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Okinawa governor refuses to approve change to U.S. base transfer plan
Nov. 26, 2021 06:42 pm JST Dec. 4, 2021 | 12:10 am JST
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wayan Ubud
the game of cat and mouse is happening, everyone knows this project will proceed.
BertieWooster
Why does there have to be a foreign military base in such an area of natural beauty? It's like building a sewage plant in front of Mount Fuji!
Even if the change is approved, it is expected to take at least 12 years until the start of operations at the new base,
Once again, false propaganda, it's not a "new" base, it's a landfill adjoined to an existing facility.
Anyone who calls it a "new base" is just regurgitating propaganda from the prefectural government.
There are countless examples of "landfills" here in Okinawa, and no one calls them a "new" city, or airport, or anything, and just accept, logically, that they are extensions to existing facilities or municipalities.
The game of cat and mouse is happening
The "majority" are apathetic to the landfill, or are for it. This "game" is the only way Tamaki and other politicians can keep their jobs!
-2 ( +12 / -14 )
Hideomi Kuze
Japan's government mere continues environmental destruction that waste immense tax for unrealistic plan like delusion.
I don't remember similar opposition to the second runway at Naha International Airport. It is on an analogous landfill and not all that far from the proposed new USMC air base. For the life of me, if it closes Futenma and allows the land to be returned to its original owners I don't see what all the gnashing of teeth is about.
yamanashistud
Actually no, most Okinawans are against it. There are at least two major polls and referendums on this.
but you're right, Tamaki is doing this to keep his job, because that's what his people wants. If he supported the transfer he'd be voted out.
so how long are you going to pretend to be from Okinawa and misrepresent information? not too long ago you said you are from Yamanashi.
DrTOM1957
Time for the U.S. to leave Japan and leave the defense Japan strictly to the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Japanese bases built where Japanese people want them to be built, manned by Japanese soldiers. No U.S. soldiers anywhere in the area. The U.S. can save billions and just use U.S. Naval forces to maintain a presence in the area. Japan can pay their own way.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
@dr tom
Unfortunately it's not that simple.
Good! At least there is one politicians that can say NO to US occupant. Take your troops back home.
why to not discuss about removal base back to US soil instead?
or there is no this option on table?
why do we need to sponsor foreign boots on japanese ground by our taxes?
GBR48
Haneda has enough capacity going forward. Lease Narita to the US.
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
The American occupation of Okinawa continues in all but name, while their puppet LDP government does their dirty work for them. They wouldn't have handed it back in 1972 otherwise...
the_sicilian
Ahh, this again? So the Bilateral agreement is between the US and Japan. Okinawa is not a part of that agreement. And as Yubaru points out, Okinawans are mostly apathetic. The "polls" are done by Ryukyu Shimpo and the Okinawa Times and are notoriously anti base. And moving the base was agreed to back when? And it's being dragged out by whom? Ugh.
The American occupation of Okinawa continues in all but name, while their puppet LDP government does their dirty work for them.
Much better having the US forces there protecting Japan, than having Chinese forces moving in and shackling all freedoms in Japan like it has in Hong Kong.
WA4TKG
OK Everybody, pack up, going back to North America…oh You?, no, You need to start studying chinese
Iron Lad
I like the Okinawan, they have balls.
YuriOtani
Yet the bottom is too soft to build a runway, how long did it take to build the second runway at Naha? What about the other reclamation projects? The new airfield at Swab does not have a completion date in site. Lastly the bases are the reason for the reclamation projects.
@WA4TKG, please stop with the scare tactics which are older than me! Remember China has never attacked Okinawa unlike America.
voiceofokinawa
Power to Governor Denny Tamaki. We're all behind you. Don't let injustice dominate this world.
Futenma is an illegal property. The land it sits on was illegally requisitioned by the occupation U.S. army in violation of international law (cf. Article 46 of the Hague Convention). Some poster says the land cannot be said to have been confiscated because there are land owners of it. Or some may argue that the U.S. occupation army's encroachment of private land with impunity has been pardoned by later bilateral agreements between Tokyo and Washington.
True there exist private land owners for the Futenma air station, but can they enter their own property freely? No, they can't, because their right to get access to their land has been confiscated and usurped.
No bilateral agreement can exonerate the illegal action the U.S. occupation forces committed on occupied Okinawa. Dealing with stolen goods is prohibited by criminal law of any country, and it never fails to be a crime no matter what agreements may have been reached between seller and buyer.
The illegality that is Futenma cannot be effaced by any means at all. It cannot be relocated to Henoko. The base must be closed and the land returned to Okinawa right then and there. Period.
RegBilk
voiceofokinawaToday 12:48 pm JST
Futenma is an illegal property
It is Japanese land leased to the US. Legal in every concept of the term.
Of course, going back to the 1800s, we do have Japan illegally annexing the Ryukyu Kingdom, so I guess you could say as a result Futenma was illegally confiscated.
Waiting for the people of Okinawa to bring a claim to a court somewhere.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that Futenma's relocation to Henoko "is the only solution" to ensure deterrence under the Japan-U.S. alliance and to eliminate the danger Futenma poses at the current site.
To ensure deterrence under the Japan-U.S. alliance? Does it mean he thinks the U.S. won't come to Japan's aid at the time of a contingency unless Japan followed what the U.S. dictated? Lol.
To eliminate the danger Futenma poses at the current site? Note that Kadena Air Base or Yokota Air Base in Tokyo has seen more serious accidents than Futenma. Is Kadena or Yokota the next in the timeline to be closed and returned?
What danger? Driving on Route 58 poses more danger to someone on Okinawa than KAB does.
Those bases are all staying put as long as Japan wants to live peacefully.
My views on America in Japan is the same as I view the Soviet Union in my youth who were based in my country and who I always through they were occupiers. However with the problems plaguing in Japan, population decline which any neighboring country could take advantage of including America and South Korea in the future. Problems around Japan such as China, both Koreas, and Russia, America is unfortunately a necessary evil.
Fra poke
Okinawa refuses lol as if yeh LDP ponzi party would care
AlternativeOpinion
I agree! The USA should withdraw all troops from japan and close all bases. Furthermore, all defense pacts should be rescinded and not a single American should give their life defending Japan.
Good point, The US does not need to defend Japan. Japan should do that themselves.
藤原Today 01:49 pm JST
My views on America in Japan is the same as I view the Soviet Union in my youth who were based in my country and who I always through they were occupiers.
Did your country initiate war on the Soviet Union, like Japan did by attacking the US first?
I use to work there at Camp Schwab as Facilities Engineer superintendent, This will just be a extension of the base already there, It is a beautiful area and is where I had my boat for deep sea fishing, but all things must chang I guess, It will still be a beautiful area, Just more noise and more military in Nago over the hill.
I know some of people in the village there and they are mostly for it because the Japanese government will pay the every year for the extra noise.
by the way there are plenty of people here that love the bases as it brings big money to the economy. That was changing to the Chinese tourist, but we know how that went
RegBilk (Today 01:34 pm JST),
Chief Cabinet Secretry Hirokazu Matsuno says the danger Futenma poses is one of the reasons why it must be relocated to Henoko. If Futenma is so dangerous and hence must be relocated somewhere else, so must Kadena and Yokota Air Bases because they are no less dangerous than Futenma.
RegBilk,
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after his first-hand observation of the Futenma air station by helicopter, commented that Futenma was the most dangerous air field in the world.
If he refuses to approve the change, then he is 100% responsible for Futenma remaining open, and really doesn't care one wit about the actual safety issue. And honestly, take away the subsidies Okinawa gets for housing the bases if you actually want him to budge -- the guy has his hands out all the time for it, as do many other whiners who depend on the government for money for the bases.
Article 46 of the Hague Convention clearly states: "Private property cannot be confiscated." And yet the U.S. occupation army, knowingly or unknowingly, encroached upon private land with impunity to build a vast air field, swallowing up villages and all.
Do we have to wait for court ruling to determine if their unrestrained encroachment upon private land was illegal or not?
The U.S. has no legitimate right to demand a replacement for Futenma, an illegal property per se, be provided in exchange of its return or else Futenma would remain at the current site as it is.
voiceofokinawa: "Do we have to wait for court ruling to determine if their unrestrained encroachment upon private land was illegal or not?"
There was little to nothing when they built the current base, and people built around it since they lived off it, as many do still now. Besides, the nation has more than given the US the right to be there, and Okinawa, and this man who still wants the money but not to the work for it, has no right to protest. Period.
Sorry... they have the right to protest, but not to deny and disobey the law, with the Governor has and is doing.
Oh heck, you drink the kool-aid too? Learn to read numbers and what I posted, I wrote "apathetic" for a specific reason!
Support 114,933
Oppose 434,273
No opinion either way 52,682
Total votes 605,385
Key number is here: Registered voters and turnout 1,153,591 52.48%
So out of a little more than 1.1 million registered voters, 434,000 or so were against it.
Do the math! It's really simple subtraction. One can say that of the number of people who voted, the majority were against it, that is a fact.
BUT that does not mean that the majority of Okinawan/Japanese voters are against the landfill. There are a little over 500,000 who did not vote, nearly 48% of the electorate did not vote.
If it was a truly MAJOR issue the turnout would have been higher than a little over 52%. Hence the comment about the apathy of the electorate regarding this issue!
The hard-core anti-base people will continually lie, obfuscate, and deflect from the actual numbers!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Okinawan_referendum
He has a history of beating a dead horse, and just stirs the pot, these issues were all dealt with, and considered under the treaty agreements with the US following the war.
No one has brought these issues to any "official" entity that could have any effect in the matter, but some just keep repeating and regurgitating the same things.
4. Land Issues: The Legality of Land Acquisitions
On 5th April 1945, four days after US forces began invading Okinawa Island, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz issued a directive terminating Japan's administrative, legislative, and judicial powers in Okinawa and declaring it officially under US military occupation.[1] This was in conformity with Article 42 of the Hague Convention on the 'Laws and Customs of War on Land,' of October 1907.[2
https://ryukyu-okinawa.net/pages/postwar4.html
When will the uniformed learn to stop cherry-picking things to support an opinion?
Yubaru,
The excerpt you quoted only tells how the occupation of an enemy territory should proceed in conformity with Article 42 of the Hague Convention. So, what do you want to argue about with it?
By the way, is it a USCAR directive, or what?
That's the most typical of a tasteless screed a government official can write. Very hard to read.
YongYang
Okinawans are SICK of being used. From WWII onwards, Japanese have only had one interest in Okinawa, their own.
If you refuse to move the base, which would be infinitely more safe than where it is now
(let's be specific, the Landing Zones) then you can no longer claim you're stopping this for the people. I have relatives that live in the Flight Path of Futenma and would be glad to see the airfield there closed to Air Traffic
YongYangToday 12:21 am JST
Absolutely. This issue is being argued without taking into consideration what the Okinawans think.
RegBilkToday 01:25 am JST
Disagree. Yubaru pointed out that more than half of the electorate did not vote in a referendum. If you don't vote, that means you are fairly apathetic to the situation. My Okinawan relatives are also apathetic. They say basically, "well, the Americans have been here for so long, let's just make the best of it".
Should there be a reduction in troops? Absolutely. Should Futenma move? Absolutely. And move does not mean to Guam, it means to the base extension at Camp Schwab.
ZENJI
If da yanks wanna base, 100% paid for by da yanks + mega compensation to the locals.
The document you referred to (https://ryukyu-okinawa.net/pages/postwar4.html) discusses land acquisition issues, alright. But it doesn't mention Article 46 of the Hague Convention, the most important provision an occupation army must abide, referring only to Art. 15, Art. 42 and Art. 55. I was not cherry-picking as you accuse.
So, what's your counter-argument to my claim that Futenma sits on illegally confiscated private lands and hence it is a illegal property. It boils down the U.S. can't demand a replacement be provided in exchange of its return.
Okinawans don't turn out to vote. Why? What's the point. They turned out to demonstrate in massive protests, but what difference did it make? Absolutely none! Tokyo doesn't give a rat's rear end what Okinawans think.
If the US military absolutely has to be here, they should pay rent at the going rate for land rental. And double for the golf courses!
Huh? Me? Yamanashi? I know you have me confused with someone else here! lol!
mph-1212
BertieWoosterNov. 26 07:43 am JST
The US military already has a sewage treatment facility at Camp Fuji
Bubonam Justin Kayce
The irony in this is that there is a US Marine training facility at Mount Fuji for which many of the Marines on Okinawa constantly travel to train at. Get educated.
Hay there Bertie, got news for ya', Land Owners GET PAID, Big Time.
My family in Ginowan / Futenma Flight Path have gotten paid rent on their land for 50+ Years, and so does every other Land Owner
You are asking the impossible. You can't educate someone who is unwilling to even acknowledge the existence of a larger picture as they spend their lives dancing barefoot around a campfire singing kumbaya all day and night.
Some interesting details of the US administration of Okinawa and the negotiations to return it to Japanese sovereignty.
https://adst.org/2016/07/u-s-returns-okinawa-japan-1971/
@Voiceofokinawa, Japan ceded control of Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukus to the US in the San Francisco Treaty. There was originally discussion of making them and other Japanese islands UN Trust Territories but when the negotiations were complete that was not the case for the Ryukyus. The ultimate status of Okinawa was left in the air by that treaty, something for the US and Japan to settle later at an undetermined date.
When the US signed the mutual defense treaty with Japan in 1960 it obligated Japan to provide the US with facilities (ports, airports, etc.) and land sufficient for US forces to meet their obligations to defend Japan. When the treaty came up for renegotiation circa 1970 there was some fear that if the US did not by then return Okinawa to Japan, then Japan would not renew the treaty. We don't realize it today but there was significant opposition within the US to returning Okinawa. It was the scene of the most costly (for US forces) battle of the whole Pacific war and many were of the opinion that the US should keep it. Most Americans in leadership positions of the Department of State, Department of Defense and the Nixon administration wanted to return Okinawa but they had to sell it to the American public and to Congress. Japan was still widely distrusted and America's allies in the region were afraid of what might happen to them if the US lost access to US bases in the Ryukyus. They were considered critical to meeting US obligations to all of its regional allies. That last fact has not changed either. Without those bases on Okinawa it would be almost impossible for the US to defend Taiwan (Guam is too far away and does nothing to obstruct the PLAN from getting behind Taiwan in blue water to attack it from the east while obstructing US reinforcement efforts) and it would be much harder to defend the rest of Japan. The link I posted above discusses many of the delicate matters that had to be carefully negotiated to return Okinawa to Japanese control, and not the least of these was the Okinawans themselves worried the Japanese would treat them as second class citizens as they did before the US invaded.
Desert Tortoise,
We don't realize it today but there was significant opposition within the US to returning Okinawa.
And do you know there was also a significant portion of the Okinawa populace, both progressive and conservative, who were opposed to the reversion? The conservatives feared Okinawa might return to pre-war day poverty and the progressives argued against it by saying that the return should be without U.S. bases.
Okinawa's anti-U.S. base sentiments were at the peak at the time, as demonstrated by the Koza riot.
So, it was natural for U.S. policymakers to decide Okinawa had better be returned to Japan in order to maintain bases remaining intact and without any hitch. Thus, from the U.S. perspectives, the decision to return Okinawa to a docile Japan, always obedient to its master, was a right one.
lordoflys
There is enough resentment and push-back by Okinawans to necessitate a scheduled draw-down of US Forces from the prefecture. There are many places within and without mainland Japan that would welcome US bases. There is no sense of urgency among central Japanese politicians, US Military Forces, Japan, or US politicians to do this. Nothing will be done until people and/or property are threatened....unfortunately. In the meantime, band-aids like Guam will have to suffice. Saber-rattling by China and Russian notwithstanding.
These two comments:
All of what is written here is COMMON knowledge and nothing noteworthy other than to show, that even back then, as it is today, the politicians and some people dont know what they want.
Today the "anti" folks dont want the bases, but want more money from the government in handouts because they have them. And out of the other side of their speaking orifice, they dont want the bases removed without the government providing money to replace the income they received because of hosting them.
Just goes to prove that in many ways the Okinawan's themselves have not changed much over time, leastwise not the ignorant anti-base politicians and people. They dont want bases, but they want money, but are not willing to give anything in return to better the island for the people and country.
(Oh the Koza Riots, for the uninformed, was not about the US military alone, that was a small portion. It was MORE about holding the US Military responsible for crimes and actions against the local population.
If the US had been more forthcoming and honest and allowed those accused of crimes to be held accountable here, there would NEVER have been any riots!)


I often have conflicting emotions to images, videos and discussions of individuals charitable acts such as visits to orphanages or helping strangers out of tight financial situations. I understand the need for institutions to document charitable acts as a form of accountability. In those instances, I view the people in the pictures or videos as playing a role, they reassure donors and contributors that their funds are not being misused. However, when the posting or sharing is carried out by individuals my feelings more complex. I believe that those posts can and do spur others to their own individual acts of kindness, but sometimes I just wonder when it crosses over from altruism to a form of humble bragging. With that in mind, I was a bit conflicted about this post. Then I remembered that my readership is basically my mothers and a handful of others who love me, so there's probably no harm in sharing.
Yesterday, I got off the train with happy thoughts of home on my mind. As I turned up the volume of my podcast and stuck my headphones more firmly in my ear something made me glance over my shoulder. I saw a smallish older man struggling to move two big boxes and one piece of hand luggage. My first thought was to turn around and continue to my bus, my house and get started on my to-do list. Yet, as I watched him look around with a somewhat lost look in his eyes, attempt to move and have one box fall, I was magically propelled towards him. "Can I help you?", I asked. The look he gave me! I don't think anyone has ever looked at me as though I was the answer to all their prayers rolled up in one. Very dramatic description I know, but I really have never been on the receiving end of such a look of gratitude.
As we walked he explained that he always felt compelled to travel with items that could be used by people back home in Kenya, and that frequently left him with too many bags. Probably what he did not add was that he is getting on in years. I can imagine that 10 years ago, or maybe even 5, he could have handled the bags with much more ease. We got to curb and I waited until his daughter pulled up, said goodbye and walked away.
This is probably extremely narcissistic, but helping this stranger I will most likely never meet again, with my time left me on cloud nine. But my euphoria soon had me wondering, if helping felt this good what made me hesitate this time and in many other situations?
The first answer was the priority I bestowed on my almighty To Do List. What did I have to get done? Well I needed to get to butcher and grocery before they closed at 18:00. Then I needed to make dinner and spend some time reviewing some important documents but also make it into bed at a decent time. I mean, all important and good things for my life but in the grand scheme of things not issues of life or death. Yet for reasons such as these my usual mode of operation is: step off the train with headphones in place, keep head down and run for bus or train. Most times I do not even notice the person that might need help because I am too busy trying to get to the next activity that will keep me busy.
The second answer was, 'fear'. Fear of rejection. If you have never been rejected count yourself extremely lucky because rejection stings. Linked with the fear of rejection was a fear of appearing a fool. It was rush hour, so there were probably hundreds of people flowing off the trains. While I am not deluded enough to think all eyes were on me, it would be equally unrealistic to expect that no one would have noticed my abrupt move towards this gentleman. What if he rudely, loudly, firmly or all three told me to mind my business?
Do these reasons sound silly to you? They definitely did to me as I attempted to put my feelings into words. I can imagine that there'll be memory lapses in the future as I attempt to make it to an afspraak (appointment in Dutch) or just my cosy home. However, I hope that the memory of this old man, will hover somewhere in my subconscious and prompt me to slow down and pay attention to opportunities for random and truly cheap acts of kindness. Maybe, just maybe, that was the only point of this post, a reminder of the moment.


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Area Guides >
London Fields
London Fields | E8
London Fields Area Info
London Fields is situated in the heart of Hackney, with the fields themselves at its centre, offering more than 30 acres of stunning parkland. It's a gorgeous place to hang out in the summer months, perhaps with a picnic assembled from the delicious offerings of nearby Broadway Market. And in the cold, winter months it takes on a starker kind of beauty, covered in frost surrounded by bare London Plane trees.
Classified as common land due to its history as a site for grazing animals before moving them to market at Smithfield, these fields have been in use since the 16th century. As well as tennis courts, a cricket pitch, ping pong tables and children's play areas, the park is also the home of the London Fields Lido, the only Olympic-sized outdoor heated pool in the capital, a claim to fame that its residents are rightly very proud of.
The area is home to some wonderful independent shops, plus a high quota of excellent places to eat and drink. There's plenty to do here any day of the week, though it's on a Saturday when Broadway Market is on that things get really busy.
Property here is a great mix of new build flats, Victorian houses and warehouse conversions, so something to suit all tastes and lifestyles. However, homes in London fields come at a premium. Indeed, prices here are now outperforming De Beauvoir, its traditionally more expensive, more centrally located neighbour.
The area tends to attract a creative crowd who work in new media, art or fashion. However, improvements to the London Overground line has made travelling to the city from London Fields station much quicker and easier, which has resulted in an increasing influx of professionals. Families have long been attracted to London Fields thanks to the wealth of amenities on its doorstep.
Ofsted generally rates schools in the area as being good or better, with London Fields Primary School and St Paul's with St Michael's CofE Primary School both rated outstanding. At secondary level, nearby Haggerston School and the Mossbourne Parkside Academy are both rated good.
Things to do in London Fields
It goes without saying that Broadway Market on a Saturday is a must, but you'll also find two great boozers here that are open every day of the week. The Dove is an unpretentious arts and crafts style place, with a great choice of Belgian beers and a no-nonsense food menu that always delivers on taste. Sunday lunches are quite a thing here and have been known to tip over into Sunday evenings. The Cat & Mutton, meanwhile, is set over two floors, with downstairs serving a great selection of local beers in cask, keg and can, as well as decent wines and spirits. Upstairs has more of a cocktail bar vibe and is accessed via a spiral staircase. The food here is good, with a few surprises mixed in among the pub classics.
Beyond the market are many more pubs, and worth a mention is the Pub on the Park, which is situated on the very edge of London Fields with amazing views across the park. Its large, decked area is heaving in the summer months but come winter it's a cosy haven full of hidden nooks and crannies.
For a true local's local with a wonderful beer garden out front, head to the shabby-chic Prince George on Parkholme Road. Old and new residents alike love this Hackney institution, situated on a leafy residential corner. It might be a bit off the beaten trek, but trust us, it's well worth a visit.
Also tucked away on a residential street (Wilton Way to be precise), is acclaimed restaurant Pidgen, which serves a weekly changing menu, with no dish ever repeated. Six years and over one thousand dishes later, Pidgen continues to offer excellent, innovative food and its reputation is now such it's become a destination dining spot.
Operating from one of the railway arches on Mentmore Terrace, you'll find the legendary e5Bakehouse, an artisan bakery and coffee shop that is definitely worth a visit. Whether, breakfast, brunch or lunch, the food here is always wholesome and hearty. Oh and be sure to pick up a loaf of the Hackney Wild signature sourdough to take home.
Should you be seeking a creative fix, then Netil House is the place to go. A Brutalist 60s building that was once home to a college and council offices, it is now a thriving community of creatives occupying private studios and co-working spaces. Among its 300 residents you'll find musicians, filmmakers, painters, acrobats, writers, fashion designers… the list goes on. There's also a rooftop café, bar and garden as well as an outdoor market. Heck, this place even has it's own radio station!
london@butlerandstag.com
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History of London Fields
Records show that in 1540 the area that is now London Fields was as common pastureland adjoining Cambridge Heath. By the late 1500's the name London Field is found recorded as a separate item consisting of around 100 acres in changing ownership of land. London Field was one of the many 'commonable lands' of Hackney where the commoners of the parish could graze their livestock on the fields from Lammas Day (Anglo Saxon for bread mass), August 1st, celebrating the first loaf after the crops had been harvested, to Lady Day, March 25th. This arrangement was known as Lammas Rights and was protected by law.
In the 19th century, Hackney was transformed beyond imagination. Its population surged from close to 13,000 in 1801 to nearly 200,000 by the early 20th century, carved up by railways, factories and canals. Formerly a series of disjointed villages outside London, Hackney was gobbled up by the metropolis becoming part of inner-city suburbia, an identity it retains to this day. City bank clerks, notaries and solicitors changed the face of the area, the wealthier middle classes ran for the hills, turned off by the endless sweeps of terraced housing.
During the 1980's Hackney resident Tony Blair claimed it introduced him to the 'society of fear' where people were petrified of opening their doors. The Blair's were just one middle-class family who'd taken a gamble and moved to Hackney in the mid-1980s, triggering both regeneration in the community, creating a wave of other middle class families returning to the area. They set about restoring multi-occupation Georgian and Victorian houses into single-family use, bringing history full-circle.
Today Hackney and in particular London Fields, are cultural and social hotspots. The emergence of the farmers organic food and antique market in 2003 along Broadway Market every Saturday and the independent shops and cafes around it, is provideed the catalyst for its recent popularity along with the extension of the East London which made London Fields more accessible via Stations in Haggerston and Dalston.
Now bursting with conservation areas, action groups and superb facilities including London Fields Lido a 50 metre open-air swimming pool, London Fields is one of East London's most desirable address'.
Broadway Market

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Songkran 2017 - Official dates?
Thread: Songkran 2017 - Official dates?
Some of my friends told me that only three days, April 13 to 15, are official holidays for Songkran this year.
However others have disagreed and told me there are five days, April 13 to 17. April 17 falls on a Monday and all government agencies and banks are closed.


A portrait of Peking Opera's most famous star, Mei Lanfang (1894- 1961), a man who innovatively shaped his various female characters, from the witty maid to the drunken beauty, by every single finger movement, every blink of an eye and every word he uttered. Chronologically the film recalls the big events in Mei's life, from his debut in Beijing at 10 to his performance for the new China scientists in 1961, just two months before he died. But in many people's eyes Mei Lanfang is still mysterious. "He's the most attractive woman on the stage but a handsome man…a husband and father in real life." So, who is the real Mei Lanfang? A montage of pictures, music and old footage of the great master in action reveals his life as a great artist, a loving father and a superb teacher.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Simplicity and functionality. Its time your old wallet went on a diet; holds up to 6-7 cards. What else do you really need?
Your genuine leather will feel stiff at first but will adapt individually to its contents with use. Wallets: Introduce the card(s) by inserting into the card slot(s) and allow the leather to stretch 2-3 days. Repeat this process to accommodate more cards as needed.


Paige displayed a keen interest in the arts from a very young age, delighting family and friends with impromptu performances. She started ballet at the age of 4 but decided to pursue modern dancing at the age 8 and has competed in small group modern dance routine at the World Championships in Germany and Slovenia. Although a lover of dance, her true passion lies with acting and she would like to pursue a professional career in theatre and film. Paige was part of Beyond 2000 drama school from 2010 and competed in the South African Championships of the Performing Arts twice and on both occasions she was chosen to perform her pieces at the World Championships in Los Angeles. At the age of 10 she was chosen to perform in a TV ad for Paddle Pops and has also recorded a voice over, taken part in a TV game quiz show and was part of an Equestrian Pantomime. In High School she was head of the Cultural Committee and was very involved in school productions throughout. Paige has worked in productions such as Too Much Punch for Judy as the lead Judy, the Auto and General Commercial, was a roadshow Presenter for Saica and was recently in Binnelanders as a hit and run victim- Cindy. Paige played a nurse in 7de Laan in 2016 and plays a supporting role in Erfsondes as the character Franky in 2017, as well as a teenage daughter in the series Bedford Wives. Paige takes on the lead role in The Last Sacrament film in 2018. Paige is a vibrant, vivacious person and is always up for a challenge in which she can express herself. She desires to learn and grow in the world of stage and TV with a determination to perform well and always improve.


I own an Auris 2014 Hybrid. I drive on 225/45/R17 and my overall consumption is 4,7 l/100 km. I believe that if I had 195/65/r15 91H tyres, the consumption would be lower for 0,5 litres almost. What is your opinion about that issue ? Is anyone out there had changed the dimensions like above?
Hi and welcome . You can't change to 15" wheels because of the front brakes callipers size, smallest possible size that you can fit is 205/55 R16 , but in my opinion don't change anything, just get quality tyres that are rated for low rolling resistance and quiet , Good Year Efficient Grip Performance are good example or Kumho Ecsta HS51 if you are on a budget, and most importantly is to keep them to the right pressures, not much above or below max allowed .
I agree with TonyHSD and think the quallity of the tyres probably are more important than just size.
I swaped my orginal 225/45/17 91W Dunlop Sport Fastresponce ( E rolling resistance B wetgrip 69 sound in EU marking) on my Auris TS HSD 2014 for some used 205/55/16 91W (F rolling resistance C wetgrip 71 sound ) cause I was convinced that it would be better for fuel consumption and (ride) comfort but... there wasnt that big difference in neither fuelconsumption nor comfort.
Now I bought some new 205/55/16 94 XL GoodYear Efficient Grip Performance and hope for some improvement in both fuelconsumpion and comfort.
I went to Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance tyres (205/55 R16) but didn't really notice any substantial difference in MPG (previous tyres were Goodyears also).
But the manual mentions the 15 '' dimensions... what about the difference between 17'' and 16'' ?
On both the first and second generation Auris hybrids, 15 inch wheels/tyres were available on certain grades.
Lower profile tyres tend to be wider and have a bigger footprint - which can adversely affect fuel consumption.
As regards changing from 17 inch wheels/tyres to 15 inch wheels/tyres, one would need to be sure that the relatively small reduction in fuel consumption would justify the expense of the change. Also one would need to check with your insurer that they will accept the change, or whether they may charge additionally for the change to the car's spec.
We have a 17" wheel Auris. I have put 16" Toyota wheels on it. These fit fine, but the gap between the rim and the brake caliper is really quite small. The front brake calipers are definitely a different design, and bigger, than those fitted to a 15" wheeled Auris (which we also have). The 15" wheels definitely don't fit over the larger brakes, I have tried, just to be certain.
When or if I get time, I will run both these cars around a short test loop to compare their fuel economy. The cars are the same age and similar mileage, but one has done much more motorway mileage, so another known variable here beyond the less obvious ones. I would have compared the 17" wheels to their 16" replacements from a fuel economy perspective, but there were so many other weather-related changes that it would not have been that meaningful. Also, the car is/was still freeing up after years spent with its previous driver, who was very, very careful!
The bigger brakes do have more feel than the smaller ones, but for the dreadful, crumbling, under-funded, speed-humped roads around here the 15" wheels are great, if less precise when cornering.
I noticed that back in the 2000s, you *could* buy a 3 series BMW or E-class Mercedes on 195/65 x 15 tyres, if you wanted to. Has car comfort become less important next to performance, it seems so. Perhaps that is one part of the appeal of some SUVs - fat tyres and a softer ride.
Very intressting! Please keep us informed.
Me myself have just changed to 205/55/16 94 XL GoodYear Efficient Grip Performance, A rolling resistance B wetgrip 68 sound in EU marking, (as said above) but I have to drive some more miles to get any usefull info.
I share TonyHSD's sentiments as well. Go for car tyres that can create less wheel resistance. Also, make sure that you regularly service your car and conduct a wheel alignment check at least once per year. Basic things can help you go far!
...Has car comfort become less important next to performance, it seems so. Perhaps that is one part of the appeal of some SUVs - fat tyres and a softer ride.
On the current and previous Prius, the choice was 15" or 17".
A number of people on this board and others have said they liked the 17" ones because they "looked better".
I currently own the latest (4th) Generation, and previously owned the 3rd, both on 15". I also on occasion drove versions with 17".
Those on 17" rims were generally noisier, gave a harsher ride (although less pronounced in the 4th Gen with it's improved chassis and suspension), larger turning circle (due to 17" being wider) and cost more to replace, in addition to being worse for CO2 and emissions. In theory, with a much smaller amount of air/rubber between metal and road, they are more susceptible to damage from severe pot holes but I've not seen a single report of this happening.
I can't recall if this also applied to the Gen 3, but on the 4 it pushed the car into a different bracket for Benefit in Kind tax (making 17" much more expensive for company car drivers) and meaning only cars with 15" got exemption from the London Congestion Charge (although it no longer matters as from this month only zero emission cars and some plug-in Hybrids qualify).
17" wheels are better option for motorway driving especially at higher speeds and much better at cornering, I mean not driving like crazy , just normal. If most of the times the car is used in town 15" are better, but if driven mostly on motorways 17" are best. I can live with both sizes, not problems for me. Most important are the right tyres not the size. Winter time with with tyres and summer time with summer tyres preferably or all season ones. Car with quality 17" tyres can ride better than car with cheap low quality rubbers in any driving conditions. Quality tyres can vary from midd range to high end, also the type of the tyres very important. 17" at 45 profiles many of the tyres are "UH" ultra high performance tyres suitable for sportier driving styles and not good at all for a hybrid cars, many ppl don't realise that and buying those tyres than get noisy and bumpy ride, plus worse fuel economy. Also the OEM tyres are not always the best option, despite the car came originally equipped with them, doing an extended research prior to buying a new set of tyres pays off afterwards .


text:
module Jamf

  # Classes
  #####################################

  # A building defined in the JSS
  class Building < Jamf::CollectionResource

    # Mix-Ins
    #####################################

    extend Jamf::BulkDeletable
    include Jamf::ChangeLog

    # Constants
    #####################################

    RSRC_VERSION = 'v1'.freeze

    RSRC_PATH = 'buildings'.freeze

    # Object Model / Attributes
    # See APIObject class documentation for details
    # of how the OBJECT_MODEL hash works.
    #####################################
    OBJECT_MODEL = {

      # @!attribute [r] id
      #   @return [Integer]
      id: {
        class: :j_id,
        identifier: :primary,
        readonly: true
      },

      # @!attribute name
      #   @return [String]
      name: {
        class: :string,
        identifier: true,
        validator: :non_empty_string,
        required: true,
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute street1
      #   @return [String]
      streetAddress1: {
        class: :string,
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute street2
      #   @return [String]
      streetAddress2: {
        class: :string,
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute city
      #   @return [String]
      city: {
        class: :string,
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute state_province
      #   @return [String]
      stateProvince: {
        class: :string,
        aliases: %i[state province],
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute zip_postal_code
      #   @return [String]
      zipPostalCode: {
        class: :string,
        aliases: %i[zip zipcode zip_code postal_code postalcode],
        filter_key: true
      },

      # @!attribute country
      #   @return [String]
      country: {
        class: :string,
        filter_key: true
      }
    }.freeze

    parse_object_model

  end # class

end # module


Currently have executive responsibility for global customer care for the QuickBooks accounting software product, including overseeing the management of onshore and offshore service delivery using Intuit's strategic outsource partners, as well as Intuit badged agents. Accountable for 2,000+ Tier 1&2 agents globally, leading efforts to reduce customer pain by working cross-functionally with both product and engineering teams.
Improved customer experience in FY2013-16 where 1M per year contacts were removed from the care eco-system.
Worked alongside the Care Engineering teams to successfully develop customer and agent tools that both predicted and alleviated product issues. Worked with technology care engineering team and developed innovative sales and service channels in web and in product that increased NPS and Sales revenues.
Effectively managed a $80M outside services budget with responsibility for more than $100M in sales revenue within the Care sales channel.
Increased the Transactional Net Promoter score 25 points during FY2013-16 while bringing in $100M consistently per year in revenue.
Implemented Zendesk as complete CRM solution for multiple product test implementations. Have deep knowledge of breadth and scope of ZD capabilities. Currently rolling out Jira as bug/issue tracker between CS & Engineering teams.
Led a global staff of as many as 1,800+ contact center support agents, managers, project managers and vendor managers in the response and resolution of account, billing and technical issues related to supporting Apple Print Products, iTunes Store and MobileMe / iCloud service. Additionally, made recommendations on the strategic direction and operations strategy, overseeing the design and creation of Internet Services contact center operations.
Personally managed day-to-day operation to ensure all response, resolution and customer satisfaction objectives were met, including developing and maintaining cross-functional partnerships internally to resolve product issues.
Managed outsourced vendor operations and relationships relating to supporting the iTunes Store, delivering on all policies, programs, staffing, organizational design, strategy and budget planning.
Ensured teams had up-to-date and accurate information to effectively deliver quality support as needed, setting action plans to ensure customer satisfaction.
Represented end users and the service and support business community, ensuring customer requirements were considered during the development and implementation of strategies.
Effectively performed all personnel management, including recruitment, training, performance evaluation, salary management and professional development.
Completed the successful turnaround of customer satisfaction operations, increasing positive resolution metrics from 30% to more than 92% satisfied.
Successfully introduced Chat support to Apple for the first time as the exclusive global multi-language support channel for MobileMe / iCloud, as well as an alternative support channel for iTunes customers.
Directly accountable for global customer service and technical support call centers, including personally overseeing three US-based call centers and one European outsourced call center. Directed support policies and balanced customer need with budgetary constraints.
Developed various "pay for support" programs, ensuring Technical Support operations became a revenue-generating profit center.
Personally handled all technical escalations, ensuring the highest levels of customer satisfaction through a swift and effective resolution.
Collaborated cross-functionally with other department heads during product development cycles, gaining hands-on familiarity with ACD, CRM and technical desktop tools and systems.
Responsible for managing the customer service department in a startup ASP environment, including selecting top performing managers and customer service representatives to support a revenue generating customer base via phone, email and online message center platforms. Additionally, worked alongside executive staff in making day-to-day decisions with company-wide impact.
Acted as a customer advocate with the product development team, ensuring 100% customer satisfaction through the implementation of a seller services team to assist large customers with entering the online auction sales channel.
Worked directly with outside vendors, engineers and marketing staff, developing platforms that were both cost effective, and that encouraged customer retention within the online auction arena.
Developed detailed processes to create listings and track post-sale transactions, in addition to prioritizing bug fixes with the engineering team to ensure minimal customer impact.
Earlier success can be seen in leadership positions with Pacific Bell, NETCOM and AT&T Internet Services, consistently exceeding all established goals and objectives leading to numerous positions of increasing responsibility and scope. Key position titles included Manager of Customer & Technical Support Operations, Sr. Manager of Online & Escalation Support, Director of Technical Support and Sr. Director of DSL & Dial-UP Customer & Technical Support.
Responsible for service quality across two 24/7 centers, including 750+ technical support engineers in the US and India.
Exceeded all talk time reduction and customer satisfaction targets while managing a $22M customer support budget.
Achieved 96% overall customer satisfaction by implementing a continual process improvement program within the organization, as well as customer-facing automated call avoidance and talk time reduction tools.
Directed a global support organization that included two corporate call centers and one outsourced relationship of 350+ support engineers, including managing a department budget of $18M.


text:
Victims of Armed Conflicts
Geneva Conventions, 1949
Ratification / Accession:18.05.63
Final Act of the Diplomatic Geneva Conference, 1974-1977
Signature:10.06.77
Additional Protocol (I) to the Geneva Conventions, 1977
Additional Protocol (II) to the Geneva Conventions, 1977
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 2000
Ratification / Accession:03.03.2004
Reservation / Declaration: 03.03.2004
Methods and Means of Warfare
Geneva Protocol on Asphyxiating or Poisonous Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods, 1925
Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, 1972
Convention prohibiting Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), 1980
CCW Protocol (III) prohibiting Incendiary Weapons, 1980
Convention prohibiting Chemical Weapons, 1993
CCW Protocol (II) prohibiting Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices, amended, 1996
Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, 1997
CCW Protocol (V) on Explosive Remnants of War, 2003
Convention on Cluster Munitions, 2008
Naval and Airwarfare
Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, 1954
Hague Protocol for the Protection of Cultural Property, 1954
Criminal Repression
Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998
Other treaties relating to IHL
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, 1948
OAU Convention on Mercenaries, 1977
Convention on Mercenaries, 1989
Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006
Arms Trade Treaty, 2013
Customary IHL database
ICRC National Implementation Database of IHL
States party to the main treaties
IHL_and_other_r... (1.35 MB)
IHL_and_other_r... (269.00 kb)
Map of States party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols
icrc-annual-rep... (886.85 kb)


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DJ Quinntronix is a Visual Artist, Music Producer and DJ from the United States.
Quinntronix is Co-Founder of the production company Chroma Council.
Quinntronix has a weekly Radio Show on 101.1 FM Providence, RI, and is available for Live DJ Events.


text:
Author: Kurt Nimmo
It will soon be July. That's when the hosting company wants me to cough up hundreds of dollars for another year. I can't afford it. Moreover, it seems the hosting service broke the code on my donation button, so I wouldn't continue there even with a steep discount.
Find my irregular posts on Medium.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 25, 2020 Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Jumping Ship, New Blog
Neoliberal Democrats exploit BLM to get Biden elected.
"The protests, riots, violent and non-violent actions sweeping across the United States since May 25, including an assault on the gates of the White House, begin to make sense when we understand the CIA's Color Revolution playbook," writes economic researcher, historian, and freelance journalist F. William Engdahl.
Engdahl then breaks down the connections between Black Lives Matter, socialist organizations, George Soros' Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation (as previously noted, a CIA front organization), the Foundation to Promote Open Society, Borealis Philanthropy, the Kellogg Foundation, Ben & Jerry's Foundation, and the Heinz Foundation (John Kerry).
Following the murder of George Floyd, "major corporations such as Apple, Disney, Nike and hundreds others may be pouring untold and unaccounted millions into ActBlue under the name of Black Lives Matter, funds that in fact can go to fund the election of a Democrat President Biden."
#BlackLivesMatter (1/3) pic.twitter.com/k4sIcUiPwP
— Sony (@Sony) May 31, 2020
BLM is part of the Movement for Black Lives Coalition (M4BL), a cutout created by the Ford Foundation, in other words, the CIA. It has called for "defunding police departments, race-based reparations, voting rights for illegal immigrants, fossil-fuel divestment, an end to private education and charter schools, a universal basic income, and free college for blacks," according to its website.
"The initiative of the Movement for Black Lives needs to be picked up by others…. A coalition of movements that joins a future whirlwind moment to win the struggle can at last make racial justice a reality."—Quaker activist @GeorgeLakey_ at @wagingnv https://t.co/ITwFBv4q5g
— Friends Journal (@friendsjournal) June 16, 2020
As Engdahl points out, B4BL and BLM are Democrat-dominated operations. They receive money from ActBlue Charities, a "progressive" organization in support of the Joe Biden campaign. "ActBlue is a pass-through organization and service for donations to left-of-center nonprofits and PACs," notes InfluenceWatch.
B4BL takes money from Google (also linked to the CIA) and a host of labor unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education.
An article posted back in 2009 by Human Events states that despite "its stripped-down appearance, ActBlue is frothing with the elitist pretension characteristic of the modern Left. The hip tenets of 'grassroots' campaigning, highbrow blathering and self-possessed pseudo-coolness seep through the slogans, descriptions and thematics of the [ActBlue] website."
As Engdahl points out, the "role of tax-exempt foundations tied to the fortunes of the greatest industrial and financial companies such as Rockefeller, Ford, Kellogg, Hewlett and Soros says that there is a far deeper and far more sinister agenda to current disturbances than spontaneous outrage would suggest."
The founders of BLM admit to being Marxist revolutionaries determined to destroy capitalism (no longer recognizable as such).
"The policy platform proposed by BLM in August [2016]… calls for collective ownership of resources, banks, and businesses, a highly progressive income tax, a guaranteed minimum income, and government jobs are lifted straight from the pages of Karl Marx's 'Communist Manifesto,'" writes Thurston Powers. "BLM has simply substituted Marx's class conflict between the proletariat and bourgeoisie for class conflict between blackness and whiteness."
BLM co-founder confirms what anyone who's read their work knows: they're proudly marxists. pic.twitter.com/vvUk5jTp7j
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) June 18, 2020
The black vs. white dichotomy creates a permanent enemy class, to which defection is always incomplete. And unlike the proletariat class consciousness, race consciousness already exists, making mobilization easier. This can be seen in the comments of a Milwaukee protester from August: "We do not want justice or peace anymore. We done with that shit. We want blood. We want blood. We want the same shit ya'll want. Eye for an eye. No more peace. F–k all that. Ain't no more peace. Ain't no more peace. We done. We cannot cohabitate with white people, one of us have to go, black or white. All ya'll have to go!"
It is nonsensical to believe the transnational corporations and banks now funding BLM buy into the Marxist rhetoric and objectives of BLM—that is to say, they are not supporting their very own destruction as evil capitalist enterprises.
BLM and its Marxist leaders will be jettisoned after Biden wins the election. Either BLM will conform to the democrat masquerade—a kinder and gentler face plastered on the neoliberal project—or it will become irrelevant to national one-party politics pushed on the American people by a corporate propaganda media.
After a Biden victory, BLM will be expected to head for the bleachers where they will be required to cheerlead "diversity," which is basically yet another ruling elite control mechanism.
Instead, they will go to the streets.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 24, 2020 June 24, 2020 Categories Black Lives MatterTags Black Lives Matter, CIA, Color revolution, Cultural Marxism5 Comments on BLM and the Neoliberal Color Revolution in America
Pulling down statues is only the beginning.
I'll bet most Americans don't know who Pol Pot was.
Pol Pot was a Marxist-Leninist, a student of Mao, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. He turned Cambodia into a one-party dictatorship. He dreamed of converting his country into an agrarian socialist society he believed would evolve into a communist society. In order to realize that objective, millions were forced to toil in the countryside. "Bad elements" and "New People"—intellectuals, government officials, Buddhists, shopkeepers, disfavored ethnicities—were either worked to death in rural collectives or executed outright.
Between 1975 and 1979, it is estimated between 1.5 and 2 million people—nearly a quarter of the population—lost their lives. The Khmer Rouge made Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution look like amateurs by way of comparison.
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge called their terror campaign waged against civilization "Year Zero," the idea that culture, heritage, religion, and history must be utterly destroyed to make way for a communist vanguard and the implementation of revolutionary culture. In China and Russia, similar revolutions resulted in the death of around 100 million people. The Nazis came in a distant second—they murdered a paltry 16 million people.
Fast-forward to 2020. The founder of Black Lives Matter proudly admits she is a "trained" Marxist.
"I see Black Lives Matter and Antifa as part of a global Marxist effort to destroy the United States," Dr. Carol M. Swain told Sputnik.
Their goals are more about attaining political power and money than protecting minorities and improving society. Their organizational goals might be quite different from the goals of the protesters concerned about police brutality and discrimination.
Lenin wrote, "When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract." This is certainly the case now as transnational corporations jump on the George Floyd bandwagon. The Ford Foundation (CIA), Amazon, Citibank, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and many other large corporations are underwriting the effort to take down America under the banner of "social justice" and the destruction of capitalism.
BLM and Antifa are now involved in the sabotage and dismantling of American history and culture. "At its core, BLM is a revolutionary Marxist ideology," writes Andy Ngo, a journalist attacked and beaten by Antifa goons in Portland. "The US is getting a small preview of the anarchy Antifa has been agitating, training and preparing for. Ending law enforcement is a pre-condition for Antifa and BLM's success in monopolizing violence."
Pulling down statues of Confederate generals and former presidents is only the beginning. The BLM-Antifa Marxists are more attuned to Herbert Marcuse than Lenin or Trotsky.
"A policy of unequal treatment would protect radicalism on the Left against that on the Right," Marcuse wrote in 1965. "Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left," he continued.
"Marcuse dismissed the idea of individual liberty protected by law in favor of a Marxist society favoring ostensibly oppressed groups at the expense of everybody else. Such a society, Marcuse wrote, would demand 'the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements,'" notes Joseph D'Hippolito. "Marcuse even justified violence: 'there is a "natural right" of resistance for oppressed and overpowered minorities to use extralegal means if the legal ones have proved to be inadequate,'" Marcuse wrote.
The BLM-Antifa Marxist revolution under the cover of ending "systemic racism" is controlled by the ruling elite through foundations, progressive think tanks, wealthy liberals—and corporate CEOs you'd think know better.
Success depends on the help of opportunistic Democrat politicians who believe raising a clenched fist and parroting BLM will get them elected or re-elected, thus perpetuating a system of crony capitalism and endless war behind a kinder and gentler Democrat facade that is now falling away.
As I have previously noted, socialism and communism—two sides of the same coin—represent a near-perfect social and political control mechanism.
Gary Allen wrote in 1971:
If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of superrich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes the logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite.
The ruling elite, the financial class that has profited so mightily from theft and violence, will not allow Marxists and black hoodie nihilists to spawn a violent revolution.
After Donald Trump is deposed, the rulers and their political class will turn on the more radical elements of the left. A watered-down version of socialism will be rolled out to placate the masses now facing a Greater Depression and a final nail in the coffin of a battered middle class.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 22, 2020 June 22, 2020 Categories MarxismTags Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Cultural Marxism1 Comment on Year Zero in America
COVID, Identity Politics, and the Global Ruling Elite
Ruling and financial elite consider us useless eaters.
The following is my opinion based on more than a decade and a half of research into ruling elites. Please be aware this sort of commentary is now considered domestic terrorism by the FBI, the national security state, and its propaganda media.
I have decided to post my thoughts on the destruction of America (and Europe) before the election. If current polling is any indication, Donald Trump will not be re-elected. Joe Biden will be the establishment's teleprompter reader. The Senate will swing over to Democrat control. Democrats and their "progressive" (corporate-financed) allies will go after anyone to the right or left of the establishment, with the exception of groups like Black Lives Matter, which now receive millions of dollars from the likes of Citibank and the Ford Foundation, the latter long known to be a front operation controlled by the CIA.
"The Ford Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy recently announced the formation of the Black-Led Movement Fund [BLMF], a six-year pooled donor campaign aimed at raising $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives coalition," reports The Washington Times.
The COVID virus is a biological weapon deliberately released in China and from there spread to much of the rest of the world. It did not escape from the Wuhan lab. It was released by the US military while participating in an athletic event in Wuhan. However, it is believed the virus was circulating in November of 2019, possibly earlier.
In April, a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Antiviral Research (Vol. 16, April 2020) concluded the COVID virus contains features not present in other viruses. Moreover, the paper argued the virus has no known ancestry and contains elements present in MERS, which the authors say "was not observed in the lineage b of betacoronaviruses." In other words, the virus is an engineered bioweapon and not a freak of nature.
However, this military-industrial lab-created disease was not designed to kill millions and become the 21st century's version of the Black Death. It is far more useful as a fear-inducing mechanism.
Here is the game plan as I see it:
1) bring down teetering fiat money and toxic asset driven economy and blame it on the virus.
2) destroy Main Street business in competition with corporate behemoths (recall John D. Rockefeller—his operating maxim was that competition is a sin).
3) create massive and sustained unemployment.
4) normalize the idea of house arrest and the negation of core constitutional rights.
5) enhance already intrusive and unconstitutional surveillance with "contact tracing" via smartphone and Bluetooth technology (check out this article which details how Michigan authorities used contact tracing against anti-lockdown protesters).
6) foment unrest and exacerbate social ills as a diversion from the planned globalist reformulation of the world economy and society (i.e., "global governance," aka New World Order).
7) direct the corporate propaganda media to obsessively dwell on irrational race- and gender-based ideology and conflict, thus widening an engineered political divide, creating social chaos and violence, and thus diverting and reducing the threat posed to the elite and the national security state apparatus.
8) keep the narrative focused on Donald Trump; downplay the evolving economic depression, distract attention, and debate away from the elite's endless wars and neoliberal predation (this was accomplished during the Obama regime).
9) continue to manufacture foreign enemies—Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria—and crackdown on "domestic terrorists" and "conspiracy theorists" now conflated with ISIS.
After Democrats take back Congress and the White House, this last point will kick into overdrive. MAGA, already maligned as Nazis and white supremacists, will be investigated and supporters will be prosecuted and imprisoned. Ditto folks on the left, or those not associated and bankrolled by elite foundations and corporations.
I am convinced the ruling and financial elite consider most of us useless eaters, cattle to be exploited. They have spent the last decade accruing vast wealth at the expense of the so-called 99%. They are responsible for endless wars—now largely irrelevant to the average American—and are responsible for the murder of millions of innocent civilians and igniting social and sectarian violence in the smoldering ruins left in their "creative destruction" wake.
Finally, I sincerely doubt the American people are capable of confronting the elite and returning the nation to a sanity that has been missing for decades. First and foremost, they are unable to break free of the voodoo spell of relentless narrative propaganda. Millions view the left-right paradigm not as a cynically crafted ploy to divert them from the real problem—the theft of the future and present by psychopathic and misanthropic rulers, condemning billions of misery and privation—but rather as a political reality.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 20, 2020 June 20, 2020 Categories EconomyTags COVID-19, Economy, Ruling elite3 Comments on COVID, Identity Politics, and the Global Ruling Elite
Elite the real purveyor of conflict and political polarization.
The hypocrisy of the Black Lives Matter movement is astounding. BLM and its followers shout down those who insist all lives matter, regardless of race. In the BLM universe, skin pigmentation is the determinate, as it is for all racists.
While BLM and identity activists dwell in OCD fashion on racist cops and "white privilege," they completely ignore the organized mass murder of black- and brown-skinned people by a government that now "takes a knee" for a former criminal, beatified as a saint by the state and its propaganda media. Those responsible for the murder of George Floyd will undoubtedly spend years behind bars, as they should, but this will not quell the outrage and violence committed in his name.
So lopsided and blinkered is the current identity-obsessed movement, it fails to address a far more deadly and vicious adversary—the neoliberal state.
The organized murder of more than two million Arabs in Iraq, Syria, and Libya—more than a million in Iraq, 600,000 in Syria, and 30,000 in Libya—does not even register on the BLM and identity ideological radar.
Barack Obama suffocated the antiwar movement that had coalesced around the Bush neocon invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, thus revealing that much of the political activism was predicated along partisan establishment political lines. Antiwar activists of the Vietnam War era called out both Republicans and Democrats for war crimes. Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Nixon—both Democrats and Republicans—are responsible for the murder of more than 3 million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians.
Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, are directly responsible for arming murderous jihadi mercenaries in Syria and their counterparts in Libya. The latter resulted in vicious racism by Arab Libyans against black African migrant workers and refugees.
In Syria, Obama's CIA funded and armed mercenaries in an effort to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad. The illegal effort by the US military to defeat the Islamic State in Syria—a psywar operation birthed by the Pentagon in occupied Iraq—resulted in further destabilizing Syria and killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
Additionally, BLM and the supposed left in America have not pointed out the obvious—psychopathic cops are trained, armed (with tanks and other weapons of mass destruction), and enabled by the Pentagon. Why isn't the Pentagon a site of protest, like it was during the Vietnam War?
The neoliberal elite is obsessed with overturning and destroying nations resisting IMF and World Bank domination and the "structural adjustment" schemes bankster and globalist organizations push (the strip mining and privatization of public services).
Identity is not a consideration or precursor—all who resist, regardless of skin color and ethnicity, are to be hunted down and brutally murdered, as Muammar Gaddafi was for the crime of announcing he planned to quit selling oil in US dollars and establish an African gold dinar.
Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, wasn't deposed and executed for threatening the US with weapons of mass destruction, as the ludicrous machinations of the Bush neocons claim. Saddam, a former CIA operative in a plot to assassinate Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1959, was a trusted asset until he stepped out of bounds, as did another CIA asset, Panama's Manuel Noriega.
The Israelis, holding considerable political sway over Congress and the White House, also demanded Saddam Hussein be taken down, primarily for his support of the Palestinians, but also because a nation with a pan-Arabist at the helm was unacceptable.
Likewise Syria. The hereditary regime of the al-Assad family and the Ba'ath party long touted a pan-Arab worldview and this was unacceptable to Israel and the United States.
The covert and illegal war by the US and Israel in Syria has nothing to do with human rights, as espoused. The objective is to destroy any resistance to Israeli expansionism, turn pan-Arabism into an Islamic movement that can be more easily radicalized and thus vilified, and balkanize the Middle East along ethnic and religious lines, thus realizing Zbigniew Brzezinski's "three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy… to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together."
Only politically expedient and exploitable "barbarians" (as they are considered by the ruling elite, never mind the disingenuous rhetoric) will be allowed to protest and demand justice. BLM racism, the absurd demand white people go prostrate in racial submission, and the criminal looting and burning of cities in the name of George Floyd have not set off alarm bells at the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the institutional thank tanks. These should be the focus of protest, not police departments militarized by the federal government. The Milwaukee Police Department is not the hydra-head. The federal government and its corporate and bankster overseers are the true purveyors of violent conflict and political polarization.
The BLM represents the forefront of an effort to divide Americans along racial and political lines, thus keeping race and identity-based barbarians safely away from more critical issues of importance to the elite, most crucially a free hand to plunder and ransack natural resources, minerals, crude oil, and impoverish billions of people whom the ruling elite consider unproductive useless eaters and a hindrance to the drive to dominate, steal, and murder.
The murder of millions in the Middle East, Asia, South and Central America over the last few decades by a psychopathic elite and its corporate mercenaries does not figure in the equation.
It is an irrelevant historical footnote, if that, to an identity movement that does not threaten the elite and its political class. It is sad to say BLM serves the elite by ignoring or remaining ignorant of the main problem—boundless predation by a neoliberal criminal project that considers all—black, white, yellow, brown—as expliotable and dispensable serfs.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 9, 2020 Categories Crimes of the StateTags Black Lives Matter, Iraq, Libya, Ruling elite, Syria4 Comments on 2 Million Arab Lives Don't Matter
Military Occupation of America Begins
Police-soldiers regard both the guilty and innocent alike as enemy combatants.
It now seems certain the social lockdown imposed during the COVID scare will be extended with a "second wave" blamed in part on people protesting the police execution of George Floyd.
Packed crowds protesting George Floyd's death have health officials worried about possible COVID-19 outbreak https://t.co/o2A7njr5vE
— WLWT (@WLWT) June 2, 2020
As it now stands, there is no way the massive protests in America will come to end anytime soon. The yellow vest protests in France went on for months, only to be sidelined by COVID. Make no mistake. Macron and the neoliberals were seriously freaked out by week after week of yellow vest protests and riots. The elite considered it a serious threat to the French state and its corrupt establishment.
Trump has absolutely no viable options. He has threatened to send federal troops into states in violation of what remains of Posse Comitatus. It was mostly destroyed by the national security state logic of the neocon John Yoo and the Bush administration.
Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act to go after rioters and looters. It should be mentioned that police (now embedded with federalized National Guard soldiers) are exploiting the violence to attack peaceful demonstrators, for instance, the following chemical attack in Philadelphia.
Former Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw oversaw a police force that violently policed protests. Now she is the Police Commissioner of Philly and her cops are deploying tear gas on protesters during the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/SVTSw2k14q
— nyc law grrrl (@nyclawgrrrl) June 2, 2020
The Chicago Police are notorious for use of over-the-top violence in reaction to dissent in the Windy City. Apparently little if nothing has changed since 1968 and the savage beatdown of protesters, media, and bystanders by Mayor Daley's police during the Democratic Convention.
Few deny George Floyd was sadistically executed, but what's missing here is the fact his murder is part of a far larger issue that is not being addressed.
The paramilitarization of state and local law enforcement by the federal government has resulted in heavily armed police-soldiers that regard both the guilty and innocent alike as enemy combatants. Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the onset of the disastrous war on drugs, the Pentagon has fed a steady stream of hardware designed for war and mass murder into police agencies from sea to shining sea.
For the last 19 yrs in the guise of fighting terrorism both political parties have funded militarized police forces throughout the country. Billions of dollars for tanks, tactical weapons, tear gas & training has created this bullshit.Are we now the enemy? pic.twitter.com/1MrvlhFCHI
— Tim Robbins (@TimRobbins1) June 2, 2020
This is not incidental. The state has prepared for war in America over a period of several decades. During the Iran-Contra testimony of Col. Oliver North we learned the government planned to rendition and imprison thousands of American dissidents during a war in Central America against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. North was involved in the illegal CIA war against Nicaragua and its support of the Contra mercenaries.
As I write this, federal military occupations of downtowns, neighborhoods, critical infrastructure, etc., are underway. The severity of the riots has provided cover for a super-charged move to fully implement a military police state. It won't be realized as such by many if not most Americans.
The rioters and looters piggybacking on race and police brutality protests are providing a perfect excuse for the state to militarily control the larger blue or liberal metropolitan areas of the United States, possibly for some time to come.
Take a look at Hollywood Blvd. #LAProtests
We're seeing a #PoliceState turn into a #MilitaryState.pic.twitter.com/HQqIFeJz3q
— Johnny Akzam (@JohnnyAkzam) June 2, 2020
No doubt this "civil war" will run through summer and land square in the lap of both parties during the conventions. Due to the riots and protests, the Democrats have pushed their convention back to August from July, probably in the hope, there will be some kind of resolution that will settle the dust by the end of summer. It's not going to happen, even though, as of Wednesday, the rioting and violence have ratcheted down a notch or two.
Likewise and undoubtedly more violently during the RNC convention the following week in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Late note: North Carolina rejected convention taking place in NC, no doubt realizing and dreading the consequences).
Expect militarized national conventions, unlike anything in the past.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 3, 2020 Categories Criminal governmentTags COVID-19, Police stateLeave a comment on Military Occupation of America Begins
George Floyd Endgame: Martial Law and a Police State
COVID was the first act.
It is disturbing to hear people who should know better describe the George Floyd riots as anarchism. The riots are not anarchistic, they are nihilistic. The people engaged in looting, arson, and widespread assault have zero comprehension of political philosophy.
There are, of course, a whole lot of people demonstrating who are not involved in crime and violence. However, these are the dupes, the idealists routinely exploited by the state and its propaganda media.
Rampaging "anarchists"—many undoubtedly agent provocateurs—are not interested in justice, fairness, nonviolence, and peaceful dialogue. They are providing a pretext to usher in a fascist police state.
The George Floyd riots are problem-reaction-solution exemplified. After Ronald Reagan initiated his "zero tolerance" drug war, the Pentagon began the process of converting local police departments into "thin blue line" paramilitary gangs paid for by know-nothing taxpayers.
Black-clad militarized American cops—many veterans of the illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria—view citizens as the enemy. This is drilled into them at the academy and every day on the job. It is a gang mentality.
The propaganda media focus exclusively on the murder of blacks. However, if we consider the statistics, far more victims of police overreaction and sadism are white. This fact, however, does not serve the agenda, which is the destruction of civil society through irrational political polarization, racism, tribalism, and escalating violence.
This state of affairs will be exploited to call for a clampdown on political dissent. COVID "contact tracing" is now being used to track down activists and those associated with them. Facial recognition is used to find targeted individuals in crowds. From the start, I said this supposed public safety gimmick would be used to isolate and destroy peaceful activism.
Now that police are joining protesters, the state will turn up the heat. I believe we can expect a false flag event to justify martial law, primarily imposed in iron-fist fashion in the larger urban areas of America. In order to dovetail with rhetoric pushed out by the media elite, the false flag will be pinned on "white nationalists" and other "extremists" now pigeon-holed by the FBI as far worse than ISIS or al-Qaeda.
COVID was the first act. It demonstrated that millions of Americans will follow the authoritarian orders of their "representatives" and elected officials. COVID was in part a test run to see how far citizens can be pushed before they react.
The George Floyd riots represent act two of the COVID-spawned lockdowns. 24/7 propaganda media coverage of burning cities and looting of big box stores around the nation have frightened average Americans and pushed a bad seasonal flu to the sidelines.
If the chaos continues, there will be citizen demands for law and order. Either by design or ineptitude, local law enforcement has stood down during the riots, failing to protect lives and property. Officials will argue that the ongoing destruction and violence can only be contained by the military. So serious is the threat, local law enforcement is said to be overwhelmed.
The state has planned this eventuality for decades. After the race riots of the late 1960s, the government established the ADEX list of "subversives," that is to say activists opposed to the state while simultaneously operating the FBI's COINTELPRO neutralization campaign against civil rights and antiwar activists.
The ADEX list is the tiny ancestor of today's Main Core, a database containing personal and financial data on more than a million people. REX-84, Garden Plot, Lantern Spike, and other military operations were put into place to round up activists and enemies of the state, as former congressman Jack Brooks pointed out during the Iran-Contra hearings.
It is not clear what the state will do next as part of its latest and greatest psychological operation against the American people. However, as the COVID "plandemic" demonstrated, all that is needed to keep the plebs in line is fear and division.
Divide et impera—divide and conquer—has been used for centuries by various authoritarian states, long before Niccolò Machiavelli penned his The Art of War.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on June 1, 2020 Categories Crimes of the StateTags COVID-19, George Floyd, Martial law, Riots3 Comments on George Floyd Endgame: Martial Law and a Police State
From Soft to Hard Fascism: "Get In Your House Right Now!"
America is now a full-blown fascist state.
There can no longer be any doubt—America is now a full-blown fascist state. In the past, authoritarian fascism was kept reserved in the shadows, largely out of the public eye, but in a remarkably short period of time it has emerged from the darkness to show its fangs and snarl menacingly at the people, many of them cowed and dutifully following irrational orders from on high.
As the following video demonstrates, state violence is not directed exclusively at rioters and Antifa goons pretending to be anarchists (most would be unable to define the term) as they loot, burn, and attack the media and innocent bystanders. Violence is used to frighten and intimidate the real enemies of the state—the American people, or those who defy the COVID lockdown and others peacefully protesting murder at the hand of a psychopathic cop.
Minneapolis under curfew pic.twitter.com/rYQYug6M5f
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) May 31, 2020
Fortunately, the woman in the video was not seriously injured. She wasn't looting Target or burning down Walmart. The woman made the mistake of venturing out on the porch of her home, her private property, and for this crime, she was shot with a paintball by a member of a "state militia" (now federalized).
The social fabric is coming apart at the seams. First mandatory lockdowns, state-imposed impoverishment, followed by an unfolding Greatest Depression as a result of a shutdown economy, and now social unrest, violence, theft, and arson in two dozen large cities across the country.
If this degree of violence and destruction is possible centered around the death of a single man, imagine what will happen when millions of people are in desperate straits, unemployed, many evicted, and homeless. It will not be simply police stations that go up in flames. It will be statehouses.
However, the American people have demonstrated repeatedly they are gullible and easily steered into dead-end diversions pumped up and hyped 24/7 by a corporate propaganda media. The Trump hatefest and political polarization—worse than any in recent memory—will no doubt go by the wayside as millions of Americans face the "new normal" envisioned by their masters—a standard of living in rapid freefall, soon to crash on the rocks. None of this is happenstance or coincidental.
Most Americans may not have protested the endless wars and criminal economic scams of the ruling elite (mostly due to decades of incessant propaganda), but they will raise their voices and fists when they are unemployed for months on end, evicted from homes and apartments, have their cars repossessed, and are confronted with hunger, want, and homelessness.
In order to enforce the latest manifestation of psychopathic neoliberalism and predatory crony capitalism, the state will depend on steroid-headed soldiers and cops to frighten and intimidate the people.
It may be paintballs today, but tomorrow it might be live ammo.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on May 31, 2020 June 1, 2020 Categories Crimes of the StateTags COVID-19, National Guard, Police state, Riots2 Comments on From Soft to Hard Fascism: "Get In Your House Right Now!"
Venezuela: Trump's Failed Mini-Bay of Pigs Fiasco
Mercenary profiteer had contract with Pompeo's State Department.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—the former CIA director who admitted the US government lies, cheats, and steals—wants you to believe the Trump neocon-infused administration had nothing to do with the failed coup plot in Venezuela.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Operacion Gedeon "if we were involved it would have gone differently"#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/B63hAnKdVR
— CNW (@ConflictsW) May 6, 2020
Standard Pontius Pilate response. Of course, the US government and its private sector "partners" in the subversion business (in this case, Silvercorp USA) are behind this miniaturized Bay of Pigs operation.
The fall guy is Jordan Goudreau, "a former member of the US Army special forces" who has, according to the BBC, "been quick to claim an association" with the captured US mercenaries.
As should be expected, the BBC watered down the significance of the event by characterizing it as a "speedboat incursion."
From the UPI:
Jordan Goudreau, an ex-Green Beret and owner of private security company Slivercorp USA for which the two captured Americans worked for, has claimed responsibility for "Operation Gideon," a plan of insurrection against Maduro he said is connected to Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has the support of the United States and more than 50 countries.
There are 195 countries in the world and most have not found it necessary to declare Juan Guaidó president of oil-rich Venezuela.
Recall former US president Jimmy Carter said in 2012 "of the 92 elections that [the Carter Center] monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world."
"We just heard about it," said Trump from the South Lawn on Tuesday. "But whatever it is, we'll let you know. But it has nothing to do with our government."
President Trump denied any involvement by the US in what #Venezuela's officials have called a failed armed incursion in the South American country that led to the capture of 2 American "mercenaries." https://t.co/YWa1Vi9BgS
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) May 6, 2020
It's called "plausible deniability," however, in this case, it is not plausible at all. The US has tried numerous times without success to overthrow the government in Venezuela. Pompeo is an admitted liar. Trump is basically clueless and preoccupied defending his ego on Twitter, so he repeats what he was told by his neocon foreign policy operatives.
Trump and his neocons will, of course, ignore Goudreau's claim the US was on board with the latest illegal effort to stage a coup. The mercenary profiteer said he had a contract with Pompeo's State Department.
EXCLUSIVE: Green Beret vet who plotted botched Venezuelan coup boasted it was an OFFICIAL government operation https://t.co/vKBpvK4MCL
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 6, 2020
Short of bombing Caracas, terrorizing and killing thousands, and assassinating Maduro, there is very little the US can do to further destabilize Venezuela.
Venezuela's opposition needs military intervention if they want to overthrow Maduro in the future. #Venezuela #VenezuelaCoup pic.twitter.com/3ToezTayYG
— specialforceulm (@Specialforceulm) May 6, 2020
Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, understood the US will never accept rule in South America that rejects the neoliberal agenda. In response, Chávez organized civilian militias.
It was people like the old woman pictured below who captured the Green Beret mercenaries. No wonder Pompeo and Trump didn't acknowledge the obvious link to one of its contractors—the failed mini-Bay of Pigs operation demonstrated just how impotent the US has become in overthrowing disfavored governments.
Local people with just basic militia training captured eight of #Trump's mercenaries in Chuao, Aragua. 😂🤣 #Venezuela https://t.co/tx57ZNuUN3 pic.twitter.com/DVGYw6mXDa
— tim anderson (@timand2037) May 6, 2020
Naturally, the admitted liar and former tank commander Pompeo demands Maduro send the captured American mercenaries home. In actuality, despite this windbag's threats, the US has few "tools" to ensure the return of these for-profit trained killers.
#BREAKING Pompeo says US to use 'every tool' to free Americans in Venezuela pic.twitter.com/Qi0vtT5xbj
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 6, 2020
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on May 6, 2020 May 6, 2020 Categories VenezuelaTags Bay of Pigs, Mike Pompeo, Nicolas Maduro, Trump, Venezuela1 Comment on Venezuela: Trump's Failed Mini-Bay of Pigs Fiasco
Fear and Loathing of the COVID-19 Economy
COVID-19 authoritarianism is the new normal.
Let me begin by saying I don't know anything definitive about the origin of COVID-19. I don't know if it is a natural mutation or a manmade biological weapon. I don't trust the government and its media corporations to report the truth on the virus or the actual number of victims it has claimed. The WHO—owned by Merck, the GAVI Alliance, and the Gates Foundation—and the CDC—allowed to receive "gifts" from Big Pharma and corporations—are corrupt institutions that have lied about pandemics in the past, so why should we believe them now?
Despite revised numbers and evidence computer models were seriously flawed—one might argue deliberately so—the corporate media continues to report COVID-19 as something akin to the Black Death. It has done a successful job of scaring the hell out of millions if not billions of people.
"The real number of COVID-19 deaths are not what most people are told and what they then think. How many people actually died from COVID-19 is anyone's guess," said Dr. Annie Bukacek in April. "Based on inaccurate, incomplete data, people are being terrorized by fear-mongers into relinquishing freedoms."
But here is something a script-reading establishment media avoids reporting—the death toll from a decimated economy will be far higher than anything inflicted by this virus (or whatever it is).
COVID-19 is a near-perfect cover for the engineered crash of an economy already on Federal Reserve funny money life support. Instead of assigning blame to the responsible culprits—mega-banks, the financial and "investment" (speculation) class, transnational corporations, and their handmaids in government—blame is placed on an invisible virus that may or may not be manufactured precisely for the purpose of taking down the economy.
"If you take the kinds of drastic action that we are currently seeing [state-mandated lockdowns], it is unquestionably going to lead to massive job losses, huge redundancies, thousands of small to medium businesses going to the wall, future generations saddled with debt, and millions of people thrust into poverty with no way out," writes Rob Slane.
This will result in "risks to the mental health of millions of people," the "stripping of civil liberties on a scale never seen before and which may never be restored after the health crisis is over," and the "frightening possibility of mass civil unrest the longer the measures continue," Slane adds.
In fact, the US and much of the world has remained mired in financial ill-health in the wake of the last "too big to fail" bankster looting a dozen years ago. The media called it the "Great Recession," although, by any standard, it was and is a depression. By the end of summer, it will mutate into a full-blown Greatest Depression. "We've entered a downturn that is going to be longer, deeper, and different than the unpleasantness of 1929-1946," notes best-selling author Doug Casey.
According to the economist Nouriel Roubini:
Earlier this month [March 2020], it took just 15 days for the US stock market to plummet into bear territory (a 20% decline from its peak)—the fastest such decline ever. Now, markets are down 35%, credit markets have seized up, and credit spreads (like those for junk bonds) have spiked to 2008 levels. Even mainstream financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley expect US GDP to fall by an annualized rate of 6% in the first quarter, and by 24% to 30% in the second. US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has warned that the unemployment rate could skyrocket to above 20% (twice the peak level during the GFC [Global Financial Crisis]).
According to John Williams, publisher of Shadow Government Statistics, a second-quarter GDP contraction will rival the depths of the Great Depression. The current unemployment rate is 22% and it will get worse, far worse, possibly affecting more than half the working population. There are mounting risks of a hyperinflationary Great Depression, as the Federal Reserve and federal government launch unlimited money creation, deficit spending, and financial bailouts, Williams wrote on April 28.
More than 30 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance as a result of the state-mandated and enforced economic lockdown (millions of other unemployed workers are unable to file due to clogged online systems and the inefficiency of state bureaucracy). In less than a month, the 22.4 million jobs created after the manufactured Great Recession—primarily low-paid service sector jobs—were wiped out.
Desperate and poverty-stricken Americans will, as Henry Kissinger long ago remarked, run to the government and beg for protection. They will willingly—even enthusiastically—relinquish their natural rights for the false security of the state.
The massive violations of a moribund Constitution and Bill of Rights are dismissed as an excuse by irresponsible people to spread a disease that is, according to a scaremongering media, wafting through the air and laying in wait on all surfaces. In short, your natural rights are considered a threat to the rest of humanity.
In March, a poll was conducted on public support for killing off what remains of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. "We presented a nationally representative sample of 3,000 U.S. residents with eight possible policy responses to the outbreak, all of which may be unconstitutional, including forced quarantine in a government facility, criminal penalties for spreading misinformation, bans against certain people entering the country, and conscription of health-care workers," writes Adam Chilton, Professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, and three of his associates.
"Even when we explicitly told half of our sample that the policies may violate the Constitution," the group writes, "the majority supported all eight of them," including the restrictions imposed on free speech.
In short, propagandized and frightened citizens, in fear of a New Black Death that is nothing of the sort, are abrogating their birthright of individual liberty in favor of allowing the state to impose ever-increasing draconian measures—including an audacious expansion of surveillance—to control humanity.
"After the threat has subsided," Chilton and the law professors conclude, "Americans must recognize any constitutional violations for what they were, lest they become the new normal."
It should be obvious by now COVID-19 authoritarianism is already the new normal.
Author Kurt NimmoPosted on May 2, 2020 Categories COVID-19Tags Authoritarianism, Constitution, COVID-19, Natural law2 Comments on Fear and Loathing of the COVID-19 Economy
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