Do you remember taking multiple-choice exams in school? I hated these tests because there were certain instances when I knew the answer to a question, but the answers that were available to select didn’t fit the question.
As an associate professor of clinical sciences, I always made my exams in an essay format. I wanted to see if my students knew the subject matter and could articulate those answers intelligently.
What do you do in an uncomfortable situation where a multiple-choice question doesn’t have an acceptable choice for an answer? Hopefully, if the exam is written properly, you can choose the detractor “none of the above” and move on.
There is never a time when taking one of these tests that you should select a multiple-choice answer you know is the wrong one.
When should you receive an untested, unproven, experimental vaccine?
Continuaron las movilizaciones populares y bloqueos de carretera en rechazo de la norma avalada por la comisión de Economía y que el Congreso de la República debería ser aprobada hoy lunes. Por Alix Santamaría Dirigentes de los trabajadores de la agro-exportación de Perú han manifestado que el nuevo proyecto de ley para el sector agrario no […]
Tensions in society are on the rise on daily basis. The epidemic is increasingly revealing the contradictions and cracks of the capitalist system, whose manager – the state – no longer even tries to give the impression that its aim is to reduce the devastating effects of the deadly virus.
In our bureaucratically managed and highly monitored world, nothing comes naturally and by chance, even if the rulers try to convince us that the pandemic is just that. What is weakening society’s ability to combat this kind of crisis is not some irresponsible “merry partygoers” or private gatherings, but decades of deliberate destruction of public services that should be available to all, and their gradual conversion into consumer goods.
The failure of the current government to make major investments in public infrastructure is not a reflection of the malignancy of Janez Janša and his accomplices. It is a symptom of a policy that can see no further than achieving short-term economic growth, even if that means the general destruction of people and nature.
The consequences are felt by all of us who are not represented by the lobbies of capital and are therefore forced to obediently accept ever harsher working and living conditions as any form of criticism is banned and sanctioned. The government and capital see us as nothing more than a consumable commodity whose only duty is to produce, spend and obey.
In this crisis, the death of the elderly and the weak is collateral damage to the fierce efforts to maintain the system of exploitation and devastation.
On top of all this, we as a society are struggling not only with the consequences of dealing with the pandemic that rewards capitalists and increasingly excludes, neglects, and disables the vast majority of people, but also with the aggressive attempt to impose authoritarian rule.
It is clear that this episode of “Janšizem” [the policy named after the prime minister Janez Janša] is not just a provincial and local symptom of a kind of Slovenian psychosis, but a reflection of the global transformation of neoliberal consent into a new model of organizing society.
One of its features is the final dissolution of the so-called liberal and democratic “rubbish” that to some extent restrained authoritarian intervention and capital accumulation. A number of countries, including Slovenia, have turned into experimental fields during the epidemics in order to push the boundaries of governance under the conditions of the state of emergency.
This process is neither accidental, nor necessary, nor spontaneous, nor chaotic, as the people who benefit from it try to show. All of this is illustrated by the fact that, in circumstances that are still primarily a health crisis, the political extreme centre easily discarded the postures of the “rule of law” and “civil society” to quickly find out that it is much easier to satisfy the interests of the capital networks through authoritarian governance.
The only thing that bothers the representatives of the extreme centre is the sheer straightforwardness of their far-right partners. Unlike the latter, the extreme centre likes to cloak the implementation of the same policies as the extreme right under a veil of inconspicuousness. The goal of both the extreme centre and the extreme right is to deliberately create an atmosphere of arbitrariness and chaos in which only the arbitrary decrees of the state political and economic elite prevail.
At the same time, the vulgar, insulting and aggressive communication media prevents any criticism of their measures.
While the rulers try to convince us that we must stand together in times of crisis, they are widening the gap between those who have all the privileges and those who are more and more sidelined. At the end of the crisis, the rich will be even richer, the political elite and the state bureaucracy will greatly expand their authority and control over our lives, while we face even more brutal precarity, the loss of our loved ones, the dismantling of our rights, and a future filled with anxiety and terror.
Yet even in this darkest of times there is a ray of hope. After all, all the wealth of the few, as well as their privileges and their power over our lives, depends on our labor and our cooperation in the system of exploitation. It is enough to reject the role of expendable human material into which they force us, in order to gain the right to make real choices about our lives.
The idea of a general strike, already circulating in public, seems a good step in this direction. However, we cannot rely on servile syndicates imbued with the interests of their leaders. There will be no savior to lead us out of this disaster. We can only rely on each other, on the levers of social power, and on a shared vision of a better future made up of freedom, dignity, autonomy and equality.
In these times rebellion has even greater importance than usual. The authorities, with perhaps unprecedented repression, have crushed the ways of rebellion to which we were accustomed, but have not thereby removed the causes of it. On the contrary, it has only produced more reasons and firmly confirmed them. Under these conditions the spark may come from unexpected directions.
Perhaps from the workers whose bosses will not let them go on sick leave, or from the school-age youth who are locked in their homes and left alone with electronic devices.
Maybe it comes from the technical specialists in health care, or from young and old people who are labeled expendable, criminal, and spoiled by capital. Even if we do not create this spark ourselves, let’s help it grow into the fire of rebellion.
Let’s spread the virus of rebellion in the workplaces, on the streets and in the neighborhoods!
Note> Armed resistance continues to the Moroccan occupation of UN recognised Western Sahara. However in a cynical move the USA has recognised Moriccan sovereignty over the country, in exchange for Morocco recognising Israel. With US control over the world financial system this could finish off the tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees still camped in the desert.
– The committee of the families of the 15 kidnapped Sahrawi people has attributed, to the Moroccan occupation authorities, the full and direct responsibility over the disappearing of their children since 25 December 2005, demanding that they reveal where they, as well as the other missing Sahrawi people (victims of forced disappearance) are detained.
According to a statement reported Thursday by Saharawi media and released to mark the 15th anniversary of their disappearance, the Committee states that the dismissal of the complaint, lodged by the families against the Moroccan Navy and the Gendarmerie, made Moroccan justice an accomplice.
Remember the televangelist Pat Robertson‘s much more modern, but no less astonishing, tirade that “feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians”?
Ah, the joys of being a woman: basically, throughout 98 percent of human history, it’s involved being told insulting and ridiculous things by members of the opposite sex.
But there are some examples so spectacular, so influential and/or so maddeningly daft that they deserve a special place in our hearts. They need to be gold-plated and put above everybody’s bedstead, under the title “This Is Why We Need Feminism”. And this is only the stuff we know; ancient Mesopotamians or lost civilizations now long dead may have had even more hilarious opinions about women’s weaknesses, inability to have their own emotions, or think in straight lines.
So here, enjoy what is perhaps the 10 most ridiculously sexist things ever said, and I’ll understand if you need a minute afterward.
1. When Aristotle Said Women Are Defective Men
“The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities; we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.”
2. When St. Thomas Aquinas Said Women Are Sperm Accidents
“… A female is deficient and unintentionally caused. For the active power of the semen always seeks to produce a thing completely like itself, something male. So if a female is produced, this must be because the semen is weak or because the material [provided by the female parent] is unsuitable, or because of the action of some external factor such as the winds from the south which make the atmosphere humid.”
3. When Napoleon Said Women Are Just Slaves
“Nature intended women to be our slaves… they are our property; we are not theirs. They belong to us, just as a tree that bears fruit belongs to a gardener…. Women are nothing more than machines for producing children.”
4. When Cato The Elder Argued That All Women Are Wild Animals
“Woman is a violent and uncontrolled animal, and it is useless to let go the reins and then expect her not to kick over the traces. You must keep her on a tight rein…. Women want total freedom or rather – to call things by their names – total license. If you allow them to achieve complete equality with men, do you think they will be easier to live with? Not at all. Once they have achieved equality, they will be your masters.”
5. When Pliny The Elder Warned That Menstrual Blood Is Poisonous
“On the approach of a woman in this state, must become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits. Her very look, even, will dim the brightness of mirrors, blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her, will die immediately.”
6. When Plutarch Did Not Approve Of Independent Lady-Emotions
“A wife should have no feelings of her own, but share her husband’s seriousness and sport, his anxiety and his laughter.”
7. When Friedrich Nietzsche Was Basically Just Friedrich Nietzsche
“The whole education of women ought to be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves loved and honored by them, to educate them when young, to care for them when grown, to counsel them, to console them, and to make life agreeable and sweet to them – these are the duties of women at all times, and should be taught them from their infancy.”
“Finally – a woman! One-half of mankind is weak, typically sick, changeable, inconstant – a woman needs a religion of weakness that glorifies being weak, loving, being humbled as divine.”
8. When Jean-Jacques Rousseau Said Ladies Only Need To Be Taught About Men
9. When Sigmund Freud Despaired Of Grown Ladies’ Sexuality
“The sexual life of adult women is a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”
10. When James Joyce Was A Bit Of An Idiot
“Men are governed by lines of intellect – women: by curves of emotion.”
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
On the night before Christmas, we’ll all be about. While the people are sleeping, we’ll realise our clout. We’ll expropriate goods from the stores, ‘cos that’s fair. And distribute them widely, to those who need care.Ruth Kinna 20 December 2018
Can we reclaim Christmas for the masses? Credit: Grace Wilson/STRIKE! magazine.
An anarchist guide to Christmas
It’s no surprise to discover that anarchist theorist Pyotr Kropotkin was interested in Christmas. In Russian culture, St. Nicholas (Николай Чудотворец) was revered as a defender of the oppressed, the weak and the disadvantaged. Kropotkin shared the sentiments.
A principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government — harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups…
But there was also a family link. As everyone knows, Kropotkin could trace his ancestry to the ancient Rurik dynasty that ruled Russia before the upstart Romanovs and which, from the first century CE, controlled the trade routes between Moscow and the Byzantine Empire. Nicholas’s branch of the family had been sent out to patrol the Black Sea.
Videos from within the factory show rioters starting a fire, damaging machinery, smashing windows, and even overturning cars in the parking lot.
Militant workers destroyed the company’s furniture, assembly units and set fire to vehicles. The riot was sparked by anger that the company was not paying the amount that was promised to them at the time of joining.
Thousands of iPhones were expropriated during the riot. The uprising has caused Wistron to suspend production of iPhones for two weeks. Because the
incident occurred before the peak Christmas season, Wistron’s losses could be larger than the preliminary estimate.
Apple has vowed to investigate after workers staged a riot at an iPhone factory in India amid allegations of exploitation and unpaid wages at the plant. Cars were flipped over and set on fire while glass panels were smashed with rods and lights, fans and CCTV cameras were torn down during the rioting on Saturday.Dec 14, 2020 Workers riot at India iPhone factory over shifts | Daily Mail Online
Workers Unpaid for 3 Months
Intense protests broke out at India’s Apple contracts Wistron, a Taiwanese manufacturer with a plant located in Kolar city of Karnataka, where the products are being assembled and sold in the region and surrounding areas.
The protests that broke out over the weekend because salaries being held from factory workers and it have been alleged that protests broke into riots and resulted in thousands of iPhones being looted from the factory.
Looking at the videos posted on the Social Network Service (SNS), workers wielded iron bars and clubs to damage glass and fixtures, production facilities, and security cameras in factory buildings.
Wistron estimates that the overall damage runs up to about Rs 437-crore (over $59 million). This includes damages to the factory assembly line, factory property, and thousands of stolen iPhones. The violence is reported to have lasted two hours, during which time the damage took place this Saturday, The Times of India reported.
Quoting State Labor Minister Shrvram Hebbar, reports said that Wistron contracted six companies to hire around 8,900 employees at the Kolar plant. These contractors were paid by the company for their laborers, but Wistron has had conflict with the contract laborers for as long as three months, according to the government. The Labor Minister condemned the violence, calling the company’s losses ‘unacceptable’.
just so 1 1 day ago Imagine being sat in the office thinking I’m not paying people this week then you see your car on fire in the parking lot 😂 6
Industries minister Jagadish Shettar attributed the violence to miscommunications between the three parties: Wistron, the labor contractors, and the employees. “What we hear is that the company had made payments to the labour contractors, who delayed payments to the employees. This is being verified,” the report quoted Shettar as having said.
Ashish 1 week ago Knowing apple almost all would be thrown out of the job. 639
The labor department has issued notices to Wistron, stating that the company had three days to pay the employees, whether its from Wistron or the labor contractors. Kolar police are investigating whether the violence was planned as intentional acts to destroy property.
The company is doing its utmost to get the plant back up and running, it said. Wistron shares fell around 2.5 per cent in early Asia trade, underperforming Taiwan’s broader stock market.
Who are the criminals and fascists? Donald Trump’s decision to pardon four Blackwater contractors involved in the 2007 slaughter of Iraqi civilians was met with a tsunami of anger and resentment online from people calling it a travesty of justice. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening that he is issuing 15 full pardons and commuting the punishments of five convicts to time served. Four of the people given clemency were former employees of the infamous private military company Blackwater.
They were serving lengthy prison terms, including a life sentence in one case, for the Nisour Square massacre, one of the most notorious episodes in the US’ military engagement in Iraq. Seventeen Iraqi civilians, including one child, were killed in the crowded Baghdad square in September 2007, after the US contractors opened fire on people with machine guns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers.
The investigation concluded that at least 14 of them were killed without any reason. The unprovoked attack was carried out by Blackwater guards who were escorting a US Embassy convoy and allegedly thought they had been ambushed. After a protracted legal process, four people were sentenced to various prison terms. Nicholas Slatten, who was accused of opening fire first and triggering the attack on civilians, received a life sentence.
The news that all four convicts will now walk free, their punishments considered enough, was met with much anger, as public figures and ordinary commenters lashed out at Trump’s decision. Glenn Kirschner, a former US Army prosecutor who is now a legal analyst with MSNBC, said the president “killed justice” with his pardons.
Mark Hertling, a retired general who was involved in the 2007-08 troop surge, called the move “the most egregious and disgusting” of Trump’s actions. Politician Richard Ojeda, a retired mayor, said Blackwater contractors in Iraq were a bunch of “cowboys” who “caused trouble for us, active duty troops.” Representative Ilhan Omar called the pardoned contractors “mercenaries” and “war criminals,” whose release “will leave a dark mark on the history of presidential pardons.”
Others pointed out that securing the convictions of the four perpetrators was a difficult challenge for the justice system, and that the efforts were apparently wasted by the pardons. Some said that while Trump’s pardon was appalling, people should keep in mind that he was not the one who launched the 2003 Iraq invasion in the first place.
George W. Bush and other architects of the war are now a respectable part of the bipartisan establishment in the US. Supporters of the former contractors had been arguing that the men had been excessively punished and that their prosecution was tainted. “Paul Slough and his colleagues didn’t deserve to spend one minute in prison,” Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for one of the four pardoned defendants, said of the news. “I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.”
In 2007, Blackwater was headed by Eric Prince, the brother of Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. He resigned and divested from the firm after the scandal over the massacre erupted. The company itself went through a series of re-brandings. Last year, Prince lobbied the Trump administration to replace US troops in Afghanistan with thousands of mercenaries.
Ali was sitting in the back seat of his father’s SUV with two of his cousins. Blackwater riddled the car with bullets. Ali’s father was driving. When the shooting stopped they thought they had experienced a miracle that they were safe.
One of Ali’s cousins said that Ali had been shot. His father opened the door after seeing blood on the window – and Ali’s brain fell out onto the pavement between his father’s feet.
“Man up” may seem like a harmless way to tell a man to step up to his responsibilities, to be strong, or to show fewer emotions, but the phrase itself implies that doing any of these things is gender-specific.
Being a man myself, I’ve been told all of the stuff mentioned above. My mom said that I shouldn’t cry because “It’s not man-like”. Unfortunately, like my mom, most parents fail to understand the consequences of teaching children things like that.
Because I was told to be a man since I can remember, I realized that I kept telling myself to refrain from displaying emotions for most of my life. I kept myself from crying or even acting hurt when something wrong would happen. Keeping all of those things inside takes a real toll on you, your mental and physical health.
Dr. John Reizer
The Free 