Ugly words that represent an explosion of desperation among the world’s most vulnerable peoples.
The number of “forcibly displaced” people in the world is at the highest level on record.
We see the statistics numbering in the tens of millions, pictures from cities torn apart by bombing and the over-crowded refugee camps, but they have a numbing effect. It’s just too much.
So maybe listening to a few individual voices will help us find a connection, the first step toward the will to act. ___________________________________________________________
Lanat Abad / The Place of the Damned
by Solmaz Sharif
this mangy plot where by now only mothers still come, only mothers guard the nameless plots
and then sparingly
Peepholes burnt through the metal doors of their solitary cells,
just large enough for three fingers to curl out for a lemon to pass through for an ear to be held against for one eye then the other to regard the hallway to regard the cell and inmate
peepholes without a lens so when the guard comes to inspect me, I inspect him. Touch me, he said.
It’s like when a customer calls into a call centre. Only in this case Putin is the customer, and Trump is selling America.
So let’s see now, KGB guy has ‘heart attack” in the back seat of his car, KGB/FSB arrests some other guys as US spies while other Russians do… what? And now FSB sanctions get lifted?
Strategy of tension continues even if the alleged Golden Shower doesn’t make the WH any less “shabby” for POTUS45*. Meanwhile, recordings of phone meeting get turned off and bordello-house reach gets further consigned to the historical ash heap, just after it’s reported that the WH custodial staff has been reminded about listening devices.
Fiercely loyal to Nixon, Woods claimed responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 18 1⁄2minute gap in a June 20, 1972, audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred – which depended upon her stretching to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the “Rose Mary Stretch”[5]) – was met with skepticism from those who believed the erasures, from whatever source, to be deliberate. The contents of the gap remain a mystery.[6]
POTUS causing alarm by saying arrest of Russian spies will offer pretext to drop sanctions, after they are “saddled” with DNC email hacks.
However, other media reports in Russia, also quoting unnamed sources, claim these men have been arrested for taking part in a hacking ring that targeted Russian officials.
What has long been accused and now manifest in a variety of agencies, incidents, and even specific actions comes to light in a classified FBI study obtained by The Intercept.
President Trump has inherited a vast domestic intelligence agency with extraordinary secret powers. A cache of documents offers a rare window into the FBI’s quiet expansion since 9/11.
“For instance, the U.S. government considers the KKK a hate group — but membership in the group is not illegal. That’s the case for all domestic hate or extremist groups, though authorities can choose to target their members under conspiracy statutes”…”
While not explaining all racially motivated incidents of police homicides, it does speak to the Ghost Skin cultures of law enforcement, the systemic problems of the PIC and of course the now more open harassment of POC because “you don’t look like you belong here, or there, or anywhere… “
“This election, for white supremacists, was a signal that ‘We’re on the right track,’” …. “I have never seen anything like it among white supremacists, where they express this feeling of triumph and jubilee. They are just elated about the idea that they feel like they have somebody in the White House who gets it.”
WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND other domestic extremists maintain an active presence in U.S. police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A striking reference to that conclusion, notable for its confidence and the policy prescriptions that accompany it, appears in a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, obtained by The Intercept. The guide, which details the process by which the FBI enters individuals on a terrorism watchlist, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File, notes that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers,” and explains in some detail how bureau policies have been crafted to take this infiltration into account.
Although these right-wing extremists have posed a growing threat for years, federal investigators have been reluctant to publicly address that threat or to point out the movement’s longstanding strategy of infiltrating the law enforcement community.
No centralized recruitment process or set of national standards exists for the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, many of which have deep historical connections to racist ideologies. As a result, state and local police as well as sheriff’s departments present ample opportunities for white supremacists and other right-wing extremists looking to expand their power base.
In a heavily redacted version of an October 2006 FBI internal intelligence assessment, the agency raised the alarm over white supremacist groups’ “historical” interest in “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” The effort, the memo noted, “can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources or personnel.” The memo also states that law enforcement had recently become aware of the term “ghost skins,” used among white supremacists to describe “those who avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.” In at least one case, the FBI learned of a skinhead group encouraging ghost skins to seek employment with law enforcement agencies in order to warn crews of any investigations…
Over 1400 more days of orange mobile-suit dictatorship remain because … gutless Congress scared of impeachment in the face of GOP majorities. And what better way to create a greater supply of bad dudes than to … what? Got GITMO?
The Gleiwitz incident was a part of a larger operation carried out by Abwehr and SS forces.[3] There were other incidents orchestrated by Germany along the Polish-German border at the same time as the Gleiwitz attack, such as a house torching in the Polish Corridor and spurious propaganda output. The entire project was dubbed Operation Himmler and comprised a number of incidents[8] intended to give the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany.[6] German newspapers and politicians, including Adolf Hitler, accused Polish authorities for months before the 1939 invasion of organizing or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland.[8][9] On the night of 31 August 1939, a small group of German operatives dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Naujocks[2] seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish (sources vary on the content of the message). The Germans’ goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs.[2][3] To make the attack seem more convincing, the Germans used human corpses to pass them off as Polish attackers. They murdered Franciszek Honiok, a 43-year-old unmarried German Silesian Catholic farmer known for sympathizing with the Poles. He had been arrested the previous day by the Gestapo. He was dressed to look like a saboteur, then killed by lethal injection, given gunshot wounds, and left dead at the scene so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was subsequently presented to the police and press as proof of the attack.[4]Trump has gone out of his way as a candidate and as a president to depict his policies toward the Muslim world in the most hostile and imperialistic terms, and he literally cannot imagine how this could create problems. ISIS could not have dreamed up a more effective recruiter. The consequences will be horrific. nymag.com/…
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the “bad” would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad “dudes” out there!
Majority of State Dept has been fired and sits empty. Bannon and Miller now rule the country unchecked. Judges’ orders ignored by DHS. pic.twitter.com/706oClSKRV
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment. ___________________________________________________________
It’s like when a customer calls into a call centre.
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 