Re: [blind-democracy] Israel's Stranglehold on American Politics

"Birds of a feather flock together", my grandma Ludwig would remind
me. Anyone notice how the Empire Builders and Empire Wannabees suck
up to one another?
The American Empire may lead the pack in numbers murdered and raped
and pillaged, as it marched from Sea to Shining Sea. Of course this
does not begin to count the lives lost, or the suffering inflicted, or
the property stolen, as the Empire took possession of Central and
South America, and later turned to Iraq and the Middle East. Like a
monster Mutant Whirling Dervish, The American Corporate Empire is
spreading death and dehumanization in the name of Peace and democracy.
Our very survival instincts have turned on us like a fast growing cancer.

Carl Jarvis

On 3/11/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Israel's Stranglehold on American Politics
>
>
> The Israel lobby's buying off of nearly every senior politician in the
> United States, facilitated by our system of legalized bribery, is not an
> anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The lobby's campaign of vicious character
> assassination, smearing and blacklisting against those who defend
> Palestinian rights-including the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein and
> university students, many of them Jewish, in organizations such as Students
> for Justice in Palestine-is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact.
> Twenty-four state governments' passage of Israel lobby-backed legislation
> requiring their workers and contractors, under threat of dismissal, to sign
> a pro-Israel oath and promise not to support the Boycott, Divestment and
> Sanctions movement is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The
> shameless
> decision in 2014 by all 100 U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, to
> pass
> a Soviet-style plebiscite proposed by the Israel lobby to affirm Israel's
> "right to defend itself" during the 51 days it bombed and shelled homes,
> water treatment plants, power stations, hospitals and U.N. schools in Gaza,
> killing 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, is not an anti-Semitic
> trope. It is a fact. The U.S. refusal, including in the United Nations and
> other international bodies, to criticize Israel's apartheid state and
> routine violation of international law is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is
> a
> fact. The well-funded campaigns by the Israel lobby, which works closely
> with Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs, to discredit any American
> politician or academic who even slightly deviates from Israeli policy is
> not
> an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. (One infamous example of a U.S.
> politician kowtowing was the unconstitutional invitation by then-House
> Speaker John Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to
> address
> Congress in 2015 to denounce President Barack Obama's Iranian nuclear
> agreement.) The massive interference in our internal affairs by Israel and
> the Israel lobby, far exceeding that of any other country, including Russia
> or China, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact.
>
> Israel's lackeys in the political class, along with bankrupt courtiers in
> the U.S. press, including former American Israel Public Affairs Committee
> (AIPAC) employee Wolf Blitzer, are making a serious mistake, however, in
> refusing to acknowledge Israel's outsized, transparent and often illegal
> meddling in the American political system and Israel's brutal oppression of
> Palestinians. It is too obvious and too egregious to hide. The longer the
> ruling elites ignore this reality and censor and attack those such as Rep.
> Ilhan Omar who have the temerity to name this interference and the human
> rights abuses perpetrated by Israel, the more it gives credence to the
> racists, bigots, conspiracy theorists and white hate groups, many rooted in
> the Christian right, who are the real anti-Semites. Israel and its lobby,
> rather than protecting Israel and Jews, are steadily nullifying their moral
> and ultimately political force.
>
> Criticism of Israel and the ideology of Zionism is not anti-Semitic.
> Criticism of Israel's influence and control over U.S. foreign policy, and
> of
> Israeli efforts to silence those who champion Palestinian rights, is not
> anti-Semitic. Criticism of Israel's oppression of the Palestinians or its
> dangerous campaign to orchestrate a war with Iran is not anti-Semitic. The
> more Israel and the Israel lobby abuse the charge of anti-Semitism, a
> charge
> the Israel lobby has leveled against British Labour Party leader Jeremy
> Corbyn, among many others, the more they lose their effectiveness against
> the dangerous anti-Semites whose ranks are growing within the far right and
> across the Muslim world.
>
> Israel and its lobby do not care if its political allies, including those
> in
> the Christian right and the Trump White House, possess warped and racist
> attitudes about Jews. The Christian right and many of those in the White
> House, while embracing Zionism, are also anti-Semitic. President Donald
> Trump has called neo-Nazis "very fine people" and once tweeted an
> illustration of Hillary Clinton against a background of hundred-dollar
> bills
> and with the Star of David superimposed near her face. The sole criterion
> of
> Israel and the Israel lobby in determining who to support and who to
> demonize is identifying who backs the far-right agenda of the apartheid
> state of Israel and who does not. Genuine anti-Semitism is irrelevant. For
> Israel, the world is divided along the fault line of Palestinian rights.
> Stand up for the Palestinians and you are an anti-Semite. Cheer their
> marginalization, oppression and murder and you are a friend of the Jews.
> Have Jewish leaders forgotten their own history? Anti-Semitism is wrong and
> dangerous not only because it is bad for the Jews, but because the dark
> forces of ethnic and religious hatred, used by Israel and the lobby against
> critics, are bad for everyone, including the Jews and the Palestinians. You
> open this Pandora's box of evils at your peril.
>
>
>
> The interference by Israel in the American political system is amply
> documented, including in the Al-Jazeera four-part series "The Lobby," which
> Israel and its supporters managed to block from being broadcast. In the
> film, a pirated copy of which can be watched on the website Electronic
> Intifada, the leaders of the Israel lobby are repeatedly captured on a
> reporter's hidden camera explaining how they, backed by the intelligence
> services within Israel, attack and silence American critics and use huge
> cash donations to control the American electoral process and political
> system. The Israel lobby, lacking any plausible deniability, has remained
> stunningly silent about the film. The corporate press, in the face of
> pressure by the lobby, has ignored the documentary.
>
> The series exposes the various machinations of the Israel lobby.
>
> "We made sure that there were people [agents of the lobby] in every single
> congressional district," M.J. Rosenberg, a former editor of the AIPAC
> policy
> journal Near East Report and now a critic of AIPAC, said in the film in an
> on-the-record interview with Al-Jazeera. "You call [politicians] and say,
> 'I'm calling from AIPAC in Washington.' I did these calls. 'We hear you're
> good friends with Congressman So and So.' 'Oh my God, yes, we've been
> friends with so and so.' 'Well, what does he think about Israel?' 'I never
> talked to him about Israel.' 'Well, can I come down and talk to you? And
> help you figure out a way to talk to him about Israel?' 'No, just tell me.
> What should I say? I'll just tell him.' "
>
> Craig Holman, who campaigns for lobbying reform with Public Citizen, is
> another participant in the film who denounced the Israel lobby's
> fundraising
> practices.
>
> "Right now our current [federal] contribution limit from any person to a
> candidate is $2,700," Holman says. "That's a lot of money. It can certainly
> buy . some gratitude with a lawmaker. But if you really want to add punch
> to
> that type of buying of favors, what you do is you get 50 or 100 people
> together at an event like this, all chipping in $2,700 and then you bundle
> it all together and hand the total amount to the lawmaker. At that point,
> we're talking anywhere around a quarter-million dollars. So suddenly you've
> got a group of people with the same demand they want from the lawmaker,
> handing over a quarter of a million dollars. That buys a lawmaker."
>
> One of the fundraising events captured in the film was for Anthony Brown, a
> Democrat who successfully ran for Congress in Maryland in 2016.
>
> "You strategically pick the ones who are in close races and [whom you] want
> to build relationships with," David Ochs, the founder of HaLev and an
> activist for Israel, says in the documentary. "We want the Jewish community
> to go face to face in this small environment-50, 30, 40 people, and say,
> 'This is what's important to us.' "
>
> "They're actually buying these officeholders," Public Citizen's Holman says
> in the documentary. Speaking from the lobby's point of view, he says "we're
> chipping in all this money so we can hand over $100,000 or $200,000 to the
> officeholder so we can buy them."
>
> "What [the] group is doing to avoid that [federal] disclosure requirement
> is
> it isn't taking money and putting it in its own account and then handing it
> over to the officeholder," Holman says of the Israel lobby. "It's just
> collecting credit card information and turning that over directly to the
> candidate. Therefore, it's not violating the earmarking law and they're not
> reporting this. All we can see on the campaign finance reports are the
> individuals who contributed. But there are no records on those campaign
> finance reports that they weren't together in a bundling group who are all
> at this event. All we'd know is Person A gave $2,700; Person B gave $2,700.
> And we'd have no idea they're working in tandem with each other."
>
> The Israel lobby also flies hundreds of members of Congress, often with
> their families, to Israel every year for lavish junkets at expensive
> resorts. These Congress members run up individual bills that frequently
> exceed $20,000. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007
> attempted to restrict lobbyists from offering paid trips lasting more than
> one day to members of Congress. But AIPAC, which has never been forced to
> register as a foreign agent, used its clout to insert a clause in the act
> to
> exclude so-called educational trips organized by charities that do not hire
> lobbyists. AIPAC is affiliated with such a charity, called the American
> Israel Education Foundation.
>
> "It doesn't have an office," Holman says about the foundation. "It doesn't
> have any employees. It's just a tax form they [Israel lobby agents] file.
> Gives some dinners, gives some wonderful resorts to stay at, entertainment,
> all of which is packed up into one of these trips. It's a very, very
> effective tool at influence peddling."
>
> The investment by Israel and is backers is worth it. The United States
> Congress in 2018 authorized a $38 billion defense aid package for Israel
> over the next decade and has spent over $5.6 trillion during the last 18
> years fighting futile wars that Israel and its lobby pushed for in the
> Middle East.
>
> "If you wander off the reservation and become critical of Israel, you not
> only will not get money, AIPAC will go to great lengths to find someone who
> will run against you," John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at
> the University of Chicago and co-author of "The Israel Lobby and U.S.
> Foreign Policy," says in the documentary. "And they support that person
> very
> generously. The end result is you're likely to lose your seat in Congress."
>
> The film focuses in part on former Rep. Jim Moran, who was in the U.S.
> House
> of Representatives from 1991 to 2015 and who was an open critic of the
> Israel lobby.
>
> "They have questionnaires," Moran says about AIPAC in the film. "Anyone
> running for Congress is [presented with a demand from AIPAC] to fill out a
> questionnaire. And they evaluate the depth of your commitment to Israel on
> the basis of that questionnaire. And then you have an interview with local
> people. If you get AIPAC support, then more often than not you're going to
> win."
>
> "You are told that 'Israel continues to be under siege from hundreds of
> millions of its neighbors who are Muslims and they hate Israel and Jewish
> people,' " Moran says. "You're told, 'They have only survived because of
> the
> United States, because of American politicians like you who support us.' "
>
> "You realize it's not just the money," he goes on. "A number of concerned
> activists will send out postcards, make phone calls, they'll organize.
> That's the democratic process. They understand the democratic process."
>
> "They threaten," M.J. Rosenberg says of the Israel lobby leaders' response
> to elected officials who become critical of Israel. "They immediately
> threaten. Even if [politicians] know AIPAC can't defeat them, AIPAC can
> make
> their lives more difficult. They can make sure that their next town meeting
> or something, some members of the Jewish congregation jump up and say, 'But
> you're anti-Israel!' "
>
> Moran was targeted by the Israel lobby because he raised questions about
> the
> 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Act, which authorized the wars
> in Afghanistan and Iraq.
>
> Moran told a Jewish constituent at a town hall meeting in his district that
> "if the Jewish community was opposed to the war, I think that would make a
> difference" in whether the United States would invade Iraq. He was
> immediately accused by the Israel lobby of being an anti-Semite and
> fostering the belief that there was a Jewish conspiracy to push America
> into
> war.
>
> "There was a conservative rabbi in my district who was assigned to me, I
> assume, by AIPAC," Moran says. "He warned me that if I voiced my views
> about
> the Israeli lobby that my career would be over, and implied that it would
> be
> done through the [Washington] Post. Sure enough, The Washington Post
> editorialized brutally. Everyone ganged up."
>
> The film shows a screen shot of a 2003 headline in The Washington Post:
> "Sorry, Mr. Moran, You're Not Fit For Public Office." In following years
> there were a number of other negative commentaries.
>
> In the film, Eric Gallagher, then with The Israel Project, tells the
> undercover reporter that AIPAC has a close relationship with the Washington
> Post editorial board.
>
> Moran says, "The principal editorial board of the Post itself has been a
> very effective instrument because they have been able to maintain their
> credibility. It's a great paper in every other way. Because they have such
> credibility, they're extremely effective."
>
> "Both of my daughters married Jewish men," Moran says. "My grandchildren
> are
> Jewish. Anybody who considers me an anti-Semite is ignorant."
>
> AIPAC, while it presents itself as an impartial supporter of Israel, has
> long been an arm of the Israeli right. It vehemently opposed the Oslo
> Accord
> and the peace process with the Palestinians engineered by Prime Minister
> Yitzhak Rabin. It poured money and resources into the 1992 Israeli election
> campaign to back Rabin's political opponents in the Likud party. Rabin did
> not invite the leaders of the Israel lobby to his inauguration and,
> according to an aide in his office, referred to the leaders of the Israel
> lobby as "scumbags." He repeatedly denounced the lobby as an impediment to
> Israel's security and democracy.
>
> The Israeli newspaper Haaretz characterized Rabin's remarks to American
> Jewish leaders during a visit to the United States as "brutal." "You have
> hurt Israel," the newspaper quoted Rabin as saying. "I will not allow you
> to
> conduct my dealings with the [U.S.] administration."
>
> Washington Jewish Week reported that Rabin told the AIPAC leadership, "You
> failed at everything. You waged lost battles. . You caused damage to
> Israel.
> . You're too negative. . You create too much antagonism."
>
> The Israel lobby, after Rabin's assassination in 1995 by a right-wing
> Jewish
> fanatic and the 1996 electoral victory by Likud under the leadership of
> Netanyahu, returned to the good graces of the Israeli government. The
> lobby,
> as Israel has lurched further and further to the right and adopted ever
> more
> overtly racist policies toward the Palestinians under Netanyahu, has become
> more intrusive in American political life. Israel's apartheid state, racism
> and murderous assaults on unarmed Palestinians increasingly alienate many
> of
> its traditional supporters, including young American Jews. Israel, unable
> to
> justify its human rights abuses and atrocities, has opted for harsher forms
> of control including censoring, spying on and attacking its critics. It has
> pressured the U.S. State Department to redefine anti-Semitism under a
> three-point test known as the Three Ds: the making of statements that
> "demonize" Israel; statements that apply "double standards" for Israel;
> statements that "delegitimize" the state of Israel. This definition is
> being
> pushed by the Israel lobby in state legislatures and on college campuses.
> It
> spreads the hate talk of Islamophobia, including by sponsoring the showing
> of the racist film "Unmasked Judeophobia" on college campuses on Holocaust
> Remembrance Day. The film argues that Muslims embrace a Nazi-like
> anti-Semitism and are seeking to carry out another holocaust against Jews.
> Nearly all American Muslims targeted by law enforcement since 9/11 were
> singled out for their outspokenness about Palestinian rights. Most of those
> arrested had no connection to al-Qaida, Hatem Bazian, lecturer in the
> department of Near Eastern studies at UC Berkeley, says in the film-"no
> relationship whatsoever to what is called transnational terrorism."
>
> There are fractures in the Democratic Party, evidenced when House Speaker
> Nancy Pelosi faced a revolt by younger, more progressive members of the
> House over her proposal to pass an anti-Semitism resolution pushed by the
> Israel lobby and designed to shame Rep. Omar. A reworded resolution, one
> that did not please the lobby, was passed, condemning anti-Muslim bias and
> white supremacy and citing "African-Americans, Native Americans, and other
> people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants and others"
> victimized by bigotry.
>
> Israel's dominance of the Democratic Party is eroding. It is losing
> legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Israel's tactics, for this reason,
> will become more vicious and underhanded. Its interference in the
> democratic
> process will be characterized less by an attempt to persuade and more by
> the
> use of money to ensure fealty to its policies, censorship, the enforcement
> of legally binding oaths in favor of Israel to blunt the BDS movement, and
> the kind of racist hate talk it unleashed against Rep. Omar. The lobby, as
> Rabin understood, was never a true friend of Israel.
>
> Chris Hedges
>
> Columnist
>
> Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,
> a
> New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the college degree
> program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers.
>
>
>

Ilhan Omar is right and you can stand up for her

To all who want to know. Listen to:
www.democracynow.org
You can go to previous broadcasts and hear a point of view that is
denied us in the Corporate Mass Media.
Carl Jarvis

From: "Norman Solomon, RootsAction" <info@rootsaction.org>
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2019 10:01:47 -0500 (EST)

To: carjar82@gmail.com

To understand the gist of the case against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar,
consider this statement that just came from Rep. Juan Vargas:
*"Questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is
unacceptable."*

*At RootsAction, we fundamentally disagree.* Questioning support for
the U.S.-Israel relationship is not only acceptable -- from the
standpoint of human rights, it is essential.

RootsAction has long opposed Israel's policies toward Palestinian
people, including the illegal occupation and ever-expanding
settlements. We do not support the "U.S.-Israel relationship" that has
provided *many billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars* to arming the
Israeli military -- *routinely and often lethally violating human
rights* in the process.

*Please click here to support Rep. Omar's outspoken courage as well as
RootsAction's work for the human rights of Palestinian people.* [
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rootsaction-ilhan-omar-attack?refcode=190306rs
]

Already, *the USA's leading Israel-right-or-wrong group*, the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),* is gearing up to oust Ilhan
Omar from Congress*. The "New York Times "reported this week on
AIPAC's hopes to "punish Ms. Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota,
with a primary challenge in 2020."

AIPAC has a long history of defeating the few members of Congress
willing to speak out against Israeli policies. As more of them speak
out, AIPAC is even more *determined to silence Israel's critics*.

*To support open debate about the "U.S.-Israel relationship," please
make a donation of whatever you can afford.* [
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rootsaction-ilhan-omar-attack?refcode=190306rs
]

While a lot of U.S. media coverage has been slanted against
Congresswoman Omar, the "New York Times" just published a news article
that includes some key points. It quotes a former Democratic
Congressman from Washington State, Brian Baird, who said: *"It is so
disingenuous of some of these members of Congress who are lining up to
condemn these questioning voices as if they have no campaign finance
interest in the outcome."*

And Baird added: "If one dares to criticize Israel or dares to
criticize AIPAC, one gets branded anti-Semitic, and that's *a danger
to a democratic republic*."

It's crucial to *push back against that danger* by stepping up support
for real and open debate on these issues. You can *help Ilhan Omar and
RootsAction* [ https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rootsaction-ilhan-omar-attack?refcode=190306rs
] to do that.

[ https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rootsaction-ilhan-omar-attack?refcode=190306rs
]

Thank you!

-Norman Solomon, Jeff Cohen, and the RootsAction Team

Background:
>> "New York Times:" "Ilhan Omar's Criticism Raises Question: Is AIPAC Too Powerful?" [ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/aipac-congress-democrats.html ]
>> M.J. Rosenberg, "The Nation:" "This Is How AIPAC Really Works" [ https://www.thenation.com/article/aipac-omar-israel-congress-anti-semitism/ ]
>> " Institute for Public Accuracy: [ http://accuracy.org/release/u-n-report-of-israeli-crimes-and-the-efforts-to-silence-critics/ ]" "U.N. Report of Israeli Crimes and the Efforts to Silence Critics" [ http://accuracy.org/release/u-n-report-of-israeli-crimes-and-the-efforts-to-silence-critics/ ]
>> Philip Weiss, "Mondoweiss: ""'I am told I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel' and that's problematic -- Ilhan Omar stands strong against blizzard of attacks" [ https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/american-problematic-blizzard/?fbclid=IwAR3M2eIN1MV2IEYWgqvEqFyrMKXMrVJk4KJ2ntZZUmNwwc8dl7yKms5F1w0 ]


Donate button [
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rootsaction-ilhan-omar-attack?refcode=190306rs
] Facebook button [ http://www.facebook.com/RootsAction ] Twitter
button [ http://twitter.com/Roots_Action ]





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Fwd: [acb-chat] The dead will rise - archeological find

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Demaya, Diego via acb-chat" <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2019 13:40:15 +0000
Subject: [acb-chat] The dead will rise - archeological find
To:
Cc: "Demaya, Diego" <Diego.Demaya@memorialhermann.org>


The dead will rise —
Fifth-century child's skeleton shows evidence of "vampire burial"
The "Vampire of Lugnano" had a rock in its mouth to keep it from
rising from grave.

Archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of a 10-year-old child at
an ancient Roman site in Italy with a rock carefully placed in its
mouth. This suggests those who buried the child—who probably died of
malaria during a deadly fifth century outbreak—feared it might rise
from the dead and spread the disease to those who survived. Locals are
calling it the "Vampire of Lugnano."

"This is a very unusual mortuary treatment that you see in various
forms in different cultures, especially in the Roman world," says
Jordan Wilson<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.eurekalert.org_pub-5Freleases_2018-2D10_uoa-2Dbr101118.php&d=DwMFAg&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=MJlsPzXySDUfQylL8VyP48LebZzXtxC4eW-1DNlwOjM&s=S4rv8Wh395OtWTJQx3EpZhUNOr8wBUxQharlJvjkhZk&e=>,
a graduate student in bio-archaeology at the University of Arizona who
studied the remains. He added that this could "indicate a fear that
this person might come back from the dead and try to spread disease to
the living."

Pretty much every culture on Earth has some version of a vampire (or
proto-vampire) myth. Chinese folklore has the Jiang shi, [corrected]
which are reanimated corpses that rise from the grave to prey on the
living; one type has sharp fangs, the better to bite into the neck of
said prey. Russian, Albanian, Indian, and Greek folklore have similar
undead monsters. Russian villagers in the Middle Ages often drove
stakes into the bodies of suspected vampires upon burial to keep them
from rising again.

A team of archaeologists from the University of Arizona and Stanford
University made the discovery over the summer while excavating a site
known as La Necropoli dei Bambini ("Cemetery of the Babies"), since it
was believed to be exclusively for the burial of infants and toddlers
who died from an outbreak of malaria. (The archaeologists are now
rethinking that assumption.) Based on the open position of the child's
jaw, they concluded that the rock had been placed there intentionally,
since this would not have happened naturally as the body decomposed.
There were also teeth marks on the stone's surface.

The most-likely explanation is that the locals did this to ensure the
dead child stayed that way. Prior excavations amidst the human remains
in the Cemetery of the Babies unearthed various items commonly
associated with magic at the time: raven talons, toad bones, and
bronze cauldrons filled with ash. The oldest remains found previously
were those of a three-year-old girl whose hands and feet were weighed
down with stones.
"I've never seen anything like it. It's extremely eerie and weird."

"We know that the Romans would go to the extent of employing
witchcraft to keep the evil—whatever is contaminating the body—from
coming out," says<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.eurekalert.org_pub-5Freleases_2018-2D10_uoa-2Dbr101118.php&d=DwMFAg&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=MJlsPzXySDUfQylL8VyP48LebZzXtxC4eW-1DNlwOjM&s=S4rv8Wh395OtWTJQx3EpZhUNOr8wBUxQharlJvjkhZk&e=>
University of Arizona archaeologist David Soren, who headed the
excavation. Nevertheless, this latest discovery is not a common
practice, and none of the other skulls unearthed from the site thus
far has had a stone in its mouth.

"I've never seen anything like it," says Soren. "It's extremely eerie
and weird." However, there have been similar burials in other
locations in Italy, such as the elderly 16th-century woman, unearthed
in 2009, who was buried with a brick in her mouth. She was dubbed the
"Vampire of Venice."

The team will return to the site next summer to wrap up its
excavation, perhaps uncovering more "vampire burials." At the very
least, the archaeologists will learn more about this particular
malaria outbreak and how the community responded to it almost 1,500
years ago. "Anytime you look at burials, they're significant because
they provide a window into ancient minds," says Wilson. "We have a
saying in bio-archaeology: 'The dead don't bury themselves.' We can
tell a lot about people's beliefs and hopes by the way they treat the
dead."


Schlumberger-Private

Fwd: [blind-democracy] Discussions about Religion

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2019 08:22:12 -0800
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] Discussions about Religion
To: blind-democracy@freelists.org

Miriam wrote in part:
..."Carl may never stop wanting to make amends for having been an
Evangelical Christian in the past."
Sometimes, Miriam, I think that you have a Devilish sense of humor.
When I was young, I proudly exclaimed to one and all that I never
spent time or energy regretting my past activities...or lack thereof.
But I really do have some regrets. And I would undo some hurts that
my behavior caused others. And I would go back, if I could, and do
some of the things for which I did not have the courage to do. But my
many religious experiences, like my many political experiences, and my
many love affairs(many of them imagined), all contributed to who I am
today.
My past is just that, My Past! And I make no judgements on what or
how I behaved or thought. But there are things in my past that I do
not talk about, but which are just as much a part of who I am today,
but of which I would strike from my Life's Experiences. I still fight
my own Goblins and Bogymen, and would hang my head in shame if they
were exposed. And yet, as I say, they are also part of 83 plus years
of living and experiencing that has given me a grand trip through
life.
It's true that I become a bit rabid at times when on the subject of
religion. But religion is just one thread woven into our human
fabric.
But it is a thread that has strong influences on the entire fabric of
Life. After my days as a small child in Sunday School, learning about
Jesus, Santa Claus, the 3 Wise Men and a special woman who had God's
baby, and the tooth fairy, and the Easter Bunny, I left any doings
with religion until I married my first wife. I was 25, and she was
22. She was a Christian, and insisted that I should attend church
services every Sunday, morning and evening, and midweek Bible study.
I took this on in the same way I've taken on every new facet of my
life. I began to explore and to question. At some point I became
certain that most people in our congregation were only paying lip
service, and were not true Believers. So I decided to find out what
Belief was all about. I was baptized, and gave myself over to Jesus
Christ. I accepted the existence of God, and the Holy Spirit. I
attended a "full gospel" group, and spoke in tongues and had visions.
It was an interesting time, with some unexplained happenings. But I
never found God. I did find many honest Believers who said they had
met God, but I also met many phonies and Users. After nearly ten
years, I came to understand that God was a feeling. Those who gave
themselves over to that Feeling never questioned it, and believed it
would carry them to a higher place after their life on Earth. While I
totally respect those people who are "True Believers", I could not
resolve the many contradictions, let alone the many versions that
caused more strife in the world than it resolved. As I questioned
others, the answer was the same, although expressed in many different
ways. I must "trust". I was told that God moves in mysterious
ways...I won't go into all the events that led up to my leaving the
Christian Faith, but suffice it to say that I knew that I had to be
true to myself. I could not simply trust. And to try to sneak along
on someone else's trust, well that would never work.
But the entire experience was valuable. My wife and I separated, not
over religion, butt because she could not adjust to living with a
blind man. While I was in Rehab, learning to go forward with my life,
she was alone, seeing her dreams shattered, and no one was there to
lead her through to the other side. We did marriage counseling
through a Christian Counselor. Finally I moved out. Those were hard
times, leaving my daughter behind. But my wife and I did come to
resolve our personal hurt, and stayed friends until her death many
years later. Christianity worked for my first wife. As she aged she
developed Diabetes, cancer, and congestive heart failure, but her
Faith never wavered.
How you, Miriam, or Roger or Mostafa deal with your Faith has to be an
individual, very personal matter. And frankly, how I feel about it
should not matter to anyone else. But it is this willingness to trust
in some unknown Power, without question, that concerns me. Until we
can openly discuss and question why we behave the way we do, and how
our beliefs effect Life on Earth, we will continue to make the same
foolish mistakes over and over until we are no more.

Carl Jarvis

On 3/5/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> I would like to make a neutral observation. The discussions regarding
> religion that have taken place among Roger, Carl, and Mustafa, do not lead
> to mutual understanding or resolution of issues. Rather, they appear to be
> experienced by Mustafa as attacks upon a central tenet of his life, an
> important part of his identity, and thus, he attacks back. While Roger sees
> these discussions as rational debate, and Carl sees them as open discussion
> of personal views, Mustafa does not. Mustafa is not going to stop believing
> in his faith. Roger is not going to stop wanting to prove over and over
> again that he is the more rational of the two and that his position is
> correct. Carl may never stop wanting to make amends for having been an
> Evangelical Christian in the past.
>
> Miriam
>
>
>

Re: [blind-democracy] Re: book

Miriam wrote: "it does is to destroy whomever it wishes in order to
maintain dominance."
And all the People said, "Amen!"
For certain, as far back as recorded history teaches us, we have
understood that our basic animal nature must be controlled in order
that we might live in peace with one another. Mankind entered the
animal kingdom as one of countless life forms fighting for survival.
Equal Opportunity was not in this mix. Man survived and established
himself as a species to be taken seriously.
Over Time, long centuries, he learned to control nearly all other life
on planet Earth...with the exception of some viruses. But without
understanding it, Man became so dominant that he began to destroy the
very Earth he had set out to control.
So here is the point of this over simplified history lesson:
It does not matter who you are, or what your personal Beliefs are, or
what nation you claim as your own, or whether you are Man Woman or
Other, whether you are young or old, we all share in a basic "Human
Nature".
That Nature is so fierce and so driven that if left unchecked it will
destroy us all. The very nature that brought us to this place in our
travels, even to being able to manipulate our environment, even to
sending space crafts to Mars, this very great strength of ours will
turn on us...is turning on us, and will wipe us from the face of the
Earth.
We sometimes talk about how we have been manipulated by our "Leaders",
but in truth we follow strong people because we are them. We are
divided into nations, and those nations are divided into smaller and
smaller factions, because we have too many Controllers looking for a
place at the top.
Yet, we know we must find a way to control our controlling nature.
The Bible, and other Holy Books, have long understood that our
salvation lies within our ability to "Change our Nature". So far this
has been beyond our ability to do.
Again, the Bible says, "The meek shall inherit the Earth". Well,
Mister and Missus Meek, you'd better step up and get busy inheriting.
You'd better disavow All current world leaders and establish a World
Survival Government. And yes, that means you will need to use Control
and Dominance as your weapons. But if controlled, these tools can
direct us toward ending the uncontrolled control that now has us in a
death grip.

Carl Jarvis


On 3/3/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> When I started reading this book, I immediately thought of you because I
> know that you have bought the demonizing of Putin, hook, line, and sinker.
> Because this line of thinking is so pervasive and is supported by so many
> people, it would be surprising if most people hadn't been taught to think
> this way. I suppose that because I'm so old and because I've seen this
> happen before with such disastrous results, and also because I tend to be a
> lot less amenable to what the majority of people think, I'm more open to
> information that differs from the mainstream. But having said all that,
> Stephen F. Cohen is a very reputable and knowledgeable man and the book
> traces what happened, mostly starting in 2013. I remember most of what he
> talks about because I was reading about it and watching it as it happened,
> although there were some things that happened and some lies that were told,
> that I missed. I think that it's really important to read the book because
> it will clear up some misconceptions that you might have. Cohen is very
> realistic about Putin. He is not a "Putin apologist", as detractors of
> anyone who hasn't bought the anti-Russian propaganda, assert. The reasons
> for the US opposition to Russia are the same as they have always been. They
> lie in world politics: who has what natural resources: who has access to
> what financial markets: who has access to transportation routes: who will
> submit to the domination of the US. The US deep state has never changed
> this
> country's foreign policy, and it will continue to divert the public's
> attention from what it is doing by using figleafs like socialism,
> communism,
> and the personalities of various leaders, describing them as autocrats, in
> order to achieve its goals. It is doing that with Russia and China now, and
> with Venezuela and Iran. Whether it's Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter or
> someone more hard line like John Bolton, the US does what it does. And what
> it does is to destroy whomever it wishes in order to maintain dominance.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blind-democracy-bounce@freelists.org
> <blind-democracy-bounce@freelists.org> On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
> Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2019 6:00 PM
> To: blind-democracy@freelists.org
> Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: book
>
> Hi Miriam,
> While I have little doubt that the whole rusiagate thing has been
> overblown,
> it will take a lot to convince me that Putin is not an evil bastard, likely
> worse than Mr. Bastard, Oops! I meant trump! IN many ways, I believe Putin
> and trump to be birds of a feather.
> So sad how the US has screwed up royally since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
> Our bad behavior has given Russia justification for things like the
> invasion
> of Ukraine. Russia has morphed from communist dictatorship into rule by
> mob.
> Then again, the US government seems more and more to be similar to rule by
> the mob.
> After the fall of the soviet Union, the media kept telling us how
> capitalism
> and democracy would prevail in Russia. But lectures from a college history
> prof convinced me of how unlikely that would be. Basically, his theme was
> that a population accustomed to dictatorial rule can never morph into any
> kind of democracy quicly. That kind of evolution takes centuries if it
> happens at all.
> Meanwhile, the US has morphed from a form of economics and politics wherein
> one had at least a small amount of hope of rising from poverty into the
> middle class into a true plutocracy that makes this kind of upward mobility
> far less likely.
> Bob Hachey
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blind-democracy-bounce@freelists.org
> [mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2019 9:10 PM
> To: blind-democracy@freelists.org
> Subject: [blind-democracy] book
>
> On the Flashpoints podcast, I heard 2 short excerpts of a talk given by
> Stephen F. Cohen and his wife, who is the editor of The Nation magazine.
> Cohen is a retired Professor who is an expert on the history and culture of
> Russia. He and his wife have lived there for several years. In 2014, he
> began speaking out against the demonizing of Russia, and he was soundly
> criticized for this by many people in the mainstream media. He mentioned in
> his talk, that he's recently written a book called, War With Russia?, which
> covers some history of the cold war and also, what has been happening in
> the
> last few years, including Russiagate. I am telling you all of this because
> I
> looked this evening, and found the book on Bookshare, in case anyone is
> interested.
>
> Miriam
>
>
>
>
>

Reality TV: the Cohen hearings

While it is not nearly as fascinating as that old O J Simpson Reality
Show, the Michael Cohen Hearings does afford us a break from the
"normal" daytime TV offerings, Soaps and Angry people attacking one
another while moderators duck behind their chairs.
For the Working Class, the good news is that it's not our fight.
But what we do have is proof positive that we can't expect snakes and
alligators to "drain the swamp". Only the working class people,
joining their many fragmented groups together, can drain the swamp,
and send the snakes and alligators packing.
Remember, as interesting as this struggle between the Trump forces and
the Government appears to be, "we the people" have no dog in this
fight. Trump and his Merry Band of Corporate Capitalists regard "the
people" as just another resource, to be exploited like all other
resources. And "The Government" which we have been taught to think of
as, "Us", has not represented the Working Class, ever. We've had to
fight major battles in order to force the Federal Government to
provide even the most modest protection to the Masses.
So do not allow yourselves to be sucked into this fight. The winner
will not represent our needs, regardless of who wins.
If you disagree with this, then ask yourself who do you side with,
Trump or the "Government"? And if you understand that neither of them
will protect your needs as being equal to theirs, then go for it, and
good luck! You'll need all you can get.
But if you agree that we, the working class, have been deceived(lied
to), then bend your efforts to bringing together the American People,
who have been fragmented and turned against each other by the Swamp
Creatures. As much as I would like to think that members of the
working class can enter the Swamp and begin draining it from within, I
am reminded that we've lost huge numbers of well intentioned friends
to the Giles of the Trumpsters and the Corporate Billionaires. No,
this Swamp has grown far too vast to be drained from within. We, the
People, will need to drain it from the High Ground.
So, once again, if you do not relate to either Donald Trump or to "the
Government", then you are simply a spectator to the current events, an
onlooker. Just fix a couple of hot dogs, heavy on the Mayo and
Mustard, grab a beverage and settle in for a trip into Never Never
Land.

It's March First and it's coming in like a Lamb out here on the Great
Olympic Peninsula. I'm heading to the barn to saddle up old Fritz, my
Giant Olympic Slug, and go creeping down the quiet forest road.
"Yippee Kyough!"

Carl Jarvis

Machine learning 'causing science crisis'

Back in the early days of computers, they called it, GIGO.
Garbage In Garbage Out. This article should worry us as we prance
along the path following the Pied Pipers of Artificial
Intelligence(AI).
Look around the world and then ask yourself if you really want to be
in the grasp of an intelligence invented by the people who caused our
big international mess. AI? Artificial Insanity!

Carl Jarvis

Posted on 2/26/19: > Machine learning 'causing science crisis'
>
> Machine-learning techniques used by thousands of scientists to analyse data
> are producing results that are misleading and often completely wrong.
>
> Dr Genevera Allen from Rice University in Houston said that the increased
> use of such systems was contributing to a "crisis in science".
>
> She warned scientists that if they didn't improve their techniques they
> would be wasting both time and money. Her research was presented at the
> American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.
>
> A growing amount of scientific research involves using machine learning
> software to analyse data that has already been collected. This happens
> across many subject areas ranging from biomedical research to astronomy. The
> data sets are very large and expensive.
>
> 'Reproducibility crisis'
>
> But, according to Dr Allen, the answers they come up with are likely to be
> inaccurate or wrong because the software is identifying patterns that exist
> only in that data set and not the real world.
> Image copyright Rice University Image caption Dr Allen says flawed machine
> learning is producing a "crisis in science"
>
> "Often these studies are not found out to be inaccurate until there's
> another real big dataset that someone applies these techniques to and says
> 'oh my goodness, the results of these two studies don't overlap'," she
> said.
>
> "There is general recognition of a reproducibility crisis in science right
> now. I would venture to argue that a huge part of that does come from the
> use of machine learning techniques in science."
>
> The "reproducibility crisis" in science refers to the alarming number of
> research results that are not repeated when another group of scientists
> tries the same experiment. It means that the initial results were wrong. One
> analysis suggested that up to 85% of all biomedical research carried out in
> the world is wasted effort.
>
> It is a crisis that has been growing for two decades and has come about
> because experiments are not designed well enough to ensure that the
> scientists don't fool themselves and see what they want to see in the
> results.
>
> Flawed patterns
>
> Machine learning systems and the use of big data sets has accelerated the
> crisis, according to Dr Allen. That is because machine learning algorithms
> have been developed specifically to find interesting things in datasets and
> so when they search through huge amounts of data they will inevitably find a
> pattern.
>
> "The challenge is can we really trust those findings?" she told BBC News.
>
> "Are those really true discoveries that really represent science? Are they
> reproducible? If we had an additional dataset would we see the same
> scientific discovery or principle on the same dataset? And unfortunately the
> answer is often probably not."
> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Machine learning is also used in
> biomedical research
>
> Dr Allen is working with a group of biomedical researchers at Baylor College
> of Medicine in Houston to improve the reliability of their results. She is
> developing the next generation of machine learning and statistical
> techniques that can not only sift through large amounts of data to make
> discoveries, but also report how uncertain their results are and their
> likely reproducibility.
>
> "Collecting these huge data sets is incredibly expensive. And I tell the
> scientists that I work with that it might take you longer to get published,
> but in the end your results are going to stand the test of time.
>
> "It will save scientists money and it's also important to advance science by
> not going down all of these wrong possible directions."