CALENDAR
Early in July it was announced that the Redwood City Seed Company, a 51-year-old mail order seed supplier in California focusing on peppers and heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers, is going out of business at the end of the year: ecoseeds.com/
We've attached the memo that the Chapel Hill Town Council received from the town staff, which lays out many of the concerns with the proposal. See also the page on the previous agreement reached through the earlier public process. Below is what is now proposed by NCDOT, all to save drivers less than a minute waiting at lights.
NCDOT leadership includes:
- For NCDOT Division 5, which includes Durham County:
- Division Engineer Brandon Jones (bhjones[at]ncdot[period]gov)
- District Engineer John Sandor (jesandor[at ncdot])
- Division Project Development Engineer Ben Upshaw (bjupshaw[at ncdot])
- For NCDOT Division 7, which includes Orange County:
- Division Engineer Wright Archer III (warcher[at ncdot])
- District Engineer Chuck Edwards (cnedwards[at ncdot])
- Division Project Delivery Engineer Pat Wilson (pwilson[at ncdot]).
UNC Health Care plans to build a new medical campus that would redevelop 5 parcels in the central horseshoe of Eastowne Office Park, as well as an undeveloped 20 acre wooded parcel in Chapel Hill. The concept plan is before the Council tonight.
The 20 acre "northern parcel" of the adjacent UNC Health Care property was designated a Natural Heritage site by the State of North Carolina (part of the much larger Dry Creek/Mount Moriah site) and the NC Natural Heritage Program has documented the unique and unusual aspects of this forest. This rare old growth forest designated by the North Carolina Heritage Program is worthy of preservation and must be conserved.
This Natural Heritage forest is an area of unusual geology, soil and therefore vegetation; it contains one of the state’s most mature examples of the Dry-Mesic Basic Oak Hickory Forest type; with its old-growth trees and high plant diversity, the forest provides a home for wildlife, a wetland habitat and community of dam-building beavers, as well as providing food and shelter for turtles, salamanders, and a variety of migrating bird species; it includes part of a high quality example of the uncommon Piedmont Swamp Forest type and of the scenic Basic Mesic Forest type;
The preservation of this Natural Heritage site will maintain a contiguous wildlife corridor for our native animal species, connected to land already purchased for habitat, water quality and recreation by the Town of Chapel Hill on one side and by Durham on the other, thus connecting conserved lands in the New Hope and Eno River river basins as documented in the Natural Heritage report.
The Chapel Hill Town Council has ranked environmental stewardship as their #1 strategic goal with a second goal of improving local waterways and conserving biological ecosystems. Here is a practical action they could take to further this goal: Don't approve a plan that allows UNC Health to pave over this forest!"
· Website: https:// bolinforestclimateaction.org/
· YouTube: https://www. youtube.com/@ charlesmorris4120/videos
· Instagram: https://www. instagram.com/keep_bolin_wild/
· Twitter: https://twitter.com/ keepbolinwild
[This is apparently No Mow May, though people around here started mowing in earnest in May. Amphibian Week is May 7 – 13th, started in 2020: parcplace.org/education/amphibianweek2023/
A relative of the synchronous flashing blue ghost firefly of the Appalachians, Phausis reticulata, was discovered in Chatham, Wake, and Johnston counties in North Carolina, including at Raleigh's Durant Park: naturalsciences.org/calendar/news/the-carolina-ghost-hunt/ and carolinaghosthunt.wordpress.com/ Other fireflies flash by mid- to late May in the Triangle. Note www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/community-science/firefly-watch/ , not limited to MA, and www.fireflyatlas.org
Are 13 or 17-year periodical cicadas coming out, en masse, after many years in Durham this May, or soon? It must be getting close and I heard what sounded like one today, though they didn't emerge much or at all in my immediate neighborhood the last time.
Note the Rally for Palestine: Nakba 75 in Raleigh May 13th (see below). [And the STN torture protest at Aero June 26th.]
How to participate in the 2023 procession of the Immortal Regiment, when relatives and probably others carry images of Soviet veterans of WW2 on Victory Day, the end of the War in Europe, May 9th: kudamoscow.ru/event/shestvie-bessmertnyj-polk-2023/
Soviet and Russian flags are being banned at Berlin demonstrations May 8 – 9th as symbols of "a readiness for violence" and "sympathy for warfare:" consortiumnews.com/2023/05/08/russian-soviet-flags-banned-at-berlin-victory-day/ I'm surprised that NPR reported on Victory Day events in Russia in a straightforward way and even mentioned the burden carried by the Soviets in WWII, with a ratio of 80 soldiers lost for every US loss, according to the CN article. The War is often portrayed as mainly the US, with junior partner the UK, against the Axis powers, mainly Germany and Japan, and this was the case long before the coup and war in Ukraine. I think Ken Burns' 2007 documentary The War was like this, and the mainstream media every May (and August).
An interview with the author of The Catastrophe of Ukrainian Capitalism: How Privatisation Dispossessed & Impoverished the Ukrainian People , published in 2022 by Resistance Books: consortiumnews.com/2023/05/08/ukraines-big-mistake/
The Samidoun Network on the May 2nd martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan, on hunger strike in an Israeli prison.]
[Robert F Kennedy, Jr entered the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primary April 5th; there was talk in the mainstream media supporting his assassination and probably much more dismissal and "anti-vax" labelling, though Biden has low approval ratings and apparently very few people want a replay of the 2020 election. At least some of Kennedy's positions seem to be left of the Biden Administration and on the left of the Democratic Party.]
The Palestinian town Deir Yassin was attacked April 9, 1948.
[In the East Sea and Spratly Islands Campaign, April 9 – 29, 1975, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam captured the East or South China Sea islands held by the ROV.]
Kim Il Sung was born April 15, 1912.
Ernst Thalmann was born April 16, 1886.
Margot Honecker was born April 17, 1927.
The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight, but is visible April 15 – 29th and the eta Aquariids are visible April 15 – May 27th, peaking the night of May 5th, among the more major showers: amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
Workers at an REI store in Durham just voted to form a union: twitter.com/reiuniondurham
There will be protests throughout the month in this country against Balikatan 2023, the largest US – Philippines military exercise ever; Australian soldiers are also participating and Japan has observers: www.bayanusa.org/balikatan-2023/
April 22nd is the 153rd anniversary of VI Lenin's birth in 1870 and the 53rd Earth Day since it began in 1970.
NECSW will be tabling and hosting hands-on educational activities at the South Durham Farmers' Market the morning of April 22nd for Earth Day: www.facebook.com/TheSouthDurhamFarmersMarket/
The Black Farmers' Market is every Sunday 1 – 4pm at either Durham Tech or the Southeast Raleigh YMCA: blackfarmersmkt.com/the-market/
Carrboro Farmers' Market is every Saturday 7am – 12pm from April to October and 9am – 12pm from November to March. April 5th to November 15th there is also a Wednesday session, 3 – 6pm. There might also still be Really Really Free Markets at the Town Commons on Saturdays (?) and I think there is a Durham Farmers' Market on weekends in the shelter in Durham's Central Park.
The NC Green Party is hosting an Earth Day Festival in Raleigh; see the previous calendar, at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html
The NC Indigenous Artist Festival will be 10am – 6pm April 22nd at the NC Museum of Art; free: ncartmuseum.org/events/nc-indigenous-artist-festival/?occurrence=2023-04-22
The annual ClydeFEST will be 12 – 5pm April 22nd in Pittsboro: www.chathamartscouncil.org/clydefest-2023-this-weekend/ , visitpittsboro.com/event/clydefest/ , www.chathamartscouncil.org/clydefest-2/
There will be a Haiti Benefit Earth-Day Festival with Haitian food and music 12 – 5pm April 22nd at The Farm at Alice Ingram Circle in Chapel Hill, 27517. This is being organized by Two Mules for Haiti, and supports "eco agriculture and reforestation in Haiti."
Apex EarthFest 2023 will be April 22nd 12 – 4pm at the John M Brown Community Center (53 Hunter Street): www.apexnc.org/1661/EarthFest
The 2023 NC Korean Festival will be 10am – 5pm April 22nd at Center City Park in Greensboro: www.facebook.com/events/664045472170252
The Party for the Pine at the Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve was to be 10am – 3pm April 22nd, but was cancelled: www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/weymouth-woods-sandhills-nature-preserve/events/party-pine-2023 and www.friendsofwewo.org/party-for-the-pine-2023
For Earth Day, The UNC Chapter of Musical Empowerment is holding family friendly MiniFest, with live, free music, at the CURRENT ArtSpace, 123 West Franklin Street April 22nd 1 – 5pm; see @me.uncch on Instagram
@TriangleStopCopCity (only on Instagram? I found out through a flyer at UNC) organized a solidarity week in support of the campaign against "Cop City" in Atlanta through April 24th, with events from Carrboro to Raleigh. There will be a rally April 22nd at 12pm at Chapel Hill's Peace and Justice Plaza, at the post office across East Franklin Street from UNC. There will be a Tortuguita Memorial Celebration on the 23rd 2 – 5pm at UNC with the WXYC student radio station and a screening of Riotsville, USA at the Carrboro Town Commons at 7:30pm. [There will be a bake sale at 7pm on the 22nd at The Baxter and a Noise Demo!! on the 24th at 3710 Exchange Glenwood Place in Raleigh, in case the weather cancels events over the weekend. An article on the issue, not necessarily representing the views of the NC group group: www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/04/atlantas-cop-city-and-the-struggle-for-climate-justice/ ]
I also noticed a flyer against the UNC campus police, but I don't have a link or events to note.
The Eno River Association's new Panther Branch Natural Area near Efland was opened to the public earlier in April and there will be a BioBlitz April 22nd – 29th: www.enoriver.org/features/pantherbranch/
Opening of the Piedmont Land Conservancy's Crossnore Community Trail at 4pm on the 22nd Crossnore Children's School with the NCNPS.
The return of the Moral Monday demonstrations in Raleigh April 24th:
There will be a Mapmaking and Narrative Workshop with Annie Maier April 23rd 9 – 11am at 201 A East Main Street in Carrboro; it isn't clear if the event is free; 984 234 3008 mymusescardshop.co (?)
The 2023 Durham Earth Day Festival will be Sunday, April 23rd 12 – 5pm at Durham Central Park (501 Foster Street).
Mike Pence might be at UNC Wednesday, April 26th.
The annual MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC is April 27 – 30th this year: merlefest.org/
Workers' Memorial Day 2023 Friday, April 28th: www.facebook.com/events/1470862440399806
[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:
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
From the Korea Policy Institute:
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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,
Then on Tuesday, May 30
A lively Q&A session will follow.
Who is Bruce Gagnon?
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.
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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!
 |
| 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. |
[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.]
Captured, Examined & Returned: The Folklore of Alien Abductions
Silver Spring Town Center [in Maryland? Zoom link on Facebook](virtual, presented by Folklife curator James Deutsch)
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"
[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:
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