U.S. refugee resettlement numbers dipped in December

By Alisa Reznick

Published: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - 

The United States resettled just over 1,200 refugees in December, down from over 1,600 in November. At the same time, the number of Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, is also down.

SIVs are given to Afghan and Iraqi citizens who worked with U.S. troops as translators, interpreters and other essential jobs. They’re supposed to help people in dangerous situations make it to the U.S. 

But only 310 visas were awarded in December. Tucson City Council member Steve Kozachik says many Afghans in Tucson have family members who desperately need those visas.

"Federal government at the congressional level, senatorial level, USCIS, everybody has told me, well these things take time. So they’re counseling patience. My answer to them is that patience is going to cost people their lives," Kozachik says.

The latest SIV numbers are a sharp decline from the more than 3,000 a month being awarded last fall — when tens of thousands of Afghans were evacuated from their country.

Pro-China governor opposes PH-US live-fire drills

By: Frances Mangosing - Reporter / @FMangosingINQ
INQUIRER.net / 05:36 AM January 13, 2022


Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba

MANILA, Philippines — The Cagayan Valley region and the province of Cagayan are opposing plans by the Philippines and United States to hold live-fire military exercises as these would put potential Chinese economic investments in the region at risk, according to the avowedly pro-China governor.

“It may cause a diplomatic row,” Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba told Inquirer.net on Tuesday. “We don’t want to anger China here in Cagayan. We see that we could get help from them.”

One of the planned live-fire exercises, which is intended to demonstrate combat readiness and firepower, was supposed to be part of this year’s Balikatan—the largest of the bilateral military exercises between the Philippines and the United States—set in April.

“That’s live fire. They’re going to test all armaments. What will happen to our relationship with our neighbors, especially China? We are trying to reconnect ourselves with China,” Mamba said.

The drills were to be staged in Claveria town, located directly south of Taiwan, which China claims to be part of its territory. Beijing has not ruled out taking the island by force.

Balikatan, a Filipino word for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” is an annual military exercise between the two allies to ensure interoperability of their forces and to prepare and rehearse their responses to various security threats.

Rising tensions

This year’s drills would be held against the backdrop of rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea, where China continues its aggressive encroachments. The military has yet to officially disclose the specific events in this year’s drills, but it would include activities in the country’s western frontier.

The United States and China have also steadily increased their military activities close to Taiwan, which has no formal ties to Washington but is its main arms supplier. Washington is concerned about Beijing’s military buildup and provocative moves against Taipei.

Asked why he thinks the US and Philippine forces want to stage military live-fire exercises in Cagayan, Mamba said: “Because you know, Taiwan is a powder keg.”

In a joint resolution on Dec. 7, 2021, the Cagayan provincial antidrug and peace and order councils, and its anti-insurgency task force, opposed live-fire drills in the province.

In a meeting on Dec. 22, 2021, of the regional anti-insurgency task force, the regional peace and order council headed by Mamba passed an almost identical resolution.

The two resolutions acknowledged that military exercises were intended to strengthen the protection of the country’s territory but said that they “may be perceived by some states as provoking posture.”
‘Economic blueprints’

They said the drills “may derail the economic blueprints” that are “anchored on the idea of maintaining peaceful and productive relationship with adjacent international partners.”

Lives and properties of citizens might also be “put in peril” if the drills result in an escalation of conflict between “geopolitical players in Southeast Asia,” according to the resolutions.

No similar resolution was passed by the Cagayan provincial board, the province’s legislative body.

Mamba said he also rejected a plan to hold live-fire exercises by the Philippine and US Marines in October last year.

The governor, however, said he was not against exercises with foreign troops that involve humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and other drills that do not involve firing various types of weapons.

The military’s proposal to hold live-fire exercises in Cagayan comes after President Duterte, who had pivoted his foreign policy toward Beijing away from Washington, aborted a plan in July last year to terminate the Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement. The pact governs the presence of American troops in the Philippines, particularly during joint exercises.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines still plans to push through with the military exercises in Cagayan, but without the live-fire component. Talks with Mamba are still being set, according to a senior military official familiar with the issue.
Investors interested

Chinese investors have seen Cagayan’s potential and expressed interest in investing in many areas. Chinese companies are also known to operate offshore gambling in the province.

“We are trying to invite them to come in also,” Mamba said. “They’re really interested in food production, modernization of agriculture, aquaculture, and livestock.”

Chinese investors are also offering to bankroll an international airport and a P10-billion project to rehabilitate the Aparri port, he said.

According to Mamba, Riverfront Construction Inc. represented by a certain Feng Li, proposed in August to develop a $200-million international port terminal in Aparri that would make it a “global gateway in the northern part of the Philippines.”

In 2019, a Chinese company proposed to build a “smart city” on Fuga Island in Cagayan. But the plan fell through after critics raised concerns that it could compromise the country’s security as it would potentially allow Beijing to expand its military presence with access to both sides of the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

Mamba, who is seeking reelection in May, believes that China would be Cagayan’s partner for years to come. He said he was openly pro-China because he did not see any benefit from the US.

“I’m really pro-China. What will I do with America? This is the one that will invest in us. They’re the ones interested in us,” he said.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/?p=1539757#ixzz7HpsIARpK

ECOCIDE

Pipeline spills 300,000 gallons of diesel near New Orleans, killing fish, other animals

A 2020 inspection revealed external corrosion along a 22-foot section of pipe in the same area as the spill.

A cleanup crew works at the site of a diesel spill in this undated image, just outside New Orleans. More than 300,000 gallons of diesel spilled on Dec. 27, 2021

.Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality via AP

Jan. 12, 2022
By The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — A severely corroded pipeline ruptured and spilled more than 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel just outside New Orleans after needed repairs on the line were delayed by its operator, according to federal records.

Most of the fuel drained into two artificial ponds called “borrow pits” and thousands of fish, birds and other animals were killed, state and local officials said. Most of the fuel was recovered, according to the pipeline owner.

The spill from the 16-inch-diameter line operated by Collins Pipeline Co. was discovered Dec. 27 near a levee in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, according to documents from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

An inspection of the 42-year-old Meraux Pipeline more than a year earlier, in October 2020, revealed external corrosion along a 22-foot section of pipe in the same area as the spill. But repairs were delayed and the line continued operating after a subsequent inspection indicated the corrosion was not bad enough to require work immediately under federal regulations, according to the pipeline agency.

The spilled fuel also contaminated soil in an environmentally sensitive area near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a closed canal, according to state and federal officials. A small amount of diesel remains in the two borrow pits, said Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Gregory Langley.

The spill killed 2,300 fish and more than 100 other animals, including 39 snakes, 32 birds, a few eels and a blue crab, according to statistics provided by Robert “Trey” Iles, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Nearly 130 animals — 72 alligators, 23 birds, 20 snakes and 12 turtles — were captured for rehabilitation, he said.

Diesel is a highly toxic petroleum product that can kill fish and plants that come into direct contact with it, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Fuel from small spills can evaporate or disperse naturally in just a couple of days but larger spills can take months to degrade.

A pipeline safety advocate said it was “maddening” that the corrosion was known about for more than a year prior to the spill yet fuel kept flowing through the 125-mile-long line from Chalmette to a storage terminal in Collins, Mississippi.

“It’s especially maddening to learn that Collins Pipeline’s initial analysis deemed the pipe in such poor condition that it warranted an immediate repair,” said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust. The Bellingham, Washington-based organization advocates for more stringent oversight of the nation’s sprawling network of pipelines transporting oil, natural gas and other hazardous fuels.

Collins Pipeline is a subsidiary of Parsippany, New Jersey-based PBF Energy Inc., which owns six petroleum refineries in the U.S. including the Chalmette Refinery in St. Bernard Parish.

Fact-checking organizations say YouTube is a major spreader of misinformation



BY JAMES FARRELL
POLICY

JANUARY 12 2022

A letter signed today by more than 80 global fact-checking groups said Google LLC-owned YouTube is one of the “major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide.”

The letter, addressed to YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki, was signed by organizations in 46 countries and included the U.S.-based Washington Post fact-checker as well as FactCheck.org, France’s Science Feedback, Africa Check and the U.K.’s Full Fact.

They all agreed that YouTube’s strategy to fight misinformation is “insufficient.” The letter asked that YouTube increase measures to prevent channels from making money on YouTube if they spread such information, and do more to debunk or add more context to certain dubious narratives that appear on the platform. It also asks that YouTube design its algorithm better to prevent certain types of content from being promoted.

“YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by unscrupulous actors to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and fundraise themselves,” said the letter. “We urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation, and to elaborate a roadmap of policy and product interventions to improve the information ecosystem — and to do so with the world’s independent, non-partisan fact-checking organizations.”

Although the organizations that signed the letter are spread out in the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, the signatories wrote that there is a particularly big problem in what it designated as the global south, meaning nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

YouTube already works with numerous fact-checking organizations, most of which put their names on the letter. Nonetheless, they still say not enough is being done, especially in the realms of health information and political content, which the signatories said has caused real-world harm. In fairness, YouTube has blocked a lot of misinformation related to COVID-19 and the vaccines, but it seems the platform is still lagging in some countries.

YouTube thinks it’s already doing enough. Spokesperson Elena Hernandez told The Guardian that it not only cracks down on outright lies but also goes after “borderline” misinformation. “Over the years, we’ve invested heavily in policies and products in all countries we operate to connect people to authoritative content, reduce the spread of borderline misinformation, and remove violative videos,” she said, adding that the company has already seen progress globally.
Photo: Nordwood Themes/Unsplash

TOURIST TOWN POLITICAL ECONOMY

Leavenworth has become über expensive, pricing out the people who work there

JAN 12, 2022 
BY
 Libby Denkmann
 Sarah Leibovitz

When 80 percent of your local employees can't afford to live in town, what do you do?

Shay Helligso has lived in Leavenworth since she was six years old. She's worked at various stores around town for nine years. But she's not sure how much longer she'll be able to afford to stay.

"I'm actually a little like, semi homeless right now. I either stay at my partner's house, or I sleep on my mom's couch," Helligso said. "That's because working full time, you can't afford to live anywhere in Leavenworth."

People from the "west side" — how folks from eastern Washington tend to refer to Seattle-area residents — buy property for vacation homes, which drives up real estate values.

"It's really hard as someone who's grown up here and lives here, and like, their whole life is here and wants to keep living here," Helligso said. "Everything's bought up by people who can afford it, and you no longer can."

Leavenworth bookstore employee Shay Helligso
CREDIT: SARAH LEIBOVITZ/KUOW PHOTO

Shay said she moved away before, but she always ends up coming back. Because Leavenworth is home. Even if she can't afford an actual home there.

And Shay is not alone facing this dilemma.

Over 80% of Leavenworth's employees don't live in town. And that isn't just people working at tourist centers — that's teachers, and nurses. Jobs that are necessary to keep a community running smoothly.

Pamela Brulotte, the owner and founder of the München Haus Bavarian Grill and Beer Garden, and the Icicle Brewing Company in Leavenworth, said it's a struggle to keep up with the price of living.

"We want to take care of our employees and we try to have a very competitive and high wage that is a living wage," Brulotte said. "We as a business have struggled to keep pace with the housing market and what it costs now to afford housing in our area."

The München Haus Bavarian Grill and Beer Garden in Leavenworth, Washington
CREDIT: PAMELA BRULOTT

Brulotte said her businesses have seen more employee turn over with the pandemic. It's been a constant streaming of hiring people, and employees who do stay in town often live with roommates or in unusual living spaces.

Being a business owner means being a community leader, Brulotte said. But a single business owner can't solve a housing crisis.

Leavenworth Mayor Carl Florea is trying to do just that. He said a lot of Leavenworth's housing issues come from outside money entering the community.

"Everybody wants to be here. Well, guess what? Everybody isn't necessarily just workers, it's people with outside money that can come in and buy up our homes," Florea said. "Over 30% of the houses that you see here are second homes for somebody.

"The people with money that can bid those up, can bid them up far higher than the wages that a tourism economy creates.

"Nothing has been done to build affordable rentals or first time homebuyer homes."

Leavenworth is like an island, Florea said. Surrounded by forests, there's not that much room to build new developments. And the city needs an income stream for affordable housing.

Now, along with Republican State Senator Brad Hawkins, Florea may have a solution.

The mayor and state senator have partnered to create Senate Bill 5513, which would give counties an option to take 1% of revenue from the existing hotel-motel tax and put it toward workforce housing projects. If the bill passes, Florea said Leavenworth could see $600,000 coming in for affordable housing every year.

Mayor Florea said that he doesn't want to see less people coming to Leavenworth. The town welcomes more tourists. But it's about making it sustainable, both for people visiting, and those that live there.

Speak Now with Columnist Maddie Raymond: A look at white supremacy culture

Published: 1/12/2022

This last month has been hard for me. Even before I was rejected from my top college, and my mom tested positive for COVID-19 two days later, I was cracking under the weight of immense pressure, feeling the need to rest my body but at the same time fear that I wasn’t doing enough. I wasn’t searching up and applying for enough scholarships to make sure my parents could afford my education next year, wasn’t studying enough for AP physics (my hardest class) or putting in enough hours at my job. I was, and still am, exhausted, but I felt the need to keep going.

Sitting here in my room alone, reeling from the one-two punch that was the last week of my life, I wonder if I’m even qualified to write about rest. If I’m even qualified to tell you all that my inability to rest without guilt (and the one you likely have too) is a product of white supremacy culture. The culture that we all live in, which values quantity over quality and working through the pain. As usual, it is the system we live in that is at fault — the system us white people enforced on the world through colonial violence.

TemaOkun explains to us that the society we live in, the one that values perfection and black-and-white thinking, the one that hoards power and pushes us to work with urgency hanging over our heads, is but one way to live (white supremacy culture). It is the way formulated by the Dutch, the English, the colonizers that spread all over the world and coalesced their cultures into one they called whiteness in order to lord over everyone else. And the simple fact is, it hurts us all. Even us white people, though we simultaneously benefit from it.

But I’m not the best one to explain this, so I turn you over to a website I found called White Supremacy Culture. Based on the original 1999 article by TemaOkun outlining the tenets of the white supremacy culture we all operate in, it expands on these ideas, whether that be through art, further explanation, or collaboration with other activists such as Cristina Rivera Chapman of Earthseed Collective.

To me, this website was a soft place to land after the hardship of the last few weeks. It gave me the permission I needed to enjoy my downtime without the fear that I wasn’t enough, that in this sink-or-swim society we live in just because I didn’t want to push myself every second of every day. It helped me let go of that feeling I’d been harboring since my college rejection; that if I’d just done a little bit more and rested a little bit less I would’ve gotten in and avoided this devastation.

This culture that I have grown up in — that we have all grown up in — has worn me down. My whole life I have been told both consciously and unconsciously that there is one right way. That I have to become an expert in my field, and do what it takes to pull myself up and build a life all on my own. I struggle with the pressure of college season, with the guilt of how many adults have put effort in to raise me. I feel I must return on their investment.

Yet that’s exactly it, an example of white supremacy culture rearing its ugly head. I cannot speak for the horrific violence white supremacy and by extension the hatreds it cultivates and the culture it creates on marginalized people, but I can speak on how it is detrimental even to those it is supposed to support. To truly move in the direction of a liberated society for all people, we must actively practice dismantling the tenets of white supremacy culture, not just with others but with ourselves.

Personally, I know where I must work. I’m still stuck on the idea that a prestigious college and career are what I must have, and anything else will be at least a little lesser. I still feel I must work until my bones give out before I can rest. I’m still writing this to justify my rest. But I hope what I have shared with you gives you an outlet for solace, and an outlet for positive change. I don’t want to turn my pain into a product, but rather show the world that they are not alone in their hurt.No matter what kind of month you’ve had, I suggest you take a look at this website. For some, it will offer solace, like it did me. For some, it will offer an educational experience, or a call to action. Whatever the outcome, I hope you feel empowered to make some changes in your life to bring down these systems, whether that’s letting yourself rest more often, giving more grace to your employees or coworkers at work, or doing work to accept that more than one kind of path in life is acceptable. These are just examples, the website has so much more.

Maddie Raymond, who lives in the hilltowns, writes a monthly column.

Guest columnist Ilan Stavans: A Texas politician wants to investigate my book and 849 others — bring it on

Ilan Stavans, Amherst College Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture, at his Amherst home, in 2017.

By Ilan Stavans
Published: 1/12/2022 8:04:27 PM
Modified: 1/12/2022 8:03:38 PM


Editor’s note: This op-ed by longtime Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans originally ran last fall in The Forward, is a news media organization for a Jewish American audience.

State Rep. Matt Krause, a Republican candidate for Texas attorney general, has prepared a list of 850 books that, in his judgment, should be banned from the state’s classrooms. He is concerned that such books address sexual and racial themes that “make students feel uncomfortable.” According to news reports, Mr. Krause, who chairs the House Committee on General Investigating, is “initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content.”

I’m honored to have one of my books in that list. The book, “Quinceañera,” is about the rite of passage to adulthood among Latinas. I’m not sure Mr. Krause read it, but if he did, I can’t figure out anything particularly noxious he could find in it. Its audience isn’t Quinceañeras themselves; instead, the essays collected in it looks at the ritual itself — like the Jewish bar mitzvah — from an ethnographic perspective. Does he believe this is dangerous? Should Quinceaneras be seen as fairies instead?

Frankly, I would have preferred if Mr. Krause chose other books of mine. Like “Spanglish: The Making of a New America Language,” in which I argued that Spanglish, the mix of English and Spanish, will redefine the American social landscape in this century. It has made more than a few readers uncomfortable. Or “Mr. Spic Goes to Washington,” inspired in the Jimmy Stewart film of 1939, about a Chicano gang member who becomes a U.S. Senator. Or “How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish,” where racial and sexual themes are subtly featured. But I won’t complain. Instead, I want to thank him for the opportunity to engage him in dialogue.

In Mr. Krause’s view, my book and 849 others are threats to Texan students, and, therefore, to American democracy. We promote that demonic ideology called critical race theory. What is it about these three words — “critical,” “race,” “theory” — that makes them explosive? I have thought long and hard about them. To be critical is to approach our circumstance with a dose of skepticism. It doesn’t mean to undermine the tenets of our society, but to question them in order to improve on them. Race is one of the foundations of the American tapestry, starting with slavery. Diversity makes us strong. It is essential that we understand the interaction of races in order to strive for “a more perfect union.” And theory is what the Founding Fathers talked about when they imagined a nation that would improve on the handicaps of European models of the 18th century.

All this is to say that there is really nothing new under the sun. Nor is there in the banning of book. That is an ugly tradition in these shores. Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” Nabokov’s “Lolita,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The list is long, not unlike the index created in 1545 by the Spanish Inquisition that compiled European books considered heretical.

As Mr. Krause is aware, the allure of the forbidden is enormous; it is good for a book to be banned because it attracts readers. It happened in imperial China, in the Soviet Union, under Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and it will continue to happen until the end of times. In that sense, I thank the Texas State Representative for the honor. Ray Bradbury, whose novel “Fahrenheit 451” is an extraordinary plea against cancel culture, thought there are worse crimes than burning books. “One of them is not reading them.”
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We must be vigilant against the excesses Mr. Krause indulges in. Where I most adamantly disagree with him, however, is in his view of students. He seems to believe that making students uncomfortable is a pedagogical sin. That, to me, is more alarming than the insidious list he has compiled. I’m sorry to break the news but the classroom is a place designed precisely for discomfort. Not to make students feel unsafe, but to introduce them to the complexities of life. How else does one do that if not through uneasiness?

Americans fetishize comfort and Mr. Krause is a prime example. A common expression in our national language these days is “the comfort zone.” Leaving such a bubble is deemed risky. Yet it is only when we do leave it that we realize the true size of our talent and scope of our dreams. It is ridiculous to think that teachers indoctrinate students. What we strive for is to make them think, which, let me assure you, is much harder. Not to make them think like us, but to make them think independently. The least satisfying response a teacher ever gets from a student is the one that is most expected; the best response is the one that surprises us, making us think things anew.

Yes, we want for them to think critically, even about us teachers, but also about the politicians that represent them, and about the world as a whole. We want to make them skeptical not for the fun of it, but because it is the best way to discern what’s valuable and what isn’t in the onslaught of information that overwhelms us every day. Democracy is a messy system; no one said it was harmonious. But ideas cannot be killed. They always manage to spring back. America, Mr. Krause, isn’t only a marketplace of material goods; ideas, too, are sold and bought. Trying to protect students won’t make them more intelligent; on the contrary, it is an invitation for ignorance.

I’m an immigrant from Mexico. The nefarious legacy of the Spanish Inquisition is still palpable in modes of thinking in the Hispanic world. It is vividly present in the memorable chapter VI in Part I of “Don Quixote” in which a priest and a barber throw Alonso Quijana’s personal books out the window because they are the reason he went mad. Today readers in Mexico talk of that chapter as a cautionary tale: Don Quixote doesn’t lose his mind because he reads too much; he loses his mind because Spanish reality in the 17th century was too uncritical.

Likewise, I’m a descendent of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. My family fled Eastern Europe because of poverty and antisemitism. Soon after, Hitler burned Jewish books. As Mr. Krause knows, where books go up in flames, so do people.

I don’t write these words facetiously. As I said, I welcome the opportunity for dialogue. Mr. Krause is running for attorney general, meaning he understands how important dialogue is in democracy. I therefore invite him to a public debate on the value about having a critical eye about topics he and I hold dear. We should talk about censorship and about our tragically polarized country. And about his list. Was it done simply to attract publicity? Is there anything in those 850 books that he deems worthy? What kinds of books does he actually believe students ought to have access to? Has he ever taught in a classroom? Was the experience significant? Did he feel uncomfortable at any point? What were the consequences of that discomfort?

Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Kruse and I, as a result of that conversation, could find that neither of us is a bigot.

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin America and Latino Culture at Amherst College, the publisher of Restless Books, and a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. His latest book is “Jewish Literature: A Very Short Introduction” (OUP).

Ohio Congressman posts Nazi health card in attack on DC vaccine mandate

Warren Davidson (OH) was the latest Republican to liken vaccine mandates and public health measures to Nazi-era regulations – a practice condemned by Jewish and Holocaust remembrance groups.

By RON KAMPEAS/JTA
Published: JANUARY 13, 2022 

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a Republican from Ohio, listens at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on oversight of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve coronavirus pandemic response on Capitol Hill on in Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2021.
(photo credit: Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS)

Warren Davidson, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, posted a photo of a Nazi-era health pass and compared Washington, DC’s vaccine mandate to the Nazis’ dehumanization of Jews in urging local residents not to comply.

Jewish groups and Jewish Democrats blasted Davidson for the comparison, which appeared in a tweet commenting on new vaccine instructions shared by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“This has been done before,” Davidson said Wednesday on Twitter, posting a Nazi-era health pass that appears to be from a website selling Nazi memorabilia and has been circulating on the internet among anti-vaccine activists. He added the hashtag “#DoNotComply.”

Starting Saturday, anyone 12 and older will need to show proof of at least one vaccine shot before entering D.C. restaurants and other indoor venues.

COVID-19 Vaccination record card and a blue pen on black background. 

(credit: VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

“Let’s recall that the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people before segregating them, segregated them before imprisoning them, imprisoned them before enslaving them, and enslaved them before massacring them,” Davidson tweeted.

Davidson was the latest Republican to liken vaccine mandates and public health measures to Nazi-era regulations, a practice condemned by Jewish and Holocaust remembrance groups.

“In what is becoming a disturbing trend, @WarrenDavidson is the latest elected official to exploit the Holocaust by making immoral and offensive comparisons between vaccine mandates and this dark period of history,” the American Jewish Committee said on Twitter. “Congressman, you must remove this shameful post and apologize.’

Ohio State Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat in that state legislature’s Jewish caucus, pleaded with Davidson to retract the tweet. “Congressman, a vaccine requirement meant to PROTECT lives is NOT the same thing as the systematic GENOCIDAL MURDER of 6,000,000 Jews,” he said on Twitter.

GOP lawmaker compares DC vaccine protocols to Nazi Germany

By Brian Rokus and Annie Grayer,

 CNN
Wed January 12, 2022

Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio

(CNN)Republican Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio is drawing condemnation from his House colleagues for his comparison of Washington, DC's vaccine and Covid-19 protocols to Nazi Germany.

Responding to a tweet from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser reminding residents that proof of vaccination will be required to enter many business in the city beginning on Saturday, Davidson tweeted an image of a Nazi document with the comment, "This has been done before. #DoNotComply."

Davidson separately tweeted Wednesday, "Let's recall that the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people before segregating them, segregated them before imprisoning them, imprisoned them before enslaving them, and enslaved them before massacring them."

Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who is Jewish, told CNN's Jake Tapper that he confronted Davidson about the tweet

"I told him that the use of such imagery wasn't just a repugnant and dangerous false equivalency, but deeply offensive and painful for Jewish people," Phillips said. "I said I'd debate mandates and tyranny whenever he wishes, but there's no debate on the offense of his post. He could have cared less."

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois also responded to Tapper, saying, "This is the new politics. It's not about leading anymore. It's about how can we out-outrage the other person."

"It's insane," Kinzinger added. "Every Republican leader needs to be condemning that kind of B.S. right now."

Davidson's office did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment on the criticism.
The Anti-Defamation League also tweeted a response to Davidson, writing, "It's never appropriate to compare requirements for public health with the tactics of Nazi Germany. As we've said too many times to count, minimizing the Holocaust in this way is deeply offensive and harmful."

Nicaragua In The Multipolar World – OpEd

Flag of Nicaragua.

January 13, 2022

By Margaret Kimberley

The United States and the European Union announced new sanctions on the day that Daniel Ortega was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. The move was not surprising, given that the United States congress passed the RENACER Act one week before elections which were held on November 7.

The people of Nicaragua have acted in defiance of the United States ever since the 1979 revolution. First, Ronald Reagan used reactionary forces, the Contras, as proxies in an attempt to destroy the new government. The Reagan administration mined Nicaragua’s harbors and fomented a war which cost an estimated 30,000 lives. The United States still owes Nicaragua $17 billion in compensation for the damage it created decades ago.

It is Nicaragua that has acted as a democratic nation, as the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) gave up power in 1990 after losing an election. They were re-elected in 2007 and three more times, but the desires of the Nicaraguan people are of no importance to the United States. All talk of democracy is a cynical ruse used to secure a neoliberal government which will act as a U.S. vassal state.

The Donald Trump administration picked up where Reagan left off when it instigated a 2018 coup attempt which brought violence and havoc to the country yet again. As in all other foreign policy decisions Joe Biden followed Trump, and called the 2021 election a fraud before it had even taken place. As one of more than 200 election acompañantes, companions, this columnist witnessed a process which was open to all citizens and where opposition candidates freely campaigned.

The bipartisan RENACER Act passed by a huge margin, by voice vote in the Senate and then with 387 in favor and only 35 opposed in the House of Representatives. Biden signed the new law just three days after the election. It is a classic example of hybrid warfare, as it calls for “supporting independent news media and freedom of information in Nicaragua.” Such language is a declaration of interference in the rights of a sovereign nation, in short, a blueprint for war propaganda and regime change.

Fortunately for the people of Nicaragua, the United States is not the only player on the world stage. As part of its effort to protect itself from U.S. aggression and align itself with the majority of the world’s people, Nicaragua established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, making clear that it would not give up its rights easily. China enthusiastically accepted the recognition and immediately began to discuss new partnerships between the two nations. China also donated 1 million doses of its Sinopharm covid vaccine.

The United States surely has power, and can force its puppets at the Organization of American States (OAS) to join in the non recognition of the Nicaraguan election. But the days of the Monroe Doctrine, and claims that the entire hemisphere are “America’s backyard” are given no credence anywhere else but in Washington.

Nicaragua’s sovereignty is the heart of the matter. It doesn’t matter what Joe Biden or members of the Senate and House think about that government. It also doesn’t matter what fair weather leftists have to say either. The facts are on the side of the Nicaraguans. There were no presidential candidates jailed before the election. There were golpistas, the coup makers, who defied their government’s amnesty and legitimate legislation requiring that they disclose foreign funding.

Be that as it may, anti-imperialists in this country and elsewhere in the world must defend the rights of self-determination for Nicaraguans and all other people. Their choices and their struggles are their own and no one here in the empire has a right to judge what they say are “mistakes.” Nicaragua’s human rights record is head and shoulders above that of the U.S.

Joe Biden presided over mass incarceration as a senator. He enthusiastically supported wars of aggression against Iraq and Libya. Nicaragua has no reason to explain itself to him or to liberals who happily take on propaganda points and in so doing make common cause with claims of American exceptionalism.

A classic regime change trope is to refer to the targeted country as “isolated ,” which means nothing more than being in U.S. cross hairs. As a member of a Black Alliance for Peace delegation in Nicaragua, this columnist saw the presidents of Venezuela and Cuba, and diplomatic representatives from Russia, China, Angola, India, Sudan, Vietnam, Japan, Syria, Libya and Palestine among others, in attendance at the presidential inauguration. Billions of people from every continent were represented there and prove that U.S./NATO/EU opinions carry little weight elsewhere.

Nicaragua does not have to suffer insults at the hands of the Organization of American States (OAS), Washington’s creation and vassal. It made the principled decision to leave the OAS and expose the group for the sham that it is. Nicaragua is represented in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), an independent organization working in consensus on behalf of millions of people.

The United States is still a military and economic power. But that power has its limits, which is why the need to undermine a small Central American country with a population of only 6.5 million people is given such a high priority. Every victory against U.S. authoritarianism is significant. Just consider how much effort is put into marginalizing those countries that do manage to exist outside of U.S. influence. The world is multi-polar and Nicaragua’s continuing efforts to shape its own destiny is proof.

Margaret Kimberley's is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com."

 

Is Democracy Falling Out of Popularity With White Americans?

Are we moving in the wrong direction? Let’s unpack this.

Allison Gaines

5 days ago

Statue of Liberty in 1905 | Universal Historical Archives | Getty Images

One of the most iconic American symbols, the Statue of Liberty, was a gift from France. So, why did the French give America a statue in the likeness of the Roman goddess Libertas in 1885? French artist and abolitionist Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi wanted to celebrate this born-again version of America, the triumph of the Union army, which liberated all enslaved African people within her borders. The Statue of Liberty became a gift to celebrate a newly founded multiracial democracy.

Without abolition, we would not have the Statue of Liberty gazing over the New York Harbor. See, France abolished slavery in 1794, and the Confederacy’s attempt to maintain slavery did not bode well amongst the French, who had long abandoned the barbaric practice. We never hear about why the French gifted the statue in public schools, which sends a message that Black liberation is inconsequential. Yet, at the Statue of Liberty Museum in New York, the curators clearly state that the Statue of Liberty “was created to celebrate freed slaves, not immigrants.”

Lady Liberty was originally designed to celebrate the end of slavery, not the arrival of immigrants. Ellis Island, the inspection station through which millions of immigrants passed, didn’t open until six years after the statue was unveiled in 1886. The plaque with the famous Emma Lazarus poem — “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — wasn’t added until 1903 (Brockell, 2019).

Democracy has always been a temperamental topic in America because only White, landowning men had the right to vote and have agency when the nation began. So, the Statue of Liberty represents an expansion of democratic principles, and in that way, it has become an appropriate symbol to welcome immigrants. Unfortunately, however, somewhere along this arduous colorblind journey, many Americans have forgotten the true purpose of the Statue of Liberty. In the same way, many White Americans have become disenchanted with the concept of democracy.

The principles of freedom and self-governance sounded great when this only protected White people’s interests. Still, now that democracy is once again trying to expand, cement the rights of a multiracial population through voting rights protections, democracy has become less popular. As Rick Shenkman wrote in Politico, “Democracy is hard work and requires a lot from those who participate in it. It requires people to respect those with different views from theirs and people who don’t look like them.”

French abolitionists believed that Americans were capable of the hard work required to embody democratic principles. And, while it may not look like it from the outside, Americans are trying. But, now we’re faced with the obstacle of anti-scientific, anti-historical propaganda that has become intrinsically linked to a group of White Americans more interested in preserving power in the hands of few than embracing what it means to live in a true democracy. I can’t help but think that many White Americans who oppose voting rights legislation are losing their way. And that includes those who say they support voting rights but won’t vote to protect them.

Initially, many Black Americans considered the Statue of Liberty a “false idol,” which reminded them of the false promises made at the end of the Civil War. While the Union army and the Confederacy put down their arms and stopped fighting, Black Americans bore the brunt of white backlash. Yet, the symbol of the Statue of Liberty, while a beautiful gesture from White men who wanted to dismantle slavery in all corners of the world, seemed a cruel reminder of the gap between American democracy and Black people’s access to civil rights.

“Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean,” the Gazette argued, “until the ‘liberty’ of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man in the South to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the ‘liberty’ of this country ‘enlightening the world,’ or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme (Smithsonian).

Bartholdi displayed the statue’s head at the 1878 world fair in Paris | Photo Credit | Library of Congress

The Statue of Liberty may have been a false idol to Black people, as writers in the Gazette argued years ago. However, it’s the responsibility of Americans and those who believe in democracy to make it true. You see, Bartholdi did not gift the Statue of Liberty because America was perfect or even exceptional. Rather, as many Americans still do, he believed that America would one day be a self-governed, multicultural, multireligious, multiracial democracy that embraces differences as strengths and not weaknesses.

As of late, The United States has been backsliding into authoritarianism, with some Americans rejecting the democratic principles that made her worthy of receiving the Statue of Liberty. Studies show Democracy has been falling out of favor with White American conservatives in particular; 90% oppose making it easier to vote. A Vox report revealed, “the Republican turn against democracy begins with race,” with many scoring high on the ethnic antagonism scale.

Those who believe America should embody democratic values, stay vigilant, organize, and plan to vote. Democracy may be falling out of popularity, but it’s worth preserving. Americans should remember that expanding who has access to our democracy strengthens it. And unless we plan on giving back the Statue of Liberty, it’s time we commit to living up to those values and embrace a more perfect democratic union.