Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 497
October 31, 2022
Gitmo’s Oldest Detainee Freed After 20 Years With No Charges
Zero Hedge
The United States on Saturday released the oldest prisoner who was held for two decades at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – after his arrest in Thailand in 2003 soon after the so-called “Global War on Terror” was launched.
75-year old Saifullah Paracha was transferred to his home country of Pakistan. Amazingly, he spent nearly 20 years in US detention at the high-secure military prison without trial, nor was he ever formally charged. He was suspected of being an al-Qaida financier.
“The Foreign Ministry completed an extensive inter-agency process to facilitate the repatriation of Mr Paracha,” Pakistan’s government said in a statement soon after his release. “We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family.”
The US Department of Defense said Paracha’s transfer is part of broader efforts to close down the secretive Gitmo prison, saying on Saturday: “the United States appreciates the willingness of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility.”
According to scant details of Paracha’s suspected crimes:
Businessman Paracha was arrested in 2003 in Thailand and accused of financing the armed group, but he has maintained his innocence and claimed a love for the US.
In May, the US approved Paracha’s release concluding only that he was “not a continuing threat” to the US.
It remains that most inmates who spent years at the notorious facility were never actually charged or saw trial, with international outlets noting that out of a total 780 inmates held there throughout the post-9/11 war on terror, 732 have been ultimately released without charge.
According to more details via an English-language Pakistan media outlet:
Authorities claimed he helped two of the September 11 conspirators with a financial transaction as an Al Qaeda “facilitator” for the organization. However, despite having a number of illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease, Paracha has denied any involvement in terrorism, claiming he was unaware the persons he was interacting with were members of Al-Qaeda.
However, the US has long claimed that under international laws of war, it is allowed to detain people without trial for an endless period of time. Paracha’s son had also been arrested on the charge of helping suspected militants to get into the US through faulty documents months before his father’s arrest.
He was sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2005 by the federal court in New York, however, a judge threw out witness accounts in March 2020.
[…]
Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gitmos-oldest-detainee-freed-after-20-years-no-charges
Medical System Finally Addresses Heart Disease Caused by COVID Vaccines
by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
One of the most prestigious medical journals dealing with heart disease, the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), has published two new articles this month dealing with how to detect and treat COVID-19 vaccine induced heart disease (myocarditis, pericarditis, and myopericarditis). They are:
Vaccine‐Triggered Acute Autoimmune Myocarditis: Defining, Detecting, and Managing an Apparently Novel ConditionMyocarditis After COVID‐19 Vaccination in Pediatrics: A Proposed Pathway for Triage and TreatmentMedical journals are generally not written for the public, but for doctors and other medical professionals, so you will not hear about this in the corporate news which is heavily sponsored by the drug companies who produce the COVID vaccines, and would not want the general public to have this information.
The JAHA published studies admit to a difficult situation in treating what they refer to as a “novel” cardiac disease that is caused by COVID-19 vaccines without fueling “vaccine hesitancy” which would reduce the number of people getting COVID-19 vaccines, which of course they are obligated to believe are necessary to fight the COVID-19 “virus” disease.
[…]
US Fails Children by Not Acting on Child Labor
The U.S. Government Accountability Office suggested that 100,000 child farmworkers are injured on the job every year.
The probe into the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl found her working at a manufacturing plant in Alabama, a shocking incident that revealed the secret child labor in the United States, the only country unwilling to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
WAY TOO YOUNGThe 13-year-old daughter of Pedro Tzi, an immigrant from Guatemala, was found by the police in Georgia, where the teenager and a 21-year-old Guatemalan migrant were looking for a job.
Worse still, Tzi’s daughter and her two underage brothers did not go to school earlier this year, but worked at SMART Alabama in Luverne, an automotive parts manufacturer supplying products to South Korean multinational Hyundai Motor Company.
According to a Reuters investigation this summer, the factory employed as many as 50 children, with the youngest only 12 years old, in violation of U.S. federal law prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from working in a stamping plant.
One former employee, named as Tabatha Moultry, worked on SMART’s assembly line for several years through 2019 and said that she remembered working with one migrant girl who “looked 11 or 12 years old.” The girl would come to work with her mother, Moultry said, adding that “she was way too young to be working in that plant, or any plant.”
In August, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found child labor at another factory — SL Alabama, a Hyundai supplier in Alexander City, Alabama. In response, the DOL filed a complaint accusing the supplier of repeatedly violating labor regulations by “employing oppressive child labor” in hiring minors aged 13-15 to carry out hazardous work.
“In the U.S. system, oftentimes the monetary risk for labor rights violations is relatively small so it might be seen as a cost of doing business,” Dieter Waizenegger, executive director of SOC Investment Group, said.
“Exploitation of children is shameful,” President of the United Autoworkers Ray Curry said in a statement.
STARTLING FIGURES
Child labor is alive and well in the United States: A Hyundai subsidiary used up to fifty underage migrant workers at an auto plant known for hazardous conditions, according to former and current employeeshttps://t.co/XgH5xvIJrk
— Nathan W. Pino (@nwpino) August 1, 2022
Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history, and the number of child laborers across the country peaked in the early decades of the 20th century, according to The University of Iowa Labor Center.
Though the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, it didn’t ban child labor in the U.S. where the issue remains startling today. Under U.S. labor law, children as young as 12 can work unlimited hours on farms of any size with parental permission, as long as they do not miss school. There is no minimum age for children to work on small farms or family farms.
“This is glaringly out of step with international standards,” Margaret Wurth, a senior researcher with the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, wrote in an article published last year. “The U.S. should examine child labor within its own borders with the same scrutiny.”
Estimates by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity programs, based on figures gathered by the DOL, suggested that there are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States. Many of these children start working as young as age 8, and 72-hour work weeks — more than 10 hours per day — are not uncommon.
Agricultural work is demanding and dangerous. Children are regularly exposed to pesticides, greatly increasing their risk for cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that children are three times more susceptible to the pesticides’ carcinogenic effects than adults.
Environmental conditions, particularly extreme heat, and dangerous farming tools are even more immediate threats. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office suggested that 100,000 child farmworkers are injured on the job every year and that children account for 20 percent of farming fatalities.
EPIC FAILURE
Underage workers in the United States are protected by laws shaped by decades of research, yet young workers still suffer disproportionately higher injury rates than older workers.
Agriculture is undoubtedly the most dangerous industry for teens.https://t.co/pD7vymUygn
— Capital & Main (@capitalandmain) July 5, 2022
The United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a comprehensive human rights treaty on children’s rights and notably the most widely ratified treaty since its introduction in 1989.
Rebecca London, associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Catherine Ramstetter, founder of Successful Healthy Children, co-authored an opinion published by The Hill in June, saying that “probably many readers have never heard of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and did not know that the U.S. stands alone in its unwillingness to ratify it.”
“We have failed U.S. children and youth in so many ways on this human right,” they said. “It is an epic failure on the part of our country and one that could be rectified, if only we truly believed that children have rights: rights which deserve to be made explicit so as to be considered paramount in our institutions and policies.”
Michael Hancock, an attorney with Cohen Milstein, a law firm, said that “child labor is one of those invisible problems” in the United States.
“It’s not something that’s really obvious to the public at large. But it’s a real issue for the victims of child labor. It deprives them of an education. It puts them in harm’s way. They’re young, they’re still developing, they’re not fully mature, so there are a lot of things about child labor that will set these kids back in their development, both physical, intellectual and otherwise, for years and years,” said Hancock, who worked at the DOL for 20 years.
“It’s something we can’t lose sight of and it’s a priority we have to maintain,” said Hancock.
[…]
October 30, 2022
Elon’s Twitter Just Fact Checked Joe Biden’s Official Presidential Account
Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File
Megan Fox
PJ Media
A few moments ago, less than 24 hours after Elon Musk took over as Chief Twit of Twitter, a fact-check has been placed on one of Joe Biden’s @POTUS tweets because… he’s lying. Biden tweeted, “Let me give you the facts. In 2020, 55 corporations made $40 billion. And they paid zero in federal taxes. My Inflation Reduction Act puts an end to this.”Not so fast, homie. Twitter took the opportunity to add context that said, “Out of the 55 corporations the tweet referenced only 14 had earnings greater than $1 billion and would be eligible under Biden’s tax law.” LOL
Twitter also linked Glen Kessler’s fact-check of the claim in the Washington Post in which he concluded, “This ’55 corporations’ number is probably in the ballpark but readers should be aware that it’s not based on actual tax returns but instead is an estimate of taxes paid based on corporate reports.” Though Kessler could not bring himself to call it what it is — a lie — he had to admit that it’s not accurate.
[…]
LNG ships waiting for higher EU prices to unload
A glut of tankers are reportedly floating off the Spanish coast as a result of the trading strategy
Several ships loaded with liquefied natural gas (LNG) that have been circling off the coast of Spain are likely to stay there until late November, as they wait for European gas prices to go up, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing industry sources.
An LNG tanker traffic jam has been building off the Spanish coast for weeks with vessels waiting to unload their cargo. Spain boasts the largest LNG storage facilities in the European Union.
The glut of LNG off the coast could be part of a trading strategy by suppliers, as ships are waiting until prices increase to unload, industry sources told Reuters.
Natural gas prices are at their lowest level in Europe since June, having dropped 28% in a week, due in part to above-normal temperatures and high inventory levels, as the EU’s gas storage is now nearly 95% full, according to Rystad Energy.
“If one single idling vessel discharges its cargo, the price will immediately collapse by affecting the other cargoes in the queue and this domino effect is so painful in terms of opportunity cost,” one of the sources told Reuters.
Just by waiting to deliver in December rather than November, the difference in profit could be in the order of tens of millions of dollars per shipment, Michelle Wiese Bockmann from the shipping journal Lloyd’s List told the BBC.
The backlog of ships has mainly been attributed to a lack of LNG storage capacity in Europe. EU countries went on an LNG-buying spree over the summer to fill up their reserves ahead of winter in view of reduced supplies from Russia. But, as the bloc has long relied on pipeline gas, the continent’s regasification and storage capacities cannot cope, Reuters explained.
[…]
Activists Unite Against Airbnb in Mexico City
Telesur
The Airbnb platform, a participant in the agreement with the CDMX authorities, is one of the actors that exacerbates the housing problem in the Mexican capital.
The Government of Mexico City signed an agreement with the temporary rental company Airbnb to promote creative tourism and the activity of digital nomads, however, organizations and individuals strongly disagree with the decision.
51 organizations and 832 people refuted the decision, in statement, of promoting the commercialization of the Historic Center of the Mexican capital, as it is of no benefit to its inhabitants, in addition to it attacking the understanding of housing as a human right.
Mexico City’s mayor wants to boost the number of “digital nomads” in the capital after signing an agreement with short-term rental platform Airbnb, despite fears the influx is pricing residents out of the rental market. https://t.co/VGmoF5cz0U
— BusinessWorld (@bworldph) October 28, 2022
“The agreement replicates and gives government support to a business model that has caused havoc in other cities around the world. It is a harsh blow against those of us who have fought for legislation that considers housing as a human right and not as a mere commodity,” said the non-conformists in a statement.
“The reality for the inhabitants of the Historic Center and a good part of Mexico City is the increase in rents for different sectors of society: an entire generation of young people who are growing up without labor rights and who are not subject to credit, indigenous populations who continue to struggle to have their roots in the capital recognized, elderly people who are evicted or violently dispossessed through fraudulent lawsuits,” they denounced.
Mexico City govt joins Airbnb to lure 'digital nomads', despite rising rent fears https://t.co/LwrzBMIByb pic.twitter.com/7VeLXcwVGv
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 27, 2022
The Airbnb platform, a participant in the agreement with the capitol authorities, is one of the actors that exacerbates these problems, the protesters claimed, affecting both the middle class and popular sectors.
They also accused that tenants have been expelled to give territory to tourism and pointed out the case of at least eight buildings where they have been displaced to benefit Airbnb.
“Currently the Airbnb offer is dominated by actors who accumulate up to hundreds of living spaces. Without a clear regulation that puts a limit to Airbnb and similar platforms, financial speculation will end up devouring the already few affordable spaces for rent,” they abounded.
The agreement between the transnational company and the Mexican capital is a use of public resources to generate added value for the benefit of the private sector, through the appearance of beautifications accessible to all, when in reality they generate concentrations of profits and damage to the right to housing, according to the communiqué.
“Other cities such as Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, New York have been forced to take drastic measures against the temporary housing market. We are concerned that in CDMX such decisions are taken lightly, hiding vices and dangers well known by specialists, and without consulting at any time with its inhabitants,” they added.
In their communiqué, they made seven demands: the diagnosis and evaluation of Airbnb’s impact; suspend collaboration; take into account legislation in this regard in other cities; effective taxation of the platform; legislative defense in the local Congress of the inhabitants of the country’s capital; a tenant law to counteract speculation, and the return of displaced families.
[…]
Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Activists-Unite-Against-Airbnb-in-Mexico-City-20221030-0008.html
Japan: Rise of the Shogun and Samurai Warriors
Couple dressed in Heian Era Robes
Episode 30: Japan – The World of the Heian
Foundations of Eastern Civilization
Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)
Film Review
During the Heian period (978-1038 AD), regents from the powerful Fujiwar ran the royal court in Heian, while the king served as a figurehead and power shifted to the countryside. In essence political power was privatized, with Shogun nobles ruling the provinces assisted by Samurai warriors. As royal military conscription ceased, Shogun hired their own private armies.
Legally, however, all land still belonged belonged to the emperor, who could allocate it to Shogun nobles, farmers and Buddhist temples.
Four levels of officials claimed taxes from allocated lands:
Patrons (Shogun)Imperial officials (who could bequeath their positions to their heirs).Managers employed by ShoganFarmersDuring the Heian period, Japanese lived luxurious lives, wearing elegant clothing consisting of up to 12 layers. They spent their leisure time writing poetry, mixing perfumes and perfecting their calligraphy. Precisely landscaped Japanese gardens were incorporated into spiritual practice, which are also reflected in Heian art.
Women (who weren’t taught Chinese) wrote fiction in the local vernacular using Chinese characters, while men wrote in Chinese. Japanese script, initially adapted from Chinese characters, first began to appear during the Heian period. The most famous Heian novel was the Tale of Genji by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu.
Tendai Buddhism, which taught that everyone can achieve enlightenment via meditation, and the more mystical Shengen Buddhism evolved during this period. Both split into smaller competing sects, with many recruiting their own private militias and standing armies. Some sects terrorized Shogun and farmers in their efforts to seize more land.
Ongoing conflict between the two most powerful Shogun families (Taira and Minamota) erupted into full blown civil war between 1028-1087 AD. The Minamota ultimately prevailed,ending the flourishing Heian culture.
The Minamota eventually seized control of the imperial court, which they moved to a new capitol Kamakura.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
October 29, 2022
Musk Reveals New ‘Content Moderation Council’ Will Determine Future of Trump’s Twitter Account
Posted BY: Teresa | NwoReport
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has announced the formation of a new “content moderation council,” featuring people with varying political viewpoints.
Musk completed his purchase of the social media company on Thursday night, announcing himself to be “Chief Twit” in his bio on the platform. Following the completion of the deal, Musk immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Sagal, and notably head of “Trust and Safety”, Vijaya Gadde, who made the decision to deplatform 45th President Donald Trump.
The platform immediately abounded with rumors that Musk would immediately allow numerous people who had been banned from Twitter back onto the microblogging site, especially after the account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was seemingly reinstated less than 24 hours following the acquisition.
However, Musk announced on Friday that Twitter would be shortly “forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” adding that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
[…]
Locked-Down Foxconn Employees Scuffle Over Food Rations After Covid Outbreak
Zero Hedge
To say the working conditions at Apple’s largest iPhone plant probably aren’t incredible to begin with would likely be an understatement. But then when you lock down most of your 200,000 workers because of a Covid outbreak, those conditions likely get much worse.
This is what seemed to be the case this week, with Bloomberg reporting today that Covid cases at Foxconn Technology Group’s main factory in the central city of Zhengzhou have resulted in the facility going into a “closed loop” lockdown.
The lockdown means that employees can’t leave the campus and are tested regularly for Covid, the report says. But after the lockdown, “food has become a source of unrest”, according to the report. “Scuffles” have even broke out amongst employees over food.
As a result of the lockdowns, cafeterias at the manufacturing site were shut down and workers on assembly lines were given “meal boxes”. Some employees who have remained locked down in their dormitories were given items like bread and instant noodles.
The origins of Covid on the compound are unknown, but workers in numbers up to a dozen can share “cramped living quarters”, the report says. Bloomberg said that conflicting reports indicated that isolated workers may have been deprived of proper meals.
Recall, just days ago we wrote about Foxconn implementing health restrictions after a flare up of Covid.
Foxconn’s Zhengzhou campus has about 300,000 workers — all have been banned from eating in public and must take meals back to their dorms for consumption, the South China Morning Post reported days ago, citing a notice on the factory’s official WeChat account.
“Foxconn’s Zhengzhou workers are only permitted to commute along certain routes within the campus, with many entrances closed in a de facto lockdown,” SCMP said. In another notice, workers living off campus were advised to move into on-site dormitories.
At least for now, production of iPhones at the Zhengzhou campus remains normal despite the newly enacted Covid restrictions, according to a Foxconn spokesman.
“Production in the Zhengzhou campus remains normal, without a notable impact [from the Covid-19] situation,” the spokesman said.
China has yet to capitulate on its long-standing Zero-Covid policy (despite being a convenient scapegoat for Xi to deflect anger at the slowing economy during this month’s 20th party Congress). More than one million people were ordered to stay at home earlier this month in the metro area surrounding the iPhone campus.
[…]
Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter With Brutal Efficiency, firing top Execs & Declaring Himself ‘Chief Twit’
Elon Musk has taken ownership of Twitter Inc. Photo by REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
“The bird is freed,” he tweeted after he completed his US$44 billion acquisition on Thursday, referencing Twitter’s bird logo in an apparent nod to his desire to see the company have fewer limits on content that can be posted.The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc and self-described free speech absolutist has, however, also said he wants to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.Other goals include wanting to “defeat” spam bots on Twitter and make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available.Yet Musk has not offered details on how he will achieve all this and who will run the company. He has said he plans to cut jobs, leaving Twitter’s 7,500 employees fretting about their future. He also said on Thursday he did not buy Twitter to make more money but “to try to help humanity, whom I love.”https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1...
In a running poll on messaging app Blind about whether Twitter employees will be employed in the company in three months, less that 10 per cent voted “yes.” Of the 266 participants, 38 per cent said “No” and over 55 per cent chose the “popcorn” option. Blind allows anonymous messaging by employees to air their grievances where people can sign up with their corporate emails.
Musk fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, the sources added.Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, plans to become Twitter’s CEO after completing the acquisition and also plans to scrap permanent bans on users, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Twitter, Musk and the executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.‘Chief Twit’Before closing the deal, Musk walked into Twitter’s headquarters on Wednesday with a big grin and a porcelain sink, subsequently tweeting “let that sink in.” He changed his Twitter profile description to “Chief Twit.”
He also tried to calm employee fears that major layoffs are coming and assured advertisers that his past criticism of Twitter’s content moderation rules would not harm its appeal.
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk said in an open letter to advertisers on Thursday.As news of the deal spread, some Twitter users were quick to flag their willingness to walk away.
“I will be happy to leave in a heartbeat if Musk, well, acts as we all expect him to,” said a user with the @mustlovedogsxo account.European regulators also reiterated past warnings that, under Musk’s leadership, Twitter must still abide by the region’s Digital Services Act, which levies hefty fines on companies if they do not control illegal content.“In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton twitted on Friday morning, posting in a self-reply a short video of Breton and Musk after their meeting last May.
In an indication of the challenges ahead, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, who was banned from Twitter last year for violating its rules on hateful and abusive conduct, applauded Musk’s takeover on Instagram and shared requests from fans to have her account restored.
Musk also said in May he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump, who was removed after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former U.S. president has said he won’t return to the platform and has instead launched his own social media app, Truth Social.A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Musk has indicated he sees Twitter as a foundation for creating a “super app” that offers everything from money transfers to shopping and ride-hailing.
But Twitter is struggling to engage its most active users who are vital to the business. These “heavy tweeters” account for less than 10 per cent of monthly overall users but generate 90 per cent of all tweets and half of global revenue.
A SagaThe deal’s road to fruition was full of twists and turns that sowed doubt over whether it would happen at all. It began on April 4, when Musk disclosed a 9.2 per cent Twitter stake, becoming the company’s largest shareholder.
The world’s richest person then agreed to join Twitter’s board, only to balk at the last minute and offer to buy the company instead for US$54.20 per share, an offer that Twitter thought might be another of Musk’s cannabis jokes.
Musk’s offer was real, and over the course of just one weekend later in April, the two sides reached a deal at the suggested price. This happened without Musk carrying out any due diligence on the company’s confidential information.
In the weeks that followed, Musk had second thoughts. He complained publicly about Twitter’s spam accounts and his lawyers then accused Twitter of not complying with his requests for information on the subject.
The acrimony resulted in Musk telling Twitter on July 8 he was terminating the deal. Four days later, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the acquisition.
By then, the stock market had plunged on concerns about a potential recession. Twitter accused Musk of buyer’s remorse, arguing he wanted out of the deal because he thought he overpaid.
Most legal analysts said Twitter had the strongest arguments and would likely prevail in court.
On Oct. 4, just as Musk was set to be deposed by Twitter’s lawyers, he performed another U-turn, offering to complete the deal as promised. He managed to do that, just one day ahead of a deadline given by a judge to avoid going to trial.
Twitter shares ended trade on Thursday up 0.3 per cent at US$53.86, just under the agreed price. The stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
[…]
The Most Revolutionary Act
- Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's profile
- 11 followers
