The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Who knows what the players might do next, as they realize the power
of the attention and admiration they command? They may even make as much
effort to end African American, LatinX, and student voter
suppression that took place in this year's Democratic primaries,
helping to make Joe Biden the Democrats' weak, so-called choice.
(Yes, African American voters turned out heavily for Biden in South
Carolina, and in Michigan, most notably in Detroit, and maybe that was
enough to power Biden’s improbable Lazarus-like resurrection at the polls,
but I doubt it and I’m not the only one. Either way let’s hope the
players will battle voter suppression, which is above all African
American voter suppression, in the primaries as well as the general
election from hereon.)
Over 30,000 people died in the US last month from the COVID-19
pandemic, while corporations carried out mass layoffs amid soaring
unemployment, hunger and poverty.
At the same time, the US stock
market recorded its biggest increase for the month since 1986. All three
major American stock indexes have risen for five consecutive months
since plunging in mid-March. The benchmark S&P 500 index has risen
65 percent, its biggest five-month gain since 1938.
Last month saw
the wealth of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos climb to $200 billion. Tesla
became the world’s biggest car company by share value, as its market
capitalization rose to $465 billion, taking the personal fortune of its
chief executive, Elon Musk, to more than $100 billion. Apple became the
first company in the world with a market capitalization of more than $2
trillion.
Since the Federal Reserve’s bailout of major
corporations in March, Apple’s stock has more than doubled, while
Tesla’s stock has risen more than six-fold.
These figures
underscore the nature of the Wall Street bonanza. It is taking the form
of what has been called a “K-shaped recovery,” in which a group of
corporate giants enjoy massive profits, driven by the run-up in stock
prices, while most of the economy stagnates.
What happens after the election? Are you prepared to fight? Not for a politician, not for a political party -- are you ready to fight for the needs of the American people?
C.I. came up with the idea for this after she found a stamp that prompted an idea for another feature (we hope to do that one next week). That other idea was calling some people out. This one? We're giving credit to people who made a difference. Some of them continue to do so. Some don't. But in the early'00s, these people got us through.
No circumstance can justify someone's disappearance.
Sunday is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. https://bit.ly/2Ql9R45
5:01 PM · Aug 29, 2020
The United Nations Tweeted that yesterday.
Today is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
In previous years, countries like Argentina came to mind (under the
tyrant and criminal Augusto Pinochet) came to mind. Sting wrote and
recorded "They Dance Alone" about the disappeared in Argentina on his
1987 album . . . NOTHING LIKE THE SUN.
The only form of protest they're allowed I've seen their silent faces, they scream so loud If they were to speak these words They'd go missing, too Another woman on the torture table What else can they do? Dancing with the missing They're dancing with the dead They dance with the invisible ones Their anguish is unsaid They're dancing with their fathers Dancing with their sons They're dancing with their husbands They dance alone They dance alone
One day we'll dance on their graves One day we'll sing our freedom One day we'll laugh in our joy And we'll dance One day we'll dance on their graves One day we'll sing our freedom One day we'll laugh in our joy And we'll dance
Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos Danzan con los muertos Danzan con amores invisibles Con silenciosa angistia Danzan con sus padres Con sus hijos Con sus esposos Ellas danzan solas Danzan solas
The
Iraq War, ongoing, is the story of the disappeared. Ethnic cleansing
has taken place (especially carried out by Shi'ite forces from 2006
through 2008). Nouri al-Maliki's government (2006 through 2014)
terrorized the people of Iraq -- everyone was an enemy to Nouri, even
Shi'ites. He had secret torture cells and hidden prisons. Hundreds of
thousands were disappeared in Iraq. This is part of turning Iraq into a
land of widows and children. It's why the median age in Iraq now is
21-years-old. Neighboring Iran? 31.3-years-old. Neighboring Kuwait?
36.8-years-old. Neighboring Turkey? 31.5-years-old. Are you getting
it?
Because some days it seems like no one gives a damn except BRussels Tribunal.
The disappeared include the people of Anbar Province, the people of Mosul, the people throughout Iraq.
The crime of enforced disappearance is rife across the world. We see
new cases almost daily, including the disappearance of defenders of the
environment, who are often indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, the
excruciating pain of old cases is still acute, as the fate of thousands
of disappeared people remains unknown, making the crime a continuous
presence in the lives of the loved ones of the lost.
The United Nations Committee and Working Group on Enforced
Disappearances have identified additional worrying trends, including
reprisals against relatives of the victims and members of civil society,
often in the name of security and counter-terrorism. Enforced
disappearance also has gendered consequences particularly affecting
women and LGBTI persons.
Impunity compounds the suffering and anguish. Under international
human rights law, families and societies have a right to know the truth
about what happened. I call on Member States to fulfil this
responsibility.
With the support of international human rights mechanisms, States
have a duty to strengthen their efforts to prevent enforced
disappearances, to search for victims, and to increase assistance to
victims and their relatives. It is equally critical to pursue credible
and impartial judicial investigations.
On this International Day, let us renew our commitment to end all
enforced disappearances. I call on all States to ratify the Convention
for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances and to
accept the competence of the Committee to examine individual
complaints. This is a first, but crucial step, towards the elimination
of this atrocious crime.
António Guterres
Sadly, the disappeared exist around the world. Our focus is Iraq so that's what we're zooming in on.
Thousands of families of missing still live in ambiguity as they seek answers on the fate of their loved ones who went missing in #Iraq as a result of four decades of conflicts.
We remember them today on the International Day of Disappeared.
Each conflict in #Iraq has resulted in a new generation of disappeared, putting Iraq among the countries with the highest number of #MissingPersons. Families of up to a million people are waiting for answers #DayoftheDisappeared#TheSearchMustGoOn
More than a million absentees in Iraq don't know their fate, for years. families of disappeared are tired of waiting without hope. state of militias has killed , kidnapped, in the name of religion. human rights and United Nations must reveal the fate of these people.
#وينهم
Years passed and the file of the forcibly disappeared in Iraq is still being raised from time to time without any government treatment or disclosure of their fate despite repeated requests from the Sunni and popular political forces from their families, #وينهم
#Iraq: UN report on #EnforcedDisappearances calls for independent/effective investigations to establish the fate of 1,000 civilian men and boys disappeared during military operations against ISIL in #Anbar in 2015-2016 and to hold perpetrators accountable
And the thousands of other men and boys who armed forces disappeared from 2014-2017 in other anti-ISIS operations Iraq: Secret Detention, No Recourse https://youtu.be/6YEq_IAsor0 via
Iraqi military and security forces have disappeared dozens of mostly Sunni Arab males since 2014, including children as young as 9, often in the context of c...
Sadly,
@UNIraq
in its newest report concludes limited progress made re establishing fate of the men, boys missing; holding accountable individuals, including commanders, responsible for enforced disappearances; and respecting the right of victims to justice, truth and reparation.
12:06 PM · Aug 30, 2020
Any
"@" whatever in a Tweet is taken out by me because otherwise some
browsers will show this page with a big, black box covering words. I've
noted before the browsers you can use to avoid that; however, e-mail
still come in complaining about those black squares. For that reason,
we remove any @ that I notice. We also cannot include the Twitter id
because the 'blue check' also creates a black square.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
