British Empire entered and robbed the richest country/empire in the world, what is now called India. The British and their colonial rule extracted resources on a mass scale, impoverishing the richest country the world had ever know, enriching themselves and promoting racist white elitism and European commerce. The East India Company is much to blame, but the Crown took it over and bears the responsibility for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and theft beyond human comprehension. It did not only steal tangible resources, it stole mathematical ideas, first giving due credit to the original inventors of things like the concept of zero then misappropriating, taking credit, enlarging the reputations of white scholars, denigrating and finally erasing others. Many of the great Islamic/Muslim discoveries in math and architecture were also marginalized, erased, and absorbed into British and white European lore. Whites did it all. India, Africa, and the New World contributed nothing.
Hey, can I be the next pope? - Get real, Don. - C'mon, Jorgie, who cares? Can I be Antipope?
(CBS News) April 26, 2025: Who will be the next pope? Here's a look at some of the top possible papal candidates as the cardinals prepare for the papal conclave (Latin for "with key," i.e., "behind locked doors"), which will take place in early May, likely after Cinco de Mayo. They promise to start on May 7, 2025.
Hungary is a landlocked Central European country not far from Italy (ancient Rome). Spanning much of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west.
Hungary lies within the drainage basin of the Danube River and is dominated by great lowland plains. It has a population of 9.6 million, consisting mostly of ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority.
Hungarian is the official language; it is among the few in Europe that lies outside the Indo-European family of languages [13].
Budapest is the country's capital and its largest city, the dominant cultural and economic center [14, 15]. Prior to the foundation of the Hungarian state, various peoples settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, including the Romans, Celts, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars, and Slavs.
Hungarian statehood is traced to the Principality of Hungary, which was established in the late 9th century by Álmos and his son Árpád through the conquest of the Carpathian Basin [16, 17].
King Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000 and forcibly converted his realm into a Christian kingdom.
The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was a European power, reaching its height in the Late Middle Ages [18]. MoreCould anyone from modern Hungary be reasonably referred to as a "Roman"? If so and such a person bore the name "Peter," that would make that man "Peter the Roman" for predictive purposes, making Saint Malachy close enough in his ancient prediction.
The funniest thing about the upcoming papal conclave is the FACT that anyone can be installed as pope. One only has to have been confirmed as a Catholic after First Communion, which doesn't actually mean one has to be a Catholic, just in official records. One could be confirmed now, before beginning. One could be the most popular kind of Catholic: Lapsed. Unlapse or say you're back. Oh, yeah, though -- most Catholics don't qualify. Boys only. It's an Old Boys' Club. It's the original corporation, all top-down hierarchy and a strict Patriarchy. Even though it can be anyone, the cardinals always pick a fellow cardinal. Go figure.
Prophecy of the Popes: Petrus Romanus (aka a dark skinned "Peter the Roman"?) Says who? Says Irish Catholic Saint Malachy: Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus (the "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs")
Never mind the Virgin Mary. Like the name of a ship, most of which are by convention named after females, she's just for show. Anyway, it has already been decided, and this conclave business is all for show. Heard about the smoke? The color of it will tell if it's black or white. Isn't that a lovely imperial Roman custom? Who knew the Holy (See)Roman Empire (religious arm), as part of the Ring of Power and the Empire of the City, still ruled the world alongside Washington DC (military arm) and London's high-street (financial arm)?
CBS News 24/7 is the self-aggrandizing anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations that is available free to everyone with access to the internet and is the destination for breaking news, live events, original reporting and storytelling, and programs from CBS News and Stations' top anchors and correspondents working locally, nationally, and around the plane of the earth. It is available on more than 30 platforms across mobile, desktop, and connected TVs for free, as well as CBSNews.com and Paramount+ and live in 91 countries.
Brian Eno, "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" (2004 digital remaster); Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; The Jimmy Dore Show; NBC News; KGW 8; CNN
LYRICS: When I got back home/ I found a message on the door/ Sweet Regina's gone to China cross-legged on the floor/ Of a burning [Boeing] jet that's smoothly flying/ Burning airlines give you so much more// How does she intend to live when she's in far Cathay?/ I somehow can't imagine her just planting rice all day/ Maybe she will do a bit of spying/ With micro-cameras hidden in her hair// I guess Regina's on the plane, a Newsweek on her knees/ While miles below her the curlews call from strangely stunted trees/ The painted sage sits just as though he's flying/ Regina's jet disturbs his wispy beard// When you reach Kyoto send a postcard if you can/ And please convey my fond regards to Chih-Hao's girl Yu-Lan/ I heard a rumour they were getting married/ But someone left the papers in Japan// Left them in Japan, left them in Japan/ Left them in Japan, left them in Japan/ Left them in Japan, left them in Japan/ Left them in Japan
Boeing cargo plane forced to make emergency landing after fire and "engine malfunction"
(NBC News) Jan. 19, 2024: An Atlas Air cargo flight caught on fire mid-air not long after takeoff and was forced to return to the Miami airport. All five people on board were uninjured. NBC News' Stephanie Gosk reports the FAA and NTSB are investigating. #EmergencyLanding#Boeing#Fire
Boeing's quality management failure explained 737-Max-9 door Jan. 24, 2024
Will Jailbird Trump make Xmas great again or be in arranging his affairs and on his way to jail?
“Biden is a war criminal!” Pro-Palestinian demonstrators demand ceasefire, end of illegal occupation
(Status Coup News) Dec. 3, 2023: On Dec. 1st, protesters flooded the streets in NYC, demanding a ceasefire and a Free Palestine. Following Israel ending the "pause," they have immediately begun bombing Gaza's civilian population, most of them women and children, and American peace activists have had enough.
This book is a denunciation of the American credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own "progressive heroism."
Professional Managerial Class (PMC) elite workers labor in a sphere of performative identity and virtue signaling, publicizing an ability to do ordinary things in fundamentally superior ways.
Author Catherine Liu shows how the PMC stands in the way of social justice and economic redistribution by promoting meritocracy, philanthropy, and other self-serving operations to abet an individualist path to a better world.
Virtue Hoarders is an unapologetically polemical call to reject making a virtue out of taste and consumption habits.
"Forerunners: Ideas First" is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
Having the power to kill Arabs in the Israeli Army (IDF) is intoxicating and it ruined our lives.
.
Israeli female soldiers give shocking testimonies about the Israeli Army
(wocomoHUMANITY) March 1, 2023: ISRAEL - This is a personal account of female soldiers about their life in the Israeli Army, the only military in the world to forcibly draw females for mandatory military service.
It is a female point of view on the drama of an unending war, on the moral challenges they faced at the killing and extermination of the Palestinian population.
It's cool to shoot fish in a barrel after we bomb them!
Questions that were not dealt with during their deadly deployments are raised afterwards with great pain and courage. The young women look back critically at the way they handled the immense power that was placed in their hands at the young age of 18.
Did they really smile in the pictures?
In 1988 the filmmaker herself was a militant in the IDF (the euphemistic Israeli Defense Force of its Department of War) in the land where Palestinians are concentrated and killed, called the Occupied Territories.
"How could I ever think I'd forget?" is what one of the young killers asks herself at the end of this film.
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Their names are Meytal, Rotem, Inbar, Dana, Tal, Libi, and they have one thing in common, having served the Israeli Defense Forces.
I can't believe my eyes. I'd better get my gun.
In Israel, national military service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18, male and female.
Through the different stories of these women, the documentary raises the question of the place of women in the army, a world historically of men, but also and more broadly the question of a group militarily oppressing another. What can humans resort to to assert themselves and deprive others of land?
These young women at 18 years old discover a world completely different from their daily life in the ultra-secure police state they have helped build that is Israel.
First of all, entering the military instinctively leads them to erase their femininity and copy the behavior of testosterone-poisoned males.
Furthermore, joining the army also leads them to participate in a group terror, collective punishment and other war crimes according to international law, torture, maiming, and murder, based on their wanting to belong to Israel.
Some of them will commit atrocities during this endless "conflict" with Palestine, which they would certainly never have thought of being able to perpetrate.
Am I being used as propaganda for the IDF?
In fact, for some of them, the pride of "serving" their side and doing "good" will soon give way to a feeling of disillusionment, PTSD, and anxious fear when faced with the reality of the horrors of war.
With impressive candor they talk about what they saw and what they did, the way they tried to make sense of this "other world," and how they tried to reconcile their experiences with the self they were familiar with when not wearing an army uniform.
This documentary does not seek to excuse or justify their atrocities or the criminal acts they committed in the West Bank (one of two Palestinian concentration camps) during this period since the first Palestinian Uprising.
To See if I’m Smiling powerfully explores the way gender, ethics, personal power, and moral irresponsibility interact in times of war.
It’s a rare tapestry of women’s testimonies that leaves us to ponder some of the most burning questions of our times.
It is not only a story about women in the Israeli Army and the Israeli-Palestinian turmoil they contributed to, but a universal story about war and its atrocities and what it does to people.
(Picturehouse) Shakespeare Live! From the RSC Official Cinema Trailer
Shakespeare Live! From The RSC is a unique two-hour event marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death.
Hosted
by David Tennant on Shakespeare’s birthday, and screened live from
Stratford-upon-Avon, this star-studded show celebrates Shakespeare’s
plays and their enduring influence on music, dance, opera, musical
theatre, and comedy.
RSC Artistic Director, Gregory Doran, is
assembling a once-in-a-lifetime cast that includes:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Dame Judi Dench
Helen Mirren
Sir Ian
McKellen
John Lithgow
Rufus Wainwright
Joseph Fiennes
Henry Goodman
David Suchet
Meera Syal
Sanjeev Bhaskar
Al Murray
Alison Moyet
Noma Dumezweni
Ian Bostridge
Tim
Minchin
Paapa Essiedu
Pippa Nixon
Alexandra Gilbreath
Akala (Hip Hop
Shakespeare)
The Royal Ballet
English National Opera (ENO)
The
Orchestra of the Swan and
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Twelfth Night and many other great plays!
to perform in a
unique tribute to the genius and influence of the world’s greatest
playwright and storyteller [who used the pen name "Shakespeare," a real life actor who could not write, but in reality was the 17th Earl of Oxford Edward De Vere].
From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in
Stratford-Upon-Avon, hosts David Tennant and Catherine Tate are joined
by a host of stars for this once-in-a-lifetime event. This unmissable
show the features many performances along with The Royal Ballet and the
English National Opera. Together, they mark the life and
work of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the his
death. This unique event celebrates the Bard’s extraordinary legacy
and his enduring influence on all performance art forms – from opera to jazz, dance to musical and is quite simply a must-see.
It will premiere on July 13th at four Laemmle's theaters: Claremont 5,
Monica Film Center, Playhouse 7 Pasadena, and Town Center 5. More
Not much good can be said for imperialism*, but it can lead to cosmopolitan art -- a combining of cultures at the crossroads of capitals.
It is not just Washington D.C., New York, or Los Angeles, but there were many capitals that dragged booty from imperial conquests to pile up and show the world how profitable war can be when corporations join governments to produce "fascism," the marriage of business and military power.
*What is imperialism? It's a national policy or practice of increasing power an wealth by forcibly taking control of other countries, usually a rich nation getting richer by enslaving and impoverishing people in poorer countries.
(David Wilcox/LBB) Long Beach Ballet's "The Nutcracker" 2013 production at the Terrace Theater, Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center.
What makes this ballet so popular? It feeds little girls' heads full of fairytales, pagan-Christmas (the empire's new child-friendly Saturnalia revelries) and keeps the sexist assumptions about gender alive and well. The men go off to war, the women stay at home to tend the family and protect the family's store of booty, and all serve a king (or czar) without question. Imperial conquests lead to riches and eventual downfall.
The housing in space ("heaven") is full of mansions, palaces, castles (Sanskrit vimanas) like this Theravada Buddhist temple in Thailand (Dawson_christopher/flickr.com).
I used to believe in fairytales (z3.ifrm.com).
It all began with...then came the ancient Greeks, the Romans (of Italy), the Vikings, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Russians, Germans, finally spreading from Europe to Europeans landing in America to create their most successful colony/colonizer.
Meanwhile, the Japanese and the Chinese before them (and even the Tibetans conquering the Himalayan region from Mongolia to Bangladesh) had their turns. The infected-mentality continues, an China is far from finished.
But long ago, in space, it began with this satellite civilization, this out-of-the-way colony that became important for its strange earthling life forms. We remember in mythology and celebrate it in the form of "Star Wars," "Star Trek," and futuristic tales repeating age-old archetypal storylines that "feel" right.
The Making of the Nutcracker (Gary St. Martin) The documentary follows City Ballet of San Diego, now in its 17th season, for its annual Nutcracker performance from Day 1 of rehearsal through ten performances at Spreckles Theatre. The company is directed by Steven and Elizabeth Wistrich, former dancers with the Boston Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet. Filmed in five locations.
Other empires fall away, but this one is still rising. And every night (use military-grade night-vision goggles to see for yourself) various species and races, varieties and cultures vie to protect what's going on down here. Strange but true, just ask John Lear, Stewart Swerdlow, Andrew Basiago, Al Bielek, or most of the guests who pass through the radio studios of Coast to Coast.
According to Buddhist legend, the "demon" Mara (the personification of Death) tried unsuccessfully to seduce and dissuade Siddhartha from becoming the Buddha (Enlightened One).
So he continues to audaciously entice and distract humans from their own spiritual quest with worldly pleasures, keeping them from finding true inner freedom and the "Deathless" (nirvana).
Mara attacks Siddhartha under Bodhi tree
That demon’s demon is the focus of bharata natyam choreographer Mythili Prakash and the dancers of Shakti Dance Company and in their newest recital, Mara.
For this world premiere, composer/musician Aditya Prakash provides a score that draws on classical Indian music, brass band jazz, and funk played live by his Aditya Prakash Ensemble.
Video wizard Kate Johnson and lighting magician Eileen Cooley are part of the team creating a world that blends contemporary western theatre elements with South Asia storytelling, dance, and music. (Price: $20-$50)
He was born in Cleveland, USA, to Indian immigrant parents.
They
came from different castes (part brahmin) and raised him to ignore the proscriptions
of the caste system. He talks with The World’s Marco Werman about how caste came into being and how India is gradually shaking free of it.
Wisdom Quarterly Giridharadas sticks to a humanistic theory, an almost evolutionary explanation that all human societies go through.
Sticking to these terms and modern assumptions, he carefully avoids mentioning what all brahmins know:
There was a strong alien or extraterrestrial influence or at least a cynical alien justification for the entire system of inequality.
According to the ancient Vedas -- India's sacred texts derived from the far more ancient Indus River
Valley Civilizations the caste system was dictated from above. It was instituted by
extraterrestrial invaders, whether one imagines them to have been maleficent conquerors or beneficent creators.
Judeo-Christian
apologists have interpreted this hierarchical order as "divinely ordained" or decreed -- just as India's "warrior
caste" (kshtriyas), which the Buddha completely renounced, claims the divine right of rule in the East and West.
Contrary to the brahmins (brahmanas), who were fond of retaining their "elite" status as priests and sometimes even as recluses (shramanas).
Although the brahmins may claim otherwise, India did not always consider them to be at the top of the social hierarchy.
In some parts, particularly the northwest, the warriors (the nobility, the kings, the ruling clans) considered themselves supreme. Brahmins were considered their royal ministers, advisers, chaplains, scholars, and educators. Even then, in a sense, the brahmins ruled in a backhanded way:
They manipulated titular "rulers" the way permanent civil servants orchestrate what presidents and prime ministers, kings and queens, and other heads of state say, plan, and actually accomplish and put into effect.
Karma
The Buddha disavowed the traditional caste system determined by birth. Instead, he promoted the position that personal responsibility and actions (karma) in this life are what really lead one to be a "brahmin" or an "outcast." We are not born meriting privilege and deference, mere outcomes of actions from past lives, we earn it in this life.
Of course, it is not only our karma now that conditions our circumstances and beauty, wealth, talents, longevity, wealth, and success. But it is more important what we do now -- how choose to respond to our circumstances -- than simply what we have inherited from the fruition of our past actions and habits.
WARNING: The "legs" are stools, the photo a joke (catherinemeyersartist.blogspot.com); unfortunately, the man above is not kidding about anything (nocaptionneeded.com).
Vatican attempts to silence group of liberal thinking US nuns First they came for the priests, then the "feminists." The Vatican's ongoing international crackdown on liberal-minded priests has opened up a new front: nuns.
This week it was revealed that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been secretly investigating the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States.
It appears that Pope Benedict, who once led the Vatican's powerful doctrinal office, has lost none of his enthusiasm for the job. Once derisively nicknamed "God's Rottweiler" for his tendency to confront any liberalizing tendency within the church or its theology, his election has been greeted by conservatives in the church as "the end of the progressive project."
Monty Python: Did anyone say, "The Spanish Inquisition"?
On Wednesday the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal William Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco, announced that a secret investigation into the nuns group had found "serious doctrinal problems."
The Vatican claimed that members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had challenged church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, and had promoted what they called "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
According to a report in The New York Times the nuns were also strongly reprimanded for making statements that "disagree with or challenge the bishops... More
Are Buddhist nuns any better off? Seven and Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY) Women suffer everywhere, including the abbey. While it's better in some Buddhist schools than in most other religions, it is far from equal. The future of the Dharma is a return to the original equality the supremely Enlightened One established.
This Dharma would not be complete until four groups of people were established -- lay men, lay women, monks, and nuns.
Nuns exist in the Mahayana (Chinese) tradition, valiant Western women ordain in the Vajrayana (Tibetan), and progressive women have revived the oldest living tradition, Theravada (SE Asia).
The Bhikkhuni Sangha (Nuns' Order) is growing thanks to the early efforts of Ayya Khema and the modern efforts of Ayya Tathaaloka, two Western pioneers. But countless women need to be thanked.
One that comes to mind is in Thailand, Maechi Wadi, who at great personal risk insisted on gaining full ordination. The world for the past 26 centuries has not been without ten precept nuns, which are technically novices (samaneris).
Now the world has fully ordained nuns (bhikkhunis) again -- with the added benefit that they are NOT SUBJECT TO A PATRIARCHY, apart the one operating in general society. And the internal colonization. But other than that, there is is no established corporate body like the Vatican ordering Buddhist nuns around.
The eight additional rules (garudhammas) utterly subordinating nuns, now that's the question.
Can it be shown with certainty that they are later additions, as Ayya Tathaaloka has asserted and other nuns with knowledge of the nuns' texts have agreed? What will scholar-monks say in the face of the evidence?
Neither American Bhikkhu Bodhi, British Ajahn Brahm, Sri Lankan Bhante G, nor Czech Ven. Dhammadipa have yet countered the nuns' liberating assertions. And they are four of the wisest monks we know.
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Shakespeare Live! From The RSC is a unique two-hour event marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. 
Benedict Cumberbatch 
What makes this ballet so popular? It feeds little girls' heads full of fairytales, pagan-Christmas (the empire's new child-friendly Saturnalia revelries) and keeps the sexist assumptions about gender alive and well. The men go off to war, the women stay at home to tend the family and protect the family's store of booty, and all serve a king (or czar) without question. Imperial conquests lead to riches and eventual downfall.
Giridharadas sticks to a humanistic theory, an almost evolutionary explanation that all human societies go through.
Judeo-Christian
apologists have interpreted this hierarchical order as "divinely ordained" or decreed -- just as India's "warrior
caste" (kshtriyas), which the Buddha completely renounced, claims the divine right of rule in the East and West.
WARNING: The "legs" are stools, the photo a joke (catherinemeyersartist.blogspot.com); unfortunately, the man above is not kidding about anything (nocaptionneeded.com).
The Vatican's ongoing international crackdown on liberal-minded priests has opened up a new front: nuns.
Women suffer everywhere, including the abbey. While it's better in some Buddhist schools than in most other religions, it is far from equal. The future of the Dharma is a return to the original equality the supremely Enlightened One established.
This Dharma would not be complete until four groups of people were established -- lay men, lay women, monks, and nuns.
One that comes to mind is in Thailand, Maechi Wadi, who at great personal risk insisted on gaining full ordination. The world for the past 26 centuries has not been without ten precept nuns, which are technically novices (samaneris).
Can it be shown with certainty that they are later additions, as Ayya Tathaaloka has asserted and other nuns with knowledge of the nuns' texts have agreed? What will scholar-monks say in the face of the evidence?
