It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, December 16, 2022
NO PASARAN!
Spain exhumes 53 bodies from Franco dictatorship's shallow graves Aranzadi Science Society gathers remains of prisoners who died in a Francoist prison in the Basque town of Orduna
Mon, December 12, 2022 By Vincent West
ORDUNA, Spain (Reuters) - Forensic archaeologists have exhumed 53 bodies from shallow graves in the Basque town of Orduna that were dug in 1941, as part of a process of healing the country's wounds from the Franco dictatorship era.
The investigators will try to identify the remains and return them to relatives so that they can be formally buried, Spanish pathologist Francisco Etxeberria told Reuters on Sunday.
More than 500,000 people were killed during the 1936-1939 Spanish civil war. Historians estimate more than 100,000 people remain missing, many in unmarked mass graves.
The leftist coalition government approved a bill in 2020 to finance exhumations from the unmarked graves as part of a wider effort to find out the truth about the dictatorship's crimes and heal wounds still open four decades after Franco's death.
Naiara Garmendia said she understood her family, especially her late grandfather, better after finding out what had happened in the early 1940s to her great-grandfather, Bernardo Rodriguez, a UGT union member from Extremadura, who died in Orduna.
"He can't be here, he doesn't have this peace, he won’t know where his father was. But in some way, we can give it to him,” she told Reuters about her late grandfather.
The historical documentation on the graves and testimony suggest that the human remains belong to prisoners who died between February and June 1941 at the Central Prison of Orduna, the Basque regional government said in a statement.
They estimate that at least 225 people died in what was first a concentration camp during the civil war between 1937 and 1939, then a prison between 1939 and 1941.
Etxeberria explained these were republican prisoners who were jailed in terrible conditions under Franco's regime.
"They died of hunger, lack of clothing, sometimes from diseases such as tuberculosis," he said.
"We are dealing with victims of Franco's repression."
A team of forensics experts will gather the remains buried at the local cemetery, near the old prison, and will send them to laboratories for DNA tests.
Relatives will receive the remains once they have been identified.
This exhumation is part of Gogora (Remembrance), the Basque Government's "Search for missing persons from the Civil War" programme, in conjunction with the Aranzadi Science Society and collaboration from Orduna's local government.
(Reporting by Vincent West, Writing by Elena Rodriguez and Inti Landauro, Editing by Nick Macfie)
A sneaky photo taken the last time a stealth bomber was unveiled shows why some parts of the new B-21 are still under wraps
Michael Peck Sun, December 11, 2022 People watch a B-2 taxi on the runaway for its maiden flight in Palmdale, California on July 17, 1989.Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images On December 2, the US Air Force revealed its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider.
Security was strict, with officials tightly controlling how much of the bomber was visible.
That may have been an effort to avoid what happened the last time a stealth bomber was unveiled.
Security was tight when the US Air Force unveiled its new B-21 Raider stealth bomber on December 2.
Journalists and spectators could only glimpse the front of the aircraft from a distance, which made its details appear indistinct. But more interesting was that the event wasn't held in the open air on a runway.
Instead, the rollout took place after sunset at Northrop Grumman's plant in Palmdale, California, with the bomber partially inside a hangar. One reason for that may be what happened the last time the Air Force unveiled a stealth bomber.
On November 22, 1988, as armed guards patrolled the tarmac and a Huey helicopter circled overhead, the world got a chance to see the B-2 Spirit — the predecessor of the B-21 in look and function — at the same Palmdale facility.
As with the B-21, spectators were kept at a distance, and only the front of the B-2 could be seen. That was frustrating for those who wanted to see the rear of the B-2, especially the distinctive trailing edges and engine exhausts of the tailless flying-wing bomber, which would give clues to the aircraft's capabilities and its stealthiness.
Despite the Pentagon's efforts to limit how much of the B-2 could be seen, the bomber's unique features were soon visible to the world through a series of events worthy of a spy novel or a screwball comedy.
'Why should they care?'
In a feat that made aviation journalism history, enterprising reporters and photographers from Aviation Week magazine managed to get an overhead glimpse of the B-2, taking advantage of oversights in the Pentagon's security measures.
"One of the driving functions to get us into this mode was, 'Hey, if they were going to pull this thing out of the hangar into the open, I can guarantee the Russians are going to have a satellite overhead,'" William Scott, a retired Aviation Week editor, said of the effort to get the photo.
"And if the powers that be don't care if the Russians see the trailing edge, why should they care about the American people?" Scott told Aviation Week in an article about the photo scoop published on the same day as the B-21's rollout.
The team considered several ideas, including flying a hot-air balloon over the B-2, which was dropped for safety reasons. Eventually they noticed that FAA's notice to airmen — an alert known as a NOTAM — didn't restrict flights in the area that were above 1,000 feet.
Aviation Week editor Michael Dornheim and photographer Bill Hartenstein flew a rented Cessna 172 to Palmdale Airport the weekend before the B-2 was unveiled.
"Dornheim performed several circuits and touch-and-gos to allay any potential suspicions from air traffic control, while Hartenstein tried out various telephoto lenses to guarantee he would have the best images of the day," Aviation Week senior editor Guy Norris wrote this month.
When the big day came, security kept the crowd at least 200 feet from the front of the aircraft, while the low-flying Huey helicopter kept a watchful eye for intruders. But the Cessna circled overhead, unnoticed, as Hartenstein took photo after photo.
When the plane landed, Dornheim and Hartenstein "were just giddy," Scott said. "They hadn't got hollered at in any way by ATC [air traffic control] and I told them I hadn't noticed anyone even looking up!"
The team then raced to meet Thanksgiving week deadlines. Hartenstein's film was dispatched on an overnight FedEx flight to New York and emerged in the pages of Aviation Week as a beautiful, full-color photo of the B-2 — its trailing edges and exhausts fully visible. A US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber.Mai/Getty Images
A few days later, Scott got a call from Col. Richard Couch, director of the B-2 combined test force at Edwards Air Force Base. Couch said that some "civilians" were vowing that heads would roll over the leak. Couch said he told them "to get over it. We figured you guys at Aviation Week would do something like that anyway!"
Thirty-four years later, security at the B-21's ceremony was tight both on the ground and in the air.
Officials imposed "very, very strict camera regulations" and restricted reporters from bringing cameras and recording devices into certain areas, according to Aviation Week editor Brian Everstine, who covered the rollout.
In the risers where reporters were seated, "a very ornery security man" measured cameras and tripods to ensure they weren't taller than was allowed, Everstine said on Aviation Week's Check 6 podcast.
US officials did issue a NOTAM this time, closing the airspace above the event, not that it would've mattered. "They didn't even pull it totally out" of the hangar, Everstine said. "Even if there was anybody above, you wouldn't be able to see the trailing edge." Secret, but not for long A B-21 Raider under cover during a rehearsal for its unveiling ceremony at Plant 42 in Palmdale on December 1.US Air Force/Airman 1st Class Joshua M. Carroll
Is all this secrecy really necessary? Photographs can tell the enemy a lot about a weapon.
For stealth aircraft in particular, which have surfaces and components that are carefully designed to minimize the radar waves they reflect, a certain degree of covertness is understandable.
On the other hand, for an aircraft to be properly tested, it has to leave the hangar and face public exposure.
The B-21's first flight is expected in mid-2023, and more photos of the aircraft are sure to emerge at that time, though program officials say they plan to keep the bomber's tail area under wraps as long as possible, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Of course, this assumes that foreign spies haven't already ferreted out the secrets. The B-21 Raider after its unveiling on December 2.US Air Force
In 2010, a former Northrop engineer was convicted for selling classified information — including details about the lock-on range for infrared missiles against the B-2 — to China.
In 2015, documents leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden suggested that Chinese hackers had stolen plans for the F-35. China almost certainly used that stolen data for its J-21 and J-31 stealth fighters, which happen to resemble the F-35.
Despite the secrecy surrounding the B-21, it would not be surprising if China and Russia know more about the $700 million bomber than the US taxpayers who are funding it.
Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Trump, Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes pushing antisemitism to the forefront of the GOP could pull the Christian nationalist movement apart
Kelsey Vlamis
Nick Fuentes; Kanye West; Marjorie Taylor Greene
Kanye West and Nick Fuentes' recent antisemitic comments have sparked widespread outrage.
But they also exposed a darker side of Christian nationalism that was always there, experts say.
The shift could hinder the recent resurgence of Christian nationalism in mainstream politics.
Former President Donald Trump's meeting with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes helped shine a spotlight on antisemitism that some on the right have tried to ignore — and could hinder the growing mainstream influence of Christian nationalism.
Trump met with Ye and Fuentes — a white supremacist and Christian nationalist known for sharing racist and antisemitic views — at Mar-a-Lago on November 22. The former president later denied knowing anything about Fuentes, but weeks before the meeting Ye had also received criticism for his own antisemitic comments, including saying he was going to go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."
Ye's antisemitism continued, boosted by the notoriety of the meeting with Trump. On December 1, the rapper appeared with Fuentes on Alex Jones' Infowars show, during which he praised Adolf Hitler and downplayed the Holocaust.
Ye working with Fuentes and meeting with Trump — and the way he's previously been embraced by others on the right, from Fox News' Tucker Carlson to GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee — have forced some conservatives and Christian nationalists to reckon with a side of the movement they have preferred to pretend wasn't there.
Christian nationalism and white supremacy
Gorski said he and other scholars of Christian nationalism have been saying for a long time that the ideology was tangled up with white supremacism, but they received a lot of pushback for it. "People saying, 'It's not true. I don't know anybody who's like that. I don't know anybody who thinks that,'" Gorski explained.
The recent scandals with Ye and Fuentes have "just brought some of that deeper, uglier stuff up to the surface and into broad daylight, but it was there the whole time."
Christian nationalism can generally be distilled down to the belief that Christianity and the US are intrinsically linked and that the religion should have a privileged position in American society. Americans who support Christian nationalist ideas may not identify as Christian nationalists. They also might embrace some aspects of the ideology but not others, so there's a wide spectrum of Christians who could be considered part of the movement.
"White Christian nationalism is older than the United States itself and it goes back to really the 17th century," Gorski explained, adding that the concept "in many ways emerged as a way of justifying stealing Native lands and killing Indigenous people, and enslaving kidnapped Africans."
Today there are still many Christian nationalists who, when talking about good Americans, are thinking of people who look and think like them, he said: "That means, first and foremost, conservative white Christians."
"In our book, we show that Americans who embrace Christian nationalism more strongly are more likely to agree that 'Jews hold values that are morally inferior to me,' 'Jews want to limit the personal freedoms of people like me,' and 'Jews endanger the physical safety of people like me,'" Whitehead told Insider.
Additional research has also found close connections between Christian nationalism, antisemitism, QAnon followers, and supporters of Trump. And a how-to guide to Christian nationalism published in September by Gab Founder Andrew Torba was rife with antisemitism.
The Christian right divided
Despite the connection, Gorski said Christian nationalists would likely have "pretty complicated reactions" to the Ye and Fuentes situation "because they have a pretty complicated relationship to Israel and Judaism and American Jews."
Gorski said there is much less blatant antisemitism among conservative Christians in the US than there was in the mid-20th century. He said it's hard to quantify, but he believes the average "garden variety Christian nationalists are probably not explicitly or consciously antisemitic," even though there's a "hardcore faction" that is.
The American right has also been closely linked to support of Israel in recent decades, in part due to what Gorski described as an expansion pack for Christian nationalism: Christian Zionism — which refers to a belief among some Christians that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy.
A LifeWay poll conducted in 2017 found that 80 percent of evangelical Christians, a group that is more likely to embrace Christian nationalism, believed the creation of Israel was part of the fulfillment of a prophecy in the Bible that would lead to the return of Christ. The survey respondents were also overwhelmingly politically conservative.
Gorski noted there is also a sentiment among some conservative Christians that differentiates between Jewish people by location, describing the thinking as: "Jews' real homeland is Israel, so a good Jew is in Israel, so an American Jew is not a good Jew." Under this strange logic, a Christian Zionist could be considered a better Jew than a Jew, he explained, noting a comment made in October by the wife of Doug Mastriano, the failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate. When addressing accusations of antisemitism against her husband, Rebecca Mastriano said "we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do."
Greene is one of the few prominent Republicans — and only member of Congress — to openly identify as a Christian nationalist. But following the Alex Jones appearance, she publicly denounced Fuentes and his "racist" and "antisemitic" ideology. She also called him "racist" and "immature" on her show and said it "makes no sense" for Ye to align with him.
Fuentes responded by attacking her character: "She wants to be the face of Christian nationalism. She's divorced, and she's actively an adulterer," he said, referencing rumors. "How are you going to be the face of Christian nationalism when you're a divorced woman girlboss?"
Saying the quiet part out loud could hurt the Christian nationalism movement
Greene's rejection of Fuentes was also notable, as it forced her to confront a side of Christian nationalism that she had previously refused to acknowledge.
In addition to self-identifying with the term, she's become a major proponent of its ideals. Greene has said the GOP should be the party of Christian nationalism and even sells merch adorned with the term. She has also tried to dismiss criticism of the movement as coming from the "godless left" who hate both the US and God, and has ignored those who have pointed out the documented connections between Christian nationalism and white supremacy.
But Fuentes and Ye, empowered by a high-profile meeting with the former president, have made those connections much harder to ignore — and could help deter conservative Christians who may otherwise have been intrigued by the movement.
While Christian nationalism as a concept is still on the historical decline, its recent resurgence and influence in mainstream politics could be threatened if more far-right figures continue to shine a light on its ugliest parts.
Free ride: DC unveils bold plan to boost public transit
Public Transit Free Fares
The Washington DC government voted to waive fares for Metrobus rides within city limits starting July, 1, 2023, becoming the nation's most populous city to offer free public transit.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
HOPE YEN Sun, December 11, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare for the District of Columbia and other major cities that public transit was a lifeline for essential workers and that even modest fares could be a burden to them. So the nation’s capital is introducing a groundbreaking plan: It will begin offering free bus fares to residents next summer.
Other cities, including Los Angeles and Kansas City, Missouri, suspended fare collection during the height of the pandemic to minimize human contact and ensure that residents with no other travel options could reach jobs and services at hospitals, grocery stores and offices.
But D.C.‘s permanent free fare plan will be by far the biggest, coming at a time when major cities including Boston and Denver and states such as Connecticut are considering broader zero-fare policies to improve equity and help regain ridership that was lost with the rise of remote and hybrid work. Los Angeles instituted free fares in 2020 before recently resuming charging riders. Lately LA Metro has been testing a fare-capping plan under which transit riders pay for trips until they hit a fixed dollar amount and then ride free after that, though new Mayor Karen Bass has suggested support for permanently abolishing the fares.
Analysts say D.C.’s free fare system offers a good test case on how public transit can be reshaped for a post-pandemic future.
“If D.C. demonstrates that it increases ridership, it reduces the cost burden for people who are lower income and it improves the quality of transit service in terms of speed of bus service, and reduces cars on the road, this could be a roaring success,” said Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “We just don’t know yet whether that would happen.”
The $2 fares will be waived for riders boarding Metrobuses within the city limits beginning around July 1. In unanimously approving the plan last week, the D.C. Council also agreed to expand bus service to 24 hours on 12 major routes downtown, benefiting nightlife and service workers who typically had to rely on costly ride-share to get home after the Metro subway and bus system closed at night.
A new $10 million fund devoted to annual investments in D.C. bus lanes, shelters and other improvements was also approved to make rides faster and more reliable.
“The District is ready to be a national leader in the future of public transit,” said D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who first proposed free fares in 2019 and says the program can be fully paid-for with surplus D.C. tax revenue. Roughly 85% of bus riders are D.C. residents. The Metro system also serves neighboring suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
About 68% of D.C. residents who take the bus have household incomes below $50,000, and riders are disproportionately Black and Latino compared with Metrorail passengers, according to the council's budget analysis.
Not everyone is a fan.
Peter Van Doren, a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Cato Institute, said the plan risks high costs and mixed results, noting that the opportunity to improve ridership may be limited because bus passengers have been quicker to return to near pre-pandemic levels. He said government subsidies to help lower-income people buy cars would go farther because not everyone has easy access to public transit, which operates on fixed routes.
"The beauty of automobiles is they can go anywhere and everywhere in a way that transit does not," he said. “We don’t know the subset of low-income people in D.C. where transit is a wonderful option as opposed to not such a wonderful option.”
The council's move, which will be finalized in a second vote later this month, came over the concerns of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who supports the concept of free fares but raised questions about the $42 million annual cost over the long term. “District residents and taxpayers will have to pay for this program,” she wrote in a letter to council members. “Our neighbors, Virginia and Maryland, should absorb some of these costs as their residents will benefit from this program as well.”
Allen also had proposed a $100 monthly transit benefit for D.C. residents to access the Metrorail system, but shelved the plan until at least fall 2024 due to the $150 million annual estimated cost. He described free bus fares as a “win-win-win” for the District because they will help the transit system recover and offer affordable, green-friendly travel while boosting economic activity downtown.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which currently faces a budget deficit of $185 million, part of which it attributes to fare evasion, praised the plan as “bold.” It said it looked forward to working with the city council, mayor and regional stakeholders “toward our goal of providing more accessible and equitable service for our customers.”
Nationwide, while transit ridership has returned to about 79% of pre-pandemic levels, that figure varies widely by region. In New York City, for instance, MTA chief executive Janno Lieber has suggested that city and state government step up to pay for trains and buses more like essential public services, such as a fire department, citing millions of transit riders he believes may never come back. In 2019, fares made up over 40% of total transit revenue there but have since slid to 25%, leading to an anticipated $2.5 billion deficit in 2025 along with the risk of soon using up the transportation authority's federal COVID relief funds.
In D.C., where bus fares amount to a modest 7% of total transit operating revenues, the transit agency may be able to more easily absorb losses from zero fares, said Art Guzzetti, the American Public Transportation Association’s vice president of mobility initiatives and public policy. He noted savings for city taxpayers from speeding up boarding, which could allow for more routes and stops, as well as reducing traffic congestion and eliminating the need for transit enforcement against fare evaders.
Currently, D.C. bus ridership stands at about 74% of pre-pandemic levels on weekdays compared to 40% for Metrorail.
Still, free fares can be a tough choice for cities. “If the consequence of a zero-fare program is you have less funds to invest in frequent service, then you’re going backwards,” Guzzetti said.
In Kansas City, which began offering zero-fares for its buses in March 2020 and has no planned end date, officials said the program has helped boost ridership, which has risen by 13% in 2022 so far compared with the previous year. The free fares amount to an $8 million revenue loss, with the city paying for more than half of that and federal COVID aid covering the rest through 2023, said Cindy Baker, interim vice president for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, who describes the program as a success.
The program has eliminated altercations between passengers and bus drivers over fares, although there have been more instances of passenger disputes due to an increase in homeless riders, according to the agency. Baker said the transit agency has been adding security in response to some rider complaints.
“A lot of industries have moved on from the pandemic, but for D.C.'s bars and restaurants, the pandemic is still happening everyday,” he said, citing the effects of hybrid work, inflation, gun violence and other factors that have hollowed out the downtown. “Anything that helps encourage diners to get to downtown D.C. and enjoy the world-class dining and entertainment we have is a great thing.”
___
Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Sanders calls Sinema ‘corporate Democrat’ who ‘sabotaged’ legislation
Zach Schonfeld Sun, December 11, 2022
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) on Sunday as a “corporate Democrat” who “sabotaged” party priorities following her announcement that she was becoming an Independent.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with co-anchor Dana Bash, Sanders said Sinema didn’t have the guts to take on special interests while attacking her voting record.
“She doesn’t,” Sanders said. “She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact, along with Sen. [Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.] sabotaged enormously important legislation.”
Sinema on Friday announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, a move that enraged many in the party and came three days after Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) won reelection and gave Democrats a 51-49 Senate majority.
Sinema will keep her committee assignments through the Democratic caucus, which will allow the party to keep much of its newly gained power compared to the power-sharing agreement created by the current 50-50 makeup.
But her move now poses a key decision for Democrats as to whether they will still nominate a candidate for Arizona’s upcoming Senate contest in 2024.
Sinema has not yet said if she will run for reelection, but rumors had grown that Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) or another progressive would mount a primary challenge to Sinema.
“I happen to suspect that it’s probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona,” Sanders said on CNN of Sinema’s decision.
“I think the Democrats, they’re not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helps sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interests of working families and voting rights and so forth,” he added. “So I think it really has to do with her political aspirations for the future in Arizona. But for us, I think nothing much has changed in terms of the functioning of the U.S. Senate.”
The Hill has reached out to Sinema’s office for comment.
Sanders is now one of three independents in the upper chamber, although he and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) both caucus with Democrats.
Sinema, along Manchin, was one of the most moderate members of the Senate Democratic Conference, at times drawing ire from others in the party as they attempted to pass major legislation with razor-thin majorities.
She has opposed efforts to eliminate the legislative filibuster, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for passing most bills, and garnered accusations from progressives that she is cozy with corporate interests as she sparred over elements of Democrats’ massive social spending bill.
“Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes. Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different,” Sinema wrote in an Arizona Republic op-ed explaining her decision.
REST IN POWER Pioneering Black feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes dies at 84
Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP
Associated Press Sun, December 11, 2022
NEW YORK — Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a pioneering Black feminist, child welfare advocate and lifelong community activist who toured the country speaking with Gloria Steinem in the 1970s and appears with her in one of the most iconic photos of the second-wave feminist movement, has died. She was 84.
Hughes died Dec. 1 in Tampa, Florida, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, said Maurice Sconiers of the Sconiers Funeral Home in Columbus, Georgia. Her daughter, Delethia Ridley Malmsten, said the cause was old age.
Though they came to feminism from different places — Hughes from community activism and Steinem from journalism — the two forged a powerful speaking partnership in the early 1970s, touring the country at a time when feminism was seen as predominantly white and middle class, a divide dating back to the origins of the American women’s movement. Steinem credited Hughes with helping her become comfortable speaking in public.
In one of the most famous images of the era, taken in October 1971, the two raised their right arms in the Black Power salute. The photo is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
Hughes, her work always rooted in community activism, organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development to broaden childcare services in the city. But she was perhaps best known for her work helping countless families through the community center she established on Manhattan’s West Side, offering day care, job training, advocacy training and more.
“She took families off the street and gave them jobs,” Malmsten, her daughter, told The Associated Press on Sunday, reflecting on what she felt was her mother’s most important work.
Steinem, too, paid tribute to Hughes’ community work. “My friend Dorothy Pitman Hughes ran a pioneering neighborhood childcare center on the west side of Manhattan,” Steinem said in an email. “We met in the seventies when I wrote about that childcare center, and we became speaking partners and lifetime friends. She will be missed, but if we keep telling her story, she will keep inspiring us all.”
Laura L. Lovett, whose biography of Hughes, “With Her Fist Raised,” came out last year, said in Ms. Magazine (of which Pitman was a co-founder along with Steinem) that Hughes “defined herself as a feminist, but rooted her feminism in her experience and in more fundamental needs for safety, food, shelter and child care.”
Born Dorothy Jean Ridley on Oct. 2, 1938, in Lumpkin, Georgia, Hughes committed herself to activism at an early age, according to an obituary written by her family. When she was 10, it said, her father was nearly beaten to death and left on the family’s doorstep. The family believed he was attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, and Hughes decided to dedicate herself to helping others through activism.
She moved to New York City in the late 1950s when she was nearly 20 and worked as a salesperson, nightclub singer and house cleaner. By the 1960s she had become involved in the civil rights movement and other causes, working with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and others.
In the late 1960s, she set up her West 80th St. community center, providing care for children and also support for their parents.
“She realized that child-care challenges were deeply entangled with issues of racial discrimination, poverty, drug use, substandard housing, welfare hotels, job training and even the Vietnam War,” Lovett wrote last year. Hughes “recognized that the strongest anchor for local community action centered on children and worked to fix the roots of inequality in her community.”
It was at the center that she met Steinem, then a journalist writing a story for New York Magazine. They became friends and, from 1969 to 1973, spoke across the country at college campuses, community centers and other venues on gender and race issues.
“Dorothy’s style was to call out the racism she saw in the white women’s movement,” Lovett said in Ms. “She frequently took to the stage to articulate the way in which white women’s privilege oppressed Black women but also offered her friendship with Gloria as proof this obstacle could be overcome.”
By the 1980s, Hughes was becoming an entrepreneur. She had moved to Harlem and opened an office supply business, Harlem Office Supply, the rare stationery store at the time that was run by a Black woman. But she was forced to sell the store when a Staples opened nearby, part of President Bill Clinton’s Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone program.
She would remember some of her experiences in the 2000 book, “Wake Up and Smell the Dollars! Whose Inner-City Is This Anyway!: One Woman’s Struggle Against Sexism, Classism, Racism, Gentrification, and the Empowerment Zone.”
Bloomfield High School transgender athlete Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood, far left, and other runners in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse High School, on Feb. 7, 2019, in New Haven, Conn. A federal appeals court on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, dismissed a challenge to Connecticut's policy of allowing transgender girls to compete girls' high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes.
(AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb, File)
DAVE COLLINS Fri, December 16, 2022
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut's policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld a lower court judge's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities were speculative.
“All four Plaintiffs regularly competed at state track championships as high school athletes, where Plaintiffs had the opportunity to compete for state titles in different events,” the decision said. “And, on numerous occasions, Plaintiffs were indeed “champions,” finishing first in various events, even sometimes when competing against (transgender athletes).”
The judges added, “Plaintiffs simply have not been deprived of a ‘chance to be champions.’”
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Council argued its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.
The American Civil Liberties Union defended the two transgender athletes at the center of the lawsuit — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood.
“Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion” Joshua Block, a lawyer for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. "This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”
Transgender athletes' ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate. At least 12 Republican-led states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage.
Transgender rights advocates counter such laws aren’t just about sports, but another way to demean and attack transgender youth.
Christiana Kiefer, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the four Connecticut cisgender athletes, said she and other alliance attorneys are considering how to respond, including possibly asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review Friday's decision.
“Our clients, like all female athletes across the country, deserve fair competition,” Kiefer said in a phone interview. “And that means fair and equal quality of competition, and that just does not happen when you’re forced to compete against biological males in their sports.”
Kiefer added, “The vast majority of the American public recognizes that in order to have fair sports, we have to protect the female category, and I think you’re seeing that trend increasingly with states across the country passing laws to protect women’s sports. ... This is certainly not the end of the road in the fight for fairness for female athletes.”
The plaintiffs sought injunctions to bar enforcement of the state policy on transgender athletes and to remove records set by transgender athletes from the books, as well as money damages.
In arguments before a federal judge in Connecticut in February 2021, Roger Brooks, another lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Title IX guarantees girls “equal quality” of competition, which he said is denied by having to race people with what he described as inherent physiological advantages.
Brooks said the transgender sprinters improperly won 15 championship races between 2017 and 2020 and cost cisgender girls the opportunity to advance to other races 85 times.
Miller and Yearwood, the transgender sprinters from Bloomfield and Cromwell, respectively, frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.
The plaintiffs competed directly against them, almost always losing to Miller and usually finishing behind Yearwood. One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell of Canton High School, finished third in the 2019 state championship in the girls 55-meter indoor track competition behind Miller and Yearwood.
All the athletes have since graduated from high school.
Report: World's coal use creeps to new high in 2022
Fri, December 16, 2022
BERLIN (AP) — Coal use across the world is set to reach a new record this year amid persistently high demand for the heavily polluting fossil fuel, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
The Paris-based agency said in a new report that while coal use grew by only 1.2% in 2022, the increase pushed it to all all-time high of more than 8 billion metric tons, beating the previous record set in 2013.
“The world’s coal consumption will remain at similar levels in the following years in the absence of stronger efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy,” the agency said, noting that “robust demand” in emerging Asian economies would offset declining use in mature markets.
“This means coal will continue to be the global energy system’s largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions by far,” the IAE said.
The use of coal and other fossil fuels needs to be drastically cut to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. Experts say the ambitious target, which governments agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord, will be hard to meet given that average temperatures worldwide have already risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.
The IEA said higher prices for natural gas due to Russia's war in Ukraine have led to increased reliance on coal for generating power.
“The world is close to a peak in fossil fuel use, with coal set to be the first to decline, but we are not there yet,” Keisuke Sadamori, the agency's director of energy markets and security, said.
Coal use is likely to decline as countries deploy more renewable energy sources, he said.
1919
KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA
Protesters block India highway after Kashmir shooting
Fri, December 16, 2022 By Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters blocked a section of a main highway that runs through the Indian border region of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday over the killing of two men who worked as labourers at an Indian army base, a police official and residents said.
Residents said the men were shot dead earlier on Friday by army guards at the entrance of the base in Rajouri, 150 km (95 miles) south of Kashmir's capital Srinigar.
The Indian military said the two men were killed by militants outside the military hospital in Rajouri.
Protesters burned tyres and pelted the military base with stones hours after the shooting, said the police official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. Another man was also injured.
The mainly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and rival Pakistan, although both nuclear-armed neighbours only control parts of the region.
In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government split the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into two federally administered territories, a widely unpopular decision which has heightened violence in the region.
(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Cherokee chief: Progress for one tribe is progress for all
Chuck Hoskin Jr. Fri, December 16, 2022 a
Let us fight together. United we are stronger. We have a shared history of facing long-standing injustice at the hands of the United States government and are now at a time when we can make real progress. Intertribal conflict will only hold us back.
The last several years have marked historic progress for our communities. The Biden administration has pledged to usher in a new era of nation-to-nation engagement with tribes. Congress has more diverse voices than at any other time ― including five Native Americans from various tribes. It recently held the first hearing on seating the Cherokee Nation’s delegate that was promised in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota ― which led to the Trail of Tears ― in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The hearing addressed questions related to seating the Cherokee Nation’s congressional delegate, as well as issues raised by other tribes, such as the Delaware, including:
● The requests of individual tribes and their treaties should be dealt with separately. Members of Congress agreed that while they consider other tribes and their treaties with the U.S. government, that shouldn’t prevent them from taking action on the Cherokee Nation’s delegate. As Chairman McGovern (D-MA) said, “We need to look into everything … but … looking into everything doesn't mean that we have to wait …”
● While there may be unresolved questions stemming from other tribe’s claims, the Treaty of New Echota between the U.S. and Cherokee Nation is clear. Congress is duty bound to seat the delegate. As the Congressional Research Service’s legal expert testified, “The language of the Treaty of New Echota is the clearest of the treaties between the United States and various tribes.”
● The Delawares' claims require further consideration. My view is that tribes should support one another in this regard, and I fully support examination of the Delaware treaty reference to “representation.” Congress will need to carefully consider the implications of a treaty that was signed before the U.S. Constitution was signed. Congress will need to consider that the Delaware treaty contemplated the creation of a state that was never created. After three years of work to assert our explicitly treaty-based right to a “delegate in the House of Representatives,” I welcome the Delawares' new interest in their treaty and stand ready to assist them. But, halting our work makes no sense.
At its core, this issue is about getting a seat at the table and lifting up the voices of all Native Americans at the highest levels of the U.S. government where we can shine a light on issues that are important to Indian Country. This country is stronger when more communities have a seat at the table and an opportunity to shape the direction we’re headed. That is why I will continue to push for increased representation at all levels of government. There is widespread support for this effort from tribal voices across the country like the National Congress of American Indians ― the largest intertribal organization in the country.
As Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said, “I think it’s never too late to do the right thing.” I couldn’t agree more. Join us in asking the House to finally start doing the right thing for all of Indian Country. Progress for one tribe, is progress for all.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Chuck Hoskin Jr. is principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribe in the United States.
