And I was already impressed that they came back from a 3-1 game deficit against Matthews and the Maple Losers!
A two-fer!
2021-05-31
AMERICA! AMERICA! Except if actually from Mexico.
Though it should be noted, California was once part of Mexico. Gotta love American Exceptionalism and Global Crapitalism coming together like that!
Why acknowledging genocide is relevant more today than ever before.
Because the horrors remain to still be discovered, like this:
Earlier this week, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanna Casimir confirmed the remains of 215 children, some of whom were believed to have been as young as 3 years old, in the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The remains were discovered using a radar specialist, who has yet to complete a survey of the school's grounds, Casimir said.
"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths," Casimir said in a statement.
Residential schools were "an integral part of a conscious policy of cultural genocide" against the country's Indigenous population, according to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report in 2015. The system was created to separate Aboriginal youths from their families and "indoctrinate children" into a new culture, the report said, with the system in place for over a century -- the last such school closed in the 1990s. The report detailed many instances of physical abuse and neglect at the institutions.
Of course, even the main link above deliberately under-reports the likely number of deaths (and mind you, this is about children):
In this case, I'm speaking of the one committed in Canada by its government, the British one, and the associated Christian churches.
http://murderbydecree.com/files/MurderByDecree.pdf
Factor 3: The average mortality rate in the schools varied between four different time periods, being highest in the early years (1889-1929) and lowest in the final (1975-1996). The mortality rate averaging in each period was calculated as follows: Period 1 (1889-1929): 55%; Period 2 (1929-1949): 39%; Period 3 (1950-1975): 25%; Period 4 (1975-1996): 10%. The total average mortality rate over the entire period was therefore calculated to be 32.2%, or almost exactly one third of all students.
Since the total number of attendees was likely about 200,000 students, (say one third higher than the official count of 150,000), a simple calculation of the total number of dead comes to 66,600 children over 107 years, or 650 deaths per year, or ten deaths per school every year. But even this figure is still a conservative one, considering that several school records show that far more than ten children had died there in less than one year.
Nevertheless, 66,000 deaths far exceeds the absurdly low level cited by the government's TRC, of no more than 3,200 total deaths, or less than 5% of the actual likely number. Defying both the archival record and simple logic, the TRC would have us believe that only thirty or so children died every year in the schools, or one child every year in every third residential school, for a mortality rate of barely 1.5% -even when the government's own records cite an average death rate of 30% to 50% for many decades! (See Figures 61 and 62)Sixty six thousand unsolved deaths are tantamount to purposeful genocide, while 3,200 deaths can be rationalized as mere negligence and human error. If you were a guilty nation seeking to avoid exposure and prosecution, which figure would you prefer? And yet the truth has no room for expediency or vested interest. The dead require only the truth.
Quote of the day - 05-31-2021.
"Nothing gets the gears of industry turning like war, and nothing better creates chaotic Wild West environments of shock and confusion during which more wealth and power can be grabbed. War profiteers pour immense resources into lobbying, think tanks and campaign donations to manipulate and bribe policy makers into making decisions which promote war and military expansionism, with astounding success. This is all entirely legal.
It’s important to spread awareness that this is all U.S. troops have been dying for, because the fairy tale that they fight for freedom and for their countrymen is a major propaganda narrative used in military recruitment."
2021-05-30
RIP Spider-Man - Paul Soles
https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/spider-man-original-voice-actor-paul-soles-dies-90/
Paul Soles (August 11, 1930 – May 26, 2021)
2021-05-28
A primer into the war against Critical Race Theory.
https://blackagendareport.com/war-critical-race-theory
It's also a reminder - I need some new labels.
A lot harder to hate people when you actually have to see their faces.
Even more revealing is the deep level of hatred and lust for genocide when it involves children.
2021-05-26
Gotta hand it to The Onion.
https://www.theonion.com/biden-concerned-ambitious-agenda-could-be-stalled-by-hi-1846958173
Biden Concerned Ambitious Agenda Could Be Stalled By Him Not Really Caring If It Happens Or Not
2021-05-25
One of these days where I'm reminded of one of the typical horrors of working in corporations.
"management remains committed" - how many times have I heard that one?
2021-05-22
Two key skills needed in critical thinking.
+ How perverse to see the Israeli government make its habitual assertion of the “right of self-defense” against a population that it denies the right of a “self” at all.
The other is to distinguish in a problem between a symptom, a trigger, a cause, and probable outcomes.
Israel’s criminal aerial bombardment of the essentially defenceless population was originally triggered by outrage in both the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel over its violent raids on al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and the threatened expulsion of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan in favour of Jewish settlers.
... the war has also intensified the deep political crisis, exemplified by Israel’s inability to form a stable government after four inconclusive elections in two years. A major factor in Netanyahu’s provocations against the Palestinians was his determination amid his ongoing trial for corruption, bribery, and breach of trust to torpedo any possibility of opposition leader Yair Lapid forming a coalition government.
However, on the morning of Thursday, May 20th, CNBC reported that, “Israel launched a fresh wave of airstrikes over the Gaza strip early Thursday in what it says are continued operations to take out Hamas targets.” That action by Netanyahu — a flagrant disregard for what U.S. President Biden had publicly instructed him to do (and the United States Government donates annually $3.8 billion to Israel for purchase of U.S.-made weapons) — was very embarrassing for Biden. However, Biden had not publicly threatened Netanyahu, but had only instructed him. Therefore, the question, at this point, was whether Netanyahu’s disobedience would be publicly punished (such as by means of applying U.S. sanctions against Israel and against Netanyahu personally). Which was the master, and which was the slave, in the U.S.-Israel relationship? Absent a public punishment of Israel for its disobedience, Israel would appear to be the master, and the U.S. its slave.
Also on May 20th, Al Jazeera, a news-operation that represents the royal family of Qatar, headlined “Death, destruction in Gaza as Israel defies truce call: Live”, and reported that, “Israeli fighter jets continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, … as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied calls for a de-escalation.” This was specific public recognition that Israel was defying the publicly announced policy of the U.S. Government.
It’s good to know what America stands for, and has been standing for, at least after the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, if not ever since Harry S. Truman became America’s President in 1945. The United States has certainly been like this, continually, for a very long time.
It is now out in the open. If Biden will retaliate strongly against Israel, he will change U.S. foreign policy since 1945. If he fails to retaliate at all, he will be profoundly embarrassed. If he continues to try to walk the fence on this matter, then, since it’s all out in the open now, the United States itself will be profoundly embarrassed. No matter what he does, the future will not be like the past. This juncture is a historical turning-point, whichever way he might turn.
2021-05-21
Can you say 'podcast oligopoly'?
https://fair.org/home/the-new-podcast-oligopoly/
As a musician, I look upon this with great concern. Yes I know this is about podcasts, but to me there's a dire implication as a musician.
Sure, creating and playing music is one thing. But when there are fewer and fewer entities who control where that music goes (and ultimately who and how many can listen), it means they will everything and anything to ensure I have as little input in those areas.
In this regard, they would view me, as a 'content provider' and not a musician. In that sense, it's meant to minimize and reduce anything I - along with any cohorts - down to their level, for their consumption, control, and ultimately their profit.
Oh dear.
This isn't good, at all -> https://climateandcapitalism.com/2021/05/18/antarctic-melt-headed-for-tipping-point-by-2060/
It shows that if today’s high emissions continued unabated through 2100, sea level rise would explode, exceeding 2.3 inches (6 cm) per year by 2150. By 2300, sea level would be 10 times higher than it is expected to be if countries meet the Paris Agreement goals. A warmer and softer ice sheet and a warming ocean holding its heat for centuries all prevent refreezing of Antarctica’s protective ice shelves, leading to a very different world.
The vast majority of the pathways for meeting the Paris Agreement expect emissions will overshoot its goals of keeping warming under 1.5 C (2.7 F) or 2 C (3.6 F), and then count on future advances in technology to remove enough carbon dioxide from the air later to lower the temperature again. The rest require a 50% cut in emissions globally by 2030. Although a majority of countries – including the U.S., U.K. and European Union – have set that as a goal, current policies globally would result in just a 1% reduction by 2030.
2021-05-20
American Imperialism, Global Capitalism, Establishment - what ever name you like to described the concentrated rich and powerful.
By any name - they are both horrible, and a grave threat to humans everywhere.
Right now we watch as the Palestinians are the current people to be targeted for genocide.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/20/pers-m20.html
The way forward in the struggle against war and imperialist barbarism is not the politics of “human rights” imperialism, but the international unity of the working class—in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East—on the basis of the struggle for socialism.
It's not a good sign when a recruiter has a typo in the type of job they're trying to recruit for.
I'm not sure I've ever done 'tetsing'. I'm not sure what that is.
3+ years of experience in Functional/Load/API tetsing
Doesn't seem like the right type of experience needed for a 'Software Test Engineer'
Whenever I get an software technology-related email that starts with 'Oops! Android apps expose data of millions', I tend to think this is much worse than being advertised.
For now here's the establishment narrative, unedited.
Android apps exposed data of millions of users through cloud authentication failures
Malicious apps are not the only security problem on our handsets: misconfiguration can also put us at risk.
2021-05-16
It's bad in India, but not everywhere.
Some parts are recognizing the need to ensure health pandemics are managed by science, rather than by profit:
... the LDF government of Kerala adopted a science-based approach to tackle the pandemic. It expanded public health care facilities to meet likely increases in the number of cases. It carried out a vigorous “Break the Chain” campaign, urging people to adopt the basic practices (social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks) that are necessary to prevent the spread of the virus. Testing and treatment for COVID-19 in Kerala’s government hospitals have been free and available to everyone who needs it.
To prevent mass suffering during the pandemic, the LDF government got the state’s self-government institutions—which have been strengthened over the past few decades due to the efforts of Left governments—to cook and deliver food to those in need. The government provided food grain and grocery kits for free to every household to prevent hunger. The trade unions and mass organizations helped run these community kitchens as well as helped set up quarantine facilities and treatment centers.
What novel concepts. And the funny thing about that? It finds its own success:
The LDF won 99 of the 140 seats in the Kerala assembly elections; 67 of these seats were won by candidates of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It was the first time since 1980 that an incumbent party or coalition had been able to win a second consecutive term in Kerala.
2021-05-15
War Crimes committed by Israel, and a dire warning to Americans.
If this is the existence you'll allow elsewhere; and it's what you tolerate here, you are condemning yourself and all to extinction.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/05/14/chris-hedges-israel-the-big-lie/
Amazing ... this is exactly what came to mind when announced.
Now, even the pretense that the disease is being combatted is being dropped. Instead of claiming to be stopping the spread of the disease, mass death from COVID-19 is being “normalized.” The pandemic will continue. New strains will spread, and workers are being told that they will simply have to accept widespread death as a fact of life.
In December 2020, when the US death toll stood at nearly 300,000, the WSWS explained:
The normalization of death arises from the decision, rooted in class interests, to treat “economic health” and “human life” as comparable phenomena, with the former prioritized over the latter. Once the legitimacy of the comparison and prioritization is accepted—as it is by the political establishment, the oligarchs and the media—mass death is viewed as unavoidable. It is from this awful calculus that the slogan emerges, “The cure can’t be worse than the disease.”
In the past five months, the death toll has doubled. A new administration has taken power, but the same policy continues. As part of this campaign, the number of daily deaths and infections in the US is not even being reported in news reports. However, the US death toll remains between 600 and 700 a day. Over 20,000 people died of COVID-19 over the past 30 days, and 868 people died of the disease on Wednesday alone. At this time last year, there were 24,000 daily new cases of COVID-19, compared to 40,000 today.
The end of mask mandates will eliminate another obstacle to the spread of COVID-19 variants, which are potentially more resistant to the immunity provided by vaccines and natural infection. Every day, more than 700,000 people around the world test positive for COVID-19, giving the virus more opportunities to mutate as it spreads. The potential risks of new variants of COVID-19 are unknowable and unknown.
The change in CDC guidelines has no scientific or public health validity. The Trump administration repeatedly pressured the CDC to falsify science to justify the administration’s goal of reopening schools and business. This reality has not changed under Biden, who has dedicated his administration to the single-minded pursuit of reopening schools, with the aim of getting the largest possible share of the population back into the labor force to swell the profits of major corporations and hold down rising demands by workers for wage increases.
Context here -> https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/15/pers-m15.html
2021-05-13
So the Third Intifada begins.
The Palestinian people have been abandoned by the International Community, and their hopes of one day seeing an end to life under Apartheid – as Human Rights Watch describes it – had sunken into the darkness. However, Israel made one crucial mistake, its government and the majority of its people worked under the assumption that this day would never come; a day when the Palestinians would unite as one body and with greater force than ever.
When a population suffers massacre after massacre and lives for decades under a brutal military occupation, then you attack their Holy Sites forcing their backs against the wall, they have one option, and that is to fight back. We are seeing that now. The Palestinians are fighting back stronger than ever and it came out of a period of time that little to no-one had expected.
The Israelis have continued massacring Palestinians and it is nowhere close to a fair fight, but now the Palestinians have sent a clear message that Israel can no longer just torment them for sport and get away with it. So now rises the Third Intifada.
2021-05-11
Hey look - more apartheid from Israel!
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/05/11/the-israel-narrative-is-crumbling/
And why?
Those responsible for carrying out its day-to-day abuses are just ordinary civilians, police and soldiers who have not been trained in the sinister craft of perception management. Who aren’t acutely aware that it’s bad optics to tell a Palestinian family on camera that if you don’t steal their house then someone else will. Who don’t have bad PR at the forefront of their attention when they’re cheering as they shoot Palestinian protesters. Who just react to the racist nationalist propaganda they’ve been ingesting all their lives instead of considering how difficult it will be to narrative manage a video of them cheering and chanting “may their names be erased” at the sight of flames.
Hard to capture how deeply horrifying this video is. Thousands of Israeli Jews singing about revenge, chanting "Yimach shemam (may their names be erased)," dancing as a fire burns on the Temple Mount.
This is genocidal animus towards Palestinians — emboldened and unfiltered. https://t.co/ftmdMw8BUR
— Simone Zimmerman ? (@simonerzim) May 10, 2021
Awareness is spreading of Israeli apartheid brutality for the same reason awareness is spreading of U.S. police brutality: the internet combined with smartphone cameras. Seeing is believing. Seeing brings change.
So the Habs flopped into the playoffs again.
By losing, they are in.
Somehow it's anymore exciting this year, as the year before.
It seems as though the Canadiens in the NHL are more like the Mariners here the Pacific Northwest. What do I mean?
I mean that since the early 1980's it seems the Habs have been more interested in making money, rather than winning Championships. It's coming up on 40 years from that time, and at minimum just under 30 since the last win, and how many of them have there been? You can count them on two fingers.
But before that, the oldest NHL franchise (pre-dating the NHL itself) had over 20 Cup wins. What has changed?
Sure the team has had many owners in its past - both individuals, families, and corporations. But up until 1980, the goal was and always was a Stanley Cup championship. No less was failure.
Since then, I think the more important goal has been money. I mean look here -
https://www.forbes.com/teams/montreal-canadiens/?sh=1aef59a7526d
They are rolling in dough - that's great for the company.
But what about the fans? For us, it's seeing that Cup in the parade is what counts.
But apparently not anymore.
Certainly not in Seattle.
I mean - look at the Mariners ... have they ever won a World Series? Have they ever appeared in the World Series.
2021-05-09
Once and for all ...
... 'Democrat' is a brand, just like 'Republican'.
It exists to create the illusion of choice amongst the bare minimum majority of voters to perpetuate the illusion of democracy in the United States.
In a time of economic crisis (the 3rd one in 20 years)
In a time of global pandemics
In a time where climate change and global warming continue unabated
In a time where systemic racism, brutality, and death are all that's offered, especially if you're not white and even more if you're not actually American
- In such times, people should be reminded that these brands don't work for you.
- They will do nothing for you, and that's by design.
https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-progressives-capitulate-biden
Bush is following in the footsteps of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who entered Congress with great fanfare, also after defeating an incumbent in a primary. After being beaten down by Biden and the leadership she proclaimed that he “exceeded expectations that progressives had.” Pramila Jayapal joined in the capitulation by pronouncing that she gives Biden an A grade. No minimum wage hike, no public option, no prescription drug cost reduction and nothing else that these members said they wanted is taking place. In fact Ocasio-Cortez demurred from forcing a vote on Medicare for all in favor of using leverage to push for a minimum wage increase. Biden dismissed her fake strategy with a cynical ploy about a parliamentarian and she is left with egg on her face.
There can be no more excuses made for these people. Regardless of what they may want, they steadfastly refuse to fight for what they know to be right. None of them are revolutionaries, which is what they would have to be in order to fight a corrupt system. Biden is in no mood for compromise and he doesn’t have to when no one will fight back. The leadership do what their donors want and by definition that means the people don’t get what they want and need.
2021-05-08
2021-05-07
2021-05-06
Do you like the new AT&T?
They seem to act a lot like the old one.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/06/atts-harvesting-scam/
In the telecommunications world, “harvesting” as a number of very different meanings. The most well-known is data aggregation, the collecting of user or customer information (e.g., location data) and selling it to third parties. A second takes place when a telecom company (e.g., AT&T) decided to upgrade or replace an older network (e.g., 2G) and convert users to a new frequency (e.g., 3G). A third and more pernicious form of harvesting is exemplified by how AT&T treats POTS customers.
2021-05-04
Quote of the day - 05-03-2021.
We will extract ourselves from this culture of sadism the way the dispossessed extracted themselves from the stranglehold of crony capitalism during the Great Depression, by organizing, protesting and disrupting the system until the ruling elites are forced to grant a measure of social and economic justice. The Bonus Army, World War I veterans who had been denied pension payments, set up huge encampments in Washington, which were violently dispersed by the army. Neighborhood groups, many of them members of the Wobblies or the Communist Party, in the 1930s physically prevented sheriff departments from evicting families. In 1936 and 1937, the United Auto Workers union carried out a sit-down strike inside factories that crippled General Motors, forcing the company to recognize the union, raise wages and meet union demands for job protection and safe working conditions. It was one of the most important labor victories in American history and led to the entire automobile industry in the United States becoming unionized. Farmers, forced into bankruptcy and foreclosures by the big banks and Wall Street, founded the Farmer’s Holiday Association to protest the seizure of family farms, one of the reasons bank robbers such as John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and the Barker Gang were folk heroes. The farmers blocked roads and destroyed mountains of farm products, reducing supply and raising prices. The farmers, like unionized auto workers, endured widespread government surveillance and violent attacks from the FBI, company goons, hired gun thugs, militias and sheriff’s departments. But the militancy worked. The farmers forced the state to accept a de facto moratorium on farm foreclosures. Mass demonstrations outside state capitals at the same time pressured state legislatures to block the collection of overdue mortgage payments. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers in the south unionized. The Department of Labor called their collective action a “miniature civil war.” The unemployed and the hungry throughout the country squatted in vacant homes and on vacant land forming shantytowns that were known as Hoovervilles. The destitute took over public buildings and public utilities. This constant pressure, not the good will of FDR, created the New Deal. He and his fellow oligarchs eventually understood that if there was not reform there would be revolution, something Roosevelt acknowledged in his private correspondence.
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