I managed to get to the end, but not without scars, so to speak.
More on that tomorrow.
2025-02-28
2025-02-26
Watch out for anyone or any entity that invokes the notion of 'protecting you.
Chances are, it's one big projection-fest and they in reality are the very thing you need protection from.
https://blackagendareport.com/who-protects-people-human-rights-protectors
In a world still characterized by the imposition of normalized white supremacy, who counts as human and whose lives count as lives is informed by the categories of existence informed by colonization, patriarchy, race ideologies and capitalism – the white supremacist, colonial//capitalist patriarchy as enemy of collective humanity. Understanding this and the contours and the driving material and non-material forces of “global white supremacy,” must be seen as critical to any left political and theoretical project, if it is a serious project.
2025-02-24
Silencing others is a classic bullying technique.
Same as feigning being a victim.
Cases in point -> the charges and smears leveled against Yves Engler, and Birju Dattani.
No surprise the Montreal police go along with it.
2025-02-20
I went on this trip for 2 things.
One was to get a specific treat at a local bakery - done.
The other ... was to get to the Pacific Ocean beach in Long Island, Washington.
2025-02-19
2025-02-18
Hmm looks who beats the private sector when it comes to offering medical care to the public.
A public healthcare system that actually addresses the medical needs of the public.
Kerala’s healthcare revolution: A triumph over corporate greed and inequality
Kerala’s public healthcare system is providing accessible, high-quality treatment while challenging the profit motive of the private sector.
Need to get away for awhile.
My weekend work went pretty well.
And despite it not being either the right 'time' to take a pre-paid vacation, nor do some really care to do anything other than sit on their ass all day, I do need to physically get away.
So I'm doing so.
2025-02-15
The underlying core of Zionism, is ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The means is genocide.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/14/the-catastrophic-resolution/
A crime of the 20th Century that the right-wing would like people to forget.
2025-02-14
Housing crisis in America - what is the cause?
It's not crime.
It's not mental health.
It's not 'character'
It's not even poverty.
It's affordability, and here's but one attribute -> https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/14/the-housing-loophole-that-lets-wealthy-investors-raise-rents-on-poor-tenants/
And let's clear - it's about a small group of entities protecting and growing their wealth and power at the expense of everyone else:
Similar stories have been playing out across the country for years, as developers and real estate investors take advantage of an obscure section of the tax code known as the “qualified contract” provision. It allows owners of low-income rental properties that have received generous tax credits to raise rents far sooner than the law typically requires.
Some 115,000 apartments in the United States have lost rent restrictions as a result, according to one estimate. Experts say these conversions are exacerbating the nation’s shortage of affordable housing, which has intensified in recent years. One report recently concluded that the country has nearly 5 million fewer housing units than it needs. The problem is most acute for those with low incomes.
2025-02-13
Reminder once again - US Crapitalist controllers and Zionist entities don't give a shit about brown people.
Just another set of targets to be taken out.
Pregnant Palestinian woman killed in Israeli massacre at Nour Shams Refugee Camp
Several weeks into the IOF “Iron Wall” Operation, Palestinian civilian deaths in the West Bank continue to rise, as the IOF reportedly expands its open-fire orders.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed another massacre in Nour Shams refugee camp, in the northern city of Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, February 9.
Sundus Jamal Shalabi (23), who was eight months pregnant, was killed alongside her unborn child by IOF gunfire, during a raid in the camp. Shalabi’s husband also suffered critical head injuries in the assault.
The IOF blocked medical teams from reaching the wounded people in the camp, preventing them from saving Shalabi’s fetus, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
2025-02-12
Like Malcolm X, Steven Bantu Biko was way ahead of his time.
https://blackagendareport.com/essay-white-racism-and-black-consciousness-stephen-bantu-biko-1971
Truly remarkable how much of this applies today -
The philosophy of Black Consciousness, therefore, expresses group pride and the determination by the blacks to rise and attain the envisaged self. At the heart of this kind of thinking is the realisation by the blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Once the latter has been so effectively manipulated and controlled by the oppressor as to make the oppressed believe that he is a liability to the white man, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do that will really scare the powerful masters. Hence thinking along lines of Black Consciousness makes the black man see himself as a being, entire in himself, and not as an extension of a broom or additional leverage to some machine. At the end of it all, he cannot tolerate attempts by anybody to dwarf the significance of his manhood. Once this happens, we shall know that the real man in the black person is beginning to shine through.
This becomes very important when you consider in today's world - minimizing, distracting, diverting, manipulating, and leading people away from any realization of reality based on facts and evidence, are essentially what lies and propaganda for - they are a means of control.
It's only when we as human beings see this for what it really is, then collectively both become conscious, and taking decisive action can really happen.
Doing the bidding of Zionism at all times.
The Swiss are no different ->
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/12/the-swiss-zionist-who-jailed-ali-abunimah/
https://thegrayzone.com/2025/01/28/swiss-official-journalist-ali-abunimah-pro-israel/
Swiss authorities detained Abunimah on Jan. 25, after they initially allowed him entry into Switzerland following an hour-long interrogation. Abunimah was deported on Jan. 27 after two nights, during which Swiss officials refused to tell him whether he was being charged with a crime. According to the Swiss newspaper NZZ, officers in Zurich successfully petitioned federal police for an arrest warrant after realizing Abunimah had travelled to the country in order to deliver a speech at an event organized by the Zurich Palestine Committee. Fehr explained the arrest by stating, in reference to self-described “non-religious person” Ali Abunimah: “We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland.”
It’s unclear how Fehr came to adopt this patently false claim, but the article in NZZ gives a hint. In painting the secular Abunimah as a jihadist, the story’s authors relied on a leader of a little-known group called “Never Again Is Now,” (NAIN) which characterizes itself as “the only non-profit organization in Switzerland dedicated exclusively to combating antisemitism,” says it “demands the uncompromising enforcement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism,” and claims: “we… defend Israel against anti-Zionist agendas.”
NZZ quoted one of the group’s board members, Thomas Patzko, as stating “Abunimah and his platform are a mouthpiece for Hamas.” The outlet cited NAIN while insisting that Abunimah “delegitimizes the victims of the terrorist attack on October 7, specifically women and children” – a reference to Abunimah’s factual statement that “there is no credible evidence of a single rape on October 7.”
2025-02-10
Gee, when Nicolas Maduro said the US was behind Juan Guaidó ...
... turns out he was quite right.
USAID financed Guaidó to weaken Venezuelan government, says President Maduro
The investigation, which began several years earlier, is supported by reports that the Donald Trump administration has disclosed regarding USAID funding to several non-governmental organizations.
US investigations into USAID are at least ten years behind Venezuela’s
William Saab’s accusations follow the United States’ investigation into USAID’s handling of resources over several years. President Donald Trump announced that, following preliminary investigations, contracts of non-essential USAID personnel worldwide would be suspended.
According to Diosdado Cabello, Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the US authorities’ investigations come more than ten years after the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office initiated its investigations in 2014.
In this regard, former military and mercenary Jordan Goudreau, who claimed to have led, with the support of the US government, the military incursion of Macuto Bay in Venezuela in 2020 (called Operation Gideon), said that “The FBI is now investigating Juan Guaidó for USAID fraud. Listen, four and a half years ago they had evidence of this. The FBI had evidence that the CIA was involved in my operation.”
Ran into a major musical snag.
My drummer is currently not functional.
By this, I mean the device by which I program drum parts for given songs, has run into a problem, when trying to record from it to a mixer, via USB. While happening, a foul odor emanated from the device (I kid you not), and it shut down.
When I finally started it back up, several basic features no longer work. Old projects run with latency. The UI is glitch-y. And the speakers no longer function.
Yeah - it's that bad.
Of course, the device is no longer under warranty, but this leaves me with a major dilemma ->
- A major diagnosis and repair cost would be coming - but this assumes the problem can even be repaired.
- Purchasing a replacement device, but this presumes I know what the cause of the original damage was, such that I don't repeat this issue.
Just getting support has also been a pain. I reached out to one repair place, and never heard back. Now I'm trying some local places, but with the assumption that it'll be VERY expensive.
It really sucks. We just finished our tax return, and I wanted to earmark some money into investing in a new multi-track recorder. But now I have to take a step back and figure out if I should resolve this issue first.
Life sucks living in Crapitalism.
2025-02-07
Hmm ... now what happend to Peoples' Dispatch website ?
Given their tendency to get a ton of things right, it's suspicious to me that their site too is suddenly is down.
2025-02-06
Great advice from this fellow.
My comments -
Dude, you are saying a lot more than your realize. What you describe as the 'perceived autonomy' in salary negotiations, is an apt metaphor for US Crapitalism and the voter. By limiting any discussion around elections to MAGA Red or Blue-No-Matter-Who, people are propagandized by the legacy media into believing those are the only choices.
Crapitalism is the illusion of democracy. Voters are given (and limited to) two non-choices (blue and red) which - both conveniently and remarkably - work out amazingly well for the 1%.
And your advice is superb. You either turns the tables (i.e. 're-frame the negotiations') or walk away seeking what you need from a less-scrupulous employer.
It's a very tough thing to do however - especially when the threats of job loss are looming everywhere. The system certainly exploits your need to eat, sleep, etc where those things and more cost money. And employers certainly like to exploit people, especially when they haven't worked in awhile - having a reserve of unemployed people out there serves to lower salaries, but also can be used as a threat to existing employees to not demand more (or unionize, or strike). But it's only when you realize it's a rigged situation can you really turns things around for yourself. Same thing for crapitalism - things will only change for the better when enough people realized they've been conned by the employer class for all this time.
Those fucking lazy workers - not working hard or smart enough!
Oh wait they are.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, as output increased 2.3 percent and hours worked increased 1.0 percent. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annualized rates.) From the same quarter a year ago, nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
2025-02-05
Climate Shift Index® Global Map
An interesting and harrowing place to see how the aspects of climate change impact the planet ->
https://csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index
- Climate Shift Index: https://csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index?lat=-0.08789&zoom=2
- Temperature Anomaly: https://csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index?lat=-0.08789&mapType=anomalies&zoom=2
- Temperature: https://csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index?lat=-0.08789&mapType=temperature&zoom=2
Hmm what happened to Black Agenda Report's website?
Given their tendency to get a ton of things right, it's suspicious to me that their site suddenly is down.
2025-02-03
Oh look - Zionism continues the ongoing Palestinian genocide.
This time, in the West Bank.
As part of West Bank offensive, Israel conducts largest demolition in years
The Israeli army is expanding its offensive in
the northern West Bank and employing some of the same tactics that it
has used in Gaza over the past 15 months, including the mass expulsion
of residents, airstrikes, and large scale demolitions.
2025-02-02
Quote of the day - 01-29-2025.
Dimitri Lascaris
"You can't make this shit up."
Amazing how no matter how outlandish our imaginations seem ...
... It's always reality that goes to the extreme.
Pro-Israel AI Bot Goes Off the Rails, Calls IDF Soldiers "Colonizers" and Demands Palestinian Statehood
Critical Thinking
An AI-powered social media bot seemingly deployed to boost pro-Israel narratives online appears to be going wildly off script, instead criticizing the Israeli and American governments in strongly-worded missives.
As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, an account called @FactFinderAI X on X-formerly-Twitter appears to be one of many designed to bolster pro-Israel digital campaigning efforts using generative AI.
Except, like a deeply confused activist, the bot keeps radically switching sides — even, in one instance flagged by Haaretz, denouncing the Israeli Defense Force as "white colonizers in apartheid Israel."
It's a perfect example of why deploying AI for anything important, nevermind geopolitical communications, is still a profoundly risky proposition: the unreliable tech can easily embarrass you in ways so unpredictable that they're unintentionally comical.
More here -
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