#mexico womens national team

[robertreich]

10 Worst Things About The Trump Presidency

Donald Trump left office with the lowest approval rating of any president ever. But some people now seem to be suffering from amnesia.

Let me jog your memory. Here are 10 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency — in no particular order.

#1. Trump fueled division and sparked a record uptick in hate crimes.

#2. Murder went way up under Trump. He presided over the largest ever single-year increase in homicides in 2020. A number of factors might have contributed to that, but a big one is…

#3. Gun sales broke records under Trump, who has bragged about how he “did nothing” to restrict guns as president in spite of…

#4. Under Trump, America suffered more than 1,700 mass shootings.

#5. Trump said there were "very fine people" among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

I’m halfway to ten. If you think I’m missing something big, leave it in the comments.

#6. Trump allied himself with the Proud Boys, a violent hate group who helped orchestrate the Jan 6 Capitol attack.

#7. Trump’s not wrong when he says…

TRUMP: I got rid of Roe v. Wade.

It is entirely because of Trump’s judicial appointments that 1 in 3 American women of childbearing age now lives in states with abortion bans.

#8. One of Trump’s Supreme Court justices was Brett Kavanaugh, a man accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

#9. Trump’s White House interfered in the FBI’s investigation of Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assaults.

And now: #10. Trump has been convicted of committing 34 felonies while in office. The criminally false business filings he got convicted for in New York? All of them were committed while he was president.

I’m sorry, did I say the 10 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency? I meant 15.

#11. Trump’s failed pandemic response is estimated to have led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. By the time Trump left office, roughly 3,000 Americans were dying of covid every day. That’s a 9/11-scale mass casualty event every single day. How did Trump screw up so badly?

#12. Trump’s White House discarded the pandemic response playbook that had been assembled by the Obama administration.

#13. Trump disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team.

#14. Trump repeatedly lied about the danger of covid, saying it was no worse than the flu or that it would go away on its own.

But behind closed doors, Trump admitted he knew covid was deadly.

#15. Trump promoted fake covid cures like hydroxychloroquine and even injecting people with disinfectants.

After Trump’s “disinfectant” remarks, poison control centers received a spike in emergency calls.

That’s fifteen things. Should I keep going? Ok, I’ll keep going. The 20 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency.

#16. Trump presided over a net loss of 2.9 million American jobs — the worst recorded jobs numbers of any U.S. president in history.

#17. Trump profited off the presidency, making an estimated $160 million from foreign countries while he was president.

#18. Trump also billed the Secret Service over $1 million for the privilege of staying at his golf clubs and other properties while they protected him. That’s your money!

#19. Trump caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history when he didn’t get funding for his border wall, which he said Mexico was going to pay for.  

#20. Under Trump, the national debt increased by about 40% — more than in any other four-year presidential term — largely because of his tax cuts for the rich and big corporations.

You didn’t really think I was stopping at 20, did you? We’re going to 25 —

#21. Trump separated more than 5,000 children from their parents at the border, with no plan to ever reunite them, putting babies in cages.

#22. The Muslim Ban. Yes, Trump really did try to ban Muslims from entering the country.

#23. Trump sparked international outrage by moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem while closing the U.S. mission to Palestine.

#24. Trump tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner with drafting a potential Middle East “peace plan” with zero Palestinian input.

#25. And finally, Trump recognized Israel’s occupation of the Goh-lahn Heights, which is considered illegal under international law.

So there you have it, folks: The 25 Worst — Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did I mention the impeachments? We’ve got to do the impeachments. Let’s go to 30.

#26. Trump broke the law by trying to withhold nearly $400 million of U.S. aid for Ukraine in an effort to extort a personal political favor from Ukraine’s Pres. Zelensky. Trump wanted Zelensky to interfere in the 2020 election by announcing an investigation into the Bidens. Delaying this aid to Ukraine weakened Ukraine and strengthened Russia.

#27. Trump personally attacked and ruined the careers of everyone who stood in the way of his illegal Ukraine scheme, including Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman.

#28. To cover up the scheme, Trump ordered the White House and State Department to defy congressional subpoenas.

#29. For these reasons, on December 18, 2019, Trump became the third U.S. president to be impeached. He was charged with Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.

#30. Even while he was being investigated for trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the U.S. election, Trump publicly called for China to interfere in the election.

So those are the 30 Worst Things —

I’ll go to 35.

#31. Long before Election Day, Trump started making false claims that the election would be rigged.

#32. After losing, Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen, even though his own inner circle, including his campaign manager, White House lawyers, and his own Justice Department and attorney general told him it was not.

#33. Trump kept telling his Big Lie even after more than 60 legal challenges to the election were struck down in court, many by Trump-appointed judges.

#34. Trump ordered the Department of Justice to falsely claim that the election “was corrupt.”

#35. Trump and his allies used threats to pressure state leaders in Arizona and Georgia to falsify the election results.

We may go to 40.

#36. When none of the previous schemes worked, Trump and his allies produced fake electoral votes cast by fake electors in multiple swing states. His former White House chief of staff and Rudy Giuliani are among the many members of his inner circle who have been criminally indicted for this scheme.

#37. Trump tried to bully Vice President Pence into obstructing the certification of the election.

#38. Trump invited a mob to the Capitol on Jan 6 with his “be there, will be wild” tweet.

#39. Sworn testimony alleges that when Trump was warned that members of the crowd were carrying deadly weapons, he ordered security metal detectors to be taken down.

#40. Knowing the crowd had deadly weapons, he ordered them to go to the Capitol and…

TRUMP: …fight like hell.

#41 — Yes, yes, I know, bear with me.

Trump betrayed his oath to defend the nation by doing nothing to stop the Jan 6 violence. Instead, according to witness testimony, he sat and watched TV for hours.

#42. On January 13, 2021, Trump became the only president ever to be impeached twice. This time he was charged with incitement of insurrection. It was a bipartisan vote.

#43. The majority of senators — 57 out of 100 — voted to convict Trump, including 7 Republican senators.

So that’s the two impeachments and the Big Lie, but wait, we haven’t dealt with Russia, right? So we’re going to 50.

#44. In a likely obstruction of justice, Trump pressured then FBI Director James Comey to stop the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. This was documented in the Mueller report.

#45. When Comey didn’t bend to Trump’s will, Trump fired him.

#46. Trump tried to shut down the Mueller investigation by ordering White House Counsel Don McGann to fire Mueller. McGann refused because that would be criminal obstruction of justice.

#47. When news got out that Trump tried to fire Mueller, Trump repeatedly told McGann to lie — to Mueller, to press, to public — and even create a false document to conceal Trump’s attempt to fire Mueller.

#48. Trump ordered his staff not to turn over emails showing Don Jr. had set up a meeting at Trump Tower before the 2016 election with representatives of the Russian government.

#49. Trump convinced Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and Cohen served prison time for lying to Congress.

#50. Trump was not charged for criminal obstruction of justice because it’s the Justice Department’s policy not to indict a sitting president, but more than a thousand former federal prosecutors who served under both Republicans and Democrats, signed a letter declaring there was more than enough evidence to prosecute Trump.

So those are the 50 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency. Now I could go on…

And I will! The 75 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency.

#51. Trump said he’d hire only the best people, but…

His campaign chair was convicted of multiple crimes.

So was one of his closest associates.

His deputy campaign chair pleaded guilty to crimes.

So did his personal lawyer

His National Security Adviser

The Chief Financial Officer of his business

A campaign foreign policy adviser

And one of his campaign fundraisers.

They all committed crimes, and Trump pardoned most of them.

#52. Trump said he’d drain the Washington swamp. But he appointed more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls to his administration than any administration in history

#53. Trump intervened to get his son-in-law, Jared Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.

#54. Trump hosted a Russian Foreign Minister to the Oval Office, where Trump revealed top-secret intelligence.

Oh, and Trump’s economic policies!

#55 Trump promised that the average American family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of his tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. How’d that work out? Did you get a $4,000 raise? Of course not! Nobody did!

#56. Trump vowed to protect American jobs, but offshoring increased and manufacturing fell.

#57. Trump said he would fix America’s infrastructure, but it never happened. He announced so many failed “infrastructure weeks” they became a running joke.

#58. Trump said he would be “the voice” of American workers, but he filled the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union flacks who made it harder for workers to unionize.

#59. Trump’s Labor Department made it easier for bosses to get out of paying workers overtime, which cheated 8 million workers of extra pay.

#60. Trump repeatedly suggested he might serve more than two terms in violation of the Constitution — and continues to do so.

#61. Trump called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries.

#62. Trump tried to terminate DACA, which protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Luckily this was struck down by the courts.

#63. Trump called climate change a “hoax.”

#64. Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

#65. Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental protections.

#66. Every budget Trump proposed included cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

#67. Trump tried (and failed) to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have resulted in 20 million Americans losing insurance. And striking down the ACA’s protections for the roughly 130 million people with pre-existing conditions could have driven up their insurance premiums or led to a loss of coverage.

#68. Trump made it easier for employers to remove birth control coverage from insurance plans.

#69. By the end of Trump’s term, the number of people lacking health insurance had risen by 3 million.

#70. Trump lied. Constantly. He made 30,573 false or misleading claims while president — an average of 21 a day, according to Washington Post fact-checkers.

#71. Trump allegedly took hundreds of classified documents on his way out of the White House, reportedly including nuclear secrets, which he then left unsecured in various parts of Mar-a-Lago, including a bathroom. He was even caught on tape showing them off to people.

#72. Trump seriously discussed the idea of nuking a hurricane.

#73. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Trump delayed $20 billion of aid and allowed Puerto Rico to be without power for 181 days.

#74. Trump suggested withholding federal aid for California wildfire recovery and said the solution was to “clean” the “floors” of the forest.

#75. Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, placing Iran on a path to developing nuclear weapons.

Honestly, there’s so much more, from exchanging “love letters” with North Korea’s brutal dictator to publicly denigrating a Gold Star military widow and making her cry, to the way he attacked journalists, to late night tweet binges.

Look, I can understand why a lot of people want to block all of this out of their memories. But we cannot afford to forget just how terrible Trump’s time in the White House was for this nation.

And we sure as hell can’t afford to put him back there.

[magics-neptunes-things]

Baby Sister

Hi guys!

This one is from resquets, lot of them actually. I hope you will enjoy this ficlet :)

TW : Jealousy, secret relationship, Reader is Jenni Hermoso's little sister.

PART 2 IS HERE!

_____________________________________________________________

Being Jenni Hermoso’s little sister has always been a great pride for you. You wear your last name with great happiness and you have always attended all the matches you could see. You have never missed any of his important matches, whether with the Barça team or the Spanish national team. This summer, you even made the trip to attend each stage of the competition, until seeing her lift the trophy at the finale.

What happened after and around this victory, you’d rather not talk about. This story makes you green with rage and you sincerely believe that if you had faced these men at the end of the summer, things would have gone very badly.

Jenni now playing in Mexico, it’s obviously harder for you to go and see her play. You watch her evolve on the other side of the ocean thanks to VPN, what you find ridiculous, it’s your sister for God’s sake.

But you’ve been used to long distance relationships for a while now. Because your girlfriend doesn’t happen to live in Barcelona either. Leila has been playing for Manchester City since the summer of 2022, a few months after you two started dating. The long-distance relationship is clearly not something easy to manage, but your reunions are incredible every time. Now that Jenni is no longer in Barcelona, it’s easier for you to fly to Leila for a weekend in Manchester.

Yes, because Jenni obviously doesn’t know that you’re in a relationship with one of her friends. Former colleagues at Barça and in the Spanish national team, there is no need to draw a picture to know how you met. It took some time for you to get closer, you were long persuaded that Leila only saw you as Jenni’s little sister. Baby Hermoso, like most of Jenni’s teammates like to call you.

It’s not a nickname that bothers you, you know it’s affectionate and again it’s not something pejorative for you to be compared to your sister. You love her. Even though she tends to be very protective of you, scaring away all your girlfriends pretty quickly. No one is good enough for you in her eyes and even if you know that her goal is to protect you and to avoid the mistakes that she made herself, you must admit that it’s for this reason that Leila and you decided to remain hidden.

Lying or hiding things from Jenni is really not easy for you. You are used to telling her everything and you have sometimes picked yourself up at the last moment when you want to tell her an anecdote about something you saw or did with Leila. Luckily, you didn’t make any missteps in a year and a half, almost two years.

But the secret is starting to weigh you more and more. Being away from the two most important women in your life is difficult for you and you regularly find yourself with lower morale than usual. When Jenni asks you about it, you just tell her you miss her. Which is true, but not totally. It’s easier for you to talk about it with Leila, even if you don’t want to impose your moods on her.

With Christmas coming, Leila is back in Barcelona, just like your big sister. You managed to establish a schedule in the rules of the art, juggling between family meals and stolen moments with your girlfriend. You even managed to set up an afternoon with Ona, Leila and other friends you have in common. You even asked Alba Putellas to join you, but she already had something planned.

So, when Ona and her brother went back to their parents, Leila offered to take you home, which you obviously accepted. Except she stayed at your place to end the night between lovers, catching up on all the kisses, hugs and love whispers you’re late for. You could spend hours with Leila, hidden under your sheets, exchanging confessions between two kisses.

********

It was between Christmas and New Year’s that Jenni asked you to have lunch and an afternoon with her. If her proposal obviously excited you, you found yourself hesitating when she told you she wanted to invite Leila to join you. It’s been a while since they met again and Leila apparently misses her. And since you two are getting along, Jenni thought it was a good idea to bring people together.

If only she knew how well you two get along…

From the exchange of messages that you had with Leila to talk about this, you realized that the situation seems to amuse your girlfriend more than anything else. It helped you see things in a different light. Maybe there’s no reason to worry, after all?

You’re the last arrived in the restaurant Jenni picked, both brunettes already sitting at a table. You have no trouble spotting them, it would have been difficult to do it anyway with Jenni’s great gestures. You approach Leila to hug her, giving her a stern look when her hand is dangerously low on your hip. Then you put a kiss on your sister’s cheek, which makes you sit next to her before grabbing a lock of your hair.

"Since when do you have red streaks?" laughs your sister

You shrug your shoulders and get rid of your jacket to place it on the back of your chair. The facility is already pretty full and people don’t seem to pay too much attention to your table. A good thing for you.

"Since yesterday"

"It suits her well I think"

Jenni looks at you for a few more seconds before smiling and nodding. Just like her, you have very dark hair, but your eyes are more on gray than on brown like those of Jenni. When you turn your attention to Leila, she winks at you and you find yourself blushing slightly while smiling.

The discussion between the three of you goes rather well in the end and after you go to choose tapas, you relax completely. The laughter burst and you spend a pleasant moment with the two brunettes.

Between two tapas, you grab your phone to open whatsapp and show a message from your mother to Jenni to show that you are right about something. Honestly, you can’t even say why it was, as the subject is quickly forgot when another conversation seems to have caught your big sister’s eye.

"Who is the lion?"

"What?"

You’re trying to quickly put your phone in your jacket pocket, because you know exactly what Jenni is talking about. Instead of saving Leila’s full name, you inserted a lion emoji and an emoji with a burning heart next to it. You find it cuter and it saves you a little today. But not as much as you would have liked.

No doubt thanks to her reflexes worked during training, Jenni managed to grab your phone before you put it away, hurrying to change her hand to get away from you.

"Jenni give it back to me" you half get up and try to take it back.

In front of you two, Leila looks at you with big eyes, without really knowing what to do. Luckily you never call yourself by your first names. And luckily too, you tend to send yourself photos through other apps.

"I miss you, I can’t wait to find you" starts reading Jenni out loud, frowning. "I count the days before I see you again… Who is this girl?"

When Jenni turns to you, you manage to take the phone out of her hands and put it away from her. Your cheeks are so red we could probably bake eggs on them.

"No one" you grunt carrying your glass to your lips.

"Well if that’s nobody, I don’t dare imagine what the messages with your girlfriend are" laughs Leila.

You almost strangle yourself with your drink and Jenni doesn’t seem to blame you to the point of letting you die on the spot since she gives you little pats on the back. On the other hand, you shoot your girlfriend with the look by seeing her drive the nail.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" asks Jenni, eyebrows still frowned.

You sigh softly and hesitate a split second before answering. After all, she doesn’t need to know who it is, right?

"Yes" you simply answer, giving her a look of challenge.

Jenni supports your gaze, obviously, and you feel the questions swirling through her head. You don’t know what you’ll get first.

"Why didn’t you tell me?" your older sister asks.

"Because you drove away all the last ones I’ve been with" you answer, rolling your eyes.

"Oh right away the big words…" sighs Jenni, even if her amused smile proves her guilt.

A few seconds pass and you naively hope that this will be enough for Jenni as information for the moment. Maybe the fact that you’re with Leila will hold her back from pushing things too hard and getting other information out of you.

"How is she?"

It’s Leila’s voice which resounds however and you return once again a dismayed look in her direction. She’s supposed to help you, not the other way around. However, when you answer that it’s not her business, Jenni insists by asking you the question in turn.

"She is kind, she is attentive and understanding" you end up answering, a deeply upset look displayed on the face.

"Is she pretty?" asks Leila

"Obviously" you snort.

In front of you, Leila seems to be having a great time. And if you think that you may laugh about it later, currently you can’t help but think that you intend to make her pay for it later.

"Is she a good kisser?" continues Leila.

"Wow no, I don’t want to hear the answer to that question" Jenni steps in with one hand up. "I can’t believe it, you’re still a baby."

You roll your eyes sighing, hearing the moan in the voice of your big sister. You’re almost eight years apart, but she sometimes has a hard time forgetting that you’ve been fifteen almost ten years ago.

"I’m 25, Jenni" you point out, but this information seems to fall on deaf ears.

"Wait, is that the girl from your job here? Aida?"

"Who is Aida?" asks Leila

This time, the fun left your girlfriend’s voice and face. This makes you shudder from the inside, the main flaw of the brunette being undoubtedly her jealousy. This has already highlighted some tensions between you, but you have always been able to communicate in order to avoid too much conflict.

"It’s nobody" you respond quickly to Leila, to whom you have already mentioned her existence, you are almost sure of it. "And no, it’s not Aida. Can we change the subject now, please?"

Groaning in her beard, Jenni finally accepts your request, even if she specifies that you pay nothing to wait. You roll your eyes again and peck the last crumbs on your plate while Jenni apologizes to go to the toilet.

As soon as she has her heels turned, you feel Leila leaning in your direction.

"Who’s Aida?" asks the brunette again.

You sigh softly and shift your attention to Leila. You’re relieved that your sister went to the bathroom quickly after that, or you know that your girlfriend would have had her blood blown out until you two were alone.

"One of my colleagues Babe, I already told you about it" you answer in a low voice, leaning mechanically too in her direction.

Leila answers nothing, content to look at you at length with her black eyes, arms crossed on her chest. She’s too far away for you to catch her hand, so you try to keep eye contact with her.

"Leila stop, we already discussed it. You have no reason to be jealous"

A few seconds pass during which Leila seems to pass you to the X-ray using her eyes. Time seems to last you a little too long, you end up arching an eyebrow in her direction.

"And excuse me, but if one of them should be jealous, it’s me. You’re the one who’s tactile with all your friends and you’re the one who’s got edits of your person on TikTok. Not me."

You see Leila’s face relaxing under the effect of her surprise. You’ve never mentioned these two things until now and this may not be the best time to do so since your older sister was reappearing next to you two. She seems surprised by your two sulky faces and your similar position, your arms crossed on your chests.

"Uh… is everything okay?" she asks while sitting next to you.

You nod your head while Leila just grunts for a simple answer.

"I have to go." You suddenly decide "See you before you go, right?"

Jenni answers yes, probably a little surprised by your quick departure. She stands up in turn to put a kiss on your cheek and take you in her arms.

"Do you need a ride? Where are you going?"

You know perfectly well that Leila’s question is not innocent but on the other hand the kindness and helpfulness of the brunette alone could explain the proposal. But, on your side, if you had to describe yourself in one flaw, it’s impulsivity. You prefer to talk about spontaneity, but that’s why you find yourself answering her sarcastically

"Seeing Aida, what else?"

The flash of anger and jealousy passing through Leila’s face is very fast, but visible to you. And apparently to Jenni as well.

Still standing, Jenni lets go of a surprise exclamation before pointing at Leila.

"It’s you!"

"Huh?" Leila replies, turning to Jenni, having forgotten for a split second her presence.

"The lion and the burning heart! It’s you!"

"She puts a burning heart next to the lion?"

Leila’s question makes you hit your forehead with your hand. It’s a disaster. She could have responded positively to Jenni’s question that it would have come back to the same thing.

Your sister remains silent for a long time, her gaze passing from Leila to you many times. She opens her mouth several times before finally finding the words that dare to suit her. For your part, your heart rate is so high that you wonder if your heart is not trying to come out of your chest.

"Why didn’t you tell me before?"

You sigh softly, leaning against the bench on which Leila is installed.

"I told you. You traumatized all my last girlfriends Jenni, I’m sure some of them even changed countries after you finished talking to them. I didn’t want this to happen this time."

You feel Leila’s gaze rise on you, you have after all just confided that this relationship is important to you.

"Your ex-girlfriends were selfish first-league idiots" grumbled Jenni rolling her eyes at her turn. "I know Leila isn’t"

You pout a little before shrugging. You’re not sure that if she hadn’t faced the fact her reaction would have been the same. If you had told her about your relationship with Leila when it took place, you are convinced that things would have been different.

"How long has it been?" keeps asking Jenni.

"A year and a half" answers Leila for you.

The information seems to surprise your sister as she bows her eyebrows at you. You mumble an excuse and shrug.

"Well, it doesn’t look like I have a something to say anyway" sighs Jenni as Leila pulls you by the arm to make you sit next to her.

You let yourself be willingly, the revelations of the last minutes making you forget that you managed to argue while Jenni went to the toilet. Jenni sits down again, looking at you carefully, before pointing again at Leila.

"You’re my friend Leila. But I swear to God, if you hurt her, you’re still six feet under."

[didalexiabreakupwitholgaisback]

I know you don't like talking about this, but do you think the recent Manuelas post about Madrid and seeing exes in the club was shade directed towards Jenni???

doubtful. it's been ~3 years since the breakup, and the world has moved on. and if it was indeed shade, then that's petty and immature, and they should grow up, and so should you. 🙄

goofy jenni makes the best aunt. 🥹 but also, here she is talking so nicely about esther, the mexican league, and calls barça the best team in the world!

source: therealbaddawgsports on tiktok

translation under the cut:

q: what do you think about the opportunity of a tournament like this that does that for women's football?

a: yes, for me my way of thinking is a tournament of this magnitude was needed because this way the mexican team, the mexican league would need to give a higher level. and then we would have to work on it for when we face teams here and be able to perform as well as possible and that will make the players work harder and train more to reach a high level every match.

q: and how was esther? esther was on the other team and so to see someone that you won the world cup with, what it's like to compete against your teammates?

a: yes, i have told her and we were talking about it. for me, the spanish player has a quality that i have not seen anywhere and i see her at ease. i see her enjoying herself, and esther has a lot of quality. i have played with her in atlético madrid. i have played with her on the national team. and for me she is a player with whom i have always complemented her very well and i am very happy that she is here. well, that she is enjoying this football and this league that for me is very professional.

q: what's it been like playing for two giant clubs (barça and tigres) and how have you adjusted between the two?

a: well, i have played, i am playing for one of the best teams in mexico and i have had the opportunity to play for barça, which for me is the best team in the world. and now i have other objectives, another priority, which is to win something with my team at tigres and to make the mexican league count.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: John Sailer

Published: Jul 5, 2024

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the Supreme Court held that colleges and universities couldn’t engage in racial discrimination in the name of diversity. The 45-year-old dispensation from civil-rights law that the court effectively overturned had never applied to employment decisions. But its end ought to provoke institutions to scale back “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives more broadly. Some appear to be doing so: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard said recently they would no longer require “diversity statements” from prospective hires.

Yet there is evidence that many universities have engaged in outright racial preferences under the aegis of DEI. Hundreds of documents that I acquired through public-records requests provide a rare paper trail of universities closely scrutinizing the race of faculty job applicants. The practice not only appears widespread; it is encouraged and funded by the federal government.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a large hiring initiative targets specific racial groups—promising to hire 18 to 20 scientists “who are Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander.” Discussing a related University of New Mexico program, one professor quipped in an email, “I don’t want to hire white men for sure.”

Both initiatives are supported by the National Institutes of Health through its Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation program, or First. The program gives grants for DEI-focused “cluster hiring” at universities and medical schools, promising eventually to spend about a quarter-billion dollars.

A key requirement is that recipient institutions heavily value diversity statements while selecting faculty. The creators of the program reasoned that by heavily weighing commitment to DEI, they could prompt schools to hire more minorities but without direct racial preferences. That’s the rationale behind DEI-focused “cluster hiring,” an increasingly common practice in academia. The documents—which include emails, grant proposals, progress reports and hiring records—suggest that many NIH First grant recipients restrict hiring on the basis of race or “underrepresented” status, violating NIH’s stated policies and possibly civil-rights law.

In grant proposals, several recipients openly state their intention to restrict whom they hire by demographic category. Vanderbilt’s NIH First grant proposal states that it will “focus on the cluster hiring of faculty from minoritized racial and ethnic groups, specifically Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander scientists.” The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas jointly proposed hiring 10 scholars “from underrepresented groups,” noting that the NIH First program specifically identifies racial minorities and women as underrepresented.

Emails reveal candid discussions about the perceived aim of the program. In April 2023, a professor running the University of New Mexico’s cluster hire emailed Jessica Calzola, the NIH program official overseeing the First program, to ask whether Asian-Americans count as underrepresented. The professor later wrote, “I really need a response at least by tomorrow, because it is now holding up our search teams.”

In reply, Ms. Calzola reiterated the program’s official policy: “My confusion is how this information can hold up search teams since candidates are to be evaluated and considered based on their credentials and not race/ethnicity/gender, etc.—all hiring decisions are to be made following the law and avoiding any type of bias (as you have stated and acknowledged).”

Ms. Calzola’s seemingly straightforward response confused her correspondent. “I am now wondering if I am missing something in terms of what we are supposed to be doing,” the professor emailed other members of the leadership team. She wondered if she placed too much emphasis on minority status.

Yet she hesitated to take Ms. Calzola’s word at face value, citing earlier remarks: “My first thought is that Jessica has to write about hires in this manner (she’s hinted at that before on zoom).” (Ms. Calzola referred my inquiry to an NIH spokeswoman, who said in a statement: “Consistent with NIH practice and U.S. federal law, funded programs may not use the race, ethnicity, or sex . . . of a prospective candidate as an eligibility or selection criteria.”)

A colleague responded: “For me as long as we are diversifying our departments and go with what we wrote in the proposal I am happy.” She then made clear her intention to keep one specific group out of consideration: “I don’t want to hire white men for sure, we did a very good job in the grant with the tables and numbers and that’s what we should follow in my opinion.”

Yet the confusion at UNM makes sense. Records show a repeated tension between the NIH First program’s official nondiscrimination policy and how the funded projects have played out—which at times looks a lot like discrimination.

At its inception, NIH First was widely understood not to involve racial preferences. In 2020, shortly after the program was announced, Science magazine published an explanation: “Not all of the 120 new hires would need to belong to groups now underrepresented in academic medicine, which include women, black people, Hispanics, Native Americans, and those with disabilities, says Hannah Valantine, NIH’s chief diversity officer. In fact, she told the Council of Councils at its 24 January meeting, any such restriction would be illegal and also run counter to the program’s goal of attracting world-class talent.”

Yet multiple programs have stated their intention to limit hires to those with “underrepresented” status. One job advertisement, for a First role at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, notes: “Successful candidates will be early stage investigators who are Black, Latinx, or from a disadvantaged background (as defined by NIH).”

Some grantees even admit such preferences in documents sent to and reviewed by the NIH. A joint proposal from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the university’s Baltimore County campus states that all scientists hired through the program will meet the NIH’s definition of “underrepresented populations in science.” Drexel University’s program, which focuses on nursing and public health, provides its evaluation rubric in a progress report. Among its four criteria: “Candidate is a member of a group that is underrepresented in health research.”

This raises questions about compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race discrimination in employment. The First program’s website highlights regulations requiring that federal agencies ensure grant recipients comply with nondiscrimination law. The most basic implication is that universities can’t refuse to hire someone, or prefer one candidate over another, because of race or sex. But emails show that this has been happening.

At the University of New Mexico, the First leadership team heavily scrutinized the race and sex of applicants. “Just to be sure: what was the ethnicity of Speech and Hearing’s first-choice candidate?” a UNM team member asked in an email.

“She identified as URM in her application, right? I am confused, maybe I am misremembering,” a team member wrote of a different candidate. Another responded, “It looks like she said she was a ‘native New Mexican.’ We checked, and she said she’s white.”

Another team member wrote about a third candidate: “He is LGBTQ so should fit NIHs definition of URM. In my opinion, women are more underrepresented in our department when you consider demographics.”

The team had veto power over the program’s job searches, which it took seriously. In one email, a math-and-statistics search committee sent a list of proposed finalists. The first candidate, a woman, was recommended without qualification, while the second candidate, a South Asian man, was recommended if the leadership team decided he was a “good fit for the program.” A third candidate, a woman, was recommended as a backup.

One leadership team member emailed her colleagues about the South Asian candidate, citing the NIH’s priorities: “Is this a second look person that NIH would like?” UNM’s grant proposal explains that “at each point in which the applicant pool is narrowed, all applicants from underrepresented groups are given a ‘second-look’ before they are eliminated.” The question, in other words, was whether the South Asian candidate counted as underrepresented. (A UNM spokeswoman said “the second look procedure is a longstanding UNM hiring process.”)

The team agreed the answer was no and nixed him. As one pointed out, “We’ve said that Math is really low on women.” Another chimed in, excited to interview the two remaining candidates, noting “their DEI statements are strong.”

UNM appears to have violated NIH First policy, which states that programs “may not discriminate against any group in the hiring process.” The UNM spokeswoman said in a statement that “the email correspondence among members of the UNM FIRST Leadership Team do [sic] not represent the University of New Mexico’s values nor does it comport with the expectations we have of our faculty” and that “as a result of this unfortunate circumstance,” the university is instituting a required “faculty search training/workshop for all . . . faculty search committee members.”

Yet other universities signaled to NIH that they also intended to engage in race and sex preferences. Northwestern University’s program, which focuses on areas like cancer and cardiovascular health, promises to hire faculty from “underrepresented groups.” Its grant proposal suggests this excludes one particular group: “Our faculty development programming intentionally seeks to elevate URG”—underrepresented group—“faculty to equal privilege with white men in academia.”

Records repeatedly show NIH First grantees following through on their promises. In a letter of support for Florida State University’s project, that university’s associate vice president for human resources declared, “I firmly believe in and reaffirm this project’s mission to create an under-represented minority faculty cohort.”

Hiring documents show that special attention was paid to job candidates’ minority status. In a survey on job finalists, one Florida State faculty member wrote, “Is the applicant a URM, as defined by the NIH? Relatedly, I’m not saying this is happening, but I believe consideration of self-reported sexuality in the hiring process would go against official FSU nondiscrimination policy.” An FSU spokeswoman said in an email that “the Florida FIRST program followed the guidelines set forth by the NIH.”

That search took place as the Florida legislature was beginning to curtail DEI at public universities. Other programs raise similar red flags regarding state law. California’s Proposition 209 prohibits preferential treatment by race in admissions, hiring and “the operation of public employment.” A San Diego State University proposal says nonetheless that it will require shortlists “to include at least 25% of applications from historically underrepresented groups.” The San Diego program even divvies up certain faculty duties by race: “Whenever possible, the chair of the hiring committees should be a faculty member of color”; “the hiring committees will be required to have at least two (50% recommended) faculty of color”; and so on.

A university spokesman said in an email that “SDSU relies on the Building on Inclusive Excellence (BIE) faculty hiring program,” that “BIE is compliant with both civil rights law and California Proposition 209,” and that “it is incorrect to state that ‘the SDSU program . . . divides certain faculty duties by race.’ ”

Taken as a whole, these documents shed new light on the practice of cluster hiring. They explain why some in academia seem to treat the practice as a form of legal racial quotas. In addition to the responses already noted, representatives of the University of Maryland, UT Dallas and UT Southwestern said that their institutions comply with civil-rights laws and don’t discriminate on the basis of race. Drexel, Northwestern, Mount Sinai and Vanderbilt didn’t reply to inquiries.

The documents I reviewed point to a large-scale sleight-of-hand in the application of the NIH First program. They give all the more reason to reconsider one of the most controversial practices in higher education, mandatory diversity statements, which provide a convenient smokescreen for discrimination. Lawmakers would be wise to investigate this practice closely—especially the NIH First program.

In a comment on her decision to end mandatory diversity statements, MIT president Sally Kornbluth noted that such statements “impinge on freedom of expression.” That’s true, but fails to capture the full extent of the problem. Diversity statements mask racial discrimination. The NIH has ensured that they’re widely used in medicine, where excellence should matter most.

Mr. Sailer is a senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars.

[ Via: https://archive.today/nZ42W ]

==

DEI is cancer.

[louisupdates]

VIDEO

The former One Direction will perform in Chile on May 24 at the Bicentenario Stadium in La Florida with his "Faith in the Future" tour. We talked exclusively with the British star who went from being a teenage pop idol to a professional soccer player, and finally to consolidating his own more mature and rocking sound. This is the successful present of the artist who loves to sing as much as he loves to play ball.

Dove Couple

Monday, April 8, 202408:10 am

[Translated from Spanish]

In 2022, Louis Tomlinson stepped on Chile for the first time alone to present his debut album "Walls". A bet that exceeded any expectation, because the madness was such that the British, that the former One Direction filled the Movistar Arena three times.

But that was not all, his fans had prepared a surprise for him that, as he confessed to La Cuarta, gave him "goosebumps." During the chorus of the song "Kill my mind", the young women organized themselves to coordinate the lights of their cell phones, creating a kind of mesmerizing wave, leaving the singer and his team speechless, so much so that the moment was recorded in his documentary "All of Those Voices". Moreover, the photo of one of those concerts was nothing more and nothing less than the poster.

But the music that makes him vibrate so much was not always his first choice in life. In 2013, just when the One Direction world tour that brought them to Chile was announced with two concerts at the National Stadium, Louis signed a contract with the League TwoDoncaster Rovers team, and only in 2017, two years after the group took an indefinite break, he was able to debut as a substitute in a match witnessed by more than five thousand fans.

“It's really an honor to be in the club where I spent most of my childhood," he wrote at the time on his Twitter account. However, the boy's dream stagnated when in 2020 and in the middle of the pandemic, he decided to launch himself as a soloist. All of his former bandmates had done it; it was his time.

Thus Louis - whom we recognize with nostalgia, familiarity, and a psychological interest - became one of the most important artists of his generation, adding milestones such as a billion streams on Spotify, numerous awards and being in the Guinness World Records book for breaking the record for the most watched live broadcast concert of a male soloist.

"I FEEL VERY GRATEFUL TO HAVE THAT LOVE HERE"

On the day of the interview with the newspaper, we arrived at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel where the interpreter stayed two days after a successful presentation at Tecate Pa'l Norte 2024 in Mexico, and a promotional step through Brazil. Despite the fatigue, he maintained a good attitude with the press, but mainly with his crowded fans outside the venue, who shouted his name from time to time.

Being in front of a pop idol who has spent half of his life on tour, in conferences and with a handful of iconic songs that marked more than a generation, is truly intimidating, but Louis makes anyone lower their guard because he welcomes you as if he were your friend. Wearing a pair of relaxed jeans, black t-shirt and sneakers in tune, he smiles and greets us in a friendly manner. Although he is surrounded by people who make up his team— overwhelming— but this is his natural environment; and thus begins a dialogue with La Cuarta about his two passions.

Q: Louis, you return to Chile in May after filling three arenas on your last visit, something historic! What will it be like to return with that powerful precedent?

Louis: I feel like my Spanish is coming back! I almost knew what you were asking (laughs). I'm very excited, I feel very lucky to be able to perform in an enclosure of that size in my... well, technically on my second solo tour. I feel very grateful to have that love and passion here. I'm mainly very excited about these shows.

Q: In several of your "Faith In the Future" songs, you talk about nostalgia, changes and the passage of time. Are they topics that you think about frequently or only arise when composing?

Louis: Yes, I would say that I am a little bit of a deep thinker. I think it helps me as a songwriter, but I also think that nostalgia is a great thing to write about. It’s a great topic to feel as a listener and also to write as a songwriter. And I'm also interested in psychology, so anything that makes the brain feel in a certain way, I think it's interesting.

Q: What would the 32-year-old Louis with a successful second album under his arm and a new tour say to the teenager who applied to The X Factor in 2010?

Louis: I would insist that he should do it. I think there is definitely an element, in every young person in that situation, there is something very terrifying that makes you want to start. But I would also tell you, what I have learned the most, to trust your instinct, trust that feeling and be brave to make decisions, the right decisions for yourself.

Q: Among those decisions is to be the last 1D member to make your solo career, and today we are here with "Faith In The Future" that sounds 100% yours. Looking back, how do you see the path has unwinded?

Louis: I feel very comfortable. The mentality I have now feels very different from the one I had when I started this trip as a soloist. I feel very blessed to be able to continue making music. But it's also a very nice feeling and it's something very new for me to feel so comfortable on stage and so comfortable when I'm making the music I want to make. In general, yes, I am very happy.

WHEN CHILE DRISTLED HIS SKIN

Q: Louis, I imagine there must be some time in your career when you said, wow, I did it!

Louis: You know, I used to resist that idea, ‘cuz for whatever reason, I don't know, I never wanted to give myself that, I suppose… my brain. But I have, I have started trying to have those moments more for myself. It often happens on the live show. It can be something that fans did together, like some kind of fan project. But also, even when I played the festival just now, in Mexico, that was one of those moments. I was kind of nervous going out there, and the audience was so vast, but people seemed to be having a good time. So yeah, it was great.

Q: Now that you mentioned the fan project, when you came to Chile, your followers prepared one for the song "Kill My Mind" that was beautiful. How did you experience it from the stage?

Louis: I had no idea that was going to happen! I know that fans often do their own little fan projects, in a way of doing something fun for me and something unique at every individual show, but I didn't know what to expect. And to be honest, that— literally gave me goosebumps, it was such an incredible spectacle. And, again, like always at these shows, and especially in Latin America, you’ve not got like ten people giving it a go, everyone in the room is participating! It’s a very euphoric thing for me to see from the stage.

Q: Changing the subject, football is one of your passions, what place does it occupy in your life today?

Louis: I would say that definitely, before I was in the band, nothing came close in my life, football was my IT. Now music is. I absolutely love football, but for me nothing comes close to music. Obviously it's my job, that's important, but as a fan, I'm talking more like a fan, I probably don't watch enough football these days, I'm usually busy, but I catch up with the "highlights" (the most important moments of the game). It's still a big part of my life, especially when they play in England. I'm excited for the next European Championship. We're going to win it!

Q: Of course! [England] is the parents of football. Finally, what makes you happiest today?

Louis: The family, definitely, the family and friends. And specifically in my work world. It's live concerts. That gives me amazing feelings.

[dailytomlinson]

Louis Tomlinson, two passions and one direction: “I absolutely love football, but for me nothing comes close to music”

The former One Direction will perform in Chile on May 24 at the Bicentenario Stadium in La Florida with his “Faith in the Future” tour. We spoke exclusively with the British star who went from being a teenage pop idol to a professional footballer, and finally to consolidating his own more mature and rock sound. This is the successful present of the artist who loves to sing as much as he loves

In 2022, Louis Tomlinson set foot in Chile for the first time alone to present his debut album “Walls” . A bet that exceeded any expectations, since the madness was such that the British, that the former One Direction filled the Movistar Arena three times

But that was not all, his fans had prepared a surprise for him that, as he confessed to La Cuarta , gave him “goosebumps . ” During the chorus of the song “Kill my mind” , the young women organized themselves to coordinately move the lights of their cell phones, creating a kind of hypnotizing wave, leaving the singer and his team speechless, so much so that the moment was recorded in their documentary “ “All of Those Voices . ” Furthermore, the photo of one of those concerts was nothing more and nothing less than the poster.

But the music that makes him vibrate so much was not always his first choice in life. In 2013, just when One Direction's world tour was announced, which brought them to Chile with two concerts at the National Stadium , Louis signed a contract with the League Two team Doncaster Rovers , and only in 2017, two years after the group took an indefinite break, he was able to debut as a substitute in a match witnessed by more than five thousand fans.

INTERVIEW UNDER CUT:

“It is truly an honor to be at the club where I spent most of my childhood,” he wrote on his Twitter account at the time. However, the kid's dream was stagnant when in 2020 and in the middle of the pandemic, he decided to go solo, all of his former bandmates had done it, it was his time.

Thus, Louis - who recognized us as being nostalgic, familiar and interested in psychology - became one of the most important artists of his generation, adding milestones such as one billion streams on Spotify , numerous awards and being in the Guinness World book. Records for breaking the record for the most-watched livestreamed concert by a male soloist.

“I FEEL VERY GRATEFUL TO HAVE THAT LOVE HERE”

On the day of the interview with the pop newspaper , we arrived at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel where the performer spent two days after a successful presentation at Tecate Pa'l Norte 2024 in Mexico, and a promotional tour of Brazil. Despite his fatigue, he maintained a good attitude with the press, but mainly with his fans gathered outside the venue, who shouted his name from time to time.

Being in front of a pop idol who has spent half his life on tour, in conferences and with a handful of iconic songs that marked more than one generation, is truly intimidating, but Louis makes anyone lower their guard because he welcomes you. as if he were your friend. Wearing a pair of relaxed jeans, a black t-shirt and matching sneakers, he smiles and greets friendly, he is surrounded by people who make up his team, overwhelming, but it is his natural environment; and thus begins a dialogue with La Cuarta about his two passions.

Louis, you return to Chile in May after filling three arenas on your last visit, something historic! What will it be like to return with such a powerful precedent?

I feel like my Spanish is coming back! I almost knew what you were asking (laughs). I'm very excited, I feel very lucky to be able to perform in a venue that size on my... well, technically my second solo tour. I feel very grateful to have that love and passion here. Mainly I feel very excited for these shows.

- In several of your songs on “Faith in the future”, you talk about nostalgia, changes and the passage of time. Are these themes that you think about frequently or do they only arise when composing?

Yes, I would say I'm a bit of a deep thinker, I think it helps me as a songwriter, but I also think nostalgia is a great thing to write about, it's a great thing to feel about as a listener and also to write about as a songwriter. And I'm also interested in psychology, so anything that makes the brain feel a certain way, I think is interesting.

- What would the 32-year-old Louis, with a second successful album under his arm and a new tour, say to the teenager who applied for The X Factor in 2010?

I would insist that he should do it. I think there's definitely an element, in every young person in that situation, there's something very scary that makes you want to go. But I would also tell him, what I have learned the most, to trust his instincts, trust that feeling and be brave to make decisions, the right decisions for yourself.

- Among those decisions is being the last member of 1D to go solo, and today we are here with “Faith in the future” which has a sound that is 100% yours. Looking back, how do you see the path you have traveled?

I feel very comfortable. The mindset I have now feels very different than when I started this journey as a solo artist. I feel very blessed to be able to continue making music. But it's also a very nice feeling and it's something very new for me to feel so comfortable on stage and so comfortable when I'm making the music I want to make. Overall, yes, I am very happy.

-Louis, I imagine there must have been a moment in your career when you said, wow, I did it!

You know, I used to resist that idea, because for some reason, I don't know, I never wanted to give myself that. But I've had it, I've started trying to have those moments for myself. It often happens during concerts, it can be something that fans did together, like entertaining fan projects. But also, even when I played the festival now in Mexico, that was one of those moments. I was a little nervous going out and the crowd was so big, people looked like they were having a good time. So yeah, it was amazing.

- Now that you mentioned the fan project, when you came to Chile your followers prepared one for the song “Kill my mind” that was beautiful, how did you experience it from the stage?

I had no idea what was going to happen! I know that fans often do fan projects, in a way to do something entertaining for me and something unique in each show, but I didn't know what to expect. And to be honest, I remember getting goosebumps, it was an incredible show. And, again, always in these concerts, and especially in Latin America, there are not ten people, everyone in the venue is participating! It's a very euphoric thing to see from the stage for me.

- Changing the subject, football is one of your passions, what place does it occupy in your life today?

I would say that definitely, before I was in the band, nothing came close in my life, football was everything to me, now music is. I absolutely love football, but for me nothing comes close to music. Obviously it's my job, that's important, but as a fan, I'm speaking more like a fan, I probably don't watch enough football these days, I'm usually busy, but I catch up on the highlights. ). It's still a big part of my life, especially when England plays. I'm excited for the upcoming Euro Cup, we're going to win it!

- Of course! You are the fathers of football. Finally, what makes you most happy today?

Family, definitely, family and friends. And specifically in my work world, it's live concerts, that gives me amazing feelings.

Louis Tomlinson will perform at the Estadio Bicentenario La Florida on May 24. General ticket sales are available through Ticketmaster.cl

[frauenfootball]

Fundraiser for Jamaica WNT ⚽️

Help the Reggae Girlz' preparation for the Women's World Cup

Note: this GoFundMe link was shared by Jamaica WNT player Cheyna Matthews on Twitter

From the players:

From the GoFundMe link:

Hi my name is Sandra Lee Phillips (Solaun) I am the proud mother of Havana Solaun who plays for the Jamaican Reggae Girlz National Team. The 2019 Women's World Cup in France represented a ground breaking entry for the small Caribbean island onto an international platform. Their maiden voyage into the competitive arena proved the Jamaican girls are a talented athletic force that had risen to the highest level of soccer. Fast forward to 2022 - Mexico - World Cup Australia Qualifiers. Once again the Reggae Girlz "Rise Up" to beat Mexico, Haiti and Costa Rica and qualify for the Australia World Cup - July/August of 2023. The Reggae Girlz success has been supported by the talented entourage of staff members consisting of coaches, therapists and doctors who spend endless hours ensuring the Girlz are well taken care of. The journey to Australia in July of 2023 is a costly endeavor and it is my intention to to allow both staff and players to focus on the competition by helping raise funds to cover some of the expenses incurred on this incredible adventure Down Under. I sit on the sidelines, a proud Jamaican, an even prouder mother of one of these strong independent professional women who represent their country for pride and love of soccer. I'd like to show our support by raising money to show our appreciation for staff and players for the amazing job they do in representing the country of Jamaica at the highest level. I'm reaching out to ALL Jamaicans, those residing on the beautiful island I call home, to the Jamaicans residing overseas whose love for their country remains strong and deep, to all the soccer enthusiasts who love the power of a Cinderella story, to all women who know the fight for equality continues. Let's band together and Rise Up to support the Reggae Girlz and staff who continue to make Jamaica proud. "Out of Many One People."

[female-malice]

The fact the anon said "go back to your social science bs" as if most of your "social science" isnt based on women's basketball lol. Your idea of a utopia is like. Based on women's sports

I have a Tinkercad account where I design utopian cities that are built around women's sports stadiums. Sustainable walkable urbanist utopia where women's sports is the main community culture. I even have a plan for climate adaptation where women's sports leagues will use megacities instead of airplanes. A league would use two megacities with eight teams each. The teams would play the other teams in their city for three months. Then the top four teams would travel to a third neutral megacity to play against the other top four.

So for example, there would be eight teams in the NYC metro area. And there would be eight teams in the LA metro area. And first they'd play a city league season to determine the top four teams in each city. Then those top teams would fly to Chicago to play a national league season against each other. So the whole process would only require a few flights instead of hundreds.

The ultra ultra utopian version would actually use NYC metro and Mexico City metro for the city leagues. And then top teams would fly to LA for the continental league.

[queenmynx]

Government Health Initiative: you should join an aerobics program.

Yaxunah women: i'm good thanks.

Government Health Initiative: so what will you be doing instead?

Yaxunah women: *creates all women softball team, becomes extremely successful, withstands crowds jeering at them for playing in huipil and barefoot, defies gender roles and indigenous stereotypes, inspires creation of League of Change, makes it to nationwide inagural tournament, and makes their ancestors and country proud*

that.

[allycat75]

Important events that actually took place on September 9th and were in no way a figment of a sad, delusional man and his advisors' imagination in order to continue a nefarious and daft lie.

1543- Mary Stuart, at 9 months old, is crowned Queen of Scots

1675- New England colonies declare war on Wampanoag Indians

1753- 1st steam engine arrives in North American colonies

1776- Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)

1817- Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College

1836- Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his influential essay "Nature" in the US, outlining his beliefs in transcendentalism

1850- California becomes a state

1880- President Rutherford B. Hayes visits San Francisco

1888- Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the Pacific is annexed by Chile

1892- Edward Emerson Barnard at Lick Observatory discovers Amalthea, Jupiter's 5th moon

1904- Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports "Yankees take 2," Yankee name not official till 1913

1908- Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Virginia

1908- Russia annexes part of Poland

1911- 1st European post delivered by air (Hendon to Windsor, England)

1921- Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union

1922- Turkish troops take the Greek-held Anatolian city of Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War

1926- National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America

1936- New York Yankees beat Cleveland Indians, 12-9 at League Park to clinch AL pennant on the earliest date in history

1939- Nazi army reaches Warsaw

1942- Compulsory work for women, children and old males in Batavia

1944- Allied forces liberate Luxembourg

1945- 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log

1950- 1st use of TV laugh track by "The Hank McCune Show" in the US

1951- 1st broadcast of soap opera "Love of Life" on CBS-TV

1955- Don Zimmer, hits 4,000th Dodger home run

1956- Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time

1957- US President Eisenhower signs 1st civil rights bill since Reconstruction

1960- Pakistan ends India's run of 6 consecutive Olympic field hockey gold medals with a 1-0 win over their sub-continent rivals at the Rome Games

1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools

1965- LA Dodgers future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his 4th career no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium

1966- The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1st federal safety standards for vehicles and roads

1967- 1st successful Test flight of a Saturn V

1969- The Official Languages Act comes into force in Canada - making English and French the country's official languages (replaced 1988 by new Official Languages Act)

1971- Apple Records releases John Lennon's second solo studio album, "Imagine" in US; it tops the charts in US, UK, Australia, and 3 other countries

1972- West German equestrian rider Liselott Linsenhoff follows her dressage teams gold in Mexico City with the individual dressage title at her home Olympics in Munich

1975- Paul McCartney & Wings begin their "Wings Over The World" tour in Southampton, England; 65 concerts in Europe, Australia, Canada, and United States, runs through October of 1976

1978- Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an uprising in the Iranian army

1979- 31st Emmy Awards: "Taxi"; "Lou Grant"; Ron Leibman & Ruth Gordon win

1983- Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (Coco2)

1985- President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa, targeting apartheid

1987- Larry Bird of the Celtics begins an NBA free throw streak of 59

1987- Gary Hart admits on "Nightline" to cheating on his wife

1990- George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait

1990- Liberia president Samuel K Doe is captured by Mr Johnson's forces

1991- Mike Tyson indicted for rape of Desiree Washington

1993- Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition

2010- A court in the Philippines orders Imelda Marcos to repay the government almost $280,000 for funds taken from the National Food Authority by Ferdinand Marcos in 1983

2012- Armenia wins the 40th FIDE Chess Olympiad

2015- Apple unveils the iPad Pro and iPhone 6S in San Francisco

2015- Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria

2017- Egyptian archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,500-year-old tomb of a goldsmith and his family in Draa Abul-Naga, Egypt

2018- CBS chief Les Moonves departs the company after six more women make allegations of sexual abuse in "The New Yorker"

2019- Poet John Milton's own copy of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 has survived with his annotations according to scholar Jason Scott-Warren in Philadelphia library, could be world's most important modern literary discovery

2020- San Francisco Bay area blanketed by dark orange skies and smoke due to California wildfires

2021- Tom Brady becomes first player in NFL history to start 300 regular season games as he guides Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an opening day 31-29 win at home to Dallas Cowboys

ALL of these are more important than something that never happened on this day.

[cosmicmote]

men fighting and beating women in the Olympics - this isn't sport and chromosomes don't lie. there is something seriously sick and diseased about a society that not just allows, but promotes this. all of it. and then denies and covers it up. this isn't his first year doing this. and it isn't just him, it's systemic. it's also all so antisocial, what ever the would-be appearances.

there are proper names for people who engage and exploit in this manner, but of course they shouldn't be uttered.

here is a list of the professional athletes on the USA Olympic basketball team, and yes of course it's the whole team.

and more:

The word amateur is derived from the Latin term, amator, which means lover. Preserving the purity of the games by allowing to compete only those who did so simply because of a love of their craft, allowed the IOC to seemingly be untainted by the culture of cheating and scandal that was deeply entrenched in professional sport in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That distinction and its enforcement were what made the Olympics, the Olympics. Right? Even Avery Brundage, the IOC president from 1952-1972 and a staunch supporter of preserving amateurism in the Olympics, said in 1955: “We can only rely on the support of those who believe in the principles of fair play and sportsmanship embodied in the amateur code in our efforts to prevent the games from being used by individuals, organizations or nations for ulterior motives.”

above quote from https://globalsportmatters.com/1968-mexico-city-olympics/2018/10/15/professional-athletes-1968-olympic-games/

so this tendency isn't something especially new.

lovers are nearly gone, driven out, and we can all see who/what's smirkingly taken their place.

words ©spacetree 2024

[jknerd]

DISNEY STUDIO AU: José Carioca

Full Name: José Carioca

Other Names: Zé Carioca, Joe Carioca

Schools: Xurupita High School (graduated), Walt Disney University of Performing Arts (graduated)

Occuaption(s): Sub-Vocalist and Dancer of the Three Caballeros, Samba pop/jazz singer

Residence: Xurupita Village, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

Family: Zico and Zeca Carioca (nephews), 6 cousins

Relationships: Rosinha Vaz (ex-girlfriend), Donald Fauntleroy Duck (best friend; fellow member of the Three Caballeros), Panchito Pistoles (best friend; fellow member of the Three Caballeros), Nestor (childhood friend), Afonsinho (childhood friend), Pedrão (childhood friend), Galdino “Zé Galo” Chaves (rival->occasional friend->???)

Likes: Brazilian music (especially Samba), Latin Music & Dances, drinking, traveling, parties, singing, dancing, foreign cultures & music, telenovela

Dislikes: Malicious comments against Donald or Panchito

José Carioca is a sub-vocalist and dancer of the Three Caballeros, the latin-pop boy band. He is also a Samba pop/jazz singer in Brazil. From same university with his two friends Panchito and Donald, the group was formed sharing same passion and pursuit for music career. In most of their songs, José takes control in dance break to rile up the fans at concert. The most calm and polite individual, he is the peacemaker between his team and other rivaling musicians in a middle of intense rivalry. Among the trio, José is most known for having great counts of scandal (with men, women, non-binary, etc).

Born in Xurupita village since childhood, he usually hang out with his childhood friends Nestor, Afonsinho and Pedrão. It is known he has six cousins who live in separate states within Brazil. While he loved to sing, he began to fear of losing his singing voice as he entered puberty. Believing that changing his male reproductive organ to female's would solve his fear, he used all his part-time job money to pay for the surgery, which miraculously, he was able to retain his androgynous singing voice. With his natural talents in dancing and singing, he decided to move to United States in order to learn performing arts as soon as he graduated high school. At one point, he struggled to carry his musical instruments and was about to fall until Donald caught him and his instruments safely. Impressed, José quickly befriended him. When hearing of forming a band, José offered his idea of having three in a group as both scouted Panchito, the Mexican student. Since then, the three friends wrote songs and performed from USA to other Latin American nations. When he confessed to them of his past of surgery, the two nonetheless accepted José. When they were preparing for Europe Tour, Donald's neck was injured causing him to unable to sing. José was seen tearfully bidding goodbye to Donald who left for his 4 years of service in the Navy. Due to the recording company's high demanding and irresponsible supervisions/control, both José and Panchito left the company. While Panchito became a mariachi and Mexican pop singer in Mexico, José returned to Brazil where he became a Samba pop/jazz singer under the stage name Zé. He reunited with his childhood friends and encountered Rosinha Vaz, beginning his relationship with her. 

At some point, he thought of marrying Rosinha but was harshly scorned by her father Rocha Vaz who have already planned to set her up with Galdino “Zé Galo” Chaves, the Top1 wealthiest in Brazil. José was unfairly scorned by Rosinha's father, calling him "Castrato Tranny", mocking Panchito and Donald and insulted his family. In anger for the first time, José warned him to never mock his family, friends and their dream, adding that the old man had jinxed himself and would die someday with all money useless to him. While dated Rosinha, he felt as if she was putting him and Zé Galo on the hook, growing less confident of himself. Yet, he find himself occasionally befriend his love rival. One day, he received a call from Panchito about the plan to restore Donald's singing voice. Understanding Donald's wish to comeback as "Three Caballeros", he put his friend's dream first as he broke up with Rosinha and agreed to perform in the hotel owned by Chaves family. With enough money earned, he left Brazil and moved back to USA. When Donald's voice was finally cured, the three made their comeback in House of Mouse, confirming their return and continuing their careers together.

Because of his experience in raising two nephews before Donald's surgery, José is one of very few who is able to handle Huey, Dewey and Louie's antics. Being a member representing LGBTQ+, majority of his fans are of same community and often perform songs in Pride Parades/Carnivals. He has a somewhat naive side when advised by Donald in writing songs through expressing or telling stories genuinely, José released his single song "Amazonian Cuckhold" based on the legend of Encantado/the Amazonian Pink Dolphin, adding spice with story in a song; in a POV of Encantado who found the lonely girl in a party as her boyfriend stood her up with other girls, so Encantado wooed/seduced the girl while insulting her boyfriend. Despite the censorship, the song has become a cautionary tale to never take the received love for granted or someone better would steal their lover away. 

[coochiequeens]

Under the new rules, the men’s division will be replaced by an “open category” – which will now also include transgender men, transgender women and non-binary individuals. Meanwhile the “female category” for any form of competition from elite to grassroots will be preserved for those with a birth sex of female.“ So everyone can compete and if men don’t like that then they are proving that they don’t care about biological women.

British Cycling has become the latest governing body to bar transgender women from competing in the female category to “safeguard the fairness” of the sport. The decision, which ends the transgender cyclist Emily Bridges’s dreams of competing for Britain in the female category, followed a nine-month consultation and a review of the latest science.

Under the new rules, the men’s division will be replaced by an “open category” – which will now also include transgender men, transgender women and non-binary individuals. Meanwhile the “female category” for any form of competition from elite to grassroots will be preserved for those with a birth sex of female.

The new policy, which broadly follows that of UK Athletics and Swim England, will also apply to all British Cycling-sanctioned competitive events involving times, ranking, points or prizes, as well as selection decisions for the Great Britain cycling team.

The news is likely to be widely welcomed by the country’s top female riders, many of whom threatened to boycott last year’s British National Omnium Championships until Bridges was declared ineligible by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, from competing in the female category as she was still registered as a male cyclist at the time.

That boycott threat arose due to many believing that 22-year-old Bridges, who was on the Great Britain academy programme as a male rider until being dropped in 2020, retained an unfair advantage after transitioning.

Their viewpoint is now shared by British Cycling. In a statement explaining its change in policy, it cited research studies indicating that even with the suppression of testosterone, transgender women who transition post-puberty retain a performance advantage.

However it also pledged that trans and non-binary people would still continue to be able to participate in a broad range of activities under its new policy – including club and coach-led activities, community programmes, and non-competitive events such as sportives.

British Cycling’s CEO, Jon Dutton, said: “I am confident that we have developed policies that both safeguard the fairness of cyclesport competition, whilst ensuring all riders have opportunities to participate.”

The governing body also apologised to transgender athletes for taking so long to come up with a new policy after suspending its previous one last year, leaving riders including Bridges in limbo. “We recognise the impact the suspension of our policy has had on trans and non-binary people, and we are sorry for the uncertainty and upset that many have felt during this period,” it added.

“Our aim in creating our policies has always been to advance and promote equality, diversity and inclusion, while at the same time prioritising fairness of competition. This aim has not changed.”

British Cycling’s new policy has been announced a few weeks after the most recent flare-up in the sport’s contentious transgender debate when the American Austin Killips became the first transgender athlete to win a UCI women’s stage race.

Killips’s victory in New Mexico led the UCI to admit it had heard the “concerns” of female athletes about unfair competition in the sport, and would be reconsidering its transgender policy. Those critical of the UCI included the three-time Olympian Inga Thompson who accused it of “killing off women’s cycling”.

The UCI is expected to announce any changes to its policy in August. As things stand, however, transgender women are still eligible to compete in UCI international events provided they lower their testosterone to 2.5 nmol/l for 24 months.

It means that when it comes to UCI-organised events staged in Britain, such as the Track Nations Cup or the Women’s Tour, the current UCI transgender policy on eligibility will take precedence.

[ultimateaclrecovery]

2023 year in review!

I actually had a pretty incredible year.

It’s weird, back in like 2021 I had been really stuck in my life and just kind of bored of doing the same things over and over and feeling like I fell into comfortable and was stuck in a rut, so I took an opportunity to live in LA for a year in 2022 which was mostly fine but the job sucked, and then came back to Colorado in 2023 and it’s like everything was all rainbows and sunshine. The grass really isn’t greener on the other side. So anyway here’s my recap.

Played lei out where we had a good time despite getting rained in.

January 21 went on our first date with my now boyfriend.

Ran a half marathon

Got to celebrate an actual valentines with my first boyfriend (although he wasn’t quite my bf yet)

Had an adorable galentines

Bought a horse, the very best pony and fulfilled an absolute life long dream and I still just can’t believe it.

Spent a weekend in dc with Anthony and got to do all the muesuem and eat purple food

Hosted a whimsical brunch just because

Had my golden birthday and turned 30 and was so purple

Played frisbee master nationals with a womens team after qualifying at regionals

Got a promotion to basically my ideal job. Am now a level 4 (out of five normal levels). Came with an 11% pay raise.

Went camping and hiked a terrifying fourteener

Helped return a sample of an asteroid to the earth.

Spent a girls day at the lake

Qualified to regionals for frisbee again. Finally.

Went to the hot air balloon festival in New Mexico and saw the eclipse and went camping

Realized the Nuvaring was not good for my emotional stability and came off of it (the one negative of the year)

Played fright flight frisbee tournament and got to be super hero Barbie

Spent nearly two with Japan with Anthony and had an absolutely marvelous time

Met his parents for thanksgiving dinner

Came home early enough for Christmas to make cookies with my mom after having to skip this last year.

Between a horse, a promotion, a boyfriend, great travel, great friends and an overall healthier for me and my family( no Covid for my birthday or dad breaking his hip before Christmas this year.) it’s been a pretty spectacular year.

Wishing you all an equally wonderful 2024 full of joy and peace!

[architectuul]

Mexico's Urban Improvement Program

For five decades, few architects had public or social commissions in Mexico, and it was not until the election of the left‑wing political party Morena in 2018 that selected architects were given the opportunity to design for the wider population. During his six‑year term in office, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wants to bring about a better future for neglected populations by implementing roughly a thousand urban infrastructure projects in Mexico’s poorest and most dangerous neighbourhoods with the Urban Improvement Program.

But there is a lack of time, money and experience among most of the people involved, as well as a lack of expertise and interest in maintenance after completion. For a project to have the best chance of long‑term survival, adoption by the population and the lowest possible maintenance requirements are crucial. In Mexico City I had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Román Meyer Falcón, a prominent figure in the field of urban and agrarian development, currently serving as the Secretary of Agrarian, Land, and Urban Development (SEDATU) in Mexico.

Mr. Meyer Falcón's extensive background in public service and urban planning has positioned him as a key advocate for equitable and inclusive urban development in Mexico. His leadership has played a significant role in shaping policies and initiatives that promote affordable housing, land rights, and sustainable urban growth. In addition to his national role, he holds the position of President of the UN Habitat Assembly. In this capacity, he spearheads international intergovernmental efforts to address global urbanization challenges, working toward the implementation of sustainable urban development goals on a global scale.

‘The work of architects on public projects in Mexico goes far beyond mere design’

Who, how and why started this process of the Program of Program Improvement?

RMF: When we started this administration in 2018, we had already worked in advance with the transition team of Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, now President. The idea was how we could establish a comprehensive program that could address the major needs in urban contexts of high marginalization; that is, those neighborhoods lacking water, electricity, drainage, paving, basic services, infrastructure. We set out to create a comprehensive program to make these facilities and public spaces that do not exist in the neighborhoods of greatest marginalization, which, unfortunately, often —not always— are the neighborhoods with the highest crime insecurity.

The new public market in Huimanguillo, Tabasco by 128 Arquitectura y Diseño Urbano replaces the old, which was affected in its infra and superstructure derived from the lack of maintenance and the high level of corrosion. Photo © F8PHOTO, Alejandro Gutiérrez

In addition to this issue, the Program not only makes facilities and public spaces with an added value —architecture—, but also, in the vicinity of the works, of a plaza, of a sports facility, within 500-600 meters, we provide direct housing support so that women, in particular, can make improvements: build a bathroom, add a second level, install a water tank, make a door, apply waterproofing. They are not given the money directly. Also, within the same radius, 500-700 meters from a facility, we deliver public deeds; that is, the documentation or possession title that proves that people own their house. The fourth element of the Program is that in those same municipalities we update the urban development plans, which are the basis for the granting of construction permits. So, these are the four components of the Program: public facilities spaces, housing actions, regularization of land tenure actions, public deeds, and something very important for us, the issue of planning; that is, these documents that grant construction permits, that establish where we should not urbanize, where we should and how we should do it as efficiently as possible: where housing goes, where commerce goes, where infrastructure goes, etc.

The renovation of the Old Municipal Trail in San Cristobal de las Casas by LAU creates new public spaces that allow the integration with the cultural elements that are part of the collective memory. Photo © Jaime Navarro

And the component for which I imagine this interview is about is one of the four pillars of the Program, which is the facilities. When we analyzed this, at that time with Mr. López Obrador, we put on the table, sort to speak, the possibility of addressing a specific type of infrastructure. Commonly, when talking about public infrastructure or urban services, water, paving, lighting are thought of as the most important. But there is a type that we think is the most important urban infrastructure of all, which brings together all the elements: and that it is public space, which combines water, light, drainage, paving, vegetation. And in neighborhoods with lag or marginalization, it is a very often lacking element, and that is where we work  in those neighborhoods.

Chicxulub Market Square by MMX Studio improves the square and the construction of the market. Photo @ Dane Alonso

We have worked in advance with the communities. This means that 8 months or maybe a year before a backhoe comes in to do the foundation, we had participatory workshops with the community, with the local authorities, sometimes with the State government, to tell them “well, of all the needs you have, let's define which are the most important." So they tell us "well, for us a high school is very important, because our children currently take an hour and a half to go to the closest one, because we don't have one." Alright, then we ask "what else?", considering that we have a limited budget. And we work on a program based on the main needs.

Which were the criteria of the selection of the communities and location?

RMF: Primarily, in 60% or 70% of the cases, the locations correspond to places where the Federal Government has some major infrastructure project. So, this means, for example: the Maya Train corridor, which is 1600 km long; the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Corridor, which is 400 km; the vicinity of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport; the northern border with the United States, which was more of a fiscal incentive project. That's where the program supports the large federal infrastructure investments with its four components. So, we attend or accompany these large developments. For example, in the case of the Maya Train, some neighboring municipalities: having a train station does not mean that there are automatic immediate urban benefits. So, to avoid having, let's say, elements of great contrast, if the train station influences or benefits a population one or two kilometers away, we still have very lagging neighborhoods further away. So, we do complementary actions in those surrounding areas, but far from the train station itself. 

Bacalar Ecopark by Collective C733 reduces the requested program to a minimum and act with actude to be able to wander through the natural richness of the flora and fauna of the site, affecting as little as possible. The lagoon is in the largest freshwater bacterial reef in the world. Photo © Rafael Gamo

So in every location you kind of need to do the preliminary research of what the community needs?

RMF: Yes, we arrive with a team of urban planners, architects, sociologists, so that they can start working as quickly as possible with the communities and with the local authorities. And that's where we make a basic master plan of the city. We say, "well, the marginalization of this city, which is in the middle of the Maya Train path, is more prevalent in these neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are the ones with the greatest lack of basic services." And among those basic services lacking, we focus on public space. So, we go from the general to start defining polygons or neighborhoods, and once we have those polygons, with densities, with levels of marginalization and needs, we go to the chosen neighborhoods and conduct participatory workshops in coordination with the municipality. And there we start to cross the different interests: because, for example, the municipality might say "I want this," which is usually what the Mayor has in mind. But it is also important to attend to the Mayor, because otherwise he will say "you never asked me what to do, so why do I have to maintain and operate the space?". So, we have to cross-reference the needs of the community and the local authority, so that, as far as possible, both parties are satisfied and say "well, maybe it wasn't what I wanted, but I agree that a high school should be built"; "I agree that a fire station should be built"; "I agree that a public market should be built." With that, we define: we see what are the best possible lands, which can be granted to us by the local or state authority. Because we do not buy the land, it must be given to us as a donation, because the infrastructure is handed over to the municipalities; it belongs to them. That is, that high school belongs to the Municipality; that market belongs to the Municipality, that sports facility belongs to the Municipality. We do not keep the infrastructure: it is a federal Program to support local authorities.

Museum of Geology by MMX Studio in Progreso, Yucatan is a cultural element and an element of public space. Photo © Dane Alonso

How actually could you manage to make so many projects in such a short time?

RMF: It's an intensive job, there's no other way... A team effort, yes. But also I personally visit each of these facilities, on average, 10 times. Before the backhoe comes in, I check the plan, I tell them "yes, move the building, move it here, place it here, it's misoriented." I do other visits during the preliminary works, during the foundation stage, during the structure formation, during the configurations of facilities, during the masonry, finishing, and completion stages. 

The Pyrotechnics Museum by Miguel Montor concerns a location that is recognized for its work with pyrotechnics at a national and international level for many years. As part of the request for post-pandemic economic recovery, it was proposed that the local workforce was to be used throughout the construction of the project, in order to generate employment. Photo © Onnis Luque

There's a very common phrase in Mexico that says: “a una orden dada, no supervisada, se la lleva la chingada”, that implies that if an instruction is given but not properly overseen or followed up on, it is likely to be neglected, forgotten, or poorly executed. Which is somewhat the nature of this administration and this government. The President is also a construction supervisor: every 15 days, for example, he goes to the Maya Train and checks the status of the project. And so, the only way to achieve these goals is for you to be physically supervising.

But you also work not only to check the work of architecture, also as you told you work very strongly with the communities. How do you get the trust of people?

RMF: I believe in trust, but also determination. Because we cannot afford to be ambiguous. We have so little time to complete these projects —because the program, from planning to the delivery of the work, has to ideally be done within a year or a year and a half—, so you have to close the fieldwork as quickly as possible: agree with the authorities and communities. Collaboration agreements are signed where it is stated 'yes, we all agree that we are going to make here the new public square' and everyone signs in understanding. And, as much as possible, as the construction process goes on, solve socialization problems. 

Public works are a constant conflict. In general, construction is a conflict. If you build, it's a conflict, whether it's public or private. But when it's public, it's greater, because it is a matter of common interest; because public funds belong to everyone, to all Mexicans. So, let's say, many points of view, local interests come into play, which must be politically addressed as much as possible. Because otherwise, upon delivery, the reception and operation of the spaces can become a conflict. That's why we, every two months, go back to each space and do supervision work: we check if there is light, if the bathrooms are working, if they are open, if there are waterproofing problems, if the municipality is correctly giving operation and maintenance.

The renovation of the main square in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz by Colectivo MX, Gabriel Konzevik, Reyes Ríos and Larraín arquitectos improves the quality of social life based on an in-depth review of how and why people have used existing facilities. Photo © Andrés Cedillo - Grupo Provimex

So, it's not only about the construction, but also about following up every two months with the local authorities to see if they are using and taking advantage of them. And if not, you call the Mayor the Governor and say “listen, I have three abandoned projects in your state, what happened?”. So, it's a constant political pressure of supervision.

Something interesting is that almost all the facilities made in the first years, 2019 and 2020, are now active; I believe all of them. Because a political effort was made to ensure permanence. This means that when a work is delivered, it does not mean that it will function the next day. You have to wait approximately two years for a sense of permanence to consolidate among the community and the local authorities to understand that it is a place that needs to be followed up. So, after delivering a facility, you have to be two years behind those responsible.

And how did you do the selection of architects?

RMF: In the first year, we worked with UNAM’s Architecture Faculty, for better or worse. Because UNAM, which is the great National University, is also a very complicated bureaucratic apparatus, and when two bureaucratic apparatuses want to work in short times, it's a disaster. But aside from that, it gave me the opportunity to get to know the work of many architects. It was, let's say, a letter of introduction to good and not-so-good architects.

The House of Culture and the Kindergarten (CADI) in Tlatenchi by Taller CD represent two projects developed jointly, although in separate properties. Photo © Andrés Cedillo

After that year of work, in which the University and the Faculty made the executive projects, we were able to meet many architects and from there we began to define which ones were the good ones and for what types of projects. We chose many of them for other years insofar as they were architects or firms who are interested in reviewing the work on-site. Because there were some who delivered the executive project and afterwards never returned to the site.

The architect is forged in the field. Indeed, it is important that they enroll in a Faculty and study. But architecture is done in the field and, hence, the only way to learn is by stepping on the territory, there's no other way. So, we also got involved with those architects who we know return to the building sites, who supervise their own works without us having to pressure them; those who return, that review the project with the company, with the director, make their observations, and that when I see them —in those visits that I make— raise their hand and say what is wrong and, in front of the construction company, in the field, we debate.

How many architects are included in the Program?

RMF: Well, there must be more than a hundred, and all of them are nationals.

Can you present me with one of the studios?

RMF: Yes, for example, we have Loreta Castro from the firm Taller Capital. Just yesterday, we delivered a project of hers, the Bicentennial Park in the municipality of Ecatepec. It is the most intensively used urban park in the country, located in one of the poorest and most densely populated municipalities. It also serves as a regulating basin, capturing and filtering water due to significant water shortages in the area. We also have Gaby Carrillo, who has assisted us in many projects, as well as Estudio MMX, which is, let's say, "special," but good. Miguel Montor, who worked on the Mammoth Museum. They all teach somewhere...

What’s next? Will you continue to do this?

RMF: I believe so. You know, there's a saying: "an old monkey doesn't learn new tricks." At our age, we're already specialized in something. In our case, urban planning and architecture. It's very unlikely that I'll quit. So I have to stick with something I like; it's a vocation; something I enjoy despite the unfriendly bureaucracy and the fact that it is often tyring.

For instance, I like the project behind you: it's the new Agrarian Archive, the second largest and most important archive in Latin America, located on Reforma Avenue, the most important one in Latin America as well.

This section over here is a Botanical Garden, with sections that range from jungle to desert, with different lighting conditions. It also has a public plaza with a small skatepark. Below is the entire archive, and we have the bureaucratic part as well. This is an example of institutional projects that we undertake within the Ministry without architects. These are the types of projects that we have been very enthusiastic about. This particular project is already about 65% complete. The structure is already up, and we are working on coverings and facilities: there's, for example, an Agrarianism Museum, which will be made up of pieces that blend in with the landscape and the botanical garden. We have pieces from the National Institute of Anthropology and History from the 16th and 17th centuries, which we will use as references for why agrarianism in Mexico is so important.