In a speech at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. three
months ago, President Biden declared “Help prevent this concerted effort to
undermine our election and the sacred right to vote. Have you no shame?”
Well, of course, Republicans do not. And though the
righteous indignation may have been real, the determination to do much about it
is absent.
Senate Majority Leader Schumer has announced that he will
set a procedural vote for the Freedom to Vote Act as early as tomorrow, Wednesday,
October 20. However, even with the support of Senators Manchin and Sinema, it
will die because of filibuster while Minority Leader McConnell has said
no Republicans will vote for it.
The week after Biden's stirring endorsement of the right to
vote, Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, the prominent civil rights
leader who founded and has led the Poor People's campaign, urged the President “Go to
Texas, and meet with a diverse group of people on the ground to put a face on
this issue. Then go to Arizona. Go to West Virginia,” he said. “There ought to
be a speech from the well of Congress.”
Certainly, eliminating the "sacred right to vote"
is not Joe Biden's preference, but neither is it his priority, nor is
eliminating the filibuster, which is preventing Congress from curbing voter
suppression. Peter Nicholas of The
Atlantic writes
When I mentioned the alarm coming from activists, the White
House official told me that the Biden administration is “pushing full force” to
pass voting protections. “It’s fair for activists to continue to push,” the
official said. “Every constituency has their issue. If you ask immigration
folks, they’ll tell you their issue is a life-or-death issue too.” (Democracy’s
preservation would seem more than a pet issue.) In one crucial respect, Biden
has been holding back: He has yet to give a full-throated statement that Senate
Democrats need to end the filibuster.
The right to vote is not immigration. It's not police reform
or child-care subsidies, and it's not building roads and other hard
infrastructure. It's the foundation of democracy, without which nothing more
will be gained and most of which has been procured will be lost with the
imposition of one-party Republican rule.
Action on the Build Back Better agenda,
coronaviruses, and supply chain disruptions, which has characterized this presidency, is necessary but not sufficient. Walter Shaub understands:
I’m going to be obsessing over this deeply offensive statement and retweeting it all week to ensure as many people as possible see it. The right to vote is the right that protects all other rights. Indifference to the effort to suppress the votes of any Americans is disgusting. https://t.co/ZiQFSXcSbU
In a piece in The New Republic, Donald Trump's outspoken
niece, Mary L. Trump, recognizes the media
are so invested in the horse race that they fail repeatedly
to inform Americans what is at stake—specifically, in this case, about the very
real dangers facing American democracy—and instead speculate about whether a
twice-impeached, two-time popular vote losing wannabe autocrat is going to run
again in 2024. And if that is, indeed, the most important question they believe
they should be asking, then perhaps they could, at the very least, explain why
his doing so would be so dangerous to this country’s survival.
Ms. Trump refers to uncle Donald's statement on Wednesday in
which he wrote
If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020
(which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented) Republicans will not be
voting in '22 or '24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to
do.
Perhaps attributable to Ms. Trump's training as a clinical
psychologist, she unfortunately believes that this
most recent threat, delivered via that Wednesday statement,
is just another temper tantrum designed to coerce the Republican Party not
simply to conduct “audits” in all states but to protect his terribly fragile
ego. His compulsion to punish those who fail or refuse to support his delusions
overwhelms his ability to think strategically. In order to get Donald to stop
holding voters hostage in the next two elections, his party is going to have to
overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At this point, it’s a
sucker’s bet to assume they won’t at least try in order to assuage him. But
trying won’t be enough for their perpetually enabled leader. They’ll have to
succeed.
But the former President knows the math. In order to
overturn the results of the 2020 election, results would have to be reversed in
Pennsylvania and Michigan; or in Pennsylvania and Georgia; or in Pennsylvania,
Arizona, and Nevada. It would take more
than one state. It's not going to happen, and he knows it.
ABC News' Chief Washington correspondent, though not
specifically speculating on Trump's motive, notes the 2020 loser "helped
Republicans lose two Georgia Senate seats in January. Now he seems ready to try
it again in the midterms."
That's central to understanding the likely reason Trump is
trying, by emphasizing "election fraud of 2020," to depress the vote in 2022. He knows the
presidential election won't be overturned and promises Republicans therefore
"will not be voting in '22 or '24."
If Republicans stay home, Democrats would retain control of
both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It's not as if Trump hasn't
gone this route before.
In 2016 he successfully targeted blacks, evidently
successfully, to discourage them from casting a vote for President that
November. He attacked Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the state of American
culture and society generally, in his inauguration speech giving it the name
"American carnage." He called
the US Senate races in January in Georgia "illegal and invalid," a
charge which kept GOP turnout down, which consequently delivered victory to
Democrats Warnock and Ossoff.
It's a strategy of discouraging voting, and it's in Trump's
interests for Republicans to stay home in November of 2022, also. If Democrats
thereby retain control of the House and the Senate, the ex-President would be
well positioned in the primary contest and the general election to ridicule
Democrats specifically and American government and life generally.
Harry Truman was famously elected in 1948 by attacking the
GOP "do nothing" Congress. But Democratic and Republican presidential
candidates alike have profited handsomely from criticizing a congress controlled
by the other party. For Donald Trump especially, that would be electoral gold.
He is the favorite to win the nomination is 2024 but might need need a
Democratic Congress to get elected, delusions and fragile ego aside.
As we travel down memory lane, recall the moment in a
presidential debate early in the cycle when candidate Kamala Harris turned
toward candidate Joseph R. Biden and charged
I do not believe you are racist and I agree with you when
you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also
believe- and it's personal and it's actually very- it was hurtful to hear you
talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their
reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.
As seen on the video above, the CNN morning duo in May
interviewed Edward Isaac-Dovere, author of "Battle for the Soul: Inside
the Democrats' Campaign to Defeat Trump" .During the first commercial break after his opponent's attack,, Joe Biden
turned to Pete Buttigieg, leaned over and reportedly whispered "that was
some f***ing bull****." Jill Biden told supporters the following week
"with what he cares about, what he fights for, what he's committed to, you
get up there and call him a racist without basis? 'Go f*** yourself.'"
Perform an acrobatic sex act upon yourself- or join the
ticket as vice-presidential candidate. In the interview, Isaac-Dovere noted that
Mr. and Mrs. Biden took the attack "very personally." However,
contrary to my cynicism, Isaac-Dovere claims
And it lasted for a long time. It lasted through when they
were deciding what the running mate process was going to look like. It left a
mark and they have gotten over it since, obviously.
Not so obviously, and we have the evidence from an excerpt from the book, in which Isaac-Dovere wrote
A poll from CBS a few weeks later, in the run-up to the
second debate, captured that dynamic. Biden was still ahead, but Warren and
Harris were given much higher numbers on being stronger and readier to fight.
“My guess,” Biden said at a campaign stop in Dearborn,
Michigan, when asked about the poll, “is that to the extent that it occurs, I
was probably overly polite in the way I didn’t respond to an attack, ‘You’re
not a racist’—which is a nice thing to say, really reassuring.”
"You're not a racist"- which is a nice thing to
say, really reassuring.
The context in no way suggests that Biden was
being sarcastic. And no one is that stupid. No one hears "you are not a
racist" and doesn't realize that the person is saying "you are a
racist." The denial would be unnecessary were the speaker not implying the
subject of her remark is racist. Isaac-Dovere explains that during a debate preparation session, advisers to Harris
argued, go right in, starting the shredding
with, “I do not believe you are a racist … ” Make Twitter explode. Become the
story of the night.
when Harris asked, “Are you sure this is the right thing to
do?” Sean Clegg, another outside consultant, backed her up. That was like
saying a person wasn’t a child molester.
In selecting a one-time vicious critic as his running mate,
it is unlikely that Biden was convinced of Harris' inherent decency. Rather
The debate was just one night in the campaign, but what it
revealed about Biden and about Harris—and about how issues of race and identity
factored in for Democratic primary voters—had implications that stretched into
the running mate selection process, and beyond.
Biden’s fundamental liability remained that he was an old
white man running in a party increasingly defined by young people, Black and
Latino voters, and women. That boosted Harris.
Harris was at most only marginally, more popular among young people, and there was no fear that Biden
would be pummeled by a charge of being "ageist." And the Delawarean earlier had pledged that he would select a woman.
Race had become salient with Harris' remarks and represented a land mine for the front-runner Moreover, Biden had no reason to be confident that an individual who had
undressed him publicly on that issue would not do so, directly or indirectly,
overtly or covertly, were he to be elected.
That would be political death for a Democratic president.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," doesn't mean to reward them profusely, as
Biden did by nominating Harris as his running-mate but to remain wary while keeping track of them. Joe Biden didn't
select the California senator as his heir apparent because he decided to let bygones
be bygones. Nor was he convinced of her apparent decency or that they would
become friends in time.
Instead, he realized that if ever someone were to accuse a
President Biden of being racially intolerant or insensitive, it would be Kamala
Harris. The Joe Biden who was
thoroughly intimidated decades earlier by Clarence Thomas is still alive and
well and living in Washington, D.C.
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney said on Tuesday that she
would not allow the Israeli publishing house that handled her previous novels
to publish her most recent book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” because of
her support for Palestinian people and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
movement.
In an email, Ms. Rooney said that she was proud to have her
first two books, “Normal People” and “Conversations With Friends,” published in
Hebrew. “Likewise, it would be an honor for me to have my latest novel translated
into Hebrew and available to Hebrew-language readers,” she said. “But for the
moment, I have chosen not to sell these translation rights to an Israeli-based
publishing house.”
Sally Rooney did not turn down her work being translated
into Hebrew, she turned down allowing an Israeli publisher with ties to the IDF
translating her work. Do not let people miss the latter part to smear this as
anti-semitic.
Sally Rooney’s novels are available in Chinese and Russian. Doesn’t she care about the Uighurs? Or Putin-defying journalists? To judge Israel by a different standard than the rest of the world is antisemitism. h/t @erikadreifushttps://t.co/3f51jOh13N
Sally Rooney’s novels are available in Chinese and Russian.
Doesn’t she care about the Uighurs? Or Putin-defying journalists? To judge
Israel by a different standard than the rest of the world is antisemitism.
Fortunately, there is an answer to Franklin's question. On The New Statesman's article "TheSally Rooney Hebrew row-explained, Emily Tankin asked "what about other
countries with human rights abuses, such as China or Saudi Arabia?" Tankin
noted
Rooney’s response to this was: “Of course, many states other
than Israel are guilty of grievous human rights abuses. This was also true of
South Africa during the campaign against apartheid there. In this particular
case, I am responding to the call from Palestinian civil society, including all
major Palestinian trade unions and writers’ unions.”
Without actually conceding that China or Saudi Arabia is
guilty of human rights abuses, Rooney has stated the undeniable: "Many
states other than Israel are guilty of grievous human rights abuses." This
is analogous to an individual making an insensitive, offensive remark and
responding to criticism resisting apology, stating "I apologize to anyone
I may have offended." Rooney deftly
avoids accusing any nation, in this case China or Saudi Arabia, of human rights
abuses.
But she does name Israel, "responding to the call from
Palestinian civil society." She thereby pivots quickly from the notion
that any nation other than Israel may abuse human rights, and invokes the apartheid
previously practiced by South Africa. She cannot call out China or Saudi
Arabia. Nor Cuba, Libya, Pakistan, Bolivia, Russia, or any other nation abusing its own people.
No, it's only Israel she can name. And she does so by
smearing it as an apartheid state, comparing it to the long discredited and
overthrown South African regime.
It is impossible to determine whether Rooney
is anti-Semitic as opponents of BDS suggest she is an anti-Semitic while
supporters of the movement will vigorously defender her against the charge.
Additionally, her particular motive is relatively inconsequential. She should
not be canceled; her works still should be published if of literary value, and
individuals comfortable with the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East
should personally disavow her.
Of more importance is the BDS movement itself. Last month,
as preparations were being made for the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the
Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, law professor, human rights activist and former Canadian politician Irwin Cotler informed us
A global campaign against Israel as an “ethnic cleansing,
criminal, and apartheid state” was launched in the immediate aftermath of
post-Durban calls for the dismantling of Israel as a “racist apartheid state.”
The first UN Human Rights Commission meeting in the aftermath of Durban sought
to single out Israel for differential and discriminatory treatment with a
majority of all resolutions passed indicting Israel, while the major
international human rights violators, such as Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Iran,
enjoyed exculpatory immunity. A meeting at the University of Michigan that
served as a launching pad for the BDS Movement rejected a resolution “calling
for a two-state solution if Israel were to become a democratic state” —
problematic in itself — in favor of a resolution “calling for the dismantling
of Israel as a racist apartheid state.”
This is about the perseverance of a vulnerable, pro-American
and democratic state in the Middle East. It is bigger, far more important
than one highly acclaimed, misguided Irish novelist.
In a statement posted on the White House's website on Mat
25, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris revealed
Today the President and I met with the family of Mr. George
Floyd. Mr. Floyd should be alive today. He should be with his family who
continue to show courage, grace, and resilience....
We must address racial injustice wherever it exists. That is
the work ahead.
There is someone else who should be with family members, who
continue to show courage, grace, and resilience. That would be 58-year-old Maria Ambrocio, a
Bayonne, New Jersey resident who on a visit to New York City
was in Times Square Friday afternoon with friends when
police allege Foster plowed into her outside a pizzeria while running away
after stealing another woman’s phone moments before.
Ambrocio was pushed. She fell and cracked her skull, and
later died.
Sources say Foster took off but was arrested minutes later,
adding he was also involved in a home invasion robbery shortly before at a
woman’s apartment nearby, as well as a groping incident in Midtown last month.
According to his family in NJ, 26-year-old Jermaine Foster
had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since he was a teenager and was
devastated when his father died last year of Covid-19. Foster currently was
homeless was prescribed medication. (He has been arrested and is charged with burglary, robbery and murder.) In a measured response on Facebook, the
Philippine Consulate General in New York wrote in part
Beginning January, we have seen several of our kababayan,
most of them senior citizens, violently assaulted by individuals with mental
health issues.
We have joined calls for authorities to take the necessary
steps, including heightened police visibility, to protect the public after we
noted the surge in anti-Asian hate incidents that targeted some of our
kababayan.
We also supported calls for authorities to take the
necessary measures to address mental health issues, especially among the
homeless.
We reiterate these calls as we mourn our loss but we also
ask ourselves: How many more Maria Ambrocios do we have to mourn before the
streets would be made safe again?
Ambrocio was an oncology nurse. It is a time when health
care professionals across the nation have been lauded and celebrated, when many
areas across the nation have been wracked by a major surge of violent crime.
and New York City reportedly has been plagued by a rise in anti-Asian
incidents.
The Administration should take notice. While President Biden has
been consumed by the pandemic, infrastructure, and other problems which demand
his attention, the Vice President, whose only significant duty (other than in the month following a presidential election) is to cast a
deciding vote in the Senate when the chamber is evenly split, should speak up.
When George Floyd was brutally murdered, Vice President
Harris took sides, recognizing "we must address racial injustice wherever it exists." The slaying of Maria Ambrocio highlights the injustice many Asian-Americans believe they suffer in New York City and elsewhere. It's a perfect opportunity for Kamala Harris to find her voice again and emphasize that 58-year old women should not have to fear for their lives or be at the mercy of violent men on the streets of America.
Last Wednesday, Chris Haye of All Innoted of Fox News
Media Matters found that channel pushed claims undermining
vaccines 99 of the days in the past six months. And the hosts over there are
strenuously opposed to vaccine mandates or requirements, right? They let you
know every chance they get.
Hayes' producers then showed video of Carlson maintaining
These demands are so obviously irrational that forcing you
to accept them without complaint is the whole point of the exercise. It is a
form of sadomasochism. It is dominance and submission. It`s about power. If
they can make you take medicine you don`t want or need, they`ve won. You are
theirs. You belong to them.
We don't often see tongue in cheek Hayes, but we should more
often:
Sadomasochism. Spicy, Tucker. Who would willingly suffer in
such submission? It`s why fox news has been celebrating the very brave
resistors in other organizations who have resigned from their jobs or gotten
fired or placed on some kind of leave rather than get the vaccine or be owned.
They brought on nurses and teachers, even an army lieutenant colonel.
He continued
But their newest champion is someone at another cable
channel, ESPN. A host there named Sage Steele who is now suspended from being
on air partly for appearing on a podcast and going after her employer for
mandating vaccines.
Following was video of then-ESPN employee Steele stating
I think to mandate -- I respect everyone`s decision. I
really do. but to mandate it, is sick and it`s scary to me in many ways. But I
have a job, a job that I love, and frankly a job that I need. But again, I love
it. I just -- I`m not surprised it got to this point especially with this
Disney, I mean a global company.
Citing Fox co-host Brian Kilmeade and Fox political
commentator Clay Travis, Hayes remarked
The irony here again is that none of these people, Clay
Travis, Brian Kilmeade, to Tucker Carlson have shown that same bravery to call
out their own network and their own employer. The Fox News vaccine requirement
is stricter than the one proposed by President Joe Biden and described as
tyranny and creeping communism.
Fox is requiring unvaccinated employees to be tested every
day. And inside the buildings, I mean just look at this video of the opening of
their new D.C. bureau. Everyone is wearing masks and are most likely also
vaccinated or getting tested every day because that is what their company is
mandating.
Now, Tucker Carlson has been the most vocal anti-vaccination
voice in American media. And unless he just does not actually believe any of
the stuff he`s saying, and it`s all just a craven cynical act for ratings while
he himself is vaxxed and people die needlessly by the thousands, he might just
be highlighting all those other people who showed actual courage as he works up
his own courage, you know kind of through osmosis to walk out.
Tongue in cheek again, Hayes concluded
Because if you truly believe you are suffering under the
sadomasochistic heel of a tyrannical employer, even if they are paying you lots
and lots of money, even if you don`t want people to think you`re a total fraud,
then you have got to have the guts to call out Fox News or resign in protest.
There`s no other option. It`s the only way forward. You can do it, Tucker. I
believe in you.
And on both the day before and the day after these
comments, Hayes pounded Fox, even recognizing on Tuesday "So, inside Fox News, everyone takes
this seriously. They're in on the joke, I guess."
They are in on the joke, and they're in on the
hypocrisy. It's analogous to the right's
obsession with forced-birth. Activists
know that if abortion is killing (highly arguable) or even murder (legally and
linguistically inaccurate), a woman obtaining an abortion is even more guilty
of such a hideous and horrendous act as is her surgeon.
But that doesn't stop them and the politicians also in on
the joke from demanding that doctors performing an abortion be prosecuted and
women held blameless, perhaps even held up as victims. The Fox personalities and the forced-birth activists both lack the courage of their convictions. They're in on the joke.
They're educated and aware, as are GOP politicians, who also
understand the importance of vaccination, but work hard to not let their
supporters in on the joke. If politics is the art of manipulation, these guys
and gals are the Pablo Picasso of our generation.
Bill Maher was not only accurate and honest, but prescient when on
Real Time on September 10 he remarked
When people say to me sometimes "like, boy, you know
you go after the left a lot these days," boy, I'm like "because
you're embarrassing me, that's why I'm going after the left in a way you never
did before because you're inverting things."
Twenty-five days later, The Michigan Daily reported
On Sept. 10, Music, Theatre & Dance freshman Olivia Cook
attended her first composition seminar with (Professor Bright) Sheng. This
semester, the course focused on analyzing Shakespeare’s works, and the class
began with a screening of the 1965 version of “Othello.” Cook told The Daily
she quickly realized something seemed strange, and upon further inspection,
noticed the onscreen actor Laurence Olivier was in blackface.
“I was stunned,” Cook said. “In such a school that preaches
diversity and making sure that they understand the history of POC (people of
color) in America, I was shocked that (Sheng) would show something like this in
something that’s supposed to be a safe space.”
It is telling that Cook came to college neither to learn nor to be challenged, but for the comfort of a space space. We learn
The 1965 version of the film has been a topic of controversy
since its initial release when The New York Times wrote a 1966 article criticizing
Olivier’s use of blackface as well as his stereotypical performance.
According to Cook, the students were given no warning or
contextualization prior to the viewing.
The context was presenting college students a glimpse of one
of the most famous plays by the most celebrated playwright in world history. However, she was not warned that she might learn something from it. TMD continues
Sheng sent out an apology on Sept. 10 shortly after the
class ended, noting that the casting and portrayal “was racially insensitive
and outdated.” A copy of this email has been obtained by The Daily. A planned
“Othello” project was then canceled by Sheng.
In an email to The Daily, Evan Chambers, professor of
composition, wrote about the importance of properly preparing students for
possible instances of racism in film.
“To show the film now, especially without substantial
framing, content advisory and a focus on its inherent racism is in itself a
racist act, regardless of the professor’s intentions,” Chambers wrote. “We need
to acknowledge that as a community.”
If showing- not producing, directing, or acting in- a film presented as it was made is racist, there is little that cannot be construed as racist by those whose feelings are so easily scarred. Accordingly
Five days after Sheng showed the video, on Sept. 15, Gier
sent a department-wide email acknowledging the incident and apologizing for
what students experienced.
“Professor Sheng’s actions do not align with our School’s
commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity and inclusion,” Gier said.
The email also stated the incident had been reported to the
Office of Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX.
Free inquiry and free expression are discarded as universities undermine its employees and destroy their credibility with students. The relationship between student and teacher is, well, "inverted," if students are encouraged to condemn professors who make them uncomfortable when presenting a subject honestly. Excessive sensitivity should not be rewarded.
It gets worse. But if you follow woke culture on college
campuses, you knew it would. Thus
On Sept. 16, Sheng sent out a formal apology to the
department. He wrote that after doing more research into the issue, he realized
the true extent to which racism impacts American culture, adding that he failed
to recognize the racist connotation of blackface makeup.
“In a classroom, I am a teacher representing the university
and I should have thought of this more diligently and fundamentally; I
apologize that this action was offensive and has made you angry,” Sheng wrote.
“It also has made me lost (sic) your trust.”
However, the apology has been another source of controversy
among students. Students have taken particular issue with the section of the
letter where Sheng lists multiple examples of how he has worked with people of
color in the past.
“At the world premiere of my opera The Silver River in South
Carolina in 2000, I casted an African American actress (for the leading role),
an Asian female dancer and a white baritone for the three main characters,”
Sheng wrote.
After a few more examples, Sheng concludes by writing that
he has “never thought (of himself as) being discriminating against any race.”
Cook told The Daily she felt the letter was shallow. By
listing out all of his contributions to people of color, he failed to
understand the gravity of his actions, Cook said.
“He could have taken responsibility for his actions and
realized that this was harmful to some of his students that are within his
class,” Cook said. “Instead, he tried to make excuses. Instead of just
apologizing for it, he tried to downplay the fact that the entire situation
happened in the first place.”
Professor Sheng has learned the hard way that unreasonable
people will not be reasonable, and too rarely are there adults who will not buckle under to pressure. And defending
oneself (unless arrested while committing a crime) will simply not be tolerated.
After the incident, the composition class was suspended and
Sheng stepped down, and reportedly "is still teaching students in his
studio, serving other departmental and school-wide duties and working on
research projects."
The Michigan Daily touts its "one hundred thirty-one years of editorial freedom." It's only appropriate, then, that it has described a serious blow to academic freedom.
