27 January 20
Fundraising can be a thankless job. But it does provide us with a budget to combat the disinformation swirling around out there, and we believe that’s an important thing.
Each and every donation matters at this point.
A reasonable donation, is one you can reasonably afford.
Making that donation is the key.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611
26 January 19
James Risen | Reporters Face New Threats From the Governments They Cover
James Risen, The New York Times
Risen writes: "When Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, was charged last year by the Trump administration in connection with the publication of secret United States government documents nearly a decade earlier, many journalists expressed deep concern about the dangerous precedent the case could set for investigative reporting in America."
READ MORE
Lev Parnas and Donald Trump in the White House. (photo: WP)
James Risen, The New York Times
Risen writes: "When Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, was charged last year by the Trump administration in connection with the publication of secret United States government documents nearly a decade earlier, many journalists expressed deep concern about the dangerous precedent the case could set for investigative reporting in America."
READ MORE
Lev Parnas and Donald Trump in the White House. (photo: WP)
Four Significant Questions Raised by the Newly Released Recording of Trump and Lev Parnas
Philip Bump, The Washington Post
Bump writes: "At the beginning of a video released Saturday by an attorney representing Lev Parnas, we see a hallway. At the end of the hallway is an arch with a dark-colored backdrop, in front of which two people appear to be posing for a photograph. Behind the person on the left is what looks like an American flag."
Is the president lying about his relationship with Parnas or is he prone to endorsing rash personnel changes based on unfounded assertions from strangers?
How does Parnas’s request fit into what we know about Yovanovitch’s firing?
How familiar was he with the aid being given to Ukraine?
READ MORE
Maddie and Emerson Hernandez in Tijuana, Mexico. (photo: Courtesy Madelin Hernandez)
Philip Bump, The Washington Post
Bump writes: "At the beginning of a video released Saturday by an attorney representing Lev Parnas, we see a hallway. At the end of the hallway is an arch with a dark-colored backdrop, in front of which two people appear to be posing for a photograph. Behind the person on the left is what looks like an American flag."
Is the president lying about his relationship with Parnas or is he prone to endorsing rash personnel changes based on unfounded assertions from strangers?
How does Parnas’s request fit into what we know about Yovanovitch’s firing?
How familiar was he with the aid being given to Ukraine?
No question, though, is more significant than this, at least for Republican senators:
What other tapes might exist?
The release of this recording spawns new questions related to Ukraine and the actors involved in Trump’s efforts there. Parnas’s attorney told The Post that Parnas had turned other recordings over to House investigators.
Recordings have, after all, submarined presidents before.
READ MORE
Maddie and Emerson Hernandez in Tijuana, Mexico. (photo: Courtesy Madelin Hernandez)
Seven Months Detained: Seven-Year-Old Is Longest-Held Child Migrant in US
Alexandra Villarreal, Guardian UK
Villarreal writes: "Emerson Hernandez and his daughter Maddie have withstood hunger and thirst."
READ MORE
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos listens Monday to President Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. (photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Alexandra Villarreal, Guardian UK
Villarreal writes: "Emerson Hernandez and his daughter Maddie have withstood hunger and thirst."
READ MORE
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos listens Monday to President Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. (photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Betsy DeVos Compares Abortion to Slavery, Ayanna Pressley Invites Her to 'Say It to My Face'
Zack Linly, The Root
Linly writes: "Secretary of Education and Cruella DeVille stunt double Betsy DeVos has shown us time and time again that she isn't the brightest crayon in the box."
READ MORE
Zack Linly, The Root
Linly writes: "Secretary of Education and Cruella DeVille stunt double Betsy DeVos has shown us time and time again that she isn't the brightest crayon in the box."
We’ve seen her struggle to answer the most basic questions about education and even declared that she does not “intentionally visited schools that are underperforming,” after making it pretty clear she doesn’t know much about schools at all. Because, why should she? She’s only the person put in charge of the quality of our schools.
But white conservative density is something I can handle. It’s even a thing I usually find comical (I mean, not so much when the demonstrably dumb person is in control of education policy...but other times). What I can not stand, though, is white conservatives invoking black oppression in order to bolster their own narratives.
So you can imagine how pissed I was when DeVos found the sheer, unmitigated caucasity to make comparisons between abortion rights and slavery.
According to The Hill, while speaking at an event for Colorado Christian University in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, DeVos made comments saying that opposition to abortion reminded her of the ending of slavery during former President Lincoln’s administration.
“[Lincoln] too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a state’s choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it,” DeVos said.
“Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil. Lincoln was right about the slavery ‘choice’ then, and he would be right about the life ‘choice’ today,” she continued. “Because as it’s been said: Freedom is not about doing what we want. Freedom is about having the right to do what we ought.”
It’s bad enough that she’s comparing the non-lives of the non-sentient unborn to the lives of millions who experienced life but lived it in bondage and under servitude, but for this to come from the same woman who pulled back Obama-era policies that protected black students from disproportionately harsh discipline practices makes her words ring especially hollow, if not egregious.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, like myself, is having none of DeVos’ white nonsense. On Thursday she tweeted that she would love to have a face-to-face with DeVos to educate her on all the ways she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.
“Dear Betsy,” Pressley tweeted. “As a Black woman & the Chair of the abortion access task force, I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face.”
“Would welcome the opportunity to educate you,” Pressley continued.
Dear Betsy,
As a Black woman & the Chair of the abortion access task force, I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face.
Would welcome the opportunity to educate you.
Regards,
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley twitter.com/thehill/status…
34.1K people are talking about this
For anyone who isn’t already aware, in the black community, “Say this to my face” isn’t a request; it’s a battle cry. If you ain’t bout that life, don’t you try it.
Presley has always been an advocate for abortion rights. Last year, she commended Massachusetts activists for fighting to enact the ROE Act, which would “improve youth access to abortion and ensure coverage for abortion regardless of income or immigration status,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Even in states like the commonwealth of Massachusetts, which I represent, individuals, particularly low-income and young people, LGBTQ and black and brown folks continue to face barriers in accessing comprehensive reproductive health care. And let me be clear–health care is abortion care,” Pressley said from the House floor.
DeVos, on the other hand, has a history of, not only seeking to obstruct abortion rights, but of using black struggle to back personal agenda.
In February last year, she drew the ire of black people all over the country when she referred to HBCUs as “pioneers” of the school choice movement as a way of propping up her well known support for school choice, voucher programs and charter schools.
What I find funny about comments invoking slavery and the like when they come from white conservatives is that any other time they’re telling us to get over it because “the past is the past.” Mind you, these are the same people who swear by the Founding Father’s every bowel movement as if their 18th century wisdom and the word of God are one and the same. So for them to tell us that we need to stop talking about slavery while pointing out America’s dark history, and then turn around and use slavery when it’s convenient for their own narratives...
Well that’s just the kind of thing that makes you wish certain people were aborted.
READ MORE
A Delta plane lands at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on December 8, 2019. (photo: Daniel Slim/Getty Images)
Delta Fined $50,000 for Removing Muslim Passengers From Flights
Molly Olmstead, Slate
Olmstead writes: "Delta Airlines has been fined $50,000 for discriminatory actions stemming from two different instances in 2016 in which Muslim passengers were reported by other passengers for looking suspicious. In both those cases, Delta crews had the Muslim passengers removed even after their own security confirmed that they posed no security threat."
Molly Olmstead, Slate
Olmstead writes: "Delta Airlines has been fined $50,000 for discriminatory actions stemming from two different instances in 2016 in which Muslim passengers were reported by other passengers for looking suspicious. In both those cases, Delta crews had the Muslim passengers removed even after their own security confirmed that they posed no security threat."
The first case involved a married American couple returning from an anniversary trip in Paris and flying to Cincinnati, where they lived. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, a flight crew member had allegedly told the pilot that she was uncomfortable flying with the couple because the woman was wearing a headscarf and the man was nervous and sweating. According to the Department of Transportation, a passenger had told a flight attendant that she had seen the husband put something in his watch. A flight attendant also told the captain that she had seen the husband text the word “Allah” several times and that he did not smile when making eye contact. A second flight attendant said she saw the man change his screen as she walked by.
The pilot contacted security to ask to have the couple go through extra security. The security confirmed that the couple were no threat, but the pilot insisted they be removed and go through another round of security off the plane, as the flight attendants were “uncomfortable” having them on board. The couple was cleared again but still not allowed to return to their flight. They were rebooked on another Delta flight for the next day. Security officers said that the couple were not threatening but just stressed and confused.
“The Captain failed to follow Delta’s required security protocol prior to making the decision to remove [the couple] from Flight 229,” the Transportation Department consent order said. “It appears that but for [the couple]’s perceived religion, Delta would not have removed or denied them re-boarding.”
The second case occurred just days later on a flight from Amsterdam to New York. Passengers reported to flight attendants that they saw one Muslim passenger “making significant eye contact” and later receiving a small package from another “person of similar ethnicity.” Delta’s security officers reassured the captain that the passenger had no red flags, and the pilot pulled the plane away from the gate. But flight attendants, who also told the captain that the man looked sweaty and anxious, protested, and the pilot returned the plane to the gate. The Muslim passenger was removed and rebooked on another flight. Because the passenger didn’t undergo more screening before being rebooked, the Transportation Department concluded that his removal was purely discriminatory.
On Friday, the Transportation Department announced that it had found that Delta had broken the law in its treatment of the Muslim passengers. Apart from paying the fee, the airline will also have to provide cultural sensitivity training for the customer service employees and crew members involved in the two incidents.
Delta has said that it had not acted in a discriminatory way. Instead, the airline said, “it acted on observations of behavior, rather than identity,” as the people in both cases were acting suspiciously. The airline did, however, admit it could have handled both situations differently.
Aboubacarr Tambadou, right, Gambia's justice minister, waves to a representative of the Rohingya community Jan. 22 at the United Nations' International Court of Justice at The Hague.(photo: ANP/AFP/Getty Images)
'A Great Victory for the Rohingya': UN Court Orders Myanmar/Burma to Prevent Genocide
Shashank Bengali, The Los Angeles Times
Bengali writes: "The United Nations' top court on Thursday ordered Myanmar to take emergency measures to protect Rohingya Muslims from violence, delivering an important legal victory to a minority group that experts say has been the target of a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing."
READ MORE
Shashank Bengali, The Los Angeles Times
Bengali writes: "The United Nations' top court on Thursday ordered Myanmar to take emergency measures to protect Rohingya Muslims from violence, delivering an important legal victory to a minority group that experts say has been the target of a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing."
READ MORE
Treehouse constructed by Gethsemane JFMC. (photo: Gethsemane JFMC)
Unknown Saviors of the Environment: Thirty-Five Men Create a Forest From Barren Land
Gurvinder Singh, Mongabay
Singh writes: "Prinson Daimari is overwhelmed with pride every time he visits the lush green forest with birds' nests perched on the treetops inside the Bhairabkunda reserve forest in Udalguri district of Assam in North East India."
READ MORE
Gurvinder Singh, Mongabay
Singh writes: "Prinson Daimari is overwhelmed with pride every time he visits the lush green forest with birds' nests perched on the treetops inside the Bhairabkunda reserve forest in Udalguri district of Assam in North East India."
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.