Buffalo shooter's manifesto shows folly of 'lone wolf' theory when there is an 'apparatus of hate': analysis

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Screengrab.

The existence of a racist manifesto reportedly posted online by an 18-year-old white male before killed ten people in a mass shooting rampage in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York shows the limits of a "lone wolf" theory explaining how people are radicalized, a CNN homeland security analyst explained on Saturday.

Juliette Kayyem was interviewed about a 106-page manifesto pushing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory that was reportedly written by the suspect whose rampage is being investigated as a hate crime.

CNN's Pamela Brown inteviewed Kayyem after the network's Brian Stelter reported the online video company Twitch confirmed the suspect live-streamed the shooting.

"There's two issues going on. So you can say that someone acted alone and that's what we tend to think of as lone wolf, that it's not five people or ten people or orchestrated attack. But the idea of a lone wolf, I think, I've been saying for a couple of years should be put to rest, because in every single up with of these cases, you're seeing an apparatus that essentially supported their hate," she explained.

"Now that might not have been an apparatus that told them to do this on that date, but these are people who are getting radicalized by an ecosystem of hate. this is what the FBI has been documenting for over a decade, it's what we mean in government when we violent extremism," she explained. "Lone wolf makes sound like they woke up one day and just decided to kill a bunch of Black people. That just doesn't happen."

"The reason why the manifesto is relevant is it will show where did that apparatus and the hate come from," she explained. "Lone wolf excuses an apparatus of hate that exists in this country and is the number one terror threat in this country right now."

That apparatus was in full display in 2021 when Fox News personality Tucker Carlson pushed the same "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. When the Anti-Defamation League called on the network to fire the host, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called the ADL "a racist organization" and claimed Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."

Watch:
Lone Wolf www.youtube.com

  

Buffalo shooting came 8 months after NY newspaper warned of congresswoman's racist conspiracy theory

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) smiles after House Republicans voted for her as their conference chairperson at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 14, 2021

.( Mandel Ngan/AFP)

Saturday's mass shooting in New York occurred less than eight months after a local newspaper scolded a Republican congresswoman for pushing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory.

"A white 18-year-old wearing military gear and live-streaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10 people and wounding three others Saturday in what authorities described as 'racially motived violent extremism.' The gunman wore body armor and military-style clothing during the attack on mostly Black shoppers and workers at Tops Friendly Market," the Times Union reported Saturday.

The suspect was identified by the newspaper as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York.

Prior to the shooting, the white 18-year-old reportedly posted a 106-page manifesto citing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory as motivation.

In September of 2021, the newspaper's editorial board wrote about the conspiracy theory.

"Back in 2017, white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Va., carrying torches and chanting, 'You will not replace us' and 'Jews will not replace us.' Decent Americans recoiled at the undeniable echo of Nazi Germany," began the editorial, which was illustrated with a photo of the notorious Charlottesville tiki torch march.

"That rhetoric has been resonating ever since in the right wing, repackaged lately in what’s known as 'replacement theory,' espoused by conservative media figures like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. And it has seeped into the mainstream political discourse in the Capital Region, where Rep. Elise Stefanik has adapted this despicable tactic for campaign ads," the editorial board wrote.

Stefanik, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, is the third-ranking Republican in Congress.

"Ms. Stefanik isn’t so brazen as to use the slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric that’s become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump. And she doesn’t quite attack immigrants directly; instead, she alleges that Democrats are looking to grant citizenship to undocumented immigrants in order to gain a permanent liberal majority, or, as she calls it, a 'permanent election insurrection.' Quite a choice of words, of course, considering that the country is still suffering the aftershocks of the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington by supporters of Mr. Trump who tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election," the newspaper wrote.

The editorial board wrote that Stefanik knew what she was doing was wrong.

"The Harvard-educated Ms. Stefanik surely knows the sordid history and context of this. The idea of stoking racial, ethnic, and religious tribalism among voters dates back to this country’s earliest days. At various times, politicians have warned that Catholics, Jews, or Muslims were out to change the “culture,” or that Irish, Italian, Asian or eastern European immigrants would take the jobs — to 'replace' white, Protestant Americans," the editorial board explained. "If there’s anything that needs replacing in this country — and in the Republican party — it’s the hateful rhetoric that Ms. Stefanik and far too many of her colleagues so shamelessly spew."

Stefanik did not mention racism in her statement on the shooting, but did mention National Police Week.

Stefanik is not the only Republican member of Congress with history on the issue.

Also in September of 2021, after the Anti-Defamation League called on the network to fire Tucker Carlson for pushing the racist conspiracy theory, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared the ADL "a racist organization" and claimed Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."

OMG A CATHOLIC IS POTUS

Roger Stone elaborates on the 'satanic portal' he claims is visible above the White House

Bob Brigham
May 15, 2022

Roger Stone is due to appear in court in Florida on Friday.

 (AFP/File / SAUL LOEB)

Notorious GOP dirty trickster and longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone believes there is a portal to hell that is visible above the White House.

In April, Right Wing Watch reported, "“Elijah Streams” is a daily program produced by the Elijah List, a website with a mission to “'ind and publish the most credible prophetic words possible.' Generally, the content produced by both the website and the livestream program consists of wild conspiracy theories, often about how God is supposedly working to save the United States through modern-day 'prophets' and former President Donald Trump."

Stone appeared on the program to discuss Satin's entryway.

"Stone asserted that a friend had sent him photos showing a 'satanic portal' appearing over the White House after President Joe Biden took office, and so he reached out to conspiracy theorist and 'prophet' Robin Bullock to arrange an appearance on 'Elijah Streams' so he could share the startling news and photos," the site reported.

In the video clip, Stone says he is not joking about there being a satanic portal over the White House.

"I just thought I was a political warrior. But this is no longer a war in the political realm, and I do know how it comes out because I know how the Bible comes out. I don’t know exactly what the plan is, but I do know that closing this portal is crucial to victory. I want others to talk about it. I want others to see it. … This is not some practical joke. This isn’t some conspiracy theory. I’m absolutely convinced that this is demonic," Stone said. "It is a satanic portal. It is access to this Earth by those who are evil, and only by closing it will we be successful in saving this nation under God.”

In a Friday evening speech in South Carolina, Stone returned to the topic and demanded the satanic portal be closed by prayer.

“Yes, ladies and gentleman, there is a satanic portal above the White House, you can see it day and night," he claimed. "It exists, it is real, and it must be closed, and it will be closed by prayer."

Activists push Louis DeJoy to hand over secret documents

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
May 14, 2022

Post Office Trucks (Shutterstock)

A pair of green groups on Thursday appealed the U.S. Postal Service's rejection of a Freedom of Information Act request seeking to uncover details about the mail agency's contract to purchase more than 160,000 new delivery trucks, 90% of which are expected to be gas-powered.

"As the USPS forges ahead with its ill-conceived and controversial decision to pollute communities across the nation instead of electrifying their delivery trucks, we demand to see the details surrounding the agency's decision," said Elena Saxonhouse, managing attorney with the Sierra Club, which joined Elders Climate Action in filing the administrative appeal.

"As USPS proceeds to implement the Oshkosh contract, it should not keep the proposal leading to that contract secret."

The groups are specifically pressing the Postal Service to release the proposal that Oshkosh Defense, a Wisconsin-based company, submitted before it won the lucrative 10-year deal to manufacture the new mail vehicles.

"The USPS must be more transparent about the Oshkosh proposal and contract," Saxonhouse said.

Spearheaded by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Postal Service's decision to replace its aging and increasingly hazardous delivery fleet with mostly gas-powered trucks sparked outrage and pushback from climate organizations, Democratic lawmakers, and the Biden administration.

Last month, green groups joined forces with 16 state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit that aims to halt the Postal Service's agreement with Oshkosh, contending that the environmental impact analysis underpinning the deal is so shoddy that it violates the National Environmental Policy Act.

With their filing on Thursday, Sierra Club and Elders Climate Action alleged that the USPS is "improperly withholding records" related to the Oshkosh contract, which is worth billions of dollars.

"As USPS proceeds to implement the Oshkosh contract over the objections of the White House and many others," the filing states, "it should not keep the proposal leading to that contract secret."

Sierra Club and Elders Climate Action filed their initial FOIA request for records surrounding the agreement more than a year ago.

"The Postal Service's pass to pollute is reprehensible, and the public outcry around it should be evidence enough," Katherine García, director of Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement Thursday. "The significance of the harm done to climate and public health by introducing a new fleet of gas-powered trucks for decades to come can't be overstated."

"We will use all lawful means necessary to stop this short-sighted decision," García vowed.

The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), is also pushing the Postal Service to furnish more information about its vehicle purchase, which could have major implications for President Joe Biden's effort to electrify the federal fleet.

In a letter to DeJoy dated Wednesday, Maloney voiced concern that "the Postal Service relied on flawed assumptions to justify the purchase of gas-powered trucks while underestimating the cost savings and environmental benefits from electric vehicles."

Demanding more transparency from the agency, Maloney requested that the Postal Service turn over "all documents and communications, including all analyses, related to the determination of a planned 90/10 split of gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles."

Earlier this week, the oversight panel approved legislation that would toss out the Postal Service's environmental impact review of the new vehicle agreement and force the agency to conduct a new assessment.

"The Oversight Committee strongly supports the purchase of electric vehicles for the Postal Service's fleet, which will position the Postal Service as an environmental leader," Maloney wrote in her letter Wednesday. "An all-electric Postal Service fleet would reduce costs, increase reliability, and improve the Postal Service's ability to efficiently deliver mail and packages."

"Electrifying the next generation of Postal Service vehicles," the New York Democrat added, "is also essential to achieving the nation's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change."

Laboratory mice are usually distressed and overweight, calling into question research findings
The Conversation
May 13, 2022

Mice (AFP Inti Ocon)

Over 120 million laboratory rats and mice are used worldwide each year. Many are used to study distressing conditions like cancer, arthritis and chronic pain, and nearly all spend their lives in small, empty box-like cages: a kind of permanent lockdown.

Our new analysis shows that this restrictive, artificial housing causes rats and mice to be chronically stressed, changing their biology. This raises worrying questions about their welfare — and about how well they represent typical human patients.

We identified this impact of housing by extracting data from over 200 studies that investigated the effects of cage design on health outcomes known to be stress-sensitive in humans, such as mortality rates and the severity of illnesses like cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke.

The importance of housing

The studies we synthesized all compared conventional “shoeboxes” — the small, barren cages typical in labs — with better-resourced housing containing running wheels, nest boxes, additional space or other items that allow natural behaviours like digging, climbing, exploring and hiding. Across the board, the animals in conventional cages became sicker than ones in better-resourced housing. For example, if given cancer, they developed larger tumours.

Conventionally housed animals were also at greater risk of dying, their average lifespans reduced by about nine per cent. Scientists have known for decades that rats and mice want more comfort, exercise and stimulation than is normally provided, and that conventional cages therefore induce abnormal behaviour and anxiety.

But this is the first evidence that they also cause chronic distress severe enough to compromise animals’ health.


When mice are contained in stimulating environments, they are healthier.
(Aileen MacLellan), Author provided

Stressed-out findings

Our study – like many others before us — also found evidence of methodological problems and poor reporting of experimental details. For example, the rodents used were male-biased, with few studies using female animals.

Furthermore, despite investigating housing effects, two-thirds of the studies in our analysis did not fully describe animals’ living conditions. Our findings support many previous suggestions that rats and mice living in barren cages that lack stimulation may not be suitable models, for several reasons. Research animals are typically male, as well as often overweight, sometimes chronically cold and cognitively impaired.

We suspect that the reliance on “CRAMPED” animals — cold, rotund, abnormal, male-biased, enclosed and distressed — could help explain the current low success rates of biomedical research. There are already examples of research studies generating quite different conclusions depending on how their animals are held, and we now aim to assess the extent to which this occurs.

That housing is critical for rodent biology, yet often poorly described in papers, could also help explain the “replicability crisis”: that at least 50 per cent of preclinical research results cannot be replicated when other scientists re-run a study.


Housing is critical for the well-being of laboratory mice.
(Understanding Animal Research/Wikimedia Commons)

Canadian policies

Only one to two per cent of the world’s research animals live in Canada, so why should Canadians care? For one, because this still means 1.5 million to two million animals are being unintentionally stressed: something that anyone who cares about animals will find concerning. But if animal housing does indeed change research conclusions, then that has financial implications too. Canada spends about $4 billion a year on health research. Following U.S. estimates, if half of that is animal-based, of which only 50 per cent is reproducible, then Canada may be spending around $1 billion a year on non-replicable animal studies.

And even when studies are replicable, well under five per cent of them yield usable medical benefits for humans. This is a huge contrast with the Canadian public’s expectation that approximately 60 per cent of animal work leads to new human drugs.

Canadian standards require that mice be provided with nesting materials that can keep them warm, but is it time to improve them further?

The “shoeboxes” that rats and mice currently live in should stop being ignored as if a neutral backdrop, and instead be seen as a determinant of health: one we can modify, improve and study. Doing so would allow us to better model the diverse social determinants of human health, and improve animal well-being at the same time.

Georgia Mason, Professor, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph and Jessica Cait, Doctoral student, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The sneaky way the right to protest is becoming imperiled

Mia Brett
May 14, 2022

Protest (Wade Jackman / Shutterstock.com)

The right to peaceably assemble and protest is dearly held in the American imagination dating back to the Boston Tea Party.

While the response to peaceful protests by non-white people and women was not always embraced at the time, the narratives of suffrage parades and Civil Rights marches have been embraced in American history as the “right” way to protest free of violence or incitement.

Despite the near-universal praise for peaceful protests of the past, when activists take these historical lessons to heart and protest current injustices, those in power must be reminded anew each time that peaceful protest is vital to American history and a thriving democracy.

And so we are once again left to educate Supreme Court justices and senators on the Bill of Rights and assure them that people holding signs outside their homes are not a threat, but simply exercising one of our most treasured freedoms – the freedom to tell a powerful person they’ve royally screwed up.

This past week protests erupted outside Justices Kavanaugh, Roberts and Alito’s homes to protest the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade after Justice Alito’s draft opinion was leaked for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

The protests outside the Justices' homes, and the terrifying sidewalk chalk incident outside of Senator Collins’ home, have been peaceful. Yet many are clutching their pearls at the idea that someone could face protests at their private home.

It’s not clear why these protests are so offensive to people or why the private home of people questioning a constitutional right to privacy should be off limits.

Some have claimed these protests aren’t fair to their neighbors but the protests in front of Justice Kavanaugh’s home were organized by a neighbor and protestors felt pretty supported by Justice Alito’s neighbors with some even offering wine and cheese to a reporter covering them.

When asked about these protests, Senator Schumer shrugged them off and said such peaceful protests are “the American way.” He would know since he faces protests at his home in Brooklyn multiple times a week (without calling the police as far as I know).

The right of “freedom of assembly” is held in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which protects freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Supreme Court has also repeatedly protected this right in the face of government intrusion.

In De Jong v. Oregon in 1937, the Supreme Court said the state could not interfere in De Jong’s right to organize a protest against police brutality. This case was particularly important in that it emphasized a difference between “advocacy” and “incitement” in that advocacy for communist ideas did not necessarily incite violence to overthrow the government.

It struck down Oregon’s “criminal syndicalism” law, which prohibited advocacy of “any unlawful acts or methods as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political change or revolution.”


In Edwards v. South Carolina in 1963, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of students for supposedly “disturbing the peace” when they were protesting segregation. The majority opinion wrote that the students were exercising their First Amendment rights in the “most pristine form.”

Freedom of assembly clearly has limits with one built right into the language of the First Amendment in that the assembly must be “peaceable.”

Violent action, like speech that incites violence, is not protected.

While this is a reasonable limit, it also provides an unfortunate method of delegitimizing protest – those in power can claim protests are inciting violence or lawlessness.

In Justice Clark’s lone dissent in Edwards v. South Carolina, he employed the threat of violence to justify the police’s actions in arresting the peaceful protestors. Clark claimed the protestors were not engaging in a “passive demonstration” and that the police were preventing a possible riot.

The fear of possible violence supported laws passed after the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831 to prohibit the assembly of free Black people all over the south.

The majority of these assemblies were peaceful and often devoted to schooling or religious worship. But the threat of another rebellion was enough to justify outlawing this basic constitutionally protected freedom. Theodore Dwight Weld said these laws were indicative of “‘the right of peaceably assembling’ violently wrested” in 1836.

At the same time in the north, abolitionists, including free Black people and white women, were taking advantage of this constitutional right to hold meetings, conventions and give speeches.

While these abolitionist tactics set the stage for the suffrage movement and the Civil Rights movement, many at the time criticized an assembly of a mixed gender and interracial group.

The behavior of the abolitionists were criticized while mobs disrupted their meetings and speeches. At an 1835 meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, the mayor burst in with his constables to demand the women go home rather than control the mob of people disrupting the meeting.

Racial justice protests in recent years have been delegitimized with claims of violence and looting even though data shows that 93 percent of such protests were completely peaceful.

While there have been no reports of violence as a result of abortion protests this week, even though Susan Collins called the police about sidewalk chalk, the Senate has still decided to pass a bill to increase security for Supreme Court justices.

While not a big deal on its face (who cares if they have security), the need for the bill implies a threat of violence that there is no evidence for.

Once again completely peaceful protests are being maligned with the mere possibility of future violence which would delegitimize their constitutional protection.

The governors of Maryland and Virginia are trying to stop the protests by demanding that the Department of Justice enforce a federal law that prohibits demonstrations intended to influence judges on decisions.

This is a particularly obnoxious attempt to stop the protests considering justices are clearly influenced by politics and conservative justices regularly give speeches at political gatherings. Clarence Thomas won't even recuse himself from January 6 cases despite his wife’s involvement.

It’s ridiculous to think any of these justices would be swayed by public opinion and enforcing this law to stop the current protests could set a dangerous precedent that limits constitutional rights if protesting anything related to a Supreme Court case.

The real history of protesting in the United States is that those in power are always threatened and seek to find ways to suppress protests, but the public imagination forgets those actions and fondly remembers successful protests as deeply American. Senators and justices concerned with their legacy might want to reread how much our history books love a good protest.

Mia Brett, PhD, is a legal historian. She lives with her gorgeous dog, Tchotchke. You can find her @queenmab87

Republicans want Supreme Court demonstrators arrested. Is that legal?
Jon Skolnik, Salon
May 14, 2022

Sen. Tom Cotton (R) - (Photo by Tasos Katopodis for AFP)

Hundreds of pro-choice demonstrators have gathered outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and John Roberts since a draft decision reversing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision affirming America's constitutional right to abortion, leaked. The protests – featuring signs, chants, and candle-lit vigils – have remained peaceful demonstrations. But while no threats or acts of violence have been reported in connection to these demonstrations, Republicans are already tarring them as immoral, illegal, and even terroristic, going so far as to call on the Justice Department to prosecute individuals.

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that the protesters "should be arrested for protesting in the homes of judges, jurors and prosecutors."

RELATED: "Clean up your mess": Cops called to home of Sen. Susan Collins over chalk protest

"There is a federal law that prohibits the protesting of judges' homes," Cotton told NBC News. "Anybody protesting a judge's home should be arrested on the spot by federal law enforcement. If [protesters] want to raise a First Amendment defense, they are free to do so."

"The President may choose to characterize protests, riots, and incitements of violence as mere passion," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, echoed in a Wednesday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. "But these attempts to influence and intimidate members of the federal judiciary are an affront to judicial independence."

The Republican governors of both Virginia and Maryland, where the three justices' homes are located, have also joined the chorus, urging Garland to "provide appropriate resources to safeguard the justices and enforce the law as it is written."

Even some Democrats came forward to condemn the demonstrations, including most notably Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who this week went so far as to call the protests "reprehensible."

"Stay away from the homes and families of elected officials and members of the court," Durbin told CNN. "You can express yourself, exercise your First Amendment rights, but to go after them at their homes, to do anything of a threatening nature, certainly anything violent, is absolutely reprehensible."

RELATED: Virginia's GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin hit by conservatives for failing to crack down on SCOTUS protests

To make their case, Republican pundits and politicians have for the most part hung their hat on an esoteric legal statute, first enacted in 1950, that makes it illegal to picket or parade "in or near a building or residence occupied or used by [a] judge, juror, witness, or court officer" with "the intent of influencing [that] judge." The statute, 18 U.S. Code § 1507, is seemingly designed to protect members of the judiciary from protests that might obstruct justice through fear or intimidation and was first enacted as part of the "Internal Security Act of 1950," a McCarthy-era law that sought to address fears that communism was creeping into the judiciary.

Historically, the courts have hewed closely to laws that protect juries and justices from any outside political influences, as Law & Crime noted. Still, the legality of the protests remains something of an open question.

Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, told Salon that it's unlikely this week's demonstrations would be ruled illegal under 18 U.S. Code § 1507.

"I always have read [that statute] as 'impeding the officers ability to get to the court, or from the court to take part in proceedings' ... or terrorizing them with loudspeakers in front of their houses," he explained in an interview. "There's really no interpretation by which one could say that [the protests are] untoward or illegal in my understanding of the law and the Constitution and the history of protest in our country."

Anuj C. Desai, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, expressed a little more doubt, arguing that the statute could be applied. But still, he added, very little case law in the U.S. has actually ventured into the territory of the situation at hand.

"I think if [the protesters] did get prosecuted, there would be reasonable arguments about the interpretation of the statute that have not played out in the courts."

One pertinent legal case, Desai said, is Cox v. Louisiana, a 1965 case in which the Supreme Court affirmed a state law that made picketing before a courthouse illegal. The case specifically centered on Benjamin Elton Cox, a civil rights activist who was convicted of disturbing the peace after organizing a thousands-strong march outside of a Baton Rouge courthouse. The facts around Cox v. Louisiana "were relatively sympathetic" for the protestors, DeSai said, "and the Supreme Court still said [Louisiana's statute] is carefully drawn."

Another past case that stands out, as The Washington Post notes, is Frisby v. Schultz, which stems from a 1988 picket organized in Brookfield, Wisconsin by two anti-abortion activists outside the home of an abortion doctor. Both activists claimed that a town ordinance banning the demonstration violated their First Amendment rights. Citing "a special benefit of the privacy all citizens enjoy within their own walls," the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ordinance, arguing goals of the protests could be achieved through other means of communication.

"I do not believe that picketing for the sole purpose of imposing psychological harm on a family in the shelter of their home is constitutionally protected," wrote then-Justice John Paul Stevens, adding that there is "little justification for allowing them to remain in front of his home and repeat it over and over again simply to harm the doctor and his family."

Apart from local ordinances, like Wisconsin's, a judge might also consider state codes. This strategy could prove especially successful in Virginia and Maryland, both of whose criminal statutes put a strong emphasis on the preservation of the home as a place of tranquility.

"The practice of picketing before or about residences and dwelling places causes emotional disturbance and distress to the occupants," states the Maryland criminal code. "The purpose of this practice is to harass the occupants of the residences and dwelling places."

Virginia statutory law imposes a similar restriction: "Any person who shall engage in picketing before or about the residence or dwelling place of any individual, or who shall assemble with another person or persons in a manner which disrupts or threatens to disrupt any individual's right to tranquility in his home, shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor."

RELATED: Right-wing Twitter is obsessed with the Supreme Court leak — but there's a human cost

All a prosecutor would need to do, then, under Virginia or Maryland law is establish that the demonstrations disrupted the tranquility within Alito, Kavanaugh, or Roberts' homes.

But if prosecutors were to argue that the demonstrations violated 18 U.S. Code § 1507, they would have to establish that the protesters intended to distress these three justices – a task which would likely require a lot of heavy lifting, suggested Sheila Bedi, a clinical professor of law at Northwestern University.

"A prosecutor could look at things like notices of the protest, if there's any social media posts, but again, I think it's highly unlikely that anybody out there protesting really believes that Justice Alito is going to change his opinion as a result of the protests. And because of that, I think anybody who was charged under the statute would have a strong defense," Bedi said. "I think the reality is that the movement has known that this was a possibility for a long time because of the organizing that happened on the right. And this is about harnessing the political moment far more than it is about trying to influence the judges."

RELATED: Samuel Alito's use of ancient misogyny: SCOTUS rewinds to centuries-old common law for abortion ban

Desai likewise said that prosecutors would be bedeviled with "proof problems" relating to mens rea, or the state of mind protesters were in during the demonstrations. "This one just looks like it would be that aspect of it that would be hard to prove," Desai said.

Thus far, the Justice Department has not signaled that it will be pursuing legal action against any of the demonstrators, and there have been no arrests at this point. Department spokesperson Anthony Coley on Wednesday said that the agency "continues to be briefed on security matters related to the Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices.

Rick Scott's Medicare messiness
Joe Conason
May 14, 2022

Governor Rick Scott (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

In Washington, acrimonious public disagreements among congressional leaders of the same party are unusual, which was why reporters took note not long ago when Sen. Mitch McConnell publicly spanked Sen. Rick Scott for what he considered an act of monumental stupidity.

What infuriated the Senate minority leader, who yearns above all to become the majority leader again, was Scott's unveiling of a 60-page "plan" describing what the Republicans will do if and when their party regains the majority. As chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Scott's job is to ensure victory in the November midterm by doling out tens of millions to candidates. But McConnell saw Scott's plan as the equivalent of a loud emission of noxious gas: unpleasant, unhelpful and very much to be avoided. McConnell has steadfastly refused to state what Republicans would do if they win the Senate; now, the lunkhead Rick Scott has let the cat out of the bag.

Especially irksome to McConnell were two aspects of Scott's blueprint. "Let me tell you what would not be part of our agenda," snapped McConnell. "We will not have, as part of our agenda, a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda."

Of course, McConnell just doesn't want to tell voters what his party will do, because their ideas are deeply unpopular and always get them in trouble, like when Newt Gingrich proposed privatizing Medicare and former President George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security.

Scott's scheme to raise income taxes on most households struck McConnell as politically insane, and so did the plan's endorsement of allowing "all federal legislation," including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to simply expire within five years.

Scott, for his part, has portrayed himself as a "bold" visionary victimized by conventional thinkers. Polling, however, indicates that the Scott scheme is profoundly unpopular among all voters, including Republicans, with majorities north of 65% rejecting it. No more than 15% like it.

So, the Florida senator has simply lied since then. "No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security," he insists, although that's exactly what his plan urges.

Perhaps McConnell was too polite to mention the other utterly politically crazy aspect of the Scott proposal: namely, the likelihood that attacking Medicare and Medicaid will remind America about the massive health care fraud underlying Rick Scott's enormous personal fortune, estimated at $300 million.

Beginning in 1987, Scott founded and built Columbia/HCA, a hospital chain that included hundreds of health care providers across multiple states and engorged itself on billions in Medicare and Medicaid fees. Unfortunately, this lucrative business involved truly gigantic levels of fraud, which by early 1997 drew the attention of federal investigators. Columbia/HCA illegally scammed billions of dollars intended for patient care, perpetrating what remains the biggest fraud on government ever by any health care institution.

The company's board forced Scott to resign within months after the federal investigation became public. He pleaded ignorance, barely escaped indictment and walked away with vast wealth. He claims to have accepted "responsibility," although he consistently blamed others, adding piously that the experience "made me a better leader."

Somehow, Florida's voters narrowly elected him governor in 2010 and then to the U.S. Senate in 2018. The words of his 2010 primary opponent Bill McCollum, a former Navy prosecutor and Florida attorney general, still ring true. During the campaign McCollum denounced Scott as "the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA who is inseparably associated with one of the most massive Medicare fraud schemes in American history."

Scott's sordid narrative raises an obvious question. How did this come to pass? We know that Florida voters have a habit of electing some truly awful politicians, and that Scott spent $60 million to win his first election. We know that Republican leaders in Washington have no problem with fraud or corruption, so long as it accrues to their own power. Just ask "Moscow Mitch," who was in the tank with Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch with Kentucky investments. We know that the Republican concern for ensuring the fairness and stability of our health care system is nil, given their long war against Medicare and, more recently, the Affordable Care Act. Now, they won't even act to reduce the cost of lifesaving insulin.

Voters should be aware that this corporate malefactor is in charge of handing out the big campaign bucks from the Senate Republican campaign — and that he aims to destroy the nation's most successful and popular domestic programs. Somebody better tell them before November. Buyer beware.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com

WE HAVE SEX BY OURSELVES

‘Having sex with women is gay’: White nationalist praises involuntary celibacy

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

William Edwards/AFP.

White nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes leaned on his homophobia as an excuse for why the young man is apparently having difficulty attracting women.

Fuentes discussed being an incel, or involuntary celibate, on his video podcast.

Fuentes complained about "people calling me gay because I've never had a girlfriend."

"I think if anything — if anything — it makes me less gay. If anything, it makes me not gay — as opposed to less gay, not that there's any gay, but it makes me not gay," he argued.

Fuentes went on to describe how he has never been in a romantic relationship or had sex with a woman, but is "more heterosexual than anybody."

"If we're really being honest, never having a girlfriend, never having sex with a woman, really makes you more heterosexual, because honestly, dating women is gay," he claimed. "And if you want to know the truth, the only really straight, heterosexual position is to be an asexual incel."

The incel movement came to prominence in 2014 when Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others in a rampage in Isla Vista, California before committing suicide.

In 2018, Alek Minassian praised Rodger before allegedly murdering ten people in Toronto.

"The Incel Rebellion has already begun!" Minassian posted to Facebook. "All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"

The movement was described by The New York Times in 2018 as "an online community of men who lament being 'involuntarily celibate' and dream of a social order granting them access to the women of their choice."

"Although attacks like the one in Toronto that killed 10 people are rare, the hate being spread online is leading increasingly to threats and calls for violence. More often than not, the threats target women," the newspaper explained. "The incel movement tells its adherents that society’s rules are engineered to unfairly deprive them of sex. That worldview lets them see themselves as both victims, made lonely by a vast conspiracy, and as superior, for their unique understanding of the truth."

There are political ramifications of the incel movement beyond violence.

"The alt-right, right-wing populism, men’s rights groups and a renewed white supremacist movement have capitalized on many white men’s feeling of loss in recent years. The groups vary in how they diagnose society’s ills and whom they blame, but they provide a sense of meaning and place for their followers," The Times explained. "And as different extremist groups connect online, they draw on one another’s membership bases, tactics and worldviews, allowing membership in one group to become a gateway to other extremist ideologies as well."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/we-need-to-pay-better-attention-to-ways.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/this-racist-youth-movement-is-melting.html

Watch Jim Acosta grill Deborah Birx over why she put up with Trump's 'bonkers' pandemic disinformation

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Screengrab.

Former Trump administration coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx was the subject of an intense interview by CNN's Jim Acosta on Saturday about her new book Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It's Too Late.

Acosta played a clip of Trump's infamous statement suggesting injecting disinfectants into humans to kill the virus.

"I have to ask, what was going through your head there when you were listening to this?" Acosta asked. "And I know you're saying I got out on the road and talked to people and I was trying to do as much I could with all of these other experts, but at the end of the day you hear something that bonkers coming from the president of the United States, how could you have any faith in him whatsoever?"

"I talked to Trump advisers, people close to the then president at the time who thought it was bananas for him to talk about injecting yourself with disinfectant, and didn't you think what's wrong with this guy?"

Birx noted Trump's comments originated with a DHS study on sunlight as a disinfectant on surfaces to re-open playgrounds.

"Frankly, I was so taken aback in that moment," Birx said. "Obviously at the end of that, I said, not a treatment, contacted the CDC, FDA and got them to post that and within seconds of leaving the press briefing, made sure the senior advisers knew they needed to get to the president and tell him that this, as you said, was bonkers."

Acosta followed-up.

"But I have to come back to this question because to me, it puzzles me to this day. How could anybody in their right mind working with the president that the time think he was dealing with reality? If you were to go up to any person on the street and somebody was rambling about injecting themselves with disinfectant, you would question what is going on in their heads and here he's going to be the president for months and months and months dealing with pandemic," Acosta said.


"That's why I come back to this question and i don't mean to go off on you, I don't understand why you or some of the others in the administration didn't get out in front of the camera and say he's not dealing with reality anymore. He's lost it. This is bonkers," Acosta said.

Watch:
Dr Deborah Birx

www.youtube.com

Airbus Spain arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE 'may have contributed to war crimes in Yemen'

The New Arab Staff
14 May, 2022

New investigations by an NGO coalition have highlighted the impact of arms sales from Spain and elsewhere in Europe on the long and bloody war with Yemen, which has cost hundreds of thousands of civilian lives.

Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft have played a key role in Saudi Arabia's aerial campaign on Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen [Getty]

Arms transfers by Airbus Spain to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may have contributed to war crimes in Yemen, according to a new report by a coalition of human rights NGOs.

The report appears to expose new evidence of direct links between Airbus Spain and other Spanish companies with the two Gulf states, and war crimes they may have committed in Yemen since the gruelling civil war began in 2015.

Airbus Spain plays a crucial role in the production, export and maintenance of the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft, a European multinational fighter jet that has been a key feature of Saudi Arabia’s aerial bombardments of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

"Spanish military equipment is essential for both aircrafts and a number of other military goods used by the Saudi/Emirati-led Coalition in Yemen," the report by Amnesty International, Centre Delas and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) said.

"Spanish military equipment is essential for both aircraft and a number of other military goods used by the Saudi/Emirati-led Coalition that has committed atrocities in Yemen,” said Alberto Estévez, Amnesty International spokesperson.

“This raises serious questions as to the potential complicity of the Spanish government in the commission of international crimes in Yemen," Estévez said.

 

RELATED

How the new presidential council could shape Yemen's future

Analysis

A Yemeni journalist

The report also takes aim at European arms producers from the UK, Spain, Germany, France and Italy for their complicity in alleged Saudi war crimes, as well as state actors for their inaction in halting arms sales during the protracted war.

“Military goods of European origin constitute a substantial part of the overall equipment available to Saudi Arabia and UAE air forces” added Christian Schliemann-Radbruch of ECCHR.

“It is time for both corporate and government actors to review their actions against the standards of international criminal law and for the Prosecutor of the ICC to investigate their role in the atrocities committed in Yemen,” he concluded.

Rasheed al-Faqih, director of grassroots Yemeni NGO Mwatana for Human Rights, said “the sale of arms by Spain to Saudi Arabia is tantamount to a participation in their war crimes against the Yemeni people.”

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government, a year after the Houthi rebels took the capital Sanaa.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed, in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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

ABOLISH BLASPHEMY LAWS

Nigeria student killing: Round-the-clock curfew in Sokoto after protests

The city of Sokoto is now under curfew (file pic)

A 24-hour curfew has been declared in Sokoto, Nigeria, after protesters took to the streets demanding the release of two suspects in the murder of a Christian student last week.

Deborah Samuel was beaten and burned by Muslim students who accused her of posting "blasphemous" statements about Islam in a WhatsApp group on Thursday.

Her death has been widely condemned by Muslims and Christians across Nigeria.

On Saturday, demonstrators burned tyres and the police fired teargas.

Some of the protesters besieged the palace of the Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and the highest spiritual figure among Muslims in Nigeria.

The Sultan has condemned the killing at Shehu Shagari College of Education and demanded those involved face justice.

Announcing the curfew, Sokoto Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal urged the protesters: "Please, in the interest of peace go back home."

Nigeria is Africa's most-populous country and most people in its mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian south are deeply religious.

Religious tensions and deadly clashes are not uncommon, particularly in the north where some states have adopted strict sharia laws, including death sentences for blasphemy.

Blasphemy in Islam includes the mocking or disparaging of attributes of the religion as well as denying any of its fundamental beliefs.

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned Ms Samuel's killing and said there should be an impartial investigation.

Nigeria's largest grouping of Christian churches has demanded the authorities bring the culprits to justice.



Nigerian atheist jailed for 24 years for blasphemy

Nigerian singer sentenced to death for blasphemy

Jailed teenager wins blasphemy appeal in Nigeria

NIGERIA

BREAKING: Jihadists In Borno Plot To Kill Another Young Woman For Alleged Blasphemy, Post Death Threats On Facebook

SaharaReporters learnt that championing the threat is one Abdulmajid Tanko Izge who claimed to be the President of a group, Borno Youth Support.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, 

NEW YORK

MAY 14, 2022

Some religious extremists in Borno State have threatened to kill a young woman, identified as Naomi Goni, after claiming that she allegedly insulted Prophet Muhammad (SAW) on Facebook.
SaharaReporters learnt that championing the threat is one Abdulmajid Tanko Izge who claimed to be the President of a group, Borno Youth Support.

He vowed that the death penalty was the punishment that would be meted out to Naomi.

The threat by the Borno extremists comes while the country has yet to resolve the gruesome murder of a 200-level Shehu Shagari College of Education student in Sokoto State, Deborah Samuel, last Thursday by a Muslim mob which comprised of her classmates.

The incident has continued to attract nationwide condemnation and the police have arrested two suspects – although a protest by some Muslim youths over the arrest on Saturday turned violent in the state and forced Governor Aminu Tambuwal to impose a 24-hour curfew.

In the Borno episode, SaharaReporters learnt that the police had taken Naomi Goni into custody over the death threats by the Jihadists.

Writing partly in Hausa, Tanko Izge said, “A message to Government of Borno State. Akwai wata yarinya me suna Naomi Goni wanda tayi batanci ga manzo Allah wanda hakan a musulunci kisa ne hukunci Ko da soho ne koda musulmi ne ya kafurta. Dan haka muna kira ga gwamnatin Borno tayi gaggawan daukan mataki inhar ba haka ba kuma mu musulmai baza muyi bacci ba kuma zamu dauka da kanmu (There is a girl named Naomi Goni who insulted the Messenger of Allah (saw) and in Islam it is a death sentence even if it is a Muslim. We therefore call on the Borno State Government to take immediate action or else we Muslims will not sleep and we will take action).”

He made the post on his Facebook as seen by SaharaReporters.

He added, “Naomi you must face the consequences. We will continue raising our voice until action is taken. #Findnaomigoni.”

“A Gaskiya Tura yakai Bango A gari Irin Borno wata Ta Zage ma aiki Amma gwamnati Bawani feed Back. Zuciyana yana Tapasa I will surely come for protest.! (In fact, the government has not yet commented on the situation. My heart is pounding I will surely come for protest).”

A check on Facebook also showed some northerners calling for her death.

“The punishment for blasphemy is death! in most religions including Christianity. Respect people’s religion. It’s simple,” one Farouq Umar Farouq wrote.

Another Facebook user identified as Ja'afar M A Baggo said, “Allah tsinewa duk wanda yasa hannu a wajen bata kariya ko wace iri ce. Allah ya rugurgusa duk wanda ke da niya/burin kare wannan la'ananniyar bakar arniyar. Don Allah ku kashe ta mutanen Maiduguri. (God condemns anyone who engages in anything of this kind. May God destroy anyone who intends to protect this damn evil lady. Please the people of Maiduguri should kill her.)

Speaking to SaharaReporters, a security source said Naomi had been taken into custody by the police.

“She’s currently under detention and denied making the post; she said her account was hacked after she gave birth last year. I don’t think she will be released soon so she won’t be killed. I heard some people are also planning to attack her father’s house here in Maiduguri.”

Every life lost in an act of violence is like a million lives lost in a pogrom 

–Late Dele Giwa 

The Killing Of Deborah Samuel

And they were proud of the murder that they had just committed. They filmed it and showed their faces - every step of the way. They knew that the reward was not only in heaven, but here on earth too. There were people, very powerful people who would call them into their homes and bless them for their deed and assure them of a place in paradise for beating, stoning, bludgeoning, and burning a human being, their fellow classmate to death - all because they perhaps think that the Almighty Allah cannot defend Himself.

BY ACHIKE CHUDE

MAY 15, 2022

And so the student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was killed publicly in a most gruesome manner by her fellow students. The students were zealous for their God who could not defend Himself from the 'insult' of Deborah Samuel. Allah is most omniscient, most powerful, and mighty, we have been told. He humbles the strong and exults the lowly. He knows the beginning and the end. But by the action of the killer mob they seemed to question Allah's invincibility and capacity to defend Himself. And if He could not defend Himself from the girl, therefore, the thugs and killers masquerading as students reasoned, they had to do it for Him.

And they were proud of the murder that they had just committed. They filmed it and showed their faces - every step of the way. They knew that the reward was not only in heaven, but here on earth too. There were people, very powerful people who would call them into their homes and bless them for their deed and assure them of a place in paradise for beating, stoning, bludgeoning, and burning a human being, their fellow classmate to death - all because they perhaps think that the Almighty Allah cannot defend Himself.

You will know how powerful the dangerous human elements involved in this most gruesome of murders are by the taciturnity and silence of influential people up north over this deed. They will say nothing and do nothing, for the simple reason that the wilful killing of Deborah in such a foul and henious manner is neither the first nor will it be the last in the north. But this is how they keep the simple and lowly, the hoi-poloi and commoners happy - get them drunk on false religious narratives while they rob them blind and steal their future. But mind you, the manipulation of religion for the benefit of the few is not a northern phenomenon only.

They have their version in the southern part of Nigeria, as self-declared 'men of God' constantly manipulate their ways into the pockets of the foolish and unwary, often using false talking points and fake miracles to mersmerize and confuse, sometimes setting brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters and parents against children. But there is a red line that they do not cross for the simple reason that scripture explicitly forbids revenge and vengeance on one's behalf and, especially, on God's behalf:
"Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord"

Fortunately, this unhappy and sad occurrence presents a golden opportunity for northern presidential aspirants in the upcoming 2023 elections to lay a marker by speaking out against the malice done to Deborah. But we all know that as the day is day and night is night, the opportunity will come and go and they will be found wanting. Only Abubakar Atiku, horrified by this great evil was able to summon the courage to condemn this monstrosity. Unfortunately, that courage failed him thereafter, and he quickly deleted his condemnatory tweet for fear of losing votes which was immediately promised him aplenty by those rejoicing in the Sokoto killing.

Only the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III ( God bless his soul), as a Muslim, has been unequivocal in his condemnation of such a vile and perfidious act, regardless of the provocation.

But what of the great tag-team partnership of Laurel and Hardy, sorry, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu? They have yet to speak on behalf of their principal, the president on this very grave matter. Or perhaps, their barbs and venom are only meant for people like Bishop Hassan Kukah and his ilk? There is nobody like good old Hassan Kukah to put those two on alert and at their abusive best whenever he exercises his constitutional right, patriotic inclination, and moral authority to speak on the state of the nation in a way and manner that are not to the liking of Laurel and Hardy.

But luckily, about thirty-six hours after Deborah's open murder, their principal, our president spoke out in condemnation of the killing, spoke about investigation, and rightfully warning on the need for restraint of speech by Nigerians at all times in order not to inflame passion. But there was no discernible sense of anger and outrage at the incident, no call for the arrest of the killers who deliberately exposed their identities. Instead, the president's tweet, while condemning the killing and asking for investigation was at the same time providing a reason (but not justification) for the murder of Deborah.

It is why most Nigerians, especially those on Twitter do not believe that the president will get to the bottom of this outrageous and unbelievable crime. Some of them point to the presence of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who has been accused of religious extremism with past statements of support for Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS in his government.

Some of them have reminded the president that his minister, Pantami, was the Imam of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University when the university Muslim community issued a Fatwa on 400 level student, Sunday Achi for distributing tracts in the school. He was picked up in the early hours of December 9th 2004 from his room, allegedly killed inside the mosque and his body thrown down from the top of the mosque. His father, Samuel Achi, needed the intervention of the governors of Kaduna and Bauchi states to recover Sunday's body from the grounds of the mosque. The president and his administration were told this, but they said Pantami was a changed man. They went ahead and made him a minister anyway.

But beware - for the great and most powerful Imam of the Abuja Central Mosque, Professor Ibrahim Magari, has weighed in on the matter and sounded a note of warning to everyone about the great red line that must never be crossed against Muslims otherwise Armageddon will be visited on violators. So, let us shake in our boots and hide under the bed because the Chief Imam has spoken thus. He is happy with the murder of Deborah and has said so. Perhaps he would have been happier had Deborah's parents also tasted the fury of the mob for bringing such a blasphemous child into the world.
It is believed that the great professor and Chief Imam of the Abuja Central Mosque will not suffer the same fate as the Chief Imam of the Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid who was recently removed from his post for criticizing the president for the insecurity and sufferings in the country. Criticizing the president would seem to be a far more egregious crime than the cold blooded and gruesome public lynching of a young girl.

What a mess the north has become. Killings and killers! Bandits and banditry! Terrorists and terrorism! And of course, religious fanaticism mixed with illiteracy and grinding poverty - a very combustible mix for conflagration and anarchy. They can hide, and have hidden all these deficits for so long. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, deposed Emir of Kano and former CBN governor warned them about these social and economic deficits. They have not listened. Now the consequences of these deficits have come back to bite them. The child that was neglected by the parents will grow up to be a big burden to those same parents. State or elite sanctioned murder of Deborah Samuel at the hands of youths for religious purposes is not the way and direction to point your youthful population. Engage them in productive activities, educate them and empower them sufficiently so that they can contribute meaningfully towards upgrading their communities and country.

Lastly, let no one be under any illusion about the dastardliness, unlawfulness, and unconstitutionality of the killing of Deborah Samuel. Nigeria is not governed by Islamic law, nor Christian canon law. It is not a theocracy but a constitutional democracy.
We are not under quoranic law, or biblical precepts but acknowledge the influence of both religions, including animism and traditional African worship in our lives as citizens under constitutional governance. There cannot be two different sets of laws in Nigeria. The determination of who lives and dies in Nigeria as a result of crime or offence committed is neither in the hands of delinquent thuggish criminals at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, nor those of Professor Ibrahim Magari, the Chief Imam of the Abuja Central Mosque. It is a matter for Nigerian courts.

It is because of contradictions such as this that many Nigerians continue to question the continuing 'marriage' between the north and south of Nigeria. It is what plays perfectly into the hands of ethnic jigoists, agitationists and secessionists.

There must be justice for Deborah Samuel. A word is enough for the wise!

BLASPHEMY: Deborah’s Killers Should Be Prosecuted And Her Family Adequately Compensated

For a long time the country has been in a despicable situation, our bones and flesh have been sacrificed in the name of religious intolerance.

BY BUHARI OLANREWAJU AHMEDMAY 15, 2022


Nigeria is really sitting on a time bomb, the debris may consume the country soon if drastic measures are not taken to curtail a similar occurrence with the wrong signal laid down by religious fanatics.

For a long time the country has been in a despicable situation, our bones and flesh have been sacrificed in the name of religious intolerance.

Nigeria is a secular state under which anybody has the right and obligation to practice any religion that suits their purposes in accordance with the Constitution guiding the country.

It is no longer news that Deborah Samuel, a 200-level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was gruesomely murdered by the educated terrorists who accused her of blasphemy.

The innocent lady’s life was subsequently cut short by the bloodthirsty extremists. Deborah spoke Hausa fluently, she dressed like a real Northerner, yet they killed her because of a voice note she dropped on WhatsApp group.

Meanwhile, living with these criminals who orchestrate evil against humanity would be a disaster to the whole country and beyond. Perhaps the unity of this country has now been murdered by the act of these religious fanatics.

A trending video shows how the killers were boasting of killing the innocent lady, they were also proud of setting her ablaze since the country is ruled by a President who himself is a religious fanatic.

For how long shall we be living with these set of heartless and animalistic people?

Imagine that some of these extremists become future teachers to our children. The thought of it terrifies me!

Now is a very troubling moment when those who are saddled with responsibilities fail. It is not a surprise seeing an acclaimed Imam of National Mosque in Abuja supporting and justifying the killing of the innocent lady.

Professor Ibrahim Maqari in his tweet supported the barbaric and gruesome murder of Deborah. According to him:

“It should be known to everyone that we the Muslims have some redliness beyond which MUST NOT be crossed. The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the redliness. If our grievances are not properly addressed then we should not be criticised for addressing them ourselves.”

If a professor and religious leader could utter such a statement, it clearly shows that most of his followers have been indoctrinated with hatred and bitterness against other faiths.

The Holy Qur’an preaches tolerance and stated it clearly on how to live with people peacefully. Prophet Muhammad S.A.W was called sorcerer but he never got angry, Allah told him to be patient.

Qur’an 73 verse 10 says: “Be patient over what they say and avoid them with gracious avoidance.”

There’s nowhere in the Holy Qur’an that encourages a Muslim to stone anyone to death for blasphemy. The sensitivity of religion can never overrated and comprehended without knowing the teaches and the rules that governed the faith.

Qur’an 6 verse 68 says:

“And when you see those who enter into false discourses about our communications, withdraw from them until they enter into some other discourse, and if the Shaitan causes you to forget, then do not sit after recollection with the unjust people.”

Its high time for religious leaders in the North to take responsibility and call their wards to order against future attacks on innocent people.

The country is in deep trouble with the kind of heartless leaders at the helm of affairs.

Security operatives should not only arrest the perpetrators, they should prosecute them to serve as deterrent to others.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Government must be sensitive enough by ensuring that adequate compensate is given to the victim’s family.

Also, the National Assembly as matter of urgency should pass a piece of legislation that will put an end to jungle justice. There should be consequences for people taking the law into their hands.

I call on Nigerian youth to stand in solidarity with Deborah. She must get justice.

#JusticForDeborah

#JusticeForDeborah: Christian Association, CAN Organises Nationwide Protest, Directs Churches To Join, Demand Justice

CAN made the call via a circular that was released by the General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, on Saturday, and obtained by SaharaReporters.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS,

NEW YORK

MAY 14, 2022


The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has directed all churches in the country and Christian stakeholders to hold a peaceful protest nationwide over the gruesome killing of Deborah Yakubu by a mob of Muslim youths in Sokoto State for alleged blasphemy.

CAN made the call via a circular that was released by the General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, on Saturday, and obtained by SaharaReporters.

The circular which was titled, “A REQUEST FOR NATIONWIDE PEACEFUL PROTESTS, CALLING FOR JUSTICE FOR DEBORAH YAKUBU” reads, 

“I have been directed by the CAN President, His Eminence. Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle, to request all church leaders, through your various churches to organise a PEACEFUL PROTEST in honour of one of our daughters, DEBORAH YAKUBU who was gruesomely murdered on Thursday, 12 May, 2022 at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto in Sokoto State by some Islamic extremists.

"The protest will take place on 22 May, 2022 in the afternoon by 3pm in every secretariat of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) nationwide and not on the streets in order to avoid further loss of lives. Those without CAN's Secretariat may use any church with big premises.

"We are to hold placards with some succinct message like

 "WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR DEBORAH," "NO MORE KILLING IN GOD'S NAME", "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" "POLICE, STOP UNPROVOKED KILLINGS IN NIGERIA, "CHRISTIANS ARE NOT SECOND CLASS CITIZENS," "KILLERS OF DEBORAH MUST BE PROSECUTED," "WE CONDEMN RELIGIOUS KILLINGS," "WE SAY NO TO ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS."

"We urge those who could afford it to make use of the traditional media and the social media and others can use only the social media to give it a wide coverage in other to sensitise the whole world. We also call on Nigerian Christians in the diaspora to join us using our embassies all over the world.

"The occasion can also be used to pray for Deborah's family and friends, peace for the country, victory for the Church and godly political leaders in the coming general election.

Thanks, and God bless you all.”

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/malaysian-writer-faces-blasphemy-probe.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/04/ban-blsphemy-laws-nigeria-sentences.html

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BLASPHEMY