text:
import os
import shelve
import sys
import platform
import datetime
import argparse

from twisted.words.protocols import irc
from twisted.internet import reactor, protocol
from IRCMessage import IRCMessage, IRCChannel, IRCUser
from IRCResponse import IRCResponse
import ModuleHandler
import GlobalVars
import ServerInfo

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='An IRC bot written in Python.')
parser.add_argument('-s', '--server', help='the IRC server to connect to (required)', type=str, required=True)
parser.add_argument('-p', '--port', help='the port on the server to connect to (default 6667)', type=int, default=6667)
parser.add_argument('-c', '--channels', help='channels to join after connecting (default none)', type=str, nargs='+', default=[])
parser.add_argument('-n', '--nick', help='the nick the bot should use (default PyMoronBot)', type=str, default='PyMoronBot')
cmdArgs = parser.parse_args()

restarting = False
startTime = datetime.datetime.utcnow()

class MoronBot(irc.IRCClient):

    def __init__(self):
        self.nickname = cmdArgs.nick
        self.commandChar = '.'

        self.realname = self.nickname
        self.username = self.nickname

        self.channels = {}
        self.userModes = {}

        self.fingerReply = GlobalVars.finger

        self.versionName = self.nickname
        self.versionNum = GlobalVars.version
        self.versionEnv = platform.platform()

        self.sourceURL = GlobalVars.source

        # dataStore has to be before moduleHandler
        dataStorePath = os.path.join('Data', cmdArgs.server)
        if not os.path.exists(dataStorePath):
            os.makedirs(dataStorePath)
        self.dataStore = shelve.open(os.path.join(dataStorePath, 'shelve.db'), protocol=2, writeback=True)

        self.moduleHandler = ModuleHandler.ModuleHandler(self)
        self.moduleHandler.loadAll()

    def quit(self, message=''):
        self.dataStore.close()
        irc.IRCClient.quit(self, message)

    def signedOn(self):
        for channel in cmdArgs.channels:
            self.join(channel)

        global startTime
        startTime = datetime.datetime.utcnow()

    def privmsg(self, user, channel, msg):
        chan = self.getChannel(channel)
        message = IRCMessage('PRIVMSG', user, chan, msg, self)
        self.handleMessage(message)

    def action(self, user, channel, msg):
        chan = self.getChannel(channel)
        message = IRCMessage('ACTION', user, chan, msg, self)
        self.handleMessage(message)

    def noticed(self, user, channel, msg):
        chan = self.getChannel(channel)
        message = IRCMessage('NOTICE', user, chan, msg, self)
        self.handleMessage(message)

    def irc_NICK(self, prefix, params):
        userArray = prefix.split('!')
        oldnick = userArray[0]
        newnick = params[0]

        for key in self.channels:
            channel = self.channels[key]
            for userKey in channel.Users:
                user = channel.Users[userKey]
                if userKey == oldnick:
                    channel.Users[newnick] = IRCUser('{0}!{1}@{2}'.format(newnick, user.User, user.Hostmask))
                    del channel.Users[oldnick]
                    if oldnick in channel.Ranks:
                        channel.Ranks[newnick] = channel.Ranks[oldnick]
                        del channel.Ranks[oldnick]
                    message = IRCMessage('NICK', prefix, channel, newnick, self)
                    self.handleMessage(message)

    def nickChanged(self, nick):
        self.nickname = nick

    def irc_JOIN(self, prefix, params):
        if params[0] in self.channels:
            channel = self.channels[params[0]]
        else:
            channel = IRCChannel(params[0])

        message = IRCMessage('JOIN', prefix, channel, u'', self)

        if message.User.Name == self.nickname:
            self.channels[message.ReplyTo] = channel
            self.sendLine('WHO ' + message.ReplyTo)
            self.sendLine('MODE ' + message.ReplyTo)
        else:
            channel.Users[message.User.Name] = message.User

        self.handleMessage(message)

    def irc_PART(self, prefix, params):
        partMessage = u''
        if len(params) > 1:
            partMessage = u', message: ' + u' '.join(params[1:])
        channel = self.channels[params[0]]
        message = IRCMessage('PART', prefix, channel, partMessage, self)

        if message.User.Name == self.nickname:
            del self.channels[message.ReplyTo]
        else:
            del channel.Users[message.User.Name]
            if message.User.Name in channel.Ranks:
                del channel.Ranks[message.User.Name]

        self.handleMessage(message)

    def irc_KICK(self, prefix, params):
        kickMessage = u''
        if len(params) > 2:
            kickMessage = u', message: ' + u' '.join(params[2:])

        channel = self.channels[params[0]]
        message = IRCMessage('KICK', prefix, channel, kickMessage, self)
        message.Kickee = params[1]

        if message.Kickee == self.nickname:
            del self.channels[message.ReplyTo]
        else:
            del channel.Users[message.Kickee]
            if message.Kickee in channel.Ranks:
                del channel.Ranks[message.Kickee]

        self.handleMessage(message)

    def irc_QUIT(self, prefix, params):
        quitMessage = u''
        if len(params) > 0:
            quitMessage = u', message: ' + u' '.join(params[0:])

        for key in self.channels:
            channel = self.channels[key]
            message = IRCMessage('QUIT', prefix, channel, quitMessage, self)
            if message.User.Name in channel.Users:
                del channel.Users[message.User.Name]
                if message.User.Name in channel.Ranks:
                    del channel.Ranks[message.User.Name]
                self.handleMessage(message)

    def irc_RPL_WHOREPLY(self, _, params):
        user = IRCUser('{0}!{1}@{2}'.format(params[5], params[2], params[3]))
        channel = self.channels[params[1]]
        flags = params[6][2:] if '*' in params[6] else params[6][1:]

        statusModes = ''
        for flag in flags:
            statusModes = statusModes + ServerInfo.StatusesReverse[flag]

        channel.Users[user.Name] = user
        channel.Ranks[user.Name] = statusModes

    def irc_RPL_CHANNELMODEIS(self, _, params):
        channel = self.channels[params[1]]
        modestring = params[2][1:]
        modeparams = params[3:]

        for mode in modestring:
            if mode in ServerInfo.ChannelSetArgsModes or mode in ServerInfo.ChannelSetUnsetArgsModes:
                # Mode takes an argument
                channel.Modes[mode] = modeparams[0]
                del modeparams[0]
            else:
                channel.Modes[mode] = None

    def irc_RPL_MYINFO(self, prefix, params):
        ServerInfo.UserModes = params[3]

    def isupport(self, options):
        for item in options:
            if '=' in item:
                option = item.split('=')
                if option[0] == 'CHANTYPES':
                    ServerInfo.ChannelTypes = option[1]
                elif option[0] == 'CHANMODES':
                    modes = option[1].split(',')
                    ServerInfo.ChannelListModes = modes[0]
                    ServerInfo.ChannelSetUnsetArgsModes = modes[1]
                    ServerInfo.ChannelSetArgsModes = modes[2]
                    ServerInfo.ChannelNormalModes = modes[3]
                elif option[0] == 'PREFIX':
                    prefixes = option[1]
                    statusChars = prefixes[:prefixes.find(')')]
                    statusSymbols = prefixes[prefixes.find(')'):]
                    ServerInfo.StatusOrder = statusChars
                    for i in range(1, len(statusChars)):
                        ServerInfo.Statuses[statusChars[i]] = statusSymbols[i]
                        ServerInfo.StatusesReverse[statusSymbols[i]] = statusChars[i]

    def modeChanged(self, user, channel, set, modes, args):
        message = IRCMessage('MODE', user, self.getChannel(channel), u'', self)
        if not message.Channel:
            # Setting a usermode
            for mode, arg in zip(modes, args):
                if set:
                    self.userModes[mode] = arg
                else:
                    del self.userModes[mode]
        else:
            # Setting a chanmode
            for mode, arg in zip(modes, args):
                if mode in ServerInfo.Statuses:
                    # Setting a status mode
                    if set:
                        if arg not in self.channels[channel].Ranks:
                            self.channels[channel].Ranks[arg] = mode
                        else:
                            self.channels[channel].Ranks[arg] = self.channels[channel].Ranks[arg] + mode
                    else:
                        self.channels[channel].Ranks[arg] = self.channels[channel].Rank[arg].replace(mode, '')
                else:
                    # Setting a normal chanmode
                    if set:
                        self.channels[channel].Modes[mode] = arg
                    else:
                        del self.channels[channel].Modes[mode]

        message.ModeArgs = [arg for arg in args if arg is not None]
        message.Modes = modes
        message.ModeOperator = '+' if set else '-'
        message.ReplyTo = message.ReplyTo if message.Channel else ''

        self.handleMessage(message)

    def getChannel(self, name):
        if name in self.channels:
            return self.channels[name]
        else:
            # This is a PM
            return None

    def topicUpdated(self, user, channel, newTopic):
        self.channels[channel].Topic = newTopic
        self.channels[channel].TopicSetBy = user

        message = IRCMessage('TOPIC', user, self.getChannel(channel), newTopic, self)

        self.handleMessage(message)

    def handleMessage(self, message):
        """
        @type message: IRCMessage
        """
        # restart command, can't restart within 1 minute of starting (avoids chanhistory triggering another restart)
        if (message.Command == 'restart' and
                datetime.datetime.utcnow() > startTime + datetime.timedelta(seconds=10) and
                message.User.Name in GlobalVars.admins):
            global restarting
            restarting = True
            self.dataStore.close()
            self.quit(message='restarting')
            return

        self.moduleHandler.handleMessage(message)

    def sendResponse(self, response):
        """
        @type response: IRCResponse
        """
        self.moduleHandler.sendResponse(response)

class MoronBotFactory(protocol.ReconnectingClientFactory):

    def __init__(self):
        self.protocol = MoronBot

    def startedConnecting(self, connector):
        print '-#- Started to connect.'

    def buildProtocol(self, addr):
        print '-#- Connected.'
        print '-#- Resetting reconnection delay'
        self.resetDelay()
        return MoronBot()

    def clientConnectionLost(self, connector, reason):
        print '-!- Lost connection.  Reason:', reason
        if restarting:
            python = sys.executable
            os.execl(python, python, *sys.argv)
            # nothing beyond here will be executed if the bot is restarting, as the process itself is replaced

        protocol.ReconnectingClientFactory.clientConnectionLost(self, connector, reason)

    def clientConnectionFailed(self, connector, reason):
        print '-!- Connection failed. Reason:', reason
        protocol.ReconnectingClientFactory.clientConnectionFailed(self, connector, reason)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    moronbot = MoronBotFactory()
    reactor.connectTCP(cmdArgs.server, cmdArgs.port, moronbot)
    reactor.run()


As the concept of war has evolved, navigation in urban environments where GPS may be degraded is increasingly becoming more important. Two existing solutions are vision-aided navigation and vision-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The problem, however, is that vision-based navigation techniques can require excessive amounts of memory and increased computational complexity resulting in a decrease in speed. This research focuses on techniques to improve such issues by speeding up and optimizing the data association process in vision-based SLAM. Specifically, this work studies the current methods that algorithms use to associate a current robot pose to that of one previously seen and introduce another method to the image mapping arena for comparison. The current method, kd-trees, is effcient in lower dimensions, but does not narrow the search space enough in higher dimensional datasets. In this research, Kernelized Locality-Sensitive Hashing (KLSH) is implemented to conduct the aforementioned pose associations. Results on KLSH shows that fewer image comparisons are required for location identification than that of other methods. This work can then be extended into a vision-SLAM implementation to subsequently produce a map.
Weems, Mark A., "Kernelized Locality-Sensitive Hashing for Fast Image Landmark Association" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 1434.


text:
CollectorsSheet Music
Sheet music collector in York
Posted 8 June 2014 8 June 2014 Radio Days
This is exactly the kind of collector we should love to meet! And how good it would be to have permission to make digital copies of his collection.
CHRIS Poole has the sort of voice – light, jaunty, musical – that could have been honed on the music hall stage. As he leafs through his collection of First World War sheet music, the 86-year-old can't help bursting into song.
"Take me back to dear old Blighty", he sings, pausing at a sheet of music for the song of that name. As sung by Miss Daisy Dormer, the cover explains.
The paper is browned by age, but, listening to Chris, you can still imagine how the young Tommies, stuck in their squalid trenches, would have dreamed of home, and of the smiling young woman pictured on the front cover.
Chris continues leafing through his collection. "Good byee, Good byee," he sings. Then: "Keep the home fires burning…"
He pauses at a sheet of music for a song entitled: "What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?" The cover is illustrated with fine ink drawings.
In the background, a Tommy stumbles across a battlefield, a wounded colleague slung across his shoulders. In the foreground, a returned soldier sits on a straight-backed chair, while his young son clings to his leg and looks up at him with an expression of hero worship. The left sleeve of the man's jacket is empty and pinned up: clearly he lost a limb in the war.
Chris was born in 1927, nine years after the war's end, and raised in Heworth.
"When we were kids there were lots and lots of people like that," he says, indicating the drawings. He means men who had returned, shattered, from the war: missing limbs, walking with the aid of sticks, breathing in wheezing gasps as a result of being gassed, or still shellshocked years later.
Chris and his wife Margaret, who live in the Stockton Lane area, have been collecting old sheet music for years. They have albums full of hundreds and hundreds of original songsheets, many of them old wartime songs dating back to long-ago conflicts such as the Boer War and even the Franco-Prussian War.
The First World War songs have a special meaning for Chris, partly because he can remember singing so many of the songs at school in Heworth, and partly because of his own connection to that war.
He lost two uncles: Thomas Poole, killed in October 1914 just a couple of months after hostilities broke out; and Harry Poole, killed just over a year later in December, 1915. Chris's father, Walter – Harry and Thomas's brother – was himself injured at the Battle of Mons in 1914.
Walter was a sergeant in the Army Service Corps, supplying food and other rations to troops in the front line. He was badly hurt in the chaos of the retreat at Mons, says Chris. "The men got run over by horses and carriages. He broke his ribs."
Walter, a butcher by trade, was sent home to convalesce, ending up in an Army hospital in Fulford Road, York.
As he began to recover, he took to getting out and about on trams, where he met a young woman named Olive, who was a tram conductor.
Having recovered, Walter was sent back to the front. He saw the war out, and in 1918, back home, he married Olive at Heworth Church and went into business as a butcher in Bootham. Chris came along nine years later.
Chris was called up towards the end of the Second World War. By the time he had completed his training, the war had ended, but he still saw service on a minesweeper, clearing mines from the sea off the French coast.
So he has his own medal, to go alongside his father's three – including a Mons Star – from the First World War.
Chris and Margaret began collecting sheet music 20 or so years ago, when Chris retired from his job as a maintenance engineer (and latterly messenger) at the Yorkshire Evening Press.
Looking through his wonderful collection of First World War songs in this, the 100th anniversary year of the outbreak of hostilities, brings the days of the 'Great War' back to life in haunting, poignant detail.
You get a feel for the sense of duty and of patriotism; but you also feel the longing for home of the soldiers in the trenches, and at the same time the longing for the return of loved ones by those – wives and families – left at home.
Chris doesn't feel sad, though, when he looks through his collection and sings the old songs.
"It was all terrible, terrible, terrible," he says.
"But it is history now. My two uncles were killed in the war, but I didn't know them. It is so far back. Of course, it is poignant. But I can't get emotional about it, any more than I could about the Boer War."
It is the wars still going on today that really sadden him, he says.
"When I see what's going on in Syria, cities smashed to pieces… That's awful. That upsets me."
Source: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/history/articles/10916197.Sheet_music_brings_the_days_of_the_First_World_War_back_to_life/
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The 2018-2019 school year has been filled with countless renovations to make Starr's Mill the best it can be. However, the field of security is the one thing that hasn't been touched upon in the school improvements. Now, though, all that will change as the school will be releasing a new entrance security system that will keep out any potential threats to the school.
Find out more about the planned upgrades to school security in the video above.


This entry was posted in WoW and tagged feng, gara'jal, incarnation, ironbark, nature's vigil, resto druid, stone guard, symbiosis. Bookmark the permalink.
People underestimate mushrooms and completely ignore how cheap they are mana wise. I would suggest thinking a bit more about them and you will get great benefits.
As I say in the part of the post where I talk about Feng, there is a lot of downtime where you can place Mushrooms, so it is one of the few places I recommend using Mushrooms.
However, in general, I still don't advise using them much. I do think they are slightly more useful in 10s than 25s. I see from your logs that your mushrooms are generally hitting for above 7000 each. In my raid, when the mushrooms are hitting 15+ people, they're only hitting for about 3000. So that's 9000 total (or ~12000 assuming 1/3 crits). That's barely a drop in the bucket of a 375k health pool, and less than a single tick of Rejuv. That's not saving anyone.


Swiss Management, valuable prizes, fascinating surroundings, typical Egyptian hospitality, pleasant climate, sun, sport and culture.
We are happy to invite you to participate in the 1st International Marathon in El Gouna. Four different races for women and men are planned: 5000m, 10000m, half marathon (21.097.5m) and a full marathon (42.195m). And a charity race for Children with cancer diseas in Egypt.
Registration, Start number, El Gouna Marathon T-shirt (made of 100% Egyptian organic "bio"cotton), Food and beverages during the races, Timing, Prizes, Certificates, Medals, Results Prize award ceremony, Cancellation insurance, Farewell party with oriental specialities and dances.
Not included are travel and accommodation costs.


Welcome to the Adventure Tours Thailand website. We will take orders for camping in Thailands national parks from the high season in Thailand. Make sure you stay tuned for more updates coming soon.
This entry was posted in News on June 26, 2014 by Thai Adventure Girl.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on October 20, 2013 by Thai Adventure Girl.


Welcome to our listings for Wrangell and Alaska criminal attorneys.
Here you can find criminal attorneys for Petersburg, Wrangell, and Kake and other Wrangell criminal attorneys.
If you're looking for a criminal attorney in a county other than Wrangell Borough, go to our Alaska Bail Bonds page.
Post your Wrangell Criminal Attorney advertisement today!


As the title suggests, several life coaches weighed in on how they cope with many issue with these being the top two that I chose because they use to be my personal top two. However, as I've become more self-aware and committed to self-care, they are no longer my nemesis, but only a faint but distinct reminder of the not-so-distant-enough-past. I hope you find a kernel of wisdom in this excerpt.
Notwithstanding any pressing needs or real tragedies, I suggest you first, other people second, and things last. I hope you find a kernel of wisdom in this excerpt and have a happy holiday season! Merry Christmas to my church family!
What is your #1 best practice for saying 'no' during the holiday season?
Click here to link to the entire article.


text:
Home Politics Six Years After Ferguson, Barriers to Voting Persist
Six Years After Ferguson, Barriers to Voting Persist
Today's Missouri primary may not see high voter participation in St. Louis's African American community.
by Brittany Gibson
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo
A polling place in Ferguson, Missouri, in April 2015
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
ST. LOUIS – Many people know St. Louis as the geographical focal point where the Black Lives Matter movement first caught the nation's attention. After 18-year-old Ferguson resident Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in the late summer of 2014, residents took to the streets to demonstrate their outrage with the system and to grieve their neighbor's death.
Brown's body lay in the middle of Canfield Drive for four hours, and in that time anger brewed, adding to the collective grief over the numerous fatal police shootings that disproportionately target black men across the United States. Brown's death started a lasting national conversation about police racism and brutality; and in St. Louis, it started a renaissance of the city's history of organizing, activism, and engagement in politics.
The following weeks of mobilization reignited groups that had long been organizing in St. Louis, as well as starting new groups and engendering a wave of enthusiasm to run for public office. "It started really through my Ferguson activism because I was already a nurse, already pastoring, so my boots-to-the-ground work, I had already been doing [it]," says Cori Bush, who is running for the House of Representatives in this current cycle. "But it wasn't until Michael Brown was murdered and I saw how our politicians that I thought would stand up for us and represent us didn't show up for us for the most part."
More from Brittany Gibson
Bush has company, including the new prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, and many more who came out of the Ferguson mobilization to win political office. They've been bolstered by the swelling of voting rights groups, working to improve civic participation. But in the city of St. Louis, and the larger St. Louis County that surrounds it, organizers have had to deal with a harsh voter ID law, as well as socioeconomic and cultural obstacles, to get the public to the polls.
The county's complex local government system (there are 88 different municipalities in St. Louis County), combined with laws disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities, meant that civic engagement for a lot of people often came down to standing in court with tickets, fines, and fees, says Nicole Hudson, assistant vice chancellor at Washington University's Academy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hudson worked on the Ferguson Commission report in 2015, an investigation called for by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to study the motivations behind the mobilization after Brown's death and make policy suggestions.
Hudson says that she's seen the relationship that locals have to politics change since the Ferguson movement, as everyday people have become more motivated to have their voices heard.
"What I have observed post-Fergusson has definitely been more engagement for everyday people, and I think that comes from the moment itself, in the four hours that Mike Brown laid on the ground and people reacting to that. It became a gateway to people basically say, 'enough,'" says Hudson. "And not just about police and citizen interactions, but about our civic interactions, the way our government interacts with people on a day-to-day basis."
Missouri didn't have Jim Crow laws as the South did after slavery was abolished, but segregation was implemented in every institution except public transportation, the results of which can be seen today in the county's housing and industry.
Although this new wave of political engagement isn't unique—nor is the issue of police brutality—civic participation in St. Louis comes with its own historic obstacles. Missouri didn't have Jim Crow laws as the South did after slavery was abolished, but segregation was implemented in every institution except public transportation, the results of which can be seen today in the county's housing and industry. Some residents refer to the very visible difference in communities as the Delmar Divide: On one side of Delmar Boulevard there's a Whole Foods and a huge shopping center, while on the other there are payday loan shop fronts and some black beauty shops.
"We didn't have any Jim Crow laws, but we had Jim Crow just as strictly enforced as it was in Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, or Alabama," says historian Gwen Moore, curator of urban landscape and community identity at the Missouri Historical Society. "Blacks had so much to contend with in this city that was really very restrictive. I think a lot about 'Can you imagine what it was like being black and living in 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960?!' … that's a long time to live under this heel of racism and discrimination."
The distance between people's lived experiences and the letter of the law left African Americans in St. Louis in a gray zone during the Jim Crow era. And when it came to voting, Moore explains, these socioeconomic factors played a role in whether or not people made it to the ballot boxes. Over the generations, a pattern emerged, characterized by low voter participation and a lack of faith in the political system.
Although in recent years black voters have become the second-highest group to turn out to vote, according to a study from the Brookings Institution, this measure tallies the share of registered voters who actually vote, and does not take into account how voter suppression laws and voter disenfranchisement disproportionately affect African Americans. A precise count of African Americans who were prevented from registering to vote through election commission bureaucracy, purged from the voter rolls, or disenfranchised because of a past felony conviction or fines and fees has been harder to come by—but the number is not small.
"We have not been a country to embrace democracy when it comes to voting rights," says Gena Gunn McClendon, director of the Voter Access and Engagement and Financial Capability and Asset Building initiatives at St. Louis's Washington University. "There is no culture of voting. It doesn't exist; and if it does exist, it exists individually. I'm active in voting because I saw my mother vote but not because that's what I learned in school. The only people that have a culture of voting were white men from the start of the country."
"There is no culture of voting. It doesn't exist; and if it does exist, it exists individually."
In St. Louis, Moore says, some people don't vote because they don't see any changes in their lives when they do. "They were poor before the vote, during the vote, after the vote; before the other alderman got in, when their alderman got in, after their alderman got in; before their choice got in and after," she says. "It's not just that law that says you have to have a picture ID, issued by us, or you can't vote."
Following the Ferguson movement, many activists from outside St. Louis expected significant increases in voter turnout. The municipal elections of April 2015 were the first test of this anticipation. The election also preceded the enactment of the state's voter ID law by the Republican-controlled state legislature, which would be passed the following year. Voter participation in Ferguson increased to 30 percent in the city council race—more than double that of the mayor's race the year before. In the ward where Michael Brown's family lived, 19 percent of registered voters participated.
The increases in turnout were not as dramatic as outsiders may have hoped. Bush says those expectations may not come to fruition even in this year's presidential election. Despite the national conversation on issues of police brutality, racism, and voting rights, the culture of voting has not transformed in the area's underserved communities.
"There is still some level of trauma and pain there," Bush says, of Ferguson specifically. "Seeing how our elected didn't stand up for us. People losing jobs, people losing homes, people going to court and not having assistance, just so many things. There are still a lot of people that feel this thing [politics] is not for them, they're not there yet … It's going to take some time. Before Tuesday, I would say no, [increased turnout] is not likely."
Politics Race & Ethnicity Voting Rights Election 2020 Cities & Communities Missouri
Brittany Gibson
Brittany Gibson is a former Prospect writing fellow who is now at Politico.
Read more by Brittany Gibson


Burning mouth syndrome: Clinical dilemma?
Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a chronic orofacial burning pain condition usually in the absence of clinical and laboratory findings that affects many adults worldwide, yet its etiology and treatment remain poorly understood. Though it has been associated with numerous oral and systemic conditions, there has been no clear consensus on its etiology, pathogenesis and treatment. As a result, patients with inexplicable oral complaints are often referred from one health care professional to another without effective management having significant emotional impact on patients. As the dental profession expands its scope of care to oral medicine and geriatrics, BMS will be more effectively diagnosed and managed by these dental surgeons. Hence, they should be more involved in evaluation and management of these patients. The present article provides updated information on BMS including possible etiological factors and current treatment options, although data on the effectiveness of these treatment modalities remain limited. Recently researchers found that treatment with a familiar nutritional supplement- lipoic acid- is of remarkable benefit with minimal adverse effects. ALA (alpha-lipoic acid) may be the effective treatment modality in management of BMS.
Osteopetrosis is a rare hereditary, generalized disorder of bone characterized by a significant increase in the density of the skeletal tissues usually manifesting in two basic forms: an autosomal dominant benign form (osteopetrosis tarda) and an autosomal recessive malignant form (osteopetrosis congenita). The present article documents an incidentally diagnosed case of malignant osteopetrosis in a 4-year-old child with periapical abscess. It is our belief that given the nature of this disease, its nosological confusion and lack of definitive treatment modalities, as oral physicians we can still manage such cases merely by timely preventive measures, early intervention and by avoiding complications. This was just a single case which was incidentally diagnosed; our focus must shift to the many cases which otherwise go unnoticed to ensure that timely intervention can be lifesaving.
Ameloblastoma, one of the most common odontogenic tumors of the jaws, presents classical clinical, radiographic and histopathological diagnostic features exhibiting a benign but locally aggressive and destructive clinical course with a high rate of recurrence. A case of desmoplastic ameloblastoma of mandible is discussed in this article, which presents itself as a rare variant of ameloblastoma with unusual inconclusive clinico-radiographic features to be diagnosed as classical ameloblastoma and difficult to differentiate from other suspected multilocular benign odontogenic or reactive lesions of the jaws. It is the typical histopathological picture of the lesion exhibiting a blend of desmoplasia (collagenization) and ameloblastoma that leads to its final diagnosis and determines its management.
Patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) present unique diagnostic challenges because of a propensity to develop unusual infections and neoplasms. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the number of documented clinical manifestations has considerably increased. Current estimates are that 40% of patients with AIDS have a malignant tumor at the time of initial diagnosis, and the percentage may increase to 70% over the course of the disease. It is generally recognized that Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common of these malignant conditions, but non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is also being diagnosed in greater numbers. The purpose of this paper is to present one such case of oral NHL as initial diagnosis in a HIV positive patient.


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But the group's new sound alienated some fans, and the struggle to find relevance in the changing music scene of the '80s led Townshend to steer the Who into a Farewell Tour, which they undertook in 1982. He intended to turn the band into a studio outfit, but after spending part of 1983 trying to write material for a contractually obligated album, the frustrated guitarist declared that he could no longer generate music appropriate for the Who. On Dec. 16 he announced his decision to leave the band at a press conference, bringing the Who to an end.
Townshend went on to work as an acquisitions editor at Faber & Faber, as well as releasing a long string of solo albums and projects. The Who reunited for Live Aid in 1985 and then a full-fledged reunion tour in 1989. The group has subsequently toured together in many different permutations. They even released a new studio album, Endless Wire, in 2006, with Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey still using the group name (bassist John Entwistle died in 2002). The pair continue to tour as the Who to the present day, more than 30 years after their Farewell Tour.


Unidentified plant with a head of small blue flowers with deep white throats and anthers that can be white or blue on the top. It also has fuzzy leaves and likes pumice habitats. We saw it on the harsh soils on the shoulder of Hwy. 120 near the South Tufa Area of Mono Lake.


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StephanieM / September 23, 2012
The Zoological Society of Scotland was founded in 1909 and by July of 1913 the Edinburgh Zoo was opened. Located just west of Edinburgh's city center on 82 acres of rolling hillside, the Edinburgh Zoo is home to over 1000 rare and endangered species. It wasn't until after a visit in 1948 by HRH King George VI that the Society was granted the prestige of adding Royal to their title to become the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland continues to be the only zoo in the United Kingdom with a Royal Charter.
The Edinburgh Zoo is probably best known for their penguins. In 1913 Edinburgh Zoo became the first zoo in the world to house penguins with the arrival of three King Penguins from Norway and in 1919 again became the first zoo in the world to breed penguins with a successful hatchling. Their most famous penguin, Sir Nils Olav, was adopted by the Royal Norwegian Guard in 1972, becoming their mascot, and in 2008 was knighted under the King of Norway. How many zoos can say they have a knighted animal? It's simply amazing! Now the King Penguin, perhaps Sir Nils Olav himself, is featured in the zoo's logo.
Edinburgh Zoo logo
Not only does the Edinburgh Zoo host the only Giant Pandas and Koalas in the United Kingdom, they are also Scotland's second most successful visitor attraction, second only to Edinburgh Castle.
To read more about my visit to Scotland please visit "The World As I See It" – my travel blog @ http://ladystravelblog.wordpress.com
September 23, 2012 in Edinburgh Zoo, Zoological Parks. Tags: attraction, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Zoo, giant pandas, HRH King George VI, King of Norway, king penguins, knighted, koalas, mascot, Norway, penguins, Royal Charter, Royal Norwegian Guard, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Scotland, Sir Nils Olav, United Kingdom, zoos
Wrapping Up At the Edinburgh Zoo
The Evolution of Zoos
← A Backstage Pass to the Georgia Aquarium
From Giant Pandas to Hidden Surprises →


If you are a wealthy man or woman or an entrepreneur who intend to build great wealth, one of the strategy you can adopt that will guarantee that you keep your wealth intact or to ensure that your effort of building great wealth is to devise a means to legally protect your money from the government.
Governments all over the world need money to survive and they ensure that they apply different strategies to extract money from their citizens and in most cases it is via different forms of tax et al. The truth is that nobody will be happy to allow the government to continue to collect money from them under different guise that is the reason why people will go all length to ensure that they protect their money from the government.
Protecting your money from the government might not be easy especially when you live in a country that is heavily policed but if you know the right approach to take, them your money will be well shielded from the government.
One of the ways to protect your money from the government is to invest in real estate. When you invest in real estate, you will still have to pay some form of tax to the government, but the money you will get from the investment will make the money you are paying inform of tax to the government almost negligible. In investing in real estate, you can diversify your investments; try as much as possible to invest in other countries. One good thing about investing in real estate outside your country is that the government won't know the true value of your investment and as such they won't be able to slam unnecessary tax on you.
Another way you can protect your money from the government is to invest in the commodities market. When you invest in the commodities market it means that you have paid for commodities to be collected on a future date whether in cash with interest of the commodities you paid for. With that it means that you money is stored somewhere and it will be difficult for the government to charge you tax over what you have not earned.
One of the surest ways you can protect your money from the government is to start a charity organization; a Not for Profit Organization (NGO). Of course running a charity organization means that you are expected to finance the organization from your purse or from grants. But the truth is that if your charity organization is addressing a major challenge in the society you likely going to get more grants that will ensure that your money is intact. Governments all over the world do not tax Charity organizations rather when people give to charity organizations; they get tax cut in return.
Another strategy that you need to adopt to be able to protect your money from the government is to invest in the stock exchange. When you invest in the stock exchange, it means that you would have succeeded in reducing the liquid cash in your hands or your bank accounts. When you invest in the stock market you will not only protect your money from the government but you will also make more money and increase your financial worth. Although you will be required to VAT and other tax, but the merits far outweighs the demerits.
Over the years, people who have the intention of protecting their money from the government invest it in gold and silver. Investing in gold and silver is one of the surest ways to keep your money intact with the interference of the government. Investing in gold and silver has never been considered as a very risky venture that can wipe off ones wealth; even if the prices of gold and silver falls, it will surely rise again and it has been so for only God knows when. So if you want to effectively protect your money from the government, then you need to invest in gold and silver.
Paying of tax is one of the responsibilities we can't run away from as long as we want to remain a law abiding citizen of our beloved country or the country where we reside. Different countries have different punishments for those who evade tax. In most countries, you would have to remit the tax with interest and still go ahead to serve a jail term. So if you want to protect your money from the government, you must ensure that you pay your tax as at when due so that you won't pay more than required when you are caught evading tax. Just ensure that your tax record is clean and you will be fine with the government; they won't come after your wealth.
Another means of protecting your money from the government is to minimize the amount in your savings account per time. Running a savings account might add little interest on your money, but when there is inflation the interests and some part of your savings can be wipe out. That is why saving your money in the bank is not considered to be one of the best approach to take when you want to protect your money from the bank.
Over and above, it is a difficult task to totally protect your money from the government, but with the above stated tips, you can reduce government interference on your money.


NEW YORK, NY — Mx. Justin Vivian Bond–wild, witty performer extraordinaire and one of the "greatest cabaret artist of [v's] generation," (according to the New Yorker)–is hoping to produce a new CD called Silver Wells with the help of kickstarter. As of now, v has raised over $5,433 en route to v's goal of $16,000.
This year is different, v said.
According to Mx. Bond, Silver Wells was named for Joan Didion's 1970 novel Play It as It Lays. In creating the album, Bond set out to chose songs that address Didion's themes of dislocation, nihilism, postmodernist identities, and loss.
For $2,500 or more, Mx. Bond will make a personal appearance at your party and sing three songs for you and your friends. Backers of over $1,000 will receive two complimentary tickets to opening night of v's new show and record release at 54 Below the new cabaret space underneath Studio 54 in midtown Manhattan on June 4th.


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A home without art is like a blank canvas. Luckily, our canvas beach art isn't blank, as we've got an assortment of great designs on offer. Canvas is a great medium for a range of beautiful artwork, and the beach themes lend themselves to powerful and evocative pieces that take your mind back to great memories. Vibrant hues and breathtaking visuals of sea, sand and the natural world are present in abundance with this canvas art, which will instantly upgrade your home or office decoration. Get a single signature piece or buy a set for the ultimate expression of your personality and love of all things beach-related.


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The Suburban Times
A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.
To Ponder
Obituary Notices
October 14, 2010 By Ben Sclair
Ruben Cornelio Trottman Jr. Born January 1, 1957 in Panama City, Panama to Ruben Cornelio Sr. and Sylvia (Brown) Trottman and passed away October 11, 2010 in Spanaway, Washington after a long illness with his wife by his side. Ruben is survived by his wife Carleen Trottman; son, Kevin Trottman; two daughters, Varsha Trottman, Ivana M. Trottman; mother, Sylvia Brown; sister, Sheila Haynes; numerous extended family and friends. Funeral service will be held 3:00PM Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at First Baptist Church of Lakewood, 5400 112th St. SW, Lakewood, WA 98499. Viewing 2:00-3:00 PM before service with a reception to follow the funeral service. Arrangements by Edwards Memorial Center 253-566-1008.
Elmer Heatherly passed away 10/08/10 at 72 yrs old. He leaves to cherish his memories his children: Lucy (Michael), Susy (Mike), Carylon (Charles), Lindia (Louie), David, and 13 grandchildren. Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. October 15, 2010 at Mountian View Funeral Home, 4100 Steilacoom Blvd. SW, Lakewood. Viewing October 14th from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home 253-584-0252. Please sign the online guestbook at www.mountainviewtacoma.com.
Richard Floyd Hyatt, 92, passed away peacefully on October 9, 2010 at Pioneer Place of Tacoma. Richard was a loving husband, father, brother, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was preceded in death by his wife of 70 years, Dorothy, in December 2009. He is survived by his daughter Judy (Mike) LeMoine of Yelm; brother William Hyatt of Puyallup; grandchildren Suzy (Dana) Guttormson of Renton and Jason (Tiffany) LeMoine of Olympia; and great-grandchildren Matthew and Kayla Guttormson of Renton. Memorial services will be held at the Celebration of Life Center at Mountain View Funeral Home; 4100 Steilacoom Blvd SW in Lakewood, on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 1:00 PM. The family requests donations be made to The Alzheimer's Association of Western and Central Washington.The family would like to thank Pioneer Place of Tacoma and Multicare-Good Samaritan Home Health & Hospice for the wonderful care of Richard and Dorothy over the last two years. Their help and support will never be forgotten. For more information and an online tribute to Richard, please go to www.mountainviewtacoma.com. Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home 253-584-0252. Please sign the online guestbook at www.mountainviewtacoma.com.
Ellen A. Shelly, age 88, went to be with her "Charlie" after a long and difficult journey on October 12, 2010. She will be dearly remembered by her daughter, Dawn (Fred) Walden, her grandson, Anthony LaCroix, her great-granddaughter Genesee LaCroix all of Tacoma, WA, two of her sisters Katie Dunlap of Arkansas and Lee (Charles) Glass of Missouri, many nieces and nephews and very dear friends. Ellen was preceded in death by the love of her life Charles Shelly, her sisters Dorothy Carter and Reba Davis and her brother John Hill. A memorial service will be held at Evergreen Baptist Church, 2915 East 92nd Street, Tacoma, WA 98445 at 3 p.m. October 15, 2010. Remembrances suggested to Franciscan Hospice House of University Place, WA. Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home 253-584-0252. Please sign the online guestbook at www.mountainviewtacoma.com.
Joyce Annetta Waller was born Dec 8, 1957 at Ft Lewis, WA to Msgt. Earl N. and Joan Waller, who both preceded her in death. She left on her journey to Heaven on Oct 7, 2010. She had 3 sisters, Earlene, Darlene, Patricia, 2 brothers, Dale and Richard, who also preceded her in death. A viewing will be held Fri, Oct 15, 1-9pm, Mt. View Funeral Home. The service is on Sat, Oct 16, 1pm, Sheridan St Community Church of God, 2303 S. Sheridan St. Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home 253-584-0252. Please sign the online guestbook at www.mountainviewtacoma.com.
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The Great Scampede or The Iron Heel Revisited
September 16, 2020 June 19, 2021 17 Comments
16 September 2020 – Investigating Imperialism
By William Bowles
Source: https://twitter.com/JohnDStats
[T]he great majority of people will not die from this [virus] and I'll just repeat something I said right at the beginning because I think it's worth reinforcing:
Most people, a significant proportion of people, will not get this virus at all, at any point of the epidemic which is going to go on for a long period of time.
Of those who do, some of them will get the virus without even knowing it, they will have the virus with no symptoms at all, asymptomatic carriage, and we know that happens. – Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, 11 May, 2020
But this is not what the British public have had been told (as well as a host of other countries who have been railroaded into joining the Great Scampede). The government and the mainstream media have presented the Virus to us as something akin to the Bubonic Plague, and of course the public have responded by behaving as though it is the Bubonic Plague. This is why the government changed the name of the virus from SARS-COV-2 (its correct designation) to COVID-19 in order to sever the connection to the Influenza virus, its possible ancestor. The state (and of course, big Pharma) had to present this virus to us as 'novel' and infinitely more dangerous than the Flu, which it's not, it has about the same death rate as seasonal Flu, although it is especially dangerous to a vulnerable minority, average age 85 with multiple health issues, who should be protected and by-and-large, aren't, itself a entirely preventable crime of vast proportions. (Each year, about 1 Billion people come down with the Flu globally and up to a 1 million die from it but still less than those who die from another highly infectious disease, Tuberculosis which in 2017 killed nearly 1.5 million).
But why has the world been shut down? Why destroy most of the world's economies in order to quell (conquer, defeat?) a virus which is not dangerous to the great majority of us, perhaps 95% or more? Has some kind of mass psychosis taken hold of the political classes of the major (read imperialist) economies of the world who kicked this off? You really have to ask, 'what's in it for the ruling class' that would lead them to deliberately inflict such mayhem on hundreds of millions of people and appear to destroy the economies of the leading capitalist states? What is it that the rest of us are not seeing or being prevented from seeing?
…The financial crash of 2020 was not only anticipated but planned and pushed forward with clear understanding of its instrumental role in the Great Reset sought by self-appointed protagonists of creative destruction. The advocates of this interpretation place significant weight on the importance of the lockdowns as an effective means of obliterating in a single act a host of old economic relationships. – 'Was COVID-19 a Cover for an Anticipated or Planned Financial Crisis?' By Prof. Anthony Hall
Whatever it is, it's being presented to us as the 'New Normal', without however, telling us what this 'New Normal' actually consists of. But let me hazard a guess that whatever the 'New Normal' is it wont be nice for a great percentage of the world's population. Already, it's estimated that at least 1 billion people are in great danger of dying from starvation and disease caused directly by the lockdown, not the Virus.
Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth century divine the coming of the Oligarchy. Even as it was divined, the Oligarchy was there—a fact established in blood, a stupendous and awful reality. Nor even then, as the Everhard Manuscript well shows, was any permanence attributed to the Iron Heel. Its overthrow was a matter of a few short years, was the judgment of the revolutionists. – The Iron Heel, Jack London, 1910.
It would appear that the major capitalist classes of the world have waged total war on the planet's people without firing a shot and at the same time set up the infrastructure needed to enslave us, and all in order to preserve the rule of a bankrupt Capitalism. The 'New Normal' really is Jack London's The Iron Heel made real.The Virus is all about saving capitalism from itself.
How ironic then, that the catalyst for this global coup d'etat was China and one has to ask the question, why China? Could it be that China is a major obstacle to the establishment of the 'New Normal' and if so, it gives us an insight into what this 'New Normal' is really all about.
What the government knew (and planned for)
These are just some of the UK government's documents prepared for the 'New Normal'. Most deal with the 'security' aspects of an alleged pandemic rather than the health issues, except of course when it comes to considering vaccines. So aside from the clampdown on our civil liberties in the name of fighting the Virus, the goverment failed to deliver on every other key issue!
UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011
Pandemic Influenza Response Plan 2014
Cabinet Office National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies
NICE guidelines
Exercise Cygnus
'Mindspace' – Influencing behaviour through public policy'
Imperial College Modelling March 2020
So what is the 'New Normal'?
"Australian Police Go FULL NAZI, Smashing in Windows of Civilian Cars Just Because Passengers Wouldn't Give Details About Where They Were Going." – Sky News, August 13, 2020
Undoubtedly, capitalism is in crisis, perhaps its final crisis, though what might follow may be even worse (a new form of Fascism?), at least judging by how the state has responded to 'rule breakers'. But what does shutting down the global economy achieve (aside from much pain and death for the vast majority) and what is the objective once you dismiss the idea of 'defeating' the virus as the rationale behind it? After all, it's already clear that the global shutdown is causing many more deaths than the Virus has, or will ever do.
Some talk of a global conspiracy, the imposition of a world government (engineered by George Soros and co.) and no doubt somewhere, there's talk of the Illuminati being involved. But undoubtedly, there is a conspiracy and at the very highest levels of the ruling political classes. Others have compared the Virus to 9/11 and look what that did to us! Is it really our health and well-being that occupies the minds of the elite any more than the War on Terror was about protecting us from terrorists.
Jump to 2020. Let me start in reverse while color-coded designs are fresh in our minds. As the COVID-19 lockdowns were under way, a funny thing happened as people were wishing that life could return to normal and they could be let out of their cages. Similar color-coded designs popped up everywhere at the same time. They showed the step-by-step schedule of possible loosening of government controls if things went according to plan. Red to yellow to green. Eye catching. Red orange yellow blue green. As with the terrorist warnings following September 11, 2001. In Massachusetts, a so-called blue state where I live, it's color chart ends in blue, not green, with Phase 4 blue termed "the new normal: Development of vaccines and/or treatments enable the resumption of 'the new normal.'" Interesting wording. A resumption that takes us back to the future. – 'From Terrorists to Viruses: Dystopian Progress' by Ed Curtin, 7 September 2020
It's clear now, that the only way to sell the 'New Normal' (or the 'Great Reset'), was to create an abject fear of our existing life. Thus social distancing, the compulsive hand-washing, masks and of course the Lockdown, all serve, not as health aids but to destroy the old order. It's now reached the point where rather than 'seeking our permission' via the government's 'nudge unit', force is now needed. To that end a new kind of ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) has been created:
To help enforce the new measures, [Boris] Johnson…announced that he would be recruiting thousands of new 'COVID Marshalls'. The first group of England's newly deputised Marshalls could be seen on Monday enforcing meticulous social distancing orders, one-way system on pavements, and telling people to wear masks in shops and at takeaways venues. They will also be handing out masks and hand sanitizer in order to "keep everyone safe." – 'UK 'Coronaphobia' is Pushing the Country Towards a Stasi-like State', 21st Century Wire, 15 September 2020
The objective being the undermining of the existing social and economic relations but critically, without replacing capitalism with something better. In other words, these new and enforced conditions of existence have nothing to do with health or with the virus and its spread but everything to do with Capitalism attempting to reinvent itself. The Virus is simply a convenient and very useful excuse, assuming you can convince the world of its danger to life, which explains the censorship and suppression of any views that challenge this fictional narrative, called COVID-19 or, as BBC News, the Guardian, the Australian government and a host of others now call, that "deadly virus".
That the rest of the world went along with it, is simply testament to the power of the Imperialist states to cajole and threaten any country that resists. Sweden for example, was made to look like some kind of mass murderer of its population, simply because it refused to implement a Total Lockdown (instead, it relied on obedience).
So what do the 'masters of the universe' have planned for us?
Well, they know where they want to go, the question is, can they get there?
The Great Reset is immensely ambitious, spanning over 50 fields of knowledge and practice. It interconnects everything from economy recovery recommendations to "sustainable business models", from restoration of the environment to the redesign of social contracts.
The beating heart of this matrix is – what else – the Strategic Intelligence Platform, encompassing, literally, everything: "sustainable development", "global governance", capital markets, climate change, biodiversity, human rights, gender parity, LGBTI, systemic racism, international trade and investment, the – wobbly – future of the travel and tourism industries, food, air pollution, digital identity, blockchain, 5G, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI).
In the end, only an all-in-one Plan A applies for making these systems interact seamlessly: the Great Reset – shorthand for a New World Order that has always been glowingly evoked, but never implemented. There is no Plan B. – 'From 9/11 to the Great Reset. From Al Qaeda to Covid The Virus…' By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times
As I've stated before, there will be a massive shakeup of corporations; bankruptcies, mergers, new governments and new social orders and of course the further destruction and reformation of working and middle class life. Critically, and of great importance to the imperialist states, will be 'The Great Reset's' devastating impact on the Global South, the consequences of which we are already witnessing. The Great Reset implements the objectives of the Club of Rome (COR) initiated in 1965, that saw one, if not its major objective, a vast reduction in the populations of the Global South, a process that has reached its apotheosis in the Global Lockdown.
"We believe in fact that the need will quickly become evident for social innovation to match technical change, for radical reform of the institutions and political processes at all levels, including the highest, that of world polity. And since intellectual enlightenment is without effect if it is not also political, The Club of Rome also will encourage the creation of a world forum where statesmen, policy-makers, and scientists can discuss the dangers and hopes for the future global system without the constraints of formal intergovernmental negotiation." – The Limits of Growth.
This was from the COR's first publication in 1972. It sold 12 million copies. Many of COR'S executive members were drawn from NATO, that should give you a good idea where COR stands in the scheme of things.
It's been calculated that the capitalist economies in the so-called developed world, can survive with perhaps 20% of the working population, the managerial class, kept in work to maintain the capitalist order for its masters. As for the rest? Well it will be a vastly enlarged 'precariat', thus the 'experiments' with so-called universal basic income (rather than letting great chunks of the formerly employed starve to death, keep them alive on a subsistence 'wage').
And what of our putative left?
What I do find really depressing (though not at all surprising), is the degree to which the left and organised labour have been sucked into this nightmare but then again, they've been bitten by the fear bug as well. Organised labour of course, has a vested interest in maintaining the existing order, most of its members work directly or indirectly (via privatisation) for the corporate, capitalist state, hence their (assumed) interests coincide. The term 'labour aristocracy' has never rung so true.
The left, such as it is, has bought the 'Great Reset', hook, line and sinker. All rational thinking appears to have fled, as the Great Scampede wreaks its havoc.
The omens are not good. Without a coherent and organised opposition to this insanity, it looks like what we should really should call the The Iron Heel will succeed in reshaping the world according to its own desires while the rest of us look on, powerless to stop it and simultaineously grappling with the ravages of climate change, also caused by a rampant capitalism.
Crap's Last Stand or How we Crapped Out By William Bowles
October 21, 2018 July 13, 2019 Leave a comment
21 October 2018 — Investigating Imperialism
With apologies to Samuel Beckett
It was just a question of time before the crap spilled over the edge of the bowl.
The basement was the first to fill up of course but who looks in the basement; out-of-sight, out-of-mind.
This is for the Guardian, NYT and the BBC: 1939 to 2018 By William Bowles
21 January 2018 — InvestigatingImperialism
Before I go any further with this let me state that I'm not a Trotskyist, or a Leninist, or a Stalinist or a Maoist (but I might have been all of the above, with exception of Maoist, at one time or another). However, I might be a Zapatista, at least in spirit, but I'm definitely a Socialist Revolutionary (or is that a Revolutionary Socialist?). I'm not sure if I'm a Marxist either, but I'm definitely an admirer of the old man, he was a great artist and thinker, and possibly, along with Charles Darwin, the greatest mind of the 19th century. Whatever you call it, we need a socialist revolution and we need one now, we are running out of time!
The End of the road for capitalism or for us all? By William Bowles
"…we have the certainty that matter remains eternally the same in all its transformations, that none of its attributes can ever be lost, and therefore, also, that with the same iron necessity that it will exterminate on the earth its highest creation, the thinking mind, it must somewhere else and at another time again produce it". —
Frederick Engels, from the introduction to 'The Dialectics of Nature', 1883.
In 1945, following the second 'war to end all wars', or something like that, the people of Britain put their faith, at least temporally, in an alleged socialist, Labour government. A government that vowed that there would be no return to the 'bad old days' of prewar Britain. So we got the National Health Service, public housing, a nationalised transport system, even the canal network was nationalised (telecommunications was already a state-owned monopoly, the capitalists weren't prepared to risk their capital in its development).
Trashing the Planet for Profit By William Bowles
8 January 2018 — investigatingimperialism
Before I began this essay I read through some of my past forays that mentioned climate change and capitalism, the first I think, being in 2006 where I opined in a piece on the 'War on Terror':
Perhaps the impending climate catastrophe as well as the genocidal actions of the US will force us to finally start thinking and acting 'outside of the box' but without a clear idea of where we are heading or how to get there, currently the situation looks dire. — WOT is to be done? 2 November, 2006
The Two-Faced Book By William Bowles
January 7, 2018 March 26, 2018 2 Comments
At the end of the 1970s, when I first started using and investigating digital media, it quickly became apparent to me, that what became the World Wide Web, was very much a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it afforded independent journalists and investigators, a vehicle for reaching a public outside the control of corporate/state media and whose only parallel lay back in the 17th century, with the invention of the printing press and moveable type, broadsheets and later the so-called Penny Dreadfuls. Sold on street corners and in coffee houses, and produced in literally hundreds of small printing shops, they challenged the status quo in ways previously impossible. Often banned and their writers/publishers thrown in jail under the then new sedition laws, they heralded the arrival of modern capitalism.
Capitalism: what a load of rubbish! By William Bowles
October 18, 2011 April 13, 2016 1 Comment
Something has to be done about a world rapidly filling up with the (often poisonous) rubbish that capitalism produces in vast abundance. Rubbish that will be with us for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Even the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is carpeted with the stuff, mostly plastic waste of all kinds. Even the remotest corners of our once, largely pristine planet are now poisoned with the excreta of capitalism's insane and so far, unstoppable and largely arbitrary productive capacity.
Video review of 'Plunder – the crime of our time' By William Bowles
September 24, 2010 April 11, 2016 2 Comments
Review of Plunder – the crime of our time directed by Danny Schecter
The spirit of graft and lawlessness is the American Spirit. – Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, 1902[1]
Capitalism – it's a racket, literally:
"I'd like a fair shake at the American Dream" – foreclosure victim
This quote comes from near the beginning of Plunder – the crime of our time and illustrates one of the problems of dealing with the capitalist nightmare: everybody wants a piece of the action, even those who have lost everything they own believe incorrectly that everyone can share in the 'American Dream' if only they work hard enough. Worse, one victim of the sub-prime crisis even believes that it was his own fault!
Hedging your bets
Selling short, credit default swaps, credit derivatives, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), mortgage backed securities…the same companies who created these exotic financial 'instruments' are also the same companies that profited from selling these worthless products to unsuspecting investors worldwide.
Even worse, these same companies, knowing that their 'products' were in fact worthless, actually bet on them being worthless! This is called hedging your bets, so they made money, trillions of dollars in fact out of betting against their own worthless bits of paper (actually nothing more than electrons).
"trading the paper…essentially creating liquid cash from nothing"
Plunder paints—after a couple of viewings—a very accurate picture of how the financialization of capitalism actually works. And this is part of the problem of getting the message across, it's fiendishly complex, and this is also the problem with Plunder as I hope to show, crime though it may be, the criminal activities of the speculators are symptoms, not causes of a much deeper malaise that affects capitalism.
All those university trained whizzkids, the brightest of the bright, eager and hungry to succeed, were given free rein by their masters to dream up these complicated investment packages. So complicated in fact that even the bosses of companies such as Bear Stearns, Learmann Brothers, AIG, and the like, didn't understand them either. But then they didn't need to as long they worked, as long as they made a profit.
I have very mixed feelings about Plunder as Danny Schecter has decided to present the crisis of capital as a crime and Wall Street as the crime scene and investment brokers and hedge fund scam artists as the criminals. It's a clever analogy but is it actually true? Is the crisis all down to a bunch of criminal fraudsters? Has there ever been a 'free market'? Is not capitalism fraudulent by definition?
In 1929 the same scene unfolded, albeit using different 'instruments' (the computer didn't exist in 1929, nor was the global circuit of capital up-to-speed). The crash resulted in the US government instituting some controls over how capitalism worked (largely because of the fear of a socialist revolution occurring).
And then, just as now, it was the banks that were at the centre of the crisis. One of the main reforms was to split off investment banking from retail banking as it was the banks, using depositors money, invested in all kinds of speculative schemes, that triggered the crisis. The deregulation that took place in the 1980-90s, reversed this, setting up the system for a fall all over again. Or is this really true? Is it lack of regulation or something systemic to capitalism itself, with or without regulation that is bound to happen? Crashes such as the current one have been occurring for hundreds of years with the same awful results.
It's always happened this way and eventually it always pops" – Jim Rogers, George Soros' hedge fund partner, talking about how financial speculation works.
"gambles on the market versus gambles in the market"
Jim Rogers knows of what he speaks. Rogers and Soros founded the very first hedge fund company, knowing full well that betting on the future 'value' of a share or securities package created money out of nothing. This is what hedge funds are all about. The creation of value is not predicated on the production of goods and services but on what a piece of paper will be worth in the future.
"$140 trillion of nothing"
There is no doubt in the minds of many who have actually tried to untangle the complex processes employed, that fraud has been and still is, being committed. Some, like Bernie Madoff whose multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme finally unraveled, ended up in the slammer, but as Plunder points out, the federal oversight body charged with 'regulating' the financial sector (SEC), knew about Madoff's fraud for at least ten years and did squat about it. And as one of the people in Schecter's video points out, he only got thrown in jail because he'd ripped off the rich! The offending corporations that did get busted, got let off with fines, not even admitting to their criminal culpability. The ruling class looks after its own.
"$596 trillion, AIG's total loan guarantees"
"$54 trillion, the world's total gross national product"
The AIG figure needs some explaining: AIG was using investors' money to guarantee loans made to all those fraudulent hedge funds on the basis that the investments were solid. Money would be made, and for a while money was made until the banks, pension funds etc who had bought the fraudulent financial 'instruments' realized they'd bought trillions of dollars of toxic debt, at which point the bottom fell out of the market and AIG was broke.
Insider trading and betting on 'shorts' (that a share price will fall) are intrinsic to the way the stock market works and insider trading especially, is impossible to stop no matter what regulations are in place as it's extremely difficult to prove that an individual had inside information on a company's activities except in rare cases.
"Criminal prosecutions over insider dealing have had an unhappy history in the UK. The Serious Fraud Office and the Department of Trade and Industry were involved in a series of flawed cases until the responsibility for prosecuting was handed to the FSA in 2001. But the City regulator has fared little better, mounting just one case in almost eight years. That ended earlier this month in the first conviction for Ms Cole and her team." — 'Net tightens on insider trading', The Independent, 6 April, 2010
And this is the one problem I have with Plunder. It accurately explains what triggered the current crisis and documents the awful consequences for millions of people around the world but ultimately it implies that had capitalism been properly regulated, the crisis would not have occurred.
However, buried in the movie are inklings of what really happened and the causes and herein lies the one, crucial weakness of the movie namely, unpacking why exactly, capital instead of investing in real products and services 'chose' instead to bank on financial speculation in all its weird and wonderful forms in order to maintain the level of profit.
Financialization of capitalism
Capital needs to keep on reproducing itself either through finding new markets or through keeping down the cost of wages (or both), hence the relocation of manufacturing to cheap labour areas such as China.
By the time Reagan had been elected at the beginning of the 1980s, the 'neo-liberal' agenda was well underway and the process of deindustrializing the economy was established.
Accompanying this was the (fortuitous?) arrival of the IT revolution that enabled the true, real-time globalization of the financial sector, that along with its deregulation created exactly the right conditions for the invention of the above-mentioned financial 'instruments', all of which are based on the invention of wealth but without adding any real value to the economy. Trillions sucked out of the real economy and transferred to hedge funds, private equity companies and the results are all around us: massive unemployment, collapse of entire sectors of the real economy.
The paradox is surely obvious: as capital fled into the fantasy world of speculation, the entire basis of the economy that produced the capital in the first place, collapsed. Without consumption, fueled not only by credit but by the incomes from (the now non-existent) jobs, the real economy collapses. It's so obvious that it's inconceivable that the 'experts' were not aware of the consequences and undoubtedly they were aware as the comments by Jim Rogers above illustrates.
The question to ask of Plunder is: without recognizing the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, that regardless of whatever 'safeguards' are put in place, or removed for that matter, does Plunder convince viewers that capitalism is a broke-down system that needs to be replaced?
Watch the trailer for the movie here.
1. For an historical overview of capitalism as organized crime see my review, 'Gangster Capitalism – The United States and the Global rise of Organized Crime' by Michael Woodiwiss.
Danny Schecter, Editor, Mediachannel.org
Director PLUNDER THE CRIME OF OUR TIME
Author, The Crime of Our Time
http//plunderthecrimeorourtime.com
Globalvision PO Box 677 NY NY 10035
Keynes with a neo-liberal twist? By William Bowles
November 10, 2008 April 9, 2016 1 Comment
"Just imagine saying, "production for use leads to stagnation; production for death leads to exchange value and profits." Now don't jump on me! Wait, I have to go into capital expansion and its being "the breath of capitalism" and, as yet, no forseeable future opportunities for capital reproduction to the magnitude needed for its expansion."
The above excerpt from a short note from my compadre Patricia in the am triggered a thought about how the state, at least in the UK and in much of the EU, has reacted to the latest, and undoubtedly the worst crisis capital has yet faced. For unlike earlier crises, especially those of the 1970s which presaged the so-called neo-liberal revolution, the nature of Britain's working class has undergone a profound transformation (along with other 'advanced' economies). And, at the risk of repeating myself, or anyway repeating the quote I've used before, I think it speaks reams about the real fear the ruling political class feels about the current situation.


Simple now I understand It!!!! Waited nearly 3 years for this.
This will make the Brexit arrangements so much clearer!
Mr Britain is at the golf club returning his locker key when Mr Barnier, the membership secretary sees him.
In Mr Barniers office Mr Britain explains that he has settled his bar bill so wonders what else he can possibly owe the Golf Club?
"Well Mr Britain" begins Mr Barnier, "you did agree to buy one of our Club Jackets".
Yes" agrees Mr Britain "I did agree to buy a jacket but I haven't received it yet". As soon as you supply the jacket I will send you a cheque for the full amount".
That will not be possible" explains Mr Barnier. "As you are no longer a club member you will not be entitled to buy one of our jackets"!
"But you still want me to pay for it" exclaims Mr Britain.
"Yes" says Mr Barnier, "That will be £500 for the jacket".
"There is also your bar bill".
"But I've already settled my bar bill". says Mr Britain.
"Yes" says Mr Barnier, "but as you can appreciate, we need to place our orders from the Brewery in advance to ensure our bar is properly stocked. You regularly used to spend at least £50 a week in the bar so we have placed orders with the brewery accordingly for the coming year. You therefore owe us £2600 for the year".
"No of course not Mr Britain ". "You are no longer a club member!" says Mr Barnier. "Next is your restaurant bill" continues Mr Barnier.
"In the same manner we have to make arrangements in advance with our catering suppliers. Your average restaurant bill was in the order of £300 a month, so we'll require payment of £3600 for the next year".
"Then of course," Mr Barnier continues, "there are repairs to the clubhouse roof".
"Well it still needs to be repaired and the builders are coming in next week, your share of the bill is £2000″.
Now you mention it," says Mr Barnier, "there is Fred the Barman's pension". We would like you to pay £5 a week towards Fred's pension when he retires next month". "He's not well you know so I doubt we'll need to ask you for payment for longer than about five years, so £1300 should do it. This brings your total bill to £10,000" says Mr Barnier.
"Yes, it's all perfectly clear and quite reasonable" says Mr Barnier.