[The annual Spring Daze Arts and Crafts Festival, doubling as an Earth Day event, will be Saturday, April 29th 9am – 5pm at Cary's Fred G Bond Metro Park and Boathouse: www.visitraleigh.com/event/spring-daze-arts-and-crafts-festival/86756/ and www.carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/events/festivals/spring-daze-arts-and-crafts-festival]
The 2023 Asia Scholar Network Conference will be 9:15am – 4:45pm April 29th at UNC's FedEx Global Education Center.
[There will be a MMIW (Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women) Awareness Walk April 29th 5:30 – 7pm from Carrboro's Wilson Park (110 Williams Street) to Weaver Street Market, following a conference: actionnetwork.org/events/mmiw-awareness-walk-in-carrboro ]
[There will be bicycling events throughout May in Carrboro and probably elsewhere in the Triangle.]
International Workers' Day, May Day, and the old Gaelic holiday Beltane are May 1st [See also: spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2023/05/may-day-originated-in-astronomy.html , www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/28/may-day-and-abolition/ (by Peter Linebaugh), www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/01/may-days/ (by Joe Allen), www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/01/may-day-and-the-murder-of-william-mckay-100-years-past/ (by Aaron Goings), etc.].
Harris Lake County Park's annual Longleaf Festival will be in May in southern Wake County?
[May 4th, International Firefighters Day, there will be a panel discussion and showing of Burned: Protecting the Protectors, about PFAS exposure and cancer affecting firefighters, 6:30 – 8:30pm the NC Museum of Natural Sciences' WRAL Theater: naturalsciences.org/calendar/event/burned-protecting-the-protectors/ ]
May 5th is Mexico's Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the 1862 Battle of Puebla against the French, and the 205th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx in 1818.
Margot Honecker passed away May 6, 2016.
There will be a Spring Flea Market in the Parkwood community of Durham for the first time in years the morning of Saturday, May 6th.
The 42nd Annual Apex PeakFest 2023 will be May 6th 9am – 5pm www.apexnc.org/537/PeakFest , apexpeakfest.com/
[The 15th annual World Labyrinth Day will be May 6th at 1pm: labyrinthsociety.org/world-labyrinth-day , www.worldlabyrinthday.org/home [There are walks on World Labyrinth Day for Peace and throughout the year at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina and a History of Labyrinths talk, free with admission, there May 5th 10:30 – 11:30am: www.brookgreen.org/events/brookgreen-labyrinth-walks ]
There will be a Moth Watch at Durham's Museum of Life and Science with ECWA and New Hope Audubon May 6th 8:30 – 10pm, as part of the Durham BioBlitz, April 22 – May 7th. According to the NHAS, 174 butterfly species are known in NC, but there are 2000-2500 moths, some species awaiting discovery. I also just found out that the synchronous flashing blue ghost firefly of the Appalachians, Phausis reticulata, was found in Chatham County and further east sometime before 2022 [For more see 2 articles at: naturalsciences.org/calendar/news/the-carolina-ghost-hunt/ and carolinaghosthunt.wordpress.com/ ]. Registration at: www.lifeandscience.org/explore/moth-watch-at-the-museum-of-life-and-science/ The NHAS will discuss Antarctic penguins at their May meeting, May 4th at the NCBG.
[Fort Hood in Texas was formally renamed "Fort Cavazos" May 9th and I think Fort Bragg in NC is to be renamed "Fort Liberty" this summer, the only new name not referencing a person or group. The Fort Hood Three refused deployment to fight in Vietnam June 30, 1966, apparently the first such resistance during the Vietnam War.]
The Triangle Bird Count is seeking volunteers, April 15 – May 31: trianglebirds.org/ ]
There will be a Carolina Wetlands Association meet and greet May 10th in Raleigh; Walnut Creek was designated the 21st Urban Water of the United States by the EPA, with events April 21 – 22; apparently this designation provides funding for a Community Watershed Ambassador to lobby for the people living in the Walnut Creek basin.
[The US Army's infamous Fort Benning, home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the renamed School of the Americas, adjacent to Columbus, Georgia, was renamed Fort Moore May 11, 2023.]
[Raleigh's Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve will be a declared a Wetland Treasure of the Carolinas at an event in the Preserve May 13th 10am – 12pm. May is American Wetlands Month. Other parks will be a declared Wetland Treasures May 6th and 27th: www.carolinawetlands.org/meet-the-2023-wetland-treasures-of-the-carolinas ]
[There will be a teach-in and Rally for Palestine: Nakba 75 in Raleigh's Moore Square Park Saturday, May 13th starting at 2pm. From the Facebook announcement:
"We are rallying to commemorate 75 years of the Nakba as Palestine continues to face colonization, brutality, and injustice at the hands of Israeli zionism. We will march in solidarity with the fight for Palestinian liberation and an end to Israeli zionism!
When: Saturday, May 13 at 2:00 pm teach-in, 3:00 pm rally
Where: Moore Square (226 E Martin St), Raleigh, NC
Why: Supporting Palestinian people's right to resist and commemorating 75+ years of the Nakba
Who:
PSL Carolinas
Muslims for Social Justice
People's Power Lab
Black Workers for Justice
Muslim Women For
Voices for Justice in Palestine
Migrant Roots Media
People's Solidarity Hub
Southern Vision Alliance
Jewish Voice for Peace- triangle NC
UNC Students for Justice in Palestine
Workers World Party- Durham
NC Triangle DSA
Socialist Party of NC
NC Green Party
Please message us if you'd like to co-sponsor the event."]
From the Korea Policy Institute:
CROSSINGS - new film by Deann Borshay Liem Saturday, May 13th, 2023 @ 5:30 PM in San Francisco |
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We're excited to announce that the Korea Policy Institute is a Community Partner for the San Francisco Premiere of CROSSINGS on Saturday, May 13th. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, Women Cross DMZ Founder/Executive Director Christine Ahn, and Producer Sarah S. Kim will be in attendance. Please join us for the screening!
CROSSINGS at CAAMFest Saturday May 13, 5:30 PM The Great Star Theater 636 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133
Get tickets here: caamfest.com/2023/movies/crossings/ Discount code: [ ]
CROSSINGS follows thirty women peacemakers as they set out on a risky journey across the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, calling for an end to a 70-year war that has divided the Korean peninsula and its people. Led by Korean American activist Christine Ahn, the team faces daunting logistical and political challenges as they forge a path with their Korean sisters toward peace and reconciliation.
Learn more about the film: https://www.mufilms.org/films/crossings
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There will be a Mother's Day Weekend Show May 15th – 16th 11am – 5pm at the Luna Lee Ray Studio ( lunaleeray.com ), 101 The Hollow, in Chapel Hill, 27516, with 7 vendors, art, books, and a free plant exchange.
[There will be a hearing on annexing 751 South at the Monday, May 15th City Council meeting, starting at 7pm. The 751 South project, very close to the north end of Jordan Lake, has been built, at least partially, and I thought the City of Durham had been forced to annex it around 10 years ago, but apparently the legislature has decreed that the annexation will happen June 3rd this year. The agenda and more information will be posted at: www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4 From a Durham City-County Planning Department Public Notification Service email:
- 751 South (BDG2300002) is a state-approved annexation. The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation (Session Laws 2013-386 and 2014-47) annexing 751 South in Durham County into the City of Durham’s corporate limits effective June 3, 2023.
- 751 South (Z2300002A) is a request to change the zoning from Mixed Use with a Development Plan (MU(D)) and Residential Rural (RR), County Jurisdiction to Mixed Use with a Development Plan (MU(D)) and Residential Rural (RR), City Jurisdiction located west of Highway 751 between Bradburn Drive and Stapleton Street.
[At its Monday, May 1st meeting the Democratic Party-run Durham City Council took steps to protect City-owned land along Ellerbe Creek that includes a great blue heron rookery, with lobbying by the ECWA. This seems good, but the City Council is portrayed as 'green,' though the City and State don't seem to have cared about nesting herons or the NC Natural Heritage Program's recommendations regarding the NC 55 – Hopson Road project votes and road expansion plans in the winter of 2022 and the community opposition was and is inadequate. There are or have been at least two heron rookeries in the gamelands along Northeast Creek in Durham and Chatham counties, but it wasn't asked if nearby construction might drive them away. This article has been re-posted by The Independent Weekly: 9thstreetjournal.org/2023/04/28/a-siege-at-the-rookery-council-weighs-protections-for-rare-heron-nesting-grounds/ This was also mentioned as a news brief on the local NPR station WUNC, which doesn't cover much local news.
There will be an FODL in-person book sale May 19 – 20:
[World Bee Day is May 20th: www.un.org/en/observances/bee-day ]
Vibrance's Annual Community Bonfire and Potluck will be Saturday, May 20th at 821 Ferguson Road in Chapel Hill, starting at 4pm.
7 Directions of Service will hold an information session on the rights of nature movement in NC May 21st in Greensboro 3 – 5pm, location TBD: 7directionsofservice.com/events
[Wild Turtle Week is May 22 – 26: parcplace.org/wild-turtle-week/ and might have been started in 2022.]
[The International Day for Biological Diversity is May 22nd: www.un.org/en/observances/biological-diversity-day ]
Note the hearing on Asheboro's wastewater treatment plant NPDES permit Tuesday, May 23rd 6 – 8pm at Randolph Community College's Corporate Training Center: www.deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2023/04/20/deq-hold-public-hearing-city-asheboro-wastewater-permit and edocs.deq.nc.gov/WaterResources/Browse.aspx?dbid=0&startid=536370&cr=1 ]
[The work of Saints Cyril and Methodius and their followers in creating an alphabet for Old Church Slavonic is celebrated May 24th in Bulgaria, as Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Script Day. The secular holiday apparently began in Bulgaria, in the 19th century. It is Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners Day in North Macedonia and Slavonic Literature and Culture Day in Russia. It is celebrated on their name day, July 5th, in the Czech Republic/Czechia and Slovakia. Cyrillic, used to write Russian and many other Eurasian languages, is related to Cyril and Methodius' Glagolitic alphabet. The UN's Russian Language Day is June 6th (see below).]
The 13th Rooster Walk Music and Art Festival will be May 25 – 28 in Martinsville, Virginia: roosterwalk.com The 19th annual Shakori Hills festival is also coming up, May 4 – 7.
[US Memorial Day Weekend Animazement will be held in Raleigh and MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia; Animazement will include a free exhibition of traditional Japanese music and arts 2 – 3:30pm Sunday, May 28th:
[From BAJ:
"A Memorial Day event in Chapel Hill recognizes victims of war,
its causes, and the peace advocates active in our community
2:30-4pm Monday, May 29, at Extraordinary Ventures, 200 S. Elliott Road.
Featured speaker Ray McGovern, a specialist on US-Russia relations,
was Chief of the CIA’s Soviet Foreign Policy Branch in the '70s.
From 1981 to 1985, he presented, in person, the early-morning President’s Daily Brief.
In January 2003, he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
to warn President G.W. Bush that the “intelligence” adduced to “justify”
the attack on Iraq was fraudulent.
BAJ cosponsors this event.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then on Tuesday, May 30 Balance & Accuracy in Journalism,
with Eisenhower Chapter 157, Veterans for Peace
hosts
BRUCE GAGNON IN CONVERSATION:
Making Sense in Troubled Times
Tuesday, May 30th ~ 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist
106 Purefoy Road, Chapel Hill
Panel Discussion/Conversation also will include invited guests
Matt Hoh, Ray McGovern, and Patrick O'Neill.
A lively Q&A session will follow.
Who is Bruce Gagnon?
Getting his start as a state coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice,Gagnon has worked on space issues for more than 20 years. Valuable resources on the moon and planets form the next battleground for corporate profit, he says, and “defense” programs such as “Star Wars” actually are conceived as offense. “The U.S. intends to control…and dominate space and deny other countries access,” says Gagnon, adding that the nuclear threat used to seize this control threatens everyone on Earth and diverts funding from the common good.
Gagnon speaks internationally on this high stakes topic and has written for publications such as Earth Island Journal, CounterPunch, Z Magazine, Space News, and many others. His first book, Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire, was published in 2005. In 2003, Dr. Helen Caldicott named Gagnon a senior fellow at the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, where he also served on her advisory board.
Television’s “60 Minutes” tuned in to his Cancel Cassini Campaign against the 1997 launch of plutonium into space. But Project Censored (based at Sonoma State University in California) found articles by Gagnon to be among the most censored stories of 1999 and 2005.
Remembering that his own shift in consciousness began with a handful of Vietnam War protestors who stood outside an Air Force base in California where he was stationed, Bruce Gagnon perseveres -- and finds new ways to enlist others’ concern.
An ironic quote from Henry David Thoreau from Bruce's website:
'Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.’ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeffrey Sachs: Bipartisan Support of War, from Iraq to Ukraine, Is Helping Fuel U.S. Debt Crisis
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Healthcare NOW Strategy Briefing May 31st at 8pm; register at: www.healthcare-now.org/strategy-briefing-registration/
[WNYC's The Takeaway ends Friday, June 2nd, but it is only broadcast Monday through Thursday on WUNC.]
[Fort Bragg, apparently the virtual center of the US Army and one of the most populous bases in the world, will officially become "Fort Liberty" June 2nd. This is expected to be the most expensive base redesignation, at $6,374,230 dollars, and in all the entire slate of redesignations will cost $62.5 million.]
Healthcare for All NC will be part of the People's Power Assembly at the General Assembly in Raleigh May 31st and June 14h at 6pm: www.healthcareforallnc.org/ ]
[There will be a silent auction benefitting the Carolina Wetlands Association June 4 – 17th.]
Japan
occupied islands in the Aleutians
off of Alaska starting June 6, 1942 and had bombed
Dutch Harbor June 3 –
4, 1942, leaving behind a not very damaged Mitsubishi A6M Zero
fighter plane, later called the Akutan
Zero.
[The UN's Russian Language Day is June 6th: www.un.org/ru/observances/russian-language-day ]
[This blog's first post was June 6, 2005, though I think the George W Bush and Co. impeachment blog Downing Street Action NC starts earlier.]
The attack on the USS Liberty was June 8, 1967.
[Theodore
John Kaczynski, the
Unabomber,
is supposed to have passed away June 10, 2023, by suicide, at the
Federal prison in Butner, NC north of Durham, to which he had been
transferred, from Florence, Colorado, December 14, 2021 due to
cancer. He was born May 22, 1942 in Chicago and later lived in an
isolated mountain cabin near Lincoln, in western Montana, where he
was arrested April 3, 1996.]
[There will be an FODL in-person DVD sale June 10th, 10am – 3pm at Durham's South Regional Library:
The Ackland Art Museum's Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff – The Art of Ootagaki Rengetsu and Nakahara Nantenbou exhibit is showing March 31st to June 11th: ackland.org/exhibition/lotus-moon-and-nandina-staff-the-art-of-otagaki-rengetsu-and-nakahara-nantenbo/
[I meant to discuss
this weeks ago, though it is kind of foolish to stoop to the the
level of the mainstream media and idle discussion.
I
can't believe
that NPR ran a story
about pro-government
Ukrainian anarchists
and Nestor
Makhno [(November
7, 1888 – July
25, 1934, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/makhno-nestor/index.htm
)] on Sunday
Morning Edition, June
11th.
It might have been repeated from earlier
in the week. I don't remember anarchism ever coming up on NPR
before, other than as
general condemnation in passing.
A person could
say “I hate NATO” because it was paired with that anarchist
community's strong support
for the Zelensky government. Another anarchist tries to convince
antifa and other activists, etc. in the “Global South” to back
Ukraine.
Earlier
that week NPR's Here
and Now talked about
the far-right Russian attack out of Ukraine into undisputed Russian
territory. It is very easy to talk about Russian fascism or neo-Nazis
and anti-Russian government conspiracy theories on NPR, but they
avoid any mention of Ukraine's fascists, though they came very close
on Here and Now.
Later
on a former US official on On
Point - now carried by WUNC - who thinks that the Russian government is very serious in its threats
to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine War, mentioned the role of
Ukrainian fascists in 2014, a rare mention on any NPR program even
going back to the Obama era. The Ukrainian government must have been
complicit in an attack across its border by far-right Russians using
heavy weapons, possibly provided by the USA or other NATO states.
Maybe journalists are getting weary repeating what they know
are US/NATO
and Ukrainian lies and omissions regarding
the war, or maybe they have hidden doubts.
On
another program the head of the Ukraine bureau of the Washington
Post said that
the Russian exiles crossed over the border so that ordinary Russians
would viscerally know that their country is at war, which is exactly
what could have been said about 9/11 – it let Americans feel some
of what the US government and its
allies had been doing to
Iraq and Palestine.
Whatever
the Russian government says is “Russian
propaganda” –
except that when Russia said that the Ukraine's
“spring offensive” had begun earlier
this summer,
it was true and the media portrayed
Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin as giving proof that the NATO
narrative regarding the war is true.
It had
to be kept quiet that the offensive wasn't accomplishing much. In I
think 2022 a former [?] US military official was on The
World claiming
that Ukraine would re-capture Crimea this summer, reaching some
of its
war aims.
More recently
a high Ukrainian official said that Ukraine can only be safe if
Russia is broken apart, which Russians have been accusing the “West”
of seeking for decades. How is
Ukraine going to invade and destroy
Russia without NATO directly
joining the war, repeating the invasion
in WWII? On the other hand, what would
be left
of Ukraine? If Europe had become a Cold
War battlefield,
Germany might no longer
exist. David Petraeus claimed that the
Ukrainian military would
carry out great feats
of combined arms
or something
in the offensive.
There are reports
that Russia
is
capturing and destroying
many NATO-supplied armored vehicles,
but NPR won't talk about that. At
the end of July
Ukraine threatened civilian
shipping
in the Black Sea, starting
August 1st,
and wants NATO to take on the Russian navy, after Russia abandoned
the grain deal as one sided, benefitting Ukraine only, and said that
it might attack shipping going toward Ukraine. I think there was
something about Ukrainian mines along the coast when the deal was
negotiated, and if a ship runs into one now, Ukraine will no doubt
say that it was a Russian attack, and therefore the 3rd world war
must begin. Whatever pro-government Ukrainians say is true, even
when it isn't, and the mainstream media will avoid “fact checking,”
unless the Biden administration tells them to do so. The BBC usually
has two guests on each day on weekends and it seemed clear that the
host a few weeks ago didn't like that an American or
Canadian-sounding guy said that Ukraine wasn't helping its case when
it lied like those bad Russians, such as regarding the missile that
landed in Poland.
Leading
up to the 2016 election a well-known liberal or left figure made the
argument that people
should vote for Biden this
time, and we will organize immediately after the election to have a
better choice in 2024. I don't remember who made that argument, but
now Robert Reich
has said “Were it not for his illustrious name, Robert F Kennedy
Jr. would be just another crackpot in the growing number of
bottom-feeding right-wing fringe politicians seeking high office.”
It is obvious that NPR avoids
talking about the Democratic presidential primary, with the order of
voting by the states rigged for Biden. There has been a lot of talk
about who is running against Trump in the Republican primary, even
seemingly minor candidates I've never heard of. A guest, a professor
of something,
was openly talking on NPR's 1A
in early June about how the media should and is silencing candidates.
NPR didn't want to talk about Bernie Sanders leading
up to 2016, but after he backed Clinton and especially
Biden he has
been neutralized and can
be mentioned and even praised on NPR, along
with AOC. They could have
covered each of the “major” Democratic candidates in 2020 in
depth, but did not and it has been argued that the media built up
Trump, frequently broadcasting his speeches, in 2020 while ignoring
Sanders. It is
asked why Trump's rivals support him in his legal fights, but Bernie
Sanders gave support to Clinton regarding her "emails” in a
debate. “Socialism”
became okay to talk about in the mainstream media, not having much
meaning, and Biden kept Sanders safely out of the White House. In a
similar way “progressive” has become a general adjective for
Democrats. Maybe it was on 1A
July 28th
or earlier when the support for Kennedy and dissatisfaction with
Biden was attributed not to their different positions, but merely to
Biden's age! The media also sometimes tries to stir up
intergenerational conflict over resources.
On
Point recently
made the Vice
President seem like the member of the Administration with
neurological problems, and in late
July NPR kept
quoting her speeches.
Apparently both Biden and George W Bush
are mixing up the invasions of Ukraine and Iraq in speeches.
There
is a new website, probably
mentioned on NPR, set up by a former New Left radical who says
that “It
can happen here.” I can guess,
but what can? Has 'classical' WWII fascism, and the late 20th
century South American military dictatorships, been trivialized by people, often
pro-Democratic Party academics, some on CounterPunch,
constantly talking about the Republican Party as “fascist” (I think
Noam Chomsky even says that they are worse than the Nazis). In that
case we had four years of “fascism” and nothing much seems to
have happened, much less than in the 1930's in Europe or under George
W Bush. The former New Left radical did condemn Biden's foreign
policy in general, but didn't say how one could support Biden against
Trump without having to excuse Biden's policies and tail the
Democrats for the foreseeable future, which is what much of the US
“Left” has been doing for decades, and in return the Democratic
Party has moved to the right. [I've
also wondered what the Democrats will do if Trump wins fairly, under
the rules of the system.]
Is
there no memory that in the last debate before the 2016 election
Hillary Clinton said that
she would basically move
towards war with Russia in Syria (imposing
a “no-fly zone” means
attacking a country's air
defenses). Trump won so
it didn't matter, but then Biden started a proxy war in Ukraine. Liberals like to talk about a “slow civil war,”
which encourages one to start.
Myanmar and Sudan are suffering through real civil wars
and the war in Ukraine started
out as a civil war or
strife, with US,
EU, and Russian involvement.
Is the Democratic Party carrying
out something like a “strategy of tension?” They scare
the public with constant talk of “mass shootings” (due to the
existence of guns, and having nothing to do with the country's
economic and social problems) and violent demonstrations and riots,
“Russian propaganda,” and foreign plots – to do what Mark
Zuckerberg, Google, Twitter, the Biden administration, both parties,
AI developers, police forces, the “intelligence community,” etc.
are already doing to American citizens. Has a 'slow world
war' already started,
thanks to Joe Biden's
building on Trump's
hostility to China, Obama's “Pivot to Asia,” GW Bush's actions in
Europe, etc. Which warmongering party is
more likely to start a Sino-American war in the next four years? It
used to be a far off sci-fi type scenario, in like 2050, and now they
say to expect it in the 2020's, maybe in 2025, though maybe that is
also just a lie to trick the public. Maybe they don't really believe
in mutual nuclear annihilation either, but do the Russians and
Chinese also think WWIII is survivable and winnable, or won't be
nuclear at all?][Besides
war with Russia and/or China, does the US government still want to
attack Iran or other countries? US military personnel are going to
be placed on civilian shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz,
and there was Trump's assassination of Qesam Solemani in 2020.]
Rightist,
sometimes called fascist, former Italian prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi passed away
June 12, 2023 in Milan. He was born September 29, 1936, also in
Milan. I mention this because I think I read that he had been on the
hit list
run by the Ukrainian government and the “Western” “intelligence
community,” targeting people in Ukraine and around the world,
including American citizens, both those with power and ordinary
people. There is a risk that people named could be killed. An
element of the US government is identifying Americans to be murdered
for being in the way of the government's foreign policy and seeks to
intimidate everyone else].
[There will be a 40th anniversary benefit concert for the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective ( www.solidaritycollective.org ) Wednesday June 14th at 6pm in Durham; here are the links for tickets and donations.
[The Anti-British National Liberation War / Malayan Emergency began June 16, 1948 and included many of the same methods and weapons used in the Vietnam War, such as concentrating the rural population into guarded hamlets and the first weaponization of an herbicide similar to Agent Orange. There was a "British My Lai," torture, scalping, and headhunting. The Emergency was declared over July 31, 1960 but the war was renewed June 17, 1968 to December 2, 1989. A separate struggle in Sarawak, Borneo, which became part of Malaysia in 1963, was fought from December 1962 to November 3, 1990.]
[Daniel
Ellsburg, who leaked
what became known as the Pentagon
Papers, relating to
the Vietnam War,
passed away June 16th
in Kensington, California. He was born April 7, 1931 in Chicago.
It is bizarre that he is being celebrated this summer by the same
warmongering media programs that often ignore or villify 21st
century foreign policy leakers/whistleblowers, such as Snowden,
Manning, Assange, and Jack Teixeira (though Teixeira's so far only
alleged leaks might not have been motivated by high ideals or war
disillusionment).
Edward
Snowden was born June
21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.]
The Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice will be June 21st in 2023.
From the NCNPS:
Brunswick County Extension Master Gardener VA Pollinator/Native Plant Sale
Thursday, June 22, 2023
8:00 am –11:30 am (early start)
In conjunction with National Pollinator Week and just in time for the Monarchs, numerous butterflies, and pollinators this sale will feature Milkweeds, summer blooming perennials, and other critical pollinator beneficial plants celebrating the importance of pollinators in the food chain. This sale offers plants endorsed by Monarch Watch, the North Carolina Butterfly Highway, and the North Carolina Native Plant Society as critical to sustaining our butterfly and pollinator habitat. Visit bcmgva.org for updates.
Brunswick County Extension Office, 25 Referendum Drive, greenhouse area behind Building N, Government Complex, Bolivia, NC 28422
[From NC Stop Torture Now:
"Please come and invite others who may be interested!
WHAT: Vigil for Torture Accountability
WHERE: Johnston Regional Airport, home of Aero Contractors, the CIA's "torture taxi" airline
WHEN: Monday, June 26, 2023, 4:00 to 6:00 pm
WHY: June 26 is UN International Day in Solidarity with the Victims of Torture. The U.S. has never held itself accountable for its program of systematic kidnapping and torture in the so-called "war on terror." North Carolina has never acknowledged its vital role in providing pilots and planes to kidnap people and haul them to torture chambers. The CIA used Aero Contractors, its proprietary aviation company headquartered at the Johnston County Airport, for at least 49 of these kidnappings. We insist that the state investigate Aero Contractors, which may still be carrying out human rights abuses using public infrastructure.
PLAN: On June 26, 2023, we will join thousands of people across the U.S. and around the world in demanding that the U.S. close Guantanamo and hold itself accountable for the terrible acts of disappearance and torture it has committed. We will rally from 4:00 to 5:00 pm at the corner of Highway 70 and Swift Creek Road, just outside the Johnston County Airport. Then we will process with banners along Swift Creek Road to Aero Contractors' gates at the south edge of the airport.
For more information, send email to contact[at]ncstn[period]org.
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Photo from STN, showing a November 2008 protest at the northwest corner of the Johnston County Regional Airport, where extraordinary rendition and torture airline Aero Contractors is based.
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Photo
from STN, showing a 2012 press conference and protest at the
Johnston County Airport.
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[Andrés Manuel López Obrador (often called
AMLO) won
the Mexican presidential election July 1, 2018, becoming the first
presidential candidate since 1988 to win in one round and the first
president since the early 20th
century Mexican Revolution not from PRI (the Institutional
Revolutionary Party) or a related party.]
The annual Festival for the Eno will be July 1 and 4 in 2023: enoriver.org
Wolfgang, a rare and gigantic Indonesian corpse flower or Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) at the JC Raulston Arboretum, flowered for the first time June 21st ( sites.google.com/ncsu.edu/wolfgangthecorpseflower/ ) and is apparently done, but Homo Erectus can be seen June 30th – July 2nd at the Juniper Level Botanic Garden, also in Raleigh and streamed: jlbg.org/content/learn/amorphophallus-titanum.php
[WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange
was born July 3, 1971 in Townsville in Queensland, Australia.]
FODL history book sale online in July:
[The work of Saints Cyril and Methodius in creating an alphabet for Old Church Slavonic, is celebrated July 5th in the Czech Republic/Czechia and Slovakia (see above).]
Tanabata is be around July 7th.
[Kiswahili Language Day is July 7th: www.unesco.org/en/kiswahili-language-day ]
Kim Il Sung passed away July 8 1994.
[2024
Democratic Party presidential candidate Robert
F Kennedy Jr was given
what might be termed a hostile or otherwise cold interview on NPR's
New Yorker Radio Hour
Sunday, July 9th.
This interview, with New
Yorker editor
David Remnick,
who helped Bush, Cheney, and warmongering Democrats like Biden launch
the 2003 war of aggression against Iraq, is the first time Kennedy
has appeared on NPR as a candidate, and one of the few times he has
even been mentioned, though NPR programs frequently talk about the
election, Republican candidates other than Trump, and even the New
Hampshire primary. Kennedy has been mentioned in early July, maybe
because he has high enough numbers in recent polls that they can't
ignore his candidacy and have to take more active measures. Sunday
Kennedy's recent poll numbers were given as something like 8 – 21%
and a number at the high end was mentioned on a program days before.
Marianne Williamson
(born July 8, 1952 in Houston, Texas) and probably others are also
running against Biden.
What
is called the US “left” might generally welcome talk about how
the mainstream media and social media can suppress Trump,
anti-vaxxers, etc., but suppression isn't going to be limited to the
right. Unchallenged arguments for pro-Democratic Party repression
have come up repeatedly on an NPR program called 1A,
its name referring to the 1st
Amendment.
[Remnick wasn't so hostile interviewing former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, in some ways similar to Ron DeSantis, a week later regarding a rightist third party effort NPR and the Democrats have been scrutinizing very carefully. There is an effort by Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the Forward Party. There hasn't been any mention of the Green Party, but the mainstream media must know exactly what they are doing, that they are trying to limit voter choice to two rightist parties, and the right of the Democratic Party – Remnick mentioned Perot, probably Nader, Jill Stein, etc. (and omitting Howie Hawkins, likely to be a candidate in 2024). I don't remember any mention of Stein until after the 2016 election.]
Democratic
National Convention employee Seth
Rich was shot around
4:20am in northwestern Washington, DC and died from his injuries
shortly afterward, July 10, 2016.
“Collateral
Murder,” in which
fire from two US Army Apache helicopters killed two Reuters
journalists and many civilians, including children, happened in
eastern Baghdad July 12, 2007]
[Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, close to Mt Fuji, was hit by bombing raids 8 times during WWII, with the largest coming on the night of July 17, 1945. It caused a firestorm, perhaps similar to what happened in Hiroshima August 6th of that year, and Numazu was mostly destroyed: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Numazu_in_World_War_II Outside of Japan Numazu might be known as the general setting of Love Live! Sunshine!!]
[Presenter Razia Iqbal, based in the US, left the BBC around July 18 or 25th.]
[Alexander
the Great is supposed
to have been born around July 20 or 21, 356 BCE, in Pella,
the capital of ancient Macedonia, now in northern Greece. He passed
away around June 10 or 11, 323 BCE in the former palace of
Nebuchadnezzar II or the Great, in Babylon,
near the modern city of Hillah
in central Iraq.]
[International Moon Day is May [correction, July] 20th, created by the 2021 UN General Assembly resolution on "International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space:" www.un.org/en/observances/moon-day ] It could be asked how interested the US government is in international cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space [for example see the BAJ event May 30th].]
[Theodor
Herzl Gaster, a very
polyglot (supposedly up to 32 languages) American professor
specializing in the history of religion, the Bible, comparative,
mythology, etc. was born July 21, 1906 in London, UK. Churchill,
Freud, and Lenin are supposed to have been among the famous callers
at his childhood home. Among his works are Thespis:
Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East,
a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, updated abridgements of some
of Sir James Frazer's works, a recording on Hebrew with Smithsonian
Folkways etc. He passed away February 2, 1992 in Philadelphia.]
[There will be an FODL in-person book sale July 21 – 22:
The
Nigerien presidential
guard overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum
July 26, 2023. July 30th
ECOWAS
threatened a military response if Bazoum is not restored to power
within a week. By July 31st
Mali and
Burkina Faso
said that they would give Niger military support if it were attacked
and Guinea
said that it will not participate in sanctions. These three
countries have also had military coups recently, forcing the French
and other NATO country military forces to relocate to Niger, also a
source of uranium, gold, and oil. The Russian Wagner Group replaced
French forces in Mali.]
From the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage:
Saturday, August 12, 11 a.m.–11 p.m. ET
Hip-Hop Block Party
National Museum of African American History and Culture (in person)
August 17–20
Native Cinema Showcase
National Museum of the American Indian (in Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Folkways artists on tour: Jake Blount, Dom Flemons, Kronos Quartet, Charlie Parr, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Los Texmaniacs"
[August 1st a host of Amanpour and Company on PBS said something like the most likely Ukrainian drones hitting skyscrapers in Moscow can't be compared to Russian airpower – I very much doubt that they ever said that the relatively crude rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian resistance groups can't be compared to Israel's state of the art missiles and aircraft.]
August 2, September 6, and October 4 Global Protests to Close Guantanamo:
[The
2023 Green Party Annual National Meeting will meet online August 3
– 6]
[My first post on the Bush-Cheney impeachment blog Downing Street Action NC was August 9, 2005 and the so far last
post was January 22, 2009. I had thought that I had posted there first.]
Fidel Castro was born August 13, 1926 and retired April 19, 2011.
Ernst Thalmann was killed August 18, 1944.
[Nebuchadnezzar
the Great, the second
ruler of
the Neo-Babylonian
or Chaldean Empire,
is supposed to have passed away around October 7, 562 BCE in
Babylon.]
The previous calendar is posted at durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html and has some items not re-posted here [see also the previous post in March].
[NC Senate Bill 318 / Native Plants Act, filed March 15th, would "REQUIRE THE USE OF PLANTS AND SEEDS NATIVE TO THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES, WITH A STRONG PREFERENCE FOR PLANTS NATIVE TO NORTH CAROLINA, IN STATE PARKS AND ON STATE HIGHWAYS."
DRH30271-MH-58 / Rights of the Haw River Ecosystem Act, was filed April 19th, and 7 Directions of Service held information sessions April 25th in Chapel Hill/Carrboro and April 27th in Mebane. There will be a meeting in Greensboro May 21st 3 – 5pm, location TBD: 7directionsofservice.com/events ]
[A Marxist critique of the portrayal of ChatGPT and AI – Against AIdeology – www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/23/against-aideology/
The BBC is reporting that Scandinavian media are claiming to have found evidence that the Russian navy could have blown up their own Baltic Sea natural gas pipelines to Germany; there are competing theories, the BBC says, but it has only mentioned two theories, first of all, that Russia did it, though admitting that other countries had motivations, and recently the US claim that a 'pro-Ukrainian group' of some kind did it. They haven't ever reported the theory that the US and Norway did it, and this Scandinavian claim seems like more obfuscation.
unac.notowar.net/condemn-fbi-raids-on-african-peoples-socialist-party-and-uhuru-movement/
Against EARN IT and STOP CSAM: rightsanddissent.salsalabs.org/defend-encryption/index.html ]
REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY APRIL 2023
The April issue of the English-language Indian Marxist-Leninist theoretical and political journal Revolutionary Democracy ( revolutionarydemocacry.org ) has been published and can be ordered from Red Star Publishers ( redstarpublishers.org ) for $6 dollars, which covers the shipping cost within the US. For more information see the website or contact them at:
Red Star Publishers
PO Box 1641
Manhattanville Station
New York, New York 10027
USA
Phone: 212 864 7595
Brick and mortar bookstores and organizations selling copies in India, the UK, and the US are listed at revolutionarydemocracy.org and many of the articles are also available online for free.
Contents:
Protecting Civil Rights of Lawyers Under Conditions of Hooligan Raj, Padam Kumar
The BJP Government’s Budget 2023-24, NTUI
‘Revdi’ Culture, Political Economy of ‘Freebies,’ K.B. Saxena
The significance of the 30th Anniversary of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Raul Martinez
A Marxist Position regarding Russian imperialism, Georgian Communists
Putin and Soviet Symbolism, Scintilla
What Does a Multipolar World Mean, Towards Marxist Leninist Unity
\
“Multilateralism”, a key instrument of Chinese imperialism’s foreign policy, Communist Platform, Italy
Struggle against Warmongering in the Balkans, Revolutionary Alliance of Labour, Serbia
Book Review: A study of women farmers under Kudumbashree collective farming in Kerala, K.B. Saxena
Condemn the attack on Burji anti-camp protestors, Bijapur, Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization
Stop the genocidal attack by the Indian State against its own people, CDRO\
On Corruption in the Post War Soviet Union, Letter of P. Golub to I.V. Stalin, (30 July 1946)
On the New Letter of Yaroshenko, (10th January 1953), I.V. Stalin
Late Soviet Evaluations of Baran, Sweezy and Bettelheim, Ekonomicheskaya Entsiklopedia
The Use of Identity Politics to Undermine the Left, Anna Coco.
Down with the Parliamentary Coup d’État, Communist Party of Peru (ML)
We Are For A Socialist Homeland Where The Working Class, The Poor Peasantry And The Peoples Of Peru Can Realize Their Class Aspirations, Communist Party of Peru (ML)
Statement on Recent Events in Iran, Toufan
No to chauvinist provocations and warmongers in the Balkans! Statement of European Parties of the ICMLPO
Nazim Hikmet: When The Poet Is Communist, Aydın Çubukçu
Poem: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Yiannis Rits
TORCH #4
Issue #4 of the Independent Workers' Party organ The Torch was announced about a week ago.
Contents:
A Brief Summary of Recent Strikes in the U.S.
Taft/Hartley Act: Outlawing Organizing and Disarming the Working Class
Introduction: The Necessity of Theory – from the Haitian Communist Party's Schematic Analysis 1932 – 1934
Iran – Social Democracy (Socialism) / Neo-Liberal Democracy (Imperialism – Capitalism)
The Torch Campaign for a Free Health Care System in the U.S.
Russia and America / An Interpretation Dr W.E.B Du Bois 1950 Chapter 1 – A Quest for Clarity (continued)
On Arts and Culture, Life and Class Struggle
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