Update for week 8 of 2025 – a proposal to require a pass to access NC's gamelands, Red Books Day, the Pisces period, more

 Some previous winter/spring calendar posts:

durhamspark.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-2025-new-years-message-from-usmlo-few.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2025/02/more-than-year-of-war-in-middle-east.html ,  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-around.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/04/some-additional-events-and.html ,  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/01/some-events-and-anniversaries-around.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html ,  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/11/adc-statements-on-ceasefire-in-lebanon.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/10/biden-harris-and-pro-war-cheney.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html , durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/additional-events-and-anniversaries-in.html, and durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/more-events-and-anniversaries-in-early.html 

In the censored February 15th post, I might have been wrong about Algonquin languages having been spoken in this area in Contact and Colonial times -- the Eno, Sissipahaw, Occaneechi, Shakori, etc. apparently spoke Siouan languages, like the Catawba, now based in and near York County, in northern South Carolina, near Rock Hill, SC, and Charlotte, NC.  

Algonquian groups lived near the North Carolina coast, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Croatan, Secotan, Weapemeoc, Pamlico, and Hatteras (some of these names might be redundant), while the Powhatan and Pamunkey lived in coastal Virginia.  Further north there were the Piscataway, Assateague, Lenape, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusett, Patuxet, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Miꞌkmaq, Abenaki, Mahican, Mohican, Shawnee, Peoria, Miami, Illinois, Kickapoo, Menominee, Potawatomi, Sauk, Ojibwe, Cree, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc.  Some of these names might be redundant and not what they called themselves and of course many Native Americans or entire tribes still live in or near their traditional lands.  Many of these Algonquin-speaking tribes are famous in US and Canadian history.  I'm not sure what connections they had to the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia in East St Louis and the mound building cultures known archaeologically in the Midwest.  Some groups have moved great distances in recent centuries, and not always due to European or American colonization, or not directly.  For more information see:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakori , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_people , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatteras_Indians , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamlico , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eno_people , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture  There will be  powwow on Roanoke Island in NC April 26-27th (see the bottom of the page) 

It is a quite foggy and cloudy morning here February 16th.  Or maybe the window was just fogged up; later in the morning I realized that it was mild or warm, damp, cloudy, and windy.  That morning I had been wondering if I was hearing something like a squirrel or raccoon that had gotten inside, but it must have been the wind.  Later in the morning a flock of red-winged blackbirds was singing nearby. I'm not sure now, but I might have heard hawk(s), a sapsucker again, a sound from a red-bellied woodpecker, etc.  More of last year's sweetgum balls were blowing down for the spring.  I think the power went out briefly after I posted that morning.  A lot of chainsawing and heavy thumps nearby on the 17th.  I think the birds were much quieter on the 17th.  No red-winged blackbirds or hawks?  I saw the waning Moon near Spica on the morning of the 17th and in Scorpius before that.  

February 18th a returning brilliant green to yellowish pine warbler (?; Dendroica pinus) came to the new suet and I think I heard it sing after I blocked it in the afternoon by standing nearby.  Moles have been digging and I saw one probing under the leaf litter on the 18th.  I might have heard a skink scurrying under the leaves.  In the morning a loose brown and white (young?) dog was at a door.  I'm not sure if it was with people on the road.  Earlier I saw an unfamiliar black cat (female?) with very slick-looking fur.  Recently I saw the brown long-haired cat again.  I found a dead shrew (short-tailed?), possibly killed by a cat, that morning.  A two-day snowstorm was forecast for Wednesday and Thursday but it was almost clear, with a few fine cirrus clouds on Tuesday.  It was almost clear overnight and I looked at Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc.  Shortly before dawn I might have seen a 'first' bank of lower altocumulus drift in front of the waning Moon.  It was cloudy all day on the 19th.  The forecast called for winter precipitation from the morning of the 19th to mid-day or afternoon on the 20th, with a lull around 9pm-12am the night of the 19th.  It began to snow earlier elsewhere, but I noticed a few stray flakes at 10:50am, heavier by mid-day or early afternoon and very snowy in the evening.  It is supposed to be a wet snow this time, and it is sticking to the branches as I write. 

I heard one or more owls calling far off early on the 19th.  In the morning I saw around 10 juncos and fewer white-throated sparrows, joined by one of the small, heavily streaked sparrows I often see early in the year (they resemble savannah sparrows, Passerculus sandwichensis ??; It stayed in one place more than the larger sparrows and it could forage in tangled vines and brush.  Separately female and male downy (?) woodpeckers were at the suet, displaced at times by the smaller pine warbler (?; most threatening?) and Carolina wren(s; only one at a time).  A myrtle warbler also came again; I hadn't seen any recently.  Twice a dark junco tried to get to the suet and probably a white-throated sparrow as well.  I saw robin(s) and I think a thrush of some kind going to a bucket to drink.  I wondered if I saw a bluebird at a feeder before, but today I definitely saw a bright blue and reddish male bluebird there.  One or more chickadees, titmice, the pair of cardinals, and the pair of towhees came.  Little traffic, but some crunching on ice after dark.  I'll miss the snowstorm again?  I did this on the 19th.  I saw that the daylilies in a bucket have sent up new spring foliage and earlier in the week I saw that more daffodil leaves have come up and are pretty tall now. 

State Proposes Access Pass for Game Lands

Audubon encourages members, public to weigh. --

nc.audubon.org/news/state-proposes-access-pass-game-lands

www.ncwildlife.org/conservation-access-pass

A pass would be required for those without a hunting or fishing license.  How would this be enforced, when many gamelands can be entered from adjacent yards, public roads, the ATT, parks, navigable waterways, etc.?  I doubt they have enough officers to look for people out in the woods.  Has the NC Wildlife Resources Commission been keeping this proposal quiet?  I didn't see it mentioned in their newsletters, though maybe I missed something. Is this aimed at animal rights activists, or is the WRC underfunded?  Individual NC tax refund money can be donated to the WRC and I've done that.      

See the articles for the WRC's contact information.

 

The Mountain Region meeting was to be held in Asheville, Buncombe County February 20th, but will be rescheduled.

The Eastern Region meeting will be held in Greenville, Pitt County 
Date: Tuesday, February 25 
Time: 7-9 p.m. 
Location: Pitt Community College, 169 Bulldog Run, Winterville, NC 28590 
Google Map Directions 

The Central Region meeting will be held in Greensboro, Guilford County 
Date: Wednesday, February 26 
Time: 7-9 p.m. 
Location: Guilford Technical Community College, 3505 E. Wendover Avenue, Greensboro, NC; Room 152 AB Combined 
Google Map Directions 

Virtual Webinar via Zoom: Register to Attend. 
Date: Tuesday, March 4 
Time: 6-8 p.m.  

Thursday, February 6th (instead of the 3rd) Steve Inskeep of NPR's Morning Edition had a very friendly interview with allegedly "progressive" Marc J Dunkelman on 'why nothing works;' they didn't say "YIMBY," but that is what it was.  Not only is NPR basically all in with the bipartisan warmongers, the "national security state," (and Silicon Valley/"tech" industry types) but now they are going to beat on me for real estate/construction/financial interests (like Donald J Trump?  FIRE interests??)  NPR goes on about "gentrification," but then condemns communities having influence over local land use, and what about other regulations?  Kill wildlife for big "green" energy, EV batteries, smartphones, and more metal ores?  Remove regulations requiring earthquake, fire, and hurricane resistant construction?  NPR has yet to balance out this anti-environmental and anti-social line. -- www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5245230/progressives-administrative-state-weakened-marc-j-dunkelman and steveinskeep.substack.com/p/did-progressives-stop-government 

More of the same from Yoni Appelbaum at The Atlantic:  www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/03/american-geographic-social-mobility/681439/  Being in The Atlantic, of course he was interviewed by Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition around Monday, February 17th.  I came in to the room and at first I thought that it was a repeat or extension of the Dunkelman interview.

A different view:  kollibri.substack.com/p/the-desert-is-for-wildlife-not-green energy

On Weekend Morning Edition Sunday the 16th they had an interview with Lydia Kang MD (?) and "historian" Nate Pedersen (?), the authors of Pseudoscience: An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them (?;  I didn't catch the authors' names or the exact title of the book).  They talked at length about the idea of "spontaneous human combustion" and...  And I should believe whatever they are saying because...?  NPR didn't say what their credentials are.  It might be stated as obvious that 'bigfoot isn't real,' but I don't think that having an MD and being a historian constitutes proof of expertise on "pseudoscience," other than possibly on issues related to medicine or whatever a historian's specialty is.  It is just meant to be humorous?  But the group seemed to be making claims that they know the truth and that you are a "crackpot" if you think differently.  I don't remember them talking about "why we love" "crackpot ideas."  NPR is really into "science" ("Science") this month, against RFK Jr, etc.  If the US government makes allegations about Ba'athist Iraq and Syria and WMDs, that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, that China is legally at fault for the coronavirus, that GMOs and "AI" are great, or that Havana Syndrome is real and caused by a new microwave weapon, it must be true.  Trust the professional liars and killers in the "intelligence community," they say.  There is nothing to see regarding a certain laptop or a former president's health.  I'm surprised they covered "UAPs" at all in 2024.  SETI is serious business, free from bias or baseless assumptions.  Senior staff at NPR have demonstrated in recent years that they can't define "communism" properly (like the Arizona Republicans they condemned, "communism" is whatever the NPR staff want to condemn that is foreign, Russian, sort of left, etc.) and they once aired the theory that a Soviet flying saucer utilizing Nazi German technology crashed in Roswell, NM a few years after WWII.  What happened to NPR's concern for cultural sensitivity? -- www.npr.org/2025/02/16/nx-s1-5235258/the-authors-of-a-new-book-explain-pseudoscientific-conspiracies-and-why-we-love-them , www.amazon.com/dp/1523524251/and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Kang

A few other stories:

www.npr.org/2025/02/16/nx-s1-5269960-e1/moss-doesnt-get-a-lot-of-love-moss-appreciation-week-in-oregon-aims-to-change-that

www.npr.org/2025/02/16/nx-s1-5232176/how-going-flouride-free-has-impacted-one-alaskan-city

simplicius76.substack.com/p/rift-grows-into-chasm-as-trump-lays Final Nail in Zelensky's Casket

There is an article about The Report from Iron Mountain, a bestselling 1967 satire (?) in the current issue of Harper's magazine; in The New York Times Book Review issue of March 19, 1972 Leonard C. Lewin claimed that he had written the pro-war, anti-peace book as a hoax.  A real former iron mine at Iron Mountain in Germantown, New York is used as a private storage facility and bomb  shelter by various organizations:   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Report_from_Iron_Mountain

The alleged Reichsburger coup plot arrests in Germany were December 7, 2022:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_German_coup_d%27état_plot and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsbürger_movement  See also:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_X_plot

The Golpe Borghese (Borghese Coup) in Italy was alleged planned for the night of December 7 or 8 in 1970, but the plan was revealed or claimed to exist March 18, 1971, which was quickly followed by arrests:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golpe_Borghese

Border agent David Christopher Maland was killed January 20, 2025 after about 3:15pm on I-91 southbound, about 15 km south of the Canadian border, in Coventry, Vermont; the  two suspects, Teresa Youngblut (wounded) and Ophelia Bauckholt (killed; a German citizen), allegedly lived separately in Airbnbs in Chapel Hill; Zizians; named for Jack Amadeus LaSota or "Ziz;" Why was this older news story scrolling all day on WRAL around February 17th, without further details? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_David_Maland ; see also:  www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/leader-of-zizians-cultlike-group-linked-to-6-killings-ordered-held-without-bail-in-maryland and and www.google.com/search?q=maryland+cult+murder

Harpal Brar, 85, founder and chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), passed away January 25, 2025.  There will be a memorial and fundraiser for Palestine Saturday, March 22nd 1-7pm at Bolivar Hall in London (54 Grafton Way, W1T 5DL) thecommunists.org/events/harpal-brar-memorial-fundraiser-for-palestine/  He was born October 5, 1939 in Muktsar, Punjab Province, British India:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpal_Brar

Anthropologist Frank Gouldsmith Speck (November 8, 1881 – February 6, 1950):  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Speck

The traditional Pisces period begins around February 19th, though the Sun is actually in the constellation Aquarius around February 17th-March 13th, followed by Pisces around March 13th to April 19th.

Red Books Day is February 21st.

Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19, 1473.

Swedish naturalist Daniel Carlsson (Charles) Solander (February 19, 1733 – May 13, 1782).

Abkhazia became a treaty republic within (?) the Georgian SSR December 16, 1921 (or in March?) and an autonomous soviet socialist republic within the Georgian SSR February 19, 1931. 

Soviet astronomer Klim Ivanovych Churyumov was born February 19, 1937 and passed away October 14, 2016.

The WWII Battle of Iwo Jima was February 19 – March 26, 1945. 

Under Khrushchev Crimea and nearby areas was transferred from Russia to Ukraine within the USSR February 19, 1954, but there have been questions about the legality of the transfer.

Construction of the Soviet space station Mir (Peace or World in Russian) began February 19, 1986.  Until 2010 the record for longest continuous human presence in space was the habitation of Mir and some individual cosmonauts spent at least a year on the station.  Mir was retired and deorbited into the South Pacific in late March 2001.

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping passed away February 19, 1997.  He had been born August 22, 1904.  His predecessor, Hua Guofeng, was born February 16, 1921 and passed away August 20, 2008. 

February 12, 1733 the colony of Georgia was founded, initially without slavery.  Georgia ratified the US Constitution January 2, 1788.  The state of Georgia seceded January 19, 1861 and was the last state brought back in; a new flag was adopted February 19, 2003 yet I saw the previous one flying in the greater Atlanta area in fall 2018?  Many states seem to have lacked flags until the second half of the 19th century.  Utah adopted a new flag March 9, 2024 and Minnesota on May 11th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_U.S._states_and_territories

The Rage Against the War Machine anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC was February 19, 2023 and a sequel was February 17, 2024.

Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (February 20, 1805 – October 26, 1879)

February 20-21, 2024 – there was a Julian Assange hearing in the UK relating to whether he could be extradited to the US; RFK Jr condemned the US extradition effort around then.  

According to the website Prisoner Solidarity, political prisoner Tsutomu Shirosaki might be released from prison in Japan February 20, 2027:  prisonersolidarity.com/prisoner/tsutomu-shiros

Hungarian revolutionary Béla Kun (Béla Kohn) was born February 20, 1886 in a Transylvanian village that was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time and is now in Romania.  Some of his writings are posted at:  www.marxists.org/archive/kun-bela/index.htm and otheraspect.org/bela-kun-and-hungarian-soviet-republic/

The First Franco-Dahomean War, one of two, was February 20 to October 4 in 1890, in what is now Benin (formerly called Dahomey, after a powerful Fon or Aja state there, the "Black Sparta," or Mexico?  Not related to the Benin Bronzes?), between Togo and Nigeria in West Africa.  The second war was July 4, 1892 to January 15, 1894.  In 1860 the Clotilda brought slaves captured by Dahomey to Mobile; importing slaves from abroad had long been illegal.  There is still a king of Dahomey, who has a role in the Vodun religion, etc.

Frederick Douglass passed away February 20, 1895 in Washington, DC.

The World Day of Social Justice is February 20th:  www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks

February 21st is also Red Books Day, according to the People's Forum in New York City.  This is the 176th (?) anniversary of the Communist Manifesto:  peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/21/red-books-day-2023-fight-the-rise-of-the-right-read-a-red-book/

The last known Carolina parakeet died February 21, 1918 at the Cincinnati Zoo, apparently the same place where the last captive passenger pigeon, Martha, died September 1, 1914.  He was named Incas and died months after his mate, Lady Jane.  The last known wild bird was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida in 1904, though sightings were reported in southern Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp in 1937 and in swamps near the Santee River in South Carolina in 1938.  But of course the Santee was dammed the next year.  It would seem like Carolina parakeets could be cloned with DNA from preserved specimens.     

Jeffrey "Jeff" M Shaara, author of the Battle of Gettysburg novel Killer Angels, was born February 21, 1952 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, but grew up in Tallahassee, Florida.

A chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice was founded February 21, 1965 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. 

Two Israeli F-4 Phantom II fighter jets shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 February 21, 1973 over part of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula occupied by Israel, killing 108 people, with 5 survivors.

Bob Sheldon, founder of the former leftist bookstore Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, was killed the evening of February 21, 1991, and the case remains unsolved.  The police concluded that this happened during a robbery, but others called it a political murder:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalist_Books  See the fall or winter 2024 article on the Internationalist in UNC's Daily Tar Heel, linked in a post here a few months ago.  

Florida professor Sami al-Arian (born January 14, 1958 in Kuwait) was indicted February 21, 2003; his case brings to mind what Nancy Pelosi advocated doing to anti-war protesters in winter 2024).

February 21-22/2014 – the US-EU-backed Maidan coup was completed and in power, in Ukraine? –  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych  February 19, 2025 NPR flatly declared that it is just 'not true' that the Ukrainian coup government started the war in eastern Ukraine.  About 200 people protested in Raleigh on February 17, 2025, calling for NC Republican senator Tillis to oppose Trump (?), and on the 19th he criticized Trump for blaming Ukraine for the war, and said that Russia will invade the EU or whatever if it isn't stopped in Ukraine.  Someone satirized the USA's new "Persimmon Revolution" under Trump on Sonar21. 

February 21, 2024 – the 125th anniversary of Vicksburg NMP.

There  "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" at the President James K Polk State Historic Site in Pineville will be February 22nd 11am-12pm; an 18th-century linen "Wallet Workshop" will be at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in Burlington will be February 22nd 10am-3pm; "Family Night at the CSS Neuse Museum" in Kinston will be February 22nd-23rd; there will be a reenactment of a March 5, 1781 Revolutionary War skirmish at the Alamance Battleground March 1st; there will be another reenactment March 1st, commemorating a February 27, 1760 Cherokee attack on Fort Dobbs, in Statesville; etc. – historicsites.nc.gov/events 

National Invasive Species Awareness Week 2025 will be February 24-28th:  naisma.org/programs/nisaw/  Related articles:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2016/04/emerald-ash-borer-unnecessary.html and durhamspark.blogspot.com/2017/01/redbay-sassafras-and-harm-caused-by.html

Today on the HASTRO listserv:  A second Western zodiac, after the system of the ancient Sumerians, was developed by an institution established in ancient Babylonia by Nabonassar February 26, 747 BCE?  Babylonian king Nabû-nāṣir -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabonassar ?

February 27, 1714 -- an agreement between the colony of  Virginia and the Siouan Saponi, Tottero, Occaneechi, Keyauwee, Enoke/Eno, and Shakori tribes? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakori , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponi , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Christanna , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haliwa-Saponi_Indian_Tribe 

The Aldo Leopold Foundation's Leopold Week 2025 will be March 4-6th:  www.crowdcast.io/c/leopold-week2025

The Tuscarora tribes' Fort Neoheroka (or Neherooka, Nooherooka, or Neyuherú·kęʼ), now in Greene County, in eastern North Carolina, was besieged around March 1-23, 1713, during the Tuscarora War (September 10, 1711 to February 11, 1715).  Many hundreds of people were killed or sold as slaves in the colony of South Carolina.  The very bloody Yamasee War in South Carolina began around Good Friday, April 15 or 14 in 1715 (or the Pocotaligo Massacre, near Yemassee, South Carolina; the Tugaloo Massacre was January 27, 1716) and ended in 1717 -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscarora_people , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Neoheroka , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscarora_War , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamasee_War

Linguist Blair Arnold Rudes (May 18, 1951 – March 16, 2008):  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_A._Rudes

From Powwows.com:

​UNC Pembroke BraveNation Pow Wow and Gathering 2025​
March 22 - March 22
Jones - 1 University Drive, Pembroke, NC - 28372

​Annual Youth Pow Wow 2025 (Eden, NC)​
April 26 - April 26
134 N. Pierce St., Eden, NC - 27288
​
​Roanoke Island Native American Heritage Festival and Pow Wow 2025​
April 26 - April 27
829 Wingina Ave, Manteo , NC - 27954

On WRAL around February 18th:  a Real ID or passport will now be necessary to fly domestically or enter certain US government buildings starting May 7th?? 

 

ADC: Demand immediate hate crime charges in the Miami Shooting

Sent out the evening of February 19th:

ACTION ALERT: Demand Immediate Hate Crime Charges in the Miami Shooting

On Saturday, February 15, 2025, Mordechai Brafman opened fire on two visiting Israeli tourists because he believed they were Palestinian. After his arrest, Brafman admitted he “saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” Although the victims turned out not to be Arab or Palestinian, the bias-fueled nature of this attack makes it clear that this crime was driven by anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hatred.   Troublingly, one of the victims later posted “Death to Arabs,” further exposing the pervasive and deep-seated anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment at play.   The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply alarmed by this escalating violence and the ongoing rise in hate crimes targeting Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims. We cannot allow these threats to go unaddressed. We must demand that local officials and federal authorities treat this shooting as the hate crime it clearly is.   ADC calls on Mayor of Miami Beach Steven Meiner to take swift and decisive action on these three critical demands:   1. Recommit to the protection and safety of Arab and Muslim communities.   The mayors must publicly reassure Arab and Muslim residents and visitors that they will be safe in Miami. This means issuing a clear public statement condemning anti-Arab hate and outlining concrete steps to protect these communities.   2. Condemn this incident as a hate crime. Despite the clear bias motivating this attack, Mayor Meiner is yet to issue a statement acknowledging the tragedy or labeling it as the hate crime it is. 3. Demand an immediate FBI investigation. The public deserves to know if there is a possibility Brafman is part of a wider radicalized group aiming to target Arabs and Muslims. Federal intervention is essential to ensure extremist networks are identified and dismantled. TAKE ACTION NOW

We urge all ADC members and concerned individuals to email Mayor Meiner immediately. Let him know our community will not stand for hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims to go unaddressed. [Reposting: On Saturday, February 15, 2025, Mordechai Brafman opened fire on two visiting Israeli tourists because he believed they were Palestinian. After his arrest, Brafman admitted he “saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” Although the victims turned out not to be Arab or Palestinian, the bias-fueled nature of this attack makes it clear that this crime was driven by anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hatred.   Troublingly, one of the victims later posted “Death to Arabs,” further exposing the pervasive and deep-seated anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment at play.   The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply alarmed by this escalating violence and the ongoing rise in hate crimes targeting Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims. We cannot allow these threats to go unaddressed. We must demand that local officials and federal authorities treat this shooting as the hate crime it clearly is.   ADC calls on Mayor of Miami Beach Steven Meiner to take swift and decisive action on these three critical demands:   1. Recommit to the protection and safety of Arab and Muslim communities.   The mayors must publicly reassure Arab and Muslim residents and visitors that they will be safe in Miami. This means issuing a clear public statement condemning anti-Arab hate and outlining concrete steps to protect these communities.   2. Condemn this incident as a hate crime. Despite the clear bias motivating this attack, Mayor Meiner is yet to issue a statement acknowledging the tragedy or labeling it as the hate crime it is. 3. Demand an immediate FBI investigation. The public deserves to know if there is a possibility Brafman is part of a wider radicalized group aiming to target Arabs and Muslims. Federal intervention is essential to ensure extremist networks are identified and dismantled. TAKE ACTION NOW We urge all ADC members and concerned individuals to email Mayor Meiner immediately. Let him know our community will not stand for hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims to go unaddressed.

BAP: US war on Africa rages on with Somalia in the crosshairs

 Originally posted at:  blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/us-war-on-africa-rages-on-with-somalia-in-the-crosshairs

U.S. War on Africa Rages on
with Somalia in the Crosshairs

February 10, 2025 — The new Trump administration has wasted no time continuing the U.S. war on Africa. Just one month into his second term, the U.S. has launched at least six airstrikes in Somalia’s Puntland region. While AFRICOM and the Somali government claim these strikes are “authorized” and therefore legal under international law, this so-called authorization is nothing more than a hallmark of neo-colonial governance. Comprador regimes installed and maintained by Western imperialism do not exercise genuine sovereignty but instead serve as facilitators of foreign domination.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Africa Team and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) unequivocally condemn this renewed aggression. These strikes, backed by the Puntland regional government, have nothing to do with “security.” They serve U.S. neo-colonial domination, enforcing foreign control and keeping Somalia divided.

Under Trump’s first term, the U.S. launched over 200 airstrikes in Somalia—more than Bush, Obama, and Biden combined—fueling instability and strengthening al-Shabaab. The 2020 troop withdrawal was a reorganization of imperial strategy, ensuring AFRICOM continued operations through drone warfare and proxies.

For decades, the U.S. has worked to keep Somalia in crisis. It has exploited divisions between Somalia and Somaliland, manipulated conflicts in the Horn, and propped up corrupt regimes. The Somali government, like all comprador regimes, trades sovereignty for military aid, including its recent $600,000 contract with BGR Group, a Washington lobbying firm.

BAP previously warned that Trump’s second term would bring a more aggressive U.S. posture in Africa. As BAP Africa Team Co-Coordinator Netfa Freeman stated:

“The Trump administration enters office at a time when China and Russia have significantly deepened their strategic partnerships across the continent and with the continent no longer in the same position of weakness as before. The rise of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has shown the world that African nations can reject Western domination and military occupation. These factors mean that the U.S. will likely pursue a much more aggressive military strategy in Africa, being that all they know is drone warfare, proxy militias, and strategic partnerships with neo-colonial regimes to maintain its grip.”

This attack is part of a broader U.S. offensive against the growing movement in Africa for self-determination. Trump has already moved against South Africa, cutting aid under the racist pretext of defending white Afrikaners while punishing the country for challenging U.S. and Israeli settler-colonialism. The same empire that protects apartheid landowners in South Africa continues to wage war on Somalia and militarize the continent. Meanwhile, AFRICOM’s role in destabilizing Africa extends beyond Somalia. In Libya, U.S. military forces are deepening their partnership with the comprador regime in Tripoli, strengthening military ties under the tired pretext of “security cooperation.” AFRICOM’s continued presence in Libya, where U.S. and NATO forces devastated a prosperous country in 2011, ensures that Libya remains fractured, occupied by competing factions, and is a staging ground for imperialist military operations across North Africa and the Sahel.

The U.S. and its allies have turned Somalia into a perpetual warzone, a playground for private mercenaries, and a military testing ground for AFRICOM’s latest weapons and drone technology. They have done so under the guise of “fighting terrorism,” when in reality, they have created the very conditions that allow groups like al-Shabaab to thrive. BAP rejects the false choice between U.S. military occupation and endless war. The Somali people have the right to build their own future, without Washington’s bombs, without AFRICOM’s presence, and without the interference of Gulf States acting as Western proxies.

Shutdown AFRICOM!

U.S. Out of Africa!

No Compromise! No Retreat!

Scintilla articles on the Trump administration + the war in DR Congo

 I received these two translated articles; notes are from the translator.

I think the BBC reported earlier today that the Rwandan-backed rebels in DR Congo are in the process of capturing another major city (Bukavu?) and have cut off the region around Lake Kivu (?) on the border with Rwanda.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M23_campaign_(2022–present)

A reference to Rwanda regarding countries with reserves of the tungsten and other rare metals at stake in the new US-China trade war; note that it has been suggested that some of Rwanda's exports are actual 'laundered' Congolese resources; other major tungsten-producers apparently include Russia, DPR Korea, Vietnam, Bolivia, Australia, Austria, Spain, and Portugal etc.:  sonar21.com/ceasefire-with-palestine-holds-china-creates-big-problem-for-us-defense-industry/  I was surprised to read that the island of Cuba is a large nickel producer, though it has placer gold, so why not other metals.   

A report from Newsweek about a campaign organized by the People's Union to protest the attacks on DEI with a 24-hour consumer spending boycott February 28th, especially targeting Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, but asking people to refrain from making any purchases, in-person or online, for the entire day; if spending is necessary, people are urged to go to "small, local businesses:"   portside.org/2025-02-15/nationwide-economic-blackout-february-28

The unionization campaign at the Amazon warehouse in or near Raleigh, NC failed February 15th?

On Wikipedia:  February 16th is the Day of the Shining Star in DPR Korea, marking the anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il. 

The BBC claimed February 16th that support is actually growing for the deposed Yoon in the ROK, and the "opposition" is accused of being anti-woman.  A few weeks ago the BBC was focusing on misogyny in the ROK, a line of criticism they also use against Japan and China (there might have been an example of that today, too).  

The February 15th post has been censored, possibly because a Google algorithm 'thinks' that the content is actually explicit (or rightist "conspiracy theorist??" [or doxxing or whatever?]), rather than because of the politics, and I don't think I can protest the decision.  The content is still there, but I'm not getting the usual statistics about the post from them and this is like a big "Scarlet A," though maybe people will open it out of curiosity.  This is what Facebook's allegedly non-censorious "fact checking" did?  I was already thinking that I should take steps to safeguard against censorship or other problems with Blogger/Chrome.  They reserve a very broad list of reasons to cancel users, seemingly amounting to the drop of a hat.  Read while you can.  The content could be better and much of it isn't original, but there is some value.  This blog has been copied on the Wayback Machine ( web.archive.org ), but worryingly not since the end of 2023.  There have been some technical and personal problems in recent years, and I had planned to take a break for a few days, or some time.  'They' might also be watching more carefully.  I had intended to add to the February 15th post, and I still might, but there might be technical problems.  If something happens to this blog I might post new content, somewhere, using or referencing the same title and email, so any interested readers can find search it out.  There is also a problem with that account, and I didn't/won't get messages sent to it.  I have some old content posted publicly elsewhere online and might use one of those outlets or go to WordPress, etc.  An independent website seems like an obvious but more difficult solution, though those can be silenced as well, as with WikiLeaks, a well-known "conspiracy theorist," Canadian rightists, etc.   Vice President Vance spoke about German, Swiss (?), etc. censorship, causing near EU 'rebellion' at the Munich Security Conference (do Trump and Vance really want to goad the EU into becoming an independent military power?), but left out the obvious examples regarding Palestine, mentioning only the right and "far right."  There has been talk on the left about waging information war against imperialism online, but they don't explain how they propose to get around the control held by Google, banks, etc.  Virality?  Is the Internet more right than left, and frivolous?  Well-known media and activist personalities must have more options in dealing with censorship, but then they can just be arrested or sued with "lawfare." 

[Also regarding the February 15th post, I might have been wrong about Algonquin languages having been spoken in this area in Contact and Colonial times -- the Eno, Sissipahaw, Occaneechi, Shakori, etc. apparently spoke Siouan languages, like the Catawba, now based in and near York County, in northern South Carolina, near Rock Hill, SC, and Charlotte, NC.  Algonquian groups lived near the North Carolina coast, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Croatan, Secotan, Weapemeoc, Pamlico, and Hatteras (some of these names might be redundant), while the Powhatan and Pamunkey lived in coastal Virginia.  Further north there were the Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusett, Patuxet, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy,  Miꞌkmaq, Abenaki, Mahican, Mohican, Lenape, Shawnee, Peoria, Miami, Illinois, Kickapoo, Menominee, Potawatomi, Sauk, Ojibwe, Cree, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc.  Some of these names might be redundant and not what they called themselves and of course many Native Americans or entire tribes still live in or near their traditional lands).  Many of these Algonquin-speaking tribes are famous in US and Canadian history.  I'm not sure what connections they had to the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia in East St Louis and the mound building cultures known archaeologically in the Midwest.  Some groups have moved great distances in recent centuries, and not always due to European or American colonization, or not directly.  For more information see:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakori , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_people , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatteras_Indians , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamlico , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

It is a quite foggy and cloudy morning here February 16th.  [Or maybe the window was just fogged up; later in the morning I realized that it was mild or warm, damp, cloudy, and windy.  That morning I was wondering if I was hearing something like a squirrel or raccoon that had gotten inside, but it must have been the wind.  Later in the morning a flock of red-winged blackbirds was singing nearby, I'm not sure now, but I might have heard hawk(s) and a sapsucker, etc.  More of last year's sweetgum balls were blowing down for the spring.]

Originally posted February 14th at:  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/la-politica-di-trump-inasprisce-tutte-le-contraddizioni-del-sistema-imperialista/ and piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/unaltra-guerra-di-saccheggio-in-africa/

There are a number of interesting articles at:  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/scintilla-n-151-febbraio-2025/   On YM Sverdlov:  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/leminente-bolscevico-y-m-sverdlov/ ; February 2, 1943 in Stalingrad and the EU today  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/gloria-eterna-allarmata-rossa-e-ai-partigiani-vergogna-sul-parlamento-europeo/; On Iris2 versus Starlink, Amazon Kuiper, and One Web, etc.:  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/la-spocchia-dellimperialismo-italiano/ ; piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/compiti-permanenti-da-assolvere-con-il-giornale-comunista/; the APL and APK statement on Greenland:  piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/solidarieta-con-il-popolo-della-groenlandia-contro-ogni-imperialismo/

Scintilla No. 151, February 2025
Published by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

Trump's policy exacerbates all the contradictions of the imperialist system

The demagogic speech that Donald Trump delivered during his second inauguration and the measures he immediately implemented demonstrate the start of an ultra-reactionary policy that expresses the interests and privileges of a minority, of a handful of billionaires and monopolists present at the act: oil tycoons, owners of technology monopolies, of transnational communication companies, financial institutions, arms merchants.

It is the elite of the US imperialist bourgeoisie that supports Trump's policies aimed at putting the state at their exclusive service, dramatically worsening the lives of hundreds of millions of workers and entire peoples, without taking climate change into account.

From day one, Trump provocatively implemented protectionist measures, imposing tariffs and duties on numerous countries with which he has trade relations; he pardoned 1500 fascists who stormed the Capitol; he eliminated labor protections, such as those against discrimination or the right to unionize for federal employees; he deregulated oil drilling, eliminated the constitutional "ius soli" [birthright citizenship], declared a national emergency at the southern border, which means closing the borders and deporting migrants; he brutally attacked national and social minorities and women.

These measures were taken to support the US as a hegemonic superpower and to demonstrate that it is capable of sustaining a multi-level confrontation with other imperialist and capitalist countries, primarily with China.

Trump has already started this war, especially on the commercial level. The tariffs are already seeing retaliatory measures by some countries (China, Canada, Mexico).

The EU is also preparing to react to the tariffs established by Trump on steel and aluminum; it will do so to protect its monopolies, certainly not the workers.

Trade protectionism will have serious consequences for the world economy, such as a decrease in trade and production, high inflation, reduced investment, disruptions in supply chains, and other problems that arise from a confrontation of this magnitude.

But in the medium term, it will be the United States and the countries most closely linked to Washington, including Italy, that will be affected by this policy. Authoritative centers of analysis predict a 27% drop in exports and 20% in imports for the USA.

Production costs will increase, resulting in a decline in GDP. The majority of U.S. workers will not become richer, but poorer. Social conflict will also flare up in the U.S., rather than "Make America Great Again"!

Trump has also made it clear that he intends to implement a warmongering and colonialist policy, bringing the claws of US imperialism to countries such as Mexico, Panama, Greenland, planning the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank together with Zionism.

For Ukraine, he is preparing an imperialist peace, a prelude to new unjust wars, while he wants to rob its rare earths.

At the same time, he highlighted his authoritarian conception of power, threatening to send troops and bring hell to those places where the orders of the star-spangled superpower are not carried out.

The new political orientation of the United States translates into a complete reshaping of the state in order to eliminate all concessions to the public sphere, oriented to services for the working masses, while strengthening the mechanisms of support for capital and the war policies of the bourgeois state apparatus.

In the early days of the Trump administration, there have already been elements that make his proto-fascist character evident. Trump has begun a series of mass deportations, labeling undocumented immigrants as "criminal aliens" and treating them as military targets.

He is also instituting a policy of "white supremacy," in which monopolies can exploit and persecute non-white Americans (Latinos, blacks, and other ethnicities), who will be subjected to further discrimination and violence in all spheres of economic, political, and social life.

Not to be underestimated is the Trumpist narrative of an alleged international conspiracy to humiliate the United States, reminiscent of the Nazi German discourse of the 1930s, accompanied by the need to rebuild a U.S. identity based on economic and military supremacy, which the United States would have lost in the 1930s. Musk's fascist salute is a symbol of that program.

The second Trump administration promises to be an exploitative and robbing, chauvinist and warmongering, reactionary and fascist administration, with no respect for the rights of humans and nature.

As the representative of the most aggressive and militarist imperialism, Trump will deepen actions to benefit the industrial tycoons who support him.

The policies of his government will lead to an increase in violence both within the U.S. and internationally, undermining the agencies and institutions that the bourgeoisie has set up to maintain its liberal order.

Trump's second term is a desperate response to the unstoppable decline of the United States, to the loss of global power and influence that has its causes inside and not outside Yankee imperialism.

At the same time it represents the confirmation of a peculiarity of imperialism: that of being political reaction across the board; as well as expressing the sharpening of fundamental strife in every field.

The working class and the popular strata are faced with new conditions, which force them to abandon any illusion of peaceful development.

All the contradictions of imperialism will sharpen and affect the working class and the oppressed peoples.

Years of imperialist offensive and open and intense conflicts await us, to face them it is not enough to just show disgust and contempt for Trump, Musk and associates.

Faced with this scenario, we must not be deceived or impressed by the demagoguery, irrationalism and media power of US gangsters.

Nor can we rely on Trump's imperialist rivals acting for their own exclusive interests (China is openly aiming for a "new phase of mature and stable bilateral relations" to share the world with the US).

The enemies of our enemies are not our friends!

Aggressive imperialist plans require us to quickly unite and mobilize forces in defense of the economic, social and political interests and rights of the proletariat, to resist the proponents of austerity, authoritarianism, war and fascism.

In our country it is necessary to develop the policies of the united front and the popular front, to intensify the struggle against the government led by a Trumpist prime minister, to give life to a mass revolutionary political action to beat the bourgeois offensive, raising the flags of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.

The problem of the economic crisis and growing misery, the threats of war, bourgeois violence and racism, and fascistization require a radical solution: the proletarian revolution led by the Leninist Party!

Scintilla #151, February 2025
Published by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

Another War of Plunder in Africa

The war in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been reignited.

The armed group M23, supported by Rwandan troops, seized Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, on January 26, taking advantage of the divisions and disintegration of the corrupt Congolese regime.

The population is facing a disastrous humanitarian situation. There have been 3,000 dead. Over 700,000 people have been displaced. The population of Goma is deprived of electricity and drinking water. Hospitals are overloaded. Even before this new escalation, more than 5 million people had been displaced in the area due to years of aggression and conflict. Currently, more than 21 million people across the DRC are in need of humanitarian aid, one of the highest figures in the world.

In this dramatic scenario, the Congolese masses took to the streets to protest. Some foreign embassies, notably those of France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya and Uganda, have been attacked by protesters, showing a clear understanding of who is behind the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame, which is benefiting from the aggression of M23.

The battle for Goma is much more than a simple military clash that has lasted for decades in its development.

Narratives about ethnic rivalries or claims of "self-defense" cannot hide the real stakes: the robbery of the DRC's resources and the devastating impact of imperialist interference and interference that maintain reactionary military regimes and clans in Africa, arm troops and gangs led by "warlords" who set up parallel governments, They foment and finance armed conflicts, send mercenaries, cause massacres of civilians, murder, torture and violence. And when these means are not enough, they intervene directly with military means, only to issue hypocritical declarations of "peace and development".

The region around Goma is rich in coltan, cobalt, gold, cassiterite and other precious resources that are subject to savage and irrational exploitation.

Near Goma is the strategic Rubaya mine, which produces 15% of the world's coltan. In the DRC, most of the materials used by the leading industries for mobile phones, computers, electric cars, etc., are extracted at bargain prices.

The country has huge mineral resources that are mined for profit, while its population suffers from extreme poverty.

It is not the only African country in this condition. Africa is a continent despoiled by imperialist powers that oppress the peoples, violate their independence and sovereignty, plunder their resources and exploit a huge reserve of labor power at bargain prices, compete with each other for power and geopolitical areas of influence, externalize borders to manage migratory flows.

This rivalry is accentuated even more by the "ecological transition" and the need to extract valuable minerals from the subsoil, essential for the production of the latest generation of electronic equipment.

The investments of the imperialist powers, the credits they grant, the plans drawn up by the IMF, World Bank and other imperialist institutions have only produced greater dependence, backwardness and a mountain of debt that suffocates the lives of the African peoples.

It is in this context that the projects of the European Union's 'Global Gateway' program are introduced, which are oriented towards prospecting, extracting and processing of critical raw materials, which are of strategic importance for the profits of the monopolies of the automotive, arms and aerospace industries.

These are projects subordinated to imperialist priorities, without any concern for workers' rights, environmental and social impact.

What is happening in Congo is not a bolt from the blue. It was widely denounced in October 2024 in a report entitled: "Who profits from the Global Gateway? The EU new strategy for development cooperation" where the agreement signed by the EU and the European Investment Bank with Rwanda was denounced.

It is an agreement, which had seen the clear opposition of the Congolese population, and which was part of the already highly destabilized area of North Kivu.

In July 2024, the magazine "Politico" headlined in one of its correspondences: "Blood minerals: the EU is accused of fueling the conflict in the area following the agreement with Rwanda" and accused the "Memorandum of Understanding" on value chains of critical raw materials signed in February 2024 by Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta.

The agreement was accused of "creating a smokescreen for blood minerals smuggled out of eastern Congo", with the support of the M23 militias backed by the Rwandan regime.

Here is a concrete example of the causes of the conflicts that develop in Africa, closely linked to the strategies and contradictions between the various imperialist powers and the financial monopolies that are fighting for the sources of raw materials and the territories of dependent countries, to the point of dismembering them.

But the most infamous exploitation, the bandit plundering of natural resources, the inhuman oppression of hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the immense African countries is awakening the consciousness of the proletarians and peoples of these countries.

The increase of the revolutionary movement in many African countries, the mass uprisings that have recently taken place in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, the growing protests against the presence of troops from the imperialist countries, for their immediate withdrawal, are demonstrations of this.

The African peoples can no longer bear to be plundered of their wealth, sweat and blood; they can no longer accept the criminal imperialist policies.

This is of great importance for the proletariat because it undermines the positions of the bourgeoisie at their roots, transforming the dependent countries from reserves of imperialism into the reserves of the proletarian revolution.

Stop the war of plunder in the DRC! We support the anti-imperialist and anti-neo-colonialist struggle of the African peoples!