Do not feed the Trolls

( a poem written after  an encounter with an internet troll)

They simply do not give a damn

especially when on social media

where everything makes them angry

but without the gift of articulation

every time they open their gob

release a torrent of abuse and profanity

do not try not to feed them

or massage their twisted egos

they will just carry on mocking

poking aggressively with idiocy

spreading messages of hate and prejudice

poisonous voices of this new world disorder

who will try to destroy your compassion

your sensitivity and reason 

leave them alone they have no allure

let them to continue making fools of themselves

am sure one day soon they'll get their due.


The above can now also be found here :-

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/do-not-feed-the-trolls-by-dave-rendle/ 

The Pop Group - War Inc.

Download: https://thepopgroup.lnk.to/HoneymoonO...

All proceeds of this single will be donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

http://www.msf.org/

to help with the incredible work they do in war zones throughout the world. In 2015 they provided over a million consultations across war torn regions of Asia and Africa, and also provide nutrition and psychological help to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable, innocent civilians.

The Pop Group set out their stall for 2017 with the release of their single War Inc. from their vital new album Honeymoon On Mars.

War Inc sees The Pop Group formidably mobilized by the heavyweight maximalism of Public Enemy architect Hank Shocklee. Befitting the song’s theme of warfare and the avarice of those who stand to profit from it, the track coalesces around a punishing crossfire of industrial brunt and volatile noise, as driven, explosive and audacious as anything The Pop Group or Shocklee have put their name to. With Mark Stewart’s vociferous loudspeaker tirades and Gareth Sager’s acutely distressed guitar distortions punctuated by a recurrent vocal cut-up that alludes to iconic ragga and 90s Bristolian jungle, the track maintains the band’s capacity for adventurous admixtures of influence, whilst delivering a much-needed message of savage, perceptive fury.

‘This is a warning...’

War Inc. is taken from the ten track album, produced by dub titan Dennis Bovell, who worked on their seminal Y album debut, and Hank Shocklee, producer of Public Enemy’s iconic first three albums as a member of the Bomb Squad. Honeymoon On Mars was released through Freaks R Us on Friday October 28th 2016.

LIVE

Friday 3 February 17 - Belgium Antwerp Het Bos
Saturday 4 February 17 - Belgium Eeklo Muziekclub N9
Sunday 5 February 17 - Germany Frankfurt Das Bett
Tuesday 7 February 17 - Italy Turin Spazio 211
Wednesday 8 February 17 - Italy Ravenna Bronson
Thursday 9 February 17 - Italy Milan Circolo Magnolia
Friday 10 February 17 - Switzerland Bern Dampfzentrale*
(*w. Andrew Weatherall DJ Set)
Wednesday 15 February 17 - UK Cambridge The Portland Arms
Thursday 16 February 17 - UK Brighton Komedia

https://www.thepopgroup.net/

EXPRESS UNITY & STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY

Found above on facebook, this morning, not sure who has organised it but worth supporting. It inspired the following. Cheers.

Everyone is equal

we're all the same inside

I believe in unity 

standing  together with pride  

beyond politicians cruel game

and vicious biting tonques

building bridges not walls

our love they will never contain

with diversity we can join together 

speaking the language of humanity

that does not dwell on our differences

keeps on reaching out, releasing our hopes.


( The above , incidentally first poem of mine released since Jane's passing, 8/1/17

John Hurt ( 22/1/40 - 26/1/17 ) - Speaking out

 RIP to the brilliant, incomparable,Oscar nominated actor  and all round good geezer John Hurt whose career spanned six decades who has passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer aged 77. His vast resume  included works like The Elephant Man, and what is likely the most widely viewed adaptation of George Orwell’s  chilling warning 1984, Alien, The Naked Civil Servant,Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hellboy, Doctor Who, and V for Vendetta, to name just a few.
Here in an earlier clip his voice still resonates as he speaks his mind in support for Amnesty International. His message a simple one: "Stand up for humanity and human rights."
" Human rights are ours by birth. They cannot be given or taken away by any individual,organisation or court ." - John Hurt, man of principle, RIP

Anger over Trump's Muslim ban

Our unelected PM, Theresa May's eagerness to be the first foreign leader  to shake Donald Trump's hand was simply nauseating to look at. Afterwards she refused  to criticise him for his blanket Muslim ban and has invited him to visit the UK..
 "The moment we once again lost a little more moral authority. The hypocrisy of the debate on British values becomes more stark by the day." said Conservative peer Baroness Warsi
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all", he went on to highlight the fact that Britain's greatest Olympian would also be banned from the country. He also called for Donald Trump to be banned from UK visit until Muslim ban is lifted.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-jeremy-corbyn-uk-mp-immigration-policy-theresa-may-response-a7551636.html
Trump on Friday signed an executive order that will curb immigration and the entry of refugees from some Muslim-majority countries, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Syria. He separately said he wanted the US to give priority to Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there. All Refugees are blocked for three months. Syrian refugees are banned permanently..It will also shut down the entire refugee program for 120 days.The administration’s assault on civil liberties explicitly targets the world’s most vulnerable populations — refugees and asylum seekers fleeing devastating wars.
A global backlash against U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration curbs has since gathered strength  as several countries including long-standing American allies criticised the measures as discriminatory and divisive.
The United Nations refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration called on the Trump administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.
"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the two Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement on Saturday.
The order which is nothing short of a Muslim ban by another name, is cruel and callous, and espouses positions contrary to the professed values of the United States, based on bigotry and will certainly produce more problems than it purports to solve. The ban is with immediate effect and has already caused widespread chaos, fear and disruption. Airport authorities in the US have already held passengers for interrogation. There have been reported instances of people boarding flights before the announcement was made being detained on arrival in the US.Deeply upsetting and troubling to all caught up in all of this.Among those also believed to have been affected is Olympic hero Mo Farah, who is a British passport holder but was born in Somalia – one of seven countries to which travel restrictions apply.
Theresa May's bowing and fawning and deferential manner to this xenophobic racist, known for his well documented misogyny and vulgarity and her initial refusal to condemn him for the Muslim ban is simply shameful and shocking. The Presidents actions have horrified the world and this was a moment when she should have showed us what side she's on. But rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united,  May, Trump and their allies are simply dividing the world in a very dangerous way making it a  scary place to exist at the moment.Many have compared May's behaviour to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's during the run up to the Second World War. Anger was seen across social media, with the hashtag TheresaTheAppeaser  trending in the UK, as well as several related hashtags.
It emerged late on Saturday that the restrictions would also apply to people with dual citizenship – including Brits. and May after coming under fierce attack  has since been forced to make a hasty half -hearted U-turn over Trump's ban on refugees from Muslim majority countries, issuing a midnight statement saying she does not agree with the policy..
Emergency protests at major international US airports by anti-racist campaignerss to lift the ban are now in effect.Campaigners holding banners saying “Muslim lives matter” and “We are ALL immigrants” have filled the streets. Tomorrow, more protests are expected. An official petition to ban Trump from visiting the UK on a planned state visit later this year hit 120,000 and counting in just a few hours –  meaning it must be considered for debate by Parliament:-

.https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928

 Protests targeting Trump will now be a big priority for the anti-war and anti-racist movements here in the UK too. An opportunity to oppose the threats to migrants and the anti-Muslim racism in this country, as well as showing solidarity with protests in the US.Anti-Fascist groups have organised several protests against Trump, with one due to be held outside Downing Street Monday evening.  Hopefully the people will not let this stand.

 1941 Dr. Seuss cartoon criticising America's stance on refusing safe haven for Jews. Recognise the t-shirt slogan?

To be hopeful in bad times - Howard Zinn (24/8/1922 - 27/1/ 2010).

Howard Zinn  was a truly remarkable libertarian socialist historian, and passionate activist. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 24th of August, 1922 into a Jewish immigrant family he began his working life as a shipfitter. A strong opponent of fascism  Zinn joined the United Air Force in 1943, and during  the Second World War flew missions throughout Europe. In April 1945 he was involved in the bombing pf German soldiers in Royan, France where napalm was used, the experience of which taught him to hate war itself. When he returned home he put his medals in an envelope and sealed it with the words “never again.”

After his military service he went to college under the GI bill, earning a doctorate in history at Columbia University.  He went on to teaching at Spelman College in Georgia where he was active in the Civil Rights movement. In 1963 he moved to Boston University and became a prominent, outspoken critic of the Vietnam War
He wrote more than twenty books, including his best-selling and influential A People’s History of the United States. a history of America through the perspective of those outside of the political and economic establishment. He was the first historian to write about American history from a perspective of indigenous people, from a perspective of the working class, people who worked in the steel mills, people who worked in the mines, people who worked on the railroads. He told the stories of immigrants, and presented all the rough hands and tortured faces that built the country we know as America. Ordinary people who joined popular struggles for a better society.
In his 2002 autobiography You can't be neutral on a moving Train he wrote the following, reminding me to remain hopeful/ after all hope gets us through the good days and especially the bad ones.Many of us sit in wait of something miraculous  to take place and get so very discouraged when all that keeps flowing are disappointments. At the end of the day it is we who are the avenues of change in our own lives :

" There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment we will continue to see. We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."— Howard Zinn

There was nothing naive or sentimental about Zinn’s positions. He had seen first hand the worst that humanity was capable of, and simply chose to confront it as a challenge rather than accept it as our final destiny. On 27 January 2010, Howard Zinn,  died of a heart attack aged 87 after swimming. A great loss to many, he remains a huge inspiration to me. 
In this excerpt from the 2004 documentary  called Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn describes his experiences as an Air Force bombadier in World War II, which helped inspire his life’s work. The “great question of our time,” he later wrote, is “how to achieve justice with struggle, but without war.”

You can read Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States online. You can also visit the website dedicated to Zinn’s work, offering a great archive of his articles and interviews, bibliography and video and audio material.
As the legendary activist and author discussed in one of his final interviews, he wanted to be remembered for “introducing a different way of thinking about the world,” and as “somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn’t have before.” We need this now more than ever  we can't afford to be "neutral on a moving train."

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Together, we will remember the victims of the Holocaust and genocide.- a time for us all to reflect on the Nazis attempt to wipe out Jews, Gypsies and other  minority groups, Trade Unionists, Communists,  homosexuals, people with mental and physical difficulties, Jehovah Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other slavic peoples, all targeted for destruction and decimation  for racial, ethnic reasons, based on the fascists twisted 'Aryan' concept of a master race.
From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used  persecution, propoganda, and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their foundation, setting out to systematically destroy all opposition.
By the end of the Holocaust historians estimate the total number of deaths to be 11 million, and the Nazis succeeded on an industrial scale in murdering two thirds of European Jews. Men, women, children who had perished in ghettoes and mass shootings, slaughtered in concentration camps and extermination camps on such a horrific scale.
Holocaust Memorial day is now  held today because it marks the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau , the largest of the Nazi Concentration Camps. The United Nations declared it a day for observance in 2005.But it is also used today to mark and remember all subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia  and Darfur etc etc.
Human beings are capable of doing such wicked things, so that is why we should continue to confront the dangers of intolerance, hate, racism and fascism, and defeat the ideas that continue to create so much pain. We must never forget the journeys of all persecuted. support those that face hostility today, and when we say never again, we must mean never again.

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, despite his ardent nationalism. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the following   quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
 
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
 
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
 
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

So continue to remember, defend, and speak out if you can.