The candidate is of course now president of the United States, who calls the media “the enemy of the American people.”This is not a small development in the long history of shocking Trumpisms.AdvertisementYou don’t need to take the Guardian’s word for it. Here’s the opinion of William McRaven, the former special ops commander and architect of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: “This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime,” he told journalism students at the University of Texas earlier this year.Yes, journalists are important. So important that the founding fathers cited the freedom of the press in the first amendment to the constitution. At the start of the Bill of Rights, it’s sandwiched between the freedom of religion and the right to petition the government.Journalism is so important that the Massachusetts constitution says this: “The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth.”
This time, the killer—a lone man in a suicide bomb vest—struck at a concert by pop idol Ariana Grande, a tiny singer with an enormous, powerful voice whose fans like to wear pink kitten-eared headbands to match hers. Grande, whose journey from child star to pop artist has sometimes threatened to derail like fellow Disney veteran Britney Spears, has emerged lately as a gracious, multitalented star, adored by tween and teen girls and their mothers, the boys brave enough to admit they love her too, and young gay men.This is who the bomber decided to kill.In targeting children, what happened in Manchester gets at the very heart of terrorism. Because what is more terrifying than the thought of sending your child out into the world—into a joyous space created for her—and never seeing her alive again? We try to raise our children to be brave, but what happens to our own courage when we think about the possibility of sudden, irrevocable danger?
This would be a remarkable position for someone long affiliated with Richard Mack’s extremist Patriot organization, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, to hold. Among the core tenets of CSPOA dogma is the far-right “constitutionalist” belief that sheriffs represent the highest law of the land, and are capable of overturning or ignoring federal laws within their own jurisdictions. Moreover, Clarke’s history of incendiary remarks includes his advocacy of “a second American revolution.”
The Identitarian Movementis currently being monitored by the BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, for possibly infringing on the constitution, also known as the Basic Law.The right-wing movement, with an estimated 300 members, propagates a return to what it sees as traditional national values and is accused of xenophobia and Islamophobia.The military’s counterintelligence agency, MAD, is presently examining a total of 284 cases of alleged far-right extremismin the Bundeswehr.Bundeswehr under pressureMAD investigations include four students at the Bundeswehr’s university who are suspected of having ties to far-right movements, according to SZ’s report. The MAD probe is scrutinizing potential direct or indirect links between the four students and a first lieutenant in custody since late April on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. Franco A. and his two known accomplices had reportedly been scheming to blame refugees for the attacks. Franco A. had pretended to be a Syrian migrant himself and received subsidiary protection status in a scandal that raised many questions about how asylum applications are handled by Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees.The case of Franco A shook the German military, whose image was already suffering after a series of abuse cases. German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen launched a major inquiry into the present state of disarray at the Bundeswehr, but has been criticized for mismanaging the crisis, and faces accusations of doing too little, too late.
House Medicaid amendments were less about Medicaid than about lassoing Republican “yes” votes on the budget rewrite, and, two, that the Ohio House Republican caucus is shifting. To the right.
Germany’s interior minister has presented a 10-point plan on the divisive issue of “Leitkultur” – the idea of establishing dominant German values. Thomas de Maiziere believes this will help integrate immigrants.
While Netanyahu’s move appears to be extreme and quite dumb, it actually fits coherently with his government’s orchestrated campaign against Israeli human rights organizations over the last two years. In recent months Netanyahu has called on European governments to stop funding and cooperating with Breaking the Silence, and Israel’s education minister Naftali Bennett has already effectively banned Breaking the Silence from giving presentations in high schools.Netanyahu’s move is situated well within the context of an increasingly tyrannical government that has now upped its authoritarianism a notch. Israel has been censoring and restricting the freedoms of Palestinians since 1948, it has been applying similar tactics to Israeli leftists for years and is now taking that strategy to its biggest European ally. And Netanyahu knows he will not have to pay any consequences for it. Gabriel has already said cancellation of the meeting would be “regrettable” but would not hurt or affect Israel’s ties with Germany in any way.The ultimatum and refusal to meet with a German diplomat is reminiscent of the tactics used by the Israeli government against peace activists who began meeting with PLO representatives in the 1970s. In this sense, Israel is now treating Israeli organizations who document occupation as if they were Palestinians: Persona non grata. Now, anyone who wants to merely meet with or listen to these persona non grata is also an enemy. And just like in 1975, when Israel decided to legislate a law banning Israelis from meeting with PLO members, don’t be surprised if the Israeli government’s next move is to outlaw B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence.
Since 2013, Apple has started taking down apps – including banned books and circumvention tools – from its China iTunes store in order to comply with local laws. In June 2016, China tightened its control over mobile applications with the introduction of Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Application Information Service. These regulations outlaw applications that spread rumors and information deemed harmful to national security. In January 2017, The New York Times was taken down from the Apple iTunes Store because of such provisions. However, the newspaper’s app remains available in the Hong Kong and Taiwan versions of the store. In the letter to Cook, Chappell stressed that while he is aware of the restrictions in China, the management of Apple’s Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores should be different: No doubt, China Uncensored likely falls under some of mainland China’s dubious legal categories such as: Undermining national unity Spreading rumors Disrupting social order There is no point in disputing your app store decision with respect to mainland China… but Hong Kong and Taiwan are not ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. They are regions that operate under independent legal systems. China Uncensored launched a petition on April 4, urging its viewers and supporters to tell Apple to “uncensor” the China Uncensored app from its Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores. As at the time of this story’s publication, more than 5,800 people had signed.
Horn-doggery and separatist prudery are just two sides of the same woman-hating coin. Neither man perceives women as human beings equal to men, they just express their limitations differently. Let’s call them the Goofus and Gallant of misogyny.Because of the feminist movement, we all know that sexual assault is wrong and reflects a hatred of women. But there’s still an unearned amount of respect for the flip side—the cautious avoidance of women, the kind of misogyny that seeks to protect, to put on a pedestal, anywhere but on equal footing. We are sacred or we are profane; we are not commonly understood by people like this to be human in the same way that men are human.Pence’s fear of women, or fear of his sexual impulses when confronted by a woman when he doesn’t have his prayer warrior on hand, isn’t uncommon in conservative Christian circles. I saw a lot of tweets and articles defending his “rule,” including at least two completely inane articles on The Federalist website, which not only defended Pence as a good husband, but also mocked the very idea of friendship between men and women.To put it simply, this is bullshit.
