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fatehbaz · 2 years

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the very Sacred Oak Flat is in danger of becoming an open pit copper mine. turning a sacred site into a 1000-ft pit. Apache Leap, ancient petroglyphs, extremely important rituals since time began; these things are Oak Flat. the federal government is ignoring many legal protections as well, including 200 yr old treaty promising to protect the land forever, national park designation, and on the national register of historic places. this project is so, so evil. I want people to know about it. Please read, talk, care about it.

Nice, thank you. The impending destruction of Chi'chil Bildagoteel by the US government and one of the planet's most infamous mining companies.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve written here about defense of Oak Flat, also called Chi'chil Bildagoteel by Chiricahua Apache from San Carlos reservation. (A summary of the site’s importance and history. A summary of the legal challenges to the mine. A summary of Apache Stronghold and other Indigenous-led campaigns. A photo collection featuring Indigenous-led actions in February 2021.) But all of these posts predate the developments that have occurred from the beginning of 2022 until now (March 2023). And the legal case, the fate of the site, is about to be settled this very month.

Well, then, there’s Rio Tinto, the copper mining leviathan, despised across the planet, bane of Australia, so-called Rhodesia, Latin America, Papua, etc. They're the second-largest metals/mining company on the planet. For well over a century, open-pit copper mines have been infamous for the scale of their destruction and I like how you describe it: giant pits, gaping wounds. Oak Flat is destined to belong to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. Just before widespread news of Rio Tinto’s interest in Oak Flat, Rio Tinto had earned an especially-notorious reputation for destroying Indigenous/Aboriginal sites in Australia. A summary of the news about the “atrocity” at Juukan Gorge, when in May 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed an important sacred cultural site containing Indigenous shelters over 45,000 years old, and Rio Tinto leaders apparently had foreknowledge of the area’s cultural importance. Here’s a look at what is perhaps the oldest surviving human art on the planet, some petroglyphs and shelters up to 50,000 years old, being destroyed by the truly astonishing scale and diversity of destructive mining operations in Western Australia. And here’s a look at many other ancient and modern Indigenous sacred sites being destroyed by mining in that region.

Sacred Land Film Project put together some informational graphics:

Anyway, a basic summary.

Originally, this mine was kinda known as, like, “the John McCain Land-Grab Deal” because Senator McCain sold out the state of Arizona and Indigenous people by basically promising a formal transfer of land and the creation of what would become a major mining site at Oak Flat. Mining in the Oak Flat area was technically prohibited decades earlier by an Eisenhower presidential/executive order, but in December 2014, McCain sneaked a hidden last-minute rider onto a must-pass defense spending bill.

In May 2020, Rio Tinto gets caught destroying those sites at Juukan Gorge.

So, in October 2020, Indigenous activists discovered that the supposed date of the land transfer finalization had been quietly and suddenly moved up like a full year, meaning that the site might have become a mine beginning in December 2020 or January 2021.

At this point, the Oak Flat mine was becoming known as, like, “Trump’s Rushed/Hurried Mining Deal,” since the Trump presidential administration seemed to want to quickly act on the mine before any potential presidential transfer of power might occur in January 2021, “just in case” they lost the November 2020 election.

So this is when Apache Stronghold and other Native advocates really started finally getting national recognition in headlines. They organized a Day of Action and statewide events around the Solstice in 2020, and by January 2021, they had forced the case into court.

In the January 2021 case of Apache Stronghold v. United States, an Arizona judge ruled against Native advocates, but advocates got the case heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While the case was being argued, in February 2021, Apache Stronghold also participated in a newsworthy relay from Oak Flat to the courthouse in Phoenix, when Native advocates held a candlelight vigil.

But in March 2021, the US Forest Service announced that it was temporarily withdrawing its environmental impact assessments for the land transfer, putting the mine on hold.

In October 2021, the three judges on the appeals court ruled against Apache Stronghold again.

Over a year later, in November 2022, the court then announced something unusual: The court was willing to rehear the case en blanc (before a panel of all 11 judges).

And now, “Biden’s attorneys” will be arguing against Apache Stronghold and for the land transfer.

Throughout this entire process, Apache Stronghold has consistently been vocal, active, and dedicated to stopping it.

Here are some headlines from the past couple of years:

And from March 2023, this headline, one more time, for impact:

So, beginning on 21 March 2023, the case is being heard, again, for what is presumably the final time, with US government attorneys arguing that the land will belong to the mining companies by summer 2023.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

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Daily Don :: Jesse Duquette

* * * *

Juneteenth was designated a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, and is celebrated on June 19th each year (or on the nearest Friday or Monday if it falls on a weekend). At a time when America’s history of the enslavement of Black people is being stripped from curriculums across the nation, the holiday takes on a special urgency. It reminds us that—like virtually every tenet of the canon of American history—the facts are more complicated, messy, and disappointing than expected. So, too, with Juneteenth.

In its simplest telling, Juneteenth is the day when General Order No. 3 was published in Texas, informing enslaved persons and their masters that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in secessionist states two-and-a-half years earlier. But as with the Emancipation Proclamation, the promise of “the end of slavery” outran the reality. See generally, Washington Post, Thousands queue to see the Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3. (This article is accessible to everyone.)

The Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery only in secessionist states—but not (a) in the slave states that remained loyal to the Union or (b) in those portions of secessionist states under the control of the Union Army. As a result, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, it left nearly half a million people in their enslaved condition.

And when General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, declaring that enslaved persons in Texas were freed by virtue of the Emancipation Proclamation, the “freedom” recognized by the order was not the same freedom enjoyed by American citizens. General Order Number 3 read as follows:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

By order of Major General Granger

Although General Order Number 3 declares that enslaved persons and their masters have “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property,” the next paragraph effectively advises the formerly enslaved people that they are indentured servants who were “advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.” Thus began the long, fitful pursuit for “absolute equality” of the people who learned of their freedom on June 19th, 1865.

More than a century-and-a-half later, that long, fitful pursuit continues. While much progress has been made, we are living through a retrograde moment in which discussing the truth of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War amendments is banned in dozens of states. Juneteenth celebrates a day on which tens of thousands of enslaved people in Texas learned they were free, but it reminds us that the promise of “absolute equality of personal rights” for the descendants of the formerly enslaved people remains unfulfilled today.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Daily Don #Jesse Duquette #Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #quotes #Juneteenth #history #racism

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gacmediadaily · 1 month

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Does it feel like Texas is suddenly taking over the national entertainment industry?

Megaproducer Taylor Sheridan – Wind River, Hell or High Water, and now the blockbuster Yellowstone– raised in Fort Worth, is making Western culture popular again and filling rodeo arenas with city folks.

A new force in streaming and cable

Another Texas-based player may be an even more disruptive force in the U.S. entertainment industry.

Great American Media (GAM) is suddenly an overnight contender in the U.S. streaming and cable television space, winning regular coverage in industry flagships like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and it has the entertainment industry sitting up and taking notice for its success attracting audiences to faith and family content.

“We’re on our way to being America’s most uplifting and inspiring network,” says CEO Bill Abbott, who founded Great American Media in 2021.

Abbott follows a familiar playbook – his own — perfected over 35 years in family entertainment.

Abbott’s resume includes senior leadership roles at Fox Kids, Fox Family Channel, and ABC Family, plus more than 20 years as the architect of the Hallmark television brands. Now he has launched another TV brand in the burgeoning Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, a big community with small-town sensibilities and a dedicated and talented populace, he says.

As the engineer of the next big thing, Abbott pulled on both experience and his friends, instantly creating a crew of iconic TV stars, including Mario Lopez, Danica McKellar, Cameron Mathison, Alexa and Carlos PenaVega, and, of course, Candace Cameron Bure.

These stars are making an appearance at iconic venues across the nation for spotlight events and movie production. Carlos and Alexa PenaVega spent the day at AT&T Stadium in Dallas – right down the road from the headquarters of Great America Media – filming their upcoming holiday premiere movie. Not only is the AT&T Stadium recognizable by many, but this production further solidifies Abbott’s dedication to creating uplifting, quality content.

Today, his startup boasts over 70 million viewers and subscribers to its cable television channels and streaming service, a remarkable feat in any environment. The last three years have been some of the most tumultuous in television and entertainment history, with a record decline in cable subscribers and increasing competition among streaming services. Yet Great American Media is on the rise.

The success is a testament to early mornings, continual conference calls, coast-to-coast travel, and non-stop team building. Every Friday, Abbott hosts a company-wide review of the market and a company performance where he answers employees’ questions nationwide. One staffer describes it as a master class in cable and streaming television.

Great American Media’s Fort Worth headquarters includes production and administrative offices, while its sales and executive offices are in New York. Its member services center, a call center supporting a committed fan base, is in Phoenix.

“One of the most rewarding parts of my jobs is to read viewer emails,” says Abbott, who regularly corresponds with a group of over 25,000 loyal Great American Media Insiders. “Our viewers know what they want and it’s our job to give them a great uplifting experience free of the stress and contentiousness of their already overly complex world.”

Great American Media’s portfolio of brands now includes Great American Family, Great American Pure Flix, Great American Faith & Living, Great American Adventures, and Pure Flix TV.

As the company’s flagship cable TV network, Great American Family, features quality original movies and classic series that are inspiring and emotionally connecting. The business strategy is to align the content and convert cable viewers to streaming subscribers, a riddle many in Hollywood are attempting to solve.

Great American Pure Flix is GAM’s leading subscription on-demand streaming service and the most successful faith-based content provider of its size. A recent Financial Times story described GAM as the Netflix of faith-based content, to which Abbott responds, “Not bad company to be in after only three years.”

Great American Faith & Living features mostly unscripted lifestyle programming that celebrates family-friendly traditions every day and every season.

Great American Media is also home to a FAST (free ad-supporting streaming TV) channel with Great American Adventures, which offers both scripted and unscripted content, including cooking and do-it-yourself programs, and Great American Community, a free direct-to-consumer streaming app featuring short-form original series hosted by well-known lifestyle experts and TV stars. There is also a Pure Flix FAST channel.

“We are creating an oasis in a cultural desert,” says Candace Cameron Bure, star of many Great American Media original programs, including hit My Christmas Hero. She joined Abbott at the film’s screening on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.

Abbott agrees, saying, “I think that the culture overall needs what we’re offering. And there is just so little content out there that serves family and faith and yet is done in a quality way. It is a very big part of what our mission is and what we do, and the demand is huge.”

Not His First Rodeo

Abbott founded Great American Media in June 2021 with backing from Dallas-based investors, including Dallas businessman Doug Deason. Abbott credits Deason with the company’s steady focus on strategy.

“After running companies that possess varying levels of leadership and judgment exercised at the board and ownership level, I know first-hand that these qualities can make or break a business, and Great American Media’s success starts with Doug in his role as Chairman of the Board,” says Abbott.

Deason, who most recently demonstrated political acumen by leading an initiative to get Texans to set aside $1 billion to expand Texas state parks and co-chaired the expansion of Dallas’ Centennial Parks.

“Without Doug’s unwavering support, vision, and courage, Great American Media would lack the ability to stand firmly behind the values conveyed in our faith and family content,” says Abbott, “and in fact, it’s quite likely the business would never have gotten off the ground.”

Deason credits Abbott, who he points out is unique among broadcasting executives, who more typically are finance types or lawyers and rarely schooled in stories, let alone moral tales. Abbott is an English and Literature graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, a foundation he puts to good use by reading every script and participating in creative development with his producers and stars.

GAM’s CEO is deeply respected in the industry and serves on the boards of the Parents Television & Media Council and the International Radio & Television Society Foundation. He was inducted into Broadcasting & Cable’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

Previously, Abbott served for two decades as a senior executive and then CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company of Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery, Hallmark Drama, and Hallmark Movies Now.

“We had tremendous success with creating a destination that was family-friendly and themed around the holidays,” explains Abbott. He is credited with creating the Christmas television genre, expanding the network’s romantic comedies, and launching its mysteries channel.

After 20 years, Abbott left Hallmark and looked to Texas to build a new network: Great American Family.

“We’re proud to say we celebrate faith, family, and country,” explains Abbott, “and we have an investor group where we all believe in the mission of family-friendly and faith-based content.”

Equipped with funding and a vision, Abbott acquired Fort Worth’s independently owned equestrian and western channel Ride TV and a music video channel called Great American Country from Discovery. This gave his fledgling dream two traditional cable television linear channels. As the company sorted through its inherited programs and shows, Great American Media was quickly rebranded.

“Now we had something to work with, and we went to work,” he explained.

The entertainment world suddenly noticed when the new GAM network acquired Michael Landon Jr.’s When Calls the Heart spin-off, When Hope Calls,” and began hiring the most well-known talent in the genre to appear in its own slate of made-for-TV movies.

GAM also quickly established Great American Christmas premieres and seasonal rotation around Christmas, including 12 original movies in its first year. Now, they’re producing more than 20 original Christmas movies per year.

Dream Streaming

While building a traditional cable offering, Abbott heard from Sony Pictures Entertainment, one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates. They owned Pure Flix, a niche faith-based streaming video-on-demand service with a loyal fan base.

“Pure Flix had been sort of under the radar,” explained Abbott. Sony had only recently acquired the streaming service and began looking for a means of growing it. Sony executives saw the synergies between Abbott’s startup, the Great American Family channel, and their streamer and proposed a merger.

The merger enhanced both platforms’ content library and created synergies between cable and streaming services, meeting customer expectations for a fulfilling, uplifting, and inspiring entertainment experience. Since the merger, SVOD subscriptions have increased, and the customer experience has been enhanced through several platform upgrades, making the streaming service intuitive and user-friendly.

“Our brands and diversified content distribution capabilities have helped us reach substantially larger and broader audiences on each platform, creating a family- and faith-friendly streaming service unlike any other,” he added. “Our business strategy is becoming more and more clear to the industry.”

And they’re noticing. Great American Media ncluded 2023 as the fastest-growing channel on cable television, and its ad sales were up 25 percent. Under Abbott’s watchful eye, the economy balances with creative excellence, allowing the GAM channels to increasingly share the same programming vision, creating the brand synergies critical to growth.

Great American Media’s programming and development team steers all original scripts from concept through production with an eye toward brand integrity. Abbott and the leadership team ensure every frame it controls is on brand as promised.

Great American Media has made headlines for the stars it has drawn in its first few years, including Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar, Trevor Donovan, Jill Wagner, Jen Lilley, Cameron Mathison, and Jen Lilley.

In February, Great American Media announced it signed Emmy Award–winning host and actor Mario Lopez to a multi-picture, multi-year deal to star in content across the company’s vast media portfolio. Lopez will be a major part of Great American Christmas 2024. His first film in the partnership will include a holiday film starring alongside his wife and Broadway star Courtney Lopez. Lopez will continue hosting NBC’s Access Hollywood and Access Daily.

Abbott cites the dedicated Fort Worth team and the talent across Texas as a critical aspect of GAM’s success, noting that programmers and production crews work around the clock and maintain a high commitment to the brand and its viewers.

As conglomerates continue to obliterate brands, Abbott is on a mission to maintain his company’s commitment to bringing high-quality family content with a faith focus to a new heyday.

“We are not replicating the past; we are creating a new bright future, diverse in genre and format, but all wrapped in high-quality family programming that features romantic comedies, Christmas, drama, faith-inspired lifestyles, and even drama series,” says Abbott. Mysteries are now a cornerstone of the broad programming, with Great American Mysteries’ inaugural launch, The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker, starring Cameron Bure, premiering on July 25.

“We’re about faith, family, and country,” said Abbott, “and those values can be reflected in uplifting and inspiring ways across all genres, including mysteries.”

#great american family #great american christmas #bill abbott

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hwsforeignrelations · 1 year

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As a hobby sketchbooker, its a favorite pasttime to go chronologically through old sketchbooks and note improvement. Im gonna supplement the rant below with old art, cuz its relevant and i think they're neat

I accidentally deleted my old tumblr like five months ago which held a similar sentiment (*SOB* but no use crying over split milk)

I see a lot of fan artists getting burnt out. I see a lot of Hetalia artists stay for a bit, then leave for other fandoms (higher pastures, if u will). I use to not understand. How did people become bored so fast?!?!

Ive never been one to switch interests quickly. I was solidly leg deep in my superhero phase 5-8th grade. I started reading exclusively usuk fanfics in 8th grade, and have hardly ventured beyond usuk.

I'm trying to branch out more.

Hetalia is unique in its ability to teach crash course history and have enemy soldiers devouring each others cocks in the same paragraph. Double win!! The concept of international relations translated to human ones, of a nations pain having physical embodiment, of fantastically diverse headcanons dissecting the intrigues of Nation biology... Its all very yummy thinking food

Ive never read the manga, ive hardly watched the show. Im fandom built thru and thru!

Like the pic above, I use usuk as experiments to run all my ideas thru. Mix media,

World building, swatching, expressions and unfamiliar subjects. Theyre my go-to! since I started taking art seriously in 2021 and those events were mainly usuk themed

my styles always changing, and I'm usually using America and England to do it

Combined with writing and a poor conceptual understanding of base material (aka CANON) i have trouble knowing WHO alfred and england are, in my style. They're constantly changing designs make it hard for my writing to capture their characters consistently.

I get so fixated on solving my own inconsistent characterization writing. Its stupid! Im going to college across the country in ten days, for Christ's sake!

Its no use getting worked up over an inconsistent style- this IS the period of constant change, of constant growth and its great fun processing new interests through art, through two characters i am familiar with (even if i somehow don't know them at all)

Ive been reading stories about the royal navy: so i practice some made up naval uniform on england! That's just an example - i really do process new information through them, finding fun in research

Once i couldn't stop thinking about the scene below, about the intrigue of gore (a genre id never taken an interest to). And i was cringing about doing it to myself (about how ouchi it would be), but like all my creative ideas j filter them through characters - it feels safer that way. Then drawing myself in there. Yuck.

So i practice the idea in Alfred. "Oh ouch yup- looks just as gross and painful and I'd imagined. Perfect!!" Now ive got an Alfred doing this gross thing, now i have a headcanon about nations cleaning their tongues witn razors.

Now i wanna write about it. Haha its all a very self-feeding pattern.

Not sure if this rant makes much sense, but basically i STRUGGLE to establish characters. Partially because i play so much with them in my doodles with anything and everything i find interesting - perhaps it makes too many factors for one character.

#.txt #this literally... makes no sense im sk sorry if u read it TT #just a bunch of thoughts ive had #looking for advice ig #idk if this is a common issue but i can't imagine its THAT unusual??? ? TT plz?

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xtruss · 9 months

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Imran Khan Warns That Pakistan’s Election Could Be A Farce

His Party is Being Unfairly Muzzled, the Former Prime Minister Writes From Prison

— January 4th, 2024 | The Economist

Imran Khan, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Image: Dan Williams

Today pakistan is being ruled by caretaker governments at both the federal level and provincial level. These administrations are constitutionally illegal because elections were not held within 90 days of parliamentary assemblies being dissolved.

The public is hearing that elections will supposedly be held on February 8th. But having been denied the same in two provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over the past year—despite a Supreme Court order last March that those votes should be held within three months—they are right to be sceptical about whether the national vote will take place.

The country’s election commission has been tainted by its bizarre actions. Not only has it defied the top court but it has also rejected my Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (pti) party’s nominations for first-choice candidates, hindered the party’s internal elections and launched contempt cases against me and other pti leaders for simply criticising the commission.

Whether elections happen or not, the manner in which I and my party have been targeted since a farcical vote of no confidence in April 2022 has made one thing clear: the establishment—the army, security agencies and the civil bureaucracy—is not prepared to provide any playing field at all, let alone a level one, for pti.

It was, after all, the establishment that engineered our removal from government under pressure from America, which was becoming agitated with my push for an independent foreign policy and my refusal to provide bases for its armed forces. I was categorical that we would be a friend to all but would not be anyone’s proxy for wars. I did not come to this view lightly. It was shaped by the huge losses Pakistan had incurred collaborating with America’s “war on terror”, not least the 80,000 Pakistani lives lost.

In March 2022 an official from America’s State Department met Pakistan’s then ambassador in Washington, dc. After that meeting the ambassador sent a cipher message to my government. I later saw the message, via the then foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and it was subsequently read out in cabinet.

In view of what the cipher message said, I believe that the American official’s message was to the effect of: pull the plug on Imran Khan’s prime ministership through a vote of no confidence, or else. Within weeks our government was toppled and I discovered that Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, had, through the security agencies, been working on our allies and parliamentary backbenchers for several months to move against us.

People flocked onto the streets to protest against this regime change, and in the next few months pti won 28 out of 37 by-elections and held massive rallies across the country, sending a clear message as to where the public stood. These rallies attracted a level of female participation that we believe was unprecedented in Pakistan’s history. This unnerved the powers that had engineered our government’s removal.

To add to their panic, the administration that replaced us destroyed the economy, bringing about unprecedented inflation and a currency devaluation within 18 months. The contrast was clear for everyone to see: the pti government had not only saved Pakistan from bankruptcy but also won international praise for its handling of the covid-19 pandemic. In addition, despite a spike in commodity prices, we steered the economy to real gdp growth of 5.8% in 2021 and 6.1% in 2022.

Unfortunately, the establishment had decided I could not be allowed to return to power, so all means of removing me from the political landscape were used. There were two assassination attempts on my life. My party’s leaders, workers and social-media activists, along with supportive journalists, were abducted, incarcerated, tortured and pressured to leave pti. Many of them remain locked up, with new charges being thrown at them every time the courts give them bail or set them free. Worse, the current government has gone out of its way to terrorise and intimidate pti’s female leaders and workers in an effort to discourage women from participating in politics.

I face almost 200 legal cases and have been denied a normal trial in an open court. A false-flag operation on May 9th 2023—involving, among other things, arson at military installations falsely blamed on pti—led to several thousand arrests, abductions and criminal charges within 48 hours. The speed showed it was pre-planned.

This was followed by many of our leaders being tortured or their families threatened into giving press conferences and engineered television interviews to state that they were leaving the party. Some were compelled to join other, newly created political parties. Others were made to give false testimony against me under duress.

Despite all this, pti remains popular, with 66% support in a Pattan-Coalition 38 poll held in December; my personal approval rating is even higher. Now the election commission, desperate to deny the party the right to contest elections, is indulging in all manner of unlawful tricks. The courts seem to be losing credibility daily.

Meanwhile, a former prime minister with a conviction for corruption, Nawaz Sharif, has returned from Britain, where he was living as an absconder from Pakistani justice. In November a Pakistani court overturned the conviction (Under United States’ Scrotums Licker Corrupt Army Generals’ Directions).

It is my belief that Corrupt to his Core Mr Sharif has struck a deal with the establishment whereby it will support his acquittal and throw its weight behind him in the upcoming elections. But so far the public has been unrelenting in its support for pti and its rejection of the “selected”.

It is under these circumstances that elections may be held on February 8th. All parties are being allowed to campaign freely except for pti. I remain incarcerated, in solitary confinement, on absurd charges that include treason. Those few of our party’s leaders who remain free and not underground are not allowed to hold even local worker conventions. Where pti workers manage to gather together they face brutal police action.

In this scenario, even if elections were held they would be a disaster and a farce, since pti is being denied its basic right to campaign. Such a joke of an election would only lead to further political instability. This, in turn, would further aggravate an already volatile economy.

The only viable way forward for Pakistan is fair and free elections, which would bring back political stability and rule of law, as well as ushering in desperately needed reforms by a democratic government with a popular mandate. There is no other way for Pakistan to disentangle itself from the crises confronting it. Unfortunately, with democracy under siege, we are heading in the opposite direction on all these fronts. ■

— Imran Khan is the Founder and Former Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.

— Editor’s Note: Pakistan’s government and America’s State Department deny Mr Khan’s allegations of American interference in Pakistani politics (Bullshit! Hegemonic War Criminal Conspirator United States and Corrupt Army Generals and Politicians of Pakistan Were Clearly Involved. It’s Social Media’s Modern Era, Not 1970). The government is prosecuting him under the Official Secrets Act.

#By Invitation | Pakistan 🇵🇰#Imran Khan #Elections Under Corrupt Army of Pakistan #The Economist

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merelygifted · 2 years

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What Native land are you on? This map shows Indigenous tribes' past territories : NPR

President Biden became the first president to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2021, and did so again this year. It falls on the same day as Columbus Day, which was established by Italian American groups to celebrate their heritage and to acknowledge the mistreatment of the immigrant group in the U.S.

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a time of reflection, recognition and celebration of the role Native people have played in U.S. history, as NPR has reported. One way to mark the day — and to learn about Indigenous history year-round — is to learn which Native lands you live on.

Acknowledging an area's original inhabitants and stewards is a valuable process, albeit a complex one, as the National Museum of the American Indian explains. The museum suggests reaching out to local Indigenous communities for guidance involving formal land acknowledgements, which can be offered at the start of public and private gatherings. ...

... Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led nonprofit based in Canada, is working to facilitate such conversations and document this history including by putting together a searchable map of Native territories, languages and treaties.

Users can click on labels across the Americas and around other parts of the globe — or type a specific city, state or zip code into the search box — to see which Indigenous tribes lived where. You can zoom in or out, as well as choose to apply "settler labels" to see how the map corresponds with contemporary state lines. Clicking on the name of each nation brings up links for related reading.

The map is available on the organization's website and on iOS and Android mobile apps. Native Land Digital also publishes resources to go with the map, including a teacher's guide and a territory acknowledgement generator. ...

#Indigenous Peoples' Day #Native Peoples #Native Land Digital #Cartography #Maps

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viff-thology · 1 year

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Profile : Spencer

Full name : Spencer Reeves

YoB : 1989

Nationality : American

Affiliation : Behavioral Analysis Unit, FBI (field agent).

Based in : Washington, D.C.

Family : Father, mother, a younger sister.

Appearance : ETY 1.0, Spin-off : Anna.

Notes : Multilingual (English, French, Russian, Deutsch), left-handed

Early life

Spencer finished his degree in psychology and law before joining the FBI in 2012 and promoted as permanent member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in 2015 alongside of Emma Kensington. Trained in field mission as well as suspect interrogation, Spencer was one of the most prominent member of the team, frequently sent out for multinational cases for his multilingual talent (and his prowess in acting to know one when he actually doesn't).

ETY 1.0

2021

Port Reading

Spencer was first sent out to investigate upon reports of illegal immigration and concerns of trafficking near Port Reading, New Jersey in 2021, a year before the shooting of Theodore Haven. His team discovered a Russian-dominated community called Voronaskaya and a man called Yuri who seemed to be in charge of everything in the port. Although not finding anything suspicious, Spencer decided to keep tabs on the community for future references, seeing the community has decent resources and a strategic site for ocean traffics.

2022

Avalone

Spencer was approached by Emma in regard of a peculiar, cryptic crime-planning group chat activity by the name of Avalone, which claimed to be a heist team in pursuit of valuable possessions owned by a family whom identities were published as codes and puzzles. Although initially not seeing any purpose in participating and solving puzzles, Spencer and Emma were soon able to spot a specific member of the group directing back to the Voronaskaya. With the assumption of the community's involvement in the planned crime, Spencer and Emma got involved up until the finale of the heist, a Korean-influenced wedding ceremony located in a remote island. It was there that Emma first encounter a wounded Shaking, and Spencer had an altercation with Joan and Mark, all identified as part of the Voronaskaya community. Both agents were not involved in any of the commotions caused by the heist group and chose to leave immediately, and decided to keep all the events out of the FBI's tabs.

Emma's Death

The following day after returning to Washington D.C., the internal dispatcher of FBI notified Spencer of an emergency notification coming from Emma's radio. Ignoring the team chief's instruction to leave the emergency for the SWAT to handle, Spencer arrived at Emma's house just moments after the SWAT evacuated Emma's dead body from her house, along with a note left by the suspect of the murder telling her to 'not snoop in what she shouldn't'.

This event has taken Spencer's seriousness in

Spin-off : Anna

Spencer was tasked for the investigation of several unlicensed lab-like warehouses in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio, which has been found housing thousands of mice, hazardous materials, medical waste, and infectious agents. His investigation has led him to a newer chain of warehouse on the border of Harriman State Park, which is passed by Interstate-287 Highway. His investigation is preceded by Anna who accidentally finds one of the warehouses on reports from several interstate truck drivers.

Spencer then settled to investigate the biohazard case with Anna in NYPD jurisdiction in regard of the ownership of the warehouse, how it spread across the Americas, the whereabouts of other warehouses, and the implication of mutant mice that already had disease-spreading genes in them.

#profiles

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rabbitcruiser · 1 year

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New York became the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates on April 25, 1901.

License Plates Day

License Plates Day is celebrated on April 25 to celebrate the first-ever issued license plate in the U.S. in 1901. Prior to this, there was no official marking or designation on any vehicle. The lack of acknowledgment hurt the vehicle owners because horses and carriages had more rights, and they could be denied access to roads. With the passage of the law, New York became the first state to issue a license plate on vehicles, and the trend was swiftly picked up by the entire West Coast states. Today, there are more than 250 million registered vehicles in the country, and each of them has a unique number plate.

History of License Plates Day

It’s amazing to think that today’s norms are yesterday’s discoveries. It wasn’t until the 20th century that someone thought of distinguishing vehicles on the basis of number plates. In 1901, New York Governor Benjamin Odell Jr. signed a new bill into a law that required motor vehicle owners to be registered with the state. Initially, the bill included directions about the design of the plate, which were later scrapped after the big automobile boom of the ‘50s. Individuals could design their own plates, as long as the characters were three inches high. On May 2, 1901, George F. Chamberlain became the first person to receive a license plate for his vehicle. A week after the law came into effect on April 25, 17 people had already applied for licenses. Within a year, the number of license plates in America climbed up to 1,566.

Although individually marking vehicles at the time came at a cost and effort to both authorities and citizens, it was also a relief. Without proper marking or acknowledgment, vehicle owners were harassed by laws that differed in each state. The U.S. took its lead from the Netherlands and France, which started a national database for license plates in the early 1890s.

License plate historian Keith Marvin notes that the license plate fashion parade was a spectacle of the past, with owners resorting to the use of metal, leather, and even wood to adorn their plates. The license plating took a turn from the initials of the owner to state numerals as their numbers increased. Subsequently, the state took over the issuance, designing, and database of license plates. On April 25, people take their cars for a stroll and display their unique plates in pride. License plate exhibitions are held across the country, and passionate souls come together to share their love for the interesting history of license plates.

License Plates Day timeline

1901 The First American License Plates

New York’s Governor passes the first law mandating the use of license plates on vehicles.

1902 The Number Climbs

1,566 automobile owners register their vehicles in the first year after the law is passed.

1903 The State Takes Over

Massachusetts becomes the first state to distribute state-issued license plates to vehicle owners.

2014 Petersen Automotive Museum

The Petersen exhibition opens up in Los Angeles to present vintage license plates and other historic automotive parts.

2021 Exponential Growth

16.1 million new vehicles are registered in the U.S. in one year.

License Plates Day FAQs

How can I get a license plate?

License plates are issued by the state. You can get a license plate from your county’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Is it legal to drive my car without a license plate?

You are allowed to drive your newly bought car without registration or license plate. In most states, you are required to get a permanent plate within 90 days of purchase of the vehicle.

Do I need a rear license plate?

It depends on where you live — 31 U.S. states require both front and rear license plates, whereas 19 mandate only the front plate.

License Plates Day Activities

Read the legislation

Study road safety laws

Be the change

The License and Registration Act was the beginning of a new era in America. This landmark legislation changed the status of automobiles in the country. Following the recognition from the state, cars went from being an embarrassment to the riches to a household necessity. License Plates Day is a great day to brush up on that old history and honor the legislators behind this change.

When was the last time you acquainted yourself with any laws, let alone road safety laws that impact us all? It’s time to pick up the rule book and go by the page to absorb all safety laws and measures that you can adopt to become a better co-passenger of the road.

With a swipe of a pen, New York’s governor ushered in a new set of laws in the country which benefited the vehicle owners and the government. On the anniversary of his most impactful decision, emulate his life’s teaching and be the change that you wish to see in the world.

5 Fascinating Facts About License Plates

The oldest plate

U.S.P.S. royalty

The uniqueness of Pennsylvania

Potato for the win

The vanity of Virginia

The first-ever license plate issued by the state of Massachusetts in 1903 still holds an active registration.

Vehicles owned and operated by the United States Postal Service are exempted from bearing a license plate.

Vanity plates were introduced to the U.S. by Pennsylvania in 1931.

The first-ever graphic license plate was that of a potato, issued by the state of Iowa in 1928.

Virginia issues the most number of vanity plates, customized as per the owner; while Texas comes last in the list.

Why We Love License Plates Day

It’s an opportunity to get creative

It’s unique for all

It goes into the national database

Customizable license plates and vanity sets are unique spoils of America. Most vehicle owners see license plates as an extension of their personality. On April 25, you have a chance to spruce up your own set and fill it with details that no one else has yet.

There have been a couple of hundred million unique license plates on the road ever since the first plate was issued in 1901. In a world where everything can be copied and originality has been reduced to a buzzword, our license plates stay true to the promise of being one of a kind.

Maintaining a central registry of every vehicle ensures accountability in times of need. The unique identity helps in keeping a trace of the vehicles and keeps a census of the automobiles on the road.

Source

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spqr0000000000 · 4 days

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FBI data shows violent crime down for a second consecutive year (voanews.com)

FBI data shows violent crime down for a second consecutive yearshare

FBI data shows violent crime down for a second consecutive year

September 23, 2024 12:29 PM

By Jeff Seldin

washington —

Violent crime in the United States is down for a second consecutive year, with law enforcement agencies reporting significant declines in murder and rapes, according to a just-released report from the FBI.

The FBI Crime in the Nation report released Monday found violent crime, overall, fell by 3% from 2022 to 2023, with murder and manslaughter rates dropping by 11.6% and rape down by more than 9%.

There were also smaller declines in the number of robberies and aggravated assaults.

Additionally, property crimes, which include burglary, fell by an estimated 2.4% year over year, though motor vehicle theft jumped by 12.6%.

FBI officials, briefing reporters on the report, described the drop in the number of murders as notable, saying the 11.6% decline is the largest recorded over the past 20 years.

Overall, the officials said the rate of all violent crimes in 2023 was 363.3 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, down from a rate of 377.1 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022.

More than 16,000 U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies contributed data for the report, including all agencies serving cities with more than one million people.

The decrease in violent crimes across the U.S. continues a trend dating back to 2021, when crime rates fell after a spike in murders in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more HERE

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alrederedmixedmedia · 7 months

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Alredered is Celebrating Read Across America Day To-day.

MARCH 01, 2024

A Proclamation on Read Across America Day, 2024

HOME

BRIEFING ROOM

PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS

I have always believed that America’s children are the kite strings that keep our national ambitions aloft — the more we do today to spark their curiosity, their confidence, and their imaginations, the stronger our country will be tomorrow. The key to developing young learners into engaged, active, and innovative thinkers is instilling in them a love of reading at an early age. Reading is the gateway to countless skills and possibilities — it sets children on the path to a lifetime of discovery. On this Read Across America Day, we celebrate the parents, educators, librarians, and other champions of reading who help launch our Nation’s children on that critical path.

Once a passion for reading takes hold in a young person, the benefits extend far beyond the classroom. Reading broadens our perspective, introduces us to new worlds, cultures, and languages, and cultivates our sense of empathy and understanding of other people’s experiences and views. Reading informs us, empowers us, and teaches us the lessons of history. It helps us make sense of the world as it is — and inspires us to dream of what it could be. Studies also show that reading improves our memory, helps us become better problem solvers, and even reduces the chance of developing cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s down the road. And with the right book in hand, reading can nourish not only our minds, but our souls.

The First Lady often observes that “any nation that out-educates us will out-compete us.” She is absolutely correct. Literacy is essential to finding a good-paying job, advancing in your career, and carving out your place in the middle class. Reading proficiency is what makes us a Nation of innovators and entrepreneurs — a Nation capable of building and growing a dynamic 21st century economy. Reading comprehension is also what allows us to discern fact from fiction — a critical skill at all times, and especially so in the midst of a global pandemic, when the health and safety of our loved ones could very well depend on determining the veracity of what we read.

According to Department of Education estimates, more than half of United States adults (54 percent) between 16- and 74-years of age lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. Illiteracy incurs a massive economic toll on our economy, and keeps not just individuals, but our entire Nation, from reaching our full potential. By every calculation, reading matters to our shared quality of life.

For countless Americans, the path to literacy begins with story time in their school classroom. That is one of many reasons why my Administration is providing support to States and communities to help them create the conditions for students to return to safe, in-person learning as quickly as possible. We must ensure that all of our children receive the high-quality instruction and essential classroom time they need to learn and grow. It is a national imperative that we minimize the learning loss caused by the pandemic — and address the disproportionate impact that lost time imposes on our most vulnerable students and families.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 2, 2021, as Read Across America Day. I call upon children, families, educators, librarians, public officials, and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

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newstfionline · 1 year

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Thursday, June 22, 2023

Rescuers make last desperate push as final hours of oxygen on missing Titanic submersible tick down (AP) The race against time to find a submersible that disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site entered a new phase of desperation on Thursday morning as the final hours of oxygen possibly left on board the tiny vessel ticked off the clock. Rescuers have rushed more ships and vessels to the site of the disappearance, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in the urgent, international mission. But the crew had only a four-day oxygen supply when the vessel, called the Titan, set off around 6 a.m. Sunday. Even those who expressed optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it with rescue equipment, to bringing it to the surface—assuming it’s still intact. And all that has to happen before the passengers’ oxygen supply runs out. The full area being searched was twice the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut in waters as deep as 13,200 feet (4,020 meters).

Math scores plunge for 13-year-olds as pandemic setbacks persist (AP) Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a test known as the nation’s report card. The results, released Wednesday, are the latest measure of the deep learning setbacks incurred during the pandemic. While earlier testing revealed the magnitude of America’s learning loss, the latest test casts light on the persistence of those setbacks, dimming hopes of swift academic recovery. More than two years after most students returned to in-person class, there are still “worrisome signs about student achievement,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the federal Education Department. “The ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized,” Carr said in a statement.

US and China are talking at a high level again, but their rivalry remains unchecked (AP) The United States and China may be back to talking at a high level, but their battle for global power and influence remains unchecked and mutual suspicion still runs deep. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set low goals for his visit to Beijing this week, and he met them. About the most the rivals can hope for these days is to stop things getting much worse. Blinken pointed to difficult days ahead, while China’s foreign ministry warned the relationship was in a downward spiral. “It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it,” Blinken said of the reason for his trip. The two-day visit to the Chinese capital helped restore top-level ties, but China rebuffed a U.S. request to resume military-to-military contacts. Neither government appears convinced of the other’s honesty.

Sweltering heat tests Texas’ power grid and patience (AP) Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt more like the middle of summer across the South, where patience was growing thin over outages that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes caused widespread damage. In the Mississippi capital, some residents said Tuesday that they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours, which is longer than the outages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many Texans have been skeptical of the state’s grid since a deadly 2021 ice storm knocked out power to millions of customers for days. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said improvements since then have made the grid more stable, but those improvement efforts continue to draw scrutiny.

41 women die in riot in Honduran prison (AP) A grisly riot at a women’s prison in Honduras Tuesday left at least 41 women dead in violence the country’s president blamed on “mara” street gangs that often wield broad power inside penitentiaries. Gangs wield broad control inside the country’s prisons, where inmates often set their own rules and sell prohibited goods.

The Panama Canal Is Facing the Worst Drought in a Century (WSJ) The Panama Canal is going through its driest spell in more than a century, and an extended lack of rainfall could saddle global supply chains with delays and higher fees to move cargo. The government agency that manages the artificial waterway implemented travel restrictions in May to avoid ships running aground, and since then some large vessels have had to reduce container loads by roughly one-quarter. Further restrictions could go into effect in late June, authorities say. Meteorologists have warned that the water levels in Gatún Lake—located in the center of the canal—could hit record lows in July. The isthmus connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and handles about one-third of Asia-to-Americas seaborne trade.

UK’s stubborn inflation fails to fall (Reuters) British inflation defied expectations of a slowdown to hold at 8.7% in May, putting yet more pressure on the Bank of England a day before it is predicted to raise interest rates for the 13th time in a row to tame stubborn price growth. The headline figure means British inflation is once again the fastest of any major advanced economy. The numbers are also uncomfortable for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak—who has pledged to halve inflation over the course of this year before a probable 2024 election—and are likely to increase mortgage costs for millions of homeowners.

Paris Olympics Probe (1440) French financial investigators searched the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics yesterday, reportedly seeking documents in two separate preliminary investigations involving corruption allegations. No charges have been brought in either probe so far. Investigators with the National Financial Prosecutor's office were said to be looking into possible conflicts of interest and embezzlement at the organization and the local group responsible for Olympic infrastructure. The unannounced arrival comes as French organizers look to hold themselves to a higher standard of transparency in light of past Olympic scandals, including by signing the first-ever host city contract with language banning corruption.

Ukrainians adjust to life with a constant threat from airstrikes (Washington Post) When the familiar siren sounded midmorning Friday, nobody in the penthouse terrace cafe looked up. A few minutes later, the hostess went from table to table, politely asking people to go inside. Laptops were snapped shut, tote bags were shouldered, lattes were poured from china cups into plastic glasses. Ten minutes later, most of the patrons were settled on wooden benches in the building’s underground parking garage. There was no hurry or commotion. Laptops were reopened, coffees sipped through straws, chats resumed on smartphones. It was a seamless, routine exercise; a wartime habit that has become second nature. After 16 months of conflict, the citizens of Ukraine’s capital—a lively, sophisticated city with bars and cafes on almost every corner—have long become accustomed to daily air raid warnings. Some hurry to subway stations or other shelters, but many do not, counting on the city’s air defense system to shoot down Russian missiles or drones, and waiting for a government app to tell them when the danger is past. “Unfortunately, we have gotten used to it,” said Katrina Lopachuk, 35, a product manager at a shopping mall. “We call our friends and family to make sure they are okay, but we have faith in our air defenses. Deep inside we are all still worried, but you have to stay calm and get on with your life.”

Why Is Narendra Modi So Popular? Tune In to Find Out. (NYT) Once a month, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, walks into a studio set up at his government bungalow and takes his seat behind a microphone. The air-conditioning is switched off to quiet its hum. Thick curtains maintain the room’s silence even from Mr. Modi’s favorite peacocks in the garden outside. Then the prime minister begins his radio show, for which he has recorded over 100 episodes, with a usual greeting in Hindi: “My dear countrymen, hello!” What follows — about 30 minutes of Mr. Modi playing on-air host to the world’s most populous nation — is one way he has made himself intimately omnipresent across India’s vastness, exerting a hold on the national imagination that seems impervious to criticism of his government’s erosion of India’s democratic norms. On the program, Mr. Modi is both favorite teacher and empathetic friend, speaking directly to his listeners and selected callers. He offers advice on managing the stress of school exams, even as he reminds his audience that his educational background is as humble as theirs. He champions water conservation while expressing an awareness of the challenges of village and farm life. His presence on the airwaves may seem anachronistic, more suited to the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats, but it is crucial to understanding his overwhelming grip on India’s information landscape. At its core is a transformation of Mr. Modi’s image served up for mass consumption, that counters his more partisan rhetoric in rallies and speeches.

Foreign companies are shifting investment out of China as confidence wanes (AP) Foreign companies are shifting investments and their Asian headquarters out of China as confidence plunges following the expansion of an anti-spying law and other challenges, a business group said Wednesday. The report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China adds is one of many signs of growing pessimism despite the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to revive interest in the world’s No. 2 economy following the end of anti-virus controls. Companies are uneasy about security controls, government protection of their Chinese rivals and a lack of action on reform promises, according to the European Chamber. They also are being squeezed by slowing Chinese economic growth and rising costs. Business confidence in China is “pretty much the lowest we have on record,” the European Chamber president, Jens Eskelund, told reporters. “There’s no expectation that the regulatory environment is really going to improve over the next five years,” Eskelund said.

Tit-for-tat attacks (Washington Post) Four Israelis were killed by Palestinian militants in the central West Bank on Tuesday, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat attacks that threaten to tip the region into a new, deadlier period of violence. At least two gunmen opened fire at a hummus restaurant in a gas station outside of Eli, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. One gunman was killed by an Israeli civilian at the scene, and a second was later shot dead by Israeli forces, according to the military. Hamas said it was a response to an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, which left six Palestinians dead. Militants used explosives to damage armored vehicles during the hours-long raid, and Israel deployed Apache combat helicopters to extricate troops under fire—an extremely rare move that analysts warned could spark further escalation after a year of grinding violence.

Counter-terrorism experts say Africa is the world’s terrorism hot spot (AP) Counter-terrorism experts said Tuesday that Africa is now the world’s terrorism hot spot, with half of the victims killed last year in sub-Saharan Africa, though al-Qaida and Islamic State affiliates remain widespread, persistent and active elsewhere around the globe. Interpol, the international criminal police agency, also reported during a panel discussion at the U.N. that terrorism linked to extreme right-wing ideology increased an estimated 50-fold over the past decade, particularly in Europe, North America and parts of the Asia-Pacific. The experts see other trends: Deteriorating global security is making the terrorism threat “more complex and decentralized.” Extremists are increasingly using sophisticated technology, and drones and artificial intelligence have opened new ways to plan and carry out attacks.

Once starved by war, millions of Ethiopians go hungry again as US, UN pause aid after massive theft (AP) An Orthodox Christian priest, Tesfa Kiros Meresfa begs door-to-door for food along with countless others recovering from a two-year war in northern Ethiopia that starved his people. To his dismay, urgently needed grain and oil have disappeared again for millions caught in a standoff between Ethiopia’s government, the United States and United Nations over what U.S. officials say may be the biggest theft of food aid on record. “I have no words to describe our suffering,” Tesfa said. As the U.S. and U.N. demand that Ethiopia’s government yield its control over the vast aid delivery system supporting one-sixth of the country’s population, they have taken the dramatic step of suspending their food aid to Africa’s second-most populous nation until they can be sure it won’t be stolen by Ethiopian officials and fighters. The discovery in March of enough stolen food aid to feed 134,000 people for a month in a single Tigray town is just a glimpse of the scale of the theft that the U.S., Ethiopia’s largest humanitarian donor, is trying to grasp. The food meant for needy families was found instead for sale in markets or stacked at commercial flour mills, still marked with the U.S. flag.

#headlines #news

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shumailach-blog · 1 year

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Understanding America’s Labor Shortage

We hear every day from our member companies—of every size and industry, across nearly every state—they’re facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only 5.7 million unemployed workers.

How Did We Get Here? Rail Labor Dispute Threatens the National Economy We have a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 4 million open jobs.

The U.S. Chamber is capturing the trends on job openings, labor force participation, quit rates, and more, for a quick understanding of the state of the workforce in ourAmerica Works Data Center.

Read on for an analysis of the state of the workforce on the national level. An interactive map tracking the worker shortage across the state is here. An in-depth look at how the worker shortage is impacting different industries is here.

How Did This Happen?

At the height of the pandemic, more than 120,000 businesses temporarily closed, and more than 30 million U.S. workers were unemployed. Since then, job openings have steadily increased since January 2020, while unemployment has slowly declined.

Overall, in 2022, employers ended up adding an unprecedented 4.5 million jobs. But at the same time, millions of Americans have been leaving the labor force since before the pandemic. In fact, we have nearly three million fewer Americans participating in the labor force today compared to February of 2020.

Understanding The Gap

Right now, the labor force participation rate is 62.6%, down from 63.3% in February 2020. It’s clear that able workers are being overlooked or sitting on the sidelines. But there’s not just one reason that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage.

The U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic on what is keeping them from returning to work. Twenty-seven percent indicated that the need to be home and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible. More than a quarter (28%) indicated that they have been ill and their health has taken priority over looking for work.

In addition to the factors outlined below, the survey also revealed some are still concerned about COVID-19 at work, indicate that pay is too low, or are more focused on acquiring new skills and education before re-entering the job market.

Factors Contributing To The Labor Shortage

An increase in savings

Enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and not being able to go out and spend money during the Lockdown all contributed to Americans collectively adding $4 trillion to their savings accounts since early 2020. The extra few hundred dollars a week from enhanced unemployment benefits (which ended in Sept. 2021), specifically, led to 68% of claimants earning more on unemployment than they did while working.

In the Chamber's Nov. 2022 survey, 23% of women cited others in the family making enough money that working full-time is not as critical as the reason they have not re-entered the workforce. Higher income and savings bolstered people’s economic stability—allowing them to continue sitting out of the labor force.

Early retirements

As of October 2021, the pandemic drove more than 3 million adults into early retirement. In all, the number of adults 55 and older being detached from the labor force due to retirement grew from 48.1% in Q3 of 2019 to 50.3% in Q3 2021.

Lack of access to childcare

Even before the pandemic, a lack of access to high quality, affordable childcare was an issue. Research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that due to breakdowns in the childcare system, the states surveyed (Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, and Texas) missed an estimated average of $2.7 billion annually for their economies.

A recent report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and The Education Trust shows that the pandemic created a vicious cycle for the industry; to return to work, workers need reliable childcare, but providers are facing immense challenges themselves. The pandemic forced many childcare providers to close or scale down: between February and April 2020, the industry lost 370,600 jobs — 95% of which were held by women. Unfortunately, the recovery has not been swift; as late as September 2021, childcare industry employment remained 10 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Additionally, women are participating in the labor force the lowest rates since the 1970s. In the spring of 2020, 3.5 million mothers left their job, driving the labor force participation rate for working moms from around 70% to 55%. This number is improving – but it has not fully rebounded.

New business starts

In the spirit of entrepreneurship, some employees either left work or stayed unemployed to open their own businesses. Over the last two years, nearly 10 million new business applications were filed and in 2020 alone more than 4 million new business were started.

The Great Reshuffle Meanwhile, there has been a "Great Reshuffle" among workers. ‘The Great Resignation’ worked its way into our vocabulary as the shift of our labor force started to become apparent—and the hashtag #quittok even went viral as social media users posted about quitting their jobs in search for more free time or better opportunities.

A full 4.2 million people quit their jobs in November 2022, but hiring has outpaced quits since November 2020 (hovering around 4%).

Source: https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage

#america #labour shortage #retirements #increase in savings

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lastchancevillagegreen · 2 years

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And Here’s Another Ten of My Favorite Graphic Novels from 2022:

Living and Dying In America: A Daily Chronicle 2020-2022 Steve Brodner (2022)

Brodner works for several magazines (I see his work in The Nation which I subscribe to) and when the pandemic hit his world he was disheartened to know the response from the government was less than meaningful. To combat his unhappiness he began keeping a journal in both words and artwork. This book encapsulates 400 entries in his journal which often shows people who died of COVID as well as the idiocy of the administration of the fraud pretending to be president. It serves as a reminder of some of those people we lost as well as why TFG should never be allowed to hold public office again.

Radical: My Year With A Socialist Senator Sofia Warren (2022)

New Yorker cartoonist (among other things) embeds with Julia Salazar who was a Socialist Democrat who ran for the Senate in New York and won. Salazar’s preoccupation and focus was on renters rights and expanding them and making it harder for them to be evicted in New York City (and therefore the entire state). This book reveals just how difficult a job our Senators have (at least those who work tirelessly for positive change). You might grow exhausted with the endless discussion about housing and renter’s rights, but you will understand much about these issues after you finish reading this outstanding book.

Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator Darryl Cunningham (2022)

How on Earth can anyone in the US government cheer Putin on? The man is vicious and he would just as soon destroy people if it will keep him in power. The author claims Putin is covertly the richest man in the world owning up to $400 billion dollars that he has stolen from across the globe, mostly from Russian citizens. And how about these facts (which the author/artist documents with meticulous research and notes as to where these facts come from). Putin has rigged the Russian laws to ensure he is president until 2036 when he becomes 83. Then he passed laws that prohibit Russian Presidents and their families from ever facing prosecution. Furthermore, under this law past presidents “Are immune from criminal or administrative prosecution and may not be arrested, detained or subject to searches or interrogations.” Of course, all it will take is another Russian leader to eradicate those laws and prosecute Putin. But until that time this SOB is going to be a thorn in our side.

Lights, Planets, People! Molly Naylor & Lizzy Stewart (2021)

Maggie is an astronomer who is having issues and her therapist has her hands full. Maggie is bipolar but she refuses to admit it instead blaming everyone else for her problems. This is a complicated book that is multilayered and has four stories running simultaneously, all involving Maggie and her interpersonal skills. At no time does this book ever feel like a grand statement about mental illness or sexual identity issues, but the topics are there and they are handled with great skill. When you discover this was a stage play before it became a graphic novel you understand why it works so well and flows so easily.

Akira Books One through Six Katsuhiro Otomo (1984-1995)

This book is epic and legendary in the world of anime. It contains 2200 pages over six volumes and deals with Neo-Tokyo, a decimated town following an atomic bomb explosion which destroyed the city. A group of boys on motorcycles have overrun the town and are the true power. Or so they think. What they do not know is that scientists from every country have been creating problems in Neo-Tokyo long before it became a desolate town. What they haven’t any clue about is that one of them has the power to destroy the entire world. Complex and dynamic, I read this over a three day period fearful if I put it down too long, I’d lose sight of who many of these characters were. This graphic novel spawned an industry. I read it more out of duty than desire but look where it ended up: on my list of my favorite graphic novels.

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus Gilbert Shelton (2008)

This book purports to be every single story involving the Freak Brothers (who, it turns out, aren’t brothers at all) as well as Fat Freddy’s Cat (as he appeared in their books, not the titles solely dedicated to him). Lots and lots of drug references, lots of foul language and lots of hilarious situations. These three guys are essentially buffoons who can’t do anything right but they sure do manage to make a laugh out loud mess of most everything they touch.

Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank Eric Orner (2021)

If you ever watched the news during the Obama administration, you know Barney Frank. This book documents his rise from a local politician in Boston to his rise into national politics. This book makes it clear that while he was often gruff and unpleasant, he was always forthright and he always championed those people who needed someone in power to keep them in mind. The book is candid (Frank was gay and initially hide it before deciding what the hell) and it was written and drawn by an ex-Capitol Hill aide and staff counsel to Frank. This is an enlightening book.

Crude: A Memoir Pablo Fajardo, Sophie Tardy-Joubert and Damien Roudeau (2017)

Another true story this time about Pablo Fajardo, an attorney from Ecuador who became an attorney just so he could fight what Texaco was doing to the Amazon and his country. It was a hard fought battle but the biggest surprise was when he won a nine billion dollar settlement. Of course, that’s only half the story. The other half is what Texaco does in retribution. This book solidified one thing for me: we will never win the battle against corporations and they will single handedly destroy the Earth. I just hope all their children or grandchildren suffer right along with the rest of us.

Jane’s Carousel Jane Walentas (2021)

Not everything I file under “Fake Books” is a graphic novel. I put books such as Renegades (by Obama and Bruce Springsteen) in this category. That book had a mere 80 pages of text in large font that enabled me to read it in a day or two. A book of photographs by Diane Keaton was put in this category as was this amazing story about Jane Walentas and her obsession with a longstanding carousel from Youngstown, Ohio that had been the only carousel to be registered on The National Register of Historical Places at a recreational park known as Idora Park. She and her husband moved it to Brooklyn underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The theme park had caught fire and virtually everything in it burnt to the ground except the carousel. The carousel (made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company) was all hand carved and when the park shut down, Jane and her husband David intended to relocate it to Brooklyn. Jane restored the entire carousel back to its original state (original paint, etc) something she began in 1984. It took eight years alone just to scrap all the paint off! Jane admits her biggest hurdle and battle was fighting city government to get this carousel placed at this park (that hadn’t yet been built or even approved) but there were so many opponents to the carousel (who the devil opposes a carousel) that it took them until 2011 to get this carousel installed in the park (and Jane and her husband donated it to the city after spending a fortune to ship it from Ohio to New York and then to restore it). Google Jane’s Carousel and you will be amazed at what she created. Unfortunately, Walentas died after this book was published.

Missing In Action:

Men I Trust Tommi Parrish (2022)

This book is quite unsettling. Between the bizarre artwork and the story about a woman named Sasha who ingratiates herself into another woman’s life (Eliza), you always have the feeling something is going to go very wrong at any moment. When it does you hope that it doesn’t get ugly and that Eliza can make a clean break from Sasha. The artist hails from Australia and I hope he doesn’t use himself as the model for Sasha. The artwork alone might turn someone away, but it works well in this haunting, creepy story about loneliness and friendship and the price we pay for letting strangers into our lives.

My library doesn’t have all six volumes of Akira on their shelves (they lack Volumes 1 and 6, which is why you only get Volume 2 in the photo up top) but I was wise enough to know this series would end up in my list of Favorite Graphic Novels. So here are all the spines of Akira. I’m just glad I never have to read it again.

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xtruss · 2 years

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Students who organized for formal Black studies programs on campuses were directly, or indirectly, involved in or inspired by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s political education and organizing efforts in the south. Photograph: Lynn Pelham/Getty Images

America Has a History of Banning Black Studies. We Can Learn From That Past

— Opinion | US education | Derecka Purnell | 14 February 2023

n the first day of Black History Month this year, the College Board announced significant changes to its Advanced Placement African American studies course. The billion-dollar company made this move after widespread rightwing pushback against the inclusion of liberal, progressive and radical books by Black authors in the curriculum (they have since apologized). The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, currently leads the fascist charge on banning books and silencing ideas for students and schools. But he has fascist friends.

During the 2020-2021 school year, over 900 districts nationwide suffered “an intentional campaign to restrict or ‘ban’” anything deemed “critical race theory”, according to The Conflict Campaign. These districts represent 35% of all students in elementary, middle and high school. While we should organize to eliminate the elitist, profit-driven College Board from their schools, they ought to fight to introduce, protect and proliferate Black studies on campus.

This is not the first time that politicians have tried to ban Black studies curriculum and social movements education from schools and campuses. These bans have historically come on the heels of Black and multiracial uprisings in the streets. Academic deans and faculty committees have marginalized and ousted professors with radical politics. University and high school administrations are often antagonistic to departmentalizing Black study programs. States cut funding for these programs and their professors while increasing funding for and the presence of policing. But fortunately, such repression has catalyzed resistance that birthed Black studies programs in the first place.

For example, students who organized for formal Black studies programs on campuses were directly, or indirectly, involved in or inspired by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) political education and organizing efforts in the south. When SNCC rose to national prominence in the 1960s, they offered a direct pipeline for students from across the country to enter the civil rights movements.

New recruits put their training and organizing process to use during the Freedom Summer of 1964, when the organization, along with the Congress of Racial Equality (Core), welcomed thousands of student volunteers to help organize Freedom Schools, political and popular education programs geared toward oppressed Black residents in Mississippi. Freedom School instructors taught math, history, reading and writing. They also worked with students to study race riots, the origins of inequality and the role of Black people in building the future. The curricula posed various insightful questions, including: will the white community, either privately or through the government, effectively resolve its own indecision on racial questions? Should a few people have a lot of money, should everybody have the same, should everybody have what they need? How should we want to treat other countries? Can we have peace if we keep building bigger bombs?

After the Freedom Summer, many students entered or returned to college to avoid being drafted into the military for war, and at least beginning in 1968, student demonstrations began to explode on college campuses. James P Garrett, who had been with SNCC, Core and the Communist party, was a lead organizer of the Black campus movement that swept the country in the late 60s and early 70s. With his comrades, he helped create the first Black Student Union (BSU) and Black studies programs in the country. These BSU and Black studies programs were educational and political strategies to build solidarity and power among Black and other oppressed peoples. Consequently, the BSU default membership included all Black people on campus, including faculty, staff, community members and other people of color.

The struggle for Black studies was birthed through political education and experimentation. Rather than using African American studies courses as an exclusive class towards preparation for testing, Garrett and his fellow activists organized to raise consciousness among marginalized groups on and off campus, shift university resources to the surrounding Black community and to develop a Black studies program to politicize students to participate in different forms of activism. They helped develop free schools that taught interdisciplinary courses and enlisted instructors to teach.

At San Francisco State University (SFSU), the Black student union and Third World Liberation Front (a collective of various affinity groups on campus) replicated political education and politicization programs from SNCC and the Black Panther party. Off campus, they built relationships with labor and union organizations, facilitated a tutoring program for low-income students of color and ran a breakfast program modeled after the Black Panthers’. Black student organizers even identified potential Black students and lobbied for their admission; upon entry, the BSU put them through a political education orientation as well.

The Black and multiracial coalition continued to push for greater presence to advocate for people of color on and off campus. Eventually, they led a five-month strike against the university that included students, staff and faculty in support of 10 demands that furthered their goals of raising consciousness, building a Black studies programs and moving resources off campus. The university shut down in response to violent clashes between protesters and the police. Garrett even recalls that protesters threw a racist professor out the second-story window of a campus building. SFSU met the students’ demands and created the country’s first official Black studies program.

In her book on the Black campus movement, Martha Biondi explains that most Black students were not “politically active, or especially socially conscious” before their campus uprisings, but they were eventually led to engage in radical study while pushing their colleges to meet their demands. Their politicization process influenced their paradigm, demands, strategies, tactics and outcomes. Through their study, student and staff organizers developed an intimate bond with each other and a commitment to improving Black communities that surrounded the university, even risking and facing backlash, university disciplinary action, arrest, bodily injury and death.

This history is important because it helps us realize that today’s book banning efforts belong to a broader political backlash to the current Black liberation movement that started with the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. The ideas and demands that Black people, and all people, deserve freedom from police violence, deserve quality housing, deserve universal healthcare, deserve a world that has different problems from what Dr King identified as the triple evils of racism, capitalism and militarism. It is no accident that these ideas are found in the very same books that prisons ban, including mine. Prison officials, politicians and rightwing pundits target knowledge found in critical race theory because they know that theory leads to action for people who care about love, liberty and justice. They want to stop people from being inspired to fight for better lives.

But they do not have to win. Just as students, teachers and community members rose up against repression in the past, students, teachers and the rest of us must continue the political organizing to keep education radical, free and accessible to all.

— Derecka Purnell is a Guardian US columnist. She is also a social movement lawyer and writer based in Washington, DC. She is the author of Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

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finishinglinepress · 2 years

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FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: Dreams of Diaspora by S.K. Rancy

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“Confronting the fragmented narratives of slavery and colonization in the Caribbean, DREAMS OF DIASPORA grapples with questions of place, belonging, and identity of the dispossessed. In scales both intimate and epic, probing the region’s revolutionary and literary legacies, these poems wander the seas of the Americas, centering the roles of class, race, economics, and history in the decimation of Haiti and the migration of peoples around the globe. At once eulogy and song, DREAMS OF DIASPORA forges a new understanding of self for the Caribbean’s decolonized, reframing what it means to be home.”

SK RANCY is a writer born to Haitian immigrants in South Florida. His poetry has been a finalist for Tupelo Quarterly’s Poetry Prize, and has been published or is forthcoming in Apogee, The Seventh Wave, Moko Magazine, The Adirondack Review, Porridge Magazine, Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language & Culture, and others. Currently, he is at work on a novel. In his spare time, he is a surgical resident. DREAMS OF DIASPORA is his first publication.

PRAISE FOR Dreams of Diaspora by S.K. Rancy

Dextrous and commanding, Dreams of Diaspora is a love song to those who move across oceans and borders, celebrating the revolutionary traditions of the Americas while acknowledging the ways in which the region is still marked by colonialism. Rancy recognizes the Black diaspora as an important vantage point, one that allows us to see in many directions, including the ancestral past and a decolonized future. With language both searing and delicate, Dreams of Diaspora is revelatory and prescient.

—Desiree C. Bailey, Author of What Noise Against the Cane (Yale University Press, 2021), desireecbailey.com, she/her

S.K. Rancy‘s exquisite poem-explosions are so many wide-open windows onto the contradictions of a deeply diasporic Black American life. Full at once with fury and with hope, these are stories told by one who knows and feels this country intimately, but still sits / sits still just outside its subtle borders – living, observing at a distance not-quite-safe. To read Rancy’s words is to sit with him and feel, too, how the spiral of shared history simmers beneath every moment of our divided present. His work is a gentle proposition for healing in a reimagined time-space of home.

–Kaiama L. Glover, Ph.D., author; translator; co-editor of archipelagos | a journal of Caribbean digital praxis; Professor of French & Africana Studies at Barnard College of Columbia University; and awardee of PEN/Heim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Mellon Foundation

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