ICMLPO statement in solidarity with the struggle in Sri Lanka

WE SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA

The economic and political impasses of the imperialist capitalist system are felt on a world scale. Inflation, unemployment and cost of living are soaring in all countries. Also on the rise is the discontent, mass demonstrations and protests of the poverty stricken workers and labourers, whose working and living conditions are deteriorating. Almost every day there is news of rallies, protests, strikes and uprisings of workers and labouring peoples from one country to another.

Whilst the protests of the indigenous peoples, workers and labourers in Ecuador are still going on, the people of Sri Lanka stormed the palace of the President and the Prime Minister.

Sri Lanka has been brought to the point of bankruptcy by the profit greed of the monopolies, collaborators of imperialism, and the neoliberal policies and corruption of the ruling profiteering political caste. Unemployment and prices have escalated. The most basic necessities cannot be imported due to lack of foreign currency. Long-term power cuts began. Schools were closed. Foreign debts became unpayable.

People have been on the streets since March and eventually they occupied the Presidential Palace, demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation. He fled the country and is now travelling around looking for a refuge. He then sent his resignation. Being a "hero" by bloodily suppressing the resistance of the Tamil people by escalating nationalism was not enough to save his presidency. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is now acting as his deputy declared a state of emergency and asked the military and police to stop the demonstrations. The people, on the other hand, continue their demonstrations demanding his resignation.

The people of Sri Lanka and the leaders of the uprising have an important responsibility at this stage. As in similar uprisings before, they need to insist on self-determination and not surrender their gains to different cliques of the bourgeoisie. The people must succeed in bringing out from within their movement the organs of power that will be the basis of their sovereignty.

Power partnerships with different cliques of the bourgeoisie, interim government traps, electoral promises tied to reform and the continuation of the existing order will only extinguish the fire of the uprising and ensure the continuation of the old order under different names.

Those who have dragged Sri Lanka into an economic and political quagmire cannot save the country. The programmes they will present as prescriptions for "salvation" can only further impoverish the people and condemn them to hunger, and consolidate the political domination of the bourgeoisie.

The workers and labourers of the world stand with the Sri Lankan people. Their victory and experience will be a shared value for us all.

We salute and support the struggle of the Sri Lankan people.

Down with neoliberal capitalism!

Down with the tyrannical rule of imperialism's collaborators!

Long live revolution and socialism!

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations

(ICMLPO) [ www.cipoml.net ]

A Verdade: The Communists and the independence of Ukraine

A Verdade, No. 252, July 2022, a Workers' Journal in the Struggle for Socialism [ averdade.org.br newspaper of the PCR, Brazil's Revolutionary Communist Party, pcrbrasil.org ]

The Communists and the independence of Ukraine  

Luiz Falcao  

PCR CENTRAL COMMITTEE  

The war over the annexation of Ukraine waged between the major imperialist powers continues to murder thousands of Ukrainians and turn a sovereign country into a shattered nation with eight million refugees.  

Putin's government says the goal of the invasion of Ukraine is to defend Russia threatened by nuclear missile facilities from the United States and NATO in countries near its borders. It also states that the "special military operation" aims to protect the Russian-speaking population living in eastern Ukraine, a region known as Donbass and of great economic and strategic importance. Of course, incorporating territory from a country recognized by both the UN and Russia itself, for more than 100 years, no matter how many beautiful words one uses, cannot hide the imperialist character of this act.  

In turn, the United States and the European Union are supplying tanks, missiles, ammunition and billions of dollars to the corrupt government of Volodimir Zelensky and say they want the independence of Ukraine. Moreover, they are speeding up the process of entering the European Union, which in practice guarantees the dominance of the Ukrainian economy.  

Thus, according to the capitalist powers, none of them have an interest in the exploitation of Ukrainian riches. But lies have short legs. Indeed, Ukraine is one of the countries with the most fertile land in the world and one of the largest producers of cereals, grains, vegetables, seeds, sugar, meat and milk, being called the great granary of Europe. In 2021, according to the International Grain Council, it was the world's fourth largest exporter of corn and the sixth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine is rich in iron ore, coal, manganese, graphite, titanium, magnesium, oil, nickel, wood and has an important industrial base. It is therefore a country with a large consumer market for Russian, Chinese, European and North American capitalist monopolies.  

DIVIDING THE WORLD AMONG THE GREAT POWERS  

Regrettably, petty bourgeois historians draw up theories to hide the imperialist character of this war and despise the heroic and fearless struggle that the Ukrainian people have undertaken for centuries to be entitled to their homeland. They argue that the borders established by the Tsarist empire must be accepted, completely ignoring that the great Socialist Revolution of October guaranteed the right to self-determination of all peoples living under Russian tyranny.  

What drives these masters of academia to this position is, in addition to a total lack of confidence in the proletarian revolution, the illusion that in the time of the domination of financial capital the contradictions of capitalism diminish, which makes it impossible to imagine a revolutionary alternative towards war.  

However, in the imperialist phase of capitalism the dividing of the world by the great powers not only continues to occur, but also develops even more violently, as shown by the weakening of organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the advance of the trade war mainly between the USA and China, the so-called "deglobalization" and dozens of military conflicts. Moreover, due to the sharpening of the general crisis of capitalism, new divisions of territories and the possession of the sources of raw materials have become vital for capitalist monopolies and financial capital, as Lenin showed in his important and relevant work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.  

Let us see: "The principal feature of the latest stage of capitalism is the domination of monopolist combines of the big capitalists. These monopolies are most firmly established when all the sources of raw materials are captured by one group and we have seen what zeal the international capitalist combines exert every effort to make it impossible for their rivals to compete with them by buying up, for example, iron ore fields, oil fields, etc. Colonial possession alone gives the monopolies complete guarantee against all contingencies in the struggle with competitors, including the contingency that the latter will defend themselves by means of a law establishing a state monopoly. The more capitalism is developed, the more strongly the shortage of raw materials is felt, the more intense the competition and the hunt for sources of raw materials throughout the whole world, the more desperate is the struggle for the acquisition of colonies."  

Indeed, the reduction of the world market, the risks of a new recession in the US and the European Union, and the constant trade and financial crises require that, in order to continue concentrating and accumulating more capital, the capitalist class increases the exploitation of workers, but also has absolute control of the sources of raw materials and agricultural production, fuels and ores.  

Well, in the face of this world of wars, unemployment, violence, hunger, which path should the working class and oppressed peoples follow both in Ukraine and in other countries?  

The path of revolution, the path that led the Ukrainian people to build the Socialist Republic of Ukraine and crush Nazism and fascism in World War II.  

In fact, since the 9th century, the people who inhabited Kiev, then the headquarters of the Slavic state, faced several empires whose goal was to enslave their people and exploit their lands. In the 13th century, the region was conquered by the Mongol Empire and then annexed to the Polish-Lithuanian Community. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the Tatars built a state on the shores of the Black Sea and Ukraine suffered from invasions by the Hungarian, Ottoman, Swedish and Russian peoples. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was the turn of the Austro-Hungarian empire to take over the lands of Ukraine. Now, in the 21st century, Russia (with China's support) is waging war with the United States and the European Union to decide who will dominate Ukraine.  

There was, however, a period – the period of socialism – when peace and friendship triumphed in Russia and Ukraine. Let us remember. In the first decades of the 20th century, the Russian people, led by the Bolshevik Party, fought for the end of Tsarism and for a democratic and revolutionary republic. In October of 1917, the workers and peasants, led by the communists, seized power and began the construction of the Russian Socialist Republic.  

With the birth of the Russian Socialist Republic, there was recognition of independence and the Ukrainian State, as Lenin's Manifesto of December 1917 shows, on behalf of the People's Commissars to the Ukrainian people: "We, the Council of People Commissars, recognize the People's Ukrainian Republic, and its right to secede from Russia.... We… recognize at once, unconditionally and without reservations everything that pertains to the Ukrainian people’s national rights and national independence."  

It is, moreover, this proclamation of Lenin recognizing the creation of Ukraine that Vladimir Putin uses to affirm that "Modern Ukraine was total and completely created by Bolshevik Russia, communist Russia".  

Let us continue. Also, in 1917, the Ukrainian Central Rada a union of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties, took over the government of Ukraine, which refused to recognize Soviet power and kept the wealth of the people in the hands of the bourgeoisie and landowners. In February 1919, with the support of Socialist Russia, Ukrainian workers and peasants overthrow the Rada government. As soon as this battle had ended, Germany invaded Ukraine, carried out a coup d'état and put in government a Cossack chief under direct order of the German Army. In November 1919, after months of fighting, the Red Army and the Ukrainian people expelled the German invaders and established the Socialist Republic of Ukraine.  

In the early 1920s, Ukraine and the North Caucasus were completely liberated from the power of the white guards. However, in April 1920, Polish troops invaded Ukraine and occupied the city of Kiev. The Soldiers of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, liberated Kiev and drove the Poles out of Ukraine (History of the Communist Party Bolshevik, Manoel Lisboa Publishers).  

On January 4, 1920, V.I. Lenin wrote the Letter to the Workers and Peasants of the Ukraine, which stated: "The independence of the Ukraine has been recognized both by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the R.S.F.S.R. (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic) and by the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). It is therefore self-evident and generally recognized that only the Ukrainian workers and peasants themselves can and will decide… whether the Ukraine shall amalgamate with Russia, or whether she shall remain a separate and independent republic, and, in the latter case, what federal ties shall be established between that republic and Russia....  

“We want a voluntary union of nations – a union which preludes any coercion of one nation by another – a union founded on complete confidence, on a clear recognition of brotherly unity, on absolutely voluntary consent. Such a union cannot be effected at one stroke; we have to work towards it with the greatest patience and circumspection, so as not to spoil matters and not to arouse distrust, and so that the distrust inherited from centuries of landowner and capitalist oppression, centuries of private property and the enmity caused by its divisions and redivisions may have a chance to wear off." (Collected Works, Volume 30, Progress Publishers, 1974)  

With the creation of the Soviet Union in December 1922, a new era of great friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Russia and Ukraine began. The USSR was founded on the principle of self-determination of the peoples, respect for cultural differences and for the purpose of suppressing private property of the means of production, liquidating classes and building socialism, aiming to continuously improve the material and spiritual conditions of all the peoples.  

After decades of building socialism, in 1941, the Germans invaded Ukraine and Russia to try to take over their lands and riches. Hitler orders the destruction of socialism and the murder of Communists and received the support of what was left of the Ukrainian bourgeoisie. However, the Bolshevik army and the Ukrainian workers' army united and fought to defeat the German invaders, historic battles were fought and again the red flag triumphed.  

As it turned out, the Communists, in addition to being the first to recognize Ukraine's independence, fought and shed their blood to drive German and foreign troops out of that country and helped the Ukrainians to build a prosperous nation. During the existence of the Soviet Union, not a single city was bombed, invaded or annexed by Socialist Russia. On the contrary, the Russian and Ukrainian armies fought together and together defeated the foreign invaders and sealed a deep commitment to the sovereignty of both peoples. To make any comparison between the position of socialist Russia and Lenin with Putin's bourgeois government is, at the very least, a historical falsehood.  

SOCIALISM OR CAPITALISM IS THE QUESTION  

Put another way, the enmity between Russians and Ukrainians spurred on today by the governments of Russia, the United States and the European Union aims to hide the fact that the real enemy is the capitalist system. Indeed, private ownership of the means of production and capital in the hands of a minority of billionaires produces wars and hatred between peoples and nations. Such a rivalry never existed in the USSR; on the contrary, what prevailed was collaboration between the peoples that formed the Soviet Union.  

To be a socialist, therefore, is not to capitulate before one of the capitalist blocs, but to defend the principle of self-determination of peoples and denounce all imperialist wars. To be revolutionary is to believe that true peace will only be possible with a new victory of the socialist revolution in the world, the end of the capitalist system and private property. It is to work to develop class consciousness and the organization of workers and youth, it is to spread the truth, that is, that there are only two paths for humanity: socialism or barbarism!

Towards ML Unity July issue published

The July issue of Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity has been published and will be posted at:  redstarpublishers.org/TMLU.htm  (see also for TMLU's contact information and how to order print copies).  Submissions for the planned September issue should be sent in by late August.

Contents

Fight to Restore the Right to Abortion!  

The Right to Abortion in the Soviet Union  

My Body, No Choice  

Book Review: Civil Rights Unionism  

Preliminary Thoughts on the Strengths and Weaknesses of the CPUSA in its Revolutionary Period  

The workers and peoples are bearing the brunt of the crisis  

Russian imperialism's war against Ukraine and the attitude of German imperialism  

The bourgeoisie hides the nature of the war behind the false contradiction between "democracy and authoritarianism"  

Short: Casino “workers” in Atlantic City  

Labor Council opposes $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine  

Cartoon: Starving American Babies  

Sección en español  

Pensamientos preliminares sobre las fortalezas y debilidades del PC-EE.UU. en su período revolucionario  

La crisis la cargan los trabajadores y los pueblos  

Matthew Hoh: "A corrupt, lawless, and blatantly partisan attack on democracy" - NC Green Party denied ballot access, no reason given

Below is a statement from the Matthew Hoh for Senate campaign on the decision by the State Board of Elections to deny the NC Green Party ballot access, without explanation, though the NCGP more than met the verified signature requirement.  The vote was 3-2 against recognizing the NCGP, the 3 Democrats on the Board voting against.  There is or was also a campaign by Democratic Party operatives this summer to persuade people who signed the ballot access petitions to rescind their signatures / harass and lie to these people by phone, text, and in person.

Related posts:

durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/06/matthew-hoh-for-senate-statement-on.html

durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/06/democratic-party-working-to-keep-green.html

Matthew Hoh for Senate Blasts NC Board of Elections’ Corrupt Decision to Deny Green Party Ballot Petition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday June 30, 2022
Contact: Rose Roby, Matthew Hoh for Senate Campaign Manager [ ]

Today Matthew Hoh, presumptive NC Green Party nominee for US Senate, blasted the decision by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBOE) to deny the Green Party’s ballot access petition.

“The NC State Board of Elections’ decision to deny the Green Party our rightfully earned place on the ballot is a corrupt, lawless, and blatantly partisan attack on democracy,” said Matthew Hoh. “It’s a slap in the face to the thousands of people who signed, to our grassroots organizers who worked tirelessly to collect thousands of signatures during an ongoing pandemic, and to everyone who believes in democracy itself.”

To be certified for ballot access, the Green Party needed to submit 13,865 verified signatures of NC voters. The Greens submitted over 22,500 signatures, of which 15,953 were verified by County Boards of Elections across the state. Yet despite the Green Party having more than 2,000 verified signatures over the required threshold, all 3 Democrats on the SBOE voted to deny the Green Party a place on the ballot.

During Thursday morning’s virtual SBOE meeting, the Green Party’s lawyer Oliver Hall of the Center for Competitive Democracy asked if there was any evidence that the 15,953 verified signatures should not be certified. SBOE Chair Damon Circosta, one of three Democrats on the five-member board, refused to answer the question. When Hall repeated that his only question was if there was any reason not to certify the Green Party’s petition given the 15,953 verified signatures well exceeded the requirement, Circosta demanded the Green Party’s lawyer be muted.

After silencing Hall, the only representative of the Green Party allowed in the meeting except for observers, the board proceeded to vote 3-2 against certifying the Greens’ petition, with all 3 Democrats voting no.

This occurred against the backdrop of a massive voter intimidation campaign launched by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee aided by the Elias Law Group, targeting NC residents to pressure them to request their names be removed from the petition. In recordings and eyewitness accounts provided to the Green Party and the media, Democratic Party operatives falsely claimed to be representing the Green Party and even the Board of Elections as they bombarded petition signers with deceptive claims.

During the SBOE meeting, Democratic members of the board raised that the massive DSCC voter intimidation campaign had succeeded in finding a small fraction of signers who agreed to request their names be removed, but they refused to answer the question whether there was any reason not to certify the Green Party’s remaining 15,953 verified signatures.

“When the Democratic Party decided to go to war to try to push a disabled Marine combat veteran off the ballot, they should have known: we’re not going to back down from a fight for our democracy,” said Hoh. “We will stand up and fight this outrageous corruption, and the establishment’s desperate attacks on us will only inspire more and more people across North Carolina to stand with us as the only campaign fighting for working people, the planet, peace, and real democracy.”

Contributions to the Matthew Hoh for Senate campaign and legal fund are gratefully accepted at matthewhohforsenate.org

Some events and anniversaries in summer and fall 2022

More items will be added in coming weeks [re-done August 27th].

Watch for copperheads on roads in September

Late September is the season to watch for copperheads seemingly stuck on roads at night in the Triangle, though they also enter roads in the summer.  I use a grabber to move these venomous snakes away from traffic.  People have gotten themselves impalled on the fangs of even dead snakes.  It will soon be time to "leave the leaves" to benefit wildlife, and unfortunately some people dump their leaves, yard waste, and even junk in waterways.

NPR claims Venezuela is a communist country

Back from broadcasting US imperialist propaganda from Ukraine, on Morning Edition Sunday, September 18th NPR's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez said something like the Venezuelans flown to Martha's Vineyard last week "are fleeing communism," and that many of the migrants at the border are from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela.  A guest made vague comments about the plight of LGBTQ people in Venezuela, a country ruled by a "regime," leading them to come here.  Is the Venezuelan right noteably pro-gay?  The Democratic Party flavor of neoliberalism lauds immigrants once they get here, but strangles them economically and plots coups and violence in their home countries, and other immigrants are funnelled into the desert Southwest where many die and it has been made illegal to offer them water or other life-saving assistance and the government actively destroys supply stations.   

[Judging from NPR's Here and Now September 20th around 1pm, the Biden administration said something like the majority of immigrants at the Southern border are "fleeing failed communist regimes," so Republican state governments should support the migrants, and the staff of supposedly high-brow NPR aren't going to "push-back" on that labelling.  Some people claim Trump is a dire threat to the left, and that might be true, but Biden and the Democratic Party are suddenly talking a lot about "communism," fighting a proxy war with capitalist Russia using an unsavory government with ties to neo-Nazis, and going back to the Cold War and maybe hot war with China.  It seems to have been mostly ignored by the media, but around the 19th Biden said that the US definitely would go to war if China attacks Taiwan, ending the stance of strategic ambiguity.  About a 100 years ago it was Woodrow Wilson's Democratic administration that had leftists rounded up and deported and much of the Vietnam War was waged under Democrats, as well as the wars in Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan.  Democratic administrations also raided FRSO and the APSP and are now trying to limit dissent online.]   

The United National Antiwar Coalition is calling for an anti-war week of action October 15 - 22:  unac.notowar.net/register-your-action-no-to-u-s-wars/

Keep Space for Peace Week will be October 1 - 8:  space4peace.org

The NC Division of Water Quality has a Cape Fear River basin residents' survey here.

Some articles

Capitalism and imperialism seek a beachhead in space in this decade, or it could be a fantasy of the rich:  

newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/privatized-universe

The peace encampment across from the White House since 1981, mentioned in my post about the Women's March on the Pentagon in fall 2018:  covertactionmagazine.com/2022/08/12/meet-the-man-jesse-ventura-called-the-bravest-man-in-washington/

The Democratic Party funds and promotes the right of the Republican party, after Hillary Clinton wanted to run against Trump and then lost: 

 www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/26/the-democratic-party-is-a-fifth-column-for-right-wing-lunacy/

The Ukrainian parliament has apparently increased the pay its members receive:  

www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/ukrainian-parliament-votes-give-raise-thanks-us-taxpayers-country-bans-free-speech-targets-information-terrorists/

Chinese population of dugongs thought to be extinct 

The BBC talked about the possible local extinction of dugongs, grazing marine animals similar to West Indian manatees, which are found in the Americas, the week of August 22nd, but this news might be misleading.  It is bad news if dugongs really are extinct in the waters around China, but the species is still found in many parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans, though its range has decreased.  I wonder if this news is being emphasized as part of the US government's anti-China campaign:  www.savethemanatee.org/manatees/sirenians-of-the-world/   

It could be noted that the relocation of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Japan from Ginowan City to Nago's Henoko Bay threatens dugongs and other species and ecosystems and the US presence involves Japan in US military adventurism and any future war with China.  Most of the US bases in Japan are in Okinawa, often seen as an internal colony discriminated against by the rest of Japan.  Nago is already the site of the Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, and there are allegations that toxic Agent Orange was kept there and elsewhere in Okinawa during the Vietnam War.  The Japanese government claims that a war with China could be confined to the south of the country.  For example see www.facebook.com/groups/107137066745995 and www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/29/an-open-letter-to-biden-on-using-okinawa-as-an-attack-base-against-china/

Russia and Putin are "communist" [and China is a danergous declining power]

On NPR's Fresh Air Thursday, August 18th host Terry Gross interviewed Robert Draper about his article in the New York Times Magazine, "The Arizona Republican Party's Anti-Democracy Experiment," and the way"far right" Republicans call opponents "communist" and praise Joe McCarthy came up.  Gross referred to "a communist country, Russia" supporting these Republicans online and next Draper implied that President Putin is a communist ("...the one great promoter of that ideology...").  Earlier Gross said "...communism in America doesn't seem to me like a particularly real threat.  Who supports communism in America?"  The online transcript has a correction regarding Russia, but not Putin, and around the weekend of August 20th more was added, that Gross "meant to say that Putin was the head of the KGB during the communist era" which doesn't seem to be true either.  Putin could be called an anti-communist. [Other people noticed as well:  www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/25/npr-host-and-nyt-guest-stress-that-russia-is-communist-while-vilifying-uninformed-republicans/ ] [Also at consortiumnews.com/2022/08/25/the-fact-checking-liberal-media/ ]

In the interview Draper also said that Arizona Republicans tried to get "Democrats" to vote for Green candidates, implying that the Democratic Party owns anyone who has ever voted for it or is in a generally pro-Democrat demographic.

[And on August 24th Dave Davies interviewed Michael Beckley about the book he and Hal Brands, both senior fellows at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote about the threat posed by "peaking" China.  There was actually mention of US imperialism, probably referring to a century ago, but they ignored what the US has done to create the possibility of a major war at one or both ends of Eurasia.  There was also mention of Modi's India as one of the "democratic powers" forming a "military barrier" around China.  The far away UK as well.  China is a scary threat, in economic decline (it isn't the USA that is in decline and desperate to hold on to its power), and might lash out, and it has nothing to do with the US openly seeking to repress China or the general dynamics of capitalism wherever it exists:  www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1119214761/danger-zone-author-warns-of-growing-tension-between-china-and-the-u-s ]

[The August 27th episode of WNYC's On the Media discussed Russian media.  A segment with someone from BBC Monitoring blamed Russian media for using exactly the same tactics as NPR and other "Western" media, such as delegitimizing state enemies, in the case of Russia Ukraine - NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro, now working for the NYT, repeatedly spoke of "Qaddafi forces" during the Libya War; NPR ridiculously oscillated between Syrian "regime" and "government" ever few weeks or days, and now sometimes even calls China a "regime;" China is governed by the "CCP," when the preferred abbreviation is CPC; until recent years Myanmar was usually referred to as Burma, also the name used when the country was a British colony; in the past week journalists often referred to the "Soviet empire" and "conservative" "communist hardliners" in the 80's; etc.;  www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/russian-state-tvs-false-narratives-on-the-media  I'm sure NPR must have referred to "Saddam loyalists" around 2003, Iraqi or allegedly Iran-backed "insurgents" and "terrorists;" and further back there were the "Viet Cong."  Many journalists and media companies enthusiastically backed the "War on Terror" and its continuation under Obama or were afraid to say otherwise, and today they enthusiastically back Biden's proxy war with Russia over Ukraine and the planned cold to hot war with China.  

At the end there was an interview with Russian-American journalist Anastasiia Carter, who basically said she that had to be deprogrammed (not her wording) after growing up with Russian propaganda and reprogrammed with US propaganda, and that done, she now works in this country:  www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/escaping-kremlins-propaganda-machine1-on-the-media  She is still working on propagandizing her parents back in Russia.  If someone, such as Carter, accuses part of the Russian government of committing terrorism against its citizens, the US media doesn't bat an eye, but they claim the US government lacks both the will and ability to carry out false flag attacks, though terrorist acts have been suggested by the military and deadly experiments have been carried out on Americans without consent, and the media avoids such talk and the education system avoids talking about recent decades in history classes.  High US government officials have suggested assassinating dissidents.  Carter is probably too young to remember Russia's deep economic and political crisis around the 90's, which resulted in many unnecessary deaths and misery, and allowed the US to have its way as the dominant superpower or hyperpower, for example in Iraq and Yugoslavia, resulting in further unnecessary civilian deaths, especially in Iraq.  Even in 2011 Russia was unable or unwilling to stop the US and EU aggression against Libya, but it did stand up over Syria.  I'm not claiming that Russia is anti-imperialist, but the USA and its allies and satellites are having more trouble dominating the world these days, and "Western" world rule isn't as great as the mainstream media portray it, and they still won't act on global issues like climate change.  Putin has probably been deeply influenced by the struggles of the USSR and Russia, even if he is a 'capitalist roader' and imperialist.

On some other show Masha Gessen spoke about the unimaginative Soviet elite, who believed in historical determinism - but until recently Americans thought "free market" capitalism, "liberal democracy," and world subservience to the US government and superior American culture in an English-speaking Pax Americana or an "American Century" was the end of history.  Many still think the greater Pacific is an "American Lake," and intend to fight China over it.]

Nicaragua - Anniversary of the Revolution webinar

July 19th was the anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista (FSLN) victory over the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and a US solidarity delegation participated in the events.  Two members of the delegation, Margaret Kimberley and Dan Kovalik will speak about the visit and the larger context in this UNAC webinar Tuesday, August 16th at 5pm Eastern.

Durham to suspend relations with Kostroma, Russia and 3 rezoning hearings August 15th

Besides the rezoning hearings for Harriet's Place II; the proposed Courtyards at Farrington Road residential project at the Patterson's Mill Country Store, a Civil War Trail and historic building site (more below); and the Griffin Residential Tract off Highway 70, another project impacting an area of biological significance inventoried by the NC Natural Heritage Program, on Monday, August 15th the Durham City Council will hold a hearing on suspending its sister city relationship with Kostroma, per the request of Volodymyr Zelensky to the US Conference of Mayors' annual meeting, held in Reno in early June:  www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4  Durham has had a sister city relationship with Kostroma since 1989, one of 9 sister cities and two friendship cities.  Kostroma is located where the Kostroma River joins the Volga, and is northeast of and relatively close to Moscow.  Kostroma is the capital of Kostroma Oblast and is said to have been founded in 1152, but could be much older:  www.gradkostroma.ru/en/kostroma_today/index.aspx   The city apparently has more sister or twin cities than Durham, NC, apparently including Durham, England, UK from 1968 to 2022, formerly a shared sister city.  March 16th the Board of the Sister Cities of Durham, NC condemned "Russia's invasion of Ukraine" and supporting Ukrainian independence.  Is the government pressuring the Board of Directors to take this additional step?  If only Durham's sister cities had passed resolutions and suspended our city over the USA's aggressive invasions of Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, the war on Yugoslavia, the Libya War, the partial invasion of Syria, the attacks on Venezuelan, Honduran, and Haitian independence, etc.  On the other hand foreign affairs was claimed to be "above the pay grade" of City Council members during the Iraq War, so suspending Durham would be 'punishing' Americans without accomplishing much.  What relationships does Durham have with governments such as Israel?  Durham also has a sister city relationship with Zhuzhou, in Hunan, China, presumably to be ended around when bipartisan WWIII begins, maybe not so far in the future.   

Petition condemning the FBI raids against the APSP

UNAC has a petition, Condemn Raids on African People's Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement!, so far with 1232 sgnatures, at:  unac.notowar.net/condemn-fbi-raids-on-african-peoples-socialist-party-and-uhuru-movement/  I might have missed news references, but there have been very few mentions of these violent, early morning raids that seized computers, cellphones, files, and a car and reportedly used involving drone surveillance, and a great deal of discussion of the unprecedented FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida August 8th.  There is a statement on the APSP raid at www.rightsanddissent.org and some links on the Trump raid and other issues in their news digest emails.

[Speech against the FBI

Just now there is a news report that an armed man tried to enter an FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio around am Thursday, August 11th and then fled north.  Earlier there were condemnations of violent talk about police and the FBI over the Trump raid, probably with invocation of the Oklahoma City Bombing, but is there really more violent rhetoric and risk now?  How does it compare to the rage and rhetoric over the George Floyd killing and others?  Police cars and maybe also buildings were burning a few years ago.  Years of organizing by millions of Americans against the "War on Terror" and later for impeachment over war crimes had much less of an impact on the media and government than rightist rhetoric now, judging by the amount of attention given by the mainstream media and the state, though the hype could be a ploy to manipulate public opnion.  A revolutionary uprising any time soon would probably be premature and fail, and what are the chances for January 6, 2021 "fascism?"  What about the other times "our democracy" has been threatened?  The mainstream media seems to be carefully avoiding making any connection between the 2020 and 2000 elections, along with the allegations about electronic voting machines in 2004, and considers the Bushes and Cheneys part of "the Resistance;" there was the disputed election of 1876, which resulted in the end of Reconstruction; rumors about a coup against FDR and the New Deal; many high-profile and murky political assassinations, a civil war over the 1860 election, etc.  It's good that Trump was removed from power, but Biden is giving us a proxy war with Russia and a high level official testified to Congress that there is likely to be a US-China war by 2030 [or maybe it was by 2029], and already climate change-related disasters are filling the news this summer, along with continuing economic, health, and food crises and signs of domestic social breakdown.  "Refuse Fascism" --  by voting for the other imperialists, who held the White House and sometimes Congress for 8 years before Trump was elected, in some cases apparently elected by the same voters who had previously voted for Obama and Biden, and start no new initiatives other than to urge people to vote for Biden or anyone "blue."  They could have at least supported someone from the left wing of the Democratic Party, instead of Biden-Harris, etc.  It might be said that leftists can't use violent speech or invade the Capitol because then they would be repressed by the state, allegedly more thoroughly than rightists would be.]

\ 

Condemnation of Speaker Pelosi's trip to Taiwan

The Friends of Socialist China has released a Statement condemning Nancy Pelosi's reckless visit to China's Taiwan open for organizational signatures, currently including ANSWER, FRSO, IAC, PCUSA, PSL, SUP, UNAC, WWP, and others:  socialistchina.org/2022/08/03/statement-condemning-nancy-pelosis-reckless-visit-to-chinas-taiwan/

#FuerzaMatanzas

The People's Forum, CODEPINK, and Puentes de Amor are collecting funds for medical supplies and other aid to Cuba following the explosion of a large oil storage tank in Matanzas August 5th, which left many people dead, wounded, or missing, a large area evacuated, and could cause energy shortages and other problems going forward.  So far 104 donors have given $5,880 dollars.   

Apparently Matanzas has been called Cuba's Venice or the Athens and Matanzas province is one of the most industrialized parts of Cuba.  Its name refers to a "massacre" when 30 Spanish conquistadores planned to attack a native camp on the other side of a river, but, lacking boats, they had to get fisherman to ferry them across.  Once out in the river the fisherman flipped the boats and most off the armored Spaniards drowned.  Two women were among the survivors.  This is supposed to have been the first rebellion by the native people.  Matanzas is also supposed to be the site of the first attack by the US in the Spanish-American War.

Amnesty International report accuses Ukrainian military of endangering civilians

A recent AI report accuses the Ukrainian government's forces of endangering civilians, possibly using them as human shields and amounting to a series of war crimes.  NPR even admits to seeing this sort of activity, but apparent didn't think it was worth mentioning until the beginning of August, on a weekend, though they broadcast many statements accusing Russia of war crimes, state terrorism, causing high food prices and causing famine, etc. on the hour.  There has been semi-official retaliation in Ukraine against AI staff, and speech has been criminally prosecuted in Ukraine, something I don't recall having been reported on NPR.  The Ukrainian staff also tried to suppress the report:  www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1115767497/amnesty-international-ukraine-military-civilians-war-crimes  There are many grounds to criticize AI in general, but here is a report poking a hole in the "Western" narrative about the saintly Ukrainian government and the barbaric Russians.  I'm surprised it is being reported by the mainstream media, though coverage allows them to interpret and put a spin on it.  AI has accused both sides of mistreating prisoners war and other sources report civilians in Russian-held areas being killed by the Ukrainian military.  On NPR there is nothing noteworthy about the Azov Battalion, other than that they are said to be popular in the country for their last ditch defense of the Azovstal works in Mariupol.

The report:  www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/ukraine-ukrainian-fighting-tactics-endanger-civilians/  

AI's Ukraine site:  www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/ukraine/  

The November 8th Publishing House

There is a relatively new Canadian group publishing/posting works by Enver Hoxha, Nexhmije Hoxha, Ramiz Alia, Adil Carcani, Wang Ming, Dimitrov, Beria, Molotov, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Stalin, Lenin, etc.:  november8ph.wordpress.com and woodsmokeblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/03/186-the-november-8th-publishing-house-v-2-0/

IUCN Red List Updated; Chinese paddlefish extinct; West Coast monarchs endangered

The International Union for Conservation and Nature declared the Chinese paddlefish and Yangtze sturgeon extinct July 21st.  Apparently this was a major topic on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.  I wrote briefly about the Yangtze River's decling biodiversity here:

durhamspark.blogspot.com/2020/01/some-winter-and-spring-events-and.html

www.reuters.com/business/environment/chinese-paddlefish-wild-yangtze-sturgeon-extinct-iucn-2022-07-22/

The monarch butterfly is having problems across North America and the West Coast population was declared endangered:

www.iucn.org/press-release/202207/migratory-monarch-butterfly-now-endangered-iucn-red-list

Information on Durham's new ShotSpotter project

ShotSpotter, a private system that uses acoustic sensors to detect and locate what are thought to be gunshots, is being installed in an area of downtown Durham, with operation expected to begin September 15th.  [And in some other parts of NC.]  

Durham's annual drinking water and wastewater treatment reports are out

www.durhamnc.gov/946/Annual-Reports?utm_campaign=city_managers_report_fy22-23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=civicplus-civic-send&utm_content=07292022

Durham Rail Trail public engagement

There will be online and in-person meetings July 20 to September 28th this summer; if people fill out the online survey or comment on a crowdsource map by August 20th their views will be included in the Septemer 28th public meeting:  durhamrailtrail.com

The Courtyards at Farrington rezoning hearing August 15th

The Durham City Council will hear a rezoning request for the site of the Patterson's Mill Country Store, on the east side of Farrington Road near Chapel Hill, part of the national Civil War Trail, as is Leigh Farm Park across I-40, August 15th; the agenda will be posted at:  www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4  There might alse be registered historic buildings there.  These two sites seem to be the location of the spring 1865 skirmish along New Hope Creek mentioned by journalist Jim Wise, probably the closest thing to a Civil War battle to have happened in Durham, though there was other fighting in the Triangle region, such as in Morrisville.

City of Durham rezoning hearings August 1st

August 1st the Durham City Council will hold several rezoning hearings and one annexation hearing regarding East Cornwallis Commercial, 5202 Garrett Road, Carolina Civil Works, and the Durham County Administration building site, the former hill, now a flat field, at the corner of NC 55 and TW Alexander Drive, close to the massive 55-Hopson site, now being moonscaped.  I wrote briefly about that project here:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2021/12/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html and more, with a few photos, at:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2018/09/pinxterflowers-duke-energy-and-federal.html  The agenda for the August 1st meeting will be posted here:  www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4  There are rezoning hearings at many Council meetings and more rarely now before the Board of County Commissioners.  Unfortunately it seems like it is mainly people living nearby who pay attention to what the government and business interests plan, though these are public meetings.  The amount of public information and meetings can be a barrier to oversight, because of the time required.  It is one thing to abstain from Federal elections in protest, since there are millions of voters, but what about very local elections?  But then, does voting in Durham elections accomplish much, since Durham is run by the Democrats and political action committees are often decisive?  I have doubts about how much Durham's Comprehensive Plan, now being updated, matters.  Land use is a major factor in climate change, how people live on a daily basis, biodiversity, etc. but it rarely excites people very much, so protest isn't an option instead, though it is sometimes successful.

The repression of left parties in North Carolina

Read the NCGP's legal filing against the NC State Board of Elections, with many interesting details about what seems like a conspiracy by the Democratic Party, at the county, State, and Federal levels, to silence and basically ban the Green Party.  Only the Greens are being targeted this year, but any party to the left of the Democrats could be targeted this way and a few decades ago at least one Marxist party was on the ballot, until electoral rules were changed to make it even harder to gain ballot access.  Currently there are only three recognized parties in NC, down from five in 2020, when voters had a left choice.

[This article by 2020 Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins covers what is going on in NC and other states, through laws and by other means, to remove third parties and independent candidates from the ballot and some recent history.  It is apparently not very difficult for independent candidates to get on ballots in the UK, India, Canada, and Germany, while some US states have electoral rules like Russia's - or more restrictive.  It raises the question of what should be done if a view held by many people is banned from electoral politics: 

www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/15/the-democrats-third-party-massacres/    ]

The repression and criminalization of left parties and views in Ukraine

Some articles from the British newspaper Morning Star on the banning of a number of left opposition parties by the USA-EU installed government in Ukraine following the 2014 coup and the denunciation (via chatbot) and criminal prosecution of people for alleged activities such as online speech, collaboration with Russia, or spying for Russia or Belarus [It could be asked whether average Ukrainians quoted in the mainstream media are speaking freely, besides the issue of who "Western" jouurnalist deem fit to talk to and where they report from; and what does it mean if "collaboration" is common?]:

Communist Party of Ukraine banned and all its assets seized by the state

Woman jailed for five years in Ukraine for posting communist symbols on social media

Leon Trotsky's Collaboration with Germany and Japan published in German 

Academic Grover Furr's book Leon Trotsky's Collaboration with Germany and Japan is now available in German:  

www.amazon.de/dp/3982451205

Some reviews:

www.lesejury.de/grover-furr/buecher/leo-trotzkis-kollaboration-mit-deutschland-und-japan/9783982451206

akf-europe.org/leo-trotzkis-kollaboration-mit-deutschland-und-japan-grover-furr1/

Comment on the Mountain Valley Pipeline

MVP comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the FERC) are due by July 29th:  

elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filelist?accession_num=20220712-3061

www.ferc.gov/how-file-comment

The Haw River Assembly suggests some talking points:  docs.google.com/document/d/1HjqAJfPkvdX-GayuOF8GhzACoMLhZr7YPUFYoZF-MXM/edit

Events

National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26: www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week and there will be local events in Durham.

The 43rd annual EnoFest will be July 2 and 4 in Durham:  www.enofest.org/

[There was a Sunrise movement climate change protest at the Durham County Courthouse July

11th at 5:30pm.]

There will be a Matthew Hoh for Senate Virtual Campaign Rally July 14th 8 - 9:30pm:  www.matthewhohforsenate.org/event/virtual-campaign-rally/

The annual Cullowhee Native Plant Conference will be July 20 - 23.

The Green Party US will have its 2022 Annual National Meeting July 21 - 24 online:  www.gp.org  

The Haw River Assembly is organizing a New Hope Creek wetlands hike in Durham Saturday, July 23rd 10am - 12pm.

 

The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 23 – 31, 2022: www.nationalmothweek.org/ , nationalmothweek.org/news-release-2022/ with a focus on caterpillars.

[Some local elections were held July 26th in North Carolina.]

The last week in July is National Whistleblower Week, with the official National Whistleblower Appreciation Day July 30th, created by Congress in 2021, marking the first US law protecting whistleblowers, in 1778.  That case involved retaliation against people alleging that British sailors were tortured.  In the 21st century the US government would try to silence or even kill a whistleblower exposing US torture programs and the media would try to keep it quiet and not call it torture:  consortiumnews.com/2022/07/25/john-kiriakou-the-whistleblower-crackdown/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Whistleblower_Appreciation_Day 

The massive annual East Asian pop culture convention Otakon will be held July 29-31 in Washington, DC:  www.otakon.com

WWP - Durham discussion on the current economic crisis July 29th:

The Haw River Assembly is organizing a hike on the Reedy Fork Trail at Lake Brandt in Greensboro Saturday, August 6th, 10am - 12pm. 

The Day After online film screening and discussion August 6th:

Meet a Tree Toad and a Tree Frog - Dr Harikrishnan S will talk about a citizen science program working to protect the Malabar tree toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus), a toad found in the Western Ghats of India, and Dr Jyotirmay Deb will show Tale of a Bengali Frog, about the newly discovered Bengal blotched treefog (Polypedates bengalensis) in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal and one of largest cities in India.  This event will be online Sunday, August 7th 10-11pm Indian time, or 9:30 - 11:30am in Los Angeles, and will be recorded for future posting:

 

SIPRAL 26, the 26th annual International Seminar "Problems of the Revolution in Latin America," with the theme "The left, the workers and the peoples in the face of imperialist war" (Las izquierdas, los trabajadores, y los pueblos frente a guerra imperialista) will be held Wednesday, August 17 to Saturday, the 20th in Quito, Ecuador and while most of the participants are usually from Latin America it includes people from around the world.  It is organized by the PCMLE and the Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador (JRE):  pcmle.org/semint.php

There will be an in-person public visioning session for the Stanford L Warren Library's interior renovations Wednesday, August 17th 5:30 -7:30pm at the WD Hill Recreation Center (1308 Fayetteville Street in Durham):  durhamcountylibrary.org/2022/08/02/durham-county-library-to-host-visioning-session-for-stanford-l-warren-branch-library-renovations/

Cary's annual Lazy Daze Arts and Craft Festival will be August 27 - 28th 9am - 5pm at the Town Hall Campus:  www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/events/festivals/lazy-daze-arts-and-crafts-festival

The 7th annual Festival Lationamericano will be Saturday, August 27th 12 - 7pm at El Centro Hispano (201 West Weaver Street) in Carrboro:  elcentronc.org

The NCBG's Certificate Program Graduation Celebration will be Sunday, August 28th 2 -3:30pm:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

Multi-genre pop culture gathering Dragon Con will be held September 1 - 5 in Atlanta:  www.dragoncon.org  

The webinar, #MapOurFuture People Over Politics, an NC Advocates Briefing, will be September 1st at 6 - 7pm, looking at Moore v Harper NC Republican redistricting case coming up before the Supreme Court.  June 30th the Court said that it would hear the case.

The Workers World Party - Durham will present a webinar, Why is everything so expensive?  Class/discussion on the economy from a Marxist perspective, September Thursday, 1st at 6:30:  bit.ly/WWeconomyclass

The NC AFL-CIO will host Labor in the Pulpit/Bimah/Minbar online Saturday, September 3rd at 11am with labor and religious leaders, including President Emeritus James Andrews and President MaryMe McMillan. Invitations are required to join the event, and can be requested from catherine at aflcionc period org.

The 13th annual African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh and Wake County will be September 3 - 4:  www.aacfestival.org/festival-2022

The Haw River Assembly's Wild and Scenic Film Festival environmental film festival is usually held in September.  [There will be showings August 8[25th]th at Chapel Hill's Varsity Theatre August 25th and September 5th [8th] at UNC-Greensboro's Weatherspoon Art Museum:  hawriver.org/wild-scenic-film-festival/  [Showings include National Parks "One Star Reviews," The Voice of a River, Wastewater:  A Tale of Two Cities, Guardians of the River, If You Give a Beach a Bottle, Community:  Not On Our Soil, The Interconnectedness of All Living Things, A River Reborn, and Finding Salmon.]

The 114th Canton Labor Day Festival will be September 4 - 5th at Sorrells Street Park, with a parade on Monday:  www.cantonlaborday.com

The annual Charlotte Labor Day Parade will be Monday, September 5th:  charlottelabordayparade.shutterfly.com

The Charlotte-Metrolina Labor Council's 2nd Annual Labor Day Picnic will be September 5th 11:30am - 5:30pm:  www.facebook.com/events/399875758799001/

The bilingual Durham Labor Day Worker Speakout and Cookout will be September 5th at 4pm at Long Meadow Park, 917 Liberty Street; RSVP at:  www.facebook.com/events/1082666469278267/

The NC Labor History Revealed exhibit will be at NCSU September 6th.

The Future of Conservation Forum will be at the NCBG September 6 - 8:  ncbg.unc.edu/event/future-of-conservation-forum/

The NC AFL-CIO says that the author of The Hamlet Fire:  A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Lives,and Cheap Government will be speaking in Colfax, NC September 7th at 6pm.

There will be a rally, No Sacrifice Zones:  Appalachian Resistance Comes to DC, Thursday, September 8th at 5pm in Washington, DC and there will be a free bus trip from Durham.  The rally will be at the Taft Carillon [the Taft Memorial northwest of the US Capitol, close to mass transit at Union Station?] at 101 New Jersey Avenue NW:  actionnetwork.org/forms/volunteer-sign-up-community-organizing-no-mvp-southgate and www.facebook.com/events/633955024965940  This is being organized by 7 Directions of Service, Protect Our Water Heritage Rights, the Stop the MVP coalition, and the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition to protest the MVP and Manchin's pipeline deal.  There will be lobbying earlier on the 8th and there might be ways to participate online.  

There will be a free screening of the documentary Powerlands in the Turner Theatre at Elon University, and the director will field questions; there will also be a reportback from the rally in DC.  This will be September 8th at 6pm:  www.elon.edu/u/news/2022/08/30/documentary-screening-to-link-local-and-global-environmental-activism/

The Southern Labor Studies Association Conference 2022 will be September 9 - 10th at Graham Memorial Hall at UNC and willl include MaryBe McMillan and a panel on Black Workers for Justice:  southernlaborstudies.org/conferences

The annual NC Folk Fest will be September 9 - 10 in Greensboro:  ncfolkfestival.com

The 2022 Hopscotch Music Festival will be September 8 - 10 in downtown Raleigh:  hopscotchmusicfest.com

The HRA will hold quarterly River Watch trainings Saturday, September 10th and December 3rd 10am - 12pm.

There will be a Carolina Public Humanities program Kingdom, Commodity, or Community?  The Religious and Philosophical Meanings of Nature September 10th 10:30am - 1:30pm:  humanities.unc.edu/event/kingdom-commodity-or-community-the-religious-and-philosophical-meanings-of-nature/

North Carolina Native Plant Society Southern Piedmont Chapter In-Person plus Virtual Meeting September 11, 2022  2:00pm-4:00pm Saving the Wild South The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction with Georgeann Eubanks Free   Open to the Public   Reedy Creek Nature Center 2986 Rocky River Road  Charlotte NC 28215

Which will discuss rare Schweinitz sunflowers and shoals lilies and maybe flowers.

There will be a Refund Raleigh local candidates forum September 13th at 6pm at the Tarboro Road Community Center.

LPNC press release:

Libertarian and Green U.S. Senate candidates hold forum

CHARLOTTE (Aug. 31) – The Mecklenburg County Libertarian Party is excited to announce that Davidson College will host a Third Party U.S. Senate Candidate Forum on Thursday, September 15, from 7 to 9 p.m. Libertarian candidate Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Matthew Hoh will headline the event. WBT radio host Pete Kaliner will moderate.

The forum will begin at 7 p.m. with an opportunity for attendees to meet the candidates. Then Kaliner will moderate a structured debate between Shannon and Hoh from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The candidates will take questions from the audience in the final half hour.

The event will be held on the Davidson campus in the Alvarez College Union Building, in the David & Pam Sprinkle Room on the 4th floor. Light refreshments will be provided.

Directions to Davidson.

There is ample parking in the Baker Sports Complex Parking Lot and a short walk on Baker Street to the Alvarez Student Union, then take the elevator or stairs to the 4th floor. [ ... ]

Durham's annual Centerfest will be September 17 - 18 (10am - 6pm Saturday and 11am - 5pm Sunday) downtown:  centerfest.durhamarts.org/  

The NC Museum of Natural History's BugFest will be September 17th and this year's theme is myriapods, such as millipedes and centipedes:  naturalsciences.org/calendar/bugfest/

The 9th annual Hispanic Heritage Fiesta / de la Herencia Hispana will be Saturday, September 17th 12 - 6pm on North Chatham Avenue in Siler City, Chatham County; for more information, including the schedule and a map, see:  hispanicliaison.org/event/hispanic-heritage-fiesta-is-back/  There will be food, music, folk dances, a parade with traditional costumes, an art exhibition, the opportunity to get coronavirus vaccinations, etc.

The HRA's 2022 Learning Celebration will be in-person September 17 - October 7th along the western Haw; volunteers and donations are welcome.

Abundance NC's 15th annual PepperFest will be held this fall [September 18th at The Plant in Pittsboro]:  pepperfestnc.org

Paperhand Puppet Intervention's 22nd annual summer show, The Meanwhile Clock and other Impossible Dances, is supposed to end September 18th at the Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill, next to UNC; it might go until September 25th at the NC Museum of Art:  paperhand.org/

The 34th Annual Sculpture in the Garden exhibit outside at the NCBG will be September 18 - December 4, with a preview party Saturday, September 17th 4:30 - 6:30; tickets are required for the preview:  give.unc.edu/events/bot/sculpturepreview

A Joshua Bradley for Raleigh City Council at-large candidate meet and greet; Bradley is endorsed by the NC Green Party, the Socialist Party, and the Democratic Socialists of America's Triangle chapter:

"On Monday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. at Aunty Betty's Gin & Absinthe Bar (411 W Morgan St- located inside of Morgan Street Food Hall) we will be holding a meet and greet. I will be there to meet voters, share the campaign platform, and help people sign up to volunteer with us!"

Canvassing: "The Triangle DSA has launched a weekly canvass, beginning this weekend and running until election day. Join DSA members every Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Pullen Park (District D- 520 Ashe Avenue) and every Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at Biltmore Hills Community Center (District C- 2615 Fitzgerald Drive) to canvass for our campaign as a group."

The Haw River Assembly and the NC Native Plant Society - Reid Chapter are organizing a hike at a private nature reserve near Union Bridge in Graham.  It will be Thursday, September 22nd 10am - 12pm, with at most 18 participants; for the wait list, contact ReidChapter at gmail.

There will be a talk on connecting ecosystems for conservation September 22nd 12 - 1pm in-person at the NCBG and online:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

There will be a folk show benefit for the Green Joshua Bradley Raleigh City Council campaign September 22nd at 8pm at Schoolkids Records, 2237 Avent Ferry Road, with Will Berry, Jeremy Gilchrist, and Rumbletrap.  Admission is $10 dollars, all going to the artists.

Marine biologist Julia Notar will give a talk, Sea and Be Seen: Visual Ecology in the Depths, at Durham's Main Library, in the Main Auditorium, Saturday, September 24th 3 - 4:30pm:  durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/9282151

The 5th annual NCPCA Pollinator Field Day will be September 24th at the Cunningham Research Station in Kinston:  www.eventbrite.com/e/ncpca-pollinator-field-day-tickets-404910216357

The NCBG's Fall Plant Sale, with a concurrent book sale, will be September 23 - 24.

The IBMA World of Bluegrass 2022 will be in Raleigh September 27 - October 1:  worldofbluegrass.org

There will be a WakeUP Wake County at-large candidates forum September 27th 6 - 8pm at Artspace.

There will be a talk on Climate Change Gardening for the South: Planet-friendly Solutions for Thriving Gardens,by the author of a book wwith the same title, September 28th 12 - 1pm in-person at the NCBG and online:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

There will be a Carolina Public Humanities program Climate Change and Biodiversity:  How Will Plants and Animals Respond? September 28th 4:30 - 6pm:  humanities.unc.edu/event/climate-change-and-biodiversity-how-will-plants-and-animals-respond/ 

The 65th Annual Convention of the NC AFL-CIO will be held September 29 -30th in Raleigh.

The annual Carrboro Music Festival will be October 1 - 2:  carrboromusicfestival.com/311/Carrboro-Music-Festival

The Paul J Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville, NC will have its annual Fall Plant Sale Saturday October 1st 8am - 12pm, with a members pre-sale event Friday, September29th 4:30 - 6:30pm; for a plant list, etc see:  www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org/fall-plant-sale 

Into the Fairy Hill: Classi Folktales from the Scottish Highlands will be October 4th 6 - 7pm at the NC Botanical Garden online and in-person; free with registration: ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

There will be a Carolina Public Humanities program Productive and Counterproductive Police Reform October 5th 4:30 - 6pm:   humanities.unc.edu/event/productive-and-counterproductive-police-reform/ 

The Fall 2022 Shakkori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance will be October 6 - 9 in Chatham County:  www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org

The annual UNCC Botanical Gardens' Fall Plant Sale will be October 6 - 8th:  gardens.charlotte.edu/fall-plant-sale/

Wing Haven Garden's annual plant sale will be October 12 - 15th in Charlotte:  winghavengardens.org/happenings-plants-sales

Chapel Hill's annual Festifall Arts Market and More will be held on three days, October 8, 15, and 22 in 2022:  www.chapelhillfestifall.com/

SOA Watch's annual On the Line:  Border Convening will be October 8 - 9 in Nogales, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico:

The Haw River Assembly will hold a Jordan Lake Paddle October 8th.

There will be a Carolina Public Humanities program Edible North Carolina:  Exploring our State's Food Cultures October 8th 10:30am - 1:30pm:  humanities.unc.edu/event/edible-north-carolina-exploring-our-states-food-cultures/

Kids in Nature Day will be October 9th 2 - 5pm at Shelter 4 of Reedy Creek Park in Charlotte.

The 2022 NC State Fair will be October 10 - 23 and is currently hiring seasonal staff:  www.ncstatefair.org  The NCGP, STN, and other organizations have had booths there in the past.

Native Gardens at Playmakers Repertory Company October 12 - 30:  playmakersrep.org/show/native-gardens-3/

Anime USA 2022 will be October  14 - 16 in Arlington, Virginia: animeusa.org/  Edward Snowden is supposed to have been a congoer once.

Anime Weekend Atlanta will be October 27 - 30th:  awa-con.com/

There will be a Zoom talk on conserving rare plants in the Uwharrie Mountains October 27th 12 - 1pm:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

The 80th Annual NC Gourd Arts and Crafts Festival will be at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh November 5 - 6th.

The NCBG's annual Jenny Elder Finch Memorial Lecture will be November 6th, 5:30 - 6:30, in-person and online:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/

There will be a general election November 8th:  www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election

The Haw River Assembly will hold an Advocacy Training at the NC Botanical Garden Wednesday, November 9th.

Leave the Leaves November 10 12 - 1pm online and in-person at the NCBG:  ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/ 

Library booksales

The Friends of the Durham Library's Books Among Friends has a new location, at 3825 South Roxboro Road, #131, zipcode 27713.  There are satellite sales at each library.  For more information and the membership form, see:  fodlnc.org/book-sales/   The Friends of the Durham Library's online store is at:  shopfodlnc.org

There will be an in-person sale for NC teachers only Sunday, August 28 12 - 4pm and Monday August 29 2 - 6pm, with prices reduced 50%.  There will be a general sale September 9 - 10th.

The Friends of the Chatham County Library plans to have a book sale September 23 - 24:  www.friendsccl.org/

The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library has an online store at:  friendschpl.org/online-book-store and there will be in-person sales August 26-28, and December 2-4, 2022, with an Annual Membership Lunch Sunday, July 24th at 12pm; this is the first time it is being held after two years:   friendschpl.org/FCHPLevents

The Friends of the Lee County Libraries has sales at open libraries:  library.leecountync.gov/friends

There is a sale every Monday 2-4pm at the Warren County Memorial Library:  www.wcmlibrary.org/friends-of-the-library-book-sale/

Granville County:  granville.lib.nc.us/friends-of-the-library/ and www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheGranvillePublicLibrarySystem/

Person County:  www.personcountync.gov/departments-services/departments-i-z/library/friends-of-the-library-1603  

Vance:  www.facebook.com/friendsperrymemoriallibrary/  

Moore County:  www.facebook.com/moorecountylibrary/

Caswell:  www.caswellcountync.gov/blog/categories/library-programs

Alamance County:  www.facebook.com/AlamanceLibraries , www.alamance-nc.com/library

The Friends of the High Point Library:  www.highpointnc.gov/927/Friends and www.facebook.com/HighPointPublicLibrary/

Forsyth:  www.facebook.com/groups/105298719513537 , www.forsyth.cc/library/   www.facebook.com/FCPublicLibrary ,  www.facebook.com/GSOLibrary  , library.greensboro-nc.gov

See also Book Sale Finder:  www.booksalefinder.com/NC.html

Calendar

Controversial project 751 South (Ryan Homes) near New Hope Creek had an opening event Saturday, June 1, 2019 12 - 4pm at 812 Watercolor Way ( www.facebook.com/events/473807706720241/ ).

World Bicycle Day in June 3rd ( www.un.org/en/events/bicycleday/ ).

The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is June 4, and was created in 1982 following the deaths of many Palestinian and Lebanese children due to Israeli aggression.

Irish revolutionary James Connolly was born June 5, 1868 in Edinburgh, Scotland.  He was executed by firing squad May 12, 1916 after the Easter Rising against British rule was crushed.

General Francisco "Pancho" Villa was born June 5, 1878 (under the name José Doroteo Arango Arámbula).  He sent a raiding party into Columbus, New Mexico March 9, 1916 during the Mexican Revolution, and was accused of being behind raids in Texas.  A US Army force was sent into Mexico for a year and was the first to use motorized transport and aircraft, but failed to find Villa.  He was assassinated July 20, 1923.

US Secretary of State George Marshall discussed what came to be known as the Marshall Plan (the European Recovery Plan) in a speech at Harvard June 5, 1947.  The Plan started operating April 3, 1948 and lasted for four years.  Apparently 5% of the funds went to CIA operations.

Naksa Day is June 5th, marking the beginning of the Six-Day War. 

World Environment Day is June 5th ( www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/ ) and the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, for example the plundering of fisheries around war-torn or weak countries that can't adequately patrol their coastlines ( www.un.org/en/events/illegalfishingday/ ).

The Spanish-American Battle of Guantánamo Bay was June 6-10, 1898, with US and Cuban forces defeating the Spanish.

The first playable version of Soviet videogame Tetris was created June 6, 1984.  It went on to become one of the most popular videogames ever made and may be useful therapeutically and have health benefits.

World Food Safety Day is June 7th ( www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/ ).

Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats repeatedly attacked the signals intelligence gathering ship USS Liberty in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, killing 34 and injuring 171 personnel.  The ship was decommissioned and later scrapped.  Israel provided compensation for the casualties and the damage to the Liberty. 

World Oceans Day is June 8th ( www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/ ).

Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born June 11, 1888 in Villafalletto, Italy and was executed with Nicola Sacco August 23, 1927 for an alleged armed robbery and murder. 

The World Day against Child Labor is June 12th (  www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/index.shtml ).

June 14th is the USA's Flag Day, marking a resolution by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, the US Army was founded June 14, 1775, and apparently Donald Trump was born June 14, 1946.  Americans often have issues with people burning or otherwise mistreating the national flag in protest, even though it is also put on all sorts of things, often violating official flag etiquette and even civic virtue.  Other countries don't seem to have so many controversies over how their national flag is treated, or it is rarely reported in English-speaking media. 

Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, but became famous for his role in the Cuban Revolution, and also fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia, and traveled to many other countries. 

The Grenfell Tower fire in a 24-story publicly-owned residential building in North Kensington, west London, UK June 14, 2017 ultimately killed 72 and injured over 70, with 223 evacuating.

The Congressional baseball shooting was the same day in Alexandria, Virginia.  James Thomas Hodgkinson shot Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a Tyson Foods lobbyist, a legislative aide, and a Capitol Police officer, but Hogkinson was the only fatality.  There was a Capitol Police detail there to protect Scalise, due to his position.

The Magna Carta Libertatum was enacted June 15, 1215 near the English town of Windsor.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15th: www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/ 

The Saeima, the Latvian parliament, approved a law "On the Prohibition of the Display of Objects Glorifying the Soviet and Nazi Regimes and Their Dismantling in the Territory of the Republic of Latvia." Earlier this year they decided to remove the country's 300 Soviet monuments, violating the Russian-Latvian Intergovernmental Agreement of April 30, 1994.  Over the years there have been clashes and attempted bombings at the 1985 Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders in the capital.  The prime minister, an American citizen, is "accelerating the ongoing effort [from 2019?] to remove the Russian language from the education system," in favor of "the state language."  This is discussed in an article in the July 21st issue of the New York Review of Books.  In March 2011 about 27% of the population was ethnic Russian and 34% of the population spoke Russian at home.  Neighboring Lithuania has been accused of recently violating an agreement with Russia regarding transportation through the country to Kalinigrad.  

 

The Battle of the Rosebud was June 17, 1876.

China tested its first thermonuclear bomb June 17, 1967.

The last captive dusky seaside sparrow, a male named Orange Band, died at Disney World June 17, 1987, though dusky seaside sparrows are apparently a Florida subpecies of the still existing seaside sparrow.  A wild male, named Green Band, was last seen July 23, 1980.  

The Hōkūleʻa, a replica Polynesian voyaging canoe built with some modern materials but piloted using traditional techniques, sailed around the world May 18, 2014 to June 17, 2017.  Hōkūleʻa, star of gladness or joy, is the Hawaiian name for the bright star Arcturus, probably still visible in the evening, in the 'Western' constellation Boötes, the Herdsman or Ox-driver, but apparently seen as a frigatebird in Hawaii.  The ship was built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society and is based in Hawaii.  It has been theorized that there was pre-Columbian contact between Polynesia and South America, and possibly Chinese ships once reached North America.   

At the UN Security Council June 18, 1952 the USSR accused the USA of using biological weapons in the Korean War, not the first time the charge was made. 

R (Rajani) Palme Dutt, a leading official of the Comintern, general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and editor of the CPGB's Weekly Worker and founder of the Labour Monthly, was born June 19, 1896 in Cambridge, England, UK.  He is well-known for his analysis of fascism. 

June 19th is Father's Day in the USA, and seems to be more of a holiday for retailers than Mother's Day, but according to Wikipedia it could relate to a major coal mine disaster in Monongah, West Virginia December 6, 1907 that killed 361 people, many immigrants from all over Europe, and leaving about 250 widows and 1000 children.

The quarter day Midsummer Day / Saint John's Day is June 24th

World UFO Day is marked June 24th or July 2nd.

Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island Tortoise, from an island in the Galapagos Islands, dies June 24, 2012. 

Much of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, near Miami, collapsed early in the morrning on June 24, 2021, ultimately killing 98 people.  There have been suggestions that the collapse is related to climate change and it could reflect the country's decline.

Roe v Wade was overturned June 24, 2022.  [7/27 - Joe Biden has often taken anti-abortion positions and not very many years ago; see for example:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Joe_Biden ]

The Battle of the Little Bighorn was June 25 - 26, 1876.

The Korean War officially began June 25, 1950, but fighting was already going on between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces, for example the Jeju Uprising officially began April 3, 1948 (see above).  See also:  koryogroup.com/blog/pre-korean-war-buildings-in-pyongyang-north-korea

Author and speaker Helen Keller, famous for overcoming both blindness and deafness, becoming the first deaf-blind person to get a BA, was born June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama.  She was a prominent member of the Socialist Party and the International Workers of the World and a founder of the ACLU and the Helen Keller International.  She passed away June 1, 1968 at her home in Easton, Connecticut and is buried at the Washington National Cathedral in DC.    

Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated late in the morning on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, part of Austria-Hungary at the time, leading to the beginning of World War I later that summer.  In the preceding years there had been crises, but they were defused without provoking a general inter-imperialist war.

The Cominform published a resolution condemning the Yugoslav leadership June 28, 1948 and the Cominform moved its headquarters to Bucharest, Romania from Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

The Stonewall riots or rebellion took place June 28 - 29, 1969 in New York City. 

Manuel Zelaya, the elected president of Honduras was arrested and expelled from the country June 28, 2009, a coup abetted by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  The US-supported coup was rarely mentioned as a reason for Honduran emigration to the US and the demonstrations and killings of protesters by the rightist government that resulted from the coup weren't mentioned very often or in detail, especially when compared to the amount of negative coverage of Venezuela and Nicaragua.  

Three cosmonauts on Soyuz 11 were killed in space June 30, 1971 due to depressurization through a damaged valve as they prepared to leave orbit after being the first (and only) crew of Salyut 1, humanity's first space station.  Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are the first humans known to have been killed in space.

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir June 29, 1995, the first time a space shuttle docked with the Soviet/Russian space station (shuttle mission STS-71).  I think I saw this televised, and it seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace, which is understandable given the massive vehicles involved, travelling around the Earth at thousands of miles per hour.  In July 1975 an Apollo module and Soyuz-19 docked in orbit, the first joint US-Soviet crewed spaceflight.      

The International Day of the Tropics is June 29th:  www.un.org/en/events/tropicsday/  

At the end of June / beginning of July 1520 a large Spanish and indigenous force under Hernán Cortés was driven out of the Aztec capital and faced total defeat, an event the conquistadores called La Noche Triste (The Sad Night).  A pursuing Aztec force was defeated at the Battle of Otumba July 7th (under the Julian calendar).

International Asteroid Day is June 30th, and something from space exploded over Siberia that day in 1908 with far more force than the WWII atomic bombs, levelling a large area of forest with a sparse human population.  More recently an asteroid exploded high above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains of Russia February 15, 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT, far more powerful than the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima, and injured many people and damaged buildings ( www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/ ).

In another first for a sitting US president, Trump briefly crossed the Korean DMZ June 30, 2019, and for the second time since 1953 a leader of the DPRK crossed into the ROK.  Trump, Kim, and ROK president Moon Jae-in also held a brief private meeting. 

The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1 - 3, 1863 in Pennsylvania, and had the most casualties, missing, wounded, or killed, of any battle in the Civil War.  Together with the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4th early July 1863 is seen as a major turning point in the war.

Montana territorial governor Thomas Francis Meagher disappeared July 1, 1867, having fallen off a steamboat into the Missouri River in Montana, possibly an assassination.

The Bretton Woods system was created at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire July 1-22, 1944

World UFO Day or Flying Saucer Day is marked June 24th or July 2, the second date commemorating July 2, 1947 when something - alien craft, USAF weather balloon, Stalin's Nazi flying saucer, etc - is supposed to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, not the first or last time an otherworldly aircraft is said to have crashed in the US.

The first French nuclear test, called Aldebaran, was July 2, 1966 in Moruroa in French Polynesia.  Nuclear testing left lasting envronmental damage on the atoll.  There was a mention in a recent article on Counterpunch.

In English-speaking countries the dog days of summer are often said to begin July 3rd and extend into late summer.

The Battle of Santiago de Cuba July 3, 1898 was apparently the largest naval battle of the Spanish-American War, the conflict often seen as marking the beginning of US imperialism.

July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in Iranian airspace while the cruiser was in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War.  Everyone onboard was killed, a total of 290 civilians (66 children), mostly from Iran, but including people from the UAE, India, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, and Italy.  Allegedly the climbing Airbus A300 airliner was mistaken for an F-14 fighter descending for an attack.  The US government expressed regret and paid restitution in 1996, but refused to apologize and the captain and crew of the Vincennes later received various awards.

March 10, 1989 the captain's minivan, driven by his wife, was set on fire by a pipebomb in San Diego and who set the bomb remains unknown. 

See also:  www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/17/remember-the-vincennes-the-uss-long-history-of-provoking-iran/

[A fishing license is not required in North Carolina on July 4th, but other regulations remain.]

A bright supernova within our galaxy was seen around the world July 4, 1054 - April 6, 1056 (by the Julian calendar), creating the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus. 

German communist Clara Zetkin was born July 5, 1857 in what is now Königshain-Wiederau in Saxony, Germany.  She was a founder of the Spartacist League and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and represented it in the Reichstag from 1920 to 1933, a member of the Comintern's executive committee, and she helped found International Women's Day (March 8th).  She died July 20, 1933, exiled in the USSR following the Nazi seizure of power, and her ashes are interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.  Many places in the German Democratic Republic were named after her posthumously.  Some of her works are online at:  www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm and available in print from redstarpublishers.org/

The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle, was July 5 - August 23, 1943.

Tanabata and related traditional festivals in East Asia (Tanabata is the Japanese version) are Thursday, July 7th; a new way of celebrating is to turn off the lights and go outside to look at the stars.

The Battle of Otumba during the Conquest of Mexico was July 7, 1520 (under the Julian calendar).

After having been destroyed in WWII rebuilding began at the USSR's massive Dneiper hydroelectric dam, now in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, July 7, 1944 and it again produced electricity by March 3, 1947.  The world's largest nuclear power station is also in that city, with the first unit having been built starting April 1, 1980.

Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Marianne Williamson was born July 8, 1952 in Houston and apparently endorsed Sanders after suspending her campaign.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated July 8, 2022 while campaigning for a candidate in Nara.  There will be elections to the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet, on the 10th.  Abe, representing the dominant Liberal Democratic Party, was prime minister 2006 - 2007 and 2012 - 2020.  The shooter was apparently angry over Abe's alleged connections to the Unification Church and used a DIY double-barreled gun, but might have also had explosives.  US and even UK media talked about the assassination more as "gun violence" than "political violence" and about Japan's 'technocratic,' allegedly bland political system, severe Japanese gun regulations (so mass killings are done with weapons like knives and bombs instead), Abe's support for US aggression, etc.

Bastille Day, July 14th, is also supposed to be Shark Awareness Day and World Chimpanzee Day.

Construction of a pro-war memorial for the first US-Iraq War began July 14, 2022 in Washington, DC.  Continued US "kinetic" and economic/diplomatic aggression after the war officially ended, mostly under Democrat Bill Clinton, prepared the ground for George W Bush's invasion in 2003 and killed or harmed a huge number of Iraqi civilians and destroyed the once relatively prosperous and developed country.  Justifying this is one of the major charges against Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.  Similar infrastructure damage and killing of civilians, with the addition of torture, destruction of archaeogical remains, and neoliberal economic 'reforms' that might not be tolerated by Americans or other people not under military occupation, happened again during the Bush-Cheney and Obama-Biden Iraq War.  If I'm not mistaken pro-war Joe Biden proposed cutting Iraq up into 3 countries.

  

covertactionmagazine.com/2022/07/25/yet-another-war-memorial-is-being-built-this-time-to-commemorate-1991-operation-desert-storm/

The USA's Trinity nuclear test was early on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexio.

World Snake Day is supposed to be July 16th.

The first photograph of a star other than the Sun is supposed to have been of Vega, visible overhead much of the night during the Northern Hemisphere summer, July 16-17, 1850.  The Sun's corona was first photographed during a solar eclipse July 28, 1851.  The Moon was photographed March 23, 1840.

The Romanovs were executed the night of July 16-17, 1918 during the Russian Revolution.

Eunice Newton Foote was born July 17, 1819 in Goshen, Connecticut and, among other research, is supposed to have been the first scientist to examine how carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere trap heat, leading to the current problem of anthropogenic climate change as human activity adds additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.  Her work was presented at the 10th annua meeting American Association for the Advancement of Science August 23, 1856 in Albany, New York.  The idea that the Earth's temperature might be increased by its atmosphere had already been suggested.  She passed away September 30, 1888 in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The ROK's Constitution Day or Jeheonjeol is July 17, 1948, and July 17th is supposed to be the anniversary of the founding of the Joseon kingdom.  By creating the ROK the US cemented the division of the Korea, with the DPRK being created September 9th of that year. 

TWA Flight 800 exploded over the ocean off Long Island July 17, 1996.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was allegedly shot down by separatists July 17, 2014 in Eastern Ukraine.  March 8th of that year MH370 disappeared and still has not been found. 

The UN gave the USA control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (but under this "trusteeship" only the Security Council could change its status, not the General Assembly) July 18, 1947, and the Pacific Proving Grounds for nuclear weapon tests was established five days later, though testing had started there in the summer of 1946.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) triumphed in Nicaragua July 19, 1979, and had been founded July 19, 1961.  The Sandinistas were defeated in a 1990 election agreed to in a peace deal, after years of US-backed Contra terrorism, economic warfare, and US meddling in the election, interference far beyond what the USA claims Russia has done in our elections.  Apparently Nicaraguans immigrants are now given special treatment by the US, as with Cubans, to make their home government look bad, though far more migrants come from US allies, often led by rightist governments.

The Communist Party of China [CPC] was founded in July 1921.  [It's first National Congress was held July 23-31, 1921, moving from the French-held part of Shanghai to a boat in nearby Jiaxing's South Lake, in Zhejiang Province.]

The IUCN's Red List was updated July 21, 2022; see above.

The Sri Lankan Civil War, between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam / the Tamil Tigers or LTTE, began July 23, 1983 and ended in 2009.

Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered by astronomer Alan Hale and amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp July 23, 1995.  According to the Wikipedia entry there might be a record in ancient Egypt of Hale-Bopp's previous entry into the inner solar system in July 2215 BCE; the comet won't appear again for thousands of years [One prediction was August 6, 4393?].  

The Downing Street Minutes came from a British government meeting July 23, 2002 discussing the Bush administration's plans to engineer a war with Iraq.  The memo was revealed by a British newspaper May 1, 2005, but seems to have been poorly covered or suppressed by the US mainstream media. 

The 11th annual National Moth Week will be July 23 – 31, 2022, with a focus on caterpillars this year: www.nationalmothweek.org/

WHO declared the 2022 global monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern July 23, 2022:  www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/monkeypox-outbreak-constitutes-global-health-emergency-who-2022-07-23/

Friday, July 24, 1998 a gunman killed two Capitol Police officers and wounded a tourist at the US Capitol, apparently the first killing of a Capitol Police officer in an attack and the first gunfire in the building since a March 1, 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists, which resulted in injuries only, prior to 2021:  www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/shooting/stories/main072598.htm  Shooter Russell Eugene Weston Jr had been known to the Secret Service since 1996, but was judged mentally ill.  In July 1996 he had been allowed into the headquarters of the CIA:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_Capitol_shooting

US forces invaded Puerto Rico July 25, 1898 during the Spanish-American War, first coming ashore in Guánica.

After the possibility of electoral politics was foreclosed, former Cuban congressional candidate Fidel Castro led an armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba July 26, 1953, which was unsuccessful.  The 26th of July Movement was formed a few years later during the Cuban Revolution, which succeeded in removing Fulgencio Batista and then moved in a socialist direction, providing an example and resource for resistance to imperialism in the Americas and elsewhere.  [July 26th is a Cuban national holiday.  See also:  www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/26/the-ongoing-infowar-against-cuba-from-the-moncada-assault-to-the-embargo/ , consortiumnews.com/2022/07/26/john-pilger-on-the-urgency-to-free-assange/ , and consortiumnews.com/2022/07/26/pressure-on-biden-to-remove-cuba-from-terror-list/ , 

Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and barred Israeli ships from the Straits of Tiran  July 26, 1956, leading to the Suez Crisis.  

The Korean War armstice began July 27, 1953 and has continued ever since.  ROK president Syngman Rhee did not sign the document.  In DPR Korea July 27th is commemorated as the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.   

July 27th is Remembrance Day for Child Victims of the Donbass War:  ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/07/27/today-is-remembrance-day-for-child-victims-of-the-donbass-war-130-of-them/

World War I began July 28, 1914 with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand June 28th.

There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.

The Japanese destroyer Hatsushimo survived the sacrificial Operation Ten-Go / the Battle of the East China Sea, but was sunk July 30, 1945 near Maizuru by a mine dropped from the air, becoming the 129th and last destroyer lost by Japan during WWII.

In another drone strike, a CIA drone allegedly killed al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan around 6am July 31, 2022, without any non-combatant casualties, and the Taliban was accused of violating promises not to allow terrorist actions originating in the country.

 

The cross-quarter day Lammas / Loaf Mass Day Gaelic Lughnasadh / Lughnasa is August 1st.

The USA occupied Haiti July 28, 1915 to August 1, 1934.

Asteriod 15 Eunomia, one of the largest, was discovered July 29, 1851 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.

The discovery of the distant dwarf planets Eris and Makemake was announced July 29, 2005, and the discovery of Haumea had been announced on the 27th.  The objects had actually been first observed months earlier.  Makemake is named for a god from Rapa Nui or Easter Island.

The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the PCMLE, was founded in August (Wikipedia says the date was August 1, 1964, but this might be inaccurate).

August 1st - 7th is World Breastfeeding Week:  www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/08/01/default-calendar/world-breastfeeding-week-2019

The NC Green Party again gained state recognition August 1, 2022, but still might not appear on ballots in the general election in November.

Oklahoma's Green Corn Rebellion over US entry into WWI and drafting was August 2 - 3, 1917.

Nancy Pelosi and five other Democratic members of Congress made a state visit to Taiwan August 2-3, 2022, the highest American official to go there since Newt Gingrich went in 1997.  This enraged China, which began holding military exercises around the island, also involving Japan; sanctioned Pelosi and her family; and is taking other steps.  The Kuomintang lost the Chinese civil war on the mainland to the CPC, but maintained a US-protected dictatorship on Taiwan for decades, with political reforms not that long ago.  There might not be a direct parallel in US history, but the US government often considers neighboring countries such as Cuba to rightfully be under its control, and imagine the reaction if a country substantially supported the movements seeking independence for parts of the USA today, such as Puerto Rico.  The US Civil War was almost internationalized by military interventions on both sides, which could have created two "American" states, similar to how China, Korea, and other nations are divided now.

Irish nationalist Thomas Francis Meagher was born August 3, 1823 in Waterford City, in southeastern Ireland, in the province of Munster.

During Pelosi's official visit to Taiwan the world's largest naval exercise was going on, the biennial RIMPAC, Rim of the Pacific Amphibious Assault Training, June 29th - August 4th:  unac.notowar.net/2022/08/10/u-s-media-hide-military-threats-vs-china/  Training for an amphibious invasion seems like preparation more suited for international aggression than defense.

WNBA player Brittney Griner, allegedly being held by Russia as a political hostage, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and fined August 4, 2022, after admitting to breaking Russian law.  How many Americans and others does the US government imprison for marijuana and other "drug" law violations, often with onerous sentences, and how many Americans are held by other countries for similar drug crimes, but without this amount of publicity?  Allegedly more Americans are now "hostages" of governments than of non-state actors.  The US government claims that, unlike its enemies, it doesn't take political hostages and that US justice is blind, yet the US is holding Colombian Alex Saab to attack Venezuela, wants vengeance against Australian journalist Julian Assange, persuaded Canada to hold Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of CEO Ren Zhangfei, from late 2018 to September 24, 2021 for allegedly violating the USA's sanctions on Iran, and there are questions about Aafia Siddiqui, considered a political prisoner by many Pakistanis, among other high-profile prisoners.  The US government wants to exchange one or more Russians it holds for Griner and Paul Whelan, an American Russia tried for spying.  They are not the only Americans imprisoned in Russia.  Apparently an American, Mark Frerichs, is still held by Islamists in Afghanistan and could be in increased danger due to the al-Zawahiri assassination in July.  Possibly the US will release Viktor Bout, a Russian accused of intending to supply FARC with weapons for use against US forces intervening in the Colombian civil war.  

The Civil War sea and land Battle of Mobile Bay was August 5, 1864.  US admiral Farragut is supposed to have ordered "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!," but that might not have actually happened.  Torpedoes referred to naval mines at the time.  

Friedrich Engels died August 5, 1895 in London, UK of throat cancer.  His ashes were spread in the English Channel off of the high white chalk sea cliffs of Beachy Head in East Sussex, England. 

The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima a little after 8am on August 6, 1945.  The UK consented under the Quebec Agreement.

The USSR and Mongolia entered the war against Japan very early on August 9th, as had long been requested by the other Allies, and quickly advanced deep into Japanese-held areas.

The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki August 9, 1945 after 11am when the cloud cover that would have saved the city broke (Wikipedia articles say that the primary target August 9th was Kokura and that it had been the alternative target on August 6th).  The bomb used on Hiroshima was set to explode as it fell, while the bomb used on Nagasaki exploded at ground level, but hills deflected some of the force and unlike in Hiroshima there wasn't a firestorm.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both hit by atomic bombs (as opposed to more destructive hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs based on nuclear fusion and first developed by the USA for use during the Cold War), but the designs differed.

August 9th is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples and this year it focuses on Indigenous Peoples' Languages and 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages:  www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/  I would like to study Classical Nahuatl or a related modern language.   

[The beginning date of the Long Count calendar used by the Maya is usually thought to be August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar, though this could be inaccurate.  Another date in the Long Count was the origin of the December 21, 2012 end of the world claims.  A metaphorical world ending or apocalypse can also be seen as the prelude to the creation of a new and maybe different world.]

The Unite the Right Rally was August 11-12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

The last captive quagga, thought to be a subspecies of the plains zebra, and native to South Africa, died August 12, 1883 at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

An August 12, 1898 armistice ended the Spanish-American War, with a peace treaty signed in Paris December 10th and ratified by the US Senate February 6th.

International Youth Day is August 12th:  www.un.org/en/events/youthday/

The Mexican capital Tenochtitlan fell to a force of several hundred Spaniards and thousands of Indian allies under Hernando Cortés around August 13, 1521, following a long siege and attack by land and water (the city was set in a large lake, Lake Texcoco, and crossed by many canals).  Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc (his predecessor Cuitláhuac, who replaced Moctezuma II, had died of disease in 1520) was captured as a flotilla attempted to escape the last assault in Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlan's connected sister city.  Tens to hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants were killed in battle and by massacres (also involving rape and looting), disease epidemics, and starvation (similar to the numbers killed by atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki).  Much of Tenochtitlan was levelled during the war and modern Mexico City sits on the ruins.  In all, several thousand Spanish and native allies (the majority of casualties were allies), were killed.  The Spanish force included some non-Spaniards and women.     

Societies far away probably didn't know about Tenochtitlan and the rest of the Valley of Mexico, but populous Tenochtitlan and the surrounding region could be considered a cultural and political capital of North America in its time, similar to New York City, Washington, and Los Angeles today.  It was the capital of one of the most politically and culturally powerful states in pre-Columbian North America.  I think objects from Mesoamerican cultures have been found as far away as the Southwest and Eastern US, though it is an open question what people there knew about the objects.  Maize formed the basis of the economy over much of the Pre-Columbian Americas and is thought to have been domesticated in what is now Mexico, though that was long before the Mexica and might have started in a different region.  

German socialist Ferdinand August Bebel passed away August 13, 1913 at a sanatorium in Passugg, Switzerland and is buried in Zurich.  Lenin wrote a eulogy.  Bebel was born February 22, 1840 in Deutz, Germany, now part of the large city of Cologne.

Cuban revolutionary and statesman Fidel Castro was born August 13, 1926 in Birán, Oriente Province, in eastern Cuba.

Karl Liebknecht was born August 14, 1871 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany and was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (which he represented in Prussia's parliament and later in the German Reichstag), the Spartacist League, and the Communist Party of Germany.  Along with Rosa Luxemburg he was tortured and executed by Freikorps rightists, supporting the Social-Democratic German government at the end of WWI.   

Sunday, August 14, 2022 shortly before 4am Richard A York III, 29, from Delaware, reportedly drove into a barricade at the US Capitol, might have set his car on fire, fired in the air, and then killed himself:  www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/man-dead-after-driving-car-into-us-capitol-barricade-overnight/3132851/ , www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-08-14/police-man-killed-himself-after-ramming-us-capitol-barrier

In a recorded radio broadcast at noon on August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announced domestically that Japan had surrendered to the Allies.

British colonial India was partioned into India and Pakistan (at the time Bangladesh was East Pakistan) and they gained independence at midnight August 15, 1947, leading to sectarian violence and territorial disputes.

UNC-Chapel Hill started charging for parking on weeknights, from 5pm on Mondays to 7:30am on Fridays, starting Thursday, August 15, 2019 (in addition to daytime parking fees on weekdays):   move.unc.edu/parking/weeknight-parking/  [Classes began August 15th in fall 2022, much earlier than a few years ago]

The Taliban seized Kabul August 15, 2021.

The US Constitution's 19th (XIX) Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was ratified by enough states to be adopted, August 18, 1920. 

World Humanitarian Day is August 19th:  www.un.org/en/events/humanitarianday/

Russian journalist Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, 29, daughter of rightist author Aleksandr Dugin, was killed in a car bombing August 20, 2022 around 9:45pm local time near Moscow.  Her father was in another car and it is possible that he was the intended target.  They both supported Russia attacking Ukraine.  Russia accuses Ukraine of responsibility and says that the culprit fled to Estonia.  I got the impression of glee or at least lack of concern from NPR staff, and that is probably true of other mainstream media.  Imagine if vocal supporters of US aggression against countries such as Iraq and Libya, their family members, and pro-government journalists were targets for terrorism.  Even non-violent protests outside the homes of US officials are condemned.  The mainstream media gives the impression that Russians have done more to oppose the war in Ukraine than many in the US have done to oppose recent American wars of aggression.  In 1989 there seems to have been an attempt at retaliation against the family of the captain of the USS Vincennes for the downing of civilian Iran Air Flight 655 in July 3, 1988 (see above).  It could be asked if Ukraine or others will start assassinating people in "Western" countries opposed to NATO involvement as the war drags on.  Americans are already on Ukraine's blacklist:  consortiumnews.com/2022/07/27/us-should-not-fund-ukrainian-blacklist/ [Roger Waters joins a 13 year old Ukrainian girl, Scott Ritter, Henry Kissinger, the assassinated Dugina, assassinated Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli (September 27, 1983 - May 24, 2014, killed with others near Sloviansk), and thousands of others on Ukraine's doxxing and killing list:  covertactionmagazine.com/2022/08/29/roger-waters-added-to-ukrainian-hit-list/ ]

The International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism Day is August 21st:  www.un.org/en/events/victimsofterrorismday/

The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief is August 22nd:  www.un.org/en/events/victimsofreligiousviolenceday/

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition is August 23rd, commemorating the beginning the Haitian Revolution on the night of August 22 - 23, 1791 in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo:  en.unesco.org/commemorations/slavetraderemembranceday

The Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR was signed August 23, 1939, following the failure of negotiations with the UK and other European states to deter Germany, giving the USSR more time to prepare for a German attack and survive WWII:  ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/WBBJVSNaziPact.htm  Today several imperialist countries and organizations, such as the EU and Canada, equate socialism and fascism every August 23rd, while collaborating with US wars of aggression, disappearances, and torture; Zionist aggression; fascists in Ukraine; Islamist terrorists; rightist coups in Latin America; etc.  

France first tested a thermonuclear device August 24, 1968 at the Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia.

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart, Germany; his thought was a major influence in the later development of Marxism.  

Naturalist, author, and illustrator Roger Tory Peterson, famous for the series of Peterson field guides, was born 114 years ago, August 28, 1908, in Jamestown, New York and passed away July 28, 1996 in Old Lyme, Connecticut.  There are events at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown:  rtpi.org/programs/?type=all&startDate=2022-08-11&endDate=2022-09-11

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was August 28, 1963.

The USSR's first nuclear test, RDS-1,  was early on August 29, 1949 in Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh SSR, breaking the USA's nuclear monopoly and blackmail.

The International Day Against Nuclear Tests is August 29th:  www.un.org/en/events/againstnucleartestsday/  I was surprised to learn that the US detonated nuclear weapons as recently as 1992 and France and China in 1996, among other countries:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States%27_nuclear_weapons_tests  

The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is August 30th:  www.un.org/en/events/disappearancesday/ 

Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer using a home-made telescope in Crimea, discovered 2I/Borisov August 30, 2019, the first known interstellar comet and the second known interstellar object observed travelling through our solar system.  It is possible that the first meteor from outside the Solar System was recently discovered.  Comet Borisov isn't expected to return.  The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be natural, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there has been discussion of sending a probe after it. 

The US and allied military forces withdrew from Afghanistan by the end of August 2022, but the US continues to bomb the country and cause economic hardship and death for Afghan civilians.

The beginning date of the Long Count calendar used by the Maya is usually thought to be August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar, though this could be inaccurate.  Another date in the Long Count was the origin of the December 21, 2012 end of the world claims.  A metaphorical world ending or apocalypse can also be seen as the prelude to the creation of a new and maybe different world.

The CPUSA was founded September 1, 1919. 

Martha, a captive passenger pigeon at the Cincinnati Zoo, the last known member of her species, died September 1st, 1914 early in the afternoon.  Passenger pigeons may have been the most abundant bird ever known, their flocks darkening the sky, but they were exterminated by habitat loss and wanton hunting. 

Using false flag attacks to create a justification for war, Germany invaded Poland September 1, 1939, which the US-UK media portraying as the start of WWII, though other regional wars that later merged with the world war had already begun.  If humanity exists much longer, might future historians say that we are at the beginning of a global war now, and what will they say about the continuous US warfare, mainly in the Middle East and Western Asia, but also in Europe and Africa, over the last 30 years?  

Japan Dolphin Day, presumably protesting the killing of dolphins, is supposed to be September 1st.

Imperial Japan formally surrendered September 2, 1945 onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.  There were other surrenders elsewhere. 

Vietnamese revolutionary and national liberation leader Ho Chi Minh passed away September 2, 1969.

The US-mediated Treaty of Portsmouth, negotiated at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, ended the Russo-Japanese War, September 5, 1905.

Labor Day, is Monday, September 5th in the USA and Canada.  Unions called for the creation of a day for workers in the late 19th century, with some advocating a date in September, and the government supported a September date instead of May 1st, associated with revolutionary labor movements. Around the world May Day is labor day or an official holiday in many countries, such as Mexico, and that date also has roots in the American labor movement.  Beginning under Eisenhower May 1st has been called Loyalty Day and Law Day and previously it was Child Health Day.

The last captive Tasmanian tiger or Thylacine, a male called Benjamin, died at Australia's Hobart Zoo September 7, 1936.  Tasmanian tigers, large, striped predatory marsupials, are considered extinct, though sightings are still reported. 

Annual International Vulture Awareness Day is September 7th:  www.vultureday.org , celebrating these majestic, interesting, ecologically vital, and in many cases threatened birds.  

Around here there are two species, turkey and black vultures.  They look and act somewhat differently, but they can easily be distinguished by the light and dark patterns on the undersides of their wings and the way they hold their wings in flight.  The trailing side of a larger turkey vulture's wing is whitish, while black vultures have whitish triangles at their wingtips.  Turkey vultures find carrion by smell, while black vultures rely on sight.  A few decades ago if not today there were concerns that black vultures were in decline in North Carolina, and both species have become less common with land use changes and changes in sanitation.  They often nest in abandoned rural buildings.  

International Literacy Day is September 8th:  www.un.org/en/events/literacyday/  The success of Cuba's 1961 literacy campaign and later initiatives both in Cuba and as aid to other countries have often been noted. 

The International Day of Journalists' Solidarity (generally excluding journalists from or sympathetic to non-"Western" countries, especially countries whose governments the US seeks to overthrow) is September 8th:  ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/09/11/western-media-continues-to-ignore-ukraines-public-kill-list-aimed-at-those-who-question-the-kiev-regime/  I'm surprised the mainstream media still occasionally brings up Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist with Al-Jazeera who was shot to death May 11th in Jenin in the West Bank, most likely by the Israeli miltary.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the DPRK, was established September 9, 1948.  The Republic of Korea had been established earlier that year, cementing the post-WWII division of Korea and helping to create a cold war with the threat of total destruction where there had been an alliance between the USA and USSR.   

World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10th:  www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/wspd/en/

The Chilean military overthrew elected president Salvador Allende September 11, 1973 with the heavy involvement of the US government (far more than Russia is alleged to have done in 2016).  Allende died in the defense of the presidential palace or by suicide.  In the coup and later years tens of thousands of people were arrested, tortured, or killed, and the dead include US citizens and a car bombing in Washington, DC September 21, 1976.  There was some armed popular resistance on and after September 11th.  Following the coup Augusto Pinochet came to power and this era is praised by neoliberal economists and rightists in the USA and EU even today.  See also this article from A Verdade:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-verdade-financed-by-us-dictatorships.html     

This year is the 21st anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks, the justification for decades of war, torture, attacks on constitutional rights and international law, etc.  So much has changed since the summer of 2001 and it continues, with attacks on Afghanistan, the prisoners in Gitmo, etc., though now the US government is focusing on Russia, China, and information warfare, and climate change is making itself felt.

The Benghazi attack in Libya was September 11, 2012.

National Estuaries Week will be September 14 - 21.

International Day of Democracy is September 15th:  www.un.org/en/events/democracyday/

Mexico's Independence Day is September 16th, commemorating Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) in 1810.

The International Day for Preservation of the Ozone Layer is September 16th:  www.un.org/en/events/ozoneday/  September 16, 2009 agreements protecting the ozone layer became the first universally ratified UN treaties.  The ozone layer (made of a form of oxygen) absorbs some ultraviolet light, but is depleted by industrial chemicals, such as CFCs, which are also potent greenhouse gases. 

The Petrozavodsk phenomenon was seen from Denmark to the Soviet Far East September 20, 1977, but is named for the capital of the Karelian ASSR, bordering Finland.  Some have attributed it to the launch of Kosmos-955 the same day; the satellite returned to Earth September 8, 2000.

The Soviet probe Zond 5 was the first spacecraft to travel around the Moon, and carried several plants and animals.  There was also a fake radio transmission, as if cosmonauts were onboard.  The mission was September 14 - 2l, 1968.

The International Day of Peace is September 21st: www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/

The Northern Hemisphere fall equinox will be Thursday, September 22nd in 2022.

In the Vela Incident on September 22, 1979 a possible nuclear test was detected in the Indian Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica.  There were many theories, including that it was a joint test by South Africa and Israel (Israel is generally thought to have hundreds of nuclear weapons today and South Africa developed and then dismantled its nuclear weapons). 

National Hunting and Fishing Day is September 24th.

The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is September 26th:  www.un.org/en/events/nuclearweaponelimination/  The USA, Russia, and other major nuclear powers demand that smaller countries completely and unilaterally denuclearize, and not develop rockets that could carry nuclear weapons, while they have thousands of nuclear weapons ready to destroy humanity and instead of beginning to get rid of them, they spend huge amounts to maintain their current weapons and develop new ones.  The US also engages in a large amount of nuclear proliferation, by giving other countries nuclear weapons and by shielding weapon development by its allies.

Iraq was falsely accused of developing nuclear weapons, and was invaded in 2003, killing many civilians and leading to sectarian conflict and the creation of ISIS.  

Libya gave up its weapons program and but was then attacked in 2011, creating a "failed state" and a flood of migrants through Libya to the EU.  

Democrats and Republicans accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and it is under severe pressure and faces war, despite not developing nuclear weapons while under threat from nuclear powers.  Iran agreed to abide by the JCPOA, which Trump unilaterally rendered void and Biden somehow can't manage to restore it, though trading with Iran might reduce fuel costs and improve the Democrats' electoral prospects.  Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.  

The DPRK developed nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and seems relatively safe from attack by the USA and other countries, though that is not only because of its nuclear status, and nuclear weapons give the US another justification for its Korean policies.  On the other hand, the US doesn't mind when its allies, such as the UK, Israel, India, develop nuclear weapons and even helps them. 

World Maritime Day is also September 26th:  www.un.org/en/events/maritimeday/

Toughie, the last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog, died September 26, 2016 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  The species had been scientifically discovered in 2005 in a small area of cloud forest on the Pacific side of Panama.

The planet Jupiter will be at opposition September 26th, and also happens to be close to the Sun in its orbit now, so it is physically close to the Earth, at 367 million miles, the closest since October 8, 1963.  The next time will be October 7, 2129.  Jupiter is easy to see, a bright object visible for much of the night on the celestial equator in the otherwise very dim constellation Pisces, in the southern sky below the rectangle of Pegasus the Winged Horse.  Saturn is not as bright, further west in also dim Capricornus, with the relatively bright star Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, in between.  There aren't many bright stars low in the south for much of the night at this time of year.  Mars is bright in Taurus, east of Jupiter.  Neptune reached opposition September 16th in Aquarius.  Asteriod 3 Juno, discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding September 1, 1804, is nearby and shines with the same low magnitude as Neptune, and reached opposition September 8th.  Uranus, a future destination for NASA probes, is in Aries and will reach opposition in November.  Venus might still be visible in the morning at the end of September while the new Moon will be up in the evening.

The border between Colombia and Venezuela is being reopened September 26th, after being closed due to the US and Colombian attempts to start a coup in Venezuela during the Trump years, not that the Biden administration doesn't want to overthrow the "communist" Bolivarian social-democrats.  Even Bernie Sanders on the left of the Democratic Party called Hugo Chavez a "communist dictator."  NPR previously blamed all of the border problems on Venezuelan 'authoritarianism,' rather than foreign powers led by the USA trying to impose a rightist puppet government on Venezuela, as Trump and Obama attempted with varying degrees of success in Cuba, Bolivia, and Honduras.

NASA is going to attempt to move an asteriod, slightly, to test a method of "planetary defense" September 26th.  On the one hand, a large asteriod hitting the Earth would probably cause a mass extinction, but humans are currently causing a mass extinction and not very interested in stopping it.  Humanity probably couldn't have evolved without the extraterrestrial impact about 65 million years ago, or whatever caused the mass extinction that ended the age of the dinosaurs, an impact seeming to be the "American" Space Age theory.  What if we were unlucky and something much larger was hurtling towards the Earth?  I also recently read that if an alien civilization, perhaps upset by an intentional human signal, could fire off a weapon the size of a car, traveling near the speed of light, the force of the impact would devastate the Earth.  I'm not sure if the claim was that the Earth would be destroyed or just damaged.  There are natural forces that might send out rocky debris at very high speeds.  At some point China or some other new superpower might claim to be the defender of the Earth from cosmic dangers and the representative of humanity.

 

Japanese leftist Fusako Shigenobu, recently released from prison, was born September 28, 1945 in Setagaya, Tokyo:  thefunambulist.net/magazine/decentering-the-us/fusako-shigenobu-an-open-ended-revolution  See also throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/reflecting-legacy-fusako-shigenobu/

World Rabies Day is September 28th:  www.who.int/rabies/WRD_landing_page/en/  I heard from a local licensed wildlife rehabilitator that vaccination against this almost universally fatal virus is offered by the Durham County Health Department, and immunity usually lasts a long time, but vaccination is expensive. 

September 28th is also the International Day for Universal Access to Information:  en.unesco.org/commemorations/accesstoinformationday

World Space Week is October 4th - 10th:  www.un.org/en/events/spaceweek/

The Crimean War began October 16, 1853.

Niche Gardens, a pioneering native plant nursery a few miles southwest of Carrboro went out of business October 18, 2019.  Besides the retail nursery there were display gardens.  NCSU graduate Kim Hawks founded Niche Gardens on Dawson Road in 1986, when gardening with native plants was a more unusual concept.  The nursery was also a pioneer in selling plants online.  

Disarmament Week is October 24th - 30th:  www.un.org/en/events/disarmamentweek/

The last known Labrador duck was a male killed in the fall of 1875 off Long Island, now preserved in Washington, DC.  Another specimen was supposed to have been killed December 2, 1878 in Elmira, New York, but the remains have since been lost:  web.archive.org/web/20150215071011/http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/labradorduck.htm

Nature writer Edwin Way Teale passed away October 18, 1980.  He was born June 2, 1899 in Joliet, Illinois.

The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be a natural object, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there has been discussion of sending a probe after it.

Fidel Castro, retired at the time, passed away November 25, 2016, outlasting numerous US administrations that tried to assassinate him or overturn the Cuban revolution.