International community must act against Israeli apartheid, says ex-attorney general

February 11, 2022 

A woman holds a sign that reads "End Israeli Apartheid" during a vigil in solidarity with Palestinian calls for a general strike and day of action organized by Falastiniyat in Seattle, Washington on 18 May 2021. [JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images]

February 11, 2022 at 1:17 pm

Michael Benyair, a former Israeli Attorney General and a former acting judge in the Israeli Supreme Court, has called on the international community to take meaningful steps to end Israel's apartheid rule in Palestine.

Writing in the journal, Benyair said he has spent much of his career analysing the legal questions concerning Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

He said that during his tenure he approved the expropriation of private Palestinian land to build the infrastructure for the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories.


It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognise this reality as well.

READ: Amnesty labels Israel an apartheid state

He added: "Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it is Israel that is permanently depriving millions of Palestinians of their civil and political rights. This is Israeli apartheid."

In concluding his article Benyair described the situation on the ground in Palestine as "a moral abomination."

"The delay by the international community in taking meaningful steps to hold Israel accountable for the apartheid regime it is perpetuating is unacceptable."

Benyair's remarks come less than two weeks after Amnesty International released a report in which Israel is described as an apartheid state. Last year, B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch came to the same conclusion, while a legal opinion issued by Yesh Din in 2020 also said that "the crime against humanity of apartheid is being committed in the West Bank."

READ: 'Israel is an apartheid state' say a quarter of US Jews

Boris Johnson defends £275-a-year ‘pay cut’ for nurses

National Insurance hike will make health and social care workers personally fund their own services to the tune of £390m

Adam Bychawski
9 February 2022

SNP's Westminster leader said that National Insurance rise is a regressive tax. |
UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor

Boris Johnson was today forced to defend cutting nurses' pay by hundreds of pounds in the name of a “health and social care levy”, after openDemocracy revealed the true cost to NHS staff.

Scottish National Party (SNP) Westminster leader Ian Blackford hauled the prime minister over the coals, saying the increased National Insurance contributions were a regressive tax that would worsen the cost of living crisis for low-paid health workers.

“Yesterday, openDemocracy found, as a direct result of the chancellor’s National Insurance hike, nurses will, on average, take a £275-a-year pay cut in April,” he said.

“That pay cut will hit at the very same moment that soaring energy bills land, bills that have shot up £1,000 in the space of a year. It is a bill that they and the rest of the public simply can’t afford,” he added.

Johnson responded by saying that the rise was necessary to clear the backlog in NHS waiting lists caused by the pandemic, but did not address calls for a more progressive tax to do so.

“We’ve increased the starting salary for nurses by 12.8% in addition to the bursaries and other help that we give them,” he said. “We value our nurses, we love our NHS and we are paying for it.”

Johnson was told last year by Donna Kinnair, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RNC), that his claim about higher nursing salaries was “not a statement which nursing staff will recognise”.

While some nurses have received a pay rise of more than 12% since 2017/18, that is only in cash terms. Nurses’ starting salaries are approximately 10% worse in real terms than they were in 2011/12, Channel 4 FactCheck found in March 2021.

The RNC has separately found that experienced nurses are 15.3% worse off in real terms than they were a decade ago.

Kinnair wrote to Johnson in January 2021 to ask the prime minister “to be accurate when discussing their pay” after he previously made the claim during Prime Minister’s Questions that same month.

Blackford said in response to Johnson today: “Actions speak louder than words and if he wants to reward the nurses then he needs to pay them. They are the very backbone of the National Health Service.”

Last year, English NHS staff received a 3% pay rise following an independent pay review. However, the lowest-paid NHS and social care staff – those earning £24,000 or less – will lose £66m in total from their pay cheques after April’s National Insurance hike, openDemocracy revealed on Tuesday.

Johnson told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the tax rise, which will be replaced by a formal ‘health and social care levy’ of the same value from 2023, would fund the health service, and help recruit 50,000 new nurses.

Nursing staff shortages are the health service’s “most urgent challenge”, according to the NHS. Last month, 14 unions warned that the NHS is facing a “growing exodus of exhausted staff” and called on the government to raise pay to retain staff.

The end of a wild pandemic ride: What it was like for Peloton employees who lost their jobs this week

By Sara Ashley O'Brien, 

CNN Business
 February 11, 2022


(CNN)

Late Monday night, some Peloton (PTON) staffers noticed they were unable to access work productivity apps like Slack and Okta, which they used regularly on the job. Peloton's employees had been told about a scheduled maintenance window that might cause service outages, according to one employee, but that didn't stop others from bracing for the worst.

"I'm freaking out," another former Peloton employee who worked in the company's product department recalled to CNN Business. He said coworkers frantically texted each other as they speculated about what the morning might bring. Peloton was reporting its earnings Tuesday, and weeks earlier the CEO said the company was reviewing its costs and that layoffs were on the table.

Peloton is replacing its CEO and cutting 2,800 jobs

The answer was what he feared. The employee, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of career repercussions or of jeopardizing their severance packages, said he woke up to a calendar invite on Tuesday for a one-on-one video call with a department leader. He was read what sounded like a script and was informed he was among 2,800 people losing their jobs. The layoffs hit people in departments including engineering, sales and marketing as well as those who physically delivered Peloton products to consumers, according to public posts from those who've lost their jobs.

Workers were offered a severance package that included cash compensation, extended healthcare coverage and equity vesting, along with an unusual consolation: one additional free year of All Access membership to Peloton's subscription services, something workers received as an employee perk. One employee, who described the severance package as "generous," said the membership extension felt a little tone deaf, even if the company intended well. "I don't know when I'll be in a place where I'll enthusiastically get on a Peloton again," she said.

The employee who worked in the product department said his initial reaction was to think it was a joke, but added that he'd still take advantage of the offer.

The sweeping layoffs, and the news that Peloton's founder John Foley would be stepping down as CEO after a decade in charge, capped off months of turmoil at the popular fitness company. Alongside other pandemic bets like Zoom, Peloton had been a Wall Street darling for much of the prior two years. For many of those who lost their jobs this week, the circumstances surrounding the layouts represented a distinctly pandemic end to their time at the company: let go in virtual meetings after struggling to get access to the applications they relied on for remote work.

From boom to bust

As much of the world went through one lockdown after another, Peloton saw unprecedented demand for its connected bikes and treadmills, which pair with a monthly subscription to its virtual workout classes. Peloton's leadership sought ways to meet and capitalize on the heightened demand for its product.

In May 2021, the company said it would commit $400 million towards building the first Peloton factory in the United States as it looked to address lags in deliveries. It also invested in the launch of a private label apparel line announced in September 2021, founded by Foley's wife, Jill. (Foley, who remains involved in the company as executive chair of the board, announced that Jill, who was VP of Apparel, would be among "other senior-level departures across various areas of the business.")

But the company faced other public challenges during the same period. Also in May, the company recalled its treadmills over safety incidents -- after weeks of fighting with federal safety regulators -- and apologized for not complying sooner. In November, the company acknowledged that demand for its hardware had waned. This downturn came as more consumers returned to gyms. By the end of January, Peloton's stock had plummeted down to $25 at one point, its lowest level since the end of March 2020, or the earliest days of the pandemic. At its pandemic-fueled peak in December 2020, the company's stock reached $162 a share.

This week, Peloton's stock jumped on the news of the organizational changes, closing at $37 on Thursday.

In a call with investors Tuesday, Foley acknowledged "missteps," including scaling its operations "too rapidly." He continued: "We own this. I own this, and we are holding ourselves accountable. That starts today." On the same call, CFO Jill Woodworth said Peloton planned to sell "both the building and the land" of the planned factory by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

In response to questions for this story, a Peloton spokesperson directed CNN Business to recent company blog posts. In the post about the organizational changes, Foley framed the restructuring as "getting back to basics."

Amazon and Nike are exploring bids for Peloton, report says

In interviews with CNN Business, workers expressed a mix of frustration with management for what they saw as a failure to anticipate and appropriately navigate an inevitable downturn in demand as the pandemic eased, as well as some relief that the hammer had finally fallen after months of uncertainty.

One employee who worked on the field operations team doing deliveries and product setup in peoples' homes told CNN Business that he personally saw the slowed demand. While he was initially putting in 40 to 60 hours per week in late 2020 and early 2021, he said his hours noticeably scaled back to 10 to 20 hours per week just a few months later.
"You've gotta think: There's only so many people. There's only so many Pelotons that Long Island will be able to get," he said, noting that was his delivery zone. "At one point, something is going to happen. I didn't know how quickly it was going to happen."

Perhaps more than anything, employees felt a sense of whiplash at the rapid rise and fall. The workers CNN Business spoke with had each joined the company during the pandemic, when the company was at its peak.

"They were cranking out development of new stuff, hiring like crazy, paying well ... all the things you look for in a company," said the employee who panicked the night before. He said his job offer at Peloton was more competitive than what some FAANG companies had dangled before him in interviews.

Finding a new community -- on LinkedIn

In the hours after layoffs, many impacted employees posted on LinkedIn about losing their jobs. Individual posts were quickly met with an outpouring of admiration and support from Peloton coworkers, among others. One post by former associate brand manager Colin Burke went seemingly viral with more than 14,000 Likes. Burke acknowledged the tremendous response in a followup.

"Me again," Burke wrote. "Not to be all "wow, this blew up" but... wow! ... By Tuesday evening, the shock of getting laid off evolved into the shock of seeing so much support. I had hundreds of messages from friends, family, and, in many cases, complete strangers mobilizing to offer whatever help they could."

A few grassroots spreadsheets also popped up to circulate the names of workers now looking for jobs. Peloton said it was partnering with outplacement services company RiseSmart on providing career help, including creating an official, opt-in talent directory for former staffers to help connect them to other employers. Meanwhile, recruiters and managers at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Coinbase and Meta all jumped at the chance to tout job opportunities on LinkedIn for affected Peloton staffers.

While many of those laid off quickly lost access to any remaining company apps and services, some reportedly found a way to tune into Peloton's town hall on Wednesday hosted where Foley and incoming CEO Barry McCarthy addressed staffers. According to CNBC, some current and former employees blasted angry comments through the meeting's chat feature. (A company spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.)

Former employees told CNN Business that prior to the layoffs, the company had announced a shift in its all-hands meeting protocol to secure sign-ins through a work device so they were unsure how former employees would've had access.

Regardless, as the third former employee told CNN Business, "I'm very glad to not be there. I think trust is fractured."

Lawmakers allege 'secret' CIA spying on unwitting Americans

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Two US senators have raised concerns that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is again spying upon unwitting Americans.

The agency has "secretly" conducted warrantless surveillance through a newly disclosed programme, Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich alleged.

In a letter to intelligence officials, the two Democrats called for declassifying details of the programme.

Government data collection has been the subject of much controversy in the US.

Officially, the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) have a foreign surveillance mission and domestic spying is prohibited by the CIA's 1947 charter.

But in 2013, a programme of data collection using extensive internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence was disclosed to the public by Edward Snowden, a CIA contractor-turned whistle-blower.

A Washington Post analysis of the Snowden leak found some 90% of those being monitored were ordinary Americans "caught in a net the National Security Agency had cast for somebody else".

Top officials had until then denied - and even lied under oath to Congress - that they were knowingly collecting such data.

The programme, known as Prism, was later ruled unlawful by a US court.

• How the US spy scandal unravelled
• NSA surveillance exposed by Snowden ruled unlawful
• US spies peer into the future - and it's not rosy

But a government watchdog last year disclosed two CIA data collection efforts that Senators Wyden and Heinrich now claim are likely to be again subjecting Americans to warrantless searches.

The CIA released a declassified report on one of the programmes on Thursday, but declined to declassify the other, citing the need to protect "sensitive tradecraft methods and operational sources".

But Mr Wyden, of Oregon, and Mr Heinrich, of New Mexico, said by failing to do so the agency was "undermin[ing] democratic oversight and pos[ing] risks to the long-term credibility of the Intelligence Community".

The senators, who sit on the Intelligence committee, said the public deserved to know "the nature and full extent" of the surveillance, which is all but certain to include records on Americans.

The still-classified programme operates under the authority of a Reagan-era executive order and is therefore "entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection," they said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) non-profit said: "These reports raise serious questions about what information of ours the CIA is vacuuming up in bulk and how the agency exploits that information to spy on Americans".

The CIA has not formally responded to the senators' letter, but said it "recognises and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of US persons".

"CIA is committed to transparency consistent with our obligation to protect intelligence sources and methods," said Kristi Scott, the agency's privacy and civil liberties officer.

 

Declassified document accuses CIA of bulk collection of data on Americans

A heavily redacted letter claims the agency collects data without any judicial or congressional oversight

Seal of the Central Intelligence Agency at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va, April 13, 2016 © AP / Carolyn Kaster

Two US senators have accused the CIA of bulk collecting data on citizens following the release of documents disclosing the problems with how the agency searches and handles the information.

In their letter, sent on April 13, 2021, but partially disclosed on Thursday, Democratic Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico asked CIA Director William J. Burns and US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s (PCLOB) study into the CIA’s intelligence gathering on Americans under Executive Order 12333 – an order passed by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1981, which expanded the power of intelligence agencies.

“During your confirmation processes, you expressed a commitment to greater transparency and an appreciation for how secret interpretations of law undermine democratic oversight and pose risks to the long-term credibility of the Intelligence Community,” the senators wrote, before adding that “the secret nature of the CIA’s activities described in the PCLOB report raise these very concerns.”

Wyden and Heinrich accused the CIA of acting “entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes with FISA collection.”

This basic fact has been kept from the public and from Congress. Until the PCLOB report was delivered last month, the nature and full extent of the CIA’s collection was withheld even from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

The two senators also observed that despite Congress and the American public’s longstanding desire to “prohibit the warrantless collection of Americans’ records,” the CIA has “secretly conducted its own bulk program.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claimed on Thursday that the newly declassified documents “reveal that the CIA has been secretly conducting massive surveillance programs that capture Americans’ private information,” and that the surveillance was conducted “without any court approval, and with few, if any, safeguards imposed by Congress to protect our civil liberties.”

These reports raise serious questions about what information of ours the CIA is vacuuming up in bulk and how the agency exploits that information to spy on Americans. This invasion of our privacy must stop

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden called the accusations “huge,” writing, “This is the systematic construction of a surveillance state that will dominate the rest of our lives.”

“People brushing this off with ‘duh’ or ‘I’m not surprised’ should take this seriously: elections are months away. Vote out any politician who defends this in the slightest way,” Snowden added.

Homeless encampment near SoFi Stadium cleared away ahead of Super Bowl

Critics say local leaders are trying to hide the growing crisis of people living on the streets.

Feb. 11, 2022, 
By Guad Venegas

LOS ANGELES — Dawn Taki is among the tens of thousands of people who live on the streets of Los Angeles.

But her encampment under the 405 Freeway, where she had been staying for two years, was recently cleared in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl at nearby SoFi Stadium.


“They just came and cleaned us out, took everything,” she said. “I know, because of the Super Bowl, they just push us aside because we’re homeless. That ain’t right.”

The cleanup was one of many that took place in Los Angeles County as the city prepares to host the matchup between the L.A. Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. Some housing advocates say local leaders are trying to hide homelessness as they make little headway in easing the homelessness crisis.

The last count that took place, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, recorded 66,000 homeless people in L.A. County, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. A new count set to begin this month is expected to result in a much larger number.

Madeline Devillers, a volunteer who advocates for more resources for homeless people, said the situation can seem overwhelming.

“There’s so many unhoused people living on the streets,” she said. “And it seems like an unfixable problem because there are so many people.”

Homeless tent dwellers Dawn and Ace speak with activist Madeline Devillers at a homeless encampment beneath a freeway overpass near SoFi Stadium on Jan. 26.

 Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images

Local and state officials are working to allocate billions of dollars in federal, state and local funding to arrange or build housing for homeless people. Through a project called Homekey, the state made 6,000 housing units available in its first phase and has projected to add another 55,000 over the next few years.

But the program’s last report indicates that less than 2,000 units have been made available in Los Angeles County. As the region struggles with growing homelessness, it’s also gearing up to host the 2028 Olympics.

In recent months, the city of Los Angeles has voted to make street camping illegal in more than 200 locations, while across the county, encampments like the one where Taki lived are getting cleared. Hers was less than two miles from SoFi Stadium, but another encampment next to it, yet out of sight from passersby, was left untouched.

Taki said the people who cleared them out did not offer any type of help when she and the others living under the freeway were told to leave.

“They didn’t offer us no vouchers,” she said. “No nothing.”

Caltrans, the state transportation agency that conducted the removal, said it was coordinating with local agencies to provide “outreach and support” for the people who were dislocated.

The encampment “needed to be cleared due to a fire safety issue ... ” Caltrans said.

The mayor of Inglewood, where SoFi Stadium is, insisted that the cleanups had nothing to do with the Super Bowl.

“This is something that occurs year in and year out,” Mayor James Butts said. “So this one, it was just time for this one.”

Jass Singh, who runs a business next to the freeway, said that he’s glad the camp was cleared, but that he doesn’t think it will help in the long run.

“They do because people are going to come from out of town,” he said of Super Bowl visitors. “Is going to be busy here. Look nice. That’s why.”

Yet for local residents, the problem is real. A survey recently conducted by a coalition of civic leaders found that voters are angry and frustrated that leaders have failed to do much about the crisis.

“We’re focusing so much on building housing that can be made so much profit from it,” Devillers said, “but what we really need is low-income housing."

MAGA Nation Is Fighting a Race War

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-QAnon/CrossFit) is lying about white folks being denied COVID treatment. The reason is terrifying.

February 11, 2022 by Tim Wise


Stop calling it a culture war. That’s not what this is.

And nothing about it is civil, either.

This is a race war, at least in the minds of MAGA nation.

How else can we understand the recent statement by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Cracker Barrel) that only people with “non-white skin” can receive monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID?

Of course, it’s untrue, yet she has delivered this lie without the slightest bit of shame or misgiving.

Before examining the disinformation about COVID “affirmative action,” though, let’s place the accusation in context because only there can such a blatant falsehood begin to make sense.

Consider it alongside the last several years of right-wing commentary and the leading flashpoints of contemporary conservative discourse.
MAGA conservatism thrives on white grievance

What are the things about which the right has made the most noise as of late?
Black football players taking a knee to protest racial injustice;
Black Lives Matter being a movement of “anti-white terrorists” and America haters;
Immigrants from Mexico and various “shithole” countries coming to the U.S. and “taking our jobs” (as opposed to immigrants from places like Norway, which Donald Trump said we need more of);
China using unfair trade practices or deliberately giving us all COVID as part of some devious scheme for world domination;
Crime going up, especially in cities, with a steady focus on violence in Black-identified places like Chicago;
Evidence-free allegations of voter fraud in large Black areas like Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, or votes by undocumented immigrants flipping states for Joe Biden; and, finally,
School textbooks that tell the truth about racism in American history, or any efforts to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion in schools — now all attacked as “Critical Race Theory” and anti-white bigotry.

Ask yourself: what do all these things have in common?

They all involve perceived threats or slights by persons of color towards America generally or whites in particular.

This is the Alpha and Omega of the MAGA movement — white racial resentment and grievance.

That’s all it’s ever been.

Which is why the only real predictor of who took part in the J6 insurrection wasn’t being a Republican or conservative. Instead, it was whether one lived in a community that had seen its white share of the population decline since 2015. That was the only factor consistently correlated with attendance at the Capitol siege — living in a place where you felt your sense of hegemony slipping.

All the right has done for the last few years is push buttons of white racial resentment and grievance…

But because white grievance wasn’t sufficient to re-elect Trump, those for whom it is their sole currency have ramped it up, as with the claims by Greene (R-Steve Bannon’s Colon), about anti-viral treatment for COVID only being available to Black and brown folks.

The implication is that Biden and the Democrats want white people to die and are buying off people of color with meds to secure their votes.

As with allegations of Latino voter fraud, COVID as an Asian bioweapon, brown-skinned Muslims hoping to impose Sharia law, or BLM coming to burn the suburbs, MTG’s claims about antibody treatment are undiluted horseshit.

And horseshit is something Greene (R-Ivermectin) knows a lot about.
What does the FDA’s COVID treatment guidance say about race?

So what are the facts about the Biden administration’s position on COVID treatment? According to a recent FDA guidance, persons with mild to moderate COVID who are at high risk for progression to more severe symptoms can qualify for emergency use of Sotrovimab — an especially effective antibody treatment for Omicron.

And along with key medical indicators, the FDA stipulates that race or ethnic identity can also be considered a high-risk factor to qualify for priority treatment.

Along these lines, New York, Minnesota and Utah have added race and ethnicity to the risk factors they will consider, suggesting they will target those who are not white for such treatments.

But this doesn’t mean that only persons of color can get such therapies.

Any white person whose health status puts them at high risk — those who are older, obese, have kidney disease, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease, among other conditions — would also qualify for the high-risk designation, and thus, emergency use of limited anti-virals.

Persons of color qualify for high-risk status because systemic racism and economic inequity have left their communities with disproportionate co-morbidities, elevating their risk of death from COVID. Indeed, this is why they have died at much higher rates than whites throughout the pandemic.

Because of worse health status, even without adding race to the high-risk medical factors, Black and brown folks would disproportionately benefit from any policy steering treatment to those in high-risk categories.

So, one might ask, why explicitly add race to the mix? Why not just apply the high-risk medical factors across the board in a colorblind way?

It’s a reasonable question, but one with an incredibly simple answer: namely, black and brown folks are disproportionately likely to go undiagnosed and untreated for severe health conditions. Whether because of bias or less access to good preventative care, this means persons of color with such conditions are far less likely than white people to realize they have them.

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So, adding race and ethnic identity to the list of risk factors maximizes the chance of getting treatment to the most vulnerable, which is always a key goal of public health policy.

But contrary to Greene’s claim, white people who fall into high-risk groups will be able to access monoclonal antibodies and anti-virals just as readily as anyone else.

There is no medical affirmative action here — just treatment based on actual risk.

And seriously, what kind of racial preference would this be, anyway? To reap its benefits, you first have to contract a virus that might kill you.

It’s like when Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh both claimed Obamacare was reparations for slavery. What kind of reparations requires you to get sick first to get paid?


None of it makes sense, but that’s what MTG and the rest of the modern right-wing would have everyone believe.

Because it’s a great way to make white people angry at Black and brown folks for “taking” something from them once again — to cast themselves as victims.

Not, mind you, victims of the conspiratorial, science-allergic dumbshittery peddled by people like Greene (R-The Rhinestone Mine), but of Black people and the white Democrats who supposedly pander to them.
Racial scapegoating: the perfect political distraction

It would be nice to think such blatant nonsense from the likes of MTG would fail to land and that voters could see such tactics for what they are.

But sadly, this kind of thing has a long history.

Influential white folks convincing less powerful white folks to think their enemies are Black and brown is the oldest play in the playbook of American politics, going back to the colonial period.

It’s tried and true when you want to distract the masses from the fact that you have no real plan to make their lives better.

Racial resentment is a reliable pivot when you have no solutions for economic insecurity, inadequate health care coverage, and unaffordable higher education.

So you cut taxes on the rich while feeding the rest a pity party, convincing them the reason their wallets are lighter isn’t that the distribution of wealth has been skewed to white people who are richer than they are, but because those people — as in, the non-white — are getting all the goodies.

They’re getting the jobs, the housing subsidies, the college slots, the welfare payments, the “Obama phones,” or whatever.

As I said, it’s on page one of the playbook, but however long it’s been around, modern conservatives of the Trumpian variety have perfected it.

And so we end up with people like Greene (R-That Truck Stop Diner on I–24, You Know the One) dialing it up yet again, knowing that if history is any guide, the rubes will fall for it.

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And they will, unless we call it out for what it is, directly and frontally.

It is the David Duke-ification of the Republican Party.

America has two choices in this race war: white nationalism or multiracial democracy.

There is no door three.

Choose.

—

This post was previously published on Tim Wise’s blog.

Christian revival at U.S. school prompts student walkout

Leah Willingham
The Associated Press Staff
Published Wednesday, February 9, 2022


In this image taken from cell photo video, evangelical preacher Nik Walker of Nik Walker Ministries, second left, talks to high school kids during assembly at the Huntington High School Feb. 2, 2022, Huntington, West Virginia. (Cameron Mays via AP)

HUNTINGTON, W.VA. -- Between calculus and European history classes at a West Virginia public high school, 16-year-old Cameron Mays and his classmates were told by their teacher to go to an evangelical Christian revival assembly.

When students arrived at the event in the school's auditorium, they were instructed to close their eyes and raise their arms in prayer, Mays said. The teens were asked to give their lives over to Jesus to find purpose and salvation. Those who did not follow the Bible would go to hell when they died, they were told.

The Huntington High School junior sent a text to his father.

"Is this legal?" he asked.

The answer, according to the U.S. Constitution, is no. In fact, the separation of church and state is one of the country's founding basic tenets, noted Huntington High School senior Max Nibert.

"Just to see that defamed and ignored in such a blatant way, it's disheartening," he said.

Nibert and other Huntington students staged a walkout during their homeroom period Wednesday to protest the assembly. More than 100 students left their classrooms chanting, "Separate the church and state" and, "My faith, my choice."

School security turned away reporters who tried to cover the demonstration.

"I don't think any kind of religious official should be hosted in a taxpayer-funded building with the express purpose of trying to convince minors to become baptized after school hours," Nibert said. During the walkout, he held a sign reading, "My rights are non-negotiable."

More than 1,000 students attend Huntington High. The mini revival took place last week during COMPASS, a daily, "noninstructional" break in the schedule during which students can study for tests, work on college prep or listen to guest speakers, said Cabell County Schools spokesperson Jedd Flowers.

Flowers said the event was voluntary, organized by the school's chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He said there was supposed to be a signup sheet for students, but two teachers mistakenly brought their entire class.

"It's unfortunate that it happened," Flowers said. "We don't believe it will ever happen again."

But in this community of fewer than 50,000 people in southwestern West Virginia, the controversy has ignited a broader conversation about whether religious services -- voluntary or not -- should be allowed during school hours at all. A group of parents, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and other organizations say the answer to this question is also no. They say such events are a clear violation of students' civil rights.

"It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the District to offer religious leaders unique access to preach and proselytize students during school hours on school property," Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state, wrote in a letter to the school district. The district cannot "allow its schools to be used as recruiting grounds for churches," the letter reads.

Last week's assembly at Huntington High featured a sermon from 25-year-old evangelical preacher Nik Walker of Nik Walker Ministries, who has been leading revivals in the Huntington area for more than two weeks.

During the assemblies, students and their families are encouraged to join evening services at the nearby Christ Temple Church. More than 450 people, including 200 students, have been baptized at the church, according to Walker, who said he was scheduled to go to another public school and nearby Marshall University soon.

Bethany Felinton said her Jewish son was one of the students forced to attend the assembly at Huntington High. She said that when he asked to leave, the teacher told him their classroom door was locked and he couldn't go. He sat back down in his seat, uncomfortable. Felinton said he felt he couldn't disobey his teacher.

"It's a completely unfair and unacceptable situation to put a teenager in," she said. "I'm not knocking their faith, but there's a time and place for everything -- and in public schools, during the school day, is not the time and place."

Mays' father, Herman Mays, agrees.

"They can't just play this game of, you know, `We're going to choose this time as wiggle room, this gray area where we believe we can insert a church service,"' he said.

Walker said he has never contacted a school about coming to speak; it's always the students who reach out to his ministry, he said.

"We don't even have to knock on the door," he said. "The students, they receive hope here (at Christ Temple Church) and then they want to bring hope to their school or to their classmates."

Walker, originally from the small town of Mullens, West Virginia, has been traveling the state since he was 17 hosting church meetings at schools. He said he came to Huntington on Jan. 23 with plans to leave three days later but saw a need he felt compelled to address.

Walker said he sees a lot of "hopelessness" in the Huntington area: students struggling with addiction, anxiety and depression.

"When you see regions like this, then you really know they need the Lord," he said, drinking a cup of hot tea with honey to soothe his throat after a couple of hours of preaching.

Tolsia High School freshman Mckenzie Cassell said she was excited for Walker to come to speak to her and her peers. She attends Christ Temple Church, where she said she is now seeing a lot more young people since Walker started his work in the schools.

"It's awesome to see a lot of young kids coming," she said.

Cassell's guardian, Cindy Cassell said it's been powerful to see someone make such an impression on young people in town.

"The kids want it and they're ready for change in the right direction," she said.

During Wednesday's walkout, Nibert passed around a petition for students to sign that he plans to deliver to the Cabell County Board of Education. The petition asks that the board apologize to families for what happened and discipline the teachers who mandated that students go to the assembly. It also calls for the review or creation of a board policy pertaining to religion or religiously motivated speakers in schools. Around 75 students signed.

"I have never been prouder of a group of my peers than I am right now," Nibert said, speaking into a megaphone during the protest. "When ordinary citizens find their circumstances to be unfair, they change them. And that's exactly what we're doing today."

UCP VS COVID=

Central Alberta town's emergency department temporarily closed for nearly two years

Stephen David Cook - 

cbc.ca

Yesterday 


One day in October last year, 65-year-old Marg Shott suddenly felt sick.

Not knowing how serious it was, she went to the local Hardisty Health Centre but passed out on the bench. She later learned an ambulance was called, taking her 30 minutes away to Killam, Alta., for treatment.

A STARS helicopter then took Shott to Edmonton — about 200 kilometres northwest of Hardisty — where she had major surgery for an aortic tear in her heart.

"I'm just lucky. Really, really lucky that I'm here," she said.

Shott couldn't be treated in her hometown of Hardisty as the emergency department has been closed there for nearly two years.

Alberta Health Services announced in April 2020 it would shut it down as the province prepared for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

There have been many temporary emergency department closures since the pandemic began, most lasting for a few days or less. Twenty-two months in, Hardisty's closure is by far the longest.

Staffing issues have kept the doors shut as resources are focused on the local long-term care facility.


© Trevor Wilson/CBCMarg Shott is fed up with the emergency department's long closure.

"It just made me angry, like we got so much here that needs that emergency department," said Shott, who sent a letter to government officials and the media after her close call.

"We got all the oilfield, we got farming, we got people that need that so bad."

Alberta Legislatures grounds flooded with people supporting Ottawa trucker convoy

Hardisty, Alta., has a population of around 500 people. It's a key point on Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline and home to a sprawling tank farm that stores millions of barrels of crude oil.

Fay Bronson, president of the Hardisty Social Club, said the emergency closure impacts everyone in the town and the surrounding community.


© Trevor Wilson/CBCFay Bronson says the closure has caused anxiety for local seniors.

Seniors are especially vulnerable, she said.

"Five days a week they meet here for coffee," Bronson said outside the town drop-in centre, just across from the Parkland Manor for seniors.

"And I keep thinking I sure hope nobody has a stroke or anybody has a fall or anything like this."

Bronson said she feels her rural community is being neglected. She wants the emergency department restored and she wants the government to offer nurses full-time positions.
Recruitment challenges

Mayor Wayne Jackson, elected this fall, said the ER is the number one issue for town council and an important part of attracting business and residents.

"We don't want to lose that ER forever," he said. "Losing that ER is a town killer, especially in rural Alberta."

Jackson said the town is working with AHS to find ways to attract staff, like offering affordable housing or advertising the town's amenities.

Last week, eight nursing positions for the health centre were posted online, one for full-time work.

Spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email AHS has over the past several months extended advertising for positions, worked with talent acquisition teams to expand recruitment, and increased the availability of permanent part-time and full-time roles.

"Recruitment challenges are not unique to Hardisty, but we have not – and will not – cease in our efforts to resolve them," Williamson said.

AHS is also working with partners like the Rural Health Professions Action Plan to explore other recruitment or collaboration opportunities, he said. Work to secure contracted agency staff is also underway but demand is high across the province.

Jackson said AHS seems to be doing the best they can, adding that the town has heard assurances there is no plan to close the ER permanently.

Alberta could see fewer teachers come next fall

A new survey suggests the number of Alberta teachers planning to leave the profession for another job next year has more than doubled.

A summary of a pandemic pulse survey from the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) conducted at the end of November suggests more than 37 per cent of respondents reported they probably won’t be teaching in Alberta next year.

Compared to an annual member opinion survey done last March, the number of teachers planning to retire was similar, at 16 per cent. Still, the percentage who said they are leaving for another job has doubled, increasing to 14 per cent. Seven per cent said they plan to go to a different province to teach elsewhere.

In an interview Tuesday, ATA President Jason Schilling said the numbers reflect what he’s already heard from teachers, some of whom plan to retire early because they are being asked to do more with the bare minimum, which is, “stretching everything.”

“They feel like this government doesn’t care about them, and they feel like this government doesn’t support the work that they’re doing in the middle of a pandemic,” said Schilling, adding the percentage of teachers who continue to feel high levels of exhaustion, stress, and anxiety after two years of the pandemic is worrisome.

Ninety-two per cent of respondents reported exhaustion, while 88 per cent reported high stress. The ATA said its survey provides a representative sample of more than 1,300 teachers and school leaders, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent 19 times out of 20.

Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, questioned the validity of the survey’s findings in a statement Tuesday, Jan 25, 2022, noting it represents only 2.8 per cent of the province’s 46,000 teachers. However, she said the ministry recognizes the past two years of the pandemic have been challenging.

“We continue to explore options to attract and retain teachers and teacher leaders to Alberta schools and look forward to sharing more information when it is available,” said Stavropoulos.

At a news conference Tuesday, Jan 25, NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman blamed the survey results on the UCP government’s refusal to give schools the resources they need.

Sue Bell, a recently retired Edmonton principal and teacher who worked in schools for almost 30 years, said she felt forced to leave the job to preserve her own physical and mental health at the NDP news conference.

“The breaking point began last year around September 20 or so when we had to take on the job of contact tracing at schools because, from that point on, I did not have a day off until we went online in December. I was on call 24 hours a day — no switching off, no downtime,” said Bell.

Jaxon McGinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Sunny South News

SCOTLAND

Face masks in high schools: Nicola Sturgeon warned by EIS

By John-Paul Holden

10th February

High school pupils will be able to take off their masks in classrooms at the end of the month.

Union bosses have warned that the relaxation of Covid-related face mask requirements in high schools is happening too quickly.

The change, announced on Thursday by Nicola Sturgeon, means pupils and teachers will no longer need to wear coverings in secondary classrooms from the end of this month.

It will come into effect from February 28, when all schools have returned following the half-term break. The First Minister has described the move as a "further step in allowing children and young people a return to a more normal experience in school after many, many months of sacrifice".

But leaders at the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, said current requirements should be retained throughout the winter period and until the end of March.

Face coverings will still be needed in other communal, indoor areas within high schools. However, Ms Sturgeon stressed this would be kept under "regular review".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already announced that the last domestic restrictions in England - including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive - will likely be lifted later this month, "a full month early".

The First Minister said the requirement for face coverings in classrooms was being relaxed following the latest advice from an expert group, which considered the matter on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Classroom 'door chopping' - 'No mention' in Covid guidance

Ms Sturgeon, who announced the change at the start of First Minister's Questions at Holyrood, said the move would "reduce barriers to communication in the classroom and reduce any wellbeing impacts which arise from the use of face coverings". She added that it had been made possible by "reducing case rates" for coronavirus in secondary school-aged children, as well as the decrease in hospital admission rates among all ages.

However, EIS leaders have expressed concern. Larry Flanagan, general secretary, said: “The majority of EIS members supported the retention of face coverings until we were through the winter period so we would have preferred the end of March rather than the end of February for this change to happen.

“Having said that, it is important that both pupils and staff have the right to continue to wear face coverings if they wish and, in some cases, where there is a heightened vulnerability in play, face coverings may still be required.”

Mr Flanagan added: “There has been a slight drop in infection levels within schools but they remain high – over 4,000 staff are off school for Covid related reasons and more than 20,000 pupils.

“Enforcing the remaining mitigations, therefore, around ventilation and face coverings in communal areas, remains critical to school safety.”

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan has concerns.

Parent campaigners said they were strongly supportive of the change. Jo Bisset, organiser for UFTScotland, said: “Although it’s taken far too long to get to this position, parents will none-the-less be relieved at the news.

“It’s important we use this milestone to commit never to force children to wear masks in class again. The impact on them was notable, and severe for those with learning disabilities and other disadvantages.

“Children and parents alike will hope this is the beginning of the end of the misery they’ve endured for the past two years.

"It's been a long road, but parents who have fought so hard and so long for this decision should pat themselves on the back."

READ MORE: Tutoring for pupils 'non-existent'

Stand By Me Scotland co-organiser Ruth Harley, who is also a teacher, said: “While we of course welcome today’s announcement, we are also angry that it took so long for this day to come.

"We also intend to keep raising funds until the days of masks in schools are completely over. Masks have no place in our schools, and must never, ever return."

She added: “Over the past 16 months, face masks in schools have disadvantaged young people with hearing difficulties and learning support needs such as autism, and made school life uncomfortable and unpleasant for thousands of children.

"Parents of these children won’t forgive the First Minister for this, and voters will remember what she has done when it comes to the local elections in May.”

Covid: Pressure on schools higher than ever, union says

South Gloucestershire branch secretary Lee Everson said pressure on schools was now higher than ever

Covid pressure on schools is higher than ever due to staff and pupil absences, a teaching union has said.

The National Education Union said the situation was now at its worst and every school was "walking a tightrope".

He said while there had been no full closures, year groups were being sent home due to staff shortages.

"It feels like the pressure is higher than it's ever been," South Gloucestershire secretary Lee Everson said.

He said that no headteacher wants to be in a position where they need to shut a school, but staffing capacities were being stretched, with not enough staff on site to supervise pupils.

"The idea that things are getting back to normal has simply not happened. It's at its worst in schools currently," Mr Everson said.

"We need to understand the pandemic has become concentrated around schools, because of the nature of the buildings, the nature of the environment and where the young people are at in terms of their stage in the vaccination process."


Bradley Stoke Community School headteacher Steve Moir said he never knows how many staff will be available each day

Schools across the West Country said they were facing significant disruption, with e-learning and learning from home being used to cope with staff absences.

Bradley Stoke Community School headteacher Steve Moir said they always have remote learning plans on stand by.

He said: "One of the main challenges is that we don't know how many staff are going to be in or out every single day, so we have to plan for the worst case scenario.

"We have got approximately 80 staff. Some of those are part-time and we've had almost 20 staff off on some occasions."

Pupils at the South Gloucestershire school said the situation was "frustrating" and they have missed one-to-one support from being in the classroom.

Isobel said: "I find it quite frustrating because I'm missing out on learning and then when I come back into school I've missed out on a huge chunk of what we're working on."