Prosecutor criticizes school over run-up to mass shooting

By RICK CALLAHAN and DAVID EGGERT

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Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald addresses the media in her office, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Pontiac, Mich. McDonald filed involuntary manslaughter charges against Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who is accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school. (Eric Seals /Detroit Free Press via AP)


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The prosecutor overseeing the case against the student accused in last week’s deadly Michigan school shooting and who took the rare step of charging his parents left open the possibility Monday that school officials could also face charges, saying “in this case, a lot could have been done different.”

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said the investigation’s findings will determine whether school officials will be charge d in last Tuesday’s attack at Oxford High School.

But she noted that three hours before Ethan Crumbley allegedly opened fire, killing four fellow students and wounding six others and a teacher, the 15-year-old was sent back to class after a meeting between school counselors and his parents over a drawing a teacher found on his desk that included a bullet and the words “blood everywhere.”

“In this case, a lot could have been done different. I mean at that meeting he was allowed to go back to school,” she said Monday during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We know that he either had that weapon with him or someplace where he could have stored it in the school. But he had it in the school, there’s no question. And leaving the decision to parents about whether he goes home or not ...” she added, not finishing the sentence.

Tim Throne, superintendent of the Oxford school district, said Crumbley and his parents met with counselors on the day of the shooting. He said counselors found the teen “calm” and didn’t believe he would harm others.

The parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were asked to take their son home but “flatly refused,” Throne said.

Throne said a third party will investigate the events that occurred before the school shooting in Oxford Township, a community of about 23,000 people roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office could conduct the probe and did not rule out investigating even if the school district declines her offer.

“We’re better suited to do this than a private actor like a security firm or a law firm or anything of that nature,” she told The Associated Press on Monday. “When the institution is serving as a client and they hire a private agency, many times that is only sort of to cover up for any mistakes that might have been made as opposed to really getting to the truth of what occurred.”

Nessel said she is not looking to blame the school district. A review of the tragedy, she said, will show what happened, identify possible violations of protocols and provide lessons so students are kept safe.

Asked whether school staffers may be charged, she said: “I’m not going to rule anything out. But we’re going into this with the hope that we can discover best practices, best policies, best procedures and make recommendations to schools around the state, possibly to the Legislature for laws that should be implemented and to ensure the safety of schoolchildren around the state.”

Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with murder, terrorism and other crimes in the attack. And McDonald filed involuntary manslaughter charges against his parents, saying they failed to intervene on the day of the tragedy despite being confronted with the drawing and its disturbing message.

McDonald said Monday that Crumbley’s parents did not mention during the meeting at the school that Ethan had access to a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Authorities say he used the gun to carry out the attack, and that his father bought it for him at a local gun shop on Black Friday as an early Christmas present. Although the gun was legally sold to James Crumbley, minors in Michigan cannot possess guns aside from in limited situations, such as when hunting with an adult.

“You can’t even in an airport mention anything that even remotely indicates that there might be some sort of violence on a plane. You’ll be immediately extracted. And yet we have a kid who is ... saying some pretty concerning things and he was allowed to go back to school, and neither parent mentions that he had access to a weapon,” McDonald said.

McDonald said prosecutors have evidence suggesting that the couple “purchased that weapon for their 15-year-old and bragged about it online — thought this was some joyous occasion as a present.”

And she said the teen had access to the gun “whether it was locked or not” at his family’s home.

The parents were taken into custody early Saturday after they were caught hiding inside in the Detroit studio of artist Andrzej Sikora. The artist’s attorney said Sunday that he is cooperating with investigators and didn’t know the couple was facing charges or that they had stayed overnight at his studio while authorities were searching for them.

The couple’s attorneys have said they didn’t intend to flee.

In a message to students posted on the school district’s website Monday, Oxford High School Principal Steve Wolf said formal classes aren’t expected to resume until at least January, after the winter break. Wolf also said staff spent the weekend sorting backpacks and other items left behind at the school and plan to organize time to pick those up.

“We truly miss you and can’t wait to see you soon,” he wrote. “It has been extremely difficult working through this tragedy, and seeing many of you at our various community events has helped in the healing process. It’s been healing and helpful to share stories, cry together, give hugs and just be together.”

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This story was updated to correct the spelling of Tim Throne’s name, which was misspelled “Thorne” in one instance.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis. Associated Press writer Kathleen Foody contributed from Chicago. For more of the AP’s coverage of the Michigan school shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/oxford-high-school-shooting

Dems: Discovery, AT&T merger will hurt diversity, workers

By ASTRID GALVAN

FILE - Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, speaks during the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on the administration foreign policy priorities on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in Washington, March 10, 2021. A group of House Democrats is raising concerns that the proposed merger of Discovery and AT&T's WarnerMedia, a $43 billion effort to conquer the world of streaming, could impact diversity efforts in Hollywood and particularly hurt Latinos, who are already deeply underrepresented. Led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, 33 members of Congress wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday asking it to consider whether the merger will hurt competition, workers and diversity efforts in the entertainment industry. 

(Ken Cedeno/Pool via AP, File)

Congressional Democrats are raising concerns that the proposed merger of Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia, a $43 billion effort to conquer the world of streaming, could affect diversity efforts in Hollywood and particularly hurt Latinos, who are already deeply underrepresented.

The Democrats, led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, wrote a letter to the Justice Department on Monday asking it to consider whether the merger will hurt competition and workers and diversity efforts in the entertainment industry.

Castro has long championed diversity in media, which can include everything from Hollywood movies to book publishers to news organizations. Last year, Castro and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus tasked the government’s watchdog agency with investigating Latino representation in media. The Government Accountability Office, which released its findings in September, found Latinos are vastly underrepresented in all aspects of media.

“Part of what’s different about our argument is that we also center around the exclusion of many people of color in these companies as employees and often times in terms of content,” Castro said.

Castro said Discovery in particular has a poor record of hiring Latinos in front of and behind the camera, concerns he expressed to company representatives during a meeting recently.

“I was clear that if you continue to exclude people from your company, then you don’t deserve to merge and it’s not in the country’s best interest to allow for concentrated exclusion,” Castro said.

In May, Discovery announced it was absorbing WarnerMedia from AT&T, combining giants like HBO, CNN and HGTV, along with Oprah Winfrey’s network.

Experts have questioned whether this will hurt consumers, who may end up spending more money on streaming services in the long run.

In a news release, Discovery said the Warner acquisition will increase investment and capability in original content and programming and “create more opportunity for under-represented storytellers,” although the company hasn’t laid out how.

John T. Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T, addressed the concerns about antitrust violations expressed in the letter during a virtual global conference on Monday, according to a transcript of the call.

“Not to say that we won’t get the dialogue and have a constructive conversation for people to understand that I think what’s been articulated in those letters is really unfounded,” Stankey said. “And I believe the context of our discussion with regulators up to this point have centered around those issues, and we feel very good about the data we’ve put on the table that it’s clearly indicated that there’s nothing unusual about this transaction.”

Darnell Hunt, the dean of Social Sciences at UCLA who has spent years researching diversity in Hollywood, said the merger would be particularly troubling for diversity in executive level positions.

“Bigger is usually not better when it comes to these types of mergers, and there’s less competition, there’s less opportunity for access, because there are fewer gatekeepers. And that’s not a good thing in an industry that’s already exclusionary and very insular,” Hunt said.

Mergers mean job cuts, leaving an even greater void for people of color to work in high-level positions in the industry, Hunt said.

When Comcast and NBC announced a merger in 2009, Hunt publicly opposed it, and says promises by executives to create more minority-owned networks largely fell flat.

He doubts the Discovery acquisition will result in more diversity.

“I would love to hear their plan for that, if they’re thinking about it, but it doesn’t sound like they’re thinking about it,” Hunt said.

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Galván reported from Phoenix. She covers issues impacting Latinos in the U.S. for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/astridgalvan

Emmett Till investigation closed by feds; no new charges

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS and MICHAEL BALSAMO 

 This undated photo shows Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old black Chicago boy, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. The U.S. Justice Department told relatives of Emmett Till on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 that it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. (AP Photo, File)

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Ollie Gordon, Emmett Till's cousin, speaks to reporters and students, during a press conference at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism where members of Till's family commented on the final investigation report of his murder, Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, in Evanston, Ill.  (Tyler LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department said Monday it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.

The announcement came after the head of the department’s civil rights division and other officials met with several of Till’s relatives.

Till’s family members said they were disappointed there will continue to be no accountability for the infamous killing, with no charges being filed against Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman accused of lying about whether Till ever touched her.

“Today is a day we will never forget,” Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker, said during a news conference in Chicago. “For 66 years we have suffered pain. ... I suffered tremendously.”

The killing galvanized the civil rights movement after Till’s mother insisted on an open casket, and Jet magazine published photos of his brutalized body.

The Justice Department reopened the investigation after a 2017 book quoted Donham as saying she lied when she claimed that 14-year-old Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances while she was working in a store in the small community of Money. Relatives have publicly denied that Donham, who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations about Till.

Donham told the FBI she had never recanted her accusations and there is “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she lied to the FBI,” the Justice Department said in a news release Monday. Officials also said that historian Timothy B. Tyson, the author of 2017′s “The Blood of Emmett Till,” was unable to produce any recordings or transcripts in which Donham allegedly admitted to lying about her encounter with the teen.

“In closing this matter without prosecution, the government does not take the position that the state court testimony the woman gave in 1955 was truthful or accurate,” the Justice Department release said. “There remains considerable doubt as to the credibility of her version of events, which is contradicted by others who were with Till at the time, including the account of a living witness.”

Tyson did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.

Thelma Wright Edwards, one of Till’s cousins, said she was heartbroken but not surprised that no new charges are being brought.

“I have no hate in my heart, but I had hoped that we could get an apology, but that didn’t happen,” Edwards said Monday in Chicago. “Nothing was settled. The case is closed, and we have to go on from here.”

Days after Till was killed, his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, where it had been tossed after being weighted down with a cotton gin fan.

Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955.

The Justice Department in 2004 opened an investigation of Till’s killing after it received inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living. The department said the statute of limitations had run out on any potential federal crime, but the FBI worked with state investigators to determine if state charges could be brought. In February 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone, and the Justice Department announced it was closing the case.

Bryant and Milam were not brought to trial again, and they are now both dead. Donham has been living in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The FBI in 2006 began a cold case initiative to investigate racially motivated killings from decades earlier. A federal law named after Till allows a review of killings that had not been solved or prosecuted to the point of a conviction.

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act requires the Justice Department to make an annual report to Congress. No report was filed in 2020, but a report filed in June of this year indicated that the department was still investigating the abduction and killing of Till.

The FBI investigation included a talk with Parker, who previously told the AP in an interview that he heard his cousin whistle at the woman in a store in Money, Mississippi, but that the teen did nothing to warrant being killed.

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Balsamo reported from Washington.

'The Matrix Resurrections' references the past in new trailer

By Wade Sheridan

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Keanu Reeves' Neo is re-living the past and experiencing deja vu in the new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections.

Neo is remembering scenes from the original Matrix film released in 1999 in the clip released on Monday.

Neo is back in the simulated modern world again on a new mission where he is reunited with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who is also suffering from memory loss.

The duo fight off an attack helicopter and multiple enemies as they ride a motorcycle together.

"We can't see it, but we're all trapped inside these strange repeating loops," a younger Morpheus, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says.

The Matrix Resurrections, is coming to theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.

Co-stars include Jade Pinkett-Smith, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Christina Ricci, Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Brian J. Smith, Telma Hopkins, Eréndira Ibarra, Max Riemelt and Toby Onwumere.

Lana Wachowski is directing the film after she helmed the three previous entries with her sister Lilly Wachowski. Lana Wachowski penned the script with David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon.

Solar cell discovery may help speed development of green energy technology

A finding on perovskite solar cells, which are said to be potentially more effective than silicon solar cells pictured, could help speed the development of green technology. 

Photo by mrganso/Pixabay

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- As researchers look for better materials to harness electricity from the sun, an explanation for the efficiency of one promising material -- perovskites -- has proven elusive.

Thanks to new research out of Cambridge University, however, scientists no longer are in the dark on perovskite's virtues.

It turns out that the material's variegated chemical structure actually guards against the electronic pitfalls associated with similar materials -- and could help point the way to improving both it and other materials being developed for green technologies.

The qualities of perovskite, a high-performance solar cell material that turns more of the sun's rays into electricity, have been demonstrated time and time again -- in lab test after lab test.

RELATED Solar cells combining perovskite, silicon capture more of the sun's energy

But despite a decade of laboratory breakthroughs, it wasn't clear why the material performed as well as it does -- until now.

Cambridge University researchers were able to identify perovskite's nanoscale secrets by surveying its chemical, structural and electronic disorder by using a few different microscopes.

The revelatory observations could accelerate perovskite's development, allowing scientists to further tweak its composition and integrate the material into commercial solar arrays -- and even help light the way for energy research using other materials.

RELATED Perovskites discovery promises better, cheaper solar cell

New research shows that electrons funnel into high-quality areas of perovskite material, as pictured in the artist's interpretation -- a finding that may help improve green energy research. Image by Alex T./Ella Maru Studios

How does it work

"Now, we can basically tell you why it is very good," lead study author Kyle Frohna, a researcher at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told UPI.

To exceed performance standards, solar cell materials typically need to be highly uniform. Crystalline silicon, the material currently used in most commercial solar arrays, is almost perfectly homogenous.

RELATED Study: To boost solar cell efficiency, curb 'hot electrons'

Perovskite's ability to to absorb a wide spectrum of solar wavelengths and turn them into electricity had previously confounded scientists, primarily because its makeup is the opposite of homogenous.

"The chemical composition of perovskite is more complicated [compared to silicon]. There's a lot more stuff that goes into them," Frohna said. "We effectively dissolve all these chemicals into a solvent and then print them out onto a substrate, so you end up with a very complicated landscape."

This relatively imprecise production process is much more energy efficient, cheaper and easier to scale, which is why scientists expect perovskite to eventually supplant crystalline silicon in the solar cell industry.

Scientists can make a lot of progress through trial and error, without entirely understanding what's going on beneath the surface. Perovskite is proof of this phenomenon, as are many of the lithium ion battery breakthroughs of the last decade.

But with the impacts of climate change hastening, a pressing need exists for green energy -- and the scientific breakthroughs that will enable a carbon-natural energy sector.

As many material scientists can attest, taking a lab breakthrough to market, in which it can have a real-world impact on an industry's carbon footprint, is extremely difficult. Understanding why and how a breakthrough happened can boost the odds.

"A better understanding makes it more likely that a breakthrough can be fully exploited," Martin Green, a professor at the University of New South Wales' Australian Center for Advanced Photovoltaics, who was not involved in the recent study, told UPI in an email.

Freely moving electrons

Solar cell materials work best when their electrons can move freely, without becoming trapped by material defects.

"When there are impurities or defects in the material, they can trap these electrons and cause them to stay there for too long and lose their energy -- in the form of heat instead of electricity," Frohna said.

To learn why perovskite's incongruities -- and resulting electron traps -- don't seem to be all that problematic, researchers used a series of microscopes to more precisely map the material's structural, chemical and electronic properties.

"First, we used an optical telescope to measure the material's optical quality, or electronic efficiency," corresponding author Miguel Anaya, a chemical engineer and research fellow at Cambridge, told UPI.

"For a high quality, efficient material, we expect to see close to one photon emitted for every photon absorbed."

Then, the researchers used the Diamond Light Source, a synchrotron microscope, to look at the material's chemical composition and structure.

The results returned by the two microscopes showed that perovskite has two types of disorder working in parallel -- chemical disorder and electronic disorder.

Scientists determined perovskite's chemical disorder creates structural gradients that cause electrons to gravitate toward the parts of the material that have the fewest electronic defects.

Basically, perovskite's weakness also is a strength.

"Defects are everywhere in these types of samples, but by inducing the electron to find a place in the material that is high-quality, electronically speaking, the chemical disorder masks the effects of the electronic disorder," Anaya said.

Future research and development

The research team hopes that its illuminating work ultimately will grease perovskite's path from lab to market.

"Rather than fumbling around in the dark, maybe now we can make more rational decisions about how to modulate these heterogeneous landscapes to suit our purposes even better," Frohna said.

Frohna and Anaya also said they plan to repeat their work by using fully assembled solar cells, as opposed to a naked perovskite substrate.

Eventually, the team hopes to find ways to identify analytical and computational shortcuts that would allow them to measure the interplay between electronic and chemical disorder without the painstaking process of acquiring and comparing the results from multiple microscopes.

Even farther down the line, the researchers said, it may be possible to use nanoscale observations like theirs for algorithms that could predict how materials will perform inside solar cells or batteries -- a breakthrough that could truly streamline the scientific process.

"To get that point we are going to new gather data from a huge amount of materials of with different compositions and qualities, so that you have a catalogue of results to draw from," Anaya said.

RIP

Medina Spirit, controversial Kentucky Derby winner, dies suddenly

By Alex Butler

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Reigning Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who died Monday, won the Awesome Again Stakes on Oct. 2 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. Photo by Santa Anita

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Three-year-old Medina Spirit, the controversial winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack Monday morning at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., trainer Bob Baffert said.

"My entire barn is devastated by this news," Baffert said in a statement to UPI. "Medina Spirit was a great champion, a member of our family who was loved by all, and we are deeply mourning his loss.

"I will always cherish the proud and personal memories of Medina Spirit and his tremendous spirit. Our most sincere condolences go out to [horse owner] Mr. Amr Zedan and the entire Zedan Racing Stables family. They are in our thoughts and prayers as we go through this difficult time."

Zedan told the Thoroughbred Daily News that the Colt died after 5-furlong workout at the track. California Horse Racing Board equine medical director Jeff Blea also told BloodHorse.com that the "sudden death" came from what appeared to be a "classic case of heart attack."

Medina Spirit won the 147th edition of the Derby on May 1 in Louisville, Ky., for Baffert's record-breaking seventh title at the event.

The victory was in jeopardy because Medina Spirit tested positive for the banned drug betamethasone after the race. Baffert claims the positive test result emerged due to the presence of an ingredient in an ointment used to treat the horse for a skin rash.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has yet to hold a hearing for the case. Churchill Downs suspended Baffert and barred him from entering horses in the Kentucky Derby for the next two years.

Baffert also was barred from entering horses at the New York Racing Association's Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct race tracks.

Medina Spirit also finished second at the 2021 Breeders' Cup Classic and third in the Preakness Stakes. The colt totaled five wins in 10 career starts and earned more than $3.5 million in prize money.


Jockey John Velazquez (L) and trainer Bob Baffert celebrate after their horse, Medina Spirit, won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Photo by John Sommers II/UPI | License Photo

RELATED Medina Spirit's positive test confirmed as Derby disqualification looms

Turning outrage into power: How far right is changing GOP

Reps. (from left) Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are among lawmakers whose inflammatory comments would likely have made them pariahs in the past, but were normalized by Donald Trump's presidency. (Michaels Reynolds/Pool via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears to have settled on a strategy to deal with a handful of Republican lawmakers who have stirred outrage with violent, racist and sometimes Islamophobic comments.

If you can’t police them, promote them.

The path to power for Republicans in Congress is now rooted in the capacity to generate outrage. The alarming language, and the fundraising haul it increasingly produces, is another example of how Donald Trump, the former president, has left his mark on politics, changing the way Republicans rise to influence and authority.

Success in Congress, once measured by bills passed and constituents reached, is now gauged in many ways by the ability to attract attention, even if it is negative as the GOP looks to reclaim a House majority next year by firing up Trump’s most ardent supporters.

That has helped elevate a group of far-right lawmakers — including Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona — whose inflammatory comments once would have made them pariahs.

Rather than face punishment for personal attacks that violate longstanding norms of Congress, they’ve been celebrated by conservatives, who have showered Boebert and Greene with campaign cash.

“We are not the fringe. We are the base of the party,” Greene, who has previously endorsed calls to assassinate prominent Democrats, said last week on a podcast hosted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

The hands-off approach by Republican leadership gives them license to spread hate speech, conspiracy theories and misinformation that can have real world consequences, while testing the resolve of Democrats, who already removed Gosar and Greene from their committees.

It’s also a different tack from the one McCarthy took in 2019 when he stripped then-Rep. Steve King of Iowa of his committee assignments for lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism had become offensive terms.

Boebert offers the latest example.

In two videos that surfaced recently she likened Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is one of three Muslims in Congress, to a terrorist concealing a bomb in a backpack. Boebert has also repeatedly referred to Omar as belonging to a “jihad squad,” as well as “black-hearted” and “evil.”

Her comments drew widespread condemnation and led to calls for Boebert to become the third GOP lawmaker this year to be removed from congressional committees. But instead of publicly apologizing to Omar, a defiant Boebert insisted that Omar should be the one to issue a public apology “to the American people” for her “anti-American” rhetoric, as well as past “anti-Semitic” comments, which Democrats condemned at the time.

In the uproar that followed, Omar received death threats, including a voicemail left by a man who called her a “traitor” and suggested she would be soon be taken “off the face of the (expletive) earth.”

“We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn’t have real consequences,” Omar said Tuesday while calling on the Republican Party to “actually do something to confront anti-Muslim hatred in its ranks.”

Boebert, meanwhile, burnished her image through an appearance on Fox News where she blamed Democrats who “want to cancel me” for the controversy. She has raked in $2.7 million so far this year, making her one of the top Republican fundraisers, according to campaign finance disclosures.

McCarthy, who is in line to become speaker if Republicans retake the majority in the 2022 midterm elections, downplayed the controversy Friday. He credited Boebert for attempting to privately apologize in a phone call with Omar, while breezing past Boebert’s refusal to do so publicly.

“In America, that’s what we do,” he said. “And then we move on.”

But McCarthy has also indicated that there will be little consequence for personal attacks. Just last month he said those punished by Democrats could be in line for a promotion if he becomes speaker, floating the possibility that Gosar and Greene “may have better committee assignments” than before.

That also poses a vexing issue for Democrats. During a Wednesday caucus meeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Boebert’s behavior, but cautioned that restraint was needed.

“This is hard because these people are doing it for the publicity,” Pelosi said, according to a person in the room, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private deliberations. “There’s a judgment that has to be made about how we contribute to their fundraising and their publicity on how obnoxious and disgusting they can be.”

In many cases, the incentive to outrage can outweigh the consequences.

Greene arrived in Congress this year with a well documented history of making inflammatory comments. A former adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theories, she once mused that a wealthy Jewish family may have used space lasers to spark California wildfires.

She’s also harassed survivors of school shootings, accused Pelosi of committing crimes punishable by death and appeared in a 2019 video at the Capitol in which she argued Omar and another Muslim representative weren’t “really official” members of Congress because they didn’t take the oath of office on the Bible.

Since her election she’s used her nonstop attacks and viral online moments to reap a $6.3 million fundraising windfall — more than three times the cost of the average congressional campaign — while proving to be a speaking draw at Republican fundraisers around the country.

“If you say something bats—— crazy, if you say something extreme, you are going to raise money,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who is one of the few Republicans to publicly criticize the rhetoric of her colleagues. Mace, who publicly feuded with Greene last week, said the Georgia lawmaker was a “grifter of the first order” who takes advantage of “vulnerable conservatives.”

Gosar, who was censured last month after posting an animated video of himself killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, is nowhere near as prolific of a fundraiser. But he has become a celebrated figure for white nationalists and has made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs.

Still, some Republicans say just because the three have achieved a measure of fame doesn’t mean they have accumulated real influence or staying power.

“There’s always some gifted communicator who comes in,” said Rep. Tom Cole, a 10-term Oklahoma Republican, who used the GOP class of 1994, when Republicans took over the House for the first time in decades, as an example. “We’re a long way of knowing how long they’ll stay. A lot of the brightest stars of the 1994 class were gone within eight years.”

Besides he added: “The reality is the first six years, the only thing you are going to do is what they let you.”

Analysis: Politicians split on questions of bodily autonomy

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, center right, accompanied by Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, center left, waves to supporters as they walk out of of the U.S. Supreme Court, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, after the court heard arguments in a case from Mississippi, where a 2018 law would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability. 

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)


JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and several other Mississippi politicians make clear that they don’t think the government should mandate vaccination against COVID-19. They take a different stance on bodily autonomy when it comes to a woman or girl deciding whether to have an abortion.

In arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, the Mississippi attorney general’s office defended a 2018 state law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. The state solicitor general, Scott Stewart, also tried to persuade justices to overturn the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout the United States and its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe.

Reeves was lieutenant governor when the 15-week ban was pushed into law, and he has said repeatedly that he wants to restrict abortion. When Reeves appeared on “Meet the Press” days before the Supreme Court arguments, the show played a video clip of Reeves saying COVID-19 vaccine mandates were a “power grab” by the federal government.

In the context of government rules that affect people’s bodies, host Chuck Todd asked Reeves: “Why should the state of Mississippi tell a woman what they should do with their body? Why shouldn’t they have that individual freedom on their body, particularly in the first 20 weeks?”

Reeves responded: “The far left love to scream, ‘My body, my choice.’ And what I would submit to you, Chuck, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion there is an actual killing of an innocent, unborn child that is in that womb.”

The Supreme Court is expected to take several months to rule on the Mississippi case. Six conservative justices indicated they would uphold the Mississippi law. Doing so would undermine Roe and Casey, which allow states to regulate but not ban abortion up until the point of fetal viability, at roughly 24 weeks.

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, sued the state when then-Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed the 15-week ban in March 2018. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves (no relation to Tate Reeves) issued a temporary restraining order that immediately blocked the law from taking effect.

In a detailed ruling in November 2018, Judge Reeves wrote that “this Court concludes that the Mississippi Legislature’s professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting.” He cited the state’s high infant mortality statistics and noted that Mississippi has not expanded Medicaid, which is an option most states have taken under the 2010 federal health law signed by then-President Barack Obama. Mississippi still has not expanded Medicaid because of opposition from Reeves and other Republican leaders.

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn and Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, who are Republicans, join Reeves in wanting to restrict abortion and in denouncing COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

“I respect your right to make whatever health care decision, as it pertains to the coronavirus, that you think is best for you in consultation with your health care provider,” Gunn said Oct. 28 at the Mississippi Economic Council’s Hobnob event. “This is America. One of the greatest rights we have in this country is to make the decisions that we think are best for us in regards to our health care.”

On the day the Supreme Court heard arguments about the Mississippi abortion case, Gunn said in a statement that the Mississippi House “has repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to save the lives of the unborn children in our State. This bill is just another example of the House’s commitment to the unborn.”

Gipson was a House committee chairman who worked to push the 15-week abortion ban into law, and he filed written arguments asking the Supreme Court to uphold it. During Hobnob, Gipson said federal vaccination mandates are “as un-American as anything I’ve ever seen in my life.”

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Emily Wagster Pettus has covered Mississippi government and politics since 1994. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.

The Occult and the Visual Arts

Tessel M . Bauduin, PhD

18 Pages

2 Files ▾

Modern Art,

Modernism (Art History),

Occultism

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More Info: Bauduin, T.M. 2014. ‘The Occult and the Visual Arts’. Partridge, C. (ed.). The Occult World. London: Routledge, 2014, 429-445 (Chapter 44)

Japan’s military, among world’s strongest, looks to build

By MARI YAMAGUCHI


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Japanese Ground-Self Defense Force (JGDDF) Type 90 tanks drive toward a target during the annual drill with live ammunitions exercise at Minami Eniwa Camp Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, in Eniwa, northern Japan of Hokkaido. Dozens of tanks are rolling over the next two weeks on Hokkaido, a main military stronghold for a country with perhaps the world's most little known yet powerful army. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

ENIWA, Japan (AP) — Dozens of tanks and soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world’s least-known military powerhouse.

Just across the sea from rival Russia, Japan opened up its humbly named Self Defense Force’s firing exercises to the media in a display of public firepower that coincides with a recent escalation of Chinese and Russian military moves around Japanese territory.

The drills, which foreign journalists rarely have a chance to witness, will continue for nine days and include about 1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops. On Monday, as hundreds of soldiers cheered from the sidelines and waved unit flags, lines of tanks shot at targets meant to represent enemy missiles or armored vehicles.

The exercises illuminate a fascinating, easy-to-miss point. Japan, despite an officially pacifist constitution written when memories of its World War II rampage were still fresh — and painful — boasts a military that puts all but a few nations to shame.

And, with a host of threats lurking in Northeast Asia, its hawkish leaders are eager for more.

It’s not an easy sell. In a nation still reviled by many of its neighbors for its past military actions, and where domestic pacifism runs high, any military buildup is controversial.

Japan has focused on its defensive capabilities and carefully avoids using the word “military” for its troops. But as it looks to defend its territorial and military interests against an assertive China, North Korea and Russia, officials in Tokyo are pushing citizens to put aside widespread unease over a more robust role for the military and support increased defense spending.

As it is, tens of billions of dollars each year have built an arsenal of nearly 1,000 warplanes and dozens of destroyers and submarines. Japan’s forces rival those of Britain and France, and show no sign of slowing down in a pursuit of the best equipment and weapons money can buy.

Not everyone agrees with this buildup. Critics, both Japan’s neighbors and at home, urge Tokyo to learn from its past and pull back from military expansion.

There’s also domestic wariness over nuclear weapons. Japan, the only nation to have atomic bombs dropped on it in war, possesses no nuclear deterrent, unlike other top global militaries, and relies on the so-called U.S. nuclear umbrella.

Proponents of the new military muscle flexing, however, say the expansion is well-timed and crucial to the Japanese alliance with Washington.

China and Russia have stepped up military cooperation in recent years in an attempt to counter growing U.S.-led regional partnerships.

In October, a fleet of five warships each from China and Russia circled Japan as they traveled through the Pacific to the East China Sea. Last month, their warplanes flew together near Japan’s airspace, causing Japanese fighter jets to scramble. In fiscal year 2020 through March, Japanese fighters scrambled more than 700 times — two-thirds against Chinese warplanes, with the remainder mostly against Russians — the Defense Ministry said.

Russia’s military also recently deployed coastal defense missile systems, the Bastion, near disputed islands off the northern coast of Hokkaido.

Japan was disarmed after its WW II defeat. But a month after the Korean War began in 1950, U.S. occupation forces in Japan created a 75,000-member lightly armed de facto army called the National Police Reserve. The Self Defense Force, the country’s current military, was founded in 1954.

Today, Japan is ranked fifth globally in overall military power after the United States, Russia, China and India, and its defense budget ranked sixth in the 2021 ranking of 140 countries by the Global Firepower rating site.

During archconservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s more than eight-year rule, which ended a year ago, Japan significantly expanded its military role and budget. Abe also watered down the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution in 2015, allowing Japan to come to the defense of the United States and other partner nations.

Japan has rapidly stepped up its military role in its alliance with Washington, and has made more purchases of costly American weapons and equipment, including fighter jets and missile interceptors.

“Japan faces different risks coming from multiple fronts,” said defense expert Heigo Sato, a professor at the Institute of World Studies at Takushoku University in Tokyo.

Among those risks are North Korea’s increased willingness to test high-powered missiles and other weapons, provocations by armed Chinese fishing boats and coast guard ships, and Russia’s deployment of missiles and naval forces.

One of North Korea’s missiles flew over Hokkaido, landing in the Pacific in 2017. In September, another fell within the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone off northwestern Japan.

Under a bilateral security pact, Japan hosts about 50,000 U.S. troops, mostly on the southern island of Okinawa, which, along with Japanese units in Hokkaido, are strategically crucial to the U.S. presence in the Pacific.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October, said during his first troop review that he would consider “all options,” including possibly pursuing pre-emptive strike capabilities to further “increase Japan’s defense power” — a divisive issue that opponents say violates the constitution.

Japan has more than 900 warplanes, 48 destroyers, including eight Aegis missile-combating systems, and 20 submarines. That exceeds Britain, Germany and Italy. Japan is also buying 147 F-35s, including 42 F-35Bs, making it the largest user of American stealth fighters outside of the United States, where 353 are to be deployed.

Their deployment is crucial for Japanese defense in the Indo-Pacific, and the country is now retrofitting two flattops, the Izumo and Kaga, as the country’s first aircraft carriers since the end of the World War II.

Among Japan’s biggest worries is China’s increased naval activity, including an aircraft carrier that has been repeatedly spotted off Japan’s southern coasts.

Japan has customarily maintained a defense budget cap at 1% of its GDP, though in recent years the country has faced calls from Washington to spend more.

Kishida says he is open to doubling the cap to the NATO standard of 2%.

As a first step, his Cabinet recently approved a 770 billion yen ($6.8 billion) extra budget for the fiscal year to accelerate missile defense and reconnaissance activity around Japanese territorial seas and airspace, and to bolster mobility and emergency responses to defend its remote East China Sea islands. That would bring the 2021 defense spending total to 6.1 trillion yen ($53.2 billion), up 15% from the previous year, and 1.09% of Japan’s GDP.

Experts say a defense budget increase is the price Japan must pay now to make up for a shortfall during much of the postwar era, when the country prioritized economic growth over national security.

As China is playing tough in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as a regional flashpoint, with Japan, the United States and other democracies developing closer ties with the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as a renegade territory to be united by force if necessary.

China’s buildup of military facilities in the South China Sea has heightened Tokyo’s concerns in the East China Sea, where the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands are also claimed by Beijing, which calls them Diaoyu. China has sent a fleet of armed coast guard boats to routinely circle them and to go in and out of Japanese-claimed waters, sometimes chasing Japanese fishing boats in the area.

Japan deploys PAC3 land-to-air missile interceptors on its westernmost island of Yonaguni, which is only 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of Taiwan.

In part because of a relative decline of America’s global influence, Japan has expanded military partnerships and joint exercises beyond its alliance with the United States, including with Australia, Canada, Britain, France and other European countries, as well as in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Japan also cooperates with NATO.

Despite the government’s argument that more is needed, there are worries domestically over Japan’s rapid expansion of defense capabilities and costs.

“Although the defense policy needs to respond flexibly to changes in the national security environment, a soaring defense budget could cause neighboring countries to misunderstand that Japan is becoming a military power and accelerate an arms race,” the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun said in a recent editorial.

___

Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

REST IN POWER

South African anti-apartheid icon Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim dies at 84


Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, an anti-apartheid icon and former deputy minister in South Africa, died on Monday, officials said. He was 84.

Officials said Ebrahim died after a long illness at his home in Johannesburg.



A former deputy minister of international relations, Ebrahim was an activist whose life was described as one of courage characterized by a "spirit of sacrifice."



Born July 1, 1937, Ebrahim joined the liberation movement in 1952 as a youth activist and participated in the Congress of the People Campaign, which adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. His activism continued into the 1960s, until he was arrested and charged under the Sabotage Act in 1961 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1979.

Ebrahim went into exile in 1980 on the advice of the African National Congress. He returned to serve as deputy Dirco minister from 2009 to 2014.

The ANC hailed Ebrahim on Monday as a veteran member of the party and praised his contribution to the struggle for South African liberation, which was achieved with the fall of Apartheid in the early 1990s.

South Africa: Anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim dies aged 84

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, a veteran of the fight against apartheid who spent years imprisoned on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, has died aged 84, South Africa’s ruling party announced.


© Provided by Al JazeeraEbrahim was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned on Robben Island, where he studied alongside Mandela and shared a cell with former President Jacob Zuma [File: AFP]

Ebrahim passed away at his Johannesburg home after a long illness, the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement on Monday.

He “was a longstanding member of the ANC, a patriot who served his country in different capacities with humility, dedication and distinction”, the party said.

A largely unsung figure in the chronicles of apartheid, Ebrahim joined the struggle against white-minority rule in his early teens, becoming an ANC youth activist in 1952.

His life followed the arc of the liberation movement – beginning with non-violent protests, becoming a fighter, being imprisoned on Robben Island twice, and eventually joining the democratic government.

Known as “Ebie”, he was born in Durban on July 1, 1937. As a child, he saw his father get arrested twice for breaking laws that prevented Indians from travelling freely within South Africa.

By the time he was 13, he was already taking part in liberation politics.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent resistance campaigns in India, Ebrahim attended speeches by Albert Luthuli, the ANC leader who in 1960 became the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

He tried joining protest campaigns, but the liberation parties would not let him because of his young age.

As an Indian, Ebrahim initially was not allowed to join the ANC. He instead joined the Natal Indian Congress and became a delegate to the landmark Congress of the People in 1955.

That meeting gathered activists of all races, pulling together a massive public consultation on how South Africans wanted to be governed. The result was the Freedom Charter, now seen as a foundational document underpinning South African democracy.

As with many others in the movement, the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 changed Ebrahim’s mind about peaceful resistance. The sight of police shooting 69 protesters dead pushed him to join the ANC’s armed wing.
‘Assaulted, starved in prison’

He was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned on Robben Island, where he studied alongside Mandela and shared a cell with former President Jacob Zuma.

“In prison we were assaulted, starved, under-clothed and exposed to bitter cold weather,” he wrote later in a memoir.

“We were sworn at and humiliated in the most degrading manner. We broke stones and ate a measly meal.

“For years we were made to stand stark naked for long periods of time in an open courtyard, sometimes in biting cold weather. One of my close friends died of exposure.”

Nonetheless, Ebrahim used his prison days to obtain two university degrees.

After his release, he went into exile to rejoin the ANC. But in 1986, he was kidnapped by apartheid agents in neighbouring Swaziland, now Eswanti,, tortured and then imprisoned again on Robben Island.

Mandela tasked him with consulting fellow political prisoners on the talks that eventually led to the end of apartheid and the transition to democracy.

Ebrahim was freed in 1991 and won a seat in parliament in the first democratic elections.

He later served as a diplomat and mediator in conflicts including between Israel and the Palestinians, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Burundi, Kosovo, Bolivia and Nepal.

In an interview with AFP in June 2021, Ebrahim said he was deeply concerned that the fruits of democracy had not been spread evenly, pointing to deep poverty and unemployment.

But he voiced confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“He continues to take steps to root out maladministration and corruption. We will recover,” he told AFP.

And he expressed disappointment in his former cellmate Zuma, who has been charged with a slate of corruption cases.

“I was very close to him and we slept next to each other,” he said, however, adding that in prison Zuma was “highly disciplined”.