attention to the fact that the same guns are legally available in the UK. But Oglesby’s point is that sensible gun control can mean people like him – who enjoy using guns for sport – can go on doing so.

Oglesby thinks we have some good and sensible firearms laws in the UK. “There are unsavoury characters in every country but the difference is that children here will never get hold of a firearm legally. In America, it’s easy, and once they’ve got it, there’s no restriction. They leave it on the draining board, on the fridge or kitchen table. You have kids running around on Ritalin and their parents don’t even lock their guns up.”

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Recently at Shot show we saw this..

You can hear in the video where the Lantac Rep even says, “yes this is how we shoot ARs in the UK”, because they can’t have centerfire Armalite patterned rifles that are semi auto.   NOW this could be the GQ writer twisting the words of Oglesby when he says “Oglesby thinks we have some good and sensible firearms laws in the UK.”  but it needs to be pointed out that this guy does happen to run one of only two companies in the world that would profit tremendously if UK gun laws were imposed in the US since his company makes single shit bolt action AR conversions (as seen here in this shot show video).

  Lets talk about UK and their sensible laws

The Standard Writes

Soaring violence on London’s streets has seen Scotland Yard launch 56 murder investigations this year so far.

Figures revealed last week suggested capital’s murder rate had overtaken New York’s for the first time ever.

At least 35 of those killed were stabbed to death in an epidemic of violent street crime which has led to a rise in the use of police stop and search powers. “

Yup these are pretty good numbers, And they have overtaken NY as a violent city.  Because that’s what we need in the US more stabbings.  The UK has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world. If you want to own a gun, it is very difficult to do so.  In short, it has been designed to put as many barriers in the way as possible and to assume the worst, rather than hope for the best.  In the United States, you can declare that it is your constitutional right to bear arms, but in the UK, you need to spend hours filling in paperwork and proving to police officers that you are not a danger to society.

If you want to read MORE about UKs laws and why they are a libtards wet dream click over HERE

CONTINUING, the UK does have it’s own firearm issues as well, and is seeing a rise in the “misuse” of firearms….(notice they don’t call it “gun violence, or shootings)

NRA ILA writes

According to New York Police Department data gathered by The Sunday Times, the law enforcement agency initiated 14 murder investigations in February and 21 murders investigations in March. London’s Metropolitan Police reported 15 murder investigations for February and 22 for March. In regards to calculating the murder rate, London has a slightly higher population than New York City. New York City still led London in total murders through the first three months of 2018 – 55 to 46.

In January, the UK’s Office for National Statistics published the statistical bulletin, “Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2017.” In a section titled, “Offences involving weapons recorded by the police continue to rise,” the document detailed the increasing misuse of firearms in Britain.

The report stated that there had been a 20 percent increase in offenses involving firearms from October 2016 through September 2017 over the same period a year earlier. This included a 36 percent increase in offenses involving shotguns and a 20 percent increase in offenses involving handguns. Handguns are prohibited in the UK outside of Northern Ireland.

The problem appears to be most pronounced in London and the surrounding areas. The report indicated, “around half (50%) of the increase in England and Wales occur[ed] in the Metropolitan Police force area.” While the bulletin dismissed some portion of the rise in firearms offenses to better reporting practices, the ONS noted, “Evidence of some genuine increase in offences involving firearms can be seen in admissions data for [National Health Service] hospitals in England.”

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  It sickens me that we are seeing more and more gun industry company leaders endorsing infringement on the 2nd Amendment or pushing “sensible gun control”, just to make a quick buck.  Companies  need to stick to what they are good at, producing firearm parts, and products and keep their noses out of the Political Spectrum, and I would even go as far to say keep your mouths shut.  UK Firearm laws are laughable at best and the country can BARELY contain what issues that have sprung up since they have done everything in their power to disarm and render helpless their citizens, while still maintaining a holier than thou appearance.

There is a reason we have the 2nd Amendment, and in NO WAY should we be taking advice from a country’s spokesman, where they list acid as a “highly dangerous weapon.”

The post Lantac BOSS “THINKS” UK Gun Laws Sensible appeared first on Tactical Sh*t.

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[driveincinema]

Feature post #3

Hello again its your friendly neighborhood film writer struggling with late assignments. With the newest film that we watched Sicario and Hurt Locker along with Mad max. Whereas I intend to compare and contrast a female presence verses a male presence within the american judicial system, and acts of violence. In a place where chaos is present it can be difficult to get control. Hurt Locker constantly has protocol that they work under to avoid anything like photography being taken of the solders. Whereas the first time Kate walks in to the Mexican special ops she was given a drill and a safety precaution, but she wasn’t debriefed at all.   

Jumping right in James just casually removed his protective gear and started to look at the bombs wiring. His headset screamed about the time and halfway through looking for the detonator box he removed his communication focusing on the car and nothing else. Meanwhile pictures had threatened them with information being discovered about them. James thought he had the situation fully under his control even thought he put other lives in the balance. Kate doesn’t get a choice in conducting her own rules around protocol.

She was told during the briefing that the most dangerous area would be the borderline. “Likely hit.” I believe that’s how he worded it. Yet, when she arrived there everyone in her car was on guard to finally find a few cartel members with guns. After they had saw them they immediately engaged, before these members could even shoot. Something completely out of protocol threw her for a loop as she fought with the head of the department. She was out of her element and out of control without even having it in the first place. Referring to the bomb threat it was handled by James, getting beaten for it and praised. These were the only two reactions brought forth from different characters of the film.

His team member and a general among the ranks had walked up to him and immediately punched him in the face for refusing to talk to his team member. Whereas an older and higher ranking officer came over to him to shake his hand while asking how many other bombs he has diffused. 

Over 800 bombs that James had come across and lived through. This reinforcement is a huge masculine quality, violence met with admiration gives him pride in himself about his own accomplishments. Now coming back to Kate whom disagree’s with everything that just occurred before her she is degraded by her commanding officer telling her, “That’s how it works around here!” No information given these people just needed blind obedience, but she was a fighter and she wanted whoever killed 42 people behind prison bars. Speaking of she attempted to get him behind bars by working together a paper trail. 

Instead of going off on her own like James had done she tries to do the opposite, and get a working case against the man she volunteered to do this for. She was answered with the simplicity of not having enough evidence, since the line of credit ran cold. This blond woman would only deposited money through the bank with it physically with her. Or what turned out to be a facade to get the money into the bank, the woman was actually a male with a wig. Giving a bit of a symbol to the watcher that this money wasn't gathered by legal means. 

Her department agreed that something was wrong, but they had been very careful with handling the money. Showing that working inside the lines wouldn’t be beneficial to turn this man in. Further breaking her down from the only thing she knows well. Now from the movie hurt locker we run into an interesting parallel within the two films. “The movie reflects on the celebrated life of a soldier and is entitled, "war is a drug." The soldier vividly displays war as a drug that needs to be taken by all soldiers at all times of their lives for their survival.” 

Sicario is a film about the war on drugs while Hurt Locker highlights on how war can become a drug. I think the same thing apply’s in Sicario, but as an underlying fact. That the battlefield is tough and made to be fought with more violence rather than logic. Giving an addictive rush of adrenaline in return. 

Whenever I think of the thrill of the fight I always remember the borderline scene where everyone took the extra step to attack first ask questions later. Giving Kate an abrupt wake up call being in the position of order instead of enjoyment. Not to mention, one of the main characters tries to concentrate on using violence instead of intelligence.

The actor that plays his character backs up the same ideal. Since he was risen in violence its only customary to use it to overcome issues brought on by it. Another showing of violence is during the movie Mad Max. Where gender rolls now play a bigger portion of the movie. Women are not supposed to know how to act mu like Kate, but as we see in the female lead of Mad Max is the polar opposite. 

She is manipulative and dangerous, making the outlook of women a much deeper character than the scratched surface of Kate within the Sicario. Now comparing this film to Hurt Locker she resembles the need for survival rather than a drug for adrenaline. The Hurt Locker has a tense atmosphere around diffusing bombs to save others, but in Mad Max its the question of if they will get out alive. 

In which some of them don’t. Mad Max is a much more pleasing film to watch because your given information about what is happening. Furiosa was in control and leading the movie whereas Kate was the background playing the part of the audience. Watching things go by wasn’t a good experience. 

Returning back to Hurt Locker the comparison of characters would probably turn out as Sanborn and Kate on the same playing field. Sanborn has a concise grasp on the rules and moving within them accordingly. As well as the comparison of watching the scene play out before you. Sanborn wasn’t the main character and he ended up watching as James screwed around and did whatever he wanted. 

Getting cover when things go weary and being completely focused on the objective. Is the structure that Kate needed in mexico but never had the chance to achieve since everything and everyone was working against her. 

Essays, UK. (November 2013). The Hurt Locker Analysis Film Studies Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/the-hurt-locker-analysis-film-studies-essay.php?vref=1

[fyrapartnersearch]

M/M Original Mafia RP & Mafia 2 (the game)

THE MAFIA FANATIC IS BACK YA’LL! CLASSES ARE OVER AND ITS COLD AS HELL SO I RATHER SIT INSIDE AND WRITE!! Time zone: Pacific Time. If RPing smut, are you of legal age in your country?: Yes, 23 What characters do you have/play?: A 24 male character. What characters would you like to play against?: Another original older male character who’s in their 30’s, to early 50’s. (Who is protective over his younger partner? I love this dynamic of “No one messes with that kid on my watch”.). They done have to be in the same branch of familia, mafia if you don’t choose them to be. Hell they could even be an undercover cop, or a rival enforcer I haven’t don’t those one before! I would like a partner with experience, (and usually someone 20+ age). This is heavy more in depth writing, so if your more on the lighter side. This may not be for you. Preferred rp medium: Email, and only Email since it is what I am most comfortable with, I can access it on my phone and reply much easily. Contact information: Feralvolpa@gmail.com I have written this with more than a couple partners but it still remains unfinished or abandoned stories for this RP since it’s created prompt. They either disappeared into the void or some times loss of interest happens over time. Eh, no big deal just keep moving forward haha! In all honestly I just want to finish and finally bury this story! Plot: A 24-year-old marine, a victim of human trafficking as past high-class prostitute is the new recruit in the Italian Mafia. He’s on the run from his pervious owner, needs protection, money and his freedom from his owner trying to reclaim him. Luckily the Don of the Italian mafia sees he’s useful. Even if the new kid will never become a made man in the family because he’s Spanish, the Don can see greatness in this young man who has the potential to rise in the ranks quickly. The new guy gets paired with an old hand, who meet each other again after a near deadly one night stand. The marine finds himself a bit smitten and enraptured with the older man who’s a living legend in the family. They work well together, and have saves one another’s ass more than once. The old pro doesn’t want to admit the kids got an unbreakable will to survive and good with a gun, better with a knife but instead just secretly becomes very possessive, if not a little infatuated over his young charge.  There’s a tenacity to new guy that the older man can’t help but admire. How someone can go through so much yet still rise to one’s feet the way the kid does and still keep fighting. He’ll make sure nobody else forces the kid to relive the past from which he’s escaped. Now things have a chance to change for good with each other at their back. While the new guy works on his own secret motives hiding something he knows from the rest of the family that could give the Don an advantage that could shake the crime world. *Important: You do get a bit burnt out or frustrated when partners only give back two paragraphs compared to your eight-ten paragraph reply. (I’ve learn to lessen my length of replies and dial it back haha). Mafia 2 What characters do you have/play?: A male OC or Vito Scaletta What characters would you like to play against?: Vito Scaletta or an another male oc. I’ll just be so happy someone else wants to do a Mafia 2 RP! I’m undecided which one of us will play Vito Scaletta but that can be decided when we talk. As well as the other characters from the game or original characters you would like to add in also.  Plot will be following the game of course, or if you’d like even post game dealing with the aftermath. (spoilers) I want to see a sad Vito crushed by the loss of Joe, trying to not resent against Leo Galante.  Additional notes: - This mafia RP will be dark and gritty/dark as FUCK with all that beautiful crime world fucked up goodness with dangerous and powerful criminals. - I want a long term partner! (PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE THE TYPE TO DISAPPEAR WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD). At least say goodbye! -Good character chemistry between our character’s ALSO THE BEAUTIFUL power struggle! -I am looking for M/M for the main paring for this RP. With other multi-pairings on the side. We can definitely double and have other relationships in the background. -I stick to 3rd person, past tense, in paragraph/novella style.(I once had someone ask me what “Paragraph writing” was…I couldn’t answer them because I felt that my brain broken in half) - I love well rounded characters and their development, Please have a character with a personality! - I really like to use face claims or don’t mind it if you want to include a picture with your character. Just for the love of god don’t send me anime character references! -I love talking in OOC, its fun to pitch ideas back and forth as well as brainstorm with my partners. -I am highly responsive when it comes to letting partners know if I need more time to work on my replies or if I’ll be busy. I also just love discussing characters and plot outside of the story! Brainstorming creative ideas is something of a talent haha. - I’m the type to give equal effort or even more so for my partners. I will write even 20-something long replies if you give me long and detailed responses in return. I will always be creative with my writing and try to make it very interactive for your character(s). So I expect the same effort back. -let the characters grow and develop, never let them stagnate or never learn from anything, Let them evolve. So none of that plot convince, it’s so boring.  -I won’t nitpick grammar, basic spelling and sentences will do just fine, I’m not a perfectionist and am here to have fun writing. -I love writing smut, if the setting is appropriate. But plot will be the main focus. ALTHOUGH I LOVE ME SOME SEXUAL TENSION AND POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE TWO! - No limits to violence/language/etc. Since this is going to be in the world of a gritty mafia so expect dark themes. What I don’t want: - Half-assed writing.I’ve been RPing more than five years, I work on and edit a lot of stories for scripts classes so I can tell when something is rushed. Please come with at least some standard of your writing.  - THE LACK OF CHEMISTRY BETWEEN OUR CHARACTERS, JESUS DONT FORCE THINGS IF THE FLOW DOESNT WORK. Not everyone can be friends and that’s okay! - Supernatural elements randomly thrown into the story because I did not sign up for that shit. (Also honestly, not too big of a fan on it sorry!!). -A Boring RP with no effort. -All smut - SEME/UKE or Submissive/Dominate stereotypical pairings, (get that away from me).  - To be the one holding up my end of the RP Please for the love of god, GIVE THE STORY PLOT TWISTS!!! - Unimaginative plot lines - The “emotionless” character trait. Its boring, uninteresting, and not at all fun to interact with.  -Sending 4 lines of mostly dialog after I send you 5 to 10 paragraphs, Come on now…Have some depth or details to your writing. Show not tell! Kinks/what I’m okay with: Suit & tie, uniform, light bondage, toys, edging, dubcon, noncon, legal age gap, Spanking, voyeurism, praising. (Maybe a daddy-kink if you fancy it and A/B/O, but if your not one for it then that’s fine. (ask away if you want to include things). Limits: Scat, vore, vomit, bathroom stuff (not into the water sports), underage (no brainer), furries, feet, fisting, talking animals (this isn’t a disney movie), sounding and diaper/infantile. Just please don’t message me with; “Heeeeey do you want to RP???” No? I’m here looking for baking recipes Duh. Hahaha! Or “Hey I saw your ad and think we should be friends!”. No??? Who are you? I don’t know you, and coming at me like that makes me anxious to respond. It just feels so awkward on my end.  And finally if you come asking about this RP and your under 18 but your hoping for a chance because you REALLy like the prompt, my answer isnope!  Your name, introduction about yourself is simple and perfect! :) Along with the character you have to play and plot ideas you might have in mind is just fine! Also include which RP you wish to write for since I’ve posted a lot of ads on here and it gets confusing for me keeping track. I don’t know what someone is referring to when they messaged me; “I liked your RP plot!”…THAT’S GREAT! WHICH ONE?! BECAUSE I HAVE NO CLUES TO THE ONE YOU WANNA DO FRIEND!  I know my ad sounds and looks intimidating or has a serious tone, I’m just trying to put into words what I’m looking for in a writing partner and type of RP I’d enjoy having. I’m really quiet the opposite haha. I’m a really goofy person who gets over excited about stories and get over eager with plot ideas. So if it sounds Interesting or want to talk more about plot and characters, please message me!  P.S. If any of you are non-english speakers or bilingual please do not hesitate to shoot me a reply. I’ve had plenty of partners who were non-native english speakers! :D

[gleitzman]

B-boys on E

It's widely known that marijuana and hip hop are inextricably linked - just turn on the radio or take your pick of MCs becoming poster-boys of weed culture. However, there's a more obscure branch of rap references dating back to the early 90's that have another target in focus: ecstasy. In December of 2000, Simon Reynolds penned an article for the webzine of London-based record label Hyperdub, which now boasts artists such as DJ Rashad, Burial, and Martyn, about the rising trend of MDMA-related references in rap lyrics.

A comprehensive look into B-boys on E, I've republished the piece below alongside a playlist of every track mentioned in the article, including a few sub-2000's tracks that came to mind. Put down the blunt and pick up the pacifier.

Hip Hop and Ecstasy - Simon Reynolds

Magazine editors have a secret formula: "two things, that's just a coincidence--but three, that's a trend". Well, here's three pieces of evidence. On "Let's Get High" from his don't-call-this-a-comeback album The Chronic 2001, Dr. Dre declares " I just took some Ecstasy/Ain't no tellin what the side effects could be". In The Wire's Christmas issue, El-P of underground hip hop outfit Company Flow listed among his 1999 highlights trying Ecstasy "for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth time". And gangsta rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's latest album BTNH Resurrection contains the song "Ecstasy," inspired by the group's recent introduction to MDMA. The chorus features some of Bone Thugs private slang for the E sensation: "I feel so 'Z'/I feel so ziggety ziggety ziggety/Cause I'm floatin' in ecstasy.." Bizzy's so impressed with the "new shit" touted by their weed dealer that he even wishes Eazy E, Bone Thugs's deceased mentor, "was here to feel pillish, pillish, pillish, pillish."

Add to this reports of thugs and bitches buzzing on E at the Tunnel (New York's most hardcore and "street" rap club), MDMA references in tracks by Jay-Z, Eminem, DJ Quik, Nas, Three-6 Mafia, and Saafir, and persistent rumors about a certain rap mogul who's got a serious Ecstasy habit, and you've got more than a trend--you've got a phenomenon: Hip Hop America Gets Loved Up. It's happened as a knock-on effect of the astonishing surge in Ecstasy use in America over the last two years, itself triggered by a return to reliable, high-dose MDMA pills thanks to Mitshubishi and the brands that followed in its wake. The New York Times reported a 450 percent increase between 1998 and 1999 in Ecstasy seizures by police and customs (which usually roughly reflect the amount of Ecstasy on sale on the streets). The United States Custom Service is projecting a 1500 percent increase from 1999 to 2000! For the first time since it was legal in the early Eighties, MDMA is popular outside the rave scene, with college students and yuppies throwing E parties. And finally, the drug has made significant inroads into the rap community.

On the face of it, Ecstasy would not appear to be a B-boy drug. MDMA lowers one's emotional defences, promotes feelings of trust and tactile tenderness, defuses aggression. It basically creates the exact opposite mind-body-soul state to rap's paranoid and paramilitary ego, all threats and boasts and psychologically armored readiness for the outbreak of hostilities. It also seems really unlikely that your typical gangsta rapper would enjoy exploring Ecstasy's androgynizing effects--the way it makes men more able to express their emotions, be cuddly and affectionate, talk to women without sex as the primary goal, find it difficult to achieve an erection or have an orgasm. These swoony Ecstasy effects would probably be experienced as traumatic not pleasurable--threatening sensations of weakness, softness, E-masculation. Hip hop's ethos of "keeping it real," its concern with reflecting hardcore street realities of crime and incarceration, also conflicts with rave's Ecstasy-fuelled positivity and utopian hope. This dark-tinted realism was a common attitude in the early jungle scene, which was highly influenced by hip hop values. For many Black British junglists, Ecstasy was "false," a chemical haze of unreality that didn't resonate with their harsh experience of urban life.

Judging by the Ecstasy-inspired lyrics that have emerged from rap so far, though, even MDMA can't teach an old dogg new tricks. The sexual attitudes haven't improved one bit. Dr. Dre's lyric about just dropping an E goes straight into "All these fine bitches equal sex to me/plus I got this bad bitch layin' next to me". In "Ecstasy", Bone MC Flesh rhymes about "feelin’ hot and exotic with an arced cock/ I'm feelin' too sexy for my muthafuckin self/Gotta find my bitch and I’m gonna fuck her ass to death!". There are stories floating around about major ballers and shot-callers in the rap industry who throw parties at their mansions in the Hamptons (an expensive Long Island summer home area favored by Manhattan's wealthy and famous) where Ecstasy is primarily used to get the ladies "in the mood" for multiple-partner sex. As for the violence in rap lyrics, rhymes about guns and murda have not been replaced by spiritualized Ecstasy babble about P.L.U.R. (the American raver's mantra of "peace, love, unity and respect"). Unlike with Britain's reformed football hooligans during 1988's Summer of Love, we've yet to see the emergence of the "love thug" in hardcore hip hop. Perhaps the behavioral codes are too ingrained for rave's smiley-face to replace rap's "screwface"--the menacing scowl-sneer that signifies hip hop culture's taboo on showing your teeth.

Then again, it's early days yet, and Ecstasy is such a powerful drug that it's certain to have some affects on hip hop, both as a culture and as a music. Although jungle eventually adopted an anti-Ecstasy stance (favoring the "organic", herbal highs of marijuana over "chemicals"), as a form of music it could not have existed without its precursor genre, 1991-92 hardcore rave--whose sped up breakbeats and manic barrage of samples were basically "hip hop on E," rather than a mutant form of techno. Add Ecstasy to hip hop again, and the results could be as revolutionary as the emergence of jungle out of rave. Whether as a result of Ecstasy use or just an eerily prophetic prelude, there's been a flood of rap and R&B tracks that feature techno-like sounds and riffs over the last eighteen months: Ja Rule's "Holla Holla" with its snaking, writhing riff that sounds like nothing so much as a Roland 303 acid bassline; the staccato rave-style stabs in Destiny's Child's "Bugaboo," Ginuwine's "What's So Different," and Jay-Z's "Girls' Best Friend"; the house vamps and techno pulses in countless Cash Money tracks by Juvenile, B.G., Hot Boys and Lil Wayne, all produced by Mannie Fresh (who actually worked with Steve 'Silk' Hurley a decade ago).

Most recently Timbaland, who's talked about his fondness for electronica and groups like The Prodigy, has produced three tracks that positively drip with the influence of European Ecstasy culture, if not E itself. Aaliyah's smash hit "Try Again" rolls on a burbling Roland 303; the dirge-bass riff on Jay-Z's "Snoopy Track" makes it a rap "Dominator" or "Mentasm"; Nas featuring Ginuwine's "You Owe Me" has the slinky, lurching flow of 2-step garage. Indeed two-step ought to be the logical bridge between American "urban" (radio programmer code for black) music and house culture, since it is basically UK rave embracing and absorbing US R&B. 2-step garage is where the musical advances made during 10 years of collectively living at the cutting edge of rave's drug-technology interface ("caning it", in plain English slanguage) are now being folded back into the humanist, hypersexual pop sounds that ravers originally broke with to pursue manic sexless drug-noise (starting with acid house). As such 2-step could function for black Americans as a journey in the opposite direction, an acclimatisation phase before they get into Plastikman, Basement Jaxx, or The Mover. (Well, one can only dream, eh?). Actually, Armand Van Helden has been trying singlehandedly to be that demilitarized zone/interface between hip hop and house (he's obsessed with 1989 hip-house as this lost moment of possibility) but so far with zero impact in the US. His B-boy flirtations have even counted against him in the world of American deep house, where they don't want ruffnecks coming to the party (forgiveably, perhaps, given the rampant homophobia in hip hop). House music creeps in through the back door of Lil' Kim's new album The Notorious K.I.M., with tracks based on "French Kiss" by Lil Louis and "Break 4 Love' by Raze, and a pronounced Daft Punk-y flavor to "How Many Licks?"

Finally, OutKast's late 2000 release Stankovia is the first real hip hop example, overt and acknowledged by its creators, of a marked influence from rave music and Ecstasy. Big Boi and Andre 3000 go to raves in the Atlanta, Georgia area and even did field research in London clubs. They gave Stankonia faster b.p.m's than its easy-rolling predecessor Aquemini because "nowadays you got different drugs on the scene. X done hit the hood. It ain't chronic no more. They on some other speed-up type shit.... so that's why the tempo had to get a lot faster." The single "Bombs Over Baghdad" makes a botched if exciting stab at drum'n'bass (they're big fans of Photek) while "?" is a disorientating foray into the jungle: tangled breaks, chirruping synth-blurts, ravey riff-lets.

With the E'd up thugs and thuggettes reputedly drifting from the main floor of the Tunnel into the smaller house'n'techno room that it (god knows why) offers, it could be that the hip hop nation will turn onto electronic dance music big-time, finally ending rap's contempt for house music as mere gay disco. Sonically, the differences between the two forms of music have never been smaller---for instance, both techno and rap have been influenced recently by a revival of interest in Eighties electro. As for the drug's cultural impact.... Ecstasy's "loved up" vibe fits perfectly with hip hop's endless professions of loyalty for the crew, family, click, posse. E will only exaggerate this aspect of blood-brother solidarity and "thug love". But what about the hate side of rap's soul? Can Ecstasy lead to a truce in rap's symbolic warfare? Will "call-that-a-worldview?" couplets like "all I know is that bitches suck dick and niggas bleed" (The Lox) lose their appeal to hearts that no longer feel hard? What can be said safely is that Ecstasy had seemed like a drug that held no more surprises in terms of its cultural effects, given that the clubbing-and-raving industries efficiently channel the energy it catalyzes into tidy profits (eg Gatecrasher, whose slogan is "Market Leaders In Having-It Right Off Leisure Ware"--they might as well just put "Sponsored By Mitshubishi, Nudge Nudge Wink Wink" on the ads). But now that the drug has found its way to one of the few demographic and subcultural zones it had so far left untouched---African-American youth---it could be that Ecstasy has new tricks up its sleeves, new stories to tell, new revolutions to unfurl. (Just wait 'til it hits the dancehall community in Jamaica). Watch this space.....

[mikepodgorski]

50 Years On, The Internet is Fundamentally Reshaping Society and Undermining American Democracy, But How?

2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the first successfully transmitted message over the Internet.[1] The message was simply, “login.” We have not ceased to do so since. But unlike the moon landing, the invention of the Internet has had a far more remarkable impact on our existence than we realize, evolving into a threat that undermines our democratic system, and facilitating the reorganization of our society such that a common dialog about issues of existential importance facing our country and our world has become endangered. But how?

The Internet transmits data via packets, or electronic envelopes. The data transmitted in those packets is now one of the most valuable commodities on earth because that data is used to sell our attention to advertisers and other parties who wish to influence our behavior.[2] This is possible because when we use the Internet, we are being constantly surveilled. Every single one of our clicks, searches, likes, shares, posts, and emails are all data points, which are constantly being harvested to create a profile of our desires, beliefs and political perspectives.  Essentially, although we experience the Internet as receiving information, we are simultaneously providing it. In extreme cases, Internet-connected devices can be used to surveil us against our will,[3] although this is hardly necessary, since all too often we readily agree to give away our data for free.[4]

Data privacy is a fundamentally political issue. Because this data mining represents an unwelcome intrusion into our privacy, it constitutes a violation of article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[5] But since governments are slow to recognize the need to regulate data privacy, save for the EU,[6] data privacy regulation is largely non-existent. Private companies employ Terms of Service, which are the legal agreements we have all entered into at some point when we clicked on, “Yes, I Agree”, but rather than facilitate any real regulation of data privacy, they instead form the legal basis for private actors to harvest, store, and sell user data to third parties. Supremely naïve arguments fail the sniff test, when they contend that because users agree to Terms of Service, they understand the resulting potential intrusion into their privacy. Everyone knows from personal experience that no one reads the Terms of Service,[7] because to do so would take an inordinate amount of time, and by some estimates, up to two weeks each year.[8] Yet hardly anyone fully grasps how companies use Internet-connected devices and Terms of Service to gain unprecedented access to our private information.[9]

More importantly, traditional sources of information, like your local newspapers and broadcast TV channels, have been displaced by competition from Internet-based news organizations. While traditional news sources employed fairly rigorous processes of journalistic verification, many sources on the Internet do not. Instead, the Internet has provided everyone with unprecedented access to – and ability to produce – undifferentiated sources of unverified information. In effect, people have the freedom to choose their sources of information, while companies use data-harvesting to provide specific audiences with more of the information they seek, often regardless of its verifiability. The effect is that people can experience vastly different informational environments, reinforcing rather than informing their beliefs and decisions about what is and is not true about the world. Without a commonly accepted experience of what is considered truthful and factual, our collective conception of reality is fragmenting into alternate versions of reality based on “alternative facts.”[10] Thus, the Internet has allowed groups of individuals to reorganize into politically polarized silos of audiences.

Those who wish to target the attention of the people in these silos, have been able to do so by using the information harvested by companies providing seemingly innocuous services like popular smart phone games.[11] One recent controversial case may have involved your personal information, which you willingly provided to Facebook, and that in turn may have been provided to a data brokerage firm, Cambridge Analytica, for use in the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica harvested Facebook user data in order to create highly predictive psychometric profiles of potential voters in the 2016 US election, which were then used to create targeted, politically persuasive ads, without regard for factual reality.[12] The company has claimed it won the 2016 election for the U.S. President.[13] Christopher Wylie, a whistleblower formerly employed by Cambridge Analytica, has called this type of data-engineering, “a full service propaganda machine.”[14] The US security apparatus has found credible evidence that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections using similar methods.[15] These developments in the methods used to influence our behavior do not just represent the next step in a process of political manipulation; they mark an evolutionary change, the consequences of which we are as yet unprepared to fully comprehend.

As humans, we are subject to well documented cognitive biases, which influence what we do with the information we receive. Information which is not easily reconciled with our personal beliefs causes the uncomfortable experience of cognitive dissonance. To rid ourselves of potentially conflicting information, we look to eliminate or reshape information that does not fit what we already believe to be true. The 21st century Internet-based informational environment has put our confirmation bias on steroids, such rather than adapting ourselves to the reality that new information implies, we adapt new information so that it fits with our current beliefs. Now more than ever, the Internet has allowed us to inhabit virtual spaces, interact with likeminded individuals in self-segmented groups, and over-supply ourselves with the information that we want to hear, rather than what we need to know.

This splintering of society, lax data privacy regulation, and competing sources of information from the Internet have helped to undermine the foundations of our political system. Without a commonly accepted understanding of the problems facing us, there can be no rational dialog about how to proceed to grapple with those issues.[16] The Internet has helped to connect us with the people we care about in ways only imagined on TV in the 1960’s.[17]  However, virtues like this have been transformed into a vice when the technology that we almost cannot live without is used against our well-being.  Without a generally accepted framework for verifying information on the Internet, and without stronger data privacy protections, our personal information will continue to be harvested and used to fuel our biases and manipulate our behavior in ways that undermine our democracy. The next 50 years will be marked by further fracturing and polarization of society and in the face of such extreme division, we will surely fail to adequately address the impending existential threats that face us, like climate change, gun violence, and interference in our elections by states like Russia and China.

[1] https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/arpanet-anniversary-the-internets-first-transmission-was-sent-50-years-ago-today

[2] https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRWyGKBVzo

[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-35423513

[5] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf

[6] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018

[7] https://www.youtube.com/embed/n10E7qaTNa0?start=297

[8] http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-marc-goodman/

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_1AB1rsSw

[10] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/16/in-times-of-alternative-facts-we-must-care-about-truth-on-a-larger-scale

[11] https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/enjoy-playing-candy-crush-beware-you-may-be-putting-your-personal-data-at-risk/1122854/

[12] https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-43674480/facebook-data-how-it-was-used-by-cambridge-analytica

[13] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/cambridge-analytica-says-they-won-the-election-for-trump

[14] https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q91nvbJSmS4?start=165

[15] https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

[16] https://www.bfna.org/research/democracy-and-disinformation/

[17] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelvenables/2013/04/03/captain-kirks-call-to-spock/#4133c75ca92c

[republicstandard]

The Un-Making of the West, Vol. VI Demography and Destiny

“While animals are not allowed to migrate illegally, or disrupt the preordained ‘natural’ order – liberal central planners encourage non-indigenous peoples to mess with the social habitat of historic, host populations. Provided those populations are Caucasian. If you’re a rainforest pygmy, liberals will fight for your survival.”-Ilana Mercer

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One colored student at Scripps College, discussing a coloreds-only pool party sponsored by “Cafe con Leche,” stated that, “Sometimes it’s nice to have a time to be with people who identify in the same or similar way that you do. And that’s also why no one is forced to come.” Oh Lord, the irony. To quote Enoch Powell:

Have you ever wondered, perhaps, why opinions which the majority of people quite naturally hold are, if anyone dares express them publicly, denounced as ‘controversial,’ ‘extremist,’ ‘explosive,’ ‘disgraceful,’ and overwhelmed with a violence and venom quite unknown to debate on mere political issues? It is because the whole power of the aggressor depends upon preventing people from seeing what is happening and from saying what they see.

When political strategists talk about “getting the black vote” or “getting the Hispanic vote,” they are unconsciously allowing the mask of multiculturalism to slip—they are, in effect, saying that this racial group has a commonality of interest and though it is not a monolithic bloc, the “community” in question is often found in concentrated pockets where like meets like. The interests of blacks in America, or Hispanics in America, or Jews in America, may not necessarily align with the interest of America—that is, the Historic American Nation, or (predominantly) White America. In differentiating these groups, pundits once again are acknowledging the implicit truth that America is a white country, and that minority interests do not always conform to the best interests of America itself.

For example, over 80% of legal gun owners are white. A recent report by the Pew Research Center found that 75% of Democrats favor stricter gun control laws and 76% of blacks favored gun control over gun rights. Per the Pew Research Center, 62% of whites in the United States support smaller or limited government as opposed to 32% of blacks and 26% of Hispanics/mestizos. 80% of immigrants vote Democrat. Just 8% of the black electorate voted for Donald Trump, who was actually more popular with the LGBTQ-AEIOU Team at 14%. 29% of both Hispanics and Asians voted for President Trump. As Lothrop Stoddard wrote in The Revolt Against Civilization:

Civilization always depends upon the qualities of the people who are the bearers of it. All these vast accumulations of instruments and ideas, massed and welded into marvelous structures rising harmoniously in glittering majesty, rest upon living foundations—upon the men and women who create and sustain them. So long as those men and women are able to support it, the structure rises, broad-based and serene; but let the living foundations prove unequal to their task, and the mightiest civilization sags, cracks, and at last crashes down into chaotic ruin. Civilization thus depends absolutely upon the quality of its human supporters. Mere numbers mean nothing…Let us not deceive ourselves by prating about “government,” “education,” and “democracy”: our laws, our constitutions, our very sacred books, are in the last analysis mere paper barriers, which will hold only so long as there stand behind them men and women with the intelligence to understand and the character to maintain them. Yet this life-line of civilization is not only thin but is wearing thinner with a rapidity which appalls those fully aware of the facts.

The perversity of the whole enterprise is what truly galls me. As the indispensable Will Westcott wrote on Twitter regarding Alfie Evans: “When the Syrian boy was killed by the reckless actions of his parents, it was used as a pretext for Europe opening her borders to migrants. Two years later and the UK is outright killing toddlers” and in the most indirect and cowardly way possible, I might add. The NHS pays £23 million per year on translating information into 128 languages including Arabic, Bengali, Punjabi, and Urdu, but refused to accept a more or less cost-free option to allow little Alfie Evans to be treated in Italy (the Italians even granted him citizenship to expedite the process), instead choosing to deploy a wall of police officers to the hospital he was effectively sentenced to death in—though of course the powers-that-be didn’t have the balls to actually sentence him to death, they just yanked the life support and let the child struggle to survive for five days.

This is the baked-in compassion of the modern Left—autistically screeching to allow the huddled brown masses of Africa and the Orient to pour un-checked into the Occident in the name of compassion, but watching one of their own number die in the most inhumane fashion is not only official policy, but the Merseyside Police Chief Inspector Chris Gibson released a statement that critical social media posts would be investigated by the authorities. 3,300 people were arrested and detained for violations of the Communications Act and the other assorted hate speech and de facto blasphemy laws in the UK in 2017, and yet London Mayor Sadiq Khan has the gall to celebrate the exercise of “free speech” on his Twitter account. To quote Cicero:

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

In the United Kingdom, 521,000 whites die per year with the annual death toll expected to rise to 627,000 by 2037; this is compounded by an aggregate of at least 600,000 immigrants, “migrants,” and refugees a year (50,000 per annum was enough to impel Enoch Powell to make his “Rivers of Blood” speech), with over 400,000 non-white births (and rising) annually, a great number of white Britons becoming expatriates (one source I read put the number at 300,000), an average age of 40.5 years old, and a pitiful birth rate of 1.8 live births per woman, which is surely lower if you remove the non-whites.

And who are these “migrants” and “refugees” mostly? A recent survey of Greece’s largest refugee camp, the Moria camp on Lesbos, found that there were 162 unaccompanied children and 216 women out of a total population of 5,206. That means that 92.8% of the camp’s inhabitants are men (Statistics of Iefimerida). What the hell is going on here?

It costs on average one-twelfth as much to relocate a refugee within the Middle East, for example, than to relocate them in the West (where in the West varies the cost). On average, it costs $15,900 per year per refugee to resettle each refugee in America, which translates to, quoting from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) website:

For what it costs to resettle one Middle Eastern refugee in the United States for five years, about 12 refugees can be helped in the Middle East for five years, or 61 refugees can be helped if they remain in a safe neighboring country such as Turkey, Jordan, or Lebanon for one year. At present, the UN reports a $2.5 billion funding gap between what it needs to care for some four million Syrian refugees in the Middle East and what it has received from donor nations. This is equal to the five-year costs of resettling just 39,000 Middle Eastern refugees in the United States. Wealthy countries like the United States that have costly refugee resettlement programs face a choice: They can help a relatively tiny number of refugees who in effect win what might be called the “migration lottery” and are resettled here, or they can devote the limited resources available to helping many more refugees in the region for the same amount of money. If the goal is to help as many people as possible, then assisting Middle Eastern refugees in their home region gives a far greater return on public money.

CIS also notes, “Very heavy use of welfare programs by Middle Eastern refugees, and the fact that they have only 10.5 years of education on average, makes it likely that it will be many years, if ever, before this population will cease to be a net fiscal drain on public coffers — using more in public services than they pay in taxes.” Diversity has proven itself to be a rather costly business for Western citizens. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR):

In 2016, the State Department spent nearly $545 million to process and resettle refugees, including $140,389,177 on transportation costs. Of the $1.8 billion in resettlement costs, $867 billion was spent on welfare alone. In their first five years, approximately 54 percent of all refugees will hold jobs that pay less than $11 an hour. $71 million will be spent to educate refugees and asylum-seekers, a majority of which will be paid by state and local governments. Over five years, an estimated 15.7 percent of all refugees will need housing assistance, which is roughly $7,600 per household in 2014 dollars.

The steep financial cost is of course in addition to the corrosive and, if left un-checked, nation-dissolving character of mass immigration. Per Pew Research:

As of 2015, the United Nations estimates that 46.6 million people living in the United States were not born there. This means that about one-in-five international migrants (19%) live in the U.S. (my note: the U.S. has just 4.4% of the world’s population). The U.S. immigrant population is nearly four times that of the world’s next largest immigrant destination – Germany, with about 12 million immigrants… By way of comparison, about one-in-five people in Canada (22%) are foreign born. In Australia, it’s nearly three-in-ten people (28%)… Denmark and the UK have some of the highest immigrant diversity scores (both 97), followed by Canada at 96.

This creates an environment of extreme distrust, as, also per Pew Research, only 18% of Americans, for example, trust in the government to do what is right. To quote another Twitter fixture, Alfred Albion: “Mass immigration in a democracy is illegitimate without a vote from the existing majority. It’s fraud, it’s gerrymandering, it’s a breach of contract, and we don’t need to accept it or the people who have come here due to it.” As Paul “RamZPaul” Ramsey notes, “When a country is mostly homogeneous, there is no need for identity politics. Once you demographically fragment a country, you will always have identity politics. Identity politics is based on human nature.” It is a survival mechanism, plain and simple, against what many are viewing as demographic warfare. According to the Black African Defense League in Europe:

Don’t have three, but five children. We are going to be the colonizers, if we don’t have the right in Africa as Emmanuel Macron explains because we don’t have the resources to support their needs well let’s do it here only. You are the future!

And they whine about whites in Africa, going so far as to execute them and steal their land as penance for being born in the wrong place and the wrong time. Our very existence excites their envy. To quote Lothrop Stoddard, “The innate differences between members of a low-grade savage tribe are as nothing compared with the abyss sundering the idiot and the genius who coexist in a high grade civilization.” And of course when you invite not the village idiot but entire villages of idiots from the Third World, the chasm grows ever-wider, and the false doctrines of equality grow still more appealing. Continuing with Stoddard, from The Revolt Against Civilization (1922):

Fear and wounded vanity thus inspire the individual to resent unfavorable status, and this resentment tends to take the form of protest against “injustice.” Injustice of what? Of “fate,” “nature,” “circumstances,” perhaps; yet, more often, injustice of persons—individually or collectively (ie-“society”). But (argues the discontented ego), since all this is unjust, those better-placed persons have no “right” to succeed where he fails…Either he should be up with them—or they should be down with him. “We are all men. We are all equal!” Such, in a nutshell, is the train of thought—or rather of feeling—underlying the idea of “natural equality.”…Being basically emotional, it is impervious to reason, and when confronted by hard facts it takes refuge in mystic faith. All levelling doctrines (including, of course, the various brands of modern Socialism) are, in the last analysis, not intellectual concepts, but religious cults.

The superstitions of equality and burnt offerings of diversity are necessarily given to totalitarianism as their apparent falsity can only grow—the greatest enemy of diversity is exposure to it. For the people at the very top of society perhaps the world is essentially borderless (I wouldn’t know, I don’t run in those circles), but the people in the Central Valley in California, for example, are getting far more acquainted with the people of Oaxaca than they’d ever care to, just as the folks in Minneapolis-St. Paul are getting to experience the wonders of Mogadishu over any and all objection. And the kicker is this smorgasbord isn’t even really “diverse”; it is self-segregated and self-perpetuates the dysfunction from whence they came. Immigrants tend to cluster in certain areas and re-create the conditions of home. This is about as far from “diverse” as you can get, and what’s more, lottery or no, if it really were about “diversity,” then why do 27% of our legal immigrants come from just one country, Mexico (57% of whom have less than a high school education; additionally, half of all illegal aliens come from Mexico), and only 13.5% come from the entire continent of Europe plus Canada? Ilana Mercer writes:

Declining birthrates have long been the excuse advanced by immigration central-planners for sticking with mass immigration policies. The aging white population is not replacing itself, say proponents of doomsday demographics. Young, Third-World immigrants are essential to shore-up the welfare state. However, the now-waning West became great not because it was more populated than the rest of the world and outbred it. The West was great because of its human capital—innovation, exploration, science, philosophy; because of superior ideas, and the willingness to defend such a civilization.

The low birth-rates of the West today would not be quite so pronounced an issue if there weren’t alien populations within our borders rapidly out-reproducing us; that said, we still need to find a way to at least replace ourselves, otherwise the demographic free-fall would be absolute. You can’t have a nation without people. No one is proposing we go “full Niger,” but two or three children per couple is manageable and, indeed, ideal so as to not cause severe environmental strain. There are genuine concerns that populations at “lowest-low” birth rates like Japan seldom ever recover, typically either going extinct in relative isolation, or in a non-isolated population getting swallowed up by (an)other group(s).

The crushing burden of wealth re-distributing taxation is artificially depressing white birth-rates, roughly at a lifetime cost of what it would be to raise one child. Without this burden, the relentless propaganda of hedonistic abandon, and the general feeling of loss and hopelessness driven by the auctioning off of their nations, whites might be more inclined to reproduce at replacement level. The general feeling of hopelessness and negativity continues to pervade the former Eastern Bloc and does much to explain the pitifully low birth-rates there. Regarding the United States specifically, though you could apply this to pretty much any country in the West adversely affected by the noxious brew of communism and/or mass immigration, as Mercer states, “America doesn’t need more people; it needs to allow its own people to recover.” We don’t need to have twelve children, but we need to at least reproduce enough not to die off. Given medical advancements and quality of life measures and inventions, we should be aiming for at least replacement-level, settling in at a nice stasis. I think that concerns about overpopulation are warranted, but this is a conversation for African peoples, rather than the Western ones. Per Pew Research:

Sub-Saharan African nations account for eight of the 10 fastest growing international migrant populations since 2010. The number of migrants from each of these sub-Saharan countries grew by 50% or more between 2010 and 2017, significantly more than the 17% worldwide average over the same period. At least a million sub-Saharan Africans have moved to Europe since 2010.

Quoting Thomas Lehn, their increased presence in the West should yield more of such treasures:

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In Africa you are drowning in garbage. For about 80%, there are no toilets…School is just rote learning with the result that most Africans develop no feel for logical thinking. They have no interest in it. They don’t plan. They live for today. You’re often speechless when you see it, even among the ones with university education…The 1.1 billion inhabitants will be 5 billion by the end of this century. 60% are already younger than 15, but there are no jobs or schools for them. This means that every project is wasted, even feasibility studies for desalination plants that allow drinking water to be recovered. But they would never work because the power stations have rotted away and the power supply doesn’t exist. Ultimately, it means there’s going to be a huge migration of peoples – compared to that, what we’re seeing in the Mediterranean every day now is mere child’s play.

Play time, indeed, is over.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine https://ift.tt/2NuGwkZ via IFTTT

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Last week, rallies in support of Julian Assange were held around the world. We participated in two #AssangeUnity events seeking to #FreeAssange in Washington, DC. This is the beginning of a new phase of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without the threat of being arrested in the UK or facing prosecution by the United States. On April 10 2017 people gathered outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to celebrate the 11th Birthday of WikiLeaks. From Wise-Up Action: A Solidarity Network for Manning and Assange. The Assange Case is a Linchpin For Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information in the 21st Century The threat of prosecution against Julian Assange for his work as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks will be a key to defining what Freedom of the Press means in the 21st Century. Should people be allowed to know the truth if their government is corrupt, violating the law or committing war crimes? Democracy cannot exist when people are misled by a concentrated corporate media that puts forth a narrative on behalf of the government and big business. This is not the first time that prosecution of a journalist will define Freedom of the Press. Indeed, the roots of Freedom of the Press in the United States go back to the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, a publisher who was accused of libel in 1734 for publishing articles critical of the British royal governor, William Cosby. Zenger was held in prison for eight months awaiting trial. In the trial, his defense took its case directly to the jury. For five hundred years, Britain had made it illegal to publish “any any slanderous News” that may cause “discord” between the king and his people. Zenger’s defense argued that he had published the truth about Cosby and therefore did not commit a crime. His lawyer “argued that telling the truth did not cause governments to fall. Rather, he argued, ‘abuse of power’ caused governments to fall.” The jury heard the argument, recessed and in ten minutes returned with a not guilty verdict. The same issue is presented by Julian Assange — publishing the truth is not a crime. Wikileaks, with Assange as its editor and publisher, redefined reporting in the 21st Century by giving people the ability to be whistleblowers to reveal the abuses of government and big business. People anonymously send documents to Wikileaks via the Internet and then after reviewing and authenticating them, Wikileaks publishes them.  The documents sometimes reveal serious crimes, which has resulted in Assange being threatened with a secret indictment for espionage that could keep him incarcerated for the rest of his life. This puts the Assange case at the forefront of 21st Century journalism as he is democratizing the media by giving people the power to know the truth not reported, or falsely reported, by the corporate media. Breaking elite control over the media narrative is a serious threat to their power because information is power. And, with the internet and the ability of every person to act as a media outlet through social and independent media, control of the narrative is moving toward the people. WikiLeaks is filling a void with trust in the corporate media at record lows. A recent Gallup Poll found only 32% trust the media. There has been a significant drop in newspaper circulation and revenue, an ongoing decline since 1980. Also, fewer people rely on television for news. In this environment, the internet-based news is becoming more dominant and WikiLeaks is a particular threat to media monopolization by the elites. Research is showing that independent and social media are having an impact on people’s opinions. The threats to Julian Assange are occurring when dissent is under attack, particularly media dissent; the FBI has a task force to monitor social media. The attack on net neutrality, Google using algorithms to prevent searches for alternative media and Facebook controlling what people see are all part of the attack on the democratized media.. Free Assange: Don’t Shoot the Messenger. (Jack Taylor for Getty Images) The Astounding Impact of WikiLeaks’ Reporting The list of WikiLeaks’ revelations has become astounding. The release of emails from Hillary Clinton, her presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee had a major impact on the election. People saw the truth of Clinton’s connections to Wall Street, her two-faced politics of having a public view and a private view as well as the DNC’s efforts to undermine the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. People saw the truth and the truth hurt Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Among the most famous documents published were those provided by Chelsea Manning on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Guantanamo Prison and the US State Department. The Collateral Murder video among the Manning Iraq war documents shows US soldiers in an Apache helicopter gunning down a group of innocent men, including two Reuters employees, a photojournalist, and his driver, killing 16 and wounding two children. Millions have viewed the video showing that when a van pulled up to evacuate the wounded, the soldiers again opened fire. A soldier says, “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards.” Another massive leak came from Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed massive NSA spying in the United States and around the world. This was followed by Vault 7, a series of leaks on the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities, and Vault 8, which included source code on CIA malware activities. WikiLeaks has also published documents on other countries; e.g., WikiLeaks published a series of documents on Russian spying.  WikiLeaks has been credited by many with helping to spark the Tunisian Revolution which led to the Arab Spring; e.g., showing the widespread corruption of the 23-year rule of the Ben Ali. Foreign Policy reported that “the candor of the cables released by WikiLeaks did more for Arab democracy than decades of backstage U.S. diplomacy.” WikiLeaks’ publications provided democracy activists in Egypt with information needed to spark protests and provided background that explained the Egyptian uprising. Traditional media publications like the New York Times relied on WikiLeaks to analyze the causes of the uprising. WikiLeaks informed the Bahrain public about their government’s cozy relationship with the US, describing a $5 billion joint-venture with Occidental Petroleum and $300 million in U.S. military sales and how the U.S. Navy is the foundation of Bahrain’s national security. John Pilger describes WikiLeaks’ documents, writing, “No investigative journalism in my lifetime can equal the importance of what WikiLeaks has done in calling rapacious power to account.” Free Assange rally at the White House, June 19, 2018. From Gateway Pundit. Assange Character Assassination And Embassy Imprisonment Julian Assange made powerful enemies in governments around the world, corporate media, and big business because he burst false narratives with the truth. As a result, governments fought back, including the United States,  Great Britain, and Sweden, which has led to Assange being trapped in the embassy of Ecuador in London for six years. The root of the incarceration were allegations in Sweden. Sweden’s charges against Assange were initially dropped by the chief prosecutor, two weeks later they found a prosecutor to pursue a rape investigation. One of the women had CIA connections and bragged about her relationship with Assange in tweets she tried to erase. She even published a 7-step program for legal revenge against lovers. The actions of the women do not seem to show rape or any kind of abuse. One woman held a party with him after the encounter and another went out to eat with him.  In November 2016, Assange was interviewed by Swedish prosecutors for four hours at the Ecuadorian embassy. In December 2016, Assange published tweets showing his innocence and the sex was consensual. Without making a statement on Assange’s guilt, the Swedish investigators dropped the charges in May 2017. The statute of limitations for Swedish charges will be up in 2020. As John Pilger pointed out: Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women Against Rape summed it up when they wrote, ‘The allegations against [Assange] are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder, and destruction… The authorities care so little about violence against women that they manipulate rape allegations at will.’ Assange is still trapped in the embassy as he would be arrested for violating his bail six years ago. But, the real threat to Assange is the possibility of a secret indictment against him in the United States for espionage. US and British officials have refused to tell Assange’s lawyers whether there was a sealed indictment or a sealed extradition order against him. Former CIA Director, now Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service and described his actions as not protected by the First Amendment. In April 2017, CNN reported, “US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.” The Obama Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn’t alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning but the Trump DOJ believes he could be charged as an accomplice with Edward Snowden. When the president campaigned, Trump said he loved WikiLeaks and regularly touted their disclosures. But, in April 2017, Attorney General Jeff Session said that Assange’s arrest is a “priority.” Time To Stop The Persecution Of Julian Assange The smearing of Assange sought to discredit him and undermine the important journalism of WikiLeaks. Caitlin Johnstone writes that they smear him because “they can kill all sympathy for him and his outlet, it’s as good for their agendas as actually killing him.” Even with this character assassination many people still support Assange. This was seen during the #Unity4J online vigil, which saw the participation of activists, journalists, whistleblowers and filmmakers calling for the end of Assange’s solitary confinement and his release. This was followed a week later by 20 protests around the world calling for Assange’s release. Julian Assange has opened journalism’s democracy door; the power to report is being redistributed, government employees and corporate whistleblowers have been empowered and greater transparency is becoming a reality. The people of the United States should demand that Assange not face prosecution and embrace a 21st Century democratized media that provides greater transparency and accurate information about what government and business interests are doing. Prosecuting a news organization for publishing the truth, should be rejected and Assange should be freed. You can support Julian Assange by spreading the word in your communities about what is happening to him and why. You can also show support for him on social media. We will continue to let you know when there are actions planned. And you can support the WikiLeaks Legal Defense Fund, run by the Courage Foundation*, at IAmWikiLeaks.org. * Kevin Zeese is on the advisory board of the Courage Foundation. http://clubof.info/

[ascendingmatrix]

US COLOR REVOLUTION BEGINS IN THAILAND AS PROXY WAR WITH CHINA CONTINUES

Posted by stevew | Feb 2, 2018 | 2018, Conspiracy, Cabal, and Government, Daily Blog

US COLOR REVOLUTION BEGINS IN THAILAND AS PROXY WAR WITH CHINA CONTINUES

JANUARY 31, 2018

By Tony Cartalucci

The tentative first beginnings of a long-awaited US-backed color revolution has begun in Thailand, with a small protest of under 100 protesters in the downtown district of Thailand’s capital Bangkok.

Image: Media outnumbers “protesters” in downtown Bangkok nearby the scene of previous protests in which similar US-backed mobs fought gun battles with troops before burning sections of the city down in 2010.

Despite the diminutive nature of the protest, the Western media and Western-funded organizations posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) transformed the event into headline news.

The protest leaders vowed to gather weekly until their demands were met. This is a thinly veiled threat, with the protests taking place precisely where previous protests organized by the same interests carried out gun battles with government troops, mass murder against counter-protesters, and committed widespread and devastating arson in the surrounding areas.

The protesters seek to overthrow Thailand’s independent institutions including its military and constitutional monarchy, and return US proxies to power, particularly billionaire and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra and his Pheu Thai Party (PTP). Thaksin Shinawatra is a convicted criminal who fled Thailand to evade a two year jail sentence and a myriad of court cases still pending trial.

In essence, US-backed protesters seek to return a fugitive to power by proxy, a similar scenario to 2011 when Thaksin Shinawatra’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, openly ran as his proxy in elections his political party won. The 2011 campaign slogan, “Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Does” openly flaunted the extralegal nature of PTP’s bid for office. After assuming power, senior PTP members would regularly leave Thailand to consort with Thaksin Shinawatra in person, further highlighting the fact a convicted criminal and fugitive was running Thailand’s government rather than his nepotist appointed sister – a fact either omitted by Western media reports, or excused.

Image: A 2011 PTP campaign poster claims in Thai, “Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Does,” an open admission that a convicted criminal and fugitive hiding abroad openly runs a political party attempting to contest elections.

By 2014, after over half a year of protests and the collapse of PTP’s rice subsidies it used in 2011 to lure voters, the military once again staged a coup and ousted Yingluck Shinawatra from office. Since the coup – Yingluck Shinawatra, like her brother – has been convicted of corruption and sentenced to 5 years in prison. She too has fled Thailand and joins her brother in exile as a fugitive.

Despite a political party run by convicted criminals and fugitives, Western diplomats and a collection of faux-activists they fund and organize in Bangkok demand expedient elections in which Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party will still run in and will likely win. Elections have been repeatedly delayed precisely to prevent this scenario from happening, with each delay designed to give the government more time to diminish the power, wealth, and influence Shinawatra and his foreign backers still wield to grant themselves impunity from the rule of law.

While a party openly run by a fugitive contesting elections in the United States or Europe from abroad would be unthinkable, this is precisely the proposition US and European diplomats demand of Thailand to accept.

Who are the Protesters?

The Western media has intentionally covered up the true nature of Thailand’s protesters, just as they have done throughout other US-organized regime change campaigns around the world from the so-called “Arab Spring” in which “pro-democracy activists” turned out to be members of extremist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood and even Al Qaeda, and in Ukraine where “Euromaiden” mobs were led by literal Neo-Nazi fronts, particularly Svoboda.

Admitting who Thailand’s supposedly “pro-democracy activists” are would immediately dash the nascent protest’s legitimacy against the rocks of international public opinion, which is precisely why the Western media is intentionally mischaracterizing the protests.

In 2014, the day after the military officially removed Yingluck Shinawatra from power, the US Embassy in Bangkok helped organize the creation of the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) front. Funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – appearing on NED’s Thailand 2014 list – the front is one of several components of Washington’s regime change machinery in Thailand.

TLHR itself specializes in advocating and defending other US-funded agitators seeking regime change. TLHR members themselves have been repeatedly arrested for serial acts of subversion. In answering the question of who defends those charged by the West to defend its agitators, the answer is foreign embassy staff themselves from the US, Canada, UK, and EU.

TLHR head Sirikan “June” Charoensiri has repeatedly posed in pictures with foreign embassy staff on her way to face questioning regarding her foreign-funded activity. In many instances, foreign embassy staff will actually accompany her – and other recipients of foreign funds – to police stations in a sign of open support for their ongoing sedition.

In one picture – which included Western diplomats from multiple nations – posted by UK embassy staffer Dan Fieller, the following caption would read:

Supporting [ Sirikan Charoensiri] from [TLHR] in Thailand as she faces criminal charges for doing her job as a [human rights] lawyer.

Fieller and others, including Charoensiri herself, have refused to respond to multiple questions concerning the conflict of interest of posing as human rights lawyers while receiving foreign funding and representing foreign interests unrelated, even opposed to real human rights advocacy. This is particularly so when considering those these “human rights lawyers” are defending and the fact that they are supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, his political party, and his street front, the so-called “red shirts” who have regularly resorted to intimidation, violence, mass murder, and systematic terrorism which included the bombing of a hospital just last year.

In addition to individual diplomats working at Western embassies in Bangkok, the UK Foreign Office itself has openly and repeatedly provided support for Charoensiri and others across its official social media accounts.

Like in Syria and Libya where crackdowns on overt terrorism were condemned by Western governments, Western media, and Western-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the West is hiding a violent movement and its supporters behind the thin veil of “democracy” and “human rights” advocacy.

Also funded by the US government via NED are media fronts like Prachatai, the Cross-Cultural Foundation (CrCF), and the Isaan Record. All three have repeatedly covered up their foreign funding, refusing to disclose it to their readers, at other times denying it, while still at other times attempting to dismiss any sort of conflict of interest regarding receiving foreign funds and representing foreign interests through their so-called “journalism.”

Despite denials and deflections regarding US funding, all three platforms are openly listed as NED recipients on NED’s Thailand 2011 and Thailand 2017 lists. In addition to Prachatai’s extensive NED funding, its “executive director” Chiranuch Premchaiporn is also officially an NED fellow.

And while the actual protest leaders themselves – including Sirawith Seritiwat and Jatupat “Pai Dao Din” Boonpattararaksa of the “New Democracy Movement” and Rangsiman Rome of the “Democracy Restoration Group” – have not disclosed financial support provided to them by foreign governments, they openly consort with, receive political support from, and eagerly represent the interests of foreign governments – particularly the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU.

Like June of TLHR – these protest leaders regularly pose for photographs with foreign diplomats, and regularly receive direct support from them when facing legal charges.

Sirawith Seritiwat, alongside fellow foreign-backed agitators Arnon Nampa, Than Rittiphan, Songtham Kaewpanpreuk, posed with Sandra De Waele, an EU diplomat. The official “European Union in Thailand” Facebook account published the following caption under the photo:

The head of the Political Section of the Delegation, Sandra De Waele, met with a group of students and activists, namely Songtham Kaewpanpreuk, Sirawith Seritiwat, Arnon Nampa and Than Rittiphan. Arnon and Sirawith were briefly detained on 14 February for peacefully expressing their political opinion. The European Union is strongly committed to the principle of freedom of expression and has consistently called upon the Thai authorities to respect that freedom.

The EU delegation regularly and very openly supports and collaborates with pro-Shinawatra supporters posing as “activists.” When Shinawatra’s supporters attacked anti-Shinawatra protesters in 2014 with assault rifles, hand grenades, and 40mm M-79 grenade launchers, Western diplomats were either entirely silent, or worse, attempted to defend the violence as mere expressions of “frustration.”

Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, now in prison for his role in spreading Western propaganda, regularly receives backing from foreign embassies in Bangkok demanding his release. Canadian diplomat Shawn Friele would meet and pose for pictures with Jutupat Boonpattararaksa’s parents he then posted across social media. The caption for the photo read:

Honoured to meet with parents of Pai Dao Din. Pai’s 200 plus days in detention shows challenges to rule of law and due process in Thailand.

Rangsiman Rome, in addition to allegedly seeking “democracy,” in no coincidence attempted to pressure the current Thai government regarding rail project deals being struck with Beijing that the United States also wants delayed or entirely disrupted.

Before creating this latest collection of proxies, Western embassies including representatives from the US, openly provided support to Thaksin Shinawatra’s previous street front, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) better known as “red shirts.” The UDD has suffered a crisis of legitimacy after committing serial acts of mass murder and terrorism. Despite having “redressed” the UDD for this latest push for regime change, many protesters can still be seen wearing their red shirts to events.

While the thin pretext this collection of faux-activists and NGOs is “democracy” and “human rights,” it is clear that they serve as an extension of Western influence in Thailand. While they demand “elections,” it is clear that they merely demand elections they are confident will return Western political proxies like Shinawatra and his PTP to power. And in addition to demanding regime change, these proxies are also openly assisting the US in attempts to disrupt growing ties between Bangkok and Beijing, serving Washington’s interests, not Thailand’s.

Why Thailand?

US designs aimed at Thailand are part of a much larger strategy of encircling and containing China either with US-controlled proxy states, or a ring of destabilized nations incapable of providing China constructive economic, military, and political ties.

The “activism” of supposedly “pro-democracy” groups funded and/or backed by Western governments in Thailand are already openly questioning, condemning, and actively seeking to disrupt these ties.

Thailand is a pivotal Southeast Asian state with a large population and a strong economy that has been incrementally building ties with Beijing at the expense of US regional hegemony.

Once considered a stalwart ally of the United States, since removing Thaksin Shinawatra from power in a 2006 military coup, the Thai establishment has begun a sweeping shift in foreign policy, replacing its aging arsenal of US military hardware with Chinese, Russian, and European equipment, including hundreds of Chinese tanks and armored personnel carries and even Chinese naval vessels including the nation’s first acquisition of submarines.

Image: A Chinese-built VT4 main battle tank conducts exercises in Thailand’s Saraburi province.

Bangkok has inked deals with China regarding metro rail systems as well as national rail networks including high speed rail systems that will connect not only Thai cities, but connect Thailand to its neighbors to the north and south, and to China’s Yunnan province.

Thailand has also begun conducting joint military exercises with China, balancing what had been for years Washington’s exclusive domain represented by its annual Cobra Gold exercises.

Under Thaksin Shinawatra between 2001-2006, Thailand pursued a decidedly pro-US foreign policy, which included sending Thai troops to participate in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the hosting of the US CIA’s rendition program, attempts at sealing a US-Thai free trade agreement without public or parliamentary support, and the selling off of Thailand’s nationalized natural resources to Western oil corporations.

It is clear that the United States would like to return to such an arrangement. After providing over a decade of support via Washington’s largest lobbying firms, allowing Shinawatra free travel across the US and Europe despite his criminal conviction and his status as not only a fugitive, but as a human rights violator, and the mobilization of the Western media in support of Shinawatra’s multiple bids to seize back power – it is clear that should Shinawatra or his proxies ever return to power, they have an immense debt to Wall Street, Washington, London, and Brussels to pay back.

Part of repaying the West – including for the current color revolution the US is attempting to organize in Bangkok – will be reversing growing ties with Beijing.

Future Scenarios

It is unclear precisely how the current government will handle these protests. The government allowed the protests to go forward with the only stipulation being to avoid violence and disrupting the public.

One scenario is that elections are likely to be postponed until next year, and possibly even later than that.

Image: This stunning image taken during Thaksin Shinawatra’s UDD “red shirt” protests in 2010 shows the first shots fired during what would end up being weeks of gun battles between armed terrorists and Thai troops in Bangkok’s streets. The violence ended with nearly 100 dead and the UDD carrying out widespread arson costing property owners billions in damages. Since then, the UDD has carried out a campaign of sporadic terrorism and has threatened to wage “civil war” to seize power. While current protests feature supposedly “student activists,” it is clear they are merely rebranded UDD “red shirts.”

The longer these protests continue, the more difficult it will be for the Western press, Western embassies, and their collection of faux-NGOs to cover up the nature of who is leading them and why. Over this period of time, the government and media can begin exposing and undermining the credibility of claims these protests are “pro-democracy” and not merely foreign funded mobs seeking to place a party run by Shinawatra – a fugitive hiding abroad – back into power.

It will also be difficult to sustain the protests without expending larger amounts of money and resources and thus exposing those financing them. While the alleged protest leaders pose as “students” and “independent activists,” it will become abundantly clear that large well-financed interests are really organizing and sponsoring them.

Ultimately, the protests can be perpetually ignored by the current government, unless protesters decide to disrupt local businesses, the public, and/or once again resort to violence as the UDD has done repeatedly throughout its existence. However, as in the past, the use of violence by supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra will simply deepen the crisis of legitimacy the opposition already suffers from and perhaps even provoke a much larger, publicly supported backlash against the protesters as was seen in 2013-2014.

In this scenario, the government may simply give the protest the time necessary to destroy itself while continuing to fulfill its pledge to delay elections as long as necessary to carry out reforms – in other words – make it impossible for Pheu Thai to win elections as long as Shinawatra – a fugitive hiding abroad – openly runs the party.

The second scenario is where elections are eventually held, and if Shinawatra’s proxies come back into power, Thailand’s institutions patiently wait for the government to once again misstep and provoke protests, and once again invite the military to intervene. With each intervention – while there carries a variety of risks – the military has successfully cut down Shinawatra’s political power and influence while exposing the role of Western interests meddling in Thailand’s internal political affairs.

In the case of either scenario, one factor remains constant – the rise of China and with it the rest of Asia. Each passing year marks a decline in US regional primacy and a more equitable balance of regional power driven by Asia’s interests, not Washington’s.

In either scenario, as long as Thailand’s independent institutions avoid a major misstep and patiently and carefully deal with Western-backed subversion, the shifting dynamics of geopolitical power in the region will eventually make Western-sponsored regime change altogether impossible.

However, with the prospect of regime change taken off the table as an effective tool of coercion used by the US, Thailand is likely to suffer greater incidents of terrorism, as seen in 2015 during the Erawan Shrine bombing carried out by Uyghur terrorists linked to NATO’s “Grey Wolves” militant organization. Western-funded faux-NGOs are already increasingly shifting their attention toward Thailand’s ongoing turmoil in its deep south, attempting to leverage the isolated conflict into a national crisis used to divide and destroy the nation just as Western interests are doing in neighboring Myanmar.

US color revolutions depend on widespread public ignorance, lightning fast chaos, and inexperienced governments unable to cope with the instability and eventually violence the US uses to pursue regime change. Thailand’s government has had plenty of time to contemplate its strategy with examples around the world of how to successfully defeat US-backed subversion, and how not to. Only time will tell how much Thailand has not just learned, but mastered in repelling this type of geopolitical attack.

[studentofrhetoric-blog]

Saturday, March 18th, 2017

International News:

--- "The United States and China will work together to get nuclear-armed North Korea take "a different course", U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday, softening previous criticism of Beijing after talks with his Chinese counterpart. China has been irritated at being repeatedly told by Washington to rein in North Korea's surging nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, one of a series of hurdles in ties between the world's two largest economies. But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the talks with Tillerson as "candid, pragmatic and productive". The two sides appeared to have made some progress or put aside differences on difficult issues, at least in advance of a planned summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. On Friday, Tillerson issued the Trump administration's starkest warning yet to North Korea, saying in Seoul that a military response would be "on the table" if Pyongyang took action to threaten South Korean and U.S. forces. Tillerson took a softer line after the meeting with Wang. He told reporters both China and the United States noted efforts over the last two decades had not succeeded in curbing the threat posed by North Korea's weapons programmes. "We share a common view and a sense that tensions on the peninsula are quite high right now and that things have reached a rather dangerous level, and we've committed ourselves to doing everything we can to prevent any type of conflict from breaking out," Tillerson said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tillerson-asia-china-idUSKBN16O2V9?il=0

--- "A man shot dead at France's Orly airport after trying to snatch a patrol soldier's weapon was known to police and intelligence services and had shot and injured an officer in another part of the Paris region when stopped for an identity check earlier on Saturday, the interior minister said. Minister Bruno Le Roux, speaking to reporters at the airport south of the French capital, said the man had tried but failed to snatch the weapon before being killed. "His identity is known to police and intelligence services," the minister said of the dead man. The police officer injured north of Paris during an I.D. check prior to the airport incident did not appear to have very serious injuries, he said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-shooting-minister-idUSKBN16P0BY?il=0

--- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Saturday for Europe to set about standardizing rules on using data in Europe, ahead of a visit to the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover where digitalization is expected to be in focus."We want to create a digital single European market. That means we need to have legal situations that are as similar as possible in all European countries," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast. A key issue is determining who owns the data and the related copyright issues, Merkel said, adding: "We're still discussing that." She said that in the automobile sector, for example, it was important to clarify whether data belonged to carmakers or software manufacturers because it was possible to develop new products with the data about clients. "We need to very quickly and uniformly implement legislation in Europe regarding copyright laws and the ownership of data," she said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-merkel-idUSKBN16P0EO?il=0

--- "Turkish authorities have detained 740 people for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the last three days, state media reported on Saturday citing an Interior Ministry source. Authorities carried out 36 raids during the three-day period, seizing equipment, documents and more than a dozen guns, state-run Anadolu Agency said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-kurds-idUSKBN16P0KA?il=0

--- "Pope Francis will make a trip to Egypt next month, the Vatican said on Saturday, giving the pontiff another opportunity to promote better relations between Catholics and Muslims. Francis has accepted an invitation to Cairo on April 28-29 from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Catholic bishops, the pope of the Coptic church of Alexandria and the country's highest Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, the Vatican said in a statement. Christians, mostly Orthodox Copts, account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Sectarian violence sometimes erupts over disputes on issues related to church building, religious conversions and interfaith relationships. Francis has put great emphasis on improving inter-faith relations since his election in 2013, and a year ago he met the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb in the Vatican."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/pope-egypt-visit-int-idUSKBN16P0JA

--- "European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is not worried about other EU countries leaving the bloc after Britain because Brexit will make them see it is not a good option, he said in a newspaper interview. Asked by Bild am Sonntag newspaper if other member states would follow Britain's example in quitting, Juncker said: "No. Britain's example will make everyone realise that it's not worth leaving." He added: "On the contrary, the remaining member states will fall in love with each other again and renew their vows with the European Union." The EU's 27 leaders plan to declare "Europe is our common future" during a meeting in Rome next week to mark 60 years of the bloc. Juncker said Britain would need to get used to being treated as a non-member. "Half memberships and cherry-picking aren't possible. In Europe you eat what's on the table or you don't sit at the table," he added. Juncker said more countries would join the EU in future, although not during his time in office, which runs until 2019, because none of the candidates fulfils the conditions yet."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-juncker-idUSKBN16P0PF?il=0

--- "Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon knuckled down on her plan to hold a referendum on independence from the UK on Saturday, saying Brexit negotiations are destined to fail if Prime Minister Theresa May showed the same attitude to European partners as she had to Scotland. "The Prime Minister's attitude should worry all of us hoping that negotiations with Europe will not be a disaster because - and let me put this bluntly - if she shows the same condescension and inflexibility, the same tin ear, to other EU countries as she has to Scotland then the Brexit process will hit the rocks," Sturgeon told her Scottish National Party (SNP) conference. Theresa May said earlier this week that "now is not the time" for Scotland to hold a referendum with Britain's exit from the EU in the offing. "There will be an independence referendum," said Sturgeon, who is also leader of the devolved Scottish government."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-scotland-sturgeon-idUSKBN16P0NK?il=0

--- Refusal by Britain's prime minister to discuss an independence referendum would "shatter beyond repair" the United Kingdom's constitutional structure, Nicola Sturgeon told her Scottish National Party on Saturday. Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, pledged to press on with plans to hold a new Scottish referendum as announced earlier this week, deepening a standoff with the UK government. Party faithful cheered, clapped and leapt to their feet. Sturgeon expects to get authorization from the devolved Scottish parliament on Wednesday to seek the terms for a new secession vote, aiming for a date once the terms for Brexit are clear but before Britain leaves the EU. "To stand in defiance of (Scottish parliamentary authorization) would be for the prime minister to shatter beyond repair any notion of the UK as a respectful partnership of equals," Sturgeon said. "Scotland's future will be in Scotland's hands." Under the UK's constitutional arrangements, Britain's parliament needs to sign off on any legally binding vote in Scotland. Prime Minister Theresa May told Sturgeon this week that "now is not the time" for a new choice on independence as divorce talks between the world's fifth-largest economy and its erstwhile EU partners get under way."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-scotland-idUSKBN16P0BS?il=0

--- "Angela Merkel's conservatives have a slight lead over the Social Democrats (SPD) but a left-leaning alliance led by the SPD would have enough support to wrest power from the German chancellor, a poll showed six months before a federal election. The conservatives were unchanged on 33 percent while the SPD dropped one percentage point from last week to 32 percent, the Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed. Support for the far-left Linke was steady at 8 percent while support for the Greens rose by one point to 8 percent. That would give a "red-red-green" alliance of the SPD, Linke and Greens 48 percent - which the newspaper said would be enough to form a coalition government. The SPD trailed the conservatives in opinion polls for years but its support has surged since late January, when it nominated former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as its challenger to Merkel in a Sept. 24 election - a move that also resulted in a sharp increase in SPD members. Schulz is campaigning on issues such as social justice and suggesting revisions to Agenda 2010 labor market reforms rolled out by Gerhard Schroeder, the last SPD chancellor."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-election-poll-idUSKBN16P0W5?il=0

--- "International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that global growth was gaining strength, but cautioned that the "wrong" policies "could stop the new momentum in its tracks." In a statement issued at the end of a Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Lagarde called the forum of the world's top economies a "critical platform for major economies to work together in an established framework". "We met at a time when growth is gaining momentum around the world and there are signs that the global economy has reached a turning point, even though uncertainties remain," Lagarde said. Her statement did not mention the failure of G20 finance officials to reach a compromise deal to endorse free trade, backtracking on past commitments in their communique to keep trade open and reject protectionism. But she said that strong monetary, fiscal and structural economic reform policies were critical to the global economy's future direction."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-imf-lagarde-idUSKBN16P0JY?il=0

--- "Turkey has never been less likely to join the European Union than now and the bloc should seek a special relationship with Britain, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said as relations between Ankara and Berlin hit a low point. "Today Turkey is definitely further away from becoming a member of the European Union than ever before," Gabriel said in an interview with news magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday. He said he always had doubts about whether Turkey should join the EU but found himself in the minority in his Social Democrat (SPD) party. Before taking power in Germany in 2005, Chancellor Angela Merkel was an outspoken opponent of Turkey's membership and called for a "privileged partnership". Gabriel once thought that would make Turks feel like second-class Europeans but said his opinion had changed since Britain's decision to leave the EU. "Today the situation is totally different due to Brexit. We'd be well advised to bring about a 'special relationship' with Great Britain after its exit from the EU," Gabriel said. "That will be an important learning process for the EU and perhaps some of it can serve as a blueprint for other countries in the long term," Gabriel said."

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-referendum-germany-gabriel-idUSKBN16P0EA?il=0

 --- Rebels and their families began leaving their last bastion in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday, state media and a Reuters witness said, under a Russian-backed deal with the government expected to be among the largest evacuations of its kind. The agreement underlines Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's upper hand in the war, as more rebel fighters opt to leave areas they have defended for years in deals that amount to negotiated withdrawals to other parts of the country. Several buses drove out of the al-Waer district in Homs, which was an early center of the popular uprising against Assad. Between 10,000 and 15,000 rebels and civilians would evacuate in batches over the coming weeks under the deal, according to opposition activists in al-Waer and a war monitor. Homs governor Talal Barazi told Reuters that he expected 1,500 people, including at least 400 fighters, to depart on Saturday for rebel-held areas northeast of Aleppo, and that most of al-Waer's residents would stay."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-waer-idUSKBN16P073?il=0

Domestic & International News:

--- "Allegations from the United States that British spy agency GCHQ snooped on Donald Trump during his election campaign are "arrant nonsense", the deputy head of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) said in an interview on Saturday. President Trump has stood by unproven claims that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 White House race. On Thursday his spokesman cited a media report that Britain's GCHQ was behind the surveillance. Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the NSA, told BBC News the idea that Britain had a hand in spying on Trump was "just crazy". "It belies a complete lack of understanding of how the relationship works between the intel community agencies, it completely ignores the political reality of 'would the UK government agree to do that?'", Ledgett said. There would be no advantage for Britain's government in spying on Trump, given the potential cost, he said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wiretapping-nsa-idUSKBN16P096?il=0

--- "Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Saturday said that the Sino-American relationship had grown "increasingly difficult and complex" and required "a fresh start". "Both countries benefit from the $600 billion trading relationship, but there's no doubt that the deficit has widened, that there is a strong feeling in the U.S. that it's out of balance," he said. "There are some very tough issues, we have some very significant differences ... To keep that relationship stable and on an even keel will be very important for business."     Paulson made his comments in Beijing at the China Development Forum, a three-day government conference bringing together top global chief executives with Chinese leaders...Charlene Barshefsky, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said in Beijing that the U.S.-China trade relationship is viewed in the U.S. as very skewed in favor of China, even by elites. In order to move the relationship forward, China needs to return to reform and opening of its economy, and pull back from discriminatory measures against foreign firms, Barshefsky said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-forum-trade-idUSKBN16P0B0?il=0

--- "The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has approved a proposal to launch an investigation into U.S. media organizations that operate in Russia, it said in a statement posted on its web site late on Friday. The investigation, which will be conducted by the Duma's information policy, technologies and communications committee, will check whether CNN, the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and "other American media" are complying with Russian law. The statement said the Duma backed the move on Friday evening after Konstantin Zatulin, an MP from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, proposed an investigation to retaliate for what he called a "repressive" U.S. move against Russian state-funded broadcaster RT. He said he was referring to an initiative by U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who has introduced a bill to empower the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by RT. Shaheen, a Democrat, cited a U.S. intelligence agency assessment that suggested RT was part of a Russian influence campaign to help Donald Trump win the White House last year. The Kremlin and RT have strongly rejected that allegation."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-press-idUSKBN16P0CA?il=0

--- "The United States remains committed to free trade but wants to re-examine some trade deals and correct their excesses, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday after G20 finance chiefs backtracked on past commitments about trade. Making only a token reference to trade in their communique, finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the world's top 20 economies broke with a decade-long tradition of endorsing open trade, a clear defeat for host nation Germany, which has fought to maintain the G20's past commitments. "What was in the past communique is not necessarily relevant from my standpoint," Mnuchin told a news conference in Baden Baden after his first meeting with the finance chiefs of the world's 20 biggest economies. "I understand what the president's desire is and his policies, and I negotiated them from here. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome," Mnuchin said. In the new U.S. administration's biggest clash yet with the international community, G20 finance chiefs rowed back on a pledge to reject protectionism and maintain an open and inclusive global trade system."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-mnuchin-idUSKBN16P0MT?il=0

Further details: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-trade-idUSKBN16P0FN?il=0

--- "Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Saturday no G20 member was against free trade, despite the communique's language that omitted reference to the group's past pledge to resist all forms of protectionism."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-japan-idUSKBN16P0NC?il=0

--- "French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said he regretted that a meeting of world financial leaders on Saturday had failed to reach satisfactory conclusions on climate change and trade. Sapin highlighted successes of the G20 meeting in Germany such as a determination to fight tax avoidance, clamp down on terrorist financing and strengthen private investment in Africa. "I regret nevertheless that our discussions today were not able to reach a satisfactory conclusion on two priorities that are absolutely essential in today's world," he said in a statement. He cited the fight against climate change and trade, saying France was convinced of the need for "regulated free trade" that was profitable for everybody."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-france-idUSKBN16P0IZ?il=0

--- "Finance chiefs of the world's top 20 economies pledged on Saturday to finalize new banking regulations, easing concerns that the new U.S. administration would pull out of a long-delayed global accord known as Basel III. Designed to avert a repeat of the financial crisis, Basel III rules have been on hold due to an impasse between the United States and Europe, with some fearing the accord might never be revived as the new U.S. administration advocates deregulation. "We confirm our support for the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's work to finalize the Basel III framework without further significantly increasing overall capital requirements across the sector, while promoting a level playing field," G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a review of banking rules with the implicit aim of loosening them. That raises the prospect of the U.S. pulling out of some international cooperation efforts."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-basel-idUSKBN16P0KU?il=0

Domestic News:

--- "Meals on Wheels America, the umbrella organization for 5,000 providers of home-delivered meals for seniors, said on Saturday that online donations have surged since the White House released a proposed budget that could lead to a big drop in its funding. The organization, which provides advocacy services for the national network, received about $50,000 on Thursday after the budget blueprint was announced, compared with $1,000 on a typical day. President Donald Trump's first budget proposal includes a 17.9 percent cut for fiscal 2018 in funds for the Department of Health and Human Services, which provides most of the government support for Meals on Wheels, the organization said. The budget proposal did not say how the cut would affect the Administration for Community Living, the HHS agency that funds nutrition programs for the elderly, Meals on Wheels spokeswoman Jenny Bertolette said. Meals on Wheels said on its website that it is difficult to imagine a scenario under which the next federal budget would not have an impact on its services. "While Meals on Wheels America and local Meals on Wheels programs are seeing an uptick in giving, it does not replace federal funding," Bertolette told Reuters in an email."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-meals-idUSKBN16P0TR?il=0

--- "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued requests for proposals for prototypes for a wall along the Mexican border, saying ideally it should be 30 feet (9 meters) high and the wall facing the U.S. side should be "aesthetically pleasing in color." A wall to stem illegal immigration was one of Donald Trump's main campaign promises and has been highly controversial. The president has vowed to make Mexico reimburse the United States for its cost but Mexico has repeatedly said it will not do so. Earlier this week, the White House requested $3 billion more for Homeland Security, with some of that intended for planning and building the border wall. According to one document posted online by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Friday night, the wall should be 30 feet high, built using concrete, and "physically imposing." However, it says designs over 18 feet (5.5 meters) high could be acceptable. "Designs with heights of less than 18 feet are not acceptable," the document said. It said the wall should have features that do not allow people to climb over it and should prevent digging below the wall."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-borderwall-idUSKBN16P0NX?il=0