Загрузка видео...
Не удалось загрузить видео
Orchid quartet Orchid Quartet performing Path to Rivals at the Scoring Marvel Music Panel. Video by Adam Warlock himself Jordan Reynolds Danny Koo - 黑帮火锅 - #MarvelRivals
119,027 просмотров • 1 год назад •via X (Twitter)
Комментарии: 0
Нет доступных комментариев
Здесь появятся комментарии из оригинального поста
![repost from @thelegendsofmusic Audioslave performing “Cochise” Live at the 2003 Pinkpop Festival “Cochise” was partially inspired by the Apache chief of the same name who was born in 1812. While the lyrics don’t really have anything to do with him, the music was given that title based on the vibe. Guitarist Tom Morello has gone on the record stating that he came up with the title based on the vibe of the music - was reading about Cochise at the time. In an interview, Tom had this to say about the song: “Cochise was the last great American Indian chief to die free and absolutely unconquered. When several members of his family were captured, tortured, and hung by the US Cavalry, Cochise declared war on the entire Southwest and went on an unholy rampage, a warpath to end all warpaths. He and his warriors drove out thousands of settlers. Cochise the Avenger, fearless and resolute, attacked everything in his path with an unbridled fury. This song kinda sounds like that.” However, the lyrics to the track were written about someone who seems to be wasting their life away, warning that he/she needs to save himself. Lyricist, Chris Cornell did have someone specific in mind when he wrote it. He said the song is, “Me yelling at me, looking in the mirror.” #Music #RockNRoll #Audioslave #ChrisCornell #TomMorello #TimCommerford #BradWilk iiii]; )'](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1863848358789492895/ext_tw_video_thumb/1863848319094513664/pu/img/Gmq1scsCoTDS19SX.jpg)
![Jim Jordan, Silence, and the Ritual of Control Wrestling rooms. Masonic slips. AIPAC strings. Jim Jordan wasn’t chosen to fight the system. He was processed to protect it. They paint him as a warrior. A patriot. A populist pit bull. But behind the rolled-up sleeves and scripted outrage is a man who passed his test the way all useful actors do: With silence. Because in the Beast System, the path to power always begins with ritual. And Jim Jordan passed his. The Abuse He Watched From 1987 to 1995, Jim Jordan served as assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. During that time, Dr. Richard Strauss sexually abused at least 177 young men—most while Jordan was on staff. And everyone knew. “It was common knowledge,” former wrestlers told NBC. “Strauss showered with us. He groped us during exams. Everyone knew—including Jordan.” One athlete described: “I had a thumb injury… went into Strauss’ office… and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts.” Jordan didn’t speak up. He didn’t intervene. He didn’t protect them. What he did do, years later, was call one of the whistleblowers—crying, groveling, and begging him to lie: “He’s throwing us all under the bus. He’s a coward.” —Adam DiSabato, public testimony But cowardice isn’t the right word. Obedience is. In every ritualized power structure—Freemasonry, cartels, Hollywood, politics—the initiation is the same: Will you stay silent while innocence is destroyed in front of you? Silence isn’t a failure—it’s a future. It proves loyalty. It makes you useful. And once proven, the doors open. [I recommend reading article on my Substack for full experience, link below] The Masonic Nod In 2013, Jordan stood before Congress to honor the late Judge John F. Kuffner. After listing his military service, Jordan dropped this: “He received Mason of the Year honors in 2008 and was a 50-year member of Mercer Lodge No. 121…” —Congressional Record, Vol. 159, Pt. 11, p. 16554 Pause. Why would a Congressman spotlight Masonic credentials in a federal tribute? Why cite the exact lodge? Why honor a “Mason of the Year” award like it’s a military medal? Because it’s a tribute to those who understand the hierarchy. Masonic honors aren’t filler—but milestones. And they’re recognized by those who value the chain of oaths behind them. Jordan didn’t mention that by accident. He mentioned it because he’s one of them. Zion Before Nation Now look at his donors: • AIPAC • Koch Industries • The NRA Jordan is not grassroots. He’s network-approved. He’s never criticized: • Israeli spyware exports • Gov ties to Epstein’s network • Thiel’s Palantir role in predictive policing • Biometric surveillance Because he can’t. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, especially when it’s also the one watching. The Big Tech Deception Jordan has publicly positioned himself as a staunch opponent of Big Tech censorship, launching investigations and issuing subpoenas to major tech companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, alleging collusion with the Biden administration to suppress conservatives. However, this public stance contrasts with his actions behind the scenes. Jordan has accepted campaign contributions from tech giants, including Google, and has opposed antitrust measures aimed at breaking up these companies. Supporting Big Tech monopoly while chanting freedom. Shit like this bothers me much more than liberal retardation—but that’s a story for another time. Moreover, his close relationship with Elon Musk, a major tech figure, raises questions about his true intentions. Jordan has praised Musk’s efforts to combat censorship and has collaborated with him on various initiatives, including legislative changes that could benefit Musk’s business interests and military contracts. This duality suggests that Jordan’s public crusade against Big Tech may serve as a smokescreen, shielding deeper alliances and agendas. More below 👇🏻](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1912549773476876579/amplify_video_thumb/1912549479263133697/img/TqOnWCvn0oTglCqy.jpg)
![Failure To Release Epstein Files “Could Cost Us The Majority,” Worry Republicans “The people telling the president he could stop this [legislation] gave him awful advice,” says member of Congress Many in the MAGA movement responded with outrage and upset last July, following President Trump’s declaration in a cabinet meeting, and in subsequent social media posts, that there was nothing of importance in the large number of Jeffrey Epstein files that the FBI and Department of Justice are still holding. Those files allegedly include the names of individuals who participated in or were trapped in a sex blackmail operation tied to the US Intelligence Community, the CIA, and Israeli intelligence. Now, Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) is close to gathering a final needed 218th signature on a “discharge petition,” which would require a vote on the H.R.4405 - Epstein Files Transparency Act. That Act would mandate the FBI and Justice Department release the Epstein files as early as next month. The legislation explicitly states that personal embarrassment is not a reason for the FBI or DOJ to withhold documents from the public. “This vote is coming,” a Republican member of Congress told Public, “and it will pass the House with flying colors. This is inevitable. The people telling the president he could stop this gave him awful advice.” All of the individuals who spoke to Public were Republicans, and several suggested they feared the impact of the White House’s strategy on their party. “This is sucking the air out of the room and taking attention away from the other great things the administration is doing,” one member of the Republican conference said. Said another, “This is the behavior that could cost us the majority.” These comments were made to Public before the release of an interview with a former Justice Department investigator who claimed, to an undercover reporter working with James O’Keefe, that former President Bill Clinton was on Epstein’s plane when girls were being raped, and that Epstein worked for both the CIA and the Israeli government. In response to a query from Public, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “Democrats and the media knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents as part of the ongoing Oversight investigation.” It is possible that the Files do not contain any significant new information. FBI Director Kash Patel last week told the Senate that he had no evidence that Epstein was trafficking women for anyone other than himself. And some journalists have pointed out inconsistencies in claims made by alleged Epstein victims. But if there is nothing of significance in the Epstein Files, then it is not clear why the Trump administration has sought to prevent their release. The explanation from the Trump administration for why the files can’t be released has shifted. Patel told Congress that the Epstein files were constrained by limited search warrants from 2006 to 2007, and that non-prosecution agreements hindered future investigations. However, those constraints only apply to the Southern District of Florida, not to the Southern District of New York. Epstein had homes in both states. In the hearing, Rep. Massie said he had evidence that the FBI had documents naming at least 20 men, including Jess Staley, CEO of Barclay’s Bank, and a “Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars, one royal prince, one high profile individual in the music industry, one very prominent banker, one high profile government official, one high profile former politician, one owner of a car company in Italy, one rock star, one magician, at least six billionaires.” In August, the New York Times published photographs showing two hidden surveillance cameras in Epstein’s New York apartment. One of them pointed at a bed in a bedroom. Republicans and Democrats alike panned FBI Director Kash Patel’s testimony relating to Epstein last week. “Patel either doesn’t have operational control over this or he does and is using terms of art like ‘credible evidence’ to get around it,” said a House member. Earlier this month, Republicans on the House Rules Committee rejected an effort to put the Epstein Files Transparency Act to a floor vote. And, notes Axios, House Speaker Mike Johnson has, in the past, “tucked language in party-line procedural measures to kill” past petitions, and could try to do so again. But Johnson “faced blowback when he employed the tactic” last spring, said Axios, and the House Rules Committee Chair told reporters that her panel would not block a floor vote on the petition. According to another Republican member of Congress, “The members who voted against [allowing a vote on the Epstein Files bill] got hammered back home and were pissed. They don’t want to take a ‘no’ vote again.” In response, “West Wing staffers” at the White House have been aggressively demanding and threatening the handful of Republican Congressmembers who have joined Massie in signing the discharge opinion.... Please subscribe now to support Public's independent investigative journalism, read the rest of the article, and watch the full video!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1970987084233179208/amplify_video_thumb/1970986265664430080/img/RdUcozf-_pkLmHjm.jpg)
![Abductions, Enforced Disappearances, and Unlawful Detentions: Zambia's Descent into State Lawlessness By Sishuwa Sishuwa Zambia is on a knife-edge only several hours before voters head to the ballot box on 13 August to choose political leaders in a general election that might see Hakainde Hichilema becoming the latest casualty of the anti-incumbent election wave that has recently seen the defeat of sitting presidents in other African countries such as Botswana and Malawi. As i show in greater detail below, Hichilema is racing into the final days unfettered by any rules and willing to do anything he want to steal the results. People’s rights are being arbitrarily withdrawn. Abductions, enforced disappearances, unlawful detentions, and political violence instigated by the state and ruling party cadres have characterised the descent into state lawlessness ahead of Thursday’s election. Those on the receiving end are people who question authority or do much more than what is convenient as well as opposition officials, members, and supporters (perceived or real). The sight of anguished family members pleading to the state to disclose the whereabouts of their abducted loved ones has become very common in Lusaka. A special unit consisting of officers, from the Drug Enforcement Commission, the only body that has pre-signed search warrants, has been assembled to raid houses, arrest political opponents, and forcibly abduct opposition members or sympathisers. The script is the same: those abducted by armed state agents who move in motor vehicles without license plates, are usually taken to ‘safe houses’, not police stations, which makes it difficult for families to find their illegally detained relatives. Their phones and other electronic devices are confiscated, making it impossible to communicate with the abducted or know what has happened to them. This situation has left many people living in a state of fear and paralysis. In the last few days, I have spoken to civil society activists such as Brebner Changala, prominent personalities like Mulenga Kapwepwe, and at least 14 journalists who have all resigned themselves to any possibility. “We are just waiting for our turn. We do not know when we will be abducted and where we will be taken. When you are no longer able to reach us, just know that we have been taken”, one of them told me. The profile of those abducted is largely the same: opposition members and innocent people suspected to be supporting or financing Brian Mundubile, Hichilema’s main rival in the election. Nearly all of them are being arrested daily without following due process. Many of these people have been abducted from their homes or the street rather than being summoned to the police, charged, and either issued with bond or taken to court within the prescribed legal time-frame. Musa Mwenye, one of Zambia’s most outstanding citizens who, as Attorney General, defended the Constitution in 2014 when ministers wanted to overthrow it, captured the state of things in the country when he published the following observation on 10 August: “When people are held in detention beyond the reach of the courts, contrary to the law and due process, they are being held ‘extra judicially’. Further, when people are detained for their political activities and mobilization, they are ‘political detainees’. Do we have political detainees who are being held extra judicially in Zambia today? Sadly, the answer is yes. I never thought I would ever utter the words, ‘political detainee’ and ‘extra judicial detention’ in one sentence with regards to democratic Zambia, whose democratic credentials have been a beacon of good governance and the rule of law in Africa and beyond. In the past, when persons were detained for their political activities, the accused persons were subjected to due process in courts of law. We are now witnessing detentions without even the pretension of any court process, whatsoever. This is not who we are, and, it is certainly not what we should be known for. Zambia’s well-earned name in observance of human rights and our democratic credentials is in serious jeopardy. I appeal to the Government to release all political detainees who are being held extra judicially or to present them before courts of law for the due process of the law to take its course.” On the same day, Amnesty International released its latest report on the state of human rights in Zambia. Titled “Authoritarian practices eating away at human rights in Zambia: Escalating crackdown on human rights ahead of the 2026 general elections”, the mild but relatively critical report details how the Hichilema administration has presided over “an alarming regression into authoritarian practices that undermine human rights and participation in government”, leading to “a climate of fear and impunity”. To read Amnesty’s report, click here: A coalition of 11 civil society organisations has become the latest interest group to raise alarm about this deteriorating state of democracy. The civic bodies detailed major concerns that undermine the integrity of the electoral process. These include the restrictions on opposition mobilisation, the unequal treatment accorded to the competing contestants by state institutions, the use of public resources for partisan advantage, the unchecked electoral violence, and the late/unclear guidance on valid ballot marking. They further called on the electoral body to “act with visible impartiality”, on Hichilema to stop the “use state resources for partisan gain”, and on “the police [to] hold perpetrators of violence accountable – regardless of political affiliation”. Unfortunately, their call has come too late and is unlikely to meet positive reception from the authorities. As one of Hichilema's presidential aides regularly tells some of us, ‘You can cut my finger: HH is going nowhere. It is high time you started working with him.” Given that impunity and lawlessness appear to be Hichilema’s governing principles, it is easy to see where the aide’s confidence is coming from. Much of this “climate of fear and impunity” has been created by the authorities as part of a wider effort to save Hichilema from electoral defeat. The actual details behind the effort are as chilling as they are alarming. A prominent local businessman and one of my closet friends, Stelios Sardanis, was murdered on 9 August in his house a few days after he shared fears that his life was in danger because ‘they are accusing me of financing the opposition’. Masked men came from the bush, attacked him, and vanished in the same bush. Another prominent local businessman, Valden Findlay, has been in unlawful detention since 4 August without charge! Like many of those abducted, Findlay is being kept in a shipping container in Mwembeshi, not in any prison system, or police station. His crime? Suspicion that he is financing the opposition. Only last night, nearly the entire top leadership of Mundubile’s campaign committee was either abducted and taken to unknown places or ordered by the authorities to appear before the police today. Among the affected are Mundubile’s spokesperson George Chisanga, national campaign manager Japhen Mwakalombe, and senior presidential campaign official Sebastian Kopulande (abducted). A day earlier, Mundubile’s media team was abducted and taken to an unknown place. A week before that, on 27 July, Kennedy Kamba, the official in charge of vote protection in Mundubile’s party, was arrested. He remains in detention without charge. Meanwhile, 32 artists, journalists, and other senior officials in Mundubile’s campaign team were arrested in Western Province during a lawful and peaceful rally that police deliberately disrupted for no reason using tear gas canisters. The arrested were charged with minor offences such as conduct likely to cause breach of peace, but none of them have been given bond or taken to court and consequently remain in unlawful detention, over 600 kilometers away from their families. More opposition leaders, members and supporters are earmarked for arrest and abduction today, tomorrow, and perhaps beyond. The goal of these abductions, arrests and detentions is twofold: either provoke a reaction that Hichilema can use as a pretext to declare a state of emergency, suspend the Constitution, cancel the election, and arrest even more people, or deprive Mundubile of his core support team that can help prevent industrial scale vote-rigging in Thursday’s election. In my lifetime, I have watched the end of the one-party state, the reintroduction of multiparty democracy, the protection of presidential term limits, the defence of the constitution from executive-driven manipulation, the election of a Tonga to State House, and the repeated peaceful transitions of power enabled by a professional military that chose non-intervention whenever an incumbent was defeated. After this week’s election, I remain confident that I will be witness to an even more extraordinary national story: an opposition challenger who overcame enormous obstacles to win power at the first attempt, defeating a president who promoted regionalism, nurtured corruption, eroded democracy, increased poverty, and enabled multinational plunder of the country’s mineral wealth. I maintain that Hichilema will lose Thursday's election. Although the president is doing his desperate best to try to steal the vote, I am convinced that he is going, whether he likes it or not. In fact, his desperate antics reveal his fear even at this late hour. As I have said before, the only thing that can save Hichilema from defeat is reckless industrial scale vote-rigging or the pre-ballot death of his main rival. There are several factors that militate against the opposition in African politics, but the obstacles that have been placed in the path of Brian Mundubile are considerable. This is why I am saying his victory will be extraordinary, given the lengths to which Hichilema has gone to retain power. I have nothing personal against Hichilema. It is just that my professional training empowers me to see things that many others can only see after the event. As early as June 2023, I warned that Hichilema was so desperate to retain power that he had devised a five-point plan which, “if successfully implemented, risks undermining Zambia’s hard-won democracy”. I identified the plan as consisting of five objectives: containing the Catholic Church; co-opting influential elites from civil society; capturing the two formal institutions that are critical to the management of elections: the Electoral Commission of Zambia and the judiciary; weakening opposition parties; and covering corruption tracks. In the same article, I explained the three reasons behind Hichilema’s early desperation to secure a second term: fear of prosecution, the desire to avoid the embarrassment of losing power after just one term, and the push for a sectarian agenda aimed at entrenching his co-ethnic Tongas in state positions and grossly reducing the influence of the majority Bemba and Chewa ethnic groups in public life. At the time, few people understood what I was saying. Some said I just hated Hichilema, and not even reason-based evidence to the contrary changed their false perceptions. Others like Hichilema's fellow ethnic Tongas, led by Dr O’Brien Kaaba, a law lecturer at the University of Zambia, and Dr Priva Hang’andu, a Policy Advisor at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), rose to the President’s defence, dismissing my concerns about “shrinking democratic space, mounting corruption, political intolerance, and government desperation” as entirely unfounded. To read my 2023 article, click here: To read Kaaba and Hang’andu’s response in defence of their fellow Tonga, click here: Well, the passage of time has absolved me and given practical meaning to Thabo Mbeki’s observation that “Empty stomachs can be good or bad teachers. The problem with our African intellectuals is that they too have stomachs, in addition to their excellent brains.” For the sake of Zambia, I wish my 2023 concerns were wrong. I raised them then in the hope that Hichilema, who was elected on a ticket of democratic reform, could change for the better before it was too late. Unfortunately, his transition from a promising reform to a despot only got worse with time, as I showed two years later in another opinion piece published by the Mail & Guardian several months before Hichilema's State House team asked the newspaper's new editors to stop giving me platform. To read the article in which I examined how the fear of losing power and the financial and political benefits that come with it after only one term in office was evident in President Hichilema’s increasingly panicky and politically suicidal decisions, click here: The “authoritarian practices” and ‘escalating crackdown on human rights” that Amnesty International and others were to only to notice three years later could have been stopped much earlier if many voices had stood up to Hichilema before his autocratic aspirations were emboldened by their silence. The obstacles that Hichilema has placed in Mundubile’s path to power are illustrative of how the president has, over the last five years, repeatedly abused state institutions to systematically destroy organised political opposition and any semblance or vestige of autonomy in formal institutions outside the executive. There are many obstacles that Hichilema has placed in Mundubile’s path, but I will highlight only 10 here to illustrate the point that the leading opposition challenger has had so many domestic and foreign forces working against him in this election that it is extraordinary that he has made it a competitive contest. The first obstacle was the limitation placed on Mundubile's international travel. When he tried to leave the country to mobilise resources for his presidential bid, the state blocked him. He was arrested at the airport, charged with a cyber-related offence, and had all his travel documents and phones confiscated. The latter action means that he has not been able to leave Zambia since March this year as his passport remains with the state. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work. The second obstacle was the restriction on the political party ticket that Mundubile could use to run in the election. After the state instigated divisions in all parties that were perceived as capable of serving as possible vehicles for the expression of his presidential ambition, including the main opposition Patriotic Front (PF) to which he belonged, another opposition party, namely the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) offered him a platform. However, the state quickly moved in and, as it had done to other parties, factionalised the FDD to prevent him from running on it. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, ultimately finding a home in the little-known National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP) on the eve of nominations. The third obstacle was mere appearance on the ballot. After Mundubile formally presented his credentials to the officials of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), what should have been a straightforward acceptance of his nomination papers turned into a long waiting game as the authorities exerted significant pressure on the electoral body to find reason to disqualify his candidature, as was done to several other presidential hopefuls. Instead of complaining, he remained calm throughout this unnecessary attempt at electoral exclusion until the ECZ, hours later, reluctantly accepted his nomination. The fourth obstacle emerged soon after Mundubile became a presidential candidate. As soon as his campaign took off to a rapturous reception, the ECZ halted it, ordering that no one should conduct meetings that have not been sanctioned by the electoral body. The ECZ subsequently imposed a campaign schedule that required him to start in his strongest constituencies and end in the ruling party strongholds: Northwestern, Western, and Southern provinces. Any keen observer understood the motivation: to arrest whatever momentum his campaign would have built by the time he was arriving in the final three provinces where he was expected to draw the least crowds. To demonstrate their lack of impartiality, the ECZ decided against issuing any campaign schedule to Hichilema, treating him as President who can go wherever he wants rather than a presidential candidate who, like his rivals, was subject to the same rules. When thousands turned up at Mundubile's rallies in the first two provinces, the ruling party and the state employed violence in a bid to curtail his campaign activities and provoke a reaction that could be used as a pretext for arresting him. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, even as his campaign vehicles were extensively destroyed by ruling party thugs. The fifth obstacle is the scarce resources resulting in part from restrictions placed on Mundubile's capacity to mobilise financial resources for his campaign. Unable to leave the country, he turned to local businessmen for support but nearly all who tried to render a helping hand had their bank accounts frozen or faced threats and intimidation from the authorities. Others who were merely suspected to be sympathetic to him were arrested and kept in detention without charge (the earlier cited Valden Findlay is a good example here) or murdered in suspicious circumstances by unknown people (As I said, Stelios Sardanis had expressed concern about state-linked threats on his life before he was assassinated!). Instead of complaining, Mundubile quietly went about his work, successfully turning to crowdfunding to raise resources from ordinary citizens who, overlooking their own struggles, injected whatever little money they could afford into his campaign. The sixth obstacle is extremely limited media coverage. After his candidacy was confirmed, the state blocked any positive coverage of Mundubile in the publicly funded media and while the ruling party used financially rewarding ads to buy almost all the advertising space in the private media, that is in newspapers, television and radio stations. This was in addition to buying influencers and almost the entire music industry to endorse and support Hichilema. The objective of crowding Mundubile out of media coverage was to help nurture the false narrative that there is no opposition in Zambia. Instead of complaining that he is completely blacked out of coverage by the public media and has much of the private media arraigned against him, Mundubile quietly went about his work, regularly communicating with the public through his social media pages, public rallies, one radio station (Hot FM) and one television station (KBN) – the latter two suffering continued threats and intimidation from the state and ruling party for daring to carry his adverts. The seventh obstacle was the denial of permission for Mundubile to use the airspace for efficient campaign activities. At the start of his campaign, a known private charter company that should have flown him around the country approached the authorities on his behalf to seek clearance. Its application was however frustrated by the authorities who only said “those above” had denied it. Instead of complaining, Mundubile quietly went about his work. He undertook all his campaign activities across 116 districts and 10 provinces – minus the places he was unable to visit due to violent attacks from ruling party cadres – in less than 60 days using road travel. So grave was the threat of violence against Mundubile in Southern Province, what should have been his concluding stop, that he had to cancel his trip there and instead hold a virtual public rally, following credible intelligence reports that he was earmarked for assassination while in the province. The eighth obstacle has been the constant arrests and abduction of his campaign officials and even parliamentary candidates as well as high-level defections of his party functionaries to the ruling party following extremely attractive financial inducements. As stated earlier, his media team has been abducted and remains in unlawful detention. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work with remnants of his previously bigger campaign team. The ninth obstacle has been state-instigated baits to lure him into provocation. In Kitwe, his campaign team was attacked, but the attackers deliberately left behind the bus they had used to launch the attacks in the hope that he and his team would set it ablaze so that they could be arrested for arson and kept in detention. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, urging his team to exercise restraint and avoid any attempts at retaliation. In Lusaka, his campaign team was violently attacked. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, urging his team to exercise restraint and avoid any attempts at retaliation. In Solwezi, his campaign team was violently attacked. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, urging his team to exercise restraint and avoid any attempts at retaliation. In Luampa, Kalabo and Mongu, his campaign team was violently attacked by ruling party cadres and the police. Instead of complaining, he quietly went about his work, urging his team to exercise restraint and avoid any attempts at retaliation. Had he accepted the bait, he could, by now, be in prison or six feet under the ground. The tenth obstacle has been the attempt by the state to undermine his vote protection measures. It is hard enough to go into an election that is administered by a largely compromised Electoral Commission of Zambia. Never before has the ECZ been led by a chairperson who is the incumbent president’s former personal lawyer; who, unlike all her predecessors who came from the judiciary and had a lucrative lifetime pension to fall back on in case of exit from office, knows that she will have no job if her former client loses the election tomorrow; and who has a daughter facing a no-bail murder charge that was revised to the less serious charge of manslaughter in unclear circumstances that many saw as a possible trade-off, linked to the election, between those in the executive and the accused’s mother. Amidst credible fears of vote manipulation, Mundubile managed under difficult circumstances to organise about seven million Kwacha for the payment of polling agents throughout the country. On 10 August, state agents grabbed all this money for no credible reason in a move that is clearly aimed at making it easier to bribe the polling agents and manipulate the vote, especially if, as some fear, the government will shut down the internet during the counting and employ violent thugs to remove opposition polling agents and election observers for the purpose of facilitating the swapping of the ballots or inflating the figures in support of the incumbent president in ruling party strongholds where turnout might be low. Instead of complaining, he has quietly gone about his work, believing that with the support of the people, there is little that the president can do to prevent his exit from power. Mundubile has proved his mettle. In essence, many people are supporting Mundubile in this election not because he is the best candidate but because he is the recipient of the revulsion against a president that many people see as primarily serving foreign commercial interests as well as his own private interests and those of his ethnic-regional community. Mundubile has become the figurehead of a growing movement that is determined to peacefully remove a dangerous president who, were he to succeed in stealing the vote, would set Zambia on an even more perilous path. I sincerely hope the Zambian people will turn out on Thursday to say “enough.” However, with a compromised ECZ, a police service that only arrests members of the opposition, a partisan leadership in charge of the country’s military, and an incumbent president with a character that knows no restraint, anything is possible after Thursday’s vote. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. NB: The violence in the attached video clip shows what happens when soldiers, who are not trained to maintain law and order, are deployed to handle police functions, as Hichilema did in January this year when he asked them to "sort out" informal small scale miners in the country's North-Western Province. The pro-Hichilema army commander, Geoffrey Zyeele ,whose orders resulted in this barbaric violence after he directed soldiers "to exterminate and fumigate all illegal miners" remains in his position to date.](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2087156707646435407/amplify_video_thumb/2087156612624486400/img/tBq-LUqbDa9z8pmW.jpg)
