Global

Hi folks,

SInce the House and Senate have thus far refused to allow for public testimony on HB6 repeal legislation, we're joining with other groups calling for repeal to host our own online community hearings.

Starting next week, our coalition had scheduled three online hearings. These hearings will allow anyone that wants to, anywhere in the state, an opportunity to make their voice heard.
We will be sending out an email alert to recruit for the hearings and doing additional outreach but in the meantime, you can register for one of the hearings here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ohioans-speak-out-repeal-house-bill-6-registration-125218430697

Below are the dates for currently scheduled online hearings

Wednesday, October 21 from 12 to 1:30 PM
Tuesday, October 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Thursday, October 29 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Before the fake holiday known as Columbus Day completely disappears for another year, I want to grab hold of it for a moment and look at what it really has to offer us: a dizzying dose of historical realism.

We’re not who we think we are. The social order in which we find ourselves is far more the result of dominance and dehumanization than principled integrity — a reality that demands deep introspection, not celebratory lies and a silent shrug as the worst of who we are continues.

The scariest part about the legacy of Columbus, and Europe’s “Age of Discovery” — ah, the white men break out of their cage and find the rest of the world — is that it’s still alive. And while there’s a growing demand that we should dump Columbus Day as a national holiday and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I think something else is necessary as well: We need to look deeply at the legacy of Columbus and begin to own it. No more whitewash!

“Amy Coney Barrett claims to be religious; yet here she is perpetuating money grubbing entities who violate the commandments like “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s farm, thy neighbor’s ox or anything of thy neighbors”. How about thy neighbor’s right to 1 man - 1 vote?”– Anonymous

(28-minute lecture of Barrett from October 13, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcXVKg43qY (331,263 views)

(20-minute questioning of Barrett on the next day of the hearings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-Snk_thAs (54,318 views)

America is currently experiencing a historic surge of protests igniting a cultural awakening and racial reckoning. Shorts, documentaries, animation and features by and about the Pacific Islands’ indigenous peoples are being highlighted at the 36th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (https://festival.vcmedia.org/2020/). Since 1983 Visual Communications, a nonprofit organization, has presented LAAPFF, dedicated to its mission “to develop and support the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists who empower communities and challenge perspectives.” This year due to the pandemic the Festival is online.

‘International law’ remains one of the most discussed terms in the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is almost always present, whether the discussion pertains to the Israeli wars and siege on Gaza, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank or the encroaching apartheid throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories. 

A Zionist-led war on a Palestinian cultural festival in Rome has exposed the fragility of the Italian political system when it comes to the conversation on Palestine and Israel. The sad truth is that, although Italy is not often associated with a ‘powerful’ pro-Israel lobby as is the case in Washington, the pro-Israel influence in Italy is just as dangerous. 

“We’re number one!” The United States famously fails to actually lead the world in anything desirable, but it does lead the world in many things, and one of them turns out to be the poisoning of the Pacific and its islands. And by the United States, I mean the United States military.

A new book by Jon Mitchell, called Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange, tells this story. Like all such catastrophes, this one escalated dramatically at the time of World War II and has continued ever since.

Mitchell starts with the island of Okunashima where Japan produced chemical weapons during World War II. After the war, the United States and Japan dumped the stuff into the ocean, stuck it in caves and sealed them shut, and buried it in the ground — on this island, near it, and throughout various parts of Japan. Putting something out of sight was apparently going to make it disappear, or at least burden future generations and other species with it — which was apparently just as satisfactory.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators are
ignoring the U.S.-backed government's declaration of harsh "emergency
situation" laws, which banned public gatherings, censored the media,
and increased its powers of imprisonment after crowds confronted the
royal family with a three-finger gesture of defiance.

Despite the crackdown, thousands of protesters gathered at a strategic
intersection -- paralyzing the heart of Bangkok near the U.S. embassy
-- flanked by five-star hotels and glitzy shopping malls.

They demanded the immediate release of their arrested protest leaders.

Watched by police on October 15, they also reiterated demands for coup
leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to resign, a new constitution
be written, and fresh elections be held.

In the evening, the crowd swelled, lit by neon signs from surrounding buildings.

"Like dogs cornered, we are fighting until our deaths," protest leader
Panupong "Mike Rayong" Jadnok told the cheering demonstrators,
according to Reuters.

How can you prepare for the US Presidential election resulting in a disaster?

O’odham sacred land and water protectors held  ceremony this morning at a border patrol checkpoint on unceded O’odham homelands to pray for sacred sites and graves demolished by the racist border wall. Border Patrol and Arizona State Troopers and Department  of Public Safety attacked them with tear gas and rubber bullets, hitting at least one O’odham in prayer in the chest with rubber bullets and arresting at least eight Native Americans on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2020; Highway 85, Hia Ced O’odham lands (Arizona) -