Lawyer for ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers facing libel notice over inquiry claims

Story by Rachel Gilmore • Yesterday CBC

Security escort Freedom Corp. counsel Brendan Miller out of the hearing room at the Public Order Emergency Commission, in Ottawa, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. Justice Paul Rouleau, the inquiry's commissioner, asked security to remove Miller from the hearing after Miller spoke over the commissioner and accused him of refusing to rule on similar applications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

EDITOR'S NOTE: Enterprise Canada said on Wednesday their original cease-and-desist letter contained a "typo" when it referenced dates in 2021 instead of 2022. Their corrected letter was published on Tuesday afternoon, and the quotes from their updated letter are added below.

A lawyer representing the "Freedom Convoy" organizers is facing a cease-and-desist letter as well as a "forthcoming" notice of libel after allegations he made during the Emergencies Act inquiry on Monday.

Brendan Miller, the counsel representing Freedom Corp., had claimed during comments made at the commission that an employee of the government relations firm Enterprise Canada, Brian Fox, was carrying a Nazi flag during the protests earlier this year.

Read more:
‘Ungovernable’: Mendicino says it was near-impossible to enforce law amid convoy

In a cease and desist letter sent to Miller and published on Enterprise Canada's Twitter on Tuesday, lawyer Jeff Galway from Blakes, Cassels and Graydon said the "unfounded accusation" is "highly defamatory."

"It is irresponsible and reckless to use the Commission's process to make these false and damaging allegations in a highly visible forum," the letter said.

"These accusations could not be more baseless, and are causing immediate and irreparable harm to our clients."

Miller levied the accusation on Monday while questioning the head of Canada's spy agency, David Vigneault, during a hearing for the Public Order Emergencies Commission.

Miller had alleged that the Enterprise employee had been carrying a Nazi flag during the convoy.

Video: CSIS head urged Trudeau to invoke Emergencies Act during convoy, inquiry hears

When Vigneault responded that he hasn't testified to that, Miller fired back, "Yeah, you haven't testified to it, but you know that to be true, don't you?"

The commissioner then cut in and chastised Miller's conduct, saying the question was "not a fair statement."

Related video: Freedom Convoy lawyer kicked out of Emergency Act inquiry
Duration 0:49
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Enterprise Canada says convoy lawyer's allegations are 'highly defamatory'

cbc.ca

Convoy protest organizers testify at Emergencies Act inquiry

cbc.ca


In the cease and desist sent to Miller on Tuesday, Galway explained that Fox "was not in Ottawa at any time in January or February of 2022."

"His most recent visit to Ottawa, to the best of his recollection, was to attend the Manning conservative action conference in 2019," it added.

The letter went on to say that Fox was "not involved" in the "Freedom Convoy" protests and added that, "contrary to the misinformation (Miller's) statements have engendered online, Brian Fox is not a Liberal Party member, supporter, or collaborator."

"He is a longstanding member of and contributor to the Conservative Party of Canada, and participated in the recent leadership process to support Mr. (Pierre) Poilievre," it said.

"Your implication that Mr. Fox colluded with the incumbent government to discredit protestors has absolutely no basis in fact, and is reckless."

Read more:
CSIS head advised Trudeau to invoke Emergencies Act during convoy, inquiry hears

Shortly after Miller made the allegation, social media lit up with claims about the Enterprise employee. Some users on Twitter called him a "paid actor," while others questioned whether he was a "Liberal plant."

The letter concludes by demanding Miller "cease and desist immediately" and "correct" his "false statements."

"A formal notice of libel is forthcoming, and we expressly reserve all of our clients' legal rights and remedies."

Speaking outside the inquiry on Tuesday prior to the cease and desist being made public, Miller faced questions from reporters asking whether he was concerned about being sued for the allegation he made.

"No, I'm not. Because guess what? Truth is a full defence," Miller responded.

"We also have privileges for things of which we say in a courtroom -- and the reason that that exists is so that lawyers can do their job and witnesses can tell the truth."

He said he didn't care about Enterprise's "little announcement yesterday," referring to the government relation firm's statement that they were considering their legal options.

"I could care less," Miller said.

"If they want to bring that, I would be happy to do so and defend it, and get discovery, and get their records."

Miller proceeded to reiterate the assertion during his questioning of Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Tuesday afternoon, after receiving the cease and desist.

The Freedom Corp. lawyer also told the inquiry he had filed an "affidavit" from an individual "who identified this man, and the man is Mr. Brian Fox, according to that affidavit."

Murray Mandryk: Sask. issues $500 cheques while SHC units rat infested

Opinion by Murray Mandryk • Leader Post

Dominika Kosowska was invited by NDP to Monday's question period to tell the story of her rat-plagued Saskatchewan Housing Corporation apartment.

The sound of scratching in the walls in her Saskatoon apartment is one that Dominika Kosowska never heard in her previous homes in her native Poland or when she lived in England.

It’s a sound most Saskatchewan-born people blessed with the luxury of a quality home don’t have to live with, either. Most of us don’t have to worry about mice and rats in the walls or bats in the attic.

Unlike Kosowska, most of us also don’t live in Saskatchewan Housing Corporation units — some 3,000 of which now sit vacant in this province in various states of disrepair like the fourplex on Regina’s Retallack Street that blew up 10 days ago.

The disconnect here is staggering.

A bad public housing strategy has clearly caught up to this Saskatchewan Party government.  

This is not a good look for an administration that recently boasted the best population growth in any quarter since Statistics Canada began tracking numbers — growth, largely driven by immigrants like Kosowska, who is still reliant on SHC housing after eight years in Saskatchewan.

Yet the government clearly wants to push the perception that it takes care of those settling here for a better life, through support of charitable programs like Dress for Success.

It further revels in the notion that “our resources belong to everyone in Saskatchewan, so everyone in Saskatchewan should benefit” — as Premier Scott Moe recently reminded us in that letter you’ve likely received that accompanied your $500 affordability tax credit cheque.

Multis e gentibus vires — From many peoples, strength — is our provincial motto.

But does everyone benefitting mean handing the same cheque to everyone? Or does it mean truly offering real opportunity to people like Kosowska who have come here to contribute?

After 15 years in office, this Sask. Party administration still struggles with the notion that the right spending choices are usually the harder ones. Spending more to fix SHC units would be direct investment in immigrants like Kosowska the government boasts it is attracting.

But, sadly, too often these people are viewed as little more than background fill for feel-good news announcements, rather tha n people who need a little support … like an affordable home free of mice, rats and bats.

“I got stuck in this place because relocation is not always an option,” said Kosowska, invited to the legislature by the NDP Opposition in Monday’s question period. “For myself as an immigrant single mother, I spent the past seven years building the safety net within the community where I live.

“I don’t have family here. I don’t have any support. For me to relocate to the other side of the city, I have to uproot my son’s life. All friendships. All of my support network. It’s not as simple as you say.”

Kosowska said SHC offered her another unit across town, but that means an added cost of gas to get her nine-year-old to nearby Prairie Christian Academy or for working with her clientele in her work as a trauma counsellor specializing in domestic and sexual violence and intergenerational trauma.

“The moment I leave that apartment, someone else will be put in that apartment,” said Kosowska.

And, such as it is, she has to make her rodent-infested apartment her home. “They call me neighbour mama. It’s very hard for me to leave that neighbourhood,” said the former teacher. “I have been surrounded by children my entire life.”

So Kosowska has instead become an advocate for other immigrants living in her building — many of whom struggle with English or don’t have Internet access.

For now, it’s back to the business of sealing and plugging holes, setting snap traps for the mice, rats and the occasional bat. “It’s never boring in there, you know,” Kosowska said.

But it would be better if government made a few better choices.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Related

Murray Mandryk: Vacant housing units amid homeless crisis unfathomable

Murray Mandryk: Population stats good news and spin for Sask. Party

"

The Rats in the Walls" by H. P. Lovecraft

https://www.hplovecraft.com › writings › texts › fiction

Peter Friedrichsen: Sask. health-care system in danger of collapse

Opinion by Peter Friedrichsen • Yesterday 

Ambulances are parked outside Regina General Hospital on Thursday, January 27, 2022 in Regina. KAYLE NEIS / Regina Leader-Post

A few days ago I heard on the radio that a four-year-old girl in Regina suffering from a brain tumour could not get a hospital bed for over 20 hours.

How is it that a hospital — in the capital city — isn’t able to accommodate a little girl in the fight of her life?

The stark reality is: Doctors, nurses and patients young and old have all been telling our provincial government that our health-care system is collapsing. Yet our government fails to acknowledge that our hospitals, clinics, labs — and all of the people working in them — have been sending SOS signals for months, if not years.

I see our public health system as if it’s the Titanic and Saskatchewan people are the passengers. Our state-of-the-art universal health-care system was built 60 years ago. But lately we’ve been dodging icebergs and now we’re on a collision course.

Last year, we ran out of ventilators and taxpayers paid for 22 people to get care in Ontario. This spring, an ICU doctor left the province and this fall a nurse was burnt out after only eight months of work.

And now, they still refuse to use public resource revenue windfalls or federal COVID-19 funding and acquiesce to the Liberal-NDP “costly coalition” as hospitals swell, families cannot find doctors or children’s medication and we plunge into flu season.

We must remember that the Titanic didn’t simply break in two. It was the captain’s and crew’s decisions that led it to sink. We must recognize the problem isn’t the system, but the decisions being made by those who are in charge of it.

The Saskatchewan Party government needs to immediately fund and restore our public health-care system — which includes shelters and harm reduction facilities. Our compromised health-care system can no longer respond to emergencies such as the Humboldt Broncos crash or the massacre at James Smith Cree Nation.

We’re taking on water and people have already perished. Just like the boiler men and third-class passengers of Titanic; those working on the front lines and most vulnerable are at the highest risk. Now the water has risen and even folks like me with good health and decent jobs are feeling stranded.

We cannot continue on a course toward outsourcing the public services and institutions we rely on for our safety and well-being.

In the past decade the province privatized MRI services, yet last year patients were expected to travel out of province to pay to get the procedure done. This move did not improve care; rather, it put an extra burden on Saskatchewan people.

A private health-care system boasts false security, like the watertight compartments that inevitably fail with a large enough hole. A private health-care system only benefits the wealthy at the expense of the disadvantaged and oppressed.

A private health-care system is the first-class passengers watching the flares like they’re fireworks on the first lifeboats out. People here are sinking — and literally freezing to death — and our elected leaders running our province fail to notice.

They fail to recognize that we have collided with an iceberg and all the rest of us can hear is mayday.

I dread that more four-year-old kids are left without a warm safe bed in a hospital, or that homeless folks are dying alone in the cold. I’m bewildered that the doctors, nurses and other medical workers are rendered a “heroic” band, drowning as they continue working through burnout.

The minister of health is not the noble captain who knows his grave fault and stays with the boat, but the selfishly unapologetic first mate who said we had to change our course — into the iceberg dead ahead. Bundle up and find your lifejackets, Saskatchewan. I hope there are enough lifeboats.

Peter Friedrichsen is a non-profit manager in Prince Albert with a background in economics and community development, particularly with Indigenous communities in north-central Saskatchewan.

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CANADA

Controversial online streaming bill being amended by senators after waiting more than a year

Story by Anja Karadeglija • National Post


After nearly a year-and-a-half wait, senators will have a chance to make changes to the Liberal government’s online streaming bill and its controversial provisions involving user-generated content.


Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez 

The Senate transport committee will meet Wednesday evening to begin clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-11, a process where they can amend the bill. The most significant of those attempted changes are likely to involve more clearly scoping out user-generated content from the regulatory powers granted to the CRTC, and limiting the CRTC’s powers over algorithms used by digital platforms.

When they spoke to the National Post earlier this summer, multiple senators on the committee said they expected amendments, but a key question now is whether senators appointed by the current Liberal government, but who sit as independents, will support changes.

User content subject to 'some authority' by CRTC under Bill C-11, regulator says

Senators to start early on online streaming bill that raised concerns over freedom of expression

The bill was first introduced in the fall of 2020 as C-10. It became controversial in the spring of 2021 when the government removed an exemption for user-generated content, putting online posts under the CRTC’s regulatory authority, which critics said would harm Canadians’ freedom of expression. After the Senate refused to fast-track the legislation, that version of the bill died on the order paper when the 2021 federal election was called.

The Liberal government then re-introduced the legislation as Bill C-11. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has maintained the new bill “fixed” the problems identified in C-11 by re-introducing the exemption for user-generated content. In an appearance in front of the committee Tuesday, Rodriguez maintained only a “commercial content” would be covered by the bill.

But critics and experts say the bill includes exemptions-to-the-exemption that are actually much more broad than the narrow use case described by the government, which has repeatedly given the example of professional music on YouTube as an example of what is scoped in.

Vivek Krishnamurthy, director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, told senators in an earlier appearance: “I’ve been a lawyer for the better part of 15 years and this section is about the most confusing thing I’ve ever encountered.”

He said the wording of the exemptions-to-the-exemption means “there’s nothing that prevents the CRTC from imposing regulations on the full stack of online audiovisual content distribution.”

Steve de Eyre, director of public policy and government affairs for Canada at TikTok, told the committee “as written, any video on TikTok that includes music, which is the majority of content posted on our platform” would meet all three of the criteria to be scoped under the bill.

The government and the CRTC chairman have both stated they don’t intend to use the legislation to regulate user-content, leading critics to ask why those powers are needed in the first place.

“Bill C-11 may not be intended to be a user-censorship bill, but unless you fix it, with the wrong government appointing the wrong CRTC, it could easily become one,” Matt Hatfield of internet advocacy group OpenMedia said.

Krishnamurthy said that supporters of the bill will argue the legislation stipulates “the CRTC must take free expression into account, and…we can trust our institutions not to be overly broad,” but “that’s not good enough.”

“We need to specify in the law exactly how things apply and not leave it to the discretion of a regulatory agency. That’s especially important because Canada is not immune to the whims of populist authoritarianism that are howling around the world. We cannot be sure that our institutions will perform as well in the future as they have in their past.”

Former CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein suggested adding in language stipulating regulations “must be constructed in such a manner that user generated content is not affected.”

Former CRTC vice-chair Peter Menzies likewise urged senators “to amend Bill C-11 to make it absolutely clear that under no circumstances will the CRTC have jurisdiction over user-generated content, neither directly nor through platforms that depend upon it.”



Skyship Entertainment CEO Morghan Fortier testifies at the House of Commons heritage committee on May 24, 2022. Bill C-11 was “written by those who don’t understand the industry they’re attempting to regulate,” she said.© Provided by National Post

Critics have also taken issue with the government’s plans to force platforms to ensure their algorithms promote Canadian content, which they say don’t take into account how social media algorithms actually work, meaning the plan will backfire and hurt creators.

“We would never tolerate the government setting rules specifying which books must be placed in the front window of our bookstores or what kinds of stories must appear on the front pages of our newspapers. But that’s exactly what the discoverability provision in section 9.1(1) currently does,” Hatfield said.

John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Committee, suggested the bill be changed to allow the CRTC to require platforms to showcase Canadian content through a static measure such as a banner users can click on, but not through prescribing algorithmic outcomes.

Critics warn that if Canadian content is shown to users who aren’t interested in it, and thus don’t engage with it, the algorithms will then downgrade that content – harming Canadian creators’ efforts to reach an international audience, for many the source of most of their views and revenue.

Morghan Fortier, CEO of Skyship Entertainment, told the committee “that’s maybe the most disheartening thing about Bill C-11. It’s willing to sacrifice the worldwide reach of all these unique Canadian voices for the sake of more regulation and more government intervention.”

How cooking food and gathering for feasts made us human

NEW YORK (AP) — If you’re cooking a meal for Thanksgiving or just showing up to feast, you’re part of a long human history — one that's older than our own species.

Some scientists estimate our early human cousins may have been using fire to cook their food almost 2 million years ago, long before Homo sapiens showed up.

And a recent study found what could be the earliest known evidence of this rudimentary cooking: the leftovers of a roasted carp dinner from 780,000 years ago.

Cooking food marked more than just a lifestyle change for our ancestors. It helped fuel our evolution, give us bigger brains — and later down the line, would become the centerpiece of the feasting rituals that brought communities together.

“The story of human evolution has appeared to be the story of what we eat,” said Matt Sponheimer, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder who has studied the diets of early human ancestors.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, is based on material from Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel — a watery site on the shores of an ancient lake.

Artifacts from the area suggest it was home to a community of Homo erectus, an extinct species of early humans that walked upright, explained lead author Irit Zohar of Tel Aviv University.

Over years of “digging in mud” at the site, researchers examined a curious catch of fish remains, especially teeth, said Naama Goren-Inbar, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who led the excavations.

Many were from a couple of species of big carp, and they were clustered around certain spots at the site — places where researchers also found signs of fire. Testing revealed the teeth had been exposed to temperatures that were hot, but not super-hot. This suggests the fish were cooked low and slow, rather than tossed right onto a fire, Zohar explained.

With all of this evidence together, the authors concluded that these human cousins had harnessed fire for cooking more than three quarters of a million years ago. That’s much earlier than the next oldest evidence for cooking, which showed Stone Age humans ate charred roots in South Africa.

The researchers — like many of their colleagues — believe cooking started long before this, though physical evidence has been hard to come by.

“I am sure that in the near future an earlier case will be reported,” study author Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University said in an email.

That’s in part because harnessing fire for food was a key step for human evolution.

Cooking food makes it easier for the body to digest and get nutrients, explained David Braun, an archaeologist at George Washington University who was not involved with the study. So, when early humans figured out how to cook, they got access to more energy, which they could use to fuel bigger brains.

Based on how human ancestors' brains and bodies developed, scientists estimate that cooking skills would have had to emerge nearly 2 million years ago.

“If we’re out there eating raw items, it is very difficult to make it as a large-bodied primate,” Braun said.

Those first cooked meals were a far cry from today’s turkey dinners. And in the many, many years in between, humans started not just eating for fuel, but for community.

In a 2010 study, researchers described the earliest evidence of a feast — a specially prepared meal that brought people together for an occasion 12,000 years ago in a cave in Israel.

The cave, which served as a burial site, included the remains of one special woman who seemed to be a shaman for her community, said Natalie Munro, a University of Connecticut anthropologist who led the study.

It seems her people held a feast to honor her death. Munro and her team found large numbers of animal remains at the site — including enough tortoises and wild cattle to create a hearty spread.

This “first feast” came from another important transition point in human history, right as hunter-gatherers were starting to settle into more permanent living situations, Munro said. Gathering for special meals may have been a way to build community and smooth tensions now that people were more or less stuck with each other, she said.

And while the typical feast may no longer involve munching on tortoise meat in burial caves, Munro said she still sees a lot of the same roles — exchanging information, making connections, vying for status — happening at our modern gatherings.

“This is something that’s just quintessentially human,” Munro said. “And to see the first evidence of it is exciting.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Maddie Burakoff, The Associated Press

Brazil's Bolsonaro challenges election loss, files petition demanding votes be annulled

Story by Julia Jones • Yesterday 

Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has filed a petition with Brazil election authorities formally contesting the results of this year’s fiercely contested presidential vote.

Bolsonaro narrowly lost a run-off vote last month to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as “Lula,” who is due to be inaugurated as president on January 1.

Since then Bolsonaro has stopped short of explicitly conceding that he lost, but has previously said he would “continue to fulfill all commandments of the constitution” – leading observers to believe that he would cooperate with the transfer of power.

But in the petition filed on Tuesday, Bolsonaro and the leader of his right-wing Liberal Party allege that some voting machines had malfunctioned and any votes cast through them should be annulled.

Citing analysis done by a company hired by Bolsonaro’s party, the complaint claims that removing those votes would hand Bolsonaro victory.

Responding to Bolsonaro’s petition, election authorities said that since the same voting machines were used in the first round of elections, Bolsonaro and his party must amend their complaint to include those results in order for the process to make its way through the courts, affiliate CNN Brasil reported.

Related video: Brazil's electoral court rejects Bolsonaro election challenge
Duration 1:25
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Alexandre Moraes, chief justice of the Supreme Electoral Court, gave Bolsonaro and his petitioners 24 hours to amend their submission.

But on Wednesday, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party responded requesting that the scope remain limited to second-round voting.

Liberal Party officials also held a press conference in which they doubled down on claims that some ballots used in the second round of elections could be liable to error, but claimed they did not aim to contest the results.

“We do not intend to stop anyone from taking office, just that they follow the law. If there are indications [of error], this ballot cannot be taken into account,” said Liberal Party President Valdemar Costa Neto.

“We are not asking for a new election, that would be crazy,” he added.

Last month’s heated election came amid a tense and polarized political climate in Brazil, which has been struggling with high inflation, limited growth and rising poverty.

Lula da Silva received more than 60 million votes – according to the election authority’s final tally – the most in Brazilian history and breaking his own record from 2006.

Reporting contributed by Camilo Rocha in Sao Paulo.

EDUCATION IS PROFESSIVE IT IS DANGEROUS

Teachers' Union Leader Hits Back After Pompeo Calls Her the 'Most Dangerous Person in the World'

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks during a March for Our Lives rally on June 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

 Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for March For Our 


KENNY STANCIL

November 22, 2022

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, defended the egalitarian legacy and aspirations of public education Monday after former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused her of being "the most dangerous person in the world.

"Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America," said AFT president Randi Weingartenn "

In an interview with Semafor, Pompeo said: "I tell the story often—I get asked, 'Who's the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?' The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten."

"It's not a close call," Pompeo, who worked in the Trump administration and is considered a potential Republican presidential candidate, continued. "If you ask, 'Who's the most likely to take this republic down?' It would be the teachers' unions, and the filth that they're teaching our kids, and the fact that they don't know math and reading or writing."

While the news outlet failed to push back on Pompeo's absurd claims, Weingarten took to Twitter to defend her union and the institution of public education.

Admitting that she wasn't sure whether to characterize Pompeo's remarks "as ridiculous or dangerous," Weingarten noted that he defended tyrants in various parts of the world during his tenure with the State Department.

Pompeo "was more focused on pleasing Trump than fighting for freedom, national security, and democracy," said Weingarten.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), by contrast, fights "for freedom, democracy, and an economy that works for all," Weingarten continued. "We fight for what kids and communities need: Strong public schools that are safe and welcoming, where kids learn how to think and work with others."

"And we fight against this kind of rhetoric and hate," she added. "Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America."



Pompeo's attack on teachers' unions and inclusive curriculum comes amid an ongoing right-wing censorship campaign and broader assault on public school students and employees.

A recent analysis by PEN America detailed how 138 school districts across 32 states have prohibited more than 1,600 titles in classrooms and libraries since July 2021. The vast majority of banned books deal with LGBTQ+ themes, address racism, contain sexual content, or are related to activism.

In addition, according to PEN America, Republican lawmakers in 42 states have introduced more than 190 bills since January 2021 that seek to limit the ability of educators and students to discuss gender, racial inequality, and other topics—including a growing number of proposals to establish so-called "tip lines" that would empower parents to discipline teachers. Nearly two dozen educational gag orders have been enacted in more than a dozen states.

In an opinion piece published before far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state's infamous "Don't Say Gay" bill, Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent argued that the GOP's tidal wave of repressive education legislation has "an obvious purpose: to make teachers feel perpetually on thin ice, so they shy away from difficult discussions about our national past rather than risk breaking laws in ways they cannot themselves anticipate."

"But there's another, more pernicious goal driving these bills that might well succeed politically precisely because it remains largely unstated," Sargent continued. "The darker underlying premise here is that these bills are needed in the first place, because subversive elements lurk around every corner in schools, looking to pervert, indoctrinate, or psychologically torture your kids."

The "combination of... vagueness and punitive mechanisms such as rights of action and tip lines" is intentionally designed to promote self-censorship, wrote Sargent. "Precisely because teachers might fear that they can't anticipate how they might run afoul of the law—while also fearing punishment for such transgressions—they might skirt difficult subjects altogether."

He added that "calls for maximal parental choice and control in schools have been used by the right for decades as a smoke screen to sow fears and doubts about public education at its ideological foundations."

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a former middle school principal, called Pompeo's comments about Weingarten "outrageous, dangerous, and asinine."

"Radical republicans hate education," he said, "because it cripples their lies and fear-mongering. I stand with Randi Weingarten and all teachers in the fight for our kids, our democracy, and our planet."

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) president Lee Saunders, meanwhile, said in a statement that "if Mike Pompeo really thinks Randi Weingarten is 'the most dangerous person in the world,' then he is the most clueless person in the world."

"More likely, though, this is just a stunt by a politician desperate to get attention for a longshot presidential run," said Saunders. "Either way, what a relief that a man who calls an educator a greater security threat than global dictators is no longer in charge of our diplomatic relations around the world. While Pompeo continues to bluster, Randi will keep working for safe, vibrant schools that enrich our children and strengthen our communities."

This article has been updated to include a statement from AFSCME president Lee Saunders.

Teachers’ union head accuses Pompeo of stoking hate with ‘filth’ comments

Story by Steven Greenhouse • Yesterday

 The Guardian

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has denounced the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo for calling her “the most dangerous person in the world” and asserting that the nation’s schoolteachers teach “filth”.


Photograph: Aaron Bernstein/Reuters

Speaking to the Guardian Weingarten said Pompeo’s remarks were not just demagogic, but also dangerous, warning that they could incite violence. She said Pompeo, who also served as Donald Trump’s CIA director, attacked her because she is “Jewish, gay, teacher and union” and was clearly stoking rightwing hate as he considers a presidential run.

“This is initially directed to the Republican donor class so he can tap into the boatloads of money that billionaires have given to wage this culture war,” Weingarten said, adding that Pompeo – widely expected to run for president in 2024 – was “trying to garner money from that donor base that gave $50m for anti-trans ads, during the recent election”.

“Separate and apart from that,” she continued, “it’s also an attempt to pull away the Maga Republican base from Trump and [the Florida governor, Ron] DeSantis, to show he’s an even more extremist Maga than they are.”

In an interview with Semafor this week, Pompeo said: “I get asked, ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teachers’ unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.”

Weingarten, who has been president of the AFT since 2008, told the Guardian she thought Pompeo was attacking her because she is “Jewish, gay, teacher and union”.

AND SHE IS A WOMAN

Related video: Mike Pompeo names world's most dangerous person, and it's not Putin

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“It’s all of the above,” Weingarten said. “It’s an anti-public school strategy. The antisemitic tropes are there. The anti-gay tropes are there. It’s anti-union. It’s anti-teacher. It’s all of the above. But the effect is it really hurts what teachers are trying to do to help kids every single day.”

Weingarten was especially upset about Pompeo’s assertion that the nation’s educators were teaching “filth” to children. She saw that as a dangerous smear that built on QAnon conspiracy assertions that teachers were grooming children. Her union, the AFT, has more than 1.5 million members and is the second largest teachers’ union, behind the National Education Association.

“I’m really concerned about his use of the word ‘filth’ to talk about what teachers do,” Weingarten said. “It’s not just the new code for groomers and all the other lies they tell about what teachers are doing at school. But it is intended to worry and divide parents. It is intended to create danger and chaos. How do you call teaching The Diary of Anne Frank or teaching about Ruby Bridges or helping kids be who they are or helping ease their anxieties or teaching math, or science or social studies or English, how dare he call that filth?

“For him to call what teaches do filth is pathetic,” Weingarten continued. “It’s politically expedient for him, but it’s dangerous to teachers across the country. He’s a guy who clearly knows better.

“Words really matter. There’s a lot of people who are starting to talk about stochastic terrorism and what the effect of that is,” she said. (Stochastic terrorism is the public demonization of a person or group that incites an individual’s violent act against the demonized group.) “I am really worried with every passing day about this extremist rhetoric. It has a real chance of turning into violence. Look at what just happened in Colorado Springs. Look at what happened in the Buffalo grocery store in a primarily black neighborhood.”



Mike Pompeo. ‘He clearly knows better,’ said Weingarten.

 Photograph: Steven Senne/AP

After Pompeo’s attack, Weingarten has received plenty of public support.

The MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said Pompeo’s comments were “truly deranged”. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, said Pompeo’s remarks were “outrageous, dangerous and asinine”. He added, “Radical Republicans hate education, because it cripples their lies and fearmongering.” Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, said, “@rweingarten is a national treasure, representing the voices of millions of educators who are essential for the wellbeing of our families.”

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Pompeo’s statement that Weingarten is the most dangerous person in the world shows that Pompeo “is the most clueless person in the world”. “This is just a stunt by a politician desperate to get attention for a long-shot presidential run,” Saunders said. “While Pompeo continues to bluster, Randi will keep working for safe, vibrant schools that enrich our children and strengthen our communities.”

Weingarten said that Pompeo resorted to such extreme rhetoric because he realizes that his potential candidacy can only work if he attracts some billionaire donors who will give to him rather than Trump or DeSantis. “The donor class that he’s looking for are the ones that are anti-public schools, anti-teachers, anti-teachers’ union,” Weingarten said. “They’re using fear and divisiveness in the culture wars to drive a wedge, a wedge between teachers and parents. The fact that he [Pompeo] would do this shows just how demagogic people like him are in their pursuit of power.”

‘The Conspiracy’ Review: A Documentary Traces the History of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory

Story by Owen Gleiberman • Yesterday 
Variety

“The Conspiracy” is a documentary that traces the history of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and it’s a film you may be surprised that no one has made until now. The subject, of course, couldn’t be more timely. The film arrives at a moment when these insidious ideas, which seem to have the life of Hydra heads (you can cut them off but can’t kill them), are reasserting their way back into politics and culture. Kanye West and his crackpot tweets grab headlines, but it’s important to note that Ye’s point-of-view mirrors the mindset of increasing numbers of right-wing true believers in Europe and America. That gives “The Conspiracy” value as a weapon against injustice.

Beyond that, though, there’s a vital and disquieting fascination to seeing a film connect the dots of hate, fear, and false narrative that have demonized Jewish people by turning the conspiracies about them into a larger-than-life mythology. The theories — that Jewish bankers, businessmen, and media barons secretly control the world, that Jews are rogue agents of destruction — constitute a kind of alternate history. Yet as “The Conspiracy” strikingly argues, in the last 150 years these theories have been an ongoing and essential strand ­of the forces that drive real history.

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There’s one thing the documentary doesn’t make a point of, but I will. In the 19th century, the world, for the first time, was becoming seriously unified through the forces of the Industrial Revolution. The trading of goods went back further than that, of course, but this was about the ratcheting up of trade, travel, and communication to unprecedented new levels. It was the dawn of globalization, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, as hideous and fantasy-based as it is, is in effect a myth of globalization, a vicious way to make sense of a world that’s become unified in a radical new way. If the world is unified, then who controls it? The answer is no one, but anti-Semitic conspiracy theory provides a debased answer to that question, imposing a sick kind of order on the natural disorder.

The roots of anti-Semitism go back to the blaming of Jews for Christ’s death and the “blood libel” of the 12th century that accused Jews of murdering children in private ceremonies as a way to restage the Crucifixion. But according to “The Conspiracy,” the birth of actual conspiracy theory about Jews dates back to the French Revolution, when the Jesuit priest Augustine Barruel argued that the Revolution itself was a conspiracy, planned and executed by a network of secret societies. Barruel received a lot of fan mail, and one letter asked him why it was only in passing that he mentioned “the Hebrew sect,” which the letter writer linked, through the Jews’ alleged leverage over gold and silver, to control of the Illuminati, the Jacobins, and the Freemasons, “seeking to destroy the name of Christ wherever possible.”

Barruel, sharing that letter with powerful people all around the world, became the person responsible for launching the modern theory of a secret Jewish cabal. After receiving the letter, Russia’s Czar Nicolas I became convinced that a Jewish conspiracy was overtaking Europe, and he began his rule by banning Jews from major cities, restricting where they could live to a desolate Southwestern territory known as the Pale of Settlement. Throughout Europe, the issue of whether Jews should have civil rights became the subject of debate.

All of this plays like the assembling of clues in an appalling detective story. But then the documentary reaches the Dreyfus Affair, the famous case of the French Jewish artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus (scion of the Dreyfus banking clan, though his wing of the family had been manufacturers of textiles), who was wrongfully accused of treason in 1894. Up until now, the film has used bits and pieces of animation to illustrate historical situations, but it turns the story of the Dreyfus Affair into a lengthy self-contained animated sequence. The images, done with motion capture, have a black-and-pewter handsomeness, though they’re not particularly expressive, and they slow the movie down.

“The Conspiracy” makes key connections for us: how the Dreyfus Affair (though it ended on a note of justice) seeded France with anti-Semitic poison, how the murderous pogroms of the 19th century were all based on destroying the threat posed by the “hidden power” of Jews, and how “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the scandalous literary forgery that was published in Russia in 1903, became, in effect, the formative artifact of right-wing fake news. It was a bogus documentary in book form, purporting to record a meeting of late-19th-century Jewish leaders as they launch a plot for world domination.

I would have liked to hear more about how “The Protocols” went out into the world, and how the lies contained within it connect to lies in our own time. (It’s not much of a leap from the mythic demonization of the Warburgs to the mythic demonization of George Soros.) And I wish that the film’s writer-director, Maxim Pozdorovkin (“Our New President”), relied less on the dogged, earnest, and rather storybook-simple animation, which at times seems to be doing the work that a gathering of archival evidence could have done much better. Even the voices of actors like Liev Schreiber and Jason Alexander can’t do much to relieve the impersonality.

Yet “The Conspiracy” still accomplishes something important and, at times, mind-opening. It puts together how anti-Semitic conspiracy theory was the snake that slithered through World War I, the Russian Revolution (most spectacularly through the figure of Leon Trotsky, the Bronstein family heir who fantasized that the embrace of Marxism could wipe out anti-Semitism), and the rise of Nazi Germany. The movie records how Henry Ford, who had published “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, made a substantial financial contribution to the fascist movement in Germany. And in doing so it lends a newly filled-in context to the rise of Hitler, one that doesn’t allow us to say, as so many Holocaust documentaries do, “That was then, this is now.” That the snake still lives makes you wonder: Where does it slither next?

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: The Origin of American Conspiracy Theories

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Conspiracy Theory 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Conspiracy 

Report: Saudi Public Investment Fund asks for 'sovereign immunity' in court battle with PGA Tour

Story by Tim Schmitt • Golfweek

While LIV Golf attorneys are trying to shed light on the PGA Tour’s organizational structure and financial dealings as part of an anti-trust lawsuit, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has insisted it shouldn’t have to do the same, claiming “sovereign immunity.”


LIV Golf Miami© Provided by Golfweek

According to a report from Bloomberg News, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan on Tuesday asked a federal judge in California to quash a request by the PGA Tour to compel their testimony and produce documents for a lawsuit accusing LIV of unfair competition for offering players lucrative deals to break their PGA contracts.

The original suit, which was filed back in August by Phil Mickelson and 10 other golfers, was taken over by LIV Golf, which is under the PIF umbrella.

However, officials for the Saudi-run firm said they only have high-level oversight over LIV Golf and don’t deal with day-to-day operations. The request also stated the move could set a “dangerous precedent” if PIF had to reveal its books, as the company has investments in major corporations like Walmart and Starbucks and could be ripe for similar requests over any suits filed against companies it holds. The wealth fund, which was organized in 1971 as a means for the Saudi Arabian government to invest in various projects and companies, is currently estimated to be worth $676 billion.

“Now that LIV (Golf) is involved, it’s not necessary for me to be involved,’’ Mickelson said in September when he dropped out of the suit. “The only reason for me to stay in is (monetary) damages, which I don’t really want or need anything. I do think it’s important that the players have the right to play when and where they want, when and where they qualify for. And now that LIV (Golf) is a part of it, that will be accomplished if and when they win.’’

The original lawsuit, obtained by Golfweek, states:
As the Tour’s monopoly power has grown, it has employed its dominance to craft an arsenal of anticompetitive restraints to protect its long-standing monopoly. Now, threatened by the entry of LIV Golf, Inc. (“LIV Golf”), and diametrically opposed to its founding mission, the Tour has ventured to harm the careers and livelihoods of any golfers, including Plaintiffs Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, and Peter Uihlein (“Plaintiffs”), who have the temerity to defy the Tour and play in tournaments sponsored by the new entrant. The Tour has done so in an intentional and relentless effort to crush nascent competition before it threatens the Tour’s monopoly.

The PGA Tour then sent the U.S. District Court of Northern California a 32-page response to the initial lawsuit, plus a separate seven-page example of what it calls mischaracterizations and mistruths presented by the LIV players.

It then added a countersuit in September, seeking damages for brand and reputation damage.

While LIV has alleged the Tour uses monopoly power and illegally suspended players, the Tour’s countersuit claims LIV is using players, “and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities and to further the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Vision 2030 initiatives.”

LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to sportswash its human rights record with guaranteed money and multi-million dollar deals. Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.MORE:

New York becomes first state to restrict cryptocurrency mining

Story by Zach Schonfeld • Tuesday

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Tuesday signed a law temporarily restricting cryptocurrency mining in the state over environmental concerns, making it the first state nationwide to implement such a move.


NY governor declares disaster in state over monkeypox outbreak© Provided by The Hill

The bill was delivered to the governor on Tuesday after the state legislature passed the measure in June, and The Associated Press reported that Hochul signed the measure.

The restrictions also come after the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has led to growing scrutiny of the industry.

But the New York law instead takes aim at the technology’s environmental impact, establishing a two-year moratorium on permits for fossil fuel plants used for cryptocurrency mining that utilizes “proof-of-work authentication.”

The technology, which is used for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, requires large amounts of energy, and the law’s text suggests its use makes achieving the state’s climate goals more difficult.


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The law also mandates the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation study the environmental impact of mining operations that use the authentication method.

“It is the first of its kind in the country and a key step for New York as we work to address the global climate crisis,” Hochul wrote in a memo approving the bill, which was tweeted by Times Union reporter Josh Solomon.

The bill in part led to a flurry of lobbying activity from the industry. Bloomberg reported in February that pro-cryptocurrency groups were spending $1.5 million on a lobbying blitz in the state.

Hochul during a debate for her re-election last month said she was “looking at that bill closely” and remained noncommittal, while Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin said he wouldn’t sign it.

The Digital Chamber of Commerce, a cryptocurrency trade association, issued a statement indicating disappointment with Hochul’s decision on Tuesday.

“To date, no other industry in the state has been sidelined like this for its energy usage,” the group wrote on Twitter. “This is a dangerous precedent to set in determining who may or may not use power.”

“The PoW mining industry has been spurring economic growth, job creation, and inclusion for historically underrepresented populations in New York, while also creating financial incentives for the buildout of renewable energy infrastructure,” the group added. “With this legislation becoming law, we expect the mining companies, or those considering business in the state, to leave and head to more friendly regulatory jurisdictions in the U.S. – a trend far too many industries in New York State are realizing daily.”

The Hill.