Macedonia and Greece: Deal after 27-year row over a name – BBC News
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In Historic First, Nebraska Farmer Returns Land to Ponca Tribe Along “Trail of Tears” |
a href=”http://boldnebraska.org/in-historic-first-nebraska-farmer-returns-land-to-ponca-tribe-along-trail-of-tears/”>In Historic First, Nebraska Farmer Returns Land to Ponca Tribe Along “Trail of Tears” | Bold Nebraska
cool
1 In 10 Bernie Sanders Supporters Ended Up Voting For Trump
Fully 12 percent of people who voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries voted for President Trump in the general election.
…approval of President Barack Obama appears to be related — Sanders-Trump voters approved of Obama much less than other Sanders primary voters.
…And then there is race. Nearly half of Sanders-Trump voters disagree with the idea that “white people have advantages.”
…All of that said, one other figure that stuck out to Schaffner: Compared with those numbers above, Clinton 2016 voters were remarkably loyal — “I found basically no Clinton primary voters who voted for Trump,” he told NPR in an email.
…All of the unusual factors in election 2016 — the first female major-party candidate, the first major-party candidate with no military or elected-office experience — combined with the election’s surprises — that there were actually a number of Obama voters who went for Trump, that the far-better-funded candidate lost, that the Republicans essentially torched the playbook they wrote after they lost in 2012 — mean that there are plenty of questions to answer in coming years.
1 In 10 Bernie Sanders Supporters Ended Up Voting For Trump : NPR
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Jeff Sessions all but slams asylum door on migrant survivors of domestic, gang violence
Tens of thousands of people who are currently waiting for their asylum cases in the US to be resolved — or waiting for their chance to apply — just got the door all but slammed on them.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a ruling Monday in an immigration case, Matter of A- B-, that will make it hard or even impossible for Central Americans fleeing gang violence in their home countries, and women fleeing domestic violence, to get asylum in the US — or even be allowed to stay in the US to seek asylum instead of being summarily deported.
…Because immigration courts aren’t fully independent courts, the decision Sessions just issued is now law for all immigration judges in the US — and everyone else considering asylum cases. Jeff Sessions “basically is the Supreme Court of the immigration courts,” in the words of Sarah Pierce of the Migration Policy Institute.
Federal circuit courts can attempt to challenge the decision, but even if they fully overrule Sessions — and he doesn’t issue a clarification that sets an equally restrictive standard — their rulings would only apply within the geographic scope of that circuit. And if this case somehow made it to the Supreme Court, the Court would probably have serious reservations about overruling a well-established administrative process — above and beyond its own ideas about what ought to count as a “particular social group.”
…Sessions isn’t just raising the standard for who can ultimately get asylum. He’s raising the standard for who can pass the initial screening at the border to apply for asylum, as opposed to simply being deported as an unauthorized immigrant. In other words, any Central American migrants who are currently en route to the US are going to be met with a higher bar to entry than the one they thought was in place when they left. Thousands of people who already arrived in the US but have been sent to criminal court to be convicted of illegal entry before they can make an asylum claim may now find themselves unable to pass a screening they would have passed when they arrived. That includes hundreds if not thousands of parents whose children have been separated from them.
Parents may now have very little time at all to locate their children and be reunified with them before getting deported. And even if they can figure out where their children are, they may have to make a choice between being deported as a family and allowing the children to attempt to stay — with a lower chance that they will succeed than they might have had before, but a chance nonetheless — while the parent returns home, deprived of any chance at all.
Jeff Sessions all but slams asylum door on migrant survivors of domestic, gang violence – Vox
Aghhhh!
More layoffs at Indiana factory Trump made deal to keep open
More than 200 workers clocked in for their final shifts on Thursday at Carrier Corp. in Indianapolis in the latest round of layoffs at a plant President Donald Trump toured in December 2016 to trumpet a deal to save jobs and prevent its closure.
More layoffs at Indiana factory Trump made deal to keep open | Reuters
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Trump removes U.S. from G-7 joint statement over escalating feud with Canada’s Trudeau
Feuding with Canada…
Just contemplate that phrase…. Oy!
These Programs Are Helping Prisoners Live Again On The Outside
Jacobs says a person’s successful re-entry into society can be viewed through how adequately they are able to meet six basic life needs: livelihood, residence, family, health, criminal justice compliance and social connections. Those needs manifest differently, depending on the phase an inmate is in when they’re released. Jacobs breaks these phases down into three categories: Survival, stabilization and self sufficiency.
…But sometimes successful re-entry can begin with something as simple as giving a former inmate a ride.
Take the “Ride Home Program” from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition in California, which was recently profiled in The New York Times Magazine. It employs former inmates to pick up ex-prisoners on the day they are released to help guide them through the changed world.
ARC’s drivers spend all day with the newly released prisoners — they buy them food and some clothing, give them advice on finding work and getting a haircut, as well as help with calling family on smartphones or showing photos of family members on Facebook. In other words, they start to reintroduce them to the culture — and being former inmates themselves, they can deliver that message in a uniquely empathetic way.
…MacKenzie found programs at the time covering a wide array of subjects — from vocational education to electronic monitoring — and found no “single explanation” for programs that weren’t effective. But she speculated it could be due to something as simple as poor implementation. It also could be because the programs are focused on “punishment, deterrence, or control” or don’t do enough to change the individual’s thought process during the program course work.
These Programs Are Helping Prisoners Live Again On The Outside | HuffPost
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The unsettling incident of the too-quiet Native teens
We’ve heard of cops being called for a number of reasons, but never because teenage boys were too quiet at college, in this case, Colorado State University. The incident took place last week in Fort Collins when two Santa Cruz teenagers — using money they had saved — drove themselves to visit the university. Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, wanted to attend college together. Thomas is a student at Northern New Mexico College, while his brother is a senior at the Santa Fe Indian School. The brothers are from the Mohawk tribe.
They had taken a day off from school for that most American of rites, the college visit. They never completed their tour. Campus police interrupted; someone on the tour with the teens had called in a complaint. The brothers made a woman in the group “nervous” because she decided they were too quiet. They wore dark T-shirts. They joined the tour a bit late and declined to answer her nosy questions. They simply did not belong on a college tour, the woman believed. (The tour guide, by the way, said the boys’ behavior was nothing out of the ordinary.)
…It is not OK.
Yet here we are, in 2018. About the only bright spot we can see is that maybe, if people become more open about such widespread prejudices, society can confront and overcome them.
Overcome them we must, or the United States of America and its promise of liberty and justice for all will be lost.
The unsettling incident of the too-quiet Native teens | Editorials | santafenewmexican.com
Agggggggggggggggh!
CSU Police Body Cam Video Released, 911 Call: ‘Hands In Pockets’ Caused Concern « CBS Denver
“Thomas called me frantic, (saying) ‘Somebody called the police on us, because we were quiet,’” Lorraine Gray said.
Lorraine said she was confused, especially since the university was so highly respected by her children.
…“All year, (Thomas) kept talking about how he wanted to go. His dream school is CSU,” Lorraine Gray said. “He, and his brother whose graduation is in a few weeks, decided to take a campus tour together. Kind of a brother bonding thing.”
The boys would never finish the tour, after being separated from the group by police.
…The woman who called police, only identified by the university as a 45-year-old white woman, told 911 dispatch she was suspicious of the way the Gray brothers looked, and their mannerisms. She told dispatch she believed at least one of the brothers was Mexican.
CSU Police Body Cam Video Released, 911 Call: ‘Hands In Pockets’ Caused Concern « CBS Denver
Becky, this is why we can’t have nice things.
Dancing college grads dragged off stage, school apologizes for being ‘inappropriately aggressive’ – ABC News
The University of Florida’s apology has fallen short for some of the 21 graduates whom a school staff member yanked off the stage this weekend as they danced to celebrate their achievements during a spring commencement ceremony.
…Another student, Nafeesah Attah, told “GMA” the dances were symbolic gestures of joy that had meaning rooted to their fraternities and sororities. She said the response of the white university staff member who grabbed her and the others and shoved them off stage “was not arbitrary.”
“It was definitely contingent on your race … other white students who were dancing were not perceived as a threat,” Attah said.
…”I want to personally apologize for us doing that on behalf of myself and also the University of Florida,” [University of Florida President Kent]Fuchs said.
…But [graduates] Attah and Telusma said Fuchs was on stage at the time of the incident and did nothing to stop the usher from ruining their milestone moment.
Agggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh!
Migrants, young and old, are not always related. Border Patrol says fear of child trafficking forces separations
Since October, more than 700 migrant children have been taken from adults claiming to be their parents, including more than 100 children under age 4. U.S. officials said they were trying to protect children who may be victims of trafficking or exploitation, but migrant advocates argue it’s the latest attempt by the Trump administration to stop migrant families from seeking asylum.
A “zero tolerance” border enforcement policy that took effect last week and was announced Monday by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions may result in families who illegally cross the border being separated after their arrest, with parents going to adult detention facilities and youths going to juvenile shelters.
…It’s difficult for migrants to assert parental rights. Many cross the border with their children’s birth certificates tucked in pockets or plastic bags. Agents often call local consulates to check families’ documents. But the documents can be faked, agents said. Even if consular staff verify them, agents may still challenge migrants’ claims to their children.
…Sometimes the adults are relatives — an aunt, grandparent or step-parent, she said.
…Maria Ramirez said the Border Patrol questioned her about her children, ages 17, 15 and 5. Agents didn’t believe she was their mother, even after she produced Honduran birth certificates, Ramirez said.
“They said they were fake,” she said. “They gave me the impression I would be deported and told me I had to sign the papers.”
Ramirez, 37, saw other parents at the processing center who were told the same thing. Unlike her, they had signed the paperwork and were deported.
Ramirez refused to sign deportation papers, insisting her children’s birth certificates were real. She and her 5-year-old son were held separately from her older daughters for five days, but were ultimately reunited.
Sigh..,
Op-Ed: Every Culture Appropriates
There is something wrong and oppressive about people of one background adopting and adapting the artifacts of another.
…The cultural appropriation police answer the yoga and banh mi objections with a familiar counter-argument: it’s about power. It’s fine for colonized Indians to incorporate European fitness regimes into their yoga; wrong for Canadians of European origin to incorporate yoga into their fitness regimes.
But the trouble with that argument is that—like culture—power also ebbs and flows. Customs we may think of as immemorially inherent in one culture very often originated in that culture’s own history of empire and domination. The Han Chinese learned to drink tea for pleasure from peoples to their south. The green flag of Islam was adapted from the pre-Islamic religions of Iran. The great west African kingdom of Benin acquired the metal for some of its famous bronze artworks by selling thousands of people as slaves to Portuguese traders.
…The Chinese dress young Kezia Daum wanted to wear to prom originated in a brutal act of imperialism, but not by any western people. It originated in the Manchurian conquest of China in 1648, an event comparable to Europe’s Thirty Years War in its society-shattering murderousness. Millions of people, perhaps tens of millions, lost their lives in the upheaval.
…The new garment was a fusion of old and new, east and west. Manchurian-style fabrics were tailored to a European-style pattern. In the past, upper-class women’s clothing had conveyed status and restricted movement. The cheongsam was equally available to women from a wide range of statuses—and enabled Chinese women to move as their western counterparts did.
…In order to tell that story, the policemen of cultural appropriation must crush and deform much of the truth of cultural history—and in the process demean and infantilize the people they supposedly champion.
…To the extent that the cultural-appropriation police are urging their targets to respect others who are different, they are saying something that everyone needs to hear. But beyond that, they can plunge into doomed tangles. American popular culture is a mishmash of influences: British Isles, Eastern European, West African, and who knows what else. Cole Porter committed no wrong by borrowing from Jewish music; Elvis Presley enriched the world when he fused country-and-western with rhythm-and-blues.
How to draw the line between that and America’s ugly tradition of minstrelsy, in which subordinated peoples are both mimicked and mocked—as Al Jolson mimicked and mocked black music in his notorious blackface career? There is no clear rule, but there is an open way: the values of respect and tolerance that draw precisely on the rationalist Enlightenment traditions both rejected and relied upon by the cultural-appropriation police.
Every Culture Appropriates – The Atlantic
hmmmmm
Want airline food? Take Amtrak
It’s part of a plan to dismantle the National Network—shutting down most, if not all, long-distance trains, to focus on the Northeast Corridor, Midwest (Chicago) and California short- and medium-distance services, and state-supported trains.
…Why don’t you just come out and say it: “Amtrak is getting rid of dining cars.” No BS. No dancing around the issue. Tell it straight up. It’s what’s happening, right?
Anybody want to eat in a roomette?
…Already gone are the Coast Starlight parlor cars, in-train tour guides on some western trains, most charters, and private railcars bringing up the markers (for a hefty fee, of course). The “cross-country café” is replacing, I’m told, full dining service on Superliner trains: One crew member runs the microwave, another delivers the meal.
Want airline food? Take Amtrak – Railway Age
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Who is Michael Curry? The minister who told royal wedding ‘love is the way’ | UK news | The Guardian
Curry is the first African-American to serve as presiding bishop of the predominantly white US Episcopal church, and has recounted his family history as slaves and sharecroppers in North Carolina and Alabama in his autobiography Songs My Grandma Sang.
He told the New York Times in 2016 that when he was training for the priesthood, “the expectation at the time was that if you were a black priest or seminarian, you were going to be serving in black churches. There was a black church world and a white church world. That was the given-ness of racism, not that anybody said anything.”
…His appointment in 2015 as presiding bishop came soon after the Episcopal church decided it would permit its clergy to conduct same sex marriages, a move which led to de facto sanctions by the Anglican communion the following year.
Curry said: “For many who have felt and been rejected by the church because of who they are, for many who have felt and been rejected by families and communities, our church opening itself in love was a sign of hope. And [the decision to impose sanctions] will add pain on top of pain.”
In January this year, he responded to the #MeToo movement, saying the church “must examine its history and come to a fuller understanding of how it has handled or mishandled cases of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse through the years.”
Who is Michael Curry? The minister who told royal wedding ‘love is the way’ | UK news | The Guardian
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State Department spokeswoman uses D-Day as an example of long relationship with Germany
A top State Department spokesperson referenced the D-Day invasion during World War II as an example of the United States’ strong ties to Germany.
Well, stupid is as stupid does….
The Sojourner Truth Project
Most people are familiar with the popular version of Sojourner Truth’s famous, “Ain’t I a woman” speech but they have no idea that this popular version is not Sojourner’s speech and is vastly different from her original 1851 speech.
This popular but inaccurate version was written and published in 1863, (12 years after Sojourner gave the “Ain’t I a woman” speech), by a white abolitionist named Frances Dana Barker Gage. Curiously, Gage not only changed all of Sojourner’s words but chose to represent Sojourner speaking in a stereotypical ‘southern black slave accent’, rather than in her distinct upper New York State low-Dutch accent. Frances Gage’s actions were well intended and served the suffrage and women’s rights movement at the time; however, by today’s standards of ethical journalism, her actions were a gross misrepresentation of Sojourner Truth’s words and identity. By changing Truth’s words and her dialect to that of a stereotypical southern slave, Frances Gage effectively erased Sojourner’s Dutch heritage and her authentic voice. As well as unintentionally adding to the oversimplification of the American slave culture and furthering the eradication of our nations Northern slave history. Frances Gage admitted that her amended version had “given but a faint sketch” of Sojourner’s original speech but she felt justified and believed her version stronger and more palatable to the American public then Sojourner’s original version.
The most authentic version of Sojourner Truth’s, “Ain’t I a woman,” speech was first published in 1851 by Truth’s good friend Rev. Marius Robinson in the Anti-Slavery Bugle and was titled, “On Woman’s Rights”. This website is dedicated to re-introducing the original transcription of the speech and Sojourner’s authentic voice.
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Comments From The Peanut Gallery 