#history of the Honor Code and other policies

[misfitwashere]

March 17, 2025 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 18

From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.

The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.

“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”

Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.

Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.

The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.

After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.

The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.

Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.

But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”

In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.

Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.

Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Timesreported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.

Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”

The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”

In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “[i]mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”

After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.

The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”

When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.

Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.

And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.

Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”

The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.

The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.

Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it's going to fall on states, and it's going to fall on states really unevenly.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 17, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Mar 18, 2025

From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.

The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.

“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”

Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.

Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.

The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.

After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.

The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.

Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.

But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”

In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.

Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.

Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Times reported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.

Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”

The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”

In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “[i]mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”

After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.

The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”

When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.

Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.

And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.

Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”

The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.

The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.

Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it's going to fall on states, and it's going to fall on states really unevenly.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[straystars-and-planets]

campus couple: a stray kids x fem!reader university/college au

CC (Campus Couple): [acronym] referring to a couple who attends the same university.

Otherwise known as (synopsis): how you meet & fall in love with each of the Stray Kids members during college/university. hcs + short scenarios for each member. Inspired by that one SKZ code episode where they were joking about campus couple and other college slang.

tags: fem!reader, non-idol!au, college/university au, fluff (so much fluff), some minor angst (with happy endings!), some suggestive scenes

a/n: this is my first set of works for skz + first time writing for kpop! reblogs are appreciated + constructive feedback welcome 💕

general masterlist | taglist form

Bang Chan

Major: Music Production | Minor(s): Vocal Performance

Part 1 - music when the moon rises (how we met) 8.30.23 (new!)

Part 2 - i fall asleep to songs about you - 9.3.23

Lee Know

Major: Biology (pre-veterinary track) | Minor(s): Dance, Theater

Part 1 - he still loves his cats (and you) - tba

Part 2 - can cats learn contemporary dance? - tba

Seo Changbin

Major: History | Minor(s): Kinesiology, Music Production

Part 1 - he's not a gym bro (he's more) - tba

Part 2 - changbin salon and the dwaekki plushy - tba

Hwang Hyunjin

Major: Literature | Minor(s): Visual Media Studies/Arts, Dance

Part 1 - i'll paint cards with watercolor flowers - tba

Part 2 - you are always beautiful in my eyes - tba

Han Jisung

Major: Music Production | Minor(s): Intl. Comparative Studies

Part 1 - The student council president is actually a shy hamster? - tba

Part 2 - Fantastic Student Council President Han Jisung - tba

(a/n - if you couldn't tell I tried to base Han's titles off of anime/k-drama titles in honor of Han's love of watching anime/dramas!)

Lee Felix

Major: Culinary Arts | Minor(s): Dance, Game Design

Part 1 - best chocolate chip cookies secrets #bakinghacks - tba

Part 2 - trying cooking hacks (ft. my girlfriend!) - tba

Kim Seungmin

Major: Psychology | Minor(s): English, Chemistry

Part 1 - honesty is the best policy (most of the time) - tba

Part 2 - one standard deviation away from becoming a mad scientist - tba

Yang Jeongin

Major: Fashion | Minor(s): Vocal Performance, Graphic Design

Part 1 - i'll sing until you notice - tba

Part 2 - our OOTD (outfit of the day) - tba

©@straystars-and-planets 2023. do not copy, translate or repost my work.

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM) chancellor has apologized to the Jewish community for reaching an agreement with an anti-Zionist group which ended a “Gaza encampment” in exchange for the school’s issuing a statement calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas and considering an academic boycott of Israel.

“It is clear to me that UWM should not have weighed in on deeply complex geopolitical and historical issues,” UWM chancellor Mark Mone said on Tuesday. “And for that, I apologize. I acknowledge that it is an increasingly difficult time for many Jewish students at UWM and across America.”

He added, “Let me be clear: UWM resolutely condemns antisemitism, just as we do Islamophobia and all other forms of hatred. Our campus must be a place that welcomes all students and the full expression their history, culture, identity, and ethnicity. But words alone cannot create the culture of inclusion we desire, which is why we must transform our words into commitment and action. This work will take time, as all hard work does, and it will also take the openness of our entire community.”

Mone did not say whether he intends to honor the deal he brokered with��Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group that has been linked to terrorist organizations and is a source of a substantial number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses. In addition to agreeing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, on May 12, he issued a statement describing Israel’s war to destroy the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza as “genocide,” citing figures reported by Hamas-controlled authorities which have been lambasted by experts as unreliable. The deal also stipulates UWM’s reviewing “its study abroad policies” and pressuring a local environmental organization to cut ties with two Israeli companies, which Mone has already done.

“University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone capitulated to protesters who violated UWM codes of conduct and state law, vandalized university property, and used harassment and intimidation to fuel antisemitism on campus,” the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Hillel Milwaukee, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said about the deal in a joint statement. “The agreement is amongst the most offensive and dangerous of any university agreement reached with encampment protesters over the last two weeks.”

Mone is not the only university leader accused of injuring Jewish university life to appease anti-Zionist protesters.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

WhatMatters

Your guide to California policy and politics

By Lynn La

May 29, 2025

Presented by TURN – The Utility Reform Network, CA Primary Care Association, The Nature Conservancy and San Jose Spotlight

 

 

Good morning, California.

COVID-19 variant in CA, right on time for summer spike

A clinical lab scientist works with COVID-19 test samples in a lab at the Sonoma County Department of Public Health on June 8, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

Stanford scientists have recently confirmed California’s first known infection of a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant, known as NB.1.8.1. Detected in the state as early as April 17, its symptoms do not appear to be any more severe than earlier strains so far, and because NB.1.8.1 is an Omicron variant, the latest vaccines should provide some immunity.

But NB.1.8.1 is more infectious: The strain has been spreading throughout Asia and Europe, and is responsible for the latest surge of infections in China. In addition to California, it has been reported in international visitors traveling through airports in Washington, New York and Virginia. Separate from airport travelers, the variant has also been reported in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

Amid news of this latest strain, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will limit COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to people ages 65 and older, and people who are at high risk for severe infections. In an article published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, FDA officials said that “the benefit of repeat dosing — particularly among low-risk persons … is uncertain.” 

Historically the vaccine has been available to almost all people ages 6 months and older, and the new policy means that the FDA is no longer recommending the vaccine to healthy children and pregnant women. The FDA is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has had a history of spreading widely debunked anti-vaccination views.

The FDA’s rule change comes two months after the California Department of Public Health said that President Donald Trump’s administration terminated more than $700 million in public health grants related to COVID-19 response.

Though there is no longer a pandemic, infections do tend to spike during the summer, with California seeing some of its highest surges last summer. More than 101,000 Californians have died from COVID-19 and more than 1 million Americans have died — exceeding by a wide margin American service member casualties in every war combined.

More honors: CalMatters won four Golden State Journalism Awards this year, with reporting that meets “the interests and needs of all Californians.” The awards were given for state Capitol and environment reporting, California Voices commentary and TV reporting driven by Digital Democracy.

Awards night: Join us for the NorCal Emmy Awards Gala on June 14 in Sacramento. The gala includes the inaugural California Correspondents’ Reception followed by the Emmy Awards Dinner, where CalMatters and CBS News California are nominated for awards. Enter the coupon code ‘CalMatters’ at checkout for a discount on tickets. The deadline to purchase is May 31.

Other Stories You Should Know 

Kicking Californians off Medi-Cal?

Longtime caretaker Marie Locoh helps Cynde Soto at her home in Long Beach on May 26, 2025. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed reinstating a limit on assets for Medi-Cal enrollees. Critics are concerned doing so would keep thousands of low-income seniors and disabled people from having vital health coverage, writes CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

California last year eliminated its cap on how much in assets a person could own to qualify for Medi-Cal. That led to an unanticipated number of people enrolling for Medical, according to the Newsom administration. 

So, amid multibillion-dollar budget deficits for both the state and Medi-cal, the governor wants to bring back an asset limit which was originally set in 1989: $2,000 for individuals 65 and older, as well as those with disabilities. Among other things, assets include life insurance, cash on hand, savings accounts and even owning some funeral plots.

Newsom said the proposal would save the state $94 million this year and $500 million the next. But those opposed say it would create a financial cliff for those about to turn 65, and that it’s nearly impossible to live with just $2,000 in assets in California — especially if you must pay costly medical expenses. 

Read more here.

 

Housing prices contribute to transit woes

A VTA Light Rail train passes an apartment complex in San Jose on May 10, 2019. Photo by Dai Sugano, Bay Area News Group

Public transit systems across California are facing a “fiscal cliff,” and there are a number of reasons why ridership is down: Aging transit infrastructure, more people are owning cars and a lack of robust, on-going investment from state and federal governments, to name a few.

But as CalMatters’ Ben Christopher explains, there is another, less obvious reason: California’s housing affordability crisis. 

In neighborhoods located in Los Angeles and Orange counties that have reliable buses and trains systems, transit ridership tended to decrease where rents were rising, according to a 2024 study by UCLA researchers. At South L.A. Chinatown, for example, average rents went up $379 and transit use fell by 21%. In a part of San Fernando Valley’s Pacoima, rent was up $305, ridership was down 28%. 

The findings suggest that gentrification — in addition to widening economic inequalities — displaces some residents who rely on transit systems. When they move to other neighborhoods where the transit system may not be as good, they are pushed further away from their jobs, leading to more driving, more traffic and more pollution. 

Read more here.

 

And lastly: Trump freezes grants for LA clean trucks

Semi-trucks exit Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Feb. 11, 2025. Photo by Joel Angel Juarez for CalMatters

As part of an effort to claw back billions of dollars in green energy funding, the Trump administration has frozen $250 million in grants to a nonprofit helping companies replace diesel trucks at the L.A. and Long Beach ports. CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on the legal dispute as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

  

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: A lawsuit currently before a superior court judge in L.A. County reignites the never-ending war between public schools and charter schools.

CalMatters contributor Jim Newton: In the effort to save L.A.’s MacArthur Park, local officials and community activists are clashing over the role of police and the limitations of social policy.

Other things worth your time:

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

Newsom defends podcast, doubles down on criticism of Democrats // The San Francisco Standard

Trump lawyer says US plans to sue UC over antisemitism allegations // Los Angeles Times

Federal grant cuts hit CA universities hard, putting research in limbo // EdSource

18 people went to jail in Sacramento County for being homeless, records show // The Sacramento Bee

This CA highway is now a park. The cars are gone, but not the anger // The New York Times

PG&E sees ‘huge’ data center demand in San Jose area as tech expands // The Mercury News

Fresno hasn’t tapped San Joaquin River’s potential. Could it be city’s main draw? // The Fresno Bee

Funding for LA’s emergency management unit, vital to Palisades recovery, remains static // Los Angeles Times

Under Fire Act, inmate firefighters could have a new pipeline to employment // Los Angeles Times

UCSD study: Tijuana sewage isn’t the only pollutant detectible in the air // The San Diego Union-Tribune

 

See you next time!

Tips, insight or feedback? Email whatmatters@calmatters.org. Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here. Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.

 

     

 

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CalMatters 1017 L Street #261 Sacramento, CA 95814 United States

[blowflyfag]

WRESTLING EYE: APRIL 1993

AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE WWF-USWA MERGE

BY STEVE MUELLER

On August 9, 1992, the wrestling world changed. It changed not with a bang, but with a challenge. It changed in a manner that may, one day, restructure the entire way professional wrestling is promoted in America. In some ways, the change was as significant as the national Football League agreeing to face the American Football League in a Super Bowl. 

On that date, the World Wrestling Federation officially recognized the existence of a wrestling promotion other than itself. Oh, during the past couple of years, there head been some cracks in the WWF rigid policy of not recognizing the existence of other pro wrestling organizations. For example, Ric Flair came into the promotion with the NWA world title belt in tow and calling himself the “real World Champion.” But the official beginning of the new WWF philosophy did indeed begin on August 9.

That date saw Jeff Jarret, son of USWA promoter Jerry Jarret and one of that promotion’s top attractions, leap a barricade at a WWF event to challenge then WWF Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart to a title match. Hart accepted the challenge and a new era dawned. 

Allegedly because Hart would lose the Intercontinental strap to the British Bulldog at SummerSlam in ‘92, the match never took place. But that fact is inconsequential because the WWF and USWA entered into an historic “working agreement.” For the first time since the Vince McMahon, Jr., era began in 1984, the WWF promoted cards on which non-WWF wrestlers appeared. Additionally, some WWF wrestlers and personalities began appearing on USWA cards. 

What does this all mean? How will it effect the future of wrestling in America? Is this a trend, the start of things to come, or just an aberration. Good questions that need answers. WRESTLING EYE will try to supply them. 

What follows is an attempt by the crack WRESTLING EYE editorial staff to analyze these dramatic events. The entire development will be broken down into its component parts. Opinions of experts will be reviewed. Logical conclusions and suppositions will be formulated. 

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan was one of the WWF wrestlers chosen to compete in the USWA.]

THE PLAYERS

VINCE McMAHON

World Wrestling Federation head honcho, alleged marketing genius, and supreme commander of the universe, at least the WWF slice of it, Vince McMahon is the prime mover in this story. Vince was the first promoter to successfully take a wrestling promotion national, and, love him or hate him, he remains the world champion of wrestling promoters with no serious challengers for his crown in sight. 

McMahon has been called by some a serpentine, cut-throat businessman with an ego the size of Montana, by others a genius with his own code of honor and a great love for the wrestling business. Whatever the reality may be, he is one of the most influential and complex men ever to be involved with the mat sport. 

JERRY JARRET

Owner/operator of the United States Wrestling Association, based in Tennessee. His longtime top attraction is Jerry “the King” Lawler, perhaps the greatest all-around star in the history of southern wrestling. (Lawler has a significant role in this growing saga. That role will be discussed later.)

[Many feel that the Rock ‘n Roll Express would be an excellent addition to the WWF –Photo by Cohen.]

According to Jim Cornette, wrestling greatest living manager, in an interview in the “Pro Wrestling Torch” newsletter, “Jerry Jarret is one the shrewdest businessman in wrestling. I have never known him to come up on the short end of a business deal.” 

[Jeff Gaylord could be a competent replacement for the Ultimate Warrior. –Photo by Wilson]

Earlier this year, Jarret was trying to set-up a working relationship with World Championship Wrestling. That deal fell through. It appears this one will not. 

OVERVIEW

The exact nature of this “working relationship” has yet to be revealed or determined. It seems to be a work in progress. Rumors have claimed everything from the USWA becoming a kind of minor league for the WWF to the whole deal being an elaborate scheme by Vince McMahon to take over Memphis wrestling. However, why Vince McMahon would want to do that is not clear at this time. Especially in view of the wrestling depression that is currently gripping America. One thing Vince does not need is more empty arenas. 

This “working agreement” has advantages for both promotions. The USWA gets WWF stars to appear on its shows. The WWF saves travel money by using USWA wrestlers to fill up spots on cards run in the South. And then, on December 7, the WWF got a lot more. It got Jerry Lawler. 

[Jeff Jarrett has challenged Bret Hart.]

WRESTLERS AND PERSONALITIES

Jerry Lawler’s move to the WWF is significant on many levels. Lawler, called the Hulk Hogan of the South, debuted on the December 7 edition of “Prime Time” on the USA network. Lawler is a great ring worker, but even more importantly, he is one of the best communicators in the history of the sport. His great all-around ability is reflected in his amazing accomplishments. Without working for a major promotion for any length of time, Lawler has over the last 15 years been one of the most influential men in the sport. He even parlayed a feud with late comic Andy Kaufman into appearances on the David Letterman Show and sold out houses in the Mid-South Coliseum.

[Can you imagine the havoc the Moondogs would wreak in the WWF?]

Jeff Jarret has also been wrestling successfully in opening matches on WWF cards not only in the south, but across America. Additionally, many WWF stars have appeared at USWA events including Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart, southern wrestling managerial legend, Sergeant Slaughter, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and the Bushwackers. 

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

Experts say the huge egos of McMahon and Jarret can’t co-exist very long. Others say that the McMahon/Jarret alliance is the first stage of a new way to promote wrestling in America. These experts say that it is alliance born out of necessity. The WWF needs a developing ground for new talent and USWA needs nationally known personalities on its cards to foster credibility in the minds of casual fans. And more importantly, it needs these recognizable stars to get those casual fans to buy tickets for USWA events.

[The WWF-USWA merge could produce some interesting match ups.]

The editorial staff at WRESTLING EYE,, after careful evaluation and extensive study, believe that this alliance is indeed the start of a new era in professional wrestling. As proof, we point to the recently announced alliance between World Championship Wrestling and Smokey Mountain Wrestling. We further believe that these alliances will help pro wrestling overcome its current popularity slump. New faces and developing talent are exactly what the majors need to rekindle interest in the sport. 

[saint-starflicker]

My Top 10 dark academia stageplays:

#10 Cleansed by Sarah Kane

This playwright is known for deconstructions of stageplays themselves. Kane's later works replaced characters with voices, or did away with settings, and became so avant-garde that they weren't shows anymore but experiences. While Cleansed still had something like a plot or characters, it's a surrealist story set at a university—according to the script—that nobody treats as a university because they're only trapped there by a serial-killer torturer man. It is gory, depending on the stage effects budget many audience members are prone to walk out, but if you can withstand the shows of violence then you might find that there is meaningfulness at every instance of it.

#9 Rope's End by Patrick Hamilton

The morality of murder as discussed by elitist post-grads. I think The Secret History fans would like this for the similar themes. There was a movie adaptation in 1948 directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

#8 The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman

There is a movie version from 1961 that I consider "malicious compliance" to the Hays Code policy of bury-your-lesbians. The doomed-to-death character was not a bad person, and an intolerant society is worse off for having lost her.

#7 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel

Tilly Hunsdorfer has a science fair project to put together, but her home life continues a legacy of child abuse. I have not watched the 1972 film adaptation, but the internet has informed me of its existence.

#6 The Awakening of Spring by Frank Wedekind

Written in 1891, translated into English by Edward Bond in 1974, again by Ted Hughes in 1995, and translated/adapted by Anya Reiss in 2014. When young people aren't guided and educated about facts of life that are traditionally ignored or repressed, then their actions become destructive. There was a very popular Broadway musical adaptation and American Sign Language revival, but I'm trying to keep to listing stageplays that are not musicals.

#5 Proof by David Auburn

A father and daughter duo are mathematicians who figuratively walk a tightrope between genius and madness. There was a movie adaptation in 2005.

#4 Master Class by Terrence McNally

This might not technically be a musical, because the featured songs are selected from other operas that Callas starred in, so I'm including this on the list. A retired opera singer, the legendary Maria Callas, teaches a room full of opera singers. Each song they select to perform sets off a series of monologues from the impassioned Callas about her life, portraying wartime poverty through to the betrayal of torrid love affairs, and how her voice was a gift and a curse.

#3 Educating Rita by Willy Russell

This is much more on the academia side than the dark side, but I think people that liked Dead Poets Society 1989 for the themes will like this stageplay or it's 1983 movie adaptation.

#2 Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

In the year 1809, the honorable Septimus Hodge tutors a teenaged gentlewoman with a keen interest in mathematics and physics. In 1993, two historians and a mathematician stay at the estate and try to find out what happened there between 1809 and 1813: sword duels, extramarital affairs, secret letters, famous poets, and how the brilliant Thomasina died tragically young and unsung. They clash with regards to academic "office politics" and the importance of the humanities versus the sciences.

Honorable Mentions:

The History Boys by Alan Bennett

In terms of how this stageplay and the 2006 movie adaptation tackles social issues, it's technically better than Dead Poets Society on every count: directly confronting misogyny and racism in academia, and having canonically queer boys and men in a convoluted relationship triangle as they try to prepare for university entrance examinations. There is a death. The History Boys absolutely qualifies as the genre Dark Academia. At the same time, I cannot recommend it because the way one main thread of subplot was handled really bothered me.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin

While this list got much less dark from Proof on downwards, this might also be less academic. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso meet at a café, the eponymous "Lapin Agile", and banter with the entire cast of characters about their life and philosophies. I found the entire play both funny and fun, and I really think it gets the neurons firing in sparkly ways.

Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley

At a Catholic school, a nun tries to prevent a priest from further interfering sexually with one of their students. The stageplay keeps the audience in doubt(!) about whether or not he did what he was accused of, as the story spirals into explorations of faith, race, sexual orientation, pragmatism versus principle, and whether what we're shown in our limited ways to witness can really be what it is. There was a movie adaptation in 2008 starring Meryl Streep.

#1

I don't actually know what to put here. Recommend a stageplay that you think belongs in this spot.

[planet-apathy]

Loyalty.

So much can be said about the importance of loyalty. How empires have been erected with it. How wars have been decided by it. How our species survival has at times depended on it. 楚 or Chǔ is one of the seven virtues of bushido, the ethical code these warriors lived and died by. Yes, Human beings throughout history have used this quality as a tool to carve out their place in this plane of existence. But rarely is the other side of this double edged sword brought up. What about when loyalty, and more specifically, the loyalty you show to others is to your own detriment?

“The central theme of Hagakure is the righteous death of the samurai. The proper death is the point around which commentary of other matters revolves; the willingness of the warrior to commit unwaveringly to death when it is demanded of him is the ultimate expression of his devotion to his lord.”

-from In search of a glorious death - by Johann Kurtz

Perspective is important.

Ï was conjured in the slums of a city where such Ä perspective is laughable. Morals and idealism is nice but it’s the Wild West out here. “Honor?!😂😂 you burnt the fuck out dickhead!” Is not too far off from the reply you’d receive trying to live righteously in this environment. Here, your child’s mother might fuck your mortal enemy because you looked to happy dropping them off to her. Here, your right hand man, whom you’ve know since childhood, might blow your brains out of your skull and onto the pavement like a banksy street art piece, and Äll because of a girl he wanted that didn’t give him play because she had her eyes on you. The real tragedy to me is that neither of these situations were about any money🤦🏽‍♂️ Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed both happen to some really good men that didn’t deserve it. 🕊️. What is one trying to live better to do under these circumstances of reality?

Pragmatic thought processes may lead you to think “well, maybe you have to be more discerning of who you give your loyalty too.” But Ï feel this notion is quixotic at best and contrarian at worst. Life is messy and you can never know a human beyond the mask they choose to show you. To be loyal is to allow yourself to be vulnerable to the capricious nature of the land mammals you happen to exist around🤷🏽‍♂️. Well, that leads us back to the mentality of the samurai. They laid there life down for their daimyo(Feudal Lord) regardless of how they felt about their lord’s decisions.

We praise them for upholding this virtue but looking at it realistically. Without this grandiose lens. What did you give your only (as far as you know and not just have faith in) finite life for? From all walks of life I ask, on a long enough timeline, because let’s be honest it’s been long enough. Did the empire you KILLED for conquer this planet and bring worldwide peace? Did that gang you DIED for fix the poverty stricken streets you, your mother , and siblings barely escaped from? Did the political party you LIED and GASLIGHTED for install the policies and laws to bring your country and it’s citizens to the upper echelons of life without stepping on a particular group or at least install the ones that would keep those particular groups from being stepped on? Did the religion you BLEW UP-... 😂😂😂 you get the point. Or do you? What is the point of it all? I suppose it’s up to each and every individual to decide their own head canon to justify this quality. And well... at least you have that.

*hits blunt*

✌🏽 young bul.

🚶🏽

[reddanceragain]

Heather Cox Richardson

March 17, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Mar 18

From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.

The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.

“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”

Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.

Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.

The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.

After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.

The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.

Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.

But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”

In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.

Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.

Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Times reported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.

Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”

The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”

In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “[i]mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”

After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.

The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”

When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.

Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.

And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.

Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”

The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.

The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.

Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it's going to fall on states, and it's going to fall on states really unevenly.”

—

[louguerrero]

Philippine History

Prayle

Friar, a member of a religious order. This is a Tagalog term specifically referring to Catholic friars, often associated with the Spanish colonial era in the Philippines.

Brutalisasyon (Tagalog)

Brutality, the act of being brutal. This is a Tagalog term describing harsh, cruel, or violent treatment.

Society

A large group of people who live together in an organized way, making up a community. This refers to a structured group of people with shared norms, values, and institutions.

Dependence

The state of relying on someone or something for support. This can refer to economic, political, or social reliance on external forces.

Politics

The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area. This encompasses the process of making decisions that affect a society.

Dignity

The quality of being worthy of honor and respect. This refers to the inherent worth and value of every individual.

Neocolonialism

The indirect control of a country's economy and politics by a more powerful nation. This is a form of indirect imperialism, where economic and political influence is exerted without direct military or political rule.

Benevolent assimilation

The idea that a colonizing power can civilize and uplift a colonized people. This is a misleading term used to justify colonial actions, suggesting a positive and helpful process of integration that often masked exploitation and oppression.

Comfort women

A euphemism for women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. This is a deeply sensitive topic referring to victims of sexual violence and human trafficking.

Parity rights

Equal rights and opportunities for all. This refers to the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination based on gender, race, religion, etc.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. This refers to the practice of one nation dominating another politically, economically, and culturally.

Deconolization

The process of undoing colonialism. This involves dismantling colonial structures, policies, and ideologies, and reclaiming autonomy and self-determination.

Legacy of resistance

The enduring impact of past struggles against oppression. This refers to the lasting effects of past resistance movements and their influence on current social and political landscapes.

American exeptional

The belief that the United States is unique and destined to play a special role in world affairs. It suggests the US has a unique character and destiny, often justified by its history, ideals, and political system.

Orientalism

A Western style of depicting the East, often based on stereotypes and biases. It's the way Western cultures have historically viewed and represented Eastern cultures, often in a romanticized, exoticized, or patronizing manner.

Conceptual Analysis

Throughout history, cultures, ideologies, and government have been influenced by fundamental propaganda that influences public opinion or the independence of movements that alter the national identities of many Filipinos are examples of ideas that have had a long-term impact on these civilizations. This essay accomplishes this by describing what it all means, why it matters, and what it entails for the real world, allowing us to have a deeper grasp of how those concepts impact political and societal notions. These are not just intellectual abstractions; they have practical implications for culture, revolution, and politics.

The Power of Ideas in Society

Propaganda, the intentional broadcast of information to further an agenda, has been a potent instrument throughout history. Authors and performers use it to shape their narratives, for better or worse. During globe War II, Nazi Germany used propaganda to spread nationalist and anti-Semitic beliefs, shaping public perceptions of the globe.

The code of conduct, similar to Emilio Jacinto's Kartilya, serves as guiding principles for the Katipunan. These papers provide moral foundations and bring people together for a common cause. In Filipino history, they were often at the forefront of revolutionary movements known as Himagsikan, which sought drastic change. Ideologies have led to important tangible transformations, such as the Philippine Revolution in 1896.

Historians, or historyadors, are crucial to understanding our past. Their research, analysis, and interpretation of historical events—as exemplified by Teodoro Agoncillo's work on the Philippine Revolution—allow us to appreciate the significance of our history. Without their contributions, our understanding of national identity and conscience would be severely diminished. Their work extends far beyond academia, shaping our collective memory and understanding of who we are.

Conflict, Fragility, Freedom and Human Rights

Throughout history, armed forces have played a pivotal role in both war and peace, contributing to national sovereignty and international security. However, war is often fought for a larger goal: independence. Many nations, including the Philippines, whose 1946 independence from the United States followed years of colonialism, demonstrate the historical pursuit of freedom from external control. This pursuit is intrinsically linked to the broader themes of conflict, fragility, freedom, and human rights.

Sexual enslavement

Sexual enslavement is a horrific crime frequently associated with conflict. Forced sexual exploitation, achieved through coercion or violence, has tragically occurred throughout history, exemplified by the Japanese Imperial Army's use of comfort women during World War II. This dark chapter underscores the critical need for ongoing activism and legal action to protect human rights.

The treatment of marginalized

The treatment of marginalized groups—those excluded from political, social, and economic systems—is deeply disturbing. Societies often disenfranchise the poor, racial minorities, and especially indigenous peoples. To achieve genuine progress, systemic inequalities must be eradicated to ensure equal justice for all.

At the heart of this long-standing conflict lies the fundamental human right to dignity—the inherent respect and self-worth each person deserves. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms dignity as a fundamental right, and societies that uphold it foster justice and equity.

Meanwhile, socioeconomic class divisions continue to shape our society. The traditions of peasants and farmers...

in Conclusion

The terms presented represent key concepts in understanding historical and contemporary power dynamics, particularly concerning colonialism, imperialism, and their lasting legacies. They highlight the complexities of relationships between dominant and subordinate groups, emphasizing issues of exploitation, resistance, and the ongoing struggle for equality and self-determination. The list also touches upon the ways in which these power imbalances manifest in various aspects of life, from political structures and economic systems to cultural representations and individual dignity. Ultimately, the words collectively illustrate the need for critical analysis of historical injustices and the ongoing fight for social justice and equitable relations.

RPH by Jolou Guerrero, Harold Victangol

[thetajinindia01]

3 days golden triangle tour By The Taj In India Company

The Taj In India Company's 3-Day Golden Triangle Tour

The 3 day Golden Triangle Tour, which visits Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, offers the greatest opportunity to explore India's rich history and culture. The Taj In India Company's three-day tour offers the ideal fusion of architectural, cultural, and historical wonders. Let's explore this amazing journey's specifics.

The Golden Triangle Tour: Why Select It? For those looking to quickly experience the essence of India, the Golden Triangle Tour is a great option. This tour provides an overview of India's varied culture, history, and architecture while seeing three major cities. Every city in the Golden Triangle has a certain allure and importance.

The Taj In India Enterprise The Taj In India Company is well known for its proficiency in planning trips throughout the Golden Triangle. They prioritize client happiness and provide a selection of services meant to make your trip more enjoyable. Their dedication to professionalism and quality guarantees a fun and uneventful tour.

Tour Schedule: Day 1: Getting to Know Delhi The capital city of India, Delhi, is where your journey starts. The city offers a multitude of attractions and is the ideal fusion of the antique and the modern.

Arrival & Sightseeing in Delhi: Your guide will meet you at the airport and drive you to your hotel so you can settle in. The first stop on the sightseeing tour is the Red Fort, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You will also see India Gate, a war memorial honoring Indian soldiers, and Jama Masjid, one of the biggest mosques in India. Day 2: Getting to Know Agra Spend the second day touring Agra, the city that is home to the famous Taj Mahal.

Travel to Agra: Following breakfast, you will have a picturesque journey to reach Agra. Once you arrive, you will see the Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a symbol of love. You will learn about its history and architecture via the guided tour. Other Websites: A visit to Agra Fort, a huge red sandstone fort that provides a window into Mughal history, is also included in the itinerary. It is possible to schedule a visit to Itmad-ud-Daulah's Tomb, popularly known as the Baby Taj. Day 3: Getting to Know Jaipur The itinerary concludes with a visit to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City.

Travel to Jaipur: You'll take a car to Jaipur following breakfast. You will first tour the Amber Fort, which is renowned for its breathtaking architecture and expansive views, after arriving. Principal Draws: The journey continues with stops at the City Palace, the astronomical observatory Jantar Mantar, and Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds). A different perspective on Jaipur's rich cultural past can be gained from each of these locations. Why Make a Reservation at The Taj In India Company? The Taj In India Company is renowned for its tour-planning professionalism and skill. Your tour will be customized to your tastes in every way thanks to their individualized service. Great client feedback attests to their dedication to provide outstanding experiences.

Information on Reservations and Costs It's easy to book your tour. For assistance, go to the website of The Taj In India Company or get in touch with their customer service. All inclusions, including meals, transportation, and guided excursions, are clearly listed, and pricing information is transparent. For your peace of mind, the business also has a flexible cancellation policy.

Travel Advice Take into account these suggestions to guarantee a hassle-free and joyful trip:

Things to Bring: Make sure you have a water bottle, sunscreen, and a camera. Dress code: Put on appropriate footwear and comfy clothes. Best Practices: Be on time, pay attention to what your guide says, and observe laws and customs in the area. In summary An exceptional and memorable experience can be had with The Taj In India Company's 3-day Golden Triangle Tour. For those looking for a thorough and educational tour of some of India's most famous locations, this tour is ideal. It takes in the colorful streets of Delhi, the timeless beauty of the Taj Mahal, and the regal grandeur of Jaipur.

FAQs What does the Golden Triangle tour package include? Transportation, guided tours, lodging, and itinerary-based meals are all included in the package.

Are there any meals included in the tour? Yes, breakfast is included in the tour. On request, additional meals can be scheduled.

Is it possible to modify the tour? Yes, you can tailor a tour with The Taj In India Company to your tastes.

Which season is ideal for taking the Golden Triangle tour? When the weather is nice, from October to March is the ideal time to visit.

Is this a family-friendly tour? Absolutely, the tour is appropriate for all age groups, making it ideal for singles, couples, and families.

[nerdygaymormon]

Why do they bother calling it an "honor code"? The name implies that it's run on the honor system, but they accept tip-offs, even anonymous ones, and investigate based on that. Calling it an "honor code" is an Orwellian use of language.

I like the way you framed the question, you make a good point. "Honor" should be removed from the name, not just because it's not an 'honor system,' but the treatment of LGBTQ students under the Code is not honorable

————————————————————

Here's a brief timeline of the Honor Code & BYU policies, especially regarding LGBTQ people and topics:

Most universities have a Code of Conduct. BYU's Honor Code originated in 1948. It was written by students and originally outlined policies related to academic honesty. In addition to the code, students formed the BYU Honor Committee, which acted as the enforcer of the honesty policies.

Over the years, student support for the Honor Committee and Code waned, with students citing its standards to be a “strict legalistic approach” to honor. This is exactly what anon was saying, it's not 'on your honor' if you're strictly enforcing it.

In 1957, BYU President Ernest Wilkinson suggested the addition of LDS moral standards to the Honor Code.

A "live and let live" attitude had been the leaders’ attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual BYU students. That ended in 1962, school administrators and two apostles decided that "as a general policy...no one will be admitted to the B.Y.U. whom we have convincing evidence is a homosexual." The general authorities would turn over to BYU any information on homosexuality which they might obtain through ecclesiastical channels, and BYU would give the general authorities information on individuals at BYU who were suspected of being Gay.

The Honor Code expanded in the 1960s to become what we know it as today, it includes rules about chastity, dress, grooming, drugs and alcohol.

In 1965, President Wilkinson publicly announced to the student body, "We [at BYU] do not intend to admit to our campus any homosexuals."

The 1967 version of the Honor Code stated that "homosexuality will not be tolerated."

Also in 1967, President Wilkinson implemented a new plan. A questionnaire was sent to all Mormon bishops affiliated with BYU. The questionnaires required the bishops report to the school lists of students who were "inactive in the church or...not living the standards of the church," effectively breaking the secrecy of the confessional. Because of this new policy, the numbers of students visiting the Standards Office (which later would be renamed the Honor Code Office) soared dramatically. That first year, the Standards Office counseled 72 students who were "suspected of homosexual activity." The questionnaires eventually turned into the ecclesiastical endorsement students would be required to obtain annually (and can be withdrawn at any time) in order to attend BYU.

This dramatic increase in identified Gays and Lesbians led the BYU administration to begin what is often referred to by Gay Mormons as the "Witch Hunts of '68". The administration was convinced a large "homosexual ring" was located on campus. Extensive security files were kept on students suspected of homosexuality, and all new prospective teachers had to be interviewed by a general authority before being offered a position at BYU.

In 1968, the administration took over the Honor Code, making it no longer student-run. The Honor Code Committee and Student Senate were disbanded. This was the height of Vietnam War protests so the Honor Code was rewritten to include requirements to respect national and state appointed authority, to register all student organizations, to not enter or occupy university facilities without authorization, and to not use psychedelic drugs.

Some time in the 1960's, the Honor Code added that students must report any infractions of the Honor Code to the Standards Office, and even allowed them to do so anonymously.

In January 1969, the Board of Trustees adjusted the “no gays allowed” policy by making an exception, they decided that "homosexual students would not be admitted or retained at BYU without approval from the General Authorities".

Dallin Oaks replaced Wilkinson as President of BYU in 1971.

In 1972, the Honor Code and its accompanying dress code received approval of the Board of Trustees. It would be almost 20 years before the Honor Code would again be changed.

In 1973 President Oaks partially undoes the policy banning gay students. BYU would permit students who were not “overtly” gay. BYU would allow students who had "repented of" homosexual acts and "forsaken" them for a "lengthy period of time". However, BYU security stepped up actions to find and entrap gay students.

In the mid-1970's, long hair and beards were made completely against the dress code for men, and women were allowed to wear slacks and pantsuits, but not jeans.

In 1980, President Oaks is replaced by Jeffrey Holland as BYU president.

in 1981, BYU female students allowed to wear jeans.

In 1984, albums by popular singer Boy George were banned on BYU campus because he portrayed "transvestitism and homosexuality"

In 1989, Rex Lee became the next president of BYU

In 1991 a revised version of the Honor Code and Dress Code was approved by the Board of Trustees. Students could wear shorts and sandals to class for the first time and socks became optional. It included the phrase "I will follow all other rules and regulations of the university." Also, BYU's unwritten rule about no "overtly" gay students was incorporated into the Code with language making it against the Code to tell others you're gay.

Merrill Bateman became president in 1996.

In 1997, a poll of over 400 BYU students found that 42% of students believed that even if a same-sex attracted person keeps the honor code they should not be allowed to attend BYU and nearly 80% said they would not live with a roommate attracted to people of the same sex.

In 2000, 13 students were kicked out for watching the television show Queer as Folk

By the early 2000s, university policy had progressed to where students were no longer punished for identifying as gay, lesbian, trans, or "SSA." No "homosexual conduct" or "cross dressing" was allowed, and nor was "advocacy of a homosexual lifestyle" (which included indicating support of gay marriage or going to Pride parades). Also forbidden were "behaviors that indicate homosexual conduct, including those not sexual in nature" (holding hands, lingering hugs, and so on).

Cecil Samuelson became BYU president in 2003.

In 2007, BYU reworded its Honor Code policy on homosexual behavior. "Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the Honor Code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings."

A policy change implemented in 2010 removed the ban on LGBT BYU students gathering together in a group. LGBT and straight students began weekly meetings on BYU campus as USGA (Understanding Same Gender Attraction but later renamed Understanding Sexuality, Gender, and Allyship) to discuss issues relating to homosexuality and the LDS Church. Attendance was regularly 70~100 students.

In 2011, a revision was made to the Honor Code to remove the ban on "homosexual advocacy." This permitted students to openly support and affirm queer relationships and legislation, and attend Pride activities.

In late 2012, the BYU Board of Trustees demanded USGA be removed from campus. Ever since, Church leaders have continued to deny all requests of BYU LGBT students to form a club on campus.

In 2015 Kevin Worthen becomes BYU president.

In 2020, the Church removes the entire section about homosexual behavior from the Honor Code. Then 2 weeks later issues a letter clarifying that the same rules apply even though the language no longer exists in the Honor Code.

The reversal of the Honor Code changes led to protests on BYU campus and at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

In 2021, Color the Campus lights up the Y on the mountain in rainbow colors in March to mark the anniversary of the Honor Code reversal

In September 2021, Elder Holland gives his infamous "musket fire" talk, which called out the growing acceptance & support of LGBTQ people & issues by BYU faculty and staff. He spoke of his love for the Y on the mountain lit up in white.

October 2021, Color the Campus again lights up the Y in rainbow colors

January 2022, BYU comes out with new policies banning protests on campus or at the Y on the mountain, this is seen as supporting of Elder Holland's talk and a reaction to the protests after the Honor Code reversal.

[foreverlogical]

Donald Trump’s descent into madness continues.

The latest manifestation of this is a report in The New York Times that the president is weighing appointing the conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, who for a time worked on his legal team, to be special counsel to investigate imaginary claims of voter fraud.

As if that were not enough, we also learned that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was pardoned by the president after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI, attended the Friday meeting. Earlier in the week, Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, floated the idea (which he had promoted before) that the president impose martial law and deploy the military to “rerun” the election in several closely contested states that voted against Trump. It appears that Flynn wants to turn them into literal battleground states.\

None of this should come as a surprise. Some of us said, even before he became president, that Donald Trump’s Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering him, was his psychology—his disordered personality, his emotional and mental instability, and his sociopathic tendencies. It was the main reason, though hardly the only reason, I refused to vote for him in 2016 or in 2020, despite having worked in the three previous Republican administrations. Nothing that Trump has done over the past four years has caused me to rethink my assessment, and a great deal has happened to confirm it.

Given Trump’s psychological profile, it was inevitable that when he felt the walls of reality close in on him—in 2020, it was the pandemic, the cratering economy, and his election defeat—he would detach himself even further from reality. It was predictable that the president would assert even more bizarre conspiracy theories. That he would become more enraged and embittered, more desperate and despondent, more consumed by his grievances. That he would go against past supplicants, like Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and become more aggressive toward his perceived enemies. That his wits would begin to turn, in the words of King Lear. That he would begin to lose his mind.

So he has. And, as a result, President Trump has become even more destabilizing and dangerous.

“I’ve been covering Donald Trump for a while,” Jonathan Swan of Axios tweeted. “I can’t recall hearing more intense concern from senior officials who are actually Trump people. The Sidney Powell/Michael Flynn ideas are finding an enthusiastic audience at the top.”

Even amid the chaos, it’s worth taking a step back to think about where we are: An American president, unwilling to concede his defeat by 7 million popular votes and 74 Electoral College votes, is still trying to steal the election. It has become his obsession.

In the process, Trump has in too many cases turned his party into an instrument of illiberalism and nihilism. Here are just a couple of data points to underscore that claim: 18 attorneys generals and more than half the Republicans in the House supported a seditious abuse of the judicial process.

And it’s not only, or even mainly, elected officials. The Republican Party’s base has often followed Trump into the twilight zone, with a sizable majority of them affirming that Joe Biden won the election based on fraud and many of them turning against medical science in the face of a surging pandemic.

COVID-19 is now killing Americans at the rate of about one per minute, but the president is “just done with COVID,” a source identified as one of Trump’s closest advisers told The Washington Post. “I think he put it on a timetable and he’s done with COVID ... It just exceeded the amount of time he gave it.”

This is where Trump’s crippling psychological condition—his complete inability to face unpleasant facts, his toxic narcissism, and his utter lack of empathy—became lethal. Trump’s negligence turned what would have been a difficult winter into a dark one. If any of his predecessors—Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, to go back just 40 years—had been president during this pandemic, tens of thousands of American lives would almost surely have been saved.

“My concern was, in the worst part of the battle, the general was missing in action,” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, one of the very few Republicans to speak truth in the Trump era.

In 30 days, Donald Trump will leave the presidency, with his efforts to mount a coup having failed. The encouraging news is that it never really had a chance of succeeding. Our institutions, especially the courts, will have passed a stress test, not the most difficult ever but difficult enough, and unlike any in our history. Some local officials exhibited profiles in courage, doing the right thing in the face of threats and pressure from their party. And a preponderance of the American public, having lived through the past four years, deserve credit for canceling this presidential freak show rather than renewing it. The “exhausted majority” wasn’t too exhausted to get out and vote, even in a pandemic.

But the Trump presidency will leave gaping wounds nearly everywhere, and ruination in some places. Truth as a concept has been battered from the highest office in the land on an almost hourly basis. The Republican Party has been radicalized, with countless Republican lawmakers and other prominent figures within the party having revealed themselves to be moral cowards, even, and in some ways especially, after Trump was defeated. During the Trump presidency, they were so afraid of getting crosswise with him and his supporters that they failed the Solzhenitsyn test: “The simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions! His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme—only not through me.

”During the past four years, the right-wing ecosystem became more and more rabid. Many prominent evangelical supporters of the president are either obsequious, like Franklin Graham, or delusional, like Eric Metaxas, and they now peddle their delusions as being written by God. QAnon and the Proud Boys, Newsmax and One America News, Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson—all have been emboldened.

These worrisome trends began before Trump ran for office, and they won’t disappear after he leaves the presidency. Those who hope for a quick snapback will be disappointed. Still, having Trump out of office has to help. He’s going to find out that there’s no comparable bully pulpit. And the media, if they are wise, will cut off his oxygen, which is attention. They had no choice but to cover Trump’s provocations when he was president; when he’s an ex-president, that will change.

For the foreseeable future, journalists will rightly focus on the pandemic. But once that is contained and defeated, it will be time to go back to focusing more attention on things like the Paris Accords and the carbon tax; the earned-income tax credit and infrastructure; entitlement reform and monetary policy; charter schools and campus speech codes; legal immigration, asylum, assimilation, and social mobility. There is also an opportunity, with Trump a former president, for the Republican Party to once again become the home of sane conservatism. Whether that happens or not is an open question. But it’s something many of us are willing to work for, and that even progressives should hope for.Beyond that, and more fundamental than that, we have to remind ourselves that we are not powerless to shape the future; that much of what has been broken can be repaired; that though we are many, we can be one; and that fatalism and cynicism are unwarranted and corrosive.

There’s a lovely line in William Wordsworth’s poem “The Prelude”: “What we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how.

”There are still things worthy of our love. Honor, decency, courage, beauty, and truth. Tenderness, human empathy, and a sense of duty. A good society. And a commitment to human dignity. We need to teach others—in our individual relationships, in our classrooms and communities, in our book clubs and Bible studies, and in innumerable other settings—why those things are worthy of their attention, their loyalty, their love. One person doing it won’t make much of a difference; a lot of people doing it will create a culture.

Maybe we understand better than we did five years ago why these things are essential to our lives, and why when we neglect them or elect leaders who ridicule and subvert them, life becomes nasty, brutish, and generally unpleasant.

Just after noon on January 20, a new and necessary chapter will begin in the American story. Joe Biden will certainly play a role in shaping how that story turns out—but so will you and I. Ours is a good and estimable republic, if we can keep it.

PETER WEHNER is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He writes widely on political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues, and he is the author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.

[more-than-a-princess]

As Sonia is spending some much-needed, much-wanted time with her father (and I’m working on some asks and replies), here’s a few headcanons I have about her father, King Alexandre of Novoselic, in honor of Father’s Day:

- Alexandre was a very bright, dedicated, and studious boy: he was at the top of his graduating class at In Utero and attended Oxford (though both Oxford and Cambridge offered him places in their various universities). His best subjects in high school were maths and social sciences, and much like his daughter decades later, he excelled in history, law, economics, and public policy later on. Surprisingly enough, foreign languages was a weak spot for him, and he had to work extra hard to master the 30+ languages as required by members of the Novoselic Royal Family. He often travels with interpreters on various royal functions, just to be completely sure he does not make mistakes. 

- Like Sonia, Alexandre never had to officially serve in any one of Novoselic’s military factions as the heir to the throne. However, he was one of the highest ranked of his military service classes and the best shot of his year.

- Unlike many other princes and heirs to various international thrones at the time, Prince Alexandre of Novoselic was a more introspective and quiet person: not the one to be boisterous, loud, or particularly charming, his hobbies outside of the usual royal pursuits included mecha anime (especially model kits), kaiju films, and music. He can play a variety of instruments (and can sing, something his daughter didn’t inherit), but electric and acoustic guitar are his favorites: in his private office, he has guitars mounted on the walls, a variety of completed model kits, and more vinyl and CDs than the staff can count. And like Sonia, he too is an avid reader: he likes adventure epics and political thrillers. He has been snuck into a concert more than once by his security, and plenty of times on his own.

- He learned how to make precisely one dish: omurice. He likes the combination of Japanese fried rice and western-style omelets, but he likes to add melted Novoselic cheese on top.

- Some of his favorite activities to do with his daughter include shooting, horseback riding, and chess, when he has the time. He is also her instructor for the highest-clearance military strategy lessons and supposedly, she is the only one he’s told the precise codes for the nation’s most dangerous and lethal weapons, to be used only when there is no other option.

[96thdayofrage]

Surprised by census results, many in Puerto Rico reconsider views on race

“Puerto Ricans themselves are understanding their whiteness comes with an asterisk,” an expert said. “They know they’re not white by U.S. standards, but they’re not Black by Puerto Rico standards.”

The number of people in Puerto Rico who identified as “white” in the most recent census plummeted almost 80 percent, sparking a conversation about identity on an island breaking away from a past where race was not tracked and seldom debated in public.

The drastic drop surprised many, and theories abound as the U.S. territory’s 3.3 million people begin to reckon with racial identity.

“Puerto Ricans themselves are understanding their whiteness comes with an asterisk,” said Yarimar Bonilla, a political anthropologist and director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York. “They know they’re not white by U.S. standards, but they’re not Black by Puerto Rico standards.”

Nearly 50 percent of those represented in the 2020 census — 1.6 million of 3.29 million — identified with “two races or more,” a jump from 3 percent — or some 122,200 of 3.72 million — who chose that option in the 2010 census. Most of them selected “white and some other race.”

Meanwhile, more than 838,000 people identified as “some other race alone,” a nearly 190 percent jump compared with some 289,900 people a decade ago, although Bonilla said Census Bureau officials have yet to release what races they chose. Experts believe people likely wrote “Puerto Rican,” “Hispanic” or “Latino,” even though federal policy defines those categories as ethnicity, not race.

Among those who changed their response to race was 45-year-old Tamara Texidor, who selected “other” in 2010 and this time opted to identify herself as “Afrodescendent.” She said she made the decision after talking to her brother, who was a census worker and told her how people he encountered when he went house to house often had trouble with the question about race.

Texidor began reflecting about her ancestry and wanted to honor it since she descended from slaves on her father’s side.

“I’m not going to select ‘other,’” she recalled thinking when filling out the census. “I feel I am something.”

Experts are still debating what sparked the significant changes in the 2020 census. Some believe several factors are at play, including tweaks in wording and a change in how the Census Bureau processes and codes responses.

Bonilla also thinks a growing awareness of racial identity in Puerto Rico played a part, saying that “extra intense racialization” in the past decade might have contributed. She and other anthropologists argue that change stemmed from anger over what many consider a botched federal response to a U.S. territory struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria and a crippling economic crisis.

“They’ve finally understood that they’re treated like second-class citizens,” Bárbara Abadía-Rexach, a sociocultural anthropologist, said of Puerto Ricans.

Another critical change in the 2020 census was that only a little over 228,700 identified solely as Black or African American, a nearly 50 percent drop compared with more than 461,000 who did so a decade ago. The decline occurred even as grass-roots organizations in Puerto Rico launched campaigns to urge people to embrace their African heritage and raised awareness about racial disparities, although they said they were encouraged by the increase in the “two or more races” category.

Bonilla noted Puerto Rico currently has no reliable data to determine whether such disparities have occurred during the pandemic, noting that there is no racial data on coronavirus testing, hospitalizations or fatalities.

The island’s government also does not collect racial data on populations, including those who are homeless or incarcerated, Abadía-Rexach added.

“The denial of the existence of racism renders invisible, criminalizes and dehumanizes many Black people in Puerto Rico,” she said.

The lack of such data could be rooted in Puerto Rico’s history. From 1960 to 2000, the island conducted its own census and never asked about race.

“We were supposed to be all mixed and all equal, and race was supposed to be an American thing,” Bonilla said.

Some argued at the time that Puerto Rico should be tracking racial data while others viewed it as a divisive move that would impose or harden racial differences, a view largely embraced in France, which does not collect official data on race or ethnicity.

For Isar Godreau, an anthropologist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, that type of data is crucial.

“Skin color is an important marker that makes people vulnerable to more or less racial discrimination,” she said.

The data helps people fight for racial justice and determines the allocation of resources, Godreau said.

The major shift in the 2020 census — especially how only 560,592 people identified as white versus more than 2.8 million in 2010 — comes amid a growing interest in racial identity in Puerto Rico, where even recent surveys about race prompted responses ranging from “members of the human race” to “normal” to “I get along with everyone.” Informally, people on the island use a wide range of words to describe someone’s skin color, including “coffee with milk.”

That interest is fueled largely by a younger generation: They have signed up for classes of bomba and plena — centuries-old, percussion-powered musical traditions — as well as workshops on how to make or wear headwraps.

More hair salons are specializing in curly hair, eschewing the blow-dried results that long dominated professional settings in the island. Some legislators have submitted a bill that cites the results of the 2020 census and that if approved would make it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their hair style. Several U.S. states already have similar laws.

As debate continues on what sparked so many changes in the 2020 census, Bonilla said an important question is what the 2030 census results will look like. “Will we see an intensification of this pattern, or will 2020 have been kind of a blip moment?”

[lastsonlost]

Call me crazy but I think this girl is the one who needs to be suspended and have a restraining order against her..

Williams College suspended a male student based on his failure to pursue a relationship with a female student after “kissing and touching” her, according to a lawsuit against the private school.

Both the unnamed Hispanic student “John Doe” and his accuser “Sally Smith” are foreign students. She accused him of sexual misconduct not because he acted without her consent, John claims, but because he was “culturally insensitive” after their amorous encounters.

<It’s “culturally insensitive” to not date a woman. Yeah, fuck your culture! No means no bitch!

Adjudicators misrepresented the evidence in the record, ignored Sally’s messages to John expressing positive feelings about their first amorous encounter, and didn’t even correctly apply the “preponderance of evidence” standard, the suit alleges.

John claims that he was subject to several disadvantages during the investigation and hearing, including that Williams refused to judge the credibility of Sally and witnesses “face to face.” Sally also physically threatened him but the college did nothing, he alleges.

Williams even refused to let John offer evidence that Sally had a history of making “repeated accusations of cultural insensitivity,” casting doubt on her accusations against him.

The college wrongly found John responsible based on “a flawed disciplinary process” where gender bias was a “motivating factor,” the suit claims, citing biased and stereotypical training materials for the Title IX panel.

The accused student claims breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of Title IX. The court docket shows that U.S. District Judge Mark Mastroianni granted John permission to continue his litigation under a pseudonym.

Mastroianni previously approved a similar lawsuit against another Massachusetts private college, Amherst. It settled the lawsuit rather than allow its disciplinary procedures to be examined in a trial.

Williams College spokesperson Greg Shook did not respond to several requests for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 18.

College allegedly ignores physical threat by accuser.

While Sally claimed that John did not obtain her “affirmative consent” in the amorous encounters – which apparently stopped at breast-touching – it was really her “conservative religious values” that motivated the accusation, the suit claims.

The college Code of Conduct expressly states that “consent once given may be withdrawn at any time,” but Sally tried to withdraw her consent after the encounters, as judged by her messages to John, he says.

Sally initiated the relationship with John in November 2016, telling “a number of her friends” before their first dinner that she was interested in him. She told him on a walk after dinner that she had “never kissed a boy” owing to the “restrictive cultural norms in her home country.”

John asked for Sally’s permission to kiss her in his dorm room, and she agreed. The kissing escalated to “consensual touching” while fully clothed.

Two days later she sent him a message saying “I’ve liked you quite a lot” and calling their amorous encounter “amazing.” She apologized for “being so weird and awkward the entire time.”

Though she values “the emotional aspects” of the encounter “over the physical ones, I’ve been feeling so different and liberated after it,” Sally wrote. “I’ve not been this happy ever since I started college.”

When he responded four days later, John showed less enthusiasm, saying that they should “hang out at some point next week” but warning that “I’m just going to be super busy until the end of the semester.”

They didn’t talk again until January, when Sally interviewed for a position in a campus organization where John served in leadership. She asked to speak with him before learning she got the position, which he communicated to her at their meeting in his dorm room.

Sally “expressed anger about what she saw as Doe’s cultural insensitivity around their prior interaction” – failing to seek a romantic relationship with her after showing physical affection.

While John told Sally he was “emotionally unavailable,” he again asked to kiss her, and she agreed again. The suit claims that he “asked Smith before initiating any new touching and did nothing without her consent.”

She rejected his first request to touch her breasts but approved his second request a few minutes later.

Several days later, John asked Sally why her friends were “treating him strangely.” She told him he had “emotionally manipulat[ed]” her, “tak[en] advantage of [her] lack of knowledge of American cultural norms” and “disrespect[ed]” her own cultural norms.

But what panicked John was when Sally allegedly said she “had lots of people ready to hurt him.”

Though Ninah Pretto, associate dean of international student services, told him that this could be construed as harassment, the director of sexual assault prevention and response, Meg Bossong (below), told him she couldn’t help. He got the same response from “[e]veryone” else he asked for help.

Advisor encouraged her to see incident as sexual assault.

Three months later – after Bossong talked to her “junior advisor” – Sally filed a formal Title IX complaint against John alleging both November and January encounters were nonconsensual.

The notification letter he received from Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom was short on detail, including “the nature of the sexual interactions,” specific dates and locations, and even whether Sally claimed she was “incapable of consenting.” It also did not specify which code provision John allegedly violated.

As a result, he could not intelligently prepare for his meeting with the outside investigator hired by Williams, Allyson Kurker. (Her name shows up in at least two other Title IX lawsuits against Williams by accused males.)

Because Sandstrom barred John from reaching out to potential witnesses whom he may have spoken to about Sally, one of the witnesses he recommended to Kurker turned down the interview, apparently unaware what it was about.

Kurker also violated Williams policy by not giving John the opportunity to suggest questions to ask witnesses, the suit claims. She withheld details about testimony by Sally’s witnesses:

Accordingly, the College completely deprived Doe, for the entirety of Ms. Kurker’s investigation, of all information regarding the identities of five of the eight witnesses interviewed, the substance of their statements, and the topics about which they were interviewed.

The draft report issued by Kurker (left) disclosed for the first time that Sally had accused John of using force and leaving her with “bruises,” while excluding “many significant facts” John had provided. This made John wonder about “similarly important facts” that Kurker might have left out from her other interviews.

The deans prevented John from providing his own relevant evidence in response to the report, he claims. One was a series of texts that suggested Sally was initially hesitant to accuse him.

A witness told John’s then-girlfriend, “who was not interviewed in the investigation,” that Sally had told her she “still loved” John and did not want to “get the deans on this.” The witness also said that Sally’s junior advisor – a sort of live-in mentor for freshmen – was encouraging Sally to accuse John of sexual assault.

Though Sandstrom justified the ban on the basis that the texts did not “describe direct knowledge of the incident in question,” she allowed the inclusion of texts against John by the junior advisor that also provided no direct knowledge.

Sandstrom also ordered Kurker to remove credibility-related testimony from the report: that Sally’s friends said she was “motivated” to accuse John because he had received “a particular honor” at Williams. The dean refused to tell John how Sally explained the “discrepancy” between her denial and her friends’ testimony. (John speculates that Sandstrom, who is “close” to one of his relatives, mistreated him “in order to shield herself from accusations of favoritism.”)

Pretto, the international dean who initially told John that Sally may have harassed him, banned John from providing evidence that Sally had a pattern of making accusations of “cultural insensitivity.”

Sally allegedly told him during their November encounter that a professor was culturally insensitive, and during their January encounter that a freshman sexually harassed her. Pretto excluded this second recollection.

Trauma-informed training encourages panel to ignore inconsistencies.

The main evidence used by the hearing panel – Kurker’s final report, stripped of relevant evidence submitted by John – provided no information that would help adjudicators make credibility determinations, the suit claims.

Though Kurker was “the only representative of Williams who spoke directly” to the parties and witnesses, the report lacked information about “the parties’ demeanor during their interviews … motives to make false statements” and their consistency across various statements.

The panel was also likely operating under a set of stereotypical assumptions based on the training they had received, John claims. He submitted a 90-page training manual on adjudicating sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and retaliation cases at Williams. (Though undated, it cites research from as recently as 2015.)

“These training materials contain anti-male bias and encourage panelists to stereotype men as sexually aggressive and more likely to commit sexual assault,” while also suggesting that panelists can ignore the “intent” of the accused student.

“The training materials include claims about ‘traumatic memory’ suggesting that panel members should ignore inconsistencies in complainants’ accounts,” the suit says. (Such “trauma-informed” techniques have been criticized as unscientific by memory and neuroscience experts.)

The three-member panel – all appointed by Sandstrom (right) – eventually concluded that John violated Sally’s consent in January but not November.

It cited her “discomfort” after the November encounter, as evidenced by her message to John about valuing “emotional” over “physical” aspects of the relationship. The panel ignored the other parts that described Sally as “liberated” by the “amazing” encounter.

Rather than cite contemporaneous evidence that Sally told John she viewed their encounters as nonconsensual, the panel cited witness statements that came to that conclusion.

It also misread an email John had sent Bossong, the director of sexual assault prevention and response, as admitting that Sally “felt that he had mistreated her” in November. In fact, the email conveyed that Sally was upset John hadn’t pursued a relationship with her after kissing her, the suit claims.

‘He should have guessed that she would not want to engage in kissing or touching’.

The panel also seems to have invented a provision that isn’t written in the Code of Conduct: that students can’t ask for consent for a particular sexual activity more than once.

Adjudicators found that Sally had “expressed a clear ‘no’” more than once in the January encounter, even though John had claimed he respected her “no” answers while asking for consent again, which Sally granted.

“The panel clearly did not credit Smith’s assertion that Doe engaged in forcible sexual contact over her verbal objections,” John argues: “Instead, it essentially held that he should have guessed that she would not want to engage in kissing or touching under the circumstances.”

Though the deans had excluded much relevant evidence from the report, and John feared what Kurker might have left out, the report did document that Sally had “repeatedly lied” to her friends and tried to mislead Kurker, the suit claims.

She falsely claimed that John was “in a leadership role over her” at the time of their November date, and therefore “she didn’t know how to tell Doe that she was uncomfortable.” Since she didn’t turn over her messages to Kurker, Sally also got away with mischaracterizing her November message to John as a warning to him.

She told several friends that “nothing physical had happened” with John in November and also mischaracterized her November message to John in conversations with them. John alleges she made other false claims to friends about actions he took.

The only way the panel could have found a preponderance of evidence against John was through a “biased and dishonest reading” of the evidence, the suit claims: It was an “arbitrary, capricious, and irrational” finding.

The appeals process was similarly deficient, John argues. After he submitted a detailed list of material omissions of relevant evidence and procedural errors – including Sandstrom’s refusal to recuse herself as a “close” friend of his relative – the appeal was denied by Leticia Haynes, vice president for institutional diversity and equity.

Meanwhile, Williams has done nothing to stop Sally and her junior advisor from spreading false information about him across campus, John says. Title IX Coordinator Toya Camacho allegedly told him it would violate the spirit of the #MeToo movement to stop women from “speaking out about their experiences.”

John’s life and career path – law school followed by politics – is functionally foreclosed by the finding of nonconsensual sexual contact on his record, he argues.

He has already been forced to resign from a “competitive” campus leadership position after others in the organization threatened to remove him. One of his witnesses “was also stigmatized on campus and forced to leave a student organization.”

John wasn’t even able to finish his college career at the three schools that “routinely accept Williams students for temporary study.” In light of his academic credentials, “these rejections were clearly the result of his disciplinary history,” the suit claims.

Guys do yourselves a big favor and just focus on your fucking studies. leave girls the fuck alone. They’re not important to your grades or future career prospects so stop wasting your time.