Sunday, June 13, 2021

13 June - Blogs I'm Following - 4 of 5

 10:10 pm MDT

Let’s Not Forget The Suffering The US Has Inflicted On Guatemala
During her recent visit to Guatemala, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a frank message to Central Americans hoping to find refuge in the United States. “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border,” she said at a press conference with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on June 7. “Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.” Harris’s comments drew criticism from organizations advocating for asylum seekers. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio... read more
New Jersey Activists Halted Two Deportations
The 14 people arrested had camped out at the Bergen County Jail the previous night to try and stop the deportation of Marvin Jerezano Peña, a father from Red Bank, New Jersey who migrated from Mexico to the United States as a child. He had been arrested by ICE and was being held for marijuana possession, something now fully legal in the state. Nevertheless, ICE planned to deport Peña. The post New Jersey Activists Halted Two Deportations appeared first on PopularResistance.Org. read more
Need Help Paying Rent? There Is a Stimulus Check for That
*Ethen Kim Lieser* *Stimulus Payment, * It appears that some of the hardest hit amid the ongoing pandemic are renters who have to fork over as much as two or three thousand dollars to their landlords each and every month. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *To receive direct cash from this fund, a homeowner must have experienced financial hardship after January 21, 2020, have income equal to or less than 150 percent of the area median income, have proof of the stated financial hardship, and have a mortgage balance of less than $548,250. Studies and surveys over the past year hav... read more
California Reparations Committee Confronts Harms Of Slavery
For more than three decades, Black members of Congress have introduced legislation to study the lasting harms of slavery on African Americans, and propose remedies. Year after year, the federal proposal languished. Now, California is going it alone. This month, California’s first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations met for the first time, kicking off a two-year process to study the consequences of slavery and systemic racism against African Americans in California. The reparations committee of nine prominent lawyers, academics, politicians, religious and civil rights le... read more
Balkinization16 hours ago
Ending the same-sex marriage wars
Real victory is converting your opponents. So the recent Gallup poll finding that 70 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage is a big deal, not just for the size of its numbers, but for the fact that this majority now includes 55 percent of self-identified Republicans. At this pivotal cultural moment, it is worth reflecting on what has happened — and what remains to be done. This could be the end of a bitter cultural war, or the beginning of a new one against the conservative Christians who are not yet reconciled to the new status quo. I’m on the winning side. I’d like to ... read more
BDS Is Gaining Momentum With #BlockTheBoat Actions
A community picket line in support of Palestinian rights and liberation has succeeded in delaying a vessel operated by Israel’s largest cargo shipping company from docking at the Seattle Port for over a week. The ship, which belongs to Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (ZIM) and is known as the Zim San Diego, was originally scheduled to unload its cargo in Seattle on June 2, but has postponed docking in response to the ongoing #BlockTheBoat picket line organized by Falastiniyat, a Seattle-based Palestinian feminist collective. Hundreds of people are expected to show up in prot... read more
The Duran16 hours ago
Washington Reveals Its Summit Agenda: Threaten & Bribe Putin to Break with China
Washington Reveals Its Summit Agenda: Threaten & Bribe Putin to Break with China News Topic 184 Biden aims to avoid Trump’s misstep by skipping joint press conference with Putin Biden aims to avoid Trump’s misstep by skipping joint press conference with Putin President Joe Biden will not hold a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin […] read more
US Compels Small African Country To Imprison Venezuelan Diplomat
Upon landing in Cabo Verde, Saab was forcibly removed from the plane, imprisoned, and held under torturous conditions. A year later, Saab, who is a lawfully appointed diplomatic agent of Venezuela, remains illegally imprisoned and is fighting extradition to the US. Saab faces US charges with a maximum penalty of 160 years imprisonment. To put Saab’s potential sentence into perspective, the reportedly rogue Cabo Verde soldier who murdered eleven in the 2016 Monte Tchota massacre on the Cape Verdean island of Santiago received a 35-year sentence. Although Saab had not violated any l... read more
Climate Crisis Protestors Hit The Beach At The G7 Summit
Falmouth, England — Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside Saturday morning in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G-7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders' faces. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass “paddle out protest” organized by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans. U.S. President J... read more
21st Century Wire16 hours ago
SUNDAY SCREENING: Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis (2010)
*SUNDAY SCREENING* | Our weekly documentary film curated by the editorial team at 21WIRE. read more
21st Century Wire17 hours ago
Episode #377 – ‘Deadly Variants in Cornwall’ with guest Basil Valentine
*SUNDAY WIRE* | Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield – this is your brave new world… read more
Mining Awareness +17 hours ago
Robert Maxwell’s Shady Dealings in Bulgaria
Robert Maxwell was Ghislaine Maxwell’s father. Biden Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s stepfather, Sam Pisar, was Maxwell’s lawyer and confidant. … Continue reading → read more
Sunday morning music
Today we have something absolutely delightful for fans of pre-baroque and early Western music. It's an album by French ensemble Alla Francesca titled "Festive Music for the Visconti Court, 14th Century". The term "Istanpitta" is an Italian word (French: *estampie*) described by Wikipedia as meaning "a medieval dance and musical form which was a popular instrumental and vocal form in the 13th and 14th centuries". (A US music ensemble is named for it; we may be hearing from them in these pages in due course.) I can offer no better introduction to this music than a review on... read more
Battle of Samar: U.S. Aircraft Carriers Battled Japanese Battleships
*Sebastien Roblin* *World War II History, * The Japanese planned to lure American surface combatants into chasing the sacrificial Northern force, composed of largely empty aircraft carriers—leaving the Central and Southern forces to ravage an unguarded Leyte beachhead. *Here's What You Need to Remember:* For only the second time in history, enemy battleships had managed to close within gun-range of aircraft carriers. But in the Battle of Samar, nothing went as expected for either side. In the pre-dawn glow of October 25, 1944, four tubby TBF Avenger torpedo bombers took off on ... read more
Modernizing NATO Requires Dealing With Turkey
*Blaise Misztal* *Turkey, NATO, * NATO needs to develop mechanisms for censoring and, if necessary, ousting members that fail to live up to NATO’s democratic principles or weaken its collective security. The agenda of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit next week in Brussels will be dominated by questions of how to transform the Cold War-era alliance of democracies to face twenty-first-century challenges from authoritarian states like Russia and China. The answer lies in first dealing with an authoritarian state within NATO: Turkey. During his nearly two decades... read more
White Wolf17 hours ago
Poacher suspected of killing 70 Bengal tigers captured after 20-year pursuit
Bangladeshi police have arrested a notorious poacher wanted for 20 years and suspected of killing about 70 endangered Bengal tigers. Saidur Rahman, the local police chief, said that Habib Talukder – nicknamed “Tiger Habib” – lived next to the forest and would flee whenever officers raided the area. “Acting on a tipoff, we finally succeeded and sent him to jail,” he said. Talukder’s hunting ground was the vast Sundarbans mangrove forest area straddling India and Bangladesh that is home to one of the world’s largest populations of Bengal tigers. The cats’ pelts, bones and flesh would... read more
Bombs Away: How an F-15E Took Out An Iraqi Helicopter With a 2,000 Pounder
*Alex Hollings* *F-15EX, * The F-15E’s goal was to leverage the speed and payload capabilities of an F-15 for ground attack missions — making it one of the most capable multi-role fighters of its generation. America’s F-15 Eagle has long since secured a position in the pantheon of the world’s greatest fighters. With an incredible air combat record of 104 wins and *zero* losses, the fourth generation powerhouse we call the F-15 remains America’s fastest air superiority fighter, beating out even the venerable F-22 Raptor. But the F-15E Strike Eagle, the F-15’s multi-role sibling, ... read more
5 Ways North Korea Would Try to Kill an Aircraft Carrier
*Robert Farley* *North Korea, Asia* Aircraft carriers have been the primary capital ship of naval combat since the 1940s, and remain the currency of modern naval power. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *Nevertheless, aircraft carriers face real dangers from advanced military technology. The greatest threat, though, probably comes from the procurement process; unless the United States can restrain cost growth in the carrier and its air wing, the ships will struggle to retain their place in the overall architecture of U.S. defense policy. Aircraft carriers have been the primary ... read more
naked capitalism17 hours ago
What Bagehot Means for 21st Century Central Bankers
Is Victorian writer Walter Bagehot, whose adage “lending freely against good collateral at a penalty rate” has been gospel for central bankers, still relevant in a post-Great Financial Crisis world? read more
AGE OF AUTISM17 hours ago
Best of: A Note of Thanks
Good morning! Below is a BEST OF by Cathy, who has the day off. By Cathy Jameson I couldn’t find the right words last week. Today, I feel like I’ve found my voice again. In reflecting on a few things... read more
A Quotation From The Book, Threads of Vengeance, Starshatter Book # 3 by the Dark Knight
*''Bow down before me little one and accept your destiny!''* *''No, I will not''* Dark Knight, *Threads of Vengeance, Book # 3 in the Starshatter Series* *For more information about Threads of Vengeance, book # 3, please click on the link below:* *https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MKS8PB9?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_2&storeType=ebooks* read more
Mining Awareness +18 hours ago
Biden Admin-USAID Sending $181 Million of Unwanted-Unneeded Food Aid to Ethiopia While Americans Struggle Against Hunger; Ethiopian Famine Aid in the 1980s Allegedly Bought Weapons
The US taxpayer-debt has given almost half a billion dollars, that we don’t have, to Ethiopia in recent months. It … Continue reading → read more
The SR-72 Darkstar: Like the SR-71 But Way Better Armed
*Sebastien Roblin* *SR-72 Darkstar, * No manned aircraft in operational service has matched the remarkable long-distance Mach 3 cruises of the Blackbird. Until now? *Here's What You Need to Remember: *The latest surface-to-air missiles render Mach 3 speeds inadequate to assure survival, but a hypersonic aircraft might again outpace the threats arrayed against it. Hypersonic weapons—those capable of flying over five times the speed of sound—are the hot new buzzword of defense industrial complexes across the globe. China, Russia and the United States have all vigorously and relati... read more
Unsolved: India and China are Reliving Their 1962 War Today
*Robert Farley* *India, China, Asia* China may also have wanted to establish itself as the preeminent power in the region by giving India a bloody nose. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *In an important sense, the issues now surrounding the confrontation on the Doklam Plateau are essentially the same as those that the two countries left unresolved in 1962. The balance of power may have changed, however, as has the geopolitical situation. In 1962, the world’s two most populous countries went to war against one another in a pair of remote, mountainous border regions. In less than... read more
The Air Force’s First Supersonic Fighter Jet Was Far From Perfect
*Sebastien Roblin* *F-100, * The first of the ‘Century Series’ of advanced 50’s-era fighters, the F-100 was nicknamed the ‘Hun’ as an abbreviation for 100. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *The U.S. Air National Guard finally retired its last Super Sabres in 1980. 325 completed their service as shiny orange QF-100 target drones used as missile test targets, though a few F-100s remain in flyable condition. On October 14, 1947, an orange-painted Bell X-1 piloted by Chuck Yeager became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight. Though the rocket-powered X-1 wa... read more
Yes, Israel and Iran Did Team Up Once — to Crush Iraq's Nuclear Bomb Program
*Sebastien Roblin* *Israel Iran, Middle East* It was also widely (but wrongly) assessed in the West that the raid had been flown by Israeli pilots in Iranian jets. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *This obscure but portentous raid, and the context in which it occurred, was documented in-depth by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop in a fascinating article for Air Enthusiast magazine in 2004. At dawn on September 30, 1980 four American-made F-4E Phantom jets screamed low over central Iraq, each laden with air-to-air missiles and three thousand pounds of bombs. Prior to entering Iraqi... read more
Virtual Mirage19 hours ago
Sunday Sermonette
When we talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan the discussion centers on what we learn from it, and how it applies to our lives. Sometimes the discussion centers on why Jesus chose a Samaritan to be the protagonist in his parable, but the question of historical or factual accuracy never comes […] The post Sunday Sermonette appeared first on Virtual Mirage. read more
Untitled
From Jenna Orkin What you need to know about El Salvador’s plan to use volcano-powered bitcoin as legal tender CDC plans "emergency meeting" on rare heart inflammation following COVID-19 vaccines "Mega-drought" in West means threat of extreme fire season ahead 1. A Nantucket restaurant is considering hiring 8th graders because of the lack of available workers amid the US labor shortageOne person reportedly died while helping free the Ever Given ship, the Suez Canal Authority says 2. [image: hertz] Hertz's Chapter 11 restructuring plan has been confirmed by a bankru... read more
OrientalReview.org19 hours ago
When America Got Sick
It was in the years following the Civil War, America was hard on the path to “becoming great.” The industrial revolution had moved into full swing, railroads criss-crossed the country, immigration was gaining speed, and wealth was accumulating at a rate never seen before. We were slowly moving from our […] read more
Must Watch! "The Housing Market Is Lying To You; Institutional Money Buying Entire Neighborhoods; Wealth Transfer"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 6/12/21: *"The Housing Market Is Lying To You;* * Institutional Money Buying Entire Neighborhoods; Wealth Transfer"* read more
Life Without Liberty - A Quotation by Khalil Gibran
*Kahlil Gibran is best known for his excellent book, The Prophet. And indeed, that is where most of these quotes were sourced. Kahlil was a poet and a philosopher with a deep respect for all forms of Art. These quotes paint a vivid picture of life that touch on themes as varied as love, freedom, progress, and happiness.* read more
Turning to sustainable global business: 5 things to know about the circular economy
Due to the ever-increasing demands of the global economy, the resources of the planet are being used up at an alarming rate and waste and pollution are growing fast. The idea of a more sustainable “circular economy” is gaining traction, but what does this concept mean, and can it help save the planet? Read the full story, “Turning to sustainable global business: 5 things to know about the circular economy”, on globalissues.org → read more
Counting down to Peace Day, UN chief urges: Stand up against hatred and care for planet
Every year on 21 September, the United Nations invites people around the world to celebrate peace by observing 24 hours of ceasefire and non-violence. On Sunday, the UN chief kicked off the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace. Read the full story, “Counting down to Peace Day, UN chief urges: Stand up against hatred and care for planet”, on globalissues.org → read more
‘Demystify’ albinism and end discrimination – UN chief
On International Albinism Awareness Day, Sunday, the UN chief reiterated his “solidarity with persons with albinism”. Read the full story, “‘Demystify’ albinism and end discrimination – UN chief”, on globalissues.org → read more
World War II: What if Hitler Had Won the Race for the Atom Bomb?
*Robert Farley* *World War II, Europe* Such a scenario fortunately never came to pass. *Here's What You Need to Know*: Nazi Germany could not develop nukes as war-winning weapons. In the early years of World War II, it looked as if Germany might have the luxury to spend its time developing a new generation of super-weapons. The Nazis haphazardly pursued the idea of building an atomic bomb, with an eye toward eventual conflict with the United States. However, the immediate demands of war, combined with Western Allied sabotage, undercut the program, leaving it at the basic researc... read more
White Wolf20 hours ago
Mythical creature: Never-before-seen images show ultra-rare black leopard on the prowl
Stunning never-before-seen images show an ultra-rare black leopard as it pads out in the cover of darkness with its sooty coat camouflaged against the night sky. The photographs, included in a new book titled The Black Leopard: My Quest to Photograph One of Africa's Most Elusive Cats, were shot by British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas after he spent a year tracking the mysterious mammal in Laikipia, Kenya. Burrard-Lucas, 37, released the initial batch of images he took of a black leopard in 2019 and they quickly went viral as it was the first time one had been caught o... read more

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