US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) & Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose Call on FDA to Pull Abortion Pill – GlobeNewswire

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Washington, D.C., Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In an op-ed published onNational Review Online, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, urge FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn to protect the health of women and children by pulling Mifeprex, a dangerous abortion drug, off the market.

Live Action, a leading pro-life organization with over 4.6 million followers online, recently launched Abortion Pill Kills,a campaign exposing the history of the pill and the abortion industrys plan to expand the drug. Live Actionsinvestigative report, written in consultation with the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNS (AAPLOG) highlights the dangers of the abortion pill for children and women, the funders behind the drug, and the push by the abortion industry to lift the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) basic requirements surrounding its distribution. The FDA requirements, known as a risk evaluation mitigation strategy (REMS), require the abortion pill (Mifeprex) to be prescribed and dispensed in a healthcare setting, clinic, or hospital by a qualified medical professional.REMS requires prescribers of the abortion pill to certify that they are capable of dating a pregnancy, diagnosing dangerous ectopic pregnancies, and that they will provide or arrange for surgical intervention in case of failure or complications.

On July 13, 2020, Obama-appointed U.S District Judge Theodore Chuang, blocked the FDA from enforcing the REMS for Mifeprex, suspending the requirement that abortion pill prescribers dispense the pill at an in-person appointment. The ruling comes after the abortion lobby sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA over the in-person requirement using COVID-19 concerns to argue that the requirement posed a burden to women. The ruling enables the pill to be mailed or delivered to patients as long as the pandemic continues.

Live Action's online petitionto pull the pill has gained almost 50,000 signatures and a coalition of human rights groups and medical associations sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn here. Signatories include Samaritan's Purse, The American College of Pediatricians, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life, March for Life, and Heritage Action.

Live Action President and Founder, Lila Rose made the following statement:

The abortion pill has ended the lives of at least 3.7 million innocent children in the U.S. alone. This pill was designed to kill children into the tenth week of pregnancy children who have beating hearts, vital organs, developing eyes and hardening bones. The abortion pill will never be safe for children, or for women. Babies have detectable heartbeats about 3 weeks after fertilization. By 10 weeks gestation, the baby is an inch and a quarter long, all vital organs are in place, and teeth begin to harden and connect to the jawbone. The abortion pill and its expansion are being promoted by a network of billionaire philanthropists, foundations, universities, researchers, media figures, and politicians with deep ties to the American eugenics movement. These financial backers of big abortion are using the COVID-19 threat as a ploy to enact their extreme population control agendas, expanding the abortion pill to target the lives of even more vulnerable children and women. If they succeed, the dangerous drug may become available to young girls, abusers, and women in dangerous pregnancy situations who need medical interventions and the industry will profit from the injustice.

The FDA should acknowledge the subversive tactics of the abortion industry and its allies, which are using a national pandemic to instigate abortion expansions that could remain long after the pandemic is over. Most importantly, the FDA should acknowledge that the abortion pill, which kills children and destroys womens wellbeing, has always been a hazard to public health and should never have been approved for sale in the United States.The FDA can and should exercise its authority under 21 CFR 2.5 to ban the abortion pill as an imminent hazard to public health that poses a significant threat of danger to women and preborn children.

More Background:

According to the FDA, as of 2018, even with REMS in place,the abortion pill has killed at least 3.7 million preborn children, caused at least 24 maternal deaths, and has caused at least 4,195 adverse maternal reactionsincluding hemorrhage, excruciating abdominal pain, and severe life-threatening infections. Women who experience these side-effects are likely to seek care at emergency rooms (which are not required to report adverse events to the FDA) rather than the abortion facilities that prescribed the pill. This meansthe true number of adverse events far exceeds 4,000 cases. According to Dr. Ingrid Skop in theJournal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the abortion pill poses afour-times higher risk of complication than surgical abortionin the first trimester.

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Live Action is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the truth about abortion and affirming the life of every child. Live Action exists to change hearts and minds about abortion through compelling educational media, human interest stories, and investigative reporting that exposes the lies and corruption in the abortion industry. With the largest online following in the pro-life movement, Live Actions videos and content reach millions of people every week.Find out more athttp://www.liveaction.org

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US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) & Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose Call on FDA to Pull Abortion Pill - GlobeNewswire

Lompoc speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Aug. 7, 2020 – Lompoc Record

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COVID-19 is not a hoax

Last April British citizens eagerly anticipated faster internet as 5G towers were being installed and yet 30 of the towers were burned and vandalized.

A popular conspiracy theory convinced people that 5G towers caused COVID-19. Of course, that proved to be untrue but the individuals who torched the towers believed themselves to be heroes.

The people who harassed and attacked 80 technicians installing 5G towers were good people who thought they were saving their communities from a horrible disease. The misinformation circulating about COVID-19 has been referred to as an infodemic. Much of the misinformation is motivated by greed. Websites promising cures are often phishing sites used to collect credit card numbers. Websites with articles about eye-catching but false information have been used to install malware.

Its vital that we cut through the false conspiracy theories. Firstly COVID-19 is not a hoax. Epidemics and pandemics are a natural part of the human experience. The first documented epidemic was a flu-like disease that ravaged Asia and the Middle East in 1,200 B.C.E.

There have been countless epidemics from ancient times until today. One false claim is that the press has inflated the numbers of COVID-19. Data from mortuaries, hospital census, and public health offices all agree that this is a large and serious outbreak.

Just because you dont personally know someone who has died from the virus doesnt mean that its not real. Because its new scientist have been studying the virus for less then a year and there is much we dont know. What we do know is that facemasks and social distancing are effective to slow the spread of this deadly disease.

Through the generations we have gotten past epidemics of bubonic plague, smallpox, typhus, measles, diphtheria, cholera, yellow fever and numerous flus. We will get past COVID-19 but it will happen a lot sooner if we can work together. We need to let go of the conspiracy theories, social distance and wear a mask.

Molly Machin

Nipomo

As the presidential election approaches and Trumps poll numbers continue to decline, we are beginning to see the inevitable prediction that mail-in voting will lead to massive voter fraud.

This is a common trope that is fueled by random anecdotes and is debunked by all the empirical data to the contrary. A Washington Post analysis of general elections in three Western states in 2016 and 2018 found the incidence of double voting was 0.0025.

Another study, supported by the Pew Charitable Trust, found only 0.001 percent incidence of voter fraud. The assumption of voter fraud not only flies in the face of data it is an insult to the election officials in every state who, with the support of experts in technology, have designed elaborate systems to mitigate this risk.

Ironically the most chaotic election in my lifetime was Gore V Bush, when old fashioned voting machines nearly caused a constitutional crisis. So its odd that mail-in voting, which has been supported by both parties in the past, is suddenly the focus of suspicion for some Republicans.

This is especially odd in the midst of the coronavirus, when avoiding large groups is so critical to public health. Coronavirus has resulted in the support of nearly every state for either mail-in or absentee ballots.

Based on reality we should be more concerned about voter suppression than voter fraud. In most states access to poles looks very different depending on zip code. In some states the poor, Black and Brown people have to travel long distances and stand in line for hours to vote.

We choose to hold elections on Tuesday when many low wage workers have to work long shifts and many single parents do not have childcare. Why not hold voting on Saturday or Sunday? Why not have polling places in or near churches? And, if we really want to have a Democracy, why not make voting easily accessible for every eligible citizen?

Margaret Tillery

Santa Maria

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Lompoc speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Aug. 7, 2020 - Lompoc Record

Guest Opinion: The Statue of Liberty’s inscription is now unreasonable – The Intelligencer

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No country can accept unlimited numbers of poor people simply looking to be taken care of by a social welfare network.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was a group of snobs based primarily in the Boston area. They advanced the theory that bloodlines were critically important to the future of the United States and were horrified about what was happening with immigration. They detested people coming from Eastern and Southern Europe who they claimed were inferior and would be responsible for the eventual destruction of the United States if they outproduced "high class" people like themselves. Eastern Europe specifically meant Hungarian, Polish, Russian (especially Jews) and other surrounding countries and Southern Europe meant Italians.

Their initial steps were to gather data with very unscientific methods. Testing with absurd questions that proved absolutely nothing and was skewed to make those who had come here first easily seem superior to later "low class" arrivals who were judged as imbeciles and clearly inferior.

They assumed that the same way you could improve plants and animals by selective hybridizing and breeding, could be utilized to improve the quality of the human race. Of course, this would mean banning certain immigrants and forced sterilization of people in poor houses, prisons, epileptics etc. These people were serious as a heart attack to control the gene pool and who would be allowed to produce future generations. Their goal was to enhance the chance of Nordic genes to dominate the culture and create a "super race" based on Western and Northern Europeans the Nordic peoples. You should be able to guess who paid close attention to all this "scientific racism" and used it as a basis to rid the planet of the specific groups he felt were inferior. Adolph Hitler adopted this theory and killed millions with this reprehensible view of humanity.

These eugenicists were able to get support from the rich and powerful, including senators and presidents, to eventually assign quotas to various "undesirable" countries based on their perceived ability to contribute to the genetic future of the United States. One country was given a quota of one-half a person although they promised not to cut the person in half. How generous! A vocal minority went on the offensive and ridiculed these non-experts using non-science trying to prevent the immigration of undesirables. One of the main studies only examined people in insane asylums slight lack of scientific objectivity!

This discrimination agenda was so flawed as to seem impossible to understand but this was the late 1890s and early 1920s. Eventually intelligent people ended the lunacy but there is an interesting parallel. Samuel Gompers, the labor leader, had primarily economic reasons to oppose immigration and I believe that is the current argument. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with class. No country can accept unlimited numbers of poor people simply looking to be taken care of by a social welfare network.

The original immigrants came here to work and be assimilated while the current invasion is primarily by people who want to improve their lives by adding their names to the welfare rolls. Sorry, but that is not a legitimate reason to bankrupt a country that is already essentially bankrupt. Immigration restriction is a valid issue because it is class-based and not race-based. Incidentally, my background is Eastern European.

The Statue of Liberty no longer has legitimacy and should be sent back to France. The inscription no longer applies and is not reasonable, realistic or even possible. It is an outdated suicide pact!

Mike Zuroick lives in Langhorne.

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Guest Opinion: The Statue of Liberty's inscription is now unreasonable - The Intelligencer

Jeffrey Epstein’s island: It wasn’t the only place he abused his victims – Film Daily

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Jeffrey Epsteins island is well-known as a hub for the sexual predators sex trafficking ring. However, Pedophile Island isnt the only place Epstein had at his disposal to satisfy his sexual appetite. With four other residences, Jeffrey Epstein was able to abuse his victims throughout the U.S. & abroad.

The disturbing details of the Epstein case have continued to shock the world. Epstein victims like Virginia Roberts Giuffre have revealed that they were taken to several locations where they were sexually assaulted. Epsteins associate Ghislaine Maxwell is now also facing charges of transporting minors across state lines & grooming them for Epstein. Take a look at the other dens of sin in which Epstein abused his victims.

The sophisticated Paris apartment on the exclusive Avenue Foch located on the 16th arrondissement was one of Epsteins many luxurious homes. After Epsteins arrest in 2018, French police began investigating the connection between Jeffrey Epstein & Jean-Luc Brunel who owned the modeling agency Karin Models.

Reportedly, Brunel used his modeling agency to procure young women for Epstein. and send them to the Paris apartment. Brunel has also been accused of sexual assault by several models, including Thysia Huisman, who claims Brunel promised to make her famous before he drugged & raped her.

Jeffrey Epsteins former butler informed the French press that Epstein had a specially built massage room in the apartment. The butler stated that a great many women were brought into the room though he was unable to identify if any of them were minors.

Jeffrey Epsteins island & his townhouse in New Yorks Upper East Side are where Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed to have been repeatedly sexually abused. Giuffre described herself as Epsteins sex slave, and has accused Ghislaine Maxwell of recruiting her as a seventeen-year-old girl. Giuffre was paid to be a traveling masseuse a job that later turned out to include being trafficked to several of Epsteins associates.

The inside of the New York townhouse was littered with bizarre, sexually suggestive decor such as a life-sized chess set made to look like Epsteins staff in their underwear & many portraits of nude women. When the police raided the townhouse in 2019, they found a safe filled with hundreds if not thousands of pictures of nude girls.

Jeffrey Epsteins Palm Beach mansion was the first of his residences to be investigated by police. Back in October 2005, police raided the mansion when Epstein was accused of soliciting a minor for sex. A video of the raid revealed numerous nude portraits of young girls.

Another stash of sexually explicit photos was found also featuring underage girls. Four massage tables were found in the house, alongside sex toys. The police investigation of Epstein at this time also looked into the claims of several victims who alleged Epstein hired them to massage him in his underwear or when he was fully nude.

Zorro Ranch in New Mexico is the largest of Epsteins former properties besides his private island. The ranch is currently under investigation by the New Mexico attorney generals office after several women claimed they were sexually abused on the property.

The women who reported they were sexually assaulted at Zorro Ranch include artist Maria Farmer & her younger sister Annie. Epstein & Maxwell both were accused by Annie Farmer who stated she was inappropriately touched by the couple on a massage table when she was just fifteen.

Zorro Ranch is also the property where Epstein wanted to impregnate multiple women so that he could seed the world with his DNA. Epstein, who was fascinated with eugenics, reportedly planned to impregnate twenty women at a time at the ranch to create as many of his offspring as possible.

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Jeffrey Epstein's island: It wasn't the only place he abused his victims - Film Daily

Police Violence in Portland Protests – The New York Times

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To the Editor:

Violence Is Not an Answer, by Chuck Lovell (Op-Ed, Aug. 4), is an insult to the thousands of Portlanders who have been indiscriminately gassed, beaten and shot with crowd-control weapons by the Portland, Ore., police night after night, simply for protesting racist police violence.

Mr. Lovell, the chief of the Police Bureau in Portland, claims that as police officers, our duty is to uphold the rights of anyone to assemble peacefully and engage in free speech. But the police in Portland are making a mockery of the First Amendment by using excessive force, violence and intimidation to suppress free speech in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The A.C.L.U. of Oregon had to sue federal agents and police in Portland for violently attacking journalists and legal observers, as well as medics tending to the very community members whom the police harmed.

Chief Lovell is right that violence is not the answer. That includes police violence. If the police dont want us to take their resources (defund the police), then the Portland police and Mayor Ted Wheeler need to use our communitys resources to heed their own advice, take accountability for their abuses, respect the Constitution and ensure that Black Lives Matter in Portland.

Kelly SimonPortland, Ore.The writer is interim legal director of the A.C.L.U. of Oregon.

To the Editor:

Re The Ghost of Margaret Sanger (column, July 26):

Planned Parenthood has long denounced Margaret Sangers eugenicist beliefs, recognizing the need to engage in anti-racist work as a 104-year-old institution. Covid-19 leaves no confusion about the effects of systemic racism. Yet Ross Douthat conflates the disparate impact of public policy on Black communities with the fundamental right of Black women to control our own bodies. Birthrates do not equal power, unless youre a white supremacist.

Black women know reproductive control began at the auction block, when our ancestors forced reproduction was the engine that drove the American economy. Whether were attacked for having children and needing support, or for having an abortion, were damned if we do and damned if we dont.

Mr. Douthat insinuates that his argument may produce intersectional dilemmas no doctrine can resolve. Our experiences are intersectional, but theres no dilemma: Our bodies are our own, and we wont apologize for it.

Alexis McGill JohnsonNew YorkThe writer is president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Betraying U.S. Forces: A Republican Habit

To the Editor:

Re Trump Says He and Putin Didnt Talk About Bounties (news article, July 30):

President Trump has betrayed American forces by giving Vladimir Putin a free pass on his reported bounty payments to Taliban-linked militants for American lives. Mr. Trumps acquiescence, if motivated by his personal goals, such as Russian electoral interference on his behalf, is treasonous, but not unique. Leaders of the modern Republican Party have repeatedly sought electoral advantage by disregarding the lives of American soldiers and government officials.

In 1968 Richard Nixons team sabotaged talks that might have ended the Vietnam War, because the Democrats would have gotten credit and might have cost Nixon a close election. Similarly, Ronald Reagans campaign and leading Republicans worked to thwart a deal for the release of American hostages in Iran in order to avoid an October surprise that would have helped President Jimmy Carters re-election bid.

Why have G.O.P. leaders shown themselves willing to betray American troops and public servants for partisan gain? The answer seems to lie in a worldview that rejects the principle of a loyal opposition and, quite conceivably, democracy itself. Can they be held to account?

Daniel LieberfeldPittsburghThe writer is a retired professor of history and politics at Duquesne University.

To the Editor:

Re The Limits of Broadband (editorial, July 19), about how many Americans sheltering from Covid-19 are discovering the limitations of the countrys cobbled-together broadband service:

Your editorial correctly declared that high-speed internet connections are a civil rights issue and that service is often unavailable or too expensive in rural communities and low-income neighborhoods.

As the president of Midtel, an upstate New York telecommunications company that serves underserved rural areas, I can say from experience that smart government policies are a key to bridging the digital divide.

New Yorks current policies send mixed messages, discouraging the infrastructure investments necessary to make full connectivity a reality today and into the future.

My company has received more than $15.5 million in state grants to replace our copper network with fiber, enabling us to bring customers fast, reliable and affordable high-speed service. But the state is taxing fiber in the Department of Transportation right-of-way, a space traditional utilities get to use free. This added tax, which we legally cannot pass on to our customers, makes already expensive projects cost-prohibitive.

If New York is indeed serious about closing the digital divide and enabling all New Yorkers to prosper in the new normal, it must enable the industry to make the goal of broadband for all a reality while paving the way for next-generation connectivity.

Jim BeckerMiddleburgh, N.Y.

To the Editor:

I appreciate your Aug. 7 Weekend Arts article 6 Things to Do This Weekend.

I do have a question, though: Remind me what a weekend is?

Marc ChafetzWashington

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Police Violence in Portland Protests - The New York Times

New Downs syndrome test will likely Cause A Rise in abortions – Keep the Faith

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The number of babies with Downs Syndrome aborted is likely to increase following a decision announced by the Government.

People with Downs syndrome, their families and campaign groups are very disappointed that a new prenatal test that is projected to lead to a profound increase in the number of children with Downs syndrome screened out by termination is going to be rolled-out by the Department of Health and Social Care without responding to the very real concerns of those in the Downs syndrome community.

The UK Government has announced plans to procurement and roll-out of the non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) technique called cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to all health boards in England.

Recently, an investigation by The Sunday Times found that the number of babies born with Downs syndrome has fallen by 30% in the small number of NHS hospitals that have introduced the new form of screening.

This situation is set to get worse as the Government with the rollout of the test across England.

The National Institute for Health and Research RAPID evaluation study projects that the proposed implementation will result in more babies with Downs syndrome being identified each year and based on the current 90% of parents with a diagnosis that terminate a pregnancy, this is projected to result in more terminations where babies have the condition.

In its 2017 report on NIPT the Nuffield Council of Bioethics warned that the UK National Screening Committee should take better consideration of the particular consequences, some perhaps unintended, of prenatal screening programmes where termination of pregnancy is an option.

The Dont Screen Us Out campaign calls on the government to halt the implementation of cfDNA screening and to introduce reforms which would support those with Downs syndrome and their families. The group adds that cfDNA may only worsen the culture of informally eugenic anti-disabled discrimination that exists in the Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme.

Lynn Murray, spokesperson for the Dont Screen Us Out campaign said:

As a mother of a daughter who has Downs syndrome, I see every day the unique value she brings to our family and the positive impact she has on others around her.

Figures released earlier this year show that the fears of the Downs syndrome community that rolling out these tests would lead to a large drop in the number of babies with Downs syndrome were not unfounded.

While the screening itself is being heralded as a move to reduce the number of miscarriages associated with invasive amniocentesis, figures published in the Sunday Times last December revealed that the number of babies born with Downs syndrome fell by 30% in NHS hospitals that have already introduced the new test. When this test is rolled out across the country, we can expect to see this situation replicated elsewhere. Such outcomes are likely to have a profoundly negative impact on the Downs syndrome community.

We are calling on the Government to halt the further roll-out of the tests on the NHS immediately and to undertake an urgent inquiry into the impact that these tests are having on birth numbers of babies with Downs syndrome.

There also needs to be greater support for parents who are expecting a child with Downs syndrome.

Despite Nuffield Council of Bioethics 2017 call for RCOG to take immediate action and introduce professional guidance to cover the continuation of pregnancy after a diagnosis of fetal anomaly there are still no guidelines to support women who choose to continue their pregnancies after finding that their baby has Downs syndrome.

There is mounting evidence that an unconscious bias exists in the FASP programme. We need the right reforms to turn things around and ensure that the tenets of diversity and inclusivity extend to screening conversations in the NHS.

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New Downs syndrome test will likely Cause A Rise in abortions - Keep the Faith

How Stephen Miller Turned the Department of Homeland Security Into a Political Weapon – The Nation

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White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller disembarks from Air Force One. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

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In March of 2016, Donald J. Trumps campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was in trouble. His poll numbers were collapsing, and he was repeatedly the subject of jokes on major TV networks and elsewhere for his attacks on women, Muslims, and Mexicans. Fox News criticized his extreme, sick obsession with Megyn Kelly. The bottom is dropping out for Donald Trump, read one article on NBC News. Even immigration hard-liners werent sure about the reality-TV star. They knew his promised border wall was a costly, impractical symbol; for decades, border barriers had underwhelmed in their ability to decrease immigration.Ad Policy

Stephen Miller had a plan, though. Trumps lanky 30-year-old senior policy adviser and speechwriter had connections in the Border Patrol and ICE unions from his time derailing a bipartisan immigration reform bill as communications director for thenAlabama Senator (soon-to-be Attorney General) Jeff Sessions. Miller reached out to the Border Patrol unions president, Brandon Judd. It was the first in a long chain of decisions that would help transform the Department of Homeland Securitywith its mandate to defend against everything from terrorism to pandemicsinto a tool for pushing Trumps political agenda, focused on strangling legal immigration and social justice causes.

When Trump became president, Miller went to work. It should be no surprise, then, that less than four years later the Department of Homeland Security is openly defying a US Supreme Court decision to maintain Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era deportation protection program for people brought to this country as children. The DHS has also been cracking down on anti-racist protesters at demonstrations in Democratic-run cities that began after George Floyd was murdered. The department has become a partisan weapon largely detached from its mission of protecting homeland security.

During the campaign, I would speak to [Miller] once a month maybe, Judd told me while I was reporting for my book, Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. He and I were in El Paso on July 26, 2019, a few days before a white terrorist killed 23 people, the majority of whom were Mexican-Americans, at a Walmart nearby. This terrorist had imagined he was defending the United States from a Hispanic invasion.

Earlier in the day, Judd had spoken at a border wall symposium sponsored by NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration group propped up in the 1990s by the eugenicist John Tanton, who believed in race-based pseudoscience and population control for nonwhite people. The Border Patrol union had long-standing ties with Tantons think tanks. Judd complained on stage about Border Patrol agents being called Nazis. You cant even tell a mundane joke without all of the political correctness stepping out and saying youre a bad person, he said.

The symposium featured far-right influencers such as Pizzagate conspiracist Mike Cernovich and Trumps former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who had left the White House in August 2017. The event was livestreamed in front of a privately funded stretch of steel border wall as speakers hatemongered about an alleged invasion. Quiet on the set! Bannon cried between speeches. Tens of thousands of other people watched online. Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, told viewers it was important for them to act against the alleged invaders. The battle of Fort McHenry, which our Star-Spangled Banner is aboutwas that won only by George Washingtons professional soldiers? No. It was the private citizens, the farmers of Maryland who held the line against the British, he said.

A bald man with deep-set eyes, Judd was in good spirits. Miller had kept most of the promises hed made to the union in 2016. Sure, he hadnt succeeded in putting Kobach at the helm of the DHS like they wanted, but he tried. Ultimately, Kobachs too-glaring ties to white supremacy were deemed an issue. Still, Miller and Trump gave Border Patrol agents unprecedented power, inviting Judd to the White House repeatedly. Judd gushed to me about Miller: If anybody wants to say that hes not an alpha personality, theyre wrong, he said. He absolutely has an alpha personality.Current Issue

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In 2016, Miller had wanted the union to endorse his boss, giving Trump real border security credentials. The union had never endorsed a presidential candidate before. But Judd said morale among agents had been low ever since thousands of Central American youths fleeing violence began arriving at the border in 2014. Our agents have been pulled from the field to babysit, clean cells, change diapers, Judd grumbled then. Were actually making burritos. Thats not our job. Our job is to protect the border.

The reality of the Central American crisisrooted in US foreign policyhad impinged on the agents perceptions of themselves as vanguards and warriors of the border. Miller understood their unhappiness. As a young man, Miller had repeatedly referred to the United States as a female endangered by multiculturalism, perhaps imagining himself on a quest to save a damsel in distress. America is a living thing, with a beating heart, he wrote in 2007. The Border Patrol could help him. Agents wanted to keep asylum seekers locked up. Families who convinced asylum officers that they had a credible fear of persecution if returned to their home countries were often released on parole because of legal limits on how long children can be detained. This caused many agents to feel useless. They called it catch and release. They complained that high-ranking Obama officials didnt always listen to them about their desires to detain and deport people.

We decided that we had to have a voice and that we had to have a bigger voice, Judd told me. He liked Millers message about Trumps plans to reduce immigration. If we cant get it done through Congress, then [look] within the laws and [look] at what can be done through regulation, through executive order, Judd recalled.

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On March 23, Miller appeared on Breitbart radio to make his promises to the entire Border Patrol union. I am here today to say that we are going to work closely, directly and intimately with the National Border Patrol Council to develop a border policy for this nation. theyre gonna have a direct line into our policy-making on a routine basis.

He was promising, in other words, to invert the power structure at the DHS.

The union, which represents thousands of agents, endorsed Trump. On its Breitbart-funded podcast, The Green Line, a dramatic soundtrack set up stories about the invasion. Union leaders revealed far-right leanings, attacking progressives and calling Black Lives Matter protesters terrorists. Jenn Budd, a senior Border Patrol officer who left in 2001, says the culture has long been steeped in racism and antiquated notions of masculinity. Its the same characteristics as Donald Trump, she said. Its this white male mentality of I say whatever I want and get whatever I want, Last year, a ProPublica investigation revealed a secret Facebook group where thousands of Border Patrol agents make racist jokes about migrant deaths and throw burritos at Latin-American members of Congress. (It is unsurprising when one considers the origins of the Border Patrol, which began with the appointment of Jeff Milton, a son of a Confederate governor, as the first Border Patrol officer, after his stint with the Texas Rangers, which was the KKK of the border, falsely mythologized as a band of rugged heroes.)Stephen Miller

The ICE union followed the Border Patrol in endorsing Trump six months later. Peter Vincent, ICEs principal legal adviser and senior counselor for international policy under Obama, says putting the unions in charge of the agenda at the Department of Homeland Security is risky: When attorneys with DHS and the DOJ are no longer serving as the guardrail or a restraint on the natural proclivities of undisciplined law enforcement officers, that is a very dangerous step.

Draconian steps were taken to deter family immigration over the course of the Trump administration. Starting in January 2017, Trump signed an executive order expanding the Border Patrols ability to detain and deport people, and ending the dreaded catch and release. Thousands of children were separated from their parents to skirt legal limits on how long children can be locked up. Slowly, through steps taken to force people to await their asylum court proceedings in Mexico, the asylum system at the US-Mexico border was obliterated. Most top positions at DHS are vacant or held by people in an acting capacity, making officials the puppets of Trump, Miller, and the union.

In July 2020, the DHS war on migrants expanded to include American citizens who oppose white supremacy. Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf is regurgitating Millers apocalyptic talking points. He penned an article in The Federalist in July 2020 characterizing anti-racist protesters as lawless mobs destroying America. Wolf didnt used to speak like this. To see [Wolf] pull a strongman routine is shocking, said a former senior DHS official who worked closely with Wolf and Miller during their time at the White House. He [was] so dry and vanilla, which is a huge part of the reason Stephen wanted him to be secretary. Stephens idea is, Lets put someone in whos not going to stand in my way. Another former senior official agreed. I never saw him as an ally of Miller, said the former official.Border Patrol

Wolf, formerly a high-paid lobbyist, caved during the second half of 2017, while getting the crap beat out of him by [Miller], said the former official, speaking figuratively. Wolf worked on pulling together memos for addressing the surge of people coming across the border that December, when he was chief of staff for then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. One of the options in the memos was separating children from their parents. He became acting secretary in fall 2019.

Now, the DHS is defying court orders to protect young migrants and fomenting chaos on the streets, fueling the illusion that the country is under siege and that Trump is a wartime president. Border Patrol and ICE agents can once more feel like warriors. Miller can appear on TV in bespoke suits, playing savior. This is about the survival of this country, Miller said on July 23. It is a dramatic fantasy Trump will lean on ahead of November to distract from the thousands of more deaths that will occur from a virus he failed to contain.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf wrote memos for separating children from their parents in December 2017. He had worked on pulling together the memos but did not write any himself.

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How Stephen Miller Turned the Department of Homeland Security Into a Political Weapon - The Nation

Letters: Len McCluskey and the politics of vanity – The Guardian

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As a Unite and Labour party member I read the interview with Len McCluskey with dismay and despair (McCluskey: Labour should not be taking Unites money for granted, News). Labour has suffered its worst election defeat in modern political history and Mr McCluskey is suggesting we fight the 2024 election on the same programme as the 2019 one. Millions of working people will have to endure another five years of a Conservative government, partly because the political class and its backers of the Labour party refused to listen to its voters, instead preferring to wallow in the certainty of their own convictions.

This is vanity politics. As a local councillor, I represent an area of high deprivation whose causes lie at the door of successive Conservative governments. Labour will have an uphill battle in 2024 but whoever else it upsets it must not betray the economically vulnerable and those marginalised by free market policies.Guthrie Mckie, Labour councillor for Harrow Road ward,London W2

Does Mr McCluskey really not understand that Labours decision to settle the libel action against it by the egregiously defamed whistleblowers actually saved his members money? Fighting a libel action that the party was certain to lose would have resulted in vastly increased costs and damages, and would have shed unwelcome light on Labours dirty linen in public.

Jeremy Corbyn has claimed that legal advice provided to the party assured them they had a good case. As a lawyer, I find that hard to believe, but as a Labour party member, and as such, helped pay for it, I think the advice should be published so we can judge it for ourselves. As for Messrs Corbyn and McCluskey, who appear to have learned nothing from history and appear to take no responsibility for the catastrophic defeats Labour has suffered under their influence, a period of quiet from them would be very welcome.Penny Muir London N8

Kenan Malik rightly recounts how blame for our ills is remorselessly attached to the underprivileged and vulnerable (Illness, obesity, racism; who gets blamed for our crises? The poor of course, Comment). At the heart of the blame game lies the cynical slogan, levelling up. Having left care home staff and occupants in the line of fire with inadequate protection, the prime minister tries to blame them for the ensuing disaster. Then government gives a pay rise to NHS staff, leaving care workers to the mercies of the market and the minimum wage. We should keep this fatuous mantra firmly in our sights as it is repeatedly trotted out to us as part of the blame game.Roger IredaleWest Coker, Yeovil, Somerset

Jay Rayners article on food strategy invites further development (This isnt a tough new food policy for post-Brexit UK. Its thin gruel and easy to set to one side, Comment). Apart from the worrying proposals in Henry Dimblebys national food strategy and muddled thinking behind it, two new government plans raise further problems.

One proposal is to reduce the numbers of the overweight and obese by encouraging healthier eating, though its not clear how the government will actually do this. The other is to help restaurants, pubs and takeaways by giving 10 credit to customers, regardless of what they choose to eat. A recent TV news item showed a plate of greasy chips being handed over as an illustration of this deal. These two plans can easily become contradictory.

Meanwhile, the 2.7 million children noted by Rayner who really need school or holiday dinners are not likely to be helped out of poverty while government policies have so greatly increased the gap between the very rich and the very poor.Robin MinneyWitton Gilbert, County Durham

It is deeply disturbing that Steve Bannon, the dangerous figurehead of the modern far right, has spoken so favourably of our very own Dominic Cummings, labelling him brilliant no less (Bannon hails brilliant Cummings and predicts lurch to right for No 10, News). This endorsement speaks volumes about the ruthlessness by which Cummings rules, and the sinister motives behind his grip on British power. Cummings unsubtle attacks on the civil service; his determination to win his precious hard Brexit; his fusion of the roles behind No 10 and No 11; and his sheer contempt for the media and, in fact, any opposition, any checks and balances, any scrutiny is indeed worrying and unsettling.

The British people should be under no illusion: in large part owing to Cummings, our governments intentions are rarely good. On the contrary, they are often shrouded in cheap populist lies aimed at rallying the troops. Longer term, they aim to change Britain for the worse with their divisive, often conspiratorial, rhetoric. Not wholly dissimilar from the actions of the presidency that Steve Bannon helped create, then.Sebastian Monblat Sutton, London

As religious leaders and leaders of belief-based communities, we come together to affirm human dignity for all by highlighting one of the most egregious human tragedies since the Holocaust: the potential genocide of the Uighurs and other Muslims in China. We have seen many persecutions and mass atrocities. These need our attention. But there is one that, if allowed to continue with impunity, calls into question most seriously the willingness of the international community to defend universal human rights for everyone the plight of the Uighurs.

At least one million Uighur and other Muslims in China are incarcerated in prison camps facing starvation, torture, murder, sexual violence, slave labour and forced organ extraction. Outside the camps, basic religious freedom is denied. Mosques are destroyed, children are separated from their families, and acts as simple as owning a Holy Quran, praying or fasting can result in arrest. The worlds most intrusive surveillance state invades every aspect of life in Xinjiang. Recent research reveals a campaign of forced sterilisation and birth prevention targeting at least 80% of Uighur women of childbearing age in the four Uighur-populated prefectures an action that, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention, could elevate this to the level of genocide.

The clear aim of the Chinese authorities is to eradicate the Uighur identity. Chinas state media has stated that the goal is to break their lineage, break their roots and break their origins. As the Washington Post put it, Its hard to read that as anything other than a declaration of genocidal intent. High-level Chinese government documents speak of absolutely no mercy. Parliamentarians, governments and jurists have a responsibility to investigate.

As faith leaders, we are neither activists nor policymakers. But we have a duty to call our communities to their responsibilities to look after their fellow human beings and act when they are in danger.

In the Holocaust some Christians rescued Jews. Some spoke out. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Silence in the face of evil is itself evil Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. After the Holocaust, the world said Never Again.

Today, we repeat those words Never Again. We stand with the Uighurs. We also stand with Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Christians throughout China who face the worst crackdown on freedom of religion or belief since the Cultural Revolution. We urge people of faith and conscience everywhere to join us: in prayer, solidarity and action to end these mass atrocities. We make a simple call for justice, to investigate these crimes, hold those responsible to account and establish a path towards the restoration of human dignity.The Rt Hon and Rt Rev Lord Williams of Oystermouth, former archbishop of Canterbury; Imam Nabel Rafi, director of the International Centre for Tolerance UK; Rabbi Baroness (Julia) Neuberger; the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, bishop of Truro, chair of UK FoRB Forum and former chair of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office independent review for the foreign secretary of FCO support for persecuted Christians; Christopher Cocksworth, bishop of Coventry; the Rt Rev Alan Smith, bishop of St Albans; the Rt Rev Christopher Chessun, bishop of Southwark; the Rt Rev John Perry, former Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford; the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-ali, former Anglican bishop of Rochester; the Rev Jonathan Aitken; the Rev Dr Joel Edwards; Canon Dr Giles Fraser, rector of St Mary Newington; the rev Cindy Kent; Canon Dr Andrew White, ambassador of Jerusalem MERIT; Cardinal Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences; Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, archbishop of Jakarta; Declan Lang, bishop of Clifton; Fr Timothy Radcliffe, former master of the Dominican Order; Fr Dominic Robinson, parish priest, Farm Street Church of the Immaculate Conception, and chair, Justice and Peace Commission, diocese of Westminster; Fr Nicholas King, assistant Catholic chaplain, University of Oxford; Fr Uche Njoku, parish priest, St Josephs Church, New Malden; the Rev Dr Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in the USA; Al-Haj U Aye Lwin, chief convenor, Islamic Centre of Myanmar; Dr Sheikh Ramzy, founder, Oxford Islamic Information Centre; Imam Dr Mamadou Bocoum, Muslim chaplain and lecturer in Islamic Studies; Imam Daayiee Abdoul, executive director for Mecca institute, Washington DC; Imam Dr Usama Hasan; Desmond Biddulph, president of the Buddhist Society; Sonam T Frasi, representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Northern Europe, Poland and the Baltic States; Rabbi Charley Baginsky, interim director of Liberal Judaism; Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, senior rabbi, Golders Green synagogue; Rabbi Miriam Berger, Finchley Reform synagogue; Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman, senior rabbi, New West End synagogue; Rabbi Paul Freedman, senior rabbi, Radlett Reform synagogue; Rabbi Aaron Goldstein, chair of Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors; Rabbi Herschel Gluck; Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, senior rabbi to Reform Judaism; Rabbi Josh Levy, principal rabbi, Alyth North Western Reform synagogue; Rabbi David Mason, Muswell Hill United synagogue and executive member of the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue; Rabbi Lea Mhlstein, Northwood and Pinner Liberal synagogue; Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi for Masorti Judaism; Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK

Anyone defending eugenics (UCL and the long shadow of eugenics, the New Review) should answer one question: what is scientific or sane about treating people as bad, inferior or expendable due to their choice of parents?Iain ClimieWhitchurch, Hants

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Letters: Len McCluskey and the politics of vanity - The Guardian

READERS’ LETTERS: More funding needed to build on green advances made in lockdown – The Courier

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Sir, During the recent lockdown we all got to witness the slim silver lining of improved quality of our air and safe passage on our streets.

More people walked and more people cycled, leaving the streets safer, quieter and less smelly than at any time since before the horse and cart were the regular mode of transport in this city.

Lets not revert to what we suffered before!

We need a green recovery to emerge from this health crisis, including massive investment in walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure.

The governments decision to spend 27 billion on new road building is now clearly out of date social distancing measures mean that we need more space for people to walk, cycle and interact safely.

Cities across the world, including Athens, Paris and Bristol, have recently announced plans to cut traffic and pedestrianise areas of the city centre.

Lets do this here as well.

Dundee City Council has announced funding for new bike lanes, which is a great start, but we need more investment from central government to get these up and running to all parts of the city. People want to walk or cycle to school with their children, but the air pollution along our main corridors and the narrow pavements curb that desire.

By reducing the traffic, widening pavements and putting in more bike lanes, we could walk or cycle to school and work safely, which would have a positive impact on everyones health and wellbeing.

This is especially important given the link between Covid-19 and obesity.

All efforts to encourage more exercise amongst us must be made.

Thats why I, as a member of the Greenpeace Dundee Group, am calling on our local council to lobby government on the funding we need, and for the chancellor to set out investment in clean, green transport in his upcoming spending plans.

Its one of the easiest ways to tackle climate change, provide new jobs, keep residents fit and healthy and help rebuild our local community after lockdown.

Rhoda Neville.

Harecraig House,

West Ferry.

Dundee.

Sir, It was heartening to read Jenny Hjuls article attacking the Scottish Governments Orwellian Hate Crime Bill (The right to speak my mind, Courier, August 5).

However, she fails to get to grips with how fundamentally at odds with the nature of our society it is.

The Bill effectively limits the scope of what it is acceptable to communicate and/or believe on social issues to the views of a woke progressive political activist or politician.

On some issues, such as transgenderism, the views of the majority will be criminalised.

Currently dominant views on a wide range of issues will be set in stone.

Imagine if this had happened before the Second World War, when a belief in eugenics was widespread both on the left and right?

Or before section 80 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 legalised homosexual activity?

The official orthodoxy will close down necessarily controversial disputes.

For example, the current judicial review against the Gender Identity Development Service questioning the usage of puberty blockers on trans-identifying children would be a hate crime.

A further fundamental flaw is that if it is enacted it will be differentially enforced.

The grooming gangs thrived in English towns and cities for decades because the authorities chose not to enforce the law equally on all sections of society.

Similarly, when the fringes of the nationalist movement behave in a blatantly racist fashion no action is taken.

Most people prefer a world of diversity of opinion, dispute and nuance to one of slavish conformity; it is called freedom.

Otto Inglis.

Ansonhill,

Crossgates.

Sir, Two letters caught my eye in The Courier letters column of August 6.

Jim Barrie succinctly presented the democratic process for the replacement of the hapless Jackson Carlaw.

In the Johnson/Cummings takeover of the Scottish Conservative Party democracy was simply thrown to the winds.

Former Scottish leader and Remain MSP Ruth Davidson charmingly announced on July 26 that her greatest regret was not putting the boot in to the SNP and the wider independence movement.

On July 30 the now Leave supporter is presented with the leadership role until her elevation to the peerage after the next Holyrood election.

In May former Remain MSP for Moray and now Leave supporting MP Douglas Ross resigned from a junior post at the Scottish Office as a result of the infamous lockdown breach by Cummings.

On July 23 Boris Johnson makes a much ridiculed trip to Scotland as a panic reaction to polls showing a leap in favour of Scottish independence.

One of his stops is in a heckle free zone at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. Any rift between Johnson and Ross has obviously healed.

On July 30 Carlaw is dumped.

The media are given strong hints about new roles for Davidson and Ross which have now been confirmed.

Significantly nobody in the Scottish Conservative Party has raised opposition to the haste with which this has been rushed through.

William Ballantynes letter rightly pays tribute to the part played by the late John Hume who brokered the deal which virtually brought an end to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and accurately quotes him as saying Ireland is not a romantic dream.

However, he mistakenly assumes that this remark was an attack on Irish nationalism.

John Hume was a leader of the SDLP, an Irish nationalist party with social democratic ideals, the exact Irish equivalent of the SNP.

The Ireland which his quote referred to was a united Ireland free from Westminster interference.

It is not a romantic dream and neither is Scotland.

Ken Guild.

Brown Street,

Broughty Ferry.

Sir, May I say how pleased I and many others are with the appointment of Douglas Ross as the new head of the Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland.

The fact he comes from a practical agricultural training background, and is not a big city guy, promises pragmatism in place of SNP spin.

The fact also that Ruth Davidson will be working alongside him for the betterment of Scotland is very encouraging.

Jackson Carlaw always came across as being too polite and too gentle to counter all of the contradictions in SNP strategy and policy and, worst of all, failed to take on our broadcast media and ask them directly why they unquestionably provided propaganda platforms for the SNP.

Hopefully Douglas Ross will prove to be a more bullish individual in all respects but particularly focused upon our economy and the support provided by the UK Government.

We have hardly heard from Kate Forbes on her brief since her appointment as replacement for the disgraced Derek Mackay.

Derek Farmer.

Knightsward Farm,

Anstruther.

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READERS' LETTERS: More funding needed to build on green advances made in lockdown - The Courier

Covid Diaries: Living in overload – The Jewish Standard

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As my wife and I head to Long Beach Island for our annual vacation, the world seems way too much with us. Its almost comforting to think back to the not-so-distant past when just one crisis unfolded at a time. Now an interlocking grip of three profound challenges the pandemic, an economic collapse, and a renewed push for civil rights confronts us simultaneously. And this doesnt even factor in the start of a school year that will be unlike any other, and right behind it, a political campaign with unpredictable, explosive contours.

My wife and I will try to focus on our tiny patch of beach (not to stick our heads in the sand) and hope that the folks in our vicinity will be wearing masks and observing social distancing. And also that the joggers I encounter in the morning will give me a wide berth, and I them. And that patrons waiting for takeout or outdoor seating at restaurants we used to patronize indoors will be patient and spaced out. I will read, perhaps write, do word puzzles with my wife, engage in online chess with a grandson, and probably put off for another year my resolve to learn how to fish properly.

But thoughts of the global crises will continue to swirl inside me and never be far removed. I will make an effort to continue engaging with the world (thank you, John No man is an island Donne) while somewhat shading from it. This is a strange duality, but it hasnt prevented me from ruminating about matters weighty and whimsical, personal and public. Here are a few thoughts.

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Whats in a name? Plenty!

I would like to submit a nomination for the list of statues, memorials, military bases, sports franchises, and even board games (Scrabble, by eliminating 25 racial slurs) containing names or causes deemed offensive or insensitive. These candidates for rebranding, revision, or removal need to include an additional category: U.S. Navy vessels.

Since its commissioning in 1995, I have been upset and mystified that one of our aircraft supercarriers bears the name of John C. Stennis, the arch-segregationist senator from Mississippi. My guess is that after serving a record 41 years in the upper house, where he chaired both the appropriations and armed services committees, the Pentagons admirals and generals felt beholden to him for funding a vast array of military hardware, despite his being the modern version of a slaver.

A tightwad on domestic and social spending, Stennis prided himself on being an implacable foe of civil rights legislation. He and his House counterpart, L. Mendel Rivers of South Carolina, knew no bounds when it came to catering to the military-industrial complex. It is way beyond time to remove his name and rechristen the vessel in honor of a naval hero of color or an African American of distinction. The most hidebound of the services did try to make amends recently when it decided that its newest carrier, now under construction, would pay tribute to Seaman Doris Miller, a veteran of Pearl Harbor who left his mess station (the only job open to Blacks in the Navy at the time) to man a deck gun and attend the wounded during the height of the attack. He also is the first enlisted man so honored.

But the Navy should go further. A fortuitous moment is at hand in the wake of John Lewiss death. The service should elevate the name of one of the nations most courageous, trusted, and moral civil rights leaders to the prow of the USS John Stennis and jettison the current honoree. John Lewis consistently churned through troubled waters, from beatings and jailings endured in the civil rights battleground of the South during the 1960s to his last moments, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement with all the strength his emaciated body could muster.

The USS John Lewis has a nice ring to it. And so does the John Lewis Bridge. That would be the one in Selma, Alabama, presently named for Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan operative Edmund Pettus. John Lewis knew the site well. On March 7, 1965, he and other civil rights marchers were met by free-swinging, teargas- firing Alabama troopers. Lewis, always in the vanguard, was clubbed to within an inch of his life, a moment preserved in a chilling photo during what became known as Bloody Sunday. The civil rights activists, however, regrouped, persevered, and completed their trek to the state capital. What delicious irony and delayed justice it would be to see the bridge renamed for Lewis, especially after the emotional ceremony on July 26, when his flag-draped casket was borne across the span in a horse-drawn livery. The next day his body was flown to Washington to lie in state in the rotunda of the Capitol; he was the first Black lawmaker accorded that honor. On July 30, John Lewis was laid to rest in his native Georgia soil after presidents and just plain folks paid tribute in heartfelt eulogy at Dr. Kings Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

And staying with the subject: Ive always been rankled by the fact that 10 military bases still bear the monikers of Confederate generals, and that I was stationed at two of them during my stint in the Army Reserves from 1964 to 1970. After basic training, I was assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for clerks school. I didnt know who this Polk fella was at the time. Turns out Leonidas Polk was a Confederate general, a slaveholder, a relative of President James Polk, and an Episcopalian bishop who broke away to form his own secessionist diocese. He was killed in action in 1864 after a notably lackluster military career. Later, when my unit went to Camp Pickett, Virginia, for its annual summer training, I realized we were billeted in a place honoring the foolhardy Confederate general who led a disastrous cavalry charge at Gettysburg.

Our commander-in-chief, who never served a day in uniform (bone spurs, remember?) supports keeping the names of these great turncoats in place and views the Confederate flag as a vibrant symbol of free speech. He is opposed by a majority in Congress, the military chiefs, and top Pentagon service secretaries, who are ready to change the names of offending bases and already have banned display of the secessionist stars and bars.

The reach of rebranding even has touched two organizations that at first blush would seem to be above the fray. The Sierra Club recently acknowledgedthat the legacy of John Muir, the revered naturalist and spiritual icon of the organization, was tainted and being reassessed in light of his remarks about Native Americans and his willingness to dispossess them from ancestral lands to help create the national parks system. And Planned Parenthood of New York will remove Margaret Sangers name from its center because the pioneering birth control advocate apparently or unwittingly favored policies too closely identified with the discredited notion of eugenics.

Muir and Sanger are joining Woodrow Wilson, Robert E. Lee, and Christopher Columbus in the formerly exalted category. On a less lofty level, consumers soon will see the familiar images of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben disappear from supermarket packaging.

Symbols and names do count. Has the revisionist pendulum swung too far in overcorrection? Perhaps, but a reset appears necessary during this inflection point in the history and evolution of the republic.

The unfriendly skies

The charges for plane tickets, hotel reservations, convention registrations, and classical concert dates I booked before the pandemic all have been refunded. The only loose end is a carryover show from the Paper Mill Playhouse, which has been promised for whenever the theater reopens. These interactions proceeded smoothly, except for United Airlines, which relented after several phone calls and finally decided to do the right thing. Fortunately, I connected with a caring agent who went above her pay grade to get management to sign off on a refund. My relations with United have been bumpy ever since they merged with Continental as the dominant partner and now rule the roost at Newark Liberty International. Over the years, they have decreased seat widths almost in proportion to the amount they raised prices. Need extra leg room? Buy it. Over an ounce or two on luggage? Youll pay. Gotta go? Use the onboard lavatory at your own peril. Want more than a stale pack of pretzels? Get out your credit card.

Does this sound a bit harsh? Perhaps. But Im describing an airline that consistently scores at or near the bottom in on-time performance and in customer relations surveys. The New York Times reported recently that United has about $18 billion in cash reserves to get through these difficult times. The article did not specify if the reserves included billions the carrier received in federal aid as part of the federal pandemic package. United has threatened publicly to lay off 36,000 workers in October if the economic crisis continues. Meanwhile, according to the Times report, the carrier continues to book its flights as full as possible, flying in the face of best health practices.

Belatedly and tepidly, United announced it would require passengers to mask up in boarding and baggage areas.

Many corporations have weathered the brutal economic landscape while making donations to needy groups, disseminating public service messages, and practicing enlightened employee relations. Others have been tone deaf, and their irresponsibility is deafening.

Not in the mail

Notice your postal service deteriorating even more? We have a new postmaster general. His name is Louis DeJoy, and his qualifications to run an operation as complex and compromised as the USPS rests on his reputation as a big donor to the GOP. His boss at the White House dislikes the post office. It loses money consistently and just might be the conduit for his defeat in November during a mail-in election.

The new guy has taken to Trumps mandate of discrediting and starving the service like glue to a stamp. Hes eliminated overtime and decreed that undelivered mail be held for the next days cycle. Postal workers and customers alike might want to rename him Louis DeMisery. Residents throughout North Jersey (myself among them) are complaining about not receiving deliveries for two or three days at a time because of the new policies. Whatever happened to the creed Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds? During the pandemic, the USPS is needed more than ever. Yes, theres Zoom, but theres also zip, as in Zip Code. Theres email and snail mail. Both serve different needs (and generations) but complement each other. Instead of hollowing out USPS, reforms are needed to insure its stability and reliability.

Back to the barber

I approached my first haircut since March a few weeks ago with hair-splitting hesitation. After restrictions were lifted on this phase of commerce, I waited to see if covid cases would spike. When they didnt, I called my Jordanian tonsorial, Ezzat, and made an appointment. Ever obliging, he scheduled me immediately, and I entered the redesigned world of Caldwell Cuts. Plastic sheets separated the chairs, and the place looked spic and span. Ezzat, as usual, worked expertly and rapidly, and my silvery locks soon covered the floor. The results are evident in the accompanying photos. Im glad Caldwell Cuts is still in business and only hope countless other small enterprises in municipalities across New Jersey make the cut. Never were the livelihoods of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker more threatened.

Shalom to old friend

The New Jersey Jewish News has served my catchment area in Essex County and beyond for 70 years. I was saddened but not surprised when it published its last print edition on July 30. The paper, sold by the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ to New Yorks Jewish Week Media Group in 2016, may have shrunk in size over the years, but not in relevance and incisiveness. I hope plans for a digital edition materialize quickly. We all realize what a vital role the Jewish press plays in sustaining our sense of community and purveying accurate information and thoughtful opinion, a precious commodity in these times.

Jonathan E. Lazarus of West Orange is a former editor at the Star-Ledger and a proofreader for the Jewish Standard.

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Covid Diaries: Living in overload - The Jewish Standard

How COVID-19 Triggered a #SaveTheChildren Child Trafficking Panic – Truth or Fiction

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In the summer of 2020, a massive amount of rumors about child trafficking appeared under the hashtag #savethechildren and temporary hashtag filtering by Facebook in response was cited as evidence of media suppression of a massive conspiracy.

Lets unpackwhy that particular hashtag was targeted by social media filters, and how #savethechildren came to be at all.

Many social media users encountered or shared variations on the Wayfair child trafficking rumor, a panic initiated when TikTok users observed items with unusually high price tags that appeared to be named after people:

Wayfair Child Trafficking Conspiracy Theory

TikTok, like other social media platforms, is a fertile ground for celebrity pedophilia rumors, as evidenced by a concurrent rumor about Oprah Winfrey originating on the platform. Naturally, it quickly migrated to Facebook:

Did Oprah Condone Child Abuse and Say If It Feels Good that the Child Wont Even Know Abuse Happened?

Evident in the two rumors chronologically was a change in motive and behavior by the rumor spreader. Although the Wayfair child trafficking rumor appeared to originate on Reddit with with a hunch and hypothesis, however misdirected that might be, the Oprah clip was clearly, purposely edited to paint a misleading picture.

Facebook users went back at it again in early August 2020, taking a single tweet from comedian Patton Oswalt to advance the conspiracy theory:

Did Patton Oswalt Tweet I Am a Proud Pedophile?

One of the most viral elements of the #savethechildren rumor cluster followed action initiated by Facebook in early August 2020. According to Heavy.com, #savethechildren was temporarily restricted for reasons not immediately disclosed:

Facebook users noticed that a hashtag with the phrase Save the Children (#SavetheChildren) appeared to be banned or censored on Facebook on Wednesday night, August 5 [2020], and into the early hours of August 6 [2020]. Although statuses with the hashtag could still be posted, clicking on the hashtag didnt reveal any results or, instead, came with a warning about community safety guidelines. After a couple of hours, it appeared the hashtag may have been restored for many people. Some Facebook users told Heavy that the hashtag was still censored for them, so the fix may not have been across the entire platform.

That reporting noted instances where social media users shared screenshots like this an image indicating that Posts with #SaveTheChildren are temporarily hidden, but not information aboutwhat exactly was being hidden or why:

The New York Post essentially copied Heavy.coms notes, but didnt do anything further to explain the reason why the posts were seemingly censored.

Much has been said about Facebooks controversial efforts to build native fact-checking filters into its platform that the algorithms implythat false content is true if is not flagged:

The results [of a study] found that the use of false tags that are used to flag inaccurate content did significantly reduce participants willingness to share fake stories from 29.2% to 16.1%. But, the study also found that unmarked false stories were believed to be true and shared 36.2% of the time.

and that its structure elided some of the platforms most egregious examples of disinformation.

Searching Facebook itself for answers about the suppression of a #savethechildren hashtag or related content was often fruitless, yielding little information about how or why the effort was targeted by the sites algorithms.

On July 17 2020 as child trafficking conspiracy theories were spiking Reuters published a fact check about a persistent whataboutism rumor (There are more confirmed global COVID-19 deaths than the number of children reported missing in the U.S.) and the first line demonstrated a very likely reason the posts were being suppressed:

Shared on Facebook and Instagram, posts claim that the number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide is less than the number of children who go missing in the United States. It is unclear if the posts mean missing children per year, or active missing children cases. In either scenario, this claim is false.

There, we were able to find #savethechildren rumor iterations which cast the ban of the hashtag in a whole new light:

Although the first post primarily involved the image used in both posts, the second included significant exposition about the conspiracy theory:

100s of thousands of children every year vanish off the face of the earth in the United States!This is not an exaggeration, its roughly 2000 per day, yet the media does not tell the public of this child abduction pandemic.

They make the general Public focus on a virus and racism instead of the fact that the lives of children are stolen daily.

The numbers are factual , the crimes are real there is no conspiracytheory about it, this needs to be exposed and brought to the forefront of public discussion.

#childrenslivesmatter

An August 1 2020 post made the link between the two-pronged rumor even clearer:

The text accompanying the image of a child read:

A child in America today, is over 66,000 times more likely to be sold to human traffickers than to die of COVID S Stone

Essentially, the full scope of the rumor was not that #savethechildren was a hashtag about abduction or child trafficking. It was a rumor that the media wasusing COVID-19 to hide the problem of child trafficking, and that is what likely triggered Facebook and Instagrams COVID-19 content filters.

The rumor itself undermined the seriousness of COVID-19 by implying it was a hoax to cover up trafficking, or to claim that trafficking was a bigger threat than the virus. Again, Facebooks COVID-19 filters and complete lack of transparency made it difficult to locate many examples of this, but it was fairly evident in the ones supplied to Reuters.

At least one examination by Mel Magazine connected the #savethechildren or child lives matter rumors in the summer of 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, describing a demonstration at the CNN building in Los Angeles which involved QAnon believers:

The marchers arrived at the headquarters of CNN in Hollywood on [July 31 2020], buzzing with righteous energy and looking to make a point to one of Americas biggest news networks.

They spilled into the small lobby hallway of the building, chanting SAVE THE CHIL-DREN! and waving signs with all sorts of messages: CHILD LIVES MATTER. Pedophile is NOT a sexual orientation. END Sex Trafficking.

But despite it being the U.N.s World Human Trafficking Awareness Day, there were decidedly stranger signs and ideologies being shared, too. Countless signs at the CNN rally and the ensuing march referenced #Pizzagate, the widely debunked conspiracy theory that claims to pin Hillary Clinton and longtime ally John Podesta to a child sex ring. Others featured some take on the phrase Child trafficking is the REAL pandemic, seemingly downplaying the importance of COVID. Others yet were even more violent in their rhetoric, as with one woman who toted around a sign screaming F*CK VACCINATIONS. EXECUTE ALL PEDOPHILES! The marchers even stopped on the Walk of Fame to vandalize Tom Hanks star with a black Sharpie marker, based on the belief that he is a trafficker.

Reddit was another social platform, but with different areas and parameters of permissible content.

Reddit was also very broad in scope, with communities (or subreddits) devoted to discussion about every possible subject imaginable. Consequently, iterations of the COVID-19 and child trafficking rumors appeared in myriad contexts.

On r/conspiracy, a user spelled it out in an August 9 2020 post:

Keep your 3rd eye woke from conspiracy

That post mentioned:

COVID: 99.99% US population survival rate but talked about by all of Hollywood, media, and social media platforms 24/7.

A few days prior, a shorter post was shared to r/conspiracytheories:

#SaveTheChildren and media from conspiracytheories

On July 29 2020, a user in r/TooAfraidToAsk surmised the uptick in child trafficking rumors was a distraction from COVID-19 or Black Lives Matter:

Why are so many people, who Ive never heard talk about sex trafficking, suddenly very interested and vocal about stopping it? from TooAfraidToAsk

Over on r/AskReddit, another user made the same observation about the concurrent pandemic and disinformation campaign about trafficking:

What is with all the posts on social media about human trafficking? Mostly coming from conservative Facebook people. Is this some strange way to deflect from COVID? Seems like some kind of AstroTurf movement. Anyone know where this turf is coming from? from AskReddit

An August 10 2020 post on r/conspiracy demonstrated how users could be aware the COVID-19 pandemic was both real and dangerous, and still advance the idea that it was being used to cover the real epidemic of child trafficking and abduction:

It is so simple. But we are too distracted. from conspiracy

The first three paragraphs of that post ironically provided what might be the best example of the rumors as the disinformation they were being used as, all while seeming to embrace said disinformation:

I personally believe COVID-19 is real. I cannot take any risks because I live with a cancer patient, and their immune system is compromised. But I feel the media keeps pushing COVID as a cover up for the sex trafficking scandal. And when people started uncovering more, they publicized THE HELL out of George Floyds murder. It might have been the straw that broke the camels back; which is why a lot of people are protesting now. And now the Maxwell is being investigated, there are absolutely 0 reports on it from my local news station. They have done nothing but bicker and argue about Bidens VP. He needs a powerful woman of color who will get things done! Shes going to be VP? She wouldnt be able to do shit unless Biden dies? Why does it matter if shes a woman of color? If theyre qualified for the job, theyre qualified for the job.

Either way.

While all this crap in the news and media is being reported, The whole entirety of the pedophilia and sex trafficking ring has been going on. And while many celebs have become silent, and those who spoke out were killed years ago (killed meaning, they reportedly committed suicide by hanging), Maxwell is shaking in her boots.

Contemporaneous posts on r/conspiracy showed how the conflation of two separate and unrelated issues could lead to highly convoluted reasoning, like in this post from August 10 2020:

"It is probably the most interesting part of the Bill Gates/Jeffery Epstein connection." James Corbett, 8/5/20 (New Transcript Inside) from conspiracy

That post contained a transcript, which itself leaned heavily into a purported connection between COVID-19 and trafficking (emphasis from the original post):

And one of the things that had me troubled was that, you know, hearing about the rogue lab at Zorro ranch and, and like you were talking about the, the executor, that was the the, the consultant for this type of a material that would be used to create a vaccine or even to create a virus or a technology that would be masking itself as a virus. And I thought, you know, we have this rogue lab out in New Mexico where, you know, Epstein and Gates have been meeting.

And I was just curious if maybe Epstein had some knowledge about this Coronavirus, that whether or not you know, being a eugenics aficianado himself. And of course, you know, Gates predicted at all. But then again, Gates had been meeting with a known eugenics enthusiast that was trying to work on reproductive health. And if you know a lot, and you do, about what Bill Gates is a special what his specialty is, it IS reproductive health and vaccines. And thats what really has me a little creeped out is because if that was the case, then Epstein knew something about COVID-19

Finally, an August 9 2020 r/conspiracy post also articulated the complete conspiracy. It primarily involved trafficking and celebrity involvement, but the second to last line read:

Im not interested in hypotheticals, rumours or factless connections. Everything. Everything ties together. Everything is connected. So while others are more concerned about COVID, Im more concerned about saving our children. Arent you?

There is a lot to unpack with this dual-purpose disinformation, and much of it is not visible due to content filtering related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not a coincidence this movement appeared to spring up from nowhere during the COVID-19 pandemic, and neither did it do so because people were bored at home in lockdown and thus more receptive to disinformation at least, not entirely and likely not primarily.

When Facebook restricted use of the #savethechildren hashtag and child lives matter posts, it appeared on the surface that a suppressive conspiracy was afoot. That was somewhat true but due to the same restrictions many people couldnt seewhy such content was banned. Viral variations on memes using #savethechildren typically claimed either that more children were trafficked or killed by pedophiles than were at risk of dying of COVID-19, or in a related claim, that COVID-19 was essentially exaggerated to cover up developments in trafficking investigations, such as the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell on July 2 2020.

Because posts shared with child lives matter or #savethechildren contained disinformation downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, those hashtags and keywords were restricted by Facebook, apparently without explanation. Facebook suppressed the posts making the original claims, allowing people sharing them to go on to claim the terms alone triggered Facebooks suppressive algorithms. In actuality, it was the deliberate hijacking and subsequent reappropriation of the terms by bad actors, intended specifically to launder COVID-19 disinformation, which caused the whole brouhaha.

Read more from the original source:

How COVID-19 Triggered a #SaveTheChildren Child Trafficking Panic - Truth or Fiction

Superman’s KRYPTON Still Exists in The Star Trek Universe – Screen Rant

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Superman lost his home planet Krypton in the DC Universe. But in the Star Trek universe, Krypton still exists which could lead to some problems

While Superman may be Earths greatest champion, our worlds gain came at the cost of his home planet Krypton. Doomed thanks to geological instability, Kryptons inevitable end led to Kal-El being rocketed to Earth just as his birth world exploded, erasing virtually all traces of Kryptons great civilization. However, this may not be the case in all universes

In the Star Trek/DC crossover Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, readers get a glimpse into an alternate reality where the remnants of several Lantern Corps (including the Green, Red, Blue, Indigo, Orange, Star Sapphire, and Sinestro Corps) crossed over into Star Treks Kelvin timeline and stayed there. This led to major changes for both Starfleet and the Green Lantern Corps, and possibly for Krypton as well.

Related: Thor & Superman Merged To Form A KRYPTONIAN Thunder God

Stranger Worlds actually functions as a sequel to the earlier Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War miniseries which saw Hal Jordan, Guy Gardener, and other Corps members flee a doomed version of the DC Universe and enter the J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek. Finding new allies in Kirk and his crew (several of which were chosen as ring bearers for other Corps), the Green, Blue, Indigo, and Star Sapphire Lanterns managed to repel the Red Lantern, Orange Lantern, and Sinestro Corps. Because they had no world to return to, however, all the Lanterns remained in the Kelvin timeline.

The ramifications for this were explored in Stranger Worlds where Starfleet incorporated ring technology into their gear and Hal Jordan wound up joining the Enterprise on several missions. Most amazing, however, was the revelation that the DC Universe and Star Trek Universe were not as dissimilar as they may have originally seemed. While looking for a replacement power source for their failing rings, the Green Lanterns discovered that their home base of OA actually existed in the Star Trek universe.

OA was not, however, how the Green Lanterns remembered it. Although the DC Universe version of OA had been an established power for many thousands of years, in the Star Trek Universe, OA was still in its infancy, and the Guardians were still experimenting with Manhunter robots and early ring technology. All of this was thrown into chaos when various DC Lanterns converged on this new OA, hoping to claim its Power Battery. Leading one of the charges was Kirks old enemy Khan, who had been chosen to be the new Red Lantern thanks to his rage.

Related: Star Trek: Mirror Universe Picard Uses [SPOILER] As A Weapon

To combat this threat, the Guardians released their very first Green Lantern Ring, which ended up choosing (who else?) Captain James Tiberius Kirk as its first wielder. As the original Green Lantern of his universe, Kirk made short work of Khan, but realized hed have to split his time between Starfleet and the newly emerging Green Lantern Corps. While conversing with Hal Jordan, however, Kirk learned of an all new planet to explore one with a big red sun.

While the planets name wasnt directly stated, its practically a given that the next planet the Green Lanterns (and by extension, Starfleet) will be making contact with will be the Star Trek Universe version of Krypton. This leads to all sorts of fascinating questions. Since the OA of the Kelvin timeline is so young, could this version of Krypton also be a similarly young planet thats not in any immediate danger of exploding? This could mean Kryptonians might be joining Starfleet in this alternate reality which could be a huge gamechanger whenever their starships approach a yellow or blue sun.

On the flipside, if Krypton is about to explode, then Starfleet might be able to issue a planet-wide evacuation, saving more than one infant from the worlds destruction. Certainly, Starfleet has shown theyre capable of relocating huge populations with the evacuation of Romulus in Star Trek: Picard, and the relocation of all the surviving Vulcans after the events of Abrams original Star Trek film. And the offer of advanced Kryptonian technology could be a huge motivator to Starfleet to help these new allies.

Related: DC And Marvel Screw With The Multiverse, And JOKER Knows It

Moreover, both Starfleet and the Green Lanterns would be highly motivated to save Krypton from any impending doom. Remember, Spock just lost his home planet a few years ago in this new timeline and would likely support any movement to save any other worlds from Vulcans fate. Likewise, the Green Lanterns failed to save Krypton in the DC Universe and may see this new Krypton as a second chance at redemption.

Of course, if Starfleet does manage to save Krypton (or even a large segment of its population), this could mean major changes for the Star Trek Universe and not all of them good. Superman/Kal El and Supergirl/Kara Zor-El might represent the best of what Krypton could offer the universe, but there have been far more Kryptonians like General Zod whove shown how dangerous it could be to suddenly have thousands of aliens with god-like abilities freely roaming the universe. In saving Krypton, Starfleet and the Green Lanterns could be triggering a new Superman War far more devastating than Earths Eugenics War.

One additional wrinkle in this crossover madness is the revelation that planets from the Marvel Universe may also exist in Star Treks vast universe. In an earlier crossover between Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men, Picards crew mentioned off-handedly that the Shiar technology the X-Men use in their Danger Room also exists in their universe. As Marvels Shiar Empire includes many powerful alien races and beings, including the Superman-like Gladiator, it would seem the Star Trek Universe has no shortage of potential god-like threats (then again, this is the universe that boasts beings like the Q, the Wormhole Prophets, and Trelane.)

Although IDW and DC Comics have not explored the possibility of a Superman/Green Lantern/Star Trek crossover yet, the implication that Krypton exists in the Star Trek Universe offers many fascinating potential storylines comic book creators can explore. Star Trek has proved a fertile creative ground for fanfiction and offbeat crossover tales, and a story about Starfleets dealings with Krypton would undoubtedly make many readers sit up and take notice.

Next: For Green Lantern, Beating Superman Is Hilariously Easy

Superman Was Beaten By A Marvel Hero... And it Wasn't Close

Michael Jung is a mild-mannered freelance writer-for-hire, actor, and professional storyteller with a keen interest in pop culture, education, nonprofit organizations, and unusual side hustles. His work has been featured in Screen Rant, ASU Now, Sell Books Fast, Study.com, and Free Arts among others. A graduate of Arizona State University with a PhD in 20th Century American Literature, Michael has written novels, short stories, stage plays, screenplays, and how-to manuals.

Michaels background in storytelling draws him to find the most fascinating aspects of any topic and transform them into a narrative that informs and entertains the reader. Thanks to a life spent immersed in comic books and movies, Michael is always ready to infuse his articles with offbeat bits of trivia for an extra layer of fun. In his spare time, you can find him entertaining kids as Spider-Man or Darth Vader at birthday parties or scaring the heck out of them at haunted houses.

Visit Michael Jungs website for information on how to hire him, follow him on Twitter Michael50834213, or contact him directly: michael(at)michaeljungwriter(dot)com.

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Superman's KRYPTON Still Exists in The Star Trek Universe - Screen Rant

A Thousand Cuts Documentary: How a Story About the War on Drugs Became a Tale of Freedom of the Press – Variety

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When Filipino American documentary filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz saw reports of people being killed in the streets as part of newly elected Philippines President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, she knew what she wanted her next project to focus on. But when she arrived in the country, she discovered so many journalists covering the story that she figured she needed a different focus. The work of former CNN reporter and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa caught her eye.

She was speaking out about Duterte and his disinformation campaign and how this was a bigger problem, Diaz says. Ressa was soon arrested, and Diaz latched on to the journalists fight for freedom of the press against a populist dictatorial leader. That movie, A Thousand Cuts, bows Aug. 7 on virtual cinema, a VOD platform that supports local art-house theaters.

To help fashion the story, Diaz called on editor Leah Marino, with whom she had collaborated on five other projects, including the acclaimed Motherland, a fly-on-the-wall look at the maternity ward in Manilas Fabella Hospital, believed to be the busiest in the world.

The wonderful thing about having a collaborator like Leah is I can data dump on her, Diaz explains. I can say, Ive met this character, and hell be interesting, and I know shell be processing ideas without having seen a single frame.

When the film was picked up for competition in Sundance, Diaz had shot more than 700 hours of footage. She feared she and Marino wouldnt be able to deliver a finished product in time. Usually, Leah and I work on the edit for nine months, Diaz says. We edited it in four.

While the focus is firmly on Ressa, other personalities in the doc emerge as supporting players. Blogger Mocha Uson, a key Duterte operative, posts disinformation that blurs time and events to weaken trust in the news. To Marino, Uson helps viewers understand what Duterte stands for. Still, the editors goal is not to vilify the 38-year-old singer, but rather to present her as a developed person. Ronald Bato Dela Rosa, a former police official and political ally of Duterte who has spearheaded a public execution campaign against drug addicts, was another magnetic personality. The doc devoted time to both without letting them hijack the direction of the movie.

We could have done separate films about those two, notes Diaz.

Marino says that she and Diaz use a shorthand to be able to quickly identify what footage to include, rather than working through a start-to-finish story. The two pick out what they call yummy scenes and let that inspire the structure. We break those down into gold and silver scenes, says the editor.

Some of the yummy scenes the collaborators highlight include Ressa with her two sisters as shes about to be honored as part of a group of journalists as Time Magazines Person of the Year for 2018. Those were key to showing who she is as a person, Diaz notes. For Marino, an important scene features Bato speaking to a group of prison inmates, which illuminates the type of people who are being targeted by Duterte.

Ressa granted Diazs crew unlimited access, including strategy meetings with the journalists legal team. She put her trust in the filmmaker to tell a story and not reveal strategies that could compromise her. That footage was left on the cutting room floor. One day, when [this is over], Diaz says, well release the full thing.

Marino had her work cut out for her when it came to deciphering Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines. Working with Diaz, she learned to identify bits of phrases. Theres some Spanish and some English, and you pick them out, Marino says. However, since the country is made up of 7,000 islands and different dialects abound, there are other instances in which, she allows, I dont understand one word. Her secret, she says, is in recognizing rhythms of speech, and breaking sentences to conform to them.

Its pretty incredible, says Diaz. She cuts, and I think, How did she know that was the point to cut?

Midway through the doc, the filmmakers focus on Ressa telling a crowd: If you dont use your rights, you lose them. Its a line she repeats, driving home the message to viewers in other nations who might also have long-held liberties at risk. Indeed, the film includes buzz phrases that have become familiar to American audiences. In one scene Duterte, portraying the press as an enemy of the people, talks of fake news outlets.

Even after its screening at Sundance, the doc has continued to evolve. Ressa was convicted of cyber libel on June 15. Neither Diaz nor Marino knows when the story will turn next, but as a filmmaker, Diaz knew she had to lock the picture for theatrical. Marino cut in Ressas conviction last month; the documentary was also trimmed from its two-hour run time at Sundance to just under 100 minutes.

By now, Diaz had hoped to be working on her dream to direct a narrative film, one in which she can control the ending. These days, endings elude her. That means Marino just might need to keep the editing bay at the ready.

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A Thousand Cuts Documentary: How a Story About the War on Drugs Became a Tale of Freedom of the Press - Variety

The War on Drugs has caused more harm than good – The Maine Wire

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In recent weeks, documented cases of police brutality amid the pandemic have sparked a national conversation about criminal justice reform. Regardless of our diverse opinions regarding law enforcement and the Black Lives Matter movement, this is an opportunity to thoughtfully consider if there is room for systemic reform.

The fact of the matter is, there are flaws in our criminal justice system. One policy that has contributed to the glaring division for decades now, with little discernible benefit, is the war on drugs.

Data indicate that the war on drugs has been a policy failure. Drug laws were originally designed to keep individuals healthier and substance-free, but decades of research indicates that these laws are more a hindrance than help.

Self-reported drug use has increased since the 1970s. Today, 26.5 percent of high-school seniors say it is fairly easy or very easy to obtain cocaine. Since former President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse Public Enemy No. 1, signed the Controlled Substances Act and rejected the findings of the Shafer Commission in 1971, enforcing drug laws has cost U.S. taxpayers over $1 trillion.

The most recent data from 2019 reveal that drug overdoses are on the rise once again. Maine is in the top ten states for opioid-related deaths per person.

This opioid epidemic is primarily a public health issue, not one of criminality. The cost to society to arrest and incarcerate the drug-addicted instead of using substance abuse and mental health treatment options greatly outweighs the potential deterrent effects of criminalization.

Drug charges frequently have catastrophic effects on Mainers after they are released from jail or prison. Those with a criminal history involving drug charges have a harder time finding employment, thereby eroding their ability to function in a self-sufficient manner while also taking a toll on that individuals mental health.

Further complicating the issue, individuals who are incarcerated for drug possession are housed with others who have been charged for drug trafficking, which forces us to consider the possibility that incarceration actually assists users and dealers in building working relationships.

Incarceration for drug use also breaks up family units, which increases the likelihood of financial hardship and repeat offending. Society can do more to break this cycle.

Excessively stringent drug laws dont just harm individualsthey also negatively affect communities. The war on drugs has been linked to increases in violence because it has led to the development of drug cartels and gangs. Were seeing concrete examples of drug trafficking and violent activity in Maine, such as in Downeast Maine, where fishermen in particular are struggling with opioid abuse.

In an article published by CBS News, Charles Rudelitch, an economist from Maine, noted, We know that millions of dollars of income that otherwise should have been spent in our coastal communities is being lost to heroin and diverted to prescription drugs.

The loss of community cohesion should be significant enough to make us reconsider our drug enforcement laws. But the loss goes even furtherour drug policies have resulted in millions of Maine taxpayer dollars going to waste.

Its difficult to calculate the full cost, since various government entities are responsible for enforcing drug policies. But between 2017 and 2018 alonethe most recent data availableMaines Drug Enforcement Agency spent over $6.5 million to police non-violent drug crimes. Maine jails and prisons spend an average of $43,773 to house each inmate, 22 percent of whom are there for nonviolent drug crimes.

Keep in mind that the majority of Maines drug-related arrests are for possession, not manufacturing or sale.

Even those obligated to enforce drug laws are concerned that drug charges do more harm than good. Earlier this year, two police officers in Maine co-authored and published an article in the Portland Press Herald highlighting their ambivalence about the effectiveness of charging individuals for drug offenses.

These officers observed that we dont turn to the criminal justice system to address hunger or flu outbreaks. Yet for some reason, it is the approach we have chosen for addressing drug use, later adding, The fact is, a lot of people who are in jail for using or selling small amounts of drugs dont need to be there.

If the people responsible for enforcing drug regulation laws doubt these rules are useful, shouldnt we be skeptical too?

In some regards, the war on drugs can be viewed as a more wasteful and hazardous version of the prohibition. The government tries to enforce laws that will carefully guide the behavior of individuals, but the unintended consequences prove to be worse than the original issue.

As drug use becomes increasingly problematic in Maine, we must think critically about our response and admit that charging individuals for drug crimes is a misguided response.

We could re-classify small amounts of drug possession as a civil infraction (rather than labeling mere possession of certain drugs as a felony crime), reducing the majority of drug trafficking charges to misdemeanors, and mandate drug court (rather than incarceration) more broadly.

The status quo of our criminal justice system is not working. If we fail to address our flawed drug regulations, we will continue to see our communities suffer as a result of these policies.

Excerpt from:

The War on Drugs has caused more harm than good - The Maine Wire

An Exhibition Tells the Story of a Drug War Leader, but Not All of It – The New York Times

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Harry J. Anslingers pioneering work as head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics has largely been unsung, though experts see him as the founding father of Americas war on drugs.

In 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration raised his profile with a symposium that focused on the decades he spent creating national drug policy, starting in the 1930s. Following that, in 2015, the agencys museum opened an exhibition: A Life of Service: Harry Jacob Anslinger, 1892-1975.

When that closed in 2017, the D.E.A. Museum & Visitors Center created a virtual version, which is displayed on its website.

But neither the live exhibition nor the virtual one mentioned that Mr. Anslinger has been criticized for making racist and denigrating remarks, accusations that have trailed him for years.

In 1934, for example, Mr. Anslinger used a racial slur to describe a Black informant in a letter to narcotics bureau district supervisors, as described in a biography of the drug war czar by John C. McWilliams, a former history professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Other researchers have cited Mr. Anslingers book from the early 1960s, The Murderers: The Shocking Story of the Narcotic Gangs, in which he ascribed Oriental ruthlessness to the Chinese involved in the drug trade.

In response to questions, D.E.A. officials said museum administrators did not focus on Mr. Anslingers speech when creating the exhibition, which was organized around a timeline of his career. In a statement, the museums director, Laurie Baty, said: D.E.A. has always acknowledged that the history of drug control policy and enforcement is complicated and ever-evolving.

In its online presentation, the D.E.A. museum does say Mr. Anslingers tenure was not without controversy, but it does not discuss the issue of racial remarks and attributes the harshest criticism of him to those opposed to laws governing marijuana.

The issue of Mr. Anslingers remarks did surface during the D.E.A. museums symposium. One speaker, Charles Lutz, a retired D.E.A. special agent, defended Mr. Anslinger, who has also been accused of making other racist remarks, the origins of which are unclear. Mr. Lutz, who has studied Mr. Anslingers life, said his research indicated that most of the statements attributed to him had actually been made by others.

Mr. Lutz also said he had interviewed a Black Narcotics Bureau agent who worked under Mr. Anslinger and who was in the audience that day. That agent, William B. Davis, would say there were racists in the Narcotics Bureau, Mr. Lutz told the audience, adding: But hell also tell you, as he told me, that Harry Anslinger was not one of them.

But Mr. McWilliams, who also spoke at the symposium and whose book, The Protectors: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1962, provides a balanced look at Mr. Anslingers life, wrote that he saw the 1934 internal letter with the racial slur while reviewing documents at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

Among those who objected to the slur at the time was a United States Senator from Pennsylvania, Joseph F. Guffey, who called for Anslingers resignation, according to the book.

In a telephone interview, Mr. McWilliams said Mr. Anslinger was respected by his peers as a narcotics expert and dedicated administrator but sometimes depended more on lurid accounts than sober analysis to generate support for his initiatives.

He was a product of his time, when that sort of language was not unusual, unfortunately, Mr. McWilliams said of the slur used in the letter. He also impressed members of Congress and the media because he did go after organized crime and Mafia types.

The full passage in Mr. Anslingers book, The Murderers, written with Will Oursler, says: The Chinese underworld of dope combined with gambling and prostitution had its own special Oriental ruthlessness, which fitted the aura of violence and brutality and killing that has always been the hallmark of the narcotics underworld.

Many museums and other cultural institutions are confronting issues of race as part of the broader discussion prompted by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody.

The American Museum of Natural History, for instance, is removing a statue of Theodore Roosevelt that shows him astride a horse, towering above an African man and a Native American, in a tableau that critics saw as symbolizing colonialism and racial discrimination.

Officials said that when the D.E.A. Museum & Visitors Center reopens this fall after a renovation, there were no plans to exhibit items associated with Mr. Anslinger, though the agency said that decision was based on space constraints. D.E.A. officials said the museum, in Arlington, Va., would frame the story of drugs in America around three major themes: examining how laws and policies were created in response to epidemics; looking at how major categories of drugs have affected people physically and cycled in use over time; and exploring the science of various substances.

The idea to create an exhibition about Mr. Anslinger was initiated, agency officials said, after the symposium at which members of the Anslinger family donated some items that had belonged to him.

A family member, a great-nephew, Jefferson Anslinger, said in an interview that his great-uncle was an honest man and a patriot with whom he regularly visited.

I never heard him say anything disparaging about any race, he said. His whole life was dedicated to easing the suffering from drugs from around the world.

Two of the donated items a tan leather suitcase with brass fittings and a brown composite suitcase reinforced with wooden ribs and stenciled H.J. Anslinger American Legation The Hague, appeared in the exhibit, which depicted Mr. Anslinger as a crucial forefather to the D.E.A. Other artifacts on display included a Bureau of Narcotics badge, an invitation to a dinner held in honor of the 1945 inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a 1962 letter from the White House accepting Mr. Anslingers resignation.

Few officials had as much power and prestige as Mr. Anslinger did while leading the narcotics bureau during the administrations of five presidents. His admirers have long seen him as unfairly overshadowed by his better-known contemporary, J. Edgar Hoover.

Born in Altoona, Pa., he was appointed to the job of assistant commissioner of Prohibition at the Treasury Department in 1929. He then became the first commissioner of the Treasurys Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which was founded in 1930.

While running the bureau Mr. Anslinger investigated the drugging of race horses with heroin, cocaine, caffeine and strychnine. In addition, he established ties with Interpol, arranged for international drug accords and offered some of the first evidence of the existence of a criminal network controlled by Sicilian-Americans.

Mr. Anslinger also championed measures that some drug experts today describe as draconian. He lobbied successfully for the passage of an anti-marijuana law in 1937, testifying during Congressional hearings that a single marijuana cigarette could induce a homicidal mania.

Johann Hari, a writer and critic of U.S. drug policy, described Mr. Anslinger in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs as someone who depicted drugs as dangerous by associating them with racial minorities. He said in an email message that his research indicated that Mr. Anslinger had adopted a consistent framing that drugs are something nonwhite people disproportionately use.

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An Exhibition Tells the Story of a Drug War Leader, but Not All of It - The New York Times

Understanding the Broken US Prison System: Mass Incarceration, Prison Overcrowding, and Prison Privatization – The Weed Blog

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The current state of and unacceptable practices within Americas prison system are two of the biggest social justice issues that come up when discussing the War on Drugs. The numbers regarding mass incarceration and the privatization of prisons are some of the most staggering statistics in the world, and the need for prison reform has never more apparent than it is now, with concerns stemming from the Covid-19 global pandemic as well as public outrage over systemic racial injustice that has culminated in protests and civil unrest all over the world.

Incarceration is a wasteful tool for reducing substance use disorder. The possession or use of drugs should not cause arrests to be dealt with by the nations criminal justice system, but rather be treated as a public health issue. 65% of prisoners1.5 million peoplesuffer from addiction, but just 11% receive any substance abuse treatment while behind bars. As a result, most resume abusing drugs upon their release. Incarceration costs nearly $32,000 per prisoner per year, which is not a cost-effective way to treat addiction. This is just one point to be made when considering the social injustices in Americas prison system and how it relates to the War on Drugs.

Many people may be aware that the United States beats out other, much larger countries (including India, China, and even Russia) as having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. A 2018 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reveals that nearly 2.2 million adults were held in Americas prisons and jails at the end of 2016.

There has been a 500% increase in incarceration over the last 40 years in the U.S., with changes in law and policy -not crime rates- to blame for most of this increase. This has resulted in overcrowding in prisons across the country, as well as fiscal burdens on states.With mounting evidence that large-scale incarceration is not an effective means of achieving public safety, Americans are calling for immediate prison reform.

While their rate of imprisonment has decreased the most in recent years, Black Americans remain far more likely than their Hispanic and white counterparts to be in prison. The Black imprisonment rate at the end of 2018 was nearly twice that of Hispanics (797 per 100,000) and more than five times the imprisonment rate of whites (268 per 100,000). Black men are especially likely to be imprisoned. There were 2,272 inmates per 100,000 Black men in 2018, with the rate even higher among Black men in certain age groups. Among those ages 35 to 39, for example, about 1 in 20 Black men were in state or federal prison in 2018.

Dasheeda Dawson is an industry educator, senior executive leader, and strategy expert for multiple cannabis businesses, municipalities, and other outlets across the country and most recently accepted a position with the City of Portland as the Cannabis Program Supervisor. Dawson explained, The key thing that has caused a lot of the disproportionate arrests for Black people and other POC is cannabis prohibition. It has absolutely been a tool for maintaining the systemic racism in our country.

Rani Soto is the Founder of R&S Publishing and is based in New Jersey. He added, Even with all the opportunity and resources I could possibly provide, my kids could be racially profiled and arrested and have their lives ruined. The prison pipeline is absolutely an issue that affects communities of color.

Mass incarceration is a term used to describe the fact that the U.S. incarcerates more people than any nation in the world, including China. The U.S. is also the leader in the prison population rate. Mass incarceration refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. It is one of the biggest issues that is correlated with cannabis prohibition and the War on Drugs. With so many states now having legalized cannabis to some degree, there is a huge issue with so many people still being incarcerated for crimes related to this particular substance.

Mass incarceration is not just intertwined with the War on Drugs, its a direct root. 4/10 arrests are related to marijuana, so basically we are imprisoning the consumer population which we think we are going to capitalize off of [with the legalized cannabis industry]. The mass incarceration came from the prohibition of an agricultural product or plant. The reason why we can say that is mass is because it does represent the only lump sum chunk of that amount. -Dasheeda Dawson

Caroline Pineau is the owner of Stem Haverhill, an economic empowerment cannabis retail store in Massachusetts. She explained,

Ending cannabis prohibition and potentially the overall War on Drugs would be a productive first step for long-term criminal and social justice reform. The most important thing we see reversing is the trend of mass incarceration. A huge portion of the mass incarceration comes from disproportionate drug sentences that largely impact Black, brown, and Latinx populations.

The War on Drugs and harsher sentencing policies fueled a rapid expansion in the nations prison population beginning in the 1980s. The resulting burden on the public sector led to the modern emergence of for-profit private prisons in many states and at the federal level.

A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. The main difference between private prisons and public prisons is money, as private prisons receive their funding from government contracts and many of these contracts are based on the total number of inmates and their average length of time served. This means that the more inmates (with longer sentences) that these prisons can hold, the more money they earn. When it comes to overall comparisons, privately run prisons are often less likely to report data on inmate population, staffing, or where the budget was spent.

Governments at the local, state, or federal level seek bids from private firms to operate a prison, jail, or detention center. Private firms then compete to submit a desirable bid but competition is limited, as the industry is dominated by two major firms. The firm with the winning bid then assumes full responsibility for managing the day-to-day operations of a prison facility, such as hiring staff, supplies, disciplining prisoners, and providing programs, etc. In return, the government pays the firm, typically on a per-inmate-day basis. In taking over operational responsibilities, the firm also assumes legal liability in the event of legal or constitutional disputes.

From 2000 to 2016 the number of people housed in private prisons increased five times faster than the total prison population. Over a similar timeframe, the proportion of people detained in private immigration facilities increased by 442 percent. According to The Sentencing Project, the United States has the worlds largest private prison population. Of the 1.5 million people in state and federal prisons in 2016, 8.5 percent, or 128,063, were incarcerated in private prisons. Another 26,249 people (and 73% of all people in immigration detention) were confined in privately-run facilities on a daily basis during the 2017 fiscal year.

A paper published by the University of Baltimore Law Review declared that this for-profit industry violates constitutional prohibitions of cruel and unusual punishment as well as guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.

The unique circumstances involved with incarcerating people for profit implicates concerns that make a categorical challenge relying on modern conceptions of human dignity appropriate, the paper said. The papers authors wrote that the constitutional and moral concerns raised by for-profit prisons have grown more serious over the decades, and deserve new consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The authors have concluded, Private prisons are abhorrent on moral grounds, including for the ways that for-profit incarceration wrecks access to justice and diminishes equality in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Prison labor is the forced labor done by the convicts in a prison. Prison labor is economically important due to it being a source of cheap labor, with pay being as low as $0.13 an hour at a prison camp in Nevada.

While the complex issue of prison labor has garnered much attention, the United States use of labor in prisons has quite a long history. Prison, or penal, labor is indisputably and deeply rooted in the history of slavery in the U.S., and the aftermath of the Civil War. In 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction -13th Amendment of the United States Constitution

There are a number of milestones that show the pushback against former slaves after the Civil War, and the profit-driven incentivization that led to the growth and development of the U.S. prison labor system as it exists today. Incarcerated persons are mostly assigned to in-house assignments, such as cleaning dishes, doing laundry, groundskeeping, or other maintenance and upkeep jobs. About 6% of the prison population are in correctional industries that offer prison programs that produce goods and services for the market.

Dasheeda Dawson discussed this in-depth, noting that we now have an industrial complex in private prisons that is literally fueling our countrys economy. Our biggest companies and biggest state annual revenue are capitalizing on this modern-day indentured servitude of low wage paid prison labor. We have a prison industrial complex that has been built through mass incarceration that consists of 80% Black and Hispanic people.

I think the governments stance and the propaganda related to both incarceration and cannabis prohibition and their connectivity is a smoke in mirrors situation. Once that gets pulled back as a curtain and science is the foundation, it becomes very clear to see how this is stacking and pointing in the direction of funding something we actually publicly condemn.

Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. When looking at the American prison system and how it relates to the War on Drugs, this topic is essential to address, as it not only affects the incarcerated individual, but also his/her family and community. Recidivism is an important feature when considering the core criminal justice topics of incapacitation, specific deterrence and rehabilitation.

Among state prisoners released in 30 states in 2005:

Re-entry programs are key for reducing recidivism, and must be taken seriously.

In conclusion, we cannot reform and reconstruct our broken society without some massive attention being paid to the prison system and how it operates in the United States. It carries one of the greatest social injustices tied to the War on Drugs.

Dawson expressed, Weve had mass incarceration, mass devastation, and now we need mass education.

I couldnt agree more.

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Understanding the Broken US Prison System: Mass Incarceration, Prison Overcrowding, and Prison Privatization - The Weed Blog

The Case for Abolishing the Department of Homeland Security – Teen Vogue

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The videos of armed men in fatigues picking protesters off the streets and shoving them into unmarked vans are the stuff of nightmares. Thats how the federal government has responded to Black Lives Matter demonstrations that continue to advocate for racial justice and demand real solutions to community safety. Both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have deployed agents in an effort to protect federal property and crack down on crime, respectively. The Trump administration frames this as its response to violence borne of anti-police rhetoric. In the bigger picture, DHS and DOJ are institutions working to carry out the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, and their policing efforts are extensive across the United States, in the U.S. borderlands, and abroad. During this national conversation on policing and its abolition, we must push for the abolition of all the appendages of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, including DHS.

The War on Drugs began with President Nixon in the early 1970s. One of his former aides later claimed it was launched in response to the Black Power and pacifist movements. It criminalized Black and brown people and was used to justify mass incarceration. This war was later taken beyond U.S. borders and became part of a decades-long story of U.S. intervention in the political affairs of various Latin American countries. This international crackdown on drugs was still underway when George W. Bush's administration launched the War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11. This new front served as a pretext to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan and expand the security state. Outwardly, the War on Terror has cast Muslims as the primary terror threat, but in reality it identifies anyone who opposes the U.S. governments interests as a terror threat. For example, Black Lives Matters activists have been investigated by the FBI as Black identity extremists, while Trump has labeled antifascist protesters terrorists. Together, the War on Terror and the War on Drugs have given the government a blank check to maintain and expand a militarized U.S. presence not just around the world, but also along U.S. borders and within U.S. communities that are seen as threatening to the status quo. They are a central framework used to justify surveillance, intimidation, and the erosion of civil liberties.

DHS was first established after 9/11 and quickly grew to be an expansive and sophisticated security apparatus. Reports of tactical DHS agents in Portland, Oregon, clashing with Black Lives Matter protesters caused a national outcry: Some theorized the U.S. government was using Portland as a testing ground for how it would respond to BLM protests across the country; others were perturbed by the theatrics of it all, with the New York Times calling to leave the soldiering to soldiers. The reality is, the federal agent response in Portland is an extension of the kind of tactics they use at the border. What the ACLU has referred to as the kidnapping of BLM protesters is not so different from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers using coercive measures to pull immigrants from their homes late at night and detain them. After all, ICE is a sub-agency of DHS. In a show of grotesque force, weve seen DHS agents forcefully separate families at the border and place migrants in detention camps. These agencies traffic in fear and operate with near impunity. While scenes from Portland scared white America, they are nothing new for migrants, Black people, undocumented folks, and Muslims.

Its worth taking a moment to distinguish between the distinct operations the government has deployed in recent weeks. The DHS agents dispatched to Portland, through Operation Diligent Valor, were specifically tasked with protecting U.S. government buildings during protests, as Politico reported. Operation LeGend, a multiagency initiative, has recently expanded to cities including Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Detroit, which Attorney General Bill Barr said are experiencing upticks in violent crime. Both of these operations seem to be a response to protesters anti-police activism, as members of the administration have used recent riots and protests as the explanation for increased violence in cities. But there seems to be less alarm about the general crime-fighting focus of Operation LeGend. There are likely two reasons for this: one, the distinction between these operations is confusing; two, it is easier for many people to recognize the neat narrative of federal agents repressing protesters than it is to understand the systemic criminalization of Black and brown communities. It is systemic criminalization that the Black Lives Matter movement is asking us to oppose with calls to abolish the police and invest in life-affirming resources.

By taking to the streets and confronting local and federal forces, the Black Lives Matter uprising is making it painfully clear how policing on U.S. streets, at the U.S. border, and abroad is interconnected. In a time when people are calling for the abolition of police and prisons, it is no surprise that federal agencies and leaders would use this moment to build up its tough-on-crime rhetoric. Also unsurprisingly, they do so without addressing any of the likely root causes of crime, like rising unemployment, and job insecurity due to the failed government response to the pandemic. We cannot allow the U.S. security state to police and surveil as it does. Our vision for abolishing the police fundamentally includes the call to abolish ICE and DHS. We cant settle for anything less if we want a world without policing.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: 8 to Abolition Is Advocating to Abolish Police to Keep Us All Safe

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The Case for Abolishing the Department of Homeland Security - Teen Vogue

OPINION EXCHANGE | George Floyd died, and what have we done? – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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We are in a period of post-mortem reflection following the time during which racial justice protests were at their most intense. We now must ask ourselves: What has changed and what hasnt? Have power and privilege truly been disrupted? Has oppression been alleviated? What will be the legacy of this moment?

The historic protests in the wake of George Floyds killing were met with high hopes and soaring rhetoric. The protests were called a racial reckoning, a long-overdue racial accounting.

We painted murals on the streets and took down some statues. Companies committed to changing the Black faces on a bottle of syrup and a bag of rice. Athletes were allowed to kneel and race car drivers held a racial solidarity parade.

There were television specials about injustice and expanded coverage of protests. Books about race rose to the tops of bestseller lists.

States like New York and California passed police reform legislation, and scores of individual departments banned or restricted chokeholds and strangleholds and required officers to intervene when their colleagues use excessive force.

But, national progress, even on the issue of police accountability and reform, remained elusive. The slate of police reforms passed by the House is now bogged down in the Senate.

Donald Trump called the Black Lives Matter mural painted in front of Trump Tower in New York City a symbol of hate. One of his personal lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, called the group a domestic terror group. And his Justice Department began targeting demonstrators as terrorists.

On the Democratic side, Joe Biden quickly batted down any support of the move to defund the police, which is simply an effort to better allocate funding between police departments and social service agencies. There are also efforts at police abolition, but the defund movement is not synonymous with that effort.

More than 50 civil-rights organizations sent Biden a scathing letter, chastising him for his involvement in mass incarceration and the war on drugs, and demanding that he:

Immediately incorporate the policies laid out by the Movement for Black Lives into your campaign platform, and announce the specific changes publicly. This includes their critical demands for interventions that will end state violence against Black people, end the economic exploitation of Black communities, advance reparations, and defund police, prisons and weaponry so we can fully fund health care, housing, education and environmental justice.

BLM co-founder and activist Patrisse Cullors spoke at the DNCs virtual party platform meeting in July and said: Without the sea changes our movement recommended for the 2020 Democratic platform, any claims to allyship and solidarity with our work to fight for Black liberation are for naught.

While national political progress appeared tentative, mired or weakened by intense opposition, it did feel like personal progress, on a national scale, was made in some ways.

A Pew Research Center report in late June found that 6% of American adults said they attended a protest or rally that focused on issues related to race or racial equality in the last month. Thats about 15 million people, an astounding number.

Furthermore, the movement had multiracial participation. The percentage of protesters who were white was nearly three times the percentage who were Black. The percentage of Hispanics taking part was higher than the percentage of Black people as well.

But even as support for Black Lives Matter grew, many Americans still opposed the things the movement demanded.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in mid-July found that while nearly 70% of Americans believed Black people and other minorities are not treated as equal to white people in the criminal justice system, most still generally opposed calls to shift some police funding to social services or remove statues of Confederate generals or presidents who enslaved people.

Barack Obama issued a statement that read in part:

It falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day to work together to create a new normal in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts.

Im not sure that new normal is in the immediate offing. Much of what we saw in response to protests amounted to performative gestures, symbolism that cost nothing and shifted no power.

We must come to the conclusion that some of what we saw as a racial awakening was prone to whither. Some of what we saw was people cosplaying consciousness, immersing themselves in the issue of the moment.

I am very leery of tokenism, leery of the illusions of progress as the system holds fast. Im leery of appeasement, of being told that there is a change coming as a way of quieting me in the waiting.

America has a sterling track record of dashing Black peoples hopes.

Continued here:

OPINION EXCHANGE | George Floyd died, and what have we done? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Fighting the Yaba Pill: The Death Toll Mounts in Bangladesh’s Drug War – DER SPIEGEL

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The red or pink pills usually aren't much larger than the fingernail on your pinky. They also don't cost too much - between two and four euros each. Nevertheless, they are among the most significant problems currently facing Bangladesh. Called Yaba, the drug is currently overwhelming the South Asian country.

Estimates hold that around 7 million of the country's 164 million residents are addicted to drugs. Fully 5 million of them are thought to be hooked on Yaba. A mixture of methamphetamines and caffeine, it makes users feel more confident and energetic. Users tend to forego sleep and eat very little, with many taking the drug to help them work longer hours and earn more money for their families. But others just take it to get high.

The pills are produced in industrial quantities next door in Myanmar before being smuggled into Bangladesh across the southern border. In 2018 alone, security personnel confiscated fully 53 million of the pills.

Officially, alcohol and drugs are prohibited in the Muslim country. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is no small part of the methamphetamine problem in South and East Asia, where confiscations of the synthetic drug rose by a factor of eight in the 10 years between 2007 and 2017 - to fully 82 tons according to the UN's most recent World Drug Report released in 2019. The total represents almost 45 percent of all such seizures around the world.

In an attempt to get the drug problem under control, the government in Dhaka has opted for severity over the last two years in its fight against both drug dealers and users. Violence has been a frequent outcome.

The anti-drug campaign carried out by the Bangladeshi government has been reminiscent of the brutal "War on Drugs" launched by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after he rose to power in June 2016. Suspected drug criminals are essentially executed by Duterte's troops and the offensive has already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Amnesty International alleges that the government in Dhaka has been similarly brutal in its treatment of alleged dealers and users. The human rights organization has accused Bangladesh of launching a "wave of extrajudicial killings," claiming that 466 people were killed in 2018 alone as part of the anti-drug campaign. That number, the Amnesty report claims, is three times higher than in 2017 and "the highest in a single year in decades."

In a 2019 report, the organization wrote that the victims were initially apprehended by police or simply disappeared. The authorities, according to the report, consistently tell family members that they have no idea where the suspected drug dealers might be. Later, when their bodies are found, the authorities frequently claim that the victim died in a "gunfight."

French photographer Olivier Jobard and investigative journalist Charles Emptaz have looked into the cases of two men who died in one of these alleged "gunfights" in southern Bangladesh. In the course of their reporting, they uncovered several inconsistencies and give credence to suspicions that the two men were executed by Bangladeshi security personnel.

The following photo gallery is a collection of images taken by Jobard showing the means used by the Bangladeshi authorities in their anti-drug campaign:

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Fighting the Yaba Pill: The Death Toll Mounts in Bangladesh's Drug War - DER SPIEGEL

The Floret Coalition Is Adapting the Giving Circle Model to Help Address the Damage of the War on Drugs – Willamette Week

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When Maya Shaw first entered the world of recreational cannabis, she found an industry skilled at churning out Instagrammable content but unableor unwillingto confront its own problems.

"It's crazy that no one was really talking about the fact that we were openly profiting off cannabis and making it cute and making it fun and accessible," says the Richmond, Va., founder and namesake of online smoke shop Shaw. "And it's like, OK, that's cool, but can we have a conversation about what's happening behind the scenes? The War on Drugs?"

Shaw is now part of a group aiming to start those hardconversationsand put some money where the discussion is.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur is an inaugural member of the Floret Coalition, a business collective with the mission of bringing together small businesses in the weed space who are eager to become involved in the fight for restorative justice but might not be entirely sure how or where to start.

The Floret Coalition is a division ofBroccoli, a Portland arts and culture magazine centered on cannabis. It operates as a modified giving circle: Small cannabusinesses join the coalition, receive an onboarding packet and commit to a minimum monthly donation. When the group's board announces the charity of the month, all Floret Coalition members direct donations straight to the recipients.

The three-member board vets each charity, and the board changes yearly. For the coalition's first year, Shaw is joined by entrepreneur and podcaster Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey and cannabis advocate Kassia Graham.

Floret emerged as "both a response and a realization that we had some community power that we could activate beyond just what we could do individually," says Anja Charbonneau,Broccoli's editor in chief. "Seeing the way that people were willing to open their wallets during the first wave of this summer's protests really gave us the push to believe that people were ready to rally."

Shaw puts it another way: "It's time to tell your friends to pull up."

WW: Did the idea for the Floret Coalition arise in response to the George Floyd uprising or had it been in the works before then?

Anja Charbonneau:Floret getting started in June was not only a reaction to the recent Black Lives Matters uprisings but also addressing a longer-term need that we've seen in cannabis to find tangible, financial ways to give back.

Maya Shaw:It was pretty seamless. Anja sent a message to the three of us, and she was just like, "Here's what I want to create, and the three of you would be an awesome first team of board members." And I couldn't agree more. We're all pretty like-minded in the sense that we want to do the right thing and we want to make sure that we're making this the best that it can besetting the ground, setting the stakes, and showing up for our community.

What criteria do organizations need to meet in order to qualify to receive donations?

Shaw:We want to make sure that we are really choosing organizations that are going to use the money properly. We're focused on organizations created so that these communities can have the same resources already available within communities that haven't been affected as such by the War on Drugs. Knowing that the Black community, the Latinx community, and Indigenous people overall are affected most, there's so much opportunity there. It's not necessarily just one specific thing. There are so many pockets and different crevices where we can put the money knowing it's going back into communities in need that are affected.

What criteria must businesses meet to join the coalition, aside from being cannabis adjacent and donation consistency?

Charbonneau:That's pretty much it. The funniest example I have is a brand that makes catnip toys shaped like joints. They're like, "Does this count?" Of courseyou're making money off the idea of weed, so why not?

Can you explain the difference between performative allyship and, as Rihanna put it, "pulling up"?

Shaw:Brands just really need to be honest with themselves in terms of the long run. Silence speaks louder than anything.This industry is built on the backs of Black people, Latin people and Indigenous people, and anyone profiting off this industry needs to be finding a way to donate back to the communities that are affected negatively by the injustice in the industry. It's almost, in a sense, reparations, or reworking profit. If you're profiting, you also need to be giving back.

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The Floret Coalition Is Adapting the Giving Circle Model to Help Address the Damage of the War on Drugs - Willamette Week