Monthly Archives: June 2017

A UN special rapporteur was shocked to find abusive employers, anti-protest bills, and other signs of a weakening of democracy.

Demonstrators protest President Donald Trumps travel ban at Los Angeles International Airport on January 29, 2017. (Reuters / Ted Soqui)

Its no secret that Americas star is fading on the world stage these days, under a president whose authoritarian tactics have outraged allies and enemies alike. But a recent audit by an international human-rights monitor reveals that, even before Trumps buffoonery took over the White House, Washington was failing dramatically to live up to its reputation as a beacon of democracy. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly Maina Kiais dissection of the nations systematic betrayal of basic human rights centers on Americas shrinking public square.

Based on a year-long observation of the countrys governance and civic life that stretches from mid-2016 through the start of the Trump administration, Kiai, whose post recently ended with the publication of the report, sees a massive erosion of the right to freedom of assembly. The concept encompasses the right to organize and protest and other essential forms of civic and public activism. Though it is formally inscribed in the Bill of Rights, the precept has come under assault under the Trump administration, Kiai says, stoked by the presidents hateful and xenophobic rhetoric during the presidential campaign and blatant flouting of civil liberties in his policies and governing style.

The environment for workers is extremely hostile in the US, and frankly it shocked me.

Kiai concludes that over the past year a growing swath of communities of color, workers and immigrants, and other marginalized groups have felt deterred from engaging in social movements, staging protests and other forms of citizen action, or campaigning to defend community and workplace rights.

One overarching obstacle is the ingrained culture of racism, which has persisted since slavery through Jim Crow and the ongoing struggles with institutionalized discrimination. Citing police-community conflict as a primary illustration of structural oppression, Kiai argues, Racism and the exclusion, persecution and marginalization that come with it affect the environment for exercising association and assembly rights. His report directly denounces government agencies hostility towards the Black Lives Matter movement, contending that The government has an obligation under international law to protect and promote the groups peaceful exercise of the right of free assembly. Similarly, the report describes structural corruption driving the use of perverse incentives in the policing of black communities, with police departments raising revenue through fines and rewarding or sanctioning police officers based on the number of arrests. These patterns of aggressive policing, Kiai says, disempower neighborhoods by deterring dissent.

The evaluation, focused on field research conductedin 2016 and analyzing issues that have intensified under Trump, documents increasingly anti-democratic enforcement tactics against immigrant communities at risk of civil-rights abuses. Kiai cites reports of immigration agents conducting surveillance at assemblies focused on migrant issues, which he argues chills the exercise of assembly rights. As noncitizens who cannot vote and lack other legal rights, he adds, protesting is one of the only tools they have to voice their concerns. The government should encourage the exercise of this right by everyone, especially marginalized groups.

Kiai tackles direct restrictions on the right to protest as well, noting an increasingly hostile legal environment for peaceful protesters in some states, particularly trumped-up penalties against spontaneous or unpermitted peaceful public demonstrations. South Dakota and Tennessee recently passed laws against blocking streets during protests. Nationwide, about 29 such anti-protest bills have been proposed or passed since November, coinciding with an unprecedented wave of street demonstrations against Trump.

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Some jurisdictions deter activists by charging organizations hefty fees simply for the right to stage a public demonstration. Burdening the citizenry with onerous fees and red tape, Kiai says, clashes with international guidelines against requiring pre-approval of planned protests. The report recommends instead allowing groups to simply notify officials of, rather than seek prior approval for, planned protests, arguing that giving government extensive control over dissent risks turning the right into a privilege.

Deterioration of free-assembly rights is glaringly apparent in the workplace. Despite the United States historical role as an architect of the International Labour Organization standards on workers rights, the report argues that its foundational labor law, the National Labor Rights Act, legalises practices that severely infringe workers rights to associate and provides few incentives for employers to respect workers rights.

Labor regulation is eviscerated by weak enforcement and underfunding, particularly compared to the massive resources dedicated to other law enforcement functions in the United States. Given the prevalence of endemic violations like wage theft in low-wage industries, Kiai observes an imbalance in government priorities: protecting corporations profits while unraveling basic regulatory protections for workers as well as their right to organize, at a time when traditional unions are shrinking as a political force.

The environment for workers is extremely hostile in the US, and frankly it shocked me. Wheres the outrage? The US had the War on Drugs, so why not a War on Abusive Employers? Its clearly an epidemic that has the potential to deeply damage the economic and social fabric of the country.

Kiais analysis also extends beyond issues surrounding the right to protest and warns of the corrosive impacts of capitalism on democracy. Citing the mass protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline as an illustration of the corporate assault on grassroots activists, he argues that Trumps crackdown on protesters reflects an agenda of market fundamentalism, exploiting natural resources for short-term profits while neglecting the human rights of impacted communities, which undermines indigenous peoples land, territorial and resource rights.

Kiai stresses the irony of America failing to walk the talk as a liberal democratic superpower. The United States has repeatedly supported, and often helped develop, international standards on, for example, the right to free speech under the United Nations framework, yet systematically fails to institute the same principles in domestic law. Nonetheless, he concludes that despite what appears to be a regression in free assembly rights under the new president, civil society remains a vibrant, if embattled, force of resistance:

Trumps rhetoric is often violent and divisive, with a heavy authoritarian streak. He doesnt even pay lip service to fundamental rights. Its not an easy environment in which to exercise your expressive rights, and that environment seems to have become markedly worse since my visit. Yet despite this, weve seen the emergence of a massive and sustained protest movementthats something that is truly encouraging and moving.

Despite, or because of Trumps authoritarianism, a counter-populist movement is building, renewing the meaning of free assembly as a coming together of the dispossessed.

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America's Freedom to Protest Is Under Attack - The Nation.

We need to work through August recess to get everything done, said Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows. | Getty

The House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday night called on Republican leadership to cancel the August recess to continue work on tax reform and other GOP priorities.

The group of several dozen conservative hardliners during their weekly meeting took the official position to work through the break, which is quickly drawing near as Republicans scramble to pass President Donald Trumps agenda.

Story Continued Below

We need to work through August recess to get everything done, said Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), coming out of the meeting. We believe that we need to stay through August to get through tax reform and get our appropriations done.

The group's request ups the pressure on GOP leaders, who could face the same request from an impatient White House thirsty for legislative victories. Four months into Trumps presidency, Republicans have accomplished very little. The Obamacare repeal effort, stalled in the House for weeks, is slowly working its way through the Senate. And the party is divided over how to overhaul the tax code.

Lawmakers only have seven weeks left before the break. And, once they return, much of the focus will be on funding the government before it expires Sept. 30, and raising the debt ceiling two votes that will suck up a lot of time and energy. Lawmakers really only have until the end of 2017 to finalize their landmark pieces of legislation. Since 2018 is an election year, every vote becomes tougher.

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Freedom Caucus: Cancel August recess - POLITICO - Politico

NEW DELHI

Indias Information and broadcasting minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu has refuted allegations that raids carried out by the countrys main investigative agency on a top broadcaster were an infringement on press freedom.

His comments on Wednesday came in response to widespread concern that the action against the promoters of a TV news channel that has often been critical of the governments policies could undermine press freedom in the worlds largest democracy.

Government action

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched several premises of Prannoy and Radhika Roy, the promoters of NDTV news channel, earlier this week after receiving a private complaint that they caused a loss of loss of $7.5 million to a private bank from which they had taken a loan.

The promoters have denied claims of financial wrongdoing and said in a statement that the entire loan amount was paid in full seven years ago. It called the raids a witch hunt and an attack on press freedom.

Minister Naidu defended the action saying the law was taking its course. The management and promoters have to stand scrutiny and answer to the people, he said.

But that has done little to allay the concerns of critics who point out that the complaint which prompted the raids did not even come from the bank which CBI alleges made the losses.

Political move?

Bhaskar Roy, head of the Center of Media Studies in New Delhi, sees a political angle behind the CBI action against the NDTV promoters and says the reasons put out for the raids dont add up. The point I am making is, these are all silly reasons to somehow put them under pressure. It is muzzling independent press, he told VOA.

The influential Editors Guild of India has expressed concern and condemned any attempt to muzzle the media. Many journalists have said that the raids raise disturbing questions.

Its very troubling and the answers have not come, said independent political analyst Neerja Chowdhury in New Delhi. For the moment what has come out does not sort of merit a CBI raid.

Broadcaster is defiant

NDTV has said on its website that "We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India."

The raids took place a day after an argument on television between the spokesman of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Sambit Patra and a news anchor who asked him to apologize for his comment that the channel had an agenda.

This is not the first time that NDTV has had a brush with the government. Last year, the government imposed an unusual, one-day ban on NDTV Hindi channel saying it had disclosed sensitive information on a terror attack, but following an outcry it revoked the ban.

Message from government

Chowdhury sees the latest action against the channel's promoters as a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government to the media: The message would be, dont be critical. I wont even say critical, questioning.

The spotlight on media freedom in India came after this year's World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders downgraded Indias ranking by three places citing concerns about Hindu nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of anti-national thought from the national debate. Placing India at 136 out of 180 countries, the report said this had resulted in growing self censorship in the mainstream media.

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In India, Concerns About Media Freedom After Raids on Broadcaster - Voice of America

The true crisis in Puerto Rico is neither economic nor humanitarian. This is a crisis of leadership. Policymakers, both locally and nationally, have failed to provide a bold vision for a world-class economy, and they have stubbornly refused to implement a proven model that would lead to that. We face the opportunity to mirror best practices of global economic leaders like Hong Kong, or allow left-wing populism to drag us further into the Venezuelan-flavored abyss.

Hong Kong didnt become an economic powerhouse and global financial center by pure happenstance. Despite not possessing any significant natural resources, Hong Kong achieved tremendous prosperity in the latter half of the 20th century. How? Its political leaders implemented a truly universal recipe for success strong private property rights, world-class rule of law and a complete aversion to governmental economic meddling. When the territory became the foremost model for laissez faire economics, prosperity rapidly ensued.

Prosperity and human flourishing are the predictable byproducts of economic freedom. Its time for Puerto Rico to use that knowledge for our own benefit. The hands-off policies of free enterprise are too morally compelling to ignore. Consider that, according to the Cato Institute, the poorest 10 percent of residents in the nations with the most economic freedom enjoy an average income that is double that of their counterparts in the least-free nations. It is time for the people of Puerto Rico to reap the benefits of economic freedom.

The alternative is a slow slide into economic catastrophe. The unfolding crisis in Venezuela again demonstrates the failures of socialism. Central planning, nationalization of industry and insecure property rights have turned what was once the wealthiest nation in South America into a failing state at a social breaking point. Indeed, the socialist model championed by our Latin American peers is the very genesis of Puerto Ricos current problems. It is a model we have tried, and it is a model that has failed us. Puerto Rico must not become another socialist banana republic.

How can Puerto Rico go from being an incipient Venezuela to becoming the Hong Kong of the Caribbean? Action is required at both the federal and local levels. In Puerto Rico, we must stop pretending Band-Aids are a solution and take tough actions that will free us, economically and emotionally, from government dependence. To overcome the stain of failing to make good on constitutionally protected government bonds, we must re-establish our credibility in world markets. This begins with sweeping local tax reform to make Puerto Ricos taxes among the simplest and lowest in the world. We need a drastic downsizing of government, liquidation of the thousands of government-owned properties, from restaurants to empty lots to industrial warehouses, and privatization of government-owned corporations, beginning with the electric power authority.

Some challenges for Puerto Rico can only be dealt with in Washington. Federal policymakers must be sensitive to the differing geographic and economic realities between our Caribbean island and the U.S. mainland. We dont need bailouts, handouts or dependency. We just need policies that allow us to compete at our fullest potential. Saddling Puerto Rico with federal laws that do not recognize the uniqueness of our situation guarantees permanent economic disadvantage. First among these is the Jones Act. Nearly every study of Puerto Ricos economy from the Krueger study to the General Accounting Office findings calls for Jones Act relief. Whether this is a complete exemption, or relief from the shipbuilding and international relay requirements, federal action would be a significant boost to our economy. A minimum wage exemption would allow us to compete regionally. Finally, as tax reform is undertaken in Washington, a return to something similar to the Code 936 law that helped create a booming manufacturing industry in Puerto Rico and brought prosperity throughout the island is in order.

Milligan is the executive vice president of the Puerto Rico-based nonpartisan think tank Fundacin Libertad and resides in San Juan. Blom is the Washington, D.C., director for Fundacin Libertad and resides in Virginia.

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OPINION: Let Puerto Rico reap the benefits of economic freedom - The Hill (blog)

More than 15,000 people have signed a petition to give Ariana Grande the Freedom of Manchester.

It comes after the US pop star returned to the city to stage the defiant One Love Manchester benefit concert.

The gig was in answer to a suicide bombing at her previous date in the city, that left 22 of her young fans and their parents dead, and more than 100 others injured.

Ariana called on her superstar friends, including Katy Perry, Little Mix, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, to perform at the gig and raised millions for charity.

Now people believe she should be made an honorary Mancunian.

The concert was attended by 50,000 people and watched by millions around the world on TV.

Established just two days ago, the petition titled Grant Ariana Grande the Freedom of the City of Manchester has now been backed by 15,800 supporters at the time of writing.

Petition creator Matthew Duggan, 25, from Burnage, said: "Ariana could have quite easily viewed Manchester as a dangerous place, but shes made a massive impact on many.

"It was more than a music concert, it was about bringing the country and people together again.

"In a time of divisiveness, not just through terrorism but with our politics too, I think everything Arianas done has been amazing."

The singer made an emotional return to Manchester less than two weeks after the Manchester Arena suicide bombing.

The One Love Manchester show at Emirates Old Trafford reached a peak TV audience of 14 million in the UK, and aired to more than 50 countries worldwide.

Speaking on the petitions reception, organiser Matthew stressed his view Ariana should not be celebrated above emergency service personnel.

He added: "For me, its about her being a real ambassador for Manchester going forward on the world stage."

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Thousands think Ariana Grande should be given Freedom of Manchester after raising millions with One Love gig - Mirror.co.uk

Aisha Hinds (Manny Carabel/Getty Images)

Last week, WGN America announced that it had canceled the critically acclaimed and riveting historical drama Underground. Allegedly moving in a more conservative, programming direction, the network is leaving behind a show that introduced millions of viewers to the relatively unknown network.

As the cast and crew confirmed and responded to the news, outraged fans#TeamNoalee, #TeamStine and #TeamTubmanimmediately responded with #SaveUnderground.

The push to find a new home for this show is largely due to its dynamism. The show is singular and remarkable in its approach to telling the stories about enslaved and freed black people in the 19th century. From its complex characters, stellar performances, breathtaking soundtrack and rich storytelling, each episode feels like a multitextured journey.

The liberties taken with historical accuracy do not compromise the integrity of truth telling and historical precision as it pertains to slavery and resistance. Pitting the notorious Patty Cannon against the Black Rose and one of the greatest heroines in American history, Harriet Tubman, was an incredible fictionalized remix of true stories of fugitive, formerly enslaved people and the inhumanity of slave catchers and owners. Its hard to imagine Wednesday nights without the resistive spirit and depths of ancestral pain that Underground has provided.

Although our nation is built upon white supremacy, this current era of anti-blackness and racial terror warrants as many sites of radical resistance and freedom dreaming as possible. Undeniably, Undergroundwith its unapologetic commitment to telling the truth about genocide, abolition and revolutionfills and exceeds that role.

In an exclusive conversation with Aisha Hinds, this seasons breakout performer in her role as Tubman, we discussed at length the significance of a television show based on black resistancespecifically against this contemporary sociopolitical landscapeand the centrality of black women to our freedom-fighter past and our futures.

Were still dealing with such oppression, and so I think that its necessary for Harriets spirit to revisit us and to remind us that there are Harriets within us, Hinds told The Root.

Shes come back to sort of give us the playbook on how to strategize, on how to pray, on how to be guided and how to prioritize whats necessary, and how to eventually take those selfless acts and be willing to die for the causes that are important to moving us forward, she continued.

Worth dying for, yes. Tubman believed that black lives, black bodies and black souls were worth fighting forworth dying for and worth living for. The Generals actual practice was #BlackLivesMatter, generations before the radical black women at the core of this movement would proclaim the same.

Underground is clear in its purpose: to expose the reality that when it comes to white supremacyand the ways in which black people have always resisted oppressionpast is often prologue. In many ways, Underground reminds us that the past is not even past. It encourages us to fight unrelentingly for radical black futures.

Over the last few years, I have spent a lot of time thinking, talking and writing about the war on

The shows creative team completed filming the second season prior to the election of Donald Trump. And yet, so many aspects of this season felt timely and passionately responsive to the current rise of fascism and the emergence of a more emboldened and explicit white supremacist political agenda. The battleground has changed, but white supremacy is indeed unrelenting and reinvents itself and its logics through new technologies and systems rooted in anti-blackness.

With the exception of the notable historical figures depicted on Underground, all of the characters are ordinary people who survive the unsurvivable and fight seemingly unwinnable battles. Their visions of freedom shift and expand in differing ways as they experience the breadth and ubiquity of white supremacy. Their ideas about liberation change as they learn more about themselves and about a country indebted to black suffering, labor and death. They are not perfect; nor do they have to be.

One of the first truths that [Harriet] speaks in the Minty episode is when she says, I was born and raised like a neglected weed, Hinds said.

The idea that this woman was an ordinary womanshe wasnt born into the amount of acclaim that she later went on to receive; she was born into circumstances that didnt even consider her humanso the fact that this ordinary woman was able to rise up against insurmountable odds and do this extraordinary thing ... spoke to me and encouraged me and inspired me, that in all of my ordinariness, there is something extraordinary that Ive been planted on this earth to do, Hinds continued.

The imperfections of the characters, coupled with their fluid and still-forming radical imaginations, are profoundly instructive to those of us organizing, mobilizing, teaching, writing, coding and creating in the era of the Movement for Black Lives. Not all will be on board with freedom work. Our visions of freedom work will vary. But an underlying theme of the show and of radical black liberation struggles is that freedom for all of us is nonnegotiable. We dont get to opt out; the stakes have always been too high.

We may have to make some sacrifices and be willing to be uncomfortable if were going to do something that is bigger than us, that goes beyond our own selfish desires, Hinds said. Ultimately, its true that nobody is free until all of us are free. We need to adopt that ideology because where we are right now ... were still very much in radical pursuit of liberty, even as the fullness of our existence remains compromised and in constant jeapardy.

The shows contemporary relevance is both haunting and enlightening, specifically because of its commitment to bearing witness to the horrors of white supremacy as well as the vitality of black resistance. Creative resistance is one of the many tools we have in combating oppression, something that Hinds became increasingly aware of as she moved deeper into her role.

As a person, as an actor, it truly has been transformative for me, Hinds said. It has elevated me as a human being. It has elevated me as an artist. It certainly has revealed to me how important it is that we as artists use our platforms purposefully. That is what our ancestors, our freedom fighters and truth tellers, risked their lives to dolived and loved and fought with purpose again and again.

#SaveUnderground matters because the shows cast and crew were and are unapologetically committed to telling our stories. From an artistic standpoint, Underground is phenomenal. The shows commitment to a radical, black, freedom-fighting imagination, though, is what makes it invaluable.

Underground is the show, the freedom-dreaming experience, the ancestral battle cry, that we didnt know we needed.

Treva B. Lindsey, Ph.D., is an associate professor of womens, gender and sexuality studies at the Ohio State University. She is the inaugural Equity for Women and Girls of Color Fellow at Harvard University. Follow her on Twitter.

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#SaveUnderground: Aisha Hinds on Freedom Dreams and Revolutionary Art - The Root

As Congress continues its work on replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Ohio leaders like Governor John Kasich and Senator Robert Portman are rightly concerned about the impact these changes will have on Medicaid recipients, especially those who received Medicaid through the ACA expansion. However, two critical facts are missing from the current debate.

First, Medicaid is a substandard health care system and we have to find a way to transition people into insurance that offers them better care. Second, Medicaid is not fiscally sustainable at either the state or federal level. No one, on either side of the political divide, wants people to be uninsured, but glossing over these two critical facts wont help solve the real problems Medicaid faces and it wont provide people with quality healthcare.

There are numerous reasons for this. One problem is, Medicaid reimburses doctors and hospitals at a lower rate than private coverage, so recipients have trouble finding doctors who take Medicaid. Doctors who do take Medicaid often have less autonomy in deciding how to treat their patients. Medicaid recipients are more likely to visit emergency rooms rather than seeking more effect care with a primary care physician.

Given the poor quality of care, why would we want to put more people on Medicaid? The focus shouldnt be on protecting a system that has a mixed record of providing healthcare, but instead on finding solutions that offer better care to enrollees. We need to change Medicaid overall and think of how to deliver the best care, to the most patients for the best price.

Here in Ohio, the Ohio Department of Medicaid recognizes the need to offer quality healthcare and is actively piloting programs to deliver better care to Medicaid recipients. The problem is, there is only so much improvement that can be made without Washington lifting some of its burdensome regulations.

Fortunately, federal officials want to make it easier to grant Medicaid waivers that would allow states more flexibility to innovate in their Medicaid programs. Current proposals from the Ohio House would have Ohio seek a waiver to help Medicaid recipients save more for healthcare and transition to real health insurance. This Healthy Ohio plan is based on Healthy Indiana, which is working well for our westerly neighbor.

Now back to the sustainability of Medicaid. As with all taxpayer funded programs, government officials must ensure that money is being spent wisely and efficiently, and that the program achieves its goals. Medicaid fails in all three of these.

In Ohio, we spend a quarter of our state budget on Medicaid, and it is only growing. That means less money for education, roads, prisons, and a host of other government services. The good news is, the reforms I have mentioned will go a long way to improving healthcare delivery and will help reign in the unsustainable costs of Medicaid.

Modern day presidents from Ronald Reagan to Barack ObamaBarack ObamaObama ethics czar: Comey details read like trial testimony Comey talked to Trump nine times in four months Trump: Democrats are really in our way on healthcare MORE have proposed budgets that reduce federal funding to Medicaid and increase the states share. Medicaid costs are only growing, and the federal government has made clear they will pay less in the future. If Medicaid is not reformed, the only other option is spiraling tax increases on Ohioans. That isnt good for Ohios families and wont improve the quality of care people get through Medicaid.

Ignoring the problems in the current Medicaid system will only continue to relegate people to poor quality healthcare at unsustainable costs. But we have a real opportunity to actively create a new Medicaid program. In doing so, Ohio can balance fiscal responsibility and offer better care to those most in need.

Rea S. Hederman Jr. is executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Buckeye Institute, a think tank promoting free market principles, and is an expert in healthcare policy.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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States needs freedom to improve health for Medicaid recipients - The Hill (blog)