#Joint Committee on Education

[slyandthefamilybook]

since we now know that all those "my blog is safe for Jewish people" posts are bullshit, here are some Jewish organizations you can donate to if you actually want to prove you support Jews. put up or shut up

FIGHTING HUNGER

Masbia - Kosher soup kitchens in New York

MAZON - Practices and promotes a multifaceted approach to hunger relief, recognizing the importance of responding to hungry peoples' immediate need for nutrition and sustenance while also working to advance long-term solutions

Tomchei Shabbos - Provides food and other supplies so that poor Jews can celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays

FINANCIAL AID

Ahavas Yisrael - Providing aid for low-income Jews in Baltimore

Hebrew Free Loan Society - Provides interest-free loans to low-income Jews in New York and more

GLOBAL AID

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - Offers aid to Jewish populations in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Middle East through a network of social and community assistance programs. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities

American Jewish World Service - Fighting poverty and advancing human rights around the world

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Providing aid to immigrants and refugees around the world

Jewish World Watch - Dedicated to fighting genocides around the world

MEDICAL AID

Sharsheret - Support for cancer patients, especially breast cancer

SOCIAL SERVICES

The Aleph Institute - Provides support and supplies for Jews in prison and their families, and helps Jewish convicts reintegrate into society

Bet Tzedek - Free legal services in LA

Bikur Cholim - Providing support including kosher food for Jews who have been hospitalized in the US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Israel

Blue Card Fund - Critical aid for holocaust survivors

Chai Lifeline - An org that's very close to my heart. They help families with members with disabilities in Baltimore

Chana - Support network for Jews in Baltimore facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, and elder abuse

Community Alliance for Jewish-Affiliated Cemetaries - Care of abandoned and at-risk Jewish cemetaries

Crown Heights Central Jewish Community Council - Provides services to community residents including assistance to the elderly, housing, employment and job training, youth services, and a food bank

Hands On Tzedakah - Supports essential safety-net programs addressing hunger, poverty, health care and disaster relief, as well as scholarship support to students in need

Hebrew Free Burial Association

Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services - Programs include early childhood and learning, children and adolescent services, mental health outpatient clinics for teenagers, people living with developmental disabilities, adults living with mental illness, domestic violence and preventive services, housing, Jewish community services, counseling, volunteering, and professional and leadership development

Jewish Caring Network - Providing aid for families facing serious illnesses

Jewish Family Service - Food security, housing stability, mental health counseling, aging care, employment support, refugee resettlement, chaplaincy, and disability services

Jewish Relief Agency - Serving low-income families in Philadelphia

Jewish Social Services Agency - Supporting people’s mental health, helping people with disabilities find meaningful jobs, caring for older adults so they can safely age at home, and offering dignity and comfort to hospice patients

Jewish Women's Foundation Metropolitan Chicago - Aiding Jewish women in Chicago

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty - Crisis intervention and family violence services, housing development funds, food programs, career services, and home services

Misaskim - Jewish death and burial services

Our Place - Mentoring troubled Jewish adolescents and to bring awareness of substance abuse to teens and children

Tiferes Golda - Special education for Jewish girls in Baltimore

Yachad - Support for Jews with disabilities

[malak999]

🔗link👇

https://gofund.me/b96b4647

• Who are we?

Jabalia Rehabilitation Society is a Palestinian non-governmental community organization that does not seek to achieve material profit, but rather seeks to achieve social justice among members of the same community and to defend persons with disabilities as the main beneficiaries of the society. It was established in the northern Gaza Strip governorate in Jabalia camp on August 1, 1991 with voluntary efforts and financial and in-kind assistance from UNRWA in Gaza - Disability Program. The society is the first community rehabilitation center established in partnership with UNRWA in Gaza. It is registered with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior and holds registration certificate number 4010. Jabalia Society is a member of (the Network of Civil Society Organizations, the Coordination Committee for Community Rehabilitation Centers, the Gathering of Rehabilitation Institutions in Northern Gaza), and it is also a member of (the Network of Arab Organizations) at the regional level.

The association’s main headquarters contains three main buildings:

1- The association’s administration building, which includes the secretariat and reception, the association’s director’s office, the audiology and speech clinics, the project management department, the accounting department and the association’s executive management, and the community activities department.

2- Jabalia Joint School for the Education of the Deaf building, which provides educational services to more than 90 male and female students with hearing disabilities, distributed over three different age groups (kindergarten - primary stage - preparatory stage).

The association provides its services and activities to more than 40,000 beneficiaries annually from the North Gaza Strip Governorate, through its staff of about 80 employees, including (46) permanent basic employees, and the rest are distributed between temporary contracts and volunteers. Employees with disabilities constitute about 20% of the total number of employees in the association.

The activities and services of Jabalia Rehabilitation Association revolve around (7) basic programs,

1- Audiology Program,

2- Speech and Language

3- Community Rehabilitation

4- Capacity Building

5- Teaching children with hearing impairment

6- Physiotherapy.

7- Relief Aid.

• Why do we collect donations?

Jabalia Rehabilitation Society is the only institution in the northern Gaza Strip that provides services to a large group of people with disabilities, especially those with hearing disabilities. It is considered a center for health, psychological and educational support in Jabalia camp that is no less important than government institutions. It is considered one of the contributing and supporting institutions alongside the government health and educational centers in the camp and shares the burden and community services with those centers.

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7, the institution has been a center for sheltering thousands of displaced civilians, especially those with disabilities and their families who benefit from the institution's services. However, after the Israeli occupation forces entered Jabalia camp for the second time in the war on May 12, they destroyed and burned all the buildings and facilities of the association after it had been a shelter for thousands of displaced people.

• Al Jazeera report on the institution during the war:

So, on behalf of the disabled and the beneficiaries of the Foundation’s services, I address you through this platform to convey their voice to you. They need your support and assistance in rebuilding and restoring the Foundation so that it can reopen its doors to carry out its societal mission by providing services to those in need and contributing to alleviating the suffering of displaced families, especially those with disabilities, and to be a safe haven for them during this war.

• How will these donations be used?

These donations will be collected to restore and rebuild the Association's buildings and facilities destroyed by the war and equip them with the necessary tools and equipment, which is estimated to cost approximately $300,000.

1- The cost of restoring and rebuilding the three buildings of the organization is estimated at $255,000, meaning that the cost of rebuilding and renovating each of the three buildings is estimated at $85,000 (3 x $85,000 = $255,000)

2- The cost of restoring and rebuilding the Association's external facilities is estimated at $45,000.

In the first phase, the building that includes clinics and service offices for citizens will be equipped to ensure the continuation of providing services to those who deserve them during and after the war.

In the second phase, if the appropriate conditions are available during the war to continue the restoration and reconstruction, the remaining buildings will be equipped, but if it is not possible to continue in the second phase, it will be postponed until after the war.

• How does your donation and support make a difference?

Your support and donation to them is a noble humanitarian purpose that supports and enhances the resilience of civilians during this war and after the war. This contribution that you will provide, even if it is small, will make a big difference in the lives of these displaced families and families benefiting from the Foundation's services in the North Gaza Governorate.

Please help them restore and rebuild their institution and create a safe environment that will provide them with a bright future so that they can live in dignity, security and peace and start again to achieve their ambitions and dreams .

Association social media links:

https://www.instagram.com/jabrs2022?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3D

Association website

🔗Donation Link🔻

https://gofund.me/b96b4647

Help people with disabilities in Gaza 🚨💔

We are in cooperation with

@palestine2000 @nour1132

[politijohn]

Anti-Trans Legislation: Feb 25-Mar 3 in Review

The following bills were introduced:

Two schooling bills, Florida S1320 and H1223, were pre-filed.

Georgia HB653, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced. 

Iowa HSB208, a school-based bathroom bill, was introduced and passed in its subcommittee. 

Iowa HB482, a school-based bathroom bill, was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Iowa HSB214, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced and had a House subcommittee hearing.

Iowa SSB1197, an under-18 healthcare ban, was introduced and had a subcommittee meeting.

Iowa HJR8 was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. This is a joint resolution attacking marriage.

Iowa HSB222, a schooling/parental rights bill, was introduced and referred to the House Education Committee yesterday.

Maine LD930, a sports ban bill that specifically targets trans girls, was introduced and referred to the Joint Judiciary Committee.

Missouri HB1332, a tax bill that would punish institutions for providing gender-affirming healthcare, was introduced and read.

Missouri HB1364, a drag ban bill, was introduced and read for a second time.

Ohio HB68, a "SAFE" act, was introduced and referred to the House Public Health Policy Committee.

Texas HB2862 and HB3147 were filed. These prison bills would prohibit incarcerated trans and gender diverse folks from being housed in facilities consistent with their gender identity.

The following bills progressed:

Bathroom bills: (A bathroom bill denies access to public restrooms by gender or trans identity. They increase danger without making anyone any safer and have even prompted attacks on cis and trans people alike. Many national health and anti-sexual assault organizations oppose these bills.)

Arizona SB1040, a school-based bathroom bill, passed in the Senate and crossed over to the House.

Arkansas SB270, which would make it “criminal indecency with a child” for trans folks to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, was re-referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Idaho SB1100, a school-based bathroom bill, had a second reading and was filed for a third reading.

Idaho S1016, which already passed in the Senate, had its first reading in the House and was scheduled for a second reading.

Iowa SF335, a school-based bathroom bill, passed committee and renumbered as SF482.

Heathcare bills: (Healthcare bills go against professional and scientific consensus that gender-affirming care saves lives. Denying access will cause harm. Providers are faced with criminal charges, parents are threatened with child abuse charges, and intersex children are typically exempted.)

Florida S0952, the “Reverse Woke Act,” was referred to the Senate Health Policy Committee.

Georgia SB140, an under-18 healthcare ban, had a second reading.

Indiana SB0480, an under-18 healthcare ban, passed in the Senate and crossed over to the House.

Kansas SB233, which already passed in the Senate, was referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee. This is also an under-18 healthcare ban.

Nebraska LB574, again an under-18 healthcare ban, was placed on general file, meaning it is now on the floor. 

Oklahoma SB129 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor. A reminder that this bill had an emergency added, so it would immediately go into effect if it passes.

Texas HB776, an abortion and under-18 healthcare ban, was referred to the House Public Health Committee. 

Utah HB0132 returned to committee yesterday after it failed in committee in January. This is also an under-18 bill.

Public performance bills: (also known as "drag bans" restrict access for folks who are gender non-conforming in any way. They loosely define "drag" as any public performance with an “opposite gender expression,” as sexual in nature, and inappropriate for children. This also pushes trans individuals out of public spaces.)

Arizona SB1698 passed in committee and is headed to the Senate.

Arkansas SB43 was signed by the Governor. This is the drag ban bill that was largely amended to only cover public nudity.

Montana HB359, which already passed in the House, had its first reading in the Senate.

Oklahoma SB503, an obscenity bill, passed in committee.

South Dakota HB1116 an "obscenity bill" that prohibits "lewd or lascivious content," which already passed in the House, passed in committee.

Tennessee SB0841 had its action deferred until 3/14.

Texas HB708 was referred to the House State Affairs Committee.

Schooling bills: (Schooling, or so called “parental rights” bills force schools to misgender or deadname students, ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and make schools alert parents if they suspect a child is trans. They remove life-saving affirmation and support for trans youth.)

Arizona SB1001 passed in the Senate and was transmitted to the House.

Arkansas SB294 is headed to its final vote in the House.

Florida H1069 was sent to another education subcommittee in the House.

Indiana HB1608 passed in the House and crossed over to the Senate where its first reading is scheduled for Monday.

Iowa HSB222 passed in its subcommittee.

Missouri HB1258 had a second reading.

Oklahoma SB503 passed in committee this morning and is headed to the Senate floor.

Tennessee HB1269 was referred to the House Finance, Ways, & Means Committee.

Utah SB0283, an anti-DEI bill for higher education, passed in its Senate Revenue and Taxation Hearing and is now headed to its second committee.

Sex designation bills: (Sex designation bills make it harder for trans folks to have IDs, such as birth certificates, that match their gender identity. They can force a male or female designation based upon sex assigned at birth. Some ban a non-binary “X” marker or require surgery to qualify for ID updates.)

Montana SB458,passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Tennessee SB1440 passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

Sports ban bills: (Most sports bills force schools to designate teams by sex assigned at birth. They are often one-sided and ban trans girls from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Some egregious bills even force invasive genital examinations on student athletes.)

Arkansas HB1156 was re-referred to the Senate Education Committee. 

Florida H0999 was sent to another education subcommittee. 

Wyoming SF0133, which already passed in the House, passed in the Senate and will now head to the Governor for signature.

Other anti-trans bills:

Kentucky HB470 passed in committee. This bill defies our categorization system; it's a healthcare bill, but also functions as a bathroom, sports, name change, and a sex designation bill; it packages anything attacking trans youth. A live-tweet of the hearing is here, as can the many Kentucky residents who testified against it.

West Virginia HB3042, a “religious freedom” bill, passed in the Senate and is headed to the Governor for signature. 

Texas SB559, a “religious freedom” bill, passed in committee and will head to the Senate floor.

[nigrit]

This might be a bit controversial but I’m just going to leave it here for discussion. Of all the amazing women from the Enlightenment / Frev, the Olympic Committee chose her (wherefore the proto-republican philosopher, Sophie de Grouchy or scientific pedagogue and philosopher, Emilie de Chatelet?! @enlitment). Or perhaps the dashing de Merincourt, industrious de Kéralio, ambitious Roland, activist Etta Palm d’Aelders, or (Romantic) intellectual, de Stael?

Then they bigged her up beyond parody, describing her as a femme politique (non! No known participation in any clubs or salons) and a campaigner for women’s rights (non again; here de Grouchy would be closer to the mark with her joint pamphlet with Condorcet, Cité des femmes etc.) De Gouges’ main output was plays rather than politics.

Yes, she wrote the witty rejoinder to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, but it was one of many pamphlets she self-published, and sandwiched between a dedication to the Queen and a complaint about being ripped off by a cabby driver.

she promoted the right to divorce (as did some men), rights for bastard children, a maternity hospital and novel proposals for raising public funds. other pamphlets were complaints about being ignored, suggestions for improving public morals (society women as culpable as ‘public’ women (ie prostitutes)), and attacks on the radicalism represented by Marat, the Jacobins and/or Robespierre.

As far as I know, she did not protest against the active/passive citizen distinction.

When the Amis des Noirs pressure group started to gain traction and social acceptance (Condorcet, Brissot and Lafayette were leading members), she rewrote her play on the Esclavage des Negres in 1788 to make it more political, with a preface urging recognition for the rights of ‘hommes Negres’, suggesting they would be happy to continue working the fields as free men. The main reason it wasn’t performed was not its subject matter but because she had previously tried to pull (social) rank on the Comédie-francaise to get her plays to the front of the queue, and had a massive bust-up with its director.

Don’t get me wrong, she was often a delightful and witty writer but also markedly eccentric and very much her own woman in a world of her own. Other women played far more prominent roles in trying to secure real change and better opportunities.

Probably the single greatest manifesto for improvements in women’s condition (but not the vote, or at least not yet), imho was Mary Wollstonecraft’s powerful appeal for equality in education (and to stop treating women like vain, simpering idiots defined by nature’s gifts - I’m looking at you JJ!). Talleyrand and the NA had proposed universal education only up to nine for girls.

PS she was also made a poster ‘girl’ for the Front Populaire with the slogan, ‘Gouges-toi’ (Bouge-toi), Which is actually pretty good!

PPS as for those headless Marie-Antoinettes in red, singing about Liberté along the Conciergerie, wow, just wow!

[eretzyisrael]

Brown University students call for divestment from their pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus' Main Green in Providence, Rhode Island, April 24, 2024. (Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brown University rejects pro-Palestinian protesters’ demand to divest from Israel

BY ANDREW LAPIN OCTOBER 9, 2024 5:16 PM

Brown University’s board of governors has rejected a closely scrutinized, student-led proposal to divest from companies with business in Israel.

The rejection allays concerns expressed by some pro-Israel groups that the divestment movement was gaining momentum after the pro-Palestinian student encampments at universities across the country last spring.

“Baruch Hashem,” Rabbi Josh Bolton, executive director of Brown/RISD Hillel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, using a Hebrew term akin to “Thank God.”

Bolton said the vote “is a definitive and powerful rejection of divestment on every level.” Coming so soon after the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel was also significant, he said: “After a year of insanity, antisemitic sloganeering, maligning of Jewish students, this is a day that we can be proud of our institutions.”

The vote was in the works and debated for months before taking place on Tuesday, months before it was expected, by secret ballot. The Brown Corporation agreed with an internal committee that had voted 8-2, with one abstention, to recommend rejecting divestment.

“The Corporation reaffirmed that Brown’s mission is to discover, communicate and preserve knowledge. It is not to adjudicate or resolve global conflicts,” the board wrote in a lengthy statement Wednesday explaining its vote. 

The Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island was among the first this past spring to agree to hold a vote on divestment in exchange for a peaceful end to its student encampment. The encampments often pushed for divestment, while Jewish students reported being antagonized by the pro-Palestinian activists. Protesters at Brown were motivated by, among other factors, a Palestinian student who was shot in Vermont in November in an apparent hate crime.

After dismantling their encampment, Brown student activist leaders were permitted to make their formal case for divestment to the board; similar deals were also struck at Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota and elsewhere. An internal committee then considered the case but kept its report private until Wednesday, after the formal vote was announced. Leading up to the vote, Brown would only confirm that it was scheduled for October but provided no other details on timing.

Among its chief rationales for rejecting divestment, the committee determined that Brown was not heavily nor directly invested in the 10 companies included in the proposal “and that any indirect exposure for Brown in these companies is so small that it could not be directly responsible for social harm.” Those 10 companies included Boeing, General Electric, Motorola, Volvo and Northrop Grumman, all of which the divestment proposal said “facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”

The school’s leadership declared it was satisfied with the process and the results of the divestment vote.

“Brown’s mission doesn’t encompass influencing or adjudicating global conflict,” Christina Paxson, the school’s Jewish president, and chancellor Brian Moynihan said in a joint statement shared with the school, alumni and press. “Our greatest contribution to the cause of peace for which so many members of the community have advocated is to continue to educate future leaders and produce scholarship that informs and supports their work. A decision to divest would greatly jeopardize our ability to continue to make this contribution.” 

Paxson and Moynihan continued, “If the Corporation were to divest, it would signal to our students and scholars that there are ‘approved’ points of view to which members of the community are expected to conform. This would be wholly inconsistent with the principles of academic freedom and free inquiry, and would undermine our mission of serving the community, the nation and the world.”

Some Jews had been angry that the vote was happening at all. One Jewish member of the Brown Corporation resigned in protest over it, saying the school had capitulated to extremists. He was rebuked by Paxson, who has long argued that the vote was happening in accordance with Brown’s usual procedures for considering divestment-related proposals. 

At least 100 Brown faculty members publicly supported divestment, while the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have ardently argued against college Israel divestments in general. Dozens of Republican state attorneys general had warned Brown that any move toward divestment could result in pushback from their states.

The Rhode Island chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which had advocated for divestment alongside other pro-Palestinian groups, did not immediately return a request for comment. The Brown Divest Coalition, together with the national Students for Justice in Palestine movement, posted a profane message on Instagram directed at the Corporation and Paxson, concluding with “Free Palestine” and, in all caps, “All settler colonial institutions will fail.”

Paxson and Moynihan concluded their communication on the vote with a plea that the university community maintain civility even in disagreement.

“Whether you support, oppose or have no opinion on the decision of the Corporation, we hope you will do so with a commitment to sustaining, nurturing and strengthening the principles that have long been at the core of our teaching and learning community,” they said.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Russ Vought, a frequent guest on right-wing media shows and key figure in Project 2025, a broad effort to staff a future Republican administration, will have a top role in drafting the platform for the GOP's convention this July, virtually ensuring the document will be a wishlist of MAGA priorities. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign made the joint announcement on May 15, highlighting Vought’s new role “as the committee's policy director” for the RNC’s 2024 Committee on the Platform and noting his previous tenure as director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump. In that position, Vought oversaw the administration’s attempts to remove supposed “critical race theory trainings” from federal programs and sought to coordinate the White House’s directives across the executive branch more broadly. 

[...]

After Trump’s loss in 2020, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, where he has consistently pushed a Christian nationalist agenda. He has called for an “army” of right-wing activists with “biblical worldview” to serve in the next Republican administration, and wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in 2021 with the headline: “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With 'Christian Nationalism?' As Politico reported, “One ​​document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. ‘Christian nationalism’ is one of the bullet points.” 

The Center for Renewing America has emerged as a key player in the MAGA-aligned think tank world. It’s one of the more than 100 conservative groups that make up Project 2025, an effort organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide staffing and policy proposals to a future GOP presidency. Vought plays a central role in the effort, including as the author of a chapter in Project 2025’s guiding document, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, in which he argued that the “enormous power” of the executive branch should be exclusively the purview of the president rather than dispersed within agencies and departments.

Though that argument may sound anodyne, Vought’s vision has radical implications. First and foremost, Vought advocates for implementing a policy known as “Schedule F,” which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as political appointees — thus stripping them of union protections. If Trump is reelected in November and chooses to go forward with Schedule F, he could fire career civil servants from agencies and departments en masse and replace them hardcore MAGA foot soldiers, potentially decimating the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, and other frequent right-wing targets. “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought has said, according to The New York Times.

Center For Renewing America founder and key Project 2025 influencer Russ Vought was appointed to the RNC's Platform Committee for the upcoming convention in Milwaukee this July. #RNC2024

[gacha-incels]

"Overflowing 'OO University Rooms,' What is the Ministry of Education Doing?… 'Universities are a Platform for Deepfake Sex Crimes"

Call for Comprehensive Sex Education and Victim Protection Measures

Deepfake Sex Crimes Confirmed at Over 70 Universities Nationwide Students Demand a Full Investigation into On-Campus Deepfake Sex Crimes

published oct 18 2024

this article is originally in Korean and has been mtl and edited into English here. it’s not going to be 1:1 but the basic info should be there, if you see any discrepancies though lmk and I’ll edit it asap. thanks everyone for your continued help and understanding.

On the morning of the 18th, at Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, Seoul, a press conference organized by the "Deepfake Sex Crime OUT University Student Joint Action" was held. Participants called on the Ministry of Education to establish prevention and response systems for deepfake sex crimes on university campuses. Holding signs and banners, they urged for action despite the rainy weather.

Since the discovery of a deepfake sex crime incident at Seoul National University in May, the existence of "OO University Rooms" at over 70 universities nationwide has made the issue a hot topic in society. University students gathered to criticize the pervasive rape culture in Korean society and demanded that the Ministry of Education and university authorities take measures against deepfake sex crimes.

"Conduct a Survey of Victims of Deepfake Crimes at Each University" "Strengthen Support for Comprehensive Sex Education"

Despite the rainy weather, about 30 students gathered at Gwanghwamun Square on the morning of the 18th to voice their concerns towards the Ministry of Education and university authorities.

Kang Na-yeon, an operational committee member of the Seoul Women's Association's Feminist Student Union Club, stated, "Universities are one of the platforms where deepfake sex crimes occur," and emphasized, "Students at these universities have become content that perpetrators of deepfake sex crimes enjoy simply because they attend these schools."

An image from the "Deepfake Map" showed the locations of schools where illegal synthetic materials (deepfakes) were found, marked with red arrows.

She continued, "Students have turned around to sign petitions when they heard the term 'deepfake' while walking down the street," and added, "Young university students know well how deepfake sex crimes shake the foundation of trust in society, and how bleak the present and future are in a society that does not view those around them as equal fellow citizens."

The "Deepfake Sex Crime OUT University Student Joint Action," the group hosting the event, had previously gathered signatures from 1,108 young university students condemning the Ministry of Education for neglecting deepfake sex crimes.

There was also criticism that deepfake sexual exploitation stems from the entrenched rape culture in Korean society. A member of the feminist editorial committee at Korea University, identified as A, pointed out, "Digital sex crimes have flourished for nearly 30 years, nurtured by a culture of rape and fueled by indifference."

She noted, "In the 1990s, there were youth exploitation videos, in the 2000s, websites like Soranet, in the 2010s, incidents of harassment in group chat rooms and the Burning Sun scandal, in the 2020s, the Nth room sex crime involving webhard cartels, and in 2024, deepfake sex crimes that have claimed the lives of many women."

At the press conference held on the morning of the 18th at Gwanghwamun Square, participants held signs and banners urging the Ministry of Education to establish prevention and response measures for deepfake sex crimes on university campuses.

Lee Mi-geon, head of the Mirror Regional University Human Rights Union Club, said, "Universities are establishing advanced technology departments such as artificial intelligence and semiconductor departments or including coding as a required general education course for non-science and engineering students," criticizing, "There is technological innovation, but no ethical responsibility."

She further called for the Ministry of Education to "establish measures for protecting and supporting victims on campus and conduct investigations on victims and a comprehensive survey of deepfake sex crimes at universities."

Since the "Nth Room Sexual Exploitation Case" in 2019, the government has made it legally mandatory for university staff and students to receive sexual violence prevention education, but only about half have actually completed the training. According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the completion rates for university students were 49.7% in 2019, 46.5% in 2020, 53% in 2021, and 55.1% in 2022, barely exceeding half.

In a performance that followed, participants revealed the harsh realities of universities, including the irresponsibility of the Ministry of Education, inadequate gender equality education systems, and depoliticization. They expressed their determination to hold the Ministry accountable and to create a gender-equal and safe university campus despite the gender-based violence on campuses.

They urged the Ministry of Education to:

△Conduct a comprehensive survey of victims and deepfake sex crimes on campuses

△Establish measures to protect and support victims on university campuses

△Expand the budget and professional staff for university human rights centers

△Strengthen support for comprehensive sex education, and the group called on the Ministry to take responsibility for addressing the issue of deepfake sex crimes.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Bernie Sanders: America Must Confront Its Long COVID Crisis - Published Aug 15, 2024

As the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee), I have heard from Americans of all ages about their struggles with Long COVID and the challenges they face are absolutely heartbreaking.

In America today, far too many patients suffering from Long COVID have struggled to get their symptoms taken seriously. Far too many doctors and medical professionals have either dismissed or misdiagnosed those who have contracted Long COVID. Far too many people with Long COVID have found themselves stuck at home, unable to socialize, unable to work, unable to spend quality time with their families, unable to get out of bed and desperate for help.

That is unacceptable and that has got to change.

Long COVID is real. It is negatively impacting tens of millions of people throughout the United States and the world. We can no longer ignore it or sweep it under the rug.

Earlier this year, I chaired a hearing on the Long COVID crisis. It made me more determined than ever to address this ongoing public health emergency. This is what we heard:

A former athlete from Los Angeles told us that her chronic Long COVID symptoms of insomnia, brain fog, confusion, sleep apnea, heart palpitations, fever and severe migraines prevent her from socializing with friends and leaving her house on most days. Adding insult to injury, her initial symptoms of blood clots, mini strokes, brain swelling, seizures, severe shortness of breath, and numbness in her face, hands, and legs were brushed off by her doctors as just a case of anxiety.

A human resources director at a community college in Southeastern Virginia told us that Long COVID forced her to leave the job she loved three years ago and that she continues to experience extreme fatigue, chronic pain, headaches, and dizziness. These debilitating symptoms have made it difficult for her to just get out of bed and she is no longer able to lead an active life with her children.

A mother in rural Virginia told us that before her 16-year old daughter came down with Long COVID she received straight A’s and was an active member of the school’s marching band. Today, she struggles with extreme fatigue, low blood pressure, an increased heart rate, severe joint pain, nausea, vomiting, a severe inability to concentrate, and depression. Her daughter is now isolated, struggles to do her schoolwork and is slowly working on her GED from home.

Sadly, they are not alone. In America today, nearly 18 million adults suffer from Long COVID. And, despite what you may have heard, Long COVID does not just impact adults and the elderly. It impacts people from all ages and all backgrounds. In fact, nearly 6 million children in our country have been affected by Long COVID.

Further, recent studies have found that only 8 percent of people who have Long COVID have been able to recover from this debilitating disease after 2 years.

What is deeply concerning to me is that Long COVID can affect anyone who has tested positive for COVID—from those who experienced mild symptoms to those who were severely ill. Furthermore, although you may not have Long COVID after your first COVID infection, each reinfection can substantially increase the risk of developing it.

This escalating danger, particularly for those who have suffered repeated infections, poses a severe threat to public health that demands our immediate and focused attention.

Let’s be clear. The impact of long COVID-19 is not just a health issue. It’s an economic one as well. It’s estimated that as many as 4 million Americans are out of work due to long COVID-19. The annual cost of those lost wages alone is about $170 billion a year.

In my view, the time has come to start treating the Long COVID crisis as the public health emergency that it is.

Read the rest of the article at either link!

[simshousewindsor]

By Cameron Dorly | Published by SNN

EASTON, Windenburg (SNN) - - The Supreme Court announced the retirement of The Lord Dathren of Allameda (President) today. Justices are required to retire on becoming 75 years old, or may be removed on the address of both Houses of Parliament; Lord Dathren's is the former, turning 75 on 4 November.

Educated at St Leo's School, Windenburg, Dathren read history at New College, Stafford, and obtained the degree of LLM (Master of Laws) from the University of Britechester Law School in 1977. He was called to the bar at Middle Simple in 1977 and elected a Bencher in 1981.

He was appointed King's Counsel in 1983, a deputy judge of the High Court from 1984 to 1985, and judge of the High Court of Justice (Chansimery Division) in 1987.

On 20 December 1988, it was announced that Dathren would replace the late Lord Murray of McBride as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He was sworn in on 6 February 1989.

He received his customary knighthood from King Edward II in February 1989.

Dathren was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in May 1993, succeeding Lord Muncen on his retirement. He was sworn into the new position on 6 June 1993.

On 24 July 1998, King George I declared his intention to appoint him President of the Supreme Court and to raise him to the peerage. He succeeded Baroness Jordan of Richland as President on 11 January 1999 on her retirement and on the same day was created a life peer as Baron Dathren of Allameda, of Sumter Park in the Easton Borough of Bromley. He was sworn in as president on 13 January and introduced to the House of Lords on 16 January 1999.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council voted on Tuesday evening to designate Baron Dathren “President Emeritus,” as the longtime Justice prepares to step away from the top brass of the courts. “Baron Dathren will go down as one of the greatest legislative leaders in Windenburg history,” said committee leader Hakeem Jennings.

When vacancies arise for Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, an independent selection commission is formed. It is composed of the President of the Supreme Court (the chair), another senior UK judge (not a Supreme Court Justice), and a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission of Windenburg and Brindleton Bay, and the Judicial Appointments Board for Windenburg. By law, at least one of these must be a non-lawyer. This was last done in 2022 when The Right Hon Lady Keisha Unders was appointed.

There is a similar but separate commission to appoint the next President of the Supreme Court, which is chaired by one of the non-lawyer members and features another Supreme Court Justice in the place of the President.

The President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court are appointed to those roles rather than being the most senior by tenure in office.

Dathren's retirement opened up the need for a new Justice, and President.

In a clearly pre-planned move, both commissions released joint statements signaling Dathren's retirement was not a surprise. The commission to appoint a new President selected Deputy President, Lady Ruth Allen Ginsburg, to fill the soon-to-be vacancy. They then selected Lord Arthur Roberts to be the next Deputy President. Both selections were approved by the Lord Chancellor, sent to the Prime Minister last week and, yesterday, approved by the Queen.

The Independent Selection Commission met over the past three weeks and selected Sir Lloyd Stephens to fill to upcoming Justice vacancy. They notified the Lord Chancellor of its choice who then approved the commission's selection. The Prime Minister recommend Stephens to the Queen for appointment last week, which was also approved yesterday.

Welcoming the announcement, current President of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon The Lord Charles Dathren of Allameda said:

"Although he arrives as I depart, I am delighted to welcome Lord Justice Stephens as a Justice to the Supreme Court. He will bring exceptional experience and ability to the Court following a distinguished career as a barrister and Judge. His experience in employment law, tax, public law and criminal law will be highly valuable to the Supreme Court and will further strengthen us as a Sims world-leading Court."

So, who is the (soon-to-be) new Associate Justice?

Sir Lloyd Stephens, styled The Hon. Mr Lloyd Stephens, is a judge of the High Court of Justice of the Courts of Windenburg and Brindleton Bay. He was counsel to the Leverton Inquiry.

He was educated at King's College School, a private fee paying school for boys in Brambledon in South West Easton. He won an Open Scholarship to New College, Stafford, where he obtained a first in jurisprudence.

Lloyd was called to the Bar at Middle Simple in 1985. From 1999 to 2001 he was one of the Junior Counsel to the Crown (Common Law). He was appointed King's Counsel in 2001. He was a recorder from 2002 to 2014 and was approved to sit as a deputy High Court judge.

He was counsel to the Leverton Inquiry into phone-hacking and media ethics, when he came to public attention due to televising and other reporting.

On 4 June 2017, he was appointed a High Court judge, receiving the customary knighthood in the 2017 Special Honors, and was assigned to the King's Bench Division.

In December 2020 he presided over a challenge made against the Government by Sims of the Earth that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) document issued July 2020 was unlawful because it should have been reviewed for its impacts on the simvironment.

Stephens will take up appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 9 December 2024, taking the judicial courtesy title of Lord Stephens.

New judges appointed to the Supreme Court after its creation do not necessarily receive peerages. Following a Royal Warrant dated 22 September 2008, all Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom not holding a peerage are entitled to the judicial courtesy title of Lord or Lady and retain this style for life.

The palace has not yet released a date as to when the new Justice will meet the Queen.

[scotianostra]

On August 1st 1967 Queen's College in Dundee became a fully fledged university in its own right and was renamed the University of Dundee.

The history of what would become Dundee University stretches back to 1881 when University College Dundee was founded. Its creation owed much to the wealth gathered in Dundee through the jute and textile industry. The prospect of establishing a university in Dundee had been under discussion since the 1860s. It was made a reality with a donation of £120,000 from Miss Mary Ann Baxter, of the hugely wealthy and influential Baxter family. Her cousin, John Boyd Baxter, the Procurator Fiscal for Dundee District of Forfarshire, was heavily involved in the discussions and also donated monies. As the main benefactor and co-founder, Miss Baxter had definite ideas about how she would like the college to run and took an active role in ensuring her wishes were fulfilled. The deed establishing University College stated that it should promote “the education of persons of both sexes and the study of Science, Literature and the Fine Arts”. As well as promoting the education of both sexes, Miss Baxter insisted it should not teach Divinity, and was adamant that those associated with the university did not have to reveal their religious leanings. Baxter’s role in establishing University College, Dundee was noted at the time by Scotland’s most notorious poet, who has always had an association with the city, William Topaz McGonagall who wrote: Good people of Dundee, your voices raise And to Miss Baxter give great praise; Rejoice and sing and dance with glee Because she has founded a College in Bonnie Dundee University College, Dundee became part of St Andrews University in 1897, under the provisions of the Universities Scotland Act of 1889. This union served to “give expression to local feeling that there should be a vital connection between the old and the new in academic affairs.” Initially, the two worked alongside each other in relative harmony. Dundee students were able to graduate in science from St Andrews, despite never having attended any classes in the smaller town. However, over time relations became strained, particularly over the issue of the Medical School and whether chairs of anatomy and physiology should be established in Dundee, St Andrews or both, setting the stage for the tensions that would place some strain on the relationship between the two institutions in the decades ahead. By the mid-1900s separation was being proposed. A 1954 Royal Commission led to University College being given more independence, being renamed Queen’s College, and taking over the Dundee School of Economics. In 1963, the Committee on Higher Education under the chairmanship of Lord Robbins recommended in its report to Parliament that ‘at least one, and perhaps two, of its proposed new university foundations should be in Scotland’. The government approved the creation of a university in Dundee, and in 1966, the University Court and the Council of Queen’s College submitted a joint petition to the Privy Council seeking the grant of a Royal Charter to establish Dundee University. This petition was approved and, in terms of the Charter, Queen’s College became Dundee University on this day in 1967. To mark the event and the University’s independence the people of Dundee witnessed an unusual event as hundreds of students filed up the Law dressed in red academic gowns. At the top they admired the stunning views – “an arresting vision in crimson” – before heading back down to the newly designated Dundee University. Fifty years on, and Dundee and St Andrews universities enjoy a warm relationship, very much in the spirit of friendly rivalry. Both are in the world’s top 200 universities and are among the top ranked in the UK for student experience. The combined strengths of Dundee and St Andrews have been recognised as an “intellectual gold coast” on Scotland’s east side. Other highlights in Dundee University’s history include the formal merger of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art with the university in 1994 and the Tayside College of Nursing and Fife College of Health Studies becoming part of the university from September 1, 1996.

And in December 2001 the university merged with the Dundee campus of Northern College to create the Faculty of Education and Social Work.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Thomas Fountain Blue

Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They were parents of two other children, Alice Blue and Charles Blue.

Blue enrolled in Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1885 and graduated in 1888. In 1894, he enrolled in Richmond Theological Seminary (now Virginia Union University) in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1898 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. One week later, when the United States declared war on Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba, touching off the Spanish-American War, Blue joined the Sixth Virginia Volunteers battalion comprising African American soldiers and was stationed first in Camp Poland in Tennessee and later at Camp Haskell in Georgia.

In 1905, Blue was selected to lead the Western Branch Library of the Louisville Free Public Library on South 10th and Chestnut Street, the first Carnegie Library in the nation to serve African American patrons with an exclusively African American staff. The facility cost $31,024.31 to build and when completed had over 4,000 books and 53 periodicals.

In 1914, Blue opened Louisville’s second Carnegie Library for African Americans, the Eastern Branch Library. During World War I, Blue was drafted, left the branch, and was appointed the Education Secretary at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, one of sixteen national Army training camps created across the nation. Blue worked with Black troops who mostly had supporting and laboring roles in the United States.

After the war ended in 1918, Blue returned to Louisville, and a year later, in 1919, he was named head of the “Colored Department” for the city’s public library system and supervised eight African American assistants. The Colored Department was the first in the United States to have a staff which served multiple Black library branches.

In 1922, Blue was a presenter at the American Library Association Conference in Detroit, Michigan, where he gave a paper titled, “Training Class at the Western Colored Branch,” and led the subsequent discussion with the Negro Roundtable composed of other African American Library staffers from across the nation.

On June 18, 1925, Blue married Cornelia Phillips Johnson from Columbia, Tennessee, and they parented two children, Thomas Fountain Blue, Jr., and Charles Blue (named after his younger brother). Two years later, in 1927, Blue founded the Negro Library Conference and conducted its first meeting at Hampton Institute.

Later becoming a minister, Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue—who held membership in the American Library Association, the Special Committee of Colored Ministers of Louisville on Matters Interracial, and was a charter member of the Louisville Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—died on November 10, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 69.

At the 2003 joint conference of the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Blue was posthumously honored when the organization passed a resolution recognizing his leadership in promoting professionalism among the staff of African American libraries across the United States. In 2022, a headstone honoring Blue and his wife, Cornelia Phillips Johnson, was placed at Eastern Cemetery in Louisville by the Frazier History Museum.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/thomas-fountain-blue-1866-1935/

[rainbowywitch]

Jabalia Rehabilitation Society is the only institution in the northern Gaza Strip that provides services to a large group of people with disabilities, especially those with hearing disabilities. It is considered a center for health, psychological and educational support in Jabalia camp that is no less important than government institutions. It is considered one of the contributing and supporting institutions alongside the government health and educational centers in the camp and shares the burden and community services with those centers.

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7, the institution has been a center for sheltering thousands of displaced civilians, especially those with disabilities and their families who benefit from the institution's services. However, after the Israeli occupation forces entered Jabalia camp for the second time in the war on May 12, they destroyed and burned all the buildings and facilities of the association after it had been a shelter for thousands of displaced people. https://gofund.me/6f974a1b

https://gofund.me/ea5370ab

Campaign to rebuild hope for people with disabilities by rebuilding and restoring their institution in the northern Gaza Strip :

Who are we? Jabalia Rehabilitation Society is a Palestinian non-governmental community organization that does not seek to achieve material profit, but rather seeks to achieve social justice among members of the same community and to defend persons with disabilities as the main beneficiaries of the society. It was established in the northern Gaza Strip governorate in Jabalia camp on August 1, 1991 with voluntary efforts and financial and in-kind assistance from UNRWA in Gaza - Disability Program. The society is the first community rehabilitation center established in partnership with UNRWA in Gaza. It is registered with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior and holds registration certificate number 4010. Jabalia Society is a member of (the Network of Civil Society Organizations, the Coordination Committee for Community Rehabilitation Centers, the Gathering of Rehabilitation Institutions in Northern Gaza), and it is also a member of (the Network of Arab Organizations) at the regional level. The association’s main headquarters contains three main buildings: 1- The association’s administration building, which includes the secretariat and reception, the association’s director’s office, the audiology and speech clinics, the project management department, the accounting department and the association’s executive management, and the community activities department. 2- Jabalia Joint School for the Education of the Deaf building, which provides educational services to more than 90 male and female students with hearing disabilities, distributed over three different age groups (kindergarten - primary stage - preparatory stage). 3- The third building includes the institution’s warehouses, the theater, and a number of offices. 4- External facilities, consisting of a sports field, a sandy yard, a green garden, a cafeteria, and a beneficiaries’ lounge. The association provides its services and activities to more than 40,000 beneficiaries annually from the North Gaza Strip Governorate, through its staff of about 80 employees, including (46) permanent basic employees, and the rest are distributed between temporary contracts and volunteers. Employees with disabilities constitute about 20% of the total number of employees in the association. The activities and services of Jabalia Rehabilitation Association revolve around (7) basic programs, 1- Audiology Program, 2- Speech and Language 3- Community Rehabilitation 4- Capacity Building 5- Teaching children with hearing impairment 6- Physiotherapy. 7- Relief Aid.

Why do we collect donations? Jabalia Rehabilitation Society is the only institution in the northern Gaza Strip that provides services to a large group of people with disabilities, especially those with hearing disabilities. It is considered a center for health, psychological and educational support in Jabalia camp that is no less important than government institutions. It is considered one of the contributing and supporting institutions alongside the government health and educational centers in the camp and shares the burden and community services with those centers. Since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7, the institution has been a center for sheltering thousands of displaced civilians, especially those with disabilities and their families who benefit from the institution's services. However, after the Israeli occupation forces entered Jabalia camp for the second time in the war on May 12, they destroyed and burned all the buildings and facilities of the association after it had been a shelter for thousands of displaced people.

So, on behalf of the disabled and the beneficiaries of the Foundation’s services, I address you through this platform to convey their voice to you. They need your support and assistance in rebuilding and restoring the Foundation so that it can reopen its doors to carry out its societal mission by providing services to those in need and contributing to alleviating the suffering of displaced families, especially those with disabilities, and to be a safe haven for them during this war.

How will these donations be used? These donations will be collected to restore and rebuild the Association's buildings and facilities destroyed by the war and equip them with the necessary tools and equipment, which is estimated to cost approximately $300,000. 1- The cost of rebuilding and renovating the three buildings of the institution is estimated at $255,000, meaning that each building is estimated to cost $85,000 to rebuild and renovate. ( 3 × $85,000 = $255,000 ) 2- The cost of restoring and rebuilding the Association's external facilities is estimated at $45,000. In the first phase, the building that includes clinics and service offices for citizens will be equipped to ensure the continuation of providing services to those who deserve them during and after the war. In the second phase, if the appropriate conditions are available during the war to continue the restoration and reconstruction, the remaining buildings will be equipped, but if it is not possible to continue in the second phase, it will be postponed until after the war.

How does your donation and support make a difference?

Your support and donation to them is a noble humanitarian purpose that supports and enhances the resilience of civilians during this war and after the war. This contribution that you will provide, even if it is small, will make a big difference in the lives of these displaced families and families benefiting from the Foundation's services in the North Gaza Governorate.

Please help them restore and rebuild their institution and create a safe environment that will provide them with a bright future so that they can live in dignity, security and peace and start again to achieve their ambitions and dreams .

[msclaritea]

John McGuinness (politician) - Wikiwand

John James McGuinness (born 15 March 1955) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency since the 1997 general election. He was appointed Chair of the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach in April 2016. He served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2011 to 2016 and as a Minister of State from 2007 to 2009.

Personal life

McGuinness was born in Kilkenny and educated in Kilkenny Christian Brothers Secondary School. He holds a Diploma in Business Management. He is married to Margaret Redmond and they have three sons and one daughter. His eldest son Andrew is a Fianna Fáil County Councillor on Kilkenny County Council and served as Mayor from 2014 to 2015.

Political career

He first entered local politics in 1979 when he won a seat on Kilkenny Borough Council and was a subsequent mayor of the city from 1996 to 1997. He was the third generation of his family to serve on this council. From 1991 until the abolition of the dual mandate in 2003, he was also member of Kilkenny County Council, where his father, Michael McGuinness, was the longest-serving councillor (1959–99).

He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the 1997 general election. He was vice-chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in the 29th Dáil and a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committees for European Affairs, Enterprise and Small Business, Justice, and Women's Rights in the 28th Dáil.

In July 2007, he was appointed by the government on the nomination of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Trade and Commerce. He was re-appointed by the government on the nomination of Taoiseach Brian Cowen to the same position on 13 May 2008. On 22 April 2009, as part of cost-cutting measures due to the Irish financial crisis, the Cowen reduced the number of Ministers of State from 20 to 15. McGuinness was among the seven junior ministers who were not reappointed.

McGuinness then revealed a testy relationship with his senior minister Mary Coughlan, and considerable disagreement with policy in the department. On 24 April 2009, he criticised Coughlan and Cowen for their lack of leadership being given to the country. He said: "She's not equipped to deal with the complex issues of dealing with enterprise and business within the department. And neither is the department". McGuinness later rejected suggestions he campaigned to undermine Coughlan, when it was revealed that he had hired external PR advice in an effort to enhance his own profile as a Minister of State within the department.

In 2010, a political memoir that he co-wrote with Naoise Nunn, called The House Always Wins, was published by Gill & Macmillan.

In the 31st Dáil, McGuinness served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. He was the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Small Business and Regulatory Framework from April 2011 to March 2016.

He declared that he would vote No in the 2015 referendum to allow same-sex marriage.

In the 32nd Dáil, McGuinness served as Chair of the Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach Committee.

He chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association.

NO, THE FUCK HE ISN'T. Cillian Murphy, Public School boy, married into one of THE most powerful families in Ireland. Given all of the news coming from that country, plus all of the Irish projects being pushed, here in the U.S., it's not a coincidence Murphy is in the running for an Oscar. See, it's not FOR him. It's for the family legacy.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter 6. Revolution

How will communities decide to organize themselves at first?

All people are capable of self-organization, whether or not they are experienced in political work. Of course, taking control of our lives won’t be easy at first, but it is imminently possible. In most cases, people take the obvious approach, spontaneously holding large, open meetings with their neighbors, co-workers, or comrades on the barricades to figure out what needs to be done. In some cases, society is organized through pre-existing revolutionary organizations.

The 2001 popular rebellion in Argentina saw people take an unprecedented level of control over their lives. They formed neighborhood assemblies, took over factories and abandoned land, created barter networks, blockaded highways to compel the government to grant relief to the unemployed, held the streets against lethal police repression, and forced four presidents and multiple vice presidents and economic ministers to resign in quick succession. Through it all, they did not appoint leadership, and most of the neighborhood assemblies rejected political parties and trade unions trying to co-opt these spontaneous institutions. Within the assemblies, factory occupations, and other organizations, they practiced consensus and encouraged horizontal organizing. In the words of one activist involved in establishing alternative social structures in his neighborhood, where unemployment reached 80%: “We are building power, not taking it.”[101]

People formed over 200 neighborhood assemblies in Buenos Aires alone, involving thousands of people; according to one poll, one in three residents of the capital had attended an assembly. People began by meeting in their neighborhoods, often over a common meal, or olla popular. Next they would occupy a space to serve as a social center — in many cases, an abandoned bank. Soon the neighborhood assembly would be holding weekly meetings “on community issues but also on topics such as the external debt, war, and free trade” as well as “how they could work together and how they saw the future.” Many social centers would eventually offer:

an info space and perhaps computers, books, and various workshops on yoga, self defence, languages, and basic skills. Many also have community gardens, run after school kids’ clubs and adult education classes, put on social and cultural events, cook food collectively, and mobilise politically for themselves and in support of the piqueteros and reclaimed factories.[102]

The assemblies set up working groups, such as healthcare and alternative media committees, that held additional meetings involving the people most interested in those projects. According to visiting independent journalists:

Some assemblies have as many as 200 people participating, others are much smaller. One of the assemblies we attended had about 40 people present, ranging from two mothers sitting on the sidewalk while breast feeding, to a lawyer in a suit, to a skinny hippie in batik flares, to an elderly taxi driver, to a dreadlocked bike messenger, to a nursing student. It was a whole slice of Argentinean society standing in a circle on a street corner under the orange glow of sodium lights, passing around a brand new megaphone and discussing how to take back control of their lives. Every now and then a car would pass by and beep its horn in support, and this was all happening between 8 pm and midnight on a Wednesday evening![103]

Soon the neighborhood assemblies were coordinating at a city-wide level. Once a week the assemblies sent spokespeople to the interbarrio plenary, which brought together thousands of people from across the city to propose joint projects and protest plans. At the interbarrio, decisions were made with a majority vote, but the structure was non-coercive so the decisions were not binding — they were only carried out if people had the enthusiasm to carry them out. Accordingly, if a large number of people at the interbarrio voted to abstain on a specific proposal, the proposal was reworked so it would receive more support.

The asamblea structure quickly expanded to the provincial and national levels. Within two months of the beginning of the uprising, the national “Assembly of Assemblies” was calling for the government to be replaced by the assemblies. That did not occur, but in the end the government of Argentina was forced to make popular concessions — it announced it would default on its international debt, an unprecedented occurrence. The International Monetary Fund was so scared by the popular rebellion and its worldwide support in the anti-globalization movement, and so embarrassed by the collapse of its poster child, that it had to accept this stunning loss. The movement in Argentina played a pivotal role in accomplishing one of the major goals of the anti-globalization movement, which was the defeat of the IMF and World Bank. As of this writing, these institutions are discredited and facing bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the Argentine economy has stabilized and much of the popular outrage has subsided. Still, some of the assemblies that made a vital niche in the uprising continue to operate seven years later. The next time the conflict comes to the surface, these assemblies will remain in the collective memory as the seeds of a future society.

The city of Gwangju (or Kwangju), in South Korea, liberated itself for six days in May, 1980, after student and worker protests against the military dictatorship escalated in response to declarations of martial law. Protestors burned down the government television station and seized weapons, quickly organizing a “Citizen Army” that forced out the police and military. As in other urban rebellions, including those in Paris in 1848 and 1968, in Budapest in 1919, and in Beijing in 1989, students and workers in Gwangju quickly formed open assemblies to organize life in the city and communicate with the outside world. Participants in the uprising tell of a complex organizational system developed spontaneously in a short period of time — and without the leaders of the main student groups and protest organizations, who had already been arrested. Their system included a Citizen’s Army, a Situation Center, a Citizen-Student Committee, a Planning Board, and departments for local defense, investigation, information, public services, burial of the dead, and other services.[104] It took a full-scale invasion by special units of the Korean military with US support to crush the rebellion and prevent it from spreading. Several hundred people were killed in the process. Even its enemies described the armed resistance as “fierce and well-organized.” The combination of spontaneous organization, open assemblies, and committees with a specific organizational focus left a deep impression, showing how quickly a society can change itself once it breaks with the habit of obedience to the government.

In the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, state power collapsed after masses of student protestors armed themselves; much of the country fell into the hands of the people, who had to reorganize the economy and quickly form militias to repel Soviet invasion. Initially, each city organized itself spontaneously, but the forms of organization that arose were very similar, perhaps because they developed in the same cultural and political context. Hungarian anarchists were influential in the new Revolutionary Councils, which federated to coordinate defense, and they took part in the workers’ councils that took over the factories and mines. In Budapest old politicians formed a new government and tried to harness these autonomous councils into a multiparty democracy, but the influence of the government did not extend beyond the capital city in the days before the second Soviet invasion succeeded in crushing the uprising. Hungary did not have a large anarchist movement at the time, but the popularity of the various councils shows how contagious anarchistic ideas are once people decide to organize themselves. And their ability to keep the country running and defeat the first invasion of the Red Army shows the effectiveness of these organizational forms. There was no need for a complex institutional blueprint to be in place before people left their authoritarian government behind. All they needed was the determination to come together in open meetings to decide their futures, and the trust in themselves that they could make it work, even if at first it was unclear how.

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — A catalog of calamities is central to the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holidays that begin later this week.

We Jews are asked to imagine ourselves perched on the precipice of life and death. Nothing frames it as starkly as Unetaneh Tokef, the roll call of ruin enumerating various disasters that might befall us in the coming year.

With its repetition of “Who by …” fill-in-the-blank awfulness — strangling, stoning, famine and plague — the medieval poem is the stuff of myth and legend, an opportunity to ponder fate and frailty. But for the Jews of Ukraine, the majority of whom remain in the country despite the ongoing conflict, the text is heart-wrenchingly real.

When we Jews pray, we face east, toward Jerusalem. But as the grandson of a Ukrainian Jew, east always conjures “the old country” — that’s where my soul calls home and where I’ve often directed my most fervent prayers. This year, Unetaneh Tokef is a compass for my heart.

I’m sure “who by water” resonates for Lyubov Irzhanskaya. When the Kakhovka dam burst in June, the Dnipro River surged into her second-floor apartment. The 76-year-old retired teacher had hours to decide where to flee.

“Who by fire” must send a chill through Lyudmila Dobroyer, 87 — a Holocaust survivor and the primary caregiver for her son Yuriy, who has developmental disabilities. During attacks on Odesa this summer, her building was badly damaged.

And then there are more workaday terrors, fears that keep me up at night half a world away in my safe Ohio bed. What if I lost my job and couldn’t provide for my family? What if it happened amidst power cuts and sub-zero cold?

“Who shall become impoverished” — ask Evgeniy Moshkovitch, 40, a forklift operator who fled Kherson with his family two months into the crisis. With employers skeptical of the displaced, he’s unable to find a job and relies on Jewish community assistance to pay the bills.

Grim as it is, Unetaneh Tokef isn’t about blindly submitting to fate. Instead, it gives us the keys to our own salvation — ”repentance, prayer, and charity,” it exhorts, “can lessen the severity of the decree.”

Our own hands can rescue us, and post-Soviet Jews, who’ve doggedly rekindled identity and community after the Holocaust and communism, could teach a master class. As a longtime staffer at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, the humanitarian organization that for decades has aided needy Jews and built Jewish life across the former Soviet Union, I’ve seen it firsthand.

In Ukraine, I’ve witnessed local Jews volunteering for relief efforts in record numbers and my colleagues delivering over 800 tons of humanitarian aid, home care to the bedridden and Shabbat gatherings during air-raid sirens. We’re also addressing new waves of need: unemployment, educational gaps and trauma — all with an imperative to strengthen lives, even if peace remains elusive.

Hidden in Unetaneh Tokef’s horrors are some best-case scenarios, too: “who shall be exalted,” “who shall reach the fullness of their days.” What if it all goes right, the prayer asks? What if we sustain each other? What if we write our most vulnerable into the High Holidays’ symbolic Book of Life?

We can do that by marshaling our resources, as my organization has done since February 2022 with tens of millions of dollars from our partners — the Jewish Federations of North America, the Claims Conference, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, individuals, families, corporations and foundations — and by lifting up individual stories so we understand the stakes if we fail to act.

For centuries, Jews have debated the identity of the nameless Unetaneh Tokef writer who gave voice to the cruel uncertainty of human existence and the possibility of redemption even in the darkness.

That anonymity hasn’t blunted the poem’s cold wisdom — life will often disappoint you, but it just might surprise you, too. I’ve learned that by listening to other Jews who could just as easily be lost to history and have just as much to teach.

In western Ukraine earlier this year, I met Liliya Sumka, the last Jew in a small village only accessible by dirt roads. A 54-year-old widow with cerebral palsy, she ekes by on a $52 monthly disability pension.

For her, the difference between “who shall live and who shall die” is sometimes the stack of firewood and food packages delivered by my organization — or finding God in her own still small voice reciting the Shabbat blessings.

“Life?” Liliya chided me with a wry smile. “You can’t make it through that alone.”

May we all remember that, recognizing that we only get to fullness by giving it — showing up with full hearts and a full commitment to aiding those living on a knife’s edge around the clock, not just in the pages of our prayer books.

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

Harvard University denounced an antisemitic image depicting a Jew lynching an African American and an Arab which was posted on social media by an anti-Zionist faculty group.

“The university is aware of social media posts today containing deeply offensive antisemitic tropes and messages from organizations whose membership includes Harvard affiliates,” the university said, speaking from its Instagram account. “Such despicable messages have no place in the Harvard community. We condemn these posts in the strongest possible terms.”

Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), a group which describes itself as a “collective” committed to falsely accusing Israel of genocide and dispossession — terms one finds on the fringes of the extreme right — initiated this latest controversy. The image it shared shows a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David containing a dollar sign at its center dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose. In its posterior, an arm belonging to an unknown person of color wields a machete that says, “Liberation Movement.”

“African people have a profound understanding of apartheid and occupation,” says a graphic in which the image appears. “The historical roots of solidarity between Black liberation movements and Palestinian liberation began in the late 1960s. This period was marked by a heightened awareness among Black organizations in the United States.”

It continued, “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC] linked Zionism to an imperial project while the Black Panther Party aligned itself with the Palestinian resistance, framing both struggles as part of a unified front against racism, Zionism, and imperialism.”

On Monday, Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine — whose 112 founding members include professors Walter Johnson, Jennifer Brody, Diane Moore, Charlie Prodger, Leslie Fernandez, Khameer Kidia, and Duncan Kennedy — apologized for sharing the image and suggested that it was unaware of its own social media activity.

“It has come to our attention that a post featuring antiquated cartoons which used offensive antisemitic tropes was linked to our account,” the group said. “We removed the content as soon as it came to our attention. We apologize for the hurt that these images have caused and do not condone them in any way.”

Two other student groups have apologized for sharing the image, according to The Harvard Crimson. In a joint statement, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and the African and American Resistance Organization said “our mutual goals for liberation will always include the Jewish community — and we regret inadvertently including an image that played upon antisemitic tropes.”

The past four months have been described by critics of Harvard as a low-point in the history of the school, America’s oldest and, arguably, most prestigious institution of higher education. Since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, Harvard has been accused of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism, while important donors have suspended funding for programs. Its first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned in disgrace last month after being outed as a serial plagiarist. Her tenure was the shortest in the school’s history.

As scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies circulated worldwide, 31 student groups at Harvard, led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and accusing the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite that the Israeli military withdrew from the territory in 2005. In the weeks that followed, anti-Zionists stormed the campus screaming “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “globalize the intifada,” terrorizing Jewish students and preventing some from attending class.

In November, a mob of anti-Zionists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — followed, surrounded, and intimidated a Jewish student. “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the crush of people screamed in a call-and-response chant into the ears of the student who —as seen in the footage — was forced to duck and dash the crowd to free himself from the cluster of bodies that encircled him.

The university is currently being investigated by the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. It was recently subpoenaed by the body after weeks of allegedly obstructing the inquiry.