king – Radio Free

Ruling from Houses of Clay: Regime Change for Washington and Tel Aviv

Phil Rockstroh — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:27:26 +0000

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” — The Book Of Proverbs, 16:18

“CEASEFIRE IS IN EFFECT!” Trump shouts in upper case impotent rage into the pixel abyss.

To bring about and sustain peace, the leaders of empires must surrender the illusion that they can maintain control of people and events in far-flung places. It is imperative, an empire’s elites let go of their domination compulsions and live by the principles inherent to compassion. Hopeless and risible fantasy, huh?

Trump, who cannot quote a single line of scripture, hero to Christian evangelicals, might fall from his golf cart, stricken by a Paul On The Road to Damascus experience, and renounce his past behavior, defined by cruelty and greed, then call Bibi Netanyahu, and advise him to fall to his knees, as did King David, and repent and beg for forgiveness to The Creator for the massive amount of blood he has been responsible for spilling.

According to scripture (hello, Ted Cruz): Jesus posited regarding John the Baptist: “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he?” – Luke 7:28

What is meant by the word, “least”?

In Matthew 25:40: “The ‘least’ among us” is clarified: To wit, Jesus proclaims, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

One must be willfully deaf and blind to not grasp that to avoid earthly life becoming Hell on Earth: empathy must reign; the outsider must be bestowed with kindness; the poor must be lifted up; the sick must be attended to; and those imprisoned should be granted compassion.

Does any of the above sound like the policies of the current administration – whose most loyal supporters claim to be Christians? Yes, the mindset of Trump et al. is so at odds with the Gospel Of Jesus that a pentecost of derisive laughter should descend from Heaven that would shake the Earth and awaken the dead who would rise due to an apocalypse of hilarity.

King David On His Knees: “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God” — Psalm 51-14

Yet another image arises: In Death’s Grand ballroom: The War Party’s dance of death with Christian Zionists proceeds as the capitalist media plays on.

In 1 Samuel 15, the God of Israel orders the first King of Israel, Saul, to carry out a genocidal rampage on the Amalekites (a semi-nomadic people inhabiting the edges of southern Canaan).

Old Testament Samuel said unto Saul, (1) “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. (2) This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. (3) Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

The unforgivable trespass committed by the Amalekites: A number of generations back, their ancestors had refused to be in alliance with the Israelites in their land-seizing, atrocity-inflicting wars to establish nationhood. Yet, later, King Saul was condemned by God, The Lord Of Hosts, for not slaughtering every person and all of the creatures within reach of his sword dwelling in Amalek. (Saul had spared The Amalekites’ King, Agag and a smattering of the land’s most valuable livestock.) Hence, Samuel, the prophet, channeling the command of the God Of Israelites, reported to Saul, due to his disobedience to a divine command, he must be dethroned.

Let’s think this through, Samuel hears voices in his head insisting on mass murder. King Saul, unquestioningly, follows the directions proffered by the prophecy – but not to the very blood-drench letter, thus he is disgraced and loses his kingship.

To say the least, this is a parcel of problematic mythos … if taken literally. And many in the present day Zionist state, evidence suggests, have done just that.

George W. Bush also heard the voice of The Lord Of Host (FYI: Lord Of Hosts (Geta Yeserawit) translates from the original biblical era Amharic as: “Lord of Armies” thus places emphasis on the God of Israel’s role as a warrior).

Donald Trump believes he was spared from assassination by a divine intervention and, thereby, has been called to fulfill a destiny of biblical scale.

John 1:29, where John the Baptist proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who [bombs] away the sin of the world!”

Therefore, The Sermon On Mar Largo follows verily:

The Sermon On Mar-a-Lago follows verily:

Beat farm equipment into the weapons of war. Blessed are the war machine propagandists. The grifters will inherit the (nuclear-scorched) earth.

Blessed are the sycophants who kiss The Donald’s Most High’s ass and call it holy communion. Blessed are those who pursue and prosecute powerless outsiders, for bullies are made in the image of dear leader, The Lord Of The Downward Punch.

Blessed are the pussy-grabbers for they will sojourn into the Land Of Epstein and be granted earthly immunity. Blessed are the on-bended knee media for they will inherit a diminishing viewer share yet be not cursed with self-awareness.

Blessed are those who hunger for the Holy Emperor Don’s approval and crave more and more for they will be seated at The Table Of Mendacity and eat and eat more of their own corruption and call it manna. Rejoice and revel in your spite, blood-lust, and war propaganda because your prophecy will be rewarded by high-dollar, donor-class funded think tanks.

Do not think that Donald J. Christ has come to abolish the Law Of Profiteers. He has not come to abolish human folly but to bloat it into such grotesque form that those possessed of a mustard seed-size of righteousness will finally and at long last rise up and whose cry of outrage will shake the unholy air and restore the land to sanity.

Speaking of the insanity of leadership:

In the Book Of Daniel, the prophet Daniel, during a period of exile and Jewish captivity in Babylon interpreted a dream for Babylon’s King, Nebuchadnezzar, involving a tall, magnificent tree, its expansive bough capable of bestowing succor to man and beast. But a messenger from Heaven commands the tree cut down to a stump. Daniel, going all Jungian on Nebuchadnezzar’s royal ass, interprets the dream thus: The tree is a representation of Nebuchadnezzar insofar as both the reach of his kingdom and the massive extent of his pridefulness. The Angel Of God commands, Nebuchadnezzar will fall prey to madness.

“He was driven away from people and ate grass like an ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until this hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird” –Daniel 4:33.

The symbol of the stump represents: The mad king will only recover when his humiliation, delivered by a power greater than his pride, causes him to repent thus cease attacking neighboring lands and slaughtering, deporting, imprisoning the inhabitant of the lands he occupies. The story goes, Nebuchadnezzar’s madness lasted seven years during which time he walked on all fours like a wild animal and grazed on grass in the manner of a bovine in the field.

William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, 1795

It follows, only by their fall can the pride-bloated be lifted up. The splendor of empire will be reduced to a stump when it is built on the backs of the poor and watered in the blood of the innocent.

The present day embodiment of power-maddened, pride-bloated leadership struts, preens and boasts his bombing campaign was a thing of glory to behold under heaven. One does not require an Old Testament seer nor angel dispatched from a wrath-gripped God to apprehend the astounding degree of folly evinced by Trump and the parallels to the hubristic actions of the Zionist state.

In closing and in stark contrast, from The Book Of Proverbs:

16:7: When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him:

8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.

9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

10 A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

11 A just weight and balance are the Lord’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.

12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.

13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

14 The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.

15 In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.

16 How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

If the verses above were taken to heart, regime change of the mind would come to be, and, in Washington and Tel Aviv, the political ground would shake, its corrupt leadership would be deposed in disgrace and relegated to crawl on their bellies through the dust of history, and peace might become a possibility.

O’ Ye of little faith…you have been proven right all too many times for your jaundiced opinion to be healed by a laying on the hands of faith alone. Yet, history reveals, overreaching tyrants find they are grasping a handful of dust.

“How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.” — Job 4:19

Marc Chagall, Daniel, 1956

The post Ruling from Houses of Clay: Regime Change for Washington and Tel Aviv first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Phil Rockstroh.

Their county voted for Trump, but they don’t want a king

The Real News Network — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:19:05 +0000

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

Sanders, King Introduce Bill to Ban Prescription Drug Ads

Newswire Editor — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:18:44 +0000

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) today introduced the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, legislation that would ban prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms and social media. The bill would also answer Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s repeated calls to end prescription drug advertising, a position he promoted while campaigning for President Trump in 2024.

“The American people are sick and tired of greedy pharmaceutical companies spending billions of dollars on absurd TV commercials pushing their outrageously expensive prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “With the exception of New Zealand, the United States is the only country in the world where it is legal for pharmaceutical companies to advertise their drugs on television. It is time for us to end that international embarrassment. The American people don’t want to see misleading and deceptive prescription drug ads on television. They want us to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and ban these bogus ads.”

“The widespread use of direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical companies drives up costs and doesn’t necessarily make patients healthier,” King said. “The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act would prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs to protect people. This bill is a great step to ensure that patients are getting the best information possible and from the right source: their providers and not biased advertisements.”

Last year, the 10 largest drug companies made more than $100 billion in profits while the pharmaceutical industry spent over $5 billion on television ads. Prescription drug commercials now account for more than 30% of commercial time on major networks’ evening news programs. In the first three months of this year, Big Pharma spent more than $725 million advertising just 10 drugs. Meanwhile, the American people pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and one in four Americans cannot afford the costs of the medicine their doctors prescribe.

Banning direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is not a radical idea. In addition to Secretary Kennedy, the American Medical Association endorsed a ban a decade ago. Studies have shown that more than half of prescription drug ads are misleading or false, causing many Americans to underestimate the associated risks. Harvard researchers found that the majority of the most advertised drugs had little to no therapeutic benefit compared to existing prescription drugs. America’s seniors are particularly at risk of being misled as pharmaceutical companies strategically target them by pushing high-priced medications that may cause them harm.

For example, in 2010, Eli Lilly spent $205 million on direct-to-consumer ads and made $3.2 billion in sales for the antidepressant drug Cymbalta, despite Food and Drug Administration (FDA) findings that the company’s ads made unsupported and misleading claims of effectiveness and minimized its safety risks. Merck spent $300 million marketing the painkiller Vioxx and made $2.5 billion in sales, despite finding in 2000 that their product raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Dr. David Graham, a senior FDA official, testified in 2004 that Merck’s failure to stop selling Vioxx had resulted in as many as 55,000 unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and stroke.

Drug companies are also spending huge amounts of money on prescription drugs that cost, in some cases, more than ten times as much in the United States than other countries. In 2023, Novo Nordisk spent $263 million on direct-to-consumer ads for Wegovy and $208 million on ads for Ozempic. Today, Novo Nordisk charges nearly $1,000 a month for Ozempic in the United States, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $59 in Germany, $71 in France, $122 in Denmark, and $155 in Canada. Novo Nordisk also charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy while this same exact product can be purchased for just $92 in the United Kingdom, $137 in Germany, $186 in Denmark and $265 in Canada.

Joining Sanders and King as cosponsors of the legislation are Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill).

Read the bill text here.

Read a summary of the bill here.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Duel of the Century?

B.R. Gowani — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 13:25:37 +0000

IMAGE/Getty Image/CNN

A South Asian proverb:

When-buffaloes fight, it’s the trees that gets wrecked.

An African saying:

When elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets hurt.

Just at this moment, I received a divine revelation:

“When the world’s most powerful person and the planet’s richest person fight, it’s the world that gets ravaged.”

HOPE NOT!

HOPE …

they’ll “have dinner together,” instead.

To me, war God YHWH further revealed:

“Whatever happens elsewhere is none of my business. However, what happens in my ‘chosen land’ is my supreme concern. Thus one thing remains constant: My chosen one Bibi (not to be confused with this Bibi) is going to continue working to spread more peace.

“No one could stop Bibi’s mission: neither those who think expanding peace is a crime, nor those who claim the land belongs to other people.

“The chosen land is blessed with good neighbors: Pharaoh, Auto-man, puppet, mole, and GCCP. Bibi is busy mopping up the area of people who challenged the chosen ones. Only one bad neighbor is left now which, I am sure, Bibi will take care of.

“My people are also being supported by a communalist who follows a supremacist ideology. The founders of that supremacist ideology were impressed by the person who sent many people to gas chambers, including five to six million of my followers. The communalists were planning the same for the minorities in their own country.

(YHWH has used code-words rather than naming the neighbors.)

Pharaoh cannot be anyone but Egypt‘s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Auto-man sounds like Ottoman, that is, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan is a man who turns automatically in the direction where he sees benefits.

Puppet must be Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Mole must be Morocco’s King Hassan II who, as a member of the Arab League, gave very important information from the conference recording to Israel’s spy agency Mossad. Why would Yahweh invoke Hassan II who died in 1999? Yahweh is probably trying to say that relations have remained the same with the new King, Muhammad VI, son of Hassan II.

GCCP. GCC stands for Gulf Cooperation Council made up of six countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Despite being Jewish God, YHWH has some knowledge of the rulers who are always worried about their ass-glued gold thrones and are thus looking for protection from the US at the expense of their resources and people. We can thus deduce that GCCP stand for Gulf Cooperation Council of Pimps.

The communalist is India’s Narendra Modi.

The “bad neighbor” is not difficult to identify because only Iran is left there who gave support to Gazans and opposes Israel’s hegemony. Israel, a nuclear power, is looking for ways to destroy Iran’s nuclear program so that it doesn’t have any nuclear rival.)

The post Duel of the Century? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by B.R. Gowani.

Welcome to the Inquisition: Trump’s Christ Nationalist Brigades Aim to Gut Church-State Separation

Bill Berkowitz — Thu, 29 May 2025 18:55:07 +0000

The ghosts of Paul Weyrich, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the OG’s (Old Guard) of the religious right are dancing these days. Since his inauguration, Trump has rewarded his religious right allies with executive orders creating a “Religious Liberty Commission” and a “Task Force to Eliminate Anti-Christian Bias.”

“Together they will put the force of the federal government behind the conspiracy theories, false persecution claims, and reactionary policy proposals of the Christian nationalist movement, including its efforts to undermine separation of church and state,” Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery recently reported.

On May 1, members of the religious liberty commission were announced, and nearly all are ultra-conservative Christian nationalists with a huge right-wing agenda. The commission’s chair is Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and its vice chair is Ben Carson.

Right Wing Watch profiled several of the commission’s members:

Paula White, serving again as Trump’s faith advisor in the White House, has used her position to elevate the influence of dominionist preachers and Christian nationalist activists. A preacher of the prosperity gospel, White has repeatedly denounced Trump’s opponents as demonic. When Trump announced the Religious Liberty Commission, White made the startling assertion, “Prayer is not a religious act, it’s a national necessity.”

Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who developed the Heritage Foundation’s “road map” for overturning marriage equality and was the face of Heritage’s anti-trans activism.

Franklin Graham, the more-political son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, is a MAGA activist and fan of Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay policies who backed Trump in 2016 as the last chance for Christians to save America from godless secularists and the “very wicked” LGTBT agenda. After the 2020 election Graham promoted Trump’s stolen-election claims and blamed the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol on “antifa.”

Eric Metaxas, a once somewhat reputable scholar who has devolved into a far-right conspiracy theorist and MAGA cultist, emceed a December 2020 “Stop the Steal” rally at which Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes threatened bloody civil war if Trump did not remain in power.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who helped lead U.S. Catholic bishops’ opposition to legal abortion and LGBTQ equality, was an original signer of the 2009 Manhattan Declaration, a manifesto for Christian conservatives who declared that when it comes to opposition to abortion and marriage equality, “no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.”

Kelly Shackleford, president of First Liberty, who works to undermine church-state separation via the courts; Shackleford has endorsed a Christian nationalist effort to block conservative judges from joining the Supreme Court if they do not meet the faith and worldview standards of the religious right.

Allyson Ho, a lawyer and wife of right-wing Judge James Ho, has been affiliated with the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ equality religious-right legal groups Alliance Defending Freedom and First Liberty Institute.

Other commission members include Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Word on Fire ministry; 2009 Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean Boller; TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw; and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik.

Montgomery noted that “Advisory board members are divided into three categories: religious leaders, legal experts, and lay leaders. The list is more religiously diverse than the commission itself; in addition to right-wing lawyers and Christian-right activists, it includes several additional Catholic bishops, Jewish rabbis, and Muslim activists.”

Notable new advisory board members:

Kristen Waggoner, president of the mammoth anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which uses the courts to make “generational” wins like the overturning of Roe v. Wade, has been named as a possible Supreme Court Justice by the Center for Judicial Renewal, a Christian nationalist project of the American Family Association’s advocacy arm. The ADF is active around the world.

Ryan Tucker, senior counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries with Alliance Defending Freedom.

Jentezen Franklin, a MAGA pastor, told conservative Christians at a 2020 Evangelicals for Trump rally, “Speak now or forever hold your peace. You won’t have another chance. You won’t have freedom of religion. You won’t have freedom of speech.”

Gene Bailey, host of FlashPoint, a program that regularly promotes pro-Trump prophecy and propaganda on the air and at live events. Bailey has said the point of FlashPoint’s trainings is to help right-wing Christians “take over the world.” FlashPoint was until recently a program of Kenneth Copeland’s Victory Channel.

Anti-abortion activist Alveda King, a niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., once dismissed the late Coretta Scott King’s support for marriage equality by saying , ‘I’ve got his DNA. She doesn’t.”

Abigail Robertson, CBN podcast host and granddaughter of Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson.

Donald Trump claiming that he’s the front man for “bringing religion back to our country,” is as if the late Jeffrey Epstein claimed that he was working to end sex trafficking.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation called Trump’s religious liberty commission “a dangerous initiative,” that “despite its branding, this commission is not about protecting religious freedom — it’s about advancing religious privilege and promoting a Christian nationalist agenda”.

The post Welcome to the Inquisition: Trump’s Christ Nationalist Brigades Aim to Gut Church-State Separation first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Bill Berkowitz.

The Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza Must End Now

Kevin Martin — Sat, 24 May 2025 17:47:29 +0000

The horrific images of children starving in Gaza, due to Israel’s cruel, inhumane blockade of all humanitarian aid since early March, shocks the world’s conscience. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recently announced plan to distribute aid, while forcing Gazans to move yet again, is a spurious cover for his and Trump’s ethnic cleansing scheme.

Yet concrete action to end this calamity is hard to organize. How does a genocide end? And specifically, how do people of conscience, acting with majority support of the US public, organize to end it?

The lack of true democracy in the United States, so evident in domestic policy on many issues, is even worse in terms of foreign policy, especially regarding the mostly ironclad support for Israel. However, cracks are showing, and they must be exploited quickly.

Earlier this week, US Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) brought his S. Res. 224, calling for an end to the humanitarian blockade on Gaza, to the Senate floor. The resolution had the support of all Democrats, except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and the two Independents who caucus with the Democrats, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME).

The resolution was predictably blocked from getting a vote by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch (R-ID), but was significant as no other legislative measure in the year and half since the war on Gaza began has garnered such widespread, albeit partisan support (no Republicans supported it, nor have any called for a ceasefire or cutting off US weapons to Israel).

A companion resolution in the House of Representatives will be introduced very soon, and while both would be non-binding, they represent progress in the long struggle to exert pressure on Israel, and Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are keenly aware of US political developments. Additionally, the Senate will likely soon vote on Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) to stop specific US weapons transfers to Israel. Sen. Sanders forced such votes twice since November, and while they failed, the upcoming votes should attract more support, and add to the pressure on the Israeli government, which of course is opposed by most Israelis.

Legislative initiatives are far from the only strategies and tactics being employed by peace and human rights activists. Other recent and upcoming events and opportunities include the following:

Activists led by Montgomery County, Maryland Peace Action showed up at new US Senator Angela Alsobrooks’ “Sick of It” rally protesting the Trump/Musk cuts to health programs, and had a strong showing about also being sick of the Gaza genocide, including confronting the senator. It may have had some impact, as she later signed onto Sen. Welch’s resolution, after having been largely silent on the genocide in Gaza, and voting against Sen. Sanders’ most recent JRDs.

The impressive anti-genocide commencement speech by George Washington University student Cecelia Culver has received significant media coverage. She is now shamefully being investigated by the university. Similarly, New York University student Logan Rozos condemned the Gaza genocide in his commencement speech, and the university is withholding his diploma. Both students, along with other students similarly persecuted for speaking out for an end to the horrors in Gaza, deserve support and solidarity.

Reprising and expanding an effort from last year, New Hampshire peace activist Bob Sanders is conducting a cross country bike ride to raise awareness of the dire situation in Gaza.

Veterans for Peace and other allies are supporting a 40 day fast for Peace in Gaza.

Groups in the Philadelphia will hold a People’s War Crimes Tribunal on May 31, building on the difficult but necessary advocacy aimed at Sen. Fetterman.

Lastly, Do Not Turn on Us is a new initiative calling on military and National Guard personnel to refuse unlawful, fascist orders. While more aimed at stopping fascism in the United States, it certainly is a contribution to the overall movement to establish peace, human rights and the rule of law, domestically and internationally.

Will any of these efforts, along with many others, overcome powerful political forces that perpetuate genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid against the Palestinian people? No one can know for sure, but all are worthy of support and persistence. As Ms. Culver stated, none of us are free until Palestine is free.

The post The Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza Must End Now first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kevin Martin.

“King of the North”: New Book Examines MLK’s Fight Against Police Brutality & Racism Outside Dixie

Democracy Now! — Fri, 23 May 2025 16:10:59 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“King of the North”: New Book Examines MLK’s Fight Against Police Brutality & Racism Outside Dixie

Democracy Now! — Fri, 23 May 2025 12:52:30 +0000

Historian Jeanne Theoharis’s new book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South, is a major reexamination of the civil rights leader that offers a different picture of both King’s own experiences of police brutality and his sustained critique of police brutality and the criminal legal system in the North as well as the South.

“We’ve southernized Dr. King. And so, his critique of police brutality outside the South, his long-standing critique of school segregation, of housing segregation, of job discrimination, King sees these as national, not local,” says Theoharis, distinguished professor at Brooklyn College.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“We Southernized Dr. King”: Historian Jeanne Theoharis on MLK’s Struggle Against Racism in the North

Democracy Now! — Fri, 23 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Historian Jeanne Theoharis joins us for an in-depth discussion about her new book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South. After more than a decade of research, she offers a major reexamination of his experiences and activism confronting police brutality, alongside his wife Coretta Scott King. In Part 2 of our interview, she describes his work in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, including long meetings with gang leaders to reduce violence, like the Turfmasters Summit in Chicago to address what he called “domestic colonialism.” King often addressed how police and courts were used as “enforcers,” and stopped using the phrase “law and order,” instead calling for “law and justice.” Theoharis also critiques the role of the media in portraying King's organizing against police abuse and racism in the North as “reckless,” when they previously praised his work in the South.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! Audio and was authored by Democracy Now!.

What was HMNZS Manawanui doing before it sank? Calls for greater transparency

APR editor — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 09:49:16 +0000

By Susana Leiataua, RNZ National presenter

There are calls for greater transparency about what the HMNZS Manawanui was doing before it sank in Samoa last October — including whether the New Zealand warship was performing specific security for King Charles and Queen Camilla.

The Manawanui grounded on the reef off the south coast of Upolu in bad weather on 5 October 2024 before catching fire and sinking. Its 75 crew and passengers were safely rescued.

The Court of Inquiry’s final report released on 4 April 2025 found human error and a long list of “deficiencies” grounded the $100 million vessel on the Tafitoala Reef, south of Upolu, where it caught fire and sank.

READ MORE: Other RNZ Navy reports

Equipment including weapons and ammunition continue to be removed from the vessel as its future hangs in the balance.

The Court of Inquiry’s report explains the Royal New Zealand Navy was asked by “CHOGM Command” to conduct “a hydrographic survey of the area in the vicinity of Sinalei whilst en route to Samoa”.

When it grounded on the Tafitoala Reef, the ship was following orders received from Headquarters Joint Forces New Zealand. The report incorrectly calls it the “Sinalei Reef”.

Sinalei is the name of the resort which hosted King Charles and Queen Camilla for CHOGM — the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting — which began in Samoa 19 days after the Manawanui sank from 25-26 October 2024. The Royals arrived two days before CHOGM began.

Support of CHOGM
Speaking at the release of the court’s final report, Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding described the Manawanui’s activity on the south coast of Upolu.

“So the operation was done in support of CHOGM — a very high-profile security activity on behalf of a nation, so it wasn’t just a peacetime operation,” he said.

“It was done in what we call rapid environmental assessment so we were going in and undertaking something that we had to do a quick turnaround of that information so it wasn’t a deliberate high grade survey. It was a rapid environmental assessment so it does come with additional complexity and it did have an operational outcome. It’s just, um you know, we we are operating in complex environments.

“It doesn’t say that we did everything right and that’s what the report indicates and we just need to get after fixing those mistakes and improving.”

Sinalei Resort . . . where the royal couple were hosted. Image: Dominic Godfrey/RNZ Pacific

The report explained the Manawanui was tasked with “conducting the Sinalei survey task” “to survey a defined area of uncharted waters.” But Pacific security fellow at Victoria University’s Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University Iati Iati questions what is meant by “in support of the upcoming CHOGM”.

“All we’ve been told in the report is that it was to support CHOGM. What that means is unclear. I think that needs to be explained. I think it also needs to be explained to the Samoan people, who initiated this.

“Whether it was just a New Zealand initiative. Whether it was done for CHOGM by the CHOGM committee or whether it was something that involved the Samoa government,” Iati said.

What-for questions
“So a lot of the, you know, who was behind this and the what-for questions haven’t been answered.”

Iati said CHOGM’s organising committee included representatives from Samoa as well as New Zealand.

“But who exactly initiated that additional task which I think is on paragraph 37 of the report after the ship had sailed, the extra task was then confirmed. Who initiated that I’m not sure and I think that needs to be explained. Why it was confirmed after the sailing that also needs to be explained.

“In terms of security, I guess the closest we can come to is the fact that you know King Charles was staying on that side and Sinalei Reef. It may have something to do with that but this is just really unclear at the moment and I think all those questions need to be addressed.”

The wreck of the Manawanui lies 2.1 nautical miles — 3.89km — from the white sandy beach of the presidential suite at Sinalei Resort where King Charles and Queen Camilla stayed during CHOGM.

Just over the fence from the Royals’ island residence, Royal New Zealand Navy divers were coming and going from the sunken vessel in the early days of their recovery operation, and now salvors and the navy continue to work from there.

AUT Law School professor Paul Myburgh said the nature of the work the Manawanui was carrying out when it ran aground on the reef has implications for determining compensation for people impacted by its sinking.

Sovereign immunity
“Historically, if it was a naval vessel that was the end of the story. You could never be sued in normal courts about anything that happened on board a naval vessel. But nowadays, of course, governmental vessels are often involved in commercial activity as well,” he said.

“So we now have what we call the restrictive theory of sovereign immunity which states that if you are involved in commercial or ordinary activity that is non-governmental you are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts, so this is why I’ve been wanting to get to the bottom of exactly what they were doing.

“Who instructed whom and that sort of thing. And it seems to me that in line with the findings of the report all of this seems to have been done on a very adhoc basis.”

RNZ first asked the New Zealand Defence Force detailed questions on Friday, April 11, but it declined to respond.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The ‘king of poisons’ is building up in rice

Ayurella Horn-Muller — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 08:45:00 +0000

Throughout the Yangtze River Delta, a region in southern China famed for its widespread rice production, farmers grow belts of slender green stalks. Before they reach several feet tall and turn golden brown, the grassy plants soak in muddy, waterlogged fields for months. Along the rows of submerged plants, levees store and distribute a steady supply of water that farmers source from nearby canals.

This traditional practice of flooding paddies to raise the notoriously thirsty crop is almost as old as the ancient grain’s domestication. Thousands of years later, the agricultural method continues to predominate in rice cultivation practices from the low-lying fields of Arkansas to the sprawling terraces of Vietnam.

As the planet heats up, this popular process of growing rice is becoming increasingly more dangerous for the millions of people worldwide that eat the grain regularly, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Planetary Health. After drinking water, the researchers say, rice is the world’s second largest dietary source of inorganic arsenic, and climate change appears to be increasing the amount of the highly toxic chemical that is in it. If nothing is done to transform how most of the world’s rice is produced, regulate how much of it people consume, or mitigate warming, the authors conclude that communities with rice-heavy diets could begin confronting increased risks of cancer and disease as soon as 2050.

“Our results are very scary,” said Donming Wang, the ecological doctorate student at the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the paper. “It’s a disaster … and a wake-up call.”

Back in 2014, Wang and an international team of climate, plant, and public health scientists started working together on a research project that would end up taking them close to a decade to complete. Wading through rice paddies across the Yangtze Delta, they sought to find out just how projected temperatures and levels of atmospheric CO2 in 2050 would interact with the arsenic in the soil and the rice crops planted there. They knew, from past research, that the carcinogen was a problem in rice crops, but wanted to find out how much more of an issue it might be in a warming world. The team didn’t look at just any rice, but some of the grain varieties most produced and consumed worldwide.

Although there are an estimated 40,000 types of rice on the planet, they tend to be grouped into three categories based on length of the grain. Short-grain rice, or the sticky kind often used in sushi; long-grain, which includes aromatic types like basmati and jasmine; and medium-grain, or rice that tends to be served as a main dish. Of these, the short-to-medium japonica and long-grain indica are the two major subspecies of cultivated rice eaten across Asia. Wang’s study modelled the growth of 28 varieties of japonica, indica, and hybrid rice strains central to cuisine for seven of the continent’s top rice consuming and producing countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam. India, Vietnam, and China are among the group of eight nations that lead the rest of the world in rice exports.

After nearly a decade of observing and analyzing the growth of the plants, the researchers discovered that the combination of higher temperatures and CO2 encourages root growth, increasing the ability of rice plants to uptake arsenic from the soil. They believe this is because climate-related changes in soil chemistry that favor arsenic can be more easily absorbed into the grain. Carbon-dioxide enriched crops were found to capture more atmospheric carbon and pump some of that into the soil, stimulating microbes that are making arsenic.

The more root growth, the more carbon in the soil, which can be a source of food for soil bacteria that multiply under warming temperatures. When soil in a rice paddy is waterlogged, oxygen gets depleted, causing the soil bacteria to rely further on arsenic to generate energy. The end result is more arsenic building up in the rice paddy, and more roots to take it up to the developing grain.

These arsenic-accumulating effects linked to increased root growth and carbon capture is a paradoxical surprise to Corey Lesk, a Dartmouth College postdoctoral climate and crop researcher unaffiliated with the paper. The paradox, said Lesk, is that both of these outcomes have been talked about as potential benefits to rice yields under climate change. “More roots could make the rice more drought-resistant, and cheaper carbon can boost yields generally,” he said. “But the extra arsenic accumulation could make it hard to realize health benefits from that yield boost.”

Tariffs and the King

David Yearsley — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 05:55:18 +0000

The Moller Pipe Organ Factory, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1983.

The report to President Nixon submitted on June 11^th 1971 by the U. S. Tariff Commission considered the petition of the “Pipe Organ Workers Federal Labor Union, AFL-CIO, with the assistance of the United Furniture Workers of America, AFL-CIO … for a determination of eligibility to apply for adjustment assistance on behalf of production and maintenance workers, members of Local Union 21108, formerly employed by M. P. Moller, Inc., Hagerstown, Maryland.”

The petition had been filed two months earlier by a number of laid-off Moller Pipe Organ workers. The four members of the tariff panel who considered the case were split evenly on the case. Two ruled that foreign imports had not cost the petitioners their jobs; the two others (including George Moore of Maryland) asserted that all four requirements of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 had been met so as to rule in favor of the workers: “(1) Imports must be increasing; (2) The increase in imports must be a result in major part of concessions granted under trade agreements; (3) The workers concerned must be unemployed or underemployed, or threatened with unemployment or underemployment; and (4) The increased imports resulting in major part from trade-agreement concessions must be the major factor causing or threatening to cause the unemployment or underemployment.”

The report informed the President that Smoot-Hawley Tariff had set the rate for organ imports at 40%, reduced to 35% the next year, then to 25% in 1936 and 17.5% in 1939. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) brought the rate down to 15% in 1948, then 10% in 1951. By 1971 it lay at 6%, scheduled to shed another percentage point the following year. Those tariff board members sympathetic cited the flood of organ imports (pipes not human body parts) from Canada that bi-literal agreements had allowed, but also, beginning in the 1950s, the influx of instruments from West Germany and The Netherlands.

The board’s split decision meant that the Moller workers were out of luck. Looming across the ensuing decades were the OPEC oil embargo, the austerities of Carter neo-liberalism with high interests that peaked above 20%. Once the biggest organ company in the world, Moller went bankrupt in 1992 having churned out nearly 12,000 organs across its 120-year history and survived the Depressions of the 1870s and the 1930s, not to mention the Panic of 1893. It was de-industrialization that did Moller in.

Two fascinating books by Bynum Petty, long-time archivist of the Organ Historical Society, chronicle the entrepreneurial spirit of the company’s founder M. P. Moller. Trained as a furniture maker in his native Denmark, he had emigrated to the United States in1872 as an eighteen-year-old with seven dollars in his pocket. He died in 1937 a wealthy man, owner of the world’s biggest organ factory, one that employed hundreds. Along the way Moller had become president of a bank, proof for Petty of his resourcefulness, resolve, even, perhaps, his righteousness.

The title of the first of Petty’s volumes captures the energy of American industry as it approached its peak: An Organ a Day: The Enterprising Spirit of M. P. Möller (Pendragon Press, 2013). That level of output had been achieved in the 1920s, the legion of workers bolstered by a team of hardworking salesmen armed with the company’s belief that all should be able to afford organs—churches, synagogues, funeral homes, auditoriums, cinemas, schools, office buildings and private homes. Petty tells us that Moller was convinced that productivity had been boosted by the 18^th Amendment, the sober Dane claiming that “we are indebted to prohibition … for this unusual prosperity in our line of work.”

Moller instruments, most of them of modest size, were sent from sea to shining sea. Large-scale projects were also important for the balance sheet. Crucial contracts came from the military, for whom bigger is and always will be better. In 1910 Moller won the bid for the organ in West Point’s Cadet Chapel. The firm’s Opus 1200, continually expanded over the ensuing decades to its now-nearly 25,000 pipes, purports to be the largest organ in the world in a religious building. The Moller organ built for the Naval Academy boasts a mere 15,000.

Petty’s second book on the company, M.P. Möller: The Artist of Organs — The Organ of Artists richly chronicles technological developments, shifting aesthetic and social conditions, business developments, and economic headwinds. Oral histories of the surviving workers, especially the petitioners of 1971, would make for a welcome third volume in the series. Petty’s subtitle overstates the aesthetic value of these instruments, unless we take that title more as a play on the name of the company’s most popular model that pushed their serial numbers into five digits.

I learned to play on a Moller Artiste organ at the Episcopal church on Bainbridge Island Washington. The instrument had been installed in the 1940s, the opus number somewhere in the high 6,000s. By electric sleight-of-hand the same few sets of pipes (called ranks) were wired up to various, differently named stops so as to give the impression at the console of a much bigger organ with a substantial and varied sonic palette. This ruse couldn’t fool half-way discerning organists.

Though it is hard to tune back into those teenage years and ears, especially after so much subsequent time spent playing historic organs of Europe, I do remember thinking that every pipe of that Moller Artiste produced a hard, industrial sound. There was nothing beautiful about any of it. Like a steam whistle, the instrument had the decibel power to organize the small church’s congregation into corporate song. But Bach’s music, ever-resilient, could not be machined into oppressive blandness by the Artiste, and I learned large chunks of it on that trusty Made-in-America machine.

The young Musical Patriot plays Bach on the Moller at St. Barnabas Church, 1982. Photo: Bremerton Sun.

The same organ shoes thirty years later after several hundred thousand more miles.

As often as I could, I took the ferry across the Puget Sound into Seattle to play two foreign imports both arrived in 1965: one by the Dutch firm of Flentrop in the Episcopal Cathedral and the other by the West German firm of von Beckerath. Both of these organs had come from the countries deemed sometime threats, during the disruptive decade cited by those tariff commissioners sympathetic to the unemployed Moller workers in 1971.

These European competitors also used older methods of construction, crucially adopting mechanical action keyboards that let wind into the pipes through an intricate network of slender wood batons (called trackers) rather than the on-off magnets of late-model Mollers. The members of the tariff commission who had denied the laid-off organ workers, concluded that the awarding of contracts to foreign firms resulted from taste and was not driven by economic factors.

Organ in St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle by Flentrop Orgelbouw, 1965.

Other crucial developments were taking place behind the front lines of these trade wars. A new generation of American builders became interested in antique organs of Europe (and to a lesser extent, those of their own country), and pursued the artistic aspects of their craft as handcraft, rather than maximizing production and sales, even while they had to remain fiscally afloat—an often-precarious endeavor.

Some of these men were seeking refuge from the military industrial complex. Charles Fisk, a Harvard physicist who had been involved in the Manhattan Project, turned to making mechanical action organs. Most of these took years to make. None was made in a day.

John Brombaugh had trained at Cornell as an electrical engineer, then studied with Rudolf von Beckerath in Germany. Brombaugh spent a long career making scrupulous historically, non-electric instruments, one of which from 1978 I also had the good fortune to visit often in Tacoma, Washginton. There I heard the legendary European organists Klaas Bolt and Harald Vogel, from The Netherlands and Germany respectively.

In 1977 another apprentice of von Beckerath in Germany, George Taylor founded a small firm along with John Boody that handcrafted baroque style organs in a repurposed schoolhouse in their rural outpost of Staunton, Virginia.

The Pacific Northwest builder Paul Fritts was taught the trade by his father in Tacoma, but he also learned from and contributed to the projects of his global colleagues. Fritts produced dozens of exquisite organs for the region and for churches and universities across the country; he has also made substantial additions to and renovations of the landmark Flentrop organ in Seattle that I so often played as a teenager. These American firms exported organs to Japan, Sweden, Canada, and England. Artisans from around the world came to study with these masters. On interconnected artisanal, scholarly, and aesthetic levels, these builders reshaped and reinvigorated global organ culture even while being rooted in the local.

What emerged from the wreckage of the organ industry were works of musical art rather than commodities. The lessons to be drawn from these developments in the history of the King of Instruments—one that extends for more than a millennium in Europe and its colonial outposts into the globalized present and perhaps post-globalized future—is that a culture of artistic quality, built on the local but animated by a cosmopolitan openness thrived even as the neo-liberal order toppled the biggest organ company that the world had ever seen. Long before the end, it had been too big not to fail.

The post Tariffs and the King appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Yearsley.

A “Small Price to Pay” — Coretta Scott King

Ted Glick — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 14:23:30 +0000

I join you in your affirmation of life, and I hope that you have sustained the inward peace that follows a refusal to do that which one considers morally wrong, despite the consequences. Imprisonment of the body is certainly a small price to pay for freedom of the spirit.

— Coretta Scott King, September 1969 letter to me in support of my draft resistance activism

Today, April 4, is the 57th anniversary of the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. King was there to support the labor strike of the sanitation workers of that town, a cause which had gathered national attention at the time. He came to Memphis to stand up publicly for their righteous cause despite warnings from many sources that there was serious personal risk if he did so.

King put doing what was morally right ahead of his personal safety. He put the greater good of humankind ahead of everything else. He was a living example who continues to inspire many decades later.

That example meant the world to me at the time as an 18 year old trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life. I had heard Dr. King speak in person twice, once in Lancaster, Pa. at the age of 14 when my father took me to hear him speak at Franklin and Marshall College, and the second time in October of 1967 at Grinnell College in Iowa a couple of months into my freshman year. After that speech, I went up front and was able to shake his hand.

I was still trying to figure it out six months later when King was assassinated. I was struggling with whether I should become an activist, do something about the Vietnam War in particular. Just a month before King was killed, I had been asked by a friend in my dorm if I wanted to go to Chicago to take part in an anti-war demonstration. I remember very clearly how I struggled with what I should do. In the end I decided not to go.

What happened in Memphis literally changed my life. I mark April 4, 1968 as the beginning of my life of progressive activism and organizing because, in response to King’s death, I stayed up late that night putting together a petition to Congress and posted it prominently on the wall in one of the most frequently visited buildings on campus.

The petition was very weak. It called upon Mike McCormack, the then-Speaker of the House and Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader, to take action to address the social and economic conditions King had devoted his life to changing. After a couple of days, with signatures of over half of the student body, I sent the petition off to DC.

Ever since, I have done the best I could to follow King’s example, speaking out and organizing and taking action. At the age of 75, I have no intention of ever stopping doing that.

A year and a half after King’s killing I received a personally typed letter from Coretta Scott King, King’s widow and fellow activist for peace and justice. Someone who knew me and who spent some time with her told her about my decision to resist the draft, including a public refusal of induction into the army in early September, 1969. Just like many today trying to end the Natanyahu regime’s genocidal war against Gaza and Palestine, I was willing to risk going to jail, and later did, because of how strongly I felt about the US war being waged on the peoples of Indochina.

Substantive change, change that is desperately needed, doesn’t happen without hard work, without sacrifice, suffering and struggle.

Frederick Douglass is famous for something much deeper that he said on August 4, 1857:

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

King and Douglass were not saying that our lives need to be constant work, constant struggle against the racist, rich and regressive, predominantly white men with whom we must do battle. Both of them were part of an African-grounded culture in which singing and community-building were central. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a movement where singing was essential to the ability of that movement to ultimately win major victories, after years of struggle and sacrifice. And it wasn’t just singing in churches at rallies. People sang in jail. People sang when demonstrating right next to white racists. Singing gave them power.

2025 is a big year for us, and fortunately many of us are stepping up to the plate accordingly. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren and the seven generations to come need us to keep working hard and together to defeat Trump, Musk and MAGA, doing so in a way which lays the basis for the transformative, systemic change so desperately needed in this time of deepening inequality and climate emergency.

Long live the spirit of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King!

The post A “Small Price to Pay” — Coretta Scott King first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Ted Glick.

Marking Martin Luther King Jr.’s Chicago

Jeanne Theoharis - Erik Wallenberg — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 05:58:03 +0000

Image by Unseen Histories.

Eight Places You Need to Visit and Understand Chicago’s Black Freedom Struggle

Go to Montgomery, Alabama today and markers to the civil rights movement dot the city landscape: Dr. King’s house, the place where Rosa Parks was arrested, homes of other activists like E.D. Nixon and Georgia Gilmore, the site where the 1960 Freedom Riders were attacked. But come to Chicago and the markers to the city’s civil rights movement are few and far between–despite an incredibly robust freedom movement and a level of segregation that Dr King termed one of the “most segregated” in the nation in 1963.

In Marquette Park, there is a beautiful artist-designed memorial where civil rights marchers were assaulted by white mobs in the summer of 1966 but no mention of city officials’ long-standing attempts to keep the city segregated. The National Park Service has given landmark status to the Chicago church where teenager Emmett Till’s casket, lynched in Mississippi, was opened for the world to see. But the site of 17-year-old Chicago teenager Jerome Huey’s lynching that occurred in the city in 1966, the 1963 school boycott, and the slum apartment the Kings lived in remain unmarked.

This Southernification of King and the civil rights movement is a more comfortable tale. It erases the systemic, longstanding segregation and racial inequality endemic in Northern cities and marginalizes the robust, years-long movement in Chicago that Martin Luther King supported and then helped expand with the SCLC in 1965—movements that were ignored, dismissed, or demonized by most white Chicagoans, city leaders, and the federal government at the time. To tell that Northern story, to mark those places and reckon with that history, uncovers a more necessary if unsettling truth about this country.

Too often Northern racism and segregation are, as they were sixty years ago, dismissed as not systemic, a product of people’s preferences to live in communities that are not integrated. But even a glimpse of the history shows how city leaders, school officials, real estate interests, and outright violent racists colluded to maintain segregation and inequality in cities like Chicago.

Mayor Richard J. Daley’s home, 3536 South Lowe Avenue in Bridgeport. Elected mayor in 1955 and serving until he died in 1976, Daley would persistently deny the city’s segregation and, as persistently, work to maintain it, including in his own all-white neighborhood of Bridgeport. The mayor backed the building of massive housing projects to contain Black people including the segregated, seventeen-story Stateway Gardens and twenty-eight-story, 30-block-long Robert Taylor Homes projects. Stunned by the intensity of segregation, Martin Luther King called them “cement reservations”: Coretta, “upright concentration camps.”

The construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway was slated to go through Bridgeport but Daley changed the route so the expressway swerved into the Black southside community, destroying a vibrant section of Black Chicago. When two Black students attempted to rent a Bridgeport apartment, Daley let his neighbors run them out. When school desegregation activists marched on his house and his neighbors through bottles and rocks, he had the marchers arrested not his neighbors and defended his neighbors as “fine, hardworking people.”

Willis Wagon Protest at 73rd Street and Lowe Ave. School segregation wasn’t a happenstance either. School superintendent Benjamin Willis who served from 1956-1966, alongside school officials throughout the city, actively worked to keep the schools segregated. When the numbers of Black students increased, instead of letting Black students into predominantly-white schools with open seats, Willis bought trailers (which activists then named “Willis wagons”) to install at Black schools. The city also put many Black schools on double session days–one group of kids in the morning, another group in the afternoon. Black parents organized furiously. When meetings and marches had little effect, Black mother Rosie Simpson launched a protest of wagons being installed at 73rd street and Lowe Ave, laying down to block the construction. The protests there and at other sites and arrests went on for months. Comedian Dick Gregory was arrested; King went to the jail to show his support for Gregory and the other demonstrators.

October 22, 1963 “Freedom Day” school boycott: Board of Education, 1 North Dearborn Street. Growing tired of the city’s intransigence, activists including Simpson organized a school boycott. King met with them to encourage their action. Part of the rationale behind the boycott was the school system received money for each student’s attendance, so it would hurt their operating budget and underline the gravity of the situation. On October 22, a stunning 225,000 students—50 percent of the city’s total school enrollment (with numbers rivaling the March on Washington two months earlier)—stayed out of school to protest the lack of school desegregation and an end to the Willis wagons. Ten thousand students and parents picketed City Hall and the Board of Education, carrying signs reading “Willis Must Go” and “No More Little Black Sambo Read in Class.”

City Hall, 121 North La Salle Street. In July 1965, Chicago parents with the CCCO filed a complaint with the US Office of Education that the Chicago Board of Education had violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act—which gave the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) the power to withhold federal funds if school districts continued to segregate. Chicago stood to lose over $30 million. The federal government requested a host of information: racial head counts of students and teachers, per-pupil expenditures in schools, average class size, student-teacher ratios, and the method of assigning teachers. But Willis and the Board of Education did not comply. And HEW learned Willis intended to use the federal money to aid middle-class white districts and procure more trailers.

As a result, on October 1, HEW withheld those $32 million in federal funds, finding Chicago schools in “probable non-compliance.” King telegrammed President Johnson praising the decision and enforcing the Civil Rights Act against Northern school systems. But the Chicago Tribune, alongside most white Chicagoans, found the decision “outrageous” and slammed “federal interference.” Furious, Mayor Daley got on a plane to confront President Johnson directly. Johnson capitulated and less than a week after it had withheld funds, HEW released the $32 million to Chicago.

The Chicago Freedom Movement in concert with SCLC doubled down in their protests over the next year. On July 10, 1966, over 35,000 Chicagoans braved the 98-degree heat for a rally and march to City Hall to publicize their demands. When they arrived, King taped the fourteen-point list of the movement’s demands to the door. Their demands laid out a detailed blueprint for addressing the city’s inequities, including enforcement of the 1964 Civil Rights Act against Chicago’s segregated schools; a civilian complaint review board to monitor the Chicago Police Department; a bargaining union for welfare recipients and ceasing of home investigations; a $2 state minimum wage; increased garbage collection and building inspections; and federal supervision of loans by banks and savings institutions.

1550 South Hamlin Avenue. The SCLC had joined the years-long Chicago Freedom Movement to build out a campaign against the city’s segregation, expanding the campaign in July 1965. In January 1966, to further escalate, the Kings moved into a $90-a-month North Lawndale tenement on Hamlin. When the landlord found out the Kings were moving in, he hastily fixed some of the building’s most glaring code violations. Still, the heat and refrigerator didn’t work. The food sold in nearby stores was often of poor quality and rats were plentiful. Working-class Black Chicagoans paid more for rent and living expenses and got smaller, more decrepit units with many more code violations than their white working-class counterparts.

1811 West Adams Street. The next month, on February 3, 1966, Andre Adams, a baby two days shy of his first birthday, was chewed to death by a rat. The infant was also severely malnourished, weighing only 5 pounds, 8 ounces when he died. Westside parents rose up in anger. These inhumane conditions—starvation, rats, buildings without heat—were “why we’re here fighting in the slums of Chicago,” said King, who called Adams’ death “as much of a civil rights tragedy as the murder of [Viola] Liuzzo” after the Selma march. Black parents had highlighted the rats and the health problems they had brought for years but were continually ignored by the city.

1321 South Homan Avenue. Scores of buildings in the westside and southside ghettos had numerous building code violations. One night, five families with 15 children came to visit the Kings to tell them about the uninhabitable conditions in their building–no heat in the dead of winter, rats in their apartments, and in some cases no running water. King went over to their building and was disgusted to see the conditions of the building, including a baby wrapped in newspaper to keep warm. Three weeks after Adam’s death, to expose “how bad the slum conditions were,” the SCLC with the tenants decided to engage in a rent strike where the family’s pooled their rent in a trusteeship through SCLC and the money was used to fix the furnace and the building’s electrical system. City leaders and the national press were outraged. The landlord took King and the SCLC to court. The judge ordered the trusteeship ended but didn’t find King guilty of a criminal charge–putting the building in receivership and ordering the landlord to fix the 23 code violations within the next month.

Jerome Huey lynching–25th Place and Laramie Avenue, Cicero. On May 25, 1966, 17-year-old Black teenager Jerome Huey set out for a job interview at a freight-loading company in Cicero. While waiting at the bus stop after the interview, he was attacked by four white men and beaten with a baseball bat so badly that his eyes came out of his skull. Huey died in the hospital two days later–a lynching in plain sight. One of the driving reasons the Chicago Freedom Movement began holding open-housing marches that summer into Chicago’s sundown neighborhoods like Marquette Park, Gage Park, and Cicero (where Black people worked but couldn’t live), was to break the fear and the city’s complicity in this segregation and racist violence.

But 59 years later, the site where Jerome Huey was lynched is completely unmarked. While most Chicagoans and indeed many Americans know the story of Emmett Till, Jerome Huey’s horrific death has been erased. “The North is not the promised land,” Coretta Scott King underlined. So the lack of historical markers in Chicago (and New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Detroit) has significant consequences, not just for understanding the city’s past but for reckoning with the persistence of this inequality and where we must go from here.

Making this history visible for Chicagoans and visitors alike to encounter on a daily basis would expose how racial inequality persists, the mechanisms that keep it in place, and how we might begin to change this reality. It would demonstrate that segregation is a national problem, not one that can be dismissed as a regional aberration. Chicago’s role in upholding racism and the heroic people who fought for a different way must not remain hidden in plain sight.

Find these sites on a map.

A shorter version of this piece first appeared in The Chicago Tribune.

The post Marking Martin Luther King Jr.’s Chicago appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeanne Theoharis - Erik Wallenberg.

You Will Cry Out Because of Your King

Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 05:50:35 +0000

Image by Hassan Pasha.

As a clergy person who has served congregations in the Black and of-color communities in Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC for over 45 years I am acutely aware of the traumas and anxieties that are encountered because of changing political administrations nationally, regionally, and locally, and how they impact families and lives. Politicians and even the media often speak in broad generalities of what a change means statistically, according to the latest poll, and its implications for government and how it may set a precedent or not. But those of us serving pastorally in local communities are called upon to allay fears, to bind the wounds, make meaning out of the meaninglessness, find silver linings amidst the dark clouds, and to identify hope in the despair and confusion. We have done this many times, but at no time has the impact been as stark, devastating, or as frightening as it is now.

With Trump/Musk/DOGE, and their radical approach to government there are many lives traumatized by the fears and are suffering from the emotional abuse inflicted on those who have worked for the federal government and their families. There are also many contractors and vendors associated with government work experiencing the same high anxieties that comes with the uncertainty and worries associated with the political battering of uncertainty and threats inflicted on families and their sense of stability and security.

Living in Washington, DC, I along with my colleagues feel that we are in the epicenter of this upheaval and must deal with this psychological tsunami. But by no means does this affect only Washington, DC because 80% of government employees are outside of the Washington, DC area. But the perception is government equates Washington, DC and the message telegraphed by the Trump/Musk/DOGE fraternity is that they are dismantling The District of Columbia, its “deep state,” putting Blacks and people of-color in “their place” (as DC serves as a symbol of a Black and diverse town with a “Woke” population, and where DEI abounds). They are stridently trying to demonstrate that they are re-establishing the good ole days of white supremacy and Manifest Destiny by taking the country back and making it Great Again in terms of absolute control both at home and abroad.

The imperialistic whim is expressed in changing the name of the Native American associated Alaskan mountain peak, Denali to Mount McKinley. The name Denali is largely used by Alaskans and Native people and translated to mean “The High One,” referring to the more than 20,000-foot mountain peak that dominates the landscape. The royal decree is amplified in the assertion that the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America and punishing the Associated Press by banning them from the White House press corps for not acquiescing to the imperialistic name change. The list of royal decrees has suggested that Canada be annexed along with Greenland, and insinuating that Panama come under the control of the US again. These are all imperialistic assertions and fantasy.

These assertions should be stridently questioned and analyzed by various medias. However in January 6 fashion the media forums historically entrusted to be defenders of democracy by maintaining a free and non-government controlled press have been bullied and overrun by a royally inspired overtaking that have usurped democratic order. Diverse and robust political discussion have been taken over by an imperialistic demand to assert the order of a feudalistic system of oligarchs, dukes, duchesses, billionaires, and courtiers’ seeking lands and fortunes by supporting the royal order. This is evident in Jeffery Bezos’ nullification of the Washington Post’s editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in 2024. It has been reported that more than 250,000 Washington Post subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions in protest since owner, Jeff Bezos interfered in the endorsement and recently demanded that the paper’s opinion pages reflect libertarian priorities excluding opposing points of view. He wrote in a March 2025 memo to the paper’s staff: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets…” In other words, the opinion page will be slanted towards less or no criticism of the Trump dynasty, its policies, or its encroachment on democratic order. The Post’s former Executive Editor, Marty Baron, called the new direction “craven” and suggested that Bezos is “basically fearful” of Trump. Whether it is fear or greed as the motivator of these oligarchs only they know. But we cannot overlook the lucrative government contracts awarded Bezos, Musk and many others currently feeding at, or hoping to feed at the royal trough.

The contraction and absence of medias that are independent and distant from the Trump royalty poses an immediate and imminent danger to the freedom of political debate and moral discernment. Columbia University has been penalized $400 million by the Trump dynasty for not shutting down the protests and encampment on Columbia’s campus last Spring that educated the public of the genocide and war crimes in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, who is on a legally acquired student visa, a graduate of Columbia, and married to a US citizen having led some of the demonstrations and protests at Columbia was arrested by ICE because his political expressions ran counter to the proclivities of the Trump dynasty. The Trump monarchy is weighted toward imperialistic initiatives that are expressed through Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, ethnic cleansing, the attempted annexation of Ukraine by Russia, or by its own fantasies of seizing Canada, Greenland, and Panama.

People are perplexed by how quickly and radically these changes could have occurred in the United States. The national narrative has been those fascist takeovers, and the emergence of tyrants and dictators happen other places but not in the US. But now we are confronted with what we believed was commonplace elsewhere having happened here. I find myself turning to tools of my trade trying to explain to people this current moment and why and how this could have happened. In the scriptures that I use, First Samuel chapter 8, offers a hauntingly accurate explanation for this historical moment. The words in this text describes people who felt let down by government, troubled by the state of the economy, fearful of an uncertain future, scared of changes, where one set of political leaders was perceived ill-equipped to serve the interest of some people, and where apparently a few had grown richer at the expense of the poor becoming poorer. Whether this was true or only perceived to be true we do not know. The 2024 elections appears to have similarities with the text where the framing of the issues were the ruinous effects of inflation, immigrants taking jobs and criminally violating communities, and where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies forced the hiring of incompetence and overlooked those who were more deserving and were white, male, and straight. A significant portion of the population wanted a leader who would address their fears and resolve their anxieties of an inclusive world. The political ideologies of the campaigns either cited an increasingly diverse population or the dangerous nature of democracy as it strived to include diversity and create equal opportunities. The ideologies were on a collision course. One ideology warned of the threat to democracy, and the other offered the protection of the American way of life through a strongman that would protect the country by reclaiming and protecting its past. The things that were seen or felt as wrong with the nation the strongman pledged, “I alone can fix it.” Some people clamored for this strongman – this king, the restoration of the past, and the good ole days. It was just like the people in First Samuel 8 who demanded “Give us a king”, so that they could go back to the familiar, the fears of the future could be tamed, and where people did not have to wrestle with or agonize over anything that was unfamiliar, frightening, or defined as “woke.” “Give us a king” that will solve all our problems, navigate us through a frightening world, and where we don’t have to deal with the messier things of democracy. And this is what we got. In 2024 we have unconsciously or consciously given up a president for a king.

But this scriptural text goes further by warning what a king will do, and it is not pretty but so relevant to today. It warns that by giving up discourse and participation we will become victims of the wants and desires of a king. The king will reward his patrons and supporters and harm his detractors. The billionaires who lust after more billions as well as those fearful of the loss of billions fall into line and tout the monarchs political framing of issues. He will take a portion of all that we have worked for and earned, and he will give it in tax breaks and lucrative contracts to his patrons and supporters. He will press us into his service, and likewise our children. We will parrot the fears of diversity and inclusion. We will turn in those who we suspect of being undocumented and accept as natural those stopped and arrested for driving while Hispanic or Black. And when we eventually become aware of what we have given up, what it really means to surrender participation, voice, and responsibility it will be too late. The damage will have been done and will be revealed in disasters because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that predicts atmospheric and weather changes, have been dismantled. There will be an increase in diseases such as measles that was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Unemployment will increase because of firings and layoffs in the governmental sector which will spread into the private sector because of protectionism, tariffs, and the interconnection of one economic sector to another. And there will be fewer places to challenge the royal decrees as the courts, informational platforms, and people are silenced out of fear of retribution and punishment. In all, democratic order will disappear, become extinct in practice, and eventually fade from memory. All of this will occur because we have chosen the dictates of a king over the messier and cumbersome discourse of the democratic process. The scriptural text warns, ^18...In that day you will cry out because of your king…” So many of us are crying out now because of this wannabe king.

So, what can be done? Now is the time to stir from our shock and catatonic state and begin to act, demonstrate, drown out town hall and community gatherings wherever they occur before we completely lose all memory of participatory debate, discourse, dialogue, or what the compromise and tensions of democracy looks and feels like. The Trump/Musk/DOGE fraternity has been rattling off dictates of firings, downsizing, policy and name changes so rapidly that it is hard to pivot fast enough in response, let alone being able to act instead of reacting. This is the tactic to keep us off balance. But our challenge is to engage, question, and resist and not be wearied by the avalanche of the various decrees, Executive Orders, or the whiplash of on and off again policies. In the 1960s and 70s many of us wore buttons that read “Question Authority.” It was a statement of independent thinking, not falling into line simply to fall into line, and to remind ourselves and governments that we are only governed by our consent. We sought to remind ourselves of the authority of average citizens and not the absolute power of government. This mentality needs to be reborn. We need to question, act, and challenge all things and everything that comes from this royal fiefdom. They may not be wrong in everything they do, but we know that unless we exercise the discipline of questioning authority, challenging policies, and making the administration prove every single assertion we will certainly lose all forms of democratic order. After all we really don’t want or need a king, but we truly want a government that is of, for, and by the people. This however will require that we exercise the muscles of messy democracy before they completely atrophy.

The post You Will Cry Out Because of Your King appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler.

The King and His Royal Counsellor: a Glyph

Ed Sanders — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:04:51 +0000

The post The King and His Royal Counsellor: a Glyph appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ed Sanders.

Hail to the King: a Glyph

Ed Sanders — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 04:15:12 +0000

The post Hail to the King: a Glyph appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ed Sanders.

Cambodia’s king approves law allowing criminal charges for Khmer Rouge denial

RFA Khmer — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 16:10:24 +0000

King Norodom Sihamoni has approved a law that allows prosecutors to bring criminal charges for denying the existence of crimes committed during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge period.

Those who “deny, trivialize, reject or dispute the authenticity of crimes” committed during the regime’s rule face between one and five years in prison and fines from 10 million riel (US$2,480) to 50 million riel (US$12,420) under the law, which the king signed on March 1.

The Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million people from starvation, overwork or mass executions between 1975 and 1979.

The law was requested last year by Hun Sen, the former prime minister who handed power to his son in 2023. It replaces a 2013 law that more narrowly focused on denial of Khmer Rouge crimes.

It was unclear why Hun Sen initiated the measure. But he made the request to the Council of Ministers in May 2024 — the same month that he called for an inquiry into disparaging social media comments about him that were posted on TikTok and Facebook in Vietnamese.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni takes part in celebrations marking the 66th anniversary of the country's independence from France, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2019.

(Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Some of the comments read: “Vietnam sacrificed its blood for peace in Cambodia,” and “Don’t forget tens of thousands of Vietnamese volunteers who were killed in Cambodia.”

Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander who fled to Vietnam in 1977 amid internal purges. He later rose to power in a government installed by Vietnam after its forces invaded in late 1978 and quickly ousted the Khmer Rouge regime.

Vietnamese forces remained in Cambodia for the next decade battling Khmer Rouge guerrillas based in sanctuaries on the Thai border.

Ideas and statements

Human rights activists have criticized the law as divisive and have warned that it could be used to stifle criticism of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, which has historical ties to Vietnam.

For Hun Sen and the CPP, the Vietnam-led ouster of the Khmer Rouge was Cambodia’s moment of salvation, according to opinion writer David Hutt.

“For today’s beleaguered and exiled political opposition in Cambodia, the invasion by Hanoi was yet another curse, meaning the country is still waiting for true liberation, by which most people mean the downfall of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Hun Sen and his family,” he wrote for Radio Free Asia last month.

But it’s not the government’s proper role to mandate a version of history, said law and democratic governance expert Vorn Chan Lout. Being punished for ideas and statements that differ from those in power is something that also occurred under the Khmer Rouge, he added.

“This doesn’t reflect a country that has advanced ideas and views,” he told RFA.

The law was approved by the Council of Ministers in January. The National Assembly and the Senate, where Hun Sen now serves as president, gave its unanimous approval in February.

Last month, the Ministry of Justice criticized Hutt’s opinion article, noting that at least 17 European countries have similar laws that criminalize Holocaust denial or the denial of other crimes against humanity.

Some of those laws allow for penalties of up to 10 years in prison, the ministry said in a Feb. 18 statement.

“Cambodia’s legislation is not an exception, but rather a necessary step to preserve historical truth and protect social harmony,” it said.

“The denial or glorification of these crimes is not an exercise of free speech,” the ministry said. “Such actions constitute a profound insult to the memory of those who perished and inflict renewed pain upon surviving victims and their families.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

Sir David King | LBC Radio | 20 February 2025 | Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 17:36:43 +0000

This content originally appeared on Just Stop Oil and was authored by Just Stop Oil.

Do Republicans just want a king?

Democracy Now! — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:00:04 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Trump Didn’t Invent the Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Plan

Jonathan Cook — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 13:38:04 +0000

Trump’s innovation is not the threat to ‘clean out’ Gaza. It is dropping a long-standing aim to dress up Palestinian expulsion as a peace plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention from day one of his “revenge” attack on Gaza, launched 16 months ago, was either ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza.

His ally in genocide for the next 15 months was former US President Joe Biden. His ally in ethnic cleansing is current US President Donald Trump.

Biden provided the 2,000lb bombs for the genocide. Trump is reportedly providing an even larger munition – the 11-ton MOAB, or massive ordnance air blast bomb, with a mile-wide radius – to further incentivise the population’s exodus.

Biden claimed that Israel was helping the people of Gaza by “carpet bombing” the enclave – in his words – to “eradicate” Hamas. Trump claims he is helping the people of Gaza by “cleaning them out” – in his words – from the resulting “demolition site”.

Biden called the destruction of 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings “self defence”. Trump calls the imminent destruction of the remaining 30 percent “all hell breaking loose”.

Biden claimed to be “working tirelessly for a ceasefire” while encouraging Israel to continue the murder of children month after month.

Trump claims to have negotiated a ceasefire, even as he has turned a blind eye to Israel violating the terms of that ceasefire: by continuing to fire on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; by refusing entry into Gaza of vital aid trucks; by allowing in almost none of the promised tents or mobile homes; by denying many hundreds of maimed Palestinians treatment abroad; by blocking the return of Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza; and by failing to engage with the second phase of the ceasefire negotiations.

Those Israeli violations, although widely reported by the media as Hamas “claims”, were confirmed to the New York Times by three Israeli officials and two mediators.

In other words, Israel has broken the agreement on every count – and Trump has stood foursquare behind this most favoured client state every bit as much as Biden did before him.

‘Hell breaking loose’

As Israel knew only too well in breaching the ceasefire, Hamas only ever had one point of leverage to try to enforce the agreement: to refuse to release more hostages. Which is precisely what the Palestinian group announced last Monday it would do until Israel began honouring the agreement.

In a familiar double act, Israel and Washington then put on a show of mock outrage.

Trump lost no time escalating the stakes dramatically. He gave Israel – or maybe the US, he was unclear – the green light to “let hell break out”, presumably meaning the resumption of the genocide.

This will happen not only if Hamas refuses to free the three scheduled hostages by the deadline of noon this Saturday. Trump has insisted that Hamas is now expected to release all of the hostages.

The US president said he would no longer accept “dribs and drabs” being released over the course of the six-week, first phase of the ceasefire. In other words, Trump is violating the very terms of the initial ceasefire his own team negotiated.

Clearly, neither Netanyahu nor Trump have been trying to save the agreement. They are working tirelessly to blow it up.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported as much last weekend. Israeli sources revealed that Netanyahu’s goal was to “derail” the ceasefire before it could reach the second stage when Israeli troops are supposed to fully withdraw from the enclave and reconstruction begin.

“Once Hamas realizes there won’t be a second stage, they may not complete the first,” a source told the paper.

Hamas insisted on a gradual release of hostages precisely to buy time, knowing that Israel would be keen to restart the slaughter as soon as it got the hostages home.

The Palestinians of Gaza are back to square one.

Either accept that they will be ethnically cleansed so that Trump and his billionaire friends can cash in on reinventing the enclave as the “Riviera of the Middle East”, paid for by stealing the revenues from Gaza’s gas fields, or face a return to the genocide.

Quiet part out loud

As should have been clear, Netanyahu only agreed to Washington’s “ceasefire” because it was never real. It was a pause so the US could recalibrate from a Biden genocide narrative rooted in the language of “humanitarianism” and “security” to Trump’s far more straightforward tough-guy act.

Now it’s all about the “art of the deal” and real-estate development opportunities.

But of course Trump’s plan to “own” Gaza and then “clean it out” has left his allies in Europe – in truth, his satraps – squirming in their seats.

As ever, Trump has a disturbing habit of saying the quiet part out loud. Of tearing away the already-battered veneer of western respectability. Of making everyone look bad.

The truth is that over 15 months Israel failed to achieve either of its stated objectives in Gaza – eradicating Hamas and securing the return of the hostages – because neither was ever really the goal.

Even Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had to concede that Israel’s mass slaughter had served only to recruit as many fighters to Hamas as it had killed.

And Israeli military whistleblowers revealed to the website +972 last week that Israel had killed many of its hostages by using indiscriminate US-supplied bunker-buster bombs.

These bombs had not only generated huge blast areas but also served effectively as chemical weapons, flooding Hamas’ tunnels with carbon monoxide, asphyxiating the hostages.

The indifference of the Israeli leadership to the hostages’ fate was confirmed by Israel’s former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in an interview with Israeli TV Channel 12.

He admitted that the army had invoked the so-called Hannibal directive during Hamas’ breakout of Gaza on 7 October 2023, allowing soldiers to kill Israelis rather than risk letting them be taken hostage by the Palestinian group.

These matters, which throw a different light on Israel’s actions in Gaza, have, of course, been almost completely blanked out by the western establishment media.

Damage limitation

Israel’s plan from the outset was the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. And now Trump is making that explicit.

So explicit, in fact, that the media have been forced to go into frenzied damage-limitation mode, employing one of the most intense psy-ops against their own publics on record.

Every euphemism under the sun has been resorted to to avoid making clear that Trump and Israel are preparing to ethnically cleanse whoever’s left of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

The BBC speaks of “resettling“, “relocating” and “moving away” the population of Gaza.

In other reports, Palestinians are inexplicably on the brink of “leaving”.

The New York Times refers to ethnic cleansing positively as Trump’s “development plan”, while Reuters indifferently calls it “moving out” Gaza’s population.

Western capitals and their compliant media have been put in this uncomfortable position because Washington’s client states in the Middle East have refused to play ball with Israel and Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan.

Despite the ever-mounting slaughter, Egypt has refused to open its short border with Gaza to let the bombed, starved population pour into neighbouring Sinai.

There was, of course, never any question of Israel being expected to allow Gaza’s families to return to the lands from which they were originally expelled, at gunpoint, in 1948 in order to create a self-declared Jewish state.

Then, as now, the western powers colluded in Israel’s ethnic cleansing operations. This is the historical context western media prefer to gloss over – even on the rare occasions when they concede that there is any relevant background other than a presumed Palestinian barbarism. Instead the media resort to evasive terminology about “cycles of violence” and “historic enmities”.

Backed into a corner by Trump’s outbursts of the past few days, western politicians and the media have preferred to suggest that his administration’s “development plan” for Gaza is actually an innovation.

In truth, however, the president isn’t advancing anything new in demanding that Gaza’s Palestinians be ethnically cleansed. What’s different is that he is being unusually – and inadvisably – open about a long-standing policy.

Israel has always harboured plans to expel Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and from the West Bank to Jordan.

But more to the point, as was noted by Middle East Eye a decade ago, Washington has been fully on board with the Gaza half of the expulsion project since the latter stages of George W Bush’s second presidency, in 2007. For anyone struggling with maths, that was 18 years ago.

Every US president, including Barack Obama, has leant on Egypt’s leader of the time to allow Israel to drive Gaza’s population into Sinai – and each one has been rebuffed.

Open secret

This open secret is not widely known for exactly the same reason that every western pundit and politician is now pretending to be appalled that Trump is actually advancing it.

Why? Because it looks bad – all the more so couched in Trump’s vulgar real-estate sales pitch in the middle of a supposed ceasefire.

Western leaders had hoped to bring about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza with more decorum – in a “humanitarian” way that would have been more effective in duping western publics and maintaining the West’s claim to be upholding civilised values against a supposed Palestinian barbarity.

Since 2007 Washington and Israel’s joint ethnic cleansing project has been known as the “Greater Gaza Plan.”

Israel’s siege of the tiny enclave, which began in late 2006, was designed to create so much misery and poverty that the people there would clamour to be allowed out.

This was when Israel began formulating a so-called “starvation diet” for the people of Gaza, counting the calories to keep them alive but only barely.

Israel’s conception of Gaza was that it was like a tube of toothpaste that could be squeezed. As soon as Egypt relented and opened the border, the population would flood into Sinai out of desperation.

Every Egyptian president was bullied and bribed to give in: Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi, and General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. They all refused.

Egypt was under no illusions about what was at stake after 7 October 2023. It fully understood that Israel’s levelling of Gaza was designed to squeeze the tube so hard the top would be forced off.

Pressure on Egypt

From the outset, officials like mage limitation Israel’s former national security adviser, stated publicly that the goal was to make Gaza “a place where no human being can exist”.

Just a week into Israel’s slaughter, in October 2023, military spokesperson Amir Avivi told the BBC that Israel could not ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza. He added: “They need to move south, out to the Sinai Peninsula.”

The next day, Danny Ayalon, a Netanyahu confidant and former Israeli ambassador to the US, amplified the point: “There is almost endless space in the Sinai Desert… We and the international community will prepare the infrastructure for tent cities.”

He concluded: “Egypt will have to play ball.”

Israel’s thinking was divulged in a leaked policy draft from its intelligence ministry. It proposed that, after their expulsion, Gaza’s population would initially be housed in tent cities, before permanent communities could be built in the north of Sinai.

At the same time, the Financial Times reported that Netanyahu was lobbying the European Union on the idea of driving the enclave’s Palestinians into Sinai under cover of war.

Some EU members, including the Czech Republic and Austria, were said to have been receptive and floated the idea at a meeting of member states. An unnamed European diplomat told the FT: “Now is the time to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration supplied the bombs to maintain the pressure.

Sisi was only too aware of what Egypt was up against: a concerted western plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. None of it had anything to do with Trump, who was more than a year away from being elected president.

In mid-October 2023, days into the slaughter, Sisi responded in a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refuge and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted.”

That was precisely why he dedicated so much effort to shoring up the short border shared between Gaza and Sinai both before and after Israel’s genocide began.

Peace sales pitch

Part of what makes Trump’s sales pitch so surreal is that he is half-heartedly sticking to the original script: trying to make the plan sound vaguely humanitarian.

At the same time as re-arming Israel and warning of “all hell breaking loose”, he has spoken of finding “parcels of land” in Egypt and Jordan where the people of Gaza “can live very happily and very safely”.

He has contrasted that with their current plight: “They are being killed there at levels that nobody’s ever seen. No place in the world is as dangerous as the Gaza Strip… They are living in hell.”

That seems to be Trump’s all-too-revealing way of describing the genocide Israel denies it is carrying out and the one the US denies it is arming.

But the talk of helping Gaza’s population is just the rhetorical leftovers from the old sales pitch when previous US administrations were preparing to sell ethnic cleansing as integral to a new stage of the fabled “peace process”.

As Middle East Eye noted back in 2015, Washington had been recruited to the Greater Gaza Plan in 2007. Then the proposal was that Egypt would give 1,600 sq km area in Sinai – five times the size of Gaza – to the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinians from Gaza would be “encouraged” – that is, pressured through the siege and aid blockade, as well as intermittent episodes of carpet bombing known as “mowing the lawn”– to flee there.

In return, Abbas would have to forgo a Palestinian state in historic Palestine, undermine the right of return of Palestinian refugees enshrined in international law, and pass the burden of responsibility for repressing the Palestinians on to Egypt and the wider Arab world.

Israel advanced the Sinai plan between 2007 and 2018 in the hope of sabotaging Abbas’ campaign at the United Nations seeking recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Notably, Israel’s large-scale military assaults on Gaza – in the winter of 2008, 2012 and again in 2014 – coincided with reported Israeli and US efforts to turn the screws on successive Egyptian leaders to concede parts of Sinai.

‘Waterfront property’

Trump is already deeply familiar with the Greater Gaza Plan from his first presidency. Reports from 2018 suggest he hoped to include it in his “deal of the century” plan to bring about normalisation between Israel and the Arab world.

In March that year the White House hosted 19 countries in a conference to consider new ideas for dealing with Gaza’s mounting, entirely Israeli-made crisis.

As well as Israel, the participants included representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The Palestinians boycotted the meeting.

A few months later, in the summer of 2018, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and architect of his Middle East plan, visited Egypt. A short time later Hamas sent a delegation to Cairo to learn about what was being proposed.

Then, as seemingly now, Trump was offering a purpose-built zone in Sinai with solar-power grid, desalination plant, seaport and airport, as well as a free trade zone with five industrial areas, financed by the oil-rich Gulf states.

Revealingly, a veteran Israeli journalist, Ron Ben-Yishai, reported at the time that Israel was threatening to invade and bisect Gaza into separate northern and southern sectors to force Hamas’ compliance. That is exactly the strategy Israel prioritised last year during its invasion and then set about emptying north Gaza of its residents.

Trump also sought to deepen the crisis in Gaza by withholding payments to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). That same policy was actively pursued by Israel and the Biden administration during the current genocide.

Since Trump took office, Israel has banned UNRWA activities anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Trump’s team revived their own interest in the ethnic cleansing plan the moment Israel launched its genocide – long before Trump knew whether he would win the November 2024 election.

In March last year, nearly a year ago, Kushner used exactly the same language Trump does now. He observed that “there’s not much of Gaza left at this point”, that the priority was to “clean it up”, and that it was a “valuable waterfront property”. He insisted the people of Gaza would have to be “moved out”.

Rabbit in the headlights

If Trump refuses to relent, the direction things head next for the people of Gaza hangs chiefly on neighbouring Egypt and Jordan: they must either accept the ethnic cleansing plan, or Israel will resume the extermination of Gaza’s population.

Should they demur, Trump has threatened to cut US aid – effectively decades-old bribes to each not to come to the Palestinians’ aid while Israel brutalises them.

King Abdullah of Jordan, during a visit to the White House this week, looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

He dared not anger Trump by rejecting the plan to his face. Instead he suggested waiting to see how Egypt – a larger, more powerful Arab state – responded.

But privately, as MEE has reported, Abdullah is so fearful of the destabilising effects of Jordan colluding in Gaza’s ethnic cleansing – which he regards as an “existential issue” for his regime – that he is threatening war on Israel to stop it.

Similarly, Egypt has shown its displeasure. In the wake of Abdullah’s humiliating visit, Sisi has reportedly postponed his own meeting next week with Trump – in a clear rebuff – until the ethnic cleansing plan is off the table.

Cairo is said to be preparing its own proposal for how Gaza can be reconstructed. Even Washington’s oil-rich ally Saudi Arabia is in revolt.

It is rare to see Arab states show so much backbone to any US president, let alone one as vain and strategically unhinged as Trump.

Which may explain why the US president’s resolve appears to be weakening. On Wednesday his press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that Trump was now seeking from “our Arab partners in the region” a counter-proposal, a “peace plan to present to the president”.

And in another sign that Trump may be hesitating, Netanyahu walked back his threat to resume the genocide unless all the hostages were freed on Saturday. He is now demanding only the three that were originally scheduled.

Reports from Gaza are that Israel has also significantly stepped up its aid deliveries.

All of which is welcome news. It may buy the people of Gaza a little more time.

But we should not lose sight of the bigger picture. Israel and the US are still committed to “cleaning out” Gaza, one way or another, as they have been for the past 18 years. They are simply looking for a more propitious moment to resume.

That could be this weekend, or it could be in a month or two. But at least Biden and Trump have achieved one thing. They have made sure no one can ever again mistake the crushing of Gaza for a peace plan.

The post Trump Didn’t Invent the Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Plan first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Jonathan Cook.

All Of It: Mad King Stuff

Abby Zimet — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 19:47:25 +0000

Oof. The Trump/Musk "epic weekend bender" has wrought the "rapid tear-down of the nation’s constitutional structures" in a rampaging takeover of the machinery of government - treasury, health care, criminal justice, foreign aid - by an unhinged, unelected oligarch in the name of an idiot boss who (somehow still) has no clue. After years of dread, their coup has left we the people raging, reeling, with mere "tiny levers" to pull. Josh Marshall: "The calamity is upon us." Dig in.

Honestly, we're so gobsmacked by the relentless fascism reigning down we lack the stomach to revisit the nitty-gritty of every theft, abuse, baldly illegal outrage. Heather Cox Richardson does an admirable job of documenting it; so does Robert Reich, repeatedly, and Thom Hartmann. We'll settle for a brief, grim recap; by the time you read this, there'll probably be more. On Tyranny's Timothy Snyder likens today's "government" to a car falling prey to dodgy mechanics: "You might have thought the election was like getting the car serviced," he writes "Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics (tell) you they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money, (and) this was the most efficient thing to do."

As promised, the vengeful child-king first lashed out at all the mean law-abiding public servants who did their jobs and exposed his crimes. In a mass purge at the Justice Department, he feverishly fired or shut out scores of Jan. 6 prosecutors, FBI directors and agents, and any of the 6,000 participants in "witch hunts" and thought-crimes against him. As they were warned their names would be released so MAGA goons could doxx them to death - and while Nazi grifter Ka$h Patel was telling Congress he wouldn’t politicize the FBI - remaining agents had to vow, Stalin-like, to root out "subversives." And all that was just to open the door to a mad muskrat to start rooting around in federal agencies to find and gut whatever he personally dislikes, which yes is a coup.

Thus did a weird rich nerd with no authority or experience get handed "the keys to the kingdom," specifically both the data and systems of a Treasury Department that disburses almost $6 trillion a year - almost 90% of all federal transactions - and the financial information of millions of Americans who get it in dribs and drabs through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, contracts, grants, loans, salaries, tax refunds etc. Musk and his DOGE goons illegally locked former workers out of the system, forced the highest-ranking official to resign when he refused to comply, vowed to unilaterally cancel hundreds of millions of dollars’ in "illegal" government grants, quickly boasted he had, and then moved on to storm and trash multiple other federal agencies.

He was accompanied, Wired eventually reported, by an upstart troop of juvenile former X staffers, arsonists and engineers "barely out of - and in at least one case, purportedly still in - college.” All 19-to-24 year old protégés of duel madmen Musk or Peter Thiel, they've been gleefully taking a wrecking ball to the computers of government agencies while understanding almost nothing of their government functions, surrounding laws or the repercussions of breaking them. In the supremely ironic name of security, his clueless little firestarters have only identified themselves with first names, but Wired did better: Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. Cool, man: Gamers 'R Us!

With his little band of outlaws, then, Musk moved on from Treasury to the U.S. Agency for International Development, a global behemoth that disburses up to $70 billion a year in humanitarian aid to about 130 countries. They provide clean water, medical supplies, field hospitals, landmine clearance, anti-terrorism programs; they feed hungry babies in war zones, refugee camps, disaster areas. Though their budget is less than 1% of the federal budget, one of Trump's first acts was to freeze almost all foreign aid, 'cause America First! But USAID gets its foreign policy guidance from the State Department, which means any breaching of their security systems or classified information would in turn render national intelligence insecure.

But Musk knows best: USAID is "a criminal organization.. a viper's nest. Time for it to die." Last weekend his delinquents barged in and accessed its classified info and security systems; when two officials tried to stop them, they were put on leave. Then DOGE closed the agency: Staff were locked out or told not to report to work, USAID logos were stripped, website and social media accounts went dark. "Secretary of State" Marco Rubio declared himself acting head of the agency to "ensure spending is in line with the president's agenda"; after an outcry, he may or may have exempted some humanitarian aid from the purge. Musk is unmoved. "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper," he brayed. "Could (sic) gone to some great parties."

This week, in our new Wild East, Dems tried to enter the USAID building and were denied entry. A furious Jamie Raskin told Musk he may have illegally seized power over U.S. financial systems but, "You don’t control the money of the American people. Congress does...We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk." Not yet. But he's busy: He "deleted" the IRS' Direct File system that let people file taxes free online; he scoped out for purges General Services, Commerce, Education, Small Business and NOAA - to Project 2025, a key part of the Marxist "climate change alarm industry” - and by trashing USAID, expert say he "sabotaged 80 years of U.S. goodwill." Even affable Canada is pissed: At an NBA basketball game, and at several NFL hockey games, fans booed America's National Anthem. Go Canada.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

While Elmo runs rampant, Orange Donald has mostly been golfing, watching Fox News, stubby-fingered-rage-posting and occasionally putting on his oompa-loompa make-up to flamboyantly, leeringly sign a blizzard of largely illegal executive orders for the cameras, often moronically holding them up in vengeful triumph like a deranged eight-year-old showing off his latest rambling crayoned manifesto ordering the Marxist lunch lady to put still more ketchup on his fries like he keeps asking her to dammit. But while a parade of his comic-book Cabinet nominees sidestep or decline the traditional pledge to refuse any illegal presidential orders, he's also been busy obliterating, with a mindless vindictive swoop of his sharpie, decades of social progress.

He shut down the CDC and NIH, effectively halting all cancer and other life-saving medical research vital to millions of people, though it's never done anything for him. He ordered all federal databases dedicated to public health - about 8,000 pages from a dozen websites - to go dark until they'd scrubbed any mention of nasty things like gender, drug use, mental health, sexual assault, disease, proclivities and their connections, from tracking/preventing HIV to treating STIs to prescribing contraception. In response, researchers have been scrambling to salvage information from Malignant Big Brother and archive it through the Wayback Machine. "Science is disappearing from US websites," they charge. "Hiding the facts puts lives at risk."

Then the King of Tariffs launched the “dumbest trade war in history” with Mexico, Canada, and China, slapping 10%-25% tariffs on goods for "virtually every sector of the American economy": produce from Mexico, cars China, energy, alcohol, lumber from Canada at the start of building season amidst a housing crisis. As Fox hosts burbled - "waste and fraud," "saving billions of dollars!" "fix the system so people can afford eggs and gas" - they endlessly scrolled through avocados, beef, bananas, tomatoes, Nissan, steel, beer, lumber - and the Stock Market plunged. "WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE," from the guy who said there wouldn't be, but it will ALL BE WORTH IT for a country RUN WITH COMMON SENSE - "THE RESULTS WILL BE SPECTACULAR!!!"

Spectactularly swiftly, it all backfired. Trudeau slapped $100 billion in retaliatory tariffs on everything - U.S. beer, wine, fruit, juice, produce, appliances, duh lumber - and warned Americans the tariffs would hurt them. Provincial leaders halted massive buys of alcohol, Irving Oil, which heats New England, hiked prices 20%, and abruptly a "pause" for Mexico, then Canada, was announced after Mr. Art of the Deal, who never does his homework, won a pyrrhic victory asboth countries agreeed to do what they'd already done. Mexico would put 10,000 National Guard at the border who are there now via a 2021 deal with Biden, Canada would spend $1.3 billion on border security they agreed to with Joe in December; they'll also appoint a "Fentanyl Czar" for the 0.2% of fentanyl that crosses that border. Chortling Trudeau: "Sure Donnie, whatev." The triumphant idiot king then declared a "flawless victory in a pointless trade war" and, having claimed Biden's achievements as his own, went home to gloat.

— (@)

In some truly "mad king stuff," Little Donnie also told the Army Corps of Engineers to turn on his magic faucet, open two dams in Central California, and let 2.2 billion gallons of water rush into dry lakebeds, which he celebrated by posting pastoral water images - "Beautiful water is flowing!" - even though experts say it is virtually impossible to move that water several hundred miles to fire-ravaged southern California, and now the water, which is usually needed by farmers in the hot, dry summer, will likely be wasted. "There is absolutely.no connection between this water and the water needed for firefighting in L.A." said one. "There is no physical connection." California's Adam Schiff on Donnie Firefighter's act: "Stupid. Ridiculous. Dangerous. Wasteful.'

Even at "work" in the Oval Office, Donnie King is not quite with it. Staff say to keep him focused in briefings they resort to pictures, bullet points, map and strategic mentions of his name as often as possible "because then he keeps reading." His understanding of governance remains iffy: Asked if he thinks he needs Congress' approval to topple agencies or freeze funding, he said, “I don’t think so. Not when it comes to fraud. These people are lunatics." Speaking of: There is no actual goal or "agenda" at work here, Robert Reich reminds us,, on foreign aid, immigrants, tariffs, "all of it." For a sociopath, "The point is the show. So the world knows he's willing to inflict harm," and, like any chaos agent or abusive spouse, to rule by sadistic unpredictability.

Confoundingly, his grip on a supine GOP remains so strong they've literally turned away from the torrent of abuses. On Musk's boy-raid on USAID and "the tofu-eating 'wokerati' (at USAID) screaming like they're part of a prison riot," Sen. John Foghorn Kennedy says, “My attitude is, if you’re upset by that, call someone who cares. Because that’s why we’re elected - to review the spending.” He added a rant about omelets and sex that likely didn't help businesses scrambling with ransacked data, non-profits closing or people trying to pay rent or swipe a once-secure card for groceries. "It's a hostile takeover of the U.S. happening in full view of the world," writes Tom Sullivan - and of "Democrats down the street just waking up and smelling the accelerants."

Somnambulant Dems need to use the "tiny levers" of power they're left with in what is "fundamentally a battle over public opinion," argues Josh Marshall. The larger political message: "You're about to lose a lot of stuff," from health care to savings, so billionaires can get a tax cut. Very slow and late, Dems in Congress have begun heeding AOC's demand to "stop playing nice." They've demanded the spending freeze be "choked off" before they'll help a fractious GOP meet a March funding deadline to keep government open, passed a bill blocking "unlawful access" to Treasury, placed a "blanket hold" on Trump's State nominees until USAID reopens, refusing to use the Senate's traditional "unanimous consent" power to slow down confirmations.

They've pivoted to messaging that tariffs will just "rip off" taxpayers, joined a protest at Treasury to "stop the corporate coup" and proclaim, "We choose to fight. Nobody elected Elon," vowed to go into Musk-rampaged buildings and "dare them to stop (us)." Federal judges have shut down the spending freeze, unions and Public Citizen have sued Elon to block him from accessing Treasury data, others have sued him for identity theft, and many more legal challenges are reportedly, finally in the works. In L.A. last weekend, thousands of immigrants and advocates turned out to protest ICE deportations and shut down the freeway; they waved Mexican flags and chanted the United Farm Workers' "Si Se Puede" - Yes, you can. Chicago and other cities held a day without immigrants, closing businessiness to show, "We’re united, we’re together, we’re strong."

In this loopy dystopia, far behind the Looking Glass, even the FBi is pushing back. Top officials and the FBI Agents Association have told members, “Do NOT resign or offer to resign." They've urged agents to not take McCarthyesque vows to name "subversives," refused to participate in Musk'a gang firings, and sued DOJ to stop the release of names from the Jan. 6/ Trump criminal cases. An assistant director in New York emailed his staff to say he's not quitting, and neither should they. In his impassioned plea, he recalled a time in combat in the Marines when he had to laboriously dig a foxhole with a two-foot folding shovel. "It sucked, but it worked when the bullets flew," he wrote, adding he had a similar feeling in this chaos. "I’m sticking around to defend you, your work, your families, and this team. Time for me to dig in."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Abby Zimet.

His Majesty’s pleasure: King reigns over Tongan government despite democratic reform

APR editor — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 04:06:57 +0000

COMMENTARY: By Kalafi Moala

Long live the king and long may he reign, so goes the traditional proclamation. In Tonga, King Tupou VI has shown he has every intention of doing that.

After a tumultuous and tense year of the chess board of politics, the monarch appears to have won, with ordinary citizens and democratic rule taking a backward step.

With the swearing in of Tonga’s new cabinet, including the appointment of his son Crown Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalaka from outside Parliament to the defence and foreign affairs portfolios, the king has triumphed.

It’s almost 12 months since the king withdrew “confidence and consent” in then prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni, as armed forces minister, along with Fekita ‘Utoikamanu, the country’s first female foreign affairs minister. The move appeared to overstep the reduced royal powers outlined in the country’s 2010 constitution.

No details for the withdrawal of confidence and consent were disclosed. Noticeably neither Sovaleni or ‘Ulukalaka are aristocrats and the roles of foreign affairs and defense have traditionally been held by a male noble or members of the royal family.

Last February, Tupou VI acted against Sovaleni while he was overseas, seeking medical treatment. His cabinet responded by rejecting the king’s position, issuing a legal opinion from Tonga’s attorney general stating it was “contrary” to the constitution.

One thing seemed to be clear, that Tupou VI was reasserting his role in the affairs of state in a way not seen since the constitutional reform in 2010.

King has his way
A year later, and the king has had his way. Solaveni stood down as prime minister on Christmas Eve as he faced a no confidence motion in Parliament. It would likely have passed with the support of a bloc of noble MPs, appointed by the king, allied with opposition members.

Now Tonga faces an uncertain nine months with newly elected Prime Minister ‘Aisake Eke at the reins until elections in November. The 65-year-old was formally appointed by Tupou VI as Tonga’s 19th prime minister at the Nuku’alofa Palace, after he was elected by Parliament in December.

The much awaited announcement of who would be in cabinet was delayed several times, with the process of getting the king to approve each minister taking much longer than usual or expected.

The prime minister has the power to recommend up to four people outside parliament to his ministry, and he did, including the crown prince. He also recommended two women — ‘Ana ‘Akau’ola as Minister of Health and Sinaitakala Tu’itahi as Minister of Internal Affairs — the most ever in cabinet.

Tonga in 2010 amended its constitution to remove many of the monarch’s powers and allowed elections after more than 150 years of absolute rule. The move to greater democracy occurred with the cooperation of the then monarch George V.

The nation of about 107,000 people is the only Pacific island nation with an Indigenous monarch.

Previously, the monarch had almost absolute power with the right to appoint the prime minister, cabinet ministers and members of parliament, except nine MPs elected as the peoples’ representatives.

King retains some powers
Under the new constitution, cabinet ministers are appointed or removed by the king on the prime minister’s recommendation, or a vote of no confidence in Parliament. But the king — defined as a sacred person in Tonga’s constitution — retained some powers including veto over government legislation and the right to appoint about a third of Parliament’s members, who are nobles.

Another major constitutional change was to increase the number of elected people’s representatives from nine to 17, while the number of noble representatives remained at nine. This meant that if the people’s representatives could stand together on any issue, they could form a majority and dominate the 26-seat chamber.

But that has not often been the case in the past 15 years, with the people’s representatives at odds with each other. As a result the nobles have held the balance of power, as in the recent standoff in Parliament over the proposed vote of no confidence that led to the eventual resignation of Sovaleni.

The group of MPs that came together to eventually force his exit were not united by a political vision, and were not so much “pro-Eke” as “anti-Sovaleni.”

Seven of the nine nobles voting against then former prime minister Sovaleni in December was a clear sign of the involvement of the king in this latest political turmoil. The nobles almost always act in Parliament according to what they understand as “the wish of His Majesty.”

In Sovaleni’s teary resignation speech he said the nobles were afraid of the king and so were swayed from standing with him.

“I hope there will be a time when we’ll work together,” he said pointedly, acknowledging the noble representatives.

‘There’s still enslavement’
“I thought this land had been granted freedom, but there’s still enslavement,” Sovaleni continued through tears. He added that he was quitting “for the good of the country and moving Tonga forward.”

Sovaleni suggested that the people’s representatives should see this as an opportunity to collaborate. “If the nobles can pull themselves together, I don’t know why can’t we overcome our differences,” he said.

Eke after his election travelled to New Zealand for an audience with the king, but the king decided to take his time. What used to be a prompt and routine formality to swear in the government and cabinet was delayed. And a month later the king now has what he sought in February last year.

The late George V declared that the 2010 reform was to make Tonga “more democratic”. Despite these changes, Tonga’s taste of democracy under his brother has, in the past 15 years, been a bitter-sweet journey that started with good intentions, but has now turned from bad to ugly.

Tongan-born Kalafi Moala has been a journalist and author for 35 years, establishing the country’s first independent newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga, writing on the country’s social, cultural and political history, and campaigning for media freedom at home and in the Pacific region. This article was first published by BenarNews and is republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Vanuatu risks return to all-male parliament in snap election in spite of strong ‘ vot woman’ campaign

APR editor — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 05:01:51 +0000

By Leah Lowonbu in Port Vila

Vanuatu’s only incumbent female parliamentarian has lost her seat in a snap election leaving only one woman candidate in contention after an unofficial vote count.

The unofficial counting at polling locations indicated the majority of the 52 incumbent MPs have been reelected but also with some high profile departures.

Former deputy prime minister Jotham Napat, head of the Leaders Party, has secured up to nine MPs, putting him in poll position to try to form a coalition government.

Vanuatu’s snap election last Thursday was called in November and held in spite of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that devastated the capital Port Vila in December.

The election results will be confirmed by the official count of votes in the capital once all ballot boxes have been transported from electorates to Port Vila.

Former female MP Julia King from the Efate constituency has likely lost her seat.

She made international headlines in 2022 as the first woman elected in Vanuatu in more than a decade and only the sixth woman to serve in Parliament since the nation’s independence in 1980.

Only hope for women
Marie Louis Milne, a candidate for the Port Vila constituency, has emerged as the only hope for a woman to sit in the chamber in the next term. Both Milne and a male candidate claim to have won the sixth and final seat in the electorate, based on the unofficial figures.

Campaigners for women parliamentarians hold “Vot Woman” t-shirts on polling day last week to support Marie Louise Milne in the Efate electorate. Image: BenarNews

“The high number of voters supporting women is a positive indication of changing perceptions surrounding women’s leadership and decision-making,” Milne told BenarNews.

“There are numerous pressing issues we want to address in Parliament, including women’s health and their economic development.”

The possible lack of female representation is a disappointment for Vanuatu governance and development policy specialist Anna Naupa.

Electoral officers confirm voters’ eligibility to vote in Vanuatu’s snap election last Thursday. Image: Leah Lowonbu/BenarNews

Marie Louis Milne, a candidate for the Port Vila constituency, has emerged as the only hope for a woman to sit in the chamber in the next term. Both Milne and a male candidate claim to have won the sixth and final seat in the electorate, based on the unofficial figures.

“The high number of voters supporting women is a positive indication of changing perceptions surrounding women’s leadership and decision-making,” Milne told BenarNews.

“There are numerous pressing issues we want to address in Parliament, including women’s health and their economic development.”

Gender disappointment
The possible lack of female representation is a disappointment for Vanuatu governance and development policy specialist Anna Naupa.

“We will wait for the official results, and if that turns out to be true, it is a sad reality for our country (that) women continue to face significant challenges in entering Parliament,” Naupa told BenarNews.

“We really need to look back at systems we have in place to help facilitate voices of women and vulnerable groups in our society.

“This means the new legislature needs to pull up its socks to listen to all people, at every level of society.”

This election there were seven women among the 217 candidates contesting, matching the number in 2022 but down from 18 in 2020.

“Thumbs up . . . Jotham Napat and his wife Lettis Napat after voting in Vanuatu’s snap election last week. Image: BenarNews

Several high profile MPs losing seats
The unofficial results show several high profile MPs are likely to lose their seats, including four-time prime minister Sato Kilman, head of the People’s Progressive Party.

Leaders from seven parties were re-elected including former prime minister Charlot Salwai from the Reunification Movement for Change, former prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau of the Union of Moderate Parties and former foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu of the Graon mo Jastis Pati.

“I am happy to return again and start working very soon — that’s all I have to say for now,” Regenvanu told BenarNews.

Other leaders thanked their voters on social media for their re-election.

Hopes for a generational change in Parliament rest with the few new MPs who look likely to be elected, including Matai Kaltabang in Julia King’s former electorate in Efate.

If elected, the member of the Iauko Group will be the youngest person in the 14th Parliament, at the age of 28 years old, and one of the youngest ever elected.

Parliamentary standing orders require the first sitting of the house be convened within 21 days of the election.

Despite the setbacks in the unofficial results for women, Milne remains optimistic, urging the six other female candidates who participated in the elections to persevere.

“I encourage them to never give up, build on what they have, and continue to make a difference in their communities so that in four years, we can see more women represented in Parliament,” she said.

Leah Lowonbu is a BenarNews contributor. Stefan Armbruster contributed to this report from Brisbane. Copyright BenarNews 2025 and republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day & President Trump’s Inauguration

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 13:00:58 +0000

This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

Kiwi pilot kidnapping in West Papua leads to police raids in Australia

APR editor — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 08:09:55 +0000

By Duncan Graham

An alleged plot involving firearms and threatening the life of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens when held hostage in Papua this year is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

The case involves “advancing a political cause by the separation of West Papua from Indonesia . . . with the intention of coercing by intimidation the governments of New Zealand and Indonesia”.

Named in the AFP search warrant seen by MWM is research scholar Julian King, 63, who has studied and written extensively about West Papuan affairs.

READ MORE: Plea to bar Prabowo from UK as Indonesian security forces crack down on Papuan rally
‘If it’s not racism, what is it?’ — Human Rights Watch report
Prabowo and the UK
Other West Papua reports

He has told others his home in Coffs Harbour, Queensland, was raided violently earlier this month by police using a stun grenade and smashing a door.

During the search, the police seized phones, computers and documents about alleged contacts with the West Papua rebel group Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM (Free Papua Organisation) and a bid to seek weapons and ammunition.

However, no arrests are understood to have been made or charges laid.

King, a former geologist and now a PhD student at Wollongong University, has been studying Papuan reaction to the Indonesian takeover since 1963. He has written in a research paper titled “A soul divided: The UN’s misconduct over West Papua” that West Papuans:

‘live under a military dictatorship described by legal scholars and human rights advocates as systemic terror and alleged genocide.’

Also named in the warrant alongside King is Amatus Dounemee Douw, confirmed by MWM contacts to be Australian citizen Akouboo Amatus Douw, who chairs the West Papua Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs Council, an NGO that states it seeks to settle disputes peacefully.

Risk to Australia-Indonesia relations
The allegations threaten to fragment relations between Indonesia and Australia.

It is widely believed that human rights activists and church organisations are helping Papuan dissidents despite Canberra’s regular insistence that it officially backs Jakarta.

Earlier this year, Deputy PM Richard Marles publicly stressed: “We, Australia, fully recognise Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty. We do not endorse any independence movement.”

In August, Douw alleged Indonesian troops shot Kiwi Glen Conning on August 5 in Central Papua. The government version claims that the pilot was killed by “an armed criminal group” after landing his helicopter, ferrying local people who fled unharmed.

When seized by armed OPM pro-independence fighters in February last year, Mehrtens was flying a light plane for an Indonesian transport company.

He was released unharmed in September after being held for 593 days by the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat – TPNPB), the military wing of the OPM.

AFP is investigating alleged firearms plot which threatened the life of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens when held hostage in West Papua this year #auspol https://t.co/8ZXFIB1fre

— Michael West (@MichaelWestBiz) November 18, 2024

Designated ‘terrorist’ group, journalists banned
OPM is designated as a terrorist organisation in Indonesia but isn’t on the Australian list of proscribed groups. Jakarta bans foreign journalists from Papua, so little impartial information is reported.

After Mehrtens was freed, TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom alleged that a local politician had paid a bribe, a charge denied by the NZ government.

However, West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty told Radio NZ the bribe was “an internal political situation that has nothing to do with our government’s negotiations.”

Sambom, who has spent time in Indonesian jails for taking part in demonstrations, now operates out of adjacent Papua New Guinea — a separate independent country.

Australia was largely absent from the talks to free Mehrtens that were handled by NZ diplomats and the Indonesian military. The AFP’s current involvement raises the worry that information garnered under the search warrants will show the Indonesian government where the Kiwi was hidden so that locations can be attacked from the air.

At one stage during his captivity, Mehrtens appealed to the Indonesian military not to bomb villages.

It is believed Mehrtens was held in Nduga, a district with the lowest development index in the Republic, a measure of how citizens can access education, health, and income. Yet Papua is the richest province in the archipelago — the Grasberg mine is the world’s biggest deposit of gold and copper.

OPM was founded in December 1963 as a spiritual movement rejecting development while blending traditional and Christian beliefs. It then started working with international human rights agencies for support.

Indigenous Papuans are mainly Christian, while almost 90 percent of Indonesians follow Islam.

Chief independence lobbyist Benny Wenda lives in exile in Oxford. In 2003 he was given political asylum by the UK government after fleeing from an Indonesian jail. He has addressed the UN and European and British Parliaments, but Jakarta has so far resisted international pressure to allow any form of self-determination.

Questions for new President Prabowo
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is in the UK this week, where Papuans have been drumming up opposition to the official visit. In a statement, Wenda said:

‘Prabowo has also restarted the transmigration settlement programme that has made us a minority in our own land.’

“For West Papuans, the ghost of (second president) Suharto has returned — (his) New Order regime still exists, it has just changed its clothes.”

Pleas for recognition of Papuan’s concerns get minimal backing in Indonesia; fears of balkanisation and Western nations taking over a splintered country are well entrenched in the 17,000-island archipelago of 1300 ethnic groups where “unity” is considered the Republic’s foundation stone.

Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia. He has been an occasional contributor to Asia Pacific Report and this article was first published by Michael West Media.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

‘Climate’ CHOGM success for Samoa but what’s in it for the Pacific?

APR editor — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 01:58:36 +0000

COMMENTARY: By Tess Newton Cain

As CHOGM came to a close, Samoa rightfully basked in the resounding success for the country and people as hosts of the Commonwealth leaders’ meeting.

Footage of Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa swaying along to the siva dance as she sat beside Britain’s King Charles III encapsulated a palpable national pride, well deserved on delivering such a high-profile gathering.

Getting down to the business of dissecting the meeting outcomes — in the leaders’ statement and Samoa communiqué — there are several issues that are significant for the Pacific island members of this post-colonial club.

READ MORE: Other CHOGM 2024 reports

As expected, climate change features prominently in the text, with more than 30 mentions including three that refer to the “climate crisis”. This will resonate highly for Pacific members, as will the support for COP 31 in 2026 to be jointly hosted by Australia and the Pacific.

Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa opening CHOGM 2024. Video: Talamua Media

One of the glaring contradictions of this joint COP bid is illustrated by the lack of any call to end fossil fuel extraction in the final outcomes.

Tuvalu, Fiji and Vanuatu used the CHOGM to launch the latest Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative report, with a focus on Australia’s coal and gas mining. This reflects the diversity of Commonwealth membership, which includes some states whose economies remain reliant on fossil fuel extractive industries.

As highlighted ahead of CHOGM, this multilateral gave the 56 members a chance to consider positions to take to COP 29 next month in Baku, Azerbaijan. The communiqué from the leaders highlights the importance of increased ambition when it comes to climate finance at COP 29, and particularly to address the needs of developing countries.

Another drawcard
That speaks to all the Pacific island nations and gives the region’s negotiators another drawcard on the international stage.

Then came the unexpected, Papua New Guinea made a surprise announcement that it will not attend the global conference in Baku next month. Speaking at the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Small States, PNG’s Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko framed this decision as a stand on behalf of small island nations as a protest against “empty promises and inaction.”

As promised, a major output of this meeting was the Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future. This is the first oceans-focused declaration by the Commonwealth of Nations, and is somewhat belated given 49 of its 56 member states have ocean borders.

The declaration has positions familiar to Pacific policymakers and activists, including the recognition of national maritime boundaries despite the impacts of climate change and the need to reduce emissions from global shipping. A noticeable omission is any reference to deep-sea mining, which is also a faultline within the Pacific collective.

The text relating to reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery required extensive negotiation among the leaders, Australia’s ABC reported. While this issue has been driven by African and Caribbean states, it is one that touches the Pacific as well.

‘Blackbirding’ reparative justice
South Sea Islander “blackbirding” is one of the colonial practices that will be considered within the context of reparative justice. During the period many tens-of-thousands of Pacific Islanders were indentured to Australia’s cane fields, Fiji’s coconut plantations and elsewhere.

The trade to Queensland and New South Wales lasted from 1847 to 1904, while those destinations were British colonies until 1901. Indeed, the so-called “sugar slaves” were a way of getting cheap labour once Britain officially abolished slavery in 1834.

The next secretary-general of the Commonwealth will be Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey. Questions have been raised about the quality of her predecessor Patricia Scotland’s leadership for some time and the change will hopefully go some way in alleviating concerns.

Notably, the CHOGM has selected another woman to lead its secretariat. This is an important endorsement of female leadership among member countries where women are often dramatically underrepresented at national levels.

While it received little or no fanfare, the Commonwealth has also released its revised Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance. This is a welcome contribution, given the threats to media freedom in the Pacific and elsewhere. It reflects a longstanding commitment by the Commonwealth to supporting democratic resilience among its members.

These principles do not come with any enforcement mechanism behind them, and the most that can be done is to encourage or exhort adherence. However, they provide another potential buffer against attempts to curtail their remit for publishers, journalists, and bloggers in Commonwealth countries.

The outcomes reveal both progress and persistent challenges for Pacific island nations. While Apia’s Commonwealth Ocean Declaration emphasises oceanic issues, its lack of provisions on deep-sea mining exposes intra-Commonwealth tensions. The change in leadership offers a pivotal opportunity to prioritise equity and actionable commitments.

Ultimately, the success of this gathering will depend on translating discussions into concrete actions that address the urgent needs of Pacific communities facing an uncertain future.

But as the guests waved farewell, the question of what the Commonwealth really means for its Pacific members remains until leaders meet in two years time in Antigua and Barbuda, a small island state in the Caribbean.

Tess Newton Cain is a principal consultant at Sustineo P/L and adjunct associate professor at the Griffith Asia Institute. She is a former lecturer at the University of the South Pacific and has more than 25 years of experience working in the Pacific Islands region. Republished with the permission of BenarNews.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

King Charles arrives in Samoa for ‘resilient environment’ CHOGM

APR editor — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:17:28 +0000

By Susana Suisuiki, RNZ Pacific journalist in Apia

King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla have landed in Apia, Samoa.

The monarch has been greeted by a guard of honour at the airport before being escorted to his accommodation in Siumu.

Local villagers have lined the roadsides with lanterns to welcome His Royal Highness.

King Charles will deliver an address to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on Friday.

The royal office said as well as attending CHOGM, the King’s programme in Samoa would be supportive of one of the meeting’s key themes, “a resilient environment”, and the meeting’s focus on oceans.

The King and Queen were to be formally welcomed by an ‘Ava Fa’atupu ceremony before meeting people at an engagement to highlight aspects of Samoan traditions and culture.

As we head towards Apia, we can’t wait to visit Samoa for the first time together and to experience the warmth of ancient traditions with your remarkable people. Feiloa’i ma le manuia!

– Charles R & Camilla R.

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 23, 2024

Charles will also attend the CHOGM Business Forum to hear about progress on sustainable urbanisation and investment in solutions to tackle climate change.

He will visit a mangrove forest, a National Park, and Samoa’s Botanical Garden, where he will plant a tree marking the opening of a new area within the site, which will be called ‘The King’s Garden’.

Queen Camilla’s engagements include visiting an aoga faifeau to see first-hand how pupils are taught to read and write, and will visiting the Samoa Victim Support Group, an organisation which assists survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Page one: Thursday, 24th October 2024.

Photo: Junior S Ami / Samoa Observer
Design: Terry Tovio / Samoa Observer

Story:https://t.co/8qqBwGqAnP pic.twitter.com/ZfJUIm8IF7

— Samoa Observer (@samoaobserver) October 23, 2024

Since 1969, King Charles III has visited 44 of 53 Commonwealth countries, many of them on several occasions.

His visits to the Pacific — before he was King — included representing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at Fiji’s independence celebrations in 1970; and visiting Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

Queen Elizabeth II visited the Pacific multiple times during her reign.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Writer Kimberly King Parsons on paying attention to what works best for you

Elle Nash — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

I love the relationship between Kit, the main character, and her toddler in your new novel, We Were the Universe. There’s this one part where Kit’s talking about a drawer full of acorns and how she calls it Nut Space. I was like, “Oh my god. This is real.” I have sticks in my house and drawers of leaves, and last week we had a bowl of dirt on the counter for a week because there was a tiny worm in it.

I definitely pull things out of my kids’ mouths quite a bit. I write things down that they say, because as you know, kids are so psychedelic. The way that they view the world is so strange, and also the world is strange to them because they’re trying to make sense of it. When something lodges in their brain like, “Yeah, acorns are these magical things that we collect,” of course you wouldn’t get rid of them. We just had this whole drawer in our bathroom that we called nut space, and that was where the nuts went.

They make the whole world so playful and vivid and different in this way I did not anticipate. I planned to have my kids, but I anticipated this slog of caretaking, and I didn’t realize how many really fun, strange moments [there would be], and how they totally remake the world in this beautiful way. I was always trying to capture those feelings and write them down so that I wouldn’t forget them.

The narrator is also incredibly honest about the things that are difficult. We’ve all been there, but it’s almost like you have this social fear of admitting those things.

Sometimes you have to go through those motions because you’re trying to take care of yourself, or you’re trying to do some real-life thing like pay for parking online. Meanwhile there’s this little voice in the back seat asking you some huge, profound question and you’re trying to balance both.

The biggest takeaway for me about being a mother is that sensation of being split, and Kit starts the narrative in that place, which is like, I’m here at the playground, but in my mind I’m with this hot girl from my art class in college. There’s always a part of me that’s [aware], at any moment the phone could ring and I could have to stop this interview and go pick up my kids. I don’t know that people necessarily realize how divided your brain has to get to function.

Did you write before you became a mom, and did it change after that process?

I got my MFA in 2010, and I had my son in 2011, but I did not develop a writing practice until I had kids. I finally had to quit dicking around and get serious with myself because I would spend the whole day reading in bed and I would write for 30 minutes. I had this sensation that there was all the time in the world, and I would get to it when I got to it, and then suddenly when I had my son, I was paying a babysitter to come watch him just for a few hours a week. I was like, “Wow, I’m paying someone to watch him while I write, so I better fucking write.” That’s how I cultivated my writing practice, honestly, was at the same time as I became a mother.

I had a lot of years before that of not doing it, a lot of years of pretending to write, but not really getting anything done.

Can you talk a little bit about the path towards what made you want to get an MFA?

I didn’t grow up in a house with any books at all, and I didn’t grow up around writers. I was a bad student, a bad high school student, and I read The Stranger as a senior and was blown away by the voice. I studied English as an undergraduate, and I thought for a long time I was going to write literary criticism about Faulkner because my emphasis was on Faulkner studies.

I applied for one MFA program because I wanted to go to New York, but I had no reason to go to New York. I hadn’t even been there. I didn’t even know what it was like. I didn’t have any money, but I was like, “I’m just going to take out loans and go, and I’ll just be paying on this shit for the rest of my life, and that’s okay. It’s fine.”

I got in to Columbia. That was the one MFA program that I applied to, largely because I wanted to study with Ben Marcus and Sam Lipsyte. I still think they’re both so great and I got to work with both of them.

Sam, in particular, was just one of the best mentors I’ve ever had. You could turn in 20 pages every time you workshopped, and I would turn in eight pages. I just was not producing a lot back then, but I was listening and reading a lot, and meeting people and feeling the differences of where I had come from and where I had ended up.

What do you think is the biggest takeaway you learned from working with him?

Once we had this meeting during office hours, and he said, ”You’re actually a really funny person, and your work is really serious.” Back then, it was very self-serious. I think I was concerned that being funny would mean I wouldn’t be taken seriously. And so he said, “You really should just try to write in a voice that’s more like you as a person, and you could try that and see how it works.”

He’s so funny in his work, and I loved Venus Drive, which is the short story collection, and some of them the circumstances are awful, but he is able to write around this core of loneliness in an exuberant, fun way. There’s that playfulness with language. That was critical for me. It took me a while to figure out how to balance a conversational tone or the humor with the craft of all of that love of language and all of these syntactical tricks that you can do.

How do you know when something’s funny when you put it there?

It’s hard because you’re writing by yourself, and so even if something was once funny, over revisions it loses its charm. I think I just would try to duplicate that sensation of talking to my friends or being at a party. Or, there’s a little bit of meanness to some of that humor, where it’s like, “I’m going to be observant in this moment and say the thing that we all fucking know is happening, but no one wants to talk about it.” I think it’s also about writing characters from such a place of deep interiority that you don’t have to worry necessarily that they sound like assholes. The other thing I learned from Sam is that it’s really important that every character, whether it’s true or not, believe that they are the worst person in the book, even if the readers are like, “Actually, she’s not that bad. She’s fine.”

People always talk about how they want characters to change over the course of a novel. My favorite books feel really static, actually. I always want to make the reader change their opinion of the narrator, so that at the beginning they’re like, “This person seems a little insufferable,” but by the end they’re like, “I totally get why she’s like that. It’s because of her life,” or “I understand why she’s over-parenting her own daughter. It’s because she was under-parented herself.” Those realizations really come by a slow accumulation of information about the character. So it’s not just this character that really shows a great change, it’s more that the reader starts to understand the character in a different way, if it’s done correctly, which is of course, the hope.

Becoming a mom forced you to get your shit together with your writing routine. Have there been periods where you’ve really struggled with keeping yourself in the habit of it?

I go for long stretches even now without writing. The one thing I try to work on is my feelings about myself when I’m not writing, which are tricky, because when I’m writing, I feel so much better, obviously. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. But the main thing is about changing my attitude around those periods of time where I’m inactive. Sometimes it’s because I get stuck, and for me, it’s much more beneficial to stop than to try to push through and look at something that I feel is fucked up every day, and to know it’s fucked up. It’s better for me to put it down and go and take a walk in the forest, or meet a friend, or read three books, take my writing time and use it to read.

The only way I’ve ever solved a problem is by stepping away from it. This book, I was two years late delivering it, and I just couldn’t be rushed. I wanted to be rushed, I want to be the kind of person who can crank shit out. I’m just not that person.

I try to be gentle with myself when I recognize it’s not going to happen today. I do try to touch the work every day, even if that means just reading it. Anthony Doerr says you don’t want to let the paint dry on a project. If the paint dries, then it just makes it harder. I think that a lot of times I’ll sit down and look at something and instantly know, “Am I going to work today or not?” And sometimes it’s a no, and that’s okay. I’m like, “It’s going to be a while for me,” but it’s okay.

A couple of years ago, Sarah Manguso published that piece that was about how to have a career as advice to young writers. How she says it is, “Once you’ve truly begun, slow down. The difference between publishing two good books and 40 mediocre books is terribly large. Don’t expend energy in writing and publishing that would be better used in your family and community.”

I remember having a conversation with a dear friend and super smart editor, who said, “You need to get a book out before you have a baby.” And I was like, “No, because I’m 30. I want to have a baby soon. I’m scared I’m getting too old.” He was like, “Then write the book.” And I was like, “No, this is going to work. It’s going to be fine. I just need to do this this way.”

I did have this dumb confidence for some reason that I would figure it out or that, I just always have this sensation that things are happening the way they’re supposed to happen. Some of the stories in Blacklight I started in 2005, and I published that in 2019. That’s crazy. My thesis was just a bad version of Blacklight, basically. I’m so glad I didn’t rush that to publication. I could have tried, probably nobody would’ve bought it, but I could have forced it. I had this sensation of, “Just wait, just wait, just wait.”

I try to do nothing for as long as possible. In my life in general, whenever there’s a problem or some challenge, I’m like, “Do nothing, and then the answers will be revealed.” It hasn’t let me down yet. Maybe one day it will, but I don’t know.

I think because it’s coming from a place that’s inherently confident, it’s more of an expanded mindset.

Having kids, too, really does illuminate your ambitions, because suddenly you’re like, “I only have time for one thing now. I have time for caretaking and I have time for my job, and then I have time for my creative endeavor. And so what is that going to be? And is it just going to be that I’m going to be fine not working, not writing, and just watching TV and making dinner at night, or do I really want to do this?” And because your time is so precious, you’re like, “I really want to do it.”

When everything is structured within a minute of your day, it’s like budgeting your money. When you don’t budget your money, it just goes, and when you don’t budget your time, it just goes. There’s something about having that scarcity that I think can work in a really good way for people.

You talked a little bit about taking long breaks between your writing. How did you keep the consistency of voice over the whole novel itself?

The way that I write is with consecution, which is something that I learned from Gary L. Lutz, who first came to Columbia and gave a talk called “The Sentence is a Lonely Place.” It illuminated something that I had already noticed, which was that my very favorite writers were all doing this thing where each sentence became a seed for the next sentence. You’re always actually looking backwards to inform your process moving forwards. So because it’s sentence-based and it’s granular, and you’re really literally only looking at the sentence before, the voice is consistent. So I’m never having to think about story or events or ideas or what happens next. All I’m doing is taking what’s profitable from the last sentence and putting it into the sentence that follows.

This was also something I further learned with Gordon Lish, who I studied with for several summers in New York after my MFA. All of those writers, like Christine Schutt and Amy Hempel, their work is so different, but they’re all using the same method. When I sit down to work, it’s like a game almost, because all you’re doing is pulling a little string along. You’re just looking from what you’ve got and moving forward. And because there’s so much friction between every sentence, it all is cohesive.

Sometimes voices come to you and they feel really short. You’re like, “I could probably get 10 pages out of this voice and that’s it.” But I felt like I could listen to [Kit] for a lot longer.

Have you had to have stops and starts sometimes where you have worked through a voice and want it to be a longer project but then you’ve realized that it’s not working?

I feel that every project really tells you what it wants to be, really clearly. It’s much more like you start something, and even if you have an idea like, “Maybe this is a chapter or this is the beginning of something,” it will tell you really quickly. With every new sentence, it’s narrowing down and narrowing down, even when you want to be opening it up and opening it up.

I think certain voices are just resistant. But I do think every project tells you structurally what it wants to be, too. The novels that I love are much more experimental than We Were the Universe turned out to be. The project tells you what it wants to be, if you’re just paying attention, you know?

I was doing that for a while where I’ve worked through a couple voices on one particular project and it kept not working, and then I finally hit a voice, and I was like, “Oh, that’s the one.”

There’s the one. The thing that people don’t talk about, because it’s hard to talk about, is how much intuition goes into writing. It’s one of those things where when you tell students, “Just listen. Pay attention to what you’ve just written, and look at the desire in that sentence, and use that sentence to write the next sentence, and just keep doing that over and over again.” Also, it’s okay to have the same preoccupations and obsessions and desires.

When I look at a writer like Faulkner, who was writing literally the same families over and over again, he couldn’t shake them. It’s not a detriment. It’s really positive to find someone who figures out what their shit is and then just keeps doing it. Do it into the ground.

I think that’s maybe even better than this idea of having to reinvent the wheel every time, or having to sound so different from one thing to the next. I don’t believe that there are coincidences, I’d be trying to figure out something with this dialogue in my novel, and I’d be stuck. Then I’d I go outside and hear two women talking to each other, and hear one of them say something that’s so strange. When you’re open to the possibility that the world is informing the work, all of these really cool things start to happen.

I do think it gets easier as you get older, because you’re just like, “I’m not in as much of a rush.” I remember turning 30 and being like, “This is really bad that you haven’t published anything.” I remember feeling like, “Okay, you better hurry up.” Blacklight came out right before I turned 40, and I was like, “Whatever, it’s fine. Okay.”

I remember feeling so rushed to publish when I first started out. I was like, “If I don’t publish, I’m going to die. If I don’t finish the book, I will be dead.” Or, “I’m going to die and I’m not going to have published it before I die.” This year I had realized that I I actually just don’t feel rushed anymore. I don’t feel that intensity anymore. I was a little bit scared. I was like, “Am I going to keep working on stuff?”

Actually, that’s power. Not having that sense of being rushed is a form of power, because it’s like, “No, let me tell you about my timeline. This is on my time,” instead of it being like, “Well, if I’m writing my vampire book, I better hurry the fuck up because it’s vampire season.” You can’t follow trends. There’s such a big gulf between when you finish something and when you sell it and when you publish it. If you’re just true to that kernel of voice, whatever it is that’s your north star, as long as you just continue to move in that direction, it will find the right people and it will find the right time, and it will come out on its own timeline.

That sensation of having to rush to publish is a young person’s game. I think longevity is really appealing. You see a lot of people who come out hot when they’re 25, and then they just burn up and you never see them again. I love Karen Russell. She has been publishing steadily since she was 25, and she’s a magic genius of a person. I am like, it’s amazing how she just came out of the gate like that, which is incredible. But not everybody’s like that. Some people really take a lot longer.

Kimberly King Parsons Recommends:

Walking in the Forest First Thing in the Morning

Pat Kim’s Spinning Tops

Wilderton Bittersweet Appertivo on Ice (Non-Alcoholic but Burns Like the Real Thing)

This Acrylic Tray Lets You Write on Your Laptop While Riding Your Peloton

I Want to Lick These Photos by Texas Artist Mark Lovejoy

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Elle Nash.

French Polynesia’s homeboy ‘King of Teahupo’o’ wins Olympic surf gold

APR editor — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:09:41 +0000

By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

French Polynesia’s homeboy Kauli Vaast has won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s shortboard finals of the Paris 2024 surfing event and in the process made history in Teahupo’o.

Radio 1 reports Vaast 22, an indigenous Tahitian, beat Australia’s Jack Robinson to become the first French Olympic surf champion.

Vaast, who grew up in Mahina (near Teahupo’o) and started surfing there when he was four years old, was immediately dubbed “King of Teahupo’o”.

READ MORE: Other Paris Olympics reports

PARIS OLYMPICS 2024

He becomes the first ever French Polynesian sportsman to win an Olympic gold medal for France — and adding to the Paris Olympics hosts tally to make it 13 gold medals.

“When I was a kid, I knew I want to do a lot of stuff on this wave,” Vaast told Olympics.com before the competition started.

“It was a dream for me. I always dreamed about doing a contest here, winning a contest there. It’s still in my mind, a dream. And I’m going to work for it,” he was quoted as saying.

As fans and supporters were starting to celebrate in Tahiti, Vaast’s mother, Natou, told local media she usually did not watch her son compete because of the associated stress.

“But when he’s competing in Tahiti, I just go gardening in the backyard and then I know when I hear the neighbours’ cheers”.

Earlier today (Monday Tahiti time), in the women’s category, France’s Johanne Defay secured a bronze medal and also entered history in winning the first medal ever at an Olympic surfing event.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

King Charles’ property empire earns £334,000 from housing benefit

Martin Williams — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:53:59 +0000

Exclusive: Crown Estate makes record profits after issuing evictions, selling houses and cashing in on benefits

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Martin Williams.

CPJ, 25 others urge Bahraini leaders to release blogger Abduljalil Alsingace after his hunger strike exceeds 3 years

Committee to Protect Journalists — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:35:08 +0000

On July 8, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined 25 human rights organizations in urging Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to immediately release blogger Abduljalil Alsingace and ensure he receives urgent medical care.

The statement was issued to mark three years since Alsingace—an award-winning academic, blogger, and human rights defender—began a hunger strike on July 8, 2021, after prison authorities confiscated his manuscript on Bahraini dialects of Arabic, which he spent four years researching and writing.

Alsingace, who has a disability, has been detained since 2011 and reportedly tortured.

The joint statement is available in English here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

"A King Above the Law": Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution

Democracy Now! — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 14:30:23 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Cambodian climate activists convicted for plotting against the king 🚨

Amnesty International — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 14:09:18 +0000

This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.

“A King Above the Law”: Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution

Democracy Now! — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:10:55 +0000

In a historic decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Monday that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution. The 6-3 ruling by the court’s right-wing majority — including all three justices appointed by Trump — was issued on the final day of the Supreme Court’s term and just four months ahead of November’s presidential election. It will further delay Trump’s criminal trial for leading the January 6 insurrection. The ruling upends more than two centuries of legal precedent, for the first time shielding U.S. presidents from criminal accountability. “In one fell swoop, this court has essentially left the American people to the whims of the president of the United States — any president of the United States, but particularly Mr. Trump,” says Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. We also speak with Lisa Graves, executive director of the watchdog group True North Research, who says the Supreme Court’s conservative wing has left the country “unmoored from the rule of law” by adopting such an expansive view of presidential power. “This decision is the most reckless and dangerous decision ever issued by the U.S. Supreme Court,” says Graves.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Education head condemns Israel’s ‘shameful’ ruin of UN schools in Gaza

APR editor — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 05:07:16 +0000

Asia Pacific Report

Israel’s targeting of educational institutes across Gaza is “shameful” and contributing to a global crisis for students, says the head of an educational foundation.

Talal al-Hathal, director of the Al Fakhoora Programme at Education Above All foundation in Qatar, said: “War has exacerbated the plight of Gaza’s educational sector.”

Israel’s targeting of educational institutes across Gaza was “shameful as we consider the global education crisis where we see that more than 250 million children are out of school globally”, said Al-Hathal.

Hundreds of educational institutes in Gaza, including schools run by the UN, have been bombed, and students and teachers killed.

The attacks have ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students.

“The war will undoubtedly leave educational institutions, access to critical infrastructure, and the regularity of the education process in Gaza in a worse state than before the war,” al-Hathal told Al Jazeera.

“With almost 400 school buildings in Gaza sustaining damage, the war has exacerbated the plight of the educational sector.

“This damage is compounded by the internal displacement with these schools now serving as shelters and hosting nearly four times their intended capacity, further burdening the already strained educational infrastructure.”

Jordan’s king laments ‘Gaza failure’
Meanwhile, Jordan’s king has said the international community has failed to find solution to the Gaza war

Speaking at the G7 summit in Italy, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has called the greatest threat to the Middle East region was the continued occupation of Palestine by Israel.

As the latest attempt to reach an agreement that could lead to a full ceasefire remains stalled, he said the international community had not done enough to bring about peace.

“The international community has failed to achieve the only solution that guarantees the security of the Palestinians, Israelis, the region and the world,” he said.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

"King Clave" sounds like the beating heart of the spirit of music.

Playing For Change — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 00:00:13 +0000

This content originally appeared on Playing For Change and was authored by Playing For Change.

Sarah King is a student protester who was arrested at #Columbia ‘s #Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

Democracy Now! — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:02:36 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Jordan’s Abdullah: the king of Western collaborators?

The Grayzone — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:27:33 +0000

This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

King’s move takes Tonga back to the ‘dark ages’ – democracy editor

APR editor — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 03:29:00 +0000

RNZ Pacific

The involvement in Tonga’s government by King Tupou VI is a return to the “dark ages” for the kingdom, a long time journalist, author and advocate campaigning for democracy.

The King last month withdrew his support for the ministers holding two portfolios.

Tonga’s Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni has reportedly stepped down from his defence portfolio, with Foreign Affairs Minister Fekita ‘Utoikamanu reportedly doing the same.

READ MORE: Other Tongan politics reports

Sources in Nuku’alofa have told RNZ Pacific the decision to resign comes following a meeting between Hu’akavameiliku and a cabinet team held with King Tupou VI earlier this month.

Democracy advocate and journalist Kalafi Moala, who is editor of Talanoa ‘o Tonga and the RNZ Pacific correspondent, said the King’s decision to withdraw support is a retrograde step.

“The reform in 2010 was that he [the King] would get out of trying to run the government or to appoint government,” he said.

‘Very bad move’
“And with this King, to me, this is a very, very bad move, and there is a lot of public unhappiness about it.”

Hu’akavameiliku has reportedly sent a proposal to the King, recommending that Crown Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalala, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, be appointed Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs.

An official announcement is expected to be made after a Privy Council meeting that will be chaired by the King on Thursday.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Tongan PM resigns as defence minister to ‘appease’ king over throne tension

APR editor — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 05:24:54 +0000

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva Tonga

Tonga’s Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku has resigned as Minister of Defence in order to appease King upou VI, says a senior government official.

The Tongan Independent reports that the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister ‘Utoikamanu had resigned from their portfolios.

Senior sources within the Tongan government have told Kaniva News they believed reports that the Prime Minister has resigned.

READ MORE: Other Tongan politics reports

Kaniva News has contacted Prime Minister and Chief Secretary for confirmation of the report and was waiting for a response.

The Independent has adopted a strongly anti-Sovaleni tone, criticising the government’s involvement in Lulutai Airlines, claiming he was too ill to serve and that he and Utoikamanu were trying to usurp King Tupou VI’s authority.

It is understood that the Prime Minister had flown to Niuafo’ou to meet His Majesty

Relations between the Prime Minister and the throne have been tense since the king issued a memo saying he no longer supported Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku as the Minister for His Majesty’s Armed Forces and Hon Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Tourism.

King’s memo ignored
The Prime Minister ignored the King’s memo.

As we reported earlier, the nobles responded by demanding that the Prime Minister and Hon Utoikamanu resign immediately in order to assuage King Tupou VI’s disappointment.

The nobles circulated a letter which described the Prime Minister’s refusal to accept the King’s show of power as “very concerning” and “intimidating the peace” of the country.

“We are the king’s cultural preservers (‘aofivala). Therefore, we propose that you and your government respect the King’s desire,” the letter read in Tongan.

“The king has withdrawn his confidence and consent from you as Defence Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu.

“We urge you to resign immediately from the Ministry of Defence as well as Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu to resign from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism”.

This is not the first time the King has directly interfered in the workings of a democratically elected government.

Heavily influenced
The King is said to have been heavily influenced by some of his Privy Councillors, including Lord Tu’aivakanō, who advised him to dissolve the government of the late ‘Akilisi Pohiva in 2017.

Lord Tu’aivakanō justified his behaviour by claiming that Hon Pohiva’s government wanted to remove the Privy Council’s role in appointing positions like the Police Commissioner and Attorney-General.

As we wrote at the time: “Lord Tu’ivakano said it was clear the government was trying to wear away the powers of the King and Privy Council, which he could not abide.”

Pohiva’s government was re-elected.

Lord Tu’aivakanō is said to have signed the noble’s letter criticising the Prime Minister.

Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Kaniva Tonga. Republished with permission.,

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Montenegro Delays Extradition Of South Korean ‘Cryptocurrency King’

News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 16:13:24 +0000

Many parts of Ukraine were experiencing blackouts after a massive wave of Russian strikes on March 22 targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, killing at least four people, hitting the country's largest dam, and temporarily severing a power line at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the assault involved 150 drones and missiles and appealed again to Ukraine's allies to speed up deliveries of critically needed ammunition and weapons systems.

As the full-scale invasion neared the 25-month mark, Zelenskiy aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied recent reports that the United States had demanded that its ally Kyiv stop any attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure as "fictitious information."

"After two years of full-scale war, no one will dictate to Ukraine the conditions for conducting this war," Podolyak told the Dozhd TV channel. "Within the framework of international law, Ukraine can 'degrease' Russian instruments of war. Fuel is the main tool of warfare. Ukraine will destroy the [Russian] fuel infrastructure."

The Financial Times quoted anonymous sources as saying that Washington had given "repeated warnings" to Ukraine's state security service and its military intelligence agency to stop attacking Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure. It said officials cited such attacks' effect on global oil prices and the risk of retaliation.

The southern Zaporizhzhya region bore the brunt of the Russian assault that hit Ukraine's energy infrastructure particularly hard on March 22, with at least three people killed, including a man and his 8-year-old daughter. There were at least 20 dead and injured, in all.

Ukraine's state hydropower company, Ukrhydroenerho, said the DniproHES hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper in Zaporizhzhya was hit by two Russian missiles that damaged HPP-2, one of the plant's two power stations, although there was no immediate risk of a breach.

"There is currently a fire at the dam. Emergency services are working at the site, eliminating the consequences of numerous air strikes," Ukrhydroenerho said in a statement, adding that the situation at the dam "is under control."

However, Ihor Syrota, the director of national grid operator Ukrenerho, told RFE/RL that currently it was not known if power station HPP-2 could be repaired.

Transport across the dam has been suspended after a missile struck a trolleybus, killing the 62-year-old driver. The vehicle was not carrying any passengers.

"This night, Russia launched over 60 'Shahed' drones and nearly 90 missiles of various types at Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"The world sees the Russian terrorists' targets as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential buildings, and even a trolleybus," Zelenskiy wrote.

Photo Gallery:

Devastation In Zaporizhzhya Following Russian Missile Attack

Ukrainian rescuers were combing the wreckage of homes in Zaporizhzhya following a deadly Russian missile strike on March 22.

Ukraine's power generating company Enerhoatom later said it has repaired a power line at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, Europe's largest.

"Currently, the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP is connected to the unified energy system of Ukraine by two power transmission lines, thanks to which the plant's own needs are fulfilled," the state's nuclear-energy operator wrote on Telegram.

Besides Zaporizhzhya, strikes were also reported in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsya, Khmelnytskiy, Kryviy Rih, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Odesa, and Lviv regions.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, has been left completely without electricity by intense Russian strikes that also caused water shortages.

"The occupiers carried out more than 15 strikes on energy facilities. The city is virtually completely without light," Oleh Synyehubov, the head of Kharkiv regional military administration, wrote on Telegram.

In the Odesa region, more than 50,000 households have been left without electricity, regional officials reported. Odesa, Ukraine's largest Black Sea port, has been frequently attacked by Russia in recent months.

In the Khmelnitskiy region, the local administration reported that one person had been killed and several wounded during the Russian strikes, without giving details.

Photo Gallery:

Scenes Of Destruction After Russian Strike Hits Ukrainian Residential Area

Local authorities reported one person had been killed and several wounded during Russian strikes on a residential area in Khmelnitskiy in central Ukraine. RFE/RL journalists were on the scene and captured the aftermath.

Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko called it "the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy industry in recent times."

Despite the widespread damage, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the situation remained under control, and there was no need to switch off electricity throughout the country.

"There are problems with the electricity supply in some areas, but in general, the situation in the energy sector is under control, there is no need for blackouts throughout the country," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

Ukrenerho also said that it was receiving emergency assistance from its European Union neighbors Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Ukraine linked its power grid with that of the EU in March 2022, shortly after the start of Russia's invasion.

Ukraine's air force said its air defenses downed 92 of 151 missiles and drones fired at Ukraine by Russia in the overnight attack.

"Russian missiles have no delays, unlike aid packages for Ukraine. 'Shahed' drones have no indecision, unlike some politicians. It is critical to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions," Zelenskiy wrote, appealing to the West to do more for his country.

"Our partners know exactly what is needed. They can definitely support us. These are necessary decisions. Life must be protected from these savages from Moscow."

Zelenskiy's message came as EU leaders were wrapping up a summit in Brussels where they discussed ways to speed up ammunition and weapons deliveries for the embattled Ukrainian forces struggling to stave off an increasingly intense assault by more numerous and better-equipped Russian troops.

A critical $60 billion military aid package from the United States, Ukraine's main backer, remains stuck in the House of Representatives due to Republican opposition, prompting Kyiv to rely more on aid from its European allies.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Montenegro Affirms Extradition Of ‘Crypto King’ To South Korea

News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 18:18:57 +0000

Five people were killed on March 20 as a result of Russian shelling of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv during the afternoon as Kyiv's military said more than 60 combat clashes took place along the front line.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced the fifth death late on March 20, saying on Telegram that rescuers had pulled the body from the rubble..

Seven of the eight people who were injured had to be hospitalized, said regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov.

An eight-story building and a factory were damaged, and a fire broke out in a print shop, said Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv region's police force. Bolvinov also described damage caused to other commercial buildings.

Russian shelling of civilian targets earlier on March 20 killed at least two people in the Kherson region when the car they were in was hit, the head of the region's military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

The attacks came as Kyiv's forces launched a barrage of drone and missile strikes on the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk. Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said three civilians were killed on March 20.

On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces carried out most of the 67 attacks launched on March 20 in the areas of Novopavlovsk, Avdiyivka, and Lyman. They also attacked in the Bakhmut, Orikhiv, and Kherson areas, the General Staff said. For the first time in a long time, combat clashes were not reported in the Kupyansk area, the report added.

In addition to the clashes, Russian forces launched two missiles and conducted dozens of air strikes using various weapons.

The General Staff also reported that Ukrainian aviation struck 10 areas of Russian troop concentrations, weapons, and military equipment. Ukrainian missile forces also hit a Russian ammunition warehouse, the General Staff said.

The General Staff report could not be independently verified.

Earlier on March 20 Ukrainian intelligence sources told RFE/RL that Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian air base that houses strategic bombers located near the city of Engels in the Saratov region in an attack planned and executed by the Main Directorate of Ukraine's Military Intelligence (HUR).

The air base, known as Engels 2 and located some 700 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border, has been used by Russian strategic bombers in attacks against Ukraine.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that early on March 20 "targets had been hit" by Ukrainian-made drones and the results of the attack were being assessed, without disclosing what targets and how many of them had allegedly been hit.

Earlier on March 20, Roman Busargin, the governor of the Russian region of Saratov, said a drone attack on Engels was "repelled." Busargin said on Telegram that there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Engels residents reported on social media up to four explosions in the city. Russia's Defense Ministry said four Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Saratov region and one over the Belgorod region.

Engels, which is some 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was targeted in previous attacks in 2022.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren to the city of Dnipro where she "witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by Russian air terror," the president said on X, formerly Twitter.

"We focused on strengthening Ukraine's air defense, providing our defenders with artillery, armored vehicles, and UAVs," Zelenskiy said after meeting Ollongren. "I am grateful to the Netherlands for all of its support and important decisions for Ukraine."

White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan also visited Ukraine on March 20, telling a joint press conference in Kyiv with Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak that a major U.S. aid package, which has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for months, would pass.

"From our perspective we are confident we will get this done. We will get this aid to Ukraine," Sullivan said.

Sullivan gave no timeline for the arrival of the aid but said there was no need to talk about a "plan B," an apparent reference to an idea that has been floated by Republicans to provide the aid in the form of a loan.

"I am confident that we will achieve plan A. We will get a strong bipartisan vote in the House [of Representatives] for an assistance package for Ukraine, and we will get that money out the door as we should," he said. The process has "already taken too long."

With reporting by Reuters

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Martin Luther King III meets the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala | Radio Free Asia (RFA)

Radio Free Asia — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 22:46:57 +0000

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

America’s unacknowledged political prisoners speak w/Eric King | Rattling the Bars

The Real News Network — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:00:06 +0000

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

King of Poisons: Arsenic in Landfills is Still Leaching into Groundwater

Gumersindo Feijoo Costa — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 05:43:53 +0000

Arsenic has long been considered “the king of poisons.” Films such as “Arsenic and Old Lace” by Frank Capra and “The Name of the Rose” by Jean-Jacques Annaud illustrate the deadly effect that a high dose has on people.

But when someone experiences arsenic poisoning, it’s usually not the direct result of a diabolical plot – in fact, it usually isn’t. So how do you figure out how the arsenic got into someone’s bloodstream?

That’s the question a team of fellow chemical engineers and I tackled more than 20 years ago after an abrupt jump in the number of U.S. cases of arsenic poisoning. We later published a peer-reviewed study documenting the investigation.

Finding the source of arsenic poisonings is not always easy, but it’s extremely important for public health. Scientists often need to combine science and detective work, which led us to conclude that landfills could be a significant source of contamination.

Yet nearly 20 years later, landfills in the U.S., Europe and around the world remain important sources of arsenic poisoning.

Exploring a mystery

Arsenic is a chemical element that occurs naturally in the environment. In its organic form, with a carbon molecule attached, it is harmless. But it is highly toxic in its inorganic form, without carbon. Inorganic arsenic is present in high levels in groundwater in 70 countries, including Chile, China, India, Mexico and the United States.

Prolonged exposure to inorganic arsenic, mainly through drinking water and food, can lead to chronic poisoning, the most characteristic effects of which are skin lesions and skin cancer.

In 2002, I was a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona studying anaerobic processes in nature – or those that occur without oxygen. My colleagues and I were focused on how anaerobic bacteria can change the number of electrons in arsenic, affecting its solubility. This is important because when arsenic is soluble, meaning it can dissolve in water or other liquids, it can become mobile.

We came across a report by the American Association of Poison Control Centers that found the number of arsenic poisonings in the U.S. jumped to 1,680 in 2001 from about 1,000 or fewer in previous years.

Based on that data, we set ourselves the goal of finding out where the arsenic may have come from and exploring what possible human-related activities were involved. To do so, we used the scientific method, which can be summarized in three stages: observation of a phenomenon, establishment of an explanatory hypothesis and validation with experimental results.

After observing the rise in arsenic cases in the data and considering a few possibilities, we hypothesized that arsenic might be escaping from city landfills and entering the American food supply via groundwater.

Arsenic is found in many household and industrial products, from pesticides and food additives to semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals. And when disposed of, the arsenic in the products can leach from the landfill into the soil.

Investigating a hypothesis

To validate our hypothesis, we designed an experiment that used three biological reactors to simulate the chemical process of how an improperly maintained landfill could leach arsenic into the groundwater. Two of the reactors contained various mixtures of insoluble arsenic and organic and inorganic material, as well as anaerobic bacteria, while the third was used as a control without the bacteria.

About 250 days after our experiment began, we found that anaerobic bacteria and organic matter had transformed the insoluble arsenic, which wasn’t able to travel through water, into its soluble form, which could travel through water. This allowed it to move through the ground as contaminated water, or leachate, and eventually end up in groundwater. From there, the arsenic can find its way to humans via drinking water or the food chain, such as in rice crops or chicken eggs.

To determine what else might be going on here, we teamed up with the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arizona. With their help, we detected the presence of cacodylic acid in the leachate. This compound exponentially multiplies the toxic effects of the leachate stream, such as by promoting tumors.

Consequently, poor sealing of landfills or operating them in a way that mixes inorganic and organic waste matter significantly increases the probability of a gradual release of heavy metals like arsenic in leachates, which can lead to both environmental and human harm.

The European Commission seems to be trying to take more aggressive action against illegal landfills, which are less likely to use appropriate safeguards, and recently announced it was referring Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to ensure that its landfills – namely, 195 illegal ones – don’t endanger human health or harm the environment.

As our research suggests, the only ways to solve the problem of arsenic leaching into the food supply is by proper landfill design and management, which necessarily involves monitoring and treatment of the leachates they generate.

Moreover, I believe the implementation of a circular economy strategy – in which reuse and recycling are maximized – in the management of cities and in the individual behaviors of citizens would lead to a minimization of waste and also greatly reduce the potential release of toxic heavy metals such as arsenic from landfills.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Gumersindo Feijoo Costa.

Tonga’s king purportedly strips prime minister of defense portfolio

By Stephen Wright for BenarNews — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 06:11:32 +0000

Tonga’s monarch has purportedly meddled in the Pacific island country’s young democracy by withdrawing his consent for the prime minister to continue in one of his ministerial roles.

King Tupou VI withdrew his confidence in Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, in his capacity as armed forces minister, and also for the country’s foreign affairs minister, according to an undated letter from the monarch’s advisory council to the Cabinet that has circulated online.

Tongan news site Matangi Tonga reported Monday that Tonga’s deputy prime minister had confirmed the letter was authentic. In the ornate language of the palace, the letter says, “His Majesty, was pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to withdraw His confidence and consent” to the appointment of Sovaleni as armed forces minister.

It’s unclear if Tupou VI is acting in accordance with Tonga’s constitution, which says that cabinet ministers can be removed by the king on the prime minister’s recommendation or a vote of no confidence in Parliament.

Tonga in 2010 amended its constitution to remove many of the monarchy’s powers and allowed elections after more than 150 years of absolute rule, a change that occurred with the cooperation of the monarch at the time, Tupou V.

Some experts have said the reforms were incomplete as the monarch, defined as a sacred person in Tonga’s constitution, retains significant authority such as a veto over government legislation. About a third of Parliament’s members are nobles elected by the small group of Tongans who have noble titles.

King Tupou VI of Tonga (second from right) and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (second from left ) pose for pictures with Tonga Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni (right) at the Royal Palace Nuku’alofa on May 31 2022. (AFP)

The shift of powers to an elected Cabinet followed riots in 2006 that devastated the capital Nuku’alofa and were sparked by frustration at lack of economic and democratic progress in the country of 100,000 people. Chinese-owned businesses were a particular target during the unrest.

Tonga’s government hasn’t publicly responded to Tupou VI’s letter. On Tuesday, the website of the prime minister’s office posted a 40-minute video from Sovaleni in which he discusses progress the government has made in various areas.

Tonga’s Foreign Affairs Minister Fekita 'Utoikamanu, the country’s only female cabinet minister, is one of four ministers that can be nominated by the prime minister without being an elected representative.

Sovaleni, who survived a no-confidence motion in Parliament in September last year, is reportedly overseas for medical treatment.

Tonga’s small economy, reliant on aid from Australia and New Zealand and one of the most indebted to China in the Pacific, is still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and a tsunami in 2022.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Stephen Wright for BenarNews.

Tongan govt tight-lipped about King’s withdrawal of consent for ministers

APR editor — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:53:22 +0000

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

Just days after the appointment of Dr Siale ‘Akau’ola as Tonga’s new Minister of Health, King Tupou VI has withdrawn his consent for two other Cabinet appointments.

An undated memo from the Lord Privy Seal, Viliami Malolo, to Chief Secretary of the Cabinet Paula Ma’u seen by Kaniva News details the king’s refusal to accept the appointments.

“His Majety was pleased by and with the advice of his Privy Council to withdraw His confidence and consent to the appointment of the Hon. Hu’akavameliku as Minister or His Majesty’s Armed Forces,” the royal memo said.

READ MORE: Other Tonga reports

The memo said the king was also withdrawing consent for the appointment of the Hon. Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Tourism.

Several Cabinet appointments have yet to be ratified by the king.

Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku . . . Cabinet appointments vetoed by the King. Image: Kaniva Tonga/Radio FM87.5

Last year Prime Minister Hu’akavameliku said he had nominated a new Minister to replace former Minister of Fisheries Semisi Fakahau. That nomination has yet to be ratified by the king.

Reports at the time suggested the Prime Minister had also nominated a replacement for the Minister of Police.

The government is remaining tight-lipped about the King’s action.

Kaniva News has asked the Chief Secretary and Prime Minister whether they have received the King’s memo.

‘Repeatedly refused answers’
In an interview with Broadcom Broadcasting, Deputy Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu did not deny the existence of the memo. However, he repeatedly refused to answer questions about the King’s withdrawal of his consent to the appointments.

He said Cabinet was working on a response and would release a statement later.

Hon. Vaipulu said the Prime Minister was currently overseas.

The PM’s nomination of a new Minister of Fisheries has yet to be appointed.

The King can only revoke a Minister’s appointment if he has been advised by the Prime Minister according to Clause 51 of the Constitution.

Kaniva comments: Hon. Fekita Utoikamanu was appointed from outside Cabinet. It is unclear how she would be affected by the King’s decision. There appears to be no clause in the Constitution allowing His Majesty to withdraw his appointment of any minister after their appointment.

The question is whether Hon. Utoikamanu would remain as Minister despite the king’s withdrawal of his approval.

The fact that the King withdrew his consent following the advice of the Privy Council will also re-awaken concerns raised as far back as 2017 about the role of the king’s counsellors.

The then Justice Minister Vuna Fā’otusia said decisions made by Parliament were sometimes vetoed by His Majesty because of advice from the Privy Council.

He said the members of the council were not chosen by the people.

It is about a decade since lawyer Peter Pursglove said that Tonga’s 2010 Constitution was the poorest among all Commonwealth countries. He made suggestions to improve it, but progress had been stalled.

Pursglove expressed concern about the role and the establishment of the Privy Council.

Republished in partnership with Kaniva Tonga.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Montenegro Extradites Business Partner Of ‘Crypto King’ To South Korea

News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:33:02 +0000

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited a frontline village on February 4, hailing the “warriors” who are fighting there amid reports he is preparing to fire his popular military commander, while Moscow-installed officials said the search-and-rescue effort at the site of a building attack in Russia-occupied Lysychansk has ended, with the death toll set at 28.

"I have the great honor to be here today, to reward you, because you have such a difficult and decisive mission on your shoulders, to repel the enemy and win this war," Zelenskiy told soldiers on February 4 following his visit to Robotyne, a southern village in the Zaporizhzhya region that was one of the few successes by Ukrainian forces during last year’s counteroffensive.

The presidential office released video of Zelenskiy handing out medals to troops of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which led the advance on Robotyne, a village with a prewar population of about 450 people.

While there, Zelenskiy appointed Ivan Federov -- mayor of now-occupied Melitopol who was once abducted by Russia -- as head of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region.

Fedorov was abducted in March 2022 when he refused to cooperate with Russians troops, triggering local protests and calls by Zelenskiy for his immediate release. He was released five days later.

Zelenskiy faces a growing political storm amid reports he is poised to push out the country’s top military commander, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

Polls show that Zaluzhniy is as popular, if not more so, than Zelenskiy, and some experts fear that, were Zelenskiy to oust Zaluzhniy, it would demoralize some of Ukraine's troops and undermine national unity.

There has been no official word from Zelenskiy’s office about his intentions in regard to Zaluzhniy’s position, although numerous media reports have said the president has informed his U.S. allies of an impending move.

In remarks to Italian TV late on February 4, Zelenskiy said, without being specific, that he is considering “replacing a number of state leaders," not only in the military.

"It is a question of the people who are to lead Ukraine," he told told RAI television when asked about reports that he is about to fire Zaluzhniy.

"A reset is necessary. I am talking about a replacement of a number of state leaders, not only in the army sector. I am reflecting on this replacement. It's a question for the entire leadership of the country."

"I have in mind something serious that does not concern a single person but the direction of the country's leadership."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said the search-and-rescue operation at the site of a deadly building attack in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk has been completed.

Rescuers early on February 4 recovered more bodies from the rubble of the building in eastern Ukraine that was hit by apparent artillery fire, bringing the death toll to 28.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said in a post to Telegram that a child was among the bodies recovered from the rubble of the building, which it said housed a bakery and a restaurant. Another 10 people were rescued.

Moscow-imposed officials in the Luhansk region, which is nearly entirely controlled by Russia, initially blamed a Ukrainian drone strike for the attack, but later shifted explanations, asserting it was actually Ukrainian artillery. The claim could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian officials have made no comment on the incident.

Russia took control of Lysychansk in July 2022 after months of fierce fighting.

Nearly two years into Russia’s mass invasion of Ukraine, the battlefield along the nearly 1,200-kilometer front line stretching from northeast Ukraine to the south-central region of Kherson has largely frozen. After an unsuccessful counteroffensive last fall, Ukrainian troops have turned to rebuilding their forces, and shoring up defenses.

Russia, for its part, has continued to push forward in several, localized offensives: near Kupyansk in the north, and around the industrial city of Avdiyivka, to the south.

Both sides have also launched longer-range attacks this winter, using long-distance precision artillery, drones, and air-launched cruise missiles.

Ukraine has increasingly used its drone arsenal to target industrial sites within Russia itself. On February 3, an apparent Ukrainian drone strike hit one of the largest oil refineries in Volgograd, about 400 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border.

Firefighters put out the blaze after several hours, and it was unclear the extent of the damage at the refinery, which is owned by Lukoil, and is one of the largest in Russia. It produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, and fuel for ships.

In Ukraine’s Sumy region, the military administration there said Russian forces had shelled the region in 16 separate attacks the previous day.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian and Ukrainian services, Reuters, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words

Democracy Now! — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 14:00:25 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words

Democracy Now! — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 13:01:40 +0000

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Dr. Martin Luther King is Marching with the People of Palestine

Eric Mann — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 06:58:23 +0000

Photograph Source: Matt Brown – CC BY 2.0

Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee constructed the civil rights and Black Liberation movements on a foundation of Third World internationalism. The struggle of the Black nation and the people of Vietnam for self-determination became inseparable. Channing Martinez, a Black Garifuna leader of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in South Central Los Angeles observed, “Palestine is our Vietnam.”

Israel’s ongoing genocide against the people of Palestine has moved to a new stage—the plan for the mass annihilation of the Palestinian people as Israel’s “final solution to ‘the Palestinian problem’.” Israel is terrified that as long as the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank exist, it will only be a matter of time before the Palestinian’s moral challenge to the immorality of the Zionist settler state will prevail.

Today, Palestinian resistance is shaping the politics of the entire world. In the endless struggle between the U.S., Europe, and Israel against the Third World and the whole world, the Palestinian resistance is on the offensive. The government of South Africa is bringing formal charges of Genocide against the Israeli government in front of the United Nations. Netanyahu and Israel are defiant, telling the U.S. and Europe “nobody will stop us.” But many Israeli leaders, for the first time, understand that the support from their U.S. and European imperialist defenders is eroding. Israel, their proxy, is now a liability in the U.S.’ fading hopes for Middle-east domination. There are significant forces in the U.S. establishment that are speaking out against Israel and resigning in protest over U.S. support for the Israeli genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza.

The mass movements in support of Palestine are the strongest in U.S. history as demonstrations in Washington were so powerful they caused the “evacuation of the White House.” Joe Biden has now joined the ranks of the notorious child killer LBJ as “Genocide Joe.” The U.S., Israel, the American Israel Political Action Committee and its allies are working to punish, isolate, and crush the resistance. Oblivious to history, they do not grasp that their ugly repression exposes them as the barbarians they are. In turn, the Palestinian, Black, and immigrant insurgencies will shape the entire conversation inside the U.S. 2024 presidential elections as the system is deteriorating into chaos and two-party fascism. While the white voters debate between Trump and Biden as the best ways to protect imperialist whiteness, the civil war inside the U.S. is intensifying. So many Black, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, Arab, Muslim and anti-racist whites are strengthened by having a clear international cause. Once we chanted, “One side’s right and one side’s wrong, we are on the side of the Viet Cong.” Today we chant, “From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

At the height of his world influence, on April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke out against the war in Vietnam, “Beyond Vietnam—Breaking the Silence.” He stood up to the U.S. war machine, called the U.S. “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” and supported the Vietnamese communists as “fighting for a revolutionary government seeking self-determination.” The system, that had once pretended to appreciate him, turned on him as they had Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois and made his life a living hell. On the other hand, people of conscience all over the world, Black organizers trying to change the world, and the people of Vietnam were eternally grateful.

Today, the victims of the Nakba are creating a catastrophe for the U.S. and European white settler states. For the Palestinian comrades in Gaza and the West Bank, and those in the world movement to Free Palestine, the life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can offer hope in your historic struggle for self-determination.

Palestine will Win! Palestine will be Free!

All Hail the Revolutionary King in 2024 and Beyond

The annual King Day celebrations provide a great opportunity to defend Dr. King’s revolutionary legacy against The System’s efforts to whitewash and degrade his frontal challenge to its crimes.

+ Dr. King rejected the myths of U.S. society. He rejected its Mad Men packaging itself as “the leader of the free world” to tell it like it is: that the United States is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”

+ Dr. King saw “the Negro Revolution” as part of a Third World and world revolution. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values . . . For years, I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the South, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a radical reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.”

Dr. Clayborne Carson, Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, in his King Papers, related the following story.

Before leaving Ghana, King welcomed a visit from English clergyman and anti-colonial activist Michael Scott, during which the two men compared the freedom struggles in Africa and the United States. King reportedly expressed admiration for the bus boycott then taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa, and remarked that there was “no basic difference between colonialism and racial segregation . . . at bottom both segregation in American and colonialism in Africa were based on the same thing—white supremacy and contempt for life.

+ Dr King supported the Black Power movement and saw himself as a tendency within it. He marched with Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks on the March against Fear in Mississippi June 1966. While initially taken aback by their cries of Black Power, he soon elaborated his own views as part of the Black Power continuum. “Now there is a kind of concrete, real Black power that I believe in . . . certainly if Black power means the amassing of political and economic power in order to gain our just and legitimate goals, then we all believe in that.”

+ Dr. King sided with the people of Vietnam including the Vietnamese Communists against the U.S. invasion. In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, written by and with his close comrade, Vincent Harding, his anti-colonial support for the legitimacy of the Vietnamese Communist cause was clear.

“The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

“Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not “ready” for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.”

+ Dr. King was deeply appreciative of the Black communist traditions of W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson. He was well aware of the irony and significance that Dr. DuBois died, in Ghana, an exile from the United States and a Communist, on the very day of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.

Dr. King observed:

“We cannot talk of Dr. DuBois without recognizing that he was a radical all of his life. Some people would like to mute the fact that he was a genius who became a Communist in his later years. It is worth noting that Abraham Lincoln warmly recognized the support of Karl Marx during the Civil War and corresponded with him freely. In contemporary life the English-speaking world has no difficulty with the fact that Sean O’Casey was a literary giant of the twentieth century and a Communist or that Pablo Neruda is generally considered the greatest living poet though he also served in the Chilean Senate as a Communist…Our irrational, obsessive, anti-communism has led us into too many quagmires to be retained as if it was a model of scientific thinking.”

King did not merely mention the great contributions of Communists like Du Bois, Casey, Neruda, and Ho Chi Minh; he situated himself in that tradition not as a member but as a friend and admirer.

+ Dr. King’s non-violence was aggressive and militant, which is reflected in his conception of non-violent direct action. Of course, Dr. King had his own unique views on the Civil Rights Movement and Black united front. His views on non-violence were real and deeply held. He also saw non-violence as a tactic to prevent a massive violent backlash from racist whites. King tried to position his demonstrations in ways to get the largest amount of white liberal and international support possible, and to pressure the national Democratic Party that was tied at the hip to the racist Dixiecrats. His belief in non-violence deeply held, but was also tied to the theory and practice of militant, aggressive, Non-Violent Direct Action.

When I worked with CORE and allied with SNCC in 1964 – 1965, they were known as the Black militants, and yet both organizations saw themselves, at the time, as non-violent. But that did not prevent and in fact encouraged Black people to march into the registrar of elections in Southern cities and refuse to leave, Black students to occupy lunch counters and refuse to leave, Black and white people to march at the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma where they confronted an army of armed police and white racists, or Black people in the north to march into elected officials’ offices and occupy them. Everyone we challenged in “the white power structure” saw militant, non-violent direct action as a big threat and retaliated accordingly. No one at the time praised Dr. King for his “moderation.” They saw angry Black people, and they saw Dr. King as a threat, which he certainly was. and saw his non-violence and “urgency of now” as a political force to be crushed not co-opted.

+ Dr. King fought the Democratic Party of Lyndon Johnson and the Black Democratic establishment. When Dr. King brought his movement to Chicago, the Democratic Party’s Black establishment refused to support him, sided with the racist Mayor Daley, and told him to “go down south where you belong.” Many of them refused to join his mass and the militant marches for open housing and an end to police brutality. In response, Dr. King called out the Black political establishment:

“The majority of Black political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support . . . most are still selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of [Blacks] nurtures a healthy suspicion toward this manufactured leader.”

On this day honoring his birthday, let’s take a deeper look at his political thought and revolutionary legacy.

+ Dr. King understood that the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movement was from the outset a battle against the system itself. King understood the intersection of radical reforms and social revolution, and he was always working to understand the time, place, conditions, and balance of forces that would shape his rhetoric and tactical plan. King was one of the greatest and most effective reformers of all and yet, in confronting the system’s intransigence his own revolutionary outlook kept evolving. King’s prominence began in 1955, in his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the same year as the murder of Emmett Till and the Bandung Conference of Non-Aligned Nations—to begin what turned out to be “the Two Decades of the Sixties” that did not end until the defeat of the United States in Vietnam in 1975. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Montgomery in 1955, the great Greensboro sit-ins of 1960, the exciting work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Freedom Rides of 1961, the conditions of Black people in the United States remained at criminal levels. By 1963, white Democratic Party terror in the South and Democratic Party racism and brutality in the ghettos of the North had generated a great deal of militancy, organizing, and consciousness but little change to the system. At the great March on Washington in August 1963, King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SNCC, CORE, NAACP, Urban League, and A. Phillip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters took place amid an air of hope–but also great impatience and militancy. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (a phrase that was not in its initial draft) was in fact a revolutionary indictment of U.S. society.

“One hundred years later [after the formal abolition of slavery] the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So, we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition

“In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’

“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So, we have come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”

King is imploring, cajoling, but what his words make clear is that he is threatening U.S. society and trying to mobilize Black rebellion. When he says “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of segregation” he is making it clear that slavery is in fact still in place. He describes the United States as a society that offers the Negro bad checks and broken promises. When he says, “We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt” this is code for “we know you are morally bankrupt but Black people are here to demand, as the Staple Singers demanded, ‘When will we be paid for the work we’ve done’.”

King’s formulation of “the fierce urgency of now and the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” was a frontal assault on the President Kennedy and the Democrats cry for “patience” in face of injustice. King countered with the spirit of Freedom Now: the cry of Black militants in South Africa, South Carolina, and the South Bronx—and supported by a growing number of white supporters of the civil rights movement. In fact, “Now” was one of the revolutionary slogans of its time. And President Kennedy and the whole world were listening.

One of King’s revolutionary observations that is still painfully relevant today was that “the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.”

In 1964, I was recruited by organizers of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to join “the Civil Rights revolution.” By the time I got to CORE in Harlem and the Northeast, my mentors were staying up all night debating what exactly that revolution would look like. While the struggle focused on democratic rights and full equality, many SNCC and CORE leaders were talking about some form of Black nationalism, Black Power, Black militancy, Black separatism—not as a way of “getting away” from the system but as part of a plan to challenge it and, for some, to overthrow it. Influenced by Malcolm X and the African liberation movements, people were talking about a challenge to U.S. capitalism and about some type of pro-socialist system. It was not all that clear or delineated but the concepts of full equality, full democratic rights, Black rights, self-determination, radical reform, and revolution were far more interrelated than counterposed—and all of them involved Black people in the leadership of a multi-racial movement, either through integration or separation.

In that context, I am arguing that Dr. King was a Black revolutionary nationalist, perhaps of a more moderate nature, but he was a student of world history and was impacted by the revolutionary ideas of the times. For Dr. King, as early as 1963, to tell the president of the United States that Black people in the U.S. are “exiles in their own land” was clearly a call for some form of both full equality and Black self-determination and far from the “more perfect union” myth that the system was selling—with few buyers.

King was a victim of capitalist state violence, surveillance, psychological, character, and actual assassination.

The story of J. Edgar Hoover’s campaign to destroy Martin Luther King and force him into a nervous breakdown and suicide is not tangential but central to King’s revolutionary history—and any understanding of the surveillance and police state we live under today. And yet, another element of the revolutionary history of Dr. King that is being whitewashed is that his actual assassination was by the system itself. Part of this cover-up is to destroy the memory of the work of Coretta Scott King in exposing the actual assassination of Dr. King.

In his “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech the very night before he was murdered, Dr. King was very aware of what he felt was his possible and imminent assassination.

“Like anybody, I would like to live—a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So, I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.^“

And while his words are brave, every time I hear them, I hear a mortal man not fully at peace with his mortality but trying to comfort and reassure Black people that “we as a people” will find liberation. He did this rather than ask them to protect him, which he knew they could not do.

On December 8, 1999, after the King family and allies presented 70 witnesses in a civil trial, 12 jurors in Memphis, Tennessee reached a unanimous verdict after about an hour of deliberations that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated because of a conspiracy.

In a statement she gave to the press the following day in Atlanta, Mrs. Coretta Scott King welcomed the verdict.

“There is abundant evidence of a major high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court’s unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law . . . My husband once said, ‘The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ To-day, almost 32 years after my husband and the father of my four children was assassinated, I feel that the jury’s verdict clearly affirms this principle. With this faith, we can begin the 21st century and the new millennium with a new spirit of hope and healing.”

Sadly, the police/surveillance/counter-insurgency state is stronger than ever—but at least there is growing public challenge to its hegemony. Understanding the revolutionary story of Dr. King and the system’s decision to bring him down is essential if we want to understand and make history in the present.

King was from the outset a Black militant and revolutionary who advocated non-violent direct action but saw “the Negro revolution” as the overriding objective.

While Dr. King strongly argued for non-violence as both a tactical and an ethical perspective, he also supported the right of Black people to armed self-defense and allied with the advocates of armed self-defense and even armed struggle in the Black movement.

At a time of rampant and systematic police violence, the system’s armed requirement that Black people be “non-violent” is intellectually and morally lethal. It flies in the face of the long-standing tradition of armed self-defense in the Black community and the urgency to defend that tradition today. Worse, to use Dr. King against that basic right is the height of cynicism and historical distortion.

Clay Carson’s In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s, helps shed light on this complex relationship. While many young organizers were critical of Dr. King SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael explained best their appreciation of his profound impact on the Black masses.

“People loved King. I’ve seen people in the South climb over each other just to say, ‘I touched him, I touched him.’ I’m even talking about the young . . . These were the people we were working with and I had to follow in his footsteps when I went in there. The people didn’t know what was SNCC. They just said, ‘You one of Dr. King’s men?’ ‘Yes, Ma’am I am.’”

Carson explains the pivotal role of “militant and self-reliant local black residents who owned weapons and were willing to defend themselves when attacked. Black rallies in the county were often protected by armed guards sometimes affiliated with the Louisiana-based Deacons for Defense and Justice.”

Many SNCC organizers, disagreeing with King’s focus on non-violence, explained, “We are not King or SCLC. They don’t do the work the kind of work that we do, nor do they live in the areas we live in. They don’t drive the highways at night” Stokely Carmichael recalled a discussion that ended when he asked those carrying weapons to place them on the table. Nearly all the black organizers working in the Deep South were armed.

But again, the system wants to act like the battle between King on the one hand, and SNCC and the Black militants on the other, was a morality play or an ideological war. It wasn’t. It was an intellectual, strategic, and ethical struggle among equals, and King was both open-minded and introspective about the limits of his non-violent advocacy.

In 1965, James Farmer, the director of CORE, a dedicated pacifist, told a group of us at a meeting, “I am completely non-violent, but I want to thank our brothers from the Deacons for Defense (who were both standing guard and got a standing ovation from the organizers) whose arms allow me to be non-violent.” My read of history is that King felt similarly.

Importantly, King well understood that his “non-violence” could be used by the system as a justification for state violence and the system’s need to destroy the Black united front. In his speech, “Beyond Vietnam” on April 4, 1967, King addressed frontally his most principled conversations with the angry youth of the urban ghettos. He stated,

“As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problem. I have tried to offer my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action. But they asked, and rightfully so, ‘What about Vietnam?’ Their questions hit home and I knew I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”

Note that King does not try to raise a moral critique of those who would use Molotov cocktails and rifles in response to the economic and armed violence of the state. And by making clear he considered its advocates “the oppressed,” he supported the morality, if not the tactics, of their cause. Instead, he simply argued that he did not feel it would “solve their problem” and even then, qualified his own advocacy of non-violence to make the case that “social change comes most meaningfully”—but not exclusively—from non-violence. He admitted it was a legitimate debate.

At the time, Martin Luther King, Jr., SNCC, CORE, and Malcolm X represented the “left” of the Black united front and worked to find strategic and tactical unity with the NAACP and Urban League—which made the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Bill, and the Voting Rights Bill possible. While King had many disagreements with the young Black militants, he understood them and they him as strategic allies against a system of white supremacist capitalism.

SNCC, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Dr. King were on the frontlines of the movement against the U.S. war of aggression in Vietnam. While SNCC and Malcolm were among the first to speak out frontally against the war as early as 1965, by April 1967, both King and Muhammad Ali took enormous risks to frontally challenge the war on moral grounds and to argue that Black people in particular had no interest in supporting the war.

In his monumental “Beyond Vietnam” speech, Dr. King argued in support of Vietnamese self-determination and rejected the view that the U.S. had any legitimate interests in Vietnam.

* King called out U.S. war crimes against the Vietnamese people making the analogy that the United States feared the most: comparisons with Nazi Germany. He asked what the Vietnamese people “think when we test our latest weapons on them just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe.”

* King praised the integrity and legitimacy of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam including the communists who he argued were the legitimate political leaders of the Vietnamese people’s struggle.

“They were led by Ho Chi Minh” and were creating “a revolutionary government seeking self-determination.” He describes Ho as saved only by “his sense of humor and irony . . . when he hears the most powerful nation in the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands bombs on a nation eight thousand miles from its shores.” (Communists with a sense of humor and irony–perhaps the most revolutionary insight of all.)

*King focused on demand development. In the end movements are unified by ideas, people, organizations and demands. He called on the U.S. government

* End all bombing in North and South Vietnam

* Declare a unilateral cease fire

* Curtail the U.S. build up in Thailand and Laos

* Recognize the role of The National Liberation Front in any future Vietnam government

* Remove all foreign–that is, U.S. troops from Vietnam

* Make reparations for the damage

This was tantamount to calling for immediate U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. It recognized the victory of the National Liberation Front and argued for what would later become a critical component of Black people’s demands against the U.S. government: “reparations.”

The story of The System’s attacks on Dr. King after he spoke out against the war in Vietnam and his courage in the face of this assault is another chapter in Dr. King’s revolutionary contribution to U.S. and world history. One important version of that story is Tavis Smiley’s documentary, Death of a King: Dr. Martin Luther King’s Final Year.

Dr. King brought a powerful and frontal indictment of the system of white supremacist, racist, capitalism. He appreciated the ideas of others and worked to build a Black and multi-racial united front against what he called “racism, poverty, and militarism.” He was willing to confront “the cowardice” inside his own bosom and modeled how all of us must put our bodies, souls, and lives on the line. He rejected gradualism and demanded, “Freedom Now.” He advocated non-violence but defended the right of those who disagreed with him to armed self-defense. He rejected U.S. chauvinism, called for a militant internationalism, and challenged the U.S. Empire at home and abroad. He was independent of and willing to challenge the Democratic Party. He was and is a great contributor to the endless struggle for human and planetary liberation.

It is time to celebrate the Revolutionary King on the anniversary of his birthday. We thank Stevie Wonder, who spoke for all of us, when he wrote,

I just never understood
How a man who died for good
Could not have a day that would
Be set aside for his recognition Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
that they should make it become an illusion
And we all know everything
That he stood for time will bring
For in peace our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you!

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Eric Mann.

King and Douglass on What is Needed

Ted Glick — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:52:15 +0000

A solution of the present crisis will not take place unless men and women work for it. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of irrational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.

— Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p. 197

Three days from now, January 15, will be the first day of the 95th year since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born. It’s a federal holiday, won through the years-long struggle decades ago of many people who organized for it to be so. Because they did that work, for the last 39 years and for decades to come, young people and all people in the USA learn about Dr. King at this time, are exposed to some of his ideas, and without question this contributes to the building and strengthening of movements for justice, equal rights and peace.

People need examples of clarity and courage to be so themselves.

However, King’s quote above should deepen our understanding of what our responsibilities are as people trying to change the world for the better. Substantive change, change that is desperately needed, doesn’t happen without hard work, without “sacrifice, suffering and struggle.”

Frederick Douglass is famous for something similar that he said on August 4, 1857:

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

King and Douglass were not saying that our lives need to be constant work, constant struggle against the racist, rich and regressive, predominantly white men with whom we must do battle. Both of them were part of an African-grounded culture in which singing and community-building were central. The civil rights movement of the 1950’s was a movement where singing was essential to the ability of that movement to ultimately win major victories, after years of struggle and sacrifice. And it wasn’t just singing in churches at rallies. People sang in jail. People sang when demonstrating right next to white racists. Singing gave them power.

2024 is a big year for us. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren and the seven generations to come need us to work hard and together on the major issues of today, to defeat Trump and the MAGA fascists, elect genuine progressives, and in so doing, lay the basis for the systemic, justice-based change the world urgently needs in this climate emergency time.

The post King and Douglass on What is Needed first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Ted Glick.

A Moral Principle: Denounce the Bigotry of In-Group Members before Criticizing the Bigotry of Out-Group Members

Kim Petersen — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 16:59:05 +0000

Contempt for the Arab population is deeply rooted in Zionist thought.

— Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, 1983, 2015.

This is the holiday season for various groups of people. Some people will celebrate Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc during the winter season. Others will celebrate just because celebrating is fun.

Noting that it is Hanukkah, Sportsnet published an article titled “Oilers’ Zach Hyman: We must ‘eradicate antisemitism’.”

The article is extremely one-sided and insensitive because the Jewish State is in the midst of trying to eradicate Palestinians.

Obviously, anti-semitism must be eradicated from any moral universe. But what does Hyman’s statement imply? It is not “We must ‘eradicate every form of bigotry’.” It is explicit to one group: Jews. Do Jews face bigotry targeted at them? Undoubtedly they do. But is the biotry faced by Jews the worst form of bigotry, so heinous that subordinating other forms of bigotry is acceptable? And is it the case that Jews do not engage in bigotry against Gentiles?

Hyman is a prideful, skillful forward for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League.

Mark Spector of Sportsnet writes of Hyman:

“I’m very proud of who I am. I’m proud of being Jewish. I’m proud of growing up in the Jewish community … and I’m proud of where we come from,” began Hyman, a 31-year-old product of Toronto’s Jewish community. The Oilers forward is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, schooled in Judaism from kindergarten all the way through Grade 12.

Why has he chosen to speak out during the eight days of Hanukkah?

To shed light on what he is seeing at home. To shine a candle on a growing sense of antisemitism right here….

“It’s very clear that antisemitism as a result of what’s going on has been on the rise. Jewish people … don’t feel safe. There are attacks on synagogues. My high school [in Toronto] has had two bomb threats. This is just for being Jewish. It’s just because you’re Jewish. There’s no other reason.

“There’s no other reason”? Apparently, Spector and Hyman are seemingly unaware that people in their self-declared Jewish State are engaged in a genocide against Palestinians and that the genocide has been in progress since 1948.

Jewish anti-Arabism has been on prominent display over the decades unabated to the present day. Recently, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant denigrated the Palestinians as “human animals.” Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King protested that Palestinians are not “human animals”; they are not “human beings”; they are “subhuman.”

The genocidal language of the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem – Calling Palestinians animals and subhumans, and asking them to be buried alive. pic.twitter.com/siYWqCZiJ9

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) December 8, 2023

It is a commonly held tenet that one should clean up one’s own backyard before complaining about the backyard of others.

At its most basic level, backyard tenets would include mutual respect between neighbors and non-violence (definitely no spilling of blood; especially of civilians, whether they be elderly, children, women, or men). What does mutual respect require? Observing the golden rule: treat others as you wish to be treated.

To prioritize concern about anti-semitism at a time when Israeli Jews, supported by Jews in the diaspora, are committing genocide against Palestinians speaks absurdly to a person’s moral basis. In essence, what Spector, Hyman, and Sporstnet are promoting is Jewish people first even when Jews are knocking down hospitals, blowing up schools, and destroying another people.

As Chomsky wrote in his book The Fateful Triangle: “Anti-Arab racism is, however, so widespread as to be unnoticeable; it is perhaps the only remaining form of racism to be regarded as legitimate.”

Bigotry must be opposed in all its forms. To stand on morally sound ground, one must especially denounce the odious acts committed in the name of one’s group and criticize the bigotry held by members of one’s own group.

The post A Moral Principle: Denounce the Bigotry of In-Group Members before Criticizing the Bigotry of Out-Group Members first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kim Petersen.

Royal Shakeup: King Charles Takes Drastic Measures, Prince Harry Cut Off Completely

Charles Thomson — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 06:48:23 +0000

This is certainly a new twist to the UK royal story. The heading above was reinforced by the accompanying graphic showing the King and Princes Harry and Andrew with somewhat pixellated black text “FINAL THE END FOR HARRY!” on a glaring yellow background.

The Execution of Prince Harry, 2023, after The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, 1833.

I read on, intrigued, only to be progressively perplexed and disappointed, as the “astonishing turn of events” of “the controversial decision” for “ultimate blow to Prince Harry” (simultaneously involving “the unexpected bestowment of a significant privilege upon Prince Andrew” turned out to not hard news but merely “reported by daily [sic] Express from “sources within Buckingham Palace”.

We do not even find out what this “ultimate blow” is, as “details of the privileges revoked are yet to be fully disclosed,” but “insiders suggest they include ceremonial roles”, which as far as I can recall were revoked months ago, though it is now an “unprecedented move”. Simultaneously “reports indicate that King Charles has bestowed upon Prince Andrew a privilege previously held by Prince Harry,” though what this is remains another mystery. Any guesses? Marriage to Meghan Markle perhaps?

All of this gobbledygook is credited to feednews.com, which supplies frequent stories to the Opera browser news feed. The text is full of nothingnesses, such as “public reactions to the news have been mixed with some expressing support for King Charles’s decisive action, while others criticize the move”. That is what journalists write when they don’t know what they’re talking about, which in this case is axiomatic, as the “decisive action” has already been reported in the same story as “undisclosed”, which makes a nonsense of the statement there has been any reaction at all.

The level of argument might be expected from an average thirteen-year-old’s current affairs essay (I might be doing teenagers a disservice) and it makes The Sun newspaper look like a PhD thesis. It reads like the smooth non-sequiturs happily trotted out at length by AI (which in case you’ve missed it is Artificial Intelligence, a computer program purportedly reproducing human thought patterns, and actually succeeding in doing so for a drunk human).

Another stunning click-bait headline from feednews.com tells us “Buckingham Palace Shaken as Prime Minister Delivers Brutal Rebuke to King Charles”, an “unprecedented moment”, that “has sent shockwaves through the political landscape.” “Reports by Express” are in action again, though which Express is not specific. It is content that even the Slough Express (“Mum unhappy after discovery of large bone in fish”) would be ashamed of.

The anonymized Express details an “undisclosed Prime Minister” making the “sharp and biting comment”. There have so far been 19 prime ministers during the reign of King Charles III, mostly from Commonwealth countries such as Canada and the Solomon Islands, but as the article specifies “the highest echelons of power in the United Kingdom”, that narrows it down to Liz Truss, who had 45 days in office to deliver a “brutal slap down” and Rishi Sunak.

Presumably, the details of the altercation will clarify who is the protagonist, but both the royal household and the Prime Minister’s office have cited “the confidentiality of discussions”, disclosing nothing about this “verbal altercation” which had nevertheless “triggered fervent discussions and speculation among political analysts and royal observations”. It is a fervor that has so far eluded my attempts to find it elsewhere in the media.

The best I have been able to come up with is a YouTube clip from the Netflix series The Crown, where a prime minister is indeed shown berating a monarch by declaring it is the elected official who runs the country not the hereditary monarch, but the politician in question is Margaret Thatcher and the monarch is Queen Elizabeth II.

You will by now not be surprised to learn that the feednews.com story titled “What Charles and Kate Really Said About Archie’s Skin Color” does not tell us what they really said about Archie’s skin color, and that the story “Prince Harry’s chilling one-word thought when he saw Kate and William get married” fails to inform us what the word is.

“‘Cruel and Unfair’: Harry Loses His Title as King Charles Shows No Mercy” goes on to tell us about a new proposal by an MP Bo Seely to strip Harry’s title in a parliamentary process (Titles Deprivation 1917 Act Amendment Bill) that will probably get nowhere and does not involve King Charles anyway, merciless or otherwise.

I can’t refrain from pointing out the irony of critics supposedly arguing that the mooted legislation drawing “historical inspiration from laws enacted during the First World War” is “anachronistic” when the monarchy is 1200 years old.

Newsfeed.com tells it like it isn’t.

While feednews.com leads us into fantasy land with its own version of reality, the rest of the media is in blatant contradiction with, for example, the Daily Mail headline stating “King Charles will never strip Harry and Meghan of their royal titles despite calls to do so as he would not want to ‘humiliate’ the Sussexes, sources say”.

Surely Opera can come up with a better basis for their news stories. How about giving the Slough Express a go?

Notes.

Collage images cropped from Wikimedia. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex: CCA2.0 Generic, Northern Ireland Office. Queen Camilla: CCA4.0 International, Mark Tantrum, New Zealand government. King Charles III, PD, US federal government.

The post Royal Shakeup: King Charles Takes Drastic Measures, Prince Harry Cut Off Completely appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Charles Thomson.

Māori Politician Performs Haka in Parliament Before Swearing Oath to King Charles #shorts #nz #haka

VICE News — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 20:00:07 +0000

This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.

King Charles III | COP28 | Dubai, UAE | 1 December 2023 | Just Stop Oil #cop28

Just Stop Oil — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 18:12:52 +0000

This content originally appeared on Just Stop Oil and was authored by Just Stop Oil.

Musician Astra King on embracing imperfection and the unknown

Tiana Dueck — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 08:00:00 +0000

How are you doing now that your First Love EP is out?

I’m glad because I genuinely love these songs, but I also can’t wait to take a break and not have to listen to them. Just binge other people’s music, you know, have a life. I can’t wait to be able to respond to a text with something other than, “I’m working on my ep.” You know?

With the production of First Love, what were some of your challenges?

I got very impatient with the recording process. I wanted to grab the mic whenever and do whatever. I wasn’t paying attention to certain things that became issues later. I had my computer set up in a weird way where every time I recorded it would have a different delay, so they were all off. I had to cut up all these takes and artificially create the natural timing of it. So, somehow, it took me almost a year just to edit these four songs. I just didn’t know what I was doing.

I only figured out how to solve it once I started not sitting at my computer all the time. I would send it to my phone and actually go out in the yard and walk around and try to actually move while I’m listening. Somehow that added stimulation that helped my brain understand the timing more and not hyper fixate on things that weren’t problems. I would do that for like a month or two and then that finally fixed it.

In those periods where you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing, how do you push through?

Every couple months I’ll have a week where I feel like, “Oh, I’m actually good at what I do.” But then it’s back to not knowing what I’m doing. So I just embrace it. But also not trying to push past the limits of my ability too much. Ideally I can take time off to experiment and study, so that I don’t have to think too hard when I go to create, and whatever happens happens. That’s not been the case lately because of deadlines. There’s just so much self-doubt when you’re trying to do something and you can’t even tell if you’re perceiving it correctly.

I learned about your music through PC Music’s Appleville. Do you remember where your head was at during that period when a bunch of people first heard your music?

I was working behind the scenes on Appleville a lot with the Remote Channels crew. I was very inexperienced, so I was mostly focused on not fucking that up. I wasn’t thinking about my set until the last possible minute, which probably explains why I barely remember it. I was so exhausted. It’s only in retrospect that I was able to think about it. I never thought people would like my set that much! It’s kind of surprising.

I remember reading the chat during your set, everyone was obsessed with you. It was great. How did you meet A. G. Cook?

Before signing to PC, while still figuring out how to finish my music, I was ghost mixing and vocal editing for other people, and making K-pop covers on the side. Some of my close friends at the time were all big K-pop fans, and would not stop talking about it, so I involuntarily became pretty well informed. Meanwhile, I felt like I didn’t know people as excited about the PC Music stuff I was listening to.

The first reasonable thing to do in my mind was a crossover experiment to see if I could eventually maybe get K-pop fans into this funnel that would lead them to PC Music. I didn’t know the audience would end up being A. G. Cook, though. Hilarious how that works.

One day I just commented something really random to one of his Instagram posts. He keeps saying now it was something really technical or specific but I cannot remember. I thought nothing of it. But either way I think he found it interesting that I looked like a YouTube K-pop cover channel making PCM-adjacent stuff, and reached out asking to hear more demos. So we sent stuff back and forth and rest is history.

Fast forward to 2020, before lockdown, we’re sitting in his studio playing each other stuff we’ve been working on. He played me Silver, and mentioned something about a seven disc album. So I whipped up a Silver cover leading up to Appleville. I like to reference the artist that’s hosting the show, you know?

Do you have any specific memories that shaped you as an artist since then?

The line in Silver that really rang true for me was “I work all night long and I’m OCD.” It’s a bit too true. But more recently, I’ve discovered the sun.

I always hated sunny days. It’s too hot, it’s too sweaty. But one day I accidentally went outside and I just like, got it. I was listening to Caroline Polachek’s new album and there was a song on there called “Blood and Butter.” One line says, “And what I want is to walk beside you. Needing nothing, but the sun that’s in our eyes.” I had to wake up early for a business call anyways, so I just decided to go outside and reenact the song. Something about it fixed my sleep.

I’ve never been able to sleep regularly, but something about admiring early morning sunlight, it just clicked. I usually get bored outside, but because I had the song playing, I started noticing insects, bees, and flowers. It was the first time I really noticed and appreciated these things. That early morning sunlight is magic to me. It cured my vampirism. The sun really helped me with finishing the EP edits because I was able to wake up with it, sit outside, and listen to the songs.

What about “hyperpop” first resonated with you?

One day a friend sent me a PC Music track from around 2014. Initially we weren’t sure how we were feeling about it, since it was kind of strange. But it just clicked the next day, and we were both obsessed. I don’t keep much track of what hyperpop is by definition, but the early PC music stuff specifically I was quite into—I was really into the do whatever you want spirit of it.

At the same time, it’s also quite thoughtful music, and aware of all the elements. I find that it feels really relatable to people who make music because, in the music itself, you feel like you can look into the different layers of the work in progress and there’s an incompleteness about it, but also a hyper completeness that’s satisfying. I’m not saying that’s all it is, that’s just what spoke to me about it.This kind of music, whatever it is, kind of mirrors what I already naturally do, which is not finishing stuff, but now it’s the aesthetic.

Do you have any other creative outlets apart from music?

I really enjoy crafting; like paper crafts, painting, crocheting…those low-stakes handmade things that have a lot of intent in them. I think it’s a space where I can confront my perfectionism. I can just let it be a disaster and there’s no consequence.

Also, I grew up playing the old Sims games with my sister. I’m quite into architecture and interior design. When I listen to music, I’ll often have intrusive images of floor plans for some reason.

Ideally I want to make songs, go on tour, and then hide out in the tour bus and play The Sims. I like to play make-believe with my friends. My friends are really cool. Anything that has to do with making up stories and things which are kind of off and ugly in some way.

Your music video for “Make Me Cry” was really nice. Was it your first production for a music video?

“Make Me Cry” was my first proper Astra King music video shoot. It was really chaotic. We shot it in a day. It was my first time really directing a crew, which was scary because I’m used to doing everything by myself. But it turned out really well.

What helps you get comfortable in front of a camera?

I was worried that I would hate the video and not be able to watch it back because I mostly hate cameras, and I hate being in front of them. The only thing that helps for me is to infuse it, again, with some sort of ridiculous inside joke. So, if I’m laughing in the video at my own inside joke it neutralizes it somehow for me. It’s why I’m probably always laughing in my videos. If I ever watch them back in the future, even if I think it’s awful, at least I’ll be reminded about how it was a funny moment, and that’s beautiful to me.

It also helps me to think less about myself and more about the camera itself. Like the camera’s an eye, and I like to play with how it perceives things. I’m just the subject that it’s perceiving.

That’s a freeing perspective. Does anxiety play a role in your practice?

I have extreme perfectionism, which I don’t think actually makes the work better. It just makes it longer. I’ll constantly think it’s shit, but I’m also not really affected by it if people like it or not. Their opinion doesn’t really persuade my own opinion of my music.

I’m in constant conflict with my own weird personal standards for what I think is acceptable, and it’ll keep moving around into some grand territory that’s way above my skill level, but I’m still expecting it.

I think I realized at some point though that my feelings about my songs change every day. It’s already so unstable. It’s not reliable. I realized at some point that my songs don’t hate me. Even if I hate them, at the end of the day, I feel like they just wanna exist and have fun. So, it feels kind of mean to get the urge to berate myself and take it out on the songs. I may not be as skilled as I would ideally want to be, but they also didn’t do anything wrong. I just have to get better at music and the songs are what they are.

I feel like the songs on First Love are my good friends now, so I’m at peace with them now. I can always love them in a way that transcends having to like everything about them.

Do you have any principles for your own practice?

I get really hung up on the vocal editing and mixing. Even if it’s at the expense of the rest of the mix, I think it’s really important for the vocals to feel real. Even though I also like it feeling very artificial and digital too at times; but still feel alive, like it really exists. I really enjoy that moment when my disbelief that I’m listening to a recording is just suspended for a moment.

Also, as a song draft gets worked on, I’ll often dump a ton of new ideas toward the end to switch it up. Mostly because I get bored. I like to keep adding stuff to my songs. But the catch is whatever new musical DNA I introduce at the end, if I do keep it, I have to splice some of it back into earlier sections. It’s really important to me to make sure that new ideas don’t feel random. Otherwise I have a tendency to dump way too many ideas into a song and it can get bogged down.

How have challenges related to being social and your self-esteem influenced your creative processes?

I struggled for a long time with hating my body, my voice, like, everything. I’m fine with myself, but everything about my physical self just felt not right. Just very much ready to disown it.

Having to hear my voice playback, or perceive myself in general, would generate so much discomfort. On top of that, I always felt this pressure to sing or move in a certain way in order to be good enough or acceptable.

But ever since the pandemic, when I started working on this EP and throughout the whole process, I started becoming more interested in using my voice as an instrument and paying attention to literally just the sound of it.

So, I can focus on exploring my own identity in relation to my body in true first person. And I’ve found I actually do love extracting melodies out of this body. That incentivizes me to treat it well.

Understanding myself as a musical instrument or musical equipment makes me feel a lot better. It helps me bypass the loaded associations that come with being a person and I can focus more on the fascination of how things work and how it’s perfect when it’s just a natural phenomenon that I feel like I’m observing. It’s magical to me. It doesn’t feel impersonal either, rather, I think it feels more personalized to what I actually care about.

So maybe I’ll feel more comfortable with having to be a person in a way more related to social stuff one day. But for now, this is kind of how I’ve dealt with it to get work done. I do feel like I’m in a pretty good place. I don’t know if it’s healthy or not, but I try not to think about myself as a person too much. It gets in the way. I’m just a natural phenomenon, and if you zoom in really close, everything looks really fascinating.

Getting down to just being grateful that you can be a musical instrument at all is really nice. Since you started on piano, what got you into more electronic music processes?

It was a natural progression because a lot of my early musical influences came from these edutainment CD-ROMs. I never had access to consoles. That’s something I associated with other kids. They got to play all these games and I only had the family computer. I love the family computer. I had these educational computer games, their soundtracks had a distinctive style to them. Very liminal and strange.

It is a lot more effort to record live instruments. I honestly am not good enough at any live instrument to actually record it. There’s something that feels so immediate about computer music. You pop open the computer and you compose right then and there. It feels like I’m playing the computer as an instrument.

As PC music shifts focus on archiving come 2024, what personal changes do you predict?

I’ll likely still be involved in a couple PC archival projects. As for new stuff, I’ll probably be independent for a while until something clicks. I’m not in a rush to find a label.

I love playing music live, it’s one of my main motivations for completing and releasing my music. I want to do shows. I’ll try to get management so they can make sure I get my work done, and I’ll just have to learn more about some of the business stuff. It’s a big deal that PC is changing, but as for what I plan to do, I don’t think it will be a huge shift.

I’m going to take a holiday, and then get my shit together health wise and workflow wise. I look forward to spending lots of time studying music and improving my skills for a bit before I dive back in. I’m quite interested in pop songwriting. I feel like I need to get better at writing hooks and stuff, so that would be fun. But I won’t stop making music. Some people have been like, “Don’t stop making music!” And it’s like, of course not! That’s not happening.

With electronic music and making music on a computer, how do you translate that into playing something live?

I actually put a lot of time into trying to figure out a live rig. I’m less interested in triggering samples and loops live. I mostly focus on vocals. I’ll have a laptop with my vocal autotune effects, and it’s hooked up to a controller so I can sing it and adjust the effects live. That’s really fun, because you never know what you’re gonna get.

My favorite part about performing live is that I don’t know at what part my voice will crack or when I’ll mess up, so it’s like a surprise every night. I like to set it up in such a way that I give myself room to do whatever. It’s really important to me that the vocals are actually live. I go to shows to hear people sing and mess up live. I love it when people mess up on stage, not in a mean way, I just like to hear it.

Definitely, the vocals often feel like the most live part of a show. Do you have any recipes to end off on for people who wanna make computer music, like, what are your digital ingredients?

A mental program I can’t shut up about is Movable Do Solfège. It takes an upfront investment to learn but it’s worth it if you like to analyze compositions. I use it to sing along to songs by ear.

I use Logic Pro X. The most important thing to me is using what DAW feels the most intuitive to your brain and knowing its keyboard commands.I think what matters more than what software you use is your seating position. My ergonomics were so bad that it hurt my back and I couldn’t focus. I start to associate work with pain. So if possible, get an external monitor, do some research, and measure the distance between things so you’re not craning your neck! Invest in ergonomics and health, and everything else follows.

Astra King Recommends:

Early morning sunlight exposure within an hour of waking, outdoors

Singing along to songs (lead melody, bass lines, any melodic instrument parts) using Movable Do solfège

Chin tucks during loading screens

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Tiana Dueck.

The Peace of Westphalia as a Lesson in Solving Religious Wars Past Present or Future

Matthew J.L. Ehret — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:42:36 +0000

In 1999, a seemingly innocuous speech occurred in Chicago that unveiled a new paradigm in world affairs that was dubbed “the Blair Doctrine”. In this speech, Tony Blair asserted that the realities of the new age of terrorism had rendered the respect for sovereign nation states irrelevant and obsolete requiring a superior doctrine compatible with the need to periodically bomb sovereign nations you don’t like. This new age of humanitarian bombings would be called “the post-Westphalian age”.

Recalling this speech in 2004, Blair mused

before Sept. 11, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648; namely, that a country’s internal affairs are for it, and you don’t interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance.

Blair’s original anti-Westphalia speech in 1999 was occuring at moment that a fanatical sect of neocons was preparing to usher in a “New American Century” with a new focus on a Pearl Harbor moment that would justify a new Crusade of never ending wars in Southwest Asia. One of the principle doctrines for this age involved invoking raging fires of war and hatred between Arab and Jew which is what animated Richard Perle’s “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” as a strategic battle plan for Israel’s new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Cynthia Chung writes that the

Clean Break policy document outlined these goals: 1) Ending Yasser Arafat’s and the Palestinian Authority’s political influence, by blaming them for acts of Palestinian terrorism 2) Inducing the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. 3) Launching war against Syria after Saddam’s regime is disposed of 4) Followed by military action against Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

This hellish plan to light the middle east on fire was in many ways made possible by the 1995 murder of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin (by a radical zionist fanatic) and the American-Israeli creation of Hamas as an anti-Arafat movement which would offset Yasser Arafat’s tendency to find long term solutions with Israeli peacemakers like Rabin as witnessed by the efforts to create a two-state solution and Oslo Accords in 1993.

This tendency for peace between neighboring faiths had to be stopped at all costs.

Rules Based Dis-order vs Westphalia’s Peace among Faiths

By now, we all know the name for this unipolar doctrine and the smoldering wave of destruction and death that it justified for the ensuing two decades.

What is less understood is the nature of the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 which Blair referred to as an obsolete doctrine in desperate need of replacing.

Since the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia set the foundations for the later UN Charter drafted by Franklin Roosevelt and Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles in 1941 and since both this 1648 treaty and the UN Charter have been systemically targeted for destruction by Borg-like armies of “International Rule of Law” advocates pushing R2P and a Great Reset onto the world, let us take a moment to ask: What is the Treaty of Westphalia? How did it transform world history? And why is it’s defense so necessary in today’s crisis-ridden world?

The Peace of Westphalia: Phase Shift in World History

Before the Westphalian Treaty, Europe was bereft in chaos and war.

Not only did the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) eliminate over one third of the German population, but an additional century of religious war had set fire to Europe starting with the Knights Revolt of 1522 and the German Peasants War of 1524 that saw up to 300 thousand protestant peasants killed.

Before blowing up in Germany, Protestant vs Catholic wars had ravaged France between 1562-1598 during a devastating period of chaos that came to be known as “the Little Dark Age”, only coming to an end through the wise diplomatic maneuvers of King Henry IV of Navarre. It was Henry IV, along side his lead advisor Maximilien de Bethune (aka: Duke of Sully) who reformed France by establishing religious tolerance in the famous 1598 Edict of Nantes (removing Lutheranism and Calvanism from the list of heresies), while clamping down on corruption, banning usury, ending speculation, banning high rents and investing in internal improvements with a focus on textile manufacturing and agricultural reforms.

The burst of economic growth generated by these reforms doubled the revenues of France within 12 years and revived the spirit of the great nation-building king Louis XI turning France from a house divided in Civil War into a unified state that won the admiration of all the people of Europe (and the disdain of the financier oligarchy). Henry IV also clearly aimed to revive the traditions of the Great Charlemagne who was the last monarch to unite all of Europe under a common principle of law, when he said that Europe should become “a Christian republic, entirely peaceful within itself”.

Sadly, Henry IV’s murder by “a lone assassin” in 1610 left a power vacuum and soon the religious wars grew once again out of control in Europe. This time however, they were concentrated in the more fertile soils of the highly fragmented Holy Roman Empire then occupying most of today’s Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland. Unlike today’s Germany, the land that blew up in religious conflict during these dark years was dominated by small-minded warlord Princes and Dukes whose power was contingent on how many mercenaries they could hire and land they could steal. In total, over 350 tiny states and principalities existed along with 2000 jurisdictions which divided the Holy Roman Empire under an array of mini sovereignties with no conception of a greater whole. [see map]

To say that the 30 years war was of a purely religious nature is an over-simplified error that many are want to make.

As outlined brilliantly by historian Pierre Beaudry, throughout the conflict, Catholic Bourbons of France often used Protestant Proxies in Germany to fight Spanish (Catholic) Hapsburgs that were territorial rivals over low countries or Poland. Meanwhile the absence of any rules of territorial sovereignty welcomed constant infringement of factions onto each other’s lands. Austro-Hungarian Habsburg emperors constantly pushed expansionist policies and Venetian games were often played on the Baltic and Black Seas while both Venetian, Dutch and other purse strings were funding all warring sides throughout the years of chaos.

Needless to say, it was a disaster that was clearly sending Europe on a fast track towards a new dark age.

By 1609, the world’s first private central bank of Amsterdam was established along with the Dutch East India Company, which soon merged with the British East India Company and established a global maritime empire, where Venice had formerly been the dominant center of banking, world trade, controller of bullion and maritime choke points.

In reality, the same forces of Venice (and their sister “city state” of Genoa) were largely behind the reallocation of imperial command centers from the Venetian Levant Company to the Netherlands and thence to England (where the later takeover was finalized during the 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’ and the 1694 founding of the Bank of England as I outlined in my article the Art of Political Lying.)

Realizing that a profound change was required to end this slide into hell, forces yearning to revive the policies of Louis XI and Henry IV and unite Europe in peaceful co-existence were organized around France’s Prime Minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661) and his young protégé Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1616-1683). Beginning in 1642, Mazarin began a tedious process of organizing for the Treaty of Westphalia offering to serve as peace broker, lead negotiator and guarantor of religious freedoms for all parties, finally arranging the signing to occur in two locations on October 24, 1648, where protestant signators met in Osnabrück and Catholic signators met in Münster.

The Benefit of the Other

Although the Treaty that established the framework for the sovereign nation state is often taught to students of political science as a messy legal protocol featuring 128 clauses designed to respect the rights of others to be left alone and not impinge onto territory that doesn’t belong to you, something very special is often left out of the equation. This something is a principle outlined in the first two articles which serve as a guiding pre-amble of sorts and which infuse vitality into the entire framework:

1) That all nations will now be guided by the concern for the benefit of their neighbors and 2) the forgiveness for all past transgressions. Since it is so rare that these articles are read in today’s world, let us review them here:

Article 1: “That there shall be a Christian and Universal Peace, and a perpetual, true, and sincere Amity… That this Peace and Amity be observ’d and cultivated with such a Sincerity and Zeal, that each Party shall endeavour to procure the Benefit, Honour and Advantage of the other; that thus on all sides they may see this Peace and Friendship in the Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of France flourish, by entertaining a good and faithful Neighbourhood.

Article 2: That there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty, or Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, in what place, or what manner soever the Hostilitys have been practis’d, in such a manner, that no body, under any pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any Trouble to each other”

These were not pretty words on parchment applicable only to a “western European cultural matrix” as many believe, but foundational principles of natural law applicable to all civilizations and times. We need not look far to see their expression in the modern times not only in the UN Charter, but also the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in 1954 which has come alive with the Eurasian Grand Design of win-win cooperation underlying the Belt and Road Initiative today.

The Economic Developments that Gave Vitality to the Peace

In the same measure that the Westphalian principles outlined in Articles one and two of the UN Charter were contingent upon the successful implementation of the international New Deal economic programs showcased at Bretton Woods, so too was the success of the Westphalian Treaty contingent upon the implementation of great public works and economic reforms that were only partially realized across Europe in the decades following 1648.

Before his death in 1661, Cardinal Mazarin outlined major infrastructure projects for both Germany and France which were directed towards developing of the internal powers of labor of the nations of Europe through canals, manufacturing and roads, while liberating European states from reliance on the Maritime monopolies of the Venetians, Dutch, Spanish and Genoese.

As Beaudry outlines in his Peace of Westphalia and the Water Question, chief among those canal projects outlined by Mazarin included:

the Vistule River (through Silezia, Mazovia, and East Prussia discharging into the Black Sea),
the Oder River Projects (discharging into Baltic Sea),
the Elbe River development (Bohemia to North Sea via Dresden, Magdeburg and Leipzig),
the Weser River program through middle Germany and
the Rhine River (Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands).

Some of these projects like the Rhine-Maine-Danube Canal connecting the North and Black Sea were only accomplished 300 years after the Treaty of Westphalia, although Mazarin’s key German ally Friedrich William (The Great Elector of Brandenburg) who was chosen to lead the League of Rhine in 1759 spearheaded the growth of many of Mazarin’s canals and road designs along with his son Friedrich the Great.

One of the first preconditions Mazarin had at the start of the Westphalian treaty’s negotiation in 1642 was the ending of tolls on waterways imposed by narrow minded princes and dukes who held territorial controls over sections of river systems throughout Germany which made any economic development of the territory financially unviable. In an early agreement signed in 1642, Mazarin had dozens of princes agree that

“From this day forward, along the two banks of the Rhine River and from the adjacent provinces, commerce and transport of goods shall be free of transit for all of the inhabitants, and it will no longer be permitted to impose on the Rhine any new toll, open berth right, customs, or taxation of any denomination and of any sort, whatsoever.”

In France, one of the greatest infrastructure projects in history was begun under Mazarin and continued by his close collaborator Jean-Baptiste Colbert called La Canal Du Midi (aka: Languedoc Canal). This was a 240 km canal creating a direct passage between the Atlantic with the Mediterranean eliminating a 3000 km detour around the Spanish Habsburg-controlled Strait of Gibraltar [see map].

This program took 15 years to complete and involved the construction of 130 arched bridges, 75 locks, and the largest man-made reservoir in human history at the base of the Montagne Noire. This reservoir required new discoveries in engineering and science lifting six million cubic meters of water to an elevation of 190 meters above sea and accumulated water from several sources including underground rivers in order to feed by gravitational flow into the Garonne and Aude rivers flowing in two opposing directions.

It was this last challenge that had caused centuries of engineers to give up on the viability of the project which had been a struggle since the days of Ancient Rome. The vast improvements of water systems around the Languedoc turned the region into a breadbasket with wheat production and wines skyrocketing.

Colbert Drains the Swamp

Finance Minister Colbert unleashed one of the greatest crackdowns on corruption by forcing public audits of the aristocracy and auditing all financial officers who were obliged to prove where all of their possessions and even titles came from. The buying of titles was also a common practice in France as source of state revenue, and this cancerous growth of corruption was also intervened upon by Colbert who demanded an investigation into the legitimacy of all titles. By the end of this inquiry over 2000 claimed titles of nobility were deemed fraudulent whereby former nobles had to get real jobs and pay taxes.

One of the most important figures in France who faced justice under Colbert’s crackdown was the corrupt Superintendent of Finance Nicholas Fouquet who had looted France for millions over decades, even repaying himself for over six million pounds from state treasuries for loans that he had never made to the nation. Over the course of these 1661 trials, all of Fouquet’s skeletons were brought to light and he was imprisoned for life along with many leading collaborators of France’s deep state (resulting in Colbert’s receiving Fouquet’s position).

Colbert’s New Deal

With the swamp sufficiently flushed and France’s deep state reined in, Colbert launched a series of additional reforms which included the imposition of protective tariffs against British, Dutch and Belgian dumping of cheap goods, the directing of 5 million pounds of state credit to develop textiles and manufacturing, the founding of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1666 inviting the greatest minds of Europe to France, the creation of the largest observatory in the world, the establishment of trade schools and masters programs, the boosting of national exports over imports, the extension of royal grants to private enterprises to build and manage internal improvements, and Colbert even established Europe’s first minimum hours of labor and health insurance for the 12,000 employees working on the Canal du Midi.

Colbert ended the purchasing of public offices (called “venal offices”), created a five year debt moratorium to re-organize the legitimate from usurious debt imposed upon France over the years by its local oligarchy, and passed laws that ensured that only the state could collect taxes and not private nobles.

Colbert lost no time in overhauling the over-bloated bureaucracy of France telling the young King Louis XIV:

It is necessary to reduce the professions of your subjects as much as possible to those which can be useful to these grand designs… these are agriculture, merchandise [production and distribution of goods], soldiers and sailors… Your majesty should be working at the same time to diminish, gradually and insensibly the number of monks and nuns… the two professions which consume a hundred thousand of your subjects uselessly are financiers and lawyers.

Colbert also drove ship building creating one of the world’s most advanced merchant fleets competing with the Dutch, Spanish and British, amplifying France’s defenses in border regions and increased war ships from 20 to 250 in twenty years.

The Westphalian Roots of the American Revolution

When formulating the principles upon which the new republic would be founded in 1781, Alexander Hamilton demonstrated his profound understanding of Colbertism as the key to the salvation of the new republic. When faced with the world’s largest empire which enjoyed near monopolies on manufacturing, banking, bullion and maritime trade, how would this young nation, having just emerged from the revolutionary war with no manufacturing, underdeveloped territory, unpayable debts be capable of standing on its own feet?

Writing in “The Continentalist” in 1782, Hamilton said:

From a different spirit in the government, with superior advantages, France was much later in commercial improvements, nor would her trade have been at this time in so prosperous a condition had it not been for the abilities and indefatigable endeavors of the great Colbert. He laid the foundation of the French commerce, and taught the way to his successors to enlarge and improve it. The establishment of the woolen manufacture, in a kingdom, where nature seemed to have denied the means, is one among many proofs, how much may be effected in favor of commerce by the attention and patronage of a wise administration. The number of useful edicts passed by Louis XIV, and since his time, in spite of frequent interruptions from the jealous enmity of Great Britain, has advanced that of France to a degree which has excited the envy and astonishment of its neighbors.

The system that Hamilton devised through his studies of Colbert’s dirigisme was outlined in his famous four reports to Congress of 1791-92 (Report on a National Bank, Report on Public Credit, Report on Manufactures and Report on a Mint) and went on to shape the minds of the greatest statesmen of both the USA and internationally for the next 240 years. It was known more clearly generations past as “the American System of Political Economy”.

This was the system that John Quincy Adams extended a foreign policy doctrine of a Community of Common Principle. This is the conception which animated Adams’ crafting of the Monroe Doctrine that sought to promote sovereign economic development of all American nations and blocking European imperial intrigue from infusing into the western hemisphere. Despite the abuses conducted under its name by imperialist US presidents later on, this remains the truth of its birth whether haters of the USA like it or not.

This system continued to grow under the wise guidance of Lincoln’s economic advisor Henry C Carey, and President McKinley whose 1901 assassination ushered in three decades of crippling insanity and corruption in the USA.

FDR as the 20th Century Colbert

This was the system that again emerged onto the scene with Franklin Roosevelt’s rise to power in 1932. As I outlined in my recent paper ‘How to Crush a Banker’s Dictatorship’, FDR lost no time reviving the policies of Colbert on every level- from his draining of the swamp during the Pecora commission, the breaking up of the Too Big To Fails, destruction of the London Banker’s Dictatorship, sabotage of the unipolar League of Nations, and commitment to destroy both fascism during WW2 and more importantly British colonialism more broadly.

When one reads the Atlantic Charter, UN Charter, Four Freedoms or Good Neighbor Policy outlined by FDR between 1936-1945, it is clear that the spirit of Westphalia burned strong in Franklin Roosevelt’s grand design for a multipolar world that was sabotaged before it had a chance to breath.

Many are quick to mock the Treaty of Westphalia for not having brought everlasting peace to Europe since wars obviously continued beyond 1648. Many imperial geopoliticans like Henry Kissinger, Robert Gates, or Brent Scowcroft even praise the treaty, but only for the most narrow-minded reasons which actually serves to do much more damage to the cause of the nation state system than those liberal imperialists who attempt to openly attack it like Tony Blair, George Soros, Lord Malloch Brown, Susan Rice or Samantha Power.

The fact is that the Peace of Westphalia, just like the American Revolution that it inspired, and the UN Charter that served as a continuation of this march towards progress is like garlic to the Vampires of today’s Wall Street and City of London. For just as Colbert had the financier oligarchy of Europe’s black nobility to deal with, today’s sociopathic elite seek ends not divergent from their 17th century forebears who deny the inalienable rights of humankind from which the authority for law and national sovereignty is justly derived.

It is this oligarchical force now pushing an “international rules-based order” which has sought relentlessly to undo every great advance in the moral, intellectual and aesthetic progress of humankind since the Renaissance by returning society to a new feudal order with a technocratic spin which differs from the medieval dark age only by the vastly greater masses of people who will suffer and die in the 21st century.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Matthew J.L. Ehret.

Sámi youth enlist the King of Norway’s help to fight an illegal wind farm

Elisabeth Rasmussen — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 17:00:15 +0000

Outside of the royal palace, in Oslo, seven Sámi youths waited to speak with King Harald V of Norway. They wore gáktis, their traditional clothing, and on the lawn, near the neo-classical building, a lávvu stood – a temporary Sámi dwelling that resembles a teepee. Just after noon, the youths were granted an audience with the King.

The meeting was the culmination of several days of protests in Oslo that captured the boldness of young Sámi activists as well as the obstacle they face: challenging the government of Norway to respect its own laws and the rights of Indigenous Sámi people. To date, they have been unsuccessful.

The protests have been fueled by frustration and anger over the $1.3 billion Fosen wind farm, the largest wind project in Norway on the nation’s central-west coast. Exactly two years before protests began, Norway’s Supreme Court ruled that the wind park had been built illegally in Sápmi, the traditional territory of the Sámi, and violated the rights of Sámi reindeer herders as well as the cultural rights of the Sámi peoples. In the wake of the ruling, the Sámi parliament of Norway demanded the wind park be torn down and the land restored for reindeer herders, however, in the years since, Norwegian officials, including those at Statkraft, the state-owned power company responsible for the project, have refused to remove the turbines instead opting to negotiate with impacted communities in the hope that the park will continue to produce energy.

For the Sámi, that means the only authority left who may help them, is King Harald V.

According to Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, one of the seven youths to meet with the King and a Sámi youth organizer, there was no other option.

“We have set up lávvus on Oslo’s main street,” said Hætta Isaksen. “We have occupied the parliament for a whole day. We have blocked Statkraft and closed down 11 ministries. What more can we do?”

The act of meeting with the King is grounded in history. In 1997, King Harald issued an apology for Norway’s treatment of Sámi peoples. “We must regret the injustice the Norwegian state has previously inflicted on the Sami people,” said King Harald. “The Norwegian state therefore has a special responsibility to create the right conditions for the Sami people to be able to build a strong and viable society. This is a time-honored right based on the Sami’s presence in their areas going back a long way.”

Hætta Isaksen said that they had inherited the fight from their ancestors, and that while the King made no promises, and carried little power to influence state leaders, the meeting was important. “We have been met with arrogance all week,” she said. “But to meet Norway’s highest leader, who understands us, [it] gives us strength to continue.”

The latest demonstration began last week, on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling, when 14 Sámi activists, including Mihkkal Hætta who has been living in a lávvu outside parliament for a month, began a sit-in. By the end of the day, police carried activists out of the building but no arrests were made. By Friday, activists blocked the entrances to 11 government ministries and Statskraft until they were carried away by police, and through the weekend, campaigners continued to march through Oslo.

Over the course of the year, Sámi rights defenders and environmental activists peacefully shut down 10 ministries in Oslo to protest the wind park, blockaded the entrance to Fosen shutting the facility down for a week, and were joined by 2,000 activists outside the Royal Palace to bring attention to the problem.

However, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has refused to heed Sámi demands. Earlier this year, Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland officially apologized to reindeer herders in Fosen and acknowledged that the wind park constituted a human rights violation, but has maintained that “demolition of the wind farms in their entirety is not a likely outcome.” Statkraft has also committed itself to reaching an agreement with reindeer herders that doesn’t require the removal of the wind park, as has Norway’s Prime Minister.

“We are having conversations about mitigating and are trying to find a solution,” said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. “Those who run those negotiations, and the reindeer herders are present, and I hope it can lead to a solution.”

Sámi rights defenders say neither apologies nor negotiations matter.

“It is simply political reluctance that stops the wind turbines from being demolished,” said Petra Laiti with the Saami Council’s Human Rights Unit. “What Nordic infrastructure projects in Sápmi call ‘green energy,’ to the rest of the world looks exactly like traditional colonialism.”

Almost 98 percent of Norway’s electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and hydropower. With a population of roughly 5 million people, Norway produces around 154 terawatt-hours of electricity each year. According to Statskraft, that’s enough energy to power 15 million homes in the United States for a year. In 2021, almost 26 terawatts of electricity were exported from Norway, mostly to Denmark.

“It is important for international observers to note that the image of Norway as a fair country governed by the rule of law is shattered: the true image is what we see today,” said Elle Rávdná Näkkäläjärvi a member of the Norwegian Sámi Association’s Youth Committee. “With two years of ongoing human rights violations, we see that Norway, as a democratic state, is not functioning”.

For now, the Fosen Wind Park is still producing energy for the state, and Sámi organizers have vowed to continue fighting.

“It has been incredibly emotional to be here today and see all the youth fighting,” said 75-year-old Niillas Aslaksen Somby. “They are probably as optimistic as we were back then.”

In 1979, Aslaksen Somby was one of seven hunger strikers that fought to stop a hydroelectric dam being built in Sápmi. Known as the Alta Action, Sámi leaders and activists also occupied a government building while Aslaksen Somby lost an arm during a failed act of sabotage to destroy a bridge on a construction road to the dam’s proposed site.

“Almost everyone who did the hunger strike with me back then are now resting in their graves,” said Aslaksen Somby. “But the fight for Sámi rights lives on”.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Sámi youth enlist the King of Norway’s help to fight an illegal wind farm on Oct 18, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Elisabeth Rasmussen.

Fast-Food Graveyard: Sickened for Profit

Colin Todhunter — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 17:58:51 +0000

The modern food system is responsible for making swathes of humanity ill, causing unnecessary suffering and sending many people to an early grave. It is part of a grotesque food-pharma conveyor belt that results in massive profits for the dominant agrifood and pharmaceuticals corporations.

Much of the modern food system has been shaped by big agribusiness concerns like Monsanto (now Bayer) and Cargill, giant food companies like Nestle, Pepsico and Kellog’s and, more recently, institutional investors like BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street.

For the likes of BlackRock, which invests in both food and pharma, fuelling a system increasingly based on ultra processed food (UPF) with its cheap and unhealthy ingredients is a sure-fire money spinner.

Toxic junk

Consider that fast food is consumed by 85 million US citizens each day. Several chains are the primary suppliers of many school lunches. Some 30 million school meals are served to children each day. For millions of underprivileged children in the US, these meals are their only access to nutrition.

In 2022, Moms Across America (MAA) and Children’s Health Defense (CHD) commissioned the testing of school lunches and found that 5.3 per cent contained carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting and liver disease-causing glyphosate; 74 per cent contained at least one of 29 harmful pesticides; four veterinary drugs and hormones were found in nine of the 43 meals tested; and all of the lunches contained heavy metals at levels up to 6,293 times higher than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum levels allowed in drinking water. Moreover, the majority of the meals were abysmally low in nutrients.

As a follow up, MAA, a non-profit organisation, with support from CHD and the Centner Academy, recently decided to have the top ten most popular fast-food brand meals extensively tested for 104 of the most commonly used veterinary drugs and hormones.

The Health Research Institute tested 42 fast-food meals from 21 locations nationwide. The top ten brands tested were McDonald’s, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, TacoBell, Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, Subway, Domino’s and Chipotle.

Collectively, these companies’ annual gross sales are $134,308,000,000.

Three veterinary drugs and hormones were found in ten fast food samples tested. One sample from Chick-fil-A contained a contraceptive and antiparasitic called Nicarbazin, which has been prohibited.

Some 60 per cent of the samples contained the antibiotic Monesin, which is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for human use and has been shown to cause severe harm when consumed by humans.

40 per cent contained the antibiotic Narasin. MAA says that animal studies show this substance causes anorexia, diarrhoea, dyspnea, depression, ataxia, recumbency and death, among other things.

Monensin and Narasin are antibiotic ionophores, toxic to horses and dogs at extremely low levels, leaving their hind legs dysfunctional. Ionophores cause weight gain in beef and dairy cattle and are therefore widely used but also “cause acute cardiac rhabdomyocyte degeneration and necrosis”, according to a 2017 paper published in Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology (Second Edition).

For many years, ionophores have also been used to control coccidiosis in poultry. However, misuse of ionophores can cause toxicity with significant clinical symptoms. Studies show that ionophore toxicity mainly affects myocardial and skeletal muscle cells.

Only Chipotle and Subway had no detectable levels of veterinary drugs and hormones.

Following these findings, MAA has expressed grave concern about the dangers faced by people, especially children, who are unknowingly eating unprescribed antibiotic ionophores. The non-profit asks: are the side effects of these ionophores in dogs and horses, leaving their hind legs dysfunctional, related to millions of US citizens presenting with restless leg syndrome and neuropathy? These conditions were unknown in most humans just a generation or two ago.

A concerning contraceptive (for geese and pigeons), an antiparasitic called Nicarbazin, prohibited after many years of use, was found in Chick fil-A sandwich samples.

The executive director of MAA, Zen Honeycutt, concludes:

“The impact of millions of Americans, especially children and young adults, consuming a known animal contraceptive daily is concerning. With infertility problems on the rise, the reproductive health of this generation is front and center for us, in light of these results.”

MAA says that it is not uncommon for millions of US citizens to consume fast food for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or all three meals, every day. School lunches are often provided by fast-food suppliers and typically are the only meals underprivileged children receive and a major component of the food consumed by most children.

Exposure to hormones from consuming concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) livestock could be linked to the early onset of puberty, miscarriages, increasing incidence of twin births and reproductive problems. These hormones have been linked to cancers, such as breast and uterine, reproductive issues and developmental problems in children.

So, how can it be that food – something that is supposed to nourish and sustain life – has now become so toxic?

Corporate influence

One answer lies in the influence of a relative handful of food conglomerates, which shape food policy and dominate the market.

For instance, recent studies have linked UPFs such as ice-cream, fizzy drinks and ready meals to poor health, including an increased risk of cancer, weight gain and heart disease. Global consumption of the products is soaring and UPFs now make up more than half the average diet in the UK and US.

In late September, however, a media briefing in London suggested consumers should not be too concerned about UPFs. After the event, The Guardian newspaper reported that three out of five scientists on the expert panel for the briefing who suggested UPFs are being unfairly demonised had ties to the world’s largest manufacturers of the products.

The briefing generated various positive media headlines on UPFs, including “Ultra-processed foods as good as homemade fare, say experts” and “Ultra-processed foods can sometimes be better for you, experts claim”.

It was reported by the Guardian that three of the five scientific experts on the panel had either received financial support for research from UPF manufacturers or hold key positions with organisations that are funded by them. The manufacturers include Nestlé, Mondelēz, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever and General Mills.

Professor Janet Cade (University of Leeds) told the briefing that most research suggesting a link between UPFs and poor health cannot show cause and effect, adding that processing can help to preserve nutrients. Cade is the chair of the advisory committee of the British Nutrition Foundation, whose corporate members include McDonald’s, British Sugar and Mars. It is funded by companies including Nestlé, Mondelēz and Coca-Cola.

Professor Pete Wilde (Quadram Institute) also defended UPFs, comparing then favourably with homemade items. Wilde has received support for his research from Unilever, Mondelēz and Nestlé.

Professor Ciarán Forde (Wageningen University in the Netherlands) told the briefing that advice to avoid UPF “risks demonising foods that are nutritionally beneficial”. Forde was previously employed by Nestlé and has received financial support for research from companies including PepsiCo and General Mills.

Despite what industry-backed scientists may say, increased consumption of UPFs was associated with more than 10 per cent of all-cause premature, preventable deaths in Brazil in 2019, according to a 2022 published peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

In high-income countries, such as the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, UPFs account for more than half of total calorific intake. Brazilians consume far less of these products than countries with high incomes. This means the impact would be even higher in richer nations.

In a 2016 report by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), it was noted that obesity rates were rising fastest among lowest socio-economic groups. That is because energy-dense foods of poor nutritional value are cheaper than more nutritious foods.

At the time, key trade associations, companies and lobby groups related to sugary food and drinks were together spending an estimated €21.3 million annually to lobby the EU.

One of the best-known industry front groups with global influence is the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). In January 2019, two papers by Harvard Professor Susan Greenhalgh in the BMJ and in the Journal of Public Health Policy revealed ILSI’s influence on the Chinese government concerning issues related to obesity.

A 2017 media report noted that ILSI-India was being actively consulted by India’s apex policy-formulating body – Niti Aayog. ILSI-India’s board of trustees was dominated by food and beverage companies. ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with India’s mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In 2020, a study published in Public Health Nutrition revealed details about which companies fund the group. ILSI North America’s draft 2016 IRS form 990 shows a $317,827 contribution from PepsiCo, contributions greater than $200,000 from Mars, Coca-Cola and Mondelez and contributions greater than $100,000 from General Mills, Nestle, Kellogg, Hershey, Kraft, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Starbucks Coffee, Cargill, Unilever and Campbell Soup.

Professor Janet Cade told the recent media briefing in London that people rely on processed foods for a wide number of reasons; if they were removed, this would require a huge change in the food supply. She added that this would be unachievable for most people and potentially result in further stigmatisation and guilt for those who rely on processed foods, promoting further inequalities in disadvantaged groups.

While part of the solution lies in tackling poverty and reliance on junk food, the focus must be on challenging the power wielded by a small group of food corporations and redirecting the massive subsidies poured into the agrifood system that ensure massive corporate profit while fuelling bad food, poor health and food insecurity.

A healthier food regime centred on human need rather than corporate profit is required. This would entail strengthening local markets, prioritising short supply chains from farm to fork and supporting independent smallholder organic agriculturalists (incentivised to grow a more diverse range of nutrient-dense crops) and small-scale retailers.

Saying that eradicating UPFs would result in denying the poor access to cheap, affordable food is like saying let them eat poison.

Given the scale of the problem, change cannot be achieved overnight. However, a long food movement (leading up to 2045) could transform the food system, a strategy set out in a 2021 report by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and ETC Group.

More people should be getting on board with this and promoting it at media briefings. But that might result in biting the hand that feeds.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Colin Todhunter.

China’s ‘Lipstick King’ offers tearful apology

By Jing Wei for RFA Mandarin — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:47:27 +0000

Chinese beauty influencer Austin Li has gotten in hot water before. Last year, he was taken off the air for displaying an ice-cream cake in the shape of a tank of the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

This time, the man known as “Lipstick King" -- his Chinese name is Li Jiaqi -- is facing social media wrath over a disparaging remark to a viewer during a Sept. 10 livestream who said his Florasis brand eyebrow pencil, at 79 yuan ($10.80), was too expensive.

Li told the viewer she should ask herself if she was working hard enough, and when she last got a raise – sparking a deluge of angry reactions online, with viewers citing the wider economic situation as the reason for their lack of spending power.

In response, Li offered a tearful apology online, viewed millions of times.

The hashtag #Austin Li apologizes for his live streaming session remarks# attracted more than 1 billion views on Weibo, according to the Jing Daily news website.

"I said something inappropriate and made everyone uncomfortable. What I said failed to live up to your expectations, and I'm really sorry," he posted on his Weibo account earlier. "As an anchor, I should always bring positive energy to everyone and learn to control my emotions."

"Actually, most people are working hard," netizen @WatchTheRainShowOnASunnyDay commented under Li’s Weibo apology. "It’s not their fault that their wages are low. It’s the general environment."

@Marilyn_Monsa chimed in from Zhejiang province: "Water can carry a boat but it can also capsize it," in a metaphor used to refer to the relationship between ordinary people (the water) and those in power (the boat).

Rang hollow

But many commenters said his apologies rang hollow in today's economic climate, as they came ahead of the Nov. 11 Singles Day, a big shopping event.

"You are apologizing to money, not to us," wrote @IDon'tWantToPlantTrees from southwestern Sichuan province, while @Chirping said that Li had only apologized to keep his sales numbers high.

"The contract has been signed, so he had no choice but to cry and apologize immediately," the user wrote.

Chinese beauty influencer Austin Li, whose livestream was taken off the air after he displayed a tank-shaped cake on the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, is seen on his livestream, June 3, 2022. Credit: Screenshot of Austin Li's page

User @InvincibleSeaAndSky1994 agreed, adding: "The apology was only due to the pressure of public opinion or seeing that losing followers would affect his income. He looks down on ordinary people – what he let slip during the livestream were his true thoughts."

"Get lost," wrote @WhatBetterNameShouldIChangeItTo?

The comments and controversy appeared to be untouched by China's army of internet censors, whose job it is to steer online discussions in a direction preferred by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

After Li’s tank cake stunt in June 2022, Chinese censors shut down his livestream, and it wasn’t clear if he was further punished. He has gotten back on social media, and has quite a following.

Prominent pro-government media commentator Hu Xijin commented that successful individuals should "respect workers on low incomes and truly empathize with them," according to comments published by Jing News.

Blue mood

YouTuber and current affairs commentator Wong Kim said the outcry against Li showed that the public mood in China is "not great right now."

"Everyone knows that things are tough right now," Wong said. "This is about a livestream anchor who is somewhat removed from the lives of ordinary people."

Netherlands-based dissident Lin Shengliang said the controversy was also linked to the government's orchestration of online patriotic fervor to achieve its political and economic goals.

"There is a broader [political] background behind comments like this from internet celebrities," Lin said.

"These celebrities cash in on patriotic feeling among consumers [who choose to buy Chinese rather than imported goods], and this ties in with the government's promotion of a closed-loop economy, and self-sufficiency," he said.

Beauty blogger Austin Li Jiaqi introduces his livestreaming studio on Oct. 18, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Credit: Yin Liqin/China News Service via Getty Images

"There is a lot of patriotic and nationalistic consumption happening – particularly in the current environment," Lin said. "It's linked to patriotic brainwashing."

But he said the political and financial elite have scant concern for the hardships suffered by ordinary consumers.

"They don't care what people on the lower echelons think – they harvest them like leeks," he said.

Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country's economy is "resilient, and hasn't collapsed," after U.S. President Joe Biden called China's economic situation a "crisis" and Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said a slowing Chinese economy could affect economic growth in Australia.

"It seems that there will be various theories of China's collapse every once in a while," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular news briefing in Beijing. "The fact is that China's economy has not collapsed."

China's economic recovery following three years' harsh COVID-19 restrictions has lost momentum after a brisk start in the first quarter, gripped by weak consumer spending and a deepening property downturn, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jing Wei for RFA Mandarin.

We’re All Suspects in a DNA Lineup, Waiting to be Matched with a Crime

John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 07:43:18 +0000

Make no mistake about it…your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia dissenting in Maryland v. King

Be warned: the DNA detectives are on the prowl.

Whatever skeletons may be lurking on your family tree or in your closet, whatever crimes you may have committed, whatever associations you may have with those on the government’s most wanted lists: the police state is determined to ferret them out.

In an age of overcriminalization, round-the-clock surveillance, and a police state eager to flex its muscles in a show of power, we are all guilty of some transgression or other.

No longer can we consider ourselves innocent until proven guilty.

Now we are all suspects in a DNA lineup waiting to be matched up with a crime.

Suspect State, meet the Genetic Panopticon.

DNA technology in the hands of government officials will complete our transition to a Surveillance State in which prison walls are disguised within the seemingly benevolent trappings of technological and scientific progress, national security and the need to guard against terrorists, pandemics, civil unrest, etc.

By accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc.

It’s getting harder to hide, even if you think you’ve got nothing to hide.

Armed with unprecedented access to DNA databases amassed by the FBI and ancestry websites, as well as hospital newborn screening programs, police are using forensic genealogy, which allows police to match up an unknown suspect’s crime scene DNA with that of any family members in a genealogy database, to solve cold cases that have remained unsolved for decades.

As reported by The Intercept, forensic genetic genealogists are “combing through the genetic information of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in search of a perpetrator.”

By submitting your DNA to a genealogical database such as Ancestry and 23andMe, you’re giving the police access to the genetic makeup, relationships and health profiles of every relative—past, present and future—in your family, whether or not you or they ever agreed to be part of such a database.

Indeed, relying on a loophole in a commercial database called GEDmatch, genetic genealogists are able to sidestep privacy rules that allow people to opt out of sharing their genetic information with police. The end result? Police are now able to identify and target those very individuals who explicitly asked to keep their DNA results private.

In this way, merely choosing to exercise your right to privacy makes you a suspect and puts you in the police state’s crosshairs.

It no longer even matters if you’re among the tens of millions of people who have added their DNA to ancestry databases. As Brian Resnick reports, public DNA databases have grown so massive that they can be used to find you even if you’ve never shared your own DNA.

That simple transaction—a spit sample or a cheek swab in exchange for getting to learn everything about one’s ancestral makeup, where one came from, and who is part of one’s extended family—is the price of entry into the Suspect State for all of us.

After all, a DNA print reveals everything about “who we are, where we come from, and who we will be.” It can also be used to predict the physical appearance of potential suspects.

It’s what police like to refer to a “modern fingerprint.”

Yet in the police state’s pursuit of criminals, anyone who comes up as a possible DNA match—including distant family members—suddenly becomes part of a circle of suspects that must be tracked, investigated and ruled out.

In this way, “guilt by association” has taken on new connotations in a technological age in which one is just a DNA sample away from being considered a person of interest in a police investigation.

Indeed, the government has been relentless in its efforts to get hold of our DNA, either through mandatory programs carried out in connection with law enforcement and corporate America, by warrantlessly accessing our familial DNA shared with genealogical services such as Ancestry and 23andMe, or through the collection of our “shed” or “touch” DNA.

Get ready, folks, because the government has embarked on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database.

All 50 states now maintain their own DNA government databases, although the protocols for collection differ from state to state. Increasingly, many of the data from local databanks are being uploaded to CODIS, the FBI’s massive DNA database, which has become a de facto way to identify and track the American people from birth to death.

Even hospitals have gotten in on the game by taking and storing newborn babies’ DNA, often without their parents’ knowledge or consent. It’s part of the government’s mandatory genetic screening of newborns. In many states, the DNA is stored indefinitely.

What this means for those being born today is inclusion in a government database that contains intimate information about who they are, their ancestry, and what awaits them in the future, including their inclinations to be followers, leaders or troublemakers.

The ramifications of this kind of DNA profiling are far-reaching.

At a minimum, these DNA databases do away with any semblance of privacy or anonymity.

These genetic databases and genomic technology also make us that much more vulnerable to creeps and cyberstalkers, genetic profiling, and those who would weaponize the technology against us.

Unfortunately, the debate over genetic privacy—and when one’s DNA becomes a public commodity outside the protection of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on warrantless searches and seizures—continues to lag far behind the government and Corporate America’s encroachments on our rights.

What this amounts to is a scenario in which we have little to no defense against charges of wrongdoing, especially when “convicted” by technology, and even less protection against the government sweeping up our DNA in much the same way it sweeps up our phone calls, emails and text messages.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it’s only a matter of time before the police state’s pursuit of criminals from the past expands into genetic profiling and a preemptive hunt for criminals of the future.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead.

We’re All Suspects in a DNA Lineup, Waiting to be Matched with a Crime

John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 07:43:18 +0000

Make no mistake about it…your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia dissenting in Maryland v. King

Be warned: the DNA detectives are on the prowl.

In an age of overcriminalization, round-the-clock surveillance, and a police state eager to flex its muscles in a show of power, we are all guilty of some transgression or other.

No longer can we consider ourselves innocent until proven guilty.

Now we are all suspects in a DNA lineup waiting to be matched up with a crime.

Suspect State, meet the Genetic Panopticon.

It’s getting harder to hide, even if you think you’ve got nothing to hide.

As reported by The Intercept, forensic genetic genealogists are “combing through the genetic information of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in search of a perpetrator.”

In this way, merely choosing to exercise your right to privacy makes you a suspect and puts you in the police state’s crosshairs.

After all, a DNA print reveals everything about “who we are, where we come from, and who we will be.” It can also be used to predict the physical appearance of potential suspects.

It’s what police like to refer to a “modern fingerprint.”

Get ready, folks, because the government has embarked on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database.

The ramifications of this kind of DNA profiling are far-reaching.

At a minimum, these DNA databases do away with any semblance of privacy or anonymity.

These genetic databases and genomic technology also make us that much more vulnerable to creeps and cyberstalkers, genetic profiling, and those who would weaponize the technology against us.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead.

Cambodia’s king calls on lawmakers, government to resolve their differences

By RFA Khmer — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 21:42:01 +0000

In an opening speech to Cambodia’s newly elected parliament on Monday, King Norodom Sihamoni called on lawmakers and the government to reconcile their deep divisions, though political commentators and opposition officials say the effort will amount to naught.

The July 23 elections, won by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in a landslide, have been widely criticized by Western governments and opposition activists within the country because authorities kept the main opposition Candlelight Party from participating on a technicality.

Three days after the election, Prime Minister Hun Sen – who has ruled the country since 1985 – announced he would step down and hand power to his eldest son, army chief Hun Manet.

The king, who has served as the head of the country’s constitutional monarchy since October 2004, issued a royal message calling on members of the National Assembly and the government to forge national reconciliation and adhere to the four Brahmanical principles of Buddhism.

Norodom Sihamoni said he expected the new government to win the trust of the National Assembly to develop and strengthen the comprehensive social protection system for Cambodian citizens.

A high degree of unity and solidarity would ensure the strong existence of national identity, promote socioeconomic development and boost morality for the harmony of society, the king said.

“On this great occasion, I wish the 7th National Assembly to run smoothly and carry out its role with a responsible conscience in order to achieve new successes for the common good of the motherland,” the king told the 125 lawmakers, all of whom except five were from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CCP. The others were from Funcinpec led by Prince Norodom Chakravuth, the king’s nephew.

Hun Sen, former National Assembly President Heng Samrin, and Interior Minister Sar Kheng also were in attendance.

‘Fake’ election

Political analysts and opposition officials said the king’s speech reflected his view that the country’s political divisions would harm the nation, though the situation would not likely change.

Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, said the king’s remarks were intended to guide the new government and lawmakers back onto a democratic path for the benefit of society following what he called “fake” elections.

The CNRP official also said that the king was likely dissatisfied with the leadership of the previous one-party government, which often persecuted dissidents and opposition groups.

“He warned the deputies to be kind and treat the people well,” Um Sam An said, adding that the political crisis in Cambodia has gotten worse with the holding of “fake” elections this year and in 2018.

“So, he understands that democracy and respect for human rights will only get worse in Cambodia,” said Um Sam An.

Hun Sen dissolved the opposition CNRP in 2017 and later prevented the party’s leader, Sam Rainsy, from returning to Cambodia to stand trial on charges that rights groups said were politically motivated.

Political commentator Kim Sok condemned the new government, saying it was born of the fraudulent elections.

“This illegitimate government and parliament face a huge reaction from the international community, the reaction of the people who will protest around the world,” he said. “And in the face of both economic and social crises, poverty and unemployment will occur. All these crises weaken our country.”

Knowing these prospects, the king has called for national unity, and that is all his authority allows him to do, Kim Sok added.

CCP spokesman Sok Eysan told Radio Free Asia that the king's statement was a general message to people from all walks of life, and not a reference to the new government or the National Assembly. He also said that national unity depended on the attitude of the opposition.

Patrick Murphy, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, who attended the opening of the National Assembly, sent a positive message to the newly elected lawmakers.

“As the new gov’t. begins its tenure, it can restore multi-party democracy, end political convictions, and allow independent media to reopen & function without interference, he tweeted.

Translated by Sokry Sum for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Cambodia’s king signs royal decree to nominate Hun Manet as PM

By RFA Khmer — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 20:14:49 +0000

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday issued a royal decree to appoint Hun Sen’s eldest son Hun Manet as the country’s prime minister, ensuring that the transfer of power from father to son will occur later this month.

According to the decree, Hun Manet will assume the office on Aug. 22, when the newly elected National Assembly adopts the new cabinet. It will be the completion of years of preparation for a transfer of power from father to son, as the 71-year-old Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, prepares to step aside.

Hun Sen did however say that he would continue to have a role in government for the next 10 years.

Hun Manet’s royal appointment comes after the country’s electoral body on Saturday announced last month’s election results, which gave Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, 120 of the assembly’s 125 seats.

The election has been criticized by the international community for being neither free nor fair, as the main opposition party was disqualified from participating.

Analysts and opposition party officials have criticized Hun Manet’s appointment as prime minister, saying that dynastic rule has no place in a democracy.

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told RFA’s Khmer Service that Hun Manet lacks the acumen to solve Cambodia's national problems.

“Hun Manet has only one policy: to follow his father. And his father, although the CPP has written hundreds of good policies, has implemented only one point: to persecute the people,” said Kim Sok.

“[Hun Sen] has destroyed the nation, selling the nation to maintain power. Therefore the chaos that is the burden of the social crisis left by Hun Sen as a father will continue under Hun Manet and will be even more serious.”

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet attend election campaign rallies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 1, 2023 and July 21, 2023 respectively. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters

Cambodian legal scholar Vorn Chanlouth told RFA that under the current legal process, there are no obstacles standing in Hun Manet’s way because the CPP has effectively prepared for the transfer of power. But there is still reason to doubt the legitimacy of it.

“The problem we have here is the transparency of PM candidate,” he said. “In this 7th legislative mandate election process, many political parties lack transparency, as they did not present their prime ministerial candidates to the public. For example, in the CPP, Hun Sen said he was the candidate, but when his party won, he passed the post to his son. This is not transparent.”

Chanlouth said that prime ministerial candidate should have come forward to explain to the public his party’s policies, but Hun Manet said nothing other than that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

“We don’t know specifically or exactly what they are going to do to solve the national problems we face today,” he said.

‘Not over yet’

Hun Sen, meanwhile, has assured the public that “It is not over yet” in an announcement on his Telegram social media channel.

He said that in addition to being the father of the prime minister, he will continue in other positions until 2033.

Hun Sen is currently the president of the CPP, and he repeated his intention to become the president of the senate, a position currently held by CPP vice president Say Chhum.

Oum Sam An, a former lawmaker for the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said that Hun Sen’s intention to assume future positions in government shows that he is “afraid of his own shadow,” meaning that he is afraid to face the law after he resigns as the leader of the country.

“The leadership has not changed,” he said. “Most of them are the children of members of the senior government, so the new bloods are the old blood taking on the jobs [of their parents].”

Kim Sok said that Hun Sen’s rule would be remembered for its destruction of natural resources, arrest of dissenting citizens, and other rights violations.

"Because the Cambodian people, the international community, and the International Court of Justice, cannot forget the story that the general public cannot forget about Mr. Hun Sen as the leader of a coup that robbed power and led a society through state terrorism,” said Kim Sok. “He used the name of the state to abuse the people and destroy them."

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San, however, denied that Hun Sen was responsible for killings or injustices on the Cambodian people in the past. He said those who dare to criticize without evidence will be held accountable before the law.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

In Russia, has the fairytale author-turned-warlord just saved the king?

Alexander Bikbov — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 10:35:08 +0000

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner army, once wrote kids' stories. What can they tell us about his 'March on Moscow'?

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Alexander Bikbov.

20 MPs walk out as PNG’s Tkatchenko apologises for ‘media trolls’ comment

APR editor — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 06:13:29 +0000

By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby

The last time Papua New Guinea heard “there is a stranger in the house” was when two men walked into Parliament saying they were members of a district after the 2017 national general election.

After six years the word “stranger” has again been mentioned, this time by a fiery Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah, who voiced his displeasure when Member for Moresby South Justin Tkatchenko — the stood down Foreign Minister — stood to make his apology in Parliament yesterday.

As Tkatchenko spoke, 20 MPs walked out of the chamber in protest.

Namah, who is known to not mince his words, stood saying, “This House is the House of useless people and primitive animals. Why is this stranger allowed parliamentary privileges to make a statement?”

“He made a statement to international media. He should not be allowed to make a statement today, he should resign in disgrace and get out of this Parliament,” Namah yelled on the floor of Parliament.

As the acting Speaker Koni Iguan called for Namah to allow Tkatchenko to speak, Namah said: “ Mr Acting Speaker, he should not be allowed to speak in this Parliament.”

The public gallery was on the edge as people watched the fiery interaction between Namah, Tkatchenko and Iguan.

Ministers interjected
Several ministers interjected when Namah called Tkatchenko a “stranger”, saying that “he is a member of Parliament, he had been elected by the people of Moresby South”.

Finally Iguan reminded Namah that Tkatchenko was not a “stranger” but the MP of Moresby South.

With that final response and as Tkatchenko stood to apologise, Namah walked out followed by several governors and members of Parliament.

Tkatchenko reiterated that his comments had not been made towards the country and its people, but to individuals who are better known as “social media trolls”.

“The people of our nation want to know the truth of what was said, how this was intended, how this was manipulated and what was actually meant by my words. I made comments in a media interview that were targeted at what are better known as social media trolls,” he said.

These were “faceless people” who spent their days on social media hidden behind false names.

“They say the most disgusting things and make the most vile threats on social media,” he said.

“Regardless of any office that I represent or position that I might hold, above all else in life, first and foremost, I am the father of my children. And when I saw the vile and disgusting things that were being said about my daughter, I did have a burst of blind fury at these horrible individuals,” he added.

These disgusting individuals, some in Papua New Guinea, as well as in Australia, the UK and other places, were making sexual threats against my daughter, threatening her with “all manner of disgusting remarks”, Tkatchenko said.

“I speak with every parent in this House, and every parent in our Nation today – and seek your understanding of how angry and frustrated I was, — and still am — at these trolls.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

"King: A Life": New Bio Details FBI Spying & How MLK’s Criticism of Malcom X Was Fabricated

Democracy Now! — Tue, 30 May 2023 14:53:27 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“King: A Life”: New Bio Details Extensive FBI Spying & How MLK’s Criticism of Malcolm X Was Fabricated

Democracy Now! — Tue, 30 May 2023 12:30:55 +0000

We speak in depth with journalist Jonathan Eig about his new book, King: A Life, the first major biography of the civil rights leader in more than 35 years, which draws on unredacted FBI files, as well as the files of the personal aide to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to show how Johnson and others partnered in the FBI’s surveillance of King and efforts to destroy him, led by director J. Edgar Hoover. Eig also interviewed more than 200 people, including many who knew King closely, like the singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. The book has also drawn attention for its revelation that King was less critical of Malcolm X than previously thought.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too

APR editor — Mon, 22 May 2023 01:40:27 +0000

ANALYSIS: By Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University; Faith Valencia-Forrester, Griffith University; Madi Day, Macquarie University, and Susan Forde, Griffith University

Stan Grant, a well-known Aboriginal journalist and soon-to-be former host of Q+A, has made a stand against racist abuse, saying he is “stepping away” from the media industry. Grant said he has paid a heavy price for being a journalist and has been a media target for racism.

As authors of a recent Media Diversity Australia report investigating online abuse and safety of diverse journalists, we’re not surprised.

Grant was one the few diverse journalists employed in the Australian media industry. Yet his story of relentless racial abuse is one shared by other journalists who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and racially marginalised, LGBTQIA+ and/or living with disability.

Grant said:

I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media. I want to go where I am not reminded of the social media sewer.

ABC management has finally condemned the racist abuse directed at Stan Grant and apologised to him, but it has come far too late.

ABC staff have taken matters into their own hands, walking out in support of Grant.

“Leadership is coming from the bottom.”https://t.co/9hJuZc3ikT

— The Conversation (@ConversationEDU) May 22, 2023

Racism across the media
The latest round of racially motivated abuse came after Grant hosted the ABC’s coverage of the coronation of King Charles.

Grant said:

Since the King’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia.

When Elizabeth II died, many Indigenous journalists and newsreaders were targeted for not sharing the same grief many non-Indigenous people expressed. Narelda Jacobs was one of many Aboriginal journalists who received abuse across social media and was also targeted by mainstream media.

Grant called the ABC’s lack of support an “institutional failure”, saying:

I am writing this because no-one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support.

In response to Grant’s column, a statement was issued from the ABC’s Director News, Justin Stevens, conceding Grant has, over many months, been subject to grotesque racist abuse, including threats to his safety.

The ABC’s Bonner Committee has recommended a full review into the ABC’s responses to racism affecting staff and how they can better support their staff.

pic.twitter.com/1nEj9ugH2B

— NITV (@NITV) May 21, 2023

What our research found
Our report, Online Safety of Diverse Journalists, commissioned by Media Diversity Australia and released this month, focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and racially marginalised, LGBTQIA+ and/or people living with disability.

This new research followed a 2022 Media Diversity Australia report, Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories 2.0, which detailed significant under-representation of diverse journalists in the industry, particularly Indigenous people and those from culturally and racially marginalised groups.

Our new report focused more on online safety and the high cost for diverse journalists who are often not supported or protected in the workplace. It found 85 percent of participants had experienced either personal or professional abuse online.

As one participant said:

It’s so ingrained within all parts of society, all the pillars within society, all professions, which includes the media, and I think women, particularly women of colour and from Indigenous backgrounds, they receive the most horrific and vile abuse.

The report has not yet gained interest from the Australian media other than Fourth Estate which expressed alarm at the findings.

This week an important and timely discussion of the abuse diverse journalists are experiencing for just doing their job. @BronwynCarlson @faithvalencia takes us through the latest report from @MediaDiverseAU https://t.co/uSCX8D1khO

— Fourth Estate (@fourthestateau) May 19, 2023

One of the key findings from this research was that diverse journalists often accepted that online harassment and abuse from the public was “just part of the job”. Many reported they were working in what they considered “hostile work environments”.

One participant expressed:

As soon as you say you are a journalist, the response is: you are asking for it.

It was concerning to find the normalisation of online harassment and abuse, and many diverse journalists were reluctant to report their experiences for fear of being considered a problem. Many felt if they raised the issue it would impact any chance of career progression.

A participant commented:

I am cautious revealing my struggles because I don’t want people to think I can’t handle my job.

In his recent experience, Grant said:

Aboriginal people learn to tough it out. That’s the price of survival.

Organisations have a duty of care to their employees. Online harassment and abuse of diverse journalists is a work health and safety issue and needs to be urgently treated as such.

The impact and cost to diverse journalists is high, and many make the same choice as Grant — to leave the industry to protect themselves and their health. Many spoke about how harassment and abuse was not only online; 39 percent reported the abuse moved offline.

The racist attacks on Stan Grant are sickening and sad. All of us in the media must play our part in helping quell the stench of the sewer. I am so sorry Stan. @walkleys https://t.co/TfUANxk3Ny

— Shona Martyn (@ShonaMartyn) May 19, 2023

When it comes to thinking about who gets to tell Australian stories or who gets to have a career as a journalist free of harassment and abuse, the Media Diversity Australia report evidences the hostility of the media industry for those who are not white, able bodied, and/or cis-gender and/or heterosexual.

The report also shows, as Grant points out, that online harassment and abuse actively and incessantly targets Indigenous journalists. Although many of the participants stated they were unofficially warned by their workplace to expect online violence, they said they received little support to protect and defend them from racial harassment and abuse.

I started to see exactly what I’d been warned about (…) But there was no mechanism to flag that to say that you had received a racist email to send it somewhere where that person could be put on a watch list or whatever it is, you know, where they’re going to become a serial offender.

Grant echoes the experiences of many participants when he says:

Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted.

The research report also reveals that workplace and online harassment in media industry involves fairly predictable culprits. As one participant highlighted, they come from a similar demographic — white men.

Grant’s resignation is a huge loss to Australian journalism. He and other diverse journalists nationally are crying out for action on the part of media bodies and organisations.

There are many other diverse journalists who have left the profession prior to Grant’s departure. One of our interviewees contacted us to say:

If a serious and well respected journalist feels the best thing to do is leave and has had no support from work — what does that mean for the rest of us?

Let’s hope the media industry is finally paying attention.

Bronwyn Carlson, professor, Indigenous Studies and director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University; Faith Valencia-Forrester, lecturer and lawyer, Griffith University; Madi Day, lecturer, Department of Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University, and Susan Forde, director, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Ten invited from PNG to witness coronation in delegation saga

APR editor — Wed, 17 May 2023 22:15:56 +0000

PNG Post-Courier

Papua New Guinea was allowed 10 people to be invited to witness the Coronation of King Charles III on in London on May 6 as the government released the names of the of 27 delegates as the controversy over the largest Pacific contingent continued.

According to the list confirmed by the Post-Courier, the 10 included:

Governor General Sir Bob Dadae,
Lady Emeline Dadae,
Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko,
Savannah Tkatchenko,
Speaker of National Parliament – who was represented by Deputy Speaker Koni Iguan as the speaker was acting Governor-General,
Deputy Clerk of Parliament Basil Kambuliagen — representing Parliamentary Services,
Renbo Paita — Representing the Government as senior state minister,
Taies Sansan — Representing the his Majesty’s loyal public servants,
Official Secretary to Government House Bill Toraso, and
Junelyn Veratau, Executive Officer to Secretary Personnel Management.

However, due to protocol to be observed, PNG had to have a flag bearer and
Noel Leana, the acting Chief Protocol Officer, carried the flag.

Due to the strict protocols in place, Minister Paita was not able to be seated inside Westminster Abbey because only 10 were allowed to observe the proceedings of the Coronation.

Only six returned invitations
Information received by the Post-Courier shows that of the 10, only six sent through their official invites to be seated inside the Westminster Abbey.

The six included Tkatchenko and his daughter Savannah, Iguan, Sansan, Ms Veratau and Minister Paita.

As is protocol, those invited to walk into the Abbey included Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae, Lady Emeline and Mr Leana.

According to Government House, all the 10 invited guests that went attended the Coronation at Westminster Abbey .

Government House has confirmed that the former Member for Nawaeb, Gisuat Siniwin, was selected to go with the delegation as a senior citizen and in recognition for his service to Morobe and the Highlands as a secondary school head teacher for 40 years and five years as Member of Parliament.

As part of the official delegation, there was supposed to be a platoon of PNG Defence Force members but it was represented by only five soldiers who took part in the procession in PNG royal colours.

The invitation from Buckingham Palace was sent earlier this year in January and all arrangements were made in advance.

Traditional GG’s team
According to Government House Official Secretary Bill Toraso, who provided the list before departure for the coronation, the traditional 12-member team from Government House that accompanied the Governor-General were:

Madeline Dusse — Press Secretary to GG,
Bill Toraso — Official Secretary to Government House,
Basil Andon — Private Secretary,
Inspector Arau Mairi — Police ADC,
Sergeant Christopher Patgawi — PNGDF CPO /GG’s Driver,
Mathew Ding — GG protocol Officer,
Telita Uware — Official Secretary’s Personal Assistant,
Winnie Ben — Finance Director,
Keswol Joseph =– GG’s Valet, and
Marlia Kukuone- Lady in waiting.

The other members of the delegation whose names were sent to London and were approved to accompany the invited guests as protocol officers and personal assistants were:

Daniel Karara — Prime Minister’s Protocol Officer,
Josie Pits — Prime Minister’s Personal Assistant, and
Morea Baru — Flag Bearer. (However, Baru did not attend.)

The list of officers from the Foreign Affairs Ministry that accompanied Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko were:

Barbara Mimino — Consultant/Protocol Officer,
Ronnie Kwari — Bodyguard,
Derick Michael, National Parliament Protocol Officer

Pacific Media Watch reports that it is estimated that PNG taxpayers paid out more than NZ$1 million for the London trip and a similar amount for an “unnecessary” public event in Port Moresby around the live telecast of the coronation.

Republished with permission.

King invited 10

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Musician King Tuff on making things you like at your own pace

nMatt Mitchell — Wed, 17 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Before we get into the music, one thing that’s been on my mind is the hand gesture that you make in almost all of your Instagram posts. I’m really curious about the origin of that, what it’s begun to symbolize in the court of King Tuff.

A few years back, I think I just started doing it. It just started doing it in photos and it was a natural thing that came to do when you take a photo. But, I feel like it’s come to symbolize the majesty of life and nature. Usually the photos are in a majestic place and it’s like a chef’s kiss, almost

It’s more personal than a peace sign.

Yeah, it’s just like, “Oh, life is good and big and you have to embrace it.” I mean, I just ended up having all of these photos of myself doing it, so it’s like, “You have to use these somehow.” Consistency is key!

Yes it is. You’re 100% right. So, it’s been about five years since The Other came out. You’ve always taken your time in-between releases. Do you buy into the notion that successful productivity is measured by constant output?

I think having a constant output is certainly helpful to your career. I’m not trying to take so long in-between albums. It just, for whatever reason, kind of happened that way. I do wish I was a little more consistent, just because, in this world, people have such a short attention span. If you’re not up in their faces all the time, they forget about you. Every time I put out an album, there’s this feeling that I’m starting over, which is cool, in a way, because every album feels like a new chapter. I think there’s just different kinds of bands, and I’m the kind of band that changes a lot and takes my time. I’m just getting in my own world.

You’ve got thousands of artists fighting for such little opportunity in people’s listening habits.

Yeah. But, you can’t think about that when you’re making stuff. You just gotta make stuff you like at your pace.

I was reading an interview you did back in 2018. You said that the time between Black Moon Spell and The Other was a “psychic reset.” In the time since The Other, a lot of people have had to undergo their own kinds of resets, reevaluations, and reconfigurations. How have the last three years affected the way Smalltown Stardust came to be?

I think I certainly would have made a very different album if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. I think everyone has changed in many ways and we don’t really realize it yet. I feel like now I’m just waking up from the past three years. I’m like, “Oh, what was I doing before? Oh, yeah, I do this stuff.” And I go out there and get back to what I was doing. In regards to the sound of the album, the subject matter of it, I think being at home in LA, without, really, anywhere to go or anything to do, there were no life experiences happening. So I had to go into my own memories and live there. I just, naturally, started thinking about Vermont a lot, because I was missing the nature and I was stuck in hot LA. It was on fire. I was thinking of greener places and having a community and I was trying to conjure those feelings in the songs and also conjure some kind of joy from the music, because we didn’t have much joy coming in other ways.

I’ve often thought about your music in a similar way, how it is a bit wayfaring, a little bicoastal, much like your own identity as a person. Before this record, how did different points of geography impact the way your creativity bled into the songs?

I think I’ve always written really different types of songs, depending on the place I’m in. I really do feel different feelings in different places. When I go back to Vermont, I get into different emotional states that just don’t happen in LA. Some are connected to weather and smells. And then, vice-versa, I have different feelings here. I just write different kinds of songs, depending on what my surroundings are. I also do think span class=”highlight”>there’s different ideas floating around in different places. I do think the location has a lot to do with what comes out.

I think that [Smalltown Stardust] sounds much more like a record that is very much indebted to, not necessarily rural, but the prettier, hidden away parts of the world, but with some sounds that have this Laurel Canyon gloss to them.

I live in Mount Washington, which I call the poor man’s Laurel Canyon. I think I was doing a lot of “remote viewing,” as I say, to try and get [to Vermont], even though I wasn’t there.

Going off what you were talking about, about nature in regards to the songwriting, everybody kind of found themselves yearning or longing for someplace, a nearby, bygone era almost, during the pandemic. I like how you said that, when you were stuck at home in LA, you were missing Vermont. Was there a certain point where you came to the conclusion that you’d lost a certain kind of touch with the marvels of everyday life?

Certainly. The weird thing is, the first few years were great. Obviously, there was all this fucked up shit happening. But, actually being off the road, I think, for a lot of musicians, being off the road was really healing in a lot of ways. To just be able to actually be at home and just chill out and take a breath. Before, I was already very exhausted from touring for so many years, so I certainly needed that break. But then, after two years of it or so, it was kind of like, “Oh, now I’m depressed, because I haven’t been having any experiences. There’s been nothing coming in to fill the well of inspiration.”

A few months back, I was talking to a different musician who I really admire, and he was telling me about his new album and how he had to basically write it with only the inspiration in a close proximity to him, the one-block radius of his neighborhood. And I think about the line in “Portrait of God,” where you talk about oil painting in the garage. Did you ever get to that point where you had to tap into the very immediate things that were around you, rather than some of the more speculative stuff that you’ve meandered about in past lyrics?

Definitely. I set up my easel in my yard. I set up a little outdoor studio. So, I just found different zones around my house, hung out, moved around my furniture to feel like I was in a new place. I was so very lucky to be here with Sasami and Meg Duffy because, you know, we’re all working on our respective records and working on them together. It was really a blessing. That’s where a lot of the inspiration came from, just being around those two and feeding off of each other.

When I spoke with Meg in 2021 about Fun House, they talked so warmly about how you and Sasami really influenced the writing and production on that album. I’m curious about the flip side of that, how their influence worked its way onto Smalltown Stardust?

Meg didn’t actually play on my record, but they’re fully there in spirit. They were emotional support, just making salads for us. Having their vibe around was nice. I think I’ve always been the most inspired by my friends, especially my friends that are also songwriters. Those are the people that have always been my biggest inspirations, so it was really nice to be so involved in their music as well.

You’ve said before that you always thrive around other people making things. What did being a part of a small musical ecosystem do, not just for the album, but for you as an artist? When you were working on Smalltown Stardust, what did you learn about yourself as an artist that had never shown itself so clearly before?

Working with Sasami was really incredible, because she comes from a very different background. She is classically trained. She’s really good at, not just string arrangements, but full song arrangements. She’s very much a producer in a classic way where she can take a song that’s one way and hear it in a totally different, new way and see how the arrangement should be. She knocks it out and has a very keen ear for harmony and pitch. I think, after working on these two records, my ear for pitch is so much stronger. It’s really interesting, just from working with her and seeing how keyed into it she was, I started to be able to hear it better myself, which was really cool.

Everyone has their own techniques of writing and arranging and recording, so it’s interesting whenever you work with someone. You learn their techniques and you incorporate them into your own methods. That’s been really rewarding.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the production side of music informs an artist’s own approach to building a record.

We [Sasami and I] were working on her record, she’d never made a super heavy rock record before. So I was like, “We need to get you playing through some stacks.” She bestowed upon me a keen ear for pitch and arrangement and I bestowed the stack upon her.

I think the arrangements have grown lusher over time, and Smalltown Stardust feels so far away from the neo-psychedelic, stoner doom, insert-Spotify-wrapped-genre-name-here vibes of those early records. Beyond collaboration and the immediacy of who’s near you and making music, what’s made your scope shift from heavier guitars to layered vocal harmonies and string arrangements?

I think, in a lot of ways, this record is much closer to the kind of music I listen to. It’s very much letting my Beatles influence come through more. But, for some reason, it hasn’t really been a big thing in the records. I do think, on Was Dead, “Sun Medallion,” it’s acoustic guitar and drums. There are songs throughout the other records that are more tender. But this record just leans into that stuff a lot more. It’s much more of a songwriter record, I would say.

You mentioned earlier that, if the pandemic hadn’t happened, this record would look so different. When you started really sitting down and working on the songs for record, what did it look like originally, as opposed to the final product that we have now?

I started writing songs after my album cycle for The Other was over in 2019. It really started when I got a piano in late summer 2019. I got a piano and started trying to learn a little bit. That opened up a whole new world of writing and writing completely different than on guitar. Songs like “The Bandits of Blue Sky” and “Love Letters to Plants” were written on piano. Those songs, I would have been able to write on a guitar. That was really a key to the shift in sound and writing style.

That’s something that has interested me, because you’re not the first artist who has told me about switching to songwriting on the piano. What is it specifically about that switch that changes the alchemy of a song?

I think a lot of it has to do with not knowing what you’re doing. I never took lessons on guitar. I never took piano lessons. So, I just sit down and find notes and chords that interest me. And since I don’t have any understanding of what they are, I’m just playing in the dark a little bit. But that’s where the interesting things come out. You can get chord voicings on the piano that are really hard to do, or impossible to do, on guitar that are really beautiful.

I’ve never learned how to play an instrument, but I’m always interested in the technical side of them. I can listen and say whether or not I think they sound good, but the idea of how they’re constructed is often lost on me, so thank you for laying it out so succinctly.

I think anyone can play an instrument, you just have to be fearless and not afraid to mess up. Most of it is just hearing what you like, it doesn’t have anything to do with technique. People who are so technically good make a lot of really bad music. I often veer towards the amateur sounds that are, often, more interesting and have more personality.

And those are the tunes that stick around and have such a good longevity to them. To touched on it earlier our conversation, how, over the last couple of years, you’ve had to reintroduce yourself to making songs and playing them live. In one of your Instagram posts, you mentioned that, since COVID, you were in the FBI and you were Batman, I’m curious about what you see King Tuff becoming beyond Smalltown Stardust.

I’m excited to play music with other people again. I don’t want to be on the road all the time, so I’m trying to figure out how to do that. I do love making records. I love writing songs. I love making records with other people, so I hope to do more of that, just recording other people. But, I also want to focus more on my visual art in the future, which is something that I’ve always done, but it’s kind of fallen by the wayside the past 15 years, since I started really doing music as a career. The visual art balances out the music with me, so, when I’m doing both, they inform each other. I get a lot of ideas from doing one, then I get an idea for the other one. I like going back and forth between the two, so I’m hoping to do more of that.

King Tuff Recommends:

Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: This game is obviously well known as one of the best video games ever made and I will say this: it’s the best video game ever made. I grew up playing Zelda, but haven’t really played video games for 20 years. So I bought a Switch just to play this. I’ve tried other switch games and they don’t do anything for me, but BOTW speaks to my SOUL.

Electric pencil sharpener: Is there anything better than sitting down and sharpening every pencil you own? At an extremely rapid pace? And oh the glorious smell of wood shavings and pulverized lead! Joy!

Jewelry: People need to wear a lot more jewelry. Especially men. I’m talking gems, chains, silver and gold, earrings with gems and bracelets with gems and necklaces with gems, rings, rings, oh so many rings, gems, and any sparkly accoutrement you can find. Do not be afraid to sparkle people! And gems.

Comfortable clothes: Somehow it took me 40 years to learn how to dress comfortably. I’ve always been wearing clothes that are too tight, cutting off my circulation for the sake of rock n roll or something…I don’t know! Now I’ve got the softest pants and I do the softest dance.

Microminiature Worlds: Do yourself a favor and go outside and zone in on some microminiature worlds. Any small patch of grass or bit of fallen log will do, preferably something with lichen or moss. There is so much to see in an inch of nature, it will put you in your place and remind you that you are part of a true masterpiece of living art.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by nMatt Mitchell.

Letter from London: King for a Day

Peter Bach — Tue, 16 May 2023 05:50:43 +0000

Even alongside Buddy Cage’s ethereal slide guitar on ‘Meet Me in the Morning’ — the only blues song on ‘Blood on the Tracks’ — Dylan poetically works into it that proverb about the darkest hour being right before the dawn. Poets have in fact been writing about rising suns since the birth of rhyme. Last More

The post Letter from London: King for a Day appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bach.

Letter from London: King for a Day

Peter Bach — Tue, 16 May 2023 05:50:43 +0000

The post Letter from London: King for a Day appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bach.

King Tides at Devil’s Churn, Oregon

Paul Haeder — Mon, 15 May 2023 13:36:10 +0000

And yet, once back from the hike, the low tides churning up as the tide shifts toward the rising tide, the news is never ending. The insanity of the West, the insanity of the lies, more lies and black magic lies of the US media, as well as the zombies walking the streets and even hitting the king tide Devil’s Churn, hoping 2023 will be brought in with booze, football, firecrackers. That the world will be a better world.

I challenge the reader to tell me — my 18th birthday, 1975, being the starting point — when a new year from 1975 to 2022 was a better year. Be careful to look at history, the world’s history, all the completely rotten politicians, the rotting policies, the complete slide of the American worker, and the incredible lightness of better dying with chemistry?

After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today.

Those king tides are a time to reflect upon what the average ocean level will be in 10, 20 or 30 years for now. Call it ocean expansion or ocean rise, but it is happening, even as we watch the celebrity worthless ones gain more and more money and media power; as the space race continues at break-neck speed for no results, i.e. better crops, better cities, better health care, better durable goods, better politics, better education, better mind care, better food and farming, better resilience, better global cooperation to increase the quality of life for all, as well as keeping ecosystems hardy, strong and vibrant.

Even if world manages to limit global warming to 2°C — the target number for current climate negotiations — sea levels may still rise at least 6 meters (20 feet) above their current heights, radically reshaping the world’s coastline and affecting millions in the process.

That finding comes from a new paper published on Thursday in Science that shows how high sea levels rose the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high.

Nations with the Most Population on Affected Land
COUNTRY	POPULATION AFFECTED	% OF NATIONAL POPULATION
1. China 2. Vietnam 3. India 4. Indonesia 5. Bangladesh 6. Japan 7. U.S. 8. Egypt 9. Brazil 10. Netherlands 11. Philippines 12. Thailand 13. Myanmar 14. Nigeria 15. United Kingdom 16. Mexico 17. Italy 18. Germany19. Malaysia 20. France	85,000,000 32,000,000 28,000,000 23,000,000 22,000,000 21,000,000 17,000,000 12,000,000 11,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000 9,000,000 7,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000	6% 36% 2% 10% 14% 16% 5% 15% 6% 62% 10% 13% 13% 3% 8% 3% 6% 4% 10% 4%
Cities with the Most Population on Affected Land
CITY	POPULATION AFFECTED
1. New York City 2. Virginia Beach 3. Miami 4. New Orleans 5. Jacksonville 6. Sacramento 7. Norfolk 8. Stockton, CA 9. Hialeah, FL 10. Boston	1,870,000 407,000 399,000 343,000 290,000 286,000 242,000 241,000 225,000 220,000

Yet, oh yet, the news in a slice of today’s minute covers the most obscene stories:

Why restaurant chains are investing in robots and what it means for workers

So, no outcry, no massive movement by humanoids, USA Homo COnsumopethicus, protesting this transhumanism, robotizing of EVERYTHING, because it starts with self-driving cars, then self-flipping burgers, then, at-home-tele = med/ed/work/shopping/family a la Zoom. More and more shifting baselines, and of course, Holly-Dirt promulgates this, and there is NO debate on resetting BACKWARDS to a time of sidewalks, clinics in every neighborhood, more bricks and mortars, more eyes and porches on the street, complete and dynamic and overarching public transportation, more parks, more more more of the good old days of more durable goods and back to lifetime analysis, cradle to cradle thinking.

2022 marked the end of cheap mortgages and now the housing market has turned icy cold

The amount of homelessness, the number of evictions, the number of foreclosures, the number of “management” agencies, the regressive taxation with property/homes as the cash cow for local government, the entire stupidity of tiny homes and family of four enjoying the closet life. Amazing, Robin Leech on steroids as we know of the dirty stains of millionaires and billionaires and their fifth or sixth homes and villas.

James Cameron Cut out 10 Minutes of Avatar 2 Gun Violence Because It Made His Stomach Sick: ‘I Don’t Want to Fetishize Guns’ Anymore\

So, this guy, Terminator, Rambo, etc, now has a change of heart? These people are the height of La-La-Land, with their billions in gold and property. He’s part of the big problem, not the part of the solution.

CEOs from Elon Musk to Jamie Dimon fought to bring workers back to the office in 2022. Here’s who won—and who lost—the great return-to-office war

So, the above ones are welfare and bailout and slave labor queens. Government bailouts and government assistance. Instead of the LARGER issues tied to labor, work, the top down sociopathy of bosses telling us, the world, how things must work, again, these people get countless minutes of copy every minute of every day.

It is insanity what captures the “news” aggregators, the mainstream un-News, and what propaganda is fed 24/7/nanosecond daily: Lies, complete reversal of the truth, sick stories, propaganda, up is down, lies are truth.

So, mainstream news never tells us that Ukraine is losing. Amazing how weird the stories get about Putin, this evil guy, and worse, the entire people of Russia should be wiped from the earth. Very very weird. Cold, death, blizzards, etc. Consuming any of this stuff will turn a steel stomach into a hissing haggis. From three screenshots of endless worthless Bing News aggregation.

Get on with arming yourself against this perversion. Truth:

“Russia Now Says Ukraine Losing 2 Battalions per Day in Donbass, 2nd Ukrainian Drone Attack on Engels”

Let the Patriot Games Begin: by Pepe Escobar

“Will Ukraine ever have enough Fire Power? Col Doug Macgregor”

“Battlefield Bakhmut: Why Russia & Ukraine are Fighting Over this City”

“Russian-Chinese Ties vs. US Aggression w/ Carl Zha & Mark Sleboda”

“LIVE: Ukraine’s LAST STAND w/ Scott Ritter and Dan Kovalik!”

“MEP Clare Daly DESTROYS the EU for Disastrous War in Ukraine”

Screw it. So so much work to read, research, and/or watch/listen to “alternative” sources to get through the manure of the mainstream-legacy-corporate-CIA approved news.

Back to the King TIdes. Nature. Eighty mile an hour winds, and bloody gulls and crows managing to fly. The foam, the rollers, the debris, as in trees being pushed around like wine corks.

There is a moment for us all to pause, absorb, being one with nature, whatever that might be.

Amazing nature, and the amazing stupidity of Apes with Nuke Missiles, us, and which war will be fought with sticks and stones as Einstein predicted?

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Paul Haeder.

Public mural of Queen and King Charles is just colonial whitewashing

Tré Ventour-Griffiths — Thu, 11 May 2023 10:44:03 +0000

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Tré Ventour-Griffiths.

‘My daughter didn’t misuse public funds’ says PNG’s under fire minister

APR editor — Thu, 11 May 2023 08:52:03 +0000

By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby

A defiant Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko says he will not resign over the furore surrounding his daughter Savannah’s TikTok video that has angered Papua New Guineans across the country.

In an interview with the PNG Post-Courier, Tkatchenko said: “I will not be resigning over something she has not done or used public funds for.”

“Yes what she did was not appropriate at the time. However, what she did for PNG in representing the country was welcomed by all who met her.”

PNG foreign minister’s daughter Savannah Tkatchenko . . . controversy over a TikTok shopping video. Image: FB

In two separate videos shared on social media platforms, Savannah Tkatchenko was seen as “flaunting and showing off” by many who viewed the videos in the midst of recent news of the spending of taxpayers’ money amounting to K3 million (NZ$2.7 million) on the trip to the King Charles III Coronation last week.

When asked on the spending money allocated to the travelling team from the Foreign Affairs office, Tkatchenko said: “K25,000 is equivalent to £5000. That money is given for accommodation, food, and other necessities that may be needed.

“The daily allowance given to everyone who travels and is regulated by the Public Service,” he added.

“Let me remind everyone that three months ago, I have banned travel by any other Foreign Affairs personnel unless it has been approved by the Secretary or my office.

Calls for PNG foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko to be sacked and have his citizenship stripped after labeling critics of his daughter’s TikTok video “primitive animals”.

It comes less than 2 weeks before US President Joe Biden visits PNG. https://t.co/QMJnHgXjTP

— Marian Faa (@marianfaa) May 11, 2023

Foreign Affairs contingent
“I had with me my daughter, my bodyguard and my protocol officer. We travelled as part of the Foreign Affairs contingent and not as part of the Governor-General’s contingent.”

Tkatchenko further explained the circumstances surrounding the trip and how his daughter joined him.

When it was made known that Prime Minister James Marape would not be travelling, a notice was given to Buckingham Palace that I would take his place. An invitation was sent for myself and my spouse to travel,” Tkatchenko said.

“However, my wife could not travel with me, and thus, I took my daughter. We advised Buckingham Palace of the changes and Buckingham Palace approved my plus one,” he added.

“There is nothing wrong with what happened, my daughter did not misuse any public funds and that has all been totally misrepresented.”

“She is traumatised and her character has been defamed. She understands what she has done, and I did speak to her and told her it was not appropriate for her to take that video,” the minister added.

Minister Tkatchenko said: “It was upon my advice that she deleted her TikTok account and she is aware of what she has done.”

“Again, I reiterate I will not resign.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Publicly funded Hilton Hotel at the centre of a financial black hole | PNGi

“It was APEC Minister, Justin Tkatchenko’s landscaping company, PNG Gardener that reportedly supplied many of the plants that adorn the site.” https://t.co/KYe0gaIfuG

— Stret Pasin (@Stret_Pasin) May 10, 2023

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

King Charles III: Policing the Republican Protests

Binoy Kampmark — Tue, 09 May 2023 12:40:03 +0000

In Britain, pageantry has always been a palliative and plaster for the dark and dismal. Be it in times of crisis, the chance to put on an extravagant show, usually at vast expense, is not something to forego. Central to this entertainment complex is the Royal family, that archaic vestige of an era that refuses to pass into history.

The Coronation of King Charles III was yet another instance of that complex in action. It was a spectacle, redolent of ancient ceremony, aged ritual, punctuated by the monarch’s statements of “I do”.

While this delighted a goodly number of punters, the whole affair also presented Republic and others of like mind to avail themselves of the chance to protest. Republic is one of the key groups attempting to stir the waters of change, running petitions, arranging protests and selling merchandise for the cause. On this occasion, the group was promising some of the biggest protests against the monarchy, with demonstrators sporting “Not my King” placards.

Unfortunately for the protesters, and for the right to assemble in general, the UK Parliament made sure to pass laws for that precise eventuality. Nothing would be left to chance. Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, explained away the coincidental nature of the Public Order Act 2023 and it coming into effect just days before the Coronation. “We’re not just thinking of our own security but the security of heads of states, and we’re dealing with protest groups who have nothing to do with the UK but to do with foreign leaders visiting the UK.”

The 2023 statute builds on measures that were already used against anti-monarchy protests following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. As human rights legal academic David Mead noted at the time, the right to protest peacefully is protected in domestic law, while free expression is also protected by the European Convention on Human Rights via the Human Rights Act. But this did not prevent the police from making adventurous use of various countering provisions, though it was not clear what they were. Attention was paid to the possible use of section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, public nuisance, or arrest to prevent a breach of the peace.

Evidently, the Tory government did not feel these measures adequate in their severity. The 2023 Act specifically outlines such offences as “locking on” and “being equipped for locking on”, in addition to expanding stop and search powers. Police making use of such powers may, provided they are of or above the rank of inspector, authorise stop and search without the need for suspicion.

The locking on offence covers instances where a people “attach themselves to another person, to an object or to land”, do the same with other people, and “attach an object to another object or to land”. Such acts must also cause, or be capable of causing, serious disruption to two or more individuals or an organisation in a place other than a dwelling, and be accompanied with the requisite intent.

As for the offence of being equipped for locking on, a person is in breach “if they have an object with them in a place other than a dwelling with an intention that it may be used in the course of or in connection with the commission by any person of an offence under section 1(1) (offence of locking on).”

The government would have also delighted in the High Court’s decision to reverse a District Judge’s ruling to acquit a protester for allegedly breaching a police direction made under the Public Order Act 1986. In 2020, the protester in question sat down in Parliament Street, adjacent to Parliament Square. According to the police, the protest had stay within the confines of Parliament Square.

The decision, handed down the same week the new Public Order Act received Royal assent, held that the judge applied the wrong test in assuming that a defendant’s conviction had to be proportionate relative with their rights to free expression and assembly. It was a remarkable decision, and abysmal in the context of assembly and free expression.

In a statement from Commander Karen Findlay of the London Metropolitan Police, a fat finger of accusation was pointed at the Coronation protestors. There had “been a significant police operation after we received information protestors were determined to disrupt the Coronation procession.” It was “targeted at those we believed were intent on taking this action. It was not our intention to prevent protest”.

All in all, 64 arrests were made on May 6. Of these, 52 “related to concerns people were going to disrupt the event, and arrests included to prevent a breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.” Eight arrests were also “made for other offences, including possession of an offensive weapon, drugs offences, and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.”

In the arrest count were six demonstrators from the Republic campaign group, suspected of having items among their placards that “could be used as lock on devices.” The Met investigation that followed proved otherwise. “Those arrested stated the items would be used to secure their placards, and the investigation has been unable to prove intent to use them to lock on and disrupt the event.” There was “regret that those six people arrested were unable to join the wider group of protesters in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere on the procession route.”

One of the arrestees, Republic head Graham Smith, subsequently revealed that three embarrassed officers, one with the rank of chief inspector, personally apologised to him and handed “the straps [for the placards] back to me.”

Such actions did little to douse the fire. “This,” fumed Smith, “has been a disgraceful episode and we will be speaking to lawyers about taking legal action. I also expect a full inquiry into why they repeatedly lied to us and who authorised the arrests.” The newly crowned King will be hoping that interest in the matter will be quick to die down. But even the attractive glossiness of pageantry won’t last.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange

Common Dreams staff — Sun, 07 May 2023 17:21:41 +0000

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has called for freedom for Julian Assange and denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free the journalist.

Lula spoke to a group of reporters in London Saturday while in town to attend the coronation of King Charles III.

Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.

“It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It’s a crazy thing,” Lula told reporters. “We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press doesn’t do anything in defense of this journalist. I can’t understand it.”

“I think there must be a movement of world press in his defense. Not in regard to his person, but to defend the right to denounce,” Lula told the reporters. “The guy didn’t denounce anything vulgar. He denounced that a state was spying on others, and that became a crime against the journalist. The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

Also, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he too was frustrated over the continued detention of Julian Assange: "enough is enough."

"I know it's frustrating, I share the frustration," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from London for the coronation of King Charles III.

"I can't do more than make very clear what my position is, and the U.S. administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."

"Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to a conclusion, it needs to be worked through," said Albanese.

Assange has battled for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where the journalist faces 17 charges of espionage because of WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of classified documents in 2010.

US prosecutors allege he published 700,000 secret classified documents which exposed the United States government and its wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wikileaks received the documents from Chelsea Manning.

Albanese said Australians cannot understand why the US would free the source who leaked the documents, Chelsea Manning, while Assange still faces life in prison.

President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists around the world, while he actively seeks the extradition of Assange to face American espionage charges.

Assange faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if extradited to the United States.

\u201cWhile in London, President Lula calls for a movement in defense of Julian Assange.\u201d
— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1683409472

\u201c"Enough is enough."\n\nAustralian PM Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration at the US\u2019s continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on charges including espionage https://t.co/BFNtvAnUbR\u201d
— Al Jazeera English (@Al Jazeera English) 1683272705

\u201c'Julian Assange Writes Letter to King Charles III Inviting Him to Visit Belmarsh Prison "Kingdom"' | via @firstpost\u201d
— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1683460894

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Common Dreams staff.

Why Australia and NZ could become republics – and stay in the Commonwealth

APR editor — Sat, 06 May 2023 23:24:05 +0000

ANALYSIS: By James Mehigan, University of Canterbury

The coronation of King Charles III is an ideal time for Australia and New Zealand to take stock of the British monarchy and its role in national life — including certain myths about what becoming a republic might mean.

In particular, there is a common assumption that both nations must remain monarchies to retain membership of the Commonwealth of Nations. It might sound logical, but it’s entirely wrong.

There is no basis for it in the rules of the Commonwealth or the practice of its members. Australia could ditch the monarchy and stay in the club, and New Zealand can too, whether it has a king or a Kiwi as head of state.

Yet this peculiar myth persists at home and abroad. Students often ask me about it when I’m teaching the structure of government. And just this week a French TV station interpreted the New Zealand prime minister’s opinion that his country would one day ideally become a republic to mean he would like to see it leave the Commonwealth.

The United Kingdom’s first coronation in 70 years. Video: Al Jazeera

What does ‘Commonwealth’ mean?
The implication that breaking from the Commonwealth would be a precursor to, or consequence of, becoming a republic relies on a faulty premise which joins two entirely separate things: the way we pick our head of state, and our membership of the Commonwealth.

It would make just as much sense to ask whether Australia or New Zealand should leave the International Cricket Council and become a republic.

The confusion may derive from the fact that the 15 countries that continue to have the British sovereign as their head of state are known as “Commonwealth Realms”.

What we usually refer to as the Commonwealth, on the other hand, is the organisation founded in 1926 as the British Commonwealth of Nations. This is the body whose membership determines the competing nations of the Commonwealth Games, the highest-profile aspect of the Commonwealth’s work.

King Charles III is the head of state of the 15 Commonwealth Realms and the head of the international governmental organisation that is the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth has 56 members — but only 15 of them continue to have the king as head of state.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Monday he personally favors his country becoming a republic, though it’s not a change he intends to push for as leader. https://t.co/1XEiFFtqPT pic.twitter.com/aftsZ0hHmV

— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) May 2, 2023

Joining the Commonwealth club
To be fair, confusion over who heads the Commonwealth is nothing new. A 2010 poll conducted by the Royal Commonwealth Society found that, of the respondents in seven countries, only half knew the then queen was the head of the Commonwealth.

A quarter of Jamaicans believed the organisation was led by the then US president, Barack Obama. One in ten Indians and South Africans thought it was run by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Given the king’s overlapping leadership roles and the different use of the word in the contexts of Commonwealth Realms and the Commonwealth of Nations, these broad misunderstandings are perhaps understandable.

In fact, it was this ambiguity that allowed for the development of an inclusive Commonwealth during the postwar years of decolonisation.

However the confusion arose, it is also very simple to correct. The Commonwealth relaxed its membership rules regarding republics when India became one in 1950.

According to Philip Murphy, the historian and former director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, this decision was based on the erroneous idea that India’s huge standing army would underwrite Britain’s great-power status in the postwar world.

From that point on the Commonwealth of Nations no longer comprised only members who admitted to the supremacy of one sovereign. To make the change palatable, a piece of conceptual chicanery was needed. Each country did not need a king, but the king was to be head of the organisation comprising equal members.

Republican protesters who want an elected head of state at the coronation . . . placards reading “Democracy not monarchy” and “Not my king”. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR

Monarchy optional
Since then, the number of Commonwealth members has steadily increased to the 56 we have today.

As early as 1995, membership was extended to countries with no ties to the former British Empire. With the support of Nelson Mandela, Mozambique became a member, joining the six Commonwealth members with which it shared a border.

Rwanda, a former German and then Belgian colony, joined in 2009. It became an enthusiastic member and hosted the biennial meeting of states known as CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting).

The most recent countries to take up Commonwealth membership are the former French colonies of Togo and Gabon.

According to the Commonwealth’s own rules, membership is based on a variety of things, including commitment to democratic processes, human rights and good governance. Being a monarchy is entirely optional.

The new king offers the chance for a broader debate on the advantages of monarchy. But let us do so knowing Commonwealth membership is entirely unaffected by the question of whether or not the country is a republic.

Dr James Mehigan, is senior lecturer in law, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Tampax King and His Vessel

Kim Petersen — Sat, 06 May 2023 21:00:53 +0000

In December 1936, love won out for the British king Edward VIII, and he gave up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite.

What is socialite? According to Google Dictionary: “a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment.” Typically, this term is applied to a female. Think Paris Hilton, Ghislaine Maxwell and their social activities.

Regardless of Simpson’s vocation, Edward abdicated his throne as a penance for marrying a divorcee.

This was considered a no-no for the royal family back then. Nowadays, we have a divorced king/adulterer married to his divorced queen/adulteress. No pejorative is attached to the terms adulterer or adulteress. This merely signifies that they were not faithful to their wedding vows. But, oh, how times have changed.

Probably the biggest argument for keeping the inegalitarian institution of the monarchy extant is tradition. When Charles married his first wife, Diana, she had to submit to a gynecological examination to verify that she was a virgin. Man, how times have, indeed, changed.

With the modern monarchy we became privy to Charles’s secretly recorded fantasy of being Camilla’s Tampax. Camilla responded mirthfully to Charles’s bawdy words of vaginal habitation: “You are a complete idiot! (Laughs) Oh, what a wonderful idea.”

The coronation of Charles has been revealed to cost £250 million (US$316 million). How many homeless people in Britain would that have housed? It was reported in January 2023 that “at least 271,000 people are recorded as homeless in England, including 123,000 children.” Priorities?

How did these two salacious characters attain status as the heads of state in not only the United Kingdom but also Canada, Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Jamaica, and ten other countries. Was it meritocratic? No. Were they elected? No. Charles won the vaginal lottery and was born to be a future king; Camilla married to become queen. So much for any pretense to being a genuine democracy in these 15 countries.

The anachronistic system of monarchy is how countries wind up with Charles and Camilla as heads of state.

Although the monopoly media are having a grand time gushing over the coronation, the famous British playwright William Shakespeare may have put it rather more succinctly and aptly as much ado about nothing.

Image credit: Buzzfeed.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kim Petersen.

‘Incredibly Alarming’: Peaceful Protests Not Fit For a King

Common Dreams staff — Sat, 06 May 2023 17:54:31 +0000

Thousands of King Charles III's subjects protested against the monarchy Saturday in London — and heavy-handed police detained many of them for "suspicion of breaching the peace."

Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police tweeted that they would have an “extremely low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” King Charles III's coronation day.

“A significant police operation is underway in central London,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday. “The individuals have been held on suspicion of breaching the peace.”

At around 7 a.m. police stopped six of the anti-monarchy group Republic’s organizers and told them they were detaining and searching them, Republic director Harry Stratton told CNN at the protest. The group had been walking behind a rental van containing hundreds of placards. “They didn’t say why they were arresting them. They didn’t tell them or us where they were taking them. It really is like something out of a police state,” Stratton said.

Among those arrested ahead of a protest in London’s Trafalgar Square was Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic.

“This morning, Graham Smith and five members of our team were arrested. Hundreds of placards were seized,” Republic tweeted. “Is this democracy?”

Protesters say police warned them not to chant ‘anything that may be deemed offensive.’

The Metropolitan Police said those arrested were being “held on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.”

Just Stop Oil reported that around 20 of its climate demonstrators had been arrested, with photos showing a man wearing a T-shirt with the group’s name being detained in Whitehall. “He was arrested along with 20 others,” Just Stop Oil tweeted. “Free speech is a core British value – and we have just lost it. No supporters of Just Stop Oil arrested in the crowd had glue, paint or any plans to disrupt the coronation. We are living in a dystopian nightmare.”

\u201cNo supporters of Just Stop Oil arrested in the crowd had glue, paint or any plans to disrupt the Coronation.\n\nNew policing laws mean we're now living in a dystopian nightmare \u2013 this disgraceful overreach is what you'd expect in Pyongyang, North Korea, not Westminster.\u201d
— Just Stop Oil (@Just Stop Oil) 1683364744

Human Rights Watch's UK director Yasmine Ahmed said in a statement: "The reports of people being arrested for peacefully protesting the coronation are incredibly alarming. This is something you would expect to see in Moscow not London.

"Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account, something the UK government seems increasingly averse to.”

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said: “We need to see what details emerge around these incidents but merely being in possession of a megaphone or carrying placards should never be grounds for a police arrest.

“Peaceful protest is clearly protected under international human rights law and it’s been worrying to see the police this week making numerous statements about their ‘low tolerance’ for disruption at the coronation. The coronation shouldn’t become yet another excuse for undermining people’s basic human rights in this country and we’re awaiting more details over these concerning reports of arrests.”

“We’ve recently had the introduction of extremely draconian legislation outlawing ‘disruptive’ or ‘noisy’ protests, which has given the police excessive – and highly subjective – powers and seriously damaged people’s right of free speech and public assembly.

“The coronation shouldn’t become yet another excuse for undermining people’s basic human rights in this country.”

\u201cAbolish the monarchy, not the right to protest\n\nAs we speak the whole core team of Republic is still being detained. We are not given a reason. They will probably be released when the whole monarchy pr-show is over.\n\n#NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy\u201d
— Republic (@Republic) 1683377655

\u201cOutrageous scenes of cops arresting anti-monarchy protestors and stealing their placards\n\nSo we are not allowed to show public opposition to a bloke being crowned head of state for having been born into unimaginable wealth while ppl line up at food banks and schools fall apart\u201d
— Shelly Asquith (@Shelly Asquith) 1683355250

\u201cRemember the rules folks\n\nShutting down the whole of central London to celebrate a man "chosen by God" to wear a fancy hat - your patriotic duty\n\nHolding up a sign expressing your dissent - ARREST THEM ALL\u201d
— Extinction Rebellion UK \ud83c\udf0d (@Extinction Rebellion UK \ud83c\udf0d) 1683358784

\u201cChants of \u201cshove the coronation up your arse\u201d and \u201cnot my King\u201d as thousands of Scottish independence supporters march through Glasgow city centre. @SkyNews\u201d
— Connor Gillies (@Connor Gillies) 1683372888

\u201cFirst, "Lizzie's in a Box" now "Shove Your Coronation Up Your Arse." Irish and Scottish football supporters are so based.\u201d
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Alejandra Caraballo) 1683379052

\u201cHow many men in glittery dresses will it take before @GBNEWS calls the coronation a drag show and campaigns for it to be banned?\u201d
— Ed MB (@Ed MB) 1683373489

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Common Dreams staff.

King Charles wants to appear progressive on race. He’s not

Banseka Kayembe — Thu, 04 May 2023 22:01:07 +0000

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Banseka Kayembe.

Hun Sen under fire from critics for not letting the king open SEA Games

By RFA Khmer — Thu, 04 May 2023 16:29:00 +0000

UPDATED at 1:14 p.m. EDT on 05-04-2023
Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that he – and not Cambodia’s king – would preside over Friday’s opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games, provoking criticism from exiled dissidents who say he is disrespecting the monarchy.

Cambodia is hosting the Southeast Asian region's premier sporting event for the first time. The May 5-17 games will include 11 nations in the region competing in 36 events, and the country has built a new Chinese-funded 60,000 seat stadium for the occasion.

In host countries, including monarchies, the sitting head of state is usually given the honor of declaring the start of the games at the opening ceremony.

Though King Norodom Sihamoni is the official head of state in Cambodia, he rarely exercises his limited powers granted by the constitution and tries to avoid getting involved in politics.

Hun Sen, 70, has ruled Cambodia since 1985, and is believed to be manipulating the government and the country’s laws in an attempt to pass his role as leader to his son Hun Manet before retiring.

The country is scheduled to hold national elections in July that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party is widely expected to win.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sihanoukville container terminal on Monday, Hun Sen mocked his detractors.

"You should know well, if you do not know well, don’t act like you are so wise and do not be arrogant and incite conflict between the king and the prime minister,” he said.

“The king does not take the role of prime minister, and the prime minister does not take on the role of the king, just as [the king] carried the torch before the SEA Games while the prime minister walked along with him,” he said.

Visitors take photos in front of the logo of the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games - the first time the regional multi-sport tournament will be hosted in Cambodia, in front of the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 2, 2023. Credit: Reuters

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen’s slight was destroying the achievements of the king, the former king and the ancestors of the Khmer people.

“This is not only a violation of the role of the king, but a betrayal of the throne and the king, not only in front of the Cambodian people, but in front of international guests around the world," he said.

Driving a wedge

Hun Sen’s critics are trying to discredit him by trying to show that there’s a split between the prime minister and monarchy, said David Hutt, a journalist and researcher for the Central European Institute of Asian Studies.

“It’s a way for anti-CPP critics to try to paint Hun Sen as unpatriotic, given that he taints most opponents as traitors,” said Hutt. “They probably also reckon it might turn some ordinary Cambodians against the ruling party. But the monarchy has been a political football for some time.”

Tensions between Hun Sen and the royal house arise because of the monarchy’s protections, he said.

“After all, the monarchy is the only institution left in Cambodia that [Hun Sen’s] ruling party cannot completely dominate,” said Hutt. “Maybe Hun Sen has long thought it may become a rival institution, although that’s less so with King Norodom Sihamoni compared to his father.”

Hutt said that Hun Sen sees himself as a monarch, as he is preparing a dynastic succession of the prime ministership to his son.

But Kim Sok denied that he and other critics only want to drive a wedge between the king and the prime minister, and compared the treatment of the monarchy with other neighboring monarchies.

"In Thailand, when there are big sports events, both national and international, before the athletes enter the arena, they prepare the king's portrait for the athletes to respect him before entering the arena,” Kim Sok said. “But in the Kingdom of Cambodia, we have not seen such preparations yet.”

Cambodian Buddhist monk and activist Ven. Bor Bet [right], who fled to Switzerland, says Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen does not respect King Sihamoni. Credit: Bor Bet

Hun Sen tends to get angry whenever his critics call him out on his disrespect, Bangkok-based social development researcher Seng Sary said.

"The prime minister seems to feel uncomfortable when he is compared to the king, who is protected by the constitution,” said Seng Sary. “The monarchy is a supreme institution that cannot be violated, but the prime minister is only the chairman of the executive branch."

Buddhist honors

Meanwhile, a Thailand-based international Buddhist organization has granted Hun Sen the honorary title “Patron of the World,” and made his son Hun Manet an honorary “senior advisor,” confusing some members of the organization.

The Venerable Buth Buntenh, who lives in exile in Massachusetts, said the Cambodian leader does not deserve the title and he does not understand why the organization gave it to him.

“Hun Sen has committed the highest immoral things in Cambodian society,” the monk said, adding that under Hun Sen’s rule, monks have lived in repressive conditions that rival the time when the country was ruled by Pol Pot’s regime, during which the Khmer Rouge defrocked and killed them.

“But now, under the rule of Hun Sen, monks are defrocked and put in jail. Or monks are shot dead by unidentified gunmen.” said Buth Buntenh.” So, the Khmer Rouge regime and Hun Sen are the same in terms of persecution of the Buddhists.”

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
UPDATE: Adds background information on the SEA Games.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Why King Charles III Should Apologize to Chagossian People.

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:29 +0000

This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

King Charles must rise above impotent talk of ‘sorrow’ for slavery

Carolyn Cooper — Wed, 03 May 2023 12:37:27 +0000

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Carolyn Cooper.

Bernice King Urges Permanent School Strike Until Assault Weapons Ban Is Passed

Julia Conley — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:14:50 +0000

Rights advocate Bernice King, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, expressed hope on the 55th anniversary of her father's assassination Tuesday that U.S. students leading gun control demonstrations will take inspiration from civil rights protesters who forced change through prolonged direct action.

King applauded more than 7,000 students in Nashville who marched to the Tennessee State Capitol on Monday, condemning Republican lawmakers who have claimed anti-LGBTQ+ laws will "protect" the state's children while refusing to take up gun control legislation after the mass shooting last month at the Covenant School, which killed three children and three adults.

"This issue that they're standing tall in is well past being addressed," King toldThe Hill on Tuesday.

The group Students Demand Action is also organizing a nationwide school walkout for Wednesday.

"The only thing that I wish, and I've said this before across the nation as I've talked to different audiences, I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons," King said.

"I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons."

King's father was one of the leaders of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that lasted from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the city to integrate its buses.

Public pressure from groups including Students Demand Action and March for Our Lives has been credited with pushing legislators to pass the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included "enhanced" background checks for gun purchasers under age 21, funding for states to implement red flag laws, and provisions to stop interstate gun trafficking.

States have also passed dozens of gun control laws in recent years, but gun violence nonetheless surpassed car accidents last year as the leading cause of death for American children.

Researchers at New York University calculated last year that the risk of a person dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower when the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was in effect until 2004.

"My father was assassinated with a rifle that would be the equivalent of what we call assault weapons today, and 55 years later we're just increasing the access to these instruments," King told The Hill. "The issue is, these are deadly instruments, and we should not have them in society."

King's call for permanent school walkouts until lawmakers pass far-reaching gun control came as Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois—the site of another mass shooting last year—went into lockdown due to reports that a student had a gun. The student body had participated in a walkout in solidarity with Nashville children earlier in the day.

After a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas last May, Atlantic editor Gal Beckerman also urged a permanent school strike until the demands of the 63% of Americans who support an assault weapons ban are met.

"I'm left with one conclusion: The children and parents of our country need to take the summer to organize locally, build a set of national demands, and then refuse to go back to school in the fall until Congress does something," Beckerman wrote, explaining how the strike could force action:

One thing we've learned from the pandemic is that when children aren't in school, society strains. This would make a strike an extremely powerful form of leverage. A walkout with enough students involved and taking place over days, not minutes, puts concrete pressure on officials, from the municipal level all the way up to Washington. When students aren't in school, parents have difficulty getting to work. Suddenly understaffed services—hospitals, subways—suffer the consequences. Politicians and local officials have a mess on their hands—children falling behind in learning, parents overloaded—and a strong incentive to accede to a demand.

Republican policymakers this week have shown little tolerance for direct action by rights advocates. The Tennessee GOP filed resolutions to expel three Democrats who joined young protesters on Monday, and two Florida Democratic leaders were arrested for protesting a proposed six-week abortion ban.

"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything," said King. "We're right back at that place."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Julia Conley.

Opposition activist released after apologizing for comments about king

By RFA Khmer — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:56:00 +0000

An opposition activist who was jailed after posting comments on Facebook about the government and Cambodia’s constitutional monarch was released on Tuesday after he apologized to Prime Minister Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihamoni.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court released Yim Sinorn after he posted a video and a statement from prison apologizing for last week’s messages about the king.

The messages drew a lot of attention from online commentators, which prompted the court to charge Yim Sinorn with incitement and with insulting the king. He posted a comment on Facebook on Tuesday that he didn’t intend to insult the king.

“I take this occasion to ask for forgiveness from the king and apologize to Samdech Hun Sen publicly with honesty,” Yim Sinorn said.

In his message last week that led to his address, Yim Sinorm wrote: “According to the people at the coffee shop, today we clearly know who is truly the king.”

Yim Sinorm seemed to be highlighting Sihamoni’s political powerlessness, which is mandated by a requirement in Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution that he reign as a national figurehead while leaving governing to the National Assembly and the prime minister’s Council of Ministers.

A second activist, Hun Kosal, is still being held by authorities.

Hun Kosal later wrote that it has been sad “to see they have hurt the king’s heart and degraded the king’s power in all aspects,” a reference to how Hun Sen’s government has interacted with Sihamoni, who took the throne in 2004.

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni [left] talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen during the country’s 68th Independence Day celebration in Phnom Penh on Nov. 9, 2021. Credit: Associated Press

Appeals to the king

Sihamoni, a European-educated former dance instructor, has preferred to remain in the shadows as king.

But some in the opposition have called on him over the years to challenge Hun Sen’s repression of their ranks. Recently, Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party have been working to silence and intimidate opposition figures ahead of the July general elections.

“As a politician of the new generation, I am determined to use all my ability to join forces with Kem Sokha to protect the power and the throne of the king,” Hun Kosal wrote in another one of his messages last week.

Earlier this month, opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years in prison for treason. He continues to deny the charges that led to his arrest in 2017, which was made several months after the Cambodia National Rescue Party – which he led – had made large gains in local commune elections.

Yim Sinorn has previously worked as an activist for the now-banned CNRP.

Last week, the prime minister exchanged comments with his own supporters on Yim Sinorn’s Facebook page, suggesting that Yim Sinorn and Hun Kosal were already guilty.

“It would be weird if they are not guilty because [what they said] is not an expression of opinion, but it is a distortion of the truth with an intent,” he wrote. “Whatever it is, leave it for the court to decide.”

After Yim Sinorn released his apology statement on Tuesday, Judge Yi Sok Vouch issued an order to the Prey Sar Prison Department to release him on bail. The order did not give an explanation behind the release.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Opposition activists arrested in Phnom Penh after online comments about king

By RFA Khmer — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 01:27:49 +0000

Police on Tuesday arrested two opposition activists who are close to opposition party leader Kem Sokha after they posted unfavorable comments on Facebook about how the government has treated Cambodia’s constitutional monarch.

“According to the people at the coffee shop, today we clearly know who is truly the King,” Yim Sinorn wrote.

The second activist, Hun Kosal, later wrote that it has been sad “to see they have hurt the King’s heart and degraded the King’s power in all aspects,” a reference to how Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has interacted with King Norodom Sihamoni, who took the throne in 2004.

“As a politician of the new generation, I am determined to use all my ability to join forces with Kem Sokha to protect the power and the throne of the King,” Hun Kosal wrote.

Yim Sinorn’s messages seemed to draw a comparison between the king and Hun Sen, which drew a lot of attention from online commentators with diverse opinions. Later, he deleted his original message and posted another comment.

“I merely posted the voice of the people speaking at a coffee shop,” he wrote. “But many people brought up such comparisons. Therefore, to avoid misunderstanding, I have deleted all the messages.”

Hun Sen posts comments on Facebook

Phnom Penh authorities arrested the two men shortly afterward, according to the pro-government Fresh News. They were still being held at Phnom Penh police headquarters Tuesday evening.

Hun Sen was seen exchanging comments with his supporters on Yim Sinorn’s Facebook page, suggesting that the two men were already guilty.

Ros Sotha, the executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 22 local NGOs, disagreed with the prime minister in comments made to Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. What the two men said were just expressions of opinion and shouldn’t be criminalized, he told RFA.Credit: Yim Sinorn [left] and Hun Kosal Facebook pages

Protest in South Korea in 2019

Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party have been working to silence and intimidate opposition figures ahead of the July general elections.

Earlier this month, Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years in prison for treason. He continues to deny the charges that led to his arrest in September 2017, which was made several months after the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which he led, had made large gains in local commune elections.

The CNRP has been banned in Cambodia since 2017 but later regrouped and has been active outside the country.

Yim Sinorn was, for a time, the head of CNRP’s youth movement in South Korea, where nearly 50,000 Cambodians work – mostly as factory workers. In April 2019, he helped sponsor a demonstration of workers against the Hun Sen government in Gwangju.

In November 2019, he and nine colleagues were charged in Phnom Penh Municipal Court with conspiracy and inciting serious social unrest in Cambodia and elsewhere. But in September 2021, he wrote a letter to Hun Sen saying the charges against him were unfair and that he never supported opposition figure Sam Rainsy.

Hun Sen was apparently satisfied with the letter and told the court to drop all charges against Yim Sinorn and the other nine defendants. Yim Sinorn returned to Cambodia in January 2022.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Back-to-back cyclones in Vanuatu – stories of survival in ‘tough go’

APR editor — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 06:55:39 +0000

By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist

People in Vanuatu remain optimistic about their future after two destructive cyclones in two days left parts of the Pacific nation in ruins.

Authorities are yet to determine the full scale of the damage caused by the back-to-back severe tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin.

But those who had to endure the worst of the natural disasters last week believe demonstrating resilience is their only option.

“To have had two category four cyclones in less than a week is history in itself,” Vanuatu’s only female Member of Parliament, Gloria Julia King, told RNZ Pacific.

“[It’s] something that even the elders in our families haven’t seen before.”

She said her island nation has had its fair share of severe weather events, highlighting the destruction caused by Cyclone Pam in 2015 from which the country has still not fully recovered.

“A lot of our schools are still in makeshift classrooms, [children] still sitting on the floor without desks and chairs.”

Hopeful over challenges
But she is hopeful that the ni-Vanuatu people will get through the challenges in front of them.

“I have seen Vanuatu come back from Pam, I’ve seen Vanuatu come back from Harold, and I am positive Vanuatu will be able to bounce back from Kevin,” King said.

A property flattened in Port Vila following the wrath of Tropical Cyclone Judy followed by TC Kevin. Image: Shiva Gounden/RNZ Pacific

The country was hit by a category 4 TC Judy first on March 3, but just as people started to pick up the pieces, they had to rush to evacuation centres the following day as Kevin arrived as a category 3, intensifying to a category 4 and then reaching 5 over open water.

“People [were] carrying people with disabilities on their back to an evacuation building,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s advisor Shiva Gounden, who is in the capital Port Vila, said.

He said three to four families huddled in homes while properties around them were being wiped out.

“Roads are completely blocked or flooded. There’s no access for anyone to leave the village for any type of emergencies.”

‘No power, no water’
“There’s no power. There’s no water,” he added.

Gounden was in a village on Efate island helping people prepare for TC Kevin when it hit with a force much more violent than anyone was prepared for, he told RNZ Pacific.

He had to hold the doors of the house he was residing in for almost 10 hours in shin high water to remain safe.

“It was extremely strong,” he said, describing Kevin’s ferocity.

“I’ve seen and responded to several cyclones in my life and I felt Kevin was as strong as Cyclone Winston which wiped out Fiji.”

“I was trying to hold my door from 5pm till about 3am. I was using all my [strength] with my hands and my back and my legs to try and hold the door because if I didn’t, it would snap. There was water everywhere,” he said.

‘It’s a tough go for many’, says Vanuatu journalist
Vanuatu journalist Dan McGarry, who has been on the frontlines documenting the disaster, visited vulnerable communities in the aftermath.

Taila Moses and her son Tom stand in front of what was once their home of 16 years. Countless houses in informal communities such as hers were damaged or destroyed. Cyclones dole put their damage indiscriminately, but society’s most vulnerable feel it more than anyone else. pic.twitter.com/cXBDuznMTz

— Dan McGarry (@dailypostdan) March 5, 2023

He said people were living in “impromptu housing” in various parts of Port Vila.

“What I found was quite disturbing,” he said.

“It’s becoming obvious that the increasing reliance on a cash economy is creating inequalities in terms of people’s ability to cope with this kind of disaster cycle.”

McGarry said informal settlements up on the hillside in the capital were covered with clothing lines because everything had been soaked.

“There were tarpaulins pulled across roofs to provide some sort of temporary shelter.”

He has spoken with several residents and shared the story of one woman who has lost everything.

“She has no livelihood at the moment because her employer, of course, isn’t calling her into work,” he said.

“She’s lost everything and she is without the means to return it. It’s a tough, tough go for a great many people here in Port Vila,” he explained.

Hundreds of people in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila have been evacuated after TC Judy which was followed just a day later by a second cyclone, TC Kevin. Image: Hilaire Bule/RNZ Pacific

Climate crisis issue
Climate crisis is front of mind for Ni-Vanuatu residents as they start to rebuild.

“[Climate change] turns what used to be sort of periodical issues for Pacific island nations into chronic ones,” he said.

“In this case, we’ve had two severe cyclones in the course of a week an as New Zealanders have seen these weather systems are moving further south.”

He believes development partners of the Pacific cannot afford to walk away; a sentiment echoed by Gounden.

“We have the most resilient people, but there is a deep hurt that is within us,” Gounden said.

He said the “the hurt” stems from fossil fuels being burned across the world which exacerbates climate change.

“The people of the Pacific contribute the least to climate change, yet we face the greatest consequences of it all.”

“The biggest thing we can do is pressure world leaders right now to phase out [the use of fossil fuels.”

Meanwhile, Australia, France and New Zealand have been the first to send support to assist with emergency response.

“We will appreciate any help we can get,” King said.

“The biggest challenge now is just getting power and water back into full circuit around the country.”

Taking off for Vanuatu with assistance following TC Judy & TC Kevin. Australia has a rapid assessment team in Vanuatu & is delivering shelters & other items for communities.

We stand with the Pacific family #YugetaYumiStrong pic.twitter.com/IGYVrchew9

— Pat Conroy MP (@PatConroy1) March 5, 2023

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

[Jules Boykoff] Martin Luther King Jr & the FBI

info@alternativeradio.org — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:00:36 +0000

The FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was once called by American Indian movement activist John Trudell, as the Federal Bureau of Intimidation. The FBI has a long history of persecuting people for thought crimes, having the wrong political ideas. J. Edgar Hoover was the Bureau’s first director and he served in that post for almost 50 years. He ran the FBI as an unchallenged lord of the manor and his agents were serfs to do his bidding. Hoover had a particular animosity for and loathing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the Civil Rights movement. He called King “the most notorious liar in the country.” President Kennedy and his attorney general brother Robert signed off on Hoover's request to wiretap Dr. King. Using infiltrators, the spread of rumors, the fabrication of evidence, and media manipulation, the FBI launched a full-scale smear campaign to discredit Dr. King and the movement he led. It was all done of course in the name of “national security.” Recorded at Pacific University.

This content originally appeared on AlternativeRadio and was authored by info@alternativeradio.org.

Class Struggle and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Richard Eskow — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 20:58:18 +0000

On this, the national holiday named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ajamu Baraka tweeted:

The U.S. should drop its' commemoration of Dr. King's birthday because there is no relationship between (the) Dr. King the Black freedom movement created (and the) violent, warmongering U.S.

“The King birthday is a colonialist expropriation that should be rejected,” Baraka added. That is a discussion and a decision for Black people, not me, but I will say this: It’s hard to deny that the forces Dr. King condemned are trying to colonize his legacy and exploit for their own selfish ends. But try as they may, they must never succeed. His memory is a country of the mind that must always remain free.

Over a decade ago, when there were fewer Left voices on the internet, I used my perch at the Huffington Post to honor Dr. King’s truly radical voice in my own small way. The celebrities I mentioned are forgotten and the economic numbers have shifted, but Dr. King’s words ring even truer now than they did in 2011. Wiser voices than mine, with more visibility and more right to the King legacy, are available to us now. (It did occur to me in 2018 that Dr. King would have knelt with Colin Kaepernick.)

I would commend the following quote to those political opportunists who accuse leftists of being race-blind in order to deny the economic strangulation of the working class:

“The unemployed, poverty-stricken white man must be made to realize that he is in the very same boat with the Negro. Together, they could exert massive pressure on the government to get jobs for all. Together they could form a grand alliance. Together, they could merge all people for the good of all.”

That form of organizing was once known as ‘class struggle.’

Then there's this: “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth." Wealth inequality soared after bank criminals crashed the economy in 2008, but the grotesquely unequal United States of 2011 looks like a socialist paradise compared to today’s world of accelerated class theft.

And this: “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

Those triplets have grown up to Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “Machines and computers” manipulate our society, our politics, and our economy to further enrich the billionaire class. Drones and missiles continue to endanger our planet. The “property rights” of the few – from rental properties to pharmaceutical patents – kill thousands of people daily.

Dr. King also said, “Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It appropriates poverty funds with miserliness and grudging reluctance.” Never were those words truer. When members of both party add tens of billions to the Pentagon’s already-bloated budget request, words like “alacrity” and “generosity” are genteel descriptions. They throw lavish gifts at the feet of the generals like courtiers pursuing the monarch’s favor. It’s like watching a gang boss reward an underling with a sack of cash for a murder well done. “Here, get yerself somethin’ nice ...”

"Of all the forms of inequality,” Dr. King said in 1966, “injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” What would he say of today’s corporate-driven healthcare, where hedge funds buy up medical practices, private insurers profit from public illness, pandemic victims go untreated, and Wall Street erodes Medicare with a program that is an “Advantage” only to investors?

A few more quotes to ponder before the holiday comes to a close:

“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”
“[W]e are saying that something is wrong … with capitalism…. There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”
“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic… “
“In a sense, you could say we’re involved in the class struggle.”

The government, along with most of the nation, claims to honor his memory while defiling his dreams. They have turned a living soul into an idol. It may be shaped like a human being, but it makes a sound like desert wind blowing through the hollow body of a golden calf.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Richard Eskow.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Anti-War Legacy Remains Vital as Ever

William Hartung — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:42:44 +0000

The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. provides an opportunity to step back and reflect on the significance of his life and work. It is particularly important to do so this year, with unapologetic racism on the rise and a Cold War atmosphere permeating Washington.

Dr. King had a deep understanding of the links between America’s domestic and foreign predicaments, expressed most clearly in his speech against the Vietnam War, delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4 1967, one year before he was assassinated.

King understood that Vietnam was not an isolated case of U.S. military adventurism:

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality… we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees [like the one against the war in Vietnam] for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala — Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

King’s predictions about where the United States would intervene were not accurate, but the process he described has all too sadly played out, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Somalia to Syria and beyond.

These direct interventions don’t take into account America’s role as the world’s leading arms trading nation, supplying equipment to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have been used in a brutal war in Yemen that has led to direct and indirect deaths approaching 400,000 people. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States supplied weapons to 103 nations between 2017 and 2021 — more than half the countries in the world. For many citizens of the world, their first association with America is a U.S. soldier or a U.S.-supplied weapon in the hands of their government or one of their adversaries.

This U.S. record of wide-ranging military intervention and runaway arms sales is a far cry from the “diplomacy first” foreign policy that the Biden administration has pledged to pursue. To its credit, the administration stuck to its commitment to get the United States out of its disastrous 20-year engagement in Afghanistan. And in some cases, as in Ukraine, U.S. arms have been supplied for defensive purposes, to help Kyiv fend off a brutal Russian invasion. But on balance, the United States still adheres to the kind of militarized foreign policy that Dr. King warned us about well over 50 years ago.

Quincy Institute non-resident fellow and Tufts University professor Monica Toft has noted the broader impacts of America’s addiction to military force in a recent piece in Foreign Affairs:

This is an unfortunate trend. For evidence, look no further than the disastrous U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. The overly frequent resort to use of force also undermines U.S. legitimacy in the world. As the U.S. diplomatic corps and American influence abroad shrink, the country’s military footprint only grows.

Toft also points to the impact on U.S. interventionism on the reputation of America in the world. A Pew research poll conducted between 2013 and 2018 found that the number of foreigners who considered the United States a threat nearly doubled over that time period, from 25 percent to 45 percent.

King also underscored the domestic consequences of rampant interventionism:

A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.

The domestic costs of militarism are painfully present today. The budget signed by President Biden last month provides $858 billion for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy. That’s well over half of the federal government’s entire discretionary budget — the portion that includes virtually everything the government does other than mandatory entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare: environmental protection, public health, administration of justice, job training, education, and more. Meanwhile Congress has resisted the administration’s attempts to get additional funding for Covid relief, and terminated the Child Tax Credit, one of the most effective means of eliminating poverty.

King understood that the roots of the warfare state run deep, driven by the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.” Groups like the Poor People’s Campaign, co-chaired by Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis and inspired by Dr. King, have taken up the call to address these issues. More groups and individuals need to do so if we are to foster a genuine “diplomacy first” foreign policy, with the immense benefits for American and global security and prosperity and equality at home that would entail.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by William Hartung.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Anti-War Legacy Remains Vital as Ever

William Hartung — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:42:44 +0000

King understood that Vietnam was not an isolated case of U.S. military adventurism:

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality… we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees [like the one against the war in Vietnam] for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala — Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Quincy Institute non-resident fellow and Tufts University professor Monica Toft has noted the broader impacts of America’s addiction to military force in a recent piece in Foreign Affairs:

This is an unfortunate trend. For evidence, look no further than the disastrous U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. The overly frequent resort to use of force also undermines U.S. legitimacy in the world. As the U.S. diplomatic corps and American influence abroad shrink, the country’s military footprint only grows.

King also underscored the domestic consequences of rampant interventionism:

A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by William Hartung.

A True and Visionary Radical, Martin Luther King Jr. Was No Moderate

Peter Dreier — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:50:35 +0000

In his absorbing profile of the writer Alex Haley (author of "Roots" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X") in the New York Times Book Review a year ago, Michael Patrick Hearn made a familiar mistake. He wrote: "Politically [Haley] he was a moderate, philosophically more Martin than Malcolm."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was no moderate. Today, he is viewed as something of an American saint. His name adorns schools and street signs. His birthday—January 15, 1929—is observed as a national holiday on the third Monday of January each year. This year as in years past, Americans from across the political spectrum invoke King's name to justify their beliefs and actions.

But in his day, King was considered a dangerous troublemaker. Both Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson worried that King was being influenced by Communists. King was harassed by the FBI and vilified in the media. The establishment's campaign to denigrate King worked. In August 1966 - as King was bringing his civil rights campaign to Northern cities to address poverty, slums, housing segregation and bank lending discrimination—the Gallup Poll found that 63% of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of King, compared with 33% who viewed him favorably.

King called himself a democratic socialist. He believed that America needed a "radical redistribution of economic and political power." He challenged America's class system and its racial caste system. He opposed US militarism and imperialism, especially the country's misadventure in Vietnam. He was a strong ally of the nation's labor union movement. He was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, where he had gone to support a sanitation workers' strike.

King's views evolved over time. He entered the public stage with some hesitation, reluctantly becoming the spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, at the age of 26. King began his activism in Montgomery as a crusader against racial segregation, but the struggle for civil rights radicalized him into a fighter for broader economic and social justice and peace.

During the early 1960s, the nation's media accurately depicted both King and Malcolm X as threats to the status quo. But the media portrayed Malcolm X as an almost demonic force because he described white people as "devils," and called on Black Americans to use self-defense - including violence, if necessary - to protect themselves from racist thugs and police brutality. King - a proponent of nonviolent civil disobedience and racial integration - was dismayed when Malcolm X, SNCC's Stokely Carmichael, and others began advocating "black power," which he warned would alienate white allies and undermine a genuine interracial movement for economic justice.

Just as King's views evolved over the years, Malcolm X's ideas changed, too. Toward the end of his life, he had rejected Black separatism and by-any-means-necessary tactics. In 1963, he traveled to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, where he met radical white people whose political ideas he agreed with. When he was in Ghana, someone asked him "What do you think about socialism?" Malcolm X asked: "Is it good for Black people?" "It seems to be," came the response. "Then I'm for it," Malcolm X said.

In 1964 he broke with the Nation of Islam and rejected its policy of non-cooperation with the civil rights movement. He reached out to King and other civil rights leaders.

When Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, King sent this message to his wife: "I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem."

In reviewing King's life, we can see that the seeds of his later radicalism were planted early.

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, the son of a prominent black minister. Despite growing up in a solidly middle-class family, King saw the widespread human suffering caused by the Depression, particularly in the black community. In 1950, while in graduate school, he wrote an essay describing the "anticapitalistic feelings" he experienced as a youngster as a result of seeing unemployed people standing in breadlines.

During King's first year at Morehouse College, civil rights and labor activist A. Philip Randolph spoke on campus. Randolph predicted that the near future would witness a global struggle that would end white supremacy and capitalism. He urged the students to link up with "the people in the shacks and the hovels," who, although "poor in property," were "rich in spirit."

After graduating from Morehouse in 1948, King studied theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania (where he read both Mohandas Gandhi and Karl Marx), planning to follow in his father's footsteps and join the ministry. In 1955, he earned his doctorate from Boston University, where he studied the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, the influential liberal theologian. While in Boston, he told his girlfriend (and future wife), Coretta Scott, that "a society based on making all the money you can and ignoring people's needs is wrong."

When King moved to Montgomery to take his first pulpit at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, he was full of ideas but had no practical experience in politics or activism. But history sneaked up on him. On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and veteran activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), decided to resist the city's segregation law by refusing to move to the back of the bus on her way home from work. She was arrested. Two other long-term activists - E. D. Nixon (leader of the NAACP and of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) and Jo Ann Robinson (a professor at the all-black Alabama State College and a leader of Montgomery's Women's Political Council)—determined that Parks' arrest was a ripe opportunity for a one-day boycott of the much-despised segregated bus system. Nixon and Robinson asked black ministers to use their Sunday sermons to spread the word. Some refused, but many others, including King, agreed.

The boycott was very effective. Most black residents stayed off the buses. Within days, the boycott leaders formed a new group, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). At Nixon's urging, they elected a hesitant King as president, in large part because he was new in town and not embroiled in the competition for congregants and visibility among black ministers. He was also well educated and already a brilliant orator, and thus would be a good public face for the protest movement. The ministers differed over whether to call off the boycott after one day but agreed to put the question up to a vote at a mass meeting.

That night, 7,000 blacks crowded into (and stood outside) the Holt Street Baptist Church. Inspired by King's words—"There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression"—they voted unanimously to continue the boycott. It lasted for 381 days and resulted in the desegregation of the city's buses.

During that time, King honed his leadership skills, aided by advice from two veteran organizers, Bayard Rustin and Rev. Glenn Smiley, who had been sent to Montgomery by the pacifist group, Fellowship of Reconciliation. During the boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, and he was subjected to personal abuse. But - with the assistance of the new medium of television - he emerged as a national figure.

In 1957, with the help of Rustin and organizer Ella Baker, King launched the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to help spread the civil rights crusade to other cities. He helped lead local campaigns in different cities, including Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, where thousands marched to demand an end to segregation in defiance of court injunctions forbidding any protests. While participating in these protests, King also sought to keep the fractious civil rights movement together, despite the rivalries among the NAACP, the Urban League, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SCLC.

Between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles, spoke more than 2,500 times, and was arrested at least 20 times, always preaching the gospel of nonviolence. King attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, which connected him to a network of radicals, pacifists and union activists from around the country whose ideas helped widen his political horizons.

It is often forgotten that the August 1963 protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. King was proud of the civil rights movement's success in winning the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act the following year. But he realized that neither law did much to provide better jobs or housing for the masses of black poor in either the urban cities or the rural South. "What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter," he asked, "if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?"

King had hoped that the bus boycott, sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience would stir white southern moderates, led by his fellow clergy, to see the immorality of segregation and racism. His famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," written in 1963, outlines King's strategy of using nonviolent civil disobedience to force a response from the southern white establishment and to generate sympathy and support among white liberals and moderates.

"The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation," he wrote, and added, "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

King eventually realized that many white Americans had at least a psychological stake in perpetuating racism. He began to recognize that racial segregation was devised not only to oppress African Americans but also to keep working-class whites from challenging their own oppression by letting them feel superior to blacks.

"The Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow," King said from the Capitol steps in Montgomery, following the 1965 march from Selma. "And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than a black man."

When King launched a civil rights campaign in Chicago in 1965, he was shocked by the hatred and violence expressed by whites as he and his followers marched through the streets of segregated neighborhoods in Chicago and its suburbs. He saw that the problem in Chicago's ghetto was not legal segregation but "economic exploitation"—slum housing, overpriced food and low-wage jobs—"because someone profits from its existence."

These experiences led King to develop a more radical outlook. King supported President Johnson's declaration of the War on Poverty in 1964, but, like his friend and ally Walter Reuther, the president of the United Auto Workers, King thought that it did not go nearly far enough. He began talking openly about the need to confront "class issues," which he described as "the gulf between the haves and the have-nots."

In 1966 King confided to his staff: "You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."

King became increasingly committed to building bridges between the civil rights and labor movements. Invited to address the AFL-CIO's annual convention in 1961, King observed, "Our needs are identical with labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.

He continued: "The labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them."

In a 1961 speech to the Negro American Labor Council, King proclaimed, "Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children."

Speaking to a meeting of Teamsters union shop stewards in 1967, King said, "Negroes are not the only poor in the nation. There are nearly twice as many white poor as Negro, and therefore the struggle against poverty is not involved solely with color or racial discrimination but with elementary economic justice."

King's growing critique of capitalism coincided with his views about American imperialism. By 1965 he had turned against the Vietnam War, viewing it as an economic as well as a moral tragedy. But he was initially reluctant to speak out against the war. He understood that his fragile working alliance with LBJ would be undone if he challenged the president's leadership on the war. Although some of his close advisers tried to discourage him, he nevertheless made the break in April 1967, in a bold and prophetic speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, entitled "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence." King called America the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and linked the struggle for social justice with the struggle against militarism. King argued that Vietnam was stealing precious resources from domestic programs and that the Vietnam War was "an enemy of the poor." In his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967), King wrote, "The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America."

In early 1968, King told journalist David Halberstam, "For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of society, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you've got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values."

King kept trying to build a broad movement for economic justice that went beyond civil rights. In January, 1968, he announced plans for a Poor People's Campaign, a series of protests to be led by an interracial coalition of poor people and their allies among the middle-class liberals, unions, religious organizations and other progressive groups, to pressure the White House and Congress to expand the War on Poverty. At King's request, socialist activist Michael Harrington (author of The Other America, which helped inspire Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to declare a war on poverty) drafted a Poor People's Manifesto that outlined the campaign's goals. In April, King was in Memphis, Tennessee, to help lend support to striking African American garbage workers and to gain recognition for their union. There, he was assassinated, at age 39, on April 4, a few months before the first protest action of the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC.

President Johnson utilized this national tragedy to urge Congress to quickly enact the Fair Housing Act, legislation to ban racial discrimination in housing, which King had strongly supported for two years. He signed the bill a week after King's assassination.

Throughout his life, King had his moments of despair. He lamented that the factions within the civil rights movement undermined its potential. He was frustrated at the reluctance of some liberal politicians, including President Johnson, to fully embrace the freedom movement unless they were confronted with protests. He wondered whether he had the stamina needed to endure the constant travel, speeches, and threats on his life.

But King would have rejected the nihilism and fatalism of what is now called "Afro-Pessimism," a perspective that views American racism as so intractable that no movement for justice can redeem the nation's democracy, or its soul.

King would certainly be appalled by the recent upsurge of white supremacist and neo-fascist violence, catalyzed in part by Donald Trump. But he would recognize that they are the heirs of racist thugs like Bull Connor, George Wallace, the White Citizens Councils, and the Ku Klux Klan of his day.

If he were alive today, King would no doubt still be on the front lines, lending his voice and his energy to major battles for justice.

Voting rights: Along with other civil rights leaders, King fought hard to dismantle Jim Crow laws that kept blacks from voting. He was proud of his role in pushing Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965. He'd be outraged by the Supreme Court's rulings to weaken the law that, among other things, have increased the number of black voters and black elected officials. Today, he'd be fighting to stop voter suppression by Republican-controlled states—for example, by requiring photo IDs in order to vote, shrinking the early-voting period, and ending same-day voter registration and pre-registration for teenagers who will turn 18 by Election Day. He'd be mobilizing on behalf of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Gun violence: During the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, King faced constant death threats and feared for his family's life. He owned several guns and allowed armed guards to protect his home. But Bayard Rustin—a pacifist who was one of King's closest advisers—persuaded King to give up his guns and guards and embrace a nonviolent strategy.

King's commitment to nonviolence grew stronger as he grew older. After John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, King wrote: "By our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim, by allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is one who masters the art of shooting and the technique of killing, by allowing all these developments, we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes."

Today he would be pushing for tougher limits on gun ownership. He would have joined activists who are fighting to overturn states' shoot-first "stand your ground" laws and “open carry” laws. He would be calling on cities, colleges and churches to divest from companies that manufacture military-style assault weapons.

Mass incarceration: King recognized that the criminal justice system has long had a double standard when it comes to the treatment of black and white Americans. Today he would be joining groups like the ACLU and Black Lives Matter that have been protesting policies that have resulted in over two million Americans behind bars, many for nonviolent, minor offenses. He'd be supporting the growing number of progressive district attorneys and prison reformers who advocate for changing the cash bail system that ensnares innocent poor people behind bars. He'd be in the streets with activists and their allies demanding reforms to hold police accountable for racial profiling and the killing of unarmed Black Americans.

Income inequality and workers’ rights: King warned about the "gulf between the haves and the have-nots." That gulf has gotten wider. During the final few years of his life, King focused much of his energy on helping low-wage workers fight for rights and respect. His insistence that America needed a "better distribution of wealth" is even more timely today.

Today he would join the growing campaigns to unionize and improve pay and working conditions for workers who earn poverty-level wages. Raising the minimum wage was one of the more demands of the March on Washington. Today he might disrupt Walmart stockholder meetings to demand that the company pay employees a living wage, and join Amazon, Starbucks, and other workers on their picket lines for economic fairness. He'd also be vocal about raising the current federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, which Congress hasn't increased since 2009, to at least $15 an hour. He’d be pleased by a recent Gallup poll finding that 71 percent of Americans support unions—the highest level since 1965.

Women's reproductive freedom: In 1966, King was one of four recipients of Planned Parenthood's first Margaret Sanger Award, named for the group's founder, a pioneer in educating women about birth control. In accepting the award, King said that "there is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts." He noted how "at the turn of the century, she went into the slums and set up a birth-control clinic, and for this deed she went to jail because she was violating an unjust law. Yet the years have justified her actions."

King never spoke publicly about his views on abortion, and he was murdered five years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, but he was a fervent advocate for universal health care.

"Of all the forms of inequality," he said in 1966, "injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." Today, he’d be part of the movement to protect women's access to health care and reproductive freedom that are under attack by the U.S. Supreme Court, conservative governors and state legislators, and anti-abortion activists. He would be appalled by the Supreme Court’s ruling last year to overturn Roe v Wade. He's being linking arms with others to challenge those who are trying to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics.

Immigrant rights: King would be pleased by the ties between the civil rights and immigrant rights movements. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), one of the original Freedom Riders and a close King ally, once spoke at a rally and explained: "Martin Luther King would be very proud. We are white, black, Hispanic, Native American -- we are one family, in one house, and we are not going to let anybody turn us around."

King would be part of the broad coalition pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, energized by young activists who call themselves Dreamers, a term that evokes King's 1963 speech. Many of these young people share the values, culture and aspirations of other American youth, but they feel, as King described the typical African American 50 years ago, like “an exile in his own land.”

National spending priorities: King called for significant cuts to military spending in order to fund a comprehensive plan to create jobs, rebuild cities, improve schools and lift the poor out of destitution. Some ideas in the "domestic Marshall Plan" that King supported was evident in President Biden's Build Back Batter legislation, designed to address the overlapping issues of jobs, poverty, child care, and climate change, but King would embrace even bolder ideas promoted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Democratic Socialists of America.

Housing and predatory lending: Appalled by the slums, bank redlining, and blatant residential segregation in our major cities, especially in the North, King lobbied hard for anti-discrimination laws in the 1960s. Today, King would be equally outraged to learn that banks continue to discriminate against Black and Latino consumers. He’d be pleased by the Justice Department’s ruling this month to require the Los Angeles-based City National Bank to pay more than $31 million for refusing to underwrite mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities.

King would be outraged by the growing numbers of homeless Americans - many of whom have jobs - in our cities. As part of his crusade the change national priorities, he'd call on Congress to increase the federal budget for subsidized housing that has never recovered by the slashes of the Reagan era. He’d be pleased by the growing activism around housing insecurity around the country. He'd link arms with activists fighting for rent control in cities around the country, and push local and state governments to reform zoning laws to allow more affordable and mixed-income housing to be built, especially by nonprofit developers. He'd have embraced the labor and housing activists in Los Angeles who in November won a ballot measure (with 58% of the vote) to raise the real estate transfer tax on all commercial office and apartment buildings and single-family mansions that sell for over $5 million in order to create a $900 million a year fund for housing construction and rent relief.

LGBT equality: Typical of most Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, King did not approve of homosexuality, even though his close adviser Bayard Rustin was openly gay. But when some civil rights leaders objected to Rustin's role as the key organizer of the March on Washington, worried that it would tarnish the movement, King insisted that Rustin stay in the job.

Since the 1960s, public opinion toward gay Americans has shifted dramatically. Had King encountered more openly gay men and women, his views probably would have evolved as well. After all, when King spoke out against state laws banning interracial marriage in 1958, he sounded a lot like those who advocate for same-sex marriage today: "When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom."

Today, with the support of the NAACP and a growing number of black clergy members supporting gay rights, King would stand—and sit in when necessary—with the LGBT community to defend same-sex marriage and end other forms of discrimination against gay Americans.

Anti-Semitism: King had many Jewish friends and often expressed his appreciation for the close affinity between the black and Jewish communities. In 1958, speaking at a meeting of the American Jewish Congress, King said: “My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility. In 1964, King said: “It would be impossible to record the contribution that the Jewish people have made toward the Negro’s struggle for freedom — it has been so great.”

King would be appalled by the upsurge of anti-Semitic incidents -- including shooting deaths and attempted murders at synagogues, Jewish stores, and Jewish homes, and growing acceptance of anti-Jewish stereotypes — during the past few years. He would be speaking out about the rise of white-supremacist and anti-Semitic hate groups, on display in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, Colleyville, Texas, and many other cities, and emboldened by the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump.

The night before he was killed by an assassin, King spoke at a rally for the striking garbage workers in Memphis. He told the crowd about a bomb threat on his plane from Atlanta that morning, saying he knew that his life was in danger because of his political activism.

"I would like to live a long life," he said. "Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land."

We haven't gotten there yet. The best way to honor his memory is to continue his struggle for social justice.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Peter Dreier.

MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words

Democracy Now! — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:01:46 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

A Reminder King Called His Government: “The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World”

Jay Janson — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 09:07:24 +0000

What if someone of consequence and world attention, difficult for US monopolized and controlled media to ignore, reminded us that one year before receiving a bullet to his brain, King had made bold print headlines in newspapers worldwide reading, “KING CALLS US “GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD.¹

Would it not weaken US deep state media credibility as it tried to explain how this world-shaking event in the life of Martin Luther King has not been known by millions who celebrate his birthday as a national holiday for a great civil rights leader? — the only American, so honored.

That same morning in 1967, Wall Street-owned, CIA-controlled, TV and newspapers,² which had all defended, some even praising, the war in Vietnam, vilified King as a traitor to his country and an embarrassment to the African-American community for King’s condemning the American war in Vietnam as a series of inhuman murderous atrocities.¹

During the half-century since King’s murder in 1968, corporate media would block all reference to King’s 1967 “nightmare-ish” New York sermon condemning horrific wars meant to maintain US predatory overseas investments,³ and instead give high priority time to telecasting King’s four years earlier Washington sermon “I Have a Dream” over and over and over again. Thus now, in 2023, the minds of most Americans and even corporate media’s international audience, all attention is focused on King’s anti racism. King’s later world shaking condemnation of US wars for imperialist capitalism forgotten or unknown.

America’s many dozens of life-taking invasions and violent overthrows of Third World nations would be worthwhile remembering, especially today, while the overwhelming focus is on the Russian war in the Ukraine?

Why?

– The same great news and entertainment corporate conglomerates still hail the US-Vietnam War veterans as heroes, though during years of body counts, reports were very often around 15 Vietnamese bodies for each American body. – Seems insulting to citizens of Communist Vietnam, long a profitable US trading partner. In 1995, Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the US Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides — North and South.

– The same media now praises every veteran who invaded whichever small country as having served to protect Americans at home and to keep America free.

– The US government spends more money on weapons and preparations for war than the next highest spending eleven nations all together.

Although it has been referred to in many articles over the years, it is worth mentioning again that retired NATO Secretary General Wesley Clark revealed a memo from the Office of the US Secretary of Defense he was told about just a few weeks after 9/11. It revealed plans to “attack and destroy the governments in seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and moving on to “Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.” Clark argued this strategy was fundamentally about control of the region’s vast oil and gas resources. The wave of destruction and the death and maiming of millions spread across the Middle East and northern Africa by US/NATO military and US created terrorists is phenomenal.⁴
Americans betray Martin Luther King with their genocidal bombings and invasions in the 3rd World.
A looming future US war with China is already being discussed openly.
King’s assassination has been sold as racist, but investments in the Vietnam War were enormous and King was organizing a second March on Washington linking the war to poverty and racism in America. Although James Earl Ray was convicted in 1969 for the murder of King, little mention is made that three decades later a Memphis jury deemed the United States government “guilty of conspiring to assassinate Dr. King Jr.” On December 8, 1999, 12 jurists unanimously rendered their verdict after a four-week civil trial of listening to more than 70 witnesses’ testimonies. It was determined that “local, state and federal U.S government agencies, and the Mafia, were all involved.” How ironic that 54 years after King was shot in Memphis, the very same government which now honors Dr. King with a national holiday, has been found, in a court of law, responsible for his assassination.
As to Russia’s replacing the US government as the worst ‘Purveyor of Violence,’ Putin’s massive misbegotten death-dealing crime against humanity in invading the Ukraine has given the criminally insane investors in war headquartered on Wall Street, who control the USA and and to some degree the great part of the world it has hegemony over, a perfect scenario for the war with Russia they have been so eagerly promoting and preparing for.

If someone reminded us that King called his Government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,“ there would certainly be differing reactions by various sectors of the public both in the United States and abroad, and US media would have difficulty explaining how such an American hero could have once castigated and condemned by his American government so severely. Followers of Dr. King might well come to have an incentive to learn more about their government’s wars, both past and present. For example:

Why “Ukraine’s European Lives Matter! Iraqi Vietnamese Asian MidEast African Latin Lives Didn’t!,” and still Don’t! Intense media coverage showing compassion for the thousands of Ukrainians killed is very humane. Little or no Western media attention for the many millions of lives taken by US/NATO in Asia, Africa, MidEast and Latin America is cruel and heartless. It is being noticed outside the US and Europe.

“Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence” sermon delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City.
“Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A,” New York Times, December 26, 1977.
“Look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of these countries. This is a role our nation has taken, … refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments … This is not just … our alliance with the landed gentry of South America, ‘This is not just.'”
ISIS IS US: The Shocking Truth: Behind the Army of Terror, Progressive Press, October 2016. A panel of cutting-edge researchers tell what ISIS really is.

The post A Reminder King Called His Government: “The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World” first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Jay Janson.

They Never Tire of Abusing Dr. King

Tom H. Hastings — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 06:10:29 +0000

From the Dept. of Horrible Chutzpah During the fight over the new House Speaker election, Congress member Chip Roy (R-TX), who voted against the anti-lynching act last March, had the immoral temerity to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He did so as he explained how he was positioning himself to the hardliner right of More

The post They Never Tire of Abusing Dr. King appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Tom H. Hastings.

Martin Luther King Day: Every Day is On!

Paul Haeder — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 01:57:22 +0000

Of course, King was murdered by the Deep State on Steroids:

Both the Jowers and the Wilson allegations suggest that persons other than or in addition to James Earl Ray participated in the assassination. Ray, within days of entering his guilty plea in 1969, attempted to withdraw it. Until his death in April 1998, he maintained that he did not shoot Dr. King and was framed by a man he knew only as Raoul. For 30 years, others have similarly alleged that Ray was Raoul’s unwitting pawn and that a conspiracy orchestrated Dr. King’s murder. These varied theories have generated several comprehensive government investigations regarding the assassination, none of which confirmed the existence of any conspiracy. However, in King v. Jowers, a recent civil suit in a Tennessee state court, a jury returned a verdict finding that Jowers and unnamed others, including unspecified government agencies, participated in a conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King. (source)

I know King would be with class criticizing this sort of 2023 Black Un-Activism: Here’s What Black Celebrities Wore To The 2023 Golden Globes

Boy, what would King Say — WWKS?

“Volodymyr Zelensky Talks Hopes of War Ending During Golden Globes Video Message: ‘There Will Be No Third World War. It is not a trilogy,’ the Ukraine president said in his impact video message.”

Think of that Goebbels-Mengele-Hitler moment, would you? I had a friend who was watching these multimillionaire frauds, the beautiful people (sic) would laugh at her and at me — she’s going through domestic violence hell, divorce hell, with systems that make the victim feel and be guilty. Me? I can write circles around most of those Holly-Dirt frauds, but alas, I am a communist, so, those frauds wouldn’t touch me with a social distancing stick of a thousand yars while all masked up and girdled up with a ZioAzovNaziLensky blue and yellow half assed flak jacket.

Imagine, how many Goyim, Gentiles, even Christians (not all UkroNazi’s are hard-core Nazis and Satanists) are not dead and wounded in the latest meat grinder the little dictator Zelensky is heading up? And he spoke to the Golden Shower Award Recepients while they, 12,000 were KIA-ed and another 13,000 wounded? Some of the UkroNazi soldiers had frostbite on many many feet and toes and fingers, while the multimillionaire war monger, Zelensky, spoke to the cocaine and 12-step Botox folk.

You think King would be angry?

No message of peace from Julian Assange’s wife or father? No real heroes of peace and reconciliation speaking at the dumb-down awards. No heroines of journalism at the awards, uh?

“A major effect of junk politics — its ceaseless flood of patriotic, religious, macho and therapeutic fustian — is to pull position after position loose from reasoned foundations,” writer BenjaminDeMott noted (Hedges and Hedges).

And so, all the creeps in politics, all the heads of corporations, the heads of universities, even military generals, and of course, the Press, Media, they are all two-bit actors, like ZioAzovNaziLensky. (Note: I went to the story on Golden Globes ZioLensky appearance, and it is absolutely disgusting. Sean Penn said the most ludicrous thing, and ZioAzovLensky said nothing, really, pure tripe. Read at your onw risk, and, of course, WWKD — What Would King Do?

And that my kind readers, I know for a fact, would be putting steam under King’s collar if he were around today to see this complete blasphemy of humanity actually entertaining nuclear war, limited strikes, and more war here, there, and everywhere. And a mixed race woman, as VP!

Here, enough of these fascists and perversions of humanity.

King:

The following (scroll down a bit) ran today, Jan. 11, in the little twice-a-week rag out here on the Central Oregon Coast —

It’s mellow for me, not exactly milquetoast, but still the reality if this USA and Canada are racist countries based on Anglo Saxon invasions and pogroms of genocide and land theft and subjugation and insanity. Get those Puritans and Smith Colony and Pilgrims and Mayflower folk here so the City of London to this day can hold it’s genocidal sway over much of the world, even in this post/new colonialism.

From Zinn’s People’s History of the United States: In that first year of the white man in Virginia, 1607, Powhatan had addressed a plea to John Smith that turned out prophetic. How authentic it is may be in doubt, but it is so much like so many Indian statements that it may be taken as, if not the rough letter of that first plea, the exact spirit of it:

I have seen two generations of my people the…. I know the difference between peace and war better than any man in my country. I am now grown old, and must the soon; my authority must descend to my brothers, Opitehapan, Opechancanough and Catatough-then to my two sisters, and then to my two daughters-I wish them to know as much as I do, and that your love to them may be like mine to you. Why will you take by force what you may have quietly by love? Why will you destroy us who supply you with food? What can you get by war? We can hide our provisions and run into the woods; then you will starve for wronging your friends. Why are you jealous of us? We are unarmed, and willing to give you what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner, and not so simple as not to know that it is much better to eat good meat, sleep comfortably, live quietly with my wives and children, laugh and be merry with the English, and trade for their copper and hatchets, than to run away from them, and to lie cold in the woods, feed on acorns, roots and such trash, and be so hunted that 1 can neither eat nor sleep. In these wars, my men must sit up watching, and if a twig break, diey all cry out “Here comes Captain Smith!” So I must end my miserable life. Take away your guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy, or you may all the in the same manner.

When the Pilgrims came to New England they too were coming not to vacant land but to territory inhabited by tribes of Indigenous peoples. The governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, created the excuse to take Indigenous land by declaring the area legally a “vacuum.” The Indians, he said, had not “subdued” the land, and therefore had only a “natural” right to it, but not a “civil right.” A “natural right” did not have legal standing.

The Puritans also appealed to the Bible, Psalms 2:8: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” And to justify their use of force to take the land, they cited Romans 13:2: “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”

*****

Heroes — A million of them, but for now, Paul Robeson, King and Malcolm X (NPR, be careful):

King would be proud of this hero,

Ana Belen Montes has repeated history by saying what she said during her trial 21 years ago: the US government’s policies against Cuba are very harsh and she behaved according to her conscience rather than the law. She added: “I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it.”

If alive, King would be protesting and getting jailed for this hero:

The U.S. imperialists “want Alex Saab like they want Julian Assange to suffer,” charges human rights and international law expert Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, who the United Nations’ Human Rights Council appointed to serve as a special rapporteur.

What is the great “crime” Alex Saab is accused of committing, that caused this South American diplomat to be physically pulled off of a jet while refueling at a remote African island, imprisoned, and reportedly tortured there for about a year before being kidnapped to the U.S.A.?

The U.S. has no extradition treaty with Cabo Verde. Saab was simply seized and flown to Miami without any notification to his lawyers or family. (Source)

And, King, if he were alive, what might he have been doing to free and condemn USA-UK-Sweden-Australia-The World for this hero? Assange.

King would be holding this book, and thousands of others, exposing the cruelty of Capitalism and USA:

Part One of review and discussion of Linda G. Ford’s Women Politicals in America: Jailed Dissenters from Mother Jones to Lynne Stewart (Part Two)

I was born a protester … My mother had to go to the school a lot and talk to the principal.— Dorli Rainey

I am being jailed because I have advocated change for equality, justice, and peace. … I stand where thousands of abolitionists, escaped slaves, workers and political activists have stood for demanding justice, for refusing to either quietly bear the biting lash of domination or to stand by silently as others bear the same lash.— Marilyn Buck, at her 1990 sentencing (epigram in Linda Ford’s book, Women Politicals in America)

Yeah, I sure do miss King as a topic in schools, as a centerpoint to our thinking about war and materialism and predatory and parasitic capitalism! Here, today’s Op-Ed in our small rural county, Lincoln County!

A Day On, Not a Day Off

MLK Jr. 56 years ago stated a point more relevant today than a half century ago: The systemic flaws of America have incubated the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”

This MLK Jr. Day was so deemed by Congress in 1994 to mark the holiday as “a national day of service.” Martin Luther King was born Jan. 15, 1929. I’ve done plenty of service-in-service-community service projects with students over the 29 years of the day’s relevance: river clean-ups, working in food kitchens, getting blankets and tents to homeless folk, cleaning up graffiti, and having teach-ins and drive-by photo shoots of neighborhoods.

Here’s this German-Irish white guy (me) today writing about the power of not just King and his activism, but the power of so many people in the civil rights and anti-racist movement who transformed my point of view on so many global and national social justice issues.

In addition, King, for me, would not be so vaunted without my study of Malcolm X. Or Paul Robeson, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and so many activists in the Black Liberation Movement.

For this county [with 89.1% white, .09 percent African American, 1.5 percent Asian, and then 4.1 percent American Indian and Alaska Native], the concept of not just celebrating King, but drilling down deeply into what he represents/-ed might fall on deaf ears. Putting him into historical context, i.e. learning about those around him before he rose to fame and afterward, adds to the value of King’s prominence.

I had a father who was shot in Korea as a 19 year old and then in Vietnam as a 36 year old. He was in two branches of military as a regular uniformed soldier; for 32 years total. He was always supportive of my journalism, my teaching, my college pursuits, but more importantly, he backed me on my activism. He was a student of history, and the history I embraced wasn’t what mainstream historians were delving into.

For example: Cesar Chavez and his work — National Farm Workers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers labor union. John Trudell, son of a Santee Dakota father and a Mexican mother, who was a poet, song writer, performer and activist.

In this county and in other places, just what does it mean to a majority of the country to give pause around King’s work? The “I Have a Dream” speech will be played in parts, over and over. I have emphasized his letter to clergy and other white leaders, in his jailhouse essay titled, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written in longhand April 15, 1963.

King’s letter: “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known.”

He also penned from the jail, “The Negro is Your Friend.”

This third Monday in January marks the birth of Dr. King Jr. We need to go beyond a few lines played back from the “Dream” speech or some of the black and white images of his 1963 march on Washington

Throughout my college teaching – in heavily military populated El Paso, Tucson, Las Cruces, and Spokane, including instruction on military bases and posts – I got students to think deeper about King’s life, work, and teachings. Having students read, analyze and discuss his April 4, 1967 speech against the Vietnam War, delivered at New York’s Riverside Church a year to the day before he was assassinated, I ended up rallying sophisticated critiques of King’s impact on the USA.

It was the Vietnam War in King’s time, but my students were facing the Panama Invasion, Grenada, Kuwait, Iraq, contras in Nicaragua, dirty US-backed wars in Guatemala, Afghanistan, and so many other so-called interventions and these proxy wars. Some were Vietnam and Korea combat veterans.

This speech was eviscerated by mainstream Press, including the New York Times and dozens of large daily newspapers. That was the point of having this speech and the Jail speech looked at and parsed – self-critique as a people, as a nation.

King’s first point in drawing the connection between ending racism at home and curbing militarism abroad had to do with the waste of precious resources:

“I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.”

My father was his soldiers’ advocate, having verbally defied some of the businesses in the South that refused to serve his fellow uniformed men in the Big Red One (Latino and Black Americans).

I never got to challenge my CW4 father with so much of history I absorbed. For instance, Costs of War Project at Brown University estimates that the United States is militarily still engaged in 85 countries, enabling or prosecuting wars in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and beyond. Maintaining over 750 overseas military bases have unfortunately spun spending for military purposes out of control, more than at the height of the Vietnam or Korean Wars.

If Dr. King were alive today, he would be expounding against the state of our foreign and domestic policies, and would despair at all this war mongering, especially now with China in America’s sights. An arms race with China is anathema to King’s hopes and dreams of a socially, economically and culturally just world.

King was the antiwar preacher, and he is so right about those triplets – militarism, materialism and racism.

The post Martin Luther King Day: Every Day is On! first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Paul Haeder.

Veterans Understand Martin Luther King Jr’s Powerful Demand for Peace

James Rothenberg — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 15:21:58 +0000

Veterans Day celebrations have come and gone. One thing about veterans: Everyone's for them. But what does that really encompass? How did they get here? And what of the veterans to come?

The World Veterans Federation (WVF) is an international network comprised of 172 veterans organizations from 121 countries representing about 60 million veterans worldwide. It acts as a humanitarian, peace, and justice advocate not just for veterans but for victims of war. Out of those 121 countries with 60 million veterans, one country contains about 19 million — over 30% — of all the world’s veterans. That’s the United States.

Why so many? The U.S. represents only 4.25% of the world’s population. That outsize representation, where we dramatically outnumber other countries in producing veterans, is repeated in our jails where we imprison more than 20% of the entire world’s prison population and repeated in our routine gun shootings where we own 42% of the world’s privately held guns.

Veterans For Peace (a U.S. member of WVF), was formed in 1985. Odds are you’ve never heard of it. It suffers from a lack of recognition, particularly among members of Congress, precisely because it stands in opposition to US wars of aggression (Iraq in 2003 as characterized by Kofi Annan).

It’s irrational to honor veterans and create them simultaneously. Over 99% of our living veterans have not fought in defensive wars! It matters when veterans are created in wars for an unspecified (or bogus) national interest. This is not a trivial point.

Foreign policy is a blind spot for Americans. This became part of Martin Luther King’s message. He said if you want to understand what’s taking place in America, look past that to what America is doing overseas. The military violence we sow overseas mirrors the violence of the oppressed here at home.

King did not merely have a dream on the Washington Mall. If that was all there was to it, he wouldn’t have become an enemy of the state. He audaciously demanded of his country social and economic justice. Without realizing the enormous compliment it was paying Karl Marx and communism, the state regarded him as a communist for demanding such things. Which is the more radical? Asking for this, or denying it.

It’s over half a century since King’s assassination, martyred at the age of 39. We exploit his memory each year with a national holiday bearing his name, but we have not moved an inch closer to remodeling our country on the world stage to exemplify what it could be like at home.

Unless we are truly defending our country—and not for the so-called national interest that represents the class interests of the one percent—the best way to honor veterans is not with 10% off and thank you for your service. Peace, not war, is the way to honor the sacrifices of veterans. This is the central theme of Veterans For Peace.

For possible change, these things must be demanded, but who gets to make demands on Washington? The top one percent own 32.3% of the country’s wealth, against the bottom fifty percent owning a mere 2.6%. Half the country owns practically nothing.

It takes the totality of the bottom ninety percent, owning 30.2%, to approach the wealth of the one percent. Of course this has no affect on the balance of power. The bottom ninety percent are so divided it’s not funny, and even if they weren't, they don't run anything. The well-off section between 91 and 99% doesn't run anything either. The top 1%—although not necessarily agreeing with one another—run the country.

As far as the general public is concerned, placing faith in the U.S. Supreme Court is bound to disappoint. For much of its history, it’s been on the wrong side of the people. Whatever else can be said about it, our recent conservative court is being faithful to its roots. For example, the Citizens United ruling enables the 1% (corporations , plutocrats, and Wall Street) to spend unlimited funds on elections. There’s a straight line from this to the founding fathers’ enshrinement of property rights (land, capital, patriarchy, slaves) in our Constitution. That’s what they wanted.

John Jay—founding father, co-author of the Federalist Papers, and first U.S. Chief Justice—expressed the principle very clearly: "Those who own the country ought to govern it." For all the lip service about democracy, that’s the way it was designed, and that’s the way it’s been.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by James Rothenberg.

The King and the Champ: More Than Just Sports Icons

Daniel Warner — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 06:51:49 +0000

The recent death of Pelé has elicited universal admiration for him as a player and person. Considered the greatest soccer player of all time, he was eulogized well beyond his native Brazil. (Pelé was declared an “official national treasure” in 1961 by the Brazilian government to prevent him from being transferred to a foreign club.) Pelé’s More

The post The King and the Champ: More Than Just Sports Icons appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Daniel Warner.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir Postpones Visit to Al-Aqsa Amid Warnings That ‘People Will Die’

Brett Wilkins — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 21:21:38 +0000

Israel's far-right national security minister on Monday postponed a planned visit Islam's third-holiest site amid warnings from the country's opposition leader and Palestinian officials that such a trip would have deadly consequences.

The Times of Israel reports Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir temporarily put off a promised visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem—which sits on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site since biblical times—after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party.

The previous day, Ben-Gvir vowed to visit the contested site—which has been illegally occupied by Israel for over half a century—sometime this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yair Lapid, who stepped down as Israel's prime minister last week and now leads the opposition, said Monday that "Itamar Ben-Gvir must not go up to Temple Mount. It is a deliberate provocation that will put lives in danger and cost lives."

Lapid, of the liberal Yesh Atid party, added that Netanyahu must tell Ben-Gvir: "'You are not going to the Temple Mount. People will die.'"

\u201cBen Gvir's planned assault/visit to Haram al Sharif is a deliberate provocation against Palestinian Muslims. Can you imagine an evangelical telling a synagogue it belonged to him & he planned to pray in its sanctuary? https://t.co/Oecb55actI\u201d
— Tikun Olam (@Tikun Olam) 1672659152

However, Ben-Gvir, who is also the leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, declared that "no one will threaten us or tell us anything."

"The Temple Mount is the holiest place for the people of Israel. We will not give up on any place in the land of Israel," he continued.

"I'm against the racist policy at the Temple Mount, as well as the racism against Jews," added Ben-Gvir—who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which governs Gaza, warned Monday that it "won't sit idly by" if Ben-Gvir visits Al-Aqsa.

Middle East Eyereports Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanua called the planned visit "another example of the arrogance of the settler government and their future plans to damage and divide Al-Aqsa mosque."

"The Palestinian resistance will not allow the neo-fascist occupation government to cross the red lines and encroach on our people and our sanctities," he added.

\u201c'There is no doubt that this is a very volatile situation' \n\nPolitical Correspondent Batya Levinthal has the latest from #Jerusalem after PM #Netanyahu asked National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to postpone his planned visit to the Temple Mount \n\n#i24NEWSDesk | @benitalevin\u201d
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS English) 1672676802

Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Zvika Fogel—a former Israel Defense Forces brigadier general who in 2018 advocated killing Palestinian children—said that Ben-Gvir "will visit the Temple Mount whenever he sees fit."

"We shouldn't treat his visit as something that will lead to an escalation," he added. "Why not see it as part of realizing our sovereignty?"

Under an Israeli-enforced policy, only Muslims are permitted to pray at Al-Aqsa. Jews and others are allowed to visit during assigned times and under strict restrictions.

Last year, attacks on the compound by Israeli occupation forces and settler-colonists wounded hundreds of Palestinians.

Ben-Gvir—who believes Isreal's founders "didn't finish the job" of ethnically cleansing all Arabs from Palestine—has visited Al-Aqsa several times while serving in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. He also led an October 2022 Jewish supremacist march through the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, where he brandished a pistol and threatened to "mow down" Palestinians protesting the ethnic cleansing of their neighborhood.

"We have to be concerned about next intifada."

King Abdullah of Jordan—whose Hashemite monarchy has had custodianship of Jerusalem's holy sites for nearly 99 years—toldCNN last week that "I always like to believe that, let's look at the glass half full, but we have certain red lines. And if people want to push those red lines, then we will deal with that."

"We have to be concerned about next intifada," the king continued, referring to the mass Palestinian uprisings that occurred from 1987-93 and again from 2000-05. The second intifada erupted after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon (Likud) visited Al-Aqsa.

"If that happens, that's a complete breakdown of law and order and one that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians will benefit from," Abdullah added. "I think there is a lot of concern from all of us in the region, including those in Israel that are on our side on this issue, to make sure that doesn't happen."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

Pelé family members recall ‘big heart’ of football’s king, who inspired generations

Monica Grayley — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 21:56:01 +0000

The son and former wife of Brazilian football legend Pelé, have been talking to UN News about the father and husband they knew, recalling his big but soft heart - and love for children from all walks of life across the country.

His son, Joshua Nascimento joined his mother, Assíria Lemos, in conversation with Monica Grayley, head of our Portuguese service, to talk about the legacy of the footballing great and three-time World Cup winner, who died in hospital in Sao Paulo, on Thursday.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Monica Grayley.

Trump is Still the Demon King of US Politics

Patrick Cockburn — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 07:01:46 +0000

The Republicans may have the worst of all possible worlds: a Trump too powerful to displace as party leader because he has the support of party activists; but, come election day, a leader who alienates more voters than he attracts, and is becoming an in-house political Jonah, ensuring the Republicans’ continued under-performance in future elections. More

The post Trump is Still the Demon King of US Politics appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Patrick Cockburn.

Cambodia’s publicity shy king forced into center of political fracas

RFA Khmer — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 14:34:07 +0000

As he approaches two decades on a powerless throne, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni has found himself caught in a political fight between the country’s long-time strongman and a former opposition leader forced into exile.

The dispute, which began with a public mudslinging between Prime Minister Hun Sen and his political nemesis, Sam Rainsy, over who had betrayed the nation, has put a spotlight on the European-educated former dance instructor, who as king has preferred to remain in the shadows.

“I believe that King Norodom Sihamoni did not want the honor or fame as his predecessors. He did not have such ambition or greed,” Oum Daravuth, who is one of Norodom Sihamoni’s advisers, told RFA. “The king does not want his name to be as famous as others. He just wants to live in hiding; he does not want anything else.”

But the fight between Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy has broader implications than who wins a war of words. Hun Sen has threatened to dissolve the little that remains of his political opposition, which traces its roots to Rainsy, less than a year out from a national election.

It has also revived a debate over the 69-year-old’s rightful role as the constitutional monarch of a fractured parliamentary system that has been slowly deconstructed under Hun Sen’s rule.

While the king is legally required to reign as national figurehead and leave governing to the National Assembly and the prime minister’s Council of Ministers, some in the opposition have called upon Sihamoni over the years to challenge Hun Sen’s repression of their ranks.

But the king has rarely even responded to such requests, instead mostly remaining inside the royal palace, quiet and out of view.

Upon taking the throne in 2004, the king had pledged to remain close to the people of Cambodia and serve out his days promoting national unity.

“I will never live apart from the beloved people,” Sihamoni said. “The Royal Palace will remain a transparent house and, for me, there will never be an ivory tower. Every week, I will devote several days to visiting our towns, our countryside and our provinces, and to serving you.”

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni greets Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen during the annual Water Festival on the Tonle Sap river in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 10, 2019. Credit: Reuters

The quiet king

Sihamoni comes from a family that claims lineage back to the “god kings” of Angkor, when the Khmer Empire ruled much of Southeast Asia before being forced under Siamese, Vietnamese and eventually French rule.

His father, the late King Norodom Sihanouk, was also known as the “father of independence” for overseeing Cambodia’s 1953 breakaway from French colonial rule. Sihanouk later led the 1980s shadow government that opposed the Vietnamese occupation, after its army had driven the Khmer Rouge from power, and fought a civil war against Hun Sen’s government before the 1991 U.N.-brokered peace restored elections.

Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 to ensure he had a say in choosing his successor. Prince Norodom Ranariddh, whose party won the U.N.-run 1993 elections but was forced into a coalition with Hun Sen, reportedly wanted the throne, but Hun Sen preferred Sihamoni.

Lesser known than his politician half-brother at the time, Sihamoni, who was born in May 1953, had previously served as Cambodia’s UNESCO ambassador and lived in France, where he taught classical dance. As a young boy, he had been sent to study music and dance in Prague, and earned a master’s degree from the city’s Musical Art Academy.

In 1975, the year the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, Sihamoni went to North Korea to study filmmaking. But he soon returned to Phnom Penh, where he was kept prisoner in the royal palace with his father and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath until Pol Pot’s regime fell in 1979.

Since assuming the throne, the son has embodied the principle enshrined in the 1993 Constitution that the king “shall reign but shall not rule.”

Cambodia’s unequivocal ruler has been Hun Sen for more than three decades, and he has recently announced plans to keep that power in the family, pushing his son Hun Manet as successor after 2028.

Self-exiled Cambodian opposition party founder Sam Rainsy speaks during an interview at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 10, 2019. Credit: Reuters

The ‘t’ word

The recent trouble started when Rainsy said on RFA’s Oct. 25 nightly program that the king’s acquiescence to Hun Sen’s rule — and, in particular, decisions made in 2005 and 2019 to cede territory claimed by some Cambodians to neighboring Vietnam — made him an accomplice to “treason.”

“What Hun Sen uses as a ploy is to force the king to support his treason. If the king yields to Hun Sen's intimidation, and turns to support Hun Sen's treason, the king must be responsible,” he said. “If it was me, I would have abdicated, because I must not be intimidated by Hun Sen.”

Rainsy, who in 2015 fled Cambodia to his home in Paris after the government reignited a 2011 defamation conviction against him, said on RFA that Sihamoni’s faintheartedness would be long remembered.

“It is dangerous for our nation that you turned out to be a rubber stamp for the traitor,” Rainsy said. “It means you contributed to committing treason, for which you must be responsible before the Khmer nation and history.”

In response, Hun Sen called for Cambodians to “stand up to oppose this traitor and any party that dares to connect with this traitor,” alluding to the Candlelight Party, which was once named the Sam Rainsy Party. The prime minister has since called on members of the party to denounce their former leader, or risk their party being banned from politics.

“We must do so in order to defend the monarchy,” he said.

Prince Sisowath Thomico [right], a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, speaks to supporters during a demonstration at the Freedom Park in Phnom Penh on April 24, 2013. Credit: AFP

Border disputes

Large stretches of the 1,270-kilometer border between Cambodia and Vietnam have remained poorly demarcated since the colonial period, when both countries were part of French Indochina. Efforts to strictly define the boundaries are highly politicized and have been complicated by a belief among some Cambodians that Vietnam wants to take over their country.

Hun Sen’s personal history — as a fluent Vietnamese-speaking former communist — has fed into concerns about borders. In 2005, a “supplemental border treaty” recodified controversial treaties Hun Sen’s government signed in the 1980s — during Vietnam’s post-Khmer Rouge military occupation of Cambodia — to cede disputed territory to Hanoi.

In his first year as king, Sihamoni had initially demurred on signing the law, citing his father’s opposition. But he relented when Hun Sen threatened to create a republic.

Another treaty was then signed in 2019 that further solidified the earlier treaties, with Cambodia’s opposition again criticizing the law on the basis that it legitimized treaties signed during Vietnamese occupation.

The king as a pawn

Lao Mong Hay, a political analyst who previously served as an adviser to Kem Sokha, a co-founder with Rainsy of the Cambodia National Rescue Party that was dissolved in 2017, said the dust-up shows how political figures tend to try to use the king to further their own interests.

“It appears like such respect exists only as lip service, when one says they respect the king or follows the king’s ideas,” Mong Hay said.

It made little sense to suddenly bring the king into a political fight when both sides refused to “collaborate” with him, Mong Hay said.

That alone ought to shield the king from criticism leveled by politicians, who should focus on each other and keep the king above politics, said Prince Sisowath Thomico, a nephew and adopted son of Sihanouk and a former member of the outlawed Cambodia National Rescue Party.

“There’s extremism on both sides, frankly. Both from Prime Minister Hun Sen, who quarreled with Sam Rainsy, and Sam Rainsy, who went to quarrel with Prime Minister Hun Sen,” Thomico said. “All of this reflects extremism, and we will not be able to lead the nation with extremism.”

Son Soubert, a former member of Cambodia’s Constitutional Council who heads the king’s advisory council, said whatever criticisms are leveled against him, Sihamoni was not likely to enter the political fray.

“He never wanted to ascend the throne, but because there was no one else, he had to ascend to the throne,” Soubert said. “He knows his role, and he knows his duty clearly: that he may fulfill his duties as permitted by the Constitution until the day he stops existing on this planet.”

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Alex Willemyns.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

King Charles accused of helping BP ‘greenwash’ its image with royal seal

Dimitris Dimitriadis, Ben Webster — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:17:51 +0000

The oil giant was recognised by the Sustainable Markets Initiative – despite missing out on top sustainability score

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Dimitris Dimitriadis, Ben Webster.

Ishmael Kalsakau elected Vanuatu PM, applause for Gloria King swearing in

APR editor — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 10:26:27 +0000

By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific reporter, and Hilaire Bule, RNZ correspondent in Port Vila

Ishmael Kalsakau was elected today unopposed as the 13th Prime Minister of the republic of Vanuatu by secret ballot.

Kalsakau was elected by the 52 members of the country’s Parliament.

“Thank you, thank you for the election,” Kalsakau said after the vote.

READ MORE: Other reports on the Vanuatu elections

The former prime minister and president of the Vanua’aku Party, Bob Loughman, stood up at the session and said his group had no candidate to put forward for prime minister but would vote for Kalsakau.

Under the national constitution, a prime minister must be elected by a secret ballot even if standing unopposed.

Kalsakau was elected by 50 votes, with two invalid votes.

At the time of his election the new coalition government led by Prime Minister Kalsakau was composed of eight political parties and no independents.

About the new PM
This is Ishmael Kalsakau’s first time as prime minister of Vanuatu.

He was deputy prime minister in the last government.

Kalsakau is a lawyer by profession. Before his involvement in politics, he served as the Attorney-General of Vanuatu.

He originates from a small island in Port Vila Harbor, Ifira, and went to Malapoa College.

Kalsakau is the younger brother of the Paramount Chief of Ifira, Matoi Kalsakau.

He is not the first prime minister from Ifira.

This honour is held by Barak Sope who was prime minister from 1999 to 2001.

Kalsakau and his soon to be formed cabinet step into their roles at a crucial time for Vanuatu as the heavily tourism dependent country emerges from the pandemic.

His priorities will be spelt out when the government is fully formed, he said in an interview following the first session of Parliament.

First session of Parliament
Elected representatives from both camps emerged from coalition talks to take their oaths at the first parliamentary session.

It follows last month’s snap election which was triggered by the dissolution of Parliament on August 18 on the eve of a vote of no confidence in the former prime minister Bob Loughman led by former opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu.

In the lead up to today’s sitting, Regenvanu’s camp had strong numbers — with 30 MPs on his side.

But before stepping foot in Parliament the consensus was that Ishmael Kalsakau be put up to lead the government, said Vanuatu Broadcasting Corporation senior journalist Simo Warijo.

On the floor, empty seats were noticeable on Bob Loughman’s side.

Despite Kalsakau’s landslide victory, Loughman walked into Parliament with 22 people in his camp.

Numbers do not lie
Prime Minister Ishmael Kalaskau is the leader of the Union of Moderate Parties and secured seven seats in the snap election, equal highest with former prime minister Bob Loughman’s Vanua’aku Pati.

In comparison, Ralph Regenvanu’s Graon mo Jastis Pati only managed to secure four seats.

Vanuatu’s Gloria Julia King being sworn in . . . she is Vanuatu’s first woman MP in more than 14 years. Image: VBTC/Ralph Regenvanu

MP Gloria King takes first oath
Rapturous applause filled the house this morning as Gloria Julia King, the only woman MP to be elected to Vanuatu’s Parliament since 2008, stepped up to take the first oath:

“I King Gloria Julia, having been elected member of Parliament, I do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the republic of Vanuatu…”

King has also been appointed third Deputy Speaker, a significant role for a first-time MP.

Simeon returned as Speaker
The former Speaker, Seoule Simeon, has been reelected by the new MPs.

He is the MP for Epi constituency and was nominated by former prime minister Bob Loughman’s coalition.

His contender for the job was MP for Port Vila constituency Ulrick Sumpton, who was nominated by former opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu’s camp.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Ishmael Kalsakau elected Vanuatu PM, applause for Gloria King swearing in

APR editor — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 10:26:27 +0000

By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific reporter, and Hilaire Bule, RNZ correspondent in Port Vila

Ishmael Kalsakau was elected today unopposed as the 13th Prime Minister of the republic of Vanuatu by secret ballot.

Kalsakau was elected by the 52 members of the country’s Parliament.

“Thank you, thank you for the election,” Kalsakau said after the vote.

READ MORE: Other reports on the Vanuatu elections