alanjjohnstone
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The Guardian carries a story of the Daily Mail’s islamophobia.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk?INTCMP=CE_UK
Mentioned is the Central Mosque in Edinburgh. As someone when visiting my home city I always made a point of having an Indian curry at it since it is cheap and tasty and right next to the radical bookshop. (Around the corner is a church, forget the denomination, that does budget lunches, which I can also recommend)
I always found the mosque multi-ethnic and very welcoming, and there are numerous notices inviting visitors to take guided tours and free Korans available.
Perhaps the plot is to get sharia law via our stomachs.
If members also have their own anecdotal evidence of scare-mongering by this article, it reveals a new whole low level of journalism.
Republican-led states used money from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (Tanf), better known as welfare or direct cash aid, to fund the activities of anti-abortion clinics associated with the evangelical right. The clinics work to dissuade women from obtaining abortions.
The Trade War intensifies
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57334265
Biden is set to ban Americans from investing in dozens of Chinese tech and defence firms with alleged military ties. The new executive order will come into effect on 2 August, hitting 59 firms including communications giant Huawei. The list of firms will be updated on a rolling basis.
The move expands an order previously issued by Trump.
“Some corporations, instead of combating the causes of planetary destruction, focus on green capitalism, converting natural resources into commodities and new areas for market speculation, like carbon credits, environmental preservation credits, and other false solutions that will not resolve the social and ecological needs of the people,”- La Via Campesina
The solution is in the rebuilding of the relationship between human beings and nature, where life, collective well-being, and ecological rhythms – not greed and profit – guide the actions of nations and peoples. It is a solution focused on agroecological production of food; the democratization of the access to land through agrarian reform; the protection and care of common goods such as water, biodiversity and land; and the transition to an energy model that responds to the real needs of the working class with social and environmental justice, overcoming patriarchy and racism.
An interesting article by Jonathan Cook,
Was there a Wuhan lab leak? An inquiry won’t dig out the truth. It will deepen the deception
Because nobody in a position to answer that question appears to have any interest in finding out the truth – or at least, they have no interest in the rest of us learning the truth. Not China. Not US policy-makers. Not the World Health Organisation. And not the corporate media.
The only thing we can state with certainty is this: our understanding of the origins of Covid has been narratively managed over the past 15 months and is still being narratively managed. We are being told only what suits powerful political, scientific and commercial interests.I think the pandemic pay-outs will strengthen the UBI case.
The direct payments totaling $2,000 per eligible individual—helped significantly reduce food shortages in households with children, lessen financial instability, and alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
“Rather than provide targeted and in-kind aid, the government provided cash directly to American households, allowing them to use it to meet their immediate needs as they saw fit.”
The U.S. Air Force indicated that it plans to buy “state-of-the-art, long-range weapons that are better-suited for operations in the Pacific,” Military.com reported.
https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/pacific/
The Air Force also wants to increase its procurement of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, or JASSM-ER, stealth cruise missile, an advanced weapon with a range of roughly 600 miles, the budget documents state. Officials have previously stated the JASSM and its cousin, the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, can be used for stand-off precision strikes throughout the vast expanses of the Pacific region.
MS, i’m the glass-half-empty pessimist but even I acknowledge that class consciousness does not increase at an arithmetic rate. It spreads like a pandemic to use a current example.
To be optimistic, more and more although not drawing 100% correct conclusions are still questioning what capitalism is and how it can be changed. The environmental crisis is drawing attention to the failure of capitalism to resolve the problems and produce a remedy.
While there are increased nationalism and bigotry, accompanying it is also a rise in tolerance and acceptance.
We should refrain from predictions because what and when an event triggers off revolutionary ideas, we simply don’t know for sure.
Malaysia scrambled fighter jets to respond to a major incursion of its airspace by 16 Chinese aircraft and called the incident a “serious threat” to its national sovereignty and flight safety.
the Chinese Embassy said its military planes didn’t violate Malaysia’s airspace and had exercised freedom of overflight in the area. It said they were carrying out routine flight training
I recall early last year being on an American right-wing website commenting that there was something unusual and irrational that the first reaction to the pandemic was a rush to buy guns. In the subsequent exchanges, I argued that the threat of crime other than domestic was being reduced not heightened that people were not required to arm themselves. In fact that more cooperation and mutual aid would be the eventual outcome. The stats bear me out.
The latest being
Crime reports from 27 cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas found overall urban crime fell by more than a third while lockdowns were in place and then steadily climbed back up when restrictions were lifted. Robberies fell on average by 46%, and vehicle theft and daily assaults were down 39% and 35% respectively. Burglaries dropped by 28% overall, while more minor crimes such as pickpocketing and shoplifting fell by about 47% across the countries studied.
America “mobilises” the island nations of the Pacific against China
The Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, and was attended by leaders or delegates from 11 countries or territories, but representatives from a significant number of countries, including Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Samoa did not attend.
By contrast, last week, China held a virtual China-Pacific island discussion which was attended by senior representatives from the governments of most countries, including the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, the president of the Federated States of Micronesia, the premier of Niue and Fiji’s defence minister.
I’ve drawn attention to the problem of pet ownership and here is another report.
Exports of fish meal and fish oil from West Africa are depriving more than 30 million people a year of food.
A report by Greenpeace Africa and the Netherlands-based organisation Changing Markets urges governments to phase out processing of fish which is fit for human consumption being used for fishmeal and oil to feed pets and farmed fish and livestock feed.
Stop selling fish raised on fishmeal from West Africa, UK grocers told
Communities increasingly take up arms to protect themselves from a relentless campaign of military violence.
We can only view such a development as counter-productive and not one to be encouraged
Wolff’s latest starts well, that we don’t perceive our problems in the re-distribution of wealth but in addressing the inequalities at the production part of the economy.
Then it is downhill all the way with his customary praise of WSDEs
“…converting workplaces from their current capitalist organization (i.e., hierarchical divisions into employers—public or private—and employees) into worker cooperatives…”
Has any member ever had any direct contact with him on his ideas?
Germany the latest to begin UBI trial
https://www.dw.com/en/basic-income-germany-tax-free/a-54700872
The study, the first of three parts of the Pilotproject Grundeinkommen (Basic Income Pilot Project), will provide 122 participants with €1,200 ($1,420) a month for a period of three years. Participants did not have to prove a financial need and can work as much or little as they like throughout the experiment.
“They don’t have to do anything for it except fill in seven online questionnaires during those three years,” says a description of the experiment on the project’s website.
1.5 million people had volunteered within a week. Organizers then narrowed it down to 1,500 participants. Of those, a randomly selected 122 people will receive the monthly allowance. The remaining participants will serve as a control group. Instead of the stipend, they will merely be compensated for completing the questionnaires. At the end of the study, researchers will compare the two groups.
Officials from the Mein Grundeinkommen(My Basic Income) charity are convinced that an unconditional income for all citizens would solve many current problems. The assumption is that people get more creative and become freer and happier if they don’t constantly face the pressure to earn enough money to get by.
Among the questions are: Will subjects spend all the money or will they save a certain amount? Will they stop working altogether or work less? Will they donate money to others? Even changes in people’s stress levels can be identified with the help of hair samples;
Add to this the many questions that the project cannot answer anyway: How will consumer prices develop? Would ill or needy people have less money at their disposal than now? And to what extent would taxes have to go up to finance such an income?
“Our study will certainly not be able to answer all the questions surrounding basic income,” Schupp said. But he’s looking forward to getting an answer to what he believes is the core issue: How does money influence people’s behavior?
