Online conspiracies fuel Dutch Covid unrest


Some people opposed to the Dutch government's anti-Covid measures support conspiracy theories circulating online (AFP/Jeroen JUMELET)

Romain FONSEGRIVES
Sat, November 27, 2021, 11:24 PM·3 min read

When Covid riots rocked the Netherlands for the second time in a year, Ricardo Pronk was there to livestream it all to his followers on social media.

The 50-year-old anti-vaccination activist administered a Facebook group with 10,000 followers, which had shared a call for a demonstration in the port city of Rotterdam on November 19 that later turned violent.

The group, which was recently removed by Facebook, is part of a network of conspiracy theorists and Covid-deniers on social media reaching as far as the Dutch parliament, whose influence has sparked concern among experts.

For Pronk, vaccines "are weapons made to kill". He also embraces the QAnon conspiracy group's narrative about "satanic child abuse" by a "globalised elite".

But the unemployed former computer technician, who had chosen a banner for the group with a lion against a backdrop of flames, rejects any responsibility for the unrest in the Netherlands.

Five people were shot when police opened fire in Rotterdam, and riots spread around the country for the next three days.

"Violence is not the best way, of course not. The best is to do things peacefully," he told AFP.

- Surge in disinformation -

Both in January, during the Netherlands' worst riots in 40 years over a curfew, and last week's unrest, social media were used not only to organise protests, but also to spread disinformation.

"What is unique about the Netherlands is that we have repeatedly seen Covid protests turn into riots just this year," said Ciaran O'Connor, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, which specialises in countering radicalism.

While Prime Minister Mark Rutte has branded rioters "scum" and "idiots", O'Connor pointed the finger at the epidemic of conspiracy theories on the internet in the Netherlands.

On Facebook alone, the top 125 groups disseminating false information about Covid-19 saw a 63-percent rise in followers in six months, comprising 789,000 members in this country of 17 million people, an ISD study said.

Telegram groups during last week's riots were filled with plans for demonstrations, calls for riots, along with messages targeting Muslims, Jews and gay people.

The social media groups "usually don't call for violence but they may accept it as part of the solution", said O'Connor.

"The anti-vax and anti-Covid movement is creating a space allowing for other forces to engage and express their frustration in a violent way."

- 'Dutch Trump' -

Dutch authorities blamed the riots on a variety of culprits, ranging from frustrated youths to football hooligans and genuine coronavirus protesters -- but they also underlined the importance of social media in organising them.

In June, Dutch intelligence services said they feared that anti-government demonstrations "are a breeding ground for extremism".

In a country where 85 percent of adults are vaccinated, the anti-vax movement "is a clear minority group", said Claes de Vreese, professor of political communication at the University of Amsterdam.

But unlike in neighbouring countries, "their voice has been strongly amplified by the fact that they have found a political ally in parliament", namely the Forum for Democracy party.

The leader of this far-right group, Thierry Baudet, has largely dropped his anti-immigration rhetoric to adopt a strong anti-vaccination stance and to promote conspiracy theories.

Baudet has been dubbed the Dutch Donald Trump and one of his tweets was labelled misleading by Twitter ahead of elections in March, a first for a Dutch politician.

One of the party's lawmakers was reprimanded recently for threatening a fellow MP in parliament with a "tribunal" if the Forum came to power, because of his support for the government's policies.

O'Connor at ISD said that some material was slipping under the radar of the social media giants because it was in Dutch.

"Compared to the US or the UK, Twitter or Facebook don't have the same focus on gatekeeping their platforms against people who use them irresponsibly," he said.

rfo/dk/jhe/jj/spm

CAN CHINA BUILD CANADA ONE TOO

Laos hopes for economic boost from Chinese-built railway
AFP

© Laurence CHU Graphic on Laos-China Railway, set to open on December 3.

A new $6 billion Chinese-built railway line opens in Laos this week, bringing hopes of an economic boost to the reclusive nation, but experts are questioning the benefits of a project that has seen thousands of farmers evicted from their land.

The 414-kilometre (260-mile) route, due to open on December 3, took five years to construct under China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which funds infrastructure projects aimed at increasing Beijing's clout globally.

Struggling strawberry farmer Anouphon Phomhacsar is hoping the new railway will get his business back on track.

His farm usually produces up to two tonnes of the red heart-shaped fruits a year, but the pandemic has hit the 2021 harvest hard.

It currently takes Phomhacsar three to four hours to send his strawberries to Vientiane by road, but he hopes the new railway will cut this delivery time in half.© STR The railway will connect the Laos capital Vientiane with the Chinese city of Kunming

And he says it will also be easier for tourists to travel to camp under the stars and pick berries.

"In the future, foreign tourists coming to the farm could be in the tens of thousands," he told AFP.

The train route will connect the Chinese city of Kunming to the Laos capital, with grand plans for high-speed rail to ultimately snake down through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore.

Infrastructure-poor Laos, a reclusive communist-run country of 7.2 million people, previously had only four kilometres of railway tracks.

But now sleek red, blue and white bullet trains will speed along the new line at up to 160 kmh (100 mph), passing through 75 tunnels and across 167 bridges, stopping at 10 passenger stations.

© STR The 414-kilometre route, due to open on December 3, took five years to construct under China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative

- Economic boost -

Despite registering only dozens of Covid cases until April, Laos' economy took a pandemic battering -- economic growth declined to 0.4 percent in 2020, the lowest level in three decades, according to the World Bank.

Hopes for a 2021 rebound were dashed -- Laos locked down as it clocked up roughly 70,000 infections in the past eight months.

And while the railway could boost tourism, freight and agriculture, according to a World Bank report, the government needs to undertake substantial reforms, including improving border clearance processes

.

© STR While the railway could boost tourism, freight and agriculture, according to a World Bank report, the government needs to undertake substantial reforms, including improving border clearance processes

"The new railway is a major investment that has the potential to stimulate the Lao economy and allow the country to take advantage of its geographical position at the heart of mainland Southeast Asia," Sombath Southivong, a senior World Bank infrastructure specialist, told AFP.

© STR Laos' tourist industry is hoping for a boost from the railway, which will drastically cut travel times

The tourism industry is desperate for a pick-me-up after the pandemic caused an 80 percent downturn in international traveller numbers in 2020 -- 4.7 million foreign tourists visited the previous year.



Pre-pandemic young nomads crammed on to buses at Vientiane for the four-hour ride to adventure capital Vang Vieng -- a journey that will now take about an hour by train.

The town, which has a former CIA airstrip, was notorious for backpackers behaving badly at jungle parties before it re-branded as a eco-tourism destination.

But the kayaks, river rafts, ziplines and hot air balloons have been empty of late.

Inthira -- a boutique hotel nestled on the banks of the Nam Song River -- shifted from a full occupancy rate to only a trickle of domestic travellers on weekends, says general manager Oscar Tality.

Tality hopes the railway and reduced travel times will give the industry a shot in the arm.

"Along the way people will see magnificent views of the mountains and will cross over bridges and tunnels. It will be a wonderful trip for those on the train," Tality told AFP.

- White elephant? -

Despite local optimism, some Laos watchers are concerned about the long-term viability of the project.

"The issue for Laos though is whether their economy ... their private sector is positioned to take advantage of this transport system," Australian National University lecturer Greg Raymond told AFP.

Two-thirds of Laotians live in rural villages toiling on the land, and the minimum wage is around $116 a month -- a reported $13.30 train fare from Vientiane to the border town of Boten has attracted some social media criticism for being too expensive.

"When you look at the juxtaposition of this super modern railway and the countryside it is passing through – it's very stark. One does wonder whether the Laos people will be the beneficiaries?" Raymond said.

The project has already left some 4,400 farmers and villagers reeling after they were forced to surrender land.

Many have faced long delays receiving compensation or have been paid inadequate amounts, the Lao Movement for Human Rights said in a report.

"The compensation rate is very low. If you are asking villagers to move, how can they afford new land?" Laotian MP Vilay Phommixay told parliament in June last year.

But for others it's all aboard.

"There's great anticipation... there's a source of pride for the Laos people," Tality said.

ton-lpm/pdw/dan

Rare hunting scene raises questions over polar bear diet

Oslo (AFP) – A polar bear chases a reindeer into the water, drags it ashore and devours it, in a striking scene caught on film for the first time.

With sea ice melting, the king of the Arctic may be changing its diet.

The dramatic spectacle played out in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on August 21, 2020 — in summer, the sea ice retreats and takes with it the seals that make up the polar bear’s main source of food.

A research team from a nearby Polish scientific station watched it happen and caught for the first time on camera a polar bear hunting a reindeer.

The video shows a young female chasing a male reindeer into the icy waters, catching and drowning it, then pulling it on shore and making a meal of it.

“The whole situation was so amazing that it was like watching a documentary,” said Izabela Kulaszewicz, a biologist at the University of Gdansk.

“You could almost hear the voice of a narrator in the background saying that you absolutely have to watch this event because we will most likely never see anything like it again,” she told AFP.

Down to ‘modern media’ ?

The scene was so unusual that she co-wrote Polar Biology with two other researchers.

In it, they argued that the incident was one of a series of observations that suggest polar bears are increasingly preying on terrestrial animals to make up for their limited access to seals.

In Svalbard, just over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the North Pole and where signposts warn of the danger of polar bears, some 300 sedentary bears live alongside around 20,000 reindeer.

In Svalbard, just over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the North Pole, some 300 sedentary polar bears live alongside around 20,000 reindeer Olivier MORIN AFP/File

According to the article’s authors, there are indications that polar bears have been hunting reindeer more frequently in recent decades.

They say that two factors are at play: the retreating sea ice is stranding the bears on land for longer periods, and the number of reindeer has been steadily rising on Svalbard since a 1925 hunting ban.

Eating reindeer is therefore a matter of both necessity and opportunity for the furry white beast, they suggest.

However, other experts caution against reading too much into the incident.

“If polar bears were killing reindeer back in the 1950s and 60s, it would have been very rare to have been seen, as there were few people, few bears, and few reindeer” in Svalbard at the time, said Andrew Derocher, a professor at the University of Alberta.

“Now, with modern media, everyone has a camera, social media and the ‘news’ spreads fast,” he added.

– Opportunistic hunters –

While high-fat, high-calorie ringed and bearded seals make up their main diet, polar bears are also known to feed on eggs, birds, rodents and even dolphins.

Weighing between 70 and 90 kilos (155 and 200 pounds) as adults, reindeer would be a good complement for the bears during the lean summer period, which has grown longer due to global warming.

Two days after the Polish researchers filmed their video, the same polar bear was observed devouring another reindeer carcass.

“Reindeer can be important, at least for some polar bears when they have to stay on land for extended periods,” said Norwegian expert Jon Aars, co-author of the article.

Experts note, however, that the new diet would not make a difference in bolstering the animal’s population size.

“While an occasional successful predation attempt on reindeer may be good in the short-term for an individual bear or two (and the media), I think there is little significance at the population level for either polar bears or reindeer,” said professor Ian Stirling, of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Polar bears are strong swimmers — their Latin name is Ursus maritimus — but they can’t keep up with reindeer on long distances on land.

Elsewhere in the Arctic, caribou — as North American reindeer are known — are not as vulnerable as their Svalbard cousins, whose wariness seems to have dissipated since the hunting ban.

Caribou “are also larger animals and have co-evolved with land predators, namely wolves, wolverines, and barren ground grizzlies, making them more challenging prey,” said Geoff York, of conservation organisation Polar Bears International.

Key facts about the polar bear, apex predator of the Arctic Jonathan WALTER AFP

The future looks especially ominous for Svalbard’s polar bears.

“There’s not enough ice to sustain a polar bear population,” Derocher said.

“I suspect that given the trend, the Barents Sea polar bear population — which includes Svalbard — is one that will disappear this century.”

© 2021 AFP

AMLO Throws Mexican Peso Caution to Wind with Banxico U-Turn

Max de Haldevang and Maya Averbuch
Fri, November 26, 2021, 



(Bloomberg) -- Even while railing daily against big companies and business elites, Mexico’s president has for three years looked askance at policies that might upset financial markets or hurt his beloved peso.

Until this week.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blindsided most onlookers Wednesday by saying he had reconsidered his decision to nominate former finance minister Arturo Herrera to head the central bank. Instead, he put forward Victoria Rodriguez Ceja, a little-known public spending chief with a long career in government finance jobs but little experience or academic background in monetary policy.

The markets took umbrage, knocking down the peso as much as 1.8% right after the surprise announcement and making it the worst performing emerging market currency in the past five days apart from Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared “an economic war of independence” against higher interest rates, forcing the hand of the central bank.

Analysts worried aloud that by helming the bank with Rodriguez, Lopez Obrador might be also taking a grab at the independence of one of the few Mexican institutions that has remained isolated from his controlling political clout.

“We’re in a pessimistic situation,” said Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco BASE. “One fears a possible Erdoganization of monetary policy in Mexico.”

AMLO, as the president is commonly known, promptly dismissed such fears, saying twice that he won’t meddle with Banxico’s independence. Instead, he argued that he wanted to promote a woman who has been central to carrying out his sweeping austerity. In a statement to Bloomberg News, presidential spokesman Jesus Ramirez said the government will respect the central bank’s autonomy and “doesn’t plan to change its mandate or structure.”

Still, the move, which will put Rodriguez at the head of the bank until the end of 2027, hints at a growing tendency to throw aside caution in a mission to make a lasting mark on all aspects of Mexican public life. Even the peso, which the president often points to as a measure of his success, doesn’t seem to be holding him back.

The Mexican currency lost 0.7% and headed to its lowest close since October 2020 on Friday amid global risk aversion on concerns about a new Covid-19 variant.

Lopez Obrador, who has centralized government tightly around the presidency, has recently been pushing a nationalist electricity bill that would tear up private contracts and gut independent regulators even against the pleas of industry groups and the U.S. government.

The president had already raised eyebrows earlier this year by saying he wanted someone focused on the “moral economy” to run Banxico, as the central bank is known, which has been seen as a bulwark of stability for Mexican markets for three decades. He then unsuccessfully sought to pay down public debt with a central bank reserve windfall from the International Monetary Fund.

“Former Finance Minister Arturo Herrera had a profile more in favor of the free market, and that gave a great deal of tranquility to the private sector,” said Janneth Quiroz Zamora, vice president of economic analysis at Monex. “One of the big fears with this decision is that the president will interfere with the decisions of the central bank.”

Economists have begun desperately searching for comments made by Rodriguez on monetary policy -- any sign at all about where she stands on inflation -- and come up empty handed, in part because her expertise is in public finance.

“Her trajectory is atypical. All of the people who have led the board since the 1960s formed part of the central bank, including the current governor, Alejandro Diaz de Leon,” said Gustavo Del Angel Mobarak, an economic historian at Mexico City-based CIDE, a research center. “It’s not strange that the president would pick someone who is loyal to him, but it is strange that she doesn’t have the right experience to lead a major central bank.”

According to her resume distributed by the Finance Ministry, Rodriguez took classes toward a master’s degree in economy, but a ministry spokesman didn’t confirm if she finished the degree. While a master’s isn’t per se a requirement for the job, that’s uncommon for the leader of an institution that has prided itself on having staffers trained at elite U.S. universities.

Del Angel said she is known by people who have worked with her as being “competent” and “a workaholic.” Central bank Deputy Governor Gerardo Esquivel told Bloomberg she’s been an “effective and committed public servant since 2000.”

Mexico’s Finance Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment. In her only public comments since the nomination, Rodriguez said Wednesday she is committed to defending the central bank’s charter.

Unexpected Exit

Reading the tea leaves to understand what prompted Herrera’s sudden replacement is no easy task. While he also had never worked in monetary policy, as finance minister he spent the last two years meeting regularly with investors and attending the bank’s board meetings in a non-voting capacity. He was also seen as a loyal operator to a president who likes to concentrate all key decisions.

Whatever the reasons -- and business circles in Mexico are filled with gossip on the case -- Rodriguez will take over a bank facing extraordinary challenges if the government-controlled senate approves her nomination, as expected. Four successive interest rate hikes have failed to quell inflation, which hit a 20-year high of 7.1% in early November, suggesting Banxico will continue tightening.

When the pandemic hit, the bank played the unorthodox role of sole provider of stimulus for the Mexican economy, chopping rates aggressively while Lopez Obrador declined to dish out any significant government spending. Now, the nascent economic rebound has been halted, with a contraction in the last quarter, just as the bank has to tackle climbing prices

In place of a seasoned hand on the tiller, investors are left placing their faith in the employees that make up the institution.

“The solid staff in Banxico, and a board that has gained experience in the last three years, should appease some of the most important concerns,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. economist Gabriel Lozano wrote in a note.

(Updates with Friday’s peso move in ninth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

FREERIDER BS
Worker at Fort Campbell sues union over religious beliefs



The Associated Press
Sat, November 27, 2021

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A hospital custodian at the Fort Campbell Army post has filed a lawsuit against her union arguing she shouldn’t have to pay dues because of her religious beliefs.

The lawsuit was filed by Dorothy Frame, who works at Fort Campbell’s Blanchfield Army Community Hospital on the Kentucky-Tennessee border as an employee for a J&J Worldwide, a services company. The company has a contract with the Laborers’ International Union, according to the federal lawsuit.

Frame argued in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Nashville that her religious beliefs are being violated because “her opposition to the union’s stance on abortion,” according to a media release from the legal firm representing Frame.

“She believes joining or financially supporting the unions would make her complicit in that sin because she believes that the unions support and promote abortion,” said the release from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which battles unionization efforts.

The legal group was involved in a 2018 Supreme Court decision that said federal workers can’t be forced to pay dues to a union that represents them in collective bargaining.

Frame’s suit accused the union of religious discrimination. She sent a letter to the union in 2019 informing the union of her stance, the lawsuit said.

Frame is not currently paying dues to the union, according to the lawsuit. Those payments stopped in Nov. 2019, but the two sides remained locked in a dispute.

Lawyers for the union argued that Frame failed to demonstrate how the union supports abortion, according to the lawsuit. An attorney for union was not listed in the federal court records Friday.

Frame is asking the court to declare she has a right to the religious accommodation and for the union to return the dues she has paid. She is also asking for “damages for emotional pain, suffering, and mental anguish.”

What is a free rider? (article) | Khan Academy

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/11/26/report-religious-exemptions-undermine-law/5461637697998/

Chinese media applauds Interpol appointment, dismisses international concern over 'Operation Fox Hunt'


Peter Aitken
Fri, November 26, 2021,

Beijing state-backed media celebrated the appointment of a top Chinese public security official to Interpol’s executive committee despite widespread international concern over China’s potential abuse of the global policing organization.

Hu Binchen, a Deputy Director General at China’s Ministry of Public Security, will join the General Assembly session later this month after Beijing campaigned hard for him to join the executive committee. He will serve alongside Praveen Sinha for the next three years as the Delegates for Asia.

Legislators from 20 countries strongly opposed Hu’s appointment due to allegations he is directly involved in Operation Fox Hunt, through which Beijing hunts down dissidents in foreign countries and forces them back to China. A letter from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) claimed Hu’s appointment would provide China with influence over a major international organization and enable these efforts, the South China Morning Post reported.

"The government of the People’s Republic of China has repeatedly abused the Interpol red notice to persecute dissidents in exile," they said in the letter, which has 50 signatories. "By electing Hu Binchen to the executive committee, the general assembly would be giving a green light to the [Chinese] government to continue their misuse of Interpol and would place the tens of thousands of Hongkonger, Uygur, Tibetan, Taiwanese and Chinese dissidents living abroad at even graver risk."

The "red notice" is an alert system Interpol uses to track and hunt down international criminals, pending extradition, surrender or similar action. The notices identify the person and provide information related to the alleged crime.

Chinese state-backed news outlet The Global Times applauded Hu’s appointment "despite the slander and malicious obstruction" from the legislators and "so-called ‘human rights’ activists."

The Times insisted Operation: Fox Hunt is a legitimate "anti-corruption campaign" to track down Chinese citizens suspected of economic crimes who fled overseas.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang urged critics to keep Interpol "free from the disruption of politics or other factors." He claimed the appointment is a "concrete" step towards supporting the fight against terrorism and "cross-border crimes."

U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-NE, joined the chorus of criticism against Hu in a statement published Tuesday ahead of the vote. Sasse called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to "address the damaging influence of the Chinese Communist Party on Interpol."

"The election of a PRC security official to Interpol’s Executive Committee would present a grave threat to the organization’s integrity and threaten to turn legitimate inter-governmental law enforcement cooperation into another tool of CCP transnational repression," Sasse wrote.

China is developing a nuclear reactor for space travel ‘100 times more powerful than Nasa device’


Adam Smith
Fri, November 26, 2021

China is developing a nuclear reactor to help its missions to the Moon and Mars.

The reactor can generate one megawatt of electricity and is claimed to be 100 times more powerful than a similar device Nasa is working on, according to the South China Morning Post.

Nasa’s fission power source would be used to support permanent human life on the Moon, and is set to be developed by the end of the decade.

Chemical fuel and solar power are not going to be enough to meet the demands of human space exploration and potential settlements on other bodies, according to two anonymous scientists.

“Nuclear power is the most hopeful solution. Other nations have launched some ambitious plans. China cannot afford the cost of losing this race,” one said.

It is expected that the megawatt space reactor would face challenges when being cooled; only some of the heat generated by it could be used to make electricity, while the rest must be dissipated into space to avoid a meltdown.

Its small size means it will reach a much higher temperature than those on Earth.

Jiang Jieqiong, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Nuclear Safety Technology, has suggested that the reactor could use a foldable structure - similar to an umbrella - to increase the surface area of the radiators.

There are a number of other ideas however: some research teams have been developing smaller reactors that could be compiled into a larger machine, which could then drive the large ion thrusters to send astronauts to Mars.

Humanity’s race to settle on the stars has come with some issues, including the problem of space debris. There are approximately 228 million pieces of space debris around the globe, but many countries have been loath to address it.

This month, a Russian satellite was blown up in a test that led to hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris stuck in orbit and was deemed to “threaten the interests of all nations”, according to a US State Department spokesperson.

China has taken a similarly lax approach as seen by the Long March 5B rocket, which was left circling the Earth at an enormous rate that made calculating its landing unpredictable in May this year.

The South China Morning post says that the secrecy surrounding the space nuclear reactor programmes means there is no legislation in place that could deal with an accident, such a botched launch or a meltdown in space.

“It is urgently needed to establish a safety evaluation and management system that is suitable to our country’s technological status, increase the transparency in research and development progress to reduce the concerns of the general public,” space scientist Zhang Ze of the Shanghai Institute of Space Propulsion said.

A brief history of moonshiners, Revenuers and Florida sheriffs | David Brand

David Brand
Sat, November 27, 2021

A photo of a moonshine raid in Pinellas County.

There has been a long-standing relationship, beginning when Florida was a Territory of the United States, between our Florida sheriffs and what is now called the State Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.

Florida sheriffs and the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco have a long-standing symbiotic relationship dating back to 1822 when Florida was still a Territory. The sheriffs and the “Revenuers” collected taxes on alcohol, regulated sales, and enforced laws designed to protect public health.

The genesis of the Florida sheriff can be traced back to when Florida, as a Spanish colony, came under the Stars and Stripes when President James Monroe appointed Andrew Jackson the Commissioner and Provisional Governor.

The president wrote to Jackson, “I have confidence that your appointment will be immediately and most beneficially felt. Smugglers and slave traders will hide their heads, pirates will disappear, and the Seminoles cease to give trouble.”

Consequently, jurisdiction establishing East Florida took place at St. Augustine on July 10, 1821. A week later, on July 17, Andrew Jackson himself accepted the transfer of West Florida at Pensacola.

Section 4 of a lengthy ordinance promulgated by the governor on July 21, 1821, provided that a sheriff and a clerk would be appointed for the courts of the territory’s first two counties, Escambia and St. Johns, thereby establishing the Office of Sheriff in Florida. Later statutes assigned the sheriff a myriad of duties including managing jails, taxes, various aspects of county government, and interaction with other judicial and administrative officials.

Liquor and Prohibition

On March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union and became a state. From 1845 through 1915, the sale of intoxicating liquors in Florida was primarily regulated on the local level. The federal government primarily regulated and taxed the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages.

In the early 20th century, public opinion about the consumption of alcohol was so predominant that it pushed a gubernatorial candidate into the Capitol in Tallahassee.

Governor Sidney Johnston Catts, Florida’s 22nd governor, won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1916. However, the Florida Supreme Court ordered an election recount, rescinding his nomination. He then left the Democratic party and was elected as a Prohibition candidate.

He served as governor from Jan. 2, 1917 to Jan. 4, 1921. His election may have reflected the mood of the country because on Jan. 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment, or Volstead Act, became effective making the possession of alcoholic beverages unlawful.
Enforcement was complicated and dangerous

Some saw prohibition as a positive crusade while others viewed it as designed to enact social control by a minority on the majority.

In April, 1919, Florida Sheriffs Association members met in Jacksonville for their annual meeting. Perry Gilbert Ramsey, Alachua County sheriff, presided as president. While the “moonshine problem” was discussed, it was decided to take the matter up again in Tallahassee on April 8 when the legislature was in session.

The law that passed in 1919 revised the alcohol fee system and reflected, at least in part, the association’s requests. During this time some counties were “dry,” or did not allow the sale of alcohol, while others were “wet.”

Enforcement, considering the difference between rural and urban areas along with local, state, and federal laws that were ever changing, made enforcement difficult.

Enforcement, seasoned with the mood of the country changing towards alcohol sales, presented a challenging environment for the sheriffs.
In harms way

Sheriffs went in harm’s way, sometimes alone in rural counties, to enforce the alcohol prohibition laws. One example occurred on Aug. 20, 1927, when Flagler County Sheriff Perry Hall raided an establishment where moonshine was being consumed.

Outnumbered, yet undaunted, Sheriff Hall ordered James Smith, one of the occupants, to raise his hands as he moved into the room to make the arrest. Smith suddenly spun around and struck the sheriff in the head with a whiskey bottle. Sheriff Hall never regained consciousness and died hours later. James Smith was later gunned down by a posse after a 21-day manhunt found him hiding out in Brookfield, Georgia.

The National Prohibition Act was rescinded on Dec. 5, 1933, with the passage of the 21st Amendment. Afterwards, legislation began to appear providing for the taxing the regulation of alcohol.
The birth of the Florida enforcement agency

On June 27, 1935, the Florida State Beverage Department was created after the Beverage Act of 1935 was passed. This act provided the authority to tax and regulate the liquor industry. Mr. J.A. Cormier was appointed by Governor David Sholtz as the first Director.

Over the years, the partnership between ABT, sheriffs, and police departments has increased to address local issues as well as creating a force multiplier.

David Brand, Law Enforcement Coordinator of the Florida Sheriffs Association, is an occasional guest columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat and lives in St. Teresa.

A BOOMER SPEAKS OUT

Rittenhouse verdict has a lot to say about condition of America's soul

Phillip H. Cherney
Sat, November 27, 2021

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a photo of his dad, former president Donald Trump and recently acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse.

When I was Kyle Rittenhouse’s age, there were protest marches about many things: The Bomb, Vietnam War, Civil Rights. Dogs and water hoses were used against those seeking equal rights and justice in the South, but the protests I marched in were peaceful. In the 1960s, with few exceptions, only the police packed guns.

Buffalo Springfield, headlining at Hollywood’s Whisky-A-Go-Go, featured 21-year-old Steven Stills and Neil Young, who cut “For What It’s Worth,” a song many artists have recorded since 1966. Angry property owners spearheaded a curfew law on Sunset Strip to discourage young people from gathering in the neighborhood:

The song reflected signs of the times, “battle lines are being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” Pent-up emotion seemed to burst all at once during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. But guns were not prevalent even during those chaotic events. On May 4, 1970, at Kent State, four unarmed students were gunned down by National Guardsmen sent to quash protests against the Vietnam War.

Except for political assassinations, guns were never the centerpiece of conversation. Unheard of in those days, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland would become memorials to the innocent children and educators slaughtered with high-powered assault rifles made easily accessible to teenagers.

Where are we 50 years later? Far from Henry David Thoreau’s vision of civil disobedience and Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King, Jr’s ahimsa (non-violent) practice. No longer is “the man” the only one who carries a gun to rallies for social justice. Ordinary citizens arm themselves to attend, shadowing a constitutional amendment never meant to shield them from violating criminal laws.

So, whatever else may be said about his motives and intentions, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse felt empowered to be on hand for protests in Kenosha two days after another police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.

Following on the heels of George Floyd’s murder, temperatures were hot. With a vague sense of duty to protect anonymous property holders, Rittenhouse paraded the streets brandishing a human-slaughtering tool strapped to his shoulder: an AR-15 capable of firing 50 deadly rounds of full-metal-jacketed bullets in seconds. He did shoot and kill two men and maimed a third.

I do not quarrel with the right of self-defense, and I doubt there’s a jurist in the country who would advocate the abolition of the right. The right to use deadly force to defend one’s own life or come to the defense of another is well established where death or great bodily harm is imminent. Even when men carried swords and rode horses, the defense against criminal homicide charges required the defendant to “retreat to the [Castle] wall” before using deadly force.

The Retreat Rule was modified as guns replaced swords. Bullets traveled faster and at greater distances; retreat was no longer realistic. Though there is commonality, criminal laws vary from state to state, as do rules for self-defense, including for initial aggressors.

So-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, such as asserted by George Zimmerman in defense of his assault on Trevon Martin in Florida in 2012, are not new but are refashioned from the Retreat Rule.

Moreover, to address the “frailties of mankind,” an entirely new branch of homicide law evolved in the 18th Century to deal with intentional killings without malice aforethought (murder). Where passion upon adequate provocation or sudden quarrel, or an honest but unreasonable belief in the necessity to use deadly force, came into play, “manslaughter” filled a gap as a lesser-included offense to murder. The jury in Rittenhouse’s case was instructed on this law.

In several murder cases, I tried juries rejected murder charges but also rejected self-defense claims, returning manslaughter verdicts instead. The significance in California is reflected in sentencing laws — life in prison (or death) for murder downward to three, six, or eleven years for manslaughter — as a compromise to encompass those “frailties.”

Kyle Rittenhouse sobbed on the witness stand. It brought back a flood of memories for me. The credibility of the testimony is critical for the jury to understand the fear and reasonableness of the use of deadly force. I’ve called black, brown, and white teenagers and a 50-year-old man to the witness stand. In each case, the testimony has been emotional, and remorse expressed spontaneously, even if killing might have seemed the only way out at the time of the incident. Except for the truly remorseless, the trauma changes the soul whenever a man or woman takes another human life.

Americans are getting more opportunities to observe criminal trials. Far from perfect, most lawyers and judges are competent, but few are exceptional. The verdicts in Rittenhouse’s case were not the result of a quirky trial judge. As Mark Richards, lead defense counsel, noted after trial, he’s “butted heads” with Judge Bruce Schroeder for many years but gives both sides a level playing field.

Blaming District Attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus for failing to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Rittenhouse did not act in self-defense is the prerogative of Monday morning quarterbacks but are not likely to provide answers for the outcome of this tough case.

The real test for me is that jurors examined evidence over 26 hours and four days of deliberations. Jurors, attorneys, defendants, and judges, are the only ones in the courtroom every minute of trial.

Jurors reexamined the videos, witness testimony, arguments, and re-read instructions. Neither media representatives nor legal scholars viewed all of the evidence and did not bear the burden of decision. Whether we agree with the verdicts, the jury accepted the responsibility of citizenship sincerely.

Guns are not going away any time soon. But until we are willing to deepen the conversation about what guns are doing to America, we are doomed to repeat the vicious cycle of violence. We will continue to have the highest rate of deaths by gun violence in any country in the world. This is no time to “congratulate” Kyle Rittenhouse, as former President Donald Trump did: “If this isn’t self-defense, I don’t know what is.” Unlike the 2020 election, this was truly a close call, evidenced by the length of jury deliberations.

Rittenhouse is not a young person who showed courage on August 25, 2020, such as coming to the aid of the defenseless, and he is no hero. Bob Dylan’s famous gospel song, Gotta Serve Somebody (1979), calls us all to a higher law, “you may even own guns ..., but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

This young man will find no salvation in a Republican representative willing to exploit him and the tragedy at Kenosha, but I hope he continues in counseling and, more importantly, finds the one who is truly worth serving.

Phillip H. Cherney is a lawyer who has represented the infamous Oakland drug czar, Felix Mitchell, Richard Allen Davis in the Polly Klaas kidnap/murder case, and Joel Radovcich, whom Dana Ewell hired to kill his sister and parents in Fresno in 1992. He is an adjunct professor at San Joaquin College of Law.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Rittenhouse verdict has a lot to say about condition of America's soul

Evangelical support for Israel is neither permanent nor inevitable


Walker Robins, Lecturer in History, Merrimack College
Sat, November 27, 2021, 

President Trump's evangelical supporters cheered the 2018 move of of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Ariel Schalit/AP

Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, made waves in May 2021 when he publicly suggested that Israel should prioritize its relationship with American evangelicals over American Jews.

Dermer described evangelicals as the “backbone of Israel’s support in the United States.” By contrast, he described American Jews as “disproportionately among [Israel’s] critics.”

Dermer’s comments seemed shocking to many because he stated them in public to a reporter. But as a historian of the evangelical-Israeli relationship, I didn’t find them surprising. The Israeli right’s preference for working with conservative American evangelicals over more politically variable American Jews has been evident for years. And this preference has in many ways paid off.

Christian Zionism in the Trump era

American Christian Zionists are evangelicals who believe that Christians have a duty to support the Jewish state because the Jews remain God’s chosen people.

During the Trump years, Christian Zionists were crucial allies for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They helped Netanyahu lobby Trump for the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, as well as the withdrawal of the U.S. from the “Iran Deal” – the international nuclear arms control agreement with Iran.

These evangelicals also backed Trump’s recognition of Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights, as well as cuts of more than US0 million to American funding for the Palestinian Authority in 2018.

Coming after this string of policy victories for the Israeli-evangelical alliance, Dermer’s comments made sense.

However, the alliance’s future may be in doubt. Recent polling shows dramatic declines in support for Israel among young American evangelicals. Scholars Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin found that between 2018 and 2021, rates of support fell from 69% to 33.6% among evangelicals ages 18-29.

While these polls speak most immediately to the current context, they also underline a larger historical point: Evangelical support for Israel is neither permanent nor inevitable.

Southern Baptists and Israel

The Southern Baptist Convention – long the denominational avatar of white American evangelicalism – offers an example of how these beliefs have shifted over time, which I examine in my book “Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel.”

Southern Baptists are broadly supportive of Israel, and have been for much of the past half-century. Baptist leaders like W.A. Criswell and Ed McAteer helped organize Christian Zionism in the U.S. The Southern Baptist Convention itself has passed a number of pro-Israel resolutions in recent decades.

More recently, Southern Baptist support for Israel was highlighted when the Trump administration invited Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, to lead a prayer at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018.

However, Southern Baptists were not always so unified in support for Israel, or the Zionist movement that led to its creation. This was evident only days after the establishment of Israel in 1948, when messengers to the convention’s annual meeting repeatedly and overwhelmingly voted down resolutions calling for the convention to send a congratulatory telegram to U.S. President – and fellow Southern Baptist – Harry Truman for being the first foreign leader to recognize the Jewish state.

Zionism was ‘God’s plan’ – unless it wasn’t

This seems shocking today, after years of seemingly unanimous evangelical support for Israel. However, as I document in my book, Southern Baptists had diverse views on Zionism and “the Palestine question” in the decades leading up to Israel’s birth. While some did argue that support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine was a Christian duty, others defended the Arab majority’s rights in the Holy Land.

The Southern Baptist Convention refused to congratulate President Harry Truman for being the first world leader to officially recognize the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, even though he was one of their own. At right is Chaim Weizman. ASSOCIATED PRESS

During this era, the Southern Baptist Convention published books, pamphlets and other materials reflecting both sides. In 1936, its press published a work by missionary Jacob Gartenhaus, a convert from Judaism to evangelical Christianity, arguing that to be against Zionism was “to oppose God’s plan.” The following year, however, the press published a mission study manual by J. McKee Adams contending that “by every canon of justice and fair-play, the Arab is the man of first importance.”

Adams was one among a coterie of professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who spoke out against what they sometimes derided as “Christian Zionism” – then an unusual term.

Even evangelicals who believed the Bible anticipated the return of Jews to Palestine disagreed on whether the Zionist movement was part of God’s plan.

The influential Baptist leader J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth, Texas, who broke away from the mainstream Southern Baptist Convention in the 1920s, argued in the 1930s and 1940s that Christians had a duty to God and civilization to support the Zionists.

But there was no widespread sense that being a Baptist – or an evangelical Protestant – entailed support for Zionism. John R. Rice, a prominent disciple of Norris’, rejected his mentor’s arguments outright. “The Zionist movement is not a fulfillment of the prophecies about Israel being restored,” Rice wrote in 1945. “Preachers who think so are mistaken.”

Regarding the political question of whether Arabs or Jews should control Palestine, most evangelicals were unconcerned. The Southern Baptists focused on other priorities in the Holy Land, such as the growth of their missions in Jerusalem and Nazareth. Even those Baptists who supported the establishment of a Jewish state did not organize politically around the issue.

The future of Christian Zionism

In the decades after the establishment of Israel, however, motivated evangelical and Jewish activists – as well as the Israeli government – worked to stitch together the interfaith relationships, build the institutions and spread the ideas underpinning today’s Christian Zionist movement. These efforts have been remarkably effective in making support for Israel a defining element of many evangelicals’ religious and political identities.

However, as the latest polling of young evangelicals shows, there is no guarantee this will be permanent. This diverse and globally connected generation of evangelicals has its own ideas and priorities. It is more interested in social justice, less invested in the culture wars and increasingly weary of conservative politics.

Young evangelicals remain to be convinced of Christian Zionism. And they very well may not be.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Walker Robins, Merrimack College.

Read more:

Young Palestinians in Lebanon face discrimination from all sides

The right-wing origins of the Jerusalem soccer team that wants to add ‘Trump’ to its name

What will Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem mean to Palestinians?