I was reading that book and became distracted by The Age of Surveillance
Capitalism. Amy Goodman had the author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism on
her show recently. Well, it's a very difficult book to read, but it is also
quite horrifying. It describes the business models of Google, Facebook, and
now, Amazon which has developed Alexa. Every app, every search, every
assistance of Alexa's, are fashioned to gather incredible amounts of
information about the users of the products like the searches or the phones,
the ones Google developed, or the Google Glass or whatever, and then sell the
data to customers, who are other corporations. The idea is to commodify the
whole environment so that the users motivations and behaviors can be
controlled. That's the reason for Google Maps and Google Streets, and their
attempt to digitize all written material. Everyone is seduced by the assistance
that seems to be offered. Do you know how many blind people have these Amazon
Echoes installed in their homes because Alexa performs all sorts of tasks like
turning on their audio books for them. And they believe the company propaganda
that the Echo is asleep until you wake it up. But it isn't. it records and
stores everything.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2019 4:06 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: What Russia Rightfully Remembers, America Forgets
Wise words...which are far more than we['d hear from our 20 hopefuls.
The review sounds interesting. I'll put it on my Wish List. At the moment I'm
reading a history, These Truths, that runs some 29 hours.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/27/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have no intention of listening to the debates, not any of them. As
for these first two, this is just a show put on by the NDC to pretend
that there is going to be a contest for the nomination. In the end,
listening to politicians' talking points is like listening to TV
commercials and I never did that back in the days when I watched TV.
But all I need to do in oder to know what's happening, is to listen to
my favorite podcasts and read a few articles, and that's more than enough.
But reading this article that I posted, reminds me of a novel I just
finished called, Paris Echoes. I'll paste my review of it below so
you'll know what I mean.
Paris echo: a novel DB93405
Faulks, Sebastian. Reading time: 9 hours, 11 minutes.
Read by Deborah McBride.
Human Relations
Psychological Fiction
American historian Hannah is working in Paris, researching the lives
of women during World War II. When she encounters Moroccan teenager
Tariq, she takes him in as a lodger. The bond they form and a surprise
in her research have her reassessing her life. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
2018.
Paris, in the present, haunted by ghosts of its past, is the focus of
this story. When we hear the word, "Paris", we think of a glamorous
city the center of fashion, or we think of the gathering place of
artists. We envision the Seine, the Louvre, or the wonderful
restaurants. And because of all the World War 2 propaganda we've been
fed in movies and novels, we see the French as our great allies,
fighting against the Nazis to make the world free for Democracy. But
then there's reality, glimpses of which, appear in the book. During
most of the war, the French government was allied with Hitler. Jews
were rounded up and held in a mass imprisonment, then sent to
concentration camps in Germany. French women fraternized with German
soldiers. A minority of French people joined the resistance. Anbd then
there were the years that followed: the French treatment of Algerians,
and finally, the response to the present day migrants from the Middle East.
But the book isn't a history book, nor is it a lecture in the form of a novel.
It's the story of how two people, Hannah, an American historian, and
Tariq, a young man who has rebelled against his father by running away
to Paris to feel independent, encounter whisps of the past and present in
their lives.
Past and present comingle, sometimes, in a confusing way, but it's
worthwhile reading.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2019 2:21 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: What Russia Rightfully Remembers,
America Forgets
Here's a good example of why I skipped the first Democratic debate,
and may skip tonight's, too. Wasn't it Jesus who said, "By their BS
Ye shall know them"?
And by the way, the only mention I heard regarding Jay Inslee was on
this morning's Democracy Now. I'm betting that he will be out of the
race by this Fall.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/27/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What Russia Rightfully Remembers, America Forgets Scott Ritter
What Russia Rightfully Remembers, America Forgets From left, first
lady Melania Trump, President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron
and first lady Brigitte Macron during a ceremony to commemorate the
75th anniversary of D-Day. (Alex Brandon / AP)
On June 6, President Trump commemorated the 75th Anniversary of
Operation Overlord, popularly known as D-Day, when approximately
160,000 U.S., British, Canadian and Free French soldiers landed in
and around the beaches of Normandy, France. Speaking at the Normandy
American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, where the
remains of 9,388 American fighting men, most of whom perished on
D-Day, are interned, Trump promoted the mythology of American
omniscience that was born on the beaches of Normandy. "These men ran
through the fires of hell, moved by a force no weapon could destroy,"
Trump declared. "The fierce patriotism of a free, proud and sovereign
people. They battled not for control and domination, but for liberty,
democracy and self-rule. Those who fought here won a future for our
nation.
They won the survival of our civilization."
For Americans, D-Day stands out among all others when it comes to
celebrating the Second World War. Immortalized in books, a movie
starring John Wayne, and in the HBO series titled "Band of Brothers,"
the landings at Normandy represent to most Americans the turning
point in the war against Hitler's Germany, the moment when the
American Army (together with the British, Canadian and Free French)
established a foothold in occupied France that eventually led to the
defeat of Germany's army.
What Trump overlooked in his presentation was the reality that the
liberation of Europe began long before the D-Day landings. And the
burden had almost exclusively been born by the Soviets.
In his defense, Trump is not alone in promoting an America-centric
version of history; his speech was simply the latest in a series of
historically flawed remarks delivered by a succession of American
presidents ever since they began giving speeches at Normandy in
commemoration of D-Day.
President
George W. Bush's address on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day
landings was typical of the genre, maximizing American glory while
ignoring that of the Soviets. "Americans wanted to fight and win and
go home," Bush said. "And our GIs had a saying: 'The only way home is
through Berlin.' That road to VE-Day was hard and long and traveled
by weary and valiant men. And history will always record where that
road began. It began here, with the first footprints on the beaches
of Normandy."
But Bush was wrong; the road to Berlin had its origins at the
approaches to Moscow, where the Soviet army turned back German
invaders in December 1941.
It was paved at Stalingrad in 1942 with the blood and flesh of
500,000 dead Soviet soldiers, who had killed more than 850,000 Nazi
soldiers and their allies; and it was furthered in the bloody fields
of Kursk, in 1943, where at the cost of more than 250,000 dead and
6,000 tanks destroyed, the Soviet army defeated the last major German
offensive on the Eastern front, killing
110,000 Germans and destroying more than 1,200 irreplaceable tanks
(the total number of U.S. and British tanks lost in Europe from D-Day
until VE-Day numbered around 11,500; the total number of tanks lost
by the Soviet Union while fighting Germany was more than 85,000,
while the Russians destroyed more than 40,000 German tanks from June
1941 to November 1944).
By
the time the U.S., British, Canadian and Free French forces came
ashore at Normandy, the Germans had already lost the war.
That didn't mean there wasn't some serious fighting left to do. "The
Nazis still had about 50 divisions," Bush noted, "and more than
800,000 soldiers in France alone. D-Day plus one, and D-Day plus two
and many months of fierce fighting lay ahead, from Arnhem to Hurtgen
Forest to the Bulge."
The road to Berlin described by Bush was one where the Soviets simply
did not factor into the equation. "The nations that liberated a
conquered Europe would stand together for the freedom of all of
Europe," Bush said. "The nations that battled across the continent
would become trusted partners in the cause of peace. And our great
alliance of freedom is strong, and it is still needed today." The
"trusted partners" Bush referred to was NATO, and the "cause of
peace" contained first the Soviet Union, and later Russia.
