#so. when a government-lead genocide occurs. it is not a good idea to blame every citizen of that government for it

[mars-ipan]

you guys ever think about the milgram shock experiments? i think about the milgram shock experiments a lot. they feel kinda relevant right now for some reason. hm

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

According to the pundits, the revolution, if you would call it that, began with video. The first and foremost was the excruciating recording of George Floyd’s last moments as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin1 publicly pinned the life out of him. That was on May 25, but more than a month later, the recordings have continued to disseminate. Protesters uploaded photos of rubber bullets, their wounds and their mangled faces, while journalists and other concerned members of the public aggregated footage of police brutality into lists and websites.

The compilation of evidence has seemed to jar something loose, for now. Corporations are pledging to donate millions to racial and social justice causes,2 legislators have proposed tentative yet unprecedented restrictions on the police, and the Marines and Navy have banned the Confederate battle flag3 some 150 years after the ending of the war that sparked its creation.

But is this really going to be what commentator Van Jones has called a “Great Awakening of empathy and solidarity”? And if it is, is it really appropriate to claim that video has been the catalyst? I work with civic data and teach about the power of data collection, so I want to believe that data (in the form of video footage depicting police brutality against Black people) can effect social change. Just as it is comforting to see corporate and institutional pledges as revolution, it is comforting to attribute power to the millions of glowing screens that have been called as witnesses.

Data showing racism might be useful in clarifying the things we already know to be true, but it is far more limited in terms of shifting them.

But it is precisely because of my attachment to the power of data collection that I’m unconvinced video footage can solely, or even primarily, lead to meaningful change. I know too well the stories of a century of Black Americans who have presented evidence of violence and racism only to have it summarily denied or ignored. The idea that structural racism can be proven and overcome by gathering just enough or the right kind of evidence is nothing more than a myth. Historically, it has rarely been the case.

Consider, for instance, the study that the Bureau of Labor commissioned famed Black scholar W.E.B. DuBois to complete in the early 1900s. Determined to employ sound sociological methods to disprove racist beliefs that Black people were inferior, he and a team of researchers spent three years in Lowndes County, Alabama, gathering data from 5,000 Black families (approximately 25,000 individuals). It detailed the conditions of life in the region, and was one of the largest sociological studies of rural Black life ever conducted. When DuBois submitted the final manuscript, it was a handwritten document full of charts and infographics.4 Not only did the government bureau refuse to publish the study, but it destroyed the document entirely, claiming it was rejected due to technical matters. DuBois made the case in his correspondence and autobiography, however, that the bureau rejected the document because it revealed the inconvenient political truth about conditions for Black Americans.

In the case of Sam Faulkner, an innocent 20-year-old Black man who was shot in the head inside his sister’s home by Los Angeles police in 1927,5 evidence came in the form of testimony from the other cop on the scene as well as bullet fragments. Yet this was not enough to bring about a conviction, and the officer who killed Faulkner continued to work in the LAPD for two more years.6

In 1951, the Civil Rights Congress appealed to the United Nations for help, asserting that the history of disenfranchisement, lynching, and police brutality that Black people faced in the United States was tantamount to genocide.7 The CRC’s petition8 documented years’ worth of atrocities against Black Americans but was ignored by the U.N., which at the time was heavily influenced by the U.S.

In 1969, Illinois Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, 21, was gunned down9 in his Chicago apartment after being sedated by an FBI Informant. A target of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, he was perceived to be a threat to the nation for negotiating a truce between street gangs, organizing rallies and instituting free breakfast programs for children. A coroner’s jury ruled the killing a justifiable homicide.

And even more recent incidents including video footage of police brutality have been doubted. When Philando Castile was pulled over and shot by police in 2016, the dashcam footage revealed that Castile, who had been stopped by the police at least 46 times prior for minor infractions, had followed all the instructions that officer Jeronimo Yanez had given him. Regardless, an NRA spokesperson still blamed Castile for the incident, while conservative commentator Sean Hannity criticized Castile’s girlfriend, who was seated beside him in the car, for live-streaming the interaction in the first place.

These killings, and the many more that reveal just a glimpse of how totalizing anti-Blackness can be, are part of a longer trend. It is a trend that has claimed countless more names, and still more stories. By nearly every statistical measurement possible, from housing to incarceration to wealth to land ownership, Black Americans are disproportionately disadvantaged. But the grand ritual of collecting and reporting this data has not improved the situation. American history is lined with innumerable instances of what scholar Saidiya Hartman bemoans as “the demand that this suffering be materialized and evidenced by the display of the tortured body or endless recitations of the ghastly and the terrible,” only for very little to change.

If the data hasn’t undone the bias, then surely we must acknowledge that there are deeper forces that tug the levers of change in America. I am reminded of James Baldwin’s response to the 1954 Supreme Court case that ended segregation: “Had it been a matter of love or justice, the 1954 decision would surely have occurred sooner; were it not for the realities of power in this difficult era, it might very well not have occurred yet.” Love, justice, data — alone, none have been enough.

But perhaps we have asked too much of the evidence in the first place. Or perhaps we have asked too much of those who wield evidence, and too little of those presented with it. These are two different groups. After all, evidence is not intended for the people who have been harmed — why show proof of a fire to the person it burned? In most cases, evidence is used to convince an Other of a thing that they did not encounter. Ironically, data is not very good at this.

In 1949, two psychologists, Jerome Bruner and Leo Postman, designed an experiment to test people’s responses to anomalies, or moments when they faced events that deviated from what they had expected to encounter. In the experiment, participants were shown sets of playing cards and asked to identify the cards’ color and suit. The catch was that, in addition to regular cards, the sets contained irregular “trick” cards in which the color and suit of the cards had been reversed to create incongruities (like a black three of hearts or a red two of spades).

In the early rounds, the participants were quick to identify the cards, in part because they simply could not see the anomalies. When presented with a trick card like a red six of spades, they would confidently misidentify it as a red six of hearts or a black six of spades. But as they were exposed to the cards for longer periods of time, some participants began to notice that something was off. They could sense strangeness but could not determine what caused it. It was only with further exposure that some participants finally experienced what the psychologists called a “shock of recognition.” Abruptly and quite clearly, the participants were able to recognize what they had not seen before. Suddenly they could see that they had been looking at a red six of spades the entire time. From that point on, they were more easily able to identify the anomalous cards, having developed a new perception.

The conclusion: When confronted with something that does not fit the paradigm we know, we are likely to resist acknowledging the incongruity. This is because we see what we have been primed — through shared education and culture, and our own lived experiences — to see, so that new evidence that we encounter is immediately, as philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn would explain it more than a decade later, “fitted to one of the conceptual categories prepared by prior experience.” Kuhn applied this reasoning to explaining the tumultuous nature of scientific revolutions, where he argued that the conceptual categories that ordered scientific research were precisely those that made it so difficult for scientists to accept information that could challenge the frameworks they operated within. In such moments, logic and experiment alone were not enough to settle the matter. Kuhn noted, too, that the more time and effort a scientist had already invested in a research paradigm, the more resistance he or she was likely to exhibit toward accepting change. In other words, the higher the stakes, the greater the resistance.

If wider society recognizes data’s limitations, it, too, can move on from overly relying upon it as the only proxy for evidence.

You can see how this is a useful metaphor for considering the United States, racism and the role that data has historically played in unraveling the latter’s hold on the former. Data showing racism might be useful in clarifying the things we already know to be true, but it is far more limited in terms of shifting them. To those who have not experienced the ever more creative forms that structural racism can take, even when presented with evidence of racism, the world may still appear to be full of regular playing cards. This is complicated, too, by the fact that in life we face different likelihoods of encountering anomalous cards, depending on factors like the color of our skin (whiteness, of course, lowering frequency of exposure) and proximity to the affordances promised by wealth, influence and cultural/political capital. Regardless, any exposure to an anomaly card is more likely to be dismissed if it does not support the expectations of the receiver.

Of course, as in the experiment, there is the opportunity for change. Perhaps one part of what has characterized this current moment is that some sections of American society have experienced their own moments akin to when the experiment participants first squinted at the trick cards and felt that something now felt off. At some point, America will have to confront head-on the fact that the country not only has long educated its children to deny anti-Blackness and to treat any conversation of racism with silence or wariness but also has exported this worldview around the globe. For some, that point may have come.

But regardless, a luckless great many of us know that the deck has been stacked from the beginning. And because we know that no amount of shouting, pleading, calculating or visualizing will persuade those who have been educated and raised to deny this, we have put our efforts in other places.

If wider society recognizes data’s limitations, it, too, can move on from overly relying upon it as the only proxy for evidence. That which can be captured on camera is always incomplete. It is never the totality of what occurs in our lives, let alone what occurs in our communities. By considering the vast context and evidence present in the nation’s history, we can save ourselves from tacitly reinforcing the idea that structural violence matters only when it can be compressed into a form that fits what we recognize as evidence. And, in doing so, we give ourselves new frames for thinking about the many people who have died at the hands of brutality and whose deaths were not recorded. As we find a fluency in addressing the greater mass of life that is lived outside of our data, we can begin, finally, to fully address the living.

[mysticalmindblog]

Today's society with the prevalence of Social Media and personal blogs has led to a glut of fake personalities, narcissism, and overindulgent bullying egos. How do you keep yourself in check without bending to peer pressure?

How Many Layers of Mediocrity Did You Add to Your Shell Today?

For most, the above question would be deemed offensive and condescending. It implies that by default the person being asked leads a mediocre life, and generally acts rather than being genuine.

Some context is needed for us to properly break this down into something profoundly meaningful.

So let's just get you to do a simple 5-Step Mind and Memory Challenge.

Think back to last Tuesday.  Take a minute or two, and remember your day, as much as you can, from the time you woke up, until the time you went to sleep.

Now, think back to the Tuesday before that, and also try to remember the day from start to finish.

And again, cast your mind back to the Tuesday before that - so now you are looking roughly 3 weeks into your past. Try hard to remember the day from start to finish. Are you having difficulty yet? Can you remember anything especially significant about that specific Tuesday?

Now go back in your mind to the Tuesday before that. You are trying to remember the Tuesday approximately 4 weeks ago.

Finally, using your memory again, ask yourself what distinguished each Tuesday as being different from the other. What stands out in your mind?

Such Challenges are especially useful for getting mentally prepared to prompt your thought processes into a type of internal investigation that it rarely, if ever, does.

I actually did this challenge quite some time back, and I was more than hard pressed to remember any differences. Sadly, all I could vaguely remember was that there was no break from the same routine for those Tuesdays. That's it, that's all I could say, I knew I had carried on the same routine for those Tuesdays that I always did. In fact, practically every day was indistinguishable, repetitive, and I couldn't name the day or date of the last thing that occurred that stood out as being a significant positive occurrence.

Negative occurrences..? That was another matter. I always had a lot to groan about.

I have tried this on several individuals also, and had pretty much the same results. It makes you think, and can make you uncomfortable in a deep and unfamiliar way. Why is that..?

Obsession with Happiness without knowing what True Happiness is

It all comes down to catching a glimpse of the preposterous nature of our lives which can be summarized as follows: A Pursuit of Happiness through a competitive obsession to obtain pleasures and comforts via the acquisition of impermanent consumables, which serve as addictive yet unsatisfactory finite attachments, prompting a compulsive, repetitive, and exponential drive to seek an ever greater amount of impermanent consumables by any means necessary, at whatever cost, without any limits; often compelled by a herd instinct to imitate the actions of others in an attempt to manufacture a corporately approved shell of ego while seeking an agreeable sense of individuality and self validation in addition to a perpetual quest seeking positive peer affirmation.

That's quite a mouthful, right..? Can I simplify it down a bit..?

I sure can.

Basically, we are indoctrinated from a very young age that stuff, and lots of stuff, can make us happy, feel mental and physical pleasure, and be comfortable. To be attractive to others, the more stuff you get and show off, the better it will be. Especially the stuff that gets advertised to you as being the most essential, trendiest and most in-demand stuff. So study hard, be someone who is competitive, get a good job that pays good money, and get good stuff. Don't stop there, be more competitive, get a better job, get more money, get more stuff. Be a winner, and don't stop there, don't let anyone be above you, just fight hand, tooth, and nail to get what you want. Just do it. And do it again, and again, and again...

And then, maybe when you least expect it, you will find yourself drawing in your last breath, and in that moment - do you think you will FINALLY be happy**..?** It will all have been worth it**..?**

The above is the reality for billions of people worldwide, so, it's got to be OK, right**..?**

It's not like anyone has an option, unless they are born into wealth and don't have to endure all the struggling and suffering in the pursuit of happiness, right**..?**

They say that money is the root of all evil, but I do my best and work my hardest to get the things that me and my family need to be happy and comfortable, so I will be happy one day, right**..?**

No pain, no gain, right**..?**

Fake it until you make it, right**..?**

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

The precise thing that is wrong with these assumptions, and the nature of life described above, is that from the level of the individual, all the way through to entire populations spanning the world, they all have been sold on the concept and blind pursuit of FAKE HAPPINESS. That's it.

A terrible misconception of what the True Happiness in being Alive really is.

Sufferings, trials, and tribulations of life

Entire generations being born, pursuing materialistically based happiness that they see normalized by the majority, enduring the sufferings, trials, and tribulations of a life dedicated to that pursuit, sometimes corruptly, and many times at the expense of others, to never actually experience true bliss - even to the moment of their last breath.

It is this lack of understanding that can be found at the root of every conflict, every war, genocide, famine, and crime. Whether seeking power, wealth, fame, notoriety, or just trying to live a decent, *normal* life, the desired bliss can never be found, because once you have made the attachments, they will bring you suffering.  

The more 'stuff' you have, the more possessive you will be about guarding that stuff, while always looking for bigger, better, newer versions. The chase will not end in your lifetime.

Without truly understanding what Happiness is, mankind blunderingly assumes it is to be found in the taking on of the role of a mindless drone, following the herd instinct, earning and spending, attaching to the idea that the more stuff you have, the happier you will be. What a perfect deception that ultimately only benefits a select few whose hands are all over the money made from giving you the proverbial 'stuff'.

Youth Mind and the Societal Programming

We aren't created as mindless drones. We humans come from the womb wide eyed and with a pure mind, pure consciousness,helpless and dependent for a time on our parents love, nurturing, and nourishment. It's not long after that we begin to choose to accept what is thrust in our faces throughout our younger years by the Corporations, by the Mainstream Media, by the Movie and Pop Music Industries, the Fashion Houses, by what we see our friends wearing, what we see our parents buying. It's like kids are shuffled through Elementary and High School learning as if they are drones being built on an assembly line of indoctrination. By the time they leave high school, the ink has dried, the glue has set, and with raging hormones and a magnified desire to stand out in a crowd they launch into early adulthood wishing to be years older already and on top of the game. It doesn't take too long for the metamorphosis to occur, and the routine to lock itself in place, before they are no more than mindless drones following the beat of a silent drum.

We humans complain. For every challenge and every problem in life, we complain. About the challenges and problems in our society and governments, and those around us, we complain. We call for change, but are unwilling to change ourselves. We stay as mindless drones on the path that we think will take us to happiness. We humans get so self-absorbed in our own little worlds, our own little melodramas, that we ignore the true issue of knowing what is true happiness, and because we want to stay on our path, we complain about the problems around us, but do nothing except blame others.

So, if the problem is not having an understanding of what Happiness is, what can be done..?

First, recognize that you have to do a clean-out of the mind. It has become noisy, disordered, and littered with a lot of useless junk.

We spend a lot of attention, time, and money - for grooming our outward appearance, be it the hair, clothes, shoes, accessories, or even in some cases modifying through cosmetic surgeries.

We also spend a lot of time caring for the appearance of our vehicles, our homes, and in recent years, a huge amount of time and attention to crafting our online profiles through various social media platforms... But what about our mind..?

At the end of the day, when we feel tired and somewhat dirty, we go to the shower or bathe to cleanse ourselves, using pleasant smelling shampoo and body washes. We like to then dress in clean clothes or nightwear. All clean, all fresh, all sanitized.

But what about Your mind..?

How do we clean and sanitize our mind in such a way as to begin to have clarity to accurately contemplate what it means to be truly happy..?

Peace and Quiet

Make time, even a few minutes, to retreat away from the noisy world and be alone, and sit down. Close your eyes. Imagine a volume dial in your mind that controls all the noisy thoughts, and begin to turn it down. Quieten those thoughts. Actually, dismiss those thoughts. One by one, just like you are closing the window panes on a computer, shut off the thoughts. If a thought like "I wonder what I will eat tonight?", for example, pops up in your mind, dismiss it. Finding it difficult..?

A 'FIND YOURSELF' MEDITATION

Try concentrating on slowly counting down from 10 to 1. Regardless of how long you spend on focusing on a number, forget time, just focus ONLY on the number. See it in your mind, hear it in your mind. Don't have any other thoughts except that number. Quite quickly you will find yourself in a very peaceful state of mind; and actually for the first time in a very, very long time, you will begin to feel a sense of deep, inner peace. What you are doing is cleaning your mind through meditation. If your are counting down, then you are meditating, and contemplating numbers. Your mind is 100% switching on, your mind is taking a beautiful shower of its own, and any brain fog will be washed away.

As you sense this inner peace, your very essence, your 'pure mind' (consciousness without noisy thoughts) will emerge. You will begin to perceive a sense of deep inner satisfaction - almost as if for the first time you experience yourself, you, the REAL you, to the point where you will almost want to say "Here I am..!!  After all this time, I have found myself..!!", and this perception, this feeling, can be profoundly satisfying and life-changing. It is the proverbial mirror on the wall which you will see clearly as you have now cleansed your mind in the moment of the noisy thoughts and distracting concepts.

There - did you see them..? The keywords I used..?

PROFOUNDLY SATISFYING and LIFE-CHANGING

It is a state of mind then, that most amazing feeling.

You see, the capacity to know true happiness is already within you. You will not meet it somewhere outside of yourself, and you cannot buy it. It must well up like a fountain from deep within your heart - and it will seem like a rushing torrent of purpose, and it will be a compassionate heart..!!  How so..?  Because you will suddenly feel like you can save the world, that you have found the secret to save many from suffering - and indeed you would be right, because it will just be the very start of an amazing journey, a pilgrimage to know the essence of who you are, and to be able to release others from the same suffering you endured for so long.

The capacity to know true happiness is already within you. You will not meet it somewhere outside of yourself, and you cannot buy it. It must well up like a fountain from deep within you.

Instead of rushing out to trade in your 9 month old cellphone for the latest version, take time to sit quietly, and contemplate what you have to do to see yourself as a member of the human race; and that race, gender, wealth and status mean nothing to the fact. You are not above, or below, anyone. You are unique as the person you are, but you are simply a member of the human race. Look at all others with compassion, as equals, the majority of which are suffering their own daily ordeals and tragedies.

Acts of selfishness and greed are not positive things, even though many encourage the 'Do what you want, when and how you want to do it' mentality, to find happiness - they are negative things, and provoke ignorance, arrogance, and suffering. Cause and effect will always balance out your actions by repaying you what you give. Promotion of ego, and acts derived from attention craving, will lead to rampant narcissism and put you far away from having a compassionate heart.

Clear out the Clutter of the Mind

Pretty soon after cultivating more time to yourself to meditate and contemplate like this, you will see how so much of the junk you have accumulated around you is just that - junk. You'll begin to see how much worrying, stress, anxiety, and suffering you have gone through for just obtaining unrewarding impermanent junk. You will begin to instinctively feel the artificial distractions as just that, junk that is so unnecessary, and will want to begin trashing it, or donating it. You clear out the clutter in your mind, you better believe you will begin to clear out the clutter around you. Life changes will occur, as you begin to live clear minded more and more. It's a most fascinating and wonderful journey that guarantees you will see yourself, this world, and all people differently, and in ways you could never have previously imagined.

The Core of Life is the Struggle for Survival and the Suffering in-between

Will there still be suffering in your life..? Of course..!!  

The world, and this life, is guaranteed to bring suffering, but finally you will have a method to master how your mind deals with that suffering, how to recognize it, and how to transmute it into something else, not just lessons to learn from, but lessons in compassion to help others who you perceive and observe going through the same crises that you have already emerged from.

Remember that Suffering is also Nature's hard-wired way of teaching us essential lessons. We cannot effectively avoid it our whole lives, but it is better to learn from it so as not to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

Don't settle for mediocrity, or living as a mindless drone for the Materialistic World

Make a pledge, a vow, an irreversible promise to become a new person by cleansing the mind and finding the supreme satisfaction of meeting the person you really are in essence, and take the most noble of journeys to be compassionate, clear minded, patient, loving, honest, and satisfied. It's not too late. All it takes is you, to get the journey started.

[how2to18]

I RECENTLY CAUGHT the start of a revolution that swept Armenia’s autocrat from power and replaced him with an opposition newspaper founder. It started as a mass demonstration and, had it been crushed, it might have hardly been remembered. More striking was that it was completely nonviolent. Also, it happened in Vladimir Putin’s backyard in a post-Soviet country.

Armenia’s government-sanctioned TV news stations, of course, did not cover the demonstrations, and the international press was late and sparse. But demonstrators live-streamed themselves on Facebook to protect themselves against a crackdown that never occurred.

Eventually, the “what happened” of the revolution would be reported by major international outlets and it would be known and accepted that the out-of-the-blue opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan had become Armenia’s new prime minister, elected only after Serzh Sargsyan, having served the maximum of two terms as president, backed down on his quest to remain in power, this time as prime minister — a post that had been significantly upgraded in time for his anticipated tenure. On April 23, 2018, after days of protests, Sargsyan resigned with a remarkable admission: “I was wrong, while Nikol Pashinyan was right.”

But the official narrative seemed lamentably inadequate to describe what had actually happened. The how and the why of this revolution intrigued me, so I went to the capital city of Yerevan to understand the set of events that had been doubly titled “Armenia’s Velvet Revolution” and the “Revolution of Love and Solidarity.”

¤

Yerevan is a strikingly small national capital, rich in public sculpture, with an opera house, puppet theaters, expensive restaurants, strip clubs, boxing gyms, chess clubs, nascent wine bars, and lovely parks within a 10-minute walk from each other. Buildings are generally not painted. The more reverential architecture is comprised of walls of monochrome stone.

The recent revolution had as much to do with Armenia’s history and its precarious position against its hostile neighbors as it did with Sargsyan’s abuses.

The 1915 genocide against the Armenians by the Turks created a global diaspora. Of the eight million ethnic Armenians on the globe, only three million live in Armenia. Turkey also took control of Mount Ararat, which looms within sight of Yerevan. In addition to substantial speculation that it is the resting place of Noah’s Ark, Mount Ararat features prominently in local art and culture and also in marketing for cigarettes, banks, and brandy. What Ararat precisely means is in the realm of the poets, but the mention of it will cause a response that is at once sad and bitingly hopeful.

To the east is Azerbaijan, against whom wars, skirmishes, and conflicts have been fought since the end of the Soviet Union. With the perpetrators of a historic genocide on one side and a military foe on the other, Armenia has a sense of national purpose and cultural cohesion that went on display during the protests against the dictator.

“We joined together and we were standing between the police and the Armenian people,” said Shavarsh Mudaryan.

We told the police that we are all part of the Armenian family. We told the police that we don’t need to fight with each other because we already have enemies. We don’t need enemies in our own country. We want them to join us and be a part of the revolution. After that, many of the police joined with the people. We had not been this happy for 30 years, so it’s not just a revolution, it’s a new page of our lives.

North of Armenia is Georgia, which shares a peaceful border; and beyond Georgia looms Russia, whose notable absence during the revolution remains a source of speculation. Why didn’t the claws of the Russian bear strike down on the “Revolution of Love and Solidarity”? One theory has it that Russia was too preoccupied with Syria and Ukraine to take on further foreign intervention.

Photos from the revolution show members of the clergy and military walking with the demonstrators. Nobody I interviewed expected this to lead to an actual revolution. “If a revolution was being planned, they would have stopped it,” as local journalist Ani Navasardyan phrased it.

Many people described a personal transformation when they witnessed the demonstrations growing larger. They felt something extraordinary was happening and that they were a part of it and that the experience of “freedom finally coming to our country,” in the words of Olya Azatyan, was a sublime moment.

A man named Momik Vardanyan felt this sensation after Sargsyan’s concession, and he coined the exuberant name “Revolution of Love and Solidarity” from a coffee shop called Café Illik, co-founded in August 2016 by Anahit Sahakyan.

“Soon after opening, artists, LGBT members, feminists, and communist started to meet at the cafe and passionate conversations about society began in the back,” Sahakyan told me.

I started to want to believe. I told people that I don’t believe but I’ll do everything to support you. It was risky, though. They could come and close it and I would lose everything. I have two children, what if something happens to me?

This was a flexible movement that only preached one thing: the nonviolent removal of Sargsyan from power. This permitted maximum creativity from its participants. For example, volleyball games were set up to block streets. Also, at 11:00 p.m. every night, people would clang pots and pans together out their windows. “The police could not stop everyone,” as Olya Azatyan said.

One of the other important noises out the window was Vardanyan screaming from the second floor of Café Illik. “Momik started shouting about the revolution of love and solidarity from the balcony and then the whole street started shouting,” recalled the co-owner Anahit Sahakyan. She reflected, “It was one of the happiest times of my life.”

I tracked down Momik Vardanyan and asked him to tell me the story of the phrase “revolution of love and solidarity.”

“I wrote it down on my Facebook and then ran to Café Illik and I started to shout it and the people there started to shout it together,” he said. “The next day my voice was gone and I wrote it on a banner and went to the square. People saw it and started to shout it. Everything was like a coincidence,” he said.

Other people at Café Illik made banners about the “Revolution of Love and Solidarity” that would be shown and shouted the next day. The day after that and with a tense struggle ahead, as the question of who would become the next prime minister was yet to be decided, Nikol Pashinyan called the movement the “Revolution of Love and Solidarity” and the whole country had a name for what was underway.

I asked Vardanyan when, he thought, the revolution would be complete. He said:

The revolution is just beginning. When we defined the revolution of love and solidarity, we said: let this revolution continue and let it be a revolution of love and solidarity. It will be good that this revolution does not end. Because the revolution implies that it must be permanent. If there is a place for struggle, you should be in that struggle — no matter if it is in your country, your city, or the things around you.

There should always be a struggle for equality and justice. It has always been an agenda, even before the revolution. You can’t fight only for privileges or for good jobs. And to struggle against the ideologies that strengthen unhappiness and people blaming themselves for unhappiness. The revolution must always continue.

Currently in Yerevan, evening news broadcasts tell stories of high-level officials being arrested and charged (ex-president Robert Kocharyan became the first former head of state of a former Soviet republic to be temporarily held in custody, for example). Those being currently jailed were perceived as untouchable prior to the revolution. Prime Minister Pashinyan’s public statements regarding this are rooted in the idea that all arrests must be grounded in evidence and the rule of law. During a Facebook broadcast on June 25, 2018, he said,

I cannot put anyone behind bars. However, I can and will put those who have committed financial abuse and those who have gained well at the expense of public funds behind bars. And the decisions regarding who will be behind bars and who will not be behind bars will be made by the prosecutor’s office.

On the more local level, the promise of the revolution was to rid the country of corruption. However, because corruption involves integrated economies, this is harder than it sounds. People would take loans out to pay off a government official to train as a police officer, for example; and then, once working as a police officer, they would pay back that loan in part through seeking and accepting bribes for traffic violations. The issue, then, becomes one of adjusting police salaries that traditionally made corruption a near-necessity — in addition to loan reform within the banking system. Challenges like these are constant and present in the society.

Most Armenians seemed aware that tinkering and time would be necessary. I purchased a ticket to the Yervand Kochar Museum, and sometime later, as I was leaving, a woman who works there raced after me, stopped me, handed me my receipt, and said with a large smile, “Our new prime minister says we need to do this now.”

¤

Andrew McGregor is a filmmaker, performance art roboticist, curator, writer, and adventurer.

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[succorcreek]

Las Vegas: Sandy Hook Unheard What is the relationship between the Las Vegas Shooting and the Sandy Hook Shooting? This is a information has been on my mind before the Mass Shooting in Las Vegas Nevada. I think it has been there with my concern about mass shootings but also from this odd con I detected this spring 2017: 1. Donald Trump told the public he has a heart for victims and is changing his mind on the real need for gun controls. Then at the same time he removed the first days in office regulations on arms manufacturers AND reduction of rules for gun purchases. 2. After Idaho passed a law allowing concealed weapons on Idaho university campuses I've been alert to this action nationwide. First ALL agencies and university officials opposed the arming of students. All reports proved: there was no need there was no benefit and that those with guns young men their brains don't develop to full mental judgment until age 28. Who was for this Governor Butch Otter who has long proven his Psychopathy and Narcissism declining care to the poor races and basic protections of gays has put Idaho on the number 1 list of poorest care in the US. The full GOP State Legislature has also followed his plan of government: ignore the hurting eliminate government and taxes and make sure the wealthy benefit. It seems like the typical old West gun movie but that is Idaho. And it was so ironic that the local Statesman discovered and published that Butch Otter had acted in a soft porn movie. Though he was the clothed town sheriff there is no doubt from sauna scenes and bare flopping implanted breasts in those sex scenes. Otter did take his own 5th on this his own con: "they never told me it was a porno". This is the denial and diversion methods of the psychopathic politician. But few every questioned just what originated this drive for concealed weapons to be carried at Boise State Idaho State University of Idaho and the junior colleges. It was all part of who promoted this JUST his year in 13 other state legislatures in 2017 with 5 passing the law allowing campus concealed weapons: This was a part of the Lobby Effort Lead by ALEC.org which lobbies for the NRA and gun manufacturers other companies via 2 methods: Removal of government regulations on food manufacturers and gun manufacturers by training state legislators Directing "Eroding of Regulations" legislation that leads ultimately to the desire of that lobby: no regulations at all. How this works according to ALEC: a. if you can stop Dairies from having reporters film inside them you can further remove regulations on that whole industry. Make the change one step at a time. b. if you can arm university students you can justify to a state population or legislature a "just and sensible reason" to remove other regulations on guns and purchases. How B works is: Alec and the Lobby really don't believe is so critical for college students to be armed to protect others. In fact it's a bit silly. But it's one step in eroding all regulations on guns: So in 2 years Alec promotes legislation based on this with faulty reasoning and facts built on fictions: "If we so desperately need students armed and lessen restrictions we need to remove back ground checks waiting periods safety training and arm teachers social workers psychologists school bus drivers apartment dwellers.......and everybody. What then is the relationship between the Las Vegas Shooting and the Sandy Hook Shooting? It is that shootings continue to rise and we've become 1. Numbed desensitized to the matters and harm of shootings that occur all the time. While the news reported the Las Vegas mass shooting other mass shootings of 3 4 and 5 persons in the US the same night were not even in the news. We blame ourselves only for a preoccupation with a Los Angeles high speed highway chase on TV but ignore things happening around us in the news and those psychopathic leaders that promote this via: Deregulation of the arms industry Politicians sleeping with the gun lobby ignoring the lessons of Sandy Hook and so many words and new actions taken by President Obama including gun purchase screening measures that were removed by Donald Trump the first days of office....to protect "Constitutional Rights" which translated is my buddies in the gun / arms industry and lobbies paid to put me in office and give me perks and perks and perks. My first book on Sandy Hook was about these lessons. Since then Sandy Hook is something we like to think about but not do anything about. I'm saddened when each year the parents of dead children in the Sandy Hook Massacre testify before congress about screening of the mentally ill for weapons. Then the result has been the same the last 2 years with a GOP oriented pundit lead and Koch Brothers funded congress: Don't just do nothing about the gun problems. Instead remove all government regulations. 2. Complacent we don't take any personal responsibility for change to occur We have many reasons for complacency. None of them are good. It seems being the most obese country in the world that we (and I am not innocent here) of stuffing our mouths with McD fries and more. We value as a people American culture eating shopping and many things more than activism and involvement. We may be at a loss in our time of knowing what we can do. It's hard to know how to oppose our elected psychopathic leaders when we have an American Culture of trusting them. We haven't learned as Europeans to "Question". Indeed the world views Americans as naive children or bully teen agers and not adults. It was for this reason I wrote the book Sandy Hook and 3. Lazy we'd rather go back to our simple life of baseball hockey NFL craft fairs kids' soccer and more. Don't bother me. But life calls us to what is called in mythology: A calling to an unexpected and unwanted journey with many tasks. We can follow it or we can order up another Pizza Hut special and drown any fleeting pain that would have opened us up. It was for this reason I wrote the book on Creative Civil Disobedience: you can do something small and creative today that doesn't mean you're a full fledged protester. But this has to occur: you do it today and dump the excuses 4. History and Geography Illiterate There are always psychopaths dictators and genocides. They can like the Las Vega shooter come out of any innocuous Mandalay Casino glass wall. You don't expect the timing the place or the devastation. But it occurs All the time worldwide. It is for that reason I've written 12 books on Narcissists and Psychopaths: they and the coming event are nearer than you are willing to accept. Perhaps our schools have stepped away from the liberal arts education in preference to the technical education of our digital times. History shows both clear frequency of dictators and genocides. World geography gives us information on these incidents worldwide the Kim Jong-Uns and Dutartes and Donald Trumps in EVERY country. 5. In other recent books on psychopathic politicians the general ignorance of what PSYCHOPATHY really is discussed and what created that current situation in the US. It is not known that Trump is psychopathic what the traits are. And it's not known you have to speak up AND STOP them or you and others will die either directly or by marginalization. "No is not Enough". It's for that reason that I've writing the 12 books and daily post around 5 new articles on the above 5 matters at http://bit.ly/2yk4qIi And it's for all these reasons that steps ideas and affirmations have been included in each tool mentioned as well as 1000 affirmations on bullies and abuse recovery at the Pinterest account listed above as well.Included in the affirmations are also the best quotes on Bullies and Recovery and Rebuilding life. Dr. Charles Bunch Psychopaths Pirates Vampires and more: Run flee tell others! 300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive: Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books Kindle Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs Psychopaths Pirates Vampires and more: Run flee tell others! 300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive: Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books Kindle Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs actor persona brain dangerous narcissism dark disorder dark duo dark triad documentary pbs procrastination denial complacency psychopathy #trumpbully #stopbully #trumpmentalhealth http://bit.ly/2rZ1vSp

Las Vegas: Sandy Hoo

[succorcreek]

Las Vegas: Sandy Hook Unheard

What is the relationship between the Las Vegas Shooting and the Sandy Hook Shooting? 

This is a information has been on my mind before the Mass Shooting in Las Vegas Nevada. I think it has been there with my concern about mass shootings, but also from this odd con I detected this spring, 2017:

1.  Donald Trump told the public he has a heart for victims and is changing his mind on the real need for gun controls. Then, at the same time, he removed the first days in office regulations on arms manufacturers AND reduction of rules for gun purchases.

2. After Idaho passed a law allowing concealed weapons on Idaho university campuses, I've been alert to this action nationwide. First, ALL agencies and university officials opposed the arming of students. All reports proved: there was no need, there was no benefit, and that those with guns, young men, their brains don't develop to full mental judgment until age 28.

Who was for this, Governor Butch Otter, who has long proven his Psychopathy and Narcissism declining care to the poor, races, and basic protections of gays, has put Idaho on the number 1 list of poorest care in the US. The full GOP State Legislature has also followed his plan of government: ignore the hurting, eliminate government and taxes, and make sure the wealthy benefit. It seems like the typical old West gun movie, but that is Idaho. And, it was so ironic that the local Statesman discovered and published that Butch Otter had acted in a soft porn movie. Though he was the clothed town sheriff, there is no doubt from sauna scenes and bare flopping implanted breasts in those sex scenes. Otter did take his own 5th on this, his own con: "they never told me it was a porno". This is the denial and diversion methods of the psychopathic politician.

But, few every questioned just what originated this drive for concealed weapons to be carried at Boise State, Idaho State, University of Idaho, and the junior colleges. It was all part of who promoted this JUST his year in 13 other state legislatures in 2017, with 5 passing the law allowing campus concealed weapons:

This was a part of the Lobby Effort Lead by ALEC.org, which lobbies for the NRA and gun manufacturers other companies via 2 methods:

Removal of government regulations on food manufacturers and gun manufacturers by training state legislators

Directing "Eroding of Regulations" legislation that leads ultimately to the desire of that lobby: no regulations at all.  How this works, according to ALEC:

a. if you can stop Dairies from having reporters film inside them, you can further remove regulations on that whole industry. Make the change one step at a time.

b. if you can arm university students, you can justify to a state population or legislature a "just and sensible reason" to remove other regulations on guns and purchases.

How B works is:

Alec and the Lobby really don't believe is so critical for college students to be armed to protect others. In fact, it's a bit silly. But, it's one step in eroding all regulations on guns:

So, in 2 years, Alec promotes legislation based on this, with faulty reasoning and facts built on fictions:

"If we so desperately need students armed, and lessen restrictions, we need to remove back ground checks, waiting periods, safety training, and arm teachers, social workers, psychologists, school bus drivers, apartment dwellers.......and, everybody.

   What, then, is the relationship between the Las Vegas Shooting and the Sandy Hook Shooting? 

It is that shootings continue to rise and we've become 

1. Numbed, desensitized to the matters and harm of shootings that occur all the time. 

While the news reported the Las Vegas mass shooting, other mass shootings of 3, 4, and 5 persons in the US, the same night, were not even in the news. 

We blame ourselves only for a preoccupation with a Los Angeles high speed highway chase on TV, but ignore things happening around us in the news, and those psychopathic leaders that promote this via:

Deregulation of the arms industry

Politicians sleeping with the gun lobby

ignoring the lessons of Sandy Hook, and so many words and new actions taken by President Obama, including gun purchase screening measures that were removed by Donald Trump the first days of office....to protect "Constitutional Rights", which translated, is, my buddies in the gun / arms industry and lobbies paid to put me in office, and give me perks and perks and perks. 

My first book on Sandy Hook was about these lessons. Since then, Sandy Hook is something we like to think about, but not do anything about. I'm saddened when each year the parents of dead children in the Sandy Hook Massacre testify before congress about screening of the mentally ill for weapons. Then, the result has been the same the last 2 years with a GOP oriented, pundit lead, and Koch Brothers funded congress: 

Don't just do nothing about the gun problems. Instead, remove all government regulations.

2. Complacent, we don't take any personal responsibility for change to occur

We have many reasons for complacency. None of them are good. It seems, being the most obese country in the world, that we (and I am not innocent here), of stuffing our mouths with McD fries and more. We value as a people, American culture, eating, shopping, and many things more than activism and involvement. 

We may be at a loss in our time of knowing what we can do. It's hard to know how to oppose our elected psychopathic leaders when we have an American Culture of trusting them. We haven't learned as Europeans to "Question". Indeed, the world views Americans as naive children, or bully teen agers, and not adults. 

 It was for this reason I wrote the book Sandy Hook

and,

3. Lazy, we'd rather go back to our simple life of baseball, hockey, NFL, craft fairs, kids' soccer and more. Don't bother me.

But life calls us to what is called in mythology:

A calling to an unexpected and unwanted journey with many tasks. 

We can follow it, or we can order up another Pizza Hut special, and drown any fleeting pain that would have opened us up. 

 It was for this reason I wrote the book on Creative Civil Disobedience: you can do something small and creative today that doesn't mean you're a full fledged protester. But, this has to occur: you do it today, and dump the excuses

4. History and Geography Illiterate

There are always psychopaths, dictators, and genocides. They can, like the Las Vega shooter, come out of any innocuous Mandalay Casino glass wall. You don't expect the timing, the place, or the devastation. But, it occurs All the time, worldwide. 

It is for that reason I've written 12 books on Narcissists and Psychopaths: they and the coming event are nearer than you are willing to accept.

Perhaps our schools have stepped away from the liberal arts education in preference to the technical education of our digital times. 

History shows both clear frequency of dictators and genocides.

World geography gives us information on these incidents worldwide, the Kim Jong-Uns and Dutartes, and Donald Trumps in EVERY country.

5. In other recent books on psychopathic politicians, the general ignorance of what PSYCHOPATHY really is discussed and what created that current situation in the US. It is not known that Trump is psychopathic, what the traits are. And, it's not known you have to speak up, AND STOP them, or you and others will die either directly or by marginalization. 

"No is not Enough". 

It's for that reason that I've writing the 12 books and daily post around 5 new articles on the above 5 matters at http://bit.ly/2yk4qIi

And, it's for all these reasons that steps, ideas, and affirmations have been included in each tool mentioned, as well as 1,000 affirmations on bullies and abuse recovery at the Pinterest account listed above as well. Included in the affirmations are also the best quotes on Bullies and Recovery and Rebuilding life.

Dr. Charles Bunch

Psychopaths, Pirates, Vampires, and more:

Run, flee, tell others!

300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive:

Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books, Kindle, Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs

Psychopaths, Pirates, Vampires, and more:

Run, flee, tell others! 300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive:

Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books, Kindle, Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs

via Blogger http://bit.ly/2xePlGh #trumppirate #trumpgangster