Trump Pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio - The New York Times: ""
(Via.)
Friday, August 25, 2017
Afghanistan Is Not Always a “Graveyard of Empires,” but We Need to Be Realistic About Our Goals There
"Australia Day is not the day the Australian nation came into being. (That would not occur until 1901.) Rather, it marks the arrival of the “First Fleet” of British settlers, around half of whom were prisoners, into Sydney Cove in 1788. Despite the the presence of an estimated 750,000 Aborigines, whose ancestors had lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years, the oldest continuous civilization in the world, Captain Arthur Phillip and his 1,530 companions considered Australia terra nullius, “nobody’s land,” and raised a flag, declaring possession of the land in the name of Britain’s King George III. What followed was centuries of massacres, wars, starvation, disease, kidnapping, rape, enslavement, wage theft, and internment; a near genocide of the Aboriginal people. At its lowest point, the indigenous population would be wiped out to close to one-tenth its original size. (Today there are close to 700,000 Indigenous people in Australia.) To many indigenous Australians, Australia Day is known as “Invasion Day.”
"Australia Day is not the day the Australian nation came into being. (That would not occur until 1901.) Rather, it marks the arrival of the “First Fleet” of British settlers, around half of whom were prisoners, into Sydney Cove in 1788. Despite the the presence of an estimated 750,000 Aborigines, whose ancestors had lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years, the oldest continuous civilization in the world, Captain Arthur Phillip and his 1,530 companions considered Australia terra nullius, “nobody’s land,” and raised a flag, declaring possession of the land in the name of Britain’s King George III. What followed was centuries of massacres, wars, starvation, disease, kidnapping, rape, enslavement, wage theft, and internment; a near genocide of the Aboriginal people. At its lowest point, the indigenous population would be wiped out to close to one-tenth its original size. (Today there are close to 700,000 Indigenous people in Australia.) To many indigenous Australians, Australia Day is known as “Invasion Day.”
Trump Signs Order Barring Trans Military Service - The Daily Beast
"President Trump signed an order on Friday evening barring transgender individuals from joining the military. However, it also gives Defense Secretary Jim Mattis discretion to determine whether current transgender personnel can continue to serve. An estimated 2,000 to 11,000 active duty and reserve troops are transgender, according to a 2016 study by the RAND Corporation. Mattis has some six months to develop a plan to implement the administration's directive."
Religious leaders plan rally in Washington as a moral rebuke to Trump’s presidency - The Washington Post
A strong rebuke to Trump and evangelical leaders. "The Rev. Al Sharpton organized more than 1,000 religious leaders from multiple faiths to rally Monday in Washington, saying he hopes to show that opposition to President Trump is not merely a political reproach, but also a moral one.
The “One Thousand Ministers March for Justice” in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will come on the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech.
The rally was planned long before a deadly white supremacist protest earlier this month in Charlottesville, although Sharpton said the events in Virginia only intensified the mission of Monday’s march.
“Charlottesville gave it a new energy, and a lot of ministers called in saying that this is the time to make a moral statement,” Sharpton said. “The president called for unity, and we are going to show unity. The question is, which side is the president on?”
According to National Park Service permits, the rally will start at 10 a.m. near the MLK Memorial at West Potomac Park-Polo Field on the Mall."
Religious leaders plan rally in Washington as a moral rebuke to Trump’s presidency - The Washington Post
Trump Likely to End DACA Immigrant Program - NBC News
"WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump appears likely to pull the plug on DACA, the Obama-era program allowing young people who came to the U.S. illegally as children to remain here, several government officials said Friday.
Administration officials said the Department of Homeland Security sent a recommendation to the White House earlier this week on what to do, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed the program with senior officials Thursday at the White House. Sessions has been a consistent opponent of the program, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
As many as 1 million immigrants could be affected."
(Via.). Trump Likely to End DACA Immigrant Program - NBC News:
Thursday, August 24, 2017
It’s no surprise we’re refighting the Civil War — it never really ended - The Washington Post
“It’s not surprising that we seem to be refighting the Civil War, since it never properly ended in the first place.
It might have, had Southerners listened to Robert E. Lee. The defeated general believed that erecting monuments to the Confederacy — such as his equestrian statue in Charlottesville, now shrouded with a black tarp in mourning of Heather Heyer — would be wrong.
‘I think it wiser . . . not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered,’ he wrote in 1869 about proposed memorials at Gettysburg."
(Via.). It’s no surprise we’re refighting the Civil War — it never really ended - The Washington Post:
Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse | The Nation
"Who is he? Allied with the Koch brothers and big oil, Pruitt organized opposition to environmental regulations as Oklahoma’s attorney general. Naturally, he was Trump’s choice to head the EPA, where he immediately announced that he did not believe carbon pollution was a major cause of climate change. Why is he dangerous? Pruitt is a man on a mission, and he has the political connections to advance it. Closely tied to the industries that have turned the Republican Party into a vehicle for climate-change denial, Pruitt’s appointment satisfies key GOP donors. He’ll have maximum support from the White House and Congress as he disembowels environmental protections.
What’s his weakness? Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had to pull out all the stops to get Pruitt confirmed, as the Center for Media and Democracy had just forced the release of documents that confirmed his alliances with climate-change denialists. He’s also plagued by lawsuits and investigations because, as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says, ‘This guy ran his own dark-money operation.’"
All the President’s Preachers NY Times Opinion - Calling Out Hypocritical, Evangelical Preachers
"Last week President Trump, facing a mutiny by American business leaders on two of his business advisory councils, abruptly shuttered them. The councils were largely ceremonial, but suddenly they were an opportunity for executives to take a stand against Mr. Trump’s equivocations following the recent white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va. And the executives, not often looked to for moral guidance, were being lauded for taking a principled stand against the president.
All of which raises a question. What about the people who actually are supposed to provide moral guidance — the president’s 25-member Evangelical Executive Advisory Board?
The board, which Mr. Trump created in 2016 while he was running for president, is likewise a largely ceremonial body, though also one designed to give cover to the famously irreligious candidate and allow him an entree to millions of evangelical voters. In exchange, the board members got unprecedented access to the White House; one activist later said the president had them on “speed dial.”
President Trump has also followed through on many of his promises to the evangelical community, such as nominating an anti-abortion jurist to the Supreme Court and taking on Planned Parenthood.
But access comes at a price. While these leaders may think they are doing the right thing for their followers in keeping a clear line to the president, in doing so they are forced to be silent on his transgressions.
So far only one member of the board, A. R. Bernard, a pastor in Brooklyn, has resigned, citing “a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.” Although he submitted his resignation on Aug. 15, Mr. Bernard said that he had already decided to leave a few months ago.
Contrast that with another member of the board, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who not only is staying on but has also lauded President Trump’s “bold, truthful statement” on Charlottesville.
To be fair, some of the evangelical advisory board members have spoken out against the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville. Johnnie Moore, a public-relations executive who works with evangelical groups and is a member of the board, was even willing to criticize Mr. Trump, saying, “The president is certainly guilty of being insensitive.” But for the most part, members of this board have made it clear that they approve of Mr. Trump’s comments, and his performance in office generally, and that they intend to remain a bulwark of support for him.
It is important to understand that these leaders, despite their megachurches and presidential access, do not speak for all Christians in this country. My organization, the National Council of Churches, is made up of 30 million Christians in more than 100,000 local congregations of its member denominations — Orthodox, Anglican, mainline Protestant and historic peace churches — who have been quick to rally against the rise of white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Since at least the early 1960s, when one of my predecessors, J. Irwin Miller, put the National Council of Churches at the center of the civil rights movement, our member churches have been committed to justice and tolerance, and have used their position in their communities to rally support against racism and oppression.
A few members of the evangelical board have argued that whatever the president’s mistakes, it is better for them to remain in a position to influence him. But they overestimate their ability to shape the president’s thinking and underappreciate the impact that taking a stand against his comments would have.
But again, most of them have remained silent. And that silence speaks volumes. They do not appear to fear that their association with a president who defends the statues of those who fought for slavery, as well as white supremacists and neo-Nazis, will create problems for them with their congregations, universities, seminaries, television audiences or nonprofit organizations. This may be a miscalculation: Already, dozens of Liberty University alumni are returning their diplomas, disgusted with Mr. Falwell’s stalwart support of the president.
In the coming months and years, America’s Christians will be repeatedly tested — by their president, and by a society increasingly riven along racial and religious lines. Charlottesville is just the beginning. I am proud that during the rally and counter-protests that weekend, the denominations that constitute the National Council of Churches were present in a dignified, disciplined, nonviolent manner, and they refused to cower before the white nationalists who were shouting abuse, wielding clubs and inciting violence that caused the death of an innocent bystander.
We refuse to countenance a president who gives quarter to those who sow hate and injustice among the American public. Our congregations will continue to witness to a God who loves everyone regardless of race or creed. We need our evangelical sisters and brothers to join us."
All the President’s Preachers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)