It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Huge growth in use of quartz for tools shows sophistication of ancient communities
A growth in the use of crystal quartz to make tools thousands of years ago shows the sophistication of ancient communities, according to new research.
The mineral was chosen because of its powerful symbolism, even though it involved painstaking work and othermaterialsthat would have been easier to use were available to prehistoric toolmakers, archaeologists argue.
Archaeologists have found there was a sudden spike in the number of tiny hand-made tools of less than 1cm made of crystalquartzin southern Africa around 14,000 years ago.
World War Zero brought down mystery civilisation of ‘sea people
Possibly the most famous horse in the worldUniversal History Archive /Universal Images Group/Superstock/Getty By Colin Barras
The Trojan War was a grander event than even Homer would have us believe. The famous conflict may have been one of the final acts in what one archaeologist has controversially dubbed “World War Zero” – an event he claims brought the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age world crashing down 3200 years ago. And the catalyst for the war? A mysterious and arguably powerful civilisation almost entirely overlooked by archaeologists: the Luwians.
By the second millennium BC, civilisation had taken hold throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptian New Kingdom coexisted with the Hittites of central Anatolia and the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece, among others.
In little more than a single generation, they had all collapsed. Was the culprit climate change? Some sort of earthquake storm? Social unrest? Archaeologists can’t seem to agree.
Eberhard Zangger, head of international non-profit, Luwian Studies, based in Zurich, Switzerland, says that’s because one crucial piece of the puzzle is missing. Another powerful civilisation in western Anatolia played a crucial role in the downfall (see video below).
His investigations of the published literature show that western Anatolia is extraordinarily rich in mineral and metal ore deposits, meaning it’s likely to have been an important region in antiquity. Through studies of satellite imagery, Zangger has also found that the area was densely populated during the Late Bronze Age. Only a handful of the 340 large city-like sites he has identified have been excavated. “Some of these sites are so large you can see them from space,” says Zangger. “There’s so much waiting to be found it’s really just mind-boggling.”
Hittite texts talk of several petty kingdoms in western Anatolia speaking versions of a common language – Luwian. According to Zangger, that means we can legitimately talk of them as forming a Luwian civilisation in their own right.
Shortly after the demise of the Hittites, Egyptian texts document an attack force they termed the “Sea People”. Zangger says it makes sense to view these Sea People as the Luwians, continuing their campaign for wealth and power and, in the process, weakening and destabilising the Egyptian New Kingdom. The Mycenaeans, perhaps anticipating an attack on their territory, formed a grand coalition of their own, says Zangger. They sailed across the Aegean and attacked the Luwians, bringing down their civilisation and destroying its key cities like Troy – events immortalised in Homer’s Iliad.
On returning to Greece, however, and in the sudden absence of any other threat, Zangger believes the Mycenaeans squabbled and fell into civil war – events hinted at in Homer’s Odyssey. Their civilisation was the last in the area to collapse.
Zangger says that only such a sequence of events fits with the evidence documented in ancient texts across the eastern Mediterranean, and also explains why the archaeological record shows that almost every large city in the region was destroyed in warfare at the end of the Bronze Age. He sets out his ideas in a new book, and on a website that launches in English today.
Bombastic storytelling – but is it true? So what do other archaeologists make of this idea of a lost Luwian civilisation? Many stopped trying to impose this sort of monolithic cultural identity on ancient peoples decades ago, says Christoph Bachhuber at the University of Oxford.
“Archaeologists will need to discover similar examples of monumental art and architecture across western Anatolia and ideally texts from the same sites to support Zangger’s claim of a civilisation,” he says. The textual evidence available is mainly from post-Bronze age and it paints a slightly confusing picture, which could be seen as both supporting and undermining Zangger’s theory, says Ilya Yakubovich, a historical linguist at the Philipp University of Marburg, Germany.
Zangger’s broader “World War Zero” narrative is also debatable. “He’s bringing in this idea of ancient international warfare,” says Michael Galaty at Mississippi State University. “Most archaeologists would balk at using such terminology.”
Bachhuber calls it “big bombastic storytelling” and points out that today, archaeologists are sceptical that ancient narratives like Homer’s approximate historical truth.
Zangger, however, says there are several other ancient accounts of the Trojan War that all tell a similar story to Homer. One, written in the first century AD, even refers to now-lost Egyptian monuments that documented the conflict
Despite these criticisms, though, there is near-universal praise for the fact that Zangger’s ideas will raise the profile of Late Bronze Age archaeological research in long-neglected western Anatolia, which can only benefit the scientific community
“He’s really getting the ball rolling to do larger holistic studies of the area,” says Bachhuber. “I’m actually quite excited that he’s bringing attention to this region.”
IN THE DICTIONARY UNDER WHITE PRIVILEGE
“The rise of populists and polemicists has created a micro-industry in bashing private schools.”
In the 1930s, thousands of American Nazis hailed George Washington as the ‘first fascist’ The history of Nazi summer camps and rallies in NYC Nazis Hail George Washington As First Fascist,” read a March 7, 1938 headline in Life magazine. The brief article reported on a boisterous group of pro-Nazi Americans who called themselves the German American Bund. The organization, whose antagonistic rallies and assemblies were rife with anti-Semitic and ethno-nationalist rhetoric, had begun to capture mainstream attention as the very politics they embraced were driving Europe toward war.https://timeline.com/nazis-america-camps-rallies-4fc6dfe5e3b3
It would have been naïve to expect the President to unambiguously condemn neo-Confederates (“Heritage, not hate,” etc.), but Nazis? For reasons that are not hard to discern, the swastika, at least in the United States, has always been more clearly legible as a symbol of racial bigotry than the Confederate flag. This country has countenanced more gatherings of white supremacists than it is possible to count, yet Nazism, precisely because Americans do not feel implicated in its worst predations, has typically been easily recognizable as intolerable. In the wake of Rockwell’s gathering, Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, denounced the group as “thugs and hoodlums.” Following the Bund rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered an investigation into their tax compliance—a move that uncovered embezzlement that proved fatal to the organization. In that context, Trump’s decision in February to remove white supremacists from a federal program to counter violent extremists (while maintaining focus on Muslim terrorists) is telling. This had the effect of emboldening the reactionary legions. It was predictable that Richard Spencer’s coalition of the contemptuous would come together. Rockwell was never more than a fringe character, but Spencer increasingly looks like the vector of a formidable anger—one that needs to be confronted at direct angles, not oblique ones. When questioned about the rationale for Trump’s even handedness, the White House clarified that both the protesters and the counter-protesters had resorted to violence. This is notable in that the United States was once a country that did not see Nazis and those willing to fight them as morally equivalent. Aside from that, however, there were no images of anti-fascist protesters mowing down reactionaries with their cars. In 1939 Nazis rallied in Chicago to make Germany great again Four thousand supporters gave the Nazi salute in a northwest-side park.
It can’t happen here? Confronting the fascist threat in the US in the late 1930s By Joe Allen Issue #87: Features Share The first article in this series (ISR 85, Sept.–Oct. 2012) focused on the struggle against the Silvershirts in Minneapolis.1 Part 2 focuses on the struggle against the German American Bund and the Christian Front in New York City. http://isreview.org/issue/87/it-cant-happen-here
Support for the Nazi party wasn't limited to Europe. During WWII, American support for the Nazis was growing, as is evident in these jarring images of Nazis in New York. From the suburbs of Long Island to the Big Apple, we take a look back at when Hitler and his Nazis' attempt to infiltrate the American public in New York. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nazis-new-york-gallery-1.2856907?pmSlide=1.2856893
Jun 6, 2016 - 888 GEMATRIA AND THE TRUMP, ANTICHRIST SIGNIFICANCE!!! .... an authority on Jewish law and master Kabbalist who lived in Baghdad ...
Lebanese Help Each Other as Economic Crisis Crushes Lives
With the entrenched political class failing to chart a way out, Lebanese are doing what they’ve done in previous crises
The Associated Press Jan 05, 2020 4:45 AM A little boy waits for a Christmas present as anti-government protesters distribute gifts to the needy, at Martyrs' Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 22, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
Panic set in on a WhatsApp group used to organize Lebanese protests when one member said he intended to kill himself because he can’t provide for his kids.
The desperate call came on the heels of the suicide of a father of two that had stunned the public and raised alarm over how dire Lebanon’s economic conditions have become.
So Mohamed Shkeir, one of dozens of members in the group, sprang into action. The 23-year-old architect student along with friends launched a campaign appealing for donations – for the man and for others suffering. They posted an ad on social media and, to show transparency, created a spreadsheet to track the money.A volunteer tosses a Christmas present, as anti-government protesters distribute clothing to the needy ahead of Christmas, at Martyrs Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 22, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
As Lebanon’s protest movement enters its third month, the economic pinch is hurting everyone. Layoffs are increasing, salary cuts are the norm, banks are capping withdrawals and prices are quickly rising. The euphoria that marked the first days of the protests is being replaced with gloom. Related Articles
With the entrenched political class failing to chart a way out, Lebanese are resorting to what they’ve done in previous wars and crises: They rely on each other, not the state. “We got to a situation where people are not able to buy food for their kids or pay their rent,” Shkeir said.
The despondent friend “said he had no money and what is the revolution doing about it and asked why the politicians are not paying attention,” Shkeir said. They were able to convince him not to kill himself, though he refused to take any donations. Shkeir and his group continued their campaign, giving money, food, clothes and supplies to 58 families so far this month, including one family reduced to using candles because they can’t afford electricity.
Over recent years as Lebanon’s economy worsened, people turned to familiar ways to cope, like mosque and church charities or helping each other, forgiving debts or handing out food. Those means have already been getting stretched thin. Words of encouragement are taped to a window at a mental health organization operating the national suicide prevention helpline in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 23, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
The protests – and the 24-hour news cycle focused on them – have brought a surge of help by rallying public attention to the suffering. Campaigns to collect food, winter clothes and helplines for people in economic and emotional distress are popping up everywhere, intensified by the Christmas spirit.
Stores have offered discounts and set up boxes for donations of clothes or money. Ads on TV urged Lebanese to pack bags of donations instead of suitcases for travel. Another urged Lebanese in the diaspora coming home to visit to bring “medicines, clothes and goodies” to give, because “Lebanon needs help.”
Some restaurants have offered to deliver free food, and bakeries put out bread for anyone who needs. A yoga studio organized classes to fundraise for the needy. WhatsApp groups and Instagram pages shared addresses of local small businesses for shoppers to use for Christmas gifts. “We are all in this together,” said one tagline. A group of web developers created an app, Khayyak or Your Brother, to coordinate between those who want to help and those in need. “Don’t lose hope, you are not alone,” the advertisement for the app said.
The efforts are in part driven by the famed entrepreneurial spirit that helped Lebanese get through numerous previous crises, including a 15-year civil war and several wars with Israel that wrecked the infrastructure and economy. Volunteers wait for calls at Lebanon's Embrace, a mental health organization operating the national suicide prevention helpline in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 23, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
But the protests have also created a unique experience – “something for everybody,” whether they support or oppose the revolt, said Mia Atwi, a clinical psychologist.
“People feel more that they are all suffering the same thing, the rich and the poor ... a common kind of loss,” she said.
Atwi is co-founder of Lebanon’s Embrace, a mental health organization operating the national suicide prevention helpline. The helpline now receives 100 calls a week, up from up to 10 before reports of suicides or attempted suicides first erupted three weeks ago.
Atwi attributed the jump to the spike of media and public attention to the issue of suicide, something she said has saved lives. Calls even come from rural areas, not just Beirut as they did in the past. Still, the government hasn’t given her organization a toll-free number, despite paying $25,000 a year for the four-digit helpline. A volunteer serves food at a public Christmas dinner, as an initiative to help those in need, in Martyrs Square where anti-government activists are encamped in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 23, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
Many campaigns have sprung out of the protest movement. Weekly clothes donations and distributions were set up in the downtown Beirut squares at the epicenter of the demonstrations and near the Central Bank, which protesters accuse of corruption and fueling the economic crisis.
“We only have each other,” proclaims the campaign’s hashtag, a snub of the political class and the state. Rim Majid, a 21-year-old student, quit university in Beirut to participate in “everything revolution.”
After hearing of news of the man’s suicide in early December, she set up a griddle at a downtown protest site to make free manousheh, a traditional Lebanese flatbread. Next to the griddle is a donation box with the man’s name. Someone donated enough wheat for a week of baking.
“The suffering existed before, but now we are going through a crisis, one that will only get worse,” she said Volunteers sort donated clothing for the needy in a tent near Martyrs' Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 22, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
The help isn’t only monetary. During a discussion one evening at a protest tent, a concerned woman asked: “What are the revolutionaries going to do when those who pay mortgages for their homes are unable to?” A young participant suggested the protesters could physically block the bank and the police from evicting people.
For Shkeir, the charity spirit reflects the principles of the protests – the rejection of an entire political elite seen as corrupt and of Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system.
Shkeir said his group’s donation campaign makes sure to transcend sectarian and political divisions and offers an alternative to the patronage that politicians use to cement their power. The campaign has members from Christian, Sunni and Shi’ite areas.
At least three donors came to them instead of established charities because, he said, they wanted to avoid donating along sectarian or political lines.
Shkeir had once planned to migrate like many others driven out by Lebanon’s economic problems. The protests convinced him he has no other place to be but home, he said.
In the last two months, he said, he met people from across different classes and sects he never imagined talking to.
“Our relations are built on humanity and national unity,” he said. “Our friendships are built on helping people.” The Associated Press
Trump was just undercut by the Pentagon on his shocking claim of a Saudi Arabia quid pro quo on January 15, 2020 By Cody Fenwick, AlterNet - Commentary
Donald Trump is the most explicitly transactional of modern presidents, and it’s gotten him into trouble. His offering of support from the U.S. government to Ukraine in exchange for a personal favor — an announcement of investigations into his political rivals — wound up making him the third American president to be impeached.
And in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last Friday, Trump revealed he was engaging in another explicit quid pro quo — not, apparently, for a personal favor, but corrupting nonetheless — with Saudi Arabia.
“We’re sending more [troops] to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is paying us for it,” Trump said. “I said ‘Listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you. But you’ve got to pay us.’”
This is pretty much as direct a quid pro quo as you can get — an offer to do something on the condition of getting paid. And since what is supposedly being paid for is U.S. military personnel, critics argued that Trump was turning American forces into a de facto mercenary army.
“He sells troops,” said Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) on Twitter.
Trump even went further with his claim, saying the payment was already sent to “the bank,” though he didn’t specify which bank, and Ingraham didn’t press him.
“They’re paying us,” Trump said. “They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.”
According to a statement from the Pentagon to Vox, however, none of this is right.
It said the Defense Department “has engaged Saudi Arabia on contributing to US activities that support regional security and dissuade hostility and aggression,” and that the country had agreed. However, it doesn’t look like any money has actually changed hands, as the Pentagon said that “discussions are ongoing to formalize these contributions.”
The Pentagon also pushed back on the quid pro quo Trump laid out, without calling him out directly.
“Contributions of this nature do not lead to the deployment of additional US forces, and they do not drive DoD to take on new missions or responsibilities,” it said.
What’s left unknown is who is really telling the truth. Trump lies all the time, of course, but sometimes he has accidental bouts of candor. And administration officials often shade the truth, or contradict the known facts entirely, in an effort to avoid the horrifying implications of Trump’s claims. Regardless, Trump seems to want people to think the U.S. military is up for sale, which is terrifying enough on its own.
INGRAHAM: Don't the American people have a right to know what specifically was targeted by Soleimani?
Former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi sentenced to 8 years in prison Case centred on several major infrastructure projects in Libya Sidhartha Banerjee · The Canadian Press · Posted: Jan 10, 2020 Sami Bebawi, right, was sentenced Friday at the Montreal courthouse. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)
Former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison Friday, wrapping up the last of the criminal charges brought against the engineering giant and its former employees involved in fraud and corruption in Libya.
Bebawi was impassive as he was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer, who explained he was opting for a penalty closer to the top of the scale given a number of aggravating factors in the case.
The 73-year-old had been defiant as he entered the courtroom for sentencing while pulling a carry-on suitcase.
When a reporter yelled out whether other managers from the engineering firm should be held to account and "fall on their swords,'' he replied: "definitely.''
A jury last month found the former head of SNC-Lavalin's construction division guilty of paying kickbacks to foreign officials and pocketing millions as he worked to secure contracts for the company beginning in the late 1990s.
The case centred on several major infrastructure projects and dealings with Saadi Gadhafi, a son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The jury also heard Bebawi tried to pay off a subordinate to change his testimony so he could avoid prosecution himself.
Cournoyer pointed to several factors, including the sophisticated nature of the fraud, the degree of planning and premeditation and Bebawi's behaviour after the infractions had been committed.
The federal prosecutors who brought the case to trial were satisfied with the sentence, saying it brought a message of deterrence and denunciation. Crown calls behaviour an 'embarrassment'
Crown prosecutor Anne-Marie Manoukian called it an "embarrassment for Canadian companies to act in that kind of behaviour.''
"Our Canadian obligations with regards to our treaties and with regards to what is an infraction in Canada, that is not the way that business should be done,'' she said.
The Crown had sought nine years behind bars after a jury convicted Bebawi last month of five charges including fraud, corruption of foreign officials and laundering proceeds of crime.
Crown prosecutor Anne-Marie Manoukian speaks to reporters at the courthouse in Montreal on Friday. She said Bebawi's sentence is "very close" to what the Crown had requested. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
"It is in fact very close to what we asked the court to impose,'' Manoukian said.
"There were very many aggravating circumstances in this case and very few mitigating circumstances, as the judge stated.'' Court to decide fate of proceeds of crime
Bebawi's defence lawyers — who did not address reporters after sentencing — had countered with a suggestion of a six-year prison sentence.
Handcuffed and sitting in the prisoner's box after sentencing, Bebawi motioned reassuringly to family members in the courtroom.
The case returns to the court on Jan. 28 to discuss what to do with the proceeds of crime.
The sentence brings to an end a lengthy, federally led investigation and prosecution of the engineering firm and some of its employees.
In the days following the Bebawi verdict, the Montreal engineering giant also settled criminal charges on its business dealings in Libya, with its construction division pleading guilty to a single count of fraud and agreeing to a $280-million fine to be paid over five years and a three-year probation order.
The resolution brings the company closer to ending a long-standing scandal that tarnished its reputation and ensnared the highest office of the Canadian government in scandal for months.
"It's nice to be able to close the chapter on a case that's been going on since 2011,'' Manoukian said. "To date, all the charges we have laid are all completed.''
NORTH KOREAN HACKERS USE TELEGRAM TO STEAL CRYPTOCURRENCY
UK victims among those targeted in Lazarus Group's cyber-theft campaign Hackers from North Korea have developed a way to steal bitcoin and other cryptocurrency through the messaging app Telegram, according to new research. Cyber security specialists from Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs said the notorious Lazarus Group, a hacking collective with links to North Korea, has come up with "enhanced capabilities" in order to target individuals and organisations around the world. The cyber-theft campaign, referred to as Operation AppleJeus, has been ongoing since at least 2018 and has so far claimed victims in the UK, China, Poland and Russia. The hackers lure in victims by setting up fake cryptocurrency websites, as well as fake trading groups on the Telegram app. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment. Malicious links on the sites and groups then infect the target’s device and give attackers access to user data.
"Since the initial appearance of Operation AppleJeus, we can see that over time the authors have changed their modus operandi considerably," Kaspersky Researchers wrote in a report detailing the attacks. "We assume this kind of attack on cryptocurrency businesses will continue and become more sophisticated." Cryptocurrency has been a consistent target of North Korean hackers in recent years, with experts saying it offers a "financial lifeline" to evade crippling economic sanctions and finance the development of nuclear weapons. "Cryptocurrency exploitation is allowing North Korea to transact with the rest of the world in ways that aim to circumvent sanctions designed to curb its proliferation financing," Kayla Izeman, a research analyst who co-authored a paper on the phenomenon, told The Independent last year. Read more Notorious dark web criminal makes $100k bitcoin price prediction A UN report from 2019 estimated that North Korea has earned up to $2 billion in cryptocurrency by hacking online exchanges and organisations. This far exceeded original estimates by the UN Security Council, which claimed the country had amassed around $670m worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. North Korea has previously denied accusations that it engages in cyber crime, while simultaneously courting cryptocurrency and cyber security experts at conferences held in Pyongyang.
A volunteer tosses a Christmas present, as anti-government protesters distribute clothing to the needy ahead of Christmas, at Martyrs Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 22, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
Volunteers sort donated clothing for the needy in a tent near Martyrs' Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 22, 2019.Maya Alleruzzo,AP
