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newswire article 20.Apr.2002 02:21
America Through The Looking Glass
author: David McGowan
It is time to understand the Truth, speak the Truth and stand up for the Truth!
America the Destroyer
by James Carroll
LOOK AT WHAT America has become. We are moving on steel treads across a harsh landscape as a creature of destruction, kicking up clouds of unreality through which we see illusions of our efficiency and virtue.
The prodigality of our nation's claims for itself is staggering. We can decide alone when the use of overwhelming violence is justified. Before the onslaught of our weapons, enemy resistance will be nil. The display of ''shock and awe,'' an unprecedented bombardment aimed less at human beings and buildings than at the human imagination, will bend the world to our will. Unlike all previous powers in history, we can wage war humanely. Our success will be so complete that no other nation will challenge us -- or imitate us. The time for complexity is past: You are for us or against us. Either way, your world will be a far safer place when we are finished. Those who opposed this war will sheepishly return to the fold, the flock of our dominance. We are so good.
Young Americans in uniform are now dying for this cloud of illusion -- dying of it -- and so are Iraqis of all ages and stations -- uniformed and naked. When the dying begins, the arguments leading up to the war cease to have resonance. Who is debating anymore the hazards of intervention, the relationship of ends and means, the question of whether Saddam Hussein is Osama bin Laden's partner or nemesis?
Those who opposed the war on the grounds that its good effects would be outweighed by unintended disasters -- chemical attacks, oil wells aflame, riots in the street across the globe -- are now in the position, only, of praying to have been wrong. Those who opposed it more broadly, as reckless hubris whether successful or not, are still saying no without waiting for outcomes. Yet all are braced today for the Battle of Baghdad, hardly breathing.
Americans overwhelmingly support this war -- but do we understand it? The bombardment that has already been carried out, for example: more bombs already than in the 40 days of Desert Storm. Assume for a moment that civilian casualties have indeed been kept to a minimum by precision weapons. Still, what are we seeing through the lenses of news cameras mounted on hotel rooftops on the ''safe'' side of the river? What do those far off raging fires actually signify? Set aside moral and political abstractions that differentiate Baghdad from Washington to focus on the merely physical effects of such bombing.
If Washington were the target of a ''shock and awe'' campaign, the US Capitol would now be rubble, along with that entire parade of becolumned federal buildings astride seven blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House a smoldering ruin (like Camp David -- and the Bush ranch house in Crawford, Texas). The Pentagon a fetid sinkhole, in-rushing waters of the adjacent Potomac River having snuffed the burning abyss. The vice president's residence at the head of Embassy Row in ruins. Bolling Air Force Base and Andrews Air Force Base on the Maryland side of the Potomac aflame. Fort Myers and the Navy Annex on the ridge of Arlington, Fort McNair in Southwest Washington and the Marine Barracks in Southeast, the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, and Walter Reed Hospital in far Northwest -- all on fire. CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., a smoking scar on the landscape.
Such is a ''limited'' campaign, targets chosen ''humanely'' according to a strategy of ''decapitation.'' We can leave until later the question of who and how many are dead and wounded.
And what, exactly, would justify such destruction? What would make it an act of virtue? And is it possible to imagine that such violence could be wreaked in a spirit of cold detachment, by controllers sitting at screens dozens, hundreds, even thousands of miles distant? And in what way would such ''decapitation'' spark in the American people anything but a horror to make memories of 9/11 seem a pleasant dream? If our nation, in other words, were on its receiving end, illusions would lift and we would see ''shock and awe'' for exactly what it is -- terrorism pure and simple.
American broadcasts are full, already, of the language of glory and eventual triumph. But the firmness of assertion suggests uncertainty. Are we the new masters of morality, imposing our order on a world that will someday be grateful? Are we victors, at last, over self-deceit and pride, crushing opposition only because it forces us to? Have we overcome the tragic momentum of mechanized violence so that at last it can be used humanely?
If so, the glory and triumph are right and just. If not, then when the clouds of illusion finally do lift, our claims will be seen for what they are: vainglory and triumphalism.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0325-01.htm
Same 20.Apr.2002 13:36
yeah link
David McGowan
by David McGowan ---
If there has ever been a more bizarre presidential team in place at the White House at any other time in U.S. history, it doesn't immediately come to mind.
Consider, if you will, that we have a vice-president (and I use that term rather loosely) who has all but disappeared from public view without any kind of credible explanation having been given to the American people. It appeared at first as though Cheney's vanishing act was a temporary and cynical ploy that would allow George the Younger to appear as though he were actually running the show.
But six months have now passed and Dick has only been whipped out for a few passing photo-ops (and to do some arm-twisting in the Middle-East). Never before, even during times of World or Civil War, has such secrecy and security ever been deemed necessary. What possible explanation can there be for this? What credible threats is the vice-president facing?
The only possible danger that Cheney could find himself in would be facing impeachment proceedings for, among other things, his involvement in the Enron scandal and his questionable dealings with Iraq (1). But that of course could only happen if we had a Congress that wasn't as fully corrupt as the White House team that they are supposed to provide checks and balances on.
Consider also that we have a president (and I use that term even more loosely) who is so intellectually challenged that before even losing the election he had already issued enough verbal gaffes to fill a book or two. He seemingly cannot open his mouth to utter an unscripted response without lapsing into almost complete incoherence, as though he received his English instruction via home-schooling by his dad.
On top of that, he has appeared in public no fewer than three times now with noticeably large bruises/contusions on his face. First there was the enormous bandage he sported in the dark days of the 'hanging chads.' Then there were the obvious contusions late in the year that would have gone without mention were it not for a reporter's question; only then did the White House hurriedly issue a claim that Bush had had lesions removed from his face.
And then we were treated to the sublimely comical story that our fearless leader lost consciousness while snacking on a pretzel and fell face-first into a coffee table (I could make a cheap joke here about the 'leader of the free world' being unable to watch TV and chew pretzels at the same time, but will refrain from doing so). And we were told that this is actually a very common occurrence.
Say what? In what parallel universe is this a common occurrence? What exactly is going on behind closed doors on Pennsylvania Avenue?
Is Poppy Bush trying to slap some sense into his brain-addled youngster? Is George hitting the bottle a little too hard ... just before hitting the floor? Is Stepford-wife Laura a closet dominatrix who sometimes gets a little carried away ("Goddamnit, Laura! How many times do I have to tell you? ... stay away from the face!")? Something is obviously not quite right here.
The media though doesn't seem to find anything unusual about the George and Dick Show. Nary a question has been raised about what exactly Cheney is doing in his 'secure' location. Bush's incoherent mumblings, brain-deadening jingoism, and stunning lack of knowledge about any issue of any significance are somehow presented as though the man has magically assumed presidential stature unequaled in U.S. history.
What the hell is going on here?
For the most part, just business-as-usual as the media performs its time-honored role of covering-up for the inadequacies and crimes of our 'elected' leaders. Yet it has become bizarrely surreal as the press struggles mightily to continue performing that function even while faced with an administration both arrogant and criminal almost beyond human comprehension.
How are we to digest the events of the last year? ˆ the wholesale theft of a presidential election, the massive give-aways to the largest and most corrupt corporations in the country, the largely unexplained and completely uninvestigated September 11 attacks, the declaration of open-ended war on much of the world, the rapidly escalating attacks on civil liberties and privacy rights ....
Millions are surely struggling to make sense of their world as the full extent of the corruption of the American political, economic and legal systems is increasingly laid bare. Denial is a fierce weapon, but it does have its limits ˆ even when aided and abetted by a 'mental health' community that hands out MK-ULTRA-derived anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs like Halloween candy.
How are we to make sense of a vast sea of media outlets all shouting the same lies and all failing to ask the most obvious of questions? How are we to account for an allegedly thriving 'alternative' press that takes at face value the official version of the events of September 11 ˆ pretending not to notice the gaping holes in the story? And how are we to make sense of the fact that the leading voices of the supposed 'left' have questioned the events of 9-11 only in terms of so-called 'blowback,' carefully avoiding questioning the underlying assumption that "Osama did it"?
And how long can we cling to the futile hope that the Democratic Party is somehow going to ride to the rescue and get us out of this mess? The party whose two standard-bearers, "Animatronic Al" Gore and Joe "Jews for Fascism" Lieberman, have openly cheered the 'War on Terrorism,' all but demanded its expansion into Iraq, endorsed the preposterous notion of an 'Axis of Evil,' and given favorable reviews to America's new nuclear 'Posture'? The party whose congressional members, in both houses, have embraced nearly every reactionary appointment by the Bush regime, signed on to every openly fascistic 'security' measure that has come their way, given a huge thumbs-up to virtually unlimited military spending, and failed completely to voice even the tiniest protest over the flagrant theft of the election or to launch any sort of an investigation into the events of September 11?
And those are just a few of the Democratic Party's recent sins.
Of course, our learned opinion-shapers insist that the Democrats' hands are tied ˆ hampered by the massive public support behind the Bush agenda. Opinion polls, brought to you by the very same media to whom lying is an art form, keep insisting that to be the case. And I have a couple of towers in New York that I can let you have for a real good price ....
The truth is that the Democratic Party, quite frankly, offers no resistance to the Bush juggernaut because they differ from their Republican counterparts only in that they give slightly more lip-service to social issues. And that, of course, is only posturing for public consumption.
Changing the party in charge of the White House and/or Congress isn't going to significantly alter the agenda. Everyone of any importance in Washington is on-board the war train for the long haul. And the notion that the war is being prolonged just to gain a Republican advantage in the 2002 and 2004 elections, propagated by many a pseudo-dissident journalist, is pure fantasy.
As has been made quite clear by a steady stream of official statements, this is a 'war' without end ˆ a war with the goal of wiping out any and all pockets of resistance throughout the world, including here on the home front, to the corporate and military elite's vision of a system of global fascism, and with the parallel goal of identifying false enemies to keep the American people too frightened, disoriented and disjointed to fight back against the encroaching police state. Doesn't anybody read Orwell anymore?
But I know how comforting it is to believe in the American ship of state. To believe in the two-party system. To believe in the Democratic Party as the party of the people. To believe that things will be OK again just as soon as the next election rolls around and we can get 'our' party back in charge. To believe that our obviously free press isn't really lying to us. To believe that 'this too shall pass,' and that we'll be back to 'normal' soon.
It wasn't that long ago that I was a believer.
But that was before I joined the ranks of those who inhabit a strange, hallucinatory world that is roughly akin to waking up every morning finding yourself trapped in a cheesy sci-fi film. Clicking on the TV, you find that the same lies that you just heard the day before are still spewing out. Turning the channel, you discover that everyone is telling the same lies, in the same way, using the same catch-phrases as though if everyone repeats them they somehow acquire some kind of inherent meaning.
No matter how many times you change the channel, all you hear is "war on terrorism ... axis of evil .... rule of law ... evil-doers ... weapons of mass destruction ... enduring freedom ... 9-11 ... 9-11 ... 9-11 ... "
You briefly ponder whether you might be a victim of some kind of practical joke ˆ an unwitting participant in some kind of new 'reality show.' But then you find that everyone else seems to believe the lies, or at least they pretend to. Could they all be in on the joke? And if this isn't a joke, then how come you seem to be the only one who can see so clearly that the emperor has no clothes?
You hear on the news that the key witness in the biggest financial scandal in the nation's history has been found shot to death in his car not long before he is to begin delivering his testimony. "Holy #####!" you say, "they're killing off witnesses in broad daylight." But no, the somber newscasters all intone, it was an unfortunate suicide.
"Ha!" you say, "nobody's going to believe that one. The ##### is really going to fly now." You remember back to when Vince Foster supposedly committed suicide, and how the 'liberal' media had a field day with the story. "Payback's a #####," you say to yourself. "The Dumbocrats are going to get some mileage out of this one."
But nobody says a word. No one on Capitol Hill, no one in the press corps. You mention to some co-workers that the suicide story sounds a little suspect, and they look at you as though you are wearing an "I Love Osama" button on your lapel as they robotically ask you if you've been to see Black Hawk Down yet. Realizing that you've blown your cover, you start nervously watching out of the corner of your eye for the goon squad to arrive and send you happily on your way to Guantanamo.
The Enron scandal, you quickly realize, is not going to be seriously investigated ˆ just as the coup-like nature of the election wasn't investigated, and just as the 'terrorist' attacks on Washington and New York aren't being investigated, and just like the anthrax attacks, so obviously timed to ratchet up the level of fear and outrage among the American people, aren't being investigated.
You absent-mindedly take note of the 'terrorist alert' warning color for the day as you ponder when this extended acid trip began and if and when it is going to end. What will it take to wake the American people up to the fact that there is something seriously wrong with this picture?
The mounting of a coup d'etat in that diseased appendage known as Florida didn't do it (2). Nor did the Supreme Court arrogantly ruling that the American people have no right to have their votes counted in a presidential election (3). Nor the revelation that the Bush regime - itself a shamelessly illegal, unconstitutionally-assembled government - has established an even more illegal, secret and unaccountable 'shadow' government. And neither did the fact that military tribunals have been proscribed that have the authority to hand down anonymous death sentences based on secret evidence presented by government-appointed lawyers.
The indefinite detention of 'suspects,' held without charges in undisclosed locations and largely deprived of legal counsel, didn't do it. Nor the open talk of torturing these same 'suspects.' Nor the open admissions of an emerging surveillance infrastructure that goes far beyond anything Orwell ever envisioned. Nor even the deliberate leaking of the country's sociopathic 'Nuclear Posture Review.' And, as we have seen repeatedly in the past, mercilessly bombing yet another civilian population in yet another oil-driven military venture certainly didn't do it.
Is the control too complete ˆ control not just of information, but of thought? Are we so blinded by propaganda, and so desperately clinging to the basic human desire to view ourselves as the good guys, that we are fundamentally incapable of taking an objective look at the world we live in? Can the government get away with literally any lie, no matter how brazen? Is there no hope?
Or is the script of this particular Roger Corman flick somewhat different than what it appears to be?
What if you're not the only sane person left in a world gone mad? What if there are millions of others out there, all harboring serious doubts about the increasingly unpalatable servings of 'news' we are being dished-up? And what if the number of such individuals is growing every day?
What if the constant touting of Bush's alleged popularity is all part of a well-orchestrated psy-war campaign aimed at stifling dissent by intimidating doubters in the crowd into keeping their opinions to themselves, lest they be viewed as clinically insane for failing to interpret reality in the same way that everyone else purportedly does?
A campaign designed to make you feel, in other words, precisely as you now do: alone, isolated, frustrated, powerless, frightened and confused. A part of that campaign seems to involve, amazingly enough, efforts to taunt you ˆ to rub in your face your utter powerlessness - by dropping tantalizing hints along the way, as though you are being dared to do something about it.
Wasn't it, after all, France's Le Figaro that dropped that little bombshell about bin Laden meeting a CIA operative in a Dubai hospital room shortly before September 11? And isn't Le Figaro owned by the Carlyle Group, whose investors and principals include the Bushes, the bin Ladens, and various ranking members of the national security infrastructure?
And wasn't it that mouthpiece of the far-right, the Wall Street Journal, that dropped the story about the stock market manipulations that occurred in the days immediately preceding the September 11 attacks?
And wasn't it a vice-president of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, itself a fully-integrated part of the military/intelligence complex, who initially identified the collapse of the World Trade Center towers as controlled implosions?
And wasn't it James Bamford (a man with uncomfortably close connections to numerous NSA operatives), working with Doubleday (a publisher not known for bringing the work of dissident authors to light), whose book - released just five months before 9-11 - revealed the details of 'Operation Northwoods' ˆ a purported anti-Cuban operation involving a staged provocation with marked similarities to the events of September 11?
And what of the obviously deliberate, and curiously well-publicized, leaks of the so-called Nuclear Posture Review, of the existence of Dick's 'shadow' government, and of the proposed Ministry of Propaganda* <#FN1> ? Why leave all these crumbs scattered along the evidence trail?
It's a little something the spooks like to call 'Mind War' ˆ more commonly known on the streets as '#####ing with your head.' They want you to feel as though you are stuck in the Twilight Zone. I believe Mr. Orwell referred to it as a state of "controlled insanity."
But even with the endless blizzard of propaganda - coming straight at you from all directions, including from virtually every avenue of the media, 'news' and 'entertainment' alike - there are clear indications emerging that there is considerably more dissent out there, considerably more questions being raised, than we are being led to believe.
As just one indication, several commentators have noted that Michael Moore's new book, Stupid White Men, is selling like hotcakes, despite the fact that conventional wisdom holds that there is currently no market for what is reportedly a fairly harsh assessment of America under a Bush.
Perhaps a more significant measure of the level of discontent and frustration among the American people was reflected in the shockingly low turnout for the recent California gubernatorial primary. As the Los Angeles Times reported:
"After the terrorists struck and the buildings fell, Americans united in a surge of patriotism not seen in a generation. On Tuesday in California, citizens were asked to join in what may be the most patriotic ritual of all, the celebration of democracy known as voting. Two out of three registered voters were no-shows." (4)
The article also noted that many eligible voters didn't even bother to register. The net result was that nearly four out of five eligible California voters opted not to cast a vote in the March primary. The Times further noted that the California election was a continuation of a post-September 11 trend:
"In Washington, for instance, turnout for the November general election - which featured two ballot initiatives on taxes - was 13 percentage points below the 1999 figure. Virginia and New Jersey elected governors in November, and turnout was down about 3% and 7%, respectively, from the previous governor's races in 1997.
"In Georgia, meanwhile, a special election to fill a state Senate seat was decided by just 3% of the electorate: 'It's always low in specials, but we usually get 15%,' lamented Georgia's director of elections, Linda Beazley. 'This is dismal. What's wrong with our voters?'" (4)
A concerted effort is made by the Times reporter to offer up any number of excuses for the dismal voter turnout. But three words in the article, uttered by a small-business owner in Fresno, pretty much said it all: "Politics are crooked." Or, to elaborate just a bit ˆ a large majority of citizens recognize that voting - when presented with hand-picked, interchangeable candidates - is not a true exercise of democracy, but rather an exercise in futility.
Perhaps one of the clearest indications that large sectors of the American electorate aren't buying the mainstream-media line is the fact that the decades-long effort to discredit and marginalize those dissidents derisively referred to as 'conspiracy theorists' has been stepped-up dramatically in recent months, by both the corporate media and the self-proclaimed 'alternative' press.
Prominent among those heaping derision on 'conspiracy theories' is The Nation's David Corn. Among other inanities, a piece penned by Corn makes the rather remarkable claim that: "Simply put, the spies and special agents are not good enough, evil enough, or gutsy enough to mount this operation ... Such an operation -- to execute the simultaneous destruction of the two towers, a piece of the Pentagon, and four airplanes and make it appear as if it all was done by another party -- is far beyond the skill level of U.S. intelligence." (5)
No ... an operation of that sort would clearly require a loosely-organized band of poorly-equipped cave-dwellers.
There's no way that the largest and most well-funded intelligence network the world has ever seen could pull off something like that. They may be capable of rigging foreign elections, routinely plotting and carrying out assassinations and coups, and 'destabilizing' the economies and political structures of various hapless nations, but it clearly strains credulity to posit that they could hijack a few planes.
They may have an enormous, secret and unaccountable budget, 'front' companies and organizations set up in every corner of the globe, and prominent mouthpieces installed throughout academia, the media, the legal community, the mental health community, the entertainment community, the medical community, and pretty much every other community that is in a position to influence public opinion; and they may control proxy armies and fascist (though certainly not 'terrorist') cells around the world, and they may have their very own private air force, but certainly no one would ever seriously suggest that such a vast intelligence network could pull off something of the magnitude of what the world saw on September 11.
As yet another reason why alternative explanations of 9-11 are, in Corn's words, "absurd," "tripe," and "crap," he makes the bold claim that: "in the spy-world some things [are] beyond the pale." One of those things, insists Corn, is "kill[ing] an American citizen." (5) That would certainly take the wind out of the sails of many a 'conspiracy theory' ˆ if it weren't a statement totally unsupported by the historical record.
Corn has already been challenged in print by such writers as Stephen Gowans, Alex Constantine, and Michael Ruppert, who is identified in the Corn article as one of those who are promoting conspiracy theories "too silly to address." Corn has also, apparently, been challenged by many of his readers. In an L.A. Times opinion piece, he complains of the response to his missive: "I was besieged by people accusing me of being a CIA disinformation agent." (6) Imagine that.
Corn ends his diatribe on an interesting note: "Perhaps there's a Pentagon or CIA office that churns out this material. It's mission: distract people from the real wrongdoing.." (5) There is little doubt that at least some of the conspiracy theories seeking to explain the events of September 11 have been put out as deliberate disinformation to muddy the waters. But when it comes to distracting people from the "real wrongdoing," few allegedly progressive publications do as good a job at that as does the one that Corn is associated with.
The L.A. Times piece, written by Gale Holland a few weeks after the Corn article was posted, is a particularly offensive attack on 'conspiracy theorists.' The article, entitled "Have You Heard About Osama's Cheez-It Stash?," is illustrated with oversized, side-by-side photos of Osama bin Laden and, naturally enough, Elvis Presley. The obvious and rather heavy-handed intent is to equate alternative explanations for the September 11 attacks with Elvis sightings.
Apparently the newspaper didn't have any stock photos of any 'alien grays' to accompany the article.
Holland refers dismissively to what he calls a "conspiracy lobby, a tiny but persistent subgroup spawned by the John F. Kennedy assassination" that is obsessed with "shadowy government agencies with Maxwell Smartish-sounding acronyms." (6)
As for how this "persistent subgroup" views September 11, Holland writes that: "In the misty climes where the far left meets the far right, conspiracy theories have begun to dominate the 9/11 rumor mill. The basic premise is that President Bush/ the CIA/ Big Oil either planned the attacks or let them happen to secure a U.S. oil pipeline/ take over the Middle East/ launch a one-world government." (6)
Well ... let's see now. Is it 'conspiracy theorizing' to posit that Bush, the CIA and "Big Oil" would work together towards a common cause? Is there any political family in the country with closer and more extensive ties to both the CIA and the oil industry than the Bush family? Isn't it only stating the obvious to note that this triumvirate shares common interests and goals ˆ goals that were in fact advanced as a result of the 'terrorist' attacks?
As for the pipeline, it is a well-documented fact that the U.S. has long harbored plans to build both oil and natural gas pipelines through the nation of Afghanistan. (7) It is also an established fact that the oil companies have long coveted having a 'stable regime' (which is to say, a regime under the direct control of the U.S.) in place before committing to constructing those pipelines. (7) And it has already been reported that those pipeline plans, which have languished in recent years, have now been put on the fast track. (8)
As for the Middle East, it certainly appears as though there is a major effort underway to destabilize the entire region ˆ currently being spearheaded by the U.S.-armed proxy known as Israel, but likely soon to be coupled with a U.S. invasion of Iraq, accompanied by general mayhem in the area. It should also be noted that oil-rich Central Asia is quite obviously slated to be brought under the control of the U.S. as well, with troop deployments and the building of military bases in the region accelerating rapidly. (9)
And as for the notion of a one-world government, what exactly does Holland think is the goal of all those "Maxwell Smartish-sounding acronyms" - the IMF, the WTO, the CFR, the TLC - if not to turn the planet into one global marketplace governed only by corporate spreadsheets ˆ a global marketplace that can be exploited and pillaged to consolidate all of the world's wealth into the hands of the few?
Even while dismissing 'conspiracy theories,' Holland obliquely acknowledges the implausibility of the official 9-11 story: "Faced with the inexplicable, we seem to take comfort in irrational pseudo-explanations." (6) Or perhaps, when faced with the irrational pseudo-explanations offered by the state, we take comfort in searching for a more rational, logical explanation. Or, as Gowans has written for Swans: "Where the official conspiracy theory is so bad, other conspiracy theories rush in to fill the void." (10)
Also jumping into the conspiracy-bashing fray, the very same week that the L.A. Times opinion piece was published, was the allegedly progressive L.A. Weekly. A report by Ella Taylor purported to shed light on the KPFK controversy ˆ by declaring the "jewel in [the station's] crown" (11) to be Marc Cooper, the 'left's' leading cheerleader for the 'War on Terror' and an unapologetic supporter of the Warren Report.
Throughout the article, Taylor refers to anyone whose politics fall to the left of hers - which is to say, anyone who is even vaguely progressive - as "hard-line Marxists," the "Marxist left," the "far left" which spouts "vulgar Marxist doctrine," and finally as the "loony left." Exemplifying the "far left," according to Taylor, is "Amy Goodman's popular Democracy Now" ˆ easily the most honest offering the station serves up.
Singled out for derision in Taylor's tirade, as he was by both Corn and Holland, is Michael Ruppert, a former LAPD investigator who runs the From the Wilderness website (www.copvcia.com) and newsletter. In the Weekly piece, he is described as a "defrocked cop" and a "nutball conspiracy theorist." That title is bestowed upon him for the sin of having compiled a timeline of occurrences in the months leading up to September 11, drawn from respectable media sources, that all raise serious questions about the official version of events.
As for Taylor's hero - Marc Cooper, one of Corn's fellow scribes at The Nation - she notes that he "has received hundreds of e-mails insinuating that he survived the coup in Chile because he's a CIA agent who plotted the murder of his boss, Salvador Allende." (11) Imagine that.
The conspiracy debunkers are striking on other fronts as well. A website billing itself as the Urban Legends Reference Pages (www.snopes2.com) has skyrocketed in popularity in the post-9-11 world, largely due to numerous citations in the print and broadcast media (Holland's L.A. Times piece references the site twice). Along with purportedly debunking so-called 'urban legends,' the site has focused its attention of late on various September 11 'conspiracy theories.'
On television, cable's TNN premiered its new Conspiracy Zone in January 2002. The primary purpose of the show appears to be to make 'conspiracy theorists' the butt of jokes by the show's marginally talented host, Kevin Nealon, and by the show's almost entirely untalented celebrity guests, such as Gabe "Welcome Back, Kotter" Kaplan and Adam "The Man Show" Carrolla.
The most recent airing of the show, on March 31, 2002, featured an appearance by, of all people, Mike Ruppert ˆ to discuss the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy. Every effort was made to discredit the facts brought to the table by Ruppert (who came very well prepared), but the ringer brought in for the job, Ann Coulter, was clearly outclassed and reduced to repeatedly making the asinine assertion that "million-to-one coincidences" actually occur millions of times every day, and so we should expect to find numerous oddities and discrepancies littered throughout the RFK evidence.
Coulter is, by the way, the very same reprehensible individual who recently wrote in the National Review that America's response to the perpetrators of September 11 should be to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." More recently, princess Ann has been quoted as saying: "In contemplating college liberals, you really regret, once again, that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals by making them realize that they could be killed, too. Otherwise they will turn out into outright traitors." (12) Talk about your "nutballs" ...
The question that needs to be raised here is: why is all this energy being expended to discredit 'conspiracy theorists'? If we're just talking here about a few "nutballs" preaching to a "tiny subgroup," then why all the fuss? What possible threat to the purportedly rock-solid American system could such a marginalized group pose?
As anyone who has ever published material in this country that falls outside of the boundaries of acceptable dissent can tell you, the first response of the power structure is not to attack the messenger ˆ it is to ignore the messenger. If the publication receives no mention by the media, if it garners no reviews and - as is virtually always the case - the publisher lacks the resources and/or the opportunities to market the work, then for all intents and purposes the published material does not exist.
It is only if and when the information manages to find an audience despite the obstacles erected, despite being ignored in the hopes that it would just go away, that the second line of defense kicks in: destroy, by any means necessary, the credibility of the source.
We can only conclude from this then that 'conspiracy theories' are beginning to reach a much wider, and much more receptive, audience than the boys in Washington are comfortable with. And that which can't be ignored must be destroyed. Coupled with the depressed voter turnouts and the apparent hunger by the American people for books critical of the current agenda, it begins to look as though there may be a considerable amount of dissent bubbling just beneath America's tranquil surface.
That simmering anger and frustration can be gauged in another way as well ˆ by perusing the e-mails that are pouring in to websites that offer alternative 9-11 scenarios. The confusion, anger and fear is palpable in such mailings. They frequently begin something like this: "I have never considered myself to be a conspiracy theorist, but .... "
The desperation evident in such mailings is striking, as respondents struggle mightily to find answers to questions they never thought they would be asking. One such letter, drawn from my own mailbag, captures quite eloquently the spirit of such letter writers. It is reproduced here just as it was received:
"I am 52 years old, an Episcopal nun (formerly a professional musician and, before quitting my day job, a math teacher) and the executive director of a small non-profit organization - an interfaith meditation center. I'm a pretty mainstream sort of person - liberal on most issues and conservative on a few. I'm moderately well educated (master's degree), reasonably well read, and considerably well traveled - having studied some in England and worked for years in both Ireland and South Africa as well as various parts of the United States. Until quite recently I considered "conspiracy theorists" to be, at best, pathetically misguided and, more likely, suffering from paranoid delusions. I don't know what was the wake up call for me after September 11. Maybe it was Dan Rather prostituting himself on the Dave Letterman show. Maybe it was Time Magazine's photograph of Osama Bin Laden in evil red. Maybe it was watching unprecedented war powers handed to the executive branch with only one congressperson daring to utter a lone plea for moderation that hardly qualifies as dissent. Maybe it was that implosion of the towers that looked suspect from the get-go. I'm the only person I know who has actually read huge chunks of that so-called "Patriot's Act" and it makes my blood run cold. I knew then that I was watching a coup inexorably unfold and I'm sick at heart.
"I've only talked about any of this with one trusted colleague who warned me that I was starting to sound like those crackpots who think the moon landings were faked. I don't dare tell him that I'm actually having my serious doubts about that too. (Why haven't we gone back in 30 years? Why has no other nation duplicated the feat?)
"I'm wondering if I'm losing it or finally seeing clearly. The magnitude of it all is devastating. The "cognitive dissonance" is horribly painful. I understand why people turn off their faculties for critical thought and inquiry; they want to be able to sleep in their beds in reasonable peace.
"What do you propose that ordinary people like me actually do? I currently live in a very conservative part of the country where the flag-waving jingoism is nauseating."
E-mails such as this pile up in my in-box day after day, week after week ˆ awaiting answers that are difficult to come by. What, indeed, can ordinary people do to reverse the course we are on? How are we to begin to fight back against a system that few seem to even recognize as an enemy of the people?
The best advice that I can offer at this time to all those who currently inhabit The Twilight Zone is to let your voices be heard. Stop biting your tongues and begging off from engaging in political debates. You just may find that there are other non-believers around you who are just waiting for someone else to break the ice.
As much as appearances may suggest otherwise, you are not alone. There are many other non-believers out there, but they too are intimidated into silence. You will only find them if you have the courage to speak up ˆ if you refuse to be cowed by the propaganda war. Only then can grass-roots organizing begin to take shape.
Alone, you are powerless. But you don't have to be alone.
Gale Holland concluded his L.A. Times opinion piece with the following words: "Getting at the truth is tough, accepting it can be harder still. Paranoia is a lot easier." (6) Getting at the truth is indeed tough. And accepting it may be one of the hardest things that you ever do. But it is not paranoia that is easier; it is complacent acceptance of the inexplicable.
The unfortunate reality though is that there isn't time for complacent acceptance. We don't have the luxury of taking the easy route. And maybe, just maybe, there are enough quiet dissenters out there to make a difference. And maybe, just maybe, our fearless leaders have overstepped this time ˆ overestimated the level of lies and corruption that they can get away with.
Those are, alas, very big 'maybes.' But now is certainly not the time to throw in the towel by standing mute. The stakes are far too high. Our children and grandchildren have to grow up in this world that is being created for them. They deserve far better. For their sake, it is time for all the non-believers to stand up and be counted. And to refuse to sit back down until our voices are heard. The clock is ticking ....
* All of these leaks were, notably, disinformational. The premise of the Nuclear Posture Review, for instance, was that America's eagerness to unleash nuclear weapons came about in response to the September 11 attacks. Earlier documents reveal, however, that the United States has been itching to cross the nuclear threshold since long before last September. The reports of the establishment of a 'shadow' government implied that America hasn't long been run from behind the curtain. And the uproar over the proposed establishment of a disinformation ministry served to cloak the fact that the overwhelming majority of the news we already get is government approved disinformation/propaganda.
David McGowan is the author of Derailing Democracy (Common Courage Press, March 2000) and he is currently working on a new book. He resides in the San Fernando Valley. " http://www.davesweb.cnhost.com/DavesWeb.html"
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FOR INTERVIEWS WITH GORDON THOMAS, AUTHOR OF SEEDS OF FIRE: CHINA AND THE STORY BEHIND THE ATTACK ON AMERICA:
Contact Publicity Dept., Dandelion Books; 5250 South Hardy Drive - Ste. 3067, Tempe, Arizona 85283; Tel. 480-897-4452; Email: "mailto: cadler@dandelion-books.com",
" http://www.dandelion-books.com/", " http://www.dandelionbooks.net/", " http://www.gordonthomas.ie/" , " http://www.worldnetdaily.com/" and " http://www.newsmax.com/" .
Seeds of Fire: China and the Story Behind the Attack on America, published by Dandelion Books, is available in all bookstores, at " http://www.dandelion-books.com/", " http://www.dandelionbooks.net/", " http://www.gordonthomas.ie/", " http://www.newsmax.com/"


The larger part of this blend is sourced from Amador and Lodi where small fruit clusters from decades-old, head-trained vines give the wine its intense concentration. Located within the northeastern hills of the Lodi appellation, loose, stony soil from Borden Ranch allows for strong vine growth and adds great concentration to the wine. Fruit from Sonoma adds spice and gives the wine its structure and tannins. Sourcing from these varied regions across California helps to create an elegant and well-balanced wine. After fermentation, the wine was aged in 20% new American oak and 80% 2-year-old French oak.


In most of my films I have had the burden of adding a title afterwards. Sometimes the word or words would come automatically, but more often with great difficulty. In the case of Avraham, the title came first. It was not only the film's inspiration but the very thing that determined every shot and every cut.


If everyone carried out eco-friendly attributes into their house, that would be a big step to assisting the atmosphere. There are several choices readily available – we laid out the leading 5 sorts of eco-home functions you can apply.
We can all do our little bit for the atmosphere whether it be getting the recycling, turning the faucet off while brushing your teeth or otherwise leaving the lights on when you nip out to the shop. But exactly how can you take your house from being environmentally friendly to a fully lasting eco home? Even if only a few of these ideas take your fancy, anything we can do to decrease carbon discharges is of utmost significance in our rapidly warming world.
These houses actually take green to sky elevations with its totally self-sustaining systems and also all-natural resources of power. These houses are made completely from all-natural or recycled product as well as warmth the home normally.
All power is created from sources such as wind and also solar energy, with small windmills as well as solar panels. All food is generated in or around the house and water is collected normally from rain or neighboring rivers as well as streams.
While there are absolutely no costs, no discharges and also no demand to ever leave your Earthship, unless you have actually just had a recent breakup with a psychotic ex you possibly aren't fairly ready to escape to live entirely off the grid by yourself. However, concepts like making your very own food can be very beneficial to both your wellness, pocket and setting.
The extremely wall surfaces of this home are developed completely of snugly loaded soil that produces a well-insulated, well secured and affordable home. The merged soil provides a smooth rock style to the wall surfaces as well as enables a modern-day eco-friendly feel.
While this technique was good enough for the Great Wall Surface of China it is also what is used to construct sand castles, but do not worry these houses are made with professional dirt that is specially developed to endure great deals of weathering. The wall surfaces are exceptionally thick in between 19-24 inches which makes the indoor very peaceful, including in the comfort and also comfort of your home.
Nevertheless, these houses come with a king's ransom as it entails a great deal of work extensive work. So while these carefully made frameworks may not get on your budget plan there are a lot of less costly means you can make your residence power reliable, quiet and also warm simply through insulation. Pack the walls, ceiling and boiler room with a lot of shielding product as well as you're not just cutting your carbon emissions but your energy bill also.
These 'prefabricated' residences are developed off-site as well as transferred to the story ready-made. Practically like an item of Ikea furnishings yet you really got the Ikea individuals to construct it for you this time as opposed to fiddling with a screw that looks essential yet is never ever going to suit that hole. The method which they are premade makes certain no waste is generated in the building and construction as there are no skips and all dimensions are specific.
They are available in a series of high-end designs with environmentally friendly attributes such as photovoltaic panels and also are far less expensive than any other residences on the market some being as reduced as ₤ 50,000.
Absolutely no Carbon houses have absolutely no carbon exhausts whatsoever. They do precisely what they state on the tin in regards to their sustainability as well as eco-efficiency significance you leave no carbon footprint behind.
Outfitted with the newest eco-friendly modern technology they create all their energy from sustainable resources. A surprising number of houses can really be turned into no carbon by purchasing solar panels, insulation and also a water pump meaning not just do you understand you're benefiting the atmosphere yet these appliances will likewise spend for themselves.
If you intend to go tiny scale why not collect rain. It'll save you getting the pipe out to sprinkle the plants and will certainly reduce your water bill without having to build a hydroelectric power station on the side of your residence.
If you're aiming to live in something as near a cavern as feasible this is the one for you. These residences are built right into the side of land, most often a hill, in which the Planet provides all its insulation.
These homes are hot and peaceful, similar to ramming, as the thickness of dirt gives a thick external layer. You can also develop your home completely below ground or just develop piles of Earth that are developed against the walls as well as around the structure for the very same insulating effect. There is no demand to stress over the ground freezing in winter seasons or drying out as well as cracking in summer season as your house will be developed making use of three meters of dirt which is far much deeper than temperature level modification can reach in the ground. However, they have to be extremely firmly secured as rainfall will certainly seep with the Planet and so the layout need to be delicately thought out.
While these elaborately made houses might be just out of reach, there are lots of manner ins which you can minimize your carbon footprint without transferring to some remote part of the Swiss Alps and also consuming berries for the remainder of your life. Basic modifications around the house can make a large effect on the setting as well as your pocket. Simply offer it a bit of assumed following time you're picking in between a shower as well as bathroom or deciding whether to click on the thermostat or order a cosy toss and also a warm chocolate. Little changes really can make a huge difference.
Hello!! My name is Brenda, the world of travelling has interest me since I was a youngster! I keep in mind that I like to surf unique nations via my mommy publications. It quickly became clear that I made a decision to head to the tourist sector 5 years back, and also later worked as a traveling expert as well as manager at popular coordinators.


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Tag: European Nations Cup
44. Jack Davidson Wins The Individual European Nations Cup
WALES, represented by David BOOTE, Jack DAVIDSON, Joshua DAVIES and Owen EDWARDS, yesterday won the European Nations Cup in Spain.
The recently renovated RGC Sotogrande course, presented with super fast greens, proved to be a very stern test for all of the teams competing due to the windy conditions.
This was a great win for Wales. Their total of +13 was 11 shots better than second placed IRELAND (+24) and 21 shots better than fourth placed SCOTLAND (+34). ENGLAND (+61), never really got to grips with the conditions, and finished a disappointing 12th.
Wales – l-r Josh Davies, David Boote, Jack Davidson and Owen Edwards (Photo: GUW)
In the context of the Walker Cup it was Jack DAVIDSON who once again stole the headlines. Rounds of 70, 70, 70 and 73 (-5) gave him the Individual European Nations Cup title by 4-shots.
Whilst the overall field – consisting of 16 four man teams – wasn't as a strong as the Spanish International Amateur Championship, which he won up the coast at El Saler last month, in many ways this was the more impressive win. No longer under the radar he certainly arrived at Sotogrande with more expectation on his shoulders. He then proceeded to complete a near wire-to-wire win holding off a select international field with a total of 20 birdies and 2 eagles.
The Newport man has certainly given himself a magnificent platform to build on with regard to his potential 2017 Walker Cup selection. For me he now has a spot on our Team and it's his to lose.
Whilst there are nine or ten major amateur events still to be played over the next 4 months Jack has moved into the Top 10 in the Great British and Irish (GB&I) rankings, there is now less than 150 days until the team is announced and I ask myself how many of the candidates will have two major (overseas) wins to their name come the middle of August. I see no reason why he shouldn't continue playing well and go from strength to strength. Of course, in many ways the pressure is also now off him.
Ireland's Robin DAWSON (-1) finished second and was the only other player to complete the 72-holes under par. This was his third runner-up finish of the season. Robin is clearly in form and building a persuasive 2017 playing record for his own inclusion in the GB&I Walker Cup team.
The fact that the Czech Republic's Nicolas SCHELLONG (+6) was third shows the degree of separation that Davidson and Dawson achieved this week.
Scotland's Robert MACINTYRE and Connor SYME (both +11) both battled hard to achieve a tied 7th finish. I have already said in previous articles that both of these players, along with Scott GREGORY (over in Augusta, ahead of The Masters) are certainties in my GB&I Team, so their continued solid play was good to see.
Davidson's teammates Owen EDWARDS and David BOOTE (both +12) finished tied 10th. No one would be surprised to see Edwards continue in this vein given his closeness to Jack – he won't want him having all the glory for long ! I am also pulling for Boote who has been one of GB&I's leading players for a few years. Having graduated last year from Stanford his knowledge of the U.S. opposition, California and the Los Angeles Country Club course, which I imagine he has played, would probably be useful for the Team.
Irish pair Alex GLEESON and Stuart GREHAN (both +15) finished tied 16th. These results would have been much higher save for disappointing final days; Gleeson shooting 80 and Grehan 82 after both made poor starts on Sotogrande's front nine. Both remain very much in the Walker Cup picture.
With Davidson and Dawson, neither of whom were selected for the initial GB&I Walker Cup squad but both presumably being added as I write, continuing to play well the GB&I selection story remains intriguing. What is clear is some of the 'early favourites' for inclusion need to find some form and results – and quickly. The Lytham Trophy early in May will be everyone's next opportunity to shine.
Here are the full Men's European Nations Cup results:-
For more information on the European Nations Cup tournament please read my article – GolfBible ENC Preview
Posted on 2 April, 2017 3 April, 2017 Categories Walker Cup 2017Tags Alex Gleeson, Connor Syme, David Boote, European Nations Cup, Jack Davidson, Joshua Davies, Nicolas Schelling, Owen Edwards, Robert MacIntyre, Robin Dawson, Sotogrande, Stuart Grehan, WalesLeave a comment on 44. Jack Davidson Wins The Individual European Nations Cup

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Beyond Compliance: Improving USWDS Accessibility
Written by Miles Reiter
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) represents a great starting place for designing and building accessible experiences. Its components are built to from the ground up to be keyboard navigable, render with accessible contrast, and generally conform to easily recognizable patterns. It comes out of the box with a variety of development tools to help ensure accessibility while allowing for customization from project to project such as automatic contrast checks that run right in the code itself when you make a change to the color palette. But no matter how great the toolset supporting accessibility manual testing that takes the time to consider the diversity of ways in which something will be experienced is critical. Access to an experience is not always the same thing as equity of experience.
This brings us to implementing a file upload workflow as part of our project with the Administration for Children & Families' Office of Family Assistance (OFA) involving a new data portal for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Thanks to USWDS 2.0, we had a file input component to plug in to.
Like other components in the library, it's built on the principle of progressive enhancement. Javascript and CSS adding value to a pure HTML core that can be fallen back upon in a scenario where javascript fails to initialize. It also has the benefit of relying on HTML markup that plays nice with screen readers and lets them recognize it for type of input it is.
At first glance our implementation of the component was looking good; behaving just like the USWDS demo. Files uploaded successfully and labels associated to each file input were read correctly by screen readers. But as we continued testing—moving from basic checks to those focused more on the overall quality of the experience—we started to identify some rough spots.
For one thing, what might visually appear to be a button ("Change File") is really just a piece of text dressed up to look like a button. It's not a tab stop, and depending on the browser interacting with it, can't be read by screen readers without having them also read "Selected File" along with it. When it was read, it came with none of the usual calls to action or instructions that come with buttons, links or other interactive elements. It's read as what it is; text.
"Selected File Change File. You are on a text element."
More critically—especially so in our upload workflow where users are likely to return to file inputs in their attached file state—screen readers often won't interact with the name of the selected file at all. When they do read it (as happens in Safari) it's easy to miss and it lacks the context clues that a sighted user would get from the input.
"[Selected file name] [Input label] Button. You are on a button, to press this button…"
– As read by VoiceOver in Safari
Demo: USWDS File Input Behavior
The lack of transparency into that selected file name isn't an issue exclusive to the USWDS component. But regardless of where the issue stems from we needed a solution; one that didn't require a change to the component itself due to a constraint of how USWDS is integrated to our project. Our solution? Doing what amounts to handing a script to the screen reader that it can read when interacting with the input.
Add hidden text to the upload page that would be programmatically updated based on file input labels and the file names uploaded to them.
Give that hidden text a unique ID so that it can be referenced by other elements.
Reference the ID in an ARIA-describeby property added to the file input.
When focused, the file input will now pass the describeby text to the screenreader so that it gets read alongside the label and the input type. In our case this resulted in the slightly longer, but far clearer result below.
"Section 1 - Active Case Data. Selected File: "Sample.txt". Click to change the selected file. You are on a button, to press this button…"
– As read by VoiceOver in Chrome
Demo: Raft File Input Behavior
Taking the time to think through the many different ways people will experience what you create is essential to accessibility testing. There's lots to consider; from information conveyed to people relying on screen readers to proximity of related content for folks with a limited field of view and properly sized interaction targets for those with dexterity problems.
While there's a lot that can be caught by internal manual testing, but there's no substitute for inclusive research; making sure your designs get tested by people with disabilities.
You may not always have the opportunity to rebuild certain components, but there's a lot that can be done around components to enhance their degree of accessibility; much of it quick and easy to add.


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Howard Kane Macauley, Ph.D.
Dean W. Kriner Inc., Funeral Home & Cremation Service
Saturday January 22nd, 2022
Elan Memorial Park
Order Flowers now for guaranteed delivery before Howard's visitation.
Howard Kane Macauley, Ph.D., age 89, of Bloomsburg, PA passed away peacefully on January 18, 2022.
Born in Philadelphia to Evelyn and Howard Macauley, Sr., he grew up in Reading, PA and lived most of his life in Bloomsburg.
After receiving a B.A. in English and Social Science from Bucknell University, an M.A. in Journalistic Studies and Mass Communications from Stanford University, an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, Howard was a Professor and later Dean of the School of Professional Studies at Bloomsburg University for 30 years (1967-1996).
Prior to his academic career, Howard served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, including work in the Counter Intelligence Corps in Berlin, Germany. Through Bloomsburg University, he helped to establish exchange programs with universities in China and served on a national education delegation that traveled there frequently. In addition, he journeyed with his family to Europe, South America, and other parts of Asia and took regular motorhome trips with Marion and his three children throughout the United States and Canada.
Howard was a passionate model railroader, a hobby to which he devoted close attention during his last two and a half decades. In particular, he designed and built a large, detailed train layout of the city of Reading. For many years of his adult life, he engaged in distance running, a sport he had taken up as a high school and college student. He competed and won his age group in numerous road races, and at age 52 ran in the Boston Marathon, finishing in only three hours and ten minutes.
Howard was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church and a devotee of classical music. His friends and family knew him as a proud father and husband, little league coach, and figure committed to working with his hands on do-it-yourself projects that included restoring antiques, building model airplanes, home renovation, and framing pictures.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Marion, with whom he was happily married for just shy of 50 years.
Howard is survived by his children: Deborah Stellamaris, of Santa Monica, CA, David Macauley, of Philadelphia, and Douglas Macauley, of Santa Clara, CA, along with 4 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 12 noon on Saturday, January 22, 2022 in the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 325 Market Street, Bloomsburg, with his former pastor, Rev. Stephen L. Cureton, officiating. Interment to follow at Elan Memorial Park, 5595 Old Berwick Road, Bloomsburg.
To plant memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Howard Macauley, Ph.D., please visit our flower store.
Howard was a trusted and valued colleague, mentor and friend. He was loyal to his many colleagues in education, and wise in his judgment. We served together at Deans counsel for 5 years, and I always regarded him as the role model for the rest of us to follow.
John Baird Feb 19 2022 11:05 PM
We will miss our dear friend and neighbor Howard. Deepest sympathy.
Jeanie & Mark Golden Jan 31 2022 6:09 PM
I have such wonderful memories of both of your parents growing up. My condolences Deb, David and Doug.
Cathy Lewellyn Rader Jan 28 2022 9:21 PM
Brenda Stauffer Jan 21 2022 10:06 PM
Howard was a phenomenal Dean, colleague and mentor to me in my role as Chair of the Department of Nursing and Assistant Dean, School of Health Sciences. The trip to China with President Kozloff and a delegation from BU will always be sheared in my heart and mind forever. He loved the academy and education of the next generation. Memorial trees have been planted in his name so that his memory will live for many generations to come.
Christine M Alichnie Jan 21 2022 11:05 AM
2 photos were added for Howard Kane Macauley, Ph.D.
David Macauley Jan 20 2022 10:46 PM
A photo was added for Howard Kane Macauley, Ph.D.
Photo of Howard and Marion Macauley
An accomplished man. Now I know who is responsible for David Macaulay.( That's a good thing)
Richard Odabashian Jan 20 2022 7:42 PM
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Banks join culture war by banning patriotic customers
This week the British-based bank HSBC closed down two accounts linked to the new racial nationalist political party Patriotic Alternative – a personal account belonging to one of PA's leaders Laura Towler, and the party's official business account.
H&D understands complaints are being made to the relevant banking oversight authorities.
HSBC is the sixth largest bank in the world and the largest in Europe. It was founded in 1865 as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, making its initial fortune from opium trading.
Among the bank's first board members was Thomas Dent, whose arrest for large-scale opium trading had triggered the first Opium War of 1839-42, in which British gunboats forced China's Qing dynasty to accept the drug trade and to hand over Hong Kong to British control.
Arms dealer and Midland Bank consultant Stephan Kock
HSBC's British high street operation was formerly Midland Bank, which was heavily involved in the seediest aspects of international arms trading during the 1980s via sinister fixer Stephan Kock, a Midland Bank consultant with mysterious connections to numerous intelligence services.
In the same week as HSBC closed down Patriotic Alternative accounts, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleged that HSBC "appear to have failed to adequately investigate concerns over a major fraud after an heiress accused her businessman father of draining millions from trust funds".
It seems that major British banks have been more concerned with politically correct purges of law-abiding clients than with combating serious organised crime.
In January this year Barclays closed the personal account of H&D assistant editor Peter Rushton without giving notice – the first he knew of any problem was when his card stopped working, and even his local branch had no idea what had gone wrong! Further investigation revealed that the account had been closed by a secret unit inside the bank that refuses to give any reasons for its actions.
Leeds money-launderer Manni Hussain
British patriots might well ask in whose interests our banking system operates. Earlier this week the National Crime Agency accepted settlement of a case against a man they regard as a major money-launderer for organised crime. Leeds 'businessman' Manni Hussain was served with an Unexplained Wealth Order, sometimes known as a 'McMafia order'. He handed over properties worth £10 million.
Until 2019 this crook owned the Wakefield Trinity rugby stadium, which he sold to the club last year for £3m, partly financed by Wakefield Council. According to the Yorkshire Post there is a continuing criminal investigation of this sale, after it was discovered that the stadium was actually worth less than half the purchase price.
The sheer scale of criminal money-laundering through British banks is mindboggling, and the NCA were forced to accept a settlement in which Mr Hussain retained some of his properties and cash, and didn't go to jail. His close criminal associate, Bradford gangster 'Meggy' Khan, wasn't so fortunate – he got life for murder.
Still, so long as 'racists' are denied a bank account, our rulers will sleep soundly in their beds.
Gangland money launderer Manni Hussain with Meghan Markle
October 8, 2020 | Filed Under Banking, Crime, Criminal Gangs, Heritage and Destiny magazine, Movement News, Patriotic Alternative, Political Correctness | 1 Comment
Actor launches new party to fight 'culture wars'
Laurence Fox on BBC Question Time in January this year
Actor Laurence Fox – probably best known for his role as DS Hathaway in the long-running British television series Lewis – has announced plans for a new political party to take on 'woke' culture warriors who dominate the UK news agenda.
Fox's political views first came to public attention earlier this year when he was a panellist on the BBC's Question Time. During a discussion about alleged 'racism' experienced by the Duchess of Sussex (former actress Meghan Markle), Fox commented: "It's not racism … we're the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe. It's so easy to throw the charge of racism and it's really starting to get boring now."
He is the son of actor James Fox and nephew of fellow actor Edward Fox.
The party is to be called Reclaim, and among its stated objectives is "to promote an open space through full protection of the fundamental freedoms of speech, expression, thought, association and academic inquiry. To stand in full opposition to laws and other measures which undermine those freedoms."
Another objective is "to preserve and celebrate our shared national history, cultural inheritance and global contribution."
According to the Daily Telegraph, donors to the new party – which has been planned for the past two months – include former Conservative Party, Brexit Party and Vote Leave donor Jeremy Hosking.
There is no news yet from the Electoral Commission as to this new party being officially accepted and registered – which would be required before it could stand candidates in elections.
Mark Collett and Laura Towler of Patriotic Alternative – which like Laurence Fox's 'Reclaim' has yet to be accepted by the Electoral Commission as a registered political party
Similarly the new racial nationalist party Patriotic Alternative has yet to be registered by the Commission, who rejected an earlier application by PA on a technicality.
As reported in H&D Issue 98, two former UKIP leadership candidates had their efforts to launch new parties rejected in June this year. Mike Hookem's Alliance for Democracy and Freedom was eventually accepted on August 18th after reapplying, but the Heritage Party set up by the half-Jamaican David Kurten was rejected again by the Commission on September 4th.
Mr Kurten might not have a party (yet), but thanks to the postponement of last May's elections he remains a Member of the Greater London Assembly (to which he was originally elected as a UKIP candidate) until May 2021 – or possibly later still, if the Covid pandemic forces another delay.
October 1, 2020 | Filed Under British News, In The News, Patriotic Alternative, Political Correctness, UKIP | Leave a Comment
Summer camps in Italy and England as nationalists adapt to Covid restrictions
Despite the so called "Pandemic" restrictions, the new Italian nationalist movement of La Rete ("The Network") had decided to hold a summer camp for approximately 200 leaders and active militants on July 4th-5th in a location called "House of Patriots" in Solarolo, near Ravenna. The camp was called Campo Zero to underline that it was a new beginning in the nationalist struggle. Several ideological, cultural and organizational conferences were held in order to explain the tactical and strategic objectives of the movement as well as the particular functions of the different Commissions and Offices. Among the Commissions are the Legal Office (that is already quite busy against Facebook) and satellite associations like Praesidium (cultural front) and Rete Studentesca (Youth Front). There will also be a new sports association launched. Special instructions regarding propaganda and use of social networks were given to the activists by experts who explained that the situation is continually changing and therefore it is important to understand the change and adapt our tactics accordingly.
Father Giulio Tam, probably the most famous Italian traditionalist priest, celebrated the Mass (in Latin) on Sunday and exhorted the militants to be ready to fight like the warriors in the battles of Lepanto, Vienna and the Spanish Reconquista.
Several guests representing other right wing political, cultural, and assistance groups were present. Agreements were reached regarding coordinated militant actions, assistance for political activists arrested under false accusations as well as cultural activities. This is the first step to achieve real cooperation and build a common front for nationalists.
The leadership of the Rete made several important decisions: the recruiting and membership campaign was officially launched, five new official spokesmen have been nominated for different areas of the country, the Movement will participate in the political campaign against the new "homophobia" law (which is in fact in contrast with freedom of speech and opinion) and in other political battles and the Associazione Evita Peron is organizing the Colonia Evita Peron, the summer camp for children (again in the House of Patriots).
Several discussions about particular aspects of the struggle were held by selected groups of militants, regional leaders reported about the political situation in their areas and women seemed to be particularly helpful and active.
Campo Zero, however, was not just speeches and meetings. The local activists provided an excellent organization, good food, and security at the entrance. The comrades had the opportunity to purchase books, Soldato Politico t-shirts, etc. and last but not least, after the lockdown, to enjoy the joyful atmosphere, especially during the meals and on Saturday night, during the music concert with the FVM band.
Over the same weekend in Derbyshire, England, Mark Collett and Laura Towler's Patriotic Alternative held their own camp, which was well attended, by mainly younger nationalists. They also climbed the famous local hill known as Mam Tor, where they displayed a giant banner proclaiming 'White Lives Matter'!
Mark is still trying to register Patriotic Alternative as a political party with the Electoral Commission, after his first two applications were rejected. This registration process is essential before PA can contest elections, though of course for the time being there are no elections in any case due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Laura Towler and Mark Collett of Patriotic Alternative
In common with other British nationalist parties and groups, PA is having to adapt temporarily to a world where not only are there no elections, but also indoor conferences and meetings are banned (if they have more than thirty people and/or if there are platform speakers).
This makes other forms of propaganda all the more important.
July 17, 2020 | Filed Under Events News, Italy, Movement News, Nationalist Values, Patriotic Alternative | Leave a Comment
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Student robbed at gunpoint in Cambridge
Photo courtesy of: www.sxc.hu
Jennifer Curington
A student was robbed at gunpoint last night in Cambridge at Southern's parking lot.
The armed robbery occurred in The Pines section of Cambridge at 7:50 p.m., according to the incident report from Statesboro Police Department.
The victim is an 18-year-old white male who told police he was sitting in his friend's car near building seven of The Pines when a black male pointed a gun in the back window of the car and demanded money.The victim gave him $15 and then left in the vehicle, according to the report.
According to the police report, the robbery ended at 7:55 p.m. and the crime was reported to Statesboro Police Department at 8:05 p.m.
A Nixle alert sent out by Statesboro police said that the suspect had short hair with height around 5'8" to 5'10" and weighing 140 lbs. He was wearing a blue jacket and inside out dark shorts.
The campus alert email sent out by Dean Patrice Jackson said that the suspect left the scene on foot headed in an unknown direction.
Lurene Cochran, general manager of Cambridge, said that they are cooperating with police and intend to continue doing so. However, some details of the statement she released via email contradicted the police report.
The victim was accompanied by another male, neither of whom live at Cambridge, and they were near the fence at the back of the property when the robbery occurred, Cochran said in a statement.
Cochran said Cambridge has a courtesy officer that lives in the complex and is an active Statesboro police officer. They also hire private security throughout the week. She said that their courtesy officer was at the scene once the crime was reported.
The incident is still under investigation by Statesboro police. Attempts to contact Officer Justin Samples via email and phone have been unsuccessful so far.


Hungry? Need to fill your culinary calendar? Here is where you will find all the restaurant and culinary happenings in Orange County. GAYOT features a calendar of special dinners, tasting menus, prix-fixe meals, food festivals and other culinary events, including regularly occurring food events as well as special one-time-only events featuring top chefs. Keep checking back so you can know all that's going on in the world of restaurant and food events in Orange County.
Taste of Huntington Beach returns to the Huntington Beach Sports Complex. Guests will have the opportunity to sample an eclectic range of bites from some of the city's top restaurants along with sips from several Southern California craft breweries and California wineries. Select restaurants include Pacific Hideaway, BLK Earth Sea Spirits, solita Tacos & Margaritas, and Duke's Huntington. The event is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., with VIP early entry at 12 p.m. Tickets are $70 and $60 for designated drivers. VIP tickets are $90. Ticket proceeds support the The Friends of the Children's Library non-profit organization. Visit the website for more information. Taste of Huntington Beach, HB Sports Complex, 18000 Goldenwest St., Huntington Beach, CA 92648, no phone.
TAPS Fish House & Brewery in Irvine is hosting a Pahlmeyer wine dinner. Attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy a five-course meal featuring dishes crafted to pair with selections from the popular Napa winery. Select courses include fried softshell blue crab with citrus, rhubarb, buttermilk crème fraîche and rocket arugula; saffron and ramp wild boar gnocchi; and grilled NY strip steak with charred onion purée, hen of the woods mushrooms, and fried truffle potatoes. Cost is $135 per person, excluding tax and gratuity. Dinner is slated to start at 6:30 p.m. For more information, please visit the restaurant's website. TAPS Fish House & Brewery, The Market Place, 13390 Jamboree Rd., Irvine, CA 92602, 714-619-0404.
The 12th Annual Laguna Beach Taste of the Nation returns to Montage Laguna Beach resort. Guests who attend the fundraiser will have the chance to indulge in sumptuous bites prepared by a lineup of acclaimed chefs, led by Australian celebrity chef and childhood culinary advocate Curtis Stone. Attendees will also get to sample fine wines and craft cocktails, participate in silent and live auctions, enjoy live music, and mingle with talent at the event's after-party. Tickets are $250, and $275 for early VIP entry. Proceeds go toward Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign, a program devoted to eradicate domestic childhood hunger. The event is slated to run from 3 p.m.-7:30 p.m.; VIP entry begins at 2:30 p.m. Visit here for more information. Montage Laguna Beach, 30801 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, CA 92651, 866-271-6953.
320 Main in Seal Beach offers happy hour Tuesday through Saturday 3 p.m.-6 p.m., as well as all day on Sundays. (There's also late-night specials from 9 p.m. to closing Tuesday through Thursday.) Partake in $5 cocktails, beers and select wines and $6-$8 appetizers (shishito peppers, buffalo chicken cheeseburger sliders). 320 Main, 320 Main St., Seal Beach, CA 90740, 562-799-6246.
EATS Kitchen + Bar, the flagship eatery in the Hotel Irvine, features happy hour daily from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Enjoy bites starting at $3 (fries, wings, garlic tots, etc.), along with $4 draft beers, $5 cocktails (blackberry mule, prickly pear margarita, etc.) and $6 glasses of wine. EATS Kitchen + Bar, Hotel Irvine, 17900 Jamboree Rd., Irvine, CA 92614, 949-230-4452.
On Sundays, Fullerton locals can receive 20% off their check at the romantic restaurant The Cellar. (The discount does not apply to the prix-fixe menu.) The Cellar, Villa del Sol Shopping Center, 305 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92832, 714-525-5682.
Three-Seventy Common Kitchen + Drink hosts a special Sunday Social dinner specifically designed to be reminiscent of a classic Sunday family supper. From 4 p.m.-9 p.m., restaurant owner and executive chef Ryan Adams jettisons the restaurant's normal menu and prepares one rotating, multi-course dinner based on seasonality, fresh ingredients and the concept of comfort food. Prices vary. For a look at the weekly changing menu, please visit www.370common.com. Three Seventy Common Kitchen + Drink, 370 Glenneyre St., Laguna Beach, CA 92651, 949-494-8686.


Sushma Swaraj (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) (born 14 February 1952 is an Indian politician, former Supreme Court lawyer and the current Minister of External Affairs of India, in office since 26 May 2014. A leader of Bharatiya Janata Party, Swaraj is the second woman to be India's Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She has been elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of north Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a brief term in 1998.
In the 2014 Indian general election, she won the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh for a second term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes.She became the Minister of External Affairs in the union cabinet on 26 May 2014. Swaraj was called India's 'best-loved politician' by the US daily Wall Street Journal.
Sushma Swaraj (née Sushma Sharma)was born on 14 February 1952 at Ambala Cantt, Haryana,to Hardev Sharma and Shrimati Laxmi Devi.Her father was a prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member. Her parents hailed from Dharampura area of Lahore, Pakistan.She was educated at Sanatan Dharma College in Ambala Cantonment and earned a bachelor's degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science.She studied law at Punjab University, Chandigarh.A state-level competition held by the Language Department of Haryana saw her winning the best Hindi Speaker award for three consecutive years.
Swaraj began her political career with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s. Her husband, Swaraj Kaushal, was closely associated with the socialist leader George Fernandes and Sushma Swaraj became a part of George Fernandes's legal defence team in 1975. She actively participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's Total Revolution Movement. After the Emergency, she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Later, she became a national leader of the BJP.
After a tenure in national level politics, in October 1998 she resigned from the Union Cabinet to take over as the first female Chief Minister of Delhi. However, the BJP had lost the Assembly elections because of rising prices and inflation. She resigned from her Assembly seat and returned to national politics.
She was re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha from South Delhi Parliamentary constituency for a second term in March 1998. Under the second PM Vajpayee Government, she was sworn in as Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting with additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19 March 1998 to 12 October 1998. Her most notable decision during this period was to declare film production as an industry, which made the Indian film industry eligible for bank finance. Prior to this, the film industry was heavily financed by the underworld on high rate of interest. This one decision liberated film industry from the clutches of the underworld. She also started community radio at universities and other institutions.
In September 1999, BJP nominated Swaraj to contest against the Congress party's national President Sonia Gandhi in the 13th Lok Sabha election, from the Bellary constituency in Karnataka, which had always been retained by Congress politicians since the first Indian general election in 1951–52. During her campaign, she addressed public meetings in the local Kannada language. She secured 358,000 votes in just 12 days of her election campaign. However, she lost the election by a 7% margin.
She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. She was reallocated to Uttrakhand when the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000. She was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, a position she held from September 2000 until January 2003.
She was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election.
As Union Health Minister, she set up six All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Bhopal (MP), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttrakhand).
Swaraj was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for third term in April 2006 from Madhya Pradesh state. She served as the Deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha till April 2009.
She won the 2009 election for the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh by the highest margin of over 400,000 votes. Sushma Swaraj became Leader of Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha in place of Lal Krishna Advani on 21 December 2009 and retained this position till May 2014 when in Indian general election, 2014 her party got a major victory.


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Q: Selenium webdriver script fails to execute sendkey() in IE 8 when running it from jenkins I have a selenium grid setup with the hub running on the CI (jenkins) server . Whenever I build and run my project from jenkins it fails to execute:
WebElement inputElement = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[contains(@href,\"/Case/Add")]"));

inputElement.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

or rather selenium thinks that it did and moves on to the next command i.e selenium.select("id=LifeOffice", "label=AMP");
The nodes are virtual machines each running a different browser and this problem occurs only when the script is being executed on the IE 8 browser. When I run the script from my IDE its fine.
I have tried using click (); and  ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("arguments[0].fireEvent('onclick');",inputElement); and I still have the same issue...

A: This will sound strangely, but try to take a look on the page just after the sendkeys command. If the element is just outside or just inside the viewport, nearly touching the border, this might have happened to you:
The element never got focus, because it's hidden behind the browser's scrollbar / statusbar / a piece of the page that covers it. Usually IE will scroll the element into the viewport and focus it, but sometimes, in the edge cases, it won't. And the focus (or clicks or anything) calls are then called on the statusbar / scrollbar / blank piece of page.
A workaround? I only know about two:

*

*change the computer's resolution / window size / IE layout (make it fullscreen, or disable the toolbars etc.)

*make sure you never change the resolutions / window sizes etc. and work with pure JavaScript in these edge cases:
((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("arguments[0].click()", inputElement);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The ringer T-shirt is an instantly recognisable piece of sportswear. Defined by its contrast rib neck and cuff, this version features typical Sports Authentic details.
The late 1970s brought in a new kind of sportswear; contrasting coloured fabrics changed the way sport looked forever. The Sports Authentic collection reimagines original Fred Perry pieces from this unmistakable era. Defined by its contrast rib neck and cuff, the ringer T-shirt is finished with FP Sports Authentic sign-off: the B50 Laurel Wreath badge at the chest. Retro sportswear at its best.


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Q: Convert Data Object to array of structs Question
How do I use the latest (swift 5) Data API to convert a Data() object into an Array of structs?
Example
Prior to Swift 5 I had this code to convert a Data() object into a [Point] array
import Foundation

struct Point {
    let x: Float
    let y: Float
}

let pt1 = Point(x: 1, y: 1)
let pt2 = Point(x: 2, y: 2)

let points: [Point] = [pt1, pt2]

let pointData = Data(
    bytes: points,
    count: MemoryLayout<Point>.size * points.count
)

print(pointData.count)

var newPoints = [Point]()

// ** Deprecated **
pointData.withUnsafeBytes { (bytes: UnsafePointer<Point>) in
    newPoints = Array(UnsafeBufferPointer(start: bytes, count: pointData.count / MemoryLayout<Point>.size))
}

print(newPoints.count) // 2
print(newPoints[0])    // Point(x: 1.0, y: 1.0)
print(newPoints[1])    // Point(x: 2.0, y: 2.0)

The withUnsafeBytes is now deprecated:

withUnsafeBytes' is deprecated: use withUnsafeBytes<R>(_: (UnsafeRawBufferPointer) throws -> R) rethrows -> R instead

But I don't know how to use the new Data API to convert my pointData into a [Point] array.

Here's a similar answer that works on a single object, but I'm struggling to apply it to my array example.

A: You should now use the new withUnsafeBytes that takes a closure that takes a UnsafeRawBufferPointer as argument. You now don't need to do all the MemoryLayout calculations by hand, and can just bind the memory directly to the desired type.
pointData.withUnsafeBytes { rawBufferPointer in
    newPoints = Array(rawBufferPointer.bindMemory(to: Point.self))
}


The warehouse management system WMS G.O.L.D. was successfully implemented in Nelt regional distribution center in Kraljevo, Serbia.
WMS G.O.L.D. Stock, warehouse management software, optimizes and maximizes all types of storage resources. It is connected to SAP and TMS-Sky Track systems, thus achieving greater efficiency in the execution of logistics tasks.
The implementation of this project provided us with the additional preconditions for establishing cooperation with new clients in logistics, and additional comparative advantages at the local level.
The system was previously implemented in the CDLC Dobanovci and RDC Niš, and according to the plan, by the end of this year; it will be implemented in RDC Novi Sad.