Putin has awakened a 'dark nationalism he is more and more dependent on,' says Russian political analyst

Matthew Loh
Fri, June 3, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin is less afraid of anti-war protests than he is of a growing pro-war movement, wrote political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya.

Contributor/Getty Images

Vladimir Putin has started a nationalist movement that may backfire, said a political analyst.

Tatiana Stanovaya wrote that such nationalism could force Putin to be more aggressive policywise.

Stanovaya also outlined several assumptions by the West about Putin that she sought to debunk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has "awakened a dark nationalism" within Russia that he has become increasingly dependent on, said a Russian political scholar and analyst.

"The truth is that Putin is more afraid of pro-war protests and has to take into account the eagerness of many Russians to see the destruction of what they call Ukrainian Nazis," wrote Tatiana Stanovaya — the founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik and a nonresident scholar of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — in an essay for Foreign Policy published on Wednesday.

Since the start of the Ukraine war, Putin has baselessly claimed that Russia's invasion is aimed at the "demilitarization and de-Nazification" of the country.

"This is extremely important: Putin has awakened a dark nationalism he is more and more dependent on," Stanovaya wrote, per the outlet.

She added, per Foreign Policy, that the Russian public's growing penchant for nationalism could eventually prompt Putin to escalate matters and become even more "hawkish and resolute."

"Whatever happens to Putin, the world will have to deal with this public aggression and anti-West, anti-liberal convictions that make Russia problematic for the West," she wrote, per the outlet.

The West's belief that Putin is worried about anti-war sentiment is one of several misguided assumptions about the Russian leader that Stanovaya sought to correct in her piece.

Per Foreign Policy, Stanovaya also wrote that the West is incorrect to assume that Putin has been purging his inner circle and senior officials for their failures in the war in Ukraine. She added that rumors of Putin's top officers being arrested have not come from verified sources and that she viewed such speculation with "extreme skepticism."

"Putin is likely upset and disappointed with his staff, but it's not his style to purge his inner circle unless serious crimes have been committed," Stanovaya wrote, per the outlet.

Regarding Putin's view of Russia's progress in the war, she wrote, per Foreign Policy: "In Putin's eyes, he is not losing this war. In fact, he likely believes he is winning — and he is happy to wait until Ukraine concedes that Russia is here forever."

DEMOCRACY NOW!

“Doubling Down”: How Minneapolis Elites Worked to Stop Police Reform After George Floyd’s Murder

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GUESTS Robin Wonsley
longtime activist and Minneapolis’s first Black democratic socialist city councilmember.

LINKS Robin Wonsley Worlobah on Twitter

Wednesday marked two years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, setting off worldwide protests against police violence. But has anything in Minneapolis changed? We spoke with longtime local activist Robin Wonsley Worlobah, who is also now Minneapolis’s first Black democratic socialist city councilmember. Wonsley Worlobah says the mayor has “not enacted any meaningful and effective oversight over one of the most dysfunctional, racist and violent policing departments in the country right now.” She says a big-business, pro-police coalition worked with politicians to build a multimillion-dollar campaign against the Black Lives Matter movement, successfully preventing any changes to the city’s police budget and public safety system. “If there was a way to go backwards, we’ve done it.”

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

This week marks two years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. His death spurred a global movement for racial justice and intensified the push for police accountability and abolition. On Wednesday, the city of Minneapolis renamed the intersection where he was killed as George Perry Floyd Square. On the same day, members of Floyd’s family attended a White House ceremony where President Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to revise use-of-force policies, banning tactics like chokeholds and restricting practices like no-knock warrants, while establishing a national database of police misconduct. Biden’s executive order came as a reform bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, remains stalled in the Senate amidst Republican opposition.

On Wednesday, Juan González and I spoke with Robin Wonsley Worlobah. She’s a longtime activist in Minneapolis. Earlier this year, she became Minneapolis’s first Black democratic socialist city councilmember. She was part of a coalition successfully blocking the relocation of the 3rd Precinct police station, where Chauvin was based — which still sits vacant today. I began by asking Robin Wonsley where she was when she heard about George Floyd’s murder Memorial Day weekend in 2020.


ROBIN WONSLEY WORLOBAH: I was like many — you know, many residents at the time. I was, I believe, running errands when I first heard word of it, and then I had, you know, community members share the historic footage of Floyd be pinned against the ground, with Derek Chauvin, officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, you know, forcefully placed upon Floyd’s neck. That image, in itself, forced me to pull over, and I just remember being in a deep paralysis and shaking and crying.


And, you know, as you noted in my intro, I’ve been a organizer in Minneapolis. And unfortunately, a lot of my organizing work has revolved around police-related murders of Black people, from Jamar Clark to Philando Castile. And, you know, I was there with Philando Castile watching as St. Anthony and their officers washed the blood off the sidewalk, or the street, and now here I am watching George Floyd be killed, like millions of others around the world, and, of course, just was forced into a pause of, you know, all the things that have transpired that led to that moment, the failure of our leadership to really address the deep inequities that have been documented, here in Minneapolis specifically, for a number of years, especially around policing, and how, if we had better leadership, willing to exercise even the bare minimum of political will and political courage, especially with our police federation, with our officers, how we would not have had to endure the collective trauma of watching George Floyd be lynched, and then, basically, afterwards seeing our city burn nearly down because of this collective oppression. You know, Martin Luther King says, you know, the riots are the sounds of the oppressed.


You know, I just think there was so much that could have happened, that activists and residents had been organizing around clear demands, public safety demands, for a number of years that could have prevented that. And just the unknown of what was actually going to come in the wake of everything that transpired here in Minneapolis after George Floyd, and now being in this position of power and saying, two years later, we have not made much progress. Actually, if there was a way to go backwards, we’ve done it.


And that’s disheartening to say in this current moment where we’re honoring such a historic moment, in not only U.S. history but global history. As you noted, his murder sparked a national movement, one of the largest civil rights movements in U.S. history, and that will go on to prompt actions and protest in more than 50 countries around the world. And to be able to sit here as an elected official who ran, you know, in the wake of organizing for justice for George Floyd, being tear-gassed by our police in the midst of all that, and now have to see our leadership continue to fail to rise to the occasion to prevent another Black person from being murdered, another working-class person from being murdered — we have failed to rise to that occasion, even two years later, and it just makes you think: What does it take to get justice for Black lives at this point?


JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you — in the wake of those protests after George Floyd’s murder, there did seem to be some attempts by political leaders, not only in Minneapolis but around the country, to institute some changes. There was a reduction of the police department budget initially in Minneapolis. But as often happens with these protests, the system figures out a way to basically let the movement spend its energy and then seizes back its power. I’m wondering how that happened, specifically in Minneapolis. How did the movement backwards occur?


ROBIN WONSLEY WORLOBAH: I think, for one, I do want to note, there was never a reduction in police funding. There has been, you know, years of efforts from residents to say, “Let’s transition dollars from MPD into other, you know, holistic social services that actually deals with the root causes of crime.” And, you know, there have been very small investments into that work. But as we stand right now, of today, two years later, the police budget for the Minneapolis Police Department still stands close to $200 million.


And as you mentioned, the movement backwards, we really saw — in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the uprising, we saw this, you know, broad movement rallied around the demand to defund the police. You know, there was efforts by that coalition of organizations, Black-led organizations, to try to even put something on the ballot that would have allowed us to basically dismantle the police department as it currently stands and create a new Department of Public Safety, that would have, you know, not replicated many of the racist and violent components of policing as it currently stands.


And we had an unelected body, the Charter Commission. And we’ve seen this play out throughout all levels of government. You know, when we tried to pass 15 federally, we had a parliamentarian commission come in and say no. So we always have these unelected bodies that are able to assert themselves and block the changes that working-class people are demanding. We had that with the Charter Commission. They delayed that, and then that forced our movements to have to look into putting a charter amendment forward for the following year, which was our election year.


And what we saw was the status quo of Minneapolis fight tooth and nail to keep any transformative change around public safety from coming into fruition. And when I say “fight tooth and nail,” some of the things that they did was build a broad coalition of some of our most big business — powerful big business actors. We’re talking about the Chambers of Commerce, the downtown council. They formed these PACs where they pulled millions of dollars together to do, you know, repeated media blitzes, saying that, you know, this demand will get rid of police, it will defund the police. And also, we were seeing somewhat of a rise in community violence at the time, and they were leveraging, you know, the justifiable pain and trauma that many of our working-class Black residents were experiencing, you know, as it related to that community violence, and saying, “Look, you can’t have transformative change and be able to keep, like, your community safe. So you have to pick. So, either you’re going to keep the cops, to keep the bullets from flying, from keeping babies from dying, or you’re going to have like a new model of public safety. And that’s too risky. So let’s just keep the cops as they are.”


So, we had this whole powerful coalition. That was tied into an election year. So you had a number of candidates who were tying themselves to this anti-public safety amendment, you know, pro-policing agenda. Our current mayor was also at the helm of a lot of that and basically saying, “We don’t need to make any major changes. All we need to do is trust that our current police chief” — at that time, a well-respected Black man, you know, from St. Paul and Minneapolis. “We just need to trust him to carry out the reforms necessary to rein in the racist and terrorizing dynamics of MPD that led to George Floyd’s murder. Let’s just trust him to do that. Don’t trust these crazy activists.” And they were able to run a successful multimillion-dollar campaign, a fear campaign, to squash any type of efforts to make meaningful change around public safety.


But what I want to know is, while they were successful on November 2nd in defeating the public safety amendment and getting a pro-police majority on City Council, what has happened since is that whole thing has fallen apart. Their whole fear campaign, fear-based campaign promises have fallen apart. A month after we got elected, Chief Arradondo, the chief who was going to save the entire police department, retired. In February, Minneapolis residents watched another police killing of a young man by the name of Amir Locke while he was sleeping in an apartment at 6:30 a.m. Mind you, the officers involved in shooting that young man while he was sleeping have not been charged, and charges will not be brought forward to those officers, and they will likely come back on the force to police our communities.


We also have had a release of a damning human rights report from our State Department, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which has basically said — you know, confirmed Minneapolis Police Department is entrenched in racist, misogynistic and violent practices, that MPD leadership, as well as city leadership — we’re talking about our current mayor, who’s been there for five years, many of my fellow councilmembers, who have been there for a number of years. This report names that all of those leaders were aware of these human right violations that were taking place in our department, and did nothing. So, we’ve had that report come out.


And we’ve had our current mayor even resist talks — has made public declarations to walk away from all conversations with our state Human Rights Department around entering into a consent decree. We still have a mayor that is championing resistance to any type of reform. We’ve passed a police contract that has further emboldened our officers, given them incentives, monetary incentives, with no level of accountability in which they are being forced to be beholden to by our current leadership.


So, we’ve seen, again, just regression and regression, after communities have continued to rise up and say we must do better. We need a new Department of Public Safety. We need to address the fact that Mayor Frey and many of our council leadership, you have not — and MPD leadership — you have not enacted any meaningful and effective oversight over one of the most dysfunctional, racist and violent policing departments in the country right now. And you, in turn, to those residents are still resisting every effort from councilmembers like myself who ran on a platform for public safety beyond policing. You’re resisting any efforts from community members, even state departments, to create any meaningful reforms. So, we’re just seeing a full doubling down on basically protecting MPD policing as it currently stands.

AMY GOODMAN: Robin Wonsley is a democratic socialist member of the Minneapolis City Council.

 

2 Years Since George Floyd's Murder, Is Your Company Still Awake?

Words are a start, but they're not enough. Now is the time to measure your company's progress.

BY MILAGROS PHILLIPS, AUTHOR, "CRACKING THE HEALER'S CODE"@RACELITERACY

A makeshift memorial to George Floyd near the spot where he died while in custody of the Minneapolis police.

 Getty Images

When George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020, the world woke up to the reality of Black people in America. The U.S. and the world were traumatized by his murder and were haunted by his last words, "I can't breathe!" His murder prompted protests around the world. It woke the world to inequalities and inequities in ways nothing else had done up to that point.

In the shock of the horror, companies committed to equity with renewed vigor. What did your company pledge to do differently? How well have you done with that pledge? How have your employees faired? Are you still awake? When it comes to racial equity, how much has your company changed?

Did George Floyd's death bring about a change of mind or a change of heart? The difference is that a change of mind can be temporary, as the mind wanders back to its familiar patterns and comforts. A change of heart, on the other hand, has lasting power. A change of heart helps us create life-altering, work-altering experiences by recognizing and amending the mistakes of the past. A change of heart generates new attitudes, develops new policies, and maintains the improvements made.

I remember co-presenting a seminar for members of Congress at which one of the participants, a seasoned politician, stood up to say, "I had no idea how some of the laws we had made were hurting African-American families." At that moment, he announced that he wanted to create a committee to look into changing some of those laws. He invited members of both sides of the aisle. He called each member by name and asked them to join him in this endeavor.

A change of heart doesn't require legislation. On the contrary, when there's a change of heart, people are compelled to do the right thing. Indeed, a kind of haunting assails people of good conscience when they don't do what they know to be correct.

So, in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, did you have a change of mind or a change of heart? You will know by whether you made the changes you committed to and or whether you have reverted to your previous self. A change of heart keeps us awake and vigilant to our thoughts, words, and behavior.

It's important to remember that only a few George Floyd-type murders make the news. Indeed, had it not been for a teenage girl, who bravely posted what she had seen on social media, we might not have known the truth about what happened to Floyd.

What pledge did your company make after May 2020? How much more committed to your DEI initiative is your organization? What changes have you made since then? What's left to be done now? How are you and your employees remaining racially sober? On the first Monday of every month, organizations committed to racial sobriety gather to learn, share stories, and consider best practices at a race-literacy lunch and learn. It is a way to train their employees on a new topic every month and keep the equity conversation live.

George Floyd has passed on to the ancestral realm, but those of us who are here are responsible for our personal and collective transformation. So, what has your organization done, and what are you doing today to change our collective tomorrow?

Alaa is now in the third month of his hunger strike

On April 2, 2022, and after years of unlawful imprisonment, mistreatment, and torture, Egyptian activist, blogger, and software developer Alaa Abd El-Fattah shaved his head and started a hunger strike on the first day of Ramadan. A few days later, on April 11, Alaa’s family announced that he had become a British citizen through his mother.

Three months into the hunger strike, the life and fate of Alaa are at stake. His health is rapidly and significantly deteriorating and he ​​faces the risk of death unless the United Kingdom Foreign Office immediately intervenes for his protection and acts now to save his life.

While Alaa was recently transferred to the new Wadi el-Natrun prison complex where he “slept on a mattress for the first time in years” and received books and writing materials, he has yet to receive a UK consular visit, is still denied the ability to communicate with his UK lawyers, and is still asking for a judge to investigate the complaints he and his family have filed over his unjust detention.

A central figure in technology and political activism in his country since the early 2000s, and a global voice during the Arab uprisings, Egyptian authorities have attempted to silence Alaa through unlawful imprisonment for most of the last 10 years.

Alaa has faced all manner of torture and inhumane treatment, and his friends and family have been subject to harassment, intimidation, and even detainment themselves. His most recent sentencing does not account for the more than two years Alaa has already spent in prison awaiting trial, confined to a small cell inside Cairo’s infamous Tora maximum security prison without a clock, books, or exercise, and only allowed out of his cell for court appearances and visitations. Alaa’s sentence ends on January 3, 2027.

Join us is calling on Egypt to #FreeAlaa, along with the thousands of other human rights defenders wrongfully TAKE ACTION

WHAT YOU CAN DO

◈ Spread Alaa’s message ◈

Egyptian authorities have attempted to force Alaa into silence, but together we can ensure his voice is heard. You can support the work to #FreeAlaa by writing to your MP, purchasing his new book, “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated,” watching and sharing the virtual book reading, and using #FreeAlaa on social media to engage in conversation around Alaa’s vision.

ALAA’S STORY

CAMPAIGN UPDATES

ALAA IS NOW A BRITISH CITIZEN, WRITE TO YOUR MP AND CALL FOR HIS RELEASE!

Join Access Now and our partners around the world in calling on Egypt’s leaders to immediately and unconditionally #FreeAlaa, along with the thousands of other detained activists and human rights defenders targeted for exercising their fundamental rights.

• TWEET TO #FREEALAA

Bolivian artist paints Indigenous woman like the Mona Lisa
CGTN

Bolivian artist Claudia Callizaya has a unique take on portraiture, and her newest creation outfits a woman with a similar steady gaze as the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci, with a traditional bowler hat worn by Bolivia’s cholitas - Indigenous Aymara and Quechua women.

The woman featured in Callizaya’s portrait is a local indigenous woman featured in a woven Andean shawl.

The artist says “I painted the Mona Lisa, with earrings, a Cholita hat, and a blanket. And finally now I’m painting her ‘aguayo’. Dressing the Mona Lisa like an Andean woman, like a woman from the highlands, she represents women from all over the world.”

Why ditching Canada’s constitutional monarchy is nearly impossible

 

CBC News: The National

Andrew Chang explores the challenging process for Canada to sever its ties with the British monarchy and the implications it would have on Indigenous communities across the country.

#Canada #Monarchy #BritishMonarchy

Cambodians vote in local polls as revived opposition vies for seats

Sat, June 4, 2022


Cambodians voted in local polls on Sunday as a revived opposition party attempted to dent Prime Minister Hun Sen's decades-long grip on power ahead of national elections next year.

Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has ruled Cambodia for more than 37 years and turned the nation into a one-party state at the 2018 general election, winning every parliamentary seat.

Critics and rights groups have accused him of creating a climate of fear by locking up scores of political opponents and activists.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) -- which won 44 percent of the popular vote in previous local elections in 2017 -- was forced to forfeit its positions after a court dissolved the party later that year.

Scores of opposition figures have since fled the country, while others have been arrested.

Opposition leader Kem Sokha, who was arrested and jailed for more than a year, is facing a treason trial, while CNRP co-founder Sam Rainsy is living in France to escape convictions he says are politically motivated.

Sunday's vote in 1,652 communes, or village clusters, will take the country's political pulse ahead of the national elections in 2023.

Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) made a show of strength in the capital Phnom Penh on Friday with a massive parade of cars, trucks, motorcycles and tuk-tuks greeted by flag-waving supporters.

A total of 17 political parties are running in the local election, with more than 11,600 positions up for grabs -- the majority of which are presently controlled by the ruling party.

But all eyes are on the performance of the Candlelight Party (CP) -- founded by Rainsy in 1995 -- which has registered candidates to contest nearly all communes and has been gaining strong support.

- 'last hope' -

"The Candlelight Party is the last hope for the people, although we are suffering from intimidation and threats, and political harassment," party secretary-general Lee Sothearayuth told AFP.

UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said she was disturbed by patterns of obstruction targeting opposition candidates ahead of the poll.

She warned that the CP "faces a paralysing political environment" after at least six candidates and activists were arrested in the run-up to the vote.

The CP is well-positioned to attract supporters and is the only party that "poses a realistic threat" to Hun Sen's CPP, according to Sebastian Strangio, an expert on Cambodian politics and the author of "Hun Sen's Cambodia".

"A strong opposition showing would demonstrate that the popular discontent with CPP rule continues to simmer beneath the surface of Cambodian politics," he told AFP.

CPP spokesman Sok Eysan downplayed the threat, telling AFP that his party would "overwhelmingly" win.

"The whole glass has already broken. So these small pieces of glass are not strong," Sok Eysan said, referring to the opposition movement.

An estimated 9.2 million people are registered to cast ballots on Sunday.

suy/lpm/lb/smw/cwl

Cambodians vote in local election amid intimidation, threats

 

Cambodian People's Party (CPP) supporters drive motorbikes during the last day of campaigning ahead of the June 5 communal elections, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, June 3, 2022.

Cambodian People's Party (CPP) supporters participate in a rally during the last day of campaigning ahead of the June 5 communal elections, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, June 3, 2022.

Buddhist monks walk near three-wheeled pedicab drivers who wait for their costumers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, June 3, 2022. 

(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

SOPHENG CHEANG
Sat, June 4, 2022

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodians headed to the polls Sunday in local elections that are their first chance to vote since the ruling party of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen swept a 2018 general election that was widely criticized as unfair.

Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party is certain to sail to easy victory again following what the U.N. Human Rights Office charged Thursday was a pattern of “threats, intimidation and obstruction targeting opposition candidates. ”

"Candidates have faced numerous restrictions and reprisals that have hindered their activities, with imprisonment of a number of candidates that appears designed to curb political campaigning,” the agency said. It added that at least six opposition candidates and activists were in detention four days before the polls, awaiting trial, while others summonsed on politically motivated charges had gone into hiding.

Cambodia's delegation at the U.N. Geneva offices said in a statement that the criticism was “erroneous, politicized and selective.” It said “all political parties, including opposition ones, have fully exercised their rights in line with the laws and registered schedules without any threats and obstruction.”

Hun Sen and his wife cast their ballots Sunday morning in Kandal province near the capital, Phnom Penh.

Hun Sen, an authoritarian ruler in a nominally democratic state, has held power for 37 years. He has said he intends to stay in office until 2028 and has endorsed one of his sons to succeed him.

His party is the only one to field candidates nationwide in all 1,652 communes. Its only serious rival, the Candlelight Party, has candidates in 1,632 communes, and the royalist FUNCINPEC Party has challengers in 688 communes. There are a total of 82,786 candidates from 17 political parties with 9.2 million registered voters.

The local elections are held a year ahead of the general election, and are regarded as a test of the parties’ strength.

In the last communal elections in 2017, the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party made an unexpectedly strong showing, which led Hun Sen’s government to crack down on it as well as independent media. The party was dissolved by the Supreme Court on a charge of treason, widely seen as politically motivated, and the free press was driven out of business or cowed into submission.

Without the Cambodian National Rescue Party on the ballot, Hun Sen’s party was assured of victory in the general election the following year.

Several Western nations imposed sanctions on the government after concluding the 2018 election was neither free nor fair. The harshest measure came from the European Union, which withdrew some preferential trading privileges.

The dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, whose sitting members were also ousted from their political posts, remains banned, with most of its top leaders in exile.

The Candlelight Party is now seeking to challenge the ruling party by rallying its former supporters, though its activities have remained severely curtailed.

The original Candlelight Party was founded in 1995 by Sam Rainsy, the main political rival of Hun Sen, and later folded into the Cambodia National Rescue Party. Sam Rainsy, faced with legal harassment, went into self-exile in France, and the co-founder of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, Kem Sokha, is currently being tried on a thinly supported treason charge.

Scouts sell off camps under strain from sex abuse suits

By PAT EATON-ROBB

1 of 5

The Deer Lake Boy Scout Reservation in Killingworth, Conn., sits empty, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. The camp is among many nationwide being sold by local councils as membership dwindles and the organization raises money to pay sexual abuse victims as part of a bankruptcy settlement. Conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

KILLINGWORTH, Conn. (AP) — As the financially struggling Boy Scouts sell off a number of campgrounds, conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space.

A $2.6 billion proposed bankruptcy settlement designed to pay thousands of victims of child sexual abuse has added pressure to an organization beset by years of declining enrollment, and the Scouts and their local councils have been cashing in on their extensive holdings, including properties where some of the abuse took place. Developers have bought up some. Preservation groups hope others can be protected and some legislators have taken notice.

“I am emphasizing to my colleagues that there is a clear urgency here,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who thinks there may be federal funds available to buy Scout properties. “We have no time to waste.”

For over a century the Scouts and their local councils have acquired properties across the country where generations have learned to appreciate the outdoors through camping, swimming and canoeing.

In Blumenthal’s state of Connecticut, the Scouts’ Yankee Council is considering a $4.6 million offer from developers for a 252-acre property, Deer Lake, near Long Island Sound that offers camping, fishing, and hiking. The council has rejected offers from two conservation groups but is negotiating with one of them that offered a revised bid.

Sen. Blumenthal has said he’s looking into the possible use of money from the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund to help in the purchase of the Connecticut camp and the other Boy Scout properties for sale across the nation. Individual states decide which projects to pay for with that money.

Other properties targeted for preservation include 96 acres of what was the Boy Scouts’ Camp Barton, on the west shore of Cayuga Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes region. It includes woodlands, streams, trails and a 75-foot (23-meter) waterfall.

“They are not making any more lakefront property,” said Fred Bonn, regional director for the Finger Lakes State Parks system. “Access to the lake is challenging, both with its topography and what is owned privately.”

Several local towns and New York state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is working with the Baden-Powell Council of the Boy Scouts to try to preserve the land. A nearby 41-acre parcel already was sold by the Scouts to private interests.

It’s unclear exactly how much land across the United States belongs to the Boy Scouts, partly because it is owned by local scout councils. But evidence in the bankruptcy trial indicated the local councils own close to 2,000 properties that could be worth between $8 billion and $10 billion, said Timothy Kosnoff, an attorney who represents more than 12,000 claimants in the bankruptcy.

The proposed bankruptcy settlement with Boys Scouts of America would have its more than 250 councils contribute at least $515 million in cash and property and a $100 million interest-bearing note. Kosnoff said the Scouts will need to sell much of their land to contribute to the national settlement or, if it fails, to pay for continuing legal battles.

“I can’t predict how long it will take for all these properties to be liquidated, but I think it’s inevitable,” he said.

Some abuse victims have mixed feelings about the camps’ sale.

Joe, a victim who did not want his last name used because his family is unaware of his experience, was abused by his scout master starting at the age of 8 in the 1970s at a Connecticut camp that was sold years ago to make way for housing on Candlewood Lake. He’s not sure he wants people camping on land where scouts were once abused.

“I don’t have those warm feelings about those places,” he said. “It’s almost like ‘Poltergeist.’ Do you want your house on land where those things happened? So, I don’t know what to do with those places.”

The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement that selling the camps may be necessary in some instances to compensate victims.

“Every decision must take into account the finances, viability of potential buyers, sustainability and meeting the obligations to provide the best service to youth within their respective council,” the organization said.

Councils in states including Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all recently sold or announced plans to sell camps.

Sen. Blumenthal said selling camps to developers goes against the tenants of an organization that is supposed to teach environmental stewardship.

“Unfortunately, local Boy Scout councils are selling to the highest bidder,” he said. “So, I think it is a national challenge, but it goes to the core of what scouting means and the ethos and ethic of scouting, which they may be betraying.”

In Michigan, a consolidation of local Boy Scout councils that began a decade ago has led to the sale of numerous properties, including Silver Trails, a 269-acre camp about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Port Huron. A group called the Thumb Land Conservancy tried to buy it in 2019, but lost out when the scouts sold it to a gravel-mining company.

“They’ve sold off, I think 15 camps statewide,” said Bill Collins, the conservancy group’s executive director and a former Boy Scout, who used to camp at Silver Trails. “So, people now have to drive sometimes a couple of hundred miles across the state to go to camp. Well, that makes most of day camp activities unfeasible and things like weekend camp outs much more of a chore for everyone involved.”

In Maine, the Androscoggin Land Trust has a purchase agreement to buy the 95-acre Boy Scout Camp Gustin near Lewiston, which includes a large pond and a bog that is filled with wildlife. Aimee Dorval, the trust’s executive director, said the state government’s Land for Maine’s Future program has agreed to chip in half of the $415,000 appraised value of the property. The rest is being raised through private donations.

The purchase would be part of the trust’s larger effort to preserve about 1,000-acres of open space along the Androscoggin River near Lewiston, land that also has been targeted by developers. The trust plans to continue allowing Boy Scouts to use the land while opening it up to the larger community for camping and other activities.

Dorval said it’s important for groups like hers to step up as these camps are put up for sale.

“There are accredited land trusts all across the nation that can take this on,” she said. “I think it would be foolish if people stayed away from this because of the (Boy Scout abuse) controversy. To us, it’s not about that. It is about conservation and about trying to preserve an area for youth and nature-based activities and historic scouting access.”

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LGBTQ people urge Democrats to forcefully reject GOP attacks

By JEFF McMILLAN

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, left, stands next to 16-year-old Aspen Morris at the Rainbow Pride flag raising Wednesday, June 1, 2022 at the Capitol in Madison, Wis. Democratic political candidates who otherwise support the civil rights, safety and visibility of LGBTQ adults and children are finding it difficult to respond to a Republican vote-getting offensive targeting such people. The Republicans' use of LGBTQ people as a “wedge issue” seeks to appeal to the general public’s emotions and misunderstandings about transgender people in particular.

 (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP File)

“The T stands for transgender,” a teacher explains in a video on a Maine Department of Education website launched during the coronavirus pandemic.

“A transgender person is someone who the doctors made a mistake about when they were born,” the teacher says in the lesson plan targeted at kindergartners. “But some people, when they get a little bit older, realize what the doctors said was not right.”

Republicans later produced an ad accusing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is running for reelection against GOP former Gov. Paul LePage, of using state money to create “radical school lessons.” Within hours, the lesson disappeared from the website, and Mills’ spokesperson said the governor was on board with its removal.

While most Democrats support the rights, safety and visibility of LGBTQ adults and children, they’re struggling to counter a barrage of GOP attacks on LGBTQ people, particularly transgender people. With measured responses and occasional capitulation, Democrats like Mills are aiming to avoid getting sucked further into culture wars that serve mostly to galvanize the Republican base.

But as Democrats largely avoid direct confrontations, some LGBTQ people say they feel abandoned.

“Our lives and our existence are being used as political fodder to ramp up the GOP base, and they’re not coming to our defense,” said Deja Alvarez, a transgender woman who finished third in the Democratic primary in a heavily LGBTQ state legislative district in Philadelphia. “They’re not rallying the troops and saying, ‘Hey, we can’t stand for this.’”

Democrats are hardly silent on LGBTQ issues.

As Pride month began this week, President Joe Biden tweeted his support for LGBTQ rights. He recently named Karine Jean-Pierre as the first openly gay White House press secretary and was critical of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this year after he signed legislation to ban the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

Even after she distanced herself from the Department of Education video, Mills released a statement this week ticking through LGBTQ-friendly legislation she has signed. She insisted that if she is reelected, Maine “will remain a safe and welcoming place to live for LGBTQ people.”

And in Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers warned that if he loses in November, Republicans will take steps to ban books, especially those with LGBTQ themes.

Evers’ approach is one activists say more Democrats should embrace this election year. They want to see candidates go beyond prepared statements celebrating Pride month and instead place LGBTQ issues more at the center of the campaign while warning of the specific consequences of Republican victories.

“These are the kinds of actions we need people to take,” Alvarez said, “but not just because it’s Pride month.”

Councilperson Daniella Fernandez talks to a crowd of people gathered along York Street in Nevada City, Calif., to witness the raising of the Pride flag above City Hall on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Democratic political candidates who otherwise support the civil rights, safety and visibility of LGBTQ adults and children are finding it difficult to respond to a Republican vote-getting offensive targeting such people. The Republicans' use of LGBTQ people as a “wedge issue” seeks to appeal to the general public’s emotions and misunderstandings about transgender people in particular

The problem may be that even allies are not prepared to speak on the issues, which allowed the framing of LGBTQ people as a threat to catch on, said Fran Hutchins, executive director of the advocacy group Equality Federation.

In this election cycle, Republicans have zeroed in on the discussions banned by the Florida bill dubbed by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay”; the participation of transgender students in competitive sports, even though such conflicts are rare; and gender-affirming care for children.

“The root of why this is happening is a real lack of familiarity with and lack of understanding for trans folks and what it’s like to be transgender,” Hutchins said.

One notable exception has been Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic state senator from Michigan who gave an impassioned speech in response to an invocation from a Republican lawmaker who claimed McMorrow, who is running for reelection, wanted to “groom” and “sexualize” kindergarteners.

The video of McMorrow’s reaction speech and a related Twitter thread were widely celebrated, but there remains a sense — even by McMorrow — that she fell on a sword other Democrats are dodging.

“There is a difference between politics and outright hate,” she said in April, pondering the reaction to her speech. “I think people are frustrated that elected officials haven’t done enough to call that out, that maybe Democrats are afraid of talking about religion and faith openly and honestly and calling hate what it is.”

Labeling education about sexual orientation and gender identity as “grooming” connotes the methods sex offenders use to molest children, and is part of a push by conservatives to speak to parents’ fears by equating such education with pornography and pedophilia.

The teacher in the Maine video, Kailina Mills — no relation to the governor — said in a Facebook post that she has taught transgender and nonbinary preschoolers and that they deserve to be represented in the curriculum, the Portland Press Herald reported.

“Public schools are for everyone and should, therefore, include everyone,” the teacher said.

When the narrative that such issues are inappropriate or dangerous becomes embedded in the minds of voters, pushing back can indeed be politically problematic. But activists said there are larger issues to consider.

“It goes well for candidates when they stand up and say what their real values are and say what they believe about what’s really going on with legislation,” said Liz Seaton, policy director for the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund. “When they speak the truth from values, they will be speaking from their heart, and their constituents will respond.”

Annise Parker, a former Houston mayor who is now CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute, a nonpartisan organization that works on behalf of LGBTQ candidates, agreed that LGBTQ allies running for office have a responsibility to “stand up and speak out when any of those marginalized communities are attacked.”

Political observers and activists noted parallels in today’s rhetoric with that around same-sex marriage in the 1990s and 2000s.

It was only 10 years ago that former President Barack Obama — on the heels of Biden, his vice president — endorsed same-sex marriage. That was 16 years after another Democratic president, Bill Clinton, signed the law that blocked it.

Both presidents were running for reelection and may have been hostages to public opinion, which by Obama’s time had swung the other way. Same-sex marriage soon became legal throughout the United States, and the public now sees the sky didn’t fall as predicted, advocates said.

But now “conservative forces are using the tactics of ‘othering’ us very effectively again ... and they are making trans activists look radical when all they’re looking for is the right to exist,” said Jonathan Lovitz, a gay man who ran against Alvarez and other candidates in last month’s Democratic primary in Philadelphia and placed second.

A poll released in April by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that overall, Americans lean slightly toward expanding discussions of sexuality in K-12 classrooms. And some observers say it’s only a matter of time before today’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric stops working in Republicans’ favor.

Lovitz encouraged Democrats to set aside political concerns as LGBTQ people feel increasingly targeted.

“Be a vocal and visible ally even if it costs you endorsements and donations. Stand up for what you believe in; otherwise you’re not an elected official, you’re just a weather vane,” he said. “We don’t need fair-weather friends right now.”

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Follow Jeff McMillan at http://twitter.com/jeffmcmillanpa.

Firm proposes Taser-armed drones to stop school shootings

Axon was “absolutely not” trying to capitalize on recent tragedies to attract investors.

By MATT O'BRIEN and MICHAEL BALSAMO

This photo provided by Axon Enterprise depicts a conceptual design through a computer-generated rendering of a taser drone. Taser developer Axon says it is working to build drones armed with the electric stunning weapons that could fly in schools and “help prevent the next Uvalde, Sandy Hook, or Columbine.” But its own technology advisers quickly panned the idea as a dangerous fantasy. (Axon Enterprise, Inc. via AP)

Taser developer Axon said this week it is working to build drones armed with the electric stunning weapons that could fly in schools and “help prevent the next Uvalde, Sandy Hook, or Columbine.” But its own technology advisers quickly panned the idea as a dangerous fantasy.

The publicly traded company, which sells Tasers and police body cameras, floated the idea of a new police drone product last year to its artificial intelligence ethics board, a group of well-respected experts in technology, policing and privacy.

Some of them expressed reservations about weaponizing drones in over-policed communities of color. But they were not expecting Axon’s Thursday announcement that it wants to send those Taser-equipped drones into classrooms to prevent mass shootings by immobilizing an intruding gunman.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith said he felt compelled to make the idea public after the mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school, saying he was “catastrophically disappointed” in the response by police who didn’t move in to kill the suspect for more than an hour.

But he stressed Friday that no product had been launched and any potential launch would be down the road. The idea, he felt, needed to be shared now because of the public conversation about effective ways for police to safely confront attackers and how schools can increase safety.

“This is an idea that should get into the public’s consciousness while our minds are open to it and I felt if I wait another six months, the world is going to change and people are going to forget this pain and we’re going to see a shift in sentiments where people are going to focus a lot more on what could go wrong, rather than the pain of this problem we need to solve,” he said.

Axon’s stock price rose with the news. But the announcement angered members of the ethics board, some of whom are now likely to quit in protest.

“This particular idea is crackpot,” said Barry Friedman, a New York University law professor who sits on the Axon AI Ethics Board. “Drones can’t fly through closed doors. The physical properties of the universe still hold. So unless you have a drone in every single classroom in America, which seems insane, the idea just isn’t going to work.”

Friedman said it was a “dangerous and fantastical idea” that went far beyond the proposal for a Taser-equipped police drone that board members — some of them former or current police officials — had been debating in recent months.

“We begged the company not to do it,” Friedman said of the company’s announcement. “It was unnecessary and shameful.”

The product idea had been kicked around at Axon since at least 2019 and the company has been working to try to figure out whether a drone with a Taser was even a feasible idea. Over the last year, the company created computer-generated art renderings to mock up a product design and conducted an internal test to see if Taser darts — which transmit an immobilizing electric jolt — could be fired from a flying drone, Smith said. He added that he had discussed the possibility of developing such a product with the ethics board.

Board members who spoke with The Associated Press said they were taken aback by the school drone proposal — which they got notice of only earlier this week — and cobbled together a unanimous statement of concern that described Axon’s decision as “deeply regrettable.” The company tweeted out the board’s dissent shortly after its own statement Thursday announcement.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were resignations,” said another ethics board member, Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington. “I think everyone on the board has to make a choice about whether they want to stay involved.”

Friedman and Calo both described this week’s process as a sharp turnaround from the respectful relationship that Axon executives have had with the board in recent years on controversial topics such as face recognition — which Axon decided against using in its body cameras — and automated license plate readers.

“Sometimes the company takes our advice and sometimes it doesn’t,” Friedman said. “What’s important is that happens after thoughtful discussion and coordination. That was thrown out the window here.”

Smith said the company is still in the very early phases of product development and would continue to consult the ethics board, along with law enforcement officials, community leaders and school officials. He acknowledged that the company might later determine that the idea isn’t feasible and abandon it.

But he took issue with the idea that he had ignored the concerns from the ethics board, which is meant to provide guidance and share feedback. Ultimately, the decision still falls to Smith as the company’s chief executive.

“I have not ignored what they have said. People can have debates and disagree,” Smith said. “I think there is one thing the world can see: our board is not a whitewash.”

“I hope they don’t resign,” he added. “I hope that they are somewhat proud maybe after this that we’re having this public debate.”

On Friday in an “Ask Me Anything” chat on the online forum Reddit. Smith acknowledged that “drones in schools can sound nuts” but went on to answer detailed questions about them. They could travel through school vents, he said, and perch on doors and walls near ceilings. It could be a “good thing” if a gunman tried to shoot one down because it would distract from trying to kill people.

“We’re doing this because we care,” Smith said. “We’re a business so ultimately we have to find a financial model that works, but at the end of the day we’ve been successful because our mission drives our business and we solve problems we care about,” he added.

Smith told a Reddit user that Axon was “absolutely not” trying to capitalize on recent tragedies to attract investors. He noted the advisory board’s disagreements but said the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — and what he described as misguided proposals to arm teachers with guns — compelled him to go public with the drone idea to field a “far broader array of voices.”