Category Archives: Viva!

Czech protesters inflamed by police role for Communist MP

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Protests in Prague and other cities sparked by choice of ex-riot squad officer to head watchdog

Thousands of demonstrators brought the centre of Prague to a standstill on Monday night in a display of anger over the appointment of a communist-era riot squad officer to head the Czech parliament’s police watchdog.

Chanting “communists are murderers” and “we have had enough”, protesters held sheets of paper rolled up to resemble police batons in an expression of indignation over the installation of Zdeněk Ondráček, a Czech Communist party MP, as chair of the parliament’s general inspection of security forces commission.

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Georgia Bill Would Allow Adoption Agencies to Turn LGBTQ People Away

The Georgia state legislature is considering a bill that would allow adoption agencies to turn LGBTQ couples away. That’s how much they hate us: they’d rather leave kids in foster care then let them be in our loving homes.

SB-375, also known as the “Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster Care Act,” would allow child-placement agencies to refuse to work with potential parents if it violates their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” As opponents pointed out on the Senate floor last week, it’s obvious who the bill is targeting: if passed, taxpayer funded adoption agencies would be free to turn away qualified LGBTQ people, just because of their sexual orientation. It’s state-sanctioned discrimination hiding under the guise of religious liberty.

The bill passed the Georgia State Senate last week and headed to the House for a vote. If Georgia licenses adoption discrimination, it’ll join a disturbing national trend. According to the Movement Advancement Project, seven states allow child welfare agencies to refuse to place kids with LGBTQ people, if doing so “conflicts with their religious beliefs.” Alabama, South Dakota, and Texas which passed nearly identical laws just last year.

The idea that I could someday be denied the opportunity to adopt just because of who I am and who I love fills me with intense anxiety. But being a parent is a long, long way in my future — for now, I’m far more concerned about the impact laws like this have on vulnerable youth in foster care.

In 2015, an estimated 430,000 children were in foster care nationally. The opioid epidemic is fueling a crisis in foster care and nearly every state has seen a dramatic increase in the number of children in foster care, some by over 20 percent.

With hundreds of thousands of kids in the system, you’d think Georgia’s priority would be encouraging loving families to adopt. Instead, the legislature is putting their seal of approval on discrimination and trapping more kids in a foster system where they’re highly vulnerable to physical abuse, sexual assault, and neglect.

Like I said: that’s how much they hate us.

Header image via LGBT Families of Color: Facts at a Glance

This Week in Egypt: Week 9 ( Feb 26 -Mar 4)

The US is without ambassadors in 45 countries as February 01, 2018 among them:#Qatar#SaudiArabia #Jordan#Libya#SouthSudan #Morocco #UAE (soon)#Syria (Envoy)

3:22 PM – Feb 25, 2018

Nervana

Top Headlines

  • Saudi crown prince lands in Egypt on first public trip
  • Egypt‘s top court waives legal challenges to Red Sea islands transfer to Saudi Arabia
  • Egypt arrests mother of woman at center of a BBC report
  • Cabinet approves bill allowing 53 churches to practice religious rituals nationwide

Sisi and MBS

Saudi Crown Prince visits Cairo- Photo via The National

Main Headlines

Monday

Tuesday

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Can President Sisi freeze politics in Egypt?

Nervana

Here is an English version of my latest for Al-Hurra

Sisi no politics

I am not a politician, someone who just talks (beta3-kalam).”

Perhaps the most telling part of Sisi’s speech at the inauguration of Egypt’s Zohr gas field last month was the fact that comments such as these were not a veiled threat to opposition stakeholders as many news reports highlighted, but rather a reflection of Sisi’s vision of himself and his vision for Egypt.

When many of Egypt’s political figures, including ex-army Chief of Staff Sami Anan, ex-top auditor Hisham Geneina, and ex-presidential candidate Aboul Fetouh were arrested, many interpreted these arrests as a sign of the Egyptian president hunting down his opponents. But their interpretation is not necessarily accurate. None of those names was a serious threat to the Egyptian president. The problem runs much deeper. Egypt’s strongman is not a politician; he sees himself as state builder…

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Are You Tired Of All the Winning Yet?

Let’s risk the collapse of the East Coast’s transportation infrastructure out of spite!

President Trump is pushing congressional Republicans not to fund a crucial infrastructure project — a long-delayed plan to build a new rail tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey — setting up a confrontation that could complicate passage of a massive government spending bill this month.

Trump personally appealed to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) this week to target federal funding for the $30 billion Gateway project, which would construct a tunnel into New York’s Penn Station to supplement two aging tubes that are at risk of failing in the coming years.

The project is widely considered to be among the most pressing and most expensive infrastructure needs in the country, and state and local leaders have long sought federal funding to jump-start work on it. But the Trump administration threw the project into doubt late last year by casting aside an agreement reached during the Obama administration that would have the federal government pick up half the project’s cost.

And now, according to four officials familiar with the discussions, Trump has taken a personal interest in making sure no federal dollars flow to a project that is considered critical to his hometown’s long-term economic prosperity.

Trump delivered his message to Ryan on Wednesday during a meeting at the Capitol, three people familiar with the conversation said. Trump was on the Hill for a ceremony for the late Rev. Billy Graham, who lay in honor in the Rotunda. Ryan seemed surprised that Trump brought up the project in their conversation, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

A spokesman for Ryan declined to comment. A White House representative did not respond to a request for comment.

The motivations behind Trump’s opposition are not entirely clear. It is a direct challenge to a key political rival, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been among the most powerful and vocal backers of federal funding for the project. Until recently, Schumer had held up several Trump nominees, including his pick to head the Federal Railroad Administration, to protest the administration’s failure to support the project.

But the Gateway project also has had powerful Republican backers, including former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), who represents thousands of suburban constituents who rely on the Hudson River rail tunnels for their daily commutes to and from Manhattan.

Let’s be clear that Christie deserves zero credit here, as his own Trumpian killing of a transit tunnel out of pure spite is the reason we’re in this mess in the first place. Republican governance is a disaster. But, anyway, time for another thinkpiece about the implications of electing a populist Republican who really supports infrastructure and all the deals a Democratic Congress can cut with him!

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