Daily Archives: March 23, 2021

The bourgeois of France had always come away with everything. Since the revolution of 1789, they had been the only ones to grow rich in periods of prosperity, while the working class had regularly borne the brunt of crises. But the defeat of Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War offered an opportunity for a change of course. The prospect of a conservative government that would leave social injustices intact, heaping the burden of the war on the least well-off, triggered a new revolution on 18 March.

Adolphe Thiers and his army had little choice but to decamp to Versailles. To secure democratic legitimacy, the insurgents decided to hold free elections at once. On 26 March, an overwhelming majority of Parisians (190,000 votes against 40,000) approved the motivation for the revolt, and 70 of the 85 elected representatives declared their support for the revolution. On 28 March a large number of citizens gathered in the vicinity of the Htel de Ville for festivities celebrating the new assembly, which now officially took the name of the Paris Commune.

Although it would survive for no more than 72 days, it was the most important political event in the history of the nineteenthcentury workers movement, rekindling hope among a population exhausted by months of hardship. Committees and groups sprang up in the popular quarters to lend support to the Commune, and every corner of the metropolis hosted initiatives to express solidarity and to plan the construction of a new world.

One of the most widespread sentiments was a desire to share with others. It was not the impetus of a leader or a handful of charismatic figures that gave life to the Commune; its hallmark was its clearly collective dimension. Women and men came together voluntarily to pursue a common project of liberation. Self-government was not seen as a utopia. Selfemancipation was thought of as the essential task. Two of the first emergency decrees to stem the rampant poverty were a freeze on rent payments and on the selling of items valued below 20 francs in pawn shops.

Nine collegial commissions were also supposed to replace the ministries for war, finance, general security, education, subsistence, labour and trade, foreign relations and public service. On 19 April, three days after further elections to fill 31 seats that became almost immediately vacant, the Commune adopted a Declaration to the French People that contained an absolute guarantee of individual liberty, freedom of conscience and freedom of labour as well as the permanent intervention of citizens in communal affairs.

The conflict between Paris and Versailles, it affirmed, cannot be ended through illusory compromises; the people had a right and obligation to fight and to win! Even more significant than this text were the concrete actions through which the Communards fought for a total transformation of political power. A set of reforms addressed not only the modalities but the very nature of political administration. The Commune provided for the recall of elected representatives and for control over their actions by means of binding mandates (though this was by no means enough to settle the complex issue of political representation).

Magistracies and other public offices were also subject to permanent control and possible recall. The clear aim was to prevent the public sphere from becoming the domain of professional politicians. Policy decisions were not left up to small groups of functionaries, but had to be taken by the people. Armies and police forces would no longer be institutions set apart from the body of society. The separation between state and church was also a sine qua non. But the vision of political change was not confined to such measures: it went more deeply to the roots.

The transfer of power into the hands of the people was needed to drastically reduce bureaucracy. The social sphere should take precedence over the political ~ as Henri de SaintSimon had already maintained ~ so that politics would no longer be a specialised function but become progressively integrated into the activity of civil society. The social body would thus take back functions that had been transferred to the state. To overthrow the existing system of class rule was not sufficient; there had to be an end to class rule as such.

All this would have fulfilled the Communes vision of the republic as a union of free, truly democratic associations promoting the emancipation of all its components. It would have added up to self-government of the producers. The Commune held that social reforms were even more crucial than political change. They were the reason for its existence, the barometer of its loyalty to its founding principles, and the keyelement differentiating it from the previous revolutions. The Commune passed more than one measure with clear class connotations. Deadlines for debt repayments were postponed by three years.

Evictions for non-payment of rent were suspended, and a decree allowed vacant accommodation to be requisitioned for people without a roof over their heads. There were plans to shorten the working day, the widespread practice of imposing specious fines on workers simply as a wage-cutting measure was outlawed on pain of sanctions, and minimum wages were set at a respectable level. As much as possible was done to increase food supplies and to lower prices.

Social assistance of various kinds was extended to weaker sections of the population ~ for example, food banks for abandoned women and children ~ and discussions were held on how to end the discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate children. All the Communards sincerely believed that education was an essential factor for individual emancipation and any serious social and political change. School attendance was to become free and compulsory for girls and boys alike, with religiously inspired instruction giving way to secular teaching along rational, scientific lines. Specially appointed commissions and the pages of the press featured many compelling arguments for investment in female education.

To become a genuine public service, education had to offer equal opportunities to children of both sexes. Moreover, distinctions on grounds of race, nationality, religion or social position should be prohibited. Early practical initiatives accompanied such advances in theory, and in more than one arrondissement thousands of working-class children entered school buildings for the first time and received classroom material free of charge. The Commune also adopted measures of a socialist character. It decreed that workshops abandoned by employers who had fled the city, with guarantees of compensation on their return, should be handed over to cooperative associations of workers.

Theatres and museums ~ open for all without charge ~ were collectivized. The Commune was much more than the actions approved by its legislative assembly. It even aspired to redraw urban space, as demonstrated by the decision todemolish the Vendme Column, considered a monument to barbarism and a reprehensible symbol of war, and to secularize certain places of worship by handing them over for use by the community. There was no place for national discrimination and foreigners enjoyed the same social rights as French people.

Women played an essential role in the critique of the social order. In many cases, they transgressed the norms of bourgeois society and asserted a new identity in opposition to the values of the patriarchal family, moving beyond domestic privacy to engage with the public sphere. The Womens Union was centrally involved in identifying strategic social battles. Women achieved the closure of licensed brothels, won parity for female and male teachers, coined the slogan equal pay for equal work, demanded equal rights within marriage and the recognition of free unions, and promoted exclusively female chambers in labour unions.

When the military situation worsened in mid-May, with the Versaillais at the gates of Paris, women took up arms and formed a battalion of their own. Many would breathe their last on the barricades. The Paris Commune was brutally crushed by the armies of Versailles. During the semaine sanglante, the week of blood-letting between 21 and 28 May, a total of 17,000 to 25,000 citizens were slaughtered. A young Arthur Rimbaud described the French capital as a mournful, almost dead city.

It was the bloodiest massacre in the history of France. The number of prisoners taken was 43,522. One hundred of these received death sentences, following summary trials before courts martial, and another 13,500 were sent to prison or forced labour, or deported to remote areas such as New Caledonia. Passing over the unprecedented violence of the Thiers state, the conservative and liberal press expressed great relief at the restoration of the natural order.

And yet, the insurrection in Paris gave strength to workers struggles and pushed them in more radical directions. Paris had shown that the aim had to be one of building a society radically different from capitalism. The Commune embodied the idea of social-political change and its practical application. It became synonymous with the very concept of revolution, with an ontological experience of the working class.

The Paris Commune changed the consciousness of workers and their collective perception. At a distance of 150 years, its red flag continues to flutter and to remind us that an alternative is always possible.

(The writer is Professor of Sociology, York University, Toronto)

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Two weeks into VICE TV's Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential, and host Conrad Thompson and docuseries creators Evan Husney and Jason Eisener have taken viewers into a deeper dive into their previous looks at the mysteries surrounding the death of "Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez as well as the unanswered questions involving Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon, and "The Montreal Screwjob," the series returns with a new chapter Tuesday night. Re-examining the most explosive episodes from the first two seasons and featuring never-before-seen moments, unanswered questions, and secrets uncovered, this week's spotlight turns to the triumphs, tragedies, and hopeful future on one of professional wrestling's legendary families with a look back at "The Last of the Von Erichs."

Here's a look at the trailer for this week's episode- and don't forget what's still ahead for the remaining five episodes. March 30: "The Killing of Bruiser Brody"; April 6: "The Life and Crimes of New Jack"; April 13: "The Last Ride of the Road Warriors"; April 20: "The Final Days of Owen Hart"; and April 27: "Cocaine & Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story."

Here's a look at the video the producers put together of scanned family images from Kevin Von Erich, set to "Utopia Theme" by Todd Rundgren's Utopia:

Here's a look back at the official trailer and overview for Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential:

Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential: Through deleted scenes, bonus clips, and new interviews, the trio will expand on the stories told in some of the most popular episodes of Dark Side of the Ring, tackling unanswered questions, taking viewers behind-the-scenes of the making of each episode and digging deep with special guests including Tommy Dreamer, The Blue Meanie, Savio Vega, and former WWE referee Mike Chioda. Each episode will explore a major moment from the series, including the Von Erich brothers' tragic deaths, The Montreal Screwjob, conspiracy theories surrounding Gino Hernandez's death, and more.

"We are putting the finishing touches on season three of 'Dark Side of the Ring' and the excitement is building but the fans absolutely demanded more, sooner!" said Morgan Hertzan, Executive Vice President and General Manager, VICE TV. "We wanted 'Dark Side' fans to know we're listening and we've made 'Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential' just for them as a way to thank them for their incredible loyalty to this hit franchise with new, bonus content to tide them over. Evan Husney and Jason Eisner are masters of their craft and 'Dark Side' superfans will get to sit down with them to get the inside track on everything that's remained behind-the-scenesuntil now."

Before the year wrapped, Vice TV announced that two spinoff serieswould join the third season of Dark Side of the Ring in 2021. Produced by Jailbirds producer 44 Blue Productions,Dark Side of the Football will shine a light on stories that live in the shadows of America's favorite sport. It will explore the sometimes-flawed men behind the masks; the coaches, teams, and leagues who control their fates; and the untold story behind bizarre and tragic off-the-field events facts often hidden to shield fans from discovering unsettling truths about the game they love.

Produced by America's Top Dog producer Railsplitter Pictures and Battle of the Blades producer Insight Productions,Dark Side of the '90s will look at the most captivating pop-culture moments, trends, and personalities of the decade through interviews with people who studied the time period. Each episode will dissect the nostalgia, uncovering the surprising dark truths underlying the glitz, the glamour, and the headlines.

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Talentopia, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-Based Remote Talent Company has merged with Impactian, an Extraordinary Talent on Demand platform. EToD platform first started to leverage cutting-edge technologies to provide the innovative 'Talent as a Service' hiring model to enterprises, startups or law firms. Effective immediately, Impactian'sEToD platform will be known as Talentopia. The merger shows Talentopia's growth, position, and most importantly, long-standing commitment to acquiring the best and the brightest talent in the world.

The merger is to run a new hiring and interview platform that companies can utilize to find their talented remote developers and professional writers. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-Based Talentopia will take advantage of the innovative EToD platform's thorough vetting process to further grow an elite talent network of developers and writers. Employers who hired pre-vetted candidates would be sure to get the exact candidate they needed.

The new brand name, Talentopia,and its platform, Talentopia.com, will now focus on bothonline remote developer sphere andskilled legal and technology writers for various application domains. Similar to Impactian, Talentopia will work to gather the top 2% professionals of each field and match them with jobs and independent cases that best match their expertise and interests. Talentopia nowseeks to find hundreds of highly motivated and experienced writers who are interested in the following:

Candidates should be equipped with:

To optimize the recruitment process and identify the top-notch talents and to meet the future trend of remote jobs and gig economy transformation, Talentopia has consistently invested in innovative technologies to accelerate and optimize the recruiting process while retaining strong cloud-based vetting system. Despite the merger, the core value and culture of recruiting top talents will remain intact. Talentopia will continue to operate as a utopia for talents and empower them to grow their professional career.

Before joining Talentopia, interested writers will need to undergo two steps of challenging assessments. If you think you would like to be one ofthe extraordinary talents in the new Talentopia network, please click hereto expedite the screening process by finishing the 60 mins test in advance. For more information on this role, please visit Talentopia's website via the following link https://www.talentopia.com/technical-writer-jobs. Visit https://hire.talentopia.comto apply now!

CONTACT:Talentopia, Inc.Public Relations Department1.617.315.4828[emailprotected] https://www.talentopia.com125 Cambridge Park Drive, Suite 301, Cambridge, MA 02140, United States of America

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A culture is far deeper than politics. Its a national identity encompassing history, education, arts and entertainment, science, health, relationships everything constituting the core values of any country.

Individualism has traditionally been the common denominator anchoring all other aspects of Americas cultural distinctiveness. Valuing sovereignty of the individual makes American culture exceptional; therefore, Cancel Culture warrants attention.

It is understood that cancelling individuals, books, monuments, etc. is a form of banishment because they express something objectionable or offensive. Objectionable or offensive to whom follows, but lets now focus on the culture part. In essence, cancelling someone or something means erasing behavior or beliefs which really means erasing ideas.

Remember Barack Obamas 2008 Obama-Biden-ticket presidential campaign statement, We are five days away from fundamentally transforming [basically changing] the United States of America.

Now, President Bidens continuation of transforming America also includes cancelling ideas. So: America is basically changing into what, and whos doing the transforming and cancelling?

What seems to be a re-imagination of an idyllic Utopia, and the transforming-cancelling is effectuated by the socially agitated and politically aggressive Woke. *

Utopia has meant different idyllic places for different purposes. Sir Thomas Moore first coined the term (as a pun) by taking the Greek ou-topos no place and combining it with eu-topos a good place. So, ironically, Utopia means that in reality a good place is nowhere.

Marx sold communism as a workers Utopia. Hitler sold fascism as Aryan Utopia. Todays power-players are selling socialism as nondiscriminatory, non-merit-oriented, equity-for-all Utopia.

Of course, we know from the Bibles Garden of Eden story that even Adam and Eves idyllic Utopia vanished once their real human nature (free will) was activated by exercising choice (eating the apple) and gaining knowledge (carnal sex and the existential world).

Communism, fascism, and socialism differ in name only. In practice they are identical because they all are collectivist social systems powered by an elite who control the economy, the means of production, and the cultural zeitgeist.

But since outright communism (Russia) and fascism (Germany) failed, the largest socialist organization in the United States the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has to be more inventive in selling their brand of collectivism. The organization is a member of Socialists International which reveals global aspirations, but its name cleverly obscures the presently active but hidden agenda for America.

From the DSAs official website (operative words in bold):

We [Democratic Socialists] are socialists because we share a vision of a humane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships.

Translation: voters put us in power (democratic), but we share a vision to control globalized planning, execution of production, and distribution of goods; we define meaningful; we decide what is healthy and sustainable; we demand preferences for those we decide need equality (we define equality); and we decide who is oppressing whom.

Who now pavesthe way and keeps the socialists in power? The Woke and the implementation of cancelling Americas culture of individualism. Woke activists find or create what can be sold to an ignorant/apathetic/indoctrinated public as racial-social discrimination or injustices while encouraging certain fabricated-into-group-members to become victims and assuring that others of different fabricated-into-group-members are made to feel guilty about the victimization.

Cancelling activists are silencing opposition to the Wokes claims. To facilitate cancelling, Political Correctness is employed to make the task easier by forbidding incorrect freespeech, thus preventing as many independent thinkers as possible from actually saying anything objectionable or offensive on threat of cancelation.

Self-muzzling individuals who swallow the poison pill of Political Correctness (coated with sweet promises of Utopia to cover the venom) make the cancellers job even easier. There has never been nor will there ever be a dictatorship that does not crush dissent one way or another.

Ergo: The real purpose of Cancel Culture is to obliterate the fundamental values of advanced civilization liberty, individualism, and reason. Because of Americas prominence, to accomplish that global goal this countrys entire culture of individualism must be destroyed first, meaning everything from language to eating habits.

Collectivist elites are writing new scripts to old playbooks, directing the current show, and working their prestidigitation behind a curtain that now encircles the globe to surround what has become theater-in-the-round. Here are a few of them:

The first two are the biggest stars in the Democratic Socialist galaxy. Barack Obama A Saul-Alinsky-community-activist-political-heir. His publically acknowledged mentor? Frank Marshall Davis, a card carrying communist. Bernie Sanders I dont mind people calling me a communist.

Joe Bidena self inflated-lecturing-opportunistic front for functional elites like Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. Harris (Americas next president!) is daughter of a Marxist professor, talks the collectivist talk Medicare for all and raised bail for looting rioters.

Buttigieg? An active socialist since a teenager. His Marxist-scholar father? A devotee of Antonio Gramsci who wrote, Karl Marx is for us a master of spiritual and moral life He is the stimulator of mental laziness, the arouser of good energies which slumber and which must wake up for the good fight.** Hows that for Woke?

The true-targeted-non-fabricated victims of all this? American culture and the sovereignty of each individual who inherited it from thinkers who understood human flourishing to be served by individual exercise of free will, rational personal choices, and factual knowledge in this here-on-earth real world instead of an existing-nowhere utopian world peddled by wannabe tyrants.

Americans needing to wake up are not the Woke. They are. . .Who? Look around, near as well as far.

* Must-read companion books: George Orwells 1984 is a brilliant (and chilling) fictional tale of the future endgame for tyrants everywhere. Evan Sayets The Woke Supremacy is a brilliant (and chilling) examination of Americas current real-life fast-step march to reach the endgame of tyranny here and now.

** Il Grido del Popolo, 4 May 1918

Alexandra York is an author and founding president of the American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation (www.art-21.org). She has written for many publications, including Readers Digest and The New York Times. Her latest book is Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks. Read Alexandra Yorks Reports More Here.

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The Real Purpose of 'Cancel Culture' | News Talk WBAP-AM - WBAP News/Talk

Marvel's What If revealed an even darker version of the Age of Apocalypse with its depiction of a world devoid of both Charles Xavier and Magneto.

The original "Age of Apocalypse" storyline was jumpstarted by Legion, the powerful but unstable son of Charles Xavier, venturing into the past on a mission to kill Magneto. Reasoning that doing so would allow his father to create a peaceful utopia uncontested, Legion's efforts instead resulted in the premature death of Xavier -- setting up Magneto to lead a ragtag bunch of freedom fighters against a more aggressive Apocalypse.

But in one reality -- as shown in 2007's What If? X-Men: Age of Apocalypse by Rick Remember, Dave Wilkins, Anthony Washington and Nate Piekos -- things could have gone even worse for the world.

In this reality, the temporal assault Legion attempted resulted in many more deaths than the young mutant intended -- with a mysterious blast of energy resulting in his demise as well as the deaths of both Xavier, Magneto, and scores of civilians. A fully terrified humanity united against mutants, with camps erected and protected by Sentinels to contain the mutant race. With neither Xavier or Magneto around to rally mutants, things turned for the innocent mutants all around the world. While non-mutant heroes became popular and a handful of mutants went into hiding within the Savage Land, Apocayplse bided his time and raised an army in secret.

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Eventually, the villain staged a massive and sudden assault that resulted in the deaths of almost every hero (such as most of the Fantastic Four, who were wiped out after refusing to become Apocayplse's horsemen) while what few survivors were left (such as Namor) were forced to serve under the rule of Apocalypse. Two of the mutants to escape to the Savage Land were Scott Summers and Jean Grey, who got to spend years together raising their son, Nathan. When the forces of Apocalypse finally reached the Savage Land though, Nate's parents were killed in the assault. Nate was only saved by the efforts of their friend, Sauron, who took him to a handful of remaining allies who'd been waiting for Nate, as the now-deceased Doctor Strange believed him to be the one being capable of beating Apocalypse.

Brought to the ruins of New York by Sauron's ally Wolverine, Nate meets the rest of the resistance, known as the Defenders. Led by the new Sorceror Supreme Brother Voodoo, the handful of other remaining heroes -- a Mjolnir wielding Captain America, Brian Braddock clad in an Iron Man suit, a mechanically enhanced Thing, Wolverine, Sauron, Colossus, and Molecule Man -- were the last line of defense against the rule of Apocalypse. Notably, Brother Voodoo refused to allow Nate to try and alter the past in honor of Stephen Strange's final fears about breaking the timeline -- and instead led the group in a massive attack against the ancient villain.

Approaching his fortress and fending off attacks from a horde of symbiote Spider-Men, the battle took a dark turn upon the arrival of Holocaust, resulting in the deaths of Thing, Sauron, and Colossus. The Defenders barely escaped by venturing into Dormamu's realm. But Brother Voodoo was forced to stay behind to cover their exit from the Dark Dimension, and Nathan stole the Eye of Agamotto so it could be further used in battle, dooming Voodoo. The remaining Defenders made quick work of this world's Horsemen -- Namor, Storm, Juggernaut, and Hulk -- at the cost of Brian Braddock's life. Finally confronting Apocayplse, Nathan and Molecule Man were able to destroy the tyrant.

RELATED:What If: How the New Fantastic Four Could've Stayed Together

But Nathan's full plan -- to use Apocayplse's armor and the Eye of Agamotto to venture into the past and save everyone -- results in the demise of the Molecule Man. Captain America was forced to unleash a massive blast of lighting to stop Nathan from becoming "another tyrant" in his efforts to save a broken world. The blast killed Nathan and moved through the now open time portal -- becoming the unstoppable blast of energy that killed Xavier, Magneto, and Legion so many years ago and doomed this world.

In the end, only Wolverine and Captain America survive the battle, setting out afterward to explore the wreckage of the world. This is a reality where everything fell apart for the heroes due in part to the brutal methods they had to embrace to just survive, and Nathan Summers only made things worse in his attempts to fix everything. It's a word so dark, that even Captain America ends up giving in to more grisly solutions to their problems. It's proof that while the original Age of Apocalypsepainted the picture of a horrific world, the alternative could have been even worse.

KEEP READING:Spider-Man: How MJ's Death Would Have Driven Peter Parker Over the Edge

Heroes Reborn Becomes Heroes Return in Marvel's June 2021 Solicitations

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X-Men: What the Age Of Apocalypse Could Have Been Without Xavier OR Magneto - CBR - Comic Book Resources