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Bank of America reportedly forces employees to embrace woke ideology - Now, that is a serious threat to democracy. Here's why.

Frank Furedi
RT
Sun, 22 Aug 2021 16:58 UTC
BofA building
© Reuters/Mike Blake
Bank of America building in Los Angeles, California
US capitalism is going through an identity crisis, which is symbolised by the Bank of America Corporation's decision to undertake the project of indoctrinating its employees with some of the most grotesque ideals of wokeness.

The Bank of America's radical re-education programme actually exhorts its staff to become "woke at work," writes the City Journal, citing documents it obtained from a whistleblower. In practice, being woke at work means acting in accordance with the doctrine and practices promoted by campus social justice warriors, Black Lives Matter activists, and critical and intersectional ideologues.

The programme of re-educating the staff working at the bank is based on the premise that society is a system of "white supremacy." It reportedly demands that white employees "decolonise" their minds, which is apparently a euphemism for the instruction of 'stop thinking for yourself.' Once employees have subjected themselves to their instructors' demand for mind control, they are ready to accept the instruction that they should "cede power to people of colour."

Comment: What better distraction for what is going on around us than 'self mind control'.

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X

Afghanistan's Massoud says he will not surrender to Taliban UPDATE

Maher Chmaytelli
Reuters
Sun, 22 Aug 2021 11:13 UTC
Massoud
© Reuters/Mohammad Ismail/File photo
Ahmad Massoud interview in Panjshir Province, Afghanistan
The son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was one of the main leaders of Afghanistan's anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, said he will not surrender areas under his control to the Taliban, Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel cited him as saying on Sunday.

Ahmad Massoud called for a comprehensive government to rule the country with the participation of the Taliban, adding that war will be "unavoidable" if the Taliban refuse dialogue, the TV channel said.

Massoud said government forces opposed to the Taliban have rallied from different provinces and gathered in his stronghold, the Panjshir valley.

In a Washington Post opinion piece published on Thursday, he appealed to the West for support.

Comment: Without Western nor Russian help, a refusal to surrender forebodes a swift conclusion to a rebel group bent on defying the Taliban:
The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over, but a bloodbath is on the cards in an isolated valley north of Kabul, after a defiant local warlord and ousted Afghan fighters who fled there rejected a Taliban ultimatum. Lying some 150km (93 miles) north of Kabul, the Panjshir Valley is sealed off by mountains and offers invaders only one way in: through a narrow river gorge. Panjshir is easily defensible, and it's here that warlord Ahmad Massoud has been gathering fighters willing to resist Taliban rule.

The valley's inhabitants are mostly of Tajik ethnicity, while the Taliban are a predominantly Pashtun force. Massoud has rallied these Tajiks under the banner of his National Resistance Front (NRF), a rebranding of the National United Front (Northern Alliance) led by his father, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

For the past week, his son has also welcomed former Afghan officials to his valley redoubt. Ousted vice president Amrullah Saleh and former defense minister Bismillah Mohammadi have taken refuge with the Northern Alliance, along with soldiers of the Afghan National Army and special forces who refused to surrender to the Taliban along with their comrades.

Recent videos on social media show columns of men and vehicles arriving in the valley with Northern Alliance flags, and photos posted by pro-alliance accounts show fighters preparing for combat with drills and maneuvers. Taliban forces are closing in on Panjshir, bringing with them American arms and vehicles looted in the wake of the US withdrawal. Save for some US weapons brought by Afghan National Army troops, the NRF is relying on older stockpiles of Soviet arms.
Taliban commanders have reportedly given Massoud until Sunday evening to surrender, but the warlord is not ready to capitulate, and instead wants to negotiate a "comprehensive government" for Afghanistan in which the Taliban share power, Al-Arabiya reported. Should the militants refuse dialog, war would be "unavoidable," Al-Arabiya quoted him as saying.

Russian ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov described the Panjshir resistance as doomed.
"They have no military prospects. There are not many people there. As far as we know they have 7,000 armed people. And they already have problems with fuel. They tried to fly a helicopter but they have no petrol and no supplies. We can't wave reality aside. [The Taliban] are the de facto authorities. There is no alternative to the Taliban in Afghanistan."
Update 23/8/2021: Meanwhile, Taliban forces recaptured three districts in northern Afghanistan that fell to local militia groups last week:
The districts of Bano, Deh Saleh, Pul e-Hesar in Baghlan province were taken by local militia groups in one of the first signs of armed resistance to the Taliban since their seizure of the capital Kabul on Aug. 15.

Late on Sunday, the Taliban's Alemarah information service said hundreds of fighters were heading towards Panjshir but there has been no immediate confirmation of any fighting.

Zabihullah Mujahid said the Salang Pass, on the main highway running from southern Afghanistan to the north, was open and enemy forces were blockaded in the Panjshir valley. But his statement suggested that there was no fighting for the moment.

"The Islamic Emirate is trying to resolve the problems peacefully," Zabihullah said.


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Footprints

Troops deployed in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City to enforce lockdown amid virus surge


WION
Mon, 23 Aug 2021 02:09 UTC
Police check
© AFP
Police check travel documents of a motorist in Hanoi
Vietnam authorities deployed soldiers on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City on Monday to enforce lockdown amid rise in coronavirus cases in the country. Health officials say the Delta variant has been responsible for the rise in cases with movement restrictions imposed in Ho Chi Minh City last month.

Lockdown measures have become stricter from today with people not allowed to leave homes even as panic buying was witnessed over the weekend at supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City with long queues outside markets.

Soldiers have been put in street corners with checkpoints set up at various points even as additional doctors and nurses were sent to Ho Chi Minh City in an attempt to combat the virus.

Ho Chi Minh City accounts for half of coronavirus cases recording 176,000 infections and 6,670 deaths. The vaccination drive in the country hasn't taken off with just 1.8 per cent people vaccinated in the country so far totalling 744,000 people in a population of 98 million.

Vietnam has so far recorded 323,000 coronavirus infections and 7,540 deaths since the pandemic took hold in the country last year.
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Light Saber

Palestinian factions give Gaza border ultimatum to Israel


MEMO
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 10:26 UTC
Rafah crossing
© Laurent Van der Stockt/Getty Images
Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza in Gaza City
The Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza have given Israel until 21 August to resume the entry of basic commodities to the besieged Gaza Strip to the level that it was before the Israeli offensive in May. The ultimatum has been passed to Israel via Egyptian mediators.

"We will take counter-measures if the Israeli occupation authorities do not reopen the border crossings at the same capacity they were before the 'Sword of Jerusalem' battle," said Issam Daalis, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, on Tuesday evening. During a meeting with senior Hamas members in Gaza, Daalis spoke about the impact of the Israeli siege on the coastal enclave and how the government is coping with it.
"The Israeli siege was tightened after the 'Sword of Jerusalem' battle and affects every aspect of life in Gaza. It is also affecting the workflow of the government. The Palestinian resistance will not tolerate more suffering to be inflicted on the Palestinians. If Israel does not comply with our demands, it will pay the price."
He said that the factions might activate all kinds of resistance, including night disturbances, storming of the borders, and launching incendiary balloons or rockets.


Comment: As 'intimidating' as these approaches are...they really don't have a track record of being that effective.


Comment: There is no price Israel can (or will) pay to rectify decades of death and abuse.

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Bell

American Bar Association poised to mandate diversity training, affirmative action at law schools

Aaron Sibarium
The Washington Free Beacon
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 19:17 UTC
clinton aba
© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the 2013 America Bar Association (ABA) annual meeting on August 12, 2013 in San Francisco, California. The ABA honored Hillary Clinton with its highest honor, the ABA Medal.
The American Bar Association is poised to mandate diversity training and affirmative action at all of its accredited law schools, a move top legal scholars say could jeopardize academic freedom and force schools to violate federal law.

The association, which accredits nearly every law school in the United States, is mulling a plan that would require schools to "provide education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism," including a mandatory ethics course instructing students that they have an obligation to fight "racism in the law." Schools would also be required to "take effective actions" to "diversify" their student bodies — even when doing so risks violating a law that "purports to prohibit consideration of" race or ethnicity.

The proposal has sparked fierce blowback from legal scholars across the country, including 10 Sterling professors at Yale Law School, who called it a "problematic" and "disturbing" attempt to "institutionalize dogma" through the accreditation process. Violating federal law is "not legally defensible conduct for any institution," they wrote in a public comment on the plan in June, nor is it "a legally defensible requirement by an organization certifying law schools."

Those arguments have so far fallen on deaf ears: When the plan was submitted for final review on Aug. 16, it contained all of the provisions to which the Yale professors had objected.
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Pistol

Portland protesters clash in wild shootout after Proud Boys reunion

Patrick Reilly
New York Post
Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:53 UTC
portland proud boys antifa fight
© Getty Images
Members of the Proud Boys fight with far-left counter protesters in Portland, Oregon, on August 22, 2021.
The streets of Portland turned into the Wild West on Sunday night when a man wearing a purple scarf and tan boonie hat crouched over a garbage can and opened fire on a group of demonstrators.

The gunman, identified by Oregon cops as Dennis G. Anderson, also appeared to dodge a volley of gunfire during the dust-up in downtown Portland. The fracas followed a Proud Boys reunion in an abandoned KMart parking lot earlier in the day.

No injuries were reported in the shooting.
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Mr. Potato

John Cleese hits out at 'absurd' political correctness after Fawlty Towers 'cancellation'

Daniel Bird
Express
Mon, 23 Aug 2021 16:44 UTC
john cleese
© PA/BBC
John Cleese has hit out at "absurd" political correctness.
John Cleese has hit out at "woke jokes" as he's set to explore cancel culture in his latest television venture.

Actor John Cleese is set to embark on his latest career move, exploring "wokeness" in a new documentary. It comes just a year after the comedian hit out at UKTV for temporarily removing an episode of Fawlty Towers from streaming services for use of "outdated language".

John, 81, doesn't hold back with his rants and has previously hit out at London with "culturalist" comments.

Comment: See also:

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Sheriff

UK police keep painting cars with rainbows to stamp out anti-LGBTQ bigotry... but critics would prefer 'anti-knife crime' vans


RT
Sun, 22 Aug 2021 23:33 UTC
rainbow police car UK
© Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine
Facing an epidemic of stabbings and other violence, UK police have been criticised for prioritising mean social media comments instead by painting Pride-themed colors on their cars to encourage more reporting of "hate crimes."

The aim of the so-called "hate crime cars" is to inspire more confidence among gay and transgender victims of mean comments that police will have a sympathetic ear. UK police promoted the Pride-themed makeovers in an Instagram post earlier this month, asking followers whether they had seen such cars or knew why they existed.

"Cars are there in the communities on normal policing patrol just to show the community that we want you to come forward," Chief Constable Julie Cooke said. "It is there to try and give confidence to our LGBT+ community, but also to other underrepresented groups."

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

'Extremism': Dutch banks banning accounts linked with lockdown protests & vaccine information


Dutch News
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC
Berlin protests lockdown COVID 2021 AUGUST
© Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP
Demonstrators walk along Bismarckstrasse in Berlin, Sunday Aug. 1, 2021, during a protest against coronavirus restrictions.
Banks have been taking action on accounts linked with groups deemed to be spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccinations, according to an investigation by the NRC.

It claims that at least eight organisations have been put on a watchlist or have had their accounts stopped, including the protest group Viruswaarheid and evangelist Jaap Dieleman.

The measure is seen as part of the banks' duties to combat extremism and 'dangerous' messaging, claims the NRC. The organisations taking action on the subject reportedly include the ING, Triodos Bank, Rabobank and payment platform Mollie.

Comment: The situation is such that, with every piece of data the 'facts' are changing all the time, even politicians and the experimental injection manufacturers give conflicting statistics and advice, and so how can anyone confidently claim to be the arbiter of what is or is not misinformation with regards to the coronavirus and lockdowns?

Although, really, that's giving the situation the benefit of the doubt, because it's clear that what's actually happening is that banks and other institutions, in league with governments, are doing everything they can to tighten the screws on dissenters in order to silence them. This agenda has become blatantly clear by the gradual enforcement of injection IDs which block those who do not suffer the injections from the necessities of life in an attempt to coerce as many as possible into compliance: Also check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: Interview with Rod Dreher: How to Survive the Coming Soft Totalitarianism

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Green Light

First cross-river railway bridge between China and Russia completed


Saudi Gazette
Mon, 23 Aug 2021 12:17 UTC
The new railway bridge connects Nizhneleninskoye in Russia with the border city of Tongjiang in Heilongjiang.
© Xinhua
The new railway bridge connects Nizhneleninskoye in Russia with the border city of Tongjiang in Heilongjiang.
A new bridge that will link Russia and China's railway systems was completed on Aug. 17, 2021, seven years after its much-heralded groundbreaking.

The structure's full name is the China-Russia Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge. It connects Tongjiang, a city in China's far northeastern Heilongjiang province, with Nizhneleninskoye, a town across the border with Russia along the banks of the Amur River.

Heilongjiang province's capital is Harbin, known for its annual snow and ice festival. This means that China's northeast railway network can now be connected with the Russian Siberian Railway.

The bridge is 2,215 meters (7,300 feet) long and has been seven years in the making. Both countries held groundbreaking ceremonies in February 2014. The bridge structure was finished in 2019, and the final piece of track laid on Aug. 17.

The majority of the bridge — 1,886 meters (6,200 feet) — is on the Chinese side.

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