text:
BAUAW NEWSLETTER, FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2017
These are trying times, but they are also filled with intense resistance that gives us hope that a different future is possible. We must continue to work for a world of justice and peace. Berta Cáceres' visionary leadership and resistance during her life and the steadfast continuation of the struggle by her colleagues in COPINH inspires us to continue the long-term work of resisting U.S. empire and domination around the world, including stopping U.S. military aid and training in Honduras.
March 2nd marks the 1 year anniversary of the brutal assassination of Berta, and we encourage you to organize an event this March to remember Berta and call for an end to the U.S. militarization of Honduras. Berta's organization, COPINH has issued a call for actions around the world on March 2nd as well as for events throughout the month of March (Read Statement Here). We share a few ideas and possible dates, by no means all, here:
March 4 - Berta Cáceres' Birthday: Honor Berta's legacy as an environmentalist, anti-racist, and feminist social movement leader
March 8 - International Women's Day: Show a film on Berta and her legacy - click here for some suggested videos/documentaries
March 27 - Anniversary of COPINH: Organize a protest against US military aid to Honduras
March ? - Participate in an protest in solidarity with refugees & migrants; bring posters of Berta to call attention to the U.S. role in creating forced migration from Honduras
We look forward to hearing your ideas and events you may be planning. Please contact us for contacts, materials, and information about your Representative/Senator's position or anything else you need to make an action, vigil, or event happen near your home. If you plan an event please let us know so we can share it. A number of organizations around the country are planning actions, and we'll be posting information on events already being planned in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago and other locations next week.
To get involved in this Call to Action, SOAW advocacy work (e.g. pushing to suspend US military/security aid to Honduras, or opposing the "Alliance for Prosperity"), or to be a part of the SOAW Honduras Solidarity Collective, please email me at arturo@soaw.org
Grassroots power works! Together we will challenge U.S. Imperialism in Honduras, which contributes so much to the forced migration of Honduran refugees, tramples on Native people's rights, and facilitates the destruction of the environment.
Berta Vive! La Lucha Sigue!
Arturo & Brigitte
SOA Watch
We appreciate your interest! You are subscribed to the SOA Watch list as bauaw2003-owner@yahoogroups.com.
Click here if you'd like to unsubscribe from these messages, or change your email address.
The movement to close the SOA is a community, and all ideas are welcome.
SOA Watch, 733 Euclid Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
If you like the work of SOA Watch, you can donate here: http://SOAW.org/donate
The 'Day Without a Woman' general strike is set for March 8th
by Kwame Opam
February 15, 201http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/15/14624044/the-day-without-a-woman-general-strike-march-8-international-womens-day
The Day Without a Woman strike is now set for March 8th, International Women's Day. Organizers for last month's Women's March on Washington set the date for women across supportive communities to collectively stop working that day to protest White House policies and legislation.
Women's March announced plans for a general strike last month in the wake of the mass protests that followed President Donald Trump's inauguration. The announcement for the strike comes via Instagram, calling for communities to "unite" for gender equity and against oppression:
In the spirit of women and their allies coming together for love and liberation, we offer A Day Without A Woman. We ask: do businesses support our communities, or do they drain our communities? Do they strive for gender equity or do they support the policies and leaders that perpetuate oppression? Do they align with a sustainable environment or do they profit off destruction and steal the futures of our children? We saw what happened when millions of us stood together in January, and now we know that our army of love greatly outnumbers the army of fear, greed and hatred. On March 8th, International Women's Day, let's unite again in our communities for A Day Without A Woman. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing more information on what actions on that day can look like for you. In the meantime, we are proud to support Strike4Democracy's #F17 National Day of Action to Push Back Against Assaults on Democratic Principles. This Friday, February 17th, gather your friends, families, neighbors, and start brainstorming ideas for how you can enhance your community, stand up to this administration, integrate resistance and self-care into your daily routine, and how you will channel your efforts for good on March 8th. Remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint. #DayWithoutAWoman#WomensMarch
National March and Rally
Support Palestine in D.C.! Protest AIPAC!
Sunday, March 26 - Gather 12 Noon
March from the White House to the Convention Center
RSVP for this action
At last year's AIPAC conference, Donald Trump made an outrageous pledge: "We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem ... The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable." Now that he is the president, Trump seems dead set on following through on his promise.
This would be an extreme provocation that tramples on the Palestinian right to self-determination. Every progressive person needs to mobilize to stop this.
In the short time since Trump took the oath of office, the Israeli government has already announced thousands of new illegal settler homes in the Palestinian territories seized in the 1967 war. The Palestinian people need our solidarity now more than ever as they resist these wanton acts of aggression.
From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go!
Just like Trump is encouraging Israel to step up its violation of Palestinian rights, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is cheer leading for Trump's extreme right agenda. On Jan. 28, Netanyahu sent this outrageous tweet:
The fight for justice for Palestine and the fight to stop the Trump Agenda are one in the same!
Join the National Rally and March on Sunday, March 26
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition and the ANSWER Coalition will once again spearhead this National Rally to Support Palestine in DC 2017!
This rally will start at the White House with thousands of people from across the nation and around the world, and end up in front of AIPAC's annual convention! AIPAC is the primary organization lobbying to continue the brutal illegal occupation of Palestine for over 68 years.
Click here to endorse the demonstrationLet us know if you are able to organize transportation to D.C.
We must protest to end this outrageous lobby that ultimately supports the oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Please come out and support the Palestinian people in their noble struggle to be free.
End U.S. aid to Israel — End the occupation now!
We urgently need your support to make this demonstration a success.
ANSWER Coalition · United States
This email was sent to karenlee726@gmail.com.
To stop receiving emails, click here.
You can also keep up with ANSWER Coalition on Facebook.
John T. Kaye invited you to Moms Clean Air Force's event
Saturday, April 29 at 9 AM EDT
Washington, District of Columbia in Washington, District of Columbia
Join us April 29th in Washington, DC to let Trump know that we won't let him destroy the environment on our watch. There is no denying it: Donald Trump's election is a threat to the future of our pla...
John T. Kaye and Dave Schubert are going.
Rasmea retrial set for May 16, 2017
Rasmea Defense Committee statement - December 21, 2016
Support the defense now!
This morning, Rasmea Odeh and her defense attorney Michael Deutsch were called into Judge Gershwin Drain's courtroom in Detroit, where the judge and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel were in attendance. The parties all agreed on May 16, 2017, as the new starting date for Rasmea's retrial.
The defense committee will continue to send regular updates regarding any pre-trial hearings or other appearances that Rasmea must make between now and the retrial, as well as requests to participate in regular defense organizing and activities.
In addition, we urge supporters to continue to
call U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade at 313-226-9100,
or tweet @USAO_MIE
and demand that she stop wasting taxpayer money, that she stop persecuting a woman who has given so much to U.S. society, and that she #DropTheChargesNow against Rasmea.
Lastly, and in the spirit of the season, please help us win #Justice4Rasmea by making your end-of-year donation to the defense fund! We thank you all for your continued support!
Statement from Tuesday, December 13
U.S. Attorney extends political attack on Rasmea, brings new indictment against the Palestinian American
Today, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced that a grand jury she had empaneled returned a new, superseding indictment against Rasmea Odeh for unlawful procurement of naturalization. This new indictment, just four weeks before her retrial, is a vicious attack by prosecutors desperate after a series of setbacks in their case against the Chicago-based Palestinian American community leader. From the outset, the government has attempted to exclude and discredit evidence of Rasmea's torture at the hands of Israeli authorities, but the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the prosecution, which led to the retrial; and the government's own expert affirmed that Rasmea lives with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Knowing that it faces the real prospect of losing a retrial before a jury, the U.S. Attorney's office has reframed its case against Rasmea, putting allegations of terrorism front and center. In the first trial in 2014, prosecutors were barred from using the word "terrorism," because Judge Gershwin Drain agreed the word would bias the jury. The new indictment adds two allegations that preclude this protection: first, that the crimes she was forced by torture to confess to are "terrorist activity"; and second, that she failed to report an alleged association with a "Designated Terrorist Organization." Despite the government's claim that this is a simple case of immigration fraud, this new indictment is written to ensure that Rasmea stands before a jury as an accused terrorist.
The Rasmea Defense Committee is urging supporters to call U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade at 313-226-9100, or tweet @USAO_MIE, and demand that she stop wasting taxpayer money, that she stop persecuting a woman who has given so much to U.S. society, and that she #DropTheChargesNow against Rasmea. In addition, the committee is calling on supporters to help win #Justice4Rasmea by donating to the defense and organizing educational events about the case.
"They [the prosecutors] are switching course because they know that a jury will believe Rasmea," says Nesreen Hasan of the Rasmea Defense Committee and its lead organization, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. "We have always said, from day one, that this is a political case, and that the government is prosecuting Rasmea as part of a broader attack, the criminalization of the Palestine liberation movement. This new indictment is literally the same charge, with the same evidence - immigration forms. Only now, they want to paint Rasmea, and all Palestinians, as terrorists. The real criminals in this case are the Israelis who brutally tortured Rasmea 45 years ago, as well as those in the U.S. government who are trying to put her on trial for surviving the brutality committed against her."
Prosecutors will be disappointed to find that these new allegations fail to erode Rasmea's support. People have mobilized by the hundreds for countless hearings, every day of her 2014 trial, and her appeal earlier this year. "We have people ready to come from across the Midwest to stand with Rasmea in Detroit on January 10, but we are also prepared to adjust those plans to be there whenever we are needed," says Jess Sundin of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, who lives in Minneapolis and has mobilized dozens of Minnesotans and others in support of the defense. "We will redouble our organizing and fundraising work, and make certain Rasmea has the best defense possible."
According to lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch, "We also intend to challenge this indictment as vindictive and politically-motivated."
Visit www.justice4rasmea.org for more information.
### End ###
Copyright © 2016 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
100,000 protest in San Francisco, CA
Pictures From Women's
Marches on Every Continent
Crowds in hundreds of cities around the world gathered Saturday
in conjunction with the Women's March on Washington. JAN. 21, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/21/world/womens-march-pictures.html
MILITARISM IS
AN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
USLAW supports the April 29th DC People's Climate March ... but ...
The organizers of the multi-issue People's Climate March tell us they're discussing whether and how to include peace in the agenda.
Please encourage them by adding your name to the petition below, by re-tweeting it, by sharing it on facebook, and by forwarding this email.Thanks!!
Will you stand for peace?
A petition to the organizers of the
April 29 People's Climate March
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THIS PETITION
PeoplesClimate.org website calls for a march on Washington on April 29, 2017, to "unite all our movements" for "communities," "climate," "safety," "health," "the rights of people of color, workers, indigenous people, immigrants, women, LGBTQIA, young people," and a much longer list . . . but not peace.
Approximately half of federal discretionary spending is going into wars and war preparation. This institution constitutes our single biggest destroyer of the environment. [One reason peace is an environmental issue - see others below.]
Will you please add "peace" to the list of things you are marching for?
CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE ABOVE PETITION BEFORE WE DELIVER IT.
NINE REASONS WHY THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT MUST ALSO FIGHT FOR PEACE:
1. War is an environmental nightmare that continues to poison people and the planet long after the fighting ends.
2. The Pentagon is the largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world.
3. The Pentagon is the largest emitter of CO2 gases in the world.
4. Wars are fought for oil and other energy resources. The U.S. drive for global hegemony is intimately bound up with its aim to control energy resources.
5. The military consumes 54% of all discretionary spending. War and preparation for war divert financial and human resources needed to meet social needs (including investment in renewable energy and a sustainable energy system).
6. The manufacture of arms and other military gear adds considerably to the carbon burden of the world.
7. The military-industrial complex is fully integrated with and dependent upon the fossil fuel energy complex, serving as its enforcer as well as its client.
8. To successfully address the climate crisis requires creating a sustainable new economy, but that is impossible so long as our economy remains dominated by the military-industrial-security-energy complex.
9. To achieve a just transition to a new sustainable economy will require the environmental movement see its connection to movements for social justice, economic justice and peace. The quest for peace is also a social justice struggle.
The environmental movement must stop avoiding the connection between our militarized foreign policy and the challenge of climate change.
Your contribution will be greatly appreciated.
STAY INFORMED: SUBSCRIBE TO THE USLAW INFORMATION SERVICE
This is a low-volume email list operated by US Labor Against the War
1718 M St, NW #153 | Washington DC 20036 | 202-521-5265 | Contact USLAW
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) is now in Contempt of Court
On January 3, 2017, Federal District Court Judge Robert Mariani ordered the DOC to treat Mumia with the hepatitis C cure within 21 days.
But on January 7, prison officials formally denied Mumia's grievances asking for the cure. This is after being informed twice by the court that denying treatment is unconstitutional.
John Wetzel, Secretary of the PA DOC, is refusing to implement the January 3rd Federal Court Order requiring the DOC to treat Mumia within 21 days. Their time has run out to provide Mumia with hepatitis C cure!
Mumia is just one of over 6,000 incarcerated people in the PA DOC at risk with active and chronic Hepatitis C. Left untreated, 7-9% of people infected with chronic hep C get liver cancer every year.
We need your help to force the DOC to stop its cruel and unusual punishment of over 6,000 people in prison with chronic hepatitis C. Click here for a listing of numbers to call today!
Water Crisis in the Prison
Drinking water remains severely contaminated at the prison in which Mumia and 2,500 others are held, SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA. Mumia filed a grievance regarding the undrinkable water: read it here.
We are asking you to call the prison now to demand clean drinking water and hepatitis C treatment now!
Protest Drinking Water Contamination Rally
When: From 4-6pm on Thursday, Feb 9
Where: Governor's Office- 200 South Broad St, Philadelphia
We're sending our mailing to you, including this brilliant poster by incarcerated artist Kevin Rashid Johnson. Keep an eye out it next week!
Cuando luchamos ganamos! When we fight, we win!
Noelle Hanrahan, Director
About the recently appealed Court victory:
On January 3rd, a federal court granted Mumia Abu-Jamal's petition for immediate and effective treatment for his Hepatitis-C infection, which has hitherto been denied him. The judge struck down Pennsylvania's protocols as "deliberate indifference to serious medical need."
This is a rare and important win for innocent political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal in a court system that has routinely subjected him to the "Mumia exception," i.e., a refusal of justice despite court precedents in his favor. Thousands of Hep-C-infected prisoners throughout Pennsylvania and the US stand to benefit from this decision, provided it is upheld.
But, it is up to us to make sure that this decision is not over-turned on appeal--something the State of Pennsylvania will most likely seek.
Hundreds demonstrated in both Philadelphia and Oakland on December 9th to demand both this Hep-C treatment for prisoners, and "Free Mumia Now!" In Oakland, the December 9th Free Mumia Coalition rallied in downtown and then marched on the OPD headquarters. The Coalition brought over two dozen groups together to reignite the movement to free Mumia; and now we need your support to expand and build for more actions in this new, and likely very dangerous year for political prisoners.
SHARE FAR & WIDE!
Email not displaying correctly?
The Campaign To Bring Mumia Home
By Johanna Fernandez
Dear Friends of Mumia,
I'm writing on behalf of the Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal to ask if you might help us in an emergency. The Committee is the official fundraising venue for Mumia's legal defense today. It has been raising funds, quietly, since Mumia was facing execution in the '90s.
The Committee was initiated and led by Frances Goldin, Mumia's literary agent. She is 93 years old today and continues to be actively involved in this work. Our letters are reviewed and signed by Angela Davis. Our efforts focus exclusively on Mumia's legal defense, and on the few occasions when we've deemed that raising funds for other projects was critical to Mumia's safety, our letters have explicitly outlined our thinking.
Since Mumia fell ill, we have been behind on payments to Mumia's lead health attorney and we need to raise funds – quickly. Would you consider making a donation and identifying one or two others who might do the same?
A Word on Mumia's Condition
Although the symptoms of his Hep C condition wax and wane, he is much improved since his near death crisis two years ago. That moment was harrowing, and having been in the center of it, I can truly tell you that the movement saved his life.
Heidi Beghosian, former executive director, National Lawyers Guild, and I had been concerned about Mumia's declining health two years ago, and we happened to visit Mumia the morning that he collapsed in the infirmary. At that moment, we called his family, identified the hospital to which he had been taken, then drove there to make our presence known.
We alerted the movement, and dozens joined us at the hospital that evening. The next day we held a press conference at the hospital to which surprisingly the Philadelphia mainstream media showed up. The conditions under which Mumia was hospitalized were horrendous and we visited the hospital daily.
After these dramatic days, when we realized that Mumia was in danger of dying, we went into emergency mode for several months. This included identifying outside doctors to visit him, taking out an ad in the New York Times, mobilizing the movement and testifying in court about what we saw.
We even took Mumia's hair sample covertly to be tested at an outside laboratory. It was our doctor, not the hospital physicians, who in the end diagnosed Mumia with Hep C and made the connection that his terrible skin condition was a symptom of that disease. In this moment of crisis, Pam Africa's experience was indispensable.
The Legal Situation and Our Request for Funds
As you know, his attorneys, primarily Bob Boyle, scored an unprecedented legal victory in Mumia's Hep C health suit. On Jan. 7, a federal judge, Robert Mariani, in an unprecedented decision, ordered that Mumia be treated with the 95 percent effective cure rate antiviral medicines within 21 days. He condemned the barbarity of the DOC's (Department of Corrections') Hep C protocol, and his opinion establishes the groundwork for the treatment of the 7,000 others with Hep C in the Pennsylvania prisons.
The Pennsylvania DOC is fighting this all the way to hell. On the 10th day after the ruling, right before the Martin Luther King holiday, the DOC attorneys filed a stay and a notice of appeal in the 3rd Circuit District Court of Appeals.
Our legal filings are voluminous. Bob Boyle has been working for two years at reduced legal fees, and we are behind on payments. He has literally had to borrow money to stay afloat. We've also put in some personal funds, and are sending out another appeal to our members, but we need an infusion of $25,000 in the next week.
His attorneys, primarily Bob Boyle, scored an unprecedented legal victory in Mumia's Hep C health suit. The Pennsylvania DOC is fighting this all the way to hell.
Thanking you in advance for your consideration.
Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D.
Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D., is a professor of history at Baruch College (CUNY,) coordinator of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, member of the Committee to Save Mumia Abu Jamal, and writer and producer of the acclaimed film, "Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal." She can be reached at jfernandez1202@gmail.com.
Legal Particulars
Federal Judge Robert Mariani presided over Mumia's health suit. Judge Mariani granted Mumia his claim of deliberate indifference, meaning that Mumia won the preliminary injunction for immediate treatment. The judge ordered that a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) doctor must see Mumia within 14 days of his Jan. 7 ruling and instructed that treatment begin seven days after that – in other words, within 21 days of the ruling.
But on the 10th day after the ruling, right before the Martin Luther King holiday, the DOC lawyers filed a challenge to the judge's ruling. They filed "a stay," which essentially asked the judge to halt all legal actions and proceedings. The DOC attorneys also filed a separate notice of appeal that made known their intention to appeal the decision in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the court immediately below the Supreme Court.
Here are the different scenarios that can emerge.
If Judge Mariani denies the stay and upholds his original decision, the DOC can seek a stay from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. This would happen in advance and separately from the DOC's full appeal in that court. If the 3rd Circuit grants the stay, the appeal process could take two to three months, even if "expedited." If the 3rd Circuit denies the DOC's request for a stay, Mumia basically wins because it would mean that the injunction must be carried out, meaning that MAJ gets the drugs.
If Judge Mariani grants the DOC's request for a stay, Mumia's attorneys can ask the 3rd Circuit to vacate (overturn) the stay; however, it would be unlikely that the 3rd Circuit would do so since they would take Judge Mariani granting the stay as an indicator that he feels his ruling would not withstand an appeal. We then would have to litigate the appeal in the 3rd Circuit Court, again a two to three month process.
Profile of the Attorneys Litigating Mumia's Health Suit
Bret Grote is a young attorney and the founder of the Abolitionist Law Center in Pittsburgh. He was the only lawyer willing to file a preliminary injunction to get Mumia immediate treatment after he fell ill. All the attorneys with whom we consulted argued that the case was impossible to litigate and win. Shortly after Bret Grote filed the motion, the movement recruited Bob Boyle to join Bret Grote.
Bob Boyle is one of the most noted and accomplished attorneys representing political prisoners today. He is comparable to Len Weinglass in his political analysis of these cases. Bob Boyle
litigated the Lynne Stewart case, which led to her compassionate release;
litigated the case of Black Panther Dhoruba Bin Wahad and secured his freedom;
secured the release of Black Panther Marshall Eddie Conway, who spent close to 43 years in prison;
overturned in appellate court the 75-year sentence of Mohammed Al-Moayad, who was convicted of providing material support to Hamas.
"Prison is a second-by-second assault on the soul, a day-to-day degradation of the self, an oppressive steel and brick umbrella that transforms seconds into hours and hours into days."
-Mumia Abu-Jamal
Follow on Twitter | Friend on Facebook
unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences
Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund
Chelsea Manning's
Welcome Home Fund
gofundme.com/welcomehomechelsea
From Chelsea Manning's attorney Chase Strangio: This is the official campaign raising funds for Chelsea Manning. This campaign is being organized by her friends and family. I have known Chelsea as her attorney, advocate and friend for several years. The money will be deposited directly into her bank account, which is being managed by her current power of attorney. Upon her release on May 17th, she will have full control over all funds donated.
This will likely be the final email from the former Chelsea Manning Support Network. We hope that you'll help Chelsea restart her life by contributing to the Welcome Home Fund, and helping exceed the $100,000 goal. It's still hard to believe that we won Chelsea's freedom (only 80 days to go!).
In wake of the Chelsea Manning Support Network coming to an end, leading organizer Rainey Reitman shared, "Looking back on 6 year of fighting for Chelsea Manning."
Chelsea inspired me, and her actions forever changed my life. I remember watching the Apache helicopter video of American soldiers gunning down unarmed people in Iraq, including a Reuters journalist and two children. It fundamentally changed how I saw America's overseas wars. ... It boggles the mind to think how far we came with the Chelsea Manning Support Network. In some ways, we were squaring off against the United States government itself, with its seemingly infinite resources... Read more
From Courage to Resist
We are extremely proud to have served as fiscal manager for the Chelsea Manning Defense Fund for nearly seven years. Those funds provided Chelsea a legal defense team at trial, funded most of her appeals, supported hundreds of events worldwide, and in the end, was immensely important to winning Chelsea's freedom.
Chelsea Manning Defense Fund fiscal reports available include our summary of the first 18 months of the appeals phase (Jan. 2014 – Jun. 2015) [PDF LINK], as well as the pretrial and trial history (Jul. 2010-Dec. 2013) [PDF LINK]. The final report covering the most recent (and last) 18 months is forthcoming. That, along with other news and updates about Chelsea, will be available at couragetoresist.org.
In a nutshell, the Defense Fund as a positive balance of approximately $10,000, and we'll be disbursing that money soon, in consultation with Chelsea. Courage to Resist has provided significant material support to about 50 military objectors since our founding over ten years ago; however, our efforts in support of Chelsea easily eclipse all of our other campaigns.
Continue to stand with Chelsea!
Donate the Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund at www.gofundme.com/welcomehomechelsea
The former Support Network Facebook account is still active, and now managed by Chelsea's current helpers: facebook.com/savemanning
Chelsea loves her @xychelsea Twitter account! You're likely to find breaking news posted there first. twitter.com/xychelsea
The former chelseamanning.org website now forwards to a new website at luminairity.com
You can still write her in prison: CHELSEA E. MANNING 89289 / 1300 NORTH WAREHOUSE ROAD / FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS 66027-2304
Together, we did it! Wow.
Protect Kevin "Rashid" Johnson from Prison Repression!
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
WHEN: Anytime
WHAT: Protect imprisoned activist-journalist Kevin "Rashid" Johnson
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1794902884117144/
On December 21, 2016, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson was the victim of an
assault by guards at the Clements Unit where he is currently being held,
just outside Amarillo, Texas. Rashid was sprayed with OC pepper gas
while handcuffed in his cell, and then left in the contaminated cell for
hours with no possibility to shower and no access to fresh air. It was
in fact days before he was supplied with new sheets or clothes (his bed
was covered with the toxic OC residue), and to this day his cell has not
been properly decontaminated.
This assault came on the heels of another serious move against Rashid,
as guards followed up on threats to confiscate all of his property – not
only files required for legal matters, but also art supplies, cups to
drink water out of, and food he had recently purchased from the
commissary. The guards in question were working under the direction of
Captain Patricia Flowers, who had previously told Rashid that she
intended to seize all of his personal belongings as retaliation for his
writings about mistreatment of prisoners, up to and including assaults
and purposeful medical negligence that have led to numerous deaths in
custody. Specifically, Rashid's writings have called attention to the
deaths of Christopher Woolverton, Joseph Comeaux, and Alton Rodgers, and
he has been contacted by lawyers litigating on behalf of the families of
at least two of these men.
As a journalist and activist literally embedded within the bowels of the
world's largest prison system, Rashid relies on his files and notes for
correspondence, legal matters, and his various news reports.
Furthermore, Rashid is a self-taught artist of considerable talent (his
work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and books);
needless to say, the guards were also instructed to seize his art
materials and the drawings he was working on.
(For a more complete description of Rashid's ordeal on and following
December 21, see his recent article "Bound and Gassed: My Reward for
Exposing Abuses and Killings of Texas Prisoners" at
http://rashidmod.com/?p=2321)
Particularly worrisome, is the fact that the abuse currently directed
against Rashid is almost a carbon-copy of what was directed against
Joseph Comeaux in 2013, who was eventually even denied urgently needed
medical care. Comeaux died shortly thereafter.
This is the time to step up and take action to protect Rashid; and the
only protection we can provide, from the outside, is to make sure prison
authorities know that we are watching. Whether you have read his
articles about prison conditions, his political or philosophical
polemics (and whether you agreed with him or not!), or just appreciate
his artwork – even if this is the first you are hearing about Rashid –
we need you to step up and make a few phone calls and send some emails.
When doing so, let officials know you are contacting them about Kevin
Johnson, ID #1859887, and the incident in which he was gassed and his
property confiscated on December 21, 2016. The officials to contact are:
Warden Kevin Foley
Clements Unit
telephone: (806) 381-7080 (you will reach the general switchboard; ask
to speak to the warden's office)
Tell Warden Foley that you have heard of the gas attack on Rashid.
Specific demands you can make:
* That Kevin Johnson's property be returned to him
* That Kevin Johnson's cell be thoroughly decontaminated
* That Captain Patricia Flowers, Lieutenant Crystal Turner, Lieutenant
Arleen Waak, and Corrections Officer Andrew Leonard be sanctioned for
targeting Kevin Johnson for retaliation for his writings
* That measures be taken to ensure that whistleblowers amongst staff and
the prisoner population not be targeted for any reprisals from guards or
other authorities. (This is important because at least one guard and
several prisoners have signed statements asserting that Rashid was left
in his gassed cell for hours, and that his property should not have been
seized.)
Try to be polite, while expressing how concerned you are for Kevin
Johnson's safety. You will almost certainly be told that because other
people have already called and there is an ongoing investigation – or
else, because you are not a member of his family -- that you cannot be
given any information. Say that you understand, but that you still wish
to have your concerns noted, and that you want the prison to know that
you will be keeping track of what happens to Mr Johnson.
The following other authorities should also be contacted. These bodies
may claim they are unable to directly intervene, however we know that by
creating a situation where they are receiving complaints, they will
eventually contact other authorities who can intervene to see what the
fuss is all about. So it's important to get on their cases too:
TDCJ Ombudsman: ombudsman@tdcj.texas.gov
The Inspector General: 512-671-2480
Let these "watchdogs" know you are concerned that Kevin Johnson #1859887
was the victim of a gas attack in Clements Unit on December 21, 2016.
Numerous witnesses have signed statements confirming that he was
handcuffed, in his cell, and not threatening anyone at the time he was
gassed. Furthermore, he was not allowed to shower for hours, and his
cell was never properly decontaminated, so that he was still suffering
the effects of the gas days later. It is also essential to mention that
his property was improperly confiscated, and that he had previously been
threatened with having this happen as retaliation for his writing about
prison conditions. Kevin Johnson's property must be returned!
Finally, complaints should also be directed to the director of the VA
DOC Harold Clarke and the VA DOC's Interstate Compact Supervisor, Terry
Glenn. This is because Rashid is in fact a Virginia prisoner, who has
been exiled from Virginia under something called the Interstate Compact,
which is used by some states as a way to be rid of activist prisoners,
while at the same time separating them from their families and
supporters. Please contact:
VADOC Director, Harold Clarke
Director.Clarke@vadoc.virginia.gov
Interstate Compact director, Terry Glenn
Let them know that you are phoning about Kevin Johnson, a Virginia
prisoner who has been sent to Texas under the Interstate Compact. His
Texas ID # is 1859887 however his Virginia ID # is 1007485. Inform them
that Mr Johnson has been gassed by guards and has had his property
seized as retaliation for his writing about prison conditions. These are
serious legal and human rights violations, and even though they occurred
in Texas, the Virginia Department of Corrections is responsible as Mr
Johnson is a Virginia prisoner. Despite the fact that they may ask you
who you are, and how you know about this, and for your contact
information, they will likely simply conclude by saying that they will
not be getting back to you. Nonetheless, it is worth urging them to
contact Texas officials about this matter.
It is good to call whenever you are able. However, in order to maximize
our impact, for those who can, we are suggesting that people make their
phone calls on Thursday, January 5.
And at the same time, please take a moment to sign the online petition
to support Rashid, up at the Roots Action website:
https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/prison-activist-gassed-in-clements-unit-prison-texas-law-enforcement-is-violently-out-of-control
Rashid has taken considerable risks in reporting on the abuse he
witnesses at the Clements Unit, just as he has at other prisons. Indeed,
he has continued to report on the violence and medical neglect to which
prisoners are subjected, despite threats from prison staff. If we, as a
movement, are serious about working to resist and eventually abolish the
U.S. prison system, we must do all we can to assist and protect those
like Rashid who take it upon themselves to stand up and speak out. As
Ojore Lutalo once put it, "Any movement that does not support their
political internees ... is a sham movement."
To learn more about Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, the abuses in the Texas
prison system, as well as his work in founding and leading the New
Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter, see his website
athttp://www.rashidmod.com
As Robert Boyle, Esq. said, "The struggle is far from over: the DOC will no doubt appeal this ruling. But a victory! Thanks Pam Africa and all the Mumia supporters and all of you."
"Everyone has to get on board to keep the pressure on. We have an opportunity here that we have never had before. We are going to do it as a unified community, everyone together." - Pam Africa
Let me be honest. We fundraise like we breathe. We have to. We are going to win-- with your key help. We've got until midnight tomorrow to raise just $2,021! We're 97% there. Please pitch in today to help us reach $60K!
Tomorrow your phone will ring with a special message from Mumia. In it, he says, "This is indeed a serious time for me, and for us all. It is not easy to take on the state and prevail; however, it is right to do so. With your help, we may be able to prevail. This is Mumia Abu-Jamal, thanking you for supporting Prison Radio."
John, the clock's running out- but it's not too late to chip in and help us reach our goal! You can open the airwaves for prisoners to speak out in this urgent time of massive incarceration.
Will you pitch in with a gift of $103, $35 or even $250 to bring us to our goal by midnight and amplify the voices of prisoners?
Thank you for being a part of this struggle.
Cuando luchamos ganamos! When we fight we win!
To give by check:
Stock or legacy gifts:
1) Trump Plans to Begin E.P.A. Rollback With Order on Clean Water
By CORAL DAVENPORT FEB. 28, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/us/politics/trump-epa-clean-water-climate-change.html?rref=
collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=
stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront
2) Trump to Seek $54 Billion Increase in Military Spending
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and JENNIFER STEINHAUER FEB. 27, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/trump-budget-military.html?ref=business
3) Sydney's Swelter Has a Climate Change Link, Scientists Say
By HENRY FOUNTAIN MARCH 2, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/science/australia-heat-climate-change.html?rref=
collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=
rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
4) Across the Country, a Republican Push to Rein In Protesters
By MITCH SMITH and MICHAEL WINES MARCH 2, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/when-does-protest-cross-a-line-some-states-aim-to-
toughen-laws.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=
us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront
5) More Than 80 Percent of Patient Groups Accept Drug Industry Funds, Study Shows
By KATIE THOMAS MARCH 1, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/health/patient-groups-drug-industry-money.html?ref=business
6) Duterte May Be Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, Rights Group Says
By FELIPE VILLAMOR and MIKE IVES MARCH 2, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-human-rights-watch-philippines.html?rref=
collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=
stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
7) U.S. Wartime Budget
Trump's proposed increase in U.S. defense spending would be 80 percent of Russia's entire military budget
By Alex Emmons
The Intercept, February 27 2017
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/27/trumps-proposed-increase-in-u-s-defense-spending-would-be-80-percent-of-russias-entire-military-budget/
WASHINGTON — President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday aimed at rolling back one of former President Barack Obama's major environmental regulations to protect American waterways, but it will have almost no immediate legal effect, according to two people familiar with the White House plans.
The order will essentially give Mr. Trump a megaphone to direct his new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, to begin the complicated legal process of rewriting the sweeping 2015 rule known as Waters of the United States. But that effort could take longer than a single presidential term, legal experts said.
An advance copy of the order was viewed by The New York Times on Monday. It is the first of two announcements expected to direct Mr. Pruitt to begin dismantling the major pillars of Mr. Obama's environmental legacy.
In the coming week, Mr. Trump is also expected to sign a similar order instructing Mr. Pruitt to begin the process of withdrawing and revising Mr. Obama's signature 2015 climate-change regulation, aimed at curbing emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants.
Because both of those rules were finalized under existing laws long before Mr. Obama left office, they cannot be simply undone with a stroke of the president's pen, legal experts in both the Obama and Trump White Houses have said.
"The executive order has no legal significance at all," said Richard L. Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University. "It's like the president calling Scott Pruitt and telling him to start the legal proceedings. It does the same thing as a phone call or a tweet. It just signals that the president wants it to happen."
Still, Mr. Pruitt, who was confirmed by the Senate to his new position this month, is expected to enthusiastically dive in to the lengthy task of undoing major environmental rules on clean water, climate change and air pollution. In his former job as attorney general of Oklahoma, Mr. Pruitt led or took part in 14 lawsuits intended to block the E.P.A.'s major regulations, including the clean water and climate rules that he is now charged with dismantling.
Speaking over the weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Pruitt told an audience, to applause, "I think there are some regulations that in the near term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way," and he said those rollbacks would probably begin this week.
The clean water rule, completed by the Obama administration in spring 2015, was issued under the 1972 Clean Water Act. It gives the federal government broad authority to limit pollution in major bodies of water, like Chesapeake Bay, the Mississippi River and Puget Sound, as well as in streams and wetlands that drain into those larger waters.
Two Supreme Court decisions related to clean water protection, in 2001 and 2006, created legal confusion about whether the federal government had the authority to regulate the smaller streams and headwaters and about other water sources such as wetlands.
The Obama administration's water rule, put forth jointly by the E.P.A. and the Army Corps of Engineers, was intended to clarify that authority, allowing the government to once again limit pollution in those smaller bodies of water. Environmentalists have praised the rule, calling it an important step that will lead to significantly cleaner natural bodies of water and healthier drinking water.
But it has come under fierce attack from farmers, property developers, fertilizer and pesticide makers, oil and gas producers, golf-course owners and other business interests that contend that it will stifle economic growth and intrude on property owners' rights.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, which has led the legal fight against Mr. Obama's rule, contends that it places an undue burden on farmers in particular, who may find themselves required to apply for federal permits to use fertilizer near ditches and streams on their property that may eventually flow into larger rivers.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump won cheers from rural audiences when he vowed to roll back the rule.
Despite the controversy over the regulation, it has yet to be put into effect. A federal court delayed it as judges review the legal challenges against it. Mr. Trump's executive order directs Attorney General Jeff Sessions to review the challenges and to consider asking the court to delay a decision on the matter until a new regulation is released.
That could take several years. To follow the law, Mr. Pruitt will have to withdraw the current Obama administration water regulation and craft a new version of the rule, along with a justification as to why it would be legally superior to the earlier one. That would be subject to a public comment period before it is finalized, and it could face new lawsuits afterward.
Either way, the fight over who controls the nation's waterways is expected to end up in front of the Supreme Court. In directing Mr. Pruitt's efforts to craft the new water regulation, Mr. Trump's order asks him to consider a 2006 review of the rule that was written by Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice who died last year. Justice Scalia, who was long the court's most prominent conservative voice, offered a narrow and tightly constrained interpretation of what would constitute a federally protected body of water. Based on his interpretation, the number of federally protected waterways under Mr. Trump's order would probably be far less than the 60 percent covered by the Obama administration.
Also on Tuesday, Mr. Trump plans to sign an executive order intended to strengthen the federal office in charge of coordinating support for the nation's historically black colleges and universities. That office has for years been housed in the Education Department, but it will now move to the White House, officials said.
Aides to the president, who requested anonymity to discuss the executive order before it had been officially announced, said Mr. Trump hoped the move would mean more support for the colleges. They said the president also hoped to enlist the colleges in efforts to help urban centers in America.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON — President Trump put both political parties on notice Monday that he intends to slash spending on many of the federal government's most politically sensitive programs — relating to education, the environment, science and poverty — to protect the economic security of retirees and to shift billions more to the armed forces.
The proposal to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut nonmilitary programs by the same amount was unveiled by White House officials as they prepared the president's plans for next year's federal budget. Aides to the president said final decisions about Medicare and Social Security would not be made until later in the year, when he announces his full budget. But Sean Spicer, his spokesman, cited Mr. Trump's campaign commitments about protecting those programs and vowed that "he's going to keep his word to the American people."
In effect, Mr. Trump appears determined to take sides in a generational struggle between older, sicker Americans who depend on the entitlement programs, and their younger, poorer counterparts whose livelihoods are shaped by the domestic programs likely to see steep cuts.
He also set up a battle for control of Republican Party ideology with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who for years has staked his policy-making reputation on the argument that taming the budget deficit without tax increases would require that Congress change, and cut, the programs that swallow the bulk of the government's spending — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"I don't know how you take $54 billion out without wholesale taking out entire departments," said Bill Hoagland, a longtime Republican budget aide in the Senate and now a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "You need to control it in the area of the entitlement programs, which he's taken off the table. It is a proposal, I dare say, that will be dead on arrival even with a Republican Congress."
Speaking to governors at the White House, Mr. Trump said his spending demands would be at the core of the speech he gives Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. "This budget follows through on my promise to keep Americans safe," he said, calling it a "public safety and national security" budget that will send a "message to the world in these dangerous times of American strength, security and resolve."
In the first part of the speech, Mr. Trump will recount "promises made and promises kept," said the aides, who requested anonymity during a briefing with reporters. The rest of the speech will focus on how he will help people with their problems and how he intends to protect the nation.
The president's budget proposals — which were short on detail but are said to exempt not just Medicare and Social Security but also veterans' benefits and law enforcement efforts — would lead to deep reductions in federal programs that touch millions of lives. The White House signaled that it would begin with agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and social safety-net programs.
A budget with no entitlement cuts and one that does not balance most likely has no chance of passing the House, and could be rejected by Senate Republicans as well. Mr. Trump's proposals are too far to the right in terms of domestic cuts and too far to the left in terms of balance. Their failure could have practical implications for the White House.
If Congress fails to pass a budget blueprint for the fiscal year that begins in October, Mr. Trump's promise to drastically rewrite the tax code could also die, since the president was counting on that budget resolution to include special parliamentary language that would shield his tax cuts from a Democratic filibuster. Without it, any tax legislation would have to be bipartisan enough to clear the Senate with 60 votes.
But beyond legislative considerations, the fate of Mr. Trump's proposal will go a long way toward determining how significantly his brand of economic populism has changed Republican orthodoxy.
Mr. Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that Republican promises to transform Medicare and slash entitlement spending were the reason the party lost the White House in 2012, helpfully name-checking Mr. Ryan, who sat at the bottom of the ticket that year, in his analysis. Social Security, health care and net interest now comprise nearly 60 percent of all federal spending, and that figure is expected to soar to 82 percent over the next 10 years.
"Paul Ryan's budget plans with cuts to Social Security and Medicare are not that popular with most voters, and what helped elect Donald Trump was the promise not to cut benefits and programs," said Douglas Elmendorf, the recently departed director of the Congressional Budget Office and current dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "That is an unresolved tension."
White House officials said the broad outlines of a spending plan represented the logical culmination of Mr. Trump's efforts to make good on his campaign pledges to prune what he considers wasteful government spending even as he expands what he considers an underfunded military.
"It will show the president is keeping his promises and doing exactly what he said he was going to do," said Mick Mulvaney, the president's budget director. "We are taking his words and turning them into policies and dollars."
Mr. Trump's advisers said aid to foreign governments, which makes up a tiny fraction of federal spending, was one such target.
The budget for the I.R.S., which was the target of Republican criticism during Barack Obama's administration, would be slashed by 14 percent, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which provides grants for community banks and local development, would be all but eliminated.
The White House blueprint calls for a 24 percent cut to the E.P.A.'s budget, according to a person who had seen the document but was not authorized to speak on the record. That would amount to a reduction of about $2 billion from the agency's annual budget of about $8.1 billion, reducing its spending to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan's presidency.
But it is far from clear whether Congress will approve such steep cuts in popular programs.
While congressional Republicans have long targeted the E.P.A.'s regulatory authority, they are also aware that about half the agency's annual budget is passed through to popular state-level programs, like converting abandoned industrial sites into sports stadiums and other public facilities, which lawmakers of both parties are loath to cut. And most of the agency's federal office spending goes toward funding programs that are required by existing laws. Last year, even as congressional Republicans railed against the Obama administration's E.P.A. regulations, they proposed cutting only $291 million from the agency's budget.
Environmental advocates denounced the proposed cuts, saying they would devastate environmental protection and public health programs while doing little to increase national security.
"The assault on human health begins now with President Trump's plan to slash the E.P.A.'s resources, which are vital to protecting Americans' drinking water and air from pollution," said Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.
But the information to emerge about the budget raises more questions than it answers.
Democrats, of course, will be no friend, either.
"Democrats will make crystal clear the misplaced priorities of the administration and the Republican majority," said Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, "and we will fight tooth and nail to protect services and investments that are critical to hard-working American families and communities across the country."
But the budget may be the most striking example in Mr. Trump's young presidency of the ways in which he is challenging the orthodoxy of his own party. Since the start of his insurgent campaign, Mr. Trump has opposed the Republican Party's long-held positions on a range of policies, including free trade, how to deal with Russia and the future of government entitlement programs.
Republicans in Congress had hoped that the influence of the two former Republican House members in Mr. Trump's cabinet — Tom Price, head of health and human services, and Mr. Mulvaney — would have led to new conclusions about the need to address entitlement programs that are swelling drastically with baby boomers' retirement.
Instead, Mr. Trump appears intent on extracting the savings he needs for military spending from the one part of the budget already most squeezed, domestic discretionary spending.
Coral Davenport, Helene Cooper and Matt Apuzzo contributed reporting.
Southeastern Australia has suffered through a series of brutal heat waves over the past two months, with temperatures reaching a scorching 113 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of the state of New South Wales.
"It was nothing short of awful," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. "In Australia, we're used to a little bit of heat. But this was at another level."
So Dr. Perkins-Kirkpatrick, who studies climate extremes, did what comes naturally: She looked to see whether there was a link between the heat and human-driven climate change.
Her analysis, conducted with a loose-knit group of researchers called World Weather Attribution, was made public on Thursday. Their conclusion was that climate change made maximum temperatures like those seen in January and February at least 10 times more likely than a century ago, before significant greenhouse gas emissions from human activity started warming the planet.
Looked at another way, that means that the kind of soaring temperatures expected to occur in New South Wales once every 500 years on average now may occur once every 50 years. What is more, the researchers found that if climate change continued unabated, such maximum temperatures may occur on average every five years.
For the overall 2016-17 summer in New South Wales, the researchers say, climate change made the hot average temperatures — which set records for the state — at least 50 times more likely than in the past.
The findings are the latest in what has become a growing field: studies that try to assess the influence of climate change on extreme weather as soon as possible. The idea is to offer scientific analyses of heat waves, floods and other events while people are still talking about them, and to counter the spread of misinformation, intentional or not, about the impact of global warming.
Climate scientists have long said that climate change should bring an increase in extreme events like dry spells and heat waves. Because warmth causes more evaporation and warmer air holds more moisture, climate change should also lead to more intense and frequent storms.
Studies have shown that these effects are occurring on a broad scale. But the natural variability of weather makes looking at individual events more difficult.
World Weather Attribution, which is coordinated by Climate Central, a research organization in Princeton, N.J., is one of a number of groups doing rapid analysis. Among other events, they have looked at flooding in Germany and France last May; high temperatures in the Arctic in November and December; and an usually strong storm that hit northern Britain in 2015.
Not all of attribution studies have found a climate-change link. In general, studies of heat waves tend to produce the clearest signal of the influence, or not, of global warming.
Australian heat waves have been examined in the past, most recently in several studies that showed a clear link between climate change and a period of torrid weather in 2013. David Karoly, a scientist at the University of Melbourne, was involved in one of the studies, which took more than six months to produce.
"That was considered very rapid at the time," Dr. Karoly said.
As a member of World Weather Attribution, Dr. Karoly helped with the study of the recent heat waves, which took about two weeks.
A big difference between the two studies is in the use of computer climate models — both of the current atmosphere with its greenhouse gas emissions and of a hypothetical atmosphere as if those emissions had never occurred and climate change was not happening.
For the older study, as for most attribution studies in the recent past, the models were run over and over again, which took months. The newer, rapid studies use models that have already been run, extracting data as needed.
BISMARCK, N.D. — About an hour after some 200 police officers cleared the last demonstrators against the Dakota Access Pipeline from their sprawling encampment on the North Dakota prairie last week, Gov. Doug Burgum signed into law four bills aimed at making it easier to control such protests.
With a few strokes of a pen, he placed the state in the vanguard of an emerging backlash by conservative forces against political and social advocates who see demonstrations — however unruly — as free speech protected by the Constitution.
In a season rife with demonstrations over immigration, pipelines, abortion, women's rights and more, Republican legislators in at least 16 states have filed bills intended to make protests more orderly or to toughen penalties against ones that go awry. Republicans in two other states, Massachusetts and North Carolina, have said they will file protest-related bills.
Those numbers include only bills whose sponsors have specifically linked them to protests, said Jonathan Griffin, a policy analyst who tracks the measures at the National Conference of State Legislatures. How many will be enacted is unclear; a few already have been pronounced dead in committee.
Some sociologists and legal experts say the bills are in line with a general trend toward tougher treatment of protesters after especially disruptive demonstrations like the Occupy Wall Street movement in Manhattan and the 2014 violence in Ferguson, Mo.
But interviews and news reports suggest that some of the measures are either backed by supporters of President Trump or are responses to demonstrations against him and his policies. After a Nashville motorist struck safety workers who were escorting anti-Trump protesters at a crosswalk, a Tennessee state representative introduced legislation that would relieve motorists of any liability should they accidentally hit someone deliberately blocking a street.
An Iowa bill, filed after about 100 anti-Trump protesters closed Interstate 80 near Iowa City, would make blocking high-speed roads a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and $7,500 in fines. Similar legislation in Mississippi would impose a fine of up to $10,000. In Washington State, a Republican senator who helped run Mr. Trump's campaign there filed legislation that would make it a felony to commit "economic terrorism," defined as intentionally breaking the law to intimidate private citizens or to obstruct economic activity.
A Minnesota bill, responding to protests over the police shooting last year of an African-American man in a suburb of St. Paul, would allow cities to sue demonstrators who violate the law for the cost of policing their protests. And in North Carolina, a legislator promised to propose a measure making it illegal to "threaten, intimidate or retaliate" against state officials after hecklers denounced Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who lost a re-election bid in November.
Those two measures and perhaps others may face constitutional hurdles, said Kevin F. O'Neill, a scholar of protest law at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. "There's a First Amendment right of access to sidewalks, public squares and even public streets," he said. "Heckling is a well-protected First Amendment right."
But demonstrators who fail to inform authorities of protest plans and locations and to secure a permit are on far shakier legal ground, he added. In those cases, actions like blocking a street would most likely be subject to prosecution. Most of the proposals appear to address protests that lack permits.
In many cases, the bills' sponsors emphasize that they are trying to improve public safety or keep order, not squelch free speech.
"We support the First Amendment altogether and want people to get out and do what they want," said State Senator George B. Gainer, Republican of Florida, who has proposed legislation that would raise fines for blocking traffic and, like the Tennessee measure, indemnify drivers who accidentally hit protesters. "But they shouldn't endanger themselves or others."
Some free-speech advocates, however, have their doubts. "There are already laws on the books in states that say if you break something or harm somebody, you're going to be prosecuted," said Patrick F. Gillham, a sociologist at Western Washington University who studies protests. "They're troubling. They potentially have a chilling effect on protest."
In Georgia, where the State Senate has passed legislation toughening the penalty for obstructing traffic, Worth Bishop, a volunteer for the anti-Trump movement Indivisible, said the proliferation of protest-related bills took aim at the First Amendment.
"These laws are clearly designed to abridge the right of the people to lawful assembly," Mr. Bishop said. He called the proposals "intimidation from the right," saying there was scant demand for the measures from the police.
In North Dakota, legislators rejected a bill similar to Tennessee's that would have shielded motorists. But they enacted measures that expand the criminal trespass law, raise penalties for riot offenses, criminalize wearing masks and hoods while violating the law, and make it easier for out-of-state police officers to assist local authorities during events like protests.
Kyle Kirchmeier, the sheriff in Morton County, N.D., where the main protest camp was, cast the measures as needed additions to existing laws that were insufficient to contain the huge anti-pipeline demonstrations. "As this went along," he said, "there was definitely areas in the law that we've seen that weren't fitting, especially when people tie themselves to equipment and that type of thing."
But demonstrators and civil liberties advocates sense a dark ulterior motive, and describe the new North Dakota measures as thinly veiled attempts to quell dissent and criminalize protest. The bills passed the Republican-dominated legislature with large majorities, and took effect immediately after the governor signed them.
"They're looking for clever ways to send chilling effects," said Chase Iron Eyes, a prominent pipeline protester and recent congressional candidate who was charged with inciting a riot after a February arrest. "The state will try to devise ways to squash opposition and chill the will of people who are willing to face risks to their liberty to further their cause."
Opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline led to a remarkable mobilization of activists, many of them Native American, who spent months camped out demanding a halt to construction.
The gathering drew international headlines, prompted violent clashes with law enforcement and led to the mobilization of the National Guard and the installation of razor wire and roadblocks on rural byways.
In North Dakota, a rural state with a large energy industry where gatherings of such magnitude were unprecedented, the protests exhausted police resources and brought unwelcome scrutiny.
"You have something that's chewing up tens of millions of dollars of extra law enforcement cost that we don't have," said Mr. Burgum, a Republican who took office in December when tensions were at a fever pitch, and who ordered the evacuation of the main camp last week.
Mr. Burgum, a first-time politician, earned praise for taking a more hands-on approach in meeting with tribal officials and protesters, and for arranging for the state to cover the cost of bus tickets and meals for out-of-town demonstrators who needed help getting home.
Kelly Armstrong, a state senator and the chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party, said the political environment in the state was sympathetic to law enforcement, and concerned about the monetary and reputational cost of the protests.
"For the most part, everyone in North Dakota was about ready for this to be over about two weeks after this started," Mr. Armstrong said. "The politics of it, there's not really an upside to being a pro-DAPL-protester politician," he added, using initials for the pipeline.
But in that context, civil liberties advocates see the new protest-inspired laws as especially dangerous. Jennifer Cook, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, said there was a "concentrated effort to criminalize protests" in the state and that the new laws were "masked as ways to protect public safety."
"We know that the bills were inspired by the events down in Morton County," Ms. Cook said, "and that they are focused on preventing protesters from protesting, essentially."
Mitch Smith reported from Bismarck, and Michael Wines from New York.
The nation's largest patient advocacy groups are on the front lines of some of the biggest health care debates, from the soaring costs of prescription drugs to whether new medicines are being approved quickly enough.
But while their voices carry weight because they represent the interests of sick patients, a new study has found that more than 80 percent of them accept funding from drug and medical-device companies. For some groups, the donations from industry accounted for more than half of their annual income, and in nearly 40 percent of cases, industry executives sit on governing boards, according to the study, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Nearly "nine out of every 10 are taking money," said Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an oncologist and vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the authors of the study, which looked at the top 104 nonprofit patient advocacy groups that reported more than $7.5 million in annual revenues for 2014. "I think that is not well known — I think that is a shock."
Dr. Emanuel, who previously advised President Obama on health care, said patient groups were far less transparent about conflicts of interest than medical researchers, who are now pushed to disclose ties to the drug and device industries when they write articles and make public appearances.
"Compared to what researchers are doing, this is pathetic," he said. And yet "they wrap themselves in white as if they're pure."
Patient groups said they have taken steps in recent years to improve their financial disclosures and conflict-of-interest policies, and rejected the suggestion that they were influenced by their corporate donors.
"Patient advocacy organizations are driven by their missions — putting patients first," said Marc M. Boutin, the chief executive of the National Health Council, an umbrella group for patient-advocacy groups. "To say otherwise negates the extraordinary work achieved by these organizations on behalf of their patients." The health council had previously said that pharmaceutical companies accounted for 62 percent of the council's $3.5 million budget in 2015.
The study also found a wide disparity in how the groups disclose the donations, making it difficult for members of the public to know how significant the industry funding is. The study authors gathered their data by examining the websites of the nonprofit groups, as well as their tax filings and annual reports from 2014.
The researchers pointed to the National Hemophilia Foundation as one group that is vague about its funding because, although it lists corporate donors, it only discloses donation ranges. Drug makers contributed a range from $8.5 million to $14 million of the group's $16.8 million annual budget in 2014, the year researchers studied. Its top donors, Baxter, Biogen and Novo Nordisk, make products used by people with hemophilia; each donated between $2 million and $3 million, the researchers said.
The American Diabetes Association, by contrast, reported receiving more than $28 million in industry funding in 2014, or about 15 percent of its budget, but provided detailed disclosures of which companies donated, and how much, the study authors said.
In a statement, the hemophilia foundation said it never allows its corporate sponsors to influence its decision-making, and that it also does not endorse specific products or favor certain companies. It declined to provide precise dollar amounts of contributions from companies, saying that the foundation complied with "accepted financial reporting standards."
The study's authors said transparency could be improved by requiring the drug and device industries to report how much they donate to patient groups, much like they are already required to do with doctors.
That was applauded by other critics of the drug industry. "I think sunshine is an excellent disinfectant," said David Mitchell, the founder of a new group, Patients for Affordable Drugs, that seeks to lower drug prices, and does not take funding from industry groups. He was not involved in the study.
Mr. Mitchell said patient groups often do not disclose that they take industry funds when they testify before Congress or government agencies, or when they disseminate educational information to patients.
Many have also been silent on the issue of rising drug prices, even as the issue has enraged patients, who have been increasingly exposed to the prices that pharmaceutical companies set as insurers have asked them to pay a greater share of their drug costs. Last summer, patients and their families loudly protested the skyrocketing price of EpiPens, though the movement gathered steam on social media rather than through traditional patient-advocacy groups.
And a year ago, for example, a representative for the National Psoriasis Foundation did not disclose that her group receives at least 40 percent of its annual revenues from drug companies when she testified before the North Carolina state legislature on an unsuccessful measure supported by the pharmaceutical industry that would have limited insurers' ability to block coverage of certain drugs. Similarly, the hemophilia foundation did not disclose its pharmaceutical ties when it took the industry's side in 2015 in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration over the issue of biosimilars, which are cheaper alternatives to complex biological drugs.
"In the absence of disclosure," Mr. Mitchell said, "those policy makers or patients are unable to make informed judgments about the motives of the information being given, and the credibility of the information."
Randy Beranek, president and chief executive of the psoriasisfoundation, said he did not see a conflict of interest because both the foundation and pharmaceutical companies are seeking to help serve patients.
"Our interests all intersect at some point, and that's at the patient," he said.
In the case of the North Carolina proposal, Mr. Beranek acknowledged that his group sides with the drug industry on some issues but said, "it's a coincidence that it's an important policy issue to them, but to us, it's in the patient interest."
Holly Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade organization, said its members did not expect patient groups to agree with them on every issue. "We work with many organizations with which we have disagreements on public policy issues, including on prescription medicine costs, but believe engagement and dialogue are critical," she said.
MANILA — Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines may have committed crimes against humanity by inciting killings during his bloody antidrug campaign.
Thousands of people have been killed by the police or by vigilantes since Mr. Duterte became president in June, and rights groups say the police may have ordered the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and users, a charge that officials have denied.
In a report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch examined 32 deaths from October to January, all involving the Philippine National Police. Police reports asserted that officers had committed the killings in self-defense, but witnesses characterized them as "coldblooded murders of unarmed drug suspects in custody," the rights group's study said.
"We think there's a very strong case to be made in front of the I.C.C. that crimes against humanity have been committed," Elaine Pearson, the Australia director at Human Rights Watch, said by telephone, referring to the International Criminal Court. She said the first step should be parallel investigations into Mr. Duterte's antidrug campaign by the United Nations and by the Philippine Justice Department.
In a statement on Thursday, Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Mr. Duterte, said the report's allegations were baseless.
"A war on criminality is not a war on humanity," he said. "On the contrary, it is a war precisely to protect humanity from a modern-day evil. To say otherwise is to undermine society's legitimate desire to be free from fear and to pander to the interests of the criminals."
The Philippines is a member of the International Criminal Court. In October, the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement that she was "deeply concerned" about reports of extrajudicial killings in the country.
Ms. Bensouda said the killings could fall under the international court's jurisdiction "if they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population pursuant to a state policy to commit such an attack."
But Romel Bagares, a rights lawyer at the Center for International Law in Manila, said in an interview on Thursday that Philippine law appears to grant the president immunity from prosecution while in office.
Even though the International Criminal Court encourages domestic courts to prosecute crimes against humanity, "it may not be helpful at this point to immediately raise the I.C.C.'s jurisdiction as a trump card," Mr. Bagares added. "The threshold has to be established by documenting the relevant cases, and filing the cases in Philippine courts, if only to show that there is a failure or an unwillingness to prosecute on the part of the state."
It is unlikely that Mr. Duterte would face domestic prosecution while president. His allies control both houses of Congress, and his justice secretary, Vitaliano Aguirre II, is one of his old fraternity brothers.
Last week, Mr. Aguirre oversaw the arrest of Senator Leila de Lima, the chief critic of Mr. Duterte's bloody antidrug campaign, on charges that she took bribes from imprisoned drug traffickers.
Ms. de Lima chaired a Senate panel last year that heard testimony from a professed hit man who said he belonged to a death squad that Mr. Duterte had overseen while serving as mayor of Davao City. Ms. de Lima has denied the charges against her, describing them as political persecution.
Follow Mike Ives on Twitter @mikeives.
Felipe Villamor reported from Manila, and Mike Ives from Hong Kong.
The U.S. government already spends $600 billion dollars a year on its military—more money than the next seven biggest spenders combined, including China and Russia.
On Monday, February 27, 2017, the White House said it would request $54 billion more in military spending for next year. That increase alone is roughly the size of the entire annual military budget of the United Kingdom, the fifth-largest spending country, and it's more than 80 percent of Russia's entire military budget in 2015.
If Congress were to follow Trump's blueprint, the U.S. military budget could account for nearly 40 percent of global military spending next year. The U.S. would be outspending Russia by a margin of greater than nine-to-one.
At a meeting of U.S. governors on Monday, Trump described his forthcoming budget proposal as "a public safety and national security budget."
U.S. military spending has been at permanent wartime levels since the 2001 terror attacks, despite the significant drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq under President Obama. Spending has declined since the wars were at their peak in 2010, but U.S. military spending in 2015 remains at 190 percent of what it was before 9/11, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, a leading tracker of weapons and defense spending.
Throughout his campaign, Trump criticized bloated weapons contracts and the overall cost of wars in the Middle East. But he also promised to make the military "strong again," pledging to build 70 new warships and increase the number of troops in the Army to the same high levels as during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Trump has also called for the U.S. to "greatly expand" its nuclear weapons capabilities, signaling a potential willingness to expand a $1 trillion modernization effort Obama started that was already widely criticized by budget critics as unaffordable.
The White House did not elaborate on how the Pentagon would spend the extra money. CNN reported that the White House was planning dramatic cuts to the EPA and foreign aid budgets. Both are tiny components of the federal budget and are unlikely to add up to anywhere near $54 billion.
Posted by Bonnie Weinstein at 8:54 AM 1 comment:
BAUAW NEWSLETTER, THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017


text:
The papal visit to Turkey
A message of peace and dialogue
Pope Francis' three-day visit to Turkey was the first papal visit to that country in eight years. The pontiff made a lasting impression on the Turkish people. By Luise Sammann in IstanbulMore
Pope Francis in the Middle East: Gestures laden with symbolismFormer Bosnian Grand Mufti's message to Pope Francis: Call to Muslim-Christian friendshipPope Benedict XVI and Turkey's Muslims: The eternal theologianQantara dossier: Dialogue of Religions
Muslims in Germany
Blocked integration
The case of the cancelled event against homophobia at the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin is not evidence of the "backwardness of Islam", as many so-called "critics of Islam" are claiming. It is solely an illustration of the fact that conditions in Germany make it incredibly difficult for Muslims to be a self-determined and equal part of our society. By Armin LangerMore
The German Muslim community's protest against extremism: "No" to hatred and injusticeInterview with the sociologist of religion Detlef Pollack: "Germans are much less tolerant"Debate about the role of Muslims in fighting Islamist terrorism: IS is not just a Muslim problemChanging the orientation of Germany's Islam Conference: New agenda, same old faces
Book review: Kamal Ruhayyim's "Diary of a Muslim Jew"
An engaging take on a complex theme
In the first half of the twentieth century, about 75,000 Jews lived in Egypt. With the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, their lives in Egypt became increasingly difficult and many emigrated to Europe. Kamal Ruhayyim believes that Jewish Egyptians were an important part of the Egyptian community and wrote a book to keep their memory alive. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the English translation of the first book in Ruhayyim's trilogy "Diary of a Muslim Jew"More
Book review: Jabbour Douaihy's "June Rain": A "whodunit" without the "who"Interview with the Egyptian author Mansoura Ez-Eldin: "The current situation is untenable"Jewish life in north Africa: Facing a precarious futureDossier: Egyptian literature Arabic Literature in English by Marcia Qualey
Interview with Navid Kermani
"One should take the religious façade seriously"
The writer Navid Kermani spent a week in mid September travelling through Iraq, visiting a number of different parts of the country. In this interview with Kersten Knipp, he speaks of his impressions of the country and some factors that have led to the rise of IS in IraqMore
Islamic State (IS): A totalitarian, expansive and hegemonic projectNew government in Iraq: Shouldering a huge political burdenBritish fatwa against IS: Breaking the spell of a poisonous ideology
"Peace is the Future" meeting in Antwerp
A world in flames
Representatives of the world's religions came together at the Community of Sant'Egidio's international peace meeting in Antwerp in September to discuss peace. Despite the sobering testimonials and the awareness of the horrors being committed around the world in the name of religion, there were clear signs of hope. To the surprise of many, the Grand Mufti of Egypt spoke out plainly against the barbarism of Islamist terrorist groups. By Daniel DeckersMore
Dossier: Dialoque of religionsPope Francis in the Middle East: Gestures laden with symbolismFormer Bosnian Grand Mufti's message to Pope Francis: Call to Muslim-Christian friendshipCommunity of Sant'Egidio
Interfaith dialogue in Palestine
Reviving a heritage of peaceful co-existence
In the village of Kafr Kana in Galilee, Mayor Mujahid Awawida wants to set an example and take a symbolic stand against IS terrorism and religious intolerance: he intends to construct a new complex that will house a mosque, a church and a park. Khaled Hroub has the detailsMore
Israeli-Palestinian relations: Dialogue in a time of conflictIsraeli–Palestinian dialogue in Germany: It is possible to work togetherInterreligious dialogue in Morocco: Peaceful co-existence between divine religions
Interview with the sociologist of religion Detlef Pollack
"Germans are much less tolerant"
The Archbishop of Cologne recently drew distinctions between the value of Christian and Muslim families in Germany. For Detlef Pollack, this is not an expression of Islamophobia, but an example of German reservations. Stefan Dege spoke to the sociologist of religionMore
Muslims in Germany: ''Integration in Germany Is Making Progress''Row over Report on Young Muslims in Germany: Easy Pickings for Headline GrabbersDispute about Prof Mouhanad Khorchide: A Conflict of Many Layers
"The Physician" by Noah Gordon
The long road from international bestseller to film
The novel "The Physician" was one of the biggest international successes of the last few decades. So it's all the more surprising that it wasn't made into a film years ago. A big-screen version has now finally been released – with a German production team. By Regina RolandMore
''The House of Wisdom'' by Jim Al-Khalili: The Golden Age of Learning in the Arab-speaking WorldPhilosophy in Iran: Between Critical Rationalism and Eastern WisdomNorth Africa and the Arab Spring in Film: Between Rebellion and Ideals
Interview with the Migration Expert Rita Süssmuth
Learning to Deal with Diversity
If Europe's immigration policy is not changed in the coming years, the continent's population will start to shrink dramatically in 2025. Annika Zeitler spoke to the German migration expert and former President of the Bundestag, Rita SüssmuthMore
The Lampedusa Tragedy: EU Refugee Policy Is Morally BankruptThe EU's Migration and Asylum Policy: Not in Line with European ValuesDossier: Policy on Refugees and Migration
Mohammed Helmy
First Arab Honoured by Israel for Rescuing Jewish Family from the Nazis
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute for the first time granted an award to an Egyptian for rescuing a Jewish family during World War II in Berlin. Igal Avidan spoke to Irena Steinfeldt, director of the Department for the Righteous Among the Nations in Yad VashemMore
Holocaust Research: The Arab Righteous of the MaghrebThe Arabs and Nazi Germany: Collaborators and AntagonistsThe Holocaust in the Arab World: The Politicization of Human Genocide
Interfaith Partnerships in Germany
Cultural Diversity as an Enrichment
In light of the increasing cultural and religious diversity in society, interfaith partnerships are nowadays no longer a rarity. How do these couples experience everyday life together and how to they deal with each other's different culture, traditions, and value systems? Julie Schwannecke provides some insightMore
Muslims and Inter-Religious Marriages: Negotiating Religion and Social IdentityA German-Turkish Love Story: Müzeyyen Adores ChristmasMorocco: Peaceful Co-existence between Divine Religions
The Dialogue Lexicon
Christianity and Islam on Equal Terms
The Eugen Biser Foundation in Munich and the Islamic-Theological Faculty at the University of Ankara have published a joint lexicon of basic terms from Christianity and Islam. The reference text in German and Turkish provides, for the first time, a parallel presentation of two monotheistic religions in one work. By Claudia MendeMore
Inter-religious Research Training Group: God's Think Tank Christian-Muslim Dialogue in Germany: Together in the Search for GodIslamic Law and Ethics: ''We Are Calling for a New Interpretation of the Koran''
Sunni-Shia Relations
Plea for a Muslim Peace
The Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia-Herzegovina Sheikh Mustafa Cerić looks to the past for lessons on improving Sunni-Shi'a relations in today's Middle East. They are the key to regional stability, he saysMore
Sheikh Mustafa Ceric: Call to Muslim-Christian FriendshipInterview with Mustafa Ceric: "The West Does Not Want to Share Its Values"Islam in Bosnia: ''We belong to the West, culturally and mentally''
Interview with Medical Ethicist Ilhan Ilkilic
Inter-religious Dialogue on Matters of Health
Ilhan Ilkilic, a doctor, medical ethicist and scholar of Islam of Turkish descent, is the first Muslim to sit on Germany's National Ethics Council and regards this institution as an experiment that can boost inter-religious dialogue within German society. He spoke to Julie SchwanneckeMore
Interview with Feridun Zaimoglu: ''Germany is Making Itself a Laughing Stock''Ruling on Circumcision in Germany: When Judges Become Religious RefereesGerman Court Ruling over Ritual Circumcision: Kulturkampf against Muslims and Jews
Interview with the Lebanese Artist Ghazi Kahwaji
''I Believe that Several Paths Lead to God''
The Lebanese artist and writer Ghazi Kahwaji sees the revival of Mediterranean humanism as a basis for intercultural dialogue between Arab and European societies. An interview by Aladdin SarhanMore
Ibn Rushd and Maimonides in: The Muslim-Jewish Heritage of Islamic SpainMediterranean Music Cultures: The Wonderful World of MuwashshahatAndré Azoulay: "The Dialogue between the Cultures Is My Life's Work"
Evidence Does Not Support Fears of Islam in the West
Why has a dichotomy persisted between Muslim and Western societies despite the bulk of academic research dispelling any notion of incompatibility? Director of the Islam in the West program at Harvard University Jocelyne Cesari explainsMore
John R. Bowden's ''Blaming Islam'': Deconstructing PopulismGerman Human Rights Expert: ''The Hard Core of Islamophobia Is Racist''Imam Abdur-Rashid on Islam in the US: Islamophobia as an Integral Part of the Political Platform

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Download Book African American Teens Discuss Their Schooling Experiences in PDF format. You can Read Online African American Teens Discuss Their Schooling Experiences here in PDF, EPUB, Mobi or Docx formats.
The purpose of this study--based on interviews and questionnaire results from nearly 300 African-American students--is to provide educational policymakers, teachers, counselors, and administrators with feedback that can improve the schooling experiences of all African-American students. African-American teens have high expectations for themselves, their teachers, and their counselors, and they want challenge and rigor instead of a low level of instruction.
This book discusses measures of work-family, conflict, policies designed to reduce conflict, comparisons with other industrialized nations, and reasons why family-friendly work-policies have not been adopted with enthusiasm.
A study of African American parents/guardians raising school-age children and their views on the value of education and the American public school system.
This handbook brings together in a single volume the groundbreaking work of scholars who have conducted studies of student experiences of school in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, England, Ghana, Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States. Drawing extensively on students' interpretations of their experiences in school as expressed in their own words, chapter authors offer insight into how students conceptualize and approach school. The book examines how students understand and address the ongoing social opportunities for and challenges in working with other students and teachers, and the multiple ways in which students shape and contribute to school improvement.
This much-needed book will help schools, and by extension society, better understand and identify the promise, potential, and possibilities of Black boys. Drawing from their wealth of experience in early childhood education, the authors present an assest- and strengths-based view of educating young African American males. This positive approach enables practitioners and school leaders to recognize, understand, and cultivate the diversity of social skills of African American boys in the early grades (pre-K - 3rd grade). Each chapter begins with a vignette to illustrate what is lost when African American boys are preventd from participating freely in boyhood, having to instead attend to adult and peer interactions and attitudes that view them as "bad boys" and "troublemakers." This accessible book provides teachers with classsroom strategies to help young African American boys achieve their highest potential, along with other resources for supporting their social-emotional development, such as a reading list of authentic, multicultural children's books with Black boys as protagonist.
In this book, Gail L. Thompson takes on the volatile topic of the role of race in education and explores the black-white achievement gap and the cultural divide that exists between some teachers and African American students. Solidly based on research conducted with 175 educators, Through Ebony Eyes provides information and strategies that will help teachers increase their effectiveness with African American students. Written in conversational language, Through Ebony Eyes offers a wealth of examples and personal stories that clearly demonstrate the cultural differences that exist in the schools and offers a three-part, long-term professional development plan that will help teachers become more effective.
Over the past 15 years, I have had the opportunityto conduct research and interv- tion programming with African American girls. Several of my graduate students, mostly African American women, pursuing their doctorates in psychology worked closely with me in this work. We have conducted hundreds of literature reviews, read many journal articles and reports, published many papers, and engaged over a thousand African American adolescent girls in a cultural curriculum speci?cally designed for them. This book was written to summarize this work and was c- ceived to be an educational resource for diverse audiences who work with African American girls including: (1) researchers who conduct research and intervention programming; (2) professionals who work with African American adolescent girls such as teachers, social workers, prevention specialists, therapists and counselors, and mental health workers; and (3) a general audience of persons with an interest in African American adolescent female's well-being and developmentsuch as parents, community leaders, girl's group leaders (i. e. , Girl Scout leaders), and church and spiritual leaders. This book is both descriptive and practical. Each chapter covers the most current literature on African American adolescent girls, and reviews and discusses ways in which they are similar to and unique from girls in other ethnic groups and from African American boys. An understanding of who they are and how they function allows us to make recommendations about ways to support these girls and to re- cus and/or strengthen already positive attributes.
Research is documenting how a world youth culture is developing, how global migration is impacting youth, and how computer-mediated communication with the world is changing the literacy needs and identities of students. This book explores the dynamic range of literacy practices that are reconstructing gender identities in both empowering and disempowering ways and the implications for local literacy classrooms.


text:
June 17, 2019 by Sandeep Bhalla
Adieus Manmohan Singh
The session of 17th Lok Sabha has started today and two previous prime ministers shall not be its member. Sh. Dev Gowda lost his election and Sh. Manmohan Singh's term ended last friday, unceremoniously. The aspirant to PM office Rahul Gandhi chose to play truent, as he always does on important occassions. He did appear later in the day to take oath of membership of new house.
The Dummy Prime Minister:
Never before in the history of modern democratic world, a fraud worse than Manmohan Singh has been perpetuated upon people of any country. At least not to my knowledge. See this video which amply demonstrates the point literally.
Befitting silent farewell:
Dr Manmohan Singh, who assumed the charge of the country's prime minister for ten years as a Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament), was very quietly retired.
Friday was the last day of his fifth innings as a Rajya Sabha (Upper House) member. Like other members, he did not have the opportunity to share his experiences as MPs in the House nor did he get farewell on behalf of the Rajya Sabha.
Though I wonder what would be said in farewell?
He sat in office citing statistics when food inflation soared to 40% and he could think of nothing to remedy?
He was in office when currency slipped from about 40 to a dollor to 70 a sttep fall of over 40 % in 4 years? 'Was he really an economist ?' I would like to ask him.
What was he doing when bank loans without sufficient collateral were given to cronies?
What he did to remedy scams? Oh wait a minute, he was the kingpin who diluted cabinet into dozens of empowered committees to ensure it happens without obstacle.
In 2009 his coalition won sufficient majority on its own. People trusted him as he was the finance minister in 1991 who saw the economic fascism imposed by British/Nehru/Gandhi dismantled.
The opening of economy had brought qualitative change in the lives of people. People wanted Singh to repeat that performance as prime minister. After all Singh means Lion.
What did he do? He became a puppet prime minister in the hands of Italian Mafia. 2019 elections are a proof that Italian Mafia can not win on its own and that win of 2009 was that of Manmohan Singh.
The session of Parliament for that matter, the people will not miss the person whose name was lion but who is tamed can of Italian Gandhi's family.
Do you know the Gandhi were conned by their own staff into believing that they are returning to power in 2019? Read about it in Hindi, here.
Unemployment debate: It is the population growth, damn it!!