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Posted on May 25, 2017 May 25, 2017 by winter oak
Manchester: an explosion of hate and fear
Extremists of the neoliberal "centre"
The CIA and the war of ideas
Enemy of the system – the US campaign against Julian Assange
Money, power and mining
1. Manchester: an explosion of hate and fear
The vile bomb attack in Manchester on May 22 has left a noxious smell of racism and fascism in the British political atmosphere in the election run-up.
Prime Minister Theresa May was very quick to ramp up the terror alert status to "critical" and send the army onto the streets in a bid to show just how strong and stable she is.
The gesture has a hint of coup d'état about it. Even pro-establishment Guardian journo Jonathan Freedland had to admit that troops being deployed in the middle of a general election campaign was "new and unsettling terrain for British democracy".
As Gianfranco Sanguinetti noted, in his book On Terrorism and the State, regarding a similar situation in Italy in the late 1970s: "The reasoning currently in vogue is simple: if you love democracy, you have to defend it; to defend it you have to fight its enemies; to fight the enemies of democracy, no sacrifice is too great: the nobility of the end justifies every means; no democracy for the enemies of democracy! Something which was never essentially a democracy has now visibly ceased being so".
But even worse was to come from media commentators who seem eager to pave the way to a grim authoritarian-capitalist future.
The right-wing Muslim-hating newspaper columnist Katie Hopkins sent a tweet in which she called for a "final solution" – this apparent call for genocide is apparently now the subject of a police enquiry.
Incidentally Hopkins, formerly of The Sun and now with Mail Online and LBC, was sponsored through her university education by the British Army's Intelligence Corps.
Allison Pearson of The Daily Telegraph tweeted:"We need a State of Emergency as France has. We need internment of thousands of terror suspects now to protect our children."
What a bright idea, Allison! Round up those enemies of the state at once!
Meanwhile, Brendan O'Neill, editor of Spiked, struck an equally fascistic note when he tweeted: "A nation whose children are attacked must take action", adding that "there is a strong justification for hate right now".
O'Neill, and Spiked in general, has a proud history of amplifying authoritarian capitalist viewpoints under the cloak of a seemingly "radical" background – Spiked used to be called LM, or Living Marxism, and emerged from the very peculiar Revolutionary Communist Party.
As George Monbiot noted, O'Neill's group has travelled "from the most distant fringes of the left to the extremities of the pro-corporate libertarian right" and it has never ceased being divisive and disruptive.
Explains Monbiot: "The organisation began in the late 1970s as a Trotskyist splinter called the Revolutionary Communist party. It immediately set out to destroy competing oppositionist movements. When nurses and cleaners marched for better pay, it picketed their demonstrations. It moved into the gay rights group Outrage and sought to shut it down. It tried to disrupt the miners' strike, undermined the Anti-Nazi League and nearly destroyed the radical Polytechnic of North London. On at least two occasions RCP activists physically attacked members of opposing factions."
Fake radical Brendan O'Neill addressing Australia's Centre for Independent Studies, which promotes "the rule of law" and "free enterprise"
O'Neill, like Spiked as a whole, has a particular love of industrial capitalism and can barely suppress his hatred for anyone who dares to put the health of the environment above the quest for endless economic growth.
Indeed, he has specifically complained that environment protest "contributes to the increasingly mainstream hostility to economic growth".
And he described eco-activists opposed to the third runway at Heathrow as "plummy-voiced enemies of progress, those most entitled and eco-pompous of millennials".
He has also condemned the"leftish set's warped, myopic anti-Semitism" and "the way in which attacking Israel has become a means of being derogatory about Jews".
His Wikipedia entry describes him "a keynote speaker for the pro-Israel advocacy organisation StandWithUs".
Meanwhile, over in France, the new "centrist" president Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker, has announced that he wants to further extend the country's State of Emergency, for the sixth time since the Paris attacks of November 2015, and bring in unspecified new "anti-terror" laws.
And "anti-terrorism" was said to be high on the agenda of the NATO summit in Brussels this week (see Acorninfo, below) where Macron was meeting with counterparts such as Theresa May and Donald Trump.
Rabid support for industrial capitalism, bitter opposition to environmentalism, anti-Muslim rhetoric, hysterical calls for "action" in response to terror attacks… Funny how so many of these people seem to be reading from the same centralised script…
Resisting the Psychology of Terror
Terrorism and the state – learning from history
2. Extremists of the neoliberal "centre"
New French president Emmanuel Macron
One of the most insidious terms on the contemporary European political scene is "centrist".
It is a label claimed by the new French president Emmanuel Macron as well as by former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
And it is insidious because it is used to define extreme neoliberal capitalism as a norm, as a default position, as a "common sense" non-ideology whose assumptions and aims can never be fundamentally challenged, except by "extremists".
Centrists like to make great play of being beyond the "divisive" politics of left and right and yet are always happy to exploit those divisions to cement their own position.
Thus Macron's supporters in France urged left-wingers to vote for him to keep out the extreme-right Front National and condemned defeated left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon for not ordering his supporters to vote for Macron in the second round.
Tony Blair – another warmongering neoliberal "centrist"
Fellow "centrist" Blair saw Macron's election as "a real victory for a more global approach to politics", adding that he represented "a spirit which has echoes in every European country and in the western world in general".
Blair's supporters in the UK like to claim that the "populism" of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is a mirror image of the right-wing populism of Donald Trump – the centrist line is always to lump all "extremists" together and suggest that if you go far enough round the "political spectrum" in either direction you will end up in the extremist hell of a kind of Nazi-Soviet pact, an anti-American, anti-semitic red-brown alliance that poses a chilling danger to strong and stable democratic values.
From the point of view of the centrist, which is of course well represented in the corporate media, anti-capitalism is peripheral and dangerous, always liable to open a Pandora's box of hateful savagery.
This strategy is, unfortunately, very successful in terms of preventing the emergence of an anti-capitalist worldview that is capable of challenging reality as presented by the centrists.
Another inspiring revolutionary slogan from the mainstream "left"
Too many critics of neoliberalism allow themselves to be contained within the narrow political frameworks constructed by the dominant capitalist system.
Because centrists say that opposition to neoliberal globalisation amounts to a form of nationalism, some leftists are suckered into speaking in terms of "national" sovereignty as a bulwark against global Capital, rather than espousing a radical rejection both of the capitalist system and of the nation-states which maintain and enforce it.
Because centrists are always claiming that their policies are best for "growth" and for "creating jobs", some leftists feel they have to justify their own policies using the same criteria.
Because centrists argue that the only alternative to imposing austerity is for states to borrow yet more money, some so-called left-wingers fall into their trap of proposing more debt to the bankers rather than the abolition of the whole capitalist money-system.
Because it seems obvious that, given the nature of elections and the shaping of public opinion, nobody can win an election on an authentically anti-capitalist platform, those leftists who engage on the electoral level of politics drop all real anti-capitalism from their rhetoric and programmes, and make do with reformism.
But this is a big mistake. They are not tailoring their politics to match the views of the public, but to match the views of the public as presented by the neoliberal centrists!
They are buying into the centrist line that the vast majority of the population are very happy with the way the world is organised and are firmly opposed to any fundamental change.
But what if that is simply not true? What if most people are sick to death of this hollow, money-fixated society and are longing for something else? What if most people are horribly aware of the dull limits of their daily grind, their daily consumption, and dream of a different existence?
What if most people are appalled by the spiralling destruction of the natural world, the police-state surveillance of every nook and cranny of their lives, the hypocritical warmongering propaganda churned out by the system's media?
What if they are just waiting for someone to speak the truth, to say plainly that industrial society is a disaster, that the grey capitalist world of production, exploitation and consumption is a world not worth living in, that there are more important things than money, that things could be so very different, so much better, if only we could smash down the walls of the cells in which have been imprisoned?
Where is the passion? Where is the rage? Where is the desire? Where are the calls to insurrection, to revolution, capable of stirring up a powerful groundswell of contempt for the self-defined centrists and everything they represent?
3. The CIA and the war of ideas
It is not entirely accidental that there is a distinct lack of a coherent and vibrant ideological opposition to capitalism.
For many decades the agents of capitalist power, notably the CIA, have been engaged in what the Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci called a "war of ideas" to prevent any such movement arising.
Robin Ramsay of Lobster magazine, a specialist in secretive US interference in UK politics and culture, writes: "Much of the international political landscape of the postwar era in Britain consisted of US-funded or directed political projects – propaganda or psychological warfare projects they would now be called. And this was on top of the formal military-diplomatic-financial structure of NATO, the IMF, World Bank, Gatt, the UN etc."
The pro-US, pro-Israeli, pro-imperialist "left" in Germany
In Germany, there has long been suspicion that American influence might have been behind the emergence of the "antideutsch" strain of leftism which conveniently combined anti-fascism with a fervent admiration for American imperialism and Israeli repression of Palestinians.
And a fascinating recently-released CIA document sheds some light on American capitalist attitudes to the "French Theory" philosophical movement which gave birth to postmodernism, postfeminism, postanarchism and that whole pompous school of pseudo-radical academic thinking which delights in pouring cold water on all notions of overturning capitalist hegemony and creating the other world for which we yearn.
The document, written in 1985, radiates with American self-congratulation that the anti-capitalist ideas which had been so powerful in France in 1968 had now been replaced by a philosophy that was friendly to US corporate and military interests.
It declares: "There is a new climate of intellectual opinion in France – a spirit of anti-Marxism and anti-Sovietism that will make it difficult for anyone to mobilize significant intellectual opposition to US policies.
"Nor will French intellectuals be likely to lend their weight, as they did before, to other West European colleagues who have become hostile to the United States on broad issues like disarmament."
This shift in attitudes, it reports with evident delight, had been "weakening the traditional anti-Americanism of the leftist intellectuals and allowing American culture and even political and economic policies to find new vogue".
The CIA reveal themselves to be very keen on "New Philosopher" Bernard-Henri Lévy, known as BHL in France, whose position of power at the Grasset publishing house was crucial in spreading the US-friendly ideology he was promoting.
BHL – a repeated target of anti-capitalist pie-throwing.
They also single out for ideological praise "the influential structuralist school associated with Claude Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and others".
Of vital importance for the CIA is the destruction of an intellectual climate critical of capitalism and the imposition of a US-style money-orientated culture. They report gleefully: "There is no gainsaying that French youth, who once joined every new intellectual fad, now think of careers in science or business".
The US agents note the rise of "a new wave of genuinely pro-American sentiment, rooted in the vogue of American popular culture, in respect for the American economic vitality of the 1980s, and in admiration for the new image of self-confidence that the United States now projects in the world."
Opening up France to the rich delights of American culture
In a perceptive article on the implications of the CIA document, US philosopher and writer Gabriel Rockhill notes that it "should come as no surprise to those familiar with the CIA's longstanding and ongoing investment in a global cultural war, including support for its most avant-garde forms".
He notes that the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), which was headquartered in Paris and later discovered to be a CIA front organization during the cultural Cold War, was among the most important patrons in world history, supporting an incredible range of artistic and intellectual activities.
It had offices in 35 countries, published dozens of prestige magazines, was involved in the book industry, organized high-profile international conferences and art exhibits, coordinated performances and concerts, and contributed ample funding to various cultural awards and fellowships, as well as to front organizations like the Farfield Foundation.
Rockhill states: "The intelligence agency understands culture and theory to be crucial weapons in the overall arsenal it deploys to perpetuate US interests around the world."
Former Marxists are particularly useful in channelling their propaganda as they provide "the perfect model for constructing deceptive narratives that amalgamate purported personal political growth with the progressive march of time, as if both individual life and history were simply a matter of 'growing up' and recognizing that profound egalitarian social transformation is a thing of the—personal and historical—past."
Rockhill adds: "This patronizing, omniscient defeatism not only serves to discredit new movements, particularly those driven by the youth, but it also mischaracterizes the relative successes of counter-revolutionary repression as the natural progress of history."
He correctly identifies the key aim of the CIA's overall strategy to dismantle the cultural left in Europe and elsewhere as not being to abolish it entirely, which wasn't regarded as possible, but instead "to move leftist culture away from resolute anti-capitalist and transformative politics toward center-left reformist positions that are less overtly critical of US foreign and domestic policies".
There we have it. It's the centre again. Indeed, the CIA report itself predicts that New Left intellectuals will weigh in heavily in supporting "moderate Socialists who are trying to create a broadbased center-left alliance".
And the important point that Rockhill is making is that the CIA's pro-capitalist contamination goes much deeper than mere party politics and into the heart of the contemporary ways of thinking that are considered by many self-defined radicals to be central to their "alternative" view of the world.
He says: "The CIA's reading of French theory should give us pause to reconsider the radical chic veneer that has accompanied much of its Anglophone reception.
"According to a stagist conception of progressive history (which is usually blind to its implicit teleology), the work of figures like Foucault, Derrida and other cutting-edge French theorists is often intuitively affiliated with a form of profound and sophisticated critique that presumably far surpasses anything found in the socialist, Marxist or anarchist traditions."
But the apparent sophistication of the postmodern position is simply intellectual bait in the CIA trap into which large sections of the so-called "left" have fallen.
As Rockhill writes: "According to the spy agency itself, post-Marxist French theory directly contributed to the CIA's cultural program of coaxing the left toward the right, while discrediting anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism, thereby creating an intellectual environment in which their imperial projects could be pursued unhindered by serious critical scrutiny from the intelligentsia."
Of course, the one thing the CIA report does not do is to spell out the US agency's clandestine role in bringing about this cultural shift away from genuine anti-capitalism and towards pro-imperialist postleftism, whether in France, Germany, the UK or elsewhere.
But then, they don't really have to. Some of us are still perfectly capable of reading between the lines…
Exposed: fake "left-wingers" who hate the alternative media
4. Enemy of the system – the US campaign against Julian Assange
The shocking way that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been intimidated and smeared by the pro-American neoliberal system has been condemned by investigative journalist John Pilger.
He writes on his website: "For almost seven years, this epic miscarriage of justice has been drowned in a vituperative campaign against the WikiLeaks founder. There are few precedents.
"Deeply personal, petty, vicious and inhuman attacks have been aimed at a man not charged with any crime yet subjected to treatment not even meted out to a defendant facing extradition on a charge of murdering his wife."
Prosecutors in Sweden have now announced that they are suspending their investigation of highly dubious rape allegations against Assange, who has been sheltering in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for five years to avoid extradition via Sweden to the USA.
"That the US threat to Assange was a threat to all journalists, and to the principle of free speech, was lost in the sordid and the ambitious. I would call it anti-journalism," writes veteran anti-imperialist Pilger.
"Books were published, movie deals struck and media careers launched or kick-started on the back of WikiLeaks and an assumption that attacking Assange was fair game and he was too poor to sue. People have made money, often big money, while WikiLeaks has struggled to survive.
"The previous editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, called the WikiLeaks disclosures, which his newspaper published, 'one of the greatest journalistic scoops of the last 30 years'. Yet no attempt was made to protect the Guardian's provider and source. Instead, the 'scoop' became part of a marketing plan to raise the newspaper's cover price.
"With not a penny going to Assange or to WikiLeaks, a hyped Guardian book led to a lucrative Hollywood movie. The book's authors, Luke Harding and David Leigh, gratuitously described Assange as a 'damaged personality' and 'callous'. They also revealed the secret password he had given the paper in confidence, which was designed to protect a digital file containing the US embassy cables. With Assange now trapped in the Ecuadorean embassy, Harding, standing among the police outside, gloated on his blog that 'Scotland Yard may get the last laugh'.
"Journalism students might well study this period to understand that the most ubiquitous source of 'fake news' is from within a media self-ordained with a false respectability and an extension of the authority and power it claims to challenge but courts and protects."
And the reason for the unprecedented and co-ordinated judicial-media attacks on Assange, whom some useful idiots on the fake "left" are also happy to condemn? It is simply, Pilger points out, that "WikiLeaks has exposed the way America dominates much of human affairs, including its epic crimes, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq: the wholesale, often homicidal killing of civilians".
Challenging the criminal hegemony of the US-dominated global capitalist mafia remains the number one contemporary political heresy, it seems…
5. Money, power and mining
"All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it"
As The Clash once pointed out, the close relationship between money and power is at the corrupt heart of our capitalist society.
Money buys power and money is used by those in power to ensure that money and power remain permanently in the same elite hands at the expense of the rest of the population and of the natural world.
Take, for instance, the experience of residents living close to the UK's largest opencast coalmine at Ffos-y-Fran near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.
Since 2007, they have been enduring what can only be described as a nightmare, with horrific levels of air and noise pollution, with cancer clusters and disturbingly high rates of childhood asthma.
Resident Alyson Austin told the BBC her family's life had been ruined by the coal dust: "I find it difficult to put the washing out on the clothes line or enjoy my garden. On hot days we can't even open the windows."
Like good citizens, the locals went through all the "usual channels", including a public inquiry, petitions, protests, High Court legal action and even a report from the UN's special rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes.
But their complaints have been ignored and calls for an investigation into the health implications dismissed.
Five hundred locals attempted to take court action as a group, but their application was refused by the High Court "as they were deemed unable to afford it".
Money always wins. The game is fixed. If you have no money then you have no say in a society where money, and greed for money, is king.
With the democratic process well and truly exhausted – and exposed as a sham – the only way forward was direct action.
Thus, in the early hours of 21 April 2017, under the banner of Earth First! and Reclaim the Power, a bunch of plucky rebels disrupted the mining operations.
At 5am, two of them blocked vehicle access to the mine by using D-locks and an armtube to lock onto the cattle grid at the entrance, while three others climbed down towards the bottom of the vast hole to lock onto the 300 tonne excavators used to extract coal (see video).
No coal mining took place all day.
The response from the system? Guilty of aggravated trespass, they were ordered to pay £10,000 compensation to Miller Argent, the company which is profiting from the misery of the people living alongside its environmentally disastrous mine.
A crowdfunding initiative has been launched to help the brave activists pay off this sum and we would urge people to help out if they can.
In the meantime, we are left with a useful reminder of the fact that the judicial system, in the UK as elsewhere, exists primarily to protect private property and private financial interests. It is designed not only to favour the rich, but to systematically punish the poor for their lack of wealth.
It's a fraud, a scam, which is imposed on us using all the "authorised" violence of a state which has always existed to serve the interests not of ordinary people but of an arrogant ruling class which despises and exploits them in every way possible.
Ten thousand people took to the streets of Brussels on Wednesday May 24 to tell US president Donald Trump, and the imperialist warmongers of NATO, that they were not welcome in the Belgian capital. Said the No to NATO protest call-out: "NATO and its member states participate in illegal wars and military interventions, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. They contribute massively to international instability, fuelling the arms race and militarization. NATO remains committed to humanity's biggest threat: nuclear weapons. NATO is the world's most aggressive war machine. We must leave NATO and NATO must be dissolved."
"By 2050, the US and UK will have evolved into two-class societies where a small elite lives a good life and there is declining well-being for the majority." That is the prediction from Jorgen Randers, an academic and author of 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years. He adds: "Western nations are not going to collapse, but the smooth operation and friendly nature of Western society will disappear, because inequity is going to explode." The process seems to be well underway…
A victory has been notched up in the battle to save one of the few museums in the world to be dedicated to the life and works of an anarchist. As we reported in Acorn 33, the Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis Museum at Heerenveen, in the Netherlands, celebrating one of the fathers of Dutch anarchism and libertarian socialism, was faced with closure and a petition was launched to keep it open. This has succeeded in persuading the municipal council of Heerenveen to lift the immediate threat to the museum.
Opponents of plans to frack in North Yorkshire have welcomed confirmation by Barclays that it plans to sell its stake in Third Energy. Barclays owns 97% of Third Energy, which has permission to frack for shale gas at its KM8 well at Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire. Friends of the Earth described the decision as "a massive blow for the fracking industry" and urged them to keep up pressure on the bank.
Anti-fascists from across the UK are mobilising to oppose the Muslim-hating English Defence League in Liverpool on Saturday June 3. Email London Anti-fascists at ldnantifascists@riseup.net with the subject line COACH2LIVERPOOL to travel from the South of England.
Acorn quote: "Revolutionary movements do not spread by contamination but by resonance. Something that is constituted here resonates within the shock wave emitted by something constituted over there. A body that resonates does so according to its own mode. An insurrection is not like a plague or a forest fire – a linear process which spreads from place to place after an initial spark. It rather takes the shape of a music, whose focal points, though dispersed in time and space, succeed in imposing the rhythm of their own vibrations, always taking on more density. To the point that any return to normal is no longer desirable or even imaginable".
Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection
Posted in Anarchism, The AcornTagged Allison Pearson, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, Antideutsch, Antonio Gramsci, Belgium, BHL, Brendan O'Neill, capitalism, centrism, CIA, Congress for Cultural Freedom, democracy, Donald Trump, Drill or Drop, Earth First!, Emmanuel Macron, extremism, fascism, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, Ffos-y-Fran, Fracking, france, Gabriel Rockhill, George Monbiot, John Pilger, Julian Assange, Katie Hopkins, Liverpool, Manchester, NATO, Netherlands, police, racism, RCP, Reclaim the Power, Robin Ramsay, Spiked, terrorism, Theresa May, Tony Blair, war of ideas, Wikileaks2 Comments
Posted on October 20, 2016 October 21, 2016 by winter oak
What fracking democracy?
James Lovelock – enemy of Gaia
Criminalising anti-capitalism
Resisting the neoliberal coup in Brazil
London Anarchist Bookfair 2016
1. What fracking democracy?
"This is not democracy, it is dictatorship". So said one member of the Lancashire farming community after the UK government this month overruled Lancashire County Council's decision and gave Cuadrilla the green light to start fracking in the north-west of England.
Others were of the same opinion. Pam Foster, a Residents Action on Fylde Fracking campaigner, said: "This is a total denial of democracy. Our parish council, our borough council, our county council all threw out this application. We have pursued every democratic channel we can do."
Pat Davies, chair of Preston New Road Action Group, said: "This is a sad day as it is clear to all that this government neither listens nor can it be trusted to do the right thing for local communities. It is deplorable that an industry that has been rejected on every level has inflicted itself on Preston New Road. Profit clearly comes before people."
Jackie Sylvester, a local resident, told The Guardian, "They've gone against the will of the people. I think the people of England don't realize that once this starts it's not going to stop and there's going to be hundreds of drills."
Another supporter of Frack Free Lancashire, Heather Speak, said, "I'm so, so angry that a government minister has turned their back on local democracy."
Sadly, the government's decision hardly comes as a surprise to anyone who understands the relationship between industrial capitalism and its so-called "democracy".
The whole thing is a manipulative trick, designed to give the public the impression that their political rulers are answerable to their views, while ensuring that this is never in fact the case.
It usually more or less works, because there are numerous layers in place to maintain the illusion. The mass media, for example (and the educational system, academia, the book publishing industry and so on) help to "manufacture consent", in Noam Chomsky's phrase, by presenting certain "facts" as being true, certain issues as being "relevant" or "irrelevant", certain viewpoints as being "plausible", certain futures as being "possible" or "impossible".
The whole democratic system runs very smoothly indeed if you can make sure that the wishes of the population coincide with what you have in mind for them anyway!
Sometimes, this doesn't work. The build-up to the Iraq war of 2003 is an example of this. The lying propaganda was so blatant, so desperate, that people just didn't believe it and took to the streets in their millions to say so.
Another line of defence for the system is the way that politics works, right down to the local authority level. Even local councillors are usually representatives of central political parties. Representation itself is a step away from real participatory democracy, but someone who represents a political party no longer even theoretically represents the community which elected them.
On top of this come the various restrictions on local authorities' options laid down by Whitehall – the parameters for local decision-making are very narrow.
Sometimes, this doesn't work, either! Such was the case in Lancashire, where the threat of fracking was so alarming, and public opposition so motivated, that even the normally tame and controllable local authorities said "no".
It is at moments like this that the illusion of "democracy" is no longer sustainable. The British state, which is a capitalist body operating solely in the interests of capitalists, wants to go ahead with fracking. So it has overruled the Lancashire County Council decision.
Likewise, in 2003 the Blair government, which was part of the global neoliberal military complex, wanted to go ahead with the invasion and occupation of Iraq. So it ignored the public.
This obviously creates something of a crisis for the system, because the fog suddenly lifts and a large number of people see that they are not living in the green and pleasant land of a benign democracy at all, but in the concrete and razor wire prison camp of a corporate dictatorship.
There are various ways that the system copes with this. One is to wait for the whole thing to blow over, to blame certain individual politicians or political parties, to pull people back into the illusion of democratic choice.
Another parallel approach is to ramp up the propaganda, attack their opponents as dangerous extremists (see below) and try to cut them off from the support of the population.
Along with these, and other techniques, will invariably come an increase in political repression and in the levels of the violence that capitalism has always used, and always will use, to impose its tyranny on a population which fundamentally does not share its core "values".
The frack-free movement in the UK has already faced severe levels of intimidation and this will only spiral as resistance continues.
As well as physically attacking people who get in its way, the capitalist system also spies on its subjects in a manner that would once have been associated only with the Nazi Gestapo, the East German Stasi or the Soviet KGB.
It was confirmed this month that, for more than a decade, British security agencies have been secretly and unlawfully collecting massive amounts of our supposedly confidential personal data.
And it's getting worse. On October 10, the Bristol Cable presented evidence that Avon and Somerset Constabulary and five other forces had bought devices that can spy on thousands of mobile phones at a time.
Says its report: "'IMSI-catchers' are surveillance devices that can both track the movements of mobile phone users within a given area, and intercept texts and calls. The potential scope of IMSI-catchers' capabilities is frightening.
"The data they harvest creates a live-updating map of everyone in a certain area. Some models can intercept hundreds of mobiles a minute. The devices can also block communications, and in some cases can intercept the text messages and phone calls – and read or listen to them – of thousands of people in the vicinity."
Two days later, the evidence in question disappeared – Avon and Somerset police had removed the appropriate documents from the internet because of "national security" concerns.
As the farmer wisely said: "This is not democracy, it is dictatorship".
2. James Lovelock – enemy of Gaia
Fracking is a great idea, its opponents "have behaved deplorably instead of being reasonably sensible", and climate change doesn't matter because happily the world will soon be taken over by robots.
To anyone who has not really been paying attention, it may seem surprising that these opinions come from none other than James Lovelock, the former NASA scientist regarded as the creator of the environmentalist concept of the Earth as Gaia, a living entity.
But, in fact, the views he expresses in a recent Guardian article are totally consistent with the pro-industry, anti-nature worldview he has been expressing for decades – make no mistake, Lovelock is no friend of Gaia's.
In his work, he repeatedly twists the idea of a self-regulating planet in order to suggest that we need not take action against pollution. He argues, for instance, that we should regard toxic industrial waste as being like cow dung. It is not so much pollution as a "valued gift", he absurdly suggests.
Industrial waste is a "valued gift" says Lovelock
Lovelock is a supporter of nuclear power and totally refuses to accept that industrialisation is affecting the health of the planetary organism, even asking in a 1986 paper: "Could it be that our very deep concern about the state of the world is a form of global hypochondria?"
He actively discourages resistance to industrial capitalism. A newspaper article about his 2014 book A Rough Ride to the Future reports: "The scientist and inventor James Lovelock claims we should stop trying to save the planet from global warming and instead retreat to climate controlled cities". And it quotes Lovelock as concluding: "We should give up vainglorious attempts to save the world".
Lovelock also explicitly supports transhumanism, the peak of industrial capitalist insanity which dreams of a merger between the human species and machines.
He says: "Our species has a limited lifespan. If we can somehow merge with our electronic creations in a larger scale endosymbiosis, it may provide a better next step in the evolution of humanity and Gaia".
Lovelock as a young scientist
In the light of this, it should come as no surprise to find Lovelock expressing hostility to green thinking in his latest Guardian interview.
There is a sickening hypocrisy to the way the corporate media builds him up as some kind of ecological prophet, only to delight in relaying his latest anti-environmental statements in order to bolster their cap-doffing defence of the status quo.
For the Guardian interviewer he is an "incorrigible subversive", as if it were somehow clever and edgy to support fracking and nuclear power, as if there were anything remotely daring or dangerous about ridiculing opposition to industrial capitalism on the tired technocratic basis that it is "totally unscientific".
Lovelock is now 97 years old and when he dies we can expect a flood of adulatory obituaries both from the industrial capitalist establishment and from those defenders of the living planet who never saw through his sly ideological scam. There will probably be a special pull-out supplement in The Observer, sponsored by Shell.
But Gaia herself will be shedding no tears.
3. Criminalising anti-capitalism
Accusations of antisemitism against critics of Israeli policy have become a familiar feature of the political landscape, particularly since Jeremy Corbyn took over leadership of the Labour Party in the UK.
There are now even proposals that the use of the word "Zionist" in a negative context should become a criminal offence.
But a still more sinister trend is the attempt to smear any criticism of the global capitalist system with the same label, even when no reference is made to Israel or Zionism.
This came to the fore lately in the unlikely context of the US presidential campaign, when the allegation was levelled against Donald Trump. Trump is not someone we would ever want to defend and we are obviously totally opposed to his right-wing, misogynistic, xenophobic capitalist views, but the basis of this particular accusation is cause for general concern.
The Guardian reported on October 14 that in addition to his sexist behaviour, Trump had been "invoking shocking antisemitic tropes".
However, later in the same story we learn that this is based on a comment by Trump about his rival Hillary Clinton meeting "in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers".
Whatever you think about the idea of "US sovereignty", it is clear that this statement is not in itself antisemitic, making no reference at all to Jewishness.
The suggestion that it was offensive seems to have come initially from Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti Defamation League, who tweeted: "@teamtrump should avoid rhetoric&tropes that historically have been used ag. Jews & still spur #antisemitism. Lets keep hate out of cmpgn"
The Guardian was at pains to point out that "Trump has not made any explicitly antisemitic statements" but echoed Greenblatt in claiming his comments "bore similarities to antisemitic tropes like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
Similarities? So does any critical mention of the global banking system now amount to a "shocking" form of coded antisemitism even without any reference to Jews? Is it now a "hate" crime to denounce capitalism?
This would be a less pertinent question if it was just Trump we were talking about, as there may well be some kind of hate lurking behind his words.
But the very deliberate use of supposed "antisemitism" to attack the left wing of the Labour Party in the UK suggests there is something more significant and worrying here: a coordinated long-term ideological manoeuvre to delegitimise and then criminalise criticism of the capitalist system.
This meme was already apparent in 2003, when Mark Strauss wrote a book called Antiglobalism's Jewish Problem.
Here, he approvingly quotes the high-profile French Zionist banker Roger Cukierman as labelling the anti-globalisation movement "an anti-Semitic brown-green-red alliance".
Strauss tries to persuade his readers that, in his own words, "anti-capitalist rhetoric provides intellectual fodder for far right groups".
Hillary Clinton at the Carnegie Endowment, which was behind Strauss's book
To understand the motivation behind Strauss's stance, it is useful to glance at his background and connections. His book was published by his employer at the time, Foreign Policy, a journal then owned by the neoliberal CIA-linked Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He was previously a research assistant on the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution, a high-profile US "Think Tank", recently accused of having a "cozy relationship" with its corporate donors.
The Brookings Institution gets funding from the likes of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, bankers JPMorgan Chase, David Rubenstein (co-founder of the extremely dodgy Carlyle Group), John L. Thornton (former president of Goldman Sachs) and the state of Qatar. It also enjoys excellent relations with the CIA, whose director John Brennan gave a key speech there in July 2016.
CIA director John Brennan speaks at the Brookings Institution
A common theme of the propaganda in question is to claim that anti-capitalism equals anti-Americanism which, in turn, equals a disguised form of antisemitism.
In 2004, Josef Joffe (editor and publisher of Die Zeit, climate change denier, member of the AJC Transatlantic Institute and the Trilateral Commission) claimed that the famous wrecking of a McDonald's in France by anti-globalists including José Bové was part of a broadly "antisemitic" outlook which included support for Palestinian rights.
Joffe argued that Kapitalismuskritik, the criticism of capitalism, is a "mainstay of the antisemitic faith, a charge that has passed smoothly from Jews to America. Like Jews, Americans are money-grubbers who know only the value of money, and the worth of nothing. Like Jews, they seek to reduce all relationships to exchange and money. Like them, Americans are motivated only by profit, and so they respect no tradition."
In the right-wing British magazine The Spectator in 2005, Wolfgang Munchau warned that in Germany there was "a poisonous cocktail of the three big As: anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and anti-capitalism".
Is this antisemitism?
And the same trope turned up at the time of the Occupy movement in the USA, with Joe Carter, web editor of the right-wing First Things journal, declaring: "The brand of leftism on display at Occupy Wall Street is anti-capitalist and at the core of anti-Semitism is a mistrust of capitalism and a fear of economic liberty… Wherever you find a group that is railing against capitalism, it won't be long before you attract types who want to blame Jews."
This line is, of course, still being pushed today. An opinion piece by Dave Rich in the New York Times in September 2016 also seeks to link an "anti-American, anti-imperialist strain of the British left" with "a visceral objection to Israel's existence" and thus also with antisemitism.
Rich, like the other opinion-shapers spreading this "antisemitism" meme, is hardly a disinterested observer. He is deputy director of communications at the Community Security Trust, a UK organisation which has been at the forefront of attempts to promote this broader concept of so-called "new antisemitism" and which, according to investigative journalist Asa Winstanley, "has strong links with government departments".
Theresa May, now the UK's Prime Minister, was even guest of honour at the CST's annual dinner earlier in 2016.
State-induced paranoia conflating dissent with "extremism" and "terrorism" has already had a chilling effect on freedom in the UK.
Police monitoring group Netpol says it has spoken to many people "who are alarmed by the stifling of political debate in schools and in further and higher education – including discussion on issues like 'eco-terrorism' and support for Palestine – and who are more worried than ever about attending political meetings or engaging in online discussion".
Building up a fake narrative according to which anti-capitalism is regarded as being close to antisemitism can only serve extreme right-wing agendas.
Not only does it risk creating a smokescreen for real race-hate antisemitism, but it will also make it easier for the British state to brand anti-capitalism "extremist" under its sinister and Orwellian "counter-ideology campaign".
With the Home Office declaring earlier this year that new legislation will give police "a full range of powers to deal with extremism", criminalisation of views fundamentally challenging the global industrial capitalist system seems to be approaching at speed.
4. Resisting the neoliberal coup in Brazil
The headline in the Financial Times tells you all you need to know about what the people of Brazil should expect in the wake of the "constitutional coup" against former president Dilma Rousseff.
"Brazil's exchange chief rejoices at post-impeachment opportunities" it declares, with the article below explaining that "Edemir Pinto — chief executive of BM&FBovespa, the country's exchange operator — can barely contain his excitement".
While she was ostensibly impeached for manipulating government accounts, it seems Rousseff's real crime was "stunting the growth of the country's capital markets".
The FT explains that the new president, Michel Temer, has appointed "some of the market's most respected figures" to run the finance ministry and Brazil's state-controlled companies, setting the country up for what Mr Pinto hopes will be "a shock of capitalism".
"The economic team put together by today's government is a dream team … they are music to the market's ears," says Mr Pinto.
The coup has not been music to the ears of anti-capitalists such as Brazil's landless rural workers' movement, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST).
It has condemned the neoliberal seizure of power and refuses to recognise the Temer government.
It has also pledged to resist: "We announce that our mobilization does not end with the coup now installed. We will continue fighting, organizing the people of the countryside and building unity with urban struggles."
Because it challenges neoliberal rule, the MST has already been declared a "criminal" organisation by the state and protests are being met with brutal police repression.
The MST warns that the impeachment is "not the last act of violation of the Brazilian people's rights promoted by economic and political elites of Brazil".
It has denounced the government's attempt to reduce workplace rights, pension rights and to scrap the Unified Health System, its bid to privatize the assets of the Brazilian people and the commodification of land, water and minerals for foreign capitalists and the complete halt to agrarian reform.
In a video interview, Ana Moraes of the MST explains that it is gearing up to take part in a general strike in November.
But she says she expects the neoliberal system to respond with its usual levels of violence: "Repression is a characteristic of fascist governments that implement a coup".
5. London Anarchist Bookfair 2016
It's nearly time for "Anarchist Christmas" in the UK, with the 2016 London Anarchist Bookfair being staged on Saturday October 29, from 10am to 7pm.
The venue this year is Park View School, West Green Road, London N15 3QR, near Turnpike Lane and Seven Sisters tube stations.
As ever there will be hosts of stalls (notably from Active Distribution who stock Winter Oak titles!) offering not just books , but journals, posters, badges, t-shirts, stickers and so on, plus a packed programme of meetings.
There is never a problem finding things worth going to at the London Bookfair – the real headache is that, with workshops and talks being held simultaneously in no fewer than 12 different spaces, there are too many to choose from and you are inevitably going to miss something interesting!
For instance, from 11am to 12 noon there is the chance to Meet the Anti Fascist Network and also to discuss Fallacies of class analysis in the conception of black existence.
From 12 to 1pm, Earth First! are hosting a meeting on how to "help make next year's Direct Action camp even better"; the Anarchist Federation are presenting a workshop on Capitalism, Anarchism and Mental Health; the Empty Cages Collective are talking about growing resistance to prisons as a frontline of anti-state struggle and, elsewhere at the very same time, there is a meeting on Resisting Political Undercover Policing.
And all of this clashes with Netpol's workshop, Cover Up! The Case for Protest Anonymity (12-1pm), which will explore how anarchists overcome barriers to greater protest anonymity, such as targeting and arrest by police, separation from other protesters and questions of legitimacy.
Meanwhile, Chris Knight will be Decoding Chomsky in a 12pm to 2pm workshop, which also overlaps not just with the Radical Routes session on housing and workers' co-ops (1-2pm) but also with Haringey Solidarity's lessons from four decades of radical anti-authoritarian community action in north London (1-2pm) and the Anarchist Federation meeting on Land and Anarchism: The Struggle for the Commons.
And you wouldn't want to miss the 1pm to 2pm session with Silvia and Costa, arrested and convicted with Billy for an attack with explosives against a Nanotechnology Institute in Switzerland. They encourage us to Stand up Against the Technoworld, adding: "Resistance is not only possible but now more than ever necessary for a free and wild world".
From 2pm to 4pm the Anti Raids Network are running a workshop on Anarchism and the struggle against the borders, while at exactly the same time Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al Shami will be talking on Syrians in Revolution and War.
Attending either of these two-hour sessions would mean missing Andrea Needham's first-hand account of how a small group of women broke into a British Aerospace factory in Warton in 1996 and disarmed a Hawk warplane (2-3pm) and Working Class Anger in West London (2-3pm).
It would also mean missing Iain McKay mark the impending centenary of the Russian Revolution by explaining how the Marxist vision of "socialism" harmed the revolution and deliberately shunted it towards state capitalism (2-3pm), Donald Rooum presenting new editions of What is Anarchism? and Wildcat Anarchist Comics (3-4pm), and also a report on the current police crackdown on anarchists in the Czech Republic (3-4pm).
And all of this clashes with Climate organising against Green Capitalism, hosted by London Rising Tide and Corporate Watch, who have just brought out the excellent A-Z of Green Capitalism, as featured in Acorn 27.
It doesn't stop there. Boycott Workfare's 2016 workshop (4-5pm) coincides with Brian Morris's talk on Anthropology, Ecology and Anarchism and a promising workshop on Art and Anarchism.
But going to any of those means not going to Capitalism and the car: how the 'need' for the car was manufactured and what this means today from Corporate Watch (4-5pm): "Cars are choking our health and the environment, dividing our communities and locking us in debt. A new road building programme is under way in the UK. What can we do about it?"
From 5pm the London IWW Unwaged Workers Group will be proposing the creation of a Revolutionary Labour Exchange and in another part of the venue two anarchists who have recently returned from several months living and working in Rojava will be explaining why, in their view, Rojava. It's complicated…
South London in Struggle: strategies in local resistance (5-6pm) will explain how over the past few years a number of groups have emerged in South London to fight against state violence in the forms of policing, housing, and immigration enforcement.
And at the same time as all this , Kevin Eady will be asking What have the Anarchists ever done for Us? (5-6pm) in which he will address other key questions such as "How did Marlon Brando get things so badly wrong?", "Why do Greek anarchists love sausage?" and "How did the long-running anarchist controversy over facial hair finally get resolved?"
Decisions, decisions!
A massive show of defiance against the proposed new Nantes airport in France was staged on October 8, with 40,000 people turning up to protest at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The feared eviction attempt on the ZAD protest zone (see Acorn 27) has happily not yet materialised, no doubt largely thanks to the prospect of spirited mass resistance. The government's latest comments seem to hint that they may prefer to put off any confrontation until after the 2017 presidential elections.
Britain's complicity in the USA's covert drone war has been exposed in secret documents from US whistleblower Edward Snowden. They show that work on targeting the victims of the drones was conducted at "RAF" Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, a base which is in fact largely staffed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). Meanwhile, this ten-minute video interview with David Vine, author of Base Nation, outlines how the USA uses its network of 100s of military bases in no fewer than 80 different countries to physically impose its global hegemony.
"RAF" Menwith Hill in Yorkshire
The "Aleppo Media Centre" in Syria, which came up with the widely publicised photo of the "dusty boy", is funded by the French Foreign Office, the EU and the US, reveals independent journalist Vanessa Beeley. She writes of the manipulation of news coverage from Syria: "This shadow media enclave is being installed in order to erect the US-NATO propaganda tent – one which suppresses and silences the voices which would normally be heard from inside Syria, but which are blacked-out in favour of contrived, and hoax imagery, and other twisted reporting that categorically refers to Islamist terrorists as 'rebels' and 'freedom fighters'."
A public building on the Franco-Italian border, owned by the SNCF (French railways), has been occupied by migrants and anti-border activists. The squat in the Roya Valley was opened on the night of October 17, but by October 19 was surrounded by riot police, with eviction alerts circulating. The occupiers said the situation on the border was getting worse all the time, with hundreds of people trapped at Ventimiglia and dozens of daily deportations to the south of Italy. People refusing to show ID were being beaten or given electric shocks and the French army was hunting down people, including minors, in the mountains. They said: "We refuse to play the game of the states and the humanitarian organisations who are collaborating with these deadly arrangements. We are asserting our ability to self-organise."
After our report in Acorn 27 on natural mutual aid among ants, a reader drew our attention to this article about how collective interests dominate the evolution of insects. It reveals that "group living insects have developed a unique capability of mounting collective anti-parasite defences, such as allogrooming [social grooming] and corpse removal from the nest". We human beings like to think we are far superior to mere insects, of course, but maybe favouring individualism and competition over solidarity and co-operation isn't as clever as all that…
The UK's Anarchist Action Network will be having its next national meeting at the start of December, although the date had not been confirmed at the time of publication – check for updates on its website. In the true anarchist tradition, the network is made up of autonomous groups and individuals, with no leaders or "central committee". Meetings are open to everyone except cops and journalists.
Guerilla Tactics: How Activists Can Fight to Win is the title of a thought-provoking article on the London anarchist website rabble.org.uk, drawing on the tactics of Che Guevara, the IRA, Sun Tzu, General Von Clausewitz and Nestor Makhno to suggest ways of taking on the capitalist system. It insists: "Our situation isn't hopeless at all – by using overwhelming force to win small victories, gradually gaining people, resources and confidence as we go, we can build a strong resistance movement despite the strength of the rich and powerful."
Acorn quote: "Deep down my attitude is a protest against the fate that has made me a poet in an industrial age". Herbert Read
Posted in Anarchism, Fracking, The AcornTagged #NDDL, Aleppo, Anarchist Action Network, Anarchist Federation, anarchy, Anti Raids Network, anti-capitalism, Anti-Fascist Network, anti-terrorism, antisemitism, Brazil, Bristol Cable, Brookings Institution, capitalism, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CIA, civilization, Community Security Trust, Corporate Watch, Cuadrilla, David Vine, democracy, dictatorship, Donald Rooum, Donald Trump, Earth First!, Frack Free Lancashire, Fracking, france, Fylde, Gaia, Herbert Read, Hillary Clinton, IMSI, James Lovelock, Jeremy Corbyn, London Anarchist Bookfair, London Anarchist Bookfair 2016, Mark Strauss, Menwith Hill, Michel Temer, migrants, MST, Nantes, Netpol, Noam Chomsky, nuclear, Occupy Wall Street, police, Preston New Road Action Group, Rabble, Residents Action on Fylde Fracking, robots, Rojava, Theresa May, Ventimiglia, zad, Zionism2 Comments


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Thread: Models of Cities
Posted Apr 23, 2009, 12:02 PM
NYguy
New Yorker for life
Location: Borough of Jersey
http://riverdalepress.com/atf.php?si...ion=2009-04-23
Panoramic model has monumental missing piece
BELL TOWER PARK, not seen from the air, but it sure looks like it.
By Kevin Deutsch
April 23, 2009 edition
Once your eyes adjust to the scale of the New York City Panorama, it's easy to spot Riverdale's most familiar sights in all their miniature glory. The Whitehall Building, Van Cortlandt Mansion, and the 242nd Street Station rise up from a shrunken Bronx in the form of petite replicas.
But look toward Bell Tower Park in search of Riverdale's best-known landmark and you'll find nothing but a small, lonely white patch. The traffic circle is there, as are the trees and homes and highway that surround it. Yet the Bell Tower itself, a 500-foot structure cherished by residents, sightseers and historians alike, doesn't exist in this alternate version of the city.
Urban planning czar Robert Moses and model-builder Raymond Lester may have taken painstaking care in creating the world's largest urban panorama for the 1964 World's Fair in Queens (now housed at the Queens Museum of Art), but when it came to Riverdale's 79-year-old tower and World War I veteran's memorial, also known as The Monument, the pair apparently didn't sweat the details.
There are about 895,000 individual structures replicated in the panorama, 25,000 of which are New York landmarks like skyscrapers, museums and major churches. They are custom built with striking detail.
Countless smaller structures are represented with generic blocks of wood and plastic. But The Monument didn't even get that. Does the museum plan to place a tiny tower on the barren spot?
"I'm not sure what went into the decision making in 1964, but we'd love to work with the folks in Riverdale to see if we can get it put on there," said the museum's director for external relations, David Strauss, adding that even though he's from Queens, he knows exactly where the real Bell Tower is in Riverdale. "The fact that I know the exact spot speaks to the idea that maybe it should be on there."
The Monument's Spanish bell was cast in 1762 for a Mexican monastery. When General Winfield Scott captured the bell during the Mexican War, soldiers brought it back to New York City, where it was housed at a fire lookout spot in Greenwich Village. It was later moved to a Riverdale firehouse and finally installed in its fieldstone and limestone tower in 1930.
Originally located about 700 feet to the north, both tower and bell were moved to West 239th Street and Henry Hudson Parkway in 1936.
One option for Bell Tower aficionados who want it added to the panorama would be to "buy" the monument as part of the museum's new adopt-abuilding program, which allows New Yorkers to "own" real estate on the panorama, be it a studio apartment, firehouse, or a historic landmark.
The rates under the adopta- building program are $50 for an apartment, $250 for a single- family home, and $10,000 for a landmark building or to fund a significant update to the model.
"Obviously, there was an oversight when it came to the tower. It would be nice if somebody stepped up and made the model more complete," said Bob Bender, chairman of Community Board 8's Parks and Recreation Committee.
How much would it cost a benevolent Riverdalian to buy a miniature version of the tower and ensure its addition to the panorama?
"We'd have to talk to some of our mini-builders and see what it would take," Mr. Strauss said.
The Monument isn't the only piece of New York City missing from the model. People tell the museum about missing local landmarks "all the time," Mr. Strauss said.
Sixty thousand structures were added as part of an update in 1992, but even then the Bell Tower didn't get its due.
As people pay to own their favorite New York buildings, the panorama will slowly evolve and, the museum hopes, more closely mirror the city in real time. In the meantime, the museum expects to keep hearing from New Yorkers who want their favorite spots added.
"People know their own neighborhood better than any mapmaker could," Mr. Strauss said.
NEW YORK. World's capital.
"Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs," said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
Find all posts by NYguy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Though Jeon Yong-woon is still not used to the local food, the Korean businessman has decided to stay in Southwest China for at least three months as he learns the craft of woodcarving.
Two weeks ago, Jeon, 59, came to Jianchuan county in Yunnan province to learn from Duan Sixing, a master of Jianchuan woodcarving - a national-level intangible cultural heritage art form.
"Masters of Jianchuan carving can carve a common plank with various layers of hollowed-out figures, making carvings of flowers and birds seem alive," Jeon said.
Jeon first became interested in woodcarving in 2015 when he and his Chinese wife Wu Zhuorui went to her hometown Kunming, the provincial capital, and bought some carvings.
"The carvings brought the wood back to life," Jeon said.
Back in Seoul, he registered for a carving class. It took years for him to progress from being a layman to a wood carver capable of creating reliefs independently.
"I told him one day that Jianchuan woodcarving is famous in China," Wu said. "But I didn't think that he would go there to become a student for real."
Jeon researched Jianchuan woodcarving online and was amazed by Duan Sixing's works.
"The carvings are vivid, delicate and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined," he said.
Despite his wife's concerns about the difference in language and customs, Jeon was determined to become a student of Duan.
Jianchuan county in the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture is home to various ethnic groups, with the majority of them Bai people.
Historical records show that the local Bai people developed the unique craftsmanship, after absorbing techniques from the Han and other ethnic groups.
The preserved intangible cultural heritage reflects the Bai people's tradition and culture, ranging from household decorations to architectural details, such as gates and window frameworks, experts said.
The county has plenty of wood carvers who make exquisite carvings of all kinds of figures, flowers, birds and mountains, as well as dragons and phoenix which symbolize luck in China.
The skill has been passed down for thousands of years. High-quality rosewood and alder birch are the main raw materials.
"With the help of the local authority, I visited Duan and expressed my willingness to learn from him," Jeon said.
Donning an apron and chisel, Jeon is currently carving a piece of wood about 30 centimeters square.
"A dozen chisels of different sizes are used according to the complexity of the patterns," Jeon said. "Beginners usually need about a week for a small piece like this, but it only takes Duan two days."
Duan is happy with his foreign student who has traveled thousands of miles. He is teaching him hollowed-out high reliefs, a technique unique to Jianchuan woodcarving.
"Although Jianchuan carving is different from Korean carving in tools and techniques, as long as Jeon is willing to learn, I will teach him," Duan said.
Jeon plans to introduce Duan to more Koreans and would like to invite the master to his country.
"We can't be complacent or conservative. International exchanges are mutually beneficial, which can help Jianchuan carving," Duan said.
The traditional craftsmanship has become a pillar sector of the local economy.
At a woodcarving-themed town in the county, roughly 21,000 local people are involved in the industry. They work at 116 woodcarving enterprises, 20 architecture firms and 1,500 small private businesses.


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Q: Implement a table using html I have this template table :

How to implement this us table html (
 and ) ?
And if I have a dynamic data from a 2 database that mean for football in database 1 I have players in database 2 (note we suppose we have implemented a function to get from database I need only view) how to implement this?
Please show update figure for good understand :

For good understand my question like this function :
for(i = 0, i<2 , i++)
{
    for(j = 1 , j< 5 , j++)

         {

   i
.......................

View :

          0                   1
       1 2 3 4             1 2 3 4

A: Something like this maybe?

td{
  border:1px solid black;
}
td[colspan="3"]{
  text-align:center;
}
table{
  border-collapse:collapse;
}

Header1	Header2

Item 1	Item 2	Item 3	Item 4	Item 5	Item 6

You can achieve it using the colspan attribute. By setting the colspan of the columns in the top row larger than those beneath, we can achieve the same effect.
For text-align:center, we can use the CSS selector td[colspan="3"].
To get rid of spaces between the columns, we use border-collapse:collapse.

A: try this:

        Header One
        Header two

        C1
        C2
        C3
        C4
        C5
        C6

And this link can help you

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How do I leave the Knife & Candle? In Fallen London, how can I leave, possibly non-permanently, the Knife & Candle?

A: Once you have your Iron Knife Token, you can go to the Gamekeeper's Cottage on Watchmaker's Hill. Enter the Cottage and there should be an option to withdraw from the game. Note that this will remove all Iron Knife Tokens and you must reacquire one if you wish to rejoin the Game.


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June 12, 2018 June 12, 2018 This or That Edition
Theatrical Cut (84 min.)
Director's Cut / Extended Cut (90 min.)
The superhero movie Chronicle was an surprise hit in 2012 was released on Blu-ray in theatrical and director's cut (it was also billed as extended cut in Europe). The DVD release only included the theatrical cut of the film.
MovieWeb interviewed director Josh Trank when Chronicle was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012:
MovieWeb: It looks like there is just one deleted scene in here. Would it be safe to assume that practically everything you shot made it in to the feature?
Josh Trank: Well, not everything we shot ended up in the movie itself. There are certainly a lot of scenes that were left on the cutting room floor. The director's cut on the DVD was great, because I got to throw in some more stuff that I really feel paints a deeper dimension to some of the characters in the movie. I'm very excited about that.
MovieWeb: How much longer is that director's cut than the theatrical cut?
Josh Trank: You'd think that I should be really good with time and stuff like that, but numbers are so abstract to me. Five minutes? 10 minutes? 25 minutes? I have no idea. I can tell you that it's long enough to make it better. I don't even remember how much longer it is, but I know we definitely did throw in a substantial amount, which I thought was missing from the original cut.
Source: EXCLUSIVE: Josh Trank Talks Chronicle Blu-ray, MovieWeb
The director's preferred edition: Director's Cut / Extended Cut
Director's Cut Theatrical
Mood Indigo (2013)


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You are here: The MajorBBS Emulation Project Wiki » The Major BBS & Worldgroup Modules: » iNfInItY CoMpLeX (ELWIC)
modules:elwic
iNfInItY CoMpLeX (ELWIC)
by Elwynor Technologies
INFINITY COMPLEX takes place in HELL. That should give you an idea of exactly how much you count for in the grand scheme of things.
No, just kidding. INFINITY COMPLEX is drawn from such stories as Logan's Run, Brave New World, and other such depressing works. It is set in a futuristic complex which is run by a computer called MASTER CONTROL. MASTER CONTROL, as you shall see, is a little in need of some routine maintenance. All citizens of the complex have a one-way link to MASTER CONTROL; a small link is implanted in their brains to allow them to hear MC's words of wisdom.
Simply put, INFINITY COMPLEX was really the first multiplayer action/battle game, the first MUD-type game, for The Major BBS. It's fast, it's fun, it's funny, and it's challenging, and makes for endless gameplay. Originally released in 1988, it's still sought after by those who played it all those years ago.
iNfInItY CoMpLeX v6.04
Elwynor Technologies
modules/elwic.txt · Last modified: 2021/03/06 18:32 by enusbaum


I found out about this small Korean cafe in the middle of Ortigas from Instagram, and I have been wanting to try this place for the longest time.
Cafe Flafe is a flower shop and cafe in one. It is amazing how they decorated the limited space to a garden-like environment, decorated with real flowers.
I wasn't in a mood for coffee so I settled with Hot Choco Mallow (Php 130) while my friend got Matcha Greentea Smoothie (Php 145 for 12oz, Php 150 for 16oz).
There wasn't anything extraordinary about the hot chocolate but my friend liked her Matcha Smoothie.
We also had Kimchi Pizza Toast (Php 180) and Choco Bread (Php 140).
The toasts remind me of the ones I had in Cafe Shibuya, but a simplier version. I liked my Choco Bread though I originally ordered for Mango Bread which was not available that time. We were both surprised on how delicious the Kimchi Pizza Toast was. The cheese complements the spicy kimchi along with each layer of bread.
First, I like the name, Cafe Flafe, so unique. And what is it with Korean cafes, why do they all look cute?!


When Lulu's parents go on vacation, the formidable Ms. Sonia Sofia Solinsky comes to babysit and Lulu behaves as badly as possible to get her to leave until Ms. Solinsky reveals her secret.
For this primary source pairing, two illustrations from the book are used to spark discussion and critical thinking. The images are from an excerpt of the book on Simon and Schuster's website. Taking time to study the images in transitional chapter books, like the books in the Lulu series, is valuable for students as they practice the skills of visualizing while reading.
Compare and contrast the two versions of Ms. Solinsky from the story.
How does Lulu react to each version of Ms. Solinsky?


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Q: Change TabbedPage MainTitle Color, when user open by Navigation.PushAsync(tabbedPage) So, I got this problem, and I don't know to solve.
Basically, I would like to change the TabLayout's mainTitle color, when i call from Navigation.PushAsync(tabbedPage); Seems easy, but it isn't.
I don't know to change any property, of that top bar...
I see, a property, in a NavigationPage class called "BarTextColorProperty". What can I do with this?
I had tested, a same sample, but in another method... Navigation.PushModalAsync(tabbedPage), this time, in a modal page, and worked :)
But, I really need this work in a Navigation.PushAsync(tabbedPage), because backButton.
To finish, I know, if you look the code, you see that Navigation.PushModalAsync(tabbedPage), the tabbedPage is inside a NavigationBar, and Works, but I try to put a tabbedPage inside a NavigationPage(in PushAsync method;) , and the Xamarin, draws 3 bars... The first bar, has only a back button...
Can someone help???
If, you need more code, tell me
Code:
-> Navigation.PushAsync(tabbedPage);
[button1.Clicked += (s, e) =>
        {
            tabbedPage.CurrentPageChanged += (a, b) =>
            {
                if (tabbedPage.CurrentPage.GetType().Equals(typeof(Page1)))
                {
                    tabbedPage.BarTextColor = Color.Green;
                }
                else
                {
                    tabbedPage.BarTextColor = Color.Orange;
                }
            };
            Navigation.PushAsync(tabbedPage);
        };

-> Navigation.PushModalAsync(tabbedPage),

button2.Clicked += (s, e) =>
        {
            NavigationPage navigationPageTabbedPage = new NavigationPage(tabbedPage);
            tabbedPage.CurrentPageChanged += (a, b) =>
            {
                if (tabbedPage.CurrentPage.GetType().Equals(typeof(Page1)))
                {
                    navigationPageTabbedPage.BarTextColor = Color.Green;
                }
                else
                {
                    navigationPageTabbedPage.BarTextColor = Color.Orange;
                }
            };

            Navigation.PushModalAsync(navigationPageTabbedPage);
        };][1]

A: Sorry for the late responding, by double check your description and your code, I think you only want to change the title on the bar of the TabbedPage when current page is changed, then if your TabbedPage is something like this:
<TabbedPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:TabbedPageForms"
             x:Class="TabbedPageForms.MainPage">

    <local:TodayPage Title="Today"  />

    <local:SchedulePage Title="Schedule"  />
</TabbedPage>

You can simply implement this feature in its code behind for example like this:
public partial class MainPage : TabbedPage
{
    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    protected override void OnAppearing()
    {
        base.OnAppearing();
        this.CurrentPageChanged += MainPage_CurrentPageChanged;
        ChangeBarColor();
    }

    protected override void OnDisappearing()
    {
        this.CurrentPageChanged -= MainPage_CurrentPageChanged;
        base.OnDisappearing();
    }

    private void MainPage_CurrentPageChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ChangeBarColor();
    }

    private void ChangeBarColor()
    {
        var currentPage = this.CurrentPage;
        switch (currentPage.Title)
        {
            case "Today":
                this.BarTextColor = Color.Green;
                break;

            case "Schedule":
                this.BarTextColor = Color.Orange;
                break;
        }
    }
}

I didn't see any problem relative to NavigationPage, you can show this TabbedPage with NavigationPage in App.cs just for example like this:
MainPage = new NavigationPage(new MainPage());


text:
OXCEL
The Oxford Centre for Leadership: United Kingdom and International
Associate Diploma – Leadership qualities for assessment in the Achievement Portfolio
Graduate Diploma – Leadership qualities for assessment in the Achievement Portfolio
Postgraduate Diploma – Leadership criteria for assessment in the Achievement Portfolio
Fellow Diploma – Leadership qualities for assessment in the Achievement Portfolio
OXCEL focuses on recognizing and assessing leadership competencies and capabilities based on our 9 Qualities of Leadership (Leading and Developing Others, Developing Capability and Capacity, Making Sense of Complexity and Ambiguity, Leading Change, Ethics, Integrity, Influencing, Ceremony, and Handling Cultural Diversity). OXCEL Certifications are then awarded upon successful assessment.
Learning events organized by OXCEL in the past have included Continuing Professional Development Leadership seminars (CPD), CEO Talks, Networking Events and Conferences. The events organized by OXCEL will vary according to region, enrolment and demand. Not all regions will organize a full programme of their own events, and in some cases there may be no events at all. Attendance at OXCEL events is not compulsory for assessment and non-attendance does not place the candidate at any disadvantage in the assessment process since alternative assessment options can be offered in the form of project papers and extended essays (see details below). In addition, learning events from other providers can be integrated into assessment at the request of the candidate, but again this is not compulsory.
OXCEL (UK) certification
Professional certification from OXCEL allows members to show and identify themselves as having met the required criteria for the various levels of leadership both to their peers and business associates.
OXCEL Certification is offered at Associate Diploma, Graduate Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma and Fellow Diploma levels. These awards are British professional certifications issued by OXCEL as a private professional body. They are not degrees. In the UK, no government permission is required for a private professional body to award a certificate or diploma in leadership and such awards are automatically legal. The titles of associate, graduate, postgraduate diploma and fellow used by OXCEL's diplomas are not regulated titles in the UK and there is no universally recognized standard for their content or length.
All issues of acceptance and recognition relating to OXCEL diplomas are entirely the responsibility of the receiving party concerned. The prospective candidate should check with any third party from whom they might desire recognition to establish what their position will be before they enrol. OXCEL cannot undertake this process for enquirers.
OXCEL Certification is designed to be self-directed, but every candidate is assigned a mentor who can offer support and advice via email on completing the requirements to a satisfactory level.
Opportunities for further (non-UK) recognition
OXCEL works together with academic bodies that will give credit for the work that has been done for OXCEL diplomas and certificates. Thus once the necessary additional work has been completed, OXCEL members are able to receive further academic awards from these bodies.
While OXCEL Certifications are not degrees, they may be accepted for credit towards degree programmes by arrangement with specific overseas (non-UK) universities. The option of a dual OXCEL certification plus overseas degree award has proved very popular over the years and the information provided below shows the necessary requirements to earn these awards. OXCEL is a recognized centre of European-American University (Bunyoro-Kitara, Panama), which can give academic credit for OXCEL certifications.
European-American University's validation agreements with the Universidad Panamericana, Costa Rica (UPA), Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica (Business University of Costa Rica, UNEM), and the Universidad San Juan de la Cruz, Costa Rica (USJDLC), provide a further reciprocal award opportunity for those who have obtained the European-American University degree and then want a route to a government-accredited (non-UK) degree at an additional fee but without additional academic work being required. In addition, through the membership of the Universidad San Juan de la Cruz in the Centro de Educación Superior – Consorcio Universitario Americano (CDES), graduates have the opportunity to gain a triple reciprocal degree – the European-American University degree, a reciprocal degree from the Universidad San Juan de la Cruz (accredited by the Costa Rican government) and a further degree from a choice of seventeen other partner institutions, all of which are accredited by either the Mexican, Costa Rican or Paraguayan governments.
Degrees issued by European-American University and the validating universities listed above are not United Kingdom degrees, nor are they designed to be comparable to United Kingdom degrees. The degrees of European-American University are issued under authority of its Royal Charter of Incorporation from the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara and its incorporation as an international private university in the Republic of Panama. The Universidad Panamericana, Costa Rica (UPA), Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica (Business University of Costa Rica, UNEM), and Universidad San Juan de la Cruz, Costa Rica (USJDLC), are all fully recognized by the government of Costa Rica. The university-level institutions that are members of the CDES are all fully recognized by their respective governments.
Full details of European-American University and its reciprocal agreements, including further information about accreditation and legal status, can be found at the University's website www.europeanamerican.university Special fees apply to OXCEL graduates.
Certificate of OXCEL (Cert.OXCEL)
Who should join?
Professionals at junior level.
A minimum of one year of relevant work experience.
Mode of instruction
The programme is offered by distance and blended learning via OXCEL Asia-Pacific only.
OXCEL Assessment
Candidates must complete work-based assignments on 3 of the 9 leadership qualities, plus a project paper of 1,500 words.
European-American University Assessment
This programme is not eligible for European-American University assessment.
Associate Diploma of OXCEL (A.Dip.OXCEL)
Team leaders, supervisors, executives.
A certificate from a recognized body or a minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience.
9 CPD Seminars or project paper of 8,000 words
1 International Conference or extended essay of 2,000 words
Candidates must demonstrate achievement on 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Associate Diploma level in their Achievement Portfolio.
>>Leadership qualities for assessment in the Achievement Portfolio
The European-American University degree of Associate of Business Administration can be awarded to holders of the Associate Diploma of OXCEL who complete a work-based project paper of 3,000 words.
Graduate Diploma of OXCEL (G.Dip.OXCEL)
Senior executives, managers, entrepreneurs.
A Diploma from a recognized institution or a minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience.
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Graduate Diploma level in their Achievement Portfolio.
The European-American University degree of Bachelor of Business Administration can be awarded to holders of the Graduate Diploma of OXCEL who complete a work-based project paper of 5,000 words. Graduates can then proceed to a reciprocal degree of the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica, Universidad Panamericana, Costa Rica, or Universidad San Juan de la Cruz, Costa Rica, on payment of a further fee.
Postgraduate Diploma of OXCEL (P.G.Dip.OXCEL)
Candidates at executive leadership positions.
A Bachelor's degree or equivalent award from a recognized institution or a minimum of 10 years relevant work experience.
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Postgraduate Diploma level in their Achievement Portfolio.
The European-American University degree of Executive Master of Business Administration can be awarded to holders of the Postgraduate Diploma of OXCEL who complete a work-based project paper of 10,000 words. Graduates can then proceed to a reciprocal degree of the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica, Universidad Panamericana, Costa Rica, or Universidad San Juan de la Cruz, Costa Rica, on payment of a further fee.
Fellow Diploma of OXCEL (F.Dip.OXCEL)
>>Fellowship Brochure
Candidates in senior leadership positions.
A Master's degree or equivalent award from a recognized institution or a minimum of 20 years relevant work experience.
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Fellow Diploma level in their Achievement Portfolio.
Candidates must submit a 20,000 word project paper describing the future strategic leadership objectives of their institution from the perspective of a CEO.
The European-American University degree of Doctor of Business Administration can be awarded to holders of the Fellow Diploma of OXCEL who complete a further work-based project paper of 20,000 words. Graduates can then proceed to a reciprocal degree of the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica, Universidad Panamericana, Costa Rica, or Universidad San Juan de la Cruz, Costa Rica, on payment of a further fee.
Special Asia-Pacific offers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Arrangements during COVID-19 pandemic
A Special Invitation
Photographs from Launching and Donning of OXCEL Official Blazer and Medallion Award ceremony
Launching and Donning of OXCEL Official Blazer and Medallion Award
European-American University
© Copyright 2007 onwards, OXCEL – The Oxford Centre for Leadership, BM Box 5581, London WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom. Associated degree pathways offered by European-American University (Bunyoro-Kitara) and other institutions are not United Kingdom degree awards. OXCEL – The Oxford Centre for Leadership is registered with the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) with Provider Reference Number 10063798.


The main reason the game keeps crashing is because of this DSS CAD MEP software. I downloaded it but when I start BSP it starts also this DSS CAD MEP program. It has to first go through a liscense check and it hardly finds anything verified. I have seen that this is a huge problem all over the community. Does anybody know a solution on how to get to the update on the DSS CAD MEP software like it says on their web site? Because I never can open it completly because it always fails the liscense part.


text:
VIDEO: Kwon Alexander discusses making his Saints debut against his former team, the 49ers
Sharief Ishaq
By New Orleans Saints
Is this your very first time ever having to jump into a team midseason? And if so, what has that kind of adjustment been like for you?"Yeah, this is my first time ever jumping into team in the middle of the season, but I'm just blessed and trying to get ready and be prepared for this week. Everything's been smooth, everything's been going well, so we're just trying to get going now."What's kind of the first priority for you? Is it learning the playbook? Or is it even just like getting to know your teammates and all the little things like handshakes and stuff like that?"Really the playbook first and then everything else comes with it. The chemistry with the team and everything like that, that's going to take time, but right now, everything's been going well with just the playbook so I can be on point and be with everybody else."Usually the calls are somewhat similar, but is it pretty much the terminology where you are catching up?"Yeah, it's just the terminology. I'm getting that down. Everything is going to be smooth this week when I've got it all down and I have it down by Sunday. Everything will be ready to go."What do you feel like you bring to this defense or to a team in general?"I bring passion, love for the game, energy, I love to compete. Obviously, they like to compete. I feel like I fit well in here and we're ready to take off."You were with the team last week, but couldn't play against your old team in Tampa. And now another old team of yours in the 49ers. Is that a little special? Is there like a revenge game aspect to it or you're just not trying to pay attention to that?"I treat every game like it's the same. I'm going to go out there and execute with the team. We're going to go out there and get the job done. We can't wait to go out and have fun and enjoy the dub when we get it."Have you thought about how weird it is though that your first game not as a 49er is against the 49ers?"No, I don't feel like it's weird like, it's a blessing. God doesn't make mistakes. I'm just going to go out there and do what I do what I do best. Just have fun and enjoy the game."I'm not sure if you made the trip to New Orleans last year. But what do you sort of remember about that game just watching it as a spectator?"I actually made a trip last year. It was a fun game, very physical, high scoring game. I feel like that's going to be different this year. We'll come on ready to rock and roll and get to it and get the ball to the offense, get the takeaways and get a dub."What do you remember about just the atmosphere in the dome that particular day?"The atmosphere in the dome has been legendary, when I was in Tampa I used to always come down here too and it was amazing, legendary. The fans were legendary. They had so much faith. They loved the team, the players. I'm just happy to be a part of it."Last week, you obviously had to go through the COVID protocol. Was there anything you were able to do that week to help you kind of prepare for this week and the game on Sunday?"I was just preparing my mind, getting ready for the plays. Everything has been going smooth and legendary so far. We're just going to keep it going just like that."As is tradition for all new players, whether they're practice squad players or starters. You've to do up downs on Friday. Looks like you were smiling before you went over there. And then Alex Anzalone said something to you. What was that like getting initiated today?"I mean, it was fun. The 40 up downs were something though But it was smooth, we knocked them out and I appreciate the team for just bringing me in and taking me in. I'm ready to rock and roll and get going."What did Alex say to you?"He was just telling me to get my mind right because I get hyped before practice. So he's like, 'Hey man, save your energy.' And I'm like, 'I got you.' I knocked them out for the squad, I'm initiating now and ready to get going."How long has it been since you haven't had red hair? Is that going to have to change now that you're not playing in a red uniform?"I'm thinking about changing it, man. I've had the red for a minute now. I guess it's time for a change. I might change it. I'm thinking about it now, but I'm way more focused on the game and prepare for this weekend to get this win."I know you're an Alabama native, but obviously played school here in Louisiana. Is there anything special about just being back here for you?"Everything is special. The people, just being close to home too. The family can come watch the game, just being close to my son. Everything around here is just legendary, man. I'm just happy to be back. Especially in the boot, man. They show major love and I just can't wait to go out there and ball for them."You made it sound like the transition has been pretty smooth picking things up so far. And you alluded to Sunday. Do you expect to be able to play at least some on Sunday?"Oh, I'll be playing on Sunday. I'll be out there, man. I'll be out there working with the squad. I'll be out there full go. It's time."
NEW ORLEANS —
Is this your very first time ever having to jump into a team midseason? And if so, what has that kind of adjustment been like for you?
"Yeah, this is my first time ever jumping into team in the middle of the season, but I'm just blessed and trying to get ready and be prepared for this week. Everything's been smooth, everything's been going well, so we're just trying to get going now."
What's kind of the first priority for you? Is it learning the playbook? Or is it even just like getting to know your teammates and all the little things like handshakes and stuff like that?
"Really the playbook first and then everything else comes with it. The chemistry with the team and everything like that, that's going to take time, but right now, everything's been going well with just the playbook so I can be on point and be with everybody else."
Usually the calls are somewhat similar, but is it pretty much the terminology where you are catching up?
"Yeah, it's just the terminology. I'm getting that down. Everything is going to be smooth this week when I've got it all down and I have it down by Sunday. Everything will be ready to go."
What do you feel like you bring to this defense or to a team in general?
"I bring passion, love for the game, energy, I love to compete. Obviously, they like to compete. I feel like I fit well in here and we're ready to take off."
You were with the team last week, but couldn't play against your old team in Tampa. And now another old team of yours in the 49ers. Is that a little special? Is there like a revenge game aspect to it or you're just not trying to pay attention to that?
"I treat every game like it's the same. I'm going to go out there and execute with the team. We're going to go out there and get the job done. We can't wait to go out and have fun and enjoy the dub when we get it."
Have you thought about how weird it is though that your first game not as a 49er is against the 49ers?
"No, I don't feel like it's weird like, it's a blessing. God doesn't make mistakes. I'm just going to go out there and do what I do what I do best. Just have fun and enjoy the game."
I'm not sure if you made the trip to New Orleans last year. But what do you sort of remember about that game just watching it as a spectator?
"I actually made a trip last year. It was a fun game, very physical, high scoring game. I feel like that's going to be different this year. We'll come on ready to rock and roll and get to it and get the ball to the offense, get the takeaways and get a dub."
What do you remember about just the atmosphere in the dome that particular day?
"The atmosphere in the dome has been legendary, when I was in Tampa I used to always come down here too and it was amazing, legendary. The fans were legendary. They had so much faith. They loved the team, the players. I'm just happy to be a part of it."
Last week, you obviously had to go through the COVID protocol. Was there anything you were able to do that week to help you kind of prepare for this week and the game on Sunday?
"I was just preparing my mind, getting ready for the plays. Everything has been going smooth and legendary so far. We're just going to keep it going just like that."
As is tradition for all new players, whether they're practice squad players or starters. You've to do up downs on Friday. Looks like you were smiling before you went over there. And then Alex Anzalone said something to you. What was that like getting initiated today?
"I mean, it was fun. The 40 up downs were something though But it was smooth, we knocked them out and I appreciate the team for just bringing me in and taking me in. I'm ready to rock and roll and get going."
What did Alex say to you?
"He was just telling me to get my mind right because I get hyped before practice. So he's like, 'Hey man, save your energy.' And I'm like, 'I got you.' I knocked them out for the squad, I'm initiating now and ready to get going."
How long has it been since you haven't had red hair? Is that going to have to change now that you're not playing in a red uniform?
"I'm thinking about changing it, man. I've had the red for a minute now. I guess it's time for a change. I might change it. I'm thinking about it now, but I'm way more focused on the game and prepare for this weekend to get this win."
I know you're an Alabama native, but obviously played school here in Louisiana. Is there anything special about just being back here for you?
"Everything is special. The people, just being close to home too. The family can come watch the game, just being close to my son. Everything around here is just legendary, man. I'm just happy to be back. Especially in the boot, man. They show major love and I just can't wait to go out there and ball for them."
You made it sound like the transition has been pretty smooth picking things up so far. And you alluded to Sunday. Do you expect to be able to play at least some on Sunday?
"Oh, I'll be playing on Sunday. I'll be out there, man. I'll be out there working with the squad. I'll be out there full go. It's time."


Florence's Pioneer Day Board announces its 91st annual Florence Pioneer Days, themed "Our Pioneer Stories." On what has become Florence's harbinger of autumn, this event was originally created as a way to honor the town's history and the pioneers who settled there.
The Pioneer Day Festival has grown into a weekend celebration and this year, most appropriately, featuring stories of by-gone days.
Events begin Sept. 14 with the crowning of this year's Royalty. At 10 a.m. Sept. 15, the Pioneer Day Parade winds its way through the historic downtown business district and winds up at Pioneer Park with food, craft vendors, music and games for children. To cap the evening, there will be a dance at the Elks Lodge featuring the Atomic Fireballs at 6 p.m.
At 1 p.m. Sept. 16, there will be a family concert featuring James Divine at the Rialto Theater.
The Arkansas Valley Flywheelers Tractor Pull is at noon Sept. 15 at Pathfinder Park and continues at 9 a.m. Sunday morning.
Those interested in being a vendor should call the Florence Chamber of Commerce at 719-784-3544 or email fcocofficemanager@gmail.com.
For parade information and applications, call Rich Burleson at 719-784-6903.
Applications are available at http://finditinflorence.com/91st-florence-pioneer-days-2018.
Sol Vista Health will host a "Visual Journaling for Stress Management" brown bag learning workshop from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 27.
"Visual Journaling" is the process where people combine words and images to create pages that help a person tap into their inner knowing to transform their view of work or life and their interactions with others.
-- Reflect on pages to understand how they can help deal with problems in new ways.
Cost for the workshop is $30. Those attending should bring their own lunch and journal, other supplies will be provided.
For more information, call 719-275-2351.