alanjjohnstone
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"otherwise we get line-ups several blocks long just for toilet paper."Just on that toilet paper comment, by coincidence this is in the newshttp://www.bbc.com/news/business-43195467Taiwan retailers have seen a rush on toilet paper over the weekend, as word spread of an imminent sharp price rise. Shoppers used social media to post pictures of empty shelves where the product would usually be.
Today our Socialism Or Your Money Back blog posts on the United Nations condemnation of Northern Ireland's restriction on abortionhttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2018/02/un-seeks-abortion-rights-for-women-in.html
The link in the article to Janet Biehl and Murray Bookchin's thoughts on various forms of ownership is interesting and worth a read.
More than one in ten French women have been raped at least once, according to a study on sexual violence31% said they were raped by their partner, 19% by someone else they know and 17% by a stranger.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/24/more-than-1-in-10-french-women-raped-study-reports
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned Turkey’s offensive on a Kurdish held area of northern Syria as causing unnecessary civilian casualties, as some counts put the toll as high as 120. The statement on Friday cited three attacks in the contested canton of Afrin in late January that killed a total of 26 civilians, including 17 children. The Turkish military had failed to take necessary precautions before carrying out the strikes and must conduct a thorough public investigation, the rights group said. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-afrin-civilian-death-assad-regimes-rebels-kurdish-turkey-fighting-ypg-a8225506.html
Fisk again on Ghouta
Quote:But despite all the West’s rhetoric – and the UN’s constant refrain that the civilians of eastern Ghouta are experiencing “hell on earth” – the massive Syrian and Russian bombardment is going to continue. The Islamist Nusrah faction, the “child” of al-Qaeda of 9/11 infamy, appears to be more reluctant to surrender to the Syrians – even if allowed to leave with its light weapons – than Saudi Arabia’s favourite militia, the Jaish al-Islam, or Qatar’s proxy “Rahman Legion”.I once talked with a member (well ex-member now) and he made the point that the American ruling class was so confident of its hegemony that they were happy to let the populace have the right to bear arms….unless you were a Black Panther, that is.The only nations that do have mass ownership of weapons are those with militias. I hear if a Swiss militia member uses his issued weapon in a crime, the punishment is very severe, so criminals go across the border and get an illegal weaponAs the person said, many on the Left have adopted the right to bear arms, too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck_RevoltBut i never known a rifleman to prevail against a tank or out-shoot artillery or bring down a jet bomber with his AR-15 As our blog has reported the militarisation of the American police that would make many paramilitary police forces seem under-armed.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/10/police-militarisation-nypd-inventory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_MountainI'm surprised at you, ALB, for not knowing how to google a wiki
Another useful article highlighting the growing threat of xenophobic nationalismhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43157234
Quote:"By the end of 2014 the popularity of Fidesz had dropped dramatically and they tried everything. There was no stone left unturned to get this popularity back," says Mark Kekesi, a human rights activist. In spring 2015 the wave of refugees and migrants entering Central Europe via Hungary came as a kind of heavenly gift to Mr Orban and many other politicians in the region. They could exaggerate the potential immigration threats and then appear as saviours.The Guardian gives the White Helmets their say on Ghoutahttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/22/ghouta-syrians-starvation-bombingWhile Russia vetos ceasefire proposalhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/22/russia-un-resolution-eastern-ghouta-ceasefire-syria
It's been half a century since the US supreme court decriminalized interracial marriage.Since then, the share of interracial and interethnic marriages in America has increased fivefold, from 3% of all weddings in 1967 to 17% in 2015. It’s more common in metropolitan areas than rural places (18% compared to 11%) US metropolitan areas vary significantly from Honolulu, Hawaii, where 42% of weddings are interracial to Jackson, Mississippi where the figure is just 3%.The most common type of intermarriage is between a partner who is white and one who is Hispanic of any race – those relationships accounted for 38% of all intermarriages in 2010. White-Asian couples accounted for another 14% of intermarriages, and white-black couples made up 8%. the most common type of intermarriage is between a partner who is white and one who is Hispanic of any race – those relationships accounted for 38% of all intermarriages in 2010. White-Asian couples accounted for another 14% of intermarriages, and white-black couples made up 8%. 72% of black respondents said it would be fine with them if a family member chose to marry someone of another racial or ethnic group, 61% of whites and 63% of Hispanics said the samePeople with a higher educational attainment are more likely to intermarry. This affects geographic patterns too – areas with higher educational attainment are more likely to have more interracial couples living there.https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/21/whats-behind-the-rise-of-interracial-marriage-in-the-us
Another commentator i greatly admire is Norman Finkelstein.Here is a review of his latest book on Gazahttps://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/21/finkelsteins-on-gaza-who-or-what-has-a-right-to-exist/
Quote:In this book Finkelstein expresses outrage that Israel is exonerated by prestigious people and institutions, allowing escalation of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Persistent exposure of the little and big lies needs to be part of the struggle if there is really to be a Never Again for all people.He isn't 100% perfect (who is?) but here is Robert Fisk casting his discerning eye over Ghouta
Quote:But these armed groups are curiously absent when we express our outrage at the carnage in Ghouta. There are no Western reporters to interview them – because we (though we don’t usually say so) would have our heads chopped off by these defenders of Ghouta if we tried or even dared to enter the besieged suburb. And the footage which we receive shows – incredibly – not a single armed man. This does not mean that the wounded or the dead children or the bloodied corpses – albeit with faces “blurred” by our own thoughtful television editors – are not real or that the film is fake. But the footage clearly does not show all of the truth. The cameras – or their film editors – do not depict the al-Nusrah fighters who are in Ghouta. Nor are they going to.Unlike the mass media and the State, we cannot drive such views and opinions underground where they woul continue to fester and infect. If racists/nationalists/bigots come on this forum, we treat them with the same attitude as we show all our critics, challenge their beliefs with reasoned arguments and civility. After all, others will visit the form and judge us by our standards of debate.The only time forum bans are enforced is when racist or sexist slurs become personal. I had 25 long hard years of working alongside people with Ike Pettigrew's ideas. They aren't unique as he thinks. I saw these people change positively over that time from their increased experience and better knowledge. Those remaining prejudiced are now much fewer in number and less vocal. The expected sympathetic support is no longer there for them any longer.
The ancient population of Britain was almost completely replaced by newcomers about 4,500 years ago, a study shows. The genetic data, from hundreds of ancient British genomes, reveals that the Beakers were a distinct population from the Neolithic British. After their arrival on the island, Beaker genes appear to swamp those of the native farmers.The findings mean modern Britons trace just a small fraction of their ancestry to the people who built Stonehenge. The newcomers, known as Beaker people, replaced 90% of the British gene pool in a few hundred years. 6,000 years ago Neolithic farmers, who traced their origins to Anatolia (modern Turkey) built giant stone (or "megalithic") structures such as Stonehenge in Wiltshire, huge Earth mounds and sophisticated settlements such as Skara Brae in the Orkneys. But about 4,450 years ago, a new way of life spread to Britain from Europe. People began burying their dead with stylised bell-shaped pots, copper daggers, arrowheads, stone wrist guards and distinctive perforated buttons. Beaker traditions probably started "as a kind of fashion" in Iberia after 5,000 years ago. From here, the culture spread very fast by word of mouth to Central Europe. After it was adopted by people in Central Europe, it exploded in every direction – but through the movement of people. The newcomers brought ancestry from nomadic groups originating on the Pontic Steppe, a grassland region extending from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. These nomads moved west during the Neolithic, mixing heavily with established populations in Europe. The Beaker migration marks the first time this eastern genetic signature appears in Britain.Prof Parker Pearson commented: "They're the people who bring Britain out of the Stone Age. Up until then, the people of Britain had cut themselves off from the continent – 'Neolithic Brexit'. This is the moment when Britain re-joins the continent after 1,000 years of isolation – most of the rest of Europe was well out of the Stone Age by this point."Prof Reich told BBC News: "Archaeologists ever since the Second World War have been very sceptical about proposals of large-scale movements of people in prehistory. But what the genetics are showing – with the clearest example now in Britain at Beaker times – is that these large-scale migrations occurred, even after the spread of agriculture."Whatever did happen, Prof Parker Pearson is doubtful about the possibility of a violent invasion. The Beakers, he said, were "moving in very small groups or individually". He explained: "This is no great horde, jumping in boats en masse… it's a very long, slow process of migration." Furthermore, the incidence of interpersonal violence appears to be higher in Neolithic Britain (7%) than it was in the Beaker period (1%) http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43115485
