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Thread: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Bill, you called out for Americans to get into the streets and protest as our South American brothers and sisters are currently doing.

    If you recall, in 2011 there were lots of people doing that as part of the Occupy movement, in several cities here. Now, that was at a time when we had horrible unemployment and evictions and the great mess that followed 2008/2009. Those involved with Occupy didn't receive much support from the general populace--and they didn't even block streets and burn tires. They occupied public spaces and held teach ins and fed people.

    Now, when the employment is much higher (so they say), what are the odds of even getting an Occupy movement going again, let alone a fully-fledged protest movment? Pretty low. Here, it's Trump all the time and the Russians and the Ukraineans. And this little Antifa thing going that is more like a little pest than any kind of serious protest movement, largely regarded by the populace as misguided, stupidly violent, spoiled children in cowardly masks.

    Very high cost of living, no real health care plans, diminishing REAL wages, homeless population out of control on West coast, Amazon and Apple paying no corporate taxes for years, so yes, lots of problems. Maybe we're too diffused geographically, maybe we're too divided (superficially) politically, maybe we're too placated by the Kardashians and the Bachelor, but I don't see any great movements happening here.

    But, you never know.
    Last edited by Caliban; 24th October 2019 at 03:05.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Protests in Germany:

    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    It's going to get much worse before it gets better once and for all. We haven't been to the eye of the storm yet, but we are seeing signs of it.

    If people can keep their heads cool in times of chaos then the transition might be less painful and chaotic. That's up to each individual.
    "When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there." ~ George Harrison

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    delete it all.
    Last edited by Kamikaze; 13th November 2020 at 18:04.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Once I had a theory that x class emissions could affect planetary populaces. I went to spaceweather.com and found no significant increase at all for sunspots for October or sept but there was this:
    Cosmic Rays Increasing for the 4th Year in a Row
    February 21, 2019 / Dr.Tony Phillips

    Feb. 21, 2019: Cosmic rays in the stratosphere are intensifying for the 4th year in a row. This finding comes from a campaign of almost weekly high-altitude balloon launches conducted by the students of Earth to Sky Calculus. Since March 2015, there has been a ~13% increase in X-rays and gamma-rays over central California, where the students have launched hundreds of balloons.

    neutronsandxrays2

    The grey points in the graph are Earth to Sky balloon data. Overlaid on that time series is a record of neutron monitor data from the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory in Oulu, Finland. The correlation between the two data sets is impressive, especially considering their wide geographic separation and differing methodologies. Neutron monitors have long been considered a “gold standard” for monitoring cosmic rays on Earth. This shows that our student-built balloons are gathering data of similar quality.

    Why are cosmic rays increasing? The short answer is “Solar Minimum.” Right now, the 11-year solar cycle is plunging into one of the deepest minima of the Space Age. The sun’s weakening magnetic field and flagging solar wind are not protecting us as usual from deep-space radiation. Earth to Sky balloon launches in multiple countries and US states show that this is a widespread phenomenon.

    solarcycle

    Cosmic rays are of interest to anyone who flies on airplanes. The International Commission on Radiological Protection has classified pilots as occupational radiation workers because of cosmic ray doses they receive while flying. A recent study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that flight attendants face an elevated risk of cancer compared to members of the general population. They listed cosmic rays as one of several risk factors. There are also controversial studies that suggest cosmic rays promote the formation of clouds in the atmosphere; if so, increasing cosmic rays could affect weather and climate.
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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    The url for the story posted by James Newell above is: https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2019...year-in-a-row/

    Related to this and from spaceweather.com, here’s a graph showing cosmic radiation increase measured by weather balloons released in California for the last five years.


    From: https://spaceweather.com/images2019/...alloonplot.png
    Last edited by Cara; 25th October 2019 at 04:39.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    A statement today from the United Nations:
    Protests around the world: Politicians must address ‘growing deficit of trust’, urges Guterres

    Protests in cities across the world in recent days show that “people are hurting and want to be heard” by political leaders who must now address a “growing deficit of trust”, said the UN chief on Friday.

    Speaking to correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York, António Guterres said that although “every situation is unique” there are common underlying factors which constitute “rising threats to the social contract” between citizens and the political class.

    “People want a level playing field, including social, economic and financial systems that work for all”, together with respect for their human rights and a real say in decisions that affect them, Mr. Guterres added.

    Current or recent demonstrations and protests have raged in the streets of Bolivia, Chile, Hong Kong, Ecuador, Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq and Lebanon, said the UN human rights office (OHCHR), briefing reporters in Geneva earlier in the day.

    Major protests earlier in the year were also seen in Algeria, Honduras, Nicaragua, Malawi, Russia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

    Protests, rights violations

    OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said the UN had received reports of police using force against protesters in Bolivia following disputed election results this week, including tear gas, and she called on all actors, “including political leaders and their followers, to exercise restraint in order to reduce tensions”.

    There was a similar message for politicians in Baghdad, where at least 157 have been killed and nearly 5,500 injured across Iraq. There are “credible reports” of serious rights violations including killing of unarmed protesters, and excessive use of force, combined with Government repression of information.

    In Chile, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet – twice elected president there – said on Thursday her office would send a team of three officers to the country to establish the facts behind allegations of rights abuses, following days of protests over inequality, the rising cost of living, and a declared state of emergency.

    And in Lebanon, the “biggest spontaneous protests in over a decade” have continued, despite a package of anti-corruption reforms announced by the Prime Minister, said Ms. Shamdasani: “Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters from all walks of life and confessions, continue to unleash anger across the country, against what they perceive to be decades of corruption and government mismanagement.”

    ‘No excuse for violence’ - UN chief

    Mr. Guterres said he was “deeply concerned that some protests have led violence and loss of life”. Governments have an obligation to uphold free expression and peaceful assembly, and to “safeguard civic space”.

    But while security forces needed to use maximum restraint, it is also incumbent on protesters “to follow the examples of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and other champions of non-violent change”, added the UN chief.

    “There can be no excuse for violence – from any quarter. Above all I urge leaders everywhere to listen to the real problems of real people. Our world needs action and ambition, to build fair globalization, strengthen social cohesion and tackle the climate crisis.”

    He concluded with a final note of advice to those in power, from Algeria, to Zimbabwe: “With solidarity and smart policies, leaders can show they ‘get it’ - and point the way to a more just world.”

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Blockading supply chains really makes a government pay attention. And this, in Holland, just brings the country to a total standstill. Will this ever happen in the US and Canada? Answers, please.
    It won't happen in the US & Canada until there is a MUCH higher unemployment rate. It's at all-time lows now. Even idiots are getting hired. Which means the workers don't have time to do anything else but plop down on a couch with a beer and rest up for the next day of overwork.

    I'd also like to point out that, historically, these mass protests are organized by intelligence agencies: color revolutions, Arab spring, coordinated college student protests from the 60s and onward. These 3rd world protests are understandable but also follow on the heels of the organized illegal immigration movements in Europe and the US.
    Last edited by TomKat; 26th October 2019 at 12:01.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Indonesia’s Activists Are Ready to Fight Together
    Coalitions are forming in the face of threats to democracy and pluralism

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/16...acy-pluralism/



    Since the fall of the Indonesian dictator Suharto in 1998, civil society has flourished under the country’s burgeoning democracy. Observers even began calling Indonesia the most democratic nation in Southeast Asia.

    Yet at the same time, movements have been fragmented and divided into thematic silos that make it hard to get across a coherent message. Women’s rights activists tend to work solely on women’s issues, for example, and environmentalists on agrarian reform and climate change, with little crossover and cooperation. But September saw a change, with tens of thousands of students, activists, and other citizens across the archipelago coming together to protest draconian new civil laws that also weaken anti-corruption efforts. Now, a broad coalition has emerged—at exactly the time that Indonesian democracy has come most under threat in 20 years.

    The biggest protests have been in the capital, Jakarta, and the cultural center of Yogyakarta, but significant demonstrations have taken place in almost all major cities. Two students died during clashes with security forces in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, and another three died in Jakarta following injuries sustained after tear gas and water cannons were used liberally despite the rallies’ largely peaceful nature.

    While university students led the initial demonstration on Sept. 23, the following day saw a diverse array of people gather in the streets, with activists, workers, farmers, fishermen and women, and high school students united in concern over the direction in which their country was heading. This was unusual in Indonesia, where protests often see the same dedicated individuals turning out again and again.

    So why now? How did these protests get so big so fast, and is the coalition-building movement they have fostered sustainable?

    Indonesia in mid-2019 is facing a perfect storm of problems. Crucially, the last national election was just a few months ago. President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, has not even been inaugurated for his second term yet—it begins on Oct. 20. Consequently, tensions between Jokowi supporters and those of his opponent Prabowo Subianto remain high, with “buzzers”—social media users who are allegedly paid to promote their candidate and cause doubt about the other—from both sides extremely active, especially on Twitter.

    The first major issue the country faced after the April presidential and parliamentary elections was the massive forest and peatland fires that ravaged Sumatra and Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo) and blanketed a significant part of Southeast Asia under a deadly cloud of smoke. The country’s National Disaster Management Authority believes 90 percent of these fires were deliberately lit, mainly for clearing land to establish new oil palm plantations. This led to widespread disbelief and anger among citizens that authorities weren’t doing more to stop the fires and prosecute those responsible. With increased concern about climate change, personal health, and environmental degradation, young people in particular began demanding action on social media with the hashtag #IndonesiaDibakarBukanTerbakar (“Indonesia is not burning, it is being burnt”).

    Next came protests in Papua following a police crackdown on Papuan university students in Surabaya, East Java, after students alleged that police called them “monkeys”—a racial slur. Papua, the easternmost part of Indonesia, became part of the nation in 1969 following a flawed referendum many allege was rigged. An independence insurgency has simmered ever since, with the Free Papua Movement at its forefront. Indonesia’s military has a powerful presence across Papua, and allegations of human rights abuses on the part of security forces and private mining interests are frequent but often difficult to document or prove. The government refuses to allow foreign journalists and diplomats into the region.

    The racist incident unleashed a cascade of pent-up tensions, prompting widespread protests in Papua and an overdue reckoning with endemic racism across the archipelago. Demonstrations broke out in dozens of towns across the island’s two provinces. The government deployed tens of thousands of troops to restore order. Hundreds of people have been injured and more than 30 killed in the unrest, with the internet shut down across the region and thousands of non-Papuans evacuated from highland areas. But this time, young people across Indonesia began speaking up, demanding respect for human rights. This is a notable shift worth further examination—previously, even many progressive Indonesians were not aware of the situation in Papua or avoided taking a stance for fear of being labelled as supporting separatism in a country with a fiercely nationalist streak.

    Amid all this, the Indonesian parliament ratified a bill that dramatically restricts the capability of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). One of the country’s few widely trusted and respected organizations, the KPK was originally set up in 2002 during the post-Suharto reform era to investigate and prosecute rampant corruption. It has been incredibly successful at prosecuting corruption cases: It has an almost 100 percent success rate in convictions and even sent a former speaker of parliament, Setya Novanto, to prison for 15 years for his role in stealing $170 million in public funds. But now, under the new law, the KPK will become a government agency rather than an independent body. The law was passed in a record five days despite calls for public debate.

    The final straw was the proposed ratification of a new criminal code and changes to laws on labor, agrarian reform, mining, and the correctional system. For many Indonesians who took to the streets, this was the greatest concern. If ratified, it would forbid criticism of the president, introduce the death penalty for treason, restrict abortion and sharing information on family planning, outlaw all sexual relations outside marriage, further weaken anti-corruption efforts, and make it illegal for unmarried couples to live together—the culmination of a movement toward social conservatism and Islamism that has gained traction in recent years, threatening the country’s legally enshrined pluralism.
    "If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?"
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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    My biggest beef with the current system has always been that there is no op-out option. I don't care about long life or success as the world interprets it. I care about my freedom and I care about not being exploited. In times past it was always possible to escape the world in one form or another. Now people want to escape by coming to the west. But what happens to those already here? Where do they go?

    We are captured and we are controlled.

    I make a lousy slave - no matter what you may call it. The working man's plight is worse than slavery because at least as a slave you have no disillusion about your status. The working man believes he is free...and does not realize that his capitulation forces my capitulation. But I will not capitulate! So I struggle against the whole of humanity...
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Quote Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
    My biggest beef with the current system has always been that there is no op-out option. I don't care about long life or success as the world interprets it. I care about my freedom and I care about not being exploited. In times past it was always possible to escape the world in one form or another. Now people want to escape by coming to the west. But what happens to those already here? Where do they go?

    We are captured and we are controlled.

    I make a lousy slave - no matter what you may call it. The working man's plight is worse than slavery because at least as a slave you have no disillusion about your status. The working man believes he is free...and does not realize that his capitulation forces my capitulation. But I will not capitulate! So I struggle against the whole of humanity...
    There are several opt-out options: live on the street and beg, live in the forest and scrounge, suicide, etc. But obviously most, but not all, people prefer their current life to these alternatives. As to financial difficulty, a lot of that comes from appetite. Man wants wife. Wife wants kids. Dad wants truck. Bigger house with better schools... Instead of getting married, just program your computer to scream "I want" repeatedly and you'll have 50% of the experience with none of the cost :-)

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    The changes acoming are probably a diverse set of data points, which includes off world factors as in heating or cooling cycles of the sun.

    Btw if the sun goes into a grand solar minumum for several years it will be much cooler. That means much less food grown for crop production. And possible mini ice ages.

    Also economies come and go which we are in the process of seeing. The BIS and IMF, Fed and world bank time is about to run out.

    There also seems to be large cycles of action that occur on this planet. Some cycles are quite repetitive and fairly short, options traders often use those.

    Some are longer and when an 80 year cycle coincides with a 500 year cycle there seems to be larger changes than normal. War cycles are fairly well mapped out also.

    Then there is these recent tech developments we have had for a few generations which I guess have assisted communications amongst people, but the downside
    to it is we have raised a decadent society to new heights of immorality. AI is of course included here as a factor to mankind's lowered survival standards.

    That mankind will kill and riot because their gas price is suddenly raised $1.00 more a gallon is not a good indicator for that group.

    Anyways not to bum you all out, I would say it is better to know this stuff and prepare self and family and group and be ready to do something about it.

    Getting your own scene in order, physical, mental and spiritual is a very good start. If you read up on successful methods of organizing and living self sufficiently that is a responsible view and a useful way to spend your time.

    Socialism is NOT the way to go, this planet has pretty well bought that load of crap and that is another reason things are not going to fare well.

    One definition of government I always liked is :" The aggregate irresponsibility of the people." That pretty well sums up that we get what we deserve.
    Last edited by James Newell; 28th October 2019 at 17:55.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Elections and Uprisings: Latin America Is Once Again Liberating Itself From The U.S.

    FRN
    By Paul Antonopoulos
    On Oct 29, 2019


    Washington’s influence in Latin America, it’s so-called “backyard”, has reached a new crisis as neoliberal and reactionary governments that have been backed by the U.S. and President Donald Trump, are threatened either by popular mobilization and uprisings or by electoral defeats.

    The so-called “pink tide” is a period in Latin America that peaked in 2011 as it saw Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela all ruled by left-wing governments. However, the tide began to turn back as Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and others returned to the neoliberal order in recent years. However, the political pendulum, which has been moving to the right is seemingly going back to the left.

    The chaotic events in the Chilean capital of Santiago, along with the brutal reaction of security forces that has seen 19 people dead, is state-backed violence not seen since the years of the Pinochet dictatorship. The mobilization of the Chilean armed forces is not a sign of strength, but evidence of a political panic that permeates all across Latin America. In the face of President Sebastián Piñera, the whole neoliberal model of the IMF that Washington has consistently exported to the region since the installation of Pinochet, is once against being challenged by the people of Latin America.

    Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno was initially elected to follow the socialist program of his predecessor, Rafael Correa, the ardent defender of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. Moreno has not only offered Julian Assange, an Australian-born but Ecuadorean citizen whistle blower, to the U.S., but has offered land and water as well. This is in conjunction to his initial agreement to implement IMF demands that would completely destroy the Ecuadorean Middle Class and reverse efforts in poverty reduction. It is little wonder why Ecuador exploded weeks ago, forcing Moreno to backdown on implementing the IMF demands. He not only withdrew fuel price liberalization, but was forced, for a time, to abandon his country’s capital of Quito, a highly embarrassing move.

    At the same time, Evo Morales’ new election victory in Bolivia , as well as Washington’s failure to overthrow the Venezuelan government, despite repeated coup attempts, provide some proof that the so-called “pink tide” could make a comeback – even without some of the radical features of its first incarnation.

    Importantly, on Sunday’s Uruguayan elections, Leftist Daniel Martínez received 39.9% of the vote while neoliberal Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party received 29%. Both will now compete in the second round of the elections on November 24. Although there are still many weeks until the next round, it does appear for now that Martínez will be the next leader of Uruguay.

    We must not forget, of course, that Washington has already lost a valuable ally in Mexico, a country that in the past elected its presidents among executives of American companies, such as Coca Cola, as well as reactionaries who asserted their power with state violence. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has not shied away from building stronger ties with both China and Russia, even as both are competing with Mexico’s powerful neighbour to the north, the U.S.

    The political earthquake in Argentina has been epic as Peronist Alberto Fernandez won the election against neoliberal Mauricio Macri had a better yield of votes than previous research indicated, reaching 40.61% of the preference. However, that was not enough to take the election to the second round, as Fernández won 47.88% of the vote, enough to take the title of president- elect on Sunday. The removal of Macri from the presidency does not only signify his personal failure, but also the complete rejection of the IMF’s financial program, which in the country is seen as identical to U.S. dependence and has seen poverty sharply rise in Argentina.

    In Brazil, the large rallies of protest over the devastating fires in the Amazon, as well as cutbacks in education, caused the first cracks in the absolute power Far Right-loving President Jair Bolsonaro. But even Brazil’s right-wing economic elite having expressed its frustration and anger over Washington in recent days, as Donald Trump initially backed tracked on his vow to support Brazil’s membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For Bolsonaro and the elite businessmen who supported him, the OECD was the center piece of their economic policy. Indeed, in order to gain the favor of the U.S. they had to make a series of concessions, such as the transfer of Alcantara’s strategic air and space base.

    Finally, in Colombia, which is a hotbed for U.S. aggression across Latin America and has become a center for the CIA and USAID to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the government survives a state of constant terror. Paramilitary raids, which usually operate with the backing of the Colombian army and police, continually execute trade unionists, members of left-wing organizations and leaders of indigenous groups, who question President Iván Duque Márquez authority. There is little suggestion that the situation in Colombia will soon change.

    Therefore, the recovery of center-left and left-wing governments in Latin America that challenge Washington’s empire is beginning to return to the continent. The whole region, however, has always been the most sensitive barometer of the global financial crisis – such as the one expected by almost all major economists and international organizations. As the crisis deepens, Washington’s allies in the region will be confronted with movements and uprisings that will challenge the neoliberal order of the superpower.

    Maintaining this model will require more coups, martial law and blood on the streets. But this is unlikely to work as the people of Latin America have demonstrated that they are no longer tolerant of the neoliberal world order and continue to push for their sovereignty and choices to guide their own destinies. No matter what happens now, Latin America is beginning to change once again, and it is not in the direction of Washington’s vision and demands.


    Source: InfoBRICS
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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Quote Posted by TomKat (here)
    Quote Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
    My biggest beef with the current system has always been that there is no op-out option. I don't care about long life or success as the world interprets it. I care about my freedom and I care about not being exploited. In times past it was always possible to escape the world in one form or another. Now people want to escape by coming to the west. But what happens to those already here? Where do they go?

    We are captured and we are controlled.

    I make a lousy slave - no matter what you may call it. The working man's plight is worse than slavery because at least as a slave you have no disillusion about your status. The working man believes he is free...and does not realize that his capitulation forces my capitulation. But I will not capitulate! So I struggle against the whole of humanity...
    There are several opt-out options: live on the street and beg, live in the forest and scrounge, suicide, etc. But obviously most, but not all, people prefer their current life to these alternatives. As to financial difficulty, a lot of that comes from appetite. Man wants wife. Wife wants kids. Dad wants truck. Bigger house with better schools... Instead of getting married, just program your computer to scream "I want" repeatedly and you'll have 50% of the experience with none of the cost :-)
    I tried this when I went through my awakening. I wanted nothing more than to be homeless and was quite happy about it.

    The problem is those who "love" you. They, with the best intentions, are going to do everything they can to "save" you. However, I look at it as I had more work to do, within the system, to help liberate the slaves. I really didn't have a choice. They were going to lock me up until I agreed, one way or the other. Such is life on planet Earth right now.
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone when we are uncool." From the movie "Almost Famous""l "Let yourself stand cool and composed before a million universes." Walt Whitman

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    Today's protests indicate the scale of troubles in our paradise (by Slavoj Zizek)

    By Slavoj Zizek RT
    28 Oct, 2019 09:52
    Updated 2 days ago
    Get short URL


    © Reuters / (L) BENOIT TESSIER; (M) KIM KYUNG-HOON ; (R) ALBERT GEA.

    Anti-establishment protests are popping up all over the world, in countries with different political systems, and various levels of wealth. We may be entering an era of widespread civil unrest.

    A couple of weeks ago, Chinese media started promoting the claim that “demonstrations in Europe and South America are the direct result of Western tolerance of Hong Kong unrest.” In a commentary published in Beijing News, former Chinese diplomat Wang Zhen wrote"the disastrous impact of a 'chaotic Hong Kong' has begun to influence the Western world," i.e., that demonstrators in Chile and Spain were taking their cues from Hong Kong.

    An editorial in Global Times accused Hong Kong demonstrators of "exporting revolution to the world".
    "The West is paying the price for supporting riots in Hong Kong, which has quickly kindled violence in other parts of the world and foreboded the political risks that the West can't manage," it warned.

    "There are many problems in the West and all kinds of undercurrents of dissatisfaction. Many of them will eventually manifest in the way the Hong Kong protests did," the Global Times’ editor Hu Xijin said in a video commentary. "Catalonia is probably just the beginning," was the ominous conclusion.
    Although the idea that demonstrations in Barcelona and Chile have taken cues from Hong Kong is far-fetched, it is all too easy to claim that these outbursts - Hong Kong, Catalonia, Chile, Ecuador, Lebanon, not to mention the Yellow Vests - cannot be reduced to a common denominator. In each of the cases, the protest against a particular law or measure (higher prices for gasoline in France, an extradition-to-China law in Hong Kong, an increase in public transport fares in Chile, long prison terms for pro-independence Catalan politicians in Barcelona, etc.) ignited a general discontent which was obviously already there, lurking and waiting for a contingent trigger to explode. Thus, even when the particular law or measure, which triggered the discontent, was repealed, protests persisted.

    New Realities
    Two weird facts cannot but strike the eye here. First, “Communist” China discreetly plays on the solidarity of those in power all over the world against a rebellious populace by warning Western leaders not to underestimate the dissatisfaction in their own countries. It assumes, beneath all ideological and geo-political tensions, they all share the same basic interest in holding onto power.

    Secondly, the “trouble in paradise” aspect: protests are not only taking place in poor, and desolate, countries but in nations of (relative, at least) prosperity. States which were, until now, presented as success stories. At least financially.

    Although these protests betray the growing inequalities which belie official success stories, they cannot be reduced to economic issues. The dissatisfaction they express indicates the growing (normative) expectations of how our societies should function, expectations which also concern factors not directly related to the economy, such as collective or individual freedoms, dignity, even meaningful life. Something that was, until recently, accepted as normal (a certain degree of poverty, full state sovereignty, etc.) is now perceived as a wrong to be combatted.

    This is why, when evaluating these protests, we should consider also the new explosion of ecological movements and the feminist struggle. Meaning the real one, which involves thousands of ordinary women, not its sanitized American "MeToo" version.

    Mexican Movement
    Let’s just focus on one case. In Mexico, massive feminist mobilization involves “the conversation about life, dignified life and rage."
    Allow me to quote Alejandra Santillana Ortiz, a member of Ruda Colectiva Feminista, “What does life mean for us? What are we referring to when we speak of putting life at the center? For us, life is not a declarative abstract," she believes.

    "It necessarily involves talking about dignity and everything that makes it possible to enable dignity.”

    So, we are not debating here abstract philosophical speculations on the meaning of life, but reflections rooted in concrete experiences which prove how the most ordinary daily life - things like taking a subway – are impregnated by dangers of brutal violence and humiliation.
    “How can a person have peace of mind knowing that on the metro in Mexico City, an integral part of the commute in the city, thousands of women have been kidnapped in a matter of months and that this all took place in public and in broad daylight? And if you aren’t kidnapped, you must consider the very high probability that you will be assaulted, or that you will encounter violent aggression of some kind," Santillana Ortiz observes. "This is the reason why there are there separate women-only cars on trains, but even then there are men who get on these cars.”
    Mexico may be an extreme case here, but it is just an extrapolation of tendencies found everywhere. We live in societies in which brutal male violence boils just beneath the surface, and one thing is clear: Political Correctness is not the way to beat it.

    What also makes Mexico an obvious example is a secret solidarity between this persisting male brutality and the state apparatuses that we expect to protect us from it.
    “There is a kind of formation of a violent society without punishment in which the state is part of that violence. A great many of the crimes that have been committed in recent years in Mexico have the state and its functionaries or the police directly involved," Santillana Ortiz continues.

    "Or, through judges or those in the justice system, the state guarantees generalized impunity in this country.”
    The terrifying vision of “generalized impunity” is the truth of the new wave of populism, and only vast popular mobilization is strong enough to confront this obscene complicity of state and civil society.

    This is why the ongoing protests express a growing dissatisfaction that cannot be channeled into established modes of political representation.

    However, we should avoid, at any cost, celebrating these protests for their distance towards established politics. Here, a difficult “Leninist” task lies ahead: how to organize the growing dissatisfaction in all its forms, including the ecological and feminist elements, into a large-scale coordinated movement? If we fail in this, what awaits us is a society with a permanent state of exception and civil unrest.


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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    delete it all.
    Last edited by Kamikaze; 13th November 2020 at 18:03.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    "brutal male violence" is what I would address

    What makes a male brutal? What does the equivalent in a female look like? Can a female be brutal?

    It is quite obvious what has happened, to me at least. Men are the traditional bread-winner of the household. This has been stripped from them. As men's paychecks dwindle due to the waning buying power of our currencies and lagging pay raises, as the attack on the household escalated, women have had to enter the workforce to augment the paltry pay of their men. There is no more work today than a generation or two ago but the pay has halved and the workforce doubled (within reasonable estimates, give or take). The power elite have managed to fake us into working more for far less pay.

    Add to this reality the two-tiered job categories and the rage hidden under the surface is easier to understand. In order to justify the money and the higher pay, society has instituted the university level education for everyone who can pay the entry fee. These new jobs add no wealth to society. Instead, due to the nature of these new jobs, the old guard has to support these citizens with the real wealth that they produce the only way wealth can be produced - by hard physical and dirty work. This is the real reason the pay of the first tier jobs has been attacked so radically, leaving wealth building jobs paying not half what they should. The other half of their pay pays for the unproductive second tier job workers.

    Since the trend is to increase the second tier work force numbers, the first tier has to be attacked more vigorously to support these workers. You can't have a bunch of beaurocrats receiving minimum wage because of the status they have in the eyes of the public but their output suggests they should. It is far easier and far more desirable to create a system where the dirty folks, the folks who get their hands dirty building wealth, should get inadequate pay leaving the high paying jobs to those who wield the power.

    This is all old news. We are now at the stage where the western world wants to institute and force this disproportionate system down the throats of the third world by the use of the idea of "free trade". In this manner they can augment our tired, broken, and underpaid wealth builders with foreign workers they can import through the purposely porous borders of the west. So instead of pay raises for the wealth builders they get attrition and replacement by other, hungrier workers willing to work for peanuts.

    And the second tier class continues to expand, requiring more cuts to the workers and less wealth across the board.

    This is an untenable situation that has reality knocking on the door of the human family. If the poor do not rise up and stop this nonsense, mankind will destroy themselves. For the wealthy will continue to draw the lions share of the wealth they had nothing to do with creating and those that did are tired of feeding them while they go hungry.
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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    It is quickly becoming time for Canadians to get fired up and make some noise. All of north America should - why sit here and watch the rest of the world do the protesting when most likely a lot of the problems are rooted from here.

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    More protests in the Netherlands, this time it’s construction workers:

    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Turmoil and Chaos all over the Planet

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/artic...primed-explode

    In this article that appeared in the magazine of the American Council on Foreign Relations you can read how president Piñera of Chile announced a 20 percent increase in the minimum pension, a higher minimum wage, and price cuts for medicines for the poor. Why did he not announce that along with the price increase for the public transport that sparked the revolt? Why did the writers of the article not question the idiocy of the FMI advisers of the country? Same as the idiocy of the advisors of French President Macron that did not foresee the impact of a taxincrease on petrol in the rural areas that sparked the Yellow Vest revolt. The harm is done now and their foolishness learned the populations not only how they operate like nasty scammers but much worse.

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