Roger and Rawgod have been helping me to understand there are a lot of trouble spots with fighting and famine all over the world, not just Gaza. This video by Beau is about Sudan. A great resource to learn about the conflicts going on is this website I got from Rawgod off Roger’s site. https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts . Hugs. Scottie
The Floor Action Response Team!! Or FART for short. She is the darling of Putin’s State Sactioned Media. Her mug is plastered all over their chirons, move over Tucker Carlson 🙄 She says, by sending aid to Ukraine, America is killing men, women and children? She says “It’s repulsive”
As I was listening to this video I was reading a reply from Roger deteremineddespitewp and we were talking about regional conflicts and the cycles of conflict and hate. I will post Roger’s grand comment and then the video from Beau. Hugs. Scottie BTW if you want to read the entire discussion which I recommend it is on this post.
Oh Scottie you could loose track on become very depressed trying to compile a list of what are termed genocides, adding civilian deaths through wars, reprisal killings, mass communal violence, deaths through prejudice and on and on. By the time you’d finish you’d be thinking ‘Well at least conventional war on a battlefield is honest and upfront,’ Where and how to start to put a stop to this frustrates me, because I keep coming up with ‘knocking heads together’ solutions which kind of defeats the whole purpose. rawgod gave me a challenge to write out a story where in 2643 Humanity finally quit this violence ‘kick’….. I had to write it from a sci-fi perspective it was my only way.
My problem is, as long as I can think back I’ve always hated prejudice and violence that goes with it, which in turns causes my own violent solutions, try as I might that idea still bubbles up. And actually that is something of a sin in true Christian terms.
You, like rawgod, Jill and Keith are so right we should learn, force ourselves to work together. These constant wars which pit communities against each other only leave a legacy of bitterness for another generation to feed off. Take an extreme example of WWII. When the fighting had ceased some nations who had engaged in Total War just put down the guns and said ‘OK. That’s over. Some will have to pay for starting it, but as for the rest. OK.’ UK & USA did that with Italy, Germany and Japan and the populations of those nations did likewise; though it took some time. Even with the USA and Vietnam, the veterans would meet up. Americans went back to help with projects, just to try and make sense of it all. It’s still a tight state run by a ‘communist’ government but is not what would call a North Korea. Hip-hop for instance is alive and vibrant (though I am sure the artists are careful with the lyrics)
When its communities; not so much, the hate is passed on down. The massacres are shared out. Even if the violence stops the hate simmers ready to break loose. Maybe not on issues across the board, but perhaps on certain sensitive points.
I’m tip-toeing around here a bit, lest I mention one example which triggers someone reading this.
I keep on hoping, when the evidence seems to be the opposite. I keep thinking of folk who wish for peace and have generous hearts, those who work for peace who try to reach out. I try and stifle my own little demons.
You are so right we should not be squandering our life span, in this useless Hate.
Sorry I am late to posting this. Also I have been up since 12:30 am and every time I lay down due to pain and being so tired I couldn’t sleep. Welcome to steroids. Ron made a grand meal and I ate more than I have in months even on steroids. He made a perfect NY strip steak, a small baked potato drenched in melted butter, and a small salad. The steak was cooked to perfection being red inside and so well seasoned I told him he should write it down. I ate every bite of everything after offering Ron some choice bits of steak. He doesn’t eat much red meat, he has Hemochromatosis and so has to watch his iron intake, where I was told by my doctors to eat as much as I could due to anemia. Enjoy the video, I am closing down and going to bed. Ron told me he will soon be down to cuddle with me. Ya, it is not even my birthday. Hugs.
Apr 2, 2024
The Israeli government continues to escalate, including the targeting of aid workers from the World Central Kitchen as they delivered food, the targeting of a consulate, and the banning of journalists – all within a 24 hour period.
This is not a normal blog / show I follow, I got pointed here by one I do. But the point is … take a breath … why are all these right wing governors and now republican office holders want their own private army. Remember that the republicans and their ideas are very much in the minority. Rather than change their idea to fit what the majority of the people want, they gerrymander districts and do other voter restrictive policies. They have increasing become a fundamentalist religious minority group trying to force their demands of lifestyle on the majority. So again, Why do these republican politicians want their own personal armies? Think of that. They are a minority trying to force unwanted policies on the rest of the country. So if the majority doesn’t want what they are demanding … they have gang thugs ready to back them up and enforce their demands by violence. By threats and violence. Hugs. Scottie
Local conservatives in the New York county want an armed, civilian militia for “emergencies” that could also be used during civil rights demonstrations.
Despite facing backlash from civil rights activists and Democratic lawmakers, Republicans in conservative-leaning Nassau County, New York, are moving forward with a plan to form an armed, civilian militia that the local government could operate as a de facto police force during “emergencies.”
The plan, proposed by County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has local opponents comparing the “special deputies” to other government-backed militias throughout history, including some Ku Klux Klan chapters and the Nazi brownshirts. Blakeman has taken umbrage at the comparison; according to the Long Island Press, he suggested that “This is not only a personal insult to me, as a Jew, but it is a personal insult on humanity.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.Alejandra Villa Loarca / Newsday via Getty Images file
By executive order, Blakeman has assembled a list of more than 100 civilians he wants to train to act as “special deputies,” or what is essentially a backup police force. All members are required to have firearms licenses, and Blakeman has said they would undergo background checks and mental health evaluations, though what either of those entail could be quite subjective.
“God forbid there is an emergency, do you want me to have to scramble at that point to try and find people?” Blakeman said in defense of the plan, according to WPIX-TV.
Since conservatives have made a point of portraying nonviolent protests as threats to state and national security, WPIX asked Blakeman whether his civilian militia could be used to crack down on civil rights demonstrations. And he didn’t say no:
Blakeman said he will call them up in only the most extreme situation like a natural disaster – with the mission being not to police, but to guard hospitals and other infrastructure to free up sworn Nassau Police. However, in theory, Blakeman could declare anything in an emergency, so PIX11 News pressed him about if a political protest he did not agree with might be declared an emergency. “So far our police have been able to handle any protest,” Blakeman said. “But if there was a riot I would consider it, especially at the level they were burning buildings.”
In recent years, conservatives have become more vocal in support of armed vigilante and militia groups that share their draconian and oftentimes illiberal view of criminal justice. This has been most evident in Republicans’ involvement with groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, both of which sought to overturn the 2020 election in Donald Trump’s favor. Trump has even portrayed the violent militiamen who fomented insurrection on his behalf as “patriots” and said their jailing has made them “hostages.” And Kyle Rittenhouse has become a cause célèbre among conservatives after he was acquitted of killing two men after he had joined up with a militia group that had stationed itself outside a used car lot in Wisconsin in 2020.
We’ve seen Republican leaders in states as varied as California, Michigan, Nevada and Florida throw their support behind civilian-led militia groups, as well, which scholar Rachel Kleinfeld wrote about in this 2022 article for Just Security. (Kleinfeld, a distinguished scholar who ran the Truman National Security project and served on the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, reports that some GOP-led counties have even relied on such militia groups to provide security at events.)
[W]hat we’re seeing in America is the next stage of this phenomena. You know, the first stage might be dehumanization and allowing a mass public to start having beliefs about violence, that it’s OK. The next stage is trying to get organized groups. These are really violence entrepreneurs or violence specialists. Regular people, even those primed to commit violence, are still — they’re wary of taking the first step. But if you get violence specialists involved who are very comfortable with violence, then it’s easier to get a crowd of people to commit violence. And that’s where the militias come in. So what we’re seeing is in Republican counties, often local officials, occasionally state level — we’re starting to see this willingness to work with militias.
Ja’han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He’s a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”
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