US and Canadian jet fighters scrambled to escort Russian bombers off American coast
hmmmm
World Para Swimming Championships: Malaysia stripped of hosting 2019 event
Malaysia has been stripped of hosting the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships for refusing to let Israelis compete, says the International Paralympic Committee.
Malaysia, which is a majority Muslim country, banned the athletes because of what Kuala Lumpur sees as Israel’s poor treatment of Palestinians.
World Para Swimming Championships: Malaysia stripped of hosting 2019 event – BBC Sport
Whatever one’s issues with a particular country are, it is guaranteed that is not the athletes competing in international events that re causing the issues.
Can we please, as a species, keep politics out of sports? Please?!
Israeli teenager charged with killing Palestinian woman in stone attack
Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old mother-of-eight, was driving through the occupied West Bank when her car was targeted in what prosecutors called a terrorist act motivated by hostility towards Arabs.
…Mrs Rabi was travelling in a car being driven by her husband along Route 60 near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on 12 October when it was hit by a stone weighing about 2kg (4.4lb).
The stone went through the windshield on the passenger’s side and struck Mrs Rabi in the head. Her husband rushed her to a nearby clinic but she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
…According to the indictment filed by Israeli prosecutors, the 16-year-old charged over the killing threw the stone at the car from a nearby hilltop “out of an ideological motive of racism and hostility towards Arabs everywhere”.
Israeli media reported that on Wednesday a judge had revealed that the student’s DNA was found on the stone that struck Mrs Rabi.
Israeli teenager charged with killing Palestinian woman in stone attack – BBC News
hmmm
Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News
Iraq on Monday mourned the loss of Lamia al-Gailani, a beloved archaeologist who helped rebuild the Baghdad museum after it was looted following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Al-Gailani, who died in Amman, Jordan, on Friday at the age of 80, was one of Iraq‘s first women to excavate the country’s archaeological heritage.
…”She was very keen to communicate on the popular level and make archaeology accessible to ordinary people,” said her daughter, Noorah al-Gailani, who curates the Islamic civilizations collection at the Glasgow Museum in Scotland.
Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News
Sounds like an incredible lady. R. I. P.
Thai girl band BNK48 sorry for Nazi T-shirt controversy
Thai girl band BNK48 sorry for Nazi T-shirt controversy – BBC News
didn’t know or didn’t know it would bite her on the ass?
Trump ordered 15,000 new border and immigration officers — but got thousands of vacancies instead
Two years after President Trump signed orders to hire 15,000 new border agents and immigration officers, the administration has spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort — but has thousands more vacancies than when it began.
…Today, Customs and Border Protection — the Border Patrol’s parent agency — has more than 3,000 job vacancies, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. That’s about 2,000 more than when Trump signed the orders, according to a Government Accountability Office report on CBP’s hiring challenges.
…In December, the Homeland Security inspector general’s office said Accenture and CBP were “nowhere near” filling the president’s hiring order.
It warned that if problems in the “hastily approved” contract are not addressed, CBP risks “wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.”
…ICE requested $830 million to hire about 3,000 new officers and build capacity to ultimately bring on 10,000.
…Instead, Congress last year gave ICE $15.7 million for 65 new agents plus 70 attorneys and support staff.
Over the past two years, ICE has brought on 1,325 investigators and deportation officers, according to the agency. The agency typically loses nearly 800 law enforcement officers each year, so it has not kept pace and remains far behind the president’s order.
…Given historically low illegal immigration on the southern border, even the Homeland Security inspector general has questioned the need for the surge.
…Officials could not “provide complete data to support the operational need or deployment strategies for the additional 15,000 additional agents and officers they were directed to hire,” the inspector general’s office wrote.
hmmmm
Duke official steps down after telling students to speak English
The director of graduate studies for a Duke University School of Medicine department stepped down Saturday after screenshots of an email reported to be from her circulated on social media, suggesting students refrain from speaking Chinese to “improve their English.”
…Two faculty members approached Neely to express disappointment that first-year students were speaking Chinese in student study and lounge areas.
…”I encourage you to commit to using English 100 percent of the time” on campus or in professional settings, the email states.
…”They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand,” the email reads.
…”To be clear,” [Medical school dean Mary E. Klotman] wrote, “there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other. Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom.”
Duke official steps down after telling students to speak English
And what of the two faculty members???
Michael Cohen postpones plan to testify before Congress
Davis cited “ongoing threats” to Cohen’s family from Trump and the president’s current personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in the decision to delay his appearance before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, where he was expected to talk at length about the president.
…Davis, in his statement Wednesday, said, “Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date.
…Trump later told reporters, when asked about Cohen: “I would say he’s been threatened by the truth.”
…Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Cohen’s concern for safety was “legitimate” given the “attacks” by Trump and Giuliani.
But they also said they expected Cohen to appear before their committee at some point.
Michael Cohen postpones plan to testify before Congress
hmmmm
Jayme Closs, 13, to receive $25,000 in reward money for rescuing herself
“On behalf of the Barron County Sheriff’s Department and all the law enforcement agencies that assisted in this case, we would like to thank Jennie-O for their support and assistance during this case,” Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We also agree that Jayme is the hero in this case and happy they have chosen her to receive the company’s reward contribution.”
Jayme Closs, 13, to receive $25,000 in reward money for rescuing herself – ABC News
hmmm
I know what I saw when I watched the Covington video
Their behavior was widely condemned as disrespectful, privileged, and racist.
Then, the news cycle flipped. Now, we are told, in labeling this interaction racist, we jumped the gun. We need to go back and watch the many camera angles to understand that the crowd of menacing tomahawk chops were actually innocent boys in a more complicated and nuanced situation. We are told the takeaway isn’t about racism or privilege, but a much more palatable “don’t believe everything you see online.”
I know what I saw.
….The truth is, Native Americans experience racial hostility daily, but people rarely pay attention. In the now ancient reactions of the first 24 hours of this controversy’s life cycle, Native voices were the first to report and share the video. Rather than expressing shock, most Native voices expressed a tired familiarity of just how common, how everyday these experiences are. We have all seen our prayers, our songs, our culture mocked. We have all been on the receiving end of that shamelessly smug smirk.
….But before the public could learn about contemporary racism against Native people, the truth got squashed — professionally.
…Sandmann’s family hired a well-connected PR firm to spin the story. RunSwitch, whose co-owner Scott Jennings is an adviser to House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and is a CNN contributor, pushed the story Sunday that Nick and his peers were the real victims. After neglecting to disclose its ties to RunSwitch, CNN shared Sandmann’s statement, and the rest of the mainstream media, with its bottomless mercy for white boys and bottomless suspicion for people color, gobbled it up.
…While we are told by Sandmann’s PR firm that the high school students were frightened and intimidated by the group’s insults, on camera they respond by chanting, yelling, and ripping off their shirts.
Countless people have been harassed in public by the Black Israelites and groups like them, but nowhere else do such interactions translate into blanket permission to harass and disrespect other people. How does the behavior of a completely separate group of people justify the students’ treatment of Phillips?
…In what reality do intimidated and frightened teenagers scream, chant, and rip off their shirts? In what universe does singing a hand drum song — the AIM anthem — equal a threat or confrontation? How on earth is staring someone down and smirking an expression of respect and peace?
…Up is still up, down is still down, the truth is still the truth and the actions of the Covington Catholic youth are still racist and wrong. The media pundits who are tripping over themselves to appear neutral and balanced are feeding into gaslighting tactics that are becoming more common in the era of Trump and more effective as our national dialogue is anchored further and further away from the truth.
…The privilege, the racism, the searing hate in the video is undeniable. The only question is whether or not we will call it what it is or — as so often happens — rewrite history.
I know what I saw when I watched the Covington video – ThinkProgress
Yup.
Smitherman: Administrators have been working on strategies for several students
Smitherman on Wednesday apologized for misusing her insurance to pay for the 15-year-old’s medical care, and the Elwood Community School Corp. board of trustees pledged its continued support for her.
…The matter already has been resolved through an Agreement for Withheld Prosecution, also signed on Wednesday with the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office, dismissing the charges as long as Smitherman is not arrested in the coming 12 months.
Smitherman and her husband, Steve, started helping out the teen and his guardian, Charles Gerard, 97, a great-uncle, according to the probable cause affidavit. That assistance included buying clothing for the boy and cleaning the home in the 400 block of South 33rd Street.
The guardian was not home at the time she picked up the student Jan. 9, so she did not ask for consent, Smitherman said.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Smitherman told investigators she had avoided reporting the boy’s living conditions to the Indiana Department of Child of Child Services because she did not want him placed in foster care.
hmmm
Bones Of Famed British Explorer Found During Construction Of U.K. Train Line
Bones Of Famed British Explorer Found During Construction Of U.K. Train Line : NPR
How about calling him the first British person to circumnavigate Australia instead????
Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank
A Palestinian man has been shot dead, and dozens others have been wounded in the occupied West Bank during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the village of al-Mugheir, northeast of Ramallah.
The 38-year-old, identified as Hamdi Naasan, was shot in the back [emphasis: mine] and succumbed to his wounds shortly after at a hospital in Ramallah, the health ministry said on Saturday.
An Israeli military official confirmed to Haaretz newspaper that settlers used live fire during the confrontation.
…According to local media, confrontations broke out when Jewish settlers attempted to raid the village with the protection of Israeli soldiers.
…Between 600,000 to 750,000 Israelis live in the occupied Palestinian territories of occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. They live in hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements built on Palestinian land.
…Meanwhile, a Palestinian teenager who was shot dead by the Israeli army on Friday was buried in his village of Silwad, near the city of Ramallah.
Ayman Hamed, 18, was shot in the chest with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers stationed at a watchtower near the village, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Hamed’s mother Inas accused the Israeli army of executing her son in cold blood, leaving him bleeding until he died and preventing ambulances from immediately reaching him.
Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank | Israel News | Al Jazeera
Until the settler who fired the gun is arrest, prosecuted, and jailed for murder, Israel cannot make the claim to law and order.
Tolerating theft and murder by individuals whose very presence in the area is an aggressive criminal act because the victims aren’t Jewish doesn’t make Israel a Jewish state, it makes it culpable.
UN envoy: Prosecute Myanmar army chief for Rohingya ‘genocide’
Myanmar’s army chief should be prosecuted for “genocide” against the Rohingya, a United Nations’ human rights investigator has said.
Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, added that holding the perpetrators to account for their crimes was necessary before the refugees who fled the country could return.
Prosecute Myanmar army chief for Rohingya ‘genocide’: UN envoy | Myanmar News | Al Jazeera
hmmmm
Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych found guilty of treason
A Ukrainian court has found the former president Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason for his efforts to crush the 2014 pro-western demonstrations that eventually toppled his government.
Yanukovych was also charged with asking Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to invade Ukraine after he had fled the country.
The verdict came almost five years after Yanukovych was overthrown, and could serve as an important symbolic conclusion to the events of 2014. More than 100 people were killed, many by sniper fire, on Kiev’s Maidan Square in clashes between protesters and police.
The charges will have little real effect on Yanukovych, 68, who has lived in exile in the Russian city of Rostov since fleeing Ukraine under armed guard nearly five years ago.
Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych found guilty of treason | World news | The Guardian
hmmmm
Belarusian model who offered to trade US election info is released from jail – CNN
The 28-year-old self-styled “sex expert,” who also goes by Nastya Rybka on social media, made international headlines last year when she offered to swap secret audio recordings allegedly shedding light on President Donald Trump’s links to Russia for asylum in the United States.
…Vashukevich claimed to have obtained the recordings during her affair with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, an ex-business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
…”They can kill me here or in Russia,” Vashukevich said at the time, speaking through the bars of the Bangkok Immigration Detention Center.
Belarusian model who offered to trade US election info is released from jail – CNN
hmmmm
Nancy Pelosi: Trump’s State Of The Union Date Remains Uncertain
Though Trump has signed a bill to get the government up and running, Pelosi wants to see the actual reopening occur before putting Trump’s speech on the calendar.
…“What I’d said to the president is when the government is open, we will discuss a mutually agreeable date, and I’ll look forward to doing that and welcoming the president to the House of Representatives for the State of the Union when we agree on that mutually agreeable date,” Pelosi said.
Nancy Pelosi: Trump’s State Of The Union Date Remains Uncertain | HuffPost
Speaker Pelosi did not come to play.
Democrats Denied Use of Voter Data In Court
Democrats challenging a voter registration law in New Hampshire won’t be able to use the state’s voter database to argue the law unfairly burdens those who are more likely to support their party, the state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The court ruled on a dispute that arose as part of lawsuit brought by the New Hampshire Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters over a 2017 law requiring additional documentation from voters who register within 30 days of an election.
Supporters argue it will increase trust in elections by requiring people to prove they live where they vote, but opponents argue it is confusing, unnecessary and intimidating.
Valley News – Democrats Denied N.H. Voter Data
hmmm
Homeboy Industries & Father Greg
By 1988, having buried an ever growing number of young people killed in gang violence, Father Boyle and parish and community members sought to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth by developing positive opportunities for them, including establishing an alternative school and day care program, and seeking out legitimate employment. They called this initial effort Jobs for a Future. “Gang violence is about a lethal absence of hope,” Father Boyle has said. “Nobody has ever met a hopeful kid who joined a gang.”
In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Jobs for a Future and Proyecto Pastoral, a community-organizing project begun at Dolores Mission, launched their first social enterprise business in an abandoned bakery that Hollywood producer Ray Stark helped them purchase. They called it Homeboy Bakery.
….Today, Homeboy Industries employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to 15,000 men and women who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.
…Each year over 10,000 former gang members from across Los Angeles come through Homeboy Industries’ doors in an effort to make a positive change. They are welcomed into a community of mutual kinship, love, and a wide variety of services ranging from tattoo removal to anger management and parenting classes. Full-time employment is offered for more than 200 men and women at a time through an 18-month program.
…We offered a simple question, “What if we were to invest in this population rather than just endlessly incarcerate?” that has redirected our attention away from suppression and onto treatment and education. Homeboy played an integral role in replacing the “tough on crime” mantra that predominated in the 1980s and 1990s with a “smart on crime” model that many police and sheriff’s departments have adopted.
What this place discovered was that it was a lethal absence of hope that leads kids into gangs, and the fact that there was no way out of the cycle of gang violence compounded people’s despair. So Homeboy offered this model, in the fullest sense, of community trumping gang.
… We have learned in that time that jobs are probably about 80% of what these folks need to redirect their lives. The other 20% is a mixture of therapeutic and support services. So, in addition to paying men and women to receive job training, we also require that they spend part of their working day here working on themselves. We offer education, therapy, tattoo removal, substance abuse treatment, legal assistance, and job placement services. We also offer six different social enterprise businesses where trainees can receive real job training that they can use immediately upon graduation from Homeboy. And we provide all of this in a trauma-informed, therapeutic community setting that also allows them to work on attachment repair and building healthy relationships with co-workers who may formerly have been members of rival gangs.
…In 1994, the ceiling leaked, the oven broke, and the bakery closed. Father Greg found new partners; a worker from the Southern California Gas Company repaired the oven free of charge and USC Medical Center stepped up and said they would buy whatever the bakery could turn out. The business of job training and re-entry grew. Total disaster struck in 1999 when the bakery burned down, but despite these obstacles, Homeboy continued to grow and expand. More social enterprise businesses and new, free social programs were added and by 2001, Homeboy Industries was an independent non-profit. …Today, Homeboy is located in gang-neutral downtown Los Angeles.
…Thousands of young people have since walked through the doors of Homeboy Industries looking for a second chance, and finding community, sanctuary, and family.
…Social enterprises are businesses that apply commercial strategies to improve the well-being of individuals rather than creating enterprises for profit. Homeboy is an organization with many true social enterprises where trainees are paid to learn job skills and take advantage of comprehensive services. By offering former gang members a place to work, Homeboy provides a place for them to learn soft skills, like administration and customer service, and also vocational skills from solar panel installation to pastry baking or catering. These jobs in Homeboy’s social enterprises, often the first “legit” employment our clients have ever held, give our clients confidence and self-esteem while enabling them to provide for their families.
The jobs our clients have through our social enterprises offer them alternatives to re-incarceration or a return to their former gang lives.
Homeboy’s Social Enterprises include:
Homeboy Bakery (storefront, wholesale, and online at homeboyfoods.com.)
Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery
Homegirl Café
Homegirl Catering
Homeboy Merchandise
Farmers Markets
Homeboy Diner at Los Angeles City Hall
Grocery – Salsa
Homeboy Café and Bakery in LAX Terminal 4
What services are offered at Homeboy?
Case Management
Tattoo Removal
Employment Services
Mental Health Services – individual therapy, substance abuse counseling, and group classes
Legal Services
Education – including academic, life skills, wellness and enrichment classes,and a partnership with LearningWorks Charter High School.
Solar Panel Training and Certification
…Homeboy Recycling is the newest venture at Homeboy. We have partnered with Isidore Recycling who’s mission has been and still is to make recycling electronics easy, secure and accessible, while creating employment opportunities for people who have successfully exited California’s correctional system.
…All of Homeboy’s services, offered free of charge, are designed to equip our clients to successfully turn their lives around. Participants in the 18-month program are offered case management and comprehensive wrap-around services while at Homeboy. All of our services (with the exception of case management and individual therapy) are free and open to community clients as well.
…Homeboy Industries offers employment services to community clients. We provide assistance with developing job leads and building an individual’s marketing package to include resumes, references, and cover letters. Employment services assists with some transportation needs, offers free professional clothing, identification, certifications, work history documents, and other support services for individuals seeking employment.
Homeboy Industries – Father Greg |
(Yes, this is a break from the new cycle. Because we at the Peanut Gallery needed it!)
What a mensch this Father Greg, guy!
White victimology, white privilege and the Covington Catholic rules of race | Salon.com
The mere accusation of racism against a white person is worse than the impact of racism on the safety, security, lives and literal existence of nonwhites.
…Whiteness is benign. White people, regardless of the evidence of their bad behavior or ill intent, are always entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
…White racial innocence and white racial fragility must always be honored.
…Intentions, feelings, and the unanswerable question “What is in their heart?” trumps all empirical evidence and facts about the consequences of racist behavior and the context in which it occurred.
…In America only white people are allowed to “stand their ground.” It is expected that nonwhites, especially black people, will always be deferential and submissive to white people.
…”Personal responsibility” does not apply to white conservatives.
…For example: the white teen MAGA mob is somehow held to be not responsible for their foul behavior toward Native American elder Nathan Phillips because a small group of “Black Israelites” (essentially racial chauvinist black Power Ranger cosplay clowns) said mean things to them. [emphasis: mine]
…A group of white teenage boys donned their MAGA hats — which are overt and intentional symbols of bigotry, racism and ignorance — attended a right-wing Christian rally aimed at denying women their reproductive rights, then happened upon a group of “Black Israelite” cartoon bigots, and in retaliation decided to harass and insult a Native American. They did so because white privilege had trained them from birth that they would likely be able to act in such a way without consequences.
…What W.E.B. Du Bois described as the “psychological wages of whiteness” can take many forms. One of them is the ability of those deemed to be “white” to bend reality and distort plain and obvious facts in the service of white supremacy. Defending the behavior of the white teens of Covington Catholic is a prime example of an old and dangerous American problem.
White victimology, white privilege and the Covington Catholic rules of race | Salon.com
Yup.
Thoroughly disappointed in (and have eroded respect for) for our fellow white liberals who wanted to talk about how there was ‘more’ to the Covington story and how we should ‘give the young boys a chance’ before condemning them. Whether meant to be or no, well-intended or not, those types of responses were racist AF and you all should be very, very ashamed of yourselves both for being racist and for being stupid enough to be manipulated by the media like that. For reals. Peanut Gallery out.
Pink Won’t Apologize for Condemning Student in Viral Face-Off
“I was raised by a Vietnam Veteran who taught me to stand up for what I believe to be right. Even if that means standing alone,” she added. “I do not now, nor have I ever apologized for some of my very polarizing opinions. If you are surprised by this, or offended, you have every right to unfollow me, as you really don’t know who I am. I am mostly peace and love, with a little bit of go f*ck yourself.”
Pink Won’t Apologize for Condemning Student in Viral Face-Off | PEOPLE.com
The way this article is presented and framed is really irritating. Why would she have to apologize for not buying into the revisionist, apologist, white-washing most media outlets have covered the story in?
What’s her offense here? Not being stupid enough to fall for such crass manipulation?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 