Monika Triest

Nog meer Ioaninna, een stad om langer te exploreren met zijn geschiedenis

Heather Cox Richardson, July 8, 2022:

Today, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to protect access to reproductive health care services two weeks after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. For almost 50 years, that decision protected the constitutional right of women to make health care decisions without the interference of the state. Without that protection, the president noted, states across the country have outlawed abortion, threatening the lives and health, as well as the economic security, of women across the country, especially women of color, poor women, and rural women.

Both the president and the Department of Justice have come out strongly for legislation to protect reproductive rights, saying that the government should not interfere in such a personal decision. Until the Democrats have enough senators to break a Republican filibuster in the Senate, though, Republicans will prevent any such measure from passing. In the meantime, Biden says he will use the power of the executive branch to protect women’s constitutional rights.

Interesting column by Heather C. Richardson, June 27, 2022: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-27-2022?utm_source=email on the links between the trial on the Jan.6 coup of the Capitol and the recent decisions of the Supreme Court.

June 27, 2022 Midday today, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol announced a hearing “to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.” This is a surprise, and it was not until late tonight that reporters confirmed with their sources that the...

PEW RESEARCH CENTER data on abortion in USA, June 25,2022: America’s abortion quandary

With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years, revisit our most recent survey data on abortion in the United States. In a major study conducted in March, a majority of Americans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but many were open to restrictions. Many opponents of legal abortion, in turn, said the procedure should be legal under some circumstances. Online:

A closer look at Republicans who favor legal abortion and Democrats who oppose it
Americans differ by party, age over ways to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S.

a tragic day today for women and for men:
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of federal abortion rights. June 24, 2022

President Biden on Supreme Court Ruling on guns in New York State, June 23, 2022:

from Michael Moore, June 10, 2022:
On June 22, 2016, Flint Congressman Dan Kildee and Georgia Congressman John Lewis lead a sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to protest Congress's failure to pass ANY gun control legislation in the days after the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando.
Friends,

On the night of the Uvalde massacre, I gave my first televised response to a mass shooting in over a decade.

What did I say? Just the same thing over a hundred million Americans were already thinking but nobody on TV was saying. A truth so powerful, it frightens Democrats who are afraid to go all the way to stop this madness. It frightens Republicans so much, one of their craziest, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), took to the House floor this week to denounce me (by name!) during the debate on possible new gun laws. But sometimes, somebody has to speak the unspeakable, that which no red-blooded American is supposed to say.

On this episode of RUMBLE, I went ahead and said it again. And now I ask you to join me, and say it too.

Southern Poverty Law Center, June 11, 2022: Reclaiming History: Museum documents deadly explosion that devastated a Black community in Georgia
Esther Schrader |
The wail of the sirens seemed to go on forever. Playing with friends outside her elementary school on a mild February day in 1971, 9-year-old Melissa Jackson wished the piercing noise would stop. She could not have imagined that the sound of firetrucks speeding toward the munitions plant where her mother worked would punctuate her nightmares for the rest of her life.

The little girl could not have known when her mother dropped her off the morning of Feb. 3, before heading to the Thiokol Chemical Corp. factory to make flares for soldiers fighting in Vietnam, that it would be the last time she would see her alive. She would not know until much later the details of how her mother died, hit in the back of the head as she tried to flee one of the worst industrial disasters in United States history.

Jackson’s mother was killed along with her cousin and 27 other employees of the factory, predominantly Black women, after a flame in a small building, according to court records, triggered a massive explosion. The blast blew pieces of the building almost a mile away, left more than 50 other people injured and shattered a community.

The sleepy, coastal town of Woodbine, Georgia, would be changed forever, as hearses were drawn into service to transport victims to nearby hospitals, some already dead, others wracked with pain from missing limbs, serious burns and other injuries that would affect them the rest of their lives.

Just a girl that day, giggling with friends and thinking the world was open and bright, Jackson could not have known what now, 51 years later, she understands all too well: The Thiokol explosion would become another chapter of history searing to Black Americans but unknown to the nation at large. It would not be included in history books. It would not be studied by scholars. It would not be taught to schoolchildren or explored by archivists, even in the town where the explosion occurred. Like so much that has shaped the lives of Black Americans, the history of the Thiokol disaster would quiet to a whisper, even as those sirens still wail through Jackson’s sleep.

“There is no scholarship on this,” Jackson said. “There is no historical memory or understanding of this. For me, the memory of the whole day is still very vivid and very painful and very clear. But outside of those few of us who remember, it’s like it has been erased.”

Today, Jackson is the graduate program coordinator of the joint Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering. Like many children of the explosion survivors, and the survivors themselves, she sees the history of the Thiokol plant and of the disaster through the lens of systemic racism that made a shoddily maintained munitions factory paying workers less than $18 a day (less than roughly $130 when adjusted for inflation) the best option for people who should have had opportunities for better.

“Here were Black women in a small Southern town on an assembly line making weapons for the war that young men, many of them Black young men, were fighting,” Jackson said. “They should be looked on as heroes, because in actuality that’s what they were.”

Last fall, the Southern Poverty Law Center stepped in to help a small, local organization in Woodbine, the Thiokol Memorial Project, bring the tragedy back into the light. It granted the project $50,000 – more than it has received at any one time since it was founded in 2015. The grant was one of five awarded by the SPLC to support the work of museums, monuments and cultural centers devoted to Black history.

A final thought by Robert Reich's comments on the hearings about the Capitol attack Jan.6, 2021:
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A final thought on the hearings: How Trump will be held accountable, Jun 10, 2021

What’s the use of the hearings by the House committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection —hearings that began last night and will run for the next several weeks — unless they lead to criminal prosecution of Donald Trump for his patently criminal actions?

In a word: History. We tend to underestimate the importance of an historic record. But it is vastly important. It charts the course of the future by illuminating the course of the past. It is literally the final word.

I don’t know whether Trump will be prosecuted. He deserves to be. He has violated his oath to the Constitution; he has violated America. But even if he is not prosecuted, the hearings will provide a full, detailed account of what Trump did in the weeks and months after the 2020 election — and therefore of what he did to our nation.

In other words, even if he avoids prosecution, even if he is never formally deemed a criminal under the law, Trump will be accountable to history. That is not as satisfying a form of accountability as a criminal judgment, to be sure. But it is a form of accountability that is inescapable. If the committee does its work properly — and I have every confidence it will — it will create a clear record. Which means that for our children and our children’s children — for as far as future generations will know of our recorded history — Donald Trump will live in infamy.

Robert Reich's comments on the first day of hearings in U.S.Congress about the attack on the Capitol Jan.6, 2021: https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AKShr4VJUifJYqKnZgcYaFO9g7I

Yahoo Best in class Yahoo Mail, breaking local, national and global news, finance, sports, music, movies... You get more out of the web, you get more out of life.

Heather C.Richardson, June 6: Today the Justice Department filed a superseding indictment charging Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four colleagues with up to ten criminal counts, including seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, in relation to the January 6 insurrection. Sedition is the crime of inciting a revolt against the government, and conspiracy means there was an organized group of people with a plan.

Southern Poverty Law Center, May 28, 2022:
Justice Prevails: Descendants of enslaved people at historic plantation win bruising battle to tell their stories
Rhonda Sonnenberg, SPLC Senior Staff Writer |

Set on a pastoral landscape at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains outside Orange, Virginia, Montpelier is among the country’s premier historic plantation sites.

It was the home of James Madison, the so-called father of the U.S. Constitution and the nation’s fourth president.

It was also “home” to 300 enslaved people during Madison’s time, and their descendants are now boldly asserting the right to tell their stories.

For the past 18 months, Montpelier’s conservative, white leaders had been battling the Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC) – an organization dedicated to restoring the narratives of enslaved African Americans on the plantation – over its demand for equal voting power on Montpelier’s board.

Previous Montpelier leadership and staff had established relationships of trust with the descendant community. In 2019, the MDC was established to push for “structural parity.” The board reluctantly made parity official in Montpelier’s bylaws in June 2021, only to begin undermining that promise.

But in a stunning turn of events this week, MDC representatives not only obtained parity on the Montpelier Foundation board but took the majority of board seats for the first time.

Montpelier President and CEO Roy Young II resigned, and two conservative board members quit. The move left a solid majority (13 out of 20) board members, including the MDC chairperson, as descendants of enslaved people or endorsed by them.

“Four hundred years and counting, and we still have to convince the primary beneficiaries of slavery that our ancestors were essential to the founding of this nation,” said Iris Ford, a retired anthropology professor whose great-grandfather Alan was recorded as “son of the master” at an adjacent plantation that later became part of Montpelier and has watched events unfold.

“Harvard [University] just allocated $100 million to acknowledge that immense wealth was made on the backs of enslaved people,” said Ford, a member of the MDC. “That money certainly does not serve as the standard for acknowledging injustice, but it is a recognition of America’s true history. When people ask what this history has to do with James Madison: It’s the realization that the well-crafted story of Montpelier and the nation’s founding myths are not just a moral matter but a matter of racial injustice.”

It was late March when the former foundation board members voted to reverse their promise to share power with descendants. On April 18, Young and former Board Chair Gene Hickok fired three revered, longtime staff members – Elizabeth Chew, Montpelier’s vice president and chief curator, Montpelier’s chief archaeologist; and its spokesperson – and suspended two others in what was seen as retaliation for their highly public support of the MDC.

But after public outrage and critical media coverage, a landmark resolution on May 16 in favor of the MDC apparently ended the bruising battle when the Montpelier foundation board voted to approve 11 new, MDC-nominated members to equally share power in Montpelier’s governance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/opinion/biden-ukraine-strategy.html (June 1, 2022)

Opinion | President Biden: What America Will and Will Not Do in Ukraine The U.S. will help Ukraine be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.

This is Memorial Day weekend, celebrated in the whole USA to commemorate all those heroes fallen in war for their country, to defend freedom. An occasion, with millions of flags, to promote heroism and patriotism.

with thanks to my good friend Sharon Ziegler, a poem by Amanda after the shootings:
By Amanda Gorman
"Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change."

PEW Research Center, May 27, 2022: Americans’ views on gun policy

Several horrific mass shootings have left readers looking for information about Americans’ views on gun policy. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey highlighted the public’s views of gun-related proposals, from barring people with mental illnesses from obtaining guns to expanding background checks for firearm purchases. The same survey showed how attitudes about these policies differed between gun owners and non-owners. Other recent publications have highlighted key facts about Americans and guns, as well as the record number of people who died of gun-related injuries in the U.S. in 2020.

From 2018: American teens’ worries about the possibility of a shooting happening at their school
From 2017: America’s complex relationship with guns

https://sporza.be/nl/2022/05/25/nba-coach-steve-kerr-is-emotioneel-na-schietincident-ben-die-minuten-stilte-beu~1653457983436/?linkId=sporza%7Cvrtnws%7C%2Fnl%7Cteaser

NBA-coach Steve Kerr is emotioneel na schietincident: "Ben die minuten stilte beu" Sport is de belangrijkste bijzaak in het leven. Met de nadruk op bijzaak. Dat maakte ook Steve Kerr, de coach van de Golden State Warriors, nog eens duidelijk na de schietpartij in een school in Texas. In zijn persconferentie voor de NBA-match wou hij niet over basketbal praten, maar deed hij een em...

For those interested in the views of Henri Kissinger on the Ukraine war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b89jcNqgJo

Henry Kissinger: ‘We are now living in a totally new era’ | FT The FT's US national editor, Edward Luce, talks to former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, about Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the spectre ...

An interesting analysis of the Ukrainian crisis by American leftist writers: Bill Fletcher, Jr. was a cofounder of the Black Radical Congress, a past president of TransAfrica Forum, writer & trade unionist.

Bill Gallegos is a longtime Chicano Liberation activist and the author of “The Struggle For Chicano Liberation,” and “The Sunbelt Strategy and Chicano Liberation.”

Jamala Rogers is a fem socialist with deep ties in the Black Liberation Movement as an organizer, strategist, and writer: https://newpol.org/when-should-we-stop-excusing-the-russian-invasion/?fbclid=IwAR18wpKRaqyWG3t7vLa9D3hscltqF_U3vDZ-Nqb3WyC_Jxdvxckb6uBftCo

When should we stop excusing the Russian invasion? - New Politics Clarifying left views on national self-determination and the war in Ukraine

Southern Poverty Law Center, May 6, 2022: Asian Americans have faced an unrelenting barrage of hate since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Horrific attacks on elderly people, women and Asian-owned businesses have traumatized communities suffering under a drumbeat of taunts, harassment and threats.

But a movement is rising in response, and it’s personal. Asian American leaders working to end discrimination and societal inequity are exposing the hatred by speaking out forcefully about its roots, creating new ways of tracking racialized attacks and discrimination and directing concerted efforts to aid victims.

As members of a community that has endured generations of racist rhetoric, often in pained silence, they are also telling their own stories. Their hope is that by sharing how their own experiences shaped their consciousness of racism and led them to chart paths to help stamp it out, they will increase understanding of a problem with deep roots in our society.

One such leader is Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The storied organization is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond to advance the human rights of all people. The SPLC is responding quickly to this new threat, working with AAPI communities and organizations, adding its legal and organizing weight to their efforts to stem the tide of racial hate.

Margaret Huang
SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang (Credit: Dan Chung)
“People are starting to recognize the political power and opportunity that the Asian American and Pacific Islander community has,” Huang said. “The AAPI community has, to a really impressive and significant extent, organized to respond to this crisis. But this crisis is part of a larger challenge of white supremacy, which is raising its head at this moment. And we’re only going to be effective at countering it in the AAPI community if we are aligned with all of the other communities who are under threat. That means creating programs that actually focus on community resilience and prevention, helping children and families understand how our civic processes can help them and helping people understand why hate is so harmful.”

In recent interviews, Huang, along with John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, decried the steep rise in hate crimes and bias incidents against AAPI communities but emphasized the significant ways those communities have organized, in many ways for the first time, to respond to the crisis. Across the country, community groups are delivering groceries to elderly Asian Americans, volunteering to accompany them on errands to ensure their safety and creating neighborhood watch systems and support groups.

The efforts come from every quarter of the community. As a case in point, on March 25 a coalition of Asian American theater artists and musicians established a fund to disburse car service or taxi fare to AAPI artists who feel unsafe on New York subways. More lastingly, Asian American leaders are encouraging political awareness and engagement in civic life, establishing hotlines and sophisticated databases to report hate incidents and crimes, and reaching outside their communities to educate society at large.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/04/22/de-amerikaanse-staat-florida-schrapt-de-speciale-status-van-disn/

Amerikaanse staat Florida schrapt speciale status van Disney World na rel over "Don't Say Gay Bill" Het amusementsbedrijf Disney heeft zich gekant tegen een nieuwe wet die homoseksualiteit onbespreekbaar maakt in lagere scholen.

From the American Civil Liberties Union, April 16, 2022: → The failed War on Drugs has deepened racial injustice, shattered neighborhoods, and decimated communities for over 50 years. In sum: It's bu****it.

→ While ma*****na use is roughly equal among Black and white people, Black people are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for ma*****na possession.

→ Eighteen states and D.C. have already legalized ma*****na, yet these extreme racial disparities persist – and communities of color have not benefited from legalization.

But legislation – like the Ma*****na Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act that just passed in the House – can tackle these racial disparities head-on. And now, it's time for the Senate to follow suit.

American civil Liberties Union, April 10, 2022: banning books: 'As we speak, book bans are cropping up in schools and public libraries across the country.

In fact, last year alone, the American Library Association recorded 729 book challenges compared to only 156 challenges the year prior.

And it's no coincidence that these banned books are primarily by and about BIPOC, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups – all while a wave of classroom censorship bills aimed at erasing discussions on race and gender are pouring into state legislatures.

At the ACLU, we're not just in the courts defending the right for students to receive an inclusive education free from this form of censorship and discrimination – we're also exercising our rights to read these banned books ourselves. And we thought you might be interested in joining us.

That's why our studious team has compiled an "ACLU Banned Book Club Reading List" for you to check out.

From Toni Morrison's "Bluest Eye" to Maia Kobabe's "Gender Q***r" – get our list of 10 banned books we recommend, why they've been targets of such unconstitutional bans in the first place, and, for some, where ACLU's own litigation work has fought to defend them'.

From Southern Poverty Law Center in USA, April 7, 2022: Today Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate as the 116th associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. This historic confirmation of the first Black woman to our nation’s highest court is an essential step toward a more inclusive America.

The SPLC applauds the confirmation of Justice Jackson. Her appointment is a reflection of the strength of our diverse nation and a recognition of the unique and often overlooked role African American women have played in building and shaping this country.

“Justice Jackson is the first Black woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in its 230-year history and the fifth woman out of the 115 justices to serve on the high court,” said SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang. “Justice Jackson’s elevation to our nation’s highest court today is a cause for celebration and an encouraging signal to future generations that aspire to the highest offices in our nation.”

For those who are interested in the effect of the pandemic on the labor situation of women and men in USA. Statistics are from the reputable Pew Research organisation, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/01/14/some-gender-disparities-widened-in-the-u-s-workforce-during-the-pandemic/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=3ba225d808-Weekly_2022_04_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-3ba225d808-401039474

Some gender disparities widened in the U.S. workforce during the pandemic Among adults 25 and older who have no education beyond high school, more women have left the labor force than men.

In several states across the South, April is designated Confederate History Month. The holiday honors a dishonorable past and justifies a legacy of white supremacy that survives to this day. The Confederacy’s legacy of brutality and racial subjugation must always be remembered – but it should never be celebrated.

The continued observation of Confederate History Month gives modern-day Confederate sympathizers a platform to share harmful disinformation about the Confederacy and perpetuate racial animosity. In Georgia, the Sons of Confederate Veterans were granted a permit to hold their Confederate Memorial Day event on April 30 at Stone Mountain park. That’s why it’s important that we recognize the courageous activists fighting back and working towards the removal of the thousands of public Confederate monuments and symbols this month and always. (Southern Poverty Law Center, April 1, 2022)

From Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, March 28, 2022: Today, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary began its hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom President Biden nominated to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. President Obama nominated Jackson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the recommendation of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“District of Columbia residents take great pride in seeing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom I recommended to President Obama for the U.S. District Court for D.C., nominated for the Supreme Court, the highest court in our nation,” Norton said. “Judge Jackson, who was born in the District, lives in the District, and was a public defender in the District, is the first Black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court. I have full faith in Judge Jackson’s considerable abilities and sense of fairness, and I am proud to have recommended her for the U.S. District Court for D.C. I look forward to seeing her embark on a new chapter of important work on behalf of our country.

“However, today also reminds us of the stark reality that despite Judge Jackson’s connections to D.C., without statehood, the District has no senators and, therefore, will play no role in her confirmation. The lack of voting representation in Congress for D.C. residents can be remedied by Senate passage of and the President’s signature on my D.C. statehood bill, which has passed the House twice.”

After a month of war, Ukrainian refugee crisis ranks among the world’s worst in recent history

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. A month into the war, more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries, the sixth-largest refugee outflow over the past 60-plus years by total number of refugees. They represent about 9.1% of Ukraine’s pre-invasion population of about 41.1 million, ranking the current crisis 16th among 28 major refugee crises by share of population.

Public expresses mixed views of U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (PEW Research Center, March, 26, 2022)

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/03/15/public-expresses-mixed-views-of-u-s-response-to-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=607fe7c2a2-Weekly_2022_03_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-607fe7c2a2-401039474

U.S. Public Views of Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Biden's Response About a third of adults (32%) say the U.S. is providing about the right amount of support for Ukraine, while a larger share (42%) says it should be providing more support; just 7% say it is giving Ukraine too much support.

From ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), March 21, 2022:
Make no mistake: The all-out push by lawmakers to attack transgender people and their rights is a nationwide crisis.

While these attacks escalate, the young people who are the targets are holding and facing the most. Trans youth right now are experiencing adults leveraging their positions of power to threaten their family, health, safety, and life.

In Texas, trans youth, their parents, and caretakers have had to face the terror of being subjected to unwarranted "child abuse" investigations simply for receiving medically necessary care to affirm their gender. While families in Texas are navigating this nightmare, these deadly efforts are also escalating across the country. Over 100 anti-trans bills were introduced in legislatures in 2021, and we're well over that record this year.

As a trans adult and a parent myself, it's agonizing to know what trans children are facing right now. We at the ACLU are fighting relentlessly in the courts and statehouses to defend these young people – but they need a loud showing of public support, too. That's where you can help.

In response to the over 100 anti-trans bills introduced across the country, the ACLU is working to rally 100,000 people in support of trans youth and we need your voice. If you are a parent, a guardian, or an adult who cares – take the ACLU's pledge in support of trans youth and share it widely to help reach our goal.