Global

Definitions of Terms Used in this Column:

A cult of personality arises when a country's regime uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, patriotism, and organized mass demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image.

A cult leader is a dynamic leader whose authority is respected and unquestioned. Obedience to the leader is often required, even when it involves deviant or unhealthy activity. Usually, a cult leader is a person of tremendous charisma who makes followers feel loved and accepted. Cult leaders use brainwashing tactics to attract and keep followers.

A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed. They always lie to cover their past misdeeds or future ulterior motives.

Bases, Demilitarization, Economic Cost, Environment, North America

By Caroline Davies, February 4, 2020

Extinction Rebellion (XR) US has four Demands for our governments, local and national, the first of which is “Tell the Truth”. One truth that is not being told or spoken about openly, is the carbon footprint and other sustainability impacts of the US Military. 

BANGKOK, Thailand -- International panic over the coronavirus is hyped
mostly by social media and news reports, but the actual death rate is
the same as the flu and less people will die as the virus mutates,
according to David Mabey, a professor of communicable diseases at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

" I think the risk of acquiring it is pretty low," Mr. Mabey said in
an interview.

"I know there have been cases reported in Thailand, but Thailand is a
big country and there are not many cases. I think if I were in Wuhan,
I probably would be wearing a mask. But as it is, I think the risk of
getting infected is low.

"I think the infection is not particularly virulent, as far as we have
learned, about 1% mortality which is the same as flu. And I don't go
around wearing a mask all the time because I might get flu."

Mr. Mabey was visiting Thailand for a week to receive the kingdom's
Prince Mahidol Award for his career in public health.

Asked if foreign countries were correct to stop flights arriving from
China, he replied:

There is a common misconception that all videogames are inherently violent. This simply isn’t true. Just like books or television, there are some games that are violent for the sake of violence, others may be art with violent elements, yet others are outright manifestos stressing the power of community.

Like other capitalist ventures, mainstream video game companies are primarily concerned with what sells. Unfortunately, violent games make bank. Thus, Big Video Game puts tremendous energy into gore and death. However, indie games, like indie films, are typically produced outside of the main stream video game industry. As a result, there are some incredibly artful Indie games that challenge our assumptions of what gaming can be.    

The remainder of this article is dedicated to suggesting games for people who prefer less violent entertainment. These games are a few years old and are available on the Steam Network. In the world of videogames, old = cheap. And, honestly, the point of most Indie Games are innovative game play and story, not spectacular graphics, so the newest games are not inherently the best.  

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Above photo: President Maduro speaks to a massive crowd at Miraflores Palace on the anniversary of a failed Guaido coup. From Orinoco Tribune.

Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself the president of Venezuela a year ago but despite multiple coup attempts, he never took power and his support there rapidly disappeared. Now, with his foreign tour concluding, Guaidó’s support is shrinking around the world as well. Rather than looking presidential, he appears clownish. Rather than developing new plans to try to topple President Maduro, he is left without any concrete promises from European governments, which have been more resistant than the United States toward imposing more sanctions despite Guaidó‘s pleading for support.

This weekend, Pete Buttigieg told supporters that he became a viable candidate for president “on the strength of our vision” and “the urgency of our convictions.” Such rhetoric fits snugly into a creation myth about his campaign that Buttigieg has been promoting since early 2019.

Summing up the gist of that myth, Buttigieg began this year by standing at a whiteboard and looking into a camera while he talked about the genesis of his run for the presidency. “We launched as an exploratory committee, not even a full year ago, with a few volunteers, zero dollars in the bank,” he said -- and “without the personal wealth of a millionaire or a billionaire.”

Last Monday a United States Air Force Bombardier E11A communications and intelligence gathering jet was either shot down or crashed in a remote mountainous region of Afghanistan. Almost immediately a story sourcing Taliban officials ran on Iranian State television claiming that the dead had included Michael D’Andrea, the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)’s special Iran task force, which goes by the name Iran Mission Center.

U.S. forces were hampered by weather, Taliban gunfire and terrain from reaching the site of the crash for more than 24 hours, and the lack of any kind of definitive commentary from Washington gave the story legs. Given the news vacuum on the story, the Iranian account was picked up throughout the Middle East, to include photos allegedly taken of the downed plane and of burned corpses. Russian Media also featured the story and it was eventually even reported, though with some editorial skepticism, by the Independent and Daily Mail in the United Kingdom.

According to its website, “Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s mission is
to enrich and connect our community through intimate and
transformative musical experiences which exemplify and foster artistic
excellence, education and innovation.” Based on its Jan. 17 Baroque
Brass III performance at The Huntington, which included works by
Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Scarlatti, Bach, etc., lucky listeners could add,
to coin a term, “transport-ative” to LACO’s mission statement. In that
the ensemble’s conservatory-trained players transport world weary
audiences far from the workaday domain of routine daily existence,
with all its cares and woes, to a more serendipitous, sonorous higher
realm of bliss.
The evening opened with a quartet enticing German composer Johann
Melchior Molter’s serene 1696 “Symphony in C Major” out of their
brass instruments, setting the stage, so to speak, of a tranquil night
with an exceedingly peaceful six minutes. The four musicians - three
men, one woman - clad in elegant black outfits, played horns and
trumpets, issuing a clarion call for calm in our whirligig, troubled