RESIST NONLINEAR WARFARE

I am becoming accustomed to being frightened. Maybe all of us are suffering in the midst of NONLINEAR WARFARE. How do you resist a war that nobody but Carl Bernstein says outloud we are fighting? 

"Oh Ma, I don't want to die. I don't think I can stand to smell the bodies fry." - Tina Toxic Queen of Trash

War. Is this not our condition? Nationally, we are now doing two mass shootings a week. Authorities in Texas responded to a bomb explosion at Random, a beer garden near Boerne Lake, KENS-TV reports. There were 2 pipe bombs at the Capitol. Gun deaths now exceed car deaths in 21 States. We have had 239 mass shootings in 2021 so far.

If it looks like a War, and it sounds like War...well you know.

"The Kremlin, according to Barack Obama, is stuck in the “old ways,” trapped in Cold War or even 19th century mindsets. But look closer at the Kremlin’s actions during the crisis in Ukraine and you begin to see a very 21st century mentality, manipulating transnational financial interconnections, spinning global media, and reconfiguring geo-political alliances. Could it be that the West is the one caught up in the “old ways,” while the Kremlin is the geopolitical avant-garde, informed by a dark, subversive reading of globalization?

The Kremlin’s approach might be called “non-linear war,” a term used in a short story written by one of Putin’s closest political advisors, Vladislav Surkov, which was published under his pseudonym, Nathan Dubovitsky, just a few days before the annexation of Crimea. Surkov is credited with inventing the system of “managed democracy” that has dominated Russia in the 21st century, and his new portfolio focuses on foreign policy. This time, he sets his new story in a dystopian future, after the “fifth world war.”

Surkov writes: “It was the first non-linear war. In the primitive wars of the 19th and 20th centuries it was common for just two sides to fight. Two countries, two blocks of allies. Now four coalitions collided. Not two against two, or three against one. All against all.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/05/05/how-putin-is-reinventing-warfare/

"What do I cling to that is useless to understanding our condition?" I ask myself. I have no real answer. Who can focus or think when under constant "shelling?" And gaslighting. Psychopaths can. Psychopaths like Trump and Putin. I am not enjoying government or World by psychopath. 

This is the focus that may work. If my personal integrity is no more, what do I have? Nothing. Some ideas that work for me:

“The wise warrior avoids the battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“All I have on earth is me, myself and my word and I don't break them for no one. So as long as I got those things, I'll be the bomb, you're just a false alarm.”

― Ifeoluwa Egbetade

"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."- Malcom X.

#13

Favor and disgrace: same fear.

Honor and distress: same self.

What is meant by

"Favor and disgrace: same fear"?

Favor make the lowly

Fearful when they get it,

Fearful when they lose it.

That's why favor and disgrace are the same fear.

What is meant by

"Honor and distress: same self"?

The self registers our distress:

If we have no self,

We have no distress.

Therefore,

He who values all things as his self

Is fit to manage all things.

He who loves all things as his self

Is fit to be trusted with all things.

- Tao Te Ching translation by Herrymon Maurer

Abortion and the American Family

I have remarkable Readers. This Gentleman is one of them. Pass this on everywhere, my political friends. Fly!

From Larry Motuz:

I cannot determine what the SCOTUS will do.

Let's be clear though. In a free and democratic society, any absolute removal of the freedom to choose if and when to become a parent or have more children, including couples' abilities to decide if and when to expand their families --including all associated decisions about temporal spacing between one's children-- renders that society neither free nor democratic, but authoritarian and theocratic.

Whether that Court agrees or not, this has always been the goal of the anti-choice movement. I have said elsewhere that their intention is to take away the inherent power, right and authority of human beings to decide what is good for themselves and their families. They would do so by replacing this authority with their view that the biological heritage of mankind given by whatever god they worship requires the involuntary biological servitude of everyone to their god's dicta to beget children. Their god's dicta is whatever they choose to believe their god wants.

Thus, it is this biological begetting due to their own dicta which comprises the 'involuntary servitude' they seek to impose upon others. Note that since a biological pregnancy may begin as early as five years of age or less, well before pubescence, consent, or the physical, biological maturity to become pregnant and later beget without health hazards to the child begetting a baby, then these anti-choice persons must be considered fanatically opposed to human freedoms and human welfare.

This is not just a women's issue. It is also a family issue, a family welfare issue, a child issue and a child welfare issue. Ignoring these dimensions is the only way of imposing a theocracy upon a democracy.

I would like to see arguments made that undue burdens have been placed upon women, couples, families, and children. Such arguments could empower legislation preserving much of Roe vs. Wade against the burdensome incursions upon all of the above resulting from the Mississippi legislation being challenged and other States' legislation!

Speaking to Fellow Catholics. We are redeemed by Joe Biden.

Catholics like me and non Catholics have good reason to despise the RCC. But some Catholics are 'innocent and surprised and indignant' that we are despised. What blindness Catholics exhibit.

We have hidden pedophiles from law enforcement for decades. We are being sued for not providing medical standard of care to miscarrying Women. Jesus expressed understanding for sexual minorities. We abuse them. Abortion is a medical procedure not a secret shame.

A decent sane people would clean up their act before going sin hunting Others. This is the century in which the Roman Catholic Church will stop maiming and killing Women, Children and assorted odd Folks. Sane Catholics are seeing to it.

I am proud of what sane Catholic Joe Biden has done. Praise him with great praise. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs, in a historic shift, will provide abortion counseling and abortions in cases of rape, incest or if the pregnancy threatens the health of the pregnant veteran, at its federal health facilities throughout the country, including in states that ban or severely restrict the practice, the department announced Friday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/02/va-abortion-policy/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Oh yes. This is IN YOUR FACE by Biden administration. It is not all that has been done to save Women's lives. They have reinforced EMTALA. Not all Catholics are cruel and sexually sick.

Emergency medical conditions involving pregnant patients may include, but are not limited to, ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features. 

• Hospitals should ensure all staff who may come into contact with a patient seeking examination or treatment of a medical condition are aware of the hospital’s obligation under EMTALA. 

• A physician’s professional and legal duty to provide stabilizing medical treatment to a patient who presents under EMTALA to the emergency department and is found to have an emergency medical condition preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit or prevent such treatment. 

• If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment. When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.
https://www.cms.gov/medicareprovider-enrollment-and-certificationsurveycertificationgeninfopolicy-and-memos-states-and/reinforcement-emtala-obligations-specific-patients-who-are-pregnant-or-are-experiencing-pregnancy-0Edit
View in discussion

Hat Tip to the Great Aesop or A Fable for Our Times

A Fable for Our Times

Bigotry (subheading racism) is like owning a big dog. Let us call the dog ICK.

I have no problem with ICK as long as you keep the dog at home or on a leash. It is your ICK. Play ball with it in your yard. Feed it pepperoni in the evening. Have a beer and give the mutt a pat. Enjoy. 

If you take ICK out in public, keep ICK on a leash. If ICK bites me or a child or shits on the sidewalk, you make your ICK my  problem. And our community's problem. Nobody likes problems. Nobody. ICK bites hurt.

I am a fan of Roland Martin and Crazy Ass White People. This is my idea of a feel good story. Jesus loves everybody. No exceptions. 

Old ladies can be rabble rousing white trash. I have been known to rouse a rabble from time to time. Tell me why you rouse a rabble and I will tell you who you are. Or Roland Martin will. You go, Roland.

Kudos to this Restaurant Manager. He is an educated man who speaks two languages. He protects his business from rabble rousing trash (ugh!) in a calm effective way. He protects the peace of his patrons. 

I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't. - Kurt Cobain

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2013 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. 


" I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people."




IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh. - Barack Obama.

http://fyeahqueervintage.tumblr.com/http://issuu.com/pridemagazine/docs/pride12_issuu

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleybaccam/adorable-vintage-photographs-of-gay-couples

Being Neither White Nor Black

CROSS by Langston Hughes

My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black? 

 

Truth is the Kindest and Most Benevolent Force in the Universe

Speak Truth to Power.

I vote my interests not party. George Washington told us not to do Politics and Citizenship as a team sport. 

Dems made sure I got the vaccine. They seem to trust Science somewhat. 

Dems do not want to shove a stick up my hoohah for Jebus and family values, and make me pay for the rape, if I want or need an abortion.

Dems do not plan to report my children for gender nonconformity in behavior to the authorities. Or examine their genitals. 
,

Dems are not working to disenfranchise my City and take my vote away.

Somehow it ultimately turns out I vote Dem most of the time. You think that might be because I detect a difference in party stance?

The NRA's Two Second Amendment Lies

J Nagarya:

The NRA's Two Second Amendment Lies

The gun industry political front NRA tells two lies about the intent of the Second Amendment.  

1.  That the Second Amendment protects an "individual" "right" to possess guns.  

Comparison with the several prior Supreme Court decisions, and the legislative history -- the Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment, which are LEGAL AUTHORITY -- shows that Scalia's "Heller" decision is an outlier.  In "Heller" he falsely held that the Amendment protects an individual right -- for which he was excoriated by legal experts across the political spectrum for ignoring this adjudicatory standard:

When a conflict over the interpretation of a law cannot be resolved within the text of the law, one reverts to the legislative history of the law -- in this instance Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment.  

The facts from those Debates:

The subject of the Amendment is well regulated Militia, and its purpose to establish a National Defense, relying on that Militia.  The Militia is not an individual, and is a public institution, regulated under both Federal and state constitutions and laws; thus the Amendment is irrelevant to the issue of private, individual gun ownership:

James Madison is called "the father of the Constitution," and the gun industry/NRA claims that Madison wrote the Second Amendment.  If both of those are facts, then the word "people" is consistent in meaning from beginning of the Constitution to the end of the first 10 Amendments.  The first three words of the Constitution are "We the people," not, "We the individual".

This is the first draft of that which became the Second Amendment, which the gun industry/NRA calls the "Madison" Amendment -- but which it never quotes.  [Here I clarify it for the logic-impaired]:

"The right of the people [PLURAL] to keep and bear arms [this phrase is the well-regulated Militia, and was drawn from four state constitution Militia Clauses] shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person [INDIVIDUAL] religiously scrupulous of [AGAINST] bearing arms [in well-regulated Militia] shall be compelled [INVOLUNTARY] to render military service [in well-regulated Militia] in person." 

Source: Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Paperback, 1991), Edited by Helen E Veit, et al., at 12.  (This volume is readily available from Amazon.)

Note the word "compelled": Militia service was a DUTY -- not a "right".  And note the words "people" and "person": if a person -- individual -- claimed "religious" exemption from that DUTY, his case was scrutinized individually. 

The only "individual" "right" Congress debated was that last clause -- "but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service" -- and it was obviously dropped from the proposed Amendment before it was ratified.  Thus the Second Amendment obviously does not protect "individual" ANYTHING. 

Only by ignoring the legislative history -- Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment, which are LEGAL AUTHORITY -- could Scalia falsely hold that the Amendment protects an "individual" "right".

2.  That the purpose of the Amendment was to establish a "right" to "take up arms" against the gov't -- which is refuted by the Constitution itself:

Art. I., S. 8., C. 15. The Congress shall have Power To provide for calling forth the Militia to . . . SUPPRESS INSURRECTIONS.

The Founders themselves twice established the precedent on the point:

Under the Articles of Confederation, "Shays's" rebellion was suppressed by the state's legitimate well-regulated Militia, and the rebels charged with, tried for, and convicted of, TREASON, and sentenced to death.

And under the Constitution, AFTER the Second Amendment was ratified, the "Whiskey" rebellion was suppressed by Federalized Militia, lead by George Washington, and the rebels charged with, tried for, and convicted of, TREASON, and sentenced to death.

The Congress, as a co-equal branch of gov't, has the authority and power to overturn Supreme Court decisions.

Overturn "Heller".

PLEASE CIRCULATE INTACT.

        Posted at 8:13 5/19/2022 - I pay for this publishing service monthly. Disqus where are you? It is now 8:47.

Republicans are not a Protected Class. Neener neener neener. UPDATE AGAIN.

Okay, finally I can laugh at the bloody mess we are in. Thank you God. I was getting tired of alternating despair/anger/shock. 

Tucker Carlson takes on Mathew Blachfield, the anti-Trump CEO of "1st in SEO" who is refusing to do business with anyone who supported Donald Trump. (November 23rd, 2016)

All Tucker's argument is a mix of shaming, blaming and misquotation. Weak. So weak. Republicans are not a protected class. You think they are feeling a bit threatened? What if everybody does not go along to get along? Bwah ha ha ha ha. Breathe. Ha ha ha ha ha. 

UPDATE - FUX SNOOZE does not want you to see this clip. They reached into this small insignificant blog to snatch it out of the article for 'copyright issues.' Something in this FUX does not want folks to know maybe. I just noticed the change. So I thought would be an excellent idea to run it again. I think I have a right as a reporter and cultural icon, to use things if I have an educational or journalistic purpose. Maybe I should run my OCCUPY banner again. 

Another small business shuts down the fascist hate machine.

The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target after the retail giant said it would allow men to use the women's restrooms and dressing rooms in their stores.
On its web site, Target announced, "[W]e welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity. ...Everyone deserves to feel like they belong."

2nd Vote wanted to remind shoppers where not to spend their Black Friday dollars. Turns out, their web hosting company didn’t take too kindly to the campaign and made the unilateral decision to shut 2nd Vote’s website down!

Leadpages, the company in charge of keeping the site up and running, pulled the plug after the #AnywhereButTARGET movement started gaining steam. In a letter from the company’s director of operations, Leadpages accuses 2nd Vote of being “hateful” and “discriminatory” for wanting to protect consumers from sexual predators. - Tony Perkins press release courtesy of JoeMyGod. Read the entire press release at link.

Infant and Mother Mortality in America

The Artist is Favianna Rodriguez.

Anthropologically speaking. H. sapiens has three strategies and three strategies only for control of reproduction (births) = contraception, abortion and infanticide/child abandonment. All three strategies are practiced around the world in every culture, currently and historically.

Those who restrict abortion and contraception make infanticide and maternal death inevitable. We have many in vitro examples of this. The one that haunts me the most at the moment is the mass grave of infants at Tuam. Anti Choice Zealots do not occupy the moral high ground.
https://humandefense.com/un-declares-abortion-a-human-right/

More American women are dying of pregnancy-related complications than any other developed country. Only in the U.S. has the rate of women who die been rising.
https://www.npr.org/2017/05...

Our infant mortality rate is a national embarrassment
https://www.washingtonpost....

Texas’ maternal death rates top most industrialized countries. Infant mortality rates vary by race.
https://www.usatoday.com/st...
http://www.houstonchronicle...

Reproduction is serious business for women. Abortion and contraception are human rights, both part of comprehensive health care for women.

TEXAS Raped This Woman. God Have Mercy. God say Be Calm. Galatians 6:7.

rape
early 14c., "booty, prey;" mid-14c., "forceful seizure, act of snatching by force; plundering, robbery, extortion," from Anglo-French rap, rape, and directly from Latin rapere "seize" (see rape (v.)). Meaning "act of abducting a woman or sexually violating her or both" is from early 15c. Late 13c. in Anglo-Latin (rapum).

Somebody suggested the Anti abortion Zealots do not want this to go SCOTUS. Why? It makes the logical consequences of the Abortion Stalker Law mighty obvious. Every single thing I predicted has come to pass. An innocent Woman was effectively stalked, kidnapped, raped and unjustly imprisoned by StateGov.

It is Gosnell City now in Texas. Dr. Kermit Gosnell murdered pre and post partum infants and called that legal abortion. He kept the corpses in his refrigerator. All possibility of compliance with law is eradicated in Texas. All regulation as to time and safety of procedure is gone. And the wombsniffers screaming LIFE have now created destruction.

If democratic voting will not preserve our civil rights now, and law also will not protect our Family or Women, we are left with no political choice but assassination. Hang Alito and Barrett and Roberts should do it up good. Forget chivvying me FBI, I am too old, crazy and crippled to carry it out. But others are not. It is not just Margery Taylor Greene calling for assassination now. I am a hippy peacenik Quaker GrandMother calling for assassination. I have Daughters. You just might have a another big fat problem uprising on your hands.

OMG GOP WTF? - Queen Guiliani Haz a Hair Ball - Update

Giuliani Triples Down On Racist Tirade Over Brown Killing, Wants Witnesses Prosecuted For Perjury By Heather 

Is Rudy Guiliani competent mentally and politically? Here is Rudy Guiliani doing the Drag Queen. He has a 'right to kill.'

This is what a Drag Queen looks like.

And this is what a Drag Queen looks like. Fabulous. If I want to see a tired out old Italian Nonna, I can look in the mirror at home. Are you listening SNL?

Is Rudy Giuliani competent mentally and politically? About as competent at being a respected public figure as he is at being a Drag Queen. You are killing me, Rudy Baby. Killing me. STFU.

Kermit Gosnell City Now in Texas

WOMAN is the nigger of the world. - ONO/Lennon

Kermit Gosnell murdered pre and post partum infants and called that abortion. He kept the corpses in his refrigerator. It is Gosnell City now in Texas. All possibility of compliance is eradicated. All regulation as to time and safety of procedure is gone. And the wombnazis screaming LIFE have now created death.

The soulless media will report on every Woman bleeds to death and leaves 5 kids and a husband behind with glee and every 13 year old self aborts with a pencil, every Woman forced to carry a stillbirth to term, every victim of a Catholic hospital's idea of miscarriage care.

Then after enough blood has been spilled and Women made to die in disgusting pitiable ways, abortion will be made legal again. Will anyone pay for the death and destruction? Did one single Doctor, who destroyed midwifery and safe abortion in USA last time abortion was criminalized, pay for even one Woman they murdered? Nope.

If democratic voting will not preserve our civil rights now and law also will not protect our Family or Women, we are left with no political choice but assassination. Shoot Alito and Barrett and Roberts should do it up good. Forget chivvying me FBI, I am too old and crippled to carry it out. But others are not. It is not just Margery Taylor Greene calling for assassination now. I am a hippy peacenik GrandMother calling for assassination. You just might have a little problem on your hands.

Never mind SCOTUS assuming all who need an abortion are promiscuous immoral young Women. Focus on SCOTUS reaching into the American FAMILY to force childbirth. Forget one or two or three and done now.

If FEDGOV OR STATEGOV is going to become in loco parentis or inter parentis then IT must pay to feed clothe and educate the child until college completion. And if the female head of family dies in childbirth, the various governments must indemnify the Family. Legislatures and wombnazis must not practice medicine or family planning.




12/3/21 9:51 AM

Charlottesville Mess Explained in Plain English

Read about current trial of Protesters here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/us/charlottesville-trial.html

Attorney Antonio Moore discusses the Charlottesville Virginia Protest clashes between protestors. Moore uses the lens of American history and slavery to provide a view into why the clashes occurred and what to expect going forward under President Donald Trump.

Antonio Moore graduated from UCLA & Loyola Law School. He is a Emmy nominated producer of the documentary Crack in the System that aired on Al Jazeera.

Hallelujah! Judge Pitman's Opinion with Music and Fireworks

The Music appropriately begins with Taps.

Farewell to the Texas Abortion Law.
Text of Order
Art by Favianna Rodriguez

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., calling it an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right by banning most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state since September.

The order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges. In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers say the impact has been “exactly what we feared.”

In a 113-page opinion, Pitman took Texas to task over the law, saying Republican lawmakers had “contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme” by leaving enforcement solely in the hands of private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against abortion providers who violate the restrictions.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant.

Big Whoop-de-Shit - Asshats on Parade - UPDATE

Some adventurous Reader read this, so I decided to go back and see who I called an Asshat. I wrote this in 2014. Can you tell how much Republicans still respect and protect Texas Women? Purity culture kills Women and Children. Texas has a higher maternal mortality rate than some countries. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.  

You can put lipstick and earrings on a hog and call it Monique, but it's still a pig. - Anne Richards, Governor of Texas

According to WHO, unsafe abortion is one of the three leading causes of maternal mortality, along with hemorrhage and sepsis from childbirth.1

The men of the Republican party believe that women and women alone are to be held responsible for the fact that humans have sex.

This ultrasound wand -----> is what the State of Texas and Dan Patrick decided must be shoved up my Bird in order for me to have a safe and legal medical abortion. Dan Patrick is working to stop early medication abortions too.

 

Meanwhile, in the real world, a 13 year old just self-aborted with a pencil in Pennsylvania. The child has been sexually assaulted by a 30 year old SexPig. Is the State going to shove one of these -----> up the vagina of a child like her? How Christian is that? Precisely what did Jesus Christ say that requires this treatment of women?

I wonder how many social workers and child advocates it is going to take to deal with issues like this? Or are young women just going to be forced to birth babies because we cannot make exceptions in time or by law? In Africa, childbirth is the leading cause of death of young women 15-19. Is America going to go there "because Jesus?" And how are we going to pay to enforce all these laws? Bond issues? New taxes?

Mandatory ultrasound is The Law in my State as well. Thanks to Governor Corbett. One and done. Legislatures must not practice medicine. Remember the words of the illustrious and reknowned Drive-By who said "Those who vote Republican will have Republican done unto them."

Rapists, who cannot get their genitals to cooperate enough to rape you, use objects instead: sticks, broken bottles, ultrasound wands and laws. That ultrasound wand is bigger than my second husband's johnson. I am going to throw a party when these guys lose. I got a new slogan: Butt core Corbutt! Yes, I went there. I am so going to Hell.

Labor Day Tribute to My Mother - Polka Queen and Member of the IBEW with Folkways Music

Wow, Putin does NOT like Labor protesters, does he? Oh wait, that's McDonald's in Illinois. Then Mickey D's in NYC.

My Mother is Rosie the Riveter. Helen Cebulski De Angelis worked in an aircraft factory during WWII. She was the boss cook of the Sun Ray Pharmacy lunch counter in 1940's Trenton NJ for a time. Without graduating High School, she became an officer for the IBEW and sat on the Labor Board in Washington DC. Rest in peace, Polka Queen. You were a force of Nature.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln

"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked and clubbed into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun." - Eugene Victor Debs, Socialist Party Candidate for POTUS, "An Ideal Labor Press," The Metal Worker (May 1904)

FOLKWAYS

 

Bill Allyn's Justice Reform List

Click Me!

Published again for obvious reasons.

I found this excellent essay about law enforcement on Crooks and Liars. It was just hanging out in the comments. The author, Bill Allyn, has posted it on a number of online sites. I hope I can help his comments go viral by publishing them here. I think he covers all the bases. Bill Allyn approves this message. 

Justice System Reform List

America has a serious, institutionalized, systemic law enforcement problem. Over the last 4 decades, our law enforcement has become increasingly militarized, putting every citizen at risk of being shot and killed for nothing more than reaching for their wallet, as instructed, or less. This may increase safety for police officers (debatable, in the long run), but at the expense of making American citizens far less safe, which is the exact opposite of the goals of law enforcement. We need to create systems that bring back accountability within every level of the justice system.

Nationally, we need to:

1. Create citizen oversight committees with powers of subpoena and prosecutorial discretion for every law enforcement agency in the country. A special independent prosecutor must be assigned immediately for officer-involved shootings. Committee members should be randomly selected and replaced often, like grand jurors, to avoid corruption.

2. Require law enforcement officers to be personally insured to protect taxpayers from lawsuits. Too risky for insurance? No insurance, no badge. Insurance could be partially publicly subsidized.

3. Require every law enforcement officer to wear a camera. No camera, no gun. Also, implement GPS tracking on all police cars and cameras.

4. Require yearly psyche tests to screen out potentially abusive officers.

5. Require random drug and steroid tests.

6. All police agencies must keep a database of every officer-caused civilian injury, shooting or killing, and that data must be periodically transmitted to a third-party, non-biased national database.

7. Any officer involved in a shooting must be alcohol and drug tested immediately.

8. Officers should be made aware of studies on abuse of power, such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures. Ensure there are clear policies on use of force.

9. More training to deal with mentally ill, or a mental illness crisis unit. More training and encouragement to use peacemaking, conflict resolution, and de-escalation skills. Increase educational requirements, focusing on psychology, sociology, and social work.

10. Create a special number (third party, independent of police) to report police brutality. Victims of police brutality and the families of police shootings should immediately be appointed an attorney to represent their position/case.

11. Create national database of abusive officers, so they don’t just get hired elsewhere.

12. Reverse militarization of police forces. Take away military weapons, APC's, uniforms, and especially the attitude. Police officers are civilians, not a branch of the military. Require at least 5 years between active duty military and civilian police employment. Keep SWAT/military weapons and equipment under lock and key only to be used in genuine emergencies. Quit viewing the community you police as a “war zone”.

13. Prohibit television shows that glorify bad, illegal, or unconstitutional policing, such as “Cops”. Glorifying these behaviors creates a dangerous situation for American citizens and should not be tolerated.

14. Increase community outreach. Hire officers from the community. Officers need to be more in touch with the people they are sworn to protect.

15. End no-knock raids. It is perfectly legal for a home owner to respond to a break in with gun in hand, which gets them killed when the police are the intruders. This makes it unreasonably dangerous on citizens, especially when cops often go to the wrong address.

16. Reform forfeiture laws to protect citizens’ property rights and due process. No forfeiture proceedings until after conviction. All forfeiture proceeds go directly to the victims of police brutality and the families of police shootings.

17. End drug prohibition/war on drugs. Use harm reduction strategies.

18. End private prison industry.

19. Create a national organization dedicated to these ideals.

Striptease for Freedom and Good Sense

 Sometimes I really appreciate Young Turks. Like now.

Where is Benjamin Franklin when you need to talk to him? - UPDATE

I wrote this in 2017. Now this article from Wapo gives more substance to my alarm:

The U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But the age of autonomous war is already here.

The Pentagon says a ban on AI weapons isn’t necessary. But missiles, guns and drones that think for themselves are already killing people in combat, and have been for years.\

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. - Benjamin Franklin 

Congress is not at all interested in what the American people want. And they have no plans to give us anything we want. That becomes more obvious by the day and the event. 

And the government (yours and mine) is working on robot soldiers to kill a lot of us when:

Scott Olsen - Getty Images

1. climate change produces riots because of famine and liack of potable water everywhere or 
2. there is an "American Spring." Mass civil rights demonstrations and food riots are so messy. 

Governments are planning to kill you and me only if necessary, of course. And they have the machines to do us now in great numbers. Right now. And they are working on improving them. And they have secret courts.

So stop with the "lizard people" and "they coming to take our guns, RickyBoy" conspiracy theories and wake up. Just because you are paranoid does not mean no one is following you. Wake the fuck up, World. We all have a big problem. A problem not amenable to retaliatory force. And we cannot solve it if we do not help each other.


UPDATE: Nobody read this much. Most folks probably dismissed my concern because they think I am a crackpot.

I am a crackpot. So the only argument I can extend is continuing to provide information. Talk me down. I am scared.

Progress on developing armed robot soldiers is continuing. As this article from WIRED asserts. I do not know what Franklin's concept of "well-armed" could be when we are confronted with such golems.

Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years

• BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE
 

“They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,” Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning told Computerworld. “A robot becoming a member of the squad, we see that as a matter of training.”

Darpa Robotics Challenge

UPDATE 2: 

Military Researchers Develop Corpse-Eating Robots

• BY JOHN SCOTT LEWINSKI  
 

From the file marked “Evidently, many scientists have never seen even one scary sci-fi movie”: The Defense Department is funding research into battlefield robots that power themselves by eating human corpses. What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE 3:
If the Atlantic is writing about robots, robot weaponry and other golems, I guess I am not crazy paranoid after all.

If the Robots Kill Us, It's Because It's Their Job

Don't kill us, guys.

PATRICK TUCKER

UPDATE 4:
Is this a mosquito? 

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. 

Read more At http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#pQ6D2qlAHs9yrW0o.99