Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1181

World Leaders Gather in Beijing While the US Sinks into Irrelevancy

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“The one clear message the Beijing meeting sent out to the world is that America’s «unipolar» vision of the world was dead and buried. Even among Washington’s longtime friends and allies, one will not hear Donald Trump referred to as the «leader of the Free World.”

Tales from the Conspiratum

“The United States is a power, a second-rate one that happens to possess a first-rate nuclear arsenal.”

“The one clear message the Beijing meeting sent out to the world is that America’s «unipolar» vision of the world was dead and buried. Even among Washington’s longtime friends and allies, one will not hear Donald Trump referred to as the «leader of the Free World.”

Source: World Leaders Gather in Beijing While the US Sinks into Irrelevancy

http://www.strategic-culture.org

Wayne MADSEN

20.05.2017

While vaudevillian comedy-like shouting matches broke out in the West Wing of the White House between President Donald Trump and his senior advisers and between the White House press secretary and various presidential aides, world leaders gathered in Beijing to discuss the creation of modern-day land and maritime «silk roads» to improve the economic conditions of nations around the world. Nothing more could have illustrated the massive divide between the concerns…

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Kim Dotcom EVIDENCE BOMBSHELL: #SETHRICH WAS A HERO – Russia Hacking Claim Bogus

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Kim Dotcom has just released his official statement regarding Seth Rich’s involvement in leaking Democratic National Committee documents to Wikileaks (prior to his murder). In it Dotcom states that Rich (using the alias Panda) contacted him about starting a branch of Dotcom’s Internet Party in the US. Panda advised him that he was working on voter analytics tools and other technologies that the Internet Party may find helpful. They communicated on a number of topics including corruption and the influence of corporate money in politics. Elsewhere Dotcom has claimed he facilitated the leaking of DNC documents (by Rich) to Wikileaks. Full statement at Dotcom’s website http://kim.com/

Finding Truth In an Illusory World

SOURCE

by SGT, SGT Report:

Kim Dotcom has released his official statement about Seth Rich being the DNC Wikileaks information provider. The entire statement can be read HERE. Kim Dotcom says, “I KNOW THAT SETH RICH WAS INVOLVED IN THE DNC LEAK,” and he has announced his willingness to travel to the United States to share his full statement and to provide all evidence that he has in support of his claims.  “If my evidence is required to be given in the United States I would be prepared to do so if appropriate arrangements are made. I would need a guarantee from Special Counsel Mueller, on behalf of the United States, of safe passage from New Zealand to the United States and back.”

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Money-Losing Uber Says It “Mistakenly” Underpaid NYC Drivers

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Yeah right. Exploiting and cheating drivers was all a mistake.

peoples trust toronto

After recently promising to take steps to boost drivers? wages, Uber Inc. has admitted that, over the last two-and-a-half years, it ?mistakenly? underpaid drivers in New York City.

The company claims it came forward voluntarily after discovering the issue, which, considering how the company has seemingly bounced from one PR crisis to the next, is probably a smart move. Uber’s highly-paid communications team has hopefully learned by now that sometimes it’s better to get out ahead of the story – because then you can shape it on your own terms. A few months back, the company announced that it had ? again, ?mistakenly? ? underpaid drivers in Philadelphia.

Uber is, somewhat expaseratingly, the most highly valued startup in the world with a valuation of nearly $70 billion, even though it lost nearly a billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2016, and has beencalled ?a cash-burning machine? by one…

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Thousands Across UK Flock to Hear Corbyn Speak, Ignored by MSM

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Britain’s Bernie Sanders. I wonder if the UK is as good at vote rigging as the US – I’m sure the CIA will be happy to help them out.

OffGuardian

While May dodges questions and makes limp speeches to tiny pre-selected audiences, Corbyn’s campaign is attracting large crowds all over the country. The news cameras are there, the journalists follow along, but very little to nothing of the size and enthusiasm of Corbyn’s rallies makes it onto the nightly news in the UK

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The Real Danger from Trump Is Ignored

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Whatever Trump might have done with the Russians, if he did anything at all, it has none of the potential for death and destruction that his meddling in the Middle East has.

Counter Information

By Sheldon Richman

May 21, 2017 “Information Clearing House” –  While the chattering classes spend all their time rehashing Donald Trump’s alleged — there’s a word you don’t much see in the media anymore — coordination with Russians over their alleged — there it is again — hacking of the Democrats’ email, a story with far more ominous implications is being ignored. I refer to Trump’s trip, beginning today, to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Whatever Trump might have done with the Russians, if he did anything at all, it has none of the potential for death and destruction that his meddling in the Middle East has. He is doing far more than doubling down on what his predecessor, Barack Obama, did. For a guy who promised to concentrate on domestic matters, he’s sure engaging in a lot of empire preservation. But, then, some of us are not surprised…

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The Crusades: Europe’s First Imperialist War of Colonization

The Crusades: An Arab Perspective

Al Jazeera (2016)

Film Review

The Crusades is a fascinating history of a subject that was quite new to me, as Americans rarely study the Crusades in school. Despite the title, the expert commentators represent a balance of French and English historians, as well as Muslim scholars from various Middle Eastern universities. Most of the documentary series consists of historical re-enactment of papal enclaves, battles, sieges, treaty signings and other historical events. The filmmakers use a series of maps to plot the progress of European occupation of Jerusalem and the Levantine* coast, as well the eventual liberation of these territories in the 13th century.

The documentary leaves absolutely no doubt that the Crusades were an imperialist campaign of colonization – and not religious wars, as is commonly claimed. Whenever European crusaders conquered a specific city or region, they indiscriminately slaughtered most of the inhabitants, whether they were Muslims, Jews or fellow Christians. The entire fourth Crusade (1203) was devoted to sacking the greatest Christian city in the world (Constantinople), whose residents were mainly Byzantine Greeks.

Part 4 is my favorite because it focuses on the role of the Crusades and Muslim influence in facilitating the European Renaissance of the 14th-15th centuries. When the Crusades began in 1085, the vast majority of Europeans (99%) were illiterate, whereas Middle East cities enjoyed an advanced flourishing civilization (as did India, China, Africa and North and South America prior to European colonization). When occupying crusaders were finally defeated and forced to return to Europe in 1291, they took with them advanced knowledge of Arab military tactics and agriculture, sugar cultivation, medicine, algebra, glass manufacturing and Greek philosophers ( whose work had been translated and preserved by Muslim scholars.

Part 1 – covers the role of Pope Gregory and Pope Irwin in instigating the disastrous Peoples Crusade and the first Crusade (1086-1099), resulting in the sacking and occupation of Jerusalem (lasting nearly 200 years).

Part 2 – covers the fragmented Muslim resistance to the expansion of European occupation, hindered by both religious (Sunni vs Shia) conflict and tribal rivalries. It’s during this period (1100-1127) the term hashshashin (origin of the English words assassin and hashish) came into usage, owing to the Shia assassins hired to secretly kill Sunni military commanders. Between 1127-1143 a Muslim revival led to the liberation of numerous crusader strongholds, and the launch of a second crusade by Pope Eugene, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany.

Part 3 – describes the rise of Salah Ad-Din (known in in Europe as Saladin), who unified rival Muslim armies and by 1187 retook all crusader strongholds except Jerusalem. This led to the launch of the third Crusade by Philip II (France), Frederick I (Germany) and Richard the Lion Hearted (England) This was followed by the fourth Crusade, which sacked Constantinople; the failed fifth Crusade (1213); the sixth Crusade in which Frederick II (Germany) retook Jerusalem by treaty and the failed seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France (1248). In 1244, Muslim armies retook Jerusalem, which remained under their control until it became part of the British protectorate of Palestine with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire.

Part 4 – in addition to outlining the cultural riches Europe gained from the Crusades, Part 4 also explores how Europe’s medieval colonization of the Middle East laid the groundwork for the eventual European colonization of North Africa and the Middle East (in 1917), with the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 representing a major milestone in this re-colonization.

*Levantine – a term describing a region on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea north of the Arabian Peninsula and south of Turkey, usually including the area of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.

Help Support MAPS Initiative To Legalize Psychedelic Medicine For Those In Need

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Over the past few years, more and more promising research has been emerging on the efficacy of using MDMA to treat mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The results of these studies so far have been overwhelmingly positive, and major breakthroughs have been made.

Openhearted Rebel

By Alanna Ketler, Collective Evolution

Over the past few years, more and more promising research has been emerging on the efficacy of using MDMA to treat mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The results of these studies so far have been overwhelmingly positive, and major breakthroughs have been made.

However, one significant roadblock still stands in the way of MDMA becoming an accepted treatment for mental illness: MDMA remains a Schedule 1 substance in North America, which means it’s not only highly illegal, but deemed to have no medical value whatsoever.

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Flint City Council Votes for Moratorium on Property Liens for Unpaid Water Bills*

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Flint city council does the right thing – for a change.

Hwaairfan's Blog

Flint City Council Votes for Moratorium on Property Liens for Unpaid Water Bills*

Council president Kerry Nelson: “Enough is enough. I’ve made up my mind tonight to do what I need to do for the people who elected me.”

By Kenrya Rankin

A trash bag filled with empty water bottles and water filters outside of a house on March 17, 2016, in Flint, Michigan. Flint continues to work through the effects of water contamination. Photo: Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Last month, Flint, Michigan, officials informed more than 8,000 households that if they do not pay outstanding water bills, a lien will be placed on their property, setting them on a path that could lead to foreclosure. But on Wednesday (May 17), Flint City Council passed a resolution that, if approved by Mayor Karen Weaver, will institute a yearlong moratorium on the policy of issuing liens.

Many residents stopped paying their…

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Don’t Just Fight, Build!

By Kali Akuna

March 25, 2017

Progressive Magazine

 

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Kali Akuno (left) with Eros Sana

I work with Cooperation Jackson, based in Jackson, Mississippi, which comes out of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the New Afrikan People’s Organization. I bring up both the local and national groups to give you a sense of the broad movement I’m coming from, and also the more specific work going on in Jackson. That’s important because I believe we have to be rooted somewhere firmly on the ground in order to have a base on which to stand, and from which to organize.

After Trump was elected, it took two or three weeks for many people to get out of the fog. There are some losses that we’re going to take in this next period under Donald Trump. We have to get ourselves mentally prepared for that, and do the organizing that is necessary to withstand the assault against what little democracy has ever existed in this country, as they try to take us back to the sixteenth century.

Don’t be confused about what the Republicans are really trying to do. Part of it is about profit. But they also want to make sure that those who were supposed to stay in their respective places get back in those places. And that’s virtually everybody, once you really think about it. Being white is not necessarily going to protect you.

If you can engage in actions, engage. If you can’t, that’s OK, there will be other times. The question really is, at some point we can’t just mobilize, we’ve got to start organizing. After the first 100 days, people need to sit down and come up with a plan or we are all wasting our time and we are going to be summarily defeated.

After the first 100 days, people need to sit down and come up with a plan or we are all wasting our time and we are going to be summarily defeated.

We have to develop a serious program and that starts with dialogue—amongst us. On a national level, we have to develop what I call a framework of ungovernability. Fundamentally, that means not giving any legitimacy to Trump, and more importantly, to the neo-confederates, who I would argue are actually far more dangerous than Trump himself.

We’ve got to get ourselves profoundly more organized than we are now. And we are not an organized force. Let’s not kid ourselves. With the unions, with our political parties, we’re not even as organized as we were twenty or thirty years ago. And by organized, I do not mean creating a great Internet platform.

We need to be so organized that you can call me, give me two days, and I can move fifty people, and put them in action on the ground in my community. That’s the level of organizing that I’m talking about. We’ve done it before. And we can do it again. It’s not magic; it’s just a bunch of hard work.

That’s the level of organizing that I’m talking about. We’ve done it before. And we can do it again. It’s not magic; it’s just a bunch of hard work.

I hear people say, “I can’t believe what’s happening.” But what’s happening now has been happening to indigenous people and black people all along. The older I get, the more appreciation for my people’s history and culture I have, and what my ancestors did to survive this bullshit. I am seeing that more and more as a vital piece we can’t overlook.

I’m glad people have woken up. But understand that it can get worse, and we have to get prepared for that. We don’t yet have a serious conversation between what is left of organized labor and what is emerging as the cooperative movement in this country. We aren’t in deep enough conversation with each other about how as workers we’re going to shape our own future.

A big part of Cooperation Jackson is based on black reality. Ain’t nobody creating no jobs for us. Those days are long since past. In Jackson, Mississippi, I think the real unemployment rate is easily over 50 percent. I can knock on almost any door in a black, working-class community, any day of the week, and there’s an able-bodied adult, typically, who will answer the door. Any time of day. That gives you a real sense of what I mean by a deep level of unemployment.That is a challenge, but it’s also a great organizing opportunity.

You have some time and energy. Can we use that to do something collective in our community? Can we bring your skills, time, energy, resources, and talents together with other folks under similar circumstances and transform our reality?

It takes a lot of convincing of people. But we are starting to see some results, getting people to just start doing small things.

Let’s pull together some time and energy to fix the cars and bikes in the neighborhood, to deal with our city’s transportation crisis. Jackson has a few public buses. But we don’t have much of a public transportation system. If you don’t have a car, you can’t get a job or go to the grocery store, and there are a lot of people in that situation.

But that’s an opportunity also for us from an organizing perspective, because it helps us to put people in relationship. I have a car, I have some time. You know how to fix cars, you have some time. Let’s work together and we can create a mutually beneficial system.

How do we create our own kind of cooperative cab company? We are looking into that on a deeper level—how that would fulfill not just a transportation need but a social need in our community.

Rather than see the limitations, we are seeing there’s more space from the decay of late capitalism to actually do some things to push back and start seizing the means of production. That is a big part of our project in Jackson. We call it organizing for “community production” . . .

Source: Don’t Just Fight, Build!

The Ugly Truth About Factory Farms

The mass production of America’s food comes with a hefty price. Find out the environmental, animal, and human impact of raising over 99 percent of US farm animals in factory farms in this infographic,”The Truth About Factory Farms.” Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.