The Release Of Some Bile.

        This little piece is just the release of some bile that has been bothering me for some time now.

       Europe, one of the supposed centres of the civilised world, an extremely wealthy enclave. The usual story put about of how the Europeans came so wealthy is that here was the heart of the industrial world, a continent of hard working intelligent people who introduced the world to a multitude of inventive industrial processes.
        Of course this mythical history of Europe, is built on a series of massive lies. The wealth of Europeans, was 100% built on savage brutality. We Europeans sailed forth and landed on a continent we called America, plunder it is lands and brutally killed its people, genocide was the foundation of the wealth that flowed from there to Europe, bolstered by the savage growth of slavery. It is estimated the the indigenous population varied between 5 million and 15 million, but by the end of the "Indian Wars" it had dropped to a little over a quarter of a million. We arrogantly rampaged through Arab Africa treating the indigenous population as lower animals slaughtering where we felt necessary, to allow us to plunder their resources. Sub-Sahara didn’t escape the European blood lust, we moved into a land where people had live for countless centuries and called it ours. Any resistance to this mindset was met with savage slaughter and genocide. In that vast and ancient country of India, once again we moved in, called it ours and subjected its people the some of the most horrifying slaughter imaginable, countless millions dying as our iron grip milked the country for the benefit of the wealthy Europeans, in this case mainly British. China wasn’t over looked in the European arrogant attitude of superiority, Asia and China received the same treatment as we intended to call the part of the world ours, and plunder with impunity. As usual local resistance would be met with the customary European savagery.
        The wealth of the Europeans is soaked in blood, for centuries we have prospered on the suffering and death of countless millions, and most of the conflicts across the planet today, are actions of that arrogant bunch of Europeans, (of course that includes those who settled in America), as they try to hold onto what they see as their right to plunder and control the world’s resources. Nothing has changed in the arrogant attitude of the established wealth of the Europeans, and nothing will change until we recognise that no group has the right to dominate any other group. Nothing will change until we get rid of this unjust system of arrogant wealth and power accumulation, and replace it with a system of social justice, a system built on sustainability and the needs of all our people.
Burrp. 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Co-ordinated State Repression, A Sign Of Their Weakness.

      Repression against anarchists by the various states, is nothing new, but what we can say is in recent years the various states have increased this repression. From America, to Indonesia, from Russia to Europe, there appears to be a more co-ordinated attack on anarchist individuals and groups. We can take it that the more severe the repression, is a sign that the various states feel more threatened and vulnerable. All the more reason to increase our presence by increased actions and literature, to bring awareness of anarchism to an ever widening section of the public at large.

 

Mass repression in Russia against anarchists
From naroborona.info

      During the last six months in Russia there have been mass repressions against anarchists – in Penza and Petersburg, Moscow and Chelyabinsk, and in the Crimea. At the same time, in prisons there are still anarchists, repressed earlier, a few years ago. Often, information about repressions against certain anarchists is lost against the background of more high-profile cases, and actions against repression are reduced to actions for the release of specific anarchists accused of individual cases. We believe that this is wrong – you can resist repression only together. It is necessary to fight against the repressive policy of the state towards anarchists in general. Therefore, we have collected here information about all Russian anarchists being repressed today. Read the rest of this entry »

Armed political police attack an informal anarchist gathering in Belarus

         Several people were charged with illegal usage of forest resources and distribution of extremist materials after political police with support of task forces attacked an informal anarchist encounter. Around 20 participants were at the camping site at that point.

         On Saturday 30 June special task force of police attacked the camp shooting into the air. After a few minutes all the activists were forced on the ground by a crowd of people armed with machine guns and shotguns. They were accompanied by chiefs in plain clothes but wearing masks. When anarchists started asking about the reasons for this circus one of the cops said that they had a report that somebody was illegally cutting trees in the area and shooting in the forest. Other cops were answering, “you are not stupid, you understand yourself why you are here”.

       Tents were searched for illegal materials. Merchandise from several groups was confiscated under the pretext of distribution of extremist materials. All activists were put on their knees and filmed by the cops. Read the rest of this entry »

Concerning the Recent Raids across Europe

           The ongoing repression linked to last year's G20 summit in Hamburg has not been much discussed outside of Europe. Mobilizations against global bodies like the G20 are international traditions (whether or not we consider them to be wise), beyond the sense of international that exists in Europe where borders are less stark. These summits exist as heightened moments of repression that shift around globally, providing local police forces and their masters with enormously enhanced resources to crush anarchists, non-electoral leftists, and others who persistently oppose them locally. The G20 as a policing operation is carried out by different police forces around the world, but the phenomenon is international in scope and recognizing it is a necessary first step in linking our struggle through solidarity. Read the rest of this entry

Solidarity with Ucil – imprisoned anarchist comrade Brian Valentino (Indonesia)

           Our comrade Brian Valentino is being held in Polda prison Yogyakarta, the main police headquarter of Yogyakarta (special feudal region within Central Java territory)

          Since the day of his arrest, May 1st until May 16th 2018, our comrade, who were beaten and tortured, have been denied of his rights for legal advocate or lawyer. Ever since he was arrested it’s already 15 days of interrogation without the company of a lawyer or advocate.The police or the legal aid haven’t gave us a clear reason about this, therefore we are not sure that whether the police or the legal advocate who refuse to help him.

        To be clear, we received information from Brian Valentino’s dad who have just visited him after a week and he make sure that Brian was the only of the arrestees who haven’t given any legal aid for 15 days since arrest.

       Therefore we urge to the comrades national and international to strengthen solidarity with Brian Valentino, our dear anarchist friend, who have been refused of his rights for legal aid. We are not limiting the solidarity, it can be legal or whatever. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Game Of Chicken, With Civilisation At Stake.

       I'm no lover of the Russian state, or any state for that matter, but I do get concerned by this onslaught of vitriol that is being flung at the Russian state, with no evidence produced by the accusers. Would the UK state lie? Remember Iraq? Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, throws its full propaganda expertise behind the campaign, instead of investigating and trying to reveal evidence to support or otherwise, of their claims. In this insane world of competing power blocks, all armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, we the public, should be concerned, when one nuclear power group tries to push another nuclear power nation into a corner. Surrounds it with nuclear weapons and tries to destroy its influence in the world. A game of "chicken" between nuclear powers is insanity in the extreme, with civilisation the likely victim.  Does the cornered nuclear state back down or retaliate, continuing the escalation, in which case we the public across the globe are the losers, not the lords and masters of the nuclear war machines.

      In the following video John Pilger tries to blow away the fog and dispose of the smoke and mirrors of this worrying, if not terrifying, war mongering rhetoric. Thanks Loam for the link.

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The Undemocratic Bombing The World Into Democracy!!!

        America along with its other members of that bully-boys club, NATO, stomp around the world bombing nations to destruction, maiming, displacing and killing, countless millions of innocent civilians. This the club spouts as, "bring democracy" to these people. Of course if you swagger around the world bombing them into "democracy", the assumption is that your own countries are "democratic". However, you don't have to look for long to see that "democracy" is very thin on the ground of the member states of the bully-boys club, NATO. 

      The previous post "The Viciousness Of Austerity" points to the injustice and inequality, and therefore, total lack of "democracy" in the UK. The following video displays how the "democratic" member state of Spain, deals with the legitimate protests of its people. Thanks Loam for the video link.

 

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The Street Cleaners.

        Trumps victory in America certainly opened the sewer gates and allowed the filth to flow freely onto the streets of America. However, no matter the stench from the neo-nazis, fascists, white supremacists, KKK, and other demented minds, there are those who will take to the streets to clear the filth and allow freedom to breathe. Let's hope this band of street cleaners grows rapidly in every city across the globe, and sweeps the far right sewage back into the cesspool from which they slither.
This from Roar Magazine:

         Since the election of Donald Trump, acts of racist violence have proliferated across the United States. Racists and misogynists feel emboldened to express and act on their views. White nationalist groups and resurgent traditional white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have used Trumps victory to gain new recruits. All that stands in their way are the groups of anarchists, communists, and socialists who have taken it upon themselves to prevent fascism from becoming a powerful political force in the United States. This film tells the story of what “Antifa" is and why people are using these tactics to confront racism and fascism in the US today.

        Who are the anti-fascists? What motivates them to risk their lives to fight the far right? What is the history of militant anti-fascism and why is it relevant again today? How is anti-fascism connected to a larger political vision that can stop the rise of fascism and offer us visions of a future worth fighting for? Through interviews with anti-fascist organizers, historians, and political theorists in the US and Germany, we explore the broader meaning of this political moment while taking the viewer to the scene of street battles from Washington to Berkeley and Charlottesville.

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Pentagon's Worry, A Population Too Unfit To Fight!!

       Received this info from a comrade, thanks Bob. I felt I had to post it in full, as I believed I would be doing the American people an injustice if I didn't try to help to expose how the people are exploited, abused and suffer under the yoke of the world's largest economy and strongest military power. Like Professor Hynes says, it is ironic that the Pentagon is the one establishment apparatus that raises the alarm on this situation, albeit, for all that wrong reasons. It is cold comfort to realise that capitalism will eventually produce a population that is so unsuited to fight its imperialist  battles. 

      Of course America is not unique in this dispossing of the people, it is the inevitable pattern of all capitalist/corporate imperialist nations, it just a matter of pace, some slowly, some more rapidly. In its blind greed driven quest for profit, it is a case of the capitalist system killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

H. Patricia Hynes: Youth & the Pentagon       To my astonishment, I began receiving daily news updates from the Pentagon, innocuously named the Early Bird Brief, about a month ago. One particularly perverse news brief warrants mention: the number of out-of shape and unfit youth is an imminent national security crisis, (not because they matter for themselves), but because they are “too fat tofight,” as one writer put it.
         According to a report commissioned by the Pentagon, 7 of 10, or more than 24 million young Americans between the ages of are 17 and 24, are not qualified or eligible to join the military because of inadequate education, overweight, poor health and criminal records. (1)
       Let’s dig more deeply into this, particularly in the light of the Pentagon’s overfed budget while education, health and social services budgets are starved of funding, and in the face of evidence that our government cares more about weapons and wars than the health and wellbeing of our children and youth.
Education
       The 2015 high school graduation rate, which ranged from 66% – 94% in the 50 states and District of Columbia, ranks near the bottom when compared with other industrial countries. A recent international study found that American students with a high school diploma had math skills equivalent to those of high school dropouts in other comparable countries. They fell significantly below international students in literacy skills and scored last in technology skills. (2)
Physical Activity and Overweight
       Nationally, almost 1 in 3 youths between ages 10 and 17 are overweight or obese. Recent national surveys find that high school students are spending more recreational time on computers, watching less television, and getting little physical activity. (3) Less than 8% of youth between 16 and 19 meet national guidelines for 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. (4)
Nutrition
    Unhealthy foods are heavily marketed to children, with 91 percent of American children having poor diets according to national reports on child obesity. One in 5 U.S. children (more than 15 million) live in poverty and “food-insecure” households — having limited access to adequate food and nutrition due to cost and local availability. Low-income children generally live in low-income neighborhoods; and they are much more likely to be overweight or obese with limited access to sidewalks, parks, recreation centers and quality food stores. (5)

The trends in inequality are criminal: 

      While the stock market nearly doubled between 2008 and 2014, the number of American children living below the federal poverty level increased by 18%. (6)
Health
    One in 8 U.S. children and teens had a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2011, an increase of 43 percent since 2003. This condition can cause learning setbacks, behavioral difficulties and result in excessive medication of children. (7) The percentage of U.S. children with asthma doubled in the 1980s and 1990s and has increased steadily since then. The reason for the increase is poorly understood, but many possible factors include exposure to secondhand smoke, obesity, poor housing (mold, mildew, infestation), air pollution and children’s immune systems failing to develop properly. The prevalence of asthma among 15 to 19 years olds is about 10%. While there has been increased slowing, asthma rates are highest among African American, Puerto Ricans and poor families. (8) Asthma is the primary reason that children miss school – and thus, a real setback in learning. The Pentagon’s chief concern: asthmatic youthare “too sick to serve.”
Crime
      The Mapping Police Violence project has correlated the impact of police in schools with the criminalization of youth. Over the past two decades, 10,000 police have been stationed in schools. In that same period, there has been no impact on violence in schools. Yet, one million students have been arrested, with black students much more likely to be arrested than white students, for behavior that prior to police presence warranted detention or suspension. (9) So what’s the remedy, according to the Pentagon, for their shortage of recruits? Improve education, nutrition and physical exercise; reduce youth crime and drug use. But doesn’t this border on insanity to have the military, among all the federal agencies, sound the alarm of this multiple youth crisis – in education, health, nutrition, fitness and crime – when their mission is to arm youth and send them to war from which many will return with brain injuries and traumatized (PTSD).
Further, where will the funding for improved education, nutrition, physical exercise and crime reduction come from, given our federal budget loots education, environment, health and housing while expanding military spending? The recent Congressional budget deal allots 54% of the discretionary budget to the military and 5% each to education, housing and health. Trump’s 2019 budget request lards the defense budget even more while reducing education by 14%, health by 26%, housing and community programs by 35%, and energy and environment by 36% as compared to the 2017 budget. (10) Some might call this psychotic, or more politely, cognitive dissonance.
Meanwhile, 

      Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to address childhood obesity and lack of exercise to improve children’s health has not been sustained by the Trump administration. As of December 2017, the administration had not appointed new directors to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Further, Trump’s 2019 budget, a massive entitlement program for the weapons industries and private military contractors, proposes eliminating 14 environmental programs, among them ones that worsen air pollution and indoor environment of low-income homes – triggers for asthma and poor lung function. (11) The epidemic in massacre of children and youth in schools and elsewhere in our society is rooted in our national metastasis of guns. Since 1963, three times more children and teens have been killed by guns in this country than U.S. soldiers died in wars abroad. (12) Even with the most recent school shooting, Congress would not pass a gun control law; and the president reflexively called for arming teachers and then backed down from gun reform after meeting with the NRA. The youth of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who confronted U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on lack of national gun control, held press conferences and achieved limited gun control legislation in Florida; the high school students from Maryland and Virginia who staged a demonstration and die-in in front of the White House and the U.S. Capitol; and the students across the country who will march in protest on March 24 – are the wise ones. Soon, as they have said, they will vote; and then they will run for office. And they, hopefully, will extract the rotten roots of this country awash in war, weapons, gun violence and a hornets’ nest of gun and weapons lobbyists.

Pat Hynes, a retired professor of environmental health from Boston University, directs the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, http://traprock.org.

 

 

1. https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/the-looming-national-security-crisis-young-americans-unable-serve-the-military

2. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/10/469831485/americas-high-school-graduates-look-like-other-countries-high-school-dropouts.

3. https://stateofobesity.org/childhood/

4.http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wltr/files/201801which_u.s._states_pose_the_greatest_threats_to_military_readiness_and_pu.._.pdf

5. https://stateofobesity.org/childhood-obesity-trends/

6.https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/29/six-big-losers-our-booming-economy

7. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151208150630.htm

8. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/asthma
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/12/28/460845335/childhood-asthma-rates-level-off-but-racial-disparities-remain

9.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43732-killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence

10.https://www.nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2018/trumps-fy2019-budget-request-has-massive-cuts-nearly-everything-military/

11.https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Fourteen+Environmental+Programs+Eliminated+in+Trump%27s+Budget+Proposal&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

12.http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/child-watch-columns/child-watch-documents/ViolenceAgainstChildren.html

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Mental Illness Or ??

 

           Following on from Killer Cops And Gun Control:

 This from Its Going Down:

        This is a discussion paper written by a member of the Twin Cities General Defense Committee, Local 14. It therefore does not represent the official positions of the Twin Cities GDC, the General Defense Committee in general, or the Industrial Workers of the World.

By Erik D.

          We can’t eliminate exceptional violence without eliminating systemic violence. We must fight for liberation, not smaller boxes guarded by white men with guns.

Introduction – We Must Connect The Struggles for Peace

       On February 18th, 2018, A nineteen year old white man entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with his rifle, and murdered 17 people. He was later arrested peacefully by police. The shooter’s social media profiles indicate a racist obsessed with white nationalism and a hatred of women, and a promoter of fascist messages and imagery. He was reportedly obsessed with guns, and his behavior had been reported to law enforcement repeatedly. Law enforcement never took action, which has itself been widely criticized. The reasons for this inaction are not hard to pin down for those willing to look: Cruz, the shooter – was a white man with a gun, and therefore not a threat. In the aftermath, a Neo Nazi organization calling itself the Republic of Florida claimed Cruz as a member. This was quickly refuted when it became clear that their troll leader was merely seeking attention. Many stopped paying attention to that aspect of Cruz’ history as a result. But a peek at Cruz’ social media history demonstrates his independent hatred of black people and women. Or the swastikas he etched into his firearm ammunition magazines.

          In the aftermath, student survivors have successfully seized the national spotlight for the moment, and are demanding steps that will end the shootings that they have grown up with. This is a quest – to stop the violence in our society – that must be supported, and accomplished. But in order to accomplish it, we must be frank with ourselves about the causes of these shootings. The causes are white supremacism, male supremacism, and the history and present of firearms in the USA.

          Compare the spotlight these high school students have successfully seized with the response of mostly black women and men, including many youth, after the murder of Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Mike Brown, Jamar Clark, Sylville Smith, and so many others. The “Ferguson moment,” started with the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, transformed into a national movement against police murder of black people in the US by law enforcement. In contrast to the brave students of Stoneman Douglas High, the brave youth declaring that Black Lives Matter were demonized, and the militarized weight of the state was brought to bear against them repeatedly.

If our goal is to eliminate or at least massively reduce the epidemic of violence in our country, we must connect these struggles. Without connecting their gun control efforts to the concerns and needs of the Movement for Black Lives, the Stoneman Douglas students will substantially fail. Perhaps more ominous is the probability that they win some of their their demands without connecting them to the systematic violence that underwrites our entire country’s history and culture.

The problem is not mental illness

         A major concern in the post-massacre coverage has been the near-universal discussion of the shooter’s mental state. Many assume that merely because someone engages in an aberrant act, they are mentally ill. This is very far from the case. Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who in 2011 murdered 77 people – mostly leftist youths – was clearly not mentally ill. Neither was Dylan Roof, when he sat through a prayer meeting at the historic AME church founded by the great Denmark Vesey, and then opened fire, murdered all present except one person, whom he intentionally left alive as a witness. Neither were the Columbine shooters – those who are often held up as the originators and paradigm of modern school shootings in 1999.

         What they all had in common was not mental illness, but a hatred of non-white people and women. This is a through-line so consistent in mass shooters that it is very difficult to find exceptions. Those few apparent exceptions, such as Elliot Rodger, the Isla Vista mass murderer who targeted women, and whose mother is Asian, nevertheless adopt the particular hatreds of the masculinist and white supremacist culture in which they are raised. Rodgers frequently made racist and sexist statements, including specifically against Asian people.

Read the full article HERE:

Killer Cops And Gun Control!!

        When you consider that in the last ten years or so, the police in America have killed more Americans than all the mass shooters and terrorists put together, you have to ask yourself, if America considers gun control, where should it begin?

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

State Manufactured Terrorists.

 

        History tells us that the case posted below is far from unique, nor confined to America, we in this country have recently had the cases of undercover police steering groups in particular directions, leading to arrests. Universal surveillance, covert police, and secret service agents, are all part of the state apparatus, and make it very simple to manufacture terrorists, which in turn leads to a call for more policing, strengthening the state's control over the population. Keeping the population in a constant state of fear of an evil enemy infiltrating the fibre of our society allows for more draconian measures to "protect" the population, in so doing slicing away at the few freedoms we have.

This from Its Going Down:

         On the Friday before Christmas, “Breaking news alerts” came out on the 24-hour mainstream news cycle that a 26 year old Modesto, CA man was arrested on a federal charge of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The alleged plan was a mass casualty attack on Pier 39, a ranking candidate for San Francisco’s most well-known tourist trap. Pressed suits full of melodramatic reporters were on hand to remind everyone to stay safe and vigilant, more aptly to remind everyone of the set of vague and ill-defined external threats that are perpetually meant to keep a population, as any victim of abuse, in anxious compliance. Even the acting mayor of the city assured San Franciscans that “our way of life,” would not be assuaged, and of course promised more police.       

           It’s a story that ties up nicely and advances the ever growing paternal and nativist narrative about mysterious dangers that the new regime, in all its clumsiness, is alone equipped to protect us from. I was sitting in a laundromat just across the water from Pier 39 when the story broke, and what struck me instantly was how razor thin the shell game was. Even the highly publicized facts of this case say something bleak and concerning about the status of contemporary popular ideology, and the State’s hunger to fuel paranoia and to target anyone who fits, even in the most tangential way, into a criminalized category.

         Lay the order of events out chronologically, add a basic understanding of FBI counter-surveillance practice, what you have is not a story of domestic radicalization and terrorism. Rather, what emerges is a story of surveillance, thought policing, targeting, and media fear mongering. Our only goal in this short intervention is to expose that layer of the story that is still in the process of coming to light or being buried, and to raise important questions that are left strategically open in the story that is being told.

 “The FBI started watching Jameson in September after becoming aware of social media activity in which he “liked” or “loved” posts about terror attacks and ISIS, the affidavit said. Undercover employees of the FBI posed as supporters of ISIS and contacted Jameson, the affidavit said.”

Here’s an example of a post that the FBI apparently found concerning. Posts like this were flagged as terrorist sympathy and made Jameson’s Facebook page the subject of surveillance, and ultimately made him the target of a months long entrapment campaign.

What We Know

           According to CNN and multiple AP and MSM news outlets, Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 26-year-old Muslim convert from Modesto, California became the subject of FBI interest in September. From CNN:
          The affidavit avoids a direct admission of this, but media sources confirm that the FBI initiated contact with Jameson. Agents were posing to be senior members of ISIS. The agent who ultimately met with Jameson in person (the only such meeting) identified himself as an immediate subordinate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. There was apparently no communication whatsoever between Jameson and any member of any foreign terrorist organization.
          Communications between undercover agents and Jameson throughout the Fall were vague at best. Jameson expresses his willingness to use or donate resources for “the cause,” the meaning of which is never expressed in any of the communications in court record. He makes vague references to Western colonialism saying things like, “the kuffar (loosely translated to “unbeliever”) deserve everything and more for the lives they’ve taken. He uses Arabic pejoratives like this against the US.
            What is being described as a “terror plot” in the media amounts to some vague suggestions that Jameson made in a single, in-person meeting with an undercover agent. He suggested a strategy in the broadest sense. Concrete plans were not reached. Relevantly however he indicated a willingness to die. We’ll revisit this.
           Jameson attempted to back out of the alleged plot on what appear to be moral and conscientious grounds two days before his arrest saying, “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”

Jameson’s Family Tells a Drastically Different Story
          He and his father (a self-identified Pentecostal) would argue amiably about their respective religious beliefs. His father even quotes him as saying, “yeah Dad, we all believe in the same God.”
          Jameson’s family, in conversation with the Modesto Bee, tell of Jameson as a distraught young man. He had lost his two young children to Child Protective Services after their mother Ashley was incarcerated. They divorced in 2016, and after a long battle with CPS Jameson once and for all lost custody of their children three months ago. Incidentally around the same time he became the target of a federal investigation.
       His father reports that he was frequently suicidal. Authorities also confirmed that he was held on suicide watch when taken into custody. Despite struggling with depression, he maintained a close relationship with his family. He shared his difficulties with his father, and his religious convictions with many in his family. His faith even made him the subject of teasing. Days before his arrest Jameson and his father even attended a Raider game in Oakland.
        Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, the veracity of the facts presented in the court affidavit and in the subsequent media storm, brief though it was. Jameson is still far from a picture of a terrorist master mind. At worst a slightly unstable man, he likely saw himself as having little to lose. He was in a position highly vulnerable to the kind of manipulation that we know the FBI to be capable of. We also know that his suggestions of violence were loose, ill formed, and abstract. He assumed guidance and direction from the FBI agents who were the actual architects of the alleged plot. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, when lofty fantasizing about violence started to feel like something real Jameson easily saw that this path was not for him.
         No matter how the dots of this story connect, we are forced to recognize the shallow simplicity of seeing this man as a terrorist threat. Consider further how Islam is portrayed in the media. Consider what a white Muslim, with no family history or traditional relationship to the religion, in one of California’s most conservative counties, might come to understand about the meaning of being Muslim. As we alluded above, his family jokingly nicknamed him ISIS. Consider how suggestible such a person might be to the perception of being sought from across the globe for service to his faith.
FBI Entrapment: The Public Strategy
         This struck me as an extraordinarily obvious case of FBI entrapment. According to Federal guidelines (Section 645 of the US Attorney’s Manual), entrapment takes place when one is A) induced to commit a crime by state officials, and B) one has no prior disposition to commit such a crime. No doubt Jameson’s prosecutors will cite his hastily crafted suicide note as evidence of his predisposition, however observers must ask what would possibly have motivated him to any kind of fantasies of violence if not the interference of undercover agents. Moreover, and not to sound too conspiratorial or alarmist, speculating about one’s internal attitudes with respect to violence, and punishing those with certain attitudes basically amounts to a case of thought policing.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Solidarity.

     We have a problem, what's the answer,--solidarity. State repression is increasing, what's the answer,--solidarity. The corporate world is destroying the planet, what's the answer,--solidarity. Our people are being brutally exploited, what's the answer,--solidarity. The powerful and wealthy are screwing us, what's the answer, --solidarity. 

     I don't think we can ever over estimate the importance of solidarity in our fight to rid this world of the festering cancer of capitalism, it is our most powerful weapon, it doesn't recognise borders, like the poem says, "You are many, they are few", in solidarity we can reshape this world and create that better world for us all.

     So with that thought in mind, I thought I would go into over-kill, with some videos that bring a bit of a glow to the heart. Thanks Loam for the links.

Violence, Power And Empire Go Hand In Hand.

 

Winter

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky

winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,

the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.

All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,

edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.

A weary Cassandra laments;

doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday

forsake their olive branches.

       More on the American savage empire. Thanks Loam for the link.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Culture Of Possessions.

        A video of a short interview with Frank Zappa, where he speaks some truths about the USA, I lifted it from arrezafe. 

        Yes our culture is the story of our history, and that is very important, it is who we are, but sadly in today's "culture" the only thing that seems to matter is power. Instead of a varied vibrant culture being the  object of admiration, acquisition of wealth is the dominant force, with power the desired possession. With the economic system of capitalism, how else could it be? Its foundation is money and its accumulation, this permeates its way though every fibre of society, shapes our value structures and governs our quality of life. Until we remove that rotten foundation in our society, it will continue to pursue happiness and satisfaction in the shape of the latest shiny production, and continue to kneel at the alter of the shiny car, the big house, and the latest Apple watch.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Climate Deniers, Rabid Capitalist And God People.

 

        I'm sure that in that part of the world we call America, there are a lot of intelligent, rational people, but what comes across is, it is a land of  climate deniers, Christian fundamentalists, and rabid capitalists. I know we have them here in this country, as other countries do, it just seems that they are the voice of America. From what we get over here, they appear to be a people of dreamers living in a fog of illusion, depending on God and capitalism to sort things out for them. Yes I know, we have them also, but ours appear to be a minority and seem a little less vociferous.

       This article from Bella Caladonia puts it rather well.

       Bill McKibben of 350 informs us that “5.6 million Floridians have been told to evacuate, making it by far the largest mass movement of people in American history. Hot new world.” Meanwhile Trumps environmental chief Scott Pruitt tells us that “now is not the time” for discussion about climate change, even amid record-breaking hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Katia.

        The above photograph could be the defining image of our time.
        When Florida gun owner Ryon Edwards Florida posted a Facebook event to encourage others to ‘shoot the storm’ and fire their guns at Hurricane Irma, 46,000 people responded.
      In an outburst of irony he explained: “I never envisioned this event becoming some kind of crazy idea larger than myself. It has become something a little out of my control.”
     It’s been well documented that whilst the medias attention has turned to the crisis in America far more deadly events are unfolding in Asia, but there’s a reason we are focused on America and the Caribbean.
       As the Floridians golf through carnage, the storms are descending on the epicentre of ignorance, the dead centre of denialism, a Mar a Lago endgame.
      What club would you choose for the end of the world?
      But as a new study asserts that 50% of temperature increases and 32% of sea level rise was caused by just 90 companies. The New Republic suggests we start naming hurricanes “after Exxon, and Chevron, not Harvey and Irma”.
     “Specifically, the study asserts that the 90 largest carbon producers—including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil—have cumulatively caused up to 50 percent of the increase in global mean surface temperature since 1880, and up to 32 percent of global sea level rise. Investor-owned companies like BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil have caused 16 percent of the global average temperature increases and 11 percent of the global sea level rise, the study says.
      The study “demonstrates, strictly speaking, causal responsibility” for the worst impacts of sea level rise and temperature increases, Oxford University political science professor Henry Shue wrote in accompanying commentary for the study.”
      So as the hurricanes descend it’s obvious that the problem isn’t just climate change, it’s Capitalism.
      And that’s one of the reasons – other than Western-centric news filters – that the focus is on America.
      It’s easy enough to defy reality as you bunker-down (pun intended) to the abstract notion of climate crisis. It’s rather more difficult as the storms are laying waste to your golf club.
      If NOW is not the time – when is?
The denialism has layers.
       The first, the outright lies of the deluded or the compromised: ‘This isn’t happening.’ The second the idea that ‘sustainability’ and a growth agenda can fix this. The third that capitalism is reformable.
       The first and second have been widely debunked exposed and ridiculed, The third is now in play.
       The delusional behaviour is stark in America – suffering under a (well armed) combination of Trumpism, turbo-capitalism and Christian fundamentalism, but it exists everywhere.
       This from the Dark Mountain’s new collection of essays Walking on Lava:

The stakes are in the meadow … the fields are overgrown
The winds of change are blowin’ through the place I’ve called home
They’re digging at the edges to build the power line
Same old story … but now the story’s mine […]
It all began 300 years before
What story is beginning
If this one is no more?

– Railroad Earth, ‘Lone Croft Farewell’

“It has become something a little out of my control.”

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk  

Get Out Of My Country!!

 

      An interesting article from "The Conjure House", I'm sure it will cause controversy and debate among the left, but of course that is what we should be having. It does however, offer food for thought, how far down the road to total control do you go, how much venom do you swallow before you turn, and how will you counter act the control, and the venom, is there a limit, or is this the way of life? This article is based on the American situation at the moment, but the epidemic that is sweeping America, has started to infect the rest of the Western world, do we have the antidote, or, are we to entering a world where non-compliance and "mis-fits" must be exterminated?

      ----Imagine for a moment you’re at a bar and there’s an immigrant in front of you. He’s quiet, but not antisocial, casually dressed but not sloppy. He seems just like anybody else except he isn’t. What you don’t know is he’s been working as an aviation programs engineer and even helped design fly-by-wire planes, in which manual controls are entirely replaced by computers. Smart guy, very talented, “high energy” as Il Duce might say; a success story from India and right out of American mythology.

       Now, behind him, a new sound; old, fearful, you hear a hellish cry: “GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY!”

Who the fuck was that? There appears to be a bit of a scuffle in the back, some guy hassling the immigrant you were just studying, but the bar manager seems to take care of it. The man, who appears to be just some old white dude, looks pissed. There’s something about him, but you can’t seem to place it. The man leaves, but in a few minutes comes back through the door. Perhaps he left something?

He shoots 3 people, two of them Indians who he mistakenly took for Muslims.

         Maybe you’re at a protest this time, holding your sign and feeling the electric current of hundreds of other bodies joined in solidarity. A man emerges from the crowd, egging you on to hit him. He spits at you like a diseased raccoon and curses like a fucking sailor. Maybe he’s drunk you figure, or at least too high to really know what’s going on. Someone else pushes him away.

He pulls out a pistol and shoots them. He’ll only be charged with assault.

        This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re not even a full year into the reign of a new emperor and already the political climate has become practically poisonous, a vile and noxious cloud not only choking the most at risk in our communities but the people seeking to defend them. People have called for Antifa to be declared a terrorist organization; state governments are writing bills that allow protesters to be run over and have their property stolen from them.

It’s a situation not unlike the one faced by French Illegalists at the turn of the century:

“Against us, all arms are good; we are in an enemy camp, surrounded, harassed. The bosses, judges, soldiers, cops unite to bring us down.”

        To be a thinking person in this country of barbarians is to be a criminal and with ever-increasing fervor the tribes loyal to the new Emperor aim to make war upon us. There are millions of people sitting in front of televisions as I type these words that would see nothing wrong with a few hundred lives sacrificed every year to “keep people in line” and you can be sure that folks like you and I will be among them. The cops don’t stop them, they exchange racist texts with them; they console men who kill unarmed black children and tell them what they did was just.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Vindictive Laws To Prevent Protests.

 

        Once again the Land of The Free, the good ol' US of A, sets the standard in draconian authoritarian laws. The State of Arizona leads the charge in attempting to prevent any form of protest from taking place. This latest piece of legislation, if enacted, could see you take part in a peaceful protest, some individual throws a rock, you are all complicit, and could have all your assets seized. It doesn't matter who threw the rock, one angry individual, an agent-provocateur, or a drunk, you are all still liable. It makes for intimidation of those wishing to enact their legal right to peaceful protest. By protesting an injustice, you could run the risk of being made homeless and penniless, by the vindictive action of the state. So the illusion of democracy capitalist style, grows ever thinner, the truth is there for all to see.

This from Counter Current News:  

        Imagine having all your assets seized because you planned a peaceful protest that disturbed the peace? That could be a reality under SB1142, which just passed the Arizona state senate.
        Under SB1142, Arizona’s racketeering laws are expanding to include rioting. This gives the state government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest that turned violent and everyone who participated.
         The bill also redefines what constitutes a rioter as any person who “uses force or violence or threatens to use force or violence, if such threat is accompanied by immediate power of execution, which EITHER disturbs the public peace OR RESULTS IN DAMAGE TO THE PROPERTY OF ANOTHER PERSON.”
         Read the full text of the bill at http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/53leg/1R/bills/SB1142S.htm
         The vote was 17-13. One of the 17 that voted for this, Sen. John Kavanagh, gave the following justification for this absurd, unconstitutional new law: “You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder. A lot of them are ideologues, some of them are anarchists. But this stuff is all planned… I should certainly hope that our law enforcement people have some undercover people there. Wouldn’t you rather stop a riot before it starts?”
         Who defines what is considered a ‘violent’ protest?
        Who determines what ‘disturbs the public peace’? Does profanity, shouting, or loud music constitute disturbing the peace?
       The opponents of a protest could just hire agitators to make protests violent, then the authorities could use this as an excuse to seize the assets of all the protesters.
        You are peacefully protesting and some guy starts throwing rocks at windows. Not only are you arrested on racketeering charges, but then the cops come and seize your house, car, and belongings? Good luck affording a lawyer to defend you in court!
        If this succeeds and is signed into law by the Governor of Arizona, you can bet a similar nationwide law will be on its way not long after…

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Coming Winter!!

Winter

Dark malefic clouds crowd the sky

winds carry the stench of carrion to every nostril,

the crazy ape has followed the faculty of hawks.

All around stand crows, magpies, jackdaws, vultures,

edacious eyes anticipating their putrid feast.

A weary Cassandra laments;

doves, hearts weeping for a better yesterday

forsake their olive branches.

    There have been protests in America and elsewhere against the Trump presidency, with the usual calls that the protesters are just sore losers. However, this election was different, this is the gloves off, bare knuckles, raw capitalism at the fascist end of the spectrum. It is a flag waving triumphalism that will embolden the far right across the globe. They are already raising their ugly heads above the gutter in Europe and elsewhere. You can be sure that when fascism snakes its way into our lives it will not be wearing jackboots, it will be lead by men in suits. Now more than ever, is the time for those who want freedom and justice for all, to come together and make their presence felt, from the workplace to the community, and on the streets. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Just remember, all of the meagre rights we have were not won in the corridors of power, they were won on the streets, the factories and the communities, those in the corridors of power had to be dragged kicking and screaming to accept these rights.

 This from The Agency:

      On January 20, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. There to protest the know-nothing real estate mogul’s ascent to office will be many of the people he’s insulted and denigrated over the past year and a half: women, people of color, Muslims, immigrants – representatives of the majority of the population of the U.S.

Many of us protesters are anarchists.

Why anarchists?
       Because this election really was different. It fed off and helped spread a new strain of racism, misogyny, and ultra-nationalism that’s receiving answering salutes from countries all over the world, from France to Hungary to the Philippines. We’re not here to protest just another in a long line of American warlords. We’re here to call a halt to New American Fascism and the hatred at its heart.
       In the 18 months since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the White House, we’ve seen Muslims and Hispanics terrorized. We’ve seen the legitimate anger of Black Lives Matter countered by a vicious backlash. We’ve seen a concerted and expanding effort to roll back the social acceptance that transgender people have just begun to make. We’ve seen a wealthy white man flaunt his privilege in ways that demean women – with only the mildest and rare peeps of protest from the Washington political establishment.
       Trump didn’t create this ugliness, but he’s become its focal point, its megaphone, and its chief recruiting tool. He’s made racists and xenophobes feel powerful. He’s made sexists and homophobes feel justified. He’s given the corporate agenda to disempower and impoverish working people a smoke screen of phony populism to hide behind.
       We’ve seen it too many times before in too many places to ignore it this time: a right-wing demagogue manoeuvres into power. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, a greedy and ruthless economic and political elite falls into line behind the new leader. Minorities and the economically vulnerable are the first to suffer. Eventually, everybody does.
        This election could be just the beginning. France, Germany, and Hungary are just a few of the countries with national elections coming up in 2017 where the racist right is expected to make big gains. Now is the time to send an unmistakable message that fascism is not the answer. But we won’t do that in a voting booth. We’ll do it in our homes, our communities, and in the streets. We’ll do it by promoting the vision of a society without the State, without bought-and-paid-for politicians, without capitalism. The opposite of what we’ve got now.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Obama, No Prince Of Peace, No Pope Of Hope.

       It is fascinating, but sad, how our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media shapes perceptions, how by selective reporting and exaggeration, and selective ignoring, they can create an alternative vision to the reality we live under. Now as Trump moves into the White House and Obama moves through the exit, there is a wave of sadness at losing a liberal rational president of peace. However, President Obama was no white dove, no prince of peace, his legacy is one of escalating state assassinations across the globe. Mr Obama was a president who was at war longer than any other American president in history. He authorised approximately ten times more drone strikes than George W. Bush.

       The independent, nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism puts the total number of people killed at roughly the same number, 2,753, but its estimate of how many of them were civilians six times higher than the Obama administration’s estimate. Even more chilling from a constitutional perspective is that the Obama administration has — with little to no complaint from the American people or the other two branches of government — deliberately targeted and killed US citizens in drone strikes, without those individuals ever having been given their constitutional right to due process of law.

        Obama played the populist card when he withdrew vast number of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, but fanned out the area in which he used the more surreptitious air-strikes. He took is silent assassinating drone strikes and expanded them outside the “war zone”, of Iraq and Afghanistan, to countries America had no war with, such as Pakistan and Yemen. Recent figures show that Obama had dramatically upped the number of bombings for the year 2016 to more than a staggering 26,000. Of course we are told by that babbling brook of bullshit, that these were all in the name of peace, and for the well-being of the people of those countries. It is estimated that the “coalition” who are involved in the Middle East have during 2016, drop almost 31,000 bombs, all in the name of peace and the well-being of the people, of course, of which the Obama contingent were responsible for 79%. The number of bombs is likely to be an under estimate as a strike can be multiple bombs. Apart from the horror, bloodshed, death and destruction from such numbers, look at each bomb as costing approximately, around £500,000, add that up, and think how else could that money have been spent bring peace, and helping the well-being of the people. 

       It is reported that “Incoming US President Donald Trump has said he will wage war on Isis, vowing to "bomb the s*** out of 'em". My heart goes out to those poor unfortunate people who happen to inhabit that area where ISIS is active. You can imagine what such a remark would do for the arms industry, yes, you are right, their shares have rocketed. In this society war is a very lucrative business, it is touted as creating jobs, but more important, creating even more wealth for the obscenely wealthy. So Obama will be applauded by the establishment for doing a great job.

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk