Controversial Academic Named To Census Panel In Waning Days Of Trump

This April 5, 2020, photo shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau needs more time to wrap up the once-a-decade count because of the coronavirus, opening the possibility...

By Tierney Sneed
November 23, 2020 5:02 p.m.

Thomas Brunell — a controversial redistricting researcher who was floated and then withdrawn from consideration to lead the Census Bureau earlier in the Trump administration — has been named to an advisory committee for the census, according to a person familiar with the appointment.

The installation of Brunell — who published a book in 2008 called “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America” — ratifies concerns that the census is being politicized even in the waning days of the Trump administration.

The committee Brunell is being named to, the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, meets once or twice a year usually and gives recommendations for how the Census Bureau should carry out its key functions. Brunell’s term on the committee will last until November 2023.

When word got out Brunell was being considered in 2017 to lead the Bureau, his apparent lack of relevant statistical or government experience drew criticisms from census stakeholders, including the civil rights community.

Brunell’s expertise has been used in Republicans redistricting efforts, according to 2017 Politico story about his name being floated for the director job. He’s also been critical of measures like sampling that the Census Bureau has looked into to improve its enumeration of hard-to-count communities.

Brunell is currently a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The Bureau confirmed Brunell’s appointment in a statement Wednesday that called him a “well-recognized scholar in electoral studies, legislative redistricting, and the usage of census data.”

Additionally, the statement announced that that William Clark, an associate dean at the Pennsylvania State University Graduate School, had been named to the panel.


Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) is a D.C.-based investigative reporter. She focuses on voting rights and previously covered health care for TPM.

4 New Takeaways From The Falwell Imbroglio

TPM Illustration/Getty Images/Liz Gorman
By Josh Kovensky
|
November 18, 2020 

TPM published an exclusive account on Tuesday of Jerry and Becki Falwells’ relationship with Giancarlo Granda, their real estate business partner who says he carried on sexual liaisons with the couple over an eight-year period.

Earlier revelations about Granda’s involvement with the Falwells — in which he said he would have sex with Becki as Jerry watched — contributed to Jerry Falwell Jr.’s downfall from his position as president of Liberty University.

Jerry denies his involvement in the liaisons in no uncertain terms, and accuses Granda of trying to extort him. TPM attempted to secure an on-the-record interview with the Falwells about the relationship, but the Falwells broke off contact after Jerry sued Liberty.

It’s a long and twisted story that brought Granda and the Falwells from a 2012 encounter at a Miami pool to their present recriminations. Here are key takeaways.

1. The Sex Continued After They Were Found Out.

Granda claims that he had sex with Becki in August 2018.

But by that point, the fact — and weirdness — of Granda’s relationship with the Falwells was already public knowledge. Buzzfeed’s Aram Roston had broken the initial story in May of that year, revealing that the Falwells had “offered” Granda a share in a Miami Beach property worth millions within a year of meeting the then-21-year-old part-time student.

Back in 2018, the rest was left to speculation. But as Granda himself now says, the speed with which he became a business partner with the Falwells was a giveaway.

“That’s why the cover story never worked,” Granda told TPM. “C’mon.”

But even after Roston and other reporters had started to publish stories on the relationship, Granda engaged in another liaison with them while visiting the Falwells’ Virginia estate in August 2018. He says that they were all “addicted” to the risky behavior.

Jerry disputes this in a lawsuit filed against Liberty University last month, saying that the sexual relationship was only between Becki and Granda and that it only lasted from 2012 to 2014.

2. Granda Says Michael Cohen Was Among The First To Notice Something Was Going On.

At least one person, very early on, noticed that something was funny about Granda’s relationship with the first family of evangelical Christianity, Granda says.

It was Michael Cohen, who Granda encountered while on a September 2012 visit to Liberty University.

While on a tour of campus with Cohen and Donald Trump, Granda remembers Cohen gesturing towards Granda, and asking a Falwell associate, “Who’s that guy?”

“He’s a business partner of the Falwells,” the associate replied.

“Huh,” Cohen nodded.

Cohen would go on to play a key role as a fixer for Jerry Jr., helping him get rid of risque photos of Becki in 2015. Months later, Falwell endorsed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, granting the future president a base of support in the GOP that few expected him to have.

Granda remembers little of Cohen’s involvement in the episode, though he does recall Becki telling him that Cohen was going to “take care” of opponents in a lawsuit over their investment.

3. The Falwells Have A Taste For The Finer Things In Life.

If you find yourself in the Falwells’ inner circle, Granda claims, you’ll be introduced to a world of fine liquor, expensive travel, and lavish celebrations.

Becki’s preferred drink is vodka and Baileys, per Granda, while Jerry prefers tequila or rum — either Casamigos, the George Clooney tequila brand, or Bacardi Oakheart, no longer in production.

Needless to say, the Falwells’ indulged their lavish ways while Jerry was running a university which banned dancing, alcohol consumption, and private mingling between the sexes.

But, Granda says, there was always an exception for the Falwells, as they traveled to Miami or Greece, or as they threw booze-filled, expensive wedding celebrations for their children.

4. Granda Says Jerry Was More Deeply Involved.

Jerry Jr., son of the preacher man himself, was more involved in the sexual liaisons than has previously been reported, Granda says.

Namely, according to Granda, Jerry would have sex with his wife after Granda and Becki finished having sex.

Granda also showed TPM material from a January 2019 Facetime video in which Becki Falwell is nude and Jerry follows, watching as Becki carries on a conversation with Granda.

Jerry strenuously denies this, and has done so in a lawsuit filed against Liberty University last month. There, he accused Granda of lying about Jerry’s role as part of an extortionate threat, and says that while Becki had an affair with Granda that went from 2012 to 2014, Jerry was never involved.

Read the article here. LONG READ

Gun Advocate, Author Of ‘More Guns, Less Crime,’ Gets Justice Department Job

John Lott Jr. author of "More Guns, Less Crime" speaks to the crowd during a gun rights rally at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford Conn. on Saturday April 20, 2013. 

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League 

By Matt Shuham November 24, 2020 

A conservative gun advocate and vocal Trump supporter who’s spread falsehoods about the 2020 election has landed a job at the Justice Department, Politico first reported Tuesday.

John Lott, author of the book “More Guns, Less Crime,” has spent years advocating for widespread gun ownership and against firearms restrictions. He’s now a senior adviser for research and statistics at the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, a grant-writing office that doles out billions of dollars per year.

It’s not clear whether the position is a political appointment, which President-elect Joe Biden could replace, or a civil service position with protections beyond January.

Lott is also a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, Politico noted. He falsely claimed on Facebook earlier this month that there had been “Massive vote fraud in Pennsylvania,” and has kept up his pro-Trump commentary on social media despite reportedly leaving his former job for the DOJ last month.

“NPR is pretty much Pravda at this point,” he said of the outlet’s coverage of the “March for Trump” event held in D.C. earlier this month. Lott added, falsely, that “a million plus people” had been present for the event.

Neither Lott nor the Justice Department returned TPM’s requests for comment, but Lott’s Facebook page now says he is “Senior Advisor for Research and Statistics” at the Justice Department.

Lott came to the DOJ from the the Crime Prevention Research Center, a pro-gun group he founded in 2013. Politico noted the group’s board includes Trumpy media personalities like former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and the Trump-supporting musician and NRA board member Ted Nugent.

Lott was replaced as president of CPRC by Andrew Pollack, a gun activist whose daughter was killed in the shooting massacre at a Parkland, Florida high school in 2018. Pollack wrote the forward to a book of Lott’s published earlier this year, “Gun Control Myths: How politicians, the media, and botched ‘studies’ have twisted the facts on gun control.”

Lott’s commentary has at times strayed from the gun debate to voter fraud alarmism.

In 2017, for example, he was a witness at a meeting of President Donald Trump’s so-called “elections integrity” commission, a few months after falsely asserting there had been “massive” vote fraud with absentee ballots in the North Carolina gubernatorial election. At the panel, Lott trolled Democrats by pitching a background check system for voting.

“If they don’t believe that it suppresses people’s ability to defend themselves, would we believe that using this system would suppress being able to go and vote?” he said.


Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office covering corruption, extremism and other beats. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.

Former Spy Chief Ric Grenell Resurfaces As Foot Soldier In Trump’s War On Reality

Former Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks to the news media during a press conference by members of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., outside Clark County Election Department on November 5, 2020

By Matt Shuham November 19, 2020 


Six months ago, Ric Grenell was the nation’s top intelligence official and had access to some of the most highly sensitive information on the planet.

Now, he’s wailing on Twitter about President Donald Trump’s loss in Nevada, alleging electoral fraud on a scale so widespread that it would flip the state to Trump — just without any evidence whatsoever to back up the claim.

“It is unacceptable in this country to have illegal votes counted, and that is what’s happening in the state of Nevada,” Grenell, clad in a “Team Trump” jacket, told reporters in Las Vegas two days after Election Day.

Grenell refused to answer questions while also chastising reporters for asking the campaign for evidence of the outlandish voter fraud claims it was making.

“All of your questions about the details are legitimate questions … and they should be asked of Clark County,” he said.

“What’s your name!” the press shouted at Grenell as he left the mics.

“Listen, you’re here to take in information,” he replied. Cue press corps laughter. A few minutes later, the crew fled the scene, shutting a van door in the face of MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff as he asked for evidence.


NBC’s Jacob Soboroff chases down Trump campaign officials Ric Grenell and Matt Schlapp, pressing them for evidence of their claims of fraud in Nevada.
They provide none and pile into a van: pic.twitter.com/tZlFDDQSQT
— The Recount (@therecount) November 5, 2020

‘Fundamentally Undermining Faith In Democracy’

The rapid transition back to in-the-muck, norm-defying, alternate-reality-crafting, Trumpworld politics for Grenell is unprecedented for a former director of national intelligence, even for someone in a short-lived “acting” position.

But this is the sort of work that’s marked his long career in public life: the sharp-elbowed press person, waging rhetorical war against his clients’ enemies. Now, for Trump, those enemies are elections officials.

“I think he’s fundamentally undermining faith in democracy and our institutions, and he’s doing so in order to assuage, and keep in good graces with, President Trump,” said Mark Groombridge, who worked with Grenell at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during the Bush administration.

Since hopping on the Trump train, the former friend said, Grenell has grown more acerbic.

“He’ll yell at people for very silly things,” he said. “ If you look at his Twitter feed now, it’s a constant rant on the mainstream media.”

Grenell’s latest kick has focused on Clark Country, Nevada’s largest, which he’s said “threw out 153k ballots” and is re-doing a county commission race because of “fraud.” If that race’s results can’t be trusted, he asserted Wednesday, “how are they so certain that that fraud didn’t bleed into all of the other races on the ballot?!”

The answer to that particular query is pretty straightforward, as a county spokesperson explained to Grenell on Twitter: There was a 10-vote difference in that county race and 139 discrepancies in total in the commission district. Biden won the Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, but the Trump campaign is still suing for all of Nevada’s electors.


Not accurate. We have referred cases of potential fraud to the state. We take such matters seriously. Today, the @ClarkCountyNV Commission opted to hold a special election in 1 race where there was a 10-vote difference & more than 10 discrepancies. It's not a question of fraud
— Erik Pappa (@epappa) November 17, 2020


‘Washington, D.C. Phony!’

Even as acting DNI, Grenell played politics with the job. A few days before the Senate confirmed his replacement, Grenell declassified the names of Obama officials involved in the “unmasking” of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — a gift to the right-wing fever swamps.

John Sipher, who spent decades in the CIA Clandestine Service, called Grenell’s actions “a threat to our national security in the short run, and to the credibility and professionalism of our non-partisan national security structures in the long run.”

But since leaving government, he’s dug his trench in Trump’s war on the election, whiffing on some basic facts along the way.

On Nov. 1, for example, Grenell posted a photo of Joe Biden on a plane without a mask, calling Biden a “Washington, D.C. phony!” for his hypocrisy. The photo, turns out, was taken in 2019.Screenshot/archive.is

Ten days later, Grenell was duped by The Nation’s Ken Klippenstein into sending Veteran’s Day wishes to Bill Calley, the infamous war criminal who carried out the Mỹ Lai massacre.


Happy Veterans Day! pic.twitter.com/cotDkDUGs6

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) November 11, 2020



Fox News first reported in August that Grenell had been hired as a senior adviser to the Republican Party. FEC records show Grenell was paid a $45,000 for “management consulting” by the RNC in July and August.
‘He’s A Right-Wing Troll’

The RNC hiring news came the day after the Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP LGBT group, published a video in which Grenell called Trump “the most pro-gay president in American history.”

“My great honor!!!” Trump responded.


My great honor!!! https://t.co/kh2a5yumef

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2020



The following week, in a strange twist of fate, Grenell took a job as an adviser at the American Center for Law and Justice, the right-wing religious group led by Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow and founded by the homophobe Pat Robertson. ACLJ helped draft Defense of Marriage Act and opposed courts’ expansions of gay rights for decades, the Advocate noted.

“I have admired their work for years,” Grenell said of the organization in a press release.

Around the same time, Grenell added fuel to the “Russian collusion hoax” flame he kindled as acting DNI. Speaking at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 26, Grenell said he’d seen the Democrats’ case for “Russian collusion” first-hand as acting director of national intelligence — “and what I saw made me sick to my stomach.”

“The awful thing is he’s not an intelligence official,” Sipher said. “He’s a right-wing troll that Trump stuck in the position to do his bidding. He had no qualifications or experience.”

At the time, when a second Trump term seemed possible, speculation flew about Grenell’s prospects. Axios reported after his RNC speech that aides expected Grenell to be at the “front of the line” for top jobs, including national security adviser or secretary of state.

Now, Groombridge figures Grenell will have a prominent role in whatever post-presidency Trump plans Trump is cooking up.

Grenell, he said, “has passed the most important test for Trump World, and that’s loyalty.”



Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office covering corruption, extremism and other beats. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.

USA

Black Women Led Us Through The Most Consequential Political Contest Of Our Lifetimes. 

It’s High Time We Thank Them.

Exit polls report that more than 90 percent of Black women cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, voting as a bloc.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 24: Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams waits to speak at a Democratic canvass kickoff as she campaigns for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at Bruce Trent Park on October 24,

By Martha S. Jones
November 6, 2020 11:31 a.m.

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

Today, I’m writing a thank you note to Black women. America, get out your pens and do the same.

It’s still before dawn here and I’m awake like so many of us watching the returns trickle in from Georgia. As I write, the Biden-Harris ticket has taken the lead there, by a slim but likely decisive 917 votes. It will be many more hours and perhaps days or weeks before this contest is settled, but the story for me has already been written.

The story of the 2020 election is one about the Black women whom I have dubbed the “Vanguard,” women who have led us through the most fraught yet consequential political contest of our lifetimes; women who have given this country its best shot at pulling back from a deeper plunge into racism, misogyny, xenophobia, authoritarianism and a fatal disregard for basic public health.

Don’t let the pundits distract you from the numbers. As Democrats eke out slim victories in new battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, Black women have made all the difference. Exit polls report that more than 90 percent of Black women cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, voting as a bloc. Their nearest rivals in 2020 are Black men, 80 percent of whom supported the Democratic ticket, making Black women’s impact unparalleled.

Getting voters to the polls requires enthusiasm. It happened this fall when a bus emblazoned with “Black Voters Matter” pulled into American cities with LaTosha Brown on board. What followed in parks and parking lots were lessons in the nuts and bolts of casting ballots for communities facing a dual challenge at the polls: voter suppression and coronavirus safeguards. Still, Brown also insisted upon joy — moments of song and dance — that reminded Black Americans that the power of the vote can also be a balm, especially in troubled times.

Americans encountered Black women on the stump, including a record-shattering 130 running for seats in Congress. In Missouri, minister, health care worker and veteran organizer of the 2014 Ferguson uprisings, Cori Bush, ran for the second time, aiming to represent her state’s 1st congressional district. In Atlanta, Georgia, Democrat Nikemia Williams vied with Republican Angela Stanton-King for the House seat left vacant by the late John Lewis. In Massachusetts, the incumbent Ayanna Pressley looked to return to Congress. Together, these women aimed to exercise outsized influence in Washington.

It would be a mistake to overlook the women behind the scenes. Among critical strategists, communicators, and surrogates, Black women were there. Karine Jean-Pierre gave up her seat as a television commentator to serve as chief of staff for the Democrat’s veep candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). After working as press secretary for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and as a CNN commentator, Symone Sanders signed on as a senior advisor to Joe Biden. Collectively, nearly 20 Black women leaders brought hope, skill, joy — and a fierce commitment to change — to the Biden-Harris campaign.

Senator Harris, poised as she is to assume the vice presidency, embodies the force that Black women have become in American politics. She arrived not as a singular or token candidate, but as one among six formidable Black women who vied for the spot as Joe Biden’s running mate. She endured hackneyed barbs that accused her of being too aggressive and too ambitious. She also marked the landscape with Black women’s culture: the power of the Divine Nine, how to deploy the right side-eye, and rocking Chucks and Tims on the tarmac. Senator Harris taught lessons in Black women’s political history, explaining how she stands on the shoulders of Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer and Constance Baker Motley. (And if you don’t know who they are, it’s time to do your homework!)
"
Abrams has taught us how politics is done when done well. "

This morning, however, the morning in which voters from the state of Georgia appear to have given the Biden-Harris ticket the edge it needs to win this contest, belongs to Stacey Abrams. Abrams has taught us how politics is done when done well. After years spent building her acumen and commitments, in 2018 Abrams ran for the governorship of Georgia only to have that seat stolen from her by unchecked voter suppression. Abrams did not concede, nor did she go home. Instead, she pivoted, founding Fair Fight and recommitting to ensuring the voting rights of all Georgians and all Americans. It is Abrams’ vision and her grit that is being made manifest this morning as news stations narrate the tallies that are trickling out from the metro-Atlanta area. Abrams may have been beaten three years ago by Brian Kemp, but she has netted a stunning victory this morning, turning Georgia blue and perhaps Donald Trump out of the White House.

It’s not too early to say thank you to Abrams and to all the Black women who have led us through this troubled election season. It is a regrettable burden, saving a nation from its worst self. Black women have borne that weight for two centuries, challenging this country to jettison its most costly sins including slavery, Jim Crow, and the denial of human rights. They have paid with their health and well-being. Black women have had their lives taken in this ongoing confrontation with injustice. It is a role no American should envy.

Whatever the outcome of the 2020 presidential contest, Black women will continue to do this work. Today might just be the right day to say thank you.


Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America and All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture 1830-1900.

RED FEAR

Why do Vietnamese Americans support Donald Trump? And why not?

Among Asian Americans, Vietnamese Americans stand out in one regard: Their support for Donald Trump. But younger critics are trying to change their minds.



The Eden Center in Falls Church, Virginia, is a typical American strip mall, with more than 120 tiny restaurants, beauty salons and electronic retailers. Most of the stores in this mall are run by Vietnamese Americans. In the middle of the parking lot hang two gigantic flags — one American, and the other of South Vietnam, a country that ceased to exist with the fall of Saigon in 1975.

The political views of many Vietnamese Americans are shaped by the loss of their country. After communist forces from North Vietnam captured the southern region, many with close ties to the South Vietnam government feared reprisal and fled to the US.

At present, more than 2 million Vietnamese Americans live in the US, and approximately 1.3 million are eligible to vote in the country. Many have been loyal Republican supporters for decades and believe the party is a stronger force against communism. Even after President Donald Trump's defeat in the November 3 election, they have not lost faith in him.

Well received: Trump's nickname for the pandemic – 'Kung Flu'

"We love him," Amy, who owns a hair salon in the Eden Center, told DW. "You won't find many people here who have a different opinion." James, who has been selling karaoke equipment and shampoos in the strip mall for 18 years, supports Trump's hawkish stance on China. Ryan and Tammy, playing cards in a coffee shop, approve his efforts to stop illegal immigration.

Dream who runs another hair salon likes Trump's approach as a businessman. "I work hard," she told DW. "I pay taxes. I don't want them to be for unemployed people." A huge TV screen is hanging on the wall of her salon. She used to stream Fox News on it. After the broadcaster was among the first to call the state of Arizona for Joe Biden, she had to change the channel for good.

In the middle of the parking lot at the Eden Center in Falls Church, Virginia, hang two gigantic flags — one American, and the other of South Vietnam, a country that ceased to exist with the fall of Saigon in 1975

The 2020 Asian American Voter Survey showed that Vietnamese Americans are the only major Asian ethnic group that preferred Trump over Joe Biden, who is now the country's president-elect. According to the survey, 48% of them favored Trump, while 36% backed Biden.

Read more: After Trump's loss: What does the future hold for Republicans?

Michael, who was a teenager in 1975, told DW that Biden as a senator was critical of Vietnamese refugees — a misconception shared by many Vietnamese Americans. Joe Biden did not succeed to sort it out by addressing it in an op-ed in a popular Vietnamese-language newspaper.

In the Eden Center, many Vietnamese are convinced that Trump did not get enough time in the Oval Office to accomplish more. This is why they voted for him, again.

Most prominent: The fear of socialism

Matt Truong helped organize Trump rallies in Virginia and registered new voters at the Eden Center. He was 12 years old when he fled Vietnam alone, with only two pairs of clothes. After coming to the US, he finished his master's degree in electrical engineering and became an IT director. "How many countries do you know, who would allow a boy like me to do this?" he asks.

Read more: Joe Biden is hardly the free trader Asia is hoping for

His decisive moment to become a political activist came when Barack Obama addressed the nation in his 2012 election campaign. He said: "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Obama's opponents exploited his quote as an attack on business and entrepreneurs. Truong felt reminded of the government's overarching role in Vietnam after 1975. For him, Obama's words were scary.

Truong is convinced that everyone should have equal opportunities but that equal outcome should not be guaranteed. "This is freedom," he told DW. He is convinced, that Democratic policies on healthcare, welfare and taxes endanger the individual's freedom. Donald Trump, who lowers taxes and regulations, represents for him a successful businessman, someone who shows power and protects the right to keep and bear arms – a warrior of freedom.

For Truong, Trump represents the idea of a successful businessman

Change in sight? Growing intergenerational divide

But younger Vietnamese Americans are gradually moving away from their parents' political views.

"It saddens me deeply that many Vietnamese Americans support Donald Trump to such a degree," Viet Thanh Nguyen, a novelist and professor of English and American Studies at the University of Southern California, told DW. His feelings about Donald Trump are clear: "I think he is incompetent and dangerous both to himself and to the rest of the country and by extension, to the rest of the world as well."

Nguyen fled Vietnam with his parents in 1975. He is convinced that many Vietnamese support Trump because of their experience with an authoritarian system. "The Vietnamese American culture is traditional. It is hierarchical. We are supposed to listen to an older generation and to our elders. We are supposed to obey. I think that Vietnamese Americans are already sort of culturally tending towards this kind of top down personality and political structure and set of feelings. And Donald Trump just exacerbates all of that."

The Eden Center offers a wide variety of Vietnamese cuisine

New beat: From homeland to domestic issues

Nguyen says younger Vietnamese Americans experience racism in the US. "They are much more likely to be exposed to people who are not Vietnamese, Asian or white. They have friends across the spectrum. And they are much more sensitive to the issues of racism than a first generation Vietnamese immigrant or refugee. So when Donald Trump says certain kinds of things about crime, black people, immigration or Mexicans, the younger Vietnamese American generation will hear these things and say: That's racist!"

Nguyen says the older generation drew much of the information from Vietnamese language sources. For the November 3 election, young Vietnamese started a bilingual website with source-verified articles.

Nguyen's novel The Sympathizer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016, shows a communist spy as protagonist. He said that many Vietnamese Americans refused to read his book.

"They wanted nothing to do with communism, even though the point of the novel was not to endorse communism, but to talk about the necessity to sympathize, to be empathetic and try to reconcile." Things changed, when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel in 2016. The symbolic power of the prize meant a lot: People were proud of him, even though they did not read the book. "Everything was OK," he says. His recent political bluntness though reversed the approval: "And we're back to where we began."

EUROPE
Denmark: Consent law leaves sex workers out in the cold

The Danish government plans to reform the current sexual violence law and make the question of consent rather than violence the basis for determining rape. However, a number of issues remain unresolved 

LIKE THIS STATMENT MAKES NO SENSE

IT MUST BE LOST IN TRANSLATION

There was broad support for the draft bill in a first parliamentary hearing last Friday. "It is time for the right to sexual self-determination to become the focal point when it comes to rape. As a society, we must provide rape victims with the legal protection to which they are entitled," wrote Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup in his note to Parliament.

Denmark traditionally scores high in gender equality rankings, however sexual violence is widespread and the number of reported cases is low.

In 2018, the Crime Prevention Council estimated that more than 6,700 women were victims of such acts, but only about 1,300 cases were reported to the police, resulting in 69 convictions.

Read more: Sweden says rape is rape, regardless of force or threats

"When talking to survivors, they told us that that the main reason why they didn't report the rape was because of the legal definition," said Helle Jacobsen, a program leader on gender issues with Amnesty International. Since 2017, the NGO, along with local activists' groups and survivors, has been working on raising awareness and pushing for a cultural change.

Women's rights groups are convinced that the new consent law will lead to greater respect for sexual self-determination and to fewer abuses: "This is an historical moment for Denmark, because consent law is a big win for equality," said Jacobson.

Equality, but not for all women

The flip side of the coin is that not all women will benefit from the new law.

Sex work in Denmark was decriminalized in 1999, however being a sex worker is not legally considered a profession. These women remain stigmatized and many sex workers are left to struggle without job protection and health coverage.

"[Buying and selling sex has been decriminalized], but what is illegal is to profit off of sex work as a third party," said Polina Bachlakova, a volunteer with the NGO The Red Van. "Anybody that could have anything to do with sex workers could be potentially persecuted. This is why, for example, many landlords are hesitant to rent out apartments to sex workers."

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the situation for sex workers has become even more difficult, not least because of fewer customers: "I risked being thrown out by my landlord because I could not pay," said a Nigerian girl working in Istedgade, the red-light street of the Vesterbro neighborhood, who wished to remain anonymous. "He let me stay because he wouldn't have been able to find someone else to rent the place."
Between migration and hospitalization

Most of the sex workers who offer their services on the streets or in their apartments are undocumented migrants from Nigeria, Eastern Europe and Thailand.

To help during the coronavirus pandemic, a health package was introduced to compensate for a loss of income. However, many women were not eligible for the aid package, such as the Nigerian sex worker, and had to save elsewhere. "I did not eat for a couple of days," she said.

Meanwhile, the government's hard-line policies on immigration have exacerbated the situation. "The political rhetoric is that it's a crime to come here without documents and whatever violence or inconvenience you have because of that, it is your own fault," said Malene Muusholm, an outreach coordinator with the NGO Reden International, which provides counseling for potential victims of human trafficking.

Sex workers are becoming increasingly stigmatized in Denmark. This sign reads: 'Sex work is also work'

Migrant sex workers who are at the whims of their landlords and pimps and are desperate to send money home to their families face increasingly dire situations. "We are not criminals. This is not something we enjoy doing, but we have to because we need to do something for a living," the Nigerian sex worker explained. If a customer becomes violent, they often refuse to seek medical treatment for fear that hospital staff will report them to the authorities.

Read more: Denmark's young women fight the government's ghetto list

The risk of being deported from Denmark and the fear of not earning enough money are the girls' main concerns. "In the past 10 years, we registered two reported rapes. They were victims of human trafficking and hence they had legal ground to stay in the country, but there could be way more," said Muusholm. "Many sex workers from Eastern Europe tell us they're beaten up by their partners or pimps or have to deal with violent customers. They let us know maybe a year or six months later as they do not think it is important."
The specter of stigmatization

"During the lockdown we noticed that customers have been getting more agitated and more violent," said Bachlakova. The Red Van's role is to provide a place where sex workers are provided with basic care and help with preventive measures. "We drive the van to Vesterbro, it is used between 15 and 30 times per night and we distribute condoms," she continued. "No matter what a person's life situation is, they are worthy of having a dignified place to work and access to some basic human rights and support."

The government's hard-line anti-migrant policy has exacerbated the situation for many undocumented workers

The fear of stigmatization and labeling is the main reason why women don't report cases of rape: "Survivors expressed fears of being judged by their peers as well as by the authorities," said Amnesty's Jacobsen. Their report shows that almost 50% of rape survivors who come into contact with the police say they are not satisfied with how the police treated them.

Many Danish women also feel that the legal system has failed them. "In 2019 there were only 79 convictions. That really decreases the level of trust in the legal system, because women feel there's a really small probability that the report will go forward," said Jacobsen.

Reden International wants to take a more holistic approach in terms of further reforms of the law on sexual violence. "We would like a law where anyone regardless of documents should be able to report violence and rape against them. We would like to have a society where perpetrators are caught, instead of people not being able to report to the police," said Muusholm.

Germany: TV viewers vote in favor of euthanasia during movie 'God'

The film "God," aired by German broadcaster ARD, poses questions on assisted suicide for a 78-year-old man who has lost the will to live. Over 70% of viewers said doctors should give him access to a lethal drug.


A majority of German television viewers voted in favor of assisted suicide for a movie protagonist, according to a poll issued by the Germany's public broadcaster ARD during the airing of the film God.

The movie focuses on a fictional ethics council while it is mulling over the desire of the main character, 78-year-old Richard Gärtner, to die. Gärtner, portrayed by veteran German actor Matthias Habich, argues he has lost the will to live due to the death of his wife.

Read more: Germany’s top court paves the way for assisted suicide

On Monday evening, viewers chimed in over whether a healthy person had the right to ask their doctor for access to a deadly medication. Just over 70% of viewers voted in favor of allowing euthanasia, while 29.2% were against offering access to the lethal drug. The movie was also shown in Switzerland, where around 68% also endorsed the right to euthanasia.
Moral dilemma for doctors

In the film, several parties representing a range of perspectives sat around a hearing to debate the issue. Those figures included the fictional character Gärtner, his lawyer, a doctor, a law professor and a bishop. The chairwoman of the ethics council also repeatedly addressed the audience in the film, urging them to consider the dilemma and vote.

Watch video 01:34 New Zealand votes to legalize euthanasia
Read more: New Zealanders vote to legalize euthanasia but not cannabis

The disputed question was not over which forms of euthanasia doctors may use, but rather, whether doctors have an obligation to meet a patient's wish of ending their own life, regardless of their age or health.

The film is based on the play Gott by Ferdinand von Schirach, which was shown in September in Berlin and Düsseldorf. The text poses several existential questions, including who a human life belongs to, and if the age of a person matters when they are choosing to end their life.

Read more:Dutch government backs euthanasia for under-12s

At the end of the movie, the ethics council doesn't give a definite moral stance and instead leaves the outcome open.

Germany overturns euthanasia ban

In February, Germany overturned a five-year-old ban on medically assisted suicide, again legalizing the procedure for terminally ill patients. The disputed law, which made "commercial promotion of assisted suicide" a criminal offense, had pushed several terminally ill people to go to Switzerland and the Netherlands to end their lives.

A similar film aired in October 2016, asking viewers the moral question of whether to shoot down a passenger plane to save others. At the time that the movie aired, almost 90% of viewers voted that the military should shoot down a passenger plane carrying 164 people, in order to save 70,000 innocent people in a soccer stadium.

Read more: Dutch euthanasia clinic sees jump in death assistance requests

The 2016 movie showed the court finding the fictional pilot not guilty in accordance with the audience wishes.

lc/dj (dpa, KNA)

CANADA

Indigenous man and granddaughter, 12, handcuffed after trying to open bank account

Maxwell Johnson, of the Heiltsuk Nation, launches two human rights complaints after arrest at Vancouver bank in December

The bank and Vancouver police have apologized for the incident. Johnson said: ‘It’s affected me quite a bit. It’s affected my motivation, my thought process, quite a bit of stuff.’ 

Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters


Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Tue 24 Nov 2020 


An Indigenous man in Canada has launched two human rights complaints after he and his 12-year old granddaughter were arrested and handcuffed as they tried to open a bank account.

Maxwell Johnson, a member of the Heiltsuk Nation, visited a Vancouver branch of the Bank of Montreal in December to open an account for his granddaughter Tori-Anne.

But bank staff did not believe the two were Indigenous after failing to verify the authenticity of their government-issued Indian status cards. Staff were also suspicious about the size of a deposit in Johnson’s account, prompting an employee to call the police.

In a transcript of the call to police, released by the Heiltsuk Nation, bank staff alleged the two were committing fraud, telling police the two had presented “fake” identifications. The employee also told the dispatcher that Johnson and his granddaughter were “South Asian”.

“It gets so tiring trying to prove who you are as a First Nations person,” Johnson told the Canadian Press.

Bank staff expressed concerns after numbers in Tori-Anne’s status card didn’t match a database and they saw a recent C$30,000 deposit in Johnson’s account – part of an Aboriginal rights settlement – even though Johnson presented bank staff with his status card, birth certificate and client card.

When police officers arrived, they put both Johnson and his granddaughter in handcuffs. According to a police report, the officers believed Tori-Anne was “16 or 17”, but removed the handcuffs after they realized she was 12.

Johnson has accused the Vancouver police department and the Bank of Montreal of racism in complaints at the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

“It’s affected me quite a bit,” said Johnson. “When this happened to us, my anxiety just went through the roof. I started counselling again. It’s affected my motivation, my thought process, quite a bit of stuff.”

The bank and Vancouver police have apologized for the incident. The bank has created an Indigenous advisory council and new training for staff. Vancouver police said they are reviewing current policy, but both organizations deny the incident that race was involved.

Members of the Heiltsuk Nation, however, say Johnson is owed justice.

“From the BMO manager deciding our members didn’t belong, to the 911 call to police, to the cuffing, detention and questioning of Max and his granddaughter about how they came to be at the bank, this was a clear case of racial profiling and systemic racism,” Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Nation, said in a statement.

“Max and his granddaughter deserve justice for the pain this incident caused, and BMO and the VPD must take steps to ensure this never happens again.”

Anger grows over use of 'brutal force' by French police dismantling refugee camp

Police officers filmed pulling up tents and leaving people thrown to ground


Kim Willsher in Paris Tue 24 Nov 2020 


Play Video
1:34 Clashes erupt as police break up makeshift refugee camp in Paris – video report


The French government is facing growing anger over the “shocking” use of excessive force by police dismantling a protest refugee camp in central Paris.

Officers were filmed tipping migrants out of tents, slamming riot shields into individuals, chasing people down streets and attacking refugees, journalists and others with truncheons and teargas.

The criticism comes as the government is already under fire for a new law that would give police greater powers and is viewed as a threat to the freedom of the press.

The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, also expressed outrage at what she called police violence and said the breaking up of the camp was a “denial of France’s humanitarian duty”

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Police and gendarmes clear the camp from the square in central Paris. 

Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA

“Present at the time, elected representatives of Paris city and of parliament reported, once again, the use of disproportionate and brutal force, confirmed by the many photographs that were taken. Unfortunately, this unacceptable episode is not without precedent,” Hidalgo wrote in a letter to the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin.


Darmanin, who described the photos and videos of the police operation as shocking, said he had received a report from police chiefs and would ask the IGPN – the force’s internal disciplinary body – to look into “several unacceptable” incidents.

Darmanin said he expected the inquiry to report back within 48 hours and promised to make the conclusions public.

The Paris public prosecutor announced it had opened an official investigation for “violence by a person in public authority” following a complaint by journalist Rémy Buisine that he was assaulted several times by one officer as he covered the protest on Monday evening.

It followed the prosecutor opening a similar investigation after seeing a video of a police officer deliberately tripping up a migrant as he ran from the police.

Police and gendarmes were sent in late on Monday to clear a camp from the square in central Paris. About 450 refugees had set up tents at the request of the charity Utopia 56 to protest against the forcible clearing of migrants from makeshift shelters in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis. While some of those evacuated were provided with temporary accommodation, scores of migrants were left wandering the streets.

Before the protest camp was set up at Place de la République, Utopia 56 had issued a statement demanding the authorities provide shelter for the estimated 3,000 homeless migrants sleeping rough in and around the French capital.

As night fell, police and gendarmes arrived to clear the square. Officers were filmed pulling up tents and throwing people to the ground.

 The police remove tents to clear the Place de la République. 

Photograph: Michael Bunel/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock


Lawyers, MPs and city councillors in Place de la République tried to calm tensions and stop the police action, without success.

Police used teargas and crowd dispersal grenades to break up groups of people, and journalists said they were deliberately targeted.

The police operation came at a delicate time for the French government, which is facing widespread criticism for a new law that would make it illegal to disseminate images of police officers in certain circumstances. Darmanin has vigorously defended Article 24 of the law, which would require media to obscure the faces of police officers, as “protecting those who protect us”.

The law, seen by many as a direct threat to press freedom, also authorises police use of drones and facial recognition technology. It has passed its first reading in the Assemblée Nationale.

The United Nations human rights council has raised concerns about the law, while France’s own independent defender of rights, Claire Hédon, has expressed her reservations, saying she is especially concerned about the “envisaged restrictions concerning the publishing of images of police agents while on duty” and guarantees that these would not threaten “either the freedom of the press or the right to information”.

Officers were filmed pulling up tents. 

Photograph: Greg Ozan/AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images

A statement from the police prefecture said the organisation of ad-hoc migrant camps in the city was “not acceptable” and that its officers had “therefore set about the immediate dispersion of this illegal occupation of a public space”.

Ian Brossat, a deputy Paris mayor in charge of housing, who was present, condemned the police operation and said the only solution was for the state to find housing for the homeless

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 A statement from the police prefecture said the organisation of ad-hoc migrant camps in the city was ‘not acceptable’. 

Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA

“This problem is not one for the police to sort out. To think that we resolve social problems with truncheons is totally crazy,” Brossat said. “As long as there is no available housing, there will be people living outside, and as long as there are people living outside, there will be camps. To think we can solve that with the police harassment we have seen this evening is pathetic.”

Éric Coquerel, an MP for the leftwing La France Insoumise party, who was present at Place de la République on Monday, told FranceInfo: “What we saw was repression that is sadly not that unusual but was completely disproportionate. Was there a risk to the police officers? No. Was there a risk of damage to property? No. Instead there was a repression that fell, I remind you, on people who are only demanding that their human rights are respected, on peaceful activists, on journalists and elected representatives without discrimination.”

After the death of the French delivery driver Cédric Chouviat, who said “I’m suffocating” several times as police held him to the ground – an echo of George Floyd’s death in the US – Darmanin caused an outcry in July when he told the Assemblée Nationale: “When I hear the words ‘police violence’ personally, it’s me who suffocates.”

He added: “The police certainly exercise a violence, but it’s legitimate violence … after that, it has to be done in a proportional manner, within a framework. That a few people do so outside of the professional rules, punishment should be immediate. But it’s normal that the police and gendarmes are armed, intervene with force, so that the force remains with the republic and is not subject to the law of gangs or communities.”

Asked about police violence last year in the wake of the gilets jaunes protests, against which law and order forces used teargas, pepper spray, water cannon and rubber bullets, the president, Emmanuel Macron, responded: “Don’t talk of ‘repression’ or ‘police violence’; these words are unacceptable in a legal state.”