OPINION: Ukrainian Americans Face Critical Choice in November Presidential Election

US foreign policy toward Ukraine lies in the balance as Americans prepare to go to the polls.

By Michael Buryk
September 29, 2024

Kyiv Post.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speak to the press before a private meeting, in the Vice President's ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus on September 26, 2024 in Washington, DC. 

Drew ANGERER / AFP


The recent visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the US was in stark contrast to previous trips when he was hailed as a hero in the US Congress. Almost three years into Russia’s full-scaleinvasion of Ukraine, the relative unanimity of Republicans and Democrats on the question of aid for Ukraine in 2022 has melted away into sharp attacks by Republican leaders.

This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that Zelensky’s visit to a munitions plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania,was a political move favoring the Democrats. And Mr. Johnson proposed that Ambassador of Ukraine to the US Oksana Makarova should be fired for arranging this visit.

Meanwhile, Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Vice-Presidential running mate JD Vance have offered their own plan to end the war that includes Ukraine giving up their territories currently occupied by Russia and taking a pledge not to join NATO.

What has happened to the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan? When I headed up the Republican Heritage Groups Federation of the State of New Jersey in the later 1970s, the Republican Party openly supported the “Captive Nations” that were shackled to the Soviet Union. Now in the 21st century when Ukraine has chosen to be an integral part of the West, the Republican Party has been hijacked by a bunch of Know Nothings who believe it is not in America’s best interest to help any country outside the US.

In Savannah, Georgia, on Sept. 24, Mr. Trump praised Russia’s military record in past conflicts and suggested that Ukraine should have made concessions to prevent the February 2022 invasion. He implied that there would have been no Russian invasion of Ukraine if he had been president at the time. He insists that the US needs to “get out” of any involvement in this conflict but has offered no specific details on how to resolve it.

Ukrainian American voters are by their nature very conservative. For many years, Republican candidates had a strong appeal for them. But now they must realize that the Republican Party today does not respect their interests in Ukraine. Ukrainians are fighting for their very existence as a nation. Russia is taking every opportunity to destroy innocent people, homes, hospitals and infrastructure as well as cultural sites and institutions to obliterate any memory of Ukraine as an independent nation.

The foreign policy toward Ukraine of the Administration of US President Joe Biden has not been without its flaws. It took far too long to arm Ukraine, and major delays continue in the military supply chain. And the use of US long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia is still restricted. While the EU has undertaken a major role in helping Ukraine in its military struggle with Russia, the US is still its important global partner.

Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris in her recent meeting with President Zelensky at the White House said that if she becomes president she would “ensure Ukraine prevails in this war.” Ms. Harris suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin “could end the war tomorrow.” And she said that anyone who would have Ukraine trade territory for peace (like Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance) supported “proposals of surrender.”

The choice for Ukrainian Americans in the November Presidential election is clear. Today’s Republican Party offers no hope for Ukraine to win in its struggle against an imperialist Russia.

Appeasement and concessions will be the fate of Ukraine if Republicans win in the November presidential election. Make no mistake about it. This is a struggle for Ukraine’s ultimate survival as an independent nation.

Mike Buryk had a 40-year career in advertising and publishing. Today, he is a writer, speaker and podcaster on topics related to Ukraine. His articles and twice monthly podcast appear in The Ukrainian Weekly newspaper published in the US. He is a former member of the Republican Party in the US.

The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.

Canada parliamentary watchdog finds intelligence agency hiring practice violates privacy

Ishrat Chahal | National Law U. Delhi, IN

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) of Canada announced that the Communications Security Establishment’s (CSE) use of polygraphs for security screening during the hiring process likely breaches the privacy rights of prospective employees.

Although the CSE claims that its method of assessment is consistent with the Privacy Act, the NSIRA found that it “falls short of these requirements.” For one, it is necessary under Section 4 of the Privacy Act that any personal information collected be related “directly to an operating program or activity of the institution.” The NSIRA found that the CSE had been wrongfully using polygraph results to decide whether a candidate should be hired, rather than for the limited purpose of assessing a candidate’s loyalty towards the nation.

The NSIRA also found that Section 7 of the Privacy Act had not been complied with, which requires that the use of an individual’s personal information be restricted to the express purpose for which it was collected. In addition, the NSIRA was concerned that the hiring practice may violate applicant’s privacy rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The polygraph assessment is intended to assess an “individual’s criminality and/ or loyalty to Canada”, as employment at the CSE would involve exposure to sensitive information of national importance. The NSIRA has urged the government to either get rid of, or modify the assessment so that it is in line with constitutional standards.

Though the polygraph evaluation is used by the CSE, security clearances in the Canadian federal government are mandated by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS). The polygraph assessment standard was implemented by the Standard on Security Screening which was set by the TBS in 2014.

Concerns over the viability of the polygraph assessment were also flagged in the review, wherein the potential flaws of the test were pointed out.

The investigation and review of the CSE’s practices fall within a parliamentary mandate granted to the NSIRA by Sections 8(1)(a) and 8(1)(b) of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency Act. This law mandates that the body is to “review any activity carried out by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or the Communications Security Establishment” and “review any activity carried out by a department that relates to national security or intelligence.”

The CSE is Canada’s digital intelligence agency, responsible for foreign signals intelligence and the protection of government data and information.

France’s new government pledges hardline stance on migration as it cozies up to far right

THE LEFT WON THE ELECTION BUT ARE NOT IN POWER???!!!

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, shakes hands with then-European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP, File) 

By Diane Jeantet and Sylvie Corbet - Associated Press - Sunday, September 29, 2024


PARIS — France’s new government is set to take a hardline approach to migration issues as key officials have pledged to significantly reduce the number of people entering and staying illegally in the country.

After calling for snap legislative elections in June, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a veteran conservative from The Republicans party, hoping the Brexit negotiator would work with the divided legislature to end the political turmoil that has upended French politics in recent months.


The Barnier government - dominated by conservatives and centrists- does not have a majority in parliament and efforts to pass any new legislation are bound to be fought, and potentially blocked. The National Assembly is now split between three major political blocs: the left-wing New Popular Front leftist coalition, Macron’s centrist allies - who made a deal with the conservatives - and the far-right National Rally party, the largest single party in the new assembly.

The new prime minister will outline his priorities in a general policy speech scheduled for Tuesday at the National Assembly.

In recent televised interviews, Barnier criticized French borders as “sieves” and expressed concern that “migratory flows” were “not under control.” He promised to “limit immigration,” citing measures taken by neighboring countries like Germany, which expanded controls at all land borders earlier this month.

Critics have denounced Barnier’s government immigration stance as strongly influenced by the National Rally’s proposals, as its survival depends on the party’s goodwill.

Far-right and left-wing lawmakers can force the whole government to resign on condition they agree on a no-confidence vote.

Marine Le Pen, the National Rally’s leading figure, said she would not seek to bring down the new government for now, waiting to see its initial “acts.” In a recent interview with La Tribune-Dimanche newspaper, she said: “It’s undeniable that Michel Barnier seems to have, on migration, the same assessment as ours.”

Barnier’s hardline approach is reflected in the appointment of Bruno Retailleau, a fellow conservative known for his tough rhetoric on migrants, as the interior minister.

Retailleau shared this week his intention to reign in immigration. He said he would seek to “reform” France’s state medical assistance that covers health care expenses for undocumented migrants. He has argued for years that it should be strictly limited to minimum emergency care.

Eight former health ministers from the left, center and right signed a column in French newspaper Le Monde to call on the government to maintain the state medical assistance, saying limiting it would put France’s healthcare system “under increased pressure” because it would lead “to taking care of people later” when their condition is “more serious” and “more expensive.”


Retailleau also said he would try to toughen up random border controls, bring back a law that sanctioned with fines or prison sentences those caught entering French territory illegally, and seek deals with North African nations such as Morocco so that those countries retain migrants before they even set foot in France.

Yann Manzi, who started working alongside migrants during the 2015 migration crisis when well over 1 million people swept into Europe, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, denounced France’s long-coming shift to the right.


Manzi’s nonprofit, Utopia 56, currently runs a temporary shelter in Paris’ suburbs and coordinates hundreds of voluntary workers daily in different French regions.

He said that decades ago when France’s National Rally was still on the fringes, it came up with the rhetoric that welcoming migrants would dramatically increase the number of foreigners coming into the country and wreak havoc in French society. This has slowly but steadily spread to other parties, including the left, Manzi said.

The nonprofit founder believes migrants have been met with increasingly harsh conditions in France and the rest of Europe.

“The message sent to those seeking to come to the country is very clear: ‘We no longer welcome you’,” said Manzi.

Some proposals to stem migration could prove difficult to implement as they need to go through the already divided parliament while others, such as sanctioning migrants who have entered France illegally, appear to go against European rulings.

Barnier, suggested while campaigning, in vain, to be his party’s presidential candidate in 2022 that France should find ways to bypass rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

Still, the prime minister and Retailleau argue they can still take action without passing new legislation, such as decrees and instructions to national and local administrations in charge of implementing migration policies.

Retailleau said he would convene next week a meeting with prefects of regions the most impacted by migrant issues to “tell them to deport more” and “regularize less.”

Critics say France’s hardline shift on migration has long been in the works.

Macron’s former centrist governments passed since 2017 several bills meant to tighten immigration controls and accelerate asylum procedures. The latest immigration bill, adopted in January this year, intended to strengthen France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, in office from 2007 to 2012, also emphasized a more stringent immigration policy as he sought to siphon off voters from the far right.

In 2023, France received about 145,000 new asylum requests, up from 115,000 in 2022, according to statistics from the interior ministry. This is the highest number of applications recorded since 2016. France ranks third in the European Union behind Germany and Spain, which recorded over 351,000 and 160,000 applications.

Le Pen Trial Could Sink French Presidential Hopes in '2027

By Mark Swanson | NEWSMAX

 Sunday, 29 September 2024 

The trial against National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen in France begins Monday, the result of which could doom her 2027 presidential aspirations if she’s found guilty, Politico reported Sunday.

Le Pen, her party and 26 others — including members of the European Parliament — are facing allegations of embezzling Parliament funds to pad the work of assistants to conduct party business instead of European Union matters from 2004 to 2016, according to the report.

“The European Parliament’s lawyers believe that, in this case, the Parliament has suffered both financial and reputational damage,” the Parliament’s press service said in a statement to Politico.

Le Pen is facing 10 years in prison and a five-year ban on running for public office should she be found guilty. A ban would knock her out from running in the 2027 presidential election, a race for which she’s polling at 40% in the first round, according to Politico. Le Pen earned 23% in the 2022 election and subsequently lost the run-off to Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen’s father, National Rally founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, is also on trial, though at 96 and declining health, will not attend the trial.

Should Marine Le Pen be found guilty, party succession would likely land with Jordan Bardella, the National Rally’s current president, who is not on trial.

“In politics, many can’t bear the thought of being replaced. For me, it’s a relief — not that I think I’ll be convicted,” Le Pen said earlier this year, adding that Bardella, 29, had the “status and confidence” to take over, according to the report.

Mark Swanson ✉

Exxon Mobil says advanced recycling is the answer to plastic waste. But is it really?

Tony Briscoe - Los Angeles Times (TNS)


LOS ANGELES — When California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit against Exxon Mobil and accused the oil giant of misleading the public about the effectiveness of plastic recycling, many of the allegations surrounded the company’s marketing of a process called “advanced recycling.”

In recent years — as longstanding efforts to recycle plastics have faltered — Exxon Mobil has touted advanced recycling as a groundbreaking technology that will turn the tide on the plastic crisis. Company officials and petrochemical trade organizations have used the phrase in radio spots, TV interviews and a variety of marketing material online. In a 2021 blog post, Exxon Mobil president of product solutions Karen McKee painted a particularly promising picture.

“Imagine your discarded yogurt containers being transformed into medical equipment for your next doctor’s appointment, and then into the dashboard of your next fuel-efficient car.”

But despite its seemingly eco-friendly name, the attorney general’s lawsuit denounced advanced recycling as a “public relations stunt” that largely involves superheating plastics to convert them into fuel. At Exxon Mobil’s only “advanced recycling” facility in Baytown, Texas, only 8% of plastic is remade into new material, while the remaining 92% is processed into fuel that is later burned.

Bonta’s lawsuit seeks a court order to prohibit the company from describing the practice as “advanced recycling,” arguing the vast majority of plastic is destroyed. Many environmental advocates and policy experts lauded the legal action as a major step toward ending greenwashing by Exxon Mobil — the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymer.

“There’s nothing ‘advanced’ about it,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. “It’s a deception. It’s been a deception for half a century. If they were going to be able to recycle plastic polymer back into virgin resin, they would have done it already. But they are using the same technology we’ve had since the Industrial Revolution. It’s a coke oven, a blast furnace.”

As more research has emerged on the limitations of plastics recycling, the revelations have shaken the public’s confidence about what to put in their blue, curbside recycling bins.

“The public perception of what’s recyclable with respect to plastic doesn’t match reality,” said Daniel Coffee, a UCLA researcher who studied plastic waste in Los Angeles County. “Recycling, for so long, was thought of as this perfectly crafted solution to single-use plastics. And the clearest answer as to why, is that the public was told so. They were told so, in large part, by an industry-backed misinformation campaign.”

Advanced recycling, which is also called chemical recycling, is an umbrella term that typically involves heating or dissolving plastic waste to create fuel, chemicals and waxes — a fraction of which can be used to remake plastic. The most common techniques yield only 1% to 14% of the plastic waste, according to a 2023 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Exxon Mobil has largely used reclaimed plastic for fuel production while ramping up its virgin plastic production, according to Bonta.


“You’re essentially drawing oil up, turning it into plastic, and then having to burn more oil to turn that plastic back into oil, which you then burn,” Coffee said.

Bonta alleges Exxon Mobil has had a patent for this technology since 1978, and the company is falsely rebranding it as “new” and “advanced.” The practice was tested in the 1990s, but did not continue beyond the trial phase. It recently reemerged after the company learned that the term “advanced recycling” resonated with members of the public at a time of increasing concern over increasing amounts of plastic waste.

In December 2022, it announced the start of an advanced recycling program. In a 2023 interview with a Houston television station, an Exxon Mobil representative touted the Baytown facility.

“When [customers] buy a plastic product off the shelf, they want to know that it’s sustainable,” the Exxon Mobil employee said. “This is a huge game change for the industry — but I would say society in general.”

In response to Bonta’s lawsuit, Exxon Mobil said its Baytown facility has processed 60 million pounds of plastic into “usable raw materials” that otherwise would go to landfills. Experts say that figure pales in comparison with the company’s 31.9 billion-pound annual production capacity.

Nationwide, the Baytown plant is one of about five facilities that break plastics down by exposing them to high heat, according to the Last Beach Cleanup, a nonprofit working on plastic pollution.

California has adopted some of the nation’s most strict laws to reduce single-use plastics. Perhaps the most consequential, SB 54, requires the state to sell 25% less single-use plastic packaging and foodware. It also prohibits waste incineration and similar practices from being counted as recycling.

Because most plastics cannot be recycled, state officials have struggled to figure out how to dispose of this material. California had previously exported much of its plastic waste to China. But China has banned the import of most foreign plastics, nearly eliminating the market for used plastic.

In 2021, about 5.4 million tons of plastic waste was taken to California landfills, according to the latest state disposal data. That same year, more than 625,000 tons of trash was sent to so-called “transformation” facilities, where waste is incinerated, or burned in the absence of oxygen (a process called pyrolysis).

California does not track data on how much of this incinerated waste was plastic, according to CalRecycle, the state agency that oversees waste management. The state also doesn’t keep detailed information on how much plastic waste is exported to other states and how they process it.

“California’s vision for a waste-free future is focused on reducing waste, reuse, and intentionally designing products that flow back into the system for efficient collection and remanufacturing into new products,” said Maria West, a spokesperson for CalRecycle.


If the state is earnest in its pledge to eliminate waste, environmental advocates say the state needs to phase out single-use plastics.

“You can’t do anything with plastic but landfill it or burn it,” said Williams. “You can try to repurpose it, but you’ll never compete with virgin stock. And even then, you have to shred it, make it into pellets and feed it into a blast furnace. How is that good for the climate? How is that better than coal?”

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Christian Nationalist attempt at undermining public education as we know it?

Jon King, Michigan Advance
September 29, 2024 

Students (Shutterstock)

This is the second part of a discussion with Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University about his new book “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.” Part one of the interview was published on Thursday.

The effort to get school vouchers approved nationwide has a long and varied history, but Cowen’s book posits that it is essentially a Christian Nationalist attempt at undermining public education as we know it.

Cowen, whose career as an education researcher in the early 2000s began with the expectation that vouchers, which allow public tax dollars for education to be spent for private school tuition, would ultimately benefit students. However, the reality that Cowen documents in the book turned out to be almost the exact opposite.

Starting in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision which ordered an end to segregated public education, and ending with the rise of the conservative Moms for Liberty – a vocal opponent of LGBTQ+ rights – and Project 2025, an authoritarian blueprint offering detailed plans to broadly enhance executive authority during a second Trump term, Cowen describes the arc of the voucher movement as never being far removed from bigotry and intolerance, whether it be against Blacks or the LGBTQ+ community.

More importantly, however, Cowen describes in detail the academic framework, whether through universities or conservative-funded think tanks, that provides intellectual cover for the movement.
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What follows is the second part of the conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. Advance questions are in bold, and Cowen’s responses are in regular type.

——————————

Obviously, what happens in November will say a lot about the future of this movement. In your book, you talk about how, in a certain sense, the Trump presidency saved this movement. It came along and revived it when it needed it most. The scores (from school voucher programs) were in. They were down. The statistics were not adding up, and now it’s given it this political boost. Where does it go from here?


Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation throughout Project 2025 was asked “What happens if you guys lose?” and he sort of said, “Well, there’s going to be a Project 2028 then. We’re going to keep going.” I’m not a political strategist. I don’t know that I can tie the future of this thing entirely to the election, but I both agree and acknowledge in the book that what Trump did and the reason it does depend in the short run on what happens in November is it takes something incredibly distracting, and I would argue controversial and sensational or sensationalized, to distract from the magnitude of the voucher-induced (testing) declines over the last decade. How many articles have you seen or maybe written yourself on COVID learning loss? We’re talking about something that is severe for reasons that I think researchers understand, but when you have vouchers in a state, it’s not as talked about. I just can’t imagine in a world of George W. Bush, for example, who signed the first federal voucher system into law. If that thing had just consistently rolled out the negative results that happened a decade after Bush left office, it’s really hard to imagine a world that would be found acceptable, until you walk into the world Trump made where these voucher results are coming out at the same time as Charlottesville, as George Floyd, all of these incredibly sensational moments in American politics. And then you have election denial.

You have kind of 30% or 40% of the American public just refusing to acknowledge what happened on January 6th and that Trump even lost in 2020. And so then when you put it in terms of J6 or election denial, and the reason I do it in the book is because they share some of the same organizations. But if you just think about it culturally, you compare negative school voucher results to something like that. I think negative school voucher results, however dreadful, begin to look a little technical and a little…

As if data doesn’t matter anymore?


Exactly. I say this not to be flippant or snarky, but what’s the point of debating data and evidence with folks who just say, “Trump won in 2020, Trump won.” It did not happen. And so you really are in a world where we’re even debating what reality is and it sounds a little farfetched, but this is really the world we’re in.

And it took that to offset and to give fuel and energy to the voucher push. In a real practical sense too, it’s important to remember that the Supreme Court plays a very big role in this, and Trump did appoint three Supreme Court justices who really have paved the way in the judiciary for vouchers in just the same way they they paved the way for for a rollback to Roe vs. Wade, the same week actually. So, there’s the kind of the cultural political moment Trump made, and then there’s just a very hard cold reality that three Supreme Court justices were added to the judiciary under Trump. And in a 6-3 vote, they crossed a bridge that the original court, 5-4 in 2002, was unwilling to cross, which is that now vouchers can pay for religious education per se and not just be used as payment to providers of a type of service.

Michigan doesn’t have vouchers, but I don’t know how many different private organizations the state partners with to deliver a service as a vendor. And what the court said in 2002 was that private schools are not necessarily exempt from that type of relationship just because they’re schools. You just can’t use it for indoctrination or proselytizing. But that’s basically exactly what today’s version of the court in 2002 said could happen. So there’s the cultural political stuff Trump made, and then there’s just the very cold hard reality that the justices also have really paved the way over the last 4 years.


But even with this disdain toward data, it can’t be denied that learning losses from voucher systems are far greater than COVID learning loss, correct? Groups like Moms for Liberty, in a sense, were born out of the idea of student learning loss due to COVID restrictions.

Exactly, and when Betsy DeVos was an elected official, she had to comment on this. It’s a lot different when you’re back in Ada, Michigan, and you can just tweet out something. But she’s on record. They couldn’t just ignore it. At the national level, they all understand these things existed, which is why the strategy pivoted to more culture war stuff while blaming kind of the old bugaboo of government regulation. While charter schools are really a different thing, if the charter transparency push in Michigan ever gets back off the ground, you’re going to hear this from the charter groups themselves about overregulation. “It’s going to have a chilling effect on our schools to have the state asking us how the dollars are being spent.” This is just the theory of action that the DeVos folks came up with to explain away the negative results. But what’s important for our conversation is that they didn’t deny the results existed. They couldn’t. Some of them were too stark and too well publicized.

(Note: A request for comment was made to Betsy Devos through the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, but was not returned.)


You mentioned charter schools, which are public schools, although as you said, they’re a different animal than a voucher system. But they do represent another option for parents to make in terms of traditional public schools. So, where does parent choice fit in? Where should it fit in, in your mind?

Well, if you talk to Heritage or one of these guys, they’ll call me a school choice critic, which I emphatically reject. There are many of us that support certain types of charter schools. In Michigan one in four Michigan kids goes to school in a school of choice either through schools of choice, our inter-district choice system or charter schools themselves. There are 150,000 Michigan kids in charter schools today. I have some real reservations or problems with the way our charter school sector is structured, which is mostly run by for-profit managers. It concerns the teacher protections that are in those environments, teacher pay, and things. But the evidence in favor of some charter schools in other states is undeniable, and nothing like that positive evidence for charter schools really exists in the voucher research literature. And conversely, nothing like the negative voucher results exists in the charter school literature. They’re not only structurally different. The evidence based behind them is different too, but sometimes you do get these things lumped together because, in my view, the voucher folks are just trying to piggyback off of successful charter schools.

Even in our state here today, you’ll see (charter and voucher advocates say) “Michigan kids deserve more school choice.” I wrote a piece on this a couple of years ago in the Detroit News where I said we have choice, there’s a lot of choice. All they want is private school tuition covered. And you see some of the ancillary debates right now. Our universal school meals program in the state; there have been a couple of different reports on private schools in our state wanting to cash in on that too. And so I think it’s important that the nuance behind some types of choices is really important to this conversation because as you point out, charter schools are public schools. And not only that, but there’s just a substantially far greater sort of research base behind them. However, what there isn’t is a restriction in choice.

The book brings it full circle, starting with Brown v Board, ending with Moms for Liberty and Project 2025, and seeing this cycle. What do you hope to see happen from here?

I mean, at the end of the day, what I hope to see happen is an understanding that this is not really about fundamentally improving education outcomes for the vast majority of people. This is a separatist movement in American education, trying to take dollars to separate, isolate out into cordoned off spaces based on what they call religious values. I would say it’s Christian nationalism. I think others would would say so too.

I think at some point when this moment has passed in American politics, I would hope that there is a renewed effort to make improvements in public schools. There needs to be reinvestment. There needs to be a rethinking of some of the structure, some of the design, some of the curriculum. You know, there’s debates in our state about literacy. I strongly support new efforts to improve dyslexia education in our state, which does set me apart from some of the public school groups.


We have to have honest conversations about where public schools need to improve, but where those conversations can’t go, in my view, is toward a direction where the solution is taxpayer funding for this religious separatist movement in American education, where we’re just going to give people who are giving up on public schools community investment money to go learn in church schools. That’s not the answer. Folks can go learn in church schools if they want to, but if we’re at a point where we’re sending taxpayer dollars for that, I think it’s a fundamentally different vision of what American education is.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions info@michiganadvance.com. 

The road to change goes through rural America — if Democrats would only travel it

D. Earl Stephens
September 29, 2024 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - JUNE 06: Dolly Parton speaks onstage during Kicking Off CMA Fest: A Special Conversation With Dolly Parton Hosted By Rachel Smith at Music City Center on June 06, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage)


Crime is down in America. The stock market is up.

Inflation is down in America. The U.S. economy is up — the envy of the free world, in fact.

Unemployment is down in America. Wages are up.

Democrats want to protect women’s rights. Republicans want to attack them.

Democrats want clean air and water. Republicans believe these things are optional.

Democrats once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure bill is finally fixing our roads, bridges and information highway. Republicans are coasting along, taking credit for its success despite voting repeatedly against it.

Democrats lowered the prices of prescription drugs and voted to increase veterans’ benefits. Republicans fought hard against those things.

Democrats joined Republicans in enacting the strongest border protection bill in American history … so Republicans smacked themselves on their rock-hard foreheads and decided they were against that, too.

I reckon I could go on for 20 minutes carrying on like this, but that would only serve to drive you away from boredom at a time we have never needed each other more, my friends. You know how much good Democrats have done for America, so let me sharpen my point but quick and tell you that sadly, tens of millions of other Americans don’t.


Too damn many people in this country live in information silos where facts float straight up and disappear into all that hot air.

Thanks in large part to the most dangerous, anti-American propaganda machine in United States history, too many of our fellow citizens receive the filth that passes for news in their homes through the rusty sewer pipe of Fox “News.”

The real fact is, none of this stink we find ourselves in these days would be possible without this endless, 24/7 stream of right-wing slop. Rupert Murdoch’s gang of irresponsible on-air blowhards have poisoned an entire generation of adults with their terrible lies and blatantly racist gaslighting. Worse, Murdoch and his family knows full well their station’s future lies with dealing their dope to our children, so we can expect more of the same for decades.


Our attention-starved corporate media hasn’t been much better, catastrophically failing to honestly report on the most significant story in more than 160 years: The Republicans’ relentless attack on America, and our ability to choose who represents us with our sacred vote. Democracy is hanging by a thread, and you’re lucky if you hear about that at all from our meandering press, which is far more interested in keeping things close.

There’s a horse race to run, and billions of dollars to stuff in their overflowing pockets.

Instead of framing the stakes and sounding the alarms at a blast about the anti-Democratic fires that are burning through the countryside, our halls of Congress and right up to our nation’s highest court, they write stories asking why more people just aren’t much worried about it.


Instead of reporting that the economy is actually chugging along at pretty brisk pace, they’ll run cheap, reactionary nonsense that seriously asks out loud why more people just don’t seem to know it ...

One political party answers to a two-bit phony, a felon and an America-attacking woman-abuser, who is telling us he will finish America off for good if God forbid he is elected.

The other party answers to the people.


What-in-the-hell is so damn hard about reporting that as the fact it most certainly is?

With five weeks and change left until D-Day in November, I say Democrats need to do everything they can to take their message everywhere. And if that sounds too obvious and overly intuitive, then ask yourself why they’re not.

Understand, I’m not bagging them here, and actually think they are running many strong races across the board, but I also think they need to stop conceding to all this silliness from what passes for the national media in this country, and go hard into every town, city, and suburb across this country — whether they are tucked into Wisconsin or West Virginia; North Carolina or South Carolina; or Michigan or Montana.


We need to visit them where they live and tell them all the good things America and her Democrats have been doing for them, while they’ve been tuning out the truth and into the dark places like Fox.

“Things are actually pretty good in this country, dude. Here’s why …”

Imagine Harris/Walz campaign stops in Iowa or Missouri ... Arkansas and Alabama. A couple of those states have voted Democratic in national elections semi-recently, and they could stand to hear the truth. Democratic policies are inclusive, not exclusive. They would play well in Red America, even if much of Red America doesn’t know it.


Do I expect Harris to carry any of these states in November? No I don’t, but I’d sure like them to hear what she had to say to them. I bet they’d like her. One thing all these damn polls have showed consistently is that the more people see and hear from our vice president, the more they’d support her.

There’s minds to be changed, folks, and you do that by giving them the real thing.

And what about the blue dots on the ground in these states who have been working their tails off outside the shine of the spotlight to protect America? They are in every state in our country doing the good and important work. Our next president could do real wonders by showing up in these places and showing out. The seeds have been planted by these Democratic activists in rural America, who are making real differences in their communities by running hard in local races, and doing important things like protecting women’s rights and our environment.


They might not be in one of these exclusive battleground states, but they are fighting every bit as hard.

I say give ‘em a hug from on high. Show ‘em the love they have earned. Plant the seeds … watch an orchard grow.

I bet even the clueless national media would sniff out a good story in all that …


[sigh]

I’ll stop right here for a second, pull off to the side of this column, and concede I am doing some heavy-duty dreaming right now. Politics is a machine, and the information I’m spitting out right now just won’t compute with but 38 days to the election. There’s never enough time or dollars when you’re running hard to save America.

So let’s end this weekend walk on some middle ground, shall we?

On Thursday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced it will be throwing millions of dollars into the Senate races in Florida and Texas. This isn’t the wild expansion of the electoral map I was talking about above, but it does portend strength, and tells you Democrats think they have a real shot in these two states.

I don’t know much about Democrat Colin Allred in Texas, but we all know plenty about Ted Cruz, who is a completely terrible man, and has polluted our Senate long enough.

Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner once had this to say about Cruz: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life than Ted Cruz."

Cruz can be beat, and the Democratic Machine is laying money on it.

In Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is giving the revolting Rick Scott a run for all his family money in that Senate race. I do know something about her. Our paths crossed a few times during her time as Congresswoman in the Sunshine State.

She is whip-smart, a tireless worker, and has inroads to the Latino community in Florida. I am predicting right here and now that she will beat Scott, who is almost as unlikeable as Cruz.

If nothing else, Democrats have put Republicans on notice by making them defend their weak positions in states that only a few months ago seemed like a sure thing for them.

It looks like that will be the end of the Democrats’ expansion this election cycle, and maybe the American way right now is through those battleground states. But our future depends on expanding the map.

The party that can do that will be that future.

I’m not wrong about this, my friends ...


D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.

Outrage as Dems name and shame companies prioritizing exec pay over taxes

Jake Johnson, 

Common Dreams
September 29, 2024 

Tennis - U.S. Open - Flushing Meadows, New York, United States - September 8, 2024 Elon Musk is seen during the final match between Italy's Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz of the U.S. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

A group of congressional Democrats and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday highlighted dozens of profitable U.S. corporations that have paid their executives more than they've paid in federal income taxes in recent years, a problem that the lawmakers attributed in large part to former President Donald Trump's massive tax-cut package that Republicans are working to extend.

"In the first five years following the 2017 giveaway, 35 companies raked in $277 billion in domestic profits and paid their executives $9.5 billion—more than they paid in federal income taxes," the lawmakers noted in letters to each of the companies, pointing to recent research by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness.

"Next year, Congress will decide what to do with these corporate giveaways. Republicans have promised to go even further if elected and cut the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 15%," the lawmakers continued. "This additional tax giveaway would provide Fortune 100 corporations as a whole with another $50 billion each year, more than all current K-12 federal education spending."

"The windfall from TCJA to big businesses, executives, and wealthy shareholders is unmistakable."

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in the Senate and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) in the House led the letters to the 35 companies, a list that includes high-profile names such as Netflix, Ford, and Tesla, whose CEO is the richest man in the world.

"Tesla is among the most dramatic examples of this phenomenon—big, profitable corporations that have actually been paying their top executives more than they pay the government in federal income taxes," the lawmakers wrote. "According to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, in the period between 2018 and 2022, Tesla raked in $4.4 billion in profits and did not pay a single dollar in federal income tax."

During that same period, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk received "the largest pay package ever recorded for a company's CEO," the lawmakers observed.

The other companies that have paid their top executives more than they've paid in federal taxes in recent years are T-Mobile, AIG, NextEra, Darden, MetLife, Duke Energy, First Energy, DISH, Principal Financial, American Electrical Power, Kinder Morgan, Dominion, Oneok, Williams, Xcel Energy, NRG Energy, Salesforce, DTE Energy, Ameren, Sempra Energy, U.S. Steel, Entergy, AmerisourceBergen, PPL, CMS Energy, Evergy, Voya Financial, Atmos Energy, Alliant Energy, Match Group, UGI, and Agilent Tech.


The lawmakers demanded that the companies' CEOs answer several questions, including how much the corporations would have paid in federal taxes had the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) not been enacted and how much they've spent on lobbying to keep the Republican law intact.

"The windfall from TCJA to big businesses, executives, and wealthy shareholders is unmistakable," the letters read. "A recent analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that 342 companies paid an average effective income tax rate of just 14.1% during the five years after TCJA passed, almost a third less than the 21% statutory rate. The gains do not 'trickle down'—90% of workers saw no earnings increase, while executives making $989,000 per year or more got an average raise of $50,000."

The letters were released days after the Economic Policy Institutereleased an analysis showing that CEO pay has soared by 1,085% since 1978 while the pay of typical U.S. workers has grown by just 24%.


The 2017 Trump-GOP tax law led major companies to splurge on stock buybacks, a major gift to corporate executives whose annual compensation packages consist largely of stock.

"President [Joe] Biden and Democrats in Congress are committed to making corporations pay their fair share," the lawmakers wrote in their letters. "In the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, we passed the first corporate tax increase in 30 years with the 15% corporate minimum tax. Though significant, raising $222 billion from billion-dollar corporations, it is not enough on its own to undo the corporate tax giveaways signed into law by President Trump and ensure that corporations pay their fair share."

"Next year," they added, "Congress has an opportunity to take bigger strides in reforming our tax code—to raise the corporate rate, close loopholes, and hold big businesses to the same standards as everyday working Americans who pay their fair share."

ECOCIDE

Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute

AFP
September 27, 2024

Aerial view of the port in Duress, Albania, the departure point for 102 containers allegedly carrying toxic waste bound for Thailand -

 Copyright POOL/AFP/File Franck ROBICHON

Briseida Mema with Camille Bouissou in Belgrade

Amid the scorching heat at the Albanian port of Durres, 102 containers set sail for Thailand in early July, sparking a high-seas drama that highlighted the perils of the global waste trade.

According to official papers reviewed by AFP, the containers were filled with waste material that was set to be processed and destroyed far from Europe’s shores.

But weeks later, the containers are still adrift in the Mediterranean, following a months-long back-and-forth over what exactly was being shipped and whether it was legal.

Enormous amounts of waste are regularly sent to developing countries — part of a global industry that sees Western nations outsourcing its treatment to Asia and Africa.

The practise has long been denounced by environmental organisations.

Despite the criticism, the waste management trade continues to be a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The handling of illicit material alone generates between nine billion and 11 billion euros each year, according to the Financial Action Task Force, a leading watchdog tracking illegal trade.

The World Bank estimates that approximately two billion tonnes of waste are produced annually across the globe — expected to reach 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050.

Within those mountains of waste, regulators have deemed a certain portion hazardous.

These include substances that can be harmful to human health or the environment due to their chemical reactivity or toxicity levels.

To better regulate the industry, the Basel Convention — signed in 1989 by 53 countries — prohibits members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from sending waste to non-member states.

But Albania, which is not a member of the Paris-based economic forum, is free to ship waste abroad.

– Industrial odyssey –

The material stowed away in the 102 containers originated from the Turkish-owned Kurum International steel plant in central Albania’s Elbasan, according to Albanian media reports.

The waste was first purchased by the Albanian company Sokolaj, which then sold the material to its subsidiary in Croatia, GS Minerals, with the cargo set to be offloaded in Thailand for processing.

According to documents seen by AFP, Sokolaj labelled the waste as “iron oxide” — a substance that is not prohibited for shipment or considered hazardous.

An analysis of the substance on the containers was conducted by a Croatian laboratory based in Zagreb, according to Sokolaj.

When contacted by AFP, the laboratory refused to comment, saying the “information can only be given to clients”.

Sokolaj itself has not responded to questions on what is in the containers. The company and its Croatian subsidiary both refused AFP’s requests for comment.

The containers then departed for the Italian port of Trieste, where they were loaded onto two cargo ships operated by global shipping giant Maersk — the Campton and the Candor.

As the ships cruised along the African coastline, an organisation specialising in tracking toxic waste, the Basel Action Network (BAN), contacted Maersk.

A whistleblower had called the network’s hotline to report that the containers were carrying not just iron oxide, but also toxic waste.

BAN asked Maersk to stop the ships when they were near the South African coast, according to its president, Jim Puckett.

The ships did not respond and turned off their transponders as they set sail for Singapore, according to BAN.

BAN then tipped off the Thai authorities, who refused to allow the containers entry.

“The government refused to import more than 800 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) from Albania,” said the Thai Department of Industrial Works in a statement.

EAFD is a hazardous byproduct produced during the making of steel.

Penchome Saetang, an environmental activist working with the Thai government, said the tip led to the country’s refusal.

“After receiving information from NGOs, the government suspected it could be EAFD,” Saetang told AFP.

Following the notice from the Thai government, Maersk told AFP it handed off the containers to the shipping company MSC in Singapore to return the containers to Albania.

“Maersk Campton and Maersk Candor were carrying those suspected containers on behalf of another shipping line. None of these containers have been declared to contain hazardous waste,” Maersk told AFP.

“Had they been declared to contain hazardous waste, Maersk would have declined to carry them.”

MSC declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

– Back to Europe –

In late August, the 102 containers onboard two ships set sail back to Europe.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended the shipments and lashed out at critics — yet refused to allow the containers to return to the country’s ports.

“Nothing proves that this waste is toxic,” he told a recent parliamentary session.

“Even if they were hazardous products, their transport is neither prohibited in Albania nor worldwide,” added Rama, saying the accusations were based on “malicious suspicions”.

BAN fired back in an open letter to the Albanian government, saying containers carrying hazardous materials cannot be shipped without the written consent of the exporter, transit countries and authorities at the final destination.

“None of these countries have given their consent and, therefore, if it turns out that the containers contain hazardous waste, the shipments constitute ‘illegal trafficking’ under Article 9 of the Basel Convention,” BAN said.

In Albania, prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office and international partners, according to an official statement.

As of Thursday morning, the 102 containers are still at sea, with the cargo on one ship off the coast of Italy and another near Egypt.

“There is a chance we could be wrong,” Puckett from BAN said about the material in question.

“But I doubt it.”

bme-tak-cbo-ljv/ds/jhb

US returns to Iran latest batch of ancient clay tablets

GOP WILL LOSE THEIR TINY MINDS


AFP
September 27, 2024

Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

The United States has returned to Iran more than 1,000 clay tablets dating from the Achaemenid-era, official media said, reporting the sixth such handover of its kind.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Thursday evening that the tablets, 1,100 in all, were returned with President Masoud Pezeshkian who had attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Found at the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire which ruled from the 6th to 4th centuries BC in southern Iran, the repatriated tablets reflect how the ancient society was organised and its economy managed.

The tablets constitute records of “the rituals and the way of life of our ancestors”, said Ali Darabi, vice-minister of cultural heritage, cited by IRNA.

The tablets were returned to Iran by the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.

A large portion of the tablets were returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004 before the rest were blocked by legal action until 2018.

More than 3,500 tablets were repatriated in September, 2023.

“The American side undertook to return the rest,” Darabi said, cited by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

At least 3,661 killed this year in Haiti violence: UN

 AFP
September 27, 2024

Haiti has plunged into virtual anarchy

 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY
Robin MILLARD

More than 3,600 people have been killed this year in the “senseless” gang violence ravaging Haiti, the United Nations said on Friday.

The Western Hemisphere’s poorest country has plunged into virtual anarchy, with gangs taking over the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the security and health systems collapsing.

About 600,000 people were displaced in the first six months of 2024 and 1,280 were injured in gang violence, including 295 women and 63 children, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said in a report.

In that period, at least 893 individuals, including 25 children, were kidnapped and held for ransom by criminal groups, who are vying for power in a vacuum left by a political crisis and weak state authority.

“Latest figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office indicate that at least 3,661 people have been killed since January this year, maintaining the high levels of violence seen in 2023,” the rights office said.

“No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The OHCHR urged the Haitian authorities and the international community to do more to protect people on the Caribbean island.

It said the gangs had changed their modus operandi this year.

While some victims were struck by random gunfire, others were executed in broad daylight for allegedly informing the authorities or opposing gang activities.

– Fear and subjugation –

“Some of those victims had their bodies mutilated with machetes and then burned.

“Gangs filmed the scenes and shared them widely on social media to instil fear and control the population,” the report said.

The report said gangs had continued to use sexual violence “to punish, spread fear and subjugate populations”.

It said that at least 860 people were killed and 393 injured during police operations and patrols across Port-au-Prince, including at least 36 children, in what could constitute use of unnecessary and disproportionate force.

The gangs have also recruited large numbers of children into their ranks, it added.

An estimated 1.6 million people in Haiti face emergency-level food insecurity.

In October 2023, the UN Security Council gave the green light to send a multinational stabilisation force, led by Kenya, to assist the Haitian police.

Kenyan President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly on Thursday his country would complete the deployment of the 2,500-strong Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) by January.

– ‘Wreaking havoc’ –

An advance contingent of approximately 430 MSS personnel has been deployed so far in Haiti.

Besides Kenyans, it includes around 20 soldiers from Jamaica and Belize.

Ruto said Kenya and other African and Caribbean countries were ready to deploy but were being hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding.

Turk said the stabilisation force needed more equipment and personnel.

“I welcome recent positive steps, such as the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council, the new transitional government and the deployment of the first contingents of the MSS,” he said.

“It is clear, however, that the mission needs adequate and sufficient equipment and personnel to counter the criminal gangs effectively and sustainably, and stop them spreading further and wreaking havoc on people’s lives.”

Turk urged the Haitian authorities to reform the police and other state institutions crippled by endemic corruption, including the judiciary.

He said the international community should comprehensively implement the arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council, to stem gang violence.