Wolf Moon

On Thursday, January 28, 2021 we’ll see the rise of the full “Wolf Moon”. It will be best viewed at moonrise as it appears in the east cloaked in dramatic orange hues.

Joint Intelligence Bulletin: An Example of Disinformation

On January 13, 2021 a Joint Intelligence Bulletin was issued by the DHS, FBI and NCTC. It is written, so it is said, to warn about the threat of further actions such as took place on January 6. But it reads as a threat to all those standing up for rights.

January 2021. Protest actions by those involved in the movement for rights and against police impunity continue in Portland (above) and other cities.

On January 13, 2021 a Joint Intelligence Bulletin was issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The Report is titled: “Domestic Violent Extremists Emboldened in Aftermath of Capitol Breach, Elevated Domestic Terrorism Threat of Violence Likely Amid Political Transitions and Beyond.” It states that its purpose is “to highlight the threat of violence from domestic violent extremists in the wake of the January 6 violent breach… of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, following lawful protest activity related to the results of the General Election.” The Bulletin is Classified U/FOUO, meaning “unclassified, for official use only.”

Disinformation

Disinformation is not synonymous with misinformation. To “dis” is to destroy. Disinformation is the destruction of what is being informed, that which is providing form.

– Hardial Bains Resource Centre –

Most significant in going through this particular historical period of retreat of revolution, is that all the experience of humans relating to humans and humans relating to nature from time immemorial is coming to a head. If that vast experience is not thought through, then we could be heading for a greater tragedy, an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress. It is in this context that what constitutes disinformation has significance.

The House, Senator Cruz and References to the U.S. Civil War

Even though the U.S. Civil War was launched from states seceding from the United States, as an insurrection against the U.S. state, a rebellion by the slave-masters, it was not a war between states and was never deemed an “insurrection.”

January 7, 2021. New York City protest calls for Trump to be impeached | Liat_RO

– Hardial Bains Resource Centre –

The House Judiciary Committee arguing for charging Trump with “incitement to insurrection,” and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and the Senators who joined him in challenging certification of the vote, all use Civil War references to make their arguments.

Irish reject British Army Covid 19 militarization of public health

In a little-mentioned program, NATO is using the global Covid 19 pandemic as the pretext to deploy military forces in the public health system, presented as “essential” and “good Samaritan saviours” and a “normal” response to “exceptional circumstances”, even as it exclaims against medical programs of Russia, China and Cuba. Canada, which has placed the federal distribution of vaccines under the administration of the Canadian Forces, deployed hundreds of soldiers into long-term care facilities and Indigenous communities with disastrous consequences, is no isolated exception, as this news item from Republican News in Ireland illustrates. 

(January 23) – A deployment of British Army paramedics to hospitals in occupied Ireland has angered many nationalists, particularly among families of those killed and injured by British soldiers.

Following a request by the Stormont authorities, the occupying British Army garrison based in the North of Ireland is to be increased by over a hundred.

Insurrection and the administrative state

The demands of the American people are not coming from a defence of the Constitutional order but as rights belonging to the people. The clash between the two conceptions is very real.

January 17, 2021. Washington DC.

By Kathleen Chandler

Why did Congress so quickly take up impeachment on the basis of charging Trump with “incitement to insurrection?” What does it mean for a Biden administration and the movements of the people for rights? Part of the problem the rulers are contending with is that existing political arrangements cannot solve the people’s demands for equality and accountability. This drive of the people was evident in many actions in 2020 and since, not only in terms of opposing racist police brutality and killings, but also by nurses, warehouse workers and other frontline workers demanding COVID-19 protections and free health care for all. It can also be seen in demands for income security throughout the COVID crisis, opposition to evictions and more. The growing conflicts within and between Congress, the Presidency, military and policing agencies also show the rulers cannot solve these conflicts among their contending factions vying for power. 

Today is Robbie Burns Day

Today (January 25) is Robbie Burns Day. 25 January 2021 marks 261 years to the day since Scotland’s national poet (1759-1796) was born. His polemics against the exploitation, injustice and oppression of his time enraged the establishment and won him enduring love from the peoples of all lands.

The statue of Robert Burns in Halifax’s Victoria Park Square is the centre of innumerable political rallies., as this one in October 2006 against the apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine | Photo courtesy of and copyright 2006, Howard Harawitz, All rights reserved.

The Cinderella complex: Preserving the security of the constitutional order in the United States

TML Monthly produced a timely Supplement yesterday on the unfolding events in the United States on the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th president of that country. These events have significance for the U.S. polity and, by extension, the Canadian polity and the peoples of the world.

Winter in Ingonish, Cape Breton

Photo from Our Cape Breton Home, Facebook

Word. Oath of Loyalty and Obeisance

Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America

January 20, 2021

Ottawa, Ontario

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America:

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I congratulate Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America.“Canada and the United States enjoy one of the most unique relationships in the world, built on a shared commitment to democratic values, common interests, and strong economic and security ties. Our two countries are more than neighbours – we are close friends, partners, and allies.

“Canada and the United States have worked side-by-side to tackle some of the greatest challenges we have faced in our history. We will continue this partnership as we fight the global COVID-19 pandemic and support a sustainable economic recovery that will build back better for everyone. We will also work together to advance climate action and clean economic growth, promote inclusion and diversity, and create good middle class jobs and opportunities for our people while contributing to democracy, peace, and security at home and around the world.

“I look forward to working with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, their administration, and the United States Congress as we strive to make our countries safer, more prosperous, and more resilient.”

This Day. A reflection on Amílcar Cabral, Portugal and NATO

Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973)

By TONY SEED

Originally published on January 20, 2019 on this blog and Stop Foreign Intervention in Africa , a website organized by activists opposed to foreign intervention in Africa on a military, economic, political and cultural level. 

On January 20, 1973, Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, leader of the national liberation movement in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde in West Africa, was assassinated, just months before Guinea Bissau won its long independence struggle against Portuguese colonialism.

Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, part of the ancient Mali Empire; parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century. Other parts of the territory in the current country were considered by the Portuguese as part of their empire. Portuguese Guinea was known as the Slave Coast, as it was a major area for the exportation of African slaves by Europeans to the western hemisphere.

Flashback: Belgium’s ‘apology’ for assassinating Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba (July 2, 1925–January 17, 1961)

I only gave voice to words of freedom and brotherhood, words they couldn’t accept. Just words. – Patrice Lumumba

Updated from an article published on this blog on March 22, 2016

Sixty years have passed since the assassination on January 17, 1961 of the first democratically-elected President of the Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. His government sought to give citizens political rights and build a national economy independent of the imperialist system of states. The country’s rich resources were supposed to serve its residents instead of being exploited by foreign concerns. His assassination was carried out by Belgian troops for the CIA.

Martin Luther King’s Revolutionary Legacy

Martin Luther King Day was observed this year on January 18. Many TV and radio stations played his speech from 1967, condemning the war against Viet Nam and his last speech delivered a day before his assassination in April 1968. Reflecting the strength of the anti-war movement of that time, the speeches called for a radical rupture with the U.S. socio, economic and political system, including calling for an end to militarism, racism and poverty. His life and work, like that of Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Fannie Lou Hammer and many others, continue to inspire millions of people in the United States and abroad We  are posting an article by historian Isaac Saney from his Facebook page.

By Isaac Saney

(January 18, 2021) Every day – not only MLK Day – is a time for serious contemplation on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy. The pervasive and dominant narrative freezes in place King’s politics and philosophy, transfixing his thinking to August 28 1963 when he delivered the famous and proudly moving, “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The subsequent development of his views on capitalism and imperialism are ignored.

January 26 March on Delhi: Indian farmers valiantly organize to affirm their rights

By J. Singh 

Farmers in India are continuing their struggle without letup. They continue to demand the repeal of the three farm laws which favour agribusiness at their expense.

January Events in Canada: Stand with Indian Farmers

Vancouver

Monday-Friday, 11:00 am-2:00 pm
Indian Consulate, Unit 201, 325 Howe St.
Organized by Sikh Motorcycle Club of Canada

 

Daily, 4:30-6:00 pm
Clearbrook Rd South of Fraser Way

 

Daily, 5:30-9:00 pm
King George and 88th

 

Daily, 6:00-9:00 pm
Scott Road and 72nd

 

Monday-Friday, 11:00 am-3:00 pm
Indian Consulate, Unit 700, 365 Bloor St. E.
Organized by Sikh Motorcycle Club of Canada

 

Monday-Friday, 11:00 am-2:00 pm
Indian Embassy, 10 Springfield Rd
Organized by Sikh Motorcycle Club of Canada

 

Farmers Protests Panel Discussion

 

Richmond

2:00-6:00 pm
Highway No. 5 and Steveston Hwy

 

Car and Truck Road Show
11:00 am
Gather at Abbotsford Stadium, drive to Vancouver Art Gallery

Vancouver

Voices of the Oppressed, Standing in Solidarity
1:00-4:00 pm
Vancouver Art Gallery

Abbotsford

Tractor Rally
10:00 am
Mann Farms Corn Maze (McKenzie and Vye Road)

 

Kisaan Rally and Peaceful Demonstration
1:30 pm
Gather at noon, H Lot, UBCO

Vancouver

Protest Republic Day
1:00 pm
Indian Consulate, 325 Howe St

 

Kisaan Rally
12:00 noon
Meet Strawberry Hill Parking Lot, Cineplex
Destination; Indian Consulate
325 Howe St, Vancouver

 

Kisan Republic Day Car Rally
3:30 pm
Gather at Westwood Mall
5:00-7:00 pm
Rally at Square One

Saturday, January 30

 

2:00-6:00 pm
Highway No. 5 and Steveston Hwy

Amazing coincidences!

(January 18) – His motorcade to the Berlin airport yesterday was accompanied by German federal security police, who kindly helped him process his papers. Angela Merkel was on the job.

He innocently boarded a “low-cost flight” from Berlin to Moscow, sat in an economy seat and was accompanied by a planeload of journalists and intelligence officials.

Landing in Moscow, the masked man was greeted by more journalists. “He then embraced his wife Yulia, kissed her on the cheek, and walked toward passport control, where he was detained by a group of police officers.”

Report on Irish ‘Mother and Baby’ homes ‘a cop-out’

Baby factory for the United States?

A Commission of Investigation has established that some 9,000 babies and children died over eight decades in Irish ‘Mother and Baby’ homes, but a limited report and an official State apology have only increased demands for full redress for a history of murderous neglect and misogyny.

Trump – Pompeo parting shots hurt the Caribbean

By Sir Ronald Sanders

Ambassador Sir Ronald Sanders

As they are preparing to exit the White House and the State Department on January 20, the outgoing Donald Trump administration has planted some explosives for the foreign policy of the government of Joseph Biden Jr.

A grenade has already been thrown into policies that Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominated Secretary of State, might pursue in relation to Cuba and, consequently, the Caribbean region.

January 2021 actions in support of Cuba

No to US government’s recent move to include Cuba on its list of states that sponsor terrorism

Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba

The Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba (TCSQC) joins its voice with the rest of the world in firmly condemning the decision of the U.S. government to include Cuba on its list of states that sponsor terrorism. On January 11, nine days before Donald Trump’s mandate ends and the new president takes office, [U.S. Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo announced that “The State Department has designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbour to terrorists.”

Cuba is not a state that sponsors terrorism: Canadian organizations reject US aggression against Cuba

The United States has no moral authority to designate other countries as terrorist states.

CALENDAR OF CUBA SOLIDARITY EVENTS

Cuba is not a state that sponsors terrorism

Editorial of TML Daily, January 15, 2021

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) condemns the decision of the Trump administration in its final days to designate Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, which the U.S. State Department did on Monday, January 11. We call on all Canadians to denounce this baseless designation and demand it be retracted immediately. We also call on Canadians to urge the government of Canada to disassociate itself from this outrageous move and call on the international community to refuse to recognize it and not to appease it in any way.

When the victimizer blames the victim – No to latest US aggression against Cuba!

October 6. A day of commemoration in Cuba for the victims of state terrorism.

By Isaac Saney, Spokesperson, Canadian Network On Cuba

The Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC) vigorously and unequivocally condemns the deceitful and duplicitous designation of Cuba by the Trump regime as a sponsor of terrorism. This is an act of blatant opportunism and cynicism, an act that flies in the face of reality. It is Cuba that has been the victim of all manner of terrorist attacks that have been carried out with the complicity, participation and sponsorship of Washington.

Firm and absolute condemnation of fraudulent designation of Cuba as state sponsor of terrorism

Declaration of Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba condemns, in the strongest and most absolute terms, the fraudulent designation of Cuba as a State that sponsors terrorism which, in a cynical and hypocritical move, has been announced by the government of the United States.

January 6 events in the US: What is an insurrection?

INSURRECTION – Banner front-page headline, Toronto Star, January 7, 2021

President-Elect Joe Biden, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Senator Chuck Schumer – who will soon replace Mitch McConnell as head of the Senate, have all termed the protest at the Capitol building January 6 an insurrection. It is reported that articles of impeachment being drawn up by Pelosi charge President Trump with “incitement to insurrection.” So far no such charges are being levelled against the Senators, such as Josh Hawley of Minnesota and Ted Cruz of Texas, who also could be said to have “incited” protesters. These two Senators and the six others who joined in challenging the certification of the vote for Arizona and Pennsylvania, are now being referred to by some U.S. Representatives as the “Sedition Caucus.” But there is no call for charges to be laid, only for resignations.

January 6 events in the US: An event that lays the groundwork for increased police powers

From the Biden forces the efforts are now to portray the events of January 6 as an “epiphany,” a revelation. January 6 is the Christian celebration of the Epiphany that ends the 12 days of Christmas with the coming of the three wise men, the Magi. “On this day of revelation, let us pray that this instigation to violence will provide an epiphany for our country to heal,” said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. President-Elect Joe Biden also spoke of an epiphany after the November election | ANNA DI CARLO

Within minutes of the January 6 breach of the Capitol Building by protesters incited by Trump’s claim that victory in the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen from him, there was a widespread description of the event as an “insurrection” by media personalities and elected officials. This represents a departure from the normal vocabulary of the ruling elite to categorize protests in which violence erupts.

January 6 events in the US: What is relevant and what is not

What took place was not Trump vs. democracy, as it is being portrayed, as Trump also said he was acting to save the Republic and its democracy. Rather it was the powers of the presidency vs. the powers of Congress | KATHLEEN CHANDLER

Looking at what took place at the Congress in Washington, DC on January 6, there appears to be both a failed coup on the part of U.S. President Donald Trump and an effort by President-Elect Joe Biden to use the events to further strengthen the presidency by uniting the federal policing and military bureaucracies behind him. Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are acting as enablers in this effort. Pelosi for example, even though Trump is still Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces, has publicly said she is speaking with the military so they keep Trump from the “nuclear button,” as it is called. This is an effort to line the military up behind Biden. We are witnessing a counterrevolution within the long-standing counterrevolution that has been ongoing since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

January 6 events in the United States: Counterrevolution within the counterrevolution

The reason we call it a counterrevolution within the counterrevolution is because we are not just dealing with two sides – one side which engaged in an insurrection and another which defends democracy. The whole picture is greater than the sum of its parts which cannot be aggregated in any case  PAULINE EASTON

Given the evidence available at this time, what took place at the Capitol building in Washington, DC on January 6 is a counterrevolution within the counterrevolution. It becomes increasingly evident that President Donald Trump staged a coup to keep the presidency in his own hands but this failed due to the defection of Vice President Mike Pence followed by others. Furthermore, due to the way things unfolded with the images of destruction, intimidation and hooliganism within the Capital building, Senate Chamber and House Speaker Pelosi’s office broadcast across the world, Trump could not maintain the military united behind him either. The failed coup was then used by President-Elect Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in an effort to unite the federal policing and military bureaucracies behind Biden to preserve the union and avert civil war. Pence and other Republicans, including those like Senator Ted Cruz who stuck to their stand of questioning the validity of the election, disassociated themselves from the violence and Trump and have moved to preserve their own careers and the Republican Party to fight another day.

Nineteen tragic facts about the COVID-19 economy in the US

September 18 demonstration in Chicago of some 1,000 workers poured into downtown Chicago. Over 4,000 University of Illinois at Chicago workers from SEIU Local 73 and 800 nurses, members of the Illinois Nurses Association, walked off the job demanding that administrators “respect us, protect us and pay us.” Nurses initially walked out Sept. 12 and were joined by thousands of Local 73 workers on Sept. 14. All were demanding safe working conditions, including sufficient personal protective equipment with increased staffing and a living wage.

By Bill Quigley, December 11, 2020

87 million.

87 million workers will lose federally mandated COVID sick leave at the end of December unless Congress acts to extend the law.

US election spending: Telling indictment of US democracy

Spending on the November 2020 U.S. elections broke all previous records according to the U.S. Federal Election Commission. The two main cartel parties, the Republican and Democratic parties, spent the bulk of the total $14 billion.

Prospects of a federal election

By Anna Di Carlo

As 2021 gets underway, Canadians are being assaulted with the prospect that a federal election could be unleashed against them at any time. The machinery of polling firms, think-tanks, media and pundits controlled by the Liberal faction currently in power has been in action for some time saying how popular they are and that they deserve a majority to pay the rich and integrate Canada into the U.S. war machine under U.S. President Biden, unencumbered by being a minority government. The other factions within the ruling class are gearing up their own electoral machines to contest power in a manner which favours their own fortunes.