#chancellor david banks

[eretzyisrael]

by Meghan Blonder

The head of the New York City public school system testified to Congress that he recognizes the "urgency of addressing" and "rooting out" anti-Semitism. Just weeks prior, he held an event alongside an anti-Semitic Democratic fundraiser who has promoted Holocaust denial and runs a pro-Hamas Facebook group.

Chancellor David Banks testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday to address the New York City public school system's response to rising anti-Semitism. He told the committee that his schools are "focused" on being a "candle in the darkness" in the fight against Jew hatred.

"At New York City Public Schools, we are focused on our charge to fight hate and foster inclusion through safety, engagement, and education," Banks said. "We’re working hard and we have a long way to go. There’s always more to do. I hope in New York we can be a candle in the darkness."

Less than a month before, on April 11, Banks and New York elected officials held an Arab American Heritage celebration which featured anti-Semitic Democratic fundraiser Maher Abdel-qader, who has promoted Holocaust denial and online content that describes Jews as "Satanic." Banks posed for a photo with Abdel-qader, who also is the founder and administrator of a Facebook group called "Palestinian American Congress" where members have posted anti-Semitic content and cheered Hamas terrorists.

In 2018, Abdel-qader shared a video that said Ashkenazi Jews are "not true Jews," accused Israeli Jews of "identity theft," and cast doubt on the validity of the Holocaust. "The Jews in Israel are not true Jews, they are Khazars Ashkenazi Jews, identity theft," the video said alongside a photo of a Jewish man wearing a ski mask to cover his face. "Research the truth about the Holocaust, and you’ll definitely start to question what you thought you knew," the video’s narrator says. In another post, Abdel-qader compared Israel to ISIS and accused the Jewish state of running "concentration camps."

In a 2017 post that echoed an anti-Semitic trope of Jews controlling the government, Abdel-qader claimed Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) was a "foreign agent."

"Our US Congress is full of ass-kissing Israeli defenders. A few of them are actually unregistered foreign agents. Ben Cardin is one of them. He is convincing the rest of the lowlifes in Congress to throw away our rights to free speech, and kowtow to the illegal so-called 'state' of 'Israel,'" Abdel-qader said.

In the days after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, members of Abdel-qader's Facebook group cheered the terrorist group's fighters.

An Oct. 12, 2024, post in Abdel-qader’s Facebook group read, "We don't want to throw you in the sea ... we want you to ride it back from where you came," accompanied by a photo of a Hamas terrorist with an elderly Israeli hostage. Another post commended the "achievements" of "resistance" fighters after they killed Israeli soldiers.

NYC Public Schools posted a photo online of Banks speaking at the event, with the caption: "Today we hosted our inaugural Arab American Heritage Month celebration!"

The revelation comes as other Democratic members of Congress also embraced Abdel-qader around the same time. "Squad" members Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), Cori Bush (D., Mo.), Summer Lee (D., Pa.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.)—many of whom face a pro-Israel primary challenger—embraced Abdel-qader at an April 18 Washington, D.C., event.

Abdel-qader served as Tlaib’s finance committee chair during her first congressional bid in 2018 and has donated thousands of dollars to her campaign. Tlaib repeatedly thanked him for his help multiple times during her 2018 campaign. In November, he advertised a fundraiser for Lee and Tlaib, saying the "Squad" members "wholeheartedly" support the "just cause for Palestine."

In one photo from the event, Abdel-qader stands front and center displaying a special document, flanked by Banks and other leaders.

The celebration included a "showcase" of Arabic cuisine, music, handmade artistry, and cultural exhibits. The event also "honored" Abdel-qader and a Palestinian New York City police officer who spoke about the importance of the "Palestinian cause" for their "coordination and contributions to making the event both unique and enlightening," Arab America reported. Banks "commended their hard work and leadership,"according to the report. Abdel-qader was listed as a contributor to the article.

A New York City Department of Education spokesman distanced Banks from Abdel-qader.

"At our Arab American Heritage event we had only two honorary speakers: NYPD captain Filastine Srour and New York state assemblyman Nader Sayegh. We did not invite this individual to our event, nor was he honored, and the chancellor neither knows this man nor endorses his views," the spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon. Abdel-qader did not return a request for comment.

Banks during his testimony indicated that both Jewish and Muslim students have experienced hardship since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, and the school system is working to accommodate both groups.

"Our classrooms are not insulated from the global stage. Since October 7, our students and staff—Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian—have suffered immensely," Banks said.

[palestinegenocide]

Silenced at School: NYC Public Schools Chancellor suppresses Palestinian voices

New York City Public Schools has been suppressing Palestinian narratives and activism. NYC Educators for Palestine has attempted to meet with Chancellor David Banks for months, but he keeps dodging our meeting.

[link]

“When the students at our school made posters to raise funds for Gaza, we mentioned [in] a small paragraph stating that there is a very apparent genocide happening in Palestine. However, the day after, we were censored. Our principal… requested that we take down all posters.”

-NYC High School Student

[mariacallous]

Mayor Eric Adams’ chief counsel resigned Saturday without advance notice, according to a City Hall spokesperson.

Lisa Zornberg left after a little over a year on the job, while top officials in the administration face multiple federal investigations. Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications, said her departure was effective immediately.

The mayor’s office provided a short statement from Zornberg that offered no explanation as to why she left.

“I am deeply grateful to Mayor Adams for giving me the opportunity to serve the city, and I strongly support the work he has done and continues to do for New Yorkers,” Zornberg said.

The abrupt exit leaves a significant hole in the administration — and draws attention to legal problems surrounding the mayor and his inner circle.

As chief counsel, Zornberg was responsible for defending the mayor amid a federal corruption investigation into his 2021 campaign. She also worked as an adviser on key policy issues, including his response to the migrant crisis.

Her resignation comes two days after NYPD commissioner Edward Caban stepped down, and a week after his phones were seized as part of a separate federal investigation. Other top Adams aides also had their phones taken, including first deputy mayor Sheena Wright, her partner schools chancellor David Banks and deputy mayor for public safety Phil Banks.

Before joining City Hall, Zornberg spent years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is now investigating several city officials. She also worked in white collar defense at a private firm before starting as chief counsel, according to a biography announcing her appointment.

Adams said in a statement that he appreciated the work Zornberg had done.

“These are hard jobs and we don’t expect anyone to stay in them forever,” he said.

He added that other senior members of Zornberg’s team “will remain in their roles to ensure the office continues to fully operate without issue, and we expect to name an acting chief counsel in the coming days.”

Adams tested positive for COVID on Monday, and he has not appeared in person at any public events since. On Thursday he delivered remarks virtually announcing Caban’s resignation.

[beardedmrbean]

Federal agents have raided the homes of top aides and confidants to New York Mayor Eric Adams, including the city’s police commissioner, in what appeared to be a major corruption probe at the heart of America’s biggest city.

In addition to NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, the raids on Wednesday and Thursday targeted the city’s deputy mayor for criminal justice, Philip Banks III, his brother, schools Chancellor David Banks, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and a third Banks brother, Terrence Banks, who is not a city official, local media reported.

"Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation," Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief counsel, said in a statement. "As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law."

As he left City Hall in lower Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, Adams, a former police captain, told reporters, “The goal is to follow the law and that is what this administration always stood for and what we’re going to continue to stand for.”

The search warrants at the homes of the deputy mayors and the schools chancellor were first reported by the nonprofit news outlet The City. The seizure by federal agents of the police commissioner’s phones was first reported by Spectrum News NY1.

While New York, like most big cities, has had its share of scandals, the search warrant on Police Commissioner Caban, by investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, was striking.

“It’s unprecedented for a commissioner to even be mentioned in the context of a federal criminal investigation,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic political consultant. While other police commissioners oversaw the NYPD during federal probes of the department’s practices, and of individual officers, “not one of them had a federal search warrant served on them,” Sheinkopf said.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment, as did the FBI.

More: NYC Mayor Eric Adams wants changes to sanctuary city laws, increased cooperation with ICE

Adams is known for keeping a tight circle of friends and confidants, many of whom date back to his days in the police department.

Deputy Mayor Philip Banks is a former top NYPD official who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an earlier federal bribery probe. His brother, schools Chancellor David Banks, is the romantic partner of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

Adams adviser Timothy Pearson, who was also reportedly served with a search warrant, is a former police inspector. Pearson and Terrence Banks could not be reached for comment.

This week’s raids were unrelated to an ongoing federal investigation into possible illegal Turkish financing of Mayor Adams’ 2021 campaign, a source familiar with that probe said. The FBI seized Adams’ mobile phones and computer in November 2023, and searched the home of his campaign treasurer.

“The FBI is more engaged in municipal corruption cases around this country than it has ever been,” Sheinkopf said. “You know, those 5:30AM wakeup calls don’t come out of thin air.”

[themalhambird]

UK ELECTION 2024: WHO'S LEADING THE FOUR MAJOR PARTIES?

The Conservatives currently have a majority in Parliament and form the Government. The Labour Party, with the second highest number of seats, leads the opposition. The SNP (Scottish National Party) are the second largest opposition party, and the Liberal Democrats are the third. Who's leading them?

This is, as far as possible, a non-partisan guide. The information is chiefly summarised or otherwise pulled directly from the candidate's respective Wikipedia pages. Any other sources will also be linked.

Click below to keep reading, and all that jazz.

Rishi Sunak, Leader of the Conservative Party. Current Prime Minister; Member for Richmond.

Rishi Sunak was born in Hampshire in 1980. His father is a GP for the NHS and his mother was a pharmacist who owned her own pharmacy. Sunak became head boy during his time as a day pupil at Winchester College, and worked as a waiter in a restaurant during summer holiday. He read philosophy, politics and business at Lincoln College, Oxford, and during the course of his degree undertook an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters. 

Sunak’s pre-Westminster career was in banking. He worked as an analyst for Goldman-Sachs before moving to work for a hedgefund management firm. He later became a partner in this firm, , and spent a couple of years as Director of an Investment firm owned by his father in law: In 2009 he married Akshata Murthy, an heiress; business woman; fashion designer; and venture capitalist in her own right. The couple have two daughters, aged 13 and 11. 

Sunak first became an MP in 2015. He campaigned in favour of Brexit in 2016. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020  whilst Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, and shot to popularity after the COVID furlough scheme was implemented. His Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which was designed to boost the hospitality sector during COVID  by offering a 50% discount on eligible meals, is thought to have contributed massively to the need for a second COVID lockdown. In April 2022 Sunak was issued with a fixed penalty notice by Police as part of the investigation into Downing Street breaches of their own COVID rules (this is commonly referred to as The Party Gate Scandal). 

Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022 after his predecessor, Liz Truss, crashed and burned rather spectacularly. 

Kier Starmer K.C., Leader of the Labour Party. Current Leader of the Opposition. Member for Holbourn and St. Pancress.

Kier Starmer was born in Southwark, 1962, and raised in Surrey- the second of four children. His father was a tool maker; his mother was a nurse. Both were active in the Labour Party and Starmer was named after Labour’s first leader, Keir Hardie. As a teenager, Starmer was a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists. Starmer was the first member of his family to attend university, studying Law at the University of Leeds and graduating with first class honours. He completed his Post-Graduate studies at Oxford, during which time he served as the editor of a Trotskyiest radical magazine, Socialist Alternatives. 

Starmer’s  pre-Westminster career was in law. He became a barrister in 1987, undertaking legal aid work, including pro bono cases: he was instructed by Arthur Scargill during the Miners’ Strike of the Thatcher years.

Starmer worked primarily on Human Rights issues, including defending people facing the death penalty. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002 and became joint head of the Doughty Street Chambers that same year. He was Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and he marched and wrote legal opinions against the Iraq War. 

Starmer became head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions in 2008 and served in the position until 2013. Noteworthy incidents during his tenure include:

In 2009, Conservative MP David Davies calling for Starmer to be dismissed after Starmer  vocally opposed the Conservative Government’s proposal to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 

In 2010, Starmer prosecuting MPs and a Member of the House of Lords for false accounting in the aftermath of the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal. 

In 2013, Starmer published a study demonstrating that false reports of rape are rare, and started an enquiry into the reduction of rape and domestic violence reports being made to the police. 

Starmer was knighted for services to law and criminal justice in 2014 and became a Labour MP in 2015. He was opposed to Brexit and  advocated for a second referendum. He replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Labour Party in 2019, when Corbyn stepped down after Labour suffered their worst electoral defeat in roughly 80 years. 

In 2007 Starmer married Victoria Alexander, who was previously a solicitor and is now an Occupational Health Worker for the NHS. The pair have a 15 year old son and a 13 year old daughter. 

Stephen Flynn, Leader of the Scottish National Party* in the House of Commons. Member for Aberdeen South.

*Perhaps obviously, The Scottish National Party only stands candidates in Scotland. Flynn is therefore unlikely to be the next Leader of the Opposition, though the SNP will probably remain a major voting bloc in Westminster.

Stephen Flynn was born in Dundee in 1988. He studied History and Politics at the University of Dundee. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in 2015, leading the SNP group in the Council. He was elected to Parliament in 2019. He replaced Ian Blackford as Leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons in December 2023. 

Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats. Member for Kingston and Surbiton.

Ed Davey was born in Nottingham  in 1965. By the time he was fifteen he had lost both his parents and was being raised by his maternal grandparents. He studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford. In 1989 he became an economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats, and was elected to Parliament in 1997. During the coalition Government he served as Undersecretary of State for Business (2010-2012), and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (2012-2015). He lost his seat in 2015, a disastrous election in general for the Lib Dems, but was knighted the same year for political and public services. He regained his seat in 2017 and became leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2019. He married Emily Gasson, also a Liberal Democrat Politician, in 2007. The couple have one son. 

***

Additions to this post are welcome, but please stick to facts and not personal opinion. Provide sources where possible. Do NOT attack or otherwise insult anybody mentioned in this post based on physical appearance or other similar traits. The UK election will be on July 4th 2024. You can register to vote here.

[jraker4]

Three things that appear to be of note: NYC Schools Chancellor is quoted as saying the teacher was ‘never in direct danger’. Yet he *also* says that she was ‘moved to safety’. I don’t think these two things *necessarily* contradict each other, for generous interpretations of meaning, but still. It sounds like there was danger.

And then, members of the student body further contradicted the claim of no direct danger. ‘Student Khadija Ahmed told reporters at the news conference: “The message that we really wanted to get out there was we wanted Palestine to be free but the message got lost and lots of people were hurt mentally and our teacher was in danger."’

‘Senior class president, Muhammad Ghazali, also spoke before reporters, saying: “For us to be called terrorists by certain news channels and certain people ... they call us certain names because of what we did or the way things happened, it wasn’t right."

“It was meant to be a peaceful protest from the very beginning. But some of these students lacked maturity,” he added.’

All of this is without having watched any of the video footage myself, but reporting on that seems to be pretty damn dangerous to me.

What’s interesting to me is that, for all that Jews control the media-or so say various antisemites of all stripes all over the world-it’s apparently difficult to get favorable coverage even in New York City, which is (again according to antisemites all over the world) supposedly a bastion of Jewish power. This is a major news outlet reporting and leading with ‘no direct danger’ in a story where actual participants are quoted as saying ‘there was danger’.

So much for supposed Jewish dominance of media.

Another thing of interest is that protesting isn’t easy. Especially *organizing* a protest isn’t easy, doubly so when passions are high. I can certainly believe that the organizers didn’t intend for this teacher to come however close to being lynched-I wouldn’t make that accusation about anyone without knowing more-but protests aren’t easy. Something the organizers should have been more careful about, it certainly seems.

[buttercupkg66]

A New York City parent activist booted from her education post after calling out “Jew hatred” should be reinstated, a federal judge ruled — finding Schools Chancellor David Banks likely violated her free speech rights by ousting her.

[youthkenworld]

NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams' Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg announced her resignation late Saturday night.

It comes after federal agents raided some of the mayor's top officials earlier this month, including NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned last week, as well as Schools Chancellor David Banks.

[eaglesnick]

The Lower Classes

George Osborne, former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and architect of Tory austerity cuts, was recently summoned to the Covid inquiry to discuss the impact of his cruel and heartless policies on the preparedness of the NHS to deal with the pandemic. Needless to say, he accepted NO responsibility what-so-ever.

“He denied that austerity depleted health and social care capacity. He denied that the state of the social care system became worse in his time in office. And he denied that austerity has any connection to worse health outcomes for the most disadvantaged in UK society.”  (TUC: 20/06/23)

It wasn’t as if he didn’t know what would happen to our health and social services. There were plenty of warning signs and advice being given, advice he deliberately chose to ignore.

“A strong warning that austerity policies can do more harm than good has been delivered by economists from the International Monetary Fund, in a critique of the neoliberal doctrine that has dominated economics for the past three decades.” (Guardian: 27/05/16)

Why did Osborne ignore the warnings of economic groups like the IMF and other reputable forecasters? He did it to save the Tory Party’s rich friends in banking, business and commerce. Osborne himself admitted as much when he told the Covid inquiry:

“If we had not had a clear plan to put public finances on a sustainable path then Britain might have experienced a fiscal crisis…” (LBC: 20/06/23

So, “protecting" the economy and the rich was more important than protecting public services and the most vulnerable in society. The irony here is that borrowing rates were at an ALL TIME low during Tory austerity cuts so borrowing money to help essential public services could have been done very cheaply. What is even more ironic is that Osborne’s austerity programme was based on a false premise.

“George Osborne plunged the UK into austerity “all for nothing” due to an error on an Excel spreadsheet... The whole reason that George Osborne and David Cameron launched austerity was because of a Harvard paper that did a whole bunch of calculations – which showed that if your debt was exceeding 90 per cent of GDP then the economy would shrink… Actually it had been done on a spreadsheet and a bunch of rows of data had been missed out, which if they had been included it would have shown that the economy wouldn’t shrink.”

(The London Economic: 22/09/22)

In other words, if Osborne had done his job correctly and checked the data he would have discovered there was absolutely no need for austerity cuts and the resulting catastrophic consequences.

I use the term “catastrophic consequences” advisedly. Not only have ALL of our public services been starved of funding under Tory austerity cuts, to the point they are all on the verge of collapse, but worse still our children and grandchildren have suffered physically from Tory austerity.

“Children raised under UK austerity shorter than European peers, study finds. Average height of boys and girls aged five has slipped due to poor diet and NHS cuts, experts say”  (Guardian: 21/06/23)

Children's height is a very good indicator of general living conditions, such as poverty, illness, stress, infections and sleep quality. Studies show that between 2010 and 2020,UK children who grew up during this period have fallen 30 places behind there European peers in height. Even more frightening is the fact that  British children are now displaying alarming rates of increasing poor health, 700 children a year being admitted to hospital with malnutrition, rickets or scurvy.

Under Osborne’s austerity cuts the rich have grown richer. In 2018, the Equality Trust reported that the rich had increased their wealth by £274 billion over a five-year period.  Meanwhile, as the rich continue to see their wealth increase many ordinary families are seeing the average height of their children shrink. Put brutally, the Tory Party has been, and continues to, deliberately sacrifice the health of the nations children for their own personal gain and that of their rich friends.

The term “lower class" was never more poignant.

[feckcops]

Disappearing schools, families forced out – and we call this progress

“Last week, Lambeth announced that a secondary school founded in 1685 will close for good this summer, with its students farmed out elsewhere. In Camden, St Michael’s primary will not even make the end of the school year – it closes this month, the fourth in the borough to go since 2019. Days before the Easter holiday, Hackney warned that two of its primaries are likely to fold and another four may have to merge to survive. Neighbouring Islington is considering closures, while Southwark believes 16 primaries are at risk.

“This is a huge story, not only about marooned children and panicked parents, or redundant teachers and struggling councils, but the very future of our major cities. These schools are not shutting because they are bad, but because inner London no longer has enough children to fill them. The dead centre of Britain’s political and economic powerhouse is driving out families – and its education system is now taking an almighty hit. Hackney, for instance, has 589 fewer kids in reception today than it did in 2014, a shortfall equivalent to about 20 vacant classrooms. Since schools mainly receive cash per pupil, empty desks mean debts, and debts force closures …

“If this historic shift has a hinge point, it’s the 2010s, when two big forces began reshaping the capital. The first came from Downing Street: since David Cameron moved into No 10, successive Tory governments have taken benefit money from the very youngest and handed it to the oldest. The Resolution Foundation calculates that newborns have lost £1,500 a year in entitlements, while those aged 80 and above have gained more than £500 …

“The post-crash decade also saw inner London turned into a theme park for property speculators. The Bank of England was spraying about hundreds of billions of pounds like it was champagne at a grand prix, the then chancellor George Osborne was chucking taxpayer’s money at the property market, and London councils, including some of Gould’s Labour colleagues in Camden, were allowing developers to run riot. The arguments about gentrification soon descended into cliches about hipsters and Foxtons, when what was really being decided was who would live in the city and who it would serve.”

[eretzyisrael]

An antisemitic “bait and switch” appears to be happening in New York City’s Department of Education (NYC DOE). The ruse, facilitated by the department and its Chancellor David Banks, claims they are addressing the rampant antisemitism in its public schools while at the same time, facilitating it.

Specifically, the department is taking steps to educate the next generation of New York City’s children against Israel and into the pro-Hamas, “anti-colonialist” ideology now prevalent on the city’s streets.

The NYC DOE, over which Bank presides, is the largest K-12 public school system in the United States and among the largest in the world. NYC’s public schools serve over 1.1 million students across the city’s five boroughs in 1,800 separate institutions.

A month after the Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 250 more, Chancellor Banks sent an email to teachers prior to a planned November 9, 2023 student and staff walkout billed as part of a national “shutdown for Palestine” event.

In the email, Banks cautioned teachers about violating the education department’s rules on political speech, even going so far as to warn them that this type of activity, “even on one’s personal time,” can violate city rules if it “disrupts…the school environment.”

The email continued:

“All employees should ensure that expressions of their personal political views are kept separate from their NYCPS job. School leaders, teachers, and other school staff should not express their personal views about political matters during the school day, while on school grounds, or while working at school events, and it is critical that they set aside their personal views during class discussions about current events.

However, what has happened in practice tells a different story. Not only did staff participate in the November 9 walkout, but there have been no perceivable consequences for their actions. In addition, instances have been reported where teachers directly facilitated student involvement in the protests.

Teachers have not only been emboldened by Banks’s lack of disciplinary action, but some consider themselves impervious because they are tenured. (Unlike many public school systems around the country, the NYC DOE has a system of quasi-tenure, which makes it harder to fire a teacher who has been granted this status.) 

But arguably some of the most egregious violations of the NYC DOE’s rules have come from the chancellor himself. Since the conflict began, Banks has hired or rewarded a number of blatantly anti-Israel activists, some for the explicit purpose of educating students and staff on Israel and the war.  

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.21

537 – Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the Vivarium, by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius. 630 – Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem. 717 – Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid. 1152 – Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. 1180 – Emperor Antoku accedes to the throne of Japan. 1556 – On the day of his execution in Oxford, former archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer deviates from the scripted sermon by renouncing the recantations he has made and adds, "And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine." 1788 – A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins. 1800 – With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché. 1801 – The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt. 1804 – Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law. 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Greek revolutionaries seize Kalavryta. 1844 – The Baháʼí calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Baháʼí calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Baháʼí Faith as the Baháʼí New Year or Náw-Rúz. 1861 – Alexander Stephens gives the Cornerstone Speech. 1871 – Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire. 1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone. 1918 – World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins. 1919 – The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia. 1921 – The New Economic Policy is implemented by the Bolshevik Party in response to the economic failure as a result of war communism. 1925 – The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee. 1925 – Syngman Rhee is removed from office after being impeached as the President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. 1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight. 1935 – Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran. 1937 – Ponce massacre: Nineteen unarmed civilians in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by police in a terrorist attack ordered by the US-appointed Governor, Blanton C. Winship. 1943 – Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through; von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion. 1945 – World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma. 1945 – World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians. 1945 – World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes. 1946 – The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933. 1952 – Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio. 1960 – Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180. 1963 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (in California) closes. 1965 – Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes. 1965 – Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. 1968 – Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO. 1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco. 1970 – San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event. 1980 – Cold War: U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War. 1983 – The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic. 1986 – Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships 1989 – Transbrasil Flight 801 crashes into a slum near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, killing 25 people. 1990 – Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule. 1994 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force. 1999 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. 2000 – Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel. 2006 – The social media site Twitter is founded. 2019 – The 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion occurs, killing at least 47 people and injuring 640 others. 2022 – China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing 132 people.

[beardedmrbean]

New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks on Monday staunchly denied allegations that the approximately 400 students who swarmed the halls of Hillcrest High School last week demanding the ouster of a Jewish teacher who supports Israel had been in any way "radicalized." 

"This is a really good school with wonderful young people. And I’m so taken aback by this notion that these kids are terrorists … or radicalized. Even that kind of language is just terrible, and it’s irresponsible," Banks said at a press conference, confirming that some students had been suspended or faced disciplinary action after the incident. Viral video showed students acting out after the teacher's social media profile showed she attended an off-campus rally in support of Israel.

Citing privacy and confidentiality laws, Banks declined to say how many students were disciplined or provide more details but said he did not suspend all the hundreds in the hallway. 

On November 20, a teacher at Hillcrest High School "was targeted based on her support for Israel expressed in a permissible way outside of school hours and her Jewish identity," Banks said, outlining how the "safety of multiple of our staff and students were put at risk after approximately 400 students acted disruptively during class changing time, roving the school and calling for the removal of a Jewish educator." Officials said the Jewish teacher was on a different floor at the time the crowd of students stormed the halls. 

NYC COUNCILWOMAN BLASTS FAILURE OF ‘MODERN PROGRESSIVISM’ AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL HIGH SCHOOL RIOT

"The teacher was never in direct danger," Banks claimed. Two days later, a student warned the principal on November 22 that another demonstration was planned during fifth period and the school was temporarily placed on lockdown as a result, according to the chancellor, who met with students at Hillcrest High on Monday as part of deescalation efforts. 

But conservative members of the New York City Council categorized the incident differently. In a statement released Monday, the NYC Council Common Sense Caucus said it "strongly condemns the deplorable antisemitic assault and riots at Hillcrest High School." 

"On November 20th," the statement claims, "students not only disrupted the school but also horrifyingly threatened to execute a Jewish teacher due to her pro-Israel stance, obtained her personal address, and demanded her dismissal." 

"This unconscionable behavior severely violates almost every value to which New York City Department of Education is purportedly committed," they wrote. "Furthermore, we are extremely troubled by what appears the lack of immediate response and an attempt to sweep this incident under the rug by an agency entrusted with the safety of our children."

Banks promised that the targeted Jewish teacher –  expected to return to worrk this week  – would be kept safe but also warned of a vague protest planned Thursday. 

"This notion that this place, these kids are radicalized and antisemitic is the height of irresponsibility. The height of irresponsibility. And I for one, will not accept that at all," Banks told reporters. "In fact, the greatest concern that the students had here today, as well as of the staff, was that there is a protest planned of people who are coming here Thursday, and staff fearing for their safety as well as students, very concerned with people just making statements who have never even been here. They don’t even know us. But somehow or another we have become the symbol of hate. Look at these kids. This is the ultimate teachable moment. That’s why I’m here today. Not to … cast judgment on our children. But to make sure we as a school community live up to what we need to live up to." 

At a school of approximately 2,500 students, about 30% of Hillcrest High schoolers are of Muslim faith, Banks said. 

"They consume their information through social media, specifically TikTok and others, and what they are seeing on a daily basis are children and young people in Palestine, Palestinian families being blown up. That’s what they’re seeing, that’s what they’re consuming," Banks said. "They feel a kindred spirit with the folks of the Palestinian community. And because this is a very visceral and emotional issue for them, and that is what they’re seeing, those images every single day, when they all of a sudden saw this image of a teacher that says ‘I stand with Israel,’ the students articulated to me, they took that as a message that I am affirming whatever is happening to the Palestinian family and community." 

The chancellor also rejected claims there had been a cover-up. "New York City Public Schools operates with transparency. We do not hide or cover up facts," Banks said. "Such allegations betrayed the trust that parents and caregivers place on us when they send their children to our schools. And as someone who has served as a principal, a teacher and a school safety agent, and now in my role as chancellor, I’m deeply offended by any suggestion that we would be less than forthcoming." 

Councilwoman Vickie Paladino shared video on X that she said she obtained from a Department of Education source showing Hillcrest High School students had swarmed the hallway around a school resource officer and a brawl ensued. Responding to that video on Monday, Banks acknowledged that this was a separate incident that took place on November 15, and was "unrelated to the Israel-Hamas war." 

"I can confirm that the school safety agent involved was not assaulted," Banks claimed. "The school safety agent seen in that video was separating two students and was doing their job keeping students safe in tense situation. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our schools, so we’re taking appropriate action with the student involved." 

Yet, the NYPD wrote on X, responding to the same video, that "The individuals responsible for assaulting the @NYPDSchools agents were taken into custody & charged according to NYPD procedures." Paladino doubled down with colleagues at a press conference of their own Monday, claiming Hillcrest High School culture prioritizes progressive activism over discipline. 

"Where are their parents? Who is holding them accountable?" Paladino asked.

[mariacallous]

Since the 1990s I’ve been interpreting events in Britain for an American audience through my journalism. Sometimes it’s easy: London’s glorious renaissance, Tony Blair’s rise. Sometimes it’s less easy: the strangeness of a “special relationship” where one side cares too much and the other too little, the post-imperial hangover that courses through British life.

And sometimes it’s hard: the puzzle of Brexit, the precipitous downfall of the Conservative party. It helps that for Americans still living through the Donald Trump saga, nothing is outside the realm of possibility any more. It also helps when I explain to them that those two latest chapters of British history are connected.

I tell them that from the 2016 referendum onward, Brexit increasingly gave the Tories a focus. Never mind that Brexit was the most divisive event in postwar Britain; over time, the struggle to make it happen unified the party. Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” 2019 election campaign cemented the transformation and, as far as Brexit went, silenced Labour.

Within six weeks, however, the Tory tide would turn. Once Britain formally left the EU, the Brexit-imposed discipline within the Conservative party began to unravel. Admittedly, the pandemic would have thrown any government off course, but Johnson’s conduct in office didn’t help the Tory brand or party unity. Swamped by scandal, he was out. Enter Liz Truss.

As the US and the world looked on, Truss’s first weeks in office did not exactly restore confidence in Downing Street. Suddenly, the new government was shredding the Tories’ reputation for fiscal prudence and sound economic management. Friends of mine in the States could barely believe what they were witnessing. Even Americans who are ideologically opposed to the Conservatives were shocked to see the party of Churchill and Thatcher flying off the rails.

The Truss-Kwasi Kwarteng “Growth Plan 2022” started out as a budget at war with itself, with vast emergency spending sitting alongside big unfunded tax cuts. It was also at war with Bank of England monetary policy. That was bad enough. Then came U-turns, the defenestration of Kwarteng and the naming of a new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, hardly an ideological soulmate of the libertarian prime minister.

This story is far from over. From the outset, the reaction to the new government’s “fiscal event” abroad was awful. Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said the world’s fifth-largest economy was “behaving a bit like an emerging market”. President Biden himself said that Truss’s original plan was a “mistake”. The International Monetary Fund, which usually reserves its sermonising for developing economies, said: “we do not recommend large and untargeted fiscal packages at this juncture, as it is important that fiscal policy does not work at cross purposes to monetary policy. Furthermore, the nature of the UK measures will likely increase inequality.”

Still, with all the opprobrium heaped on Truss, it’s easy to forget that the damage began long before she got hold of Britain’s finances. What’s happening today cannot be separated from what happened in the last decade, leading up to Brexit. To explain those days to non-Britons, you have to wade into the weeds of British politics. There, we come upon Nigel Farage, who though never elected to parliament had an extraordinary influence on Westminster politics. Had it not been for the threat Farage and Ukip posed to the Conservative party, David Cameron may never have decided to call for a referendum. But, fatefully, he did.

As a dual US-UK citizen who’s lived in London since 1996, the closest I could get to understanding a rationale behind Brexit was to see it in the context of what Blair once called “post-empire malaise” – a vague if deep-seated yearning to regain the confidence and sureness of identity that, at least in the imagination, went hand in hand with running an empire. “Take back control” was surely part of that, fuelled also by heightened economic insecurity in the wake of the 2007-08 financial crisis and a concomitant unease about immigration.

Setting that logic aside, I have to say that virtually all the economic arguments in favour of Brexit looked specious at best and cynically misleading at worst. In that sense, Brexit is a kind of original sin that sits at the heart of today’s UK economy. That should have been evident in the myriad dire economic forecasts blithely dismissed as “remoaner” scaremongering in the run-up to the 2016 referendum – forecasts that turned out to be mostly accurate. And it should have been obvious– as it was to the rest of the world – in the downward trajectory of the “Brexit pound”, which fell from 1.50 to 1.33 to the dollar overnight after the 23 June 2016 vote and ultimately hit its lowest-ever recorded level of 1.03 on 26 September of this year.

Being “liberated” from the EU was never going to live up to the counterfeit promises made by the Vote Leave campaign before the referendum. Britain’s borders are no less porous than they were. The post-Brexit trade deals the UK has negotiated are insignificant compared with the loss of its largest trading partner. The jewel-in-the-crown deal with the US is not even on the agenda, as Truss admitted last month.

The pandemic, whose arrival coincided with Britain’s departure from Europe, camouflaged much of the toll Brexit was inflicting on the economy. But the harm is real. A year ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility was estimating that Brexit’s long-term impact on economic growth would be more than twice as damaging as that of Covid.

The effect on trade has been devastating. Modelling by the Centre for European Reform found that solely because of Brexit, British trade in goods was down during the first half of last year, ranging between 11 and 16% month to month. “There is evidence that businesses face new and significant real-world challenges in trading with the EU that cannot be attributed to the pandemic,” the House of Lords European affairs committee reported in December.

Ending the free movement of labour between Britain and the continent – a Brexit cornerstone – is hollowing out the workforce. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of job vacancies stood at 1,246,000 in the third quarter of this year, up from about 823,000 before Brexit and Covid-19 set in. These shortages afflict businesses large and small, from cafes and pubs to farms and manufacturing plants.

Meanwhile, the OBR analysis from May shows a number of economic indicators all going in the wrong direction: as a result of leaving the EU, long-term productivity will slump by 4%, both exports and imports will be around 15% lower in the long run, newly signed trade deals with non-EU countries “will not have a material impact”, and the government’s new post-Brexit migration regime will reduce net inward migration at a time of critical labour shortages. It has been some story to tell.

There’s a scene in the House Commons that keeps playing in my head. It’s 2019 and Jacob Rees-Mogg, now Truss’s business secretary, is speaking of the “broad, sunlit uplands that await us” thanks to Brexit. Then I contemplate where Britain is today: heading into a protracted recession under an enfeebled prime minister leading a wounded, fractious party. I hope I’m proved wrong, and those sunlit uplands are out there over the horizon. No sign as yet. But I’d be pleased to come back and tell everyone who has listened so far that I was mistaken.

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Wednesday, September 11, 2024 - Tim Walz

Governor Walz traveled from Philadelphia after the Presidential Debate alongside Vice President Harris. However, today he spent the day having some meetings around the city learning about how the Harris-Walz administration could positively impact the city. However, there were no campaign events for voters today. Below are some of the people he met with today and the topics discussed. He also took all meetings with US Representative Ritchie Torres.

Governor Kathy Hochul - Congestion Pricing Cancelation *This meeting was important as the Harris-Walz administration believes the pause of the pricing was a mistake. New York State taxpayers had already funded the infrastructure and either must be repaid, or the policy must begin.

Senator Kristen Gillibrand - Protecting Women's rights in New York and nation-wide

Commissioner Betty Rosa, Chancellor David Banks, Chancellor John B. King, Jr., and Channcelor Félix Matos Rodríguez - Education in NYS and NYC

Superintendent Steven James - Policing in NYS

~BR~

[buttercupkg66]

Terence Banks, a consultant and former MTA official who’s wrapped up in a federal probe of several top officials in the Adams administration, scrubbed his company website after the feds raided his home last week — just days after he was boasting about his political connections, The Post has learned.

Banks — brother of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and Schools Chancellor David Banks, both of whom the feds also targeted — was gloating about his influence with the Adams administration right up to the time the feds knocked on his door, political insiders told The Post.