Select Page ::

Raymond Henry Rondeau Obituary – The Arizona Republic – The Arizona Republic

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

Raymond H. (Flash) Rondeau, 98, of Chandler, AZ, passed away peacefully on July 19, 2023, at Desert Rose Assisted Living.

Ray, the third oldest of 8 siblings, was born on August 18, 1924, in Uxbridge, MA to Frank and Ora (Bartlett) Rondeau. He attended Northbridge High School in Whitinsville, MA, but was unable to complete his graduation due to his service in WWII. He served in the Army Air Force and worked as a crew chief on the P-39, P-40, and P-51 fighter planes. Due to a state program that allowed WWII vets to receive their diploma later in life, Ray was thrilled to participate in person at his graduation services in June 2007, at age 84!

Upon Ray's discharge from the service, he returned home and married Lydia (DeStefanis) at Good Shepard Catholic Church in Linwood, MA on September 14, 1946; they were married for 60 years. In 1947, they moved to Milwaukee, WI, where Ray spent the next 40 years in the tool and die industry. Due to his exceptional machining skills, he worked as a jig bore/jig grinder. He retired from Master Lock in 1987.

Ray enjoyed volunteering, which started when their oldest daughter Deanna was diagnosed with Down Syndrome in 1950. He spent the next 13 years as an officer of the original Milwaukee Parents Group to advance education for mentally/physically challenged children. They accomplished a lot with minimal resources. After his retirement, Ray moved to Chandler, AZ. He became actively involved with Compadre Stadium during the time the Milwaukee Brewers had their spring training camp there, helping with maintenance and the team store. After the Brewers left Chandler, he then volunteered for another 10 years at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, handling their door hardware department.

Ray enjoyed supporting various sporting events in the valley, including the Super Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and other events. He also worked as an AZ Diamondbacks Golden Glover and had the chance to throw out a first pitch. Ray's hobbies included family road trips, photography, sharing stories of his life, and spending valuable time with his family.

Those Ray leaves behind to cherish his memory include his youngest daughter Linda Rondeau (Phoenix, AZ), his sister Lucille Kogut (Uxbridge, MA), brother Paul (Natalie) Rondeau (Georgetown, MA), sister-in-law Kathy Rondeau (Whitinsville, MA), and many nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends. Besides his parents, he is predeceased by his wife Lydia and oldest daughter Deanna. In addition, he is predeceased by his brothers Joe, Fred, Leo and Richard, and sister Doris.

The family would like to thank the staff at Desert Rose Assisted Living for their help and gentleness in caring for Ray.

Ray will always be remembered for being a good and hardworking man and always willing to lend a helping hand. He will be truly missed.

Ray's wishes were to be cremated and buried in a private ceremony at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery (Phoenix, AZ). Donations in Ray's memory can be made to a charity of your choice.

Posted online on August 03, 2023

Published in The Arizona Republic

See the article here:

Raymond Henry Rondeau Obituary - The Arizona Republic - The Arizona Republic

LOOKING BACK 08-04-23: 1953: Douthitt released after 3 years MIA … – Pmg-ky1.com

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

Information was gathered from previous years of The Shelby Sentinel, The Shelby News and The Sentinel-News.

Vance Simmons took second place and earned a silver medal for the 60-and-over long jump event in the Bluegrass State Games... A Shelbyville police officer, Rick Ellis, was taken to Jewish Hospital Shelbyville after he was hit in the head by a rock thrown by someone in a crowd that had gathered as officers tried to arrest two men on drug charges. He was treated and released... Heavy rains during the weekend caused flooding at the Leggett and Platt factory in Simpsonville, sending about 200 gallons of lubricant and hydraulic fluid into a ditch beside the plant... Im one: Nichlaus Peyton Hammons, Maetlynne Mackenzie Henson... Deaths: Brenda Brooks, 60; Margaret Slucher Delling, 87; Martine Bridget Marty Dorth, 80; Carolyn Virginia Franklin, 67; Gail S. Huecker, 75; Margaret White Quire, 96; James William Yocum, 85; Rachel Marie and Amber Nicole LeCompte, infant twins of Michael and Karen LeCompte; Lillian Beatrice Scherff, 77; Cornelius Bernard Marshall, 52.

Bobbie Smith resigned as Shelby Development Corporation director to begin working on a project for her client, the Kentucky League of Cities... By the end of the year a new Fifth Third Bank branch was scheduled to be next to Wendys restaurant on KY 55 South... More than 50 people gathered at the Mount Eden Post Office to celebrate the swearing-in of new postmaster, Janet Burgin... Parishioners of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation broke ground on the site for an 8,000-square-foot addition, located directly behind the existing church, to house a new sanctuary. It will be part of the churchs 15-year master plan to build a campus on the block between Main and Washington and 2nd and 1st streets... Matthew F. Ragland was recognized as the co-recipient of the award for Outstanding Mathematics Non-Teaching Student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences during the academic awards week at Morehead State University... Shelby County Fiscal Court members changed their minds and voted to allow the city of Shelbyville to annex land on Mount Eden Road, clearing the way for a Cracker Barrel Restaurant to locate there... Jonathan Ford, a graduate of Shelby County High School, was awarded the prestigious Henry Mason Lutes Memorial Scholarship from the University of Kentucky College of Engineering, totaling $3,000... Curty Dees turned working one day as a substitute for one day at Shelbyville High School into 38 years as a cook. She also prepared meals for West Middle School after the city and county school systems merged in 1975... Births: Tiffany Paige Asay, Danielle Marie Booth, Jeanell Charleen Kresin, Connor Tristan Merryman, Quinten Tyrique Turner, Amanda Cholonae Brown, Nathan Lee Barnett... Deaths: Carlis W. Hortenbury, 78; Owen Henry Sageser, 68; Albert Elliott, 70; Albert L. Elliott, 70; Lucille E. Hall, 77; Dennis Perry, 50; Mary E. Seay, 70; John R. Lee Sr., 65; James V. Marcum, 72; Mabel Payton Cooper Moore, 86.

Faint rumblings against legalizing liquor-by-the-drink were stirring as the Shelbyville City Council set in motion an ordinance that would allow such sales in two Shelbyville restaurants Sarahs, at 535 Main St., and Science Hill Inn, 525 Washington St. A restaurant must seat more than 100 people or hotels must have more than 50 rooms and be within the city limits to serve by the drink... After more than 36 years of employment at Shelby Rural Electric Corporation, Apparatus Specialist William Taylor retired... An effort to have Finchvilles old country store declared a fire hazard gained momentum as the head of the volunteer fire department declared the building unsafe... Shelby Countians won 62 medals during the Bluegrass State Games in Lexington 23 gold, 27 silver and 12 bronze to tie for 10th among the counties represented. Krista Williams, 7-year-old member of the Louisville Gym Club, won four gold medals and one silver to lead Shelby County athletes... I won something once a long time ago I think it was a radio. But this is the best Ive ever done. James Higgins, 71, described his reaction to winning $1,500 in Kountry Markets bankroll contest... As fall and winter approach, people in Shelby County might well stock up on antifreeze, find that old pair of gloves and get a new bathing suit. The areas newest winter activity will have a summer feel as the city pool, encased by a huge bubble, will stay open all year... A Shelby County Chamber of Commerce official advocated a tax on motel guests to fund a tourism effort, a plan that drew mixed reactions from local motel owners. Else Matthews, owner of The Image Tree on Washington Street, estimated such a tax on the areas 106 motel rooms could raise $20,000 per year to promote Shelby County... A train carrying 800 bales of hay from Oregon arrived in Shelby County. The donated hay was split among 15 farmers who were chosen in a lottery to cart home 50 bales each. Predictions were made that the summer drought could cause serious hay shortages this winter... The boys and girls softball teams at the Whitney M. Young Jr. Job Corps Center in Simpsonville represented their respective divisions in the National Job Corps Tournament in Atlanta... Chris Aldridge joined The Sentinel-News staff as sports editor, replacing Jeff DAlessio, who took a job with the Elizabethtown News Enterprise... Citizens Union Bank turned 100 years old in January, and bank officers decided to let the party run all year... Charles Kramer was the new local enrollment director for Lindsey Wilson College... Births: Megan Elizabeth Greenwell, John Goodwin Taylor Collins, Nicholas Brad Cottrell, Morgan Brittany Richardson...Deaths: Dr. Robert L. Houston, 65; John Rucker Spraghens, 89; Sarah Bruner Rodgers, 88; Ethel Wishon Holbrook, 84; Hollie Buntain, 87; Robert L. Shaw, 41; Anna Vaughan Logan, 90; Opal Ried Doyle, 76; Jane Arvin Lea, 71; Margaret Jean Summers, 59; Elija Massie, 79; Mrs. Arshaloos Soultanian, 85; John Richard Spraggen, 89; Katherine Puckett Jones, 70.

Jack Fugate, the former Russell High principal, came to the land of the Shelby County Rockets to serve as a replacement principal for retiring Bruce Sweeney... Mrs. Charles Crabtree won a silver tray signifying her as champion of the 5-gaited class during the final horse show of the Shelby County Fair... Beverly Smith was crowned Miss Shelby County Fair. Kim McCarthy was chosen as Miss Congeniality... First-place winners in the Shelby County Fair baby contest were Mary Allison Clay, girls under 1 year; Leslie Gail Hagen, girls under 2; Douglas Bailey, boys under 1; Brian Tindle, boys under 2. Grand champion ribbons were presented to Mary Allison Clay for the baby under 1 and to Leslie Gail Hagen for the baby under 2... Penny Harp made history when she was named the Little Miss of Shelby County during the first year of the contest. She was the great-granddaughter of Mrs. Jesse Harp Sr., who made her 91st visit to the fair... Robert Shipman, president of the Shelby County A&M Association, was the winner for his Junior Champion Jersey... Duncan LeCompte was selected to serve as a member of the board of the Kentucky District No. 3 of the Cincinnati Corp. Milk Sales Inc... Birth: Michelle Dawn Cottrell... Serving our country: Navy Machinist Mate 2nd Cl. Harry L. Robinson reported for duty aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence in the Mediterranean... Deaths: Joe Jesse, 80; Pauline Webber Crockett, 79; Georgia Perkins Zilhart, 83; Hugh Granny Johnson, 78; Fred C. Hays, 73; Ruth Moore Johnston, 59; Sarah Debourg Schuler, 65; Bedford Lewis Wakefield, 58; Maude Brewer, 57; Virginia Stigers Vannatta, 69; Clayton W. Yeary, 58.

Dr. and Mrs. Morton Hanna, formerly of Shelbyville, received a cable from their son, Edward Hanna, to let them know he was safe in the Middle East. An agricultural missionary, he and his family had been sent to Jilbreath, Lebanon, by the Presbyterian Church to teach better farming to the natives... James Elmo Hankins, native of Shelby County, received notification that he was appointed permanent postmaster at Frankfort... Shannon Funeral Home added a new Cadillac Eureka funeral car to its service... Serving our country: Four Reardon brothers, all graduates of the Bagdad High School, either completed their service or are now serving in the Armed Forces. W.H. Reardon Jr. spent his term in Germany, and Tommy was in Alaska. Charles was at Ft. Eustis, Va., and planned to go to Korea, and Bobby served in the U.S. Navy on the U.S.S. Cony... The parents of Sp/3c Guthrie Goodman, who had been stationed in Korea the past 15 months, were notified that he would return home soon ...

Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Willard received word that their son, Spec. 4 Curtis L. Willard, arrived safely in Turkey... Judge James W. Cammack died in New York City. He was born in Owenton and for a number of years taught and coached football at Shelbyville High School... Other deaths: Burt Floyd Brown, 69; Herman Craig, 70; Doris Bruner, 16-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Derwood Bruner; Stockton Lancaster; Thomas Jefferson Tackett, 80; Elizabeth Reid; Herbert Nation, 52.

Jane Tucker was selected 4-H baking champion of the Shelby County Fair... Frank Van Slyke was elected to succeed G.T. Settles as chair of the Dan Boone District of the Boy Scouts of America... The Kentucky Water Co. turned down as uneconomical a request by the Shelbyville City Council that the company install fire hydrants at the corner of 1st and Bradshaw and on south Brown Avenue... Jerry Butler and Lucille Scearce, both from Simpsonville, were elected king and queen of the Shelby County Fair... A plane piloted by Maurice Sheetz of Shelbyville and owned by the Cummins Crop Spraying Service of Louisville crash-landed on the farm of Mrs. Susan Offutt Neal, Sheetz suffered slight shock and facial cuts... Serving our country: Rear Adm. Logan McKee, Shelby Countys highest-ranking naval officer and a veteran of 32 years of service, assumed command of the Norfolk, Va., shipyards... Cpl. Charles J. Douthitt, who had been declared missing in action since November 1950, was released by the Chinese Communists following the Panmunjom armistice in Korea... Retired coal dealer, farmer and Shelbyvilles tennis father Thomas Hendricks Byrd died at the age of 68 at Kings Daughters Hospital.

Within one hour, police officers solved a robbery and recovered the loot after Miss Betty Oats locked car was broken into at the Shelbyville Golf Course. Several days later, Chief of Police Jones and Patrolman Ware returned to the home of the 16-year-old and discovered golf clubs, fishing tackle and many other articles that had been stolen from various individuals around town for the past year... Serving our country: Lt. Lewis Frederick Jr., U.S. Air Corps, stationed in North Africa, was made commanding officer of his group... Lt. John S. Kirk, U.S. Army Air Corps, was promoted to the rank of captain... Merchant Marine Tom Bowler arrived safely somewhere overseas... Frank Bodkin, machinist mate second class, was reported missing in action. He was on the U.S.S. Helen, which was sunk by the Japanese... Morry Lee McMakin was promoted to major... Mrs. W.S. Skinner was Shelby Countys first member of the Womens Land Army. She joined the WLA through Jeanne Ireland, home demonstration agent... James Taylor Whitaker was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army upon successful completion of the Officer Candidate Course at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga... .Lt. Charles R. Thomas Jr. was also commissioned a second lieutenant and received his wings in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Craig Field in Selma, Ala... .After a 6 weeks of inspection tour of Army ground forces on both fronts in Europe, Maj. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem Jr., commanding general of the Armored Command, arrived home... Three Floyd brothers of Finchville were in the U.S. Army. Cpl. Raymond E. Floyd was in Co.K.-318 Inf. A.P.O. 80th at Camp Forest, Tenn.; Pvt. Edward Floyd in Co. F. 334th Inf., A.P.O. 84th Camp Howze, Texas; and Pvt. James Floyd in the 38th Cav. Rec. Troops, A.P.O. 38th Camp, Livingston, La... .Frederica V. Miller completed her basic training and received the appointment of seaman second class... Lt. Margaret Hornback, U.S. Army nurse, served with the mobile frontline hospital. She was assistant in charge of the operating room... Deaths: Mrs. W.C. Magruder; Frederick Clarence Goodwin, 79; Samuel M. Ross; Bernice Harper Flack, 52.

90 years ago, 1933

Flat Rock Church, in western Shelby County, celebrated its 100th anniversary... Deaths: Hallie E. Lawson; A.C. Sam Long Jr.; John L. Cox.

95 years ago, 1928

Gov. Flem D. Sampson appointed attorney Amos Williams to fill the vacancy in office of commonwealths attorney in the 12th judicial district, which was created by the sudden death of Charles H. Sanford... The Locust Grove baseball team defeated Finchville, 4-2... Death: Daniel McElligott, 63, formerly of this area.

100 years ago, 1923

Birth: George Robertson... Emma Hudson Lee, 55; Andrew Robert Cook, 74; Mary Baskett Duvall, 74; James Edgar Froman, 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Froman; John O. Ford.

105 years ago, 1918

Leo W. Hill resigned his position with the Kentucky Utilities Company and went to Camp Girardeau, Mo., as district manager of the plant in that city... Deaths: Marcellus Scruggs; Joseph M. Thompson, 78.

tshaw@sentinelnews.com

Continue reading here:

LOOKING BACK 08-04-23: 1953: Douthitt released after 3 years MIA ... - Pmg-ky1.com

Allegations Of Denialism Obstruct Access To Truth – Frontier Centre For Public Policy

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

Climate activists rally to urge politicians to stand against climate denial in New York on Jan. 9, 2017. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

According to various sources, denialism is the practice of denying the validity of something for which theres irrefutable proof.

Wikipedia defines scientific denialism as the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed, well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a subject, in favor of ideas that are radical, controversial, or fabricated.

The most odious example of denialism in modern history is the false assertion that the Nazi genocide against Jews was a myth.

Holocaust denial is widely recognized as an antisemitic theory that ignores overwhelming proof in the form of physical evidence, captured film, state documentation, eye-witness discovery, and the sworn testimony of survivors.

In Israel and several other countries, Holocaust denial is understandably considered to be a felonious expression of hatred thats entirely different from honest skepticism. Denying the Nazis genocide is rightly regarded as an act of pure evil. Holocaust denial has been universally vilified.

George Orwell once asserted that the deliberate misuse of language will corrupt thought, and neo-Marxist intellectuals have mastered the tactic of language corruption through the use of the deceptive metaphor.

The lefts deployment of the term denialist to describe anyone critical of the present-day Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Environmental, Social, and Governance, social justice narrative is deliberately intended to produce the impression that all critics of progressive policy are like modern-day Nazis.

Progressive activists and politicians have levied specious allegations of denialism against their conservative opponents in the United States and Canada. The charge of denialism has become a deliberate deception to justify restricting open debate and free speech.

Late in 2015, Newsweek opinion writer Walter Olson pointed out that Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was coaxing the U.S. Department of Justice to consider filing a racketeering suit against oil and coal companies for promoting wrongful thinking on climate change. Mr. Whitehouse was also interested in targeting the activities of conservative policy groups.

Mr. Olson noted that this was a significant step toward criminalizing policy differences and using litigation and government enforcement to punish opponents in public debate. He cautioned that Others had already gone farther than the senator himself, calling for making climate denial a crime against humanity.

In Canada, Kimberly Murray, an indigenous rights activist appointed to advise federal Minister of Justice David Lametti, recently submitted an interim report on the subject of missing children, unmarked graves, and burial sites allegedly associated with indigenous residential schools.

Writing in The Epoch Times, Barbara Kay pointed out that the Canadian government appears willing to impose legal sanctions on dissenters to the now received wisdom amongst our intelligentsia and political elites that the residential schools were a form of genocide.

Ms. Kay went on to explain that Ms. Murray also recommended a policy of data sovereignty, which would place original documentation on indigenous matters, now in government, church, and university archives, under the control of indigenous organizations. Indigenous groups would be given the power to deny access to objective historians. In other words, unaccountable authorities could withhold the tools of research from anyone regarded to be a potential denialist. Apparently, theres little room left for the full examination of evidence and dispassionate judgment in Canadian policy debates.

In America, Mollie Hemingway, a highly regarded American author, produced a magnificently researched book on the 2020 U.S. election. Rigged was a powerful reminder that honest attention to detail plays an important role in election analysis. Another book by U.S. attorney Christina Bobb provided a thorough analysis of the election fraud that could imperil the survival of the American Republic. Stealing Your Vote was a convincing account of an election that was allegedly filled with cheating by mail, ballot harvesting, and vote dumping that disenfranchised millions of Americans.

Compliant politicians, legacy media journalists, and progressive activists launched an all-out assault on the facts presented in both of these books. Citizens such as Ms. Hemingway and Ms. Bobb are dismissed as election deniers, and the United States is suffering the consequences.

During the COVID pandemic, government agencies across North America hurled charges of denialism against well-qualified medical professionals and informed citizens who questioned the merits of mRNA vaccine mandates, school closings, and draconian shutdowns.

A 2020 paper in the Canada Communicable Disease Report (CCDR) scolded science deniers, including vaccine science deniers for shilling their scientifically-bankrupt wares on the internet. We, who understand the rigor of science and know the evidence supporting immunization for health and well-being, are often aghast at the falsehoods promulgated, said the report. We now know that many of those so-called falsehoods about COVID vaccine efficacy and adverse events turned out to be true.

Allegations of denialism obstruct rational attempts to re-examine any social or scientific consensus protected by our woke global establishment. Such allegations serve only to exclude fresh thinking in favor of tired radical ideas that are often misinformed and dangerous.

Those who are inclined to begin a debate with the proposition that their opponents are fascists are more likely to abort thought than to encourage it. Branding people as deniers is tantamount to saying theyre morally vile and have no right to join the discussion. Its hardly a secure route toward truth and reconciliation.

William Brooks is a Senior Fellow at Frontier Centre For Public Policy. This commentary was first published here.

Israel, Antisemitism, and Self-Thinking Gentiles – CounterPunch.org – CounterPunch

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

The modern rules regarding what constitutes acceptable discourse on any topic, let alone the Middle East, seem to center on how peoples feelings are impacted by how others feel. So I feel safe in saying that I have no idea how to discuss Judaism and Zionism and the absolute right for Israel to exist in security without pissing most everyone off.

Whats more, living in an age where God gave this to us! is considered a provable argument, my being a satirist who read the Bible cover to cover and found it mostly hilarious certainly wont help de-infuriate the situation. But here goes.

There are all kinds of Jews with all kinds of opinions and they often label each other in demeaning ways. Peter Beinart is willing to endure the slander of being called self-hating for his views because as a Jew, he is entitled to his opinion. But I believe an underappreciated aspect of the conversation is the way self-thinking Gentiles tend to self-censor rather than participate because they feel unentitled to offer their honest opinion.

You dont need to be Gore Vidal or Edward Said to think its becoming easier and easier to miscategorize legitimate criticism of Israeli policy as antisemitism. To somehow turn acknowledging the Nakba into a latent form of Holocaust denial. So if youre like me you tend to not mention things. That the Irgun and the Stern Gang werent canvassers, or that Count Folke Bernadotte didnt spend the 1950s in a suite at the King David Hotel, or that Rachel Corrie did not perish in a landscaping mishap.

Evangelical Christians, untroubled by such rationality, dont have this problem. They get to fanatically drool over a militarily militant Israel as the necessary precursor to Jesus eventually meandering his way earthward to sit atop a throne of skulls beside a sea of boiling bones. Though they fail to mention that many of those boiling bones they lust for will be from unconverted Hebrews. Which as codicils go seems a bit of a red flag.

But again, this is my problem (and maybe its a non-existent one for anyone who doesnt find hypocrisy hypocritical), so lets talk about me. I dont seek to hold Israel to a higher standard. There are more than enough injustices and refugee camps in the world without having to fixate on Israel or Saudi Arabia or Iraq or any nation which emerged from Arthur Balfours distracted protractor.

The truth is if Palestinians also had obsequious Capitol Hill support, decades of narrative-enhancing editorial coverage, and limitless financial backing from scabrous billionaires seeking to cleanse their souls by embracing Yahwehs lease agreement containing a 3,000 year sublet option Id be filled with equanimity around settling the whole dispute.

However, the country is growing dangerously more isolated, paranoid, and theocratic. No wait! THATS THE UNITED STATES! Israel claims to be both a Jewish and a democratic state without a constitution or defined borders. Which may require a level of smiting and co-opting unseen since the age when Babylon imposed their one-kingdom solution. So I guess the really important thing is to ensure that nuclear weapons never fall into the hands of a fascistic terrorist like Irans Ali Khamenei but remain in the hands of semi-non fascistic semi-non terrorists like Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump?!?

Actually. Spike that graph.

It should be obvious to anyone paying attention that the United States has as much right to be called an honest broker in the Middle East as W.C.Fields Sheriff John Huxley had for being called Honest John. With regard to the Palestinian people, America more accurately represents the senior partner in The Three Stooges law firm of DEWEY (U.S.) CHEATEM (Abbas) & HOWE (Arab world).

Palestinians are subjected to a thousand and one daily humiliations and maybe they always will be. Maybe they are not even a people. The powerful will always describe the powerless in whatever way they choose. But the least everyone can do, while olive groves are plowed under and razor wire strung and water resources diverted and innocent children suffocate in the cramped squalor of Jenin, is be unafraid to throw verbal stones at the obscene level of unconditional money our country gives Israel to finance apartheid adjacent humiliations.

It should not require much thought to oppose gratuitous barbarity. I feel anyones entitled to say that.

See original here:

Israel, Antisemitism, and Self-Thinking Gentiles - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch

Inside the Holocaust Museum coming to the video game Fortnite – Euronews

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

The location of the newest Holocaust Museum might come as a surprise to anyone unfamiliar with one of the most successful video games in history.

Originally launched as a battle royale style online fighting game, Epic Games Fortnite has become incredibly popular for its customisable world building capabilities, akin to games like Minecraft and Terraria.

Now, the newest edition to the game is a Holocaust museum, developed by Epic Games themselves. The museum has been designed by Luc Bernard, the man behind The Light in the Darkness, considered the first educational game on the Holocaust.

The Light in the Darkness was released earlier this year by Epic Games. It gave gamers the chance to play as a Polish Jewish family trying and failing to escape the horrors of the Holocaust in France. Its a harrowing experience for a videogame.

People often cry at the end, the games director Luc Bernard tells Euronews Culture.

Available for free, The Light in the Darkness has been downloaded across the world. Its been particularly popular in the Middle East. Saudi Arabians are completing the game the most, Bernard explains.

Finding ways to improve Holocaust education is a big motivator for Bernard. So when Epic Games opened up their Fortnite Unreal Editor, his team focused on a new project: the Fortnite Holocaust Museum.

80% of Americans havent visited a museum, Bernard says. Looking at the huge budgets of Holocaust museums, he couldnt question the effectiveness of in-person museums as an educational tool. Okay then, lets make a digital museum in one of the biggest video games thats around. Its that simple.

After extensive research, Bernard and his team have come up with an elegant interactive museum exhibition within the Fortnite game. The player zips around the museum and can find information on a range of Holocaust topics, including some that Bernard feels have too often been left out of traditional exhibitions.

Instead of exclusively focusing on the experiences of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe although they are still front and centre there are also pieces that relate stories of Sephardi Jews in North Africa. There are stories about Abdol Hossein Sardari, the Iranian ambassador who issued thousands of passports to Jews trying to escape France. Other exhibits look at the lives of LGBTQ+ Jews and the Black Panther tank battalion who liberated Jews.

Its about making a museum thats more appealing to a younger audience, explains Bernard.

Bernards team arent the first to consider the Fortnite space ripe for an educational opportunity. A Martin Luther King Jr. event gave players the chance to learn about Black history. The creators of that event have since reached out to Bernard. Hes a big fan and emphasises their shared goal of revolutionising how the world sees gaming.

Were trying to show organisations and museums that, instead of focusing on one city and hoping tourists come by, you could get the entire state to the entire country. You could get the entire world involved, Bernard says.

Improving Holocaust education is especially important as the last surviving witnesses die out. Explaining the horrors to the next generation remains crucial. However, theres growing concerns that many younger gamers are often in environments that effectively condone Holocaust denial.

An Anti-Defamation League (ADL) investigation into online antisemitism found that many Holocaust deniers are using social media platforms and online gaming communities to spread their conspiracies. Although many games were implicated by the study, Fortnite was particularly singled out by the ADL.

Bernard has continually defended Epic Games and Fortnite from the allegations. To make sure people behave appropriately in the upcoming museum, Bernard and Epic have turned off emotes and wall destruction capabilities.

Although there is certainly a moderation concern in usernames, he is emphatic about the support Epic Games provided him to make his educational games.

[ADL] are great people, he says. But I think Epic are one of the best companies to work for in the gaming industry and they treat hatred very seriously.

The Fortnite Holocaust Museum does not yet have a release date.

Go here to read the rest:

Inside the Holocaust Museum coming to the video game Fortnite - Euronews

Culture Re-View: The day Jesse Owens ruined Hitler’s Olympic Games – Euronews

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

3 August 1936: Jesse Owens wins an Olympic medal and ruins Hitlers day.

Jesse Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913. By the 1936 Olympic Games, he was already one of the USs most impressive athletes. Hed won an unprecedented four gold medals two years in the NCAA championships and had set four different world records in track and field in a 45-minute period on 25 May 1935.

But it was at the 1936 Olympic Games that Owens put himself in the history books forever.

If you didnt already know, the 1936 Games took place in Berlin during the Nazi regime.

Adolf Hitler wanted to use the games as an opportunity to promote the Nazi ideology across the world. Jewish German athletes were banned from entering the games. Hitler hoped that Germany would put on a show of Aryian prowess, proving to the world the strength of the White race.

As a Black American, Owens clearly didnt fit into Hitlers image of a Third Reich that would rule the world for a thousand years. Hed even questioned whether the US should participate in an Olympics in a country where minorities were being discriminated against.

Owens went to the Olympics anyway and was greeted by masses of German fans. Clearly the message of racial hatred hadnt permeated entirely through Germany.

If Hitler wanted to witness all non-White and non-German athletes trounced, he was in for a rude awakening when it came time for Owens to hit the track. Already a phenomenon, Owens greatest performance was at the Olympics.

First on this day in 1936, Owens won gold in the 100m dash with a time of 10.3 seconds. The next day, he won the long jump. The day after that he won the 200m sprint. Four days later, Owens won his fourth and final gold medal as part of the 4x100m sprint relay team. At the time, four gold medals in a game was a record in itself.

Hitler wasnt best pleased.

Hed already refused to shake the hands of any athletes that werent German.

After Olympics Committee president Henri de Baillet-Latour insisted that Hitler shake the hands with victors from all countries or none, Hitler objected to shaking anyones hand.

Its been widely reported that Hitler snubbed Owens. However, by Owens own account, Hitler did wave at Owens to acknowledge his achievement. Still, the most stark image of the whole Olympics is Owens stood atop winners podium, his hand to his head saluting the US flag as those around him stretch their arms out in salute to Hitler.

Owens legacy is one of destroying what was meant to be a crowning moment in Hitlers propaganda machine. In an Olympics entirely devoted to celebrating the ability of the Aryan race, a Black man from America showed up all of Hitlers White Germans.

For Owens though, the power of his achievement was marred by the country he returned to. The US was a segregated country. During his time in Europe, hed been allowed to stay in hotels with White athletes, a level of equality not available to him at home.

Owens continued to face racism throughout his life. Despite his achievements, President Franklin D. Roosevelt never invited him to the White House.

Hitler didn't snub me it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram, Owens once told a crowd.

Original post:

Culture Re-View: The day Jesse Owens ruined Hitler's Olympic Games - Euronews

On Rumble, Nick Fuentes fantasizes about teaming up with Hitler to … – Media Matters for America

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

Content warning: This article contains examples of bigoted and violent rhetoric.

While allegedly suspended from streaming on Rumble for two weeks after violating the platforms incitement to violence policy, white nationalist Nick Fuentes uploaded a Rumble video that featured extremely racist and violent rhetoric. During the video, Fuentes fantasized that me and Hitler would team up to kill a Black man he alleged had littered in his neighborhood, and called on his followers to prepare to catch an aggravated battery charge if you see this in your society.

On July 16, Fuentes livestreamed a rally on Rumble during which he launched into overt antisemitism, ranting to his followers that we need to eradicate Jewish stranglehold over the United States of America and claiming of his perceived opponents, We will make them die in the holy war. According to Fuentes, Rumble removed two videos of the rally and suspended him from streaming on the platform for two weeks because it considered his holy war rhetoric an incitement to violence. He later revealed that hed spoken to Rumble, which he said reassured us that my account is safe and won't be deleted, adding, They have no plans to ban me.

Less than two weeks later, while still allegedly suspended from streaming on Rumble, Fuentes uploaded a new July 29 episode of his America First show, which featured extremely racist and antisemitic rhetoric as well as additional calls for violence.

Continue reading here:

On Rumble, Nick Fuentes fantasizes about teaming up with Hitler to ... - Media Matters for America

Is this Hitler’s Last Photograph? – Greek Reporter

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

This photograph was taken on April 20, 1945, just ten days before his death. Public Domain

Much speculation and mystery surrounds the last photograph taken of Adolf Hitler who committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Records show that no photographers were in the Berlin bunker after March 20 and therefore confirming the Nazi dictators final picture is complicated.

Most historians argue that Hitlers last known photograph was taken on April 20, 1945, just ten days before his death. The picture was captured during a ceremony on his 56th birthday at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

It shows Hitler standing alongside his longtime associate, Martin Bormann, as they decorate members of the Hitler Youth with the Iron Cross for their bravery. The photo is often referred to as Hitlers last birthday photo.

However, another contender as the last known picture of Hitler is the one believed to be taken two days prior to his death as he stands outside his Berlin bunker entrance surveying the devastating bomb damage.

With Germany lying in ruins after six years of war, and with defeat imminent, Hitler decided to take his own life.

But before doing so, he married Eva Braun and then penned his last will and testament. The next day in the afternoon on April 30, 1945, Braun and Hitler entered his living room to end their lives. When Hitler asked his physician to recommend a reliable method of suicide his doctor suggested combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head.

Later that afternoon the remaining members of the bunker community found Hitler slumped over, and blood spilled over the arm of the couch. Eva was sitting at the other end.

Hitler had killed himself by biting down on a cyanide capsule while shooting himself in the head. Eva only used the cyanide capsule. Hitler committed suicide two days before the surrender of Berlin to the Soviets on 2 May, and just over a week before the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May.

Yet another theory suggests that Hitlers last photo is the one below, where Hitler decorates General Theodor Tolsdorff taken on March 20 1945 more than a month before Hitlers death.

In Berlin, Tolsdorff received the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. He was promoted to General lieutenant (major general) and appointed commander of the LXXXII Army Corps, which was stationed in Bavaria.

On 8 May, he surrendered in Austria to Lt. Carwood Lipton and Robert F. Sink of the 101st Airborne Division. Tolsdorffs convoy of 31 vehicles drove down from the mountains loaded with his personal baggage, liquor, cigars, cigarettes, and his girlfriends.

As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire, she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people.

What I possess belongs in so far as it has any value to the Party. Should this no longer exist, to the State; should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary.

My pictures, in the collections which I have bought in the course of years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the extension of a gallery in my hometown of Linz on Donau.

It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed. I nominate as my Executor my most faithful Party comrade, Martin Bormann. He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of modest simple life, for my brothers and sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife and my faithful co-workers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau Winter, etc. who have for many years aided me by their work.

I myself and my wife in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of twelve years service to my people.

Given in Berlin, 29th April 1945, 4:00 a.m. Signed: A. Hitler Signed as witnesses: Dr. Joseph Goebbels Martin Bormann Colonel Nicholaus von Below

Is this Hitler's Last Photograph? - Greek Reporter

What happened to Germans who didn’t support Hitler? – Jewish News

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

On the face of it, writer Peter Clenotts grandfather was guilty of committing the ultimate betrayal.

He was a Harvard graduate, a World War One veteran, a decorated airbase commander in Iceland during the Second World War; and then in the years following, the chief prosecutor overseeing the conviction of 15 Nazis at the Dora Trial, held at Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1947.

William Bermans achievements were notable, but he was also harbouring a secret. During his time overseas the leading American-Jewish lawyer had an affair with a German woman, resulting in an illegitimate daughter.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The child and her mother were shunned by Bermans family and Clenott admits having no connection to or knowing the whereabouts of his half-aunt, who by now would be in her mid-70s if she were still alive.

But his interest was piqued by those post-war events and he wanted to understand how his grandfather came to be in a relationship with a German woman. The 72-year-old author began reading more books about the period, including on the Holocaust, the Third Reich and the aftermath of the Second World War, inspiring him to pen his latest work.

Clenott, who has written screenplays, short stories and full-length novels for the best part of 50 years, credits his grandfathers secret as the starting point for his historical mystery thriller The Unwanted.

A key theme of the novel, which revolves around two teenage girls who become embroiled in the murders of an American official and a fleeing SS officer, is that not all Germans were willing participants of Nazism and in fact many suffered at the hands of the brutal policies instituted by Hitler.

The keen writer, who lives just outside of Boston and works for a non-profit organisation helping people facing homelessness, explains: I learned that after the war ended, the situation worsened for many German women two million of them were raped after the war by the Russians, but also by American, British and French soldiers. There were hundreds of thousands of children born out of rape.

And it wasnt unusual for German women wanting to avoid the poverty that existed after the Second World War or coming under the leadership of a communist regime, intentionally trying to strike up relationships to escape that.

My grandfather was around 53 at the time, an attractive man, an attorney and officer. I dont really know the details about what happened, but you can perhaps understand some of the reasons why it did.

During the course of his research, Clenott also came across chilling detail about the Nazis Euthanasia Programme the systemic murder of institutionalised patients with physical and mental disabilities which began in 1939. The aim of it was to restore the racial integrity of the German nation and it was in many ways a forerunner to the Nazis systemic murder of Jews in Europe as part of the Final Solution.

Clenott explains: The Nazis took a popular eugenics idea at the time sterilisation and went a step further. They wanted to create a pure race. They didnt want Jews, but they also didnt want gypsies or homosexuals. They didnt want people who were bipolar or had manic depression or any other mental or physical disability that would be a burden on the German state. The Nazis came up with a phrase: Life unworthy of life. People were encouraged to voluntarily give up their child to one of these euthanasia centres in Germany and Austria for treatment.

The author poignantly acknowledges that his son, who is autistic and gay, would almost certainly have been a candidate for such centres during the Nazi era, excluding the fact that he is also Jewish. An estimated 10,000 physically and mentally disabled children were murdered out of 250,000 individuals overall as part of Nazi Germanys euthanasia programme. Clenott based one of his main characters, 14-year-old Hana Zigler, against this scenario. As a result of her obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and because of suspicions that her mother had an affair with a Jewish man, Hana is taken by her merciless grandfather to an institute to be euthanised.

Despite the novels dark opening, theres a twist ahead in the guise of Silke Hartenstein, a 16-year-old member of the Bund Deutsch Madel, the girls wing of the Hitler Youth movement. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, Silke looks every inch the archetypal Aryan, but beneath the surface she is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Nazis, especially when she is pressured to have a child as a way of passing on her perfect genes.

I wanted her to be someone who is sympathetic, someone who was appalled by the Nazis. When she meets Hana shes horrified by what she sees at the euthanasia centre and is drawn to help her. Silke is heroic in many ways, because she is unafraid to stand up to the Nazis and comes from a family that raised her to be a decent human being.

At the core of the page-turning murder mystery is the close bond that develops between Silke and Hana and their impetus to survive against the odds.

Having widened his knowledge around the Holocaust, has Clenott changed his thoughts at all on Germany society at that time?

My perspective definitely changed, he admits. They werent all Nazis, they werent all bad. Many good people suffered. We learn at school that wars have a start date and an end date, but in actual fact they dont. The Second World War didnt end with the Allies victory, because the suffering continued for many years after, particularly for women. The rapes, the violence, the threat of hunger and starvation, displacement and homelessness, the arrival of the Communists and so forth. It was a nightmare for millions that went on for years.

For Clenott, perhaps the biggest lesson he learned in writing his novel is that the terrifying events of the past on which his story is based could, he believes, absolutely happen all over again. Only recently we had neo-Nazis marching down the street saying, Jews will not replace us and Trump telling everyone those are nice people. We have to learn what could happen even in a democracy. It really could happen again, so its important that we have good people who come together and are brave enough to fight the darkest side of humanity.

The Unwanted by Peter Clenott is published by Level Best Books, 13.99

Link:

What happened to Germans who didn't support Hitler? - Jewish News

Local man’s sacrifice recalled 80 years after bombing of ‘Hitler’s gas … – Indiana Gazette

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Danzig

An Indiana County man is among 18 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives during Operation Tidal Wave, which is regarded as the costliest Allied air raid, proportionally, of World War II.

According to the nonprofit Stories Behind The Stars organization, the U.S. aerial bombardment of nine oil refineries around Ploesti, Romania, cost the lives of 310 out of 1,751 American airmen and 53 out of 178 B-24 Liberator bombers.

Volunteers in the Stories Behind The Stars organization also said more than 100 additional crew members were captured, and 55 additional aircraft were damaged.

Among the 18 killed was Robert Paul Kaufman, who was born to Wilmer E. and Ruth (Beck) Kaufman on July 22, 1921, in Indiana.

His father was employed as a roller helper in a steel mill in Indiana. Wilmer and Ruth also had another son and daughter, but neither of them survived.

Wilmer Kaufman then died in the Veterans Hospital in Aspinwall at the age of 29 when his son was 7 years old.

Robert Kaufman and his widowed mother moved in with her sister in Pittsburgh until returning to Indiana to live with his paternal uncle and aunt. Kaufman graduated from Indiana High School in 1939.

On Nov. 11, 1941 Robert Kaufman married Stella Ann Zeke in Homer City.

According to Stories Behind The Stars, the marriage lasted only four months as Stella Kaufman contracted a blood infection and died in April 1942.

On Aug. 22, 1942, Kaufman enlisted in the Army Air Force.

He received his basic and advanced training at Tyndall Field, Fla., and his radio training at Salt Lake City, Utah. Kaufman then completed training to become a ball turret gunner on the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.

He was assigned to the 566th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, Ninth Air Force as a technical sergeant on the crew of the Sand Witch.

Operation Tidal Wave began when 178 B-24 Liberators from the 98th and 376th Bomb Groups in North Africa and the 44th, 93rd, and 389th Bomb Groups in England took off from airstrips in Benghazi, Libya, for the 1,200 miles flight to Hitlers gas station. Because of the missions extreme danger, it was flown only by volunteers.

Romania was one of the worlds largest crude oil refiners, eventually supplying the Third Reich with almost 60 percent of its needs. As a result, Ploesti was more heavily defended than Berlin in 1943.

Hitler guarded the refineries with 300 flak guns, hundreds of machine guns, a deadly flak train, concealed emplacements, 120 German fighters and 200 Romanian Air Force fighters.

Of the original armada of Liberators, 165 reached Ploesti in the early afternoon of Aug. 1, 1943. There was no pre-mission reconnaissance flown. To avoid radar detection, the raid was conducted at low altitude with bombs to be dropped from 200 to 800 feet.

The attack lasted roughly 30 minutes and the enemy was ready and waiting.

Stories Behind The Stars said Kaufman was killed in action when he ejected from his B-24 Liberator Sand Witch that crashed from incoming enemy flak and exploded while returning from its mission at Ploesti.

The date of Operation Tidal Wave was later referred to as Black Sunday.

Stories Behind The Stars said those involved in the mission estimated that Ploestis refining capacity was reduced by 40 percent but capacity was restored within weeks, and there was no curtailment of overall product output.

The Allies considered Operation Tidal Wave a strategic failure. It was the last low altitude bombing raid by Allied heavy bombers during the war.

Five Medals of Honor were awarded to crew members of Operation Tidal Wave, the most for any single air action in history. Fifty-six Distinguished Service Crosses were awarded to mission airmen.

Kaufman was the posthumous recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.

Kaufman was buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial in Ardennes, Belgium. He is memorialized at the Oakland Cemetery and Mausoleum of Indiana and is honored with his crew at Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell, Neb.

Stories Behind the Stars memorials are accessible for free on the internet and via smart phone app at gravesites and cenotaphs. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to honoring all 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II, including 31,000 from Pennsylvania. To volunteer or to get more information, contact Kathy Harmon at kharmon@storiesbehindthestars.org or visit http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.

Read this article:

Local man's sacrifice recalled 80 years after bombing of 'Hitler's gas ... - Indiana Gazette

Evolution of the Christian right in Tennessee – Tennessee Lookout

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Rev. Kevin Riggs, pastor of Franklin Community Church. (Photo: John Partipilo)

This story is part second in weeklong a series called A darker shade of red.

Part of the far right in the U.S. is the Christian far right. According to Philip Gorski, chair of Yale Universitys sociology department political sociology and social movements as well as religion are areas of interest for him the Christian far right in the U.S. has evolved over hundreds of years. Its basic principles, though, date back to the countrys birth, as do its two categories or groups: God and country and God over country.

God and country people believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are directly or indirectly inspired by the Christian Bible, Gorski explains. They believe that America is especially blessed by God, its been given a special mission in history. And they worry that all these blessings and all that power will be taken away if it doesnt remain a Christian nation. And, for most of these people, the term Christian kind of implies white.

Part one: A darker shade of red

Even further to their right is what I would call the God over country people, Gorski adds. And these are people who dont believe that America is a Christian nation or that it ever was, but theyre determined to make sure that it becomes one, and that usually involves destroying the American government and replacing it with some form of Christian government and Christian law.

Gorski says the U.S. Christian far right has grown over the last 15 or 20 years. One reason, he says, is that theres been an erosion of authority from older Christian leaders.

I think there are a lot of conservative white Christians out there whove learned a lot more of their theology quote-unquote from Rush Limbaugh a former Republican media personality who Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom before dying in 2021 at 70 years old and Tucker Carlson, than from Jerry Falwell or Billy Graham.

The U.S. Christian far right has grown a lot since the start of Obamas presidency, Gorski says, both in terms of numbers and power, but especially in power. When it comes to sheer size, a conservative guess by Gorski puts the percentage of current U.S. Republican voters who are either God and country or God over country Christian far right at 25 or 30 percent. In terms of power, he says the U.S. Christian far right has grown so much that its among the loudest voices in the GOP.

God and country people believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are directly or indirectly inspired by the Christian Bible. They believe that America is especially blessed by God, its been given a special mission in history. And they worry that all these blessings and all that power will be taken away if it doesnt remain a Christian nation. And, for most of these people, the term Christian kind of implies white.

Philip Gorski, Yale University

Why has the Christian far right grown in the country? Gorski credits social media for being, probably, the biggest reason: social media has let once-small fringe groups interact with each other as well as work on influencing mainstream opinion.

Growth is one thing. Evolution is another. The latter has happened, too, Gorski posits. Theres a new development that Gorski mentions: The U.S. Christian far right is becoming authoritarian. He says it wasnt like that 10 or 20 years ago.

Based on the current trends when Gorski was interviewed in 2022 for this story, Gorski thought that the Christian far right would get even more powerful in the Republican party over the next two to four years so 2024 to 2026. Beyond that window, he said it was harder to predict what will happen. Thats because people are variable; what they do will impact what happens.

When it comes to Middle Tennessee, Rev. Kevin Riggs runs down a list of examples showing the regions power in Christianity. Its home to several denominational headquarters. Williamson County houses the majority of the Christian music industry. There are a number of Christian publishing houses in the Middle Tennessee area. And a lot of the executives who work in Christian publishing live in Williamson County.

Almost anything that gets put out in the quote Christian world and Christian culture is going to come through Middle Tennessee before it goes out to the world, and a lot of that is going to come through Williamson County, Riggs says.

Riggs is 57 years old. For the past 33, he has been a pastor at Franklin Community Church. Hes currently a senior pastor there. When RIggs talks, you hear a Southern drawl. Originally from Nashville, the fourth-generation ordained minister has lived in Franklin for more than three decades.

Theres more on his list. Middle Tennessee has so-called Christian celebrities. And it has organizations that have large preaching circuits. Plus, it has Christian institutions of higher education.

Middle Tennessees power, still, doesnt end there. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research tracks the number of megachurches in the U.S. The institute classifies a church as a megachurch if it has an average weekly attendance of at least 2,000 people. A February 2022 analysis by the Lookout for this story of the institutes data showed Tennessee had 67 megachurches, placing the state fifth in the U.S. But on a per-capita basis, using data from both the institute and the U.S. Census Bureaus 2020 census population data, Tennessee had the most.

Christianity and politics are big in Williamson County. Riggs says even if you want to be elected for the lowly and, in Williamson County, make-believe office of dogcatcher, you need to go church, even if its just every so often. And, you need to make sure people know that you go.

One thing Riggs wants to make clear: Not every Christian is far-right. But, he contends, the Christian far right is definitely present.

You hear the South oftentimes referred to as the buckle of the Bible Belt sometimes thats Tennessee, sometimes thats Arkansas but Im convinced that Middle Tennessee, and Williamson County, in particular, is the buckle of Christian nationalism, Riggs says, referring to Christian far-right extremism.

Riggs doesnt know if the non-violent end of the far-right spectrum makes up the majority or the minority in Williamson Countys Christian community. Its too close to tell.

Rev. Kevin Riggs, pastor of Franklin Community Church

In terms of power in Williamson County, Riggs says calling the Christian far right a vocal minority doesnt truly represent how much muscle it actually has. Also, its become more vocal in recent years.

Extremism hits close to home for Riggs. He used to have Christian far-right views.

I know what Im talking about. I know how Evangelicals think. I know how that far right thinks, Riggs says. He lets out a chuckle. You know, I dont need to read it in a survey. I mean, I know.

If Trump wins the presidency in 2024, Riggs thinks the situation in Williamson County will get worse. There will be more divisiveness. The Christian far right will be even bolder.

Elizabeth Madeira decided to run for local office in the 2020 election cycle. Before eventually losing her bid for the Tennessee House of Representatives 63rd district a seat held at the time by now-indicted former state House Speaker Glen Casada Madeira encountered the far right numerous times. The most memorable experience came about six to eight weeks prior to election day. Thats when she got a phone call. The caller had a question: Was Madeira running as a Democrat? Yes, she answered.

I did not get another word in edgewise because she went on a long ramble about how Democrats support killing babies, pedophilia, support killing police officers it was a long, very angry tirade, in which she disparaged the college that I attended, Madeira remembers, before pointing out that her alma mater is a Christian college. And then she said that her daughter attends that college, and, now, she thinks she might have to take that daughter out of college because she was gonna turn into a Democrat like me.

A little later in the conversation about that phone call, Madeira adds: It was basically a litany of QAnon conspiracy theories for at least five minutes, and then she hung up on me.

On Jan. 6, 2021 nearly two months after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election an event called the Save America March was scheduled. Trump, just 14 days away from the end of his presidential term, was the headliner.

The day was overcast. Cold, too. People were bundled up; some had draped Trump-themed flags over themselves. Red Make America Great Again hats were seen here and there. Same with signs. SAVE AMERICA read some. Another: STAND WITH TRUMP. One woman held a yellow, handmade sign that read TRUMP WON in all-capital letters.

Standing at the lectern, with American flags and the White House behind him, Trump falsely told the crowd the election was being stolen from him. Moments later, he added he would never concede and that we will stop the steal.

Lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, he instructed later in his speech.

He never went.

A torrent of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol that day. A melee ensued. It lasted for hours. There were countless physical and psychological injuries. People died that day; afterward, too.

More than 725 people had been arrested and charged in connection to the insurrection, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a day before the insurrections one-year anniversary. Ronald Colton McAbee was one of them. McAbee was a Williamson County Sheriffs Office employee on the day of the insurrection, according to a legal filing obtained by the Lookout. McAbee was charged with one count of Inflicting Bodily Injury on Certain Officers or Employees and Aiding and Abetting; one count of Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers or Employees; two counts of Obstruction of Law Enforcement During Civil Disorder; one count of Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon; one count of Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in any Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon; one count of Engaging in Physical Violence any Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon and one count of Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct on Capitol Grounds, as laid out in the legal filing.

Also in the legal filing is visual evidence of McAbee wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and a black tactical vest during the insurrection. On his tactical vest there was a patch on the left breast that read SHERIFF in all-capital letters and a patch with the logo of the far-right militia group the Three Percenters on the right breast.

There were 733 far-right hate groups in the U.S. in 2021, according to the human-rights non-profit organization the Southern Poverty Law Center. That was the smallest annual number of U.S. hate groups that the SPLC tracked since it recorded 705 in 2002.

In Tennessee, the SPLC tracked 28 hate groups in 2021. These consisted of two anti-LGBTQ groups, three white-nationalist, four neo-Nazi, nine general hate, one antisemitic, four Ku Klux Klan, two anti-Muslim, one Christian identity, one neo-Confederate and one racist skinhead. Eleven of Tennessees 28 far-right hate groups in 2021 were statewide organizations. Of the remaining 17, six were in Middle Tennessee; none were in Williamson County.

When it comes to individual incidents of extremism or antisemitism, the anti-hate non-governmental and non-profit organization the Anti-Defamation League has data going back to 2002. In 2021, there were 5,373 incidents in the U.S. recorded by the ADL. That came on the heels of 6,978 in 2020 and 4,732 in 2019.

Tennessee had 38 incidents in 2021, per the ADL. Of the 38, one was a terrorist plot and attack, five were white-supremacist events, 30 were white-supremacist propaganda and eight were antisemitic incidents. Nine of the 38 happened in Middle Tennessee. Two were in Williamson County both in Franklin: one white-supremacist propaganda, one antisemitic.

Jared Holt of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, thinks the U.S. far right became emboldened in 2021 following the Capitol insurrection. A motivating factor, in Holts eyes, for the far right is the belief that institutions failed Trump. And helping fuel extremist growth, Holt contends, is right-wing media in the U.S., which has succumbed to conspiratorialism.

To an extent, in Holts opinion, people with far-right views in the U.S. have always been involved in local politics. One part of the countrys far right that comes to his mind is militias: Theyve tried to get people on city councils or curry favor from local sheriffs.

Now, though, Holt notes, there are people with far-right ideologies that have bought into the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that, on the national level, Republicans arent fighting hard enough for Trump. These people are trying to step up locally and fill the void that they feel exists.

Madeira says 2021 was crazy in Williamson County. It was divisive. Tense.

Thats when she started hearing the term political refugee in her community. People who had moved away from more-Democratic states and had come to the more-Republican Tennessee were using it.

Life in Williamson County is a paradox, Madeira says. On one hand, based on her involvement in the community, Madeira thinks that people with far-right ideology are the minority. However, she contends, theyre making the most noise and have become a collective, creating controversy and division. On the other hand, Williamson County has been one of the most-vaccinated counties in Tennessee against COVID-19.

At the state level in Tennessee, Madeira feels the far-right has taken over the Republican party, that extremist ideology has become mainstream.

Says Madeira: I feel like what is happening in Tennessee is dangerous to Tennessee.

Look for part three in our series A darker shade of red tomorrow.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.

Read the rest here:

Evolution of the Christian right in Tennessee - Tennessee Lookout

White Nationalists Are Big Fans of Elon’s White Genocide Tweets Mother Jones – Mother Jones

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Elon Musk made his most brazen overture to white nationalists yet on Monday, tweeting about the white genocide conspiracy theory in South Africa.

In response to a video of South Africas Economic Freedom Fighters party posted by right-wing influencer and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson, Musk tweeted, They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa. The video shows members of the party singing a struggle song that features the lyrics shoot to kill, kill the Boer, kill the farmer. A court ruled last August that the song was not hate speech, and that the lyrics were not meant to be taken literally.

Almost immediately, white nationalists praised Musk for taking up their cause:

Elon Musk bringing attention to White Genocide, white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes wrote on Telegram, accompanied by an emoji of an excited Pepe.

Patrick Casey, founder of the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa, tweeted, In 2016 South African white genocide was a fringe issuenow, the richest man in the world, who also owns Twitter, is drawing attention to it. Things are moving in the right direction!

Gab founder Andrew Torba, who tried to get prominent anti-semites to come to his platform, praised Musk as well, tweeting, Took us under a year to get [Musk] talking about White genocide. Give it another six months and hell be noticing and naming.

Elon calling out white genocide in South Africa Good for him, wrote former Trump administration staffer Darren J. Beattie on Twitter. Beattie was fired from his post after a CNN investigation revealed that he had spoken alongside prominent white nationalists at a conference in 2016.

Fuentes former colleague Jaden McNeil posted a screenshot of the tweet on Instagram.

Musk has previously pleased the far-right by welcoming them onto Twitter with the justification of protecting free speech. He also inched closer to white supremacist stances by tweeting about contorted Black crime statistics and other classic white supremacist dog whistles. Musk, however, had not completely aligned himself with white supremacistsafter letting white nationalist Nick Fuentes and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin back on Twitter earlier this year, he let their accounts be re-suspended for platform violations.

Histweeting about white genocide in South Africa suggests hes willing to go even further to align with people who are not just far-right but openly white supremacist in their politics.

Even though white genocide in South Africa has been fully debunked as a manipulationof tragic anecdotes that dont indicate a meaningful trend, its become a persistent cause for white supremacists over the last decade. Versions of the theory were cited as justification for the Christchurch, El Paso, and Buffalo mass shootings, which were carried out by white supremacists.

Musks tweet may add an unusual level of credibility to the conspiracy theorywhich, aside from briefly being highlighted by Trump in 2018, usually sits on the fringes of mainstream discourse.

Read the original:

White Nationalists Are Big Fans of Elon's White Genocide Tweets Mother Jones - Mother Jones

Melbourne on high alert over neo-Nazi gym meet-up this weekend – The Jerusalem Post

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Authorities in Melbourne, Australia are closely monitoring a scheduled neo-Nazi gym meet-up, sparking concerns among law enforcement and the community. According to reports in the Australian media, Australian white supremacist groups, including the European Australian Movement and National Socialist Network led by Thomas Sewell, are organizing a "WHITE POWER Lifting Meet" at Legacy Boxing Gym in Sunshine North.

The Legacy Boxing Gym has come under scrutiny for alleged connections to neo-Nazi activists, making the event even more concerning for authorities. Thomas Sewell's involvement in violent incidents, notably a previous assault on a Nine Network security guard in 2021, has added to the unease surrounding the meet-up.

Organizers have promoted the event on social media, inviting members of the wider national community to "celebrate the movement's exponential growth," which has drawn widespread alarm and condemnation for promoting extremist ideologies.

The Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia's leading civil rights organization fighting antisemitism, has condemned the neo-Nazi power-lifting event, highlighting the danger of fostering hatred and violence. Dr. Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, expressed grave concern over the event, stating that it serves as a disturbing reminder of the emboldened white supremacist movement's recruitment drive, aiming to lure young individuals into embracing a dangerous ideology.

"Who would have thought that in 2023 we would see a stomach-churning Hitler fest in Melbourne where Nazi salutes, incitement, fantasies about an Aryan Australia and gas chambers for Jews, Muslims, First Peoples, members of the LGBTIQ+ community, Asian and African Australians and the disabled will surely be on the agenda," Abramovich said.

He added that "the risk of real-world violence cannot be dismissed. This evil must be confronted and defeated, and when the forces of fear and division rear their ugly head, we must stand together to declare in one voice that there is no place for such bigotry in our state.

"Imagine what would happen if one of the individuals present at this reprehensible gathering is radicalized by absorbing all the poisonous rhetoric they hear and then encounters a visibly identifiable Jewish person or a member of an ethnic group on the street?" Abramovich concluded.

Sewell, a prominent Australian neo-Nazi, has been associated with extremist groups and engaged in controversial public stunts. He has previously attempted to recruit the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings into one of the organizations he leads. Sewell's past actions include a conviction for affray and causing injury, stemming from a violent assault on a security guard in Melbourne.

Lexington neighborhood wakes up to white supremacy flyers; police investigating. – Yahoo News

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Lexington police are asking the public for help in identifying any individuals responsible for leaving Aryan Freedom Network flyers in one neighborhood.

Some residents of the Kenwick neighborhood woke up to find baggies on their sidewalk that had white supremacy propaganda flyers inside with rice.

The flyer reads: You know who else was condemned for hate speech? Jesus Christ The flyer also advertises the Aryan Freedom Network and a website.

A post was shared on the Kenwick Neighborhood Association Facebook page asking for anyone to report the baggies to police, and check home security footage to identify possible suspects.

What we are interested in is who possibly left those flyers that is what we are very interested in identifying, said Lt. Dan Truex with the Lexington Police Department.

Truex confirmed the department had received multiple reports of Kenwick residents finding the baggies outside of their homes and some baggies were booked into evidence. He said no other neighborhood residents had reported finding the baggies.

He asked for anyone with surveillance footage that could identify a suspect to call police.

Truex told members of the neighborhood that extra patrol will be out for all three shifts for the next two weeks to increase police presence.

Hopefully this helps deter it from happening in the future, Truex wrote on social media.

Truex was not able to share what charges a suspect could face for the flyers, citing an open investigation.

Read the rest here:

Lexington neighborhood wakes up to white supremacy flyers; police investigating. - Yahoo News

Progressives want to grow the ‘White Stripe’ of a multiracial coalition – POLITICO

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo, Jessica Piper and Teresa Wiltz

People wait in line to vote on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022, in Atlanta. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP

What up, Recast fam! Campaign finance reports reveal Donald Trump and affiliated super PACs are fundraising juggernauts, but theyre also burning through cash and fast. House Democrats effectively sideline their top lawmaker on the Agriculture Committee and the U.S. womens national soccer team squeaked into the knockout round with a 0-0 tie with Portugal in the group stage. First, a look at a progressive play for white voters.

A group of progressive organizations is banding together with hopes that not even a seven nation army could hold them back from electoral victory in 2024.

The initiative dubbed the White Stripe Project aims to woo white voters in greater numbers to liberal causes and supply empirical data to challenge the conventional ways Democrats traditionally engage with this crucial voting bloc.

Without white voters, organizers admit, taking back the House and defending control of the White House and Senate will likely be an impossible mission.

We know that white communities organized by the right get in the way of winning on just about every issue that we care about, said Erin Heaney, executive director of Showing Up for Racial Justice, one of the principal groups spearheading the project.

White voters have disproportionate political power, she told organizers in remarks during the Monday afternoon launch of the project, shared exclusively with The Recast. We need a strategy for engaging and organizing them alongside communities of color.

There is growing frustration, particularly among Democratic activists, that the partys efforts trying to win back white voters, particularly those without college degrees, is ineffective. This voting bloc has broken for Republicans for the last four election cycles.

Was The Recast forwarded to you by a friend? Dont forget to subscribe to the newsletter here.

Youll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy.

While Joe Biden performed better among this group in 2020 than Hillary Clinton did four years earlier, Republicans still dominated. According to the Pew Research Center, Biden carried 33 percent of this bloc, while then-President Donald Trump carried 65 percent. The caveat, according to Pew, was that the vote total Trump carried with non-college educated whites was nearly identical to what he pulled in 2016.

To put it another way, the group believes these voters are gettable with the right message and a targeted, not blanket approach.

We need to have a public, non-defensive, data-driven conversation about what do we really know about white voters? said Steve Phillips, a longtime Democratic thought leader who is president of the Sandler Phillips Center.

Far too often, he said, Democrats and deep-pocketed donors settle on narratives about past elections that then inform future contests with little empirical data to back up those entrenched beliefs.

One of those narratives, he and other activists say, is the notion among the donor class that a focus on racial issues should be abandoned, in favor of a more race-neutral message centered around the economy.

Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams face off in a televised debate, Oct. 30, 2022, in Atlanta. | Ben Gray/AP Photo

Some Democrats grumble that Stacey Abrams loss in Georgias gubernatorial contest last cycle to incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp is proof that a candidate that highlights race and equity issues does not fare well in close elections, according to Phillips, the author of How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.

But Phillips is quick to counter with another example: the race between Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan a Democrat who ran his campaign almost exclusively focused on winning back working-class white voters. He still lost by 264,000 votes to Republican J.D. Vance.

Ryan really did manifest this playbook about downplaying race and leaning into economic issues, Phillips said. And he lost badly.

So what do we make of that?

Race as a wedge issue cant be ignored, say the White Stripe organizers, as they point to Republicans embrace of culture issues like critical race theory and the so-called anti-woke agenda animating the GOP base.

We know that race is an incredibly powerful tool to keep people, white people, silent and separated from the multiracial coalitions we need to win, Haney added.

As Biden begins to form the contours of his reelection campaign, it is clear economic issues will be at the forefront. Hes running on Bidenomics, a term coined by his political opponents to describe a once-flagging economy, but one hes flipped to showcase how its rebounded during the post-pandemic months.

To drive home this point, during the last month hes traveled to South Carolina a state with little chance of flipping to the Democrats in 2024 to tout his message of innovation and investment, and how those are paying dividends in red-leaning districts.

Biden also signaled hes planning to visit the north Georgia district of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene one of his biggest Republican detractors to attend the groundbreaking of a solar facility. He released a campaign ad using video of her own speech talking about Bidenomics and comparing him to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. It was clearly meant as a dig at Biden, but he embraced it, tweeting, I approve this message.

Joe Biden is going to go into areas that may not have been available to us before, says Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist not involved in the White Stripe Project.

Politically, that is very smart and I think will be successful for him in 2024. Whats successful mean? If its 1 or 2 percentage points nationally, we know that can be the difference in winning and losing the election, he adds.

Its not just the president whos looking to play this up. The House Majority PAC, the super PAC raising millions to support congressional Democrats, is encouraging them to brag more about the economy when theyre home in their districts during the August recess.

President Joe Biden speaks at Auburn Manufacturing Inc. on Friday, July 28, in Auburn, Maine. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Officials with the Democratic National Committee tell POLITICO despite recent campaign stops to majority-white districts, there is no plan for Biden to abandon his championing of racial equity.

They point to the contrast in the last week when Republicans were having intraparty strife over whether there was a personal benefit to being enslaved the same week Biden signed a bill creating a national monument to Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.

The Democratic Party is a party that fights for diversity, fights for equality, said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist who is not associated with the White Stripe Project. She adds that the party needs to do more than just focus on white working-class voters.

Democrats have been underperforming generally with working-class voters, whether theyre white, Latino or Black. And thats an issue that we need to work on, Smith says. But the solutions that wont be found in turning our back on some of our most devoted voters.

Organizers with the White Stripe Project say they are spending the summer ramping up talks with different partners to determine which strategy and spending targets will be the most useful to help mobilize white voters. This includes testing some of those turnout operations in the upcoming Kentucky gubernatorial race, where Democrat Andy Beshear is running for reelection in a state Biden lost by nearly 26 percentage points.

They expect to compile a report with recommendations on ways to win with a multicultural coalition by the end of the year.

It goes without saying you know were going to keep tabs on this one.

All the best, The Recast Team

SUPER PAC TAKEAWAYS

Yard signs promoting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024 line the street leading up to a GOP congressional fundraiser on May 13. 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa. | Tom Beaumont/AP Photo

The filing deadline for super PACs backing presidential candidates revealed the extent to what wealthy donors are paying to keep their preferred White House hopeful financially viable. Of course, the typical disclaimer applies: Super PACs cant directly coordinate with a presidential campaign, but can raise unlimited sums of cash and spend it to help boost their candidates.

The most eye-popping figure of Monday nights deadline: Never Back Down, the primary PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is sitting on nearly $97 million after raking in a mind-boggling $130 million since the beginning of the year.

As my POLITICO colleagues Jessica Piper and Sally Goldenberg point out, $82.5 million of that was shifted from a PAC set up for DeSantis gubernatorial campaign last year. Its still an impressive total that should keep him afloat for the long haul.

Then theres Sen. Tim Scott, who has seen his profile elevate amid reports of DeSantis campaign stumbles. His aligned super PAC, Trust In The Mission PAC, or TIM PAC, notched a respectable $19 million through July 31. This comes on the heels of the PAC announcing in mid-July that itll drop $40 million in advertising for Scott in the fall.

And the SFA Fund, the primary PAC for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, pulled in similar totals as Scott, Haleys fellow South Carolinian with $18.7 million. It has, to this point, spent very little of that, and still has more than $17 million in cash on hand.

Over in Trump world, the former presidents joint fundraising committee, which raises money directly for his campaign as well as a leadership PAC that has been picking up some of his legal expenses, reported raising $53.8 million in the first half of the year. However, as Jessica and Zach Montellaro report, Save America PAC [has] collectively spent $57 million over the same period. It is fueling serious questions about whether the PACs burn rate is sustainable through a general election campaign, should Trump win the GOP nomination.

ICYMI @ POLITICO

Rep. David Scotts colleagues raised concerns with House leadership about his ability to steer the committee minority through a critical period. | Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via AP

Ag Leader Sidelined As the discussions intensify over the countys food stamp program, Democrats have formed a task force that circumvents their top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), whose health issues have raised concerns among some of his colleagues. POLITICOs Garrett Downs and Meredith Lee Hill report Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has taken the lead of an assembled talk force, with the backing of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Two Looming Indictments POLITICOs Kyle Cheney highlights the winding down of the separate election interference probes led by special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County DA Fani Willis and the cast of characters central to these probes.

Oh No. Not Again. Covid Cases Are Climbing Hospitalizations due to a spike in Covid infections are on the rise for the first time this year. As POLITICOs David Lim notes, the uptick comes as the Biden administration is trying to portray a victory over the virus.

THE RECAST RECOMMENDS

Jamel Brinkley brings us Witness: 10 stories set in modern-day New York City featuring characters florists, UPS workers, ghosts (yup) burdened with perceiving and choosing whether to act.

Manga-turned-anime film The First Slam Dunk centers on the Shohoku High School basketball team as it battles for the national championship. Its in theaters now.

Travis Scotts new album, Utopia, is propulsive, cinematic and star-studded: Drake, Beyonc and Bad Bunny are just a few of the many collabs. And its popular, too, already becoming the most-streamed album in a single day this year.

If you live in New York or are heading there later this month check out famed poet/playwright/novelist/essayist/composer (and POLITICO magazine contributor) Ishmael Reeds play, The Conductor, a send-up of the racially charged recall of members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in 2021-2022. Its playing at the Theater for the New City, starting on Aug. 24.

The third and final season of Reservation Dogs, the hit comedy following four Indigenous teenagers from rural Oklahoma, streams tomorrow on Hulu.

In Talk To Me, a grieving Mia (Sophie Wilde) shakes the hand of a sinister entity. Its in cinemas now.

Iniko is lightyears ahead of the rest in the video for Jericho, dripping with futuristic glam.

TikTok of the Day: Power trio

Colorado’s United Church of Christ committed to DEI. Three years … – Colorado Public Radio

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

An abrupt firing

In August 2022, Scott said his relationship with his supervisor turned sour. According to Scott, his supervisor began yelling at him for being late to a meeting, and told him he was unfit for his job and was underperforming in his work.

I knew that that wasn't true because I had never had a negative performance evaluation, Scott said. He maintains he was on time for the meeting.

After the incident, Scott filed a report with the conference and he requested an apology.

But in November 2022, a meeting with his bosss supervisor was scheduled where he was fired.

There was no forewarning, there was no performance review process initiated. It was just a swift, abrupt, We're terminating you today, Scott said. They offered an agreement of separation, which contained a severance amount. But that was contingent on a non-disclosure agreement.

He didnt sign: I could not, in good conscience, accept that.

CPR News contacted The Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ about these allegations. Interim Conference Minister for the conference Rev. Douglas Wooten said in an emailed statement, We do not take these matters lightly. We are concerned about legal ramifications but, as a community of faith, our overriding concern is for healing and for allowing justice and equity to prevail.

In the case of Rev. Dr. Scott, remedies have been and are being offered in hopes of finding a path toward wholeness, both for Dr. Scott and for the Conference, the statement continued.

Scott has since filed a charge of discrimination with the Colorado Division of Civil Rights and an investigation is underway.

The Rocky Mountain Conference responded to CPR News request for comment, but did not address specific questions CPR News asked about Scotts relationship with his supervisor or his firing.

Any time we hear about cases involving racial discrimination, we become concerned. We take such matters very seriously, said Charles Jefferson, director of Marketing and Communications for the United Church of Christ nationally. We are a church that has shown itself to be both capable of great harm to people of color and capable of being a critical agent of racial equity. We repent of the former and seek with passion and intent to increase the latter.

He added that the United Church of Christs rules prohibit national church leaders from interfering with local church issues.

Speaking on this or any disciplinary matter involving employees in another setting of the church, would be a violation of our polity and ethics, Jefferson said.

In June, the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ held its annual meeting, during which members discussed a resolution for Scott. According to a document Scott shared with CPR News that church leaders confirmed was accurate, representatives laid out two proposed resolutions: They recommended that Scott be offered his old job with full back pay and benefits." But if he declined to be reinstated, he would receive back pay and benefits from the date of his termination to present.

Whichever option Scott chose, he would receive an apology and pay in the amount of $68,000 by July 1, 2023, according to the amended version of the document that CPR News obtained from the church. At the time of publication of this story, he had yet to receive anything from the conference.

According to Rev. Wooten with the Rocky Mountain Conference, these were not the terms a majority of conference members agreed on and the conferences board has yet to complete a resolution on the matter.

The Board is working diligently to act as quickly as possible to satisfy all parties involved, Wooten said in mid-July.

Scotts experience is far from uncommon for people hired into DEI roles in 2020. Many people who took on DEI work are no longer in those roles three years later, NBC News reported.

Since the summer of 2022, the number of layoffs for DEI roles has outpaced layoffs in other jobs in the U.S. More than 300 DEI professionals, mainly in the tech industry, have quit their positions in the same time period, according to data from Revelio Labs that it produced in collaboration with The Washington Post and Reuters. DEI roles also had more employee turnover than in other jobs across all American companies, the data shows.

In the nonprofit world, including religious or faith-based organizations, there is a sense of fatigue when it comes to DEI, said Yolanda Johnson, president and founder of YFJ Consulting, which provides expertise in fundraising, inclusion, equity and diversity to nonprofit organizations.

What people have to understand is that this work is a lifestyle change. It's work of the heart, and it changes at the rate of people, Johnson said.

Many organizations took pledges, made statements and even created task forces or committees dedicated to anti-racism and social justice work in 2020. But today, those efforts have faded. The initiatives were great, Johnson said, but the lack of accountability didnt foster sustained change.

Rev. Dr. Nancy Niero agreed. Ordained in the Rocky Mountain Conference, she recently completed a Ph.D. where she researched white silence in the conference. She found the culture within the church gives preference to whiteness and is resistant to change.

It appears that clergy were more protective of maintaining systems, rather than dismantling systems to make [a church constructed for the] 21st Century, Niero said. Based on what I am hearing from a lot of other clergy colleagues around the country, this is not an isolated situation of white churches not wanting to do the work of dismantling white silence or decentering whiteness in sanctuaries.

Twomey, the former reverend at Vista Grande Community Church in Colorado Springs, encountered this resistance in her own work.

A frequent participant in social justice rallies, Twomey joined a racial justice task force for the conference in 2020. She said her congregation was committed to learning about how to be anti-racist and wanted to do the work to dismantle white supremacy. Working with Scott and others, the task force developed guidelines for how to make the conference more diverse and requirements that clergy members would need to follow.

However, Twomey said pushback from conference leadership was tremendous, and they didnt see a need to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion work.

Across the board, progressive churches can be highly problematic because we think that if we think the right way, we can't be held accountable to our complicity in any -ism, Twomey said.

Niero questions whether people of color are supported within the conference. She noted that at the United Church of Christs annual meeting earlier this summer, no Black clergy were sent to represent the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Are we doing everything to create safe spaces for Black people who are congregants? Are we lifting up the one Black church we have in our conference? Niero asked, referring to the United Church of Montbello. I hear pastors or lay leaders say, Whoever you are, you are welcome here. And I say to that, Show me; Show me how people of color are welcome here.

By summer 2022, Twomey resigned from her post with Vista Grande Community Church after her partner accepted a job in Pennsylvania. Once there, she decided not to work with a church, instead taking a job with the states Human Relations Commission.

I did not seek another church because I did not feel welcome in the larger church anymore, she said. She added that she was not pushed out of Vista Grande, but it was very clear that what I was bringing to the table with regard to my call and this work was not welcome.

Months after Scott was terminated from his role, he moved back East. He now leads Reformation Lutheran Church, a historically Black congregation, in Philadelphia. After telling his new congregation leaders about what happened in the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ, he said they were understanding. They also asked him if he would lead DEI work within their organization.

There are definitely some reservations I have, Scott said. Before taking on another DEI-focused role, I definitely want to do perhaps a more thorough job of assessing the environment or the atmosphere.

If congregations want to make progress, people like Scott, who were hired into leadership positions, need to stay in those roles, said Johnson, the diversity consultant. And they need to be listened to by higher-ups so the congregations can evolve.

Its not as easy as watching a video and coming up with a list of recommendations, Johnson said. Her theory on DEI is to put inclusion at the forefront because, without it, every other effort fails. That means looking beyond race and ethnicity and into other forms of diversity like gender, ability, age and more.

Within the faith communities, I think it's just a matter of staying the course, Johnson said, adding that she has seen some progress. From theology, small group bible studies, fellowship activities, honoring and recognizing different cultural heritage months, learning about each other, sparking dialogue. I've seen leadership evolve and change and become more diverse. I've seen people change.

Read the original post:

Colorado's United Church of Christ committed to DEI. Three years ... - Colorado Public Radio

Trump indictment doesn’t mention race, but it’s all there – The Boston Globe

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Much like the exemplary work of the US House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, Smiths indictment doesnt focus on the central role race played in Trumps attempted coup. In fact, it doesnt mention race at all.

But its all there, between the lines of Count Four, charging Trump with violating Title 18, Section 214 of the US Code by denying Americans the right to vote, and to have ones vote counted.

Get Mira! by Marcela Garca

A bilingual view into politics, policy, people, pop culture framed through the immigrant experience and maybe a pooch or two.

That statute dates back to the Reconstruction Era and was designed to criminalize the reign of violent terror that the Ku Klux Klan and others unleashed on Black Americans after the Civil War. The terror campaign was an effort to keep them from voting, working, being educated, or simply living in a way that represented the freedom that emancipation promised.

And when it comes to the antidemocratic scheme Trump stands accused of leading, this law, and all the history that comes with it, fits the facts to a tee even if Smith didnt spell it out.

I fear that the convenient, easiest, most straightforward legal argument is also somewhat of a whitewash, Georgia State College of Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis told me. I see what Donald Trump was doing, which was a pattern of seeing Black voting power as inherently fraudulent and tying that to the identity of the country and the future of the country.

Indeed, it wasnt just hooded hate groups that rebelled against the postbellum freedoms granted to Black Americans. The so-called Redeemers of the South, comprised of wealthy businessmen, farmers, and landowners, formed a political movement to protect white supremacy in America and all the political power it afforded them. They, too, thought they were making America great again.

Fast-forward to Trumps 21th century, where he openly campaigned on a hateful platform of banning Muslims from the country and labeling Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers, rapists. As president, he defended those who tried to start a race war in Charlottesville, Va., as very fine people.

The long list of Trumps racist dog whistles or bullhorns, really goes on. But he clearly knew who made up a key part of his base of support. And Trump knew just who he could count on when the time came for him to turn his call to stand back and stand by into Be there, will be wild! Smith may not have charged Trump as part of the seditious conspiracy that resulted in prison sentences for leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, militia groups whose foundations date back to the 19th-century Klan, but their plot could not have happened without Trumps command.

Its no accident that many in the mob that descended on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, and violently stormed the Capitol carried Confederate flags or donned white nationalist insignia and slogans along with their red MAGA hats. The hand gestures of some rioters certainly meant something other than OK.

Its no mere coincidence that the places Trump falsely and baselessly claimed to be bastions of voter fraud included Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Atlanta cities with large Black voting blocs in swing states. The images of the crowd of white Trump supporters surrounding a vote-counting center on Election Day in my hometown of Detroit, then the Blackest city in America, shouting Stop the count! nearly stopped my heart. It was Jim Crows modern resurrection, everything my grandparents sought to escape when they left the South for Michigan generations ago.

And it was just what Congress sought to stop during the Reconstruction Era.

Unfortunately, lawmakers didnt go far enough. Originally the statute Trump was charged with included a disqualification clause that would have prohibited anyone convicted from holding office, but that provision was scrapped in the amendment stage as overly punitive. That means Trump, despite it all, will be on primary ballots.

So its not just the jurors who will be seated at his trials who have an important role to play. Its also each and every voting American who will render their judgment on Trump at their polling places next year. Every voter should read every word of that indictment and cast their ballots in judgment of Trump with open eyes not just on the future but on the history we must never forget.

Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at kimberly.atkinsstohr@globe.com. Follow her @KimberlyEAtkins.

See original here:

Trump indictment doesn't mention race, but it's all there - The Boston Globe

New Taskforce to build UK nuclear skills – GOV.UK

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

The nuclear industry underpins hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK, both directly and through the extended supply chain, and is growing rapidly. Nuclear has a wide variety of roles ranging from technical scientific and engineering roles through to logistics, project management, commercial and finance with a range of apprentice and graduate opportunities.

The UKs nuclear capability plays a significant role in the security, prosperity and resilience of our nation. Putting our nuclear workforce at the heart of this upskilling work will help deliver on the Prime Ministers priority to grow the economy and support UK jobs.

Chaired by Sir Simon Bollom former Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment and Support - the Taskforce will address how the UK continues to build nuclear skills across its defence and civil workforce.

The UKs Nuclear sectors are in positive periods of growth and the workforce will expand further given the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership and the governments drive around energy security.

By developing nuclear skills, we are not just investing in the UK economy but our national security.

The creation of this new Taskforce will challenge the whole of the UKs nuclear sector to be ambitious in addressing the nuclear skills gap, and we are delighted to appoint Sir Simon Bollom to drive this work forward.

Building on the work already undertaken with industry and across government by the Ministry of Defence and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Taskforce will develop a skills strategy to support the significant growth expected across a range of roles in the defence and civil nuclear sectors in the coming years.

Against a backdrop of increasing international competition for such roles, the Taskforce will set up the UKs nuclear sector for future success, supporting industry to build a long-term and sustainable pipeline of skills to meet our nuclear ambition.

The UKs nuclear revival, with the launch of Great British Nuclear, will put us centre-stage in the global race to unleash a new generation of nuclear technology.

The Nuclear Skills Taskforce will support this expansion by securing the skills and workforce we need to deliver this, opening up exciting opportunities and careers to help bolster our energy security.

The launch of Great British Nuclear will boost energy security and create job opportunities across the UK. Recently launched, it forms part of a revival of nuclear power to place the UK at the forefront of a global race to develop cutting-edge nuclear technologies and deliver cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy.

Great British Nuclear will deliver the governments long-term nuclear programme and support the governments ambition to deliver up to 24GW of nuclear power in the UK by 2050. Part of this will be delivered through the huge projects taking place at the Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C nuclear power plants.

Having served as an engineer officer in the RAF for 35 years, and most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of the Defence Equipment and Support, Taskforce Chair Sir Simon Bollom has a strong network and credibility with industry given his extensive experience in Defence. He is also currently on the Board of the Submarine Delivery Agency.

I am absolutely delighted to have secured this extremely important role. The Nuclear Sector is vital to our nation, and I am proud to have been given the opportunity to lead such an important Taskforce to ensure that we have the people, and skills we need to deliver our Programmes.

The UKs nuclear industry is crucial for Britains military capabilities. Our Vanguard and Astute submarines, and from the early 2030s the new Dreadnought Class, use nuclear technology, keeping the nation safe every minute of every day.

The creation of the UKs next generation nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS partnership will see the creation of thousands of UK jobs, and all the nuclear reactors for the UK and Australian SSN-AUKUS submarines will be made in Derby.

Sir Simon Bollom will be joined on the Taskforce by representatives from the Ministry of Defence, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Education, academia and professional bodies as well as industry partners.

Visit link:

New Taskforce to build UK nuclear skills - GOV.UK

Ukrainian Troops Trained by the West Stumble in Battle – The New York Times

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

The first several weeks of Ukraines long-awaited counteroffensive have not been kind to the Ukrainian troops who were trained and armed by the United States and its allies.

Equipped with advanced American weapons and heralded as the vanguard of a major assault, the troops became bogged down in dense Russian minefields under constant fire from artillery and helicopter gunships. Units got lost. One unit delayed a nighttime attack until dawn, losing its advantage. Another fared so badly that commanders yanked it off the battlefield altogether.

Now the Western-trained Ukrainian brigades are trying to turn things around, U.S. officials and independent analysts say. Ukrainian military commanders have changed tactics, focusing on wearing down the Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles instead of plunging into minefields under fire. A troop surge is underway in the countrys south, with a second wave of Western-trained forces launching mostly small-scale attacks to punch through Russian lines.

But early results have been mixed. While Ukrainian troops have retaken a few villages, they have yet to make the kinds of sweeping gains that characterized their successes in the strategically important cities of Kherson and Kharkiv last fall. The complicated training in Western maneuvers has given the Ukrainians scant solace in the face of barrage after barrage of Russian artillery.

Ukraines decision to change tactics is a clear signal that NATOs hopes for large advances made by Ukrainian formations armed with new weapons, new training and an injection of artillery ammunition have failed to materialize, at least for now.

It raises questions about the quality of the training the Ukrainians received from the West and about whether tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including nearly $44 billion worth from the Biden administration, have been successful in transforming the Ukrainian military into a NATO-standard fighting force.

The counteroffensive itself hasnt failed; it will drag on for several months into the fall, said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who recently visited the front lines. Arguably, the problem was in the assumption that with a few months of training, Ukrainian units could be converted into fighting more the way American forces might fight, leading the assault against a well-prepared Russian defense, rather than helping Ukrainians fight more the best way they know how.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has increasingly signaled that his strategy is to wait out Ukraine and its allies and win the war by exhausting them. American officials are worried that Ukraines return to its old tactics risks that it will race through precious ammunition supplies, which could play into Mr. Putins hands and disadvantage Ukraine in a war of attrition.

Biden administration officials had hoped the nine Western-trained brigades, some 36,000 troops, would show that the American way of warfare was superior to the Russian approach. While the Russians have a rigidly centralized command structure, the Americans taught the Ukrainians to empower senior enlisted soldiers to make quick decisions on the battlefield and to deploy combined arms tactics synchronized attacks by infantry, armor and artillery forces.

Western officials championed that approach as more efficient than the costly strategy of wearing Russian forces down by attrition, which threatens to deplete Ukraines ammunition stocks.

Much of the training involved teaching Ukrainian troops how to go on the offensive rather than stay on defense. For years, Ukrainian troops had worked on defensive tactics as Russian-backed separatists launched attacks in eastern Ukraine. When Moscow began its full-scale invasion last year, Ukrainian troops put their defensive operations into play, denying Russia the swift victory it had anticipated.

The effort to take back their own territory is requiring them to fight in different ways, Colin H. Kahl, who recently stepped down as the Pentagons top policy official, said last month.

But the Western-trained brigades received only four to six weeks of combined arms training, and units made several mistakes at the start of the counteroffensive in early June that set them back, according to U.S. officials and analysts who recently visited the front lines and spoke to Ukrainian troops and commanders.

Some units failed to follow cleared paths and ran into mines. When a unit delayed a nighttime attack, an accompanying artillery bombardment to cover its advance went ahead as scheduled, tipping off the Russians.

In the first two weeks of the counteroffensive, as much as 20 percent of the weaponry Ukraine sent to the battlefield was damaged or destroyed, according to U.S. and European officials. The toll included some of the formidable Western fighting machines tanks and armored personnel carriers that the Ukrainians were counting on to beat back the Russians.

Military experts said that using newly learned tactics for the first time was always going to be hard, especially given that the Russian response was to assume a defensive crouch and fire massive barrages of artillery.

They were given a tall order, said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and a former U.S. Marine officer, who has also traveled to the front lines. They had a short amount of time to train on new equipment and to develop unit cohesion, and then they were thrown into one of the most difficult combat situations. They were put in an incredibly tough position.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine acknowledged in late July that his countrys counteroffensive against dug-in Russian troops was advancing more slowly than expected.

We did have plans to start it in the spring, but we didnt because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough properly trained brigades I mean, properly trained in these weapons, Mr. Zelensky said via video link at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual national-security conference.

He added that because we started it a bit late, Russia had time to mine all of our lands and build several lines of defense.

Ukraine may well return to the American way of warfare if it breaks through dug-in Russian defenses, some military experts said. But offense is harder than defense, as Russia demonstrated last year when it abandoned its initial plans to advance to Kyiv.

I do not think theyre abandoning combined arms tactics, Philip M. Breedlove, a retired four-star Air Force general who was NATOs supreme allied commander for Europe, said in an interview. If they were to get through the first, second or third lines of defense, I think youre going to see the definition of combined arms.

Speaking at the Aspen forum, Jake Sullivan, President Bidens national security adviser, said, Ukraine has a substantial amount of combat power that it has not yet committed to the fight, and it is trying to choose its moment to commit that combat power to the fight when it will have the maximum impact on the battlefield.

That moment appeared to come last week when Ukraine significantly ratcheted up its counteroffensive with two southward thrusts apparently aimed at cities in the Zaporizhzhia region: Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov, and Berdiansk, to the east on the Azov coast. In both cases, the Ukrainians have advanced only a few miles and have dozens more to go.

But analysts question whether this second wave, relying on attacks by smaller units, will generate enough combat power and momentum to allow Ukrainian troops to push through Russian defenses.

Gian Luca Capovin and Alexander Stronell, analysts with the British security intelligence firm Janes, said that the small-unit attack strategy is extremely likely to result in mass casualties, equipment loss and minimal territorial gains for Ukraine.

U.S. officials said, however, the surge in Ukrainian forces in the past week came at a time when the Ukrainians were clearing paths through some of the Russian defenses and beginning to wear down Russian troops and artillery.

A Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details and intelligence assessments, said the Russians were stretched and still experiencing problems with logistics, supply, personnel and weapons.

General Breedlove concurred and said he still expected the Ukrainian counteroffensive to put Russia at a disadvantage.

The Ukrainians are in a place now where they understand how they want to employ their forces, he said. And were starting to see the Russians move backwards.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting from London.

Trump Charged With KKK Law for Attempts to Erase Black Vote In 2020 – The Root

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Danzig

Photo: zz/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx ( AP )

Donald Trump is not only the first former president to have been charged with a federal crime stemming from his actions in office, he could also be the first one in history to be held accountable for attempting to victimize Black people. The crimes alleged in the 45-page indictment against the ex-president handed down yesterday dont specifically mention race, they are a road map for Trump and his allies plans to flip the vote in states where Black voters were key to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump, A Victim of "Reverse Racism"? You Gotta Be Kidding Me

It was in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere Black voters held sway, where Trump focused his efforts, not only perpetuating the lie that hed actually won, engaged in an alleged conspiracy to defraud those same voters which prosecutors say rose to the level of criminal culpability. And almost as if in a nod to the underlying racial implications of Trumps alleged scheme, prosecutors charged him under a statute that was originally intended to target the Ku Klux Klan. Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code makes it illegal to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person exercising a right that is protected by the Constitution.

Its worth noting that theres a clear distinction between Trumps tactics and those of the Klan from a century ago. The hate group did everything in their power to keep newly freed Black people from voting, but their methods were underpinned by terrorist violence like bombings and lynching. Trump is accused of using rhetoric, the courts and the levers of government itself to accomplish the same goal. Prosecutors believe that the law should apply all the same.

Trumps indictment alleges that he took part in a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have ones vote counted. This accusation is in direct violation of Section 241. Furthermore, Trump is also being accused of pursuing unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In 2020, President Biden received the Black vote strongly across the entire country.

However, Trump and his allies targeted ballots in those statesspecifically the cities that had substantial Black populationsin an attempt to retain power. Though they claimed the lawsuits against those places werent racially motivated, Trumps camp never presented any real evidence that showed these votes were invalid.

Black people were denied the ability to vote for centuries and Trumps plan to erase our political power wasnt just obviousit was downright illegal. Violations of Section 241 are classified as felonies that are punishable by up to 10 years in prison or longer. Trump has boasted white supremacist ideology his entire career, so him being charged with a KKK law is fitting.

See the original post:

Trump Charged With KKK Law for Attempts to Erase Black Vote In 2020 - The Root

Select Page ::