Opinion

We do not need qualified immunity for vigilante cops! We need Qualified Communities to police themselves by living the golden rule. Love has the power to heal and protect people by engaging as thy neighbor’s keeper. Perhaps if people stopped voting for a political party and focused on the content of the politician’s character then we will not have greedy politrickcians capitalizing from human suffering.

It is the recycled ineffective strategies of these leaders that create tragedies in our neighborhoods. Disruptive honesty by law abiding citizens in peaceful demonstrations demanding accountability and transparency of our officials is a constitutional right. Corrupted leaders get re-elected by misinformed voters who belong to their political party or have the same skin color. The Covid 19 pandemic has fueled violence, overdoses, unemployment, poverty, and loss of homes, and shut down of nonprofits.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 7, 2021
Remarks on June 7, 2021, to North Texas Peace Advocates.

Now let me get this straight. A nation bullies and harasses a much smaller neighbor which eventually leads that neighbor to strike back with largely home-made weapons. The larger and more powerful country, armed with state of the art killing machines, attacks its basically unarmed opponent and kills hundreds of civilians, including a large number of children. It also destroys billions of dollars of infrastructure in the poorer and weaker neighbor. Almost immediately after the fighting stops, senior legislators from a third nation that had nothing to do with the war apart from supplying the larger nation with weapons appeared on the scene and promoted the lie that the larger nation had actually been the victim of an unprovoked attack by the “terrorists” running the small nation. They did so publicly while meeting with and endorsing the actions of the government officials from the large nation, which, it would seem, is about to be investigated by an international body for war crimes. They were joined by an ex-officio former foreign minister of the third nation who likewise echoed the propaganda being put out by the large nation.

Well, for the first time since the lockdown began, after about 15 months of streaming cinema online, your peripatetic film critic finally attended his first screening in person. The event took place June 3 at the Landmark Pico Theater, a major West Los Angeles theatrical venue where arthouse and blockbuster movies alike are shown. The occasion was the directorial debut by Ensenada-born actress Magi Avila, Altitude Not Attitude, which was preceded by a red carpet in the Landmark’s lobby. The celebs who walked the red carpet included supermodel/actress Kelly LeBrock, who was the titular The Woman in Red in that 1984 Gene Wilder romcom.

This was followed by a well-attended reception inside one of the multiplex’s theaters, where a bartender provided libations and servers made the rounds with delicious appetizers that were each adorned by mini-flags from the countries of origin for the hors d’oeuvres, catered by Chef Stacie Rauch of The Personal Palate. For instance, chocolatey mini-mousses were topped by diminutive French Tricolours.

ITEM: A Cleveland-based masseuse admitted she gave some Ohio State University football players more than back rubs last year and was apparently forced to give up her license after an investigation by an OSU-hired law firm. She provided massages to a couple dozen OSU football players while wandering through an apartment complex populated by the players and reportedly had sex with a few. She later denied any wrongdoing. The OSU-paid-for report said no NCAA violations were done.

ITEM: A Cleveland-based masseuse admitted she gave some Ohio State University football players more than back rubs last year and was apparently forced to give up her license after an investigation by an OSU-hired law firm. She provided massages to a couple dozen OSU football players while wandering through an apartment complex populated by the players and reportedly had sex with a few. She later denied any wrongdoing. The OSU-paid-for report said no NCAA violations were done.

Mack Beggs has a problem. The Texas teen is an accomplished wrestler, but the state forces him to wrestle girls. That’s because Mack was born a female, and though he’s begun transitioning to male, Texas law requires young athletes to compete in the gender they were assigned at birth.

Mack is one of three teenagers portrayed in Changing the Game, a documentary directed by Mark Barnett that examines the controversial issue of trans athletes in a way that’s compassionate, thoughtful and evenhanded. It’s also comprehensive, as each of the youths lives in a different state, and each state has a different way of dealing with the issue. Also featured are:

• Sarah Rose Huckman, a competitive skier who lives in New Hampshire, which allows trans athletes to compete in their chosen gender, but only if they’ve undergone reassignment surgery.

• Andraya Yearwood, a track athlete who lives in Connecticut, which allows all athletes to compete in their preferred gender regardless of where they are in the reassignment process.

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 feature Apocalypse Now depicted war crimes committed by U.S. troops against Vietnamese people: An unforgettable, operatic, bone chilling chopper air raid attacking a Viet Cong village set to Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” so a surfer whose name is initialed “LBJ” can ride the gnarly waves there (Ride of the Valkyries - Apocalypse Now (3/8) Movie CLIP (1979) HD - YouTube); a Yankee patrol boat opens fire on a traditional Vietnamese craft after a woman tries to protect a puppy (APOCALYPSE NOW - I told you don´t stop - YouTube); and so on.

The political discourse of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, is similar to that of an ineffectual king who has been isolated in his palace for far too long. The king speaks of prosperity and peace, and tirelessly counts his innumerable achievements, while his people are dying of starvation outside and pointlessly begging for his attention.

 But Abbas is no ordinary king. He is a ‘president’ by name only, a designated ‘leader’ simply because Israel and the US-led international political system insist on recognizing him as such. Not only had the man’s political mandate expired in 2009, it was quite limited even prior to that date.  At no point in his career did Abbas ever represent the entire Palestinian people. Now, at 85 years, chances are Abbas will never serve this role.

Let’s listen in for a moment to the gentle, awkward language of mass killing:

“The employment or threat of employment of nuclear weapons could have a significant influence on ground operations. . . . Integration of nuclear weapons into a theater of operations requires the consideration of multiple variables. Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability. Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”

This is a sneak peek into a 2019 report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff called “Nuclear Operations,” which Brian Terrell quoted recently. The document was, for some reason, publicly posted in the waning days of the Trump administration, then — oops — quickly removed, but not before it was downloaded by the Federation of American Scientists.