#terrible education secretary

[fatehbaz]

can't stop thinking like this when i see posts

"three types of animals defined by utility and simplified transactional relationship to humans. including categories of productivity, domestic companionship, or passive/threat/disgust/pest":

British and colonial American institutional and folk taxonomy of "the natural world" in the eighteenth century. The unofficial-but-still-influential way of imagining animals in "utilitarian" ways that support material accumulation and colonial "productive land" and "land improvement." Like a secularization of previously explicitly-religious "great chain of being" schema but adapted for Englightenment-era scientific cosmology that reifies racialized imaginaries of environmental space and reinforces class/racial/species hierarchies with technical expertise.

"we have to do something about the distances":

Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century trying to control the globe and conquer "frontiers" and obsessively trying to more quickly and efficiently move trade, industrial products, information, communications, administrators, indentured laborers, and imperial military across seas and vast distances to cement hegemony by utilizing technical expertise with railroad networks, sailing ships, steamships, investments in cartographic surveying, latitude/longitude establishment, canals, and elaborate systems of telegraph lines.

"they should make a big heavy machine beast that can pull tons of black iron across grasslands and such":

British Empire technicians, Canadian administrators, and their US advisers from 1900-1930-ish when the Canadian "federal government also established breeding programs designed to cross cattle with bison or yak to create a new [ultimate] range animal" with "a reserve stock of pure blood bison of the highest potency" and an "enthusiasm for stocking northern [boreal and northern Great Plains] environments with exploitable game populations" when "nothing, in fact, captured the imagination of bureaucrats and private promoters in the early twentieth century more than the idea of importing domesticated reindeer from northern Europe as a the vanguard of a settled and prosperous agricultural civilization in northern Canada." And they partially pursued the project as "a response to the success of Americans" in "assimilating" the Inuit by importing 82,000 European reindeer to Alaska by 1916: "[A]n Alaskan Bureau of Education Report proudly proclaimed [...]: 'within less than a generation, the [slur] throughout northern and western Alaska have been advanced through one entire stage of civilization.'"

And in the same decade with British administrators in Southeast Asia, when they pursued the "purchase of elephants whose labour made possible the logging and transport of this harder-to-reach teak [in Burma]. By the period between 1919 and 1924, elephants represented the largest assets owned by the biggest timber firm operating in the colony […]. This animal capital, of around three thousand creatures, represented [...] the equivalent of roughly a third of the corporation's liabilities [...]. And these elephants must have been busy. This five-year period saw half a million tons of teak exported out of the colony, the overwhelming majority of which was exported by a handful of large British-owned firms. Their ownership of these beasts of burden gave imperial trading firms a considerable advantage."

"america will be a manufacturing nation once more , We're going to build great and terrible machines, so great and terrible they carve the land they walk on, the sun will set and it will rise and the forge will still burn and the hammer will still ring true folks"

Without comment:

[Quote.] [O]n the morning of February 20, 1915, [...] Franklin K. Lane, the secretary of the Interior […] intoned to the crowd, “The seas are now but a highway before the doors of the nations […]. The greatest adventure is before us, the gigantic adventure of an advancing democracy, strong, virile, kindly, and in that advance we shall be true to the indestructible spirit of the American Pioneer.” The fair did not officially commence, however, until President Wilson […] pressed a golden key linked to an aerial tower […], whose radio waves sparked the top of the Tower of Jewels, tripped a galvanometer, and closed a relay, swinging open the doors of the Palace of Machinery, where a massive diesel engine started to rotate. […] [T]he PPIE was organized to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal […]. As one of the many promotional pamphlets declared, "California marks the limit of the geographical progress of civilization. For unnumbered centuries the course of empire has been steadily to the west." […] One subject that received an enormous amount of time and space was […] the areas of race betterment and tropical medicine. Indeed, the fair's official poster, the "Thirteenth Labor of Hercules," [the construction of the Panama Canal] symbolized the intertwined significance of these two concerns […] that crowned San Francisco as the Jewel of the Pacific. […] The construction of the Panama Canal unfolded against the backdrop of […] the installation of American colonial rule in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Hawai’i. […] In San Francisco, […] this meant the presence of artifacts such as Fountain of Energy, a strong male mounted on horseback […] crowned by figurines of “Fame” and “Valor.” Referred to by its creator as the Victor of the Canal, this sculpture symbolized “the vigor and daring of our mighty nation […].” In his address titled "The Physician as Pioneer," the president-elect of the American Academy of Medicine, Dr. [W.H.], credited the colonization of the Mississippi Valley to the discovery of quinine […]. [A]t the Pan-American Medical Congress, where its president, Dr. [C.R.] delivered a lengthy address praising the hemispheric security ensured by the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and "the combined genius of American medical scientists […]" in the Canal Zone. […] [A]s [CR]'s lecture ultimately disclosed, his understanding of Pan-American medical progress was based […] on the enlightened effects of "Aryan blood" in American lands. […] [End quote.]

Source: Alexandra Minna Stern. "Race Betterment and Tropical Medicine in Imperial San Francisco." Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Second Edition. 2016.

[democracyunderground]

"Native Americans across Indian Country shared mixed emotions this week after President Biden apologized for the U.S. government’s role in running Native American boarding schools across the country.

During the 150-year practice, at more than 400 schools where the U.S. partnered with various religious institutions, Indigenous children were separated from their families and stripped of their language and customs in an effort to assimilate into white culture. There were also documented cases of abuse and death.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and has been instrumental in bringing these issues to a wider audience through her Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, applauded Biden’s move.

“I'm so grateful to [Biden] for acknowledging this terrible era of our nation's past,” Haaland, whose grandparents were taken to boarding schools, posted on X.

ederal Indian boarding schools have impacted every Indigenous person I know. These were places where children - including my grandparents - were traumatized. I'm so grateful to @POTUS for acknowledging this terrible era of our nation's past.

“I would never have guessed in a million years that something like this would happen,” she told the Associated Press.

At the Gila Crossing Community School near Phoenix, Biden celebrated Haaland’s historic role and apologized today for America’s “sin.”

“It’s an honor, a genuine honor … to right a wrong, to chart a new path,” he said. “I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize. It’s long overdue.”

However, Indigenous leaders and citizens across the country stressed that this is only the first step.

“This is one of the most historic days in the history of Indian Country, and an apology of this size must be followed by real action,” Nick Tilsen, who belongs to the Oglala Lakota Nation and is president and CEO of the Indigenous rights organization NDN Collective, told Yahoo News.

Tilsen believes that there are specific, actionable steps that need to accompany any apology. For him, that means passing the U.S. Truth and Healing Commission bill in Congress, rescinding medals of honor for those who participated in the Battle of Wounded Knee, releasing “longest living Indigenous political prisoner in American history Leonard Peltier, who is also a boarding school survivor” and “unprecedented investment in Indigenous languages and education.”

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin celebrated the move, calling out Haaland’s role in particular, and echoed the sentiment of following any apology with action.

“The [Department of the Interior’s] recommendations, especially in the preservation of Native languages and the repatriation of ancestors and cultural items, can be a path toward true healing,” Hoskin said in a statement.

While many Indigenous leaders are calling for action, Tilsen stressed that this is also a time to hold boarding school survivors and their families close.

“At this moment in history, we have to remember many of the survivors of the boarding schools are still alive,” he said. “It's in every household and it's in every community. And it's directly tied to the struggles that our people have today.”

Dylan Rose Goodwill, who is Diné (Navajo), Hunkpapa Lakota and Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, was visiting Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, Calif., on Thursday when she heard the news about Biden’s forthcoming apology. It’s a place that is part of her family history, as her grandmother (or másáni) was sent there when it served as a federally run Native boarding school.

She told Yahoo News that hearing the news there was “complicated.”

As the senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Southern California, Goodwill was visiting the school as a college recruiter.

“I've always had these kinds of mixed feelings because it's been weird to be the admission counselor for the schools that my own grandparents attended,” she said.

“It was already a tough morning to go and then to receive the news on site was really a mixture of feelings because I felt anger mostly, where it was like disbelief that this was happening, excitement that at least it was happening, but also feeling like this isn't enough,” Goodwill added.

Sitting where her grandmother sat in the 1930s and '40s, Goodwill asked herself, “What is that gonna really hold for her now? She passed in '04.”

Biden’s statement comes 16 years after former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s role in the Indigenous residential school system — a topic filmmakers Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie document in their film Sugarcane, about St. Joseph’s Mission School near the Sugarcane reserve in British Columbia.

NoiseCat is a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’wat Nation of Mount Currie and whose grandmother attended the Catholic Church-run residential school and gave birth to his father there. He told Yahoo News that this moment was important for a “continentwide conversation about what happened to Native families and Native children at Native American boarding schools and Indian residential schools.”

Joining Biden and Haaland for the event on the Gila River Indian Reservation along with Kassie, NoiseCat continued, “The fact that the president has chosen to formally apologize to survivors and their families is a real testament to the significance of this story, which needs to be understood as a foundational story to North America.”

However, Kassie echoed that actionable steps must follow sentiment.

“As momentous and important as this day is, it's important that it's followed up with action,” she told Yahoo. “It's important that the records of what happened at these institutions that are held by the U.S. government and the Catholic Church are opened to Indigenous communities who are looking for answers. And it's important that those communities also have the opportunity to hold to account those institutions and individuals who abused them.”

For Tilsen, it’s also a time to “center the survivors.”

“As we sort of politically dissect this moment,” he said, “I also want to recognize the pain that is being resurfaced, and that our people deserve the right to have pain and they deserve the right to have rage in this moment while we lean towards moving forward in action.”

NoiseCat, who has a deeply personal connection to the residential school history, said, “I'm probably going to call my dad today after the apology and just check in with him.”

[pintadorartist]

Tell the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to reject Robert F. Kennedy JR. for Head of the Health and Human Services Department

RFK Jr., a notorious conspiracy theorist,

He has spent years spreading dangerous misinformation about vaccines and public health.

His debunked claims, like falsely linking vaccines to autism, have fueled the anti-vaccine movement and contributed to public health crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he aligned with extremist groups opposing science-backed safety measures, putting lives at risk.

He has also attacked trusted public health institutions like the CDC and FDA, undermining confidence in the agencies we rely on to manage crises. His confirmation would jeopardize public health, erode trust, and endanger millions of Americans.

Demand your Senators vote NO on RFK Jr.’s nomination to lead HHS. Use these tools to call them now.

Here are the call tools:

Find Your Senator:

Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

If your senator is a member of this committee, and can, call these senators as well, or if your senator isn't, still call you senator and call one these members

Faxtool:

Call Scripts:

Democrat:

Dear U.S. Senator, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I'm calling/writing to urge you to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services

President Trump’s nominee lacks the experience, expertise, and knowledge to be charged with safeguarding our nation’s health. He has a well-documented history of ignoring scientific evidence, spreading dangerous health disinformation, and asserting conspiracy theories as facts while ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

Our families deserve a Health and Human Services Secretary with the experience and expertise needed to lead the many departments under HHS that are critical for promoting and protecting our health.

I urge you to reject this nomination outright.

Republican:

Dear U.S. Senator, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I'm calling/writing to urge you to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services

President Trump’s nominee lacks the experience, expertise, and knowledge to be charged with safeguarding our nation’s health. He has a well-documented history of ignoring scientific evidence, spreading dangerous health disinformation, and asserting conspiracy theories as facts while ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

Our families deserve a Health and Human Services Secretary with the experience and expertise needed to lead the many departments under HHS that are critical for promoting and protecting our health.

I urge you to reject this nomination outright.

Here are some petitions and letters to send:

[specific-dreamer]

it’s now or never (got no time to catch my breath)

Note: this is a gift of sorts for @damthosefandoms for providing the inspiration (? prompt? one of those words idk) this was all their idea ! they made a post and i ran with it.

its terribly written and the verb tenses are all over the place because this was meant to be a quick little thing but its somehow 1.5k so do with that as you will </3

Darry’s birthday was one month ago. Four weeks ago, he turned eighteen, and he was excited to finally be an adult. He was excited because turning eighteen meant he’d no longer be treated like a kid, and he wouldn’t have silly things like a curfew holding him back. Turning eighteen meant he’d only have to wait four and half more months until he graduated high school; four and half more months until he became the first Curtis to graduate high school and to pursue a higher education. No pressure or anything, of course.

A month ago, his parents got hit by a train. A month ago, his brothers were taken away from him because he was “too young to take care of them” and because he “wasn’t really an adult yet” and “hadn’t even finished his schooling”. It was all a load of bull shit if you asked Darry. He’s been their brother for eighteen years; the transition to parenting them can’t be that difficult, right? If his goofball of a dad could do it, then surely he could, too. 

Darry sighs. It’s 3:52 in the morning, and he needs to focus. He’s sat at the kitchen table bent over a stack of bills and chemistry homework. Chemistry’s never been his strong suit; he’s always convinced Paul to do it for him, but he’d rather rip his hair out over chemistry than think about the pile of bills for a minute longer. He has no idea how he’s going to pay them on time. He knows he could ask for an extension; he knows that’s a thing people do, but his parents never asked for one before so he hasn’t the slightest idea who he’s even supposed to ask. 

He hadn’t realized he was glaring at the bills until he abruptly stood up. Every time Soda would lose something, his dad would tease him by saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” In hopes of it working on him, Darry grabs the bills and takes them to his room. Without looking, he stuffs them in this nightstand on top of an already growing pile of envelopes. Darry’s never received so much mail in life.

A month ago, his brothers were taken by the state “until he graduated and proved he could take care of two kids”. Four weeks ago, Darry got a letter from his brother, Soda, asking when he was going to come get them. (Four weeks ago, Darry sat alone in his room in a big empty house for the first time in his life and sobbed.) 

Four weeks ago, Darry went back to school with the intention of dropping out. He’d worn his letterman to help bring a faux sense of confidence; his letterman was his most prized possession. It made him feel strong and like he could do anything because he worked his ass to buy it. The summer he started working, his parents said they’d match whatever he made, but Darry insisted he could earn it all himself that summer. In his mind, that jacket was the first step to becoming an adult. So he got a bunch of odd jobs like tutoring and lawn mowing; he even helped out with the record logs at his dad’s office. And it all paid off, he had enough money for the jacket and a little extra. Darry’ll never forget the look of awe and pride in his family’s eyes when he came out wearing the jacket. 

The point is, he loves his letterman. It makes him feel real, and it’s proof that he can do anything despite the odds. So, when Darry strides into the front office of his high school with his textbooks in his backpack, ready to return them, he’s not prepared for the secretary to be on the verge of tears. He’s never been real good with tears, despite his brothers being the ultimate bawl babies, so he simply stands there awkwardly with his mouth gaping like a fish out of water. 

The secretary muttered something that he thought might’ve been instructions to stay put because she leaves him alone in the office. He’s only alone for maybe ten minutes when she comes back with the principal. He winced; he really didn’t want to make a big deal of this. Lord knows he’s got plenty of other things to worry about. Still, he explains to the man that he’s dropping out so he can get his brothers back sooner rather than later. 

His principal gives him a look of pity before he tilts his head, “How about this: you’re a bright kid, Darrel-”

“Darry,” he corrects.

“-I’ve seen how hard you’ve been working, and between just us,” The man puts an arm around Darry’s shoulders and leads him into his office. “You’re a shoo-in for Boy of the Year. I know it doesn’t happen often for a kid of your background, but you could go far, and I’d hate to see you throw that all away for something silly.”

Darry frowns. His background? Suddenly, he understands a little bit better why Dally quit showing up to school. “With all due respect,” There’s none. “They aren’t something silly; they’re my brothers. We just lost our parents not even five days ago, I need to get them home. I’m all they got left.”

The older man chuckles and closes his office door behind them. “Of course you do. I expect nothing less from a prospective Boy of the Year; I just want to make sure you’re considering all your options. Now, have a seat, please.” With a smile, he gestured to the stiff brown chairs in front of his desk. 

Thirty minutes later, Darry is walking out of his principal’s office with an excuse note for being tardy and a plan to graduate in late February-slash-early-March. He won't get to cross the stage in May with the other folks in his class, but he'll get his brothers back soon enough, so it'll be worth it. 

Presently, Darry groans and rubs a hand over his face as he makes his way back to the kitchen table. Every week, like clockwork, he gets a new letter from the boys’ home, and in his nightstand drawer, underneath the new stack of bills are letters from his brothers. Well, brother, singular. Only Soda's been writing to him, telling him about the boys’ home and how Ponyboy hasn't spoken a word to anyone, including Soda, since they were taken. It breaks his heart to read, but Soda always ends every letter telling him that he can take care of Ponyboy until Darry is ready to come and get them (sometimes, when Darry is really tired, he can make out erased sentences that timidly ask if he's still coming to get them).

Thing is, though, Darry knows he should respond to the letters, but between his ever-growing workload and their social worker breathing down his back, he doesn’t have the time to respond. He's speed-running graduation, so he doesn't have nearly as much downtime as he should have because he has to do assignments and tests before his classmates even begin to approach the subject. He should be filling out scholarship applications every night like Paul and the other boys are doing, but instead, he's filling out job applications. 

Darry's tired. He knows he should respond to Sodapop's letters, try and give the kid some hope, and reassure him that his brother is still coming to get him, but every time he sits down to write a letter back, he wakes up three hours later with a crook in his neck and a crusty face from dried tears. 

With a sigh, he looks back down to his chemistry homework. Balancing equations. It's not terribly hard; it's just numbers, and he loves numbers. But Darry also hasn’t had a good night's worth of sleep in four weeks and three hours, so he keeps forgetting where the numbers are supposed to go, and he can’t recall if he already added five hydrogens to the six oxygens and all the numbers and letters are running together and now he can’t remember if Fe is the symbol for gold or iron. Speaking of irons, Darry has a load of laundry he needs to iron before the social worker comes for her biweekly check-up this weekend. He needs to make sure the house is perfect so he can get the boys as soon as possible, or else — 

Darry's birthday was a month ago. He's been trying to prove that he's an adult for four whole weeks now. He never got the chance to blow out his birthday candles and make a wish, but if he could now, he'd wish that his brothers were home, and he could convince his parents that he doesn’t need any special frosting for his cake. 

But wishing has never gotten Darry anything before; only hard work has proved fruitful. If you ask him, he is certainly working hard, so he has to be doing something right. With renewed energy, Darry yanks his hair two good times before he forces himself to refocus and finish his chemistry homework. 

[the-cimmerians]

a storytime story. Not my story, it's my friend's, but she doesn't go here so I'm sharing for her. We'll call her Mara. Mara is a high-femme, lovely queer girl from a wealthy family in the southern US, but when I met her she'd been living in California for many years, chugging through her postgraduate education in Women's Studies. She rarely went home, because being at home was always a bit of a fraught experience: not unendurable (because to most heteronormative casual viewers the radiant queerness of a high-femme is pretty much indistinguishable from a quirky beauty queen waiting for the right football quarterback to sweep her off her feet), but still--not the most fun. Yet every once in a while, Mara would have a fit of 'dutiful daughter'-itis, and go home to mend some fences and keep some peace.

Mara's mother had often asked her to come with her to philanthropic events, but Mara had always said no. On this trip, however, Mara's mother had purchased a full table as an event sponsor, and she cajoled Mara into going with her. For those of you who haven't ever attended such an event, they are all different, and yet terrifyingly all the same (and I say this not as an attendee, but as an event-runner for various nonprofits; an event-runner who, fair warning, hates everything about these events, and this part of nonprofit work). There is some form of lower-calorie food (chicken or fish on greens with a very light citrus-fruit dressing is de rigeur, along with some sort of fruit-based airy parfait served in the smallest and most elegant glasses imaginable for dessert), usually an emcee (occasionally entertaining, but always inoffensive to the assembled guests), sometimes speakers (high-profile or famous women on a local or national level depending on the 'get' of the organization in question, or extremely well-spoken young people or teens for youth-serving organizations--with the youth in question being very carefully coached), and an 'ask'--the fundraising portion of the event, where the wealthy attendees compete with the rest of their friends and enemies in the social scene to be the most gracious and beneficent person in the room.

And there is gossip. So much gossip.

Poor Mara knew enough to expect some of this (mostly due to listening to me complain bitterly about how awful these events are), but there were aspects for which she was completely unprepared. Her mother had filled her sponsorship table with all of her closest friends, and the 'social hour' before the event started in earnest was a haze of white wine and a constant stream of excessively perfumed women dressed in full southern socialite chic, coming by the table to air-kiss cheeks and say how it's been ages since they've seen each other and what a darling ensemble, where on earth did you get it? and who does your hair now?--you must tell me, it's simply scrumptious--you look incredible, we really must do lunch some time soon--

...and the moment the woman or women in question moved on, the table, as a whole, in excited, urgent-whispered voices, would drag the everloving fuck out of every single lady they'd just been gushing over.

"Did you see how botched her last lift was? I hardly recognized her--I'm surprised she recognized me, with her eyes yanked back like that--" "so terrible, but she did go to the cheapest surgeon in town--husband has money troubles, you know--"

"Didn't expect to see her here, but I suppose you have to go somewhere to show off that large a collection of paste jewels--" "oh, stop, you wicked girl! But you're right, of course--and she gives herself such airs, like we don't all know--"

"Poor dear looks exhausted--apparently keeping up with her pool boy isn't easy at her age--" "Can't say that I blame her; that Carlos, have you seen him? Of course, she's hardly his only client. I've been dying for a pool, but my Henry just won't--"

"Quite a plucky little attitude for someone whose husband just left her for his twenty-two year old secretary--" "And after she put him through college and law school--I heard she's not even going to get to keep the house. She really should have sprung for a better lawyer--"

"I can't believe she still thinks she can fit into that dress, with all the weight she's packed on--" "Truly grotesque--just ghastly! Seems like last summer at the fat farm didn't do her as much good as one would have hoped--"

::giggle:: ::giggle:: ::giggle::

Mara was horrified, sitting there with a bland, polite smile frozen on her face, with her white gloves and vintage pillbox hat and charming little clutch bag, her seamed stockings and her kitten heels and her classic red lipstick and pin-curls (because in true unquenchable femme spirit, she had taken this occasion as an opportunity for dress-up, an opportunity for fun and play and sexy whimsy--a Gene-Tierney-does-pin-up-girl kind of vibe), utterly unable to see how to extricate herself from this terrible situation.

Another woman glided away from the table, coyly waving heavily-beringed fingers. "Yes, Darling," Mara's mother said, coyly waving back. "See you soon! Kiss-kiss! Love to Laurent!" She sat down and hissed to the cabal at the table: "Ha! Her husband just gave her an STD."

The woman to Mara's left leaned forward excitedly. "Really? Two-door or four-door?--wait, if it was the latest Aston Martin, I'm going to literally perish of envy--"

And that was the tipping point--Mara fled. Walked until she found a suitably divey coffee shop. Had a coffee and a slice of peach pie, and flirted with a soft Butch waitress until the world seemed less dire.

[gsirvitor]

Mitch, have you honestly just blocked out the past four years, or even better, the deranged behavior of the left for the past 20 years?

Yes, weak men create hard times, under Bush, Obama, and Biden Putin invaded Georgia, Crimea, and Ukraine.

Under Bush the US was dragged into a 20 year war against Afghanistan, invaded Iraq, started the global war on terror, and led the west into the 2008 financial crisis.

Obama led military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, helped to create ISIS under the guise of destabilizing Syria, funded Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups, caused Benghazi, and covered it up, weaponized the IRS against conservatives, used the DOJ to attack and spy on the Associated Press, used the NSA to spy on every American, Edward Snowden.

In an effort to evade federal open-records laws, Obama’s first secretary of state set up a private server, which she used exclusively to conduct official business, including communications with the president and the transmission of classified material.

A federal criminal investigation produced no charges, but FBI Director James Comey reported that the secretary and her colleagues “were extremely careless” in handling national secrets.

The Obama Justice Department lost track of thousands of guns it had allowed to pass into the hands of suspected smugglers, in the hope of tracing them to Mexican drug cartels.

One of the guns was used in the fatal 2010 shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Congress held then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt when he refused to turn over documents about the operation.

I don't even need to go over Biden, we just lived it, he was a continuation of the corrupt, inept practices of the entrenched bureaucracy, he is responsible for the ongoing financial issues, global tensions, and wars.

While, during Trump's first term, he improved the economy, ended wars, utilized strong man politics to show the world the US still had balls, and fostered peace in the middle east, which ended when Biden came in.

Now, Trump is in again, and is pulling no punches to fix what the bureaucracy ruined, to better the economy, to end the conflicts, and ease global tensions.

Trump, like other great world leaders, follows the ideal of thymos, while the bureaucracy of the west utilizes the logos.

Trump is not a weak man.

Anyway, an explanation of Thymos and Logos beneath the cut;

Some people believe men are motivated by greed for money or lust for power, however money and power are means to get recognition.

They are markers of success, and success makes men feel important and causes others to pay attention when they walk in the room.

Men want others to recognize their significance, they want to be important and part of something important.

That is Thymos, it is what motivates the best and worst things men do.

It drives them to seek glory and assert themselves aggressively for noble causes.

It drives them to rage if others don't recognize their worth.

Sometimes it even causes them to kill over a trifle if they feel disrespected.

Every great leader and terrible dictator was a thymotic leader, Churchill, Sir John A. MacDonald, Napoleon, Mussolini, Genghis Khan, and so on, each lived by the Thymos.

Thymotic people mobilize to assert their group's significance if they feel they are being rendered invisible by society.

Thymotic people mobilize on behalf of those made voiceless by the powerful, thymos is the psychological origin of political action.

Logos is the opposite of action, it is the principle for morality, law and rules based existence.

This is the idea in politics that action is unnecessary so long as rules are in place to guide society, and one's actions, that so long as people are educated on the system, they will behave in the parameters of the system.

Don't get me wrong, logos has its place, however, it is useless without thymos, and thymotic men to lead society.

I went off on a tangent, I apologize, been reading too much Greek philosophy, and watching too much streams involving Greek philosophy.

[we-are-not-a-number]

I read and laid out Trump's "DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT" so you don't have to. Aka, the starting brigade on trans rights.

Trump defined sex as an "immutable" biological classification at birth with it innately only being male or female.

Defined terms such as "women" and "man" only being for adult biological males or females.

Defines male and female as "sex that produces the small reproductive cell".

Defined "gender ideology" as "replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity".

Defined "gender identity" as "reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex..."

Declared women are "Recognizing Women Are Biologically Distinct From Men" and there will be an expansion on this order.

End protections or recognition for trans individuals in federal agencies, "Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.  Each agency should therefore give the terms 'sex', 'male', 'female', 'men', 'women', 'boys' and 'girls'..."

All federal agencies and employees will use sex and not gender in all applicable federal policies and documents.

Has ordered "...shall implement changes to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex..."

..."Agencies shall remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages."

Statement to attack Bostock v. Clayton County "The prior Administration argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which addressed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requires gender identity-based access to single-sex spaces under, for example, Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act.  This position is legally untenable and has harmed women."

Remove transgender inmates from prisons of their gender, remove all access for gender affirming care to incarcerated individuals, "The Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers..." may need to amend "...Part 115.41 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations and interpretation guidance regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act." If necessary.

"...no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex."

Access to public amenities is defined by sex, "The Attorney General shall issue guidance to ensure the freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in workplaces and federally funded entities covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964." And, "Agencies shall effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity."

States 30 days shall present a bill to modify above into law.

I may have missed some policy, comment below if I missed anything and I will add it. This was terrible to read.

120 days for federal agencies to comply

This is stated to be a part of the "Restoring Sanity" agenda.

If you're trans (or have trans loved ones), try to have a clear schedule to fume a bit before you read this crap

[gwydionmisha]

Cabinet Committee Hearings 1/21/24

Please contact your senators and ask them to reject dangerous and unqualified cabinet picks. I don't have a lot of hope at this point, but better to fight than roll belly up. If nothing else ask them to resist Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, RFK Jr., Russel Vought, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel.

Usually they just log for or against. If they want a reason, I've listed some below. Use reason for Democrats. For Republicans: Stress military readiness, national security, and the integrity and morale of the military, law and order, etc..

All of these are terrible. Complain about whatever you have energy for (most important bolded):

TUESDAY:

Doug Collins, Veterans Affairs - Very conservative Trump Loyalist. Could be far worse.

Elise Stefanik, U.N. ambassador, entirely self agendaed with zero principles. Could be far worse and gets her out of congress. Will likely sail through like shit through a goose as she has some democratic support. Don't waste your energy.

WEDNESDAY:

Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget, is a Project 2025 person with absolutely disastrous plans. He plans to purge the civil service on political grounds and replace honest non-partisan people with right wing extremists as part of implementing autocracy. he also plans to overthrow Congress' power to allocate funds by illegally preventing the disbursement of Medicare, Social Security, EBT, Housing, Education, etc. funds in order to destroy the social safety net. He will likely get away with it as the SCOTUS are so in the bag for kleptocratic fascist autocracy that they've been declaring black letter parts of the constitution un constitutional and thrown out ideas like precedent and rule of law. This guy is terrifying and he's barely getting any coverage or notice.

"Russ Vought wants to make Congress obsolete:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-cabinet-russ-vought-project-2025-rcna187838

THURSDAY:

"What to know about Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick for agriculture secretary:" https://www.wnct.com/news/politics/ap-what-to-know-about-brooke-rollins-trumps-pick-for-agriculture-secretary/

Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

[qqueenofhades]

And like fucking clockwork, a bunch far lefties/communists/"don't vote revolution" people crawl out to say "this is Biden's fault, he and the Democrats let this happen, they could have pressed a button that would have magically made loans go away with no consequences but didn't"

I want these people to fall off a cliff

I mean, they will twist themselves into absolute fucking pretzels to come up with literally any way possible not to mention the actual and readily obvious reason for this happening (three MAGA judges appointed to SCOTUS by Trump), as that would imply that Trump was in fact bad, Hillary Clinton would not have done this, and they were possibly in the wrong by refusing to vote for her. So yes, they still gotta find some way for Biden to be at fault. Somehow!!!

Since the "president can't just wave a magic wand and eliminate student debt without any pushback from any parts of the government, especially the MAGA-hijacked part" strategy didn't work, since the president does not in fact have a magic wand, one wonders what ludicrous fantasy they will come up with now. But I'd also like to mention that Biden's response to all this was "this ruling is utter bullshit, SCOTUS are total hypocrites, I'm still going to work to find a way to do this under another law and with the Education Secretary, flipping both middle fingers at you, Scranton Joe out." And you know, I kind of like that. At this rate, SCOTUS and its terrible, terrible friends WILL radicalize him into supporting full forgiveness for everyone, and I have no problem with that. Though doubtless the Online Leftists will, because they'd rather be mad at him for imagined nonsense that they think he could have done, rather than support any of his actual successes, recover from setbacks, and work for more.

[kongkhoi]

hiel im so sorry but i pattered over immediately could i pretty pretty pls know more abt your cowboy yaoi au with that blonde beanpole? :3

omgomgomg im absolutely in love with. this au. so so so so much. ok

ok so cowboy4cowboy. except technically neither of us are cowboys. follow.

names are still being workshopped. but. colby "kei" houston. and adriel "hiel" walker.

KEI

- from a privileged/relatively wealthier family. ran away from it but more on that later - anyway he's educated because of it - so rather than an actual cow wrangler, he's a cowboy secretary of sorts. manages entries, organizes draws, calculates payouts - he keeps with the getup anyway so people don't bother him. uses the rep to his advantage - his horse mildly dislikes him - he ran away from home because his brother left him to travel and to see the sights of young america. he thought kei was smarter and more capable of taking care of the family business, more capable than he ever could be - kei doesn't know this and heads out, out of hurt, out of betrayal, out of rebellion - news flash ! - he doesn't know how to handle himself in the real world. sure, he knows how to write letters and such, but he can't start a fire without a match, doesn't know how to cook for a damn, and his income gets spent on food for his horse and himself - he'd been handling barely alright for a while until .

HIEL

- outlaw - depending on who you'll ask they'll either say there's a bounty on his head because he's tried and failed to rob a bank, or that he's a terrible, terrible cheat at cards and everyone hates him for it. enough to shoot at him, apparently - been on the road. jack of all trades, been living on his own all his life, lots of moneymaking skills picked up along the way - trans ! - immigrant ! - (important to story!)

i try to settle down in a town but eventually there's a. HEY. HEY YOU. and shit. i gotta run again. fucking book it. steal some poor fella's horse getting the fuck out of there. except i feel really. really. really bad about it. so i turn right back around and haul the horse's owner (and when i do, i panic because he's hot) up on the horse behind me before speeding off to god knows where

"we have to go!! quick, they're right on our tail!!" "WE? I DONT EVEN KNOW WHO THE HELL YOU ARE!"

lkfjdsla and so i basically kidnap this guy on accident. the nickname 'kei' comes from when he was so pissed at me for doing so that all he said to me was. "'kay. mm. 'kay." and it stuck because that's how he talks to all our employers that we do odd jobs for on the road

he's pretty much forced to endure me my entire journey west because by the time we lose whoever's tailing us, his face is already associated with mine, and mine is on wanted posters everywhere. whoops.

lots of travels and stuff that i'm not. ready to delve into. which is all in halo's brain. lots of story and plot and emotional freak nasty that i would not have the brains to think of myself. just know. that. its peak

anyway, eventually we do find a town that doesnt recognize us. some old farmer wants to make his own journey to the coast so he can see the ocean before he dies. so he sells his ranch to me and its all but a few of what i've got scraped up but its mine and im finally not on the run anymore

and kei almost wishes that i still need his horse and need to bring him with me on my travels. but its over now.

i give him a small bag of coins for everything i put him through.

"i'm real sorry, kei. i'd give you more but i blew everything i got on this farm-"

and there he sees his in. his voice gets stiff and he says, "then i'll wait. here. until you've paid me back everything i'm owed."

and it takes like four full bags of straight gold for me to realize that he's here to stay LMAOAOOOAOAOOA. and his horse fucking LOVES me btw

she lets me on with such ease. kei always says, "oh, she doesn't like going over-" and then stunned silence when she lets me maneuver us through whatever needed LMAOAOOAO. his picky, snobby, bitey horse (like father like daughter) is snuggling at me. and kei is so pissed !!

"just needs a little sugar, loosen right up." ".." "catch more flies with honey, y'know?" "what about the flies you catch with glue. i'm held hostage." "ah. well."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Friedman and David Corn at Mother Jones:

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set out in late 2021 to hawk a conspiracy theory-drenched book attacking Anthony Fauci for his work to limit the spread of infectious diseases, he ran into a problem. Mainstream TV networks weren’t interested, due to Kennedy’s penchant for spreading falsehoods about childhood vaccinations, Covid, and other topics. “Nobody would put him on at that time,” a person who has worked with Kennedy said. “He wasn’t newsworthy, and this was not a subject anyone would talk about.” Thwarted, Kennedy went where his conspiracy theorizing was welcome. The longtime Democrat appeared on far-right Newsmax and One America News Network. He was also welcomed on the even more extreme Infowars, which was run by veteran conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has peddled outrageous lies, including the notion that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that left 20 elementary school students and six educators dead was a hoax.

In a December 2, 2021, interview—conducted by Infowars host Kristi Leigh—Kennedy, in a rambling statement, seemed to liken mask mandates to policies imposed by “Hitler when he went into Romania and Czechoslovakia and Poland.” Kennedy also claimed he was working with unnamed prosecutors to ensure Fauci and others could be “brought to justice” for unspecified crimes. He complained that the New York Times bestseller list was falsely crediting actor Will Smith’s memoir with outselling his book. “That’s another indicia of censorship,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy did not appear again on the program, but this interview was part of an ongoing relationship between Jones and Kennedy. Jones has been heaping praise on Kennedy ever since, and Infowars has extensively promoted Kennedy’s book. Del Bigtree, a prominent anti-vax activist who served as a spokesman for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign and who continues to advise him, has also appeared on Infowars, including a late-October appearance in which Jones interviewed him. Kennedy’s far-right book tour preceded the famous scion’s well-known journey from Democrat to independent to McDonald’s-clutching MAGA loyalist. Along the way, Kennedy cozied up to prominent Trumpists, including Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson. In July 2021, Kennedy spoke at an event held by the Christian nationalist Reawaken America, and afterwards posed with MAGA stalwarts Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. Mother Jones obtained a picture of the meeting.

These ties may feel like old news, especially after a long parade of weird and troubling revelations about Kennedy—his brainworm, his fondness for messing with animal corpses, his supposed sexting stamina, his suggestion that vaccine foes have it worse than Anne Frank, even an allegation of sexual assault. And Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump, who he once had blasted as a “terrible president,” certainly overshadowed his previous dabbling with MAGA extremists. But Trump’s nomination of Kennedy as Health and Human Services Secretary means his associations face new scrutiny. Two separate Senate panels—the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Finance Committee—are planing to hold hearings on his potential appointment. Only the Finance Committee will vote on the nomination; if successful in that committee, Kennedy would then face a vote in the full Senate. Kennedy’s willingness to affiliate with fringe figures, in particular Jones, is among among the issues Democrats plan to scrutinize, according to Senate aides. GOP senators, on the other hand, are more likely to take issue with Kennedy’s past support for abortion rights.

Mother Jones takes a look at RFK Jr.’s long history of cozying up with far-right conspiracist Alex Jones and his InfoWars outlet.

[starrdio]

I've read a few kirisaya fanfics where, for the sake of Powerful Babe Sweeps Sheltered Young Maiden Off Feet, Sayaka is portrayed as brilliant but lacking formal education. And this made me realize how crucial being educated is to Sayaka's character. NOT intelligent-- educated.

Sayaka is The Logical Girl. She is also extremely intelligent and competent. These things do not necessary assume a formal education, but the fact still stands that Sayaka Igarashi cannot be Sayaka Igarashi without one.

Prior to meeting Kirari, she was on a one-track road to academic excellence as her only goal. Be the BEST student at the BEST school, and success will follow. Her characteristic need to be the pinnacle of whatever arena she has decided to compete in was developed as a competitive nerd. Her stark worldview of pass/fail with no in between was cultivated on a mindset of straight A's where she could constantly objectively track her own performance. Her willingness to enact terrible things on her peers is facilitated by the lack of connection she has to them borne not from shyness (which would preclude jumping to be on the stuco), but from a simple lack of interest in anything but her work.

She Asked To Work For Kirari So She Could Study Her.

Prior to Kirari, Sayaka's worldview could only be shaped by obsessive, competitive dedication to being an effective student. And if being a student wasn't her number one goal, she wouldn't have had anything to do with Kirari-- someone dangerous who opposes her fundamentally, and therefore she would not have had anything to gain from besides a learning opportunity. Her dedication to being the best student is the avenue by which she could become dedicated to being the best secretary. But having the time as a student is necessary, because if she actually operated on logic, intelligence, and competence alone she wouldn't even be in the show. She'd be offscreen staying the hell away from all the lunacy of the main plot.

[werewolfetone]

So unfair how much your future career depends on you getting higher education these days. in the Georgian period you could drop out of uni after 1 year due to an STD and still go on to hold multiple government positions in your own country's government and then once you've passed the act of union in the UK government where you could fight a duel with your nemesis the foreign secretary and then negotiate peace in the Napoleonic Wars at the Congress of Vienna and then after a depressing and terrible end you could also become one of the most hated figures in modern domestic British and Irish political history for the rest of time due to an unfortunate propensity for getting yourself into situations where every bad thing including things you didn't do gets blamed on you, but now? forget about it.

[mariacallous]

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg are among senior Tories to have lost their seats, as the party suffers a heavy election defeat.

Ms Mordaunt, who was tipped as a future Tory leadership contender, saw her majority of more than 15,000 overturned in Portsmouth North.

Mr Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, lost in North East Somerset and Hanham, with Labour overturning his 16,000 majority.

He told the BBC he wouldn't "blame anybody other than myself" and that it had been "a very bad night for the Conservatives".

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and Michelle Donelan are among a clutch of cabinet ministers to lose their seats.

But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who had been seen as vulnerable in his Godalming and Ash constituency, managed to hold on with slender 891 majority.

'Sobering verdict'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded the election, speaking after he was re-elected in Richmond and Northallerton.

He said the electorate had “delivered a sobering verdict” on the Tories, and apologised to those in his party who had lost their seats. He said he had called Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on winning.

Speaking after losing her seat, Ms Mordaunt said her party had "taken a battering because it failed to honour the trust that people had placed in it".

She warned against "talking to an ever smaller slice of ourselves," adding, "if we want again to be the natural party of government, then our values must be the people's".

In other high profile Tory losses:

Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer lost to Labour in Plymouth Moor View

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan lost to the Liberal Democrats in Chichester, a West Sussex seat the Tories have held for a century

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer lost Ely and East Cambridgeshire, also to the Liberal Democrats

Chief Whip Simon Hart - in charge of party discipline - lost to Plaid Cymru in Caerfyrddin, as the Tories lost all their seats in Wales

Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland, who also lost his seat, told the BBC his party faced "electoral Armageddon".

He said too many Conservatives had focused on "personal agendas and jockeying for position" instead of "concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do".

"I've watched colleagues strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds, and say stupid things they have no evidence for, instead of concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do," the former justice secretary said.

Asked whether he was referring to former home secretary Suella Braverman, who days before polls opened published an article in the Daily Telegraph strongly criticising the government, he said: "Yes, and I'm afraid that's not an isolated example."

"I'm fed up of personal agendas and jockeying for position. The truth is now with the Conservatives facing electoral Armageddon, it's going to be like a group of bald men arguing over a comb.

Sir Robert said for the party to move further to the right would be a "disastrous mistake" that "would send us into the abyss".

Speaking earlier, before his defeat, Sir Jacob said it was “clearly a terrible night” for his party, that had come to take its “core vote for granted”.

“We need to win voters at every single election. If you take your base for granted... your voters will look to other parties.”

He thought the party had made a mistake by ousting Boris Johnson, who led it to victory in the 2019 election but was forced to step down as prime minister in 2022 following a series of scandals.

Former cabinet office minister Steve Baker, who BBC projections gave less than a 1% chance of holding onto his seat, said his party was having an “incredibly difficult night”.

He said Rishi Sunak had a "brilliant mind" but acknowledged he had made mistakes during the campaign, including the decision to leave D-Day commemorations early.

[beardedmrbean]

Invisible, and now silent. Three years after the Taliban's return to power, Afghan women continue to see their few remaining rights dwindle away.

A Taliban ministry promulgated a new set of laws on August 21 that it said “will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice”. The laws aim to control all aspects of the social and private life of Afghans, especially of Afghan women.

Among the rules in the 114-page text published by the ministry is the requirement for women to cover their bodies and faces completely if they leave the house as well as a ban on women making their voices heard in public.

The new laws are “attacking their very existence”, Chekeba Hachemi, president of the organisation Free Afghanistan, told FRANCE 24.

“We no longer have the right to hear the sound of a woman's voice, or to see even a glimpse of a woman's body. It's as if we were telling them: ‘We want to kill you slowly’.”

“The only right we are allowed is to breathe. And even then ...” Hamida Aman, the founder of Begum TV, a Paris-based channel aimed at educating Afghan women and girls, told France Culture.

Just going by my own personal abuse healing…the left don’t know jackshit about what natives and marginalized groups without victims complexes want

The UN, the European Union, human rights groups and Afghan organisations have expressed their deep concerns over the new set of laws, which include some provisions that have already been in effect informally since the Taliban seized power again in August 2021.

But there is only so much the international community can do to help Afghan women.

Short-lived optimism

“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, in an August 25 statement in which she said the laws evoke “a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future”.

The UN has called for the immediate repeal of the text.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced a “new attack on the rights of women and girls”. The EU said it was “distressed” by the decree, which was “a new blow” to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The EU also said the new laws create “another obstacle to the normalisation of relations” with Afghanistan, signalling that European recognition of the Taliban regime can only be achieved if Kabul “fully respects [its] international obligations and [those] towards the people of Afghanistan”.

The Taliban, in return, have denounced the “arrogance” of the West in its condemnations of the restrictions on women – which UN officials including Secretary General Antonio Guterres have described as “gender-based apartheid”.

On the same day the Taliban ministry published the new laws, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said in a statement that the regime had banned him from entering the country.

International condemnations no longer seem to have any effect.

“In the first year after the regime change in Afghanistan, the situation was not as bad as people might have feared,” said Mélissa Cornet, a specialist on gender issues in Afghanistan, pointing out that journalists were still working and women were still attending university.

“The Taliban really wanted to be recognised by the international community. They made lots of reassurances and there was a real hope they had changed,” said Cornet, who lived in Kabul while overseeing research on women's role in Afghan society for local and international organisations beginning in 2018.

This optimism, however, was short-lived. “As soon as the Taliban realised they would not be formally recognised by regaining a seat at the UN and the frozen assets of the central bank, there was a U-turn,” Cornet explained. “They said to themselves, ‘If we play the game and get nothing in return, we'll do what we want at home’.”

'Nobody wants another conflict'

The Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and were overthrown in 2001 by a NATO intervention following the September 11 attacks. But despite 20 years of war and occupation by US-led NATO troops, the Taliban slowly regained control of the entire country and outlasted the United States, despite the latter's military superiority.    

“There's a very proud side to saying, ‘We were in power in the 1990s, the United States came but we beat them in the end, so now you Western states have no right to come and lecture us and tell us what to do��,’’ Cornet said.

Ironically, since the international community made women's rights its focus, it has now become very difficult for the Taliban to compromise on this issue, she said. “If they ever announced that schools were reopening [for women], it would be seen by Taliban ultraconservatives as a kind of defeat, a concession, to the internationals.”

From one law to the next, human rights in Afghanistan – and women's rights in particular – are being eroded without the international community being able to intervene.

“For three years, we've seen the status of women go [from bad to worse], and we've reached a stage where it's unacceptable that the world isn't reacting,” said Chela Noori of the Afghan Women of France organisation.

The world is moving “towards acceptance of this situation, [because] nothing stands in the way of the Taliban”, said Begum TV's Aman.

“Unfortunately, there's not much we can do, which is why it's difficult to continue proposing solutions,” Cornet said.

Without a resistance movement in Afghanistan, the situation cannot change, Cornet said. “After all the decades of war, nobody wants another conflict, another war, or an invasion.”

And the Taliban regime is capitalising on the situation, said Cornet, pointing to the fact that the country is at peace for the first time in 20 years, poppy production has declined by 95 percent (almost all the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan), there are no prominent terrorist groups operating in the country and the borders are under control, preventing any wave of migration to Europe.

“Security issues are more important to Western countries than women's rights in this distant country,” Cornet observed, calling out the “cynicism” of such an assessment.

'The UN has to work with the Taliban'

Heather Barr, deputy director of the Women's Rights Division at HRW, deplores the fact that the crisis in Afghanistan has been relegated to a secondary concern by the Ukraine war. “The lack of an effective international response gives the impression that women's rights are not really a concern for world leaders,” she said in February.

“No one cares about Afghan women or human rights in this country,” Aman told France Culture, recalling the conditions under which the Doha III conference, the third UN meeting on Afghanistan in the Qatari capital, took place in late June.

The Taliban, which had not taken part in the two previous conferences, made their participation in the third conditional on the exclusion of civil society organisations, and particularly women, from the talks.

The UN once again called for the “inclusion of women” in public life during the discussions, a request that did not prevent the Taliban from continuing to harden its policies towards women.

“The United Nations is silent in the face of the Taliban,” Aman lamented.

Cornet noted the UN needs to maintain contacts with the regime to continue providing aid to the country.   

“The UN works in Afghanistan and therefore has to work with the Taliban,” she said. “If it takes a very hard line on women's rights, it will be expelled from the country and no one will be able to talk to the regime and help Afghans.”

Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the latest World Bank report, “poverty affects half of the population, with persistent high unemployment and underemployment”.

The United Nations Development Programme said in an April 2023 report that over 90 percent of the population was unable to meet its basic food requirements.

The International Crisis Group, an NGO focused on monitoring and preventing deadly conflicts, explained in a January report how Afghanistan's neighbours have been seeking to re-establish relations with Kabul in areas such as security and trade.

Regional nations “are convinced that the best way to secure their countries’ interests and moderate the Taliban’s behaviour in the long term is patient deliberation with Kabul, rather than ostracism”, says the report.

“If you don't talk to them, you can't influence them,” Cornet said simply. “The Taliban couldn't care less about being sanctioned by the international community. The fact that they can't travel or can't use their bank accounts doesn't bother them.”

For their part, Afghan women are doing what they can to be seen and raise awareness of their plight. After laws called on them to hide their faces and lower their voices, several women filmed themselves singing, protesting online under the hashtag #LetUsExist.

“You are afraid of this voice, and this voice will be stronger every day,” wrote Taiba Sulaimani, a young Afghan woman, on X in a message accompanying a video of a group of activists singing in chorus.

In another video, the young woman sings while adjusting her veil in front of the mirror.

“A woman's voice is her identity,” she says. “Not something that should be hidden.”

[the-psudo]

Trump's People

“The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” — Mike Pence, Trump's vice president

“Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” — Bill Barr, Trump's 2nd attorney general

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.” — James Mattis, Trump's 1st secretary of defense

“I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.” — Mark Esper, Trump's 2nd secretary of defense

“We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America – and we’re willing to die to protect it.” — retired Gen. Mark Milley, Trump's chairman of the joint chiefs

“(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.” — Rex Tillerson, Trump's secretary of state

“He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine. A terrible thing happened on January 6, and he called it a beautiful day.” — Nikki Haley, Trump's 1st ambassador to the United Nations

“Someone who I would argue now is just out for himself.” — Chris Christie, Trump's presidential transition vice-chairman

“We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.” — HR McMaster, Trump's 2nd national security adviser

“I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.” — John Bolton, Trump's 3rd national security adviser

“A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.” — John Kelly, Trump's 2nd chief of staff

“I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.” — Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff and US special envoy to Ireland, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.” — Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump's former communications directors

“I am terrified of him running in 2024.” — Stephanie Grisham, another former communications director

“When I saw what was happening on January 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue.” — Betsy DeVos, Trump's secretary of education, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy." — Elaine Chao, Trump's secretary of Transportation, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“…the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” — Richard Spencer, Trump's 1st secretary of the Navy

“The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, and an utter disgrace.” — Tom Bossert, Trump's 1st homeland security adviser

“Donald’s an idiot.” — Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer

“Trump relentlessly puts forth claims that are not true.” — Ty Cobb, Trump's White House lawyer

“We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.” — Alyssa Farah Griffin, one of Trump's directors of strategic communications, now a CNN political commentator

“Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.” — Omarosa Manigault Newman, a top aide in charge of Trump's outreach to African Americans

“I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office every again.” — Sarah Matthews, one of Trump's deputy press secretaries, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.” — Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump's final chief of staff’s aide