Statements on the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah 9/27, the attacks on Lebanon, and the anniversary of Sabra and Shatila + indicting Blinken and others

From Samidoun:  Hassan Nasrallah with I think Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh [and Saleh al-Arouri]   

The Biden-Harris administration claims not to have been involved, but praised the operation, believing that 'some people need killing' (the sort of statement attributed to a leader of the Philippines and a Republican official and candidate in NC), along with any Lebanese civilians unfortunate enough to be nearby at the time.  Is Biden now the Democratic Party's George W Bush?  When did assassinating leaders become a preferred "Western" strategy?  The mainstream media claims that this is a great blow to Hezbollah, but assassination didn't work very well for the US in Iraq or Afghanistan, and Israel has been assassinating leaders for decades without ending the armed resistance.   Biden might even think that the US can use assassination against Russia and other countries with impunity, but Russia isn't a non-state guerrilla army.

From the CPC(M-L):  cpcml.ca/ITN2024/TI5419.HTM#1

husseini.substack.com/p/the-life-of-martyrdom

simplicius76.substack.com/p/israels-short-lived-glory-celebrated

In Sri Lanka:  indi.ca/what-nasrallah-said-about-his-death/

[ mpr21.info/hachem-safieddin-sucede-a-hassan-nasrallah-al-frente-de-hezbollah/ ]

[ geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/hezbollah-nasrallah-israel-colonialism ]

[ www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/09/this-maniac-must-be-stopped-netanyahu-condemned-over-massive-beirut-bombing.html ]

www.aaronmate.net/p/in-lebanon-carnage-biden-deepens

caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/09/29/israel-isnt-attacking-because-it-was-attacked-its-attacking-because-it-got-an-excuse/ or www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-isnt-attacking-because-it

Not specifically about the events in Lebanon, but of interest:  newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/false-hope

www.normalisland.co.uk/p/today-is-not-a-day-for-satire-its

sonar21.com/exploding-myths-of-middle-east-terrorism/

mpr21.info/las-explosiones-de-libano-muestran-la-fragilidad-de-la-cadena-mundial-de-suministros/

www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2024/09/27/aipacs-war-democracy

Also, in Germany:  www.rt.com/news/604810-germany-arrested-rt-broadcasts

[ fair.org/home/judges-in-tiktok-case-seem-ready-to-discount-first-amendment/ ]

[ popularresistance.org/hezbollah-confirms-the-death-of-hasan-nasrallah-in-israeli-carpet-bombing/ ]

[ popularresistance.org/israels-bombing-campaign-backed-by-media-propaganda/ ]

apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-airstrikes-28-september-2024-c4751957433ff944c4eb06027885a973

[ www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2024/09/29/a-beyrouth-la-stupeur-apres-la-mort-de-hassan-nasrallah_6338190_3210.html ]

[ www.rt.com/news/604867-hezbollah-leadership-eliminated-israel/ ]

[ www.rt.com/news/604854-hezbollah-chief-killed-israel/ ]

Hezbollah secretary-general (honorific:  Sayed) Hassan Nasrallah:  August 31, 1960 in Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon – September 27th in Dahieh:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah  In Arabic:  (السيد حسن) حسن نصر الله

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Hezbollah_headquarters_strike

The media now highlights that Hezbollah came to the assistance of Palestine and entered the war on October 8th in 2023.  Apparently missiles and mortars were fired from Syria October 12th.  Missiles were fired by Yemen on October 19th, with an official Ansar Allah statement on the 31st.  There were operations by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and others attributed to Iran beginning that November.  Israel has been carrying out airstrikes, bombings, and assassinations in at least some of these countries for years prior to October 7th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Hamas_war 

In Iraq:

[ popularresistance.org/iraqi-resistance-ready-for-open-war-against-israel-after-lebanon-attacks/ ]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Resistance_in_Iraq

www.reuters.com/world/coalition-military-mission-iraq-end-by-sept-2025-us-iraq-say-2024-09-27/

www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/thousands-of-protesters-trying-to-storm-us-embassy-in-baghdad-after-nasrallah-killing/

ADC Statement on Israeli Massacres in Lebanon   Take Action: Tell White House, Elected Officials that the U.S. has allowed Israel to destroy region - this must end.

Washington, D.C. | www.adc.org | September 28, 2024 - Moments  after Benjamin Netyanyahu stood at the United Nations yesterday,  in front of an empty room, and claimed that Israel “yearns for peace,”  he carried out the unlawful assassination of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah,  and the massacre of hundreds of people in the capital city of Beirut.   What has been clear time and time again, particularly after the start  of the genocide almost one year ago, the only “peace” Israel wants  is a peace that comes with its total occupation of the region.  The Biden administration's cowardly claim that it had no  knowledge of the assassination and bombings is yet  another example of U.S. hypocrisy. The U.S. provided  Israel with the 2,000 pound bombs used to assassinate  Sayed Nasrallah, flatten entire neighborhoods, and  massacre hundreds. These are the same bombs used  by Israel to massacre thousands in Gaza. When Netanyahu  visits the UN, the international community firmly walks away.  When he visits Washington, US leaders fall at his feet. The devastation wrought upon the people of Lebanon  is not just an Israeli crime; it is a crime by the  United States government. The U.S. has provided  Israel with the weapons, used our tax dollars to fund  their genocide in Palestine, provided intelligence  and surveillance, and provided political cover to  carry out these atrocities. The blood of Lebanese  people of all faiths, including women and children,  is on the hands of President Joe Biden, Vice President  Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who have chosen to prioritize geopolitical interests and  electoral politics over US and international law  as well as human life.  As of this email message, millions of Palestinians  and Lebanese, many of them our direct family  and friends, have been forced from their homes,  and are in danger of being slaughtered by Israel at any moment.  Over the past year, Americans have demanded the  semblance of leadership from the Biden-Harris  administration. The call for a ceasefire in Gaza  was a bare minimum demand from the community.  After a year of protests, campaigning, engaging,  and organizing, the White House, Democratic Party,  and Republican Party continue to ignore our voices –  sending a clear message that our voice and lives do not matter, and we do not have a seat at their table. It is  time to acknowledge what many of us have known all  along - the intended U.S. policy in the Arab world  is exactly what we are seeing play out in Lebanon.  It’s what has played out in Gaza over the last year,  and what has been playing out in Palestine since 1948.  Again, this is not a failure of U.S. foreign policy,  this is the intended result of U.S. foreign policy.  It is the U.S. foreign policy of Democrats and  Republicans alike. A foreign policy predicated on the  destabilization and colonization of Arab land. In the coming weeks, the same politicians who  allowed Israel to slaughter our people will  come knocking and ask for our votes. The message  we have to every politician is clear — you have  not earned our vote, nor will you scare us into  voting for you. Our community’s red line has  always been genocide. Anyone serious about  earning our vote will publicly commit to an  arms embargo to Israel, bringing an immediate  end to the genocide, and ending the Israeli  occupation in Palestine, Lebanon, and the Golan Heights.  At ADC, we will never cross our red lines.  We will continue to put principles over party and politics.

42 Years Later: The Massacre of Sabra and Shatila Still Haunts Us Amid Gaza's Ongoing Genocide

For Immediate Release
Contact: Valentina Pereda, Communications Director, vpereda [at adc org]

 

Washington, D.C. | www.adc.org | September 15, 2024 – Today marks the 42nd anniversary of one of the most brutal acts of violence in modern history: the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Beginning on September 16, 1982, Lebanese militia, operating under the direction of Israeli forces, massacred, wounded, and left homeless thousands of defenseless men, women, and children in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps. The indiscriminate killing was carried out methodically over the course of two days until the morning of September 18. By the end of this campaign of violence and terror, over 3,000 Palestinian refugees had been murdered. 

During the massacre, Israeli forces controlled the area surrounding the Sabra and Shatila camps. They allowed militants to enter the camps, blocked Palestinian refugees from escaping, and illuminated the night sky with flares as the killing raged on. The day after the killings stopped, the United Nations Security Council condemned the “criminal massacre of Palestinian civilians.” Three months later, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously condemned the killings as an act of genocide. A UN-established commission concluded that Israeli authorities were responsible for the massacre, with the intention to destroy the national and cultural identity of the Palestinian people. 

Even the Israeli-established Kahan Commission could not fully exonerate Israeli forces, finding then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon “personally responsible” for not preventing the bloodshed. Though Sharon was briefly removed from his post, he later rose to become Israel’s Prime Minister, a chilling reminder of how deeply embedded impunity has been in Israel’s nearly century-long campaign of violence against Palestinians.

The ongoing genocide in Gaza today, with relentless bombardments, blockade, and mass casualties, echoes the horrific violence witnessed at Sabra and Shatila. Over the decades, the pattern of targeted massacres, displacement, and dehumanization of the Palestinian people has continued, rooted in the same colonialist ambitions that have driven Israel’s policies since its founding. The Gaza Strip, like the refugee camps of Lebanon, is a testament to the catastrophic consequences of dispossession and the ongoing efforts to eradicate Palestinian existence. 

Israel’s impunity continues as the international community has long failed to deliver justice for the victims of Sabra and Shatila, and that failure persists today as Palestinians in Gaza face yet another chapter of genocidal violence. The families of those massacred, both then and now, demand not only remembrance but urgent action. Ending Israel’s apartheid system and occupation, holding its leaders accountable for their crimes, and implementing the right of return for Palestinian people are essential steps toward justice.

Originally posted at:  www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2024/09/27/vfp-letter-blinken-indictment September 27th.

Veterans for Peace letter for Blinken indictment

United States Department of Justice

Criminal Division

Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section

Hope Olds, Chief

Via email only to Hope.Olds [at usdoj gov]

Courtney Spivey Urschel, Deputy Chief

Via email only to Courtney.Urschel [at usdoj gov]

 

Matthew Graves, Esq.

U.S. District Attorney

United States Attorney's Office

601 D Street, NW

Washington, DC 20579

Via email to matthew.graves [at usdoj gov]

 

RE: Request for immediate empanelment of grand jury to investigate criminal violations of federal laws governing provision of military weapons and munitions aid to Israel

 

Dear Ms. Olds, Ms. Urschel and Mr. Graves: 

 

  On behalf of the members of Veterans For Peace (VFP), an international organization of former military, we urgently request that you, as DOJ attorneys entrusted with enforcement of human rights laws, immediately empanel a grand jury to investigate whether U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew have lied to the U.S. Congress or conspired to lie to the U.S. Congress in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001; whether they have violated or conspired to violate the Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2778(a)(2) by misrepresenting and/or disregarding official U.S. government reports, including an expert report from within the State Department, documenting the commission of multiple acts by the government and military of the nation of Israel to deny and block delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip; whether they have violated or conspired to violate the Genocide Prevention Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1091 by concealing or misrepresenting the commission of acts by the government and military of the nation of Israel to deny and block delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip in order to further the genocidal destruction of that population; and whether they have violated or conspired to violate the War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2441 by concealing or misrepresenting the commission of acts by the government and military of the nation of Israel to deny and block delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, ensuring non-interruption of U.S. military aid to Israel which has allowed the continued perpetration of genocidal acts and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. 

 

BACKGROUND

 

1. Israel’s inducement of famine and disease in Gaza and the State Department’s historical indifference to it

 

On September 24, 2024, the nonprofit investigative journalism group ProPublica published a news article captioned, “Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.” That essay documented that in May 2024, despite having two official reports that concluded the government of Israel was systematically denying and blocking humanitarian food and medical assistance to the Gaza Strip in violation of U.S. foreign aid laws, Secretary of State Blinken reported to the U.S. Congress that “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

 

ProPublica reported that in late April 2024, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) delivered their assessments to Secretary Blinken and other top diplomats of the role of Israel in directly causing humanitarian aid deliveries to, and within, the Gaza Strip to fail. USAID wrote a detailed 17-page memo on Israel’s misconduct, describing instances of Israeli sabotage and interference with aid efforts, including killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine. Separately, the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also determined that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and that the federal Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze some $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel. 

 

These conclusions had significant legal implications because the federal Foreign Assistance Act, (22 U.S.C. § 2378-1) requires the U.S. government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. The cutoff of U.S. military assistance to Israel would have considerable effect on Israel’s ability to continue its genocidal war, as some 70% of Israel’s bombs, weapons and other munitions are imported from the U.S. 

 

ProPublica described the USAID memo as indicative of a deep rift within the Biden administration on the issue of unimpeded military aid to Israel. In March 2024, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, sent Secretary Blinken a cable arguing that Israel’s war cabinet, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, should be trusted to facilitate aid shipments to the Palestinians. Lew recommended continued military assistance because he had “assessed that Israel will not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede U.S. provided or supported” shipments of food and medicine. In the months leading up to his March cable, Ambassador Lew’s underlings repeatedly told him of instances where the Israelis blocked humanitarian assistance, according to four government sources, but Lew had retorted that “No other nation has ever provided so much humanitarian assistance to their enemies.”

Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration rejected both the USAID and State Department staff findings. On May 10, 2024, Secretary Blinken formally wrote to Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.” This assessment allowed the U.S. to continue to provide hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Israel, in flat contradiction of voluminous contrary evidence in the public domain. When Secretary Blinken lied to Congress, he also violated the Arms Export Act and the Genocide Prevention Act, as detailed below.

2. Veterans For Peace (VFP) warning of legal violations in February 2024

Secretary Blinken’s false May 10 statement to Congress embodies and is the product of multiple violations of U.S. federal law. 

 

Veterans For Peace is a 39-year-old international organization composed of war veterans and other opponents of war. Throughout its existence, VFP has been a public watchdog and critic of U.S. foreign and military policy toward Palestine for many years and supports the cause of ending the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Military veterans possess specialized knowledge of how wars happen and how weapons and munitions are used in them. VFP investigators have for decades visited Gaza and the West Bank to bear witness to humanitarian rights violations and war crimes perpetrated by Israel and its military. Since the tragic and unfortunate events of October 7, 2023 caused by the Hamas organization, VFP members have monitored the ongoing hostilities pitting the superior Israel Defense Force against the guerilla resistance of Hamas. VFP’s investigation has particularly tracked suspected and apparent violations of humanitarian laws and treaties and the commission of war crimes by the parties.  

 

On February 9, 2024, VFP delivered a lengthy annotated letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Jessica Lewis, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs; Barbara A. Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; Robert S. Gilchrist, Senior Bureau Official of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; and Diana Shaw, Esq., then Acting Inspector-General of the Department of State, addressing the Department of State’s possible violations of the Foreign Assistance Act, Arms Export Control Act, Leahy Laws, the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy (NSM-18) of February 2023, the U.S. War Crimes Act and the Genocide Implementation Prevention Act. Those laws variously prohibit transfers of weapons and munitions to Israel if there is credible evidence the arms will be used by Israel to commit, or aggravate risks that Israel will commit, genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. 

 

The U.S. Department of State has never responded to, nor even acknowledged receipt of, VFP’s February 9, 2024 letter.

 

In their letter, VFP recounted credible reports of humanitarian crimes being committed by units of the Israel Defense Force during its ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip. The IDF, which is heavily dependent on U.S. weapons and munitions to prosecute its operations in Gaza has continually committed genocidal acts and promoted genocidal incitements resulting in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression with the material support of the U.S. VFP cited summary executions and intentional mass killings of noncombatant Palestinians, disproportionate attacks by the IDF that had killed thousands, attacks on hospitals and other health services as well as, cultural, historical and governmental properties, ethnic cleansing, intentional starvation of civilians and deprivations of water and energy supplies. We pointed to the Human Rights Watch report of December 2023 which documented allegations that Israel has been using starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza as a weapon of war. We also cited the World Food Programme’s eyewitness observations that exposed Israel’s aid inspection regime as a central culprit in disallowing humanitarian aid.

VFP reminded the State Department of the findings of the January 26, 2024 Order of the International Court of Justice which found that South Africa had shown a “plausible risk” that Israel is conducting genocide in the Gaza Strip. See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). In the near-unanimous ruling, the Court ordered Israel to prevent the commission of genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; not inflict conditions calculated to destroy Palestinians; prevent and punish direct as well as public incitement to commit genocide against Palestinians; and to take immediate and effective measures to provide urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. See Order at ¶ 30, ¶ 54, ¶ 59, and ¶ 66. 

 

VFP further brought to Secretary Blinken’s attention certain of the findings made by a U.S. federal judge in his February 1, 2024 “Order Granting Motion to Dismiss.” In Defense for Children International—Palestine, et al. v. Joseph Biden, et al., following an evidentiary hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the court held that:

 

Both the uncontroverted testimony of the Plaintiffs and the expert opinion proffered at the hearing on these motions as well as statements made by various officers of the Israeli government indicate that the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide.

 

This conclusion was entered upon extensive sworn testimony taken subject to cross-examination on January 26, 2024. 

 

In our February letter to Secretary Blinken, we provided viable evidence that the Department of State likely had violated federal restrictions on exports of military aid to Israel in the form of a sworn declaration of Josh Paul. Mr. Paul, former Director of Congressional and Public Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, attested to significant failures by the Department in a declaration filed in the Defense for Children International—Palestine lawsuit:

 

I believe it is clear that the U.S. government is failing not only to execute the due diligence required under existing U.S. laws, but is actively creating and utilizing processes that help insulate Israel from accountability or sanctions in accordance with existing U.S. laws and policies. In my experience, the U.S. government is aware that U.S.-origin weapons, munitions, and equipment will be used by Israel in ways that are contrary to U.S. law, including applicable provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act, Arms Export Control Act, Leahy Laws, the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy (NSM-18) of February 2023, among others, and Israel’s own commitments to the United States under applicable processes and agreements, and other requirements that their end use of U.S.-origin weapons, munitions, and equipment be used in accordance with international law. The failure to execute meaningful due diligence or adequately apply existing U.S. laws permits the unfettered flow of military assistance to Israel forces with minimal oversight that leads to unnecessary civilian harm, gross violations of human rights, and impunity for violations of international law.

 

VFP demanded to know why the State Department’s emergency certification allowing sales of tank and artillery munitions to Israel in December 2023 was allowed in apparent contradiction of the guidelines of Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Department’s Conventional Arms Transfer (“CAT”) Policy (NSM-18) (February 2023). We expressed skepticism that the provisions of CAT Section 2, to “prevent arms transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law,” were being fulfilled. We suggested that the Department’s ammunition transfer approvals appeared to contradict CAT Section 3’s obligation to weigh that Israel “may use the arms transfer to contribute to a violation of human rights or international humanitarian law, based on an assessment of the available information and relevant circumstances, including the capacity and intention of the recipient to respect international obligations and commitments.”

VFP pointed out that CAT Section 4 clearly directs that “no arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients’ commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit genocide; crimes against humanity; grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of gender‑based violence or serious acts of violence against children.” But this guidance has been continually disregarded since October 7, 2023.

Two weeks after Secretary Blinken lied, in writing, to Congress about the state of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the International Court of Justice on May 24, 2024 by a 13-2 vote ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in southern Gaza and for the crossing from Egypt into Rafah to be kept open for the “unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” There is no evidence that Israel has complied with these orders.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE AND U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL MAY HAVE COMMITTED SERIAL VIOLATIONS OF U.S. DOMESTIC CRIMINAL LAW

VFP submits that the State Department’s maladministration of the Foreign Assistance Act and Export Control Act relative to issues of aid to Israel may comprise criminal wrongdoing.  We thus request that the Department of Justice urgently convene a grand jury to investigate the possibilities of these criminal violations by Secretary of State Blinken and Ambassador Lew:

● The Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2778(a)(2), requires that “[d]ecisions on issuing export licenses under this section shall take into account whether the export of an article would . . . increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict.” Violations are punishable by up to 20 years of imprisonment under 22 U.S. Code § 2778(c).

Although he had available expert reports concerning multiple acts by the Israel government and military to thwart the provision of humanitarian assistance, Secretary Blinken neither integrated that information into his report to Congress nor did he take into account the potential for the Israeli wrongdoing to increase or prolong its invasion of Gaza and consequential acts of genocide. Similarly, by intentionally declining to invoke Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act (22 U.S.C. § 2378-1) and not requiring Israel as a recipient of U.S. military aid to facilitate unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Secretary Blinken also failed to account whether under the Export Control Act the provision of military aid would escalate the ongoing genocide by the Israel Defense Force.

Secretary Blinken likely based his decision not to force Israel to deliver sufficient aid to Gaza in part on the knowingly false representations of Ambassador Lew, who ignored multiple reports of Israel’s blocking of assistance and refused to act on them while insisting merely that Israel is superlative in delivering humanitarian aid.

 

● The Material False Statement law, 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a), prohibits falsification or

concealment of material facts orally or in writing to the U.S. Congress. 18 U.S.C. § 1001(c)(1) prohibits falsification of “a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch.” Violations are punishable by up to 8 years of imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(3).

Secretary Blinken’s lack of candor with the Congress in order to continue the provision of military aid to Israel meant concealing the existence of the USAID and State Department reports showing the IDF as a repeat violator of federal laws. The concealed significant evidence expressly recommended the immediate cutoff of military aid to Israel. By allegedly lying to Congress, Secretary Blinken perpetuated ongoing genocidal acts and war crimes against the Palestinians of Gaza because the supply of weapons and munitions to Israel continued unabated.

  ● The Genocide Prevention Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1091, forbids intentional destruction of national, ethnic, racial, or religious group by killing, causing serious bodily injury or subjecting them to conditions of life that are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part. 

The intentional refusals by Secretary Blinken and Ambassador Lew to properly conduct the vetting and investigations and make the findings indicated by evidence under the Export Control Act and Foreign Assistance Act comprise the crimes of complicity to, or aiding and abetting the crime of genocide.  Genocide is punishable by fines, imprisonment up to life, or the death penalty, depending on circumstances. 

 

● The War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2441, forbids the direct commission of, or

complicity in committing, various offenses that comprise aspects of genocide. 

Complicity can take the form of various kinds of acts, including aiding and

abetting. The provision of weapons has been held to constitute complicity. In Akayesu, the ICTR Trial Chamber held that the “procuring [of] means, such as weapons, instruments, or any other means” satisfies the actus reus (or act requirement) of complicity. In the Zyklon B case, the British military court convicted of aiding and abetting defendants who, through their businesses, supplied poison gas into Germany knowing that it was to be used in extermination camps. The ICJ further clarified that acts of complicity may include the “provision of means to enable or facilitate the commission of the crime.”

Specific intent to commit genocide is not required for a finding of complicity; rather, it is sufficient for a State to act with the knowledge that the direct perpetrator had the specific intent to commit genocide, as affirmed by the ICJ in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro. The District Court in the Hague, which adjudicated a case involving the application of a Dutch statute implementing the Genocide Convention, held that a finding of complicity requires knowledge of “the genocidal intention of the perpetrator” rather than specific genocidal intent of the accomplice. The Trial Chamber in Akayesu and the Appeals Chamber in Ntakirutimana noted that complicity does not require that the perpetrator share the same specific intent, only that the accomplice must have known of the genocidal plan and that the assistance would help in the commission of the act.

 

CONCLUSION: The Acts of the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S.

Ambassador to Israel Should Be Criminally Investigated by a Grand Jury

 

Secretary Blinken’s failure to implement our federal law and halt weapons shipments to Israel touches upon and is governed by both domestic and international law. The International Court of Justice has repeatedly reminded Israel since at least January 26, 2024 of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to avoid without fail the causation of genocide and associated crimes. The United States enforces domestic criminal laws partly to fulfill our country’s responsibilities under the Genocide Convention. To avoid complicity in the commission of genocide, the U.S. is required to uphold and implement International Court orders, including those aimed at preventing genocide. In short, the Department of Justice need not determine whether the U.S. bears responsibility to prevent genocide. The International Court of Justice has determined it for them by its orders.

 

Against this framework, the alleged wrongdoing of Secretary of State Blinken in the form of lying to Congress, which in turn saved Israel from interruption of deliveries of weapons and munitions and permitted Israel to continue to perpetrate war crimes and genocidal acts, arguably violated the Genocide Convention and the orders of the International Court of Justice, but also, the objectives of U.S. foreign policy against fomenting and increasing war, against allowing war crimes, and against the commission of human rights violations.

 

Israel’s genocidal invasion of Gaza continues as of this writing. In the past week, Israel has undertaken an illegal war against Hezbollah and the nation of Lebanon. Neither of these wars would be possible for Israel absent the provision of weapons and munitions by the United States. 

 

For all of these reasons, we urgently request the empanelment of a federal grand jury to investigate potential criminal violations by Secretary Antony Blinken and Ambassador Jack Lew. 

 

Thank you very much.

 

Sincerely,

Susan M. Schnall, President

Veterans For Peace

NC-based MAPAC endorses the Stein-Ware campaign + Wadee AlFayoumi Senate resolution + more on UNC + news

Advertised at local libraries, online, etc. this week, in addition to the items in previous calendar posts:

theintercept.com/2021/09/28/israel-palestine-unc-academic-freedom/

ncnewsline.com/briefs/unc-chapel-hill-makes-list-of-10-worst-campuses-for-free-speech/

portside.org/2024-09-25/student-faces-deportation-after-suspension-pro-palestine-protest at Cornell University

[Germany arrested a German and Ukrainian couple for broadcasting RT and other Russian media over the Internet:  www.rt.com/news/604810-germany-arrested-rt-broadcasts/ ]

[ www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/10/03/leonard-peltiers-80th-birthday-statement-released/ ]

[Everything a voter needs? -- www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/votingrecord/ ]

[According to an October 4th email, PSL's Claudia-Karina 2024 campaign will be an "official write-in" in North Carolina, and will be on the ballot or an official write-in in every state but Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, with the addition of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where they were "kicked off by Democrats."  Stein-Ware 2024 claims to have the most ballot access of the left parties.]

[UNAC has called for actions against the war in the Middle East October 5-7th:  "Israel/US Hands off Lebanon and Iran!  No to Expanding War!  Free Palestine"]

[Webinars and events in October, but not in NC:  samidoun.net/2024/10/october-2024-seattle-al-aqsa-flood-month-of-action/ ]

[Samuel Mena Jr, a journalist, apparently set himself on fire over the war in the Middle East Saturday, October 5th:  www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/10/06/journalist-fire-dc-israel-gaza-protest/ ]

[Support for Disabled Student Activist Being Targeted by UNC GoFundMe fundraiser -- Laura Saavedra was subjected to police violence by Lee Roberts and the rest of UNC's administration on April 30th and September 27th the police apparently seized her cellphone to conduct a fishing expedition, exposing her on-campus address, causing her to temporarily relocate out of fear for her safety.  Despite being exonerated of any misconduct after April 30th and reinstated as a student, she lost a Morehead-Cain scholarship, losing $12,000 dollars.  As of October 8th evening there have been $5,238 in donations on GoFundMe:  www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-disabled-student-activist-being-targeted-by-unc  For more on the events of April 30th at UNC:  indyweek.com/news/orange/our-campuses-have-been-turned-into-war-zones-the-aftermath-of-police-action-at-uncs-pro-palestinian-encampment/ ]

I finally checked the situation regarding free newspapers, etc. at the Chapel Hill Public Library.  [The allowed publications inside are now labelled, there is indeed space for more, and there aren't any new outdoor boxes; more to come on the Chapel Hill Public Library's newspaper bans/blacklisting.]

Tyler Cohen of GMU spoke on economics and AI at UNC September 11th.

[The September 13, 1971 airplane crash in Mongolia that killed CPC vice chair Lin Biao:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao_incident

Aniplex Online Fest 2024 was September 16th; I'm not sure how long it will be streaming:  aniplex-online-fest.com

[April 14, 1934-September 22, 2024:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Jameson and newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/singularity ]

US 1787 Constitution Week September 17-23

September 23, 1642, at the beginning of the First English Civil War:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Powick_Bridge

[Around 1493 in Egg an der Sihl, near Einsiedeln, canton of Schwyz in the Old Swiss Confederacy-September 24, 1541 in Salzburg:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus ]

September 24th at 6pm at the Fedex (?) Center at UNC there was a talk by the author of Legacy of Lies.  El Salvador 1981-1984.

The Great Escape from HM Maze Prison or Long Kesh by IRA POWs September 25, 1983:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_Prison_escape

September 25, 2024 the BBC reported that Japan sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait for the "first" time (since WWII?), and the BBC connected it to a Chinese transit between Japanese islands.   The Sazanami (a reused name?)?  Going to an exercise, with ships from Australia and New Zealand.  Is this what the UK did in the Corfu Channel off Albania in the late 40's?  DPR Korea has idol-type groups, but the BBC's What in the World talked about a K-pop boy band idol group made up of northern 'defectors.'  Even the BBC admits that many of the people who leave DPR Korea do so for economic reasons, though they won't say that economic warfare is going on.  Apparently the UK also has a problem with new introduced tick species and diseases.

Strangely enough, after the events in late spring, September 25th was First Amendment Day at UNC, with several events, but I didn't post this in time; the keynote address, 5:15-6:30pm, was by L. Rank from FIRE, and the group has been getting around:  firstamendmenday.unc.edu  Freedom of speech is now just an afterthought for the ACLU.

September 26, 1580 -- Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, having circumnavigated the globe. 

September 26, 1983:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

Captured by the Taliban September 26, 2010 and killed by a US rescue attempt:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Linda_Norgrove

Palestine:  A Struggle Against Zionism and Imperialism will be September 26th at 6:30pm at or near UNC (?):  tinyurl.com/sosunc , speakoutsocialists.org , or DM @sonsocialists  Climate and capital discussions were on the 11th and 12th in the Student Union.  The origins of the oppression of women on the 19th at the Union.

September 26th 5:30pm at the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill How to be a Trans Ally; RSVP??

Fran Brun will be at the Chapel Hill Public Library September 26th at 6pm?

[Fighting resumed in Nagorno-Karabakh September 27, 2020 and September 19-23 in 2023:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan ]

[The September 27, 2024 assassination of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.]

[September 28, 1901 -- an attack on occupying US soldiers, called a massacre, during a now 'forgotten' occupation:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balangiga_massacre and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_the_Philippines ]

Cielos del Sur:  Historias de Latinoamerica will be September 28th at 12pm at Morehead Planetarium; there is a ticket cost:  go.unc.edu/Skies2024 

[September 28-29th, the 27th Carrboro Music Festival:  www.carrboromusicfestival.com/311/Carrboro-Music-Festival ]

A death cafe September 28th 2-4pm at the Chapel Hill Public Library, RSVP on Meetup or contact Stephanie at sagetransitionsdoulagiver com 

September 28th at 2pm in Kingston, New York:  occupypeace.com/

Michaelmas is September 29th in many Western Christian churches:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel)#Feasts and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas [and thewritersalmanac.substack.com/p/the-writers-almanac-from-sunday-september-d5a -- also considered the anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's birth in 1547; he was baptized on October 9th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes ]

[September 29, 1938 – a meteorite hit a car parked in a garage in Benld, Illinois:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benld,_Illinois and web.archive.org/web/20180601054919/http://meteorites.wustl.edu/illinois_meteorites.htm ]

[US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico, was assassinated by the Obama administration September 30, 2011 in Al Jawf governorate of Yemen, followed by the assassination of two his children, age 16 and 8, in that order, under Obama and Trump:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki ]

[September 27-29th in Raleigh:  www.eventbrite.com/e/the-international-festival-authentic-food-drinks-performances-tickets-850951156817 ]

[September 29th 10am-1pm a Food Swap in northern Chapel Hill:  www.facebook.com/events/494433940037244/ ]

[The third annual Chapboro Book Crawl will be September 29th 11am-5pm:  www.peel.gallery/events/chapelboro-book-crawl-jley7-x5tfg ]

A meeting and block party September 29th 3-6pm at Southern Community Park in Chapel Hill:  communityhometrust.org

RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Taibbi, etc. September 29th at 12pm in Washington, DC:  www.mahanow.org/rescue-republic-rally

[September 29th 4-7pm Hispanic Heritage Kermes and El Futuro's 20th anniversary in Durham:  elfuturo-nc.org/calendar/ ]

[September 30th is Orange Shirt Day/National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, for awareness about the forced Indian residential schools in the US and Canada:  cpcml.ca/ITN2024/TI5424.HTM#1 ]

[Mao Tse-tung/Zedong declared the People's Republic of China October 1, 1949 in Tiananmen Square, Beijing:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China ]  [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong#Establishment_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China ]

[October 1st is World Vegetarian Day and Charlotte VegFest is October 12th.]

[October 1st at 1pm at the JCRA in Raleigh:  Plant-lover's Tour "Japanese maples;" free for members, $5 dollars otherwise.]  

A Relic Screening and Discussion October 1st 6:30-9pm in Carolina Hall 104.  

[From the Chatham County Public Health Department; also, free flu and coronavirus vaccinations and coronavirus at-home testing kits are available at the Health Department, or see www.vaccines.gov --

"PITTSBORO, NC— Chatham County Public Libraries is excited to announce a month-long hygiene drive running from October 1 to October 31, 2024. All donated supplies will be given to Love Chatham, a 501c3 non-profit, in Siler City for distribution.

 

WHAT: Hygiene Drive

 

WHEN: October 1-31, 2024

 

WHERE: Chatham Community Library- 197 NC 87, Pittsboro, NC 27312

 

Goldston Public Library- 9235 Pittsboro-Goldston Rd, Goldston, NC 27252

 

Wren Memorial Library- 500 North Second Ave, Siler City, NC 27344

 

WHY: This initiative aims to combat hygiene poverty in Chatham County by donating hygiene items to any library branch to help those in need. All donated items will be distributed by Love Chatham. Hygiene poverty means individuals or families struggle to afford basic hygiene products, which can significantly impact their self-worth and self-respect. Hygiene insecurity is a real issue and a true side effect of hygiene poverty. 

 

The most needed hygiene items include:

·         Band-aids

·         Bandanas

·         Bar soap

·         Body wipes

·         Chapstick

·         Combs

·         Conditioner

·         Deodorant

·         Feminine hygiene products

·         Hand sanitizer

·         Lotion

·         Nail clippers

·         Shampoo

·         Toothpaste

·         Toothbrushes

 

To learn more about Love Chatham visit lovechatham.org

 

Residents may visit the libraries’ website chathamlibraries.org or contact the Chatham Community Library at Call: (919) 545-8084 for more information on this and other events and programs.

 

Members of the media interested in attending/covering this event are asked to please notify Public Information Officer, Kara Lusk in advance at Call: (919) 542-8258 or kara.lusk [at chathamcountync gov]."

[World Habitat Day (human habitats) is October 2nd:  www.un.org/en/observances/habitat-day and the International Day of Non-Violence:  www.un.org/en/observances/non-violence-day ]

[A new moon, Darsh Amas, Rosh Hashana, and Gandhi Jayanti are on October 2nd?]

[West Germany formally annexed the German Democratic Republic at midnight on October 3, 1990:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany#Die_Wende_(German_reunification) , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Unity_Day ]

[The US repeatedly attacked a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan early on October 3, 2015, killing 12 staff, 10 patients (3 children), and wounding 37.  The US, NATO, and Afghanistan were all informed where the hospital was and the NATO command was called when the attack started:  progressive.org/dispatches/u.s.-airstrike-doctors-without-borders-hospital-war-crime/  Eleven days after the attack a US tank forcibly entered the hospital compound. The media loudly accuses disfavored countries of deliberately attacking hospitals and medical personnel, or did before it became a standard Israeli tactic, but this story from 2015 quickly dropped out of the news.  In general when a government the US is hostile to allegedly commits a war crime, the media trumpets it as a planned atrocity that definitely happened, but when the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. do something it is an understandable accident due to the fog of war and is swept under the rug.  Israel attacked a hospital in Gaza in early October 2023, but only Russia, Syria, etc. (did I hear Sudan mentioned in 2024?) get blamed for sort of thing, at least in the mainstream media.]

[October 3rd is National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day, according to this website:  www.checkiday.com/f02bef8d28e18640fbae4bf031ae363b/national-butterfly-and-hummingbird-day ]

[The USSR launched Sputnik 1 (Satellite 1 in Russian) October 4, 1957.  Explorer 1, the USA's first satellite, was launched February l, 1958.]

[October 4, 1993 tanks fired on the Russian parliament (the White House) and soldiers occupied the building, allowing President Boris Yeltsin to extralegally dissolve the legislative bodies in a crisis that had begun September 21st.  Official statistics say 147 people were killed, including non-Russians, and 437 wounded in fighting between pro-Yeltsin and pro-parliament forces.]  

Mark Anthony Stroman shot three Muslim and Hindu South Asian immigrants in and around Dallas, Texas September 16 and 21 and October 4, 2001, blaming them for the 9/11 attacks.  Stroman reformed while in prison but was executed July 20, 2011.  Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi-American Muslim and the only person shot who survived, forgave Stroman and tried to prevent the execution.

World Space Week is October 4th - 10th:  www.un.org/en/observances/world-space-week

[Shawnee leader Tecumseh was killed while fighting near Chatham, Ontario, Canada October 5, 1813.]

[Hertha von Dechend was born October 5, 1915 in Heidelberg, Germany and passed away April 23, 2001 in Frankfurt am Main:   de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertha_von_Dechend (in German), www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/376103?journalCode=isis (Isis article by Uta Lindgren)  www.google.com/search?q=hertha+von+dechend , and astronomie-mythos.net/Dateien/Ein%20Vulkan%20ist%20erloschen%20-%20Hertha%20von%20Dechend%20in%20memoriam.htm (also by Uta Lindgren, but in German, I haven't gone over the Google translation in detail yet; Uta Lindgren? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uta_Lindgren).  Criticism and biography: web.archive.org/web/20220729214718/http://members.westnet.com.au/gary-david-thompson/page9j.html ]  [Her archived papers:  www.frobenius-institut.de/sammlungen/nachlaesse ]

[Harpal Brar, a founder and former chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (founded July 3, 2004?) was born October 5, 1939 in Muktsar, Punjab, India:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpal_Brar , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain_(Marxist–Leninist) , and thecommunists.org/about/ ]

[Sarah York visited Panama as a guest of President Manuel Noriega October 5-11, 1988 and again on a family vacation October 8-17, 1989, shortly before the US invaded the country in December 1989.]

[October 5th is World Teachers Day.]  [World Teachers' Day is October 5th, and began in 1994:   en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldteachersday ]

[Derna, Libya was taken over by ISIS October 5, 2014, overthrown by the anti-ISIS Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna, allegedly linked to al Qaida, which was followed by the Derna Protection Force, which was defeated by Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army in February 2019.]

  

[October 5, 2021 a US Marine Corps F-35B practiced taking off and landing from the Japanese destroyer Izumo, which looks suspiciously like an aircraft carrier and is Japan's largest warship since WWII.  Assassinated Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe worked to unfetter Japanese imperialism from the constitutional restrictions imposed by the US after WWII and increase military spending:  www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/15/the-real-shinzo-abe-he-was-no-peacemaker/ , www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/01/abe-and-the-re-militarization-of-japan/ and  www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/29/whitewashing-at-shinzo-abes-state-funeral/ ]

The Parkwood Fall Flea Market will be October 5th in the morning in Durham [8am-12pm at the mosque at 5122 Revere Road in Durham]

[Discuss Durham's ongoing "Unified Development Ordinance" rewrite process this fall: 

Tuesday, October 1 at 5:30PM, East Regional Library, 211 Lick Creek Lane

Saturday, October 5 at 10AM, South Regional Library, 4505 S Alston Ave

Tuesday, October 22 at 6PM, Zoom Virtual Meeting

Saturday, November 9 at 10:30AM, North Regional Library, 221 Milton Rd

Tuesday, November 19 at 5:30PM, Main Library, 300 N Roxboro Rd

[On Raleigh's next Comprehensive Plan:  raleighnc.gov/planning/services/raleighs-next-comprehensive-plan ]

[October 5th 9am at NCSU -- the Friends of the JCRA Annual Plant Giveaway, free]

[October 5th 9am-2pm at 1020 US Highway 70 West in Hillsborough; organized by the Master Gardener Volunteers of Orange County:  www.plantfestnc.org/ ]

[Public Safety Day October 5th 10am-2pm:  www.morrisvillenc.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/4633/62 ]

[October 5th 11am-6pm at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh:  shoplocalraleigh.org/slr-events/falling-for-local-dix-park/ ]

[October 5th 11am-6pm the inaugural Wake Forest Pride Fest:  www.facebook.com/events/285573627892928

The Bless the Block Party will be October 5th 1-4pm:  sside.org or ssidechurch on Facebook

October 5th 1-5pm Hispanic Heritage Month Festival at 9217 Seawell School Road

[An annual Bluegrass Festival in Hillsborough October 5th 1-6pm; there is a ticket cost:  moorefields.org/events/bluegrassfestival2023-6p99h ]

The 20th anniversary Really Really Free Market will be October 5th on the Carrboro Town Commons 2pm to dusk.

[Health Care for All NC will celebrate its 30th anniversary at its 2024 Annual Meeting October 5th 2-4:30pm at Color Works Meeting Space in Greensboro:  givebutter.com/hcfanc2024annualmeeting?gbtid=7f29310669fe4fbd9280b3973565a863 and HealthCareforAllNC.org ; there are other events, #MedicareDisadvantage, etc.]

[The annual Celebrate Fuquay-Varina is October 3rd and 5th in Wake County:  www.celebratefv.com 

]

[The 49th annual  Selma Railroad Days will be October 4-6th in Selma in Johnston County:  selma-nc.com/special-events/48th-annual-selma-railroad-days/ ]

[October 4-6th in Smithfield in Johnston County:  www.johnstoncountync.org/ava-gardner/visit-the-museum/ava-gardner-festival/ ]

[The Carolina Renaissance Festival will be ever weekend from October 5th to November 24th in Huntersville, NC:  Carolina.renfestinfo.com ] 

[American Craft Week events, October 5-13th:  discoverseagrove.com/events/american-craft-week-main-event/ ]

[October 5-6th:  www.raleighfilmandartfestival.org/ ]

[EgyptFest in Raleigh:  October 5-6th and 12-13th:  www.stmarync.com/egyptfest.html ]

[The monthly Saturday Slowdown in Hillsborough:  www.ramblerillfarm.com/ ]

[OktoberFest Weekend October 5-6th in Mebane, NC:  steelstringbrewery.com/ ]

[Sunshine Lavender Farm Open House October 5th 10am-2pm:  www.facebook.com/events/3796313267273360/ ]

[October 5th 9am-9pm -- the 96th Wendell Harvest Festival:  www.wendellchamber.com/wendell-harvest-festival/ ]

[October 5th 5-8pm:  www.milb.com/durham/events/fan-fest ]

[October 5th Halloween Family Fun Day:  cityofraleighmuseum.org/Events ]

[October 5th 10am-5pm:  raleighnc.gov/arts/services/arts-centers/fall-arts-fair ]

[Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away at the NCMA October 5th 6-11pm:  ncartmuseum.org/series/outdoor-films/ ]

[October 5th Raleigh Foodie Fare:  triangleonthecheap.com/makrs-society-markets/ ]

[October 5-13th:  downtownraleigh.org/restaurant-week ]

[There are free tours of the re-opened NC State Capitol on Saturdays?] 

[German-American Day October 6th; Germantown, Pennsylvania was founded in 1683:  Wikipedia's "On this day" and the next item.] 

[Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl October 6, 1914 to April 18, 2002.]

[October 6, 1934 -- general strike, 'rebellion,' and declaration of a brief Catalan State.]

[The 1973 Arab-Israeli War October 6-25th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War ]

[The October 1973 Arab-Israeli War/Yom Kippur War/Ramadan War took Israel by surprise 50 years ago October 6th and ended October 25th.  It led to the 1973 oil crisis, profiled for a week on the BBC at the beginning of October.  Allegedly one reason there hasn't been an Arab-Israeli war since 1973 is because everyone knows that Israel is an undeclared nuclear power and is ready to use them, even against the countries that give it so much diplomatic and material support, such as the EU.  But what about in 1973?  [On a recent episode of WUNC's Due South on Jimmy Carter, a historian from NCSU highlighted the US goverment's 20th century compromise of powerful Egypt as preventing (state-level) Arab-Israeli wars, though the current war could be called a US, European, and Israeli war against or involving Arab Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and non-Arab Iran.]

[Students occupying Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand were massacred the morning of October 6, 1976:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_October_1976_massacre ]

[The bombing of Cubana Flight 455 by a US-backed Cuban exile group was October 6, 1976:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_de_Aviaci%C3%B3n_Flight_455 ]

[Following Mao's death on September 9th, the pro-Cultural Revolution "Gang of Four" were arrested early October 6th, and Hua Guofeng officially came to power October 7, 1976 and he was eclipsed within a few years by the rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Guofeng and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiaoping ] [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_roader ]

[October 6, 1989 in the Castro neighborhood:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castro_Sweep]

[The Museum of Life and Science in Durham will have free admission for residents of Durham October 6th.]

[The India Food Fest: Charlestown, SC will be October 6th 11:30am-4:30pm at the Scottish Rite Center at 1051 Sam Rittenburg Boulevard in Charlestown; organized by iagcchs.org ]

[Late on October 6th the BBC reported that a pacifistic Russian Ukraine War opponent who had been arrested early on and then, after being freed from prison, joined the Ukrainian military, has been killed in action.  And the Israeli government is 'investigating' how five Hezbollah rockets reached Haifa, the country's third largest city, on the 6th for the first time, injuring five people.  It has been claimed that Israel's multiple anti-missile defense systems work well against rocket fire from Gaza, but can't stop some of the missiles operated by Hezbollah and Iran, and that Israel is covering up the amount of damage done by Iran's recent fusillade and how precise their targeting might have been.  Maybe it is "Western" citizens who are being kept in the dark about the realities of the two wars in Middle East and Ukraine.  Russia was supposed to have a very small economy (smaller than Italy?), being a 'gas station with nuclear weapons,' and the "Axis of Resistance" wasn't supposed to be a big problem for the NATO or Israel militaries, but the "West" hasn't defeated even Hamas or recovered the prisoners after a year of brutality.  Hamas fired rockets not that long ago.  The Red Sea remains dangerous for "Western" shipping.  There has been speculation online that Russia might give some of its missiles to Resistance forces, in retaliation for NATO firing missiles into Russia.  I also saw a rumor, or buried news item, saying that Israel had killed Russians in Syria and that Russia interfered with Israeli missile attacks on Lebanon (?).  The mainstream media makes it seem like the Russian air defense systems in Syria aren't doing anything, given that Israel constantly bombs the country, even an embassy compound.  Would Russia and China help Iran if the US launches a major war, as the Israeli government probably desires?  Many media sources I read claim that Ukraine is losing and close to collapse, while others portray Russia as not doing very well, though that was more of the mainstream media drumbeat in 2022-2023 and now they are quiet about that war.  I don't have enough information, but the major newspapers are probably covering for the US government like the broadcast media, even if they go into much more detail.  I think Mark Twain said something about the news being misinforming, but if you ignore it you don't know what is going on.  Chinese citizens were killed by terrorists in Pakistan over the weekend.] 

[Neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II, the Great, is supposed to have passed away October 7, 562 BCE in Babylon:   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_II ]

[The British King George III declared the area west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River a buffering Indian Reserve following the French and Indian/Seven Years' War.]

[Edgar Allan Poe passed away October 7, 1849 and there are still questions about the circumstances.]

[Japan seized Pohnpei, now part of the Federated States of Micronesia, from Germany on October 7, 1914 during WWI.]

[Sonderkommando workers at Auschwitz found out that they were to be killed in the near future and rebelled October 7, 1944.]

[The German Democratic Republic was founded October 7, 1949, after West Germany's founding May 23rd that year:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany ]  [From an Austrian party:  mronline.org/2024/10/10/gdr-at-75/ ]

[Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born October 7, 1952 in Leningrad, now St Petersburg:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin ]

[October 7, 2000:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Hezbollah_cross-border_raid ]

[The USA invaded Afghanistan October 7, 2001:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Afghanistan ]

[Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was assassinated in her apartment building in Moscow October 7, 2006; she was born in New York City August 30, 1958 to Soviet UN diplomats of Ukrainian ethnicity:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya ]

[October 7th is World Cotton Day, proposed by Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali in 2019: www.un.org/en/observances/cotton-day ]

[October 7, 2023 Hamas' stunning Operation al Aqsa Flood offensive by land, air, and sea took the Israeli government completely by surprise, or they knew it was coming, but allowed it to happen, as a justification for their desired ethnic cleansing campaign.  Or is the claim going to be that the Israeli government knew that al Aqsa Flood was coming, but underestimated what a Palestinian guerrilla army could accomplish?]  [Several 2023 statements, actions, and links were posted here:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/10/psl-free-palestine-free-all-palestinian.html and I plan a 2024 post.  Hezbollah took action on the 8th and there might have been a lone wolf attack by a police officer on Israeli tourists in Alexandria, Egypt by October 8th.] 

[October 7th is Bathtub Day?]

["Parmer Edge" annexation hearing in Durham October 7th [The rural Coca Cola 'farm' between Glover, Angier, Ellis, and Rigsbee, a headwater of Northeast Creek in or near the Bethesda community; the purpose of the annexation request isn't stated and for whatever reason many or most of the members of the Planning Commission voted against it a few months ago, but I overlooked that hearing.] :  cityordinances.durhamnc.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=662&doctype=1 ]

[Chatham County released its 750-page proposed new UDO August 31st, the Planning Board was to vote on recommending it October 1st, and there will be a hearing October 7th at the Chatham County Agricultural Center:  chathamjournal.com/2024/09/29/whats-next-for-chatham-county-the-path-forward-with-the-udo , www.recodechathamnc.org , etc.]

[The usually exceedingly weak Draconid meteor shower is active October 8-9th:  www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/2020-meteor-shower-list/  The much stronger Orionid meteor shower peaks October 20-21, followed by the Southern and Northern Taurids and the Leonids in November:   www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/  Halloween is a good time to look for meteors.]  [According to a book by David Levy [The Sky:  A User's Guide], the Kappa Cygnids, annual Andromedids, Northern Piscids, might be visible now [around October], and the Monocertids, the strong Geminid and Ursid showers, the Coma Bernicids, and the strong Quadrantids later in the year; there might have been a reclassification of the showers since then, and the dates might have been refined.  The AMS website lists additional, sometimes very obscure, fall-winter meteor showers.]

[The Second Opium War/Second Anglo-Chinese War/Arrow War/Anglo-French Expedition to China was October 8, 1856-October 24, 1860:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Opium_War ]

[Argentinian politician Juan Domingo Peron October 8, 1895-July 1, 1974:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Perón ]

The Weather Underground bombed the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California October 8, 1970.

World Migratory Bird Day is marked October 8th and again in May :  www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/ 

[January 15th is Chosŏn'gŭl Day in DPR Korea, celebrating the creation of Korea's writing system on that day in in 1444.  The ROK's separate Hangul Proclamation Day commemorates October 9, 1446.] 

October 9th is also World Post Day, celebrating the founding of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, called into question under Trump (while Congress did its part to financially damage the US Postal Service).  For more information see:  www.un.org/en/observances/world-post-day [

[Australian anti-war journalist John Pilger passed away December 31, 2023.  He was born October 9, 1939 in Bondi, New South Wales, near Sydney.  His website:  johnpilger.com/ ]

[Che Guevara, 39, was executed before 1:10pm October 9, 1967 in La Higuera, Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara ]

[The Peekskill, New York meteorite hit the trunk of a car October 9, 1992.]

[Robert F Kennedy Jr declared his presidential campaign independent in a speech on Philadelphia's Independence Mall Monday, October 9th in 2023:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9opkWJn5aE and robertfkennedyjr.substack.com/   Mike Pence suspended his Republican presidential campaign in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas October 28th.  Cornel West campaigned for president under the People's Party from June 5th, under the Green Party from June 14th, and as an independent from October 5th.]

[October 9th is Emergency Nurses Day?]

[There will be a UNAC webinar, "Activists in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine talk about the Fight for Sovereignty in West Asia while living with U.S./Israeli Genocidal Violence," Wednesday, Oct 9th, at 12 noon EST:  us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TupUubbiRqStBv0IksAzzA#/registration ]

["Palestine:  Journalism to Reveal and Journalism to Deceive:  Palestine and Journalistic Integrity" October 9th at 12:30pm; organized by:  justpeaceadvocates.ca --  us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0kF1T3ssTjWjnpvFWu_sFw?link_id=8&can_id=daf90de7697fd5ae682ef1e44d6a257e&source=email-canada-revenue-agency-cra-needs-to-audit-the-biggest-israel-charity-united-israel-appeal&email_referrer=email_2480140&email_subject=webinar-wed-oct-9th-at-1230-pm-et730-pm-palestine-journalism-to-reveal-and-journalism-to-deceive-palestine-and-journalistic-integrity#/registration ]

[The South Carolina State Fair will be October 9-20th in Columbia, SC:  scstatefair.org ]

["Canadian Academics for a Just Foreign Policy: Defending Free Speech and Academic Freedom on Our University and College Campuses" October 9th at 6:30pm ET:      us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QT0UbKPUSDalQa-i1vYTlg#/registration ]  [October 2nd CSIS and the Canadian Border Services Agency questioned CFPI Board member Tamara Lorincz:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6JqYYhBPQ ]

[A supernova was noticed near theta Ophiuchi, a star visible now, around October 10, 1604; this was the last supernova in our galaxy that was definitely seen, it is sometimes called Kepler's Supernova.  There was one in Cassiopeia in the late 1600's and another in Sagittarius around 1890-1908.]  [It happened to join a conjunction of orange Mars and yellow Jupiter?]

[April 7, 1772-October 10, 1837:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier ]

[William Lassell (June 18, 1799 – October 5, 1880; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lassell ) discovered Neptune's largest moon, Triton, one of many, October 10, 1846 and Uranus' moons Ariel and Umbriel October 24, 1851:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(moon) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_(moon) ]

[The Republic of China's National Day is October 10th, commemorating the beginning of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, part of the Xinhai or Chinese Revolution, overthrowing the last Qing emperor and establishing a republic under President Sun Yat-sen.  NPR, etc. tried to obscure the history of the Taiwanese government on the 10th.  The "self-governing," "democratic" island of Taiwan, 'claimed by China,' is officially called the Republic of China and therefore claims to be older than the People's Republic of China, but its existence of course has nothing to do with mainland China.]

[Bernard Heuvelmans was born October 10, 1916 in Le Havre, France and passed away August 22, 2001 in Le Vesinet, France:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Heuvelmans  ]

[Biographer Robert Allan Caro was born October 10, 1935 in New York City:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Caro ] 

[October 10, 1941-November 10, 1995:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa ]

[Party Foundation Day is October 10th in DPR Korea, commemorating the 1945 founding of a predecessor to today's Workers' Party of Korea:  www.naenara.com.kp/en/event/?part=20151010/ ]

[According to Wikipedia, October 10th is also Vietnam's Capital Liberation Day and Cuban Independence Day, commemorating the Grito de Yara at the beginning of the Ten Years' War in 1868.  It took two more wars before Spanish rule was successfully overthrown in 1898, followed by a few years of direct occupation and decades of subservience to the USA.] 

[The Outer Space Treaty, banning the placement of nuclear weapons in space, military activities on the Moon, claims of sovereignty over celestial bodies, etc., came into effect October 10, 1967.  The US is now trying to create alleged rules or norms to cover US and other "Western" economic exploitation, expropriation,  privatization, and seizure of bodies such as the Moon, competing with China and Russia, among the other peoples of the world with an interest in what goes on in space.]

[Red Lion, 赤毛 Akage, premiered in Japan October 10, 1969 and here December 17, 1969:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_(film) ]

[The first major hostilities by the FMNL (founded October 10, 1980) were January 10, 1981:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farabundo_Mart%C3%AD_National_Liberation_Front ]

[The crewed Apollo 7 mission lifted off October 11, 1968.]

[Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed that they were abducted by a UFO while fishing in the Pascagoula River near US 90 in coastal Mississippi October 11, 1973.  A very small USO, an unidentified submerged object, was seen and chased around without success near a Coast Guard station in the Pascagoula area November 6th of that year and there are accounts of strange sounds coming from waterways in the region around Pascagoula and Biloxi in Mississippi.  Parker passed away August 24, 2023 (?) at 8:15am due to kidney cancer, with a private memorial service held September 2nd:  www.fatemag.com/post/gone-fishing-calvin-parker? ]

[The International Day of the Girl Child is October 11th:  www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day ]

[October 11, 2002 in Myyrmaki, Finland:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myyrmanni_bombing ]  [The perpetrator is supposed to have been Petri Erkki Tapio Gerdt (April 17, 1983 – October 11, 2002).]

[October 10th is Moe no Hi [萌えの日] and World Sight Day?] [October 11th:  [The Chinese Double Ninth Festival, Yom Kippur, and US National Coming Out Day since 1988.]  [萌 mo(eru) kiza(su)]

[According to School of the Americas Watch,  October 10th is the anniversary of Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz firing 16 shots into Mexico, killing 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, similar to what the Israeli military does to Palestinian children accused of stone-throwing.]  

[October 10th is World Mental Health Day:  www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day ]  

[Pakistani physicist and metallurgical engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan, often abbreviated AQ Khan, passed away October 10, 2021 due to the coronavirus.  He was a key figure in Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and was accused of giving nuclear technology to DPR Korea, Iran, and Libya.  Under the non-proliferation treaty countries such as Iran have the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, and the US and other "Western" countries have assisted their allies in developing nuclear and other "weapons of mass destruction" or looked the other way.  Under the NPT the nuclear weapons states are supposed to disarm, but the USA is spending a huge amount to upgrade and improve its nuclear arsenal and discussing starting wars against Russia and China.  While nuclear-powered submarines are not nuclear weapons, there have also been concerns about the US and UK giving this technology to Australia, and questions of whether French conventional submarines would have been a more effective weapon for Australia.]  

[The Tryon International Film Festival will be October 10-13th:  TryonInternationalFilmFestival.org ]

[Organized by VJP in Durham, with Josh Ruebner:  "Truman to Biden:  US Policy Toward the Ongoing Palestinian Nakba" -- October 10th at 7pm ET:  lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/wgbjdmr/lp/44b016bc-4232-4347-b072-1c3ab0646b3f?source_id=c1f29660-d4d4-438d-8f5d-1b85dd1571d0&source_type=em&c=s8d9O9WIfs_FkEaM-ZxNmMyQkrF5mdf0JADnSMP1W0UzGhuqK4v-Sw== ]

[October 11th is World Egg Day?]  [October 11th:  [The Chinese Double Ninth Festival, Yom Kippur, US National Coming Out Day (since 1988), etc.]

[About 1724-1807, with a birth commemoration October 11th in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magtymguly_Pyragy ]

"GOLDSTON, NC— Goldston Public Library has rescheduled its Indoor Plant Swap that was cancelled last week due to poor weather conditions from Helene. The Plant Swap will be held on Friday, October 11, 2024, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

 

WHAT: Goldston’s Indoor Plant Swap

 

WHEN: Friday, October 11: 11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

 

WHERE: E.M. Harris Jr. Conference Room, Goldston Public Library

                9235 Pittsboro-Goldston Road

                Goldston, NC 27252

 

WHO: Join Goldston Public Library for an engaging start to the event with a presentation by Beatrice Boggs Allen, Belle Boggs, and Richard Allen who will discuss their new book, Plant Pets. They will offer some tips on growing plant pets and will be available for a Q&A session.

 

McIntyre’s Books’ staff will be on site during the event for attendees to purchase their own copy of Plant Pets.

 

Following the authors’ presentation, participants and the Chatham County community are encouraged to drop off a plant or cuttings (indoor plants only) and pick up a new plant to take home. A Master Gardener will be present to provide expert care tips and help attendees pick the right plant for their homes.

 

Please ensure that all items brought in are pest-free and labeled, if possible.

 

For more information, individuals may contact the library at Call: 919-898-4522919-898-4522 or goldston.library [at chathamlibraries org].

 

Information about all Chatham County Library branches can be found at www.chathamlibraries.org.

 

Kara Lusk

Public Information Officer

Chatham County Government"

Beyond Bars:  The Hidden Costs of the Criminal Legal System October 10th at the Nasher Museum of Art (with free admission?) at Duke University? -- triangleonthecheap.com/free-fims-admission-nasher-museum-art-duke-university/

["GOLDSTON, NC— Goldston Public Library has rescheduled its Indoor Plant Swap that was cancelled last week due to poor weather conditions from Helene. The Plant Swap will be held on Friday, October 11, 2024, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

 

WHAT: Goldston’s Indoor Plant Swap

 

WHEN: Friday, October 11: 11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

 

WHERE: E.M. Harris Jr. Conference Room, Goldston Public Library

                9235 Pittsboro-Goldston Road

                Goldston, NC 27252

 

WHO: Join Goldston Public Library for an engaging start to the event with a presentation by Beatrice Boggs Allen, Belle Boggs, and Richard Allen who will discuss their new book, Plant Pets. They will offer some tips on growing plant pets and will be available for a Q&A session.

 

McIntyre’s Books’ staff will be on site during the event for attendees to purchase their own copy of Plant Pets.

 

Following the authors’ presentation, participants and the Chatham County community are encouraged to drop off a plant or cuttings (indoor plants only) and pick up a new plant to take home. A Master Gardener will be present to provide expert care tips and help attendees pick the right plant for their homes.

 

Please ensure that all items brought in are pest-free and labeled, if possible.

 

For more information, individuals may contact the library at Call: 919-898-4522919-898-4522 or goldston.library[at chathamlibraries org].

 

Information about all Chatham County Library branches can be found at www.chathamlibraries.org.

 

Kara Lusk

Public Information Officer

Chatham County Government"]

[Voter registration for the upcoming election will end at 5pm October 11th [for most people]:  www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election ; elsewhere on the website people can confirm if they are already registered.]

[Fall for Greenville, the Greenville in South Carolina, will be October 11-13th:  FallforGreenville.net ]

[October 11-13, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, in "Reagan National Airport" and near the Pentagon:  2023.animeusa.org ]

[Indigenous Peoples' Day first became a Federal holiday in 2021, marked on Monday, October 14th.] 

[Día de la Raza, similar to the USA's Columbus Day, October 14th in 2023, is October 12th in Mexico.  Columbus reached the New World October 12, 1492 according to the Julian Calendar; Wikipedia says this would be October 21st under the modern Gregorian calendar.]

[Mentioned on NPR on the 10th:  A relatively bright comet will be visible in the western sky from the USA starting on the 10th or 11th, for a month, before disappearing for something like 8,000 years?]  [Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS?] [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2023_A3_(Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) ?]  [Charts to find the Comet, photos, etc.:  skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/get-ready-for-comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-the-best-is-yet-to-come/ , www.astronomy.com/observing/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-will-soon-move-into-the-evening-sky/ , and britastro.org/section_news_item/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-looking-good-for-october ]

[The first discovery of a comet through photography, in a photo taken at Lick Observatory October 12, 1892; the comet was near Altair in Aquila -- Star Names, page 59.]

[The musical Jesus Chris Superstar premiered October 12, 1971 in Manhattan:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar ]

[October 12th is Universal Music Day?]

[TGA Garba Night will be October 12th from 6:30pm at Panther Creek High School in Cary:  ncgta.org ; If I'm not mistaken, this is near the Panther Creek that is a tributary of Northeast Creek, related to the Parmer Edge annexation hearing October 7th in Durham.]

[Hum Sum Diwali 2024 in Cary October 12th.]

[Brajboro Cow Sanctuary open house in Chapel Hill:  brajboro.com/open-every-saturday-1 ]

[October 12th 12-6pm[8pm]:  www.oakcitybrewingcompany.com/event/8th-annual-oak-and-smoke/ ]

[October 12th in Selma, NC:  triangleonthecheap.com/old-north-state-food-hall-selma/ ]

[Charlotte VegFest will be October 12th:  2024charlottevegfest.com ]

[The Duck Jazz Festival will be October 12-13th on the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina:  townfduck.com ] 

[UNC-Chapel Hill's University Day is October 12th.  Tthere were events October 7 - 16th in 2022 -  alumni.unc.edu/things-to-do/volunteer/tar-heel-service-day/ ].  A cornerstone was placed October 12, 1793, making UNC one of the oldest public universities in the country.  Tar Heel Service Day is or was around then:  alumni.unc.edu/events/tar-heel-service-days/ [October 11th-November 11th in 2024.]

[Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be closest to the Earth October 12th or 11th? -- britastro.org/section_news_item/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-looking-good-for-october  See also:  skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/get-ready-for-comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-the-best-is-yet-to-come/ , www.astronomy.com/observing/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-will-soon-move-into-the-evening-sky/ , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2023_A3_(Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) ]

[Charles Messier of France discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51a or NGC 5194, for humanity, October 13, 1773.  This was apparently the first spiral object to be found in outer space.  M51 is in Canes Venatici, by the end of the Big Dipper's handle, shining at 8th magnitude, and might be visible with binoculars.   M51 is interacting with and connected to the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195 or M51b.   A planet might have been found in M51a in 2020, which would be the first known extragalactic planet if true:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy ]

[John Lloyd Stephens (November 28, 1805 – October 13, 1852):   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lloyd_Stephens ]

[Takiji Kobayashi, the author of Kanikousen, 蟹工船, was born October 13, 1903 in Odate, Akita and is thought to have died from torture February 20, 1933 in Tokyo:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takiji_Kobayashi and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kani_Kōsen and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takiji_Kobayashi ]

[The Miracle of the Sun/Milagre do Sol was reportedly seen at Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal October 13, 1917:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun ]

[NASA's Psyche mission to asteroid 16 Psyche launched October 13, 2023 and will reach the asteroid in August 2029, propelled by ion thrusters invented in the USSR, and operate there until at least November 2031.  It will also test the Deep Space Optical Communications system.]

[The third week in October has been North Carolina's annual Native Plants Week since at least 2017:  www.dncr.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2023/10/13/first-lady-kristin-cooper-audubon-join-nc-state-parks-celebrate-new-native-plants-policy ]

[October 13th is No Bra Day, for breast cancer awareness?] 

[The Battle of Hastings between Norman William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, and Anglo-Saxon English king Harold Godwinson was October 14, 1066 in East Sussex:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings  Monday, September 25th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge ]

[Napoleon won the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt against King Frederick William III of Prussia October 14, 1806, now in eastern Germany:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jena–Auerstedt ]

[There was a popular uprising against Thailand's anti-communist military government October 14, 1973:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Thai_popular_uprising ]

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

[Solar eclipses were visible from the USA October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024.]

[Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day, and Canada's Thanksgiving Day are on Monday, October 14th.] 

Get a free photo ID for voting 5-7pm every Monday, through October 14th, at the Chapel Hill Public Library.

The Hillsborough Death Café October 14th 5:45-7:45pm:  @deathcafehillsborough on Facebook

Something ending in October?  Duke Forest is closed to the public, for deer hunting, September 23rd to December 13th:  dukeforest.duke.edu/management/deer-management/

[Charles "Chuck" Yeager broke the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 rocketplane October 14, 1947 over California's Mojave Desert]

[Solar eclipses were visible from the US October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024.]

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be visible from the Northern Hemisphere and bright in October [from October 10th or 11th??]??  How high in the sky?  Perihelion will be this week [in September], on the 27th.  -- spaceweather.com , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2023_A3_(Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) , etc.  [ skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/get-ready-for-comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-the-best-is-yet-to-come/ , www.astronomy.com/observing/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-will-soon-move-into-the-evening-sky/ , and britastro.org/section_news_item/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-looking-good-for-october ]

[German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born October 15, 1844 in Rocken, Saxony, Prussia, in the German Confederation, and passed away August 25, 1900 in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, in the German Empire:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche ]

[Elena Stasova October 15, 1873-December 31, 1966:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Stasova ]

[Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, president of Burkina Faso and known as "Africa's Che Guevara," was assassinated in a military coup October 15, 1987.  The coup placed his former colleague Blaise Compaoré in power until he was himself overthrown October 31, 2014 after trying to amend the constitution for re-election.  Recently Burkina Faso tried 14 people over the coup, including Compaoré, but he was in absentia.  Sankara was born December 21, 1949 in what was then Upper Volta, a French colony.  There is an article at:  www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/20/the-trial-of-thomas-sankaras-killers/ ] 

[The International Day of Rural Women is October 15th:  www.un.org/en/observances/rural-women-day ]

[The first Crimean War began October 16, 1853.]

[Karl Johann Kautsky October 16, 1854-October 17, 1938:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kautsky ]

[Albanian revolutionary and statesman Enver Hoxha was born October 16, 1908 in Gjirokaster, at the time in the Ottoman Empire, and passed away April 11, 1985 in Tirana, Albania:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha , etc.]  [Hoxha's works are available from or posted for free on The November 8th Publishing House ( november8ph.ca/ ), marx2mao.com , marxists.org , revolutionarydemocracy.org , enverhoxha.info , www.enver-hoxha.net/ (these two are multi-lingual), www.enverhoxha.ru/ (in Russian), neodemocracy.blogspot.com, redstarpublishers.org/ , and could be expensive on Amazon, etc.

[The Cuban Missile Crisis was October 16 - 28th, 1962, and came close to sparking a nuclear war.  Among other narrow misses, it was later revealed that a Soviet submarine low on air and very muggy inside, being harassed with depth charges, and unaware of whether a war had begun came close to launching a nuclear torpedo, and one dissenting officer, Vasily Arkhipov, might have single-handedly prevented a nuclear world war.  To end the crisis, Soviet nuclear weapons were withdrawn from Cuba, the US quietly removed nuclear missiles placed near the USSR, and the US promised not to invade Cuba again.  Other things were done to reduce tensions in coming years, but now the US is in a proxy war with Russia and a cold war with China, part of a war in the Middle East involving nuclear-armed countries, abandoning arms control treaties, again trying to overthrow the Cuban government (and the governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua), and is refurbishing old nuclear weapons and developing new ones to threaten Russia, China, and non-nuclear countries, though the superpowers are all now more or less in agreement about capitalism.  

The threat of nuclear war was a non-issue for the mainstream "Western" media for decades until Biden told them to cover it in October 2022 and it was barely mentioned even when the media highlighted prominent voices calling for NATO to impose a non-fly zone in Ukraine and earlier in Syria, which would have meant going to war with Russia.  On the other hand, maybe the media was irresponsibly pushing these views, for some reason, knowing that they would not be carried out.  From what I have heard, the media admits the horror of nuclear weapon use, but the US isn't brutal for having used them against Japan, the US hasn't threatened anyone with its vast nuclear arsenal sinnce then, and 'all options are on the table' is only an inhuman threat when coming from a country other than the USA.  Nuclear war is mostly a non-issue for the mainstream media in 2024 as well.  Don't listen to Russian red lines and threats, their guests from Ukraine, the deep state, etc., say.]

[China's first nuclear test, Project 596 or Miss Qiu, 邱小姐, Qiū Xiǎojiě, was October 16, 1964, part of the Two Bombs, One Satellite program.  A Dongfeng-2 missile carrying a nuclear warhead was tested October 27, 1966, China's first hydrogen bomb was tested June 17, 1967, its first underground nuclear test was September 22, 1969, and Dong Fang Hong 1, East Is Red # ,1 its first satellite, heavier than the first self-launched Soviet, US, French, and Japanese satellites put together, was launched on a Long March 1 rocket April 24, 1970, and transmitted "The East Is Red."  Qian Xuesen, December 11, 1911-October 31, 2009, pushed out of the US during the Korean War, proposed China's human spaceflight program afterward.]

[Halley's Comet was imaged by Cal Tech October 16, 1982 , as it returned to the inner the solar system in the mid-80's:  Comet Fever by Donald Gropman with Kenneth Mirvis.]

[George W Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq (AUMF) October 16, 2002.  It had been passed by Congress with the help of Joe Biden, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.]   

[World Food Day is October 16th:  www.fao.org/world-food-day/en ]

[Wadee AlFayoumi October 16th?]

[Liberal Russian performance artist Petr Pavlensky set fire to a Bank of France office on the Place de Bastille in Paris October 17, 2017 (the act was called "Lightning"), though his family had just been granted asylum in France earlier that year after fleeing Russia over sexual assault charges, which sounds similar to the attack on Julian Assange, but Assange wasn't supported by the mainstream media.  November 10, 2013 Pavlensky nailed himself by the scrotum, while nude, to Moscow's Red Square  This is apparently a relatively common practice among prisoners in Russia -  www.newsru.com/russia/10nov2013/pavlensky.html , and easier than cutting one's innards or setting one's self on fire in protest.] 

[Alex Saab, detained by Cape Verde as he returned from a diplomatic mission to Iran for Venezuela, was extradited to the USA October 16, 2021 and was held in Miami:  afgj.org/free-alex-saab  The Venezuelan government ended negotiations with its opponents in Mexico at the time over the extradition.  The US government apparently hoped to extract information about how Venezuela has weathered the US economic and dipomatic (and sometimes shadowy "kinetic") "regime change" campaign against the country.  There is now talk about US citizens allegedly arrested for political reasons by other countries, but the US government of course never does such things.]

[The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is October 17th:  www.un.org/en/observances/day-for-eradicating-poverty ]

[Up to 300 Algerian protesters, peacefully demonstrating against the Algerian War (November 1, 1954 - 1962), were killed by French police in the Paris Massacre of 1961, on October 17th.  The related Charonne Massacre happened February 8, 1962, when the police killed nine trade unionists demonstrating against a French terrorist group.  Only in recent years has France admitted that torture was systematic during the war, and even French citizens were tortured and killed extrajudicially.] 

[The Palestine Solidarity Movement held its fourth national meeting, at Durham's Duke University October 15-17, 2004, I think at the Friends meetinghouse on Alexander Avenue (?).  I think there was a lot of controversy at the time, and speech in solidarity with the Palestinians is still controversial to dangerous in the USA, UK, Germany, Australia, and other "free" "Western" countries in 2024.  Somehow I attended both the PSM meeting and the MWM that weekend and I think I ran into some of same people at both:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Solidarity_Movement  I think there was a Yahoo listserve, better than today's dependence on social media owned by Zuckerberg, Musk, etc. for organizing.]

[The Million Worker March was October 17, 2004 in Washington, DC.  Thousands participated (and there were one or more buses from the Triangle and elsewhere in North Carolina) and while there were not actually one million people there, according to the Wikipedia article the endorsing unions represented about 3.5 million workers.  There is now a book by an organizer.]

[National Opossum Day is apparently also October 17th, celebrating and raising awareness of the USA's last marsupial, a possibly misunderstood beneficial animal frequently hit on roads during the winter.  Being a marsupial, a female possum could have young in her pouch or riding on her back, and even if the mother is killed, the pups might be able to be saved by a wildlife rehabilitator.  Various people who should know have informed me that opossums either can't get rabies or are very unlikely to infect someone, so a good Samaritan is unlikely to get infected helping injured opossums, though it would still be best to wear gloves, wash thoroughly afterward, etc.  Unfortunately a few species are barred by law from rehabilitation in North Carolina because of the danger of rabies, but opossums are not on that list and I have handled injured opossums.  I'm surprised that none used their teeth and claws.  On the other hand, I think I read that rabies can take years to manifest in humans.  In mid-October a year or two ago opossums were going to a nearby persimmon tree most nights.  Many species gather in or under fruiting persimmons, day and night, myself included, but 2024 might be a poor fruiting year, due to the early summer drought.]

Early voting is October 17th-November 2nd?  [It seems to be:  www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election ]

[The West End Poetry Festival 2024 -- October 17-19th in Carrboro:  www.carrboronc.gov/2977/Festival-Schedule-2024 ]

[October 17th is a full moon and Ashwina Purnima?]  [In Louise Riotte's Sleeping with a Sunflower October's Full Moon is called the Hunter's Moon, following the Harvest Moon and preceding the Beaver Moon, when trapping was done, before the winter freeze by December; these are supposed to be Native American names, probably from much further north than NC.]

[The Blake Society's October 18, 2023 email newsletter highlights the life and work of his wife, Catherine Sophia (Boucher) Blake, April 25, 1762-October 18, 1832.  Both are interred in London's Bunhill Cemetery.]

[UK propaganda broadcaster the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was founded October 18, 1922, as the private British Broadcasting Company.]  

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

[The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, limiting Iran's nuclear activities was adopted October 18, 2015.  October 13, 2017 Trump accused Iran of violating the nuclear deal, leading to US withdrawal and sabotage of the agreement, which other governments were trying to continue, and Biden won't return to it.  Supposedly Trump now wants a deal with Iran (see below).]

[Colin Powell died due to coronavirus October 18, 2021.  When Powell and John Negroponte appeared before the UN February 5, 2003 to justify invading Iraq a full-sized tapestry of Picasso's painting Guernica was temporarily covered up.]

[Global Beats:  An Evening with the Arts in Raleigh Friday, October 18th:  internationalfocus.org/fall-2024-global-social ]

[The 49th Annual Carolina BalloonFest will be October 18-20th in Statesville, NC:  CarolinaBalloonFest.com ]

[Samora Machel, president of Mozambique, was killed in a suspicious plane crash October 19, 1986, resulting in the country turning away from socialist construction.] 

[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.]  

[Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont flew his airship Number 6 over a short course in Paris in 29 minutes, 30 seconds October 19, 1901.  Airships and Zeppelins existed by that time.  CDB Bryan compares this event to the reported performance of 19th and early 20th century "mystery airships" in his Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind.  See also Wikipedia.]

[The Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 was signed October 19th, formally restoring peace between the two countries.]

[October 19, 2014 liberal Russian performance artist Petr/Pyotr Andreyevich Pavlensky, seated naked on the roof of Moscow's Serbsky Center, cut an earlobe off with a chef's knife, a reference to Vincent Van Gogh, meant to draw attention to the use of psychiatry against political opponents; the act was called "Segregation:" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Pavlensky ]

[The first interstellar object known to be in our solar system, '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.  Apparently even a mission in 2045 wouldn't be too late, or a future interstellar probe could be sent.

Homestead Road Plant Swap October 19th 12-2pm in Chapel Hill

[The ICC Fall Food Festival will be October 19th 10am-3pm in Apex:  icc-church.org ]

Orange County GOP 6th annual blue grass and BBQ October 19th 11am-3pm at Exchange Club Park in Hillsborough; there is a ticket cost.

[The Morrisville Diwali Festival will be October 19th 6-9pm:  www.morrisvillenc.gov/recreation/parks-recreation-cultural-resources/special-events/diwali ] 

[The Halloween Boo Bash October 19th 11am-2pm in downtown Wake Forest:   www.wakeforestnc.gov/meetings-events/halloween-boo-bash ]

[Kamala Devi Harris was born October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris ]

[Libyan leader Qaddafi was killed brutally and without trial October 20, 2011, after having given up Libya's nuclear weapons program, such as it was, and opening up to the US and EU imperialists.  Hillary Clinton reportedly laughed watching it on video.  This is the model being offered to DPR Korea if it unilaterally "denuclearizes." ]

[The Breast Cancer Hub's OctoberFest 2024 will be October 20th in Concord, NC:   BreastCancerHub.org ]

Christopher Columbus first encountered the New World early on October 21, 1492 (under the modern Gregorian calendar); apparently October 12th is the date under the old Julian calendar. [

[Samuel Taylor Coleridge October 21, 1772 in Ottery-St Mary, Devon, UK-July 25, 1834 in Highgate, Middlesex, near London:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge  Apparently Eurasian beavers were extinct in the UK after about 1550, yet some were found in the River Otter in 2013.  Bizarrely some people wanted them to be captured and removed.  So far they have been allowed to stay in the Otter, becoming the first native extinct animal re-wilded reintroduced with official sanction in "England:"  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Otter,_Devon ]

[The Peoria Indian War in Illinois was September 19 to October 21 in 1813 – see the timelines in This Country Was Ours:  A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.]

[The Treaty of Medicine Lodge, Kansas was October 21, 1867.]

[Apparently the Zweiss planetarium projector, of which there is or was one in use at UNC's Morehead Planetarium, was first unveiled at Munich's Deutsches Museum October 21, 1923.  The projector was proposed February 24, 1914.  The Deutsches Museum had opened November 12, 1906:  spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2023/10/centennial-projection-planetarium.html ]

[A very large, very fast gray animal or USO was reported by a few people in the Southwold, UK area, all on October 21, 1938? -- Fortean Times June 2022 issue FT419 and in Heuvelmans, 1968  Logs? -- Fortean Times October 2022 issue FT423.  hiddenea.com/lanternarchive.htm #13 1976? ]

[October 21, 1952 -- a sighting of three UFOs by Air Commodore Michael "Mick" Swiney and Lieutenant David Crofts, while climbing from RAF base Little Rissington, Gloucestershire, UK in a Gloster Meteor VII fighter jet, at around 30,000;' the UFOs were detected on radar but interceptors did not find anything; this was shortly after the UK's first atomic test (date?):  Fortean Times magazine June 2024 issue FT445.]

[Tens of thousands of demonstrators (maybe 50,000) participated in the March on the Pentagon October 21st, 1967, protesting the Vietnam War.  There was a much smaller March on the Pentagon in 2018, see a previous post.]  [The Women's March on the Pentagon, etc. October 21-22, 2018:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2018/10/reportback-from-womens-march-on.html ]

[International Observe the Moon Night is October 21st (?):  moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/ ]

[National Reptile Awareness Day is October 21st:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_dates ?]

[Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz October 22, 1783 in Galatta, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire-September 18, 1840 in Philadelphia:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Samuel_Rafinesque ]

[American journalist and revolutionary John Reed was born October 22, 1887 in Portland, Oregon.  He wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, a first-hand account of the Great October Socialist Revolution, and he is one of three Americans honored with burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.]

[The National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation is every October 22nd:  revcom.us/en ]

[Israel bombed Jenin's al-Ansar Mosque October 22, 2023 and I think it was reported that their fighter jets are operating over the West Bank for the first time since the Second Intifada.  The Rafah Crossing was opened around then, and the already intense bombing, compared to the Afghanistan War, and including the chemical weapon white phosphorus, increased.  The al-Ahli Hospital explosion was October 17, 2023.  Israel is continuing to bomb Syria, without any action by Russian air defenses in the country, the Israel occupied Golan Heights were shelled from inside Syria and there is fighting with Lebanon's Hezbollah.  PA fire accidentally hit Palestinian children in the West Bank.  The Islamic University of Gaza was bombed October 11th.  The Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius in Gaza was bombed October 19th.  I only heard it mentioned once, in passing, but the USS Carney allegedly shot down weapons fired towards Israel by Ansar Allah / the Houthis in Yemen.  The US occupation force in Syria is being attacked, though they are also there illegally and the US if not others are probably co-belligerents with Israel by now.  Another Biden administration war, and the difference from the talk about the war in Ukraine, which it seemed like the media was trying to refocus attention on when the al-Ahli Hospital explosion happened.]

[Historian John (Juan) Ricaro Irfan Cole was born October 23, 1952 in Albuquerque, New Mexico:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Cole ]

[The Orionid meteor shower, pieces of Halley's Comet, will be visible September 26 – November 22, peaking October 20 – 21.  The weaker Southern Taurids September 28 – December 2, peaking November 4 – 5 and the Northern Taurids October 13 – December 2, peaking November 11 – 12; the Leonids November 3 – December 2, peaking November 17 – 18, maybe with a storm in 2099; the Geminids November 19 – December 24, peaking December 13 – 14; the Ursids December 13 – 24, peaking December 21 – 22; and the Quadrantids December 26 – January 16, peaking January 3 – 4:  amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ ]

[The Libra the Scales or Balance astrological period is traditionally around September 23 – October 23, following Virgo the Virgin.  October 24 – November 22 the Sun is supposed to be further east, in the sign Scorpio the Scorpion, the constellation Scorpius, and November 23 – December 21 is Sagittarius the Archer, a centaur.  Due to a motion of the Earth's axis, precession, and perhaps because the boundaries of the constellations have been redrawn or reimagined over time, the Sun is actually 'in' Libra around November 1 – 23, in Scorpius November 23 – 30, in Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer November 30 – December 18, in Sagittarius December 19 – January 19, etc.:  Skyguide by Mark R Chartrand III and the relevant Audubon guide.  Planets can enter the sea monster Cetus, another non-traditional member of the Western zodiac, further east than the above constellations and up much of the night now.

Scorpius hasn't always been imagined as a scorpion in the Western astronomical tradition, though it has apparently been seen as a scorpion for a very long time, and was a scorpion to the ancient Maya.  Under the Romans (?) Scorpius' claws were separated out as the big, relatively dim diamond of Libra, and held the Northern Hemisphere's fall equinox, the spring equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, around September 21st every year, but now out of Libra.  Some of the brightest stars of Libra still bear their arthropod names, from Arabic:  Zubenelgenubi, "the southern claw of the scorpion;" Zubeneschemali, "the northern claw of the scorpion;" and Zubenelakrab, the "scorpion's claw."]

[The traditional Western Scorpio period, following Libra the Scales/Balance, formerly the claws of Scorpius the Scorpion, begins October 24th, but apparently the Sun is now 'in' Virgo September 21st to November 1st, in Libra until November 23rd, in Scorpius until November 30th, in Ophiuchus until December 18th, and then in Sagittarius, etc. ] 

[According to the Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology, 1980 translation, etc., Libra, an air, cardinal, and positive polarity sign, is associated with the planet Venus, Fridays, copper, the color blue, the kidneys, adrenal glands, lumbar region, ovaries, skin, and related diseases, etc.  Scorpio, a water, fixed, and negative polarity sign, is associated with Mars and Pluto, Tuesdays, iron, steel, plutonium, dark red, the reproductive and excretory organs, large intestine, and bladder, and, as an eagle, is reportedly the fourth beast in the Bible's Book of Revelation, along with Leo, Taurus, and Aquarius.  The constellations Libra, Ara, and Virgo might be historically related, and Scorpius and Sagittarius, besides Libra being Scorpius' reapportioned claws.]

[Augusta Foote Arnold October 24, 1844 in Seneca Falls, New York-May 9, 1904 in Manhattan:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Foote_Arnold ]

[Georgian Bolshevik Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze October 24, 1886 in Ghoresha, now in the western central area of the Republic of Georgia – February 18, 1937 in Moscow, interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.]

[Disarmament Week is October 24th - 30th:  www.un.org/en/observances/disarmament-week  It begins with United Nations Day, when the UN was founded:  www.un.org/en/observances/un-day  October 24th is also World Development Information Day:  www.un.org/en/observances/development-information-day ] 

[The DC sniper spree ended with the arrest of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo October 24, 2002 near Myersville, Maryland.]

[Global Media and Information Literacy Week is October 24th - 31st:  www.un.org/en/observances/media-information-literacy-week ]

[Durham YMCA Trunk or Treat at the Durham Central Park October 24th 5:30-7:30pm:  www.ymcatriangle.org/node/175902 ]

[The Battle of Agincourt was near Azincourt in northern France October 25, 1415, during the Hundred Years' War.  The English defeated a larger French army:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt ]

[Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr October 25, 1888 in Winchester, Virginia March 11, 1957 in Boston, Massachusetts:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Byrd ]

[Early kamikaze attacks began during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 25, 1944:  Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, 2002.]

[The USA under Reagan and a few forces from neighboring countries attacked the Caribbean nation of Grenada October 25 - 29, 1983 with some US losses, but killing more Grenadan soldiers, civilians, and Cubans, as well as injuring Soviet citizens and many others.]  

[The US anti-war organization United for Peace and Justice was founded October 25, 2002:  www.unitedforpeace.org/about/get-involved/history/ ]

[The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the Senate October 25, 2002 and later renewed under Bush and Obama.  Soon afterward the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee was created, with very active BORDC chapters in Durham and Orange counties among others; in 2015 it merged with the Defending Dissent Foundation to create Defending Rights and Dissent, which is active today:  www.rightsanddissent.org/about/  A related group is NC Stop Torture Now:  ncstn.org , which is also still active.]

[There were large demonstrations against the Iraq War October 25, 2003.]

[The afternoon of October 25, 2018 F-15s were dispatched to fruitlessly look for a white UFO, not appearing on radar, at an altitude of about 40,000,' between Seattle and Portland – Flying Saucer Digest #219 Winter 2018.]

[October 25th is supposed to be the 75th anniversary of Effigy Mounds National Monument and the 26th is supposed to be the 50th anniversary of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site.]

[The free Fridays on the Front Porch is still held at the Carolina Inn, across from the main UNC campus in Chapel Hill, 5-8pm April 19th-October 25 in 2024.]

[The naval Battle of Myeongnyang between invading Japanese forces and Joseon Korea was around October 26, 1597.]

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

[Hillary Rodham Clinton was born October 26, 1947 in Chicago:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton ]

[Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi (عباس الموسوي; October 26 1952 – killed by Israel, using the then new US Apache helicopter, February 16 1992 with his wife and son, age five, and four more).]

October 26th 12-5pm -- Dia de Carolina:  chapelhillarts.org

[October 26th 12-4pm in Raleigh:  www.facebook.com/events/s/wellness-fair/1189646475449938/ ]

[Scare-o-lina Skies at Morehead Planetarium at UNC in Chapel Hill October 26th and 27th:  moreheadplanetarium.org/calendar/ ]

[Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site's Fall Festival in Four Oaks, Johnston County, October 26th 10am-4pm:  historicsites.nc.gov/news/events/bentonvilles-fall-festival ]

[The NC Dussehra Festival will October 26th at 4pm in Morrisville, NC:  hsnctemple.org ]

[Fall Fantasy Market in Raleigh October 26th:  tapyardraleigh.com/ ]

[Shubh Diwali Celebrations will held October 26th-November 2nd in Greensboro, NC:  baps.org.greensboro ]

[The Great Comet of 1577 reached perihelion round October 27th and was noted 5 days later in Peru.  It was noted in the native Mexican Codex Aubin Wednesday, November 6th.  It was seen around the world, but it isn't expected to ever return.]

[The Pinckney's Treaty was October 27, 1795.]

[The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with Tashkent as its capital, was created within the RSFSR April 30, 1918.  The name varied.  It was abolished October 27, 1924 and ultimately divided into the Central Asian republics of the USSR, today independent countries.]

[100 Federal and other forces attacked the Pit River Indians occupying the Lassen National Forest in Burney, California October 27, 1970.  Ishi, a Yahi, had lived in this area of northern California.] 

[The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is October 27th, as we see how impermanent our audiovisual heritage, software, and data are:  www.unesco.org/en/days/audiovisual-heritage and  www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks  Even the UN doesn't keep with one Web address for such pages for very long.]

[Catalonia declared independence from Spain October 27, 2017, but Spain used force to stay in control of its portion of Catalonia.]

[October 27th 4-6pm, rain date TBA, a Friends of Bolin Creek picnic dinner at the Jean Earnhardt Historic Farmstead (for more information:  triangleland.org/company-news/landowner-qa ), 600 Bolin Brook Farm, in Chapel Hill; food and drink from Mediterranean Deli; free, but there is a suggested donation of $10 dollars; RSVP by October 24th at:  www.eventbrite.com/e/friends-of-bolin-creek-picnic-dinner-tickets-1040233204517 ]

[October 28-30 in Vancouver, Canada:  www.climatefairshare.ca/#sessions ]

[Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar was born October 29, 1962 in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, at the time controlled by Egypt:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Sinwar ]

[French structuralist anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss November 28, 1908 – October 30, 2009]

[The Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 was October 30-November 1, jointly sponsored by the US and the USSR, regarding Palestine, etc.]

October 31, 1973 -- an IRA prison escape via helicopter.  [Three IRA prisoners escaped from the Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland in a commandeered Aérospatiale Alouette II helicopter October 31, 1973, the subject of at least one song, though the escapees were eventually recaptured.  The same type of helicopter was used in a prison escape as recently as July 2018 in France and they were gunships in the Algerian War.]

[Diwali and Halloween coincide this year.]  [For Diwali events during October see saathee.com/events ; the 31st is also Samhain, Narak Chaturdashi, and Deepavali, they say.]

[The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead ( Le Jour / La Fete des Morts ) is November 1-2nd (Wikipedia says it is October 31st - November 2, and possibly also November 6th in places, but US calendars usually say it is only November 2nd) and Halloween is Thursday, October 31, 2023.  According to Wikipedia the Celtic harvest festival Samhain is the evening of October 31st through November 1st. 

Catholicism and many Protestant churches commemorate All Saints' Day ( La Toussaint) on November 1st and Catholicism commemorates All Souls' Day November 2nd.  October 31st to November 2nd is also known as Allhallowtide, Hallowtide, Hallowmas season, and Allsaintstide.  Martinmas November 11th is also known as Old Halloween.]

[A war with the Seminoles was November 20, 1817 to October 31, 1818; others were in 1812 and December 8, 1835 to August 14, 1842 and there was a Florida Indian war December 15, 1855 to May 8, 1858.]

[World Cities Day is October 31st:  www.un.org/en/observances/cities-day ]

[November is Native American Heritage Month.]

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

[The Taliban offered to surrender very early in the Afghanistan War, according to an article I saw at the end of the war.  Unfortunately I don't remember where the article was; here is a New York Times article discussing a surrender offer as early as November 2001:  www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/world/middleeast/afghanistan-taliban-deal-united-states.html  Also:  www.consortiumnews.com/2011/020811b.html  Whether there really was a genuine offer of full surrender, the Taliban faced armed opposition and did not control all of Afghanistan at the beginning of October 2001, but now they are the national government, well-armed, and apparently have at least some support among non-Pashtuns and even among the Hazara ethnic group, who they formerly and are apparently still persecuting.  After withdrawing, the US and other countries withheld vital aid, after destroying Afghanistan's economy and making it dependent on foreign aid over 40 years of war, hammering the Afghan population for leverage against the Taliban, like the hammering of the populations of Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and 90's Iraq.] 

[Pontiac's war against the British colonies destroyed all but two forts west of Niagara from May 7th to November 1763:  This Country Was Ours:  A Documentary History of the American Indian, by Virgil J Vogel, 1974.]

[Italian pilot Giulio Gavotti carried out the first known aerial bombardment using an airplane November 1, 1911, bombing two Ottoman Turkish bases in Libya during the short Italo-Turkish War a few years before WWI.  Apparently the Ottomans argued that this was illegal under the Hague Convention of 1899, which banned bombardment by balloon.  Balloons had been used for reconnaissance during the wars following the French Revolution and in the US Civil War, while Germany used giant zeppelins to bomb the UK during WWI.  In the decades leading up to WWI there were reports of high-performance mystery airships around the world.]      

[The war for Algerian independence from France began November 1, 1954 and lasted until March 19, 1962.  The Battle of Algiers is a well-known film on the national liberation war, banned in France for years.]   

[Minor planet/comet 2060 Chiron, a centaur asteroid or object, possibly ringed, was identified November 1, 1977, in October 18th photos, and had been photogrphed in 1895.]

[November 1st is World Vegan Day ]

[November 1, 1991 Yeltsin was given the power to issue decrees regarding the economy even if they violated Russian law.]

 

[The 8th Annual Day of the Dead at the City of Raleigh Museum November 1st 6:30-9pm; the 2023 website:  iamquixote.com/service/7th-annual-day-of-the-dead-city-of-raleigh-museum/ ]

[A supernova in Cassiopeia in our galaxy was seen from about November 2, 1572 into 1574 and peaked around November 16th; it is sometimes called Tycho's Supernova.]

[November 2, 1917, during WWI, the UK issued the Balfour Declaration, promising support for Zionist goals in Palestine, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central powers.] 

[Georges Eugène Sorel was born November 2, 1847 in Cherbourg, France and passed away August 29, 1922 in Boulogne-sur-Seine, near Paris:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Sorel ]  [His most influential work is probably Reflections on Violence, published in 1908.]

[Patrick Joseph Buchanan was born November 2, 1938 in Washington, DC:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan ]

November 2nd 12-5pm -- Dia de los Muertos:  chapelhillarts.org

The Statesville Pumpkin Festival will be November 2nd:  StatesvillePumpkinFest.com ]

[November 3rd is Culture Day ( 文化の日 , Bunka no Hi) in Japan, celebrating the arts, culture, and scholarship; the Apollo 11 astronauts are among the recipients of the Order of Culture presented on this day.  The post-war Japanese constitution, which the ruling rightist Liberal Democratic Party wants to amend, was announced November 3, 1946.  November 3rd had already been a holiday, commemorating the birth of Emperor Meiji, who ruled 1867-1912, during the Meiji Revolution or Restoration that created modern capitalist/imperialist Japan.

[The USSR launched Sputnik 2 November 3, 1957.]

[The Greensboro Massacre was November 3, 1979.  KKK and American Nazi Party members fired on a "Death to the Klan" demonstration organized by the now disbanded Communist Workers' Party, killing 5 people and wounding others.  Some police were present and the local police and Federal agencies had infiltrated the KKK and neo-Nazi groups.  For more information see:   www.greensboromassacrelessonstoday.org/ ]  [There is a previous post.]

[Musician and recording engineer Malachi Ritscher burned himself to death in condemnation of the Iraq War November 3, 2006 near the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. His final statement is included in:  chicago.indymedia.org/archive/newswire/display/74806/index.php and he wrote his own obituary at:  www.savagesound.com/gallery100.htm ]

[The Tigray War in northern Ethiopia was November 3, 2020-November 3, 2022:   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigray_war ]

[DST will end in the USA on Sunday, November 3, 2024 for another year.]  [The Federal government seems to control US time standards, but local governments can opt out, though few do so, despite regular complaints.] 

[The NCBG's annual Jenny Elder Finch Memorial Lecture, "What We Sow in Cultivating Our Places -- How a Garden Culture of Care Grows Places and Their People," given by author and producer Jennifer Jewell, will be November 3rd 5:30-6:45pm, in-person and streamed online, but preregistration is necessary:  ncbg.unc.edu/event/fitch-memorial-lecture-2024/ ]

[The USSR intervened in Hungary November 4, 1956.]

[The BIA office in Washington, DC was occupied by the Trail of Broken Treaties march or movement November 4-8, 1972.]

[British working class democratic reformer Thomas Hardy (not the famous author) was acquitted of High Treason on Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th) 1794, but at a high personal cost.  Subsequently the other arrested radicals were also acquitted or prosecution was dropped.  Who could vote or otherwise participate in British bourgeois democracy was very restricted until well into the 20th century.  For more information see an article in Monthly Review:  monthlyreview.org/2019/11/01/the-trial-of-thomas-hardy/ and Thomas Hardy's Wikipedia entry:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy_(political_reformer) ]

[Eugene V Debs, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, was born November 5, 1855.  He was imprisoned for advocating draft resistance during WWI, and sentenced to a decade in prison and loss of suffrage November 18, 1918, but ran for the presidency again in 1920, from a Federal prison in Atlanta.  President Harding commuted his sentence in 1921 and he died in 1926.]  

[Travis Walton is supposed to have been abducted by a UFO November 5, 1975 near Snowflake, Arizona, and was missing for a few days.]

[The general election will be November 5th and absentee ballots must be returned by 7:30pm in North Carolina, in most cases.  I think I heard that under Federal if not State law people can request a provisional ballot if there is a problem on the 5th, and it will be counted if the problem or dispute can be resolved.  After a long political and legal struggle pushed for years by the Republicans, voting in North Carolina now requires a State-accepted photo ID:  www.ncsbe.gov/voting/upcoming-election ] 

[The Battle of Tippecanoe was November 7, 1811 in Indiana.]

[The Bolshevik Great October Socialist Revolution in the Russian Empire began November 7, 1917 [107 years ago], October 25th under the calendar in use at the time; it followed the bourgeois democratic February or March Revolution that had begun March 8, 1917 (February 23rd under the old calendar):  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_Revolution ]

[The Chinese Soviet Republic was founded November 7, 1931, but was dissolved September 22, 1937.]

[According to Wikipedia French Catalonia's national day is November 7th while Spanish Catalonia's is September 11th.]

[NATO military exercise Able Archer 83, held November 7 - 11, 1983 and simulating a conventional war becoming nuclear (Ukraine or Taiwan soon?), might have brought the world close to a real world war during the tense early 80's.  An Able Archer used to be held every year.]

[Hernan Cortés and part of his Spanish and allied Indian army were met by emperor Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin or Moctezuma II on a causeway and peacefully entered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan around November 8, 1519.  They were chased out and came close to total defeat in La Noche Triste in the summer of 1520.]

[The Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania) was founded November 8, 1941 through a merger of groups.  At the time Albania was occupied by Fascist Italy.]  

 

[Old Bolshevik Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov passed away November 8, 1986.] 

[November 8, 1985 Halley's Comet is supposed to have been spotted with unaided eyes for the first time, on its mid-80's approach to the inner Solar System, by Stephen Edberg, coordinating grassroots observations for JPL, and Charles Morris.]

[There was a total lunar eclipse shortly before dawn as seen from North Carolina on Tuesday, November 8, 2022:  spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2022/11/total-lunar-eclipse-early-tue-morning-w.html ]

[November 9th the Occupational Health and Safety Administration fined Caterpillar, Inc $145,027 dollars for a lack of safety guards at its Mapleton foundry in central Illinois, which produces engine parts, where a new employee, 39, fell to his death in an 11' deep container of molten iron June 2nd.  He was a melting specialist and had been getting a sample of the metal heated to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit:  www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region5/11092022-0 , www.wtap.com/2022/11/15/caterpillar-employee-immediately-incinerated-after-falling-into-pot-molten-iron-osha-says/  Caterpillar has also been accused of supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine.]

[At 1:15am on November 9, 2015 liberal Russian performance artist Petr/Pyotr Andreyevich Pavlensky, burned a door at Moscow's Lubyanka and was arrested about 30 seconds later; the act was called "Threat."  He spent weeks in a mental health facility and 7 months in jail before being tried and convicted of vandalism June 8, 2016.  Pavlensky refused to pay the 500,000 ruble fine, as he would refuse to pay the fine for "Lightning," committed October 16, 2017 in Paris, where he had been granted asylum earlier that year.  Apparently a August 13, 2016 speech in Odessa, Ukraine resulted in a fight with Ukrainian journalist and screenwriter Vladimir Nestrenko, who was drunk.  Of the two members of security who intervened, one was stabbed and the other died of a heart attack afterward.  November 10, 2013, Police Day at the time, Pavlensky, nude, nailed himself by the scrotum to Moscow's Red Square in front of the Lenin Mausoleum, calling the act "Fixation."  This is apparently a relatively common act by prisoners in Russia -  www.newsru.com/russia/10nov2013/pavlensky.html , and easier than cutting one's self open or self-immolation in protest.  See also:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Pavlensky ]

[The 11th annual Verse and Vino, organized by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, will be November 7th at the Charlotte Convention Center:  foundation.cmlibrary.org/events/verse-vino

[Hitler's failed Munich or Beer Hall Putsch coup attempt was November 8-9, 1923.  The German Republic had been declared November 9, 1918, Kristallnacht was November 9, 1938, and the Berlin Wall was breached November 9, 1989:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification#Day_of_German_Unity ] 

[November 9-10 in 2024:  durhampotterytour.com ]

[Armistice Day/Veterans Day/Canadian Remembrance Day is Monday, November 11th.]

[COP29 will be November 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference ]

[Asteroid 21 Lutetia was discovered November 15, 1852:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Lutetia ]

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

[November 24, 1898-November 12, 1969:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shaoqi ]

[The COP29 climate change conference will be in November in Baku, the capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan, though maybe the escalating war in the Middle East will derail plans.]

[November 22-24th, the 17th annual:  discoverseagrove.com/events/celebration-of-seagrove-potters-main-event/ ]

[The Raleigh Christmas Parade will return November 23rd at 9:30am.]    

AKD of the JVP was born November 24, 1968 in Galewela, Sri Lanka:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anura_Kumara_Dissanayake

[US Thanksiving is Thursday, November 28th in 2024.] 

[NAARPR's inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference will be December 6-8th in Jacksonville, Florida:  popularresistance.org/naarpr-organizing-conference-2024-call-to-action/  (Fight Back! News)]

[Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site's 'In Heavenly Peace:'  Bentonville's Christmas Open House in Four Oaks, Johnston County, December 7th5-8:30pm:  historicsites.nc.gov/news/events/heavenly-peace-bentonvilles-christmas-open-house ]

December 15, 1944 -- 97 Italian WWII POWs escaped from a UK prison in Doonfoot, Ayr?

[ September 27, 2024-January 5, 2025, with other events, at UNC:  ackland.org/exhibition/durer-to-matisse-400-years-of-european-prints/ ]

[Sign the Ignacio Ramonet (a former editor of Le Monde diplomatique) letter urging Biden to remove Cuba from the US "State Sponsors of Terrorism List:" docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaHeuAkEQjoSBRCnVwM-11KHXeYtsgWUYm4accRnIx5Khmcw/viewform?s=08&fbzx=1890844770816095830 ]

[Sign up to get an announcement about the demonstration against an upcoming ICBM test at Vandenberg SFB  in California, which will be on short notice:   docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScR4AiszL7eEOJaAsGU_BCvyTqGdoFlpLOhKoXz89EvzYxTXg/viewform?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=e8ef5f4b-d351-4b64-9622-eebdefc2c0ac  Send a letter to Congress:  rootsaction.org/eliminate-icbms ]

[October Surprise at RDU1 -- volunteer to help organize a union (flyering, etc.) at the Amazon warehouse in or near Raleigh:   docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScPzoNOW_q6qcXqmLdxfGok4CQ_JIIU8vShx2C2pplCnoSAaw/viewform?pli=1   A union victory here would be the second at Amazon and the first in the South.]

Triangle Guerrilla Cinema, as one word, on Instagram

The Wake Tech Dental Hygiene Program is accepting new patients. 

Banned Books Week is September 22-28 (?) and Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill is supporting the Prison Books Collective (Prison Banned Books Week was September 15-21):  flyleafbooks.com/support-prison-books-collective

It looked like large American persimmons are falling from a still green tree up the road on the 24th.  There are very few on the nearby tree this year, though some might have been picked off by animals early.  Pawpaws and some (fox??) grapes ripen around now in this area [and black walnuts, or are they in October?].  The domesticated Bartlett-type pears I missed last year?  At Coker Arboretum the parsley hawthorn fruit were still green.  I was surprised to see that a few cypress were standing in a pool of water on the 24th.  I'm not sure if I've seen a pool there before.  It has been warmer and summerlike, often wet, and there were brief showers, "heat lighning," and thunder over 24 hours ago, and cloudy most of the day.  A yellow light was reflected in the clouds over RTP in the evening, it being fall and greenhouses lit at night.

At UNC's Coker Arboretum on September 24th higanbana (Lycoris radiata) plants were abundant in the north and west, but almost all were just naked flower stalks.  The very last few flowers were in the southwest.  I'm not sure how much longer they will last.  I hadn't seen one blooming in person before, and they are more of a flesh red or pink than blood red or bright/deep red.  Lycoris radiata have about six long, thin petals and very long and red flower parts and they are in the Amaryllis family (as is or was the much smaller and similarly six-petalled yellow stargrass, a Hypoxis, that I saw blooming on the hill behind the main part of the NCBG months ago; I thought it was also called yellow-eyed grass, like blue-eyed grass, which is in the iris family) and are native to Asia.  [The yellow-eyed grasses are in the genus Xyris.]  Higanbana is a Japanese name and in Japan they are associated with death and the afterlife (ヒガンバナ, apparently 彼岸花 in Japanese kanji, or manjushage/manjushake, 曼珠沙華, and 石蒜 in Chinese, "stone" plus "garlic;" apparently they were first brought to this country around 1854 [, allegedly to the garden of Lavinia Cole Roberts in New Bern, NC; they were first introduced to Japan from China around 700 CE]:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoris_radiata , dl.ndl.go.jp/en/pid/1908225/1/47 , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanzu_River [and southerngardenhistory.org/plant-profiles/spider-lily-lycoris-radiata/ and www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/red-spiderlily.aspx , plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lycoris-radiata/common-name/equinox-flower/ , plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lycoris-squamigera/ (the light pink Lycoris), powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60455959-2 , www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000683573#synonyms ] ).  Higanbana sometimes appear in anime, though far less than cherries and probably less even than hydrangeas and lilies.  I've seen Asiatic dayflowers depicted in anime at least once, but maybe never a kiri (桐) tree or Paulownia tomentosa, a Japanese government symbol and part of Japanese culture like the cherries.  UNC actively gets rid of Paulownias [I think]; there used to be a large tree northeast of the hospital.  I didn't see any of the pale pink Lycoris on the north side of Coker.  Native magenta purple-blooming ironweed was also all but done flowering.  The bright orange-flowered spotted jewelweed is still blooming and must attract the ruby-throated hummingbirds, but there are masses of flowers at Coker, unlike in my neighborhood for the most part.  Of course not all flowers are meant for hummingbirds to drink from.  I think hummingbirds also hunt for insects at flowers.  A pink to purple azalea was blooming somewhere on campus.  A white Hibiscus at the entrance of the Chapel Hill Public Library on Estes Drive was still blooming.  The white ornamental osmanthus here is about done blooming.

There were two whitish mushroom fairy rings on the west side of West Franklin Street.  Dark reddish brown medium-sized ants, flies, and slugs ate some of the mushrooms here; some seemed to be giving off a great deal of heat and it didn't seem to be from decay.  Mostly small ones are still coming up.  There were a few fallen bright red blackgum leaves in the parking lot at the Chapel Hill Public Library, but I couldn't find the tree.  In the fall blackgums often turn red and pink like a glowing furnace.  Many leaves are falling, but trees are still green.  

Killdeer or other plovers were calling around Eastgate and I saw a large bird flying in the west.  Later I saw one barred owl on Park Place near Forest Theatre at UNC and heard one or two more.  Sometimes groups of owls can be seen and heard in the center of the campus at night around now.  I heard a gray catbird 'meowing' in a thicket in Coker near Morehead Planetarium.  It was probably too early to see chimney swifts funneling into the hollow Davie Poplar to spend the night.  I saw one to three Eastern chipmunks still active at UNC.  

I saw a small bluish-white butterfly, probably not a cabbage white, at Duke University by Broad Street;  maybe a larger butterfly or dragonfly up Broad Street before Englewood (at Knox Street?), and a white or yellow butterfly by a wet area with cattails in a strip mall across from Eastgate.  A female (?) black swallowtail butterfly hatched out here, not the first.  Now I see that a bird must have eaten it, leaving  two front wings.  I didn't see any sicklepods by Duke.  I saw a deer on Farrington Road north of Ephesus Church Road and one down the road a few days ago.  I saw a rabbit and an Emmelina monodactyla (?) moth here.  There are a few red and black leaf beetles on the blue dayflowers and the little or a kind of gray stinkbug (shieldbug?  Pentatomoidea?) has appeared for the seeds (?).  I'm not sure if the tiny relatively bright red flies are associated with the dayflowers.  The frogs seem to be making some quiet sounds, but I think they are fine, or I hope so.  I've been seeing small bullfrogs and one or more green frogs, and toads are around.  The gray treefrogs mostly stopped calling around the beginning of August?  There was a dead rough earth snake (?) on the road on the 24th.  I saw two (?) dead gray squirrels on the roads in Durham on the 24th, but that is relatively few.  Copperheads could be out on the roads at night with the warmer weather.  Maybe I can find one tonight.

White oak and other acorns are falling, some still green, but they might be falling because they have acorn weevil grubs inside.  A stand of ragweed was flowering?  I heard radio report about NCSU research into using native pokeweed to gather rare earth metals from mine waste.  A kind of evening primrose, goldenrods, yellow sweet clover, green-headed coneflowers, white asters, tickseeds, etc. are blooming.

[Suddenly the blue and yellow cultivated asters, resembling New England asters, were blooming by the 27th.  Blue asters of some kind grow wild on a few dry roadsides in Durham.  It was warm, even hot, and humid before the hurricane, with heavy rain and some gusty winds the morning of the 27th, but it started clearing after about 11:30am and was pretty clear that night and on the 28th.  There was some flooding into buildings with this storm.  A few sulphurs, or one seen multiple times, were out on the 28th, maybe visiting the red canna, and there were more earwigs; they seem to have become more common.  I saw a fresh-looking reddish-brown, white, and gray-violet skipper, I think on the morning of the 26th.  Morning glories are still blooming.  The cicadas and katydids are still calling.  Groundsel, a tree-sized aster relative, might have been flowering the week of hurricane Helene.  A dark milkweed seedpod opened by the 28th, while the other two are still green.]

[There was a red flower on the regrown cypressvine on October 3rd, the first?  I saw one or more cloudless sulphurs and maybe other butterflies.  There are fewer tickseed flowers now, but many asters, and still some mushrooms.  Webworms were on the persimmon, etc. [and a hickory] at one point.  Some of the small sicklepods have green seedpods.  A few days ago one morning a red male cardinal on a piece of stone seemed to be eating fallen dayflower seeds and getting more directly off the plants.  Dayflowers flower and seed continuously, some until frosted.  Something cut off some of the rich, dark blue flowers on the 3rd.  A few of the flowers have been pale, I think due to the cooling temperatures at night.  In the winter I've seen sparrows picking the hanging seeds of river oats and maybe other plants.  Yellowjackets are apparently a problem after the WNC flooding, but I have seen about one here so far this fall.  A freelance reporter also told WUNC's Due South that the animal sounds seemed strange in WNC after the hurricane.  Could it be that people paid more attention to them, without as much noise pollution, as happened during the pandemic lockdowns?  A mockingbird perched in an American beautyberry on the 3rd, but the berries are mostly or all gone.  I haven't seen a common mockingbird in a while.  I saw one large anole on the 3rd.  I heard a gray treefrog during around midday and a few cicadas buzzed.  Some birds have been singing, and the hawks, owls, and red-bellied woodpeckers.  Swifts have been around during the day.  Squirrels have been littering the ground with cut off Spanish oak branches, probably for the acorns.  Despite the early drought, there might be a lot of acorns here this fall.  Very small, soft green and yellow pot-shaped galls of some kind pock mark the undersides of many of the leaves, on the major veins.  I got a large, puffed up American (?) toad and a narrow green katydid off the relatively warm road after dark on I think the 2nd.  The morning of the 4th Jupiter hadn't moved much, but I think Mars was in the center of Gemini.  Faint Cancer was somewhere north of Gemini and south of Ursa Major.  Near dawn Canis Major, Columba the Dove (I didn't identify it at the time, though), parts of Puppis, Orion, Lepus, Eridanus were above the trees in the south.  The Big Dipper, the front of giant Leo, and I think Alphard or Alfard in Hydra (the "heart?") were coming up in the east.  Earlier I had a sort of good and Moonless view of Aquarius and Capricornus and then Pisces and Cetus in the south.  Cepheus was in the north for a while.  It was almost completely clear for a change, but I think the night of the 4th-5th will be cloudier.  There are some rooftop and rural astronomy events in the area.[

[October 6th:  September-October might be a good time to see large red-orange, black, and silvery white gulf fritillary butterflies at Jordan Lake and even more so in Atlanta, Georgia.  Large blue passionflowers, a larval foodplant, grow or grew near the Seaforth access Jordan Lake, at Rollingview and Holly Point and probably elsewhere around Falls Lake, and at Occoneechee Mountain, south of Hillsborough and the Eno, while the small greenish-yellow species is probably much more common, now common on my street and there were some at the old Venable Hall at UNC.  I've seen gulf fritillaries on exposed sand at Jordan Lake during a late summer or fall drought and I think visiting flowers where I live, maybe Lantanas.  They seem to like ornamental Lantanas.] 

[October 8th:  It looked like Mars was next to the star Wasat in mid-Gemini this morning.  I thought I heard a gray treefrog during the day a few days ago.]

[October 11th:  I was surprised to find a young oakworm, over 1cm on the 10th.  I found a dead one earlier, but thought that it must have been from the summer.  There is a chance of far south auroras this weekend.  It has been pretty cool, but clear, since Helene for stargazing.  I've been hearing a scolding thrasher (?), I heard the towhee one day, a few frogs and toads have been around, one garden spider, I found a tiny dark brown moth fly (?) on the 11th, etc.  The squirrels, including a young one without a tail, seem to have finished with the Spanish or Southern red oaks.  Few tickseeds are blooming now, but more asters, etc.  "Mums" to begin soon.]

UNC cut down the large oak by Hamilton Hall, a maple that held a large mistletoe in front of Lenoir dining hall, and the very pale pink sasanqua/sazanka camellias around Bingham that I liked (though maybe some were moved).  The camellias bloomed in late fall and early winter. UNC plans to cut down the two large overcup oaks in the Pit.  A while ago they cut the red maples in front of the Undergraduate Library and something happened to one east of the Old Well on Cameron Avenue.  A honeylocust is now pretty tall in "Battle Grove" (?) east of Coker Arboretum, though, and there is at least one honeylocust in Coker.  I tried to get some seeds from somewhere to sprout, but I think one came up in the winter after early snow melted and died and drought might have killed another.  A new catalpa was planted in Coker? 

[The metal magazine racks, including the 'historic' orange Boiling Point magazine rack, have been removed from the entrance of the Undergraduate Library.  I don't know what happened to it, but I might have picked up the Boiling Point rack if I had known that the racks were being gotten rid of, though it appeared sometime after I graduated.  Maybe they were saved.]

The Boiling Point (orange) and other magazine racks, now gone, on the east side of the entrance to the Undergraduate Library at UNC October 27, 2019 ©.  Boiling Point was the left student magazine for a few years, but didn't have its own racks when I was a member.  Even in 2019 there might have been fewer student publications at UNC than 10-15 years ago.  In the photo Triangle Free Press is using the rack, and that regional free monthly left newspaper has existed for decades.  I think Appalachian Voices is also using the rack.

Were the UNC fraternities not involved in the "Flagstock" event?

Electronic Intifada was back on YouTube (and other services) for its weekly livestream on the 25th (held every Wednesday)?  

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal against Nevada's alleged clerical error or Democratic Party conspiracy that kept Jill Stein and Butch Ware off the ballot, though the campaign collected something like three times the necessary number of signatures (more than 29,000).

On WUNC's Due South on the 24th I think they discussed Anatomy of a Purple State, and talked about independent being the largest voter registration in the State.   This registration was apparently created around 1978, back when the NC Democrats were the ones grossly gerrymandering.  Apparently someone is running for Congress (?) as an independent and would be the first independent member from NC, but they are thought unlikely to win.  They did not discuss punitive ballot access laws and how the mainstream media sidelines candidates, even the 2024 Republican candidate for the presidency.  During the Biden-Harris administration it has been revealed that even local Democratic Party politicians are in lock step with their national leadership on issues such as Ukraine policy and often aren't much better on the war in the Middle East, but voters can't have any choice other than the warmongering and "authoritarian" Democrats, warmongering and "authoritarian" Republicans, and "the couch."  Before that segment there was disdainful discussion of some Republican woman candidate who once said that Obama should be put against a wall, on pay per view.  

A pro-Democratic Party professor analyzed Trump's use of the word "they," and not as a pronoun, with Steve Inskeep the morning of the 23rd.  Apparently "they" means something like conspiracymongering and dehumanization.  I wondered how many times Inskeep and NPR have used "they" for those purposes.  Terry Gross had something about NPR's favored "Russiagate" conspiracy theory on Fresh Air on the 24th.

Someone, maybe connected with Dick Cheney, alleged on On Point today that Americans are putting up Ukrainian flags and back Biden-Harris' campaign in Ukraine.  Maybe both of the guests, representing different views, were Republicans.

Some reporter on The World:  "nothing would harm liberal democracy more" than Trump winning in November, and China considers its system superior to "liberal democracy."  Of course Harris is saying that she is more anti-China than Trump.  Biden and now Harris demand votes from the left, because Trump is worse, but then they appeal to the right and attack the left. 

After 4pm, with Tom Bowman:  "The Taliban and other anti-Afghan forces" couldn't attack occupation command centers with EMF-detecting drones, but China can, says some US soldier (from the 101st Airborne?).  The other side in the training exercise is codenamed "Geronimo."  "The future," says Bowman, is a robot "dog" with a machine gun that could come into your house and kill you.  Israel is still using real dogs to torture and kill people.    

And then, Trump is a liar who must be "fact checked" at all times, to prove that a "journalist" isn't standing with Trump, but they think it is obvious that Iran is trying to kill Trump.  Only now do they say that Qasem Soleimani, assassinated by Trump in 2020, was "a mythic figure" in Iran.  NPR was basically fine with it at the time.   

  

NPR and the BBC have been downplaying Israel's attacks on Lebanon, though it seems to be going in the same direction as their attack on Gaza.  A French former Lebanon peacekeeper (?!) and an American sounding woman from Haaretz were backing Israel's attacks early on the 25th on the BBC.  Another time they had an "independent" legislator from Lebanon on, no doubt to criticize Hezbollah and absolve Israel.  Since when does Israel care about UN resolutions? -- they accuse Hezbollah of not withdrawing from the border after 2006, the BBC reported.

The US, and therefore the mainstream media, are talking about a humanitarian crisis in Sudan, but I haven't heard anything about Gaza in a while.  Nearly 42,000 Gazans have been killed?  NPR and to a lesser extent the BBC can talk about passive suffering in Palestine and Lebanon, but not active resistance to the source of their current suffering.  Compare to the coverage of western Ukrainians.  No eastern Ukrainians exist, they say, in so many words.

Around the 22nd or 21st Julian Warrwicker (sic?) on the BBC defined being a proxy as receiving weapons, money, support, advice, etc. to I think a Hezbollah connected journalist or official.  I don't think they are going to starting referring to the Ukrainian government or Israel as a US proxy or satellite.  Even the UK and other major European countries aren't very independent from the US government anymore. 

September 24th at 8pm NPR reported that a Muslim or Arab American group is critically (?) backing Harris-Walz, and I don't think they ever reported MAPAC's endorsement or any endorsements of Trump-Vance, other than individual Muslim or Arab American voters incensed with Biden-Harris.  NPR avoids covering Trump unless it can benefit Harris.  They don't cover third parties or independent candidates running for high offices, right or left (unless it can benefit Harris or a similarly anointed Democrat), and they didn't even cover well-known Democrats in recent presidential primaries.  It isn't like they didn't have enough air time.  Maybe they've 'always' been this way.

Latino USA on NPR, serving the yanqui empire.

On the dismal BBC on the 26th, a Ukrainian woman legislator on how Russia is the world's biggest aggressor, it doesn't care about its people, and it shouldn't be on the UN Security Council, an irrational situation (coming out of WWII and nuclear arms).  Others want to carve Russia up, but how, and then how would NATO's post-cold war existence be justified?  And what if China 'moved' then west?  Send Turkey east to appeal to Turkic and Islamic peoples?  

Or is the USA the next large, cosmopolitan country that is going to split up?  The BBC suddenly, in recent weeks, has a media show and one on the "gathering storm" of US political disaster, with new episodes early on the 26th.  Why would people ever think a 'dark cabal' controls the US?; militias; Bundy; the John Birch Society; etc.  Does the Democratic Party have a strange interest in talk of "civil war," "slow" or not?  A "civil war" would allow them to disenfranchise, imprison, or kill political opponents and govern by decree.  A major war with Russia or China, or even Iran, Korea, or Venezuela, would give them similar powers on the "homefront."

In the news October 4th:  In response to Liz Cheney campaigning with Kamala Harris Trump, unlike the Democrats, made an anti-war appeal, saying something about his opponents promising unending war.  Some people on the left (?) say that they intend to vote for Trump as the lesser evil in this election, compared to the the party of Harris, Biden, the Cheneys, etc.  I don't think Trump is an anti-war or peace-making candidate, but he aired a sentiment top Republican and Democratic party presidential candidates rarely if ever say, whether he truly meant it or not.  But he has also advocated letting Israel do as it wishes in the current war, though in practice that also seems to be the policy of Biden and Harris.  I saw a headline claiming that the US wanted Israel to invade Lebanon.  Trump also openly assassinated Iranian and Iraqi leaders in Iraq, which is asking for a war, and Republicans have long advocated starting a war with Iran.  Trump could have gotten the US out of Syria and Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, and normalized relations with Iran and DPR Korea, making a major US war harder to ignite.  He worsened economic and covert warfare against Venezuela, Cuba, China, etc. and ended arms control agreements and the nuclear deal with Iran (though Iran denies having a nuclear weapon program or the desire to have nuclear weapons, even given that nearby Israel, Pakistan, and NATO forces have nuclear weapons).

[October 6th:  Allegedly Trump "...called on Benjamin Netanyahu to end the carnage in Gaza; he vows to end the bloodshed in Ukraine, well before we are all incinerated in an atomic apocalypse; he promises A DEAL with Iran to head off the no longer merely looming regional catastrophic combat and recently went out of his way to announce he does NOT want war with China. Now this may all be pie in the sky, but the mere fact that a candidate for the American presidency utters such words is encouraging, and it is far superior to the Dems’ nauseating foreign policy."  I don't agree with everything in this article and it is news to me if Trump has come out against continuing the war in Gaza, wants to negotiate with Iran, and stated that he doesn't want a war with China:  www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/04/elections-war-and-what-they-mean-for-labor-with-or-without-presidential-endorsements/   Of course, he didn't start a war with China during his first term and there was a deal with Iran when he came into office.  I think even Biden claimed to be for negotiating with Iran, but the US government wanted to add conditions, so the negotiations came to nothing, as with the decline in US-China relations.  The Democrats were "...good on domestic policy and appalling on foreign policy" prior to Bill Clinton, and the Republicans were "...decent on foreign policy and appalling domestically" prior to George W Bush?  What about the violence fomented abroad under Reagan and George HW Bush and left criticism of Carter's foreign and domestic policies, even if he is known for some progressive stands now?  Comments saying that Trump is more or less the lesser evil can be found on nakedcapitalism.com  One commenter often traces our current situation back to Bill Clinton, but then what about the previous decades?]

Maybe even more than with Hamas, the BBC and others have to add some variation of 'Iran-backed,' etc. almost every time they mention Hezbollah.  They rarely if ever feel compelled to mention that Israel, western Ukraine, Taiwan, the Philippines, Haiti, Egypt, etc. are heavily backed by the US and NATO.  When Israel is accused of carrying out genocide and war crimes, it is doing them with American money, weapons, information, other material support, the US veto at the UN, Biden's echoing of whatever Israeli propaganda puts out, etc.  War is also made cheaper for Israel with US tax dollars, so they can afford constant war and social welfare.  It has been suggested that the current wars in the Middle East and eastern Europe might make the US a target for terrorism in coming decades, as happened September 11, 2001, assuming that WWIII doesn't break out first.

[Also, I have a suspicion that the BBC, if not NPR, is devoting much more time to speculation about what Israel might bomb in retaliate for Iran's retaliation a few days ago than they did to speculation about what Iran might do when Israel attacked it.  Maybe they want to deny that Iran can retaliate effectively, with air power.  Someone in Iran apparently threatened to destroy oil facilities throughout the region if Israel attacks Iran's facilities, but that seems over the top and would probably provoke a massive war.  On the other hand, I think it has been claimed that mad dog Israel would take the hapless Europeans and others down with them, with nuclear weapons, if Israel were to face dissolution.  Biden claims to be against an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, but Israel hasn't seemed to listen to Biden up to now.

On the 3rd the BBC had a "rare" interview with a senior official from Hamas, and they devoted some time to a defense of giving Hamas a "platform."  At one point a reporter (Jeremy Bowen?) claimed that they can't talk to Hamas because Israel doesn't give them unfettered, free access to Gaza.  I doubt that they can't find people from Hamas to interview,  because of Israel.  They are probably afraid to interview the 'other side'/"terrorists," maybe for legal and other reasons, and want to ignore resistance to Israel and the "West."  They also rarely interview senior figures from Hezbollah (they even have reporters in Beirut and south), Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, China (though they also rarely interview Taiwanese officials), Russia, the government of Russian-held Ukraine (I don't remember the BBC interviewing any official from eastern Ukraine in many years, if ever, and NPR is even worse in doing "journalism" abroad), Colombian gurerrillas (they have interviewed gurerrillas in Myanmar and probably Syria), etc.  If NPR, the BBC, or even Biden-Harris really have questions about what the Chinese government, etc. is thinking, they could try asking, in an honest way.  Jeremy Bowen said that the BBC interviewed senior figures in Syria and Libya -- but that was like a decade ago.  NPR only wants to talk about suffering, powerless civilians in Palestine and Lebanon.  Maybe they legal can't talk to US-designated "terrorists," or fear US government retaliation if they do.  There are countries even in the EU that treat Hezbollah as a legal political party.  As in Gaza, Israel bombed a health center in central Beirut a few days ago.  There has been very little coverage of Israel's losses in Palestine and losses from Iran's retaliation (any expensive fighter jets?  Commercial satellite images of sites in Israel have been painted over with "clouds?"), but surprisingly the media has admitted that Israel has lost a few soldiers invading Lebanon.  The losses might be larger than  Israel is admitting.  The Lebanese army isn't fighting, but lost something like two soldiers.  The mainstream media might think that Israel won't hit them in Lebanon.  There has been speculation that many NATO personnel deployed in Ukraine have been killed, but it is being covered up, even more than Ukraine's real casualty statistics.

On the 4th the BBC has an interview with the widow (?) of the man killed in Butler, Pennsylvania.  I'm not sure that NPR ever spoke to anyone, or maybe I'm forgetting.  They didn't make a big deal about the assassination attempts, unlike with the "insurrection" in 2021.  There was more prolonged attention to the second attempt.  I didn't really want to hear Ukraine War boosters trying to distance themselves from the second assassination, or the mainstream media saying that Slovakia's Robert Fico and now our Donald Trump are solely at fault if they get killed, and it is great when Russian civilians connected to the government get killed (the media was more moderate regarding Israel's device bombings across Lebanon, though it was similar to Ukraine's attacks).  I doubt that they will take that line if a "Western" warmonger meets their end in terrorist violence.  NPR had blatant propaganda for Harris on the 3rd, and "conspiracy theories" about 'October Surprises.'  Sometime they brought up Hillary Clinton's emails, and blamed the FBI and Trump, or maybe I'm mixing up different stories.  They must say that Clinton did nothing wrong, ever.  Only Trump and Vance utter untruths and and "conspiracy theories," while Biden, Harris, and Walz might make mistakes, but never lie for Israel, personal power, or other causes, or have serious memory problems.  You can't disagree about certain "facts" ruled upon in the Democratic Party's favor by NPR.]  

[Someone on "1A" said that Harris isn't using the "autocracy" versus "democracy" rhetoric as much as Biden.  Harris might not be doing it, but NPR still is.  Zwillick highlighted Trump's call for a day of unrestricted police violence, and the first or second reference he went to was Nazi Germany, and a movie, The Purge.  Wasn't there another movie?  Of course it brings to mind the Philippines and they mentioned Mobutu.  Will they mention that Trump went to the left of Harris on US warmongering and adventurism (I doubt it), sincere or not?  NPR wants "anti-war" sentiments to stay with Russian liberals, or to be barely tolerated on US college campuses.  They don't want to talk about opposition to Biden-Harris' wars, except for "far right," "isolationist" Republicans who love Israel, but not Ukraine (unlike those great "internationalist," anti-Trump Republicans who brought us the Iraq War).  Only the AfD, MAGA Republicans, the FPO, etc. can be portrayed as opposed to NATO's war in Ukraine, and Robert Fico was portrayed as a rightist on NPR.  They seemed to give more enduring attention to DEI programs being cut on college campuses in 2024.  Next they set up the intenational hour as Iran beating up on beleagured Israel.]

[On the 4th or 3rd the BBC also interviewed a former British soldier (with a very British accent) who relocated his family and dogs to northern Israel at some point and welcomes the invasion of Lebanon, etc.  Someone said that Israel is helping the Lebanese (the ones who hate Shia Muslims more than they want their country to be free from Israeli occupation?), as was said about Gaza, but the BBC can't platform Hezbollah, etc.  Evacuation might be prudent, but I find it very strange that Israel can give orders for Gazans and Lebanese to evacuate, and their tents still get bombed.  Of course the US advised or claimed to advise Japanese civilians to evacuate cities during WWII.  Would Americans like to be ordered to evacuate their cities by a country bombing them and committing war crimes?  The US and Israel like to blame their opponents for making them commit war crimes, kill civilians, and starve people in Iraq and Gaza, rather than being honest.  On the other hand, many Israelis have been open about their views, since Biden and Harris are protecting them at the UN and sent in the US Navy.]

[Little mention on NPR of the new UK-Mauritius deal regarding Diego Garcia and other strategic Indian Ocean islands, called a betrayal or inadequate by some of the Chagossians who were forced off the Chagos Islands so the UK could give the US a base from which to bomb the Middle East and carry out military adventures.  And yet there are civilians living there now, brought in to service the military, but they aren't Chagossians.  I don't think the islands were populated prior to European colonialism, though, unlike militarized Hawaii, Okinawa, and Puerto Rico.]  [October 3rd UK-Mauritius agreement, without consulting the Chagossians themselves:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagos_Archipelago ]

[Amazingly, the played an entire clip on Jill Stein speaking on the war in the Middle East on NPR the morning of Monday, October 7th, a first, during a long story on Arab-American and Muslim voters in Michigan, regarding the war, by Leila Falden, reporting from Michigan over a few days.  But NPR is getting out the vote for Harris-Walz and the Democratic Party in general, so the next statement was something like it is a two party system and Stein (no mention of the Green Party) has no chance of winning.  Maybe there was more along those lines.  I heard that abolitionists, maybe the first Republicans, were accused of being spoilers by the now long-extinct Whig Party.  Obviously Stein-Ware isn't likely to win, but people are free to vote as they wish and there are reasons to vote for a third party regardless of their chances of winning, and in theory Stein could win.  Maybe NPR is talking about Jill Stein this time because support for the Greens has markedly increased.  Some of the speakers were very anti-Harris, even if they consider themselves Democratic voters.  The tone of the story was that Harris is trying to win over war opponents in Michigan (with tiny gestures), remember Trump's Islamophobic travel bans, and there are no other options.  NPR has no interest in reporting or evaluating whether Trump's position on the war has changed, but on the 8th On Point was going to ask whether "the media is sane washing" Trump (and on warmongering "Left, Right, and Center" that evening, they portrayed Hezbollah and I think Iran as irrational and aggressive).  In other news, for a future post, early October provides yet more reason to worry that anti-war speech is slowly being censored and banned, both online and off.  I didn't hear it, but the evening of the 8th All Things Considered was going to interview two Jewish members of Congress on the alleged dramatic rise in anti-semitism, even prior to October 7, 2023, specifically mentioning college campuses.  They are going for the European method of suppressing war opponents.  Who is more likely to start a war with Iran in the near future, Harris or Trump, or are they both likely to do so?  Netanyahu is threatening Lebanon with the Gaza treatment, and is already bombing Lebanese medical facilities and infrastructure, if not schools.]

[Spinning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize the morning of  October 10th:  On NPR, Eleanor Beardsly ended her report by stating, without offering any evidence, that the Nobel committee is or must be aiming this critique at Iran (a non-nuclear country, without a known weapons program, being threatened and attacked by nuclear-armed and proliferating countries), DPR Korea, and Russia, I think in that order.  On the BBC, I think they named only Korea and Russia.  In the evening they were silent about it.]

The week of October 7th, Israel is being accused of firing on the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who aren't authorized to fire back and might not even be heavily armed.  Israel suddenly demands that UN resolutions be followed to the letter, except the resolutions regarding Israeli actions.  Israel also bombed and destroyed crowded residential towers in Beirut, without giving any warning to the residents, who deny that any Hezbollah officials were there.  Civilians are again under siege, being shot if they attempt to flee, and cut off from food, water, and fuel Northern Gaza.  

The Democrats demand votes from the left, but make substantial appeals to the right only.  It has been reported that the US government wants Israel to attack Lebanon.  They claim to want a ceasefire in Gaza, but it doesn't seem like they are working very hard to get one, etc.  They don't deserve another four years, and then there have been claims that Trump might not be worse on Palestine than Biden-Harris, besides allegedly wanting to end the Ukraine War.  But what about war with Iran and China?  It isn't clear what his intentions are.  Just in on the BBC, Israel wants to ban UNRWA.]

[From an October 12th Stein-Ware campaign email, a first? --

"That’s right, yesterday we made history when the DNC and their handpicked candidate Kamala Harris put out the first ever national ad attacking Jill, once again demonstrating that they’re terrified by the momentum that keeps growing for our people-powered campaign.

They claim that Republicans have been helping Jill. That’s an interesting take when Kamala can’t stop bragging about her endorsements from over 200 Republicans including the architect of the Iraq war, Dick Cheney. Just last week, Kamala was campaigning with Liz Cheney at her side and was breathless in her praise for the warmongering ex-Veep when she thanked him for '...all he’s done to serve his country.' Given she’s running on a promise to preside over  'the most lethal fighting force in the world' her praise for Dick Cheney is quite sincere.

[...]

Eight years have passed since Hilary Clinton managed to lose the election to a crude racist and misogynistic game show host. In that time, the anti-Democratic Party has done nothing to address the real reasons they’ve lost the support of so many voters. Instead they’ve doubled down on their attacks on Jill Stein because according to them, the only way to 'save democracy' is to pour millions of dollars into stopping the voters from having the choice to vote for candidates who are anti-genocide, pro-worker, and ready to tackle climate emergency on day one.

The dirty Dems think they own your vote. Votes are earned, not owned. They’re not just afraid of Jill and Butch – they’re afraid of you! Your vote is your voice and they’re desperate to silence the millions of people who are sick and tired of the corporate duopoly of war and Wall Street. That’s why they resort to lies and bullying; because they work for their billionaire donors and won’t embrace the policies the people need."

From an October 10th campaign email on a bizarre sounding situation in Ohio (what party holds the Ohio Secretary of State office?):

"We have an update on Ohio. If you haven’t heard, someone not authorized to submit paperwork on behalf of the campaign turned in a document requesting to withdraw the Vice Presidential candidate from the ballot, after the deadline to submit a new candidate. 

The person who submitted this paperwork to the Ohio Secretary of State admitted when turning in the form that the signature on the form was not “wet” (it was a graphic that was copy and pasted), and that they were not a campaign staffer.

The Secretary of State should have rejected it on those grounds alone. But instead, they accepted the form - then declared no votes for Jill would count.

To make this even more incredible and unacceptable, our Ohio VP candidate then sent the SoS a notarized affidavit stating that she didn’t authorize the withdrawal form, and the SoS replied that they wouldn’t accept it because the notarization wasn’t “embossed”... after they had accepted the original, unauthorized VP withdrawal form with a copy-pasted signature." 

Also, Abandon Harris (previously Abandon Biden) endorsed Stein-Ware Monday, October 7th:  x.com/Abandonbiden24/status/1843275082376069409

MAPAC events (see their website):

There will be an NC Governor Forum at the Islamic Association of Raleigh September 28th 2-4pm

A Fayetteville Forum -- US Congress District 8 on the 29th 2-4pm 

A Voter Education Event at the IAR October 4th 7:30-9:00pm

 

Originally posted at:  mapacendorsmentpresident.tiiny.site

Muslim American Public Affairs Council

PO. Box 18196

Raleigh NC 27606

Website: www.mapacnc.com

For Immediate Release

MAPAC Announces Early Endorsement for U.S

Honorable leaders and fellow community members, today on behalf of the Muslim American

Public Affairs Council (MAPAC), we stand as a proud and unwavering voice of the Muslim 

American community in the political sphere. Our mission is to ensure that our voices are not 

only heard but respected, our concerns are not only raised but addressed, and our values are not 

only represented but reflected in the policies that shape our nation.

We have long sought meaningful engagement with all political parties, assessing candidates not 

by their words, but by their actions. We ask one critical question: Do they truly listen to the 

Muslim community? Do they understand our struggles and invite us to actively shape the 

decisions that affect us? Unfortunately, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have shown us 

that they do not.

During the Democratic National Convention, despite our concerted efforts and the rallying cries 

of many, our voices were silenced. Muslim and Arab leaders were ignored as we sought to 

address the atrocities in Palestine. The majority of Americans, including many within the 

Democratic base, demand an end to the Israeli war on Gaza, a halt to the flow of American 

weapons used to commit unspeakable acts, and accountability for those who perpetuate these 

horrors. Yet, Harris, through her actions, has made it clear that she will continue the policies of 

the current administration, offering unwavering support to Israel while turning a blind eye to the 

oppression of Palestinians.

In contrast, Dr. Jill Stein represents the leadership that our community has long sought. She has 

not only spoken out for Palestinian rights, but she has traveled this nation to amplify our voices, 

to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and to include us in her vision for a just and equitable 

future. Dr. Stein’s commitment is clear. She has appointed a Muslim running mate, Professor 

Butch Ware, and has dedicated her campaign to fighting the genocide funded by American tax 

dollars. Her genuine care for our community was evident when she spent hours with us, 

listening, engaging, and offering solutions grounded in justice and humanity.

The American people, by vast majority, oppose using their tax dollars to fund wars, to prop up 

unjust regimes, and to ignore the cries of the oppressed. There is a hunger in this country for 

reform

—reform that Dr. Stein and her campaign represent. While we may not agree with every 

point in her platform, we recognize her as the most courageous and effective advocate for real 

change in both foreign policy and democratic reform in this race.

Muslim American Public Affairs Council

PO. Box 18196

Raleigh NC 27606

Website: www.mapacnc.com

For Immediate Release

MAPAC Announces Early Endorsement for U.S

MAPAC stands firmly for the Muslim values of justice and integrity. Today, we declare our 

intent to position the Muslim community at the heart of a national movement to challenge a two-

party system that has failed so many Americans. North Carolina, as a pivotal swing state, is 

now the first to stand up and demand change. We hope that our leadership here will 

inspire other swing states to follow us. Let this be the spark that ignites a movement across 

our nation—together, we will move mountains.

Let it be known to all political parties: paying lip service to our community will no longer 

suffice. The time for genuine engagement is now, and ignoring our voice will only cost you our 

support.

Dr. Jill Stein and Professor Butch Ware, MAPAC proudly endorses your campaign. We 

stand ready to work alongside you to ensure that the Muslim community, especially in the 

critical state of North Carolina, rallies behind your movement for justice, peace, and a truly 

democratic America. Let us build this movement, state by state, and together, we will reshape the 

future.

This endorsement is only for the presidential candidate

. 

MAPAC is a non-partisan organization

and we will continue to assess each race down the ballot for the best candidate for our 

community regardless of party affiliation – especially those who stand for the investment of 

taxpayer money to lift up their communities in our great state of NC. The endorsement of 

congressional, state and local races will be released to the public separately in mid-October. 

Sincerely, 

Muslim American Public Affairs Council 

Dr. Khodr Zaarour

Chairman

P.O. Box 18196

Raleigh, NC 27619

From the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee:

Senate Unanimously Passes Resolution Honoring Wadee AlFayoumi

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | September 25, 2024 – Last night, the US Senate unanimously passed the resolution honoring Wadee AlFayoumi, recognizing the importance of the Palestinian keffiyeh as a symbol of Palestinian culture, and highlighting the danger of dehumanizing and demonizing rhetoric which contributed to Wadee’s brutal murder. This historic passage marks the first time that Congress recognizes Palestinian Americans in a resolution, and places them in the Congressional Record as symbols of resilience and pride.

 

The resolution was drafted by the Muslim Civic Coalition in partnership with ADC, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Representative Delia Ramirez (D-IL), and was successfully passed due to incredible advocacy from community members across the country. 

 

ADC National Government Affairs and Advocacy Director Chris Habiby said, “Palestinian Americans, like Arab Americans more broadly, are a proud and beautiful community that represent the best of our nation. This resolution is a strong statement denouncing the hate which motivated Wadee’s murder and the attack on his mother, and pushes back against false narratives demonizing Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Americans. What is absolutely clear is that hate has no place in America, and every child deserves to live in safety while thriving. It was an honor to work with and support the Muslim Civic Coalition as we ensured that Wadee’s name is forever remembered in the halls of Congress.”

From UNC's Daily Tar Heel opinion page September 25th --

Op-ed: Students for Justice in Palestine respond to recent DTH column's removal

   

On Aug. 19, The Daily Tar Heel published an opinion piece critiquing UNC’s study abroad programs in Israel. Within hours, the author’s family received anonymous hateful messages. Although the author stands by their column, they requested it be unpublished, fearing for their family’s safety.

   

Harassment against critics of Israel is unfortunately commonplace. Those who speak on the history of Palestine-Israel have an uphill battle when it comes to exercising free speech. Criticism of Israel is maligned as “antisemitic,” as the response to DTH’s article demonstrates. This accusation dangerously equates critiques of Israel with anti-Jewish hatred rather than recognizing that Israel, as a nation-state, cannot speak for any ethnic or religious group as a whole.

The demand that Israel cannot be treated by the same rules of free speech as any other nation-state becomes doubly absurd considering Israel is recognized by international human rights groups to be perpetuating apartheid against Palestinians. Palestinians living under the illegal Israeli occupation frequently have their land stolen by Israeli settlers, are treated as inferior under law and have unequal access to infrastructure, not unlike apartheid South Africa. Israel does not try to hide its prejudiced system between Israelis and Palestinians. On the contrary, Israel often carries out war crimes in the open to intimidate Palestinians from agitating for basic human rights. Similarly, but far less deadly, Israel supporters in the US don’t try to hide Israel’s war crimes. Rather than arguing against pro-Palestinian voices – whose arguments they cannot refute – they create smear campaigns to silence them.

North Carolina and UNC face intense surveillance by pro-Israel forces. In March 2022, UNC ranked among the ten worst campuses for free speech. The harassment campaigns perpetuated by Israel supporters centered on UNC’s campus contribute to this widespread atmosphere of censorship. For instance, in Fall 2021, UNC Ph.D. student Kylie Broderick taught a course about Palestine-Israel. She soon became the target of a smear campaign from pro-Israel organizations to pressure the university to fire her, which culminated in Rep. Kathy Manning (D-Greensboro) and a senior Israeli diplomat meeting with UNC officials. Broderick remained able to teach the class, but various pro-Israel organizations continued attempting to censor her academic freedom.

Efforts to censor opposition to Israel range from harassing students to passing legislation. Over thirty US states have laws or executive orders limiting or barring government contracts going to organizations or individuals who support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), a nonviolent call by Palestinian civil society to use tactics successful in South Africa, toward Israel. Among them is North Carolina.

 

UNC’s administration hasn’t made a statement on the harassment leveled at the author’s family. Despite UNC’s proclaimed commitment to free speech, there is no right to it regarding Israel. Outside of a narrow window approved by pro-Israel actors, those questioning anti-Palestinian racism normalized on college campuses face repercussions. 

UNC Students for Justice in Palestine vehemently opposes these vicious attacks on those standing against Israel’s crimes. We are committed to educating UNC about Palestinians’ oppression by Israel by amplifying their demands for freedom and justice.

UNC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)